Steve/Remy
“Come on, LeBeau, I need you here for this!” Tony is pacing back and forth in front of the windows, occasionally throwing his hands up into the air. “You haven’t been to one of these in ages! It’s a total pooper without you.”
Steve and Bruce pause in the doorway, and Steve can’t help but be surprised that Tony doesn’t have a video of the person that he’s talking to. Normally Tony gets to scream and rant directly at the person, and watch their facial expressions crumble away. Steve has been on the receiving end of those video calls, and he knows how much Tony relies on being able to see the weak spot in someone’s resistance.
“Don’t tell me you’re too busy! I will hire you outright if that’s what it-” A pause, and Tony does a complete 180 degree spin on his toes. “I can absolutely afford you, LeBeau. Don’t try to pull that shit on me.”
Tony finally spots them, and his eyes light up. “You can’t seriously tell me that you’ve never wanted to party like it’s 1945, LeBeau. And I’ve got the original right here, he’ll be more than happy to dance all night with you.”
“Tony-”
“Steve.” Tony just parrots back with a light mocking tone. “You’re here to sweeten the pot. You’d get along with LeBeau-” Lebeau must say something on the phone, and Tony just sputters. “Let me put you on speaker phone-”
Bruce pats Steve’s arm, and slips out of the room while Tony is pressing the required buttons on his phone.
“Now, LeBeau, tell this fine specimen of a man why you won’t come to the Avengers party next week.”
“Mon cher, I have been perfectly clear. I am sadly not able to attend, no matter how much I may enjoy being around the dear Captain.” The voice is silky smooth, and the man rolls his letters with delicate care. “Apologies, monsieur. It is not personal.”
“No need. I’m sorry if Tony’s being so pushy.”
LeBeau laughs. “Il est comme il est.”
Steve takes a breath, because he can’t switch over on a dime. It takes a moment, and his speech is slower than it would normally be. “Ah, mais il agace.”
“C'est un accent parisien que j'entends, capitaine?”
Steve gives a little laugh, and shuffles his feet. Because he knows his accent is terrible. “Oui. Et tu?”
“La Nouvelle Orléans. As-tu été? Alors ou maintenant?”
“Non.”
“Hey, hey!” Tony bumps in- physically bumps into Steve, shoving him with his elbows. “Save it for the party! You can bond over French when you come to the party next week.”
Steve sighs. “Tony, if he’s said he can’t come, then he can’t come.”
“But he’s been saying that for months! You’ve been saying that for months, LeBeau!”
“Then listen to him.” Steve can’t help but think that Tony didn’t have enough friends when he was a kid, and then be grateful that Tony lets them teach him those boundaries. “You’ll catch more flies with honey.”
“My parties aren’t enough honey for him?”
LeBeau laughs, light and silk. “I will let you know when I am available, Stark. And you may throw a party then.”
Tony throws his hands up into the air. “Fine! Text me and I’ll arrange it.”
“Jusque-là, mon ami. Capitaine.”
“Un plaisir de vous rencontrer, LeBeau.”
Tony smiles at Steve after LeBeau hangs up. “I knew you’d sweeten the pot. I’ve been trying to get LeBeau to come to one of our little parties for ages. Dude used to be such a big party guy- wonder what’s changed.”
Steve shrugs. “You being so pushy can’t have helped.”
“Sure picked up when he heard you. He does swing both ways.” Tony looks at Steve expectantly. Steve just looks back, not understanding why Tony’s eyebrows keep wiggling up at down. “Bats for both teams.” More eyebrows wiggles. “Rides a bicycle.” How does Tony move them so quickly? It’s honestly impressive. “Eats chocolate and vanilla equally.”
“Stark, you aren’t making sense.”
Throwing his hands up in the air, Tony spins away. “I’ve tried and tried, but I can’t with you Rogers. Trying to catch you up on modern slang and you just can’t catch up. I don’t even know why-”
Tony trails off as he moves into his lab, and Steve just laughs and walks back to the elevator. This LeBeau character sure must be some kind of wonder for Tony to want him to come by and meet everybody so desperately. Steve did hope, in that regard, that he would be able to come to one of the parties.
LeBeau doesn’t show at the Avengers party that Tony had been trying to invite him to the next week, or the one after that. Or the big one that Tony throws in celebration of getting the scepter back (probably for the best, given how that one ends up). It’s nearly a year, and Steve has pretty much forgotten all about the mysterious french man, and Tony’s strange determination to have him meet them all-
“Small get together, that’s all. I promise, LeBeau.” Tony is holding the door open, and waving a man through. Steve is in the middle of moving a soup pot almost the size of his torso, under the direction of a bossy catering lady who’d demanded he’d help move all the food that Tony had ordered. The words make him pause, at least until she jabs another finger in his back and gets him moving towards the table again.
“Tony, mon ami, this does not seem like a very small gathering.”
“Would I lie to you?”
The man casts a careful eye out of the room, at the various caterers setting up food, at the staff decorating the walls, at the DJ fiddling with wires, and finally settles his eyes on Steve. “Yes, you would, Tony. You have done it all the time, and this is no different.”
Steve puts the pot down where the caterer tells him to, and tunes out the ongoing fight between Tony and LeBeau. It’s only once all of the food has been moved out to the table that he’s able to wash his hands, and and towards Tony. Tony, who is throwing his hands wildly up and around in clear frustration, in contrast to LeBeau and his static pose with a small smile.
“Tony, go breathe. LeBeau, I’m so sorry that he keeps pestering you to come to these.”
The smile on LeBeau’s face goes from a hint of amusement, to something flirty and wide and perfectly smug. “Mon Capitaine, it has been a delight to refuse him.”
Does Tony notice how Steve’s body shudders? Or how Steve reaches out to touch LeBeau, eyes lighting up, watching LeBeau’s face respond? Or can he have this- this moment, this meeting, his soulmate- without Tony gloating?
Steve hopes that Tony has seen none of it. They’ll come up with a better story later.