A/N: why this exists is beyond me.

This was written for the TDRPU romance-y writing event. The prompt was use of the bed-sharing trope. Hopefully I did okay with it. This took me over a month to write. This is set in yet another alternate universe. First time writing Natasha and Rhodey, i hope i did okay.

Enjoy!

Tony sipped his drink, took a deep breath and smiled as he looked around at all his hard work through his sunglasses.

The air smelled of pizza, booze and bad decisions as people drank, ate and conversed amongst each other throughout the room, which was decorated very nicely. Anyone who was anyone was present.

One of Tony's few closer acquaintances whom he'd invited suddenly walked up to him, a glass of darkly colored wine in her hand. It coordinated with her naturally red hair that fell in waves around her face and the simple yet attractive black dress she wore.

Tony pulled down his glasses to look at her, and smirked. "Enjoying the party, Miss Romanoff?" he asked.

"It's been something of a snooze but I'm managing alright," she replied smoothly. "You really outdid yourself with the decorations this time."

"I know, Natasha, I know... I'm great at throwing parties," Tony complemented himself with a grin as he took a sizeable gulp of his drink.

Natasha smirked. "So, did you see that Fury brought a friend to the party?" she asked to change the topic and catch him by surprised.

Tony almost choked on his alcohol. "What?" he asked after swallowing, confused and amused. "Fury has friends?"

Natasha laughed before pointing out the person. "He's over there. Guy seems a bit shy."

Tony looked over and almost choked again.

Holy shit, this guy had the looks. Neat blond hair, startling yet soft blue eyes, solidly attractive facial features, and that body; he had the widest shoulders and yet the smallest waist. It was hard to believe he was even real. His plain outfit helped Tony come back to reality a little; a buttoned up plaid shirt under a simple dark blue jacket that somehow fit in all the right places, then dark jeans and black shoes. He was holding a glass of water, leaning against the wall and looking around as Fury spoke to another partygoer in an urgent manner. The guy's mouth was set in a straight line, and his expression was filled with uncertainty.

"Um, if you're done staring at him in longing, I'm still here," Natasha remarked.

Tony blinked and looked at her, trying to regain his composure and clearing his throat. "I was not staring, I was... observing," he claimed.

"Uh huh," Natasha replied, rolling her eyes. She knew he was lying.

Tony adjusted his tie and checked his glass. "I'm out of booze. Be a dear and get me some more?" he asked Romanoff.

She scoffed. "Get it yourself, lover boy," she replied, turning to walk away.

Tony scoffed in return and headed for the bar area. He had to pass mystery hot guy on the way and he had to avert his eyes. He's probably an asshole like every other hot man he figured as he swooshed on by. Not unlike himself, essentially. Tony didn't have very high standards for romantic or otherwise partners since he went through them so quickly.

The guy looked at him briefly as he passed before going back to sipping his water.

Tony grabbed a bottle of whiskey from the bar area and poured himself a full glass. He took a few sips and sighed, leaning on the counter.

"You don't look so hot, man," a voice remarked.

Tony looked at the owner of the voice with a blank expression, then sipped again.

"What's up? This is a pretty sweet party and you seem a bit down."

Tony just shrugged and went for another sip.

The person gave him a look and hummed in thought. "Did someone catch your eye again?"

"Pfffft! No..." Tony denied adamantly.

"Riiiiight...well Natasha just told me you were eyeing that guy hanging on to Fury for dear life."

"She doesn't know anything," Tony said with an eye roll before glancing at the floor.

"Why don't you talk to him?"

"You know why I can't," Tony replied, looking at him sternly.

"People know, Tony. You're not exactly Mr. Subtle about who you sleep with."

"Well yeah but I hardly ever do sleep with guys..." Tony replied. It had been at least a year since he last had a fling with another man. He'd treated it like all the one nighters he'd had with women, and anyway it was while he'd been traveling for the sake of his business.

"At least say hi, you are the host after all."

"Mmmmm...fine, but if this tanks I'm blaming you, Rhodes."

"Blame Natasha," Rhodes insisted with a shrug.

Tony looked towards the hot guy again and after gathering his thoughts and, putting on his host/flirt face, walked over.

The guy had moved to a slightly more secluded area of the room, a corner where he could see everyone but not interact. He noticed Tony approaching and seemed to straighten his posture.

