(FIClet) Library Talk

[glasgowsmiles.livejournal.com]

Hey, all! Back's been out for a couple days, so I've been in the not-communicating-with-the-Internets place, trying not to move suddenly. But then I checked my e-mail and found that I have some nicely beta-ed fic for you!

Title: Library Talk (well, that's what it's called on my computer-- it beats out 'Untitled', at least...)
Author: GlasgowSmiles
Rating:
Warning/Spoilers: none
Pairing:  pre- Steve/Tony
Word Count: 1,080
Beta: The fantastic ellyr_in_ink and any mistakes are mine
A/N: Not a sequel or prequel to anything else so far, just a little thing that came to me.
Summary: Steve and Tony have a late-night chat/moment.

EDIT: fixed the warnings/spoilers space! Not actually a multiverse/AU fic, I'm just so used to that being true.

It started innocently enough like a million other evenings with Tony sprawled in a club chair reading something very technical looking and Steve perusing the bookshelves for something a little lighter than that.

“Ugh.” He pulled a book free and held it between two fingers. “Really? Atlas Shrugged?”

“You’re surprised?” Tony raised an eyebrow.

“I can’t believe I’m friends with someone who owns a copy of Atlas Shrugged.” Steve said, raising one eyebrow and smiled.

“I can’t believe I’m friends with someone who doesn’t think Futurama is funny,” Tony fired back, smirking.

“Excuse me if I don’t find the humor in a cartoon about a man-child with no job skills who wakes up in a future where everyone he knew is dead and who befriends an alcoholic robot.”

“Okay,” Tony set the mechanical engineering journal down forcefully. “There are so many things wrong with that assessment that I am not sure where to begin, but I’ll do my best. A, Bender is not alcoholic, he needs alcohol to function. B, it’s not—You don’t—See, the thing about—That’s just—“

“I didn’t mean—“

“No. You know what, forget about it.”

“I don’t like a lot of shows you guys find funny, though. I mean, I can’t even watch the Looney Tunes cartoons that were made in the nineties. Maybe I’m not a cartoon person.”

“You liked Rocky and Bullwinkle,” Tony accused.

“You wanted me to like Rocky and Bullwinkle! I don’t know what the problem is with that.”

“B, I’m not a sociopathic robot and you’re not an unskilled man-child,”

“I never said—“ He made move towards Tony, but stopped, hand hovering a moment before dropping uselessly to his side.

“It was a gift.”

Steve stopped for a moment, thrown by the abrupt change. At least, he was pretty sure it was a change, although sometimes with Tony it was hard to tell. “What?”

“Atlas Shrugged. It was a gift from a man who... who went a long way towards making me who I am today.”

“Your father?” he guessed.

Tony shook his head. “No. Although he might have read it. He might even have liked it. Between boarding school and MIT and work and the accident, I never knew him well enough to know. I mean, I knew him, but not... I knew what he thought about business, not literature. He might have hated it. I don’t know. I don’t think I ever will, since it’s not like he left a diary full of book reviews behind. But I kept it...”

“Because it was a gift?”

Another shake of the head. “Maybe at first. I read it once and put it on a shelf, then in a box, then on a different shelf, et cetera and so forth, and forgot about it for a while. But it’s more a reminder now. He’s... he’s someone I don’t want to be. Anyway, honestly, if you can get past some of the author tract stuff and a couple awful bits... I don’t know, I don’t remember it being that bad. I might not have finished it.”

“That’s funny... I guess I always just imagined you remembering every book you’d ever read. Although I’m not sure why, I mean—“

“I remember every book I was interested in. Anyway, it’s not about the book itself. It’s entirely about the person who gave it to me. Have you read it?”

“I didn’t get very far in. I don’t intend to, I already know I won’t enjoy the end any more than I enjoyed the beginning. Plus, you know how I am. I mean, I don’t really get Objectivism, and it’s not that I think any particular viewpoint in itself is wrong,”

“Yeah, I know.”

“But the thread of anti-Altruism really bugs me. I mean, as important as personal liberties are, I really do believe that as human beings, we should be devoted to something outside of and bigger than ourselves, and I don’t think mankind is essentially amoral. I honestly didn’t mean to—“

“I know. Today was just... I was on edge. It’s okay, I know.”

“I’m not saying it’s the book’s fault that people used it to champion things that I don’t agree with. I mean, then you get into the murky realm of dissecting what an artist meant versus what was later inferred, and that’s a minef—that’s a—Well, you just have to have so many discussions, maybe even going back to what constitutes—“

“Steve, relax,” Tony sighed, mouth turning up at one corner. “You can say the word, you know. Besides, I don’t think you’re missing anything by not finishing the book, anyway. If it was that good, I would have remembered it. Instead I just remember... I know a lot of the people who go in for the anti-Altruism angle, and who take it too far.”

“As I understand, it was more reactionary against a specific definition of ‘altruism’ than it was the idea of altruism as we commonly think of it.”

“Yeah. Some of the people I know are against any kind of altruism. My social circle contains a whole bunch of jerkasses.”

Steve snorted. “Elegantly put.”

“There but for the grace of God go I.”

“You’re a good man. And besides, your social circle has a lot of charities and benefits.”

“It makes you look good.”

“Don’t be so cynical. Some of those people must care. You care.”

“Yeah. It only took being blown the hell up to make that happen. If every selfish, amoral businessman was so spectacularly hoist by his own petard, we’d have so much altruism you’d be drowning in it. Or at least there’d be a deficit of selfish, amoral businessmen.”

“Can you drown in altruism?”

“Yes.” Tony picked up his journal.

Steve walked around the room, staring hard in the direction of the books, until he came to stand next to Tony’s chair, one hand gripping the back gently.

“I’m glad you—I’m glad you’re not a selfish, amoral businessman. I’m glad you survived your petard. I’m glad I got unfrozen in the future and met you and I’m glad we joined a loose affiliation of freaks and weirdos, even if it wasn’t a package delivery service and even if I don’t really get Futurama. I am not glad I had to sit through Jurassic Bark and Everybody Loves Hypno-Toad, but I’m glad—I’m glad that right now, you’re here and I’m here.”

“Yeah. Yeah, me too.”

---FIN---