The Seventh Stone (Stony Marvel Story)

(Chapter 12)

It was in order.

Pitcher tossed the ball, batter missed, someone ran and hit the base, someone caught the ball with a glove and fell, all on repeat, as if the sport was a choreographed dance on a broken record.

I was bored out of my mind.

Fiddling with my phone, contacting Jarvis to work on the suits without my presence, I wallowed myself in the corner while everyone else cheered for the pathetic players who, clearly, had NO idea what was going.

Steve, meanwhile, was completely entranced in this nonsense. He watched contently, gripping onto the sides of his chair and whistling when a player made a move that looked marginally correct. I glanced up at him every once in awhile. He would grab Clint's shoulders and shake him fiercely, letting his head bop around everywhere. Nat would hit Steve to leave him alone, and the next time a player did something right he went to give Nat his infamous seizures.

There was, if I may add, an arouse, between the two.

Nat would whisper something apparently godly hilarious to Steve, and the two would crack up and disrupt my thinking. He would put something in her hand, make a shit impression of something unintelligent (from what I could tell) and, oh man, that would make them laugh EVEN harder. Nat would then build something with her hands, maybe a boat or a house from the paper napkin, and put it on his head. Steve would throw it at her and the laughing was just, wow, you really could not shut them up.

Annoyed, angry at myself for my blatant jealously, I grumbled to myself and got up. Trying not to make noise, I crept out of the pit and towards the exit. I failed, ending up cracking my knee against the side of a chair. Steve and Nat spun around to watch me yelp and kick the stupid thing irritatedly.

"Are you okay?" Steve asked, looking worriedly between me and the chair.

"I'm great. Really, really great. Love watching you two yuck up a fucking storm. Really is entertaining to watch. Whatever the, the hand thing was? Super great. Just keep laughing, it's so... wonderful to witness."

"What, are we not allowed to laugh?" Steve's expression turned hard. "Do you have something against humor?"

"Not at all. But I never really saw you as the funny guy of the team. So funny, in fact, Nat is about to piss herself."

"5 years changes a person, Tony."

"You're saying." I walked up closer to him, my jealously fighting into course. "You're just the funniest person on the team now, aren't you."

"What's wrong with you?" Steve muttered, and I laughed pitifully. "You're asking me? ME? Rogers, look in the fucking mirror and find out what's wrong with you. I can guarantee something is very off."

Before I listened to anymore of his bullshit I spun on my heel and stormed out of the pit.

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"Hey."

I looked up from my hands, clenched with tears and sweat, up to Steve's face. He nodded towards the empty spot of concrete next to me, and I motioned for him to sit down.

"It's been hard on both of us," He sighed, taking a seat. "Five years just... snapped in an instant, and then what, all of a sudden I'm back?"

I remained silent as he continued, "I just.. How do you deal with this so calmly? How do you accept that half of salvation is just-"

"I never said I accepted ANY of this," I snarled. I shot a ferocious look as he quieted down. "I need you to know that I am trying my absolute hardest with everything. I am trying to make sense of this disaster Thanos left us with. Scott and I..." I hesitated, and Steve glanced over.