Hopefully the next part won't be far behind this one. It's currently one of many works-in-progress.
Part 6
When a few minutes turned into ten, and then twenty, Tony decided that he'd had enough of the suspense and decided to seek out Pepper's wrath before it came and found him. He could just imagine the lecture she was preparing for him. She'd be furious – of that he had no doubt – and would waste no time in demanding to know the finer details of what had occurred as a result of his own carelessness last night. Pepper had little use for the 'middle man' and would probably barely tolerate Steve's explanation, only because Steve happened to be the beloved Captain America that she respected and admired. Tony knew Pepper very well and could predict her reaction to anything from an all-out nuclear war to the microwave oven conking out.
Time was a serious factor when it came to either Tony or Pepper so Tony quickly wrapped himself up in Steve's semi-damp stars-and-stripes towel and scampered down the hallway to his own bedroom.
Knowing that he'd be facing a lethal redhead wearing brand name, pointy, stiletto heels, Tony wisely selected an outfit that would put his personal assistant at a disadvantage. Nothing screamed, 'I'm not taking you seriously', louder than a well-worn tank top balanced by a pair of torn and faded blue jeans. Although his schedule for the day was loaded down with business meetings, he figured that he could just show up to them minus the tailored Armani suit and tie and smile his way through a boardroom full of disapproving glares.
He wandered through the embarrassingly large Avengers' mansion, trying to anticipate how Pepper would launch into her tirade, planning a dozen ways to cut her off or change the subject.
By some miracle, Tony was able to sneak past anyone who happened to be awake, not wanting to be bombarded with questions about where the bruise on his face had come from. The bump on the back of his head had been easy enough to hide after fluffing up his hair a bit; not that anyone would have any reason to get close enough to him to spot the damage.
Feeling more paranoid by the second, Tony finally located Pepper and Steve huddled very close together, outside, on one of the upper balconies. He couldn't hear a word they were saying, but their expressions more than made up for that. Steve's eyes were narrowed; he didn't appear to be saying much, but the standoffish way that he had his arms crossed in front of his chest, grimacing as Pepper leaned in towards him, scowling, said it all.
Putting on his best poker face, Tony opened the glass door to the balcony, startling the two conspirators. He caught the tail-end of Pepper's snarled, "—gonna kill him with my bare hands!", but refused to bat an eye.
"Well, here I am. You can commence with the killing anytime now."
Steve's mouth opened in shock at Tony's flippant comment but no words came out. Okay, so maybe it wasn't Tony that Pepper wanted to kill.
Pepper took one look at Tony and the livid red patches coloring her cheeks darkened, giving her face – and the generous sprinkling of freckles that were concentrated there – a healthy glow. Maybe too healthy for a woman with her vindictive nature.
Much to Tony's surprise, and discomfort, the anger in Pepper's overall demeanor vanished to replaced with naked sympathy and hurt as she rushed over to him. "My God, Tony, you look terrible." Her slender fingers pressed to the sides of his face, mindful of the bruise there, as she held him still for inspection. "Have you seen a doctor?"
That question threw Tony a bit off guard and he replied dumbly, "What the hell for?"
"Steve said…" Pepper hesitated, again making Tony squirm and fidget under her penetrative gaze. Pepper never hesitated. It made Tony nervous to see her doing so now.
Coming to Pepper's rescue, Steve piped up, also moving a lot closer to Tony. "You hit your head pretty hard yesterday… I think that you should have it checked out. Just to be safe."
"The police will probably want you to be examined anyhow," Pepper continued, grateful for Steve's support. She let her hands drop to her sides, lowering her head for a moment to give Tony a moment to register that fact.
"Sounds like fun," Tony muttered under his breath.
"I know that look."
Tony looked at Pepper in confusion, not really sure why she wasn't tearing into him for his irresponsible behavior. If anyone could put him in his place, it was Pepper Potts with her straightforward no-bullshit conversational tactics.
"What look?"
