Part One – One Week in 2000

Italy – Fall 1944

Steve Rogers hated himself at the moment, they had just finished a raid on a Hydra compound just outside Monte Paleocastro according to the map they had of all of the Hydra facilities, and they messed up somehow. Either it was their own fault, or their intel had been flawed because they hadn’t known the extent of what they had walked into and the fight had only ended with Hydra destroying the whole compound themselves, only for the Commandos to later find out that there had been several prisoners in the facility, five of which had been children, all who died in the rubble. This was all because Hydra had wanted to hide what they had been doing in the area, these were locals, who probably didn’t know anything about the war to begin with considering how faraway they all were from the actual conflict. So, when they had shown up to take the place apart Hydra had done it themselves before the Commandos even had the chance to step over the barricades surrounding the facility.

This all fell onto Steve’s hands, he didn’t blame the Commandos for any of it, he had been the one who had gotten the intel, he had been the one who had missed the signs. They were at war, he should have known to check to see if they had civilians hidden somewhere, his whole entry into this war had been based on him rescuing prisoners of war, so he knew he had failed these people. He knew that he wasn’t going to be able to tear the image of that little boy holding the hands of an infant out of his mind.

“You can’t blame yourself for this Steve,” Gabe said as they set up camp five miles away from the facility, but just thinking about it made his heart hurt more. He was an Alpha Army Captain, he should be stronger than this, but it still hurt just to think of this. “It wasn’t your fault it was no one’s fault.”

“It’s Hydra’s fault if you want anyone to blame” Dum Dum said, as he lit the fire for the camp, even though it would give away their location, but it was getting cold outside tonight and the warmth would do them some good right now.

Bucky walked behind him, Steve could smell his best friend from anywhere, the Omega man was as distressed as the rest of them, but with Steve’s enhanced senses he could tell just how bad it was, the serum had made it impossible for Steve to ignore the scents of everyone around him, he knew Bucky’s Omega status, he knew what all of the commandos where. According to Dr. Erskine, his senses had been heightened, but it only meant that meeting a true mate would be impossible. For now, all he knew was that he had to speak to Bucky, to calm him down at least. Patting Dum Dum on the back Steve walked over to his best friend to try and calm him down a little, even though Steve himself was as distressed.

“Bucky,” he said making the man jump. “What’s got you,” gesturing at the line that had already been drawn in the grass.

“I’m worried about you that’s what I’m worried about,” Bucky said giving Steve a very hard look. “I remember how you were after your mother’s death, how you were when you yourself were near death, the fights you used to pick when you were still little.”

“Nothing’s going to happen Buck,” he was almost certain nothing would happen outside of him feeling sorry for the mistake that had happened.

“Well at least I know you haven’t gotten better at lying to me,” Bucky said to him before sitting down on the grass. “I think you need a vacation before we go back to base,” he added which threw Steve for a loop. “No listen, we’ve been talking about this but we’re all certain that you haven’t had a real break since this little ragtag group got together.”

“That’s not true,” he knew he was lying the moment the words had come out of his mouth, and he knew that Bucky knew this too considering the look he was getting from his friend.

“Don’t try and lie to me Stevie, or so help me I will shove my rifle up your ass and shoot,” Steve would have said something after this, but he knew when Bucky was being serious. “Steve, you’re not mentally here right now, I can tell because you want to push everyone away, but since you’re the leader of this group over here you’re faking trying to be okay when you’re not.”

“What do you want me to do Buck, there’s nowhere to go, there’s a fucking war happening around us and innocent people are being thrown in the middle of it all.”

Steve could see the tension in Bucky’s shoulders, and it made him realize just how much the other man knew him, Bucky always said that they were brothers, and sometimes it felt real, they were raised together so of course they were family. But it didn’t hurt any less when Steve failed at something and other people go hurt, he hated it, just the fact that his health had kept him from keeping his own best friend safe. He couldn’t even help his own mother when she had gotten sick, which hurt so much the day he had to bury her.

“Listen, how about you spend a week in that down that’s a few miles from the Hydra facility, hopefully since Hydra’s gone the town would be alright for you to just rest without being dragged down by the war.”

“Buck, we have to get back to base, I can’t just drop everything and take a vacation right now.”

“Steve, the Commandos and I talked about this, it will take us at least fifteen days to get to the rendezvous point, you can go to the town have some fun, maybe meet a nice omega or a beta and be normal.”

“I like Peggy, Buck, it would be weird to ask another person out,” he said but, in his heart, he knew that Peggy wasn’t his intended, because while he liked her, there was something missing, but what were the odds of Steve finding his soulmate in the middle of a war.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, but you’re not with her right now either, so please indulge me and go be normal for a little while, go stop being Captain America, and go be Steve Rogers for once.”

It had taken some convincing, not just from Bucky but from all the Commandos, who were just as worried as his best friend about him. They were all very good friends, but while he had argued, in the end he had lost the fight and decided on taking them up on their offer, especially since Steve really was exhausted. The constant battles lately had taken its toll on him, the last one more than the others, but also, he has never really had a break where he could just be alone, where he didn’t have to be Captain America. The group handed him a duffle bag, filled with the few civilian clothes he had, along with a new sketchbook from Buck, and sent him on his way. Luckily this time he still had his bike, considering just how many times he’s destroyed it in the last year alone. It’s the one real selfish thing that he has, and the repair guys have gotten on his back whenever he destroys it.

Though there had been a town close to where they had been, Steve had decided to go further down near the water, there may not have been a place for him to stay but he could camp there and then drive somewhere else later on. They had given him a week and he decided that he wanted to take his time while out in the countryside, especially since he wouldn’t get this chance if the war continued the way it currently was going.

Somewhere between the time he left the town and reached the coast, a chill hit him so hard it made him stop, and bundle himself even more, it had been close to 45 degrees out when he had left, but the ride must have made it colder for him, so much so that it felt as though the air around him was shimmering with ice.

“Why did I pick the beach,” he murmured to himself but just kept going, the serum kept him warm, most of the time, the cold was just hitting him a little harder because he was on his bike, maybe once he got to wherever it was, he was going he could warm up a bit, maybe start a bonfire on the beach or something. From the looks of it there really was no one around at all, the area was dark, the only real light was coming from the moonlight. It was already calming his nerves, which was a surprising thing to happen when all he was doing was riding down the road.

Italy – Fall 2000

Tony hated his father at the moment, it had everything to do with the fact that the man had forced him to live in the family villa in Italy for a month, and he still had a week to go. He was alone in Italy, with no electronics, and only the few books he had taken with him. He was fucking Tony Stark, son of Gregory Stark and grandson of Howard Stark. He had a legacy to uphold, but apparently his family created this stupid test to annoy its heirs.

“Tony,” his father said while looking at him. “It’s family tradition, so suck it up.”

The tradition in question involved surviving for one month without technology, it had started with his grandfather, who had done it before the second world war, because Tony’s great grandfather want to know which of his sons would be the Stark heir, while Grandpa Howard had done it, he had also left the family business and started his own. Howard had wanted to revolutionize the world, while at the time the family business was more in banking. There’s still some Starks working in the banking sector, but all Tony knew was the part of the business that involved weapons and tech, and while Tony hated the weapons part, he loved the technology he got to create. His grandfather, the old man, wanted Tony to start out in research and development before eventually becoming the head of R&D and the family heir for when Tony’s father retired in probably twenty years. Tony was fine with this plan as long as he got to create the future of Stark Industries. But of course, he first had to live in this quiet freaking place, and he hated it.

Of course, he came up with the schematics for a million different things, carrying around a notebook with all his notes in it. He had three PhD’s all before his twenty-first birthday, he could finish off the week in the relative quiet of this seaside villa in the middle of nowhere Italy. It was too cold to swim, but the afternoons were nice to lounge outside, it was still in the sixties so all he needed was a light sweater. It was okay… that was a lie, all of it was, he was losing his damn mind, he didn’t know what to do with himself anymore. He had already upgraded all of the appliances in the house, he cooked maybe three things the whole time he had been in the house in the last two days, and he burned only one of them, but that was because the stove hadn’t been checked on in years.

“Maybe I should just go on a walk since there’s nothing else to do,” he said to himself just to fill in the void of silence around him, he heard something in the distance but for all he knew it was just the crashing of the waves, it was a full moon out after all.

Grabbing his jacket and the keys, he stepped out and just started walking down the driveway before making his way towards the road. Walking on the beach was too much at this time, the air was already cooler, and he didn’t want to get too far from the house, so he knew that if he just walked around the exterior of the house would be enough to deal with his restless energy. That’s when he heard the sound again, it wasn’t the water, it was the sound of a motorcycle coming down the road, which surprised him. He couldn’t help himself, he just stood there and waited, the bike didn’t sound like anything that had been recently made, which means it was vintage and he loved anything that was vintage. Hell, he loves anything that was on wheels, his only car back home had been one that his father had given him when he was fifteen, telling him to fix it so that it would be ready by his sixteenth birthday, it was a Ford Maverick, the thing didn’t even work, but Tony took it apart and changed everything until it was running on its own. It had taken all summer long, but he had finished it. He had to wait months before he could drive it, but it had been such a thrill for him.

When Tony had presented, on his eighteenth birthday, his mother had asked if he could ride something more suitable for an omega of his upbringing, but mostly because while the car could run, it was still an eyesore. Tony kept working on the interior in the months after that, he had been too engrossed restoring the engine, he had forgotten about everything else. Instead of getting a better car, he had worked with his mother to make the car more presentable, and less of a scrap heap that it had been. The red and gold interior had been her idea, all the while the outside had been a dark midnight blue. The damn thing was a work of art, and he wouldn’t give it up for the world.

It had taken another minute before the bike came into view, but when it did all he saw was a blonde Dorito looking hottie ride it, and honestly Tony had never felt more jealous of a motorcycle. The wind had shifted a little, and it hadn’t taken long before the scent of the man riding had hit Tony, which was weird because the only person Tony was supposed to smell like this would have been his true mate, that’s what he had been told, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to smell anyone, everyone else would just smell normal. The man smelled like home, it was weird, but it was like he was smelling New York, leather, oak with a hint of spiciness, he couldn’t figure out why his mate was here, but it was something else.

The moment the man saw him, Tony knew that the guy was sensing this too, their eyes met, and it was like a jolt had gone through Tony, he had never felt anything like it before. Honestly, he wasn’t sure if instant connections with anyone like that, yeah, he had Rhodey, but they were just friends, this was different. Then he saw the guy swerved and land in the field across from the house.

“Shit,” Tony said before he took off running towards the bike and the hot blonde, the damn idiot hadn’t been wearing a helmet so that was going to hurt, but Tony wasn’t going to let the man die, at least not before he found out his name, so that when the ambulance got here, they had at least that. Lucky for him the guy was standing and looking around when Tony reached him.

The moment the omega reached him, Steve was on high alert, he was so used to being able to smell everyone that when the scent of this man hit him it had been like nothing he had ever smelled before. For some reason it smelled like coming home, there was a slight metallic scent under the smell of honeysuckle and strawberries, it was weird, he’s never smelled anything like it. There was something else too, almost as if something inside of him had clicked and told him that this person was the one for him. His own mind was screaming, MINE, and there was nothing else that mattered, well until the bike skidded on the road and went into the nearby field.

“Are you alright,” the other man said, and to Steve it felt like the most beautiful medley he had ever heard in his whole life. It’s not supposed to be like this right or was it that his enhanced senses were throwing everything out into the air. The wind was blowing in his direction and the salty air mixed with the smell from this omega was unlike anything he could have thought up. But it was wrong right, society and God is against men being with men, even if one of them is an omega, it’s the biggest taboo. It was taught in school about how much of disaster same sex partnerships were.

But he had promised Bucky that for one week that he was just going to be Steve Rogers, the town looked small enough that no one would notice right, this would be alright just for a little while. In his heart he knew that the moment that everything clicked that he wasn’t going to be able to let this person go.

The other man had reached him and was standing over him, and Steve saw that he was assessing the damage, probably feeling a little guilty over the accident, it was so late, and he probably wasn’t supposed to be out. He looked so young, but those brown eyes in the moonlight were the most amazing he could have ever imagined.

“You’re not hurt are you,” he said but Steve couldn’t answer he was just amazed that after years of wondering if he would ever get this chance, that it was here. Just one week that was all that he was giving himself, and maybe after the war was over, he could still have this, even if he had to hide it from the world. “Oh shit, you’re not talking, you really are hurt.”

“I’m fine,” he said his voice sounded a little rough, but he saw the other man react and that just sent shivers down his spine.

“Oh, good you speak English, I don’t know why I spoke in English even though were in Italy, but I guess that’s just a reflex or something,” the man said and honestly, he could have been talking about dirt and Steve would have kept listening. “Are you sure you’re, okay?”

“I’m fine though I don’t know about my bike, but yeah I’m alright.” Honestly speaking, he never wanted to take his eyes off of the other man even if he could help it.

There was a moment where they were both quiet, neither knowing what to say, Steve decided maybe he could stay somewhere nearby and try again in the morning because he honestly did want to try again. This was the first time he’s ever reacted to someone like this, he did like Peggy, and he had been honest about it, but he wasn’t sure at the time if true mates were a thing.

