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Steve tried to look attentive, but he'd already heard everything Howard was telling Mom and the Bradleys, so it wasn't easy. He fidgeted a bit on the couch and glanced at Isaiah, who made a face and rolled his eyes. Steve smiled at that; glad he wasn't the only one who was bored. And nervous. He couldn't even eat breakfast this morning, which frustrated Howard to no end. Steve thought Howard was going to start shoving food down his throat. But then Howard had been acting weird since Steve told him.
Tony, who had been slouching against the fireplace, sulking—Howard said he wouldn't be getting within a five mile radius of SHIELD—walked over to Steve and Isaiah. He leaned in and whispered softly, "I swear to God, if he pulls out a fucking PowerPoint, I'm going to scream."
"Tony," Steve whispered back, "he's trying to be thorough."
"He's showing off. See that, Bradley, I think you caught Howard's eye. You looking for a sugar daddy?"
Isaiah glared at him. "You're sick, Stark."
Tony gave an exaggerated pout. "Does this mean I'm not your little vanilla bean anymore?"
Steve rolled his eyes. "Tony, if Faith hears you're flirting with her boyfriend, she's going to kick your butt."
"Oh, fine!" Suddenly, Tony grinned, "Jarvis waxed the ballroom floor."
Steve stifled a laugh, tugged on Isaiah's sleeve, and gestured for him to follow Tony. Isaiah made a questioning sound and Steve smiled. "You'll see."
"Where are you boys going?" Howard asked, just as they were about to slip out of the room.
"I'm just gonna show them my new gaming console, Dad." Tony gave him an innocent look, which made Howard narrow his eyes in distrust. "I made some really cool mods to it."
"We won't be gone long, Mom, Mr. Stark. Please?"
Howard's gaze softened. "Well, I guess your parents need to know this more than you do."
The rest of them didn't even protest.
"Parental guilt is a great," Tony said, once they were out of earshot.
"What do they have to feel guilty about?" Isaiah asked.
"Um, their baby boys are genetically enhanced super soldiers who will probably, someday, try to take over the planet. And I, for one, welcome our sexy new overlords. In case you two are scoping out collaborators."
Steve scowled at him. "Tony, shut up."
He sighed dramatically. "No one appreciates me."
"I'd appreciate if you shut up, Stark." Isaiah looked around curious. "Where are we going?"
"The ballroom," Tony said.
"Ballroom? Fuck, Stark, how does it feel to be richer than God?"
"It's pretty damn awesome." Tony rushed ahead of them and threw open the doors to the ballroom. "Tada!"
Steve rolled his eyes and once they got into the room, he kicked off his shoes.
"What are we doing here?" Isaiah gave them both a puzzled look.
"Mr. Jarvis waxed the floor," Steve said, then with a running start, slid across the ballroom, only to lose his balance and fall on his butt.
"That was a sad display, Rogers. Watch how it's done." Tony glided gracefully past Steve before his feet slid out from under him and he fell into a heap.
Steve and Isaiah laughed at him, but he only grinned.
Isaiah pulled off his shoes. "Let me show you boys how it's *really* done."
*****
Steve hadn't had this much fun in months and he was glad that Tony suggested it. It was good to laugh, to pretend they weren't going to meet with doctors and scientists that were going to poke and prod and test them all day, that the worst thing he had to worry about was turning in his math homework.
Tony was the first one to stop. He sprawled out on the floor, red and panting, a ridiculous smile on his face. Isaiah soon followed, sitting next to Tony, smiling just as wide. Steve grinned at the two of them and stretched out on the floor, staring up at the chandeliers. None of them said anything. They didn’t really need to.
That's how they stayed, until Howard opened the doors and raised an eyebrow. "There you are. We've been looking everywhere for you boys. The cars are here."
"Sorry, Mr. Stark," Isaiah said, reaching for his shoes and pulling them on.
But Howard wasn't paying any attention to Isaiah; he was staring at Steve with that look in his eyes that said he was thinking about sex. Steve smiled up at him and stretched, his t-shirt riding up to show the skin of his stomach.
"You should put your shoes on, Steve," he said, his voice deep and raspy.
"Yes, Mr. Stark," he replied, softly, sweetly, and watched Howard flush. Beside him, Tony made a gagging sound and Steve laughed.
