Chapter 5: A Brand New Briefcase

Everything we had, everything we did,
Is buried in dust,
And this dust is all that's left of us.

They stood there in awkward silence for a few moments, both trying to reconcile themselves with the truth that hung thickly in the air.

"Shit," Pepper whispered to herself as she closed her briefcase.

Steve's head snapped up. "Ma'am?"

She blinked a few times, almost as if she had forgotten he was there. There were tears in her eyes. Steve immediately crossed the room to her, reaching out to place a gentle hand on her arm.

"Miss Potts, are you all right?"

Pepper turned away, sniffing softly. "I'm fine, Steve. Just… Please don't tell Tony I'm back. I need to go… run an errand."

And before he could say another word, she had walked to the elevator and disappeared.

If he had been paying attention, he may have been able to foresee what was about to happen. There were clues – small, but there nonetheless. The cheery greeting. The tight outfit. But most glaringly, the briefcase – not the designer briefcase Tony had given her last Christmas, which Steve had never seen her without. A brand new briefcase.

But these things, unfortunately, took a far-away backseat to the main issue at hand: Tony had lied. Pepper hadn't set up the meetings. It had all been one convoluted cover-up. And Steve wanted to know why.

He was outside of Tony's bedroom before he could even think to move his feet. After a round of agitated knocks, he heard a groan and the door opened.

"Are you trying to kill me?" Tony asked groggily, leaning against the door and practically drooling on it in exhaustion. His eyes were red and his hair was sticking up in about ten different places.

"We need to talk," Steve replied, pushing open the door and walking into Tony's bedroom.

It was certainly the biggest room on the floor, full of expensive-looking black leather furniture and three different desks piled with mechanical odds and ends Tony no doubt tinkered with in the middle of the night when he couldn't sleep. The bed was absolutely gigantic, matched only in size by the plasma screen on the wall in front of it. Even though Steve had come here on a mission, he couldn't help but be a bit mystified by the modern grandeur of the room.

"This couldn't wait? It's 7:30 in the morning, Steve. We stopped drinking about two hours ago," Tony complained, flopping onto his kingly bed.

Steve walked over and looked down at Tony pointedly. "I know that Miss Potts didn't set up the meeting with Peggy." He might as well just get straight to the point.

Tony bolted up from the bed, looking at Steve quizzically. "I'm sorry, what?"

"She—" he suddenly remembered what Pepper had asked him to do, and hurriedly thought of a cover, "She called just a few minutes ago, and told me to tell you that she'd be home soon. When I thanked her for finding Peggy for me, she informed me that she'd been in a conference all week and hadn't had anything to do with the meeting. Why did you lie to me?"

"I didn't lie… I stretched the truth. There's a difference," Tony replied briskly, hopping up from the bed and heading to one of his desks. Steve intercepted him.

"It was you. You set up the meeting for me."

Tony pursed his lips and furrowed his eyebrows, no doubt trying to think of something snarky to reply with. He apparently couldn't come up with anything, because all he did was nod curtly and say, "Yes. It was me."

"Why?" Steve asked as Tony pushed past him and began tinkering with some of the parts on the desk.

"Why what?" Tony asked innocently, grabbing a nearby screwdriver.

"Why did you find Peggy for me? What was in it for you?" Steve was getting angry at Tony's indifference to his questions, and smacked the screwdriver out of his hand with such force that it flew halfway across the room.

Tony, now thoroughly annoyed, turned around to face Steve. "What the hell is your problem? You get locked in the freezer this morning?"

Steve tried not to let the hurt he felt at Tony's jab show on his face, but the memories of the ice were too overwhelming. "My… My problem-" he sputtered, "is that you lied to me, and you won't tell me why! Why would you do this for me? You've made it very clear to me that I am the last person on earth you would ever want to go out of your way for."

"Why is it such a big deal?" Tony asked in exasperation, again trying to move past his steaming comrade. Steve blocked the way.

"It's a big deal because you don't do nice things, especially for me!" Steve's voice had risen to a frightening decibel level and he was sure the entire tower could hear the argument.

