Avenger Ships

Life was good in the Avengers tower. The whole team, and some new additions, were getting along as well as they could at the renovated Avengers Tower. HYDRA was weak. Natasha and Bruce were in a solid relationship. All the rogue Avengers made peace with those who stayed behind and any grudges dissipated. SHIELD learned to mind their own business. Steve and Tony were hopelessly in love, but too stupid to confront each other about it. And Bucky destroyed the Winter Soldier.

This meant that Steve’s best friend was slowly integrating into the team. Natasha and Steve were the first to fully welcome him. They introduced him to some aspects of modern life and explained team dynamics. Peter, amazed with his metal arm, quickly warmed up to the ex-assassin and became his training buddy in a class taught by Clint. Frequent visits to Tony’s lab resulted in a warm friendship between Bucky and Tony. Sam maintained a teasing competition with Bucky for the title of Steve’s BFF. Everyone else realized what a nice guy Steve’s friend was and in the blink of an eye, he was a member of their family.

Bucky was just shifting to a more comfortable position on the couch when Clint started snickering obnoxiously. He rolled his eyes. Their tradition of a monthly movie night was almost always the same, give or take a few people. Steve, sandwiched between Tony and Bucky, took the couch. Natasha and Bruce had a large cushy chair. Peter and Clint laid across bean bags. Wanda, Vision, and Pietro shared a love seat. Sam had the loveseat. Everyone else, who didn’t live at the tower, just rotated through, either sharing with Sam or pulling up chairs from around the tower.

Tony muttered about scientific inaccuracies. Steve and Bucky had questions. Clint made stupid comments. Tonight was no exception.

“Better cover your eyes Cap,” Clint sarcastically called out as the woman on screen began to unbutton her shirt, “This next scene might offend your delicate sensibilities.”

Bucky looked at Steve questioningly. Steve immediately realized what he wanted and sighed. “They like to think I’m a totally innocent Boy Scout or something.”

“Stevie? Innocent?” He glanced around the room in a little bit of shock.

“I’m sure Steve was a real bad boy in the forties, but not helping an old lady cross the street isn’t exactly treasonous anymore.” Tony quipped.

The rest of the attendees giggled before returning their attention to the screen. Steve just shrugged like he was used to it.

In the coming weeks, there would be five times Bucky showed the Avengers Steve wasn’t the nun they thought he was, and one time he was exactly that.

1.

“Wow! This place is amazing! I can’t believe I’m actually in France!” Peter cried, practically bouncing off the walls due to his excitement. He’d never even left the country before, besides Germany, and he was in awe of the architecture.

“Wouldn’t the skyscrapers in New York be better for your skills? Sam asked, watching Peter stare at the old hotel they booked for a few nights. Tony, Bucky, and Steve all passed them to check in and get situated.

“I love swinging from skyscrapers, but this is much prettier.” Peter grinned before rushing inside. The interior was amazing as well. The owners had done a great job at incorporating that antique look into the five star establishment.

“Calm down kid. Everyone’s going to shower and have some time for R&R before dinner. We’ll do all the sightseeing you want tomorrow.” Tony began to wearily make his way up the stairs. Him and Sam were pretty beat. The other three, given their enhanced healing, weren’t as worse for wear. By dinner time, Bucky, Steve, and Peter were waiting in the lobby for Sam and Tony to get ready.

A gasp erupted from the other side of the room and immediately, all three men were on edge. They relaxed when it was revealed that the woman wasn’t in any trouble, she was just a staff member who recognized Steve.

Steve was conversing with the star struck women in French when Tony and Sam came down.

He speaks French? Tony thought as he watched the sight. That is so sexy. His mind momentarily drifted to laying in his penthouse bed. Steve was right above him, whispering dirty things in French. He leaned toward Steve’s face and...

“Coming?” Peter was looking over his shoulder at Tony with a confused look on his face. The other three were already several yards away, listening to the animated speech of the employee. Tony rushed to catch up with them and see what the commotion was about.

That’s when he saw the picture of Steve on the wall. He was devilishly handsome in his military uniform and he was smirking in a way that Tony knew would appear in some of his fantasies.

Snap out of it.

The photo was of showed Steve casually sitting on a barstool with a drink in his hand. It was clearly from the 1940’s when he was fighting WWII. The caption read, in French and English, “Captain America visiting during his leave in 1942.”

“Woah, you were here seventy years ago?!” Peter closely examined the picture. “It looks so different.”

“They must’ve renovated this place, because I don’t think Stevie and I ever visited anywhere this swanky.” Bucky glanced around the room. “Come to think of it, I don’t remember staying in any hotels. We didn’t have the money for that.”

