Between Friends

After Chris got out of the shower and finished getting himself ready he came to find you sitting in the living room, watching TV. You had already changed to go over to Tony and Pepper's into a long sleeve, ribbed, V-neck sweater with large black and white horizontal stripes. You had on stone washed skinny jeans that disappeared into knee high black heeled boots. Your hair and makeup was already in order from earlier. You were sitting very daintily with your legs crossed, leaning forward a bit, one forearm across your lap, the other elbow on your knee, your chin resting on the loose fist of that same hand.

Chris walked in and stopped in his tracks, raising a mischievous eyebrow. You saw him, switched off the TV with the remote and stood. His eyes then relaxed, and took you in. Every piece of clothing you had on clung to your shape enticingly. When you started walking his direction, he started, "I don't think I've ever seen that outfit before." He smiled as you rounded the love seat.

You chuckled, "Well, you packed most of my usual clothes. You ready?" You headed to the coat rack for your coat when he replied.

"Uh, yeah, hang on. Come with me for a sec." He put a hand to the small of your back and led you to the kitchen. He left you near the island and went into his room. When he came back out, he was holding the bottle that you had given him not too long ago. He handed it to you, "Will you wear this tonight, please? Since I won't be able to actually smell it on you for a while?" He smiled sweetly.

You returned his expression, "Yeah." You pulled up your sleeves, putting a spritz to a wrist and rubbing them both together. You sprayed another spritz into the air and walked through it, capped the bottle and handed it back to him.

He looked into your eyes affectionately as he gently grabbed one of your hands. He lifted it and held your wrist close to his nose. He sniffed softly, closing his eyes... A lot like before, except this time, after he took in the smell, he gently kissed the heel of your hand and opened his eyes too look down at you before his lips left your skin. Your stomach did a flip, then he spoke softly, "Thank you, sweetness."

Your breath hitched, you smiled and blinked coyly. "You're welcome.", you managed quietly. 'Jesus. It's too much. Feeling too much. (Y/N), it's okay to feel it. Let yourself feel it. Breathe.' You took a deep breath and Chris smirked at you. He could see your reaction and he liked it.

He held out his bent elbow, "Shall we?"

You chuckled airily, still feeling a little flushed, "Yeah."

He opened the passenger side door of his car and saw you into your seat. Once he was in on the driver's side, he sighed and looked at you. He stroked your cheek softly with a closed hand, "You look amazing... Everything." He glanced down your body, quickly making eye contact with you again.

You chuckled nervously, "Chris, stop."

He chortled, "Okay, okay. I'll back off. But, I had to tell you." He smiled and winked at you.

When you both got to Tony and Pepper's, he held your hand and led the way up the stairs and inside once Pepper let you both in. There was music playing in the lounge area of the house, but it wasn't too loud. As Sam said, it was just the close group of friends you all have had at your house usually. There was food and lots of alcohol, of course. Everyone was just hanging out on and around all the sofas and chairs, shooting the shit and drinking... Some very loudly. Tony and Thor were already three quarters drunk once you and Chris showed up.

Tony stood to greet you both, drink in hand. "Heyyyyy!", he shouted as if he was trying to compete with a roar of noise that didn't actually exist. "If it issssn Paul Bunyan an' iz Babe!" Chris did after all have a beard and chose a flannel shirt to wear.

You and Chris both furrowed your brows in disgust and everyone else looked surprised at his reference of Babe the Blue Ox.

Chris scowled at Tony, a bit irritated, "She's not a fuckin' ox, Tony." Without skipping a beat, he leaned into your ear and whispered, "You're a fuckin' fox." God damn it. He was giving you butterflies again.

You gave him a playfully scolding look as if to tell him to knock it off.

Tony waved his hand and his head lolled a bit to one side, "No, no, no. Jus' the name, jus' the name. Jus' 'babe'. Come hava-", he gestured around him, "Find a smea- seat!"

Chris nodded at Tony and then looked at you again and spoke low, "I'm sorry I made you uncomfortable."

You replied softly as you both found a seat in the group of furniture, "I appreciate it, really. It's just- it's a lot right now and you haven't even started drinking yet."

As you both sat he nodded at you, "I know, I'm sorry. I'll be a good boy." He winked at you.

"What cana get you two loverlyyy kizz?!", Tony was shouting again, walking backwards and nearly tripping over his own feet, sloshing his drink onto the floor, yelping, "Oop!" He managed to recover and laughed, "Shit, thawas close." He turned and continued to the bar.

Chris asked you, "What do you want, hon?"

"Just a club soda with lemon, thanks.", you smiled.

He narrowed his eyes at you, "Are you okay?"

You raised your eyebrows and nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine, Chris."

He furrowed his brows, leaned forward and tilted his head to look at you better. You never went without at least having beer at social gatherings. He was cautious to keep his voice low enough for only you to hear over the dull roar of music and people talking, "Are you pregnant?" You looked at him with your eyes wide. When he spoke again, his voice slipped up slightly in volume, "Oh my God-", he paused, looked around to make sure no one turned to look as he lowered his voice again, "You are, aren't you? It's Seb's, isn't it?"

Your brows pulled together as you replied quietly, "No, Chris. Jesus. I'm not pregnant. I just thought you'd like to drink more than a few beers tonight since it's your last night with all your friends before you go. You always drive. I just wanted to be able to drive you home." You had parked your own car up the street at the house when you surprised Chris earlier so that you could drop him off at home and drive back to Nat's that night.

