17A/N Hey its me again! Thanks for the two lovely reviews from Lani and RoseJustice, you guys are awesome! Here's the next chapter!
Tony
Tony was the kid that took things apart just for the heck of it, trying to figure out how things work. There was one part of his life that he constantly tries to better, his engineering and programming skills. Mechanics are more of a on the side thing but he was good at that too. 'If you want the engineering done right,' he told himself 'you have to do it yourself'. It was just more fun for him to, build stuff that blows up than stuff that moves. So when he takes his customary Audi out for a spin, he can tell something is different right away. The engine is a little quieter and he bets if he checked the meter back at the shop he'd be getting improved mileage readings too. He manages to convince himself it was drunken tinkering that actually worked out.
Except the car keeps getting improved and he's sober all month.
He asks JARVIS about it, but after a half-second pause he replies no. (He makes a mental note to upgrade JARVIS, the reaction time is getting slow.) But Tony's not one just to accept things (maybe in the past but not now) and finds it suspicious that the only time his cars (yes, cars plural, he found this out when he took the Saleen out and found it improved too, so of course he had to check all of them) improve seems to be when he's not in the building.
But just as suddenly the cars started to fade back into what they were before. Sure they were still superior (He played with his cars when he felt like it) but they no longer run as smooth as they had been. It really stunk because he had just installed those cameras into the hood, to figure out who was messing with his cars.
Steve
SHIELD finally managed to figure out Steves income that he hadn't received during the war, (plus hazard pay and interest, all adjusted to the current inflation level). It turned out to me quite the tidy sum (apparently he had been getting paid the entire time in the ice). Now he can go out and get his own bike, and modify it. Again he would eventually build it from scratch, but he really wants something to ride and he's not sure where he could get all the parts (and no, it isn't red white and blue, (Tony) it was black). He really missed his bike from the war. But it was in the Smithsonian, and he doesn't want to get into the inevitable legal battle.
He figures if he really wants it, he can get it later if he bothers SHIELD enough, or maybe even if he asked JARVIS nicely. But he's trying to move on so it's best left in the past for now.
Unfortunately He managed to break something biking around (that street race he did probably didn't help, or the other one, and that last one wasn't even his fault, they were the ones who started it, and its not his fault he totally kicked their butts.) He's 90 percent sure that Tony might have taken apart/messed with his bike and didn't put it back together properly.
So now he's "stuck" in the tower again because he doesn't want to go wander because he doesn't know the streets well enough in order to not get lost (again but nobody needs to know that, he made it back eventually.) So he's bored. You can only train for so much before you get bored.
And then he remembers the cars.
It is a small matter to sneak down into the workshop again, he peers in the glass wall cautiously. There is no music blasting but it doesn't hurt to be cautious. He's in luck, Tony's out. He doesn't waste much time before asking JARVIS to let him in.
He thinks that he's going to work on the, what he has come to learn is a 1932 Ford Flathead Roadster. (he missed it the first time because it was tucked back behind some of the other cars) He's not too familiar with the the brand, being dirt poor before the war for his family to even own one, and having crashed the plane before he even got to use his paycheck, but it's just enough of the past that it feels comfortable without it being painful. Plus, he knows all the parts even with Tony's tinkering.
He opens up the hood, falling into the mindless pattern of checking all the systems and making small adjustments that he performs everytime he checks up on a car. Before he realizes it, it's been a couple hours and he closes the hood gently.
He feels better, all the frustration coming from not being able to fix his bike (Seriously what is wrong with it?) is gone (What is the problem? It's driving him crazy that he can't figure it out). As days pass and he still doesn't manage to figure out how to fix his bike, Steve begins to branch out to the other cars again.
A/N as always please drop a review. Oh and the next chapter for BtM is almost done, cross my heart.