Chapter 26
Steve sat in the back of the quinjet, as Clint flew them to Hawaii. Even with a Stark quinjet, the flight was over three hours, giving Steve plenty of time to fume as he thought of Stark. Stark had obviously just been using him. He ran his shield through his hands, testing the edge.
Sam had tried to talk to him several times from the seat opposite him, holding out a tablet that showed Stark walking along the beach with a tall dark-haired man. But Steve didn’t want to read about the man Stark had been cheating on him with. He was too busy thinking of what he was going to say to Stark.
“So, what’s the plan, Cap?”
Steve looked up from where he was running his shield through his hands towards the cockpit, thinking about Clint’s question. “First, we need to find Stark.”
“That’s not too hard,” Nat pulled out her phone and started poking at the screen. “There we go, he’s in police headquarters.”
“What! What’d he do?” Steve ignored Sam who was looking at him strangely and trying to get his attention with that tablet again.
“Don’t know. I’m sure we’ll find out all about it when we get there. It’s just down the street from the palace, we can land in the yard there.”
Steve got up and went to stand looking over Natasha’s shoulder where she was sitting in the other cockpit seat. “How’d you know where to find him anyways.”
Natasha scoffed, “Stark’s such an attention whore. He’s on all the celebrity tracking apps.”
Steve was appalled, “he tells everyone where he is?”
“No, when people see him walking around, they post it. Get enough posts in the same area and it’s probably him.”
Steve huffed in disapproval, crossing his arms. That was a terrible invasion of privacy. Does that mean that people had been talking about and posting things on the dates he went on with Stark? That was another thing he was going to have to have Stark stop when they got home. Once this nonsense of Stark cheating on him had been taken care of. He shouldn’t have been surprised by Stark cheating; he’d have to keep a closer eye on him from now on. No more trips for business, for one.
Landing an hour later in the grassy field next to the palace, Steve waited impatiently for the back of the quinjet to lower. Settling his shield, making sure that his cowl was hanging from his neck instead of covering his face, he didn’t want to alarm any civilians, Steve marched down the ramp.
Ignoring the gawking people, most of whom had their cell phones out, Steve surveilled the area. Turning, he waited as Natasha, Clint and Sam joined him at the base of the ramp. Frowning at Sam, “why aren’t you wearing your wings?”
“Uh, ‘cause this isn’t a mission?” Sam looked back at him. He looked uncomfortable in his jeans and shirt. No doubt he was just now realizing that he should have worn his wings. Maybe Steve should be a little more clear in his orders; it would prevent some of these misunderstandings. Giving Sam a smile to insure he knew that Steve wasn’t angry with him. Opening his mouth, he was interrupted by the scream of police sirens as half a dozen police cars rushed up.
Turning to frown at the police cars as their sirens cut out, he started marching in their direction. They might be rude, blaring their sirens for no reason, but at least he could find out what Stark had done now. “I need to be taken to Tony Stark.”
“Is something wrong, Captain?” the man Steve had approached was looking around, hand on his weapon.
The officer’s behavior was annoying, he seemed to be more concerned with staring around him instead of speaking to Steve. It was very rude. “I need Stark, he’s at your police station, isn’t he?”
“What?”
The man finally looked at Steve. He seemed confused. Steve huffed, before turning and giving a significant look at Nat. Slinging his shield on his back he took off at a jog towards the Police Headquarters building. It was only down the street a little way, he could see it from here.
Running up to the police building, taking in the words over the entrance. Stark was just coming out of the main doors, jogging down the steps towards him with a concerned look on his face. Steve barely glanced at the billionaire, instead his gaze zeroed in on the small group of people that came out of the building with Stark. The dark-haired man from the photo Sam had been trying to show him was at the lead.
“Captain.” Steve looked down into concerned brown eyes. “What’s the problem?”
“Stark. Time to go.” Steve reached out to grab hold of Stark’s arm and turned to go back to the quinjet.
“Where’s the fire, Cap?”
Stark dragged his feet a little as Steve tugged on him. At that moment an Iron Man suit floated down to land in front of them on the sidewalk. The chatter and noise from the surrounding crowd had a brief up swell at the appearance of the armor. The armor distracted Steve enough that Stark was able to pull his arm free and walk the few steps to the red and gold suit.
“What are you doing, Stark?”
Stark turned around with a confused look on his face. “What?” he paused as the suit opened up and waited for him to step into it. “You came to get me for some reason.”
