Welcome to the Jungle
Steve Rogers
After making sure New York was safe from peril, banishing Loki, and eating Schwarma, Captain Steve Rogers found himself homeless, hiding his face lest someone recognize him. S.H.I.E.L.D. was having way too many of their own problems for him to not feel like a nuisance, and he really had no ideas how to find anyone but Natasha; who was more than likely busy cleaning up Stark Tower and rebuilding what could be rebuilt. Instead, he found himself homeless for the first time in his entire life. After saving the city his life had taken a turn for the worse. Gold streets, long sleepless nights and rooting through trash bags for food that didn’t look rotten or slobbered on.
That was until...
Natasha Stark found him.
Natasha Stark
One Month Earlier
Stark Tower was an absolute wreck, her belongings in ruins, and Natasha Stark was stuck in a hospital with an annoyingly loud, not to mention constant, heart monitor beeping at her. She silently willed for A, her headache to go away or B, for her heart to stop working so that noise would go away. Thankfully after much complaining of being bored, the staff let her bring in some of her technology so at the very least she could start working again. This was the one time she'd admit to needing help, the idea of rebuilding a multi million dollar, highly advanced tower was beyond her comprehension and she needed to find someone to do the heavy lifting since she couldn't. Even in her suit. There had to be a way to rebuild Stark Tower without doing it herself.
"Miss Stark, I've finished the search you had asked for. It turns out that Captain Rogers is currently homeless.", the almost-human voice of Jarvis, her AI, rang through the room, causing her to become confused. Even if she still sound faintly robotic, Stark had created a realistic enough voice even she sounded surprised.
Steve had many friends among both the Avengers and throughout S.H.I.E.L.D. he had more than earned the support from his peers with the way he shamelessly fought for his country. Enough friends that it’d made no sense for him to be living out on the streets of New York. He should have known where she was at almost any time and he should have asked her for help. Hell, he could have contacted Fury. She was sure that he could have found a place to stay. However, Captain Americawas stubborn to the core. He probably didn’t want to burden anyone with that, using excuses and claims of being able to care for himself to brush off the people that did ask.
What had caused the homelessness was unclear to Natasha, but she knew that this would end very shortly. Captain Roger’s help was needed, and he went where he was needed even if he didn’t mean to. Trouble seemed to follow him sometimes but really, it followed all of them.
“Jarvis, will you start on project Star Spangled Man Mark 1-2?”, Natasha half asked, half commanded, hoping that her bots wouldn’t mess this up.
Two weeks later
Steve Rogers
“Captain Rogers.”, Jarvis started, causing Steve to jolt out of his sleep to a suit larger than Natasha’s normal ones. It was also painted in likeness to… to his suit.
“Please tell me that Natasha doesn’t expect me to get into that thing.”, Cap pleaded, knowing that was exactly the case. Of course it would be. Natasha just loved to torture him, he could see the smirk on her face when she planned this in his head.
“I cannot tell you that it will be easy, but Miss Stark has the suit set to auto-pilot. She has even tested it to assure your well being.”, Jarvis explained, though it made Steve feel no less better about getting into the suit, which opened like a container fit to him. Natasha liked to mess with him, sure, but she wouldn't risk his life over something like this.
He could feel the suit close around him, making his stomach squirm with anxiety. Few things frightened him, but one of those was claustrophobia. it all felt like it was closing in on him, the metal snugly closed around his body. his throat tightened.
“What in God’s name have I gotten myself into?!?!”, the blonde shouted into the microphone, almost screaming as he flew through the air. He was totally helpless and immobile, as Natasha had control over the suit and what he could and couldn’t do. God, this was horrifying and Steve wanted out so badly, but he’d agreed to be enclosed in a flying, metallic prison for some reason that he couldn’t identify and that made him terrified. He felt like one of Natasha’s play toys. He couldn’t even clench his fists, a trickle of sweat making his temple itch.
He hadn’t signed up for this-
Oh wait, he had.
When Steve had joined the Army, had become the Super Soldier, he’d signed up for this. When he joined the Avengers, he’d signed up for this. He had signed up for anything they had to throw at him or well, to throw him at; or even occasionally to quite literally throw Natasha at. Now he was regretting all of this just a tad. A tad being more so than he’d ever had in his entire life.
“Jarvis, when is she going to have me land?”, Steve asked, feeling sick to his stomach. Vomiting in the suit would make the experience all the worse.
“I’ve never controlled a suit with a joystick before. This is actually kinda fun.”, Natasha informed him, randomly appearing in the feed. He had a sneaking suspicion she had set up a camera to watch his expressions as the movements the suit made felt much more… dramatic than they needed to be. “However, I only had Jarvis come and get you. I’ll be flying you to the hospital.”
That grabbed Steve’s attention.
He took a mental step back, trying a different angle for talking to her. “Wait, why the hospital? What happened? Who got hurt?”, he asked, totally confused and out of the loop about what’d happened to her (and most things) while he’d been away; thankfully not frozen this time.
“I’m fine. The battle just messed me up for a minute. My heart stopping made them freak out and apparently they think it short circuited me somehow. I’m fine though.”, she told him, making Steve frown. He guessed it was like turning a computer on and off, something he had only recently gotten the hang of.
“Obviously if it landed you in the hospital, it was serious, Natasha. You can’t just blow everything off. Just because you’re Iron Woman doesn’t mean that you’re any more invincible than anyone else. You can get hurt and sick and you shouldn’t have avoided going. It could have killed you.”, he scolded, feeling like a parental figure rather than her peer or coworker.
Natasha scoffed at Steve, and he could feel her rolling her eyes. “I think that came with the whole, I’m Iron Woman announcement, Steve.”
“Touche, but that doesn’t mean this is over. You’re putting yourself into unnecessary danger, and you’re already in enough as it is.” he insisted, concern bleeding into his strict words.
“You’re infuriating, Steve. However, we’ll have to finish this little conversation in person. You’re landing now.”