Chapter Text
"...There's something I have to tell you..."
Tony continued to stroke his fingers over his lover's back while his other hand soothed over Steve's nape, staring down at the top of his blonde head where it eclipsed the glow of his arc reactor, wondering what could possibly be affecting him so. He was still drifting in subspace, as far as Tony could tell; it had taken a lot of effort to get him there, tonight, and knowing Steve, he could easily stay there for a good while. His temperature hadn't begun to drop, yet—still running hot, as was typical for the supersoldier—but the dampened leather of the collar around his neck couldn't be very comfortable... He wished Steve would let him take the damned thing off, already.
"I'm listening," Tony murmured, hoping desperately that the words 'I'm seeing someone else' weren't about to fall from Steve's lips. The narrative that this particular scene had taken tonight had been quite telling, framing Steve as the naive innocent who'd gotten caught up in Tony's salacious scheme to corrupt him... If this was one of those 'get it out of your system,' quick and dirty, 'one last romp with the ex'-type deals that it distinctly felt like it might be—so that Steve could move on with his life (and with someone new)—Tony really didn't want to hear it right now.
"I'm not who you think I am," Steve breathed, laying still against Tony's chest.
Huh. Okay... New theory: if this was Steve trying to roll back the clock on his identity crisis and insist that he really was just a confused 'straight guy' all this time, that train had left the station a long time ago.
"Oh yeah?" Tony murmured, trying to keep the sarcasm out of his voice as he prompted, "Then who are you, Steve?"
"...I... I'm from a different universe."
Tony's brow furrowed, considering the odd phrase before he snorted out a small laugh. "No kidding." Was this about his old-fashioned, 1940s sensibilities, again? He thought they'd long since gotten past all that...
"A parallel one," Steve continued, tracing a small patch of Tony's skin with a fingertip in a nervous sort of gesture. "Earth-617."
...Well.
That was certainly a new one...
Tony raised an eyebrow as he glanced down speculatively at the younger man. Maybe Steve was deeper under than he realized...
"Oh yeah? You just hopped over here for a little interdimensional, kinky fun, then?" Tony teased.
"No. That wasn't supposed to happen," Steve quietly replied. "...I was only supposed to ask you about the weapon, was all."
Tony frowned at that. Something felt a little off about this, but he couldn't quite place what that was.
"You mean the weapon that the Vugolga developed from the Mind Stone?" Tony flippantly replied, "...The weapon that isn't a problem anymore now that Wanda's on the team and we sent those creeps crawling back through their wormhole with their scaly tails between their legs? ...Doesn't really seem like a legitimate priority, to me."
"The... Vul—gotha?" Steve frowned, testing out the strange word in his mouth. "...I don't know who they are. Or anything about this 'Mind Stone,' or this 'Wanda' person... Sounds important, though," Steve sighed, rubbing his face against Tony's skin and humming out a small sound that turned into a faint groan as he shivered, his muscles starting to tense up.
...Wait... what?? ...this wasn't right... something definitely wasn't adding up...
"Steve, c'mon... are you fucking with me right now?"
"No, Master," Steve promised, shaking his head and clinging tighter to Tony, murmuring, "...I... I don't feel so good."
Tony's face turned more worried as he urged Steve to lie down against the pillow, trying to get a better look at him. His face had lost a bit of color and he was starting to shiver, looking distinctly anxious as he tried to keep Tony close to him.
"Hey, hey... it's okay, you're just dropping, hun," Tony assured him, tugging the bedcovers up and wrapping both of them under snugly as he drew Steve close, letting the younger man fully entangle his body with Tony's.
"Did I do something wrong?" Steve plaintively murmured, prompting Tony to soothe a hand through Steve's hair.
"Of course not, sweetheart; it's just neurochemistry. You're responding to stress differently than normal because you're in subspace. Remember that time I took a call while you were still under and you freaked out?"
Steve shook his head, quietly lamenting, "That wasn't me."
Tony felt his stomach sink as a chill passed through him, as if Steve's drop was contagious. He was starting to feel a little panicky, which was absolutely not helpful when he was trying to support Steve in his fragile state. There was no way this could be true... could it?
"Steve," Tony started, keeping his voice as calm and steady as he could, waiting for Steve's small hum of recognition before venturing, "...If you're from another universe, then how did you get here?"
Steve's hold tightened against Tony as he whispered, "...I'm not supposed to say..."
Tony's eyes flashed as several thoughts occurred to him at once before he reached for the chain attached to Steve's collar, gripping it close to the D-ring and tugging on it until Steve pulled his head back to look at him, meeting his eyes as he smoothly demanded, "Who do you belong to?"
"You," Steve breathed, eyes going a little hazy at the reminder of his submission.
"That's right," Tony nodded, keeping a firm grip on the leash and commanding, "now tell your Master everything."
Steve gazed back at Tony as he relaxed against him, his eyes glazing over as he felt the collar tugging at him. "He used the readings from the Tesseract."
Tony blinked at that, mind whirring with possibilities as he asked, "Who did?"
