"Hey Tony, what was Peggy like? The Peggy you knew" Steve's voice asked.
"Dammit, what did I tell you about bugging me when I'm holding a plasma torch?" Tony said as he dipped his hand in a bucket of water. "That's one nasty burn Capsicle, so this better be worth it."
"I already asked you the question" Steve said as he crossed his arms.
"Oh, what was it? Too busy sciencing stuff over here to listen to your words spew from your mouth like a waterfall of letters" Tony smirked as he started applying gauze to his burned hand.
"What was Peggy Carter like? When you were growing up?" Steve repeated.
"Well, first, she was Ms. Carter, never Peggy to anyone but Howard. Maria and a few others got by with Margaret, but to me she was Ms. Carter" Tony has sat down on a stool and dried his hands on a shop rag. He discarded the rag to the floor and an eager Dum-E grabbed the rag and raced off with it.
Steve slowly sat down on the only cleared workbench in the shop. Tony looked up to Steve and continued "I never talked to her much. Maybe 3 times in total. Each conversation was about Howard and you. The first one was about expanding Stark Industries' weapons division to cover the expansion of SHIELD. The second one was about the death of Howard and his most prized possession, your shield. And the last, uh, conversation of sorts was about the weapon division of Stark Industry when I decided to shut it down."
"No, that's not the Peggy I knew" Steve shook his head in disbelief.
"Time judges us all Captain. Think about it. Fury was her successor. How do you think he became the way he is? She taught him everything about the spy world. She had no friends and no family ties. She lived for her work" Tony said quietly as he absentmindedly started playing with the gears of a gauntlet from Mark 23.
"What did you two talk about then, in more detail" Steve asked.
Tony took a deep breath before talking. "She asked me about the future of the Stark weapon division, since I was a member of the team that popularized new age Stark weaponry. Keep in mind Howard was still alive and I was still in high school. I was barely a teenager and she wanted me to keep the weapon manufacturing at an all-time high. I thought it was a good idea since it made more money than I could ever dream of at the time. The second time was about Howard's death. Because of their close ties, she took over the investigation of his death. This started my distrust towards SHIELD since she seemed more worried about finding the super-soldier serum that was stolen than trying to investigate the cause of the accident. The third time we talked was about the weapons division again. It was after my trip to Afghanistan and I decided to close my weapons division and expand more into products to help the common American, like cheaper, more efficient ways to achieve energy. Phones, tablets, tv's, holograms, science apps, oh rambling again, right." Stark shook his head clear from all thoughts.
"She wanted it open and would use any force to keep it open and operating since she needed those weapons. I told her I was out, so she wanted the reactor if she couldn't get a weapon. I told her, in a classic Tony Stark fashion, 'To go fuck herself with the Triskelion towers.' That was the last we spoke. I never saw her again nor did I care to."
"She changed so much. She had a no bullshit attitude but had a faith about her that made you want to trust her. She had this charm on her that made it hard not to look at her and fall head of heels. If anyone had eternal optimism, it was her" Steve said softly as he held a picture of young Peggy Carter in his hands.
"Time judges us all. The Peggy you knew died with you. The Ms. Carter I knew died with no one."
"Thanks Tony" Steve said as he stood up.
"Was there any point in discussing this?" Tony asked as he became enamored by the other gauntlet once again.
"I needed some closure. That's all" and with that Steve was gone and Tony was back to work, new designs of the suit swirling in his head.
Later that night, Steve sat by the foot of the fireplace with pictures and letters in his hand. Each one pertained to Peggy, pictures of her from the war, letters he wrote but could never send after he woke up from his time under ice.
"We had a good run Peggy, but we are from 2 different times. I need to move one so I don't become bitter." The like you part was left unsaid but was nonetheless present.
Steve moved his hand closer to the fire, so just the tips of the papers caught ablaze. He watched as the paper was slowly charred and disintegrated into dust in his hand. The flames licked at Peggy's face and he felt a call of longing deep within his stomach. By then, the flames reached his fingers, so he threw the rest of the paper into the fireplace, completely burning the papers. He felt like he closed a chapter of his life, leaving Peggy behind. Now all he has the people around him and a future of possibilities.