Living My Best Life - Stony

nine

About 2 days later we were back in New York. I mean, London was pretty but was also very cold. And when I'm cold I get so grumpy so Steve and I flew back early, mainly because I was pissing him off really badly. And I only had one meeting that I had on the second day and the rest of the week was going to be full of tourism but I had stuff to work on.

I was down in the lab one morning only to be met by Nat.

"Hey, what's up?"

"What have you done." I looked up at her and she thrust a mug of steaming hot coffee into my hands and sat on the table in front of me.

"Are you and Steve okay?" I took a sip of my coffee and decided not to drink anymore, so I put it down and frowned at her.

"What did you put in my drink?"

"Nothing, what's up with you and Steve."

"Nothing! We're fine." Fuck, what is in my drink.

"Tony, you're lying." That's when it clicked.

"How can I lie if you put truth serum in my drink?"

"I haven't put truth serum in your drink." I chuckled.

"Take a sip of the coffee you gave me. I know which one it was."

"I don't share drinks."

"Okay." She didn't look at me. "Why are you lying to me, Nat?" She rolled her eyes.

"Tony, if I was lying you would know."

"Oh, I do know," I replied. The truth serum was blocking my brain and I no longer had a filter. "So Nat; there's nothing wrong with me and Steve and you won't drink the drink with the truth serum so what do you want from me."

"To know the fucking truth Tony."

"You already know! JARVIS, what's in this drink?"

There was an automated voice coming from the ceiling. "There is coffee grounds, full fat cows milk, granulated sugar and 3 drops of truth serum."

"Who made it?"

"Steven Rogers." Nat and I looked at each other and we walked upstairs and into the kitchen.

"Steve? A word?" He turned around and smiled at me.

"What's up?" I grabbed his hand and dragged him into an empty room.

"What the fuck." Steve frowned at me. "Why did you put truth serum in my coffee." We were stood roughly a foot or two away from each other and I was staring straight at him.

"Because you've been acting off and I was wondering if you were okay."

"You could've just asked me. That's what normal people do, and now I feel like you just don't trust me."

"Of course I trust you! I'm just worried about you and I didn't know if it was something to do with me, because you wouldn't tell me that to my face."

"Well now I can," I snapped at him. He looked a little hurt but still stood his ground.

"Look, I just wanted to make sure you were okay-"

"So you got Nat to ask me instead of asking me yourself. You just called yourself a coward, what the hell!"

"Tony, I'm sorry, I really am, but I didn't know what's going on with you because you've been acting weird since we got back from London, and now I'm worried you might make a stupid decision and hurt yourself, or Peter, or me. I'm just concerned and you wouldn't talk to anyone, and I know this was a fucking dumb, stupid thing to do and I should have spoken to you and respected the fact that you didn't want to talk, I know that, but I didn't know what else to do and  I'm so sorry." I just stood and looked at him, I was upset even though I hadn't done anything wrong and I wanted to leave, just turn on the spot and walk back to the lab and probably break down.

"Honey, talk to me."

"I don't wanna fight," I whispered, dropping my gaze to the floor. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

"You didn't do anything wrong, don't apologise to me, it's my fault." He took a step towards me and I basically fell into him, allowing a single tear to release from my eye. Steve wrapped his arms around me and I pushed myself away.

"I need to be alone, I'll see you in a bit." I turned and started to walk away.

"Tony-"

"No, Steve. I said I'd talk to you later. Like in a couple hours. And you know I'm not lying, since I can't."

I walked into a spare room, locked the door behind me and sat down on a chair. Why oh why didn't he trust me. I can talk to him about anything, he should know that! I looked over towards the window and saw grey clouds rolling into view. I pushed the window open and breathed some fresh air. How do you get truth serum out of your system? I guess you'd just wave to wait for it to pass, but I couldn't be bothered to wait that long.

I walked into the bathroom next door and chugged 4 pints of water hoping to get it out of my system. After going to the toilet my head felt a little clearer so I drank more and more water until I felt almost entirely back to normal. I then took a shower and got dressed before walking out. Sat on a bench with his back facing me was Steve, his head in his hands, his arms shaking. His breathing was unsteady and he was wearing a large sweatshirt that I'd bought him for his birthday a few months ago. I walked over, sat down next to him and put my arm around him.

"It's ok."

"No it's not," he whispered. He placed his head on my shoulder. "I'm a terrible, terrible person, I am so sorry." I ruffled my fingers through his hair and he smiled.

"I should speak to you more, I know that. I just find it hard sometimes."

"I know, honey. I'll always wait for you to talk to me, I should never take matters into my own hands again."

"I never said that." Steve looked up at me and smiled at the same time as frowning. "And I didn't mean that." He laughed and his breathing finally went to normal.

"Thank you, Tones."

"Love you."

"I love you too."