Sam believed himself to be a pretty balanced guy. He wasn't overly happy, but he also wasn't in danger of falling into depression and he guessed that had to count for something. The word he would go with would probably be content,
He had started to be a bit more than just content when he joined the Avengers and his life definitely took a turn for the love-sick idiot when Tony Stark entered his life.
It was a good thing the same seemed to apply to Tony because Sam was pretty sure he had made a fool of himself sooner or later, if they didn't manage to pull their heads out of their asses.
But luckily that happened and he had never felt so calm when sat next to his boyfriend on the couch during team night.
The team had really come together, and now that a few of them even thought of retiring, the young ones were pretty good after all, they were all a lot calmer.
"Let's watch something with explosions in it," Tony declared, while he snuggled up to Sam.
The only response to that were some low hums, but they knew each other enough to know that that actually meant 'No way are we watching dumb action movies again'.
The debate over the movie stretched endlessly and in the meanwhile Steve had commandeered the TV to watch the end of one cooking show or another.
Sam watched amused how Steve took notes, knowing that no matter how much attention Steve took, he would never be able to produce something edible. That was just not one of his skills.
Tony, Clint and Thor kept bickering on about the movie, but they seemed content watching the show as well and so they all settled down even more.
Tony fell asleep halfway through the main course and Sam smiled fondly at him and then laughed when Clint made gagging noises at him. Some of them would never grow up after all.
When he turned his attention back to the screen, he found that Steve was looking at him.
"What?" he lowly said, matching his voice to the general mood.
"You look happy," Steve simply said and Sam shrugged with the one shoulder that wasn't used as a pillow.
"It's been a long time since I saw your smile," Steve continued and now Sam frowned.
"I smile and laugh all the time," he said and Steve shook his head.
"Not like this. Sometimes you're almost as bad as Tony, hiding your feelings and pulling up all these masks. You smile, but it never looks so relaxed like now."
Sam let that sink in for a few moments only to be surprised when he found that he really felt happy.
"I guess I am happy," he said to Steve who gave him a huge smile of his own.
"Good to see Tony could do that for you."
"Yeah, I guess I got pretty lucky with him," Sam agreed and chuckled when Tony smashed his face into Sam's neck.
"Glad to be of service," he mumbled into Sam's skin and Sam kissed his head.
Being happy was surprisingly easy.
