revivalproject | Steve Rogers

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Steve Rogers | OTA

WHO: Steve and You?
WHERE: Agrii ship in the water area
WHAT: A pool party!!
WHEN: Around debates time
WARNINGS: Not sure, will edit!

Steve has been trying to get in touch with the Agrii for days now without any luck. So far it's mostly just been hanging out by the water. And a few of them can really hold their breath a long time, it seems. They seem uneasy if he swims too far, so he sticks by the shallower bit of the pool for now.

If nothing else, the lush greenery is a nice change of scenery, and some days there's all this bountiful delicious food, such that he hasn't had better since before arriving here.

So, one day, after fruitlessly searching around by himself and not finding any better leads, he invites a few fellow He-Rows over for what appears to be a pool party. It's open to anyone who happens to make it through the thick botany, and he's definitely trying to encourage the younger Agrii to come play with them. Food and drink are just from the mess hall, and the games are simple ones like a hand-drawn deck of cards, and sitting on each other's shoulders trying to knock off your opponent.

If anyone wants to play that game with him, he'd definitely make a better root than pusher - don't worry, he'll be sure to keep his balance, so long as your character wants to keep playing.

Partway through he gets tasked with going back to get more ice or snacks or something, so feel free to bump into him then or in his yellow speedo (that he most definitely did not pick out himself) and towel, gathering supplies. You'll definitely score an invitation if you ask.

Then, when the 'party' starts winding down, Steve's maybe a little disappointed in not having made much progress, though he's sure a few of the younger Agrii might be coming around to them, so it's not entirely a fruitless endeavor. But he's gotten his hands on a piece of paper and graphite, and he might even ask your character to stand still for a second, as they look really nice under this foliage, and it'll just take a few minutes, if they don't mind.

[ OoC: Feel free to respond to any of the things Steve is doing or throw up your own toplevel so other people can tag you at the 'party'! ]

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Tony took it quickly against his chest instead, holding his own wrist where Steve had and drumming his fingers restlessly over his heart. "No, it's--" he tried to assure, tipping his head like he meant to lean it against Steve's, then thought better of it as he admitted, "I guess we do, too." They had only gotten here because Tony was insisting that Steve should waste more time with him. They should have been spending all of that time together planning and preparing, and the ribbing from the Avengers over the years about them needing alone time suddenly seemed heavier.

"I thought you talked all the time," he says under his breath, as he feels Tony's heartbeat under his palm. It's odd, the way that it beats in tune like the heartbeat passes, ping-ponging back and forth between Tony and Steve. It holds, for a brief moment that seems to last a whole minute, before they fall out of sync.

"Kinda wish I hadn't left things the way I had. I know I keep saying that."

That was a briefly baffling statement, earning Steve a confused stare as Tony tried to work out how to explain that was exactly what he meant, only to abandon it apologetically. There were worse problems to have; at least he had been neglecting to plan while encouraging Steve to fall in love with the future. "What would you do differently?" he asked, and it wasn't the most natural question from someone who would rather look forward, until he was glancing around with an expectantly raised eyebrow. Steve had plenty of space to make those changes now, might as well get started so he didn't make the same mistakes with someone else.

"Would've been a better friend," he says. He doesn't elaborate on the part about telling him about his parents. But he says: "Would've told him that it wasn't his fault. That he didn't have to make amends by signing the Accords. And he said - part of the reason he wanted to was because Pepper thought it was too dangerous for him to be Iron Man. That he wanted a compromise to get her back. I... guess I could've offered him an alternative."

This Steve was more gentle with him than the one Tony knew at home, so Tony finally relented and leaned over like he had wanted to, pressing his shoulder to Steve's to assure him he couldn't have been much better. Maybe that was a change he had already consciously made, though; why he was so sensitive. Tony had no such reassurance for any guilt that he could imagine trying to work off. That was an ongoing project that he doubted Steve could talk him out of.

Pepper was the part that had him actually shaking his head, and he muttered, "He shouldn't have done that to her in the first place. He knows better. That's the alternative." He looked over with a challenge, skeptical that Steve thought he had a better one to propose.

This feels nice. Even under the artificial light, which almost feels like sun if he thinks about it but not too hard. Like they're just two friends, spending time on a beach.

"Well, what can I say? You're both romantics. And sometimes love is enough. I think he's probably retired now. And I hope they're happy together." Steve doesn't know if he could ever give up Captain America - or, well, Nomad, now. And maybe that's why he's alone. Maybe he deserves that.

