Steve sighed heavily as he pressed his hands into the pockets of his blue hoodie, his lip tightly in between his teeth as he chewed at it lightly, deep in his hurricane of thoughts. His feet were resting at the chair in front of him as his teammates were training on the soccer field together.
He could always go home and read a book, or maybe draw something. But he couldn't find the will or strength to sit home alone. He'll rather be with his new friends, even if it meant watching them play his favorite sport without him.
He felt so disappointed. Mostly at himself because of the fact that his foot just didn't want to recover, and it made him more pissed than ever. He really wanted to compete on Monday, but of course, the whole situation yelled "hah you wish!" right in his face.
"Sup loser." He heard a very familiar female voice say behind him and he looked up at the girl.
"Hi Nat..." he answered and gave her a short smile as she climbed over the seats and placed herself next to her friend, taking a sip of the redbull she had in her hand.
"Want some?" She asked and shook it gently in the air. Steve considered it for a short moment before shrugging and taking it from Nat's hand.
"Guess it'll help me drown my sorrows." He mumbled sarcastically and took a sip, letting the energy drink slide down his throat. Feeling the sugar and chemicals sweet up his tongue. Natasha snorted a little while watching him drink. His eyes were fastened at the soccer field.
"So-" She said shortly to start a conversation. "The first week in Avengers prep over....still wanna go here or do you wish to go back to Brooklyn?" She asked jokingly.
Steve smiled at her. "I think I'll manage here." Steve smirked. "Feels like I've already been here for months." He admitted and gave back the redbull to the redhead who casually took a sip.
"Believe it or not but you fit here Rogers." She said with a nice smile on her lips, which made Steve look at her confused.
"Really?"
Nat nodded assuring, which made the blond smile to himself. He had thought he was the one who didn't fit in anywhere at all. "But that's not why I search for you around the whole school." She then said with a mysterious smile, which actually made Steve a little hesitant.
"You could've just texted, or called." .
Nat shrugged. "Yeah I know." She answered and rested her feet on the seat in front of her. "But I just had to ask if you've found any place to have Tony's surprise party." She explained with a smug smile.
Steve sighed irritated. "You asked me to do that at lunch, that was like four hours ago so no I haven't even started." He said.
"Well that's okay. Cause I already know a place."
"You do?" Steve asked impressed.
"Of course I do." She answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Steve looked at her with curious eyes. "Well.....where?" He asked.
Natasha smirked. "The place Stark would least expect it." She said. "His own house."
Steve looked at her with wide and questionable eyes. Letting the words sink in before he chuckled. "You joking?" He asked and bent forward to hear her clearly.
"Oh c'mon it's the perfect idea! Plus his parents aren't home and he always shoots parties for no reason." She said waved her hand casually in the air.
Steve rolled his eyes with a mocking smile. "And how are you going to fix a party for Tony in his own house without him noticing?" He asked challenging. He agreed that it was a good idea, but how the hell was she supposed to do that without Stark walking in on her.
"Easy, we sneak into the Stark house while Rhodes is distracting him." She said nonchalantly. Making it sound like the easiest thing in the world.
"I'm sorry, we?"
Natasha looked at him with a smile. "Yes we. Bruce, Clint, you and I."
"Oh no, I won't break into someone's house, Nat." Steve refused as he focused his mind on the game in front of him again. Not wanting to take any part in Natasha's "plan".
"Steve c'mon. We're not gonna steal anything." She said.
"Then what are you gonna do?"
"We." She corrected. "I had a schedule, but thanks to my parents I can't have the party at my place so the first part must be done in Stark's house."
"Which is?" Steve asked uninterestedly.
"Party stuff. Now, are you coming or not?"
Steve sighed deeply, knowing that this would definitely not end well. In fact he had just become friends with the genius, why ruin it again? But still, it was for a good thing they were gonna do a break-in. It was a birthday party for Stark after all, nothing bad.
"Fine. When?"
Nat smiled satisfied. "Sunday afternoon. 2PM. Be there."
♤
*Timeskip cause I'm a lazy ass bitch*
Sunday afternoon. 2PM. Fuck this was a bad idea. Why did he agree to this again?
Oh right because he is a nice person. But why now. This won't end well. Why did he even come to this place? Why didn't he just run when he had the chance?
