Chapter 2
In the three months since the chitauri attack things had changed a lot. Immediately after the attack Fury sanctioned that all the avengers would have to be in one place for security reasons. Tony immediately volunteered his tower saying the repairs were almost done. But almost as soon as all the avengers had moved in-minus Thor-he had some Asgardian business to attend to- Tony left for Malibu. No explanation was given. Steve of course was confused and called often.
“Hello?” Silence echoes in the background, and Steve contemplates hanging up. “Stark? Are you there?” Theres scuffling and Steve sits down in one of the many lavish chairs that decorate the tower. Half of them don’t even have a use. “Stark, if this is a bad time I can go. I’m sure you have other things to do-”
He’s cut off by Tony, who sounds out of breath. “No!” There's a pause, as if Tony is collecting himself. “No, it’s, it’s fine Cap. Just hold on a second. Just a second…” His voice trails off, and Steve can hear him talking to someone in the background. The Captain is debating just leaving Tony to his own devices when the man speaks again. “Sorry ‘bout that Rogers. I didn’t expect you to call.”
Steve decided not to dig into that. “Who was that you were talking to?” Steve pauses. “Was that, did I, did I interrupt you and a, a…” Steve searches for the right word. “Were you with a Dame?”
Tony doesn’t answer for a second and Steve genuinely got scared, but then the Stark burst into a chorus of laughter, and Steve could practically hear the tears falling. Steve blushes an angry red, and the only consolation for not hanging up is that he did actually have a question to ask. Stark beats him before he can. “A dame! Oh Rogers, you’re still stuck in the forties aren’t you. no,” Steve could hear Stark take a deep breath to collect himself. “No, that wasn’t a Dame. I just had to talk to Jarvis, then Dum-E got in the way. No biggie.”
“Tony who’s Dum-E? That’s not a very nice thing to call someone…” Steve trails off when Tony doesn’t answer. “Anyways Stark I just needed to know if you’re ever planning on coming to debriefs? Or if you’re thinking of coming to the benefit Stark Industries, your company, is hosting on Saturday? It’s kind of important.”
“Benefit? What, when…” Steve can hear Tony address someone in the background. He assumes it’s the Jarvis figure again. “Oh! The Maria Stark benefit. Yes. Yes. Of course I’ll be there.” Steve’s about to say something when Tony speaks again. “I think I’ll head back over to the tower, uh, what day is tomorrow?”
Steve pauses, thrown off by the question. “Ergh,” An unintelligible sound escapes him. As he plays with the strange new material of the pants Stark and Shield helped him buy. “Wednesday? Yes. It’s Wednesday.”
Tony actually sounds surprised. Or like something hit him. One of those two options. “Oh! I’ll be there, um, Thursday.” There more pausing. “Yea. See you then Cap.” And with that Steve is hung up on.
Looking back on it Steve probably should have seen the abrupt ending coming. It’s not like Tony and Steve had actually has a conversation. Ordering someone in battle isn’t like ordering a pizza with them. He shouldn't have expected much. But when he set down the expensive phone Stark himself provided he couldn’t help but feel a pang of, well, something.
“Thinking hard about something Cap?” The voice comes out of nowhere and Steve imagines he must have been deep in thought.
Which is probably why he practically follows off the chair he had been perching on, holding in a string of profanities threatening to be let loose. “Jesu-I mean Golly Hawkeye!” Steve pauses to catch his breath. “Where did you even come from?”
Clint wears a smirk that practically spells out mischief. And that’s saying something, considering Steve actually met the God of Mischief. “The door?” Clint pointed vaguely in the direction of the elevator which is, yes, technically a kind of door.“Some people, you know walk in. Also, we’re off the job,” The older man pauses, leaning over the counter to grab from the fruit basket Bruce had insisted on putting in, “call me Clint.”
“Clint.” Steve says, trying the name out on his tongue. He clears his throat. “What’s you know, up?” The baby agents, as Clint and Natasha liked to call them, had been trying to teach him new slang. He still confuses himself on whether he used it right or not.
