Chapter Text
Manhattan had been fairly quiet in the months after the newly formed Avengers defeated Loki’s army of Chitauri. Well, quiet except for the constant reconstruction on nearly every building in the downtown area. Some had to be demolished after the shakes to their foundations, and weekends often meant that the ground around Stark Tower rattled from the force of demolitions happening in the neighboring blocks. Or it was shaking because the Hulk was practicing on changing between his two forms as quickly as he could, which always resulted in the smashing of discarded equipment in the labs that filled the basements of Stark Tower.
The Helicarrier was still under repair, so the new Avenger’s team and their S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives had congregated in the spacious skyscraper, which had somehow only required a minimal amount of repairs, despite being the epicenter of the battle with the alien army. There were numerous empty apartments - enough for each Avenger and agent - as well as gyms, spare labs, spacious common rooms, and a number of floors that Tony Stark had never figured out what to do with and had left empty. These were quickly made into a command center and specialized training spaces where the Avenger’s could hone their specific skills.
Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, and Clint Barton could often be found in one of these newly designed rooms, preparing to turn this thrown-together set of heros into an actual team. Bruce Banner was more often in the basements, away from the others, attempting to prove to himself that he could be a valuable member of the team, even when in the form of the Hulk. He had been surprised how easily his other form had taken orders from Captain America during the battle on the streets, but he couldn’t risk that the next time they needed him, he would attack his team instead. He would spend hours in the empty labs, writing commands on the walls (“SMASH ORANGE CAR”) and waking to see what level of devastation the Hulk had left for him. Maybe it was just that the Hulk was finally being accepted and talked to like a sentient being, but Bruce was finding his other half to be more and more compliant with each day.
Even Thor had returned from Asgard to lend his knowledge of off-world creatures and help develop tactics should something like Loki’s attempt at world domination happen again.
The only person who didn’t avail himself of all the new toys in the Stark Tower was Tony Stark himself. He never went to visit the command center, despite the number of times Steve ordered him in for a team meeting. He didn’t bother checking out the new gyms, convinced that his Iron Man workshop was sufficient for testing his skills. Even though Steve told him he needed to practicing alongside the others, to work out how they could best fight as a team, Tony insisted that their success against the Chitauri was proof enough that they worked as a team and they could leave it at that. Instead of joining Steve’s mandatory practice sessions, he would disappear into his labs to work on projects for Stark Enterprises or his Iron Man armor, or whatever whim had entered his mind in the middle of the night.
Luckily Pepper Potts was handling the business side of SE for a while. She and Tony were off again, and so she decided to move out to their DC headquarters for a few months and run things from there. Tony was sorry to see her step out of his life again, but he wasn’t heartbroken enough to try to stop her. She was sweet, and kind, and just a little sassy. But after being together as a couple, Tony was missing the heat and intensity he’d experienced with other partners and knew wasn’t really a part of Pepper’s personality. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be. So Tony let her leave him, and he went back to his labs.
It was Tony’s labs that Steve would look for their host in residence, whenever Tony failed to attend a team meeting or training session. Steve would find the dark-haired genius either hunched over a workbench, goggles and gloves in place, a soldering iron in one hand and a fragile piece of circuitry in the other, or half hidden beneath a large piece of an engine for something-or-other, half coated in oil, with a pencil between his teeth.
“Let me guess,” Steve would often say as his eyes landed on the engineer, “you lost track of time and forgot you were supposed to meet us upstairs.”
“Nope,” Tony would always respond honestly. “Just had something better to do.”
For the first two months after moving into Stark Towers, Steve tried every tactic he could think of to get Tony to realize that team building was the most important thing for them to be doing right now. He tried lectures, but they just made Tony roll his eyes and turn on some loud piece of equipment to drown Steve out. Steve then tried appealing to his rational side, calmly explaining how team dynamics were just as important as tactics.
“Well, I’m the most dynamic member of the team, so I guess I’m all set there,” had been Tony’s snarky reply.
Steve had considered playing into Tony’s ego and telling him that the team needed him, but couldn’t bring himself to say it. While it was true that the team did need Iron Man - his flight ability was excellent for recon and transporting another team member quickly into position, and his repulsor beams were one of their most effective weapons for both offensive and defensive positions due to their varied settings.
But Steve couldn’t stand the idea of stroking the ego of someone who was clearly already full of themselves. He believed that Tony should want to work with the team for the sake of the team and not himself. But as he entered his third month of leading the team, he began to lose hope that this would ever happen, and that started to piss him off. It was during this time that he reverted back to the tactic he had tried on Tony when they met on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Helicarrier - getting in Tony’s face and yelling at him to do what he was told.
Of course, this met with just as little success as it had when Steve first tried it, but it allowed the supersoldier to let off some of the stress that built up whenever he found himself around the snarky genius.
While Steve spent so much time trying to figure out ways to get Tony to work with them, Tony was trying to think of different ways to mess with the head of his fearless leader. Nothing seemed to make him as happy as seeing Steve Rogers flustered and stammering for words, his hands wildly swinging around in search of either something to demonstrate his point or hit Tony with - Tony wasn’t really sure which. But infuriating Steve gave Tony a thrill greater than anything else - greater even than fixing the arc reactor and knowing he wasn’t about to keel over dead at a moment’s notice.
