(I woke up meaning to write something else for Tony’s birthday, but then watched scenes from Iron Man 1 and this happened. Takes place before IW.)
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Tony figures a birthday gift from Peter is inevitable. Few people bother to give Tony anything, because let’s face it– he really is the guy who has everything– but some do, and Peter’s going to be one of them. Thoughtfulness is in the kid’s DNA.
There are other gifts throughout the day:
A fantastic new watch from Pepper. A hideous (Tony loves it so much) Iron Man bobblehead from Rhodey. A gift card to a restaurant called ‘Burgers as Big as Your Head’ from Happy. Various cards, gift baskets, and bottles of alcohols from professional acquaintances. Tony appreciates some gifts more than others, but he does appreciate them all.
Then Peter shows up. He’s bouncing with excitement and all but shoves a manila envelope into Tony’s hands.
“Happy birthday!”
The slightly beat up envelope’s got HAPPY BIRTHDAY written on it in sharpie and then what looks like a full month’s worth of doodle art all around the sides.
“I hope you like it,” Peter says. "It’s probably gonna take a little bit of an explanation but just– look at it first? Then I’ll explain, I promise.“
Tony can feel a stack of papers inside as he undoes the clasp and then slides out what amounts to nearly a textbook’s worth of printouts. The title page gives away the contents and Tony has to lean back against the wall because in a million years, he’d have never guessed what was coming.
YINSEN, HO. PHD. Control and Manipulation of Magnetic Ultra-cold Neutrons Using Micro-Electromagnets
(And Peter Parker and Ned Leeds) has been written in ink under the typed print.
“What…?” Tony asks.
“He never finished it,” Peter explains. "You– you mentioned Dr. Yinsen to me that one time and I was curious about his work so I looked him up and this project… he’d been working on it from 1999 until he died. It was almost done, and it was so incredible and then I remembered that someone else had worked out the specifics on the ultracold neutron problem in 2012 and if he’d had that information while he was alive it just seemed like everything else would slide into place. And I’m not trying to publish it or anything? Like that’s probably illegal without his permission. I just wanted to finish the paper. For you. For him.“
Tony’s eyes sting. God. He‘s not going to cry. He just isn’t.
tony comes home after a long day at work and steve is there with a birthday cake and dinner to greet him. there are three plates set up on the table. “happy birthday, babe,” steve whispers into his hair, and tony nuzzles lovingly against him and asks, “we got company?”
“hm?” steve glances over to the table and smiles innocently. “oh, no, that’s just for us.”
“babe, there’s three.”
“well, you’re a gemini.”
tony tries to tackle him for this and steve just catches him in his arms and laughs and laughs until eventually tony relents and laughs with him, because his boyfriend’s an idiot but god he loves him.
like just imagine tony full on charging forward with the intent to body tackle steve and steve’s not even looking until the last second he turns over like ‘?’ then sees tony and ‘!!!’ and opens his arms out for a hug and tony lunges and steve swiftly catches him and hugs him tight and tony is very confused but remembers that his boyfriend is literally a giant goddamn puppy so he shouldn’t be surprised
AU where tony is the king of the moon realm, steve is ruling the sun realm; steve makes stars out of sun rays, and tony makes flowers out of dew. truth of all truths: when they look at each other, the word love becomes honey, and the cosmos creates a dozen new constellations.
Weeeeellll…this is the beginnings of an idea. Maybe one day I’ll get to write it. God, I do love me some romance trash. Come roll around in it with me.
Tony isn’t thrilled with being trussed up and delivered naked to the barbarian warlord storming through their country, but if it saves his people, he supposes it’s worth it. At least their leader isn’t dreadful to look upon. Younger than Tony expected for someone with such a reputation. He doesn’t expect the man to take his cloak off his shoulders and shield Tony from the watchful eyes of Obie and his men and the other soliders, but he doesn’t flinch when the man touches his cheek. Later, when the tent is cleared, and they are alone, he’s scared. Ends up talking too much. Not that the man he’s been given to as a bribe can understand him. He doesn’t talk much, anyway, and Tony has no idea what he’s saying when he does, other than he seems to think Tony should eat more of the food he keeps piling in front of him. Tony’s stomach is way too nervous for that, though he drinks the wine. He’s pretty sure it is from his father’s cellar.
He really, really hates Obie.
