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“Smile!”
Steve smiled on command, and Tony swept the blush brush across his cheeks, circling it across his apples and pulling it up toward his cheekbones in a ‘C’ shape.
“Isn’t he the cutest thing ever?” Tony said to the camera and their viewers. “One of you needs to screenshot this and give him golden retriever ears and a wagging tail.”
Steve blushed at that, glad that the colour on his cheeks would hopefully hide his bashfulness. Last he had checked the monitor, they were getting close to two million viewers. Someone would definitely take Tony up on his request. Steve always loved seeing what people had to say about them and he saved all the fanart he found that people made of the two of them.
“You need to do my makeup for our next gala,” Steve said, trying to keep his face still as he spoke. He looked up at Tony, he was close enough that Steve could count the light sun freckles across his nose and breathe in his expensive cologne.
When Tony had come to him about the “My Boyfriend Does My Makeup!” Challenge, he’d been skeptical at first, but once Tony explained how they would be helping change the stigma surrounding men and makeup, Steve was on board. He was always down to crush gender stereotypes, wanting to use the mantle of Captain America for good. If he could sell war bonds, he could sell the dismantling of the gender binary.
Now with Tony pressed against him, thin foundation and blush on his face, Steve was glad he’d agreed. It was surprisingly relaxing to have Tony doing his makeup and he resisted the urge to shiver every time Tony’s fingers gently pressed against his jaw to turn his head.
“I think we have the annual firefighter ball next,” Tony replied to Steve’s question about a gala, as he loaded up a round brush with bronzer to contour Steve’s face. “You have such high cheekbones,” he murmured.
“Maybe we can do a yellow, orange, and red ombre,” Steve suggested, thinking about the event. Their followers would love that. “If you have ideas, leave them in the chat,” he called to the camera.
When Tony had suggested a Youtube account to humanize the Avengers, Steve had gone along with it, not wanting to admit that he had no idea what YouTube was and why that in particular would be a good idea for them.
Now though, three months in with almost ten million subscribers to their joint account, Steve was well versed in the ins and outs of vlogging, challenges, and the fake relationship he and Tony had come up with in order to draw in more viewers.
It had been weird at first, both of them awkwardly bumbling through the relationship. But once they capitalized on the awkwardness and started spending more time together brainstorming and filming videos, they fell into their fake relationship easily, both of them comfortable around each other, both on and off the camera.
Not only had it been good for their personal relationship, but they had also done a lot of work normalizing same-sex relationships and attempting to dismantle the gender binary. While there were lots of people who left hate comments on their content, Jarvis was quick to get rid of trolling interactions to create a positive experience for the community.
More than that, Tony had helped him set up his own YouTube account to share his art with others. Steve had appreciated how patient Tony was with showing him how to share his art process in livestreams and instructed him on how to get Jarvis to help him set up his videos and edit them.
For the Avengers, Steve would say it definitely brought them closer together. It helped show the general public that they were just like everyone else, they were silly and they made mistakes and they had good times. That definitely helped with their image as a team and made them more approachable. With a YouTube account it was easy for them to galvanize support toward causes they wanted to highlight and voice what was important to them and the team without having to hold an exhausting press conference.
Steve appreciated Tony so much for helping the team gain traction and presence on the platform. They’d made so many good memories making videos so far, and Steve was eternally grateful to Tony for all of it.
“What colour do you want?” Tony asked drawing Steve out of his thoughts. He was holding up red, white, and blue lip liner.
Early on Steve had caught onto the patriotic colours Tony had laid out for Steve’s makeup and found it quite amusing. Steve pointed to the red and Tony nodded, leaning close to line Steve’s lips with the colour.
“Where did you learn to do makeup?” Steve asked curiously as Tony dug through his caboodle for lip gloss.
Even though they had gone to Sephora specifically to buy makeup for this challenge, Steve was surprised that Tony knew his way around every product he’d bought. Steve knew that Tony used concealer when he’d gotten a particularly bad hit to the face, but now any of the other products in the bag.
“I used to help my mom with her makeup when I was younger,” Tony replied, “sometimes her hands weren’t so steady,” he whispered, low enough that only Steve’s augmented hearing could pick it up. “Then as I grew up, I helped Pepper sometimes when she was in a rush.”
Steve reached out to gently squeeze Tony’s knee. They’d both talked about their parents a few months ago and the sore subjects had brought them a little closer together. Steve definitely felt like he understood Tony’s initial distaste for him and was eternally grateful that they’d been able to move past their respective ghosts.
The lip gloss smelled strongly like strawberries in Steve’s nose as Tony spread it like jam across his lips with a steady hand. He held still as Tony used his pinky to clean up the line of Steve’s lower lip where it had smeared a little bit.
