“Foods here,” Steve said as his phone ‘pinged’ the notification that the delivery man was outside, he got up and left the kitchen making his way towards the entryway he turned halfway to look back at Tony as he asked, “Hey Tony? Did you ask J.A.R.V.I.S to open up the driveway gate once the delivery guy gets here.”
“No shit princes- ”
“Don’t call me ‘princess’, Anthony!” Steve cut Tony off as he opened the door to receive the food, he paid and tipped the delivery man before closing the door to make his way towards the living room to set the food on the coffee table.
Tony sat his wine glass down as he asked, “What did you get us?”
“I was craving some Chinese, so I just ordered a bunch of food from P.F. CHANG’S. I ordered one of each of the lettuce wraps, BBQ spare ribs, some pork dumplings for us to share and then for our main I got you Chang’s Spicy Chicken, with fried rice and extra chicken, and for me the Korean Bulgogi steak, with a side of white rice,” he replied as he walked into the kitchen to grab both his and Tony's glasses of wine.
Grinning, Tony asked, “What… no dessert?”
“These Ben & Jerrys in the freezer plus a fortune cookie each, so there, desserts sorted,” Steve answered as he made his way toward the couch he looked back at Tony, who still sat in the kitchen, and requested, “Hey, can you also bring the bottle of wine and the chopsticks that are in the draw? Oh and also a bottle of water please?”
***************
“Do you miss New York?” Tony asked as he took a bite out of the last dumpling that sat in his food carton.
“Huh?” Steve said with his mouth filled with some meat, he swallowed it down and took a swig of water from the bottle of Voss that was sitting on the floor before he turned towards Tony and continued, “I love it here, to be honest,” as he reached over and took the half-eaten dumpling from Tony’s chopsticks with his hand and popped it into his mouth, “But New York… New York will always be home, you know. Like when I was at Harvard, I would travel back home every other week when my class timetable allowed it, but as much as I tried to make Cambridge my home just as much as I’m trying to make California my home it’s… it’s not as easy as it sounds.”
Steve got up from his seat he took the takeout cartons and placed it on the table as he grabbed both his and Tony’s glasses of wine before giving the latter his glass of wine. He sat back down, criss-cross style, on the sofa as he looked into tony’s eyes and inquired, “ Enough about New York… how are you doing… coping? Ya know? With the whole ‘I am Iron Man mess?”
Tony turned to Steve as a small smirk formed on this face and uttered, “well my narcissistic side would say that I'm a hero… that it is just another layer to add to my exceptional repute, you know… Billionaire, genius, playboy, philanthropist… now superhero… that a mouthful if I'm, to be honest, but the humanitarian in me believes someone has to do some goo-”
“Humanitarian my ass”, Steve whispered with a grin as he noticed Tony glare at him before giving out a chuckled ‘sorry’
“As I was saying before you rudely interrupted me, life's good and the humanitarian in me is enjoying helping people out who are in danger by doing something good. It just brings more meaning to life that’s all.”
Steve stared at Tony as he took in every word he said before asking, “And this ‘Fury’ guy? What’s his deal? Like you told me he broke in, disarmed J.A.R.V.I.S to give you a warning of some kind?”
“Honestly Stevie, I don’t know. He’s probably some guy who wants all his cards laid out in front of him.”
“If that’s the case, I glad that someone gets to beat your ass in my place, I was getting a tad bit tired of asking J.A.R.V.I.S to remove all your idiotic stunts that have landed on the internet, and yes I'm talking about you’re ‘scandalous sex tape’,” Steve said with a wink before continuing, “by the way that whole ‘Billionaire, genius, playboy, philanthropist’ bull shit pissed me off, at one point I actually hated you."
“Really?"
“Yip,” Steve replied as he took a sip of wine, “like in my mind I thought this guy is good looking… then you opened up your mouth and said that lame ass line.”
"You liked me,” Tony said with a knowing grin.
“I never said I liked you, I thought you were good looking. There’s a difference. But anyway that’s not the point Tony!” Steve said as he rolled his eyes, the point of the matter is that your narcissist complex has a way of putting people off.”
“Yet you stayed,” he whispered as he stared into Steve's eyes.
“Yet I stayed,” Steve returned as he stared back at Tony before breaking contact.
“So remind me why are we watching this?” Tony asked as he cleared his throat before looking at Steve.
Steve sighed as he looked at Tony then back to the screen then back to Tony again and replied,” This my dear sir, is the only guilty pleasure in life that one needs, and no sex does not fall into that category.”
“But why... why are you making me watch this Steve,” Tony whined.
Rolling his eyes Steve said, “It’s to culture you, and no… I don’t mean your version of culturing in the form of Star Trek or Wars or something like that.”
“Its Star Wars and you know it,” Tony cut him off.
