The Holoscene, Wednesday Night

[heroic_jawline]

Normal guys went to a bar, or a club, or a movie, or maybe out to dinner. Steve and Liam went to a holosuite and souped up a ridiculous obstacle course to run through.

No one tell them about Crossfit. They'd instantly become Those People Who Only Talked About Crossfit.

"So, loser buys beer?" Steve said, stretching out his arm muscles and also showing off his biceps.

Comments

[firstofitskind]

They were very nice biceps. Liam might be married, but he wasn't blind.

He thought about pointing out that he didn't really drink beer, but decided that wasn't really the point, the beer was just... symbolic. Or something.

"You're on," he said with a grin, instead.

[heroic_jawline]

And Steve could drink beer all day and never feel it! It was the ritual of the thing.

"Hope you have a change of clothes ready," Steve said. "The mud pits are really nasty today."

[firstofitskind]

Liam snickered. "The programmed mudpits."

That devotion to realism sure was admirable, Steve! Yes. Let's go with that.

[heroic_jawline]

Steve, despite being with Tony for years, sometimes forgot how technology actually worked. "Okay," he said. "Up the wall, across the swinging rope things, then the log bridge, then through the crawl space and the tires and back out?" He smiled. "I made the Avengers do something like this up in New York this week. You would not believe the whining."

[firstofitskind]

Hey, Liam wouldn't have put it past him to have strong-armed Tony into figuring out a way to make that mud stick around.

No pun intended.

"Not fans of training?" he asked, eyebrow raised.

[heroic_jawline]

"Not fans of the surprise paint balls when they were lollygagging," Steve said with a little grin.

[firstofitskind]

"Lollygagging," Liam echoed. You didn't show your age often, Steve, but sometimes...

"There any of those in here?"

[heroic_jawline]

Liam should see Tony's glee when Steve unironically breaks out "swell."

"Of course not," Steve said. "I'm running through it this time."

[firstofitskind]

“And I’m not much for lollygagging either, so,” Liam shrugged. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

[heroic_jawline]

"Ready," Steve said, bending into a crouch, "set...go!"

And he was racing towards the twenty foot climbing wall.

[firstofitskind]

Liam laughed, following close on his heels.

Honestly, he wasn’t a super-soldier, just your average human-alien hybrid, so Steve probably would win.

Didn’t mean Liam was going to just hand him that victory, though.

[heroic_jawline]

Steve laughed and sped up, jumping a good halfway up the wall before starting his climb.

[firstofitskind]

"Next run we're limiting you to normal human standards," Liam complained good naturedly as he very much did not jump halfway up the goddamn climbing wall.

[heroic_jawline]

"That's why I have to press my advantage the first time!" Steve called from the top of the wall before backflipping off of it like a freaking superhero.

[firstofitskind]

"I'm beginning to suspect the complaining from your teammates was less about the course itself and more about the showing off," Liam retorted as he finished scrambling up said wall and then jumped down, sans backflip.

Really, it was probably some combination of both.

[heroic_jawline]

"The showing off is fun, too," Steve said. "Shouldn't work be fun?"

Then endless optimism also wore on his coworkers.

[firstofitskind]

"Is," Liam had to pause as he grabbed at the next swinging rope thing. "That so? I've," another pause and grab, "always found," pause and grab, "Work to be," one last pause as he jumped back down to the ground, "Work."

Remember, Steve, you were talking to someone for whom 'fun' was a relatively new concept. Liam had been working since the day he was born and there had been no fun whatsoever involved.

[heroic_jawline]

"Some of it is a grind," Steve agreed, swinging along without needing to pant for breath like an absolute pain in the ass, "which is why you should enjoy it when it's not."

[firstofitskind]

"Yeah, see, I went from 'constant fear of discovery and thus the possibility of being killed or worse' to 'Fandom, where nothing happens except once every few months'," Liam said drily as he made his way across the log bridge. "The novelty of the second thing was enjoyable for a while, and now..." he sighed. Now it was less so.

[heroic_jawline]

"Now you're over it?" Steve guessed.

[firstofitskind]

"Now I'm over it," Liam echoed, sighing.

[heroic_jawline]

Steve flipped off of the bridge, landing lightly. "But you're not leaving, right?"

