2 hours later, the two detectives hugged the very boundaries of the mattress in a desperate attempt at preventing their butts from touching. They lay facing away from each other in silence despite both being completely aware that the other was fully conscious. Neither wanted to be the first to break the silence but the tension was thick around them.
Tony felt the bed behind him shift as Steve slowly lifted his head to peer back at his colleague to determine whether Tony had fallen asleep or lying awkwardly just like himself. Steve's sigh echoed around the room, accidently amplifying the weary sound.
"You can't sleep either?" The shorter man broke out. His heart speed up slightly as he awaited a response.
There was a second of hesitation before Steve turned to face the other detective and answered, "Not really. You?"
Tony followed the man's lead and shuffled around awkwardly until he could look into the blue eyes, "I can't stop thinking about stuff. The case, the precinct, this… situation." He glanced down at the space in between them. There was hardly six inches of space separating them and making them two individual forms. Tony frowned at the direction of his thoughts and mentally pushed back against them. His feelings for Steve had been growing rapidly over the last few months but he knew that Steve could never feel the same for a jackass like him.
"This… situation isn't so bad." His eyes traced the other man's face, "At least we both… We both- Um." Steve stuttered as his eyes locked onto the way Tony's tongue darted out to moisten his lips rapidly.
Before Tony's sleep heavy brain had time to realise Steve was closing the small void between them, pressing their lips together gently. Before he had even recovered from the initial surprise Steve was already pulling back with red embarrassment tinging his cheeks.
"I am so sorry! I promise it won't-" He got interrupted by Tony's mouth on his.
Tony kissed him in the way his subconscious had been urging him to do for weeks. His passion rushed forward as the floodgates of his rational brain burst allowing his purposely repressed feelings toward his colleague came pouring out. He had been trying to dissuade himself from liking someone so inaccessible but now everything he had played down came rushing forth and fit like a puzzle.
After a minute he whispered against Steve's lips, "You should really take a guy out to dinner before getting so touchy but for you, I'll wave the rule."
Steve looked away as the heat of his embarrassment increased, turning his cheeks bright beet red, "I'm sorry. I really should have said something instead of just attacking you like that."
"Are you kidding?! That was the greatest surprise of my whole life!"
Steve couldn't help but burst out into laughter and grin ear from ear. His instantaneous panic after the kiss was beginning to melt away as he peered at Tony's reflecting smile. His underlying feelings bubbled up to that monumental moment.
"I've been waiting to do that for weeks." Steve admitted.
Tony's grin grew impossibly wider, "Good things come to those who wait!"
"Did you just call yourself a 'good-" Steve started chuckling when Tony cut him off by capturing his lips in his. Needless to say, no more talking was done for a very long time.
Steve glanced around the precinct as each detective sat at their desk typing up case results, events or just secretly browsing social media. So far only Natasha, who happened to be watching him at this very moment, seemed suspicious of what had happened between Tony and Steve during their undercover mission which had completely changed the atmosphere between them. She kept asking him questions about the task that she usually wouldn't care to ask. As he continued surveying the scene whilst trying to consider who may be suspicious, he accidently made eye contact with her again and she jerked her head towards the old case file room before stalking off. Steve recognised the signal; it was well known around the precinct that if a private conversation needed to be held then the files room was the place to hold it.
He waited a minute or so before following to reduce the blazing obviousness. Several eyes followed him across the room; these people were detectives! Of course they notice when two of their colleagues slip off into the secret-conversation room.
Natasha was somehow leaning against an unsteady box of files without knocking it off. Her arms were crossed and her brows were folded into a deep frown that he knew meant bad news for him. She definitely knew something.
"Anything eventful happen on the case?" She said, purposefully with her eyebrow risen, for what felt like the one hundredth time.
"Nat, I've already told you that nothing interesting happened."
Aside from a slight make-out session that night, he and Tony hadn't exactly confronted what had happened and now they were back to regular life it almost felt like a blurry dream that definitely didn't happen. He didn't have the guts to ask the other man about it in case he got shot down which would break his heart after he worked up all of his bravery to make the first move.
"Oh really? Because I happen to know that there was exactly one bed in the room you stayed in and judging by the sudden avoidance tactics between you two something must have happened." She watched him carefully as he began to flush a bright. Natasha's eyebrows rose until they could almost be mistaken for migrating caterpillars.
Steve knew he was about to embarrass himself but sucked it up and spoke anyway. Natasha was his closest friend in their department so if he couldn't share with her then he would have to just let it boil inside, "We may have shared a bed…" Her eyebrows rose further as she could tell there would be more, "And there may have been-"
He suddenly snapped his mouth shut as the door opened. Both detectives leapt over to a nearby pile of cases and grabbed whatever one was on top. Deputy Coulson entered, looking confused at their presence in the room, "What are you two doing in here?"
Steve was still floundering from being interrupted during his big reveal so luckily Natasha was there to step in. She lifted a file, "I needed to look back at an old case to check if it was related to the Parson case I'm looking into now. Steve said he had the case out recently so helped me find it."
Phil glanced between them suspiciously for a moment before smiling, "That's great! Don't let me disturb you." He began rummaging through files in a nearby box.
The two detectives leant their heads close together, trying to keep up the pretence while continuing their secret conversation. Phil was only a few metres from them and he definitely wouldn't be pleased to hear Steve and Tony had started making out while on a case. He also wouldn't be pleased to hear that Steve and Natasha were sneaking off to talk about it when they should definitely be working.
"So?" Nat encouraged as she flipped through some random files. He eyes scanned the irrelevant information in an impressive display of her acting skills.
"We may have kissed once… or twice… or…" He broke off as his embarrassment became debilitating, "But that was all!"
A smile ghosted across her lips and Steve could tell she was dying to say 'I told you so' as she had been claiming that Stark had a thing for him for months! She peered around to keep an eye on Coulson before whispering, "I knew something had happened! You two have been so weird around each other since coming back!"
Steve tried not to look disgruntled, "But nothing happened after that. It has just been kind of awkward since then."
"Well, maybe you need to be the one to break the ice?" Nat suggested as she shuffled the pages to pretend to be searching for a certain detail.
Steve wanted to slam his head against the wall. Surely if he pursued Tony last time then the man knows Steve is interested and therefore should be the one to act next? Steve can't even tell whether Stark likes him or was just looking for someone to mess around with. He'd always viewed the other detective as slightly promiscuous so wouldn't be surprised if the other man actually had no real interest in him.
"But I did it last time!" He moaned like a petulant child.
Natasha peered up at him in surprise, "You did?" She shook her head, "I always assumed Tony would make the first move since you were denying the fact you had chemistry!"
Coulson was beginning to look over at them suspiciously so they swiftly closed the fake searching-through-files task and retreated back to their desks. Steve felt like Natasha had so many more questions to ask though so he would probably be called back in the room within the next few hours. As they left, however, a thought arose to the man and he turned to her to ask,
"How did you even know there was only one bed?" Steve asked as the realisation dawned on him.
She shot him a mischievous smile, "I went there two hours before and took the other one away. It was about time you two got a push in the right direction." With that she strode away leaving him gobsmacked in the middle of the precinct.
