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Chapter Text

"Tell me where the Captain is." The mafia thug demanded for umpteenth time.

Only years of training stopped the eye roll just waiting to happen. Tony was a Carbonell and a Stark; a few paper cuts on his chest was not going to make him talk. His mother made sure of that and his father tested the theory. The brunette was hanging from the ceiling by the metal cuffs on his wrists. He knew he could brake them easily but... he was curious. The room was something out of B-rated horror movie, cement everywhere with no windows and LED lights, blood on the tools they had already tried on him.

But, it was getting boring.

The Captain was the leader of the main branch of the New York mafia. He was notorious for his unique shield, a dinner plate in Tony's expert opinion, and his established inner circle. Nobody knows what he looks like, where he's from, or how old he is. Tony thinks that this is starting to sound familiar and ignores the churning feeling of dread in his stomach that agrees.

"What does he look like?" Tony asked, playing desperate to see if he would even get an answer.

"Tall, blonde haired blue eyed man with muscles." A curt voice says from the doorway, his tone alone says that he's used to his questions being answered.

The leader, the "captive" thought, glad to know who to kill when he gets out of here. But then the description catches his attention.

For a minute he is floating, away from the smell and taste of iron and the twinge in his shoulder, away from the calculating eyes on him, and then he's back. Information slides into place, things that never made sense and things that seemed too familiar. Two thoughts in his mind:

I am an idiot.

Steve

As if summoned, the man of the hour came barreling into the room, looking around and visibly shocked to find Tony there. Still gathering his thoughts and, admittedly a bit absentmindedly, Tony uncuffed himself and dropped gracefully to the floor, shocking all the men that had been torturing him. He couldn't even find it in himself to enjoy it. On autopilot he killed everyone in the room except for Steve, a punch there, block, jab.

Then there was quiet. 

The people that he had thought of as his friends, as his family, all piled in. The room big enough for everyone yet nowhere near big enough. Tony, on the border of a panic attack took another deep breath and pulled himself together, posture going hard in a way nobody in the room had seen since he told them he was an assassin. 

"When I was 3 I was already walking around and speaking multiple different languages." The furious man started, cutting Steve off to continue, "My entire family pretended to be normal-" The jab landing and getting a flinch from most everyone in the room. "-so that I could at least have a little bit of a childhood before I started my training. When they told me about the family business..." The man advanced slowly on the people who had betrayed him.

"They told me what it meant to be a Stark, and what it meant to be a Carbonell." Tony said, getting into their faces now and vindictively revealing the last secret he had kept from them. "What it meant to be both.. I became the best, because I don't do anything but the best, and then I finished and took some time off. I met Steve." The last Carbonell heir said, making eye contact with Steve "Handsome, coffee-shop, American Dream Steve. He had no affiliation to the violent life that I had led and I thought I could be happy." Tony broke eye contact just as Steve blanched at the implications of the intentional past tense. 

"I thought that I had built a relationship based on trust, and honesty." He paused to hum in malicious pleasure as he watched them cringe, "And then the man I was falling in love with introduced me to his friends, to his family, and I just thought to myself 'What did I do to get so lucky as to have all these amazing, thoughtful, kind people in my life?' " Tony grimace at his own stupidity, getting several people to recoil at the look in his eye, the look of 'When did I get so stupid?'.

"So, I sat you all down. I explained my life and the blood on my hands and you guys comforted me." Tony's voice started to waver, deciding to continue despite he was glad that the shock had frozen them in place as efficiently as any rope could've. "I knew that you were hiding something and I thought that you would tell me after what you couldn't have missed to be a huge display of trust. It probably didn't take much for you to figure out how hard it is for me to trust people and what it meant to me." The steadily calming man commented, seemingly to himself, satisfied with the guilt lining their stances but not done with them yet.

"I thought that I knew you when I told you about my time in Afghanistan." Tony said to Bruce, going in for the more personalized part of his on-the-spot revenge. "I thought that I knew you when I told you about my family." That one was for Clint and Natasha, by the looks on their faces they got it loud and clear. "I thought that I knew you when I introduced you to my best friend, my brother in everything but blood." Sam's dark skin doing nothing for his rapidly paling face as the range of his betrayal started to seep in. 

