Oh, God...

[shieldborne]

Infinity War Open Post






THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.

Drop me a prompt, or ask me to drop you a prompt. Open to doomy pre-IW foreshadowing, fix-it AUs, post-IW angst, character interactions that should have happened but didn't on-screen, crossovers, and whatever else anyone can come up with.

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[shieldborne]

"HYDRA was crippled then, not killed," Steve says, and there's genuine regret in his voice this time. He can't see the ridiculous, because he's far too distracted by the idea that he failed to finish the job he swore to finish. If he hadn't gone down with that plane, maybe he could have stopped Zola's work. Kept the parasite from taking root.

Then again, if Peggy couldn't, maybe no one could. Still, he feels responsible, and these days there's a nasty little doubt in his brain, whispering that he went down with the Valkyrie because he wanted to. It's both true and a lie. His confidence wavers a little, gaze dropping. "I failed. Maybe...there wasn't any point in me dying, anyway. But I'm here now."

He shakes his head. "I'm telling you because you have the expertise to hack SHIELD's system and pull out information. What the hell is a guy recovering from freezer burn going to do in the face of that kind of technology? Write letters to the editor? At this time in my life, I'm a brawler, and a soldier, and an artist, and that's what I know. I'd get myself killed, alone, now. Given a few years to acclimate, sure, but we don't have a few years."

He looks up at Tony again. If what he's saying carries a one-two punch of sincerity, it's because he means it. Telling Stark about Thanos isn't happening; it's bad strategy. He's barely ready to believe this much. But Project Insight is a global threat, too, and Steve takes it personally. "I've got other work for the younger version of me. He and I are going to make sure the cube gets destroyed. And Coulson's a good man, one of the few you can really trust within SHIELD, but I don't see him accepting all this just on my say-so. Not right away."

"I'm counting on you being inquisitive enough to find out, whether you believe me or not." And that's the truth.

"Project Insight could kill tens of millions of innocent people. Just look into it."

[starkingenuity]

Steve just says all the right things and Tony knows he’s not only being told the truth, but that the other man knows him. This isn’t surprising if he takes their friendship into consideration but he can’t imagine why they would have become friends. Tony had gone from jerking of to the pictures on his trading cards to genuinely hating the blond. It might not be for a good reason, it’s not like he’d ever met him, but having been compared to and bombarded with Steve enough in his life, Tony had fostered hatred through resentment.

Eight years might be long enough to repair that, of course, but that doesn’t explain why Steve knows intimate details about him. Maybe they’re friends, that’s cool, but holy shit, this sounds like so much more than a friendship.

“Oh. I’ll look into it.” He can’t help but move behind the bar and put two glasses on the polished wood. His dad told him Cap couldn’t get drunk but he drinks alone enough. Steve can at least appreciate the taste of fine, aged Scotch.

“So how am I in bed?” Tony asks, mostly looking for reaction to test his hypothesis. He might not rigorously follow the scientific method but sometimes it’s useful. There’s very few reasons Steve would know intimate details about him. Either he starts fucking Steve in the future or his Future Self died to send Steve back and decided this was the best information to use to gain his trust.

The latter is more plausible but he imagines men from the 40s would be homophobic enough to bark at his uncouthness or at least blush. He’s hoping for the blush.

[shieldborne]

Steve feels a huge sense of relief, which he has no right to feel just yet, because he still needs to try and get Tony out of the building, or at least way more distracted than he is right now. For a moment there, he forgot that the main point of talking to him today wasn't to get him to investigate SHIELD.

Unfortunately, Tony's very acute guess throws him off balance. The memories of lovemaking are very fresh in his mind, and his first time was only a couple nights ago, so naturally he turns a gratifying shade of pink, which seems to go all the way down his neck and vanish under his collar. Tony gets a brief glare for his trouble, which quickly softens and drops to the floor.

"Pretty demanding," he says. "Thorough. But surprisingly kind."

He clears his throat and straightens a little. "But don't go hitting on the younger version of me, if you know what's good for you. He's not ready, and I am in no way worth screwing up what you've got with Pepper for."

[starkingenuity]

This revelation leads to so many more questions than Tony is actually willing or able to form into words at the moment. He looks at Steve as if he’s forgotten how to blink before he curses under his breath and pops open the bottle he’d been holding. They both get very liberal pours.

