Work Text:
“A code grey has been triggered, Sir.”
Tony is out of his chair and running before JARVIS had even finished his sentence. “Where is he?” he asks as he reaches the elevator. “JARVIS?”
“He’s in the penthouse, Sir,” he says apprehensively, “Your bathroom.”
“At least it will be easy to clean up any mess, right?” his joke falls flat, “Double speed, if you could, J.”
“Yes, Sir.”
The elevator gives a rough jerk as the speed is doubled. Tony scratches the inside of his wrist anxiously. “Maybe… maybe send a suit up there too, just in case,” he says.
“Certainly, Sir.”
Vivid pictures of Steve laying in a pool of his own blood, a blade held loosely in his limp grip, fill Tony’s mind. He bites down harder on his lip as he watches the floor numbers tick up, willing the elevator to move faster.
As soon as the doors start to open Tony rushes through into the penthouse. He makes a beeline to the bedroom.
‘Maybe I should slow down,’ he thinks to himself ‘so I don’t freak him out by rushing over to him’. But logically with Steve’s hearing, he knows it was too late as soon as he stepped out of the elevator.
He comes to a stop at the bathroom door. He takes a steadying breath and then enters with a soft knock.
Steve is sitting in the bathtub, shirtless, watching him with dull eyes. The bath was covered in blood and so was he. The man’s long blond hair was streaked a sinking red. Across his chest were several large holes carved out his flesh, bleeding at a concerning pace, but Steve shows no signs of trying to stop his own bleeding. His hands were completely bloodstained.
“Hey, Blonde Ice,” He says softly, “What’s going on here?” His eyes are glued to the huge, bloodied knife sitting on the edge of the tub.
Steve responds with a slow blink.
Tony approaches him slowly, raising his hands to show that he was unarmed. Steve doesn’t flinch or push away, which makes Tony feel a lot more comfortable with Steve’s current mindset.
He crouches down by the side of the tub and lays his hand on Steve’s shoulder. Steve’s pants are stained red and absolutely soaked. But what really gets to him is the chunks of Steve’s flesh piled up next to the drain. Tony fights back the bail that makes its way up his throat at the sight.
“C’mon, let’s get you cleaned up,” he says, reaching a hand out to Steve. The man takes it. He steadies Steve as he steps out of the bathtub. He sits Steve down on the small stool next to the sink. Pulling open the top draw of the sink cabinet he grabs the first-aid kit and sets it on the counter.
Neither says anything as he inspects and covers up Steve’s wounds. Given that Steve hadn’t said anything so far… Well, Tony knows he can talk enough for the both of them on the best and worst of days.
But he has to know, “What’s this all about, Snowdrop?”
“Nothin’,” The man grunts, “Jus’ removed the trackers.”
Tony freezes. “What?” he chokes out. They weren’t yet ready to remove HYDRA’s trackers yet. Some were implanted very deep, and they didn’t want to run the risk of triggering the ‘asset’ by performing unanesthetized surgery on him just yet.
And yet, the man had gone and done it with a knife in his bathtub.
‘Take a deep breath in. And breathe it out,’ he reminds himself. ‘Breathe in. Breathe out.’
He gives a glance over to the tub. Looking at the pile of Steve’s flesh hits differently now that he knows that each chunk has a tracker in it. Still horrible. Maybe more so now.
“Why?” he asks.
“I told you that they can detonate. I didn’ wanna blow around any of you lot,” the man says.
“You wouldn’t have. You’re safe, HYDRA is gone, you don’t need to worry about that,” Tony says, “Why do you feel like you had to worry?” he asks.
Steve ignores him. The man looks away, a dark expression falling over his face.
Tony decides to ask a different question, “Why my tub, Khione?”
“Safe,” Steve grunts.
Tony frowns. Steve was one of the strongest, most fearless people he knows. The thought of there being something out there that scared him is somewhat frightening. “Okay,” Tony says. “Why don’t you feel safe? What’s going on?” He doesn’t want to ask that, sure that he wouldn’t what to know the answer.
“I don’t want to go,” the man says.
“What are you talking about, Frosty?” Tony says, giving the man’s shoulder a comforting squeeze, “You don’t have to go anywhere you don’t want to go? What’s going on?”
“I see them. Watching me. Following me. They want me back. I don’t want to go back,” he says.
“HYDRA’s gone. We wiped them all out. Remember?”
Steve shakes his head. “They’re never gone. There’s always more of ‘em,” he scoffs. “They’re out there and they want the asset back. Every time I leave the tower I see them, waiting for me. Hunting me in the shadows.”
Tony sucks in a sharp breath at Steve’s words. He doesn’t want to believe that HYDRA is still out there somewhere. He is sure that they are gone. He is fairly certain that what Steve is talking about may be hallucinations, but they probably don’t want to run the risk of that not being the case. “If there’s more of them, we’ll take care of it, okay? We won’t let them get you?” he says.
Steve gives him a small shrug. “I don’t want to go back there. With them. I don’t wa-” The sink cracks under Steve’s strength.
Slowly, Tony reaches over and turns Steve’s face towards him. “You’re safe here, I promise,” he says.
“I know,” the man says. “But…”
“No. No, buts. We won’t let anything happen to you,” Tony says firmly.
“Thank you.” Carefully, Steve weaves his arms around Tony’s waist. Tony freezes momentarily in shock.
Tony sighs, “You don’t need to thank anyone, Steve.” He remembers the early days, where Steve had thanked him for the most basic human necessities. Running water, food, a roof over his head, clothes. A bed that wasn’t the cold floor. Frankly, he thinks he’s heard enough of Steve's thanks for a lifetime.
“I do. You didn’t need to do all this,” the man says.
“It was nothing. The least I could do,” Tony says quietly, giving him a small shrug.
“Don’t say that. It wasn’t nothing. It means a lot to me,” Steve says, his eyes flashing with fury for a second. “I had nothing, no one. Sure as hell had no reason to want to break away from HYDRA. I-… You gave me a home. A life. Someone to be aside from the asset. Something else to be instead of a murderer.”
Tony doesn’t know what to say in the face of that. So he gives Steve a small smile, feeling useless and inadequate in the face of his own lack of words.
“I remember,” Steve grounds out, looking down at his hands. “I remember everything they took from me. All they did to me. And I-… just-… thank you, Tony. For everything.”
Tony wraps his arm around Steve’s shoulders. “How about a movie night?” he asks, “With the team. Popcorn, blankets, the whole none yards. What do you say?”
Steve gives him one of those rare smiles. Soft and happy, just a touch shy. “Yeah. Sounds good,” the man says.
“JARVIS, is everyone else in?” he asks.
“Yes, Sir,” JARVIS responds.
Tony gives Steve a huge grin, “Looks like we are having a family movie night, Polar Bear.”