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“Why is dating so hard? In my day you went to coney island and kissed on the top of the Ferris wheel,” Steve mutters flopping onto the well worn couch in Tony’s lab watching the man hammer away at a piece of metal to get at detail just right making Steve smile. Tony is nothing but a perfectionist when it comes to his work.
“Do I want to ask?” Tony says abandoning his project to sit next to the couch and giving Steve his full attention.
“I want to take Bucky on a date but everything is so expensive, so loud, so many people and not the same,” Steve says.
“You could take him to Coney Island. It is still there you know,” Tony says smiling up at Steve leaning his head back to look up to look at him.
“I know it’s just…”
“Not the same,” Tony says and Steve nods.
“Don’t get me wrong! There’s a lot I like about now, medical advancements, food stamps, social security, the ability to get married if you love someone of the same gender, the ability to take steps to be who you are if you’re not comfortable with how you were born...it’s just...this is different, this is something I loved about my New York. Taken and made different that I’m not sure if it would even recognize itself,” Steve says.
“I get it Cap. We love change, but we need something or someone to hold onto. And when we no longer have that anchor it can feel like we’re drifting alone at sea,” Tony says.
“When did you get so wise?” Steve asks poking the side of Tony’s head.
“Hey watch the hair, it’s my best feature! And I am a genius remember,” Steve says.
“No...I don’t think I do,” Steve says.
“Don’t worry about it Cap, the memory is the first thing to go for the elderly,” Tony says and Steve pretends to be annoyed but really he’s just happy to see Tony smiling his real smile, not the plastic one he puts on for the cameras and wears as armor more often than his actual armor.
“Do you want my advice?” Tony asks when he’s done laughing.
“Yeah.”
“Don’t forget the past, but try the future out. Find one place in the present that you like and I’ll see what I can do about your Coney Island problem,” Tony says.
Steve has nearly forgotten about the conversation he’d had with Tony. He’d take Tony’s advice and signed up for things like learning to knit, he joined a book club, he even talked Bucky into going with him to minor league baseball games, not as many people.
He’s with Bucky for monthly arm maintenance when Tony asks him to stay back for a minute.
“Tony? Is everything okay,” Steve says watching his friend fiddle with his hoodie...that looks strangely like one that Bucky had last week.
“I finished it,” Tony says.
“Finished what?” Steve asks.
“I built a virtual reality simulator modeled after Coney Island in your day,” Tony says.
“Y...You what?” Steve says too shocked to even begin to build an idea of what Tony did.
“I built a simulation modeled after 1930s Coney Island. Everything is safe and it won’t hurt either of you and all you have to do is act like you’re both actually there and I know it’s not the real thing but…” Tony rushes out and Steve holds up his hands so Tony will slow down.
“Tony, slow down. You built me a virtual reality system so that I could take Bucky on a date?” Steve says and Tony nods and Steve recognizes the thoughts shining on the engineers face. Tony's still thinking it's not enough.
“Thank you Tony. I swear the way your brain works amazes me. I hope it didn't mess up your other projects or stress you out,” Steve says.
“No...the only stressful was convincing Hank McCoy to explain how how danger room works. Once I had an understanding of that to make everything feel real I just had to calibrate the tech I had already built for BARF,” Tony says and Steve is amazed that Tony willingly talked to Hank about it. The two geniuses weren't friends in any stretch of the imagination. McCoy thought Tony too willing to sacrifice himself, an idea Steve agreed with but never voiced, and Tony thinks that McCoy is too play by rules. He wasn't being ferocious with his opponents.
Conversations between the two usually involved a miniature game of telephone with Steve and Charles speaking for them.
“Tony, don't sell what you did short. Don't lessen the time and energy it took from you,” Steve says and Tony jerks himself together and smiles at Steve.
“Okay enough mushy stuff. Tomorrow you and I can do a run through so that you know what do to best get Bucky to swoon,” Tony says and Steve rolls his eyes at Tony’s antics.
The next day he finds himself down in the workshop being fitted with a couple of motion sensors so that the simulation will react to him.
“Okay, so we’ll walk through, make sure it’s up to snuff and then you can go get Bucky and give it a whirl. Best part is I made it so that you can operate it without me,” Tony says.
“Is that safe?”
“Completely, besides Cap, who in their right mind would want me to third wheel their date?” Tony says and Steve sighs wondering how it took so long for him to finally see the real Tony.
