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People liked to think that Steve was still confused by the future. Admittedly he’d been overwhelmed when he’d come out of the ice in the beginning. But Steve had adapted.
.oOo.
This new world was bright, fast and restless. Nobody took the time to relish the small things anymore. There were fast cars, fast food and fast fashion.
People were glued to their phones that had originally been designed small enough to fit in your pocket but nowadays these things were so big that you needed both hands to use them. Furthermore nobody seemed to use their phone for phoning someone anymore. They recorded ‘voice notes’. Men and women alike stared at the small screens and walked around like they were remote-controlled. Steve almost walked face first into a lamppost when he tried that.
Steve’s first time visiting a Starbucks reminded him a lot of a guerilla war. He felt kind of stupid when the woman at the counter had called out his name and three other Steves appeared out of thin air, all claiming to be the Steve who the coffee belonged to. And what had happened to ‘small, medium and large?’ He’d been completely overwhelmed when the guy at the counter asked him ‘tall, venti or grande?’
And then he made the mistake of watching ‘Pulp Fiction’. Expecting a shallow suburban thriller, he was shocked to see a confusing concatenation of disturbing scenes, ranging from boxing to BDSM (yes, he googled that and it was a mistake) to a man reciting nonexistent bible verses and who looked a lot like a young version of Director Fury. Popcorn forgotten, he sat there with the remote in his hand, unable to look away, as if he was watching a train wreck.
The final straw was the night where he was unable to fall back asleep after a particular intense nightmare. The punching bags in the communal gym had suffered severe losses and Steve had tried to patch his bloody knuckles up by himself, not willing to wake one of the others. He was lousy at applying bandages and he had looked more like a mummy the next morning than anything else.
After that he sheepishly asked the other team members if they were interested in getting him familiar with the twenty-first century. They happily agreed. Team bonding activities became a big part of their weekly routine from then on. On those two days per week they came together to eat dinner, they laughed a lot, watched movies in the tower's communal living room, or even sparred and trained together. At first the atmosphere was tense, and all of them felt like teenagers in a trashy TV documentary. To everyone's surprise even Tony joined them from time to time.
What started as an idea for Steve to acclimate to the modern world, soon became their normalcy. It was wonderful.
In addition to their team activities Steve learned a lot of and about his comrades as well.
Natasha loved to go shopping with him and soon after he felt comfortable enough to leave the tower in his new clothes. Sure, the jeans she bought for him were a bit tighter than what he would have chosen for himself, but they went great with the black sweater he liked. And Tony nearly choked on his coffee when he came into the kitchen wearing them, so he counted it as a win.
In return he stayed with her when she needed some quiet company. Then they would browse through fashion magazines together. And on more than one occasion he left her room late at night with bright pink nails. The looks on the faces of the SHIELD agents the next day were priceless.
Clint took it upon himself to introduce him and Thor to every piece of pop culture that he deemed necessary for them to know. They watched Star Wars, Star Trek and Stargate, among other things. The archer also taught him how to read a manga, and what fanfiction was. After that he pondered asking JARVIS how to delete his Google search history. Then the three of them stumbled over Tumblr and after that adventure Steve did ask Jarvis how to delete his Google search history.
The three of them had a lot of fun. They hosted Mario Kart races and competitions and the loser had to do something ridiculous, like walk around with his fly open all day. Clint was also a great drinking buddy, and even though Steve could not get drunk they regularly tried to drink each other under the table. The lighthearted atmosphere was enough to let Steve feel that buzz under his skin.
Befriending Bruce had been a bit harder, but Steve was nothing if not stubborn. The quiet doctor spent a lot of his time in his lab or his private quarters. They bonded over yoga and stretching exercises, and Bruce taught him how zen meditation really worked. It was a great balance to his sparring and muscle training, and Bruce’s quiet nature helped Steve when he was feeling restless and couldn’t sleep at night because his memories came back.
