Avengers

"Víš, ty a Steve jste si podobnější, než si myslíš."

Tony se nafoukl jako balón. "To není pravda!"

Natasha se ušklíbla. "Vážně? Oba jste tvrdohlaví jako mezci, máte zvláštní smysl pro humor a za svůj tým byste klidně skočili do ohně."

"Jo... ale když on je naprosto nesnesitelný!"

"Totéž Steve říká o tobě," poukázala klidně Natasha.

"To je všechno hezké, ale co mám teda podle tebe dělat?" zamračil se Tony. "I pokud jsme si podobní jako vejce vejci, Rogers mě nesnáší."

"Jeden nápad bych měla." Natasha ho pošeptala Tonymu do ucha.

To bylo poprvé, co Tonyho Starka viděla se červenat.

"Oh no." Tony tried to sit up, but immediately winced and fell back down. Steve hurried over to help. Tony slapped his hand away.

"Nice to see you, too."

"You're not supposed to be here." Tony grunted. He was still weak from the numerous surgeries, but what mattered to Steve was that he was alive.

"Says who?"

"Cut the crap, Steve. I told you to go home."

"And as you're my commanding officer..."

Tony snorted. "From what I heard, you were always terrible at taking orders."

"Tony." Steve sat down on the bed and took his hand. "I am home."

"Co jsi to zase vyváděl, Starku? Můj rozkaz zněl jasně!"

Tony se opřel o zeď. "Slyšel jsem tě, Rogersi. Ale byl to hloupý nápad, tak jsem vymyslel lepší."

Tony málem nadskočil, když se k němu Steve přiblížil. Jejich tváře se téměř dotýkaly. "Takže takhle to chceš hrát?" zašeptal Steve. "Odmítáš poslouchat moje rozkazy?"

"Dokud budou stupidní, tak ano," vydechl Tony.

Takhle zblízka byly Steveovy oči velmi modré. K Tonyho překvapení se neurazil, nýbrž ušklíbl.

"Tak co tenhle rozkaz? Polib mě."

"Cože?!"

"Polib mě - jestli si na to troufneš."

Tony polkl nasucho - a na rozdíl od minule tentokrát svého kapitána poslechl.

"Pound for pound, that's a bargain. Have you seen the size of this guy?"

Tony slapped Steve's side so hard he flinched. Steve said nothing, adjusting his tuxedo. He could deal with Tony later.

"Walk," Tony whispered in Steve's ear, or rather, slightly below it.

Obediently, he took a few steps down the runway. It wasn't the first time he'd been paraded around on stage for a good cause. When Tony gestured, he did a turn. For whatever reason, the crowd gasped.

"Like I said, bidding starts at 500K."

Charity, Steve told himself. Behind him, Tony kept outbidding the audience.

Tony Stark. Kontroverzní postava, miliardář, samozvaný filantrop… co ještě o něm lze říci? Zeptali jsme se dalších Avengers.

Steve Rogers: “Je to egomaniak. Patologický lhář. Sobecká existence -”
Black Widow: “Jednou předháněl rogalo a pilota varoval světelným signálem. Bylo to od něj.. ohleduplné, řekla bych. Starkovsky ohleduplné.”
Steve Rogers: “- chamtivý kapitalista -”
Black Widow: “Pilot přežil, mimochodem.”
Steve Rogers: “- nadutec v plechovce -”
Black Widow: “Další informace podléhají utajení.”
Steve Rogers: “- hraboš -”
Black Widow: “Steve, myslím, že Bucky chce něco říct. Bucky?”
Bucky Barnes: “Já? Ale ani ne. Já Tonyho Starka vlastně ani neznám. Jen jsem se jednou potkal s jeho rodiči. Krátce.”

"Name?" The woman behind the counter looked at him, not unkindly.

"Uh, James Buchanan Barnes." Bucky coughed.

"And what is your previous employment history?"

"Beg pardon?"

"Well, we're going to need an idea of your background and skills." She adjusted her glasses. "It says here that you're college educated?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Oh, you were in the military. But then..." She frowned. "There's a gap here."

"Uh, yeah." Dammit, this was the sort of thing Steve was good at.

"Of about..." she looked closer, "seventy years?"

"Yeah." He tried to smile.

"What... exactly did you do?"

"Work of all kinds, ma'am."

"Take that off." Steve looked up as Tony entered, laying down the novel he was reading.

"Oh, hey Amber Waves." Tony let his suit recede, settling into the cuffs on his wrist. "Didn't think you'd still be up."

"Thought you might need help."

"Nah." Tony slumped down on the couch - the opposite end, not next to him. "Nothing I couldn't handle."

Steve nodded. "So, take it off."

"'Scuse me?"

"The suit." He waved at his face. "The mask."

"I'm not wearing..."

"Yeah, you are. You're still Tony Stark."

Tony frowned. Then, slowly, he took it off.

"That's better." Steve smiled.

"Hey, Captain America here." Steve faced the camera. "You know, it's a difficult time for everyone. Self isolation can be hard, even if you're lucky enough to be cooped up with a partner." He looked down at his script.

"But just because you rarely leave the house, doesn't mean you shouldn't care about safe sex. Many, uh, sexually transmitted diseases have an incubation time of six weeks or-"

Tony grinned at the screen. Over his shoulder, Happy frowned. "Didn't they tell you to write a PSA about birth rate support measures?"

"We don't need more people. We need healthy people."

"So it's a bridge."

Thor waved a hand, blinking up at the clear sky. "It's..." he frowned. "You wouldn't understand.

Tony chewed the blade of grass in his teeth. "Try me."

"How much do you know about the mathematics of curved-space structures?"

"Enough."

"It's all about the... manifolds of nontrivial topology."

Tony sighed. Thor was drunk out of his mind, but he had centuries of knowledge locked in that mind.

"...so then... the regions contains a quasi... permanent intrathingy. Universe."

"And that looks like a rainbow."

"Stripes," Thor agreed.

"The Bifrost is magic stripes." Tony sighed.

"That's what I said."

SHIELD, HYDRA nebo sedmdesát let strávených pod ledem se postaraly o to, že minulost většiny Avengers byla veřejnosti skrytá.
Většiny.
"Na moji obranu," pokusil se Tony překřičet hysterický smích týmu: "byl jsem na mol."
"Na mol u kadeřníka?" ukázal Steve na fotku. Tony na ní hrdě předváděl okouzlující exemplář devadesátkového melíru.
"Na mol skoro pořád."
"Jestli ti to pomůže," zvedla Shuri oči od čtečky: "pořád to mohlo být horší."
"Horší?" zeptal se Clint nevěřícně: "Horší než sjetá zebra Stark?"
Ušklíbla se. "Světová móda se k nám dostává se zpožděním."
Nalistovala fotku v telefonu.
"A můj bratr měl vždycky svérázný vkus."