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“Nope!” A voice calls out from the back of the crowd, clear and true.
“Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope!” It continues, getting progressively louder as it draws closer to the podium.
John Walker squints into the crowd until Tony Stark bursts onto the stage, looking quite frankly, incredibly pissed off.
“Give me the shield back.” Tony says, holding out a hand. “Go on, chop chop, give it here.”
In the audience, Sam’s jaw drops. Rhodey makes a noise that’s practically a giggle. There’s an explosion of camera flashes aimed at Tony. At the podium, John Walker searches around awkwardly for someone else to intervene. Drag Tony off of the stage or something. Because this is in public. In the middle of a press conference, no less. Surely someone-
“Yeah, I don’t have all day.” Tony says, folding his arms. “Are you gonna give me that shield or not? C’mon. America doesn’t buy generic brand superheroes, we only support the real ones.”
John opens his mouth in shocked protest. “But I am a real superhero. I was chosen-“
“Oh yeah? Then who exactly chose you?” Tony asks. “Because I sure as heck didn’t choose you. And Steve certainly didn’t choose you either.”
Tony grabs John’s microphone and clears his throat before speaking right into it. “Steve actually chose Sam Wilson to receive the shield, everybody. Just for the record.”
“As Steve Roger’s partner in hero work as well as in life in general, I have every right to protect and watch over his legacy. Which includes his shield. Which I am now, rightfully, taking from you.”
Tony reaches out and grabs the shield, pulling it from John’s reluctant fingers.
“Thaaaank you.” Tony says slowly as he eases it out of John’s grip. “Oh, and don’t call yourself Captain America anymore either by the way. Call yourself… America Lad or something, I don’t know. Do I really have to come up with everything?”
John blinks a few times. “I… what?”
“Peace out! Wooo! America Lad over here, ladies and gentlemen!” Tony says and claps John once over the shoulder, before dropping the microphone noisily onto the stage to a barrage of reporters yelling out questions and taking photographs. But no one makes a move to stop him as he starts strolling towards the exit of the building with the shield tucked under one arm.
He stops as he walks past Sam and lingers for a moment. “You want this?” He offers. “Because it clashes with my suit so my other options are pretty much just having yet another fancy dust-collector.”
“I already made my decision.” Sam says, through gritted teeth. “Don’t make this even harder on me, Tony.”
Tony shrugs. “Well, let me know if you change your mind.” He says.
The sound of a phone ringing reverberates throughout the room, interrupting John yet again mid-speech. “Ooh! Sorry, I’ve gotta take this!” Tony says loudly, fishing through his pockets for his phone.
“Barnes! How are you?” Tony exclaims cheerfully.
Sam looks at him in surprise. Bucky Barnes? Is calling him? Bucky doesn’t call people, people call Bucky… and then he ghosts them because he’s Bucky and he’s difficult like that.
“Yes, yes. I did.” Tony chuckles. “No. I can’t say that on tv! Even I’m not that much of a loose cannon. Uh-huh. Right beside me. Yes, I told him. He said no.” Tony looks far too amused by whatever Bucky says in response to that.
“He says he wants to talk to you.” Tony says, handing over his phone to Sam.
Sam gives Tony a dry look, and then takes it.
“Why is this the first I’ve heard from you in-“
“Why did you give up the shield?” Bucky asks, immediately.
“It was my choice! Leave me be! Also call me more! Also… I hate you!” Sam snaps back.
“Well, I hate you too!” Bucky snaps into the phone.
Tony gives Sam a strange look, and Sam shoots back his best withering glare.
“Why does something like this have to happen for you to call me, Bucky?” Sam asks. “I thought we were cool.”
Sam could almost hear Bucky’s shrug. “We are cool.” He replies.
“Are we? Do you know exactly how many texts I’ve sent you?”
“I don’t like using my phone.”
“You’re using your phone right now!” Sam hisses.
“Because you’ve betrayed my best friend’s trust!”
“What are you talking about?”
“Steve left you that shield! His legacy!” Bucky says. “And you just gave it up!”
“That’s none of your business. It’s my business.”
“It is my business!” Bucky shouts angrily down the phone.
Stark rolls his eyes and snatches the phone out of Sam’s hand. “Ok, that’s enough. You two clearly aren’t going to sort this out on your own. And Bucky, I could hear you from there. No, you’re not on speaker. Yes, I’m sure.”
