Chapter 1: Not a Soul

Bat's Eye

Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers

It had been four hours, twenty-seven minutes, and thirty-five seconds—if his eidetic memory didn't fail him—since they became trapped under five megatons of solid rock and steel. And, of course, Tony had decided to forgo wearing his Iron Man suit for a more bespoke suit and nice walk down Manhattan.

Joy.

Steve had (after a plethora of attempts) decided to let his momentarily useless shield fall to the ground with the distinctive sound of Vibranium clanging through the small space.

Tony looked around—his arc reactor providing the only light in the small space. It was a miracle they were alive, the building should've crushed them to bloody Steve and Tony bits, but instead, it left them alive with a hole big enough for oxygen to seep in, but too small for any of them to crawl through.

The morning had started simple enough; they'd talked about yesterday's mission over a cup of coffee and continued their morning routines until Tony mentioned a walk. It wasn't necessarily a date, just walking. The idea was that after the walk they could go to brunch, and then from there it could maybe develop into something akin to a date. It had taken Tony many days to muster up the courage and ask the star-studded blonde to this little getaway. He thought that a quaint shop in the middle of nowhere would be a modest start.

Luck, as you would have it, was not on his side that morning. Out of nowhere, a building started collapsing with civilians still trapped inside. As they rushed to retrieve the last of them, Tony had slipped through the foundation, and Steve had gone down with him in an attempt to grab his arm. The building toppled, but thankfully all the other individuals were safely above ground and away from the rubble.

This had led to a heated argument between the two, Tony had chastised Steve for going in after him and Steve retorted that he would not leave any man behind.

'Well congrats Steve, you now have two men behind.' Tony had snapped condescendingly. However, after two hours of pregnant silence, Tony thanked him (through mumbled lips and gritted teeth) and proceeded to look for a way out. Two hours and twenty-eight minutes later proved that A. they were very trapped and B. if they didn't get out soon dehydration would be their most probable cause of death.

He tried not to ponder too much on the possibility of the latter.

Steve shifted closer to sit next to Tony; he had gotten a bit cold and was familiar enough with Tony to know that the man's body temperature was a couple degrees above the norm, thanks to the contraption in his chest.

"It is quite cold down here, isn't it?" Tony asked conversationally, scooting closer— he had noticed Steve's small shivers, but decided to make light of it. No need to make the blonde any more uncomfortable about his handicap than he already was.

"That obvious, huh?" Steve asked, playfully shoving Tony with his shoulder.

"Subtlety, thy name is not Steven Rogers." Tony lightly mocked. "You didn't happen to bring your phone with you?" Tony asked hopefully; his lay innocently on his bed at the tower, much good it did him there.

"You know I don't carry those things when I'm off duty." Steve sighed regrettably, his lay in one of his drawers—untouched until it was needed. Maybe now would have been an appropriate time to carry it, but he couldn't have been expected to anticipate the inevitable.

"Yet you carry your shield 24/7, 365?" Tony teased, a small smile playing on his lips. He made a jab at Steve's pectorals, his fingers bouncing slightly from the firm chest.

"It's a part of me, an extension, much like your arc reactor." Steve defended, his cheeks reddening as Tony poked him. Steve decided to retaliate, pushing his own finger against the genius's bicep. It felt childish, but at the very least it distracted him from their current circumstance, even if only for a moment.

"However, unlike you, I need my reactor to live." Tony reminded, tapping at the glass casing absentmindedly.

"I know."

"So, this might be it." Steve murmured, leaning his head back against the rock. He'd taken a deep a breath before saying anything, looking around himself, and the expanse of rock that hung precariously close over their heads.

"Don't speak like that Steve, they'll come looking for us soon enough, someone must've seen our faces." Tony rushed out, the idea of death didn't scare him, what did was that Steve (out of all people) would even consider that a possibility in their current predicament.

"Even you know that it's impossible for us to survive under here forever." Steve said, trying to reason with the genius.

"I didn't say that now did I? You, out of all the Avengers, should be telling me the things I'm reminding you. Steve, we'll get out of this, understand?" Tony asked intently, grasping the larger man's shoulders. For something that looked like solid rock (no pun intended) they were quite soft when relaxed.

He didn't know how it happened, it must have been something in the air, or the desperate look Steve was giving him, or the vulnerability he saw in those eyes, but something made his hands snake softly, almost tentatively, around Steve's neck. He made to grab at it, but locked his fingers instead, pulling the blonde down to push his lips against Steve's own.

Steve's eyes bulged out of his head as his entire brain short-circuited. When Tony kissed him, it had been so innocent, so sweet, that calling it for what it was seemed excessive. He wasn't quite sure why he did what he did next, as it were, he was just letting instinct guide him as he pushed back against those lips, and wound his own hands around the owner's waist.

His first kiss was… awkward, he didn't know how to move his mouth, how to respond to the nudging tongue—he felt inadequate against Tony's experience.

His first kiss was also exciting, it lit a fire under his skin, and all he wanted to do was push against the smaller body until there was no more space left between their chests.

Tony pulled away suddenly his eyelids hooded, his mouth wet, he looked up at Steve and then back at his lips. He didn't want to stop this, but he shouldn't have continued when he felt Steve press back—should've ceased his actions when the other man's arms had found their way around his waist. He opened his mouth to say just that, but all that came out was a breathy: "Open your mouth, will ya'?"

