Archive of Our Own

There were a lot of things about the twenty first century that Steve Rogers was confused about. Reality TV, Star Wars, celebrity culture, plastic surgery and most of all social media. The need to document every single breath throughout the day sounded tiring and exhausting to Steve. Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Livejournal, the sites were endless. Clint and Tony were the ones that managed these more than the rest of the Avengers. Clint mostly gossiped and posted a thousand ‘selfies’ or so he was told by Tony. Most of them were with the Avengers during things such as "Movie Night", Sunday dinners or working out. Clint always managed to get Steve into them earning him more likes and retweets.

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“Come on Cap! Do it for the fangirls!” begged Clint.

“I do not feel comfortable posing with my shirt off.” groaned Steve. They’d just finished a particularly grueling sparring session and Clint almost dove right for his phone afterwards.

“Okay, okay not shirtless but at least like this. I mean your sweat is already making the shirt transparent anyways.” smirked Clint aiming the phone at Steve, who just gapped at him in surprised.

“Leave him alone, Clint.” said Natasha walking into the gym to a flash from Clint.
~~~

Clint even managed to get Steve on Facebook earning him the most followers in history with Tony falling to second place much to his grumpiness. He used it once and then decided it was not for him. Not having logged back in since, heck he even forgot the damn password. Tony was the one that was extremely active on those media sites. He said it helped promote the company and the Avengers. It made them seem more normal. He was always on his cell phone or tablet typing away. Most of the time it was for work but sometimes Steve caught a glimpse of him updating his status. Steve’s own phone of course was top of the line.

The latest StarkPhone courtesy of his boyfriend Tony Stark. Version 6, it wasn’t even on the market yet. It was small, sleek and custom made for Steve Rogers. Reinforced and only opened with facial recognition and thumbprint.

Tony of course spoiled Steve rotten much to his displeasure. He wanted Tony to know that he was with him because of him and not his money. Sometimes he felt like maybe Tony only saw Captain America and not Steve Rogers. But whenever those thoughts arose Steve pushed them down with a stern severity. He loved Tony, nay he was in love with Tony Stark. They’d been together for two years and he fell more in love with him everyday.

Steve headed to Stark Industries every day to have lunch with Tony and sometimes Tony even braved his hatred for SHIELD to have lunch there. They had "Date Nights” on Fridays, "Movie Nights" on Saturdays and Sunday dinners. Tony made JARVIS record all home improvement shows for Steve and Steve woke up early everyday to make sure Tony ate something nutritious for breakfast. After a long day at work Steve gave Tony foot rubs and Tony petted Steve’s hair as he watched TV.

Yup, they were so domesticated it was disgusting.

Steve was currently sketching Natasha in the gym. She was striking a warrior pose a la Charlie’s Angel looking all kinds of fierce and deadly. He heard a click behind his right ear and turned to see Tony standing behind him with his phone being tucked into his suit jacket.

“Hey” he smiled showing Steve all his pearly whites.

“Hey yourself” he smiled back.

“We done here Rogers?” asked Natasha.

“Aw, what no fake finger guns?” asked Tony sarcastically.

Natasha walked towards Steve and gave him a casual kiss on the cheek, “That’s for tomorrow's session Stark, afterwards we’re doing the nude posing.” she said casually making Steve blush and stammer.

Tony practically growled and she laughed in amusement out the door.

“She’s kidding right, tell me she’s kidding.” he begs Steve.

Steve’s stands and hugs Tony pecking him sweetly on the lips before saying “She’s kidding.”

Tony let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “Good, cause I don’t know if I can compete with those amazing thighs.”

“Hey your thighs are pretty amazing.” grinned Steve kissing Tony again as Tony began fiddling with his phone.

“Kinda kissing you right now.” said Steve.

“And it’s wondrous!” replied Tony between breaths.

They pulled apart, and Steve rolled his eyes to a “whatever”.

“Whatever? Wow, guess the twenty first century is really rubbing off on you Cap?” teased Tony.

Steve stepped away from Tony’s embrace.

“Hey are you really mad?” he asked worriedly.

“I just feel like sometimes you love your phone more than me.” said Steve. “I mean I get that’s the thing in this century, most people are attached to their phone by the hip, but I’d just like to have a little more of your attention, is all.”

Tony rubbed his hand up and down Steve’s arm, “You do have my attention, hon. Come on how many people can brag about having Captain America as their boyfriend!”