"When I taught you guitar and told you the backstory when you asked." The man on a roll continued, Wanda cowering at the weight of the cool-toned anger being focused solely on her. "When I helped 'teach you' about self-defence" Tony just scoffed bitterly to himself and, after a moment of eye contact with Bucky moved on. "And, finally, when I told you that I was ready to have sex with you and you, knowing how important things like that are to me, did. Knowing that our relationship was a lie and before I could realize that I don't know a damn thing about you." Steve twitched like he wanted to move or do something but in the end he just stayed. 

Tony's face fell into something a bit more nostalgic.

"You know," The assassin started again, the slightly cheerful look on his face borderline deranged as the pieces of his life suddenly fell out from under him. "I always knew that all of you were keeping something from me. I knew it in the way that when Natasha and Clint weren't paying attention they moved like I do, how Bucky and Steve are just a little too graceful to just be regular Black Ops, how Bruce was a little too good in stressful situations and Sam and Wanda instantly looked to Steve if something seemed to be even a little bit off. I knew and I didn't go looking into it because my instincts said yes and my subconscious said it would ruin everything."

Taking a final deep breath and passing the shell shocked bodies Tony went to the door.

"I just never realized that I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop, I knew I wasn't ready to lose you guys.... But, bravo! I never would have guessed that the secret you were keeping from me was the mafia." 

He made eye contact will all of them one last time, memorizing their faces like he would never see them again, and then left. 

By the time the team gathered their senses he was gone and, after doing a final casing of the building, they left. Defeat and self-loathing in every line of their bodies and the knowledge that they would probably never see the amazing man that managed to change their lives in 3 short years again. 

****Do You Want the Honest Answer?****

Slowly walking to the hidden motorcycle felt like hours rather than minutes but, he managed. The long ride back to the mansion taking the opportunity to trap him in his mind with the ever circling hurricane of emotion as his body walked straight to the music room. When he finally registered the sound of delicate piano music he came back to himself.

Opening the door brought him to a beautiful room with the French balcony doors wide open, instruments all around and an alluringly gorgeous woman sitting on the piano bench, playing with her eyes closed. 

"What has brought you back so soon, mi bambino?" The bewitching woman asked without stopping her melodic playing.

The move was so familiar it finally brought him to his knees, the sobs already coming and his eyes blurring with the sheer weight of his tears. Feeling the deceptively strong arms of his mother around him he lost the last of his restraint. Tony tucked his head into his mother's neck and just cried, hours that felt like days passing before they started to taper down. 

"I'm sorry, mama. You were right." The heartbroken man said in his mother tongue, crushed that he had allowed himself to be so stupid. 

"I never wanted to be right, my sun, but the world has a cruel sense of humor. That was always a lesson that you were going to have to learn on your own." The matriarch of the Carbonell line whispered to her defeated son. 

The woman just rocked with her son, singing an old Italian lullaby until the distraught man in her arms calmed. They didn't move for a while but, when they did, they went to the kitchens. Their bodyguard Jarvis welcomed them with understanding in his eyes and stayed with them as they baked until first light.

Tony wasn't okay, but he might be eventually, with his mother and pseudo-father to guide him. 

Chapter Text

Nobody ever realizes that a couple of minutes could be the defining factor of your life. You never know until they happen and, even then, sometimes it's hard to see the good in circumstance until days, months, years after the fact. 

5 YEARS LATER

"You know, when you said that you had a job for me that I wouldn't like I assumed it was going to be another boringly easy assassination. Maybe you wanted me to hack something... Never once did it cross my mind that you would want me to work with the New York mafia." Tony said in Italian, annoyed but inordinately pleased that the wounds Steve had ripped into his heart didn't ache at the thought of him anymore. 

"We both know that you are going to have to see him eventually, you run in the same circles." Maria responds in kind, playing tough love because they both knew he would take the job. "Just be professional, get that damn operation shut down, and get out. You'll have Rhodey waiting for you there and I've arranged for you to have the house to yourselves when you get back." She says, ever the voice of reason and a hint of teasing in the end.

Tony just shook his head in exasperation, used to his mother's antics, and held a hand out for the file. Opening it he saw the blueprints for the warehouse. His irritation spiking when he saw it wasn't anything the New York mafia couldn't do themselves. Opening his mouth to complain his mother simply motioned for him to be quiet and flip the page.

