Headmaster Fury was, well for lack of a better word, furious when Steve came to the office. Natasha, Janet, and Sam were already there, warily watching the headmaster pace back and forth through the office.
"Rogers, what took you so long." Fury snapped. Steve started to explain, but Fury just put up a hand and sat down. "I don't care. Stark is in a mood, and I need you to go look into a break in at one of his buildings."
Steve winced a little. Howard had, changed since the war. His old friend seemed constantly tense and stern. If he was in a bad mood, Steve wouldn't have wanted to be the brunt of it. Still, Stark Industries did provide most of the technology used by Avengers Academy. If someone was causing trouble there, of course they'd look into it.
The others nodded, and the group left for the quinjet hangar.
The building had been evacuated, or at least it was supposed to have been. Instead there was a guy around Steve's age- mental age, not age age- standing at the front door. He had a red motorcycle jacket with yellow lining, a black t-shirt, black riding gloves, and black jeans.
"There's someone there," Steve whispered, "what do we do."
"Don't sweat it Cap, that's a friend of mine." Jan said. "Hey Tony!" The guy at the door turned to them and waved them over.
"Hey Jan!" The guy, Tony, said. He greeted her with a hug. "So these must be your friends." Tony stuck out his hand, "I'm Tony. It's nice to see you not on an Instagram feed."
Steve shook Tony's hand. "I'm Steve. This is Natasha and Sam." Tony shook their hands too, then opened the door.
"Come on in. Your special all-access tour of Stark Industries begins now."
Tony strode through the building with comfort and familiarity, as if he'd grown up there.
They reached a large metal door with a sleek panel to the left of it. Tony removed his glove and placed his hand on the panel. The words "Access Granted" flashed green on the screen and the door slid open.
"C'mon. This is the entrance to the special labs, where the break in happened."
"The special labs?" Steve asked.
"Yeah. Where most of the stuff for Shield and Avengers Academy is designed." Tony replied casually, like the fact that someone who was as young as the Avengers having access to a top secret high tech weapons development lab was the most normal thing in the world. Steve looked to the others for support, but they didn't seem all that surprised as they walked through the door.
Maybe this was normal in the future then?
"So, I guess now you guys want to do your investigation thing, right?" Tony said gesturing around. "Um, any doors you can't get through I'm not allowed to let you in, so you should look around here."
"Tony, can you explain to us what happened?" Natasha asked.
"We're not entirely sure, that's the thing. The sensors indicated someone breaking in, but as far as we know, nothing's been touched." Tony said.
"And what kind of projects were being worked on?"
"Mostly things for the Academy. Robots, weapons, machines for the Power Gym, stuff like that." Natasha nodded, and began looking around for clues. Sam joined her, while Janet shrunk down to wasp size to search too.
Steve held off with the search to talk with Tony a bit.
"So, if you don't mind me asking, how old are you?"
Tony eyes widened and he tilted his head like a cat at the question. "19, but I'll be 20 in May. Why?"
"I was just thinking 19 is pretty young to be working at Stark Industries, much less have access to the secret labs."
Tony simply shrugged in response. "I'm a genius. I already graduated from MIT at 17. Besides, I don't even do much of the work down here. I'm pretty much restricted to working on the gym equipment."
"Wait really? You designed that treadmill that can handle my top speeds without breaking?" Steve stared at Tony in awe "That thing's amazing! It's sturdier than the bots in the Robo Dojo!"
Tony blushed at the compliment, then turned away. "Well, thanks" he muttered.
Suddenly, Steve heard noises through one of the adjacent doors.
"Hey, Tony? What's in here?" Steve asked.
"Hm? Oh, my lab is down that way." Tony said
"There's someone in there." Steve whispered.
"What? How can you tell?"
"Super soldier hearing."
"Um, well the door's unlocked so you can just go in"
Steve nodded. Slowly they opened the door. Standing in the hall was a man, shrouded in smoke. There were only glowing purple spots where his eyes should be. In his hands was some sort of device. Steve didn't recognize it, but apparently Tony did.
"Hey! Put that back." He shouted.
The man scoffed. "Run along, child. I have no quarrel with you, only the elder Stark."
"Tony, get behind me." Steve whispered, raising his shield.