Steve acquiesced, diving in for another addictive kiss. It left his head light and his body tingly—when he allowed the other man access to his mouth, it proved his undoing. The flexible muscle ran along the length of his palette; he made an undiscernible sound, something analogous to that of a wounded animal. The blonde mimicked Tony's movements (he may be inexperience, but he was adaptable, and quick to learn). Now it was Tony's turn to whimper and buck into the cool brick-house that was the only thing holding him steady.

Soon their tongues tangled and sucked and prodded and traced and explored each other's orifices.

When had they lain down?

There was a sharp tug inside Tony's stomach as he felt Steve press against him, it was most likely an accident (what with their position), but it suddenly became increasingly difficult to keep himself in check and not completely lose the last fragments of sanity he had left.

"Steve." Tony whined, as his neck was bitten lightly. He threaded his shaky fingers through those flaxen locks, marveling at their silkiness. How many times had he lulled himself to sleep thinking about running his hand, just like that, through Steve's hair?

He had to stop this, now. Steve was probably reacting from stress, this might be his first and only chance (or so he seemed to think) to do this sort of thing, so he was throwing all intuition out the window and going along to whatever Tony deemed appropriate. And gwad how he wished he could continue enjoying Steve's wonderful ministrations. But he had a responsibility as a friend and fellow Avenger to draw the line when things got too far. Besides, Fury would have a hernia if he knew what they were doing right now.

With a last, very reluctant run of his fingers through the other man's hair, he tugged lightly. When that didn't work he tugged harder, which seemed to encourage the latter more.

Who knew Steve had a masochistic streak? Oh, how Tony wished to exploit that— stop, stop it now.

"Stev-e." His voice had cracked, let's try this again. "Steve." That was better; it also seemed to get the other man's attention.

"Yes?" Steve asked, albeit a little breathless.

"We need to stop this, I know I was the one to start it, but we both need to end it. If anyone above finds out, we're in for a field day. Besides, you know what Fury said about this sort of stuff. He'll pin me in sexual harassment class for the rest of my life if he gets ahold of this." Tony reminded, hating the hurt look that passed through Steve's face, surprised at the anger and resentment that passed as well, and then finally understanding.

Tony was still very much trapped by Steve's body—and though he didn't mind it one bit, they had to separate. "So, if you could, um… like let go, it would make this process a hell-of-a-lot easier." Tony said awkwardly, pushing softly against Steve's sculpted chest. There was still so much uncharted territory, so many pleasures they hadn't explored. Tony held in a regretful sigh as Steve dislodged himself from his person and retreated to the farthest corner of the small space.

Tony brought his legs up and leaned down to place his head against his knees, successfully snuffing out the small light they had. His fingers went to his lips on their own accord and he closed his eyes, the memory still fresh in his mind, he remembered how hot that little tongue had been compared to how cool everything else was, his lips tingled, and his neck was sure to have small little bruises in the morning. He could still taste him on his tongue, such a powerful delicacy—much stronger than any premium ethanol in terms of intoxication.

He was sure that, given the chance, he could survive solely on Steve's kisses.

He tried not to think how much this had fucked up their uncertain relationship. They had barely gotten over the hurdle he called the 'Helicarrier Mishap.' Now this, this was bound to have some seriously negative repercussions. And damn it! He was so hot right now it was starting to hurt. His fingers tingled and it took every ounce of self-control to keep his body from jumping Steve's bones.

"Tony, do you hear that?" Steve asked, breaking the sullen brunette out of his reverie.

Tony looked up at the small hole above their heads and listened. Then he heard it, a loud, completely welcomed roar.

"See, I told you we'd get out of this one." Tony gloated, keeping his hands to himself.

"Not a word, right?" Steve said, avoiding the billionaire's gaze. He'd just kissed him— it was going to take a while to get used to talking to him again.

"Right." Tony replied, after a long minute of staring at nothing.

"Can I at least say one last thing before we're freed?" Steve said snapping his head back to look at Tony, with a roaring fire just beneath the surface of his blue eyes. Tony's entire throat closed and it became increasingly harder to breathe. He nodded, not trusting his voice to speak his acquiescence.

"I really, really, enjoyed that. And if we could continue, I wouldn't mind. I don't care where it was headed, I just know it felt… I'm sorry." Steve's thoughts were jumbled and confused, he ran a hand down his face, his entire demeanour crestfallen.

"I did too, that's probably the best kiss I've had in a very long time... and I'm also sorry. In no way did I intend to take advantage of the situation it just-

"Happened?"

"Yeah, heat of the moment sort of thing." Tony agreed. If they could confess everything and continue with their friendship here, then he could live with having tasted heaven.

"Okay."

"Okay."

Light broke through above their heads. Tony gave Steve one last knowing look and smiled.

"What took you guys so long?" Tony asked accepting the hand of one of his comrades.

"We had to realize why it was so blissfully quiet first." Natasha retorted, bringing them both for a very quick and uncharacteristic embrace.

"We're just glad to be alive, right Tony?" Steve asked as the other crew members gathered around for their hugs.

"Yeah…"

It was the end of a beginning, they both knew it.

Hello, my fellow readers, how's it going?

This little fic chapter is a collaboration project I have going on with MissNena214, check her out for the best reads.

R&R, please and thank you!

[EDIT: JUL-19-2017: Had to do some freshening up on this story!]