Intergalactic

He tried really hard not to throw up from the whole Quantum leap that they had just done, but everything came out anyway, right onto the rubble from the Battle of Manhattan, while the Avengers fought the Chitari in the background. 

“Sorry,” he said to Steve who was rubbing his back as Bruce handed him a bottle of water he had gotten from an overturned hot dog cart. 

“I warn you all that it would feel strange,” Bruce said as Tony spit water onto the ground.  

“Do you think that we could get a move on,” Scott said looking around at the destruction around them. “There’s a lot happening and I really don’t want one of those leviathan things falling on me.” 

“You think that’s bad try going through one,” Bruce said looking pointily at Tony as he dry heaved, the taste of vomit still in his mouth even with the rinse. 

“Seriously you went through one of them,” Scott said as they heard the Hulk rawr in the background. “What did you just want them to eat you or something?” 

“I was doing a thing,” Tony said as he slowly rose from the ground, the queasy feeling slowly abating, but he wished he had a mint or something because his mouth felt horrible. “The tale of Jonah.” 

“Right,” Scott said, “And here I thought you were the smart one.” 

“Funny Scott, real funny,” Tony said but just turned to Steve, ignoring the incredible shrinking man behind him. “Okay what now?” 

“We have the mind stone and the tesseract at Stark Tower, and the time stone down on Bleecker,” Steve said as he turned on the commando that Tony loved so much. He really couldn’t wait to go back home and climb Steve like a tree. “The Hulk can make his way down there without anyone questioning why he’s fighting the Chitari, So, Bruce, the time stone is yours to get.” 

“That’s fine with me, less stress than what you three would have to do,” Bruce said before transforming into the Hulk. Tony still couldn’t get over the whole thing, even years later, watching Bruce change was an amazing thing to behold.  

The Hulk sat down for a minute as Steve explained to him what he needed to do, because even though they had told Bruce they always had to explain it to the Hulk as well. The mission was important, more important than anything they had ever done, but Bruce had used the last five years having others teach the Hulk, the big guy liked audio books and glass figurines, he also had his own place in New Asgard apart from Bruce’s place. It was interesting to know just how much the Hulk had evolved over the years, even when he hadn’t seen it all himself. 

“Now, I will get the mind stone,” Steve turned towards them, and while Tony knew that Steve hated his plan, it was the only one they had. “Scott you’re going to have to work with Tony to get the tesseract, his face is too recognizable, so you both have to work on getting a hold of the cube without bringing too much attention to yourselves.” 

“So, what's the plan?” Scott said turning towards Tony, excited as ever about the prospect of running an op with the Avengers.  

“The plan,” Tony said while giving Steve an apologetic look, “Is to essentially give me a heart attack.” 

“Wait what?” Scott looked at him dumbfounded by what he just said.  

“Listen the only way they’re going to be distracted enough for us to get that stone is for when they’re about to get it out of the building, we have this slight altercation with SHIELD over letting Thor have it while they’re all in the lobby, that’s the only time we’ll be able to get it. Especially if my other self is having a slight heart attack, which would be caused by the reactor, that had been in my chest at the time, having a slight malfunction.” 

“You’re crazy, your fucking nuts,” Scott said and Tony could see the worried look in Steve’s eyes, but it was the only way and they both knew it. It was the perfect distraction, and no one would notice someone who looked a lot like Tony walking off with the stone, mainly because he would also be in SHIELD gear. 

“All right, we all have our assignments. Two stones uptown, one stone, down. Stay low. Keep an eye on the clock,” Steve said all the while Scott was mumbling about how nuts it was to give Tony a heart attack. 

“It’ll be fine Scott, Thor will be there, all he would have to do is give my other self a little jolt,” Tony said before turning to Steve and giving him a quick kiss. “Sorry about the vomit breath.” 

“Yeah but it’s worth it,” Steve smiled through the worried look on his face. “Hulk feel free to smash if things along the way.” 

With a nod the Hulk smashed a car, and jumped into the air to grab one of the Chitari flyers as they went by, taking him with it. “There he goes off on his own, it feels as if it were only yesterday when he was smashing the walls and bringing pain to his enemies,” Tony said as he watched him go. 

“Tony,” Steve said giving him that look of disapproval. 

“Yes Honey.” 

“Get to work,” Steve said pushing him forward. 

“Will do Rogers,” he smirked before activating the suit’s nanoparticles. “Get to it Tom Thumb, we don’t have all day.” 

Just as Scott shrunk down, giving Tony the finger, jumping onto the suit, the portal above them closed, and Tony saw his former self falling to the ground. He knew Steve felt guilt over closing the portal too soon, but all Tony could think about was that he wished that Steve had just kissed him that day. They would have saved themselves a whole lot of work to get to where they were now. He scanned the building a few minutes later, after the newly formed Avengers pulled Loki from the ruined penthouse floor, Clint’s bow pointed at the God of Mischief, and Tony knew that if they had given him the go-ahead Clint wouldn’t have hesitated to take the shot. Knowing now how close Thor was to his brother, it would have devastated him as much as losing his home had. 