He sighed in relief. That would have been crazy. If you had been pregnant with Seb's child again, he, of course, would've been completely supportive and loved the child as his own, whether the two of you ended up together or not. But he was relieved. He had no idea at this point where things would go with you. But, one thing he did know is that if anyone was to give you a baby, planned or not, he wanted it to be only him now.

"Sorry. Thank you. That's really sweet.", he whispered.

"It's okay.", you chuckled. "Can I have that drink now, please?"

He kissed your temple, "You got it." He stood and headed to the bar, since he was sure that Tony wouldn't hear either of you that far away by now.

A while later, Chris had shots with all the guys in the group. They got pretty loud once the alcohol settled into their blood. Nat and Maria had joined them at the bar.

Through all the noise traveling across the room, you, Jane, Laura and Pepper talked for a good long while. They all checked up and asked how you'd been. You let them know that things were getting easier with each passing day, but you knew you weren't quite there yet. Jane was sitting next to you, smiling sweetly, her soft little voice filled with compassion, "You have been through so much loss in such a short time. I hope you get to be really happy soon... And the rest of your life. You've paid your dues and then some. You deserve to be happy now."

Your face was grateful, "Thank you, Jane."

She giggled, "I think you're being paged." She grinned, glancing past you towards the bar.

You had tuned out the noise of the group of inebriated friends to focus on the ladies around you and didn't notice that Chris was shouting, "(Y/N), sweetheart! Hey, baby! C'mere!"

A few at the bar were watching him, then looked to you.

You turned in your seat on the sofa, raised your eyebrows at Chris and pointed to yourself in question.

He nodded smugly, "Yeah, I'm talking to you. C'mere, foxy." He waved you over.

You turned to Pepper, your eyes wide, "Is he hitting on me?" You laughed and snorted.

The other girls laughed too and Pepper answered, "It seems he might be making a half-assed attempt, yes. God, he's so stupid for you, (Y/N). It's adorable."

You sighed, laughed and shook your head at her and headed to the bar to see why Chris had called you over.

He was sitting on a stool and was turned most of the way around to face you, watching you walk to him. He was grinning like an idiot and addressed you once you were close enough, his voice deep and relaxed, "Hey, beautiful."

You chuckled under your breath, "What's up, Chris."

He reached out, wrapping an arm around your waist and pulled you between his legs and against his chest, face to face. He blinked slowly and spoke quietly, "I missed you." He nuzzled his nose against your neck, "And how great you smell."

You felt a slight coiling in your lower belly snd you took a quick breath to level yourself. You pulled back a little, your hands on his shoulders, "Chris, Are you drunk?"

He scoffed. "Noooo. Well... Maybe a little. Mostly just buzzed. Shouldn't last long. I just don't have any shits to give about anything right now... Except maybe you.", he winked. "God, you look so good tonight.", he bit his lip as his eyes flicked to your chest under your snug sweater, then back to your eyes.

You leaned in close to his ear and he let out a low, quiet, short chuckle in anticipation of what you might do after leaning in. To his disappointment, all you did was remind him of what he told you before, "I thought you said you were going to be good..."

He sighed, "You're right, I did. I'm done drinking tonight anyway. I'll sober up a bit and then we can go home."

Sam had sauntered over on the other side of the bar, behind it. At some point during the evening, he had found the materials to make himself a fez out of a red party cup, complete with tassle. He wore it proudly now, having tied it to his head with a string around his chin. He beamed at you as he leaned towards you, elbows on the bar, "Heyyyy, pretty lady. What canah get ya?"

Chris pulled you back to his chest hard, forcing a small breath from you as he scowled at Sam, "Go find your pretty lady. This one's mine."

Sam chuckled, tilting his head back and forth to watch the tassle hanging off his head swaying back and forth out of the corner of his eye.

Chris tilted his chin up sharply at you, "Whatcha want, sweetness?"

You giggled, "Shirley Temple, extra cherries."

He turned to address Sam, who was now distracted with trying to swing the tassle around like a propeller while Thor, Maria and Tony watched, laughing.

Chris sighed and pushed you away from him gently, "The service here fuckin' sucks." You laughed as he stood, then headed around the end of the bar, "I'll get it, sweetie."

You sat on the stool next to his as he came back with your drink. He set it in front of you and took a seat beside you. He watched as you picked a cherry by the stem from the short glass of pink tinted, bubbly liquid, tilted your head back, parted your perfect lips and plucked the cherry off the stem with your teeth. God, that was fuckin' hot. He pressed his lips together in restraint and looked at the bar top in front of him. He made a mental note not to watch you when you did that with the other cherries in your glass.

Once you both agreed to leave, Chris had started to sober, but you drove him home anyway. The two of you chatted quietly on the ride there. Once you parked in the driveway, you turned off the car and handed him the keys. He put his head back against the seat while looking at you, "Thanks, hon."

You smiled, "You're welcome."

"For driving of course, but also for putting up with my rude ass. I keep making you uncomfortable. I'm sorry."

You tilted your head and put you hand over his resting on his thigh, "It's okay. I expected some flirting to leak out along with the booze." You both laughed.

His face softened as he turned his hand under yours just enough to clasp around your small fingers, "You're an angel." He raised his head off the seat and lifted your hand and gently kissed your knuckles.

Your heart skipped a beat as he lowered your hand in his back to his thigh. He rested his head against the seat again, smiling at you affectionately. He spoke quietly, his voice soft, "Stay with me tonight?"

You pulled up one corner of your mouth, "Of course."