“Me neither” Steve’s eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

“Talk on the way, I’m starving.” Sam whined and Steve laughed. Tony led them to his favorite French restaurant where they sat down for a meal.

Peter moaned when he took the first bite of food, “This is literally the best thing I’ve ever tasted.” The others all hummed in agreement and pointedly looked away from the ridiculous list of prices.

“I know what that hotel was!” Bucky’s head suddenly jolted up like a lightbulb had gone off in his brain.

Everyone looked at him with varying degrees of confusion.

“Was it not a hotel?” Sam interjected between bites of food.

“Nope. Remember Monique?” He was facing Steve, who tilted his head a bit to think.

“Oh. Oh. OH.”

Bucky grinned mischievously at Steve’s recognition.

“You gonna spill the beans or what?” Tony quipped.

“Stevie and I ran into this dame one night during our nighttime wandering and she took us back to that hotel. Except for it wasn’t no hotel back then.”

“You hooked up with a girl in a brothel?!” Tony spat out before realizing that Peter, who despite being eighteen now was still a child in his mind, was sitting right next to him.

“I only played cards.” Steve defended himself.

“He’s pretty decent at playing.” Bucky agreed “We hung out there for a few nights and he made a bit of money. We used the francs to have a nice meal before going back to the front line.”

Steve’s eyes glazed over as he remembered that peaceful evening he and Bucky shared before returning to the chaos of war.

“Captain America was off gambling and drinking in brothels during the war?” Sam teased. “I always thought you would be the bad influence.” He looked at Bucky.

“Buck was involved in all of the shenanigans.” Steve added “But what did you think I did?”

“I don’t know - didn’t really ever think about it too much. I guess that you trained and thought about the flag or something...” Sam was clearly teasing.

Peter chimed in “Are you sure you didn’t just practice a bunch of speeches about integrity or something?”

Bucky and Steve both snorted at them.

“And to think I thought you were a good role model...” Tony added. “We should play cards sometime though.”

“I thought you didn’t like cards Mr. Stark?”

“That’s because they get boring easily. Challenging Captain America, who’s supposedly good at cards, might be more interesting” If Tony felt a bit of warmth of getting to spend some more time with Steve, well, no one had to know.

2.

Clint hobbled into the main room where the rest of the team were patching themselves up. Early on, Bruce had insisted on having at least one room constantly stocked with basic medical supplies. In true Stark fashion, Tony had a giant room built with everything the team could need post-mission. It also contained experimental drugs that Bruce had cooked up in his chemistry lab.

But if, like Clint, you had a more serious injury, you were forced to check in at one of the specialized rooms in the medbay which had doctors on call after every mission. Even though the visits were mandatory, most individuals required coaxing from Steve and Bruce or they would ditch treatment. With everyone’s history, they were either too distrustful or doctors, too self-sacrificing, or too proud to go on their own.

This included Clint who, after spraining his ankle jumping from the second story of a building, pretended he was completely fine by trying to walk back to the Quinjet. He failed spectacularly, groaned and fell into Natasha’s waiting arms before Steve carried him the rest of the way flashing the patented ‘I’m disappointed you tried to lie’ face the whole time.

Now that he was all fixed up, he joined the rest of the team. Natasha had a ice pack against her lower rib cage. Bruce was helping Tony put antibiotics on his wounds. Steve and Bucky were just trying to get any dirt out before their cuts closed over, they were immune to infections and scars anyway. Fortunately, it was an easy mission so the whole team wasn’t assembled. No one was hurt badly.

“I’m hungry” Clint whined. “Y’all are fine. Let’s go eat something.”

“Calm down for ten minutes and let us fix ourselves first. You’re going to give me a headache.” Natasha complained.

“Tony” Clint dragged the name out, sounding like a child.

“Fine, JARVIS order us ten pizzas with the usual toppings. Is that alright with everyone?”

“Fuck yeah!” Clint excitedly exclaimed. For some unknown reason, he got hyper after missions as long as they weren’t utterly horrifying, and this was no exception.

“Language,” Tony said in a mocking tone.

Bucky looked at him in confusion. “I’ve heard you say worse.”

“That was for the benefit of Spangles over here.”

“Steve?”

“The one and only.”

Bucky turned his confused expression toward his best friend. “What is he talking about?”

“I-“

“-In one of our missions together, Tony swore over the comm and Steve called him on it like that.”

“And that’s relevant because?” Bucky seemed like he got it a little bit, but still wasn’t quite understanding.

“It’s just a joke since Steve doesn’t like swearing.” Tony contributed.