Why would he and Pepper ever break up? Certainly not for Captain America— The answer comes to him a moment later and he recaps the bottle and leaves it on the bar before grabbing his drink.

Steve is here to thwart an apocalypse. Pepper must have died.

And Tony’s absolutely an any port in a storm sort of guy. Or had been before Pepper straightened him out.

“Now I can at least die happy,” he says, sarcasm dripping from his tongue. He keeps looking up at Steve as if he expects him to start undressing. And that’s ridiculous. “So message received. Captain America spy work will commence immediately. I trust you can show yourself back to the future?”

[shieldborne]

Dammit. He shouldn't have given an honest answer. Too much information. Steve is not the greatest at spontaneous lies, though. Even if he'd tried to steer away from that question, his reaction would have given him away.

Tony's words say he's being dismissed, but there's a glass on the bar that was clearly intended for him when it was poured, even if Stark has changed his mind since. And Steve can't just go. So he picks it up and takes a surprisingly conservative sip of the contents. He still drinks like he's a 95 pound asthmatic more often than not, even if he could knock back a couple bottles and never feel it.

"Not much point going back to the future. I'm not even sure, if this works, whether I'll keep on existing? Might just crumble into..."

...dust. That was a bad place to let his mind go, and Tony gets a glimpse of color draining from his face before he downs the entire contents of the glass. Futilely.

"...anyway, don't worry if you don't see me again after this."

[starkingenuity]

“Oh good.” Tony is deadpan. “You’re staying. Excellent. Future me promise you a bungalow somewhere? And aren’t you god’s gift to straight women? Did I turn you? I should get a medal.” Tony drinks a lot faster than Steve but he’s pretty much a fish. Pepper has managed to tame some of that out of him, but this is a special occasion.

One that makes him wish she was around so he could feel her up a little and get over this weird vibe of attraction he feels for those intense blue eyes looking at him.

Tony sinks a little into the couch opposite the one he’d initially told Steve to sit on. The white one. Not the black.

“Sorry about the mess in the future then. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you stick around to know me for a decade after this.” Maybe reassurance is all Steve needs to take a hike so he can see if Pepper would be willing to get some red boots?

[shieldborne]

"I'm not aware of being god's gift to anyone, thanks," Steve sets the glass down a little more heavily than he needs to. This is the first time he can recall that he's ever been grateful for Tony's ability to be selfish and insensitive if not motivated otherwise. He does not need to be questioned about the future, and the irritation helps him pull himself back into focus.

"But since you asked, I was pansexual before the word was coined. But that wasn't something we discussed in my day. Not in polite company."

He comes back around to sit on the black couch, even though he's more than ready to flee this conversation. "Listen, there's a couple other things you ought to know..."

He's fumbling for a hook, and abruptly he wonders if he should tell him that HYDRA was responsible for killing his parents. Like he should have told his Tony a long time ago. It would definitely be a massive distraction, but it would also be an emotional overload, and coming from a Steve Rogers he doesn't really know and already resents...

That wouldn't end well. And Steve doesn't much care if the man turns on him physically, but he can't afford to be kicked out just to assuage his guilty conscience. He made a mistake he cannot undo. He'll have to live with it.

"Fury isn't working with HYDRA. Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton are clean, too. Them and Coulson. But the corruption goes pretty high-up. I can't tell you with any certainty who is and isn't involved at this point. Be careful. No one's too high profile for them to kill."

[starkingenuity]

With a bleary eyed expression, Tony half stares at Steve and half seems to be processing everything he’s said. There’s a lot to go over and his mind isn’t really clouded enough by alcohol to make it slow down enough so he can think properly. There’s too much of a jumble and he can’t help but wonder how many times Steve’s looked on a face that is exactly like his making the same expressions his is making and known all about the synapses firing behind his eyes. In Tony’s head, they’ve been together for a long time, not just a few days.

Looking at Steve now feels a little like looking at Pepper. The guy must really know him, and that’s comforting. The only trouble is that Pepper won’t be gone for too much longer and Tony really doesn’t want to lose the moment. Not when Steve has a lot to tell him. Tony is still battling his guilt and trying to atone for all of the lives he’s taken through the weapons he’s produced.

