A/N: It's obviously been a long time since I've posted anything. I lost one of my best friends and another one is sick, and I've been working. I've started writing again slowly, though, and I don't have a beta at the moment because my usual is in France not able to get on a computer. If you're interested, please let me know! My writing style is a little out of whack from the long break. Also, what a great come back story. Serial killer Steve Rogers.
Sacrifices are made for the ones we love, Tony, are the words Tony is thinking when he wakes up. He doesn't know why, except whatever he's lying on is vibrating with movement, it's wet and sticky, and there's the muffled sounds of anger around him.
His heart freezes, because this doesn't seem like a good situation to be in. Its familiar, this feeling, a side effect of being held by terrorists, but it didn't make any sense now. The sounds are louder. His head hurts now too. Who hit him?
"Let him go, Steve!"
"He's mine, Natasha. Back the fuck off before I blow this guy's head off."
That wasn't right.
His eyes opened and found saw three different kinds of red. Steve's boots, Natasha's hair, and blood.
The blood was everywhere, and his breath hitched, head pounding in protest.
"Tony!" Natasha called, demanding, "Get up and run, NOW."
Steve whipped around, and his blue eyes were cold. Then they closed and Steve fell in a heap on the floor. Tony, at the very least, could say he was very confused at how he ended up on the floor covered in blood with Steve unconscious by Natasha's actions. It didn't take long to remember.
In the final moments before Tony had his first clue that something wasn't quite right, he'd been planning a vacation to the Bahamas. Then the call came from Carol, that Agent Khoury had been brutally murdered in her quarters, her heart missing.
And it all clicked together.
"Tony," Steve purred, pacing his cell like a leopard. A very smug leopard, at that. "You know that it's me."
Tony tried not to think.
"You know me, love."
In reality, no, he didn't know Steve at all. Not if everything that they'd uncovered was true. So he said nothing. Blood, blood, so much blood…
"You're ridiculous," Steve laughed as Tony wrapped himself in blankets in burrito formation on the carpeted floor. "Are you pouting that I won't go out to dinner with you?"
"Yes, because you promised." He mumbled.
"I said maybe, if Fury didn't call me in for another-"
"I know, but since when do we care? I sure never have."
"Tomorrow, Tony, I promise."
Two murders that night, two petty criminals making threats against Stark Industries; their hearts missing. Blood was smeared against the mattress when Tony woke up next to Steve that morning. Tony ignored it. Steve snuggled against him and wouldn't let go for an hour.
"Get away from him, Tony." Clint said, dangerous and quiet. It was these moments that he remembered Clint's job profession.
"I know it's not Steve." He responded, not taking his eyes off the blue eyes that weren't quite right. "But I need to find him, and he knows where he is."
"Have you considered that it is Steve? That waking up from the ice turned him bat shit crazy, because he couldn't handle it? We've seen it before."
Tony thought about Steve drawing with his tongue sticking out a little as he concentrated, about holding Steve while he nearly broke after learning the truth about Bucky, about the horrors he went through as Steve slept like death, and the way he clung to his love like there was nothing else in the world but him keeping him alive.
"No. Steve's somewhere."
Steve, or Bad Steve, sat down in the cell, and smiled. "Yeah, I'm right here. But you know that, right, Tony? You've always known. You just-"
"Keep talking, and I'll use that stun gun in Clint's pocket on you."
"You need me, Tony."He threw his head back, smiling at the bright lit ceiling. "And that's okay, because I'll protect you."
"This is so fucking creepy, you don't even know." Clint hissed, grabbing Tony's arm and dragging him toward the door. Tony knows what Natasha means when Clint can be over protective now, but he didn't protest as they headed to the cockpit, hand firmly on his arm with an iron grip that put Thor to shame. "You don't get to talk to him anymore."
"Why?" Tony didn't understand. Didn't they want to find Steve?
"He's got a psycho hold on you, Tony. He's stable when you're there, because you're his target." Clint said, throwing him into one of the conference chairs. Natasha walked up behind them, silent. A little murderous.
Not as much as Steve, apparently.
"He won't kill me."
"No, he wants to protect you or some bullshit on a stick. It's fucking weird. We need him to break, so that if he is holding Steve somewhere or its Steve poisoned, whatever crazy thing happened."
"If?" Tony narrowed his eyes.
"You're his trophy," Natasha murmured.
"More like his boy toy." Clint snorted.
"Really? Fuck you." Tony snapped and put his head down on the table. "I already feel like a failure. Do you have to push it by making it sound like I'm a mindless slut?"
"We don't think that." Clint replied, more softly. "He's good. Nat and me, we're trained for this, and we didn't suspect anything."
"Until he tried to gut Clint."
Tony winced, burying his head farther into his arms. "Awesome."
"Should we start over?" Steve asked, after shawarma was finished and they were getting ready to go to HQ to deal with whatever consequences that would be waiting for them. Meanwhile, Captain America was asking for his forgiveness after he took a dive from space.
"Uh…sure." Tony held out his hand, smirking. "Tony Stark."
Steve took his hand with both of his, and shook it, in the most ridiculously sincere way. "Steve Rogers. It's nice to meet you, Mr. Stark."
