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They went to the beach and everything was warm and beautiful for a while. He's immensely glad Steve has found someone to appreciate him as much as he and Pepper do -- especially since Sam shows it better than he ever could. He's also grateful Steve agreed to stay at the Tower when he wasn't in D.C. It did a great deal to ease his mind now that the S.H.I.E.L.D. drama was over with. Or at least, Phase One was over.
It's late and Pepper's sleeping and he's still a little fucked up from his surgery. They told him not to strain himself, which of course he immediately had anyway. He doesn't wait for Steve to come collect him though, hitting the elevator button obediently instead of trying to mount all those stairs -- why did he have so many stairs anyway?
Tony pushes on the door of the training room, knowing the other man is up, punching bags. He's jealous; he just wants to get back to doing dumb shit with his friends. His expression is uncharacteristically wan, soft; very nearly demure. He clears his throat though he also knows Steve has noticed him.
"You missed my bedtime," he criticizes with zero bite, holding up his watch and pointing to its face while still hanging in the doorway -- as if he's afraid to step any closer. Not of Steve, but of what it may symbolize.
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Date: 2015-02-09 04:25 pm (UTC)"Even if my best friend didn't come back from the dead, I'd still have a lot of stuff to work out. It's hard to see things that are probably right in front of me." He gently runs his hand up and down Tony's back, hoping to console him a little. Tony is still the one physically healing here. He'd like to have him focusing solely on that even if it's not really possible for someone like Tony Stark.
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Date: 2015-02-09 05:04 pm (UTC)The nasty scar gives him something else to be self-conscious about in the wake of the reactor, so at least he doesn't have to lose this rough self-flagellating exterior he's built up. Small victories, and all that. "We both have issues, yep. Think we covered that one during our first session, Captain."
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Date: 2015-02-09 08:48 pm (UTC)"Should I be coming up with new material? I don't think I ever told you how much I loved those little toy soldiers as a kid."
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Date: 2015-02-09 08:58 pm (UTC)"And as long as you didn't love them a little too much..." Oh yeah, Cap's half-gay or whatever that was probably insensitive. He barks out an unstablish sounding laugh and shakes his head against Steve's shoulder. "Foot in mouth, record time."
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Date: 2015-02-09 09:11 pm (UTC)"Wow you actually said that. Yeah looking back it was playing with a toy every other boy played with that let me know 'hey I could date a guy too, huh?'" He shakes his head like Tony no. Who taught you anything??
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Date: 2015-02-09 09:18 pm (UTC)"Bad joke. Like. Whole new level of terrible." He pulls away a little to grimace. This is his apology face, you can keep doing that back rub thing. Sighs. He ruins everything. "...What did make you realize that though? Uh. I mean. If you... want to answer." Is that better???? Christ.
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Date: 2015-02-09 10:11 pm (UTC)Steve pauses a bit as if trying to find a better way to explain it. "I never really ruled it out. I just didn't know who'd be the one I'd connect with until Sam came around. If we didn't work out, I wouldn't run off to the next guy, you know? I'd just wait to see who I felt that way towards again."
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Date: 2015-02-09 10:18 pm (UTC)All of this is only now slotting together, because he's a dick. And he feels like one. He no longer thinks he deserves back-rubs, actually backing off enough to put a bit of distance between them, though he can't bring himself to completely untangle their legs, foot still resting against Steve's calf.
"Dude, I'm sorry. I've never had a friend who was... you know. I don't know the etiquette." It's all earnest, even if it's also completely high school. He knows it is, too. Tony wraps his hands in his pillowcase and sighs. "Or like any friend etiquette. Or any etiquette ever. Should I introduce myself again?" Hi I'm Anthony Dicknose Stark. Sigh sigh sighs some more.
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Date: 2015-02-09 11:27 pm (UTC)"Apology accepted." Really. It's that easy. "Just try not to make fun, alright?" A beat. "I mean if you want to laugh because I can't stop talking about how great he is that's fine. I do it all the time when I'm alone. Did I really need to tell the lady at the grocery store I needed flour because my boyfriend was making me the world's greatest pancakes? Probably not."
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Date: 2015-02-09 11:39 pm (UTC)He laughed so hard he dislodged a tear, and he shakes his head as he wipes it away. "You know I like Sam. And I don't care about... whatever. All that stuff. I never really saw the point in worrying about it, which is probably why I say shit without thinking. But I do reserve the right to laugh at how disgusting you two are." Which is totally hypocritical because he and Pepper are just as gross lbr.