“Is that a new thing?” Bucky directed the question at Steve. “You never used to have an issue with swearing. In fact-“

“-Nope”

Now it was Tony, Natasha, and Clint’s turn to be confused.

Bucky whispered something so quiet that only Steve, with his enhanced hearing, could pick up. Steve gave a full belly laugh before talking at a normal volume. “I wasn’t that bad-“

“You swore like a sailor. There was so much feistiness trapped in your tiny body. I’m pretty sure you would explode if you didn’t pick a fight with one of those bullies-“

“-They started it. And I didn’t always swear during-“

“-Yes you did.”

The super soliders continued to speak over each other with a good natured tone. Bucky had an eyebrow raised and Steve was trying to look stoic. Both of their lips were twitching upwards as they surpassed giggles.

“Why the hell did you call me out when I swore then?” Tony interrupted their little inside jokes. He definitely wasn’t jealous.

“We were in the middle of the fight and I’m the captain. You have to be professional for duty.”

“Yep, Stevie would filter his words in front of his commander and around children and dames. Sorry, women. If he was around close friends or in a bar though...”

Steve tossed a teasing glare Bucky’s way.

“So you just let them think you never swore?”

“I had better things to worry about. You know the whole missing seventy years of the world and being thrown into another superhero gig kinda took precedence.”

Natasha leaned back and smiled. “You’ve finally decided to come clean?”

“You knew?” Clint squawked. “Why’d you let Tony and I constant joke about it? You even joined in.”

“I thought it was cute that you thought Steve didn’t swear because he was old.”

“How? He doesn’t swear in the tower.” Tony was thinking back through his interactions with Steve. There were a few times a curse word had slipped out and Tony would immediately tease him about it. He thought it was a cute inside joke.

“Who do you think helped with his technology training when he was defrosted? The first time he broke his ‘respectful gentleman’ facade around me he said-“

“Nat don’t” Steve was beginning to blush.

“Come on it wasn’t even bad.”

“Yeah, but it was-“

“He said ‘Applesauce! This damn blower is a load of nonsense’”

Natasha was curled over on herself and shaking in silent laughter. She patted Steve’s shoulder.

“And it only got worse from there. Once he realized that he didn’t have to hold his tongue around women anymore, his hatred for modern devices was very clear.”

Clint and Bucky were in tears at Steve’s embarrassment. Tony put on his best amused face, but he was honestly a bit sad that Steve was so much more open with Natasha than him.

3.

Tony cupped his mug with both hands and greedily chugged his coffee. DUM-E broke the machine in his lab so he hadn’t had a cup in several hours. He was having serious caffeine withdrawals and needing to talk to Scott Lang wasn’t helping.

Bucky was on one of the stools near the countertop reading the physical newspaper he shared with Steve. Scott and Sam were discussing something about flying while they waited for Tony’s attention. Apparently, it had something to do with Hank’s technology.

Steve entered the kitchen and rushed toward the fridge for the pitcher of cold water. He poured himself a glass and drank it all at once. Some of the water missed and dribbled down his chest.

Maybe I should come upstairs for coffee more often.

Tony’s thoughts were interrupted by Bucky eagerly rustling the papers and beckoning Steve over. “Doesn’t this look like Charlie?”

Bucky wiggled his eyebrows at Steve, who closely studied the picture. Seeing Bucky’s clearly devious expression, the other three gathered around to see a photo of a baseball player in the sports section.

“It’s like a mirror image. Maybe he’s a relative?” Steve suggested

“So...”

“Nope. That’s gross.”

“What’s gross? Who’s Charlie?” Scott chimed in.

“Charlie was Stevie’s friend.” Bucky answered suggestively “I think they have a name these days. They were...” Bucky trailed off in thought before snapping and lifting his head up “Friends with Benefits!”

Tony choked on his coffee.

“I didn’t think Steve Rogers was the fuck buddy type.” Sam observed with a bit of surprise.

“You couldn’t exactly court a fella in those times.” Steve shrugged.

“You like men? What about Peggy?” Scott wondered allowed before adding “You don’t have to answer that.”

Steve wasn’t offended. “I’ve always liked men and women. It’s pretty great that nowadays so many people are accepting of that. They even have a name for it - bisexual.”

“He was more popular with men than women before the serum and popular with both afterwards.” Bucky informed them. “Sorry, Stevie, I didn’t mean to share your business. I thought in modern times there wouldn’t be any issues telling others.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s a shame that war made it so hard to develop a relationship with someone afterwards though.”

“Bisexual Captain America” Sam mused “It’s kinda funny all those hate groups that use you as their symbol of conservative life are involuntarily looking up to a bisexual man.”

Steve sighed. “I really wish they would stop.”

