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Steve smiles at Tony as they walk into the latest gala. “I cannot believe you talked me into wearing my uniform. Do you know how much you suck?”
Tony laughs and turns, straightening Steve’s tie. “I love your uniform. Fuck, Steve, you are sex walking, but especially in this uniform.”
Steve flushes and ducks his head, kissing Tony softly. “Why do you always do this to me?”
“Because I love making you blush. Anyhow, thanks for coming with me to this party. It’s for some French Ambassador and I just did not want to be here alone. Plus, the ambassador wanted to meet you. And getting to see you in uniform? Huge bonus,” Tony adds, smoothing down Steve’s jacket. “Okay. Now, if you don’t know French, don’t sweat it. I can translate.”
“I know a little French. Dernier made sure of that. Well, him and Gabe.” Steve smiles. “I can’t guarantee I can say anything in French that’s not swearing, but I can understand it somewhat.”
“Of course you can,” Tony says, pulling back a little. “Wait. Dernier? He was a commando, yeah?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Odd coincidence that the Ambassador’s name is Dernier. I wonder if he’s related to your Dernier?” Tony licks his lips. “You think?”
“It’s possible. Wouldn’t be the first time I met the family of the Commandoes while at these things.”
“Right.” Tony steps away from Steve and smiles. “You met Falsworth’s son at the thing in England, right?”
“Yes.” Steve smiles. “It was nice to meet his family. I can only hope that if this Dernier is related to mine, that he’ll be able to tell me Jacques led a good life.” Steve holds his and out, smiling at Tony. “Please? I’m not ashamed of us.”
Tony beams up at Steve and nods, taking his hand. “Neither am I.”
They head towards the table they’ve been assigned, Steve stuttering to a stop when he sees a man he would swear is actually Dernier. He looks like he’s been frozen in time, just like Steve had and Bucky had. “Jacques?” he asks, pulling Tony closer.
“Non, je suis désolé capitaine. Je ne suis pas mon père.”
Steve licks his lips and looks over at Tony, feeling more than a little helpless. “He says he’s sorry, Captain, but he’s not his father.”
Steve nods. “I’m sorry, Mr. Dernier. It’s just that you look so much like him.”
Tony translates, then smiles as the younger Dernier replies with a soft laugh. “He thanks you for the compliment. His name is François, and he is Jacques oldest child.” As François keeps talking, Tony nods, translating for Steve. “Jacques lived a good life, found himself a beautiful woman and married her immediately after the war. They had François, Amélie, and the youngest, Stéphanie. He died fifteen years ago, setting off an explosion in a mine.”
Steve smiles a little. “Sounds like the Jacques I knew.” He looks at François and smiles. “Your father was a brilliant man. Slightly crazy, but brilliant.”
François laughs, and Steve is taken back to when Jacques would make something explode. He smiles, his heart half breaking at the sound. “Oui, oui. Mon père était un homme brillant et extravagant.”
Tony smiles. “He says his father was a brilliant, crazy man.”
Steve nods and holds out his hand. “It was a pleasure to meet you, François. I’m glad to have met the son of one of my Commandos.”
Tony translates and François gets to his feet, pulling Steve into his arms and kissing both cheeks. “Mon père avait beaucoup d'admiration pour vous, il aurait été ravi d'apprendre que vous avez survécu. Merci d'être venu me voir.”
Tony licks his lips and translates for François. “He said, my father thought the world of you. He would be thrilled to know you made it out alive. Thank you for coming to meet me.”
Steve nods and hugs the other man again. He pulls away and looks at Tony, who says goodbye for both of them before pulling Steve over to their table. “You okay, babe?”
Steve nods, clenching his jaw. “I just... I’m glad he led a good life.” Steve wipes a hand down his face. “Fuck, I should not be this upset over this.”
“Why not? Jacques, hell all the howling commandos are important to you. It would shatter me to lose the Avengers. I can only imagine how much it must hurt you to lose everyone you knew.” Tony wraps his arms around Steve’s waist and hugs him tight. “It can’t be easy.”
