I Am Iron-Man

Chapter 39

Steve's POV

It's been a few days since Bucky has been using Tony's tech to relieve him of his triggers, but he's been distant with me since he started his treatments. Bucky hasn't acted like this before. What did Stark do to him? Has he been brainwashing him? I can't stand for that, I wanted to wait until Tony finally let go of his ego and apologized, but looks like I'll have to be the bigger man again.

I walked down towards the labs, ready to confront Tony whether he wants to talk or not, until I saw him outside the lab entrance with some of the kids from that Young Avengers team; I recognized two of them to be Jessica and Ethan. Kids shouldn't be used as government weapons and shouldn't be allowed to be on the Avengers, especially disrespectful kids like Jessica and Ethan. I noticed that they were wearing suits that looked to be new. Looks like Stark provided them with some of his new tech. How come they get free tech from him, but his real family and team has to pay and sign contracts in order to receive his tech? That's unfair, but he's probably doing that to be petty and protect his ego.

Once the kids left the hallway and Tony was left alone, I walked up to him to have our much needed and overdue talk.

"Tony", I said in a friendly tone, but Tony signed heavily, ignored me and stared down to look at his phone. "Tony...we need to talk"

"Sorry, Rogers, but I'm very busy right now. In fact, I have a meeting with the committee in about two hours, so I need to go and prepare". He tried to walk down the opposite end of the hallway, but I stopped by grabbing him by the shoulder.

"Tony, I'm sure you can spare a few minutes because we really need to talk"

"One: let go of my shoulder, two: don't you ever put your hands on me again, and three: there's nothing to talk about"

"Tony, you can't keep doing this to your team"

"And what is it that I'm doing that's affecting my teammates?"

"Tony, you're tearing us apart. Wanda has been forced to leave her home and go to that school, Natasha has been having doubts about the fall of SHIELD and how we stopped HYDRA, and Sam has been considering to sign the accords"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought that you were talking about my real teammates, as in the New Avengers, not those people who used me as a doormat and blamed me for things that I wasn't at fault for"

"Tony--"

"One: I don't care about the person who invaded my mind and had me experience my worst nightmare, and almost caused mass extinction because she blamed me for her parents' deaths, which I was not at fault for, two: nice to learn that Romanov listened to Jessica's and Clint's words because she's responsible for thousands of innocent deaths, three: Sam should sign the acts, so he can finally be considered an actual New Avenger and be officially placed on Rhodey's team because compared to you, Romanov and Maximoff, I actually tolerated him the most, and four: they're called the New Avenger Registration Acts, not the Sokovia Accords anymore". This wasn't getting us anywhere, Tony seemed insisted on avoiding our talk. I knew that he was going to be petty, but I didn't think that he was going to be this petty.

"Tony, this isn't what we need to talk about"

"Then talk because I don't have all day"

"Look, I know that you're upset that I didn't tell you the truth about your parents, and I'm sorry for that, but you shouldn't have attacked Bucky. He wasn't his doing, it was HYDRA, and you should've realized that. He was a victim to HYDRA, like you. And I apologized in that letter, but you still seem insisted on being petty. Can't you just put this petty grudge behind you and start working with your real team again? Your real family?". Tony let out a humorless laugh after I finished talking. Why is he laughing? I just apologized for a second time, but this time to his face, and he's laughing about it?