Archive of Our Own

In the black depths of the Unova galaxy a beacon of light can be seen. It is the starship USS Marvel, commanded by Captain Steve Rogers, Starfleet’s Golden Boy. Marvel’s First Officer is the brilliant Tony Stark, chief engineer and son of Howard Stark, one of Starfleet’s founders. Working alongside them in their journey through space are 438 other crewmen. They are the best of the very best and include Luke Cage as chief of security, Sam Wilson as chief science officer, Jessica Drew as chief communications officer and many others.

As we speak, the USS Marvel is headed towards Asgard, one of the founding members of the United Federation of Planets and great allies of Earth. It is there that the one hundredth birthday of Odin, the planet’s chief ruler, will be commemorated. The celebrations are rumoured to surpass any others and are anxiously awaited by the fatigued crew of the Marvel.

Many perils lie ahead of everyone’s favorite crew, but under the sensible eye of Captain Rogers and the wicked genius of First Officer Stark, there is little to fear.

These are the voyages of the starship Marvel. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

- - -

“Power is down to 37%, Captain.”

“Our shields are holding up but not for much longer. We need to get out of this storm and we need to do it fast.”

“Captain, we’re losing engine two.”

“Patch me through to Engineering,” said Captain Rogers as he loomed over Lieutenant Drew’s shoulders to look over at her screen. His chair’s functions had stopped working five minutes ago and Steve could no longer stand to sit there powerless.

“Cap!” a disgruntled voice said right before a smoke stained face appeared on screen. Tony looked like he’d given up on his job as Chief Engineer and decided to become a mole. Even his eyeballs looked dirty. “What can I do for you?”

“What the hell is happening to our ship, Tony?” Steve asked, getting right to the point. Behind Tony, numerous red lights were going on and off, a clear sign they were in trouble, as sparks and smoke covered the rest of the screen. Behind Steve things weren’t looking much better. The Marvel was amazing, Starfleet’s best ship, but it wasn’t made to cross ion storms and they were suffering from it.

“Well, as you probably already know, we are currently crossing a shitfest storm,” Tony glared at where he thought Lieutenant Barton, their helmsman, was, “and our baby isn’t doing very well.”

Steve huffed in frustration. He found Tony’s light, mocking tone funny on most occasions, but he could do without it when their ship was dying and there was little he could do to stop it. “I know that part,” he said, “I meant why are we still here? The sensors showed the storm to be no longer than five kilometers. We should have crossed it by now.”

“How should I know that? I’m keeping our baby together and the,” Tony looked to the side as a small explosion went off, “Peter if you let go of that lever so help me Tesla I will kill you--the engines running. The rest is on you.”

Before Steve could get another word in, Tony hung up, leaving it up to Steve to figure out a way to escape a storm they should have left by now before their ship crumbled to pieces. Tony was kind of a shit First Officer sometimes, but you could always count on him to keep the ship together when no one else could and impress the hell out of some ambassadors whenever they were called to do some politics.

“Sam,” Steve barked, turning to his Chief Science Officer, “what do you have?”

“I’m not sure, Captain. This storm is extremely irregular; it doesn’t have a focus point and for all extents and purposes, it should not even exist,” said Sam, glaring at the monitors as if they had personally betrayed him. Steve felt both his eyebrows go up. There was little else he hated more than hearing one of his crewmen say ‘I’m not sure’.

“Clint, can you get us out of here?” Steve asked, pushing himself up to his famous ‘I am the Captain of this ship and I swear I’ll get us out of here’ pose, which was said to always inspire confidence in his crewmen and fear in his enemies. Steve just liked having good posture.

He looked at the surrounding bridge crew, all busy with their own posts and all looking as clueless and desperate as Steve felt. They were all experienced officers, ion storms were thoroughly studied during their academy years and this was the third storm they had run into since they started their journey and yet Steve had never felt so unprepared. Space was so unpredictable. One minute you were laughing with your friends, the next you were dying surrounded by nothing, thousands of miles away from home. Steve cringed at the very thought of letting that happen to his crew.

“Not sure, Cap. I’m doing my best, but with the power on shields it’s hard to pick up the speed we need.”

Steve sat in his Captain’s chair and steepled his fingers under his chin. One of the reasons why he’d been given captaincy of the Marvel was because of his cool, sensible head. Everyone knew you could rely on Captain Rogers to do his best and look out for his crew, but what most people didn’t know, or chose not to know, was that Steve was a risk taker. He knew what Clint was going to say before he said it. He’d seen the numbers, and he recognized of the implication of Clint’s words.

Their shields were the only thing keeping the hull in one piece right now. Without them their ship would last what? Five seconds in the storm? After that they would all be blown to pieces, bodies and lives scattered through the cold, shattering emptiness of space.

Only they didn’t have many chances of making it with the shields either. They’d last longer, but unless they got out of the storm before they lost all power, those few seconds would be nothing more than a worthless number.

To classify the decision he had to make as a difficult one barely scratched the surface, but Steve wasn’t Captain so he could make the easy decisions. That’d be nice, just getting the chance to not worry about the 429 lives that depends on him for a while. Unfortunately, he’d never hear the end of it from Tony.

“Redirect all power from shields to the engines. Let’s get out of here people.”

There were a couple of “aye, Captain,” from the crew, all of them still focused on doing their jobs even though to Steve it felt like there was nothing any of them could do. He gripped his armrests tight, straightening his back as he waited for the impact that never came.

“Captain, we’re out of the storm!” said an eager Ensign from navigation who was practically leaning over her station in excitement.

“What?” Steve asked. Their shields were still up, Clint had yet to redirect all their power, which meant either they were all going crazy or the universe was.

“She’s right,” said Sam, who was also leaning over his station in excitement, “we’ve left the storm, or more like the storm has left us. It’s disappearing from right under our noses at unbelievable rates. It’s barely over two hundred meters long now.”

Steve didn’t have time to ask how the hell an ion storm, which could last eternities and mess up entire solar systems, had disappeared in a moment’s notice, for his attention was raised to something even crazier.

“Captain, you’re gonna want to see this,” said Clint. All eyes turned to their front window, or more specifically, to the mesmerizing planet in front of them that was not there a minute ago.

A call came to Steve’s station, now back up online. Steve didn’t have to look down to see who was talking to him.

“Is that what I think it is?” Tony asked, brow furrowed in confusion as he glared at his screen like it was offending him. Everyone on the Marvel took technological betrayal extremely seriously.

“If by that you mean Asgard then yes, that is exactly what you think that is,” Steve said. He felt proud of how nonchalant he sounded, a well-practiced art. Inside he was screaming like a giddy six-year-old who had just found himself in Disney land and not the dentist’s office like he thought.

“How the fuck did this happen? We were practically on the other side of the galaxy. Goddammit, Peter, is this on you? Have you been messing with my engines again?”

“I haven’t, I swear. I mean, I did do something the other week,” Tony raised his fist to hit the gawky man standing next to him, who cowered immediately and raised both arms in protection, “but it couldn’t have done this. Promise.”

“Tony, stop threatening your ensigns,” said Steve and despite his serious tone, there was a smile on his lips. He knew how much Tony cared for Peter if the number of explosions and remodelations to the Marvel the two did were anything to go by. He also knew Tony, self-professed most selfish man in the universe, was terrible at expressing his feelings and admitting he had a heart.

“I only threaten the lazy ones,” said Tony. Peter blew a raspberry at him. Tony immediately reciprocated, “Anyway, I have a ship to fix. See if you get us to Asgard without bumping into any other storms, Cap.”

Steve let out a thin laugh and closed the comm, turning his focus back to his bridge. “Everyone, I want your reports about what happened as soon as possible, and preferably I’d also like some answers. Jessica, initiate contact with Asgard. Tell them the Marvel will be joining their festivities after all.”

As he waited for the slow stream of reports to trickle in, Steve looked over some of the data he’d already been sent and tried to make some sense out of everything. They were mostly damage reports, no deaths to account for, which meant they would be able to deal with everything once they got to Asgard.

Asgard. The planet of Gods and Wonders.

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose. As Starfleet’s crown jewel, the Marvel had been invited to celebrate the one hundredth birthday of Odin, ruler of Asgard. They all wanted to go, invitations like this didn’t show up often, but a call for help on Sector Delta Five had detained them, and their most deserved shore leave had to be postponed. No one felt worse about it than Steve, whose main concern was the well-being of his crew.

He knew then that very little could explain how they had broken the laws of physics and why they were suddenly on the other side of the galaxy, like Tony had said, at Asgard’s doorstep on time for the celebrations.

