"Time is a gift, given to you, given to give you the time you need, the time you need to have the time of your life." –Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth
Disclaimer: I own squat.
Steve was reading the newspaper the next morning when it hit him. "Tony Stark?" he murmured to himself. Tony had been staying with Steve for the past few days, earning his keep however he could and easily putting up with Bucky when he came to check up on the pair. Well, came to make sure Steve was fine and that he didn't have a strange man to hunt down.
Tony wandered over and plopped himself down on the couch next to Steve. He was currently fiddling with the toaster, but Steve had no idea what he was actually doing. "Who 'dat?" Tony asked, the screwdriver being held in his mouth garbling his speech.
"That's Howard Stark. He's a real swell sounding guy. You know him?"
Tony grunted. I hardly remember the guy but I know for a fact he wasn't "swell." "Nope."
Steve hummed. "What?" Tony gripped the screwdriver with his hand again to fiddle some more.
"It's just that, well, you're name's Stark."
"Yeah."
"And you're really smart. You've fixed almost everything in my apartment better than how it was supposed to work."
"I'm a genius," Tony grinned, his head lolling to the side onto Steve's shoulder.
Steve laughed and playfully pushed Tony off of him. "Well, I just thought that maybe you'd be related."
"Maybe distantly or something, but I think I'd remember if I met that" Tony pointed at the newspaper picture of a smiling Howard, "man."
Steve was quiet. Tony looked up from his work to see Steve with a far off look in his eyes, his lips slightly pursed.
"Steve." Steve jumped and turned to face Tony. "I know that look, Steve. What's wrong?"
"Bucky told me yesterday that he was going to sign up for the war. He wanted to wait until I had a good job or was in college or something, that way he'd know I would be okay."
"You afraid something will happen to him?"
"No- well of course, but..." Steve trailed off, still staring at the newspaper picture.
Tony nodded his head. He knew what Steve was thinking about. "Why are you so worried all the time, huh? Steve, you have some real potential. You're smart-"
"Not near as smart as you," Steve mumbled.
"You can draw better than anything I've seen-"
"Yeah, maybe I could end up like Van Gogh-"
"And you're sassier than Bucky and I combined," Tony finished. He sighed. "Steve, you just have to put your mind to something you really want to do, something you want to be. Maybe you haven't quite figured it out yet, but I bet one day you will."
Steve shook his head slowly. "Tony, you know I can't do much of anyth-"
"Steve, look at me." Steve looked up from the carpet. "You were made to do something. It may take a little bit of time to find out what, but Steve, you're going to change the world."
The corners of Steve's lips lifted a bit. "You sound like you know that for a fact."
"Hey, my brain may be a bit screwed right now, but I have a good feeling about this."
- . . - - .
"Steve, Steve, Steve!"
"Tony, Tony, Tony!" Steve yelled back as Tony rushed into the apartment. He jumped and plopped heavily onto the old couch, Steve calmly making his way over to sit next to the excited man.
"You'll never guess what just happened," Tony rushed out, leaning towards Steve.
"From the smell of your breath, I'd guess you went to a bar," Steve raised an eyebrow with a playfully disapproving look.
"Noo," Tony drew out. "Well yeah, but I got a job."
"At the bar?"
"No, with some military associated scientist group thing that I'm still not exactly sure what it's for."
"Umm, what?"
"Okay," Tony breathed. "I went to the bar and ordered a drink. Then, all of the sudden, Howard Stark walked in and sat down next to me. We got to drinking, we got to talking, I got around to proving to him that I may actually be smarter than him- but you know I was taking it easy on him, right? Anyways, he told me about this science group that he was a part of. It's super secret but he said they could use a mind like me since he's too busy to do anything more than help fund it."
"So Howard Stark gave you a job?"
"Basically, yeah. All I have to do is show up in to meet Howard tomorrow afternoon. He's already booked two seats on the next train up to Rochester, New York."
"Tomorrow?"
"Is there an echo in here? Yeah, Steve."
"So," Steve paused, "I guess this is goodbye?"
Tony's manic fast movements halted. "Yeah... I guess it is." Tony and Steve both looked away, the weight of their words settling heavily upon them.
- . . - - .
Steve watched out his window as Tony strutted away. The man walked quickly across the street just before a car drove by, turning around a corner and leaving Steve before he could really get to know him. Steve hoped that, one day, he might see the strange genius again.
- . . - - .
