"Sir, you have been in the lab for sixty-seven hours, if you do not leave soon, I will be forced to ask Captain Rogers to come fetch you," Jarvis warns, his robotic tones laced with worry.
Tony grunts, drumming his fingers on the table, clicking his pen absently. The words on the paper were blurred and had long since lost their meaning. He blinks rapidly in an attempt to absorb the information but to no avail.
He sighs. Knowing that he wouldn't get anything more done today regardless, he pushes away from the desk and rolls his chair over to the lab door, he stands, making his way to the elevator "Penthouse, J," he calls out as steps in.
As the elevator ascends, Tony slumps against the wall, sighing. He rubs a hand over his face, yawning. How long had it been since he last slept? The elevator doors open, and he steps through, blinking dumbly at who was sitting on his couch.
Steve looks up from his sketch pad, a tiny smile playing at his lips "Hey Tony. Y'alright?"
Tony smiles, deciding to worry about why Steve was hanging out in Tony's apartment after he'd slept. He walks up to the couch and plops down, bouncing slightly on the springy cushions, "M'fine Sunshine. Just a bit tired," he murmurs, head lolling onto Steve's shoulder.
Steve sits up a bit straighter, slinging an arm around Tony's shoulders "Then you should get some sleep, Tones."
Tony hums, eyelids fluttering shut "You wish..." he mumbles, trailing off.
###
Steve sighs fondly as Tony snores softly "Oh, Tony," he murmurs exasperatedly.
He waits awhile before lifting Tony up bridal-style and carrying him off to his bedroom.
Carefully, he lowers Tony onto the bed, shaking his head at him in disbelief. Tony had been in the lab sixty-seven hours, and Steve had been beginning to wonder if he was ever to re-surface. How the man does this shit all the time and still remains functional was beyond him.
Steve smiles fondly at the sleeping engineer, sighing "You sure are something, Tony," he murmurs, smoothing the genius' hair back.
He hangs his head, pulling his hand back. Sighing, he moves to the door. He looks back, hand on the doorframe, smilies sadly, and switches the light off, closing the door silently behind him.
Steve gathers up his things. He had been drawing the night-time skyline from Tony's apartment and was definitely not using it as an excuse to make sure Tony got to bed.
He takes the elevator back to his floor, fishing around for his keys. He looks down at them, smiling at the Iron Man key-charm that Tony had gotten him for Christmas.
The sound of the elevator doors opening brings him out of his thoughts. He sighs, moving to unlock his apartment door.
Number 1918. Tony thought he was funny (he was right, but Steve wasn't about to admit that.).
He walks into the room, tossing his keys in their bowl and placing his art supplies onto his desk. He slumps down onto his couch, head in his hands.
"You really ought to just tell him, Steve."
Steve jumps, his head snapping up and eyes locking with Bucky's, who was sitting solemnly in his armchair, gazing at him with concern.
"Jesus fuck, Bucky! What the hell?!" Steve shouts, eyes wide. He clears his throat, remembering the late hour, "Why are you sitting in the dark in my apartment?" He hisses, glaring.
Bucky shrugs, leaning back casually in Steve's fucking chair "Didn't know how else to breach the subject," he says with a cocky tilt of his head "Besides," he begins, producing a key-ring from god knows where "you gave me a key."
Steve sputters "If I'd known you were going to break into my apartment at three am, I wouldn't have!"
Bucky waves his hand flippantly "That's nice to know, Stevie. Now," he slaps his hands on this thighs, "back to talking about your crush."
Steve blinks "I'm sorry?"
"Your 'crush,'" Bucky repeats, air quotes and all, "If you can even call it that anymore."
Steve frowns, opening his mouth to ask Bucky what the hell he was talking about. Then it hits him. Bucky knows. Shit.
Steve clears his throat "I don't know what you're talking about." he says dismissively.
Bucky narrows his eyes "Bullshit" he grunts "You know damn well what I'm talking about, Steve."
"I don't think that I do?" He says with a grimace.
Bucky gives him a flat look, raising a single eyebrow.
Steve glares at him "What do you want, Buck?" He asks coolly.
"What do I want?" Bucky growls. He stands and stalks over to Steve "I want you to stop being an idiot and tell him."
Steve shrugs, looking away "Tell who what?" He asks casually, leaning back.
Bucky sighs. He crouches down, glaring at Steve with his icy blue eyes "Tell Tony that you're in love with him" he says simply.
Steve sputters, trying to ignore the pink building in his cheeks, "I am not in love with Tony!" He hisses, "We're friends and that's it!"
Bucky takes a deep breath, holding up a hand "Steve," he begins, sitting next to him "Denying it won't stop me from knowing. In fact, it won't stop anyone from knowing"
Steve blinks "What d'ya mean?" He asks, looking anywhere but Bucky.
