Chapter 4
The two weeks drag on slowly.
Installing a new apartment (as small as Tony could make it before Steve gave him the Glare of Respectfulness) was pretty simple. Natasha was called in to help with questioning suspects at a SHIELD base that is completely top secret, one JARVIS totally doesn’t have location-tagged as a ‘great picnic spot.’
Clint has an actual mission that he left for a day after they were informed about the Soother. After the mission, he quickly disappears back home, and it is only because of explicit direction from Coulson that he comes back before the Soother is set to arrive.
Bruce spent hours every day discussing the latest research and applicable data on Soothers in the military and other high-stress professional fields. He and Tony could be found sprawled in the lab with tablets and paper surrounding them. Soothers have a purpose. Tony keeps describing them as glorified nuns, but they serve a therapeutic purpose. Bruce is just trying to figure out the benefits for the team.
It’s not comfortable, someone coming into what he feels like is home with the specific reason to integrate herself into his personal business and relationships.
“It’s really hard to describe it without sounding creepy,” Bruce concludes “They basically function like a camomile scented candle.” Tony snorts. “But the benefits are supposed to be apparent within weeks of integration: better communication, easier team dynamics, less overall hostility, a pack mentality that can be centered around a single alpha or no alpha without everyone instinctually fighting for that spot.”
“Great. Camomile candles for the win, right?” Tony pauses, then asks, “you honestly think we need this?”
“I don’t know if I think we need this, but from what we’ve been looking at for two weeks, it’s not gonna make anything worse.” Bruce shrugs, but his shoulders stay tense as he says, “Plenty of close military units have Soothers or at least regularly scheduled therapy sessions. And I know you’re going to say we aren’t the military, but we’ve seen just as much violence in the past year as any US special ops team.”
Tony doesn’t respond. Bruce is right. Tony refuses to be seen as one of Fury’s obedient soldiers, but he has to admit that the team has more similarities with military units than with an ambassador’s entourage.
All that’s left is to see how this is going to go.
“Me being an alpha, that was the only thing my dad ever thought I did right,” Tony says softly. Steve sighs and looks at Tony disapprovingly.
“You know that’s a load of crap. Stop trying to guilt me into making some big show over this. There’s nothing I can do, and the least you can do is stop being a drama queen about it.”
Tony breaks from his melancholy character and whines, “well excuse me, Captain, but she’s not moving into your goddamn house! You all have missions to go on, other places to stay. I leave New York, and I get my ass handed to me by Pepper or Fury or both.”
He can’t help but feel a little trapped in this. It’s obvious that he is a big reason why the team has been assigned a Soother anyway, he’s unpredictable and has a kind of volatile relationship with rules. Regardless, being forced to invite a government-selected therapist into his home like a welcome guest is a little grating.
“Yeah, well, that sucks,” Steve can be so eloquent, “but we’re in this together. I’ve already packed up half my apartment and brought it here, what’s a few more boxes?”
“Cap,” Tony’s still pissed. He definitely still sounds angry, but he’s not ignorant as to what that means. “You have that shitty little place in Brooklyn cause it feels like home. You can’t just throw away your best comfort blanket because I don’t want some bitch in my house.”
“You haven’t met her yet, Tony. At least hold off the insults for a few weeks, okay?” Steve gives no response to the rest of Tony’s statement. He just turns towards the elevator doors, setting his jaw and then purposefully loosening it. Tony watches him out of the corner of his eye and gives it up for now. He can always find another place in Brooklyn if he wants one. It’s not like Steve is hurting for money.
The rest of the team is present. Everyone else is sitting with a false sense of casualness.
The elevator dings.