What better way to atone than to save the entire damned world?

“JARVIS, order from that place I like,” Tony says, pulling himself off of the couch to pour himself another drink.

“Burgers or pizza, sir?” JARVIS has obviously had to guess multiple times in the past.

“Pizza,” Tony says, already at the bar again. “The Captain and I are going out before Ms. Potts returns. I want the pie waiting for us.”

[shieldborne]

In a way, they have been together for a long time. Steve was always doing his best to read and interpret Tony's expressions, even when he thought they wanted as little to do with one another as possible. Now, all those memories are being reshuffled, refiled, re-interpreted with greater significance assigned to them all. Every breath, every flicker of dark eyelashes is vital, as long as they're one another's lifelines.

Not so with this younger Tony, but he's still comparing and compiling, if with less desperation. The weary look he's getting worries him. He doubts Tony's had enough liquor to get more than buzzed, unless he'd been day drinking before Steve showed up...

But suddenly, the older Tony's certainty that Steve was going to get dragged out for pizza proves well-founded. He wants to laugh, but curbs the reaction into a brief grin. "I'm not sure I understand your junk food obsession, Tony, but I gotta admit, your taste in pizza is second to none."

[starkingenuity]

Tony is flashy, flashier in his younger days than he’d been the last time he’d brought Steve to Brooklyn. There’s no baseball cap and lifted cell phones are met with easily posed for selfies. Steve, for the moment, is ignored, cast in a shadow twice Tony’s height to dwarf the blond. Most people have forgotten Captain America enough to no longer know what he looks like. Tony is on magazine covers and the nightly news.

It’s extra cheese and birch beer again, and they’re back in that corner by the door to the office and stock room. People are giggling and texting around them, but Tony’s eyes are fixated on Steve, drinking him in and turning him over as if trying to decide what the best angle to bite into might be.

They’d spoken at length In the car about HYDRA, and JARVIS took down names and places to search while his human creator had pizza with a man more out of time than ever before. Now, Tony is less interested in work. You don’t work while you have pizza unless it involves watching TV too. The news keeps him informed of where he needs to go next, but it’s also entertaining.

“So I’ve been thinking that when I get closer to retirement, I’ll run for president. Is your me President?”

[shieldborne]

Steve is visibly tense under the onslaught of popularity, at first. He hates being recognized on the street, and while he does feel some warmth towards the people who truly believe in Captain America and what he stands for, he'd just as soon not run into any. It doesn't take him long to realize he's invisible next to Tony Stark, though. In a way, he's even more anonymous by his side than he would be alone, because no one notices a tall, handsome nobody next to a less-tall handsome somebody. It's almost liberating.

He does make sure to pull the brim of his hat down and angle his face away, though. He doesn't want to be in the background of any chance snapshots.

Tony's calculating, analytical gaze makes Steve feel slightly more vulnerable than he'd like, but it's a small price to pay for ice cold birch beer. Maybe it will feel satisfying to Tony to watch Steve genuinely enjoy his meal choice.

He blinks at the suggestion, then looks thoughtful, because politics is a long way out of his wheelhouse, but he wouldn't be surprised if his Tony has been involved in ways other than getting caught up in the Accords. He's going to ask later. "No...but honestly, we could do worse then President Tony Stark. I don't think you'd enjoy the process, but if you're serious and the world doesn't blow up, go for it. At least one of the two of me will vote for you."

[starkingenuity]

Steve’s work might be equal parts tedious and enjoyable, but Tony’s, Steve’s actual Tony, is not having fun. Besting himself might feel like his hardest task to date, but he has too many advantages to the younger Tony. It’s a shame how easy it is to manipulate JARVIS, to write an underlying base code to shut down Iron Man the moment the armor comes into contact with the chill of space, and to ensure that Stark will be dead post Battle of New York. He should feel guilty for the suicide, but he doesn’t. He’s caused enough pain and destruction. He can’t be allowed to cause more, with or without access to the Mind Stone.

The whole process takes half an hour. It takes longer for the other Tony and Steve to get to Brooklyn, actually, but Tony isn’t planning on following the pair. Steve used to be their leader and he trusts his judgement on this. It’s up to him to tell as much or as little as he wants.

