Title: Timelines
Author: Quietshade
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Eventual Steve/Tony, Tony/Pepper, past Steve/Peggy, Howard/Maria, Clint/Natasha, Thor/Jane.
Universe: Movieverse (Earth-199999)
Beta: doomsymphony (Saixkosmos)
Warning: Slash, M/M, Strong Language.
Word Count: 7,643
Disclaimer: All Marvel characters and reference belong to them not to me.
Summary: Tony is a man of the future who can't manage to accept his past and Steve is a man of the past who have a hard time accepting his future because of this they understand each other and help one another come in terms with their times.
A/N: This takes place just before The Avengers meet for the first time, must be a few weeks after Steve woke up.

Timelines
Chapter one

Being sincere he hadn't thought he would survive, although that didn't mean he had not hoped for it. No, he had desperately held onto the idea that he would have been able to assist to his date. Sure he had asked for a miracle, for him to be able to joke about his near to death experience with the guys, but when he had asked for a miracle it had never crossed his mind that things would end up like this.

Seventy years, is what he had hoped to live if he survived the war, but instead he found himself almost seventy years in the future, in a future where he had though he would have been long time married with some children and a bunch of grandchildren, if not already dead. But life has never been indulgent and had given him a new life without any of the person he knew or cared for. He seriously wanted to ask why they hadn't left him in the ice, would have been easier for him.

He hadn't asked about Peggy yet, he feared the answer. What if she had forgotten about him and married someone right after the war? Of course he didn't want to hear that she had been all alone waiting for him, but it pained him greatly to think that she might have moved on and forgot about him and god he knew he was being egoist but he couldn't help it.

What about Bucky, Have them found him and gave him a proper burial? He hoped they have, he at least deserved so much. And what about the guys, have they survived the war? There were so many questions he had and the information they passed to him answered too little of them.

Howard… he wanted to ask about him too, they had grown close to each other over the war, he was the third person he would miss the most. The man was rich, funny, a gentlemen and a genius, Steve was sure that if he wanted he would have keep himself far from the war as most rich men did, donating large, and needed, sum of money to keep the public happy while enjoying their luxurious live far from the danger. Howard had been different, he tried his best day by day to supply the soldier with the best of his technology, he was brave enough to put his life in the front to protect his country, and it hadn't been once or twice the times he drove them into the battle zone without hesitation. He was a man to admire and Steve admired him greatly.

He admitted that one of the things he had yearned for was a nice evening chatter with his three favorite persons. He could see Bucky bickering Howard about his techno babbles, he liked to believe they would have gotten along, while he and Peggy laughed at them. He wanted Just that, a keen evening in a small coffee with his important persons and that though alone hurt him more than anything, because now Bucky was death and he wouldn't know if he and Howard would have get along, because now Peggy and Howard surely have move on and would have other things to do, that if they were still alive, and mostly because now wasn't Steve's time and all he had hoped and longed for were things that belong to a time that had ran a long time ago.

He hit the punching bag with rage, sending it to flying across the room, sand spilled on its way.

"Trouble sleeping?" he looked over his shoulder to the new comer, Colonel Nick Fury, the man who had told him about his seventy years sleep.

"You are here with a mission, sir?" He asked halfhearted, they barely let information of the new world to him, selecting carefully what he was allowed to read, he didn't think they will let him out anytime soon.

"I am" He said, probably something that involved his knowledge about the WWII they have pestered him enough about that.

"Trying to get me back in the world?" He asked nonetheless, this time putting more hope in his question but still not looking up from his task.

"Trying to save it." Fury answered after a short pause, and he finally looked at the man, this time feeling truthfully curious about this mission.

A Team, the Colonel was assembling some kind of heroes' team, and apparently he wanted Steve to lead it, there was some kind of treat out there that the army couldn't win against and he needed this team to stop it.

