"You knew it was a bad idea from the start."
Tony stood across the room from Steve, arms crossed as he watched the bigger man pace. Steve had been walking the same two feet of floor space for half an hour and Tony was sure that there would be a groove in the floor once he was finally gone.
"No, I didn't," Steve countered, pausing to throw a glare Tony's way. "He was recovering. He wanted redemption. I wanted to help him." His breath caught and Tony looked at his feet. "I did help him."
"Okay, but if that's true, why's he back out there?"
Steve stopped so quickly that Tony thought he was going to pitch headfirst into the floor.
"What?"
"You heard me." The Captain's gaze was icy but Tony straightened his back. "If you helped him so much, if he was so rehabilitated, why'd he leave only to turn up in Latveria with Doom and Magento? He was lying to you, Steve, and you know it. You knew it. You just didn't want to believe it."
"Tony." Steve's voice was low, a surefire warning that he'd overstepped his bounds, but he kept going.
"He's a master liar, a trickster by nature. Everyone knew it then and everyone knew to keep their distance. Everyone except you."
"Tony."
"He betrayed his own brother once upon a time and put his adoptive father in a coma. Did you really think that you'd be any different than them? Any more important?"
"Enough."
"I mean Jesus, Steve. People say I'm self-absorbed, but damn."
"I said enough!"
Tony blinked and noticed for the first time that Steve had closed the distance between them. His fists were curling and uncurling, every muscle in his body rigid with anger. His eyes were a stormy blue and they bore into Tony's own brown ones, a mirror image of self-hatred and disappointment.
They stood like that for a little while, Tony barely daring to breathe, before Steve sighed and let the tension drain from his body. "I know," he said. "I know. I made a mistake. I thought…"
"You thought you could change him," Tony supplied softly, "but you can't. No one can change anyone else. Just ask Pepper how well that's worked out for her in the past." Steve's smirk was a reward in and of itself, and Tony clapped a hand on his shoulder. "What you've got to do now is go after him."
"How can I?"
"Well, for starters, you bring me. Moral support and whatnot." Steve raised an eyebrow but Tony waved the gesture away. "Seriously. You and I, we'll go after him together. Just us. No Avengers, no SHIELD, just the Captain and Iron Man. We'll bring him in and truss him up, then send him back to Asgard where he belongs."
Steve was still for what seemed like an eternity, then he slowly began to nod.
"Okay. Yeah, okay. I'll suit up. We can go now."
"Sure." Tony let his hand fall and watched Steve leave the room, then sank into a nearby chair once he was sure he was alone.
He hadn't liked the idea when Coulson had first come to him with it — manipulate Rogers into bringing Loki in. The fact of the matter was that Loki had been strong-armed into an allegiance with Doom and Magento, and it was an alliance he hadn't been looking for. But from the second they'd uncovered the story, the media had spun it differently, and from then on it had been all too easy to manipulate the information to fit SHIELD's needs.
Loki Laufeyson was a danger to humanity and had to be removed from Earth. The biggest obstacle had been one Steven Rogers, Captain America and Loki's lover.
Well, Tony though, eyes closing as he tried to ignore the ache in his chest, not anymore.