Apartment Above Stark Industries

[heroic_jawline]

Steve was back from his normal run and enjoying the air conditioning of their apartment (which he'd turned up a little bit to make himself feel less guilty about being engaged to an engineering genius while everyone else was melting in the heat) and had showered and changed and was now sprawled out on the sofa with his Stark tablet, going through more of the exposed SHIELD files that Natasha had flagged for him in an email titled "Tugging on that Thread."

It was probably a bad idea to be reading the information, but Steve couldn't help himself. He'd been chasing Bucky for years and had gotten exactly nowhere. Maybe what SHIELD, well, Hydra, had on his past would give him some more leads to follow.

[OOC: For that guy! Let's detonate MCU canon today, shall we?]

Comments

[imafuturist]

"He wanted a different son," Tony said, halting because this was difficult even with the whole truth thing. "More up to his standards."

[heroic_jawline]

Steve hugged him more tightly. "Then his standards were impossible. You're the best man I know."

[imafuturist]

Tony let out a cracked open sound at that. Kind of a laugh, but kind of a sob too. "You really think that?

The honesty had to be on the fritz here, right?

[heroic_jawline]

Steve tilted Tony's face up so he was looking straight into his eyes. "I really think that."

[imafuturist]

"Remind me to give you something nice so you won't leave me." Tony, c'mon.

[heroic_jawline]

"Oh, sweetheart, no," Steve murmured. "You don't have to buy me."

[imafuturist]

"I buy everyone," Tony said helplessly. "I try to."

[heroic_jawline]

"Why?" Steve asked softly.

He had his theories, but he wanted Tony's.

[imafuturist]

"At first it was because that's what people wanted me for," Tony replied with a sigh that said he hated this so much, Steve. "And then I met Rhodey. And he didn't want stuff. I couldn't trust it. I can't trust it."

[heroic_jawline]

"I really wish time travel was real so I could go back and give Howard a piece of my mind," Steve muttered. "And sock him in the jaw. You had awful, greedy people around you."

[imafuturist]

"Time travel is real, but it usually produces a stable time loop." Not the important thing here, Tony. But thanks for that. "I know it's messed up. I feel bad that you're stuck with my issues."

[heroic_jawline]

"At least you talk about your issues," Steve said. "I'm sure that if I ever stop moving long enough to actually sit and think about mine, I'll never, ever stop crying."

Well then.

[imafuturist]

"Steve," Tony said, reaching up to cup Steve's face in his hands.

[heroic_jawline]

Steve's eyes welled up. "I didn't mean to say that."

[imafuturist]

"I know," Tony said, resting his forehead on Steve's. "I know. I've got you."

[heroic_jawline]

"I like it better when I get to tell you it's okay," Steve muttered.

[imafuturist]

"I'd send you back if I could, but I'm selfish. I'm so selfish to want to keep you," Tony replied, continuing to just hate today.

[heroic_jawline]

"Loki called me the man out of time," Steve said softly. "I don't always want to be here, but I don't want to go back, either. I'm just so...tired. I'm tired of feeling stupid, and pitied, and deliberately misunderstood. And I'm furious that after all the sacrifices we made in the war, Hydra infiltrated everything and the world's an even bigger mess than it was 70 years ago."

He cleared his throat, trying not to just bawl all over Tony. "And I wouldn't let you send me back without you. You're the only thing that makes sense in the last five years."

[imafuturist]

Tony hugged him a little tighter. "I want to fix it all for you, but I know I can't."

[heroic_jawline]

"Oh, I know I'm unfixable," Steve said.

That wasn't what Tony said at all, Steven.

[imafuturist]

"No," Tony said, maybe a little too loud for how close they were. "Not like that. Never like that. It's just--you can't fix people. Believe me, I've tried."

Rhodey sighed at him a lot in college.

[heroic_jawline]

Steve took in a couple of shakier than he liked breaths. "Those awful people who only wanted your money?" he guessed.

[imafuturist]

"Me," Tony admitted. "I was what I thought people wanted."

[heroic_jawline]

Steve looked broken-hearted to hear that. "That fake you that comes out for the press and parties?"

[imafuturist]

"I never want that for you," he insisted. "You're... you're so much more."