Glaring at Tony Steve finished with a sigh, “As I was saying it's to introduce you to something that is of interest to individuals, such as myself, who have a huge love of reality tv. You’ve been asking me about my obsession with the Real Housewives franchise and this is where it truly all started... watching The Real Housewives of O.C, then New York came out and I knew then that it officially became my new obsession, then Atlanta and my all-time favourite franchise, obviously after New York, New Jersey came out.”
“O.C?” Tony asked with confusion in his voice.
“Orange County. Is the original but as I said my favourite has to be New York then New Jersey. No question there.”
“Okay so why are those franchise..?,” He looked at Steve for confirmation as Steve nodded his head Tony continued, “New York and the New Jersey, why are they favourite?”
“Oh, well… New York’s home so I’ll definitely have that as number 1, but with New Jersey,” Steve said as he let out a soft chuckle, “J.A.R.V.I.S, please open up YouTube and search The Real Housewives of New Jersey ‘Teresa table flip’ .”
"Of course Steve," replied J.A.R.V.I.S.
“Table flip? Why are you searching for a table flip?”
“Tony… Tony… Tony, you introduced me to your would exotic foods, world travelling and bloody expensive wines.”
“First of all, you were already well-travelled since your mom would always travel to other countries for her work.”
“That was D octor Without Borders and dad and I only went to go and visit mom and anyway, and yes, we would travel as a family, but its always different travelling with family compared to your boss or friends. Plus mom and dad would always want to go to the same places, Ireland then some other European country for a week then back home. You forced me into travelling to South Africa, China, South Korea, Australia and many other countries and for all of those things, I'm truly indebted towards you so… allow me to introduce you to my guilt pleasure… Oh wait I forgot to get more wine and our dessert!” Steve shouted as he stood up, grabbed the takeaway cartons and bolted towards the kitchen and not even a minute later came back with a bottle of red wine and a pint of the Ben & Jerrys Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough that was in the freezer, two tablespoons and their fortune cookies.”
Steve placed the goods on the coffee table, took the fortune cookies in his hand and gave one to Tony before opening his and he read it aloud, “It’s about time I got out of that cookie.”
“At least that is better than mine,” Tony said before clearing his before reading his, “We don't know the future, but here's a cookie.”
“How is yours better than mine,” Steve asked incredulously, “mine was like a slap in the face… at least yours still ends off by giving you some form of happiness by saying you received a cookie and not one that sounds as if it's trying to run away.”
“But you will still have the happiness of eating a cookie.”
“Ya… I think not since my cookie is one that wants to run away from me,” Steve said as he gripped the ice cream and tore it open before taking a big spoonful and shoving it into his mouth.
With a smile, Tony looked at Steve before handing him his glass. Steve thanked him as he placed the pint of ice cream between him and Tony then looked at Tony with a smirk, he took a sip of wine, placed it on the floor and told Tony, “Welcome to the world of painfully good but utter trash... reality tv. J.A.R.V.I.S. please play the video.”
*************
“Are your sure you want fro-yo?,” Steve asked as Tony parked his Audi R8.
“Sure why not, we are going to the beach so might as well get some frozen yoghurt to go with it as well.”
“Tony,” Steve sighed out the name as if it were an effort, “tell me again why you dragged me out of my apartment at 8 pm, knowing that its a 45-minute drive and we’ll probably be done here at 12 and we have work tomorrow Tony."
“You can stay at my place and anyways we are flying out to New York tomorrow evening so we don’t need to go in tomorrow morning. So with that sorted do you want to get out of the car and get that fro-yo and head down to the beach?”
Steve rolled his eyes at Tony as the exited the car and made their way towards the building.
“What flavour do you want?” Tony asked as he looked at Steve as they entered ‘Yogen Früz’ and made their way towards the counter.
“Honestly you know that I typically don’t like frozen yoghurt... but if I drown it in toppings then it should be able to drown the chalky flavour.” Steve replied with a face filled with disgust.”
“If you don’t like frozen yoghurt, why are we then here?”
“Easy, you like it so I compromise but then all you need to do is repay me with either a week off or you can help me stock up on some Louboutins or maybe…maybe you can buy me some art?” Steve said with a shrug.
“How about a week off after we finish up our business in New York, and then I’ll also buy you all the Christian Louboutins your heart desires and maybe add in a piece of art as a bonus.”
With a scoff, Steve answered, “As nice as all of that sounds, I’ll just take a day off but speaking of New York, we need to fly down there for a few days since the board are expecting something huge from you.”
“Mmm... I see there is a new flavour so I think I’m going to try it,” Steve declared to no-one before he looked over the counter at the shop assistant, “yes I would like the Dulce de Leche, medium cup with brownie bits, roasted almonds and chocolate-covered waffle pieces... yes I’ll have that and oooh,” he voiced as he looked at tony with wide eyes, “water to I’ll have a bottle of water too, thanks.”
