Legend

New job

"Thank you both for the incredibly generous offers," I said. "I wish I could take them both. But I'm going to accept Tony's offer, Bruce," I said, and he nodded.

"It's a loss for my company," he said nicely, "but I can see why you'd want to work here. The opportunity to learn more from your uncle must be very attractive, take over from him eventually."

"Carrying that on is attractive," I admitted, and he gave me a rare smile.

"Can you and Damian come for dinner this weekend?" he asked. "We haven't seen much of either of you lately."

"I'm sure we can," I said. "Thank you."

"If working here doesn't pan out again," Bruce said provokingly, "let me know. I'll always be open to working with you, Alex." We grinned at each other as Tony sputtered a bit, then Bruce got up to go, patting me on the shoulder as he passed by. After he passed through the doors, Tony turned to me.

"Take a couple weeks off, Barnes. I won't be ready for you til then. Then come back ready to work." He slid a folder over to me. "Sign these and it'll be official." He waited, not so patiently, as I thoroughly perused each page, signing and dating and initialing as I went. I handed him back the completed paperwork and he bounced up. "Great. Let's go." I followed as we went down to HR to have my badge access in the tower upgraded and the paperwork turned in. I thought he'd turn me loose after that, but we went downstairs to the training rooms. "I'm going to continue the clinic down here, make sort of a substation in your old offices for the street heroes," he said. That way they can still get treatment when they need it and we'll have a second facility for crisis events." I nodded, glad that the street heroes would be taken care of.

The elevator doors opened on an interesting scene. As I watched, Kate hopped off the regular treadmill to join the crowd around Bucky and Pietro. My uncle looked exasperated, if you knew what to look for, and Pietro looked mulish. It seemed they were clashing again over his training. Wanda was trying to get her twin to see reason, but he wasn't having it. Everybody turned as Tony strode up. He just looked at Pietro and shook his head. "You get the snot beat out of you, it'll be your own fault," he said crisply, then addressed Bucky.

"I've found somebody you can train to take over for you when you've had enough," he said, and Bucky brightened.

"That might be sooner rather than later," he said, shooting a look at Pietro. Then he saw me and came over for a hug. "Hi, sweetie, get things settled?"

"Yep," I said, smiling at him. "I'll be working upstairs researching novel energy sources, but a few hours each day down here. I'm going to be your replacement eventually." He hugged me again.

"That's a huge relief," he said, letting me go. "I know the program will be in good hands when I'm done, sweetie." We beamed at each other. Then he dumped me in it. "What do you think of Maximoff's refusal to learn self-defense, preferring to rely on his superspeed?"

Thanks, Uncle Bucky. "I think it betrays an inability to focus or the lack of enough self-discipline to learn." Pietro looked furious; I looked at him calmly. "The easiest way to take out a speedster is to attack the legs. If one or both legs is injured, just how would you keep yourself alive?" I asked him. His sister looked worried, glancing between the two of us. He looked at her and deflated.

"I can learn if I want," he insisted.

"Do you?" I challenged, and he looked rebellious, but his sister poked him.

"Yes," he muttered.

I walked over and put out my hand. He started to extend his, but I did a leg sweep to put him on his back and positioned the heel of my pump just above his knee, where one of the quadriceps attaches to the bone, and pressed hard enough for him to feel it. "You see, you weren't expecting an attack and it wouldn't be hard at all for me to injure you in such a way that your ability to access your speed would be very limited. Do you understand why you need some training?"