In turn he took Bruce along when he went out to go running and the two of them spent a lot of time in Central Park. Bruce liked to talk about his studies and the countries he’d visited when he’d been on the run, and Steve listened intently. It seemed as if Bruce needed someone to listen as much as Steve liked to hear about the world.
And then there was Tony.
Steve was hesitant at first about approaching him. Their first interaction had not exactly been the best, and Steve learned over time that his biggest mistake was to compare Tony to Howard in his head. There weren’t a lot of things that father and son had in common except for their genius and their sharp tongue.
It took Steve a while to understand that Tony wasn’t being cheeky or bratty to rile him up just for shits and giggles. Tony joked and flirted as much as he breathed, that was just his nature. And while he didn’t like to shut up and listen to what Steve had to say, he knew when he was close to crossing a line and held his words back. Though sometimes he did like to rile Steve up just for the fun of it, until Steve sassed back one day. From then on the ice started to break between them, pun intended.
It was late at night and Steve found Tony in the kitchen, trying to assemble something that was maybe intended to resemble a sandwich. The engineer knew rocket science but was stumped when it came to preparing food. Steve sat him down in the living room and scrambled eggs, pancakes and fruit salad were his peace offerings which Tony accepted.
From then on spending time with Tony was as easy as breathing to Steve. He looked past Tony’s sometimes crude jokes and knocked on the hard shell that the engineer liked to hide in. They learned which topics to avoid with each other and which interests they shared. Steve handed Tony his ass when they sparred and Tony won every round of Monopoly.
They went out to get burgers, Tony showed him the MET, the MoMA and Coney Island. He even held back from laughing at Steve when he emptied his stomach behind some bushes after a wild roller coaster ride. Instead he rubbed over his broad back, trying to help him calm down. Their friendship grew and they became more comfortable around each other with every passing day. Tony helped Steve with everything he didn’t get, he even bothered to explain the microwave to him with words that he understood.
Tony was there for Steve in a way that the other team members weren’t. Not for a lack of trying, but the two men shared some kind of camaraderie that was unique. Of course they still fought, they argued, they yelled, but in the end they never went to bed without resolving their problems. They were friends. It was good. It was better than good. Until it wasn’t.
Until Steve realized that Tony was not just a friend to him.
Until he found himself being drawn towards the older man in a way that was definitely not just platonic friendship. He knew he was in deep shit when he realized how often he stared at Tony’s lips or the sway of his hips when he sauntered into the room. He knew the curve of his face, how his laughter sounded, and craved every gaze. Tony’s hands were strong and his eyes followed him when he carded his fingers through his hair. One of his MIT sweaters had accidentally ended up in Steve’s laundry basket and he couldn’t bring himself to give it back yet.
He was pathetic. Steve Rogers, Captain America, the great strategist, had no idea what he was supposed to do with these feelings that were blooming in his chest.
Back in his time it had been illegal to have feelings for another man. When he first realized he’d fallen for Tony he locked himself in his bedroom and asked JARVIS about everything that had changed over the last centuries. He learned a lot about the gay community, that it was okay to be gay today. It was a huge revelation for him. He spent the whole night reading articles online and asking JARVIS what he needed to know.
It was fascinating and if Steve could get drunk he’d chug a whole bottle of booze in celebration. But when the morning neared he was still not sure what he was supposed to do now, that he knew he wouldn’t get thrown into prison if he were to court Tony.
...court Tony.
As great as Steve’s team was for introducing him to the modern world… Nobody, meaning really no one, had told him how love worked nowadays. Love had been difficult and dangerous back in his day, but today the concept seemed even more challenging than ever before.
Today, love was fast, love was impersonal, love was outdated.
People nowadays had Tinder, Grindr, Jack’d, OkCupid, Papperlapapp and whatever those weird websites were called. This was not the kind of dating advice that he was looking for. The internet was big and as fun as it was, it was also scary. Steve found the weirdest websites with plans of how to get the man or woman of one’s dreams, but none of the sometimes confusing hints and tricks sounded even halfway convincing.
