imaginatus | endgame open post

[ Steve refuses to believe that Tony and Peter are gone — that his family is gone — not until he sees proof. God. He can't. Not until he's had a chance to apologize.

Which is why, when Carol says she'll look for them, Steve just nods. Of course she would, because of course there's someone to look for.

But it isn't until he first lays eyes on Tony, however, that all the guilt and regret in Steve's chest is momentarily washed away. Relief is followed by gratitude, followed by love, until— ]

I lost the boy.

[ Hearing it from Tony's lips makes Steve feel like someone's grabbed hold of his windpipe and started squeezing. His eyebrows scrunch and they quiver once as Steve's see's the thin coat of tears in Tony's eyes. ]

I couldn't stop him.

[ It's not your fault, Tony. ] I couldn't either.

[ Only a second passes before Steve pulls him in for a hug, his hands swiftly supporting Tony's back to secure them together just like he used to. But instead of feeling the familiar shape of Tony's body, he's shocked by how small Tony feels in his arms. It makes Steve pull him in tighter.

For a moment, Steve just wants to cry. There's too much bottled up inside him and it's all threatening to come pouring out. But for just a while longer, he tells himself, he needs to keep it together. ]

C'mon. [ He whispers, against Tony's temple. ] Let's get you inside.

[ He goes down hard, another punch by the Titan that sends him into the dirt and knocks him out. He wakes with his head ringing despite the fact that the deafening battle around him is nothing by a dull roar around him. He pulls himself to his feet, searching for the others on the battlefield and catching Tony's eye. He's looking away from him, across the field at Strange, who raises a single finger.

Strange kept me alive for a reason. Tony had said a few days after he'd returned nearly starved and half the man he'd used to be. Things had been tense after Tony had spit in his face. After he'd thrown their failures at Steve's feet and thrust his heart into his hands. But that didn't mean that Steve hadn't tried to make amends. But by that time it had been too late. Thanos was dead and there hadn't been a way to bring anyone back. He'd said it was the only way. He'd looked into Tony's haunted eyes and then he'd looked away. As far as he could tell there hadn't been a reason for any of this.

He sees Tony pull himself up and he knows what he's going to do before he even begins to start moving towards Thanos. Steve's heart leaps into his throat as he forces his feet to move. Tony! his mind screams, but he can't get out his name before Tony's grabbed onto the glove. Thanos sends him flying and raises his hand. Steve moves past him, towards the armor, towards Tony. ]

Don't!

[ But it's too late, Tony has the stones in his gauntlet and he holds it up, his voice breathless and sure. Steve slams into him as he snaps his fingers and the world explodes in a white light of pain. His fingers feel as if they fuse to the glove, curling around Tony's as he's thrown back into the ground again and held there as white hot pain sears through them. He can smell the scent of burning skin, hear the shuddering echo of sudden stillness as Thanos' army dissipates around them, even as he can't move or breathe or speak.

After what feels like an eternity he force lessens and he struggles against it as he turns towards Tony beside him, reaching with his free hand for his face.]

Tony?

[ It's rasped out, barely a breath as he fights against the pain burning his lungs and lighting his nerves on fire.]

Edited 2019-04-28 22:00 (UTC)

[ He always looks happy to see her, whether it's been a few days or a few months. His eyes light up and that smile crosses his face that he only had for her.

Who are you? He asks jokingly more often than not because after a certain point she grows so quickly and so fast. Morgan? My Morgan?

Sometimes they're in the lake house. Sometimes they're sitting by the lake. Sometimes they're in his garage and he talks to her as he works.

He's always there for her if she needs to talk. On stand by if she needs him. ]

Edited 2019-04-29 02:14 (UTC)

That couldn't be the end of it. It just couldn't. Mr. Stark is the closest thing to a dad that Peter had had since Uncle Ben died and he was not going through it again. He wouldn't, not now. Not when they'd just won.

"Move, white boy," he heard, but he didn't really process it or the source of it because he was too busy processing the fact that Dr. Strange just did the thing with the hands and the gold and the magic and then someone grabbed his arm — maybe Happy? — and he was being pulled through it with a "whoa!" slipping through his lips.

He'd looked around and caught sight of Mr. Stark, who had looked really bad, but he was laid out on a slab and there was so much tech around here that everywhere he looked, it looked like a damn sci-fi movie.

