We were Best Friends

It Needs Air to Stay Alive

Tony stands staring out of the window for a few moments before opening his mouth and talking. "I lost her once for saying something so stupid and letting my ego get in the way. I, I'm not sure exactly what I can say to help but this is what I do have: I talked to Shuri while I was in Wakanda. She has ideas how to help get the brain-washing out. I also watched the videos that (Y/N) told me too. It helped make me understand more of what you went through. I didn't know a lot of things and I apologize for not listening when anyone tried telling me what happened."

No one says anything for a long time. Not until Buchanan takes Sam's advice and asked about the childhood that Tony and (Y/N) shared.

"Come downstairs. I'll show you some relics that are younger than you." Two dinosaurs and Tony move down to the basement, pulling open a bottom drawer and pulling out a little wooden toy gun and a little metal shield.

"I was Captain America when we were kids. I'm sure you've seen the pictures upstairs of her and the poster. She was Captain Americas bestest friend. James Buchanan Barnes. She called you Buchanan back then too. She never explained why though. We'd run around for hours, making little trenches in a sandbox that were maybe ankle deep. Faking being thrown by explosions and dragging each other to the safety of the trenches. It was a child's game. Simple as that. Then we grew up. Worked on cars. Shot real guns. Went through high school together and she got into a lot of fights saving me from people I offended. She probably did that all through training and deployment too." Tony stares at a wall for a few seconds before looking at the wood burning if Jack. "She made new friends there. Better ones than I ever was to her. I guess I used her as a human shield. I picked the fights like Captain America, and she finished them like James Barnes. Never did thank her, I should have. She was the one person I could count on through my entire life other than auntie Peggy."

"Why didn't you go after her when she left?" Steve speaks up, frustration evident on his face.
"Thought she'd come back like she always did. I would say something stupid, make her mad and she'd leave for a few days." Sorrow fills his words, eyes hard doing their best to not show emotion. "But she always came back. That time she didn't and I didn't bother looking for her for quite a while. I regret that."

They stand in silence. Looking around the basement. At the toys that lay on the work bench.

Buchanan is the first to speak up this time. "When did you see her poster?"
"It made its way to the news. I saw it there, just saw it on a screen somewhere and looked it up. I knew who she meant but it was a big question for awhile. Who was this girl waiting for? No one but me and her parents knew."

"The picture is in the box over there." James points, showing the box that they had gone through themselves when they first arrived. "There's a lot of pictures in it."

Tony moves to it, pulling off the top and pulling out an album. "Her mom loved making these. I had some just like these, but I have no idea where they went. Her parents were practically my parents too, and mine were like hers. I would have went to their funeral, but I couldn't bring myself too. It was selfish, but I couldn't go to another funeral where I was burying my parents. I had done it once already."
The air sits tensely, but if Tony notices he doesn't show it. He's to absorbed in the photo albums.

"I'm sorry." Only now does he look up from the pictures of graduates smiling at each other Caps falling all around them.

"I'm the one who should be sorry. It wasn't you who pulled the trigger. (Y/N)'s helping me realize that and so did those videos. The offer still stands if you want to go back to Wakanda to let Shuri look at you. See what she can do." Halfway through talking, he turned the page. The same two graduates, sitting with their caps back in their heads, in a brightly lit shop watching a show on an old tv. Shoulders touching.