An road to healing

3

As the elevator doors opened, Steve stepped into the familiar, yet strangely alien, space of what had once been their home—Tony’s home. The living room stretched out before him, with its sleek furniture and glass walls overlooking the city. Everything was polished and clean, as if untouched by the chaos of the past year. But the atmosphere in the room was anything but calm.

Tony, Rhodey, and Pepper stood there, staring at him with eyes that burned with the weight of their past. Steve’s breath hitched in his throat. He hadn’t expected warmth, but the coldness in their glares was almost suffocating. It felt like the years of silence and tension between them were pressing down on him, each one heavier than the last.

Tony’s gaze locked onto him immediately. His eyes were cold, a sharp contrast to the warmth Steve remembered. He was standing with his arms crossed, his posture rigid and defensive. The anger in Tony’s expression was palpable, the lines of tension in his jaw tightening with every second. Rhodey, standing beside him, looked like he was ready to walk over and shove Steve out of the room without a second thought. But it was Pepper, standing slightly apart from them, who caught Steve’s attention the most. She looked… weary. Disappointed. Like she’d been through enough and didn’t want to feel the weight of whatever was coming next.

The silence hung thick, suffocating, as if none of them knew how to bridge the gap that had grown so wide.

Steve’s heart thudded in his chest as he opened his mouth, but no words came. He had rehearsed this moment in his mind countless times, but now that he was here, facing the people he had failed, nothing felt right. Nothing felt enough.

Tony was the first to speak, his voice low and almost guttural, laced with a bitterness Steve wasn’t sure he could bear. “Well, look who finally decided to show up,” Tony sneered, his words sharp, each syllable like a jab. “After everything, you think you can just walk in here like it’s nothing? Like you’ve done nothing wrong?”

Steve winced, the words cutting through him like shards of glass. He deserved it, though. He had no excuse for what had happened, for how he had walked away when they all needed him the most.

Rhodey’s gaze didn’t soften. “What are you doing here, Rogers?” he asked, his voice firm, his eyes filled with a mix of anger and disbelief. “You don’t just get to show up after abandoning us. After leaving him,” he pointed at Tony, “after everything that happened.”

Pepper stood to the side, her arms crossed, looking at Steve with something that could’ve been disappointment—or maybe something worse. “I thought we were past this,” she said quietly, her voice strained, the weight of her words more painful than the others. “We’ve all had enough, Steve. You’ve had enough time to think about what you did.”

Steve swallowed hard, the lump in his throat choking back any words of explanation or apology. He knew that none of it would be enough. Not the years apart, not the mistakes he’d made, not the impossible choices he had tried to make alone.

He took a step forward, though his body felt like it was moving on instinct, his mind frozen in place. “I know I don’t deserve forgiveness,” Steve said quietly, his voice rough, the weight of his regret heavy in the air. “I’m not here to ask for it. I’m here because—” he stopped himself, his hands clenched at his sides. He couldn’t finish the sentence. The words felt hollow.

Tony’s laugh was dry, almost bitter. “Oh, you’re here for what, Steve? Closure? A clean slate?” He shook his head, the anger in his voice growing louder. “You walked away. You abandoned us. You left me—again.”

The words stung, but Steve didn’t look away. He couldn’t. “I don’t expect you to understand,” he said, his voice breaking. “I didn’t want to leave. But I thought it was what was best. For everyone.”

“You didn’t think, Steve,” Tony shot back. “You just acted. You always do. And look where we are now. You’ve ruined everything.”

Steve’s heart shattered, each word a blow he couldn’t defend against. He knew he’d ruined everything. But he hadn’t been able to do anything else. All he could do was stand there, face their anger, and hope that someday, someway, they’d see that he was trying to fix it, even if it was too late.

For a long, painful moment, there was silence again, heavy and suffocating. And then, finally, Tony spoke again, his voice quieter, but the hurt in it unmistakable.

“I can’t just forget, Steve,” he said, the words feeling like a weight that neither of them could carry. “I don’t know if I can forgive you. I don’t even know if I want to.”

Steve nodded, the weight of Tony’s words sinking into him like a knife. He didn’t expect forgiveness. He didn’t deserve it. But still, he had to try.

“I understand,” Steve whispered, his voice barely audible, the tears threatening to fall again. “But I’m here. I’ll always be here. If you ever want to talk. Or... anything.”

Pepper gave him a long look, her expression unreadable. “You need to fix this, Steve,” she said, her voice carrying the heaviness of everything they had all been through. “Not just with Tony. With all of us.”

With those words, Steve felt the weight of everything come crashing back. He didn’t know if he could fix it. But this was the first step.

Tony didn’t say anything more. He just turned and walked away, the tension still hanging in the air. Rhodey and Pepper followed, the quiet hum of their footsteps marking the finality of the moment.

And Steve? He stayed there, standing alone in the living room, with only the sound of his own broken heart to keep him company.

Steve stood in the middle of the kitchen, the sound of his own breath echoing in his ears as the weight of the moment pressed on him. He stared at the bag of cheeseburgers, his mind not fully processing the action. He had bought them for Tony, something small—something he thought might break the ice. But the weight of everything that had been said, the years of distance, the anger, the hurt—it all came crashing down in that moment.

Without a word, without looking back, Steve set the bag down on the kitchen counter. His fingers brushed the crinkling plastic, and for a moment, he hesitated. He thought about what he had just done—what he had tried to do—and the emptiness that filled the space where words should have been.

There was no turning back now. The damage was done, the silence louder than anything that had been said. He could still feel the weight of Tony’s words, the rage in Rhodey’s voice, the disappointment in Pepper’s eyes. The echoes of their glares still burned in him, and the thought of staying any longer, of trying to fix something that felt so irreparably broken, only made his chest tighten more.

He turned away, not allowing himself another moment to linger in the kitchen, or to look at the place he had once called home. He couldn’t fix everything with a gesture, with a few words, or even a bag of food. He had tried, but in the end, it hadn’t been enough. Maybe it never would be.

With slow, deliberate steps, Steve walked toward the door. His heart weighed heavier with each step, but he didn’t stop. He couldn’t. The tower that had once been a symbol of family, of unity, felt like a prison now—a place filled with the ghosts of mistakes and things left unsaid.

The door closed behind him with a soft click, and for the first time in a long while, Steve felt truly alone.