Chapter Text
There is a certain elegance to death, a certain finality which seems almost inherent. Death in and of itself implies a level of closure. While mourning may occur, death is after all an inevitability in all but a few situations.
Ah.
But then it is those few occasions which skew one’s world view regarding death. Exceptions too apparently implausible to believe. Of course in the world he lived in death was not uncommonly succeeded by a paradoxical impossibility.
Life.
The irony of such an occurrence was all too obvious, yet in such cases one could almost see the unexpected workings of fate.
He was a big believer in fate, always had been. And with the coincidences and accidents that had guided his entire life that was certainly understandable. Yet he could never have predicted this. Then again, nothing about this year had been predictable.
Things had just moved too fast. Events quickly spiraling out of control. His best friend’s evident betrayal was like a sucker punch to the gut that the passage of time could not lessen. It had shaken his iron resolve. Thrown him off course. If there was anything in this world that he had thought he could always depend on it was Tony. The loss of that rock had devastated him in a way that even losing decades of time in the ice hadn’t.
He knew he hadn’t made the best decisions. Hadn’t been thinking clearly enough to be justifiably viewed as a leader. But then that was the trap he all too often fell into. Justifiably or not, people often looked to him for direction, for leadership. Ignoring the possibility of incorrectness, of failure. When you’re viewed by so many with such respect, such idealized perspectives, it’s hard to think objectively. To keep an open mind.
It was one of the many things he could depend on Tony for. Not letting him take himself too seriously. Remembering he was only human.
Regardless, his fate had been in direct consequence of his actions, of his decisions. Until the moment his life once again took an unexpected turn as he lay on the ground feeling his life flee from him as quickly as it had been awaken from the ice all those years ago. And that was the end of it.
Or so he thought.