Chapter 24
They had been officially moved into the compound for two weeks now, and today was only the second time Steve had seen Stark since moving. Walking in to the kitchen he saw the shorter man dressed in one of his three-piece suits, jacket off, getting a cup of coffee.
“Hey Cap.”
“Stark. We haven’t seen you in a while.”
“Yeah, I know. We’re finalizing the design for the tower that’s about to start being built in London. The Los Angeles complex is almost finished. And the Hawaii and Berlin towers seem to just keep growing. I’m thinking of building that tower in Tokyo that the Hawaii one was supposed to be in place of. Or maybe Sydney…,” he trailed off obviously in thought as he mumbled under his breath, “maybe both? Huh?”
“Stark!”
“Yeah, what?” brown eyes left the cup of coffee in front of him and looked up at Steve. Steve had to admit those eyes are very pretty, an almost whiskey colored amber.
“You need to be here more, Stark. When are you moving in?”
“What?”
Steve didn’t understand the confusion on the other’s face. “When are you moving in?”
“I’m… not…?” Stark set his cup down as Steve looked at him in surprise. “Why would you think I was moving in here?”
“We’re the Avengers, this is the Avenger’s compound. You need to be here.” Steve crossed his arms and stared at Stark.
Stark leaned against the kitchen island next to him. “I’m not an Avenger, remember. I’m only a consultant. I have a home, and a job. I’m here for the big stuff, the stuff you need more bodies for or a heavy hitter. But I’m too busy to follow you all over the world, hunting Hydra the way you and Nat are always doing.”
“That’s not good enough, you need to be here.” How could Stark not understand that.
“Well it’s not happening. I’m only here right now, to help set up the labs and check the security. I’m also going over the necessary maintenance for your equipment with Walters, making sure he knows how to fix everything. I’ll be back every couple of months, run a security sweep, pass on any upgrades I might have made. But unless you need me for something, I doubt I’ll be here that often Captain.”
“Whose Walters?” Steve almost regretted the question. He hated it when Stark looked at him like he had asked something stupid.
“He’s your new armorer.” Stark went on before Steve could take that in, “he was listed, along with everyone else, in the packet of information you got when the compound personnel started coming in. We have Walters to repair any weapons, several support crew for the two quinjets you have, security, computer specialists, geopolitical and military analysts, medical and research, as well as compound maintenance, like the landscapers and cleaners. Most of them are former SHIELD, but all of them had to be fully vetted before being allowed on property.
All that? Steve felt a little unbalanced, it was making him angry, “but, you do that.”
“Do what?” Stark smirked that ugly little smirk he used sometimes, “I’m a little too busy to be mowing several acres of lawn.”
“You fix our gear.”
“I did, but I’m not the only engineer in the world. Walters will be on site and his main job will be to keep everything working. I’ve had to drop important projects before when you came back with damage. We almost lost the Akali contract; as it is, I had to pay penalties for going over deadline.”
Steve didn’t care about that, Stark was the best, it was only right that he prioritizes Avengers gear. “You’re the best. You need to be here doing that.” Steve was trying to emphasize how important this was. The Avengers needed Stark here doing maintenance.
Stark crossed his arms as he stared back at him, he had an intently puzzled look on his face like he was trying to figure something out. Why did he always look at Steve like he was missing something. It was Stark that didn’t seem to understand how important what they did was.
“No. I’m not moving out here. In fact, a lot of my time is going to be spent in Hawaii from now on.”
“Stark!” what was he talking about! What about date night?
“You don’t watch the news or TV very much, do you?” Stark reached over to the jacket draped over the stool next to him. “Now, I have to go talk to Maria, get the last of the paperwork squared away, then I’m done here. I’ll see you later, Cap.”
Steve called after the retreating back as Stark left, pulling on his coat, “what about movie night?”
“Later, Cap.” The dismissive wave was so aggravating. But he could see Maria standing outside in the hallway waiting and didn’t want to have a private conversation in front of her. He’d catch Stark later, before he left.
Steve didn’t realize that Stark was going to take the stack of signed paper handed to him by Maria and leave twenty minutes later.