“No, it’s not. But I don’t know. I just feel like... It’s my fault I didn’t get to see my men grow old. It’s my fault I didn’t get to see them with their families. If I hadn’t ditched the plane...”
“Millions of people would’ve died. The Red Skull would’ve won. Hitler would have won. The US would’ve been overrun with Nazi’s. Bad enough what was actually happening on US soil.”
Steve frowns. “I haven’t really caught up, yet. Well, I should say I can’t bring myself to go back to the War. So... What are you talking about?”
“Shit. That’s right, you wouldn’t know.” He licks his lips. “You didn’t hear any rumblings in New York about what was going on to the West?”
Steve shakes his head. “I mean, I know everyone to the West was worried about another Pearl Harbor, but... What kind of rumblings?”
“Did you hear about Executive Order 9066?”
Steve shakes his head. “Tony, just tell me.”
“Executive Order 9066 was ordered by FDR, issued during World War II. It authorized the Secretary of War to prescribe certain areas as military zones. Which, eventually, led to concentration camps in the West. Any one of Japanese, German or Italian descent was at risk of being incarcerated. There were approximately one hundred and thirty thousand Japanese men, women, and children locked up in their homeland. It wasn’t just Japanese Citizens who were locked up. It was American citizens who had even a drop of Japanese blood in them. Most people didn’t realize that some German and Italian Americans were also locked up. It’s one of the worst things Americans have ever done. We went to war to protect people from being wrongfully imprisoned because of their heritage, because they weren’t white, straight, and the right religion. Then we turned around and blamed an entire race for something most of them had nothing to do with. Hell, most of the Japanese that were locked in the imprisonment camps had never set foot on Japanese soil. But we locked them up because they were so called Americans.” Tony shakes his head and takes a deep breath. “And the people who had the most reason to be afraid? The Hawaiians, who had actually lived through their country being bombed by the Japanese? They only locked up around eighteen hundred Japanese, in a country that held as many Japanese as we locked up on the mainland.”
Steve licks his lips, running a hand over his face. “So what the hell did I risk my life for? So Americans could do the same asshole thing that Hitler did?”
Tony nods. “I’m sorry, Steve. Shit, you shouldn’t have ever had to know that.”
“No. I’m glad I know.”
“And, so you know, they weren’t like the Nazi imprisonment camps. They didn’t have gas chambers and they didn’t, to the best of my knowledge, torture the prisoners. They just took everything from them. Everything but their actual lives.”
Steve lets out a shaky breath and turns away. “How much longer do we have to stay?”
“We can leave any time. I met with the ambassador, so my duty is done. You wanna go home?”
Steve nods and licks his lips. “I’d like to... I need to know more.”
Tony nods, rubbing a hand over Steve’s lower back. “Let’s go.” He guides Steve out to the waiting car and they head back to the Tower. Once they pull in the parking garage, Tony looks over at Steve. “I have an idea. Do you wanna see the mansion? I still own it. I never did anything with it, because... Well, because it was Dad’s place. I’d... I’d like to check it out. Get it up and running again. Maybe make it a home for us.”
Steve smiles and nods. “I’d actually really like that,” he says, reaching over and squeezing Tony’s hand. “Do you think we could move the team in or... Make it just for us?”
“I was thinking along the lines of just you and me, but if you want the whole team there, we can certainly retrofit it to meet everyone’s demands.”
“I think I’d prefer it to be for you and me. Not that I don’t love the team, but... well, I want us to have a place of our own, without them. Unless you think they should stay with us as well.”
“No. I like the idea of you and me. I definitely like the idea of you and me having alone time. We haven’t had much of that, aside from these stupid gala things.”
Steve nods. “Let’s make it for the two of us then and we can just... have like a guest house for the Avengers to come visit.”
“Perfect idea.” Tony grins as he pulls out of the parking garage. “I think you’ll like the house. It’s a pretty nice place.”
“I’m sure I’ll love it.”