June 8, 2014

Jemma was genuinely glad that Skye and Trip had found one another, but it made the awkwardness between her and Fitz hurt all the more. Trip and Skye had two more soulmates out there somewhere as well as each other while Jemma couldn't even get things back to a good place with the one soulmate she had.

For reasons she'd never understood, her relationship with Fitz had never given her that sense of calm completion she'd always heard of and expected, so she had friend-zoned him from day one. Now she was beginning to believe that it would take a miracle-worker to get Fitz to even be her friend again!

Meanwhile in Avengers Tower, on Thor's level, JARVIS was debriefing Loki in preparation for the trip the god had been ordered to take to the Playground as a part of his ongoing punishment from the All-Father.

On Steve's level, the captain and his seven soulmates – most of whom he and Bucky had just met – were enjoying the fruits of Loki's labor. After Anna's asthma scare, none of them had wanted to separate from one another, so they were all sprawled across the living room floor, holding hands with heads and feet in laps as they talked about anything and everything, finally getting to know one another and have a complete soulbond.

Daniel paused in the middle of telling a story about Jack, gesturing to the way Bucky was holding Anna's hand as he asked suspiciously, "Are you…?"

"Checking her pulse?" Steve supplied from where he was leaning against the couch with Angie's head on his shoulder. "Yeah, he is." He gave Bucky a look that relayed both adoration and exasperation as he said, "Buck's a real mother hen."

"Only because you always seem to need one!" Bucky objected.

"Well, I don't," Anna said softly, gently extracting her hand from Bucky's and running her fingers through his hair instead. "I'm perfectly fine now."

"Definitely better than the last time I saw you," an unexpected voice croaked.

The eight had been so absorbed in their conversation and one another that they hadn't heard the elevator open and someone step out. Now that this person stood in the living room doorway, though, there was a mad scramble of movement from five people to arrange themselves so that they were next to their spouses. Steve, Bucky, and Peggy, in contrast, froze where they sat, which somehow made them look all the more guilty.

Tony shuffled into the room, eyes that of a wounded little boy, hurt and startled and cast to the floor as he muttered, "So I was right? About all eight of you being soulmates?" He shrugged. "I mean, I assume five of you are only alive because of Loki, and he wouldn't bother resurrecting you unless you were soulmates to one of the Avengers."

Edwin spoke first, offering a careful "Tony…" but even that was cut off by an increasingly angry billionaire.

"Don't 'Tony' me," the genius demanded, but he still didn't look at anyone for a long moment.

Then he froze as suddenly as he had made his presence known and his chest heaved with a sharp breath as it really hit him who was in the room, who was back. Jarvis, Anna, all the people who had raised him and left him too early – they were back, they were here!

And they were Steve's soulmates! They were each other's soulmates! He thought back, remembering their mid-length sleeves and socked feet even at the most casual of times. Their soulbonds were something that they had worked very hard to hide from him. They'd told him enough lies to make his head spin, and then he only verified the truth because of something Loki did?

"No," he objected aloud.

Peggy said one word - Tony really wasn't even sure what it was - and he whipped around towards her so quickly he startled himself. She had spent more time lying to him than anyone and her placating tone made him livid. For a second he saw red.

"You know what really gets me?" he snapped, interrupting her. "I find this out because of Loki! You know what he did, yet he's the only one who's been honest about this! The god of lies is forcing people to be honest while you've lied to me at a direct question about this! Why wouldn't you tell me the truth?! I asked you as recently as last year!"

Peggy Carter's eyes were filled with hurt and sincerity as she answered, "I'm sorry we hurt you - that I hurt you - but we were only ever trying to protect everyone involved. Some of us were fairly high-profile people; surely you of all people can understand choosing to hide a multi-person soulbond in that situation."

He was still angry, but he saw that she had a point - and he did understand that point better than most. After all, even now, very few people knew that Bruce was his and Pepper's third, or that they even had a third.

So he lost a lot of his bite as he muttered, "Sorry if I'm bitter about a lie I grew up hearing from the people who raised me."

In that moment, it was completely stupid how badly he wished his father had just been around to raise him himself. Yes, Howard had been a far from perfect father, but Tony firmly believed - as he always had - that he could've been better if he hadn't been so obsessed with finding Steve and Bucky.

His eyes roamed over the eight faces, still not quite believing what he was seeing. When he realized that he had made Anna cry, he deflated entirely, no longer angry, but still flabbergasted by what he had learned.

Jarvis saw it all, wrapping an arm around Anna's shoulders as he assured Tony, "Nobody's a perfect parent, but we are happy to have been such a big part of your life."

"And I'm glad I had you," Tony replied, hands shoved deep in his pockets as he rolled his eyes towards the ceiling to avoid glaring tellingly at Steve as he muttered, "I just wish that Dad..."

That he'd what? Been around for his son? Not been so obsessed with his search? With his work?