"They aren't exactly what you would call the greatest of the teams, but all of them are excellent warriors, one of the most powerful persons out there." He listened quietly the Colonel as he ranted about the team, while they walked through the corridors of SHIELD's base, going to where he supposed was the meeting room where he would finally meet his new team. "All of them have real battle experience, but little of them have the war's experience you possess." He frowned a little, trying his best to go in par with the man's speech. It was a change to be needed not because of his abilities but because of his experience, which was a contrast to his previous position in where he was required for his abilities. He briefly wondered how strong the others were.

"May I inquire about the number of persons we are talking about, sir?" He hoped for it not to be a big team, he worked better with few people.

"There are six avengers including you." Suddenly the man came to a stop and spun around to face the blonde. "Look son, I know you are having a pretty harsh time adjusting to this time, and I will tell you this beforehand, your values and ideals are greatly different from the one those people hold and I'm sure that you will have a hard time dealing with some of them." He grimaced at that part as if he was remembering someone in particular, and Steve wondered if he should be worried. "But your goals are the same and even if you don't agree with them you'll have to get used to it, this isn't WWII anymore."

And without even waiting for his answer the Colonel resumed his peace as if he hadn't stopped in the first place. The Colonel was always like that, he was always in a rush, he was straight forward and always looked like he was about to kill someone. Apart from the Colonel the only other person he had spoken to was agent Coulson and whiles the man was nicer and calmer than the Colonel, he too seemed as if he was in a rush and that had Steve wondering if it was a standard for the people in this time to always be in a hurry.

After a short time of walking down the -too metal for his like- corridors they arrived at a door, Fury pushed some buttons on the panel to its side and the door opened, with a rapid slide motion that startled Steve every time it happened. He followed the Colonel inside, into the who looked like the control room of a ship, in Steve's opinion looked like it have been taken out of a science fiction movie, just like everything else in the place.

He looked around and saw at the far end of the room a tall blonde man, he stared at the man incredulously, when he became a super soldier everything had looked small, and when he first glanced at a mirror, he had stared at the image for a long while, not recognizing himself at first, he does remember himself thinking that he looked incredibly burly and big; but now looking at this man he knew that if he was to stand beside him he would probably look small. He wondered if they have found a way to improve the SSS and if this man was the result of it.

"Come here Cap" Fury called him while walking to the giant man, he followed him and the closer he came to said man the more imposing he looked. "I want you to meet Thor he will be part of The Avengers' team." The man turned around to look at him, and offered him his hand to shake.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, sir." He shook the other man's hand with shyness. "Steven Rogers… uh Captain America."

"The honor is mine Steven Rogers, I am Thor Odinson of Asgard." The gentle smile never left the other's face and Steve couldn't help thinking that such a smile contrasted with the man's rough physic.

"What are your abilities?" He blurted, his mouth betraying his best judgment, he looked from the man to the Colonel, hoping that he didn't looked as nervous as he felt.

"I am the God of Thunder." He said with a chuck and Steve looked at him perplexed, a god? He must be joking.

"Like he said he is The God of Thunder and as such he can shoot rays, control weather, flight, you know every god like thing you would attribute to the god of thunder." Said Fury as if was the most common thing in the world. Fury handed him a file with the man's info, he opened it, reading it with eagerness. He ignored the voice in the back of his head that was insisting that the future was beginning to look much stranger than he first though.

Suddenly the door opened and three more people entered the room. Two man of about the same height, the first a brunette who was wearing a brown leather jacket and had an annoyed frown, just by his pose he could tell the man had some battle experience and looked like he was prepared for anything you could throw him, not as imposing as the giant blond but still good.

The other was a raven haired man with a purple shirt that looked friendlier than the other guy; actually he didn't look like a warrior at all, not like the other two guys. He looked too shy and nervous, more like the man who you would expect to find behind an office's desk. He was tempted to ask for his power, he surely was not another god.

The last one was a redheaded woman, who in Steve opinion was wearing inappropriate clothes, as they were far too provoking, still she looked strangely professional, he cleared his throat looking away at anything but her and he could feel a blush already working its way to his cheeks.

