Yay! It's time for a new chapter. I think you'll all enjoy this one. Spoiler, Steve breaks the internet. I'll see you at the end.
Now that Tony and Steve had taken the plunge and started a relationship things around the tower actually became better. The team were very quick to welcome the new relationship and were more than supportive. They also all very quickly learned that despite the goody-two-shoes façade that Steve put forth, the man was more than happy to let loose with the PDA in the tower.
Steve was always grabbing Tony and kissing him, pulling him onto his lap during movie night, holding hands when they had to go to the new reformed SHIELD offices. Everyone thought that the whole thing was sickeningly cute. Tony would blush every time and the two of them just looked so damn happy to be together.
Tony and Steve also decided to have a standing date night. A night just for them. No Team. Just them. They mostly went out incognito. It helped that Tony had switched up his fashion from t-shirts and suit jackets to his new punk rock sort of look. Steve mostly tried to use the good old sunglasses and ball cap for which he got a lot of flack from the team about.
On one of their date nights just after Steve's birthday, Tony took Steve out to an art gallery that he thought he'd enjoy. Tony enjoyed himself too. He may have played off his interest in art in the past due to the image he'd cultivated over the years but in truth, Tony loved art. His mother had taught him to appreciate the arts. She taught him how to draw which was useful when designing new tech. She taught him piano which quickly translated into Tony learning how to play the electric guitar to annoy Howard.
But art, that was one of the things that both Tony and Steve had in common. The would sometimes draw together down in the lab. It was really cute. So, Tony just knew that going to see an art gallery was going to be fun. And they did have fun. They looked at all the art and gave their critiques. They played at trying to imitate the stupid faces in some of the modern art pieces. They were both full of smiles.
As they were driving back home at the end of the night, Tony had an idea that he had a feeling Steve might like.
"We should set you up on Instagram so you can show off your art." Commented Tony as they got out of the car and made their way to the tower's private elevator.
"What's an Instagram?"
"It's an app for your phone. People use it to post pictures for people to see. You could put your art on there so you can share how talented you are." Said Tony with a smile.
"Do you think people would actually like to see my art?" asked Steve as the rode the elevator up to their room.
"Sure they would. You're amazing Steve. You should show off your work and be proud of it."
All Steve could do in response was pull Tony into a bear hug. Between the two of then, Tony was the one who was more insecure and self-conscious. But, Steve had his own fears. He feared rejections. He feared being alone in this new world. He feared dying and leaving his new family behind.
But, with Tony at his side. His sweet, sweet Tony, Steve was more than ready to take the jump.
The two spent the next hour carefully curating Steve's new Instagram. Tony showed him how it worked and they picked out a few of Steve's favourite pictures to post. And, with a quick e-mail, because Tony is Tony, they got Steve verified. That had had Steve asking more questions about social media. They ended up spending half the night together going through the various forms of social media so that Steve could learn. When they went to breakfast the next morning looking exhausted, Clint made a lewd joke that had Bruce and Thor snickering but both Tony and Steve denied everything. Truth be told, they hadn't really gotten past the kissing stage of their relationship. Sure, sometimes hands wandered a bit but they hadn't done much else. Neither really cared. They were comfortable where they were for the moment.
The rest of the day continued on as normal. That morning they had a team training exercise that ended in a few bruises and a ripped pair of shorts on Thor's part. They showered off before heading up to have some lunch. Lunch was uneventful and afterwards Tony and Steve retired to the living room to watch a movie while Tony answered some e-mails for SI. It was all going great until Tony received a text from Pepper.
Potts: Tony, have you checked the news today?
Stark: No… why?
Potts: You might want to check. You and Steve are trending all over the place.
Tony instantly began to panic. He frantically searched up what Pepper was talking about and his hands shook as he read article after article. Someone at the art gallery had leaked that they had been there and had snapped a picture of the two holding hands. Steve was quick to pick up on Tony's panic and was at his side in seconds reading over the same things Tony was seeing.
What struck Steve as odd was that the mass majority of the articles were negative about their relationship. There were a whole bunch of anti-LGBT articles as well as even more than bashing Tony for corrupting a national icon. It made Steve furious that people were saying so many nasty things about Tony. They had no right. They had no idea what when on behind their closed doors. Plus, Steve was the one who asked Tony out. And to add insult to injury, they were calling Tony a cradle robber for dating Steve. Steve was the older one in the relationship. He was born before Tony was and with the whole Loki situation and Tony now being younger, he was STILL the older one.
Steve tried his best to keep calm so he didn't upset Tony further as he tried to comfort his boyfriend. It hurt to see him scared. This wasn't something they should have had to be dealing with. If only people would mind their own business. What goes on between two consenting adults is their business unless someone was being hurt. But nobody was being hurt here. Tony and Steve were in love and happy and now these stupid media people were trying to stop that.
"Anthony darlin', everything's going to be alright." Soothed Steve, a bit of his old Brooklyn accent seeping through.
"No it's not Steve!" panicked Tony, "They're saying all these things. I've ruined you, Steve. Ruined you! This is all my fault! People love you. I'm nothing but a dirty whore to everybody. You should go, Steve. I don't want to hurt you any further."
By the end of Tony's little rant, he was crying. Not just tears but stuttering fearful sobs that broke Steve's heart. He could see how scared Tony was. He could see how Tony actually thought those things about himself. It made Steve want to hurt every person who had made Tony believe those things. Tony deserved so much more then what the world had flung at him and Steve just wanted to make everything better.
What Steve didn't count on was Tony regaining enough composure to get up and start fleeing to his lab. Steve just sat there in shock for a moment. There was so much happening that his brain just sort of stop functioning. But, Steve was quick to shack off the foggy feeling and chase after Tony. If Tony was in this much destress then he shouldn't be left alone.
