[OOC: House of TM RP with
shadeof_grey and
iron_tony. Takes place after
this last night of happiness, on the morning of
Steve and Tony's anniversary party.]
“Stop!” Wanda yelled, holding her hands out in front of her. Steve found himself frozen, his face twisted into a grotesque, rage-filled grimace, his blood burning with anger-at Tony, at himself, at Wanda and
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Comments 27
The one comfort that was sustaining her was that she was surrounded by people who were stronger and more assured than she was. Wanda was fine, Tony was fine, Steve was fine. Especially Steve. Steve was as solid and dependable as they came.
So, on the morning of the party, the last thing she expected was to be awoken by a psychic distress call from Steve. Hastily she pulled on her robe and ran to the bathroom. Knocking on the door, she said, "What's wrong?" She tried to pretend that she wasn't hearing what she was hearing, but there was no way to deny the thoughts she was picking up. They were too distressed and scattered to understand, but whatever it was, it had to be bad. "Please open the door, Steve."
*OOC -- OMG, ( ... )
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Tying the belt of the robe, he turned to the sink and quickly rinsed the vomit out of his mouth before opening the door and motioning for Jean to come in.
"We have to speak telepathically. I don't want to wake Tony," he said. His voice wasn't loud, but it was still his battle voice, clear and crisp and commanding, simulating a confidence he couldn't make himself feel.
When Jean was safely inside the room and the door was shut behind them, Steve opened his mind. Something is very, very wrong, Jean, he sent. And I think... I think you know that, though maybe you don't consciously realize ( ... )
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You're right. There's something going on, someone I don't trust -- Jean hesitated. It was actually very hard to lie, telepathically, especially to someone who knew her as well as Steve did. But she couldn't say it was Wanda who was giving her suspicions. She might be wrong. She wanted to be wrong. Somebody's doing something to make the world wrong. I think it might be Domino.
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Inwardly, he cringed. So Jean knew something, but not as much as he did. And now he was going to have to tell her - he was going to have to tell a woman who considered him to be one of her closest friends (in this world, at least; in the old world they'd barely known each other, and Steve wasn't sure which of those relationships counted more) that she'd been dragged into a fantasy world against her will. He thought of his own reactions, just moments earlier; he thought of the turmoil still going on in his brain, the way he felt two seconds away from breaking. He didn't want to inflict that on another human being. Maybe they could leave the world be, for a little longer. Maybe he could just pretend...
No. They had to do this. No matter how much it would hurt.
Last night, he explained, taking the gentlest route, when I fought Madame Morpho, she did something to me. I don't know what. But when I woke up this morning, I had memories - full memories - of a world ( ... )
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So he wakes to see the covers not only thrown aside, but, obviously, thrown aside with haste. He can't figure out what woke him until he hears the noises from the bathroom. Sprinting down the hall, he bangs on the door. "Steve? What the hell is going on in there?"
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He looks at Jean, a little panicked. Don't say anything to him, he sends, switching back to telepathy. He's not a telepath; he might not even believe in the other timeline if we tell him, and he's too vulnerable to whatever Wanda might throw at us without his armor near him.
Because, of course, in this reality, Tony doesn't have the Extremis armor, doesn't have the ability to call his suit to him at will. So not telling him is really just a form of protecting him. It has nothing to do with the fact that a subconscious part of Steve still wants to cling to this reality for a little while longer.
"Nothing's going on, Tony," he says, keeping his voice normal, and he opens the door to let him in.
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His arm went to his husband's shoulder. "What's wrong?" and, while it made no sense, it was the only thing that Tony could think of that would make Steve this distraught. "Did something happen to Sally?"
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"No, no, Sally's fine," he replied, though his mind screamed at him as he said it. She won't be fine when you make Wanda erase her from existence, his brain taunted.
But he did his best to ignore his dark thoughts and concentrated instead on schooling his face into an expression of self-effacing bemusement. "Sorry, I... I cut myself shaving, and Jean must have heard my mental distress signal, so she came running. I'm fine. Just a little embarrassed." He smiled in a way that he hoped looked genuine.
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