Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers. I'm writing for fun. No money is being made.

Warning: Endgame spoilers

Note: There are a few borrowed lines from the movie, because they give the story context, but it is only a few sentences.

Note 2: Most of this story is written in 1st person from multiple perspectives. POV means point of view and indicates whose perspective that part of the story is being told from.

Step through time,

Greet the past.

Steve & Adult Tony

Tony's POV

Scott was freaking out. Steve was berating me. Everything had gone lopsided and the time heist was a bust. And somehow, billionaire, genius, family man, philanthropist was supposed to come up with a solution while everyone was yelling. "Give me a break Steve. I just got my head smashed into the ground by a Hulk."

I rested my head on the frame of the car. Closed my eyes. Though I wasn't dying, my life flashed before them. Bedtime stories of Cap. Dad's business dealings and trips. Overheard reminisce and arguments. The Pentagon files I'd hacked into on a dare in high school. All the tech I'd built throughout my life. The file dump after Steve and Nat took down the Hydra helicarriers. The box of videos and journals Fury had dumped on me when SHIELD put me on house arrest. And it all coalesced into one thought.

That fucking genius son of an asshole. Howard had known all along.

My eyes popped open. "I've got it! I can't tell you how I know, but I know." There were too many little details, little parts that added up to the whole to fully explain it. "Steve, do you trust me?"

"I do."

I sagged with relief. And the two of us vanished back to April 4, 1970, leaving Scott to get the stone in the staff back to 2020.

Steve's POV

"Now what?" I asked.

"Now, old man, do you have any antique money left in your wallet from before your ice nap?"

I hated the old man jibes. If you discounted the decades spent in the ice, I was 39, a full 14 years younger than Tony. But I had long grown out of the childhood need to punch every perceived insult. Nicknames were just part of Tony's speech pattern.

I sighed and reached for my wallet. "You know, I spent my last few pre-ice years in Europe."

"Which means you had nowhere to spend those good ol' American greenbacks you made hamming it up for Hollywood war films. And you're sentimental enough to have kept at least a few bills. Gimmie."

Tony made gimmie hands and I held out two 20s. "What are you going to do with it?"

"Geeze, what you are you, my nanny? I'll spend it wisely Pops. One suit and one extra-large set of not spandex coming up. You work on stealing us a car."

"Me?"

"Don't play coy with me, Rogers. I may have not spilled to the others, but Dad spilled plenty to me. Hotwire us a car while I get us clothes. Meet me back here in 30 minutes."

I crossed my arms and looked up at the sky while in my head I was cursing Howard for ruining my reputation. I'd stolen cars for good reasons! Said probably every car thief or thief of anything ever.

I tried to be as inconspicuous as a 6'2" tower of muscle in patriotic spandex could manage to be, peaking around corners and only walking out when there were few eyes about.

I found a parking lot and jiggled a few door handles, finding them locked. If I went around to every car someone was going to take notice. Then I spied a convertible. No need for locked doors. I hoped over the door and into the passenger's seat. I leaned down under that dash and put to use the skills taught to me by Stark senior. The motor started to purr, and I switched to the driver's seat and headed back to our meeting spot.

April 4, 1970, Maria, Howard, Adult Tony, and Yet to be Born Anthony

Howard's POV

"Honey, I'm craving a peanut butter and sauerkraut sandwich. Jarvis is on his way to pick you up. Could you get some sauerkraut on the way home?"

I cringed. My wife's taste had taken a strange turn since I'd put a bun in her oven. "Sure sugar-cakes, anything you want."

I snagged a can from the base's commissary.

Doctor Zola had been working on a modified serum, something to keep the boys in 'Nam from contracting any foreign diseases. I wanted to pass an idea by him before my brain got sidetracked, as it tended to do, with all the numerous things floating around in there that I wanted to invent. My wife called them my flights of fancy. But she seemed content with my sporadic jumps from one project to another, all costing the heavens, just as long as there was plenty left for her to splurge with as she pleased.

"Zola, you down here?"

But my eyes fell on another man. Zola, my wife, the sauerkraut, a fledging plan for artificial limbs for injured soldiers all receded to a faint whisper. I couldn't take my eyes off this stranger. But was he a stranger? "I know you, don't I?"

Tony's POV

I fumbled, my heart thrumming wildly. I set the briefcase down, unable to keep it steady in my hands. Dad. Part of me knew we might meet. It's why I knew to pick this date. But the reality being 53 years in the past standing before Dad floored me. I stumbled my way through half lies, introducing myself to my father.