Tony is just about to leave the Tower when the smell of a familiar perfume causes him to look over his shoulder. He hadn’t even heard her come back. “Have you been working this whole time?”

Tony finds himself smiling and shrugs. “You know me,” he says, which seems to take the woman aback.

“Yeah, Tony, I do and—“ she starts but Tony cuts her off, heading out of the room.

“Hold that thought. Be right back,” he says. He finds it odd, stepping into the elevator, how much he doesn’t miss her. Maybe it’s because she’s not really Pepper. She’s a Pepper from years ago, younger and more willing to put up with his shit.

And Tony doesn’t need that anymore.

That’s probably why he’s not at all bothered, and sitting behind the wheel, when Steve returns. He tilts his head back against the headrest and smiles up at the blond. “Two more days. How do you want to play this, Rogers? Because if I know you like I think I do, we’re going to have to get you a new uniform.”

[shieldborne]

It's an interesting meal. Steve hasn't processed the last pizza party with Tony as a date, per se, and this one is even less so. He's no homewrecker. Still, the chatter is an interesting opportunity to remind himself why there was so much friction between them to start, compare this younger Tony with the one that's had almost a decade to mellow (and take several additional psychological wounds, unfortunately), and deliver a couple tentative warnings that don't relate directly to Hydra, but to other events in their rocky history. Whether any of them will register, he can't be sure, but he can hope.

Younger Tony is both better and worse than he remembered. Or maybe he just has an easier time seeing through the sandpaper facade, even as it rubs him the wrong way. In the end, he's terribly, terribly human. Flawed, brilliant, hungry for regard that has no relation to his family name or the number and size of his bank accounts. He's just...Tony.

That having been noted, he's still glad to get back to his version. Steve's state of mind is mercurial enough that having to modulate it over the course of the evening has gotten exhausting, and he's glad to be in the presence of a Tony Stark that's reliably a bit more tactful. He slides into the seat beside him and reaches to run his fingers through his hair at once, like it's some kind of sensory thing he needs to clear his mind from the past couple hours.

"You mean a new, new uniform, or an old one?" He smiles wryly. "I kinda hate to just rob the Smithsonian again. What did you have in mind, and does it involve the red boots?" He's getting a lot more mileage out of that sartorial decision than he ever thought he would.

[starkingenuity]

Tilting his head first away from and then towards Steve to allow his lover better access to more of his hair, Tony briefly closes his eyes to enjoy the sensation. Steve has such large hands, warm and gentle, despite what he’s seen them capable of. He’s overly fond of this particular touch, half moon nails lightly grazing his scalp, and the motion makes him feel relaxed despite of the action he had just plotted against himself.

No one will need Tony to find HYDRA. JARVIS will be able to do it on his own, working with the other Avengers. He will never become Vision, but that doesn’t mean he can’t join the team in Tony’s absence.

And he and Steve can make sure HYDRA goes down before it can ever officially pop back up again.

Turning back towards those blue eyes, ones that radiated affection in the darkness, Tony can’t help but smile. “It’s got everything to do with those boots. SHIELD should have a few prototypes laying around. There’s a few not so bright and Disney-Prince.”

Tony doesn’t think he wants to play break and enter any more tonight though.

[shieldborne]

Isn't petting a cat supposed to have health benefits? Lowering blood pressure, calming, something like that? Steve likes animals, although he doesn't particularly want a cat, or a dog for that matter. Petting Tony's fluff of dark hair seems to have a similar beneficial effect, luckily. Steve imagines it's a superior effect, in fact; Tony is just better at most things to begin with, and he gives good feedback.

Actually, under the right circumstances, Steve is betting he could get him to purr.

He has no idea what's in store for the younger version he's just encountered. It's probably better that way; their plans can't afford the argument and sheer moral horror that would spark. Is that suicide or murder, killing a younger version of yourself? Time travel is full of ethical complications.

But since he is innocent of any plot other than their own, he laughs softly when Tony teases him, eyes brightening. "I love you and your unexpected footwear kink," he tells him with impulsive sincerity. "But I hope you're kidding about busting into SHIELD for them. Are we going shopping or something? I had pizza, but you should probably eat."