“Got to hustle, Winghead,” Tony said as he watched them pack everything up. Tony couldn’t help but marvel at how much everything had changed since that moment. 

“Got it,” Steve’s voice came over the ear piece. “I’m approaching the elevator now.” 

Tony could hear them talking on the other side of the room, but his eyes were all on Steve and that uniform. “Uh, Mr. Stark-Rogers. I almost forgot that that suit did nothing for your ass,” he said to Steve as he watched the other Steve walk around in a suit too tight for anything.  

“You know Tony, no one asked you to look,” Steve said to him over the com line. 

“It’s me, when am I not looking at any part of your anatomy?”  

“Tony,” Steve’s stern voice came over the line, and Tony was glad that they could talk like this, especially looking at their former selves, who were still trying to get a grip on being a proper team. 

“What was Coulson thinking when he was designing that I have no idea,” Tony said smiling, “It’s ridiculous.” 

“I think you look great Cap,” Scott said over the line, which only reminded them that there was a third person listening in on Tony’s inner thoughts. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s America’s ass.” 

It was really hard to stop himself from snorting out loud at Scott’s comment, especially since now he started thinking about having a pair of sweatpants made for Steve that had the words America’s Ass printed on the back. 

“I know what you’re thinking Tony,” Steve said as they all started to get into position. “The answer is no.” 

“You don’t own me,” he said before turning his attention to the people in front of him. 

“Uhh, magic wand?” Natasha said while holding onto Loki’s scepter. The thing that started it all, these two stones had caused them so much grief in such a short amount of time. 

“STRIKE team’s coming to secure it,” other Tony said just as what they would later learn was HYDRA’s team, which included Rumlow and Stiwell, entered the room. 

“We can take that off your hands,” Sitwell said as he took the scepter from Natasha, if they had known that the stone had been inside, they would have been able to prevent so many things.  

“By all means,” Natasha said. “Careful with that thing.” 

“Unless you want your mind erased. And not in a fun way,” Clint said to the STRIKE team, and boy did Tony wish he could use it on them right now so that they wouldn’t have the chance to take it from the Avengers and start experimenting with it. 

“We promise to be careful,” Sitwell said but his voice made Tony’s skin crawl, just thinking about what they had been up to after the fact. 

“Who are these guys?” Scott asked him as they watched the scene in front of them unfold. 

“They’re SHIELD.... Well, actually the STRIKE team was Hydra, but at the time we didn’t know that yet,” Tony answered wondering in his head about all of the ways he could change the future for this group if he could only tell them that Hydra was in SHIELD. 

“Seriously, you didn’t?” Scott told him, dumbfounded by the whole thing. “I mean... they look like bad guys.” 

“We had been a little busy,” Tony said feeling tired already. “You know you’re small, but you’re talking loud.” 

“On my way down to coordinate search and rescue,” other Steve said to the room, when all of a sudden Loki transformed into Steve, Tony realized at this point that Loki could be their one advantage in this whole thing, mainly because he can make himself look like anyone, which meant that they wouldn’t know that his Steve wasn’t their Steve, they could all think that it was just Loki playing tricks on them. 

“On my way down to coordinate search and rescue!” Loki said before transforming back into his original form. “I mean, honestly! How do you think you’ll be...” 

Before Loki could say anymore Thor slapped a device on his brother’s mouth effectively rendering him silent. “Shut up,” Thor said and Tony could swear he saw the god smile at his brother as if this was something they had done before. 

“All right, you’re up, little buddy,” Tony said as he watched the briefcase that was holding the Tesseract. “There’s our stone.” 

“Alright,” Scott said before laying down on Tony’s shoulder. “Flick me.” 

It was the one moment where he was willing to flick Scott across the room, because if Scott looked at his husband’s ass one more time, Tony was surely going to find a way to squash the little bugger. Scott hit Tony’s other self on the beard, which only caused the man to scratch it as if it itched, which worked well for Ant-man. Who slid down onto the arc reactor. 

“The bee is in the hive,” Tony said into his com, as he watched the Avengers get into the elevator, only to laugh when he saw the Hulk try to get in there as well. That same elevator would be upgraded for when the Avengers moved into the tower a few months later, mainly because of what had happened that day. 

“I’m an Ant not a Bee,” Scott said to him. 

“Doesn’t matter right now,” Tony answered as he watched what was happening in front of him. 

“Whoa,” he hears Thor say. 

“Whoa, whoa. Hey! Buddy,” his other self said as he addressed the Hulk, “What do you think? Maximum occupancy has been reached.” 

“Take the stairs,” Thor said, and Tony knew now that it was Thor’s little revenge for the Hulk hitting him during the battle. 

“Yeah,” his other self said, and Tony was sure at that moment that the Hulk would have hit him if he hadn’t stopped. When he saw the Hulk again after all this was over he was going to give him a glass staircase as an apology, for the collection of course. “Stop, stop,” his other said with an authority that even now he couldn’t understand, no one had control over the Hulk. 

Tony could hear Hulk ranting about taking the stairs as he monitored the elevators as they descended the tower. “All right, Cap. I got our scepter in the elevator just passing the 80th floor.” 

