Chapter 7
Steve kept trying to force healthy food on him and he was refusing to play that game. He was a person not a rabbit; he would eat whatever he pleased. Steve argued that all those cheese burgers couldn’t have been good for his diet but he didn’t care, he has almost died one to many times to care about whether or not his food might kill him. “Tony for god sakes it’s a peach, not a bomb,” Steve says, exasperated.
Tony snorts, “If it was a bomb I wouldn’t have this much of a problem with it, I used to make those, remember?” he points out. Steve is on one side of the counter and he is on the other, Bucky off to the side eyes following them as they circle around, watching Steve trying to catch Tony and force his death fruit on him. Tony was good at escape though so when Steve almost managed to catch him he dodged, smacking the peach out of Steve’s had as he did so.
“Ha, that’s what you get for forcing your shitty diet on me,” he tells him. Bucky catches the peach and frowns, sniffing it before shrugging and taking a bite.
“Bucky likes it,” Steve says, raising an eyebrow at him.
Bucky makes a face, “this taste like shit,” he says and throws the peach back to Steve.
“Ha, Bucky does not like peaches because Bucky has actual taste buds,” Tony says, grinning.
Steve sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose, “I have no idea what you have against fruit, you like sweet things, fruit is sweet,” he says.
Bucky frowns, “that fruit was hairy,” he says, looking upset that Steve had suggested that thing was edible.
“Fine, Bucky doesn’t like peaches, he never has, but that doesn’t mean you don’t,” Steve says, huffing.
“You let me eat that when you knew I wouldn’t like it?” Bucky asks, upset.
“See Steve, your fruit has traumatized Bucky,” Tony says dramatically, “I am not eating something that is so nasty it can traumatize Bucky after all he’s been through,” he says, well aware that he was being ridiculous but that was his personality and Steve could suck it up. Bucky’s forehead wrinkles in confusion but he wisely stays out of the argument, choosing to watch it play out instead.
“Oh my god, Tony, Bucky is not traumatized by the fruit, he just doesn’t like peaches. Why do always insist on being so damn dramatic?” he asks.
“It’s who I am,” he says, grinning. Steve looks annoyed but he gives up on trying to force Tony to eat the peach, thank god.
Steve tries again twenty minutes later with strawberries, which he says he’s allergic to, but JARVIS rats him out and tells Steve its Pepper that was allergic to strawberries, not Tony. This results in the lab being covered in strawberry goo after he and Steve get into a strawberry tossing contest that Steve wins by a mile. Tony tried, but he wasn’t exactly a super soldier and even with his machines sacrificing themselves to save Tony from the flying strawberries he was still no match for Steve. Bucky, he notices, lingers in the only clean corner of the room like some sort of creepy stalker, watching the proceedings methodically. Tony suspected he was trying to figure out how to function like a normal human being. Poor guy, he wasn’t going to find that observing Tony.
Eventually Tony gives up after Steve shoves strawberries down his pants because he simply refused to function with fruit in his boxers. Steve thinks he’s broken him but he was so wrong, Tony was putting a Tower wide ban on strawberries and peaches.
*
Steve had advised that Tony look up information on this Howard Stone person to, if nothing else, ease his mind. So after cleaning the strawberry mess, or more accurately having Dummy clean the strawberry mess, he follows Steve advice. It doesn’t take long for things to go from strangely coincidental to flat out weird. First he doesn’t actually find anything on Howard, which had been odd because Howard Stone was a pretty popular name. So he had done some finagling and maybe a little law breaking and hacked a bunch of security cameras to track down the hotel Howard was staying at to get information that way.
This resulted in finding his wife’s name, Selene Stone, so he ran that only to find a bunch of weird shit. He found records of various Selene’s dating back to the sixteen hundreds, which he would have ignored, except once the pictures cropped up with the name the woman looked exactly like the woman on the hotel security cameras. Frowning he had JARVIS run facial recognition scans on Howard and Selene, both coming back with one hundred percent matches. Tony sets that knowledge of Howard aside in favour of Selene because what the fuck?