JARVIS helped a lot as Steve tracked Tony through the tower. He'd headed straight to his lab and Steve was right behind him. But, when Steve entered the lab, he was met by a sight he never hoped to see. Tony was there holding the last bottle of alcohol he owned. He'd gone cold turkey after Loki de-aged him and hadn't touched a drop in months. The only bottle he kept was an old one that used to belong to his mother. Steve immediately rushed over before Tony could succeed in getting the stopper off.
"Tony! What are you doing?!" shouted Steve in panic, but he realized too late that Tony would think his yelling was out of anger directed at him.
"I just wanted a drink." Mumbled Tony as his knees gave out and he started to have a panic attack.
Tony was breathing erratically and clutching at the arc reactor. His eyes were clenched shut and his hands shook like crazy. Steve immediately knelt down beside his boyfriend and followed the instructions JARVIS gave on how to bring Tony out safely. It took some work, but after a little while, Steve had Tony calm and coherent enough to listen to what needed to had said.
"Anthony sweetheart, I want you to listen to me alright. None of what the media said is true. You are not a whore. You have not ruined me. You are everything to me. I don't care what the media says. Now, if you wanted to leave the relationship because you are no longer comfortable then that's one thing but saying that you've ruined me because of the words of some asshole behind a desk isn't a good enough reason. I'm not going to leave you, Tony. I love you." Spoke Steve with conviction. And, it may have still been early in the relationship, but Steve was 100% sure that he loved Tony.
"You love me?" whispered Tony his breath still shaky.
"I do Tony. I do. And I'm not going to leave you on the words of the media. I know the real you and I quite like him." Smiled Steve.
Tony looked on with a bit of uncertainty, but he trusted Steve not to lie to him. Tony just nodded his head a bit and rested against Steve's chest. He felt exhausted. A panic attack always left him feeling tired and shitty. Steve picked up on his exhaustion and was quick to offer comfort. Steve pulled Tony into his arms and gave his head a sweet little kiss.
"How about we head back to our room. I'm positive that the bed is a whole heck of a lot more comfortable then us sitting on the lab floor."
Tony nodded and Steve scooped him up in his arms and began walking back to their room. Normally Tony would have liked to walk on his own to preserve a little bit of his dignity, but his legs felt like jelly and Steve was just so comfortable that Tony couldn't even muster the energy to complain.
Once they got back to the room, Steve removed his and Tony's shoes and got Tony situated under the covers beside him. Tony was already beginning to nod off as Steve fussed around a bit before sitting himself down beside Tony.
"I love you too Steve. It's scary, but I love you too." Mumbled Tony as he laid his head down on the pillow underneath him. Steve just smiled and ran his hand through Tony's hair as he drifted off to sleep.
Once Steve was sure that Tony was asleep and comfortable in their bed, Steve pulled out his phone and opened up the new Twitter account that each Avenger had been given once the team had been government official. He needed the world to know that none of them would be messing with his Tony. He was sure this would come back to bite him in the ass but Steve didn't care. He had to protect his own.
capamericaofficial Dear world; I'm sitting here in bed with my boyfriend after he had a panic attack. Do you wanna know what caused that? You. You caused that. (1/7)
capamericaofficial You guys just couldn't let us have a nice date out could you? I'm appalled at the behaviour of the press these days. How can you preach (2/7)
capamericaofficial all these lies?! You know nothing about mine and Tony's relationship. First of all, Tony did NOT defile a national icon by turning me gay (3/7)
capamericaoffical I'm Bi for the record and I was that way well before I went into the ice in WW2. I was the one to ask him out. I made the first move. (4/7)
capamericaofficial You all know nothing about Tony. NOTHING! I'm furious that all everyone ever cares about is trying to tear him down. Let it be known (5/7)
capamericaoffical Tony Stark is my boyfriend and I don't appreciate people messing with him. I refuse to sit by and watch him suffer (6/7)
capamericaofficial from the words of people who don't even care about the man behind all the masks. So let this be a warning. STAY AWAY FROM MY TONY! (7/7)
After Steve was finished typing he put his phone on silent and curled up around Tony. He was feeling exhausted himself and a nap sounded great.
What happened in the next couple of hours was nothing short of insane. The internet went absolutely crazy over Steve's tweets. New articles were printed trying to analyze what Steve had said. He'd grown an impressive following in a matter of minutes. They commented on how possessive of Tony Steve sounded in his tweets. It was absolutely insane.
Pepper was made of course. She was the one who had to handle that PR shit show. Steve felt bad for her, but he didn't regret his actions. He needed to let the world know not to mess with his Tony. And it would appear that the message was received. Tony was still apprehensive and twitchy for the few days following the whole media incident, but with Steve assurance that he wasn't going to leave things got a little bit better. They hadn't gotten to go out on any dates since the whole debacle and it had been a whole week.
They caught a lucky break one Tuesday afternoon in mid-July. It was pretty calm for New York and Tony and Steve decided to sneak out to a little pizza shop just a block away from the tower. They were all dressed and ready to go. Steve was smiling, Tony looked happier then he had the past week. It looked to be a promising afternoon.
Too bad nobody told the God of Mischief to lay off the crazy for the day.
So… what did everyone think. Steve is a little possessive don't you think. He just wants to keep his family safe. Also, the media fucking suck. On another note, my country has a huge election next month to decide our new prim minister. So all the election signs are out on the roads and blocking traffic. YAY! I can tell you right now I absolutely hate living in the riding that I do because I can guarantee you that they're going to vote for the Conservative Party and I don't want that. I'd love to vote for the NDP but that would be throwing away my vote so I'm voting Liberal to piss off all the rich white conservatives. Gotta show them that the young voters want change and actual solutions to climate change. Well, enough ranting, I'll see you next chapter. -Shadows
