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“Hey, Capsicle. I’m not one to judge, really, but this isn’t some twisted sex fantasy they tried to crush out of you in the thirties is it?”
Steve sighed with relief as his fellow prisoner finally stirred to consciousness. He’d woken himself a couple of hours previously with the world around him a blur, hands attempting to pin him down. The resulting fight was a mess of color and bodies. Steve had been sure he'd gotten at least a couple of hits in, judging by his now grazed knuckles, but in the end it hadn't been enough to get him out of the windowless room he was now locked in.
The space wasn’t large, the most interesting feature being a glass wall cutting the room in two. There were two steel doors—one on his side, one on the other—that looked heavily reinforced, as though they had been designed to keep someone with super-soldier strength from getting out.
And there, on the other side of the glass, in chains and completely out of Steve's reach, was Tony.
Tony looked even more beat to hell than Steve felt. The Iron Man armor was long gone, leaving Tony shivering in his thin undersuit. His hands were anchored to the wall behind with him with thick chains that looked as though they might even withstand Steve's strength. Wasn't going to stop him from trying, though. "You remember what happened?" Steve called across to him, making his way over to the glass.
Tony screwed up his face, shaking his head. "After getting shot out of the sky? Nope. Remind me why I agreed to help you clean up HYDRA again? Thought that was your mess."
"I was always taught it was nice to share," Steve deadpanned, running his hand along the dividing barrier between them. "I'm going to break this."
"Well, I should hope so. And was that going to be some time today?"
Steve went to retort that he was going as fast as he could, when he saw another full-body shiver go through Tony. They'd tracked the remains of HYDRA to a small, Eastern European country called Sokovia, and every landscape they had viewed from their quinjet the past week had been blanketed in snow. "Hold on, Tony. I'll get us out of this."
He got an exaggerated eye roll in response. "Yeah, yeah, you're the big hero. Just checking that this isn’t a sex thing, right? Because you never actually answered the question. That's sus, Cap."
Steve ignored him, giving himself as much of a run-up as he could before ramming his shoulder into the glass barrier. It didn’t so much as crack.
“What, did you use all the patriot juice up on that little tussle?" Tony nodded at Steve's knuckles. "All those muscles couldn't even grab us a bargaining chip?"
Steve gritted his teeth as he slammed his shoulder into the glass a second time, and then a third. “It's HYDRA, Tony. They don't care about bargaining chips that aren't power."
A fourth time.
A fifth.
“Steve.”
He blinked, not sure he had heard correctly. He looked over at Tony. All the usual bravado and swagger that usually surrounded his teammate had dropped. He’d closed his eyes, leaning back against the stone wall, curling his legs up the best he could for warmth.
The change in his teammate's demeanor threw Steve more than waking up in the mysterious room had. "Hey. I said I'd get us out of this. I will. I’ll break the glass and—”
“I’m about 87.6 percent certain that glass was made to be Cap-proof. They knew what they were doing. They planned for this, Steve. For us.”
Steve huffed, pressing his forehead against the glass. "I could try the door."
"Doubt you're going to have much luck there either. Stop trying to punch your way out and let me think." Tony still hadn't open his eyes, sucking a breath through his teeth as another violent shiver sent the chains clanking.
Steve hesitated, unsure what to say. He’d never seen Tony without a plan before.
Finally, Tony seemed to arrive at a destination. "I’ve been here before, Cap.”
Steve swallowed, cottoning on to what had Tony so shaken. The last time he'd woken up as a hostage had been Afghanistan. Steve lowered himself so he was sitting against the glass, as close to Tony as possible. “This isn’t going to be like Afghanistan. The team will be looking for us. And you’re not on your own this time.”
“Great, I get kidnapped with the Tony Robbins of the group. At least Barton would compete with me for most colorful complaint.”
Steven sighed as Tony’s walls went back up—the armor he always wore whether he was in the suit or not. “I know we don’t see eye to eye on everything.” Steve ignored Tony’s scoff. “But you’re part of my team, Tony. I look out for my team. I keep them safe."
He forced himself not to think about Bucky falling from a train, attacking him on a bridge, Steve attacking back on the helicarrier—
“Yeah. I know you do.” When Tony opened his eyes again, they were resolute. As though he’d made a decision. “But you’re also wrong.”
Steve tried for a smile. "You always think I’m wrong.”
“Not always. Just mostly. But in this case—definitely. This is going to be exactly like Afghanistan." Tony flexed in the chains, trying to shift into a more comfortable position. "Why else would the bad guys of the week go to all this trouble to grab me?"
