The following day, Tony woke up the most rested he had felt in months. He was actually surprised to find that he woke up before his alarm and was able to get ready earlier. He was even more surprised to find Clint cooking breakfast.
They were quiet for a second, Tony for a loss of words and Clint out of anticipation.
Eventually Clint Spoke, "So… how did it go?" He asked tentatively, holding a pan of scrambled eggs over a plate for Tony.
"How did what go?" Tony asked taking a sip of his coffee. Clint gave him an exasperated look and shook his head.
"Don't play dumb with me Tony; you know exactly what I'm referring to." Clint said serving his portion of the breakfast.
"Oh, you mean how you technically aided in my kidnapping. Yeah, that went as well as you'd expect." Tony said with a faux cheerful tone.
"Sorry about that, I just couldn't stand the two of you arguing, it was driving me up the wall." Clint said, sitting down to eat his breakfast.
"You know, don't you… what he did?" Tony mumbled into his plate.
"I know about you too Tony." The brunette's head snapped up to look at Clint in the eyes. "Yeah, you told me once a very long time ago. You don't remember 'cause you were drunk." Clint continued, taking a sip of his tea.
"Why haven't you said anything?" Tony asked, flabbergasted.
"Because it's not a big deal. You being that way is no fault of your own and honest to goodness, I am offended that you think a little sexual preference would change my opinion of you. You're my brother Tony; nothing will ever change that." Clint said sincerely.
Tony's eyes welled up and he had to dab them quickly to dispel the ridiculous tears that had formed.
"Thanks." Tony said, returning to his food.
"So… did you two fuck?" Clint asked as Tony choked on his toast.
"What?! No, Clint!" Tony said incredulously.
"Well I thought, with the way he keeps looking at you that you know, once you'd resolved all your petty shit you'd get down to business." Clint said, shrugging his shoulders.
"It doesn't even matter, we're just friends now. He probably won't ever touch me again." Tony said, his tone taking on a darker edge at the proposition.
"Are you kidding me? After all the shit I had to do- god you two are hopeless. I'm done; I absolve myself from all responsibility and leave it to you two to resolve your own shit." Clint said, rising from the table and grabbing his coat.
Tony followed closely behind him, forgetting Steve's coat. Whether it was intentional or nots, I can't really tell.
ooOOoo
Steve looked up as Tony knocked on the car's window and stepped inside. The blonde was honestly surprised (and very relieved to find) that Tony was willingly accepting a ride. After last night, he still couldn't gauge Tony's emotions well.
Steve was a little disappointed when Clint followed suit; he hoped to have had the brunette to himself on this chilly morning in September.
"Good morning gentlemen." Steve said politely, pulling out into the street. It was as if today was a do-over for yesterday's mishap. He really wasn't sure how Fury was going to take his absence but Clint had assured him that he would take care of it.
"Morning." Tony replied. This time he didn't fight the tight space, but he did keep a little distance between them.
It was a relatively quiet ride, as yesterday loomed over their heads like a well-placed sword. Steve really didn't want to talk about it, but it seemed inevitable.
Miraculously, they pulled into the familiar parking spot and not a word was uttered about it.
The comforting lull of repetition was actually welcomed by Tony, just this once he was glad he had something to do with his hands. By the time the end of his shift rolled around, he was drained from his energy, but in an accomplished way.
He walked into the locker room sweaty and greasy, someone had kick-started the furnace and the entire factory felt humid rather than warm. It would take a while for the filters to start operating properly. If Fury let him, he'd take a look at them and see if he could tweak around with certain parts.
He was taken aback by the amount of men congregated in front of the showers when he entered the locker room.
"What's going on?" Tony asked a nearby worker.
"Oi laddie, them pipes 'ere are frozen. Only one of them things workin', we all have to wait patient-like if we want te bathe. A load of shite if you ask me." The short Irishman responded, his accent thick and barely discernable. Tony nodded and then sighed; he could return home where he had running water, but he knew that the water would be freezing by the time he did, but here, the furnace kept the water at nearly scalding when it had to.
Tony went to sit down on the bench in front of his locker and wait out the line. When he saw Steve looking around for him, he waved the blonde over and patted the space next to his.
"What's going on?" Steve asked, the little furrow of his brows making his face look childlike and innocent.
"Every single pipe except one is frozen. The guys have to wait to take a shower and I'm willing to bet they're doing it because it's the only hot water they'll have for a long time." Tony explained beginning to unlace his work boots.
"That's terrible. Don't we have guys who can fix that?" Steve asked, mimicking Tony's actions.
"At this time of the night, it's better if we just do it one at a time than try and call a plumber to fix it." Tony said, unbuttoning his work vest in the process.
It took about half an hour for the men to cycle through the shower and out of the locker room. By then Tony and Steve were the only two remaining bodies.
"Would you like to go first?" Steve asked, motioning to the shower.
