It's progress. Steve-the-elder finds himself relieved, letting his shoulders sag a little. He keeps still otherwise; sudden moves, he knows, might just end poorly. He smiles back, though, and it's far less wary. "Give it about a year and half. Then the clean eating fad will catch on and you'll have all kinds of options."

"I'd stay out of Whole Foods, though. It makes me feel eight different kinds of weird about the direction Western culture is trending in."

...but he digresses. Sobering, he interweaves his fingers in front of his knees. "It's not a simple fix. But I'll tell you as much as I can. In a couple days, Fury's going to drop by with a mission. The...cube. The energy source Hydra had used to power their weapons. It's about to be stolen. I'll give you the details later, but Fury's going to want your help getting it back. The thing is, it needs to be destroyed, not retrieved."

"It's one of six similar objects. Gems or stones. Bringing all six of them together gives a person that can use them an insane amount of power. More than should exist in the universe. You've seen what the cube can do by itself. I'm sure you can imagine."

"The person who's about to steal it has another stone. If we can get both of them and destroy them, we could save the world a hell of a lot of trouble. And by we, I mean--"

He pauses and says quietly, "Sorry, Tony, but I know I hate surprises. Better if we be up front."

To his other self he explains, "I have a friend on standby. Upstairs. He figured you and I would do better without him interfering, but I don't want you to think I had an ambush waiting. We need help, not a fight."