He understood the theory of falling in love and courting. But he was lacking practical experience!
Usually Steve was an optimist. But he knew deep down that he was not perfect boyfriend material. He was well aware that he was just as old-fashioned and outdated as the idea of love seemed to be to the people of the twenty first century. And Tony was everything good that this new world had to offer. He was smart, larger than life, sophisticated and popular.
It had taken him many sleepless nights to summon the courage to at least try his luck. If he didn’t do this then he could never look at himself in the mirror again without feeling like a loser.
And thus began the sad excuse that was his great plan to court Tony. Steve tried everything that he could think of. Or, he tried to try everything that he could think of. But every time he stood in front of Tony, this wonderful, wonderful man, and looked into his big brown doe eyes, the wobbly Jenga tower that was his confidence collapsed unsalvageable.
One word from Tony and he forgot what he’d wanted to say. One glimpse and he was captivated. One wave of his hand and Steve wanted to catch him and kiss him senseless. One whiff of Tony’s unique scent and Steve would stare uselessly at him for the rest of the day.
Steve was utterly and hopelessly in love.
.oOo.
“Ask him out.”
Steve jumped hard enough that he very nearly let go of the water glass in his hand, where he was standing next to the fridge in the communal kitchen. Alarmed he turned to look at Natasha who’d suddenly appeared next to him out of thin air. The former spy had her arms crossed over her chest and followed Steve’s previous line of sight. He blushed at being caught staring.
“What are you talking about?” He asked with a nervous laugh and turned around enough to stop her from pinning the unaware object of his desire to the couch with her gaze.
“Ask him out. You’re crushing on him, right?” Natasha smirked. There was something evil in her emerald eyes. Was it mischief?
Steve blushed. He could feel how his ears turned pink, just like his cheeks. Nervously he squirmed under her gaze and had to force himself to not turn around and look at the brunet engineer. The man in question was currently sleeping on the couch in the next room where a repeat of the latest season of RuPaul’s Drag Race was playing in the background.
“What? I- I’m not crushing. Who should I be crushing on? Don’t be ridiculous, Nat.” Steve grimaced in embarrassment and tried to cover it with a laugh. He put his free hand on his hip just to fidget with the string of his sweatpants.
“Don’t play dumb, Rogers, it doesn’t suit you.” Nat lifted one utterly unimpressed eyebrow at him. She looked dangerous, even with jeans and one of Clint’s training shirts. “Tony and you. I’ve been watching the two of you for weeks now. It’s painfully obvious that you’re head over heels in love. It was funny for a while but it’s getting ridiculous and I can’t bear this tragedy any longer.”
Steve was beet red. He hunched his shoulders in embarrassment and rubbed with his free hand over the back of his neck. He couldn’t deny it, and even if he would try to, Natasha knew exactly when he was lying. It wasn’t one of his strong points. She liked to mock him that he would be a catastrophe if he ever needed to work undercover. Steve allowed himself one look over his shoulder at Tony, who was still quietly snoring on the couch, blissfully unaware of what was happening around him.
He sighed and placed his water glass on the counter next to them. Gently Steve took hold of Natasha’s elbow next and pulled her out of the kitchen into the hallway. The redhead allowed it, and Steve was grateful for the tiny bit of privacy that the emptiness granted them.
He threw a long look at his friend and comrade. Natasha had always been there for him. Since the battle of New York they’d become fast friends and they spent a lot of time together. Maybe her finding out about his secret crush wasn’t the worst thing that could happen.
“So what, Nat? I can’t just, uh, I mean, I can’t just tell him that I’m in lo- that I’m, you know-” He lowered his voice further until it was barely a whisper and crossed his arms over his chest in an defensive manner since he did not know what to do with his hands. “-in love with him… He’s way out of my league and I won’t risk our friendship because I’m a selfish idiot.”
