Work Text:
Steve watched Tony carefully out of the corner of his eye, as Tony drove down the streets in a surprisingly careful way. He knew that Tony had been tired, and that he hadn’t been sleeping well with a few new nightmares from their most recent battle and seeing Steve take a hard hit, but that’s why they were on vacation; so that Steve could finish healing up and take a rest from doing Avengers business, and that Tony could coddle him a little and feel that he was alright and take a bit of a destressor from Avenging and being Iron Man. True, he had to go into the Malibu office for a few forms of paperwork, or Pepper-work, as Clint had teased Tony as they had loaded their bags onto the quinjet, but it was going to be an untimely relaxing three week vacation.
It hadn’t been relaxing so far, though. As they’d come in for landing, they saw beyond the erected police barriers a crowd of reporters already clamoring with cameras flashing and microphones being waved around.
They’d had to settle into Plan B. As the hatch had cracked open, Tony had hacked into the police officers’ walkie-talkies frequency, and he’d bitched about out dated tech while he was at it, but he’d warned them to crack the barrier at the thinnest point of the crowd so that they could escape in that direction while funneling the people to the other side in the semblance of a queue under the misleading notion that they’d be answering questions.
What they’d wound up doing was revving the engine the moment the hatch was completely down, and then in a move that should have belonged in one of the Fast and Furious movie car scenes, Tony's hit the gas in a car shuddering smooth motion that shot the car out of the open end of the quinjet and halfway down the road before the reporters could even finish shouting their first questions.
For the seventh time in five minutes Tony yawned, adorable Steve commented in his head, and let go of the steering wheel with both hands to rub at his eyes. As Tony dropped his hands back to the steering column after hearing Steve's third squeak of panic and the 'oomph' of pulling against a seatbelt that was not moving with him, he turned his head and looked back at Steve.
"I'm tired." whined Tony, even as a giant yawn threatened to crack Tony's jaw.
Steve winced, even as he begged Tony to look back at the road for the love of "HOLY SHIT TONY LOOK AT THE ROAD LOOK AT THE ROAD"
One mild panic later, Tony had the swerving car back at the center of the lane. But it was only a few minutes after that when the adrenaline faded that he began to yawn again.
Steve smiled tightly, though it edged in panic. "sweetheart, maybe you should let me drive. It's our vacation and I don't want you to get hurt either. One broken leg is enough between the two of us, besides if you did hurt yourself you wouldn't be able to go into the workshop while healing and you know you hate that."
Tony pondered the thought while another yawn echoed through the air, "I dunno Steve." He grumbled.
Steve narrowed his eyes, noticing that the yawns got longer and longer with shorter and shorter pauses between them. He fixed the deal by offering Tony something he could never pass up. "Pull over. Let me drive for awhile, and I'll let you make me an omelet for breakfast tomorrow."
Tony perked up, and found the nearest convenient space on the side of the road. "Fine. But it's going to probably be horrible and give you food poisoning. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He said, even as he unlocked the doors and checked for traffic coming on either side of the road, before stepping out into the dry California air.
In the time it took Steve to hop out and hobble around the front of the car to the drivers’ side, Tony had lost the stress of the past few weeks from his shoulders just by staring out at the horizon where the ocean could be visible and breathing the salty air that was his home.
Tony turned and dropped the key into Steve’s hand, and leaned in for a kiss. “I hope you know I’m going to fall asleep in the car for the rest of the drive to the house.” With that he headed over to the passenger’s side and with a few last words he hopped in and buckled himself in. “And I’m probably going to snore, too.”
Steve chuckled and shook his head in amusement. Anything was worth it to see Tony relaxed. Even faking a broken leg.
Truth be told though, the cast was very annoying. Maybe he could just spill the secret tomorrow. It’s not like Tony would mind being on vacation… right?