Tony Stark (cutsthewire) wrote in thedisplaced, @ 2018-03-22 22:35:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log/thread, steve rogers / captain america (mcu), tony stark / iron man (mcu) |
Who: Steve Rogers (MCU) and Tony Stark (MCU)
What: Steve and Tony are inexplicably stuck on an elevator. Things get awkward, things get said, and things get sad.
Where: An elevator on the ship.
When: Whenever we docked at the Enchanted Forest.
Warnings: None.
It was morning-- but late morning. Everyone had already overrun the cafe and breakfast buffets. Steve was heading up after taking a long shower and Sasha around the track. He knew he’d be dawdling, but he could easily wait to disembark for the fairyland. People said it was dangerous, that it wasn’t Disneyland. So he could wait. Easy. Let everyone else go first. He wasn’t excited. No, he was excited, he just had a lot on his mind. Things Quentin told him, things Bucky had gone through, and the fact that Tony was around somewhere. He stepped into the elevator and it moved up on floor, binged, and opened for someone he didn’t expect to see. Especially since he was just thinking of him. Tony was not overly anxious to explore the Enchanted Forest. Sure, he could stand to get off the ship for awhile, but it all seemed a little to Ren Faire for his taste. He had made arrangements to check out Camelot with Bruce, and after a late breakfast, he was on his way up to Bruce's suite. He was heading towards the stairs, but when he passed the elevator, it dinged to announce its presence. Apparently someone had pressed the button and then bailed. Something Tony greatly considered doing as well once the doors opened and he saw the elevator's occupants. A big blonde golden retriever and his dog. Tony sighed and stepped inside. Steve may or may not have hit all the buttons so he could be on the elevator longer. No. Never. When he saw Tony, his heart leap up into his chest, along with his stomach. Tony stood beside him and Sasha started to sniff at Tony’s shoes. “Hi.” That was a good start, Steve. He pulled on Sasha a bit, “Sit, Sasha.” The dog obeyed by continue to stare up at Tony. The elevator went to the next floor and the doors opened-- only to shut again and move downwards. Halfway between the floors, it stopped with a thunk. When Tony entered the elevator, he made sure to stand in the corner, putting as much distance between himself and Steve as possible. But not before reaching down to gently ruffle the Sasha's ears on his way by. He wasn't a total brute, after all. "Hey, pooch." Looking up at Steve, Tony managed to contort his face into the sort of smile that could very easily have been mistaken for a grimace. He knew it had been inevitable that the two of them would run into one another eventually. Tony had been testing the waters with him over the network and was both disturbed and relieved to find how easily he could slip back into their old routine if he let himself. "Rogers," he nodded formally while the dog inspected his shoes. After Steve heeled Sasha, Tony looked forward at the elevator doors, then stared back at the dog out of the corner of his eye, cracking a small but genuine lopsided smile. The opening and subsequent closing of the elevator doors got his attention, however, and he looked up and noticed that all of the buttons had been pushed. Brow furrowed together, he looked over at Steve with an incredulous, "Really?" before the elevator lurched to a stop. Of course. He stepped forward to inspect the elevator panel. "You wanted to get me alone that badly, all you had to do was ask." Steve was confused for a full minute. Then Sasha started to bark and he realized what was going on. With a small smile, “I didn’t do this. Do you think I could do this? I can work a smart phone but that’s about it.” He looped Sasha’s leash around the railing and went to pull the doors open with his super soldier strength. They opened, to the space between the floors. “I hate elevators,” he mumbled. Tony watched as Steve pulled open the doors. "Show off." When they opened to nothing, he rolled his eyes in disbelief. "Interstitial space. Of course. How are you at punching through steel?" Not that compromising the structure of the ship was in any way a serious suggestion. He scoffed at the other man's remark. "Remember that the next time you decide to push all the buttons." Speaking of buttons, Tony reached out to jab the alarm button. Nothing happened. He pressed it a second time. Of course. Reaching into his pocket, he retrieved a small device that looked like a swiss army knife, but upon closer inspection was infinitely more intricate. He tried to unfasten the panel to get at the circuitry behind it and have a look, but as soon as his tool made contact, the panel phased like the robots had when he had tried to interface with one. He tossed it at Steve. "See if you have better luck." Perhaps whatever AI was governing the ship and its systems had