I Dreamt We Had a Kid

Chapter 26

"You ready, Tony?" Steve asks, dressed in his new uniform.

"Let's do it," Tony says, walking toward the quantum tunnel.

"Remember, Tony, you have three days to retrieve the space stone," Bruce says as they enter to the tunnel.

"Good luck Bruce," Tony says, giving him a tight hug and letting a tear fall from his eye before entering the tunnel.

They arrive in the middle of the woods.

"Uh Steve," he says, "is this where we are supposed to be?"

"Yes, the Hydra base is just over that hill," he responds, looking at his map.

Tony grabs Steve's shoulders and takes off, pulling him through the air and stopping in front of a window in the base. Steve lurches his feet forward and the glass shatters, both of them tumbling into the room.

It is empty and clean, old computers and tools are on the tables. It is very quiet, too quiet.

"Where is everyone?" Tony asks quietly.

"They're here," Steve says, creeping out into the hallway. Steve makes a gesture that there are two guards in the hallway. He draws his shield near and Tony his blaster as they creep into the hallway.

"Wer bist du?" one of the guards says before Steve hits him with his shield and the other one is taken down before he can call for help.

"Do you know where the tesseract is?" Tony says anxiously.

"This way,"

"Eindringlinge im Compund! Eindringlinge im Compund!" The soldiers are able to yell before being swiftly eradicated.

They bust through hallway after hallway, searching for the red skull.

"This is the door," Steve whispers as they both prepare to jump into the room.

The door flies open and Steve is throwing his shield.

"Who might this intruder be?" A tall man says in perfect English, not looking at Steve or Tony.

"We need something," Steve says, "and we are going to get it."

"Are you sure about zat?" he says with a raised eyebrow. "I know what you seek, and you shall not have the pleasure of gaining it."

He fires a gun at Steve, to which Steve deflects with his shield.

"FRIDAY, run a scan for the tesseract," he says while shooting at the man.

"In the floor sir, under a panel. It seems there is a hidden compartment."

He blasts open the panel without difficulty and sees the blue glowing cube. "I've got it, Steve!" He says, reaching down to change his time zone once again to go to their base camp in New York.

With the tesseract in hand, they both stumble toward an alley where they can change their clothes. They hide everything in a backpack and Tony and Steve are both dressed in khaki pants, baggy white collar shirts, and suspenders.

"I want to show you something," Steve says, pulling Tony into the streets of 1940's New York.

"Tony doesn't argue, instead he follows Steve blindly, weaving through small alleyways and streets. Tony can tell Steve knows these roads like the back of his hand. He can see Steve radiating happiness and Tony can finally see that this was the time Steve Rogers was supposed to be in.

After what seems like hours of walking, Steve makes a dead stop at a small building that Tony can hear music coming from inside.

"What is this place, Steve?" Tony asks curiously.

"It's a dancehall," Steve murmurs, pulling Tony to the doorway.

As soon as the door opens, Tony is overwhelmed by the intense, thick cigarette smoke. He coughs.

"Jesus Steve, how did little asthmatic you survive in here?" Tony can barely breathe.

Steve stops and leans against a wall. "I didn't," he gestures to a small man sitting on a stool, coughing and drinking a beer that was still full.

"That's you?" Tony says in surprise. He had seen pictures of how small Steve used to be, but seeing it in person was another thing entirely. He looked rather sickly, his small arms and thin frame like that of a child's.

"Yes," Steve says vaguely, but Tony can see that his eyes are trained on someone else.

His hair is dark brown and in a military style cut. He dances with a woman with a painfully large smile on his face. His eyes are brown and full of happiness and youth.

Tony recognizes the boy from Steve's drawing because this is exactly what they looked like. It was Bucky.

Steve is utterly entranced, his hands in his pockets, mouth slightly open in shock, and his eyes are electric in a way Tony has never seen them before.

They stand there for a long time, Tony thinks at least half an hour, watching Bucky sway gently to the music and constantly check over his shoulder at Steve, who is still sitting at the bar, his beer untouched.

"Let's go," Steve finally says, "There is one more place."

So Tony is lead once again through winding streets and alleys until they are standing in front of a rather broken down, crappy looking apartment building.

Steve leads him wordlessly up the stairs, his hand running over the railing with nostalgia written all over his tight-knit eyebrows.

"How are we going to get in?" Tony asks.

Steve doesn't reply, just kicks a brick and picks up the key under it. He stares at it for a moment before gently placing it in the door and twisting the knob.

The apartment is small, so incredibly small it barely fits the small, worn and torn couch that has a coffee table in front of it. There is a few books scattered on the table and an empty mug or two. The kitchen isn't much bigger, the small fridge is tucked into the corner and the stove barely fits the pasta pot and pan sitting on it. The apartment smells of rosemary, boiled cabbage, and hair gel.

Tony watches as Steve looks all around, holding pictures and touching objects. Tony heads to one of the other doors of the apartment and is confronted by the smallest bathroom he has ever seen. An old looking bathtub sits in the corner, a bar of soap sitting in the corner. Tony smells it and laughs because it's exactly what Steve's pillow smelt like. Somehow, he had managed to keep the cheap soap smell in his hair.

He sees an open jar of hair gel on the sink and a dirty looking mirror for shaving.

He leaves the bathroom, intending to head into the other room and sees Steve. His back is to Tony, his eyes staring into the bedroom. He almost looks afraid to go in, Tony can see the hesitancy as he takes a step forward.

"One bed," Tony says, glancing at the twin size mattress in between two windows.

"We couldn't afford two beds, Tony," he sighs, "I slept in the bed and Buck slept on the couch."

"Bucky seems a little big for the couch," Tony says summing up Bucky's height versus the couch's.

"He made me sleep in the bed," he says, and Toy honestly cannot read his expression.

They look around for a few more minutes.

"Can I have a minute, Tony?" He asks in a pleading and broken voice.

"Sure, yeah," he says, leaving the bedroom, shutting the door and sitting on the couch.

Tony gives Steve ample time, at least half an hour, and when Tony is about to go get him, Steve steps out of the bedroom, his eyes so incredibly sad and red.

"Let's go," he says not even trying to fake a smile.