“Are you coming to dinner?” Rhodey asks, and Tony looks up from the paper he’s been working on for the past few hours. Steve, sitting next to him, moves the cold coffee out of his reach and nudges an apple into his hand.
“Can’t,” Tony says, regretfully. “I’ve got a hot date with a busty blonde.”
Rhodey pauses in the midst of gathering his books, cutting a worried look at Steve, who is busy making sure Tony can’t get his hands on the coffee cup. He doesn’t look too crushed, Rhodey things, and makes a mental note to talk to Tony about being a little more tactful in front of him.
“Have fun,” he says, and Tony gives him a distracted wave as he glares at Steve and takes a resentful bite of his apple.
~*~
“He’s got an ass to die for,” Tony is babbling, and it’s what makes Clint pay attention instead of nodding and humming along in half feigned interest.
It’s not that he doesn’t care, really. It’s just that Tony’s been babbling about his hot new thing for a week straight and every single word feels like salt in a wound, and it’s not even his hurt.
Steve has been carrying a torch for Tony since they met when Steve was a freshman and Tony was starting his first doctorate. And through years of studying and living together and bickering and friendship, he’d never said anything.
But Tony’s never been serious about anyone either.
“This is the third time you’ve gone out with him, huh?” Clint says and Tony beams at him, even as Clint’s stomach slowly sinks.
~*~
“Seriously, cut it out,” Bucky snaps and Tony gives him a shit eating grin.
“Don’t you care about my life, Buckybear?” Tony asks, batting his lashes.
“I could not care less that your new boy toy has lips made for fucking,” Bucky snarls and it’s as much because that’s more about Stark’s sex life than Bucky ever wanted to know as it is because Steve is in the next room, making popcorn and Tony might be happy in a new relationship and sexed up, but it doesn’t mean he wants Steve’s face rubbed in it. “If you say one more thing about him, I’ll carve your liver out with a spoon.”
“You won’t,” Tony says, but it’s not quite as confidant as it should be.
“Try me.”
Tony’s gaze narrows, but he clamps his mouth shut for now.
~*~
Tony is eyeing her heels speculatively, and Natasha sighs, putting her coffee down to stretch her legs out and let him look his fill.
“Do you want the link?” she asks, and Tony’s gaze flicks to her. Steve shifts quietly at her side, and Tony grins at her, bright and hungry.
“Do you mind? I just think they’d make my baby’s legs look amazing,” he says, earnest the way he has been almost from the beginning. She doesn’t look at Steve. She knows this is hard for him, but she knows too--Tony so rarely finds something real, something that makes him happy, and as much as she wishes that it was Steve who painted that smile on his face--she won’t take it from him, won’t make it small.
“Sure,” she agrees and Tony makes a happy little noise, and bounces in his seat as she texts him the link.
She only wishes Steve had been brave enough to tell Tony how he felt before Tony fell in love.
~*~
“I have a furry son,” Tony announces as soon as the phone picks up and Jarvis swallows a laugh.
Anthony has always had a flair for the dramatic, and always used it to cover his panic.
“Do you indeed, sir?”
He gets a long winded tale, about his new young man, about the golden haired puppy that he rescued, about the trip to the pet store and vet and sneaking him into the dorm room because the new young man had a shift at the local bar to attend to.
“I don’t know what to do with it,” Anthony says, finally. “What if I break the dog and then he’s mad at me? What if--”
“Your young man won’t stop loving you for not being a perfect pet owner, especially as he thrust it upon you with no warning,” Jarvis says, crisply, and then. “Perhaps Steven can help you, with the dog.”
There’s a beat of silence and then, “No, um. He’s busy, J.”
Jarvis sighs, because Anthony is still besotted with the young Mr. Rogers, even if he won’t let himself admit it.
Still--it isn’t his business, and Anthony did seem happy. “Plain chicken. Some of the peanut butter I left for you, I know you haven’t even opened it. Maybe some crackers. Do remember to take her outside, Anthony,” Jarvis sighs and the boy laughs.
~*~
“How did you know that you were in love with Happy?” Tony asks.
Pepper pauses in the middle of dumping dressing on her salad, and blinks at Tony.
He won’t look her in the eye, but there’s a flush high in his cheeks, and something defiant in the set of his jaw, and oh.
Oh this is so much more than any of them thought it was. This--
This is Tony Stark in love, and god, it’s going to shatter Steve.
She takes a breathe, and rescues her salad, setting the dressing aside and putting her fork down.
“I knew I couldn’t live without him,” she says, softly, her fingers clenching around Tony’s.
“I couldn’t live without him, and I didn’t want to live without him.”
Tony licks his lips and squeezes her hand, and some of the fight goes out of his eyes, something like peace brightening them instead.
“Yeah,” he says, and smiles. “That’s it, isn’t it.”
~*~
Tony flops onto the bed and Steve curls an arm around his waist, tugging him close.
“Do you think we should tell them now?” he asks, still breathless, a flush in his cheeks and grinning so wide and smug that Tony wants to tease him for it.
Wants to and can’t because he’s feeling just as damn smug.
There’s a ring on Steve’s finger and a pair of dogtags around Tony’s neck and they’ve kept this hidden, for months now, while they made sure it was something real something that would last.
“Maybe we just send out wedding invites,” Tony says and peeks up at him. “How’s April 1st work for you, sweetheart?” he sasses and Steve growls and rolls him back into the sheets.