If I Can't Have You
Summary: The Avengers are the best band on the planet, with the best gigs and the most talented musicians in the world. That was fact. The world has long since accepted it. That is until an old friend comes for two of their members and the world is shaken as an old group comes back together once again to make waves. And not small splashes. Tsunamis! Friendship, love and family go a long way to break the chains of society, after all.
The day of the concert finally arrived and Steve felt all kinds of jittery. They had all practiced and had agreed not to take their disputes out onto the stage, but that didn't mean tensions weren't skyrocketing behind it. It was all set, they had done everything right to prepare for this day and it was now all up to them on the stage and the crowds in the stands.
The turn up was huge. It beat every other concert and they usually sold out each one. The demand for tickets was high enough that their website actually crashed a couple of times. JARVIS had informed them that they were selling out tickets even for the live feed over various forums done by professionals and that there were several dozen amateur ones set up. There were trucks with large TV screens and projectors around the stadium for those who bought cheaper tickets because there was no more space in the stadium. The entirety of the Stark Entertainment Expo grounds were filled to the brim with fans and the speaker systems were all set to blast music from the stadium. Toni had even had to sell out the Stark Science Expo's arena because there were so many people flying into New York for the Civil War concert. The concert was supposed to be in Leipzig, originally, but when they saw the ticket demands ...
Well, only the Stark Expo grounds, wither one of them, could contain such a crowd while giving off the best performance. The Stark Entertainment Expo was built for things like plays, concerts, movie premiers and art exhibitions, after all.
The order of the proceedings was also brilliant, Steve had to admit. Starting off with just Stark and Strange, then working their way up in numbers through the Mystic Arts to the 24 PhDs and finally ending with the largest and most important group, the Avengers themselves, which was good as they were supposed to be remembered the most on their own concert. It was a rather large opening act but they had time for everything. Storm was currently entertaining the audience while the last checks were being done on the tuning of instruments. Strange and Toni were off to the side in some sort of huddle and the surprise guest was still a no show. Toni had assured them he'll be there, he just needed to be there before the PhDs go out on stage. The first time anyone will even see the guy will be on stage so they might as well stop trying to search him out.
"Stark! Strange! You're up in fifteen!" The stage manager yelled, counting down with his fingers as the Geniuses shared a nod and went towards the stage.
Storm took his microphone and climbed his bike to drive off out of sight as he introduced the next act. "Ladies and gentleman, give it up for the one and the only Geniuses!"
Steve had never heard the crowd go that wild as Toni and Strange entered the stage. He grit his teeth. He had never wanted to admit it but Toni's fans were the largest in number and after finding out all this new information about her career before the Avengers, he had a feeling he knew how many of them were older, longer fans. They had obviously followed her journey if they were this excited just to see the two. He hated the fact that the Avengers had never been greeted with this zeal before. Then again, the Geniuses had technically been absent from the stage for practically twenty years, even if they had grown into the 12 PhDs.
"Stark is going to end up making this all about her, isn't she?" Wanda's question surprised Steve, as he had been entirely too lost in his own thoughts that he hadn't even registered the young woman walking up to him. When he stole a glance at her, she had a disgusted scowl on her pretty features and Steve couldn't help but agree a bit. Toni's ego was showing and it was ugly. She used to have some sense, knowing how to tune it down a little so it wasn't this blatantly obvious. She used to be able to put it aside for the sake of the band but now it all had to be all about her.
"Hello, New York!" Both he and Wanda jumped when Strange and Toni yelled into the microphone. It didn't annoy the crowd, though. Instead, it only excited them more even though there was no good reason for yelling whatsoever. The surround system was more than working. "Are you ready to be blown away?" The crowds only screamed more, apparently all the more pumped up.
"Dear, sweet Newton, I forgot how good their voices sound together." The lead guitarist of the Avengers frowned at hearing one of those silly scientific swears Toni usually uses, turning to see Richards looking excited.
"Just look at that crowd. If Toni and Stephen don't tone it down, even the PhDs will be drowned," Bruce said with a chuckle, apparently not at all bothered by what he just said as it sounded like a joke. Well, Steve didn't find it nearly as funny as the pianist did and he was about to inform him as such when haunting, beautiful piano music started playing. They all looked in confusion at the stage when they found Toni still standing by the piano with Strange sitting in the stool, playing elegantly over the black and white keys.
"I didn't know Strange played the piano," Sam muttered to himself but Rhodes clapped him on the shoulder.
"Strange can play anything Toni can play, except maybe the harp but she learned that after the PhDs split up. Anyway, Toni taught Stephen everything she knew how to play and some instruments they learned to play together. From the violin family to the piano family to the guitars and to the metal and wooden blowing instruments, you name it, they can pretty much play it. Well, none of the traditional African instruments because neither of them has the lungs or the hand strength to learn it, but most instruments come easily to them." He paused then, frowning at the stage in bafflement. "But I thought Toni will be playing the piano. They showed me the music sheets for it. That's supposed to be her part. Strange wrote the guitar part."
