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It was late afternoon, close to sunset but just not yet twilight. It had been a quiet day for the Avengers, Sam and Natasha had gotten by from an op that morning and they and Clint had spent the day hanging out in the kitchen, icing bruises while playing Jenga.
“They have to know,” Clint mutters with concentration as he works out his choice of Jenga Branded pine, Smirking at Sam as he frees the wood.
“They don’t,” Natasha replies casually. Before taking his turn, Sam looks over his shoulder for a moment.
“Really? You’re trying to tell me that they have no idea what they’re doing.” He decides to make things easy on himself he takes his piece from higher up on the tower, around where the original top of the tower stood.
“I’ve checked. And you boneheads aren’t going to say a thing about it to them.” Natasha says her threat properly veiled as she removes a block like it wasn’t one of two pieces holding the whole tower together and delicately relocating it to the top.
“Checked how Nat? Especially if you don’t want us to say anything.” Clint Frowns at the options of his next turn.
“That’s what I’m talking about, how can they be all over each other like that, not know, and you know they don’t know,” Sam says, feeling like he just recited a tongue twister somehow.
“Because I’m a better spy than both of you.” Clint looks like he’s about to object, but then shrugs and also removes a ‘cheap piece’ of wood from the safer top of the tower freezing as it leans slowly to one side before rebalancing itself. “Also he helped,” Natasha stated just as Bruce came around the corner, taking in the game of Jenga going on and the looks on everyone's faces.
“Uh, no,” Bruce says before going to the kitchen and pulling out an apple from the fridge and taking out a peeler and getting to work on his apple. He liked to do it when there was time on his hands, a fun little way to have a small meditation.
“We didn’t say anything.” Sam started.
“Natasha made reference to me as I came in. So you were talking about something and I’m not being a part of it. No.”
“We were talking about Tony and Steve on the couch,” Clint says calmly as Sam goes back to contemplating his move. Bruce blinks for a moment, repeating Tony and Steve’s names before realising what the discussion is about.
“Don’t tell them,” Bruce states, firmly.
“So everyone keeps saying, but why?” Sam says, deciding to forget about the game for a moment in hopes the right brick will ‘jump out at him’.
“You know how stupid they get around each other,” Natasha replies with disinterest, talking at her normal level while Sam and Clint try and keep themselves quieter considering how close they are to who they're talking about and everyone is more than aware of how keen a sense of hearing Steve has.
“Yeah, when they’re not arguing with each other they’re looking at each other like kicked puppies,” Sam replies. “And would you keep it down?” He hisses
“They can’t hear us,” Natasha replies. “They’re both in their zones.”
At this moment in time, both Steve and Tony are on the couch. Tony is sat back into the back of the chair, his feet up on the coffee table, without shoes as he usually is when he doesn’t have to be in front of mature adults with mature adult jobs, wholly absorbed in a Stark Industries tablet with the walled TV screen offering up additional data as he mutters to himself writing on the tablet while reading what’s on the TV screen and going back again. The tablet is resting on Steve’s shin, and Tony’s free hand is resting on Steve’s knee.
Steve, had initially sat down at the other end of the couch. Sketchbook in hand and a set of pencils of varying hardness. The common area with its floor-to-ceiling windows in a room that was at least two whole floors tall not only offered the best light but also the largest unbroken view of one-half of Manhattan’s skyline. So it was a common sight to see Steve somewhere in the common area drawing to recentre himself, especially after a hard-won fight. However, as Steve gets comfortable and thinks more about what he’s drawing he ends up putting his feet up on the couch. And more often than not his feet end up in Tony’s lap. Natasha and Bruce had been the first to notice it months ago, it seemed to happen shortly after Peter Parker became a common feature at the tower, helping Tony with various small-scale projects, while Peter had originally been brought in as a bench member someone to be back up on missions while also mentoring the kid while he developed his own superhero presence. Though he was more regularly just hanging around the tower being Tony’s gopher and second pair of hands when Bruce was busy.
“So being in their zones means they have no idea?” Sam asks. He still spent most of his time with Natasha, Steve, and Rhodey because they both needed someone to commiserate with when it came to their ‘poor stupid white boys’ he’d always found Tony just enough too flippant and disinterested to really get a comfortable beat on him, so he mostly left the billionaire alone only hearing stories about him from Rhodey and the other Avengers.
“Well, it only really works if Tony’s sitting down first.” Bruce offers. Peeling his apple. “If Steve’s here first, Tony just goes into the lab and works there, which you know was… Tony. We aren’t the only ones who run away from their issues.”
“Okay, that hurt.” Sam retorts as clint smirks.