“Let me get a tissue to blot off the extra colour,” Tony said, turning his head and scanning all the makeup supplies.
Steve took the opportunity to lean forward, planting a sticky kiss on Tony’s cheek with a laugh. He was sure he had lip gloss on his teeth, but he didn’t mind, watching as Tony realised what had happened and burst out laughing with him. In his peripheral vision he could see the chat blowing up.
“You’re so ridiculous,” Tony shook his head, finally grabbing a tissue and cleaning the lip gloss off Steve’s chin where it had transferred from the kiss. “I’m so happy you’re mine.”
A pleased thrum rang through Steve’s chest and he leaned closer into Tony’s warmth.
“Do you have anything sparkly for my eyes?” Steve asked leaning over Tony’s shoulder to look at the makeup pallet he was holding.
Tony nodded, “we can definitely do something blue with sparkles. We also bought star shaped glitter so we can put some of that on you too. I have some brow gel that would work really well to adhere the stars to your face”
Steve had no idea what Tony was saying so he nodded along. Tony seemed to get the idea because he smiled, darting forward to return a kiss to Steve’s cheek.
The smell of vanilla and powder filled Steve’s nose as Tony steadied the makeup brush to press blue pigment onto his eyelids. His eyes were closed but he could feel Tony inch closer to him, smell the coffee on his breath as he sighed happily.
“This is turning out really good!”
Steve could hear the smile in Tony’s voice and he opened his eyes to watch as Tony wiped the colour off his makeup brush, the cleaner wrinkling Steve’s nose.
“Can I see it?” Steve asked, resisting the urge to touch his face. He’d seen Pepper’s makeup in the past and if that was Tony’s work he knew his own face was going to be amazing.
“Just wait, baby,” Tony murmured, sweeping his brush through more matte holographic blue pigment. Turning to the camera, Tony smirked, “he’s so impatient isn’t he?”
The comment was met with lots of hearts and more comments expressing love for them through the livestream. Steve blushed looking up at Tony, secretly loving that he was laying on the affection extra thick.
“I think the chat agrees,” Tony teased.
Steve smiled as Tony scooted closer, resting a hand on one of Steve’s shoulders for balance. He had one of the fluffy blending brushes in his hand for eyes.
The artist in Steve was fascinated with the way Tony was picking different colours. As much as Tony deferred to Steve for art things, Steve strongly believed that Tony was an artist in his own right, he’d seen the blueprints Tony drew up and his hands were so steady when he was focused.
Steve tried not to breathe as Tony finished with the colour and grabbed the concealer to cut his crease. Steve knew Tony and his thinking faces well enough to picture Tony in his mind’s eye, brows furrowed in concentration and tongue peeking out of his lips. Something warmed in his heart and he shoved it down, they were supposed to be acting, Steve wasn’t supposed to be catching real feelings. Nevermind that he’d had them for a while.
“Look up,” Tony instructed and Steve obliged, eyes fluttering open as he directed his gaze to the ceiling. “Good job.”
Shivering at the praise, Steve looked back at Tony who was wielding a skinny eyeliner brush dabbed in concealer, not even paying attention to how he was making Steve feel.
“I think this is the best cut crease I’ve ever done.” Tony grinned proudly as he gently tipped Steve’s chin up into the light. “If you’ve been following along with us, send us your cut crease pictures! Tag them with #CutCreases4Stony!”
Jarvis helpfully displayed the hashtag in the air and from the corner of his eye Steve could see the increase in thumbs up in the chat. He couldn’t wait to see all the posts at the end of the day. They’d probably be trending on Twitter at the end of the day. Steve hoped he’d see a lot of gender diversity in the posts too.
“Alright sweetheart, hold still,” Tony redirected his attention, brushing setting powder over Steve’s lids. “Oh how the tables have turned. You’re following my orders now.”
Steve bit his lip, trying not to laugh as Tony snickered. He already knew there were going to be memes about this tomorrow.
“Don’t do that, you’re getting lipgloss on your teeth.”
“Shit, sorry,” Steve mumbled, and Tony laughed harder, grabbing a tissue to fix Steve’s blunder.
“S’okay, don’t pout like that baby, it’s nothing that can’t be fixed.” Steve felt Tony’s lips press against his nose and his ears heated with his blush.
Another brush pressed against Steve’s eyelids and he went back to holding still as Tony worked his magic. When he peeked at Tony, he was sweeping a small flat brush through a bold shade of red that matched Steve’s lips.
The colour was packed on Steve’s lids and he could only imagine how striking he looked. He wondered if after this they’d make a public appearance that would land them on page six. Maybe it would also garner more attention for their channel, Tony had been talking recently about how he wanted to get to ten million followers so they could get a diamond play button.
“You said you wanted stars?”
