A/N: Not so sure about this one. It turned out a little longer than I planned, and turned out the right way, but didn't get there exactly as I hoped. Oh well. I'm okay with it.
As always, I own nothing. :)
It had been two days, and Tony was driving everyone up the wall.
Two days since Steve had left for a military conference. The first day wasn't that bad. As soon as Steve was gone, Tony locked himself up in his lab, researching, so he could make everything perfect for when Steve came back the next day.
It was also the eve of the Fourth of July, which also happened to be Steve's birthday.
Day two, Tony made an appearance in the living room of Avengers Tower where everyone, save for the still gone Steve, was gathered. Tony did a quick head count, making sure everyone was in the room, then slowly turned and made his way to the kitchen, shutting the door firmly behind himself. No one made a move to follow him, only slightly curious to know what he was doing, but they figured they would find out soon.
About an hour after he had disappeared, he still hadn't come back out, and all everyone was hearing from the kitchen was a lot of pots and pans banging. Natasha got up and made her way to the door, moving to open it, before finding it was locked. She knocked on the door and called out Tonys name.
She heard a thump and asked through the door if he was alright. A shouted "Fine!" Was heard through the door, but he made no move to come to the door and let her in.
She returned to her seat, nestled comfortably between Clint and Phil. She never felt as safe as she did when she was with those two.
Two hours later, still hearing nothing but pots and pans from the kitchen, the intercom comes on overhead, Tonys frustrated voice calling out that he wanted one of the Avengers to make a quick grocery store run.
The Avengers looked to each other, silently playing a three way rock, paper, scissors game to see who would have to go. Clint lost.
"What do you need from the store, Tony?" He asked the ceiling, counting on the fact that JARVIS would make it a two way intercom.
"Um... Flour... And eggs... And butter. Stick form, unsalted." Clint shrugged, grabbed the credit card that they all used for grocery shopping, and headed to the elevator, electing to walk the couple of blocks to a local grocery store. He was back within about twenty minutes. He knocked on the door to the kitchen, which Tony finally opened, grabbing the groceries from Clint's hand and shutting the door, but not before Clint got a good look at the various forms of lopsided, half broken cakes of various favors littering the kitchen surfaces. And not to mention the absolute pile of dishes overfilling the kitchen sink. Clint sighed. He knew one of the others would have to soak and rinse all the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher later. Hopefully he would be able to win that particular round of rock, paper, scissors.
Since Tony obviously wasn't going to let them into the kitchen to make themselves dinner, they ordered in Chinese food from a restaurant down the block. They ordered Tonys favorite and set it in front of the kitchen door, hoping to draw him out from the kitchen, so they could go get drinks. After few, minutes of eating, they looked over and saw that Tony had somehow managed to get the food, but left in its place bottles of beers for Clint and Phil, a glass of ice water for Natasha.
Full of food, they lazed around the couches, flipping through the channels, waiting out Tony. After a while, they heard a crash from the kitchen. Natasha used her amazing lock picking skills to open the kitchen doors and slip inside, locking it back up behind her, not trusting Clint.
Looking around her, she saw various cakes, all broken or lumpy in one way or another. She reached out to the nearest one, a chocolate cake that was laying on the cooling rack in two pieces, and took a small chunk, tasting it. She only just made it to the trash can before she spit it out.
Tony, who watched her take the piece with hopeful eyes, looked down at the bowl of batter he was currently mixing and held it out to Natasha to taste before he got as far as baking it.
After tasting it, she said "Better, but still no good." She brought the bowl over to the sink, washed it out, dried it, and put it on the counter, putting a slightly smaller bowl next to it on the counter.
"So what kind of cake are you wanting to make?"
"At first I was going to make a chocolate cake, but I ran out of cocoa powder after Clint came back with more flour. I didn't feel like making him to out to get more."
"Ok. She grabbed up one of the boxes of stick butter still sitting on the counter. How much butter does the recipe call for?"
"Two cups, so I've been melting down the sticks to get exactly two cups."
"There is one of your problems. Here, take these sticks, and open them and put them in the bowl of the stand mixer."
Tony did as she said. "You don't melt them?"
"No. Room temperature is right. Soft to make it light. Melted butter makes it flatten. And that's just a bad idea. These sticks are still a little cold, so why don't we take a walk down to the grocery store and pick up some cocoa powder while the butter softens," she said, eyeing the bag of flour sitting on the counter. "We can pick up some more four too. That doesn't look like there is enough to make another cake."
So they both head out to the living room. Natasha leans between Phil and Clint. "Will you guys clean up the cakes all over the kitchen? Tony and I are going to head out to get more flour."
