Chapter Text
'Some day, huh?' the door swished closed, and Cap's footsteps approached. 'That Doom fellow sure is some piece of work.'
Tony turned away from his armour, flicking the visor up and turning off his welding torch. 'Cap! What brings you down here? We debriefed already, didn't we?'
'Call me Steve,' Cap – Steve propped himself against Tony's bench, folding his arms and smirking. 'And can't I just make conversation with a co worker?'
'All right,' Tony stripped his gloves, dropping them and the rest of the equipment on the bench and leaned back in his chair. 'Steve. What did you want to talk about? Doom's failboaty obsession with Reed and the Fantastic Four?'
Steve was staring at him, Tony realised. It felt like the sort of attention he got from socialites and the twinks in clubs when he went out, which was all kinds of weird. And totally impossible, teenage fantasies aside. This was Captain America, for crying out loud. Obviously his interest-in-Tony detectors were malfunctioning.
Or maybe not. Steve's foot had crept across the floor while he was thinking, then up the inside of Tony's leg to, wow! 'Uh, Steve-'
'I've seen you watching me,' Steve pushed off the bench, returning his foot to the floor before bracing his hands of the armrests of Tony's chair and leaning in. 'And I'm tired of waiting for you to make a move.'
Tony felt his mouth drop open, eyes widen, and he couldn't help it. Had he had a lab accident and been knocked out without noticing? Concussed hallucinations would explain this; maybe Hank had left some chemical lying around?
Yeah, right. Hank had been in Tony's lab a grand total of three times, none of them within a month of quitting, let alone recently enough to have left hallucinogens for Tony to react to today. And crap, he'd been silent way too long.
'Uh, I don't know what you're talking about?' he tried, but he could hear the uncertainty in his own tone. God dammit! How was this happening? Could it be happening?
Steve studied his face for a very long moment, then surged forward, claiming Tony's mouth. He'd been gaping, so the kiss went from zero to porn star in about two point five seconds, Tony's arms coming up to drag Steve closer, his legs parting when Steve pressed forward since shock or no, Tony wasn't about to turn this down.
'Jesus,' Tony pulled away, gasping. 'Are you sure?'
Steve grinned. 'Let me take you to bed, Tony.'
Well, that was a no-brainer. Tony grinned in return, sliding his hand down Steve's very nice torso to cup him through his pants. 'Jarvis, shut down for the night. Lead the way, Cap.'
****
Tony woke up the next morning face-down on the bed, pinned in place by Steve's whole body.
'Back with us, then?' Steve murmured into Tony's ear. 'You're still loose from last night, you know,' he dragged the head of his cock against Tony's hole, teeth scraping over Tony's earlobe. 'Do you think I could just push straight in? Take you again, no more prep?'
Tony groaned, spreading his legs as wide as he could. 'God, Cap! Do it!'
Steve growled, shifting his weight, and then there was the steady burn of him pressing in slowly, God, so slowly. Tony dropped his forehead to the mattress, huffing shallow breaths and shaking with the raw desire Cap inspired. Had always inspired.
'Oh yeah,' Steve breathed, bottoming out and pausing pressed along the length of Tony's back. 'God, Tony, you're so tight! You love it, don't you?'
Tony tried to move, to slide his hand down to his own leaking erection, but Steve's hands closed vice-like around his wrists, pinning them to the bed beside his face.
'No, Tony,' Steve pressed his lips to Tony's temple, and Tony twisted his head for a kiss. Their tongues tangled, then Steve bit Tony's lip gently. 'We're doing this my way. You just lie there and take it.'
'Kinky,' Tony gasped, helplessly twitching against Steve. 'Aahhh... OK, you're the boss.'
'Bit of a submission kink yourself, it looks like,' Steve shifted his weight, pulling both of Tony's wrists into a one-handed grip and sliding his free hand down Tony's flank.
'Fuckfuckfuck!' Tony shuddered again. 'Who is teaching you these things? Is it Clint? God, tell me it's not Jan-'
'Why do you people believe kinks were invented in the last decade?' Steve rolled his hips, squeezing Tony's wrists a little harder. 'Do you really think no one was having sex in the forties?'