For a second, Steve enjoyed the thought that maybe this was all blessing in disguise; some kind of gift given to all of them in return for their services to the Federation. The thought was nice, comforting even, but it was also treacherous and led him to a slippery slope of wishful thinking.

As Captain, Steve had to be skeptical at all times and most importantly, critical. He knew that by now at least five different rumours had gained legs. The Marvel was on the other side of space and no one knew why, but that sure wouldn’t stop people from speculating. Steve, however, didn’t speculate. He looked, and demanded, for the truth. This was a hard conviction to maintain when it meant that if the situation looked too fishy, he’d have to turn the ship around for its safety, something he knew a lot of people wouldn’t understand.

The first report arrived at this station. Steve crossed his fingers and hoped for the best, expecting the worst.

- - -

“I’ve received reports from every department but yours.”

Steve sat down on the floor and leant back against the wall. He was carrying a tray full of food in one hand and a PADD in the other. Putting the PADD down, he began to pick at the food on the left side of the tray as he waited.

“That’s because I’m busy,” said Tony from somewhere in the engine’s mechanics, a bob of black hair popping up for a second so Tony could pick a tool before he went back down again.

“You always say that,” said Steve. He was so used to this conversation he could do both sides flawlessly by now.

Tony would grumble something about how people didn’t respect the Marvel enough and Steve would call him out on this, both of them knowing fully well the crew of their ship took good care of it. Then Steve would offer Tony food, as a peace sign but also because Tony forgot to eat all the time. Tony would grumble something about not needing food, since Tony loves to grumble, before he caved in and joined Steve on the floor.

“Let’s just skip the rest of this conversation to the point where you join me for a meal, shall we?“ Before Tony could complain about work, Steve added, “I already spoke to Peter. The Marvel is no longer in danger. I can’t make you take up normal work schedules like everyone else, but I can make you stop to eat every now and then.”

Tony glared at Steve like Steve’s very existence was offensive to him, which Steve knew for a fact was a lie since they were friends. Best friends even, if you don’t count how they got off on the wrong foot and only bickered and insulted each other for the first six months of their journey.

It had taken a klingon attack that almost destroyed the Marvel for them to get it together, and Steve hadn’t looked back since.

Tony was a complicated person. He dismissed most of his First Officer duties, handing them off to young ensigns who are too scared of him to say ‘no’. He was always late with his reports and sometimes he could be so rude and brash all Steve wanted to do was punch him. But while Tony might look like an overly confident engineer, after knowing him for two years Steve could safely say that he wa most definitely that, but also so much more.

Tony was kind. He cared about people, from the crewmen that work around him - and never for him - to the population of a planet under a horrible dictatorship that had them breaking so many laws to help them Steve genuinely lost count. He was brilliant in every possible way, knowing the Marvel inside and out, and he was devilishly charming. He could put a smile on anyone’s face, including Steve after a really horrible day where everything that could go wrong went wrong.

It was difficult to sometimes watch Tony act like he didn’t matter, like he was made out flaws and flaws only. It was difficult to hear someone call him heartless, jokingly or not, and even more difficult to hear Tony laugh and agree with them.

The arc reactor in his chest didn’t help.

Steve had only asked him about it once. A late night conversation like this one, Steve with a tray full of food in his lap and Tony working on his PADD next to him as he chewed on a sandwich. The lights were dimmed since the Marvel was docked and working with a skeleton crew, no need for the extra brightness, and the reactor in Tony’s chest kept dragging Steve’s attention again and again until he asked.

“Could you ever take it out?” Tony’s head snapped to look at him, eyes wide open in surprise before a careful smile spread across his lips.

Steve knew vaguely about the reactor. It was keeping Tony alive after Tony was kidnapped by some space pirates and a bomb went off too close to him. Apparently Tony’s name was still worth a lot to some people. Shortly after Tony was found, bruised and broken but alive with a battery attached to his chest, he joined Starfleet. Three years later and he was part of Steve’s crew.

“Yes and no,” Tony said, “to take it out you’d have to take out all the shrapnel as well. It can be done, but you’d have to make so many cuts to my heart you might as well stab it and run. I’d be weak, limited. This is ugly and far from perfect, but at least it lets me live.”

“It’s not ugly. It’s part of you,” Steve said without thinking, which made Tony look at him strangely for a couple of seconds, small smile still on his lips, before he went back to work on his PADD.

That was the day Steve realized that his platonic feelings towards Tony weren’t so platonic after all. That day was also a year ago, and in that time Steve’s feelings didn’t go away like he’d hoped. They grew like a nasty virus. Steve never did anything about them because he valued rules and what they stood for, and it was very frowned upon for Captain and First Officer to date while on the job.

And, if Steve was big enough to admit it, which he was, he was also scared of rejection, but don’t let anyone hear that because it doesn’t do a Captain good to have others know he’s scared.

“Do we know what happened yet?” Tony asked as he plopped down next to Steve. He eyed the lasagna, but picked up the small bowl of fruit Steve had picked for him instead. He knew he was just going to get a slap on the hand if he did anything else.

“No, but we have lots of theories. We accidently went into warp.” Tony frowned. Warp was his department and if something like that had happened it’d be his fault, “The storm dragged us through space, a surprise black hole-”

“A surprise black hole? Really?”

“That was Sam’s. I think he was joking, but I’m not sure. Regardless, I’m taking all ideas right now.” Steve idly picked at his own bowl of fruit.

“That desperate, huh?”

Steve looked up to stare at Tony, worry filling his eyes. “You said it yourself. We’re on the other side of the galaxy and nobody can explain how, and we’re also conveniently at Asgard’s doorstep, where we were scheduled for a small shore leave before we were detained.”

Tony hummed and fell into silence. After a while he lifted his head and said, “maybe we’re just lucky?”

He smiled hopefully and Steve knew it was all just to reassure him. Tony was even more cynical than him. He didn’t believe in luck and even if he did, Steve doubted he would believe he was lucky.

“Maybe. I’m going ahead with shore leave unless I get a reason not to. It’s not fair to the crew to postpone it for any longer and skip Odin’s party. We’ll just have to be extra careful.”

“Sounds like a good plan to me, Captain.”

Steve sighed and tried to look exasperated even though he couldn’t help smiling as well. “Can’t you call me Steve? We’ve known each other for two years, been friends for a year and a half.”

“I could,” Tony said, devilish grin in place, “but where would the fun be in doing that? Now tell me, Captain, what are the plans for this shore leave? You know someone in Asgard, don’t you?”

Steve rolled his eyes at the use of his title but let it go. Some battles you just can’t win.

“Yes. Thor, son of Odin, brother of Loki and prince of Asgard. He always used that title when introducing himself to other people,” said Steve, wrinkling his nose.

He met Thor onboard of the Arrow, a small exploration vessel Steve served on for two months as regulated by Starfleet’s plan for command students. Thor was in command as well, although unlike Steve, who had been a rookie constantly tripping over his own two feet, Thor transpired confidence even then. The usage of his full title was odd, and Steve was sure Thor didn’t do it to remind others of his royalty status, but it served him well in getting people to respect him.

“Even the brother part? That’s a bit weird,” said Tony, only half paying attention to Steve as he played around with his PADD. If Steve didn’t know any better, he’d be offended by this, but he did know better and so he knew that when it came to Tony, half of his attention was pretty much the same as most people’s full attention.

“Yeah, Thor is a bit… weird? Not weird, exactly, just loud. Very loud,” Steve wrinkled his nose again, annoyed at himself for not being able to put Thor’s personality into words, which, granted, was probably a difficult task on a universal basis. “You’ll see what I mean when you meet him.”

“Cool, he can come out drinking with us. They do that a lot in Asgard, or so I hear. Clint gave me a brochure - got no idea where he keeps getting those from - and I remember reading about how drinking mead and eating ‘a mighty feast in celebration of life, honor and death’ is a big part of their culture.”

“I’m sure Thor would be on board with that,” Steve cringed at the memory of the one time he tried his hand at drinking. Sometimes he wonders how the night would have gone if he had drank with anyone but Thor. He’d probably remember anything from it for starters, “but you know I don’t--”

“Drink, yes yes. I know that, Captain Always-Plays-By-The-Rules. You can come with us anyway, come on, it’d be fun.”

Steve made a little sound that is neither a ‘yes’ nor a ‘no’ and turned his attention to his food.

