Apologies for the wait, guys. I write fanfiction because its fun, but this chapter was a pain in the ass, let me tell you. Not to mention I had to write a huge essay, so I didn't really feel like writing more frustration-inducing stuff after that. I've literally just been making this story up as I go, and even though I knew the general direction I wanted to take it, I had no idea how to fit the plot together. This chapter attempts to do that. Successfully? Er...I'll leave that up to you.

Tony was completely hammered. The empty bottle of brandy testified.

It was also clearly the only explanation for what he had just seen. Because real-life super-humans just didn't exist, okay? Iron man was the closest thing to a superhero, and it was a machine Goddammit. A fucking brilliant machine made and controlled by a brilliant man, of course, but Steve wasn't a machine. He was a human. And no one, not even Tony and especially not SHIELD could make a machine that human. No way. The technology for that just didn't exist, period.

"Sir, I'm afraid your state of inebriation cannot account for Mr. Rogers' display of super-human strength. And his vitals read very much like a human. However his resting heart-rate is lower than average, and he appears to have an accelerated cell-division rate, and admittedly my readings on his muscle density are inconclusive," Jarvis answered his musings.

Apparently Tony had been talking out loud again. Oops.

"Stop bullshitting me, Jarvis. And whaddya mean, inconclusive? " he slurred.

Jarvis apparently didn't feel the need to validate that request with a response.

Tony made a drawn-out whiney noise and slumped clumsily to the ground, his back against the bar. "But we did a background thingy on him. If SHIELD had this kind of info on him, we'd've knowwwnnnnn," he drew out the last word in another long whine.

"Perhaps SHIELD would not have allocated Mr. Rogers to the task of being your bodyguard had they not adequately confined the information regarding his condition," the AI suggested.

A thought occurred to Tony, and though it came out in many more words, the gist of it was: "What if they don't know? What if Steve's the one with the secret to hide?"

Jarvis responded immediately, somehow able to understand his garbled speech, "He made it quite clear during your recent argument that SHIELD is well aware of his abilities, despite the fact that only a small number of individuals are privy to that information."

"When did he say that!?"

"I was reading between the lines, Sir."

"Reading between the- Why didn't you tell me!?"

"Tell you what? That you both appeared to be arguing about entirely different issues, or that you were mistaken-"

"The first one!" Tony roared.

"You know that I rarely interfere during your heated arguments with Miss Potts at your request, and considering your growing attachment and involvement with Mr. Rogers, I -"

"Just. Stop." he interrupted angrily.

Tony sat there, thinking scattered thoughts, trying to form any other explanation no matter how far-fetched. He had Jarvis turn his music back on, increasingly unsettled by the silence around him. He hadn't even bothered to check if Steve was still waiting just outside the door. And as much as Tony hated to admit it, he wished Steve was. Despite the alcohol coursing through his system something in his gut was telling him that he could still trust Steve. That, or those enchiliada's he had eaten earlier were doing something funky in his small intestine.

Tony was now fully lying on his back, staring up at the spinning ceiling. He put a hand up as though to hold the ceiling in place, then ordered Jarvis to keep the door to the den unlocked. He had enough lucidity to know that he was going to pass out any minute now, and he wanted Steve to be able to get into the room. Well...get into the room without breaking the door down, apparently. He gave one last look at said door then promptly passed out.

Steve was in the gym, staring down sheepishly at the punching bag he had almost effortlessly destroyed. He had trained for years to keep his strength in check, to ensure his abilities were kept under wraps. He could count how many times he had lost control without prior authorization on his right hand, and two of those times had occurred in the last ninety minutes. Tony was not good for his track record.

He shook out his hands and rolled his shoulders, trying to ease the tension coiled inside him, but to no avail. He was full of super-human adrenaline and nothing in this gym would truly be able to help him without him destroying it first.

He knew that signing on for this mission, he risked exposing himself to more people, Tony included. He knew that keeping the man safe was more important, not only for Tony himself, but for the security of the entire nation. HYDRA had been working up to this moment for years, if not decades. Steve only had one shot at getting it right, and he needed Tony to make sure he succeeded. But now, after getting to know the man, he felt more and more uncomfortable about leaving Tony in the dark. Not just about Steve's super-human abilities, but about HYDRA - how they had been lurking in the shadows of Tony's life, using their pawns to knock Tony down, bit by bit, until he had no choice but to succumb.

First, it was Tony's parents, murdered, an act that had been so easily covered up as an accident. Planting Stane, years and years before the murder, gaining not only Tony's trust, but the trust of his parents; letting Tony live just so that he could make increasingly powerful killing machines and sell it under the guise of Stark technology while Stane really controlled where it was going; waiting patiently and planning for the moment when Tony was captured in Afghanistan so that Stane could take over the company while raising nary a suspicion. If Tony hadn't escaped the Ten Rings, yet another pawn to the vast, many-headed monster that was HYDRA, they would have succeeded.

SHIELD had been well aware of the organization's interested in the Stark family at that point, and they knew that Tony's disappearance was no coincidence, but almost no one had seen the betrayal of Obidiah Stane coming- only Steve, who was so intimately familiar with how deeply the evil agency was rooted, had seen it as a possibility. But miraculously, Tony has gotten himself out of that cave, and suddenly Iron Man was HYDRA's new target. That small but powerful arc reactor keeping Tony alive would serve them nicely. Yet despite their efforts, no one was able to replicate the energy source, not even their people in Hammer Industries had succeeded. Stane blew his cover and took the reactor straight out of Tony's chest, but he had been killed, and the arc reactor destroyed, before he delivered it to HYDRA.

Their next move was to manipulate Ivan Vanko, who was so conveniently located right on their doorstep and already loathed all things Stark, into creating a replica. Vanko, so full of hatred, had instead used the materials he procured from HYDRA to make himself a suit that could outmatch Iron Man. It took them hardly any effort at all to ensure Hammer's interest in Vanko's knowledge and get the ignorant man to fund HYDRA's next project. But Tony surprised them again, by creating a new element, one so rare and so supremely powerful that HYDRA had switched tactics all together. Yes, they were still after Tony's vibranium-core arc reactor, but now they could see something even more valuable in front of them: Tony Stark himself.

Someone was shaking him roughly.

"Steve?" Tony murmured.

He felt himself being roughly dragged up by strong arms and he groaned, opening one eye to glare at Steve and to tell him to put Tony back down, thank you very much, except:

"You're not Steve."

Oh shit.