There was tech everywhere: motion sensors in the vents, fake floors hiding cells, cameras covering every inch of wall.

At least I know why it's me specifically that's needed. He thought before sighing in defeat, putting down the file and leaning back in his chair. 

"I'll do it-" He started, his mother not even bothering to voice her victory, "But I want triple the usual compensation for the emotional abuse." Tony said with a straight face, his eyes laughing even though he was being serious. 

Maria just nodded.

"Now shoo! You have a job, I told Rhodey that you'll be calling him once you land in New York and he'll pick you up from the airport. I hope everything goes well, mi bambino!" The beautiful woman said to his back, already pushing him out the door. 

Tony just chucked to himself and, once getting out of the maze of a building, got onto his motorcycle. He rode back to his apartment and grabbed a duffle bag, gathering enough to stay for 2 weeks and packing light. Taking one last look around the apartment for anything he missed, he drove to the airport. Getting past security was a challenge in patience as always, only the promise of Rhodey at the end convincing him to play nice. Putting in some headphones and settling into his seat he made a cursory check. Seeing nothing suspicious he put on his sunglasses and went to sleep.

This is bound to be interesting. He thought to himself sarcastically just before falling asleep.

****Do You Want the Honest Answer?****

Hugging Rhodey was arguably one of the best things about their relationship because it meant that they were together. It meant that Rhodey wasn't off doing something for the military and Tony had a break. 

"Platypus" Tony whispered into the crook of the soldier's neck, tightening his arms as if afraid he would disappear. 

"Hey, Tones" Rhodey said in equal amounts of reverence, stroking the smaller man's back and content to have him within arm's reach again "Let's get you to the apartment, then we can talk." 

"Sure" 

The drive back to the apartment felt like it took minutes to Tony, just basking in the feeling of being next to Rhodey again and trying to memorize the way Rhodey's hand felt in his where they rested on the center console. 

Later that night when they were cuddling on the couch and watching a movie, James finally asked the question he had been holding back the entire night.

"How do you feel about seeing Steve again?" The man asked hesitantly, having seen first-hand just how much Rogers had broken the other man.

"I don't hate him anymore," The assassin started without further prompting, "I needed his betrayal to see what was right in front of my face and I will never regret anything about us except how long it took me to see it." 

And that was the end of it, eventually making their way to the bed they fell over each other, already kissing. 

"I missed you so much" Rhodey said as they fell on the bed, Tony already straddling his thick thighs and sucking hickeys onto his neck. Tony just mumbled in agreement and quickly pulled off his shirt, in no mood to go slowly. 

While Tony was focused on getting his shirt off, Rhodey undid his belt and unbuttoned his pants, both articles of clothing hitting the floor at the same time. Rhodey hummed in appreciation of the now very naked man on his lap, petting at his flanks.

"Risky, going commando like that." Rhodey said huskily, sex voice already making an appearance and getting a light keen as he smeared the words against Tony's sensitive neck. 

They worked quickly to get the other man undressed, Rhodey generally being no help and stroking over Tony's abs admiringly as they flexed and jumped with every move. They were a picture: dark and light skin sliding together. Rhodey with washboard abs, strong thighs, and thick arms. Tony with his trim waist, defined stomach, and pebbling nipples. His cock was already completely hard and leaking like a faucet, Rhodey's cock stood at attention; thick, and long with pronounced, dark veins. 

The man in his lap reached over for the nightstand, consequently putting his chest right over Rhodey's face. Who was he to resist such a polite offer? Tony twitched as his nipples were bitten, giving a beautiful mewl and pausing in his fumbling for the lube. Taking a moment to enjoy the sensation and just breathe, the man gathered his brain back together and finally grabbed the bottle. 

The Italian man pulled his now sensitive chest from Rhodey's face and replaced it with his mouth, biting kisses that promised to leave his lips bruised for days and a tongue soothing the ache. Handing the man under him the lube Tony just let himself enjoy their kiss. It was all consuming, so much so he didn't even realize that Rhodey had moved until he felt the bed at his back.

"Turn over for me sweetheart" Rhodey murmured, breaking their kiss and caressing the assassin's thigh in comfort when he gave a disappointed sigh at his mouth being taken away. 

Tony wordlessly turned over, going straight onto his knees with his face in the mattress without being asked. 

