starkingenuity | (no subject)

"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,

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only | Expand All

From:

starkingenuity

"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.

From:

starspangledspandex

"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?"

From:

starkingenuity

"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."

From:

starspangledspandex

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."

From:

starkingenuity

"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."

From:

starspangledspandex

"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."

From:

starkingenuity

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.

From:

starspangledspandex

"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."

From:

starkingenuity

"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."

From:

starspangledspandex

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?"

From:

starkingenuity

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."

From:

starspangledspandex

"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."

From:

starkingenuity

"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."

From:

starspangledspandex

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.

From:

starkingenuity

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.

From:

starspangledspandex

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."

From:

starkingenuity

"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?"

From:

starspangledspandex

"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."

From:

starkingenuity

"Not much I do is good for me." He grinned at that. It was true. A person could become as much as 16 times more impaired from lack of sleep. They could become paranoid. They could become moody and angry.

Tony was generally all those things. Luckily he functioned far higher than most people so he was still doing all right even without sleep.

Tony pushed his hair back and slipped on a ball cap before he hitched up his hoodie. "You're the one in the uniform. There are some overalls and a coat that should fit you over there. Funny. The little name tag actually says Steve on it."

His grin was manic but he was ready to go. Even if he more or less limped his way towards where he thought the base might be. He was glad Steve was with him. He just would never tell him that.

From:

starspangledspandex

He glanced over at the normal clothing and frowned. He didn't know how he felt about borrowing a random person's clothes out of their backyard toolshed. Did they even know that Tony is in here? He doubts it.

"Why are we sneaking in?" he asks as he tugs off his boots and tests to see whether the overalls will fit over his uniform. He might get warm but he has a feeling the protection will be a good thing. "Why not take the suit and go in the front door."

From:

starkingenuity

Tony arched an eyebrow at Steve. "So you don't want to play spy?" Well the direct approach was typically better.

Tony snapped the reactor back into the armor and watched the eyes glow before he exhaled slowly and gestures towards the suit. This was probably going to hurt, considering the damage he was in, but there wasn't too much to do about that.

Steve was in for a treat. He would get to see something truly remarkable as Tony controlled his suit with his mind. More or less.

From:

starspangledspandex

"It's not my usual approach," he responded with a shrug. He wore a brightly colored uniform and shield in the color of the American flag. It didn't exactly scream subtle. Of course, many of the missions he was sent on were assaults. Could he be quiet? Sure. "Depending on the layout of the area, it's probably the better move, especially since what we're looking for will be heavily guarded."

Steve looked surprised and impressed, "you can control the suit remotely?"

From:

starkingenuity

Tony waited until the armor had attached itself to him. He stumbled back just a little bit he managed not to topple over and he caught the face plate before it could bonk him in the phase. "Electromagnets. Controlled by my reactor. Controlled by implants I've placed subdermally at key nervous point."

He sighed in relieve as the suit compressed the air around his torso, keeping his ribs from jostling.

"I'll have to carry you. Ready?"

From:

starspangledspandex

"You put implants into yourself to control your suit," Steve summarizes with a frown. It was Tony's body but he wasn't sure how he felt about that one. "Is that safe?"

Says the man that was injected with an experimental drug to make him a super soldier. Difference being, Steve was already sick.

"Hiding the shield is going to be difficult."

From:

starkingenuity

"It's probably not safe. No. I disabled safety protocols." Maybe he shouldn't have told Steve that but. Well too late now. He hated how honest he was with the blond.

He hated a lot of things about this that he didn't really hate at all.

"Listen. I'm riding in in a gold and fire engine red steed. Your shield? That's the least of our worries."