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It’s only actually been a few days since they both sort of confessed (who was he kidding, they totally confessed, no if, ands or buts,) and were taking it… slow. Tony was comfortable enough in himself to admit that this was different from his usual conquests, and it was still too early for him to decide whether or not this was a good different.
They were currently at a space station, gathering supplies once more before heading off.
Walking in a more respectable area, which wasn’t saying much as this was a very sketchy side of the system, sketchy enough that Stephen could walk through the place and only receive glares, no threats or threatening gestures. Tony’s eyes were drawn to a black trenchcoat, and he stopped in front of the booth containing it, causing Stephen to stop as well.
Tony turned to Stephen and raised his eyebrow, pointing loosely toward the coat. “Think it’d look good on me?” he asked.
Stephen hummed thoughtfully and looked at it, tilting his head a little. He then turned and looked back at Tony, eyeing up and down at his tattered auhk coat, a creature with leather similar to old Earth cows. There were plenty of holes and scorch marks, and patches on his sleeves from when he felt like fixing them. Tony looked back at him, slightly confused at Stephen’s suspicious looks at his coat. He glanced down at it with a frown. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
Stephen snorted, catching the booth vendor watching him silently. “Tony, look at your coat's current condition.”
Tony did.
“Now look at that nice, shiny, well, not shiny but you understand, black trench coat.”
Tony did.
“Now, which do you think I’d prefer you have?” he asked dryly, crossing his arms.
Tony hesitated. What’s wrong with this jacket? Sure, it’s got holes and scorch marks and suspicious stains and- oh. I get it now.
“The trench,” he replied, confidently.
Stephen looked obviously relieved. “Great. Now, we have the credits, buy that, and then please god burn that abomination on your shoulders,” Stephen said with a dramatic desperateness in his tone.
Tony laughed a little, pulling out his credit chip from his pocket, turning toward the vendor who was still throwing cautious looks at Stephen, but seemed to realize he wasn’t an immediate threat. “I’m sure you heard us; I want that trench coat on the wall,” he said, listening absently as the vendor gave him a price while pulling it down. Tony found it acceptable, and put his ‘chip on the scanner before the transaction was finished. Tony took it back with a triumphant grin and grabbed the coat from the exhausted looking vendor.
Tony was hardly able to get the old coat off his shoulders before Stephen snatched it with a huff, watching as Tony slipped on the trench coat. Stephen tucked the coat under his arm, shifting the weight of the container holding their supplies to his other arm to relieve the other.
Without preamble, Tony jogged off after picking up his own bags, acting like they weighed nothing. Stephen only sighed and trotted after him.
When they reached the ship, Tony grinned down at the coat and did a dramatic twirl, watching it flare up. He glanced up at Stephen and waved to it, unsure himself of what he was trying to get across. Stephen simply raised an eyebrow. Tony shrugged and began to explain.
“I feel like the one guy from the Matrix reboot they did a few years ago, all dramatic and style and just short enough to not look like it’s swamping me,” Tony declared.
“Yes, dear, you look handsome,” Stephen mused, waiting for Tony to open the ship. “Hold on, you think the coat had previous owners?”
Tony shrugged. “Possibly, it’s hard to find something new in a place like this.”
“Look in the pockets, might find something interesting, and while you’re at it, open the ship, please,” he suggested, looking pointedly at the ship, clear enough that Tony saw.
The other man looked sheepish and muttered something to JARVIS that had the ship opening up. They both walked inside and dumped their supplies in the cargo hold before going back up to the cockpit, Tony falling into his seat and grinning at the way his coat moved again. Stephen stepped up to the console and pressed a few buttons and a hatch opened up in the corner of the room. Tony watched as Stephen walked over to it and dumped the old coat in. It was then he realized that he’d opened the incinerator.
“Guess you were serious about the burning thing,” he said, quirking an eyebrow to Stephen who just shrugged in response and took his seat.
“Check the pockets,” he insisted, leaning back.
Tony decided to listen and dug through the outer pockets first, finding nothing and then checked to see if there were inner pockets. Having found there were, he went through those as well. His fingers brushed something and his eyebrows shot up in surprise. He shifted his hand a little and grabbed the item, pulling it out and looking at it curiously.
It was a small book. Small enough to fit into his hand.
Stephen groaned, shifting in his seat and making it creak. “Just open it, gods, you’re worse than my grandfather on any birthday,” he complained, waving impatiently at the book.
Tony rolled his eyes and flipped the cover open, seeing it was written in Galactic Standard. “Nifty,” he muttered.
This book hereby belongs to Malakai Finn! No one but me and my dad allowed in!
Was written on the first page in inconsistent handwriting, the size of the letters changing slightly and the words didn’t stay in a straight line on the page.
“What is it then?” Stephen asked, still sounding impatient. Tony couldn’t blame him, he was leaving the poor man in suspense.
“Looks like a kid’s diary or something,” he said, thumbing through the pages curiously, finding a lot of scribbles and sentences probably written in the kid’s native language, one which he didn’t speak but could probably have JARVIS translate later. However, near the end there was a page filled with cramped handwriting written in Standard that was decidedly not the kid’s. Tony assumed it was the dad.
Over the hills and under your bed,
A beast lived beneath there, a crown on its head.
When you did good, when you did well,
Something in its chest would begin to swell.
But when you did bad,
Well it became sad.
So just do your best,
And it won’t attest.
And one day it might,
Follow your stead,
And join the good fight,
By coming out from beneath your bed.
Tony sniffled a little, unsure as to why and pulled the book a little away. Stephen was giving him a concerned look.
“Seems like some kind of legend or something,” Tony said, voice a little hoarse. He was confused as to the stupid thing was affecting him so much.
Stephen took the book from him and flipped to the page quickly, reading over it. He looked thoughtful before glancing up at Tony with an amused smile. “It isn’t a legend, dimwit, it’s a nursery rhyme,” he retorted, shutting it and setting it aside. Tony once more silently reminded himself to translate it later.
“Well, it looks like either the dad wrote it for his kid, or he copied it from somewhere else. Could have JARVIS look it up, but it’d take a few hours to comb through everything,” Tony said.
Stephen hummed noncommittally, eyeing Tony a little hungrily. Tony swallowed, unsure of what to say, which was strange for him.
“We should go on a date,” said Stephen suddenly. “Know any good restaurants?”
Tony’s eyes widened a little before he began to think. “Well, there is this one place on the other side of the galaxy that has great authentic old Earth food, and another in the quadrant next to us is a place that serves great Entinin food. It is kind of… vegetarian, but there is meat,” Tony listed off, seemingly lost in thought as he began to mutter under his breath.
Stephen sighed and slid off his seat, walking over to Tony and bending down, pressing his lips to Tony’s, effectively shutting the smaller man up.
It took a minute for Tony’s brain to catch up with what was happening, and when it did, boy was he pleased. He leaned into the kiss eagerly, arm shooting up to wrap around Stephen’s neck and tugging him closer, who had no qualms.
After several minutes of a very loud, very satisfying making out session, first of many, Stephen pulled away and patted Tony’s shoulder endearingly. “Gotta take me on a date before we do anything more,” Stephen declared, smiling at Tony’s pouty face.
Tony sighed but agreed. Before Stephen could walk away, he grinned and put his hand over Stephen’s which was still on his shoulder.
“But first, one more kiss?”
Stephen sighed once more and bent back down. “One more,” he agreed.