Ouch! Wrong thing to say. “I guess,” replied Steve pushing those feelings of insecurity down “let’s go have dinner now.”

After dinner they headed back to the penthouse.

“So,” said Tony lingering in the doorway looking Steve up and down “is sex off the table tonight?”

Steve just laughed, Tony would never change. And in truth he didn’t want him to. He crossed the room in four strides and picked him up by the hips making Tony wrap his legs around his waist. He squeezed his ass and gave him a dirty kiss.

“What do you think?” he asked leaving Tony breathless.

After they had sex Tony sat on his side of the bed fiddling with his tablet and phone while Steve dozed off on his side. Only the dim light of the restroom reflected on his face and chest. He was almost completely out when he heard a distinct click of a phone. Ugh, Tony should marry that thing already he thought angrily. He punched his pillow into a more comfortable position in anger and settled in again.

Morning came sooner rather than later and Tony sat across from him snapping a picture of his breakfast. Another thing Steve didn’t get, why people want to see pictures of food? He just sighed in defeat.

“Are we doing lunch today?”

“Can’t I got a lunch meeting,” replied Tony “I know blame Natasha I swear she pencils them in to irritate me. It’s payback for that posing joke I made.” He reached across the table to hold Steve’s hand and began tracing the back of his hand with his thumb giving Steve chills.

“We can do dinner? I’ve been meaning to take you to that Thai place you mentioned.”

“Sounds great” Steve smiled and kissed Tony. He spent the rest of the day at SHIELD training new recruits. Most of them who were in such awe of being trained by Captain America himself they excelled at everything.

He showered and changed into a shirt Tony once told him made his eyes look bluer than the ocean and waited for him to get home. Tony gave him a wolf whistle when he got home and snapped a picture.

“Are you posting that online?” asked Steve in the elevator.

“What?” asked Tony confused.

“The picture you just took.”

“Oh, that. Of course, everyone wants a piece of Captain America.” he replied.

Steve just swallowed over the hard lump in his throat and stared at the digital number changing from floor to floor. Once at the Thai place Tony insisted once again on taking a picture before Steve took a bite of his food, to commemorate his first taste of Thai food. Steve rolled his eyes and asked if this was going to be posted online, Tony said no and even though he had a feeling he was lying he posed for the picture anyway.

Back at the Tower Tony went down to the workshop saying he needed to work on the new Captain America uniform. Kissing Steve goodnight he headed down there and Steve headed towards the communal living area. Steve again was pissed all he had in mind was Captain America.

He saw Clint there stirring some milk warming it up and he took a seat in one of the reinforced kitchen chairs.

“How was the Thai food?” asked Clint not looking over his shoulder.

“How’d you-” know Steve was about to ask when he saw Clint’s phone on the counter and remembered he too was very active on social media.

“It was fine.” he grumbled crossing his arms.

“From the looks of it you enjoyed it.” Clint poured the milk into a glass and showed Steve the picture Tony took on his phone of a smiling Steve holding the fork in midair.

Steve was seething now Tony had promised, promised not to post the picture on the internet. He knew he was lying but seeing proof still stung.

“Everything okay there Cap.” asked Clint slightly worried at Steve’s expression.

Steve stood up and started yelling “Don’t Cap me, Barton. I’m more than just my shield and uniform. I’m Steve Rogers!” he emphasized his point by pointing his index finger at Clint’s chest to a surprised looking spy.

"Ohhkaaay" said Clint slowly obviously feeling like he just accidentally stepped on a land mine.

Steve was now shaking and took two deep breaths to calm down. “Sorry.” he muttered looking down ashamed now. “It’s just that I asked Tony not to post that picture and he did it anyways.”

“Yea well Stark’s an ass, everyone knows that” said Clint, Steve gave him a look. “Sorry, I know he’s your boyfriend and you love him but he is.”

“I just feel like he loves Captain America more than he loves Steve Rogers.” confessed Steve. “He’s always on his phone and he’s always talking about how hot Captain America is and how lucky he is to date him, yadda yadda.”

“So you think Stark doesn’t love you?” asked Clint seriously almost gaping now.

“I know he does. It just,” sighs “I don’t know. I feel like maybe he loves the idea of Captain America more than the real Steve Rogers in front of him.”

“You’re wrong.” Clint stated bluntly drinking his milk now.

“Maybe I am, maybe I’m not.” Steve shrugged. “Look I know I don’t get social media and celebrity culture and that’s fine by me, I just wish Tony didn’t buy that much into it. Captain America is just the hype. I want him to love me for me.”

