"Alright, kids, I am off to the canteen for my meal. Any questions, email me. Don't forget to put your names in the email. I will reply within the week." Schiller packed his books and materials on the table.
The interns who had been asking questions seemed a bit disappointed. A blonde girl resting her elbow on the podium with her hand propping up her face said, "Doctor, are you ditching us for Stark? Don't give the gossip magazines any ammunition."
"Go on, Catherine, you can have the jar of frosted cookies I've got under the podium, as long as you're not afraid of wasting your entire weekend at the dentist's." Schiller chuckled.
Catherine puffed up her cheeks and said, "Don't think you can bribe me. Oma said you told him you'll bring him Captain America cookies next week. I'm insanely jealous, those are limited edition."
"You should ask the guy next to you, no one knows Captain America better than him." Schiller shrugged.
"Yeah, right." Catherine sneered. At this moment, a petite brunette with freckles squeezed in, beaming, "You should really go, Catherine. I'm dying to know if the Captain actually spent the night at his place."
"Maroni, can you not act like a tabloid reporter?" Catherine asked, somewhat annoyed, "I'm not your drone for gathering intel."
"Hey! Hey! Ladies, got anything to say about Captain America spending the night at my place?" Stark clapped his hands, wagging a finger in the air, "Do you know his ratty dress sense? A deep brown plaid sweater, even a turtleneck."
The girl called Maroni immediately squeezed in next to Stark, trailing Schiller and Stark who were leaving, and began rattling off questions, "You saw him dressed, right? Was it afterward or the next morning? Did you compare... you know, 'yours is bigger than mine'?"
Schiller tilted his head helplessly to the side, glancing at Maroni over the top of his glasses, "Miss, if you put this much effort into your analysis reports, you'll be reporting to Nick's Special Operations team next year."
"I'm planning to write a thesis on superhero interpersonal communication. I want to know if the behaviour and social interactions of these superpowered humans are different from normal people. What do you think, doc?"
"Not bad, but I'd advise against writing about Captain America." Schiller blinked, "He wouldn't understand concepts like 'more or less'."
"Oh, we're here." Maroni exclaimed, "I won't disturb you guys anymore, I still need to find Catherine. I need to ask her about that time Spider Man saved people. She is also a good research subject. Bye."
The petite girl dashed off, and Schiller and Stark sat down opposite each other by the window. They began to order. The waiter robot recorded their choices, and it wasn't long before a feast appeared in front of them.
Schiller ordered a Provencal vegetable soup and a salmon with meat sauce as his main. Stark, on the other hand, had a Lyon salad with sausage, a half onion pie, and a lemon juice clam.
"Our overly generous Director Nick even remembered to hire a French chef for these little brats. But he made a wrong choice by leaving the S.H.I.E.L.D canteen. This resulted in Natasha and Barton coming here for free food every day." Schiller scooped some vegetable soup into his mouth.
"If Nick moved the S.H.I.E.L.D canteen to France, the French would have his head." Stark cut into the onion pie and lifted an eyebrow jokingly.
"What brings you to me?"
"Can't I just want to have lunch with you?"
"Should I add this to your mental health maintenance budget?" Schiller cut a piece of salmon, chewed while saying, "We still have a lot to settle, like when you told Nick that my mental state was unhealthy, and I couldn't see more than ten patients a week, forcing me to teach classes here to kill time."
Stark began to laugh, "Are you complaining?"
"You well know those gentlemen and ladies who make appointments with me for treatment have no psychological problems beyond showing off and demonstrating their social status. Yet you are still trying to interfere with my practice."
"And, I am thankful to Nick for giving me another job. It feels good to listen to the worries of these trainees."
"Self-deception, and…" Stark used the tip of the knife to prod clam and plop a bite into his mouth, "The troubles of these teenage interns are not enough to alleviate your emptiness of not being able to practice. You must be doing something else that makes you appears spirited and radiant right now. I know this situation too well."
Schiller's hand holding the knife and fork paused slightly. He took a sip of red wine and then said, "No, you don't know me. In fact, who wouldn't love a job that gets you a big sum of mental health management fee without any work, right?"
Stark gave a cold and mocking chuckle and put a piece of sausage into his mouth, "Do you know what? Mental patients often outsmart their nurses and hide medication in ingenious ways beyond their normal level of behaviour. Even the most professional lie-detecting team can't catch their lies."
"Do you think I'm lying?"
"Aren't you?"
Stark's tone was very sharp, causing Batman to comment in his mind, "Are you really going to provoke him like this?"
