Chapter Text
Tony collapsed onto the sofa with a relieved sigh, feeling utterly exhausted after the Avengers' nasty tussle with a group of alien warlocks. Everyone else followed suit, excepting Thor who stood in the midst of them all.
"Comrades, I will disembark posthaste to my world in search of a cure to the magical malady affecting our dear Captain. I shall not return without a solution."
Tony flapped a hand. "Great. Less talking, more going."
Everyone minus Steve gave him a look. Tony looked between each face and sighed. "We thank you, friend, and wish you the best of luck with your journey. May the gods be with you."
Thor grinned, leaning down to enthusiastically ruffle Tony's hair. "Thank you, man of iron." The others bid their farewells and then Thor was gone with a swish of his cape.
"Well that was fun," Clint announced when it was apparent no one else planned on breaking the silence that had fallen following Thor's departure. He idly wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before standing. "I'm going to bed." Tony watched with an amused smile as Clint stopped in the kitchen to grab a snack on his way out. A snack sounded good right about now. And also some coffee. An entire pot of it.
"J, if you would."
"Already done, sir."
Tony loved having an extremely competent AI in moments like this. He really did. He deserved a pat on the back. And so did Jarvis. He'd have to do something about getting Jarvis a physical form at some point.
"And tea for Dr. Banner and Miss Romanov, of course."
Bruce gave his thanks. Natasha smiled softly up at the ceiling. Interacting with Jarvis was the only time Tony ever saw such a gentle expression on her face. He had a sneaking suspicion, that he could not confirm via security footage and valued his life too much to ask her about directly, that she and Jarvis talked late at night when she couldn't sleep. Where else would Jarvis have learned a Russian lullaby?
"I'll get it," Tony volunteered when the kettle began whistling and the coffee pot beeped. Steve stood as well, something Tony still wasn't quite used to even after a full hour of being the man's center of attention. He walked a full step ahead of Tony, all senses on full alert as if some unidentified threat lurked invisibly around every corner. Like Jarvis would let such a threat exist within their home in the first place. But Tony bit back a sigh and let the man do his thing. At least Steve could help him carry drinks.
Once everyone had their drinks the way they liked them (Tony's black coffee with a dash of brown sugar, Natasha's tea with milk, Bruce's tea with honey), they fell into a comfortable discussion revolving around Clint's latest obsession: Neo Pets. How he found time to save the world, keep his skill sets sharp, and care for fifteen of the things while running a somewhat illegal online shop on the side was a mystery even Jarvis couldn't solve.
After a few hours of discussing various topics, Bruce went to his room for the night. Natasha stuck around for a further half hour before she too left for the solace of her room. The quirk of her lips as she bid Steve goodnight wasn't lost on Tony, but he still had no idea exactly what it meant. In her defense, one did not often see Steven Grant Rogers curled on his side and snoozing comfortably on the lap of Anthony Edward Stark. Truly a sight to behold, in Tony's humble opinion.
He mentally debated whether waking Steve up was a good idea. Eventually his need to pee won out, so he cautiously lifted one leg to see how Steve would react. The slumbering man grunted, resettled himself, then stretched out one arm to wrap himself securely within Tony's space.
"Cap, I need to get up."
No response.
"Steve, come on." Tony pushed against the man's shoulder, with little to no visible results. "I need to pee," he whined. "If you get up I'll give you a treat." Tony sighed. He would try one last trick, and if it didn't work he would resign himself to the inevitable.
Moving slowly, Tony began running his fingers through Steve's hair. The other man hummed softly, leaning further into the touch. Tony couldn't help but smirk at how utterly adorable the man in his lap could be. "Steve."
"Hmm?" was the drowsy response.
"We've both got things to do. You need to get up. I need to pee."
Steve blinked, a flash of blue meeting Tony's fond gaze. "Yeah?"
"Yes."
"But I just got comfortable."
"Up you get."
Steve groaned in protest but relented, reluctantly sliding onto the sofa cushions with a quiet huff. "Hurry back."
Tony ignored the flush of warmth rising in his gut that accompanied those words, replying with a simple nod that seemed to assuage Steve enough. He thought over his reaction the entire way to the bathroom, as he washed his hands, and the entire walk back to the common room where Steve waited.
He was probably just a little attention deprived. After all, Rhodey had been in some undisclosed location for the last week and Pepper had been so tied up in SI meetings they hadn't had a proper catch up session in three days. Having Steve so attentive and clingy was good for his ego, but it didn't go much deeper than that. It couldn't.
Steve stood when Tony entered the room. Tony wasn't quite sure how he felt about that, but it was neither here nor there. This odd behavior wouldn't last much longer anyway. Thor was certain he could find some sort of counterspell in Asgard. When all was said and done, this would just be another crazy situation they all looked back on and laughed about.
"You don't have to do that," Tony objected. Seeing Steve being chivalrous apparently did things to his brain. Like reveal his thoughts aloud to the object of his thoughts.
"I know," Steve replied simply, shrugging. "I want to."
"Okaaaay then. Well, I'm gonna hit the sack. See you in the morning, Cap." Tony looked up where Jarvis had helpfully projected the current time onto the ceiling. "Later in the morning, I mean."
