Work Text:
Steve had a lot of nightmares, shell-shock from the war, memories of being ill before the serum, going down in the ice-
Tony woke to him whining in the back of his throat, the covers thrown off him. He propped himself up on one arm, debating if he should wake him up. Sometimes that left Steve off-kilter and confused, making it the end of that night’s sleep.
Pressing a soft kiss to Steve’s flushed cheek, he pulled back up the covers, wrapping himself as well as he could around Steve, burrowing his head between the shoulder blades in front of his face.
Tony was almost asleep when Steve jerked, slowly waking up, relaxing his arms, then his legs, his back, sitting up, breathing heavy.
“Hey.”
Steve looked down at him, pulling his hands from his face. ”Hey.”
Crawling sleepily, he worked his way into Steve’s lap, getting cradled as emotions passed through Steve’s face.
The blankets fell off from covering the arc reactor, blinding them both with the sudden blue light, and Steve squeezed his eyes shut, whining low in the back of his throat. Tony quickly covered it, reaching up to Steve’s face.
“You need to talk about it?”
“I can’t remember any colors- can’t see-”
He shook his head, covering his face again.
“Take your time, baby. You’re okay.”
“I’M NOT-” Steve inhaled heavily, deflating as Tony jumped. “Sorry.”
“The only color I see is you, I can’t remember- can’t see, it’s faded, the- before the ice.”
“You dream in black and white?”
“Except you. Your arc reactor-” he slipped his hands under the covers, resting his hand on top of it.
“Mmm.”
“I can’t remember the gold of my mom’s hair, her favorite blue dress, Pe-Peggy’s lipstick- it’s just, gone.”
Tony sat up, kissing Steve before reaching for the pad on the nightstand.
“Jarvis?”
“Pulling from the archive, Sir.”
“Tony?” Steve had followed him across the bed, cuddling him from behind as he muttered to himself, fingers flying across the screen.
“Here.”
Steve’s jaw dropped as he reached for the pad with shaking hands, Tony supporting it as he stared at the photo of him and Bucky laughing, their cheeks flushed red , those warm freckles across Bucky’s nose, and god- he’d forgotten the gold in Buck’s eyes-
“It’s probably not completely accurate, but the algorithm should get an approximation. There’s more, they may still be-”
He was on the next photo before Tony finished, gasping before he sniffed heavily. “Oh my god-”
The photo was grainy and stained, and even he couldn’t fix it entirely, but Steve was crying, dragging the back of his hand across his nose as Tony had to take the pad back.
“Tony, that’s my- there were photos-”
“There are thousands of photos of hospitals. I uh, had a history project.”
“That’s my- Tony, that’s my- I never had a photo, god, I-”
“You have her eyes, baby.”
“I’d forgotten her face, Tony, I forgot it.”
“You were young, it’s not your fault.”
Steve shook his head, collapsing down into the bed.
“Hey, it’s okay, Steve. It’s okay.”
Steve nodded jerkily, shaking, and Tony lay back down, moving so Steve’s head rested on his chest.
“Was that too much? I’m sorry.”
“That- how many more photos?”
“That’s the only one I could find.”
“No, that can be- that are colored.”
“I can adjust all of them, I don’t know how accurately-”
“Baby, it’s perfect.” He pulled Tony in for a kiss, cradling the back of his head. “I love you, and I’ve never loved technology more than I do right-” He sat back up abruptly, grabbing the pad, hungrily swiping, looking back at Tony with a smile on his face, eyes and cheeks wet.
“Thank you.”