ＳＬＡＴＥ ◼ STEVE ROGERS◼

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"You didn't happen to study anything about elements in the last hour, did you?"

"I did quite extensively, why?"

Tony threw the element to Lottie, who caught the little blue hologram delicately in her hands. She watched as Tony stood up, clapping his hands.

"Get ready for a major remodel, fellas. We're back in hardware mode,"

◼ ◼ ◼

Almost three hours of painstaking labor is what it took for both Lottie and Tony to prepared to synthesize the new element they had discovered, left behind from Howard.

They worked side by side through it all, flinging sledgehammers through walls and busting holes in the ceiling of the lab with jack hammers. Tony showed Lottie how to reroute the electrical and power all to the basement, giving them everything they needed to make it all work. Lottie followed his lead, doing everything he said to do as they remodeled his home to make a new element.

"I've got to know," Lottie spared a glance up at Tony from where she was leveling out her section of the pipes. "How is it that you're adjusting so well? I get your smart, but you're taking this whole technology thing and all your friends being dead very well."

"You really love putting things bluntly, don't you?" Lottie sent the man a look, but he only smirked back. "We've been over this, my brain processes everything so fast that I understand everything around me."

"No no, I understand that part about you being a genius, what I don't understand is that you literally woke up form a seventy year nap not even a day or two ago and you're prancing around like a Disney princess, like the world doesn't phase you,"

Tony watched as the woman let out a sigh, leaving the level on top of the uneven pipes as she placed her hands on them, looking down at the floor below her.

"I've adjusted to the tech, the clothing, even the subtle changes in language. That doesn't mean I'm not mourning on the inside, Tony," the man's facial features softened slightly at her words as her eyes met his. "Howard and Peggy were my best friends, and the last thing they knew about me was that I died. The last contact I ever had with my mother was a letter she wrote to me. I never even got to say goodbye before I went under. I got my final seconds with Steve and I still couldn't tell him that I loved him more than anything in the world, and now here I am seventy years in the future without anyone that I loved. I'm mourning, Tony. You don't just move on from that type of realization. But there are people like Ivan and Justin Hammer out there, and from what I've read they aren't good people, and they need to be stopped. You're standing just feet away from me, the son of my best friend, and you're dying. There's a time and a place to mourn, and it's not right now."

The air between the two was heavy as they stared at one another in silence. Their work was halted for the moment as the words of Charlotte Watson hung heavy in the air, each processing what was said.

"I heard you broke the perimeter,"

Lottie and Tony were torn from their state, looking to the doorway where Agent Phil Coulson now stood. The pair shook of the previous conversation, Lottie returning to leveling out the pipes while Tony walked toward Phil.

"That was, like, three years ago? Where you been, buddy?"

"I was doing some stuff," Lottie looked over at Coulson, sharing a small smile with him as she moved to another portion of the pipes while Coulson inspected one of the large crates that Tony had brought in with supplies.

"Yeah, well, us too and it worked. Hey, I'm playing for the home team Coulson, you and all your Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. Now, are you gonna let Emilia Clarke and I over here work or break my balls?"

Lottie rolled her eyes at the stupid nickname, hoping that in the future Tony would find a better one. She looked up to the man, getting a quick wink from him.

"What's this doing here?"

The pair turned to Coulson, and Charlotte's breathe caught in her throat. 

Steve's shield.

Her eyes began to water slightly as she looked at the shield. No, of course it wasn't his shield since it was with him wherever he was, but it was another version of the shield. Bright red, white and blue, half finished but that star in the middle was still distinguishable. Lottie instinctively reached up to her shoulder, her fingers ghosting over the spot in which her own star used to sit.

"That's exactly what I need, bring it here,"

Lottie tried her best to ignored her feelings about seeing that prototype shield, instead focusing on Tony and Coulson as they placed the shield under the only part of the pipes that they weren't able to level out completely.

"I've actually come to say goodbye," Coulson told both Tony and Lottie once they had placed the shield under the pipes. "I've been reassigned. Director Fury wants me in New Mexico."

"Fantastic, land of enchantment," Tony mumbled, turning back to his work. Lottie rolled her eyes, approached Coulson with a smile.

"It was lovely to meet you, Phil,"

"The pleasure was all mine, Slate," Coulson's smile was bright as he looked at the woman, the smile dimming as he turned to Tony. "Good luck, we need you."

"More than you know,"

"Not that much,"

Once Coulson had finally left them on their own to continue their work, Lottie and Tony had jumped directly back into it, no further mention of Lottie's comments or of the prototype of Steve's shield again.

Night had fallen on them by the time that they had managed to complete the entire structure. Lottie stood directly behind Tony, protective goggles over her eyes as Tony put his one as well, grabbing onto the lever to turn the wheel.

"Alright, stay behind me," Tony mumbled to the woman behind him. "This is probably going to get messy."

"Initialising prismatic accelerator,"

Once the power is turned on, the blue beam that juts from the pipes burns a hole through the wall opposite them. Both Tony and Lottie's eyes widen, her hands resting on Tony's shoulder as he turns the lever, but it's barely budging. Lottie makes her way to his side, placing her hand in the spots his aren't and together, they pull the lever.

The blue beam cuts through the entire wall opposite them, parts of the wall falling apart on them. Finally, they get the beam focused on the triangle mold just ahead of them.

The pair shield their eyes, the room glowing bright for a moment before Jarvis cuts the power. When they finally open their eyes and remove their goggles, the only thing glowing in the room is the new element.

"That was very easy," Lottie mumbled as the pair approached the new element. Tony hummed in agreement, grabbing a pair of pliers and plucking the element from it's spot, placing it inside the new arc reactor.

"Congratulations sir, ma'am. You've created a new element. The reactor has accepted the modified core, I will begin running diagnostics now."

For the first time since they met, as Lottie and Tony look at one another, their smiles are bright and genuine.