A/N Once again, thank you for the reviews, they do keep me focussed on finishing this because, although I do love the story, I weaken occasionally when I give myself yet another logic hurdle to overcome.
A little mix of comedy & drama to lighten the early part of this one - with a side helping of Steve conflict (it's not angst, I just feel he's really torn about what he wants to do).
Chapter 8
Tony awoke with a start, feeling slightly stiff from his unconventional nightwear but nonetheless rested and considerably fresher than before.
"Time please Jarvis?"
"5.42pm Sir."
"Where's Steve?"
"Who, Sir?"
"Errmmm…the Type 3 signature, I called it 'Steve', trips off the tongue a bit easier"
"Really?" Jarvis sounded very unconvinced and more than a little disapproving. "The signature is currently located in the lounge area. Are you sure you are quite well?" He added.
"Fine J, errr…I need….the bathroom…open flaps."
"Wouldn't it be easier if you removed the suit Sir?"
"Not an option, just do it – now!"
A short time later a (very) relieved and refreshed Tony strode into the lounge fully aware of the fact that the moment this was all over he was most assuredly going to need a shower.
"There you are…." he gasped completely unaware that Bruce was seated reading in the corner.
Steve turned and just nodded his head in the direction of Bruce, sitting on one of the corner couches eyeing Tony curiously.
"There what is…?" a confused Bruce asked.
Tony decided to test something.
"I'm talking to Steve, remember? Captain America? Leader of the Avengers?"
"Oh right…." Bruce looked momentarily confused before shrugging and asking, "…are you working on an addition to the suit?"
"Yeah…kind of. It helps me find stuff I've lost", Tony grinned. Bruce failed to notice it wasn't directed at him.
"Perhaps it can help you find the lost secret of making the coffee machine make something that tastes like coffee then" he shrugged picking up his book once again.
"Not a bad idea," Tony couldn't resist the urge to smirk when he realised Steve was laughing.
"OK, I did promise…but you get something to eat as well, right?"
Tony turned to head in the direction of the kitchen, Steve dropped into step alongside him amazed at how natural that had become in such a short time.
As he approached the coffee maker, Tony did a quick 360 degree survey for any lurking members of the household and a heat scan of the neighbouring vents for concealed archers before he started conversation again.
"I totally have to figure out how this mental blocking thing works – can you imagine how much easier it would make press conferences? No more awkward questioning from Pepper? The uses are endless." Tony happily chattered as he followed Steve's directions and set the coffee maker going.
"Food, Tony! And not poptarts either." Steve refused to be distracted from making sure Tony ingested something other than caffeine.
They both looked at each other with the same realisation at almost exactly the same moment…."Thor!"
"Maybe they know something about this Treaty on Asgard."
"They must do….Jarvis, get a message to Thor. Tell him he's needed immediately! Urgent!"
"Certainly Sir", Jarvis acknowledged.
Tony winced at Jarvis' lack of curiosity at his apparently talking to himself. This was some tech that could trick Jarvis and obscure events in real time well enough to deceive his AI.
"It must be frustrating for you. I know how you pride yourself on Jarvis being immune to any interference."
The Captain's insight momentarily caught Tony off-guard.
"How the hell did you…?"
"I don't need to know how things work to appreciate what they do Tony, and I don't need to be fully up-to-date with all the technology to realise that you develop the most advanced the Earth has to offer: Jarvis and Iron Man are your greatest creations, anything that can affect one of them you take as a personal affront."
"Well you're not wrong. But I thought you didn't like technology Cap?" Tony quelled the rising sense of pride at the compliment embedded in the statement.
"I don't like or dislike it. I know a lot of it makes people's lives better, but I also think a lot of communications technology means people communicate less with each other: They know everyone's business but don't take the time to get to know individual people because they're never face-to-face with them…and the camera phone's an evolutionary step backwards when it comes to survival instinct – people used to run away from danger when you showed them an escape route, now they stand there filming it all wanting to be the first to put it on YouTube."
"Now you've definitely got a point there." Tony chuckled: Civilians endangering themselves just to get a video clip was a constant source of irritation to all of them when the team was deployed in populated areas but, he had to admit, Steve's astute take on it was entirely unexpected. He certainly wasn't wasting time when it came to getting up to speed on 21st Century stupidity.
The coffee was ready so Tony poured himself a large mug and drunk almost half the contents straight off, he immediately topped it up again. Moving over to the fridge he took out a large slice of cold pizza and, without bothering to locate a plate, brought it over to the table with his mug.
Steve raised an eyebrow slightly at the sight of Tony's food choice before shrugging, "…well it's got vegetables on it so I suppose that qualifies as a balanced meal by your standards."
Tony grinned through a mouthful of pizza, chewing furiously through an incomprehensible attempt at a sarcastic response but was alerted by voices approaching the kitchen.
Natasha, closely followed by Clint, entered the room and looked sternly at Tony's attire.
"Still talking to yourself, Stark?" she queried.
"Certainly am Red, it's the only way I get any intelligent conversation around here." He gulped the last piece of pizza and rose from the table. Topping up his coffee one last time he affected a faux English accent and said, "let us adjourn elsewhere dear boy." Steve followed him shaking his head and snickering at the choice of words.
"Is there a number we're supposed to call when he gets really weird?" Clint asked. "Although at least he's remembered how to use the coffee machine," he added gleefully pouring himself a cup, "perhaps we'll let him off this time."