"The other Tony. He got Bruce to help him, and they did it."
"Did what?"
"Built a quantum tunnel. I didn't find out until it was too late. Then we started getting all kinds of trouble coming through the portal they'd opened up in the quantum realm, including the Lizard People from this universe, who've been using some kind of mind control technology that we can't crack... they're so shifty... we were lucky to even get our hands on one of their devices, but we've never been able to capture any of them. ...We thought if we knew how the weapon worked, we might be able to prevent another attack, so we figured we should ask the smartest person we knew in this universe, hoping you had some experience with these Lizard People and their tech..."
"The Vugolga," Tony muttered, feeling distinctly ill as Steve's insane explanation started to make a sickening kind of sense. "That's what they call themselves."
"Oh."
This couldn't be real. That would mean...
Swallowing down another flare of panic, Tony released the leash to take Steve's face in his hand, looking at him intently and insisting, "I need to make a quick phone call right now, and I need you to stay quiet until I'm finished. Can you do that?"
"Yes, Master," Steve breathed.
"Good boy," Tony murmured uneasily, swallowing as Steve contentedly snuggled his face into Tony's palm before holding Steve's head to his chest again and saying, "J, call Bruce."
"Dialing, sir."
After a tense moment, Tony heard Bruce's voice over the sound system.
"Heyyy," he whispered, "...kinda an awkward time, right now. Can I call you back?"
"Sorry, gotta ask, are you hanging with the homies tonight?" Tony briskly demanded.
"Uhhhh..."
"K, that's a yes," Tony huffed. "Is the whole gang there?"
"...Lemme call you later," Bruce urged.
"Wait, just tell me: is Steve with you?"
"Um."
"This is important," Tony stressed.
"Mmhmm."
"...Is that a confirmation?" Tony frowned.
"Tell him that if he wants to know what I'm up to, he can call me and ask me himself. Not that it's any of his business."
...Holy shit.
That was definitely Steve's disapproving voice in the background, likely picking up on Bruce's conversation with his super-hearing.
"Uh, so......did you get that?" Bruce asked, sounding awkwardly apologetic.
"Loud and clear," Tony breathed, trying to swallow past the lump in his throat.
"We'll talk later, 'k? Take it easy, Tony."
Tony was still staring out at empty space, looking shell-shocked as JARVIS informed him, "Call disconnected, sir."
There was a ringing in his head as he tried to process what he'd just learned, only to keep butting up against the same wall of what the fuck. It felt as if his brain's processor kept encountering system errors that he couldn't manually override, too busy freaking out to remember how to hack his own mind. Below him, 'Steve' -- a complete fucking stranger -- stirred against his chest and murmured, "...Your heart's beating really fast."
This was real.
The naked man currently tangled up with him wasn't his ex-lover, though he looked exactly like him; sounded exactly like him; even smelled exactly like him -- a musky, post-coital sweetness that Tony would recognize anywhere, even blindfolded, but apparently not because it wasn't the same man!!
...Except, it kind of was?
Tony knew enough about the Multiverse Theory to find it plausible, even if he'd never been particularly inclined to test it, let alone prove it by dabbling in the quantum realm... That type of shit was the province of madmen like Hank Pym; Tony was much more content to devote his time and energy into projects that had practical, real-world application in this universe -- anything beyond that sounded like a headache he really didn't need... right?
Before Tony even allowed himself to fully consider how trying to find a practical application for something as powerful as the Tesseract might've been more intriguing than he'd initially assumed, he refocused on the more pressing question: who was he in bed with right now??
Tony carefully extracted himself from the younger man enough to get a good look at him, holding him at arm's length by the shoulders as Steve wrapped his fingers gently around Tony's wrists. Steve was looking back at Tony's wide-eyed, searching expression with such an open look of vulnerability that it made his heart twist. He had the terrible feeling that he knew exactly who this man was. It wasn't his ex-lover, but he knew him well enough.
Tony's voice sounded stricken as he croaked out, "Are you this big of an idiot in every universe?"
The way that Steve's face crumpled made Tony roll his eyes and pull him in for a tight hug, frustratingly unable to feel anything other than fiercely protective of this big, beautiful moron, no matter which fold of the multiverse he originated from.
"Are you mad?" Steve worried, making Tony flex his jaw beside Steve's head as he held him close, tempering his response before he answered him.
"I'm just very surprised, Steve."
"...Are you going to make me leave?"
Fuck. He sounded like such a scared little boy. What else could he say to that?
"No, of course not. You're safe here, okay?" As Steve relaxed against him, Tony scratched at his brow before murmuring, "Can I ask you a few questions, just to clear things up a little?"
"Yes, Master."
Christ.
"...Have you ever had another Master before me?"
"No. Never," Steve breathed, burrowing his face more deeply beneath Tony's shoulder.
"...What about another Dom?"
"...What's that?" Steve asked, as if he genuinely didn't understand the question.
Tony swallowed thickly, eyes flashing with hectic cogitation as he tentatively tried, "Where you come from, with the 'other' Tony, do you ever do anything together like we did, tonight?"