Actually, voicing his feelings was harder than what he’d imagined. Now that Steve was thinking about it, it was the first time that he’d admitted his feelings out loud. Nat just looked at him with a mixture of amusement and pity and her eyes grew soft. She reached out and laid her petite hands on his broad biceps.
“Let me handle that, Steve.” She assured him with a smile that made him slightly uneasy. “Let me handle that.”
Steve heard Tony snoring quietly in the living room. Oh dear, what did he get himself into this time?
.oOo.
Since Nat decided to take Steve’s dating problem into her hands, she set him up with new and shiny (and honestly sometimes stupid) ways to ask Tony out. She wouldn't stop, no matter how often Steve tried to convince her that it was hopeless. That he was hopeless.
They tried everything, from balloons, to plush toys, to flowers, to tickets for a baseball game. He even composed whole poems and wrote love declarations, to end up rereading them until he knew them by heart.
But most of the time Steve just stared at Tony like a fish, his mind blank and whatever he had planned to say or ask was wiped from his memory. Then the balloons would cause a fire alarm, the plush toy would turn out to be a spy from AIM, Tony would be allergic to the flowers he'd chosen, or the Avengers alarm blared and they'd fight extraterrestrial visitors who thought New York was their private golf course. Why was it always New York anyway?
Then a small miracle happened and Steve finally managed to get the words out! He actually asked Tony if he'd wanted to get burgers with him sometime… just for Thor to catch wind of it.
The date ended up being a team outing and Steve gave the pralines he bought for Tony to the waitress when they left around 4 am in various states of drunkenness. He was totally overdressed for the small hole in the wall diner they had chosen, and it was one of the most awkward and embarrassing nights of his life. And he had a lot of experience with those from before he became Captain America.
The only good thing was that he got to carry Tony upstairs to his penthouse suite, when the engineer’s knees buckled under his own weight on the way back to the tower.
Steve’s fingers tingled whenever he remembered the feel of the smaller man in his arms and how Tony had buried his face in his chest. The feeling accompanied him the whole week and was his only silver lining in the tragedy that was his love life.
Until today, Steve was almost convinced they were well on the way with ‘project STony’ as Natasha had dubbed it. But apparently today didn’t like him.
It was Friday and lunchtime. The summer sun was already shining brightly.
Steve would try to ask Tony out again. Natasha had planned everything. The two of them were alone when they met in the kitchen. That in itself was special. Usually the wide and open kitchen was the favorite place of all team members, but Natasha had pushed every button to make it happen. Weirdly enough JARVIS seemed to be in on the plan. Should he be worried?
Steve was staring at the coffee machine in front of him when Tony entered the room behind him. Trying to summon all his courage, he didn't turn around immediately. A severe mistake.
From the sounds alone it seemed like the engineer was about to attempt making another inedible sandwich. Steve did his best to look as innocent as possible, slurping his coffee maybe a bit too casually to be completely normal. The plan was to offer Tony a sip from his own mug (“It’s called an indirect kiss, Steve, that’s the epitome of kawaii, don’t be chicken shit!” “Nat, what in God’s name is kawaii? Is it another band that I don’t know?”) and then to proceed further to ask him out for a picnic in Central Park, complete with homemade cookies and flowers to which Tony was not allergic.
What he didn't expect and threw him for a loop were the low hanging sweatpants that threatened to slip over Tony's round butt when Steve finally found the courage to turn around and look at him. Maybe he should add that Tony was wearing Steve’s sweatpants and nothing else .
The blonde stared at Tony's backside for a long moment in which time seemed to stand still. He literally stared at him, like a true creep, and at how Tony leaned forward into the open fridge, busy trying to decide what he wanted to eat. He was a sight for the gods. Tony’s head whipped around in surprise, when Steve accidentally smashed the mug in his hands.
He almost choked on his own tongue, and mumbling excuses he ran from the kitchen with a big brown coffee stain right in the middle of his shirt, all over his chest. The coffee was sticking to his chin, and he was sure there were stains on some of the cabinets as well. Bruce would be furious when he saw it, but Steve did not have time to bother with cleaning up the mess he created, when he was sporting one hell of a boner that made it extremely difficult to run.
