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.

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[starspangledspandex]

He helped Tony get dressed carefully and dressed himself quickly, hovering around the man as he gets him down to the car. He drives a little too fast on the way and they're ushered into a private room without hesitation. Steve sits, staying out of the way, while the nurses fuss over the Guide.

Steve doesn't miss the looks that are sent his direction. They're judging him. Questioning him. Wondering what kind of Sentinel he must be and the worst part is they know his face, probably as well as Tony's. He can already hear what the magazines are going to say about this.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, once they were left alone.

[starkingenuity]

"Less like I'm going to explode," Tony said, still shirtless from the exam. He pushed his palm against the reactor and exhaled very slowly. "We have a few hours before our specialist arrives." Not the Bruce was even a fully licensed medical doctor. Tony still trusted him more than most. "We'll get you some Sentinel Viagra, an electromagnetic converter, and try this whole thing again."

Tony was not giving up on this. He could still feel Steve, a full blast of him. He wasn't sure why nothing was working.

[starspangledspandex]

"Good," Steve murmured, watching Tony as he pressed his hand against his chest and trying not be disheartened about this whole experience. He was hoping this was something simple, something that could be easily fixed and he was terrified that wasn't going to be true.

"That exists?" he asked, though he supposed he wasn't surprised. "Is this... sort of thing common?"

[starkingenuity]

Steve was so remarkably innocent that Tony reached up to cup his stupid face in both of his hands to kiss him. The affection was there. The preparedness to move onto the next phase of their relationship was there. Tony could even let the silly remarks go without too much of a tease.

"There... I don't know. Maybe. India is doing incredible things with big pharma lately," he said, relenting. "There's always a solution. We have to find it."

[starspangledspandex]

He returned the kiss gently, lovingly even. He cared so deeply about Tony and he knew the man did in return. He just didn't get why this was happening. He was fairly certain that Tony was being vague in his answer on purpose but he wouldn't call him out on it.

"I'll try anything," he told him earnestly, blue eyes meeting his Guide's and they're somewhat sad. This should have been a happy day and it was ruined.

[starkingenuity]

Steve was still such a good man, one that Tony could not help but appreciate. The kiss was perfect. The started bond tried to connect despite the hormone shots keeping the bonding heat from starting. He didn't understand it. His whole body wanted to become one with Steve, each and every piece--

Maybe it was his punishment for his hubris. Maybe it was everything he had put his body through.

Tony moved aside on the small bed for Steve to join him. It would be an impossibly tight fit but he needed that connection.

[starspangledspandex]

There were a hundred "maybes" it could be. Steve, by all rights, shouldn't be here and now. Maybe it was his time in the ice. Maybe it was their age difference. Maybe it was the serum or something that was already broken and that was why Steve was the only success to come out of the program.

It was impossible to tell right now. He didn't know if Bruce would have answers but he hoped that he would have some ideas.

Steve joined Tony on the small cramped bed without hesitation, wrapping his arms around his Guide and pulling him close. He still didn't understand. All his instincts were there. The urge to bite and bond was still strong though dampened, he imagined, by the drugs in Tony's system.

"We'll figure this out," he repeated quietly because he didn't have anything else to say.

[starkingenuity]

Tony slept. He had expended too much energy today and he was dead to the world for several hours. It did let him stop thinking. It made it possible to pass the time until Bruce showed up.

Thankfully, when he woke, Banner was not only arrived, but working with SHIELD on their little problem. The best minds (minus his of course) were on the case.

Tony couldn't help feeling shame at this. He was older than most Guides when they bonded but that shouldn't be a factor. Right? This felt like impotence.

[starspangledspandex]

The Sentinel didn't sleep. His mind was busy and racing. He wasn't suffering the same energy and hormone withdrawal, not technically. Steve was tense and wound up, jittery when people walked by them. He was sure it could be attributed to the failed bonding. He was also sure it would only get worse.

Any Sentinel could try to take his Guide from him without a bond. Logically, he knew Tony would never consent to it and was unlikely to leave him, but he was paranoid regardless. Sentinel instinct was strong for a reason.

He was alerted when Dr. Banner arrived but he wouldn't leave Tony. He needed some time of his own to relax a little more.

Bruce, on his trip, contacted who needed to know and then buried himself in bonding research. It was well documented at least because even two completely incompatible people could, in theory, bond. SHIELD had all the numbers on Tony and Steve and Bruce already knew compatibility wasn't a problem.