“I can probably fix your bike, unless you’re in a huge hurry or something,” the man said assessing the bike breaking whatever kind of spell had fallen over the two of them.

“I’m not in a hurry, I was just trying to find a place to settle in for the night, I’m on a small vacation,” he said not wanting to bring up the fact that he was Captain America.

“Oh, that’s cool, I’m on a forced vacation,” the man said shrugging his shoulders. “I mean what can you do, but if you were looking for an inn or anything I hate to tell you this, but this town has none of that, hell you would have been better off going in the opposite direction.”

“Well, I was actually going to stay on the beach for the night.”

“Do you realize how cold it is right now, you’re insane.”

“I’ve been in the army for the last few years, this is nothing compared to other places I’ve slept in, though this is much nicer,” and it was because who would have thought that Steve would have found his mate in the middle of nowhere Italy, though now he had to worry about other things, such as whether or not this person was on the opposite side of the war, or even if they were Hydra.

“Yeah, well I guess it’s kind of great, I mean it’s not Jones Beach in the summer but it’s okay.”

“You’ve been to Jones Beach,” Steve had always thought that a place like that would have been too expensive, though he saw the pictures in the newspapers when a lot of the buildings had been built and thought it was swell, but the thought of meeting someone whose been there it’s amazing.

“Oh yeah, well my buddy from college took me there last year for some summer fun,” the guy shrugged and all of sudden Steve felt jealous over this unnamed person being with his omega, which was stupid because he’s known the guy for ten minutes. “Also, it was close to home, my mom didn’t want me going off on some grand adventure.”

“You’re from New York?”

“Yeah, born and raised, my name’s Tony by the way,” he said and honestly Steve was lost at just the sound of the man’s name.

“I’m Steve,” he held out his hand hoping to at least get the chance to touch Tony, he wasn’t sure if he would ever get this chance. When Tony took his hand, all Steve noticed was the softness of it, before it hit him that it was cold to the touch. “Uhh, maybe I should get going, you’re chilled to the bone talking to me out here.”

Tony nodded at him, but hadn’t let go of his hand, and Steve hoped that this mean, that maybe Tony felt it too, the connection between the two of them. Maybe Steve could come back and ask him on a date or something, even though he knew that it would be impossible. If someone saw them, they would end up in prison or worse dead in the street.

“If you want, there’s plenty of space where I’m staying,” Tony said as their eyes met once again, but Steve could see the nervousness in Tony’s eyes, he was offering an olive branch, but judging from the nervousness he was probably thinking about the same thing as Steve, about how all of this was illegal in so many ways.

“If it’s not a problem,” Steve knew this was a risk, but they were at war, Steve could die before all of this was over, he didn’t want to lose this chance. “But what about my bike.”

“Well, I did say I can fix it, honestly it shouldn’t take too long, and it would be something to do, because honestly this place has zero things to do.”

“So, you’re just inviting me over because my bike is a distraction,” Steve said smiling and it was the best thing in the world.

“Exactly,” Tony said smiling back at him. “Now come on, let’s get this thing into the garage, did you know it’s cold out here?”

“Okay,” he couldn’t help the smile on his face as Tony and him pushed his bike towards the house, there was a gate in front of it, and honestly it looked like it belonged to someone who was rich, which made him wonder about who Tony was, but at the moment the less information he had the better. “Nice house,” was the only thing he could say but Tony only scowled at him. “It really is.”

“Of course, it is, but my dad only sent me here on some stupid family tradition and I’ve been bored out of my mind the whole time, honestly you’re the most interesting thing I’ve seen since I’ve arrived.”

“What’s so bad about being here?”

“No friends, not technology of any kind, this place is like something out of the stone age, but if I want to prove myself to dear old dad, I have to survive here until the end of next week.”

Doing the math in his head, it meant that he and Tony could part at the same time that he needed to be headed back to the commandos, so it really would be a perfect week if Steve could stay with Tony long enough for him to see that maybe Steve was worth waiting for when the war was over.

“I could keep you company, if you want,” he offered which was the best that he could possibly do, he was about to take it back when Tony stopped and gave him the biggest smile.

“That would be great,” Tony said and honestly the man already had Steve’s heart.

Once the bike was in the garage, Tony walked him to one of the spare rooms in the house, it was more like a villa, but Steve wasn’t going to complain. Tony had settled him in a room that faced the beach which meant that when the sun rose later in the day, he would have a firsthand look at it. Tony had yawned not long after before ducking out to his own room across the hall, Steve had watched him go slightly envious of Tony’s bed.

When Tony woke up in the morning, he had honestly thought that everything that had happened the night before had been one really weird dream, except for the fact that he could smell food being cooked in the house, and since Tony had only eaten the instant stuff, which he had run out of the day before, all that was left was the actual food. Which meant that Steve was real, and the Alpha was cooking breakfast, honestly, he could kiss the man, he hadn’t wanted to eat another cup noodle if his life depended on it.

He went about getting ready, showering quickly and making sure that he looked presentable because he had an Alpha to impress, after the last two failed attempts at relationships, he really wanted one good relationship to happen. There was also the fact that Steve might actually be his mate, as in true mate, the only people he’s met that have true mates are the Jarvis’s, and even they said that it was rare when they were growing up, it’s harder now since there’s so many people living in the world.

“Good morning,” Tony said as he made a bee line for the ancient percolator that the house came with, Steve had already set it up too.

“I’ve been up since five,” Steve said as he served up the food. “I tried to be quiet as best as I could, I went for a run too.”

“I’ve known you for less than twelve hours and I don’t know if I like you or not, who wakes up at five in the morning.”

“I’m in the army remember, it’s a little hard to break a few of those habits, even when I’m on leave,” Steve said smiling while he sat down in front of Tony with a plate piled high with pancakes.

“You must be hungry,” Tony said looking at the stack of food, he wondered if they had enough food in the pantry, though it was stocked enough for four people, but since Tony didn’t cook, he guessed it would be okay.

“I guess I’m just happy to be eating something that’s not army food,” Steve said as he began digging into the food.

“It must be really hard, how long have you been in the army, hell how old are you anyway,” Tony wanted to know everything about Steve, he chalked some of it up to being alone this whole time, but honestly the man was gorgeous and when he smiled, he honestly thought that actual butterflies had sprouted in his stomach. Hell in even in the morning light the man glowed, but that could actually be the blonde hair in the sunlight, but it didn’t matter to Tony.

“I’m 26, I’ve only been in the army for just over a year, I had some health issues but they cleared up and I didn’t have family outside of my best friend, who was also in the army, so I enlisted,” Steve said to him, but Tony could tell that he was holding back on some details, it was in the man’s eyes, though, honestly, Tony could understand that there was so much information that Steve wanted to give out. They’d only known each other for less than a day. Six years wasn’t too bad of an age difference either which wasn’t surprising. “How about you?”

“Well obviously I’m not in the army, I just graduated college,” albeit with his third PhD but Steve didn’t need to know that “I’m twenty, from New York, which we covered yesterday.”

“What were you studying, if you don’t mind me asking,” Steve said and Tony was honestly excited but remembered how Rhodey used to zone out when Tony started babbling too much, but he only did it to finish his homework, which was understandable.

“Oh well mostly mechanical engineering,” among other things, but for once Tony didn’t want to talk about his schooling, or even what his future held, he really just wanted to live in this moment. Well maybe he thought about the future just a little bit, wondering what their kids would look like, whether Steve would like living with him, because even Tony knew he was a handful.

“Wow, that’s something,” Steve’s eyes were wide, and there was a hint of pride in them, almost as if he had been there with Tony when he had graduated, or it could be the fact that they were true mates and Steve was just proud that his mate was so smart. “All I have is a few years in art school before I had to quit.”

“Couldn’t finish?”

“My ma died, and I really felt like she had been the only person I was drawing anything for.”

“You could draw something for me, I mean as payment for fixing your bike, and you staying here,” because Tony didn’t need money from Steve, all he really wanted from him was the company and the chance to get to know him better just to see if they could really be together.

“That’s too little, I can pay,” Steve started but Tony shook his head.

“I don’t need money, but I can do with some company, if you want to pay me, you can keep cooking while you’re here.”

“I can do that.”

This was that moment where Tony was certain that everything would go wrong, his life didn’t go perfectly, he knew this for certain, something always went wrong, but he was okay with just living in the now just for one week. So, he got to work on Steve’s bike, which was a thing of beauty, way better than his grandfather’s roadster, and he was surprised on how well it was maintained too. The damn thing was from the 40’s, the fact that it looked this good, even when it skidded on the road just the day before, well it was amazing.

“How’s it going down here,” Steve said peaking his head into the garage, it had been a good few hours since Tony had left the kitchen after breakfast, though the actual amount of time that had passed wasn’t something that he was certain of.

“Well, luckily for you all I had to do was tighten a few things, but the scratches aren’t going to come out, not unless we paint it,” he shrugged, the bike wasn’t too badly off, honestly, and Tony was certain that Steve could leave, which just made him wish that he had lied so he could keep the Alpha here for a little while longer. “You could probably leave in the morning if you wanted.”

He waited for Steve to say okay, because who would want to hang out in an old villa with just Tony, and nothing to do, because of course there was nothing to do.

“If it’s alright, I could stay a few days,” Steve said, and Tony could see a little nervousness coming off of the man. “I don’t really have anywhere to go, and I need to get back to base at the end of the week so if I didn’t go too far it would be easier.”

“Yeah,” Tony said falling off of the stool he had been sitting on, “Yeah you can stay.” Did he sound desperate, was he desperate, geez he could flirt right, he used to have that ability.

“Thanks Tony,” Steve said smiling back at him. “Also, dinner’s ready, you’ve been down here for a good seven hours so I figured you’d be hungry.”

“Yeah, food would be great, give me a few minutes to clean up and I’ll be right there,” Tony said before rushing off towards his room. He had a week to impress an Alpha, or at least try and see if Steve was okay with the whole true mate thing. Maybe Tony could see him again after his service was over, maybe Tony could not fuck anything up right.

If anyone would ask Steve later how he could mess anything up, well it was by going overboard, he knew in his heart that whatever this was between him and Tony was right, even if society said it was wrong. He knew that he never had gotten this chance when he had been a sickly kid in Brooklyn, he barely got to go out on most days. So, this whole thing happening right at this moment, it felt surreal, and he didn’t want to let it go, not even for a minute, not if he could have everything he ever wanted. Even if it was for just a week of his life.

So, here he was, cooking like his ma had taught him, it had been a simple roast, he could cook but he wasn’t his mother, but he had hoped that this would impress Tony at least a little. He had even found a few candles, and flowers that hadn’t gone out of season. All of his knowledge of relationships had come from Bucky, who somehow always caught the attention of every Alpha, Omega and Beta around, he knew how to woo a girl.

“Uhhh,” Tony said as he walked into the dining room, freshly showered, and smelling like mint, Steve wondered if he could bottle up the smell of mint and strawberries and carry it around with him when he went back.

“Yes, so, I was kind of hoping to address something, and when I was thinking about how to bring this up, well I thought I could make dinner,” he was rambling of course he was, no wonder the dames never looked at him. “Last night, the reason I crashed, well…”

“Is this a date?”

It was stupid right, maybe he had gone too far considering how Tony was reacting, “Maybe,” was all Steve could say, but Tony had a small smile forming so maybe he wasn’t too far off. “Last night, the reason I crashed was because I smelled you, and well, when I was little my ma had told me that when you met your mate you would smell them long before you saw them.”

She hadn’t been wrong, he had smelled Tony long before he had seen him, but he had thought that it had been coming from the road, his senses were so heightened since the serum, so everything felt off. He could smell everyone, but it was Tony’s scent that made him realize just how different they really were. He just wanted to take the chance, and if cooking dinner was what brought them together, well outside of crash landing in a field, well this was the best way to do it.

“So, if you want this could be a date,” Steve said finally answering Tony’s question.

There was a shy smile on Tony’s lips before he nodded, “I was trying to figure out how to bring it up, because I’ve seen how rare this was, whatever this is.”

“I thought about it all day, I was afraid that once my bike was fixed, I would have to leave and I was used to never taking chances,” it wasn’t a lie he was used to being left behind, but also, he didn’t want to lose another chance, not if he could help it. “This is a once in a lifetime thing.”

This was honestly the only thing that he was certain off, to hell with what society thinks, he would just have to deal with the consequences after the fact. He could deal with not being Captain America, but he wasn’t sure if he could give up this one opportunity.

“I want to take the chance too,” Tony said to him, and though they were several feet apart, he could see hope in the omega’s eyes. “I know just how rare this is, I’ve only ever seen it once, and the fact that this happened right now, I don’t know if I can let it go.”

His heart was soaring just hearing Tony say this, “So, dinner,” he said, his first date in his life, one that wasn’t set up by Bucky, one that he took a chance on.

That night they got to know one another, only small things, their lives their families, their hopes for the future, though some of the things Tony said were a little out of this world. Steve quickly learned that Tony’s mind worked at a different rate than anyone else’s did, he had hopes for the future. Even when he told Tony about all of the things he suffered to as a kid, Tony’s first reaction was to try and figure out solutions to them, even though Steve assured him that everything was alright now. He also saw the small things that made Tony special, he had a deep love of helping people by changing the world, but because of his age among other things made it impossible for people to take him seriously.