Steve shook his head against him, quietly murmuring. "No."
"What kinds of things do you do together, then?" Tony forced himself to ask, hoping that at least in this other world, the two of them were having some nice, boring vanilla sex together.
"We fight together," Steve shrugged. "He's my teammate."
Tony closed his eyes, already fearing that he knew the answer to the question he wasn't asking. "...Is that all he is to you?"
"...I think he's also my friend," Steve quietly replied.
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.
"...So tonight... when you said... when you said that you were... that you were a virgin..." Tony mentioned, his voice barely above a whisper, "...you weren't pretending."
"...No, Master."
"Jesus Christ, Steve," Tony breathed, feeling hot and cold at the same time, his mind going haywire. He was just about to insist that Steve should've said something, when he realized with a sickening jolt that he did.
He'd tried to tell him as much as he could without compromising his idiotic mission, but Tony hadn't listened because Steve never safeworded, and he hadn't safeworded because he didn't know how to.
It was completely fucked up. No wonder he was so out of it, now; Tony had broken him, alright, but not in any way that a first-time sub ought to have been broken down. There was a right way and a wrong way to go about introducing this sort of thing to somebody, and this Steve had gotten a crash course in the absolute worst way to be initiated into this lifestyle. Though part of him knew that he couldn't really blame himself for what had happened -- since it never fucking occurred to him that when his ex showed up wanting to discuss some irrelevant piece of alien tech that wasn't even a significant threat to anybody anymore, that it wasn't just some poorly-constructed ruse to get laid since the guy wasn't actually his ex, but was some counterpart from another dimension who really did just want to talk alien tech, after all! -- even if he was technically blameless, another part of him felt like an absolute monster.
The garbled sound that he didn't mean to make must've alarmed Steve, because he pulled back enough to study Tony's face, whispering, "...I'm sorry."
Tony shook his head, rubbing the heel of his hand across his eyes and insisting, "No, baby. I'm sorry, okay? Just... just lie down, Steve. Don't get upset."
As Steve settled back down against him, Tony made an effort to calm his breathing enough to lull Steve into quietude, gently stroking over his back beneath the covers and trying to figure out how he could possibly fix something like this.
At length, when he recognized the signs that Steve had fallen asleep, Tony held the broken man in his arms and thought about his ex lover.
He remembered what it had been like at first, when he and Steve had been dancing around their feelings for each other. Steve was so oblivious, but had so obviously wanted the same thing Tony did, even if it took a lot of doing to convince him of it.
Tony had seen how hard Steve liked to work those heavy bags in the gym; how it had never been enough for him; how he couldn't satisfy something inside of him no matter how strenuously he exerted himself. He'd often punch away until his knuckles were bloodied and there were no bags left to destroy, and Tony knew that he needed a new outlet.
It was obvious enough that Steve liked when Tony hit hard enough to hurt. He had 'pain slut' written all over him. It wasn't until their sparring sessions intensified, though, that Tony had recognized what Steve really needed; what he craved—more than the pain—even if Steve had a hard time reckoning with that deep-rooted impulse, himself.
Tony had seen it in the way that Steve's breath would leave his body when Tony pinned him with his heavy armor, holding him down as he kept trying to fight free, finally sighing out with that resignation that was so much more than an admission of defeat: there was something distinctly blissful about it, the way that Steve's body would go limp with a kind of relief, and the way that his face would soften in those moments... Tony had replayed the video of that face captured by the HUD camera countless times—had analyzed it in depth, along with that sound that was nearly a moan, and Steve's fleeting disappointment when Tony finally pushed away from him—until he was convinced that he hadn't been mistaken; that some part of Steve really did want to submit to him.
From that moment on, domming Steve Rogers had become Tony's primary life objective, eclipsing everything else.
Their first time together had been frenetic and almost animalistic in its intensity. Steve was still grappling with the truth of his sexuality back then, and they'd been fighting like cats and dogs for weeks before Tony convinced him to duke it out with him on the mats. As charged and violent as the foreplay had been, Tony still gets hard whenever he remembers how beautifully Steve had finally caved, rocking his raised ass up against him and practically sobbing into the sweaty mat as he begged Tony to strip off his armor and just do it, already.
That time, Tony had simply given him what he wanted. After that, though, he made sure that Steve asked him a lot more nicely.
...What if Tony had never pushed Steve into recognizing his predilection for submission, though? ...What if he'd never even figured it out, himself?
Tony wondered what it had been like in the world this Steve had come from, fighting beside each other for years without even acknowledging the powerful attraction between them. It sounded rather sad... Lonely, probably. A little hot, maybe, but all that sexual tension had to go somewhere... How else could they stand to be around each other?
...And all this time, Steve had stayed a virgin?
As he considered the implications of that, Tony started to compare the two trajectories, wondering if it could be argued that something went 'wrong' in the other Tony's universe, preventing him and Steve from acting on their attraction to one another, or whether it was more accurate to say that something went 'wrong' in this one, causing him and Steve to become estranged. Perhaps it was pointless to try to posit an objective judgement about either trajectory, but Tony couldn't help feeling as if there might be a reason that this particular Steve Rogers had ended up here, now, with him. Maybe there was a way to fix this, after all; a way that they could help each other...
