Theme Prompt - Hope

Tony was kissing him. Tony was kissing him and Steve couldn’t believe it. It was better than what he’d imagined and a fragile hope fluttered in his chest. Before he was aware of moving, Steve kneeled on the edge of the bed and wrapped one arm around Tony’s waist. The other cradled the back of Tony’s head, holding him gently but firmly in place. He kissed back just as desperately, licking at the seam of Tony’s lips until they opened. Suppressing a groan, Steve licked his way into Tony’s mouth. At some point, Steve’s eyes had closed and he just let himself feel. This might be all he would get from Tony, much as Tony seemed interested now, and Steve was going to commit each moment, every sensation to memory.

“Steve, I’m sorry,” Tony murmured when they broke their kiss to breathe. He licked at lips red and slightly swollen, as if pulling the taste of Steve’s lips off them. “I probably shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry.”

Steve sat back slowly at the words, feeling abashed. He pulled both hands back, clasping his hands tightly in his lap. Of course he should have expected this. He’d just woken Tony up, possibly from a nightmare to go by the way he’d been whimpering his name. Though, Tony hadn’t sounded scared at all when Steve had come in. Quite the opposite in fact. But whatever Tony was dreaming, this was reality and Steve probably shouldn’t have kissed back. That didn’t stop him from imitating Tony, licking his lips and holding back another groan at the taste of Tony on them.

“It’s all right,” Steve replied finally, once he was sure his voice was even and steady. He was proud that he even sounded a bit disinterested, as if nothing had happened. “You sounded like you were having some sort of nightmare and JARVIS called me when he couldn’t wake you up.”

“It wasn’t a nightmare,” Tony said thoughtfully, studying Steve out of the corner of his eye. The other man had kissed him back, had seemed to enjoy it just as much as Tony had. Maybe Tony had him wrong? “But thanks for waking me up. Usually JARVIS can manage it on his own. But, since we’re both here and not being chased by Hydra, I really think we need to talk.”

Tony waited for Steve to say something, expecting a denial or an “about what?” or anything but what he actually did. Steve squared his shoulders and took a deep breath, face becoming blank. To Tony, it almost looked like Steve expected to meet a firing squad of some sort. Several words turned over and over in Tony’s mind, sentences suggested and then discarded after looking at Steve’s face again. The silence stretched between them, a fragile thread that could shatter like broken glass at one wrong word. Their friendship was definitely something Tony didn’t want to lose. He’d come to treasure it over the past several months. But how to say what he wanted to say without causing Steve to run again?

“You know I consider you a close friend,” Tony finally began, wincing at the wording. Of course his brain would pick the sentence that sounded like a goodbye to begin with. “Ah, what I’m saying is, you’re my friend Steve. I like that you’re my friend and that you can stand toe to toe with me when I start acting like an arrogant jerk. Which, let’s be honest, happens a lot, right?”

“Less lately,” Steve admitted, laughing quietly. His hands relaxed fractionally, the knuckles no longer white from where he was clasping them together. Yet the rest of him stayed tense and expectant. “Where are you going with this, Tony?”

“Well, you ran out before I could explain when we were sparring,” Tony said, running a hand through his hair. It had never been this hard to tell someone he was interested in them. Usually a sly glance and a smile were enough. Though, he’d at least had a hint that they were interested back. Steve was giving away nothing. “You seemed kind of freaked out by my um, arousal and it just happened.”

“You don’t need to explain,” Steve cut in. He shook his head when Tony opened his mouth to continue. “I understand, really. Fighting is very physical, lots of adrenaline. It happens. I’ve seen guys who never managed to get through a fight without it happening. I was just... surprised that’s all.”

“Surprised enough to bolt like a startled deer,” Tony said dryly, rolling his eyes. A flash of his dream ran through his mind, the sight of Steve sitting on the floor in front of him with his skin shining in the dim light. The intimacy of that moment, the craving for it, gave Tony the courage to go on. “I suppose that was the start of it but the dream I was having was about you. If we’re being all honest and stuff here. Different snapshot like things of our life together. Things I’d... like to happen. While I may have kissed you without thinking about it, I’d really like to do it again. Maybe more than kissing, too, if you’re up for it. I mean, you’re straight so if you just want to forget all of it, that’s fine too. I think we should be friends still so we can totally just forget it all.”

Tony trailed off slowly, realizing his words had become more frantic and babbled as he continued without any input from Steve. It was strange, feeling this fluttering of nerves in his belly and the clenching of his throat. The last time Tony’d felt like this, he was fifteen and asking a girl to a dance. This was very much like then. This mattered while most of his hook-ups since he was fifteen hadn’t. And Tony tried very, very hard not to remember that the girl had laughed at him and said no. Of course, he’d graduated not long after he’d asked her so Tony had never seen her again. He had no idea if they would have continued to be on friendly terms after that. Finally crossing his arms over his chest, Tony just stared at Steve and waited as patiently as he could. He’d told him everything and it was all up to Steve now.

“Ah, Tony, I ran because I didn’t know what to say,” Steve shrugged, looking abashed. But that look passed quickly, replaced by a slow-dawning smile as his shoulders finally relaxed and Steve took the first deep breath he’d taken since Tony had started talking. Finally, he knew where Tony stood on all of this, knew that while all of Tony’s stories were about women, that wasn’t all he was interested in. “But you do have one thing wrong, in that rambling speech you just gave. I’m not actually straight. And I would definitely be interested in kissing you again. Along with the more, definitely.”

