Chapter Text
“Hey there, I'd like to remind you that when you were in the same position I helped you escape,” Tony says the moment he raises his head as if he'd been waiting with bated breath for him to wake up so he could say exactly that.
Steve shakes his head, smiles a little because he'd known it would come,“you had a suit.”
“I have Captain America, what could go wrong? Seriously, name one thing-no, five things.”
“One: you could get hurt, two: we could get caught, three:-”
“Okay but I'm bored.”
“I had Pepper bring you your tablet,” he replies with false cheerfulness and produces said tablet from where it had been resting on his lap.
“She just wants me to read paperwork, come on, I'm fine. I know it, you know it, hell the doctors probably know it too but they're keeping me here to do experiments on me,” Tony's mouth droops into a pout that probably shouldn't look as adorable as it does.
“Fury told me if I let 'that son of a bitch Stark' escape I'd be in a 'whole fuckton of trouble'.”
“What? No. Fury said that to you? Tell the others to pack it in we're all going to die that's all-”
“I might have spoken to him about sending my team into dangerous situations with no intel before he said that,” Steve smooths down the edges of Tony's blanket and maybe the pain meds are making Tony loopy but he starts cackling like an evil stepmother, “it's not funny, Tony. I meant it. I nearly clocked him.”
“You almost clocked Fury. Hope it was from the left side. Did anyone record this? I want to see this.”
“It wasn't and no. Tony, I shouldn't have-”
“Not having this conversation with you.”
He squares his shoulders, clenches his jaw, “I almost got you killed.”
“Actually no, it was those robots that almost got me killed. How are the others holding up?”
“It was my order that sent you that close,” and it's impossible for Tony to let anyone else take the blame for his near death experiences because Tony is an idiot about this sort of thing, “they managed to take the rest out but there are parts all over the place. I got them to bring one in in case you wanted to take it apart.”
“I love you-I mean. In a totally platonic way. Uh...I chose to listen to your order which, let's be honest with ourselves here I don't choose to listen to orders often. Anyway, I'm getting out of here you're either in or you're out, Cap.”
It's not like he has any choice. Before he could have easily made Tony stay but now he couldn't even if he wanted to-Tony had said it himself, he doesn't choose to listen to orders very often and he would even less from someone half his size. Besides, Tony would do better at home where Steve could watch him, make sure he wasn't working too hard. In a totally platonic way. Tony had made it clear enough he isn't interested or at least not in anything more than friends and Steve isn't really surprised. “I'm in.”
“But?”
“But when we get home you have to go right to bed.”
“Don't need sleep, Cap, I've been sleeping all day. You gotta sweeten the pot on this one,” he says then a second later, “let me study your shield.”
“Fine.”
Tony's face quickly shifts from surprise and elation because Steve lets one person touch his shield-himself-to suspicion, “shake on it. Gentleman's agreement.”
As if those words are magic and Steve would never back out of a 'gentleman's agreement'. Which he wouldn't so he takes the hand outstretched, “as soon as you sleep you can look at it. But I want to be there while you do.”
“Sure, sure, it's your baby, I get it. Wouldn't want me running around with priceless artifacts either.”
“Let's go, the doctors will want to check on you soon.”
Tony is a lot easier to break out of the SHIELD hospital than he had been thanks to the lack of wires physically tethering him to machines but they still have to duck into a supply closet anyway and Tony has his entire body pressed against him while they wait for the attending to pass. There's a broom jabbing into his back but when he looks up Tony has a grin on his face that Steve only sees thanks to a dim light on the ceiling he finds he doesn't mind as much. His heart is racing like he's talking to a dame-woman, they like to be called women now-which really makes his face feel like it'll burn up. He should be better at this by now. Even when a bucket nearly falls on his head when they're leaving Steve still smiles back when Tony looks over his shoulder. Bucky would say that he's got it bad. Steve would have to agree.
By the time they're back at the tower Fury has already called them four times and left four equally angry sounding messages about mother fuckers always breaking out of shit like they're fuckin' Superman which Steve doesn't even try to understand the meaning of. The others are sitting in the living room nursing their wounds or eating and he tries to steer Tony away from the sitting area immediately or else he'll spend the entire night talking to them and not sleeping.
“You okay, Stark?” Clint asks from where he's perched himself on the arm of the couch. He looks uninjured, luckily but that's all it is-luck.
“Yeah, almost died of boredom, seriously, Barton watching you fight is like watching paint dry.”
“Shut up and let your husband tuck you in.”
Steve knows it's a joke, logically. His mind still reacts anyway because it tells him that he needs to set the record straight, really, it won't look even stranger for him to reply, “I'm not his husband. We're just friends.”
Clint just laughs until Natasha shoves him with her uninjured arm and Steve pushes Tony towards the elevator. And then he laughs some more until the elevator doors close.
“Just friends, Cap? And I thought all that private time in the supply closet meant something to you,” Tony smirks though his hand has shifted from hanging at his side to pressing against his ribs.
“Don't make jokes like that, Tony. Someone might get the wrong idea.”
He snorts, rolls his eyes, “yeah. Wouldn't want that.”
“I mean it. I trust everyone here to be discreet but other people might not be so caring.”
“About what? Making a joke?”
“Yeah, making a really stupid joke. Have a little bit of tact,” he breathes out, trying to calm himself down because it isn't Tony's fault he can't think of the right words to say what he wants to. But it is still a stupid joke.
