The Metropolis Dork Squad, Captain America, and the Falcon in... Angst, Death, and Taxes

[stands_for_hope]

[continued from here]

The day had arrived. The trap had been set.

They'd gone to Lois's apartment the day before and made their intentions clear, hoping that with a short period of time, the HYDRA forces wouldn't be able to pull together anything that was too hard to handle.

Jim's paycheck had come in, so he'd treated a rather delicious dinner for the three of them, which had been followed up with some surveillance work, a couple of flights over the various buildings to scout for good positions (both to look for snipers and to drop Lois), and a watching of The Incredibles since there weren't any good games on.

Lois hadn't quite gotten Jim into a french braid with flowers, but she had managed to twist up a few smaller braids and tuck the remainder into a pony tail to keep the worst of it out of his face. If Lois was happy about it as much for it's utility as to give Jim a firm, physical reminder of the people who cared about him... well, she wasn't about to say it out loud.

Clark was with them until roughly half an hour before and informed them just before he left that Captain America was on the ground, apparently sketching one of the ruined and as yet unrepaired buildings on a bench nearby with large 'easel case' while the Falcon was half a mile away on a rooftop. Thankfully, while a good portion of the surrounding area had been destroyed during the attack on Metropolis, this neighborhood was semi-functional (if largely empty during the weekend) so he wasn't entirely out of place.

That just left Lois, her HYDRA pin tucked in place at her collar, and Jim in the empty office room, doing their best to psych themselves into believing this would work.

...and Clark going to investigate the singular figure hiding out on one of the higher rooftops nearby.

Comments

[kolodnoykovki]

The memory was more vivid now that he thought about it again. "It was like the snowball fights we used to have," he said.

[justakidfrombrklyn]

The laughter made Steve's chest jump up and down but only a soft chuckle actually escaped him.

"So you were a dirty rotten cheat and somebody got a sock in their mouth?"

Clark couldn't help it. He laughed.

Lois lifted her head.

"No one got a sock in their mouths, thank you very much. But someone may have had a few bounced off of his head."

"It definitely wasn't Superman," Clark said with an air of competence and dignity.

Lois snorted. "By which he means, it was pretty much continually Superman. Jim just bounced them off his arm. Which still counts, Uncle Jim."

[kolodnoykovki]

"Some people are bulletproof, some people have shields. This guy has a metal arm - you use what you've got," he retorted, giving her a look -- but it was a thinly disguised look of amusement.

[stands_for_hope]

"You get behind the couch like a real man and we'll talk," Lois said firmly while Clark tried not to snicker himself sick. He was, however, floating just a little.

Sam's slightly wide-eyed stare said he'd noticed.

[kolodnoykovki]

Jim couldn't help a quiet laugh. "Clark. You're airborne again." And then, to Sam, who looked startled, he said, "That happens sometimes when he laughs. I told him someday we're gonna find him on the ceiling."

[stands_for_hope]

Clark tried to get himself on the ground again, but that was when he noticed Sam's expression and he floated up another inch or so.

"Not all the time," he got out in between snickers, "I'm pretty sure it's just you two."

Sam just shook his head and laughed because honestly, for all that he could crush giant robot monsters and fly at speeds that gave his wings a run for his money, it was kind of comforting that Superman was kind of a dork.

Steve just kept painting, smiling quietly to himself. Jim was happy. That was worth... well, it was worth a damn lot to him.

[kolodnoykovki]

"And that's why he got pinged on the head with socks," Jim concluded, mischief in his eyes. "Just wait 'til it snows. Bet this arm can do great snowballs."

[stands_for_hope]

"I'm gonna have to bring you two back to the farm. There's nothing quite like a corn field for a proper snowball fight."

"Farm?"

Clark paused for a moment, as if he'd forgotten himself, before nodding.

"Ma has a farm. Until about ten years ago, it was home."

"Then you moved here?"

Clark shook his head.

"I spent about five years getting a journalism degree from, oh, about a dozen different schools while I was traveling around. Then I spent the next five years or so doing freelance work."

Sam frowned a little before he put things together.

"Wait a minute, you're that Clark Kent? The guy who..."

Lois rolled her eyes.

"The guy who did that 'introspective' on Superman that got picked up by every paper after the Kryptonians attacked Metropolis. Cheater."

"Which has been helping to pay my rent since I moved to the city."

Steve looked over from his work to Clark.

"What I wouldn't give to control my own press releases. I'm about up to 'here'" and he raised a hand well past his forehead "with most of the nonsense people seem to think I think. Those Fox News people ought to get arrested."

[kolodnoykovki]

"I don't even watch the news," Jim admitted. "I just read the Planet. Has these two reporters I trust. ...And I think those two reporters have been trying to catch me up on stuff like movies and food from everywhere. But the food's mostly Clark."

[stands_for_hope]

"Seventy years later, and I still have to worry about the press. That's what I get for that big red, white, and blue shield," Steve said with a tired shake of his head. Then he went back to working on the design. It needed a little more brown in there for the darker sections...

"I just got used to variety," Clark said in his defense.

"And it's not my fault you haven't seen all the awesome movies that came out since we switched over to color and all."

Steve rolled his eyes.

"The Wizard of Oz came out in 1939," he pointed out, "and I think we saw it, what... twice, I think?"

He looked at Jim, as much out of habit as anything else.

