House of TM: Downtime (RP for Steve and Sally)

[iron_tony]

Takes place in House-of-TM AU, after the interview.

After the Time reporter left, the sense of relief in the room was palpable. Tony didn't have any doubt that granting the interview was the right thing, although he wasn't not sure that Steve agreed. But privacy wasn't an all-or-nothing proposition, and in this media age, trying to keep their

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[starspangledcap]

Steve looked up, grateful for both the cool weight of the glass in his hand and the thoughtfulness of the man who knew him well enough to pour it. Smiling tiredly in thanks, he tipped it slightly in the direction of Tony's toast before taking a much-needed sip.

"Well, it could have gone worse," he said, setting the glass down on the end table next to him. He ran a hand through his hair, shifting over a bit on the couch to give Tony a place to sit.

"I just don't understand why they need to ask such invasive questions. I'm happy to talk about the team or even our future plans, but why should anyone need to know about Sally's love life?" He sighed. "At least it's over."

[iron_tony]

Tony didn't allow himself to betray even the slightest hint of a smile. There were times when Steve's willful naivete could be exasperating, but at the moment, it felt sweet. So Tony didn't say, Over? It's just starting. Instead, he moved to stand behind Steve, ran his own hand over the appealingly ruffled hair, and let it rest on the tense muscles under the collar of his dress shirt.

"You know our girl," Tony said. "I have a feeling she doesn't really mind the attention."

[starspangledcap]

Steve leaned back into Tony's hand, trying to let his muscles relax against the callused palm. Tipping his head and shifting slightly to look up at his husband, he made soft a noise of agreement. "She's certainly comfortable with the press, I'll give you that. But I'm sure she doesn't love it, either. Especially when we start getting snippy in front of reporters." Steve shifted more to make full eye contact. He didn't want to ruin the tranquil moment, but he couldn't hide his annoyance. "Did you really have to bring up the college thing?"

[iron_tony]

"Snippy?"

Tony blinked. If anybody had been snippy during the interview, it hadn't been him.

"I'm sorry, what exactly is wrong with wanting our daughter to go to MIT?"

[starspangledcap]

"There's nothing wrong with wanting our daughter to go to a good college," Steve said, keeping his voice even. "But there is something wrong with pushing her into an academic path she may not want to follow. She still has over a year to go before she even has to consider her college options, and pressuring her isn't going to help anything. What if she wants to be a writer, or an artist? Have you even asked her what she might want? Just because she's good at engineering doesn't mean she has to be an engineer."

[iron_tony]

"An artist?" Tony repeated. "Last time I checked, Sally dropped her art class to take an extra computer lab session. Which is just as well, since she can barely draw a straight line. Frankly, I'm glad so much drafting is done on computers these days, or I'd be a little worried about her MIT prospects. I don't know what art school was like back when you --"

Oh shit. Tony stopped and looked down at Steve. "You know, if this is about you being worried which of her dads the girl is going to take after -- I don't think you have much to worry about from Liberty Belle." He patted Steve's shoulder playfully, and smiled. He half- suspected Steve of trying to pick a fight, although he wasn't sure why.

[starspangledcap]

"It was just an example," Steve muttered, but he knew that was a lie. There was a part of him that wanted to see his daughter follow in his own footsteps just as much as Tony wanted her to follow in his. But Steve knew better than to push her in one direction or the other, which was more than he could say for Tony.

"The Liberty Bell is made of cast-iron, you know. She got the name from both of us." Steve reached across his chest with his right arm, grabbing the hand Tony had rested on his shoulder and threading his fingers through it. He didn't want this to be a major fight, but he wasn't going to give up so easily.

"But it's not about that. I just don't want to see you give her undue stress. Maybe she will decide to be an engineer, and I'll be just as proud of her as you will be. But she's only sixteen, Tony. To have you announcing her career plans to the press when she hasn't even come close to deciding them for sure herself... it's not good for her. She's going to feel like you won't love her unless she goes to MIT."

[iron_tony]

"Well, that's stupid," Tony muttered, forgetting his own resolution not to let this turn into a fight. He didn't mean that Steve was being stupid, of course, only that the idea didn't make sense to him.

