The world swirled around him, the sound of water pounded against his ears and his body felt as if it were freezing. Cold seeped all the way into his bones as he struggled, trying to figure out which way was up and which way was down.

Steve thought he was screaming, but no sounds emerged outside of gargling.

He was trapped under the water, struggling to free himself but yet unable to move as ice began to encase him. The water began to solidify faster than he could think and it caused more panic to rise into his system.

What was happening? He was supposed to be dead, not this! This wasn't supposed to happen.

"Steve!"

The voice tore through his panicked addled mind and his eyes shot open, darting around frantically as he gasped for the air he now realized was available for him. Greedily he sucked it in, desperate to forget the feeling of being unable to.

His body still felt the icy grips of the water and he shivered violently, trying to focus on the room around him and ground himself in the present, as slowly he realized that's where he was.

Not in the plane flying towards America with so many armed bombs, not in the fidgid icy waters somewhere in the Arctic, but instead somewhere in the twenty first century.

But where am I, actually? Wasn't I... where am...

It took a moment for his mind to process the thoughts, with his body extremely fatigued and his mind sluggish. His body felt extremely sore but it was the dull ache of healing instead of the sharp pains he had grown accustomed to.

As he came to himself more, he realized the room didn't seem like the lab that had grown so familiar over the past few weeks, or months, however long it had been.

Slowly lifting his head, his eyes fell on a masculine figure standing next to his bed with a hand reached out as if wanting to grab and steady him, but hovering in mid air, clearly unsure if he should.

As Steve raised his eyes they met with a disgruntled and rather horrified looking Tony Stark, and Steve stilled entirely.

"Steve?" Tony questioned cautiously, biting down on his lip as he did so and locking eyes with him. "Rogers?" He repeated with a frown, pointedly changing how he addressed the man as the shocked expression drained off his face and his hand dropped back to his side.

"Tony?" Steve asked, but the weak rasp that came out of his throat hardly sounded like his voice.

"Good grief Rogers," Tony snapped, running a hand through his hair. "I heard you screaming from down the hall and thought someone had broken in and was trying to kill you, what-"

"I was screaming?" Steve murmured softly, cutting the man off before he could ramble on.

"Yes, you were screaming," Tony said firmly, eyeing him.

"How did I get here, where are we?" Steve asked after a moment of silence, his eyes drifting around the room. His body slowly began to relax at the somewhat familiar scenery.

"The Compound," Tony confirmed.

"It's cold," Steve blurted, surprising himself. "I mean," he bit his lip, that hadn't been what he started to say at all.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y," Tony prompted, quirking an eyebrow upward, "raise the temperature for Captain America, will you?"

"Aye, boss."

"That'll take care of that, so you won't turn into a Capsicle," Tony offered a small attempt at a lighthearted grin, but as Steve looked at the man he could see the hard lines edging the corners of it and the lack of light in his eyes as he spoke. He was faking civility, it was a shame that Tony Stark was so good at that.

Not only that, Steve couldn't help but flinch at the words despite the fact he knew the man meant nothing by it. He noticed the grin instantly fade off of Tony's face into frown.

"Cap?" Tony questioned warily, "you doing okay?"

Shaking his head lightly, Steve let a soft breath out. "Why did you come after me?" He mumbled, changing the subject. "I thought you said you were done with me."

Steve knew despite still being somewhat foggy that the words could open the floor for a fight, he was aware that it wasn't the best idea when they were on delicate grounds, but he couldn't help it. He would rather engage in a fight with Tony than to truly open up to him now, or ever.

He was Captain America, what would people say if they knew Captain America had nightmares about being frozen in the Arctic?

Tony drew in a rather sharp breath, and he noticeably stiffened.

"Is that how we're starting this off, then? Right were we left off?"

"To be fair," Steve responded, clinching his teeth slightly, "you're the one who left it that way."

"Wow, Rogers, I never realized you were so petty, is imprisonment enough to turn even America's Golden Boy into a hardened criminal type? Did you get any tattoos while you were there? I'm sure Ross could have called someone in to do that for-"

"I had to deal with enough needles thanks to Ross, none of which I asked for," Steve shot, cutting the inventor off.