“Let’s take a walk on the beach,” Steve said, their dinner had been finished hours ago but they had been talking to one another this whole time.

“It’s freezing out right now.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep you warm,” Steve honestly just wanted a chance to hold Tony closer to himself, to have the feel of the omega next to him. “Come on,” he said as he pulled Tony away from the table and towards the back door.

“Fine, but let’s take a blanket or something,” Tony said pulling away for a moment, only to walk to the nearby closet and pulling out a blanket before holding it out to Steve. “Here, take this,” he disappeared for a second time, coming back with a wicker basket, though Steve was unsure what was in it.

They walked down to the beach, before settling on a spot that looked good for both of them before settling in, the stars always looked different on this side of the world, or it could be the lack of light from any major city, Steve would never be sure. He only stopped paying attention when Tony snuggled up to him, his body shivering because of the light wind.

“Sorry, I’m not very warm blooded so I get cold easily, but you feel like a furnace so it should be alright,” Tony said as he tucked himself into Steve’s side.

This felt right, the fact that Tony even fit perfectly next to him was one of the most amazing feelings in the world. “I tend to run really hot,” Steve said as he put his arm around Tony. It really wasn’t a lie, at least not since the serum, but he remembered being cold growing up, so he understood where Tony was coming from.

“Tell me something, anything, just distract me until I feel warm again.”

“Okay, let me think,” he honestly didn’t have any real stories, not ones that would matter, all he had were stories he had read in books growing up. “I have nothing,” he admitted which was true.

“There has to be something, I mean you’re in the army, so you have to have stories of all the people you went through basic with.”

Those words had actually reminded him of something, “Okay, I do have one then,” he said with a smile. “I actually thought I would have died during basic training, I was still getting over a lot of childhood stuff,” he wasn’t going to mention the serum and how it had changed him afterwards. “There was this challenge, we had to do this twenty-mile run, full packs on and everything, it was a way to judge if we were dedicated enough for what we were doing.”

“How heavy were the packs?”

“I think somewhere between twenty to fifty pounds, I was still a weakling at the time so it could have felt like more than it really was.”

“Okay, that’s a lot, I mean I haul around a lot of metal sometimes, but I usually have someone help with the heaviest of it, so that means if I were working, you’d have to help me move something if I couldn’t do it alone.”

“So, you understand how hard it is, but try doing that and keeping pace with the commanding officer, it’s really hard, especially since I wasn’t as strong as I am now,” he said thinking back to that training time, he wasn’t sure what had happened that had made Erskine choose him, but it had happened during that time. “Anyway, we were running and at the halfway mark we stop at a flagpole, my CO says that if we can get the flag down from the top then we can get a ride back to the barracks, he adds that no one has ever gotten through this challenge, that it’s impossible to do.”

“What did he grease the flagpole or something?”

“I doubt it, but this thing is at least fifty feet up in the air, so everyone else starts clamoring up the pole, or at least trying, we’re all tired at this point and there’s still another ten miles to go, but no one could get it, I couldn’t even try because there’s no way around the others, so I wait until there’s an opening, that’s when the CO calls everyone back into formation, and I think, if I don’t do this I’ll probably keel over on the way back.”

“Oh, come on, you’re not going to die from that.”

“I thought I would, I was still having problems with my asthma at the time and the only reason I hadn’t fallen down was because I had been pacing myself.”

“Are you still suffering from it?”

“No, I got some medicine and the doc, he was a good man, he treated me for everything I had struggled with, honestly it was the most amazing thing too.”

“I should send him a present.”

“I wish you could, but he passed away right before I was sent out.”

“I’ll bring flowers to his grave then, just to thank him for making sure you came out of it okay. That would be good right, maybe I can lay some for your parents as well.”

Steve hadn’t even finished the story, but he knew that in this moment, he had never felt so happy about something in his whole life. He was proud of everything he had already done, but meeting this compassionate person was more than he could have ever hoped for. He wanted to kiss Tony, but he wasn’t going to push it, he was also very afraid of messing this up. He had never really kissed anyone, and everyone who he has kissed lately had all pretty much forced themselves on him just because he looked the way he looked now. He wanted Tony to like him for being himself, and not because he was Captain America.

“Finish the story,” Tony said to him, Steve hugged him to his side, fighting back tears, wondering if his mother would be happy for him even if his mate was a man.

“Okay, so, I waited until everyone else was information before walking up to the flagpole and taking a closer look at it, turns out there was a bolt at the bottom that was holding the whole thing up in the air.”

“Yeah, it must have been old cause the ones I remember weren’t as easy to take apart.”

“I think it was designed that way, but since none of the others knew that I just walked up to it and pulled the pin out, the whole thing just fell to the ground, I grabbed the flag and got into the car. My CO looked surprised I’m guessing that no one had ever figured it out in all of the years that he had been there.” Tony had let out a laugh, his body vibrating next to Steve, it felt nice to be there in the moment.

“That was amazing,” Tony said to him, and all Steve could do was hold him closer.

They ended up staying there until sunrise, Steve wished he could have taken a photo of the moment just to carry it around with him, but it was impossible since cameras weren’t really available for the everyday people, not unless he had more money than most people. The basket as it turned out had been filled with fruit, Steve had snuck a peek when Tony had fallen asleep next to him, Steve moving the omega’s head onto his lap all the while running his fingers through Tony’s curly hair. Steve had only laid down when the sky was still in the early stages of sunrise, while the sky was just peaking over the horizon.

Tony woke up when the sun started rising over the horizon, he wasn’t cold, even though he had spent the whole night on the beach with Steve. It all felt like a really strange dream, almost as if he had dreamed Steve up, but Steve was still there right next to him. They were on the ground, Tony tucked into Steve’s chest, the smell of salty air and Steve was all around him, and it was the greatest thing that Tony could have ever wanted.

Without second guessing himself, he moved up to meet Steve’s lips and softly pressed against them, it was only supposed to be a brief kiss, but he felt Steve’s had go up his back and pull him into the kiss. Tony grabbed onto Steve’s shirt, anchoring himself to the moment, everything was going so fast, but for some reason in Tony’s mind, he knew that they didn’t have much time with each other. It was probably because Steve was in the army so he was going to go back from leave soon, but it felt more like if Tony didn’t hold onto this moment, he knew that would never have gotten the chance otherwise.

“That was a nice wake up call,” Steve said once they pulled away from each other.

“I bet,” Tony said trying to get out of his thoughts. “I have a question, Steve.”

“Sure,” Steve had pulled him closer, Tony had his head on Steve’s chest, he could hear the alpha’s very strong heartbeat in his ear. If Tony could record it, it would become his lullaby for the rest of his life.

“What happens after you go back to the army,” he blurted out, pulling himself as close to Steve as he possibly could. “What happens after this week?”

“I want to have something with you, but I still have to fulfill my terms of service,” Steve said and Tony knew that this wasn’t the end just from that. “What about, we meet here a year from now, hopefully by then I’ll be out, and we could spend some time together.”

“We’ve only known each other for less than two days and we’re already making plans,” he said and it sounded crazy but Tony knew what it was like for true mates and he didn’t want to lose it, not when he just got it.

“Yes, it crazy, but Tony, I feel that if I let you go, even for just a moment, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself.”

“I am a man of science, and I know it’s crazy to think about this like this, I mean it’s biology right, but it feels different, almost like something clicked when we met.”

“So, one year, we meet on this beach and figure out the future, but for this week, can we live like this week is the rest of our lives?”

“That would be great,” Tony said, because thinking of what was waiting for him back in New York was already a lot to think about, but he could do this one week. Maybe when he got back, he could find a way to get Steve out of military duty or find a way to keep an eye on him so that nothing would happen to him.

The rest of their week was a series of dates, mostly Steve wooing Tony, they would take walks on the beach, Steve wanted to ride his bike with Tony once, but for some reason it felt wrong, just sitting on it meant that the end had been close, and he didn’t want to feel like that at all. If the war hadn’t been threatening their very lives Steve would have found a way to stay with Tony for the rest of his life, but he knew that he needed to finish this, that he needed to finish Hydra once and for all. Tony just became another motivation for him, he had to protect his mate, and that mattered more than anything else in the world.

Two nights before he was set to leave, Tony walked up to him his smell stronger than anything Steve had ever smelled.

“Bond with me,” he said without thinking, but knowing that if he didn’t say it he wouldn’t get the chance to do it.

“Yes,” Tony answered quickly, almost as if he knew in his heart just as much as Steve did that this was as important. “You leave the day after tomorrow, so we’re going to have to do this quickly.”

This reminded Steve of all of those couples he saw at the expo, the ones who got married because they believed that this would be the end. This was what he had always wanted, even if they had only known one another for days, the thought of not being able to see Tony again after this made his heart hurt. He wanted this moment, because he feared not having the chance again, he feared the future now, of losing Tony, he didn’t want to go, but he knew he had to go, he had a mission to finish. Though the thought of now knowing that he had something to look forward to, a future, it made him happier than anything in the world.

They rushed through everything, gathering what they could, Steve working hard to make the bedroom he had been staying in, into something romantic, all the while he had seen Tony wandering outside in the garden looking for flowers, although Tony had disappeared into the garage for a while. They didn’t have anything traditional for the day, but they had to make do with what they had. Steve had found a piece of leather string in his bag, if he didn’t have a ring, he could give Tony one of his dog tags to wear.

When sunrise came the next morning, they met at the beach, Tony had found a white sweater to wear for the occasion, a halo of flowers on his head as the sun rose in the background. They didn’t have a minster, but they said the words to one another regardless, Steve could feel his heart swell.

“I know that we don’t have rings or anything,” Steve said but Tony only put his hand up before producing a ring box. “Where did you get this?”

“My parents gave them to me when I presented, apparently they’re a family heirloom, I always carried them with me, but I wasn’t sure if they fit,” there was a shyness in Tony’s voice, almost as if he were afraid, but Steve did the only thing he could think of, he kissed his intended.

“They’re perfect,” Steve said wishing with all of his heart that his mother was there to see this moment. “Though I prepared something as well, it’s not as fancy, but it’s a piece of me.” Pulling out his dog tags, he smiled at Tony, “I’m giving you this Tony, with all of my heart, for my one true mate, my soulmate.”

The woven leather necklace looked beautiful around Tony’s neck, it was a piece of Steve for Tony to have, hopefully as an amulet, a reminder of what they were doing now, and what their future could be.

“We have this tradition in the army, though I’ve never given these to anyone, but the tradition is that you give your tags to your other half, it’s so that you know that they’ll come back to you one day.”

“One year right,” Tony said with a smile.

“One year,” Steve said it almost as a pledge.

As it turned out the rings had been the perfect size, considering neither of them had tried them on beforehand, but it was perfect, though Steve knew that he wasn’t going to be able wear the ring in combat, he didn’t want Hydra to know that he had someone out there, someone that they could take from him. When the sun was over the horizon they kissed, sealing this bond would happen as the day progressed, but they wanted the ceremony to remember, and maybe one day they would have the chance to have a full ceremony with their friends and family.

The nerves were getting to him, honestly Tony had never been with anyone, though the tabloids had him dating four people at the moment, he had only ever kissed others. So, when he had finally bonded with Steve later that day, it had taken everything in him to not feel overwhelmed over it all. He hadn’t taken the braided leather necklace off front he moment Steve had given it to him. He had put his wedding ring next to the dog tag, Steve doing the same with his, so that they don’t lose them. Tony with his tinkering and Steve out in the army for who knows how long, but the promise of forever was there, they just had to think of their future.

They had made love to one another for hours on end, never stopping unless they wanted food or to use the bathroom. Honestly, Tony hadn’t even felt the cold air until it was almost time for Steve to leave. It hurt, he didn’t want his mate to leave him, but he knew in his heart that wherever Steve was going, he had a piece of Tony with him.

“I don’t want you to go,” Tony told him, tears in his eyes, “I want to stay with you, but I know you have to do this,” which was true, and Steve going AWOL would be a terrible thing.

“One year Tony, I’ll be back I swear,” Steve said holding onto Tony as close as he could. “I will do everything I can to get back here.”

“I love you,” Tony whispered, and although it was the first time, he had said it even after bonding himself to Steve, he knew it was the truth.

“I love you too,” Steve said before kissing him and giving him a sad smile.

Tony watched Steve drive off, he watched in hopes that the bike would turn around and come back, but he knew that it wouldn’t. He knew that there was something in Steve’s heart that meant that he needed to finish what he had started. He had gone into this journey knowing that his family tradition was supposed to teach him how to be self-sufficient, but I don’t think that they realized that Tony would find his mate along the way. His heart hurt for a moment, almost as if it knew the heartache he would have to endure.

“One year,” he said to himself like a mantra even as the tears began to fall, but this was the life they had been given and the odds of them meeting were almost dismal if he thought about it.