“You don’t know that."
Tony ignored him. “They're going to come in here and demand weapons. An arc reactor or a suit or something new and fun and deadly that’s going to get a whole lot of people hurt. I'm going to say no, and then they're going to make me do it anyway.”
“The team will find us before that happens," Steve insisted. "They'll know we're missing. They'll find us."
"Yeah?" Tony challenged him. "And how long do you think that's going to take? I had people looking for me in Afghanistan too. It took them more than a few hours.”
Steve flexed his hands against the glass, as though he could will the dividing wall between them into dust. “I won’t let them hurt you.”
“Yeah, here's the thing." Tony was staring very deliberately at the ceiling. "I don’t think it’s me they’re going to hurt.”
Steve blinked at him. “You’re scared of them hurting me? And that...worries you?”
Tony managed to pry his eyes off the damp stone he'd been eyeballing. “Jesus, Rogers. I’m not that heartless.”
“I didn't mean to imply you were."
Tony shrugged that off. “They’re going to want some shiny new death toy. They knew I'd say no without leverage. So." He gestured best he could at Steve. "Leverage."
Despite everything, Steve relaxed a little. He'd take a beating over watching a teammate get tortured any day. “Tony, whatever they do to me—I can take it. The serum will heal me."
Tony's jaw tensed. “Doesn’t stop it hurting you.”
“If it’s a choice between that, and you building a weapon that will end up in the wrong hands…Tony, you can’t build them anything. You know you can't. Our team will get us out. I can take what they throw at me until then.”
“Always laying down on that wire, aren’t you, Cap?"
"Well, when you have a method that works..."
Tony didn't rise to the joke. “Would you do it?" he asked bluntly. “Would you let a member of the team go through something that? Would you watch, knowing you could end it?”
Steve weighed the question. “If they had told me that was their decision…yes. I would.”
Tony leaned his head back against the wall, giving an experimental tug on the chains. They didn’t budge.
“And it is my decision," Steve pressed on. "I’d be hurt more knowing that there was something out there that could kill innocent people than by anything they could do to me. Okay? Tony, talk to me."
Tony was back to staring at the ceiling. “Okay. Protect the innocents, and all that. Good plan, Cap. Good plan. Good speech. Very inspiring. Don’t forget it.”
Steve frowned at those last three words, but at that moment there was the rattle of keys in a lock, and the door on Tony’s side of the room swung open. Steve scrambled to his feet, slamming his fist on the glass partition as Baron Wolfgang von Strucker walked into the room.
Strucker made his way over to Tony, followed by two men in black, both bearing the HYDRA symbol. He reached down to grip Tony's chin, forcing his face up to his.
"Strucker," Steve warned. "Don't touch him."
“If this turns out to be weird sex stuff after all,” Tony got out, hampered by Strucker’s grip. “I’m calling dibs on not being the one to explain this to Pepper.”
Strucker pulled out a small light, shining it in each of Tony’s eyes. “Excellent. The sedative we gave you has fully worn off. We want you to be awake for what comes next.”
"I don't," Tony protested, but Strucker had already released him, moving over to Steve instead. “Did you miss me, Captain?”
Steve folded his arms, making use of his full height. “Not particularly.”
“Cap has friends outside the team?” Tony called over. “And there we were thinking we needed to get him out more.”
Strucker flashed Steve a knowing smile before he turned back to Tony. “We haven’t been formally introduced. Baron von Strucker, at your service. The good captain and I have a lot of history.”
“Tony is not building anything for you,” Steve shot at him.
Strucker’s eyebrows raised in amusement. “And why would we make him? We already have all the scientists we need for HYDRA's regrowth.”
It was Steve’s turn to be surprised. He looked at Tony, who had that look of resolution back on his face. Preparing for a storm he could see coming, even if Steve couldn't yet.
“We have been trying to replicate the super-soldier serum for decades," Strucker explained. "But alas Erskine’s formula has eluded us. Until we had the idea to reverse engineer it from the original.”
Steve froze against the glass. HYDRA wanted the serum? That had been what they were trying to take when he had first woken up? But if they had been after the serum this whole time, then why bother taking Tony at all?
As if Steve had asked the question out loud, Strucker pulled his gun, leveling it against Tony’s head. “We knew chains wouldn't hold you, so I hope you don’t mind our little contingency plan.”