The ex-assassin laughs "Stevie, the only person who doesn't know how you feel about Tony, is Tony" he tells him, clapping him on the shoulder "You don't need to hide, Steve. It's a new century, people have evolved,"
Steve sighs exhaustedly. Fuck it, looks like he's talking about his feelings now. That isn't too bad, considering its Bucky, but still. "I know that, Buck," he says with a roll of his eyes, frowning "it's just..." he shrugs weakly "What if he doesn't... feel the same way?" He croaks, looking to his friend.
Bucky smiles, "I find that unlikely, but even still, fortune favours the bold, don't it?" he says, "You'll never know if you don't try, and we're all routin' for you, Steve... all you gotta do is tell him."
Steve presses his lips together, looking at the floor "Easier said than done, Buck..."
Bucky shrugs, standing "Everything is, Stevie"
###
The next few weeks were torture, pure and simple. It was mostly him trying to work up the courage to confess his feelings to Tony, while the other man carried on like nothing was wrong which is a lie. He would pat Steve on the shoulder, and talk to him in the hallways, and fucking smile at him, which was totally unfair because that smile did things to Steve and he was trying to figure out how you tell your close friend of many years that you're madly in love with him.
He had thought he'd just out and say it, like ripping off a bandaid. But... the time was never right, ether someone else was in the room, or Tony was busy, or Steve just froze up and retreated. He was beginning to think he should just bottle his feelings up for the rest of his life and be happy with Tony as a friend.
Bucky kept giving him pep talks whenever they were alone together, words of encouragement when training, thumbs-ups in the halls... Steve had to admit, it was helping, but not much, and there were only so many times you could hear 'You've got this buddy,' before you felt like punching something.
Soon, Bucky, the dickhead, had gotten Clint and Nat on the bandwagon of him and Tony getting together, and the two of them encouraged him in some... unique ways.
Clint would give him a cookie every time Steve managed to interact with Tony, which seemed to confuse the billionaire, as Clint would keep coming up to them when they were in the middle of a conversation and force a pastry into Steve's hand. This was slightly embarrassing but worth it, the cookies were delicious. Damn Barton and his baking talent.
Nat, on the other hand, would sabotage his equipment so he would have to go to Tony for repairs, which only caused Tony to go off on multiple rants about the unlikelihood of Clint targeting Steve so much. Not exactly the most romantic setting.
It wasn't much longer before Thor and Bruce joined the club. This was terrifying because now they were working as a team.
The Captain part of him wanted to be proud, his team were all working together to achieve a common goal. The Steve part of him, however, was mortified. This wasn't some alien invasion they were dealing with, where the only stakes were injury and death -possibly on a massive scale-, this was his relationship with someone he really fucking cared about that they were meddling in and he really didn't want it to fuck up.
During movie nights, because they were assholes, they would arrange themselves so that Steve and Tony had no choice but to sit next to each other. This was actually quite annoying because Steve would be distracted the whole movie by Tony's presence.
This was fine and harmless, but Steve was beginning to get really fed up with the antics of his teammates...
###
Steve stormed down the stairs, working his jaw. Clint had just thrown a cookie at him from across the room -like it was a god damn frisbee- after he and Tony had gone to get snacks for the movie.
This was the fifth time today that Clint had thrown a pastry at him, and he'd just about had it.
Angry, he had told them that he had a headache and that he wanted to go lie down, and then he'd walked through the door to the stairwell, not having wanted to deal with the elevator.
Most of his anger had drained by the time he'd reached the landing for his floor. Scanning his ID card with a bit more force than necessary, he walks through the door.
He stops at his apartment door, resting his head against the wood with a sigh.
"Why does this have to be so hard?" He murmurs.
"Why does what have to be so hard?"
He jumps a little, eyes jumping over to the man leaning against the staircase door.
Tony frowns, looking concerned "I came to see if you needed anything, you left kinda quick back there" he inclines his head behind him.
Steve swallows, straightening up "N-no, I'm fine, Tony," he says hastily, smiling reassuringly "Just a headache, I'll be fine after I've slept"
Tony walks a few paces closer to him "You sure you're okay, Cap? You've been a bit... jumpy, these last few weeks"
Now was the perfect opportunity. C'mon, Rogers, just say 'Actually Tony, I wanted to talk to you about something'
Steve smiles falsely, "Yeah, no, I'm good," he says, heart sinking a little "Its just, uh, nerves s'all," he continues with a shrug.
Tony's brow furrows, the brunet walking the last few strides up to him. Steve could smell his aftershave. "Steve, you've all been really weird these last couple of months. Clint keeps giving you cookies and breaking your equipment, Thor's been stocking the pantry with Asgardian mead, Bruce has been locking me out of the lab because I don't 'talk to the team enough'," he rolls his eyes at that, "'Tasha has been shockingly behaved and that in and of itself is concerning..." he trails off with a tsk. His eyes meet Steve's, looking hurt and confused "Is something going on?"
Steve closes his eyes, hanging his head, "They're just trying to be helpful," he mutters, and he's not sure if he's assuring Tony or himself of that. He opens his eyes but keeps them fixed on his shoes, "In their own way..."
"Helpful? What are they helping with?" Tony asks, sounding very confused.