Natasha just shook her head figuring it was probably only a matter of time before they all cracked.
"Dear boy?" Steve's face bore a quizzical look.
"You were in England during the War weren't you? I thought you might like to hear something familiar."
"I was in England during the War and I guarantee I didn't hear a soul speak like that the whole time…"
"Thought they all rode around smog-filled streets in carriages wearing deer stalkers."
"'Fraid not."
"You mean….Hollywood lies….?" Tony struck a comically dramatic pose as they emerged from the elevator to see a bewildered Bruce whose face immediately went blank and walked past Tony and into the now vacant elevator with a nonchalant "Hi Tony" as soon as the billionaire said "Just talking to Steve".
An unbelievably childish giggle escaped Tony's lips as the doors closed – the coffee was obviously working.
"I know this isn't cool…for you…or for me…in the sense of you're at risk…but it is cool, if you see what I mean. I'm not trying to be offensive or belittle the danger or anything. You do understand…right?" He rambled to his companion.
"It's OK Tony, I can understand how intriguing this all is for you and I don't mind." Steve punctuated his statement with a smile that reinforced his words.
"If you don't mind me saying…hell, even if you do….when we get you back, and we ARE getting you back….can it be this non-Captain version of you?"
"I've only ever been me all along Tony. But from the moment I woke up, all people wanted was Captain America. They wanted to tell me about their trading card and comic collections, how their granddads talked about me, show me the memorials….I didn't want to let anyone down by just being Steve the nobody, the kid from Brooklyn, so I had to keep acting the way Captain America's supposed to be."
"Steve Rogers isn't a nobody…" Tony's statement was emphatic as he mulled over what the man had just said – weren't they all responsible for him feeling like that? The Avengers themselves had been living under the same roof as the man for weeks now and had just assumed he was exactly as all the biographies - many written by people who'd never even met him – had said.
They'd entered the lab by this time and Tony sank onto the large comfortable sofa, the weight of the suit became cumbersome after so long, "Jarvis? Any news from Thor?" he asked anxiously.
"He has replied that he has a high priority matter to attend to and will return to Earth immediately once that is completed."
"Did you stress this is urgent?"
"I did Sir. His reply was as I stated."
"Typical," Tony turned to Steve, "when I don't need him, the guy's here eating his body weight in poptarts, now he's too busy…"
"He does have other responsibilities, I'm sure he'll be here as soon as he can."
"Just tell me one thing. How the hell do you stay so damn calm all the time?"
A small, sad smile crossed Steve's lips, "practise" he uttered softly. At Tony's querying look he felt compelled to elucidate, "I'd always been opinionated, never knew when to shut up when it was something I felt strongly about. Back before I got the serum, there always seemed to be some guy who thought the fact he was bigger and could punch harder than me made his opinion more valid than mine. So I'd end up in an alley somewhere trying not to end up dead. Most often, Bucky would intervene but sometimes I'd have to last till he found me or he wasn't around. Those days, people fought with fists, not knives or guns, so chances were I'd only take a beating but my asthma was the biggest risk, so I always stayed calm trying not to bring on an attack. Guess it became a habit."
He stated it evenly, without rancour or bitterness (which Tony found extraordinary), as though such cowardly bullying was just a fact of life when he was growing up and nothing out of the ordinary.
"You know, my Dad was always talking about you…never shut up in fact…but he never really said anything about you before the serum other than that you were a skinny little guy with health problems…."
"I never talked with your Dad about my life before the serum and he never asked. When Senator Brandt decided to promote Captain America, they wanted to draw as little public attention to my previous existence as possible, it wasn't relevant." A sad grimace crossed Steve's features at this point. "The nearest I ever came to really losing my temper with a civilian was when one of the Senator's aides, who was charged with writing my background story for 'public consumption', told me it was 'convenient' I was an orphan so they wouldn't have to deal with 'any family talking to the press'."
Tony looked horrified: "…and there was me thinking I'm the most insensitive asshole in creation."
"Compared to some people I've met, you'd be a mere beginner." He saw the perplexed look on the billionaire's face and continued. "Captain America was a propaganda tool to sell war bonds Tony. No government's going to admit such a figure nearly died as a child of starvation and ill-health in one of its major cities, is it? It was made very clear to me exactly how I was supposed to conduct myself publically – at the time I thought it was just for the duration of the tour, until I could actually get to do what I'd enlisted to do – fight - I didn't think it would still be a millstone around my neck 70 years later."
"So, are you telling me you don't like Captain America?"
"Of course not, it's just he was created as an ideal, an aspirational character for a country in a time of national crisis and…well, it's fine to say people need that these days but being limited by that prevents me from fitting in and adjusting to the 21st Century. When you take the suit off, you can choose to distance yourself from what people expect of Iron Man if you want; you can just be Tony Stark and people will accept it. Whether I'm wearing the uniform or not, everyone still expects me to behave like Captain America and I'm constantly a slave to the demands of maintaining a body that, as you said, came out of a bottle."
"I didn't mean…"
He raised his translucent hand to request silence and looked straight through it at Tony, urging him with his eyes to understand and give him a personal reason to fight: "I'm tired of being only being some of me. This is the most 'Steve' I've been able to be since I lost Bucky and I'd rather not exist at all than continue the partial existence I've had since I woke up."