The mission turned out to be a rather simple one, far easier than any of their recent ones. They'd been called to detain a Czechoslovakian mafia leader, who'd stolen several missiles from the FBI and were planning an attack on a large metropolitan area that resided in the country. Natasha was excellent in translating for them. It was easy to get him to stand down. Almost too easy.
Tony made a sarcastic comment about how "Fury would be calling them in to rescue cats out of trees" by the looks of how mediocre things had been with the mission.
Steve managed to somewhat clear his head long enough to be able to focus on the task at hand, but as soon as it was completed he was back to fretting over the memories of the nightmare. His knuckles were bandaged up now, but they still stung faintly. That wasn't the worst part by a long shot.
Everyone seemed to notice he wasn't his usual self. Natasha had asked him what was wrong, but he brushed it off. Clint and Bruce were shooting him concerned glances the entire flight to and from Czechoslovakia.
It was driving him mad, slowly but surely.
Only Tony had bothered to act like everything was normal, which came as a surprise to Steve. He'd obviously suspected something was up with the man back at the gym, but inclined to keep his mouth shut up about it. Steve didn't know what to make of it.
Once they'd landed safely back at Tony's tower in New York, most of them scattered. Thor returned to New Mexico for Jane, Bruce retreated back to his lab, and the assassins made for the garage to pick out a car (with Tony's blessing, of course); it was date night for them, apparently.
The only two that remained were Steve and Tony, who didn't seem in all that much of a hurry to exit the helicarrier. In fact, Steve was still sitting in his seat, picking at the gauze on his hands and staring at the ground.
"Okay, you're wigging me out here," Tony said, breaking the awkward silence that was filling the air. He stepped closer to the blond, who looked up at him. "Something's up, Spangly. Something you don't want any of us to know. Thought we were a team."
Blue eyes narrowed as Steve met Tony's gaze, and he opened his mouth to tell him to shut up when he decided it wasn't a good idea, and closed it again.
Tony's expression softened so slightly that the Captain wouldn't have noticed it if he wasn't watching Steve's face so closely. "Steve... You can come to us, you know? We are a team. It's what we're here for."
Scoffing, Steve got to his feet. His bandaged hands were clenched into tight fists - he didn't need help. "I'm not a child, Stark. I can handle myself."
And with that, Steve left the helicarrier, feeling angry but also guilty for snapping at Tony like that.
After all, it seemed like the man really was trying to help him.