“On it,” Steve said over the comm, “Head to the lobby.” 

“Alright, I’ll see you there.” 

If there was one thing that Steve was going to hate about this mission it was the fact that he couldn’t stop the Hydra agents from taking the scepter to Sokovia, to stop the experimentation that would happen with it. He wouldn’t be able to stop SHIELD from crumbling the way it did, because if they changed anything in this timeline who knows what would happen to these Avengers. The only thing he could do was act as one of them, just to get the stone, because they needed it, and hopefully they would be able to fix any damage they’ve made afterwards.  

He could hear Sitwell talking in the elevator, although his words are muffled, he knew that they were getting ready to transport the stone to wherever it was they had taken it before it ended up with Von Strucker. The moment the elevator opened; he could see the surprised look on their faces as Steve walked onto the elevator. 

“Captain, I thought you were coordinating search and rescue?” Sitwell asked and it took everything in him to not hit the man. 

“Change of plans,” Steve told him. The only thing he kept thinking about was that this was for his family, for Tony, for Nat, Shuri, Hope, and Clint, who all had lost their families. 

Hey Cap,” Rumlow said, and Steve nearly turned and punched him for what happened in Lagos. 

“Rumlow,” he says watching as the men around him all started getting suspicious of him. “I just got a call from the Secretary. I’m going to be running point on the scepter.” 

“Sir? I don’t understand,” Sitwell said, and he knew that this was the moment where he would hate himself for what he was about to do to his other self.  

“We got word that there may be an attempt to steal it,” Steve said to the elevator of Hydra Agents. 

“I’m going to have to call the Director,” Sitwell said ready to pull out his phone and make the call. 

“That’s okay, trust me,” he leaned close to Sitwell and whispered the only words that he’s dreaded for his entire time as Captain America. “Hail Hydra.” 

The surprised look in all of their eyes was enough for him to grab the scepter and walk off without another word. He couldn’t smile, even if he wanted to, because he had just screwed over his other self in this timeline. 

“I got the scepter,” he said as he walked away from the elevator, the scepter in his hand, he knew he had to move fast before someone realized that he wasn’t their Steve Rogers. 

“Hear you loud and Clear oh Captain my Captain,” Tony said over his comm line as he got into place. Since Steve finished his part, Tony knew that they just needed the tesseract and they could go back without a hitch. “Thumbelina, do you copy? I’ve got eyes on the prize, Cap’s got one, so now it’s go-time for us.” 

“Bombs away,” Scott said to him and while Tony knew the reactor inside and out, it’s probably different from Scott’s point of view. It made Tony wonder what it would be like to be able to shrink down and see his own tech from that size. “Is... is that Axe body spray?” 

“Seriously Scott, that’s what you’re taking away from this,” Tony said feeling exasperated because someone other than Steve was smelling him... even if it wasn’t exactly him. “Yeah, I had it for emergencies. Relax. Can we focus here?” 

“Okay, I’m going inside the core area now,” Scott told him as Tony saw Alexander Pierce walk up to the 2012 Avengers. 

“You know if I could have punched him, I would have,” Tony mumbled. 

“Tony stay on mission,” Steve called out. 

“To lunch and then Asgard,” Thor said to Pierce as if it were an everyday occurance to have a giant battle win and then take the prisoner back to Asgard. “I’m sorry, you are?” 

“Alexander Pierce,” other Tony said. “He’s the man, one of the folks behind Nick Fury.” 

“He’s also Hydra, but who cares about that,” Tony said to no one in particular, he couldn’t really figure out why on earth he was narrating this whole encounter. 

“My friends call me Mr. Secretary,” Pierce said, while Tony had to bite his tongue before he said something else. “I’m going to have ot ask you to turn that prisoner over to me.” 

“Loki will be answering to Odin himself,” Thor said and Tony was glad that he had been taken back to Asgard along with the tesseract, because if Hydra had had two of the stones who knows where they would have been. 

“Oh, he’s going to answer to us,” Pierce said as if Tony’s mind wasn’t thinking about a million ways to replusor the man. “Odin can have what’s left. And I’m going to need that case, that’s been SHIELD property for over 70 years.” 

“Hand over the case, Stark,” the agent next to Pierce said and Tony knew that this was just Hydra trying to get a hold of something that they could use to create those phase two weapons. 

“All right, move it Stuart Little,” Tony said knowing that this was their best chance, since the men in front of them were having a pissing contest over an infinity stone. “Things are getting dicey up here. Let’s go.” 

“You promise me you won’t die?” Scott said and Tony knew that this plan wasn’t one hundred percent full proof, hell it wasn’t idiot proof and Steve called him an idiot enough for him to know, but they were idiots together but that was a story to think about another day. 

“You’re only giving me a mild cardiac dysrhythmia.” 

“That doesn’t sound mild,” Scott sounded worried from his end, and Tony knew it wasn’t mild at all but it was their only shot for his other self to let go of the case. 

“I need the case,” he heard Pierce say from the other side of the room. 

“I know you got a lot of pull, I’m just saying....” his other self said. 

“Okay, then give me the case,” Pierce said. 

“Do it, Lang!” Tony said as he watched Pierce try to take the case. 