Tony’s mouth gaped open, shock and surprise rendering him speechless for once. Steve just laughed at the expression on Tony’s face. It all seemed so silly now, the running and worrying. When all it took was an honest conversation between them. Feeling confident again, knowing he wouldn’t be making one of the biggest mistakes of his life doing it, Steve leaned towards Tony and pressed his lips gently to Tony’s. That brought the other man back to himself and he kissed back eagerly but less desperately than before. There was time now, time to learn and enjoy. They didn’t have to fit what would feel like a lifetime of kisses into one desperate kiss that would have to last for a lifetime. And, for once, Tony was glad that he’d sat down to talk things out rather than avoid them or crack a snappy one-liner.

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The next morning, Tony and Steve were the first ones down in the kitchen, both yawning sleepily. They’d spent the night kissing and talking, both agreeing that a few hours before dawn was definitely not enough time for what they wanted to do. They sat next to each other at the table, shoulders almost touching as they ate their cereal. Natasha was the next one to come down for breakfast, her hair pulled back into a ponytail and wearing a black tank top and black pajama pants. She took one look at the pair of them and snorted as she sat down with her muffin.

“What?” Tony asked curiously.

“I won the bet I had with Clint,” Natasha replied, a note of satisfaction in her voice as a small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “He thought it would take you guys another four months before you got together. I told him that you weren’t all that much of an idiot, Tony, and that you weren’t all that old of a fossil, Steve.”

Tony just laughed and went back to his cereal while Steve grinned at Natasha. They are in a companionable silence, mutually agreeing that breakfast came before any difficult discussions. Clint came down not too much later, took one look at Steve and Tony and grimaced. Natasha tossed him a triumphant smile and made room next to her for Clint to sit down. They shared the muffin she had and Clint passed over half of the english muffin he’d made. Thor and Jane came down at the same time, arms wrapped around each other again. They didn’t notice anything different between Tony and Steve though Tony didn’t think either would have an issue with it. Bruce was the last one to wander in the kitchen, hiding a yawn behind his hand as he made a pot of coffee. Bruce was rarely sociable at all before his first cup in the morning. Cereal followed the coffee while Jane raided the cabinets for poptarts. They were some of Thor’s favorite foods and Tony kept a good supply on hand in the Tower at all times.

“So, we can’t avoid it all day,” Natasha said when they had all finished eating. Bruce just shook his head and sighed while the others looked somber. “We have to figure out what we’re going to do.”

“We should probably try to gather in all the loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. agents,” Bruce pointed out, tapping the table at each word. There was a strain around his eyes as though he was struggling to keep from exploding. “Though it’s going to be hard to tell the loyal ones from those who aren’t. Especially those trying to infiltrate the Tower and capture or kill us.”

“We also need to secure some S.H.I.E.L.D. installations,” Clint added, glancing at Natasha with a worried look on his face. “If Hydra gets their hands on some of those places... what’s inside could give them the entire world. Or at least cause a very bad day for a whole lot of people.”

“So we put each agent through a lie detector test,” Tony said, sitting back in his chair and tucking his hands behind his head. And if his elbow coincidentally brushed Steve’s shoulder, hey it could be a mistake. “I’m sure I can whip something up with JARVIS. If anyone comes in here that works for Hydra, we’ll have someone to interrogate.”

“There’s a base, very secret and very remote,” Natasha broke in quietly, her voice almost a whisper. She still seemed to be taking Fury’s death hard as tears glimmered in her eyes with her next words. “Fury set it up about six months ago. Only three people knew about it, me, Fury, and the agent he stationed there. He had a... a chair designed that was the ultimate lie detector. I was his guinea pig and even I couldn’t beat it. Maybe we can head up there, take shelter if the Tower is compromised. No offense to your tech skills, Tony, but this place isn’t exactly impregnable.”

“Why don’t we consider that a last resort,” Steve suggested, putting a hand on Tony’s shoulder when the other man dropped his hands and leaned forward, ready to argue with Natasha. “For now, I’m sure among all of us we can figure out who’s loyal and who’s not. If Fury’s dead, Maria Hill would be the next logical person to try and find. We didn’t see her at headquarters. Natasha, do you or Clint know where she is?”

“Sir, there is someone at the door requesting entry,” JARVIS’s voice broke into their conversation as Natasha and Clint both shook their heads. To be honest, they hadn’t seen Maria in a couple months and that wasn’t like the woman. She was usually in the thick of things, overseeing what Fury personally couldn’t. “They tried to employ a S.H.I.E.L.D. override but I’ve blocked it. What would you like me to do?”

“Show me who’s here,” Tony said lightly, though his body went tense. If Hydra was already here looking for them, they might have to evacuate to that base Natasha had mentioned far quicker than any of them thought. Quickly, a screen on the one blank wall in the kitchen lit up, the image a little grainy for being projected onto the wall. Maria Hill stood there, shifting from foot to foot impatiently as she glared at the door. But the man standing next to her caused Tony to stammer out nonsense syllables as he tried to make sense of what he saw. Seriously, how many people were going to come back from the dead?

“JARVIS, let them in,” Steve finally said when no one else spoke. “I think we have a few questions for Agent Hill and Agent Coulson.”