I wish they were, but sadly these are not my characters. Everything is own by Marvel.

" Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"

The moment Stark disappeared into the portal Steve instantly knew he had been wrong about the man. He should have known that no son of Howard's could possibly be anything less than what he saw here. It was all a front, he could see that now, the cocky, larger than life narcissist was not who Tony Stark was. Steve hated the fact that he had taken one look at Tony and thought he'd known everything about the man. Wasn't that how everyone had treated him back before all of this had started? Even when he was that struggling asthmatic he had known he could be more than what the world was letting him. In truth if when one stripped away Ironman's armor the only thing left was Stark. A genius like his father if not more so, the man who created the armor but, more than that he was a hero who thought nothing of himself before willingly strapping a bomb to his back and carrying it into space Knowing there was no way back.

He himself had made a decision like that once to save this city. Steve had made it willingly and would again if he had too. Flying that plane into the ice was not different than Starks actions of flying the nuke into space.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, lay down on the wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

Steve did not take his eyes away from the portal. Every second seemed like an hour. He kept thinking come on! Come on! He wanted to be able to apologize face to face even though he knew that Tony would not accept it. No, he would want to laugh it off and say that there were no hard feelings. The man probably would refuse to call himself a hero. He certainly did not like being called a soldier and now Steve thought he understood why. Soldiers were necessary because of conflict. Without conflict Ironman would not exist, neither would Captain America. They were a reaction not a solution to the problem. A hero was the one who stood up and fought even though he did not have orders to. Had he wanted Stark could have continued making weapons after being captured in Afghanistan. It would be a reasonable reaction but, instead, Tony had tried to create something that would be able to prevent conflict instead of just trying to clean up the mess.

"Close the Portal." He did not want to do it but if the bomb went off there was every chance the resulting explosion would send a shower of shrapnel on the city. Tony would not want that.

"I think I would just cut the wire."

"Always a way out… You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

How wrong he was.