They worked together beautifully.

In spite of spending the last year fighting them, or perhaps because of it, Iron Man fought alongside the team like he'd been doing it all his life. He and Hawkeye in particular; Clint seemed ecstatic to have someone to catch him, and used it as an excuse to leap off at least twice the usual amount of buildings. Iron Man was great though, caught him every time and launched him at the next alien without question.

Iron Man worked perfectly with Steve, as well. They moved like they'd been doing it all their lives, shooting repulsors and slinging his shield in sync to take out the most aliens in one go. Thor was a big help too, helping bottleneck the portal, but it was Iron Man who surprised Steve the most.

"I'm telling you, Cap," Iron Man grunted as he ducked before repulsoring another alien's head off, "Banner's gonna show."

"All bad things converge at once, is that it?" Steve sighed as he did the same with his shield, tucking into a roll to dodge the next blow and catch it on a ricochet.

"What? No, he's going to help."

"Help? Iron Man, he's out of control—"

"So was I, yet here I am," Iron Man pointed out.

&quotpletely different."

"Notpletely. The public misunderstood us both, made us out to be bigger monsters than we were."

"You're not a monster." Steve rolled his eyes. "Misguided, yes. Bad intentions, more often than not. A monster? Hardly."

"See? You learned to love me."

"The word 'tolerate' might be more appropriate."

"Oh, don't lie, Capsicle." Iron Man chuckled. He'd moved a ways away from Steve now, but they were all in contact via thems at this point so it didn't matter much. "You know you enjoyed our adventures as much as I did."

"I wouldn't say 'enjoyed' so much as 'put up with for themon good'."

"Careful darling, flatter me too much and my ego might explode."

"You? No, you're much too humble." Steve snorted.

"What adventures?" Hawkeye interrupted, sounding rather disgruntled. "What're you talking about?"

"Oh, just all the times I tied him up like porn star and kept him ready to do my bidding in empty warehouses." Iron Man snickered, clearly finding it funny to mess with Hawkeye. "Kinky little thing, your Cap."

"Can it, shellhead—" Steve started.

"And what's with the shellhead?" Clint just talked over him. "Wait, are you two flirting?"

"We are not," Steve insisted at the exact moment Iron Manplained, "Old habits die so hard."

"You are, you're flirting! Flirterers!" Clint used.

"Hawkeye, focus on the—"

"You focus! Like maybe on the fact that you're leading my best friend on while you flirt with a supervillain!"

"No one's leading anyone on—"

"And I'm helping right now, do we really need to bring up the 'supervillain' title?" Iron Man objected.

"Not helping," Steve warned at the same time Clint snapped, "Fuck off, homewrecker!"

"Hawkeye, for God's sake, can we talk about this after the alien invasion?" Steve insisted.

"You better believe we're gonna talk about it," Clint grumbled, "Fucking flirterers."

Then, just as Iron Man predicted, Dr. Banner showed up, right in time to get angry and smash one of the Leviathans into the ground. Steve called out orders and they dispersed, each member of the team maneuvering with the others like they'd been born to fight together. Considering the circumstances that brought them together and the way their skill sets fit, Steve wasn't so sure they hadn't been.

Soon enough, Natasha found her way to the top of the tower and called it.

"I can close it. Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down."

"Do it!" Steve answered immediately.

"No, wait!" Iron Man interrupted him.

"Iron Man, these things are stilling—"

"I got a nukeing in. It's going to blow, and I know just where to put it."

"That's a one way trip," Steve warned him, but they all knew there was no point. Iron Man would do the right thing.

"I know what I'm doing here, winghead."

"I always knew there was a hero in you," Steve told him honestly, "Now so will everyone else. I'll make sure of it. That's a promise, shellhead."

"Yeah, well." Iron Man took a breath, a shaky sort of laugh. "Someone keeps telling me that doing bad things doesn't make you a bad person, and the thing is, for that to be true, you've gotta do some good to weigh it out, right? I'm a little behind "a these days, supervillainy, and all that, but I think he'll…this is, this is good. I went out even. He'll like that."

People do bad things, Tony. It doesn't make them bad people.

Everything fell into place, the last of so many puzzle pieces slotting into place and filling Steve with horrible, terrifying certainty.

"Tony?" The name felt ripped from his lungs, breathless and painful all at once.

"Figured out my identity, huh? Suppose it doesn't matter now—"

"Oh my God." Steve's knees buckled, and he had to grab a nearby car just to keep himself upright. The metal bent and twisted under his white-knuckle grip.

"Tony?" To anyone else Natasha might have sounded impassive, but Steve knew her well enough to hear the surprised, startled worry in her voice.

