Fic: In Another's Eyes (Chapter Seven)
Title: In Another’s Eyes
Fandom: The Avengers (AU-Cinematic Universe)
Characters: Antonia “Toni” Stark, Steve Rogers, others.
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: Toni/Steve
Warnings: Mentions of Non-Con, bondage
Summary: A stalker is targeting Toni, which skews how she sees herself and how she allows others to see her.
Author's Notes: Hopefully this chapter makes up for all the horrible from chapters five and six :D
( Chapter One) ( Chapter Two) ( Chapter Three) ( Chapter Four) ( Chapter Five) ( Chapter Six)
Toni realized two seconds after she said it that “Aw, fuck, what did I drink last night?” was not the right choice of words, regardless of where she had woken up.
The facts as she knew them were as follows: she started a pair of rocket boots, relived some bad memories from Afghanistan, fell onto the floor, thought about life and about her feelings for Cap. Thus ends the facts as she knew them. None of those facts included how she got up to her room and into the arms of Captain America. Conclusion: she had been drinking again. She was trying to think of reasons to not hate herself.
Suddenly, her mind rewound slightly. She pushed play; “in the arms of Captain America”. Cap was in bed with her, holding her close… his eyes opened a little and he smiled.
“Good morning. How are yo-”
“Oh god,” Toni moaned, pulling the blanket up over her head.
“Toni?” Steve asked, confusion expressed in his voice.
“Toni is hiding in shame!” she announced, curling herself up into a ball. She thought she might get sick.
“Why are you hiding in shame?”
“Because I have no idea how we ended up in bed together, which clearly means you saw me completely shitfaced…” Her attempts to hide her embarrassment were failing. So were Cap’s attempts to pull the blanket off of her.
“Toni, come out from under the blanket.”
“No.”
“You didn’t get drunk last night,” he assured her. His hand was resting on top of the blanket, right on her shoulder. “You fell off your stool in the workshop, probably got a slight concussion. I brought you up here… you got restless when I tried to leave, so I just stayed in here. We didn’t do anything, we just shared the bed.” She didn’t answer him. “Toni?”
“I’m still not coming out,” she replied. Her voice had changed slightly. She was giggling. “Are you wearing Iron Man boxers?”
“They were in with the clothes I was issued!”
“Oh my god, that is adorkable!” Steve made a mental note to look up the word ‘adorkable’-was that even a real word?-just before a thought hit him.
“Toni, you can see my boxer shorts!” It wasn’t the boxer shorts he was worried about her seeing of course…
“Oh my god! You have a tattoo!” That’s what he was worried about. “How do you have a tattoo, Cap?”
“Um… no I don’t?” He jumped slightly as he felt her fingers on his skin, pulling the waist band of his boxers down slightly. “Toni!”
“Holy shit, you have your shield tattooed on your hip!” The blankets shook as she giggled uncontrollably. Steve shook as she stroked the tattoo on his right hip. She poked her head out from under the blanket, smiling; it was worth the blush he was wearing to see her smile like that. “When did you get this?”
“Bucky dared me to do it,” Steve admitted. “He wanted to see if it would go away, since I heal quickly.” He ran a hand through his hair, rubbing the back of his head. “I’d like to say I was drunk at the time…”
“But you can’t get drunk,” Toni finished. He nodded. “It’s tasteful! You might think about getting it recolored though, it’s looking a little dull.” She giggled again. “Man, I cannot believe that you, of all people, have ink.”
“Yeah… can we keep that between us?”
“Sure, if you want. Why?”
“I’m not sure the rest of the team would let me live it down.” Toni rolled her eyes.
“Cap, it’s not the 1940s anymore; lots of people have tattoos! In places that are not as easily covered up as yours!” She bit her bottom lip. “Do you want to see mine?” His eyes widened.
“You have a tattoo?” he asked, completely stunned.
“Yeah, I got it when I was sixteen, spring break…” She hesitated. “I won’t tell about yours if you don’t tell about mine?”