Clint furrowed his forehead. “Have you talked to Tony about this?”

“No. I don’t even know how to bring it up.” he confessed.

“Why don’t you just cyber stalk him?” proposed Clint shrugging and sitting on one of the kitchen chairs with Steve taking a seat opposite him.

“What does that mean?” asked Steve now intrigued. He honestly now felt bad for having exploded at Clint and felt slightly obligated to hear his plan.

“Basically it’s like physical stalking only you follow him all over the internet. See what he’s up to, who are his friends, what posts he makes, what pictures he takes, the works. You still got that Facebook account I set up for you?”

“Huh, I kinda forgot the password.” admitted Steve sheepishly.

“Ha! No worries, here you can use my phone to check. You’ve only made one update but your profile is still there and last time I checked which was I dunno like a minute ago you were ‘friends’ with Stark.”

“Friends?”

“Well obviously not in real life, but online being friends with someone means they can see stuff on your page. That means you can see anything that Stark posts.” Clint started swiping his hand across the screen and pulling up Facebook putting in Steve’s username but pausing when he got to the password part and moving to sit next to Steve.

“Patriotism123” typed in Clint smiling smugly. He waited for the page to load and moved his hand over the screen one more time pulling up Tony’s profile. He clapped Steve on the back and said “Let me know how much Tony doesn’t love Steve.”

With that Clint was gone and Steve was left alone with the phone. He saw all of Tony’s stats, Male, Studied at MIT, Occupation: Badass, Marital Status: Taken (there was a link to Steve’s profile), Favorite Band: AC/DC. He moved to the timeline and started gasping at the amount of pictures Tony posted.

He saw the picture Clint had just showed him of Steve eating Thai food “My baby trying Thai for the first time, please pray for his tummy.”

Steve remembered now last mission his uniform had been torn and he’d receive a bad injury on his shoulder with Tony fussing over him and working from his tablet at SHIELD’s medical bay. Steve remembered how mad he felt that Tony was paying more attention to the tablet than him, but looking back Tony had been there for him. Physically he was in the room and never left, except to pee. He had the tablet because well he had to, Stark Industries needed to be operational, thousands of jobs were on the line and Tony needed to answer to the Board of Directors. He felt a weird pang in his stomach as he scrolled lower.

It was a picture of Steve with the blue shirt before they headed to dinner.

Even though Pepper was seemingly mad in the comment she posted she still ‘liked’ the status. Steve rolled his eyes and chuckled at the intimacy and playfulness of their relationship.

Steve was confused until he read the next caption on the picture update.

It was a picture of the breakfast Steve had made him that morning.

It was a picture of Steve with a white shirt but all his muscles were on display.

Steve’s heart clench, it was a picture of him asleep in bed illuminated by a soft light, the bathroom light. He looked so peaceful and relaxed. He wondered if this is how Tony saw him and his heart sank to his stomach. Feeling absolutely wretched about all the awful thought’s he’d been having about him. He also noticed none of the updates had any variations of Captain on them (Or capsicle, spangles, or red, white and blue.) They were all just Steve, Stevie, sweetheart, baby, honey, one even light of my life.

It was a picture of Steve sketching Natasha. By then Steve had seen enough. He headed to the workshop and barged him. Tony was on the computer typing a mile a minute but he looked up to see Steve enter and walk towards him. He stood up intending on asking if something was wrong when Steve kissed him, hard at first then slow and passionate. He chewed Tony’s bottom lip and Tony pressed Steve closer. They broke off and both of them were panting.

Tony spoke first “Can you tell me what I did? So I can do it again in the future.”

Steve laughed and kissed him gently again.

“I just missed you.”

“It’s been fifteen minutes, Rogers. Get it together.” teased Tony, “Besides you think this is bad it was torture for me last month when you left on that mission for a whole week!”

“As much as I’d love to make out I really do need to work on these specs for your uniform. I’ll be up in an hour.”

Steve hugged him and kissed his forehead, mouth and nose before letting him go and allowing Tony to sit down once more. He walked towards the door.

“I’m holding you to that. If not I’m coming down and physically carrying you up to bed.”

“Oh Stevie you know it makes me go weak in the knees when I hear you talk like that.” said Tony making a swooning motion.

Steve paused on the doorway, “Oh, by the way. It is a conspiracy between me and Pepper, the doctor said you have to watch your cholesterol so no more bacon for you mister.” He was rewarded with Tony’s opened mouth.