A Heart Break In Time

What, You Wanted More?

I woke up and the clock read 3:00 AM. My bed felt warm but goddammit did I have to pee. I thought about putting on pants but the bathroom was right down the hall, fuck it. I pulled the shirt down to cover as much as me as possible and made my way to the bathroom. I got there unnoticed but just as I was rounding the corner back to my room, I ran into something, hard.

"Shit, sorry." I took a step back and saw it was Steve. I suddenly no longer felt sorry.

"What are you doing up?"

"Minding my business." I crossed my arms, very aware that my bottom half remained uncovered.

Steve opened his mouth to talk but just then my bedroom door opened, and out came Sam. I didn't even have a chance to question it before Steve laughed. "Oh, of course. Yeah, you're real beat up about our break up, Talia. Real nice. My best friend."

"First of all, I can fuck whoever I want, Steve. Not everyone spends 70 years moping after someone they kissed once." I didn't wait for a reply, just walked to my room, grabbing Sam's arm on the way, pulling him with me.

I shut my door and gave a groan. "God, I fucking hate him." Then I turned to Sam who looked absolutely confused and just flabbergasted. He looked at my naked legs, and back at my eyes. "Shit, Sam. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to use you like that, it just bothered him and I went with it. I shouldn't have done that." I rubbed my temples. "Wait a second, why were you in my room?"

Sam pointed at a box on my nightstand. "I knocked, you didn't answer so I thought I'd leave it for you. Apparently it came while we were at Tony's."

I frowned. I ordered wedding planning books, guess they showed up. "Might as well trash it. But thanks, Sam."

"I'm gonna go. You know I'm gonna have to tell Steve the truth, right?" He smiled at me.

"I know." I sighed. "Let him stew in it for a bit though? Feel free to go crazy with it." I gave him a smile back and he kissed my cheek before leaving.

"You're insane. Goodnight, love."

"Night, Sam."

I woke up the next morning and briefly was relived to be in my own bed. I walked out to find Rhodey sitting on the couch drinking coffee. I made myself a cup and sat next to him.

"Hey, how you feeling old man?" I nudged him.

He chuckled. "Old." I smiled back and sipped my drink. We sat in silence before he spoke again. "You know the first time Tony told me about you-"

"We don't need to talk about him, Rhodes."

"I want to. I miss him, too. So as I was saying. The first time he told me about you, he talked about you like you hung the moon in the sky." He chuckled and shook his head. "I confronted him about it. I told him straight up, 'Pepper is going to kill you if you're sleeping with this woman half your age.'" He looked at me and laughed. "Yeah, he gave me the same look you're giving me now. I truly didn't get it until I met you. You radiate kindness, Talia. We've watched you grow, hell most missions we all know that even Cap was just following your orders. Strength and instinct like that is a rarity, and it's not even your highest redeeming quality. I know you know that if Tony was here, he'd be suiting up and kicking Steve's ass. You deserve better than what he did. Beyond better. I hope you know that."

I sniffled, unsure if my emotions were about Tony or Steve. "I do. It's just so hard. It's like I lost everything all at once. I'm struggling with this idea of this all being pointless."

"I know. But you struggling with it, means you know damn well it's not."

I sat there, running over his words again. Holding on to the image of Tony smiling at me in my head. I missed him so much it hurt.