For Tony Stark the smell of a hospital was somewhat like an itch that just couldn't be scratched; it was hugely annoying and wouldn't leave until you dealt with it. That's without mentioning how the smell would often draw his mind away from whatever topic he was ruminating over at that particular moment: usually something related to the latest case he was working on. Luckily for Stark, however, his father had been a famous inventor so his inheritance ensured that he could usually have at home doctor's visits or medical care. He wasn't rich but was wealthy enough for luxuries such as that.
The corridors were humming with life as Tony rushed his way passed medical interns jointly hovering over a clipboard, patients walking shakily after surgery or illness and relatives sat white as ghosts along the walls of the corridors which were lined with seats like an extremely long dentist waiting room. Exactly the same but with the anxiety levels ramped up to about 100. This was a bit more than a routine root canal.
He stumbled upon the room almost by accident as the detective had been more than convinced he'd taken the wrong left somewhere along the line in this maze of a building. He had mentally prepared himself for half a day lost in just trying to navigate before he finally lost his wits and surrendered to the knowledge of the medical staff bustling by. He wanted to wait until the last moment though as he wasn't a quitter and wasn't about to become one.
He hesitated with one hand against the cold metal of the door in a mental conflict he was sure the hospital had witnessed many times. But for Stark, it wasn't death or illness that lay behind the door but rather a pissed off colleague that he liked more than he wanted to admit but didn't know how to pacify. Surely, this blunder, worse than all the rest, couldn't be rectified by someone as socially inept as Tony Stark. All he knew was that he wouldn't be willing to forgive quickly if the roles were reversed. Although, Steve had always been the more moral of the two and usually took the higher ground. By the time he had actually convinced himself to enter the room he was half sold on the idea that maybe it should be Steve apologising to him but even he could tell that was his usual behaviour of trying to back out of every awkward social setting in which he couldn't use defensive humor coming into play.
"Tony?" Steve asked in a confused tone.
Stark froze in a moment of blind panic as subconsciously he had hoped that Steve would still be under sedation from the operation to remove the bullet from his side. At least nobody was here to revel in Stark's awkwardness for the next few minutes.
"Uh, yeah… I came to visit our brave and gallant hero!" He exclaimed in an unconvincing tone of enthusiasm.
"Tony, I've been in the hospital before and Nat was the only one to visit. What's different now?" The raise of his eyebrow brushed a sense of guilt onto Tony's conscious. Despite them being equals in position Tony had always felt like Steve was destined to be a captain and therefore somehow deserved more respect than himself.
"Okay, look. Jokes aside. I just came to say I'm sorry. We should have said that stuff about you being uptight and a prude. And I, especially, shouldn't have jumped on the bandwagon before I really knew anything about you." His eyes glazed over the contents of the room, hesitant to face the unforgiving stare Steve was probably shooting his way. The man would be rightfully furious at Tony still. This wasn't something he could see Steve just glossing over. The idea that he had hurt Steve made a flood of guilt wash over him and a frown creased his brow as he considered how he had never really considered his colleague's feelings until recently. Now he suddenly couldn't stop worrying about the other man.
The bright, mega-watt smile was implied in Steve's tone and caused the guilty party to lift his head slowly, "Look, Stark. What you guys did really hurt me but I accept your apology and want to thank you for coming all this way to see me."
The smile made his stomach clench slightly as Steve rarely displayed such a charming and light-hearted grin around him. He felt himself flush as Rogers continued staring at him with soft eyes.
"Anyway!" Tony called significantly too loudly for the silent room, "I hope you heal up soon and manage to get back to the precinct before long… Okay. Okay, then. Bye" He garbled out his sentence as he backed out the doors without giving Steve even a second to piece together another sentence.
As soon as he had fled from the room Natasha popped up from the other side of the bed where she'd been hiding on the floor. She placed the spoon, which is what she originally ducked down to get, back on the side table beside the orange jello. Her glare was pretty severe as Nat crossed her arms and tutted at him reproachfully.
"I told you he definitely has a thing for you. He was a bumbling mess when talking to you!"
"I still don't see it? He's always been a ladies man." He peered after the still slightly swinging door reflectively.
They suddenly jumped as the silence of the room was harshly disrupted by the nurse bustling in with his latest dose of pain killers. His bright smile and conversation dissipated the heavy atmosphere of the room and allowed Steve to shake off these bizarre thoughts about his co-worker and place them, once again, to the back of his mind.
Natasha was in a bad mood. Not only did she have 4 more weeks before the only person she actually liked in this precinct returned from his recovery but also her case had essentially gone belly up as she had wasted so much time following a false lead. It wasn't easy to make Natasha Romanov feel like the fool but these crooks had successfully done so. She directed her scowl at her dark coffee as she leant against the counter in the break room. Little did she know her day was about to be made significantly brighter by hearing a single piece of information.
"Detective." Tony greeted stonily as he passed her to reach the coffee pot. He'd been trying out the new technique of acting as she did towards him until she was forced to break her icy exterior and be friendly towards him. So far, 5 weeks in, it had gone largely unnoticed by her. "How is detective Rogers?"
She peered at him over the rim of her 'world's best detective' mug, "You know where he lives. Why don't you go and ask him yourself." It was a question but was posed as a definite statement.
Tony's shoulders sagged low as he breathed out slowly, "I don't know… It's Steve."
"And?"
"I wanted to go but I don't know if he'd appreciate my visit… He's so much better than me." If being stoic wouldn't work then he'd have to attempt sharing his feelings and being friendly to her in order to break her cold exterior.
She had to physically restrain herself from rolling her eyes, "I'm pretty sure Steve would be more than happy to see you."
"Really? Well, I guess I wouldn't blame him. If you go too long without seeing this face you get withdrawal symptoms." He chuckled lightly but his dark eyes traced the lines in between the tiles on the floor. Over the years he'd become proficient in the art of disguising his emotions but sometimes, when his brain was working double pace, a slight twitch of the mouth or eye would give him away. He shifted his stance.
"Well," Natasha hesitated, considering Steve's privacy and state of recovery, "You know where he lives." She stated before striding off to her next task.
As it happened, Tony did not actually know where Steve lived but thank the Gods for their extensive employee database he had access to.