“Get your hands off,” his other self, called out. 

“Window’s closing, pull my pin,” he said just as he heard Scott on the other side. 

“Here goes... please don’t die.” 

Tony watched as his other self, dropped the case and falls to the ground, he knows how much it hurts when the reactor isn’t working properly, or was actively trying to kill you. He remembered the one time it had been taken out forcefully and he hated his former godfather for the pain he had put him through. Ignoring the scene in front of him, he slowly walked forward as Scott pushed the case forward, as if it were normal for it to move like that after it had fallen. 

“Good job,” Tony said to Scott as he picked up the case. To everyone in the room he was just another SHIELD agent picking up something that had fallen by chance. “Meet me in the alley, I’m gonna grab a quick slice.” 

He was joking, it was great, because they had been successful on their mission, but before he could make it out the door, the side door slammed open pushing him to the ground as the case slid away. 

“NO MORE STAIRS,” Hulk yelled out and Tony knew at that moment they were fucking screwed, because the moment he looks up he sees Loki look at the Tesseract before grabbing it and disappearing. Even as Thor resuscitated the other Tony, they were screwed because that’s when they noticed that both the case and Loki were gone.  

“That wasn’t supposed to happen, was it?” Scott said and Tony wanted to slam his head against the marble tiling on the ground. 

“Fuck,” Tony said out loud, he felt like a truck had hit him, which wasn’t off if the Hulk was the one slamming into a person. “Oh, we blew it.” 

“Tony, what’s going on?” Steve called out as he walked through the tower. “Tell me you found that cube.” 

There had been something wrong with his comm where he was it wasn’t working properly and he couldn’t hear what was happening with Tony and Scott which only worried him more. There was no way to get in contact with them until he got back to their rendezvous point. 

“Oh, you gotta be shitting me,” he said as he saw who was in front of him. Tony would have made a comment about his language at this point, but honestly Steve was ready to just give up on everything. He couldn’t believe that he was staring at himself, a blast from the past, as Tony would have said. 

“I have eyes on Loki,” his other self said. “14th floor.” 

Well at least this would throw off the whole Hydra thing, they would only chalk it up to Loki messing with them just to get the scepter. But for his other self he knew that he had to find a way to reason with the man. He remembered what it had been like during that time, just out of the ice and only one thing moving him forward. This was before he had his team, his family, when everything was ready to fall apart at any turn. 

“I am not Loki,” he said standing there not moving, he knew that he couldn’t make the first move. “And I don’t want to hurt you.” 

Before he could say another word, his other self moved forward, shield at the ready, and went at him, sending him backwards. He really hated himself at that moment, which was strange, but hell he hadn’t known just how much his own punches hurt. Steve took a swing at captain America, he really hated that uniform, and Tony knew it. 

“I can do this all day,” his other self said and god Steve hated that right at that moment. He thought back to the battle, he had been injured on his stomach, which should be a weak point at the moment, his body hadn’t healed very quickly from that blast. 

“Yeah, I know, I know,” he said trying to find a weak spot, but his other self landed a hit and his compass fell out. The picture inside was different, because it was one of Tony and the kids, he kept it close to his heart at all times. But he didn’t think that it would jar his other self so much. 

“Where did you get that,” he said, knowing full well that the other man had the same compass in his uniform with a picture of Peggy, still not able to let go of the past.  

Before he could answer, the man put him in a chokehold as if he were trying to get the answer out of him by rendering him unconscious. He had to think fast, before he couldn’t breathe anymore and Hydra ended up with a second Captain America. 

“Bucky....” he said between breaths. “Bucky... is... alive!” 

That was enough to startle the other man into letting go, “What?” he said before Steve took the chance and knocked him out with the shield. He knew that it was going to hurt when his other self woke up, but Steve was already tired of fighting.  

He stood there for a moment, taking a few quick breaths before looking back at his other self and realizing that what Tony and Scott had been saying was right, “Geez, I’m never going to hear the end of this,” he said to himself. “That’s America’s ass.” 

He took the scepter and his shield and ran off as quickly as he could, since his other self had told SHIELD that he had seen him, they were most likely on their way to where he was and he didn’t want them to find him still standing there thinking that he was Loki. Which was strange to him because he could have sworn that around this time they would have had Loki detained so what could have happened that they would have thought that he was Loki. 

Jumping down from the side of the building he made his way to where Tony and Scott were standing. He could see the defeated looks on their faces long before he reached them. 

“Cap,” Tony said, which meant that something had gone wrong since Tony wasn’t calling him by his name. “We got a problem.” 

“Huh,” Scott said looking at Tony like he just said the obvious. “Yeah, we do.” 

“Well, what are we gonna do now?” he said turning his attention towards Scott. “You know what, give me a break, I just got hit in the head with a Hulk.” 

That got Steve’s attention, “What,” he was about to say but was interrupted by Scott’s rant. 

“You said that we had one shot. This,” he said pointing at the rubble around them. “this was our shot. We shot it. It’s shot. Six stones or nothing. Six stones or noting.” 

“You’re repeating yourself, you know that? You’re repeating yourself,” he said the emphasize his point. 

