Legend

Valentine's Day

I bounced downstairs the next morning feeling well-rested and sleek, and was able to discuss the changes I wanted to make regarding the hours with Doug as, once again, we didn't have the first slot of the morning filled. He was enthusiastic, confiding that he wasn't really a morning person and that it would be nicer to have some extra time to sleep in. He immediately set about making a sign for the door announcing the new hours and calling the few clients we had in the early slots to see about switching them to later spots. While he did that, I hunted up my uncle to see if perhaps we could schedule our workouts earlier, telling him about the changes to my hours.

Bucky listened carefully and nodded. It would be easy enough to switch our times, and I would also be able to pick up training with Sif again. We went upstairs to the caf to get some breakfast and he grinned when we sat down. "So, when do I get to meet your young man? I came by your room a couple of times this weekend but you were never in." My face went red and I choked on my orange juice. His eyes were twinkling.

"Actually, you've already met him," I said, patting my lips with my napkin. "It's Damian." Bucky's eyebrows arched as he thought about it.

"So you've ironed out all your differences?" I nodded. "Well, I can't say that I really met the kid, he was always unconscious when I came out to pick you up. I'd like to actually meet him. I don't think Emma's seen him for quite awhile. See if he can come to dinner this week."

Obediently, I texted Damian, and it was arranged that he'd pick me up Wednesday night and we'd have dinner at Bucky and Emma's. On the way back downstairs after breakfast, the AI told me that I had a delivery. Damian had sent me two dozen roses, red, white, all shades of pink, and lavender. Bucky carried the enormous vase downstairs for me and after he left, I pulled up the website, but it had been taken down and the domain name was for sale. Immediately I texted Damian, thanking him for the flowers (so extravagant!) and telling him that the website was down. There were other ones, but we'd have to agree on one. He called back immediately and said that red was for passion, white for charm, pink in general was perfect happiness, pale pink was for grace, dark pink thankfulness, and lavender enchantment. Then there was some mushy stuff, during which I said that I couldn't wait for Wednesday, and he invited me over after dinner. Wednesday was probably going to be the best day of the week.

Tuesday, Tony came down with an implied apology for our blowup the week before and asked about the changes to the hours. He nodded when I explained, and said he'd done some thinking. I braced myself for incoming.

"Rhodey's problems got me to thinking. A lot of us Avengers are aging, and it's not as easy to hop out of bed the next morning after an action as it used to be. I know you've said that enhanced tissue is often difficult to rehabilitate, but not all of us are enhanced. I'm not, Rhodey currently isn't, the Hawkeyes aren't, Sam isn't." He sighed. "I've been planning a reorganization of the company, moving the bio and chem, all of the labs in the tower except for my lab out to the Avengers complex, give all the lab rats room to roam, more importantly, getting the most volatile aspects out of the tower. I'm getting itchy; the Kree and Skrulls have left us alone for too long.  The company servers are out in the sticks, so it won't be crippling even if the tower is hit, but I'm consolidating my IT department and the rest here. Spent some time at Google the last time I was out in Seattle and I have a mind to offer more perks to employees so the space that's left over after everybody gets changed around won't be wasted.

"I'm getting to your part in this." I hadn't even opened my mouth, so  I just waited with an attentive look on my face. "Part of the perks I'll be offering to my employees will be massage therapists, nap pods, things like that. So the Avengers can take advantage of the massage therapists, but they won't be used to working with enhanced people. So I propose that you finish the course, fees and tuition paid by me as we agreed, and then I want to offer you a contract. You'd be focusing only on the enhanced people we have and you'd provide a certain number of slots each week for Avengers exclusively."