But Schiller wasn't upset at all, he simply shrugged and said, "If you believe it, find where I hide the medicine. I bet you won't find it, because there isn't any."
Stark pursed his lips and grinned, "No, your hint says that I should flit around the cosmos like a headless fly. But I'm not planning on doing that."
"So, what do you intend to do?"
"Make you do some actual work for your mental health management income. This could lower Pepper and Obadiah's blood pressure and also prove that I am correct."
About half an hour later, Shiller sat on the couch in Hell's Kitchen and asked Stark, who was sitting across from him, "So, you plan to watch me 24/7?"
"Simple but effective."
Shiller shook his head and walked over to the kitchen to check the ingredients in the refrigerator. Batman said in Stark's mind, "I don't think irritating him is a good idea. Just to let you know, I might not be able to beat him in a fight, and I doubt you could either."
"Why do you always assume we're going to fight?" Stark asked puzzled. "What happened between you and the Shiller you knew? Did you guys often battle each other?"
"Worse than that," Batman hesitated as if he didn't want to continue, but eventually admitted. "When I existed inside his Tower of Thought, I saw another universe where I also existed, and I got glimpses of his memories."
"In that universe, Shiller taught me, but he was also like a father to me. However…"
Batman's voice trailed off, sparking Stark's curiosity. He asked, "But what? What happened to them?"
"It's hard to explain," Batman said, giving a vague assessment. "But I sincerely suggest you not to provoke him. We share a body now. It would be counterproductive to spend time hospitalized."
Stark snorted. "No matter what that Shiller was to you, I know my friend, and he won't react negatively."
"Not even if you invade his personal sanctuary and refuse to leave, with the justification that you're 'monitoring' him?"
"You've chosen your words poorly," Stark said incredulously. "Can't it be seen as a simple friendly visit?"
Batman was silent for a moment before he said, "But the purpose behind your visit was surveillance, and he knew it."
"My purpose was to accompany him, obviously. He'll take any company he can get and won't refuse us. We're enjoying a good bout of calm. It's been a while since we had one," Stark raised his voice in disagreement.
"We'll see."
"I bet you'll only last until 5 p.m.," Shiller placed a glass of water on the table in front of Stark. "The genius thoughts in your head will push you to return to your lab to create some great achievements for humanity instead of sitting here watching soap operas."
Stark picked up the glass and patted the couch, "Fair enough, let's watch together. When do you think the lead actress will find out about her husband's affair?"
"Her husband isn't having an affair. He has cancer and is pretending to cheat so his wife will leave him."
"Good God, it's even more dramatic than I thought."
Time flies. At about 4:30 pm, the sound of a car reversing into the garage broke the silence. Stark looked at his watch and stood up, "Well, you're right. Now it's time for Tony Stark the genius to contribute to human civilization. You can finish the soap opera with Steve. I bet he'll be sobbing uncontrollably."
Shiller sat on the couch and looked up at him. After a while, a gust of cold air came from the door. Steve rushed in and gave a thumbs-up towards the door, "Quick, Tony, deal with the traffic police behind me. I didn't turn on the dash cam."
Stark went out with his car keys, meanwhile, Steve, picking up the kettle, gulped down some water, then sat down on the couch and asked Shiller, "How are you feeling? Doctor Shiller, how have you been?"
Shiller changed the channel on the remote control. The colorful lights of the TV flickered in his eyes in the dimly lit room. Steve got up, pulled down his sweater, then went to turn on the light.
"Hey, I wanted to watch that one. I've been learning to cook recently." Steve pointed at the TV and then resumed his place on the couch, his eyes glued to the cooking show on the screen.
With a "bang," the window behind them opened, and Stark threw his car keys onto the window sill, "Done. Steve, make sure he doesn't leave your sight tonight, even when you put on that old brown plaid sweater. Peter will be here first thing tomorrow."
Without turning back, Steve gave him an OK sign with his hand and returned his attention back to the TV show.
"Your departure is the right move.", Batman said in Stark's mind. "If you continue to argue with him about whether the lead actress' husband really had a mental fling, he would definitely give you some punches."
"He wouldn't because her husband did have a mental affair."
"You have no grounds for that claim. You're not cut out for deductions."
"It's you who isn't cut out for it."
"I want to punch you now."
"But you can't."
Batman lapsed into silence, seemingly considering the possibility of giving Stark a punch in the brain.
However, considering it might also hurt himself, he abandoned the idea. Instead, he anticipated the day when Shiller would punch Stark. He had no doubt that day would come.