Fire Escape
Tony wakes up alone on the couch and stretches out a bit, not remembering he's half laying on the foot rest which slides away and leaves him on his ass on the floor.
"Steve?" he asks groggily and looks around from his place on the floor. He pulls himself up and looks around; he gazes over to the kitchen area to find the two coffee cups still on the table, but no Steve.
"Hey Jarv." The genius calls out to his AI.
"Yes Sir?" Jarvis replies right on queue as always.
"Where's Steve?" Tony frowns a bit to himself. He was honestly a bit sad not to wake up next to the larger male. He shakes his head to clear his mind of the thought.
"Mr. Rogers is in the gym right now, would you like me to request his presents?" Jarvis asks.
"No I'll go to him, thanks buddy." Tony walks to his room quickly to change into new clothes not needing a shower since he took one earlier that morning, speaking of which, he looks at the clock and the time reads 11. "Ouch" Tony says to himself wondering how long ago Steve had woke up and left. He changes and heads out to the elevator that he takes to the gym floor.
He steps out to the sounds of punches against a sand bag. Further down the floor Steve stands, back to the elevator, beating the living shit out of a sandbag. Tony approaches the captain with a grin on his face. His eyes travel across the back of that captain and if it's not to plain to say the captain has quite an excellent body. Tony stood in appreciation for a moment and when the captain still didn't notice him or kept pretending to not notice him, either one was possible and both annoyed Tony, he decided to make himself known in the room.
"Hey Cap!" Tony said cheerfully as his right palm smacked into the left cheek of Steve's ass.
"Jesus!" Steve said and whipped around grabbing his own rear end for protection. "Tony!" He said angrily.
"Morning sour patch, it's nice to see you to." A wicked grin painted its way onto Tony's features.
Steve frowned a bit rolled his eyes then turned back to the punching bag. Tony's smile dropped instantly.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Tony gently grabbed Steve shoulder and pulled a bit to try and get the taller male to face him. "What the hell did I do?" Tony asks with a furrowed brow.
"Nothing, it's just." Steve huffed and looked away.
"What, it's just what Steve?" Tony asked, did he hear an edge of panic in his own voice? No of course not, he's just curious as to why Steve is upset because… why? Why did he care so much if Steve was upset? They were friends by now surely but then again guy friends don't cuddle while watching movies and kiss each other. Wait, BINGO! "Is that what this is about?" Tony thought to himself.
"I just need to think Tony." Steve says and begins to walk away.
"Steve c'mon talk to me buddy." Tony says as he follows after the other man.
"NO Tony I need to think." Steve stated and walked out of the gym slamming the door behind him.
Tony feels slightly like puking as he stands there dumfounded and alone in the gym. He ruffles his hair and then leaves to find something to try and distract himself from these feelings tearing through his chest. He finds himself in his lab and starts to work; he doesn't know what on but doesn't continue with most and ends up throwing them across the lab.
"Fuck Tony get a hold of yourself!" He screams and chucks a cylinder across the lab and it hits a light. The blub shatters and the light fixture hangs half broken from its hinges. Tony huffs and runs greasy hands through his hair. "awk!" He says and then heads to his room to take a shower and get the grease out of his hair.
It's about eight and Tony has neither seen nor heard hide nor hair from the captain. He's even tried texting and calling the captains phone that S.H.I.E.L.D had demanded he have, not that the Captain knew how to use it mind you, but hey there's always hope right? Tony finally gave up and headed into the living room and was surprised by what he sees on the table. A picture, more specifically a drawing, lay in Tony's spot at the table with a small piece of paper folded on top of it. Tony moves the small paper aside and picks up the drawing. It's a sketch of himself, sleeping, on the couch this morning. "How long was he up before me?" Tony wondered and went over to the couch.
He looked at the angle the picture was drawn from and found a place on one of the chairs perched off to the side of the couch. He sat down and held the drawing up, then moved it down a bit; Sure enough it appeared this was where Steve had sat when he'd drawn Tony sleeping on his left side on the couch this morning. Tony smiles at the picture in his hand and then rubs his forehead. "oh!" he says and hops up heading for the table. He sets the drawing down and picks up the little piece of folded paper.
"Come to the 28th floor fire escape ~Steve" Tony reads quietly to himself; he honest to god feels butterflies in his stomach and smiles warmly down at the little not. He folds the paper back up and slips it into his pocket and heads to the elevator. He takes it down to the 28th floor and as the doors slide open his heart begins to pound on the back of the reactor. "What do I say?" he ponders as he steps out of the elevator and heads down the corresponding hallways leading to the fire escape. He can hear his footsteps echo through the now empty office hallways and his heart beat wildly in his heart. He approaches the exit that leads out onto the fire escape and slowly reaches out for the push bar as if it might break if he touches it. On the other side he can hear the soft tone of music, probably from a radio, it's not what he usually listens to but it is strangely calming and he manages to get his heart under control before he swallows and gently pushed the door open.
