Sentinel/Guide AU for starkingenuity

[starspangledspandex]

Things have been going remarkably well between them. Even if the beginning was somewhat rocky, their compatibility was obvious and not just to them. Steve was old-fashioned and though his instincts made it clear what they wanted, he did things the "right" way. There were dates and gifts and just general wooing. They talked about it and they were ready.

He smiled at Tony, watching him as he worked and couldn't stand it anymore. "Tonight," he said, then added, for clarity, "We should bond tonight."

Maybe not the most romantic proposal but he figured he shouldn't smother Tony in it anyway or the man would get sick of it. No the rarity made it special.

Comments

[starspangledspandex]

Natasha shrugged and walked off to do some digging of her own. Spy stuff. She wasn't after Steve. She knew he was taken and besides, they weren't the best fit anyway.

Steve barely considered that she was a Guide. He was pretty well caught up with his own. He didn't catch the jealousy either. Tony didn't have any reason to be jealous.

This was a trip down memory lane for sure and Steve paused to take it in, unable to help himself. The pictures on the wall definitely didn't help his mood either. It didn't feel like it was as long ago as it was.

"If you're already in a secret bunker, why hide the elevator?" He asked, walking up to it.

[starkingenuity]

"Why not? Extra security. Redundancy is important," Tony said, feeling as if he knew absolutely everything. That was always the problem with him. He didn't think too much, he just assumed he was always right and that got him into trouble.

Like...oh...now.

"This...is too advanced," he muttered, and he ought to know. "What was my dad--" No. Not his dad. This had none of Stark's flashiness.

[starspangledspandex]

"So this was put here later," he summarized as he eyed the keypad. It made more sense than SHIELD having another underground area. "Can you get this opened?"

[starkingenuity]

Tony gave Steve a look. "I'm going to give you the mandatory option to revoke that question," Tony said, cracking his knuckles as he sat down. Stupid idea. His one arm was still much too injured. That made typing diffcult and, unfortunately, there wasn't a vocal interface so--

It took time. It took too much time. Tony was wearing out, but he did, eventually, manage it.

[starspangledspandex]

Steve shrugged helplessly--how was he supposed to know? He wasn't revoking it either. He was still learning about technology here. His Guide would have to deal with it.

He hovered more while Tony worked, concerned the man was pushing himself and relieved when he was done.

"Are you okay?" He asked as they stepped into the elevator.

[starkingenuity]

"I'm always okay. I'm the world's most handsome cockroach. I'll survive anything and look good while-- Woah."

He had to cut himself off because that was the most amazing thing he had ever seen. The technology was astounding...not because of how advanced it was, but because Tony had never gotten to play with a working relic like this.

He took out his phone to take a selfie with it.

[starspangledspandex]

His forehead creased as he eyed the room and the console, he frowned even as he walked up to it. He heard the snick and gave his Guide a look--really?

Steve twisted to look around them again. This had to be it. Whatever 'it' happened to be. There was a place on the counter for a drive. He did recognize that.

"Do you have that drive?" He asked, pointing to it.

[starkingenuity]

"What?" Sorry/ He'd been in the moment. "Oh, yeah, here..." He pulled the thumb drive from his pocket and plugged it into the spot on the console slowly because--

"This is too old to have a USB drive," he muttered, feeling incredibly uncomfortable as the whirr of the object sprung caused the whole room to spring to life.

He got away from the console immediately, not to flee but to find the main cut off.

[starspangledspandex]

Steve wouldn't know but he would take Tony's word for it. He twisted around again, scanning the room as the lights started to click on and a face appeared on the screen. The camera scanned them both.

"Rogers, Steven, born 1918," the computer said and he knew that voice but that was impossible. He eyed the room again. Wasn't it? Was this some kind of recording? How could that be?

[starkingenuity]

"If you're going to cheat on JARVIS, it should at least be with a more handsome--" But the joke was cut off as Tony lifted his eyes to the image playing on the screen. He knew the face. Not many people his age didn't. He knew his history. He wasn't just a technological and mathmatical genius after all.

