Tony/Steve get together
It was quiet and Tony just wanted to sleep for at least a day. But instead he was standing in his workshop trying to get rid of the last traces of adrenalin from the previous fight. The fight that nearly went wrong and Tony saw again how Steve nearly died. Which only prompted new adrenalin to flow through his body.
He was so concentrated on trying to calm down that he nearly missed the door sliding open. Tony turned around to see Steve enter and he was still in his uniform and bloody and dirty but alive, he was still alive and that was good, that was really good.
Steve stopped only a few inches away and he smiled at him. "Thank you for saving my life Tony."
"Yeah well, you know... you would have done the same."
And Steve smiled again and raised his hand to cup Tony's cheek and he said: "Yes I would have."
And Tony should just enjoy this, whatever this is, because if this turns out to be like he thinks then it's what he wanted for a very long time and he knows that Steve will kiss him every second now and Tony grabs his hand and pulls it away.
"Don't," he whispers. "Not like this." Not after a fight with too much adrenalin and both of them nearly dying and in the quietness of his workshop and he can't do it like this.
"Don't do this until you mean it," he tells Steve who is genuinely confused for a second but then he lowers his hand and takes a step back.
And that hurt because even though Tony knows this is not a movie or a sweet love story he might have hoped for a second that Steve did mean it. But apparently he didn't and so it's Tony's turn to step back and to turn around and to walk away. He hears Steve wish him a good night and then the door closes behind him.
It's almost three weeks later and Tony is still trying so desperately to not let it show how much he wanted something to happen that night and how much he regrets his words and how he sometimes really hates himself for talking without thinking.
Even though he didn't. It was thought through and he knows he would hurt so much more badly if he let Steve kiss him that night only for him to realize that, yeah, Tony is not really what he wanted.
So he stands by his decision even if it hurts and it does. Every time Steve smiles at him or looks at him or comes close enough to touch. It hurts even three weeks later.
And then suddenly Steve is back in his workshop and it's bright and music is blurring out of the speakers and Tony hasn't slept in too long and Steve hasn't had a mission in forever and they are both there and Steve motions for Jarvis to turn the music down.
Tony reflexively says: "Don't lower my music" even though he knows he needs to understand Steve, he knows that this is important, that he has to hear him.
And Steve just stands there for a minute and looks at him until he's suddenly close again and all Tony can hear is: "I mean it."