Disclaimer - I own nothing you recognise.

Challenges listed at the bottom.

Word Count: 475

Who Wanted Normal?

"I can't believe you dragged us all out here for this," Tony groused, rolling his eyes at Steve, who was clearly in his element, the weirdo.

"It's helpful, and it's fun," Steve replied, his eyes twinkling at Tony, because he was troll, and Tony had known this whole thing was done just to torture him.

"I hate you," he muttered, not meaning it, and they both knew it. The wide grin on Steve's face was evidence enough of that.

"It's only a couple of hours, don't be mard," Nat said, slapping the back of his head lightly as she passed him, carrying a crate of apples in her arms.

She handed it off to Thor, who accepted it cheerfully, and returned to her spot.

"But picking apples?" Tony asked. "What even possessed you to bring us all to a farm to pick apples? I thought the whole point of PR was that we were visibly doing things to help out?"

"Maybe I just thought we needed an afternoon of bonding?" Steve offered, his tone dry.

"Nah. You did this just to torture me, I know you did," Tony accused lightly.

"You caught me," Steve agreed. He threw an apple at Tony, who caught it easily, having been half expecting it. "Your reflexes are getting better."

"I've been putting enough time in at the gym with you bunch of demons," Tony muttered.

They fell into an easy silence for a while, each of them picking the apples and throwing them into the rustic, wooden buckets.

"You don't really hate this, do you?" Steve asked, his brow furrowed as he glanced Tony's way.

Tony arched an eyebrow at him and then rolled his eyes. "Don't be soft. You're going to be massaging my shoulders through the movie when we get home though, I can already feel the ache and I haven't stopped yet."

Steve snorted. "Don't I do that anyway?"

Tony grinned.

…

Tony's head lolled back against Steve's knee. He was sitting on the floor, Steve's hands busy on his shoulders. He was tired, but he felt good.

He wondered, briefly, if this was what having coworkers was supposed to be like but dismissed the thought almost immediately.

It wasn't, he knew, as Steve's hand trailed into his hair, massaging his head gently.

Coworkers didn't usually live together though.

Eh, he didn't care. He'd never cared for normality, there was no reason for him to start now.

"Don't go to sleep down there, Tones," Steve murmured. "Your back will hate you tomorrow if you do."

Tony grumbled about moving, but managed to push himself up onto the sofa, where he immediately fell into Steve's side, because Steve was warm and he was comfortable, and more importantly, he lifted his arm for Tony to snuggle even closer.

Really, who wanted normal coworkers when you could have this?

Written for:

Mini golf: hole 14. Word: dry

Murder mystery: where: a farm

Geek pride: animal crossing: picking apples

Game of life: coworkers