[A/N

To anon 'reader' : I'm glad you're enjoying this story, and I do try to update frequently, yes :)

I should tell y'all, I suck at kissing scenes. Consider yourself warned.]

Part 9.

"Kiss me." He said, and my heart literally skipped a beat. I didn't know what had changed his mind, or how he could go from being totally disgusted by me to actually wanting to kiss me. But hey, who was I to deny him?

"Alright, I can do that." I smirked, leaning up to lightly touch my lips to his. Oh, they were soft. Soft, and smooth and perfect and he tasted so good. He was awkward and inexperienced but that was OK, because he was kissing me, voluntarily, and he had shoved my shirt up a bit, fingers lightly caressing my lower back. I brought my hands up to tug at his hair, and he allowed me to deepen our kiss. His hands almost wandered lower, but when he caught himself he quickly took a step back. "Hey, man," I said, drawing him closer again by his hands and putting them back in place. "It's fine." He smiled slightly and shyly before lowering his head to resume our kissing. I had just began roaming my hands over his broad chest when I heard a displeased grunt behind me. I turned around and got into my 'bitch, please' stance. "Are you fucking kidding me?" I asked.

"Tony, let him go. Time to stop molesting pretty guys and go home." Clint said.

"It was definitely not molesting." I said, following Clint and pulling Steve with me by his hand. We eventually managed to assemble every Avenger (even Thor, who was going on and on about his victory in the drinking contest), and got our way back to the Stark jet with Thor heavily leaning on Steve. We all collapsed on my couch and were handed cold water by the stewardess I would have considered attractive had I not just made out with Steve Rogers. Natasha only needed to take one look at our disheveled state to know what had happened, and she smirked.

"I thought you two were fighting?" Bruce asked, taking a good, big gulp from his water.

"So did I." I nudged Steve, "What changed your mind? God, I certainly hope you won't change it again." I said, smiling playfully at him. Steve groaned.

"I really don't want to talk about this now.." He mumbled, and we all took mercy on him. I did make him promise to tell me everything that went on in that pretty blonde head as soon as we were alone.

"I don't even want to know why you want him in your bedroom." Clint said as I was ushering Steve of to my room. He pulled a face, probably disgusted with himself for even allowing that thought to appear in his mind. I wiggled my eyebrows at him before disappearing around the corner.

"You are free to join, if you want?" I called before shutting the door to my overly messy bedroom. I sat Steve down on my bed, trying to at least appear slightly organized by throwing T-shirts around. Steve just sat there, fiddling with his fingers and head flushed. What was he so nervous for? Oh. I suddenly understood and went to sit next to him, making him face me. "You know I was just teasing Clint, right? Nothing has to happen, not yet. Not if you're not ready." I said reassuring, rubbing his shoulder. "Really, nothing has to happen. Unless you want it to?" I asked, raising my eyebrow. He shook his head, looking at his folded hands in his lap. "Steve..What's wrong?"

"I don't want to disappoint you." He mumbled. I pulled him closer so that his head was resting on my shoulder.

"Steve, you are amazing. You won't disappoint me just because you don't want to have sex straight away. I think that's actually pretty sweet." I whispered in his ear. "Now tell me, what happened that changed your mind. Why were you so repulsed to begin with?"

"I'm not used to same sex relationships being OK. Back in my time, that just didn't happen. Men liked women and the other way around, the rest is forbidden, weird. I am supposed to be the role model American Citizen, how could I ever forgive myself for liking a man? And then there's Peggy. Peggy was my first love and I thought I just couldn't do that to her, be with someone else, forget her."

"Moving on is not the same as forgetting and you know what, I think she would be proud of you to cast aside all popular believe and be courageous and do what your heart says." I felt like a complete sap so I added, for good Stark measure, "22% of the male population of America is homosexual." I pointed out, rubbing his back comfortingly. He froze.

"I'm not homosexual." He snapped.

"So what, I'm a woman now?" I laughed.

"No, you're the only man I've ever considered dating, Tony. I'm HeteroandTonysexual, simple as that. Anyhow, I lashed out at you, I hoped I could make you angry so that you wouldn't like me anymore. But I didn't like it, when you acted distant, as if you disliked me. Just like before the Loki-incident." I hadn't particularly enjoyed it, either. "You are a good man at heart, Tony Stark, and I should have seen that from the beginning. All the mean things I said.. they just prove that you are a better man than me."

"I appreciate that, Steve, but I don't think that's quite true." I held my hand up, "Before you protest, I don't want to have a sappy 'No you are sweeter!'-session. Even though you seem to have awakened some kind of sappy part of me, I am still Tony Stark, and I do not participate in such shenanigans." Steve smirked at me.

"Oh, you wait and see. By the time I'm done with you, you are King Sap."

"And let me guess, you'll fill in as the textbook narcissist?"

Things were pretty much back to usual, which was good. I missed the light, easy atmosphere we Avengers had seemed to create for ourselves. Fury had even called to tell us how great Steve and my performance in the club had been, and he was satisfied with the photo's our fans had taken with their mobile phones and sold to the newspapers.

"So, are you guys a thing now?" Clint asked the next day as we were all recovering from yet another hangover. This time with ice cream, fruit and TV instead of shooting, shopping and drinking.

"Steve did sleep in his own bedroom tonight," Natasha mused.

"Perhaps Tony acts differently when it comes to Steve." Bruce suggested, all of them acting like Steve and I were not right there in the room with them.

"Judging by the color of Steve's cheeks, I'd say they're together." I, myself, didn't even know whether we were together or not. Steve was being vague. Sometimes, he would act a little distant, hesitant. When I encouraged him into a kiss, though, he seemed to recover and remind himself that yes, being with a man was OK. We never said 'I love you', not yet.

"Judging by the size of your head, I'd say you were born without a brain." I mumbled.

"Hey there, Tony, relax. If you really want us to, we'll stop bothering you."

"I'd like that." I admitted, feeling like there was something wrong. I didn't know what, but something felt out of place. Had I misinterpreted what Steve was saying? Did his change of mind bother me? I might not have been someone to make the right decisions. I mean, I have made a couple of bad ones. But if I had learned one thing through the years, it was to trust my intuition. So why was my intuition, just as things seemed to be working out with Steve, screaming at me that something was wrong?

[A/N Sorry if I do not reply to reviews as quickly as I normally try to, internet is spazzing out.]