When Tony wakes up he makes his way automatically to the nearest coffee machine. He doesn't really notice that he's in his workshop until he's most of his way through a third mug of coffee. He looks around blearily.

'Jarvis, wasn't I with Steve?'

'Good afternoon, sir,' Jarvis has long given up speaking to Tony before there's proof of the genius' consciousness. 'You passed out on your desk a little over seven hours ago.'

'Huh,' Tony rolls his shoulders. 'I really thought...'

He cuts himself off as he watches Dummy drop a piece of toast, run over it, scoop it back into the plate and then present it to him.

'Sir, you have five new messages and I believe Captain Rogers has been expecting you.'

'Shit!' Tony shoves some of the toast into his mouth and runs to the lift. He chugs his coffee on the ride down and abandons his mug just off of the lift on Steve's floor.

'Steve?'

'Tony!' the Captain comes around a corner and beams at him.

Ok, he's not mad?

Tony finds himself scooped into a tight hug,

'Umm, I'm sorry?'

'For what?' Steve pulls back to smile at him.

'For...' he gestures vaguely behind him.

'You were busy,' Steve is apparently drinking in the sight of him. 'You've only been down there three days and you're here now.'

'Three...?' Tony scowls and shakes his head. 'Why do you put up with me?'

Steve's face does that weird spasming thing where he's trying not to show that something's upset him.

'I love you,' the soldier tells him stubbornly.

Christ.

Tony smiles and presses soft kisses to Steve's lips,

'I need a shower.'

'Oh, ok,' Steve nods and loosens his hold.

'Join me,' Tony smirks.

Steve swallows and nods quickly.

'I live every day hoping you don't come to your senses,' Tony says as he pulls an eager, naked, Captain America into the shower with him.

Steve just kisses him enthusiastically.

Showers are great for having the excuse to rub your hands everywhere. Also, because he's rubbing soap all over Steve, Steve is reciprocating.

Steve's touches are nervous, fleeting and gentle, but they're still Steve. He pulls the soldier into a kiss under the spray and massages his scalp as he sucks on his tongue. Hands rub down his back and onto his arse but then flinch back up as if Steve honestly expects him to be upset.

'You can touch me,' Tony tells him.

He gets a nod in response but Steve's hands don't move.

'Come on,' Tony loops his arms around Steve's neck. 'You were with me a moment ago.'

The blonde nods again and this time his hands skitter back up Tony's spin. He watches the soldier take a gulping breath.

And then he realises Steve's eyes are shut.

'Steve?'

Blue eyes meet his and he can see something's wrong.

'I'm sorry?' he starts to pull away only for the blue eyes to widen and to suddenly have a super soldier latched around his chest.

'If I look at you...' Steve blurts then makes a choking noise as Tony arches against him.

'You close, pet?' Tony rakes his fingers across Steve's shoulders. Steve is making soft whimpering noises against his neck as he grinds them together. He kisses the taller man's face and coaxes him into loosening his arms.

Steve cradles his face in both hands to catch him in a kiss. They drop to Tony's hips when they both need to gulp in more air.

'It occurs to me that you're strong enough that I could ride you against the shower wall...' Tony says, and then wraps his fist around both their cocks and starts pumping.

Fuck this man is responsive.

'You like this, Steve?'

'Yeah...' Steve manages to gasp out against his shoulder.

'Gimme,' Tony pries one of the soldier's hands from his hip and moans as he adds it to his own around their cocks. 'There...' he gulps a breath, 'that's... that's good.'

Steve is kissing him now. Hard.

That's good too.

He moves his own hand away to get a good grip on the back of Steve's head so that when he nips experimentally on the soldier's lip he stays with him when he flinches away,

'Sorry,' he peppers his face with kisses, 'you don't like it; I won't do it again.'

Steve is shaking his head and makes a soft aggrieved sound even as he tightens his fist around them both.

'Oh,' Tony pants as he thrusts a little mindlessly for a moment.

'God, Tony!' Steve is kissing him again. 'Please. Do that... Please...'

He's begging.

Fuck. The man is teetering on the edge and begging Tony to fucking bite him.

Tony bites a little harder than before and feels the bigger man tense against him before shuddering with his release. His grip around Tony tightens and the genius lets his head drop back against the shower wall as he eyes roll back; fuck, he's so close.