"Love that once hung on the wall
Used to mean something,
But now it means nothing
The echoes are gone in the hall
But I still remember,
The pain of December"
Well ... Steve couldn't deny they sounded damn good even if he wanted to. There was just ... something in Toni's voice that always made a song sound good. Of course, usually the songs were good, given she's usually one to write them. She knew them inside out, every note, every chord, every word and every pause. And the words were as haunting as the melody. It was almost nothing like the last time he'd heard Toni sing one of her own songs from before the Avengers and before Iron Maiden. Now You Know and Let Me Go seem to be on completely different ends of the spectrum. Then again, this was just two instruments playing this time. The feeling was completely different.
And he had never seen or heard a stadium fall so completely, ultimately quiet as it did now, as everyone listened avidly to the song that no one but the two composers and a dead man had heard before. Not even a fly or a mosquito could be heard buzzing. If a pin dropped, everyone would hear it.
"Oh god," Scott gasped somewhere behind him but Steve couldn't take his eyes off of his ex girlfriend. She looked so ... vulnerable and yet so strong at the same time ... Had he ever seen her like this before? Aside from that impromptu performance at the mall, that is. She somehow looked even more comfortable and in control than ever before, even when she was singing the most famous duet from the Phantom of the Opera with Strange. "Is she singing about what I think she's singing?"
"Oh dear Periodic Table, you're right," Bruce gasped in pain and horror. But Steve didn't get it.
"16th of December, Stevie," Bucky said with disappointment in his voice. "That's when her parents died, all those years ago."
"I-" '... Didn't know.' Well, he knew from the news, of course. A man like Howard Stark can't die without the whole world knowing. But Toni had never talked to him about it despite Steve telling her how Sarah Rogers had died and what her last words were. Toni had listened, had been sympathetic, but she had never returned the favor, the trust. He had completely forgotten about it at some point.
"Oh, there isn't one thing left you could say
I'm sorry is too late!"
And that just hit him straight in the heart like a ton of bricks, even if it wasn't aimed at himself. Toni hadn't even known him when the song was written and yet it somehow still felt like he was on the receiving end. He really hadn't meant to hurt Toni when he had kissed Sharon. There had been rumors going around about Toni and he had been foolish enough to believe them.
Still, that was no excuse for her to use her personal vendetta against him to harm the Avengers just to get back at Steve. Steve could admit to his mistake. He wasn't bound by pride to do cruel things such as this. The Avengers didn't deserve this.
"I'm breaking free from these memories
Gotta let it go, just let it go
I've said goodbye
Set it all on fire
Gotta let it go, just let it go."
"Is it true Stark actually set her old house on fire?" That Mordo guy couldn't seem but ask and they all snorted at that. No, Toni kept that place safe and going like it was a museum or a temple. He'd went there once with her and she had nearly taken his head off when he got too close to her mother's favorite vase.
The chorus of the song was received just as well as the beginning, though the fans only screamed more during Strange's brief piano solo before the piano quieted and Toni started strumming the guitar. Strange took the Avengers all by surprise with how good his voice was. A perfect match for Toni's, like the great music muses created and tuned their vocal chords for each other. The Avengers exchanged a look, Sam and Wanda actually starting to look nervous while Clint looked annoyed and even Nat was peeved. Steve agreed. If Toni wanted her friend to show off, he could have done that as an Avenger. They would have found space for him.
"You came back to find I was gone
And that place is empty,
Like the hole that was left in me
Like we were nothing at all
It's not that you meant to me
Thought we were meant to be"
"Go Stephen!" A woman from the front rows cheered and Rogers thought that was probably that Dr Palmer girl. Strange's ... girlfriend or something.
"Didn't Stephen say they wrote this when you guys were just starting to discuss going your separate ways because of life?" Mrs Richards asked her husband but it's not like any of them have a real answer to exactly when the song was written. Neither Toni nor Strange had specified. It spoke of Toni's parents' death but when did the writing session happen? When were Toni and Strange alone together?
"I never thought Stephen would open up like this in front of strangers," the one called Wong commented to the bald woman in yellow, who seemed more in delighted awe than surprised by the proceedings.
"I believe that, for them, nothing and no one else exists in this moment."
"Sounds accurate enough," Rhodes agreed and Steve wondered just what kind of connection one must forge to make it into the circle of close friends for people like Toni and Strange. He had thought he'd been a part of it, but it has never been more clear he had not even been on the outskirts. His whole relationship with his girlfriend had been as an outsider looking in.
And he hated Strange for it, for being able to make Toni smile like that as she leaned against the piano and played her guitar.
"Oh, there isn't one thing left you could say
I'm sorry it's too late!"