Winter 1945

In the weeks since his return to the Commandos, Steve felt lost, he wasn’t sure why when he had made a promise to Tony, but it had felt like he was missing the other half of his soul. He remembered the looks that everyone had given him when he had met them at the pickup point, he had driven all night to get there so that it wouldn’t look as if he had gone AWOL on them. Bucky was the only one who had picked up on something being off with him, but it had taken a while for it to happen. If it hadn’t been for the fact that Steve had to buy a new sketchbook just to draw Tony from memory, since he had accidentally left his old one behind at the villa. It was while drawing the image of Tony on the beach with a flower crown on his head that Bucky had pulled him aside.

“What’s this,” Bucky said to him, and Steve knew that it was almost as if he were broadcasting his bond, all from a drawing. “Steve.”

“I met my mate,” was all he could say, not wanting to talk about everything else that had happened, but he knew that Bucky wasn’t going to stop there. “I met him during that week.”

“Stevie, you’re my best friend, but this is illegal, and you know it.”

“I know, I worry about it everyday Buck, but this is different, this is the kind of bond mate that only exists in fairy tales, and I don’t want to give that up, but I’ll hide it as best as I can,” he said shutting the book on Tony’s smiling face. “If you don’t like it, then so be it, but I’m not going to change this.”

“I’m not going to make you change anything about yourself, but you have to be careful, please, I don’t want the army thinking anything that would have you in prison.”

“What would you have me do, I’m already hiding it, I never let this little book out of my hands, hell it’s constantly wedged into my uniform,” he said shoving the book into his jacket before zipping it up. “I just want this one thing, especially in a world that only sees me as Captain America.”

Bucky sighed and sat down next to him, they were just hours away from another mission, this time in the Alps, and he didn’t want to fight his best friend over this. He just wanted to have Tony close to him, and he had been counting the days until they could meet again, it was a promise he had intended to keep no matter what.

“I’m glad you found them Stevie,” Bucky said patting him on the arm. “Tell me about the punk that stole your heart, and most likely your virginity too.”

“That’s gross Buck.”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t make it any less true now does it.”

So, Steve spent the whole way towards the mission site telling Bucky about Tony, about how smart he was, how he had fixed Steve’s bike, about how he talked about changing the world, which seemed crazy now that he thought about it, but it was Tony, so anything was possible. Eventually he told him about the bonding ceremony that they had had two days before Steve left, that was what he had been drawing, it was seared into his mind so he would never forget it.

“Does he have a last name, or did you forget to ask for one, because honestly this guy could be crazy.”

“Now that I think about it, I never asked him for one, hell I don’t think I ever gave him mine either, but he has one of my dog tags so all he has to do is look at them.”

“You feel for an omega, and never got their name, how are you going to find them?”

“We made a promise to meet again on our one-year anniversary, in the same place we met back in November.”

“Talk about a fairy tale, I wish you luck on that,” Bucky said with a sigh, “Man I wish I met my bond mate like that.”

Steve let out a laugh, shoving Bucky a little, “Who knows maybe Tony has friends or a sister or something.”

“Maybe,” Bucky said before shoving off towards the table with all the maps.

The mission was a simple one, they just had to stop a train, it shouldn’t be all too hard.

Winter 2001

Tony felt sick, he’d been sick for months now, but before it had more to do with his parents’ deaths, which after coming back from Italy had been a shock for him. Overnight he had gone from the Stark heir to the CEO, and he hated it, especially with Obadiah trying to pull the strings behind the scenes, trying to force him to get the company back to where it had once been, in weapons, when his father had pulled the company in multiple directions looking for new areas for Stark Industries to grow. There was something happening with Obie, but Tony didn’t have a moment to care, he had a company to run, and he missed Steve like crazy.

The man was in the army, Tony could find him right, but everything else in his life was pulling him in multiple directions. He had hired his college friend Pepper to be his assistant while she worked on her MBA, he had gotten Rhodey to work as the liaison for S.I. and he had even started work on his father’s last pet project, which was Stark Tower, which would end up hold the majority of the company offices as well as a penthouse apartment for them to live in, except now it was just for Tony to live it. This was still better than living in the mansion which now just felt empty and haunted by the past of his own family.

When he had thrown up for the third time that day, he had decided to go to the doctor, well actually Pepper had decided for him because she was sick of him being sick all of the time.

“You have to get checked out Tony,” she had said as she shoved him unceremoniously into his car, Happy waiting at the wheel, before sitting herself next to him just to make sure that he didn’t run away on her.

In the end that doctor’s appointment had changed everything about his life once again because it turned out that he had been close to the end of his first trimester, and that Steve had left him a little present along with the wedding ring. Pregnancy in omega men still weren’t common, of course they weren’t, not after centuries of oppressions and the fact that they lacked certain things that women had. So, the doctor had told him the risks associated with having a baby, they had gone through every detail and how the birth would happen by c-section.

“You have at least a week to terminate if you so choose,” the doctor added at the end which only pissed Tony off even more.

This was a baby he and Steve had made, one who had been conceived out of love, and Tony wasn’t going to give that up.

“I want to have the baby,” he said confident in his decision, knowing just how much this was going to suck if he can’t find Steve.

“Okay,” the doctor said before setting up an appointment with an OBGYN and getting him started on neonatal vitamins.

On the way home he wanted to cry, he wanted to lay down and cry so much, cry for the fact that his parents wouldn’t get the chance to see their grandchild, to meet their son’s mate, to be proud of the direction the company was going to go. Instead, he held back and thought of something more pressing, he needed to find Steve. But how did you find someone when you didn’t know their last name, and then he remembered that he had a piece of Steve’s dog tags around his neck. He could find his mate and tell him about the baby and hope that the man would come home early enough to see their child come into the world.

That was until he read the tags and then looked up everything he could, Steve Rogers died in the summer of 1945, Tony thought that it was a joke until he had a picture of Steve in his hands and in them, he saw Steve’s tag and next to it the wedding ring that matched Tony’s. His husband had somehow traveled through time and was now lost to him forever, all because Tony let him go back to the army instead of begging him to stay. After that he did cry, he cried as he read about Steve’s life as Captain America, the files coming directly from some shady ass government organization called SHIELD that he had secretly hacked after going through several government servers.

Spring 1945

Still getting over the loss of Bucky, Steve threw himself into the mission of destroying Hydra, he didn’t care about anything but getting rid of them and ending the war. He knew that at the end of it all was Tony, his beautiful omega, his only family now, no one knew about him, but Steve had made sure to write a letter incase anything happened to him. The letter telling the army about his mate, and where to find him in a year’s time, though it was only months now. Somehow, he knew that this fight wasn’t going to end well, but he had to be optimistic about the whole thing, he had to think of his future.

Or at least that was how he was thinking as the plane went down into the Atlantic, he knew that Tony would be taken care of, he hoped for it. Even with the laws they had to see that Captain America’s mate was worth protecting. He could hear Peggy begging him to survive, Howard’s voice not far behind. He felt like his life was worth living but he also knew that there was no surviving for him, not when the plane’s autopilot was headed towards the Eastern United States. He tried rigging the controls to go down so that he could at least find a way off but for some reason the plane’s controls weren’t working in the way he wanted them to work.

So, he did the next best thing, he said his goodbyes to his friends and started praying for his beloved, hoping to see him once again when they reached the gates of heaven.

Summer 2001

It was early on August 10^th, when Tony felt weird, his stomach hurt, everything hurt, it came and went but he knew what was happening, the c-section wasn’t scheduled until the week after but apparently his baby boy was ready to come out now. Calling out for Rhodey, who had been off on leave since Tony hit his last month of pregnancy, he got up and waddled towards the bathroom to grab his toothbrush and get ready. It wasn’t long afterwards when Tony found himself on a gurney and wheeled into a private room where the whole thing would take place. The world believed that Tony Stark had decided to mourn the death of his parents in peace, while also getting ready to run the company, which had been put in his hands just months before. In reality he had told the press when he was in his second trimester, that he had wanted some time to properly mourn his family before stepping into his role as CEO of the company. No one knew that he was pregnant outside of his doctor, Pepper and Rhodey, Obadiah didn’t know anything about his son, something in Tony told him to keep Peter a secret from the man.

Obadiah had been a friend of his grandfather, he had known his father and mother, and even Tony, but his father hadn’t trusted the man and that was something that Tony had picked up on growing up, but he was S.I.’s COO, while being CEO when Tony was out the last year. There was something strange about the way the man had all but latched onto Tony after his parents’ deaths, it bothered Tony, but he thought it had to do with losing a friend. But when he had taken leave during the last few months of his pregnancy, Pepper had told Tony that there was something going on behind the scenes at S.I. Tony would have to look into this when he got back.

Tony hadn’t gotten the chance to investigate any of it, not after his son was born, Peter Benjamin Stark-Rogers came into the world quiet at first, Tony thought that something had gone wrong, until Peter had let out a loud cry the moment he had been placed on Tony’s chest as the doctor finished up and stitched up his belly. Rhodey and Pepper being the first two people to meet him as they were in the delivery room with him. To protect his son, especially since his sire was Captain America, he gave his son the last name Parker, after a close friend of his who had died in a car crash with his wife. The couple had worked in R&D at Stark Industries, they had been ten years older than Tony, but they had been good friends.

“I wish you could have met you daddy,” Tony had told Peter when they were left alone in his private hospital suite an hour later. The tears had fallen down his face as he said the words, but he also wished he could have seen Steve again, about how it felt like a dream if it weren’t for the little bundle of joy in his arms.

Part Two – Ten Years Later

New York City Early May 2011

Everything felt wrong, he felt cold, but he couldn’t wrap the blanket around him, he couldn’t move, honestly, he could only feel the ice all around his body. The sounds around him felt wrong, he knew that there were people around him, but he could only hear bits of their conversations. The parts he heard sounded strange to him, there was a beeping in the background, but that faded away once he let sleep take him. It happened like that a few times before we awoke to the sound of a radio playing a baseball game, one that he had gone to with Buck a few years ago. After awaking his first thought was that he had survived but the sound of the game in the background was wrong, everything right down to the sheets on the bed just felt wrong.

Even after he realized all of this, even after he had run away from everything, it was when he was standing at the crossroads of the world, Stark Tower in the distance, did Steve realize he had lost everything in his life. He had lost his friends, his life, and his future with Tony. It wasn’t until he was back in the building, he had run from did he finally let everything go, he cried because it was the only thing he could do. Pulling off his dog tags he finally slipped the ring onto his finger and thought of that week with Tony. How his omega mate’s hair fell over his eyes, the ringlets just dropping to the side enough in his sleep for Steve to kiss him awake.

He would never get his November with Tony.

Malibu, California Late May 2011

They had gone to Malibu after opening the Expo, spending his days with his son, opting for homeschooling for the last half of the school year because Tony had wanted to see his son grow up just a little more. He had been afraid that he was going to lose the years he should have with his little boy. Palladium poisoning was taking away his time with his son, even after everything he had gone through the universe wasn’t done with him.

The last few years had been a test more than he had wanted, even after losing Steve, Tony couldn’t have predicted everything that would happen. His kidnapping had been the start, Iron Man being the outcome of one fight, and then dealing with the nightmares the trauma of it all. He had pulled away from Peter, afraid of scarring his son, but the little boy had been a blessing, one that Tony had been happy for. The night that Stane had ripped out the reactor, Peter had been the one to save him, Peter who had been in the workshop while Tony searched for his phone, while Stane nearly killed him, Peter who had some help from DUM-E, had put in the old arc reactor into his chest. Having seen Auntie Pepper do it before.

After the fight with Stane, after deciding to keep Iron Man under wraps for the sake of his son, he had gone to New York, deciding to open up the Stark Expo and start work on Stark Tower. Though he had purchased a house in Queens near May and Benjamin Parker, Peter’s god parents and surrogate Aunt and Uncle. Pepper and Rhodey hadn’t been offended by his choice, mainly because they knew Tony’s relationship with the Parker family came from growing up with May and her future husband, later going to school with Ben’s brother Richard and his Wife.

While living in Queens, Tony started feeling the effects of the poisoning, he was losing time, and the fact that his son would be orphaned scared him more than ever. Redoubling the efforts to finding a solution, Tony had decided after the opening of the Expo, to go to Malibu and live what could be the last months of his life with his son. Of course, nothing ever goes to plan, and after a particularly rough night, he had left Peter with Rhodey and went off to eat his heartbreak. Of course, that’s where he had met Fury, who was now a constant pain in his ass, as well as Natasha Romanoff who had promptly stabbed him in the next with a needle, and a guy they called The Winter Soldier, who was sitting in the back corner of the donut shop looking like some emo goth kid with too much time on his hands.

“You have a lot to live for Tony Stark,” Fury said looking at him with the one eye which honestly annoyed Tony at the moment because he couldn’t even eat donuts in peace.

“What would you know about what I have to live for,” it could just be that he was angry at the world for constantly taking things from him. “You have no idea what my life has been.”

“I know you have a son, one you love more than anything,” Fury said to him as he took a drink of his coffee, “I know that no one knows who the father is, not even your friends.”

“Leave Peter out of this you one-eyed pirate.”

“Tony, only you can solve the riddle of your own heart,” Fury said a fondness in his eyes, and the words that his great Aunt Peggy had once told him after he had lost Steve and had gone to her never telling her who had his heart because all of the newsreels said that Steve had loved Peggy.

