Chapter Text
'What did you do?' Steve roared, holding the shield in his fist and squeezing tight, ready as always to fling it. Loki's muscle shifted, cat-like, under the leather suit he had to have adopted from Natasha, and he offered a patronizing smile. That, out of everything, made Steve falter. The smile.
He couldn't stop himself from looking back at Tony. The mask was up and his eyes were shut, eyelashes sweeping across his cheeks like some sort of dame. His lips were pale and so was his face. Paler than usual. Something had happened to him during the fight on the penthouse floor of Stark Tower and Steve didn't know what. He flinched when he felt air brush past his shoulder, whipping around to face Loki again. 'What did you do?' he hissed. The green eyes were so close that the round irises didn't seem to have an end.
'Just a little spell. A curse.' He looked playful as he said it. 'See, you know Sleeping Beauty, don't you? Stark is... Sleeping Beauty. True love's kiss will break the spell.'
Steve's eyes widened. 'Loki!' Thor roared, barreling forward. He disappeared in a flash of smoke.
Tony was laying in his big dumb bed, lips pale. Steve had the sinking feeling his face would only get worse, more white, as time went on. True love's kiss. Steve set his head in his hands.
They were fucked. They- they were fucked.
'You want vodka? Nat's got some.' Bruce looked just as sick as Tony, sweaty and wan, but significantly more disheveled instead of dead. Dead. That was how Tony looked. Lifeless and empty. Bruce was just drunk, though. Steve stood up and left the room with difficulty, something sinking in his stomach every step away. They still had a week. A whole week.
It didn't stop him from getting started with burning, awful shots of a drink that felt more like fire than anything edible. He took as many as he could, though, hips pressed against the cold countertop as he swallowed down, throat aching. He'd been crying earlier that day. 'You okay, Cap?' Natasha asked from the doorway, every look a glancing blow against his pride.
Steve straightened up, pushing the shot glass back. He was going to be rosy faced drunk, soon. If he had to guess. 'You know how I am, Nat,' he said in his professional voice. Teasingly, Tony would have called it his Cap voice. 'We lost a teammate today.'
She stared past him vacantly. 'He's not dead yet,' she said, sucking a drop of whiskey- Tony's good whiskey, actually- from her fingertip and studying the blunted nail. 'Don't lose hope.'
Steve forced a smile. 'I won't.' He paused, scrubbing a hand through his hair, still flaked with blood. 'I won't.'
She nodded brusquely, beckoning him into the living room where Clint and Bruce were sprawled out. 'I think Pepper,' she began, pausing. 'I think Pepper is going to handle candidates.' That was good. She knew about his past. Any woman who'd been close enough to love Tony would get a call, and then he would, then he would wake up.
Steve was in his most comfortable pair of sweatpants. Ironically, they were Stark branded. White lettering on the soft navy fabric labelled them as Tony's. He always got the nicest stuff. The nicest Christmas gifts for all of them. Took care of them. Steve swallowed roughly and raised his gaze to Clint. If Bruce had been disheveled, Clint was a complete mess. He hadn't taken a shower, by the looks of it, so he had a streak of mud brown in his hair and scraped up knees to match. Politely, Steve did not mention the fact that his eyes were rimmed red. 'Shitty day, huh?' Bruce laughed in a gravelly, just awful voice.
'I'm sure Pepper will figure it out,' Steve said valiantly. He bit at his knuckle, turning it around to inspect his nails. They were bitten to pieces. 'She's a very smart woman-'
'We both know that isn't the problem,' Natasha said evenly. Steve shook his head.
'We just have to- we have to have faith.' His stomach dropped.
Clint threw a shot back. 'Come on,' he murmured. 'No one loves Tony. You really think someone loves him? You really think that?' Steve swallowed. His eyes were damp. Someone had to love Tony, his big brown eyes that were ever-alive and his dark gazes and his smiling face. Someone just had to.
Very vaguely, he remembered a late night he'd shared with Tony. On the leather couches they were sitting on right then, they'd laid across from each other, sipping fruity specialty cocktails through glasses- those were Tony's specialty- and talking into the air. He'd told Steve... listen, I know how it is. I know what I mean to you. What I should mean to you. I'm the liability on the team, I'm the mistake if I ever saw one, and I- he'd cut off. Too self deprecating. That was Tony. Steve's mobile smart-phone buzzed away in his pocket.
One o'clock. He had a meeting scheduled for some magnetic shield summoning drill. With Tony. 'Excuse me,' he said quietly. 'I'm going to go talk to Ton- Pepper. I'm going to talk to Pepper about everything.'
'Bye, Cap,' echoed out around the room, just murmurs.
'We'll just be here. Getting drunk,' Clint said. As if he wasn't already.
Steve saw a glimpse of Pepper's face through the glass door before he looked back at his phone. He shouldn't have been bothering her like this, she was a very busy woman and he wouldn't be useful anyway, but he couldn't not.
Deep breath in. Then out. The floorboards creaked underneath his feet as he moved to open the door. His fingers stopped on the handle, trailing away as he saw Pepper make a hoarse noise and bend down quickly, pecking Tony on the lips. What would the bristles feel like against her lips? Through the glass of the door, he saw her pause. Steve waited for Tony to shake himself awake. Smile lazily up at her.
He waited for Tony to become alive again.
Steve didn't quite process that he was still doomed until Pepper made a noise of grief under her breath. 'Are there any leads?' Steve asked, barging through the door. She looked up at him, eyes ghostly.
'Nothing. No one. Yet.' Pepper cleared her throat, looking forcibly away from Tony. In contrast, Steve's eyes wouldn't leave his face. The lips she had just kissed were very slightly pink, but only against the greyish white color of Tony's cheeks. 'There are only two options I can think of.'
'Who?' Steve asked, pretending curiosity.
'Rumiko Fujikawa. And Janet, his old best friend.' Her lips quirked up at the sides. 'They're the only exes he still keeps track of, that has to mean something. Right?' Steve nodded, swaying a little.
God, it had gone to his head. The liquor.