He goes through all the records in attempt to rule out at least some of the identities that existed before pictures and instead found a string of similarities throughout all the identities. The name, for one, always had something to do with the moon and a stone, be it gem stones, types of rocks, or just stone. He had also noted a decrease in pictures once the camera became more popular, indicating that she obviously wanted to hide the fact that she was freaking immortal from people. Kids were also something of a strange phenomenon; she had kids in only one other past life, or at least had records of kids in one other past life. That meant that she probably found something desirable in Howard to have two kids with him but what?
He didn’t doubt the woman’s intelligence, she clearly knew how to cover her ass, only someone specifically looking for this information would find it and even at that they had to know what to look for. He goes through Howard’s records and finds dick all, most of the information he got was from his kids’ social media. His information consisted of Howard being in a car accident fifteen years ago, which he already knew, he now has two kids, he worked as a mechanic, and he had a weird obsession with all things Stark.
That left him with more questions than answers, like how the hell was Selene immortal? What did she do to de-age Howard? Whatever it was it didn’t stop him from aging, a picture of him holding Grant on Maria’s Facebook just after he was born compared to the way he looked now indicated that he was aging. Did the kids have any sort of powers? How could Selene conceive if she was frozen in time? What the hell encouraged her to have kids with Howard Stark of all people? Why didn’t Howard remember anything from his past life? How has Selene gone unnoticed all this time? Surely he wasn’t the only one to notice her past identities. He sat back in his chair and sighed, frustrated, what the hell was going on here?
“Why are you frustrated?” Bucky asks, appearing out of nowhere to his left.
Tony jumps and nearly falls out his chair, “Jesus, don’t do that to me!” he says, hand over his arc reactor, “give a guy a little warning,” he says.
“Sorry,” Bucky mumbles, shuffling around awkwardly.
“Its fine, I’m fine. I’m frustrated because none of this makes any sense,” he says and outlines the situation to Bucky.
“So you need information?” Bucky asks.
He nods, shuffling some papers around on his desk, “Yeah, but I only have so many resources you know? Like what else am I supposed to do now without sounding nuts? Bucky?” he asks, turning around to find his work space empty, “good talk,” he mumbles to himself.
*
Tony does more digging but he doesn’t find much so eventually he gives up, at least for now, and goes to harass Steve and Bucky. So far Bucky had integrated fairly well, becoming steadily less suspicious of both Steve and Tony though he wasn’t fond of loud noises, beds, or strong scents but Steve said he’d never been fond of perfumes. Thankfully he thoroughly enjoyed showers, Tony didn’t think his nose could handle Bucky stink, or any stink for that matter. He had a sensitive nose and Steve after a workout was all his poor nose could handle and not for long no matter how hard Steve tried.
“Hey,” Steve says after Tony finds him on the roof and promptly plops himself in Steve’s lap, not particularly caring that Steve had been drawing. Steve knew to move his stuff anyways and mostly succeeded in saving his drawing so Tony didn’t feel too bad.
“I am so fucking confused,” he says, jumping right into the information he uncovered. Steve listened patiently, as always, and Tony was grateful. Steve was always so patient with him, most people got irritated with his constant need to talk, confusing it with narcissism or wanting to hear himself talk when he was just talking through the possibilities out loud. Steve recognized that and let him chatter mostly to himself until he ran out of things to say.
“That was wild from start to finish,” he says, laughing when Tony makes a face at his appropriating popular internet language. “You’ll figure it out, you always do,” he tells him. Tony smiles and curls closer to Steve, happily stealing his body warmth. Steve rearranges his position and sticks his drawing pad on Tony, apparently choosing to use him as a drawing stand.
“Excuse you, got your drawing pad off of me, I am a people, not an easel,” he says, pretending to be offended.
“That’s what you get for sitting on me,” Steve tells him and continues drawing. Tony, of course, suddenly gets the urge to wiggle around now that he can’t.
“How do you deal with him?” Steve asks Pepper, frustrated with Tony’s antics.
Pepper laughs, “Working with Tony is like trying to herd cats, it’s one hell of a process but once you get him interested he has laser-like precision until he loses interest again,” he says.