“We’ve given you time to fix what’s broken,” Natasha said smiling at him in a way that made him uneasy, in a way he had seen before. The only person who had ever looked at him like that had become his assistant after he had made Pepper the acting CEO of Stark Industries. That’s when it dawned on him, as he sat there with SHIELD agents what was happening.

“Fucking hell,” he threw his arms up in the air. “You’re Natalie Rushman, my assistant, fucking fuck, this is why I have trust issues.”

“Ahh so you figured it out,” she said to him while giving him a knowing look. “You know you should probably never invent things that could hide people’s faces, but I now understand why you did it.”

The invention, on his part, had only ever been used whenever he had to go to Peter’s school for parent-teacher conferences, or when Peter had a science fair or anything where Peter was involved. It had been the only way Tony saw fit to be in his son’s life without the world knowing who he was, and apparently SHIELD had saw fit to use it against him at the same time. Natalie knew about Peter in the same way Pepper did, she was a part of that life, she had spent months working in Stark Industries gaining his favor, and now he knew it was because SHIELD had put her there.

“Why?” he asked wanting to know the truth.

“I wasn’t the first they had approached for this,” she said to him all the while looking at the emo wonder behind them. “But Director Fury believed that you needed someone close by, he knew that after what happened with Stane that someone needed to be with you as protection.”

“But I’m Iron Man,” he said nearly whining when he said it.

“Yes, but you’re also not the best person to judge your own ability to take care of yourself, for crying out loud you were ready to die before we got here and where would that leave Peter?”

“You don’t get to lecture me on this, to treat me like some helpless omega who needs an alpha in their lives, I’ve lived long enough to know that I don’t need anyone in my life to take care of me and my own.”

“Yes, I know that Tony, but I also know that you don’t deserve to have the life you’ve had, not with all the problems that have followed you around.”

“Well excuse me for having a target on my back because my last name is fucking Stark,” he yelled out slamming his hands on the table spilling his coffee everywhere. “It’s not my fault that my son doesn’t know his own damn sire, or that the fucking universe likes to mess with me on a bad day, which is a lot lately.”

Before he could say anything, else there was a shuffling behind him, and he knew that the guy who had been sitting in the back had moved. It wasn’t that Tony was afraid of the guy, it was just that he didn’t like not knowing who was around him, not when the conversation involved his son.

“Pick a table damn it and stop with the moving,” Tony yelled at the guy, so of course the table the guy picked was there’s and the only available spot was right next to Tony. “Who the fuck is this guy.”

“He’s the Winter Soldier, he’s one of the best assassins in the world,” Fury said almost as a warning to Tony, not like he cared because even with whatever they put in him, he was still dying.

“He’s also my mate,” Natalie/Natasha said to him. “But I think he’s also something to you as well.”

“What makes you think that?”

“The dog tags you wear around your neck.”

At that Tony froze, no one, not even his own son, had ever seen them, he never takes them off and now with the reactor in his chest he’s never without a shirt on either. He refused to let the world know that he had a bond, even for a short time, with Steve Rogers. Just the fact that he had lived it still felt like a dream if it weren’t for the fact that Peter existed.

“You’ve never seen them,” he said trying to remember if he had ever taken them off. “No one has.”

“I have, it was an accident, but I have,” she said never showing emotion to him. “I told director Fury that we should have you meet with The Winter Soldier.”

“I’m still skeptical about this but the world is crazier than most people would think,” Fury said and at that moment, Tony knew that if he could run out of this place as fast as possible, he would. He had always feared that someone would take his son from him, not because of the fact that he was a Stark, but because his blood was also Steve’s and that the super soldier serum lived in the little boy’s body.

Tony sat frozen, his fight or flight instincts were going crazy at that instant, for a moment he feels as if time were standing still. It was worse because the crazy assassin sitting next to him was staring at him like he could look right through him.

“The Winter Soldier is James Barnes,” she told him, and he it really did feel like time stopped all of a sudden. He knew the stories, his grandfather had told him several, about Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, his friends from the war. No one could survive the fall that Barnes had taken, he had read the reports on the whole thing, Steve hadn’t been able to save his best friend and months later found himself the victim to his own self-sacrificing nature. Tony wished he could have saved the man, but what could he have done.

“You smell like Steve,” Barnes said, the first words that the man had spoken in the whole time he had been brooding off in the corner of the donut shop.

“How the fuck would you know that you’re not supposed to be able to smell other people like that, I know my biology.”

“Wait, you’re serious, Stark is bonded with Rogers?” Fury said looking between the group, almost as if a bomb had been dropped on him. The bomb involved Tony’s fucking life and it wasn’t something he wanted broadcasted around the fucking world. “How the hell did Steve Rogers meet Stark?”

“I would like to know that myself eyepatch but seeing as though the universe isn’t willing on telling me that one, I guess we’ll never know now will we,” Tony said already over this whole ordeal. “And again, how on earth could you smell Steve on me?”

“There’s a lot of things that you don’t know Stark,” Fury said looking at him, of course the guy was hiding something, super-secret spy bullshit that’s what this was.

“Care to enlighten me then?”

“Hydra,” Barnes said without missing beat, apparently sick of Fury’s bullshit game, he had decided on just being the only straight forward person in the whole room.

“As in Nazi Evil guys?” Tony honestly couldn’t believe any of it but the last few years especially what happened with Steve, well nothing would really surprise him any more honestly.

“Yes,” Natasha said looking him in the eye. “And before the Director decides to keep it a secret, I feel as though you should know that you’ve been under SHIELD protection for a while now, more so since your kidnapping.”

“Why? Are the evil Nazi’s after me or something?”

“Why do you think you were kidnapped, either you worked with them or you’re a dead man.”

“That’s bullshit, the ones who kidnapped me were the Ten Rings, not Hydra.”

“You don’t think they’re aligned in some way,” she said and for some reason that revelation made the last few years even worse, that someone that close to his family had it out for them.

“How far does this go?” he asked curious about the answer, and about whether or not Stane had been trying to take out his whole family.

“I killed your grandparents,” Barnes said which made Tony tense up.

“What the fuck did you just say,” he said, his heart breaking a little at the revelation, his grandfather wasn’t the best person, judging by how his father used to talk about him before the crash, but Tony had loved his grandmother so much. She had taught him Italian, piano, and even how to make certain dishes. Tony had loved her so much and when she had died, he had been six, he had cried himself to sleep for a week straight.

Fury was the one to speak first, “He had been under Hydra control, they had had him brainwashed and used him as an enforcer, he had been a ghost. It took a while to break through all of that.”

Tony really wanted to get out now, but they were going to make him deal with this, and it was going to hurt. He could understand what they were telling him, but it hurt all the more, especially since Barnes had lived where Steve hadn’t. He knew that he shouldn’t resent Barnes, that his son would be lucky to have someone who had been close to his father around. But his grandparents’ deaths being ordered by Hydra and the fact that Stane might have been involved in it just made it worse. He wanted to cry and then go after Hydra in the same way he had gone after the Ten Rings, but he knew it would be useless, he knew he couldn’t do it alone.

“I know this is a lot to process,” Natasha said to him. “We can give you time, but you still have to fix your own heart before you can do anything else.”

It was like she was reading his goddamned mine, of course she knew what he was thinking she had been his assistant for months now, all to get closer to him. “I just want to know, were we ever really friends or was it all a ruse for you?”

“I hope we can be friends Tony, I truly do, but I also know that you hate how this came about and I don’t want to break your trust more than I’ve already had.”

He nodded at her words, she had gotten to know him very well, “As long as you don’t physically stab me in the back to hurt me, we can get back to what we had, but you have to be the one to tell Peter about what you did.”

There was a shy smile there, one that made him think that maybe he could still have her as a friend, he didn’t like being betrayed, but fortunately for him, at least this betrayal was in his best interests, plus he had really like Natalie Rushman. She also the same type of demeanor as Pepper, and that was that she took no shit from him, and also let him ramble when he needed to.

“As for this one,” he said pointing at Barnes, “Before he can even go anywhere near my house, he had to not look so murdery, and also we need to have a good talk about well a lot of things. I can forgive a lot of things that Hydra made you do, but I can’t forgive SHEILD for the lack of upkeep on that arm of yours.”

He knew it was a giant leap to take, he knew that he was putting himself out there in a lot of ways, but he also knew that he couldn’t deny his son the one chance to have someone from his father’s side there for him. God he was going to need a lot of therapy after all was said and done.

Soon after the talk, Fury left, he had gotten an alert about something happening in New York, “They’re your babysitters Stark,” he had said before his leather coat swished and he walked out like some two-bit cartoon villain. Of course, he wasn’t a villain but still Tony couldn’t help but think of it that way.

Natasha drove them to Stark Industries so that Tony could have her talk to Pepper and tell her the truth, because you don’t hide things from Pepper, though in turn Natasha made him tell Pepper about what was happening too. She yelled at them both for an hour before she went off to a meeting, scowling at Barnes as she walked out the door, not forgetting to remind Tony to take his stuff out of her office or she was going to burn it all.

“Well at least she still loves us,” he said as they packed everything up, though Tony couldn’t help but stare at his grandfather’s model of the Stark Expo, almost like it was hiding something and he could only see bits and pieces of it. “What do you see here?” he asked Natasha thinking that she could see what he was seeing.

“It looks like a scale model of the expo,” she said but he could see something more. “If Peter saw it he’d probably think it were a cool thing to set up his train set on.”

“Peter is 10, he’d do more than set up his trains,” which was true, but Tony had to figure out the model before he let Peter play with it. “Grab Barnes, we’re taking this with us.”

New York City Late June 2011

Another bag hit the wall, falling apart as it did, he wanted to get out of SHIELD, he needed to get away and do something that wasn’t a part of their lessons. He’d heard about Howard and his wife Maria’s death, and the death of his son Gregory and his wife as well. The only Stark left was Gregory’s son, yet they wouldn’t give him the man’s name. Steve wanted to at least meet the man and give him his condolences, but a good that would do when they wouldn’t let him know anything. The whole thing was frustrating to say the least, and if he could run away from SHIELD without them finding him, he would.

The lessons that day had involved a superhero team called the Avengers, because of course they were going to make him fight for them. He had been awake for a month, and they were already setting out his future and he hated it all the more. He wanted freedom, he wanted the chance to mourn his old life, couldn’t they let him have that? He had been thinking about the team while he had punched each and every bag that he could break, not like they were going to stop him from breaking them. All of these superpowered people, and secret identities, he only knew three of them by their actual names.

The Hulk, who was Bruce Banner, Thor who just so happens to being a Norse God, though that could be debated, and Hawkeye who worked with Coulson on Steve’s training. Clint was an okay guy to be around, though some of the things he said honestly went over Steve’s head, but he was getting used to it. The last three members of the team, well, Steve guessed that eventually he’ll get to know them. Black Widow and The Winter Soldier were a Russian Spy/Assassin team, though Clint told him that he worked with the Widow often enough, he had been the one to bring her into SHIELD, but he didn’t reveal her identity because as he said it “It’s hers to tell.”

The last member for some reason intrigued him, it was a man in a metal suit, almost as if they were a knight from an Arthurian legend. It reminded him of the time they had sat in the living room of the beach house and took turns reading a children’s book on King Arthur that had been published ten or so years before Steve had been born. They hadn’t cared that it was a kid’s book, they just liked reading to one another. It had been an easy day for the both of them, but now the memory haunted him in the form of a metal suited person known as Iron Man

“Man, you need to get out of here,” Clint’s voice traveled through the gym. “I wonder how the cleaning staff will deal with all of this.”

“You know they won’t let me out,” Steve told him. “They don’t think I’m ready for the outside world, they don’t think I’d adjust well.”

“I doubt that that’s the reason, I asked Coulson and even he couldn’t figure it out,” Clint shrugged. “Think you’ve adjusted well enough I mean not counting the day you went through a literally wall.”

Steve sighed as he stopped the bag he was currently punching and holding it still. “Clint, why are you here.”

There was a grin on the man’s face and Steve knew that this couldn’t be good, “So, Widow called and told me that Stark moved back into the tower, especially after what had happened at the Expo since the city wanted someone here for the clean-up, but they’re back in the city, and I thought we could stage a breakout and go see what they’re doing in that tower.”

There was a bit of optimism in Clint’s voice, though Steve wasn’t sure how they were going to get out of the building, not when everyone was keeping an eye on Steve. Though the prospect of meeting Stark and maybe even getting away from SHIELD with the help of the man gave him a little bit of hope. Steve had known that the Widow and the Soldier had been assigned to protect Stark, though from what Steve didn’t know, but the fact that they were back in the city meant that he could have the chance to meet the other members of the Avengers as well.

“How would we get out in the first place,” he had said trying to keep the tiny bit of hope out of his voice, he needed Clint to know that while he could plan an escape, it might not be entirely possible.

Though Clint had other ideas, before he pushed Steve towards the showers and told him to get ready, Clint of course had a plan, he was as much an assassin/spy as the Widow was. Steve went and got ready, putting on one of the outfits that SHIELD had left for him to wear, most of which he didn’t really understand, his shirts were too tight sometimes and it made him thing that the beta who had set him up in his quarters when he had gotten back his escape had done something. The clothes almost felt molded to his skin sometimes, and while they had felt more comfortable than what he wore in the 40’s, it was still weird. It didn’t help that most of the female omegas and betas in the building were ogling him like he was on display.