"Good you are here, but we are clearly short on one people." Fury walked to the redheaded woman. "Where the hell is Tony?" as soon as he finished the question the woman took a futuristic looking device and pushed some button on it, he couldn't help thinking that the image of the provoking woman with a strange device looked just like something out of a movie, but then again what didn't look like that to him lately.

"Coulson is bringing him. They should be here in some minutes." The Colonel nodded at this and muttered something about some stupid rich genius going to be his death.

After ten minutes of quietly waiting the last member finally arrived, the first thing Steve noticed when the man entered the room was the fact that he looked familiar, but he couldn't quite grasp where he had seen him before. He was just as tall as the friendly looking guy in purple, about five inches shorter than Steve. He was wearing an expensive looking suit and a pair of equally expensive looking sunglasses, his hair was nicely combed back and he was sporting a dandy smile, in Steve opinion he looked like one of those rich business man that you usually came across on Manhattan's World Trade Center.

"Great we are now complete!" The Colonel said with an annoyed tone, and send the just arrived man a glare that promised a painful talk later.

"No welcome hugs for me?" The man said, and Fury hardened his glare to him.

"You shut up." Steve saw the man snort and walk toward the friendly man, Coulson following him shortly behind, they engaged in some kind of conversation, the familiar looking guy made some sings, which made the friendly guy look more nervous and uncomfortable.

"Now that we are all here lets go down to business." Fury said as he took sit in a near bench. "As you all know we are here because of the Avengers initiative. But what is the avenger initiative?" everyone turned his attention to the colonel, Steve stood right beside the giant blond and send a look to the familiar looking guy, he couldn't place him, but he was sure he had seen him somewhere.

"There was an idea, to bring together a group of remarkable people so when we needed them, they could fight the battle that we never could." He continued, with a serious look on his face. "For a while we were unable to gather these people and the project was falling behind, but then you guys appeared and you are of the finest fighters out there and we need you in the team to fight these battles." The man in the expensive suit was about to say something but another glare from Fury stop him from doing so.

Then Fury went on to explain the situation they were in, and why they needed so urgently the team now, and things like that, everyone was pretty much silent until the Colonel went on to announce the team's leader, who was none other than Steve himself, everyone seemed all right with the decision, everyone but the man in the expensive suit.

"Really Nick? I'll probably do a better job than a guy whose tactics are outdated by 70 years." He said with amusement, Fury shot him a nasty glare. He was obviously losing his patience.

"Look Stark, we already went through this, I'm not-" Suddenly Fury was cut by a really startled Captain America, who was now looking from the Colonel to the other man with wide eyes.

"Did you just say Stark, sir, as in Howard Stark?" Now everyone in the room was looking at him with a curious stare, but the confusion in both Fury and Stark was short lived as almost instantly the both of them went from looking confused to looking as if they just remembered something important.

"Well yes, Anthony Stark son of Howard Stark, but please call me Tony" Answered the man as he walked to Steve. "For a moment there I forgot you were father's friend, sorry about the comment back there, no hard feeling meant. You know I used to be a great fan of you as a kid, I mean, who wasn't a fan of yours as a child." He said as he took both of Steve's hands on his own, and shook them effusively. "Don't misunderstand me, is not that I believe that Captain America is not good enough for the job, is just that I think it is too soon for you." he released his hands and looked at Fury. "As for you, I think you should think thing thoughtfully before putting this…" He trailed off for a moment looking at everyone. "Team on the front lines." And with that he left the room, leaving an angry looking Colonel and a perplexed captain behind.

If he had though that the people in this time were strange before, he didn't know where to put Howard's son, he was indeed one of the most eccentric persons he had ever meet, and that considering that Howard himself had been quite an odd guy.

As soon as he had recovered from the shock he went after Tony and he caught him just outside of the facilities, in front of a car, that even with his short knowledge about this time, he was sure was more expensive than anything he could ever dream to afford. Beside him was a beautiful looking woman, who was dressed a lot more descent than the redheaded woman from before.

