(Thank you to @summerpipedream for the inspiring idea!)
“Two sugars,” Steve said, then he stilled, heart dropping down into his shoes. It took a moment for what he’d said to sink in, but he saw when it clicked and Tony looked up from his phone, brow twisted in confusion.
“How do you know?”
Steve rolled the styrofoam cup nervously between his fingers, still clutching the sharpie in the other hand. He shrugged, trying to pass it off as nothing. “You come in every day. I have a good memory.”
Tony lay a hand flat on the counter and leaned in. “I have a good memory too. The last time I ordered black with two sugars was two and a half weeks ago.”
“Uh…” Steve frowned down at the cash register. It didn’t seem like Tony was going to let this go. If he refused to explain it, they’d probably lose a customer, but if he did, Tony would be so freaked out by Steve’s weird obsession that Steve would probably lose his job. “It’s nothing, really…” Steve said quietly, praying that Tony would brush it off.
But instead he just shifted closer. “Tell me.”
“You come in every weekday morning during my shift.”
Tony nodded.
Steve sighed. “I just – I notice what you order. I know it’s not always the same, but there’s a pattern.”
Tony’s eyes narrowed. “I know there’s a pattern, but how the f-” His voice dropped to a near whisper and he was radiating anger now. “How the fuck do you know what it is?”
“I’m sorry,” Steve squeaked. “I just – I notice things. You – you – have your black briefcase today, so you order black coffee two sugars. If you’re wearing your glasses, you get a mocha. If you’re in jeans instead of a suit you get one cream one sugar. If you’re on the phone and frowning, you get an espresso, usually two, actually. On the first of the month you get a box of muffins – one has to be carrot – and on the fifteenth you get two cream cheese danishes. That’s – I’m sorry. I just… I have a good memory and I can’t, you know… turn it off.”
Tony gaped at him for a long time in complete silence. “You -” He didn’t seem mad anymore, just stunned which Steve took to be a move in the right direction.
Steve hovered the sharpie over the cup and waited, frozen to the spot. “Mr. Stark?”
Tony shook his head. “You really noticed all of that?”
“Yes, sir.”
Tony set his briefcase down by his feet and glanced around at the shop. It was mostly empty – people at this time of the morning came and went – and there was no line. “I bring this briefcase when I have an investor’s meeting and I need the extra sugar to get me through it. Glasses are if I slept in late and didn’t have time to put my contacts in. Mocha helps wake me up for some reason. On the phone at this time of morning means foreign shit which always stresses me out and it’s going to be a four espresso kind of day. First of the month I take muffins to accounting. Lainey only likes carrot. Fifteenth is my monthly review meeting with my PA. I get us both danishes. Oh and jeans means I’m in the workshop all day. Then I get what I actually like best because I’m going to have a chance to enjoy it.” He sighed. “I’m sorry I snapped. I didn’t realize I wore my schedule quite so on my sleeve. I have to worry about corporate espionage and stuff.” Tony rubbed his hand over his face.
“It’s alright. It’s not really, I mean, it’s not a normal thing… to notice. You were right to be freaked out. But it’s totally innocent, I swear. I don’t know anything about your company.” Steve resisted the urge to shove the sharpie cap between his teeth and start chewing. “Sorry.”
Tony gave him a careful once-over and something shifted in his gaze. “You should be a corporate spy. People pay good money for attention to detail like that.”
“Um,” Steve said, hoping to god his cheeks weren’t as red as they felt. "It’snotwitheveryone.“
The corner of Tony’s lips quirked up. “No? Just big corporate billionaires?”
There was something playful in Tony’s voice, so Steve took a breath then took a chance. “No… just kind, attractive regulars.”
Tony broke into a full smile. “Well… you are right. Black, two sugars. But there’s something else I want today as well, if you have it in stock.”
“Yeah? Anything you like, Mr. Stark.” Steve deflated with relief. Tony didn’t seem mad about it, amused if anything, so there was a chance Steve would get out of this with his job and his regulars list intact.
“Mhm.” Tony leaned over onto the counter and looked up at Steve through far too many, long, dark eyelashes. “Your number.”
Steve opened his mouth in surprise then closed it again, gaze cutting down to the cup in his hand, he tried to keep his grin under control, but he knew he must look like an idiot. He checked off the sugar box on the cup twice, wrote “Tony” at the top then scrawled his phone number underneath.
Looked like he was getting out of this with his job, his favourite regular, and a date.
Tag: fic rec
Kinktober – Stony College AU (1/31)
Follows the Kinktober prompts, read at your own peril. For those expecting sexy times in every episode, please note that kinky is applied loosely here.
Day 1:
Deep-Throating|Inflation|Face-Sitting| Masks
Rhodey brought his hand up to knock on Tony’s door, but it swung open with an aggressive excitement before his knuckles ever made contact.
