Steve dips his brush into the cup of water, mixing it around. He looks out the window of his studio with a sigh. There was trouble not too far from here, some villain had decided to create mutant crossbred hyena octopi. He was not sure how that would even work, but apparently mutant hyena octopi are a thing now. But the point was that Tony was out fighting them with his Avengers.
He wished he could be doing something to help instead just of waiting for Tony to come home. Wanted to be by his side. They had played with the idea of giving Steve a suit of his own but they decided against it, given his various health issues. They both had agreed it was for the best, but sitting here alone with no idea how things were going was awful.
When he got Tony's text about the call to assemble he came here to his studio. He threw himself into his paintings, hoping it would distract him from his worry. And for the most part it did. But the call came a while ago. Seven hours was a long time to be fighting for, even half that time would be a long time to be fighting for.
Steve takes a deep breath in and releases it slowly. He brings his attention back to his painting and carefully mixes a sand colour on his pallet.
The heavy thud of the Iron Man suit landing outside draws Steve's attention. He quickly springs from his stool and all but runs to the front room.
When he see what greets him he feels like someone threw a bucket of cold water over him. He feels numb and he can barely breathe. "No…" he protests weakly.
The Iron Man suit cradles Tony's limp body close, a hologram of Tony is in his place in the suit. "Steve…" the hologram says sounding so much like him, "I'm sorry".
Steve's legs give out from underneath him as he chokes on his own breath. His sobs shaking his thin frame violently. "No, no, no" he repeats to himself over and over again.
This was a possibility they had talked about going into their relationship. That Tony could die saving the world. But he had hopped desperately that it would never come to be.
But it happened.
Tony was dead, and he was now alone again.
THE END
NOTES: For the Cap-IronMan Tiny Reverse Bang/ Code Name: Confession
Inspired by Rowantreeisme's Artwork "Avalon"