"Why don't we go together, you know, conserve the water?" Tony asked, his cheeks flaming as he realized what his proposition could imply.
Steve swallowed slightly as the thought of being in the same space (naked) with Tony, intrigued him.
"Sure, we can shower together. It'll go faster that way."
It was awkward at first, they both wanted to get under the spray but in order to do that they had to be touching and, in retrospect, Tony had to admit that he hadn't quite thought this whole plan through. He wasn't quite sure what he was trying to accomplish by inviting Steve into taking a shower with him, he wasn't sure if he was trying to achieve anything at all!
He was so confused.
"Want me to get your back?" Tony asked pleasantly, though his heart hammered harder than should be physically possible.
"If you want." Steve replied. They had a hushed tone as they spoke, the dark space of the shower made it impossible to talk above a whisper without killing the atmosphere.
Tony ran his hands vertical to Steve's spine, capturing the water into them and rubbing soothing circles into the flesh and muscle. Steve dropped his head and inhaled deeply as Tony's hands worked the knots out of his neck and back. The brunette noticed, as he was working into Steve's shoulders, a freshly made scar over his left deltoid spanning the entire length of his left arm and down his side. Tony unconsciously traced the lines, admiring their ugliness. He never did pay much attention to Steve's skin until just this moment.
"Is this where it happened?" Tony whispered breaking his trancelike state and removing his hands from Steve's back.
"Yeah… a little of my thigh was caught as well. The explosion was bad." Steve said, the talk of death and war bringing down his erection to a manageable length. Tony's fingertips were like feathers made of steel. Hard where they needed to be and soft in the same respect.
"I'm sorry, again. It must have taken months to recover." Tony said turning his back as Steve turned to look at him; he too was rock-solid, his entire body tense.
"Six months, four surgeries, and three-hundred and forty-two stitches. The doctors were surprised when I could move my hand and arm again. It's permanently sore though, it's worse when I wake up and when I go to sleep. But I've gotten used to it." Steve replied gaining permission to run his hands down the expanse of Tony's back.
It took a second for his eyes to adjust to the dim light, but then he saw it: multiple slash marks, the longest running from one tip of his shoulder to the bottom of the opposite hip. He traced a finger to it, similarly to what Tony had done.
"My father… he used to get incredibly drunk and angry. After my mother died it got worse… this one was the piece de résistance. I had thirty stiches running across my back for weeks, and the wound tended to open while I was in school. He stopped beating me so hard after that; used mostly words to express his rage." Tony explained; his story a bit less heroic than Steve's had been, but, nonetheless tragic.
Steve wanted to place an infinitesimal amount of kisses on Tony's back to chase away the bad memories associated with the scars. But he didn't of course; he just apologized, like most humans do when things (that they had no involvement in) were out of their control.
ooOOoo
Tony stared at the steps leading up to his apartment when they pulled up towards the curb. The more he looked at them, the less he wanted to go up.
He looked to his left at Steve, who was staring at him quizzically. His hair was still damp from their conjoined shower and the sight made him hot all over.
"I just remembered, I have your jacket upstairs i-if you want to get it now that is." Tony said, fumbling over his words.
Steve nearly missed the invitation, he would have declined on the basis of being polite, but this was his one chance to see where Tony lived, to breathe the brunette in.
"Sure, if you don't mind of course." Steve said, killing the engine of the car and stepping out. Tony followed promptly, a strange exhilaration in his veins.
They climbed the stairs two at a time until they reached the apartment, Clint was either out or sleeping but it didn't matter, because the jacket was lying innocently on the coat hanger.
Tony picked it up and outstretched his hand to Steve. He didn't let go of the jacket, though, as Steve took it; Tony held on looking into Steve's mercurial eyes.
"Here you go." Tony said slowly, he was willing Steve to pull him closer into that sweet embrace he had felt so briefly that it seemed as if it'd been almost years since he'd had it.
"Thank you for keeping it safe, Tony." Steve said, just as captivated by Tony. He wanted to bring the other man into a long and never-ending embrace, but that would only end in tragedy; he had misunderstood Tony's gaze before, he wasn't the type of man to commit the same mistake twice.
"No problem, thank you for lending it to me." Tony replied. They were running out of things to say, as they were currently frozen in space and time.
"Anytime." Steve said, finally breaking the trance by pulling slightly on his coat. Tony let it go immediately and reddened. He'd never done this (whatever this meant) before, so it would only be logical that he didn't know what to do. A small comfort was that Steve didn't seem to have a clue as well.
Tony waved goodbye as the object of his affection walked away and descended the steps. The brunette held himself against the door as his world rocked against his consciousness. He wanted so much to run after Steve and embrace him, fill his mouth with kisses and in return feel complete. But he could only sit there with an echo from the past and a longing for a future that he may or may not have already destroyed.
See Steve, Tony likes you too!I