“Jesus,” Clint said when he saw him an hour later. “Can you even move in that.”

“Honestly, yes, but it’s really tight.”

“I think some of our gals here are trying to find out if you’d mate them, either that or they want to look at America’s Ass,” Clint said to him laughing as he said it. The man himself was a Beta, but he treated Steve like a friend and not some slab of meat, it also helped that Clint had told him that he was happily mated to someone. Whoever it was had a lot to deal with when it came to the archer, Steve had learned early on that Clint was a handful, but since he sometimes brought his dog over to meet him, well Steve let it slide.

“Come on, we’re breaking out of this joint,” Clint said smiling before closing Steve’s bedroom door and pushing the dresser in front of it as a precaution. Before climbing on top of the thing and opening a vent that was right above it.

“Can that hold you?” Steve asked, curious about why the vent was the only option that Clint had.

“Yup, this thing is reinforced, and it’s big enough to fit you, though it maybe a little tight until we get to the main air vents,” Clint answered all the while looking at Steve almost assessing if the man could fit.

Once Steve was inside, he understood why Clint had looked at him, the vents were a tight fit, and it made him think about his time in basic training when he had to crawl under the barbed wire. They moved slowly, afraid of alerting anyone of their movements, though Steve was certain that there was something tracking them, there had to be. But when they had reached the main vent Clint had said that he had put a dampening thing or something on the vents so that SHIELD didn’t know that he liked to crawl through them.

Instead of going down, they went up, they were going to rappel down the building, jumping from roof to roof until they reached Clint’s car. Steve thought that the whole thing was too easy, but it hadn’t been, they had to zipline from building to building to avoid the cameras. Which were everywhere they looked, Steve wasn’t sure how technology worked in the modern age, but this felt too much like a surveillance state than anything else. Someone was always watching, and it made him uneasy in so many ways, but he took it in stride, mainly because he was finally out of the building and not still trapped in it.

When they finally reached the ground, in a darkened alleyway, they had been on the move for over an hour, Steve hadn’t realized just how late in the day it had been until he saw the sun setting in the background.

“Here,” Clint said as he pushed Steve towards a red car that looked old by the standards of all the other cars on the street. “Get in the trunk.”

“What?” Steve said startled by what Clint was telling him to do.

“Well, I can hide from the cameras on the roof but on the streets I can’t and while I’m allowed to leave SHIELD, you’re not, so if you want to meet the grandson of your old friend, well get in the damn trunk.”

Cursing up a storm as he got into the trunk of the car, Steve was honestly regretting the whole trip, though this was still better than being stuck in a room learning about the 21^st Century. “Can you still hear me if I’m in here?”

“Yeah, I can,” Clint said as he pulled down a piece of the center seat, “Also I didn’t want you to suffocate in there.”

“So, why did Widow tell you that they were back?”

“She wants me to meet Stark, something about so arrows that he had made for me to test, apparently the mad genius has been upgrading the Avengers’ gear since they got back into the city, so I’m actually supposed to go there today and thought that maybe you’d want to go since… well you’re the leader of the team.”

“I didn’t ask to be,” he said not really wanting to talk about the damn reason why they wouldn’t let him rest. “Do they even know I’m coming?”

“Nope, hell they don’t even know you’re alive, the whole group of them were out in California for a while, something about creating a new element, but I don’t understand any of that.”

That sounded like something he’d have to ask about later, when he wasn’t laying down uncomfortably in the trunk of Clint’s car. “So, now they’re back and you are just going to near me in there?”

“Yuppers,” Clint said as the car swerved, and Clint cussed out the other driver. “And luckily for us, Stark’s got an underground parking lot. The building is still mostly under construction since they’re moving everything to New York, so no real security at the moment, well outside of the penthouse, but that’s because the rest still looks like a shell, I think they only have the walls up at this point, they’re still working out everything else.”

“You know a lot about what’s happening in there.”

“Yeah, well I’ve been reading Widow’s report, plus she’s friends with Stark and apparently he’s putting suites up for the whole team, though he doesn’t know how many of us there are.”

“I don’t know how many people Fury wants on the team, so far it’s less than ten, though he may add more in the future,” though what threats SHIELD wants them to fight are beyond anything that he would know.

“Well, there’s plenty of space apparently,” Clint said as the car moved down a path and into a darkened garage. “We’re here.”

Steve took a deep breath this was the first person that he was going to meet that was truly connected to his past. Though Fury told him that Peggy, Howard and Phillips had all had a hand in starting SHEILD, none of them were around now for Steve to feel any kind of connection to the place. It was hard to feel any kind of connection to anything, but he wanted so badly to feel something, to feel like he had a chance at something. He knew that without his friends and family, without Tony he would be lost, but he also knew that he had to try a least a little.

There was a moment as he watched Clint key in some code into what looked like a glass wall, where everything just felt different, he wasn’t sure what it was, but it was there. Almost like the whole universe was shifting around him, like it was trying to right itself, or alter itself.

“Widow gave me the code apparently she had gotten it from Stark, it’s for guests, or at least just for me, I don’t know the man is like a vault honestly,” Clint said to him. “They don’t know I’m bringing you, but you are the team leader, so I guess it’s time for them to actually meet you.”

“I only know what’s in the files, I don’t know anything else, it’s hard to assess whether you would work well with people when you don’t even know their first names.”

“Well get ready to meet your teammates, well at least two of them, Thor is still somewhere up in space and Banner tends to well hide, though I’m almost certain that he just doesn’t want SHIELD to find him.”

Steve just nodded as he listened to what Barton was saying, he couldn’t help but also take in the elevator they were in, which looked like something out of the 20’s for some reason, the ceiling was gilded and had the most intricate details in it. Honestly Steve was almost sure that he saw his shield in some of the detailing, though that would be almost impossible right, why would Stark’s grandson have his shield welded into his elevator.

His thoughts were brought to a halt when the elevator stopped and opened into what looked like the living room of an apartment, at the center there was a man with long dark hair playing with a little boy. The two of them swung around and Steve felt his heart stop a little, he was certain that he was hallucinating at the moment because in the next moment it almost as if time had stood still.

“Bucky.”

The little boy stopped at the same time Bucky had looked over at him, Steve was certain that he was dead, there was no way that his best friend who he had seen fall from the train was alive and playing with a kid.

“Uncle Bucky,” the kid said, and Steve knew that this wasn’t his best friend’s kid, but there was something familiar about the little boy, something that he couldn’t quiet place.

That was until something crashed onto the floor forcing Steve’s attention to the person who had dropped it, and at that moment Steve swore he had died, because there would be in reason why Tony, his love, his mate, his omega, was standing not even twenty feet from where he stood.

---A Few moments Earlier---

Peter was running around the house while his Uncle Bucky chased after him, it had been like that since, Tony had introduced his son to his father’s best friend. For the longest time Peter had asked him about his father and while Tony had tried his best to tell his son stories of how brave his father was, he never told him that his father was Captain America. Hell to this day, even Tony can’t wrap his head around the whole thing, it’s just so surreal. So, Uncle Bucky, had been a great concession, especially since Bucky had saved Peter during the whole attack on the Stark Expo a few weeks back.

“I want to fly Uncle Bucky,” the little boy squealed as the man grabbed the little boy and lifted him up into the air.

Tony had gone off to the kitchen, leaving the two to play in the living room, joining Natasha who had been watching the dinner Tony had started earlier in the day. She was making a salad her words had been “You boys need more greens in your life.” Though Tony had tried to feed Peter vegetables, sometimes it was hard to do it, especially when Tony was swamped with work.

He had taken Fury up on his offer to have the Avengers live in the tower, though only Bucky and Natasha had access to the penthouse, as he didn’t want anyone near his son. Not without knowing who they were, Fury thought his background checks were thorough, SHIELD had nothing on Tony, especially after what had happened with Stane. Tony refused to have anyone from Hydra even step foot near him and his family. He had given her a guest code earlier, since another Avenger was coming for dinner tonight, and after finding out who it was well, he couldn’t deny the man entrance, especially since he had made the man some new toys to try out. Though why he liked using a bow and arrow was beyond Tony’s comprehension.

“Are you two going back to work at SHIELD or do you want to stay away for a while,” Tony had asked as he pulled their dinner out of the oven.

“I told Fury that I was okay stepping back for once and concentrating on the Avengers for a while,” she said with a smile as she watched her own mate play with his nephew. “Honestly, I just didn’t want to move to Washington to work on another mission for a while.”

“Well, he’s still trying to find all of Hydra within SHIELD, and it’s a little hard, but the man won’t take my tech to help so it’s on him,” he told her with a shrug, it hurt a little, he was the head of one of the biggest tech companies and just because they weren’t making weapons anymore, they wouldn’t give him the contract.

“He’s afraid of them finding out that you’re Iron Man, they know you’re good with tech Tony, but somehow he feels like just putting you in the line of fire would be bad for you and for Peter.”

“So, what you’re just going to live here?”

“And train, and maybe just be a normal couple with my mate over there,” she said with a smile as she watched Barnes playing with Peter. “But also, I was thinking that working with you wasn’t so bad, and Pepper needs a little help corralling you and Peter for a while.”

“Yeah, it takes a special kind of person to deal with me and my little boy, and I guess Pep’s been taking on a lot more since Rhodey had to go back to whatever base he was stationed at.”

“You also made her CEO of your company, so I guess she had a lot more on her plate than usual.”

“Yeah, I know, but honestly if she could deal with me and my son, then she’s the most qualified person to run my company,” he said with a smile, “plus, it would be nice to step back and spend some time with my son, and you know save the world every once and while.”

There was a smirk on her face as he said it, but honestly after the last few weeks of getting to know the real Natasha and not the person she had been all those months that she had been working for him, well it was nice. She was like the older sister he never got to have. Tony heard the ping when the timer on the oven had gone off, dinner was ready, and their guest would be there soon so it was perfect timing too when JARVIS called out to them.

“Sir, Agent Romanoff’s guests are here.”

“Did he say guests as in plural?” Tony said looking over at Natasha. “I thought that code was for one person.”

“It was,” she said the same look of confusion on her face. Tony was about ready to get into the armor when the elevator pinged.

It was too late, his house had someone he hadn’t approved, it took everything in him not to run out there and grab his son and run to the panic room. Tony had to stop himself from doing anything, well outside of using their dinner as a weapon against whoever had invaded family dinner.

“Bucky,” a very familiar voice said causing Tony to drop the pan of lasagna on the ground, the dish shattering as it hit the marble floor. There in his living room, was the man that had fathered his son, the man that Tony had found out too late would never come back because he had forced an airplane into the Atlantic. The man that took his heart in a week back before Tony had become an orphan, when he had spent one month in literal hell without tech or anything except for the family villa in Italy.

The crashing of the dish had caused Steve to look directly at him and Tony just stood there frozen, not sure of what to do or where to go, and also the fact that there was glass all over the floor and of course he wasn’t wearing any fucking shoes at the moment. That first step forward had him walking right into a shard of glass causing him to curse a blue streak in front of his son. Which also broke whatever tension was in the room.

Peter had peered out from behind Bucky who had instinctively protected the boy from the person that had come through the door. Though Tony wasn’t sure who had been more shocked, no one moved even as he bled onto the floor, cursing himself for not putting on some shoes at some point, but who could have predicted what was happening at this very moment, no one not even Albert Einstein would have predicted this. What were the odds of not just one but two men who supposedly died in the 1940’s would be alive, and in his living room? This was his life, Iron Man hadn’t been the start, no, it had been Steve, everything had started and ended with Steve.

“Tony,” Steve whispered before taking an abortive step forward, an unsure look in his eyes. Those blue eyes, Tony dreamt of them every night since he last saw Steve, he dreamt of their last night together, of the day Peter was born, where he had wished that his son would have his father’s eyes. He wanted his son to have a very visible marker of Steve so that Tony would know that the whole thing hadn’t been a dream. Though it was hard when Peter had looked so much like Tony, though he did have some traits that Steve had, he was more Tony than anything.

“Daddy,” Peter said to Tony he didn’t sound scared of what was happening. “Is your foot okay,” the little boy said as blood pooled on the ground.

In an instant, Steve was across the room picking Tony off of the floor, reminding him of the day they bonded when Steve had picked him up and walked back to the house, the day that Tony thought that forever with someone was possible, that love at first sight was an actual thing that mattered to him. It took all of two seconds after Steve had picked him up for Tony to start crying, he couldn’t stop it, it had been too long since he had smelled his mate, yes Tony had a slight scent of Steve’s from their bond, but it hadn’t been the same. Nuzzling himself into Steve’s neck taking in the scent of the man he hadn’t seen in ten years, thinking the whole thing had been a crazy dream if it hadn’t been for Peter.

“Hey Pete, why don’t we go and order some food,” Natasha said as she pulled the little boy towards Tony’s home office, yanking Clint by the ear as she went. He could hear the man yelping as she yanked him away. Bucky tapped Steve on the back before leaving the room as well, following the rest of the group.

