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Puppet Master
Oct. 31st, 2022 11:45 pmUniverse: 616
Pairing: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Rating: T
Word Count: 378
Summary:
Time flies when you're having fun or so the saying goes, but Tony can't say that he's enjoying himself if he can't remember any of it, even if the way that Steve looks at him now is everything he's dreamed of for years.
On AO3
Tony came awake, flattening his palm against the nearest tree to keep himself from pitching forward. It was as though something had opened its claws from high up and dropped him, and he had only realized that he had been in the strange being’s clutches before it discarded him—had only realized that he even existed—when he hit the ground. His muscles were watery and weak at impact, the abrupt switch from unconsciousness to consciousness disorienting.
He was in his armor, he observed with horror when he noticed that he couldn’t feel the bark underneath his fingers. His helmet was off and he could see the last rays of the faltering sun unfiltered.
He had been in his lab, working on a gauntlet upgrade idea that had come to him from nowhere the night before.
And now he was here.
Hours missing. The evening at his doorstep. A hulking, austere cliff a distance away through the trees.
“All clear, just like you said,” he heard Steve say before he saw him come into the small clearing.
Relief swept over Tony, dissolving the knot of tension in his stomach.
He didn’t find anything. Good.
Good because he couldn’t have Steve find anything. Because—
Good because he could catch up on what was going on when they got home, pretend that everything was normal—
Tony froze as Steve’s fingers ghosted across the nape of his neck as he passed by. They had felt almost sticky; his skin was damp with the fear that had seized him when he woke up.
He turned to stare at Steve.
“Dinner after this?” Steve asked sotto voce as the others began to trickle in behind him, and a flash of surprised elation spiked through Tony, alien and needle sharp, at the secrecy, at the intimacy of Steve’s words and touch that he didn’t remember earning.
At the unfamiliar way that Steve looked at him, the way that he had always wanted Steve to look at him for as long as he could remember.
Love, Tony realized with a start, trembling.
Mine, came the thought in a triumphant whisper, his joy surging vicious enough to kill as Steve continued to look at him with unchanging affection, not noticing or not bothered by his hunger.
Notes:
I was inspired by these prompts in magic's Steve/Tony Horror Fest treat bag:
616: Steve or Tony have to fight off possession
616: Tony begins to go insane after encountering an Eldritch beingHope you liked it, magic!