[starkingenuity]

“It’s New York. Of course we’re going shopping,” Tony says, putting the car into reverse to back out of their spot on the street. There’s nothing like having someone spontaneous tell you that they love you and Tony is going to be holding onto that one for a long time. There had been no command, no pressing need to hear it, and yet there it had been, sending little sparks of pleasure down his spine.

Tony is pleased, murderous plots aside. They’re not supposed to keep anything from each other anymore but Tony isn’t one to take the moral high ground and his compass is always shy of pointing to true north. It’s nothing to orchestrate a hit on himself and still enjoy a drive through the streets of Manhattan.

“I’ll eat later. You’ll probably be hungry in a little while anyway.” There’s a lot more room service in their future, thanks to the wads of cash they’re flush with. But Tony hadn’t been joking about Steve needing a uniform. He could always use one of the suits of armor that Tony brought, but Captain America is less technology and more good old fashioned elbow grease. And really high kicks.

There’s plenty of costume stores around the city but FRIDAY points them to a custom made fetish shop for their needs. Steve can do back flips in spandex and cheap plastic bag crap, but he shouldn’t have to. Not when they can afford something more durable and leather.

[shieldborne]

Sooner or later, Steve feels, they will have to tone down the spending some. Even repeated wins at the tables in Atlantic City--or Vegas--will only support so much frivolity. But since there's also the possibility they'll die in the next week, he's not going to make waves yet. They'll figure out how to fund their crusade after they destroy the first two stones. Maybe, if they're really lucky, they'll get a chance for a long enough downtime to live like normal human beings for a while.

You know. A year or two. After they take care of HYDRA. That's not too much to ask.

"I'm not a bottomless pit," he tells Tony archly. But it's true that he needs a ridiculous amount of calories to feel comfortable. He can keep running for a long, long time on MREs and bad coffee, but he rarely turns down a real meal. He's going to be keeping an eye on Tony's eating habits, too, from now on. The mother-henning could get annoying eventually.

Steve actually suggests a dancewear shop first, with only a hint of self-consciousness. Flexibility in his work clothes is pretty important; historically it's been more important than armor, since he had his shield, not to mention his general durability. When Tony nixes that, and doesn't seem interested in looking for an army surplus store, either, Steve just waits to see where they end up.

The result prompts a next-level blush and an explosion of laughter that has to run its course before he can leave the car. "I don't know what you have in mind here, Tony," he murmurs at the door, "but I am sure as fuck not wearing a leather g-string to fight the Chitauri. Is this...is this a place you've visited often?"

It's not that he's oblivious to the existence of fetishwear, or scandalized by it. Leather, in particular, was finding its feet right around the time he entered the military. But he's never been in a modern shop like this before, and he's not at all sure what to expect. The possibility that Tony's trolling him has occurred to him. But what the hell, they might have the right boots.

[starkingenuity]

With half a grunt and half a laughing side eye, Tony shakes his head. “I’ve never been. But a dance shop won’t be open this time of night and they don’t make boots and breast plates.”

Tony might be a lot of things, but he’s not part of the kink community and he’s never gone to a shop like this before for that kind of thing. He does, however, know the proprietor of this sort of place. She’s done s lot of work for him in the past. His own past, not hers. He knows his limitations. Leather working and crafting body suits are not his forte, but they are Angel’s.

The sign on the store says it closed half an hour ago but he knows it’s not empty and so he rings the bell on the wall opposite the direction of the pull and a woman in her late sixties answers a few minutes later, eying the pair through the metal grate covering the shop window. “Yes, gentlemen?”

Tony sees no reason to hide his identity here and so he smirks and steps towards the light. “Need a favor, Angel. One we can pay for.” Good luck, Steve, if you think you can wean Tony off of his spending habit. He’s never actually had to budget before. It will be a new experience. “I have a few pieces I need crafted, two days or less. The big guy has huge calves and we can’t just go to a regular shoe store. Interested?”

[shieldborne]

Okay, fair point. Steve manages to calm down the giggles enough to consider the construction of his various uniforms over the past few years. More Kevlar than leather, in the breastplates, but he's not sure that will make a difference with this upcoming fight. The Chitauri mostly had energy weapons, not projectile, if he recalls right. Kevlar might even be less effective than leather. He's not sure what the heat resistance of either might be, offhand.