That didn't seem right, but Tony could hardly argue that he couldn't give up the suit so easily when he'd already done it here. It probably wasn't so agonizing for a Tony Stark who knew how to control himself, too, and handle his liquor. That was a nice thought, actually being able to make his partner happy and not terrify and disappoint them every day. "Doesn't sound like you screwed up that bad," he mused, slowly looking Steve's way again. "If that's true, and they're happy, you know...I wish, sometimes, that I had said goodbye, that I knew it was the last time I'd be at the Tower, but I also know they're happier now without me there. I wouldn't want to change that. I'm not going to, I mean."

"Why?" he asks. He'd not asked why Tony left, but he probably knows what Steve's gonna say. "They miss you," he says. Tony knows they do. He knows what he means to them, and if he doesn't by now, then, they've all failed him. That's sort of what he's afraid he's done, with the Tony from home.

Tony huffed a laugh and shook his head with a wry smile, not about to get sentimental just because Steve had his own regrets to project. He'd thought about this enough, and made his peace already. "I'm less of a liability here. A handful of you have to clean up after me, versus putting a whole galaxy at risk. They're fine, they have everything I could have given them anyway, they've got the Tower and the quinjets and the accounts will keep them fed," he explained. He had found the cards again by then, so his hands had something to manage and he could frown down at them as he deftly shuffled. "Your team, I know they're looking for you. Tony, too, if they told him, if he knows you're not just underground. You're a priority." He didn't have to say that he wasn't, and that no one was looking for him. If Steve's Avengers were that much like the team Tony knew, then they never had.

Of course there's one thing Steve wants to focus on in all of that. "Tony, you're not a liability," he says. "Is that what you feel like, back home?" Because that would explain a lot of things about Tony's behavior across universes, to be honest. But also - Steve just wanted Tony to know that's not what he thinks of him, not in the least.

"Your greatest asset was never your money, Tony." He'd thought maybe that the other one was just so busy on the west coast that he never came to visit, not that maybe he didn't feel like an integral part of the team.

"It's not a feeling, it's--ask anyone," Tony argued, because if he was trying to tell Steve he shouldn't be trusted, it couldn't hinge on trusting his perspective. "Jon can barely look at me anymore, everything I do is another fight, it's like I can't help myself. I think I'm doing the right thing, and I'm so sure that I ignore everyone begging me to stop, and then I'm the only one surprised when we come back and there's a whole new AI system controlling the ship that the Agrii hate. That a volcano just about levels the city. That the moon has a face now and it screams at us." Every one of those, Tony's fault, and if Steve didn't catch on, he waved a hand up his chest, one and only. No one else had a more impressive resume.

"The kind of people that get mad enough at you to put on a mask and knock on your door for a fight, they're Nazis. You're a threat to the worst impulses of society. The kind of people I'm a threat to, it's my girlfriends. People who work for me. People who's kids I killed for a couple of dollars from the other side of the planet."

This again. Of course Tony would feel bad about this, but Steve just said: "You course-corrected. You always do. Yeah, you've made a lot of enemies, but we all do. I spend most of my time alone because I don't want anyone else affected by it, and that's not really a way to live. There's just the mission and an empty apartment," he says. "And Jon - he loves you. I don't know a lot about him but I know that he does, because I know what you get like when you're looking for a fight, and if he wants to work things out, he's willing to meet you partway. I just don't know why you always wanna make it so hard."

Steve wasn't listening, earning an irritable tick in Tony's jaw and roll of his eyes, because he had just said this AI was his fault, they were still squarely on course. It was the reminder that Steve hadn't been living with him in the Mansion that had Tony softening again instead of arguing, glaring at the cards still but feeling guilty that he hadn't immediately given Steve a bed when he showed up here, too.

"I know he does, that's what I mean--" Tony did have to push irritably. "He's had the most patience with me, and even he is at capacity. I can't go back. You've been on the run for years and let him be happy, have his family. How is that different?"

Steve hears that Tony's responsible for the AI, but forgives him anyway. He would've liked a bed - hell, he would've liked a greeting when he first got here, but he hadn't felt entitled to one. He likes where he's ended up, for now. He'd prefer to go home, obviously.

But the present company isn't bad. It is, despite one of the most frustrating parts of this whole ordeal, also one of his favorites.

"The difference is that I'm not his boyfriend and he doesn't wait up for me to come home. He doesn't even call." Steve had left him that phone, okay. He tried.