"Enjoying the party?" Tony decided to start simple.

"These sorts of gatherings aren't always my cup of tea, but it's not too bad," the man replied honestly. "I'm sure there was a lot of effort put into it."

Damn right Tony thought and almost said. He cleared his throat and was going to introduce himself but the guy beat him to the punch. "Steve Rodgers," he said, holding his hand out for Tony to shake.

Tony accepted the handshake and instantly regretted it. He kept it short and pulled away before he made his own introduction. "Tony Stark."

"I know," Steve replied.

"Well you could have said so sooner, 'would have saved me some trouble," Tony joked, taking a sip of his drink.

Steve smiled a little at the half-assed joke.

"I saw you walk in with Fury," Tony then remarked.

"He thought it would be good for me to come meet people I might be working with later," Steve replied, glancing down at his glass.

"Hm, well, if that's the case, why don't I show you around the illustrious Stark Tower?"

Steve raised a slight brow at the offer. "You must have better things to do? You are the host, it can't be a good look for you to just leave the party for the sake of showing me around..." He seemed confused, possibly flattered; it was hard to tell.

"I'm sure the party will be fine without me," Tony assured him, taking another sip of whiskey and gesturing for him to follow.

Steve wasn't sure but did follow regardless.

The rest of Stark Tower was fairly quiet as the two men perused it. Tony bragged about each room and Steve listened politely and occasionally nodded or made a small comment. The night went on and on; there were a lot of rooms and for some reason Tony insisted on showcasing all of them other than the labs where he worked on secret things.

Eventually Tony had finished off his drink and set the glass down on some table in some hallway for someone else to deal with. He opened a glossy wooden door and encouraged Steve to step in first.

Steve obliged and found himself inside a bedroom. It was large and impressive, with plenty of floor space and a large bed that could occupy at least two and at most four average humans, among other things throughout the space. Steve's eyes wandered around but Tony's were constantly trained on him; he leaned against the doorway as he stared. He had been half-flirting with Steve all night as they'd spent longer together but Steve was either ignoring it or just didn't realize how attractive he was. Or, possibly, he didn't know what flirting sounded like.

"I'm sure you've seen plenty of chick's bedrooms much more exciting than this, but it suits my tastes and needs," Tony remarked of this room.

Steve's face turned from passive to a slightly downturned frown that was more disappointed and wistful than anything else. "Not really, actually," he admitted.

That was and wasn't that surprising to Tony. He played it like it was the former. "Noooo, with your looks? You must have women crawling all over you," he countered.

Steve shook his head, avoiding eye contact with Tony.

Tony decided to push a little further on the subject. He could tell Steve was uncomfortable but maybe he'd give a bit more information. "Are you not into women?" he asked. He'd meant to be more subtle. Woops.

Steve seemed almost appalled by the question. "What-of course not-" he sputtered, clearly lying but trying to cover it up.

"It doesn't matter to me if you don't," Tony commented.

Steve went silent and looked at Tony briefly, wondering if he was lying.

"Let's head on back to the party now," Tony declared after some awkward silence. Steve was more than happy to oblige.

Everyone had either left or passed out drunk except for two. Natasha and Rhodes were chatting by the bar. They spotted the two coming in. Steve looked around for Fury but couldn't find him. Tony headed over to the other two. "So how'd it go with your little crush there?" Natasha asked.

"I'd say there was some progress made, but the guy's hard to read. I may have questioned his sexuality and made him uncomfortable but I didn't know he'd get all tense-"

Rhodes giggled, a bit drunk. "You're hopeless, man," he said, shaking his head.

Tony rolled his eyes and got himself yet another glass of booze.

"I'm gonna ditch and take this loser home before he breaks something," Natasha said, elbowing Rhodes.

"Aw, come on Natty...live a little." Rhodes went for another sip.

Natasha grabbed his arm and started to pull him off towards the exit. "Later Stark," she said to Tony.

After those two were gone it was just Tony and Steve left. Steve didn't have a ride and wasn't exactly sure how to get back to the apartment he was staying in so Tony offered for him to stay the night there. "You can sleep in my room," he insisted.

"Where will you sleep, then?" Steve asked.

"There's plenty of space on my bed, remember? You'll hardly know I'm there," Tony tried to convince him.

Steve wasn't sure but he agreed regardless. He would have taken a couch or something to sleep on but other, drunkenly passed out partygoers were occupying them all.