When he’s rather unceromoniously dumped on a pile of furs, he half expects the man to just get it over with right then, but he doesn’t. He takes his time. Goes slowly, seemingly in no hurry. Tony almost wishes he would hurry. Frowns when he sees the bruises on Tony’s arms and back and traces them with his thumb in little circles. Tony keeps trying to hide his face and bite his lip, but the man won’t let him do that. It’s not unpleasant, even when it hurts a bit at first, though Tony thinks it might be easier if it was. He thinks the man seems frustrated with him, and worries he’s displeased him. Maybe the warlord will change his mind, and all of this will be for nothing. Obie will probably have him beaten. He’s not worth much now, and whatever deals Obie had been hoping to broker involving him that spared his life when Obie took over in the wake of his parents’ murder were probably fruitless after this. Who wanted some foreigner’s leavings?
He tried to get up, but the man just pushed him down and…shushed him, placing a finger to Tony’s lips and pulling him to his chest. Tony protested and grumbled, growing more frustrated when the man’s chest rumbled with laughter.
He expected to be sent back to the keep in the morning. But, when he finally skulked out of the tent, it was to find the man atop his horse, seeming to be waiting on him. Tony tried to ask questions, but the man either didn’t understand or ignored him, and instead, just plucked him up and sat him on his lap, tucking him into the folds of his cloak when Tony yelped. He kept repeating some word, the same one he’d said the night before, but Tony didn’t know it. He asked, but again, got no response.
“Anyone want to tell me what ‘Quera’ is supposed to mean?” Tony finally asked in frustration as they rode, tossing his hands up in the air.
“It’s a type of long, small weasel-like animal, known for its beautiful pelt and quick bite where he comes from,” a man said, riding up next to them. He was older, thin, and spoke with some kind of accent Tony couldn’t place.
“Oh, great. Thanks. That’s wonderful. I’m an angry rat. You speak my tongue? Can you tell him something for me?” Tony asked beligerently.
“I speak many languages,” the man said. “I am called Yinsen, by the way. His translator. And I do not think I will tell him what you have to say, for both our sakes.”
“Unhelpful. You know, you’re not exactly perfect yourself, Captain,” Tony spat out, glaring up at the man, who just looked down at him in confusion. “Quera? Really? Put me down, I’ll walk.”
“Quera,” the man smiled.
“They kill the most deadly of serpents, ten times their size, and show no fear, just make this sort of chattering noise at it while it hisses,” Yinsen added. “I think he means it as a term of endearment, Stark.”
“I do not chatter!” Tony protested. “Tell him I said I don’t chatter. No, wait, tell him–hey, we’re stopping? We’re stopping? You promised. You swore!”
It was his home. The bastard was going back on his word, damn him. Of course, he was. Why wouldn’t he? What was a promise to an Omega anyway? All of that, last night, everything, and for nothing.
Except…they were just riding into the bailey, and Obie was there, surrounded by the warlord’s soldiers, on his knees in the dirt with a wound on the bald plate of his head slowly bleeding streaks of red down his face. He looked scared. It was a strange look on the man, like his skin was stretched too tightly. Tony couldn’t recall ever seeing Obie scared.
Tony looked up at the Captain, a question on his lips. The man just took Tony’s arm out from under his cloak and pushed back the sleeve of Tony’s tunic where a bruise darkened his skin just above his elbow. Tony opened his mouth to say something, tried to push his sleeve down or jerk his arm back.
“What are you doing?” Tony demanded.
“Quera,” the Captain said, then lifted him down and dismounted, drawing his sword while one of his men rushed forward and drove a blade into the ground in front of Obie.
Here is my CAP IRON MAN REVERSE BIG BANG 2018 submission! It was such a pleasure working with the incredible @msermesth ! It was everything I could ever ask for in a fic, it is phenomenal and a true rollercoaster of emotion. Please go and give it a read!
Tony’s better now. You can even say he’s superior. But all the money, alcohol, and sex can’t stop the incursions, and when his world is destroyed, he ends up on an earth ten years younger than his own. One where Steve goes by the name of Nomad. If there’s one thing Steve’s good at, it’s reminding him of what really matters, and maybe that makes Nomad the person Tony needs if he’s going to save the universe.
Okay, so we all know that Poe went around the Resistance base telling everyone about the Handsome Stormtrooper that saved his life – but what about BB-8? Imagine BB-8 coming back to base and promptly telling everyone about the good brave human who saved his Poe. This is Finn he is so lovely, he is the best of all humans, look at him, be nice to him – he’s a little bit slow – doesn’t understand droid at all but he’s a quick learner.
