Chapter 10
they woke up well rested the next morning and somehow, steve’s world had regained some color overnight.
it seemed to be a general thing in the apartment because tony too was feeling fantastic. he pulled steve out of a last slumber by lying on top of him and kissing him softly at first and getting more thorough as the man started to wake up more.
“you two had sex,” bucky stated an hour later when the two came into the kitchen squeaky clean.
“no?” steve asked, cheeks turning deep red.
“wasn’t a question stevie,” bucky laughed and tony joined him as he watched his boyfriend’s ears turn red.
“so what are we doing today?” steve asked, going over to the coffee machine to make himself and tony a cup. it was sunny and summery warm outside for the first time that year and tony had planned in a day for not doing school work anyway, so they were all practically open to anything.
“we could take out the yacht,” tony shrugged. “we’ve got one here.”
steve and bucky frowned at tony with a smile playing on their faces.
“it’s just a small one,” tony blushed. “my dad wanted to teach me how to sail as a kid so he bought it for me and we placed it here when i started college.”
steve and bucky were beyond excited when tony gave them their little tasks for the day out on the sea. they anchored about an hour after leaving the marina and the two men decided to go for a swim.
tony lay down at the front of his yacht in only swimming trunks and napped for a bit while steve and bucky took up some sort of swimming race because both were unbelievably fit.
“stark, is that you?” a jet ski motor was running to tony’s right, who turned to find a family friend with a girlfriend not much older than tony himself smile at him from the water.
“andrew? good to see you, what are you doing out here?”
“we’re on our way to aruba, isn’t that right babe?” the millionaire laughed and slapped the girl’s tan thigh, nodding towards behind him where tony realized a huge yacht had anchored not far from his. “this is holly, by the way. holly, that’s tony stark, howard’s son.”
“good to meet you,” holly smiled and tony returned the nice welcome.
“are you all by yourself kid?”
“no no, my boyfriend and his best friend are racing somewhere around here, they should be back soon.”
“well, we can not leave a stark without a lunch invitation, can we? i’ll send a boat in about a half an hour, okay? your company can shower on the laura.”
“of course, thank you andrew,” tony said and waved when holly and the millionaire rode off back to his yacht thirty times the size of tony’s. as much as it was unspoken not to invite a stark when you saw them around lunch time, it was just as unspoken for a stark saying no to such an invitation. and because tony knew these things could happen, he had made sure all of them were dressed acceptably for the world he grew up in.
“i’ve got a surprise,” tony said unsurely when steve and bucky lay down next to him. “we were invited to that yacht over there for lunch.”
“seriously?” bucky shot up as he smiled. “your life’s really like that?”
“i guess,” tony shrugged with a smile. it felt weird to him, those two worlds combined but given the fact that steve was around, it would be okay. and besides, he hadn’t lounged around and eaten and drunk a weekend away in a long time. “you okay with that stevie?”
“sure,” steve said heartfully. “just weird, knowing you grew up like this.”
tony was given a glass of champagne while bucky and steve showered, and he updated andrew on how school was and where his parents were investing in houses for their next trips. holly snorted three lines of cocaine while the boy spoke, and none of them batted an eye at that.
“so, how are you, how’s business?” tony asked and pulled out a cigarette when he saw andrew signal over the butler holding a cigar box just behind him. the young man, who couldn’t be much older than steve, held out a lighter to first light tony’s cig, then andrew’s cigar. starks were served first. that was that. steve and bucky sat down on either side of tony, each handed a glass of champagne right away and offered a cigar that both declined.
“well, i can’t complain. your dad and i sealed a deal in iran last week as i’m sure he’s told you.”
“he hasn’t, actually. what kind of deal?” tony didn’t really care about these things, he was only being polite.
“300 tanks and enough ammo to blow up the surface of the earth,” andrew laughed heartily and tony gulped down more champagne because steve and bucky were right there, and they must have been freaked out. “three billion dollars.”
“wow, congratulations,” tony said with a polite smile.
“thank you kid. so, i figured that’s enough business this year. but you know howard, always working on his cover story.”