...
It was still dark out when Steve was roused from his deep slumber in the early hours of the morning, momentarily at a loss to place where he was. He'd slept so deeply that he felt disoriented, as if entire days might've come and gone without his noticing. He was in a darkened bedroom, in a large, four-poster bed on sheets that were outrageously soft against his naked skin—
...and he wasn't alone.
Tony. Tony Stark was in bed beside him. Bits and pieces of the previous night were coming back to him, now, flooding him with too many images and visceral memories and feelings to sort through at once. He found himself reaching to touch his neck, feeling the phantom tug of a collar that was no longer there.
"Shhh..." Tony was suddenly whispering, reaching to soothe careful hands over the top of Steve's wrist and arm, gently tugging his hand away from his bare neck. His touch and voice were steadying, helping to ground the commotion in Steve's head. "It's okay, Steve. There's no more collar; no more Master, alright? Let it go, sweetheart. All of that stuff in the playroom was never real. Just think of it like a sexy nightmare that's over with, okay? Look: all the marks are gone, see? You're good as new."
Steve swallowed in confusion as he felt Tony's hand softly passing over his skin, demonstrating how unmarred his skin was.
"...How are you feeling?" Tony asked, skimming his fingertips over Steve's ribs in a lazy pattern as he regarded him with careful speculation.
Steve took a deep breath, taking a moment to think about the question, uncertain of his answer. "A little confused," he finally admitted, earning a rueful, somewhat chagrined smile from the older man beside him.
"Yeah, I'll bet," Tony quietly replied. "Hey... while you're still a little hazy, do you wanna try something? With me, now, before we get too invested in our separate realities?" Tony offered, his softly suggestive voice catching Steve's attention. Steve met his eyes, seeing a tentative hope in them as he reached up to gently rearrange Steve's hair as he quietly added, "...I think it'll be real sweet for both of us."
There was a low heat building inside of Steve as Tony touched him and spoke to him in that way, feeling inevitably intrigued by the mysterious proposition. Even if the collar was gone and the physical marks had already faded, there was a lingering hold on him that had him responding to Tony's touch.
"Okay."
Tony smiled at him, then, and Steve felt that heat inside of him spreading out rapidly at the sight.
"That was easy... I haven't even told you what it is, yet," Tony lightly teased, petting his hand more heavily over Steve's head as he smirked at him from the pillow beside him.
Steve's eyelids fluttered as Tony's fingers worked their way down his nape, murmuring, "...Tell me."
"It's another game of pretend, Steve," Tony explained, his voice dropping low and sensual, "—only this one's much nicer. I want you to pretend that I'm the Tony you know, from your own world."
Steve's eyes widened at that, looking back at Tony with surprised curiosity as he continued, "It'll be real easy, okay? Here's how it goes: you're still a virgin, and I brought you here to my bedroom to deflower you properly, all sweet and gentlemanlike. ...Would you like that?"
Though Steve's breath had caught at Tony's words, feeling his cock already swelling with illicit interest in this new game, he couldn't help weakly protesting, "...But he would never want to..."
As Steve shyly trailed off, Tony's eyes softened and he ran his knuckles down the side of Steve's blushing face, catching and holding Steve's gaze as he quietly assured him, "Steve. I promise you: no matter how big the multiverse is, there isn't a single universe out there where I wouldn't want to. Not possible."
Tony watched the way that Steve considered his words, struggling to accept the idea that his Tony could ever feel that way about him. He could only imagine what it was like between them; how adept his otherworldly counterpart had become at self-denial; how shitty it must be, seeing Steve strutting around in all those tight, white t-shirts and his fitted uniform pants, and never being able to touch him -- never even knowing what was possible, if he just made the effort!
He remembered how hugely significant it had been for him, taking on the challenge of bedding Steve Rogers. All the self-doubt and frustration that had arisen when Steve's stubbornness had seemed insurmountable at times. He'd felt like Ahab going after the white whale -- Steve's ass was a veritable mythological trophy; his own Moby Dick. In retrospect, he could now admit that that attitude may have even been part of the problem from the start, letting Steve become his obsession. He hadn't been wrong about Steve's inclinations, but perhaps there might've been a better way of seducing him, if this other Steve's deeply inhibited, gentle sweetness was anything to go by. Perhaps Tony had been too afraid to try this approach, then, favoring an approach that was unnecessarily complicated, even if it did leave him much less vulnerable.
"What does he call you?" Tony whispered, his gentle hand still caressing Steve's beautiful, hesitant face.
Steve shrugged, murmuring, "A few things... Cap. Rogers. Steve, sometimes. Um......Capsicle."
Tony snorted at that, taking Steve's chin in his fingers and catching his gaze, something electric passing between them at the look in Tony's eyes before he earnestly told him, "I've wanted you for so long, Steve."