Tony trailed, looking at Steve with a distant and rather unusual look on his face. Steve had a hard time placing the emotion at first, but Tony looked away and suddenly it dawned on him.

Guilt.

Tony Stark actually felt guilty for what had happened. He felt guilty for actions that weren't even fully in his control, and just like that Steve Rogers felt regret bubble up in his own chest for rubbing salt in a wound he didn't even know existed.

There was little doubt for Steve that Stark was a good man deep down, but guilt wasn't an emotion that he had entirely expected from the genius, not for something that hadn't been in his control. Steve's mind had convinced him that Tony knew what was going on and did nothing to stop it, but that couldn't be farther from the truth.

One look was enough to tell Steve everything; Tony hadn't known, and if he had of, he would have done something sooner. Maybe the man was more complex than Steve had originally thought, and maybe some of the revelations that he had during his time at the Raft were true.

He didn't know Tony Stark at all, not really, not beyond the superficial facade that the man offered everyone, and somewhere under that mask was an even better person than Steve had realized.

"Tony," Steve spoke up softly, "I'm sorry."

"It's a fair statement," Tony commented offhandedly, waving his hand with apparent indiffence. However, from the blank mask Tony pulled over his features, Steve could tell he was hiding how he really felt. "Besides, why would it bother me?"

Steve wanted to press the issue, wanted to argue with the man, but he knew it would be pointless.

Silence filled the room and as Steve studied the man before him, his thoughts drifted as they had become prone to doing recently. Not even two minutes after waking up back home, to his shock, and he was already trying to instigate an argument with one of the people he had desperately wanted to make up with. Maybe it was fear, bitterness, or anger at the situation causing it, but it was no excuse.

He had the opportunity he had wanted, and despite his fatigue he was going to take it.

"Not just that," Steve offered softly, "for everything, Tony."

"Everything," Tony let off a tiny, bitter sounding laugh as he shook his head. "You know, Cap, I've come to realize I'm not guiltless in this situation."

"Maybe not," Steve said faintly, "but neither am I. There are a lot of things I would have done differently if I had the chance to do it over again, all of it over again."

"All of it?" Tony thinned his lips, looking at Steve with a quizzical expression.

"All of it," Steve repeated, rather distantly. His voice trailed, it didn't seem fair to make this conversation entirely about him.

"Like what?" Tony pushed.

"From the beginning of the Avengers, from waking up in this strange time, yet another place where I didn't fit in. There are some decisions that I don't regret, but there are others that I do."

"Like, what?" Tony said, lowering his tone. "Would you not do this whole Avengers thing if you could do it over?"

The impassive expression on Tony's face would have been deceiving if Steve couldn't hear it in the tone of his voice, the man was upset at the potential revelation.

"No, of course I would do this," Steve said pointedly, "but one decision I regret, is never truly getting to know you."

Shock radiated from the man standing next to him, who froze and went completely silent.

"I assumed so much, I based my opinions on you around my own assumptions, and that isn't fair, it was wrong of me," Steve continued when Tony uncharacteristically remained silent. "I always assumed we were friends because we needed to be, we worked on the same team and sometimes we got along okay, sometimes we even seemed friendly, but I think I was wrong. We always ended up on opposite sides of every argument, I never even tried to understand you because all I saw was someone who was overly reckless. You are overly reckless Tony, don't get me wrong, but there's more to you than that."

Steve wasn't sure if Tony looked hurt or confused, but emotion was definitely playing on the mans face now.

"We never really got pass that first conversation, did we? We were forced to become cordial and work together to save the world, and that's where we stayed, ready to come to blows with each other if we had to. It isn't that I didn't want to be your friend, I did, but I never actually got there."

For a moment if felt as if their roles had been reversed, Steve felt like he was the one rambling, trying desperately to make the man understand and using as many words as he could to do so, because Tony still wasn't saying anything.

He was just standing there, looking at Steve with emotions rolling across his face and his body stiff, and Steve for whatever reason couldn't stop the words rolling out of his mouth.

"You're a good person, Tony, you have the right motives for doing what you do, even if I don't agree with everything that you do. You fought for what you believed was right, and that's all any of us can do, it's all any of us should."

