"Steve?" Tony walked into the living room of the Avengers tower, and as usual, Steve was staring blankly into the television set. He wasn't watching the actual show or movie, he was just staring. It hurt his eyes, but that was okay. He was trying not to cry for the millionth time over his poor son.

His son wasn't like Steve now. He was like Steve before the serum. Glenn Rogers was a young boy of only twelve years old with so many illnesses that they had to practically go from letter to letter in the alphabet to name them all.

What made it worse, after all the time it took to conceive a baby with his wife Sharon, she died on the table giving child birth…Steve could never remember the name of the malady that had made it impossible to come back out of that hospital room while they were doing when she had the C-Section, because all he really remembers from that day was cradling the little child in his arms and his friends gathering around to be there for him.

Tony had agreed right away to take him back into the tower, and from there they had tried to do their best for Steve and his son. The Avengers worked together, even with all of his maladies and issues, to make Glenn feel just as strong as any of them, and to make anyone that would think to make fun of him or throw him around to run for the hills.

As of two weeks ago, Glenn announced to everybody that he wanted to be an Avenger one day. He was standing, hoisting himself up on his little crutches, with the biggest smile on his face. They all tried to be cautious about it and they made sure that whatever training he wanted was what he could handle, which was next to nothing and the child was getting increasingly frustrated. He had never really noticed how weak he really was until he started trying to be strong, and there was nothing Steve could really do but watch his son's esteem fall apart.

And every night, this is where Steve was. He was always just staring at the bright light of the television screen, begging his eyes not to overflow with tears again. Tony came down every so often to check on him, while the rest of them tried to keep their distance, give Steve his time to deal with his emotions.

This night, though, Tony was convinced he could make Steve feel better. He could make things better. He'd been in the works of a project for a while, and he couldn't help but think he was finally ready to test it out for the best results.

"Hey Steve, listen, I have something I need to show you," Tony said that night, and Steve looked up, finally responsive to something other than smiling fake for his young boy.

"Tony, unless it's really important," Steve said softly, looking back to the television.

Tony sighed, reaching out to grab his hand. "It is, and it's sort of a random present for Glenn."

"Is it another superhero cape? I thought you made fun of Thor last time he did that," Steve said slowly as he was dragged along to the lab.

"Well, that's because that cape was really made out of curtains, and Thor should know better," Tony said with a small smile. They had finally reached the lab, and he gestured to the object on the table.

Steve moved forward, trying to see if it was what he thought it was. Then he looked back with a smile on his face. "You made these for him?"

"They are just, like, incredibly high-tech leg braces," Tony said softly. "I mean, they will help enough to give him some strength, and he will actually be able to train a tiny bit with the rest of the guys, and maybe then…I don't know, I will keep having to adjust him as he grows, and when he gets older the technology behind it may get heavier, but it will give him back his ability to use his legs like a normal boy his age, for the time being. Maybe not quite superhero yet, but if he wants I can build him a tiny suit or something. You don't have to be superhuman to be a superhero in one of those, look at me."

Steve stared for a few seconds more at the innovation before he reached forward and pulling Tony into a hug. "Thank you Tony, for everything."

Tony chuckled. "You speak like I'd have it any other way."

Steve pulled away. "You know you are never getting rid of me, like, ever?"

"I think I can deal with that," Tony said softly, and then they went back to showing Steve how the things would work for Glenn.

*Six Years Later*

"Hey Dad," Glenn said, as he danced around his father, showing off his new pair of leg braces.

Steve smiled. "Good, I'm guessing Tony was nice enough to upgrade those for you?"

"Yeah, I think I might have a shot at the whole hero thing- oops," Glenn fell over from the exertion of running around, and from pure clumsiness.

Steve rushed to his side with an inhaler. "Here, are you alright? Do I need to ask Tony to adjust those for you?"

"They can help a lot," Glenn said after taking a puff of his inhaler, "but unfortunately my clumsiness is here to stay. Don't worry so much, I'm eighteen now dad. I have a training session with Thor to head off to. Love you, and thank Tony for me!"

"I will," Steve said as Tony walked into the room behind him.

"Did I hear my name again?" Tony asked bravely.

Steve chuckled. "You did, Glenn wanted to say thank you, but he's a bit stubborn so he asked me to do it for him."

"Thank him for me then, because I kept him in there for days doing measurements for braces and for his armor and – no, I didn't tell him he could go into battle with us, but maybe humor him. One day he might actually be able to. It's all because of you," Tony said sweetly, reaching forward to pull him into a hug.

"It's actually more your doing, I've kinda just felt useless most of the time with this stuff. I could never surpass my own things alone, and you helping him means a lot Tony," Steve said softly.

"You are the reason he's here, you faked smiles when he needed you to be happy for him, you went through every little thing with him. All I do is build him trinkets, stop ripping away your portion of the credit for that beautiful boy who shouldn't have even survived this long, but now would you look at him, training to be a hero and off to Harvard in the fall," Tony said softly. "And, for the love of God, no I will not take back the money for tuition. He's the closest thing I will ever have to a kid, and you are the closest thing I will ever have to a partner, so there."

"I can't thank you enough, Tony," Steve said, leaning down to give Tony a kiss on the cheek.

"Awe, shucks Cap, you're making me blush," Tony said, laughing softly. "Alright, so you want to see the suit?"

"Yeah, and we're going to the doctor's with him later today, you're coming right?" Steve asked unsurely.

"Yes, my lovely idiot best friend and lobster, I am totally and absolutely with you till the end," Tony said, smiling brightly as he started to guide Steve to the next innovation in making them all feel more adequate. Things were going to be alright.

FIN

Author's Note: Oh, the internal sobbing. Okay, anyhow, I'd like to thank my best friend Sheyenne for pointing this gorgeous prompt out to me and the person who made this prompt (who, for the love of all Gods, I hope this is what you were hoping for), and every lovely contributor to the Avengers and the Avengers fandom. Sorry so corny, but yeah, I loved doing this and I would've rather stretched it out but I was on a time crunch, so, love you!