He visited as soon as he heard Tony was awake. "How are you feeling?" He asked, first and foremost.

[starkingenuity]

Tony had many answers to that question. He was afraid and alone. He was weak. He was confused. He ached a little. He was groggy. Bruce might not mind hearing about most of them but Steve was still right there and Tony had to bite his tongue until they were alone.

"I feel a little hungry," Tony joked. "Pizza was good but there was not enough of it. Please tell me you have a way of getting something better than hospital food...?"

He shifted. He had sweated against Steve in his sleep, likely from the neutralizing medication. He picked at his t-shirt.

"Oh right. Manners. How was your flight?"

[starspangledspandex]

No, Bruce wouldn't have minded hearing about any of it. In fact, it was more what he was looking for as far as an answer. However, he couldn't make the man answer him. He knew Tony and he knew that the man was incredibly private. It wasn't easy to get him to talk about his feelings. He would just have to trust that the man would tell him if there was something important.

"You'll be able to leave soon," Bruce told him. "They want to make sure the neutralizers get you settled down but it seems like they're doing what they should be."

He shrugged, "Quiet. I did a lot of research."

[starkingenuity]

"So what is it?" Tony expected answers and he expected them right that very instant. He was addicted to Google and to JARVIS and instant gratification was the only way to go. "Age, palladium, liver poisoning? Just tell me straight, Banner, and then tell me how to fix it."

It was a very Guide-like thing to do to take this as his own fault.

[starspangledspandex]

Bruce held up a hand, glancing between Tony and at Steve who has thus far been silent. He shakes his head slightly and said, "It isn't that easy but most research... finds that it's the Sentinel that most often causes difficulties, especially if you're having this kind of reaction."

He gives Steve an apologetic look and the Captain looks a little heartbroken. "Given Steve's history... it looks likely that it's on his end. We'll have to run some tests to be sure."

[starkingenuity]

Tony didn't look relieved. He looked more downtrodden than before. He looked afraid. If Steve had some sort of bonding impotence, what did that mean for them? Tony could be all right. He didn't need the bond, he just wanted it so very badly. But Steve? That was just asking for trouble. Sentinels without Guides didn't last. It was well known. Usually by the time they were in their twenties--

But Steve had been engineered to withstand fugues.

Tony's eyes drifted up to the blond. "The serum."

[starspangledspandex]

It was asking for all kinds of trouble. He was already older than most Sentinels without a bond. He knew that was the point of the serum but it was still going to be a problem at some point. His eyes turned to Tony and said, "Even Erskine didn't think the serum would permanently remove a need for a Guide. It was meant to make super soldiers more resilient in the field, not independent. The army wanted independent but Erskine wouldn't do it. He said to take away the capability to bond not only took away something beautiful but it removed something that a Sentinel needed for the sake of their morals."

"SHIELD is looking for any of Erskine's notes that they can find," Bruce said quietly. "Because Steve's right. The super soldier program never meant to replace Guides. They just wanted to keep Sentinels from needing them in the field. We lost a lot of Guides because their Sentinels needed them close. But, even Erskine wasn't sure of all the side effects."

Lucky for them, his work with the Hulk and the military gave him plenty of insight into Erskine's intentions. He wasn't sure if it would help but it might.

[starkingenuity]

"So... We tweak it? Beta blockers? IAO inhibitors? Lots of alcohol?" Tony sounded like he was cracking just a little. His voice seemed almost weak and his humor was more like desperation.

He swallowed when he saw how grim Banner looked. He wished he didn't have to glance at Steve to know what he was feeling now, but he did.

"Just tell me what I can do."

Tony's bonding heat might have been controlled by drugs, but the emotions welling up because of it weren't something easily discarded.

[starspangledspandex]

"I don't know yet," Bruce told them. He wasn't a miracle worker. He spent years studying the serum but that didn't mean he knew everything about it. Obviously, otherwise the Hulk wouldn't exist.

Steve shifted to wrap an arm around Tony. He didn't know what else to do. He could hear the pain and heartbreak in his voice and there was nothing he could immediately do to help him. Sentinels weren't supposed to hurt their Guides like this! Steve felt guilty and heartbroken. This was supposed to be such a wonderful thing.

Why couldn't one thing in his life go right?

"We need to do some tests. Maybe one or two on you but..."

