I'm Gonna Build My Boy a Boyfriend

aka Captain America's history

by Howard Stark

Chapter 2

In which the Cap can't. He just can't. He can't even.

Another thing that Howard had in spades – apart from his burning desire to create things and a glee to see things go boom – was obstinacy. He never gave up. He didn't even know what giving up meant. He had always been perfectly aware of the fact that if it had a flaw he could fix it, if there was a problem he could manage it, if there was a risk he could take it – if it was missing, he could damn well find it.

In 1942 Howard Stark suffered the kind of drawback he never expected to suffer – he lost something, and he could not, for the life of him, find it again.

When he started working with the Military, for the War effort, his only thought was to defend his country – and make lots of profit while at it. When he was assigned to the Super Soldier Project he thought, oh wow, something difficult and a challenge and he thought it'd be great – and for a while it was. Right up until the whole thing went wrong, and they could only make a single soldier instead of an army.

Steve Rogers was a kind-hearted man the likes of whom he had never met before. To be completely honest, he couldn't even believe the guy was for real. When Doctor Erskine told him about the stunt the guy had pulled with the fake grenade, Howard had actually laughed. When he had seen the man in action, single handedly saving more than four hundred men he admired the guy a great deal. He did things truly from the goodness of his heart, not expecting anything in return.

Howard understood greatness to a point, he could see it in himself sometimes, but nothing like Captain America. The guy was a perfect combination of physical and mental attributes. When the project had started they thought of upgrading a great soldier, but Erskine made them choose a great human being, and that made all the difference.

So when Steve Rogers – and those last few minutes had been completely Rogers, and not at all Captain – decided to crash his plane to save the people of the world, he decided he wouldn't rest until they found him again.

He wasn't his best friend, he didn't even know him all that well, but Rogers was pretty much the best thing he had done in all his life, and he wouldn't let his whole work go to waste like that.

Also, he liked to believe that somewhere in the world there would always be a Steve Rogers around, so that people could see that there were some people around who were better than, well, him.

So he searched. He spent millions looking for the Super Soldier, he tried everything he could think of, and he wouldn't give up no matter what – they hadn't found a body, they hadn't found a plane, they hadn't found anything, and, therefore, Rogers was still alive. He knew the good Captain could survive something like that, he'd been there all along while Erskine was engineering the guy, the regeneration of his cells would keep him alive, if nothing else; especially if he had fallen anywhere in the ocean, his body would shut down, and he'd be in a state of stasis, waiting.

And Howard was decided to find him – only that didn't go so well for him.

In fact, it went very badly, because another characteristic of Howard's was that he didn't handle disappointment very well. Not well at all.

One of Tony's first – and pretty much only – memory of his parents together was a very loud, very angry, very drunken fight. They were both screaming, and his mother had been overwhelmingly pissed because Howard had missed something or other of theirs – her birthday, their anniversary, something like it – because he was off looking for Steve. She had accused him of many things, and his only answer were laughs, a few more drinks and him pointing out that yes, he was all those things, and she had known that when she married him. What really set him off, though, was when she said it seemed as if he loved Steve more than anyone else – herself and their son included. Then he lost it and accusations flew around, and a lot of information a young mind like Tony's shouldn't have listened to came to light.

The point is Tony always kept that image, his father and mother fighting over a missing Steve he had no idea who was. When he grew up, he learned who Steve was, and the fight was remembered as a distant unpleasant memory as so many other he had from his parents.

And now the very Steve his father had spent a good chunk of time and money looking for was sitting at the breakfast table, staring into a Stark Phone, looking, at the same time, amused, worried and pissed – or as pissed as Steve would get.

"What's up, Cap?", Tony asked, going straight to the coffee pot, and filling up the biggest mug he could find.

Steve looked up, and looked like he was going to ask something about last night, but though better of it, and gave Tony half a smile.

"I'm having a bit of trouble with this phone. Clint told me I could use it to check the news and such, but it's not making much sense – the screen has frozen, and I can't seem to make it work."

Tony sat down beside him and took the phone off his hands, making a tsking sound as he looked at it.

"That's because this is a SHIELD issued phone, and they don't exactly spend a lot on this things, just enough to get by. You tried accessing too much information and the poor thing is overwhelmed. I can get you something better, but while I work on it, just… have lots of patience, and work a single screen at a time."

He handed the phone – unfrozen – back, and Steve thanked him. Tony was trying to think of something to eat, he should probably eat, Pepper always reminded him of eating, but she wasn't here anymore, and he was not going to die of starvation because his girlfriend had left him. I mean, if he didn't eat, the others would take that as a sign of depression because of the break up, and he wouldn't have that.