But he bets Tony knows. There's something reassuring about that, discovering that someone has considered all the practical angles you hadn't gotten around to yet. He gives him a gentle squeeze on the upper arm and nods.

The look of the woman that appears at the door immediately takes Steve back to the site of Project Rebirth and the refined, elderly woman at the counter when he and Peggy entered the facade of the experimental facility. He's half expecting Tony to tell her he always carries an umbrella. That's the trouble with being old, or at least having a lot of life experience. Almost everything reminds you of something, and when it doesn't, it's usually offputting.

He takes off his hat politely, standing off to Tony's side but close enough to show his face. And then he side-eyes Tony's introduction. You can't just address random women as 'angel' anymore, can you? Not without getting an eyeroll in return, at least. "Excuse me, they're 'huge'?"

He glances down at his legs with a quizzical frown. He has yet to buy his own boots in the 21st century. He's never run afoul of his own calf measurements.

[starkingenuity]

“Most people don’t have twenty inch calves,” Tony says smugly, while the older woman looks Steve over carefully in the scant light. Her dark eyes are piercing, moreso than Tony’s will ever be, and when she’s done her scrutiny, she snaps her fingers and opens the door.

“I have the materials and I may be able to find the time. Let me get measurements,” she says, her voice deceptively deep and rattled from too much smoking over the years. “Come in. Quickly. Don’t let the cats out.”

Tony takes up the rear, trailing behind the blond. His eyes wander, mostly because he’s human and curious and there are rows of shelves with all sorts of lurid and interesting packages on them. His hands remain firmly in his pockets, however, because they are not here to buy novelty items.

The back room that Angel leads them to is filled with plush velvet furniture and gold fixtures. It’s decadent without looking cheap or sloppy. The woman snaps her fingers again for Steve to get up on a small raised platform in front of a set of three angled mirrors. Tony is there to dictate what he wants, looking half predatory and half like the business man he’s been for much of his life. “Boots, knee. Red leather. And gloves. Fingerless. With roughed up palm grips. He’s going to need a chest piece that allows full range of arm motion. Something to protect his skin.”

“Motorcycle gear?”

“Yeah but easier to maneuver in. He’s a dancer.” Grin. What a lovely grin, reflected three times back. “He needs his joints to retain fluidity. Can you do that?”

“Tall order. Literally. We have some pieces in stock I can work from.”

[shieldborne]

That gimlet gaze is impressive. Steve knows nothing of this woman's history, but he's immediately convinced to be on his best behavior (he usually is, anyway, but sometimes he's more conscious of it). He goes inside when prompted, and he is also scanning the shelves. With his wholesome face and soft blue eyes, one might be forgiven for assuming he's just looking for the cats (partly he is), but his eyes linger over some of the plainer-looking implements and harnesses. Slightly flushed, thoughtful, not shocked.

His eyebrows jump when she snaps her fingers at him, but he doesn't argue, handing his hat off to Tony in case she needs his hands free for something. Pointedly, he doesn't bother looking at his own reflection, but his eyes flicker over the kaleidoscope images of Tony's face. He thinks he looks like he's enjoying this far too much.

"A little bit of dancer, a little bit of gymnast, a little bit of MMA," he says dryly. "I can ride a motorcycle but it wouldn't be any fun in the city."

[starkingenuity]

“Either way,” Tony draws, glancing at Steve in the mirror, “he needs to keep a full range of motion. If we can’t do it with the leather, it can be left exposed.” A regular t-shirt or a leotard will work out fine for the other areas. Some of those uniforms he’s seen Steve pull on looked painted on anyway in areas. Tony’s sure there’s some sort of protective fiber there but they don’t have the time to goof off developing the right fabrics. “And we need you to be as discreet as possible.”

The older woman snorts. “Mister Stark. You come to me. You know I work with discretion.” Tony nods in response.

“You’re the best. We’re going to have a great relationship.” That’s not exactly true. The other Tony will be dead in two days and won’t have need of the woman’s fine craftmanship. He ponies up a few thousand dollars in hundreds and fifties and once she has all of Steve’s measurements, she motions them to let themselves out.