That had been fourteen hours ago.

They've been taking turns, an hour at a time, rotating to sit with him. When his eyes open, it startles Peter, partially because they snap open, looking wild, and partially because he's still so pale that it's actually a little scary. "Mr. Stark?" he breathes, his own eyes wide with shock.

[ The struggle getting back to the Milano had been more than a little rough. Quill put the brunt of his focus on Stark, only stopping when he had to from taking on most of his weight, and sitting him down when they absolutely needed to. It was quiet getting back, interspersed with Peter offering small encouragements. Finally, a relieved: there she is.

Funny how it went, right? This guy showed up with all this flash and pomp and he didn't want jack to do with him. There was the fight, and then---he can't think about the fact that they lost. If he thinks about that, he'll think about Mantis, and Drax. Gamora. He'll wonder about Rocket and Groot. He can't do that. So, he does what he is able to do.

He gets Stark onto the ship, and to their little medbay that isn't even equipped for the shit they've been through, but it's something. Quill is banged up, but he didn't get stabbed by a big, purple, a-hole raisin. Lucky for them, he knows a little bit thanks to being raised by Yondu and the Ravagers. Maybe it's enough to get them some real help.

He sets him down on the rickety bunk they have down there as gently as he's able. ]

Okay, I'm gonna get you something for the pain first, and we'll get a better look, yeah?

[ Quill sets his jaw, lips pressed together thinly, and heads over to their---the gear. God, does this mean they're gone forever? What are they supposed to---Get it together, Quill. Gettin' all soft over here and for what? Can't do anything for them. Can do something for this guy, though.

He's got to. The idea of trying to do this on his own makes his stomach do flips, never mind the tight feeling in his chest. He grabs the injector and goes back to him. ]

Here we go. This is gonna sting a little.

[ It takes almost a month and a half before Shuri and Dr. Cho feel comfortable enough with Tony’s progress to let him go home. The scarring along the right side of his body has been reduced to faint lines from where the force of the blast had carved his skin, the hearing in his right ear has been mostly saved, and ... well, his right arm hasn’t fallen off, so that’s something. There’s still some nerve damage that will require more treatments down the line, it’s questionable when or if he’ll ever be able to use his arm again, and he has given everyone enough scares during the early parts of his recovery that everyone thought he’d ultimately succumb to his injuries no matter how efficient Shuri’s and Helen’s tech could be, but here he is now. Alive. Breathing. Walking and moving on his own. It’s something and, for someone who had been sure he’d die amongst the rubble, it’s everything at the same time as well.

The first few days back home are quiet, but he spends as much time with his wife and daughter before he has to get some rest. It’ll take some time to be completely back to normal, Helen had reminded him before Strange opened the portal back to the lake house. They had essentially brought him back from the dead, from an injury that no one could have ever prepared for considering the force of the infinity stones; he needed to give himself time to heal as much as he could.

Unlike other times and other injuries, though, Tony is actually doing his best to be as compliant as possible. He hates being coddled or cooped up, that part hasn’t changed, but he’s trying. He knows he had scared the hell out of everyone. He knows that, with what he did, technically he shouldn’t even be alive. He had gotten a second chance, and the last thing he wants is to ruin that in any way.

After spending the morning with Morgan, Tony ends up taking a nap on the couch. Happy and Rhodey come some time around lunch, and end up taking the little girl out for cheeseburgers and ice cream. You should get some rest, too, Rhodey suggests to Pepper as he gives her a hug goodbye, we’ll watch after the munchkin for the rest of the day. Tony sleeps through the short visit, but some while after he wakes up. The house is quiet, but the sound of rain falling outside and the soft crackling of the fireplace soothes him before he can question where he is since sometimes he still wakes up disoriented.

He’s home. He’s finally home.

Just as he’s about to sit up, he hears Pepper’s footsteps and smiles softly when he sees her walk into the room. ]

Hey, Miss Potts.

Edited 2019-04-30 19:14 (UTC)

You can't stay here.

[It's been three days. Three wholly blissful days in which she's called in sick and, frankly, they haven't left the bedroom much. Steve's managed to tell her the entire story in bits and pieces, and in the end, she's more surprised that it didn't take three days just for that. But in those moments when the heady rush dies down and the afterglow fades away, Peggy thinks about what he's said. About what he hasn't said. And in the end, it leads her to one simple conclusion: Steve Rogers is wasted on her.

