Iron and Steel (Part Four)
"Stark men are made of Iron!"
"Vibranium is an alloy of steel, I guess that makes it the strongest element there is."
What's stronger? Iron or Steel?
Let's find out.
In Tony's mind, the answer was so simple. There was none.
He had been blindsided by his own daddy issues to realize what promise Howard had. It seems like everyone knew except for him, and it shamed him. The dinner was Pepper's idea, but like all his plans, they seemed to fail him at the sight of Steve's dumbstruck expression.
Mission aborted.
Alright, so maybe he phrased the invitation ambiguously. What else was new? It was worth it to see the captain in his all-hail-American glory. The spandex didn't leave a lot to the imagination.
The Captain bashfully stared at his feet the whole briefing, something Nick Fury didn't take kindly too, and something Tony was bemused by. Clint wasn't even out the door until the blond layed a heavy hand on his shoulder.
"What can I do for you, Capsicle?"
Steve's jaw tightened but he stayed resolute. "About the other day...I want to talk properly. In normal clothes. Cheesecake factory tonight?"
"I'll be there three hours late." Tony joked, pulling his suited arm away from Steve with some difficulty. That boy had a grip on him.
Steve cracked a smile to his surprise. "I'll be waiting. Eight."
The blond left without another word, leaving the Stark in a stupor.
The Cheesecake factory. Which one?
"JARVIS-"
"In Albany, sir."
It really should have been a crime for Steve to look so suave in grandpa clothes, but he supposed it suited the blond giant. America's standard for obesity wouldn't cover Steve's proportions, but by the looks of it the Captain didn't seem to mind it at all.
"They have the best cheesecake."
Steve's eyes glittered like Sapphires in the dim restaurant lighting. Upon hearing the wail of infants, and incessant chattering Tony felt like reminding the blond that he had the money to go somewhere decent.
Their plates arrived and the billionaire snorted at the blonde's unhidden delight.
"Deep fried mac and cheese? You really are American all the way through."
Ridiculously enough, the table was covered in plates of the entree yet to be consumed courtesy of the Captain.
Steve smiled. "Better than what you're having."
Tony made a show out of trying to look offended. "Caesar salad is the Vibranium to my arc reactor. The peanut butter to my jelly, the Brad to Angelin-"
The blond cocked a brow, dumbfounded. "Who?"
"Whatever," Tony snorted, suddenly feeling shy beyond words at Steve's inquiring look.
There was a moment of silence that stretched on longer than was comfortable before the wailing infant interrupted it.
The blond pushed away his plate, face solemn.
"What were we? Really?"
Tony's unfortunate streak of bad luck and generally asshole-ry struck again.
"You were my bitch."
Steve impersonated a water fountain that had the misfortune of having Tony Stark, clad in Prada, doused in its trajectory. He nonchalantly wiped the water from his face, expression impassive. He supposed he deserved it.
Steve put his face in his hands. "Please be serious."
Maybe it was eighteen months of giving into the Captain's whims, but old habits die hard.
"You're our Captain, but you belong to me."
Tony lifted the dog tag from under his shirt, watching the blue eyes widen into saucers at the sight of raised letters of his name.
Steve looked down.
"I'm sorry. I-I don't-"
Steve trailed off when Tony went on to ignore him, absorbed by typing something furiously into his phone.
"Um. What are you doing?"
The brunette's brows knit in concentration. "Hacking SHIELD security cameras. Really, you think an international intelligence group would work on improving their software after being hacked multiple times."
Steve nodded lamely, eyes intent on the red velvet cheesecake making its way to their table.
"There, four months ago. Watch."
Before Steve could even ask what exactly he was supposed to watch, the phone was shoved into his face, a grainy video streaming.
He vaguely recognized himself, furious and seething, tossing his shield at the refrigerator followed by a hot under the collar Iron Man. Both of them were both donning their suits, but their faces were exposed and clearly must have been in the middle of an argument because he looked like he was about to turn around and dislocate Tony's neck.
"What, you're going to run away from me now? I'm not a girl, I can take a punch!"
The blond's jaw tightened and he whirled around to the brunette, practically ready to combust from the way the veins in his neck bulged.
"This isn't about strength. You KNOW why I pulled you out of the way because otherwise you could have died! I was worried about you, okay? Is that a crime?"
Tony sneered, and Steve decided he didn't like that look on his face because it demonized him, made Tony look like a crazed lunatic.
"Who asked you to worry about me? I can take care of myself!"
"I'm allowed to be worried about whomever I want! JUST SHUT UP."
But Tony was still going on, and Steve visibly shook, quaking in anger. The cement around his feet started to crack as his feels grinded deeper and deeper.
"Was it daddy dearest? Fury? They could care less if I dropped dead tomorrow. And for all I know, you're the sam-"
Steve howled, and pushed all the items off the table and forced the suit to Iron to stay vertically pinned under his body weight, sealing his lips and hard and fast against the brunette.
The phone slipped through his fingers, luckily falling into Tony's waiting hands.
"This...This..."
"Not altered, if you must know. Otherwise SHIELD has some weird hobbies."
Steve opened his mouth and shut it, appetite lost.
"Why didn't you tell me the first time I asked?"
Tony looked away, a small almost sad smile perched on his lips.
"You don't even know who I am." Tony slapped down a couple hundreds and left, shoulders hunched. "Thought it was for the best."
Steve flailed, which was a bit of a ridiculous sight to see.
"Wait-what? Where are you going."
Tony turned around, a displeased tone coloring his frown. "You just ruined my dramatic exit! There goes the cliffhanger."
The billionaire went back to the table, arms crossed, looking every bit of a petulant child that Pepper liked to say he saw. "Damn. Pretty sure I just broke the fourth wall."
