The Pinch of the Game, Part 1: Lightning; Rated T; Steve, Tony, Pre-slash.
Title: The Pinch of the Game, Part 1: Lightning
Author: phraxus
Summary: A series of moments that change Tony's life.
Pairings/Characters: Tony Stark, Steve Rogers. Pre-slash.
Rating: T.
Word Count: 1084.
A/N: Movie-verse. This is the result of my self-assigned one-thousand-word challenge; I write around a thousand words per prompt for one hundred prompts with the goal of tying them together.
PART 1: LIGHTNING
Tony comes up from the lab with a data pad in his hands, tapping away as he checks his email for the hundredth time in the last half hour. There are a hundred new emails every time, and Tony doesn't even check them before deleting the ones he deems unimportant. He's wandering through the living room, half-awake and craving a hot cup of coffee, when a flash of light brightens up the living room. Tony startles, fumbling with the data pad, and almost has a heart attack (or, at least, it *felt* like a fucking heart attack, like the shrapnel inched a little closer to killing him) when he notices Steve's silhouette dark against the rain-splattered window. Finally hearing the thunder rumbling above and the sound of the rain pattering against the glass, Tony feels his heart rate slow down until he can announce his presence which seemed to have gone unnoticed thus far.
"O Captain my Captain," Tony teases, data pad shut off and hanging under his arm. He leaned his hip against the door frame of the room and narrowed his eyes in mock suspicion. "What's got you up at Tony Stark hours? You know you should be in bed dreaming of red, white, and blue."
Steve turns and the lightning flashes behind him, throwing him into stark contrast between the darkness of the room and the bright flash of light behind him. He looks almost ethereal and not a little gorgeous, and-
And Tony cuts those thoughts off because this is Captain fucking America, and he is not fifteen years old anymore.
Steve sighs and shrugs a shoulder, obviously trying to pass it off as nothing. It's not nothing, Tony knows. Steve usually sleeps through the night, especially after a big fight. They fought that fleet of Doombots today, right? Tony gets distracted by the data streams and working on code too much to be able to keep track of the hours he spends in the lab, so it's not like he actually knows when it all happened. Not exactly. It happened on a Tuesday, he thinks…
"Nothing," Steve says, and it jolts Tony out of his distracting mental ramblings. What's even more curious is the way Steve says it, like he wants to drop the subject and not talk about it. So, Tony does what Tony does best.
He talks enough for the both of them.
"Well, Cap, I don’t see what’s so wrong with talking to me, " he says, launching into a full-on rant complete with hand gestures as Tony steps farther into the room and carelessly tosses the data pad onto the couch. He can make another one, all the data was saved to the mainframe, so it isn’t like safety is an issue with that particular piece of technology. "I mean, I’m totally in your corner. One hundred percent! Okay, okay, maybe more like eighty-nine percent because like, ten percent of that is me being in my own corner and then there’s that one percent I like to save for rainy days when Fury’s actually not up my ass about missions and propriety. Seriously, Cap, there’s only so many times I can stand his bitching about getting drunk, you know, before I start wanting to set the repulsors on him. So, you know, I’m the most viable option for you to, like, get anything of your chest. " Manly chest. Manly, chiseled chest. Tony had seen that chest, divested of any t-shirts and with the shiny sheen of sweat all over. He bites the inside of his cheek before continuing. At least Steve’s got a smile on his face now, and it might be his "God Tony’s a mouthy annoying fuck" but it could be his “Tony’s right” smile. Only more rambling would tell. "And even if you don’t have anything to talk about, I’m like, right here to keep you company. Wanna watch a movie? "
And just like that, Tony throws the switch and flips the conversation because as much as he wants to know what’s going on inside Captain America’s mind, as much as he’s dying to find out what’s keeping the Cap up at odd hours, he’s not a complete dumb ass and he can tell when Steve needs to talk about something else. The blonde superhero seems to falter, actually considering the option, and Tony grins. That got him, didn’t it?
"Star Wars? I’ll even put on A New Hope, " Tony reasons, cocking his head to the side to study Steve. How did his father even make something so perfect…? He blinked rapidly and cleared the thought from his head because, just, no. He answers his own question with a well thought "It’s Howard Stark” and that ends his mental worship of Steve Rogers, Captain America. “C’mon, Steve. Otherwise you’ll just stay up moping or whatever as you stare soulfully out the window of my penthouse apartment. Seriously, where do you pull the maudlin from? I guess there’s enough space in your biceps for storage…"
Steve’s laugh rings bright and just loud enough to make Tony smile too, not loud enough to wake up the others sleeping down the hall. Tony's smile turns languid and he shuffles over to Steve, touching the blonde’s arm softly. "Go make us some tea and I'll get it all set up."
Those all-American baby blues glance down to Tony's (completely innocent) hand on his arm before the slowly raise back to Tony's face. The expression on Steve's is unreadable, and Tony frowns as he tries to discern the emotions hidden in the color of Steve's eyes, in the furrow of his brow, but Steve’s smiling and the expression melts away before he can put a name to anything he sees there. "Yeah," Steve nods, clapping a friendly hand on Tony's shoulder. "Alright. But *don't* fast-forward through the beginning this time. I actually like to read the opening."
Tony lets out a long-suffering sigh and rolls his eyes like he's being put-upon by such a simple task. Only Steve would want to read that long list of text, but then again, Tony's had years to acclimate to the movie, to its cultural significance, and years to memorize the words.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, Cap."
