Post CACW Werewolf AU where after Siberia Tony, the Packleader’s mate, severs his matebond while the others are in exile & tries to move the fuck on cus he hears them all loud & clear thanks. Steve of course takes it very badly & in this case the rest of the team also feels it because they are a pack & the secondary leader cutting them all off? Yeah they feel that. See they all knew things were messed up & strained but in this world they have full knowledge of how shattered thing are right away
Ignore that last ask if werewolves aren’t your thing at all! Have a good one!
OOOOOHH FRIEND, werewolves are definitely my thing, and good god, did you read my mind? did you sneak into my WIP folder and read through my notes, because I have an old fic with a prompt very, very similar to this that I unfortunately never got to write! I doubt I will, actually, because when I wrote it a little bit it never felt quite right, but I sure have some thoughts and ideas for it!!!
In my mind, that bond comes with a vaguely telepathic connection - mates can feel each other's emotions from afar, so they can find each other when in distress. Now picture this: during the fight in Siberia, they're both in severe distress so their bond is genuinely hurting them, and between punches and hits and feeling their hearts in absolute agony, what difference would it make if that pain just keep going, kept throbbing in their chests for hours after its over, days after its over, weeks, even?
And then one day, Steve wakes up numb.
He thinks it's because Tony got his letter. He thinks he read it and Steve's words have eased his pain. For a single day, he feels relief. He feels hope, even. His bond with Tony had been strained for so long - he can't even tell the numbness is a bad sign, because he's just so relieved he's feeling something other than pain. He wonders if Tony can feel his relief, if he'll start to feel happier over the next few days, maybe Steve will start feeling some longing or hope coming back to him from the other side of the bond too.
And then, the rest of the team comes to him, worried sick. They are the ones who tell him the numbness is not normal, that Tony is gone, they don't know how, but he's gone. Did he die? He couldn't have died, right? But why isn't he there anymore, where is Tony?
When Steve finds out Tony has broken their bond, he's heartbroken. Maybe he finds out on the news, because Tony never calls. Tony can't even send him hatred over the bond anymore, because the bond is not there.
And maybe later, somehow, he finds out Tony didn't even have to go to a doctor to sever the bond. Maybe Rhodes will tell him, when Steve comes back to the Compound when Thanos comes, that the bond just shattered on its own. Thorn apart by grief. Like Steve had died in that bunker.
He didn't. But Tony's love for him did.