"You're not going anywhere. Certainly not with my stuff." Tony snapped.
"Very well," the man sighed, "if you children insist on playing, I will make a game for you." The figure raised his hand and a wave of dizziness hit Steve.
"Simply finish the story and you may leave," was the last thing Steve heard before passing out.
When Steve woke up, he was in a grassy clearing surrounded by forest. Steve reached for his shield, but all he grabbed was air. Steve looked down to see he was wearing different clothes too. His jacket and sweater were replaced by a billowy white blouse under a blue tunic and a red cape.
"Tony?"
"I'm here." a voice replied from behind a tree. Steve walked over to him.
"Wait. No! Stay away." Tony yelled frantically.
"Tony, is something wrong?"
"No. Uh, nothing is wrong. I just." Tony sighed and stepped out from behind the tree.
Steve couldn't help staring. "Well, if you were embarrassed about the dress, don't worry. You fill it out really well."
He meant it. The dress Tony was wearing was the one Snow White wore in the Disney movie, and it looked fabulous on him.
"Well thanks. You don't look half bad yourself" Tony laughed. Still, he was tense and had his left arm behind his back. "So, weird guys and Disney movies? Things like this all the time for you Avengers?" Tony asked.
"I suppose it isn't any stranger than anything else we've done" Steve shrugged. "You should come to the Academy. I mean you're obviously a genius-"
Tony laughed again, cutting Steve off. "Yeah, no. My dad would just laugh in my face."
"Why would it matter what your dad thinks?" Steve asked. "Besides, if he doesn't think you're Academy material, then he's crazy."
"You're too sweet Steve." Tony was still awkwardly positioned with his hands behind his back and tense though, and the fell into akward silence.
"Tony, is it okay of I ask what you're hiding," Steve said eventually.
"Um well." Tony winced, then gave a defeated sigh. "Fine."
Slowly, Tony brought up his left arm to show that it was a made of a red metal. "My arm's a prosthetic. My dad was always embarrassed by it so he made me hide it all the time. Not really uses to showing it to other people."
Well, Steve was going to have to fight Tony's dad at some point.
"Tony, there's no need to be embarrassed about your arm."
"Uh, well" Tony blushed, "So anyway, that guy said we had to 'finish the story,' right?" Tony asked.
Steve nodded. "Yeah, so i suppose that means Snow White has to eat the poisoned apple."
Tony winced, and brought out a crimson red apple. "Yeah, that's what I thought."
Tony took a deep breath and turned to Steve.
"Okay. I'm trusting you with this. You know, before I think about this too much."
"Tony, wait!"
But Tony had already taken a bite of the apple. No sooner did he eat it that Tony suddenly collapsed. Steve caught him, and gently laid Tony down on the ground. He looked fine, other than the fact that Steve couldn't wake him up.
Well, only one thing to do then. Slowly, Steve lowered his head and gave Tony a small kiss on the lips. Tony's eyes fluttered open, before the dizziness hit again and Steve was swallowed by darkness.
"There you are!" Jan yelled when Steve opened his eyes. He blinked a few times and looked around. He was back in the hallway, and Tony was next to him. Steve was relieved to find he was okay. The others were walking over to them.
"What happened to you two?"
"We got attacked by a weird smokey guy who broke into my lab." Tony explained. The two of them recounted everything, and afterwards, Natasha and Jan went to go call Fury. Tony started to follow, but Steve grabbed his hand.
"Wait, Tony before you go," Steve stammered, "I was thinking you should stop by the Academy some time."
"Steve, I already told you-"
"No. Not to join. Although doing something as stupid as eating a clearly poisoned apple, you'd fit right in there." Steve chuckled nervously. "I meant, you should come by the Academy and then maybe we could go out for coffee some time."
Tony stared at Steve for a moment then smiled. "Yeah, I'd like that. I'll drop by on Friday. Is noonish okay?"
"Perfect."
Steve smiled stupidly as he watched Tony go.
"Wow," Sam said, "asking out Tony Stark . I'm impressed, Cap."
"Wait, what?" Steve gaped, "He's Howard's son?"
"Yeah. Think Stark's gonna be pissed?"
Steve hummed a bit before deciding.
"You know what? I really don't care."