2

[soldierly]

THIS ROUND IS NOW CLOSED TO NEW PROMPTS.
ROUND TWO
closing at 5000 comments
Please read the [rules] before commenting!

PROMPT FORMATTING:
Alphabetize pairings. They will be archived that way!
Put [RPF] before RPF prompts.
Put [Crossover] before crossover prompts.
Please use this format: Steve/Tony, Tony needs help adjusting his arc reactor ;

Comments

Re: Mnemophobia (4/6)

[anonymous]

"Are you okay?" There was real concern in Steve's voice. Tony knew that it was genuine. It was Steve - or course it was genuine. Tony wasn't always very good at dealing with Steve. Double-edged words and hidden agendas were far more familiar territory. Right now he had even less idea how to face the man. He managed a smile; the same one that he had dragged up a thousand times before, especially in those first few shaky months, after he had come home. Months when he had been dealing with Afghanistan, and Obadiah, and no, don't think about that. Pepper always saw through that smile, and so did Jarvis. Nobody else. He was even pretty good at believing it himself.

"Fine. Thanks." It felt ungrateful to wish that Steve would just go, but he couldn't help but long for solitude. He needed it to catch his breath, and pull the barriers back up around himself. Steve was going nowhere, however. He was still hovering, still smiling uncertaintly, still clearly wanting to help. He didn't even know what was going on, but he still wanted to do something about it. The thought almost made Tony laugh, if bitterly. Confounded superheroes. Always wanting to do the right thing. Always wanting to right wrongs and make the world a better place. He was going to have to start keeping less savoury company. It seemed somehow safer all round.

"Tony..."

"I'm fine, okay?" He couldn't help snapping, couldn't help standing up suddenly, and moving away from Steve. It wasn't that he expected the other man to grab him again, and push him back underneath the water. It was just that his body was primed to react a certain way, and he was still seeing memories overlaid across the present. His arms crossed themselves over his chest, and he was sure, for a moment, that he could feel the weight of the car battery within them. He let them fall back to his sides, and tried not to remember too much. Tried not to remember how helpless he had been against Steve's greater strength. How hard it had been to breathe.

"You're not okay. You're clearly not. I was trying to save you, Tony. I was trying to help, and you reacted like I thought I was trying to drown you!" There was a trace of humour in Steve's voice, the situation clearly absurd to him. He couldn't know, of course. All the Avengers knew about Afghanistan, up to a point. They only knew what Tony had said, though. He had told Rhodey about the torture, sort of. Bits of it anyway, during dark evenings sharing a bottle of whisky. He had told Obadiah some of it, during those first few days back together again, when he had still believed that Obadiah was the foundation of his whole damned world. Fury probably guessed at some of it. He wasn't fool enough to believe that a man like Tony Stark could be coerced into doing anything - not when he had had trouble enough himself in trying to bring Ironman to heel. What Fury knew, Fury kept to himself. He was that sort of man.

"I..." He owed Steve something. The man had saved him, or saved his sight, or probably had, or... Tony couldn't help but take a step back, as Steve took a step towards him. Damn it, this was stupid. He raised his head, away from echoes of a rocky floor strewn with puddles, and looked Steve straight in the eye. Honest, well-meaning eyes. No hate, no contempt, no telltale glitter of a man getting off on the power that he had over another. Just Steve, with a question behind a smile. Tony smiled back, and threw off all the memories. Held Steve's gaze, and let his voice fill itself with calm, and a cheer that was wholly false.