Steve was the last to find out The Secret.
It isn't that he's stupid or anything of the sort. In fact, Steve is quite clever, and not as stuck up in his ways as most people thought. Though he was still adjusting to the just awe-striking twenty first century, he was honestly adapting much faster than anyone had thought. That was not the problem. No. It wasn't why he didn't realize it before at all.
The issue was, he'd known Tony's father, before the world had changed it.
He hadn't known about the alcoholism, he hadn't known about the bursts of spontaneous anger. He hadn't known the cold, distant father his friend had been when he was sober. Steve hadn't known how the war (and his own 'death') had changed the brilliant scientist.
Because he didn't know such things, in his mind, Howard had been exactly how he'd left him. Charming, tasteful, drifting a little into the mad scientist category, but not in a villainous way, so it'd been almost amusing to everyone around him. To Steve, that's who he was.
Tony was similar, yet so different from his late father, that it drove Steve insane. It was difficult to even be around him sometimes. He was Howard in the smallest of ways, yet he flaunted his wealth and was so damn annoying at times in a way Howard never was, and it pissed him off. God, the worst part was, the worst part was, was that Tony never listened. He always just went on and did whatever he wanted, and though most times it turned out okay, that still didn't make the blonde happy.
As luck would have it, it was with that annoyance that Steve ever found out.
"God," he mumbled one day after a particular harsh battle. "That was hell..."
"I've seen worse," Natasha shrugged, pulling concrete crumblings out of her crimson locks.
"...can't Stark listen one time...? Just once? Sometimes I doubt Howard ever taught him respect."
"Steve." Natasha's tone was very suddenly and very dangerously like ice. "Don't you ever say that again. Especially when Stark is around."
Though the Star Spangled Soldier was honestly afraid at this point (you didn't dare argue when one of the most dangerous assassins in the world is angry at you) but in the end, curiosity won out. "...Why...?"
It was on an August afternoon, in the middle of the Helicarrier Sick Bay, that Steve was told about The Secret.
After that, he didn't mention Howard again. The man wasn't worth it. Now, Steve knew, he never was.
Okay, sorry this took so long, guys... Well, anyway, here's the last chapter, finally. This fic is pretty much finished with that, though if enough people want them and I get bored enough, I will do bonus chapters with Coulson, Loki and/or any other characters, though I will still leave it's status as completed. With that, I hope you enjoy!