Steve frowned. “Just come on,” Steve reached out to grab Stark’s arm again.
The group on the stairs moved down to stand level with the sidewalk as Stark moved his arm out of the way of Steve’s grab. “Tony?”
“I don’t know, babe.” Stark frowned, turning to Steve, “Cap, what is going on!”
Steve looked at the dark-haired man staring between them, “you’ve been cheating on me! That’s what!” Steve gestured toward the man, “who is this, Stark!”
“Wha…?”
Normally Steve liked it when Stark stopped talking, but the unattractive gaping was insulting. Did Stark really think he was never going to get caught? “I just found out you’ve been cheating on me. For months!”
“What?”
Steve was tired of this. Stark was just standing there gaping at him. The interloper was watching them both, arms crossed. There were a lot of people filming this on their phones. Reaching for Stark again, he tried to grab ahold of his arm.
Stark jerked back, and that seemed to get his mouth started again, “what are you talking about Rogers! I can’t have been cheating on you, we’re not dating!”
“What?” Steve shook that off, “of course we are, don’t be ridiculous. Now come on, let’s get back to the compound. It will take a lot, but I’m sure you can make this up to me. I’ll just have to watch you closer. I don’t think I want you coming back to Hawaii, Miss Potts will just have to do it.”
As Steve reached out again for Stark’s arm, another hand came out of nowhere and gripped his wrist. Looking at the large tanned hand with the bulky black watch he followed it up until he was staring into the interloper’s face.
“I don’t think he wants you touching him.”
“Let go, son. You don’t know what you’re getting into here.” Steve shook the brunet’s hand off his arm.
“Don’t Steve,” Stark’s voice sounded concerned. Steve looked over; Stark didn’t usually call him by name. “I’ve got this.”
“Rogers,” here Stark paused as he studied Steve’s face. “We haven’t been dating.”
Steve stared at Stark where he was standing in front of the open Iron Man. “Yes, we have. We have dinner, watch movies together. We’re dating. And now I find out you’re cheating on me? I knew I was going to have to watch you. I mean I know your history….”
“Rogers.” Stark interrupted again. “Those weren’t dates. You asked me to help you integrate into the 21 century. I was helping you, that’s all.”
“What? No. You don’t go to dinner and watch a movie with a friend, Stark.” Steve was starting to get impatient. He couldn’t believe that Stark was doing this, “you’re not going to convince this guy to keep seeing you, Stark. Now that he knows we’re a couple, he’ll back off.”
Steve looked around at the people surrounding them. The crowd had grown substantially, and they all seemed to be pointing those stupid mobile telephones at them. No doubt all of this was going to be all over that intra-web. “I didn’t really want to come out to the public so soon, but I’m not going to let you just go around with some other fella.”
Reaching again for Stark’s arm he was surprised when the interloper brunet took a step forward as if he was going to try to stop him. Turning to the man, “who are you, anyways?” Not letting him answer Steve continued, “now that you know that Stark’s with me, you can leave.”
“Yeah, no.”
“Commander McGarret, Honolulu PD, Five-oh taskforce.” Both the answer from Stark and from the brunet man came at the same time.
Steve studied the lose stance of the man in front of him. Definite training. Of course, he would be no match for Steve.
“Steve, babe.”
Steve turned to Stark and saw he was watching the other man. Frowning he also turned to the other, “you can leave now.”
“I don’t think so.” Steve frowned in disapproval at the brunet, this Commander McGarret. The other man looked back, he was tall with hazel green eyes and a slight stubble on his chin.
“Steve, it’s fine. Don’t.”
Steve looked over to where Stark was still standing in front of his armor. He looked concerned as he watched the standoff between Steve and this McGarret.
“Stark,” taking a step forward he was stopped as McGarret put his hand on his arm. “Son…”
“Don’t call me son,” McGarret withdrew his hand once Steve had stopped and focused on him again. “Tony?” McGarret turned to look at Stark.
“Rogers, whatever you think, we’re not dating. We’re not going to date. I have no interest in dating you.”
Steve frowned in disapproval at Stark, he was being so stubborn. Always contradicting Steve just to be contrary. “Don’t lie, Stark. We’ve been dating for months.” He frowned harder as Stark interrupted him again.
“Well then, consider yourself broken up with.”
“That’s not up to you,” Steve pulled himself up tall and looked down at the smaller man.
“Yeah, it is.”
“Stay outta’ it!” Steve snapped at McGarret.
