Chapter Text
Pepper opens her mouth and closes it again. This was absolutely ludicrous. There was no way that… Just no.
She doesn’t know why she is even contemplating the idea. Sure, the Tony and Rhodey were close and all but she’s known both of them for years now and there’s no way she could have missed something like that happening right underneath her nose.
….Right?
“Pepper? Come on, you’re not telling us that there might really actually be something between Tony and Rhodes are you?”
Clint jabs his pair of chopsticks at her and Pepper shoves them out of her face before responding.
“No. Of course not.”
“But could there be? Do either of them perhaps want there to be?” Natasha queries.
“In case you forgot, it was Tony and I who had been together. He may have had a playboy reputation but once he commits, he never strays.” Pepper reminds.
“And Rhodes?”
“He’s Tony’s best friend.”
“Just friends.”
“Yes.”
“Aha!” Clint shouts at Natasha who leans back annoyed “Told you there was nothing to the whole breakfast in bed thing.”
“Breakfast in bed?” Pepper asks almost hesitatingly. She had a bad feeling about this.
“Apparently Rhodes delivered breakfast in bed to Stark a couple days ago. The implication was that the two of them had been in bed together the night previous.” Natasha explains.
Clint scoffs and adds, “Yeah right. Because two people sleeping together is totally just a friendly bonding activity. Well, this settles it then once and for...”
He turns towards Pepper and trails off at the clearly uncomfortable look on her face.
“You’re kidding. You just said they weren’t bumping uglies!”
“They only sleeping!” She protests. “It’s this thing where Tony refuses to sleep properly or eat so Rhodey just sort of…”
“Croons sweet nothings in his ear till Tony falls asleep in his arms? Yes, very platonic indeed.” Natasha deadpans.
“I…” She doesn’t really have a rebuttal to that. She’d walked in on them once doing what she could only call cuddling on the couch. Tony had been asleep, snuggled into Rhodey’s chest and snoring lightly, while Rhodey was so busy smiling at the dozing genius in his arms with an expression of exasperated fondness that he hadn’t even realize she was there.
It had occurred to her before that it was a little odd but Pepper had always put it down to just Tony being Tony and Rhodey being a good friend. After all, she’d also occasionally played teddy bear for when the man was nearly falling over from exhaustion but still refused to sleep without someone basically holding him down until he finally dozed off.
Then again, she had been in love with him. Could it be that Rhodey had been the same?
Pepper shakes her head.
“It doesn’t make sense. If he really has been holding a torch for Tony, then why now? Why wait?”
Natasha shrugs. “There are plenty of possible reasons. His military career, you, maybe he hasn’t quite realized he was in love…People can be odd when it comes to love especially when it’s a friend.”
Pepper sneaks a quick glance at Clint who looks back blankly. Nevermind.
“Rhodey’s never agreed with Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. And if…if he’d really wanted Tony then I would have never stood a chance,” she replies.
“So you’re saying that even if Tony was supposedly in love with someone else, he would still leave him or her for Rhodes?”
Pepper throws her hands up in the air in frustration and then grabs the remainder of her cup of sake and throws that back. Clint pours her another and she quickly downs that one too.
“Look," she says, slamming the cup back down, "If you two knew them then you wouldn’t even be asking this. Tony and Rhodey are friends and That. Is. It.”
She stands up, “And now if you’ll excuse me, I have a company to run. Oh, and tell Tony that he better at the gala tonight.”
Natasha nods. “We’ll make sure of it.”
There’s something about the way she says it that send a shiver of foreboding up Pepper’s spine but she knows that whatever it is that Natasha has planned, there’s nothing she can do about it at this time. She really does have a company to run and if she doesn’t leave now then she was going to be late for the board meeting. And unlike Tony, she did not care to have a reputation for always being late.
