"Alcoholic?" Steve's voice wavered. The word left a taste of bile on his tongue.
Howard nodded, a defeated look on his face.
"I should have seen the signs. I mean did you see the way he looked at his first drink?"
Steve shook his head. "No, I didn't. If he knows he has a drinking problem, then why did he take that first drink?"
"I wish I knew for sure…" Howard turned his back to Steve.
"Hey." Steve placed a hand on Howard's shoulder. "Are you okay? I can't imagine how finding out you're his-"
"He was drunk. For all we know his mind could have been off. There's a chance what he said isn't true so there's no need to worry about it." Howard's voice had a hint of disbelief in it.
Steve remained quiet, unsurprised by Howard's guarded state. If what Tony had hinted at was true, it meant somewhere down the line Howard's relationship with Tony crumbled apart. Steve only prayed that this situation fixed it, or it at the very least they had some good times together.
At that moment, Tony shuffled into the room. He looked tired and sick, no doubt from the hangover he was being attacked by.
"Need. Coffee. Now." Tony kept his eyes squeezed shut to block out any light.
"Anthony…do you remember yesterday at all?" Steve asked, unsure of what he hoped for in response.
Tony jokingly frowned. "Please tell me nobody kissed me."
"This is serious." Steve said flatly.
Tony turned to face Steve. He had that 'I'm Captain America So You Better Listen' look on his face.
"Did something bad happen?" Tony finally asked.
"We think you're an alcoholic, Anthony." Steve blurted out, not completely answering Tony's question.
Tony stood there and waited for someone else to speak. He made a face that resembled having something foul in his mouth.
"That's ridiculous." He turned away as he spoke, hiding his face from the two men. He started messing with the coffee machine.
"It's not ridiculous and you know it." Howard joined in with disappointment in his voice.
"You don't know me. How do you know I just drank a little too much? Just because I got a bit tipsy doesn't mean I'm an alcoholic." Tony faced them again, blocking the coffee machine with his body.
"If that's true, what did you just put in your coffee?" Steve raised an eyebrow at the shorter man.
It was then Steve realized that Tony looked sick. The circles that were a permanent resident under his eyes seemed darker. He looked slightly thinner and his lips were chapped which added dehydrated to the list of things that was wrong with Tony.
"It's just coffee. Calm down, Grandpa." Tony avoided Steve's gaze, sipping from his mug.
Howard pushed himself off the table he had been leaning on and grabbed the cup from Tony's hands.
"Hey! What are you doing?"
"Whiskey." Howard muttered, ignoring Tony's outraged question.
Both Howard and Steve turned to glare at Tony with disappointment in their eyes.
Tony sighed as he looked at the floor. "Look I… yes I have a problem but it was worse in the past. I swear this isn't even that bad so there's no need to look at me like I'm some screw up."
"We aren't saying you're a screw up. We're saying we're worried." Steve mumbled, anger depleting from his voice. Even with the space between them, Steve could see Tony's hands were shaking, either from the need of alcohol or from fear. Fear of what? Being caught? Being judged? Tony noticed Steve was watching his hands and hid them behind his back. He hated showing anything other than confidence and he hated when his own hands betrayed him. Either from shaking or flailing through the air to much or by clenching into fists, they found ways to show he was insecure and full of anxiety.
"Just… do what everyone else does and ignore it." Tony spat as he turned to storm out of the room.
Steve took one step to follow Tony, only to freeze at the chuckle that emitted from behind him.
"What's so funny, Howard?" Steve hissed as he turned to face the man.
"He's being dramatic. With his level of intelligence, I doubt he's ever ignored. Just give him sometime, he'll feel better later." Howard turned his back to Steve as he tinkered with a machine on the table.
Steve could only stare at Howard with disbelief on his face. "If he really is your son, you should help him."
"I am helping him."
"Sending him back home isn't what I meant. He needs-"
"He's a genius! He can fix it on his own! He's smart enough, smarter than me in fact. He doesn't need my help." Howard raised his voice and instantly Steve put two and two together.
"You've got to be joking. This why he has anger towards you. You're jealous of him. Because of his smarts. That's what causes you to screw up your relationship with him. Come on, Howard. You're a better man than that. He deserves more than that..."
"I am not jealous." Howard growled.
"Of course you are. Look at how your feelings towards him change once you found out who he was. He's brilliant and you hate that he is going to be able to accomplish more than you." Steve almost felt sorry for the man.
Howard remained silent and for some reason it pissed Steve off.
"What's the matter, Howard? Can't handle having a son who's smarter than you? You'd think a man would support their kid, but no. With you, no one can be better, especially if they're family."
Howard let out a scream as he threw Tony's mug of whiskey. It flew past Steve's face and smashed on the wall behind the blonde.
"I. Am. Not. Jealous."
"You're pathetic. Because of your jealousy and paranoia you, eventually, emotionally damage your own son." Steve was fuming. He felt sick looking at Howard who had now moved to be inches from Steve's face.
