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]

"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."

[heroic_jawline]

"For one thing, I look close enough to know where you're faking, unlike most of these people," Steve said, judging those other people so, so hard.

[imafuturist]

"I meant I don't want you to do that to yourself in order to live here," Tony said, looking a little exasperated and a lot fond.

[heroic_jawline]

"Oh," Steve said. "I'd tried to stop talking about my stuff."

That was healthy.

[imafuturist]

"I noticed," Tony said, kissing him gently. "I feel wrung out, but... better. I think. Might help you too."

[heroic_jawline]

"I'm afraid if you realize how screwed up I really am, you'll leave," Steve said.

[imafuturist]

"Never," Tony insisted.

[heroic_jawline]

"I don't really know where to start," Steve said softly.

[imafuturist]

"What worries you the most?" Tony asked.

[heroic_jawline]

"The thoughts I have when I let my brain slow down," Steve murmured.

[imafuturist]

"What do they say?" Because Tony was going to argue with them a lot.

[heroic_jawline]

"That I'm never going to fit in anywhere," Steve said. "That I'm both too old and too young to be taken seriously. That people only like me for Captain America and can take or leave Steve Rogers."

[imafuturist]

Tony made an upset little noise, resting his forehead against Steve's. "Oh, sweetheart. Anyone who can't see you for you is an idiot."

[heroic_jawline]

"I've run into a lot of idiots, then," Steve said. "I should've seen Rumlow for what he was a long time before I did. I was just so desperate for friends--"

[imafuturist]

"None of us could have known how bad he actually was." Though the beer. The beer...

[heroic_jawline]

Steve sighed. "He made some questionable jokes, then told me I didn't have a sense of humor when I said anything."

[imafuturist]

"I had a friend like that too," Tony replied. "Sometimes you want to see the best in people. And sometimes those people feed the monster in your head to keep you under their grip."

[heroic_jawline]

"Who was your friend?" Steve asked.

[imafuturist]

"A kid I grew up with," Tony sighed. "Tiberius Stone. Do not hunt him down."

He knew you, Steve.

[heroic_jawline]

"I would definitely find him and punch him," Steve admitted.

[imafuturist]

"Please don't. He's a jerk, but you don't deserve to get arrested for that."

[heroic_jawline]

Steve leaned in to give Tony a soft kiss. "I get protective," he admitted.

[imafuturist]

"And I like that," Tony replied. "But. Trust me, he's not worth it."

He'd still beat the crap out of Rumlow on Steve's behalf, though.