It wasn’t that he always played by the rules like Tony thought, it was just that he’s a Captain. A very important captain of a very important ship. Whenever the crew went drinking at least one accident happened, ranging from a bar fight to getting lost in the woods two hundred miles away from where the night started. If Steve messed up while he was out drinking, it would reflect badly on not just him but on the Marvel as well and he couldn’t do that to their ship. Also, after his ‘adventure’ with Thor, drinking had left a sour taste in his mouth that he didn’t wish to taste again.

The sound of a notification reaching his PADD dragged his attention away from the boiled vegetables he’d been idly stabbing with his fork. It was a report of the day’s activities by the engineering department, divided into two different copies. One was labeled as the Official Report, the other For Cap’s Eyes Only.

Steve opened the one just for him.

Stardate 2257.8

Report by Chief Engineer, First Officer Stark » As the USS Marvel left Sector Delta Five, destination yet unknown, it hit an ion storm near Sector Alpha Thirty-Seven. It is unknown why the Marvel was unable to escape the storm, which badly damaged the ship’s hull, created power outages and overwhelmed the engines and the shields.

Due to the lack of power, the Marvel was unable to leave the storm for twenty-seven minutes. It is unknown why the Marvel suffered from power outages right from the beginning when our shields should have protected the engines for at least five minutes. When it finally left the storm, engine two had suffered major damage (fixable) and engine three minor damage (already fixed).

After leaving the storm the Marvel found itself on the other side of Andromeda Galaxy, near planet Asgard. It is unknown how the Marvel travelled this distance in twenty-seven minutes.

The Engineering Department would like to report as explanation for what happened today that…

“Space is fucked up? Seriously?” Steve asked, eyebrows raised indignantly.

“It is,” said Tony, easily and without looking up.

“You can’t put that in your report.” Steve complained, glaring at all the ‘It is unknown why’ in what Tony had written, which seemed to be there just to remind him of his failure as Captain.

“That’s the one for your eyes only. Don’t worry, in the official report I suggested ion warp.”

“Ion warp? Is that a thing?” asked Steve, momentarily distracted. He’d known from the very beginning that Command was the path for him, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t interested in engineering and science. Hard not to be when you go on a five-year journey and occasionally spent weeks and weeks encased in a metal ship.

“Nah, but it’ll be fun to see the guys back at headquarters waste weeks figuring that out.”

Steve shook his head, smiling even though he knew he shouldn’t encourage Tony’s antics. In a quick, collected movement he got up, tray and PADD in his hands.

“We’re expected on Asgard tomorrow morning. I trust you already asked one of your ensigns to compose the shore leave roster for the next couple of days?” Steve asked. It was the duty of the First Officer to compose the roster for shore leaves, but Tony would sooner create a program to do it than do it himself. Ensigns were the easiest answer, and although Steve felt bad for them, he knew that working and learning from Tony was enough of a reward for the extra work.

“Expect it no later than midnight,” said Tony, head bowed down to his own PADD, which he cleverly used with one hand as he ate his lasagna with the other.

“Alright. Goodnight, Tony,” said Steve.

He felt an ache to do something else, to say something else to the amazing man sitting in front of him. It was a familiar ache. He always felt it when he said goodbye to Tony, almost as if his body was afraid this was the last time he’d get to see the man and he wanted to make their time together count. Considering their line of work, the thought wasn’t as silly as it should be, which only made things worse because Steve couldn’t have this. He couldn’t.

“Goodnight, Cap.”

- - -

Asgard was known as the planet of wonders, good and bad alike, only it was quite difficult to think of the bad stuff while you were standing in front of the Royal Gates, which were as tall as a three-storey building. Behind them was the Royal Palace. Now that was an impressive building. Bigger than Starfleet’s main headquarters, entirely made out of what looked like gold and other rare metals. It was a wonder alright.

Clint whistled from behind Steve. He’d been handing out new brochures earlier - Steve would also like to know where he kept getting them from - about the Royal Palace, but the tiny pictures in the cheap LED screens had nothing on the real thing.

“Should we go in or is someone coming to get us?” asked Tony. Even he looked impressed with the building in front of him. A real feat in itself since usually Tony was only impressed by parties, engineering stuff and his own clever inventions.

Right on cue, two soldiers stepped behind their guard posts and opened the gates for them, gesturing them inside.

Steve, being the Captain, went in front with Tony by his side. Clint was further behind on his left, with Jessica, Luke and Peter, who had replaced Sam after the Science Officer escaped to go see the surrounding city, somewhere behind him. They were all wearing their formal, Starfleet issued outfits, which meant a slightly more pompous and itchy version of their normal outfits. Steve found his awkward and not as practical as his regular attire. Tony practically skipped his steps, enjoying the feel of his medals on his chest far too much.

The truly irking part was that Steve knew Tony didn’t care for the medals. Tony liked flamboyant, but his definition of the word included taking off his clothes, not putting them on. The only reason why he liked to wear the medals so much was in some sort of ironic, and completely ridiculous Screw Starfleet gesture. Tony still considered himself improper Starfleet material because of his extravagant past, despite having received more commendations in two years than most people get in a lifetime.

Sometimes all Steve wanted to do was to shake him and make him see some sense, but he knew it wasn’t in his right to do so and that even if he did it, Tony would probably ignore him.

“Luke, please try to stop glaring at everything. Asgard is not a security threat,” said Steve, acutely aware of his security officer’s judgemental eyes currently sweeping the place. Luke was a complete soft heart once you got to know him, but he took his job as Head of Security seriously.

While Steve completely understood his reasons, he wished Luke would tone it down a bit while they were on friendly, political missions. Not that celebrating Odin’s birthday counted as a mission to begin with.

“Just doing my job, Cap.”

“Yes, but if you stare at that wall over there for any longer I think it’s gonna catch on fire,” said Tony, grinning sharply as Luke turned his glare on him.

“It’s a weird wall,” said Luke, which made everyone turn to look at the focus of his attention.

It was a weird wall. To their left, hidden by some golden trees was a small orange wall. There were cracks across its surface, unseen anywhere else in the palace, and it didn’t look like it was connected to anything else. It was just a wall in the middle of the nothing. Steve made a mental note to ask someone about it later.

“Maybe it’s a magic wall. Pops up and goes away every now and then. Everyone’s been looking for it for years now and we’re the ones to find it. Maybe we’ll get a reward--”

“Peter, shut up,” said Jessica, voicing everyone’s thoughts as Peter’s ramble showed no signs of stopping.

Asgard didn’t have magic. That much Steve knew for sure from all the brochures and from talking to Thor about it. Asgard was, however, a curious planet where lots of mysterious things happened without explanation. There were humanoid species that looked like elves, dwarves and giants living in other planets nearby, but definitely no magic in any of them either. At least not magic Starfleet would admit to existing, because if it ever came to light that there was real magic in Asgard and they were hiding it away from everyone the repercussions would be bad. Galaxy-wide war for power bad.

“Let’s go find our hosts,” said Steve, quick to change the topic into safer territory.

When they got to the palace’s entrance Thor was already there waiting for them, accompanied by a group of people Steve remembered seeing from holographs. Thor called them his mighty war companions, but Steve reckoned they were just his buddies.

“Steven Rogers, or should I call you Captain now?” Thor let out a big, warm laugh. “It is a great joy to see you again alive and well, my friend,” he said, arms opened wide to envelop Steve in a bones-crushing, organs-squishing hug.

“It’s great to see you too, Thor,” replied Steve through gritted teeth. Due to Asgard’s low gravity center, everyone from there was heavier and stronger than they looked. If only they remembered this when greeting outworlders.

The rest of the introductions went by slowly, with everyone from Thor’s group introducing themselves with their full title as per custom. The Marvel crew didn’t mind, finding it more amusing than anything else, but Steve could tell Tony was all done with introductions for the next decade by the time they finished.

It was kind of scary and a bit creepy how well Steve knew his First Officer and how easy it was for him to read Tony’s mood through his micro expressions. It wasn’t his fault that he was so used to reading Tony. They were close, they had to be to perform their jobs well, but even so they still weren’t as close as Steve wanted them to be. Wishful thinking really sucked.

After the introductions were complete the group split up. Tony and Peter were invited to visit the Bifrost, Asgard's interplanetary transport that worked without any magic whatsoever. Luke and Clint decided to visit the palace's training grounds. All Asgardians took the art of mortal combat seriously, including the royal family. Only Steve and Jessica stayed for a tour of the palace.

"So what has His Royal Highness been up to?" Steve asked after everyone else left.

"Please, Steven, we are brothers in arms. Call me Thor."

"Then you can call me Steve," he said, smiling brightly as Thor let out one of his wall-shaking laughs.

"Indeed," Thor said, clapping Steve on the shoulder with such strength Steve nearly fell forward.

