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It’s not like they weren’t used to Steve’s… quirks. Or anyone’s, for that matter. They were the Avengers, they were superheroes. Which meant that they were traumatized to hell and back.
Of course they had their own oddities and weirdnesses.
Tony himself was a billionaire who grew up with the silver spoon in his mouth, so as their rent-free landlord had some extra points in the quirky scale, too.
But there were things they didn’t expect, even from each other.
It started on an unassuming Wednesday at movie night, which was like all other Avengers movie nights, except that Barnes graced the team with his presence, which was admittedly a really new development in his case.
Barnes had been in the Tower for just a few short weeks, carrying a larger package of trauma than himself - metaphorically, of course, because he had arrived with nothing but the clothes on his back and a duffel full of weapons, which, yeah, might be counted as trauma package, but still - and so far he had spent most of his time cooped up in Steve’s apartment with the national icon himself. Steve had been, of course, more than happy to keep to his sad hobo boy’s side. Except when the team had insisted on emerging from the hermit lifestyle, which they had done, on week three, when they had noticed Steve’s fully developed depression beard.
(The others didn’t call it a depression beard, but Tony’s been there, done that, okay?)
So it was movie night and the vote went to The Sound of Music this time - they had a group chat with a poll bot, because come on, who would be able to pick a movie within an hour if it’s not pre-determined - and it was nice, on the easier and less traumatizing of the spectrum. There had been Mistakes, incidents they promised to never talk about, like Steve punching the TV - surprisingly, not because of a Nazi appearing on the screen, but to take out Pennywise. Because of course Bruce was a horror movie fan, and neither Clint nor Steve knew what It was when they voted on it. (Or, maybe, Clint knew and was a troll about it. Came to think of it, Steve could’ve been a troll about it too. Hell, none of the Avengers were above trolling each other.)
But The Sound of Music was a solid choice, even if it was a bit boring to Tony’s liking - slow-paced classics usually were, much to his late Mom’s eternal disappointment - and they were five minutes in the movie when Barnes showed up at the door, and watched them for another solid ten minutes, before deciding to join.
And he did. Joined, that is. Except, as opposed to what any normal person would’ve done in his place, he didn’t plop down on one of the empty armchairs, he decided to sit directly into Steve’s lap.
Why was Tony the only one who made a sound like a dying whale about that, would remain an eternal mystery to Tony. At least Barnes didn’t throw himself there facing Rogers.
He sat sideways, like an old-timey dame on a horse, leaning shoulder against shoulder with Steve, and the others acknowledged this like normal, which was probably a wise choice when it came to one-hundred-and-fifty-pounds of previously-brainwashed-assassin and two-hundred-and-twenty-pounds of American-beefcake-supersoldier.
There was, like, two minutes of awkward silence, save for the movie - and Julie Andrews sang just as perfectly as ever - and then the Noise came.
It was, or would have been, a Totally Innocent Sound anywhere else. But in the Tower?
Tony listened to the low rumble.
It was even and quiet, and didn’t get louder. So it wasn’t something incoming, it was… just there. To annoy Tony, clearly. It took him a bit until he realized what he heard.
It was purring!
The betrayal!
“Natashalie!” he gasped, offended. “You brought that stray cat in! I told you this is a pet-free zone. I didn’t allow Barton to bring his dog for a good reason! Just because you’re cute you aren’t an exception from the rules, either!”
Natasha turned to Tony, a perfectly shaped eyebrow raised. “What are you talking about?”
“The purring!”
Everyone in the room looked at Tony, even Bruce turned his eyes from the screen to his face. Now that he was in the center of attention, Tony couldn’t hear the noise anymore.
“What purring?” Bruce asked, all innocence. Anyone would believe Brucie bear with his act, but Tony knew better. He was just as horrible as the others when it came to pranks and trolling.
“Besides, I still think Lucky should be allowed here,” Clint added.
Tony huffed. “No way.”
They turned back to the movie.
It didn’t take long.
“Seriously?” Tony whispered, while Julie Andrews started to sing to the children. The low, even murmur of the noise was back, but the others seemed to ignore it.
Clint had the excuse of his loss of hearing - Tony honestly never could tell if his hearing aids were turned off or the archer just messed with people and pretended not to hear properly - though he assumed the latter. Also, even if the aids were on, he imagined that it could still be far from ideal, at times.
Natasha stared at the screen with full focus, though her lips were pressed into a tight line. It was rare that Natashalie let her guard down enough not to keep track of her surroundings, so Tony let that slide for her too.
Bruce was similarly engrossed, by the look of him swaying left to right and back on his seat with his eyes closed.
Steve and Bucky were, as opposed to the others, engrossed with each other. As in, Rogers had his face buried into Barnes’s neck, totally ignoring the movie, which was really rude if anyone asked Tony, but still he couldn’t really blame the guy for it.
Barnes was staring right at Tony, smirk on his face, while he had a hand on Steve’s nape.
Tony turned away, doing his level best to ignore the chill on his spine. And his mind that whispered about the many ways Barnes could - and by the looks of it, would - kill a man in any given moment. Not that the smirk was outright threatening, quite the opposite. The expression conveyed the message that Barnes was in the know of something Tony didn’t. Plus, despite the position he was in - wrapped in the manly arms of Captain fucking America - Barnes didn’t seem relaxed at all.