Tony, for one, is very offended, “I am not like herding cats, I am very pleasant to work with, I’ve been told that on several occasions,” he says.
Pepper rolls her eyes, “it doesn’t count when it comes from your very long string of one night stands,” she tells him, “you need to actually do your paper work, by the way, it’s illegal for me to forge your signature or I would have done it myself. Get it done,” she says and drops a large stack of paper on his lap before leaving, heels clicking as she went. Tony had no idea how she walked in those but knew he feared her due to her ability to run in them. He tried running out of a business meeting once only to find Pepper could match his pace. He didn’t try that again, he knew his place.
“That’s a lot of paperwork,” Steve comments somewhat awkwardly after Pepper goes.
Tony shrugs, “I’ll probably be able to get it done tonight if I actually focus,” he says. That was the problem, focus; he loathed paper work because it was so damned boring. He had so many better things to do than read things and sign things and… well, stare at paper all day.
“That isn’t going to happen,” Steve says, apparently having no faith in Tony.
“Oh excuse you, I will get this paper work done tonight,” he says with renewed interest in the subject. He picks himself and the paperwork up and goes to leave, headed to his lab so he’d have peace and quiet.
“Hey Tony,” Steve says but then stops for some reason or another. When Tony turns around to face him Steve is blushing furiously.
He grins and wanders closer, “spit it out Steve,” he says. He had come to love Steve’s questions about the twenty first century because they were usually so out of touch. He answered them with minimal poking fun and made sure Steve was clear on whatever subject. Once he understood the concept he was free game though and Tony had a lot of fun laughing at Steve’s confusion. To be fair Steve laughed almost as much about his misconceptions about Captain America and the events of World War Two so he figured they were even.
“Well… I… you have a healthy sex life from what I read…” he trails off, looking deeply uncomfortable.
“Oh my god, are you asking my to get you laid, because if you are congratulations on making this the best day of my life,” he says, leaning forward in interest.
Steve rolls his eyes, “oh my god, Tony that’s not where I was going with this like, at all. I… you… oh for god sakes, I know you said that only idiots actually care about sexual orientation but… but,” Steve sputters, suddenly losing steam.
“Oh my god, is this gay panic! I’ve only read about this!” he says excitedly, “if you’re asking if I care if your gay or whatever the answer is no, it’s not like I haven’t screwed a guy or two or… well a lot more than that, but you get the point,” he says.
Steve looks a little more relaxed, “okay, but how come no one talks about that? Sexual orientation still seems to be something people find report worthy so…” he flops his hand around, losing words.
“No idea, but my best guess is that ‘genius, billionaire, playboy’ Tony Stark is more profitable than ‘thirty three year old with two friends, PTSD, anxiety issues, an inability to enter meaningful relationships, and occasionally fucks guys’ Tony Stark. The first one is living the American Dream, the second one is kind of a downer,” he says, making a face.
“Tony you’re more than both of those descriptions, and you don’t have an inability to enter meaningful relationships, you’ve obviously been hurt in the past and now you try to avoid that, it’s perfectly natural. Not exactly healthy, but reasonable nonetheless,” Steve says. Tony can see that he means the words and that’s sweet, really, but he knew how things were and he had come to terms with that a long time ago. It didn’t bother him much, not anymore.
“Whatever, it’s fine,” he says, blowing it off like he always did.
Steve gets up and walks over to him, “no it’s not Tony, you’ll find someone eventually, provided that’s what you want. Someone will realize how great you are,” he says.
Tony snorts, “oh yeah, I’m great, that’s why I have two friends and I pay one,” he says. Pepper genuinely cared, he knew, but she also got paid very well to put up with his bullshit. It kind of put a damper on things.
Steve frowns, “you pay me?” he asks then seems to come to the immediate realization that he was talking about Pepper, “Pepper actually cared about you and you know it, and you have three friends, thanks,” he says, looking offended.
“You don’t count, you can’t escape, it’s like Stockholm syndrome,” he says.
