Thank you for the kind words I've been receiving lately and for all of those who are watching and waiting patiently. I appreciate you guys!
At three o'clock the next morning, Tony was awoken by the loud and uncoordinated thuds of his best-friend's footsteps. Clint was home, and he was drunk.
Tony stretched and yawned before going into the living room and fetching his friend.
"I don't even know how you make it home sometimes." Tony chastised.
"I got the-hic-senses of a hawk." Clint slurred, practically falling over Tony as the brunette guided the blonde to their shared bedroom. Clint plopped himself on his bed and sighed contently.
"Are you just gonna remain in your work clothes?" Tony asked skeptically.
"You gonna strip me?" Clint teased in return.
"No."
"Then yes, now go back to bed-hic-we have work tomorrow." Clint tried to sound serious but his speech was too garbled.
"You're the one who woke me up, jackass." Tony reminded, but Clint was too far gone to reply.
Tony tried to fall back asleep, it had been hard enough the first time but now it seemed nearly impossible. This is why he hated having a crush; it became all-encompassing and destructive. It made him act strange and irrational.
But he managed to get a couple of hours of shuteye before the blasted alarm clock rang.
Tony looked over at his friend who had remained in the exact same position throughout the night, and shook his head. He was able to get ready, eat something, and read the morning news before he noticed that Clint still hadn't made a move to wake up.
Tony walked into their room and tried to shake the blonde awake.
"Lemme 'lone." Clint grunted and curled up into a tight ball.
"It's not my fault your head's in pins 'n needles right now." Tony said.
"Yeah, but your voice ain't helpin' neither." Clint murmured into his pillow.
"See you at work Clint." Tony said, shaking his head again and sighing. Why he kept up with his friend's antics surprised him.
Tony shuddered in his jacket as the cold August air hit him, then another shudder passed through him as he realized who was standing by the black car across from his apartment building.
"Good morning?" Tony asked, confused by Steve's presence.
"Morning, cold day huh?" Steve replied brightly, he looked unfazed by the cold, however.
"Yeah… um, what are you doing here, if you don't mind me asking?" Tony said, looking around the street to see if anyone found this as strange as he did, the passersby just continued their early-morning walk to their destination—ignoring them completely.
"I thought, since we are going in the same direction, that I could do you a kindness and drive you to work—especially since it's so cold." Steve replied sincerely. There was something else in his smile though, something that tugged at Tony's instincts and made him hot all over.
"I've walked in colder." Tony said, trying to let Steve down but not sound as if he didn't appreciated the courtesy.
"You don't have to today, I can drive you." Steve said opening the door, just like he had last night. "You know I'm only going to insist." Steve said, motioning to the entrance of the passenger's side.
Tony sighed, relenting again. Was this going to become routine? He hoped that, for the sake of his sanity and freedom, it would not.
"Do you treat all your fellow gentlemen this well?" Tony inquired curiously. He was playing with his fingers to preoccupy his mind.
"Only the one's I like." Steve replied suavely. From the corner of his eye he noticed how nervous Tony looked. He noted the slight tremors that would course through his hands, the way he would unconsciously bite his lip, and the way he held himself—as if Steve would pounce at any moment.
"That's reassuring, we still haven't established if you liked me or not." Tony said sarcastically. His entire body stiffening as he heard Steve chuckle.
"Yes, it's true that I'm still a little miffed about yesterday, but I vowed to put that behind me. You weren't thinking properly." Steve said, parking smoothly into the same spot as yesterday. When most of the working-class population couldn't afford a vehicle, the parking spots were always available.
"Here we are." Steve said, echoing his statement from last night; this time, however, Tony exited out of the car more civilly. He was at work early after all.
"I appreciate the kindness; there is no need for it to be repeated." Tony said as they walked into the large building.
"Cutting my feathers before I've begun to fly, Stark? I don't think so, I promise to pick you up each morning at—Steve looked at his watch—6:30AM in order for us to get here at 7:00AM." Steve said a playful smile on his lips.
Tony rolled his eyes at the statement. He would believe that when he saw it.
ooOOoo
Clint came in huffing and puffing, barely making the clock, as he put in his time. Tony saw this from a distance and started laughing like a maniac.
"Yeah, yeah laugh all you want." Clint said, angrily pulling on his gloves. "Why didn't you wake me up?" Clint accused, picking up the parts and putting them in the packaging box.
"I did, you told me to leave you alone." Tony reminded, putting his own parts in the box.
"Why didn't you wake me up harder?" Clint asked again, his red cheeks exemplifying how hard he had to run to get here on time.
"It's not my job to babysit you; if you wanted that you should have stayed with your mother—or a baby." Tony joked, Clint (at the moment) didn't find that too amusing.
"Ha, ha. Just make sure I stay awake next time. How'd you get here so early anyways?" Clint asked curiously, his anger dying down a bit as the routine of the work calmed his mind. He had noticed Tony's punch card and the time he arrived was much earlier than it would have been if he had walked their normal route.
