a ghost's endeavour
by himynameisvaleria
*the chapter in which shit kind of goes down.
4.
"Where did you learn to fuck like that?" he asked, still breathless when he collapsed on the bed next to her.
She chuckled, and shrugged, half high on the feeling of him on her, "University."
He shook his head. "I just slept with a nineteen year old."
"Well, at least you can say that as an accomplishment. I just fucked a forty-year old man—actually, I can't say anything, I slept with Tony Stark. I fucked Iron Man—fuck."
He rolled on his side to look at her. "Really," he scrutinised her, "who are you? And how did you meet Rogers?"
Hayley leaned back, arms tucked behind her head comfortably as she looked at the ceiling. "I'm just a Literature major who bumped into Steve Rogers in the hallway without realising he was Cap," and then she turned back to him, and continued, "who am I? I was really hoping someone else would tell me."
"Why did you sleep with me? You clearly have no feelings for me," he shook his head, and then added quickly, "not that I do."
She laughed. "Do you think there's much of a difference between men and women, Stark? You're attractive and I haven't had sex in a while, that's it."
He waited.
Hayley was silent, knowing that he was clearly waiting for further explanation.
He finally spoke up. "Bullshit, Hayley Song."
Another minute of silence.
"Because you're an asshole and you remind me of my ex, Stark, it doesn't get any more honest than that."
"Rebound? I'm a rebound?" he seemed irritated, but in a playful, non-serious way. "No way. Kid, do you know who I am? I'm Tony Stark, playboy, billionaire, genius—"
"Philanthropist, yeah, I've heard that come out from Steve—sarcastically—many times," she grinned. "But hey, that's the cold, hard truth, old man, you're rebound guy number two."
His eyes further widened, and sat up straddling her, "You've got to be kidding me. Number two?"
Hayley shrugged, still grinning, "Sorry."
"Ouch, my ego just took a hit," he commented, before kissing her lightly again, and getting up.
"Mind if I stay here tonight? I'll clear out tomorrow morning," she called out as he grabbed his clothes and started to leave.
"No worries, kid, just… be gentle with Steve, okay?" he turned around, his eyes a different shade of serious. "He doesn't need his heart broken."
The smile faded off her face. "He means a lot to me, Tony. I'm not going to hurt him—not if I can help it," she said firmly, internally wincing at the way she was speaking, acknowledging that her words were echoing what had once been a promise to herself.
"Good. Make sure he knows that."
And then just as he was about to close the door, he turned back again.
"Oh, one more thing. We're good, right? Like, we can still have conversations and grab lunch without awkward silences?"
Hayley chuckled, "Oh, that's one of my favourite pastimes—pretending nothing happened."
And then she turned on her side and fell into a content sleep.
"Miss Song, I have been told to inform you of Mr Roger's presence in the Tower."
Hayley was brushing her teeth when the voice rang out. She jumped, nearly swallowed the bubbling toothpaste, and recovered enough to reply, "Who the fuck?"
"My name is Jarvis, I am Mr Stark's AI."
"Shit," she spit out the toothpaste and washed her face quickly, "Okay, would you tell him that he's a bastard and he better pray that there are no cameras installed in the room or the bathroom?"
"Will do, Miss Song."
Sighing, she left her face bare and went on to slip into her clothes from yesterday, before asking the AI to guide her out of the building with the intention of not crossing paths with the supersoldier. And then when finally she had made it out of the building, she breathed a sigh of relief and headed back to her dorm.
. . .
The dial tone had been going on for almost a minute and she was getting borderline irritated. Steve had been ignoring her calls for two days, and she knew that it could be a long mission, but her brain was telling her that she had fucked up by sleeping with Tony Stark.
Anyhow, whether she had slept with Tony Stark gave Steve Rogers no right to cold shoulder her without so much as an explanation, so she decided to get mad at him when (if) he eventually called back.
In the middle of doing research, her phone rang and the Doctor Who theme song started playing.
"Hello," she barked sullenly.
"Hey, kiddo, Steve's phone keeps ringing and he's not answering—the guy does not know that silent mode exists. Anyway, is it you?"
Hayley sighed. "Yeah, but it's all right because I'm now pissed off at him too."
Stark laughed. "Okay, well, Happy is coming to pick you up, we're going to fix it."
Her eyebrows rose up to her forehead and she wished that he could see her incredulity right now. "Are you serious? Stark, we're friends, I'm allowed to sleep with whoever I want and he isn't supposed to get angry about it. This is ridiculous."
"Okay, so go yell at him," he said casually, "but you need to see each other if you still care about him."
"Hey, that's not fair if you put it like that," she mumbled.
"Well, too bad, Song, but you know how stubborn he is."
"Fine, Stark, but you're buying me dinner," she grumbled.
He laughed, "I can even fuck you afterwards if you want."
"Yeah, I don't think that's going to work very well in light of what I'm trying to do, aka, suck up to Steve," she paused, "Or like, actually suck Steve, but I'm trying to keep things mostly platonic between us."
Stark laughed. "Goodbye, Song, see you soon."