Tilt Chapter 05
Title: Tilt, Chapter 5
Author:arileo
Wordcount: 567
Rating: R
Pairing(s): Steve/Tony, Bucky/Toro, Natasha/Maria, Clint/Bobbi
Warning(s): Language, violence, implied non-con, post-BrainDelete!Tony
Carol didn’t know who to expect when Danny came running into the living room, babbling about how “Strange says its really him!”. But an unkempt, raggedy dressed Steve Rogers was definitely no where near the top of her list.
That he’d have Tony with him, clinging to his side, wasn’t on the list at all.
“Steve, oh my god. How?”
“Carol?” Steve’s face lit up when he saw her, “Carol? How? He told me you were-”
She wanted to ask who ‘He’ was, but before she got the chance, but the others began to file in from the next room. Gasping in surprise, crowding in to get a good look. Steve’s eyes suddenly went wide as he focused on one face in particular.
“Clint?! But-” he looked around the crowd in surprise. “Bobbi? How on-”
Then he noticed who else was had just entered, and “Jim?! Toro-?” Steve actually looked as though he were going to pass out. “I think I need to sit down…”
Bucky grabbed Steve’s free arm to steady him. “Back off, give him some room. A lot’s happened since you’ve been gone.”
“So I’ve noticed.”
It occurred to Carol suddenly, that Tony hadn't said a word this whole time. He was just standing there, leaning against Steve’s shoulder.
“Tony?” she grasped his shoulder gently. “Tony? Hey, c’mon.”
Steve shook his head at her. “He’s been like that for days. I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”
Carol bit her lip. She knew what it was.
‘Glaringly obvious’. That what Natasha said. And that had been nearly four weeks ago. How far had he gotten with his plan since then?
***
Tony let the yellow-haired woman (Carol? No, Carol was- he couldn‘t remember) guide him to a chair and sit down.
The Not-Steve was standing talking to someone. Cap? No, the Not-Cap, he remembered the Not-Cap. The Not-Cap was mad at him.
There were lots of people crowding the Not-Steve, talking. Tony wanted to be near the Not-Steve, where it was warm, but there were too many people.
Too many people. Too much noise. He didn’t like it.
He let his eyes drift over the people around the Not-Steve. He saw Clint and Spider and LukeCage and Highpockets, and a pretty dark-haired girl in red and yellow that it hurt to look at. And more people he didn’t know, but he knew they were mad at him.
Everyone was mad at him. He had been bad. Everyone was mad at him.
It hurt to look at them all, and he tried to drift away, but it was too loud.
A soft warm hand touched his face.
“Tony, talk to me? Please?”
He looked up. Carol was standing over him, with a sad look on her face.
And ‘Tasha was there too, and Mariahill, but she looked wrong, all small and sad and broken and not like Mariahill should look at all. It hurt to look at.
“Tony? It’s Carol, Tony. Can you hear me?”
Too many people.
Too much noise.
He wanted the Not-Steve to come back
He was so cold, and the Not-Steve was so warm.
He wanted the Not-Steve.
He wanted his Steve.
He wanted his Steve, and it hurt, and it hurt, and it was too loud and there was something awful and rolling and burning in his stomach and up in his throat and up and up and in his mouth and-
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A/N: You wanna hear something funny? I wanted the first part of this chapter to be more Bucky POV, and spent over a month trying and failing to get it done. Then, TWO BLOODY HOURS ago, on a whim, I tried it from Carol's POV and viola. XD