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Tony was sitting on the couch, his eyes closed as his head rested against the back of it. Steve was on the other side of the room drawing him. Of course he was shirtless because he was in the privacy of his own home and because Steve wanted to draw him without a shirt. Again. So of course he had to amuse him. It was nice to see Steve smile like that when he was drawing.
After a few minutes of Steve drawing him, Jarvis interrupted them. “Sir, I think you would want to turn on the news.” Tony pauses and looks up before nodding. He grabs the remote and gives a small regretful look at Steve before turning on the TV and turning on the news. The headline caught his eyes. A single word, nudes. Tony frowns softly. Why would Jarvis want him to watch this.
The women on the TV, Amanda Byrns was smiling softly. “This morning some very important nudes were released today and they come along with some major revealing information. This morning at 5:30 am Tony Stark’s nudes were leaked. Most of them contained another man in the picture.
“A reliable source tells us that this is the famous Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America. It seems like these two have just been outed as a couple.” She gives a small apologetic smiles. She pauses and touches her ear. “Oh… my producer says we have a few of these pictures and they have been censored. Most of the pictures we have, Captain America is clothed.” She smiles before the first picture comes up. It was a picture of Tony on his knees with his mouth wrapped around Steve.
Tony closes his eyes before looking over to Steve. The blonds eyes were bugged out and he was red as a tomato. This didn’t seem very good. He turns back to the TV.
The TV reporter was talking about how it seemed that both Steve and Tony were gay. Tony looks down at his hands. None of that was true. Steve and him aren’t gay. Tony was pansexual and Steve was bisexual. Tony rubs at his face before shutting it off. “Jarvis makes sure to get all of the photos and delete them permanently. Find out who they source from and call them up. I want the SD cards and the cameras.”
A loud thump made him flinch and pause. Steve had slammed his sketch book down on the coffee table. “What’s the point Tony. They already outed us on National television. How did they even get the pictures anyway. We’re fifty five stories up. Are you sure this isn’t because of you. You’ve been talking about how you wanted to reveal us to the public!”
Tony has to close his eyes for a moment to keep his jaw from dropping on the ground. Didn’t Steve know that he would never do that to them. That he would never do it without getting explicit consent from Steve. As he scrambles for words Steve is already standing up and moving towards the elevator.
“Steve… babe, please I would never—“ Tony stares at Steve as the other turns around. Steve glares at Tony. “Don’t call me that Stark. We…. We have to take a break. I need to sort through some things. Don’t call. I won’t be around the tower.” Steve’s words started out as harsh but turned softer as he continued to talk.
Tony could feel his eyes start to water. He bites the inside of his cheek. He wasn’t going to cry, Stark men were made of iron…. At least when they were in the presence of other people because once Steve left and he was sure the other was out of hearing range he broke down into harsh sobs.
He manages to pull himself together to walk over to the couch. He sits on it before curling into himself. Steve was leaving him for leaked nudes. Now he had to go and talk to the public and talk to a few different stations then he was going to have a public speaking about him not being gay. But he would deal with that later. Now he just had to focus on stitching his heart back together.
A few minutes later he hears Steve’s bike roar to life before speeding away. He knew there was no possible way for that to happen so someone had Jarvis relay it to him. He didn’t know how long it was before someone made their way up to his floor. For some reason they, the other Avengers, had sent Natasha up there to check on him. He saw her pause as she made her way over to the couch.
She looks around for any danger before kneeling down beside him. Once she touches his shoulder he breaks down into sobs again, all the while trying to relay what had happened. His words were broken up by gasps for air and sobs.
Natasha manages to get a blanket wrapped around him before looking up at the ceiling. “Jarvis, can you call Phil up here for me. I think he can handle this situation better than I can.”
“Of course Ms. Natasha. “
Tony sniffs and leans into Natasha, pressing his face against her stomach. She cards her fingers through his hair lovingly before pressing a kiss to his head. “Everything’s going to be alright Tony. This is going to get situated and everything is going to be okay.” He makes a small noise before sniffing.
