STEVE

As soon as I realize that Tori has drifted into another short sleep after talking with her for a few hours, I search for something to keep my thoughts flowing. I find the sketchbook that I got in New York when I first woke up and flip to the newest page. As I almost put the tip of my pencil to the paper, I notice indentations from another drawing; however, the sketch is something that I don't remember doing. I flip back a page, a smile spreading across my lips.

There is a quick sketch of my profile. I already know who drew it, but my thought is instantly confirmed by how much lead was used and how they shaded — Tori. She left a note on the bottom: There needs to be more of you in here. A small heart is next to the last word in her looped cursive script. I smile more.

I flip back to the page I was about to use. Thinking of a subject is harder than I thought is would be today than usual, so I just start to kind of draw lines everywhere and see where that takes me. Every so often, I glance at my watch to see how much time we have left of the flight. Right now, we have less than an hour.

I hear Tony shift in his seat, finally waking up. He sits up, scanning his surroundings.

I smile sassily, closing the sketchbook and setting it in my bag. "Took you long enough, Sleeping Beauty."

He narrows his eyes at me. "Uh, no. That is my nickname for you and not ever the other way around."

"Hey, I tried," I shrug.

He clenches his jaw, fiddling with his hands in his lap. He exhales a long sigh. He wants to tell me something.

"What is it, Tony?" I ask him.

"N-Nothing," he mutters. "Forget about it."

"Okay then," I say, turning back to face Tori.

I can almost feel Tony getting pissed off with me. "Why didn't you tell me?" he eventually whispers.

I let out a low sigh, trying to hide my exasperation. "Because I thought it was the best thing to do. Apparently I was wrong."

He nods, clenching and unclenching his fists. "Yeah, you were wrong."

"I had lost everything for not telling you guys. I swear to you," I tell him. "And I had to get rid of a few things to get them back."

"Bucky. Am I correct?" Tony asks me, more than just a hint of ire in his voice.

"And my freedom to walk the streets," I hiss. "I'm practically a walking wanted poster. If I'm not in that underwater prison within the next month, I will honestly be shocked."

"Steve, I'm not going to turn you in," he promises. I sigh of relief. "But that doesn't mean I'm cool with you just like that. Tori might be because of that little spark of hope that she still has left and believes mostly in second chances, but I lost that spark a long time ago and I'll never forgive you for what you've done."

I nod. "Understood. I don't want you to forgive me. If you did this much to hurt me I wouldn't forgive you, so I'm not going to make you. As long as you don't put a sign above my head saying 'I am Captain America,' I'm good."

"Good." Tony scoffs, muttering under his breath. "I still want your head on a plaque above my fireplace, Rogers."

"Right back at you, Stark."

A wailing siren blares through the speakers with red lights following after it. Tori bolts awake, her breaths heavy with shock. I stare directly at Tony, waiting for him to give us some explanation or order us what to do.

"Tony?" Victoria shouts over the sirens, standing up instinctively and holding onto the seats to keep her balance. "What's going on?"

Tony's eyes widen with horror. "The government finally found our asses."

She climbs over me, following her brother towards the back of the plane. By the time my brain registers to go too, Tori is opening her large briefcase and Tony's suit flies onto him. She stands up, parts of her own suit finding the place that they're supposed to go and building up from her feet.

"Alright, Rogers," Tony announces to me, sifting through his belongings. "If you break this, Rhodey will kill you."

I raise an eyebrow, beginning to ask him what the hell he's talking about. Tori seizes my wrist, swiftly clasping some sort of watch onto me. It's like the one that she wears that—

Oh God, save us all.

"You want me to fly around in some suit that Tony created?" I holler, my breaths becoming shallower.

"Yes, now call it to you. Press the red dot on the side," Tori orders as her face is covered by her suit's mask.

Tony, who is all set as well, stands even further towards the back of the plane where it opens up, revealing the small city below us. He steps almost to the very edge, looking up above our plane.

I stare down at the town with the wind howling in my ears. It's early morning now, but that means there are going to be hundreds of people down there. If I screw something — anything — up, I'm going to kill them all.

"I can't do this," I breathe out, still looking off into the distance. I turn my head to stare into Tori's eyes, her mask in her left hand. "Tori, I can't do this."

"Yes, you can. You're Captain America," she scoffs.

"Yeah, who couldn't even walk properly three days ago!"

"Call the suit, Steve."

"No! I can't!"

"CALL THE DAMN SUIT!" she thunders.

I scurry to press the small red button on the side of the watch. I watch a red, white, and blue suit soar towards me piece by piece. This must be Rhodey's other suit — the Iron Patriot. I'm slammed back by the mask hitting my face. When I open my eyes there are blue sensors everywhere I look and a female voice speaks to me, who I assume is FRIDAY.

"Still patriotic, so should suit you just fine," Tony says.

I scoff, shaking my head. "Yeah, a little tight though."

"It's Rhodey-sized, not Steve-sized," Tori spits. "At least we're trying to help you stay alive."

"Is no one going to realize my pun?" Tony asks. "'Suit you?' You're wearing a suit."

I blink in confusion, still figuring out how to work this thing.