“Who pissed in your four bowls of cornflakes this morning?” and here we go.
“You almost died Tony,” the elevator dings and they both step out as if they really need to be continuing such an idiotic argument, “I could have watched you die and I wouldn't have been able to do anything.”
“But I didn't.”
“You could have! Why the hell do you have to be so damn reckless?! You could have been killed-you'd think the other four times you've been stupid like that would have been a lesson!”
“You asked me to go in, just in case you, I don't know, forgot!”
They're well and truly yelling now, yelling like they had in the helicarrier, in the workshop, in the kitchen except this time there's no outside influence and sesame seed bagels have been ordered in bulk. Steve has to look up now to meet Tony's eye but it doesn't matter. He can do this all day if he has to.
“I fucked up! Is that what you wanted to hear? I should have thought that things were going too well but I didn't. I made a mistake.”
Bucky would have known what it meant for him to say that. But Tony isn't Bucky.
“The only person who made a mistake was those robots. Seriously, fuschia?”
“Don't change the subject.”
“Already did, unless you have more to yell about. But us big boys have work to do so you should maybe...leave?” Tony starts heading for what Steve knows isn't the workshop but there's little point in catching him in a lie unless he wants Tony to not sleep. Which he doesn't.
“I should have known, Tony. What's next, my brain? Was that all the serum too?” he snaps though he hadn't even been thinking that at all, hadn't noticed a difference in his mental abilities but maybe it's true. Maybe that is next. Maybe it's already happened.
“Cap,” that makes him stop and maybe it wouldn't have before all of this, maybe he would have just kept going and Steve doesn't want pity but Tony is the last person who will give it to him.
“Is it? Do you know for sure? Because I don't.”
He should have wanted to keep it quiet and yet he keeps talking anyway, “I can't go back to being the way I was, Tony.”
“This is all very rousing-emotional, even-but you need to stop and wow, never thought I'd say that to you. I mean, aside from 'Steve stop being a party-pooper and do the body shot'. I told you before, being secretly insecure is my thing so stop doing it.”
“You almost died today and I couldn't do anything.”
Tony rolls his eyes, “but I didn't. You keep saying that but I didn't die. I'm here and mostly alive-be more alive after coffee but-I'm not dead.”
“You could have, Tony, and that's enough for me. You're important,” he keeps his eyes locked on him then adds, “To the team, I mean.”
“...Do you need to cry? Is that what this is? Steve, do you need a hug?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
Tony sticks his hands in his pockets and meanders over slowly, as if he's fooling anyone then grabs his arm before he can get back into the elevator, “come on, Cap, I got a new shield with your name on it.”
Steve resists the urge to say he doesn't need a new shield because if he's making him a shield then he must want him out on missions again which makes him more excited than it probably should. But no one could ever say he hadn't been trying to keep busy. He's read almost every book in the library by now, he volunteers though they never know it's him, and he trains. Of course all of those things can't match the adrenaline rush of being out there with his team-he even stayed home from PR events which is a blessing in disguise but it only serves to cut a harsh contrast between him and them. Not letting him go on missions is the right thing to do, it's what he would have done though it makes it no less frustrating to know that so he follows Tony to the front room. They'd apprehended Loki here, not that anyone would know it by looking at it.
The place has remained clean despite how Pepper has moved out for reasons Steve doesn't pretend to know although pieces of small devices litter a couple of the tables. Tony grabs a drink before he saunters over to pick up an unremarkable looking wrist cuff. Of course, knowing Tony the thing is probably far from unremarkable.
He presses a button on the side prompting what looks like Steve's shield to materialize on his wrist. Steve must be gawking because Tony smirks, “awesome, right? Doesn't weigh anything and catching it is just as easy,” he slides it off his arm then hands it over, “Come on, try it on, it runs on some form of electricity but you shouldn't have any trouble Steve come on hurry up put it on.”
The wristcuff doesn't feel heavy on his arm, doesn't feel anything like the shield either but he'll take what he can get. A grin breaks out on his face, “Tony, this is...”
“Couldn't stand to see you pouting. Throw it come on, Steve, it's not just decoration.”
It takes no strength at all to launch this shield-he cringes as a picture frame crashes to the floor but Tony is too busy grinning to do anything other than waving it off like it's nothing. “Took me longer than I wanted but you can use it or just you know, have it and stuff. Uh, when you're out or something.”
“Thank you, Tony.”
This had probably taken longer than Tony should have spent on something for Steve however he would give him a look if he even suggested that he couldn't accept the gift. He has to make it up somehow.
“No problem...” he punches Steve on the shoulder, “champ. Why did I say that.”
“Can I...take you to dinner sometime? As a thank you. Or something?” it isn't anything and Tony probably gets asked out to dinner all the time and he suddenly can't speak properly even though Tony isn't a woman which makes his face slowly turn red despite his best efforts. It isn't a date, it's not supposed to be, really, so he shouldn't be this nervous.
“What? You don't have to thank me, like I said, was tired of seeing you...your face. Being sad. You know what? Sure, take me to dinner once I get changed,” Tony shakes his head at himself and mutters something that might be 'you're being ridiculous, stop it' under his breath.
“Are you sure? We don't have a reservation.”
Tony stares at him, “I'm Tony Stark, Steve, what is a reservation?”