Chapter 2
“So who’s the girl?” Natasha asked, putting a bullet into a mercenary’s skull with cold efficiency.
“Girl?”
“Yeah, the one you keep sneaking off to see and sends you home with enough leftovers to feed an army. And she’s cooking all that you should lock her down before I do. That’s good food.”
“What are you talking about?” sometimes modern slang sounded like nonsense to him, he thought as he punched out a mercenary, dumping another over the boat railing. The next few down the deck looked uncertain about attacking them, as if not sure they were paid enough to risk their necks.
“Yeah, lock it down, put a ring on it, marry her. What, are you embarrassed? She’s not from Jersey is she?”
“He, he’s just a friend. He likes to cook.”
“Is he single?” The mercenaries decided death over dishonor, getting a few shots in before Natasha broke their necks. She shook out her hair before glancing back at him and his possibly red face. “Oooh, that sort of friend. You know it’s not like back then. Gay marriage is legal now.”
“It's… complicated.” he smacked one of the mercenaries with the shield before he could get his gun back.
“Is he married?” They kicked in a door, Steve using his shield to take out the men guarding the hostages.
“No, he’s not. It’s just-” he secured the guards while she started untying the hostages. “He’s very nice, he’s very smart.”
“And he cooks.” she pointed out, as if that was the most important part. “Cooks very well.”
“And nice to spend time with.” his face was burning again.
“Sounds like you like him.” one of the female shield agents mentioned as she rubbed her newly-freed wrists.
“See? Bring him over. See if he can hold up to Tony's ‘concerned father of a teenage daughter’ routine.”
“I don’t know. He’s pretty shy.”
“Let me talk to Pepper.” she shot a mercenary that came in through the other door without looking. “Maybe we can bring him to movie night without traumatizing him too much.”
This was not a date, Steve kept telling himself. A date would involve… okay, he’d never been on a real date before. Well, Bucky had dragged him along on a few double dates, but those didn’t really count. Damn, he needed Bucky here, he was good with this sort of thing. Did trips to the museum count as dates? If they got lunch too, or at least ice cream? It kind of sounded like a date? He really needed to stop worrying about this.
And it didn’t help he kept expecting to be stared at. But… There were at least three other male couples he could see just here in the main lobby, and two teenage girls making out in the corner where they thought they couldn’t be seen.
Shen Wei smiled up at him, offering the museum map. “They have a Captain America exhibit? It’s a traveling version of the one at the air and space museum.”
“I’m… not ready to see that yet.” he must have made a face, Shen Wei's face creased in concern before brightening up again.
“How about… here, come with me to the East Asian collection.”
They meandered on through, looking at this or that until Shen Wei tugged him towards a particular display, a painting on silk.
“The general of the empress- oh! That’s you!”
“Yes.” he was looking away, but smiling. “Every so often I run into something like this.” he glanced up at the painting then back down. “My hair was so long then.”
“Thank you.”
“Hm?”
“For trusting me enough to show me this.”
“Oh, yes. We’re both sort of… out of the normal line of time. Hearing about your own life and death like it’s someone else’s story.” He stared at the floor.
Steve slung an arm around his shoulders. “Let's go see if we can find any more portraits of you.”
“I don’t think-” he murmured shily, leaning up against him.
They wandered a bit more, Shen Wei wincing slightly as they approached another exhibit, a reconstruction of a Chinese tomb.
“What is it?”
“Do you hear a buzzing?” he pulled off his glasses to rub his eyes, as if getting a migraine.
“No?” but he looked around, trying to see if there was anything unusual. There were a lot of displays, pretty things made of gold and jade, and a lot of security to make sure no one got too close to anything.
And then shen wei suddenly stopped, nearly tripping Steve.
“What is /that./” he muttered. “That’s not Chinese.”
It was an amulet of some sort, or dish or- well Steve wasn’t sure what it was. It was elaborately made in swirls of gold and copper metals, surround a dark green gem that depths that tried to pull him in the more he stared at it-
“Oh, dude, are you okay?” a kid asked, breaking the trance. Shen Wei was holding his nose, blood gathering around his fingers. Someone offered a wad of Kleenex, and he took it gratefully, trying to stem the flow as Steve led him out of the crowded exhibit and to the men’s room.
“I’m sorry.” he said quietly, leaning over a sink. Distance seemed to help, he looked less in pain now. “I haven't had a reaction like that since-”
“The tesseract?” Steve asked. Shen Wei's body went stiff and still.
“That thing. Yes.”
“Will you be okay?”
“Yes.” he checked to see if the nosebleed had stopped. “Howard would call me his human Geiger counter with that thing, to check if the shielding for it was leaking or not.”
“Yeah, that sounds about right for him. Wait here, I’m going to take another look at it.”
