starkingenuity | (no subject)

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"You have my name. On your arm."

Tony hadn't been agonizing about it but maybe he had just a little and maybe he had driven down to DC to tell Steve Rogers what he was pretty sure that the blond already knew. A plane or the Iron Man armor would have taken much less time, but Tony needed to make frequent stops along the way so that he could try to get himself to turn back and just leave it.

It didn't always happen, the mythical arm writing, but that's what made it to special. Every teenager pretty much spent their years before college hoping for a name to turn up one day. Less than ten percent ever did, and that number was dwindling seeing as how people didn't really care if they had a name on their arm or not. If their parents and religion weren't going to tell them what to do, weird indelible writing appearing on their bodies was not either.

The thing one, Tony did not have a name on his arm. There was no corroborating Steve Rogers written in interesting patterns on his skin. There was nothing. Tony hadn't been a lucky one.

But he'd seen, accidentally, on Steve well after they had first met and it was pretty obvious that yeah, Steve would know that he'd just met Anthony E. Stark, fought beside him in New York, nearly watched him die, and then just moved away to DC after as if nothing at all happened.

Now he wanted answers,

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Once everything died down, Steve was left crouching in the rubble. He didn't know Pepper before this and it was even worse that Tony barged into his house, then kissed him, when he already had someone. Why would he throw everything away just because there was a name on Steve's arm?

He didn't want to draw on their connection. It was a bad idea. However, with The Mandarin hunting Tony. He would need help and Steve was going to be one of his best options here. So he sighed and focused, boarding the jet again, then dropping out on his bike when the feeling got stronger.

Steve pulled up outside the house sometime in the middle of the night and headed to where the strongest sense of Tony was located. Then he knocked.

If it was that kid again, Tony was going to scream. He just didn't like kids, it had nothing to do with this one in particular and it wasn't personal.

He was sure that his ribs were broken. He knew he had a black eye and a split lip. Breathing hurt but if he curled up on the sofa with the armor as it was now, he might not want to wake back up again.

It was cold here. It was cold and he could see his breath as he turned off the torch to the soldering iron and went to get the door.

"If you don't have scotch then-- Rogers." Color him surprised.

"Were you going to tell anyone you were still alive?" he demanded. No hello, no greeting, just annoyance because the man couldn't be too bad off if he could answer his own door. The only reason for radio silence after your house was blown up was inability to get to a phone or coma, which basically tied to the first thing.

Steve wasn't happy. This was for plenty of reasons and not because of the writing on his arm. Okay, maybe it was a little because of the name, but only because he liked to keep his options open and if Tony was dead, well, that closed the door on it officially.

Just because he didn't want a relationship now, didn't mean he wouldn't change his mind later.

Oh,, so Steve got to decide everything? No. Tony scowled at the blond who....was still such an asshole. For a man to have his name written on his arm, he might have expected different treatment, but it was still all business.

"Who am I suppose to call when I can't get the armor working? It's better that they think I'm dead. It's better that the whole world does and-- How did you find me?"

Because if Captain America could track him, they might be on to him.

"Damn it, how long as SHIELD been tracking me? Be honest. You know I'll find the bug when I get back."

Well, Tony had a person right? Why would Steve treat him as anything but a friend in that case? Now that he met Pepper it was going to be even harder to convince him to act on the writing.

"Maybe Ms. Potts?" he offered, though it was mostly just to let Tony know that he knew about her. "Maybe any other member of the Avengers? People that can help you?"

He shook his head, "SHIELD wasn't tracking you. They're probably tracking my bike so they might know now, but I'm the one that found you." He tapped his arm, like that explained everything, "Are you going to let me in?"

Tony already didn't know what to do about Pepper. He couldn't remember the last time he was really with her. Sleeping in the same bed didn't count. The occasional sex didn't count. Tony was distracted.

Everything about Steve distracted him.

"Ditch your bike. I can't keep anyone safe if they know I'm okay. No. Actually bring it in here. I'll disable the tracking. I need the parts for my armor anyway."

He couldn't fall for someone because they had his name on their arm. He couldn't. Especially for Steve.

His bike was already a number of blocks down and around the corner. In a residential area it would take awhile just to narrow down which direction he went. He wasn't sure Tony was keeping anyone safe. What about the people in this neighborhood?

"I'll be back," he agreed, then headed back toward his bike. It would take him ten minutes before he was pulling into the shack with it and shutting it off.

"Whose house is this?" he asked when he dismounted. Once he got a good look at Tony, he helpfully added, "You should be in a hospital."

"Could you just shut up?" His head was aching, pulsing between his ears and he really needed to focus on this and not on Steve Rogers.

He might have trouble breathing and his whole body was aching and his face was raw and scabbed over but you know what? He was getting shit done. Alone. How be preferred it, thank you.

Tony crouched after Steve got the bike into the shed and immediately pulled off the cargo bags and riffled through them.

"Who's going to save you from yourself, Tony?" he asked, then turned away from the bike to inspect the suit that was sitting on the couch. It looked like a disaster and that would explain why Tony wasn't breathing easily. He could hear that much without any trouble and it didn't sit well with him.

Tony wasn't going to be alone if he dismantled Steve's bike for his suit. He leaned on one of the posts and watched the man go through his things. "Can I help you find something?"

"I need wiring. The reactor's supply isn't getting to the whole armor and I can't just hook myself into it." A back surge could kill him.

He let Steve see to cannibalizing his bike for him and he went back over the the workbench to finish what he was doing.

Even if he just kept looking up over to a blond hair. Tony but his lower lip.

"You didn't have to come looking for me, Cap."