"The self-recriminating one that means you're blaming yourself for what happened. And you shouldn't. It's that son-of-a-bitch Milton that should be hanging himself over what he did to you."
"I'm not-," Tony began to protest, swallowing back the rest of his sentence when Pepper's startlingly clear green eyes made eye contact in a teary anguished glare.
"Don't deny it. We've known each for too long for you to be able to get away with it. Just listen…" She glanced at Steve, who had shifted closer to Tony, one big hand squeezing the industrialist's shoulder affectionately, and paused. Her woman's intuition practically set off multiple alarms at the way Steve was hovering over Tony, and the suspicious manner in which Tony seemed to be enjoying – even encouraging – the attention. As much as she wished to further analyze the odd vibes she was getting off the two men, the current situation required her full attention. The weirdness would have to wait until later. "I'm going to call the police, and then your lawyer. I'll notify her that you'll be pressing charges and canceling all business transactions with Ceristech."
Tony couldn't help but feel mildly pleased with Pepper's insightfulness despite the way that she professionally rambled on. He'd been too upset to consider the ramifications of bringing his lawyer and the police into what would soon become a very messy battle. Of course all business ties needed to be severed.
"Are you sure that it's not a bit premature to go that far?" Tony questioned her lightly.
"Oh, you mean to punish the entire corporation for the acts of its CEO? I'm surprised that you would ask that considering some of the cutthroat business decisions you've made in the past." Pepper backtracked quickly when Steve shook his head silently at her. "I'll see to it that it's all legal. That man will not be given any excuse to attempt to see you once we've cut him off. And just in case he's stupid enough to try it, we'll apply for a restraining order."
"That's just going to give him the wrong message," Tony protested.
"This isn't about pride," Steve spoke quietly by Tony's ear, "it's about keeping you safe and away from that deranged man."
"The restraining order was Steve's idea," Pepper added, hoping to distract Tony while she got busy doing what needed to be done. "I'm going to get on this right away." She slipped past Tony, patting him reassuringly on the arm as she went by.
"She's a great woman," Tony said with a grin, turning to leave the balcony himself.
But, Steve seemed to have other ideas because he held Tony back and shut the glass door again.
"Now what?"
"You're acting far too casually about this."
"Oh, come on! How do you want me to act?"
Steve followed Tony further out onto the balcony, waiting until his friend was at the edge before carefully wrapping his arms around the man's stiff shoulders.
"Steve," Tony began in a warning tone, but did not shrug off the comforting arm.
"I just find it unsettling to see you acting so chipper after how upset you were last night. That's all. Pepper said that you'd swing back and forth from blaming yourself to outright denial. I think she was right."
"You're hardly in a position to be judging me for the way I act," Tony snarled at Steve, reconsidering the arm on his shoulders, pushing it off with more than a little force.
Steve took a step back, fearing that he'd put their friendship on a rocky plateau after he'd admitted to finding Tony attractive and eluding to the possibility of their friendship evolving into something more… but not now. His own feeling of guilt in the matter was plainly written all over his face. He regretted being too blind and afraid to accept Tony's advances at face value. If he'd only…
"First, you imply that you feel something other than friendship for me… but then you act as if touching me or being close to me is like contracting an infectious disease."
"I don't want to hurt you," Steve ground out between clenched teeth, trying to be patient with Tony's little outburst but finding it difficult with such a distasteful accusation hanging in the air between them.
"So touching me is painful then?"
"Damn it, Tony! You just love twisting my words around, don't you?"
"Is that because you only said you were interested in me out of pity? Or because you don't want to touch me after that bastard got there first?" Tony continued to vent, ignoring Steve's indignant response.
Steve froze. Part of him wanted to unleash the rage he felt at hearing Tony utter such a despicable untruth that really came as no surprise to him. He wished that he could fly off the handle as gleefully as Tony seemed to. Most of the people who really knew Captain America, and had seen him in action, knew that even he had his tarnished moments. Steve was not beyond kicking the enemy when he was down. But, Tony was not the enemy, far from it, in fact. Tony had never been in a more vulnerable state, conflicting emotions shifting his features, his dark blue eyes wavering with unshed tears.