“Mind the cats!” she calls, a reminder that Tony heeds almost immediately since he barely misses stepping on a dark gray ball of fur with hair and a tail. It screeches, but he thinks better of shrieking back.

[shieldborne]

Steve is oddly passive and docile as she takes measurements. He's been through this a few times before, measured for uniforms and stage and screen costumes, checked for muscle growth, samples plucked from his veins, and so on, and so forth. Nothing new. He's never liked it, being viewed with such detachment, not when he was an invalid his mother carried to monthly appointments in the Catholic hospital, not after he was 'Reborn', and not after the ice, under SHIELD's ministrations. This is minimally invasive, at least, and more boring than dehumanizing, but his mind wanders a little and he doesn't say much while they're working.

He memorizes every aspect of the room around them, though, and if he's asked later, he'll be able to recall the conversation word for word.

He whistles softly when he sees how much Tony's paying, but it's only sticker shock. Hand-craftsmanship in a hurry doesn't come cheap, and he gives the artisan a polite nod before they head out. He also makes a soft mrrr-chirp? noise at the angry cat, an awkward human-feline lingua franca he picked up in alleys as a child. The cat gives him a funny look but doesn't respond in kind, and he's not stupid enough to try to pet it.

Outside in the night air again, he takes a deep breath and looks up at the sliver of sky peeping from between looming buildings. "...hotel now?" He asks quietly. "You still need dinner."

[starkingenuity]

Tony isn’t hungry. He isn’t all that tired either. He’s got an energy to him, like he’s buzzing with the vibration of what’s to come. Passing the next few days won’t be easy, though it isn’t like they’ll be sitting around doing nothing. They need to get to the base the Tesseract is being held in before Loki does to ensure that everything goes as planned, and to keep an eye on the people Loki is about to enslave. Their mission will start on the ground and from within, rather than up in the hellicarrier as hapless victims of a sudden assault.

Tony will eat because Steve wants him to eat. And he’ll eventually come to bed even if he’s got a bug stuck in his crawl about some tweaks to the armor they still need to fetch from Brooklyn.

It’s all going to come down some choreographed steps based on past knowledge and present judgements so that they don’t change the things that must stay the same.

It’s a good thing that Steve paints a pretty picture in bed and that Tony is at best a hedonist. A few looks will bring the mechanic back towards his blond, perhaps a little too easily. “Do you always look this good? Yeah you do. You’re just humble about it,” he murmurs, taking a play from Steve’s rule book to run his fingers through artificially lightened strands.

[shieldborne]

Steve is a contrast to Tony's buzzing energy. It's not that he's tired or even melancholy, just pensive. It makes him quiet, although he still smiles and responds to Tony's conversation, and he's focused enough on the here and now to insist they both eat. He actually has a beer with his dinner, which isn't his usual fare, but he drinks it with all the slow savor of a guy who is capable of getting drunk off it. He was that guy, once.

He's thinking about Peggy at first, reflecting that she's still alive here. He doesn't want to see her. Bucky coming back from the dead is enough. Besides, the shock of seeing him was a concern the first time around. Seeing two living Steves one after another would be bad for her condition. Still, she's here, and he's got a little money, and it would be a matter of a few minutes to buy her some flowers and send them anonymously. Roses, he thinks. Red and white? Or maybe the full spectrum of colors they have available. Rainbow roses. He'll do it tomorrow.

After that, though, he finds his brain wandering through winding memories of the war. Nothing particularly tragic, but details he hasn't thought about in a while. Stories he could probably share with Tony, if he wanted to hear them.

He doesn't especially want to sleep, but he can tell with the mood Tony's in, if he says he's staying up, neither of them will rest tonight. Besides, if they both lie down, cuddling is a possibility, and one he very much welcomes. Briefly he wonders if Tony likes flowers, and finds himself smiling at the idea of getting him red and yellow roses to match the suit. It's that grin that Tony gets the sight of when he comes to the bed and strokes through his hair. There's a certain undeniable charm to Steve's smile when he's pondering gentle mischief.

"You're good at sweet-talk, Tony," he tells him, reaching up to run his fingers up and down his forearm. "You wanna hear a secret? That wasn't the first time I've been around wrist restraints and riding crops."