Well, shit. Just, shit, man. 23 years since the beginning of these books, the third age of the Wheel of Time is finally over. Such a good book... sorry, if the result of this happens to effect my writing. I had to cut this chapter in half, again. Otherwise, it would have dwarfed every other chapter, and that early in the story, not the best thing, unless I'd planned on every chapter being as long.

Decided that this story will just end up being a "By deadline" type of thing for me, so if I have it done before my deadline, I'll post it then, but it will be every week on Tuesday at the latest, hopefully.

Also, since this scene had a bit of the movie in the end of it, I feel it's a good idea to point out the obvious, that I don't own the storyline or characters. The scenes you recognize is almost all completely from the movie.

"If our world falls down tomorrow, you be sure I'll be there with a net to catch the pieces falling. And i was always there." Landing Feet First by Bayside


Steve dug through the small chest the held his clothing, trying to find anything that would actually fit Tony. He wasn't having much luck. Tony was hardly a big man, of course, but just about every shirt that Steve owned would look absolutely ridiculous stretched across his broad shoulders, and been unacceptably short on his long torso.

On the plus side, any of the clothes would have made the man look like a giant, in comparison.

But it wasn't as if he could just leave the man in his own ripped, bloody mess of a shirt, and someone who might have been a closer fit (Cue Howard, or really, anyone else in the facility) was far too busy to be bothered about a single shirt.

So, he ended up giving Tony one of his favorite shirts, his comfort shirt that was several sizes to big for either of them, short sleeved and dark gray, rather thin, but extremely soft. He'd had it for as long as he could remember, but could never remember exactly how he'd gotten it. He felt some small loss, handing it over to Tony, but it was the closest fit he had.

Tony took the shirt, and studied his face for a second before shrugging off the other, and quickly putting the new on. "Don't worry, sour puss, you'll get your shirt back."

'Sour puss..?' all of these nicknames were just strange, but he only gave Tony a slightly disapproving look, and murmured "Don't worry about it." Tony snorted back a fit of laughter. Maybe all of that blood loss had effected his brain in some way...

The taller man just made a face down at the shirt, silently conveying his slight disappointment that the material didn't cover the glow at all. As obvious as it was to Steve that he didn't like people seeing and staring at it, Tony didn't seem bothered by Steve doing so. Maybe it was just because he didn't ask any questions about it, no matter how badly he wanted to. As much as he wanted to know about it, he was hardly willing to risk Tony's irritation.

And he could understand that, in his own way. Steve didn't like talking about his own mothers death, after all. This was probably one of those kind of situations, with Tony. The soft glow and the implanted metal clearly wasn't something natural, and the scars surrounding it meant that it was probably a pretty painful memory to relive. But the curiosity never left his mind as he watched the man out of the corner of his eye. In the back corner of his mind, he was jealous. No one else ever would be able to make that shirt look good. He just knew it.

The thin material did absolutely nothing to hide the soft metallic glow emanating from the dead center of his chest, really. The blue seemed to spread out, and almost making the entire shirt glow. It was a strangely beautiful sight, the white-blue shining from in between weaves of deep gray. There was no way that specific colour could exist in nature. Steve wished that he had the tools and ability to draw it.

It took a moment for Steve to shake off his thoughts to realize that Tony was just staring down at him, face as blank as it had been since he'd met the man. Except, of course, when he had been trying to look amused. And it wasn't that he was bad at faking that cool laugh of him, or forcing his face into a smirk, because he really was very good at it. His eyes just never fit, looking off into the distance, as if a thousand different thoughts had swept away all of his attention. There was a spark of hope, real happiness, here or there, but always quickly overshadowed by misery.

But when he wasn't trying to force emotion onto his face, his expression drifted to where his eyes seemed to be looking, everywhere and nowhere. Howard had much the same thing, Steve had noticed. Harder to see through than Tony's, but perhaps that was because he'd had to get to know Howard before he realized what it was, where he had known what to look for at meeting Tony.

And Steve knew that it wasn't that these men didn't have emotions, quite the opposite, really. They were usually more struck by things than anyone else, even if they kept it to themselves. It was simply how they had been raised, how they'd been forced to train themselves since birth, with everyone watching them, studying them, and making a huge deal out of anything that they gave them, even if that was only a tear, or anger.

More than anything, these men were dissected as they walked, and tried to live their lives. Still, it made it very hard for Steve to read anything from either of the two Stark men.

