Superheroes

Born For This

The next day, Stiles and Derek take Scott and Kira out to see the city. He lets Steve and Barnes know, but promises to be back in the afternoon so they can talk since he's already missed one day. Scott and Kira both understand and offer to see the sights themselves, but Stiles wants to show them a few things that they'd otherwise miss.

They visit Central Park and the New York Public Library. He tells them they have to go to the Met, and Derek says if they go to museums, then the Natural History Museum also needs to go on their list. Stiles bitches that the South Street Seaport is being remodeled into a modern monstrosity, but the Sunset Ferries around Liberty Island are awesome. He gives them the name of an amazing Italian restaurant he and Derek found while waiting for their ferry one night.

He offers to leave them exploring while he and Derek go back to the Tower. Scott waves them off, saying they'll visit tomorrow while Stiles gets back to his usual routine. He appreciates the offer and happily calls a car service on Stark's dime to whisk them back. They spend the entire drive back ogling all the puppy and kitten pictures Scott has stored on his phone.

When they get back, Stiles heads to the conference room while Kira makes dinner, both because he needs to catch up with some work and because he figures Barnes or Steve will be there to talk. Sure enough, Barnes and Steve are both inside waiting, with Barnes watching Steve color in his coloring book.

"Heyo," Stiles chirps, falling into his chair. "What's up?"

Steve looks up with his eyebrows raised. "You're cheerful."

He smirks but starts unloading his bag. "Yeah. I haven't seen Scott in, like, half a year. It's good to spend time with him." He boots up his laptop and pulls out a handful of pens and highlighters. "Kira's making dinner, and we're inviting Thor, Jane, and Darcy over. Want to come?"

"Are you sure?" Steve frowns. "We don't want to be a bother. Plus, we eat a lot."

Stiles snorts loudly. "Really? I had no idea," he says sarcastically before waving him off. "Scott is at the same power level as Derek. He eats just as much, and Kira does, too." He smirks, because Kira wants to show off her sword and some of her fancy party tricks to Thor later at dinner, and that's going to be funny to watch the reaction to.

"That little thing?" Barnes asks, eyebrows raised.

"Oh, now you have to come to dinner," Stiles exclaims. "It's going to be dinner and a show."

They don't dive deep into any subjects, but the more they talk, the more Barnes relaxes. Stiles wasn't aware that the other man was so off and he decides to stay the entire day in the conference room to make up for it. Hopefully, a fun evening with friends and seeing Scott and Stiles interact after the nogitsune talk will help. Scott forgives him, and they can show Barnes that Steve truly does as well.

Scott comes to fetch them, and he smiles at Steve and Barnes. "Hey, I know I introduced myself earlier, but that was more to the group. I'm Scott, Stiles' brother."

God bless this man, because he doesn't hold out his hand to Barnes or make a move toward him in any way. He knows from Stiles' experiences that trauma often means no touching.