Steve Rogers Awakens

"Why not?" Tony didn't think there was anything wrong with it.

He pressed his right hand against the glass.

"In the old man's writings and recordings, the things he mentioned most were his own inventions, followed by Steve Rogers. We didn't even rank as high as that seventy-year-old popsicle."

Tony looked at Captain America on the other side.

"Between the lines, all I saw was praise—endless praise. It was as if he wasn't describing a real person at all."

"I want to see just how inhuman he really is," he said.

Leon nodded. "So you're jealous, right?"

"Because you're jealous, you want to bring Captain America into the Avengers, then beat him with your record?"

Tony had only ever been praised by his strict father in the videos Howard left behind.

Yet Captain America had received Howard's lavish praise.

Naturally, Tony was deeply displeased by that.

For all anyone knew, he was already figuring out how to prove he was better than Captain America.

Their first meeting was destined to have a little gunpowder in the air.

"Jealous? You think I'd be jealous of him? God, jealous of a man who's been frozen for seventy years?" Tony immediately shot back.

Clearly, someone had hit a sore spot.

He wanted to change Leon's mind.

"Do you see Coulson over there?" Tony pointed at Coulson on the other side of the glass.

"He's a Captain America fan.

If he hadn't pushed this rescue plan so enthusiastically,

I would absolutely have kept Mr. Popsicle in cold storage beneath the ice.

Instead of letting him come out and face this unfamiliar modern world.

I'm being so compassionate, and you think I'd be jealous of him?"

Leon examined Coulson, who stood beside Captain America's bed.

The balding middle-aged agent was indeed staring fixedly at Captain