He gets a better grip on Steve, who's still riding out his own release, and boosts himself to get his legs around the soldier's waist. He hears himself, as if from a distance, making a desperate whining sound. Steve has him presses against the wall now lets out a groan and bites against Tony's shoulder.

'Fuck yes!' Tony hisses as his own release washes over him.

He's panting against Steve's hair when his position is recalled to him as he suddenly slides down the wall as Steve's legs apparently give out.

He giggles and tries to stop himself but then Steve is clutching him close and laughing too,

'Sorry,' Steve pulls back enough to smile at him; he doesn't look very sorry.

'Meh,' Tony grins back, 'climbing you mid-orgasm wasn't the best of ideas.'

Steve gives him a lazy kiss and then tips his head back into the shower spray, Tony manages to gather the energy to untangle himself from the kneeling soldier and stands up.

Ok, now Steve's kneeling at his feet...

Bad Tony; leave the nice post-orgasmic soldier alone.

Tony can't help smirking a little when Steve looks up. The blonde blushes but grins and averts his eyes as he stands up as well.

'You've got a few kinks in you, Cap,' Tony grins. 'I'll remember that.'

Steve blushes but holds his gaze,

'You seem to have the same one.'

'I have many,' Tony shrugs and steps from the shower. 'I'd tell you them all but I really need to make the effort to work out what it is that I've apparently just spent three days building.'

Steve just laughs as reaches passed him for a towel,

'You don't remember?'

'I'm sure it'll come back to me.'

'You were building a generator for Doctor Richards,' Jarvis tells him.

'Reed?' Tony scowls, 'again?'

'You don't do things for him that often,' Steve is still grinning.

'No...' Tony tries to shake off the strange feeling.

Steve fastens his towel around his hips and gets a grip on Tony's to pull him closer,

'Come on, so you did more work for Reed; he owes you another favour. It's not that bad, right?'

Tony slumps a little and tucks his head under Steve's chin,

'You're here and we're both wet and naked,' he tells Steve. 'There is nothing bad about this situation.'

Steve hugs him against his chest.

Tony scowls at one of his messages from R&D. Didn't he respond to this a few days ago? Maybe it's from someone else in the same department and somehow the message hasn't reached them?

Tony has mostly convinced himself on that one, but then has the same feeling when he opens his next message.

'Jarvis, analysis of my recent messages; are any of them repeats?'

'I will check sir,' Jarvis tells him.

'Here,' Steve sits down beside him holding two plates. 'I made you a sandwich; I know the bots aren't the best at making you meals.'

'Dummy gave me some toast which he had run over,' Tony tells him, a little distracted by his building sense of worry.

'Sounds lovely,' Steve manages to keep a straight face.

Tony puts down his tablet and takes the plate from Steve with only a second or so of hesitation.

The beaming grin makes it worth it every time.

'Is there more work you need to do?' Steve asks as they eat.

'You have plans for me?' Tony leers.

Steve blushes,

'Not really. I'd just like to...' he waves his hand vaguely.

'We could watch that movie I wasn't paying attention to before,' Tony grins.

Steve smiles,

'Which one was that?'

'I don't know; I just told you I wasn't watching it.'

Steve just laughs,

'Well, that doesn't help but I'm sure we'll fine one we fancy.'

'No evidence of duplicate messages, sir,' Jarvis adds.

'Huh,' Tony scowls and glances back at his tablet. 'Déjà vu then.'

Steve gives him a slightly confused look but just smiles when Tony catches his wrist to tow him to the sofa. He slumps against the blonde's side as Steve starts looking through the list of movies and doesn't pay attention to what's chosen.

By tucking his head under Steve's chin he can access extremis unnoticed. Dummy greets him as he looks at his messages himself. Jarvis is right; even in his deleted messages there are none that match the two in question.

'Maybe I looked at them in my sleep with extremis and just don't remember?' he asks into the network.

You and Butterfingers are not convinced, Dummy dismisses the theory entirely and Jarvis seems to be thinking about it.

'Sir, I am not certain you could access the network without us noticing.'

'No, I guess not,' Tony scowls.

'Are you asleep?'

'What?'

'Sir, that is Captain Rogers.'