Behind him, Steve heard Jessica giggle, but when he turned to look at his Lieutenant her smile was nothing short of blank innocence. Steve raised his eyebrows at her. Jessica was born in a research facility in Wundagore, a hostile planet with enormous uranium reserves. She was known throughout the Federation as not only an amazing communications officer, but also an admirable opponent. Hearing her giggle and then seeing her smile innocently was not a sight Steve was accustomed to.

"I have partaken in many glorious battles, although none as admirable as the ones I fought by your side, surrounded by the stars,” said Thor, a faraway look of reminiscence in his eyes.

"You miss being in space?" asked Jessica.

Thor had taken the Asgardian version of Starfleet training at the same time as Steve, but he returned to his duties as prince shortly afterwards. Steve could tell even then, after knowing Thor for only two months, that exploring space was what Thor truly wanted to do. He never said so, believing it was not in his right to do so, but now, looking at Thor stuck in only one place serving as prince, he almost wished he had.

"My duties are to Asgard," said Thor, like Steve expected him too, "but I would be lying to you if I said I did not miss our treks through the stars."

"You can come with us if you'd like. You have the training, and the Marvel could always do with another experienced officer," said Steve. His offer, while inappropriate, was completely genuine. Having Thor by his side would make it easier to sleep at night when they visited new, dangerous planets per Starfleet's money-based orders.

"Thank you, Steve," Thor laid a hand on Steve's shoulder, "but I must remain here. Asgard needs me now more than ever."

"Why? Has something happened?" asked Steve.

Clint's brochures hadn't mentioned any recent disasters. There were multiple reports of battles with the nearby planets, but to Asgard those battles were just their version of five p.m. tea with the neighbors.

Thor looked away, worry lines etching over his face in a perfect portrait of pain and guilt. “Loki, my brother, has left our world after trying to take over the throne. We believe he is now in Jotunheim, home of the Giants.”

“I’m so sorry.” said Steve, lost for words. He knew Thor and his brother were close, although from Thor’s stories, he always got the vibe that Thor was the one in the spotlight, as the older and stronger, and Loki mostly shadowed him.

“Do not be, my friend. I am the guilty one. I should have helped Loki. Done something before he succumbed into whatever madness made him act that way. It is my fault.”

Steve and Jessica’s eyes crossed. This sounded a lot like complicated politics and the Marvel was under orders not to engage in any way that could be taken as a political statement. Asgard might be one of the Federation’s founders, but their laws and customs were still very much their own and Starfleet had no jurisdiction, and no opinion, over here.

“I’m sure that’s not true,” said Steve anyway, not as the Captain of the Marvel, but as a friend. Thor just shook his head and continued their tour.

They took in all the palace in just under two hours. It looked even more impressive, and somehow bigger, on the inside. The paintings on the walls were all originals that look as old as time, well-preserved and illustrating various battles. The walls and floors gleamed with the sunlight that passes through the glass ceiling and the windows. It was truly a palace of kings and queens and Steve felt overwhelmed by its sight, too used to his Captain’s room back at the Marvel.

As they reached the main hall, Thor extended his tour to the rest of the city and they were joined by Luke and Clint, who looked a bit bruised but none worse for the wear. Later that evening there would be a party at the palace to begin the festivities and they were all invited. His crew would be allowed to mingle and do as they pleased, but as Captain Steve would have to mingle with a purpose, striking conversations with all the right people about the right topics.

Steve hated mingling with a purpose. He hated vain politics that promise to do so much but never do anything even more. He was a man of action in every sense of the words. He’d laid down his life for his ship and his crew numerous times without needing to think about what could happen to him. He didn’t do fancy dinners and meaningless conversations. And more importantly, he looked weird in a suit.

He’d been told he looks good in a suit by various people, but it was hard to believe that when he felt so ridiculous. He’d always been an old-fashioned guy, so he went for the simple black and white more often than not, but then he always ended up feeling like a penguin out of place next to everyone’s colorful attires.

“Stop messing with your bowtie, you’re going to ruin it,” said Tony, scowling at Steve.

They were standing next to the gates, waiting for their turn to enter the palace, which had been luxuriously decorated in the time it took them to go back to their ship and change clothes.

Tony looked gorgeous as always. He was wearing a wine red jacket and simple, grey trousers, cut perfectly to fit his slim physique. Even though it was nighttime, he had sunglasses, an extravaganza that made him fit in perfectly with the rest of the guests, which were mostly wearing new Earth fashion. Steve, on the other hand, felt awkward and nervous. He’d fixed his bowtie seventeen times since they’d arrived, which only served to make it look like a crumpled, pathetic mess of fabric.

“Here,” said Tony, stepping closer so that they were chest to chest, “let me fix it.”

Steve had to look down to see Tony’s clever fingers fix his bowtie, movements quick and efficient. Tony had his work face on, blue eyes completely blank and sharply focused on the task at hand. So close together, Steve noticed for the first time that Tony bit the left corner of his bottom lip while he worked.

He could lean down if he wanted. Kiss the tired lines on Tony’s forehead until they disappeared and lick the dent Tony’s teeth were leaving on his lip. He’d just have to bend his head down to discover what Tony’s goatee felt like pressed against his skin. It was all so simple, too simple. In a second he could figure out what kissing Tony was like, something he’d been thinking about ever since he met the man. Even when the only things they did were bicker and fight, Steve still wanted to press his First Officer against a wall and kiss him senseless, shut him up for a little while.

Having a crush - and wasn’t it funny how Steve still didn’t dare to call what he felt by its real name - on Tony made him feel like such a fool. A fool who desired and craved, but held himself back every time. A fool who wanted what he couldn’t have. A fool who fell without thinking.

Tony was just so bright. He shone like a star, violent and explosive and unreachable, no matter how physically close they got. Steve felt boring when next to him. He was an ice planet, tedious and typical and so far away from the sun, no warmth ever reached it.

“All work and no play makes jack a dull boy,” Tony had told him, first month into their journey. Steve had frowned and told him he was just doing his job, which was more than Tony could say.

It wasn’t true, of course. Steve had fun, it was just not Tony’s loud version of fun. Even now, months later, they were still not on the same wavelength, another reason why Steve never dared to use that one second to tell Tony how he felt.

Tony was done fixing Steve’s bowtie, but instead of stepping away he stayed where he was. Close. So close. They were always so close, but not close enough.

“Tony?” Steve asked. Tony’s eyes were fixed on his, still blank but with an hint of something else hidden behind all the layers Tony put up to protect himself. The worry lines on his forehead were gone, but he was still biting his lip.

“Never mind, just--,” Tony shook his head. “We should go inside. It’s time to be Starfleet’s most good-looking puppets.”

Inside, the decorations were even prettier than the ones on the outside, but Steve paid them little mind. Tony disappeared from his side almost immediately, leaving Steve all alone in a room full of strangers. He scanned the crowd for Thor or one of his buddies, maybe even someone from his crew who’d already entered, but in the end he found no one. Occasionally his eyes would find Tony, but every time he tried to approach his friend he disappeared somewhere else. After the third time, Steve stopped trying and found himself a quiet corner he could stay in until he found the courage to go mingle.

Luckily, the mingle came to him in the form of his Security Lieutenant Carol Danvers.

“Captain, are you hiding from someone?” she asked, looking around probably to check for any security threats. A starfleet officer was always on duty, shore leave or not.

“No, well, not really,” he said, laughing at himself in a way that made Carol’s eyes soften. “You know how these kind of parties aren’t my thing.”

“So you’re just going to hide in a corner all night? Come on, Rogers! You can do better than that. Dance with me,” Carol said, extending her hand for him to take. She wasn’t who he was supposed to hang out with tonight, but she looked gorgeous in a long, red dress and she had kicked Steve’s ass one too many times in the gym. He couldn’t ask for better company.

After that, things went by far more smoothly. Steve occasionally made small talk with people who looked important, but for the most part he stuck with his crew, dancing with Clint, who moved too quickly for Steve to keep up, Jessica, who led the dance when they both realized Steve had two left feet for jazz, and even Sam, who made fun of him for avoiding his Captain duties.

“They’re not my duties. Talking to rich people who don’t know the first thing about war, but have a million opinions they want to share is not my duty.”

“Aw, come on, Cap. You know I’m joking. Anyway, when are you going to dance with your sweetheart? He looks like he’s one step away from jumping out the window.”

“What?” asked Steve, craning his head to see Tony looking more bored than ever as he talked to a couple of ambassadors. “He’s not my sweetheart.”

