You guys are lucky; I almost forgot to update today. XD So have a kinda short chapter because I don't have time to edit anymore and the rate that we're writing this now is a bit slower, but its still going really strong. Announcement: Since I finally got my invite after FOREVER, this story is now on AO3 (archive of our own) and you can read it from there too if that's your usual place to read (or at least when I get all the chapters posted. Chapters until they reach this number will be posted ever day?)

"Hi." he said, and held out the bag in front of him. "Got you something."

Steve rose an eyebrow as he glanced at the bag. "Got me something?" he asked in surprise, his tone a mixture of annoyed, yet flattered at the same time. What was it that Tony would have brought him?

"Yup," Tony moved closer than to place the bag down on the table.

He watched for a moment, brow furrowed, before forgetting about the bag. "You shouldn't have just left like that, Tony, it wasn't-"

"Brought you food," Tony interjected, beginning to unpack the bag. Nope, he wasn't going to let Steve lecture him right now. He was going to give the man the damn food and make him like it rather than listen to the bitching. "Guess what it is?" he glanced to Steve for just a moment, that same stupid grin on his face.

Sighing, Steve shook his head. "I don't know, and I really don't care. You're not even listening to me and that is really-"

"Gotcha fondue," he pushed a container in Steve's direction, eyebrows shooting up.

Steve blushed, and Tony seemed confused at that, but then he laughed. "Tony, how did you-"

"Clint told me," he said quickly. He motioned to the container in his hand. "Here. It's good, I think. I had it once a long time ago."

Steve smiled. He and Tony often went to get fondue for their dinners, but then Tony wouldn't know that. "Thanks, Tony. I really appreciate it."

"Yeah," he said absently, not looking directly at Steve, wringing his hands. He seemed distracted now, the grin on his face replaced with his "bad look". Steve was familiar with it. It meant he was either frustrated or struggling with the right thing to say; not something he struggled with often. He walked closer to Steve and handed him the container, and the closeness almost made Steve lean forward instinctively and kiss him. He caught himself, luckily.

"Tony, I-"

"Happy anniversary, Steve," Tony said, and Steve saw his smile was sad.

"Happy anniversary, Tony," he nodded slowly, taking the container. "Thank you. I really do appreciate this," he murmured.

Tony averted his gaze, still looking a bit uneasy. "Yeah, it's nothing. Thought I should do something, you know?" he took a step back then, almost as if he was about to flee the room, but the sight of Steve's brow furrowing both in curiosity and disappointment had him stopping. "So, uh," he took a seat since he didn't know what else to do, and then he grabbed the second container from the bag. Food. The food would be a distraction, right?

Steve put out forks and handed Tony his own and watched the man dig in before glancing down at his own meal. "When are we going to talk about this, Tony?"

"Talk about what?" he asked, but he knew very well what Steve meant. Of course he did.

"Tony, please-"

"I got you fondue, doesn't that-"

"Tony!" Steve nearly yelled, eyes blazing.

"Steve," Tony muttered back. "I just...I want to enjoy this. No arguments, no suspicions...just us having dinner without speaking of any awkwardness or whatever. Can we do that?"

For a moment Steve just looked at him, before finally sighing. "Yeah," he said, turning to the food. "Okay."

"Thanks."

A silence fell over the two as they ate, until Steve decided that maybe he could start up a normal conversation. Tony always loved talking about his work, and he knew that wouldn't have changed. "So, anything exciting happening in the lab?"

Blinking, the genius turned to look at him, seeming surprised that he had asked. "Uh, I dunno. Not much..."

Just as Steve predicted, Tony began running through a list of improvement he had made to the Iron Man suit, from enhanced hearing from the HUD to better joint movement to stronger repulsors. He nodded as he continued talking about the process, not understanding one bit except for familiar words. Then something caught his attention.

"...Jarvis is organizing everything for me from the point where I lost my memory and things that I'm remem-" The last word was said so fast and cut off so short Steve barely caught it, but he did. He wanted to bring it up, to demand answers, because Tony had just about admitted in remembering, even if it was a well-covered slip. And that it was; he continued talk as nothing had happened.

And Steve didn't say anything, because...well, he didn't know really why. Was it because he was tired of Tony's inability to give a straight answer? Probably. But he stayed quiet and answered his request to just keep it as a casual dinner. The odd thing was, if Steve squinted through his thoughts, it was almost like any other dinner he had with his husband on a lazy Friday night.