Author: phraxus
Summary: A series of moments that change Tony's life.
Pairings/Characters: Tony Stark, Steve Rogers. Pre-slash.
Rating: T.
Word Count: 1084.
A/N: Movie-verse. This is the result of my self-assigned one-thousand-word challenge; I write around a thousand words per prompt for one hundred prompts with the goal of tying them together.
PART 1: LIGHTNING
Tony comes up from the lab with a data pad in his hands, tapping away as he checks his email for the hundredth time in the last half hour. There are a hundred new emails every time, and Tony doesn't even check them before deleting the ones he deems unimportant. He's wandering through the living room, half-awake and craving a hot cup of coffee, when a flash of light brightens up the living room. Tony startles, fumbling with the data pad, and almost has a heart attack (or, at least, it *felt* like a fucking heart attack, like the shrapnel inched a little closer to killing him) when he notices Steve's silhouette dark against the rain-splattered window. Finally hearing the thunder rumbling above and the sound of the rain pattering against the glass, Tony feels his heart rate slow down until he can announce his presence which seemed to have gone unnoticed thus far.
"O Captain my Captain," Tony teases, data pad shut off and hanging under his arm. He leaned his hip against the door frame of the room and narrowed his eyes in mock suspicion. "What's got you up at Tony Stark hours? You know you should be in bed dreaming of red, white, and blue."
Steve turns and the lightning flashes behind him, throwing him into stark contrast between the darkness of the room and the bright flash of light behind him. He looks almost ethereal and not a little gorgeous, and-
And Tony cuts those thoughts off because this is Captain fucking America, and he is not fifteen years old anymore.
Steve sighs and shrugs a shoulder, obviously trying to pass it off as nothing. It's not nothing, Tony knows. Steve usually sleeps through the night, especially after a big fight. They fought that fleet of Doombots today, right? Tony gets distracted by the data streams and working on code too much to be able to keep track of the hours he spends in the lab, so it's not like he actually knows when it all happened. Not exactly. It happened on a Tuesday, he thinks…
"Nothing," Steve says, and it jolts Tony out of his distracting mental ramblings. What's even more curious is the way Steve says it, like he wants to drop the subject and not talk about it. So, Tony does what Tony does best.
He talks enough for the both of them.
"Well, Cap, I don’t see what’s so wrong with talking to me, " he says, launching into a full-on rant complete with hand gestures as Tony steps farther into the room and carelessly tosses the data pad onto the couch. He can make another one, all the data was saved to the mainframe, so it isn’t like safety is an issue with that particular piece of technology. "I mean, I’m totally in your corner. One hundred percent! Okay, okay, maybe more like eighty-nine percent because like, ten percent of that is me being in my own corner and then there’s that one percent I like to save for rainy days when Fury’s actually not up my ass about missions and propriety. Seriously, Cap, there’s only so many times I can stand his bitching about getting drunk, you know, before I start wanting to set the repulsors on him. So, you know, I’m the most viable option for you to, like, get anything of your chest. " Manly chest. Manly, chiseled chest. Tony had seen that chest, divested of any t-shirts and with the shiny sheen of sweat all over. He bites the inside of his cheek before continuing. At least Steve’s got a smile on his face now, and it might be his "God Tony’s a mouthy annoying fuck" but it could be his “Tony’s right” smile. Only more rambling would tell. "And even if you don’t have anything to talk about, I’m like, right here to keep you company. Wanna watch a movie? "
And just like that, Tony throws the switch and flips the conversation because as much as he wants to know what’s going on inside Captain America’s mind, as much as he’s dying to find out what’s keeping the Cap up at odd hours, he’s not a complete dumb ass and he can tell when Steve needs to talk about something else. The blonde superhero seems to falter, actually considering the option, and Tony grins. That got him, didn’t it?
"Star Wars? I’ll even put on A New Hope, " Tony reasons, cocking his head to the side to study Steve. How did his father even make something so perfect…? He blinked rapidly and cleared the thought from his head because, just, no. He answers his own question with a well thought "It’s Howard Stark” and that ends his mental worship of Steve Rogers, Captain America. “C’mon, Steve. Otherwise you’ll just stay up moping or whatever as you stare soulfully out the window of my penthouse apartment. Seriously, where do you pull the maudlin from? I guess there’s enough space in your biceps for storage…"
Steve’s laugh rings bright and just loud enough to make Tony smile too, not loud enough to wake up the others sleeping down the hall. Tony's smile turns languid and he shuffles over to Steve, touching the blonde’s arm softly. "Go make us some tea and I'll get it all set up."
Those all-American baby blues glance down to Tony's (completely innocent) hand on his arm before the slowly raise back to Tony's face. The expression on Steve's is unreadable, and Tony frowns as he tries to discern the emotions hidden in the color of Steve's eyes, in the furrow of his brow, but Steve’s smiling and the expression melts away before he can put a name to anything he sees there. "Yeah," Steve nods, clapping a friendly hand on Tony's shoulder. "Alright. But *don't* fast-forward through the beginning this time. I actually like to read the opening."
Tony lets out a long-suffering sigh and rolls his eyes like he's being put-upon by such a simple task. Only Steve would want to read that long list of text, but then again, Tony's had years to acclimate to the movie, to its cultural significance, and years to memorize the words.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, Cap."