What if Steve kissed Tony after he came back to consciousness at the end of the first Avengers? What if they gave into the sexual tension that had been building between them both? Learning to love while getting to know one another and a heaping of found family–this is the story we deserved but didn’t get.
Rated: Explicit
No Archive Warnings Apply
Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
For Marvel Trumps Hate 2020 and written for @wilmakins
“What the hell? What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me!”
Steve looks down at Stark, his heart surprisingly full. It’s a miracle he’s even alive and it affects Steve in a way he’s almost unfamiliar with. Under his hand, a blue light seeps through, warm against his palm. It glows brightly against the red of the suit like the moon against a snowy, orange backlit landscape. Beauty in layers.
“We won.” It’s not enough to say, he knows it, but it’s all he can muster up at the moment. He’s choked with emotion. Despite the smoke filled air, he’s breathing easier than he had in the weeks since being pulled from the ice. Purpose rushes through him, cantering alongside a stirring of admiration and want .
He feels appreciation curve up around his chest and something else. Something giddy like when he was seven and first saw Esther Bryant walk into the school room after moving to his neighborhood. The idea of love– new and intangible yet so invigorating. Knowing that he could see someone and want and not just in a sexual way. Seven-year-old Steve Rogers had had no knowledge of that yet but he had wanted to hold her hand. Wanted to put his arms around her and show her the warmest seat in the room, right by the wood burning stove. He feels the same current rise up now as he glances back at Stark. Feels the same excitement and promise as the world slows for half a breath.
His mother always said that when he finally met his soulmate, everything would still. It’s just a silly story but it feels like it now. It feels like the buildings and the lampposts and the sporadic city trees around them pause to acknowledge this earth shifting moment. That they lay down and rest, for once, at the sight of something bigger than even the tallest skyscrapers.
He has to look away. Just for a moment. Overwhelmed and yet… Satisfied. Happy.
“All right. Hey. All right. Good job, guys.” It’s hard for Steve to hide his surprised grin as Tony babbles his way back into the land of the living, sliding into Steve’s thoughts and pushing soulmates and schoolyard crushes away to focus on him. He’s relieved in a way he wouldn’t have admitted to just hours before. It’s okay. Tony’s okay. “Let’s just not come in tomorrow. Let’s just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There’s a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don’t know what it is, but I wanna try it.”
Steve’s grin widens. They lived and they survived. They won. And Tony is talking about getting food like it’s Friday night and they’re bored.
He laughs quietly, gazing down at Tony with wonder and he’s exhilarated; he’s euphoric. He’s still got about 100 gallons of adrenaline pumping through his system and this ridiculous man laying on the ground in front of him is a damn self-sacrificing idiot and Steve just…