And imagine ALL THE DROIDS falling into line, looking after Finn, and Finn is just so nice to them because he remembers what it’s like to be treated like you’re nothing, like you don’t have a personality. And they just adopt him: Finn the best human, they designate him, and R2-D2 – battle-hardened war vet that he is – teaches him binary but teaches him the bastardised sweary binary that all the older droids speak and BB-8 is innocent and oblivious and C3-PO is scandalised because Finn is going round saying things like fuck me this is hot in this little whistle-beep.
And whenever Finn sits down he’s surrounded by happy young droids who absolutely adore him, and he is just so nice and all the droids go out of their way to do things for him.
And yes. Give me sweet lovely Finn with his droid ducklings.
OMG I NEED THIS ARTED. Just. Finn. Droids. WHAT ARE YOU DOING FINN CAN WE HELP WE’LL JUST WATCH IF YOU DON’T NEED US. FINN IS SLIGHTLY THIRSTY. FIND WATER.
The wonderful @spaceliondad drew this for me a while back. I requested Steve and Tony at a baseball game, and she took that and like the psychic she is, put some of my favorite things in her art! I was going to hold back on posting this because I wanted to write something for it, but since real life is killing me right now and I’m not sure when I’ll be able to write, have my squeeing and my headcanons instead:
They’re 100% at a Mets game at Citi Field. Steve adamantly refuses to support the Yankees because his Dodgers heart can’t take it, and he roots for the Mets now that he’s in the 21st century and the Dodgers are out in LA. (He doesn’t like thinking about how they’re in LA.)
Tony has no goddamn clue how baseball works or if he does, he. does. not. care. But he’s there because either Steve took him there or he bought tickets because he doesn’t care about or understand baseball, but Steve does and whatever makes Steve happy makes him happy.
Tony finds it amusing to watch Steve yell, gesticulate wildly, and shoot up from his seat from time to time whenever a particularly good (or bad) play’s made.
He also finds it amusing that David Wright’s nickname is Captain America and teases Steve about it. He brings it up just to see both of them get embarrassed when he takes Steve to meet the team. (Trivia facts: captains are rare in baseball and Wright’s the only captain in the entire MLB now, and some of the other Mets players have superhero nicknames, most notably The Dark Knight and Thor. (Syndergaard asks Steve and Tony if they can bring Thor along next time because he’s a huge fanboy.))
TONY’S IN A CAP HOODIE. Either that’s his or it was a gag gift someone bought for Steve that Tony wears all the time because he always steals Steve’s clothes.
Considering the way that they’re dressed, they’re sitting out in the stands, not in a private box. Tony prefers luxury suites because of the privacy and amenities, but Steve wants to sit in the regular seating area so Tony compromises and gets them club seats for this particular game, hence why the kiss cam finds them. They alternate on seating arrangements for other games depending on their mood, though.
Tony was snarking about the Mets (”They’re the METS, Steve!”) right before the kiss cam landed on them and then noticed it and pointed it out to Steve who decides to take off his cap and kiss Tony behind it either because he doesn’t want people to recognize them in their standard incognito celebrity outfits or because it’s a private moment that he wants just between the two of them.
He puts his sunglasses on top of his head because he want to see Tony before he kisses him.
Tony’s surprised because he didn’t expect Steve to kiss him on the kiss cam and because Steve’s kiss is so sweet and pure. He’s so surprised and happy that he’s rendered speechless.
Anyway, there aren’t enough baseball game fanart and fics where Steve and Tony go to a game or play it so every time I see fanart/fic including baseball, I’m happy. Boys relaxing! Sports! A cute, casual date! Not exactly romantic, but still great because it’s like they’re just hanging out as friends, and that’s awesome because it’s not only about being in love with each other; they genuinely enjoy each other’s company and spending time together. And it’s so normal, which is nice because neither of them get to have much of a normal life.
P.S., if you haven’t seen spaceliondad’s other incognito-at-a-baseball-game art, go look at it here!
in the time it takes for the jet to be prepared for wakanda, steve stops by the compound lab. he doesn’t really know why. bruce has already told him about tony, and even if he hadn’t, the fact was plastered all over the media. (the fact was in bruce’s voice instead of tony’s, crackling over the phone, “we need you.”)
LemonGrenade 