Word Count: 2377
Warnings: NA
Missing Piece (I've Found Mine)
The first time that Tony saw the colour blue, it was on Steve Roger's costume. It had always been grey to him before—all the way up until their first meeting in person.
It had been a shock to his system, and it had immediately put him on edge.
Given their… less than stellar first few interactions, Tony was later surprised to find Steve peering around the destroyed penthouse of Stark Tower, when JARVIS had informed Tony that he had a visitor, and had pointed him in the direction of the living room.
When Tony walked through the doorway, he found Steve staring at the large dent in the floor, left behind from the Hulk tossing Loki back and forth like a ragdoll.
In Steve's hands was a bouquet of flowers, complete with a centre of deep red roses.
"I considered cordoning that area off as a monument to the battle, but Bruce told me no," Tony said, mostly to announce his presence than anything else. "He ruins all my fun."
Steve spun around, his cheeks flushing pale pink. He held the flowers out to Tony, who took them gingerly, with a slightly arched eyebrow.
"Uh. Thanks?"
Steve nodded, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet. He looked almost petrified with fear, and Tony waved for him to follow him to the kitchen, which was probably the least damaged part of the penthouse.
"So," Steve said, perching himself on one of the stools at the breakfast bar. "You're my soulmate."
Tony hadn't quite been expecting him to just… come out and say it quite so specifically, but he nodded his head slowly.
"What colour did I give you?" he asked, intrigued despite himself.
"Red," Steve replied softly, smiling slightly. "It was always a bit awkward before, since I couldn't see half of my uniform. I, uh, I'm not much a fan of blood red. Maroon is nice though."
Tony snorted.
"You gave me blue," he replied, realising that he should probably return the information. "So far, I like the softer blues. Pastel blue is my favourite."
Steve glanced down at the pastel blue t-shirt he was wearing, and blushed a little pinker. Tony immediately decided that it was his favourite look.
"I, uh. I was hoping that you'd let me take you out on a date," Steve said, after a momentary pause. "You know, see if we're compatible."
Tony tilted his head, and then twisted his lips slightly, before he nodded his head. "Sure. We can do that, see if this thing has got legs."
Steve blinked, and then smiled, as if it took him a moment to understand what Tony had said. In fairness to the super soldier, people who hadn't spent seventy years on ice often struggled to understand him, so it was probably more of a Tony thing.
"Tomorrow?" Steve asked.
"J?" Tony murmured, glancing up at the nearest camera. "Do I have anything tomorrow that I can't cancel?"
"You have a meeting with Senator—"
"So no, then," Tony interrupted. He grinned at Steve. "Tomorrow is good."
"Are you sure? If you have a meeting—"
"Bah, politics," Tony said, waving his hand absently. "A date with the shining paragon of heroic… things sounds like much more fun than a meeting with Senator Stick-Up-His-Ass."
"Shining paragon of heroic… things?"
Tony chuckled. "Yeah, that got away from me a little bit."
Steve nodded. "Just a little bit. So, I'll see you tomorrow?"
"What time are you coming by?" Tony asked, leaning against the bar.
"Ten?"
"In the morning?" Tony asked, frowning slightly. "What kind of a date are you taking me on? What kind of date starts in the morning?"
Steve grinned brightly. "I guess you'll find out in the morning. See you tomorrow, Tony."
Tony watched him leave, unabashedly admiring the seriously peachy ass that was framed wonderfully by tight, dark jeans.
Thor above, but that was a good ass.
…
Tony checked his appearance in the mirror, smiling at himself because, take away the grease and oil, and he still cleaned up pretty well. Especially his hair. He really did have great hair.
"Captain Rogers has arrived, sir," JARVIS announced, and if Tony didn't know better, he'd say that there was smugness in his tone.
"I assume that you know where the good Captain is taking me, J?" Tony asked, as he stepped into the elevator to take him down to the garage.
"I do, sir. I believe that you'll enjoy yourself today."
"You're not going to tell me either, are you?" Tony huffed, shaking his head. "Betrayed by my own son. How very dare."
