A wild hiatus appears!
"What are you doing?"
"Uh, cooking?"
"No I... why are you doing it like that?"
"That's how you do it, right? That's what the box says."
"The box says boil it.""Yeah, so I'll keep boiling.""That's not boiling, it's just hot."
"No, look, bubbles." Tony pointed at the stove top with the pan seated on top. Steve gave him an unimpressed look.
"Just leave it on for a couple more minutes."
"It'll be fine if I pour it in now." He reached for the macaroni box still in Steve's hand, only to see it pulled away.
"Two more minutes."
"Fine." Steve set the box back down next to the stove and pulled the cooked vegetable steamer out from the microwave. "It's like we're back in the dorms again," Tony commented, drumming his fingers on the counter.
"Not my fault."
Tony hummed in response and turned to lean back on granite. The conversation lapped into a somewhat awkward silence as Steve dumped the steamed vegetables into a bowl. Tony didn't know what to say at this point, and was too busy worrying about their future discussion to care. The idea crossed his mind as to tell Steveabout the Hammer incident earlier, but he dismissed it and continued to tap his fingers. They stayed like that for a while longer: Steve going through the fridge and Tony staring at nothing."Was class okay today?"
"What? Oh, you already asked that."
"Well yeah, but, what did you guys...uh...do?"
"What did we do?" Tony asked, his eyebrows knotting together. "It was a lecture."
Steve nodded and stared at his now filled glass of water. The tips of his ears were steadily turning pink as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Tony puffed out his cheeks, blowing out a stream of air. Remembering he was meant to be cooking, he spun around the dump in the macaroni."I'm gonna go set the table," Steve mumbled, opening the cabinet to grab plate.
Jesus fuck. Tony bit the inside of his cheek to keep from shouting at the top of his lungs. It felt like their relationship was walking on eggshells, and they hadn't even done anything! It was like they were freshmen again and didn't even know each other. Except this time, it hurt. Tony was reminded why his relationships didn't usually work out. But he wanted him and Steve to pull through. He wanted-Tony sighed and turned off the heat.
He wanted to go out and catch a bad movie and then go to dinner to make up for it. He wanted to go on a double date with Pepper and tell her that the guy wasn't good enough for her. He wanted to visit Steve's grandma and go out driving and sit at home with mac and cheese-and he wanted to do it all with Steve. So he finished preparing the food, grabbed some napkins, and headed into the main room.
Ugh I'm so sorry! This is only half a chapter and I've actually had it written since I posted the last one. I'm away from home now, but I'm finishing this and posting the other half if it kills me. This is un-beta'd since I'm on my phone. Thank you to the lovely followers who pushed me to write!
~The sucky writter