Honestly, Tony wished he could have stayed with Steve a bit longer. The younger man was interesting to Tony, and very brave for such a small guy. Not to mention that he could be surprisingly funny and could actually put up with him for days on end.
Tony skipped up onto the sidewalk, the car whizzing past honking once at him. Tony sighed as he walked around the corner of a brick building, hoping that, maybe, he could run into Steve again.
- . . - - .
It's been a while since Tony left Steve for Rochester, but the man still occasionally frequented his thoughts. Standing there watching Howard Stark show off his flying car, before it crashed to the ground, Steve's thoughts drifted towards the other Stark man.
Maybe it was real, or maybe he was imagining it, but Steve could swear that he saw some similarities between the two men. Their hair, their up going voices and attitude, their genius minds that were too far advanced for this day and age.
As Steve turned and spotted the recruiting office, Tony's voice flittered through his head. "You were made to do something. It may take a little bit of time to find out what, but Steve, you're going to change the world." And Steve believed him, just like he believed he was made to serve his country.
- . . - - .
Tony had been tricked. He had thought he had been smarter than Howard, and that was probably true, but the man had still managed to lie to his face without Tony noticing. However, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Tony had been excited to be able to put his mind to use and to have harder things to put his mind and hands too. Sure, it would have been kind of weird to work with the man that would eventually father him, but it could have been okay since Tony didn't really remember him. Either way, at least now that Tony knew that Howard was only really a benefactor, he wouldn't have to butt heads with the man.
No one would be able to doubt his intellect, nor could they argue for something that may- wouldn't- work better. He met a kind German named Dr. Erskine, whom was who he mostly worked with. Erskine reminded Tony of Yinsen, and he was the biology to Tony's technology. For all of his smarts, Tony wouldn't be anywhere near where they were with their research and technology if Erskine hadn't been there to help with the more human parts of it.
"First Lieutenant Stark!" a man barked from the doorway.
Tony looked up from his work at Erskine. "These people do realize that doing science and working out with them doesn't mean I'm really in the army, let alone that I should be able to move up titles, right?"
Dr. Erskine grinned at Tony and shrugged before turning back to his work. Tony walked over to the young man. He seemed a bit frightened of Tony; either because of his much higher status, or because he had heard some of the stories floating around about him. Everyone on base knew that Tony was crazy smart, incredibly stubborn, and brave enough to stand up to Colonel Phillips without hesitation.
"The Colonel would like a word, sir." Speak of the devil.
- . . - - .
"Lieutenant Stark, you swore to me that you and Dr. Erskine would have results by now!"
"We do have results, we just need a little more time. Give me a year to-"
"A year! Stark, this is going nowhere now. You have one day to show me that this serum is looking good before I shut you down."
"In that case, sir, come with me," Tony stated angrily.
Colonel Phillips seemed surprised by this. "Alright Stark." The two men walked across the base and into the lab area.
"Tony?" Erskine called. He looked up, standing and saluting at their guest kindly. "Colonel."
Phillips nodded at Dr. Erskine before turning back to Tony, who had his back to him.
"Alright Stark," Tony pulled out the needle of penicillin from his arm and placed it on the table, grabbing another syringe, "now show me what you two have got."
Tony turned to face the two men, showing them the singular, large needle in his hand. Erskine's eyes widened, his face paling instantly. "Tony, no, wai-!"
Tony jabbed the needle into his bicep, quickly and efficiently pushing the entire vial of liquid into his body. He calmly removed the needle, placing it gently on the table next to him.
"Tony, why in the world-?" Erskine was cut off.
"The Colonel here wanted proof that we were actually getting somewhere with the serum, or else he'd shut down our sector. I thought, what better way to show him that to administer our current formula on myself?"
"Tony, we are months away, you know that!"
"Yeah, but now we'll be able to see how well this can work, even at an early stage-" Tony stopped talking. He suddenly felt weak, he couldn't form words and his body wasn't responding. Erskine and Phillips jumped as Tony fell, both too late to stop him from crashing into the concrete flooring. Tony's body started convulsing, his head rolling back in forth. His eyes closed and he groaned in pain as his back arched off the ground.
Erskine quickly went to hold him down, carefully holding his head and sticking the end of a nearby pair of wooden tongs into his mouth so the man couldn't bite off his tongue and choke. The Colonel also helped secure him, helping Tony's body to keep from hitting anything dangerous while still allowing it to move so that he wouldn't accidentally break one of the man's bones.
What felt like an hour later, Tony's body stilled.