"Mr. Stark please wait!" The man looked at him over his shoulder with surprise. "God, you look a lot like him."

"Yeah I get that a lot." He said sounding a little annoyed, but turned around to look at Steve nonetheless. "What Can I do for you Cap?" The man gave him a polite smile, which Steve could tell that was obviously false.

"I… How's Howard doing, Mr. Stark?" He asked shyly, scratching the back of his neck, not sure how to speak to such an odd man.

"He died eighteen years ago." That hit Steve like a rock, and he swallowed hard. He felt a pain in his chest, as he once again was remembered of how much time have passed.

"I'm sorry to hear that son." His voice sounded strange to his ears, it was full of emotions that he didn't want to think about. "You have my condolences."

"No need for them. That was a long time ago." He dismissed Steve without much though, and Steve wondered if the persons took death as such a trivial event nowadays. "Now if you excuse me, I have to go."

"Howard was a good man." He said in a rush, feeling the need to keep the guy from leaving. "He was always so bright and dedicated to his work. He was indeed a remarkable man."

"Look cap I'll be sincere with you." Tony said suddenly sounding more annoyed than before. "I didn't spend much time with my dad and I remember him as a cold person who couldn't care less about his family, but lately there's been more and more people coming to me to tell me that he was either worse than I think he was or a much better person that I remember him being and as eager as you might be to talk about him now I'm not in the mood to discuss old war tales about a man who I clearly don't know. Now if you excuse me, I have to go." With that the man turned to leave asking the car's key to a man that looked like his chauffer.

"One last request, !" The man stopped mid task and looked at him with curiosity. "What's your mother's name?"

"Maria Carbonell Stark" He said with a frown but didn't ask or say anything else and finally entered the car alongside the woman and the other man.

Tony Stark was by far the oddest person he has met in this time, and Steve got the feeling that he would probably be the oddest person he will ever meet. He was not going to lie to himself, to that point he wasn't fond of him, and to say the true he couldn't even believe that he was Howard's son.

For now he was grateful that Peggy wasn't the man's mother, it had occurred to him that Peggy could have married Stark, after all they had been close, but when the idea occurred to him he had seriously panicked.

Even if Fury had looked outraged by Tony's word, he took them in consideration and they went through some team training before going into real battle and he was handle many books about battle and war strategy by Coulson.

He wasn't disappointed by Thor's power, he was every ounce of the god he proclaimed to be, and he proved to be a competent warrior, which have his good share of battle experience and strategy, actually if it wasn't for the man's impulsive nature Steve would gladly leave the leadership to him.

Clint on the other hand was a really good long range fighter and soldier, he had no problem taking Steve orders which was good, but it was obvious that the man hadn't been in a team before and therefore lacked on teamwork.

Natasha, she was a competent fighter too, good at hand to hand combat and her abilities in espionage were a great add, he hardly had any complain on her behalf.

But the ones that actually surprised him were the last two member of him team, of all the things he had expected Bruce to be, transforming into an enormous unstoppable green mass of rage was the least he expected him to be, sure the man was a love when he was just Bruce but he was having a hard time adjusting to the idea of The Hulk.

When he thought of Tony in the team, he had saw him as a support member doing pretty much what his father had done for them during the war, how wrong he had been, when they had step forward to the training room and saw Stark being surrounded in a suit of metal he had been utterly astonished. When he had seen the man in the battleground he had been more than astonished, it had been purely beautiful. Clearly he lacked in combat skill but his power output, speed and strategy more than made up for it. The problem with him was that he was a genius and unlike his father made no effort on being modest about it, self-centered -something which had put the team on danger many times- a civilian without much battle experience, and the one person that took it as his personal mission to ignore Steve's every command.

