Chapter 6
A cold breeze caressed his hair as Tony looked out at the night sky. The pinpricks of light and constant motion of his city below never failed to bring him comfort. Well, that and the amber liquid he was slowly sipping.
Early on in their acquaintance Tony noticed Percy had an aversion to alcohol, beer in particular. After the invasion Percy outright refused to come close if his breath smelled of alcohol. Tony had taken to avoiding the drink as much as possible, indulging only when he had to and only in small quantities. Pepper was very grateful.So was his liver.
Tonight though sleep evaded him despite being cradled in his boyfriend’s arms. He knew it was pointless to lay there risk falling asleep in his agitated state only to wake up later due to some nightmare. Considering sleep was a luxury both men rarely got, he couldn’t deny the ravenette his rest.
“Couldn’t sleep?”
Tony turned at the sudden sound disturbing the tranquility of the night. He saw Steve who was walking towards him. He waited for the captain to lean on the wall next to him before speaking
“Something like that”
Steve looked down seemingly entranced by the view below
“It never fails to surprise me how alive this city is at any given time”
Tony smiled softly, fondness warming his heart.
Both of them stood silent for a beat, then Steve continued
“I know we aren’t close and you don’t really like my company.You should know that despite everything I do respect you and also trust you to have my back. So if you want to talk, I would listen”
Tony contemplated the offer “I...It’s just-” He cut himself off “It’s not big or anything, frankly..it’s just a lot of things and-” Tony sighed
Steve gave him a long look
“Often it’s not the big things that bother us...before becoming a supersoldier, I had asthma. Even after my uh, transformation, I couldn’t bear to not have an inhaler on me despite the fact that I would never need it. A problem is a problem Tony, it’s neither big or small.”
Tony didn’t speak for a long time, absorbing his words. Making up his mind, he took a large gulp of the whiskey and started.
“It took me a long while to figure out but the invasion has made me paranoid. I need to constantly be around or atleast have concrete proof that Percy, Pepper, Happy and everybody else is safe, which is crazy because they are few of the most protected people in the entire city. On top of that I recently learnt that Percy is dealing with some issues and I really can’t help much. For all my intelligence and influence I can’t do anything but watch as he struggles and it sucks because he doesn’t deserve any of it. Sometimes he gets concerned for me and I feel so fucking guilty because not only am I not halping him, I am also unnecessarily worrying him”
He took a hash breath
“What am I really doing? I keep taking from him,I am worried one day he is going to have nothing to give because I would have drained him and that scares me.
I love him so much, and I just want to see him happy. I don’t really know what to do”
Steve waited patiently, listening to his rant.
“I don’t know what is going on between you two but anybody with eyes can see you both love each other. Have you tried talking to him about this?”
Tony shook his head and leaned on the opposite wall
“He is so strong, but I am worried that these pointless thoughts are too heavy for me to dump on him. I mean I haven’t even said anything and he has already lost sleep worrying about me. He has stayed up many nights when I had nightmares and not once has he forced me to talk to him about it unless I wanted to. He bloody had to calm me down from a panic attack the other day because I couldn’t keep my head straight.
He has so much on his plate and he is overloading himself with my problems. I would have to be a real asshole to actually have him deal with these things too.”
“Tony,” Steve said, putting a hand on his back “I figured out in the beginning itself that Percy was dealing with something. The first few weeks I spent here I saw you worrying and running behind him trying to help him. Did that feel like a burden to you?”
Tony looked at Steve offended “Of course not”
“Then how can you think that Percy would be overloaded with your problems? You have to open up to him and trust him to be able to handle it. In a relationship there is no my problem, your problem, both of you have to deal with your problems together. You have to trust him to tell you if it gets too much, you shouldn’t make those decisions for him”
Tony looked thoughtful for a moment before snickering
“Oh my god, you are giving me relationship advice at fuck ’o’ clock in the night”
Steve smiled, eyes shining with mirth “if I am going to be the grandfather of the group, might as well act the part”
____
After last night’s talk with the captain, Tony decided he should talk to Percy but he still wasn’t above a little procrastination. To set his mind at ease he decided he would feel so much better if Percy could learn to defend himself. Pepper already had bodyguards and Happy could fight pretty well so he was not overly concerned for them. The last time he had brought up the topic of bodyguards for Percy, he had completely lost it.
“But Percy, if anybody needs bodyguards, it’s you. Not only are you the son of Daniel Olympian, you are also dating me. On top of that you are waltzing around doing nice things for everybody, sooner or later somebody is going to try to hurt you”
Percy had looked furious
“Tony, for the last time,NO. I will not have innocent people put their life in danger because of me. I would never be able to live with it if they got hurt”
Tony cringed even thinking about that.