“Thank god it’s you,” Tony wheezed and hauled his friend into his dorm room, then with a quick peek in both directions down the hall, he closed the door behind them. The door locked on its own, but he tugged on the handle to be sure, then slid the bolt he had added for extra security.
He might not keep wads of cash rolled up and hidden in his curtain rods, but that didn’t mean people couldn’t imagine Howard Stark’s son stowing treasures in his room. The bolt helped.
“Tony, what is going on?” Rhodey wondered, and he held up his phone to add, “Your messages sounded serious, and now your, you’re, you…”
He paused then, staring at Tony and tilting his head to the side. He took a step to the left.
“You’re purple?”
Honeymoon (Steve/Tony)
Tony backed Steve up against the elevator wall and kissed him until the swooping in his stomach was from more than just rocketing up eighteen floors. Steve pulled away from Tony’s mouth and nibbled his way behind his ear and down his neck.
“This,” Tony gasped, “was such a good idea.”
“Skipping dinner?” Steve asked.
“Getting married.”
Steve snorted. “I have to agree. I can’t wait to wake up next to my husband tomorrow.”
Tony pulled back and raked his eyes suggestively down to where Steve’s top button was popped open. “I more meant because then we get this honeymoon, but sure, get all sappy about it.”
The doors opened and they stumbled out, wrapped around each other, giggling. Tony swiped their keycard to open the door, and Steve caught him around the waist and hauled him into the suite, dodging his kicking legs, and dissolving into uncontrollable laughter. It was a beautiful room, but neither of them was looking at the scenery.
Steve tossed Tony over his shoulder and marched across the room, shoving their suitcase out of the way, then tackled him backwards onto the bed, making him yelp. Tony clutched at Steve’s sides as Steve urged him into a kiss, rapidly turning from heated to full-on filthy. When Tony arched his hips up and Steve felt how eager he was to take this further, he straightened up and tugged his t-shirt over his head.
“God, you’re gorgeous,” Tony murmured, already working on his own pants. “All mine.”
“It’s all yours,” Steve agreed, shedding his pants and underwear. Steve crawled back up over Tony drawing a path up kisses up his chest. Tony was warm and solid in his arms, and he couldn’t help pausing at Tony’s left hand, rested on his stomach, and kissing the place where a golden band now sat. The rest of Tony’s clothes disappeared in a heartbeat.
Tony let out a breath then wriggled backwards towards the centre of the bed, drawing Steve back with him. He stretched out wide then wrapped himself around Steve, arms and legs, stretching up for another kiss, bare skin pressed tantalizingly close.
And –
They fell.
With a startled cry, the bed parted and they slotted down the middle like bread into a toaster, the sheets folding up around them on each side. They came to a stop, wedged in place, and Steve realized that what was advertised as a king bed was actually two smaller beds pushed together and covered over with sheets and blankets. They clearly didn’t expect the weight of two people to land right on the seam because it had been enough to pop the sheets off the corners and split the beds. And now they were stuck.
There was a quiet moment of startled contemplation, and then Tony burst out laughing, his whole body shaking where he was still wrapped in Steve’s arms.
“Oh my god, we’re stuck,” Tony hollered. “We’re going to die here, naked, trapped between two beds. Housekeeping is going to have to rescue us.” He snorted and set off laughing again.
Steve couldn’t help laughing too. “We’re not going to die, I can get us out.” But when he tried to brace his hand on the floor to push up, the tension of the sheet caught and he slipped, landing fully on Tony and rubbing their naked bodies together.
Tony’s chuckle turned darker. “Hello, sailor.”
Tony’s hand curled around Steve’s hip then slipped lower, and Steve sighed into his shoulder. He arched back, tried to get a handhold again, slipped again, and was set off into uproarious laughter again.
Tony clutched him close, giggling into his neck even as his hand kept up its teasing explorations. “We’re going to die here.”
Steve stretched up and looked down at his new husband’s beautiful face, framed in the crisp white sheets and glowing with the soft blue of the arc reactor. “Yeah, maybe,” he admitted with a grin, “but what a way to go.”
Hey, I’m sorry you’re feeling shitty. You are still amazing! I pretty much knew my day was going to be rough when i missed my first 2 alarms, and it only got worse. if you’re still doing “who had a shitty day?” prompts could you do something with bucky, or nat, and steve. idc what. but, um, thanks. and you’re awesome.
thank you <333 ouchhhh that’s a horrible way to start a day. I hope today was better for you
–
“Was he always this difficult to fix up on a date?” Natasha asks, drawing Bucky’s hair up into a ponytail on top of his head.
“I’m right here,” Steve says with exasperation.
“Yes,” Bucky replies, hand held up where she can reach it, an assortment of hairbands encircling his fingers. “I musta tried it a million times. He always had a goddamn excuse for why it wouldn’t work out.”
