First time an Avengers' story. Also thanks to my amazing beta compYes

Gay chicken

It had become a tradition for the Avengers to go out and have a meal together after a battle. They'd take turns at choosing a place, but there was an unspoken agreement that there had to be enough grease in the dishes to make even Thor groan of satisfaction afterwards. So far, the only exception to the rule had been made for the new sushi place Bruce had been dying to visit ever since he learned about its existence (under loud protest of Loki who had refused to eat anything raw enough that it would swim again when thrown back into the ocean).

After having fought against an army of giant spiders (Clint insisted that he had only hidden behind the Hulk's back to give him the element of surprise), Tony chose a shady-looking restaurant somewhere in a small back alley, which had smelled amazing when he flew over it.

When he had finally found it again and offered the owners enough money to convince them to open their kitchen for the seven of them, they quickly ordered, starving after the effort made. Strangely enough, when it came to their food, the Avengers weren't quite as adventurous as they were on the battlefield. Whereever they went and whatever sort of dinner it was, they all stuck to the same concepts.

Bruce would pick one of the vegan option or for lack of any tasty one, he would choose fish; Natasha went for the mutton; Clint would choose blindly, just randomly showing something to the waiter; Thor ordered whatever was recommended for 2 or more people; Loki took that what looked the most difficult to make; Tony would pick something that wasn't even on the menu and of which the chef had most likely never heard and Steve would choose the same as Tony, since Tony usually ended up stealing whatever Steve had on his plate and he would be left to eat what Tony's leftovers. Not that he minded. Tony knew what was good and this way Steve could check how much Tony had eaten. But that didn't mean he couldn't pretend though…

"Tony, you have exactly the same chicken on your plate, there really is no need to steal mine," Steve complained, trying to prevent Tony's fork from reaching his strips of chicken.

"But Steeheeeeeve…" Tony whined, "Yours tastes better."

"They're exactly the same, Tony; the cook probably made them in the same pan," Steve allowed Tony to once again get through his defense.

"The waiter probably spat in mine, he was glaring at me the entire time."

"Yes, but that's most likely because you're the one responsible for the fact that he had to get up at 4 a.m. to serve only one table of seven people." Steve retorted.

"All the more reason why he would have spit in my food," Tony gave him his best attempt at puppy eyes, "Please Steve, just one more piece, please."

"And what will I get in return?" Steve teased him "I do need my food after all, what will you give me if you take that vital part of my survival away from me?"

"I'll give you $1,000 for every piece I get," Tony immediately offered.

"I don't need money, S.H.I.E.L.D. pays me enough. Especially since you let us stay for free at the tower. No, I'll need something I don't have already," Steve shot back, curious as to what else Tony could offer him.

"You could always kiss him," Clint suddenly intervened, "I bet Steven has never gotten one from another guy."

The table got very quiet after that, everyone looking at Steve –who had gotten very red- and Tony, who was viciously glaring at Clint.

"Yes, thanks for your suggestion Clint, but maybe Steve – who is from the 40's remember, back before gay pride was a thing and gay bashing was the noble thing to do - would appreciate it more if I got him a pony or an island," Tony snapped.

"No, uhm, I would like, uhm, you know… what, what Clint said. That would… That would be good," Steve stuttered and blushed furiously, the blush starting at the tips of his ears and going even underneath his uniform.

Tony gaped at him, "You want me to kiss you? Surely if you wanted to have your little gay experiment, you have better people to ask? People who aren't twice your age – physically speaking of course – and whose father you weren't a close friend with. That being even weirder due to the fact that I'm not close to my father because he adored you so much," he rambled.

"Or not," Steve said, "Maybe I don't know anyone I'd rather kiss than you. Male or female."

Steve ignored Natasha's surprised gasp and Clint's triumphant snickering in order to maintain the suddenly heavy loaded eye contact with Tony

"Oh."

"Yeah."

They kept quietly staring at each other for what felt like hours, before Steve let out a sigh.