Clint's eyes lit up. "Cake? He made cake? And we have to throw it out?"
"I would say the best course of action is to put it directly into the trash can, and not let any of it near your mouth," she said softly, hoping Tony wouldn't hear.
When Tony and Natasha got back from the store, all the cakes were gone, and there was a load of pans in the dishwasher, almost done.
Natasha set the bag of flour on the counter and then sat herself behind it on a stool, not going to help Tony, just tell him the right way to mix everything together.
"Ok, so what the recipes says for flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, go ahead and put them in that bowl next to the mixer." She waited until he completed that task. "Now take a metal wire whisk and just stir the dry ingredients together to make sure there are no lumps."
Tony set the bowl aside and pulled forward the bowl from the stand mixer, taking it off the stand.
Natasha told him to put it back on the stand. "Title just be easier to life the maker, instead of taking the bowl out every time. Now, put the required amount of sugar in with the butter, put the mixer back down so its in the bowl, and set it on a low speed. You're going to want to mix it until it is combined. Now you are going to add the eggs in, one at a time, until they are all mixed in."
Natasha and Tony continued in this manner until he was left with a bowl full of perfect chocolatey cake batter. She walked him through how to grease and flour the cake pans, telling him to pour half of the batter into each. He placed them in the oven, setting a timer, and turned around to find that in the place of the jar of store bought frosting that was on the counter, Natasha's was placing ingredients.
Tony washed out the mixing bowl they had used for the cake batter, and placed it back in the mixer, following Natasha's instructions for making the frosting. Before she told him to add the cocoa powder to the frosting, she had him portion out some to the side, which she added food coloring to, and mixed it up, putting it into a piping bag.
The timer went off and Tony pulled the cakes out, looking pleased with how they actually looked, and secretly hoping they came out of the pan looking just as good.
While they were waiting for the cakes to cool, Tony told Natasha about his plan for the next day. He wasn't going to mention Steve's birthday all day, but after the fireworks, he was going to come get the cake and bring it out to everyone, hopefully surprising Steve.
Natasha encouraged this, internally counting her winnings for if Tony and Steve got together. This week was her week in the betting pool if they got together.
Tony placed the newly iced and decorated cake into a cake holder, one that was not see through, and hid it in one of the many not used kitchen cabinets, knowing Steve would never look.
The next day was spend barbecuing on the outside terrace the Avengers Tower, waiting for it to be dark enough for the fireworks to begin.
Steve was slightly disappointed that there was nothing special happening that day for his birthday, but he was also relieved, knowing Tony could go all full out extravagant for birthdays. Natasha's latest birthday party lasted a full two days and went through a large stock of premium Russian vodka. They all laid around the tower, near the bathrooms, the next day.
The Avengers gathered around on the deck chairs, watching the breathtaking display of fireworks. Right as the last one went off, Tony, who had practically been vibrating with excitement all day, practically ran through the doors back into the tower. Steve glanced at everyone, who were all staring at him, shrugged, and went back to watching the night sky.
All of the sudden, he sees a flickering light out of the corner of his eyes, and turns to see Tony, smiling shyly, holding a cake with a single candle on top.
He slowly gets up and walks over, looking at the delicious treat in amazement.
"You remembered?" He asked, ignoring the slightly drunk Clint and Phil behind him, singing a, very off key, version of Happy Birthday.
Tony scoffed slightly, "Are you kidding? Every Fourth of July growing up, my dad would light a candle in remembrance of you. Every year. He never missed one." He suddenly looked down, embarrassed, "Since he died, neither have I. I've always taken a moment to light something on fire to remember you by. Not always a candle, sometimes a piece of paper, or whatever is handy. One time, I accidentally sit my shirt of fire, but I told people I did it on purpose. For you."
Steve blew out the candle, still looking amazed, and took the plate out of Tonys hand, setting it on the patio table beside him. He turned back to Tony and just pulled him into his arms, taking a minute to breath him in while Natasha tried to corral Clint and Phil, who were now seeing who could sing the dirtiest limerick.
Steve, still holding onto Tony, breathing in the smell of his shampoo from the top of his head, pulled back. "I was wondering if we could go out to dinner tomorrow. Just the two of us. A date... With me. And I completely understand if you don't think of me that-"
Tony put his hand over Steve's mouth, trying to get a word in, but the blond was just content to sit there babbling. "I would love to go on a date with you, Steve." He released Steve's mouths and leaned forward a little, hoping he would get the message. He did.
Steve leaned forward, gently pressing his mouth to Tonys. They pulled apart when Phil and Clint starting cursing from behind them, and they could hear Natasha to "Fork it over boys, I won."
Natasha just looked at Tony and winked. Happy for him and Steve.