Steve yelling in Tony’s face became Tony’s favorite part of his day, and ensured that he would never attend an Avenger meeting by his own free will. But in order to keep Steve coming back and getting just as angry each time, Tony had to come up with new retorts. There’s only so many times one can be indignant before others stop trying to work with you. So Tony played with being sarcastic, witty, childish, sassy, and even charming.
He heard the woosh of his lab doors opening and smirked behind his welding mask. Right on time, he thought.
Steve marched up behind Tony, his hands already on his hips and ready for the fight he knew was sure to come.
“What’s your excuse this time, Stark?” he said, his voice already on the edge of exasperation.
Tony pursed his lips together. An exasperated Steve usually meant a quick fight, and then Tony would be ignored for the rest of the day. It was time to pull out a new tactic, or Steve would start considering giving up their daily spat, Tony was sure of it. He wasn’t sure why that seemed like such a horrible thing. It wasn’t like he enjoyed getting yelled at by anyone else. But with Steve, it was always fun.
“No excuse,” said Tony, not looking up from his tig welder. He wondered what techniques he hadn’t tried yet - besides just telling Steve the truth of course.
When Steve didn’t respond, Tony got curious and looked up. Steve was leaning against the table, arms crossed over his enhanced pecs, and a glare on his chiseled face. He was staring directly at Tony’s face, his blue eyes unblinking. It was an eerie enough site that Tony actually turned off his welder and straightened up. He took a moment to decide on a course of action before flipping up his welding helmet and flashing Steve his most charming smile.
“What’s the matter, Cap?” he said slowly, peering up at the taller man from behind dark eyelashes. “You’re looking a little tense. Anything I can do to help -” he paused, taking a step closer “- relieve that tension?”
Steve growled and ground his teeth, his glare growing in intensity.
“Honestly, Cap,” said Tony, easily hiding the joy he felt at seeing the reaction due to months of practice, “you look like you could use a break.” He took another step closer. “Maybe the stress of the job is catching up with you.”
“Right,” Steve snarled, “I’m not fit for the job. We’re going to have that discussion, again?”
Tony flashed him a dazzling white smile - the kind he usually only pulled out at charity events when he was bored and trying to get someone to hit on him.
“I don’t remember it be a discussion,” said Tony, “so much as another chance for you to thump your chest.” Tony directed his eyes quite pointedly at Steve’s pecs. “By the way, your workouts are really paying off,” he added. He took off one of his welding gloves and gently prodded the bulging muscles barely concealed by Steve’s workout shirt. “You’ve got great definition.”
“But nothing that compares to your metal suit, right?” said Steve, remembering the jibes Tony had thrown at him the last time he’d questioned Steve’s authority.
Tony actually had no issues with Steve as a leader. The Captain had proven to be strategically savvy, compassionate towards those they were rescuing, and protective of his team. Tony found himself trusting Steve’s commands when they were in the field, and he knew himself well enough to know that he would never make a good commander - he was too reckless and got caught up in what was right in front of him and forgot to look around the corner for what was coming next. Captain always looked around the corners, and he never forgot that he had an entire team to direct. Tony didn’t have a problem with Steve as their leader, but he loved letting Steve think he did.
Tony gave a one shouldered shrug and hid his eyes behind his lashes once more. “You have to admit, I look good in the suit.”
Steve dropped his arms and closed what was left of the gap between them, stopping just shy of bumping up against the considerably less muscled man. “Why don’t you put on the suit and we’ll go a few rounds?” he gruffed out, looming over Tony despite the fact he was barely an inch taller than the cyborg.
Tony kept his eyes down and his smile in place. “Oh, Captain,” he nearly purred, “I don’t need the suit to take you on, big boy.” He leaned forward so that the edges of the arc reactor just touched Steve’s chest. He slowly raised his eyes to see what reaction his flirting was getting. What he saw nearly cracked his composure.
Steve had gone as red as his uniform gloves. His eyes were wide and confused, scanning every millimeter of Tony’s face, looking for an explanation as to this turn of events. His breathing hitched, causing his chest to press more firmly against the glowing piece of tech that just protruded from Tony’s sternum.
Tony’s smile warmed and he leaned in further, pushing himself up on his toes.
“Has anyone ever told you, Captain,” he said in little more than a whisper, “that you look quite fetching in red?” He gently laid his ungloved hand on Steve’s bicep, feeling the enhanced muscles tingle beneath his touch.
Steve suddenly blinked and stumbled back several steps, his eyes blown wide and pupils fully dilated.
Tony felt a twinge of regret at seeing Steve so shaken. Maybe I pushed it too far. The thought didn’t feel like the source of the unease that started to ripple through his body once Captain America’s radiant heat was no longer coursing over Tony’s slender frame. Tony wasn’t immediately sure why, but he was very sorry to see how much he’d gotten under his Captain’s skin. His smile began to falter, and he opened his mouth to say he was sorry, but Steve was already turning around and storming out of the lab.
“Steve, wait!” Tony called as the lab doors opened to allow the Captain to flee.
Steve didn’t stop, though. He couldn’t stop. He had to get as far away from Tony as he could.