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The third time Steven Rogers awakes its on a Tuesday afternoon in 2012. He's a different man with each rebirth.
The first time Steve Rogers came into the world he was five pounds six ounces and burdened with a spirit that's too big for his body.
The second time he's born he is gifted the title Captain America, and given the weight of the world to carry around on his super serum shoulders.
The third time he comes into the world he's still Captain America and he's thrust into a world he could have never imagined.
The first thing he's sees when he opens his sky blue eyes is a beautiful nurse who reminds him of a time that was decades ago and yesterday.
He spends the all of two days struggling to accept the life he left behind before he thinks to ask about the Starks. When he hears that the only living Stark is a daughter named Antonia, he adds two more tallies to his list of losses, and promises to meet the only living connection to his past.
When they say Antonia Stark he pictures Maria Stark with her grace and sophistication, and when they tell him about her suits and he sees Peggy Carter's determination and strength. He has the picture perfect woman in his head, the shining heiress to the stunning Stark name. He sees a model 1940s gal, and hopes the blood running through her veins will connect him to the life he lost when he spent 70 years frozen in the North Atlantic.
A few miles away Tony Stark stares at her Captain America poster trying to decide if it's possible to idolize your enemy. She spent her childhood trying to get her father to see her through the shadow of Steve "Captain America" Rogers, trying to fill the hole he left in Howard, by being the best son a daughter could be. And yet she still feels herself aspiring to be as good as he was. She's spent most of life trying to be like Americas hero, Howard's hero, Her hero.
She shakes that train of thought off "You accomplish nothing when you dwell on things you cannot change", she tells herself and goes back to working on the new suit modifications for War machine.
She's been up for three days and she has the wild, disheveled look about her. She's often been accused by the media of doing drugs because of the way she looks when she's coming off of working benders. It's eighty nine degrees and she prefers to work with the windows open so she's wearing a tight black tube top and short denim shorts to keep cool, and to look beautiful because she likes to take care of herself. Being five two has left her accustomed to wearing heels constantly, so her pedicured toes are adorned with black stilettos making her look almost put together despite her lack of sleep and overage in coffee intake.
Steve's Momma taught him how to treat a lady and Bucky Barnes taught him not all women are ladies.
Tony Stark might be called The Iron Lady, but with perpetually grease streaked cheeks, she's never considered herself one.
When Steve Rogers asked Nick Fury about Antonia, he expected high praise and compliments. She's a Stark after all. Nick ran his fingers over his temple and let a small sigh escape his tired lips. He explained that Tony seems to be perpetually sixteen, that she's often seen coming off a high, or bender. He tells Steve about her kidnapping, how it's believed by shield that she stole ideas from a terrorist agency and combined them with her fathers to create the reactor she shoved into her chest. He tells him that she's smart, but she doesn't have the discipline or drive to be the hero she pretends to be. That she's lucky, and she tries to fight for the world, but she seems more like a little girl fighting off bad dreams then a superhero.
Steve is outraged at this description, she's a Stark for god sake, and he knows they're good people. He refuses to believe such atrocious lies, and asks for a shield car to take him to her house.
Tony hasn't turned on the news since the last time the press called her a drunken whore, and she only has Jarvis inform her if Iron Lady is needed. She's spent the past three days working and has missed every single news channel reporting the amazing return of Captain America. She's just coming out of the lab to get more coffee when she Jarvis tells her Americas Golden Boy is standing at her front door.
Steve Rogers staring at the front door of what has to be the largest house he has ever seen in his life. When a voice, seemingly from the heavens, greets him he nearly throws his shield through the door. He then proceeds to demand whoever spoke show themselves or he'll be forced to take further defensive action.
Tony thinks to herself as she watches her childhood hero yelling at the air that perhaps in another universe she would have found this funny. All she can feel is fear laced with the excitement of meeting the man she's been looking and living up to for the past thirty five years.
In a universe on another plane of existence Tony Stark mouths off to Captain America while pretending like he doesn't care about anything. They both have alpha male written in their blood and they finally come to a truce when the need to save the world out ways the need to win the pissing contest. In this universe Tony Stark is a woman in a mans world and Steve Rogers is human and not as well adjusted as everyone thinks in this century.
When Tony opens the door she forgets to breath.
When Steve is met with what could be Maria Starks ghost he's rendered speechless.
When Tony Stark finally meets her hero, it's nothing she ever imagined.