locked him out after his stint in the brig. Steve just shrugged when called a show off. The punching of steel made him crinkle his face a little bit, and look down at his dog. By the time Tony was at the panel, Steve had taken a seat on the floor and pet Sasha So when the device was tossed to him, he was able to catch it easily from the floor. Steve sighed and popped up from his sitting position and gently poked the panel out of … having no idea what to do with this thing. It phased. “It doesn’t like me, either.” Tony grabbed his tech from Steve's hand, slid it closed and shoved the thing carelessly into his pocket. He could have asked the other man for a boost and tried the access panel in the ceiling, but it would likely have produced a similar result. "Well then..." He glanced up at the other man, momentarily defeated. While he had hoped that he could make it through a short elevator ride without some sort of confrontation, that was looking less likely now that it seemed like they might be there for awhile. He had no doubt that Steve was capable of sitting in silence, but Tony knew there was little chance of him being able to hold his verbose tongue in check. And there was also the small matter of the last time the two men had been in each others' presence, it had gotten rather murderous. Looking up at the man, he felt no homicidal urges, but that pang of betrayal was still there. Tony backed up to lean against the wall opposite Steve and crossed his arms over his chest. Staring for a moment, he finally could not help himself. "We meet again, at last," he declared, mirroring the careful inflection of James Earl Jones. He knew it was a reference that Steve would get, having already been exposed to the "pretty cool" movie which it was from. He was privately upset about the fact that he had not been the one to introduce him to Star Wars. Steve watched the tool get snatched from his hand and gave a little ‘really?’ look in Tony’s general location. He stood, only to crouch back on the floor to be in his dog’s eye line. Or just to get out of Tony’s. When Tony quipped the line from Star Wars, Steve’s mouth went agape, lips curling up just a little. What was it-- he couldn’t place it--- oh, “They were pretty neato. They had a bunch of newer ones too, I was told to avoid them.” He looked down at the floor, confused, “Weird how they’re out of order.” Tony arched his eyebrow at Steve's use of neato but shrugged at his comment about the order. "It's all about money. Or a literary device. Depends on who you ask." He shifted his weight from foot to foot, full of nervous energy. Though, leave it to Steve to lighten the air a bit with his aw, gee whiz attitude. It was hard not to find the guy appealing when he was booted in "just a kid from Brooklyn" mode. It was the "self-righteous sentinel of liberty" mode that made him want to kick in his teeth. Uncrossing his arms, he slid his hands into his pockets, while his mind whirled at its usual frantic pace with nothing to distract him from thinking everything at once, feeling everything at once. He cast his eyes down toward where Steve was sitting, but directed his attention toward the dog instead. "I still have the phone," he blurted out, finally. "It's in my room. It came through with me, I had it in my pocket when I was brought here." It was a stupid thing to confess, and Tony was not sure what had made him say it. Tony’s outer shell was a conceited and cocky genius who knows he’s a genius. But once you got past that, he was thoughtful and kind. Even if he was teasing you. If he was teasing you, he probably liked you. At least that’s what Steve liked to think. He was going to speak when Tony brought everything to an abrupt stop. “You kept it on you?” he asked with all the wonder of a child. "Don't get cocky," he replied quickly, immediately trying to be dismissive of what he had inadvertently blurted out. "I made Happy carry around an engagement ring for eight years. I don't like to be without things when I need them." After he said it, he wasn't sure that was any better to admit. He looked up helplessly at the opened elevator doors and the wall that blocked his escape. Maybe he could use his gauntlet to blast a hole through it... “Engagement ring?” Steve’s eyes went wide and he looked up at Tony. “Are you engaged to Pepper now?” He thought maybe he should stand and shake the other man’s hand but-- there wasn’t a surrender flag thrown up just yet. There was a ceasefire but neither of them actually agreed to being friends again. "Yes. We were just in the process of picking out china patterns when I was brought here. No. Of course not," Tony answered quickly, as if that was an obvious answer to a ridiculous question. Things had warmed up considerably between he and Pepper since she unceremoniously ended things with him during the fallout of Ultron, but they had not fully reestablished their relationship. Still, if she would have let him, Tony would