Steve's mouth hung open, at this point too lost in context to comprehend what exactly was going on. He shook his head, back to the matter at hand.
"Thought it was for the best? Why?"
"Well..." Tony looked as if the words were burning his mouth on the way out, much akin to a bad taste. "We weren't exactly on stable terms before you were knocked out. We..."
"What? What happened?"
"You wanted to get married. You wanted a ceremony. I can't imagine why, either. In your time homosexuality was considered a psychiatric disorder. And then we just...started to fuck I thought it was just a way for you to take out your pent up aggression and be who you really were. I didn't think it had anything to do with actually...liking me."
Steve froze, Tony's dark eyes averted their gaze, and felt exactly what Tony despised.
Pity.
"No one, genuinely...likes me."
Coming from Tony Stark, the confession sounded something a second grader would have said then a billionaire wunderkind. Steve could believe it, because he was no stranger to feeling isolated.
He said as much.
"I know what you mean."
Tony didn't look like he believed a word. "I've seen your file but I can't really get over the fact that you're The American dream."
Steve, unexpectedly flushed at this, the embarrassed blush rivaled the red of the slice that was served to him.
"I was actually a bit of a pariah...being a sickly, underweight kid with no prospects doesn't look very good on the job market."
"Sickly?"
The blond was affronted by Tony's tone of wonder. "You read my file,didn't you? Howard put me in the project for the god serum because I was the 'perfect candidate."
Tony's mouth twisted at this, clearly befuddled. "Huh."
Steve didn't like that expression one bit. "Why else did you think I was chosen?"
"To be honest I thought you and my old man were having a thing."
It took the avenger a moment to decipher the almost bitterness in Tony's statement. And when he did, his mind had just about imploded. Tony, who was ready for this, had slipped his gaze to his watch the moment he saw the processing look in Steve's eyes.
"WHAT?"
In reality, Tony knew for a fact that Steve and his father didn't have a fling (and um, very creepy, who wants to ever consider the sex lives of their parents?) but it was hilarious enough to witness.
"I-I" The poor guy. It seemed like steam was coming out of his ears at the implications, and his face was redder than a tomato. Or the cake, pick your poison.
"I would never-no!"
At Steve's indignant tone he burst into a fit of giggles, all of which he had poorly hid as the captain floundered.
"Calm down! I'm positive that you two weren't doing the nasty. Some things in the world are just too horrific to picture."
Steve was eager to disprove any and all thoughts he had of the both of them. At this point, Tony was glad the evening had taken a lighthearted note by teasing the Captain. Tony took to humor when a situation was meant to be serious. It masked the deep insecurities he had about himself, which were more than often addressed. He felt this at the press conference with the senator when they tried to take his suits, and especially when he had first met with the Captain. Steve knew none of this, but he must have known deep down on some level because he never went out of his way to point out any of Tony's faults, to which he was grateful. It was just like the blond had said, what was he, other than a man in the suit? He dreaded to imagine a future where and Yinsen had never built the suit, and immediately shot it down because Pepper didn't like it when he medicated those thoughts with a Mojito in hand.
"...Tony!"
In his musings, Tony had long forgotten that they had abandoned the topic of Steve's fidelity in favor of his own.
"I heard you were going to have an expensive lawsuit ogling Black Widow."
Tony cracked a smile, remembering when Pepper had said the same not a year ago.
"Is it my fault that everyone with internet connection has access to her breasts? I simply needed to confirm this in person."
Steve shook his head in disbelief, blue eyes twinkling with mirth. "Curious and curiouser. Tony Stark, you are a very strange man."
Tony gave his own smile at this. "So are you, Rogers."
"Oh, and why is that?"
Tony made a gesture between the both of them. "You're still sitting here."
The blond frowned, watching the billionaire pick at his dish and hail a waiter for a drink.
"What do you mean? If you mean the fact that your a bit of an arrogant guy, I'm quite fine with it. There's lots of assholes, but there's only one Tony Stark."
The philanthropist looked pleased to hear this, if the way he ducked his head with a blush and the way he smiled shyly said anything. Steve found that he quite liked that expression when Tony wore it.
"I've got an answer to your early question."
Tony visibly perked up, eyes drawn down in confusion. "What question?"
"About what was stronger, iron or steel."
Tony, loosened by the couple drinks he had been served leaned back, not hiding his bemusement from the Captain. "Oh? And what's your answer."
"Why, steel of course."
"Where's the evidence?"
"What's your suit made out of?"
"A 3-D knit alloy,neurokinetic user-controlled morphologic nanoparticle bundles that form the suit in my body and form a fibrous wet web of iron and platinum-"
"Iron. What is your arc reactor made of?"
Tony saw the point all too soon. "Vibranium."
"An alloy of steel."
"Stark men are made of iron." It made Tony sick to quote his father, but he didn't like the revelations he was facing.
"Men are like steel. When they lose their temper, they lose their worth."
Tony stifled a giggle at this. "Chuck Norris?"
Steve stared at him, dumbfounded. "Who?"
It was all he could take before he burst into laughter anew. "Are we going to be quoting lines back and forth, or does your argument have a point?"
"I like to think I'm apart of you," Steve says conversationally and taps on Tony's chest to drive his point home. The Stark startled and jumped away, feeling the blood rush to his ears.
"And that I make you stronger because you know that you need me."
"When did you get so bold?" he said breathlessly, feeling more in love than he had felt six months ago.
"I learned a thing or two from you, Stark."
The blond had somehow caught the waiter and paid the bill without a second glance. Tony almost wanted to drag Steve back to get the last word, but he realized, watching the restaurant empty, that there were more important things than making a point.