They didn't actually mean to come out. They just forgot that the world didn't know.

Tony and Steve were a couple. An incredibly nauseating, vomit inducing, stomach-churning, utterly adorable couple. Sam had sworn that if they got any sweeter that his feathers were going to fall out, never mind that he didn't actually have any. The thing with Steve and Tony, well one thing, was that they'd never actually told anyone they were a couple as a matter of fact. It wasn't a secret, it wasn't really an open secret. They'd just never actually sat anyone down and told them.

The Avengers found out because Steve and Tony could (and would) get distracted in each other. The fact that the two of them started making out in the middle of movie night was kind of hard miss. Clint's dignity was finally ruined forever when he fell backwards off the sofa, fumbled into a somersault, then flailed out of that, finally crashing in an undignified heap onto the floor.

This had two main effects.

The first of these was that Steve fended Tony off for long enough to check there was no super-villain attacking them. This caused Tony to do the same double check in about half the time, and then whine at his boyfriend, who'd been making to go and check that Clint was alright.

The second effect was that Natasha proudly outstretched her hand into a demanding palm. "pay up fellas, looks like money's due."

Steve frowned. "It's not nice to bet on when Clint will next hurt himself."

Tony smirked "Especially not when it happens so often." He pressed a quick kiss to Steve's frown winking at him. Steve's even quicker smile was destroyed when Tony then exclaimed "OH SHIT!"

"What?" Steve's voice betrayed his anxiety.

"Pepper is going to kill me! I think I just missed a board meeting."

"You did indeed Sir," Jarvis informed him helpfully.

"Oh Shit! Shit! Shit!" Tony swore virulently "Pepper is going to kill me!"

"No-one is killing my boyfriend." Steve pulled Tony back so that he was leaning against him, encased in his arms. "Now," He added in a light, teasing tone, "are we ever going to watch the movie?"

Clint never wanted to watch Mama Mia again.


The Fanatic Four found out because Tony wouldn't come to bed, and no, not like that.

It honestly wasn't Tony's fault that he was working so late. It honestly, honestly wasn't. It was Reed's, utterly, totally, completely Reed's fault that he was still working at two in the morning. It was Reed's portals that were currently threatening to spill robots across the city, just casually hovering over central park. It was Reed's experiments that always went wrong, and kept Tony up trying to save the city with Reed being very little help.

"Tony," A careful, gentle, exasperated voice said, breaking Tony out of his thought pattern. The owner of the voice laid an equally careful, gentle and exasperated hand on the genius's shoulder. "Come to bed."

"What, oh" Tony shook himself out of his caffeine induced haze. "What day is it?"

"Oh Tony," Steve gave a far more exasperated sigh "It's just after three in the morning of the day after you started. Now come to bed, you'll work better having slept."

Tony grunted, noticing Reed, the bastard, watching them from across the lab. He already regretted giving the bastard a room and lab space while they (read: Tony) figured out how to solve the problem. Tony stared at the screen for a moment, then began to type.

"Tony," Steve said, far more sharply than before, turning the genius round to face him. "When I said that no-one is killing my boyfriend, that kind of included my boyfriend. Now come to bed."

"Oh," Tony perked up a bit at that. Even though Reed was totally listening. Pervert. Or something akin to it.

"Tony no, you're too tired." Steve murmured, then raised his voice to call the other scientist, who honestly wasn't listening. "Mr Richards, I will send Sue down here if you don't stop working soon. You'll see if I don't. I'm afraid it's a safety hazard to have people down here unattended after 3am." Steve gave his most charming 'Captain America' smile, offered his boyfriend his arm, and escorted him to bed.

Johnny Storm won that betting pool.


The X-Men found out because some Human Torches are terrible gossips.

"So, Iron Man, is it true?" Wolverine asked, spearing some generic, alien, robot through what could roughly be called it's neck.

"What?" The superhero in question was too busy trying to dissect one of the robots to pay much attention. If he understood how these worked then maybe he could mass disable them while Reed closed his bloody portals.

"You and Cap, Is it true?" Wolverine asked again.

Tony spluttered inside the mask and took off, "I'm..." he started, then caught sight of a certain reckless assassin who was about to get his arm bitten off, so dived to save him. Bird Brained idiot.