"I'm breaking free from these memories
Gotta let it go, just let it go."
The crowd exploded when their voices combined, something sudden and flashy and incredible as the notes of the piano and the chords of the guitar intertwined, every key stroke a perfect match for each strum of strings. Strange's fingers were as elegant as Toni's were clever, the music pouring out of them like light from a supernova and the crowd was loving it.
"I've said goodbye
Set it all on fire
Gotta let it go, just let it go."
The melody slowed down again, dominated by the piano as the two took turns to sing. They were as perfect a duet as they had been for the Phantom of the Opera. They were gentle, the song sounding fragile and yet gaining strength with each set of lyrics. Both Anciento and Rhodes were right. Steve could see as clear as day that the two on stage were completely oblivious to the rest of the world, not even looking down to their instruments to see their finger movements. Their eyes never left each other.
This was their song and Steve suddenly understood why it had never been shared before. 'So why now?'
"I let it go"
"And now I know"
"A brand new life"
"Is down this road"
"Where it's right"
"You always know"
"So this time"
"I won't let go"
"There's only one thing left here to say," Toni sang as she leaned closer to Strange and started strumming her guitar again. "Love's never too late!" And the song exploded all over again, like the musical version of the Big Bang. The entire thing was a roller coaster and since no one knew the song, no one knew how it was going to go. everyone seemed to be enjoying the novelty of it, the not knowing what was coming next. the song was a hit, that was for sure. The way Toni's and Strange's voices blended together was really something. They were in a league of their own, they were in a world of their own, completely forgetting about everyone else as they just sang at and to each other.
Steve couldn't help but wonder at the nature of their relationship. there was no way they were just friends. Friends don't look at each other like that, like they've each placed the sun and the moon and the stars in the sky, like they've created the cosmos.
suddenly, the song seemed to have a much deeper meaning than just the pain of losing one's parents and breaking up a group of friends that's been through it all. If this was just Stephen and Toni's song ... And Steve hated Strange even more that neither of them seemed to notice that they were practically confessing to each other their undying love. He was still not over Toni. He still wanted them to get back together.
"I've broken free from these memories
I've let go, I've let go
And two goodbyes, led you to this new life
Don't let me go, don't let me go"
"Like either of them are ever going to let the other go," Snorted that Grim guy that still hadn't apologized to Steve for their bumping in to each other that first time they met at the mall but Steve had decided to be the bigger man and just let it go.
"Don't let me go! Don't let me go! Don't let me go!"
The melody became slow, low and haunting again, only Strange's piano and Toni's voice as she lowered the guitar and came to sit beside the man on the piano stool, their eyes still never leaving each other. He felt his heart clench painfully with each verse of "Won't let you go, don't let me go," that left Toni's lips as they leaned their foreheads together and just sat like that, like nothing and no one else existed, like they wouldn't be anywhere else but right there, with each other, in the spotlight behind a piano. Had Toni ever looked at him like that? Had he at her?
'I'll change,' he was ready to beg. 'I'll treat you better. just give us one more chance.' He would beg. He would, before it was too late and Strange seduced her to his side with familiarity and tricked her into thinking it was love. He's seen the footage. The only thing Strange cares about is himself. He won't let Toni go. This has been a wake up call, in many aspects. He won't repeat his mistake.
"Won't let you go, don't let me go." And with that and one last ending note from the piano, the song ended and the entire stadium was silent. Then, a thunderous applause and a deafening cheer. Strange and Toni jerked away from each other, shocked out of their own little world by the sudden, loud noise, turning almost incredulous expressions towards the crowd as they continued yelling praises, cheers for an anchor and their names. Then, the most dazzling, yet genuine and bashful smiles split both their faces as they stood up to bow to the audience, causing even more of a frenzy. Somehow, despite not wearing any special, flashy outfits, just some jeans and a dress shirt for Strange and trousers and a band shirt for Toni, they shined like stars. They were just standing there, in front of their instruments and smiling and it was enough.
"Thank you, New York!" They said in one voice into their microphones, holding hands as they performed another bow. Then Toni stepped forward and gestured dramatically behind her where the piano was already being carted off and the rest of the instruments were being brought out with that scary efficiency only SI employees can handle. "And now, it is my great pleasure and an even grater honor to call out some of my lovely colleges. Give it up for the magnificent Mystic Arts!"
The rest of Strange's band met him on stage as the crowd cheered. They were hyped and more than a little pumped up after the show provided so far. The interest in the strange band was natural, given none of them were exactly normal characters on a good day and they had a bald woman on stage with them. Not to mention they were dressed in some really weird clothes Steve didn't know how to label. Only Strange didn't bother to get changed, instead just accepting the red cape thing Anciento brought him, though with an arched eyebrow.
Steve absolutely hated him for how well he wore it.
Getting Toni back won't be easy.