"There's a special place in Hell for fags like you." His father told him that often.

Tony had gotten in the habit ignoring the man. He yelled and beat and got drunk so often that he wasn't a reliable source of criticism. For years the genius had ignored the phrase but know, in the midst of this disaster, he was starting to believe.

"He's a fucking Homo!" Clint swore in disgust. "Damn and we've been living with this guy?"

Tony shriveled at the gazes rather than the words. Natasha and Bruce were suddenly looking at him like a thing. Natasha, like a target she hadn't quite worked out how to get rid of. Bruce like he was one of the curious space aliens in the experimental tanks down stairs. Clint was just hateful. Steve, he couldn't even look up to check the Captain's eyes.

How had they even found out? He hadn't a clue. He would ask Jarvis later but somehow they had found out and cornered him as soon as he got home.

"When did this start?" Bruce asked with his head cocked.

Natasha held out a hand. "Easy Tony, we're going to help okay? There are cures."

"Cures?" Clint scorned. "I heard a beating helps. Maybe a little cognitive recalibration." He cracked his knuckles threateningly.

Bruce rubbed his chin. "It's worked before. Several countries I've been in have tried that. Some seemed normal."

The genius was just absolutely frozen. His bones rattled and his chest felt cold. This was the team he loved? The ones he had built this tower back up for? Given his home for? Sacrificed his own life for? He trusted them completely. This couldn't be right. This was a nightmare or a dream or something.

"We could try that first, or I know a church down the street with a program for decontamination." Natasha tilted her head in thought.

"Leave him be."

Everyone except Tony turned their gaze to Steve.

"What?" Clint nearly yelled. "You just found out we live with a perverted faggot and you want us to leave it alone?"

The sheer authoritative Captain America tone blasted away protests. "I'm not in the mood to deal with this. Leave."

The three of them scrambled away knowing full well the reaches of Steve's moods. Tony sniffed and picked himself up off the floor. His tailbone was sore but not as sore as his heart. There was broken ceramic on the floor scattered around him and little bits embedded in the palms of his hands.

"Tony." Steve called with his back to the inventor. "Why don't you go up to your room and clean up a bit?" His voice was absolutely flat. None of the anger from earlier rested in it but Tony almost wished there was something, anything there for him to analyze.

He crept out the room and waited for the elevator. Tony pulled the little bits of broken vase or cup or statue or whatever the fuck it was out of his hand. There was no way that whatever it was would go back together, the pieces were absolutely smashed.

The door to his room was open and he walked in with his eyes closed. He didn't want to see if anyone was there. He went into the bathroom and locked the door before he opened his eyes. The person in the mirror even gave him a loathsome look, inviting him to reflect on what a horrible excuse for a human being he was. How many women had he had sex with trying to cover up his fear? How long had he put Pepper through Hell just trying to prove that he wasn't gay?

The tweezers clattered out of the cabinet as soon as he opened it. The sound jolted him to action. Tony viciously attacked the wounds. His nerves screamed but he dug every pointy barb out it. A sound burbled out from his throat as he did it. It felt…

It felt good.

Other people's pain. It flooded and cooled his own. What did his matter to all he had inflicted? Howard didn't want him. The team thought he was freak. He jerked out of the bathroom and pause.

"Stop." He told himself.

He tried to breathe. You are worth it Tony Stark. He tried to repeat over and over again. His temper calmed a bit. The blood stopped pounding his brain. He went back into the bathroom and found a small roll of bandaging. Tony took it and sat on his bed.

His eyes stuck to what was next to him on the table. Natasha and Bruce, fliers, a few pamphlets, essays. Gay Reformation by the Church of John. How to Turn Your Homo to the Light. The headlines struck Tony like bullets to his paper thin skin. He picked them up to throw them. They clattered across the ground but something sparkled on the table still. He recognized the small pill immediately. Clint's favorite.

Cyanide.

The genius took it in his palm. It was so delicate and small. Just a glass capsule full of death.

Abandoning the bandage, Tony sat down in the center of the papers on the floor. The little thing rolled in his hand. He knew how it worked. How the glass gave the poison entry, the foaming. What he didn't know was what came after. Tears ran down his face. Couldn't be any worse than what he was living. He threw it into his mouth. Tony spit it out suddenly. He sobbed. His chest heaved. He was so weak! Why couldn't he just die? It would be so easy. Clint had given him a perfect opportunity. Tears streaked his face and dripped to the floor.

"Tony!"

The inventor's head jerked up. Steve fell to his knees next to him.

"It's okay." He pulled the smaller man into his lap. "It's okay."

Tony allowed himself to be set on top of the man's crisscrossed legs, not that he could do anything else. He felt small but Steve had him. The blonde wrapped his arms around the man. Tony pressed his face to Steve's chest. He felt himself being rocked slightly and he sobbed even harder. Guiltily, Tony opened his palm and showed the soldier.

"Oh Tony." Steve pressed his face to the man's hair. "No Tony."

He knocked it out of his hand and it skittered away across the papers. Steve angrily lashed out at them and they crumpled beneath his rage. He sent them to hide underneath the bed in scraggly heaps. Tony just collapsed completely grabbing onto his savior's neck.

"It's okay Tony. I've got you." Steve murmured. "There's nothing wrong with you baby. You're not a freak. This is not a defect. You are worth it Tony Stark. You're worth every fight we ever had. You're worth every hour we've spent coaxing you out of your lab. You're worth it all Tony."

The genius gripped the broad shoulders. His tears were calming a bit. Every part of him shook and trembled.

"W-why did-d you come for me?" Tony kept his face pressed to the man's chest so his voice was muffled.

Steve sighed heavily and tugged at him gently. The genius relaxed enough to look him tearfully in the face.

"I came," His blue eyes were wide with sincerity, "Because I have a secret. The same one you do. I'm gay Tony." He voice dropped to a whisper. "But only for you."

Tony swallowed hard. "Oh." He kind of squeaked.

A small smiled crept onto the blonde's face. He shifted Tony in his lap and bent over to press his lips softly and teasingly to the inventor's. The smaller man trembled, but for a completely different reason.

"What about the team?" Tony could only huff out in gasping breaths.

Steve picked him up off the ground in his arms. "They'll deal with it. Or leave."

The slight tone of Captain America leadership and decision reassured Tony as he was lowered into bed.

"Don't leave me!" He nearly begged as Steve withdrew his arms.

The soldier slid into bed next to him. "I wouldn't dream of it."