The soldier and the metal man

Together again

Ch. 13

Steve was worried. Early in the morning, Fury had called on the Avengers down to Central Park, where an incident had occurred. Tony had come into his room and woken him up to tell him that he was leaving. The two said goodbye, and Tony assured Steve that he would be back soon. The incident that Fury had described didn't seem like THAT big of a deal.

But now, twelve hours had passed. From what Steve had gathered by watching the news, Thanos was leading an attack on New York. Hundreds of people had been killed thus far. There were shots of the team shown on television occasionally, but Steve had not seen any image of Tony in close to three hours.

Outside of Stark Tower, Steve could hear the sounds of the ongoing battle. Before Tony left, he had instructed JARVIS to tell Steve to go to the basement if the fighting got too close. That's where he was, now. Sitting in the room beneath Tony's lab, watching a television, feeling terrified.

"I wish I was with them," Steve said aloud.

"Master Stark instructed you to stay behind."

"I know," Steve replied, sighing loudly, "I just hate being here, watching this when I could be helping! What if he's hurt? Or worse?!" The soldier was starting to panic even more.

"The odds of Master Stark's armor being compromised are minute," the AI stated.

"I know. Still..." Steve turned his attention back to the tv. The rest of the Fantastic Four had showed up to help fight Thanos and his army. He could see Mr. Fantastic stretched out and wrapped around some of the alien soldiers, while Johnny Storm was attacking with fire. Johnny made him feel weird. They looked so much alike, but had such different personalities. He did seem to be doing a good job of taking out the enemy, though.

Steve frowned and rested a hand on his stomach. The baby was barely three months along. Steve prayed that Tony would make it out so that he could meet his child when the time came.

00

A full twenty three hours after he had left, Tony returned to the tower. He, and the rest of the team, were exhausted. It had been non-stop fighting. Thankfully, no one had been severely injured.

As soon as Steve heard that the group had entered, he went up to meet Tony. At the same time, Tony was going down to the basement to go see Steve. Steve pushed the button on the elevator and the door opened to reveal Tony, still dressed in his suit, looking absolutely terrible.

"Tony!" Steve yelled, pulling him into a hug. "Thank God. I was worried that something happened!"

Tony cracked a smile. "Sorry about that. Thanos and his goons put up a helluva fight."

"I saw."

"Do you mind coming up to the lab so I can get this suit off? I'm beat."

"Of course."

The two men went up to the lab, and Steve watched Tony remove the suit. He was wearing a pair of black jeans and a gray fitted AC-DC shirt underneath it. Even though Tony was tired and sweaty, Steve had to admit that he looked great in that outfit.

"See something you like?" Tony asked, noticing that Steve was eyeing him up.

Steve blushed. "You look good in that outfit."

"So you have a thing for sweaty men, then?"

Steve shook his head, "You know what I mean." He walked over to Tony, and again pulled him into a hug. "I'm just so glad that you're okay."

Tony held Steve against him for a few more seconds. "I'm glad too. The whole time we were fighting I was thinking of you and the kid. It gave me a reason to fight even harder. I wanted the world to be safe for you both."

Steve responded to this by leaning in and giving Tony a kiss.

Tony was shocked by it.

"Wow..." he said, as Steve pulled away. Steve was looking at him lovingly. It was flattering how much Steve seemed to care about him. So, Tony decided to do what he felt was right.

"Steve?" he asked.

"Yes?"

"That whole relationship thing. Are you up to giving it a shot again?"

"I am if you are."

"I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't."

The two kissed again, then made their way Tony's room to spend the night together.