“i sure do,” tony chuckled. “he was here last week though. i’m back on treatment for three more weeks,” the teenager informed.
“how are you holding up?” andrew’s wife had died of a brain tumour only a few years before tony was diagnosed and although it seemed controversial, the man cared a lot about his friend’s kid.
“good, thank you. same thing as back in winter two years ago.”
“i’m glad. that was good right?”
“yeah,” tony smiled and leaned back into steve’s side.
“so. steve, what do you do?” andrew asked then and tony was glad to get off the topic of his health and arms.
“i’m a counsellor at the engineering department at mit,” steve said nonchalantly because honestly, while in any other place of the world this was a right to brag, he felt like a towel boy on the yacht.
“where did you get your degrees?”
“harvard, sir. and i got my phd at yale.”
“wow,” andrew said, honestly stunned. “i have always admired hard working youth. what do your parents do?”
“my mom’s a nurse but she’s just had surgery so she’s not working right now. and my dad passed away fifteen years ago, but he used to work at xerox in the sales department.”
“beautiful how you got into the ivy system. how about you james? what do you and your parents do?”
and so bucky told andrew about his job in advertising and that he was a first generation immigrant with a physics professor as a dad and a mom in human resources.
“how long have you known the starks?” steve asked at some point because clearly, andrew was more of an uncle to tony than anything else.
“i met howard in college and we’ve been friends ever since. tony and i see each other a lot in the summer. we’ve been vacationing on the yacht for years now.”
“really?”
“yes. in fact, tony was potty trained on this ship.”
bucky and steve chuckled and tony felt his cheeks heat up.
“please tell me you have pictures,” bucky laughed and andrew joined him, nodding. he ordered one of the butlers to grab the photo album of the summer when tony was about to turn three, then put out his cigar.
“well this turned on me quickly,” tony said with a whine and gulped down the last sip of his champagne.
“come on honey, i think it’s cute,” steve assured and placed a hand on tony’s thigh.
when the butler returned, tony switched seats with andrew so that the man could show steve and bucky the album.
the teenager pulled holly straight into a conversation.
“he was such a beautiful toddler,” andrew started in admiration. there were uncountable prints of tony running around in diapers, then naked, and then with undies.
the starks along with andrew and his wife had spent that summer cruising around the mediterranean and steve loved seeing how happy tony was with all the adults.
it was an odd thing to see, a boy doing calculus while sitting in his dad’s lap wearing diapers but steve loved it. it was so adorable he could have squealed. he asked andrew if he could get copies of the pictures he loved the most, and was promised to receive them in the mail a week later.
“lunch is served,” a butler got their attention after a while and the whole party got up to walk to the sun deck.
the group of five ate a big lunch, during which tony got progressively more drunk and steve and bucky began to like andrew.
“maybe you should stop drinking,” steve suggested subtly to tony when his glass was filled up for the sixth time. “how are we going to get home?”
“it’s fine stevie, andrew will fly us out in his chopper and there’s someone aboard who can take the yacht back,” the boy shrugged like it was the most natural thing and after steve had heard all of the conversation that afternoon, he accepted it without much of a surprise.
andrew did as tony had told steve he would and dropped the group of three off in his chopper after they had a staff member of the laura go ahead to get tony’s yacht back to the marina.
the three of them said goodbye to the millionaire who invited them back for the summer, telling tony his assistant would call him for an appointment.
“that was…” steve started once they sat in his truck, all three at the front.
“like the movies,” bucky finished for him and tony smiled.
“i’m glad you guys had fun. i loved coming to college to wake up from that world. here you’re not a loser for driving a bentley because you can’t afford a rolls,” tony chuckled.
“why wake up from a world like that? it is your life isn’t it? not like that’s gonna change,” bucky wondered.
“well, howard does weird business, i always thought it would come crashing down at one point. lucky for me i’ll probably be dead by the time it does.”
steve swallowed hard next to tony so the boy placed a hand on his thigh.
“sorry, the jokes just come spewing out when i’m drunk.” steve didn’t respond, eyes fixated on the road. “well, anyway. i think andrew liked you guys a lot, summer should be fun.”