Instead of shouting back, Steve moved closer to Tony again, placing both hands on his friend's arms to hold him in place. "This is really against my better judgment… I shouldn't take advantage of you, but I can't watch you beat yourself down either."
Tony jerked backwards, trying to escape Steve's grasp, but discovered that he had nowhere to escape to when his back bumped into the railing behind him.
"This isn't out of pity," Steve informed Tony as he leaned forward, violating Tony's personal space before his lips pressed firmly to the shocked industrialist's. Tony reacted predictably, denying that Steve's affections were anything but pity, trying to pull away. He might as well have tried knocking over a mountain because Steve would not budge.
Tony kept his lips sealed shut, growing angrier by the second when Steve continued with what he considered to be a mock kiss. And then, one of Steve's hands left his arm to trail down his back, stopping at his waist to urge him closer. Suddenly, he found himself in Steve's arms, feeling the heat and solidity of that powerful body pressed up against his own.
When Steve had Tony positioned in the way he wanted, his fingers moved to the man's bearded jaw, gripping it gently but firmly, holding him still as he deepened the one-sided kiss. "Stop fighting me," Steve growled, increasing the pressure until he was sure that it'd leave behind bruises later. Whether Tony finally gave up or lost to Steve's superior strength wasn't immediately determinable, but Steve didn't dwell on the reason why. He forced his tongue past Tony's soft lips and into the warm, wet mouth that he'd wanted to kiss for what seemed like an eternity. He was used to being a considerate and yet passionate lover, but he held back this time, merely stroking his tongue alongside Tony's until he seemed to get a response. He expected Tony to fight him some more so he was a little caught off guard when the handsome man in his arms suddenly began to participate in the kiss.
Tony sucked on Steve's tongue, reaching up to wrap his arms around the man's thickly muscled neck and intensified the kiss. He closed his eyes tightly as he angled upwards to meet the taller man's hungry mouth. Their lips slid wetly together, only separating for air, but barely so when Tony chased after Steve's tongue again to renew the kiss.
Steve crushed Tony tighter to his body, listening to his usually well-composed friend shamelessly moan in his arms, rubbing up against him like a hormonally charged tiger. Although it hadn't seemed like a good idea at first, his more primal instincts were now telling him that this was exactly what Tony needed. This was the only kind of comfort that Tony wanted from Steve at the moment and so Steve had decided to stop holding back and just give it to him.
Another kiss led to another, and more frantic rubbing and grinding until Steve caught hold of Tony's hips to still him. "We need to take this slowly," he insisted, his body betraying his words when Tony nudged his thigh into the aching hardness that Steve could do nothing to hide. Biting back a groan, Steve pushed the lower half of Tony's body back against the railing. "Tony, please… I'm too close. We can't do this now."
Breathing heavily and eyeing Steve through his lowered eyelashes, Tony surged back up to tease another kiss from Steve before settling down a little. Steve watched Tony warily, feeling a bit worried over the lustful gaze that followed his every move.
"That was for real, wasn't it?" Tony asked, his voice a little rough and breathless from their passionate kisses.
Attempting to smile reassuringly at Tony, Steve looked over at his friend, his lips curving into a predatory grin despite his best efforts to tame it. He took in Tony's thick dark hair, falling in unruly waves over his forehead, admiring the way his friend's flushed skin made him look even more tanned, exotic. How long had Tony been after those kisses? Steve wondered who had been pining over whom longer. Watching Tony standing there, off balance, tempting him with those bedroom eyes, did nothing to appease the sudden desire he had to tear the worn clothes from his friend's body and take him then and there.
In the end, instead of replying, Steve rushed forward again, clasped Tony's face between his hands and kissed him desperately, hoping and praying that Pepper would return to break it up because he just couldn't stop himself.
To be continued.