"See? They're still trying," she said. "Even if the world has changed, even if we've all grown old… they're still trying to make it a little better."
Standing behind her, Lance suddenly felt something catch in his throat.
He thought back to how he had judged Stephanie before.
An old soldier abandoned by the times. Someone resisting change. A disillusioned idealist.
But at this moment, he realized he might have been completely wrong.
Stephanie Rogers wasn't resisting this era.
She was simply, carefully, clumsily, bit by bit… falling in love with it.
Falling in love with its chaos, its contradictions, its absurdity, and the small, stubborn sparks of kindness scattered throughout.
"Let's go." Stephanie turned around, her smile returning.
"I'll buy you a coffee. My treat this time. Don't worry, I'll have Nick reimburse me." She winked at Lance.
"Glad to know you learned something from me." Lance followed her out.
As they passed the Captain America memorial wall, Stephanie didn't spare it a single glance.
...
"So, what have you been up to lately? Keeping an old soldier company during rehab? Heh~ old she may be, but I can't deny she's sexy. Not to mention that ass—"
Tony Stark sprawled onto the sofa in Lance's office without ceremony, legs hooked over the armrest, his mouth already firing off sharp remarks.
"Hey." Lance shot back, annoyed. "Show some respect for my client."
"I'm your client too," Stark said, incredulous. "How come I've never seen you show me any respect?"
"Former client," Lance corrected without looking up. "If I wanted to pursue it, you'd be the first superhero sued for trespassing on private property. You wouldn't want headlines like 'Perverted Iron Man breaks into a single male lawyer's home just to harass him,' would you?"
"Yo, Jarvis, build a character sheet for Mr. Prescott."
"Sure, sir," Jarvis' voice came out from the suit. "Remarkable, competent, sarcastic..."
"Yeah, yeah. Cold, ruthless, stingy," Stark interupted like he did a better job at it.
"Thank you. But stop these shenanigans. I'm working. Keep that mouth of yours shut."
"Keeping my mouth shut?" Mr. Stark, whose mental age hovered somewhere around 6 or 7, immediately bristled. "What exactly do you take me for?"
"The great and mighty Iron Man, obviously. Now, Iron Man, your poor lawyer needs to get back to work," Lance said flatly, rolling his eyes. "Either be quiet or take your toys and fly out the window."
"So what are you so busy with? Busy enough that you don't even have time to chat with the great Stark?"
"I thought you already knew. Didn't someone once claim that as long as he wanted to, there wasn't anything in New York he couldn't find out?"
"I did say that." Stark shifted slightly, still lounging on the sofa. "But I'm not a pervert. I don't monitor people's privacy in real time."
"Good to know," Lance said sincerely. "Please keep it that way."
"...Thanks?" Stark blinked, briefly thrown off, before catching the implication. "So what are you working on?"
"A new case." Lance shook the documents in his hand and buried himself back in them.
Stark sprang up from the sofa, drifted over to the desk, and leaned in to read.
"Human rights law, property law, inheritance draft?" Stark frowned. "What is this? Have you sunk so low you're taking cases for illegitimate children now?"
"I'm not… forget it." Lance exhaled and locked the files away in a drawer.
Aside from the non-disclosure agreement he had signed with S.H.I.E.L.D., he also had no intention of discussing Captain America, his father's old friend, in front of Iron Man.
As much as he enjoyed watching drama, he knew when to restrain himself, especially when that drama might come back to bite him.
"So what exactly do you want from me?" Lance set his work aside, leaned back in his chair, and crossed his arms. "Don't tell me you're just bored and came to harass your former lawyer, or I really will try to have you locked up."
"What? I don't have anything going on." Stark glanced at the ceiling, then the floor, anywhere but at Lance.
Great.
Lance almost laughed out of sheer irritation.
The man's face practically spelled it out. I have a problem. I'm in a bad mood. Come coax me. And yet the moment Lance asked, Tony Stark turned into a bashful teenager, evasive and fidgety, as if afraid of being found out.
"Since our great Mr. Stark has nothing urgent…" Lance stood up without hesitation, grabbed Stark, and started pushing him toward the door.
"Then stop wasting your poor lawyer's time. The great Stark has an entire corporation to manage, while his poor lawyer still has to keep this shabby building running."
Stark felt the world spin as he was dragged along. He froze for a second before struggling.
"Hey! Hey! Cut it out!" Stark finally wrenched himself free, straightening his clothes with an annoyed look.
"Damn, where did you get that kind of strength?"
"My strength is reserved for dealing with freeloaders who have nothing better to do and won't let others work," Lance replied flatly.
"Alright, alright, alright."
Stark raised his hands in surrender at last. He slipped past Lance, dropped back onto the sofa, and let out a long sigh.
"It's… complicated," he said.
"Then keep it short."
"I think there's a mole in the company," Stark said, his voice lowering.
"Why do you think that? What's your evidence?"
"Uh…" Stark hesitated, his words coming out unevenly. "Recently, some critical components for my Mark series upgrades have gone missing. Design drafts too."
"Do you have any suspects?" Lance pressed.
Stark hesitated, shook his head, then nodded.
Lance understood.
"To make you this conflicted, that person must be important to you," Lance said, making a casual guess. "Don't tell me it's Miss Pepper."
"Of course not!" Stark shot up like a cat with its tail stepped on. "How could Pepper…"
"Then let me be blunt." Lance shrugged. "In Stark Industries, aside from you, the only person I know is Miss Pepper. It's hard for me to come up with any other suspects. If you want to keep speaking in riddles, then I'm afraid you're wasting your time."
"Forget it." Stark let out another sigh.
"Just say it clearly. What do you want me to do?"
Stark stood up and looked at Lance. "Come back to the lab with me and take a look."
"No." Lance refused without hesitation.
"Didn't you just tell me to be direct?" Stark asked through clenched teeth.
"I told you to be direct. I never said I'd agree," Lance replied with an innocent shrug.
Damn it.
"I've developed a new Mark V. It's portable. Fits inside a briefcase," Stark said, raising the stakes.
"No."
Lance didn't even pause.
What did it matter if Stark had built a new suit? For Lance, seeing something like that without being able to own it was torture.
Better not get involved at all.
Stark ground his teeth. "The new series. I guarantee you'll be the first to try it."
"No."
"I'll pay. I'll pay you to visit Stark Industries headquarters, alright?" Stark finally snapped, throwing out his last offer. "No objections to your fee. The moment you step into Stark Industries, Pepper will transfer the money to your account. Is that enough?"
Lance raised an eyebrow, then slowly smiled.
"Fine," he said. "Since it's a paid visit, I'll reluctantly accept."
"You money-grubbing vampire!" Stark exploded.
___
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