"Hey Rogers if you hit a poor lady's dog, I won't help you run from the police." Clint's joking voice was heard from back in the seats. He had his eyes glued to his phone screen while tapping his thumbs on the screen. Steve snapped out of his thoughts as his eyes traveled to the back mirror with a raised eyebrow before locking them on the road again. Not knowing what else to do but smile an amused smile.
"And if he hit the lady?" Nat asked with a smirk from beside him in the passenger seat.
"Then I'll help him hit the dog too, and then run. Without him."
"Noted." Steve answered with a small laugh as Natasha rolled her eyes at her friend.
"Why do we have to do this now?" Bruce asked with a little whiney voice.
"Because there might not come another opportunity to check out his house and plan decorations this week! I mean we still have to distract him on Friday when everything is getting settled." Nat said with a high voice, getting frustrated with all the questions and doubts in her planning schedule.
Steve snorted quietly, thinking about how unlucky the person who's gonna distract him on Friday will be. Tony is probably not the easiest to distract. Mostly because he never pays attention to anything but his own thoughts.
"Just admit it Nat, you just wanna take a look at Tony's stuff." Bruce said with a tired smile.
"No I don't." She answered calmly and threw her friend a look.
Steve wrinkled his forehead questionable. "Have non of you been to Stark's place?" He asked surprised.
"Nope." Clint answered, popping the P with a nonchalant glare.
"He never lets us come over." Nat explained a little sadly.
"Why?" Steve asked interested.
"Because of his dad." Clint said without thinking, only to bit himself in his tongue after.
"What's up with his dad?" Steve asked, not noticing Bruce and Nat's angry glares at their friend in the backseat.
"Nothing...Clint just meant that he's um- working a lot. And he doesn't want anyone to come over when he's working." Bruce stuttered a little unsurely. Trying to save the situation Clint had created. Nat nodded her head quickly.
"Exactly." She said with a lame smile before looking out through the window. All of them suddenly turning very quiet. Steve raised his eyebrow at them. Did he say something wrong?
After what felt like forever, Bruce broke the silence as he suddenly became very interested in Clint's phone. His eyes traveled to the screen again and again as he raised his eyebrows suspiciously.
"What do you have there Clint?" Bruce asked from out of nowhere and peaked sneakily over his shoulder, trying to get a clearer glimpse of Clint's phone screen.
"Nothing..." Clint mumbled back, not realizing that Bruce was looking over his shoulder.
"Oh my god!" Bruce gasped with a huge smirk as he grabbed the phone from his hands, making Clint yelp in panic.
"Bruce! Give it ba-"
"Clint is chatting with the guy from the swim team! You know the one who's fast as hell!" Bruce said and leaned over the front seat to show Natasha the phone in both amazement and surprise.
Nat's eyes lit up when she saw the chat. "Wait what? The Maximoff kid or-?"
"Yes the Maxmoff kid!" Bruce interrupted his female friend while holding the phone out of Clint's reach. "Oh my god Barton you flirty fucker...didn't expect you to be so charming." Natasha smirked before Bruce gave up and let his friend take back what belonged to him with a growl.
"Shut up Nat..." Clint mumbled as he locked his phone and tried to cool down his heating cheeks.
"Oh c'mon we want details! What was his name again? Peter? Paul?" Nat asked.
Clint rolled his eyes. "Pietro."
"Right! Oh my gosh Clint why didn't you tell us you had a thing for him!" Natasha asked with a huge smile as she turned her upper body around so she could look at her friend. Steve only tapped his fingers on the wheel, having no idea who they were talking about.
"I don't have a thing for him. We just like to talk.." he said with an embarrassed voice.
"Sorry but who's Pietro?" Steve asked a little shyly.
"A hot, two years younger, totally single guy who's the best swimmer in our school." Natasha said proudly as she gave her embarrassed friend a little wink in the back mirror.
"He has won the yearly Malibu swim competition like three times." Bruce explained as he showed three fingers in the air.
"Aaaaand is probably going to win this one too." Nat filled in with a smug smile. "I mean seriously, I wonder where he gets his juice to get so freaking fast."
"Probably like a bucket of coffee and redbull. I saw him swim the other day and his arms went like a pair of propellers." Bruce joked which made the corner of Steve's lips tug upwards.
Clint snorted almost unhearable as he leaned his head tiredly in his hand. "Can we please change the subject?"
"Why? Don't you like talking about your hot boyfriend?" Natasha asked teasingly.
"He's not my boyfriend! I'm not even gay!" Clint protested.
