(Steve/Tony)Tangled And Twisted, The Road Down To Hell

Chapter 1

quick warning: there is alcohol use in this, and some injuries in the second chapter. I'm on ao3 by the same username if you want more of my fics too! I've never used wattpad before though, I hope it's welcoming! Chapter 2 will be up by tomorrow, as it is fully prewritten

The armor was heavy lately. Tony stretched out, bones popping and muscles relieved, and pitched forward out of the elevator. The day had been absolutely riddled with problems, the most prominent being the recovered Chitauri tech they had been blasted with. Very close behind that was the Iron Man suit's very specific problem of weighing an absurd 200- something lbs. He shucked the chestplate, and then the rest of the suit, trying his best to not just. Drop it. That would scratch the paint.

Either the armor was too heavy, or maybe he just hadn't been working out enough. It took all of 10 seconds for him to drop to the couch, groaning long. The armor fled, Jarvis being a sweetheart, and Tony blinked at the ceiling. Christ. He could fall asleep right here.

Before sleeping, though, he really wanted to shower. Part of the exhaustion was the hours on end spent in the suit, and hours spent in the suit could only mean one thing: sweat, and a lot of it. It was times like this that he heavily contemplated just giving up the ruse. At least if he outed himself as Iron Man to SHIELD, he could leave the damn suit during debriefings instead of being stuck in there. The fights themselves were intense, but at least he could move. Long debriefings were torture. Inside the Iron Man suit, though, he had a camaraderie with the active Avengers worth its weight in gold. Natasha, for example, would literally murder Tony if he suggested she see a hairstylist. Iron Man had made that quip today after her entire head was full of static, tangled and bloody. She hadn't said a word.

Tony took a wobbling step into the shower, feeling ridiculously old when he had the urge to buy one of those old man poles. He slumped into the wall, water raining down on him. He showered the sweat and grime away. It was almost like he was a part of the suit, rust in his joints that needed a thorough wash. The room was fogged up from the heated shower when he stepped out, inspecting the mirror and flipping his hair around so it sat just right. He knew what Rogers would think of that. Oh, had he heard the muttering. Vain bastard, greedy taskmaster, and disappointment to your father's name. Tony tended to pretend he didn't hear.

He was fairly certain Rogers underestimated his hearing. Rogers underestimated his, well, everything. Tony smiled tightly, as practice for tomorrow's charity ball, and flopped on the bed, still in his soft robe. He very much had a soft spot for Steve, when he was in the suit, but appearances had to be kept up and it wasn't quite on brand for him to spoil the blond one, the American flag one, when he was such an opposite. Truth was, he kind of adored Steve when he wasn't being viciously insulted. It had turned into quite the problem.

No one saw. Not at the interviews when the team was mentioned, not at the balls he hosted for them, not the dire emergencies he met on the battlefield with them. That last one was only because of the Iron Man mask. Tony sure couldn't stop himself from smiling at Steve when he was directing specifics like a professional. So what? Tony thought it was cute that Steve was such a talented commander, and there was nothing sexier than competence. Aside from maybe a nice ass. Well, Steve had that too.

Alright, he was done thinking for the day. Time to sleep. Tony was so tired, it wouldn't hurt just this once. He allowed himself to crawl right into bed still in his robe, head on the pillow and fast asleep in less than 5 minutes.

It meant he missed the chaos happening just 2 floors below him.

Iron Man had exited the meeting promptly. Steve knew it was one of two things that made him do that: Stark, or his real life. Technically, your boss was a part of your life. But Steve didn't like to think of Stark and Iron Man as connected. "Steve, get over here, we're playing charades!" Wanda said lightly.