Tony stared at the photo again. I’m as handsome as this guy. If Steve likes men, maybe I’ve got a shot.

4.

Tony stood on his tiptoes to kiss Steve on the cheek. “I got you a surprise babe!” Steve grinned and took the box from Tony. Clint rolled his eyes. “Can’t you guys flirt somewhere else. It’s only been three weeks and I’m pretty sure I’m this close to getting diabetes.”

Steve ignored him and carefully lifted the lid from the fairly large box. “These are...”

Inside were stacks of old photos, trinkets, and pictures from the war. His blue eyes raked over the contents with reverence.

“It’s Howard’s old stuff.”

Steve winced a bit. As much as he appreciated the stuff, it was still a little bit weird how obsessed Howard was with him. Tony patted his shoulder in understanding. On their second date, Tony had mentioned how he’d loved Captain America as a child and that he owned lots of posters and action figures. Quickly, he realized Steve’s uncomfortable squirming and convinced Steve to admit that things like that made him feel insecure. It was like all these people were looking up to him as some kind of god and he didn’t think he deserved it. Tony didn’t bring up the subject again for his sake.

“Thanks”

Clint came over a plucked a painting of a building from the center. “These are really good Steve.” He admired some of the other drawings. Tony was picking through old photos and admiring his boyfriend in the old military uniforms. Steve was nostalgically rubbing his old dog tags between his fingers.

A couple of hours later Bucky and Peter came in to see Clint, Tony, Bruce, and Steve sitting on the living room floor in a pile of stuff. Tony had decided to get all the other boxes driven over from storage. Most of it was propaganda stuff, Steve didn’t own much, but occasionally they would find something meaningful and Steve would tell a story or stare of into space with a slight smile.

“What’s all this?” Peter curiously examined a certificate of some kind by his feet. Bucky recognized it pretty quickly and Steve pointed to a pile on his left.

“This stuff has you in in.”

Bucky grinned and made his way over to the photos and drawings of him.

“This guy is naked!” Peter squealed at the picture in his hand. “Why did they take a picture like that?”

“You’re looking pretty intently at him Cap. What’s that in your hand?” Clint teased.

Steve glanced at the picture. His puzzled expression relaxed in recognition. He grabbed the picture and showed it to Bucky and Tony. “Remember those camera men, Buck?”

“Yep, they wanted a candid of ‘Captain America sharing a barrack with his fellow soliders’. It was going to go near recruitment stations. They didn’t want the men to stiffen up and pose so they decided to just burst in unannounced one day and took a picture.”

“I was a little busy. I don’t think this was exactly what they wanted. The posed one we did the next day was better.”

“Really? They didn’t want Captain America staring at someone’s dick all over the U.S.? I’m shocked. Was he hung or what? Your stare is pretty intense there.”

“There are children in the room.” Tony scolded. Why was Steve staring at this naked guy? It makes sense that the man would be naked in his room, but that look seems a bit much for a comrade or fuck buddy.

“Like I even remember. Why so curious Hawkeye?” Steve scoffed.

“You spent like an hour sketching this guy and you can’t even remember what he looked like? He’s probably rolling in his grave.” Bucky laughed.

“You were drawing him?” Tony questioned.

“He saved my ass once and I owed him a favor. He knew about my artist skills and asked for a drawing to send back to his lady. His hand was covering the naughty parts.”

Bucky rolled his eyes. “It took you forever to agree.”

“What if it came out weird?” Steve retorted.

“You guys were sexting during the war?” Peter giggled.

“Sexting?” Bucky didn’t understand.

Peter had to spend the next few minutes explaining the term to all the old men in the room.

5.

“Whoops” Tony’s hand slipped and Bucky’s fingers started to vibrate. He’d agreed to help Bucky with an issue he’d been having with his arm so they were down in the lab. Steve was relaxing on the couch drawing pictures of the robots.

“Everything alright?” Steve glanced up from his sketchbook with concern.

“Yep. Just dislodged a wire. I’ll be able to fix it in less than a minute.” Then, feeling the vibrations against his arm, Tony had a thought. “Do you want your hand to vibrate? I’m sure the ladies would appreciate it.”

“Have you been dating?” Steve directed his attention at Bucky. His voice didn’t reveal a negative or positive connotation, just surprise. Bucky hadn’t really been interested in dating since he’d been unfrozen. He was still nervous about getting triggered and he needed some time to figure out who he was apart from HYDRA’s conditioning. Hell, he didn’t even have all of his memories back. There were still moments when someone mentioned something and a very specific memory would flood his brain.

“No. I’m still not ready. I’d tell you first though.” Bucky and Steve shared a smile.

