Steve watched as Tony quickly exited the locker room, he noticed how the brunette would look back every couple of seconds to see if Steve was following, and satisfied with what he found, he kept walking.
Steve thought about chasing after, explain himself—but what could he say?
Steve punched his locker hard enough to cut his hand. He welcomed the sting, anything to distract him from his thoughts.
Why did he do something so stupid? It was that look he gave you in the storage room, how close you two had been to-
Steve tried to take another breath, but found it impossible; he was choking on his own laughter; a hysterical laughter that soon turned manic. Not soon after that he was sobbing; he hadn't experienced such quick turn of emotions since the death of his best friend.
Steve tried to collect himself as best as he could, his hands were still shaking by the time he was able to focus on the task ahead. Whatever that was.
Steve picked up a jacket from the floor and quickly realized it was Tony's. Steve brought the garment of clothing close to his nose and inhaled. His eyes fluttered shut then snapped back open.
Here it was, his excuse to talk to Tony again, explain himself—properly.
But not tonight, tonight Steve needed to clear his head and prepare for tomorrow. He had to make sure Tony understood his intentions, he just had to.
ooOOoo
Steve drove up to the apartment; he was there an hour early, just in case Tony considered pulling a fast one on him. He had the jacket right next to him ready to be carried to the other man at any moment.
He didn't know how he would do it, probably just try to catch his attention and hope he didn't make a scene.
Steve was grateful that it had only been the two of them on that floor and that no one had decided to check in the lockers for something they may have missed. Steve tried really hard not to think how much worse the situation would have been if someone heard Tony's screams; taken out of context that could sound pretty bad. (In their current context they're pretty bad too.)
Speaking of the brunette, Steve spotted him coming out of the building, Clint in tow. Steve contemplated leaving the car, would Tony be stupid enough to expose them both by creating a scene, or was this the perfect opportunity to catch him where he couldn't act?
Steve decided to take the risk, it would all be worth it if he could get at least one word in edgewise.
"Tony." Steve hated how quickly Tony's entire body froze at the sound of his voice. He'd have to rectify that, sooner more preferably than later.
"I thought I told you to keep your distance." Tony replied, not even bothering to turn around and look at him.
"Something happen' that I should know about?" Clint asked, perversely confused.
"No." Tony snapped.
"Not really." Steve said simultaneously.
Clint raised his hands in the universal motion for surrender.
"Tony please, I need to talk to you… you left your jacket in the locker room floor… I came to return it." Steve said, hesitant to hand it, his only excuse for being in the same space as Tony, over to its owner.
"Burn it." Tony murmured, starting to walk away with a surprised Clint.
"Tony wait-
"What do you want Steve?" Tony snapped, finally turning around. Steve was immediately taken aback by the sight of Tony's red, puffy eyes. He wondered how Tony had managed to explain that to Clint.
"I-I just wanted to… Tony I'm sorry. I really am, if you'd just let me explain-
"Explain what, exactly? How can you explain away that?" Tony was almost hysterical; Steve could see he was losing a battle with his tear ducts.
"Okay, will somebody please tell me what the hell is going on?" Clint demanded, just to be shot down by the two of them again.
"If you'd let me speak-
"You know, I thought you were a pretty nice guy Rogers, all manners and class. But now I know you're nothing more than a low-life pig. Keep the jacket, donate it, throw it away, I don't care. But please, don't talk to me again." Tony said in the calmest voice he could muster at the moment.
Tony started walking to work, not caring if Clint followed or not. Clint, on the other hand, was conflicted; he wanted to follow his friend and comfort him but, at the same time, he wanted to know what the hell happened yesterday, and he knew that Steve would probably be more inclined to tell him than Tony ever would. But alas, family loyalty tethered him to his friend and with one last reluctant look back, he ran after Tony and walked with him to work.
ooOOoo
Any moment that Steve didn't spend working, he'd use it to try and reach Tony. He'd try to make up any excuse to see him; he even jammed one of the parts so he'd have a legitimate item to carry.
He hated to make a spectacle out of the whole situation, but he'd been growing desperate; every passing second that he didn't get to explain himself, was another second closer for Tony to have an excuse to tell someone—especially the police.
Steve had been so sure, though, that Tony felt the same! Or had felt, with the way things were going now, Steve wasn't sure he trusted his judgement anymore.
He walked up to Clint and Tony's area with the jammed piece of machinery. Clint was the first to spot him and point him out to Tony. The brunette turned to see if it was true and then resumed his work.
"Mr. Stark." That felt odd, Steve wasn't even sure if he was younger than Tony. It didn't even matter how he addressed him, he wasn't responding.
"Tony. I need your help… You said to come to you i-if I needed any-
"That was before." Tony grumbled, his hands trembling as he tried to package away the parts.
"Before what?" Steve asked, trying to understand what a damn kiss could've done so wrong.
"You know damn well what… so don't play dumb." Tony hissed, bringing their faces closer to emphasize his seriousness.
