“We need to talk,” Tony said, walking into the room with the pained, false-confident stride of a doomed man on his way to the guillotine. He was dreading this, but it had to be done.
Steve shot him a brilliant smile. “Nope!”
Tony blinked then spluttered, “What – I – no, you can’t – no -”
“I think I just did. See you later.” Steve pushed to his feet and walked out, leaving a stunned Tony behind.
**
Tony next cornered Steve in the gym, his eyes flicking up and down as Steve bounced on the treadmill. “Steve. We need to talk.”
Sorry, Steve mouthed, can’t hear you. He gestured to the earbuds in his ears then turned his gaze serenely towards the far wall.
Tony opened and closed his mouth a few times, then turned on his heel and left.
**
“Steve, look,” Tony started, leaning over the back of the couch. “I -” He cut-off when his eyes fell on Natasha, hidden on the floor in front of the couch. She sat at Steve’s feet, working bright blue polish over his toenails. “Uh. Hi, Nat.”
“Hey, Tony.” She grinned at him.
Tony turned back to Steve. “I really need to talk to you.”
“Sorry, sweetheart, I told Nat she had me all afternoon. It’ll have to be another time.”
**
Steve walked into the kitchen, and Tony started chewing madly, trying to get his huge mouthful of peanut butter toast down his throat before Steve left again. Steve wandered around, pouring juice and selecting a yogurt from the fridge while Tony swallowed desperately, adding a layer off coffee in the hopes it would wash it down. All it did was make a truly disturbing flavour combination. Steve rounded the counter and pressed a kiss to the top of Tony’s head.
“Morning, darling.”
“Nu-!” Tony tried, sticky crumbs spilling out. “I hef ta- tu- oo-” Tony tried, but Steve just shook his head affectionately and walked out.
**
Steve’s shield bounced down the street, taking down alien after alien before returning to his hand. Tony swooped around behind him. Landing at his back and spraying repulsor fire at the oncoming horde.
“Steve! We have to talk!” Tony yelled over the noise of battle.
“No chatter on the comms, sweetpea!” Steve said brightly, ducking low to roll under Tony’s arm and slam his shield into another alien.
“Goddamnit!” Tony swore. “Will you just -”
“Iron Man! I need extraction!” Clint called, and Tony fired off again, swooping through the sky. JARVIS muted his mic so he could spill forth a volley of curses that would make even Fury blush.
**
“Stop right there, Rogers!”
Steve screeched to a halt at the end of the hall.
Tony advanced on him. “It’s been three days. Three days of dodging me, three days of ducking out of rooms, three days of coming to bed after I’m asleep, cuddling me to within an inch of my life – yes I know you have been, I woke up with your hair in my mouth – then getting up before I’m awake. Three days. No more! You. Me. We need to talk.”
Steve nodded. “Okay.”
“Wait – I – what?”
“Okay. Let’s talk. Come on.” Steve took Tony’s hand and gently led him into the living room. He deposited him on the couch then fetched two glasses of water, one of which he handed to Tony. “Go ahead, I’m listening.”
Tony blinked at him, mouth open, then took a sip of water to cover his confusion. “I don’t get it.”
“Don’t get what?”
“You made it obvious you didn’t want to talk to me for three days and now it’s just ‘sure’?” Tony picked at a water spot on the side of the glass. “So, now you’re fine with it. You want to break up.”
Steve’s hand slid over and covered Tony’s knee. “No, of course I don’t want to break up. I never wanted to break up. But if you want to, if you still want to… It’ll hurt. A lot. But I understand. If you don’t want to be with me anymore…” Steve’s voice broke. “I’ll let you go.”
“Why did you dodge me for three days then? Just to delay the inevitable? Drag this out? For fucks sake, Steve. This has been torturing me.”
“Because you asked me to.”
“What?!”
“You asked me to. When we first got together, in that restaurant, what, three months ago? You said, ‘I’m going to panic the first time we fight and try to break up with you, just a warning.’ and I said, ‘I won’t let you.’” Steve shrugged. “I figured three days was enough time to cool off a bit and be sure you really meant it.” He wound their fingers together. “So, yes. If, now, after some time to think about it, you still want to break up with me, then okay. But if it was just the heat of the moment… can we talk it out, instead?”
Tony rubbed the pad of his thumb over the back of Steve’s hand. He loved those hands. “You still want to be with me after I yelled and then spent three days breaking up with you?”
“Of course. It was just a fight, Tony. There are going to be fights. Two people as hot headed as we are… there are definitely going to be fights. But it doesn’t mean everything has to be over. We just need to take some time, breathe, then talk about it.” He reached up with his other hand and brushed his fingers through Tony’s hair. Tony leaned into the touch. “I can’t promise we’ll be together forever, maybe one of these days, it’ll be too much, we’ll go too far. But this was just a little disagreement, and I think we’re worth trying, if you do.”
Tony sniffed and turned his suddenly prickling eyes towards the window. He took another drink of water to wash down the lump in his throat. “I may have already told some people that we broke up,” he said haughtily. “I decided that since you wouldn’t let me break up with you, I’d just do it on my own.”
“Is that what you want?”
Tony flicked his eyes back over to Steve’s. Bright, wide, wondering. That was real hope glowing in them, real love. “No. No, that’s not what I want,” he admitted. The licking flames of their fight had faded into nothing more than smouldering embers, easily washed out. "I want to be with you.“
Steve burst into a beautiful grin, like a firework going off. “Alright. Guess we’ll just have to get back together then.”
Tony laughed. “Are you going to dodge me for three days every time we fight?”
“Only if you spend them trying to break up with me.”
“Okay.” Tony curled into Steve’s lap, pressing his face against his neck. “That works.”
Three Days (Steve/Tony)
Published
LemonGrenade 