“Sure, you two just eat every meal together, spar two times a week at the gym, spend hours talking about Heaven knows what and are constantly looking at each other with heart eyes, but you’re right,” said Sam with a chuckle, “he’s totally not your sweetheart.”

“You know, I’m pretty sure this counts as some form of insubordination,” said Steve. As one of Steve’s best friends, Sam enjoyed tormenting him about his crush whenever he could. It’d be less annoying if he stopped saying Tony felt the same way, since hearing those words was always a blow to Steve’s heart.

Sam sighed. “You two are so oblivious it’s not even funny. At least go save him from those people. He really does look like he’s one step from bolting out of here.”

Steve nodded and stepped away. Tony was probably going to run away from him again, but at least Steve could give him any excuse to leave the dreadful conversation he must be inviting with the Ambassador of Novaar. While Tony was without a doubt much better at the mingling business, he didn’t enjoy it any more than Steve, not until the end of the night when the alcohol was flowing freely and only a few remained behind anyway.

As he got closer to his First Officer, Steve presumed Tony would just flee at the sight of him and wasn’t prepared for when Tony turned around and looked at him with expectant eyes.

“Would you like to dance?” was the only thought to come to mind and so, the first thing he blurted out.

Before Steve could amend it to something less embarrassing, Tony said, “Of course,” and that was how they found themselves in the middle of the dancefloor, hand in hand, dancing to an old Earth song.

“I didn’t think you would say yes,” said Steve. He felt clumsy dancing with Tony, who moved gracefully, step after step, swimming through the crowd in a way Steve could never imitate.

“I didn’t think you would ask,” replied Tony.

Steve blushed and looked down, letting Tony lead them for a change.

"You looked like you were having fun earlier," said Tony. When Steve looked up, Tony turned his head away, mouth set in a thin line.

"You left me," said Steve, painfully honest and carefully not thinking about how love sick he sounded.

"You can handle yourself, Cap. I saw you dancing with Sam and the others. You don't need me."

"Tony, that's ridiculous. Of course I need you."

Tony finally looked at him, and Steve didn't know what he expected to see, but it certainly wasn't the anger Tony was now directing at him. "Why are you always like this?" he asked.

"I don't know what you mean," said Steve. He hated seeing Tony like this, even though he had no idea what he'd done to make Tony so mad at him.

His confusion must have been written too well on his face, for Tony deflated like a balloon and said, "Never mind. I'm the one acting like an idiot today."

Steve was about to tell him how that wasn't true, still stupidly honest and so infatuated with Tony that he'd do anything to stop him from thinking like that, when a loud crash from outside drew his attention.

The music stopped. Everyone turned their attention to the windows, from which they couldn't see anything. A few people edged towards the doors, guards already in front. As the music started again and nothing exciting looked like it was about to happen,the rest of the party guests lost interest.

Steve only had to share one look with Tony before they were both on the move.

Already outside were Luke and Carol, both frowning at the men on the floor lying next to what looked like a homemade catapult. The guards were already returning to their posts, a brash move in Steve's opinion. The catapult looked more like a mutant cauldron than anything else but that didn't mean the people using it were innocent, for all they knew the--

"Oh," said Steve as he finally recognized who was on the floor.

Peter, Clint and two of Thor's buddies, all looking very embarrassed of themselves - good - and completely intoxicated.

“I’ll deal with this, Cap. You can go back to the party,” said Tony, laying a hand on Steve’s shoulder as he let out a small chuckle at the scene in front of him.

“Are you sure?” asked Steve at the same time as Peter and Clint started arguing about whose shoulders the blame fell on.

“This was totally your fault!” yelled Clint, slurred words pulled together by sheer stubbornness alone.

“It was not! My math was right. If you and Volstagg hadn’t rushed to get on at the same time it would have worked.”

“He was the one who pushed me,” said Clint, pointing a finger in the direction of a red haired man who could only be described as ‘very, very plump’.

“I beg your pardon!” Volstagg was now up and headed towards Clint and Peter, who were standing on top of the broken catapult bickering.

“I can handle this. Go. Have some fun,” said Tony, flashing Steve a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

Even though Steve would usually take any excuse he could get to flee a party like this one, he could tell when he was not wanted and he wasn’t about to push Tony over for his own selfish reasons. Tony was right anyway, they didn’t need him there to drag Peter and Clint back to the ship and apologize five times to whoever was in charge.

Going back to the party didn’t sound very appealing though. By now most of his crew must have left, either looking for somewhere more exciting to go or back to the ship. Taking a one hundred and eighty degrees turn, Steve took the path far side on the left until he was out of the Royal grounds, where he called the ensign on call to beam him up.

“Aye, Captain.”

Back in the safe confinement of his quarters, Steve allowed himself to sit down and breathe.

As Captain, there was always weight on his shoulders and while he loved his job, wouldn’t trade it for the world, sometimes everything was a bit too much. Nevertheless, Steve tried his best to never show weakness in front of his crewmen. He was only human and everyone knew that, but when you were thousands of miles away from home,taking orders that could bring you to your death from one man, sometimes you needed more than human.

Steve only allowed himself to unwind, let his shoulders sag and his body slump when he was alone in his quarters.

He had no idea what was going on with Tony and what Tony had been trying to tell him, which bugged him in all the wrong ways. Steve was supposed to know him, they were Captain and First Officer. Their relationship was supposed to be easy, effortless, but Steve was constantly mucking it all up by letting his feelings run rampant.

Inviting Tony for a dance could have been excused as a friends thing, Steve did dance with other people after all, but the things he said… And then he let Tony run away again before he could come up with some excuse, some explanation for his behavior.

Sleep took a long time coming that night.

- - -

Starfleet communicators have different ringtones for different functions. A received message is a small bip, a notification is a low tic-tac and a call is four bips in a row followed by a low hum. An emergency call, however, is a loud, shrill sound that enters one’s very soul, breaking all the mirrors and vases it can find in its path.

“What is it?” asked Steve. He was already sitting up, arms searching blindly for his outfit as his eyes adjusted to the change of light.

Carol’s calm, collected voice answered him. “It’s Stark, Captain. He and Parker have been missing since last night. We have reason to believe they were kidnapped.”

Steve felt his heart plummet down his chest and back up through his throat, a wave of nausea hitting him like a punch to his whole body. He took a deep breath, allowed himself to shiver in fear for a second and then collected himself.

“Where are you?” he asked.

“At the Royal Palace.”

“I’ll be there in two.”

Steve was at the transporter room in one. A tired-looking ensign beamed him down in silence and he was accosted by immediately Carol, still in her party clothes.

After two years of working together, there was no need for Steve to say anything before she was telling him everything he needed to hear.

“They were last seen leaving the palace. After you left I took Barton and the others back inside, Stark said he would take Peter to the ship.”

“They weren’t reported in the logs?”

“No. We initiated a ship-wide scan for them, in case they’d found a new clever way to beam up without being noticed, but they’re not there. No ships have left the planet since yesterday, but when we tried to locate their signals we couldn’t find them in all of Asgard either. ”

Steve pinched his nose. Tony was always looking for new technology he could mess around with, so even when he said he was going to do something, you could never put it past him to do the opposite. It made no sense though. As an experienced officer, Tony knew turning off his signal in an alien planet was a recipe for disaster, and Steve doubted he would drag Peter into doing something that dumb. They were both reckless, but they weren’t idiots.

It would be more comforting if the two words didn’t feel like synonyms sometimes.

“What else?” he asked. Carol had said they had reason to believe they’d been kidnapped, and two lost signal weren’t enough for that.

“One of the palace’s servants found this five minutes ago near the gates.”

She handed Steve a pair cracked of sunglasses. The lens were both broken, couple of shards still glued to the mangled frame, and there was dark red blood on one of them. It also had two initials printed on the left side of the frame; A.S.

“Get everyone down here. I want a search team operating as soon as possible.”

Steve stared at the sunglasses while Carol got her comm out and alerted everyone as to what was happening.

This wasn’t the first time one of his crewmen had been kidnapped, although usually they had bigger leads to follow than a pair of broken sunglasses. Hell, it wasn’t even the first time Tony had been kidnapped, but the last time that happened Steve was there with him and their signals were still online. Starfleet’s paranoia had been a small blessing through that mess.

Before that was the time Tony got the reactor put in his chest, and just the thought of something so vile and horrible happening to Tony again made Steve see red.

Why had they been taken? Why them? Was it because of something they had been working on? Steve remembered hearing Tony ramble about cooling systems and creating a new kind of hoverboard, not exactly things you’d kidnap a person for. They could have seen something they shouldn’t, but Asgard was a planet of honor. Literally, that’s what they put as their planet’s greatest resource when the Federation first formed. Kidnapping wasn’t their style.