********
Steve sighs into his flute of champagne and wished he were home. Parties like this gala really weren't his thing and he’d been hoping to catch up on his reading tonight. Tony had recently introduced him to the Twilight series and like watching a train wreck, he just couldn’t stop reading even though he spent most of the time absolutely horrified by the plot.
Was that really what counted as romance these days? Tony had said that it was the number one romance novel of the decade and was rivaled only by another similar book called ‘Fifty Shades of Gray’ but Steve sincerely hoped that this was another one of Tony’s jokes.
Tony had also promised to show him the movies at some point, said the first one had even won several awards. Steve has yet to decide if he was really willing to let Tony convince him to watch them.
Shaking off all thoughts of sparkling vampires, Steve scans the crowd for the other Avengers. Clint had said that this was supposed to be another Avengers publicity event but so far none of the other Avengers had been around. Clint and he had arrived together but the archer had disappeared within minutes of arrival. Bruce was excused due to experiments and Thor off with Jane and couldn’t make it either.
That still left Natasha and Tony who were MIA so far. Steve frowns. Where could those two to be? Surely if something had happened, Steve would have been informed right?
Just as he was getting ready to pull out his phone and call them, there’s a commotion and his ears pick up a faint ‘Mr. Stark’ and Steve smiles. Finally, Tony’s here.
He circles the room searching for a bright and loud crowd where Tony would be sure to be holding court. There’s a large knot of people by the punch bowl and Steve spots his target at the center of it. Tony is laughing brightly, looking as roguishly dashing in his tuxedo as Clark Gable had been as Rhett in ‘Gone With the Wind’.
The tuxedo is a sleek black and white number that practically screams obnoxiously wealthy. Tony pulls it off like a charm though as he always does. It's the bowtie he's wearing that makes Steve smile though. It's a gray and black polka-dot silk one that Steve had given him for his birthday because Tony had kept complaining about Pepper having confiscated his fun ones because they weren't 'appropiate' and plain black bowties were so boring.
He'd been worried at first that Tony would think it a silly gift considering he had enough money to buy but Tony had been delighted by it and promised to wear it to every function which was a lot of functions. By now Steve supposes he should be used to the sight of it around Tony's neck but it still makes him feel a little warm inside seeing Tony wearing something of Steve's.
Bowtie or not though, Tony always looked good in suits, whether they were made of metal or fine Italian wool. Steve liked him in both though he had to admit a certain fondness for Tony in nothing more than threadbare jeans and a grease-stained ACDC shirt.
It reminded him of hours down in the workshop watching Tony make magic (technology, Steve, technology not that mumbo jumbo magic shit that Loki likes), creating blue beauties in air with nothing more than a wave of his hand and bantering with JARVIS and the bots.
He steps forward, ready to interrupt and steal Tony away when someone intercepts him. A very familiar someone decked out in the same dress uniform that he’d worn several days ago when he’d suddenly showed up in the Avengers’ kitchen.
Colonel Rhodes grins at him and throws an arm around Steve’s shoulders. Standing right next to the other man, Steve realizes that the other man is shorter by about an inch and some petty part of him prods him into standing up a little straighter to highlight the difference.
“Captain! Just the man I was looking for,” the Colonel exclaims, “I have a few people I think you'd be interested in meeting.”
Steve looks back at where Tony was; their eyes meet briefly and Tony smiles at him, brilliant and handsome and Steve's heart skips a step as he smiles back. Then the moment is gone and Tony's back to charming the crowd and the Colonel is pulling Steve away. He guides Steve over to the east side of the room towards a group of dressed up dames are chatting by the giant ice sculpture of a swan.
“Ladies! Have you all met Captain America?” Rhodes calls out to them. Steve gulps as half a dozen women turn to him with hungry expressions, as if they were lionesses and he a limping gazelle, ripe for the picking.
“Oh Colonel Rhodes, you shouldn’t have,” titters one of them. The Colonel laughs and shoves Steve forward.