*****
SHIELD sent two big SUVs.
They probably could have all squeezed into one, if they tried, but, well, Steve hadn't been alone with Howard since the day he told them about everything.
"I'll ride with you in the second car, Mr. Stark," he said in a firm voice, climbed into the back, and put on his seatbelt.
Howard gave him an amused look and followed, closing the door behind him. "A bit obvious there, weren't you, pal?"
Steve shrugged; he didn't care. Howard rested a hand between them and Steve grasped his wrist in a loose hold. "Do you think they have the car bugged?"
"Yes."
"Do you think Director Fury knows everything about us?" He squeezed Howard's wrist and tried to look out the window, but the glass was too dark to see anything.
"Yes. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't keep on our toes."
"Mmm." Steve smiled and slid his fingers up so that he was clasping Howard's hand. "Yes, sir, Mr. Stark."
"Smartass." Howard ran a thumb along the back of Steve's hand, making him shiver.
Neither of them said anything as the agent started the SUV and pulled out into traffic.
"Do you think it's far?" Steve asked after a few minutes, shifting closer to Howard.
"No, but I think we might spend a good half hour circling the block." Howard squeezed Steve's fingers. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," he said, because he was.
"It's natural to be nervous." Howard reached over with his free hand and turned Steve's head to look at him. He stroked his thumb against Steve's cheek and smiled. "I'll be right there with you, every step of the way. So will your mom."
"I'm not a kid."
"Don't I know it," Howard said softly and brushed his lips against the corner of Steve's mouth. "I won't leave your side."
Steve freed himself from the seatbelt and turned his body towards Howard. Then he slid a hand underneath Howard's jacket and stroked along the soft fabric of his shirt. "You promise?"
"I promise."
Steve kissed him to seal the deal.
*****
Steve's first impression of Director Fury was that he was dangerous, more dangerous than he pretended to be. Despite that, Steve thought that maybe he could trust the man, even if Howard thought differently.
"It's nice to meet you, sir," Steve said, giving Fury a firm handshake.
"And it's nice to finally meet you, son." Fury gave Steve a friendly smile, which made Howard snort. His gaze flicked over to Howard. "Nice to see you, too, Stark."
"I told these people you were a straight shooter, Nick. Don't start lying now." Howard gently nudged Steve out of the way.
"It's called being polite."
"Again, why start now?" Howard grinned, but it wasn't the sort of grin Steve had ever seen; it was more of a flashing of teeth. "Why don't we get this party started?"
"Very well. If the five of you would—"
"Six," Howard interrupted. "Six of us."
"Oh?" Fury looked surprised. "You don't have to get back to your multi-billion dollar company?"
"I'm talking a mental health day."
"Aren't you a lucky son of a bitch."
Howard smiled.
*****
It was disappointingly boring. The whole morning was dedicated to medical tests. The doctors took samples of their blood, spit, and pee.
Although, there was a bit of excitement when the doctors asked for them to, well, it was embarrassing. He thought his mom was going to pull out the doctor's lungs through his mouth. Isaiah's parents didn’t react much better.
Howard didn't say anything at all. He sat on one of the plastic chairs in the exam room, tucked in a corner, typing on his smartphone. He must have been bored, too. He looked it.
It was… Steve wanted it to be exciting! That's what you expect when you're a test subject in a secret experiment, right?
Steve hopped off the exam table, and looked around the room. He didn’t touch anything, but he thought… oh, was that a camera?
He looked into it and said, softly, "I'd really like to talk to you again, Director Fury. Just us." He knew it would make Howard mad, but he just wondered if Fury could do it.
*****
Steve wasn’t' quite sure how it happened. One minute, they were all waiting for the elevators to take them down to the cafeteria. One of the elevators opened, and the next thing Steve knew, the alarms went off, the hallway went dark, and he was shoved forward. When the emergency lights came on a few moments later, he was in the elevator with Director Fury.
"Well, fancy meeting you here," Fury leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest.
"That was cool! How did you do that?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, son," Fury said, but he was smiling.
"My mom and Howard are going to be really mad." Strangely, he found that he really didn’t care. Well, he did, but not enough that it mattered. "How long do we have?"
Fury shrugged. "Could be five minutes or forty-five."
