Archive of Our Own

“Is this yours, Mr. Rogers?” Peter Parker asked, holding up a phone.

“Yeah it is. I’ve been looking for it all morning. Thanks, kid,” Steve replied, holding out a hand.

“No problem. Have a good rest of your day!” Peter said as he handed the phone over. Peter ran off before Steve could return the sentiment. Odd. The phone in his hand buzzed with an incoming notification before he could think on it more.

“What the…” Who was this Athena and how did they get his phone number?

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A few hours later and Steve still didn’t know who this mystery Athena was. He heard Tony had finally made it back from his most recent venture so Steve was on his way to the lab.

“Tony? You here?” Steve called.

“I’ve barely gotten back and you come calling, Rogers?” Tony snarked. He tossed his suit jacket on one of the many work stations positioned around the lab.

“Tech question for you actually. My contacts got changed. You wouldn’t happen to know how to get them back to what they were before, would you?” Steve handed Tony his phone with the contacts page open.

“I’ll take a look but it could be faster for you to just ask them. I do have to finish up some lab stuff with Banner today before I can even think of looking into this.” Tony handed Steve’s phone back to him.

“Thanks for taking a look. I’ll see what I can do in the meantime.” He tucked the phone into his back pocket. “Oh, and if you see the kid, can you tell him thanks for returning my phone? He ran off before I could.”

“I’ll let him know.”

“Thanks, Tony.”

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“Time to start figuring this out,” Steve grumbled, glaring at the phone he now had clutched in his hands.

“Someone say a bad language word in a text, Rogers?” Nat joked from her spot on the couch on the opposite side of the shared space as she set her book down for a moment.

“Someone changed all my contacts. Don’t know who’s who in this thing or who did it.” Nat pulled her own phone out. A moment later a text popped up on Steve’s phone.

“There. Should fix at least one of them.”

“How’d you get ‘Fiona’ of all names, Nat?” She shrugged and went back to her book.

“Well, one down nine more to go.”

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Desert Warrior or Garfield next? Steve wondered as he walked toward the training room. A text from Desert Warrior popping up made the choice for him.

Steve read the message then read it again. The only one that used military time was Sam.

“Man, what is up with you asking that?” Sam asked as soon as Steve answered the call.

“Phone contacts got changed. Had you as ‘Desert Warrior’ and Nat was ‘Fiona’ but not a clue who the others are.”

“Really? Of all things I could’ve been changed to and it was that?” Sam griped.

“Apparently. What would you put instead?”

“God.” Oh, Sam was dead serious about that, Steve realized. He would actually have put his contact as ‘God’ if given the chance.

“Good to know. I’ll see you tomorrow for training, Sam.”

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An incoming call from Garfield made Steve slow in his movement toward the kitchen after his talk with Sam. He picked up the phone but didn’t say a word.

“Got a mission for you Rogers,” Fury said, not bothering with pleasantries and instead getting right to business.

“How soon am I leaving?”

“The sooner the better. You’ll be briefed on the ride over.” Fury ended the call without waiting for any kind of confirmation from Steve. He took a deep breath and slowly let it out.

Putting Fury as Garfield was one hell of a bad joke but it was still better than Sam’s wish of having God as his contact name.

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Steve meticulously returned his gear to its proper places upon his return to Avengers Tower. This mission had been a rather annoying one to put it mildly but, rather surprisingly, not the worst one he’d been on.

“Problem, Rogers?” Fury asked from the door.

“Not one you need to worry about,” Steve replied curtly. He finished putting his gear away a few minutes later, stiffly passing Fury in his beeline toward the training room he was supposed to meet Sam in.

“What’s going on, Cap?” Sam asked as soon as Steve walked through the door.

“Bullshit mission.” Steve ran through a few boxing combos as Sam finished stretching. Sam tossed a pair of boxing gloves to Steve.

“Come on. Work out some frustration and let me get some coaching hours in.” Steve put on the gloves.

They were both panting hard as their sweat drenched clothes stuck to their bodies when they finally stopped a few hours later. The workout had helped Steve sort through the event of the most recent day.