“That’s okay.” Steve picked his pencil back up. He never judged Bucky for his decisions. That was one of the reasons Bucky quickly warmed up to Steve. Even when he could barely remember Steve, his kind and caring side made it easy for the boys to become friends again.

“You aren’t even going to ask what the vibrations are for?” Tony looked at the super soldiers. He was certain that would get a rise out of them. He loved seeing the blush on Steve’s face. Just yesterday, he’d discovered what BDSM was and he went bright red.

“I can imagine what they’re for.” Bucky smirked “I think I don’t need it attached to my arm though. I’ll buy my girl a toy that does that if she wants one.”

“Wouldn’t want it to go off during battle either.” Steve absentmindedly added.

Now Tony was shocked. He could tell Steve was slightly uncomfortable with the topic of conversation, but it wasn’t even intense. It seemed more like his old-fashioned ‘you shouldn’t talk about sex in public’ sensibilities than anything to do with the topic.

Bucky must’ve noticed Tony’s reaction because he leaned in and whispered in the scientist’s ear. Steve probably would’ve heard if not for being absorbed in his work. “Stevie’s owned plenty of those types of toys.”

The sound of Tony coughing echoed against the metal walls of the lab.

“Are you okay?” Steve got up from his seat and patted Tony’s back. “Honey, you can’t talk and tinker and drink at the same time.”

The endearment and the touch got Tony thinking again to what caused the outburst. He looked at Bucky who seemed thoroughly amused by the situation.

“You were joking!”

“No I wasn’t”

“What was Buck joking about?”

“He said that you’d owned plenty of sex toys and made me choke.” Tony glared at Bucky before looking at Steve who immediately averted his gaze. Tony was about to celebrate his victory by gloating in front of Bucky, but was interrupted by Steve’s soft voice.

“Would that be a problem?”

He wasn’t denying it? Bucky stuck out his tongue like a child. Steve was still looking away. It must be true.

“Ah. No. It’s not a problem. It’s not a problem at all. I wasn’t upset when I choked. That was just surprise.” They hadn’t slept together yet, so Steve hadn’t really had the chance to see Tony’s stash of sex toys.

Steve rose an eyebrow at Tony before his face relaxed into relief. “Okay!” He happily sat back down on the couch. “Will you be done soon? I think we should have dinner.”

“Wait you’re not going to talk about it?”

“What’s there to talk about?” Steve looked confused. Bucky’s expression was puzzled.

“I think it’s pretty simple. You buy them and you use them. You’re a science man - you probably actually know how they work. What’d need Stevie’s explanation for?”

Tony realized it was probably a pretty stupid question so he clarified: “I meant, did they even have sex toys during world war two?”

“They were marketed as beauty products or medicine, but yeah. Not as many types as nowadays though.” Steve explained.

“Didn’t Howard make you one? It seemed pretty similar to some of these fancy modern ones.” Steve swatted Bucky hard.

“WHAT?” Tony yelled.

“Don’t talk about his father like that. Sorry Tones. He didn’t mean to offend you.” Steve glared at Bucky.

“Yep. Sorry, Stark. I’m gonna go take a shower.” Bucky closed his the panel on his fixed up arm and left the lab.

“Did he really? Why did Bucky know about this?”

Steve winced at Tony’s question and made to apologize again, but Tony shook his head, “Not offended or mad. Just shocked.”

Steve shrugged. “We lived together. I didn’t always wait for him to leave to…”

“Why Howard?”

“Well, the serum was made to make the perfect solider. That included enhanced reproductive urges. It was starting to affect me a bit so Howard invented something to relieve the tension.”

“You were constantly horny?”

Steve blushed. Finally. “That’s one way to say it I guess.”

“What changed?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well you aren’t constantly horny anymore.”

“Who said that?”

Tony’s mouth just gaped open. “It doesn’t affect…you don’t show…”

“Better toys. Better control. Better understanding.” Steve’s tone was casual.

“Why haven’t we slept together?” Tony blurted out. “I haven’t been pushing it because I thought inexperience or embarrassment would be at play, but it seems like neither of those apply. Do you just not want to be with me?” His voice grew soft.

“No. Of course not. I’m very attracted to you.” Steve wrapped Tony in a hug. “You have no idea how hard it is to control myself around you sometimes. I just haven’t ever really been in a relationship. I didn’t really know when it was appropriate to. And you weren’t pushing so…”

“We’re idiots.”

“Yeah.”

6.

“Are you crying?”

“Maybe.” Steve sniffled from his spot on the couch. “It’s just so sad. Simba doesn’t deserve this.”

Tony ran his finger through Steve’s blonde hair and nodded. “He really doesn’t.”