About an hour later, and two blocks over, Tony's other half gets into a not entirely dissimilar conversation with Spiderman, who, for some reason, had turned up despite being neither an Avenger, a member of the Fantastic Four, or an X-Man.

"Seriously?" Steve asked, incredulous, pulling his mask off. "Why do you care?"

"Ur," Spiderman edged, then sheepishly admitted "I've got a bet on with my girlfriend."

Steve sighed heavily, face-palming. "Why does everyone have a bet on us? Rhetorical Question," he added quickly, then sighed again. It was one of those days. "Go and get your money kid. And don't bet on other people's lives again."

Spiderman pouted and dropped his head " I certainly won't, I've lost." He shrugged, brightening up a little, then shot a strand of a web out as he spotted a few reporters edging their way. "Congrats anyway dude." He disappeared, just as Tony landed next to Steve and flipped his face plate up.

"Fancy a lift home Captain?" He asked, the smile clearly visible.

"Oh I don't know Hero, aren't I already home? After all, I'm with you."

There was a moment of silence then the two of them broke into laughter "Okay, even for us that was nauseating." Steve admitted.

"It really was, it really was." Tony grinned "You are an incredible sap," he pressed a quick kiss to Steve's lips, almost more of a thank-you than anything else.

You're worse," Steve retaliated with a slightly longer kiss.

"Want to bet?" Tony replied with a far less chaste meeting of lips.

"Oh get me somewhere private and I will!" Steve growled into Tony's ear, sending a shiver down his spine. Tony slid his faceplate down and grabbed onto Steve, soaring into the sky.


Steve'd barely began to make his point before the windows in the penthouse blew inwards sending a partially clothed Tony tumbling to the floor. "Ouch," the reflex word was barely mumbled "Thor, how many times have I told you, use the room, or the front door."

He picked himself up from behind the couch and glared at the person who'd crashed into his beautiful, sexy, wonderful time with Steve.

Dr Doom stood there, looked at him and then looked at Steve. He repeated the gesture a few times. "YES!" The bad Doctor yelled suddenly "Such on that Loki!" he twirled around and landed on a giant doombot which was seemingly engineered to fly. "You owe me twenty bucks!"

Doom Disappeared.

Tony didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or go and check Doom hadn't crashed outside. He was never very convinced about his tech. Steve was fed up of betting pools. "I'm slightly offended it was only twenty bucks."

"Hmm, me too. But hey, no-one's killed me today.


Steve realised that the world had found out about their 'coupledom' the next morning when he tried to go jogging. He managed to make it to the ground floor before spotting the reporters, and going back upstairs to demand to know who caused the latest scandal. He was rather offended to be told it was him.

"What happened?" He reached for a newspaper Clint wasn't currently giggling like a TV teenage girl at. The headline glared at him

"SUPERBOYFRIENDS SHOCKER!"

"The world was shocked today as the two leaders of the Avengers Initiative, Captain America and Tony Stark's Iron Man, locked lips in front of several reporters. Sources report that the two men behind the masks have been a couple for some time and are 'very comfortable in each other's personal space' Given the amount of UST that has been evident for the past year, personally we're only surprised it hasn't happened sooner. Given, not only their unusual method of coming out, and the Captain's origins in the forties some ...[cont. Pg 6]

Steve put the newspaper down, and looked at the four expectant faces. "This could be worse, although by Clint's face it probably is. Does Tony know?"

"Does Tony know what?" The man in question walked in with such impeccable timing that Steve wondered if he'd been waiting for it.

Natasha chucked a tabloid newspaper at him. "You two are front page news."

"Oops," Tony shrugged, skimming his eyes over the headline, the picture, and chucking it back at Natasha.

"Oops," Steve agreed.

"No, not that, Pepper is going to kill me."

"No-one is going to kill you."

"No, you don't understand." Tony expressed "it was kind of awkward with the fact that technically she's my ex and we've been so busy lately that I never actually told her."

Steve opened his mouth to say something reassuring. Then he closed it again. "You're right, we're dead."

"We are so totally dead."

There was silence for a moment across the kitchen.

"Still, no-one is killing my boyfriend without killing me."