Note: I hope you will like it. ^^


Chapter 3: Time for a break, or not?

A few weeks had already passed since the first meeting between the Avengers and Captain America. Now Tony and Steve were sitting in Tony's workshop where the Avengers leader explained their newest member step after step about the technological advances that were achieved in the time Steve had been frozen.

Steve learned really quickly but there were always some part where he would be completely lost since Tony had the tendency to go into 'techno babble mode' as Wasp had once called it.

But that wasn't a bad thing to Steve since he really liked to listen to Tony when he was speaking with such passion that he always showed in cases where electronic things were involved. Besides, Steve could not see enough of this glint in Tony's deep brown eyes...

If Tony wasn't busy explaining something they exchanged personal information like for example their likes and dislikes and Steve even told Tony about how he became Captain America and about the Second World War itself.

They would talk about these things freely but Tony was really clothed mouthed about his reason to become Iron Man. He had told Steve only that he had been kidnapped in Afghanistan and there had happened something that 'opened his eyes'...

Hank and Janet had told Steve – on their own accord since Steve would ask personal question behind the one who was concerned – that Iron Man had first appeared after Tony's abduction in Afghanistan. Of course they hadn't known that Tony was the one in the suit and they only learned about that fact after they had agreed to become part of the Avengers. Tony himself was never talking about the time of his imprisonment and the only people who seemed to know a part of the story were Tony's secretary Virginia 'Pepper' Potts, Tony's best friend James 'Rhodey' Rhodes, Tony's driver Happy Hogan and even Jarvis seemed to know something. So it were only these people – or in Jarvis's case AI – who Tony put great trust in.

But since Steve didn't want to lose the bit of trust he had earned so far by digging deeper, he let the topic fall and concentrated on getting to know his new teammates.

Tony was explaining him how his repulsors worked as Wasp flew into the room. The two of them hadn't even heard the door opening so much had they been in their own little world...

"Guys, guys! I just had a great idea!"

"What is it Janet?" asked Tony in a polite but still slightly irritated voice.

Janet grew back to her normal size and leaned on Tony's workbench.

"I just had an idea how we could introduce our Captain here..." she gestured at Steve "to the modern world without boring him to death by your techno babble!"

Steve wanted to put in that he wasn't bored by Tony's explanations – even if he did not understand everything he was told – but Janet didn't give him a chance to do so.

"We could watch some movies together!"

Tony looked at Janet as if she had grown a second head – which was not as unlikely as it sound since the encountered every day strange things...

"...And that is your 'great' idea? Watch movies?" Tony asked with disbelief clearly in his voice.

"Yep! And don't make that face Mr.! We don't have to watch movie every evening – since that wouldn't work anyway – but we could at least make it one evening in the week!"

At that Tony's facial expression relaxed a bit and smiled while said: "Okay I can live with that as long as I don't have to be the ones who tell Hank that he has now an evening less to work on his projects."

Janet smiled back at him. "Oh, don't worry about that. It will be my pleasure to inform him."

Now Tony's smile transformed into a grin. "You can be really evil if you want to, Janet."

"I know." And with that Janet shrank down – with a grin similar to Tony's – and flew away.

Steve looked still a bit perplexed from what just happened but Tony seemed unfazed by it and returned back to his devices on his desk.

"So, Steve what movie genre do you like?" asked Tony while he was working.

The one spoken to snapped out of his daze. "Oh, äh... I think I could like anything..." '...As long as you are in the same room.' The last part he added silently and blushed slightly at his thought.

In the few days Steve had already been part of the Avengers, the only major mission had been the one against Doughboy and Zemo and luckily it had gotten quiet after that. It was a perfect opportunity for Steve to learn everything about this time without interruption. In this 'break' Tony had taken Cap under his wings and gave his best to make Steve feel welcome – on the team and in this time.

The two were now sitting in comfortable silence together – the only noise was Tony tinkering on some invention of his – and Steve watched in awe how Tony could grab things without losing his focus and without looking up.

It felt only like a few minutes but it probably were a few hours until the voice of Jarvis broke through the silence.

"Sir, I want to remind you that it's time for your meeting."

Tony stopped what he was doing and looked up. "Thank you Jarvis."

"What meeting?"

Tony stood up and looked at Steve. "It's just some business meeting that I have to attend. I'm sorry but I have to get ready. You can stay here if you want to."

"No thank you. I wouldn't know what to do here and I don't want to disturb your 'order'. I think I will train a bit in the training area. But I will see you off."

With that Steve stood up. Tony just shrugged. The two took the elevator upstairs and Tony went to his room to change his grease smeared clothes.

A few minutes later Tony came down the stairs. "I hope it won't take long. If you want to we can train a bit together when I come back."

Steve smiled at that. "Of course we can train together that will give me the chance to show you a few techniques to improve your fighting skills."

Tony gave him a fake hurt look. "Hey! I'm not that bad!"

"Sure, whatever you say." They laughed as they walked towards the door. Steve winked as Tony climbed into the car and did it until the car was out of sight. After that Steve closed the doors behind him and got ready to go into the training room. When he stepped into the training area he found Thor already there training at Level 2.

"Can I join you Thor?"

The Asgardian stopped another incoming missile before he looked towards Cap and grinned. "Captain! Of course you can, my friend! Together we will show this program of Iron Man who the better warriors are!"