"How does wanting the best for Sally mean I don't love her? It's not as though I go around putting conditions on what people have to do before I'll --" He slipped his fingers out of his partner's, and slid his hand just slightly away, resting it on the cushion behind his neck. "I don't do that, Steven. Frankly, I'm a little insulted by the suggestion."

[starspangledcap]

"I didn't..." Steve started, twisting himself even more on the couch. Their positions were just too awkward for this conversation. Giving up, he stretched out his legs and stood, facing Tony over the back of the couch.

"I didn't say you wouldn't love her. You know I would never imply that, because I know it would never be true. But she's going to think you don't, if your definition of what's 'best' doesn't turn out to be exactly the same as hers." He meant to stop there, but Tony's condescending use of his full first name grated, and he couldn't help but finish his thought, even if it meant a fight. "Your problem, Anthony, is that you can't accept the idea that someone else might have a better idea of what's right for them than you do."

[iron_tony]

Tony shook his head and turned away. "She's sixteen. Of course I -- we -- have a better idea what's right for her."

He needed to walk away. As a pretext, he grabbed his glass off the end table and walked toward the kitchen. He dumped it into the sink, even though it was half full, and watched the ice circle down the drain.

He stayed in the kitchen, waiting to see if Steve would follow him.

[starspangledcap]

Steve was not going to let Tony just walk away from this. It was his natural reaction to half the fights they had, and most of the time Steve was willing to let him go. They would both stew silently for a while, and then one of them would approach the other and press him up against the nearest hard surface and the fight would be forgotten in the movements of hands and hips and mouths. Or, alternately, some villain would start tearing up downtown, and they'd have to make a temporary peace to go fight him, and by the time they got back to the Mansion the argument would feel irrelevent. Either way, the fights would end without apologies, without resolution. And Steve didn't want that to happen this time.

"Tony," he said, coming into the kitchen and standing at the doorway, arms crossed. "We're letting her become a superhero. We're letting her make all kinds of adult decisions. Don't you think she has the right to decide where she wants to go to college, too? God, Tony, Harry was more irresponsible at her age, and you seem to

[iron_tony]

Tony crossed his arms slowly, turned around, and leaned back against the sink.

"I don't believe I've ever said that Harry is 'just fine.'" Harry Osborn, the hero known as Spider-man -- the first young superhuman that Tony had taken on himself to mentor. The boy had needed it, desperately, but -- although Steve had never come out and said it -- he was obviously no fan of the arrangement. "If Harry were fine, he wouldn't still need my -- our -- help." Tony cocked his head and frowned at the other man. "Is that what this argument is really about? You don't approve of my -- ah -- mentoring style?"

[starspangledcap]

"Mentoring?" Steve asked, mouth drawn into a thin line. "Tony, you 'mentor' him like a teenaged boy shows the cute girl at the YMCA how to hold a pool cue. And, no, that's not what this argument is about. This argument is about our daughter's future. But you seem keen on avoiding that important subject, so please, by all means, elaborate on your 'mentoring style.'"

Steve knew he was overreacting. He knew that Tony wasn't actually cheating on him with Harry, nor was he likely to do so. He trusted his husband. But that didn't help to curb the jealousy he felt when he watched the two of them blatantly flirting down in the lab as they worked on whatever new gadget Tony was developing.

[iron_tony]

There isn't anything with Harry, of course. If Tony were going to cheat he would do it somewhere, with someone, that Steve would never, ever find out about. Not that he is going to, of course. But Tony knows that Steve knows he would never be that dumb; Steve probably even has this knowledge confused with trust.

Also, 'pool cue'? That was a damn good line. Tony had to bit his lip to keep from laughing. "You know Harry," Tony said gravely. "The tech isn't really his thing. Gotta do something to keep his interest." The conversation was so absurd. He couldn't meet Steve's eyes or he would laugh.

[starspangledcap]

Steve wasn't always the most perceptive person when it came to interpersonal relations, but even he managed to notice the way Tony's lips were twitching. "You're making this into a joke," he accused, frowning darkly. He crossed the kitchen, to decrease the distance between them, and put his elbows onto the marble-topped island in the middle of the room, hands folded.

[iron_tony]

"I'm sorry," Tony responded, no longer making much effort to hide his smile. "I was unaware that your comparing me to a hormonally challenged pool hustler was meant to be serious."