#a:s

You finally started to sit up, your hand immediately rushing to your head as it began to aggressively pound. A metal bowl full of what looked to be a pale, wretched blend of ingredients sat across from where you slumped on your stiff bed. The feeling of hunger began to creep in as the food started to look increasingly more satisfying to your stomach. Your body plopped to the cement floor, slightly whimpering as you reached for the metal bowl.

“I’m surprised they’re not here yet.” Your eyes immediately darted up, settling on a figure taking a few bites of the same food as you. He notices how you scarfed it down, lumps of the food pouring down your chin. “Take it slow. If you eat all that shit at once, you’re gonna feel sick.”

You wiped at your chin, slowly placing the bowl down. Your eyes wandered around the room, glass surrounding your quarters and the man’s across from you. There was no doubt this glass was as strong as it needed to be.

The man in the quarters across from you was dressed in a simple white shirt and pants, his hair rather groomed for someone to be locked in a cell. Your eyes scanned both living quarters separated by a bleak hallway, noticing the similarity between the beds and another discrete room that you could only hope was a bathroom. You then inspected your own self, dressed in the same unadorned white shirt and pants. “Where the hell am I?” you muttered, finally standing up. Unfortunately, your legs fell out from beneath you, grunting as your knees crashed against the cement.

“Yeah, I could’ve told you not to do that.”

“Yeah?” you rolled your eyes, finally making eye contact with the mysterious man who so desperately was seeking any sort of conversation. “Then why didn’t you?” You retreated to slumping against the wall, fatigue taking over your body.

He moderately shrugged, a grin taking over his charming tan face as he slid the metal bowl of slop away from where he sat. “I’ve seen you knocked out on that shitty bed most of the time after they’re done. That was the one source of amusement I’ve gotten for the last few weeks.” You rolled your eyes quickly, mind churning and wondering just how much time had passed. You couldn’t help but feel unsettled by his constant use of “them”.

“How long?” You were rather surprised when he actually heard you, your inaudible voice leaving in fear of the answer.

“How long since...what?” The man stood up from where he sat, retiring to his bed that had no sheets anywhere to be seen.

You pulled yourself to your own feet, using the sleek glass wall around you for shaky support. You heard his muffled sigh as you dragged your feet back to the bed placed against the wall. The bed was so stiff, yet felt a little more comfortable than the floor you were just sitting on. “Since I’ve been out?”

“Hmmm...well, you were always in and out...any time you would finally wake up, they’d come and grab you like that.” He snapped his fingers for emphasis, then glanced down at the floor beneath him, fingers gliding across the cement where several lines were engraved. “32 days in this shithole. Which...doesn’t count the days that I don’t remember. And I could be way off.”

Your mouth and brain strived to work together as the news hit you like a brick. “Do...do you know what they’re doing?” You were too weak to even make it to the glass that separated you from the hallway and the other prisoner across from you. As much as you desired to bang on the glass to get some attention from whoever “they” was...your eyelids were already striving to close once again.

The man snickered, head reclining into the rigid pillow once again. “I know that we have something they need.”

“And...what is that?” you sighed, attempting to readjust on the damn bed that could never be comfortable no matter how you were spread across it.

“Everything to take down the Avengers.”

Germany: 2024

Steve hastily rushed to close the curtains to his shared apartment, biting his lip as the living room filled with darkness and disappointment. “Will you ever just listen?”

The woman who he was speaking to rolled her eyes, legs spread across the couch as she lounged and aggressively typed on her laptop. “Oh, trust me...I do. I just don’t see the harm in bringing in some light.” Steve scoffed, running his hands down his face and beard, scratching his palms.

“They have eyes on us,” he retorted, gently pushing her legs off “his” side of the couch and immediately plopping down before she attempted to prop them back up. “You’ve left as many traces as crumbs from those Valley of Nature bars.”