Steve was inside already, sitting astride his motorbike. The man was clearly made to wear the leather jacket that he had. Tony surreptitiously checked to make sure that he wasn't drooling.
"I, uh, wasn't sure if you'd be okay with riding with me, but JARVIS said that he was sure it would be okay."
"It's fine," Tony assured him softly.
Grabbing a helmet from one of his own bikes, Tony slipped it on his head and clipped it quickly, before he climbed up onto the back of Steve's bike, wrapping his arms around his waist.
"Let's go, Cap."
"Hold on tight," Steve murmured, pulling out of the garage.
Tony did exactly as he was told, and enjoyed the ride.
…
Steve discarded his leather jacket and his riding gloves into the seat box, much to Tony's disappointment. Though, that disappointment only lasted about three seconds, until Tony got a good look at his arms practically bursting out of the t-shirt Steve had been sporting beneath the jacket.
"So… the zoo?" Tony asked, glancing up at the sign. "That's different. I don't think that I've been to the zoo for about fifteen years."
Steve smiled slightly at him. "Different can be good though, right?"
Tony nodded. "Yeah, but only if they have penguins. I like penguins. And elephants. And giraffes. And—"
"So you like animals," Steve interrupted gently, putting a careful hand on the small of Tony's back, to guide him towards the entrance.
Despite Tony's protests, Steve paid for the tickets—"I invited you, you can pay the next time we go out"—and then laughed at Tony's pout.
Tony, of course, got over his pouting quickly. He got his first sight of a zebra in the first enclosure that they came to, and he pointed it out.
"Look! A horse in pyjamas!"
Steve trailed behind him with a look of fond amusement. "Not a zebra, then?"
"Horse in pyjamas, Steven!"
Laughing, Steve let Tony tug him around the zoo, their hands fitting together perfectly, like two jigsaw pieces.
They stopped at the penguin enclosure and Tony dropped to sit, cross legged, in front of the glass. Steve joined him without hesitation, pointing at the swimming penguins as they passed the viewing window.
"Did you know that penguins mate for life?" Tony asked, smiling slightly as he glanced at Steve. "When they find the one, they just know it."
"That's sweet," Steve replied, almost absently running his hand through Tony's hair. "What else do you know about penguins?"
Tony practically had an encyclopaedia of animal facts stored somewhere in his brain, so he spewed out a few more, before they finally got up to continue their exploration of the zoo.
Steve pulled a camera out and took some pictures of Tony with the elephants. When the zookeeper realised who they were, he allowed them to come around the other side of the enclosure, to take a closer look.
Tony was like a kid on Christmas morning, he was so excited.
Later, they found their way into the reptile house, both of them filled with gratitude for the brief relief from the heat. For a spring day, it was particularly warm out, and the perspiration was making Steve's already tight shirt stick even closer.
Not that Tony was complaining, because he really, really wasn't.
Steve was amused by a tiny green lizard trying to make it up a rock—practically a mountain to the small animal—and he and Tony both cheered in triumph when it finally made it to the top.
At the end of the reptile house, Tony almost jumped out of his skin when a frog jumped at the glass, and he shuddered, tugging Steve back out into the sunshine.
"What's your deal with frogs?" Steve asked, still chuckling as they made their way towards the aviary.
"They're evil," Tony replied, in a 'duh' tone. "Seriously, have you ever made eye contact with a frog? They've got such a… a, uh, a malevolent air about them. Bleh, I don't like them."
"Iron Man, afraid of frogs," Steve said, nodding his head slowly. "Makes so much sense."
"Yes. Yes it does," Tony said, nodding decisively. "Do you want to pause and get some food?"
Of course Steve agreed.
…
"Are you coming up?" Tony asked, when they arrived back in the garage of the tower later in the evening. They'd spent the full day at the zoo, and then gone on to a restaurant, for a delicious meal at a mom-and-pop place that Steve had found.
"Should I?" Steve asked. "I don't really know the dating protocols nowadays."
Tony shrugged. "I've never been one for following the rules, and we don't have to do anything that makes you uncomfortable. Who cares about societal norms?"