“You’re repeating yourseld,” Scott said and all Steve could think was that he was trapped in a fight between his kids/ “You’re repeating yourself. - No! - Come on. You never wanted a time heist, you went on board with the time heist.” 

“I dropped the ball,” Tony yelled back. 

“You ruined the time heist,” Scott yelled back. 

“Is that what I did?” Tony asked looking around, and Steve knew that if Tony had gotten hit by the Hulk it wasn’t his fault, but he was taking the blame anyway. 

“Yeah!” Scott answered and it took everything in his power not to hit the other man, supersoldier or not, Steve wanted to punch the guy for making Tony take the blame for something that wasn’t his fault. 

“Are there any other options with the Tesseract?” Steve asked because he needed to focus his energy elsewhere or else he was going to punch an ant. 

“No, no, no. There's no other options.   There's no do-overs .  We're not going anywhere else.   We have one particle left. Each. That's it, alright? We use that... Bye, bye. You're not going home,” Scott stopped rambling looking at them. They all knew the risks of trying this whole time heist thing. 

“Yeah, well if we don’t try, then no one else is going home either,” Steve told him, he knew he couldn’t fix this, but he had to try for Tony’s sake. 

“I got it.   There's another way,” Tony said to them as he stood up. Tony his genius husband knew what they needed, and he was happy for that. “To retake the Tesseract and acquire new particles. We'll stroll down memory lane. Military installation, Garden State. 

“When were they both there?” Steve asked knowing that Scott was about two seconds from trying to stop them from doing whatever it was that they were about to do. 

“They were there at a.... I’ve a vaguely exact idea,” Tony said which meant it was something that he had read at some point but hadn’t kept the information since it wasn’t relevant. Which meant it had happened during the SHIELD data dump and him and Natasha had done the year after. 

“How vague?” 

“What are you talking about?” Scott said interrupting Tony’s thought process. “Where are we going?” 

“I know for a fact that they were there...” Tony stopped looking at no one but Steve, ignoring Scott in the process. 

“Who’s they? What are we going?” Scott continued with his questions not caring that he was being ignored. 

“And I know how I know,” Tony said looking straight at him. Which meant it was from the data dump, which meant that they were going on a little trip and the way that Tony was ignoring Scott, it also meant that he wasn’t counting on Ant-Man to join them. 

“Guys, what's up? What is it?” Scott asked looking between the two of them. 

“Well,” Steve said looking only at Tony. “It looks like we're improvising.” 

“Right. - What are we improvising?” Scott asked and Tony looked at him for the first time. 

“Scott, get this back to the compound,” Tony answered instead of giving Scott the chance at joining them. “Suit up,” he told Steve with a smile. 

“What's in New Jersey?” Scott asked but Tony instead started rambling to himself before turning his attention to the little machine that was guiding their way through time. 

“0-4, 0-4... Uhh, 0-7,” Tony said and Steve wasn’t so sure of what he should be thinking. 

“0-7... Excuse me...” Steve said looking at his husband. 

“1-9-7-0,” he said with a smile. 

“Are you sure? - Cap. Captain. Steve, sorry, America. Rogers. Look, if you do this, and this doesn't work, you're not coming back,” Scott said reminding them of the real risk they were taking by deviating from the plan. 

“Thanks for the pep talk, pissant,” Tony rolled his eyes at Steve, which meant that he was annoyed by Scott’s questioning. “You trust me?” 

“With my life,” Steve said to Tony, pulling his hand close to his heart. 

“Your call.” 

“Here we go,” he said taking a deep breath, before the two of them were off once again into the quantum realm. 

Tony was never going to get used to traveling like that, he was certain that anything and everything he has ever eaten in his life was trying to hurl its way out of him. Steve as usual was behind him, all buff and perfect as ever, rubbing circles around his back.  

“I’ll never get used to that,” he says to Steve while washing his face on the open fountain, they had found themselves in front of.  

They were lucky that they had landed in the 70’s too early in the day for anyone to notice their funny outfits. There wasn’t a person around them for miles, and all Tony really wanted was to sit down for a few minutes and recover from their trip. 

“We didn’t get to talk about this because you and Scott were arguing,” Steve said to him as he pulled them away from the fountain and sat him down at a nearby bench. “What happened with the Hulk?” 

He couldn’t help but sigh, he was sure that his ribs were their bruised or broken, but since had hadn’t spewed out blood they were most likely just bruised. “We had it, the plan had worked, but the Hulk, not ours of course, came barreling through one of the side doors just as I picked up the case, and well threw me against one of the reception counters.” 

“So, I’m guessing that even though Scott was placing all of the blame on you, it wasn’t really your fault that it had happened the way it did.” 

“You got it in one,” he answered slowly rubbing his side, it hurt like a bitch, but he was going to have to deal with it.  

“Don’t take the blame for something that wasn’t your fault,” Steve told him, and he knew him better than anyone. He hadn’t wanted to have anything to do with the time heist, he liked his life, but he also hated that Peter had died, he felt guilt for not stopping Thanos, and most of all he was afraid that everything that they were doing was going to blow up in their faces. 