Steve bites his lip, leaning his shoulder against his door "They're, uh, t-trying to get me to ask someone out..." he says, rubbing the back is his neck. Smooth, Steve.
Steve hopes his blush isn't too noticeable, but he knows by now that with his stupid Irish complexion he was probably red as a cherry.
"Oh?" Tony asks hesitantly, "Why are they, um, helping you with that?" He asks.
Steve shrugs, building up the courage to look Tony in the eye. He does so, clearing his throat, "I really like this person, a-and I'm afraid they don't feel the same way. The others have been egging me on for months," he finishes his mini-ramble with a lame shrug.
The brunet nods slowly, "Right..." his voice sounds oddly thick, "Do I, uh, know this person?"
Steve looks back to his feet "I'd assume so..." he mutters, stomach twisting in knots.
"Why's that?" Tony asks curiously, sounding almost choked-up.
Steve mumbles something under his breath, shrugging. Please don't ask, please don't ask, please don't-
"What was that? My hearing isn't what it used to be," the billionaire says with a faint chuckle.
"S'cause it's you..." Steve mumbles. He hunches his shoulders a bit, really wishing he'd just stayed upstairs. Damn Barton and his flying cookies.
"M-me?" Tony asks weakly.
Steve nods a bit, shifting on his feet "Yeah," he croaks, biting his lip. God, is he seriously about to cry? C'mon, get it together, Rogers!
He takes a deep breath, squaring his shoulders up and looking Tony in the eye, "If you want we can just pretend this never happe-" he begins, though he was cut off by Tony holding up a hand. He swallows.
"No no no- I'm gonna stop you right there- I very much do not want to just forget about this," he says, pocketing his hand.
Steve sighs, rubbing his eyes tiredly "Look, I get it, Tony. You're not interested. But I really don-"
"Who told you that?" Tony cuts him off, eyes flashing in challenge.
"Told me what?" Steve asks, frowning.
"That I'm not interested,"
Steve blinks, furrowing his brow "No one told me," he says.
Tony nods, "Exactly,"
He shifts on his feet again, "I-I don't see where you're going with this..." he says quietly, hardly daring to hope.
Tony steps a bit closer to him, almost brushing up against him, "Well Steve, you know what they say about assuming things..." he says quietly "But there's really no need to assume because I assure you," he leans up to whisper in Steve's ear "I am very interested,"
Steve swallows, his heart skipping a beat. Holy shit. "Yeah?" he chokes out, eyes wide.
"Oh yeah," Tony murmurs, wrapping an arm around Steve's shoulders and pulling down a bit. He leans up, and Steve meets him half-way.
The kiss is chaste, slow, just a gentle press of their lips, but no less perfect. Steve let Tony lead, as he really wasn't sure what he was doing, and he put his hand on Tony's waist.
Tony pulls back, smiling slightly "Glad I came down here," he murmurs "Speaking of which, do you actually have a headache?"
Steve blinks at the sudden change of subject, still a bit shellshocked. He clears his throat, struggling to contain his grin "No. I was just tired of Clint turning pastries into projectiles"
Tony snorts "D'you want to go back upstairs?"
"Not particularly... do you?" Steve asks, leaning down to kiss him again because apparently, that's something he could do now.
Tony hums against his lips, "Let me think..." he murmurs, looking off at the side with a thoughtful expression "Uhhh nope," he declares cheerily, grinning.
Steve giggles, a dopey smile on his face "Me neither," he says, kissing Tony again, just because he can.
Suddenly, a thought occurs to him, and he pulls away, Tony's arms falling from his shoulders.
"What is it?" Tony asks, worried.
"I just realized that we're never gonna hear the end of this," Steve informs, and lets out a dramatic sigh, "Our lives from this point onwards will be filled with relentless teasing and an absence of bird-shaped cookies,"
Tony laughs jovially, kissing his cheek "God, you're such a dork," he says.
"You love me for it," Steve comments offhandedly.
"Yeah, I do,"
Steve blinks at Tony in shock.
Tony tenses up and gulps, "Er- I mean-"
Steve grins, "I love you too, you dork,"
Tony looks up at him and grins, his shoulders relaxing. "Drats, you've foiled me once again, Captain America!" He declares playfully.
Steve gives him a flat look, "See? Dork." He says fondly, booping Tony's nose, who screws it up and then tries to bite Steve's finger.
"You're mean," Tony complains without any heat.
"If I were mean, would I invite you into my apartment?" Steve wonders, opening the door without looking.
"Why, Captain," Tone begins, scandalized, "are you propositioning me?"
Steve grins salaciously "Why yes, Mr. Stark, I am," he declares, putting on his best old-timy radio voice "would you care to join me in the throws of premarital hand-holding?"
Tony gasps, clutching his pearls "A sin!"
"We're all sinners here, dollface," he says with a wink, "Time to get with the program,"
Tony bites back a smile "Is that an order, Captain?"
Steve holds out his hand, backing into his apartment "Yes," he drawls, wriggling his fingers.
Tony giggles, taking his hand "You're ridiculous," he says, closing the door behind them.
"I get it from you."