And then we were two (Tony stark's daughter fic)

Confessions

"So..." Steve sighed heavily and moved nearer to Tony cautiously. "Thing is...I found him..."

Tony frowned. Found him? Like, his body? Where he'd been buried? How could he have found a man that had to be pushing a hundred by now?

Steve didn't seem to notice the questions in his eyes past his anxiety. "See, the thing was...I let him down, let him fall...I'm telling all this because I need you to understand he isn't what he's done...it's not him, Tony..."

Tony was so frustrated he very nearly told Steve to get to the fucking point. He didn't. He might not be extremely clear on every moment since they'd escaped the underground lab, but he knew they'd been...well, good. Surprisingly they hadn't been fighting. It only confirmed in his mind that it was his own doing, that he somehow managed to destroy everything, no matter how hard he tried. Maybe, maybe he could learn to be different, to be better.

"When he fell, I thought he was gone. Then the tesseract and the plane...it was all over...but I was wrong..." Steve could've sobbed from the guilt of it. He should've gone after him, he should've found him. "Hydra...messed with his mind...used him as a weapon...it wasn't him, Tony! It wasn't!"

It was that moment, that reaction, that first made Tony realize that, somehow, this soldier, this hydra asset, pertained to him. "Get to the point, Rogers," he grumbled.

Steve's head snapped up immediately. "Weye ya jus gonna led me baye my soul heye?! Wha' da hell, Tony?!"

Tony couldn't help himself, he grinned. "Ya know...finally starting to see the Brooklynn."

Steve threw up his hands in frustration and surged to his feet. "Can' ya, you!" He corrected himself pointed, clearly gritting his teeth. "Can't you take anything seriously ever?! I don't know why the hell I missed your voice!"

He regretted it immediately. Tony stiffened, the openness Steve had gotten so used to over the last few days vanishing in an instant as Tony's expression went cold, his smile terribly, painfully, fake.

Tony struggled to his feet,waving sharply at Steve when he moved to help him. He hadn't meant it badly! Fuck, if anything, he'd loved it. It was raw, genuine. He felt, for the first time, like he really could see the Steve before the serum, before the belief that he knew what was right, his beliefs, and what was wrong, Tony, in the flesh. "Need to get home to Addy..." he mumbled and turned to stumble stubbornly into the darkness.

Steve let out a frustrated growl and stomped after him. "Tony!" He called, touching his shoulder gently at first.

Tony immediately shrugged it off and very nearly fell in the process.

Steve gritted his teeth and grabbed him, spinning him around and pinning him to a tree. "Would you just listen to me for a fucking second!" He screamed.

Tony was the picture of defiance. His jaw jutted upward, edges of his usually precise facial hair blurred with time and overgrown stubble, dark eyes locked on Steve's. "Gonna make me?" He demanded.

Steve sighed, suddenly exhausted. "I'm trying to tell you something, Tony..."

"Yeah, so I gathered. Damn, Rogers, you act like the guy killed my mother," he snorted.

Tony had meant it as a joke, a smart ass retort to break some of the tension. The look on Steve's face wasn't funny. Tony froze, a shuddering breath rattling into his lungs as he struggled to steady himself as the world blackened along the edges of his vision. "What?" He hissed in a strangled tone.

"Tony...please?"

"He...how long have you known this?!"

"Since DC...when shield fell..." he admitted.

Tony pushed against him, his hands beating at Steve's broad chest. "Rogers you better back off!"

"Not gonna happen," he replied quietly. "Tony, listen, I needed you to hear it from me, I needed you to understand..."

"He killed my mom!" Tony shrieked. The accident...all his life he'd blamed Howard, assumed the Bastard was drunk again. Seemed like, for once, his father hadn't been the one to cause him pain.

He gritted his teeth tightly and stared up at him. "Why?"

"Excuse me?"

"Why, Rogers!" He shouted, more than asked. "Why did hydra use your buddy turned weapon to murder my mom!?"

"I told you it wasn't..."

"I know!!" He roared. "I got the point! Not his fault! Why?!"

"Your...Howard...he was transporting a fresh attempt at the super soldier serum..."

And just like that, he could blame him again. Howard had taken her with him for that? He knew! Tony knew that Howard knew full well the lengths people would go to for the serum; yet he'd taken her.

"So, what?" He huffed. "Take me out here, make sure I can't retaliate, then tell me?"

"What?!" Steve reeled back like he'd been struck. "Do you honestly think I'd do that?! That I'd drug you to avoid a difficult conversation?! What the fuck Tony?! What the fuck have people done to make you so fucking suspicious?!"

Tony blinked. Steve...almost sounded sad? Not like he was blaming Tony, not like it was something inherently wrong with him, but like he wanted to go back in time and fight everyone who'd ever hurt or betrayed him. It was a long list and Tony almost wished he could, just to see it. To feel, for once, that maybe there would actually be one person who saw him, truly saw him, and rather than shy away, wanted to pick up all the broken pieces and protect them.

"Ok..." he whispered. "Alright so...imagining that you did this this way to, Uh...practice, like you said...how do you expect this to play out? What do you want from me, Rogers?"

Steve frowned. "Tony...I can't tell you how to feel..." he whispered. "You're, shit, you're allowed your feelings...I just...I only want you to try and be angry at the source...that's all. Don't blame Buck for something he had no say in...please? Just...try?"

"You sound like a pro gun propaganda poster..."

"He isn't a gun," Steve gritted out. "He's not a weapon, he's a person."

"I know that," Tony sighed and leaned back against the tree Steve had pinned him to, rubbing his face in frustration. "I need time, alright? I...I thought they hit a tree! And then, this...is he safe?"

"I...yeah, yeah he is..." Steve blinked in surprise.

Tony nodded. "Is everyone else?"

"We're working on it..." Steve admitted. "Only Nat and I know who and where he is...for now Thats the best we can do..."

The best they could, not the best Tony could. "I'm ready to go back to the fire now..." he murmured.

Steve reached out without thought and hesitated. "Sorry I...I've been..."

"It's fine, Rogers," he rolled his eyes. "Fuck it's not like I'm gonna need a fucking safe word! Not with you."

Some part of Steve wanted to argue. He lifted Tony instead and headed back toward the fire. "All things considered, you're handling this better than I ever imagined..."

"Well I'm nothing if not reasonable," he smirked and lay back to stare up at the stars. "Night, Cap."

Steve sighed softly. "Goodnight, Tony."