Although with all of this in hand, Steve had to admit that he was beginning to respect the man. Tony wasn't just the annoying genius billionaire playboy philanthropist he claim to be, no Tony was also a compromised man, who pushed himself to the limit of his capacities, a man who behind his selfish façade always put the others safety before his own and all these things as subtle as they were, Steve had seen them over and over again and for that Steve had to admit that in his own way Tony was a man to respect.

They argued many times, and just as Fury predicted, it had been quite an ordeal to make the team work. They weren't more than a bunch of super powered guys put together, but even with all the mishaps they had somehow made it work and in the end they were able to defeat Loki.

"Guys I must admit that you did a good work out there, not exactly how I expected it to be but good enough." Fury's voice cut his train of though and Steve looked around, for a moment he forgot he was supposed to be paying attention. "But one thing I'll say is that all of you are lacking on teamwork and that's why from now on we are going to be training together every Saturday."

"what?" Both Clint and Tony shouted at this, they looked at each other for a moment.

"I don't care if you two have a problem with it, it wasn't a question." Tony groaned and Clint sat down looking pissed but said nothing.

Fury continued his speech of things that needed to be done, and Steve stared at him not really paying much attention to what he was saying. He slowly blinked when he saw the image of an eye appear on the center on Fury's patch.

His eyes darted to the origin of the light, to find Stark silently playing with a pointer. Their eyes met and Tony made a motion that told him to stay shut and Steve bit his lips trying to hide his smile.

"God damn it Stark, stop that!" Fury said after a moment, cutting his previous speech. By that point almost everyone in the room was laughing and Steve himself was having a hard time trying not to laugh.

"Come on Fury, loosen up, I was having a little fun" the man glared at Tony, not finding the prank funny.

"Do you see me laughing, huh?" He said pointing to his face. "Because I'm not, you want to see me laughing? Let's go to the training ground and see who laughs in the end" The smirk on Fury's face said he was being totally serious on the offer and Steve though that a fight between Ironman and the colonel would be hilarious.

"I think I'll pass on that one, but thanks for the offer." The smirk on Tony's face countered the one on Fury's.

"Well then if you allow us to continue." Steve sighed, he wasn't in the mood for meeting today, he had wanted for days to go out and explore a little more about this new time.

"Actually Colonel, before you continue I have something to say." Fury raised an eyebrow at this, as did everyone else in the room.

"Go ahead Stark." All eyes were on Tony, it was strange for the man to speak on a meeting, or say anything apart from his jokes, protests and sarcasm.

"I've been thinking that it must be pretty boring for the members of the team who doesn't have a home, to stay in this place every day." Tony was right, it was boring, monotonous but he had it worse on the war. "That's why I want to offer those members a place in my mansion."

"Did I hear wrong or Anthony Stark is being nice?" Fury's face was one of pure surprise, but Tony did not seemed affected by this.

"Oh, you say it like it's a rare occurrence but I'm actually quite a good guy you know. Last year I…"

"I like to take up the offer." Steve said cutting Tony in mid of his sentence and the man looked at him with an expression the blond couldn't quite grasp.

"I too would like to accept thy kind proposal." Steve looked at Thor, who looked back at him with that gentle smile of him.

"You see, they are cool with it." Tony said addressing Fury. "What about you Banner, wanna join the fun?" Bruce shook his head in disagreement.

"I'm sorry Tony. I think it would be safer for everyone if I was to stay here." For a moment a strange emotion passed through Tony's eyes, but it was gone before Steve could identify it.

"Sure do as you like. So are you cool with that Nick?" Said man frowned but the frown disappeared into a smirk shortly after.

"As long as you guys check on time for every meeting and training, you could stay on a sewer for all I care." Stark smiled.

"Then it's settled, after the meeting, go pack your things and we'll leave for my humble abode." And with that the meeting resumed his previous path of Fury's long speech; leaving Steve to wonder how would be to live with Howard's eccentric son.

"How does this fits on the word humble?" Was the first thing Steve could think about, when they arrived to the front of the manor. Tony just shrugged.

