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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All in all, Steve really wished he wasn't spending this whole time playing catch up. Tony should have given him more information so he would have been prepared for what might happen and who they were going up against.

Why wasn't Pepper being guarded? Tony made a threat against a terrorist. It only made sense they were going to go after the people he cared about. Steve didn't have a lot of answers and didn't have a plan of action, neither were things he appreciated.

If he took out Killian now, it might be easier to get to Tony's girlfriend. He wasn't sure if he could protect both Tony and this Maya, who apparently worked for AIM. Clearly she was mixed up in things that she shouldn't be. Did that make her a bad person? Not for him to decide.

So, Steve went for Killian first, he suspected the man wouldn't appreciate the shield bouncing off his chest very much.

Steve could absolutely guess right there. And he would find that Killian did go down. For a moment at least.

The man dashed away, leaving Tony pulling so hard at his bonds that he was actually bleeding. "Just go and get him," the man growled. Steve was wasting time. They had to figure out where Pepper was.

She couldn't be dead. Of course she couldn't. The people he cared about never got hurt!

He was wasting time because he would definitely prefer to have back-up here. There weren't many people that could take a hit from the shield and take off running. Steve spared a moment to smash one of Tony's wrists free and pull his pocket knife out to give it to him.

"Follow me when you can," he told him and took off after Killian.

In sneakers and jeans, moments after he cut his wrist free and took one more look at the monitor, Tony sucked up his sorrow j to rage and beat a path towards the Captain.

He could not run even half as fast as the other but adrenaline was capable of doing very weird things to people in times of need and he arrived at Steve's back as Killian hit the end of the hall, hands glowing.

Tony catching him was helped by Steve slamming doors open as they passed. He wanted to make sure there were no other prisoners but also that there weren't any guards that we're going to pop out and flank them.

When Killian turned to face him, Steve realized he either used this extremis thing on himself or had abilities of his own.

"He's enhanced!" Steve shouted, twisting to protect Tony from the blast that erupted from the man's hands and when he hit the shield, Killian opted to drop the ceiling on them instead.

Against Steve's chest, the shield over them both, Tony tried his very best not to cling too tightly... He didn't want to give the blond the wrong impression, he just wanted to keep from being toppled over.

That didn't seem to matter, however. The weight of the ceiling over them was enough to cause the floor to crack beneath them too.

Tony's fingernails bit into Steve's arm even as he tried to summon the suit. He only hoped it was being kept close.

He wouldn't have blamed the man for clinging to him. The closer they were to one another the easier they both fit under the shield and the less likely it was for either of them to be hurt that way. Killian was gone. He only intended to distract them both instead of challenging them directly.

When the floor beneath them cracked, Steve's arm wraps around Tony. If the floor gives out completely, he intends to pull the other man on top of him. The super soldier can take a lot more damage than Tony can even if it won't be particularly fun for either of them.

Steve wasn't exactly soft. Falling in him still hurt enough to knock the breath out of him. Though Killian was able to get away, snd Pepper was--

Tony was having more trouble than he had been breathing. That was probably understandable given the state he had been on before the running and the falling.

"Go get him," he wheezed. He'd be fine laying curled up in a ball.

Well, no, it wasn't particularly comfortable for Steve either. It was just better to land on Steve than the cement. He might be a super soldier and sturdy but it still hurt to land on his back a story below where he was a second ago. Plus, Tony wasn't exactly light. He groaned, rolling to his side and trying to force himself to his feet. It was going slowly.

"Working on it," he said, using the side of the shield to push himself upward.

There was rubble in his hair and blood on his lips but Tony still lifted a hand to the back of Steve's neck before the blond pulled himself up and away from his reach. Somewhere under that uniform was his name, the whole reason that Steve was even here.

But he'd been denied. There wasn't any particular reason to harp on the past and certainly no reason at all to think of anything but the woman who had shared his bed and was...

She'd died. Ten minutes ago now. And all because he hadn't given this guy some attention thirteen years before?

He should stay down. He could barely move. But tony wasn't a slacker. He needed to see this through.

His eyes shifted from the ground up to Tony when he felt the weight of the man's hand on his neck. If they were going to stop Killian from hurting anyone else, they needed to get going. Steve respected the man's loyalty and desperation when it came to Pepper. It was just one more reason in the long line of things that made him not want to interfere.

Maybe she was gone but they couldn't say for sure. He refused to give up on anyone. They just needed to find her and then Tony could keep on being happy with her. She might actually distract him from the writing on Steve's arm. It was win-win all around really.

"Need a hand?" he asked, pulling back away from the hand on him. "Or should I just go?"

"Be careful." It sounded crazy to say such a thing to such a man. "Go. I'll get there myself."

He just had to find his phone and JARVIS. He had a bay full of armors not too far away.

He watched Steve go before he pulled himself up, feeling like his insides had shattered. The pain wasn't entirely physical. He'd never told Pep about Steve. About the name.

If he had, she might have left him. And if she had left she would have lived.

He would indeed get to Steve eventually. And with him came the House Party Protocol.

Steve gave him a nod and he took off running. He trusted that Tony knew what he was doing and that his armor could keep him safe. Killian was more important even if he hated to abandon his teammate. He caught up to the man outside on the rig and he found out quickly that the man could heal himself. This was going to be difficult.

He was picking himself back up off the ground when the House Party showed up. He stared in surprise at the multitude of suits that suddenly surrounded them. How could Tony possibly have made so many different ones?

"Stand down, Killian," Steve said. He needed to give the man a chance.

How? He didn't sleep. He barely ate. Everything was the work shop. And it showed in the dazzling array of colors and specialities represented in the air.

Was wasn't in any of them. He couldn't stand well enough and trying to control the armors would be impossible if he was being flung around too. While Steve fought, the armor distracted.

"J, no collateral damage on the Captain," Tony said, sliding down to watch. "The moment you can get a clear shot though, just unload."

There was fire everywhere. Tony just hoped that Steve could dance his way out of it.

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