Wiring was easy enough. He hated to ruin his bike but the suit was probably more important if there were terrorists after Tony. He was a little more fragile than the super soldier. He peeled off his gloves so he get into the engine without catching on anything and carefully started following wiring from start to finish.

He glanced up at Tony when the man spoke and refocused on the bike. "We're teammates. You needed the help."

"We were teammates one time months ago," Tony had to point out, his eyes hardly on his work but it didn't actually matter right now. He knew what he was doing and he could watch this or movies while welding most days.

Tv and movies were not as completely distracting as Steve though.

"You can't hold that over my head either. I don't want you just showing up because you can feel me. That's not fair."

"You think the Avengers aren't going to come together again?" he raised an eyebrow. No matter how much he wished it wasn't true he wasn't naive enough to think otherwise. They were still heroes. They needed to work together. They nearly fought and died with one another.

"If SHIELD could track you, it wouldn't have been an issue. I'm not going to just show up for no reason," Steve replied, yanking a little hard on a piece of his bike that was in the way. It was probably a good thing it already needed repairs. "You have a terrorist organization after you. You can't fight The Mandarin alone and you don't have to."

Tony leaned over to yank the wiring out of Steve's hand. "How about you wait for me to call before you assume. I have this handled." He'd be just fine. Once he got everything fixed here, he'd hunt down the Mandarin and everything would be just fine.

Tony pressed a hand to his ribs. He shouldn't have leaned over earlier. Oh. It hurt. He blinked back some tears from that and tried to shove them into the reactor from the suit.

"You're hiding in a shack in a random person's backyard, fixing your suit with pieces of my bike," Steve said. "Not my definition of handled."

He saw those tears too, now that he wasn't working on the bike and he frowned. Steve didn't like it. Now he understood why Bucky always yelled at him for pushing himself too hard.

"You're also injured," he said. "You could do it alone but you don't have to."

"But I want to!" Steve was going to kill him. He put down his tools and decided to just angrily wire everything by hand. "I've done just fine for myself for longer than you've been alive so I've got this."

But what was he suppose to do? Send Cap home now? Tony rubbed at his eyes and gingerly sat down at the work bench.

"But you're here now. And I've ruined your bike. Next time, don't feel obligated to come running."

He sighed heavily, because Tony wasn't getting it. Reading his file, he knew the man preferred working alone and that he was bad at teamwork, but this was another step entirely. Actively refusing help when he was injured was just stupid.

"I'll try not to," he promised. "What's the plan?"

The real trouble was this wasn't Rhodey. Or even Romanoff. This was Steve Rogers, the man with his name on his arm, who had spurned him. Technically Tony went along with it, but that was simply because he'd had no other choice to save face.

"There's a problem with more than just the terrorist attack. People are blowing up. Ex-soldiers. That's why they attacked me. They got Happy in crossfire and..."

See, Tony did have a heart.

"I have to stop them. I was hoping to get the Mk 42 up before I went on surveillance...but I think I need to lay down for a little bit."

"Suicide bombers?" he asked, forehead creasing again, because those were never good news and he didn't want to have to deal with people charging him so they could blow up in his face. He didn't know Happy but if someone managed to get that reaction of Tony then the man must be close to him.

"That's probably a good idea. I'd offer to help with this--" he gestured toward the suit. "But I think I would make it worse."

"I don't know. It doesn't feel right. They...sort of self ignite. It's weird." Tony carefully laid his tools down and slumped on the couch with his armor. He even laid his head against it's chest, as if it were alive.

No finer portrait could ever be painted of Tony Stark and his perpetual loneliness than watching him cuddle his own creation.

"Just until morning, Cap. Then we'll find them."

That did sound weird. It also didn't sound normal and somewhere capable of turning a human into a living bomb was dangerous. Sure it might be directed at Tony now but who would be next? What if they managed to get into high ranking political meetings? It was bad news.

It would have been warmer if he curled up against a living and breathing person, but Steve wasn't going to offer. It blurred too many lines and seemed contradictory. "Try to get some sleep."

He would find somewhere to curl up. It wasn't going to be comfortable but he had worse.

Tony didn't get much sleep. He never got much sleep. The point he had about holding onto the armor wasn't so much for comfort as for rigidity. It helped him to keep from slouching. And the cold was good on his ribs.

The trouble wasn't his choice of cuddle partners. It was his nightmares.

Tony yelped awake in less than an hour and held his head in one hand before he went back to work, gazing at Steve curled up in the corner.

He draped the blanket that he had been using over the soldier and finished up what he was doing. He'd be ready by morning to spy on the Mandarin.

At least that was his goal.

The corner was about as comfortable as he expected it to be but he knew when he needed sleep and they were probably going to have a long day ahead of them tomorrow. He shifted slightly at the weight of the blanket over him but surprisingly didn't wake at the sound of Tony's nightmare.

It'll be a few hours before he finally was stiff enough to wake up himself and he immediately frowned, "You're supposed to be asleep."

"I don't sleep," Tony replied. He had taped up his ribs with stuff he found in Steve's bike packs and put a few butterfly bandages over his face. He took some pain killers and was more than ready to go now.

"I don't have anything in for breakfast. Sorry Cap. But how about we break into some terrorist base and figure out why soldiers are blowing up?"

"That's not good for you," Steve observed, because even if he needed less sleep than most people, even the super soldier required some kind of shut eye. He wasn't as bad off as some people but Tony was generally a normal guy. Sleep deprivation caused all kinds of bad judgement.

"I'll be alright," he said, tilting his head at Tony, before nodding. "If you think you're up for it."