The Avengers weren't waiting up for Tony, either--that part should have been clear when he pointed out their priorities. At least, Tony thought they were talking about his rationale for staying here, but it sounded like Steve thought they were still talking about boyfriends. Tony narrowed his eyes, focused more steadily on Steve then that he had been for a while, coldly calculating until he challenged, "You're the one that's running."

"Because the other side of that is a jail cell," Steve responds. "On the Raft. Edits haven't been made, so, realistically I'm looking at making a whole bunch of people my accomplices if I come back." Which, well, Thanos was too important to turn away from. And he did say he'd come when needed - and then he'd deal with the fallout after.

There as no way Steve thought that was true, but would trust Tony trying to get in touch to not be some kind of trap if he hadn't managed to change the legislation for them in years, and this Tony pursed his lips expectantly for Steve to admit as much. Besides, and more importantly, he illustrated, "Gal breaks up with me, can't trust me anymore and walks out the door, there's no amount of time or situation where I can just waltz into her new life, like, 'Hey, honey, been long enough, time to take me back now'." Steve would punch him himself for that kind of behaviour.

Steve raises an eyebrow. "I didn't break up with him - or - well, we weren't -" He's getting all turned around, but he needs to let go of this dating analogy because it's just confusing him. "- I didn't leave him. I left. There's a difference. Like I said, I would've gone straight to the Raft if I'd stayed.

"And I was the one who betrayed his trust, not the other way around. Thought I'd give him time to cool off." If anything in this situation, Steve's the one who would've had to send that 'hey honey' text.

That was the point Tony was making, so he was ready to talk over Steve, "Yeah, you left, he stayed right there, you're the object in motion," but it didn't seem like they understood it the same way and as Steve continued, Tony bit his tongue peevishly. It wasn't an important enough philosophical difference to continue the argument when he couldn't then keep ignoring, "Something else came up." 'Like it always does', Steve had said, but that part didn't sound true now. Steve betraying his trust would be better described as 'never', and Tony held his gaze with a flinty challenge, daring him to try to rationalize that thought out loud.

Steve isn't sure if he's understanding Tony correctly, but that sounds accusatory. He looks away briefly, for a moment, before he says: "Yeah. Something came up. I lied because I thought I could protect him from the truth." He shakes his head. "Kinda blew up in my face." He takes a deep breath, and his brows are knit. Clearly, this is bothering him a lot.

There were a whole lot of ways that Tony could assume Steve would mean 'betrayed his trust', and actually lying didn't even make the list. He was more surprised than wary when he echoed, "You lied?" And, just to make sure, "To me?" The distinction between him and the other Tony didn't seem so important then. That couldn't have been right, Steve's righteous view of the world must have been gumming up his works. "Are you sure you're not just getting up your own ass about it? You know, so truth and justice are still the only correct answer? I promise you, the rest of us don't take them as seriously, we've got some wiggle room."

He doesn't know how to say that he's lying to Tony currently, but he also doesn't want to tell him and blow up whatever friendship he's built with the Soldier, especially if it turns out untrue for their world.

And he definitely doesn't think Tony will take all of this rationally and reasonably.

"The truth was something that hurt him. I thought maybe I could spare him." He now specifically says him to distinguish from this Tony. Maybe then he won't think this lie pertains to him.

Tony was once again shocked enough that his mouth actually closed, recoiling slightly like he needed a wider perspective to fully understand what Steve had just said. It sounded like he thought sometimes it was up to him to hold some awful reality at bay, and he was the only one that could handle this secret. It sounded very much like how Tony would solve a problem, because no one else deserved that pain. There was no way this wasn't Tony's fault somehow.

Eventually, he had to confront, "So, you're doing it again, because it worked out so well the first time." Steve had been refusing to admit that he was punishing himself for about a decade now. Only he knew how long he could maintain this lie before it became too unstable.

"It doesn't apply to you," he says, firmly. "Or at least, I don't know if it does. But I don't want you to worry over it for no reason," he adds. Yeah, there's a reason he wanted to avoid talking about this in the first place.

But yes, he's definitely doing it again, because he doesn't want to hurt any of the Tonies. And, well, Zemo's not here. But Bucky is.

If it didn't apply, then it shouldn't have mattered enough to keep it from Tony; in fact, he would have been able to stoically tease Steve for mismanaging it so explosively. Instead, Steve was not only admitting that he was lying to Tony, but that he was going to keep on doing it. Tony was embarrassed by how long he still watched Steve expectantly, only to finally look away with a sullen nod, setting the cards down between them and muttering, "Your game."

Steve Rogers | OTA

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