Title: Not to Yield
Fandom: MCU
Rating: PG
Length: 264 words
Content notes: Civil War Fic
Author notes: I'm team Cap.
Summary: Steve cannot yield to Ross, no matter the cost.

We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
~ Tennyson



Steve sighed. Even though he believed himself to be right, he knew that Tony felt the same way.

Or did he? Steve actually had a hard time thinking that Tony believed what Ross thought was right. Ross simply wanted to control their power and use it to his own ends. He’d proved that more than once.

No. He would not yield. He had already fought more than one war to protect freedom and to stop the evil that that threatened the entire world.

He admitted to himself that Lagos had been handled badly – by him. Wanda had simply made a mistake. He was responsible and he took that responsibility, but he would not give control of his abilities to men who he considered men of bad reasoning, if he was being kind about them, men of bad character, if he was being honest.

He’d actually read the accords and saw nothing in them that he could agree to. It would put the Avengers, indeed all people of powers, under the control of those same men he distrusted.

“Won’t you just sign them?” Tony asked.

“No. Ross wants us all under his thumb or dead and I will not yield to pressure just to allow someone I will never trust to control me and those I’m responsible for.”

Tony shrugged as if it didn’t matter to him, but Steve saw the hurt in his eyes. He turned away, realizing that he couldn’t fix this. He pushed the thick sheaf of paper back across the table toward Tony, rose and left the room, not looking back.