"My GOD, that's it!" Tony shouted, giving Steve a forceful shove out of the way. He was so caught off guard that his super strength failed him and he fell to the floor in surprise.

"Do you really want to know why I did it, you obnoxious and ignorant little do-gooder?" Steve was silent and cast his eyes to the floor as Tony continued yelling, "I did it for my father! I did it because it's what Daddy would have wanted! When he wasn't too busy getting drunk or working in his lab, he told me stories about you. And I grew up with the image that he gave me – Captain America, the courageous and selfless war hero that he had admired and loved, arguably more so than his own son. So when I saw you sulking around day after day, miserable because you didn't have the balls to let go of your past, I decided to put an end to your little pity party. I looked up Peggy, found out she was alive, and set it all up, so that you could finally go back to being the Steve Rogers my father told me stories about. So there you go, Captain. There's your reason."

Steve got up off the floor, feeling terrible. Tony's intentions had been completely honorable. He had truly been trying to do something kind, and now Steve had forced him to dig up all sorts of unpleasant memories about his relationship with his father.

"You know, you're pretty unbelievable." Tony had gone to retrieve his screwdriver and kept his gaze glued on it as he continued talking, "You claim to be this great guy that's nice to everyone and would do anything for his team, but you're just as selfish and judgmental as the next person. And you know what really puts me over the edge about that? If something happens to you, everyone is going to come to your funeral and cry and mourn you. But if something happens to me, people aren't going to actually want to come – they're only going to show up because they feel obligated to."

"That's not true—" Steve began, but Tony shook his head.

"Would you please just leave? I'm tired and hung-over as fuck, and I'm not interested in anything else you have to say."

He didn't want to leave. He wanted to fix this, and make things right again. Tony had done so much for him these past few days, and he hadn't truly realized it until this very moment. He had gone through the trouble of finding Peggy, and had gone through even more trouble covering up his good deed. He had stayed up all night patiently listening to endless ramblings about Steve's old life. He had even opened up that nice glass of wine, though he must have known that Steve physically couldn't get drunk and could only pretend.

Tony Stark had been making a real effort to be a friend to him, and Steve had been too self-absorbed to even notice.

But since he knew he wasn't welcome, he turned around and left without a word.

Tony was furious. He was furious at Steve, furious at his dead father, and furious at the world. He had tried to do a good thing and he'd been completely misjudged. Why even try, then?

He wouldn't, he decided. He wouldn't even bother anymore. If this was how his kindness would be received, there was absolutely no point.

Steve Rogers was as good as dead to him. Captain America? Please. More like Captain Asshole. After all he had done for him! Listening to his insufferable stories, pouring his wine, letting him snot all over his favorite jacket… Unbelievable.

If he never saw that blue-eyed bastard again, it would be too soon.

"Tony?"

His gloomy mood immediately lightened as he turned to see Pepper standing in the doorway.

"Your timing could not be more impeccable." He grinned and walked over to give her a hello kiss. But before he could even lean in, she put a hand to his chest.

"Tony… We need to talk."

His arc reactor started to feel funny in his chest. "Okay. About what?"

Pepper pursed her lips, tears welling up in her eyes. "Tony, I'm so sorry…"

"What are you sorry about? What's wrong?" He rubbed her arms comfortingly, looking at her in concern.

"Tony, I… met someone else."

And it was in that moment, as Tony's hands dropped limply to his sides, that the unthinkable occurred:

He suddenly wished that Steve hadn't left.

Author's Note: Hello my bunnies! I stayed up late again writing for you guys - I'm trying to keep up these fast updates, because I have this terrible habit of abandoning stories for months on end and I just can't let that happen to this one.

Please review, they keep me going! I'm getting so many favorite story/story alert email notifications - I'd love to hear from those of you that have yet to review!

Also, special shout-out to ESwan: I had made myself a deal that if I got one more review tonight, I would update - And you were the review! Thanks a million!

Much Stony love,

magicinthemoonlight29