Had it been an outworlder then? With Odin’s birthday coming up, people had come from all corners of the galaxy to celebrate. However, if that was the case all they could do was start looking around and asking questions aimlessly, and Steve hated not having an aim.

If only he’d stayed behind yesterday and done his job like he should have then maybe none of this would have happened.

Most of security beamed down in just a couple of minutes, as well as Clint, Jessica and Sam. Luke, who had probably been scouring the perimeter, showed up with Thor in tow.

“Alright everyone, listen up,” said Steve, putting on his best Captain voice. “Tony and Peter have been missing since yesterday evening. Their signals are off, but we have reason to believe they’re still on planet. I want you to talk to everyone and look everywhere. Check every building, alley and basement if you have to. Go out in teams of threes, report every thirty minutes. Whoever took them - and yes, we are assuming they were taken - might be after the rest of us, so be careful. Any questions?”

Everyone shook their heads, already assigning themselves into groups. They’d gone through enough similar situations that no more orders were necessary. In less than five minutes almost everyone had cleared out, one group heading towards the palace to interrogate the servants there and the rest heading outside. Only Thor, Clint and Luke stayed behind.

“Thor,” said Steve, turning towards his friend who had until then remained silent, “this is your planet. Is there anything useful you can tell me?”

Thor shook his head. “Asgard has many enemies, but I cannot think of anyone who would want to take your crew. I am sorry, my friend.”

“Don’t be, it’s not your fault. Can you lend us some backup? The faster we search through the city, the better.”

“I will call the guard immediately,” Thor strode away with his head held high and his chest puffed, confidence written in every one of his steps. His very presence made Steve feel reassured.

With Thor dismissed, Steve turned to Clint and Luke. “Anything?” he asked, and again, there was no need for him to specify what he meant. When it came to his crew, Steve considered himself very lucky to have them. They were truly the best of the best.

“We’re running checks on everyone who attended the party, so far nothing suspicious has come up,” said Clint, staring down at his PADD.

“I’ve asked around a bit. No one saw or heard anything except that they were going to leave the palace and head back to our ship,” said Luke. He was frowning, as if he was chewing over his own words. After working together for so long, Steve knew what that look meant too well.

“But?” he asked.

“Cap, this place has more trapdoors than a haunted house and the city itself enough guards to do a conga around the moon. Honestly? I’m not even sure they left. The sunglasses were outside, but anyone could have put them there.”

“What are you suggesting? That someone from the palace kidnapped Tony and Peter and is hiding them here?”

That would actually be a very smart move. The palace was the last place they would think of checking and even when they did, they might still miss them. Nevertheless only a few number of people were allowed inside. Even for the party, most people were confined to the main ballroom. The only people with full access were Thor’s family and just thinking about the implications of that gave Steve a bureaucratic headache.

“I’m saying I don’t think they took two of our brightest engineers by accident, and that the best place to keep them hidden is standing right behind us,” Luke stuck a thumb back to point at the palace.

Steve looked at Clint, who said, “He’s right.”

He didn’t need to hear anything else. “Let’s go then.”

Checking for trapdoors was difficult enough on a normal basis, but checking for trapdoors that might have been set up with magic - they were now past the point of pretending Starfleet’s orders were still relevant - was like trying to find a microscopic needle in a gigantic hay stack that looks just like a bunch of needles piled together. Every object could hide an answer, every wall could hide a secret path. Everything was an unpredictable variable and none of their gizmos looked like they were doing any better than their own eyes.

Even though Steve had once trusted Thor with his life, and would trust it again if he had to, he refrained from asking for his help. It would be better if they kept this search for themselves in case they raised unwanted attention.

Still, after ten minutes of fruitless searching, Steve could feel the ends of his patience begin to break and his resolve to go by unnoticed edge towards the trash. Every minute that passed was a minute where Tony and Peter could be being assaulted, taken away, mentally and physically tortured or even being killed. Steve knew he couldn’t think like this, but it was easy to imagine the worst when two of his best men were missing and they didn’t know why, who took them or where they were.

The fact that Tony was one of the people they took only made everything worse. Tony was always the first one to gather answers. He was their quickest thinker and while Steve was good at seeing tiny details, making plans and leading the action, Tony was the one there by his side, doing the math and helping him.

Not having him there was like losing his right arm.

“Should we split up to cover more ground?” asked Clint.

Before Steve could reply, the sound of running footsteps in the next corridor grabbed their attention and they all set out on a run, bumping into a bloodied Peter Parker as they turned the corner.

“Cap!” Peter shouted. His knees gave out under him and it was only Steve’s arms that kept him up. There was a huge cut across his hip, another on his arm and various bruises all over his body, including an awful black eye. Steve had to stop himself from clenching his fists in fear he hurt Peter, but he still couldn’t help the tiny growl he let out.

“Peter, what happened? Where’s Tony?” he asked.

He couldn’t believe he’d let this happen. Space was full of dangers, yes, but having two of his best officers kidnapped right from under his nose should not have been one of those dangers. Peter looked like he’d been through hell and Steve couldn’t think of what had happened to him or he wouldn’t be able to focus and do his job, and he needed to do his job until he found Tony safe and sound.

“Access codes, they wanted access codes off Tony,” said Peter taking a sharp breath and putting one hand over his bruised hip. Behind them Clint was already getting a small medkit out. “I think they only meant to take Tony and I wasjust there for the ride and they, Cap, they--” Peter looked away. Even though Steve already knew what his next words were going to be, hearing them still stung like a Vemoth’s bite. “I couldn’t see what happened, but I could hear him screaming. It lasted forever and Tony wouldn’t budge so they got me and I tried not to scream, I swear, but I just couldn’t and then Tony gave them the codes so they’d stop hurting me and I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s alright, Peter, it’s okay. You did well. Did you see where you were?” asked Steve. He hated that he was rushing for answers, but they didn’t have enough time. If Tony had been tortured - just thinking the word made Steve want to rip someone’s head off - then they needed to get him fast.

“Some room, I don’t know. It looked like a cellar. After Tony gave them the codes one of them went up to Tony and Tony headbutted him right in the crotch,” Peter let out a breathless laugh, “and told me to run so I did,” Peter’s breath came in quick, erratic puffs, like every breath was threatening to break his ribs. Steve rubbed the Ensign’s back in what he hoped was a reassuring manner as he turned his head to look at Luke.

“What codes did they want?” asked Luke. Shit. Steve had been so focused on what had happened to Peter and Tony that he didn’t even think about that. If the ship’s safety had been compromised they needed to get everyone out immediately, reboot the system and--

“Engines. He wanted all the codes related to the engines.”

Steve let go out Peter so Clint could start bandaging him up.

Engines? Why? You couldn’t do anything with just access codes for the engines, you needed an helmsmen to control the ship and the Captain to give permission. Steve shook his head. Right now the ‘why’ wasn’t relevant. As Captain he could turn off all of the ship’s main functions, leaving only the very basics like gravity and oxygen on, which meant they could figure out the details later and focus on getting Tony back now.

Turning away from his friends, Steve pulled out his communicator and initiated the shutdown. The beaming functions would stay on for the next hour so that anyone who wanted to come down could do it. Steve just hoped no one would want to go up.

“Did you see who took you, Peter?” asked Steve. It didn’t actually matter, he was going to beat the shit out of them anyway, but knowing who he was about to face always made things a little bit easier.

“They didn’t say their names, but the guy who looked like he was in charge kept calling himself ‘the rightful Prince of Asgard’ every five seconds like some kind of crazy diva.”

Luke and Clint both look at Steve, eyes wide open. “Was it…?” Clint began to ask.

“Not Thor, no. His brother,” who was supposed to be off-planet, probably knew the castle inside and out and had tried to take over the throne. This was why Steve hated politics.

“Clint, stay with him and let everyone else know what’s happening. Luke, you’re with me.”

They needed to move quickly in case Loki tried to move Tony. Finding out where Peter came from was easy, his bloodied footsteps marked the path. Steve felt himself clenching and unclenching his fingers around his phaser every time he looked down.

“We’re going to find him,” said Luke, “he’s going to be okay.”

“I know.”

They find an open door near an alcove at the end of the corridor Peter came from. There was no door knob on it, not marks that separated it from the rest of wall. If it wasn’t open and the footsteps weren’t on the floor, they would have passed right by it, with no clue as to how to open it in any case.