"Keep talking, Rogers. You forget that he isn't born yet. I can keep it that way if I want to." Howard smirked with a dark look in his eyes.
Steve froze. Howard wouldn't do that. He couldn't. What kind of person would purposely change the future just because they were jealous of their child?
"No wonder he's a mess. He got stuck with you as a father.." Steve mumbled as he turned to find Tony.
Howard scoffed as he poured himself a glass of Tony's "hidden" whiskey.
Present Day
"I really don't see your reasoning for coming back. Shouldn't you be, oh I don't know, taking over the world? Not messing around with us." An annoyed Clint hissed as Loki's magic forced him fan the God with a giant, purple feather.
"Patience my dear bird. I have successfully stopped your team, a celebration is in order. I merely require a few days to partake in a "va-kate-shun" as I've heard it called." Loki smirked at his angry slave.
"You're an idiot." Clint growled. It was hard to take the God seriously when he didn't understand anything about their world.
"And yet you were stopped by me. What does that make you?" Loki sneered.
"A Phoenix" Loki laughed at Clint's comment.
Clint shrugged his shoulders. "Laugh all you want. Sure I may be down now, but I'll come back with fire around me to back me up and kick your ass."
Loki rolled his eyes. "What does that make the others?"
"The fire."
On the other side of the tower Natasha was able to move, finally, except for the enchanted shackles that held her limbs together. Next to her was a still sleeping Bruce and a restricted Thor.
"You're telling me, you another God, can not break out of these chains? Seriously?"
"It is more complicated than that, Natasha." Thor tried to sound calm, only to fail and sound disappointed with himself.
"Just hold your hand out. Call for the Mjolnir and let's kick some ass." Natasha smiled at the thought.
"Again, not that simple. With these binds on my wrists the hammer finds me unworthy. There is too much of Loki's magic weighing me down. Even I don't fully understand it." Thor mumbled.
Behind them a chuckle was heard.
Steve had been sitting up against the wall, a new bottle of liquor in his hands, listening to the conversation. He couldn't help but laugh at Thor's words.
"I can hear him now. Saying something along the lines of 'I hate magic.'" Steve grinned a weak shape as he took another swig of the half empty bottle. Everyone instantly knew who he was talking about. Deep down, Steve was surprised he could remember something Tony would say, considering his memories were out of whack.
"Captain, this is no time for laughter."Thor boomed, being unintentionally loud.
Once again, Steve laughed. "Why are we even talking with you. If you weren't here I'm sure Loki wouldn't be here."
"Stand down, Captain." Natasha hissed.
"Just stop, Nat. Nothing is going to help fix this. We lost, the bad guy won. There's no one who can help." Steve rolled his eyes at his teammates as he chugged more of the liquid poison in his hand.
"Stark can help." Natasha smirked when Steve's face contorted into a look of concern when she mentioned the billionaire.
After a moment of silence, Steve snorted. "He's not coming back. He's gone."
"I refuse to believe that."
The group internally jumped at the new voice. Bruce was now awake, laying on his back. Even though he had been asleep, he still appeared to be exhausted.
"How are you awake? Loki put some sort of spell on you. I don't understand." Natasha stared at the, surprisingly, calm man with a look of confusion.
"I may not understand magic, but the one rule that will always make sense to me is that it doesn't last forever. It'll eventually wear off. Sure he can have magic forever, but his spells won't stick that long. I can only hope, Loki hasn't realized that I'm awake yet." Bruce looked around the room, trying to find an escape route.
"Clint is up there with him. We need to get him out before we leave." Natasha's voice sounded like it was pleading.
Steve practically jumped up off the wall. "I have an idea." the others couldn't hide the joy they felt at the sight of Steve contributing.
"Bruce, I'm sorry, but we're going to need the big guy." Steve frowned at his words. He hated how turning into the big guy effected the man. It seemed that the more he did it, the more fragile he became.
"Don't worry about it, Steve. I understand what has to be done." Bruce smiled a small smile.
"With Loki distracted by the Hulk, his magic should falter, making it possible for us to escape." Natasha said, looking down at the green metal around her wrists.
"Sounds like a formidable plan." Thor boasted.
"What about Tony?" Bruce asked the question on Steve's mind.
"We'll have to figure that out once we are out of here. Loki might become distracted long enough for him to come back or he might figure out what to do on his own. We just have to.. hope.. he's okay." The word hope burned in Steve's throat. He really hated what Loki did to him. The others got off easy compared to him and Tony and it pissed him off. He wasn't sure if he was more angry about what Loki did to him or the fact he had no idea what he did to Tony. Now that the genius was on his mind, Steve tried to focus on a memory with the man only to become internally frustrated. It seemed like all his memories were still a blur. Static on a TV. Almost like they were becoming something different.
Past all the static, Steve could eventually see a laughing Tony and suddenly the idea of hope didn't sound so bad.