Tony opened his mouth and closed it several times, unable to get words to pass his lips. He frowned, crossing his arms and turning away from Steve, taking in everything the super soldier had spilled out.

"Sir? Priority call from Secretary Ross, there's been a breach at the Raft prison," F.R.I.D.A.Y broke through Tony's thoughts at he blinked lightly, glancing up.

"Ah, yeah, put him through," Tony said slowly, walking over to the phone sitting next to the Captain's bed.

"Tony, we have a problem," the words came through the speaker on the phone, and Tony didn't miss Steve's flinch at the man's voice.

"Please hold!" He chirped, a smirk dancing across his face, taking no small pleasure in it. He glanced over at Steve and his smirk faded into a thin smile.

"I like to watch the line blink, and he deserves to sit on hold for an eternity," Tony offered slowly, "better than not answering, more satisfying, don't you think?"

He didn't miss the amused smile that danced it's way across Steve's face, causing his own smile to widen slightly and become more genuine.

Silence filled the air again for a moment and Tony allowed an audible sigh to pass his lips as he ran a hand through his hair.

"Does this mean I have to vent all my emotional traumas about you now?" He asked, mildly sarcastic.

"Only if you want to," Steve offered.

Tony shook his head, letting out a huffed breath and shrugging his shoulders. "Maybe I never entirely got over hating you," he admitted. "My dad idolized you, heck, I idolized you as a kid."

"Did you?" Steve quirked an eyebrow upwards.

"Shut up Rogers, hero worship wears off fast when your hero tells you you're nothing but a fake hero in a suit of armor, ruins the illusion that you were perfect, or you know, just hits home that I wasn't," Tony shot, trailing off when he saw the hurt flash across Steve's face.

"Tony, I didn't-"

"No, shut up," Tony sighed, waving his hand, "that was a long time ago, it isn't totally fair to be bitter about it."

"Maybe it is," Steve pushed, "maybe it's something we should have talked about a long time ago instead of pretending like it didn't happen. Maybe there are a lot of things we should have talked about instead of sweeping them under the rug. I was wrong, Tony."

"Yeah?" Tony said, his voice trailing and he sighed, "yeah, well, I was wrong too."

"Can we start over?" The feeble question didn't even sound like Steve Rogers, and Tony was convinced that the stress and anxiety of everything that had happened to the man still hadn't worn off. Tony remembered that feeling, after Afghanistan, though he had swept that under the rug too and it just resulted in nightmares later on.

It seemed like he was good at trying to avoid things that needed to be addressed, much like he wanted to avoid the situation now. He wasn't sure he wanted to try this again, he had been so certain they were friends before but it seemed that he was wrong.

It wasn't for lack of trying on his part, but it felt foolish that he never saw what Steve said until now, and looking back it seemed that maybe Steve was right.

They were both trying, but in the end their preconceived ideas of each other damaged any real friendship that might have grown between them otherwise. They were teammates, they cared about each other deeply and would have been devastated if anything had happened to the other, but comrade was a better word for their relationship.

Did Tony want to truly try to be friends with Captain America? His childhood idol, the man whom his dad had spent so much of his life searching for, and talking about, and comparing to?

"I'll think about it," Tony said dismissively, waving his hand. "Are you alright? Can I go back to the workshop without having to worry about you giving me another heart attack?"

Tony didn't miss the small amount of devistation on Steve's face as he nodded softly, but he turned and walked out of the room, unwilling to relent just yet.

He needed to think about this, to give himself time to process it all and understand how he himself was feeling, especially after everything else that had happened, and his workshop was always the best place for him to do that.

He had a lot of thinking to do.

Authors Note:

Steve might seem a little OOC in this chapter, I agree with that, but I justify it by saying he went through heck while he was at the Raft, and not even a super soldier is immune to his own mind and tired body.

Also, I want to thank everyone who has reviewed/followed/favored this so far! It's one of the things that has motivated me to keep writing it instead of letting it fall by the wayside as another uncompleted project, knowing that people like the story and are waiting to see it updated, so thank you all so much! =) I appreciate every one of you!