“Okay.”
“Promise?” she asked.
“Promise.” She took a deep breath before throwing the blanket off of her. She then pulled the waistband of her capris down slightly; there was indeed a tattoo on her left hip.
“You have the same tattoo!” Steve exclaimed. She did; Toni’s tattoo looked just like his. The coloring was brighter, and hers may have been a little smaller, but it was the same tattoo. “Why…”
“Excuse me, Miss Stark,” Jarvis interrupted. “But Director Fury is on the line.” Toni groaned, rolling her eyes as she propped herself up on her elbows.
“Put him through.” She waited a second. “Director, I’m going to warn you now that I have not had coffee yet.”
“We’ve been going over footage of your kidnapping,” the Director replied, obviously not caring about her lack of coffee.
“Where did you get footage of my kidnapping?” Toni asked. She hadn’t been completely paying attention when they explained how they had found her; there had been a phone call? A recording of her calling for help paired with a robotic voice giving them the address of where she was. Cap had gone in while the others maintained the perimeter. Toni had mentally questioned that idea for about two seconds before realizing one puny kidnapper may have taken her down, but he sure as hell wouldn’t take down Cap.
“New security cameras in the park,” Fury informed her. “Just put up recently.” Toni and Steve looked at each other, both having heard something in his voice that made them grin.
“You didn’t know they were there until yesterday, did you?” There was a pause. “Sir?”
“Shut it, Stark.” Steve bit his tongue; Toni put a hand over her mouth. Both knew they were in for it when they started laughing hysterically. “Good morning, Captain,” Fury said flatly. “Are you two children enjoying your sleepover?”
“We are!” Toni replied, the giggle still in her voice. “We did our nails last night and talked about boys and played truth or dare and oh my god it was so much fun!” Steve bit back more laughter as Fury groaned; he could just see him rubbing his forehead, trying to ward off his oncoming migraine.
“Are you done yet, Stark?”
“The depths of my sarcasm are endless, Sir.”
“Noted.”
“What did you find out from the footage?” Steve asks quickly, before Toni can say anything else. “Is it somebody we know?”
“We’re not sure; the footage shows Toni stopping…”
“I was changing songs, I think Clint messed with my iPod again.”
“You blame Clint for everything,” Steve remarked.
“And I’m usually right!”
“And something walked and grabbed her,” Fury said loudly. Toni raised an eyebrow.
“What do you mean, ‘something’?” she asked.
“Someone else knew the cameras were there; the picture went fuzzy. We could make out figures, but no specifics.”
“Any chance it could be Loki?” Toni asked. The tone of her voice was… different, Steve realized.
“Sounds like you want it to be,” Fury replied. That was it; her tone was hopeful.
“Well, yeah,” Toni said. “If it’s Loki, I can just sick Thor on him.”
“She has a point,” Steve admitted. He thought about her words in the elevator yesterday; “It wasn’t Loki because he maintains the delusion that being a woman, I’m the best person to hold hostage; it wasn’t Doom because of whatever reason Doom tends to have… It wasn’t even some random attack…” He remembered the fear in her voice, the confusion. Loki or Dr. Doom being behind the attack made some sort of sense to her; she probably would have been okay with it, despite of what had happened. But the not knowing was hurting her. It didn’t help that she was completely right about that last bit; to have taken control of the video cameras like that meant that someone had planned this. But how?
“Fuck no.” Steve realized right then that he’d missed something of importance. “Cap’s here, I don’t need…”
“You’re not getting a choice, Stark,” Fury said firmly. “Besides, I told you there would be reparations for that incident with Senator LeSwish.”
“You agreed with me!” Steve remembered this story; how could anyone forget it?