"So that's pretty much it," Tony finally said, glancing to Steve as he chewed a bite of food. He paused, just watching him for a moment. "Well, uh, what about you? Anything… interesting?" he wasn't really sure what they normally talked about when they ate together, but he assumed he at least asked Steve how he was.

"Well.." No, there really wasn't anything interesting here lately. He'd been cooped up inside a house with his team and a husband that didn't even know him. "Just been drawing and hanging around the gym some. Gone through several punching bags. Listened to Thor talk about wanting to get a kitten…"

"A kitten?" Tony repeated incredulously. "No. No, no, absolutely not."

"I think it would be kind of fun," Steve teased, twirling his fork, "having a cat in the Avengers tower. No one in this tower is cuddly."

Tony stared at him suspiciously for a long moment. "You're kidding."

Steve laughed, "Your expression was priceless, Tony. I wish I had a camera."

"You wish you knew how to work a camera!" Tony said playfully, smirking at him. He recalled how he told Clint he was building a robot for Steve and shook his head, robots are much easier than a cat. He'd never even had one! He hasn't even had an actual pet before, since he doesn't consider his robots as pets but rather his workers and admittedly friends. The poor creature would be probably be squashed by Thor's meaty hands.

"Hey, Tony? Can I ask you something? Nothing insightful...just a question."

"Um, sure," he said slowly, raising an eyebrow. I swear to God, Steve, if you bring up this shit again-

"What's it like? Having that blank spot in your head, and not seeing anything, just knowing something's missing?"

For a moment Tony just stared at him, and he was suddenly thinking maybe he shouldn't have asked that. If it was just going to set him off in some sort of bad mood...

"It's fucking annoying," Tony finally said, causing the other man to chuckle quietly. "What? It is. It's like... Sometimes it's like having something on the tip of my tongue, as if it's almost there, but... it isn't. Or other times, it's easy to forget that I have... well.. forgotten. Dunno. Depends. Either way, it fucking sucks."

"Yeah. I bet so," Steve poked at his food. "And I'm sorry. That it sucks."

"And the other thing is, its hurting you, too, which makes it all the worse." Tony's voice dropped to a near mumble. "I can deal with anything on my own, I always have. But when its hurting someone else? I can't..."

"Tony." Steve's breath caught in his throat. "I'm okay."

"No you're not. I know you're damn good at being the leader, but you're awful at hiding your emotions, you know that?" Tony didn't sound angry, just indifferent. He wasn't looking at Steve, just continued stirring his food. "About as bad as me."

Steve found it odd that he'd been waiting for Tony to open up and now that he was, even if it was just a little, he didn't want to talk. Not on this day. He just wanted Tony there. "I...hey, Tony, wanna watch a movie?" he asked hopefully.

Tony seemed a little annoyed that was all Steve had to say, but he nodded anyways. "Yeah, movie. We can do that."

It seemed to make Steve perk up. "Okay, awesome. You can pick the movie, since you always do," he said as he stood up.

"Because I know all the good ones?"

"Well, most of the good ones."

"Most?"

"Most," Steve nodded, taking one last bite of his food.

Without another word, Steve picked up their containers and threw them in the trash, and then followed Tony to the common room, which was curiously empty. "Where is everyone?" Steve asked, more to himself.

"I bet Clint's hiding in the vents, that sneaky son of a bitch." Tony muttered. "It's a little unnerving to walk into an area of the house and look up to see him looking down at you."

Steve snorted a laugh and plopped down on the couch. "So, what are we watching?"

Tony grinned and went to the large case of DVDs, noticeably the Jackie Chan movies were missing which meant Clint and Natasha were probably holed up somewhere and criticizing his stunts, if his knowledge about the two spies was anything to go by. He searched around and saw one of his favorite movies: Austin Power's Goldmember.

"Good grief, Tony, not this movie again!"

"I never got to see your reaction to knowing about the time of the hippies!" Tony complained. "It's a classic, anyway. I know all the good ones, like you said."

Steve just shook his head, smiling, as Tony sat next to him on the couch. If he squinted, it was like nothing had changed, when just about everything had twisted. Tonight, Steve was grateful for the peaceful illusion.

No evil cliffie today. I'm way too generous in this chapter! :O