[firstofitskind]

Again with the flipping, Steven, really? What are you, a gymnast?

"Not leaving," Liam confirmed. "As far as I know, anyway." There was always the possibility that something could go horribly wrong in Verity's reality which would necessitate them moving to the family compound or something.

[heroic_jawline]

His stunt guy was!

"That's good," Steve said with a genuine smile. "I'm only here half-time right now and I miss it."

[firstofitskind]

"Even if things here aren't nearly as exciting as I bet they are back home?" Liam asked. He wasn't envious, exactly, but-

Okay, he was a little envious. Shh.

[heroic_jawline]

Steve made a little face. "Well, it's a lot more political back home. And hard work."

[firstofitskind]

"I don't miss the politics as much," Liam said. Which wasn't to say he didn't miss it at all because there was something to be said about the familiar being comfortable and al. "Not a hell of a lot of that here."

[heroic_jawline]

"For which I am thankful," Steve said. "We have the entire United Nations unhappy with us, currently."

[firstofitskind]

Liam winced sympathetically. "Been there," he shared. "Of course, my bosses didn't really give a damn." Because, you know, aliens.

[heroic_jawline]

"I am the boss," Steve said. "Well, the Tony in my world says so, anyway. Sarcastically." He frowned. "You know I know two of them, right?"

[firstofitskind]

"I did not," Liam said. "That must be... weird."

There was a Verity in his world. Street had been a big fan of 'Valerie Pryor' during her season of the Dance or Die reality show (and disappointed to learn that Verity was not, in fact, a natural redhead like herself). And although a version of Liam himself couldn't exist in Verity's world for obvious reasons, the Becketts were members in good standing of the Covenant of St. George. But none of them had ever crossed paths with their counterparts.

[heroic_jawline]

"It's...kinda fraught sometimes," Steve said ruefully. "The other Tony doesn't like me nearly as much."

[firstofitskind]

Which, okay, would definitely be frustrating, Liam could tell as much from the tone in Steve’s voice, but also...

“Wouldn’t it be even weirder if he did, though?” he pointed out.

MAYBE HE DID AND THERE WAS JEALOUSY OF THE OTHER TONY AT PLAY HERE.

[heroic_jawline]

OH THERE WAS SOME OF THAT, TOO. SO MANY LAYERS OF AWKWARD, LIAM.

Steve laughed. "Maybe. His eyes bugged out when he found out Tony and I were engaged."

[firstofitskind]

Wouldn’t you like to be in the middle of a Tony sandwich though, Steve?

“Would’ve liked to see that,” Liam admitted. “When is the wedding, anyway?” Liam, just because you and Verity went from engaged to married in under four months didn’t mean that’s how everyone was gonna do it.

[heroic_jawline]

...maybe. NEVER YOU MIND THAT, LIAM.

"That's classified," Steve said, grinning. "There are more than a few folks out there who would like to take us unawares, so it's going to be small and quick."

[firstofitskind]

“Good luck with that,” Liam said with a derisive snort. “Verity and I had a more or less spur of the moment Vegas wedding and we still had to deal with cryptid poachers breaking in to our hotel room.”

[heroic_jawline]

"Cryptid poachers?" Steve repeated.

[firstofitskind]

Liam nodded. "Yeah," he said, grimacing. "They were after the mice. You think there's a thriving black market out there for endangered species? Try adding endangered species that most of the world doesn't know exists. These idiots were being offered half a million for each live mouse they managed to bring in."

[heroic_jawline]

Steve groaned. "That's awful."

[firstofitskind]

“Yup,” Liam nodded. “And, sadly, far too common. But at least these idiots had the chance to learn the error of their ways.” There was nothing friendly at all about the grin on Liam’s face right now.

[heroic_jawline]

"Oh, how sad for them," Steve said, not remotely meaning it.

[firstofitskind]

"We still managed to make it to our timeslot at the chapel, at least," Liam said, grin turning into something more fond. "Where the ceremony was performed by a very enthusiastic chupacabra dressed like Elvis."

[heroic_jawline]

"I didn't even think of finding a Chupacabra," Steve said. "But I did get a chocolate fountain."