Chapter 1
NOW:
“Something’s coming.” Rhodey’s voice breaks Steve out of his thoughts. Steve immediately stands up to meet him, ignoring the food that had long gone cold.
“What do you mean?” Steve asks as they walk toward the briefing. Even after years of being gone from the Compound, old routines are easy to fall into.
“NASA just picked up what looks to be a ship heading towards us. We’ve got a couple of places it could land based on its trajectory, but we don’t know. And odds are it isn’t friendly.”
Steve fights not hang his head in weariness. What was left of the Avengers—Natasha, Bruce, Rhodey, Thor, Rocket, and Steve himself—had only been back at the compound a day. Could they not have one day to mourn? One day to rest? Half of the world is dead and so is— He shakes his head hard as he and Rhodey enter the briefing room. He can’t think about that now. He looks up and sees what’s left of his team sitting around the table. Haggard. Tired. But here.
People glance up, but no one speaks.
Steve sets his posture straight and sits at the head of the table. “Colonel. Tell us what you know.”
Rhodey makes a gesture and all of his information flies up on the screens around them. Steve tries to force himself to pay attention, but it feels like everything is coming at him from a hundred miles away. Surprisingly, it’s Bruce who takes over the strategizing with Rhodes. They’re talking, and Steve’s getting the gist. Four likely places for the ship to hit based on the trajectory. Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Wakanda. Middle of Nowhere, Russia. New York. Should they play the odds? Steve doesn’t have the energy to tell if Natasha is being sarcastic when she says everything hits New York. Rhodey says something about not abandoning Wakanda. Could they even make it in time?
“We stay here.” The words are out of Steve’s mouth before he thinks to say them. “Okoye and the Dora Milage are a first line of defense for Wakanda. If we leave, there’s no one here. If we leave…” He lets his sentence trail off.
He doesn’t dare voice what part of him has been trying so hard not to think about. That no one has heard from Tony since this whole thing started. That the last time Tony was heard from, Pepper said he was on a spaceship. That this could be him. That if he left from New York, he’d most likely return to New York. That if Steve leaves, it will be that much longer before he can find out if Tony is still alive.
He stands. Everyone is still uncharacteristically silent. “Suit up.”
~0~
They’re standing in a wide semi-circle in Central Park: War Machine, Nat, Thor, Bruce in the beat-up Hulk Buster, Rocket, and Steve when Rhodey’s voice comes over the coms. “You were right, Cap. They just broke atmo right above us. They’re headed for the Park.”
The knot of anxiety in Steve’s chest is already starting to loosen. He desperately wants to harden his heart, to prepare himself for the blow. To be ready to accept the fact that this might not be Tony.
But he’s already lost so many people. And the hope seems to be creeping up on him anyway.
He doesn’t have long to think on it before he can hear the rush of engines coming toward them. His team takes ready stances. He plants his feet and brings up his shield, reciting a prayer to a God he stopped believing in years ago.
And then there’s a bright orange space ship landing in front of them and Rocket’s relaxing. “It’s the Benatar! I told you! I told you they would come!”
Steve feels the hope in his chest crumble. Of course. Rocket’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Of course they would come for him. They probably had a way to track him and that’s why they headed for New York.
The ship lands and Rocket bounds up to it as the ramp lowers. “You guys have got to meet—” Rocket cuts off as he gets a look into the ship.
For just a moment, Steve can’t see what Rocket sees, but as he moves around the back of the ship, the descending ramp comes into view. There are only two figures standing at the top of the ramp. One leaning heavily on the other; the shorter’s face buried in the taller’s shoulder.
“Nebula?” Rocket’s voice has gone soft. “Nebula where are they?” The taller figure, the one that is entirely blue doesn’t look at Rocket as she responds.
“Gone.” Her voice is flat and almost robotic. Steve wonders if she’s anything like Vision. “Thanos traded Gamora’s life for the Soul Stone and the rest turned to dust.”
When Nebula says the word dust, the figure next to her sobs, and that is enough to snap Steve out of his shock and to let his brain really process what his eyes are seeing. Because he recognizes that person. He’d know him anywhere.
Tony.
Steve doesn’t remember moving, but the next thing he knows, he is standing at the entrance to the space ship with his hands hovering over but not daring to touch.
“Tony?” His voice sounds like he’s crying. He doesn’t know if he is crying or not. At this point, he doesn’t care.
Tony finally looks up.
The noise he makes is somewhere between a sob and a whine as he throws himself at Steve. And Steve catches him. He catches him and pulls him close, and the world rights itself for a moment. Steve feels like he can breathe for the first time in days; at least one of his loves is safe in his arms.
He can feel Tony shaking, and he weighs everything that has happened—all of the secrets, all of the plans, all of the lies—against the way the world just shifted. He makes a decision. He turns his head to press a kiss against Tony’s temple. “I’ve got you sweetheart. You’re safe now.”
Tony freezes. “Steve?” His question is no more than a whisper, but Steve knows everything he’s trying to ask.
“I’ll explain it all later. But for right now. Fuck it. I’m done hiding. I love you.” Tony goes boneless against him, but Steve keeps him upright.
Tony gives a weak laugh into Steve’s neck. “Yeah. Okay. Sure. Four years of misery and careful plots down the drain.” He pulls his head back enough to give Steve a gentle peck on the lips. “I love you too, Asshole.”