The hen house was perfect, and the girls loved it. Steve is happy to see Tony so happy and invested in the chickens.
He sees Tony in the sheltered seating area off to the side of the chicken run made for 'Steve's convenience', talking animatedly with the girls about the newest updates he released for the comms system… feeding them big juicy mealworms… lucky girls.
Tony loved the hens, even got him a rescue bird for his birthday. An Americana, or Easter Egger. They call her Brigadier, or "Bridget", because she likes to think she outranks Rhodes. Rhodes likes to act indifferent to her, but they all knew she was his favourite. Steve's spotted him feeding her special treats.
Steve sits down on the chair beside Tony. "You spoil them, you know?" he says, his lips curling up into a smirk.
"Yeah, well…" Tony says, flushing. "It's nice to have someone to spoil."
Steve fiddles with the fabric of his pants, feeling his own face heat. "Yeah?"
"Yeah. They're real sweet."
"I could- I could be sweet for you," Steve whispers.
Tony whips his head around to stare at him. "What was that?"
"It was nothing, don't worry about it," Steve says, feeling himself deflate.
"I- Steve…" Tony says, "You want to be sweet for me?"
Steve sighs, sicking back into his chair, wishing the thing would just swallow him whole. "Just… forget I said anything, Tony. I don't know what came over me," He sighs.
"I like you too," Tony says, "If- if that was what you were saying…"
"You do?" Steve says, feeling the hope well up in his heart.
"I do."
"Oh, good," Steve sighs, a smile spreading across his eyes. "That's… great,"
Tony reaches across the space between them, cupping Steve's cheek. "You want to be sweet for me, Steve?"
Steve leans in to Tony's touch, licking his dry lips. "More than anything," he admits.
Tony's face light up as if all his Birthdays had suddenly came at once. "Oh, darling, I'm going to love spoiling you."
THE END
NOTES: ...It only took me 3 years, 1 month and 26 days to finish this, lol. I got distracted 😂🎉
I was unfortunately unable to work all of their names into the story, but they do all have names. Here are the 11 original hens, and Bridget = (imgur com / VShvsft)
As of July 2021 this work is part of the SteveTony Games - Canon vs AU (Team: AU)
This work has art that goes along with it (which I can't upload to ff-net), check out this fic on AO3 for the art (archiveofourown org / works / 14922626 / chapters / 34568708)
FlareOfTheMidnightPanther, I have actually got around to naming one of the chickens Speckle (See Chapter 7).