have proposed to her during what would have been the Spider-Man press conference. It was what a part of him had always wanted, which was why he had made Happy carry around that ring. But his obligations as Iron Man and to the Avengers had always come first, even before her, and that was not about to change any time soon. And Pepper was woman enough to know not to settle for anything less that what she deserved. So no. They were not engaged. And who could say if they ever would be. "You think a guy like me could ever settle down enough to keep a woman like her happy?" Steve looked like he just got slapped across the face. “I just thought... “ He thought Tony could keep someone else happy. He thought Tony could do a lot of things if he just applied himself. He invented things, improved things. Steve wished he could be like that sometimes, easily adapting. Steve was anything but adapted. “Yeah, actually, I did think that.” "Such an optimist," Tony replied, shaking is head, "even with the depression beard." He stared at the other man, then, wondering what exactly he was meant to be depressed about. Being a fugitive? Losing his shield? All of those things seemed to have been rectified by his having come to this place. So why keep the beard? If they were going to talk--and Tony thought he would go crazy if they did and he would go crazy if they didn't--he would much rather steer the conversation away from his uncomfortable reveal about the phone and towards something amusing like the beard that swallowed Captain America's face. That had to be light fare, right? Steve pulled Sasha into his lap and the dog assumed a comfortable position, belly up. He rubbed it and spoke a few words of babytalk at her before looking up at Tony. “I always have hope.” Except for when Bucky went into cryo again and he didn’t have hope. That was where the beard came in. “Do you even like dogs?” Then again, maybe not. Keep your secrets, Bearded Cap, Tony found himself thinking, before realizing that was the first time his brain had let him settle on a familiar name for the other man in months. He unconsciously wrapped his right hand around his left wrist for a moment as if it was bothering him, while shooting Steve a bewildered look at the way he interacted with his dog. "Sure, they're swell." He gave a disinterested shrug. The closest thing he'd ever had to having a pet were his bots, Dum-E and U. As he looked down at the pair of them, looking so comfortable and open, he added, "Though, I'm probably more of a cat person, if we're choosing pets, here." Out of the corner of his eye, Tony noticed a blinking light on the control panel that hadn't been there before. He nodded at it. "Looks like someone knows we're here," he guessed. Steve gave Sasha another good scratched and pulled her out of his lap. He stood in one fluid motion and went to bend down and look at the light. “That’s good. Then this awkward conversation doesn’t have to go on much longer.” When he turned to glance at Tony, he had a bit of a smile on his face. "Hey, you were the one moaning about wanting to talk to me. If it's awkward, that's on you." Though there was a slight bite to Tony's words, his mouth was turned up into a sort of daring smile. He had a hunch that Steve was only eager for coexistence when it was over the network. Face to face was another story entirely. Steve held the leash steady and Sasha didn’t move. “It’s usually the one doing the talking and me the listening, Tony. Was going to just listen.” He then shrugged and told Sasha to sit one more time. “Do you want to talk?” "Oh, I have to be the one to do the talking? You think your little note and your burner phone is all the explanation I need, right?" Tony was trying to keep his voice light, as if the whole thing was as much of a joke as everything else about the elevator ride had been, but he couldn't be more serious. "Problem solved, everyone's forgiven, roll credits." Brow furrowed, he took a step forward towards Steve, not in a menacing way, but more as if to say that he was no longer going to bow out of the conversation like he had several times before on the network. "You really have nothing to say to me?" “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Bucky. And I’m sorry that I hurt you when I chose Bucky over our friendship. I didn’t want the Avengers to fall apart. Zemo did that. But we certainly didn’t help it, did we?” He bowed his head, baseball cap covering his eyes. “I didn’t get anything from you.” Steve sounded about as sincere as a greeting card, but Tony had grown tired of dancing around this conversation the past couple of weeks. "Did he really? Because all I see when I look back on all that is a failure to communicate. A failure to compromise." He pinched the bridge of his nose with his hand and closed his eyes for a moment. "I am at fault too, I know this," he continued, his voice lower and slower in cadence than before. "But you weren't giving me