Rowena LeSwish was a very outspoken conservative politician (Steve couldn’t help thinking there was an oxymoron in there somewhere…) who decided to use Toni as a prime example of her “All Gays Are Evil Degenerates” beliefs. When Toni and Pepper broke up, she was quoted in an article saying that she was “pleased Miss Stark had returned to normal”. Toni, needless to say, didn’t take it well. Where LeSwish simply had an article, Toni called a press conference.
“So,” Toni had said, her tone almost vicious, “according to Senator LeSwish, my recent break up has nothing to do with the fact my dear friend and I decided the relationship wasn’t working. It is, apparently, because I’ve ‘returned to normal’. I’d like to respond with the following: Normal is not telling two people that love each other that they’re wrong. Normal is not saying they have no right to get married. Normal is letting people do what they want, who they want and when they want. Senator LeSwish, if you have such a fucking problem with gays and gay marriage, then by all means, do the rest of us a favor: Don’t become gay and don’t fucking get gay married!”
The resulting FCC fines were outrageous (to everyone but Toni). The “Iron Man is a Fag” posters were annoying. The fan mail from across the world filled Toni’s mailbox for weeks. Not just her personal mail box; S.H.I.E.L.D and Stark Enterprises received mail by the ton. Toni wouldn’t let anyone reply to the letters for her, she somehow did them all herself. Steve had seen some of these letters. The ones that surprised him the most were from teenagers who said they were ready to kill themselves before finding out Toni was bisexual and that her speaking out inspired them to do the same.
And apparently, Nick Fury was now punishing her for that?
“The reparations aren’t coming from me, Stark,” Fury said, as if he knew what Steve was thinking. It took Steve a moment to realize what he was getting at.
“You think the stalker’s after her because of that!”
“I do.” Fury replied. “And until I know otherwise, you and Toni will have some more company at Stark Mansion.”
“Do I get any say in this?” Toni demanded.
“No. They’ll be there tonight.” They heard a click; the call, as well as the conversation, was over.
“Toni,” Steve asked slowly. “Who will be here tonight?” Toni didn’t ask why he didn’t know, just fell back on the bed and put a pillow over her face. He barely heard her muffled reply.
“The Avengers.”
Fandom: The Avengers (AU-Cinematic Universe)
Characters: Antonia “Toni” Stark, Steve Rogers, others.
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: Toni/Steve
Warnings: Mentions of Non-Con, bondage
Summary: A stalker is targeting Toni, which skews how she sees herself and how she allows others to see her.
Author's Notes: Hopefully this chapter makes up for all the horrible from chapters five and six :D
( Chapter One) ( Chapter Two) ( Chapter Three) ( Chapter Four) ( Chapter Five) ( Chapter Six)
Toni realized two seconds after she said it that “Aw, fuck, what did I drink last night?” was not the right choice of words, regardless of where she had woken up.
The facts as she knew them were as follows: she started a pair of rocket boots, relived some bad memories from Afghanistan, fell onto the floor, thought about life and about her feelings for Cap. Thus ends the facts as she knew them. None of those facts included how she got up to her room and into the arms of Captain America. Conclusion: she had been drinking again. She was trying to think of reasons to not hate herself.
Suddenly, her mind rewound slightly. She pushed play; “in the arms of Captain America”. Cap was in bed with her, holding her close… his eyes opened a little and he smiled.
“Good morning. How are yo-”
“Oh god,” Toni moaned, pulling the blanket up over her head.
“Toni?” Steve asked, confusion expressed in his voice.
“Toni is hiding in shame!” she announced, curling herself up into a ball. She thought she might get sick.
“Why are you hiding in shame?”
“Because I have no idea how we ended up in bed together, which clearly means you saw me completely shitfaced…” Her attempts to hide her embarrassment were failing. So were Cap’s attempts to pull the blanket off of her.
“Toni, come out from under the blanket.”
“No.”
“You didn’t get drunk last night,” he assured her. His hand was resting on top of the blanket, right on her shoulder. “You fell off your stool in the workshop, probably got a slight concussion. I brought you up here… you got restless when I tried to leave, so I just stayed in here. We didn’t do anything, we just shared the bed.” She didn’t answer him. “Toni?”