Ten minutes later Coulson shows up. He was dressed in sweatpants and a big t-shirt, holding cookies and some ice cream. Jarvis had filled him in on what had happened when he was in the shower. When Natasha had requested his presence he was dripping in his sweat from grappling with Clint.
Phil looks at Tony and Tasha who were curled up on the couch, Natasha holding Tony close and gently scratching her nails over Tony’s scalp. Phil watches them for a moment before walking over to them. He looks down at Natasha and kisses her head. “Let’s get him to the bedroom Tasha.” He says quietly before shifting and putting down the cookies before scooping Tony into his arm.
A few seconds later he had brown eyes watching him. Natasha goes and grabs three spoons for the three of them. She grabs the cookies and ice cream, following Tony and Phil into the bedroom. Phil looks over Tony, checking him for physical injury, before setting him on the bed.
Phil and Natasha sit on either side of him. They manage to get Tony to talk about it. The brown eyed man ended up wearing himself out with the crying so he ended up sleeping against Natasha’s shoulder. Phil looks over at her and sighs softly. He kisses Tony’s temple then kisses Natasha’s forehead. “I’m going to try Steve’s cell then I’m going down to mine and Clint’s floor.”
She nods and says a small goodnight to Phil. She moves Tony into a lying down position. She curls around him and pulls him close. It was going to be a hard week on him. They had been dating for two years already.
------
It was two weeks later until he had caught wind of Steve. Tony had been looking for Steve ever since he left. The other was smart enough to get a tracfone. So he couldn’t trace him. Steve had also managed to not look into any cameras and kept on the low.
Steve was up on a news station. He was discussing how it was embarrassing that the nudes got leaked, even though it was meant for Tony and not him. Tony knew that he shouldn’t be watching this. That it would just break his heart even more and he would fall back into that dark state he had been in for the last two weeks.
After they talk about how Steve felt about the leaked nudes he went on to talk about how he wasn’t gay but he was bisexual.
“You know Linda, that just because someone likes a guy or likes a gal doesn’t mean that they are completely one or the other. There is a possible middle where you can like both genders. They wont cheat on their partner. Actually, they are very loyal. People say that bisexuals aren’t real but hey, here I am in the flesh and I can say that I have never once cheated on Tony.” Linda laughs. “Now the question is has he ever cheated on you.”
Tony shudders and clutches at the remote in his hands. He had gotten the pictures permanently deleted and the physical copies confiscated. He made sure that any picture with Steve in them were gone. He lets out a soft sob. It was obvious that Steve didn’t want him anymore.
Natasha came up a minute later and turned the channel, sitting with him until he got the body racking sobs out of his system.
--
It took Steve another four weeks before he came back to the Avengers Tower. It was around breakfast time and most of the Avengers were gathered around the breakfast table, all of them except for Tony. The engineer had been staying in the lab more or staying up on his floor.
The conversation stops as soon as Steve walks into the room. The air was pregnant with tension. Natasha was the first to get up. Her chair scrapes across the floor. She glares at Steve before making her way down to the lab, a plate full of food for Tony.
--
A week later, Tony slowly starts talking to Steve. They manage to talk about how the pictures of Steve were permanently deleted and that Tony had nothing to do with the leak of them. Of course this was all under Natasha’s sharp gaze. She didn’t want to see Tony fall apart like that again. It was hard to watch a strong man crumble.
--
They manage to fix their relationship but it doesn’t come without its consequences. Tony is more skittish about Steve leaving him again. He tries to make everything better for Steve so he wouldn’t leave again. The abandonment had shaken him badly.
--
Tony sits on Natasha’s couch. He leans into her and rubs at his eyes. Steve was getting annoyed at the gifts that Tony kept showering him with. Steve said he wouldn’t leave but he said that at the beginning of their relationship. It was possible that it was going to happen again. If Steve could easily get up and leave like that.
--
Their relationship mends. It makes them stronger in the end yet it is still hard to think about the time that their nudes got leaked…