"You don't mean…not our Tony?" Clint's voice went from confused to panicked in the space of a second as he realized exactly how likely it was. "Right?"

"I've got limited time, I'm going to need you all to curb the shock here—"

"Tony, I—" Steve started.

"Cap, seriously—"

"No, Tony—"

"Cap, I have about a minute til I die, I need you to shut up and listen." Tony refused to let him speak, too desperate to get something out. "I need you to find someone when I'm gone, the person I was telling you about—his name's Steve Robinson, he teaches at the same school I did. I'm calling but he's not answering, and if you're homophobic you need to get the hell over it because I need you to do this for me, okay? I need you to tell him, all of it: that I loved him, that I was Iron Man, that I was going to quit for him, but most importantly that he made me better, he made happy, and I would've…I would've done anything for him, you have to tell him that, he—" Tony's voice broke, the closest to hysterical Steve had ever heard him. "He has to know."

"I know," Steve answered immediately, his voice a jumbled mixture of astonishment and panic, "I know, Tony, I—Captain America, Steve, I'm—it's me."

Three precious seconds ticked by in silence.

"Jesus fucking Christ."

"I love you too, I'm sorry I didn't—"

"I don't fucking care, I don't, I should but I don't, all that matters is how fucking relieved I am that I get to say it to you myself and I know you heard me the first time but I'm going to say it again because I love you, Steve, I love you so fucking much it's absurd, our fucking students could tell, probably because I spent all my timeing up with crazy experiments to impress you and I know that's stupid but—"

"It's not, mine caught me drawing you all the time and they always asked why we weren't dating but I never had a good answer, because there wasn't one. I told myself I wanted to protect you but I was just selfish, I didn't want to think about what it'd be like not having you in my life anymore. And God, I'm so angry with you for keeping this from me but I kept plenty from you too and it doesn't matter, none of it does, because when you fly through that portal you'll be taking my heart with you and I wouldn't have it any other way, Tony, I wouldn't, I love you, I…if we had the time, I would've…I wanted…"

Everything.

"Me too, Steve." Tony's voice was soft. "Me too."

"Iron Man—Tony." Natasha's voice came over the. "You owe me a favor."

"Now? Seriously? Are you fucking kidding me? Don't you think saving your ass from a nuke counts?"

"No." Natasha answered sharply. "Youe back alive. That's my favor and I'm calling it in. You don't get to die on us, Stark."

"Widow, I—"

"Natalie. Well, Natasha."

"And I'm Clark-aka-Clint, you dumb fuck." Clint snapped, hurt and anger visceral in his voice.

"I'm dying here asshole, have a little respect."

"For a supervillain? Not a chance, dickwad."

"How about for a friend, fuckhead?"

"Yeah." Clint's response was unnaturally quiet. Then, with more rage than Steve had ever heard from him, "Tony Stark, you are an arrogant, stupid, stubborn son of a bitch sometimes, you know that?"

"I—"

"But you're also my best friend, dipshit, and don't you fucking et it."

"I won't, Cla—Clint. Natasha. Steve. I'm gonna miss you, all of yo—" Tony paused. "Fuck, your name is Steve, right?"

"Rogers, not Robinson, but. Still Steve." Steve laughed, but it was hollow.

"How many superheroes are there at that fucking school, anyway?"

"Not enough." Steve watched with horrible certainty as Tony approached the wormhole. "We need another, Tony, we need you. I need you—"

"I'm sorry, St—"

Them cut off.

Steve watched as Tony shot through the wormhole, and he stumbled forward as if he could follow. As if he could do anything at all. They waited in silence, the hope to see a flash of red and gold so heavy it was crushing.

One second.

Three.

Five.

"If we do not close the portal, Captain, the Chitauri will rain upon us." Thor clasped a hand to Steve's shoulder. "Do not let his sacrifice be in vain."

Seven.

Ten.

"Close it." The words stuck in his throat, vile and terrible, but Natasha didn'tment.

There was a flash of blue, then nothing; the bright beam of light disappeared, and the portal began to curl in upon itself. Amongst the blue Steve searched desperately, waiting for any sign of—

There.

A streak of red and gold like a shooting star, slipping through the edges of the portal at the last possible second. Steve took off immediately, racing towards where Tony was falling.

"Thor, get up there, now!" Stevemanded.

"Can he not fl—?"

"He's not slowing down, go!"

Thor began to twirl his hammer, but before he could take off the Hulk flew through the air, launching himself off a building to catch Tony and bring him to the ground. Steve was by the Hulk in seconds, and the moment the Hulk put Tony down Steve ripped off his faceplate.

His face was eerily calm.

His

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