Ascension
Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers or Marvel.
"I need you to trust me on this one." Iron Man says, and Steve takes a breath and holds it. Pretends his hand isn't freezing against the wrecked ship's twisted hull.
Says, "I trust-" says, "-I trust you."
Freezing water drips down his back, his uniform is frozen against his collarbones and the nape of his neck. The shield- his shield, weighs on his arm like iron ball, and he wonders nearly hysterically, if perhaps it won't drag him back beneath the waves. The silver-bright vibranium and stiff leather cradling his arm like a vice, ready to drown him with the gravity of his title. A misspoken legend.
"Cap-" "-thrusters-" "-ETA three minutes-"
Something warm and dark mingles with the freezing material at his midsection and his ribs grind in his chest with every breath. He isn't going to die here, the ice burrowing into his skin, and his teammate's modulated voice crackling over his comm. He isn't going to drown. A different Steve Rogers might have, slender and tiny enough to vanish into the ice like a ghost, but Steve thinks that maybe the old Steve Rogers is already dead, having fallen off a speeding train somewhere in the winter Alps in 1944.
Captain America won't die here either, gloves leaving burning smears of red as they slip down the frosted edges of the metal. He won't slide back into the ice, feel the blood freeze in his veins and choke on the water streaming into his lungs. He won't just stop, suspended mid-motion, deadlocked into a glacial, dreamless coma.
"You're going to have to hurry, Stark." Says, "The wreckage is shifting." and his voice is almost steady. Calm.
The sound of collapsing metal interrupts Stark's voice on the comm, a sound that Steve is intimately familiar with. The howl of the wind as metal bends and the train gapes wide. The screech of the Valkyrie's wings twisting and the spark of glass as the cockpit screams open, filling with water.
"-there Steve-" "Maximum power-"
The ship shifts again, and Steve inhales sharply, icy air frigid in his lungs as he wrenches his shield from where it's been lodged between two crushed bulkheads. Something pulls at his middle, but Steve ignores it and the fresh rush of dark blood.
"Where are you Cap?"
There, Steve can hear the roar of Iron Man's thrusters over the creaks of a sinking ship. "Port-side, at the opening beside the engines."
Iron Man's gauntlets brace his figure, just short of too-tight, and Steve swallows a gasp of what might be relief. The armour burns hot against his frozen uniform, and the grooves of the suit dig into his tender ribs, but Steve doesn't think he's ever been so glad to hear the hum of the repulsors before.
"Did you find the other four Hydra agents?" Stark asks, while the quinjet swoops down towards them.
"Yes."
"-And?"
"Dead." Steve replies, hitching the shield further up his forearm. Stark pretends not to notice the red stains along it's edges.
A pause, and Steve's eyes drift to the heat of Iron Man's metal arm pressed against the wound at his middle.
"You alright Cap?" Cap. Steve replays the question in his mind, and the electronic tones of the suit's voice modulator.
"Cold." He says after a long moment, as the quinjet's hatch lowers. "But fine." It's not quite a lie.
Iron Man's gauntlet lingers at his waist as they board, and the moment stretches as Steve pulls off his ruined cowl.
"Good." Stark says. Tony says. His voice sounds warm.
Author's Note: Can be taken as a sequel to Asphyxiate.