"Good boy" Rhodey cooed gently, his harsh kisses down the other man's spine bellying the words.

Rhodey's hands were everywhere, petting and pushing and pulling until Tony was exactly where he wanted him before he started gently rubbing his hole with two fingers. The unspoken threat to go in dry had Tony shivering, his moans and groans of excitement and pleasure growing in volume until it was all he could hear.

The only warning that he got was the breath on his entrance before he was getting licked. The overwhelming pleasure made him ache and his hole twitch under the steady attention of Rhodey's tongue. The symphony of gasping, cut off moans only grew in pitch as Rhodey's fingers never stopping their rubbing and his wet tongue loosened him. Rhodey started biting and tugging at the man's rim with slick fingers and sharp teeth just to hear him scream.

"Please let me come, please please-" Tony begged desperately, the ache in his stomach not letting up, only stopping his speech when another bite at his hole made him wail before starting right back up again. 

"No. Stay still and take what I give you." Rhodey's voice commanded, one hand grabbing the back of his neck to hold the squirming man in place and the other, the one with slick fingers started petting his fluttering hole again. 

Rhodey didn't move, holding him down and stroking his throbbing hole until finally the begging stopped. When Tony was finally starting to calm down, his breath slowing and his mind coming out of the fog, was when Rhodey finally moved. Instantly shoving three thick fingers into the body underneath him and reveling in the way his scream cut off into shuddering breath, immediately starting to roughly finger him. In out in out, without mercy hitting his prostate and enjoying the renewed begging at the burn. Feeling the warm heat around his fingers start clenching Rhodey waited until Tony was seconds away from coming then pulled his fingers away, never letting up on the hand that was pinning him to the bed by the back of his neck. 

"No! Please! I'll do anything!" Tony shouted, frantically thrusting his hips to try and find any sort of friction, so beyond any sense of pride leaving a desperate man behind. 

Rhodey didn't respond, just holding the assassin down and waiting until he was almost coherent again.

"I'm going to fuck you now." He started, moving his hand to the front of Tony's throat and squeezing. "You're going to lay there with your ass up like a good boy and take what I give you." His tone told Tony it wasn't a question and instantly had the man in his hold nodding even as the hand around his throat choked him. 

Rhodey got on his knees behind the quivering form of his lover, sliding his girthy cock up and down the crack of Tony's ass, the lube on it glistening in the gentle lighting. When the desperate man finally found it in himself to take a deep breath to start begging again the only thing that came out was a tortured whine. The burn of the large cock suddenly in his ass caused Tony to tense, moaning all the while as the tip rubbed right against his prostate. Soothing hands ran up and down his back, waiting until the channel had relaxed and he got a nod in between panting moans before starting to move.

Rhodey started out slowly, making Tony feel every inch of him; every vein, bump, and inch sliding against his slick walls making him want to sob. Tony's hands were fisted in the sheets as Rhodey loosened his hold on his throat, finally allowing him to take in full lungfuls of air. When his breath returned, so did the hand, efficiently cutting off his sounds as Rhodey started to pound into him from behind using his neck as a handle. Deep, rough thrusts that knocked out a grunt and any air he was able to gain between the pushes. 

For what felt like hours he was in suspension, dizzy from the lack of air and pleasure, hole twitching around the turgid flesh inside of him as his need to release came back with a vengeance. Knowing better than to ask to come, Tony clenched down hard in an effort to stop himself from coming right then and there. His cock was jumping in time with the heavy thrusts he was taking as the head brushed across the rough sheets. 

"Come" Rhodey muttered darkly into Tony's ear after what felt like hours, his breath going down Tony's neck as he was bitten. 

As if that was all his body had been waiting for, the next time Rhodey pounded into his prostate he came hard, barely able to breathe through his whining. The walls around Rhodey's cock clenching so hard that the man came instantly, filling his partner's sore body with warm, thick come. 

That last thing that Tony registered before he passed out was another bite to his neck and cursing as warmth filled him. 

****Do You Want the Honest Answer?****

Before he even finished waking up Tony had located his lower back, the aching soreness reminding him exactly how good the previous night had been. He took inventory and realized that Rhodey must have cleaned them up the night before. He stretched quickly, moaning in ecstasy at the tenderness of his hole. Rhodey was still sleeping, looking completely calm, so Tony left him alone. He grabbed the first shirt he saw off the floor, quickly realizing that it wasn't his but loving the way that it dwarfed him and slid down his shoulder all the same; displaying his many hickeys and two full sets of teeth marks. 

