Don't Stop, and Hope

Thanks to EMTstrong for all the help!

~TH~

They all knew he was Christian. It wasn't a surprise. He was Captain America after all. When they first moved into the tower, he was private about his faith. As time went on he became more outspoken. It wasn't like he tried to force it on them. It was more of passing comments. Everyone ignored him for the most part. Not in a rude way, they just had nothing to say. Until Tony had enough.

Steve hadn't even said anything all that controversial. It was after a hard mission. Hard but successful. There had been no casualties whatsoever. That was rare. When Clint made an offhand comment about them being lucky, Steve had replied, "God was definitely with us."

This caused the Atheist to lose it. He spun around looking the Captain in the eyes. "Listen here Cap, this isn't the 1940s, okay? Talking about God isn't as acceptable a topic as it used to be." Steve didn't react whatsoever. This only made Tony angrier, "I'm sure you and Bucky had fun at Sunday School every Sunday and I'm sure you prayed before every battle, look what that go you! He's dead and you were stuck in the ice for almost seventy years!" This time Steve paled slightly and took a step back. "I'm glad you and your friends back then got to talk about it and reassure each other that you would see each other again someday. I'm sure it's a great coping mechanism, but some people like to live in the real world!" he shouted.

Steve blinked. That was it, he blinked. Everyone stood in silence waiting for him to say something, but he just blinked. Then his hands clenched into a tight ball. His eyes seeing straight through the billionaire. He took in a shaky breath, turned around, and walked away.

No one said anything for several minutes. It was Natasha who broke the silence. "Was that really necessary Stark?"

"What, it's true?" He responded heading to the kitchen.

"Is it though?" she blocked his way, arms crossed.

"Listen, I was just trying to make a point." He tried to move past her. She just moved with him.

"You need to apologize." She insisted. Tony raised his eyebrows while the rest of the Avengers stared at her in confusion. She wasn't the type to care about such a small argument.

"Listen, is there something I don't know? Because you're defending a religion you don't even believe in yourself." He finally made it past her and opened the cabinet to grab a coffee cup. She shut before he had a chance to grab one.

"I'm not defending the religion, I'm defending the man." she insisted, "and you don't know what I believe."

"Oh, don't tell me you're one of them." Tony rolled his eyes.

"I'm pretty sure that's none of your business Stark. But, if you must know, I don't know what I believe. What I do know, is that the Red Room was run by people who were afraid of religion. People who saw any type of religion as a threat. So now, I see them as a threat." She looked him in the eyes, causing him to take a step back. "Go apologise to Rogers."

Then she walked away. Everyone else slowly dispersed as Tony stood at the counter motionless. Clint came up and patted him on the back. "I'd do it if I were you." he shook his head as he walked away. "Nat has a way of forcing people to do things."

Tony shook his head. He didn't know what had gotten into her. But, he knew he should probably apologize to Cap. Not even he wanted to have Natasha on his bad side.

~A~

He knocked quietly at the door. There was no answer. "Cap?" he knocked again. When no one answered on the third time he was starting to worry. "Hey JARVIS, where's Cap?" He decided to ask the AI. Maybe he wasn't even in his room and he had nothing to worry about.