Chapter 7
“I don’t like him,” Stephen mutters to Loki as they watch Doom and Tony are chatting in the corner of the gym. School had let out a few minutes earlier and they had all made their way to the gym to try out the archery equipment.
“Everyone thinks that at first. But Doom is just a close friend to Tony. He’s actually, according to Tony, crushing on this guy named Reed that works at his school. Not that he would ever admit to it. The two argue like no one’s business. You should have seen then at the annual teachers baseball game. You could hear them from the parking lot,” Loki says and Tony smacks Doom’s upper arm with the back of his hand and Stephen is still not convinced but he’s not going to treat Tony any different than normal.
The man is no his property or anything.
“Tony, are you sure you don’t want to give this stuff a try?” Clint asks coming out with the foam archery equipment. Stephen watches as Tony flinches softly and Doom puts a calming hand on his arm and Stephen wonders what is up with this whole situation because why would Tony be afraid of toy weapons and not want anyone to know where he lives? It makes no sense.
“Yeah I’m fine. I’ll live vicariously through Victor. Make sure to get a bullseye. Our reputation is at stake,” Tony says with a forced grin that Doom doesn’t seem to be buying, much like Stephen isn’t.
“Tony, we can leave if you do not feel comfortable. I know how you feel about weapons,” Stephen hears Doom whisper and he can’t hear the rest of the conversation as Clint shouts in excitement as he makes a bullseye.
“Nicely done feather head. My turn,” Natasha says and she makes her shot and while it is not as dead on as Clint’s was it is still pretty close.
“Well done, let me try,” Thor says and somehow convinces Loki to stand with an apple on his head and Stephen passes the man a set of lab goggles. They may be goofing off but that doesn’t mean they need to be unsafe. They’re teachers, they should know better after all.
Thor’s shot goes wide and hits the board two feet away from his head. Loki sees how badly his brother missed and smirks as they switch places. Loki exams the bow and then shoots the arrow off and smiles as the apple is knocked off of Thor’s head and he grins and he hands the set off to Steve before picking up the apple and taking a bite and throwing the apple up into the air and catching it and biting it again.
“No fair, now I can’t knock anything off Bucky’s head,” Steve says and Loki grins and Tony tosses Steve a baseball. Underhanded and Steve tosses it to Bucky and he balances it on his head and Steve takes aim and shoots and it slightly taps it and it goes rolling off the side and lands on his foot and he kicks it and knocks the bow out of Steve’s hand.
“Whoo, too slow Stevie,” Bucky says and scoops the toy up and they switch places and he levels it at Steve’s head and then shoots and it practically splits his perfect hair down the middle and Tony grins and then Doom takes a turn and manages to shoot a heart onto the board and a bullseye in the center.
“Whoo, nice Vicky,” Tony grins and the door opening draws his attention and hops up excitedly.
“Brucie!” Tony squeals and launches himself at the man who had just come in and hugs him. Stephen notices that everyone tenses up when Tony hugs him but then they quickly calm themselves before he can notice anything.
“Hey Tony, how you doing?”
“Better now that you’re here,” Tony says and Bruce turns bright red and then it’s his turn at his turn at the bullseye.
“I don’t know how well I’ll do,” Bruce says and he shoots it and it ends up breaking one of the lights and they dive for cover as glass rains down on them.
Stephen moves without thinking and protects Tony with is coat and when the glass starts falling bruce is freaking out like he’s in trouble and he’s going to lose his job.
“Get Brucie out of here and calm him down. I’ll handle fixing the light,” Tony whispers to Stephen and before anyone knows what happens they are all locked out of the gym, sitting in the hallway.
“What’s going on? What is Tony doing in there?” Stephen asks as Thor comforts Bruce quietly. It takes half an hour but suddenly Tony has opened the door and let them back in. The light is fixed and all the glass is gone.
“Tony, are you secretly a magician or a miracle worker?” Steve asks and Tony blushes and shakes his head.
“I just didn’t want Bruce to get in trouble he says as Clint puts the equipment away and they go home.
But Stephen still has more questions about their seemingly innocent little kindergarten teacher.
He really has to get around to researching him.