Can We Be Fixed? (Stony)

Chapter Eleven: Making Things Right

A/N: Hopefully this chapter clears up some light at the confusion in chapter ten, considering last chapter took a giant one eighty, lol.

Warnings: Suicide

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Everything he's ever wanted, he's been given it- even if he's had to work for it, he's still gotten it. Although it comes with some complications, such as him either breaking it, forgetting about it, or plain out ignoring it. That's his downfall, and he acknowledges that the things he has now are easily able to be taken away, because that's just equivalent exchange. Sometimes things are given for free without consequences, depending on what it is.

Take for example a car, given to you by your parents. Was it free? Of course it was free for you, because you didn't have to pay a single penny for it. For your parents, they had to pay so much for it. So are things truly given for free without consequence, because while it may not be a consequence for you, it could be for someone else.

Love for example, is given for free but has dangerous consequences. You cherish a person, or for some, you simply tolerate them, and he wonders to himself how Steve can ever tolerate him. He's dangerous in his own way, bound to hurt those he loves the most, the ones who he keeps so close to his heart. It started with Pepper when he disregarded her pleas, her cries for him to stop this whole Iron Man thing. And yet he continued, because despite him knowing that maybe, just maybe she was right that this was an obsession, he couldn't stop. He couldn't stop because if he did he would not be able to protect the things he loved the most; and yet, his own hands are able to damage the things he loved the most.

Not just his hands, even though they are made to create and give birth to many great inventions, or simply to hold, or pleasure a loved one, they are still dangerous in the sense that they can break a person's heart. And he knows that he has broken Steve's heart- not once, but inexplicably twice. Why does he do this to those he loves?

He sits down on the familiar blue cushioned bench he remembers from when Steve first went to his therapy session. He remembers being so proud that Steve was doing this, and he looked so happy when he saw him sitting there waiting for him. It even brought a smile to his own face as he sat there and remembered the days that past after that one.

He remembers waking up early in the morning, slipping out of Steve's arms quietly. He first picked up the discarded sketchbook on the floor and placed it gently onto the desk next to the be. He then made a quiet exit out of the room and traversed the facility, trying to find the kitchen as he wanted to make Steve breakfast in bed. He never did find the kitchen, rather he found himself sidetracked as he came across the science department again.

The door to Shuri's lab swung open sideways, and his feet marched inside the interior of the room. He still feels fascinated just like the first day he came in here, eyes roving around the lab, wide as they come across every invention Shuri has created, her genius maybe even surpassing his own, but he won't admit that. Just like the first time he entered, both T'Challa and Shuri are in here, and once again both welcome him.

They talk for a few hours, laughing and telling jokes to one another, and then just shortly after it changes to a more serious tone. He soon finds himself talking about what happened back at the Avengers compound when T'Challa asks, retelling every little detail he dares not to leave out. He tells him about how he got Steve to come back to New York, how he was the one who helped him escape when he saw that Ross was going to kill him, explained how he kept him at the Compound and fed him, and even about all the tension they had. Eventually, retells the entire story leading up to where he and Steve are now. And while it's a lot to take in, T'Challa simply just nods his head in response, and says he's been doing some research on the whole Ross situation.