Post AoU for starkingenuity

[starspangledspandex]

He's old. Old enough to have settled down. Old enough he's letting other people save the world and only stepping in from time to time. There's no 'Honey I'm home' when he steps through door. There's silence and quiet. He makes dinner for one. His bed is cold. He sits and reads the paper while he watches the world move on outside. There's laughter in the hallway. Footsteps. No one knocks on his door. He eats leaning against the counter in the kitchen. Alone. All alone. 'I got no plans tomorrow night' echos in his mind.

Suddenly, no one is on the streets. There are no numbers in his phone. Everything empty and gone and there's just Steve. Steve standing in nothingness. 'Man out of time' 'Nothing but a soldier' 'You can't live without a war' 'Go home, Steve'

He jolted awake, hand raising to rub at his face and it shouldn't have been a nightmare at all but it is anyway. How alone he felt in this century. His friends helped, they did, but they couldn't always be here. He lived and breathed his life as an Avenger. What else did he have? Nothing. He shook it off, like he always did and got dressed, laced up his boots. Most of his team was out of the picture right now. Off doing whatever they did on leave.

Steve paced his room at the New Avenger facility, paced the hallways and spoke to the Agents that were here. He took a walk outside and thought of Tony. The billionaire visited every once in awhile but it'd been awhile. He didn't even know what the man was up to now but Steve... Steve needed to connect with someone to shake off the dredges of his loneliness, someone that wasn't just working here, someone he had a connection to.

So he called Tony.