3: The One With The Holiday
Unsurprisingly, Tony had taken Steve's words of "different route" the wrong way. As he sat in front of his laptop later that day, he'd found what he believed to be the perfect gift for Clint; after all, the man had frequently said he'd love to go to Africa for a holiday. So that's exactly what Tony found.
A holiday in Africa.
Nothing more…
—LINE BREAK—
"Tony…I've just found a curious email stating that you have booked a trip to Seychelles. In March. Explain." Came Pepper's stern voice as she entered the workshop,
"Well, Clint's been a little unhappy with my gifts so Steve said that I should take a 'different route' and here we are."
"You took 'different route' as a holiday?"
"Well, material gifts weren't working and I remembered that Clint said he had never been to Africa and really wanted to go someday. I repeat, here we are."
"Tony, I'm not sure about this. I don't think when he said Africa, he meant there."
"Why wouldn't he? Have you seen the pictures, Pep? It's gorgeous and also I've never been and I really want to go so it's the destination." The red-haired CEO sighed,
"Just… don't get your hopes up. Okay?" He shrugged not understanding what the big deal was,
"Sure."
—LINE BREAK—
Later that evening, Clint and Tony lay in bed lazing in each other's embrace; Tony's head rested against Clint's chest, his fingers running up and down the naked torso in a soothing motion whilst the archer, perched up ever so slightly on his pillows, ran a gentle hand through Tony's hair and down his arm ever so often.
"So you know how you've always wanted to go to Africa?" Tony started, his fingers never faltering as they moved even as he felt Clint tense up,
"Yeah…" He drawled nervously,
"Well, I had a look online and I've booked us a holiday to Seychelles in March. High season and all that. We're going to the North Island I believe," He continued talking, oblivious to Clint's reaction; his body stiff as a board and the hand that had been in his hair now clenched in a fist, the archer had only just managed to move his hand from the curly brown locks before it had tightened, saving the genius from his hair being painfully tugged,
"Hmm…" Clint hummed in annoyance but still Tony didn't pick up on it as he spoke, merely taking it as Clint signalling that he was listening,
"It's for ten nights; I'll send you the itinerary, but basically we spend the first five nights on the main island of Mahe and we can go explore the capital -Victoria. I looked up some things to do there and I thought you'd be interested in the many many walk trails they have there. And of course, the beaches.
"Then the other five nights are spent on the North Island in one of the villas. There's scuba diving, surfing and a bunch of other water activities that I know you'll be interested in, along with yoga classes, which I look forward to. We can also go cycling and explore the island. It'll be fun!"
"How much did it come to, Tony? Clint asked and only then did Tony notice the tension radiating off of his partner as his voice came out strained with anger,
"Umm, well it's more in the high season compared to the low season, but it was $31,400 per person so it came to $62,800. It's all-inclusive though if that's what you're worried about." He answered honestly despite his confusion at the question. Before he knew what was happening, Clint was roughly pushing away from him and leaving the bed, Tony fell into the spot that Clint had been in and sat up quickly as he watched his partner stalk out of the room in anger, ignoring Tony's confused calls.
—LINE BREAK—
A few minutes passed before he threw back the covers and rushed after Clint, his AI informing him that he was standing on the communal floor balcony.
And he was. Clint stood there bare-chested as the wind ruffled his hair. The night was cold, Tony thought as he wrapped his arms around himself, and Clint was no doubt frozen like a certain Captain once was.
"Clint?" He called questioningly as he walked closer to his partner-of-sorts, "what's wrong? I don't understand what happened." Tony reached out and placed his hand on Clint's stiff shoulder, he was somehow surprised when the archer didn't shove him away,
"You never do." Clint snarled, which made Tony step away at the anger in his voice,
"I'm guessing you're upset about the holiday…"
"No shit, Sherlock," he snorted bitterly,
"Umm…" Tony became unsure of himself and he wrapped his arms around himself, "is it because the holiday isn't where you want to go? I…I suppose it isn't exactly the main sort of area of Africa, but it is on the continent… would…would you rather go someplace else? Because I can and will rebook if you'd like me to."
"God, Tony, you really don't get it, do you?"
"I-"
"Just… leave me alone," Clint caught the hurt look that flashed across Tony's face before quickly vanishing, "please." Tony just nodded, his throat tight as he turned and walked back inside,
"Don't…" He paused just as his hand grabbed the door handle, "don't stay out too long, you'll catch a cold." Either Clint didn't reply or Tony didn't hear it as he walked inside seconds after he spoke.
—LINE BREAK—
Believing himself to be alone in his workshop, he sat there on his stool, curled in on himself as much as one could on such a seat; he willed away the tears that threatened to break free, sniffling every few seconds.
"Tony?" The calm yet questioning voice startled the genius, sending him to the floor in a sprawled out position as he stared up at his perceived 'attacker'.
"Bruce?"
"Yeah, it's me." His science-bro held out his hand and helped Tony, "what's wrong, Tony?"
"Nothing," he muttered, wiping at his eyes as a few tears escaped,
"I can see that."
"I…I just don't seem to be doing anything right with Clint, I bought him some new clothes -sure he only needed a suit for that gala thing, but he got pretty annoyed with that. Then I bought him this watch that he really liked and some cufflinks that he liked or I thought he might like, but it turns out that I got something wrong there -I think maybe I might've mixed like for dislike. Now I've got him and I some tickets for a holiday to Africa, which is a place he has told me many a time that he'd really like to go. I just… I don't get what I'm doing wrong. I'm trying so hard and I keep screwing things up," he sniffled and wiped at his eyes again, "like I always do."
Amongst the Avengers, barring Tony, they had all come to the conclusion that Tony barely ever received affection when he was growing up and even as an adult, he only received it from a select few people -according to Rhodey, he was the first person to hug the boy and mean it. So when Tony was upset (or just in general, the man deserves all the love in the world according to literally every single person in his inner circle), it's simple. You hug him.
And that's what Bruce did; he wrapped his arms around the genius, who despite being one inch taller (a fact that Tony revelled in), curled himself into his friend's chest and made himself look so much smaller than he already was. Bruce placed his chin on top of the genius soft brown locks and whispered reassurances as he ran his hand up and down his friend's back comfortingly.
"It'll be alright, Tony."
Here's my Tumblr if you're interested, it also has the story collages: anxious- - -soul (no spaces between the dashes, this site sucks and wouldn't allow them without spaces).
Anyway,
Thank you for reading,
Hope you enjoyed this,
Please review,
No hate -don't like, don't read
Bye~