At the same time at Stark Industries:

While Tony was waiting for Simon Williams who wanted to talk to him, he was busy working on some systems of Stark Industries. Together with Hank, as Ant-Man, they were working on it when suddenly Pepper announced that Simon had arrived.

The talk did definitely not go well. One reason was that Tony was a little distracted while talking to Simon. Then there was Simon who was really upset about Tony buying his company and of course there was also Tony's way of phrasing his sentences. All in all it was a catastrophe where Tony didn't even get the chance to tell Simon that he did not want to 'destroy' Simon's life work.


How had Tony's day evolved from a good talk to Steve to a bad start with the one person he wanted to work with? And Tony's day got even worse! He got his armor taken apart and it seemed like he was also at fault for Simon becoming a being of ionic energy and later dying because of this physical change.

Now Tony had barricaded himself in his room where he was staring at his ceiling and naming to himself what deaths were all his fault.

He really wanted something to drink... but he had sworn himself not to reach for a bottle since he had a responsibility towards the team. However, if he could not have a drink then maybe working on something would somehow distract him from his faults but he wasn't in his lab and since he didn't want to run into the other Avengers, he couldn't leave his room...

He didn't know how long he was lying on his bed staring at nothing but the whiteness of his ceiling until a knock on his door broke the depressing silence.

"Tony? Are you in there? If you are could you please open the door?" It was Steve's voice and even with the door deadening his words Tony could clearly make out the concern in them.

But since Tony wanted to be left alone he didn't give an answer... After a while Steve seemed to have enough and sat down, leaning on the door and talked from there.

"Hank told me the whole story of what happened... It wasn't really your fault, Tony... Maybe you could have taken better care of what you said but you could not know that Simon would instantly go to someone for superpowers – that were instable – to destroy you..." Tony couldn't take it anymore and interrupted Steve. "How can you be so sure? In this world someone should foresee things like that since they are part of the daily routine! I... I should have foreseen this!"

"And then what? Try to stop Simon from making a mistake?"

"Yes, of course!"

"Tony... you can't change the past. That's what you said to me when I woke up the first nights here at Avengers Mansion from nightmares and screaming names of fallen comrades. You said to me: 'No matter how much we want to, we can't change the past. Even if we had the chance to... we shouldn't. It would only make matters worse in the present!'"

Tony listened to Steve as he threw Tony's own words back at him. Even with Cap saying that to him Tony still felt like he should have done something different...

After a few minutes of silence between the two men Tony stood up and opened the door. Steve almost fell backwards but luckily he found his balance again before he landed on his back. He stood up and turned toward his friend. What he saw shocked him a bit. Tony locked completely devastated with his hair standing even more in all directions and his eye circles were even darker than normal. His shirt was crumpled and the top buttons were open which gave Steve a change to take a look on Tony's normally hidden chest. What he saw shocked Steve even more... In the middle of Tony's chest was a big round... something which was shining in the same blue light that the thing on Tony's armor was always gave off.

The person standing before Steve seemed to realise on what he was staring and tried to turn away from Steve to hide – whatever it was but Steve stopped him by laying a hand on Tony's shoulder. "Tony... what... what is that?"

Tony tried to brush him off while he said. "It's nothing."

"That's not 'nothing'! Tony, please." Steve gave Tony a concerned look that at the same time said that he wouldn't let that topic drop until he would get an explanation from Tony. Tony sighed and invited Steve into his room and Steve followed that invitation.

As soon as Tony had closed the door – and locked it – he turned around to find Steve giving him that I'm-waiting-look.

And Tony began his explanation. He told Steve that the arc reactor powered his suit. But he didn't tell Steve that the arc reactor was also the one thing that kept him alive since Steve would only worry even more about Tony than he already did.

After he had finished his half-truth Steve seemed a bit suspicious. "Why do you have to... wear this arc reactor when you don't have your suit on? What is it you're not telling me?"

Tony tried to give him an answer without letting on that he wasn't telling the truth. "I told you everything. It's just that the arc reactor is hard to remove and since I don't want to have a hard time with removing it, I just let it where it is."

Steve still didn't seem convinced and gave him a stern look.

They sat there a while in silence with Steve giving Tony that look and Tony trying not to blurt out the truth to the one he considered his best friend – and more. In the end the 'fight' was won by no other than Cap and Tony gave in. He told Steve the story about his abduction in Afghanistan and what happened while his imprisonment. He even told Steve how he had escaped with the help of Yinsen.

When he had finished he realised that tears were flowing down his cheeks and he angrily wiped them away. A few seconds later Steve was already kneeling before Tony and reaching for his friends hands. He held them in his and tried to cheer the man up.

After a while Tony had gotten the control over himself back. "I... I'm sorry that you had to see me like that..."

Steve gave Tony a soft smile. "Hey, what are friends for? They listen to each other's problems and lend the other a shoulder to cry on if they need it."

Now Tony gave Steve a tiny smile – which seemed exhausted but truly honest. "Thanks."

"Do you want to do something? We could go eat something since you look like you haven't eaten anything for a while..."

"...Sure, why not."

"Okay that's settled then. I will wait downstairs for you."

And with that Steve left Tony to himself.

A few minutes later Tony came down the stairs and they went to a restaurant that was one of Tony's favourites. There they had fun together and talked about topics that had nothing to do with death and destruction.