The two made their way back to Tony's room. Steve took off his suit jacket and his shoes; he'd keep everything else off. Tony had been silently hoping he'd take off his shirt but no dice. It was a far reach anyway that Steve would do that right away.

Steve sat on the edge of the bed and slowly moved on top of the blankets to lay down. He kept himself to one side; he actually took up quite a bit of space given the width of his shoulders.

Tony didn't get in right away. He opened up the hidden mini bar in the room and made himself a drink while watching Steve out of the corner of his eye.

Steve stared up at the ceiling as his body slowly relaxed. He'd had to unbutton his shirt a tad bit when it felt constrictive. Tony stared at the sliver of Steve's chest that was exposed. He only stopped when Steve looked over at him with half lidded eyes. "'Night, Stark," he said before appearing to drift off to sleep.

Tony sipped his drink and watched him sleep for a while before he too got on the bed. He'd finished his drink beforehand and removed his suit jacket and shoes. He felt slightly drunk but it wasn't too bad; besides, it was not as if the feeling was unfamiliar. He continued looking at Steve, finding it hard to tear his gaze away. He didn't understand how a guy could be so damn perfect. The ultimate body and, as the few hours they'd spent together that night had shown, a not-completely-shitty personality. Steve was at the very least a gentleman, and Tony was not sure at first if that was a turn on for him or not.

Steve turned on his side so he faced Tony and opened his eyes, startling Tony a bit because he'd been almost certain that Steve had been sleeping. "It's kind of hard not to stare," Tony said to try and be smooth when he was the exact opposite. The alcohol was really setting in.

Steve just looked at him in tired confusion. His cheeks were a bit pink without him wanting them to be.

"You're too quiet Rodgers...loosen up a little," Tony said with a weird grin.

"Tony, you're drunk," Steve pointed out. He didn't know if he was being sincere.

"What does that matter?" Tony asked.

"Your judgement's impaired."

"Pfft...judgement shmudgement...I've been thinking that all night," Tony admitted.

"Thinking what?"

Tony sighed dramatically. "You're not very perceptive, you know that?..." he asked.

"Huh?"

Tony leaned forward a little and planted a kiss on Steve's lips.

Steve's eyes widened significantly. He unconsciously blushed but gently pushed Tony back after a few seconds; he didn't want Tony to regret anything, and he wasn't going to take advantage of Tony's drunken state. "You need to sleep off those drinks..." he insisted.

Tony laughed. "Fine, I'll go to sleep..." He lay his head back on his side. He could feel a sort of buzzing inside him that wasn't from the alcohol.

Steve turned back over onto his side so he faced away from Tony, and waited for his blush to die down. Eventually both of them fell asleep.

Tony woke up with a small headache. The sun was well up in the sky. He sat up and rubbed his forehead, blinking a few times. He looked at the other side of the bed; Steve was still sleeping. The events of last night crawled back into his memory in patches, and he slowly moved off the bed to get redressed, not looking forward to Steve waking up.

Steve's eyes opened while Tony had his shirt off and tried to pretend he hadn't looked for longer than a couple seconds. He silently got up to stretch and re-button his own shirt while controlling a blush.

Tony slipped on a t-shirt and turned to look at Steve, acting cool for the moment so as not to be awkward. "You can see yourself out whenever," he told him casually, pocketing his hands and hiding his head pain. "Wouldn't want to keep Fury waiting, wherever he is."

"Right..." Steve replied, glancing down and finishing the last button. He smoothed the shirt down with his hand before heading towards the door. Tony watched him leave the room.

The two didn't share a bed again, not for a while anyway. Turned out that Steve was working with Fury on something and wasn't around much. When he was the conversation was brief and polite and work-oriented, nothing more than that.

It was only after Fury got what he needed during any given day that Steve would approach Tony outside of a work environment. The two of them actually became good friends after a while and Tony's attraction to Steve only grew as a result, manifesting itself into more than it was initially. He was hopeful and somewhat aware that Steve soon shared similar sentiments, although he never did show it outright.

They did end up in the same bed together a couple of times later on, but nothing really came of it. They were usually both too tired, or Tony was drunk. Steve often tried to get him to slow down and Tony listened about half the time.

Tony's other friends noticed he was spending an uneven amount of time with Steve. They weren't too surprised, although Rhodey complained a few times about it.

