Disclaimer: The Avengers, its characters and The Marvel Cinematic Universe belong to Marvel Studios and The Walt Disney Company, among many others. I'm only a fan, writing this for love of this film franchise and personal pleasure.

A.N.: Birthday fic for Steve Rogers! This was actually going to be a chapter of To Build a Home, but I decided to make this a standalone as the story went in another direction and then took a life of its own.

Drawing Hope on the Skyline

2012

It had all started in pretty much the way things happened whenever Tony Stark was involved, mainly with the self-proclaimed genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist getting an idea into his head and running with it like the force of nature that he was. Really, no one was able to stop him once he got fixated on something and that was one of the first inherent aspects to Tony Stark that Steve Rogers learned of early in their friendship.

He'd been spending a lot of time with Tony and Pepper at Stark Tower after the events of the Battle of New York, getting better acquainted with them now that they weren't facing a sudden life and death situation with an army of aliens from outer space destroying their city, so there Steve was once more lounging around and talking to them in Tony and Pepper's private living room when Tony suddenly and unceremoniously interrupted the conversation his new friend and girlfriend were having about something that he clearly deemed no more important than what he had to say right then.

"Hold on, time out," Tony said, a perplexed frown forming between his eyebrows as he rose from the couch with his StarkPhone in hand, looking intently at something on the screen. "Are you telling me Captain America was actually born on the Fourth of July? Spangles, tell me this is a joke and you finally proving to have a sense of humor."

Steve couldn't help the sigh escaping his lips as he hung his head in defeat, already seeing where this was headed. "No, Tony. It is not a joke. I was born on July 4th 1918."

"Oh. My. God." Tony breathed out the words, the frown clearing from his face, being replaced by eyes that were sparkling rather mischievously and a grin that slowly erupted on his lips, his whole figure practically trembling with excitement as he took in this new information and all the potential it carried.

Pepper suddenly had a smile on her face that was part affectionate warmth for the handful of a man that was her boyfriend and part sympathetic understanding for the super soldier sitting next to her, as he was about to get sucked into the overwhelming vortex that was Tony Stark Obsessed With An Idea.

"JARVIS, where's my buddy Bruce? We need him here A-SAP to plan this year's Fourth of July," Tony said at once, placing his phone down on the coffee table and projecting a holographic screen in front of him, where he was already moving things around and making arrangements.

Ever since the battle, Bruce Banner had been staying at the Tower, hiding away from government and public alike as he worked with Tony in R&D and also helped Steve get better acquainted with 21st century technology and important aspects he'd missed out in the near 70 years he was trapped in the ice, as he had more free time in his hands than Pepper and was certainly less spastic and infinitely more patient than Tony for this task.

"Dr. Banner is in the research lab you've appointed as his own, sir," JARVIS replied immediately. "I'll relay the message that you need him here at once."

"Tony, did you not hear a word of what I just said?" Steve asked, frowning a little up at him.

"Yeah, yeah, you're taking a job with the crooked, goth pirate to work with Red, I heard it ─ good luck with that, by the way. Captain America and Black Widow, partners? So many Cold War jokes there, too," Tony said dismissively as he continued tapping away at the screen in front of him. "That has nothing to do with the fact that this year's Fourth of July will be the biggest event I've ever planned, ever."

"I need to move to D.C. in the next couple of weeks." Steve said, still frowning at him and for the moment choosing to sidestep his comment about his upcoming work partnership with Natasha Romanoff. "I'm not going to be here for the Fourth of July."

Tony stopped typing away at once, head comically snapping to look at Steve as if he'd been slapped in the face and an exaggerated breathless indignant sound escaping from his lips. "I can't believe you want to deprive me of the right to throw you a patriotic birthday bash the likes of which you've never seen before in your entire life. We are the Avengers, you are Captain America and your birthday is on the Fourth of July. We are celebrating, buddy." He finished in a tone that left no room for an argument.

The super soldier could only gape at him, still rather unused to Tony's shenanigans as Pepper sat beside him torn between hiding a laugh behind her hand at the expression on Steve's face and rolling her eyes at Tony's histrionics. Thankfully, right at that moment the elevator doors opened revealing a harried looking Bruce Banner, who was adjusting the glasses on his face and walking quickly up to them.

"I'm here, what's the emergency?" He asked, looking around almost as if expecting Loki to suddenly jump out at them from behind a piece of furniture.

"Did you know Capsicle's birthday is on the Fourth of July?" Tony turned to him then, eyes ablaze with excitement that was almost taking on a hint of mania.

