A/N: Look! A really late chapter that I have no excuse for. I suck, alright. You should all know that by now.

This story is now beta'd by the lovely, DorugaruAtisuto. Thank you!

Tony woke up the next morning with sun in his eyes and the sheets tangled around his legs. The other side of the bed was cold and empty. Tony winced remembering how uncomfortable Steve must have been on the couch. Starting the day wasn't something he was looking forward to, but he knew he wasn't going to fall asleep again for a while.

With that in mind, Tony peeled the sheets off himself and stretched. He dragged his hand over his face as he stumbled into the bathroom to turned the shower's knob all while avoiding the mirror.

Finishing up his shower, Tony noticed a yellow square stuck to the fogged up mirror. As he ran his hand to clear the glass, he peeled of the sticky note and read it.

"Gone to class. I'll be back for lunch." Tony read Steve's neat, cursive hand writing. It was have been a little after ten, if he was already heading to campus. Considering that, Tony knew he was going to be late for class. He had nothing better to do than to go, and he could at least hang out with Hank Pym.

Tony looked up and caught his reflection in the clear spot of the mirror. Even to himself, Tony looked tired. Tossing and turning all night had been unkind to him, and his faced had seemed to age a couple of years. Bags were forming under his eyes, and his mouth was formed in a permanent frown.

He sighed and pulled out his toothbrush. Wallowing in self pity will not help him get to class.

Steve had woken up in the most uncomfortable position he could imagine on the couch. Again. The crick in his neck had only gotten worse.

Today was the day Tony had promised they would talk, but Steve figured he had hardly thought about it. He snuck into their bedroom, and spotting a still sleeping Tony, pulled out a plain white tee and dark blue jeans. Deciding to skip a shower, Steve silently changed and slipped back towards the kitchen. He was making toast when he heard the sound of the shower starting up.

Steve quickly dug through the drawers to find a pack of post-its and a blue pen. He scrawled out a quick message stepped back into the once shared bedroom. Steve still loved Tony completely, but he didn't want to see him until they talked this through. It stunned him, it hurt him that Tony would even consider choosing alcohol over him. He understood none of the reasoning behind it, but he guessed that's what they would be discussing.

He padded into the bathroom and moved to the mirror. Tony tended to take long showers, so Steve knew he wouldn't run into him. He pressed the adhesive the glass.

The blonde stood there for a couple more minutes, just listening to Tony get clean. Remembering that he had to be somewhere, he backtracked to grab the abandoned toast and head out the door.

Class was boring and useless. Every time he tried to talk to Pym to drag himself out of boredom, Hank would shush him and continue taking notes. The professor continued to drone on about things Tony already understood, and he was getting annoyed with the influx of questions from the students. He had no clue why teachers put up with them.

"Hey," Tony whispered.

"Shhh."

"Hey!" The professor looked up at the disturbance to find Hank ducking his head and glaring at Tony.

"What?"

"I think I'm gonna go."

"Class has, like, 15 more minutes left. Just stay 'til the end."

"No, I think it's gonna hold over. Steve's getting home about now, I'm just gonna head out."

"Alright, whatever. See you next week."

"Yeah maybe." Being considerable for once, Tony quietly packed up his things and slipped out. He halls were nearly empty, and deathly silent. He slipped on his sunglasses and continued walking. He wasn't even out the door before someone was tugging on his arm.

"Stark! Hey man, how's it going?"

Tony turned around to come face to face with Justin Hammer. Aw shit.

"Do you need something?"

"No, I was just-uh-checking up. Y'know, our dad's are friends, we gotta be-"

"Our dad's aren't friends."

"Well, I dunno, they were just talking the other day." Hammer moved his jacket away from his pockets to slip his hands in. He looked absolutely smug.

It then donned on Tony that it was his fault that Steve and Tony were in this mess. Wasn't it Justin that told his dad about their relationship? Tony's annoyed demeanor quickly become aggressive. "You little shit."

Hammer raised his eyebrows and tilted his head. "What's the problem, Stark? What did I do?"

Tony took a step forward and dropped his voice. "You know exactly what you did. Do you know the shit storm that happened after my dad found out?"

"Trouble in paradise?"

Tony clenched his fist. "Something like that."

"That's you problem, Stark. You and I, we weren't meant for relationships. You especially. You knew from the beginning this wasn't gonna work out. And poor Rogers-"

"Don't talk about him."

"-he's done everything he could possibly do. The problem's you, Stark. It's always you."

He wanted to hit something. "Shut. Up."

"You know what, I changed my mind. It's not all you, Tony. You're just with the wrong person." Justin took a step forward. The halls had become surprisingly empty, and eerily quiet. If he knew any better, Tony would say Hammer planned this all out. "Steve's a little too..."

"Don't"

"Innocent for you. I don't know, you need someone more like..." he shrugged his shoulders. "Well, more like me."

"And you need help." Tony moved to walk around him, but was caught by Hammer's arm.

"I wasn't done," he spat. "I don't think you get it. You and I, we could do things, Tony. Great things, amazing things. Build up the greatest company anyone's ever dreamed about. We're two sides of a coin, its only natural."

"I'm nothing like you." Justin still had his hand around Tony's wrist.

"No, you're worse."

"You're doing a pretty fucked up job of talking me up, Hammer."

An oily smile appeared on his face before he responded. "You don't need complements, you need facts. You need logic. And you know I make more sense than Steve does. I wouldn't make you choose."

Tony turned his head sharply to look Justin in the eye. "How did you-"

"I'll see you around, Stark." He released his wrist just as the class to the right of them let out. Tony lost Justin in the crowd, and wasn't planning on looking for him again. He turned and quickly pushed through the nearest door. The engineer made no hesitations to get in his car and drive away. His wrist felt warm from Hammer's hand the entire ride home.

It seemed Tony had stayed for the entire class. Steve wasn't really sure how to feel about that. He guessed it was nice, maybe Tony was trying to show he could be more responsible. He didn't really want to think about it too much.

Steve was thinking they would go out to eat, Italian maybe, and talk there. He was planning on keeping his cool and trying to understand everything from Tony's point of view. He was still unsure where Tony was coming from concerning the whole thing.

The blonde was currently in the middle of the living room, sitting on the sofa and drawing in his sketch book. He could hear Tony enter, but didn't turn to greet him.

"Hey," Tony called.

"Hey. How was class?"

"Okay, boring, but what else is new?"

Steve smirked and flipped his book closed. "Do you want to go to Olive Garden? Get some lunch?"

"Um." Tony had moved into the kitchen and was shifting through the freezer. "Can we stay here? We've got some lasagna... which is expired." He dropped the frozen entree on the counter and continued rummaging.

"I, uh, I guess so. Why? Did something happen?"

"No. Why do you think something happened?"

"I dunno, you seem," Steve shook his head. "Never mind, I don't really think anything happened. I can go pick something up, if you want."

"That's okay. Look, we've got mac and cheese. That's pasta."

Steve smiled and leaned on the fridge. "I missed you." He really shouldn't have said that, Steve realized. He was supposed to be mad at Tony, giving him a choice. But the statement was true, and he wanted to let Tony know.

Tony looked at Steve in surprise, and usually this may have been the signal for him to run, get out. But Tony was pretty sure that he loved Steve (as scary as that was) and did want to loose him. God forbid, end the relationship himself.

"I missed you too."