'Right...' Tony shifts his attention back out of the network. 'Mmm?'

'Sorry,' Steve is petting his hair, 'I should have guessed you'd be tired.'

'Hmm,' Tony pats his partner's abs without replying.

'Do you remember what you were building?' a kiss is pressed to his hair.

'Not really,' Tony ponders that for moment. 'A generator for Reed, right Jarvis?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Was there something wrong with the last one I made him? That would explain why I'm working for him again so soon.'

'The last one, sir?' Jarvis asks.

'Yeah, it gave off some weird readings,' Tony rolls his shoulders and straightens up.

'Sir, I do not have any records of you having made a generator for Doctor Richards.'

'Say that again,' Tony has frozen and stares off into the middle distance.

'Sir,' Jarvis repeats dutifully, 'I do not...'

'That's impossible,' Tony interrupts his mind spinning. 'Oh. Fuck.'

'Tony?' Steve sounds worried.

'Steve, when was the last time I disappeared into my workshop for days at a time?'

'Umm, a few weeks ago when you were finalising your plans to remove the arc reactor,' Steve replies, clearly confused.

'Oh, I'm going to kill him!'

'Tony?' Steve just sounds worried now.

'I don't know how but whatever I've just made must have wiped some memories or given me some false ones or fucking something,' Tony grumbles and gets up. 'Steve, sorry, I need to go and fix this. I'll see you later.'

'Right,' Steve sighs.

Tony presses a kiss to his lips,

'I'll make it up to you, promise.'

Steve offers a small smile,

'Ok.'

Tony hesitates for a moment then forces himself to walk away.

'Alright!' Tony throws his hands into the air four hours later. 'We're getting nowhere; worst case scenario if I just pull the plug on this thing?' he glares at the generator which continues to glow.

'The device may be obtaining power from the Universe itself and unplugging it may end all of creation,' Jarvis informs him dryly.

Tony drops his hands to slap loudly against his thighs and snorts a laugh,

'Alright, yeah, that would be bad.'

'However,' Jarvis adds, 'I suspect such a scenario is unlikely.'

'That isn't as comforting as you might think,' Tony sighs and drags his fingers through his hair.

'You have my most heart-felt apologies.'

The genius sighs,

'Ok, we know whatever it did happened sometime last night because we agree on what has happened since I woke up.'

'Yes, sir.'

'When did I turn it on?'

'The device powered up at 6am.'

'Even better, it turned itself on,' Tony walks in a circle and swears a few times before continuing. 'The readings since then are stable though.'

'Yes, sir.'

'Unless it's somehow messing with the data you're collecting,' he shakes his head, 'and possibly with my brain.'

'If it is indeed affecting the network as you suggest,' Jarvis sounds worried, 'then it could conceivably use extremis to reach you.'

'It shouldn't work that way,' Tony throws up his hands. 'None of what you just said should be possible.'

They're quiet for a few minutes.

'It's the only theory we have,' Tony shrugs. 'So what can we do about it?'

'Without knowing exactly how this happened I cannot offer you any suggestions to avoid future occurrences.'

'I didn't think so,' Tony glares at the generator some more. 'Fine, we'll monitor it really fucking closely for now and strangle Reed when he comes for it tomorrow. Makes sure all the barriers you can put up are up; I don't want this happening again.'

'Yes, sir. Where shall you be?'

'I'm going to make this up to Steve,' Tony shrugs.

Tony lounges against the wall just inside the door to his penthouse bedroom; there's a sleeping super soldier in his bed.

He sheds his clothes as he crosses the room and slips into the bed. Steve is curled on his side with an arm half reached towards Tony's side of the bed. Tony presses his back against Steve's chest and tugs Steve's arm around his waist.

'Tony?' Steve hugs him closer.

'Hey,' he replies quietly. 'Go back to sleep.'

'What time is it?'

'A little after midnight. Go to sleep.'

'Ok...' he feels Steve nuzzle his hair. 'Love you...'

Tony smiles and closes his eyes as he relaxes into his partner's arms.

Tony comes awake to a buzzing in the back of his skull,

'Dummy?'

The workshop readings are thrown at him,

'What the hell is that thing...?'

Everything goes dark.

AN

I corrected the bizarre formatting in the previous chapter. Sorry about that. :-)