“Still, You’d think Steve at least would realise what he’s doing. I mean Stark, sure. If he can’t take you apart and rebuild your Iron Legion Style, why bother with the peons? But Steve, he’s always about being respectful or lecturing Stark, or scolding him, just straight up arguing with him… Boy’s a bit of a Dom, hey?” Clint says, obviously ignoring the look Natasha offers him, to be amused at Bruce’s exasperated look.
“Well that’s now stuck in my head, Thank you, Clint.” Bruce sighs as Clint tips an imaginary hat to the scientist. “I think it’s because he draws until the sun has gone completely down and leaves before he even realises how he was. And like you said, Tony only notices things when he’s interested.” There’s a pause and he speaks up before anyone can say it. “Or he wants to ignore something he doesn’t want to deal with.”
“If he wasn’t planning on sharing anything he was dying from Palladium poisoning, what makes anyone think that Tony’s going to say anything about the fact he’s sharing his space with his boyhood idol and biggest rival?” Natasha says while she watches the Jenga tower sway back and forth subtly.
“Palladium poisoning? Man, I’ve got to start reading those files.” Sam says.
“It’s not in there anymore, Stark deleted them.” Clint offers up, before looking right past Sam and at the pair in the living room, causing everyone to follow his gaze. Tony rubs at his eyes and stretches for a moment before tapping Steve’s leg twice which Steve responds by pulling his legs back and moving his drawing pad to rest on his lap using his legs as an easel. Tony stands, pocketing his stylus and dropping his tablet where he was sitting and strolls towards the kitchen stopping when he realises he’s being watched.
“Something on my face or are we aiming for something more of a Norman Rockwell revival?” Tony raises an eyebrow at them all. Bruce and Natasha don’t even look at all ashamed at staring at him.
“We were talking about whose turn it is for dinner.” Natasha answers.
“And it’s my turn?” Tony asks, continuing his journey to the coffee machine.
“It is if you’re offering,” Natasha replies.
“I’m thinking the Thai place we tried last time.” Says Bruce, with Natasha sounding her own agreement. Tony shrugs clearly not bothered by the line of thinking as he watches his mug fill up with coffee while tossing two cubes of sugar as it fills.
“Then let’s get everyone’s order,” Tony says decisively, looking at the fridge clearly looking like he contemplating snacking before dinner.
“Hey, Stark. D’you know where Steve is?” Clint gets a sharp look from Natasha before he adds “So we can ask him what he wants.”
“Since when did I become his keeper? Nat usually knows where he is.” Tony answers casually.
“He’s usually in the common at this time.” Tony stares flatly at Clint as Natasha answers the question.
“Some Hawkeye you are if he's right over there.” Tony rolls his eyes and starts to leave. “Going to the Lab, Bruce knows what I want.” He leaves with his coffee in hand picking up his tablet before knocking Steve on the knees with it. “Thai tonight, Captain,” Steve answers noncommittally so Tony uses the side of the tablet against Steve's knee for the reactionary kick out he was expecting which snapped Steve out of his focus.
“Pardon?” He looks around owlishly before focusing on Tony and sits up straight.
“Thai. Dinner. Bruce. Ordering. Follow?” Tony says very emphatically and slowly adding hand gestures.
“Very funny, Tony.” Steve rolls his eyes, then both he and Tony look at Clint when he calls out to Tony who then with clear ASL says to Tony.
“ You know that’s not how it’s signed, jackass .” Tony merely raises an eyebrow at him and replies with his own
“ I wasn’t telling you so butt out. ” before disappearing off to the elevator to go to the lab. Natasha offers Sam and Clint an ‘I told you so’ look as Steve comes in.
“I didn’t know Tony could sign.” Ponders Steve as he looks at the Jenga Tower and expertly removes a brick and places it on the top.
“He didn’t before I moved in.” Clint answers.
“Languages aren’t exactly hard for Tony.” Natasha offers. "I'm pretty sure he gets fluent as a hobby." Even though Natasha worked as Tony's assistant for a short time as a way to get close to him, Natasha was impressed with just how many languages Tony had under his belt before she met him. He was fluent in Italian, German, French, and Japanese, and was able to get buy easily enough with Spanish and Mandarin.
“Doesn’t make it any less surprising,” Steve says, he learnt himself just how fluent in German Tony was as he easily spoke to the German authorities in Stuttgart, after cleaning Loki's clock there. He realised Tony understood French when he caught Steve muttering to himself in French and answered him in kind while leaving Steve more slack-jawed than expected to be in the situation. “So. Thai?” Steve says with the coy little smile he doesn’t know he has when he learns something about Tony, as Clint and Sam are just in awe of how unaware those two are.
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