Steve Short Story

3

Tony acted like nothing happened and stepped forward over the sea of papers, extending his hand to Dr. Spencer. "Hello, you must be Dr. Remi Spencer, aerospace materials specialist. I'm Tony, and this is Steve." He pointed at Steve behind him.

Remi just looked at Tony, then Steve, and then the mess of papers on the floor. "Yes, yes, I'm Dr. Spencer. I'm so sorry, Mr. Stark... what exactly... why did you need... um.... my report?" She shook his hand a little too long and then kneeled down to start stacking the papers. Steve also began to help, trying to keep the papers in the same order as much as possible.

"Well, I'm working on something and I need your help. I need first hand knowledge on the titanium alloys I'm planning on using," he explained to her.

"I don't mean to be difficult, sir, but don't you have access to the servers of Stark Industries? And surely your AI is more than capable of testing the models for you."
Tony huffed a little and said, "Yes, but that's not what I want. I work around machines all the time, no offense Friday, and I need a new fresh perspective. That's where you come in."
Tony stepped over and extended his hand again to help Dr. Spencer up. "Just, just leave that," he said impatiently. "Steve can pick it up. Come look at this," he said as he guided her to his workstation.
Steve did a double take since no one else was going to help him. He righted the small cart and then stacked papers as Dum-E came over with a fire extinguisher. Steve took a defensive stance and pointed a finger at Dum-E. "Don't do it. There isn't a fire!" He said to the robot. With a sad robotic sigh, Dum-E Lowered his robotic arm and returned to his charging station.
Steve picked up the majority of the papers in somewhat of a pile and then joined Tony and Dr. Remi as they looked at some computer models.

"I would need to review some of my work. I published the report a year ago and I know there are some updates. Which part of the materials model did you want to look at?" Dr. Remi asked.

"I need the one for high altitude reentry and dynamical systems and estimations."

She turned around to retrieve the particular section he requested but Steve was standing right behind her. She collided with a wall of muscle before she realized what happened. He grasped her arms with his hands, keeping her from falling over. She could feel the blaze of his hands through her silk shirt and it made her heart skip a beat. Her glasses lay askew on her face as Steve looked down at her with a small smile. A chuckle escaped her lips as she put her hands on his firm biceps to steady herself. She right her glasses as she cleared her throat, "Oh, wow... you're b- t-tall. Uh, I didn't know you were standing so close," she said light heartedly as she looked up at him.
"I'm sorry, I was in your way," Steve said as he dropped his hands from her arms. He stepped aside and motioned for her to step past him as he blushed to the tip of his ears. He was close enough to smell scents of vanilla and spice emanating from her. Tony stood, smirking as he stroked his chin.
Dr. Spencer strode over to the small cart and lifted piles of papers, searching for a particular graph to catch her eye. Steve noticed she was chewing her bottom lip in concentration. "Um, I can get this sorted out... but it might take me a while... Here! This is a good model," she said as she grabbed one of the posters from the pile. A few other papers flew out with it and she ignored them as they fell to the floor. Steve could see some of her eccentricity in her focus. He supposed most of the engineers were like Tony- they could get so focused on a project they were oblivious to the world around them.
As Remi was taking the poster to Tony, she glanced towards Steve. She noticed he was standing near the door like he was about to leave. "Did you not want to see the report?" She asked him.
"Oh, no, that's ok. This isn't my area of expertise, ma'am," he stated.
"What is your area of expertise?" Dr. Spencer asked, truly curious.
"I'm not a scholar, just a soldier, ma'am," Steve said bashfully.
"But you were in here with Mr. Stark. Aren't you... working together?" She asked as she looked between the two of them.
Tony answered before Steve could. "Yes, yes he is. Is working with me on this project, which is a new suit. For him. For Captain America," Tony said awkwardly.
Dr. Spencer turned toward Tony with her back to Steve who was shaking his head "no" at Tony.
She turned back to Steve who stopped moving and smiled at her. She just looked at him puzzled. She shrugged her shoulders and said, "Ok." Remi might have been genius level intelligent when it came to aerodynamics, but she was clearly not educated on social cues. "Well, would you mind sorting the posters? They have numbers in the bottom corner for the order they are supposed to go in," she said and then turned back to Tony.
Steve just sighed and shook his head. He sorted the posters into order and then began on the rest of the papers.