"Mhmm..yeah sweetie whatever you say." She responded, knowing very well that Clint was lying to himself.
The car became awkwardly quiet for a second time. None of them knowing what else to say and Steve considered jumping out of the car window and run to the Bahamas to escape this silence.
Then Nat said "Here it is, turn left Rogers." And he did what he was told.
He drove the car in the direction Natasha had told him to, and was soon gasping at the big white house in front of him with black roofs and a big lawn. Green grass was covering the front with a rather big fountain in the middle.
It looked like a fricking hotel. Big and fabulous with beautiful green trees and rose bushes decorating the sides of the sand road that went from the entrance, around the fountain and up to the stairs.
The whole yard and house were surrounded by a high, gray-colored
brick wall, which was high enough to make it kind of impossible to just climb over. Seems like Tony's dad liked privacy...
Even though the wall was missing a gate and had an open entrance.
"Wow.." Steve mouthed to himself.
"Park the car down there so no one sees it." Natasha commanded and Steve did as he was told, mouth still slightly open in amazement.
"Ookay let's get going boys." Nat said a little too excitingly, earning an eye roll from Clint before they stepped out of the car. The cool wind blowing in their hairs as they made their way over to the entrance.
"Wait doesn't this house have like a security system?" Steve asked, the thought suddenly hit him as he saw how the three teens walked through and in on the beautiful sand rode.
Natasha smiled at him. "That's why Banner is here. He hacked himself into the Stark system yesterday and he got all the codes and stuff." She said casually which made Steve's eyes widen.
"Wait what? How did you do that?" He asked and turned to Bruce.
"I've kind of worked with computers my whole life...plus I have some access to Tony's phone where I got a lot of help." Bruce said as he shrugged his shoulders.
"How the hell do you have access to Stark's phone?" Clint asked with a breathy laugh.
Bruce turned his head to him with an innocent look. "Let's just say that I'm good at what I'm doing."
"No arguments from me on that." Steve declared unhearable, still not entirely happy about this wonderful idea Nat had come up with. She didn't even give a good argument or reason why to do what they were gonna do. In fact, Steve didn't even know what he was doing here.
With hesitant steps, he followed his three companions through the entrance and in on the huge yard. The sand made small sounds as they with fast steps and amazed eyes made their way towards the stairs that were leading up to the front door.
Steve became more and more uncomfortable with every step he took and a thousand of thoughts flew around inside his head. All of them being reasons why this was a bad idea.
"Okay." Bruce spoke up as they had reached the front door. "Give me a second...." he mumbled and unlocked his phone with a click, his thumbs tapping the screen violently.
Steve shifted nervously his weight over on his uninjured foot and traveled his unsure eyes over the lawn and entrance. Praying that no one uninvited would come and see what they were doing.
"Just a few more seconds..." Bruce said while biting his lips concentrated. Making Steve even more nervous than before.
Just when Clint opened his mouth to probably comment something on Bruce's irritating slowness, a light kick was heard and a little lamp above the golden handle shone green.
"Bingo." Bruce whistled in triumph, giving Clint a challenging look before grabbing the golden decorated handle and pulled the door open.
◇
The teens were met by a sight they had but at the same time hadn't expected. It was like all the white and gold blinded their sights and their eyes became wide.
They were standing at the beginning of a huge hall with a floor made of shining gray marble and white walls decorated with black moldings that melted in with the black roof. IIn in front of them was about four different entrances to rooms.
One to the left and one to the right while in the middle was a big staircase, which also had two different halls on each side of them.
"Okay I knew I had a rich best friend...but I never understood exactly which level of rich he was." Clint gasped whole Bruce nodded in agreement. The only thing they had seen was the same wall in the background when they facetimed with Tony, and the outside of the house. Nothing more. But this was too fancy to be true.
"Okay I think this will take a while. This place is huge." Natasha mumbled before letting herself into the house. "Remember. Don't touch, smell or break anything."
"What the hell is there to smell?" Clint asked. "Boom, I just rhymed." He cheered as the realization hit him and he high fived Bruce with a smirk, who rolled his eyes with a smile.
"You get the point." Nat said irritated before making her way to the left, which clearly seemed to be the kitchen.
The guys looked after her before sharing a couple of unsure looks. None of them knowing if they should take the chance and take a look around. This place had security after all.
"I don't know about you but I'm going with her." Steve muttered, still not happy with this idea as he let his feet pull him towards the kitchen. Only to find it empty as Natasha had walked through it and over to the next one.
