Never Too Late For Love

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Fanfiction
Title: Never Too Late For Love
Author(s): Sineala
Date(s): Dec 8, 2017
Length: 98,059 words, eight chapters
Genre(s): Romance, Slash, Soulmates AU
Fandom(s): Marvel Ultimates
Relationship(s): Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
External Links: AO3

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Never Too Late for Love is Sineala's contribution to the 2017 Captain America/Iron Man Big Bang. The story features the Marvel Ultimates versions of Steve Rogers and Tony Stark, unwittingly and unwillingly connected by a soulbond. As the story progresses, a romance blossoms between the two. The fic also contains art from phoenixmetaphor.

Author's Summary

"Steve has always believed that a soulbond is a blessing -- a rare and beautiful miracle, joining the thoughts and feelings of two people forever, from the first time they touch. Steve knows he's not going to be one of the lucky ones. He knows Gail isn't his soulmate. But he loves her, even if they're not soulmates, and he's going to do right by her. After the war's over, he's going to marry her, and they're going to settle down. They'll buy a house. They'll have children. He'll see his family again. Maybe Bucky will live next door. It's going to be a good life. He doesn't need a soulbond. He'll be fine without one.

Then Steve wakes up sixty years in the future to find that his wonderful life has moved on without him. His family is long dead. His fiancée married his best friend. And the only purpose he has left is leading the Ultimates, a misbegotten team of superheroes with flaws too numerous to count. Steve hates everything about the future -- but most of all he detests Tony, flashy and flirtatious, who embodies everything Steve hates about a world he never wanted to live in.

And, oh, yeah, Steve has a soulmate after all: Tony fucking Stark."[1]

Reactions & Reviews

[Stephanie] This was really well written and it's so refreshing to see a Steve that is so absolutely messed up and struggling. I must say though, you didn't really follow through with the expectation you were creating throughout the whole story. I was disappointed by Tony's miraculous healing. It felt like Steve got away with so, so much, he even got away with making Tony feel lower than scum because at the end, Tony was healed thanks to him. The beauty about angst is not always the happy ending at the bottom, but rather the sting of loss. You lost out on the opportunity of giving the reader a true, emotional journey. Yes they struggled, yes there were fights and tears but at the end all that was for nothing because Steve gets the chance to make things right again. In a way, Steve was like Hank, the abuser in a relationship who beats down on their partner and Tony, like Jan is just happy to have them back. I'm sure that I'm probably the only person who thinks this, and please don's misunderstand me, the story is amazing, it's just that it stung that at the end, all that struggle was for nothing. All is well in the world, off they go to have sex... until next time when Steve freaks out and Tony ends back up on the bed, sobbing. Just some food for thought, your writing was so evocative that you made a fan rant. Anyway, thank you so much for writing this, I loved the journey.[2]

[Razdraz]
[...] Steve's first time with Gail where he's inexperienced and eager and so in love with her that he's wrecked when she (understandably! Holy shit Steve ow) hates it. Steve's self-loathing and low self-esteem in general just killed me the entire fic. His time with Jan? Oh my god. The image of him just laying there next to her feeling useless and alone and confused while she gets herself off.....

And Tony! Oh, Tony. I sobbed right along with him after Steve ran out on him. They're both so fragile and have such human, natural wants. Who doesn't want someone to stay with them? To love them? To be happy? I'm also going to disagree with another reader up there, because angst for the sake of angst gets exhausting. I say this as someone whose fave fic of all time is Sins, too. This was the perfect resolution to Steve's story because god, FINALLY he's letting himself be himself. Wholly. Entirely. Steve and Tony are going to have work on things, sure, but the truth is they saved each other.

Anyways I love this, I love you, I love these boys. What an amazing gift to the fandom[3]

[ChibiSquirt]
[...] A couple things I really liked, in no particular order... I liked how Steve kept hoping for a soulmate and not getting one (until he did); I thought that was a nice romantic element to him, and it rang true with his idealist nature. (Is idealist the right word? Absolutist, anyway, and I feel like the two are connected...) I liked that Steve figured it out, finally, by talking to Gail and Bucky. (You also did a great job weaving them throughout the narrative, so they didn't come out of left field.) I was impressed by the delicacy with which you walked the line between Steve not *caring* about Tony's alcoholism, and Steve *nagging* about Tony's alcoholism. He did neither, and that's hard as hell to pull off.[4]

Inspired Works

Translations

Other

References

  1. ^ Sineala's author's summary. Never Too Late For Love on AO3. Archived from the original on June 24, 2020.
  2. ^ Stephanie. Comment on Archive of Our Own, Dec 9, 2017. Archived from the original on March 3, 2021.
  3. ^ Razdraz. Comment on AO3, Dec 9, 2017. Archived from the original on March 3, 2021.
  4. ^ Comment on AO3, Dec 9, 2017. Archived from the original on March 3, 2021.
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