Disclaimer: I own nothing expect this finicky plot and the endless loads of fluff that my brain produces. I do not, however, own the guys this fluff involves.

A/N: Review please. They make my day.

Chapter 14

Bruce stared at Tony, idly stirring his cereal. The man he was looking at had his chin resting against Steve's shoulder and Bruce could tell that Steve's hair was tickling him every time he spoke by the way his nose wrinkled slightly, but he could also tell that there was no way that Tony was moving. He was struck suddenly at how happy Tony looked. He had thought he had seen Tony happy before, such as when he had finished a project or when they had just had a good fight, but it was nowhere near how he looked now. He looked positively radiant, despite the fact that they were discussing the fact that he had been removed completely from his love's mind.

"If it was magic, though, wouldn't there had to have been an enemy to do it?" Tony asked. Steve moved slightly, flipping the page in the newspaper and held up one corner for Tony to read before lowering it. Tony glanced down at the same moment that Steve held it up, as if by clockwork. It was fascinating to watch. "No one knew of our relationship besides Bucky."

"That we know of, at least," Steve reminded him.

"But if Red Skull knew about it, he wouldn't have paused before pushing it in your face, the golden boy, the one who the serum worked on, was involved in something that was wrong," Heavy sarcasm dripped from the word and Bruce flinched. He hadn't thought of it, at first, but now he was beginning to understand how oppressed they were simply because of who they were. It wasn't fair, that these people, his teammates, who had given him a home, who had accepted him, were shown such cruelty.

"That is a good point," Bucky said as Steve reached up with a piece of bacon. Tony snapped it out of his fingers and Steve ate what was left.

"Are they always like this?" Clint asked. Bucky snorted.

"This is mild. Wait until you walk in on them going at it," He advised. Steve flushed and Tony laughed.

"Eew man, don't put the thought into my head," Clint complained.

"I meant kissing," Bucky said innocently.

"Yeah, and Steve didn't have an asthma attack when you first walked in on us kissing," Tony said.

"I didn't have an asthma attack, I was just surprised," Steve argued.

"You definitely had an asthma attack, you couldn't breathe, Steve, don't lie to me," Tony said.

"Well, excuse me, I'm sorry if I was a little worried that my best friend for life was going to hate me because I was kissing a boy." Steve huffed.

"I'd be more worried that he would get jealous," Tony said, waggling his eyebrows.

"Please, a relationship between you two would never work, you both love yourself too much to love each other." Steve snorted.

"I resent the implication that I do not love you more than I love myself, because I'm pretty sure I've made that pretty clear," Tony said. Bruce looked at Bucky, wondering if this always happened.

"It's no use trying to stop them; the sound of them talking over each other is the sound of the universe righting itself,"

Clint grabbed his bow, tossing Natasha one of her guns and hustled out of the bedroom, pulling on his boots as he went. He met up with Bucky in the hall and walked down with him to where the rest were assembling.

"On your left," Tony's voice, familiarly robotized, sounded and Clint moved out of his way as he went zooming past, Steve's shield clutched in one of armored hands. Clint followed quickly after, curious as to how this relationship development might affect their performance in the field. To his surprise, and maybe a little disappointment, he did not find a dramatic scene full of hand holding and eternal love declarations. (He may have watched a little bit too much soap opera.) Instead, Tony just gave Steve a quick kiss, bid him to be safe, and flew away, his face plate snapping back in place. Steve stared after him for a brief second and that was it.

It was in no way something that would mess with their arrival time. And during the fight it was plain to see that nothing changed. No matter how much they loved each other, the enemy was always the thing they were most focused on in the fight. Sure, they helped each other and chattered on the comms, but that was no different than usual.

So all in all, Clint didn't care. The only reason he would have cared, about this relationship that they had, would have been because it compromised them on the field. But it didn't. Which is why he stared at Fury as if he had grown another head when he said that the relationship was unacceptable.

Steve stared, amused, at Fury. He seriously thought that he could tell them what they could and could not do? Steve hadn't allowed that back when it was law, never mind now, when it was just one man's opinion.

"Why?" Tony asked, leaning back against Steve's chest. His armor was small and compact off to the side, him having disengaged it when Fury made it clear that this debriefing might take a while.

"You cannot have any distractions on the battlefield," Fury said. Steve snorted.

"With all due respect, sir," Though that was very little, he added in his head. "I've been on a real battle field with this relationship, and I still got everything I needed to done." Too late he remembered that they were trying to keep the full story from Fury, but luckily the man presumed he was talking about a different fight.

"Their performance was not affected at all," Natasha said coolly.

"They are public figureheads, do you really want them sending this type of message to the people across the world?" Fury asked, looking around at the rest of the Avengers for support.

"What message? That's it's okay to be who you are, to love who you want?" Tony asked. "News flash, Nicolas, this is the twenty first century. It's okay to be gay. We are no longer living in the nineteen forties."

"I still maintain the fact that it will affect your fighting skills," Fury said stubbornly.

"There will always be distractions on the battle field, Director, no matter how many relationships you try to stop. This is America, and in America we fight for something, not just to fight. And for a lot of people, they are fighting for their families back home. If you think families aren't distractions, then you are sorely mistaken. And you can't have a soldier without distractions. You take away distractions and you are taking away what everyone is fighting for." Steve said. There was a brief pauses of silence and then Tony ducked down to press a kiss to his hand. Steve could easily feel the smile against his skin.

"Next time tell me when you are going to make a speech like that so I can wave the American flag behind you while you do it," Tony said, smiling softly at him. Then he turned back to the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. "I'd like to remind you that you own none of us, Fury. Tread carefully."