"Tony."
"Right. Tony." Steve grinned. "We should spar a few rounds at a later date, if you're up to it, old man."
He spluttered. "Old man, says the 94 year old."
"What about a shape shifter?"
"Blood isn't right. They have a certain chemical input."
"Terrifyingly real robot?"
"Do you really think I had sex with a robot without me not noticing anything?" Tony rolled his eyes. That wasn't a pleasant image, not to mention, and he shuddered. On the other hand, if someone managed to make a robot that was that good in bed, gold star for him. After, of course, he killed him.
He was thinking of slapping a gold sticker on an evil scientists dead body still when Clint and Natasha's brainstorming slapped him back to reality.
"Hey, princess, what about a clone?"
Natasha tapped her chin. "A possibility, yeah?"
"How were they able to duplicate the super soldier serum? Clone or not?" Tony was skeptical.
"Let's look into it. I'll tell Bruce to check for any irregularity in his blood, saliva, anything that would help." Natasha said as she began to call Bruce. "We'll be landing in North Dakota soon to transfer him to an even more secure facility."
"Another Hulk-safe place?"
"We hope." Natasha shrugged.
"Hypothetically, if I were to kiss you, would Jarvis kill me?" Steve pulled Tony closer to him.
"Um. Shit, no. Because like, you're Steve, and he likes you, I like you-"
"So you like me?"
"Yes?" Tony was confused, not entirely sure where this was going. "You're my friend?"
"Not more than friends, though?"
"Um."
"Can I take that as a yes?" Steve said quietly, chuckling a little, incredibly close to Tony's face. Tony's heart fluttered and it wasn't cardiac arrest this time.
This time.
"If you're going to kiss me, do it before-"
Tony made Jarvis log he and Steve's first kiss. It was ridiculous, but he always recorded moments. Good moments. Even if it meant putting up with Dum-E imitating kissing everything including Tony. After that first kiss, they went on a date, and then another. On the third date, Steve fucked him into the mattress and Tony realized he was horribly, beautifully, in love with Steve Rogers.
They landed in North Dakota within thirty minutes, and Tony watched from afar as a drugged up Evil Steve pounded on the glass container as they rolled him into the building. When Steve met Tony's eyes, he looked away. But he could hear the primal screams of Steve yelling his name, begging Tony, demanding his captors to let him go before he killed them.
Before this, Tony would have laughed if Steve threatened to kill someone. He threatened a coffeehouse barista that he would get her fired once for some bad service, and then comforted her when she began to shed tears.
And now, he witnessed Steve tearing out someone's heart last night.
He ate pizza that tasted like nothing, and Clint refused to leave his side. Clint dragged a mattress from his room to lie on Tony's floor in his quarters and 'nested' himself as stubbornly as an eagle. Tony also told him that the bird comparisons wouldn't stop anytime soon, not while he was being stupidly overprotective.
Steve couldn't get out. They were fine.
He and Clint played cards for an hour before they fell asleep.
Alarms were blaring, and Tony shot up in his bed. Clint was gone. It was dark in the room. He panicked for a second, breathing shakily, and ran his fingers through his hair. It was fine. He was fine.
He ran out of the room, squinting against the flashing red lights. A few SHIELD agents ran to and fro, shouting to each other.
Oh, shit.
He sprinted down hallway to the prisoner area, and as he got closer, there was blood on the walls. "Agent!" he yelled. "What the hell happened?"
"Doctor Banner wants to see you, ASAP, Mr. Stark," the agent fumbled, and she ran back to her squad.
He punched in the number to the security and saw that it was dented.
Yeah, he knew exactly what happened.
"Bruce?" he called out.
Clint poked his head out of the prisoner holding cell. "Shit, Tony. Wasn't there a guard by your room?"
"No, why?" he walked forward and blinked when he saw Natasha dabbing a bloody washcloth on Bruce's side. "What the fuck."
"He's pretty strong." Bruce remarked wryly, and Natasha lifted the cloth to reveal a deep purpling bloody gash that was already starting to look hours old. "Strong enough to break my skin."
"Where is he?"
Clint was seething. "Loose. Stupid guard didn't lock the door right after Steve stuck a piece of gum into the heavy lock."
"Are you saying that there is a murderous Captain America loose and running around in this facility looking for me to soothe some creepy possessive issue, ready to tear out everyone's heart in the way?" Tony felt faint. This really couldn't be happening.
"This is like a cheesy dark romance novel." Clint rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"So, do we leave?"
"We were going to transport you out of here and get heavy reinforcements, but he's somehow put the entire facility on lockdown. No one can get in or out." Bruce said solemnly.
"It's our first sleepover." Tony said in a mock childish voice. Steve laughed and hugged him closer, blankets tangling. They weren't even naked, which seemed ridiculous to Tony. "It's not even technically. We slept together before. Remember? Last week?"
"No, we had sex. And then we had to leave for debriefing." Steve reasoned. Tony counted that day as the worst sex lie ever. They fooled no one.
"So we're going to sleep? That's it?"
"That was the plan." Steve rubbed a hand over Tony's back, voice husky and right next to his ear."Unless, of course, you want to have some fun."
A/N: How did I do? To be continued next week.