"You missed the date. July 4th. Really annoyingly patriotic but it is what it is." He ducked under the console to try to find the switch but it seemed to be hardwired into the floor.

[starspangledspandex]

Steve wasn't laughing at any joke. This man should be dead and by all rights, not within a SHIELD facility. Was this some kind or trick? One of those Skype set-ups made to look like Zola?

"Stark, Anthony, born May 29th, 1970," the voice added as the camera shifted.

"Who are you?" Steve demanded. "Who are you really?"

[starkingenuity]

"Now isn't the time to play war games," Tony said, referencing a movie that was both before and after Steve's time if you wanted to look at it chronologically from Steve's physical age or his actual one. He didn't bother to dwell on it. "We should probably get out of here."

The doors to the elevator slid shut and Tony sighed. "Really?" he asked, not really expecting an answer. "Damn it, Okay, new plan, we disable the elevator doors. Don't engage the crazy head in conversation, Cap."

[starspangledspandex]

A movie that he has, nonetheless, seen so that made him feel a little bit better about the reference.

Steve twisted, throwing his shield, but it was too late to stop the doors and he caught it to turn back to the face. He couldn't help it. They needed information and he might as well right?

"Arnim Zola has been dead for years," he told the face.

"Correction: look around you, I have never been more alive! In 1972, I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body. My mind, however, that was worth saving... on two hundred thousand feet of data banks! You are standing in my brain!"

"That's impossible," Steve said, frowning at the screen.

[starkingenuity]

"That's not hygenic," Tony complained, as if that was the largest problem here. "Besides, Zola was part of HYDRA and last time I looked, they went down with the war." And Steve's plane.

"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place. HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize was that if you tried to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, SHIELD was founded, and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew, a beautiful parasite inside SHIELD. For 70 years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crises, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed."

"He talks more than I do," Tony countered and turned around to face the screen. "One thing I do know is that SHIELD would have stopped you. You've just been hanging out down here in storage."

[starspangledspandex]

He watched the images that flicked across the screen, trying to understand everything that was happening right now and he really didn't like what he was hearing. SHIELD was Hydra? No.

"Accidents will happen." The headline with Howard and Maria's death was obvious. Just as clear was Zola zooming in on a ghost. Bucky. "HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA's New World Order will arise. We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your life, a zero sum!"

Steve smashed in the screen. What else could he do?

[starkingenuity]

Tony decided to smash something too, just so that they were even. Zola laughed...and laughed...and laughed right up until that proximity warning in the quinjet went off through Tony's phone. He didn't look afraid, just--

Okay, yes he looked afraid.

He didn't have time to come to the conclusion that Steve did that Bucky killed his parents. He didn't have time for anything except to jump to his feet and put his hand on Steve's jaw to try to give him strength.

This was going to be bad.

[starspangledspandex]

His attention shifted briefly toward his Guide. It was only a second or two before he was twisting in the room again and he spotted the grate. He yanked Tony toward it, opening it to shove his Guide in the opening first, because some kind of protection was better than nothing.

Steve dropped down, raising his shield on his arm above them to protect them both as the world exploded and he grunted, snarling with the effort it was taking to keep the rocks off their heads. There wasn't anything else he could do but hope it was enough.

[starkingenuity]

Tony could feel the heat. He was really tired of being exploded and beaten and ruined and tossed around. All he wanted was to bond and be happy and have a perfect, beautiful life with someone. Was that so hard? Was that impossible to obtain? He'd give all -- err, most -- of his money away just to have that.

Tony threw his face against Steve's chest as the pressure built up around him.

He didn't quite go unconscious, but he really wish he could.

[starspangledspandex]

His Sentinel was straining with the effort it was taking to protect them both but this was what he was supposed to do. He needed to protect his Guide. It was ingrained in his instincts. He would sacrifice himself to do it too though he certainly hoped it wouldn't come to that here.