Shen Wei nodded, face still a little pale.
The professor looked much better by the time he came back, managing a smile.
“Anything?”
“No, just materials and a label of ritual object. The docent said that the gift shop might have an exhibition catalog with more information.”
A trip to the gift shop later (and several art books that Steve couldn’t help but get now that he wasn’t a poor artist and could afford them,) they retreated to a coffee shop.
“You could audit some art classes, if you wanted.” the professor offered after noticing his book purchase. “I could talk to the director of the art department.”
That… sounded like a good idea. A normal idea. “I’m sure I count for a senior citizens discount.”
“I’m sure they would be happy to waive any fees for you.” he pushed the sugar and milk towards Steve.
Now back to the crazy alien artifact hunting. What was his life?
“I don’t know this part of china.” the doctor frowned, elegant fingers tracing the map on the shiny paper. “I was more in this part down here around this time, I think.”
“Hard to keep track of after a while?”
“Quite so.”
They browsed through the book, coffee forgotten as they read. It really was quite interesting, information about the tomb, how it was built but- they didn’t seem to know who the tomb belonged to. Shen Wei frowned, paging ahead to look through the items.
“None of these are right. A tomb robber’s tomb?” he muttered, going back and forth. “A zhang tomb? No, that’s not right at all.”
“Zhang?”
“One of the nine tomb robber families in china. Sometimes they repurposed tombs for their own use. Then again, they wouldn’t let one of their own tombs be plundered, so maybe one of the other families? That would explain the quality of the items.”
“Whoa.”
“So… this.. Heart of fire? What a name, could be from anywhere, really.”
“Like… space?”
“Like space. Like meteorite jade.” he sighed. “Considering some things I have heard about the Zhangs, that is entirely likely.”
“Would your cop friend know?” Shen Wei tapped his fingers on the table top, thinking.
“No, but I’ll ask him to ask around. Do you think it’s safe where it is?”
“I doubt anyone else knows what it is, and it’s under guard.”
“Yes, that is true.” he glanced up at Steve, then quickly back at the table. “I meant this to be more…”
“What do you mean? Not every date ends with an investigation into mystery objects?”
“Ah-” he glanced back up again, as if to make sure Steve was joking. “Yes, I’m sure not every date would.”
Oh, so this was a date. There was a bit of relief with that.
“Well, it’s still early. Where do you want to go next?”
“Nat says you have a boyfriend.” Pepper said, offering Steve a mug of coffee.
“Who?”
“The doctor?”
“He’s just a friend.” a friend that he was… dating.
“Uh-huh.” as if she could read his thoughts. “So what’s his name? What does he do?” she asked in her best mom voice. At least she was smiling. A little something in him relaxed.
“Doctor Shen Wei, NYU biology department.”
“Oh, he sounds familiar.” Bruce said, mostly focused on the thing he’d taken apart and spread across the kitchen table. “Genetics, right? I think I’ve read some of his papers.”
“Ooh, a professional. You should bring him over for movie night. Thor can bring over Jane, and we can watch movies about mad science.”
“Maybe he’ll help review my next paper.” Bruce muttered, more to himself as he slotted the pieces into a shiny black housing. “Okay buddy, you don’t have physical wifi capabilities-” his phone chirped. “-So how are you texting me!? I’m being trolled. There is no way in hell. How.”
“Um, Dr. Banner, what is that?”
“It’s a coffee maker that SHIELD gave me. It’s apparently figured out email and now how to text my phone.”
“So, what does a coffee maker have to say?” Pepper sipped her own cup of coffee.
“A lot about the freshness of coffee and the size of coffee grounds.” he glared at his phone.
“Huh.” both Steve and pepper said. He vaguely remembered something about an incident, something about a sentient coffeemaker… maybe he shouldn’t think too hard about it.
“Anyway, you should ask him to come to movie night.”
“Who’s coming over?” Tony blurrily asked, making grabby hands for the coffee Pepper held just out of his reach.
“Kisses first, and Steve has a friend he’s bringing to movie night.” She accepted his kiss before handing over the mug.
“The captain finally has a girlfriend? Good job. Who is she? Have I met her?”
“He’s…” he mumbled, wanting to melt through the floor in embarrassment. The doctor was nice, he was attractive, but wasn't sure it qualified yet as…
“Shen Wei, NYU bio professor, so you’ve probably not slept with him.” Bruce filled in helpfully. “You’re not even plugged in, so how are you working?” his phone dinged again. “How?!” Tony frowned, still only half awake.
“ Actually, that name sounds familiar. How did you meet him?”
“I should go, Fury has something he wants to talk about.” he fled, face burning. He shouldn’t be embarrassed! It was just too much attention about something he wasn’t sure about yet…