I am seriously loving the new you
Chapter 9
I am seriously loving the new you
Steve laid on his bed when the notification ‘bing' brought Steve out of his daydreaming state.
He looked at the time and saw that he had less than 50 minutes to get ready and leave, since the drive was arid 30 minutes, for the Firefighter's Family Fund Benefit that Stark Industries had co-founded and was a major sponsored. Steve placed the laptop that laid leisurely on his lap, forgotten, on to the empty space next to him as he reached over to grab his iPhone 3G and saw that he had received a message from Tony.
‘I specifically told you told you that I'm not sentimental'
Laughing Steve replied ‘Tony, in the last ten years that I've been working for you, since when have I given two shits on whether you will like something or not. What you received was a gift. A fantastic gift if I might say so myself and I better see it sitting next to all your trophies when I come to your place on Monday'
So it seemed as if Tony finally opened up the gift that Steve gave him hours ago. He knew the moment that Tony would have seen the gift, he would give Steve hell for it. However, in Steve's case, he knew the moment he had set his eyes upon the old Arc Reactor, that that was Tony's heart.
He had the words, ‘PROOF THAT TONY STARK HAS A HEART' engraved into the rim of the Reactor and place the Arc Reactor inside of a glass casing.
As Steve stood up from his bed, he placed his cellphone onto his bedside table and made his way towards his walk-in-closet. If Steve were, to be honest with himself he never was one who needed a walk-in-closet, his old bedroom at his parents home in New York had quite a large size closet which Steve decided to turn into a mini art gallery-cum-walk-in-closet ( thank god it had windows in it). Even though his parents had gifted him an art studio in one of the unused guest rooms, Steve never displayed his work in there. However, if he were to compare his childhood closet to his adult life closet there would be a huge difference.
Steve was honestly not one for many clothing items. He had his staples that included basic tees, jeans, casual trousers and shirts and then his work clothing which only consisted out of suits and then his event suits.
He walked directly to a plastic-covered hanger that held the suit that he was going to wear to the benefit and got ready.
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Steve stood around with two of his colleagues who worked in HR and R&D, making small talk when he identified the voice behind him, "You look fantastic, I almost didn't recognize you."
" Tony," he asked slightly surprised, "what are you doing here?"
"Just avoiding government agents," was the reply he received.
“ Wait, what?!” He asked slightly flabbergasted, “You know what never mind.” he said as he shook his head before he continued, “Did you… did you come alone? or am I going to have to draft up another NDA tomorrow morning?" Steve enquired
“ Well… it was kind of a late invitation, so yes to the fact that I, in fact, did come alone," he replied swiftly then asked, "where'd you get that suit"
" Custom made by Isaia, it was a birthday present… from you, actually," he said with a slight smile
"Huh, well I got great taste, don't I? You, uh, wanna dance?" He said as he held his hand towards Steve.
With wide eyes, he replied, "Oh, no, thank you."
Tony took Steve hand into his own, "All right, come on."
"Fine. But just this one song. Then I need a drink."
As Tony guided them towards the dance floor, Steve felt the tension coming off from him. Steve turned to face Tony and gave him a slight smile which was returned as they both got into a relaxing position. Tony placed his hand on the small of Steve's back then asked, "Am I making you uncomfortable?" As they began to sway to the music.
"Oh, no, I always forget to wear deodorant and dance with my boss in a room full of people I work with. It doesn’t help that this suit looks as if this suit has become a second skin on me and unfortunately said bosses hand is dangerously close to my ass." He responded.
"Well, you look great, you smell fantastic, by the way, is it Chanel? Nevertheless, that does not matter now, but to make you happy I could fire you if that would take the edge off.
With his eye raised Steve said, "I don't think you could tie your shoes without me."
With a smug look, Tony claimed, "I'd make it a week."
"A week, really?" With a light laugh, Steve rebutted, “Okay then… what’s your social security number?"
Tony took a long, thoughtful pause.
"Five…"
"Five?" Steve said as he tried and failed to suppress a laugh, "You're missing just a couple of digits."
"Right, the other eight. Well, I have you for the other eight." Came the quick reply from Tony as he gazed into Steve's eyes.
After about two minutes of swaying to the music in quietness between the two of them, while staring into each other's eyes, Tony asked, " Do you want to grab some fresh air?"
Steve looked at Tony with a small smirk, " God yes... please. Well then, lead the way forth dear Mr Stark.
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It took them nearly ten minutes before they were able to break away from all their co-works.
As Steve stood next to Tony in the cold he could not help but notice the fact that Tony's hand had still remained on the small of his back. He knew that it was normal for a dancing partners hand to rest on the other partners lower back however it had been nearly a half an hour and Tony's hand sat comfortably on the crease where his ass meet his back.
