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"He's so cute, Tony!"
The puppy had long fur that resembled a golden retriever and a quite similar build, but its fur was pure white with several black spots coating the glorious pelt. Two large, silvery blue eyes looked up at the two men with an 'I know I'm cute' kind of expression. The blond super-soldier knelt down and scooped the little pup into his arms, holding him close and kissing the top of his head, much to the puppy’s delight.
"Good, 'cause he's yours. I know that you're not a fan of running alone, and you know that there's no way that I'm ever going to be able to catch up with you... ever," Tony said, rubbing the back of his head. "And I know that you're trying to get adjusted to the new century, and I thought 'hey, maybe if he had a little constant companion' and Pepper took me to the animal shelter that I've been donating to for the past few... years, and we found this little guy..."
Moving the pup over to one arm, Steve captured Tony in a tight side-hug with his now-free arm. "Thank you so much, Tony! That was so thoughtful of you—and rescuing a puppy was the best decision ever. He's so cute! What's his name?"
"Whatever you want to name him," Tony said, shrugging. "He's yours. Oh, and I've stocked up on the best puppy food, and I want to take you to the store later so that we—err, you—can pick out some bowls and some more toys and... yeah. We should do that sometime."
"Sounds great," Steve said, grinning. The pup squirmed in his arms, but when Steve held him a bit higher so that he wouldn't accidentally drop the poor wiggling creature, his face was attacked by a big, pink, slobbery tongue. In a voice that sounded like he was talking to a baby, Steve asked the pup, "Now, what should I call you? Hmm?"
"I'll let you two get to know each other," Tony said, patting Steve's shoulder then the pup's head before he wandered off to the lab. He definitely didn't get Steve a puppy because he felt bad that he couldn't give Steve all of his time. That definitely wasn't the reason. Definitely not.
"Hey, where's Steve?"
Clint and Natasha were both in the room at the time. Natasha was sharpening knives on the couch while Clint painted her toenails a bright red. Tony walked over to one of the chairs and plopped down, crossing his legs.
"What do you mean, 'where's Steve'?" Clint laughed. He stuck Natasha's left foot up onto his shoulder before he took her right foot and started painting those toenails, too. "Tony, you're the one who got him a dog. Where do you think he is?"
Natasha sighed and took pity on him. "He took Jamie to the dog park. He's teaching the pup how to fetch."
"Oh," Tony mumbled. Steve always seemed to be away with that puppy of his! And while yes, Jamie was a cute puppy, that didn't mean that he should spend all of his time with that little dog! Tony hated to say that he was jealous, but he was really wishing that Steve would spend just a little more time with him instead of that dog. Steve used to spend hours and hours every week down in the lab with him, sketching and chatting and keeping Tony company. But now he didn't spend quite as much time down in the lab because Jamie wasn't allowed in the lab (for obvious reasons, it could be dangerous and Tony didn't want the pup getting hurt) and if Steve spent too long in the lab, the Golden Retriever/Dalmatian would sit outside the door and start howling his little head off.
"Gettin' jealous?" Clint pestered. "You got him the dog. You had to realize that he'd spend a lot of time with it."
"I didn't realize that a dog would take up all his time," Tony complained.
Steve spent all his time with that pup. Jamie was his life, outside of being an Avenger.
Tony found himself watching from the sidelines, pulling away.
"Hey Tony," Steve said when he walked in, later in the afternoon. Jamie was at his side, luckily clean of mud. That dog had been a mess when Steve had originally brought him home—thankfully Steve had carried the muddy dog inside and over to the bathroom before Jamie was able to get mud and dirt all over the tower, so there wasn't really any clean-up needed. Washing and drying him didn't take too long, and then he was back.
"Oh. Hey," Tony said, not taking his eyes off of the StarkPad he was holding. He offhandedly waved a greeting to Steve when he heard the super-soldier walk into the room.
Going over plans for his new suit was difficult, since Tony was working with a lot of new technology. One of the last aliens they had fought had a bunch of futuristic tech, and Tony had confiscated some of it before S.H.I.E.L.D. had gotten ahold of it. He'd spent the past few weeks figuring it out and was now trying to add some partial alien tech into the new suit that he was working on.
And then there was suddenly a large, fluffy, black and white beast on top of him, startling Tony. Okay, so he hadn't been paying much attention, but most of the time Jamie didn't ever come around him, so...
"Jamie, no! Bad dog, get off him," Steve said, just as surprised as Tony was. In the past few weeks, Jamie had gotten real big, real fast. Steve pulled the pup off of Tony while Jamie was trying to lick at Tony's face.
"Sorry," Steve murmured, placing the dog on the ground. "Sit," he commanded, and Tony was actually surprised when the pup listened.
Tony patted the dog's head before picking up his tablet again.
"What'cha working on?" Steve asked, taking a seat beside Tony.
"Just the designs for the new suit," Tony mumbled, putting his concentration back on his work. He was used to not having Steve's attention, so he was fine. Absolutely fine.
"How long have you been working on it?" Steve asked. "Today, I mean."
Tony shrugged. "Couple hours, maybe. Too many good ideas."
"Do you think you might want to... to take a break for a while?" Steve asked. Tony paused his work, hearing the hopeful tone in the super-soldier's voice.
"A break?" Tony asked, raising an eyebrow. Why would he want to take a break? It wasn't like he had anything better to do.
"Yeah. It's a hot day out, so I was thinking... maybe you'd want to get some ice cream and go to the park, perhaps? With me?" Tony wasn't sure what to say. Did he really just hear Steve correctly? Was Steve actually asking him out, or was he just asking as a friend?
"Um..." Tony was more than confused.
Steve's face was red with a blush, and he quickly said, "Sorry, I must've been reading into this wrong—"
"Sounds great," Tony said quickly, cutting him off. So Steve really was asking him out. "When?"
"If you're ready to take a break, how 'bout now?" Steve asked, looking a lot happier and more relaxed.
Tony grinned, his feelings bubbling up inside. Okay, so before getting Cap the puppy a few weeks ago, he had been thinking about asking Steve out. But he was worried he wouldn't spend enough time with Steve, and now... Tony walked over towards the elevator, looking around for Jamie's leash.
"What are you doing?" Steve asked, confused.
"Where's the leash?" It wasn't like he picked out an American flag leash and collar as a joke...
"No," Steve said with a laugh. "You and me, Tony. Clint's going to be taking Jamie out for me this evening."
"Oh." He... he didn't have to fight for Steve's affection right now? That was great!
A few hours later, when the two Avengers got back to the tower, they were greeted by Clint, with Jamie at his side, and a small, golden ball of fur in his arms. Clint was grinning sheepishly. "I'm calling him Lucky. Can we keep him?"