"Rise and shine baby. Time for business." I wake and find Natasha standing before me, looking at me impatiently. "Goodmorning to you too." I say sarcastically. She rolls her eyes but answers with a smile on her face. "Stop whining and get up, Stark's waiting." I get up and jump from the helicopter onto the platform. "I'm guessing no breakfast?" I ask as I follow her into the building. "I'm afraid you'll have to wait." I'm about to say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day when I see everyone is already waiting for us around the table. "It might as well be time." "Tony." I nod in greeting to whom the voice came from. "Captain," He says back with a grin on his face and a drink in his hand. "feel free to sit down, we've been waiting for you." I sit down in a chair wondering how he manages to even think about drinking this early in the morning.
He starts speaking as soon as Natasha has taken her place next to me. "So I've been thinking." "That's rare." Bruce soflty chuckles. Tony turns to him while making a grand gesture with his hand, the liquid threatening to spill. "Yes believe it or not I can think. So if you don't mind I'll continue." Bruce kept quiet and Tony went on. "I've been thinking whilest I sat here lonely in my empty tower, and that's exactly how I felt: lonely. So I came to an idea. Why won't you" He said whilst pointing at us with his hand holding the glass, again threatening to spill it's content, maybe it was a good idea to put the drink down. "come live with me." He finished. Natasha was the first to speak up. "What." Her tone was a comical mix of suprise and digust of the idea of living in the same building as Tony Stark. "Oh come on don't give me that look. I have a big empty building with enough rooms for all of you and unless you're busy, wich I assume you're not because, no offence, I haven't seen any of you on the news for a while, why not keep each other company. We can hang out, have fun and occasionally save the world." The room fell quiet. "So, what do you think?" Tony asked, gesturing hopefully. This time, to everyone's astonishment, I was the first one to speak up. "I think it's a good idea." All heads turned towards me. "I mean I haven't been doing a lot lately and it doesn't sound that bad. Besides, we work efficiently in a team." "I'm in." If they were astonished that I thought it was a good idea, they were now all gobsmacked that it was Natasha who had just agreed with the plan. I couldn't blame them, I was staring at her myself. As if totally oblivious that we were all waiting for an explanation for the sudden change of heart she sat there without saying anything more. "Well I guess that's settled then." Tony said, assuming that if he'd won over Natasha we were all in, and he was right. Bruce, Clint and I nodded in agreement. "Fantastic, Jarvis guide them to their rooms." "Of course sir." Jarvis replied.
We all headed to the elevator at Jarvis' request. "Your rooms will all be on the same floor but you are free to use the other floors too. We've got a swimming pool, training room, movie room" As I looked at the view through the window and listened to the list of rooms which didn't seem to end I couldn't help but think that we might want to thank Tony for this. The list was interrupted by the opening of the elevator doors. "We've arrived to your floor. Your names are labeled on the doors, feel free to ask if you need anything." As Tony is always convident that people will not resist his offers he had indeed already labeled our doors. "See you later." Clint said while opening his room. "Later." Bruce replied as he did the same. However instead of heading towards her door Natasha turned and looked at me. "Still in the mood for breakfast?" "I'm always in the mood for breakfast." I replied smiling. "Good, I'll see you after unpacking."
We met half an hour later in the dining room which Jarvis had mentioned. She was already sitting there, dressed in dark skinny jeans and a black tight T-shirt which made her red hair pop even more. She greeted me with a smile as I sat down. "So what's on Stark's men-" "I've already ordered." "Good, the faster I can eat the better." I said whilst putting the menu back down. I gestured around us. "Living with Stark might not be that bad after all huh." "I never said it would be bad." "Your face did." She laughed softly at that. "So why were you suddenly convinced?" "Well if you have to choose between sleeping in a random man's bed or having your own suit with jacussi it's not that difficult to be confinced." "You've got a point there." I nodded in agreement as a waitress came to our table. "Your breakfast." She said while placing plate after plate on our table. "How much did you order?" "I thought you were hungry." She said with a grin. "I guess I don't really have a choice now, do I?" "Nope, I expect you to eat it all." "That" I say, looking into her eyes. "is a challenge I would like to accept." "Is there anything else I can do for you?" The waitress asked, finally finished with placing the plates. "No, I think we'll be fine." Natasha replied politely with out taking her eyes of mine. The waitress got the hint and left. I dug into my food as Natasha started her interrogaition. "So what are you going to do now?" I chewed down what was in my mouth before I answered. "What do you mean what am I going to do now?" "Are you going to keep chasing Bucky or will you finally move on." I looked up to glare at her but she seemed far from impressed. "I've exhausted all my sources, might as well do something usefull till I get a new lead." "And what would that something be?" "I don't know, whatever Tony has in mind for us." She nodded absentmindedly, searching for new questions to ask. "So how's Sam?" "Sam? What do you mean how's Sa-" A sudden realisation hit me and looking at the grin on her face she realized it as well. "Please don't tell me you forgot to tell Sam you left." I slowly shook my head. "I forgot to tell Sam I left, he was following a lead a couple of miles away. I totally forgot about him the moment you showed up, he must be worrying about where I've went." She laughed, clearly amused by my distress. "Don't worry I'll make a few calls, bring him up to date. Maybe I'll invite him over." I looked back into her eyes. "Thank you." I said genuinely. She smiled at me as our eyes locked when a glimmer of excitement lit up her face. "What." I asked curiously. "Did you ask her out?" Seeing my confused expression she went on. "The nurse, you know the nurse who isn't really a nurse, you'd promised me you'd ask her out." I didn't need to answer, as soon as I realized what she was talking about my face had undoubtedly filled with embarrassment. "Seriously?" She said in a tone which was supposed to be angry but hard to take serious since she was laughing. "You still haven't kissed anyone since 1945?" "I didn't say that." I replied, trying to avoid eye contact. "Well you're not denying it either." I decided to just keep my mouth shut because lying to her is no use. Instead I found ignoring a better option and pretented to be occupied by my food, which I wasn't, my appetite had dissapeared after the fourth plate. "Man I might have to teach you how to kiss myself." At that my head shot up and my eyes met hers. She must have read my surprise as fear or anxiety, maybe both, because her grin grew even wider. "Relax, I was just kidding." She said laughing in amusement. I looked down and started pricking in my food again while I felt a sly blush spread over my cheeks. Hearing from her chuckle she noticed, but instead of the comment I was expecting I heard her chair move and I looked up. "I have some arrangements to make," She said whilst putting her coat on. "and I'm guessing you're done with breakfast." She nodded to where my fork was still playing with the food. "You coming?" "Yeah." I stood up, grateful for a chance of escape from the awkwardness and the piles of food that still needed to be eaten. "You know I could have eaten it all." I said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood. Gladly she was done embarrassing me and went with it. "Sure you would Rogers."