"You know," he heard Tony say, " We never were able to finish that dance."
Raising his right eyebrow he replied, " I don't know what you talking about Tony. We danced around for about a full song? I think that that was a sufficient dancing period, don't you think so?"
“mmm… one song will never be long enough, should have been two songs or more, but unfortunately, I'm going to have to correct you since we had begun our second dance however in the middle of the second song we were interrupted." Tony sighed.
"Well it's not my fault if work tends to be a tad bit more important than dancing, and anyways we… no, you would not have had any type of problems or interruptions if you just attended board meetings as you are supposed to." Steve sassed with dramatic exhale, "It's as if it's becoming some type of ritual that your shareholders and employees have that the only time they are able to get a hold of you is when you are at a ball."
A smirk formed on Tony's face as he pulled Steves petite body towards him, "You know," he said with a slightly husky voice, "ever since I returned it's like something in you has changed. It's like you have awoken something hidden in you that turned you into … I don't know, someone confident, not that you weren't confident before but this change… this change was really good for you. I am seriously loving the new you, Steven Grant Rogers."
As Steve stared at the coffee brown orbs that held so much knowledge and power, he could not help but to allow a light squeal to escape his lips as Tony had twirled the blue and from out of nowhere dipped him. Steve saw the lightheartedness that was shining brightly on Tony's face.
"Tony!" Steve squealed, "you could have given me a heart attack. Please warn me the next time you place on doing that."
Tony had a look of mischief on his face and whispered, " If I were to warn you every time I was about to dip you… life would become a void of boringness and Tony Stark does not do boring."
Steve simultaneously sighed and rolled his eyes, "Since when does the Anthony Stark speak about himself in the person?." He asked with a hint of humour in his voice.
" Well" came the reply, " as you know I'm a billionaire, genius, playboy and philanthropist… and because of that it automatically makes it a thing that allows all narcissistic people, such as myself, to talk about themselves in the third person."
Steve laughed as he rested his right hand over Tony's chest, his Arc Reactor no the less, and asked softly, " does it hurt?"
"Huh," Tony mumbled.
"Your chest, does the Arc Reactor make your chest hurt?"
Steve heard a deep breathe been taken by Tony before he heard a response, "At first…at first, it hurt like hell. It was completely foreign to me… having something that literally emerges of your chest frightens a person. However as time went on in that cave, I became dependent on it, it saved my life in more than one way."
Steve inhaled the CREED Aventus, Eau de Parfum that he knew Tony always kept a small bottle in all his cars before he looks Tony in the eyes and said, " I don't know how my life would have turned out without you in it… probably with no stress, since you know that I honestly don't give a fuck, but your the fire that keeps me alive and when I look at how my life has turned out with you in it I would not change a thing."
After a moment of silence, Steve broke away from Tony and said, "Doesn't this feel weird to you?"
"What's weird?" Tony asked with a frown.
"Us… our dancing, in front of all our co-workers... I know we're outside but...," Steve began but was cut off by Tony," you mean your co-workers, emphasis on the YOUR, and my employees,"
With an aspirated sigh, Steve said," exactly my point Tony! People don't judge you since you… well, you. But for me, Tony... I'm just a regular person who happened to put you in your place and was magically promoted or demoted, I seriously don't know, to a personal assistant. What I'm saying is that people are going to talk."
"I just think you overstating, that's all," Tony replied with a shrug.
"Tony," Steve sighed then quietly said, "you not hearing my point… I just… I don't know, I just what to be seen as something other than just your personal assistant. That's all."
Letting out a deep exhale Steve looked up at Tony but something was different, something that Steve could not comprehend, however, he knew that whatever it was that was going it felt like something was pulling him towards Tony. Tony's eyes were on him… as their faces we closing the gap he could smell Tony's breath, alcohol - definitely a Scotch whisky- but with a hint of mint, somehow it felt familiar however once he felt his nose gaze Tonys he blurted out, " I would like a drink,"
With knitted eyebrows, Tony replied, "Huh, a drink? Okay… yes, definitely yes. What do you want?
Without even thinking he said, " Vodka martini. I would like a vodka martini, please
"Okay."
Oh yes, Steve continued, " dry... very dry, with olives, a lot of olives. Like, at least… three? Please."
As Tony turned in the direction that lead to the bar all Steve could do was whisper-yell, “fuck!"
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Steve waited… and waited… and waited.
He looked at his wristwatch and saw that he was left alone for nearly ten minutes, he realized Tony was not going to return.
He reached for his phone to call Bucky.
"Aren't you supposed to be dancing your ass off at that charity ball you are attending today?"
“Buck, I seriously don't have time for our normal chit-chat session however I'm in desperate need of your help… I think I just fucked up, majorly."
"I'll pick you up, just give me ten… you sound as if you are in need of a drink… or two."