“Sounds fun. You gonna win me a prize?” Steve asks and Tony’s face falls.
“I knew I was forgetting something! I forgot the prizes. JARVIS? Order some prizes for the games,” Tony says but Steve calms him down.
“Tony, it’s alright. I was just kidding around with you. I didn’t know what I would do with the ones that I would win when I was a kid. What would I do with them now?” Steve says and keeps a hand on Tony’s shoulder until his friend has finally calmed down.
“Okay, whenever you’re ready Cap. Just press the button on the wrist band,” Tony says and Steve presses it and they’re surrounded by the Coney Island that he remembers. He can see men and women laughing and giggling as they enjoy the games and rides. There are children running around underfoot just like Bucky used to do. Even the smells are like he remembers.
“Tony how did you get everything so perfect? Even the food tastes the same,” Steve says.
“I researched the recipes from this time and made them exactly the same. Even the ingredients are exact replicas,” Tony says looking down rubbing the inside of his wrist.
“It’s amazing. How can I ever repay you?” Steve asks as they head over to the Ferris Wheel and Steve follows him when he sits down and Steve is amazed that it even feels real.
“You don’t need to Steve. I can’t help but be a hopeless romantic,” Tony says and turns to look out at the view of New York and there are even stars reflecting into his eyes and Steve watches his look of wonder.
“Tony don’t sell yourself short,” Steve says as the wheel gets closer and closer to the top. He looks around at the world he knew when he was just Steven Grant Rogers, not the ‘peak of human excellence’ know as Captain America. Back when he was just a scrappy little thing selling papers and things to pay the rent. Back when he could draw and go out and feel the sun on his face. Back when life was simple and all he had was his mom, Bucky, and Bucky’s family and he was free.
The whole simulation is beautiful and all because Tony went and built it for him and made it perfect in all the ways that count.
What did he do to deserve Tony’s generosity?
“Haven’t you noticed that I am short?” Tony asks cracking that smile that Steve hates. The one that’s more armor than his suit is.
“Tony no,” Steve says something inside of him finally snapping, “You build what is basically a time machine. We’re practically back in the days I remember being happy with my family and thanks to you I get to enjoy it with the rest of my family, with the people I love. You went out and built every single ride that was at Coney Island. You researched all the foods that would have been available and actually cooked them in the exact same way that they would have been decades before you were born. You even made stars that shine into your eyes beautifully.”
“Steve, I think you should take a breath,” Tony says looking up at Steve who had moved into his personal space. Steve stares down at him, the stars are still there and Steve leans down and presses his lips to Tony’s.
Kissing Tony is nothing like Steve thought it would be like. Tony kisses back for a split second and then Tony is pulling back.
“JARVIS, end simulation,” Tony says and Steve finds himself back in the clinically white room and standing on his feet hands still holding onto Tony’s face.
Tony seems to realize it at the same time that Steve does because he suddenly steps away and wraps his arms around himself.
“Tony? Are you okay? I’m so sor…” Steve says but Tony stops him with a hand.
“I won’t tell anyone. Your reputation will be safe and you can go on and continue dating Bucky. Bucky deserves to not have to deal with this. I won’t even make things awkward, I’ll go back to Malibu and you guys can stay here and never have to seen me...never have to be reminded of this again,” Tony says making his way out of the room.
Steve watches Tony leave his mind a whirlwind of thinking about the amount hurt he just put the people he cares about through.
Tony disappears for the rest of the day and no matter where Steve looks her can’t find him. JARVIS and Pepper don’t even know where he is. He would ask Natasha but he doesn’t want her to find out what happened.
He’s laying in bed later that night when Bucky comes home from therapy.
“Hey Stevie,” Bucky says and kneels on the bed to press a kiss to Steve’s lips and then pulls back with a frown.
“What’s wrong Stevie? You seem distracted?” Bucky says sitting back on his heels.
“You’re going to hate me,” Steve says.
“Let me be the judge of that? Did you kill someone?”
“No.”
“Steal something?”
“No.”
“Join HYDRA?”
“NEVER!”
“Then I am not going to hate you. Now, tell me what you did,” Bucky says.
“I kissed Tony,” Steve says and squeezes his eyes shut.
“Bout damn time,” Bucky says and Steve’s eyes fly open.
“What?”