“I’m trying Steve, but it’s a little difficult right now,” he told him. “Everything is a little hard, because we screwed up once and look at what happened, and now if we don’t succeed in this, we might not make it back home.” 

“We’ll make it back, and the kids will be there waiting for us.” 

“Why are you so positive about this?” 

“Because I trust you with everything I have, you’re the smartest person I know,” Steve said kissing him quickly just in case there was someone watching them. 

“Really smarter than Shuri?” he said joking but only because he knew that Steve was trying to cheer him up. 

“Tony,” was all Steve said which only made him laugh. 

“Come on Captain,” he said standing, his legs a little less shaky, “Let's start walking.” 

It took them most of the morning to get to the base, Camp Leigh was the beginning and the end of SHIELD, where everything started and where Steve learned the truth about what had happened. They had talked about the whole ordeal, it had taken Tony a long time to learn to forgive him for not saying anything sooner, but now it didn’t matter. They had their life together, their family.  

A car drove pass them as they gathered the courage to keep going, “Hey man, make love not war!” an old man said as it drove off.  

The war effort during this time was nothing like what Steve had known, and Tony didn’t want him to be subjected to the hatred that most Army Vets got from going overseas. They were just serving their country, but they had also ended up with a lot of the blame that should have rested on the shoulders of the people in charge. 

“Clearly, you weren't actually born here, right?” Tony said looking at the soldiers in front of them, the people milling about. “I mean that would have made the whole boy from Brooklyn thing a lie.” 

“The idea of Captain America was, not me Tony,” Steve said looking at the picture in front of him. Tony knew that this was a blast from the past for him in many ways. 

“Right,” he said looking at the same place that Steve was looking at. “Well, imagine you’re SHIELD, running a quasi-fascistic intelligence organization. Where do you hide it?” 

Steve turned to him and smiled. “In plain sight,” he said pointing at the suits who were clearly not soldiers moving towards what looked like an ammunitions bunker. 

“Really,” Tony said shaking his head at what he was seeing. “Clearly they have no sense of self preservation.” 

It wasn’t difficult to get into the underground bunker that held the SHIELD headquarters, for one Steve remembered the facility, and Tony knew how to get through their rudimentary systems like they were nothing but Morgan’s marshmallow sandwiches, which she only had when they had tea parties. Mainly because she thought tea was bitter and tastes weird, and marshmallows were the best thing to remedy it. 

The elevator only had one other occupant, and since Steve’s picture had been in the facility, Tony tried his best to shield his husband from being noticed too much. There was also the fact that he was a possessive son of a bitch, and having SHIELD find Steve standing right there in front of them would cause Tony to lose his husband. 

“Good luck on your mission, Captain,” he said with a nod, trying not to smile at the fact that Captain America was dressed in Army fatigues, and looked very good in them. 

“Good luck on your project, doctor,” Steve answered with a wink that the woman hadn’t seen. 

“You’re new here?” Tony heard the woman ask Steve. 

“Not exactly,” he answered just as the doors to the elevator closed, leaving Tony in a place he never thought he would step into. 

The birthplace of Captain America was something to behold, mainly because the bunker hadn’t existed when Steve had been there, but it was still a place that would change their future in more ways than they could have thought of. He wished at that moment that he could tell them that Hydra had infiltrated SHIELD but with everything that happened when they had gone to 2012, Tony wasn’t very keen on changing anymore of the past than was possible. 

With his glasses on and FRIDAY in his ear, it hadn’t taken him very long to find the lab that held the tesseract, which only made the lack of security a little troubling. He remembered that the tesseract would burn his skin if he touched it, so he was careful to put it in the case he had secured on the way there, using one of the Iron Man gauntlets which had formed on his hand. 

“Gotcha,” he said smiling as he closed the briefcase. “Back in the game.” Steve would very happy to know that the plan was half way done, as he closed the panel that had held the stone. 

“Arnim, you in there?” he heard a very familiar voice say, “Arnim?   Hey! The door's this way, pal,” Howard said as Tony had tried to sneak out the room without being seen. 

“Oh, yeah,” he answered trying very hard not to have a flashback, as he saw his father standing in front of him.  

“I'm looking for Dr. Zola. Have you seen him?” Howard asked him and Tony almost wanted to shake the man and scream at him for letting someone from Hydra into SHIELD. 

“Yeah, no, Dr. Zol... No, I haven't seen a soul,” he said instead, because he wasn’t allowed to change the past, if he did there was a very real possibility that they wouldn’t find Steve in time, that the Battle of New York would happen and everything would be lost. There were too many variables to think about. 

“Pardon me. Do I know you?” 

“No, sir. I'm, a... visitor from MIT,” he said knowing that his father wouldn’t really care too much about where he was from, what mattered was that he wouldn’t notice just how familiar he looked to the other man. 

“Uh.... Howard,” he said and almost wanted to smack himself, he couldn’t think of anything else, his father was standing in front of him, the man who hadn’t paid any attention to him growing up, who loved Steve more than his own son.  

“Well. That'll be easy to remember,” his father said and Tony was about ten seconds from muttering the words  no shit Sherlock , but stopped himself. 

