this guy decides to quit his job and move to new york city ✫

[letmetakeaselfie]

He would usually just hand the coordinates over. Fuck it, let S.H.I.E.L.D. do it -- let them take credit even, if they're so inclined. Actually, he doesn't want credit at all. He doesn't even know why he's here. Tony doesn't want his name assigned or his picture snapped. He just wants this done. He wants to get Steve out of the ocean and for him to go home to his loving girlfriend.

It was Howard's life. Steve. Steve was his father's life. Not his family; and not his son. This one man who's been frozen solid under the sea for seventy plus years. It's only when he observes the heart rate on the read-out that his own catches in his chest. He's alive, after all this time... Tony knows how his father would have flipped out over this, he only ever wanted to put his friend to rest. Now he'll be waking up in a whole new world.

Turning his emotions off, which is a greater feat than most think, Tony cuts the block free from the ice that's keeping the Captain trapped, latching the grappling hooks on as he makes his way to the surface. This fucks everything up; Steve was never supposed to be alive.

--

It's hours later and Tony has the other man in a temperature-controlled room, steadily raising the temperature until the ice melts. It's only after the process is nearly complete that he realizes how assaulting it could be to wake up that way after so long. Hang tight, Cap, he'll be right in.