“You know, Rogers, I’ve worked with you for two months. I’ve learned to take the blame for my little fuck ups here and there. And you know what? I think it’d be nice for you to own up to being no fun,” Virginia grumbled, placing her laptop on the coffee table and standing up from the couch where Steve rested. “We wouldn’t be half as far as we are now without my help.”

“I’d be perfectly fine, actually.” Truthfully, Steve wasn’t so sure about that. Virginia could skillfully hack into government systems to get the intel he needed. She was never sloppy when it came to that, but there was no doubt she had fucked up sometimes when it came to Steve’s incognito techniques. “You make the most mistakes between the both of us.”

Virginia knowingly grinned at his statement because deep down she knew that Steve needed her skillset. “Please, spare me the lies. The one time you attempted to hack into the database, you sent the Feds to our little motel that we had to ditch.”

“That was onl-,” Steve’s words quickly cut off with a harsh knock at their front door. He aggressively shushed Virginia without her uttering a word as she crept towards the door that someone had just knocked on.

Virginia’s fingers wrapped around the doorknob and she soundlessly looked through the narrow peephole. A gasp fell from her lips causing Steve to readjust in his seat, but she already was opening the door wide.

There stood Tony Stark, a suitcase placed next to him and adorned in an expensive suit that didn’t fit his disheveled appearance. Tony lightly smirked at the duo in front of him, not asking to enter the apartment as he stepped in with his suitcase rolling behind him.

Steve moved his hands to hips and rolled his eyes as Virginia wordlessly closed the door behind the billionaire. It seemed like it was silent for quite some time, but it had only been a few seconds as the ex-Avengers failed to start the conversation.

“Well...if you both are just going to stare at each other, I’m going to go get some work done.” Virginia walked past both of them and swiftly grabbed her laptop to make a hasty exit.

When it was silent once again due to Virginia’s departure, Tony finally spoke up. “Rogers…” he trailed off, eyes inspecting the apartment where Steve was residing. Tony’s eyes immediately landed on a picture frame that he could only recognize as Steve with his daughter. “Nice place.”

Steve licked his lips, dropping his hands from his hips. “What are you doing here Tony? How did you find us?”

“I should really be asking you the questions here.” Steve watched Tony plop on the couch and kick his shoes off, groaning once his feet could finally breathe. “Look, I can blame you for a lot of things. What happened to Y/N is not one of them.”

“So…then why are you here?”

“I think you can put all the blame on my neighbor for giving up where you both were.” Steve’s face scrunched into anger and then quickly to disappointment, sighing once it all registered in his brain. “It’s only common sense to include her own father into...are you going to sit down or what?”

Steve strode to the other side of his couch, feeling uneasiness flood his veins. When he finally sat down, Tony emitted a relaxed sigh, stretching out more.

“As I was saying...it was only right to include me in this, Cap. You can’t fill in every gap by yourself.” Tony leaned over to grasp the Nature Valley bar placed on their coffee table. “Oh, I just know you hate these things,” he chuckled to himself and placed the bar back where he picked it up from.

“Tony, you have to understand that sometimes…” Steve drifted off, trying to formulate any words but coming up with nothing.

“I’m a liability?” Tony finished Steve’s sentence, watching the man across from him quickly shake his head. “Just say it.”

“No...no. Tony, it’s just...safer...with less of us. The more of us we have out here, the more of a chance we’ll be spotted and everything goes down the drain.”

“Us? As in the Avengers?” Steve nodded, causing Tony to straighten up. “Well, while you were frolicking around the world with my neighbor, I think I learned some things that can help us find Y/N.”

Steve groaned interally, knowing that Tony was not backing down from the fight. After what happened back in the U.S., he told himself to include Tony. It was only right since he was your father and Tony was one of the smartest members of the Avengers. Then came the lingering thoughts of Captain America and Iron Man being spotted in another country, raising red flags. There was no going back now as Tony was lounging on the apartment complex’s prehistoric couch that probably hadn’t been repaired in years with his suitcase not so far from where they both were.