A few months passed. It was during yet another meetup in Stark Tower that Steve broke some unfortunate news. At the time he was in a button up shirt under a leather jacket, and jeans- a look he pulled off incredibly well.

"I'm heading overseas in about a week," he told him after being asked what was up with the odd look on his face.

Tony had been drinking something by the bar as usual when Steve said that, and he almost choked on his alcohol. "Pardon? I didn't hear you correctly, right?" he asked, a bit shocked but playing it off like he thought Steve was joking.

"I'm afraid so..." Steve replied with an almost sad look on his face. "Fury's having me do some Intel work, I won't be able to communicate with anyone else for a while..."

"Oh, um," Tony cleared his throat while he said this. "Well, that's..." He didn't know exactly what to say.

"I am free until then," Steve pointed out.

"I don't see why you'd tell me this now," Tony remarked.

"I figured you'd appreciate the notice, just in case..." Steve trailed off, glancing to the side.

"Just in case what?" Tony asked, looking at him expectantly.

Steve shrugged. "You wanted to do anything with me before I left," he answered, still not making eye contact.

"Anything you say?" Tony repeated. He'd come to know Steve's mannerisms; he only dropped eye contact when he was nervous or beating around the bush about anything regarding possible romance; it was usually the latter.

"Anything," Steve repeated back.

Tony set his drink on the counter in front of him. "That may have been a mistake on your part there, Rodgers," he claimed in a flirty tone, turning his full body to look at him. The space between them was small.

"Was it?" Steve asked in response.

"Potentially," Tony replied, taking a small step towards him.

"Explain," Steve insisted, placing a hand on his own hip.

"Gladly," Tony replied. He grabbed the collar of Steve's shirt and pulled him down slightly so that their lips were touching. Steve didn't pull away this time, it was Tony who broke the kiss after about a minute. "See, don't you regret what you said now?" he asked.

Steve's cheeks were pink. "No, I don't," he replied honestly.

Tony smirked, glad his hunches had been correct. "I had a good feeling you'd say that." He moved to kiss him again but Steve interjected. "Nothing serious unless you're sober for it," he told him.

"Ugh, fine..." Tony was just playing.

Steve smiled and let Tony kiss him again. It wouldn't be the last time.

They would slowly get more serious through the week until the night came before Steve would be leaving. Tony insisted he stay over at Stark Tower; he would get a driver for him in the morning.

It was warmer in the tower that night. The two of them were lying in bed next to one another, both shirtless. Tony had been uncharacteristically quiet, on his side and facing away from Steve. "What's bothering you?" Steve asked him. It had to be something beyond Tony's emotions regarding his departure tomorrow.

"Nothing," Tony lied blatantly.

"You can tell me," Steve insisted.

Tony sighed quietly and turned his body to face him. "What if you don't come back?" he asked.

"...what sort of question is that? I'll come back, eventually," Steve promised.

"You're certain?"

"Positive." Steve smiled assuringly despite his own uncertainty. He didn't want Tony to worry.

"Okay...if you're lying you're dead when you get back, Rodgers," Tony joked with a weak smile.

Steve laughed briefly and kissed him on the forehead.

Tony looked up at him, reaching over and taking his hand. "Promise you'll come back."

Steve pulled away and looked him in the eyes. "I promise."

A glass shattered against a wall.

Natasha blinked.

Rhodey did as well, then took a long sip of his drink. "Not like you didn't predict this..." he started to say.

"Shut up," Tony snapped at him.

"Just saying...not trying to stress you out more."

"You might want to actually shut up now," Natasha suggested.

"Alright, alright...I'll just leave you two alone." Rhodes left the room.

Tony slumped onto the couch and placed his head in his hands. Natasha sat next to him. "This is why I stopped working for Fury," she muttered.

"He said he'd come back. He promised," Tony said under his breath, it being clear who he was referring to. "I knew this would happen but I believed him anyway." His fists clenched.

"Love can do things to your mind, make you think irrationally. Not that I would know what it's like, but I've seen it plenty of times," Natasha remarked.

Tony looked at her and felt his eyes water. He never did explicitly tell Steve he loved him before he left. He wouldn't get the chance to now.

Let me know what y'all think. Im not entirely satisfied with the ending but I wanted to finish this so if anyone agrees and wants to suggest an alternative ending then lemme know