He just wouldn't.

It never occurred to him that not-eating was such a frequent habit for him that his eating would cause the same conclusions, but no one was complaining.

He finally selected a few pop-tarts, and sat down with his coffee, eating silently, watching as Steve hit a button and then waited for a few seconds before continuing.

"What are you looking for, anyway? We get the paper and there's News on the TV all the time, if you get the right channel."

Steve looked up and shrugged, blushing just a tiny little bit.

"I want to know what people are saying about us. Clint was reading something last night that made him have a laughing fit, and he wouldn't let me see it. It was about us, because I saw just a bit of the picture, and it was a piece of my uniform, and now I'm curious."

Tony laughed a little.

"It's probably just some fangirl site, Cap, don't worry."

"What's a fangirl site?", he asked, furrowing his eyebrows a bit, looking from the screen to Tony and back again.

"It's a site where people go to say… nice things about the people they admire. Like a fanclub, but online."

Tony hoped to God that explanation was enough. The poor Cap wasn't ready for the fans nowadays.

"Oh, okay. But I still want to see what they're saying about us. How do I do this? Natasha said I just had to type in the words I'm looking for. That would be 'Avengers' and 'Steve Rogers'," Tony laughed a bit, and Steve got a mischievous look on his face, "and, just for fun, let's see what they have to say about 'Tony Stark'."

Tony opened his eyes wide, and started shaking his head no.

"Cap, I don't think you should look for our names together like that, you…"

"Oh my god, what is THIS?", the good Captain said, and Tony sighed.

This was it. The internet would break what seventy years in the ice hadn't.

"This… what?", he asked, waiting for a response.

"Me and… you… and we never DID that, how they can have a picture of it?"

Tony took a look at said picture over Steve's shoulder, and had to hold in a laugh.

Oh, well, it seemed like Steve had gone straight to the goldmine, and Tumblr was now calling him.

"It's image manipulation. Any kid with an image editor can do that, don't worry, Cap, no one is going to think you have an affair with me."

Steve was still shocked, and reading the tags and posts and notes related to the image.

"They are encouraging it."

"That's what fangirls do, yup.", Tony said, "Before you came around, they used to do that with me and Happy. Or me and Pepper, which, sadly, is no longer happening.", he shrugged again, getting a slightly troubled look in his eyes, but Captain America wasn't paying attention.

"How come there's no one to… control this? We're people. I can't… I can't… I just can't. I can't even. Just can't.", he babbled on, still looking through the pages and pages of material, and Tony laughed.

"That's actually fangirl terminology, Cap. If you start saying things about your feels, I'll start a Tumblr account for you."

Steve suddenly looked up from his screen, and eyed Tony suspiciously.

"Aren't you bothered?"

"By made up pictures of a faked relationship with the number one dear hero of America? Not really", he shrugged and finished the rest of his coffee, "I've been through much, much worse where the internet is related."

"I don't mean just that, but that it's… us? It doesn't bother you?", Steve looked at the same time hopeful and confused, and Tony took his mug to the sink – completely off behavior for him, but he had to have something to do with his hands while having this conversation.

"Not really, no. Why, does it bother you? Is this the out of time thing? Because in 1942 men didn't love men and all that crap?"

"Well, not really the out of time, but that you are not… I mean, you're not… interested in men like that", Steve finished, looking at the table top.

"And you are?", Tony said fast, and Steve got bright red, making Tony laugh, "Just kidding, Cap. And I don't know if I'm not. I just haven't tried it yet. Maybe I will, I mean, women are obviously way more than I can handle", he finished with a small sad smile, and Steve just stared at him, not knowing what to do.

The images had left him pretty obviously shaken – however, he continued looking through them, and fumbling about the site, because there were some amazing art works there, and he liked to draw a lot.

They stayed in silence for a while longer, Tony having his second and third cup of coffee, when they finally heard the sharp sound of Natasha's heals coming their way. She had just barely entered the kitchen, when Steve, still squinting to the screen of his phone, asked, in a curious and innocent voice.

"Hey, Tony, what's a Stony Slash fanfiction?"

Natasha stopped on her tracks to the cupboard, and looked at the two of them sharply, leaving immediately.

Tony could have sworn he heard her say "Clint must be here for this conversation" before he turned to Steve again.

How was he going to explain that?

This was so NOT what I was planning to do, but it felt nice. Tumblr and fanfiction in poor Captain's mind, what will he do now?

And what do you guys think of a Steve POV in this? How are you liking it so far?

Let me know!

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