'I... ungh,' Tony pulled at his wrists, just so Steve would hold a little tighter. 'Not... not no one, just not you...'
Steve chuckled, the vibration shaking Tony and making him groan.
'Steve,' he turned his head, panting and desperate. 'Please. Please fuck me.'
Steve kissed him, long and dirty and pinned in place with no leverage at all. Damn, Steve was right; at least where Steve was concerned Tony had a submission kink the size of the mansion. 'Since you asked so nicely. Hey, can you come just from my cock inside you, untouched? I think you can.'
'Oh sweet Jesus!' Tony yelled, and Steve pulled out, pulled Tony onto his knees, into his lap, and thrust back in.
Tony threw his head back, an incoherent string of curses and moans spilling out of his mouth as Steve fucked into him mercilessly.
He lost all sense of time, hands pinned to his chest by one of Steve's giant hands and unable to touch himself. Unable to do anything but take it, listening to Steve murmur compliments and encouragements and filthy promises of what he'd do to Tony.
He'd been teetering on the edge since Steve had pinned his hands, and Steve's voice, barely audible as he mouthed at the back of Tony's head sent him over the edge. He pulsed in an endless wave, shooting messily across his own belly and thighs and gasping Steve's name.
'That's right,' Steve said, breathless as he held Tony in place. 'So good, Tony. So good.'
He held Tony through the aftershocks, hips hardly moving at all until Tony came back to himself.
'I'm going to fuck you now,' he said, tipping Tony forward again, shoving in hard. 'I'm going to take you harder than anyone ever has before, and you're going to love it.'
'Yes...' Tony hissed, angling his hips back and spreading his thighs as wide as he could. 'God, fuck me Steve! Make me unable to sit for a week. I've got a board meeting today, I want to feel you still inside me while they're yapping about – fuck! - stock prices and - ungh, again! - I don't know-'
'Tony!' Steve's fingers tightened on his hips as he gave one, two, three more thrusts before collapsing onto Tony.
Tony lay there, trying to get his breath back as Steve groaned, slipping out of Tony and rolling over to throw the condom at the waste-basket. He grabbed Tony, and manhandled him around to lie against his chest.
Tony grinned, curling a hand over Steve's perfect pec as Steve's hand stroked the length of his spine.
'I'll stick to you if I don't rinse off,' he observed idly, circling a nipple with his finger then following the pattern with his tongue.
Steve's hand slid to Tony's hip, tightening possessively. 'Good.'
'It'll be uncomfortable,' Tony warned, grinning and adding teeth to the mix.
Steve growled, flipping Tony onto his back and pinning his hands over his head again. Tony could get used to this, and what was this?
'Steve!' he grinned, rubbing his thigh back and forth. 'Again? So soon? What a way to wake up!'
****
After that, Steve turned up wherever Tony was at eleven every night, just like sexy clockwork. Normally Tony would have been annoyed at the drop in productivity caused by the drop in his all-nighters, but when the cause was sexual marathonlympics with the world's only super soldier, well. One didn't like to complain.
Steve proved to be endlessly inventive in bed, and willing to do any and everything Tony suggested, usually twice, and his refractory period really needed to be studied in depth. By Tony. For the advancement of science, of course.
Having the same person in bed every night and every day was a novel experience for Tony, and he found he liked it. It wasn't boring or repetitive like he'd always thought it would be.
In fact, Tony was almost convinced he knew the word for the way it felt.
Then Amora and Zemo happened, and ex-party animal good-time guy or not, Tony knew a thing or two about trauma. No matter how well he kept up his stoic soldier facade, Steve had to be conflicted. Maybe even Hulk-level angry.
He waited until the others had gone upstairs to bicker about what movie to put on, then placed a still-gauntleted hand on Steve's shoulder. 'You OK?'
Steve blinked at him. 'Of course.'
'Oh come on,' Tony waved a hand at the room. 'Your arch enemy turns up, tricks you into helping him and escapes and you're fine?'