It wasn’t until five minutes after everyone left that the two of them pulled away from each other, both taking the time to look at one another and making sure that they weren’t hallucinating. Tony running his hands over Steve’s face cataloguing the features into his mind just through feeling him, even as Steve cried and placed his forehead to Tony’s.

“How,” was all that Steve said, his voice heavy, like his heart was in his throat, and honestly Tony knew the feeling. “How is this possible,” Steve continued before the tears fell down his face.

“I wish I knew,” Tony answered, never wanting to let go of Steve. They had had one week, and now Tony feared that he would lose this too, life was never fair to him.

“Please tell me you’re real,” Steve whispered into his ear as he pulled himself closer.

“Come on, let's go to the bathroom so I can clean my foot and we can talk in there,” Tony said pulling away even though it pained him to do it, even trying to get off Steve was a hard thing to do, but the Alpha just stood up still holding Tony.

“Point the way,” he said quietly, sounding as afraid as Tony, as if this were some cruel joke and tomorrow they would be back to where they were.

“J, light the way please,” Tony said as he nuzzled into Steve.

“Of course, Sir,” JARVIS said as he gave Steve directions to the bathroom with the first aid kit, it wasn’t far from the kitchen, but it was also the bathroom they used the least since there was one closer to the living room, but he really just wanted a moment with Steve.

If Steve could believe in miracles, this would be it, yes, he had been happy to see Bucky, but Tony’s reappearance in his life made him feel complete for the first time since he had woken up. There was a calm that had settled over him from the moment Tony was in his arms, honestly there had been days back when he had returned to the Commandos that Steve had thought that Tony had been a dream, if not for the ring around his neck.

Settling Tony on the counter, Steve grabbed a nearby towel and picked up Tony’s foot to see the damage, the blood had stopped flowing but the cut had been a little deep. “You might need to go to the hospital,” Steve said even as he placed a soft kiss on Tony’s foot.

“I doubt that I mean there’s a little device in the cabinet, although it’s still in it’s experimental phase, a friend sent it to me for testing, but anyway it should be able to fix the cut,” Tony said babbling like he always did when they had been back in Italy. “Just grab the box in the cabinet over there and hand it to me.”

Steve did as Tony told him and then watched in amazement as the device stitched the skin back together, almost as if it were magic, though he hadn’t let go of Tony, fearing that the moment he did everything would go away and his life would be a mess once again.

“How are you here,” Steve said once Tony put the device away. “I just need to know that this isn’t a dream,” he added quickly.

“If this was a dream than it’s a shared one because I’m pretty sure there’s witnesses to what just happened,” Tony said taking Steve’s hand and placing it on his heart, it was something that he hadn’t felt in so long, though for him it had only been months he wondered just how long it had been for Tony. He looked different, older than he had when they had first met. “When we met, it had been the year 2000, I was in Italy because of a family tradition.”

“How, Tony none of this makes sense, I was in 1944, how would I have ended up in the year 2000.”

“Somehow, I don’t know, but maybe something happened, and it brought us together, the universe knew we were supposed to be together, I don’t know, all I know for certain is science Steve and none of this is science, hell none of this makes any sense, and if it wasn’t for the fact that I had Peter…” Tony stopped looking at him all wide eyed. “Oh, you don’t know about Peter.”

“The little boy who called you daddy,” Steve said, something painful cutting into him, Tony had moved on, he had a son with someone.

“Yeah, Steve, um, Peter is your son,” Tony said and once again the whole world tilted a little. “I found out I was pregnant a few months after we mated, at that point I had figured out who you were, and I thought that somehow, that little boy would be the only thing I had of you.”

“I have a son,” he said looking at Tony trying to remember the little boy who had been laughing with his Uncle Bucky, though his attention had been focused on Bucky and then on Tony, though his memory wouldn’t let him forget it, he remembered the kid as if he were standing there looking at him.

“Daddy, are you okay,” the little voice said and Steve jumped a little, “Auntie Nat ordered pizza and breadsticks,” he continued without waiting for an answer.

“I’m okay Pete,” Tony said smiling, lifting his foot to show off the newly healed skin. “Look Helen’s machine fixed me right up.”

“Cool,” Peter said before running up to see the skin face to face, before turning and looking directly at Steve, the kid looked so much like Tony, but he could see hints of himself, and it was jarring. “Hi Papa.”

“He knows who I am?” Steve asked astonished as Peter dropped himself into Steve’s lap like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Tony nodded at him before carefully stepping off of the counter and sitting in front of Steve. “He’s always known, though he only knows the things I’ve told him, and whatever Barnes has told him since he joined this little group.”

“How long has Buck been here, in this time?”

“I can only tell you a few things, honestly SHIELD has kept a lot of things under wraps, but apparently Barnes and Natasha, have known each other for years, she brought him into SHIELD after breaking his conditioning I think it was the same year we met,” Tony said but something nagged at Steve’s mind.

“What do you mean conditioning?”

“That’s a conversation for when our son is in bed, I don’t want to upset him,” Tony said kissing the little boy who tried and failed at fighting his father off. “For now, we eat dinner.”

It wasn’t until Peter was asleep in his bed hours later, that the fighting started, Tony had made it a rule that they weren’t allowed to fight in front of his son, though watching as Steve read their son to sleep had been worth it. Especially when he found out about Hydra and what they had done to Barnes, though there were a lot of words exchanged between all of them, Steve had finally calmed down when they all made it clear that there was nothing that any of them could have done.

“I just don’t believe it,” Steve said his shoulders slumped in defeat, “I died to make sure they were defeated.”

“Hon, you didn’t actually die,” Tony said patting the man on the back.

“Yup, found him in the ice frozen like a popsicle,” Barton said, Tony should have been mad at the man but considering the gift the man had brought him, well he could forgive the archer. “Though I’m still confused about what’s happening between the two of you.”

“I’m pretty sure we’re all confused about that,” Barnes said putting his arm around Natasha, this was another thing that had set Steve off, not the fact that the pair were well known assassins, nope, it was the fact that Bucky had also found his mate.

“Yes, and we’re not going to get into it because I don’t want to think that this was some cruel joke played by some evil mastermind,” Tony said thinking about why it was happening and then pushing it aside because it didn’t matter, not when he had Steve back.

The conversation stopped when Barton’s phone went off, the man stiffened as if he had gotten caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “Aww fuck,” he said pulling the phone out and putting it on speaker, muttering “If I’m going to get yelled at then you’re going to get yelled at too.”

“Clint, did you sneak Rogers out of SHIELD,” the tell-tale sound of Agent Coulson on the other line making the man sag into the couch.

“Was I not supposed to,” Barton said deflecting. “I mean, hi Honey, are you back from your mission.”

“Where are you Clint, I’m not playing right now, the building is under lockdown until they find Rogers.”

“Does he know about Hydra,” Steve whispered to Tony, he knew that his mate didn’t want to have anything to do with SHIELD until they root out the problem.

“He’s Fury’s right-hand man, so I hope he knows,” Tony answered him, he knew he was right considering how Coulson had been the one to help him back when he had first become Iron Man, and since Hydra wasn’t knocking down his door. Though he knew he would have to have that conversation with Steve soon.

“We’re coming over,” Coulson said drawing Tony back to the conversation that was happening in front of them.

“Goddamn it, you invited SHIELD into my house,” Tony said glaring at Barton, “You’re banned, I don’t even want to give you a suite.”

“Not my fault, they’re really paranoid man,” Barton said leaning forward and grabbing his beer. “Half of my time at HQ is spent keeping Rogers over here company because they don’t want him under the wrong person’s influence.”

“Yeah, like you’re not a bad influence,” Barnes said making Natasha laugh at it.

“You’re not any better honey,” she said to Barnes before turning to Steve and Tony. “Be prepared, right now your whole world is about to be turned on its side.”

“What makes you say that” Steve asked looking between the group.

“Welcome to the Avengers,” Tony said with a smile.

“You’re not an Avenger sweetheart,” Steve said to him which only made Barnes bark out a laugh. “Am I missing something.”

“Beloved, my sweet naïve Alpha, I am Iron Man.”

“He’s also the team’s benefactor,” Natasha added.

“And team Mom,” Barnes said with a smirk.

“I don’t like any of you anymore,” Tony said to them before turning to Steve. “I am as much an Avengers as the rest of these idiots over here.”

“Now I know why Iron Man’s file is so thin,” Steve said leaning back into the couch.

“Yeah well, we’re trying to protect Peter, which is why I kept it all hush hush, didn’t want Hydra to know I had Captain America’s kid,” Tony said with a smile. “Not a lot of people know Peter’s my son and out of those who know, well only the people in this room and Pepper and Rhodey, who you’ll meet later, know you’re his father.”

“Peter seems like a good kid,” Steve said to him with a smile. “He’s really smart.”

“Yeah, but he has his Pop’s instinct, as in he’ll protect anyone and get into fights,” Natasha said, Tony knew she’d heard the stories from her own mate, but honestly thinking about it wasn’t a really bad trait to have.

“Well, when both of your parents are superheroes,” Barton shrugged, “Can you blame the kid, his literally hit the genetic jackpot, I wouldn’t be surprised if he joins them and starts saving the world.”

“Not happening Barton,” Tony said while Steve shook his own head.

“We’ll see about that,” Barton countered.

If this is what it would be like to be on this team, well it wasn’t too bad, Tony thought as he leaned into Steve and kissed him on his neck before snuggling into the man.

May 2012 – The Aftermath of the Battle of New York

If Steve could die of a heart attack, he would have had two today, the first was because Peter had been in the tower when the attack had started, and yes, he had been in one of the basement panic rooms with Happy, but it didn’t make his day any easier. The second happened when Tony went through that portal taking a bomb with him as well as Steve’s heart. The possibility of his mate never coming back broke his heart, this was what it must have felt like for Tony to realize that he would never see Steve again leaving him to raise their son.

When he had to make the call, he couldn’t do it, he couldn’t let go of his mate and it hurt, they had finally gotten their time together, they had been talking about renewing their vows, at the villa in Italy with their friends and family. They had been planning to go in the summer to do it, the invitations had already been sent out. Pepper had helped them organize it all, with a lot of help from Natasha and Peter too. But now, telling Nat to close the portal on his love, on his mate, it hurt too much.

“My one and only,” Tony had said as he had passed through the portal in the sky.

“Love always,” Steve had replied. It was something they said once they had been reunited, Tony writing the words on pieces of paper, Steve writing love always on flowers he brought into the workshop.

The thought of never hearing those words again, it hurt too much, so when Clint made the call, all Steve could do was fall to the ground and weep at losing Tony a second time. The universe hated them, he was sure, because there was no reason to constantly pull them apart the way it did. It was cruel to do it this way and he hated it most of all.

“Son of a Bitch,” he heard Clint say causing him to look up and see a streak of red falling from the sky. “He made it.”

Steve’s heart swelled at the sight, he couldn’t help the smile on his face until Thor says, “He's not slowing down.”

Tony wasn’t moving on his own, the suit was falling out of the sky, and Steve could only hold his breath as he watched, there was no way to stop that kind of freefall. Thor next to him started to swing his hammer and lift off, but before he could Tony was grabbed by the Hulk and brought down to where they were. The arc reactor wasn’t shining, Tony couldn’t live without it on, Thor pulled off the mask and there Steve saw a pale Tony. Kneeling as close as he could he touched his own forehead to Tony’s sending the universe a silent prayer for one more miracle.

“Please don’t leave me,” he whispered before kissing Tony lightly on the lips.

As he moved away, trying to find a way to revive Tony, the Hulk roared, and Tony sputtered awake, “What the hell? What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me?”

“That’s only because you don’t want to be sleeping beauty,” Clint said over the coms. “It’s too late for that Cap kissed you.”

“And I would do it a million times more,” he told his mate before leaning down again and kissing him.

“Can I be Snow White instead, she had an entourage,” Tony said making Steve laugh.

“That’s okay with me,” which it was because he would gladly kiss Tony awake everyday if it meant that they wouldn’t be separated from one another.

Part III – Epilogue

Spring 2022

Steve was standing in the living room looking at his very pregnant mate passed out on the couch dressed and ready for Peter’s college graduation, all the while their four-year-old daughter was snuggled up to his side. It was Peter who had called and told him to check on his dad, this was a habit their son had especially after the battle with Thanos five years before when Tony, who hadn’t known that he was pregnant at the time, had battled the mad titan. His darling husband had gone into a rage when the titan had hit their son during the battle. Everyone had chalked it up to Tony’s need to protect his son, and since Steve had been assisting on the other side of the battlefield when Thanos had arrived, all he could have done was stare in horror as the two most important people in his life went head-to-head with the villain. It was after this when Steve and Peter had learned that Tony had been carrying Morgan, Tony had collapsed on the ground and was rushed to medical.

Ever since, Peter had been a tad overprotective of his dad especially when pregnant, Steve wasn’t any better, but it was a family trait apparently. Morgan had been a surprise to them, the couple had been trying for six years with no luck at all, they had almost split up because Tony thinking he wasn’t worthy of another child had thrown himself into his work. This all came to a head when Ultron was created, Tony wanting to keep his family safe, the two of them had had a terrible fight and Steve had left afterwards. Though he hadn’t been gone for long, especially when Bucky had shown up and punched him in the stomach for being an idiot. It had taken them another two years to be comfortable with the thought that Peter might be their only kid, only to have Morgan surprise them.

