Thank you for the prompt and I hope that the ficlet fits the bill.
~~~
Given the layout of the living quarters at the Facility, they shouldn’t have slept in and then decided to make breakfast together. But then again, they weren’t even remotely thinking about the team at the moment.
Steve had lost track of time with Tony curled up against him, his head resting on his chest. No need to be anywhere soon, no deadlines, no threat hanging over their heads. The only thing getting them out of this bed was a crick in the back.
Or the stomach rumbles.
He should have breakfast, Steve guessed, but that would mean moving Tony. And he wasn’t keen on that just yet. They had earned these peaceful moments with their blood, sweat and tears.
“There are gluten-free blueberry waffles in the freezer,” Tony mumbled from Steve’s chest.
“You want breakfast?”
“I’m not getting any more sleep if your stomach continues to sound like a freight train.”
Steve reached out for the night table drawer. By now, Tony had rolled onto his elbow. “What does this say about our relationship if you’re storing protein bars in my bedroom?”
“That I’m yours for keeps,” Steve replied, kissing Tony on the nose.
They stumbled out out to the kitchen, Tony for coffee and frozen waffles, Steve for scrambled eggs and leftovers in the refrigerator. Not holding hands, but standing comfortably in each other’s space, like they belonged and came as a matched set.
“When did this all start?” Clint asked from the bar.
Steve blinked at most of the team staring back at them from their spots in the kitchen. They didn’t know – how could they really, since they would not remember or recall Steve and Tony’s harrowing fight alone to get the Infinity Stones while the rest of the team held off Thanos. The Avengers had fought and beaten Thanos – Steve was there when they did. But they didn’t know all the sacrifices that Steve and Tony had made to get them that victory or how close they’d come to losing each other.
Steve knew. Tony knew. Bound together forever because of the war against Thanos, their love transcended all their arguments and disappointments in each other from the first battle of New York to that fight in Siberia.
“Steve? Tony?” Natasha asked, raising an eyebrow.
Tony entangled his fingers in Steve’s and smiled beautifully at him. That same smile he first gave Steve when their eyes met over Thanos’ fallen body and they both knew in that triumphant moment that they had won and they could have that peaceful future they had despaired of ever having. “Guess we’ve been busy,” Tony replied.
“Tones?” Rhodey asked.
“To catch everyone up in the room – Steve and I are dating, it started when we were fighting Thanos, even though clearly we’d started something long ago. We are not talking about: Siberia, Ross, Zemo or my dad. That’s the way it is.”
And Steve just smiled at everyone as he headed to the fridge and Tony to the coffee. He’d explain to the team later, much later and call Bucky too. And finally, he could eat breakfast with his boyfriend with all their friends around them. The way that it should be.
This is a little fic I wrote for @islegirl808, who has been nothing but patient, kind and very generous since they won my Stony Trumps Hate auction. Thank you for understanding, the support, and above all the ideas. I truly hope that this story matches your hopes.
Tony doesn’t believe that the local artist Steve Rogers is a real person. But he’s too busy with his bookstore to get to the bottom of that mystery. And he also has a new problem – a massive crush on that cute blond guy who is now hanging around all the time.
Rated: T; universe: MCU; words: 7600
If you’re interested, I’ll take prompts for ~500 word ficlets this weekend. I’ll write Steve/Tony in (nearly any) universe and Avengers Assemble ficlets.
(A little something inspired by watching Battlebots.)
“Bruce is not the driver?” Tony asked as he evaluated the opposing team standing just a few feet away. A tall brawny blond had stepped up with a controller in his hands with Bruce and Sam hanging back.
Rhodey shook his head. “He didn’t say anything to me.”
Tony shrugged. Bruce had been Team IronBot for a couple years until he struck out on his own after a nasty argument over IronBot’s spinner mounts. It hadn’t even been a loud or long argument but clearly Bruce Had Opinions. Tony felt a little bad that Sam followed. But he had still had Rhodey in his corner and IronBot had stampeded over the competition this tournament.
Now they were about to fight Incredible Hulk, a huge flipper robot painted obnoxious shades of green and purple and apparently being driven by a man in a too tight t-shirt.
And too cute for Tony to easily ignore.
“You know, if you keep staring like that, we’ll miss the starting buzzer,” Rhodey said.
“I’m not staring.”
Next to Rhodey, Peter bounced on the balls of his feet, fueled by adrenaline and an appalling amount of coffee. “Um, Mr. Stark, they noticed the staring.”
Bruce decked out in his Team Hulk t-shirt shuffled over to Tony. “Tony? No hard feelings?” he asked, offering a handshake.
Tony warmly shook his hand. “We’re good. Especially after we pound you into the floor of the arena.”
The guy in the tight t-shirt looked over at him and Bruce, a quizzical look on his pretty pretty face. Bruce looked back forth from his driver to Tony and back again. “Hmmm,” he said, having measured up the situation. “If you win, I’ll introduce you to my driver. But if you lose – and you’re going to lose – you’ll only get to meet him when we win the tournament.”
“No biggie, Brucie, IronBot is going to win.”
“Uh, Mr. Stark,” Peter said, tugging on his shirt. “They’ve been undefeated so far.”
“Pfft. Not for much longer.”
“Not if you get distracted by that guy,” Rhodey muttered under his breath.
The lights dimmed and the countdown began. Tony stole a glance at the competition standing there. Too bad Tony was about to –
The buzzer rang too loud in Tony’s ears. And next thing he knew the Incredible Hulk hurtled down the battlebox towards IronBot. His spinner hadn’t gained enough speed yet. Then the Hulk flipped him high into the air. Tony watched his bot not so gracefully land hard while the crowd went wild.
It Was Now On.
IronBot hadn’t lost in a long long time. And he wasn’t going to lose to Bruce and his team. He surged forward.
Except that the Hot Guy on Bruce’s team was the most aggressive driver he’d ever run into. Tony tried every trick in his book but he couldn’t shake the guy as they raced around the arena slamming into each other.
Tony saw it before it happened but was helpless to stop it. The other driver had been setting this up from the beginning, the perfect hit. Tony watched in horror as the Incredible Hulk viciously hit IronBot. IronBot flew again into the air and landed wrong. The spinner mount fractured and IronBot skittered uncontrollably across the floor. Until his beautiful robot died in a corner of the arena.
At least the other driver had the class not to do a celebration dance while Rhodey mourned with him.
Tony sat late at night trying to revive IronBot. He’d get to be in a consolation tournament at least if his robot could fight. He poked around the spinner mount. He’d have to weld something in the morning since Rhodey wasn’t going to let him when he hadn’t slept in twelve hours.
“Tony Stark?” a nice baritone voice asked.
He looked bleary-eyed up at the hot guy from Bruce’s team. Who had destroyed his robot. “Yeah?”
“Bruce and Rhodey told me you’d be here. I’m Steve,” Steve said
“You’re a great driver,” he replied.
“You design great robots.” Steve put his hand on IronBot. “I was wondering if you’d be looking for a driver.”
“What? Incredible Hulk is moving on –”
Steve shook his head. “It’s died after we took it out of the arena – IronBot broke something and Bruce won’t be able to fix it with the equipment we have on hand. He thought maybe I could help you.”
Tony smiled. Bruce wasn’t such a bad friend after all, even if he had wrong ideas about fighting robots. “Glad to meet you, Steve. Sounds like a great idea. Want to talk about it over dinner?”
“Sure,” Steve agreed with a angelic smile. “I was hoping you’d ask.”
Captain Neverever 