Practice Makes Perfect
Day 9
“Rhodeybear,” Tony half whines into the phone, “if you’re in D.C. you can drop by New York.”
Warm laughter echoes in his ear, “you miss me that much?”
“No,” the pout is clear in his voice, “I just deserve some love.”
“I’ll try to make it,” Rhodey relents, and then, because he’s the friend that he is, “how’s working for Peggy? Did you meet the legendary Doctor Rogers?”
Tony looks around the lab just to make extra sure that it really is deserted. It’s especially early for Tony to be in, but he wanted to catch Rhodey before he disappeared into endless days of appeasing the higher ups in the Air Force, and it seemed pointless to waste his waking hours away from this mouth-watering heaven of a lab Peggy spared for him. Bruce and Helen haven’t come in for the day, and he’s grateful that they won’t ever know of his latent, hopeless crush for the war hero.
“He hates me, Rhodey. He says sorry then keeps picking fights with me. All bulging muscles and constipated glare.” And baby blue eyes, not that Rhodey needs to know that particular detail. “Turns out he has a kid, though.”
“You know stalking is a no-no in Pepper’s book, Tony,” Rhodey teasingly reminds.
Tony squawks indignantly. “I didn’t stalk him or hack his phone. I talked with him.”
“Like a normal human?” Rhodey asks with disbelieving laughter, “I thought you were fighting.”
“I can be a normal human,” Tony sniffs, picking up a hologram atom to zoom in on. “He didn’t even recognise me when we first met. So I told him to look me up and I think the All American Saint thinks my sins are too many.”
Beneath Tony’s flippant tone, Rhodey knew what Tony really meant.
“It’s his loss if he can’t see the heaven-sent gift that you are, Tony,” he says over the phone, and Rhodey, who’s known Tony since his scrawny MIT days, goes on, “although it might be a blessing for his sanity that he’s escaped you.”
Tony clings to the escape Rhodey’s offered. “Honeybear, I knew you loved me so – ”
“Uh, hi.”
Tony whirled around in his chair so fast his neck cricked. Oh, God must be laughing somewhere now, because Steve Rogers is standing right there with one cup of something smelling suspiciously like coffee and Rhodey’s voice is repeatedly demanding ‘Tony? Are you there? Do I need to call Peggy?’ over the phone that is now clutched uselessly in Tony’s right hand.
“Yeah, uh, gotta go, Rhodey,” Tony quickly says. It’s safer to deal with Rhodey first than think about the possibilities of what Steve heard. Rhodey’s telling him it’s unfair to just hang up like that, but Tony does it anyway. He’ll send a fruit basket to Rhodey’s address. A fruit basket with an obnoxious doll.
“You didn’t have to hang up,” Rogers tells him.
Tony squints at him. “How much of that did you hear?”
“None of it,” Steve defensively answers as Tony holds in a sigh of relief. “I just saw you from Bruce’s lab. It’s early but he likes some chai tea in the morning.”
Indeed, the glass doors connecting Tony’s lab to Bruce’s is open and there’s a to-go paper cup on the main table that wasn’t there when Tony last checked. “What do you want?” he settled on asking.
“I think we keep getting off on the wrong foot and it’s my fault.”
Wow, Tony marvels. Pepper’s voice in his head is telling him to not offend Steve any further. “Sit. Your shuffling is giving me a headache.”
To his credit, Steve doesn’t take the bait and just frowns as he quietly sits on the single empty chair across the worktable. His eyes dart around at the holograms Tony has up, his mouth hanging slightly open.
“Are you going to drink that coffee?” Tony asks. The scent is reminding him at it is far too early to be awake.
Steve shakes his head. “Bruce told me to come over with his tea and some black coffee.”
Tony’s really grateful for Bruce. They’ve clicked like a house on fire (luckily not like a hospital on fire) and he knows that Bruce, for all his quiet and calm, can meddle even worse than Pepper. “Okay, then that’s for me,” he tells Steve, holding out a hand over the cluttered table.
“What?”
“Coffee’s not good for Bruce. Helen drinks only the sweetest monstrosities.”
“If you’re sure,” Steve says, handing the warm cup to Tony, who cradles it carefully as he breathes deep.
Tony’s content to just enjoy his coffee as his mind wanders with numbers, so it’s silent until Steve blurts out, “you didn’t have a welcoming party.”
Pausing his swallows, Tony balances the cup precariously over a stack of unfinished paperwork. “So? Am I obligated to host one?” Honestly, Tony doesn’t know whether he’s angry or just exhausted. He wishes that his past didn’t follow him around constantly, but he wouldn’t be here if not for his past, would he?
That red flush is creeping back up Steve’s neck. “No, it’s just… I think we’d have gotten along better if we didn’t keep meeting after a long day of work.”
“Well, if it helps, right now it’s before a long day of work.”
Steve clear his throat. “So, uh, what’s those circles there?”
He’s pointing to the hologram that’s showing circles inside circles. Tony takes his coffee cup back in hand just to have something to hold, “making small talk, are we? It’s the thing I put in Riri’s chest. The fancy pacemaker.”
To be fair to Steve, it’s hardwired in Tony’s nature to just say things.
Steve, bless him, answers honestly. Tony doesn’t know how anyone can be as good as Steve Rogers, who somehow manages to exceed even the fanciest praises that Peggy Carter gives.
“No. Peter – my son – he’s obsessed with you. He loves science, and he loves you more than he loved Bruce during his radiation obsession phase.”
The bark of laughter that escapes Tony’s lips is involuntary. “Really?”
Something in Tony aches as it always does when he thinks of children, but he tamps it down. If he doesn't want others to drag his past around, then he shouldn't live in the past. Or at least, that's what Rhodey and Pepper keep badgering him to remember.
“Yeah,” Steve tells him, running a hand through his hair. “I wanted to know what the buzz is all about.”
“In that case,” Tony smirks, half to distract himself, half because it's always entertaining to watch, “I think it’s time you met JARVIS.”