Steve nodded and before long something cold and sticky was being dabbed across his lower brow bone where Tony had put the blue pigment earlier.
“Keep your eyes closed, I don’t want to hurt your baby blues with a wayward glitter star.” Tony used his fingers to press the small hard plastic stars into place. “This looks so good Steve, you’re going to love it. Let me just finish it up with some eyeliner and mascara.”
The liquid liner was cold, but Tony’s hands were steady as he swept it across Steve’s lid, following it up with a brush of the mascara wand to complete the look.
“There we go, now you’re picture perfect.”
“Do I get to see it now?” Steve asked, already knowing that he was going to love what Tony did. He pulled the frog-themed headband off, shaking out his hair.
Nodding, Tony handed him the black handheld mirror and he held it up, turning so he could see his face at all angles.
“If being the richest man alive doesn’t work out, you can always get into makeup,” Steve joked
He was still looking at his face in the mirror. He was entranced, loving how Tony had made him look. He finally understood the hype around makeup. It wasn’t about covering up, it was about self-expression and an extension of self-love.
Steve turned toward the camera with a smile, posing for their viewers.
The chat seemed to go crazy, comments going by faster than Steve could read them and what felt like a million hearts to eclipse it all. He was glad Tony had the bandwidth to hold streams this big. He was glad they had so many supporters.
“Alright, let’s see if we can answer some fan questions.” Tony pulled out his phone, projecting the comment feed in front of them both. “If you have a question you want us to answer, now’s your chance to send it in.”
Steve leaned closer to Tony so he could read the tsunami of comments flooding in, Jarvis was being helpful, picking out the comments that were interesting and compiling them in a list with most interesting at the top.
“Someone wants to know where we got our makeup, we did a haul video the other day that you can check out on our channel. It should be the most recent video.”
“We have a question about our skincare routines,” Steve read on the screen. He was glad for such a tame question though he wasn’t sure what it meant. “I use Dove soap?”
“They mean what do you do to keep your face so clear.”
“...More Dove soap?”
Tony’s eyes widened and he laughed in surprise. “Don’t let the skincare community hear you say that. I personally love a good face mask from Lush, they have ones with coffee in them and you know how I feel about coffee,” Tony winked salaciously at the camera. “I love coffee almost as much as I love Steve.”
And woah, wasn’t that like being hit in the gut. He’d never heard Tony say anything like that before. Neither had their followers and they were going batshit over it, the comment section at this point looking like what being at a rave felt.
Did Tony feel the same way about this? There was no way, Steve thought they were just doing it for the betterment of society. But Steve wanted it to be true and it would be so easy to tell himself that based on how close they were. How easy it was for Steve to insert himself into Tony’s space and invite Tony into his own.
Frantically, Steve read the next question on the list, willing his heart not to beat out of his chest. He hoped his frantic pause wasn’t too noticeable. “Superdecibles asks, ‘When are you two finally gonna settle down and get married?’” Steve almost choked on the word, growing impossibly redder.
Tony grinned, nudging Steve with his elbow and shooting him a mischievous look. “When are you gonna pop the question, babe?”
Steve immediately knew that he was never going to live this down, “Well…”
The alarm to assemble rang and Steve sighed, saved by the bell.
“That’s our cue,” Tony said, standing up and clapping his hands. “We’re off to go save the world, but we can’t wait to see all your photo submissions. Have a super day!”
The moment the camera was off, the two of them scrambled to get into gear. Steve didn’t bother with a makeup wipe, just clipping his helmet into place and grabbing his things.
Steve was still thinking about the livestream question hours later when the battle was wrapping up and he was retrieving his shield from the carcass of one of Doom’s ridiculous bots. He wondered if maybe he should ask Tony out for real. It wasn’t like they didn’t enjoy spending time together.
A gaggle of reporters were gathered around the perimeter the police set up and they were waving him over. Steve always tried to give some sort of comment before he left, not wanting to seem rude. They were all just trying to do their jobs after all, even if he hated some of the work they produced.
Checking his reflection in a nearby car window, Steve wasn’t surprised to see his makeup still intact. Whatever setting spray Tony used worked wonders and not a pigment of powder was out of place as he unclipped his helmet and made his way to the gathered crowd, flashing his award-winning smile. He wondered if the company would contact them for a brand partnership.
“Captain Rogers! What do you have to say about diplomatic relations with Latveria?”
“Mr. America, sir, what do you have to say to parents who believe that you are confusing their children by wearing women’s makeup?”
“Steve! You never answered the question on your livestream about whether or not you and Mr. Stark are going to be getting engaged!?”
“That was a pretty rough battle,” Tony cut in smoothly from beside him, his arm thrown around Steve’s shoulder and his press grin in place. “Our business is protecting the city, we’d like to leave diplomatic relations to the politicians and our imminent engagement a surprise. As for you,” Tony pointed to the man with the bigoted question. “The fifties called, they want their homophobic ideals back.”