He leisurely walked into the kitchen and made coffee, mentally preparing himself to see the people that had lost his trust all those years ago. Lost in thought as he was, he missed Rhodey waking up and walking into the room in a pair of sleeping pants. The older man, seeing him preoccupied, took the opportunity to slide behind him, arms wrapping around the assassin's hips. Jumping slightly before getting his bearings Tony just hummed, tilting his head to the side to give the other man more room where he was kissing his marks. 

"We need to leave in an hour if we're going to make it on time." Tony said, basking in the lazy pleasure pain of Rhodey touching the fresh marks. Rhodey just nodded and let go to grab a mug. 

****Do You Want the Honest Answer?****

Walking into the loft that they were supposed to be meeting at, Tony was the picture of composed: not a hair out of place, jeans and a t-shirt with a weapon anywhere he could conceal it. Rhodey was at his side, his posture practically screaming authority. Steve and his branch of the mafia were already there, several of them literally jumping up at the sight of a person they thought that they would never see again. They all looked the same, if slightly older. Sam had a new scar on his face and Bruce looked much more muscular than before but, otherwise it seemed as if nothing had changed. 

"Tony?" Steve asked, not bothering to pay attention to his surroundings in the face of the man he still loved.

"We need to get down to business, I have another job lined up and I've only got 5 days." The assassin said, face blank and unwilling to give a single inch. 

Steve just nodded dumbly, the sound of his voice finally snapping everyone out of it. They visibly grimaced at the lack of friendliness that Tony was displaying but they got over it quickly.

"This is Colonel James Rhodes, he'll be involved as well." The Carbonell heir said bitingly, just begging someone to protest. 

It was a shame nobody took him up on the offer. 

They planned, everyone refusing to bring up the elephant in the room. Steve had several good ideas but ultimately wasn't ready for the level of technology that Maria's scouts had found. 

After hours of going around in circles the assassin had had enough.

"Look, we need to keep a low profile because I need to hack into the cameras before we go in and then I need to get to the control room to copy all of their data. That is the point of me being here and that's what I'll do. James will be my backup, he's not leaving my side anyways, and the rest of you just need to make sure that nobody gets away. Do you think that you can handle that, Captain?" Tony demanded, beyond over playing babysitter for those who he had once seen a future with. 

"Yes," Steve started, a split second of pain showing on his face before it was masked. "We will manage." He said, tone final.

Tony nodded, letting out a silent sigh of relief.

****Do You Want the Honest Answer?****

After 3 days of planning they were finally ready. 3 days of Steve trying to corner Tony and failing at every turn. Tony knew better than to let himself explode right before a job and made it a point to always know where the blond man was. Tony sat in the back of the van, everyone still sitting in their seats as he readied himself for a potential fight to gain control of the cameras. 

Taking a deep breath he started typing, fingers flying on the keyboard as he seamlessly integrated himself into their system. 

"I'm in, you have 7 minutes from when I say 'go' to get to the hallway we were talking about and wait there for me to get to the control room. I'll make the lights flash quickly three times. That's your cue. I'll take all the data and work my way back out and from there your only job is making sure nobody gets away." The hacker muttered, getting sharp nods from everyone in the room.

"Go"

Like a gunshot had gone off instantly everyone filed out of the van; Natasha and Clint going around the back to make sure that nobody caught on and Steve, Bucky, Sam, and Wanda going straight to the hallway. Clint set himself up in his sniper's nest on the roof next door and got out his rifle, ready to shoot anyone who made it out. 

From there it was pretty uneventful, Rhodey and Tony killed a few people on their way to the control room but ultimately got there with no issue. Tony got all the data that his mother had asked for and got back out quickly, his partner never leaving his side. The trouble started on the way out. 

Tony and Rhodey got themselves surrounded, 12 men all with knives and in one case a sword. Tony pulled out his sword for his right hand and his dagger for his left while Rhodey pulled out his gun. They went back to back and saw the others get to the end of the hallway.