“The only one who gets to decide who Tony dates, is Tony.”
“Steve! Don’t!”
“Yeah!” Steve shifted his weight to confront McGarret, ignoring Stark’s plea. “Well he chose me, and now I’m goin’ ta hold him to it.”
“You don’t get to decide that.”
Steve didn’t pay any attention to the police officers who had slowly trickled out of the building as the confrontation continued. That presence had become a flood as more police arrived to drive people back and away from the increasing tension.
Putting his hand on the brunet’s chest Steve pushed, just a little show of his strength and this guy should back down. He was no match for Steve, but there was no reason for it to come to blows, McGarret couldn’t possibly be that attached to Stark.
“Steve!” Stark sounded worried as the brunet stumbled back under the force of the shove. “Rogers, don’t! What are you doing!”
Steve looked over, Stark stepped closer and shoved his way between him and McGarret. Reaching out Steve grabbed ahold of his wrist and turned to leave. “Let’s go.”
“Let go, Rogers!” Stark’s other hand picked at the fingers circling his wrist. “I’m not going anywhere with you!”
Steve clenched his hand tighter, ignoring Stark’s complaints, they just needed to get back to the quinjet and they could go back to the compound, and sort everything out. McGarret stepping in front of him with his weapon drawn and pointed at Steve’s head was a surprise.
“Let him go, and I won’t put you under arrest for attempted kidnapping.”
“What are you doing?” Steve looked from the gun to the man holding it on him. His shield was in its place on his back, it would take several seconds for him to get it. Just then McGarret’s threat registered, “kidnapping! I’m not kidnapping him!”
“Let. Him. Go. I won’t ask again.” The gun McGarret was pointing at him moved from pointing at his face to pointing at his chest.
“Rogers! Let GO!” Stark was pulling at his wrist.
Steve let go of Stark’s wrist and started to put his hands up only to drop and spin, bringing his shield up in front of him as he advanced on McGarret. Three quickfire bullets ricochet off the shield. Throwing himself forward, Steve went for a quick punch that McGarret dodged at the last second. Steve felt himself relaxing as he settled into the fight. This guy had tried to take his fella, Steve knew how to deal with him.
The kick Steve sent was also avoided, as Steve advanced on McGarret. Throwing a quick one-two punch, Steve was disgruntled to see his first strike dodged, and his second slapped to the side. The follow up strike was also dodged, giving McGarret the chance to strike him from behind. Steve grumbled at the dishonorable actions of this man Stark had found.
Steve relaxed as both Clint and Natasha moved to help him. He could see, out of the corner of his eye, as several of the police officers that had started to circle them collapsed abruptly. He didn’t see his teammates, but he knew they were there, helping.
Moving in faster than McGarret could counter, he feinted down low before bringing his shield around and into the other’s shoulder. To give McGarret his due, he saw the blow coming and was able to move with it, enough to lessen much of the force. But it simply wasn’t good enough. Striking forward, Steve was shocked as his fist was stopped, just in front of McGarret's face, gripped by the Iron Man armor.
“That’s enough.” Steve flailed as that grip on his fist tightened and then he was thrown backwards. Looking up he saw that Stark had taken a stance in front of McGarret both hands out, repulsars pointed at him. “That’s enough, Rogers. I don’t know where you got the idea that me helping you integrate was dating, considering we aren’t even on a first name basis. But this is me telling you ‘no.’ No, I will not date you. No, I will not go anywhere with you.”
Stark was momentarily distracted by the arrow that impacted his breastplate and sparked. Taking advantage of that, Steve threw himself to his feet and threw his shield full force at Stark’s chest. Clint’s arrow should take out the Iron Man’s power, destroying the arc reactor would make sure. Stark was going to be grounded after this. Steve and Sam would need to start going through the possible replacement pilots right away.
Steve advanced, getting ready to catch his shield as it bounced back towards him only to stumble off balance as Stark didn’t even falter despite the EMP arrow. One arm came up and deflected the shield at a downward angle, causing it to drive itself into the sidewalk under them.
Running forward Steve had almost grasped the edge of the shield to pull it out of the sidewalk when he was shot. Faltering, he reached up to find a little cluster of darts sticking out of his neck. Dizzy, he tried to push forward only to find himself on his knees staring up at the braced form of Stark in his armor standing over him. The black was encroaching on his vision as he heard, “In case this is too hard to understand, Rogers. This is my resignation from the team.”