Wow, you sort of... just laid out my entire planned babble right there... I definitely feel that Steve would have to be the one to instigate their 'retirement' - because he won't retire until Tony does and Tony would never let him go out without him, so he won't retire until STEVE does... I agree completely that they'd stay with training/mentoring because they could never give it up. I can totally see several (SEVERAL) 'false starts' at retiring - they retire, something comes up, they come out of retirement. Rinse and repeat.

^____^ It's entirely heartwarming.

And dang, makes me want to color my hot-old-guys pic now :P Curse you!

-Tro