Past the door there was a smaller corridor, the walls darker and dirtier than before. No one had clean this place in years. Hell, it looked like no one had been in the place for years. Steve strained his ears for any sign of Tony, but it wasn’t until they reached a small room at the end that he heard him. A raspy breath, tired and strained but alive.

Steve had to restrain himself from just barreling into the room. He motioned Luke with two hand movements. I go first. Cover me. He closed his eyes, held up his hand and then made a short ‘follow me’ movement before he entered the room, phaser set to stun.

His eyes took in everything quickly. Tony lying on the floor, next to a small pool of blood. A chair with some assorted paraphernalia by the corner. Another door to the left. Luke checked the door, likely leading to the room Loki had kept Peter in at first.

Steve didn’t allow himself to drop his phaser and rush to Tony’s side until Luke said, “Clear.”

“Hey there, Cap,” said Tony. He tried to grin, but all Steve see was a busted eye twitching from pain, a cut running from his bottom lip around his jaw and a broken nose. “Thanks for the rescue.”

“Hey, Tony,” Steve gently lifted Tony’s head, holding it against his arm as he assessed the rest of the damage.

Lots of small cuts littered his chest, as well as a lot of ugly looking bruises. All, thankfully, superficial and easily treatable as soon as they got Tony to a medbay. Superficial or not, they must all hurt like hell and Tony endured them still, just to protect their ship.

Steve resisted the urge to beat himself up for being too late. He’d get the chance to do that later.

“Did Peter? Is he?” Tony didn’t finish any of his questions, but he didn’t need to.

“He’s alright, Clint is with him.”

“Good, good,” Tony’s eyes looked distant for a second, “come on then, help me up. We need to get to the ship.”

Steve didn’t move, still holding Tony in his arms. Luke was now at the entrance of the tunnel, guarding it to make sure no one came back for Tony and calling for medical aid.

“What? Why? I’ve already initiated shutdown. Loki can’t do anything with the engine codes.”

“Yes, he can. Help me up, Cap. We’ve got to go.”

“Tony--”

“The storm,” Tony said, cutting off Steve in frustration as he tried to get up on his own and failed. With the amount of pain he must be in, it was a wonder he hadn’t passed out, much less got up. “The ion storm from two days ago. It fucked up our system remember?”

“It hasn’t--” Steve tried to say but Tony just cut him off again, somehow reading his mind.

“No, we haven’t fixed it yet. We were going to get someone from here to help us out, but with shore leave and everything we didn’t get around to it. With the system compromised, Loki can turn on the engines. Do you see where I’m getting at?” Tony fixed him with a pointed look.

“He can’t control her, though. The steering functions are off-the-grid, so he can’t control the Marvel,” said Steve, lacking his usual conviction

“No, but he can make her crash on top of Odin’s birthday party. That bastard reeked of daddy issues, and I should know it. Or worse, he can leave the brakes and turn on the engines, make the warp core go into overdrive until it goes ‘boom’ with most of this solar system.”

“He can’t do that,” Steve doubted his own words before he even said them.

“He’s smart, he’s got the codes, he’s got the materials. He can do it, so can we please hurry up and go stop him?” asked Tony.

Dammit, he was right. At this rate, Loki was either in a shuttlecraft heading towards their ship or finding some way to beam aboard, and the implications of that were unthinkable at this point. They had to stop him before he got to the engines or everyone’s safety would be at risk.

“I’ll go, you stay here. And don’t you say a word about this, Tony. You’ve just been kidnapped and,” Steve blinked a little too forcibly, “tortured and I couldn’t stop that, but I can make sure no other harm comes to you,” knowing this wouldn’t be enough to deter Tony, Steve used a dirty move. “Also, you’re compromised right now. You’d only be a liability.”

Tony glared at him, obviously upset by Steve’s words, and while he had all the rights in the world to be upset, they’d have time to discuss this later. Right now, Steve needed to get to his ship and stop it from being blown to pieces.

“Cap,” Luke yelled from the entrance, “Doc’s here.”

Steve helped Tony up, one arm around his shoulder and the other around his waist. He could easily pick Tony up and carry him, but he knew how Tony felt about being treated like he was helpless. It was ridiculous. There was no shame in getting help when you were hurt, but Steve understood him. Sometimes all you have is your pride and losing it is not an option, in fear you might lose it forever.

Doctor Banner, their Chief Medical Officer, was waiting for them at the end of the corridor. He looked disgruntled, with his hair sticking in various directions, a three-days old beard and crumpled clothes. He hadn’t been expecting to get kicked out of his Medical Bay, which he called his ‘sanctuary of sanity’, and Steve would feel bad for him if it weren’t for the fact that he was trying to save all their lives.

“I want everyone who’s still on the Marvel to beam down immediately. Loki and whoever he’s working it are on their way to the ship right now. Get us a small security team, I don’t want to risk any unnecessary casualties,” Steve told Luke. “Doctor Banner, after you treat Tony, get Thor and tell him his brother is trying to blow up my ship.”

“Hey,” Tony called after Steve prepared to leave. He grabbed one of Steve’s sleeves from where he was sitting on the floor, propped against a wall as Bruce took a look at his wounds. “Be safe out there.”

“I will,” said Steve. He wasn’t going to say anything else, but then some part of his brain reserved for honesty and feelings kicked the other part of his brain reserved for lying to himself and he added, “I’m sorry, Tony, for everything. I should have gotten to your earlier, I should have--”

“Hey, hey no. This wasn’t your fault, don’t blame yourself, alright? Now go save our ship from the maniac with daddy issues, and I don’t mean me.”

Steve had to smile at Tony’s lame joke despite the gravity of the situation. Some things never changed and a little consistency was always appreciated.

By the time Steve got out of the palace, both Peter and Tony had been moved to a safer room and four officers from security were already waiting for him.

“Carol and Jess are the only ones aboard the Marvel right now, Cap. They’ll be the ones beaming us up,” Luke told him.

“Alright then, everyone, if you see someone else, don’t hesitate to stun them. Our priority is to find and detain Loki, who should be heading towards the Engines room. Let’s do this,” said Steve, looking forward to put to work all those hours spent in the gym.

Seeing the Marvel deserted was always unsettling and this time was no exception. Jessica and Carol joined their search team after they beamed up, which allowed them to divide into two groups and take two different paths. Steve, Carol and two security officers, Shepherd and Johnson, on one group and Luke, Jessica and the other two officers, Altman and Jones, on the other.

This was the easy part. This Steve could easily do. He knew their ship backward and forward, having spent weeks memorizing every nook and cranny before construction even finished. He wasn’t like Tony, who called the Marvel their baby, but if he were to have feelings for a lady, it’d be her. Tracking down a couple of criminals in this familiar environment shouldn’t be too hard.

“Luke, have you seen anything yet?” asked Steve over the communicator.

“No signs of the bastards anywhere, Cap. You?”

“No signs of them here either,” said Steve, an universal request for trouble, which was why, at that exact moment, the man who Steve thought was Loki and two others who looked like henchman entered the corridor they were in.

Their phasers were definitely not set to stun.

Steve rolled sideways and hid in the alcove between the metal door and the wall. He saw Carol and Shepherd do the same thing while Johnson fell on the floor with a dull thud.

“Leave them, they do not matter. Their fate has already been decided,” said the guy who was undeniably Loki. Only someone from the Royal Asgardian Family could make Standard sound so fancy.

Steve turned around and fired in their direction, but they were already retreating into another corridor.

“Carol--” that was all Steve said before his Lieutenant cut him off.

“Got it. Shepherd, you’re with me.”

Steve headed towards the Engines room as Carol and Shepherd followed Loki and his henchmen. By now Luke had been notified of what had happened and was heading in their direction as well, so Steve focused on what was most important. Their fate has already been decided.

Whatever Loki meant to do, he’d managed to do it, but their ship was still in one piece, so it mustn't been too late yet.

Despite taking his mandatory engineering classes during his years at the Academy, Steve’s knowledge was still focused on the very basics. This sounded like something he’d need an expert on, which made him take out his communicator. “Doctor Banner, are you still with Tony?” he asked.

“He’s right here, Captain. I’ll pass the call to him.”

“Cap, what’s happening?” Tony asked. He sounded more alert than before, if it was because he was in painkillers or because the anxiety from staying rooted in one place while the action happened around him, Steve didn’t know.

“I think Loki has already done what he wanted to do. I need your help.”

“Alright, have you gotten to the Engines yet? What do you see? Are any of the terminals online?”

Steve approached the engines room cautiously, but besides a disturbing lack of bustling ensigns, shouting and blinking lights, nothing about the room looked worrisome.

“I don’t see anything,” said Steve, “Wait, I can see something flashing.”

