Bruce had come into Tony's lab not long after the shield incident, and asked what happened upstairs.

"I... It's kind of..." Tony tried to say, but Steve knew how difficult it would be to say something about his father.

"This... Loki guy," Steve started to say, but Clint cut him off.

"There was this guy dressed like a KISS reject in the foyer, I asked him what the hell he wanted, he said he wanted a world 'free from freedom,' so Cap and I started a fight, but before that he sorta..."

"Howard Stark is dead," Steve said blatantly.

Bruce's slowly raised his hand to cover his mouth. This amount of shocking news couldn't have possibly been good for his hulk issue, but he seemed to be coping pretty well. "Oh my god, Tony, I'm so-"

"Sorry?" Tony cut him off, standing up and pushing his chair out of the way. He started gathering all of his tools in a rush as he spat, "Yeah, you and everyone else in this fucking universe that's full of people that kill your parents and apologize without knowing what it feels like." Once he had all of his tinkering tools in hand, he stormed out of the lab and up the stairs.

"Oh, shit," Bruce said, cursing for the first time since his original experiment, "that was my fault. Maybe I should-"

"No, no," Steve said, putting a large, gentle hand on Bruce's shoulder, "Tony's just really touchy right now. Here, I'll go up and get things settled. Don't worry about it."

Steve walked out of the lab in a calmer fashion than Tony had, and made his way up the stairs. Now he and Tony had something to talk about. He knew that Coulson wasn't his actual father, and he knew that somehow he was by himself, too. He knew that, at this moment, Tony had him, Steve Rogers. And Steve had Tony Stark.

He intended on reminding Tony of that fact.

It didn't take long, once Steve was upstairs, to find Tony's room. It had too many signs warning to "keep out" and to "never enter" or to "enter at own risk". Steve would take the chance.

He knocked first, and then pushed open the door, only to see the tools strewn across the wide floor and Tony curled up on his bed, facing the only window in the room. Quiet sobs accompanied the odd sight of a still Tony Stark.

"...Tony?" Steve said gently, coming over and sitting down on the vacant spot of the bed. He put his hand on Tony's shoulder and tried to roll him over.

All Tony did was mumble something along the lines of "I didn't even get to say goodbye, Steve. He was gone before-" Another couple of soft sobs interrupted him.

Steve rolled him over with as gentle of strength as possible, and looked at his face. When Tony opened his eyes, they were red and puffy, that signature Tony smirk completely absent from his face.

He couldn't help but lean down and give Tony a kiss on the cheek. This time, there was no hand on his hip to keep him down, no begging motion from Tony's arms. The only thing semi-normal for Tony was him turning his head to get Steve's mouth on his, rather than only a kiss on the cheek.

Without moving back to his sitting position, Steve whispered, "I swear, everything will be ok. I promised your dad I'd be there for you, and that's exactly what's going to happen."

Tony took Steve's confession as an opportunity to steal another kiss from him. The young Stark unwrapped his body from the fetal position it was in to be more adaptive to the protective soldier's body.

Steve could feel Tony's fingers lacing through his hair, pulling him closer into a much more (was comfortable the right word?) comfortable position. He swung his legs up onto the bed and grabbed Tony's head, being sure to be cautious.

But it was obvious that Tony could care less about cautious.

"Feeling better?" Steve asked between kisses.

Tony felt that actions spoke louder than words, and he pressed his mouth roughly against Steve's.

It isn't like Steve was going to object. Even if he didn't want to be in this position right now, he figured it was probably therapeutic for Tony to have his mind off of his father's death. For now.

After quite some time, Steve only slightly pulled away and simply laid on Tony's bed, looking around his bedroom. The size of the room shouldn't have shocked Steve, but, with him being, well, Steve, he couldn't help but marvel over the sheer enormity of the room. That, and there was art all over the walls, a combination of modern art, Picassos, and rock band posters. One piece caught Steve's eye in particular.

"Hey, Tony," Steve said, poking Tony in the side and making him jump, "who did that piece of art over there?"

"Hm?" Tony rolled over and sprawled his arm over Steve's chest as he gazed at the art that caught his eye. "Oh, that's some old present that Coulson got for... um..."

Steve nodded. "Got it. So who made it?"

The piece was circular, with a band of red around half of the circle and blue around the other half, and then some, on the inside. Inside the partial band of blue was half of a star, on the same side as the red band. It was beautiful. At least Steve thought it was.

"No idea," Tony said, trying to get Steve to come back into his caress.

Instead, Steve got up and walked toward the art, putting his hand up to it. "It looks sorta like a... shield."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah... can we get back to..."

Steve then took the opportunity to check his watch. "Oh my god, Tony, I have to get home. I have to talk to Coulson... I'm sorry. I'll see you tomorrow, alright?"

"But-" Tony stopped himself. This soldier, his hero, was already upholding his father's wishes. Tony felt like Steve was allowed to take care of himself too. One last attempt, he spoke up. "I'll miss you. Come back soon?" Steve sighed and walked back over to the bed and sat next to Tony.

"I just have to go see my uncle. Tell him I'm ok. I stayed here all last night, you know."

"I know," Tony leaned up to give Steve another kiss.

"If you want me to, I could come back..." Steve trailed off.

"Yes," Tony replied immediately, almost cutting him off.

Steve chuckled. "Alright then, I'll be back. Only if Coulson lets me off the hook, though."

Tony sat up in his bed. "Don't be too long."

As Steve left the room and walked downstairs, he saw that Bruce was sitting next on the armchair facing Howard's body.

"Oh, jeeze, Bruce..." Steve started, but Bruce gently cut Steve off.

"It's ok, Steve. I've been working on this stress thing for a while. I've learned a trick."

"Oh?" Steve asked.

"Yeah," Bruce smirked, "but I couldn't tell you, because it's an ancient Chinese secret." He laughed, something that Steve needed to hear right now what with all the drama surrounding him.

"You're going to have to tell me eventually," Steve said, but then started for the door. "I have to go check up with my uncle. Because, you know, I haven't been home in two days or so."

Bruce nodded knowingly. "I haven't been home for a while."

"Aren't you thinking your parents might be missing you?" Steve asked, taking his time to talk to an old friend.

Bruce shrugged. "It's not like they'd worry. I mainly live with my grandparents anyways, and they love my friends. And they know Tony's family... well, Tony has great accommodations. So I told them I was staying here for a while. They were pretty OK with it."

"No parents?" Steve asked again.

"Nah," Bruce shook his head, pushing himself up from the armchair. "Not sure where they went. Grandparents were always there. So, how's Tony?" He asked, changing subjects.

Steve never realized how much he could connect with Bruce in that certain aspect. Having one parent die, and another parent just... disappear like that, not exactly something happens very often.

"Tony? He's..." Steve blushed, "he's better. That's for sure. If you don't mind, I sorta have to..." he motioned toward the door, and Bruce almost acted like he was in the way.

"Oh, no no no. Please," he smiled, and ended the conversation smoothly.

"Thanks," Steve responded, and ran out to his motorcycle. He couldn't be sure if Uncle Coulson would be angry or relieved. Well, Steve supposed he would find out soon enough.