“You know what your problem is? You’re too uptight! Let loose!” Toni yelled over the music. She looked, well, gorgeous, obviously. Of course she did-- but she also was too drunk, too loud, too much right now for Steve and so he just took the glass she was offering and set it on the table.
“Oh, well, excuse me for not liking it when you throw overly huge parties where I live, too,” Steve said. He knew he was being irrational because she owned the tower and he was just staying there, but something about Toni Stark pushed so many of his buttons.
“Oh, unclench, Rogers,” she started. Jim walked over and put his arm around her. “I have to throw these parties for the company, why not have fun?”
“You have to get up early tomorrow,” said Jim. He was dressed oddly similar to her, he noted, which she must have roped him into. They were both wearing white dress shirts and black jeans, except hers was tucked in in a more feminine way and had a metallic gold lining.
There were people all around them on the communal floor of the Avengers Tower. They gave off a general aura of fakeness and money, two things he’d never had. He actually didn’t really know why the party was happening, just that she was blasting music that was all too modern and popular culture to him.
“So, what? I never sleep anyway,” Toni argued.
He realized mid-conversation how in love with her he was-- there wasn’t any buildup or surprise there, he just accepted it. Here she was, in the middle of a bunch of people she hated, smiling and laughing and teasing and arguing with her best friend anyway.
“You’re not really helping your case, here, Toni,” Steve said, grabbing the glass off the table. It was his strange form of wanting to please her, even if he couldn’t get drunk.
“Your face isn’t helping your case, bitch,” She said, taking a sip of her drink. He laughed at the silly comeback and sipped his drink, sharing a look with Jim.
--
The second time he really thought about how much he loved her was near Christmastime. It was his fourth Christmas since he got out of the ice, so one would really think he was used to how lonely he got, but he wasn’t yet.
He was sitting in Toni’s workshop and drawing, a little pathetically, moping to himself about missing Peggy and Bucky, when Toni spoke up about it.
“Dude, can you tone down the brooding? I’ve got a whole caffeine-mania buzz goin’ on over here. You’re harshing my vibe.”
He felt guilty immediately. He hadn’t realized he was so obvious about it, and that he was actually affecting other people with his negativity. He should have stayed in his room-- and he would have, if seeing Toni working didn’t make him so happy.
“Oh-- I, uh-- I’m really sorry, Toni, I didn’t realize--”
Toni cut him off by saying, “Joking, Steve. Brood all you want.”
“Oh...okay.” They stayed in silence for the next couple hours, before Steve went to go make the team dinner.
Toni threw a Christmas party for him.
Which, actually, he didn’t really have any proof it was for him, but she did start planning it with Clint and Natasha at dinner right after they spoke.
“Oh my God, can we have mistletoe?! Like, right above Nat, to be specific, and then Pepper can just waltz right over--”
“I will stab you,” Natasha said over Clint. Toni was laughing into her drink and spit it onto the table rather unelegantly, and he actually hadn’t ever seen Natasha laugh that openly. She winked at him right after like she had done it on purpose, and, honestly, he didn’t even care if she really had, because either way it was so cute that his heart stopped beating for a second there and he felt like he couldn’t breathe.
“Mistletoe sounds good,” said Bruce, giving him a look he pretended not to read.
---
The third time is when he kissed her on Christmas Eve while Clint and surprisingly, Pepper clapped.
(That’s also when he realized he might have a family again.)