Another thought hit him, then. He had gone from not even considering that Tony could be Howards son, or even a relative, to believing whole-heatedly that they were family, without him even noticing he'd made that transition. It was probably because of that specific characteristic... sure, the only people who would be able to do something like that were raised under similar circumstances, with similar upbringings and teachings. And that, of course, had to mean Stark. The fact that they had the same build and bone structure didn't hurt, though.

Steve shook his head, muttering angrily at himself for having drifted off again and tried to hide the blush that coloured his face, before looking back at Tony. Muttering a little louder, so that Tony could hear him, he apologized, and quickly started for the door. A single snort of muted laughter followed him, but he didn't hear any sounds of movement to indicate the man was following him.

He glanced over his shoulder to ask if he was coming, and almost tripped. The man was striding, completely silently, not a step behind him. That was a good trick to have, Steve was sure, but he'd end up breaking his neck if he didn't get used to it. And probably several other people's while he was at it. It was actually rather unnatural. But nothing about Tony was really natural. Maybe that was what was so enthralling about him, that he wasn't like anyone else, and no one could really be like him.

It took about four steps out into the main part of the building before every eye was locked on the two, and at about six, he realized why. Most shirts didn't glow, and Steve, though standing in front of the man, was not nearly big enough to block most of Tony.

No one said a word, only stared wide eyed as they walked over to Howard. The man gave the center of the glow, barely showing against the fabric, a speculative look, but didn't comment. His dismissal of the thing seemed to break everyone else in the rooms awe of it, and they shot back to work as if the two weren't.

Truthfully, they were probably trying to ignore the sparks of animosity that threatened to ignite the air between the two Stark men. If it were possible to ignore, at least. Steve certainly was trying not to be part of it.

The only ones who were truly managing to ignore it were Howard and Tony. Besides their eyes trying to burn holes into one another, and their defensive stances, they didn't seem ready to actually pounce on one another. If Steve were to make a guess, neither were consciously aware of the tension they were creating around themselves.

"The final lab is in Brooklyn." Howard could be talking to the thin air instead of a person, for all the emotion in his voice. "We could use the help setting it up, and Steve will be transported over tomorrow evening."

Tony gave the man a humored smile that never reached his eyes. "You kidding? Work with more of this outdated junk, or hang out with Capt...uh, Steve. I think I'll stick with Cappy."

Steve tried to ignore the feeling of elation that welled up in the pit of his stomach, and chose instead to make a face at the nickname, but didn't bother to tell Tony... again... that he wasn't a Captain. He couldn't wait until he was, though.

Howard made a face, and nodded, then turned back to whatever it was he was working on. Steve couldn't tell one side of the thing from the other, but Tony looked over his shoulder, studying it intently, scanning meticulously.

"If you want that to work properly, you're going to have to calibrate the..." He cut off at the glare Howard was giving him. At first, Steve thought that he might be frightened of Howard, until he saw the shit-eating grin that forced a shocked stare into Howards. And Steve didn't understand it... Sure, Howard was the best engineer in the country, but it Tony was able to make corrections, and point out flaws, even manage to make his machines run better, shouldn't Howard just be happy for the help? Maybe Howard had just been the best too long to be able to accept that.

In the end, Tony just shrugged and walked away, leaving Steve to trail after him, and Howard to stare. It really couldn't be that simply to keep people like Howard silent, could it? That seemed just too simple. Then again, much the same look had shut Steve up more times than one, even before Tony showed up... Even Bucky had done it to him, it occurred to him. Wow, maybe he should try to employ that ability. Then again, it probably wouldn't work, him being such a small guy.

The rest of the evening really just consisted of him trailing after Tony as he made his way around the room, and fiddled with just about everything electrical that he could get his hands on, sometimes nodding approvingly, other times giving the devices dirty looks, and quickly got himself wrist deep into its wiring, completely ignoring the bandages.

A few hours after he'd spoken to Tony, Howard shook Steves hand, and left with most of the other scientists, with a large amount of the smaller electronics. He and Tony exchanged a quick nod, the first real civil thing that Steve seen between the two.

The meeting between Tony and doctor Erskine was surprisingly anti-climactic, the two men simply sizing one another up, and nodding in acknowledgment, but other than a quick exchange of names, didn't really speak much to one another for hours while Tony went around, collecting various materials that Steve had no idea what he could possibly need, and Erskine did a few last-minute blood test compatibility for the next day with Steve.

