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Tony and Steve made their way back to the tower in silence.
"I... I'm heading to bed," Steve quietly said as Tony parked the Stark1 car.
"Sure. Night, Cap." Tony hummed, waving him off. The genius watched as his friend made his way towards the elevator. Tony leaned back, closing his eyes, trying to absorb everything that happened in the past hours.
"Fucking time travel," he murmured violently as he got out and made his way towards the common room. "Fucking Kang and his stupid ass. Whiskey. I need whiskey now."
With shaky hands, he poured himself a drink and downed it straight.
Tony let out a sigh. "JARVIS."
"Yes, sir?"
"Put up my files in the lab. Lock down once I get there. I don't want to see anyone right now."
"Very well, sir." JARVIS replied after a pregnant pause. "If I may-"
"Mute." Tony briskly replied, grabbing a bottle or two as he headed to the elevator.
Once he got there, he threw himself into his work. Drunk engineering was not as fun as he made it seem to the others but he really, really didn't want to think about it. He had a son. Good God, who the fuck would want to get shackled to him? Would he be a good dad? Would he take care of them in ways that Howard never did? And speaking of Howard...
"A few years too late to be telling me you're proud of me, dad." He said, throwing a wrench to the wall. "
Tony shook his head, pressing the heels of his palms on his eyes and hit back a choked sob. He'd made peace with his past. He was, is, a futurist, for goodness sakes. He shouldn't be so caught up.
---
"Captain Rogers?" JARVIS hesitantly called.
"Yes, JARVIS?" Steve asked. He had spent a better part, sketching the faces of his old friends. Bucky, the commandos, Howard and... and Peggy.
"Sir has issued a lock down in the lab but.. my primary protocol is Sir's safety and I fear that he may not be in the right mind to be engineering right now. I cannot directly shut down his works but your access codes are not blocked."
"Thanks for the heads up, JARVIS."
Steve made his way down into the lab and quickly punched in his code.
"Tony?" He hesitantly called.
He received a grunt back as Tony was slouched down infront of the screens. "JARVIS, I said lock down."
"Sir, Captain Rogers is right behind you," the AI replied.
"Don't care. Busy."
"Tony..." Steve called, taking a few steps forward.
"Go away, Rogers," The genius said, taking a swig from the bottle.
Steve frowned, reaching over to take the bottle from Tony's hand. Ignoring the indignant cry from the shorter male, he lifted Tony up.
"Bed. Now."
"My, my, Steve. How straight forward of you. Don't I get a date first?"
Steve rolled his eyes, ignoring Tony's ramblings as he gently placed Tony down on his bed.
"Go to sleep, Tony."
"Can't. A lot on my mind."
Steve frowned, sitting at the edge of the bed. "Was that why you were drinking."
Tony shook his head, his brown eyes staring into Steve's bright blue ones.
"Steve. Steve, I have a son," he said, his speech starting to slur. "I have a son! Steve, what if I'm not good enough? I can't do this. Oh god but I have to. I can't mess with time. He saved us earlier. If I decided to not have him then He wouldn't have managed to save us earlier. But then Kang wouldn't have sent those bots to kill my dad and then none of this would have happened but then if none of this happened then I would probably still have a son and we're stuck in a goddamn paradox. Oh fuck, JARVIS run the--"
Steve placed his hand over Tony's mouth, the sides of his lips twitching in faint amusement.
"Tony, you'll be a good dad. I.. the avengers, we'll make sure of it, okay?"
Tony squinted at him before nodding. Steve removed his hand and gently ruffled Tony's hair. He made a move to get up when Tony grabbed his wrist.
"Would it be okay.. if you stayed?" The billionaire asked, his voice laced thick with emotions. "Just for tonight?"
"I.. yea. No one should spend their New Year alone." Steve softly said, nudging Tony a bit before crawling under the sheets.
"G'night, Steve."
"Good night, Tony."