Work Text:
A King's Folly
The queen was dead. She’d been ailing for a long time, so Tony didn’t know why he was surprised. Except maybe, he’d thought she might live forever. She just seemed like the type of person who would, that her love would carry her on. But she was just human, like all of them, and now she was gone.
Steven was king now. His coronation had happened the day before. Anthony had been among those pledging fealty to him. He’d joined the knights to protect Steven, after all. The Rogers had taken him in after his parents had been assassinated, had tutored and cared for him as if he was one of their own. He’d been trained to be the perfect duke, and Anthony had understood that, vaguely. But then he’d overheard Queen Sarah discussing sending him back to Stark Castle, to attend to things there, and he felt stupid for thinking he’d be allowed to stay. All he’d ever wanted was to stay by Steven’s side, in any way he could.
So he’d run away from the Rogers’ castle, joined their army at an outpost at the edge of the kingdom where they wouldn’t recognize him, and trained as a knight. He’d stopped taking off his helmet, once the higher ups-started noticing him, not wanting them to recognize him. The moniker ‘Iron Man’ had started up as a joke among his comrades, until word of Iron Man’s deeds made it back to the royals. He’d been offered a post on Steven’s guard, and it was everything he’d ever wanted, so he’d agreed and pretended he didn’t know anything about the castle and its goings on, focused on his job protecting Steven and his mother with the other royal guards.
Fallen in love with Steven all over again, despite his best efforts to keep his affection platonic, as all knights should. Accepted the duty as his most trusted knight to search for the missing Duke Anthony. Promised not to come back without him.
He hadn’t thought Steven would care. When he’d heard Queen Sarah discussing the merits of sending him back to his duchy, Steven hadn’t said a single word to refute her, had even mentioned some of the benefits of sending him away himself. Obviously, his feelings for Steven had been one-sided. It had hurt, but he’d also never expected Steven to return his feelings. He just wanted to be close to him.
And now it had backfired spectacularly, Iron Man tasked with the duty of… finding himself. Anthony let out a broken laugh, wondering what he was supposed to do now. What if Steven was angry with him when he found out? And would he still send Anthony back to his duchy? All he’d done to stay by Steven’s side, and he’d be sent away again. He might never even get to see Steven again, afterward. If that was the case, would it be better for Iron Man to disappear, too? Could Iron Man disappear like Anthony Stark had, with nothing but a cursory search party that gave up after a fortnight? Or would additional special guardsmen be sent after him? He wasn’t sure he could outpace and hide from the Black Widow or Hawkeye.
“Well, Iron Man, any clever thoughts?” he asked, holding his helmet up to speak directly to it.
The helmet did not reply. He hadn’t expected it to.
“Right,” Anthony sighed, then placed his helmet back on. He’d come up with something. It probably wouldn’t even be faking his own death.