He never asked Steve about him either, only casting glances at him every now any then. Tony seemed to appreciate the fact, and there was almost immediately a warm silence in the air between him and the doctor. By the time that the doctor was finished, it was rather late at night. The Doctor had already eaten something before he'd shown up, and Steve wasn't allowed to eat. He expected Tony to be starving, but the man said nothing about it. When he mentioned it to him, he just smiled slightly, and ruffled his hair, before refusing any food. Under the guise of "Not hungry."

Steve shrugged, but didn't press up. Getting ready for sleep, Steves stomach was knotted, and he couldn't bring himself to lie down. Tony was cross-legged on his own cot, fiddling with a bit of metal. After about 5 minutes of watching clever hands messing around with its wiring, there was a quick knock, and doctor Erskine walked in, smiling down at Steve, meeting Tony's eyes momentarily before the two men dismissed each other again.

"Can't sleep?"

"Got the jitters, I guess." The doctor chuckled.

"Me too." Tony snorted, but kept fiddling with the wires.

"Always something you want to hear." Steve had to fight down a smile, thinking that the doctor would be insulted, but looking at the mans face, he was struggling to keep his own smile from showing, but made no move to answer him.

Steve shivered. "Can I ask you a question?" both pairs of eyes shot to him, Tony's just full of curiosity, Erskine, expectant.

"Only one?" Steve shifted uncertainly, and Tony's eyes snapped off of him, almost apologetic. For what, Steve couldn't say.

"Why me?"

Erskine chuckled. "I guess that is the only question that matters." He sat down on Tony's cot, a few feet from the other man, facing Steve, and held up a bottle. "This is from Augsburg, my city." He contemplated the bottle before continuing. "So many people forget that the first country that the Nazis invaded was our own."

Tony simply nodded knowingly. This time, it was Steve that didn't look surprised. At least he knew that Tony probably had similar circumstances from whenever he was from. From Erskines point of view, it probably didn't make any sense. He quickly shook himself out of it when Erskine took up his story again.

"You know, after the last war there, my people struggled. They felt weak, they felt small. And then, Hitler comes along with the marching, and the big show, and the... and he, he hears of me, and he comes to me and he says 'You.' he says, 'You will make us strong.' Well, I am not interested. So he sands the head of Hydra, his research division," They both paused to look at Tony, who had shuddered at the name. That couldn't be a good sign... probably best not to mention it.

Erskine shook his head as if to clear it, and continued on as if nothing had happened. "A brilliant scientist by the name of Johann Schmidt. Now, Schmidt is a member of the inner circle, and he is ambitious. He and Hitler share a passion for occult power... and Teutonic myth." Steve glanced back at Tony. His eyes had become hard, deep in thought.

"Hitler uses his fantasies to inspire his followers. But for Schmidt, it is not fantasy. For him, it is real. He has become convinced that there is a great power hidden in the earth, left from the gods, waiting to be seized by a superior man." The sound that came from Tony's throat could only be described as a growl. He was glaring into the distance, now.

"Let me guess. The Tesseract."

Erskine looked surprised, and nodded, opening his mouth to ask how he knew, before he seemed to think better of that idea, seeing how angry it seemed to make Tony. Steve came quickly to the same conclusion.

"So, when he hears about my formula, and what it can do... he cannot resist." He shook his head again. "Schmidt must become that superior man." There was a shirt pause.

"...So, did he become stronger." Tony nodded, just slightly, but Erskine didn't seem to notice it, and did the same thing.

"Yeah. But there were other... effects." Erskine shuddered. "The serum was not ready...but mare important, the man. The serum amplifies everything that is inside, so good becomes great." Tony quickly sent Steve a smile, "Bad becomes worse. This is why you were chosen. Because a strong man," Erskines gaze drifted over to Tony, studying him, "who has known power all his life, may lose respect for that power."

Tony shrugged, looking completely uninsulted, and Erskine smiled before he looked back over to Steve. "But, a weak man knows the value of strength. And knows compassion." That earned a quiet snort from Tony, but when Steve looked over at him, his face was completely innocent.

"Thanks... I think." Erskine nodded, smiling, and gestured at the glasses that sat on Steves trunk at the end of the bed, and Steve quickly handed the man all three.

"Whatever happens tomorrow," He began as he poured each glass out, roughly halfway full of the vodka, "you must promise me that you will stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier, but a good man." He handed out the glasses to the other men in the room, grinning gently.

Steve smiled back at him, and held up his glass. "To the little guys." the others wore an almost identical half-smile, and raised their glasses, Erskine actually tapping his own, Tony just pointing it in his direction, and Steve lifted the glass to his mouth, both men suddenly pounced towards him.