Clint gestures at the two apples he had grabbed, a red one and a green one. “Was just sparring with ‘Nat.” Steve can almost imagine the two going at it. Those two were some of the most deadly people he had ever encountered, and Captain America had punched a fake Adolf Hitler in the face two hundred times and had actually punched the Red Skull himself. Steve snaps himself out of it when Cline continues.“Got hungry.”
Steve nods, pretending he hadn’t been reminiscing about the old days. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately. “I understand that. Sometimes with the SSR boys we would-” He cuts himself off, deciding changing topics would probably be a better course of action.. “I’m always hungry since the serum.”
Clint laughs, a barking laugh where you can tell he’s letting something free. Not something you would imagine in a sniper. Or an assassin. “Bruce makes a mean curry.” And now Steve is confused. So many things in this century seem to do that to him. “Have you had curry? Curry is God’s gift to man.”
“Curry?” Steve stops to think, positive that the confusion he is feeling is clearly displayed on his face. Since he had woken up he had tried a lot of different foods, but curry didn’t sound like on of the ones he had tried yet. Or one he had even heard of. “No. I have zero idea what that is.”
“It’s Indian sauce basically.” Steve looks like he’s going to ask another question but Clint elebroates. “Bruce is a vegetarian so the ones he makes usually don't have meat.” As if that fact means something more than the obvious to Steve, the team has sit down to like, three meals. Maybe. Well, Stark, and Thor hadn’t been there but.
Steve can feel himself getting off track. “That makes a surprising amount of sense.” A pause, the soldier not quite knowing what to fill the gaps of the increasingly awkward conversation that this is turning into. “So do you a Natasha, uh, spar often?”
Clint pauses, like it should give him thought. “Oh yeah.” He pauses, a smile playing on his face. “Of course. We’ve been partners forever.” Theres a mutter of something that vaguely sounds like the words Budapest and shit fuck of a mission. Now Steve can feel that it’s not him attempting to change the route the conversation was taking. “Who were you on the phone with?”
Rogers pauses, debating if lying would in any way benefit himself in any way in the future. “Er, that was just Stark.” He pauses once again, wondering what he should say. In the end he decided to end with the truth, because he’s apparently an all american kind of guy who would never tell a lie. “I had to check if he was coming to the benefit on Saturday.”
Clint cocks his head, fixating an expression unique to a man who has spent his whole life controlling them. It tells nothing if you don’t want it to.“And is he?”And looking at Clint’s face Steve can’t really tell what the archer wants as an answer.
Steve nods, short abrupt, and military. Just how he was trained to and just how he continued to, even years after he moved on to the SSR and being Captain America full time. “Yeah, he’s coming up the day after tomorrow.”
Clint smiles, playing with the two apples he’s still palming. “Good, good.” There’s a silence. Then his eyebrow quirks up, a clear sign Clint has something on his mind. And it’s probably not the best idea. “Have you actually met the guy? I mean besides the battle, but he just kind of left.” And that’s so true and Steve is stuck thinking for a moment about how tired Stark had looked those few days the man had stayed at the tower before leaving.
Steve continued diplomatically. “I don’t know him that well. But I also feel like he’s the kind of guy who doesn’t let people in.” Rogers pauses reflecting on what he was saying and wondering if anyone else would understand him.“You know what I mean?” Steve says.
Theres a long pause, and Steve is about to back track and attempt to somehow resolve the stray track this conversation had taken. “Stark’s been through a lot.” Clint says finally. A kind of solid resolve in his voice. “He kinda deserves some time alone, you know?”
Steve pauses, thinking that Clint might actually understand. “Yea. I guess I can see where you’re coming from.”
Clint jumps off the counter he had been sitting on. Heading towards the elevator. “I got to get back to Nat.” He pauses at the entrance to the elevator and gives a little wave. “See you ‘Cap!”
Steve forces a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes and he can’t be sure why. “Yea, bye Clint.”