“Thanks, Sam,” Steve sincerely said as he set the gloves down on a nearby bench.

“Go shower, man, and good luck with those contacts if you ain’t done fixing them yet.” Sam started a cooldown as he shooed Steve away.

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Steve pulled his phone off the charger after a shower and late dinner that night. No new messages had come through in the few hours since he’d last checked. Steve huffed in annoyance as he sat down on the edge of his bed.

The question he kept returning to even when he would rather not popped up once more - who should he figure out next? He still had six contacts to fix after all. Steve ran a hand through his short hair in frustration.

So he got changed to Castle, hm? Steve would definitely have to ask whoever switched his contacts why they chose the names they did.

None of them had made even the smallest amount of sense to Steve thus far so it should be an interesting conversation. Well, it would be for him at least. He tossed his phone back on the charger. The others would be a problem for tomorrow.

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The sun was rising as Steve made his way to the shared kitchen to put on a pot of coffee at quarter to seven in the morning. Today still had five contacts left to figure out so Steve may as well get an early start on it even as the early morning chill made itself unable to be ignored.

Finding out who Great Expectations was seemed as good a place to start as any. Whoever Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, Athena, and Odysseus actually were supposed to be could be figured out at a later time.

Steve sat down at the counter with a cup of coffee warming his hands as he stared at his open messages thinking of how to phrase his next words carefully when his phone lit up with an incoming call.

“So sorry to call you this early, Steve, but I fear I needed a word with you before Tony wakes up."

“Hey, Pepper. What's going on?"

“He has been running himself ragged these last few days trying to fulfill some request you asked of him. Care to explain what that request was?"

“The contacts in my phone got changed between me losing it and Peter returning my phone to me. I asked Tony if he could fix them for me. He said he didn't have time to look at it until later and to try and figure it out on my own since it might be faster which is what I've been doing. I haven't heard from Tony since."

“That stubborn man," Pepper sighed. "Well, thank you, Steve. Is it okay if I tell him to call you after he gets some rest?"

“Of course. Sorry about this, Pepper," Steve apologized.

“This is hardly your fault but I appreciate the sentiment. Goodbye, Steve."

“Bye, Pep."

Steve finished his coffee in a much better mood than he had started the morning with.

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A few hours later and Steve's phone was ringing once more with an incoming call from one Sherlock Holmes.

“I can't crack the encryption on your phone, Rogers," Tony grumbled tiredly almost as soon as Steeve answered.

“I appreciate you trying, Tony. I only have three left and I think I at least have a decent guess on who one of them is."

“So you have been doing your homework," Tony joked.

“Well, I couldn't let you do all the heavy lifting, now could I?" Steve joked back.

“I'll talk to the kid when I see him - see if he knows anything."

“Thanks, Tony. I'll keep hacking away at the last few contacts I have left to fix but keep me in the loop with Peter?"

“Don't worry, Rogers. I'll keep you informed." Tony hung up after that.

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Steve couldn't believe his luck though his confusion still reigned supreme with the new contact names.

Just who in the fuck thought to name Clint Barton of all people to James Bond? He was a damn good archer not some international superspy like Nat was. Though they did make a damn good team when they decided to work together.

Well, at least that's one more name figured out and fixed. Down to the final two names now.

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Time to finally get some confirmation on who this so called Athena was. Based on what she had been saying, it was one of the kids adjacent to the team - one of Peter's friends from what Steve could tell.

The kid hadn't given away very many other identifiers at all in any of the messages Steve had gotten thus far. A few bits and pieces of facts only an Avenger or someone close to the team would know which did narrow things down.

Everyone except the youngest members of the team having been accounted for thus far also made things even easier. Steve's phone pinged with a new text.

Well, at least that was one more out of the way. He could deal with getting the confirmation on Odysseus after he ate lunch.

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Oh, thank fuck, it's over. Steve locked his phone and set it screen down on the counter in front of him. How Stark managed to deal with the seemly never ending shenanigans of Peter Parker never ceased to shock and appall Steve.