Steve's chest heaved even as Tony leaned against him and he had his head tilted down, but he couldn't exactly see how the man was doing. He could hear his heart beating even over the building collapsing so he could tell that he was at least alive, which was his goal here.

After things stopped falling above them, he shoved upward, hoping that he would be able to get them out of this.

[starkingenuity]

"Did we die?" Tony asked as he was pulled up, his injured arm feeling utterly useless as it hung limply to the ground while his Sentinel fished him out of the hole. He didn't bother to open his eyes, not when he could smell the dust and hear the quiet moaning of levels upon levels of destroyed concrete laying in rubble around them.

Surprisingly, he was mostly knocked out but otherwise unhurt. Steve's body had completely, one hundred percent protected him.

It wasn't until he heard the sound of approaching quinjets (shit) that Tony bothered to open his eyes. People were searching for them. HYDRA in SHIELD clothing. Why?

[starspangledspandex]

"No," his Sentinel replied shortly. It was better all around if he didn't talk right now. After that disaster, his senses were screaming at him and he was on the verge of a major fugue, one he was only fighting off thanks to the idea of getting Tony to safety. Guide first. Protect, protect, protect.

His eyes flicked toward the jets and he frowned deeply. If SHEILD was Hydra, then they needed to go. Someone launched a strike against them and he wasn't terribly fond of fighting them in the condition he was currently in.

Steve hauled Tony up into his arm. He could move faster carrying him then trying to figure out whether the man could walk right now. "Don't fidget," he ordered, because his steps already weren't the steadiest, but they would get better. "I know a place we can go."

[starkingenuity]

Tony wasn't going to say it, but between the armor and Steve's arms, he felt more secure with the Captain holding him. Everything felt good and right with the world and he laid his head on Steve's shoulder even as the world was sort of going to shit around them.

He shouldn't be so content. He knew that. But God help him, there was no other way to be honest with himself.

Tony was not entirely sure how they got to the house they did when Steve put him down and the tall man that answered the door reaked of Guide.

But in a good way.

He had been bound and had lost his Sentinel. Tony could smell it on him.

He was the first to offer a nod to the other man, but Sam arched his eyebrows at Steve. "Might as well come in before you explain what sort of hell you've brought to me doorstep."

[starspangledspandex]

Steve met Sam on his runs and he wasn't interested in the man as a Guide but he was funny, personable, they shared similar experiences. It was nice to learn of the existence of the VA meetings the man led even if he rarely attended.

All and all, they got along and he was the first person outside of SHIELD that he had made friends with which was a big deal.

The Sentinel wobbled slightly as he stepped into the house, his eyes working on glazing over and he shook his head slightly, pointing to Tony to explain.

[starkingenuity]

"Let me get him someplace to lay down," Tony said, not quite begging. Sam led the way to the bedroom and Tony was there to help Steve with his shirt and his boots, I lacing them slowly. Sam didn't stay around to watch that.

After his partner was killed, he didn't enjoy seeing the camaraderie between Sentinels and Guides.

Tony kissed Steve softly before he went out to sit with Sam over coffee. There was a lot of talking to do. And not just about SHIELD. Or HYDRA.

It was easy to speak with bonded or once bonded Guides with what he was going through, he found. And those meetings at the VA Sam went through taught him how to deal with Tony's position as well.

He'd suffered a trauma. More than one from the sound of it.

Steve could sleep for as long as he wanted.

[starspangledspandex]

He followed Tony because it seemed like the thing to do and he sat heavily on the bed, blinking slowly. Steve largely just watched as his Guide undressed him.

Safe, they were safe.

Steve shrugged off his top and managed to get all his limbs to cooperate to lay down. He leaned briefly into the the kiss but he was pretty out of it. It wouldn't take him long to drift off.

He would be out for awhile too. It took a lot out of him to get them this far. He would still be bleary when he woke up though he immediately sat up, listening for Tony. It was a relief when he heard him talking to Sam.

He stood up and stepped into the bathroom to wipe himself off before he went to find Tony.