Lived long enough to become the villain (BREAK HARLEY'S HEART, DO IT, THIS IS FOR HARLEY)
Tonal inflection unrecognizable as the once shining patriotsits crouching before his latest handiwork. He had thoughtthe young boy was with friends, much like the engineer hadpromised since the descent of Steve’s character began, to keep the boy from him. Blood lingers like splattered paintagainst the soldier’s palm, twisting the neck of the now deadhalf of their once functioning union. When did it start? Whenhad his mind become unhinged enough to smear carnageon the canvas of the life they’d agreed to share and raise asone? The life was gone now from russet hues, a shadow ofwho he had once been. Thumb brushes over the slope ofTony’s bottom lip, already growing cold as he senses thepresence of their would be son drawing closer.
Bile rises in the back of his throat, both at his actions, andat what he imagines his next move to be. But he halts, hispalm lifting away from the visage of his lover, already beyondhelp as drying blood waves into the young boy’s line of sight.He can’t bear to listen to his small voice, to hear the fear withinit as he realizes what has happened. Should he lie? Pretendthat he found Tony like this and he was doing his best to shieldhim from such brutality? Or should he be honest, as he’s alwaysbeen? Tell the boy that his adoptive father lay dead before themby his own hand. Could he answer the inevitable ‘Why?’ that wouldprime from innocent lips? In a way that a boy of eleven couldever begin to understand?
Madness is chaotic even to the most damned.
Instead, the soldier twists to face the boy, honest tears wellingin cobalt hues. If Tony had only succumbed to his wishes, perhapsthey would not be here. Maybe things would be different. No, a hand still raised, Steve stares at Harley with a near frighteningintensity as he closes his palm but one finger jabbed in the oppositedirection. Shoulders quake as he releases an incredible howl—
The boy flinches in shock and fear, a shiver trembling his smallerform as he turns and runs back down the hallway. Once satisfied,an arm loops beneath Tony’s rigid form, lifting him from the tile,blood left in his wake until he was standing fully upright. No wordsare offered, no parting sonnet. The soldier silently makes his waydown the hallway, cradling the body of the man he had once envisioned a normal life with, and upon entering their bedroom hecloses the door with a gentle thud. For now Tony Stark could finallyknow what it means to rest.