"I like my house on Malibu better." He said while walking to the front door.

"This is nothing in the eyes of the great Asgardian palaces, but it is not bad either for a mortal's palace." Thor added then followed Stark.

He sometimes forgot that unlike him, who grew up on the great depression of the 30s, Stark and Thor were surrounded with luxuries since birth and -not just because of the time gap between them- most of the things that made Steve impressed barely obtained acknowledge from both men.

"JARVIS, would you open the door dear?" Tony said to thin air and Steve frowned at the man.

"Welcome back sir." Steve almost jumped when the voice spoke and he looked around searching for the source of it to find no one.

"JARVIS, where's Jarvis?" Asked Tony to the voice and he entered the house, Thor still following him, when Steve entered he looked around him expecting to find someone behind the open door, to find none.

"He is in the kitchen sir." They followed Tony to the kitchen, not with Steve falling behind from time to time to look at something that got his interest. But he stopped all for once in front of a little table that held many pictures. He took one of a young child of about four years.

"That was for my fourth birthday, mom liked to take pictures, so there are many pictures of us before I left for MIT." He put the picture back in a hurry as if it had burn him. He had picked it up without thinking that he might have been meddling with Tony's privacy.

"I-I...my apologies." He said in a hurry. But Tony dismissed him resuming his pace to the kitchen.

"Jarvis like to keep them around." When they arrived to the kitchen they were greeted by a mid-aged man, in a blue suit.

"Welcome back master Tony." He greeted them with a smile that left no place to argue his manners. "I see you brought company, do you need my services?"

"Yes please, Jarvis I want you to meet captain Steven Rogers." He said gesturing to Steve. "And Thor Odinson, they are fellow members of The Avengers and will be living here from now on."

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Edwin Jarvis, I run the house." He shook hand with both man and Steve smiled at him, trying with no success to hide his amusement. It was the first time he saw a butler, much more one that would serve him.

"I need you to prepare the master bedroom, the bedroom number three and also a meal would be really nice." The man nodded and headed for the stairs.

"Ms. Potts called this morning." Steve saw a strange smile appear on Tony's face when Jarvis said this, but as many of the strange emotions that crossed Tony's face it didn't last long.

"Come on guys let's show you around the house." He smiled to them with a smile that was different from the one Steve had just seen on him.

The mansion was much better than the SHIELD's headquarter. If he had though that it was amazing before, he was now truly astonished by its majesty. It was a three-story manor, with an architecture that reminded Steve of home, of his time, Tony had explained to him that it was probably because his father build the manor around 1932 and despise the many interventions it suffered it still preserved lot of its original structure.

Tony had shown them the basic areas of the house, including the gym and the combat simulation room, were he proclaimed they would train their teamwork. He had also given them the codes to open each door, in Steve times they used keys, now he has to learn codes for almost every room in the house.

He also introduced them to JARVIS his A.I. an acronym for something Steve didn't quite understand. Tony said it ran the house alongside with Jarvis, and Steve found it confusing to have to refer to two different Jarvis but said nothing in regards this. Everything was so far so good, until Tony proceeded to show them their room.

"This will be your room Cap." The room was quite big, so far the biggest room Steve had ever have.

"It's a big room, Mr. Stark" Tony chuckled and Steve saw Thor test the bed's resistance in the corner of his eye.

"It has to, it's the master bedroom." And that's when things started to get awkward.

"Wh-what?" he stuttered looking at Tony with wide eyes. "Shouldn't it be yours?"

"It was my parent's room before they died." He started not looking at Steve. "It felt strange for me to move to this room even after their death. Besides I don't spend that much time in this place and I think my father would have liked it better for it to be your room."

He doubted it, he saw Howard wanting Tony to inherit the room, but he knew better than to start another argument about Howard's wishes with Tony.

"When do I get to see my bedchambers?" Thor sounded excited and Steve was grateful to him for cutting the heavy silence that had suddenly invaded the room.