Steve's breath caught as Tony leaned in and met his lips in a soft kiss, infusing it with all the repressed longing that he felt for his own wayward supersoldier, imagining what it might've been like to have gotten him in bed like this three years ago, back when everything between them was still so fresh and unpolluted. It was easy to get caught up in that feeling when this Steve was such a perfect surrogate for his own fantasy lover. When he pulled back, the soft, astonished little way that Steve breathed his name sent a deliciously warm tingle up his spine.
"Yeah, Steve. You're with me, now, in my bed," Tony whispered, pressing soft kisses around the edges of Steve's lush mouth between his low-spoken words, shifting closer to the younger man as his body became animated with growing arousal at the unexpectedly hot-as-fuck roleplay scenario. Who knew that this, of all things, was such a major kink? "...I've been wanting to get you in bed with me for years, Rogers..."
"...You have?"
Tony suppressed a smirk at the adorably breathless sound of Steve's question, running kisses along his jaw and assuring him, "Oh yeah. Are you really surprised? ...Don't you know how gorgeous you are?"
Steve gasped as Tony's mouth drifted below his jawline, his short, ticklish beard slowly inching over the tender skin of his throat as his familiar hand came to rest against the swell of Steve's pec. His voice was small and tinged with disbelief as he breathed, "...I didn't know you felt that way..."
"Mmmmm" Tony hummed against Steve's throat, loving the way it bobbed beneath his lips as Steve gulped. "I should've said something sooner, but all that waiting just makes it even more sweet, now that I've finally got you here..."
At Steve's soft sound, Tony shifted closer, rolling his body toward Steve's until he could feel Steve's erection against his hip, eliciting a small whine from the younger man at the exploratory contact.
"Are you hard for me, Steve?" Tony teased, his thumb toying with Steve's nipple and earning a breathy cry.
"That's good, baby. I'm real hot for you, too. Wanna feel how much?" Tony huskily murmured, shifting his body until his own hard-on was pressing against Steve's.
Steve let out a loud, warbling cry at that, gripping Tony's arm in shock at the sensation, his whole body gone tense with extreme arousal.
"Oh, fuck, Steve," Tony murmured, gently rocking his hips forward and making his hot length slide up against Steve's solid shaft, making it throb deliciously as Steve started spurting precum in his overexcitation. "...Wow... look at you... you're so fucking hot, baby, I can't wait..."
As Steve gasped and whined at the feel of Tony's cock slowly rutting against his, Tony summoned his most seductive timbre to say, "I wanna fuck you, Steve... Will you let me??"
Steve sucked in a sharp breath and made a tight sound in his throat, still gripping Tony's arm hard enough to leave finger-shaped bruises.
"C'mon, Rogers," Tony urged, pointedly sliding his cock against Steve's and studying his reactive expression as he kept his eyes squeezed shut. "Look at me."
Forcing his eyes open, Steve's unsteady gaze met Tony's piercing look as he asked again, reaching behind the younger man to grope his ass as he huskily demanded, "Whaddya say, Cap? You wanna let me be the one to pop your cherry?"
"Nnnnghhh, Tony," Steve whined, blushing and leaking precum profusely, making Tony's thick, eager cock slide against his with ease.
"Tell me, Steve," Tony gasped, squeezing his big handful of Steve's ass as he rocked against him. "...What do you want??"
"Tony," Steve cried, the desperation in his voice prompting Tony's other hand to work its way between the press of their bodies, wrapping around both of their lengths and making Steve sob out a ridiculously hot sound as he hissed at the added stimulation and held on tighter, pumping them together as Steve started chanting his name over and over, sounding more and more distraught with arousal.
"Yeah, baby, it's me," Tony panted, releasing Steve's ass to finger the slippery head of his cock, coating his fingers in Steve's copious fluids and hotly murmuring, "—it's always been me, hasn't it? Is that why you waited so long?? Have you been secretly wanting me all this time? Wanting this??" he emphasized, reaching behind him again to prod at Steve's entrance with his slicked-up finger, teasing his hole as Steve's cock jerked in his grasp and he cried out at the intimate touch.
Tony continued to pump their cocks together as he worked his fingers inside of Steve, carefully stretching him open and murmuring soft, encouraging words and sounds as Steve started to come undone, getting swept up in the dual sensations as Tony simultaneously worked his ass and cock with hands that already knew exactly how he liked to be touched. As his calloused thumb massaged Steve's perineum, all it took was a few strokes of Tony's fingertips against Steve's prostate before the younger man was ejaculating with a deliciously broken cry, the sound making Tony so horny that he gathered up as much of Steve's proliferate spend as he could manage and smeared it over his own, precum-slick cock, using it to lubricate himself before wiping the excess against Steve's hole and wrapping Steve's thick thigh up over his hip, guiding himself inside.
Steve was moaning beautifully as Tony slowly penetrated him, his big hands coming up to tangle themselves in Tony's hair as he concentrated on that first, tight breach, feeling as if he really were opening Steve on his cock for the first time.