Steve slid his hands under the cowl and pulled it off. 'Tony, he needed help, and that's what we do. If we ran through the histories of everyone who came looking for help before we gave it, we'd never help anyone. There will be another chance to catch him.'
'You're not real, are you?' Tony sighed, and a strange look passed over Steve's face, before vanishing into a smile.
'Shall we skip movie night, then?' Steve stepped in closer. In the armour Tony was the same height as him, and Steve leaned forward to brush a kiss onto Tony's mouth before grinning and jogging out of the room.
Tony stood where he was, staring after him. 'I love you, you know,' he said softly, then went to put the armour away.
****
It was different after that. He knew Steve hadn't heard, but having said the words seemed to have done something to Tony. He felt anchorless, desperate for something, anything from Steve.
Steve was the same as ever, but it felt like every second he was with Tony, Tony had to bite back the words. Steve hadn't given any indication this was anything other than a fling; hell, they hadn't told a single other person. Sneaking around, having secret and forbidden sex was hot as hell, but after a while it apparently soured.
He was in bed, knees tucked against his chest and Steve getting ready to slide in when he realised.
No matter how much you loved someone, if they didn't feel the same way, eventually the sex wouldn't be worth the pain.
He tipped his head back, arching his throat for Steve's teeth and resolved to break it off the next day
****
Of course, the next day was when Fury dropped his shape shifting alien invaders bombshell, which was a pretty effective bombshell, Tony had to admit.
He couldn't say goodbye in the end, couldn't try to break it off and salvage the friendship. He just blasted into the sky, feeling the weight of Steve's gaze the whole way to LA, where he promptly curled up on the floor of his lab around a twelve year old bottle of Glen Morangie and cried like a child.
****
The imminent heart failure was bad enough, but the sight of Cap on-screen somehow shorted out Tony's ability to feel anything else. The green face leered down at him, and OK: if Tony had been hoping that the switch had happened after their... ill-fated dalliance, well. Clearly he'd been sleeping with an alien spy, not the best and brightest like he'd thought.
Ick.
He wasn't sure whether it was the damage to his body or the realisation, but Tony felt like throwing up. Heh. Either reason would be enough to excuse a little puking, but unfortunately lying on the floor like this, he'd just choke on it. Far too undignified a way to die, so he just swallowed hard, and concentrated on clamping down on the tears threatening to leak out.
In a way, he was glad to be dying like this. He wouldn't have to face the real Cap, assuming he was even still alive. He wouldn't have to live with this sick feeling of violation, complicated by the awful emotional tangle he'd gotten himself tied into. At least he'd never told the... thing how he felt.
He must have zoned out for a while, because the next thing he knew, he was staring up at Maria Hill and god damn Fury.
Well, there was only one possible solution, and he couldn't do it himself. Kill or cure, he had to get their help.
'Pull it,' he gasped, wishing he could move enough to clutch at the pain in his chest. 'My...my heart.'
Fury, bless his combat boots and socks, wasn't in the slightest squeamish or indecisive. On the down side, the pain ratcheted up to eleven, and he felt himself seize, the scream impossible to quash.
****
Tony waited next to the doorway, watching as the SHIELD agents shoved the Queen into a holding tube. He couldn't bring himself to look at the fake Cap lying at the bottom of the stairs.
'Tony.'
A-a-and the real Cap was even worse. Tony kept his gaze focussed on the transport. 'Cap. Good to have you back.'
Tony was a very good actor, he knew that, but he really didn't trust himself to seem normal at the moment. He shoved the helmet back on and started the pre-flight. 'I'd love to stay and chat, but I have some fairly urgent repairs to attend to. I'll see you back at the mansion?'
He chanced a glance at Cap, who was frowning at him now and reaching out towards Tony's shoulder.
No. There was no way he could do this now. He fired the boot jets, pausing ten feet in the air to throw a sloppy salute, and blasted away.
'Sir,' Jarvis said as they passed over Capitol Hill. 'There was no way for you to know the Captain had been replaced.'
'I know, I know,' Tony skimmed a few news feeds. Nothing coherent yet; with any luck they'd get the Avengers' success out before anyone got around to rioting. 'Start up the manufacturing units at SI. I'm going to need to fabricate a new arc reactor.'