Erskine was shaking his head, frantic "No, no, wait, wait... what am I doing? You have a procedure tomorrow, no liquids."

Steve made a face down at his now empty hand as Erskine emptied his glass into Tony's, mostly, and a little in his own. "Oh. Alright, we'll just drink it after."

Erskine snorted in his direction as Tony took a drink of it, smiling. "No, we don't have a procedure tomorrow. Drink it after? Drink it now." Erskine quickly followed Tony's lead, but definitely took a smaller mouthful of the liquid.

Steve grimaced, and turned sad eyes on the other man. "Tony?"

the man was completely unaffected by the look, as he took another drink, a slight smile spreading across his face. "As much as I'd like to see you drunk, Cap, there isn't exactly much i can do about it tonight, is there?"

As they continued going through the bottle, Steve wasn't completely sure that he was upset about not being able to drink. It was surely much more fun to watch Erskine drunk, but Tony seemed to think it was just as amusing, even having been drinking more than the doctor.

Erskine talked a lot, very fondly about his family, who were safe back in Germany, and Steve couldn't help but think about his own. It was nice to have so many good memories about his mother, and such an inspiring father. It took him a while for Steve to notice Tony's silence. The man was smiling sadly, almost, at the two. Erskine drifted off, happily into memory.

Steve would never have even considered asking his next question if Tony hadn't been drunk, given the reaction he'd had to Howard.

"Do you miss your family, Tony?" He looked slightly amused for a second before that same sadness returned to his eyes.

"Hard to miss what you never had."

"But... Howard is your father, right?" Another small smirk.

"Both of my parents died when I was still in school."

"I'm...sorry. But you must have missed them since then, right?" Steves mind decidedly ignored the memory of the two Stark men interactions with one another at that moment, it seemed.

" Like I said: It's hard to miss what you never had. Howard spoke to me maybe five times since I was three, and most of those times it was to yell at me about something or another."

Steve was shocked. Surely Howard wasn't actually a bad parent... he was really a good man, after all. But, it wasn't as if Tony would just lie to him out of nowhere... he'd been shockingly truthful with him about any of his other questions, after all... "What about your mom?"

Tony snorted. "I can't remember ever seeing her when she wasn't almost blackout drunk."

He was no longer looking at Steve, but he could almost hear the pain in the mans voice.

"Like an old friend once said, 'I am a man who has everything; and nothing.'"

Erskine lifted one eyebrow in his direction. "Sounds to be a close friend, to get away with saying something like that to you."

Tony's expression didn't change as he lifted his bandaged hand to the glowing center of his chest. "You could say that. He was a good man."

Steve wanted to leave it alone. He really did, but he still couldn't manage to keep his mouth shut. "He..was?... How did he die?"

Tony looked him in the eye, pinning him down with a stare. Maybe he wasn't as drunk as Steve had thought... his eyes certainly didn't look unfocused or cloudy. Agony filled the other mans eyes, bleeding from the caramel gaze. It was probably the most open expression Steve had ever seen on his face. He didn't dare drop his eyes. "He died a hero. Jumping into a situation he had no control over, trying to do something that he never could, just to make sure I lived."

There was nothing Steve could say to that. Hell, he could barely force his eyes from the agonized gaze. Even when he managed to, he could still feel Tony watching him, those too old eyes trying to bore into him. One day, he'd learn to think things through before saying them. Hopefully. Not tonight, it seemed.

"...Tony?"

"Hm?"

"You don't like it when people see that glowing thing, but you don't seem to mind me looking at it. Why?"

At least that brought the smirk back, and shook a little of that sadness away from his expression.

"You've already seen it. You accept it, simply because it's there. Normally, people don't. Honestly, it's because I trust you, Steve."

Steve blushed, and smiled shyly at Tony, who had drifted off into his own thoughts again. Erskine had managed to pass out completely on Tony's cot in the middle of the exchange. Steve tried to appear normal, like his chest wasn't pounding as hard as it was. Even as he crawled into his own cot, he couldn't manage to wipe the smile from his face, not aware of Tony smiling at him in the silence.

"Night, Cap."

"Night, Tony."


...So halfway through this chapter, I stopped listening to music, and started listening to Drunktank podcasts by Roosterteeth Productions... oh man. The earlier ones are so great. For those who don't know what Roosterteeth is, they are most famous for their internet machinima series, Red vs Blue, based on the game Halo. So, this chapter probably changed tones often, in ways that don't make complete sense.