"I, uh, powerwalked." Tony lied. Normally, he was a very skillful liar—when he was young his mother always found that upsetting—but at this present moment in time he couldn't draw on that power and work it effectively.
"Powerwalked? Is that even a word?" Clint asked skeptically.
"Yes." Tony said, thankful that his friend wasn't all that bright to dig a little deeper.
"Heads-up, here comes blondie. You gonna chew him out again?" Clint said, a mischievous grin blooming on his face.
Before Tony could explain that he and Steve were on speaking terms and that the water was under the bridge, where yesterday was concerned, Steve was already next to him.
"You said that if I needed help I should come to you, I can't—for the life of me—find another one of these parts." Steve said holding up a large bolt.
"Tony, you gonna introduce me to your little friend?" Clint asked, the grin never escaping his face.
"Not right now Clint." Tony said. He turned to Steve and waited for the blonde to drop the bolt in his hand. Tony examined the piece and thought about where he had seen it last.
"Clint, didn't we put some bolts of this diameter away yesterday?" Tony asked, letting Clint examine the piece.
"Yeah, should be in one of those boxes, if the crew after us labeled them properly you should be able to find it no problem." Clint said.
As Tony started walking away Clint stopped him with his hand. "You gonna leave me here while I do both our work?" Clint asked incredulously.
"Think of it as reparations for slacking off this morning." Tony said pushing Clint's arm away and leading Steve into the storage room.
"You two seem close, is he your friend?" Steve queried as they maneuvered past the boxes of spare parts.
"Yeah, like a brother to me really." Tony refrained from saying how Clint was an orphan and his father (after so recently losing his wife and newborn) adopted him at an early age. It wasn't his story to tell, especially to someone he knew so little about; though the joke here is that he could tell Steve everything about himself, no problem.
"I could see that, why didn't he walk down with you?" Steve asked. Tony noticed how unnecessarily close Steve was standing, the isle space was big enough for the both of them—he shouldn't feel the need to breathe down Tony's neck with every word he uttered.
"He overslept, went to a club last night and 'released his inhibitions.'" Tony replied, not supplying any more information than he needed to.
"Bucky was like that too." Steve said a happy yet sad tone taking over his voice; Tony turned to look at him and asked: "Bucky?"
"Yes, my best-friend; whenever we were on leave, he'd find a liquor store and raid it for what it was worth. I was never much of the drinking type, never will be really, but he enjoyed the sport and I wasn't about to stop him from doing something what made him happy." Steve said, Tony noted how lost in thought the blonde was. His body was here but his voice and eyes were incredibly far away.
"I'm sorry, again." Tony murmured. When had they gotten so personal? Their bodies were almost touching and their faces were just a little too close.
"It's over now, I can't bring him back and war still rages on. So let's find this bolt, shall we?" Steve said, forced cheerfulness overtaking his voice.
Tony nodded.
It probably took longer than it should have for them to retrieve the bolt. It was buried beneath boxes of other supplies and Steve had a hard time lifting the boxes with his mangled arm. Tony insisted on helping but Steve was adamant about doing it himself.
Eventually they found the box with the bolts. As they walked away with the box, the foundation of one of the many pillars began to give way.
"Watch out!" Steve shouted to Tony as the pillar fell, he dropped the box and pushed the brunette out of the way, knocking them both to the ground and shielding Tony with his body as the boxed supplies and many other things fell around them.
There was a brief, standalone second where it was just Steve and Tony, the moment Tony looked up into Steve's blue eyes was the moment he knew he'd be lost in them forever. They were so close it was painful, Tony tried to prevent the inevitable but his body was urging him on. However, that moment in time was snatched up and torn as the many people rushed in to investigate the noise.
"You guys alright?" That was Clint.
Steve looked Tony up and down and asked, "You okay?" Tony nodded, speechless.
"Yeah, we're alright." Steve replied helping himself and Tony up from the rubble.
"What the hell happened here?" Clint said, trying to navigate through the boxes to get to his best-friend.
"Something gave way and this column fell." Steve said, speaking for the both of them since Tony was still in shock; it wasn't because of the near-death experience either—thought that did play a part in it.
"I see, I told Fury that putting things this heavy into boxes like these wouldn't help." Clint said. "I'm half-deaf and I still heard that clutter, this is gonna take forever to clean up." Clint sighed looking around the room and at the mess, then up at his friend.
"You okay Tones; you look as if you've seen a ghost." Clint asked worriedly.
"No, I'm fine, just… shocked that's all." Tony said his entire body feeling as if it belonged to someone else.
"Yeah, you're in shock alright, let's get you out of here." Clint said. "Muscle boy, go tell Fury about this. We'll be waiting here." Clint ordered as an afterthought.