"Just like old time, huh?" Tony said with a genuinely happy laugh, chuckling at the wide smile on Rhodey's face in response. "Say, remember John Deller?" He asked, getting Steve and his team to pause at the obvious fun they were having, Natasha holding him back in anticipation of seeing how it would play out. 

"Wow, that's a throwback if I've ever seen one." Rhodey joked, nodding and adjusting his stance accordingly. 

All at once everyone started to move; Rhodey picked off everyone he could with the gun while Tony danced around him, slashing and punching and cutting. He flipped and bent through a deadly dance, killing everyone in his path without pause. It took seconds but, to the two fighting, it felt like longer. Finally all 12 men were down, some with bullet holes and some with deep gashes. 

Tony, hopped up on adrenaline as he was, jumped onto Rhodey and wrapped his legs around his waist. Rhodey, expecting it just back peddled until he hit the wall with Tony safely in his arms. The assassin surged against his lover, taking Rhodey's mouth brutally until the man grabbed his hair and forced him to slow down. As they slowly stopped kissing Tony giggled, leaning against Rhodey when he was put down and lost in their own world together. A throat cleared and, still running on instinct, the couple instantly each pulled a gun at the sound, not shooting by a bare inch.

Stepping away from each other Tony finally caught on to the look on Steve's face: Total devastation mixing with puppy-dog eyeshot create an entirely unappealing image. 

"Tony?" Steve said, betrayal lining his body language and making the man in question bristle. 

Taking a deep breath Tony scanned the room making sure everyone was dead then looked back to the man he used to love.

"I'm not doing this in a warehouse again." He muttered to himself just loud enough for everyone to hear, getting the desired effect "Let's meet back at the loft." 

The couple left, taking Tony's motorcycle and leaving them the van as they went to the loft. The ride wasn't long and, as they rode, Tony realized that he wasn't nervous at all. He realized that he had been right: he really was over what they had done to him. 

****Do You Want the Honest Answer?****

When Steve's team finally got to the loft Tony was leaning against the wall with no Rhodey in sight. Noticing the stares he motioned them to sit on the couch.

"It's nothing that he hasn't heard before but I feel like I need to say this and have it just be you guys listening... I was never looking to get away from the family business, I wasn't ashamed of my life." He started, not bothering to adress the disappointed look on Steve's face. It was almost as if being a hypocrite never crossed the  man's mind. "I had fun when I was with you, I thought that it would last. I was wrong and I'm so glad I was because I'm happier than I've ever been now and you only have yourselves to thank for that. None of this ever would have happened if you hadn't broken any trust I had left for you."

Not even looking at the people he once thought of as family he just mercilessly continued, knowing he needed to say it before he could truly put this behind him. 

"I was resigned to hating you for the rest of my life but I now realize that I should be thanking you. After I figured out you were the Captain I went back to Italy." Tony was lost in thought, barely paying attention to the way Bucky and Natasha paled as they realized the reputation he had built for himself there. "I fucked my way through most of the clubs there before I realized that I was in love with Rhodey. It took me months to find the balls to tell him and when I did... He just told me that I was an idiot and kissed me." Steve flushed with anger before devastation washed it away, Bucky taking his hand in comfort as Tony made eye contact and finished his speech.

"I realized that he had been waiting for me to catch up and, once I did... Being with him is so easy. I'm not worried or anxious and I know that if I let my guard down he won't let anything hurt me. I want to be a better person for him. I want to be sappy with him, to tell him that I love him and know that he feels the same. My relationship with Rhodey is everything that I've ever wanted and everything that you couldn't have ever given me. So, thank you, for giving me the chance to be happy even if you never even knew you were doing it." Just like the time before, the assassin made eye contact with every one of the people in the loft before giving a content nod and leaving.

Back to Rhodey, back to Italy, to his mother and Jarvis. He was happy again, something he had doubted he could be. He thanked God everyday for the amazing relationship that he had and the fact that he caught the red flags before they could drown him. 

Ok, a couple things. 1. I haven't written MxM porn in a long time so, let me know how I did. 2. I imagine that Steve has convinced himself that he was keeping Tony out of the mafia life for his own good because he "was clearly ashamed and desperate to get out". 3. Kudos and constructive criticism is always welcome. I would also love it if you guys could give me pairings and prompts that you would like to see so help me figure out what to write next. -Rose