“Hello Ma’am’s,” Steve bows a little. They laugh at him and it feels like his USO days all over again, when unfamiliar dames would come up to him in groups and ask him if he could pick them up too and giggling at his every response. He knows he should feel flattered by their attention but he can’t help thinking that they don’t really know him, didn’t know about how he once could barely make it up stairs without having an asthma attack. It feels false and it’s always made Steve rather uncomfortable.
“I’m sorry but I think I need to find Tony,” Steve smiles at them nervously and turns to leave but the Colonel blocks his way.
“Oh come on Captain. These lovely ladies want to thank you for your courage and dedication. Won’t you stay a little while longer?”
Steve grits his teeth. The last time a dame had ‘thanked him’, he’d end up getting shot at by a very irate Peggy Carter. While he knew that Tony would do no such thing (he’d probably cheer Steve on in fact), he doesn’t want Tony getting the wrong impression. It was hard enough trying to catch Tony’s attention without Tony thinking that Steve wanted to step out with some dame.
“I’m truly sorry, but there’s something I wanted to discuss with Tony. Avengers business you see.”
He smiles at them, willing them to believe him. He does actually have Avengers business to discuss with Tony. Well, if you counted needing a new toaster because Thor jammed in too many pop tarts into the old one again as ‘business’.
The women sigh but agree to let him go and Steve sighs in silent relief at the bullet dodged. His relief is short lived though when the Colonel excuses himself and follows.
“Hey come on Captain, none of them your type?”
Steve stops suddenly and turns on the Colonel.
“Were you just trying to set me up?”
Rhodes shrugs at him.
“Tony mentioned that you seemed to have trouble talking to the ladies so I figured I’d help a man out.”
“Thank you, but I can handle myself,” Steve tells him, voice just a touch frosty and turns to leave. “Now if you’ll excuse me.”
“Wait,” the Colonel calls out to him, throwing an arm out in front of Steve, “Ok, ok so maybe I shouldn’t have done that. But you have to admit, your face was hilarious.”
Steve grits his teeth as the Colonel grins at him, as if inviting him to share in the amusment. It’s the kind of joke that Tony and Clint would and has played on him before but coming from Colonel Rhodes, this essential stranger, it felt less like friendly teasing and a lot more like mockery. He glares at the Colonel and opens his mouth to tell him exactly what he thought of his little ‘joke’ when he suddenly notices that behind the wide smile, Colonel Rhodes is glaring back at him.
“You don’t like me!” Steve blurts out instead and Rhodes rears back briefly in surprise. For a moment, they stare at each other unsure of how to proceed now.
“Umm,” Steve starts, “I mean…”
Rhodes waves his hand. “I know what you meant.” He pauses and then glances around them and Steve guiltily does the same. Thankfully, no one had been close enough to hear Steve’s surprised observation but really Steve had done enough of these horse and pony shoes that he should have known better than to blurt out such things in public.
“Alright Captain, maybe it’s time you and I had a little talk,” Rhodes suggests and Steve nods. He follows Rhodes out of the main chambers and down a narrow hallway and then a left into a small library. Rhodes walks out onto the balcony and Steve joins him.
“So. What makes you think I don’t like you?” Rhodes asks bluntly, leaning against the railing. Steve hesitates.
“Well, you…you seem to act like it,” he says, gesturing helplessly in the air. How to describe the vibe that he got from Rhodes? Now that he looked back on their interactions over the past few days, Steve realized just how strained they had been and not just on his end. It was like the Colonel had constantly been judging him at every moment and Steve hadn't been passing muster.
Rhodes stares at him consideringly for several beats and then sighs and looks away to the setting sun.
“I…don’t not like you. You’re a good man and I respect you for what you’ve done in the past and what you’re doing now. However…”
Rhodes drifts off, gaze distant and Steve leans forward a little.
“However…?” Steve prompts. Rhodes turns to him with a frown and Steve feels his heart stop at his next words.
“I know about you and Tony.”
Damn.