"Ooooohhhhh yeah... open up for me, sweetheart," Tony husked out, gently rocking into the tight clutch of Steve's body, inching his way forward through that snug channel. "That's it... yeah... you're doing so good, Steve... look at you, taking my cock..."
Tony shuddered at the plaintive sound Steve made, wondering how it was that this attentive, gentle fucking felt like one of the kinkiest things he'd ever done. He was rock hard and throbbing as he carefully pushed his way inside of the younger man, eagerly stealing this ill-gotten, perfect treasure of an untouched ass that his counterpart had neglected for far too long for him to feel bad about it. You snooze you lose, pal...
When he'd finally bottomed out inside of that too-tight, delicious heat, Tony leaned in to capture Steve's open mouth with his, swallowing his high moan and kissing the other man with a passion that surprised both of them.
The next half hour passed in a languorous, lusty haze as Tony slowly and gently fucked his inexperienced lover with unprecedented tenderness, amazed at how hot it was to really take his time, not because he was trying to edge either of them toward a teased-out climax, but because there was an undeniable kink to be explored in treating Steve like a precious, delicate flower, whispering soft endearments to him while remaining hyperaware of every inch of the younger man's body that his cock caressed, penetrating him with absolute attention to every reaction he elicited. Though he'd always been an attentive, hyperfocused lover, before—even in the most brutal scenarios that they'd enjoyed together—there was a distinct difference in doing it like this, making Tony feel strangely present in a way that he perhaps never fully had been in previous encounters, as if some softer part of him had always been left out.
"God, you're so fucking sweet," Tony moaned as Steve practically sobbed against him, gasping his name and looking even more affected by this roleplay than he was. Somebody really should've fucked the poor guy a long time ago. He was clearly starving for it.
"You're so beautiful, Steve," Tony insisted, making him whimper as he watched the base of his cock slowly push into Steve's overfull ass. "So perfect," he hissed, balls deep inside the overwhelmed younger man.
Not long after, Steve came again with Tony's hand wrapped around his spurting cock as Tony soothed him through it, kissing him and rocking gently inside of him as he continued to whisper sweet endearments, surprised to find that he meant them all. Overcome with some strange surge of emotion of his own, Tony took a brief moment to fetch some actual lube before he settled Steve's ankles over his shoulders and proceeded to ride him hard and deep for another long stretch, getting lost in it, both of them unable to utter anything coherent aside from each other's names from that point on as Tony went into a kind of single-minded trance, as if determined to make the younger man's tight, perfect ass fully submit to his big, relentless dick.
As he watched Steve come again, cock untouched, fervently crying out his name and looking sinfully sweet as he broke apart for the third time in his bed, Tony felt a rush of too many feelings all at once: resentment for his counterpart, for having such a charmingly responsive Steve Rogers at his disposal—crying out his name like that—and not fucking doing anything about it; a sting of guilt at imagining what the other Tony would likely feel, when the other one realized that he had gotten there, first; a simultaneous sense of satisfaction at having successfully bedded not one, but two versions of Steve Rogers; and an anticipatory sense of loss at knowing that this Steve wasn't really his, and that he couldn't keep this one for himself -- a sense that was amplified by the knowledge that his own Steve was still estranged from him, no doubt talking shit about him with his former teammates after he'd called Bruce that night, sounding like a desperate stalker trying to keep tabs on his ex.
Life just really wasn't fair.
When Tony came, it was with Steve's name on his lips, but the name tasted like it belonged to someone else.
This other Steve was reaching for his hand, panting on the pillow beside him as they lay on their backs, trying to catch their breath. He let the younger man tangle their fingers together as he held Tony's hand against his heaving chest, closing his own eyes as he felt a terrible pang, wishing so badly that a different Steve Rogers was reaching for him like this, now.
...
"Got any more questions for me?" Tony asked, looking at Steve as if he really didn't mind laying beside him and talking about alien tech until the sun came up, offering a comprehensive briefing on the Vugolga and their theft of Loki's scepter from HYDRA operatives when they came to Earth in search of something called 'Infinity Stones.' Tony had laid it all out for him in great detail, explaining how they had recruited an initially hostile, young, enhanced human girl and her twin brother when the Vugolga started wreaking havoc on Earth, trying to locate another stone they were after.
Tony had even given Steve a pretty good idea of where he and his team might find the girl—Wanda—and her brother Pietro back on Earth-617, explaining how her unique powers were needed to neutralize the threat that the Vugolga posed, now that they had the Mind Stone in their possession. The fact that they'd hopped dimensions to seek out the other stone on a new Earth—given that Earth-618 was now protected by the Avengers and their new witchy recruit—was troubling, to say the least. Apparently these stones were considered quite valuable among intergalactic warmongers, for reasons that went beyond comprehension. Even the damned Tesseract was powered by one of these Infinity Stones, and that thing had managed to cause them plenty of trouble solely from readings Tony had taken of it before it was locked away in Asgard. Steve shuddered to think what more than one of these things might do in the wrong hands.
He thought for a moment before answering Tony, turning to look at him comfortably reclined against the pillows, as if being naked in bed with him was such a natural thing. His voice was subdued as he asked, "...The whole time, with me, you never realized that anything was off?"