"Right away." Steve said a little reluctantly, he kept looking back at Tony's frozen form. He'd have to remedy that later.
ooOOoo
"What!?" Fury exclaimed, almost chocking on his cigar.
"The boxes toppled over, we were trapped in the rubble, now there's a huge mess-
"I heard you the first time damn it!" Fury exclaimed shaking his head vehemently.
"Please don't punish Mr. Stark sir, this was entirely my fault." Steve pleaded with Fury. The director looked at him quizzically, and then sighed.
"Seeing as this little incident couldn't be helped either way, I pardon the both of you. However, I need that room cleaned up and those boxes back where they belong. I'll figure out a better packaging system later." Fury said, when he noticed Steve still hadn't budged he asked, "Is there something else you needed?"
"Mr. Stark mentioned something about a job security, is my father putting you up for this—I know the two of you are close." Steve questioned seriously.
"He asked me to do him a favor and I obliged, he saved my life and I'll never forget that. So if you're asking me if I would have hired you otherwise, the answer is no. Now get out of my office. You've caused enough trouble already." Fury said, dismissing Steve with one swipe of the hand.
The blonde took a deep breath and massaged his left arm. In moments of intense stress it would pulse and sharp pangs of pain would shoot through its entire length. He shook his head and tried to ignore what Fury said, he was making tremendous progress for his second day. Except for this little accident, he hadn't missed a beat.
Steve returned to Tony and Clint. The two were now sitting on one of the many benches about the place, Tony held a cup in his hands; it was probably water or something warm. He looked much better now that the scare had worn off.
"Fury says we have to clean it up, he won't fire us though." Steve said as a form of greeting.
"Like he would fire you." Tony murmured loud enough for Steve to hear. He decided to let that slide; considering all they had been through in this short amount of time—that remark meant nothing in the grand scheme of things.
Clint shook his head and patted Tony in the back. "I'm not part of this, so good luck. Hopefully—for your sake—not a lot of things spilled out onto the floor."
"Do you need another minute?" Steve asked gently.
"I'm not a fucking girl Steve. I'm fine, thank you very much." Tony hissed and threw his cup at Steve angrily.
Water then.
ooOOoo
It took them the rest of the shift, and then some, to put the parts in their appropriate boxes and the boxes in their respective places. The entire time, Tony gave Steve the evil-eye and avoided any conversation. His entire body was poised to strike and he couldn't wait to finish this chore so he could go home and forget today ever happened.
Back in the lockers, the last few people were trickling out as the two of them went in.
"Are you not taking a shower after spending so much time with those greasy parts?" Steve asked, mimicking his speech from yesterday.
"I'm good, thanks. What's your fascination with showers anyways—I do have a tub in my home." Tony snapped, angrily pulling his belongings from his locker.
"Won't you at least let me take you home?" Steve asked hopefully.
"What part of 'I'm good' don't you understand?" Tony said hotly, using everything in his power to not shout.
"I just want to make sure you're okay, you were pretty shaken up after the boxes fell." Steve said, his head hanging low.
"How many times do I have to tell you I'm not a girl? I don't know where you got that idea from but, you need to forget it. I'm fine now, and I'm going home to take a shower." Tony said trying to move past the unmovable block that was Steve's body.
"Don't hate me for this." Steve begged as he pinned Tony to the lockers and kissed him, feverishly and passionately. It was obvious that neither of them had had much experience kissing (none at all to be exact) but it didn't take long for both of them to guess how their mouths worked.
Tony was the first to come to his senses. His entire body felt electrified and his brain fried, but he didn't understand why this was happening, was Steve playing a cruel joke on him?
So he did what any terrified animal would do, he fled. But not before making sure his point was made.
"Steve, what the fuck are you doing?!" Tony practically squealed, his eyes filled with fear as he noticed how badly this could have ended, forget his job, jail would be the best option; he'd be thankful if they didn't hang him for this.
Steve was stunned into silence, his entire body frozen in place by Tony's shrill tone.
"Let me go, now!" Tony shrieked pulling his wrists free from Steve's constraints.
"I'm-
"Stay away from me!" Tony warned, getting his belongings once more from the locker. "Don't you ever put your hands on me again, or I won't hesitate to call the police. No matter who your father is!" Tony threatened with his finger.
He bolted from the locker room and didn't stop looking over his shoulder until he reached the safety of his room.
Clint wasn't there so he was probably either out drinking or with someone new.
Tony hated him for a second, hated that he could wine, dine, and sleep with any girl and society would deem it appropriate—yet Tony couldn't even look at men a certain way because society, no, religion deemed it a sin.
Tony broke down then, he cried deeply into his pillow until he was sure it was thoroughly soaked.
After that loud outburst he had today, it would probably be the last time he'd be kissed like that. At least he could die with that memory seared in his brain.
A/N: Dun, dun, duuuun. I wonder what will happen in the next chapter. We'll see next week won't we? ;)