Steve traveled his eyes over the paintings and photos that were placed on the walls, decorating and filling up the entrance of the kitchen. The first picture that caught his eyes was a picture of Tony and....his dad? It looked like he could be his dad.
Tony who seemed to be about four or five, was sitting on a work desk while the older man was leaned over a sketch that was placed on the table under him. His forehead in a deep frown while mini Tony was looking at the same sketch in his father's lap, a pen in his mouth as he had a similar frown on his face.
Steve smiled at the cute photo. It clearly showed that Tony had gotten his knowledge from his father. They both looked really alike with their facial expressions, messy hair and the same deep brown eye color.
Another photo was of him as a baby, sitting in his mother's lap as she was kissing his cheek and looked into the camera lovingly. The kid was too occupied with building something with legos to notice how a camera was in his face.
Tony was a lucky guy. He had everything he could wish for. A big house, money, a genius mind, a handsome face, a pair of great parents and great friends. He knew exactly what kind of guy he was. Popular, rich and the smartest in school. What else could you wish for?
"Excuse me mister, who are you?"
Steve's eyes widened as a small and young voice interrupted his thoughts. He turned around quickly in place as he got ready to run out of there. Only to be very confused as a small smile appeared on his lips.
In front of him stood a little boy with light brown chocolate hair and big brown eyes, which were surrounded by long and cute eyelashes. He was dressed in a baggy t-shirt and a pair of jeans which made him look smaller than he probably was. He must be at least seven or eight years old by the looks of it.
"Um- hi.." Steve said awkwardly, having no idea what to say to this kid. "What's your name?"
Seriously? You just broke into the richest guy in school's house and got caught by a little kid, and the thing you do is asking about his name? Fantastic Rogers. Absolutely fantastic.
The kid seemed to be thinking the same as his eyes shifted from Steve's face to the pictures and back again hesitantly. Clearly as uncomfortable with the situation as the older guy.
"Um...Peter Parker.." he responded shyly, not knowing what else to do but answer the strange man. Steve swallowed nervously, not knowing what to do. Was this Tony's little brother? He had no idea Stark had a brother.
Just when he was about to freak out, he heard how a saving angel came into the kitchen and Bruce appeared in the doorway. "Peter?" Bruce asked with a surprised voice and when Peter saw the older male, he took a relieved breath.
"Hi Mr. Banner!" He cheered, happy to see him in real life instead of the screen Mr. Stark always spoke to him through.
"H-how did you get in here?" Bruce asked with a smile as Peter ran up to him and the older guy bent down a little.
"I saw you outside and followed you and Natashie." He answered proudly.
"Natashie?" Steve asked questionable with a kind smile on his face.
Peter turned to him with shy eyes. Not knowing who he was of course.
Bruce smiled at the little boy.
"Peter, this is Steve. A friend of Tony's." He explained with a warm smile, nodding at Steve with kind eyes.
Peter eyed the tall man up and down before smiling a little. "Are you friends with Mr. Stark?" He asked, getting a little more comfortable around the stranger.
The blond laughed nervously. "Yes, something like that." He responded which made Bruce raise his eyebrows at him.
The three of them made their way to the table as Peter started to talk excitingly with them. His eyes grew wide in adoration when Bruce told him that Steve was on the soccer team.
Steve couldn't help but smile every time Peter told him something about Tony. The kid seemed to look up to him a lot and it made Steve's heart melt. Already understanding that this wasn't Tony's brother by the way he called Tony;
Mr. Stark.
In the middle of their discussion, Natasha came into the room with Clint behind her. She had her phone in her hand with an annoyed facial expression. "We need to hurry. Rhodes texted and said that Stark is in a desperate mood to get home for some reason." She said, not noticing the little kid who smiles wildly at her.
"He's working on a secret project that no one knows about. That's why he wants to come home!" Peter cheered, jumping off the chair and running to Nat before diving himself into her lap.
The female yelped surprised. "Peter! Hi what are you doing here?!"
"What are you doing here?" Peter asked back, which made Natasha roll her eyes.
"Fair enough."
Suddenly her phone started to buzz in her hand and she wrinkled her eyebrows. Seeing Rhodes name covering the screen before accepting the call.
"We have a problem."
Rhodes words made Natasha freeze. "Why? What's wrong?"
"It's Stark. I can't find him and I don't know for how long he's been gone. I think he's on his way home..."
Bitch run, he's coming...