Tony's face fell at the question, going slightly defensive as he swallowed before replying, "I mean, I was getting kinda ticked off that you were such a better actor than me..." When he looked at Steve and the joke didn't land, he let out a small sigh and said, "No, Steve. I really thought we were just roleplaying. It was an honest mistake. I mean, you do look exactly like him, so..."
"But we're not the same," Steve argued, unable to help the way his brow furrowed with some stubborn conviction that that had to be true.
"I dunno, babe... under different circumstances..." Tony trailed off, looking at Steve as if he truly thought he wasn't all that different from his baffling counterpart. After a pensive beat, his face took on an expression that Steve couldn't interpret before asking, "...Do you think that I'm really so different from the other me?"
Steve regarded him solemnly for a long moment, considering the question before quietly answering, "...I guess I really don't know."
"Hmm."
"He said something..." Steve started, recalling the other Tony's words back on Earth-617, regarding his counterpart. "...He said that if you were anything like him, that you'd probably want to recreate the quantum tunnel, just to prove that you could fix what he got wrong, opening up a portal in the quantum field and leaving us vulnerable to interdimensional trespassers... I need you to promise me that you won't do that," Steve urged, looking at Tony imploringly. "Even if you truly believe that you could pull it off, it isn't worth the risk. We weren't prepared for what came through that portal, and you can't guarantee that you'd be any better prepared than we were."
"Why did he even build it to begin with?" Tony asked, his lips forming a pouty frown at Steve's earnest appeal.
"Just to prove that he could," Steve shrugged, radiating disapproval as he added, "—he thought that having access to the multiverse might give us the upper hand over certain adversaries. He convinced Bruce that if they could open up a portal at will during an invasion, they might be able to trap our adversaries in some barren, parallel universe before they ever touched down on our planet. He made it sound noble, but it was always just a vanity project -- one with terrible consequences."
Tony was looking at him sort of funny before he murmured, "Y'know, it's really not that surprising that I didn't figure you out; you're exactly the same as him."
At Steve's perplexed expression, Tony's shrewd look sharpened as he wryly guessed, "You're in a fight over this, aren't you? Do you hate him now?"
"Of course not," Steve frowned, huffing out a small breath through his nose before admitting, "...It's a little tense between us at the moment, but I'm used to that."
Tony studied him for an extended beat, keeping his expression neutral, though his eyes betrayed a sort of wistfulness as he asked, "...So you forgive him?"
"...Yeah," Steve quietly conceded, looking at Tony and having a hell of a time not seeing the other man looking back at him, then. "...I do."
"Hmm."
It was Steve's turn to study Tony for a beat before venturing, "Can I ask why the two of you aren't speaking?"
Something loaded flashed across Tony's expression before he rubbed a hand through his hair, sighing out as he sank deeper into the pillows.
"...He kicked me off the team."
"...How come?"
"Because he's an insecure asshole."
Steve was looking unimpressed when Tony glanced over at him before taking a deep breath and quietly elaborating, "He was having trouble reconciling our bedroom lifestyle with our working relationship. I guess he was worried that I was trying to undermine his authority or something. Or that he was getting in too deep."
When he registered Steve's confused frown, Tony explained, "That headspace you were in, earlier? Where everything's all warm and fuzzy? It's called subspace. He could stay in it for days," Tony sighed. He was looking wistful as he murmured, "He was so mindblowingly responsive... the perfect sub. It was incredible. ...But... it freaked him out. He liked it too much. ...When he'd come out of it, he'd sometimes get pissed at me for taking him so deep, even if he knew that's what he really needed. Believe me, he was begging for it at the time -- it was the only thing that could really help him get over... well, you know. It was hard for him, at first, adjusting to his new life -- but what we did together? -- it was therapeutic. Like nothing else."
Steve nodded slowly, his brows knitted together in thought as he considered the plausibility in Tony's explanation. It had been hard for him, adjusting to life in the 21st century, and he never really did manage to find anything that could really help him get past the nightmares that still plagued him from time to time; that sense of being adrift, lost and alone and never quite where he belonged, no matter how generous his teammates had been with him. He'd tried Sam's version of therapy, and it had helped some, but nothing could really appease that gaping emptiness deep down, or the creeping terror that would haunt him whenever he got quiet enough to hear it still howling in the background.
"But he didn't care that it was helping him. He was too worried about what might happen if the Avengers got called out and he was too deep in subspace to do his job. I told him that he couldn't be a soldier 24/7 -- that he was a human being, first -- but that didn't go over well," Tony sarcastically huffed. He paused for a moment to rub out some tension in his forehead before sullenly murmuring, "He made his priorities clear; tried to end it between us. Didn't think there was any way to balance the two, so he just decided to cut us off cold-turkey. And when that backfired -- because of course it did; he needed it too bad to just completely stop -- he blamed me for trying to corrupt him or some shit. Made it all my fault; said I was suspended from the team until I could control myself, which is just the most hypocritical bullshit ever. So... there you have it."
