when you're alone silence is all you know [ strange + steve ]

[becloaked]

let in the noise and let it grow

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[becloaked]

It's what people expect of me.

Now that is an interesting thing to say. The Captain America of times past would, perhaps, have stopped at saying that he was just trying to help put the world back together. But that little add-on, and the tiniest of slumps in Steve's shoulders, are adding up towards a picture that Stephen hadn't expected.

"I just spent the last week skipping between dimensions trying to stop a grief-stricken witch from killing a teenager, I'm very well-rested," Stephen replies dryly, taking a sip of his tea. It's a little spicy, a little fruity, and exactly what he needs to reinvigorate the senses. Steve clearly isn't telling the whole story; Stephen isn't going to either. Telling Steve everything wouldn't serve any kind of useful purpose right now.

He watches Steve thoughtfully, eyes bright in the afternoon light coming in through the nearby window. Golden motes of dust, dust that seems to permanently accompany everything in this place, dance in the air as he shifts, crossing one leg over the other.

"I'm a little surprised you didn't choose to stay in the past," he says, blunt as ever. "One of the Stones came from your original timeline, didn't it? It would have been an easy thing to save that one for last, and simply stay in a time you're more familiar with." Captain America's struggles with adjusting to the present time are well-documented, though Stephen really only knows about it because of the occasional headline he'd glimpsed and not through any heart-to-hearts with any of the Avengers.