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“Tony, you don’t have to do this.” He says with a huff of frustration.
“Please, I’m just going a civil service.” Tony says with a laugh as he takes another sip of his mocha.
“Another Captain America joke, really?” He asks with a laugh as he shakes his head. Even though he should be used to it by now, he still was amazed by the other man’s never ending stream of terrible jokes.
It was just another sign of how much of a crush he really had on the other man.
Even though he tried to deny it and hide it, there were some times he was overwhelmed by how much he cared about the other man. Like how he thought his terrible jokes were endearing, how he cared about how much he slept or eat, how he found every stupid excuse in the book to spend time with him.
He was a goner.
“I can’t help it, you really make it too easy sometimes. But honestly, teaching you how to flirt is going to be as much of a service to you as it is to me. Do you have any idea how painful it is watching you try to flirt?” Tony says with another laugh, fiddling with something on his tablet as he rambles.
And that wasn’t true.
Well not really.
He probably was terrible at flirting, he wasn’t going to deny it. But every time Tony had seen him “flirt”, he’d merely been trying to polite to whoever he was chatting with before making some excuse to slip away.
He wasn’t used to the attention, he never got much of it before the serum and it was still uncomfortable to have women throw themselves at him. And it didn’t help that he was half in love with the man who was more often than not watching him with an eagle eye.
“I can flirt Tony, I promise. Just not with people that I’m not interested in.” He says with an eye roll, trying to think of something, anything to distract the other man.
“Sure, sure, whatever you say. Just like when Barton swears he spell anything over six letters.” Tony says.
“I think I heard him spell Mississippi once.” He says as he squints, trying to recall the memory.
“That’s cheating, and besides the point. Now come on, stand up.” He says, gesturing him out of the chair.
He wants to argue, but he knows it’s pointless arguing with Tony. It’s like arguing with the sun.
“Okay, I’m up.” He says as he stands in front of Tony, placing his coffee down.
“Okay, now stand closer to me, like you aren’t afraid of catching some incurable disease from me.” Tony says as he grabs his arms and pulls him in closer.
It was like torture and ecstasy all at once, being that close to the other man. It made his heart race, but he hates how it makes him long for something he can’t have.
“See, this is how you stand next to someone when you like them.” Tony says as he positions them closer together.
Well isn’t that the truth.
“So am I just going to stand next to them until they agree to go out with me?” He asks, trying to take his eyes off of Tony’s body. He was fit, muscular but lean. Although Tony wasn’t that much shorter than him, he could just picture the way he would fit perfectly under his arm.
“Haha, very funny. Pretty cocky for a guy who once told a girl her dress reminded him of one his mom had.” Tony says, making Steve blush at the memory. To be fair, the dress was practically an exact copy and he had meant it in a nice way.
“That was one time.” He mutters, trying to make the blush on his cheeks fade away.
“It’s cute how quickly you blush.” Tony says with a soft smile, before shaking his head and continuing, “So anyway, you want to make sure to smile, not too much or else you’ll look like the joker.”
“Some people might be into that.” He jokes, remembering some of the darker sites Clint had shown him.
“Not the people you want to date, moving on. You want to joke with them, tease them, give them attention but still play hard to get.” Tony says. Steve can picture what he’s talking about perfectly, because he’d seen the other man do it about a million times. Every time he saw it, he had to concentrate on not breaking the nearest thing to him. Who knew he had such a jealous streak?
“I know how to do all that Tony, in theory anyway. I’m just not very good at… pretending.” He says helplessly.
“Well then you can make up for it with body language.” Tony says simply with a wolfish grin.
“Body language? That sounds like a bad line from a cheesy movie.” He says with a snort.
“Laugh all you want, it works.” He says, leaning in even closer to him.
“What are you doing Tony?” He whispers to the other man, who is all but leaning against him as he looks up at him.
“Body language. Leaning in close to someone, eye contact, you can even brush your hand against their arm.” Tony says as he strokes his arm.
“Are you always this obvious?” Steve says, trying to make a joke out of it. Because even though he knows this is all a game, it’s starting to feel all too real.
“Hey, I can’t help it if it works.” Tony says, his arm still on his.
“You are completely ridiculous, Tony Stark.” He says with a laugh. He doesn’t even notice the way his hand comes up to squeeze Tony’s arm.
“Look at you, catching on fast.” Tony says, before Steve can realize he’s more or less doing everything that Tony has described.
Except it wasn’t on purpose, he just naturally acted this way around Tony.
Maybe this was his chance to finally get to act on his feelings, just a little.
Just as pretend.
“What’s that line? Do you come here often?” He says as he leans into the other man, keeping eye contact. He runs his eyes briefly over Tony’s lips, biting his lip as he does.
Tony opens his mouth to respond, but instead just lets his jaw hang open.
“Tony Stark, speechless for once. Never thought I’d see the day. Guess I’m pretty talented with my tongue.” He says, brushing a strand of hair away from his eyes.
“Okay, now I believe you when you say you know how to flirt.” Tony finally chokes out.
“Told you so.” He says deviously.
“I thought you didn’t like pretending.” Tony says with a smirk.
“Who said I was pretending?” He blurts out, his face suddenly growing red as he realizes he actually said the words instead of just thinking them.
“What?” Tony utters, looking even more shocked than he did moments ago.
“What?” He mimics back, hoping there’ll be an alien invasion to distract them.
“Were you… were you flirting with me for real?” Tony asks, leaning in close to him.
“I… Maybe.” He mutters, wishing more than anything he could take back the last five minutes.
“Dammit Steve.” Tony whispers before grabbing him, and kissing him deeply. He wraps his arms around Tony, trying to ground himself and make himself believe he isn’t dreaming. He kisses him back, passionately and too harsh from being pent up from too long.
“So why were you trying to teach me to flirt with other people?” He asks with a giggle when they pull back to catch their breaths.
“I needed a reason to flirt with you.” Tony says, a blush appearing on his cheeks for maybe the first time ever.
“Genius plan.” He says with a laugh, pulling the other man in even closer.
“Got you to kiss me, didn’t it?” He says, leaning in so close he can feel the other man’s breath on his cheeks.
“You have a point there.” He says as he goes in to kiss the other man again.