"...I'm sorry, Tony."
The quiet words seemed to surprise the older man, who looked over at Steve with such a vulnerable expression that it made Steve's heart ache. It might've been what he wanted to hear, but it wasn't from the right person. Steve could see the moment that he realized that, his mouth ticking involuntarily and his eyes clouding over with something painful to witness.
Steve reached for his hand, then, taking the too-familiar fingers between his own and giving him a reassuring squeeze as he told him, "You're a good person. I'm sure he knows that. Probably makes it even harder for him."
"He doesn't seem to be having such a hard time," Tony grumbled. "Going silent for months like that; stealing the whole team for himself..."
Steve shook his head, considering how he would be feeling in the other one's shoes before intoning, "...I guarantee you that none of that has been easy for him. He's gotta be beating himself up over it every single night. Trust me."
Tony frowned at that, looking much less pleased about that thought than he wanted to feel. "...You think so?"
"I know so. You said it, yourself: we're exactly alike."
"Hmm."
After a thoughtful beat, Steve squeezed Tony's hand and said, "Hey, thanks for all the information you gave me. It'll be a big help."
"Glad I can still be useful to the Avengers," Tony sniffed, then hesitated before quietly saying, "...I hope it was worth all the trouble of obtaining it... I guess you got a lot more out of this mission than you bargained for."
Steve's eyebrows rose at that, still holding onto Tony's hand as he told him, "It definitely wasn't remotely what I was expecting, but... yeah, it was worth it."
Tony looked up when he detected the double meaning that Steve had infused in that statement, carefully reading his expression before nodding his head with a look of relief, believing that Steve meant it.
"You gonna take off, then?" Tony asked.
"Yeah. I probably should," Steve replied, though he realized that he seemed a little reluctant to leave.
After a pause, Tony gently asked, "...Have breakfast with me, first?"
Steve looked over at him, easily recognizing Tony's fear of rejection hovering at the edges of that tentative statement. He squeezed Tony's hand again, smiling warmly at him and answering, "Sure, Tony. I'd like that."
The smile he received in response was perhaps the sweetest he'd ever seen on the other man's face, making his heart skip at the realization that he was, truly, a remarkably handsome man.
The flash of the quantum tunnel was almost blindingly bright as Steve stuck the landing, his arrival alerting JARVIS who immediately set about informing the rest of the Avengers that Captain Rogers had returned -- all save one, who was still slumped in his chair beside the control panel, easily jostled from his poor state of half-sleep by the bright light, realizing that this wasn't just another awful nightmare about Steve turning up missing an arm and a leg and half his face. He seemed perfectly intact as he stood there, adjusting to the momentary disorientation as he blinked around the lab, eyes landing on Tony.
"You're back," Tony stupidly observed, voice cracking from disuse, stumbling up out of his seat and tugging his shirt in place as he rushed onto the platform, gripping Steve's upper arms and looking him over closely, gratified to find him in one piece.
"Hey... you okay? How'd it go??"
Steve was looking at him sort of funny when Tony's eyes met his, and he immediately dropped his hands from the man's biceps, swallowing as he hoped he hadn't been too touchy-feely in his overenthusiasm to see Steve safely returned. As his hands fell away, though, Steve's right hand came up automatically, catching Tony's fingers before he could pull away. Tony's breath caught at the unexpected touch, glancing down at Steve's hand in surprise before he watched him release his fingers. He looked up just in time to catch an almost shy expression cross the younger man's face, then, before he swallowed and something closer to confusion clouded his handsome features. ...Why were his cheeks so pink?
"...Steve?" Tony asked, peering at him worriedly, "...Everything alright?"
At the sound of his name, Steve's eyes had flicked back to Tony's, studying him with a look that Tony couldn't make heads or tails of. He was even more perplexed when all Steve managed in response was to answer in a peculiar, soft tone of voice, breathing, "Hi, Tony."
Tony was still trying to figure out what this strange thing was that seemed to be crackling between them when Bruce suddenly appeared, adjusting his glasses on his face as he gaped at the sight of Steve, shouting, "STEVE! Oh, man! You made it!!"
The others weren't far behind, starting to filter through the entryway in various states of dishabille as they each climbed up to join Steve on the platform, everyone hugging him in a way that would never not make Tony jealous since hugging just didn't seem to come as easily to him and Steve, congratulating him on his return and patting him on the back as they crowded around the brave supersoldier while Tony looked on, still scrutinizing the man as if he might learn something simply by staring at him.
"Bet you're glad to be back, huh?" Natasha prompted, tucked up against Steve's side with his arm snug around her slender shoulders.
"Yeah," Steve sighed, his gaze lifting up from Nat's to look directly at Tony and smiling with a warmth that lit up something inside of him, feeling as if Steve's bright blue eyes were somehow melting away all of the residual, icy fear that had taken hold of him ever since he'd watched Steve vanish into the quantum realm.
That warm gaze never faltered as Steve professed, with a smile in his voice that was unavoidably infectious, "There's no place like home."
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