Steve was so embarrassed that there were no words for it. Beet red he avoided Tony’s questioning gaze and his inquiries if he was okay, and only stopped when he reached his own bedroom. Locking the door behind himself, Steve leaned against the wood and buried his face in his hands, with his heart beating furiously in his chest.
What happened after that was best left in the sanctuary of his own mind. The image of Tony being naked except for Steve’s pants would be his companion from now on when the nights were a bit lonelier than usual. The white light from the fridge and the blue glow from Tony's chest had mixed and thrown beautiful shadows over the hard planes of his torso. Steve had seen Tony's pecs and his nipples, and for God's sake, he shouldn't be that affected by nipples! He had those too! But Tony’s looked so sweet and delicate and he wondered what they would feel like under his fingertips or, God forbid, his tongue. He was so gone…
Let's just say that Steve didn't get anything done for a long while.
.oOo.
"Nat, I can’t do this. Can't we just accept that I'm not cut for dating? I'll just- I'll just become a monk…" Steve flopped face first onto the couch and buried his face in a pillow. After taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he turned to look at the flat-screen television where an old James Bond movie was playing.
Steve laid on Natasha's couch and tried to get his body to calm down. After the embarrassing boner incident in the kitchen, and the - ahem - countermeasures, he'd gone to the gym and tried to get rid of the adrenaline in his blood by destroying a half a dozen punching bags. His knuckles hurt like hell and he could feel a satisfying ache in his shoulders. But the buzz underneath his skin was still there and every touch felt like electricity. At the moment itdidn't look like he'd be able to sleep at all this night.
The tired soldier was still wearing his gym clothes, soft sweatpants and a white muscle shirt. He knew he was sweaty and should probably shower if he didn't want to risk Nat lecturing him, but he was too depressed to do anything else than lie here and mope. He didn't even bother to go to the kitchen next door where Nat was cooking. Her quarters smelled like heaven and usually he'd go and take a peek at what she was preparing. It was Friday evening. They usually watched the new episodes of the Disney series that aired every Friday and cooked something that they both hadn't eaten before.
“Nat?” He repeated after a while of quiet thinking. She still hadn’t come out of the kitchen, leaving him to his moping and Steve was grateful for the privacy. On the screen Sean Connery drank a martini. Tony liked martinis too.
“Nat, I think we should give up.” He sighed and stroked over the soft fabric of the pillow beneath his face. The movie in front of him continued, but Steve didn’t really pay attention to what happened on the screen. He was lost in his thoughts. Thoughts filled with brown eyes and bright laughters.
“Steve, can you talk a bit louder, I can’t hear you over the stove and your self-pity!” Nat’s voice rang from the kitchen. She sounded a bit annoyed and Steve decided to stay where he was. It wouldn’t do him any good to get in her way when she was cooking.
He simply turned over to lay on his back and threw his arm over his eyes, blocking the lights and seeing Tony before his inner eyes. Tony when he was in his workshop, playing with his bots. Tony hugging the coffee machine after a long day in the office. Tony sleeping on the couch, tired and exhausted after meetings upon meetings. Tony in a Yukata after a business trip to Japan. Tony with windswept hair and a wet shirt after being caught in the rain.
“We should give up, Natasha. I’m a failure. This whole thing was doomed to fail. Tony isn’t interested in me, and I’m just… I’m just a loser. I mean, I knew from the beginning that this couldn’t work out. He’s everything I’m not, he’s suave, confident. And he could have anyone he wanted.” Steve’s voice was quiet. Maybe Natasha didn’t even hear him, but it didn’t matter to him at the moment. The words wanted out and he had no one to talk about how miserable he felt but her. And wasn’t that just sad?
Steve was downright depressed and lovesick. And here he thought he was past the whole angsty teenager time of his life. Because, yes, that had already been a thing back in the 30’s.
