What is this?

Chapter seven

Steve opened his eyes. 'Where am I?' tumbled in Steve's mind until he recalled the drunk texts from Tony and what happened from there on. He looked down to see Tony still tightly curled to Steve. A smile appeared on Steve's face. He didn't think much, giving Tony a peck on his forehead. Tony mumbled something snuggling to Steve's chest and then stretching. The smaller one rubbed his eyes and looked at Steve. Steve smiled after giving a bit of a confused face. Tony smiled back. He felt good, they both did.

"Tonyy, we're home!" a female voice pretty much sang from the outdoor.

It was Tony's mom, Maria. Tony's parents had finally returned from their trip. At the same time Tony was happy to see his mother, annoyed to see his dad and horrified how they could or should explain Steve being there. Tony gave Steve a worried look, to which Steve answered with a confused look.

"Tony? Are you home?" Maria called for Tony.

"Uhhh yeah mom! Just give me a sec!" Tony answered looking back to Steve.

They exchanged some looks and then Steve came up with something: "We'll just say that we were hanging out. And eventually it was so late that I decided to stay over?"

"Uhhuh, I guess that's better story than 'I drank too much, drunk-texted you and begged you to stay in my bed'. Also you slept at the floor, we were just so goddam quick at putting the bedclothes away." Tony continued the story.

Both of them nodded and got dressed. Then they went downstairs, kinda hoping Steve wouldn't be noticed.

"Oh, you had a friend over?" Maria asked cheerfully.

The two boys froze.

"Yeeeaah. Uh, Steve came over yesterday and we hangout until it was too late for Steve to go home. Or at least it wasn't a good idea at that point anymore" Tony gave an awkward laugh.

Steve just nodded and then apologized: "I'm terribly sorry, but I better get home before school. All my school stuff are still there. I'm Steve Rogers by the way."

Steve bowed when saying his name, making Maria smile.

"Nice to meet you! I'm Maria, Tony's mother. And yes, you'd better hurry so you won't be late", she answered.

Steve nodded again and headed out. He knew he would make it if he just speedwalked. Tony looked after him and then turned back to his mother.

"So, how was your trip? Where's dad?" he inquired.

"Oh look, the house is still in place and whole!" Howard Stark scoffed behind Tony.

You could say Tony and his dad weren't in best terms with eachother.

Tony grinned turning to his dad: "Dad! Good to see you too!"

Howard huffed and went to his office.

After he was out of hearing ratio Maria raised the almost empty whiskey bottle from last night: "I'm not gonna tell Howard, but I want to know the truth."

Tony wheezed.

"I uh... I haven't had the best weekend. I was at Bruce's from friday to yesterday and, well, yesterday when I came home I started drinking. I don't remember it, but apparently I drunk-texted Steve to come over..." he started explaining.

"Did something happen? And what about Pepper?" Maria questioned, clearly worried for his son.

Hearing Peppers name made Tony uncomfortable.

"Pepper and I... We aren't anymore.. But I'm fine now! Nothing extremely bad happened and I had my amazing friends take care of me!" he tried assuring his mother.

Maria still looked worried, but gave Tony a hug and peck on his forehead.

"You'll tell everything when you're ready. Just remember that I'm here for you. Now hurry or you'll be late from school."

Tony nodded, happy to know that his mother was so supportive. He started to rush to school, hoping he didn't have to face Pepper.

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At school Bruce waited for Tony at the doors.

"Not gonna let you go in alone after friday", he just stated.

Tony laughed, Bruce really was a great friend. They walked in and everything seemed normal. Well, everything was normal to everyone else. Soon enough Clint, Natasha and Bucky joined the two.

"Okay I thought you two were gonna keep low profile?" Tony questioned Natasha and Bucky.

Bucky just shrugged but Natasha gave an answer: "We thought that Clint would have better changes if we combined our groups. And since you and Steve-"

"We are nothing. There's nothing between us. He just helped me when I was vulnerable, that's all", Tony hurried.

Steve heard that and it hurt. It hurt like hell to hear something like that come from Tony's mouth. Especially thinking about their last night. But Steve decided to act like he didn't hear it and walked over to the group.

"Hi! How you guys doing?" he asked cheerfully, well he faked the cheerfull tone, but still.

Everyone's answer was pretty much the usual 'good' and 'okay'. Steve gave Tony a questioning look which Tony just ignored. What the he**, they have spent three nights together pretty much cuddling every night, and then Tony decides to ignore him? The bell rang and all of them headed to their classes.

Last class was English. Steve had made up his mind that he would ask Tony what was going on. What were they? What had it all meant? And why did Tony ignore him? Walking to class Tony went right in front of Steve ignoring him again.

"Hey Tony, could we talk?" Steve whispered when the class was starting.

Tony ignored him once again. Steve's chest hurt a bit, but he was not gonna give up. For some time he tried to ask Tony vocally, but with no success. Then he almost gave up, not asking anything for a moment. After a while he had an idea, maybe Tony would answer if he asked him on paper.

"Why are you ignoring me? -Steve"

Tony read what the paper but didn't answer right away.

Eventually Steve got the note back saying: "What do you want? -Tony"

"To know what are we, I guess? -Steve"

"We are nothing. Let's just pretend that the weekend didn't happen, okay? -Tony"

Well, now Steve didn't have the option of hoping that he had just heard wrong. Why Tony wanted to act like nothing had happened between them? And why did it hurt so much? Steve didn't have a crush on Tony, he only wanted to be friends, right? He totally did not have a crush on Tony. Or did he?