When You Were Never Mine

Understaffed

The conversation with the Secretary and the team went about as well as anyone could have expected, leaving a hard line drawn in the sand about who agreed with this new set of rules that the Accords were trying to enforce, with those who didn't agree left standing on their own to find a way to move forward. For you, it was a little hazy, trying to not be that person who would sign just because their significant other was doing it; you wanted to have your own reasons to sign or not, and it didn't escape Tony's notice that you had yet to place pen to paper.

Adding insult to injury, Steve had left abruptly, and only after Natasha had broken him down did he tell the group why he had to excuse himself with so little attention to his manners. His first, real love had passed away, and he was immediately packing to leave for her funeral in London. Tony didn't push for his signature before he left; even he could never be that insensitive despite the pressures on himself to get it done. He would do his best to stall Ross for as long as he could, but you knew as well as he did that the situation was tenuous and barely hanging by a thread.

Sam had called a few times with updates on how Steve was doing and how the services were going, but only because you had asked him to, and only because you knew that Bucky would probably want to know. His life had crossed Peggy's as well, even if he didn't fully remember it yet. You wanted the option of being able to share it with him should it come up. You had toyed with the idea of being the one to text Bucky first, when he had always been the first to do so thus far, but you held back because you had no idea at all what his life looked like, and it felt strange to you to interfere with even so much as a hastily typed message. You put your phone onto your bedside table and stood with a long stretch and a last yawn before fully waking for a new day, only to be startled immediately into it.

"Honey," Tony called to you, poking his head through the doorway, "I need you to pack a bag. There's been an explosion at the U.N. in Vienna and Ross wants me there."

You nodded in agreement without a second thought, hurrying to your closet to follow his direction. "Nat's there. Is she okay?"

"She said she's good, just a little shaken up. Not everyone was so lucky."

"Did you call Steve?"

"Was I supposed to?"

"Tony," you gasped in shock, dropping your bag on your closet floor and stepping out to see him, "you're not serious. He's still a member of this team, and Nat is one of his closest friends. You need to call him."

"Fine, how about a cursory text," he grumbled, taking his phone in hand. "I'm sure he's heard by now anyway, so this is just formality."

"Are we starting this already? Just because he hasn't signed yet, it doesn't mean that he won't."

"You haven't."

"Same answer," you replied flatly, turning your attentions back to gathering your belongings and hurriedly throwing on the first coordinated outfit that you could find. Tossing the bag on the floor towards where he stood, you glanced back to him as you crossed the room. "I'll be down in a few minutes. We can talk about this on the way there."

Tony looked down at your bag and fought an inner battle as to if he would pick it up or not. Normally, he wouldn't give it so much thought and would have been on his way to the jet with it already, but these weren't normal times for anyone anymore. In a moment of indignant disregard, he turned and walked away without it, as wrong as it felt to him to do so.

"Yep, we're starting this already," you muttered to yourself. This was going to get messy.

~~~