Elevated

“Silver!”

Nora didn’t lose her pen, because she wasn’t spinning it. She was tapping it rapidly instead, against the surface of her desk. She’d been on hold half the morning and just gotten through. She spun and threw up her hand, palm flat, in the hopes that it would stop Tony.

It didn’t, he steamed across the lab barking, “The fuck? Hang up, you’ve got work to do.”

Nora ignored him, but surveyed the kid who had followed him in, frowning. Luna darted to the kid’s feet, and he made a delighted sound and bent to pet her. “No Mr. Graves, I don’t think you understand, you’re out of compliance with city codes and if it’s not corrected-” The man on the phone tried to launch into complicated legal jargon, likely the sort that had confused her aunt to the point of wanting to move, “Mr. Graves -”

Tony drew up to her desk and shoved a finger in her face, “Hang up.”

Nora slapped it away, annoyance surging and bubbling out of her mouth, “If you don’t have it fixed by the end of the week, I will be having my lawyer file a complaint with the housing office and I can assure you, you do not want to meet my lawyer.” The man squawked and tried to backpedal. Nora cut him off, “By Friday, Mr. Graves.” She hung up and tossed her phone onto her desk, “Excuse you.” she snarked at Tony.

He frowned at her, “Problem with that ridiculous high-rise of yours?”

Nora thought it was pretty rich for him to call her apartment ridiculous when he’d built a massive tower and literally put his name on it, “No, my aunt’s place in Boston. Her heater’s broken and they’re trying to make her pay for it.”

Bruce made an annoyed sound from his desk. He’d been kept up to speed on all the details since her aunt had called two days before in the middle of the afternoon.

“Hi Dr. Banner.” The kid chirped from his spot, still petting Luna. He was tallish and skinny with unruly brown hair.

“Hey Peter.” Bruce replied, “How’s school?”

“Don’t get me started,” Tony groused over the answer, “Kid got a ‘B’. In physics. A ‘B’.”

“Mr. Stark-” Peter started.

Tony waved a hand, “Don’t wanna hear it. It’s why we’re here.”

Nora was deeply confused. She pointed to the kid, “Since when are you a dad?”

Bruce laughed. The kid went red. Tony made a face at her, but didn’t look nearly as outraged as she expected he would, “He’s an intern. Peter Parker,” he waved a hand from the kid to her, “Nora Silver.”

“Who let you have an intern? Please don’t tell me he’s unpaid.” Nora had strong feelings both that all labor be paid, and that Tony Stark should not be allowed a teenage intern.

“At the moment,” Tony started loftily, shooting a hard look at the kid, “He’s nobody's intern. Because he got a ‘B’. In physics.”

His disgust was palpable, and Nora was reminded of being eight years old and her mother discovering she’d stolen a pack of gum. It was the only crime she ever committed.

Tony slapped a hand down on her desk and fixed Nora with a look, “I promised his Aunt I’d get him a tutor.”

“Mr. Stark I really don’t-” The kid tried, straightening up. He looked miserable.

Tony made a furious noise, “Until he fixes his grade he is not an intern, he is a student in this lab,” He pointed at Nora, “And you are going to make sure that he gets an ‘A’.”

Nora’s eyebrows shot up towards her hair, “That is super not my job.”

“It is now, Silver.” He barked. Then he turned on his heel, stalked past Peter who looked a little like a kicked puppy, and was gone from the lab.

“Oh my god,” Nora muttered, swiveling to look at Bruce and gesturing to Peter with a thumb, “This is his kid, right?”

Bruce shook his head, grinning, “No.”

“Seriously?” She looked back towards Peter, “You aren’t related at all?” Red-faced, Peter shook his head, “That’s bizarre.”

She really couldn’t puzzle out why Tony would care so much if his intern got a ‘B’. She also couldn’t puzzle out why Tony would have an intern, why it would be this kid, or why he’d made it her job to fix. It definitely wasn’t in her job description to tutor Junior level physics, but Tony had seemed manic in an entirely new way, and she wasn’t willing to press the issue.

“Okay. Do you want to tell me about the ‘B’?” He’d really seemed like he wanted to explain and Tony had steamrolled right over him.

Peter looked relieved. He took a few steps further into the lab and sank into a chair, “I know all the material, I swear. I just only got halfway through the test.”

Nora frowned, “What, were you sick or something?”

He shot a look at Bruce, who shrugged, “Um. Something like that.”

That was a weird answer. Nora wondered what kind of teacher punished a kid for getting sick in the middle of a test, “Alright. Well, how about I have FRIDAY make up a test and you can show me what you know?”

Peter slumped, “Okay.”

“What are you a Junior?” She asked, spinning to pick up her tablet and punching inputs into FRIDAY’s help window.

“Yeah.”

“I assume you’re some sort of science prodigy if Tony’s taken an interest?”

The kid fidgeted. Bruce answered for him, “Yes.”

