AN: I'm trying to do a oneshot a day. It will fail, I know, but I'm gonna try, at least :)
This is Science Bros!
The first time Tony Stark was in the gossip magazines about his sexuality was when he was fourteen. He'd been at a party with Rhodey and he was very, very drink.
Rhodey was his best and only friend. He loved him. He wasn't in love with him, but he loved him. And when he was drunk and Rhodey was driving him and a few others back to MIT, he'd said so. And hey presto, two days later, Tony and Rhodey were in a gossip magazine.
It wasn't a particularly harsh article, it was just very offensive to Rhodey and Tony's dad was furious with him. He pulled Tony out of MIT for a month, gave him some very severe lectures and took his tools away. It was torture, but Tony understood; sons of millionaires that were making their money from weapon designs are not gay or bisexual.
So, to balance out the accusation, he'd become a playboy at age sixteen, sleeping with anyone hot, flirting long before that. His father was happy, but then it became a habit that he couldn't shake.
After his father's death, he appeared about his sexuality once again. He had slipped up, and he took a drag queen home by accident. He had been surprised during the sex, to say the least. His PA at the time had ratted him out. He fired her the next day.
Obie had given him a lecture much like the one his father had given him. Tony was twenty, and he was grounded for three days. It was humiliating to say the least.
The third time was three years later and nothing had happened, it was just empty gossip.
The fourth time was two years after that, in an interview with him. The interviewer had asked him. Tony had said that he was not gay nor bisexual or anything similar which meant he dated guys too. It had been miscommunications or simply lies. The reporter was not particularly happy with the answer, but he accepted it and it featured in the article.
The fifth and final time to date was not long after the New York incident, at a public appearance of the Avengers, when Tony was asked if he found any of the Avengers hot. Tony had replied very scathingly that he only found Black Widow hot, because that was part of her job anyway, but he did say that he enjoyed telling Captain America that he was cute because it made him blush and that was always funny. The crowd found that hilarious, but he got grief for it later from Cap. The whole public performance was published in newspapers and gossip magazines alike.
But here Pepper was, standing in the communal Avengers kitchen after a long day with Bruce.
"Uh, Pepper?" Bruce asked, shuffling his feet awkwardly.
Pepper looked up from her cup of tea. "Yes, Bruce?"
Bruce blushed. "Uh, you know Tony really well, right?"
"I happen to, yes."
"Um," His voice quietened, "does Tony date guys as well as girls?"
Pepper smiled at the blushing physicist. "Well, he's told the press many, many times that he is straight, but after knowing him for twelve odd years, I can tell you I doubt that very much."
Bruce's voice came out slightly breathless as he said, "Thanks, Pepper."
"Good luck Bruce. Just ask him, I've seen the way he looks at you."
Pepper was not at all surprised when she saw Tony and Bruce holding hands under the dining table the next week. When Tony was with someone he wanted to be with, she knew for a fact that he was a hopeless romantic.