'Preliminaries already complete, sir,' Jarvis flicked a message into the HUD. 'Miss Potts has been calling at an even higher frequency than before. You also have thirteen messages from Colonel Rhodes, and nineteen from various members of the board.'
'Great,' Tony flipped over to stare up at the clouds. 'Delete everything and send an email out to everyone with clearance detailing what happened. Oh, and if you could call Pepper and Rhodey, tell them I'm fine. Then shut down all lines of communication until I get the arc reactor replaced.'
He flipped back over and frowned at the ground. 'Jarvis? Why are we over the docks? That is completely the wrong direction.'
'Apologies, sir,' Jarvis sounded stressed, as far as that was possible. 'But with the satellite network destroyed, I have no access to the Global Positioning System, and hence no capability to navigate.'
'Ah,' Tony really wanted to pinch the bridge of his nose. 'OK, put the ocean on the right and follow the coast line. External cameras are still working, right?'
'Of course, sir,' Jarvis corrected the course and brought up the draft of the email. 'If you would care to read over this on the way, sir, I shan't be able to send it until we reach Stark Enterprises anyway.'
'Wait,' Tony squinted at the screen. 'If you can't get GPS, how could you get the news feed I was just looking at?'
'I accessed it via a wireless internet connection that originated at a Starbucks just outside the park, sir.'
'Very nice, Jarvis,' Tony laughed. 'Gold star for you.'
'I shall add the commendation to my file sir.'
****
The upside of no satellites was the absence of any idiot commentator barking at him from the TV. The downside was everything else.
Though the board might like the tenders he'd prepared for submission while the fabrication unit was carving his new reactor. And having Starktech satellites go up would be a good PR boost.
Tony thought he might even have a few prototypes in storage over in Queens. If he got even one of them up today, after upgrading its security of course, then at least some of the panic might be mitigated.
As soon as the new reactor was in, he told himself. He closed his eyes and leaned against the wall, sliding down until he was sitting. He just needed to close his eyes for a moment.
****
Tony's face stung and his chest ached when he woke up, lying on the floor now and staring up at Steve's worried face. He grinned when Tony opened his eyes, and leaned closer, mouth opening.
For a moment, just for a moment Tony had a flash of certainty that the Skrull was back, and he jerked, feeling panic spread over his face.
Steve grabbed his shoulders, frowning and looking a little panicky himself. 'Tony! What is it?'
'Nothing,' Tony's hand went automatically to the arc reactor, the low hum calming his nerves. He blinked, and looked down. 'Wait. This is the new one. How is the new one-'
Steve's hands tightened, and Tony felt another rush of sense-memory. 'I got a call from Jarvis, and you were on the floor turning blue, Tony! Don't you ever fail to report an injury again, you hear me?!'
Steve's stare was intense, laser-locked on Tony's face. Tony could feel the flush starting, and dropped his own gaze to Steve's chest.
This was the real Cap, not the one that'd fucked him bent over the end of his bed; not the one he'd woken up next to for four months. That one was an alien imposter; and now he felt like hurling again.
Steve's hand slid to the back of Tony's neck, and he dragged him forward into a fierce hug. Tony went limp, leaning his forehead on Steve's shoulder. He smelled the same; felt just as good as the imposter had. God, he was so very screwed.
Tony waited, expecting Steve to give him a manly pat on the back, to pull away, but he didn't. He just kept rubbing one hand up and down Tony's back, carding the other through Tony's hair.
They stayed there, Tony very nearly in Steve's lap for a long time. Tony didn't understand it, but he was still willing to take what he could get.
'I'm sorry,' he whispered, eyes squeezed tight to stop the tears pricking. 'I'm so sorry, Steve. I should've known. I should've found a way to rescue you.'
Steve sighed, hands finally stilling. 'How could you?' he leant his cheek against the top of Tony's head. 'They were just like us. You couldn't've known.'
Tony pulled away, climbing stiffly to his feet, and turning away. 'I should have known anyway.'
****