“When he looks at me, it’s like my head is just… empty. I can’t think clearly. The only thing I can think about is that I want to find out what it would feel like to card my fingers through his hair. And I want to be able to touch his face. Do you know how creepy it is to touch someone’s face when you’re not together?” Steve let the question hang in the air and only heard an affirmative hum from the direction of the kitchen. Nat was listening after all.
“But it’s not just the physical touch that you want, right?” Natasha answered him, even though she knew the answer to that question already. She only gave him the opening to gush some more about Tony, because Steve needed it and she was a great friend.
Steve sighed. “Of course it’s not just the physical. You know it’s not just that. When he laughs, he looks so happy and so carefree. Not at all like in the photos you see online. He never laughs as real as when he’s with his robots or with us, with the team. And… And I want to make him laugh like that more often. Because that means he’s truly happy. I want him to know that he can rely on me, and that he doesn’t have to do everything alone. I… I care so much about him, Nat…”
There were some cluttering noises from the kitchen as if something had dropped to the ground.
“Nat?” Steve raised his arm and opened one eye. “Do you need help?”
“No, thank you. It’s okay. The sauce was just a bit too hot.” She assured him. “Go on with your moping. Let it out. Maybe you’ll feel better afterwards, so I can tell you about the next plan. This one’s foolproof, trust me!”
“Not again… Nat, this is it, I can’t do this any longer. I appreciate your help, I really do, but…” Steve sighed. He was so tired, tired from running from his feelings, tired from running from the final confrontation. His voice grew quiet. “I don’t want to, to… I just don’t want to. I’m afraid. I’m so afraid. What if Tony isn’t interested in men at all? We avoided that question for way too long. Or worse! What if he’s just not interested in me? I don’t want to doubt you, Natasha. But I couldn’t bear it if I ruined everything. I can’t lose Tony. I just… I just can’t.”
Deep down he knew that he was being overly dramatic. Tony was an open-minded person and would probably never end their friendship if Steve ever manned up enough to ask him out, just because he didn’t reciprocate his feelings. But if things somehow did go south, then those few words that were needed to convey his true feelings would put a strain on their relationship and it would never be the same again.
Steve scrunched his eyes shut. He hated the thought of never being able to talk to Tony again. “Maybe I should just accept that I’m a lovesick fool and give up. I’d rather keep Tony as my friend than lose him forever…” He pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes until Steve saw stars.
The kitchen was quiet and Steve heard approaching footsteps. Natasha carded her hand through his hair in a soothing gesture. She smelled of tomatoes and mexican spices.
“Wow, now this was heartfelt, huh? Come on, big guy, I think you owe me a date.”
Steve’s heart stopped in his chest. This couldn’t be! Slowly, as if afraid of the truth, he pulled his hands from his face and looked up into Tony’s brown eyes. The engineer’s gaze sparkled with mirth and softness.
“Wh-What…? Since when are you here? Did- Did you hear everything?” Steve very nearly squeaked up at him. He heard a giggling sound from the kitchen and turned to see Natasha look at them from around the corner from where he was still laying. “Nat! He was here the whole time?! You traitor! Why did you do this?”
Natasha grinned mischievously at them. “I told you my next plan was foolproof! See? It worked!”
Steve gaped at her until he felt Tony’s hand tighten a fraction in his hair. He had almost forgotten about Tony in his panic. His heart was beating in his throat. Tony had heard everything! What now? What if he’d just ruined everything? Tony…?
Steve sat up in a hurry. He couldn’t do this laying down. What was happening now? It took all of his willpower not to run from the room like a headless chicken. Scrambling to stand up as fast as possible he very nearly fell from the couch. Steve winced when he banged his head on the coffee table and rubbed his hand over the growing bump when he was finally up and standing in front of the engineer.