much to work with." Tony sighed. "Yeah, well, Hallmark doesn't make Sorry the shitstorm you unleashed made me homicidal cards." Steve’s hands went out in a shrug. “Neither of us were really all in there with our heads, Tony. I admit fault. My head was … gone, because of Bucky. He’s everything to me.” He had looked up from the brim of his hat to look at Tony. He wanted to make a comparison, but wasn’t sure who Tony was close enough to that he’d do the stupid things that Steve did. “Do you think you can forgive me? Because… I’m not mad at you.” Which was precisely why there was a need for regulation. Maybe not at the level of the UN, but someone to pull back on the reins when enhanced people are going in half-cocked because they are thinking with their heart and not their head. But it did not need saying. They were never going to agree on the need for the Accords. And that had never been what this was about. It was about the truth of his parents' death. No, their murder. And how Steve's keeping this information from Tony had led to its reveal at the absolute most inopportune time. Could he forgive Steve? He had spent the last three months trying to work that out for himself. "Would you have told me? If Zemo had been crushed by the rubble with his family and never put all this in motion. Would you have told me what happened to my parents? To Howard Stark. Your friend?" “I can’t lie, Tony. But I don’t think I could have told you that.” His tongue peeked out to wet his lips. “Howard was my friend. But Bucky didn’t do any of those things in his right mind. He was brainwashed by HYDRA. It was better to think of them in the car accident than what really happened. I was protecting you as much as I was protecting Bucky.” He put it together that Bucky killed the Starks from when he and Natasha saw Zola in the bunker. That the Winter Soldier changed things-- Steve shook his head, “There’s no easy way to tell someone that, Tony.” "That's bullshit and you know it. I didn't need your protection. I needed your friendship." Tony shook his head. "You think it's an easy thing to hear? Of course not. But hearing it over drinks with a little bit of context and some basic human decency is a hell of a lot more conducive to generating understanding than being confronted with the recorded video evidence with no warning in the presence of the man who strangled my mother without even blinking." As he spoke about his mother, Tony's eyes began to tear slightly. "You can understand that, right? Tell me you can understand that." Steve didn’t break eye contact with Tony when his eyes started to well up. “I understand that.” He felt terrible in that moment, realizing that no matter who was wrong, the death of Tony’s parents was what was really the problem. “I’m sorry, Tony. I’m not the smartest man.” He smiled ever so slightly, trying to lighten the mood-- as if that was possible at this point. “You don’t need my protection. But I wish I could have protected you from seeing that footage. Of them dying in the first place. I wish I wasn’t in the ice, maybe things could have been different.” "That's a start, I guess." Tony took a step back to lean against the elevator wall again. It was a start, but not one that necessarily indicated whether or not Tony could fully let go of his disappointment over Steve's betrayal of their friendship. He already knew that he could still be civil with the man. Could critique his facial hair and ridicule him for his abysmal pop culture knowledge. But whether or not he could ever trust him to have his back, to be his friend again? He did not know. "If wishes were horses," he mumbled almost absent-mindedly. It was something Jarvis used to say to him when he was a boy. If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. At that moment, the elevator doors that Steve had pried open suddenly lurched to a close and with a ding, the elevator began moving again. Steve lifted his head and listened to the elevator. Huh. “Do you want to keep talking? I’ll stand here all day,” he glanced at the dog. “Maybe not all day.” At least he was at the starting line. Before he wasn’t even at the race. “I know that what I have to say doesn’t matter because everything already happened, but know that’s how I feel. And I do miss you, Tony.” Coming from a time when men were ‘men’ and didn’t show their feelings, Steve was incredibly sensitive. “I hope you can forgive me.” "We could talk ourselves in circles. I've said what I needed to say." But had he heard what he needed to hear? He would mull over that later. For now, he just needed off of that elevator. When Steve said that he missed him, Tony nodded his head in a way that meant I've missed you, too, though he could not say the words. The elevator doors opened. He threw a regretful glance over at Steve, told him, "So do I," and without a care if it was the floor that he wanted or not, walked through the doors leaving the other man and his dog behind. |