“My Darling sweet husband,” Steve said kneeling down next to the couch, taking Tony’s right hand in his left while placing his other hand on Tony’s growing stomach. “We don’t want to be late for Peter’s graduation.”

“Five more minutes daddy,” Morgan mumbled while snuggling into Tony’s side, which only made Steve laugh out loud before taking the hand that had been resting on Tony’s stomach and touching his darling daughter.

“We don’t have five minutes, the rest of the Avengers are ready and waiting, and we wouldn’t want to disappoint Peter now do we,” he said which had caused her to open her eyes wide before jumping up. “Careful with your dad,” he cautioned as he pulled her up and over Tony.

“Sorry,” she said to him, but all he could do was kiss her, she was as cute as a button to him, but she also loved her older brother with everything she had and wouldn’t want to disappoint him either.

“No worries, now go find Uncle Bucky and Auntie Nat while I help your dad up okay,” he said while ushering her away and turning back to his husband who was looking up at him with a smile.

“Hello beloved,” Tony said taking Steve’s hand back in his.

“Well, hello, I don’t think that taking a nap before we had to leave was one of your best ideas,” he said leaning down to kiss Tony. “Though you looked adorable.”

“Sorry, but this one,” Tony gestured towards his swollen belly, “had kept me up half the night, and you tend to sleep like a rock when you’re sure nothing will happen.”

“I apologize for my error, I should have known better,” Steve said even though he had been tired for a different reason, one that he would blame the team for later.

“Help me up please,” Tony said, and Steve did as he was told, if only to hold Tony close for a little bit. “Let me go to the bathroom and we can be off to Peter’s graduation.”

“Okay, I’ll wait for you here,” Steve said knowing that if he followed Tony, they would end up doing something that would really make them late, and from Tony’s smirk he knew the same thing was possible.

The team had gone ahead in one car, while Happy drove the other car, Pepper sitting next to him, with the little family in the back, Tony yawning making Steve wonder why their little bundle was keeping the genius awake at night.

“Auntie Pepper said she game me my name,” Morgan said from her car seat right across from them.

“Did she now,” Tony said glaring at his close friend, Steve had been rubbing his belly trying to soothe the baby a little noticing just how active their kid was.

“Canna give the baby their name.”

“Hon, we don’t even know if it’s a girl or a boy,” Steve answered, but knowing their daughter this wasn’t going to go away anytime soon. Which only made Steve wonder if not finding out the gender was the best thing, though Peter had told him that some people identified as non-binary, so if their baby had a gender-neutral name that it would be okay. Even after being out of the ice for eleven years Steve still wasn’t fully adjusted to a lot of things.

“What name did you want the baby to have,” Tony said pulling Steve out of his own thoughts.

“Jamie,” she said with a smile, “After Uncle Rhodey and Uncle Bucky.”

Tony was smiling at Morgan, “Well that’s a very nice name my little Maguna.”

The question of a name ended when they arrived at the location of the graduation, and all got out of the car. Though Tony had a smirk on his face the whole time, one that Steve knew would end with something crazy happening. The group went off to find their seats while Steve walked Tony to the nearest bathroom, apparently their kid was on top of Tony’s bladder, and he couldn’t wait.

“They put her up to it,” Tony said while in the stall. “I know they did.”

“Yeah, well I’ve had both Nat and Sam saying that their names would be good names too,” Steve said leaning against the sinks.

“I think they were all salty that I had let Pepper name Morgan.”

“She’s one of your best friends, but also she had been with you when I was stuck in that goddamned Siberian bunker that Fury had sent us to.”

Tony walked out of the stall trying to get his shirt to look a little normal over his swollen belly, “I know you’re still mad at him for that one, but honestly how were we supposed to know that hydra had a bunker full of hybrid super soldiers.”

“He could have just sent the rest of the team,” Steve was sulking, and he knew it.

“Is this why you took paternity leave this time?” Tony asked while washing his hands, giving up on the shirt.

“Yes, I missed both Peter and Morgan’s births and I’m damn well going to be there for this one,” he said, and he couldn’t help but smile after Tony put his hands around his neck.

“You’re adorable,” Tony said only to make a face which caused Steve to be a little concerned if it wasn’t for the rush of liquid that hit the ground. “Fuck.”

“Tony are you okay?”

“Shit, I think I’m in labor,” Tony said and Steve without a second thought broke into action, he was the best strategist in the team, well according to Tony.

Instead of calling the team, Steve called on FRIDAY to get a quinjet to their location as quickly as possible, all the while sending a message to Peter that they had incoming, but to not worry and stay at the graduation. Steve worked on getting Tony back outside to the street and to the park nearby, carrying his husband the whole time.

“I can walk Steve,” Tony said before groaning as a contraction hit. Steve knew that they were on a time limit, male omegas couldn’t give birth naturally, the c-section had been scheduled, but apparently their kid was stubborn and wanted out two weeks before their scheduled delivery date.

By the time the reached the clearing the quinjet had touched down, Vision and Wanda at the controls, they volunteered to be on call if any Avengers related missions arose, though this wasn’t what any of them expected.

“Vision, take us to the hospital, FRIDAY should have contacted the necessary people,” he said as they took off.

The amount of pain was all that Tony could think about as the doctors took them to the surgical suite, he hadn’t had this much when Morgan or Peter had been born, but hell those two hadn’t been as eager to get out of him. Tony had gladly taken the medication they had on hand and letting Steve do all of the work this time around. So, when their kid had come out of him, he had been surprised that they had found a second hiding behind the first.

“Isn’t technology supposed to detect that,” Steve had asked, Tony honestly had been too out of it because of the medication.

“It’s rare for it to happen, but with the nature of your jobs this wasn’t something we were looking for, especially since you both hadn’t wanted to know the gender of the child. We hadn’t looked and this little one had hidden themselves at the back of the womb, their two concealing them all the more,” the doctor said, and while Tony could hear them, honestly he just wanted to get some sleep.

When he had woken up hours later, his room was quiet, which should have scared him, but when he turned his head he saw his darling husband carrying two very small bundles in his arms. Good thing Steve had muscles or else those kids wouldn’t fit properly.

“Hey,” he said smiling at the sight, “It seems like they made up for you missing Peter and Morgan’s births.”

Steve let out a quiet laugh making Tony smile. “Everyone is waiting to meet them, but I wanted to wait until you were awake, though the naming game has now become a competition with them.”

“We could always have Peter and Morgan name them, that way we wouldn’t have to deal with the aftermath, we could always say that they named them and nothing more.”

“That is actually a good idea,” Steve said as he slowly got up and walked towards him before gently laying the twins down. “I love you.”

“You’re my one and only,” Tony said smiling at him just as Steve leaned down and kissed him.

“Love always,” was Steve’s reply and honestly after the last twenty years of their lives, this was what Tony needed, what they both needed.

Before leaving to get their kids and the rest of the Avengers, Steve made sure that Tony had a pillow in front of him, covering the stitches, so that he could comfortably have the twins on his lap.

“You two were supposed to be planned, but apparently you decided to hide one another,” he said to them, a son and a daughter, Tony now had two of each, though Peter had been right about non-binary children, Tony was just glad that they were both healthy. “I will love you just the same,” he told them, hoping that they had enough stuff for the two little bundles.

“Hey dad,” Peter said carrying a bouncing Morgan into the room.

“Sorry for missing your graduation Pete,” he said honestly sad that he had missed one of the biggest moments of his son’s life.

“No worries, you just had to make sure that I had the best present in the world waiting for me when it was done.”

“They are the best present aren’t they, but honestly you do have an actual present, your Pops picked it out.”

“Yeah, Uncle Rhodey gave it to me earlier,” Peter said as he sat down with his sister. “Hey Morgan, look we have siblings.”

“Which one is Jamie,” she said with a smile.

“Well, you can pick, but I think your brother should name the other one,” Tony said looking at his kids, his little family.

“I pick that one,” she said pointing at one, “Peter can name this one,” she pointed at the other.

“Good system,” Tony said with a smile, “Get me a pen, we can write it down on their wristbands.”

“Tony,” Steve said from the door.

“What, Morgan picked we have to write it down,” he said, and Steve just smiled before producing a pen.

“Honestly, if this is how you’re naming our kids,” Steve said shaking his head.

“You love me, and you can’t take it back, it was Morgan’s choice,” he said smiling at his kids, “What do you say Pete, what do you want to call your other sibling?”

Peter took a moment to look at the baby that Morgan hadn’t named smiling at them before noticing that it was the girl, and that’s when the thought struck him, “May,” he said without thinking smiling at the little baby girl.

Tony knew that this went against the gender-neutral theme that Peter had been telling them about since Morgan was born, but he also knew why he had chosen the name. Peter wanted to honor his god mother, who was currently standing outside of the hospital room, having been at the graduation along with the rest of their family.

“May it is, oh boy this is going to cause a ruckus.”

“Middle names?” Steve asked and Tony wasn’t sure about what names those would be.

“Do we get to pick those?” he asked looking at the kids who both nodded. “Okay, Steve you pick first.”

He saw Steve think about it for a moment before saying “Abraham, after Doctor Erskine.”

“Honoring the man who changed your life.”

“If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be here right now, so I thought it would be fitting.”

“Okay, so Jamie is James Abraham,” Tony said before looking at baby May. “And May’s middle name will be Natasha,” he said with a smile. “I mean if we’re naming one after a friend, I thought we should do the same for the other one.”

For Tony, honoring their friends was the best way to name their children, especially since they’ve been through so much in the last two decades. Also, he didn’t want Natasha to stab him if he didn’t name his kid after her, she was still scary even after all of this time.

December 2022

The tree was up, and the presents were piled high in front of it, Christmas was honestly the most stressful time for him, especially with two babies and one preschooler running around. Steve did his best most days but honestly Tony was still so tired, if Pepper hadn’t been running Stark Industries he would have just fallen apart at some point. It was also a good thing that they had a million people helping them at any given time.

They didn’t live at the compound anymore, though they were close, having moved a few miles north to a house on a secluded lake, though he added a guest house for the rest of the family to come and visit. Even though Peter was working in Manhattan, he had a room in the house, the nursery was next to Tony and Steve’s room, but once the twins were old enough, they could have a room near where Morgan’s was on the second floor.

“We have to take a family photo before all this is torn apart,” Tony said looking out at the massive pile of presents before them.

“They’ve been told,” Steve said while placing Jamie in the little walker, neither of the two had started walking on their own, though they have been crawling well more like bouncing their way across the floor. The kids were dressed up in little Christmas sweaters that Steve had knitted, because of course Steve had wanted this year to be special and had learned to knit.

“You know, it should bother me that you learned to knit just to make the twins matching sweaters.”

“It doesn’t bother you at all.”

“You could have picked better than having them say thing one and thing two.”

“That’s your fault, you kept reading them that story.”

“I didn’t do it, it was Morgan,” he said realizing just what his kid had done. “That little sneak.”

“Tony,” Steve said in a warning tone.

“Nope, next year she’s going to be dressed a Cindy Lou Who,” he said wanting to retaliate against a four-year-old, geez this was his life and honestly, he loved it.

“I guess I’m going to have to make them bigger sweaters than,” Steve said with a smile. “You know to match this year.”

“Good, never go against me,” Tony said before kissing Steve and going off to grab the cookies they had made earlier in the day. This was their life and honestly it was perfect, even when his own kids were manipulating them.

TVA – Time Unknown

He stood there watching, a smile on his face, it had been a risk, one that he had taken after regaining his own memories, after the Loki variant from another universe had unlocked everything. What Tony had learned scared him, his universe had been pruned because Tony had survived wielding the gauntlet and he wasn’t supposed to. The fact that he couldn’t live the life he had had because it wasn’t meant to be had nearly destroyed him. Then Steve Rogers had shown up, having been pruned for altering another part of the timeline, all because he had been returning the stones to their proper places and somehow couldn’t let go of the image of Tony when he had seen him. When both had started regaining their memories, they had hidden it from everyone, neither was too trusting of where they were, especially after dealing with Hydra for so long.

So, they hid in plain sight, kept up appearances, and somehow falling for one another, which felt different for both of them, and yet it had felt right. Steve had once told him, after regaining his memories, that he had landed in camp Lehigh and found out that Howard’s wife had been pregnant with a girl in that timeline, Steve had stayed for too long and had watched her grow up, but when he had been found out they had pruned the timeline and she no longer existed.

Steve had said to him that night before bed, “Maybe there’s a timeline where we fall in love with one another.”

“Maybe there’s more than one,” Tony had answered.

Their relationship had been hidden from the world they lived in, both bidding their time until they could find a way out and live together, even if it meant living in a place where the Avengers didn’t exist. But when the time came, Tony had told Steve what he had wanted to do with their other selves. That’s how they found themselves standing in a room watching the Alpha and the Omega couple with their friends and family.

“It was a risk,” Steve said smiling at him.

“One that I’m willing to take every time if it means we get to be happy together.”

“Together.”