Steve smiled slightly and followed Tony into the elevator. Despite Tony's words, the chemistry between them seemed to crackle in the enclosed space. Tony wanted to dazzle Steve, though, and making out in an elevator probably wasn't the way to do that.
Thankfully, it wasn't a particularly long ride, and JARVIS was opening the doors to the penthouse.
"Can I get you a drink or anything?" Tony asked, crossing to his—thankfully undamaged—drink cabinet. He opened the doors, only for Steve to step up behind him, pressing against him as he arms wrapped carefully around Tony's waist.
"I can think of something that I want more," he murmured, almost pressing the words into Tony's neck.
Tony straightened up, turning around in Steve's embrace to look up at him. "You're sure that this is what you want?"
"I want you," Steve replied simply.
"That was good enough for Tony.
…
"AHchoo!"
Steve held out a tissue, rolling his eyes when Tony took it with a sniff. His eyes were red, and looked very close to streaming, but he continued to pet the kitten in his lap regardless, clearly not caring for his obvious allergies.
Even after five months together, Tony still exasperated him when he didn't look after himself.
"Tony—"
"I'll be a responsible human in a minute, Steve," Tony said, waving him off. "But the precious baby is precious, and she deserves all of the pets, okay?"
He wiped at his nose, and then sighed, patting the kitten a few more times before he gestured for Steve to take her. Steve gently lifted her from Tony's lap, and handed her back to Coulson, who took her with a sheepish expression.
"I didn't know he was allergic," he muttered to Steve. "I'll go and put her in my office."
They'd gathered on the Helicarrier for an Avengers meeting with Fury and Coulson, but one glance of the kitten, and Tony had been completely derailed from their purpose.
As Steve sat back down beside him, his arm resting along the back of Tony's chair, Tony leant into his side, typing on his phone with one hand as he wiped at his face with the other.
Steve paid attention to the meeting—for the most part, Tony always had at least twenty percent of Steve's attention, but he'd gotten used to that—and when Fury mentioned Tony being used as bait in an upcoming mission, he nudged Tony's chair.
"Something tells me that I'm not going to like this plan" he said, when he knew that Tony was actually concentrating on what Nick was saying.
When Fury laid out his plan in full, Steve knew that he was correct. Tony, on the other hand, stretched up and saluted Fury.
"Aye, aye."
"That's all?" Steve asked, picking at a loose thread on Tony's maroon jumper. "You're not bothered about being used as bait?"
Tony shrugged, and then shook his head. "Not really. I'm the quickest, the flashiest. I can draw their attention away from your guys, make it easier to get the job done."
"What if you get hurt?"
Chuckling, Tony reached out to cup Steve's jaw. "It's part of the job description, Steve. From the beginning, I've known that being Iron Man wasn't exactly the safest option I could have chosen, but it's the right thing to do. Worth it, right?"
"Did you rehearse that, because you knew that I'd be worried?" Steve asked, a small smile tilting his lips up.
Tony rolled his eyes. "You're a worrywart, darling. I'll be okay."
…
Stvee put two mugs of honey tea on the table, and grabbed a blanket before he joined Tony on the sofa, tugging the smaller man on top of him, before he covered them both with the blanket.
"You okay, babe?" Tony asked, leaning up a little so that he could look at him.
"You weren't… mad at me, earlier, were you?" Steve asked.
Tony blinked, wondering if he'd misunderstood the question. He hadn't been mad at Steve at all. "When?"
"When I said that I wasn't happy about you being used as bait for the mission."
"Oh." Tony snorted, and then shook his head. "No, of course not. It shows that you care. Thank you for caring."
Steve looked at him with wonder in his eyes. "How did I get so lucky to have you as my soulmate?"
Tony grinned. "Backatcha, sunshine."
As they settled down for a lengthy cuddle, and JARVIS put a movie on the tv from Steve's '21st Century Catch Up List', Tony realised suddenly that he was truly happy.
Blissfully so.
For the first time he could ever remember, really.
What he'd thought was happiness in the past—sex, drinking, partying—didn't even come close to how he felt now, with Steve, and with the Avengers.
It might have taken him a while, but he'd finally found true happiness.
Now he just had to hold onto it.