"Disgusting like. Sweet, cute, sacharin -- gummy bear gross. Not." Fuck.
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Date: 2015-02-10 03:43 am (UTC)"I get it. You're fine." Steve very gently knocks his hand into his shoulder."You're such a goof ball."
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Date: 2015-02-10 03:53 am (UTC)One eyebrow shoots up and for a second he's afraid he overstepped again. "I just mean... when me and Pepper came out, it was a big thing. Because I'm me." But not only is Captain America taken, he's taken by a fellow hero. And a man to boot. He's sure there will be uproar just like there was for him. Negative and positive attention both. And sometimes the positive was creepy so you kind of welcomed the boos until that got crazy too. Having fans is weird. But he knows Cap has an issue with the way his image makes him infallible and all. Tony wouldn't be surprised if he used his relationship with Sam in some cool, positive way. He likes to think he did that by making Pepper CEO, especially since SI runs so much smoother with her at the helm.
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Date: 2015-02-10 04:09 am (UTC)"But I'm not really the kind of guy who writes a press release for every little thing he does. We'll talk it over and see where we're going from there." He really can't decide this alone.
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Date: 2015-02-10 04:21 am (UTC)"But you told the girl at the check-out counter. And she's gonna tell all her girlfriends. And if you told her, you probably told others. And hello, best friend here, ring ring Hey Tony. Yes, Cap? Sam and me are using the boyfriend word isn't that great? Totally tubular, squirrelfriend."
There's a pause... "Do you get where I'm going with this?" No one ever gets u Tony bae.
now i can sleep peacefully
Date: 2015-02-10 05:00 am (UTC)There's a long pause. "Please don't ever call me squirrelfriend again. You sound like a hyperactive toddler."
yes good bc this is so important
Date: 2015-02-10 09:32 am (UTC)Tony worries his lip nervously, wondering not for the first time tonight if he should just abandon this line of questioning. Is he stepping over the best friends line? Is there one of those? He tries to compare this to his relationship with Rhodes, but there's really nothing similar about it. They don't get this personal even if there's no actual line to speak of there either. Eventually, he just decides to blurt it out because otherwise Cap is just going to tease him out of it. Maybe that's what BFF means? He'll figure it out -- someday.
"You're you, and he's him. And you don't have to have a press release, but you might want to because... well. Someone's going to sell the story to TMZ and you'll be asked for a statement and it's so much better to just spin it yourself so you can say what you want and not have someone selling video of you guys running together." That was a whole burst of words said on one breath. So maybe he's a hyperactive toddler, so what. He worries about shit like this because he knows Steve cares about how he's perceived. Not in his personal life, but as Cap. And to everyone else, the two are one in the same. "Just, think about it. Pepper can always help you guys with it if that's the way you want to fly. I'm going to shut up now," he tacks onto the end, grinning a little lopsidedly. Take it or leave it, bud, he'll continue obsessing about this in his head instead of to your face.
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Date: 2015-02-10 05:13 pm (UTC)"I'll talk to Pepper right after him. I know she has our back." More importantly, she knows how to spin. Steve's idea of telling people things is more or less telling them and then saying deal with it. He'll need something better if that's where Sam wants to go with this.
"You don't think it's kind of presumptuous? I mean what if he doesn't want all this drama?" He frowns and pointedly doesn't ask what he wants to. Steve is kind of paranoid he'll dump him. It is a lot of pressure and unwanted attention.
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Date: 2015-02-10 05:46 pm (UTC)There. He feels good about that, reaching out to tap Steve's shoulder in a mirror to the one he'd gotten. Tony would let Pepper handle this from here on out. His press conferences were pretty much like Steve's would be so that's a no-go.
"But if he ever hurts you..." His face creases in worry. Not because he thinks Sam ever would, but just because he's become so fiercely protective -- even possessive -- of what he has that he can't let it go. Tony doesn't finish the sentence, looking away. The meaning is clear enough without the rest of the words.
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Date: 2015-02-10 06:11 pm (UTC)"Well now it has to work out." He laughs nervously. "I hope you're not going to beat up every person who ever hurts me. I mean you'd never get out of that suit." He gets punched all the time especially in the heart. :(
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