Angsty Tony One-Shots

A Very Merry Christmas

It was the first Christmas that Tony and Steve would celebrate together. As a couple.

They had been dating just over a year now, and last year Steve went to visit Peggy and the whole Carter family for the holidays.
Bruce went to Betty, Clint to his farm together with Natasha and Phil, Thor was up in Asgard, and Tony... Well, Tony celebrated as he does every year; alone.

It was something he was used to, comfortable with even. It didn't matter to him, he didn't care.

He totally wasn't working himself to the bone trying to create a perfect Christmas this year so maybe Steve would want to celebrate it together again sometime.
Not at all.

Three weeks ago Pepper walked in asking about the annual Christmas gala that Stark Industries would host. Three weeks. Tony had almost forgotten about Christmas. So he set to work.

First things first, Steve's present. The most important thing. Tony had actually gotten better at gift giving and realised that something with time and effort put into it meant a lot more than the price tag. So instead of buying something, Tony designed and built a new bike for Steve himself.
Hour after hour went in it. Every free second, and there weren't many of those, went into the project.

On top of that, Tony worked twice as hard to get all his work done so he could take all the time between Christmas and New Year's off. He missed spending as much time with Steve and his team, but this Christmas had to be special. Flawless even.

Finally the time was there. Three weeks of continues working had lead to a gorgeously decorated Malibu mansion, a shiny new bike in the garage, a massive Christmas tree in the living room, a pile of gifts for the Avengers ready to be shipped to New York, and one exhausted Tony Stark smiling happily.
He had even managed to squeeze in a cooking class and actually made a Christmas dinner without setting fire to the kitchen.

There was a ham in the oven, freshly baked cookies ready to be decorated. Tony had followed every cliché tradition so their Christmas could be perfect.

Now he just needed one final key ingredient.
Steve.

Just as Tony finished the last touches on the decoration, Jarvis announced a phonecall.

"Tony?"

"Hey Stevie, when are you going to get here? I have-" Tony begun excitedly before getting cut off by his boyfriend.

"I know you're working on a new project. You can show me later alright. Look, Tony, I know you're busy, but I want to celebrate the holidays." There was a pause and a sigh. "I'm not coming to Malibu. I'm staying in New York with the team for Christmas. We can talk later alright? I have to go help Bruce make dinner."

Tony wanted to both scream and laugh hysterically at the same time. Instead, he cleared his throat. "Yeah, sure, talk to you soon Cap." He said emotionless before hanging up.

Silence filled the mansion as Tony stared at the mistletoe he was still holding.

He dropped it without a word and walked to the kitchen. After turning the oven off, Tony turned and headed back down to the workshop.

"Jarvis? Can you send the gifts to the tower? Make sure they get there before the morning."

"Sir, if I may-"

"No you may not. All the gifts J. And add some merry Christmas cards or something."

Jarvis remained still until a clipped "done, sir" was heard a few minutes later.
Tony sighed and simply sat behind his desk, staring into the distance as he tried to tune out that little voice in the back of his mind whispering that he should have seen this coming. Why the hell would anyone want to celebrate Christmas with him?