EXCHANGE INTERFACE

Golly gee but the man can angst.

He wasn't even supposed to have this bit of the story.

One about Tony:

Stark wanted to push the boundaries, wanted to hunt down whoever was behind this. Pepper and JARVIS stopped him – barely. Pepper locked him out of Stark Industries, and while he argued with her, JARVIS shut down.

Steve's never seen Tony Stark stripped of his technology and power, and gutted to the heart.

He hopes to God he never does again.

And one about Maria:

She tenses at his touch, stiff and still. Don't push me away, he thinks. Not yet. Please. And then she relaxes against him as though she heard his thought, the breath shuddering in and out of her lungs.

"We'll get her back," he says against her hair. "We will."

After a while the jerky breaths even out, like spent tears, leaving her leaning into him as she's never done in all the years Steve's known her.

It terrifies him – her vulnerability. Because out of all the women in the world, all the people that Steve knows, Maria doesn't let herself be vulnerable with anyone.

Damned character arcs. You want them to end up over here but to get them there, you need to show them halfway, and if you're going to show them halfway, you might as well do a few more points across the spectrum...

Anyway. Still writing. I'm not entirely sure this is going to be just five parts after all. It might end up being six. But no more than six. Really. ARGH.

You know what I'd like to read sometime? A Steve/Maria, Maria/Tony love triangle in MCU. Medium rare, well-cooked outside, still bloody inside. It would be epic. And utterly brutal.

And now I'm beginning to see Steve/Maria, Maria/Tony, Tony/Pepper, Pepper/Steve shaping up as my MCU equivalent of Bats/Wondy, Wondy/Supes, Supes/Lois, Lois/Bats. OY VEY.

On the other hand, I wrote the DC fic "Aftermath" to the relationships of that quartet and it's one of my most popular (and memorable) fics from that fandom still.

Finish the WIPs first. Then move onto new things. Really.