Howard Stark's POV

The man claimed to be a visitor from MIT by the name of Howard Potts. Though the MIT rang true, I sensed a lie in the name. But I couldn't bring myself to call the stranger out on it. Every fiber of my being was screaming at me that it was my duty to help and protect this stranger.

We rode up the elevator together sharing little details of our lives, of the child he has and of the one I have on the way.

I generally didn't talk about my fear of having a kid with anyone, but it felt right sharing it with this stranger, so I told him, "I hope it's a girl. Then maybe she won't grow up to be me."

"Would that really be such a bad thing?"

I caught a bit of a tone of worry in my counterpart's retort. Odd.

Howard and 'Howard' walked outside.

Tony's POV

Steve asked with a silent look, "Did you get it?"

I raised the case and nodded, then lifted a finger asking for a minute.

Howard Stark's POV

Heart thrumming, I admitted, "The kid isn't even born yet, and I'd do anything I could for 'im."

Tony's POV

I took in the sincerity of my father's words, coupled it with my earlier memories, my choice of this date to return to, my own experiences as a dad, and finally understood my father. And in understanding, forgave. I went with instinct and went in for a hug, "Thanks for everything..." I had to swallow back the word Dad, instead tossing in, "...you've done for this country." Then I turned and walked away.

Flooring realizations,

Greet the future.

April 5, 1970

Howard's POV

The base was abuzz with rumors of two men breaking in and of missing Pym particles. I quickly realized that 'Howard Potts' had been one of the intruders. And yet, I couldn't bring myself to tell anyone. For some reason I still felt this overwhelming need to protect him.

It was my wife's birthday and we were going to go out on the town. It was 6:00, and my 5 o'clock stubble was getting a bit rough to the touch. I stood before the mirror shaving. My hand followed after the blade, checking the smoothness, brushing a dollop of shaving cream from the side of my nose. I sucked in a gasping breath and shaking hands went down to grasp the counter. The shape of the nose. The jawline. I forced my wobbly legs into the bedroom and looked up at the portrait of myself, made a decade ago. Even the eyes were the same.

"I hope it's a girl. Then maybe she won't grow up to be me."

"Would that really be such a bad thing?"

The oddly worried tone.

The hug from a relative stranger.

The need to breathe slipped my mind, too preoccupied with weaving together little snippets. And as the spots started to settle over my eyes a vision of Steve popped to the fore-front. 25 years dead in the ocean or a glacier Steve Rogers nodding to 'Howard Potts'. Missing Pym particles; the quantum realm. My own younger face looking back at me, with just those few hints of Maria blended in.

Not a relative stranger. A relative. My son.

Maria's POV

"Howard!" I rushed to my collapsed husband's side, struggled to get down to his level with the pregnancy bump, "Jarvis!"

Howard's POV

I was only out for a few seconds, but Maria and our butler, Jarvis, both insisted that I see a physician. How was I to argue? I had a son to protect. And holy crap, I almost went down again. My son, my child, the one currently incubating in my wife, was a fucking time walker!

Howard & Anthony Edward Stark, A Few Minutes Old

Howard's POV

A few months later, Maria gave birth. The nurse passed the baby into my arms. I grinned, holding my child for the second time.

Anthony Age 1 & 2

Howard's POV

Another year slipped by, then two. Anthony was walking and talking and exploring everything the nannies didn't whisk from his hands.

'Howard Potts' had told me, "Money has never bought a second of time." I knew my son meant all the meaningful moments spent together. But inventing was expensive, so money, and science, had bought time. It had bought Ant'ny a trip to the past. So I was going to prepare him for the task of running my kingdom, Stark Industries (S.I.).

I recalled telling 'Potts', "The kid isn't even born yet and I'd do anything I could for 'im." And I was going to do anything I could for Anthony. I was going to re-start the search I'd given up on decades ago, the search to find Steve Rogers, because my son needed Steve. I was going to push technology forward as far as I could. I was going to earn as much money as I could. And I was going to challenge my son to think and build and create and to never consider the job done, to always seek ways to improve.

I'd also told my adult son, "The greater good has rarely outweighed my own self-interest." So I would share stories of Cap, to help with those morals that I myself lacked. The stories would also help my son bond with the long-lost soldier.

Would I do all of this for the greater good or for my own self-interest? My son's an extension of myself, and thus, in a way, it's self-interest. But whatever had driven Ant'ny and Captain Rogers back to 1970 had to be, in some way, for the greater good. The Captain's morals didn't run to self-interest.

Be it for self-interest or the greater good, I was going to prepare my son for what the future held for him.

Thank you to Magicspacehole for all of your advice on how to organize this chapter/story. Note: I went to Magicspacehole for advice, but not proofreading. Any typos are my own.