He could literally feel himself blushing and Natasha’s badly suppressed giggles at his laughable performance didn’t exactly help with his nerves. The two of them looked at each other a bit awkwardly and both squirmed under the other’s gaze. It was ridiculous. They were ridiculous.
Steve cleared his throat at the same time that Tony opened his mouth.
“I wanted-”
“You know-”
Steve huffed an embarrassing laugh. “You go first…” He offered Tony.
Tony snickered and was he blushing? “Sushi or Thai? Though we could also try Mexican. Italian is also okay, if you want to stick to the classics.”
Steve stared at him like he’d grown another head.
“What?”
He’d never pretended to be particularly eloquent.
“You owe me at least a dozen dates, Mr Rogers. Might as well start tonight. So? Sushi, Thai, Mexican, Italian?” Tony told him with a smile. His hands came up and he placed them tenderly on Steve’s arms, as if unsure if he was allowed to touch him at all.
“... A d-dozen dates?” Steve repeated and felt himself blush. His mind was not catching up with what Tony was saying.
Tony laughed at his probably gobsmacked expression. He leaned up and kissed his cheek. “Natasha cornered me a month ago and told me what you two were trying to do. In all honesty, it was adorable to watch and I just couldn’t tell you that she already explained everything to me. You were so precious trying your best to woo me. I would’ve asked you out myself but it felt unfair. You were trying so hard.” Tony shrugged apologetically and his thumbs caressed the skin on Steve’s wrists.
Steve stared at him for a long moment and the smile on Tony’s lips dimmed slowly. “I’m sorry. Maybe we shouldn’t have misled you. Actually… Actually, I made reservations at all four restaurants, hoping that you’d like to go out with me. A date! A real date! Just us, you know. But, but I’d understand if you’d no longer want to, I mean, what we did was really mean and you don’t have to go out with me now, you know. I mean, you could definitely do better, and I won’t blame you, because mmnnn-”
Caught in the moment, Steve held Tony’s face between his hand and cut off the string of words. The lips that he could feel pressed against his own were warm and soft and Tony’s goatee scratched lightly over his skin. The contrast was hot and cold and he was too overwhelmed by his own bravery to do anything else than close his eyes for a moment and just experience the feeling.
Faster than expected it was over and Steve wondered how in the world a few seconds could feel like a lifetime. He stared at Tony a bit dazed and was sure he’d never seen the specks of gold in his eyes before. How could he have missed them? Oh, right, they’d never before been this close to each other.
Tony locked at him a bit surprised, but then he smiled at him and his hands found Steve’s waist. It made Steve shudder involuntarily.
“Thai.” He blurted and Tony started laughing.
“Alright!” The engineer smiled up at him and pulled their bodies together for a short moment.
Steve could feel the heat of his skin through their clothes. Tony leaned in for another short kiss before he pulled free and literally sauntered towards the door and the elevator. Steve’s eyes followed him until he was almost out of sight. “I’ll get the car ready. Hurry up and change into something less smelly, soldier boy. I want those dates that you owe me! Wear the black sweater and the dark jeans! They accentuate your ass!”
Tony laughed and slapped his own butt before he vanished around the corner.
Steve blushed furiously at his last comment and stared after him for another moment, wondering what had just happened and if he was maybe dreaming, when Natasha’s chuckles pulled him from his thoughts. He glared at her from the living room.
“You-” He started, but she cut him off with a raised wooden spoon.
“No, Steve, no! You better go and change into the clothes I already prepared for you. Hurry up and get your man! I told you my plan was foolproof.”
Steve nearly stumbled over the pillows that had fallen to the ground earlier and ran towards her to scoop her up in a bear hug. She willingly hugged him back, but not without hitting him on the head with her spoon.
“Thank you, Nat!” he told her sincerely.
“Alright, alright, let go of me, Steve! You stink!” she teased and he released her again. “See you later!”
Steve turned around when he reached the corner where Tony had vanished. He smiled at her, excitement buzzing under his skin like a fire. The night was still young. “No. No, I don’t think we will.”