"Oh." Steve bit his bottom lip. He had so many questions he wanted to ask, but, he didn't want to seem rude.
"Go on, ask. I won't be mad."
Steve swallowed hard and just blurted it out. "Where'd you lose your eye?"
"If I told you, I'd have to kill you."
He laughed at that, because maybe it was true, but it was still funny, and Fury laughed with him. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Howard thinks we shouldn’t trust you."
"What do you think?"
"I trust you." Steve tilted his head. "Within reason."
"That's very diplomatic of you."
"Well, I mean, you're a spy. Or intelligence. So, you're going to lie, of course you are. But, Howard said that SHIELD was created to protect… the world, I guess. So you're going to lie if you think you need to, but not just because you can." Steve smiled at him. "You're one of the good guys."
"And it's that simple, is it?" Fury's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Sure. Why shouldn't it be?" Steve shrugged. "Howard says it's more complicated than that, but it's not. I think, you help people who need help, you do what you think is the right thing, even if everyone else thinks what you're doing is a waste of time."
Fury cleared his throat. "I think that's a good philosophy to live by."
"Even if it is kind of dorky?"
"Yeah," Fury laughed. "Even if it's dorky. You know, I served in the first Gulf war."
"Really?" Steve brightened. "Can you talk about it?"
"Well, there was this one time my squad and I had to sneak behind enemy lines to help out some civilians."
Steve slid to the floor and got comfortable. After a moment, so did Fury.
"We were called the Howling Commandos…"
*****
They were stuck in the elevator for an hour and when they got out, Howard threatened to do something to Director Fury that was pretty horrific.
Still, the second part of the day was fun. They got to test the limits of their abilities. Isaiah had better agility, but Steve packed a punch.
*****
“God,” Howard said, sprawling out on his chair and rubbing his temples, “I need a drink. Who wants a drink?”
Mr. and Mrs. Bradley murmured their assent and even Steve’s mom raised her hand.
“Perfect. Jarvis, four whiskeys and don’t be stingy.”
Mr. Bradley looked over at Steve and Isaiah. “Why don’t you boys go play some video games?”
“Jarvis will bring you a snack.” Howard pulled out his smartphone. “You must be hungry.”
“What!” Isaiah crossed his arms over his chest. “No way! If you guys are going to talk about this, Steve and I should be here!”
“Isaiah! Do as you’re told.” Mrs. Bradley glared at him.
“He’s right,” Steve said. “We were the ones poked and prodded and treated like lab rats today. We have a right—“
“Steve, that’s enough!”
He gave his mom a pleading look, but he could tell she wasn’t going to change her mind. He turned to Howard. “Mr. Stark?”
Howard looked up from his phone. “Sorry, boys, but this is an adult conversation.”
Steve glared at Howard, betrayal hitting him hard in the gut. Howard just stared back, face impassive. After a few moments, Steve stomped out of the room.
“This is so unfair!” Isaiah said, before following.
*****
“Is your mom settled in for the night?” Howard asked, as he sat next to Steve on the couch.
“Uh huh.” Steve didn’t take his eyes off the tv screen.
“I thought your mom would be a lightweight when it comes to drinking, but I think she finished most of my whiskey. She could probably drink me under the table.” Howard gently nudged Steve.
“Yeah.” He scooted away from Howard.
“Oh, come on, Steve! Are you really doing this passive-aggressive bullshit?”
“Passive-aggressive—“ Steve turned towards him. “You could have gone to bat for us!”
“They’re your parents, Steve. They have every right to decide what information you should or should not hear. Besides, I agreed with them.”
“You… You…” For a moment, Steve was speechless. “You hypocrite!”
“Hypocrite?” Howard’s voice rose.
“Yeah, hypocrite! You expect me to tell you everything and when I don’t, you get upset. Oh, but you have no problem keeping things from me! Things I have a right to know!”
“That’s not your decision.”
Steve jumped to his feet. “Yes, it is!”
“No,” Howard said, looking up at him, “it’s not. You’re sixteen years old, Steve. There are some things you’re not ready to know. Hell, there are things about this *I’m* not ready to know. Your mom is trying to protect you. I’m trying to protect you.”
“You’re treating me like a kid.”
“That’s because you are a kid!”
Steve stared at him, stunned. He took a deep breath. “Fuck you, Howard Stark. Fuck you.”