[psl] wait this isn't smut anymore

[assembles]

Being flown from New York out to Los Angeles in order to work on an assignment had been one thing. Steve hadn't minded that. As part of S.H.I.E.L.D, it was his duty to respond to any call that was sent out for him, and when Fury had made it clear that this was no small problem, Steve had believed it.

It had chafed a little when he was told he'd been staying in Stark's opulent seaside villa. Steve had lived a pretty humble life before the serum had come into play, and even after that he'd mainly been on the road doing those shows or he'd been on dirty battlefields, roughing it with the others. So the kind of luxury he'd seen when he'd been picked up from the airport in an over-the-top car and then driven out to Stark's mansion had been overwhelming.

But he'd put all that aside, because he'd come to an understanding with Stark during the fight for New York (and the world, if he was going to be honest with himself about it, which still made his head spin), and while they weren't best buddies or even close to it, he knew they could work together.

And all things considered, the assignment went successfully. Steve had raised an eyebrow at the name "Doctor Doom," but he realized it wasn't any worse than "Red Skull." Apparently from some isolated country in Europe, the man was supposedly a genius (which had only intrigued Tony further), but more importantly, had been caught up in a trade deal that had set off all of S.H.I.E.L.D's sensors.

The idea had been for the two of them to infiltrate Doom's hideout and get a scope on things to report back to Fury. In other words, recon. But Tony apparently didn't know the meaning of the word, and had instead announced himself to Doom -- by name -- before they'd booked it out of there.

Tony had also managed to swipe some of Doom's important plans in the process, but Steve didn't really care what vital information he might have picked up, not when he'd made such a reckless move.

As Steve stalked back into the main area of Tony's villa, he yanked his mask off and rounded on the billionaire in question, face pinched with anger. "Do you pull that kind of thing just because you get a kick out of it? What were you thinking?"

Comments

[antiasimov]

"No."

"No!" Although they both said their disagreement in unison, JARVIS' statement was less offended sounding that Tony. Mostly because the inflection of his tone was never anything but helpful and dry, but that was neither here nor there. "Don't make me press the mute button, JARVIS."

"I do not technically have any push buttons to press, sir."

"And yet, you still developed a sense of sarcasm. Wonder how that happened." JARVIS remained quiet after that, not afraid of Tony's fragile threat, but because it knew when it had overstepped its boundaries. JARVIS was not privy to owning a filter between its thoughts and words, which Tony often pointed out.

Stark focused his attention on Steve, with a sigh and a mumble under his breath about self-aware, uppity, know-it-all AIs. Despite JARVIS' remarks about his daily habits, the AI was right about the whole Rogers-staying-close-thing. Steve could have the run of the house without having to run too much into Tony, so it really wasn't so awful when the genius engineer thought about it. Besides, if he was really feeling antisocial, there was always a cot stored somewhere in his lab.

"Forget what JARVIS said about me. He was right about you staying here. So, you know, you can. If you want."

[assembles]

Despite all evidence to the contrary, it seemed that Stark had some amount of control over his robots and AIs and all of his other inventions, seeing how JARVIS eventually backed down. Both of them seemed set on the fact that Steve wouldn't be a babysitter, which was a relief. Giving out orders on the battlefield was one thing, and he knew he could be a mother hen type with some of his men, but Tony didn't fit into that category in the first place.

Even now, if Steve thought too hard on the Howling Commandos, on Bucky, it made him feel vaguely nauseous. So he let out a sigh and glanced over just as Stark made his half-hearted offer to let him stay here.

"I'll pick a room that's out of the way," Steve said after a pause as he shrugged his shoulders. "If we're lucky, Doom will make his move soon and we can get this over with." It wasn't that he even hated to be around Stark, but it was clear that he wasn't entirely welcome here, and Steve just got the feeling that they would be better off only working together when it was needed. Like when the whole world was in danger of being destroyed by aliens, for instance.

Why couldn't Fury have assigned him to work with Barton or Romanoff? Both of them seemed much easier to handler when compared to Stark.

[antiasimov]

What was Pepper telling JARVIS these days, anyway? He didn't need a babysitter. He ate and slept fine all on his own. Most days. It's not like Pepper should even be surprised, all things considering. Their relationship had begun to wane a little, now that they were out of their honeymoon stage. Well, of course, there was the whole Tony being part of a secret boy band who went out to save the world and might die at any moment. That would always weigh on their relationship and with Pepper jetting off to do business all over the world, well, it was hard to work it out.

Tony gave the thing between them another couple of months before Pepper got smart and backed out. He wouldn't hold it against her at all. Not much.

Anyway.

"Yeah, great. But don't jinx it. Next thing you know, we'll still be together here for another week."

[assembles]

Steve didn't much believe in superstitions like that, but he understood Stark's point. He sighed and shrugged his shoulders, felt the muscles rolling underneath his uniform and was struck by some of that odd dissonance that still shocked him from time to time. Because the fact was that for the grand majority of his life, he'd been much smaller than this; every now and then, the change still took him by surprise.

At least he'd gotten to a point where he didn't almost trip over his own feet.

"We'll see. Either way, I'm sure I'll find a way to keep myself entertained." If push came to shove, he could always strike out into the city and find out some more about Los Angeles. He knew that it was on par with New York City in terms of both size and attractions, so getting to explore might be interesting.

Steve glanced back to Stark and tilted his head. "I'm guessing you have all kinds of ways to keep an eye on Doom, right?"