Steve is sitting on the metal floor of the escape, it's one of the larger ones on the building, about ten feet away from where Tony stands. Unsure of himself, Tony lets the door glide shut before he slowly strolls to the other side of the escape and sits down beside the blond. He lets his legs hang between the rails like Steve is and makes sure not to sit too close to the upset male next to him.
"I had a date with Peggy planned." Steve says after a while and Tony looks over at him and leans the side of his head on the rail.
"It just." Steve swallows and Tony watches as his friends face fills with emotion. "It's just that, it feels like maybe three or four months ago she kissed me goodbye, then I, I jumped on that stupid plane." Again he swallows back emotion. "And then as I went down, we made a date, and well we both knew that it was never gonna happen but." Steve's head drops and it's obvious that the other man is crying.
"What were you going to do?" Tony asks and Steve looks at him with a questionable look.
"What were you two going to do?" Tony asks again and Steve sits upright.
"Uh, heh." Steve laughed a bit. "She" he announced. "Was going to take me to this little club she knew, and was going to teach me how to dance." He says looking down with a sad smile on his face.
Tony takes a deep breath and listens to the radio commercials die down as a quiet song begins. He grabs the top of the banister and pulls himself up and Steve looks over with another questionable look.
"C'mon." Tony says and gestures with his head for Steve to get up. Steve gives him a dumfounded look.
"Get. Up" Tony says in a soft demanding voice and helps the Captain stand.
"What are you doing?" Steve questions.
"We" Tony corrects.
"What?" Steve questions again and Tony rolls his eyes a bit.
"We, Steve, We are dancing." Tony states and moves to take Steve's hands.
"What? No." Steve says and withdraws from Tony, a soft shade of pink slowly consuming his features.
"Steve." Tony says in a quiet pleading voice to witch Steve slowly relaxes and allows the other man to move him into position.
They slowly start to move, a gentle swaying step where each has one hand on the others shoulder and then the others hand held with the other.
"Isn't this… weird?" Steve asks as he watches his feet so he won't step on Tony.
"What do you mean?" Tony asks as he watches Steve focus on their feet, it's cute but rude to not look at someone while they're talking so Tony taps his hand that's already placed on Steve shoulder.
Steve looks up with confused and worried eyes. "This Tony, us dancing, and well kissing last night." Tony smiled at Steve's concern.
"Actually it's not all that weird anymore, happened all the time really." Tony states and Steve gives him a skeptical look.
"I'm serious Steve!" Tony chuckles and moves just a slightly bit closer. "People are coming out as gay all the time; it's even legal to get married in some states." Tony explains to the vet whose blush grows brighter.
"I'm not gay Tony." Steve says flatly.
"I never said you were Steve." Tony says in a tone all to serious to the captain.
"You're not either?" Steve asks.
"No." Tony replies back.
"Then what is this?" Steve shakes his head a bit but doesn't move away from the slow dance.
"What do you want it to be?" Tony inquires back.
Steve shakes his head again in the confusion of not knowing how to answer.
"Well it could be just a dance." Tony states in a plain and simple way. "Or it could be just one friend comforting another friend while they're in need." Tony says a bit softer and moves closer to the man in front of him and pauses a moment; when Steve doesn't back away and keeps eye contact with him he continues. "Or it could even be something else entirely." Closer, "That neither really knows what it is." Closer," but both enjoy it thoroughly and would like to continue." And closer yet until their bodies are touching and faces are merely inches apart from one another. They stop swaying all together.
"So which is it Steve, it's your choice." Tony says and softly swallows the lump in his throat.
Steve's hand slides from its place on Tony's back to the back of his hand and his eyes slip close as their lips mesh together tenderly. Tony lets his own eyes fall shut and returns the kiss fully to Steve; his hands trace their way up Steve's shoulders and wrap around the captains neck as Steve's now free hand grasps Tony's shoulder. The kiss meshes and melt for a while longer until the Captain slowly pulls away and leans his forehead again the dark haired man before him and a smile cracks open on his face.
"So is there an "Us" then?" Tony asks.
"Yea, there's an "Us" Tony." Steve replies.
And another kiss ensues.
AN: ahhhh I am sooo happy with this chapter! I could just cry, please PLEASE go listen to the song "Fire Escape" by "Matthew Mayfield" it is what inspired this beautiful chapter! Haha I could just end the story here since I am thoroughly satisfied with this, but I will continue this for you my lovelies.