There's nothing in the world she wants more than to be selfish and keep him all to herself. She wants to spend her life with him. But to look at him is to know that he was never meant for white picket fences and slow dances in the living room, as much as she wishes that she could wrap him in that comfortable cocoon forever.

She twines her fingers with his and thinks about her own work. About what he's explained of this time-travelling nonsense (she's still not sure she understands it all). She thinks about a world with more threats and fewer heroes, and she knows what has to be done.]

You have to go back, Steve.

[Steve stares at the gauntlet, charred and smoking on Tony's hand. The stones gleam brightly, incongruously, in the rest of the battlefield, like they generate their own light. He only needs one, he thinks. Just for a moment. He can't lose Tony now - the world doesn't deserve to lose Tony now.

The Time Stone slips free of its setting easily, and Steve closes his fingers around it. He doesn't know what to do, how to use it, though he can feel the power pulsing. Please, he thinks, and a green light suffuses his hand. Steve stares at Tony, willing the stone to fix things, opening himself as a conduit for the power.

There's no visual sign, no flash of lightning, but he feels the power scorching his veins as it courses through him. Tony's personal timeline rewinds just a matter of minutes, just enough to make him start breathing again. Rhodey notices first and yells for Strange to get the fuck over there; the sorcerer gives Steve a look, but Steve, like Tony, is frozen in the grip of the stone. He's barely breathing as he tells the stone to hold Tony in stasis, to keep him from dying.

They get Tony through the portal to Wakanda, get him stabilized, and Strange wraps his fingers around Steve's. Let go, he hears in his mind. He loosens his fingers and passes out as the Infinity Stone falls to the ground.

He spends the next few days in a bed next to Tony's. The stone burned through his energy, left him almost as gaunt as Tony was when he came back to Earth. Once he wakes up, he starts eating almost constantly, though it's through a straw at first, till he can feed himself again. It doesn't matter; he can barely take his eyes off Tony. (He can barely keep his eyes open, but he has to stay awake to eat.)

Meanwhile, Dr. Cho and Shuri work on Tony. There are points where he slips closer to death, points where Steve finds himself wishing he still had the stone. He constantly watches the monitors that surround Tony's bed, even after he's no longer bedridden. All his clothes hang loose on him, and he's reminded of his life before the serum. Tony would laugh if he could see him now.

Steve's beard grows back in as he keeps his vigil. To keep himself from worrying, he's learning Wakandan, and right now he's stumbling through a copy of Harry Potter that Shuri gave him. But he sees movement in the bed, and he drops the book, leaning forward to grab Tony's uninjured hand. (His own arm still aches, but the doctors insist it's psychosomatic.)]

Tony? [The name is barely a breath, half-afraid. His heart is in his throat as he stares down at Tony.]

[ There's a time limit of sorts on the holographic recordings that Tony made for everyone. Some of the others have more, and others less. There are some for people who have been dead for years, like Yinsen. Others left for Natasha, who never got a chance to listen to hers.

Still more for those that were lost during the first battle to Thanos. Apologies he needed to make. Errors in judgement to try and make right. Who knows if it worked? He's not really here to see it, after all. Not all of them are just recordings, though.

Some of them are based off of the BARF technology, and more or less interactive. Which is why the first of many that were left for Steve turns on one day, beeping softly with a blinking blue light. After a few seconds, it turns on, projecting a hologram of Tony into the room. ]

I'd be upset about being ignored for so long, but given the circumstances this is probably a little bit of a shock. So, ---sorry, for what it's worth.

[ ooc: Part I — Reuniting

A lot happens during the week Tony is confined to bed rest.

That first day, after Tony tells Steve he loves him, Steve confirms the timeline with Bruce. Seven days minimum of bedrest, otherwise moving him could prolong Tony's recovery by weeks.

Day two, Tony is still sleeping through most of the day. When he wakes up, Steve usually isn't there, though FRIDAY quickly informs him that Captain Rogers is currently in a nearby room, working on something that she's been instructed not to explain.

Day three, Steve is back and he spends the whole day in Tony's hospital room. He has a tablet with him — one of the ones Tony gave him two years ago, with access to FRIDAY's knowledge base.