It was enough to divert Tony’s attention from the mysterious purring for a while, but not forever.
As the movie progressed another ten minutes, and Barnes’ gaze slipped from Tony to Natasha, his awareness of the noise returned.
Tony still couldn’t identify the source, and he tried to sink his nails into his palm to hold himself back. It's been a long time since his patience was tested like this, and he didn’t last long.
“Okay, that’s enough! Jarvis, where’s the cat?!”
“There is no feline on the premises, Sir,” the AI answered without missing a beat.
“Then where’s that sound coming from?”
“If you may elaborate what sound, Sir?” Tony could swear that the dry tone was exactly picked to mess with him.
“The noise,” he growled, “you know what noise I’m talking about.”
“There were numerous auditory stimuli in the living room that would classify as noise, ” Jarvis said. “I am not entirely sure which one you are referring to.”
“Of course you aren’t. Where did the purring come from?”
“Ah, that noise,” Jarvis said, and Tony rolled his eyes. “The source appears to be--”
“Steve,” Barnes said, cutting off Jarvis’s revelation.
“Not now, Frosty,” Tony snapped. “J?”
“What Mr. Barnes said,” Jarvis said.
“We’ll get back to that, but where’s the purring coming from?”
And to that, Barnes did something that made everyone question their sanity in the room - at least, Tony assumed, because he surely did. Barnes giggled.
“No, genius,” Barnes said after a few cackles. “It’s Steve. The purring.”
Tony’s hand stopped halfway to the bridge of his nose which he wanted to pinch. “Pardon me?”
“Steve’s purring?” Clint asked, oddly enthusiastic.
“Since when?” Bruce asked.
“Since the serum?” Barnes answered, though his tone went up, making it a question, and looked down at Steve. “How come they don’t know this?”
Rogers emerged from his resting spot of face buried into Barnes's neck and lifted one hand to the back of his neck, and shrugged, a little shy. “It just never came up, I guess.”
“It neve-- oh my god,” Bruce sighed, burying his face in his palm. “You’re the worst scientific experiment, Steve.”
If looks could kill, Bruce would’ve dropped dead from the terrifying gaze Barnes leveled him with. Then he turned back to Rogers.
“What the fuck, Steve,” he said. And Tony couldn’t see the exact moment, but he was lucky enough to see the shift - how, from murderous, Bucky’s expression became soft and mushy in an instant, just as his gaze fall on his bestie. Tony recognized that expression - after all, he had seen it in the mirror enough, when it had been him and Pepper. Rogers wasn’t just a bestie, and Barnes was absolutely smitten, head over heels in love with him. “You always purr, like, I don’t even know what to tell you. And you somehow managed to keep this a secret from your superhero buddies?”
Ah, there it was, the no-shitting, no-nonsense tone that made Tony glad he wasn’t on the receiving end of the question.
“We’ve never heard that from him,” Tony said, because if he could do anything to make Steve more uncomfortable in the situation, of course he would.
He regretted it quite quickly though, as Bucky’s attention turned over to him. The shift was there again - Barnes didn’t look at anyone but Rogers with that lovesick expression, of course, but it was still unsettling how his gaze hardened every time he turned towards anyone else.
“Never?” His tone wasn’t cold, though. It was quiet and soft, and somehow extremely sad. “Oh, Stevie.”
“It’s not like that!” Steve protested.
Clint and Nat and Bruce pretended like they didn’t even exist, breaths held and eyes downcast (but still watching the pair from under their lashes, they weren’t fooling anyone), and Tony for once decided to follow suit and remain quiet just to see where this was going.
“Really,” Barnes said, flesh arm coming up and fingers tracing the perfectly chiseled jawline of a national icon, who currently sported the expression of a kicked puppy. He even pouted, too. “It’s not like you were unhappy, hm? Lonely, even?”
To his credit, Rogers didn’t lie outright by denying that.
“I remember this, Stevie. Even in the trenches, even in the shittiest camps behind enemy lines, you couldn’t not. You would erupt in purring every time we scratched your head or petted your skin or massaged your shoulder…”
Tony knew better than to assume that Barnes forgot about the audience he and Cap had, but simultaneously, they both looked like they entered their own world, safely tucked in a bubble where the world couldn’t touch them, with the way they stared at each other.
“You weren’t here, Buck,” Steve whispered. “You weren’t. And now…”
“And now I’m here,” Barnes cut it off, leaning forward and touching their foreheads together, and from one moment to the next, Rogers truly erupted in loud purring. Now that he knew what to listen to, it was oh so easy to pinpoint that Steve was indeed the origin of the sound all along. “I am here, Stevie.”
Natasha tugged at Tony’s arm, because apparently the others weren’t as invested in the situation unfolding in front of their eyes, or maybe they had more common sense than Tony had and realized that spying on a former assassin during tender moments might not be the safest idea on the world, so they started to get up and sneak out as quietly as possible.
Tony would’ve loved to stay and spy some more, but even he had enough common sense not to say no to Natasha, so he let himself be dragged out, craning his neck to look back at the pair for as long as possible.
And it was long enough for him to see the moment their lips met in what promised to be a very passionate kiss, before Jarvis closed the door on his nose.
The traitor.
So purring was one of Steve’s quirks. Or became one, at least.
It was definitely a quirk that was nice to live with, at least.