“Where? What do you see?” asked Tony, a little too frantically.

“Panel near the door to the warp core. Says ERROR 4219,” Steve didn’t add that it was in bold, red letters that took up the entire screen in the faint belief that it wouldn’t look as alarming if he didn’t say it out loud.

He heard Tony take a deep breath over the comm, which was never a good sign, “that means he’s rerouted the main power line, the son-of-a-bitch. Remember our crash and burn hypothesis?”

“Can we stop this?” asked Steve, ignoring Tony’s question. He needed to know if there was still some hope to keep them on orbit or if he should just go to bridge and steer the ship into a deserted area.

“We should unless he found a way to block our path. Go to my station, get the ship back online and then search for ‘POWERLINE: ALPHA-CORE’. Banner, give me your PADD. You’re barely using it, c’mon, give it to me.”

Steve ignored Tony’s voice as he bantered with Doctor Banner for the tablet.

“I’m there, Tony,” he said as he did what Tony had instructed him to do.

“Okay, what do you see?” asked Tony. As he spoke, the ship lurched in one gigantic, terrifying movement to the left. Steve ignored this completely in order to focus on the screen in front of him.

“Main power line is now connected only to engine number three, second power line is running at maximum capacity and reaching critical failure. It’s powering all the other engines, the lights, oxygen, gravity,” Steve gripped the iron bar next to him, “and basically everything else.”

“That’s what I thought. The second power line isn’t enough to keep the Marvel up. I can reroute the power from here so it evens out again, but I need you to turn off engine three manually.”

And that Steve knew how to do. “Got it.”

Turning an engine off was simple. You just had to find the big, red levers hidden behind the panel saying ‘DANGER: DO NOT PULL DOWN’ and pull them down with everything you had. Holding on to whatever was nearest to you was also advised in case of gravity failure.

“This is going to work, isn’t it?” Steve asked. He had full faith in Tony’s knowledge, only Loki sounded quite certain his plan was going to work, and this all seemed too easy.

“Do you want a good answer or a truthful answer?”

Steve didn’t hesitate. “The truth.”

“If this doesn’t work, none of us will be here to find out. However, Loki isn’t your friendly neighborhood computer wizard, that’s Peter, so I reckon we’re on the clear. Just need to--”

“Pull the big, scary levers,” said Steve, sounding more grim than he intended.

He heard Tony stop tapping away on his tablet. “We’ll be fine, Cap.”

Steve nodded even though Tony couldn’t see him. He pulled the first lever down. Nothing happened.

Second lever and all the lights around him started blinking. A couple of alarms went off as well.

Third lever and nothing happened for a second before the ship lurched to left e again. Steve didn’t see the piece of pipe coming loose until it was just a couple of centimeters away from hitting him in the head, and after that he didn’t see much of anything.

- - -

Steve woke up to the someone poking him in the cheek and saying, “Cap, Caaaap, wake up. I know you’re not on any painkillers and that you’re a light sleeper. Come on,” the voice whined, “don’t make me get Banner to do this. You know he’ll spend the whole time lecturing me about how I need to treat my body like a temple and all that crap.”

“Tony?” asked Steve, whose head felt like it had been stuffed with cotton balls to the brim.

“The one and only,” said Tony with a grin. Despite the overabundance of cotton balls clouding his eyesight, Steve could tell that Tony’s grin was just like his old ones, free of any visible scars or bruises.

“What are you...” Steve wasn’t exactly sure what was happening and thus, he was unable to finish his question.

“I got us out of medical bay on the condition that I’d watch over you and you’d watch over me, which means that you have to apply this lotion Banner gave me to my back because I can’t reach it.”

“You got us out of medbay? Does that mean--” Tony cut him off before he could finish talking.

“That you saved the day heroically and got yourself a nasty concussion in the process? Yes, that’s exactly what it means,” even though it wasn’t what he meant to do, Steve couldn’t help glaring at Tony for the light tone he used, which made the look on Tony’s face shift into something more guarded and serious. “Loki got away. We arrested the men he hired. Luke is handling all that. Ship is safe and sound as you can see,” Tony spread his arms, directing Steve’s attention to their surroundings. They were in Steve’s room, both sitting on Steve’s bed. “And I really need you to put this on my back now because my wounds are starting to hurt.”

That got Steve’s full attention. “Yes, of course.”

Tony turned around and took off his shirt, head bent down slightly. There were only a couple of cuts on his back, but they looked deeper and longer than the ones Steve had seen on Tony’s chest. Steve wondered if Tony had them all over his body, if his captors had taken some kind of pleasure out of marking Tony’s body. His arms didn’t have any, and the one he’d seen earlier on his face had looked accidental, but Steve hadn’t seen Tony’s legs yet.

“I’m sorry,” said Steve as he spread the lotion with light, careful fingers across every cut. He wanted to say something else, to apologize for all that had happened, but the words stuck to the roof of his mouth and refused to leave, as if they were afraid of their own sounds.

“Don’t,” was all Tony said in reply.

“I should have--”

“No. No ‘should have’s. You had no way of knowing what was going to happen. Me and Peter are both alive and well and you saved our ship. That’s all that matters.”

There were so many things Steve could say to that. So many thoughts and worries that had been plaguing his mind ever since Carol told him Tony and Peter had been kidnapped. So many things Steve felt like it was his duty to fix, but they were all for the most part ‘should have’s and he wasn’t going to put Tony through any of them if Tony didn’t want to talk about what happened.

“And stop looking at me like that,” Tony added.

“Like what?”

“Like you’re pitying me. Like I’m some lost case you feel like you need to care care of. I’m not a fucking child, Rogers. I can handle myself.”

Steve’s hand stilled for a second before it continued to trace over Tony’s scars. “I don’t think you’re a child. I think you’re a brilliant First Officer who was kidnapped and hurt terribly for answers you didn’t give until someone else’s safety was at risk. I think you are brave in so many ways that I would get lost trying to name them all. I think I’m your Captain, but most of all I’m your friend, and that I failed to keep you safe. I think you deserve better.”

Tony’s entire body tensed before Tony threw his head back and let out a big laugh.

“Better than you? You’re half this galaxy’s wet dream. Starfleet’s Golden Boy. The wonderful, gorgeous, sensible Captain Rogers. I really couldn’t do better than you, Cap, not that...” Tony trailed off, shaking his head.

“Not that?” asked Steve, holding his breath.

Tony’s shoulders slumped. His voice was quieter than a whisper, “not that I want to.”

And then, for the tiniest moment, neither breathed, neither moved, neither said anything. They both waited for something. Steve for Tony to say something else, for everything to crash down for the insane height it had been climbing, for reality to slap him in the face. Tony for Steve to reply.

Words failed him, so he settled for repeating Tony’s, which was unoriginal and clichéd but technically he was concussed, so he could always blame it on that.

“I don’t want to either. I mean,” he corrected, “I don’t want anyone else.”

Tony abruptly turned to look at him, and then they just sort of stared at each other, Tony with wide open eyes and Steve with a blush slowly trickling up to his ears and down his neck.

And then slowly, very slowly, they both leaned in for a kiss. Their lips brushed briefly, soft and perfectly innocent. Steve closed his eyes, leaned a little bit closer, felt Tony’s tongue dart out to lick his own lips and saw innocence walk straight out the door as Tony grabbed his collar and pulled him in for a deeper, rougher, just a notch down from pornographic kiss.

Steve went along with it more than willingly, up until the point he grabbed Tony’s waist and heard Tony hiss.

“I’m sorry, Tony, are you alright?”

Tony tried to smile but it came out as more of a grimace. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Just a little sensitive. Maybe we should postpone this to a later date…?” said Tony, which sounded more like a question than a statement.

“If you want to,” said Steve.

He was playing on the safe side unlike Tony, who replied. “Oh, I definitely want to.”

Steve laughed a little. He’d heard this side of Tony many times, but he’d never heard it directed at him. He found that he enjoyed it very much.

“Well then, I’ll just--” Tony started to say, slipping out of Steve’s bed reluctantly until Steve interrupted him.

“Would you like to sleep here?” he asked.

“Yeah,” replied Tony. The smile on his face was small but genuine, and Steve wanted to kiss it, just because he now could, so he did.

Tomorrow would be a bureaucratic nightmare, he had no doubts about that. Tony would tell at least five people to ‘fuck off’ and then ignore everyone when he got bored. Not even mentioning everything he and Tony had a lot to talk about and deal with. Tony would need counseling and knowing him, he wouldn’t accept easily.

They couldn’t avoid any of that, but at least they could face it together.