“Oh my god Tony, I do not have Stockholm syndrome. I don’t even know what that is, but I don’t have it,” he insists, “I’m here because I want to be, not because of some weird disease or something. I like being around you, why is that so hard for you to believe?” he asks, sounding upset.
“Basically I’ve held you hostage for so long you actually kind of like me, Google it,” he tells Steve, “and I have a hard time believing you actually like me because no one does, believe me, I’ve tried making friends, it hasn’t worked,” he says, waving his hands around.
“I am not a hostage, Tony. And has it ever crossed your mind that when people meet you they have a certain idea of who you are based on media depictions? You aren’t that person Tony, you’re more than the ‘super exciting party boy who does crazy stuff, wow’ guy that the media makes you out to be. People are disappointed to know that Tony Stark sometimes sits around and does nothing, watching Netflix and eating popcorn, or that you sometimes become so absorbed in your work that you forget what day it is, or that you have real issues like a real human being. People are disappointed that you’re more than three stereotypes slapped on a face, and they leave you thinking that you aren’t good enough when in reality you were more than what they expected and that’s the problem,” Steve says, putting his hand on Tony’s shoulder and squeezing, “I didn’t have that preconceived notion, neither did Rhodey, and Pepper is smart enough to see through that image. You might only have three friends, but they are three really good friends,” he says.
Tony has no idea what to say to that, he had never considered that people were disappointed that he was multifaceted rather than a carbon copy of the media stories about him. “Thank you,” he says and he hugs Steve, for once glad that he had such a small friend group.
Steve pulls away but not too far, staying in surprisingly close proximity. For a few seconds they just stared at each other, unsure of what to say or do in this situation. And then Steve leans down and kisses him and Tony nearly drops his paper work.
Steve pulls away almost immediately and no, he was not allowed to do that, it was illegal, Tony decided, “what the hell was that?” he asks, gripping Steve’s arm before he gets any ideas about running away and never speaking to him again out of embarrassment, it’s what he would do.
“Sorry, sorry, I should have asked-”
Tony rolls his eyes, “do you want to kiss me again?” he asks. Steve nods and Tony tosses his paper work over his shoulder, “Great!” he says and pulls Steve back into a kiss.
“Why are you laughing?” Steve asks, probably irritated that Tony was messing up his drawing.
“Gay panic, that was great. Also I maintain that you have Stockholm syndrome, poor Bucky is next,” he says even though he doesn’t exactly believe that. Bucky seemed to realize early that he could come and go as he pleased, Steve mostly preferred staying in.
Steve rolls his eyes, “I do not, and that was not funny, I was trying to be serious and you were gleefully waiting for me to say something wrong so you could laugh,” he says, making faces at Tony.
“Oh my god, you totally got me back for that, you convinced me that you fought Nazi dinosaurs when I was vulnerable and sleepy after being awake for four days at four A.M and Rhodey laughed at me,” he says, pouting.
Steve kisses him, “it’s hardly my fault you’re so gullible,” he says, nipping at Tony’s lip.
“Maybe not, but that doesn’t mean you have to take advantage of my trusting state,” he says, wrinkling his nose.
Bucky, the asshole, interrupts the moment by dropping to the ground from where ever he was, scaring the shit out of Tony. He flails, sending Steve’s art supplies everywhere and he falls to the ground. Steve seems to find this hilarious and Bucky looks confused as to why Tony had such a violent reaction. “What did I tell you about making noise?” Tony yells.
Steve nudges his thigh, “no need to yell,” he says, raising an eyebrow at Tony.
“No need to descend from the motherfucking heavens and scare the shit out of the mere mortals either, but it isn’t stopping this asshole,” Tony says, flailing in Bucky’s general direction.
Bucky laughs, barely making a noise it was so soft, but it was there. Steve looks like someone just slapped him with wet bread he was so shocked but Bucky paid him not attention.
“You say you needed information, I got you some,” he says and hands him a thick file. Tony frowns and thumbs through it, finding a surprising about of information on Howard.
“How the hell did you get all this?” he asks.
Bucky smiles, lips barely tipping up, “I have my ways,” he says and walks away, leaving Tony confused and upset that he had a sore ass from landing on it.