“Howard... Potts,” he said holding out his hand. 

“Well I’m Howard Stark,” his father looked at him curiously. “You look a little green around the gills there, Potts.” 

Tony wanted nothing more than to step away from the man, he had a few bad memories popping up in his head at the moment and it was making him sick all over again. “I’m fine, just, well long hours, and I had a stomach flu recently,” he said, which really wasn’t a lie when he spewed his guts on the pavement not too long ago. 

“Want to get some air?” Howard asked him and he thought sweet relief, he would be able to put some distance between the two of them if they went up top. 

“Yeah, that would be swell,” geez now Steve was rubbing off on him. They were almost home free, he just needed to get pass Howard, and an entire army battalion and meet up with Steve, no problem. 

It hadn’t taken Steve long to get away from the woman in the elevator, he was sure that they wouldn’t have enough time once she put two and two together, he was glad for one thing and that was the fact that the phones weren’t fancy like the ones that Tony had back at the house. He picked it up and called the extension for Hank Pym that he had found in a book on the side of the desk and called up the number. 

Calling Pym and getting him out of the office was easy, all he had to do was tell the man that something was glowing and he was rushing out of the room. The particles were right there, and he was glad to have found them, because it meant that Tony would have to stop feeling guilty for messing up the plan in the first place, even when it wasn’t his fault. He really wanted to punch Scott for making Tony feel bad about something that was out of his control, but at that moment he couldn’t do much. All that mattered was seeing their kids again, so he took four, in case something else happened, and rushed out of the room. 

Just as he reached the elevator it opened forcing him to rush into a nearby office as the woman from the elevator rushed off with a guard. They were talking about him and Tony and he wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. He was stuck and he wasn’t sure if he was going to have the chance to get out and meet Tony before they caught the two of them. 

Resigning himself to his fate, and turned around and walked further into the office, there were windows on the other side letting in some light, but it was dark enough that they wouldn’t notice him standing there. He needed to think, he needed to find a way to make it outside without people noticing, because they were definitely on the lookout for them now. 

He paced the room twice before noticing a picture of himself sitting on the desk, it was a picture that had been taken when he had been at Camp Leigh, and it was a strange sight to see. It was before the serum, before Captain America, before everything that had happened, but he realized in that moment just how much his life had changed. That Steve still existed, he drew with Miles, he danced with his daughters, and he smiled more whenever his husband was around. He wondered if everything had been different just how much this one photo would affect him. He couldn’t help but pick up the frame and look at his former self, someone who he hadn’t been in decades. 

The voices on the other side of the glass drew his attention, they were talking but the glass muffled the sound, but on the other side in all of her glory was Peggy Carter. Tony called her the one that got away for him, which was true but still bothered him to hear, because from the look in Tony’s eyes, Steve knew what his husband thought. He knew he wouldn’t trade his life for anything, his time with Peggy had gone, there was no going back, not anymore. 

He was about to turn and leave when someone rushed into the room and Steve came face to face with Tony who looked like he had seen a ghost. 

“Are you okay?” Steve asked him from the other side of the desk. 

“Yeah, there’s a lot of soldiers out there looking for us, but I also saw my dad, which was something else entirely, he said he would do anything for me, and I knew he wasn’t, and as much as I wanted to yell at him about it,” Tony said without stopping, he was rambling and Steve loved it. “I didn’t, mainly because I saw Jarvis, the real Jarvis standing there, and I knew everything would be alright, I wouldn’t have the happy childhood or anything like that, but as long as Jarvis and his wife were there, I knew I would turn out alright.” 

Steve nodded, but before he could say anything else, Tony saw whose office they were in, he was quiet for a moment, not wanting to say anything. “Tony,” Steve whispered not sure if the people on the other side of the window could hear them. 

“No,” Tony said to him before looking down at the carpeted floor. “Listen have your moment, I’m not stopping you.” 

All he could do was sigh, he didn’t know what to say that would reassure the man he loved, but before he could even say anything the door swung open and Peggy Carter stepped into the room. The two of stood still, neither one knowing what to do, but when the lights went on, Steve could see the sad look in Tony’s eyes, he knew that this was a moment that Steve had dreamed of for years. But what Tony hadn’t known was that the moment didn’t mean much to him anymore, he had everything he could have ever wanted. 

Peggy stood stock still for a moment, Steve saw her reach for her weapon, but when her eyes settled on Steve she stopped, her eyes wide. “Steve,” she said and it felt like the whole world stopped. 

For Steve, he was afraid of what Tony would think, but he was also thinking about what it would mean for SHIELD to know that he was there, alive and in the flesh. He heard a whimpering noise come out of Tony but neither said a word. Peggy quickly closed the blinds, giving them privacy, but looking at both of them warily. 

“Is it really you,” she said and he nodded just as she rushed across the room and put her arms around him. Steve could only keep his eyes on Tony, and the sadness he saw was more painful than anything he could have imagined. “But how?” 

“It’s a long story, and one that I really can’t tell you,” Steve told her. “You weren’t supposed to see me, we weren’t supposed to get caught,” he motioned towards Tony who was still standing on the other side of the room, quieter than he had ever seen him. 