Day four, Steve is excited in the morning, because the paint in the other room has finally aired out, and he move Tony to it. Bruce is there too, to help, as they wheel Tony from one room to another, along with all the machines that come with him. Leaving the medical wing, they head toward a room that Tony had originally designed as an office, with beautiful floor to ceiling windows that look out across the trees and the lake. Steve has removed all the furniture in the room and painted the walls to match the forest outside.

Day five, Tony's well enough to start using his devices, even if eating is still hard. Steve also wheels another medical bed into the room, and declares that he's sleeping there now.

By day seven, Tony's finally able to walk short distances if he sits often and carries around his IV. That's when the rest of the Avengers and Captain Marvel assemble for the first time, and go through their options. The short of it is: there aren't many. ]

It takes six weeks for Tony’s health to finally be deemed well enough for him to not be under strict medical supervision. It’s not ideal, but it’s not like he can actually argue it; Tony knows damn well how much radiation the gauntlet caused. He knows him surviving is a miracle in its own. There’s still nerve damage along the right side of his body, and it’s only a matter of time before they call it and have to make a choice on whether or not his arm is salvageable, but he’s breathing. He’s eating. He’s walking, and he can go home. That’s plenty for now.

Strange helps to transport him back to New York after his lengthy stay in Wakanda, but while he’s urged to go home and take it easy, the first thing he asks Happy is to take him to the city. There’s someone he needs to see, after all. He has been keeping in touch with Peter over text and email, checking in on him and making sure he’s okay as he settles back in to normal after being gone for five years, but he wants to see him in person.

Even now, even after everything, he still has moments where he’s afraid the kid being back isn’t real. That he’s dreaming all this and soon he’ll wake up.

Happy pulls over outside of Peter’s school, and Tony waits for a whole two seconds before he gets out of the car. He looks better than he had the last time he and Peter had seen each other; the redness that remained on the right side of his face has lessened to faint scars from the blast. His arm is in a sling, and he has lost some weight in this whole ordeal, but he’s healthy enough to be moving about and arguing with Happy about whether or not he should be waiting in the car or leaning against it.

Tony, of course, opts for leaning against it.

The bell rings, and Tony pulls out his phone so he can text Peter. He hadn’t told him he was springing out of Wakanda for this reason - he had wanted to surprise him.

Hey. You doing anything after school today?

[ ooc: Part I — Reuniting
Part II — Guilt

Part III — Recovery ]

"Breakfast is ready!"

Steve yells it from the kitchen like he's done many times now, knowing that his voice will travel through the halls and wooden walls of the cabin, to their bedroom. There's a sizzling platter of sausages and omelets sizzling in two cast iron skillets and the smell of breakfast is starting to seep into everything.

***

It's been a year since their son died. A year since they left the compound and the rest of the Avengers. A year since Tony found a cabin in the woods in the middle of nowhere and they moved here and never looked back.

Tony's recovered back to his normal weight months ago, but Steve — who decided after the first few months that he was going to actually learn to cook like his Ma did — is still cooking like Tony needs to gain a few more pounds. He does it out of love though, and by now, the food is getting to be pretty delicious, so when Tony usually finishes everything on his plate, Steve feels like if his husband is just humoring him, at least it's not torture to eat the food.

There have many, many hard moments though, especially in the first six months, when one of them says something that makes reminds them of Peter, and whatever cheerful mood they'd been in before deflates completely. Usually one or both of them cry, and they just end up holding each other until enough of the grief passes for them to be functional again.

They've never talked about adopting again. It's crossed Steve's mind, but he's never brought it up. He can't go through what they did with Peter. Not again.

***

"Sleepyhead," Steve says to himself, as he turns the heat down to the lowest possible setting, and wipes his hands on the kitchen towels. Then, two to three stairs at a time, he bounds up to the second floor, imagining to himself exactly where Tony is beneath the covers this morning. Or, he thinks, as he opens the door, Tony might already be up, but just engrossed in whatever project he's working on for them these days.

Either way, Steve is ready to scoop him up and carry him to breakfast this morning.

I haven't written in a while. Be gentle. 🤭

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Because I can't stop BARFing.

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@efficacy

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I wrote a novel, sorry

you hurt me, i hurt you it's a vicious cycle.

Superhusbands Part II