“And for you, sir,” inquired Jon, the shop assistant,
"I think today I’ll go for the chocolate truffle explosion flavour chocolate covered waffle pieces, mini peanut butter cups and m&m minis in a large cup, thanks,” Tony said to the assistant before turning his attention to Steve, “when we leave the beach I think we can go to some off the wall coffee shop? I’ll defiantly be in need of a double espresso.”
Steve rolled his eyes and sighed out in aspiration, “Tony, I’m surprised you didn’t go for the espresso flavour since that is your favourite flavour, but sure we can get you your coffee,” He finished off as Tony paid the required amount for their purchases.
**************
It to less than 5 minutes for them to reach the beach since it was late at night during a weekday and there was next to no traffic.
Both Steve and Tony left the car as they made their way towards the oceans calm waters, they both sat down about 6 ft from the water on the sand, with their frozen yoghurt in their hands.
“You know,” Steve said as he ate a spoon full of his yoghurt before continuing, “for some weird reason this view… this sound, especially at this time is the best therapy that no money can buy.”
“So today was a rough session?” Tony asked he took a sip of his coffee.
“I wouldn’t say that it was a rough session but it did take its toll out on me, but it was needed. Speaking of therapy, when are you starting?”
“I'm planning on going to go to one in New York.”
“What the whole deal with New York? Like I love my home city but for some reason, over the past few days you have been mentioning New York a lot.” Steve said as he stole a mini Reeces peanut butter cup from Tony frozen yoghurt cup and ate it.
“You really need to stop stealing my food.” Tony playfully growled as he returned the ‘offence’ by taking a spoonful of Steves frozen yoghurt and shoving it into his mouth.
“Like you going to kill me over food… coffee maybe but trust me when it comes to food you have nothing on Bucky, but we were talking about New York so stop trying to change the topic.”
“I have haven’t I?” Tony said as he continued eating his frozen yoghurt, he looked back towards at Steve and said, “Remember the Expo’s my dad would have, you know to show what Stark Industries have planned for the ‘future’ .”
“Oh… Like the ’74 Stark Expo ‘City of the Future’ ?” Steve said as he placed his yoghurt cup on his lap and replaced it with the water they had bought, he opened it up before he took a sip.
“Exactly like that except with more… ‘me’, and then we plan on helping out up and coming tech companies. We plan on keeping open for the entire year.”
Steve closed the water bottle and was about to place it on the sand before Tony grabbed the bottle to drink from it as well, “You know there’s something called asking,” Steve said.
“I bought it so why should I ask,” Tony replied as if that justified his actions.
Ignoring him, Steve asked, “So will it also take place in Flushing Meadows? Or are you planning on changing the venue to bring in more attractions?"
“That why we need to go down the New York tomorrow, and we are there till next month. It's going to be full steam ahead since we have only 6 months for all of this to be done so we are starting with planning and then executing our plans and it all starts on Friday, we have our first board meeting then, and I was wondering if you would like to attend the meeting in- ”
“No, Tony,” Steve shut down the question with a sigh as he finished his fro-yo.
“But what if- ”
“I said no, Tony. I refuse to attend the meeting, anyways since we are going to New York now, I can reschedule that meeting with the city on allowing you to change the companies building structure to extend the NY branch.” Steve drank from his water before continuing, "I had to reschedule the meeting twice over and I won’t be doing it for the third time, since I wasn’t able to travel with all the drama of ‘I am Iron Man’ , so you are going to that meeting, and I'll go to mine.”
“But what if we trade? you take my place and I take yours. I think those board-members will love seeing you there instead of me with all that tiny sassiness,” he said with faux enthusiasm.
“Tony, I know that the board-members will love to see me because, spoiler alert, I actually do all the shit that they require from me but… and I cannot stress this enough I can’t go to the meeting since you know the ins and outs about the Stark Expo and I do not, it's your baby… I can’t do that but enough about that, how’s the new ‘heart’,” Steve said softly.
“Its… it's doing it job… keeping me alive and that’s all that counts.”
“Tony,” Steve said quietly as he stared at Tony, "You know you can tell me anything… right, if you are having any issues you just need to tell me and I'll help you with my everything.”
“Steve, I'll never ever lie to you, I promise you I'll always tell you the truth.”
Steve took in a deep breath as he tried to get his emoting in check, he said after a long pause, “It's getting late, we should… we should get that coffee and then head back to your home.”
“Then let's go,” Tony answered as he got up and took both his and Steves disposable items, they walked towards the car after he through the items in the bin.
They got in the car, Steve sighed as he looked in the rearview mirror at Tony, he said, “About our conversation earlier, I believe you, Tony, and remember I'm always in your corner even when I'm not there physically, you can call me and I’ll do anything in my power to be there for you whether it be physically or emotionally… ill never leave you… okay, always.”
With a small smile, Tony looked at Steve and whispered, “Always,” as he started the car.