That is why Tony was loitering in front of Natasha’s room trying to decide if knocking was worth losing his hands over.
“You know, I can hear your indecision through the walls?” Nat said, opening the door and leaning on the side.
“You mean you heard my footsteps”
The spy waved her hand dismissively and said “What do you want Stark?”
Now or never, Tony thought and asked “I..erm..could you help teach Percy to defend himself?”
Natasha lifted her eyebrow
“Like you are very good at hand-to-hand, of course you have to be, and Percy refuses to have a bodyguard so-”
Natasha put up a hand to stop his rambling
“Let me get this straight. You want me to train your boyfriend in self defence because you are worried he might get hurt?”
Tony nodded “yeah..basically”
“Have you talked to Percy about this?”
How did Tony never notice that his floors were so interesting. “um..I kinda wouldn’t mind some help in the convincing part”
Natasha sighed “why am I not surprised?Alright, come along Stark.I am only doing this because I genuinely like the guy, or else I wouldn’t bother with anything to do with you”
They found Percy sitting in the common lounge reading something on the Stark Pad Tony got him.
“Hey Percy” Natasha said sitting down next to him
Tony blinked, having difficulty adjusting to the personality 360 he just experienced
“Hi Nat, what are you doing here?”
Nat? Percy got away with calling their resident Russian assassin Nat?
“Tony wanted to talk to you”
Oh, that backstabbing traitor! Percy gave him an expectant look
“Remember that talk we had about bodyguards?”
“Tony-”
“No,no listen” Tony cut him off “I am not asking you to hire them. I thought, as a compromise, you could start learning some self defence so that I know you can at least hold your own if you ever need to..”
Tony looked up, expecting immediate retaliation. He was surprised to see Percy smiling.
“I would be okay with that, except I’ve already been trained because of my Dad”
Natasha didn’t look surprised, but then again , she never looks surprised.
“Then it’ll be a great idea for you to spar with me, you know to keep you in top form?”
“Umm..Okay,I guess” Percy said shrugging
Tony and Natasha continued looking at him
“Wait, like now?” Percy asked
“Why not, I am free now so let's go” Natasha said, dragging a surprised Percy behind her.
“You know, I wasn’t actually free? I was working”
“You needed a break soon, so you’re welcome” Natasha said, pulling Percy behind her into the lift.
Percy sighed and shut up, he knew to pick his battles. Tony followed quietly.
“You haven’t even let me change” Percy said, trying a last time to get away.
“Bad guys will not wait for you to get dressed in comfortable clothes before attacking, you know” Natasha said crouching into a fighting stance.
Tony walked to the side, a little worried for his boyfriend.
“Don’t break anything Romanoff, I need him tonight” He yelled from the side of the gym
“I am touched by your confidence in me Tony ,truly, touched” Percy said getting into his own stance.
“She is a Russian assassin darling, I love you but I am not stupid”
“Really? You’re not? You could have fooled me” Natasha said, launching herself across towards Percy.
Tony waited with bated breath for his boyfriend’s cry of pain.
It never came.
Natasha was twirling around Percy, punching and kicking, but none of them landed. Percy was fluidly moving, blocking all her attacks. After training with her, Tony could tell Natasha was starting easy but he could see her slowly trying harder to test how far Percy could go.
After a few moments it became obvious Percy was testing her too.
Tony couldn’t tell who was more surprised, Natasha or him.
Them fighting was like a choreographed dance, each move transitioning gracefully into the other. By now both parties had managed to land a few pouches on the other but neither of them seemed worse for wear.
Tony watched entranced for about 15 minutes before he saw Natasha land on her back, Percy’s arm around her neck in a loose chokehold, both of them breathing hard.
“Yield?” Percy asked panting
“Yield,” Nat replied,breathless.
“What-” Tony sputtered
Percy let go and helped the spy up.
“Seems like your boyfriend is not as defenceless as you think, Stark”
Percy flashed him a grin “Though, to be fair, I think she was expecting me to fall on my butt when she kicked so I had the element of surprise”
“You beat a Russian assassin..How the heck did you beat a Russian assassin?”
“You seem awfully hung upon that Tony, Nat is really nice you know” Percy said side hugging her.
“No,I’m not”
“No, she’s not”
Percy laughed at their antics.
“Can I get back to work, now that you have proof I can sufficiently defend my virtue?”
“Sure..” Tony said still dazed
Percy kissed his cheek sweetly and turned to the spy
“I wouldn’t be against doing this more often”
“Don’t expect me to go easy on you again Jackson”
“Whatever helps you sleep at night, Nat”