A golden heart stopped beating, working hands went to rest. He broke many hearts to prove to us, he only takes the best.
_
Howard looked at the picture, like he did every year, his wife had made it clear that she hated that picture, hated that it was on his desk, that it was in their home, hated what it reprsented, a part his heart that she could never touch.
It had been twenty years since Captain America had flown a HYDRA ship into the ocean to save the world, the war had ended days after, but there had been no celebrating for the few that had worked with the man, mourning the loss of a man who had died for them. Howard knew the truth behind it, the truth that the world wasn't ready to hear, hell, he hadn't been ready to hear it when he had asked the man why he had been crying that day.
It had only been two days since his friend had fallen from the train, two days of sitting in the ruins of a bar drinking drink after drink buut not getting drunk. Steve had told him that Peggy had been by, but Howard hadn't cared.
-Memory-
Howard walked over to Steve and sat in the chair across from him, "So, what's Captain America doing getting drunk?"
"Can't get drunk." Steve sighed, and it sounded a little like a sob, but Howard had ignored it, because that couldn't be right.
"Right, so why are you trying then?" Howard asked leaning forward.
"Bucky's dead." Steve said like it was the most obvious thing in the world, and maybe if he had known the man better it might have been.
"Yeah, I heard about that, so why are you drinking so much?"
"He's dead and I couldn't save him." Steve muttered taking a drink.
"He knew what he was doing." Howard returned. "And from what I heard from the others you tried to save him."
"But I didn't, save him I mean. He was always saving me and when it came for me to return the favor..." Steve trailed off into sobs, pushing the bottle away and letting his head fall down to the table.
"Hey, hey, don't cry." Howard stood and knelt next to the crying man, putting a hand on his shoulder, "He wouldn't want you to cry."
Steve sniffled and turned to look at him, not lifting his head up from the table, "I loved him, I never got to tell him, he told me when I carried him from the prison, and I couldn't say it back, I thought after the war is over I'll tell him. But now it doesn't matter, there is no after the war for us."
Howard watched the man shrug out of his grip, tug his jacket on, and pull the persona of Captain America on before he walked out of the ruined bar.
And that was the last time Steve Rogers was seen, only Captain America remained.
-End Memory-
Howard put the picture away, a part of him would always love Captain America, not like his wife thought he did, and he did love Captain America, but he wasn't real, and he didn't know Steve enough to love the man that Captain America had been born as, and Steve had already given his heart away and it had died before his life had ended.
Howard snuck into his son's room and pressed a kiss to the boy's forehead, "I love you, Tony, and I am proud of you and always will be." He whispered, he might never be able to bring himself to say it when his son was awake, but at least he would never have Steve's regret, never saying it at all to his son. And even if his son couldn't hear it, at least he had told him.
Howard left the child's room and crawled into bed with his wife, and murmured a thousand sorrys against her skin as he held her until she shoved him away in the morning, and hopefully in the morning he would be told that they had found Steve's body, so he could bury it and put the tombstone next to Bucky's, the world may not have been ready for them to be together in life but it was the least they could do for the man, letting them be together in death.
Er, yeah I was having a moment.