“I’m still not coming out,” she replied. Her voice had changed slightly. She was giggling. “Are you wearing Iron Man boxers?”
“They were in with the clothes I was issued!”
“Oh my god, that is adorkable!” Steve made a mental note to look up the word ‘adorkable’-was that even a real word?-just before a thought hit him.
“Toni, you can see my boxer shorts!” It wasn’t the boxer shorts he was worried about her seeing of course…
“Oh my god! You have a tattoo!” That’s what he was worried about. “How do you have a tattoo, Cap?”
“Um… no I don’t?” He jumped slightly as he felt her fingers on his skin, pulling the waist band of his boxers down slightly. “Toni!”
“Holy shit, you have your shield tattooed on your hip!” The blankets shook as she giggled uncontrollably. Steve shook as she stroked the tattoo on his right hip. She poked her head out from under the blanket, smiling; it was worth the blush he was wearing to see her smile like that. “When did you get this?”
“Bucky dared me to do it,” Steve admitted. “He wanted to see if it would go away, since I heal quickly.” He ran a hand through his hair, rubbing the back of his head. “I’d like to say I was drunk at the time…”
“But you can’t get drunk,” Toni finished. He nodded. “It’s tasteful! You might think about getting it recolored though, it’s looking a little dull.” She giggled again. “Man, I cannot believe that you, of all people, have ink.”
“Yeah… can we keep that between us?”
“Sure, if you want. Why?”
“I’m not sure the rest of the team would let me live it down.” Toni rolled her eyes.
“Cap, it’s not the 1940s anymore; lots of people have tattoos! In places that are not as easily covered up as yours!” She bit her bottom lip. “Do you want to see mine?” His eyes widened.
“You have a tattoo?” he asked, completely stunned.
“Yeah, I got it when I was sixteen, spring break…” She hesitated. “I won’t tell about yours if you don’t tell about mine?”
“Okay.”
“Promise?” she asked.
“Promise.” She took a deep breath before throwing the blanket off of her. She then pulled the waistband of her capris down slightly; there was indeed a tattoo on her left hip.
“You have the same tattoo!” Steve exclaimed. She did; Toni’s tattoo looked just like his. The coloring was brighter, and hers may have been a little smaller, but it was the same tattoo. “Why…”
“Excuse me, Miss Stark,” Jarvis interrupted. “But Director Fury is on the line.” Toni groaned, rolling her eyes as she propped herself up on her elbows.
“Put him through.” She waited a second. “Director, I’m going to warn you now that I have not had coffee yet.”
“We’ve been going over footage of your kidnapping,” the Director replied, obviously not caring about her lack of coffee.
“Where did you get footage of my kidnapping?” Toni asked. She hadn’t been completely paying attention when they explained how they had found her; there had been a phone call? A recording of her calling for help paired with a robotic voice giving them the address of where she was. Cap had gone in while the others maintained the perimeter. Toni had mentally questioned that idea for about two seconds before realizing one puny kidnapper may have taken her down, but he sure as hell wouldn’t take down Cap.
“New security cameras in the park,” Fury informed her. “Just put up recently.” Toni and Steve looked at each other, both having heard something in his voice that made them grin.
“You didn’t know they were there until yesterday, did you?” There was a pause. “Sir?”
“Shut it, Stark.” Steve bit his tongue; Toni put a hand over her mouth. Both knew they were in for it when they started laughing hysterically. “Good morning, Captain,” Fury said flatly. “Are you two children enjoying your sleepover?”
“We are!” Toni replied, the giggle still in her voice. “We did our nails last night and talked about boys and played truth or dare and oh my god it was so much fun!” Steve bit back more laughter as Fury groaned; he could just see him rubbing his forehead, trying to ward off his oncoming migraine.
“Are you done yet, Stark?”
“The depths of my sarcasm are endless, Sir.”
