Disclaimer - I own nothing you recognise.

Challenges listed at the bottom.

Word Count - 1276

Fic Detail - SteveTony, Fluff

Beta'd By Amber

All The Cuddles Are Necessary

Even in his lab, he could hear the thunder rolling overhead. Tony hated thunderstorms. Unless they were conjured by Thor, but since he was pretty sure that Thor was still on Asgard, this was just a regular old thunderstorm.

He felt a shiver run down his back and threw his screwdriver on the desk in disgust. He wasn't going to get any work done when half of his attention was being used counting elephants to work out how close the storm was.

Leaving his lab, he walked up the many—many—staircases to the Avenger's floor just below the penthouse. Usually, he'd use the elevator, but in the middle of a thunderstorm, that was just asking for trouble… even if the tower was running on arc reactor technology.

Nobody ever said fear was logical, okay?

By the time he made it to the shared living area, he was out of breath and panting slightly. Only Steve was in the living room, but since Steve was the one Tony was looking for, it all worked out.

He slumped down on the sofa beside his boyfriend and then slid sideways until his head was resting comfortably on Steve's knee. Steve looked down at him with a fond smile.

"Not enjoying the thunderstorm, Sweetheart?"

"No," Tony grumbled. "It's distracting me."

Steve chuckled, stroking his hand through Tony's hair before he lifted it to turn the page of the book he was reading.

"Enjoying Harry Potter?" Tony asked, shifting slightly to look at the cover to see which book he was up to.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

"Hmm, it's good. I'm not sure about this book, Dumbledore is being shady."

"Dumbledore is shady, Sugarplum."

"I liked him up to this point," Steve replied with a small shrug.

Tony sat up and scowled. "How? How do you, Mr All-Things-Fair-and-Righteous, like Dumbledore?! He's a really shit human being when you look at all his machinations, and his favouritism and his—"

"Tony—"

"Like, ten million points for Gryffinpuff! Fuck you, snake, Gryffinpuff wins! It ain't good form, you know?"

"Tony—" Steve tried again, but this time he was laughing too hard to even try and continue.

Tony glared at him for a moment before he gave in and chuckled himself. "Can you tell I have a lot of feelings about this?"

Steve nodded. "I, uh. Yeah, I can see that. He reminds me of you, you know?"

The look of offence was so clear on Tony's face that Steve started laughing again. "I don't have a narcissistic deity complex! How am I anything like him, oh my god, Steve, I thought you loved me!"

"I mean more like, he seems to be thinking of the bigger plan, and the bigger picture, and you do that," Steve explained, and Tony settled a little, flopping back down on Steve's legs.

"When you're done reading, we'll binge the movies," he murmured, pressing his face against Steve's stomach. "You'll like them."

"I'm sure I will."

In his disbelief, Tony had mostly forgotten about the thunderstorm, but a particularly loud rumble sounded and made him jump. Steve soothed him with a large hand in his hair, and slowly, Tony relaxed properly.

It didn't take long before he fell asleep.

…

"Feed me or I'll die," Tony whined, sprawled on the sofa.

Steve had woken him up twenty minutes ago so he could go and start dinner, but the open plan living area meant that Tony could still whine at him without having to actually move.

"I'm sure you'll manage ten more minutes," Steve replied, grinning over the breakfast bar. "Why don't you read me the end of the chapter I was on?"

Tony picked the book up and saw which chapter Steve was reading, then shook his head. "No, I'm good. You can, uh, read it later."

He wouldn't be the monster that let Steve find out Sirius died. No Sir.

Instead, he rolled onto his stomach and reached for the TV remote, flipping through the channels lazily. As soon as the food was done, Steve fetched it over, handing Tony a steaming bowl of pasta.

"Do you mind if I keep reading?" he asked, sitting down beside Tony. "I'm almost at the end of this book."

Tony shrugged. "You do you, Boo."

He was too invested in eating to be offended that Steve would rather read than converse with Tony. Besides, Tony figured that Steve would need all the cuddles once he finished that book, so it would even out before the end of the night.

…

"It's surprisingly emotional, considering it's supposed to be a book series for children," Steve said, later that night.

He'd surprised Tony by not crying when Sirius died—Tony himself couldn't say the same but whatever, nobody needed to know about that—but had accepted all the cuddles anyway.

"I think, as much as she started it for children, it didn't really stay that way? I mean, most of the fans literally grew up with Harry."

"I wouldn't have thought you'd enjoy it," Steve admitted, running his hand up and down Tony's spine, pausing to massage occasionally.

Tony shrugged. "I read the first one because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I mean, obviously you didn't see it, but the world literally fell into Potter madness as the books progressed. And then the movies came out, and I have a thing about reading books before watching the movies."

Steve nodded, because he knew that. Tony still hadn't watched the Twilight movies because he refused to read the books, despite Clint making Steve sit through the movies twice.

Tony declared Twilight the worst, because he'd heard about the sparkly vampires, and insisted that he very much was not interested. He'd heard enough to never want to traumatise himself.

Which, Steve couldn't deny, was probably fair. For a 'soulless monster' Edward was a whiny shit.

"What house do you think you'd be in?"

Tony shrugged. "I don't think that I belong in any single house, same way for everyone really. There's so much overlap… I mean, I understood the sorting for plot purposes but… that shit wouldn't fly in the real world."

"No?"

Frowning, Tony shook his head. "Of course not. Take yourself for example. You're brave and bold, which makes you a Gryffindor, but you're also a crafty shit, and you have proved yourself ambitious when you wouldn't give up on the army, so that's Slytherin. You're hard working and super loyal, so Hufflepuff, and you're not exactly a slouch in the brains department, Spangles, so you'd fit in well with Ravenclaw. It's… a plot device, sure, but put it to the test and it doesn't actually make much sense."

"You've put a lot of thought into this," Steve murmured, pressing a kiss to Tony's temple. "But you're right. It doesn't make much sense."

"Are you reading anymore tonight?" Tony asked, stretching as he yawned.

Steve shook his head. "Nah. I think I'll call it a night. I'll read the next one on the weekend, if we've got no plans."

"Hmm. Can't promise the villains of New York will take your reading plans into consideration, but as far as I know we have nothing on. Maybe next weekend, you'll be ready to watch the movies with me."

Steve nodded and settled down, tugging Tony close. "Sounds like a plan. Love you."

Tony snuggled closer still. While Steve hadn't cried over Sirius, there was still Hedwig, and Fred, and oh god, Dobby. He had a feeling that his boyfriend would need all the snuggles over the weekend.

And if he didn't… well. Tony would demand them anyway.

Written for:

Disney, D3 - "It ain't good form, you know?"

Space, 7. (action) Eating

Book Club - Alyssa Gardner: (word) test, (dialogue) "Feed me or I'll die.", (word) madness

Attic - 21. "Ten million points for Gryffinpuff! Fuck you, snake. Gryffinpuff wins."

Scamander - (word) Soulless

Basement - 7. Thunderstorm

Film Festival - 26. "I don't have a narcissistic deity complex."

Galleon Club - Thunderstorm

365. 293. Emotional