"Listen Tony, just take the chicken, I'm not very hungry anymore anyway," Steve said, disappointment hard to hide on his face, as he took his eyes of Tony and stared at the wall, obvious in his attempt to avoid any eyes, concerned or not, for the moment.

Tony couldn't believe this was actually happening. Ever since he was a child he had dreamed about Captain America. As he got older, his dreams became less and less innocent. When his parents had died, he kept the fund his father had founded to search for the captain up. It was as much as a final service for his father as it was for his own nostalgic dreams to meet his childhood hero one day.

The day he had actually met him… well, it's safe to say Tony was disappointed. In those first few hours, the Captain had said and done everything that would push Tony's buttons.

It was only later, when the Avengers all moved in together, that Steve and Tony had gotten the chance to get to know each other for real. And after the initial awkwardness, they had gotten along quite well, soon spending most of their free time together.

And after a while the dreams returned, the not-so-innocent ones first, but soon the innocent ones started to happen more and more, too. Tony, after a couple of months of living together, would dream regularly about him and Steve cuddling on the couch in his workplace, and it worried him. After a few weeks of these dreams, Tony realized that the dreams not were not only different from his childhood dreams by the theme, but also by the subject.

He used to dream about Captain America saving him, Captain America kissing him, all about Captain America. These days, his dreams were mostly Steve Rogers-centered (mostly, because even Tony couldn't deny how delicious that ass looked in the uniform). It was then that he realized that he was only fooling himself by refusing to admit that his feelings were probably more than platonic buddy-buddy feelings.

But to admit his crush to himself, or to actually act on said crush, were two different things. Especially since he hadn't even considered that his feelings could be reciprocal and therefore wasn't prepared at all for them to be. So when Steve admitted that he wanted to kiss Tony, it took a while for Tony to let it sink in and by then, Steve had already turned away and had started a forced conversation with Bruce.

Well, that just wouldn't do.

So Tony closed his mouth (yes, it had been open this whole time, shut up Loki!) and grabbed Steve's (and wow, biceps! Those would be awesome to pin Tony down later… ) and tried to force Steve to turn – focus here on tried, since hello, super soldier – but it got Steve's attention and he turned to see what Tony needed. And since enough time was wasted in Tony's opinion, he didn't hesitate for a single second and just went immediately for Steve's lips. His very nice, soft, warm lips. His very still lips. Tony sighed and pulled away.

"Steve, I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm trying to kiss you here, something I've wanted to do for a very long time. Care to cooperate?"

Steve blushed again – ad wasn't that just adorable, Tony made a mental note to try and make Steve blush more often – and nodded. "Okay, yeah, I can do that, yeah."

And then those perfect lips where back on his.

"Ahem," Natasha interrupted, "There are other people at this table who want to eat peacefully."

"Yeah, without having to throw up inside their mouth," Clint added.

Steve pulled away, embarrassed at how they forgot where they were and their company, but Tony grinned cheekily, "You suggested it, deal with the consequences," and he theatrically took another piece of chicken from Steve's plate and gave him another peck on the lips.

Tony kept up with the little kisses every time he took something off of Steve's plate, but otherwise behaved himself, while the other Avengers ignored Steve's dopey smile after each of the kisses.

Soon dinner was over and Thor and Loki rose to return to Asgard, while the others stayed at the newly baptized Avengers Tower.

"I have enjoyed once again from our shared meal and am grateful to have had such nutritious food after a battle as heavy as this one. I bid you fare well my friends, and hope to see you all soon," he rose, took a leftover piece of Steve's plate and gave him a quick peck on the lips. "This chicken is truly tasteful indeed."

As the door closed behind them the Avengers stayed still for a second before they bursted out laughing.

"I'm going to kill that Norse God," Tony groaned, "You better know I'm not sharing you Steve, no matter how hard you find it to resist the force of Thor's hammer," he playfully told Steve, who simply smiled fondly at Tony before starting another set of little, sweet pecks.