“Noted.”
“What did you find out from the footage?” Steve asks quickly, before Toni can say anything else. “Is it somebody we know?”
“We’re not sure; the footage shows Toni stopping…”
“I was changing songs, I think Clint messed with my iPod again.”
“You blame Clint for everything,” Steve remarked.
“And I’m usually right!”
“And something walked and grabbed her,” Fury said loudly. Toni raised an eyebrow.
“What do you mean, ‘something’?” she asked.
“Someone else knew the cameras were there; the picture went fuzzy. We could make out figures, but no specifics.”
“Any chance it could be Loki?” Toni asked. The tone of her voice was… different, Steve realized.
“Sounds like you want it to be,” Fury replied. That was it; her tone was hopeful.
“Well, yeah,” Toni said. “If it’s Loki, I can just sick Thor on him.”
“She has a point,” Steve admitted. He thought about her words in the elevator yesterday; “It wasn’t Loki because he maintains the delusion that being a woman, I’m the best person to hold hostage; it wasn’t Doom because of whatever reason Doom tends to have… It wasn’t even some random attack…” He remembered the fear in her voice, the confusion. Loki or Dr. Doom being behind the attack made some sort of sense to her; she probably would have been okay with it, despite of what had happened. But the not knowing was hurting her. It didn’t help that she was completely right about that last bit; to have taken control of the video cameras like that meant that someone had planned this. But how?
“Fuck no.” Steve realized right then that he’d missed something of importance. “Cap’s here, I don’t need…”
“You’re not getting a choice, Stark,” Fury said firmly. “Besides, I told you there would be reparations for that incident with Senator LeSwish.”
“You agreed with me!” Steve remembered this story; how could anyone forget it?
Rowena LeSwish was a very outspoken conservative politician (Steve couldn’t help thinking there was an oxymoron in there somewhere…) who decided to use Toni as a prime example of her “All Gays Are Evil Degenerates” beliefs. When Toni and Pepper broke up, she was quoted in an article saying that she was “pleased Miss Stark had returned to normal”. Toni, needless to say, didn’t take it well. Where LeSwish simply had an article, Toni called a press conference.
“So,” Toni had said, her tone almost vicious, “according to Senator LeSwish, my recent break up has nothing to do with the fact my dear friend and I decided the relationship wasn’t working. It is, apparently, because I’ve ‘returned to normal’. I’d like to respond with the following: Normal is not telling two people that love each other that they’re wrong. Normal is not saying they have no right to get married. Normal is letting people do what they want, who they want and when they want. Senator LeSwish, if you have such a fucking problem with gays and gay marriage, then by all means, do the rest of us a favor: Don’t become gay and don’t fucking get gay married!”
The resulting FCC fines were outrageous (to everyone but Toni). The “Iron Man is a Fag” posters were annoying. The fan mail from across the world filled Toni’s mailbox for weeks. Not just her personal mail box; S.H.I.E.L.D and Stark Enterprises received mail by the ton. Toni wouldn’t let anyone reply to the letters for her, she somehow did them all herself. Steve had seen some of these letters. The ones that surprised him the most were from teenagers who said they were ready to kill themselves before finding out Toni was bisexual and that her speaking out inspired them to do the same.
And apparently, Nick Fury was now punishing her for that?
“The reparations aren’t coming from me, Stark,” Fury said, as if he knew what Steve was thinking. It took Steve a moment to realize what he was getting at.
“You think the stalker’s after her because of that!”
“I do.” Fury replied. “And until I know otherwise, you and Toni will have some more company at Stark Mansion.”
“Do I get any say in this?” Toni demanded.
“No. They’ll be there tonight.” They heard a click; the call, as well as the conversation, was over.
“Toni,” Steve asked slowly. “Who will be here tonight?” Toni didn’t ask why he didn’t know, just fell back on the bed and put a pillow over her face. He barely heard her muffled reply.
“The Avengers.”