Sadly, I Do
TONY WAS MOVING TO MALIBU. Steve’s heart beat wildly in his chest, his head spinning with thoughts. This was his fault, it was all his fault. The blond stumbled up from his seat, starting to walk away. He couldn’t handle this. Not anymore.
“Steve!” Tony called up, running up after him. “Steve! Where are you going?”
He looked back, shaking his head at the brunet. “I… I can’t just-- I can’t do this anymore, Tony.”
“What? You can’t do what anymore?”
“I can’t act like I… I can’t… never mind. I’m leaving, okay?” He swallowed loudly, fighting back the tears in his eyes. “Let me go.”
“Damn it, Rogers!” The brunet yelled, his eyebrows furrowed. “No!”
“What?”
“You’re not leaving! Not without an explanation! You left me last time with no reason as to why you were acting like a jerk and I’m not letting it happen again. I… I can’t let it happen.”
“Tony, I’m sorry, but I’m leaving. I can’t--”
“Can you please stop walking away?”
“Tony… I can’t--”
“You can and you will, so just-- explain why--”
“Tony, I mean that I can’t act like I’m not ridiculously and irrevocably in love with you,” Steve professed. Maybe he had known it from the first moment they met, the first time they danced together, the first time they went out. But Tony didn’t harness those same feelings, and god, did it hurt. “And… and I know how we are. I hated you, then we were friends, then I hated you, then we were maybe something more, but… I’m tired of the blurred lines. You will always be my best bet, Tony. And In all honesty… I wouldn't want to bet on anyone else anyways.”
“Say it again.”
“Say-- say what again?”
“Tell me you love me.”
The blonds eyes widened, his lips parting in shock. “I… I love you. I love you, Tony.”
“I love you, too, Steve Rogers. So much.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“So…”
“This is where you kiss me, Steve.”
“Right, got it.”
✰
THREE MONTHS LATER
“And then what?” Bucky asked, sitting on the edge of the couch in anticipation.
“Steve caught me, of course. Then he punched out Obie,” Tony explained to everyone in the room.
“You said he was all the way across the room!” Bucky exclaimed.
“I’d never let Tony fall in front of a huge group of people,” Steve told him with a laugh. “He’d socially die.”
“So,” Rhodey started, “Let me get this right. You forced your father to start a new Stark Industries headquarters in the city, you exposed Obadiah Stane's plans to steal and sell nuclear weapons on the black market, then Steve punched him after he shoved you?”
“Don’t forget the part where Tony loudly said that he and Steve were going to get married and have artistic babies in the future,” Sam added on.
Steve blushed, hiding his face in his hands. Artistic babies. Sounds about right.
“Right,” Rhodey said sarcastically. “And wow, that sounds really romantic.”
“I know, we’re adorable.” Tony smirked, leaning up against the kitchen counter.
“Are you guys ready? If we’re going to get to the new Stark headquarters opening on time, we gotta go now,” Natasha called from the bathroom, carefully applying thick eyeliner in the mirror. The red head would look back every few seconds, to confirm that both of them were even.
“I call shotgun,” Sam told them, running to the front door.
Bucky got up right after him, racing to the door, “Sorry, babe, but that seat is mine.”
“Both of you, shut up, okay?” The red head requested, poking her head out of the bathroom to give Sam and Bucky her death glare. “Rhodey is getting shotgun.”
“Thank you, Natasha.”
“Are you ready to go?” Steve asked his boyfriend, looking over at him with a wide smile.
“As long as you’re there with me, blue eyes.”
“You’re a sap, Stark.”
“You love it.”
“Sadly, I do.”