"I already apologized, what else do you want?" Steve asked ashamedly, his head hanging low.
"For starters, I'd like it very much if you'd move from there; I need to put these things away." Tony said, pushing Steve. Under normal circumstances, Steve would've been quite immobile but, in this instance, he let himself be pushed.
"What about this jammed piece?" Steve asked, holding the part up for anyone who cared to see.
"Ask someone else; I've already taught you the basics. I wasn't required to go above that."
Steve felt like throwing a tantrum (among other things), like a two year old who didn't get his way. But he was an adult, and if he was gonna get anywhere with Tony, he'd have to act like it.
ooOOoo
For the next few days, Steve made sure that he was always present in Tony's line of vision, he stopped interfering with him—but it didn't mean he stopped trying to communicate.
Every day he would wait for him to come out with Clint just to be ignored completely, and every day in the locker room he waited patiently to see if Tony would give him the time of day.
Eventually something did give, but it wasn't from the person he was expecting.
"Start driving, let's have a little chat 'n stroll, shall we?" Clint said, faux-cheerfulness plastered all over his face. Steve looked at him skeptically, looking around Clint to see if Tony was following, but the brunette was already two blocks away.
"Wonderful weather we're having." Clint said with forced civility, Steve tried to ignore the sense of being scrutinized by the shorter man.
"No, alright then—no preambles. I want to know two things because Tony won't tell me shit." Clint said, cutting to the chase.
"If I can answer them, I will." Steve replied sincerely.
"Great, question number one: what happened between you and Tony that other night, you don't have to go into details, but ever since the boxes fell the two of you have been acting stranger than a cow amongst chickens." Clint said.
"I can't really answer that." Steve said, truly sorry that he couldn't—that the society they lived in wouldn't allow him the privilege.
"See, Tony said something similar to that, of course with much more foul language and emotion. Whatever happened between the two of you affected him more than it did you, however." Clint concluded. He took a breath and then continued. "Alright then, second question: why do you keep following us? Tony has made it extremely clear that he doesn't want any part of you, so, why keep pursuing him?"
"I want to apologize, for what I did." Steve replied as vaguely yet honestly as he could.
"And this has to do with that one thing neither of you can tell me about?" Clint asked and Steve nodded. "Now see, therein lies the problem. You have something that needs to be fixed, an unwilling participant, a friend, and an unknown third body. Say buddy, you didn't hurt Tony did you?" Clint asked seriously.
Steve looked to his right and then back to the road.
"Not physically, no." Steve said, bullets of sweat pooling on his forehead with each new question.
"Not, physically… but mentally. Shit, if I didn't know any better I'd say you and Tony were acting like teenage lovers—and you fucked up." Clint said, hitting the bull right in the eye.
There was no way that Steve's face could've given it away, no flipping way! But for some reason or another Clint gasped and connected the dots, the puzzle pieces flying into place.
"You're a fucking lavender?" Clint exclaimed. Steve almost stopped the car in his shock.
"Well, I've never heard it put so nicely, but yes…" Steve trailed off, not sure where to go from there.
"Well that explains everything then, I didn't expect a man like you to be of that certain…inclination, but you're certainly not the first person I've come across who defied all logic." Clint said.
"You seem to be taking me being a homosexual quite well." Steve observed, worried it was just an act to get him to trust in Clint.
"Oh, you mean because of the teachings of some dusty old book that's been around longer than my grandmother's third nipple? I couldn't give two shits about who you shagged or who you didn't. What matters right now is fixing this thing you've done to Tony." Clint said, surprising Steve further.
"I've tried, okay; he wants nothing to do with me." Steve said, finally opening up to Clint.
"That man can be more stubborn than a closed door, trust me I know. But he told me once you know, this was years ago, he doesn't even know. We'd just come back from a bar, he was probably a bit drunker than I was. Long story short, he confessed—he was so scared I'd find out, he even told me to keep it a secret from myself… he's my brother you know, I'd do anything for him. This is why I need the two of you to settle your issues and move on, because frankly I can't take it." Clint said, giving Steve a little bit more insight to Tony's personal home life.
"I don't know what to do, I've exercised every possibility." Steve said his tone a bit more on the side of desperate than he'd like it to be.
"Yes, but now you have an evil genius by your side." Clint reminded, wiggling his eyebrows.
"I still don't understand why you're helping me." Steve said skeptically.
"Like I said, Tony's my brother." Clint replied, a genuine look on his face. "I'd do anything for him."
A/N: Well this chapter is quite small, sorry about that, but I'd rather break this section into two (keep you guys in suspense) than put it all together, you'll see why it works better this way next week (I hope).
As a side note, something may have gone wrong on FanFiction's end and I'm not able to see some reviews/comments, I get the email but not the review on the actual story. Long-story-short, it seems that it is fixed now, but that is the reason I wasn't able to readily reply to some of you. Hopefully it doesn't happen again. It was quite frustrating.
Thank you so very much for sticking around with me. I'm very glad you guys are enjoying it so far!