Thaw

Six

"What do you need, Steve?"

He didn't know how to answer that. His eyes burned as Tony searched his face earnestly, so ready and willing to help him. But how could she? How could anyone?

She leaned back with a heavy sigh, too heavy for such a small woman. Steve's gaze followed her and she gave him a wan smile, her eyelids fluttering shut. "It's okay, sweetie. You've had a rough couple of days. Well," she snorted, "a rough century, really. Nothing ever really comes easy to you, does it?"

Steve gave her a sardonic half-smile, following her lead of resting her head against the back of the couch. "Fighting for something makes you value it more," he said quietly, staring up at the glossy ceiling tiles.

"Sometimes," Tony replied after a few moments, a seldomly heard gravity in her words. "But some things shouldn't require a fight." She angled her head toward him and he reciprocated, his heartbeat picking up as her eyes searched through him. "You don't have to figure anything out right away," she whispered softly. "Take your time. Take whatever you need. You're safe here, Steve."

The soldier swallowed hard and shut his eyes, barely nodding at her reassurance. He took a difficult breath in as he tried to centre his thoughts in the hurricane-like state of his mind. "I do have a question," he offered after a moment.

"Ask away," she replied warmly, shifting to face him more full on. He paused, formulating his query as well he could, and she bit her lip to see the adorable furrow in his brow. "Could you explain how you created JARVIS?"

Tony nearly blinded him a brilliant smile. "Wow. That's not, um, what I expected you to ask," she laughed, ducking her head slightly. Steve felt an inexplicable ache in his chest as he watched her react. "Oh, man, where do I start," she murmured, sorting through her mind to try and remember the sort of technological understanding Rogers would have based on his era and involvement with her father/the war against HYDRA. "Well, what do you know about mechanical engineering?"

He smiled, and she willed her face to stay its natural colour. {You will NOT blush over Steve Rogers' smile, dammit.} "I saw Howard make a car fly once. Well. Float. For a few seconds. Then it crashed."

Tony burst out laughing. "You were there for that?! Oh man, Dad would be so embarrassed if he knew. That's perfect." She grinned and shook her head slightly. "Well, uh, things have advanced a fair bit since then. Though sadly, Howard's flying car idea never did take off." Steve chuckled at the pun and Tony once again decided to forever devote herself to making him laugh. Clearing her throat, she began his introduction to computer sciences.

"So JARVIS as he is today was initially developed about twelve years ago, but his first functioning program was online by the time I was fourteen."

"Online?"

"Oh geez. Sorry, okay. There's this thing called the Internet."

Short little filler! It makes me happy though. I love the idea of Steve having a tutor for technology, especially one who might prank him in the future.... PS. Technically I should have said intranet, but I like to think Tony would explain the big picture first, then factor off into more info.
R&R! xoxox
-FF