Nora had to assume that wasn’t the entire reason for Tony’s involvement, “Well I’d be happy to take your word that you know what you’re doing because this is definitely not my job, but I’ve never seen Tony like that. He might really fire me if you get another ‘B’.” Peter looked stricken, “I’m joking.” Nora clarified. She scrolled through the test FRIDAY had generated and flicked it towards the workstation Peter was sitting at, “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Peter turned towards the computer. Nora watched his back for a few minutes. She supposed he didn’t really look like Tony. The whole thing was weird.

Then it got a little weirder when Bucky took one step through the door at noon and stopped to scowl at the kid. He didn’t like strangers, but he didn’t scowl at them either. Nora had to assume that Bucky also knew the intern, and didn’t like him much. Neither of which made any sense at all.

“Hi, Mr. Barnes. Sergeant. Sir.” Peter stammered.

“Hi Bucky,” his scowl eased just a little and he crossed the lab to her desk, “Have you met Peter?”

He nodded and didn’t look at the kid who was staring at his back looking somehow both awed and confused. He set a container on her desk and knelt to pet Luna before clipping on her leash.

Nora lifted the container to survey the contents and made a delighted noise, “I love rice balls. It was all I ate in Osaka.” She popped the lid off and snagged one, saying around her bite, “Tell me the truth, Peter is Tony’s secret child, right?”

Bruce laughed from his desk. Bucky frowned, “No.”

Nora stood and grabbed her coat, slinging it over her arm, “Seriously? He was throwing major dad vibes when he was in here earlier. I mean, not my dad, but somebodies.” Peter was turning red again. Nora tapped the desk he was working at on her way past, “I’ll be back in an hour. You want a coffee or a cookie or something?”

He shook his head, eyes flicking between her and Bucky who was standing somewhere over her shoulder. Bruce called from his desk, “Peanut butter?”

“You got it, boss.” Nora turned and looped her arm through Bucky’s. He was scowling at the kid again, “Hey, did I ever tell you about my very short-lived criminal career?”

Bucky thought it was cute that Nora called her childhood experience shoplifting a criminal career.

He knew that she understood he had been an assassin and done a wide variety of criminal and generally unsavory things. He didn’t think she knew that even outside of his time as the Soldier, he’d almost stolen more things than he’d ever purchased. There had been clothes and supplies and money during his time on the run through Europe. Supply shipments during the war. And, notably, medicine in 1935. He wasn’t proud that he’d boosted a pharmacy. Steve would be furious if he knew, even now, but Bucky thought the man didn’t remember just how ill he used to get.

Bucky was positive that if he hadn’t done it, Steve would’ve died. As it was, it was closer than he wanted to recall. The entire episode hadn’t sat well. He’d felt guilty for months, until he managed to scrape together the cash he felt he owed and shoved it under the office door. There had been fear too, at the potential to be caught, but the guilt was worse.

He glanced at Nora. She was petting Luna and squinting at a poster plastered to the coffee shop wall with interest. He wondered what she’d think if she knew. His eyes snagged on the divot his fingers had left in their usual table. Wasn’t there something to her knowing the bad parts of him?

He took a deep breath and said, “Broke into a pharmacy once.”

“Really?” Nora swiveled to look him up and down. She seemed surprised, “What for?”

“Steve was sick.” Bucky remembered all the details. It was some kind of lung infection that had him wheezing and struggling to breathe. Sarah Rogers didn’t have the money for antibiotics and neither did Bucky. He was sick for days, getting worse every hour. Bucky would’ve told Nora all of it but the shame that had been dulled by so many years swelled up and clogged his throat.

“Huh.” Nora reached for her latte, “You guys have always looked out for each other, haven’t you?”

She didn’t seem upset. The shame fizzled, “Yes.”

She sipped her drink, “I wish I had a friend like you.”

Bucky reached to grip her thigh under the table, “You’ve got me.” He replied. He didn’t think Nora quite understood what he was trying to say, but she beamed at him anyway.

“Hey, did anyone tell you about Darcy’s party?” She dropped her hand to cover his.

They had. Thor, Sam and Steve had all cornered him separately in attempts to get him to agree to go. It was on Saturday at Thor’s place. There was going to be food and drinks and some kind of extensive video game competition that Bucky had absolutely no interest in. It was different from the last party he’d been invited to. He was sleeping a little better and the clawed thing wasn’t trying to kill him like it had been during the holiday. He still wasn’t sure he could manage it, and had told all three of his friends separately, no.

“It’s Saturday at Thor’s.” Nora continued, “Do you wanna go?”

Bucky shrugged. He did want to. The weight of his confession sat somewhere near his heart, making it seem important that he try. He just wasn’t sure he could.

“Alright. I’m going. Is it okay if I spend the night at your place after? Darcy was telling me all about this game she wants to play and I just know I’ll be in no state to take a cab home by myself.”

Bucky frowned. He definitely wouldn’t be letting her do that, “Yes.”

“Cool.” She sat back in her chair, then suddenly jolted forward and turned to tap his leg excitedly, “Oh man, we should go to the diner on Sunday! I bet their waffles are great for a hangover.”

That, at least, he could agree to.