With that, Tony slid an arm around Steve’s waist, repulsors firing as he flew Steve back to the tower, grumbling the whole way about nosy reporters as Steve tried not to laugh out loud.
They ended up making the front page of the Times and their YouTube channel hit ten million followers the next day. By some magic, a few days later a box from the streaming company was promptly delivered to their door.
Steve picked the box up, turning it over in his hands. They’d gotten a similar box before, but never this fast and Steve couldn’t wait to tell Tony about it as he headed to the communal kitchen where he knew the other one would be.
“Guess what came in today!” Steve bounded into the kitchen with a wide smile stretched across his face as he set the package down in front of Tony.
“I feel like we owe it to our viewers to do a livestream Q and A with our unboxing,” Steve said as Tony downed his first cup of the day. “Since the video yesterday was cut short,” Steve offered by way of explanation, sitting on the counter beside Tony.
Tony let out a muffled “mmhmm,” and Steve remembered that it was almost impossible to hold a conversation with Tony before the man had an adequate amount of caffeine in his system.
Maybe that made it the best time for Steve to confess his feelings, after all, if Tony had an angry “hmm” in response, he could book it to the elevator before Tony was coherent enough to follow him.
“I also maybe wanted to talk about our relationship. Everything that’s happened lately has made me reevaluate our relationship. I was thinking a lot about the time we spent together and I really value your friendship. I think what we’re doing is important for our viewers and it’s important to me.” Steve took a deep breath, looking at Tony from under his eyelashes.
By this point, Tony had set the mug down and was looking at Steve intently, brown eyes blown wide and mouth parted in what looked like awe.
“All this to say that I’d like to maybe go on a date for real and try that out,” Steve nervously rubbed the back of his head. “You’ll always be my friend, Tony, the very best, no matter what. But I think we can be something more, and I’d like to give that a shot.”
Steve turned to Tony, lip caught in his teeth as he waited to hear a response. Even if Tony didn’t like him like that, Steve knew that the mutual respect they had for each other would prevent their relationship from going sideways over this. The worst that would happen was a couple of days of awkwardness before things were back to normal.
“Steve.”
His name was like a sigh on Tony’s lips as the man shifted to the edge of his seat, grabbing Steve by the front of his shirt. Steve let himself be pulled into the kiss, Tony tasting like coffee and an undertone of mint toothpaste as he pressed his tongue into Steve’s mouth.
It was a desperate sort of kiss and as Steve brought his hands up to Tony’s waist he realised that everything they’d done up until now, all the fake dating and friendly closeness would not even compare to how it would feel to actually be with Tony.
“So,” Tony breathed pulling away, his cheeks were flushed in the most adorable way and Steve resisted the urge to pepper kisses across his face. He’d have plenty of time to do that. “Where should we go on our first date?”
“Sephora?” Steve suggested, loving the way that made Tony’s face light up, a small laugh escaping him.
“The makeup store?” Tony asked incredulously, cocking his head to the side like he couldn’t believe Steve was real. “A man after my own heart,” he snorted again, downing the rest of his coffee and setting a mug on the counter.
Steve nodded. “Livestream first, makeup store next.”
Tony acquiesced. “Jarvis, can you set up for filming on the couch?” Tony called to the ceiling, rounding the counter to pour himself another cup of coffee.
As the liquid filled the cup, his fingers brushed over his lips, a faraway look in his eyes. Steve mimicked the motion with a smile. Steve was pleased that he had been the one to put that expression on Tony’s face.
“Are you prepared to answer the wedding bells question?” Tony asked, reminding Steve about the reporter from the day before.
“We haven’t even gone on our first date, how are we supposed to pick a wedding date?” Steve laughed, sitting on the couch beside Tony and sliding an arm around the other man. It wasn’t something he hadn’t done before, but doing it now felt so much better as Tony snuggled closer to his side.
Tony pecked a kiss to Steve’s cheek. “They don’t know that though.”
“Hopefully sooner rather than later,” Steve replied, a blush freckled across his cheeks.
Steve set the box with their play button on the coffee table, brushing his fingers through his hair as he turned to look at Tony with a wide smile. His heart swelled in his chest when he found Tony looking back at him, a matching grin on his own face.
“Ready?” Jarvis interrupted, startling them both as he finished setting the lights and camera up.
Tony flashed the camera a thumbs up as a countdown appeared in the air by the camera lens.
“Good morning!” Tony waved at the camera, “We’re sorry about the interruption of our livestream yesterday, duty calls ya know? We’re more than happy to answer all of your questions at the end of this video so start putting them in the chat box. But more importantly, you’ll never guess what came in the mail today!”
