Tony has booked his surgery.

Steve is endeavouring not to freak out

Tony's planning isn't helping.

But it's ok because he trusts Tony absolutely.

Totally and absolutely...

There are times when Steve's absolute trust in Tony is... maybe, just a little bit, put to the test.

It's not that he doesn't trust Tony in these instances, but more that he knows his definition of acceptable risk for Tony, and Tony's definition of the same, do not match.

For example there's the time he finds Tony standing on the edge of the roof talking to Jarvis.

'Hey, Tony,' he calls as he walks over.

Tony winces and turns to face him with a sudden blinding smile,

'Steve! You're home early.'

'We hadn't run out of much, Thor's been away,' Steve agrees. 'And Jarvis keeps ordering things in before I get the chance to go shopping.'

'Jarvis' fault, it makes sense,' Tony mutters and adjusts something on his tablet.

'Tony, why do I get the impression you wish I wasn't back yet?' Steve crosses his arms and levels a glare at his partner.

'I'm always delighted to see you, Cap, you wound me with your words.'

'What are you doing up here?'

'Jarvis, we're going to have to do this now,' Tony announces and puts the tablet down on the floor.

'Sir, perhaps...'

'Nope, now Jarvis, or Steve won't let me and this test really needs to be run.'

'Tony...'

'Trust me, Steve.'

Tony takes a step backwards and then vaults over the barrier and drops like a stone towards the street.

Steve emits a strangled scream and rushes over in time to see Tony's armour explode from a window and track its creator down. It wraps around him and then Tony's soaring along the street. He spirals up into the air and then performs lazy loops back towards Steve. The armour lands beside Steve and the soldier can't stop himself from tugging it into a hug.

'This can't be comfortable for you,' Tony's voice comes from the armour's expressionless mask. The faceplate flicks back and Steve can feel the reassuring gusts of Tony's breath against his neck.

'Don't ever do that again!' Steve drops his forehead to the armour's shoulder.

'I needed to know how quickly it would catch me,' Tony sounds horrifyingly reasonable. 'Now the reactor is integrated into the suit it may have lessened its ability to track me. Before the street was a given but I needed more accurate data.'

'You jumped off the roof!' the desire to shake sense into this man never quite disappears.

'Yeah,' Tony pulls back and retrieves his tablet from the floor. 'Look at those numbers,' he smiles smugly, 'beautiful.'

'Tony,' Steve struggles to keep his voice calm, it isn't quite Tony's fault that it doesn't occur to him how upset people might be at the thought of him being hurt. 'Tony, I understand that you need to run tests on your suits, but in the future can you not re-enact my nightmares in front of me without any warning?'

Tony flinches and looks up a little guiltily,

'Ah.'

Steve takes a deep breath and releases it again all in a rush,

'Yeah, Tony, 'ah'.'

'I'm sorry?' Tony blinks at him and the armour retracts. 'I needed the test run for my own piece of mind; I couldn't let you stop me. I need to know that the suits will still work when this is gone,' he taps the centre of his chest.

Steve pulls him into another hug,

'Tony, I would really appreciate it if you would trust me enough to tell me what you have planned and believe I won't stop you for no reason.'

'I've tried telling people before,' Tony presses a kiss to his neck, 'there tends to be yelling.'

'All I'll want from you is an assurance you aren't throwing yourself to your death...' Steve retorts and drops his head to breath deeply at Tony's neck as he tries to push back the memories of Bucky and Tony both falling...

'Yeah?' Tony doesn't look quite convinced. 'Jarvis, reset.'

'Of course, sir,' Jarvis sounds long suffering.

'Tony?'

'This time without the bracelets,' Tony tells him calmly and tugs them off.

'Ummm...'

'I have the implants under my skin,' Tony reminds him. 'I need to see how big of a difference it makes.'

There's a pause while Steve thinks about that and then he nods,

'Ok... Ok. Yes, alright, I'll be waiting for you here,' Steve nods.

Tony sits on the barrier and swings his legs over,

'Really?'

Steve steps over and brushes his fingers against Tony's where he's holding on,

'I trust you.'

Tony's blinding grin almost makes the heart stopping terror when the genius swan dives towards the ground worth it.

It doesn't, but Steve will get over it. And if he has a nightmare tonight he knows Tony will be willing enough to be hugged until Steve calms down.

For the avoidance of doubt:

The events of Iron Man 3 have happened except Tony hasn't had the arc reactor removed yet.

Hope you enjoy :-)