Bruce stopped and stared at him for a moment, completely thrown by what he considered quite a non-sequitur question. "Yes," he finally said. "It's a known fact since World War II. Tony, wha─?" He lifted his hands, palms up in a gesture of bewilderment as a frown formed between his eyebrows.

"So everyone knew this and no one thought to bring it up to me?" Tony rolled his eyes, then quickly went back to typing away at the holographic screen in front of him. "It's called priorities, people. Bothering me incessantly about unimportant matters all day long, I tell you…" He muttered to no one in particular, though Pepper did narrow her eyes at that thinking it was probably directed at her, but chose to ignore it for the moment.

"And what do you mean, it's a known fact?" Steve asked, frowning in confusion at that statement.

"Well, it's in your Wikipedia page and in the exhibit dedicated to you at the Air & Space Museum in D.C., so…" Bruce told him with a simple shrug.

"There's an exhibit in the Museum about me?" Steve's eyebrows shot up in his forehead at this. "And what is Wikipedia, again?" He furrowed his brow once more. He knew he'd heard the term before, but it got lost in the jumble of information he'd received over the last month since waking up in the 21st century.

"Yes, there's a whole wing in the Smithsonian covering Captain America and the Howling Commandos," Pepper told him with a smile. "It's currently being updated to cover how you were found earlier this year and the Battle of New York."

"And Wikipedia is that online collaborative encyclopedia page I told you about, on the internet," Bruce added, used to patiently answering his questions, and Steve's confused frown cleared again. "And why are we discussing Steve's birthday, exactly?" He asked, focusing back on Tony.

"Because we need to plan this year's Fourth of July, of course," Tony answered easily, still rapidly typing away at the screen in front of him. "We can celebrate Capsicle's defrosting, his actual birthday and how we saved New York all in one patriotic themed party that will be the greatest in the history of this great nation. Oh yeah, and that thing about escaping the clutches of Her Majesty or whatever. Pep, do we have the number of whoever's in charge of the fireworks show in the mayor's or governor's office? I'll obviously need to have a chat with them."

"O-kay," Pepper said, getting up to her feet and stepping up to him. "I think we're getting ahead of ourselves here, Tony. I mean, your birthday is in a couple of weeks, don't you want to talk about that first?" She tried diverting his single-minded focus from this, as she could see Steve growing exponentially uncomfortable with each word coming out of Tony's mouth, and she hoped appealing to his ego would do the trick.

"Nope," Tony said, still typing away. "Already did the last-birthday-bash-of-a-lifetime, remember? Got drunk in the suit, went to blows with Rhodey, nearly destroyed the mansion in Malibu, you got mad and wouldn't talk to me for days until I almost died and saved your life?" He said, barely noticing as his girlfriend rolled her eyes at this and Steve and Bruce raised their eyebrows in surprise, as they had no idea what he was talking about. "Which reminds me…" Tony said, suddenly opening a secured phone line on the screen and dialing a number, which picked up almost immediately. "Agent Romanoff, miss me already?"

"What is it, Tony?" Natasha's short and clipped answer filled the air in the room for them all to hear.

"Any chance you can drop whatever shady business you're conducting for your spy games and join us at the Tower to talk about Fourth of July?" He asked without preamble.

There was a pause and then Natasha's answer came through. "You found out about Rogers's birthday, didn't you?"

"So literally everyone knew yet you all kept this from me?" Tony said, throwing his hands up exasperatedly and turning to look around at his friends.

"No one kept anything from you," Natasha drawled out in response. "It's public knowledge and it was in the files we gave you when you were asked to consult about the Loki situation. Not our fault you have the attention span of a toddler." They could actually hear the smirk in her voice.

"Yeah, well, I had more important things to focus on back then, like reading up on thermonuclear astrophysics and trying to prevent the end of the world or something to that effect," Tony replied unconcernedly, rolling his eyes a little. "Now that that's done, we can get back to the actual interesting stuff. So, are you coming over? Oh, and could you bring Legolas, too? I expect he's with you wherever you are, pretending to be someone else's innocent assistant or whatever."

Steve and Bruce exchanged another confused look at that, while Pepper groaned a little and put one hand over her face in exasperation at Tony's insistence in trying to piss off a deadly assassin. "Barton is on extended leave," Natasha simply replied back. "And no, I can't go to the Tower now. Why do you need me there, anyway?"

"Well, seeing as you once so aptly played the part of the attentive assistant, I thought you would be perfect to help me throw the greatest Fourth of July party in all the history of the world," Tony said, and now he was the one with a smirk on his lips.

"So first of all, no amount of money would get me working as your assistant ever again," Natasha said, apparently easing into verbally parrying back with Tony as if they'd done this for a lifetime now and hadn't gotten reacquainted just a couple of weeks prior after nearly two years of no contact. "And second, don't you have an actual assistant to do just that?"