"I'm the problem," Steve finished, because there was no doubt in his mind and Bruce nodding in agreement only made him feel worse about it.

"Some of the tests... are uncomfortable," Bruce told him. "But we have to know what's going wrong before we can try to fix it."

[starkingenuity]

Uncomfortable wasn't a word anyone liked to hear but what choice was there? With Steve's arms around him, Tony just felt an ache. His biology told him to bond. To do it now. Quickly. There was a compatible Sentinel right there--

He'd never wanted or ached for something so badly in his life.

Steve was not going to be able to do the tests with Guides around, however, and so Tony was talked back to bed to rest off the drugs while Steve was led away. Fury was waiting with a pair of young scientists who kept finishing each other's sentences. Both were normal, neither Guide nor Sentinel. Both almost squealed to see Captain America.

"Leo Fitz."

"Jemma Simmons."

"Great to meet you."

"So great. Brilliant even!"

"Yes, brilliant!"

[starspangledspandex]

His biology probably wasn't making it much better. It was one of the reasons he didn't understand what was happening. He didn't want to leave Tony. He wanted to have him and claim him so even if he walked away other Sentinels would know he was Steve's.

He glanced back over his shoulder even as he left, blue eyes torn, but he walked away because he needed to do they could figure this out.

Steve was not as thrilled as Fitz and Simmons, but there was a lot on his mind right now. He really didn't want to put up with it but he trusted that these were some of the best and brightest from SHIELD. If this what it took, well, he had been through worse.

His smile was tight and he nodded curtly, offering his hand to each of them. "Pleasure."

[starkingenuity]

Both scientists seemed to giggle a little after they shook Steve's hand, though Jemma got immediately to work on biometrics and Leo went to help Bruce with the machine they were tinkering with. That left Steve alone with the mousy Brit, talking away her nervousness.

"Your nest really looked lovely," she was saying as she drew blood from him. "Everyone was talking about it. I think Fitz was a little disappointed that there wasn't anything hi-tech on here but I did try to remind him that just because Mister Stark is his idol, and just because he is a brilliant engineer, not everything has to contain wires and servos!"

[starspangledspandex]

His forehead creased at the compliment and it wasn't because he didn't agree, it was more because he was unaware anyone else had seen it. Tony might not have mentioned it to him. He was quiet for a moment before he asked, "How did you see it?"

[starkingenuity]

Oooh. Jemma flushed and flustered as she prepared some slides. "Um-- do you use social media? Where there is a photo sharing website. Mister Stark posted a photo and-- it certainly went viral! A lot of Sentinels were very disappointed to have lost out to you. He rejected so many, it's fairly well known how unsusceptible he's always been to their advances. In fact, before you, he'd only ever dated non-Sentinels! Well. Dated might not be the word."

She talked when she was nervous and now she was very nervous.

"I think it's romantic. Waiting all this time for you-- I've always envied that a bit. Being linked to someone-- We'll figure this out, Captain. You have my word."

[starspangledspandex]

"I don't, but I know what it is," Steve replied and of course Tony posted it all over the internet. Steve was relatively used to the Guide doing that sort of thing. Now, though, the whole world was going to be assuming they bonded when in fact he was defective in some way.

It really didn't help hearing about all the people that Tony turned down either though he appreciated her attempt to make him feel better.

"Thank you," he said quietly. "I hate that it was ruined this way."

[starkingenuity]

"Not your fault, Captain. My theory, well, Doctor Banner's really, is that there is a dislodged protein in your adrenal glands. It was actually a fairly common problem with Sentinels of your time period. Lacking proper nutrition, being ill-- there are papers that claim that you were actually born a Sentinel but had been missing part of the gene that allowed for growth and strength. It's all very fascinating."

Jemma would just keep on jabbering away as her equipment did the initial scans and she flashed the results up on the screen. "Oh! Look! Interesting, I'm surprised no one did these basic flatline tests on you. See here, your cells? You weren't born a Sentinel, Captain... You were born a Guide."

[starspangledspandex]

He tried to follow her rambling as much as he could. He stared at the cells, the pictures were meaningless, but her words were not. He might have been a Guide. He wasn't sure if there even was testing like that when he was enlisted.

"But I'm a Sentinel now," he clarified, because that much was very obvious and was apparent just from his experiences in this century. His instincts were all Sentinel as well. "I don't have any Guide instincts, just Sentinel ones."