He pressed the gun forward until Tony’s head hit the back wall, making him wince, the barrel digging deep into his forehead.
“Turns out we need a clean sample, completely drug-free, and somehow I don't think knocking you over the head is going to be effective. So when my men come in that room to take your blood, you’re not going to fight back. No, Rogers—you're going to be a good little soldier and follow every single one of our orders. If you step one foot out of line…” The gun split skin, a bead of blood running over Tony's left eye.
“If you kill him, I kill you,” Steve promised.
“Death threats?" Strucker mused. "That’s not very Captain America of you, Rogers. And neither is letting your team down.”
“Yep, Cap would never let his team down,” Tony rejoined the conversation. “Right, Rogers?”
Steve glared back, realization slamming into him. Tony had known. That too-quick brain had seen something Steve hadn’t, and figured out it would be Tony who would be hurt to get Steve to cooperate, not the other way around.
Would you let a member of the team go through that? Would you watch, knowing you could end it?
If they had told me that was their decision…yes.
Tony had made his decision.
“What will it be, Captain?" Strucker pressed him. "When my men enter that room, are you going to behave?”
I’d be hurt more knowing that there was something out there that could kill innocent people.
And if HYDRA got their hands on the serum…
Well. He'd already seen the damage that could do.
“No,” Steve said. He felt something inside him break, even as Tony’s eyes filled with relief. “I’m not letting you or HYDRA get the serum, ever. You come in here, I'm fighting you."
“That’s your choice, Captain.” And he fired the gun into Tony’s leg.
Steve would never forget Tony’s cry as the bullet hit. It burnt into his memory as he resumed smashing his shoulder into the glass, willing it to break. If he could just get across the room...
The glass held.
A team of medics was already on the scene, tending to the bullet wound as stifled sounds of pain leaked from Tony, as hard as the man was trying to keep them back.
“We wouldn’t want Stark to bleed out so soon. Not when we’re only just beginning." Strucker pocketed the gun, snapping his fingers at the waiting HYDRA operatives. One nodded and left the room, while the other approached Tony and unlocked the chains holding him to the wall. To Tony’s credit, he landed a hefty punch to the operative’s kidneys before a fist belted him across the jaw.
This is Tony’s choice, Steve reminded himself. To protect innocents. If it were me, I wouldn’t want him to give in.
That resolve cracked when the HYDRA operative returned to the room holding a bucket of water.
“No,” Steve whispered, then, louder, “Tony. Hold on. We'll work this out."
This isn’t going to be like Afghanistan.
The HYDRA operatives held Tony above the bucket as Strucker turned back to Steve. “Are you going to let us take your blood?”
Steve’s tongue felt like it was made of lead, caught between two impossible options. Strucker seemed to take his indecision for a no, because he signaled to the HYDRA operatives to plunge Tony’s head under the water.
“Are you going to behave, Rogers?” Strucker repeated as Tony started to thrash.
Steve tried to breathe. Don’t give in don’t give in don’t give in—
It seemed like an eternity before they pulled Tony up again, gasping for air. Steve bowed his head, only to hear a soft whimper. He looked up to see Strucker resting his foot on Tony’s injured leg.
Steve's slammed a fist into the glass. “Get off him!"
“You will watch."
When Steve didn’t reply, Strucker pressed down harder, making Tony scream.
“Alright!” Steve cried out, panicked. He had never heard Tony make a sound like that, and it cut him right down to the bone. “I’ll watch, I'll watch! Just get off him!"
Satisfied, Strucker removed his foot, barely giving Tony a second to catch his breath before he was shoved back under.
“All this for a drop of blood, Rogers?” Strucker mocked. Steve was frozen, wanting to tear his eyes away, but not wanting to risk anything else happening to Tony. “It’s not so much to ask for, is it? It is really worth all this?”
Tony’s thrashing started to fade, limbs going limp.
Steve's breath caught, and he realized he'd been holding it in tandem with Tony. “You’re drowning him. If he dies, you have no leverage over me.”
“My medics can bring him back. Again and again and again—”
Tony was completely still now. Strucker snapped his fingers again and the operatives hauled him out, a medic immediately turning him on his back. Steve's blood turned to ice as the medic started pumping Tony's chest, over and over until, finally, a cascade of water poured from Tony's mouth.
Strucker didn't even give him a minute to recover. “Again,” Strucker ordered. "Until Rogers agrees to comply."
