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THIS ROUND IS NOW CLOSED TO NEW PROMPTS.
ROUND FOUR WILL OPEN AT 10PM EST ON MONDAY THE 14TH.
ROUND THREE
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REMINDER: THERE IS A SPOILER POLICY IN PLACE UNTIL 7 MAY.
PROMPT FORMATTING:
Alphabetize pairings. They will be archived that way!Put [RPF] before RPF prompts ( Read more... )
He looks at the invitation to Tony Stark’s birthday party. It’s going to be big. Flashy. Loud. Steve can’t think of anywhere he’d less like to be, but on the peripheral of his mind is this image of a mechanical house, whirring in the dark-and he needs to give Tony more opportunities to prove him wrong, doesn’t he? And he owes an appearance for Howard, too, doesn’t he? Howard, who never stopped looking for Steve until the heart of him gave out.
vi.
Tony doesn’t have a big winning streak when it comes to birthday parties. The fiasco when he thought he was going to die from palladium poisoning is the cherry on top of a large, goopy sundae of other catastrophes, the worst being his sixteenth birthday party, which was solely responsible for the destruction of an entire floor of Stark Industries’ labs and the defacement of his father’s favorite work of art. (Actually, Tony kind of thinks his sixteenth birthday party was the most awesome, but purely from an angle of damage control, he’d outdone himself.) This is why most of his attendees are either gorgeous models who know how easy it is to get into Tony Stark’s custom-tailored pants, benefactors who feel entitled to an invitation despite their disapproval of his antics, or employees with the appropriate security clearance. Oh, and Pepper.
Rhodey doesn’t get an invitation because Tony likes his best friend, thanks. Likewise, Bruce is invited but intelligent enough to gently refuse attendance, citing the fact that being stuck in a crowded, strobe-lit room with shrieking harpies and cutthroat businessmen probably isn’t good for his “blood pressure.”
Tony says, “Hey, this could be the start of something great. Ever think of doing birthday parties for cash on the side? No? Listen, we all have to start somewhere. I could get you a piñata. I could get you hundreds of piñatas. Hulk could bring on the candy, that’s all I’m sayin’. Baby got back.”
“I’ll think about it,” says Bruce. “Let me test to see if the Other Guy has a sweet tooth and I’ll get back to you.”
Tony claps him on the shoulders. “You do that! You absolutely do that.”
So, Tony’s birthday party doesn’t look any more promising than it has in the past few years, but he puts on a snazzy suit, orders overly expensive catering full of things he doesn’t actually like to eat, and gets a DJ who knows the difference between Black Sabbath and Katy Perry. The first hour, he drinks a lot and refuses to shake anyone’s hand unless they’ve got lipstick or an expression of hero worship, and the second hour he drinks even more and dances with a brunette who is packing some serious heat. No, seriously, Tony’s pretty sure she’s a SHIELD agent. That or a very pretty man. Which, hey cool. Maybe she’s a very pretty SHIELD agent man.
Then Pepper tells Tony no more alcohol or she’ll break out the big guns. Hey, not so cool. But Pepper is family-or, you know, his girlfriend-and Tony knows when to quit while he’s ahead. “It’s the brunette, isn’t it?” he asks her, giving her a sloppy kiss on the cheek. “I’m pretty sure he’s a SHIELD agent.”
Pepper tells him to go get some air. So he does.
The DJ is playing a techno remix of Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) and Steve Rogers is on Tony’s balcony.
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