"Sure follow me." Then both of them left Steve alone in the big room.

He unpacked in a short time the few things he got. His military uniform, his Captain America's costume, two white t-shirts and pair of jean sat heavily on his closet, making it look bigger than when it had nothing inside. He would need new clothes eventually, but he wasn't still sure how he was supposed to get his money.

He went downstairs short after unpacking and found the others members of the house together in the kitchen. Thor and Tony were drinking beer and laughing about a joke one of them made, while Jarvis was cooking something that made Steve remember that he hadn't eaten in a long while.

"Smells delicious." He said taking a seat beside Thor. Jarvis smiled at him.

"I hope you say the same thing about it's taste." He was sure that it would taste just as good as it smelled. "Here." Jarvis gave him a spoon with some of the sauce he was preparing.

"Tastes delicious." He hummed happily wanting for it to be ready soon.

"What, we don't get to taste it too?" Tony complained and Jarvis send him a disapproving stare.

"No as long as you two misbehave. You should take in some of Captain Rogers's manners." Steve felt that they had done something Jarvis disapproved before his arrival.

"I smell favoritism." The brunette said creasing his nose to make his point. "Didn't they teach you that you shouldn't have favorites between family members?"

"What my mother taught me was that I should never praise misbehaving children." Steve smiled, a warm feeling running through his chest. He hadn't been more than a few hours here and he was already feeling at home.

"I am terribly repentant for my earlier behavior, kind Jarvis." Thor said with an uneasy face. "I apologize if I offended thee in anyway."

"Apology accepted, here you can have a taste." He said giving Thor a spoon and the man smiled accepting the offered utensil.

"Oh, I get it you just like the new kids better than me." Tony's face at the moment resembled a pout, or the closest thing to a pout you could get from him. It never ceases to amaze Steve how childish Tony could be.

"Sir, I suggest you try and offer an apology." Came the voice of the A.I. and Tony frowned.

"I shalt never apologize to thee." He said in a pretty bad imitation of Shakespeare and Steve chuckled. "I have not done any harm."

"What did you do to Mr. Jarvis?" The blond whispered to Thor, without taking his eyes off Tony's tantrum.

"We complained about the food, I said it was not enough for us." Thor paused for a moment. "I still believe it is not enough to satiate our appetites."

He understood why Jarvis was mad, he probably though that Thor was making fun of him, after all he was used to feed normal people like Tony, but both Steve and Thor have an accelerate metabolism and they need much more calories than normal people.

"And what did Mr. Stark complained about?" Coming from Tony it was probably something absurd.

"I think it was about not having biscuits." He chuckled when he saw Tony trying to get himself a spoon of the sauce only to be hit on the hand by Jarvis's spoon. "Here, have one." Thor said giving him a beer.

"Oh don't waste it in me. I'm unable to get drunk." Tony's argument with Jarvis stopped abruptly and both blonds looked up at the sudden silence in the room.

"Seriously, you are unable to get drunk?" Steve nodded, trying not to laugh at Tony's face. "Should have seen it coming from America's favorite son, it goes perfectly with your innocent appearance."

"It is one of the downside of the serum." Steve glared at him, he did not consider himself innocent at all. Someone who had brought death before should not be called innocent.

"Some would hardly call that a downside." Steve glare intensified, he did not know the many nights he had wanted to drank until he wasn't able to remember his grief, he didn't know the pain of having to deal with his nightmares without anything to soothe him, he did not know the many times Steve had to put up with almost unbearable pain because the painkillers did not work on him.

"Then it's obvious they hadn't walked in my shoes, Mr. Stark."

He hadn't meant for it to sound so harsh, but comments like that always got under his skin, he hated when people acted as if they knew him just because he was Captain America. He wasn't the man with the mask, he was the man under the mask and that man few people knew about.