"You guys suck."

"Gee, thanks," Tori mumbles, most likely rolling her eyes. "Now, Steve, rocket boosters are on the feet and in the hands. Do you understand how to work them already?"

I shake my head, but lift my hand towards the chute of the plane. A beam of light shoots from it off to the distance.

"Yay, now fly," Tori orders.

I somehow manage to get the foot rocket boosters to work, but I'm shaking so badly that I almost fall off the plane. Turns out that I could have because Tony dives down and Tori follows. She waits for me, ready to catch me when (and I mean when) I fall.

"You ready to blast some people?" she asks.

I gulp, stepping back towards the edge. She tells me that it's better to start off by getting the boosters activated, which I do, and then just walk off. Not wanting to die and/or argue, I step off the side of the plane, plummeting down towards the city. Panic flows through me. Tori can probably hear me cursing up a storm and screaming on the top of my lungs, but not after I finally get the boosters working again.

"I didn't die," I shout to her. "I didn't die!"

I hear her giggling, flying up towards the roof of the plane. I quickly follow, a proud grin plastered across my face. Tony is there too, his arms crossed and his foot taping on the metal roof.

"Language, Cap," he sneers.

I roll my eyes, shooting a small blast at his feet and sending him back a few yards. Tori places her hands onto her knees, leaning forward and laughing hysterically. I smile.

"Cap! Your right!" Tony shouts at me. I almost instantly shoot in that direction at a small helicopter flying above us, shooting down towards our plane.

One wing of their helicopter is now damaged, sending it sideways. I see a man jump down with a parachute strapped to his back. Tony dives down to catch him before he can get too far while Tori leads me towards to helicopter, meaning I have to fly again. I squint my eyes shut and take off. I am somehow still alive. She demands that I shoot rays of energy at the helicopter, sending it down so that she can direct it away from the city. I follow her orders, shakily sending those beams at it. Sure enough, she sends it in the direction of a large empty field. I hesitantly follow.

As I land steadily on the grassy plain (more like fall on my face, says the wind that was knocked out of me on my way down), Tori is pinning a bleeding man against the totaled chopper, pretty much interrogating the poor guy.

"Who are you and who do you work for?" she barks, pure venom lacing every word.

The man gulps, glancing in my direction. "I can ask you the same question, Ms. Stark."

I see Tori exhale a small sigh of relief, knowing that no one knows about her true self yet. She immediately throws her strict veneer back on, scowling at the man. "I asked first."

"Who do you think?" the man asks.

She blasts his foot, and a yelp escapes from his pale lips. She's definitely not being the good cop.

"Looking for Steve, I assume?" she asks, her voice low.

"And others."

"One is probably standing right in front of you, yeah?"

"Correct. Now turn yourself in before I get you myself."

Tori erupts with sinister laughter, not taking her eyes off him. "Oh honey, you wish. It's not gonna be that easy. Also keep in mind that you are the one pinned against this tin can you call a chopper," she spits. She decides to correct herself, "Oh wait, called."

The man scoffs. "You are wearing a tin can."

I close my eyes, cringing at his awful "comeback." Tori just clicks her tongue and shoves him back into the chopper, hopping in herself to dismantle the radios and whatnot after she strips the man of every radio and weapon he's got. Tony lands on his feet, running as soon as he hits the ground. I can't help but feel a pang of jealousy from his flawless landing. He does something to the guy that puts him unconscious, but I can't see because of Tori popping up in front of me, making my heart skip a beat.

"God, you could at least warn me," I breathe, jumping at her sudden appearance.

I can sense her smiling. "Yeah, okay." She sets her hands on her hips after taking off her mask, revealing that large smirk and sly glance. "Captain America — he's beauty, he's grace, he's Mr. United States. Definitely graceful."

Oh great, she saw me fall.

"Very majestic, Steve," she adds. "I thought that if you could jump out of a plane without a chute, you could handle a little suit."

"Yeah, it's little alright." I pause for a moment. "Wait, how do you know about the no parachute thing?"

"Nat," Tori states. "She is pretty much my best friend, especially when she can tell me how you decide to almost kill yourself so I can prepare myself for when you stupidly decide to try it again."

"Stop acting like Bucky. One person in my life nagging me 24/7 is enough," I whine, stomping off in the other direction.

"Before he went under the ice, he told me to tell you no if you wanted to do anything dumb. Just that one word. Apparently that's all it takes."

I scoff, propelling myself up with the rocket boosters towards our plane. Tori follows me, swiftly passing me because of my intense fear of falling.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asks. "If you're going to jump off that plane without a chute and plummet into an ocean, I might just have to get Bucky out of that ice cube so he can kick your ass."

"No, I'm not doing that," I fib, swerving past her. "But I have another idea—"

"No."

"Okay."

"Cap, you cannot lie even if your life depended on it," Tony states as he flies past me up towards the plane. "What are you going to do?"

"Jump off that plane into the ocean without a parachute," I inform him.

"You, sir, have a death wish. Whether or not it's Tori, Bucky, or the water that kills you first, one of the three will if you do," Tony says. "Come on, let's get you two home."