[kolodnoykovki]

"At least twice. Maybe three times; I remember having girls there twice." Girls he hadn't taken out a second time for a reason. But the mention made him remember. "You know they have different bananas? The good bananas died or something."

[justakidfrombrklyn]

Steve actually pulled the brush away from his shoulder and sat up.

"Jesus, is that what happened?"

Like a bleeding revelation.

Sam blinked at the both of them.

"What's wrong with bananas? I like bananas."

Steve looked sideways at Sam before shaking his head, like someone hearing something unfortunate and sad. If he'd been from much farther south, he might have actually said blessed Sam's heart.

"I told him months ago, but he said I was nuts."

"It's a banana," Sam repeated, because this was an old 'discussion'.

[kolodnoykovki]

"The bananas used to actually have a flavour. They were sweeter and--" He looked over at Lois. "Didn't you say that they make the candy flavour from the old bananas?"

[stands_for_hope]

Lois nodded.

"And the ones you two are used to are only found in Thailand, I think."

Clark, however, had a little smile on and held up a finger.

"I just thought of something," he said, stepping towards the door. Then, with a tug on his shirt, he was outside and there was a sound like a flash gust of wind.

"...tell me he is not getting you two grandpas bananas."

Lois couldn't help but grin.

"I don't like to lie, Sam."

[kolodnoykovki]

Jim watched Clark go and shook his head. "He does stuff like this. One time he got me bagels," Jim said. "And a bunch of stuff for my new team. Brooklyn Cyclones. Minor leagues. Since the Dodgers went to California."

[justakidfrombrklyn]

Sam winced prematurely, but Steve was actually rather sedate about it.

"That was damn depressing. Not to mention the one SHIELD agent who tried to get me a Yankees cap to feel better about it."

The expression on Steve's face says that he's actually wondered whether the man was a HYDRA agent on that alone. Then his mind went back to the bananas and--

"Bagels? Good New York bagels?"

And that was the sound of a man who, despite being full of excellent food, was jonesing for a damn bagel. His expression was the part that added a 'you lucky bastard' onto it, though.

Lois couldn't contain the snort.

[kolodnoykovki]

He nodded sincerely. "Woke up before work. There were bagels in the kitchen and Clark was already gone. They went pretty quick," he admitted. "Repaid it with my last paycheck, though, and my part of the rent. ...Construction pays good."

[stands_for_hope]

Sam's the one who says it.

"...you are not asking Superman if he can get you bagels tomorrow, Steve."

Steve, however, has perfected the art of looking innocent and utterly wasn't thinking that, why would you SAY such a thing, Sam, the absolute ridiculousness of such an accusation--

"I won't object if he does it."

Which is when the door opens again and Clark, looking rather like he had a few minutes earlier, opens the door and slips in carrying a sizeable bushel of bananas that look, well... different. For one thing, they're smaller and the skins look significantly slicker as opposed to the more gummy appearance that the modern members of the room would recall. Clark holds it up with a bit of triumph.

"If... anyone would like to try one."

[kolodnoykovki]

Jim points. "Now that's a banana."

It looked like it was supposed to. It even smelled right from across the room.

"Thank you."

[stands_for_hope]

Clark shrugged and walked over to put the bushel of bananas on the table. Steve glances at them for a moment before pulling off one and holding it out to Jim.

"Lemme finish this and then I'm having one. Been living with the cardboard type for the last few years."

Because he's actually very close to finished and the design has been transferred dutifully from the pin with just a little warmth added to the metallic color palette; nothing striking, just a few faint copper notes in the shaded areas for contrast.

[kolodnoykovki]

"Everybody get a banana, seriously. Taste what they're supposed to taste like," Jim said, having to be careful with how much he moves to peel the one he'd been handed.

There was a knock at the door, then, and Clint's voice saying, "Lemme in, I heard bananas."

[stands_for_hope]

Clark blushed just a little and walked back toward Lois, bringing her a banana and holding another one back for himself. Opening it, the scent of the banana bloomed brightly in the room. Steve held back, though, as he was almost done with the design.

"Don't worry about it," he told Jim, "I'm just putting the top coat on now."

Then Lois took a bite and blinked.

"Well, damn."

[kolodnoykovki]

Clint raised his brows when he smelled it. "...Smells like Runts," he said for a second, pulling the signal blocker - a little black tablet thing - out of his pocket.

Jim just gave him a confused look. There was something he was missing there, and he had no idea just what it was.

[justakidfrombrklyn]

Clark takes a bit and considers it thoughtfully, taking another bite with obvious pleasure and chewing his way through it. Lois goes more slowly, testing with each nibble, before swallowing it down with a grin.

"They're like... candy. Runts, yeah."

"Runts are a kind of candy. One variety is banana flavored," Clark provided.

Steve, putting the last of the top coat on with a careful swab, puts the paintbrush down and reaches over for a banana, popping it open with obvious excitement.

"This is one of the few foods that was better before," he says to Jim, taking a bite with some gusto.

[kolodnoykovki]

"Mm, one of," he agreed as he bit in. "My roast's still pretty damn good. I found a crock pot."

Clint looked between them. "...Is this turning into some kind of superhero reality show? 'Cause if it is, I wanna be the guy with the sunglasses and the car that's way too big to be anything but a penis enhancement."