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"You've been avoiding me," Tony stated.
The couch slumped under Tony's weight, who let himself fall an inch away from Steve's feet. The soldier raised the papers in his hands closer to his face, if he wasn't going to read it at least he could use it to hide.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Steve grumbled, pointedly avoiding Tony's stare. The man was probably angry, or worse : worried.
"I haven't woken up next to you in 3 days, you've dragged me out of the shop exactly zero times and I have received no pestering about changing my bandages." Steve winced, but thankfully Tony's eyes were strained on his fingers as he listed his observations. "So, hypothesis 1 : you took a very bad hit on the head on Wednesday and suddenly think I developed self-preservation skills and don't need my morning dose of sleepy supersoldier." Steve smiled despite himself."Or, hypothesis 2 : you've been avoiding me."
Tony pointed an accusatory finger at Steve, even though his voice was level and light. Tony was a good actor, though. Steve, not so much. His eyes drifted to Tony's chest. The bandages were hidden under his tee shirt, but they covered most of his ribs and abdomen. Tony was even sitting straighter than usual. A pang of guilt twisted his stomach. If he had been smarter, if he had seen the robot move...
"I'm not avoiding you," he said weakly around the lump in his throat.
Tony raised on his knees to take the report from Steve's hands. He let him. He laid a gentle and on Steve's cheek and turned his head, forcing him to look at him in the eyes.
"It's about Wednesday isn't it?"
Steve nodded, there was no use in lying to someone who could read you like an open book.
"It wasn't your fault."
"The shield-"
"It wasn't your fault. You couldn't have predicted that the bot would move to the perfect angle to ricochet the shield. You're good but not that good."
"I should have gone through the head, I should have-"
"Steve! Steve. You took a decision with the information you had, you don't have future vision. And look-" he grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled up, reveling a tangle of clean bandages. "It's not even that bad, I'll be like new in a few weeks."
Steve made a strangled sound at the back of his throat, something high-pitched and unsteady and Tony shot him an weary look. He let go of the hem and raised on his knees. His arms circled Steve and he held tight. Steve hugged back, not holding as tight as he usually did, but still tight enough to feel the bandages and Tony's spine.
"I'm fine, Steve, I swear, it's not your fault," he whispered in Steve's hair. "What isn't fine, though," he said louder, peeling himself off of Steve,"Is you avoiding me for three days."
Tony's eyes bored into Steve's, with a seriousness that was pretty rare for the engineer. Steve nodded and took a sharp exhale to make the tears that threatened to spill disappear. Tony moved his hands to the back of Steve's head, and then on his cheeks. He nodded back and kissed him.
"I missed you," he said softly against Steve's skin. "We can't have that."
"I missed you too."