Author: Dreaming of Words
Prompt: Steve Rogers, Tony Stark; dream bigger
Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing, but I wish I did.
Summary: "Steve knew that the world had changed when he exited the ice. But sometimes he forgot." Tony keeps Steve from being lost in his memories and gives him something special with the help of a familiar silver case.

Notes: Once again, I am so freaking sorry about how I disappeared. Life really hates me sometimes and university has been kicking my butt. Anyway, here's a new one in a new fandom for me. Like I said in the summary, I am never one to turn down a challenge. So this one has a mild crossover with the movie Inception, but it's nothing too major. The chapter title is from the movie, obviously, and the PASIV machine is as well. I just couldn't keep myself from using it when I saw the prompt. Without further ado, on to the story.


PROMPT FILLS

Chapter 1: Dream A Little Bigger, Darling (Steve Rogers/Tony Stark)

Steve knew that the world had changed when he exited the ice. Just looking at Times Square, lit up in neon and HD screens, was enough to remind him of that fact. But sometimes he forgot. Sometimes he would forget that he should be 90 years old by now and that one of his closest friends was a young version of Tony Stark's father. Sometimes he would forget that Peggy Carter, the woman he imagined spending his life with, was a great grandmother of twenty and that her husband had been dead for close to 12 years. Her hair had not been black in over two decades and her skin was waxy and paper-thin. Steve thought he might break her by simply breathing on her, hyper-aware of the years that spanned between them full of what ifs and what could have beens.

But he would always eventually remember. Whether it was JARVIS informing him of a meeting, a text on his cell phone, seeing Tony and knowing that Howard's been dead for so many years, or meeting Peggy's great-granddaughter that was a spitting image of his wartime love, Steve knew that even though he wished things could have been different there was no way for him to go back to the time he was supposed to be a part of. So instead of allowing himself to wallow in the possibilities of things that had never come to pass, instead of allowing himself to rage against the injustice of Fate for simply putting him on ice for seventy years and not having the decency to just kill him, he drew.

Steve would draw scenes from his youth, from the Brooklyn he grew up in and not the "hood" it became. He would draw Bucky and Peggy, the Howling Commandoes, Howard Stark, everyone that meant something to him in his life before the ice. But he quickly learned not to show these portraits to anyone. Well, anyone except Tony, as odd as that sounded. All the other Avengers would look at him with pity in their gazes, even the indomitable Natasha who knew more than anyone the type of loss he was experiencing. They would pity him, worry for him, and report to the SHIELD psychologists that he was torturing himself.

But he wasn't.

Steve just didn't know any other way to immortalize and celebrate the people of his life before other than to draw them so he would never forget their faces. And oddly enough, Tony understood that. So Steve would show Tony his drawings, and Tony would be oddly serious through it, asking questions about who the people were to him or where the piece of landscape was located. He even would hold back his tongue at portraits of his father; the man Steve knew a much different one than the man who raised him. And Steve was content with this, with sharing his stories and his life with someone who wouldn't judge him.

And even though he no longer felt nauseous when he talked about his past, even though he let go of all the what ifs and focused on the present day, he was still overwhelmed by the changes, by the modernity and sheer scale of the world he now lived in. So he would hide in Tony's workshop and sketch the skyline as he once knew it from his memory and allow himself to mourn the changes that had happened.

But one day, Tony walked in with a shiny silver case, not unusual for him, but Steve couldn't help but take notice due to the wide and honest grin spreading across the billionaire's face. Setting the case down with a clatter, Tony seemed to vibrate with energy as he grabbed Steve's hand in his own and started speaking a mile a minute. Steve forced down a blush at the feeling of Tony's rough hands, mechanics' hands, on his and tried in vain to pay attention to what he was saying but still only caught every other word. He wasn't sure he really wanted to know, honestly, because all he heard was 'dream building,' 'architect,' 'sleep,' and 'inception,' of which he didn't have any clue how those words related to each other and to the silver case that Tony was now busy opening up and pulling out IVs.

When Tony moved to insert the IV into Steve, Steve jerked his arm away and curled it against his side, glancing at Tony warily. Tony's eyes softened and his smile shrank until it was just a shadow of his manic grin but a thousand times more sincere.

"Steve, just trust me," the smaller man implored and Steve considered the risks before giving his arm back to Tony. Inserting the IV into Steve's arm and then his own, Tony sat down next to him and then pressed the button in the center of the case.

Steve was on top of Avengers tower. He knew that because there was no view of the Manhattan skyline that quite compared. Except for the fact that there was no skyline to speak of. He felt a nudge on his shoulder and turned his head to see Tony sitting next to him glancing out over the empty view as well.

"Before you ask, I'm not sure why it's empty," the other man said, but turned his gaze to Steve. "But I think that you should fill it in."

Steve waited for Tony to elaborate but the man remained stubbornly silent. Steve sighed and turned back to the empty vista, closing his eyes and imagining the skyline of his youth being constructed before his eyes. A few moments later, Tony let out a soft chuckle and Steve opened his eyes to see that the skyline had been filled in. But just like he had drawn it, the skyline before the ice and not the modern one. Eyes wide and a manic grin lighting his features, Steve sprang up and rushed to the edge, surveying the vista as his heart leapt giddily in his chest.

He felt more than saw Tony slide up next to him, and he definitely felt the rough mechanic's hand that Tony placed on his should. Stretching up to whisper in the taller man's ear, Tony breathed, "Dream bigger." Steve whirled to face the other man and pulled him into a kiss full of excitement and thanks and promises and unresolved feelings. And unbeknownst to either man, the skyline around them morphed and changed to become something bigger and better than before.