"Nope, she quit last week," Tony said, shrugging his shoulders out of habit, as Natasha wouldn't be able to see the gesture.

"Imagine our surprise," Pepper commented sarcastically. "Tony, stop bothering Natasha with this. I'm sure she has more important things to do."

"What could possibly be more important than helping me plan Cap's birthday bash?" Tony mock-gasped in affected outrage, putting a hand over his arc reactor.

"Life and death situations? Matters of national and/or international security?" Bruce muttered, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Pretty much anything other than planning a birthday party," Steve added, frowning his brow and crossing his arms sternly over his chest. "Besides, I don't even want a party."

"Yeah, that's not really up to you," Tony waved his hand dismissively at him, as if whatever Steve did or did not want would have any applicability in the matter. "Trust me, this is happening."

"Are we sure that's a good idea, Tony?" Bruce interjected. "I mean, big flashing lights, exploding noises overwhelming our senses…" He didn't know how Steve was handling any possible PTSD leftover from WWII, his going down in an airplane and being trapped in the ice for so many decades or the more recent battle against Loki and the Chitauri, but he was pretty sure Tony was going through something from what he'd picked up so far of his insomnia, and there was no accounting what it would do to him and The Other Guy. It could quickly become a recipe for disaster.

"Yes, I'm sure," Tony replied firmly, finally growing annoyed at all the resistance he'd encountered so far. "Look, what is even the point of going through all the trouble of dragging nuclear warheads through wormholes into space to fend off alien armies if we can't stop and celebrate the good things in our lives?"

That gave the whole group pause, as they hadn't expected Tony to sound so incredibly vulnerable and honest at that moment, even if his words were carried out in his typically brazen speech. All at once, Steve's stiff posture seemed to melt a little before this and he sighed. "Okay, you're right." He gave Tony a small smile.

And just like that, with Steve's rather coerced approval, they all fell to the whims of Tony Stark and helped him plan the most awesome Fourth of July celebration/birthday bash that New York had ever seen, according to Tony himself.

Seeing as on the occasion the Tower would be in the midst of their renovation plans following the damage taken during the battle against Loki and several adjustments Tony and Pepper had planned, including a party lounge and personalized apartments for each of the Avengers, they decided a different venue would need to be used for the party. After some back and forth as they contemplated their options, they settled on a sunset party off the coast of Manhattan aboard Tony's boat, which Steve felt was a wildly inadequate word for the vessel, as it looked closer to a small cruise ship.

Despite his early protests against the idea, Steve had to admit the celebration was a very welcomed and happy occasion when the date actually came upon them. He and Natasha flew up from D.C. and joined Tony, Pepper, Bruce and Rhodey, who he'd been introduced to sometime in the past couple of months ─ and several other people he had never seen before but always seemed to be around for Tony's parties ─ and they sailed off, being attended to by waiters with the best food and alcohol that money could afford. Thor was back in Asgard, dealing with the affairs of his family and the Nine Realms, and Clint was still on his extended leave, resting and recovering in some secret location none of them were allowed to know (Steve had a feeling Natasha actually knew where that was, though), so their little Avengers group wasn't exactly complete, but Steve felt surrounded by people who genuinely seemed to care for him and happier than he would've expected a few months before when he'd woken up abruptly in a new century with his life completely upside down.

Tony had surprised him by hiring a dancing company to perform "Star Spangled Man", Captain America's theme for the USO's tour on the efforts to promote war bonds all over the country back in the 40's before he'd been able to actually lead the Howling Commandos in the war. Steve, in turn, surprised them all by laughing in delight and enjoying the show with his new friends, for once not having to be up on the stage performing with the girls and just free to be himself.

After sunset, they all gathered on the deck to watch the superb fireworks show that Tony organized over the Brooklyn skyline. Taking note of Bruce's concerns with potentially triggering anyone's PTSD, they got far away enough that the noise didn't bother them and they could simply enjoy the beautiful colors and shapes that were drawn on the backdrop of the darkening skies.

As he stood leaning his forearms on the railing next to Tony, who had one hand clapped warmly on his shoulder, Steve turned to him with a genuine smile. "Thank you, Tony. This was actually a very nice day."

"My pleasure, Cap." Tony smiled back at him, only slightly slurring his words, which Steve thought was impressive, considering the amount of alcohol he had consumed throughout the day. "Happy birthday, Steve." He lifted his glass of champagne at him in a toast. The super soldier mimicked the gesture then they both turned back to continue watching the fireworks being painted in the sky above them.