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The fact of the matter is that Toni Stark—Billionaire CEO of Stark Enterprises, occasionally known as Iron Man—doesn’t like to be handed things. Most everyone treats it like a joke; they make comments about her being paranoid about being drugged or if she let someone that close to her, they would kill her. She laughs it off, but she doesn’t dignify their jokes with much of a response. Maybe if they’d come up with better jokes, she’d give them something more than OCD or Haphephobia (the latter often has bullshit called on it, as she’s touched plenty of people without fear).
It’s not until she and Steve are alone in Malibu and he asks her point blank why she doesn’t like to be handed things that she finally tells someone the truth.
“I was twenty-seven,” she begins, taking a seat across from him at the dining room table, a cup of coffee in her hand. “I was running the company alright, hadn’t destroyed it anyway. Rhodey was away, doing a weapons demonstration in Afghanistan and one night…” She gripped her cup tightly, shaking a little. “One night, I get a knock at the door. It took me a bit to get up there, I was in the middle of things and there was a lot of stuff and if I left at the wrong time, the entire house would have gone up in a rather big boom… anyway, I get up there, and it’s a soldier. He’s Air Force, got his full military dress uniform on and he looks very official and all. He asks if I’m Miss Stark, I say yeah…” She took a drink of her coffee.
“And?” Steve asked. He doesn’t want to push her. She doesn’t take well to being pushed by anyone, not even by him. Pushing her too hard would lead to her locking him out of the workshop and him not seeing her for the rest of their vacation.
“And he handed me an envelope,” she continued. “Placed it in my hand and walked away. I opened it and there was a letter. It was all official looking, had the Air Force seal…”
“What did it say?” She closed her eyes; Steve didn’t think she would answer him, but she soon began to recite the letter from memory.
“Dear Miss Stark; We regret to inform you that during a mission in Afghanistan, Captain James Rhodes was shot down over enemy territory and is currently missing in action, presumed dead. The United States Air Force extends its sympathy to you and your family in your tragic loss.” She opened her eyes and took another sip of her coffee, the cup shaking in her hand. “I didn’t know until that day that he’d listed me as his next of kin.”
“You’re his best friend,” Steve replied softly. “Why wouldn’t he…”
“Yeah.” Another sip of coffee. “The last thing I ever let anyone hand to me was the notification of my best friend’s death. Because every time someone tries, that letter is all I see.”
She fled down to the workshop after that, not allowing the comfort Steve very much wanted to give her. Jarvis let him know that the door was unlocked, so he should be able to get in there when he wanted to. There had to be something he could do to help her… he grinned. He knew just want to hand her.
Toni barely registered the fact that someone had entered her workshop until the music was turned down. She and Steve had agreed on this method after he had unintentionally sneaked up on her and she accidentally burned his arm with her blowtorch. The music getting turned down was a gentle notification that someone friendly was in her workshop.
“Steve?” she called. “I’m under the Porsche!” She didn’t bother to wheel herself out from under the 1971 Tapiro she working on, the poor baby needed her oil changed and she wasn’t going to let just anyone do it for her. “Did you want to order food? I was thinking Chinese, there’s a really good place…” She felt a hand on her ankle, pulling her out from under the car. “Steve?” He was standing over her, one hand behind his back. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” She got to her feet, trying to see the hand behind his back. “What is it, let me see!”
“For you.” Steve brought his hand out from behind his back, showing her a large bouquet of yellow roses, handing them to her. “Your favorite, am I right?”
“Oh, Steve…” She smiled, taking the roses out of his hand. “No one’s ever…” She looked away from the roses and to his face. “What are you grinning at?”
“You just let me hand you something.”
From then on, the saying changed. “I don’t like people handing me things. Unless it’s Steve.”
Steve decided to take it as a win.