“I did not!” Steve says indignantly.
“’Didja see the way she looked at me, Buck’, ‘she only had eyes for you, Buck’, ‘she never gave me the time of day, Buck’, ‘I don’t date bullies, Buck’. Nobody was good enough for Steve. Then in walks Peggy Carter and bam. Game over. Guess he knew what he wanted after all.”
Natasha sees Steve’s expression soften and she looks up at him as she smooths Bucky’s hair into a perfect ponytail, finding all the lumps and fingering them flat. “So he requires a more hands-off approach is what you’re saying.”
Bucky huffs. “The more you push, the more he’ll fight. Anyway, he’s already sweet on someone.”
Steve starts to flush strawberry pink and Natasha raises an eyebrow. “Oh is he? Are you going to share with the class, Steve?”
“I hate that you two know each other,” Steve says, scrubbing a hand over his face, like he might be able to purge the blush if he rubs hard enough.
“No you don’t,” Natasha says, and grins widely. “You actually love it. You’re happy Bucky’s making friends and you like seeing me be normal. You love that we hit it off. Who is it? Who’s the lucky girl?”
Steve pinches the bridge of his nose and says, “It’s not a girl.” Then he freezes, going a little deer in the headlights. “Um.”
Natasha leans forward over Bucky’s shoulder, and demands, “What? Who? Steve, you didn’t tell me you were bisexual the whole time I was trying to set you up with someone?!”
He’s fire-engine red now, stammering and stuttering and not making any sense whatsoever.
“It’s Stark,” Bucky says finally and Steve’s eyes go wide.
“You know?” he squeaks.
Bucky laughs, a low, rasping sound that makes the back of Natasha’s neck tingle. “Yeah, punk, you think I don’t know what you look like when you’ve hung a lantern?”
“Oh, that’s perfect,” Natasha says delighted. “He’s been side-eyeing you for months! I thought I was going to have to deal with his inadequacy issues in perpetuity.”
“Wait,” Steve says, “hang on, he has?”
Natasha just sighs. “No wonder Carter made the first move.”
“Amen to that,” Bucky says.
All right but PICTURE THIS.
Small seaside town? Everyone knows everyone? Maybe a lighthouse? Craggy rocks? Waves crashing against the shore? Misty mornings? Cold winds?
And our intrepid hero comes into this town, looking for something that they’re missing but they don’t know what. They fall in love with the town, with the people, and everything about the sea and decide to stay. But there’s an especially intriguing person that keeps hanging around the lighthouse and they want to get to know them!
Only asking questions doesn’t get them anywhere. Answers are vague and evasive, and people seem to know something about that attractive person.
The hero gets to know this person, slowly and gradually, but they also seem to realize that something’s not quite normal with them. The other person seems to like them, too, but they’re still rather secretive and stare off into the sea longingly at strange points. Like a raging storm.
But as things go they grow closer and like each other more and more! And fall in love!
And that’s when folks in town start warning our hero that hey, maybe you want to be careful? Things might go wrong! You never know with people like them.
Our hero already has some of the hints from having spent so much time with this lovely, mysterious person. They’ve seen a gorgeous coat in their house. They’ve seen this person disappear at the ocean and then reappear with no explanation. Even during storms!
The library has some good books to look at, and they all warn readers to beware of selkies. That romance is doomed and you should hide their coats if you want them to stay because they’re flighty and will leave forever after a certain point. Because the sea will always call them home.
Even the town folk warn our hero about selkies once they realize it’s not quite a secret anymore. That maybe they should keep an eye out for any pretty coats and make sure they’re safely locked away?
Our hero doesn’t like that kind of talk. They go to their love and they’re intending on talking to them, but the selkie gets there first.
I love you and trust you, the selkie tells our hero. I have something to tell you. What do you know of selkies?
The selkie listens to everything our hero has to say and corrects any
misassumptions
made. And then the selkie tells our hero what it means for a human and selkie to be in love. That the selkie will have to return to the sea at some points, but the selkie will return after a certain point. And the coat is important; the coat is the selkie. That any children (depending on whether our couple is male/female or same-sex) will likely also be part selkies and also have to return to the sea.
Our hero understands, and they still want to be in a relationship with this beautiful, amazing being that fell in love with them as well. That wants to stay on land for as long as possible to build a relationship with them.
The first time the selkie leaves for an extended time, the town folks tell our hero that they should’ve locked the coat away. That the selkie won’t return. That our hero should move on.
But they wait. They wait and trust that their love will return. They know practically everything a human can know about a selkie. How can they not have confidence?
And the selkie returns and they resume their lives. Even decades later, the two can still be seen walking the beach come rain or shine, hand-in-hand and always together.
All because a selkie and a human actually communicated what it meant to be in a relationship with a magical being.
Captain Neverever 