“You’re the men that broke in here, but for what?” she asked looking at the two of them noticing the briefcase that Tony was holding. 

“Please Peg, don’t ask things I can’t really tell you,” he said but before he could stop her, she walked over to where Tony was standing and looked right into his eyes. 

“You look familiar,” she said to Tony who just gave her a warm smile. 

“If I told you that we’re from the future, and you would be my aunt, would you believe me?” Tony said with a small smile, he was sad and shy and Steve just wanted to kiss it out of him. 

“Well considering Steve is standing in front of me at this moment, I would say you may have a story to tell, but not one I’m supposed to know.” 

She looked at the two of them, neither one of them moving from where they stood, but then she smiled, “You’ve changed haven’t you Steve,” she said. 

“Yeah well,” he said with a smile. “There’s only so much you can do when you’re living in a life you hadn’t expected.” 

She nodded but curiously looking between the two of them, “I think as much as I would have wished you had been around all of these years, you no longer belong with us, do you?” 

“I don’t think I do Peg,” he said smiling at Tony. “I belong with my family.” 

“A family you say,” she smiled at him. “I have a family as well, I wonder if you’ll meet them one day.” 

Before they could answer someone knocked on the door, making Peggy push them into a closet in the corner of the room so that she could open the door and speak to the soldiers on the other side of the room. 

“You can stay you know,” Tony whispered to him.  

“Tony,” he said before kissing his husband on the lips. “I would pick you over anyone else, I did pick you, I’ve known you longer than your dad, the commandos, even Peggy, you’re my life, you gave me a home and a family, I need you and I really wish you would get that through your thick head.” 

“But.” 

“No buts, no nothing, it’s you and me against the world, if I had the chance to do everything all over again, I would still put that plane in the ice if it meant that you were on the other side waiting for me.” 

Tony sighed as he listened to him, and Steve knew that this was him giving into the fact that Steve wasn’t going anywhere. They were a team, they were parents, but most of all they were married, and Steve honestly wouldn’t give it up for anything, not even the chance to live the life he had lost because even in their present, he had everything a sickly boy from Brooklyn could have ever wanted.  

Taking the chance, he leaned down and kissed his husband, no one else was watching, of course they weren’t, the two of them were in a closet in an underground SHIELD facility being chased by every guard the facility had, because they broke in here to steal two things.  Who would be looking inside of the closet?  He thought to himself, the answer was that one person would, and she had just swung the door open and cleared her throat. 

“I see a lot of things have changed since I last saw you,” she said an eyebrow quirked up looking at them with a smile on her face.  

“Yes well, that’s for another time,” Steve said as they stepped out. 

“The guards are looking for the two of you, and I’m taking a guess that whatever it was that you came looking for was something important enough for you to break into a heavily guarded facility.” 

“It’s a matter of life and death,” Tony told her, and honestly it was the truth, they could bring everyone back, save so many lives. 

“If it’s life and death, then it’s a Steve Rogers mission,” she said to them before placing her hands on her hips. “I guess I need to help you out of here then.” 

“That would be great,” Steve said sighing in relief.  

“I’m not going to ask questions about your life Steve, or about who your mystery man here is, all I want to know is if you’re happy?” 

“I am,” he told her before looking over at Tony. “I’m happier than I could have ever imagined.” 

“Good to know,” she said before pushing a button in the revealing a secret tunnel. The two of them looked over at her shocked at what they were seeing. “What, do you think that I would trust anyone here when they brought in Zola and had him work for us. I don’t trust that rodent to save my life.” 

“No one should,” Tony said to her before smiling.  

“Just take this tunnel, it goes on for a few miles, but it lets you out far enough away that you can make it to wherever it is that you wish to go,” she said to them. “And take care of him mystery man.” 

“It’s Tony,” Steve said smiling. 

“Yeah, actually it’s Anthony, so if you could suggest that name to your friend, maybe his wife won’t name him something weird,” Tony said and Peggy smiled at him. 

“Ah so you’re Howard’s kid, I’ll make sure your parents won’t name you something weird, I promise.” 

“Thanks,” Tony said before he started walking forward. 

“Who would have thought you and Howard’s kid, the man would have a coronary if he knew, but I won’t tell him, I’ll just stay close to Tony, and when you find him in the future wherever you are, I’ll make sure you cherish him as much as you do now.” 

“Thanks Peggy, and sorry about missing our dance.” 

“Yes, well it seems as if it wasn’t me who would get that dance in the first place, and while I had loved you once, I did find the man I was meant to be with thanks to you, so I can’t fault you for anything.” 

With a wave, Steve joined Tony as they walked down the long underground path, holding his hand, they were going back home. They knew that when the stones went back to their own times, they would have to avoid bumping into themselves. It was a long hard journey they were on, but it was worth it if it meant that their family would be whole again. 

“Wait until I rub this in Scott’s face,” Tony said with a smile. “Not the getting caught by Peggy part, but the fact that we got the stone and the pym particles, so he can suck it.” 

“Tony,” he said but he really couldn’t reprimand them man, not when he was so happy.