"Stop." The word was out before Steve had even decided to say it, the HYDRA operatives holding Tony an inch above the water. Tony jerked his head up, panting, but still managed to shake his head. His lips moved. Three words. Don’t forget it.
“No,” Steve breathed.
“I’m sorry, Captain." Strucker made a show of cupping his ear. "I didn’t quite catch that. Can you speak up?”
“No,” Steve said, louder.
“No what?”
“I’m sorry,” Steve said, the words aimed at Tony.
Tony nodded in understanding, wet hair dripping into his eyes, mingling with the blood from his forehead. There was no resentment in his expression. Only resolution.
Steve turned back to Strucker. “No, I won't fight you. You can take my blood if you leave Tony alone."
“Rogers!” Tony twisted in his captors’ grip. “Don't be a hypocrite! We had a deal!”
Strucker backhanded him across the face, the sound of the impact ringing through the stone room.
“Stop!” Steve pleaded, as much to Tony as to Strucker. “You have me. Let him go.”
Strucker beamed like it was Christmas as he nodded to the operatives, who dragged Tony back against the wall and fixed the chains back in place, before preparing to leave the room. “Stark stays with us as long as you do, Captain. But if you’re a good little boy and don’t upset my doctors, he remains unhurt. Do we have a deal?”
Steve swallowed, feeling sick. He knew he shouldn't. Just like he should have taken out Bucky faster on the helicarrier. He hadn't. He didn't regret it. “We have a deal.”
“Steve, don’t do this!” Tony was still fighting, even though the struggles were weak. “You really want HYDRA to have an army of super-soldiers? How exactly do you intend to deal with that?”
“Together.”
Tony scoffed. “And if we lose?”
“We’ll do that together too.”
"Hate to break this up and all, but..." Strucker pulled his gun and aimed it at Tony again.
Steve raised both of his hands; a clear show of surrender. “I'm cooperating. You don’t need to do that.”
“Just insurance, Captain. It pays to be cautious in these matters.”
The room waited with bated breath for the Hydra operatives to reappear on Steve’s side of the room. Tony’s raw voice broke the silence, the single harsh word directed right at Steve. “Why?”
“Because you’re on my team, Tony," Steve replied. "And because you’re my friend. If the positions were reversed, even if I had told you not to give them what they wanted…I think we both know what you would have done.”
Whatever Tony’s response would have been was lost as the door on his side of the room reopened.
“What—” was all Strucker got out before an arrow pierced straight through the hand holding the gun, causing him to drop it with a roar of pain. Steve leaned against the glass in relief as a second arrow embedded itself in Strucker’s shoulder. A blur of red and black was already at Tony’s side, picking the locks on the manacles in a manner of seconds.
“Miss me, Romanoff?”
Natasha gave a wry smile as she took Tony’s arms around her shoulders, helping him to his feet as Clint took care of Strucker, a blow to the head knocking the Baron unconscious.
“Not for a second,” Natasha smiled back at him.“But finding you was the only way I could get Clint to stop crying.”
“Gotta say, I wasn’t ready to give up the fancy toys,” Clint replied as crashing and screaming were heard from elsewhere in the building. “And Hulk and Thor both needed to blow off some steam, so you know. Multi-tasking.”
Natasha passed Tony off to Clint and approached Steve from the other side of the glass. “You okay?” she asked.
“Once you get me out of this box and Tony to a hospital…yeah. I’ll be fine.”
Natasha clearly didn't believe that for a second, but seemed to decide that now was not the time to call him out on it. She gave him her we're talking about this later look, before heading for the door. "Be right there. Don't go anywhere."
“I don’t need a hospital,” Tony griped, leaning heavily into Clint. Clint grimaced a little as Tony's soaked clothes dripped onto his, but sheathed his bow so as to wrap his other arm around Tony's waist to keep him upright.
“Tony," Steve said, incredulous. "There is a hole in your leg.”
“Had worse,” Tony grunted back.
“It’ll be fun,” Clint announced, running a hand up and down Tony's arm, trying to get the blood flowing again. “We’ll all take turns lamenting by your bedside.”
Tony glared up at him. “You’re not selling this, Barton.”
The door to Steve’s side of the room clicked open, and Natasha appeared there. “Ready to go home, Cap? I know this place is larger than the quinjet, but at least we have wi-fi.”
"If Thor doesn't break it again," Clint added.
Steve looked around at his teammates, eyes locking with Tony’s. Soaked, hurt, and definitely mad at him. But alive. Steve would take alive any day of the week. “Home sounds perfect."