“I made this phone, Bucky. I know where the speaker button is.”
Sam snorts loudly.
“Oh my God you’re each other’s evil twins.” Tony says.
Sam lifts up his hands in protest. “Hey! He was the one who said something, I just laughed.”
“Oh… no. Oo-e. Ok. Twins doing that to each other would be really wrong, evil or not.” Tony replies to something Bucky must have said over the phone. “I take it back, and I apologise.”
Sam cocks his head. “Bucky? What exactly are you telling Stark?” He tries to make a grab for the phone.
Stark dodges the grab nimbly and races around in a circle with the phone. Sam doesn’t know how he can manage to do that while still rolling his eyes.
“For God’s sakes Barnes! Just call the guy once in a while and hang out with him! If that’s literally all he asks for, the man is a saint! And let Sam make his own decisions! I know you think he should be Cap, I think so too, but shouldn’t that be up to him?”
“Ok.” Tony says, victoriously, and hangs up.
Then he turns on Sam. “And you! Just consider it. Make your own decision, that’s fine. But if you ever change your mind, just give me a call, alright?”
“Do you really think that I haven’t thought about this already?” Sam asks, his voice growing thick with emotion.
Tony regards him carefully. “I know you have.” He says, sympathetically. “Good luck, Sam.” He says.
“Ooh, and before I forget, I’ve installed one of those parental tracking programs on Bucky’s phone and linked it to yours, so if he doesn’t text you back you can just always just find him in person. I’ve called it Find My Bucky.”
“That’s so not my style.” Sam says with a frown, opening up his phone.
Tony shrugs. “Well, it’s not normally my style either, but I’ve never dated a guy who acts this much like a stray cat, so…”
“Well, seeya Sam.” Tony says. “Let’s catch up sometime, ok?”
Sam nods.
Tony takes the shield home, and considers where he’s gonna keep it, at least until Sam needs it.
He props it up against the couch, frowning thoughtfully, and then decides to go make himself a coffee. Not because it hurts him to look at it… just because he needs coffee.
Although it does… hurt him to look at it. His lover’s shield. The symbol of peace that Steve stood for all through his life. Although it hurt even more to see it in the greedy fist of that pale imitation. Even if a small part of Tony is actually aware deep down that this John Walker fellow probably didn’t know how much he was hurting him in the first place by just holding it. Probably.
All of a sudden, Tony hears a loud clang erupt from the living room. He rushes out, to see little Morgan having tipped the shield onto the ground. She’s beaming from ear to ear. “When it snows out, can we go sledding, dad?” She asks, apparently having mistaken it for a Captain America themed sled rather than his actual shield.
Tony’s almost yells at her not to touch it, almost screams in her face that it’s precious and that it’s not a toy. But he stops himself dead in his tracks when he realises that it’s exactly what his father would have done to him. And he feels horrified at the idea that he could do that in turn to his daughter.
And then he pictures Steve watching Morgan sled down the hill on his old shield. He wonders, how would Steve have felt about that kind of legacy?
And then he smiles. He thinks Steve Rogers would have liked it just fine.
“Sure thing, kiddo.” He says. “But take good care of it, since it’s just on loan from a friend of mine. Believe it or not, this sled belongs to the real Captain America.”
Sam approaches Bucky, where he’s sitting on the side of the road. It’s already night-time, and Sam had given up and used Find My Bucky when he’d noticed that Bucky hadn’t moved from that spot for about four hours.
“You ok?” Sam asks, sitting down next to Bucky.
“Bad date.” Bucky says, folding his arms around himself. “But, they’re all pretty bad when they’re not with you.”
“Then call me.” Sam says. “Stop making me chase after you. You know, I’m not gonna do it forever.”
“I know.” Bucky says.
“I thought you liked me.”
“I do.”
“Then why?”
“This world is scary. Love is scary. And I don’t deserve you.” Bucky says. “I’m over a hundred years old… and sometimes I feel it. I feel tired, Sam. And I don’t want to be this burden on you.”
“And I think you’re forgetting that that’s all my decision.” Sam says. “And if you still want me, then I still want you. I don’t think that you’re a burden on me, Bucky. I never have, and I never will. I know who I want by my side, and it’s you.”