“I’ve knew you had feelings for Tony since that first day he worked on my arm. At first I thought he was straight. What other reason would explain why he wasn’t responding to your painfully obvious interest? But then I started flirting with him and realized he was just that oblivious to our feelings,” Bucky says.
“You have feelings for him too?” Steve says.
“Yeah. Have been since he made that face while working on my arm. The one where his tongue sticks out through his teeth. Now details. How was the kiss?” Bucky asks.
“It wasn’t much of a kiss. As soon as his brain caught up he pulls away from me and ended the simulation and ran out.”
“Simulation?” Bucky asks.
“Oh right! I was complaining about how I miss taking you on dates to Coney Island and he built a simulation so that I could do it. Bucky, the whole simulation is absolutely perfect. It’s like we traveled back in time. Tony made it absolutely perfect,” Steve says and Bucky smiles.
“Perhaps we should go find him,” Bucky says.
“I can’t. He vanished. I haven’t been able to find him, and he said he’s gonna to him Malibu house,” Steve says.
“JARVIS, where is Tony not located?” Bucky asks and they make a list and find the one room JARVIS didn’t say.
“What’s Tony doing in the simulation room?” Steve says and Bucky shrugs and they go and put on the equipment to see the simulation properly.
Tony is sitting on a couch cuddled up between Steve and Bucky tears in his eyes.
“You both don’t get it. You two are the perfect love story. People dream of being loved as strongly as you two love each other. There’s no way I can compete with that, I’m old and tired and at this point I just don’t have it in me for another heartbreak,” Tony says and watches the two simulated super soldiers walks out of his eyesight.
Bucky and Steve share a look and they head towards Tony from the direction the simulated them left and sit back down.
“Tony why are you so sure that us together is a bad idea?” Steve asks.
“Oh God, the simulation is going to make me do this? Fine! Cap look at me! I’m graying, yeah I have muscles but I also have stomach pudge and scarring all over my body. Hell half the time you can’t even find the unmarked skin. And can you imagine the tabloids? Notorious slut Tony Stark interjects self in between the longest love story in America. I forget things and spend every waking moment in the lab. I drink too much, the list goes on and on and on and every item on it screams that I should stay as far away from both of you,” Tony says.
“Oh Tony,” Steve sighs and pulls Tony into his arms and kisses the top of his head and then continues, “grey hair is sexy baby. It makes us feel like we aren’t robbing the cradle. We are nearly twice your age. Pudge is nothing to us, do you think we want to be hugging cardboard all the time. And all three of us have scars. I have stretch marks and scars and so does Bucky. You’ve seen them with your own two eyes. Who cares about tabloids? All that matters is that we help and love each other. If you spend every every waking moment in the lab we’ll be there right beside you and we’ll be there to remind you of the things you forget. And baby if you don’t want to stop drinking we won’t force you but we’ll help you slow down and if you do want to stop then we will help you. We’ll always be there to help you,” Steve says and kisses Tony.
“Yeah Doll. We want you with us. We want you and us together. We belong together. Let us show you. Please,” Bucky says pressing a kiss to Tony’s face and Tony looks at them sadly. Of course you two would say all the right things in a simulation. JARVIS, end simulation,” Tony says and everything melts around them and Tony’s face scrunches up in confusion.
“JARVIS, end simulation,” Tony says again.
“Sir, the simulation has been shut down,” JARVIS says and Bucky wraps his arms around Tony says.
“Come on Doll. You’re super smart, you know we aren’t a simulation,” Bucky says.
“I...I didn’t want to get my hopes up you know? Didn’t want to think that it was you guys saying all those things and have it turn out to be fake,” Tony says.
“We’re real doll,” Bucky says and the two of them press a kiss to Tony’s mouth.
“So, is this for a day? A night? Or until you get tired of threesomes?” Tony asks suddenly.
“No, you’re with us until you’re tired of us. That simulation was a gamble and we were playing for keeps,” Bucky says and Tony’s mouth forms a small ‘O’ when he realizes what they want.
“Yeah, keeps sounds good,” Tony says with a soft smile and they hold each other a little longer before heading to Tony’s room because in his words, it has the biggest bed for cuddling...if you want that is Ididn’tmeantoassumethatyouwouldwanttoshareabedwithme!
It takes a couple more soft kisses and a super soldier before Tony is relaxed and not rushing out to explain things and back pedal in fear of scaring them away. Once Tony settles down the whole situation is quite cozy.
And even more perfect than the simulation.