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Steve was hugging him again. Tony felt his hands digging into the back of Steve's shirt, and he realized somewhat absently that he was clinging. He let himself forget about it though, because Steve was clinging too, and that felt too good to let go of just yet. Steve's hand clasped the back of his neck, warm and steady and immeasurably calming.
"I'm so sorry, Tony." His words were soft, barely more than a whisper.
"Yeah, well. Important thing is, I didn't give in, so."
"No." Steve's answer was immediate and forceful, and he used the hand on Tony's neck to pull Tony back, make him look him in the eye. There was no disapproval there, no judgment or criticism for his litany of past mistakes, just a fierce determination to make Tony understand. "The important thing is that you're alive."
Arousal lit in him like a flash fire, fast and scorching. There was the familiar swooping sensation low in his stomach, but Tony had no experience with the immensity of it. He'd wanted plenty of people before, arousal was old hand at this point, but he'd never put much stock in if they wanted him back. If they consented, great, find a bed, if they didn't, fine, find another pretty face.
Tony had never wanted anyone so desperately in his life.
The ringing startled them both, and Steve removed his hand from Tony's neck sharply, as if he'd been burned.
"Sorry, that's—I have to…" Steve pulled out his phone, grimacing at it. "I have to. I'll be right back."
Steve stood and went into the hall, and Tony tried his best not to think about how the sudden departure felt like Steve's excuse to flee, or how Tony's fingertips still tingled with desire.
He wasn't gone long, but when Steve returned it was to make a beeline for his shoes.
"I'm so sorry, Tony, I know this is horrible timing, but I have a, uh, family emergency, I've got to go—"
"Where to?" Tony stood, arousal evaporating at the look on Steve's face. He was upset and conflicted, and Tony wanted to help. He stood, grabbing for and tugging on his shoes as well.
"What?" Steve was looking at him with a furrowed brow now, confusion etched across his features.
"I'll drive, I can afford the speeding tickets."
"Speeding…what do you mean?"
"You said emergency, didn't you?"
"Well, yes, but I can drive, I have my bike—"
"Steve, I don't know if you realize, but I don't just go around…" Tony made a frustrated, aborted gesture. "Talking, about things. I'm relatively sure that's the first time I've even said a couple of those words since it happened. The absolute least I can do for you is get you where you need to go, and I guarantee I can get you there faster than you could on your own."
Steve just watched him, unmoving. Tony fidgeted under his earnest gaze, and grabbed his keys instead.
"So, where are we going? Hospital, airport, what?"
"Tony, I…" Steve stepped forward, then back, indecisive. He seemed to give up on whatever it was he'd been trying to say, and ducked his head. "You can't come, Tony, I'm sorry."
"Oh. That's, um." Tony stepped back, putting his hands up in the universal sign of peace. "I'm being pushy, I didn't mean…yeah. Right, go do your, uh, family thing. Good luck with that."
"You're not pushy," Steve insisted, but he was glancing at the door, "Really, I…under any other circumstance I'd appreciate it, it's just, it's very complicated, everything is, and I really need to go, I'm sorry."
Then he was gone.
Tony stood in his living room, one shoe on, one shoe off, keys dangling in his hand, for a very long time. Eventually he gave the kind of sigh that make him sound a good decade older than he was, and threw the keys on the counter. He shook his other shoe off and picked up his phone, collapsing back on the couch.
"Look, Tony, I'm not in a great place to talk right now, I'm gonna have to call you ba—"
"I told him, Rhodey."
"What, that you love him?"
"Fuck no, are you insane?" Tony snapped. "You don't just fucking lay that on someone, not to mention I don't love him, I like him—"
"I do not have time for your bullshit right now man—"
"Okay, I maybe kind of might love him, but that's the not what I told him. I told him about the…thing."
"You—" There was static, and what sounded like gunfire. "What do you mean you told him, you mean you talked about it?"
"Was that gunfire?"
"Yeah, I got my first call to action." Rhodey grunted. "It's fine, I'm handling it, you don't get to say something like that and change the subject on me. Tony, you haven't said a word to anyone about this since it happened, are you telling me you had a full-fledged conversation with this guy about—oh fuck—"
The line cut out.
"JARVIS, where's the call?" Tony shot up, heading immediately into his room.
"Our uplink to SHIELD indicates that they are indeed on alert," JARVIS reported, "But at the time of the call, I did not think you would find it higher priority than your current preoccupation."
He supposed he probably wouldn't have; he'd had no way of knowing if Rhodey was in trouble then, and he would've just thought it was like any other call and been pissed at JARVIS for interrupting his moment with Steve.
"Alert where?" Tony headed straight for the back of his closet, unlocking and flipping open the disguised panel in the wall with practiced ease to pull out the suitcase suit.
"SHIELD headquarters itself, sir." JARVIS hesitated. "Sir, the precautions you've implemented against SHIELD infiltration are still untested, and heading directly for their base is perhaps not—"
"Rhodey's in trouble, J." Tony's tone brokered no argument. "We're going."
Tony hauled the suitcase out of the apartment and down the fire escape. Once he'd checked to be sure the alley was free of witnesses, he tossed it on the ground, grabbed the levers, and yanked. The suit assembled around him like a second skin and as the faceplate closed the HUD display lit up, welcoming him home.
Chapter 7
Building Rhodey a suit was the best idea Tony'd ever had.
It gave him an ear on the inside, kept him up to date on the Cap Squad's latest supposed Iron Man busting toys, and had granted him the access he'd needed to crack open SHIELD's files and security system. There were a couple corners of SHIELD he still needed to wiggle his way into—their green energy files were one, interestingly enough—but that was a project for another night.
He still didn't know the Cap Squad's identities either, but those were a verbal-only secret with no files to track. Besides, Tony wasn't particularly interested in uncovering their identities; he'd had this debate with himself the first time he'd kidnapped Cap. Sure, he was labeled a supervillain, and he took advantage of that label, but that didn't mean he actually was. Tony knew it would be wrong to unmask Cap, or any of them, even if they spent all their time trying to do the same to him. Not to mention, there was always the chance that someday Cap might catch him, and by not unmasking Cap now, there was the small chance he might return the favor someday.
Tony bypassed SHIELD's aerial security easily, remotely disengaging the bogeys they'd sent after him. It was pretty easy to figure out where the trouble was: the testing facility he'd been at with Rhodey earlier was on fire.
"JARVIS, what do we got?"
"Scanning." There was a moment's pause. "The extraterrestrial attacker labeled 'The Destroyer' SHIELD recovered from New Mexico has been inadvertently activated. It has set off a number of explosions in Block D of the testing facility, and agents are currently working on evacuation while the Alpha Team engages."
"Alpha Team." Tony snorted to himself. "If anyone around here had a sense of humor, they'd have followed my lead and called them the Cap Squad."