But tony had been nothing but a good host that day and Steve paid him by snapping at him. He hesitated for a moment but finally looked up from his feet to Tony's face, expecting to find disapproval, but instead he found nothing, no anger, no remorse, no sadness, just a machine like hollow face. Suddenly he didn't feel hungry, all he wanted to do was to go upstairs to sleep and he did so.

He woke up at a quarter to four in the morning, his stomach was growling and kicking, upset with him for not feeding it in more than eighteen hours. He walked downstairs as quietly as he could and arrived at the kitchen with hopes of finding something that didn't need to be cooked, but to his surprise he found a plate full of Jarvis's cooking resting peacefully on the counter. He took it with a smile and ate silently; even cold it tasted really good. Slowly he made his way to the gallery stopping in front of the table with the many pictures of the Stark family.

Maria Stark was a beautiful dame, he expected no less from Howard, Tony surely had taken from both of his parents his good look, because while slightly shorter than his father he was arguably more handsome than Howard. One thing he noticed was the fact that Maria was much younger than her husband, probably more than ten years younger than him, something he had suspected considering Tony's age, Howard must have been in his early or mid-fifties when he had Tony.

"Can I help you Captain Rogers?" He jumped almost dropping his food, and turned around to come face to face with Jarvis.

"Good grief Mr. Jarvis, don't scare me that way." Steve clutched his chest, feeling his heart beat fast, if he had been his old self he would probably have had a heart attack.

"I apologize Captain Rogers." The man chuckled a little. "I notice that your food is cold, do you want me to heat it?"

"Oh no, it aces." The man smiled at him. "How did you know I was here?"

"My room is just in front of the kitchen." Steve had woken him up.

"Sorry for cutting your doss." He looked at the pictures again, staring for long at one of Howard and really young Tony.

"It's alright, I was worried because you didn't eat anything." He nodded absently, submerged in his thoughts.

"How were they before?" He asked without thinking, he had wanted to ask that for a long time, he wanted to know why Tony seemed to dislike his father so much.

"Mr. Howard and Master Tony?" Steve nodded and Jarvis took a step forward. "Mr. Howard was really busy on those days, you barely see him here at all and when he was on business trips he always took Mrs. Maria with him. Master Tony was always alone in the house, when he was on mid school he used to stay at a friend's house until late, but when he entered high school he didn't have many friends and he spent most of his time in the garage working on projects, that's how thing were until Master Tony left for MIT."

"Why does Mr. Stark dislike Howard so much?" He turned to look at Jarvis, who looked confused for a moment, probably because he had called Tony by his last name.

"That my dear Captain is something that you will have to ask to Master Tony himself." He hadn't expected any other answer from Jarvis, but he had wanted to ask anyway.

"Thanks Mr. Jarvis." He said offering his hand to the other man.

"You are welcome Captain Rogers." The man grasped his hand shaking it energetically.

"Please call me Steve." He said while shaking his head in disapproval.

"Only if you drop the Mr." He smiled at the other man, who in answer smiled back at him. "Nice to meet you Steve"

"Nice to meet you too, Jarvis." After that both men had left for their respective bedroom.

The next day, Steve had woken up to find Jarvis and himself alone in the house. He was informed that Tony was back to L.A. for some time and that Thor has been picked up that morning by Jane Foster and was to be expected back later that day or the next morning. Being alone with Jarvis wasn't bad but he started to understand how a child Tony must have felt being alone in such a big house all the time, he felt lonely and wanted his companions back, not to mention he still needed to patch thing up with Tony.

But even with all the mishaps and hardships, he was beginning to adjust to this time and was beginning to look forward to his new life instead of looking backward to what could have been.

In Iron man 2 Tony said that his dad had been death for almost 20 years and in Iron man when they present the newspaper about Howard's death the newspaper is from December 1991, and the first magazine about Tony is from 2008, the avenger take place like almost a year after Iron man 1 so… I'll consider that this is taking place in 2009, which makes Howard's death 18 years ago and considering Tony was seventeen at the moment of Howard's death he should be 35 in the fic, simple math.