Steve's smile faltered but he wished Tony a good night before heading off to the gym or wherever Steve went to unwind after a mission. Tony didn't really understand the reaction, but figured the man was probably tired and sad to see his only form of entertainment go. Fair enough.
Tony took the elevator down to his workshop intending on getting a bit of work done before sleep came to claim him, but by the time he reached the designated floor he didn't feel up to puttering around with microscopic pieces of metal. Jarvis happily rerouted him to his bedroom instead. Something about working a little less and enjoying some relaxation a little more. Whatever. All play and no work, that was Jarvis. Tony, unfortunately, didn't have that kind of luxury. He had most everything else, but an abundance of free time was not among them.
After taking a much needed shower, brushing his teeth, and putting on the most comfortable pajamas he owned (red sweatpants lovingly worn for years and nothing else), Tony sank into his oversized bed and Egyptian cotton sheets with a pleasurable sigh of content. His mind ran a mile a minute for a while until it finally got the memo to slow down and shut up. Just as he closed his eyes, a soft knock on his door brought reality crashing back down.
"Yeah?" he asked impatiently, wondering why Jarvis hadn't informed him of this late night intruder.
A whine sounded from the other side of the door, reminding Tony of a puppy that wanted to sleep on the furniture but wasn't allowed. He reluctantly left the cozy warmth his bed provided to pad over to the door. One hand held the knob while the other lay in wait in case of an attack.
"Someone there?"
"Tony?"
The engineer frowned. "Steve?"
"Can I come in?"
Tony opened the door wide without really thinking about it. The sight that met his eyes nearly melted the last cynical remnants of his overly abused heart.
"Of course." He ushered Steve inside, directing him to the plush chairs situated on one side of the room. Once they were both sitting, he asked what was wrong. He had expected some call to action, not for Steve to look shy and embarrassed.
"I can't sleep," he admitted, his face a perfect shade of tomato red.
"Okay," Tony replied bemusedly. "That's nothing new for any of us. Why didn't you just have Jarvis initiate your secondary sleep aid?"
"I did. As well as the third, fourth, and fifth sleep aids. None of them worked."
Tony looked on slack-jawed. That had never happened before as far as Tony knew. "Shit. Sorry about that. Need me to build you something special?"
"No. I do have a favor to ask though."
"Shoot."
"Could I... Possibly... Sleep in your bed?"
"Can you say that one more time? I could have sworn you said you wanted to share my bed but that can't possibly be what you actually said."
Steve looked like he'd rather crawl into a volcano than repeat himself. But then that stubborn look of determination Tony knew and loved stole over his features. "I need to share your bed with you."
Tony, in another unbelievable occurrence, was struck speechless.
"I wouldn't ask this of you if it wasn't necessary," Steve assured. He said some other things meant to be placating, but Tony wasn't really listening.
His mind was too preoccupied with running over the words of Steve's request. And then analyzing those words and every possible consequence into oblivion.
What would Pepper say? his subconscious pondered. She would say to find the reason at the bottom of all this. She would do whatever she could to help. She would make Steve as comfortable as possible.
"May I ask why?" Tony quickly added, "Not that I'd mind exactly. I'm just curious as to what brought this on."
Steve shrugged helplessly. "I don't know exactly. Maybe it's part of the spell? I just have this insatiable need to be near you all the time. My skin itches when we're too far apart, the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end when someone else gets too close to you." Steve laughed humorlessly. "This is so fucking ridiculous."
"You're telling me."
"It's fine, Tony. Don't worry about it." Steve stood to leave. A part of Tony didn't want him to go. "I'll make do. Maybe go down to the gym and tire myself out."
Tony, despite his better judgment screaming about how bad of an idea this was, heard himself say, "You can stay."
Steve's distressed expression melted into a soft, disbelieving smile. "Yeah?"
Tony shrugged one shoulder. "Sure."
"Thanks, Tony."
Tony turned away, unable to look at that expression any longer without some dire consequences. "Least I can do." He walked toward his bed, his stride maybe a little quicker than usual. Nobody needed to know what was about to happen. He had nothing to be nervous about.
Steve's footsteps sounded behind him. Tony appreciated the fact that Steve made noise for his benefit. He could have just as easily sneaked up behind Tony and made this more awkward than it needed to be.
He slipped under the covers first, moving to take over the left side of the bed. He usually slept in the middle, but taking up the entire bed like he usually did felt a bit rude.
The bed dipped as Steve settled on the other side of the mattress. He hesitantly scooted nearer to Tony, stopping with a respectable distance left between them. Tony took one look at the man's hopeful expression and knew he was screwed. He could barely deny Steve in normal circumstances. Knowing that the space between them could cause Steve physical discomfort made his next choice easy.
Without a word, Tony stretched out one hand until his fingers brushed Steve's. Steve flexed his fingers in response, curling them over Tony's with that same soft, disbelieving smile from earlier.
Tony smirked before saying, "Are you going to sleep at the foot of the bed like a good boy?"
Steve gave a squeeze of his hand and huffed a laugh. "Go to sleep, Tony."
"Gladly."
Tony forced himself to close his eyes, focus on the rhythm of his breathing. Within the span of a few breaths, Steve was fast asleep. A couple of heartbeats later, Tony followed suit.