One-shots avengers captured/tortured

Stories from the past

FOLLOWING SELF PROMPT: Steve tells stories about him and Bucky and it becomes a thing every Thursday is Bucky's Fable Thursdays until Steve finds him and Clint exclaims 'well Bucky fable Thursdays are going to be a bit different... that is if they still happen' Bucky overhears and thus Small Steve Saturdays were born.

Going to be ALOT in speech marks ..sorry

Tony Stark sat in his workshop, tinkering away at his latest invention, letting his mind drift as it always did being a genius comes with 10-15 trains of thought simultaneously but today his mind descended on the one and only Captain America.

He hadn't seen him in a while, then again Tony did work unusual hours- every hour really- aside from when coffee was a calling him in the kitchen and there Cap was. Or on the occasion Cap came to him with a coffee. Apart from that he didn't see him.

Come to think of it when Tony spared time to be social (read forced to be social) he didn't see Cap there. "Huh" Tony wondered that's odd why wasn't team bonding loving, leader Cap want to be-

That's when it suddenly hit him like a ton of bricks. Cap would but Steve Rogers. Steve Rogers  couldn't. Steve Rogers, his friend and fellow Avenger, was a man out of time, a man alone. He was so occupied with his mantle- Hell Tony was too! even in his head he was Cap.

"When was the last time I called him Steve?" 

It was a realization that had been slowly building in the back of his mind, but now it all came crashing down on him at once. As he thought back on all the conversations he had with Steve, all the moments they had shared together, Tony couldn't believe he hadn't noticed it sooner. Steve was a man out of time.

Steve was from a  time long gone, and he had been thrust into a world that was entirely foreign to him, that had changed. But what struck Tony the most was the fact that Steve had never been told by how much. No one had ever sat him down and explained to him just how much the world had changed since he had been frozen in ice all those years ago. It was a cruel twist of fate, and Tony couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt for not realizing it sooner.

"You haven't yet"

Tony whirled around in his chair answering the unanswered question, his breath caught "Steve" standing there with his coffee as dutiful and giving as always. Stood the man himself "Nice to hear my name from you finally" he was gruff as he appraoched putting the mug down as he knew. He knew Tony didn't like to be handed things. That was a blow too, the man Tony didn't acknowledge by name knew his trauma traits.

"Steve, I- didn't" He was already leaving. Walking out the door of the workshop Tony needed to say something. Something with compassion, kindness, warmth, empathy "You're a man out of time right?" mouth, Brain that was not it.

and he was back on the genius like a bullet. "What did you just call me" the soldier thundered. Quick brain catch up. His next words came quick

"Well I was just thinking that I never see you interacting with the team out of the battlefield and- "I could say the same about you" Tony flapped his hands through the interruption gaining control again
"Yes, yes I will work on that. I was just saying that you don't seem to be anything but Captain America- "I am Captain America"
Again hand flapping "look Steve I'm trying to be compassionate and apologetic but it is very hard when you keep interrupting me!" Two heavy sighs.

'What I'm trying to say is that yes you're Cap but you seem to forget you're also Steve, with a life just taken from you. Gone. Without any say, or time to mourn." The man in question dropped his gaze turning away. "Since you woke up, have you mourned? have you confronted the past, the people's relatives? Have you ever let your guard down once?" Softer Tony asked "Have you ever let yourself just be Steve?"