“What did it say?” Stephanie breaks the tense silence, arms folded across her chest.
Seven looks at Steve, who breathes out and lifts his chin. “It knew me – us – by name. It said ‘Steve Rogers, you are here to learn.’
“Learn what?” someone asks, sounding suspicious.
“No idea,” Steve says shortly, and keeps talking because they've not heard the kicker yet, the piece of information he's pretty sure they'll all be interested in. “It also said that we’re not supposed to be here. Not just me, none of us.”
“Wait, what?”
“None of us?”
“What the hell do you mean?”
“This isn’t heaven,” Seven says bluntly. “This isn’t the afterlife we were supposed to have. We saw the places we were meant to be – the thing out there whatever it was whipped up a hell of a storm and we saw all these places, the real places were supposed to be. With the people we’re supposed to be with.”
“So why are we here?” a shorter-Steve demands, and Steve has a brief moment to feel grateful that they all actually believe them. What they’re saying isn’t in question; it’s only the explanation behind it all that they want.
“We don’t know,” Seven says. “I think it’s to do with Steve, this Steve.”
And just like that, all eyes are once again on him. Some look curious, some look way and a few look downright angry. Steve doesn’t really blame them.
“I’m the odd one out here, right?” he says, to a general murmur of assent. “So when the thing talked about learning…it said something about too many battles and wars, and that we had to learn. I had to learn. We both heard it, but I think it was directed at me. You’re all – you’re all dead, right? You’ve all got your – your afterlives, or whatever the hell they are. I’m the only one that can actually learn and go back and change things.”
“It’s about the Civil War,” a voice says, and Steve looks around to see Eight in the doorway, face oddly blank and eyes staring at the floor. “It’s got to be.”
“Not everything is about-”
“You heard him,” Eight says tonelessly, his normal prickly agitation completely absent. “Too many wars? Has to learn?” He blinks, and then lifts his head. “How many of you went through Civil War, or something similar? How many lives were messed up because of it? How many universes were left a mess because of it?”
No-one moves, but the point is made.
“So if this is someone trying to manipulate the multiverse to prevent Civil War happening in his dimension,” the Commander says slowly, jerking his head towards Steve. “What is it he’s gotta learn so he can avoid it?”
Eight laughs hollowly at that, plucking at his torn uniform. “If I knew, you think I would have ended up like this?”
“We need to go and check this out,” someone says, and there’s more agreement. “Into the mist.”
“We’ve been into the mist before and seen nothing like what they’re saying happened,” Stephanie points out.
“Ten bucks says it’s because of this Steve,” Seven says, tipping his chin towards Steve. “Like he said, he’s the one that’s got to do the learning, he’s the only one that can actually go back and change things.”
“Well he better hurry his ass up with the learning,” robot-arm-Steve suddenly says, and he’s right there behind Stephanie and how the hell did he move so far across the room without Steve noticing? “If this isn’t where we’re supposed to be, I’d quite like to get back to where I am supposed to be, with the people I’m meant to be with.”
“Why don’t any of us remember where we were before?” Brooklyn asks, wedged in between robot-arm Steve and a captain-sized Steve in a three-piece suit, and as usual he's looking completely unperturbed by how they tower over him.
“We saw it,” Seven says shortly. “We saw the Avengers, Peggy, Bucky-”
“With Tony?” Someone interjects, and Seven’s mouth tightens.
“Yeah,” he says shortly. “A hell of a lot of us with Tony, actually. Some people I didn’t recognise- ”
“Sharon?” someone asks, and another voice is asking about someone called Emily, and Steve hears more unfamiliar names; Ian and Edward and Janet-
“I don’t know, I don’t know who they are so I wouldn’t have recognised them,” Seven says, holding up his hands. “I’m sorry.”
“It does make sense,” the Commander says slowly, and Steve glances at him. “The things here that don’t add up. The missing ages. The distorted sense of time…”
“We need to go check it out,” a voice insists, and he nods.
“You willing to go back?” he says, and Steve realises that this time he’s talking to him.
“Yes,” he says, because it’s only fair on the others that they get to see what he and Seven did, and maybe the voice will be able to shed more light on the situation. “Right now?”
“No,” the Commander decides, and then raises his voice and turns to the rest of the room. “We’ll go back tomorrow afternoon,” he says. “Anyone who wants to go, give me your name. “We’ll draw lots at midday, first ten names will go first.”
The rest of the Steve’s all nod in understanding, though some don’t exactly look happy about the decision. Steve finds he’s glad that he’s got until tomorrow to wrap his head around what he’s seen before he potentially has to do it all over again, and he’s willing to bet that the decisions to only let ten go at a time is so that no untoward attention is drawn to them.
He watches as Stephanie moves over to Seven, her expression determined. She pulls him around by the elbow, and he can hear her low urgent tone even if he can’t discern what she’s saying over the rest of the conversations in the room. He clearly reads the look on her face though, the uncertainty and grief and desperate desire to find out more, and he just knows that they’re talking about Tony and what Seven saw of him earlier.
Glancing around, he wonders if any of these fellas belong in any of the snapshots he saw earlier. Which ones belong with Tony? Who is the one that was alone in the snow? Who should be with their damn kids instead of here?
Steve can feel a headache brewing; a dull ache in his temples from exhaustion and thinking too much. He looks over at Stephanie and Seven one last time, and he can’t help but think back to the last vision he saw; the Steve Rogers leaning across a bed with tangled sheets to kiss a smirking Tony Stark, smiling against that laughing mouth. It feels strange and alien, but a small desperate part of him is acknowledging how easy and right it looked, just like how he and Tony always are together but taken up a level-
Could he ever kiss Tony like that?
No, the small desperate voice in the back of his head says, but he’s not convinced by it. What if the way to avoid things going wrong is by being with Tony? Christ, Shield had said that Seven had made the smart move by marrying Tony, what if that’s what needs to happen in his universe?
No, he tells himself a second time. Just, no. Making sure he and Tony don’t end up on opposite sides of a war does not involve getting into a relationship with the man. It means communication and trust, and yeah, those are things needed in a relationship but also in a friendship as well.
Unbidden, the image of a version of them kissing against the metal wall springs to mind. Fuck, there were so many other people in those visions – Bucky and Peggy and those other women – so why is he fixating on Tony?
Because he’s your best friend, even when he’s not, he admits to himself as turns away and leaves the room; Shield is trying to catch his eye and he really doesn’t want to talk to anyone right now. Because he was there when you didn’t-quite-die. Because Bucky and Peggy and those other people aren’t a part of your life right now. Tony is.
He climbs the stairs, slips back into the room where SJ is still flat out asleep. He carefully clambers onto the bed next to his feet, leaning back against the wall and staring out of the window at the fading light. Long shadows stretch across the room, dark and soothing. He breathes out slowly, tipping his head back against the wall and glancing sideways at SJ’s sleeping form.
“Would you have been a Captain and fallen in love with Tony Stark, huh?” he asks, voice low. He shakes his head at his own ridiculousness, shutting his eyes and exhaling heavily again. “Guess we’ll never know.”
“Iron Man! Over here, just a minute-”
"Can you tell us who is in charge of Cap's treatment? Why is the serum not healing him?"
“Tony Stark! Tony, where have you been? How come you're back today?”
“What do you think about the people who say the Avengers can't handle the newer threats we're seeing?”
“Is Captain Rogers still alive?”
“Over here, just a quick question!”
