FIC: Anticipation (Avengers)

[alexs_storybook]

Title: Anticipation
Author: alexcat
Fandom: Avengers (MCU)
Type: FPS
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: I do not own nor do I profit from the use of these characters.
Character(s): Tony stark/Steve Rogers
Archive: Ao3, OEAM, Alex's Story Book
Summary: Steve and Tony wait, for a little while.

~~


Anticipation - Noun - the action of anticipating something; expectation or prediction.

*

I wonder if I'm really with you now
Or just chasin' after some finer day
~ Carly Simon

*

From the moment they met, both of them were fated to be together. It was unavoidable.

That it took them so long to figure it out was their own fault.

Steve had heard a lot about Iron Man and Tony Stark, none of it particularly good. Tony sounded a lot like Howard. He was not anxious to meet him.

Tony had heard what a perfect paragon Steve Rogers was all his life, well, all the years his father was alive. Howard was obsessed with Rogers and Captain America, maybe because he was instrumental in making him what he was. It also might have been that Howard considered it a personal failure that he never found his friend after he went into the ice. Whatever the reason, Tony grew up with the ghost of Steve Rogers. He wanted to meet him and prove to himself and everyone else that no one is that good.

In Stuttgart, the suit was a bit mightier than the shield, but Tony got a good look at the greatest American hero close up. No big deal.

On the plane, however, things got a little warmer. Steve was angry with Stark from his first words. He knew that was what Stark wanted, too, but he couldn’t help himself.

Then on the Helicarrier, Steve could feel pent up anger roll off Stark. It reached inside of him and pulled out his own rage. He knew in his logical mind that it was the stone in the scepter, but it was still real, still him. He’d never been angrier than he had been at Stark for those few seconds.

Tony felt much the same. Here was Howard’s paragon and he was just a kid of maybe twenty-five and he was as self-righteous as they come. Just once, he’d like to see something stand up to its reputation.

Minutes later, they both had a chance to see that they were both wrong about the other one, when they had to step up and work together to save the Helicarrier and the people aboard it.

By the end of the day, they had a grudging respect and perhaps the kernels of a friendship between them.

But nights follow days and sometimes people sleep.

And dream.

Steve’s dreams were often nightmare flashbacks to the war, the things he’d done and seen. Sometimes they were about Peggy. Sometimes he searched for Peggy in his dreams. And never found her.

But that night, after all they’d done, his dream were of a decidedly different nature. He dreamed of kisses and strong arms around him. He could never quite see who he was with, but it was certainly an erotic dream. Just when his companion was about to turn and reveal himself, Steve woke up.

He was breathless and painfully hard.

He sat straight up in the bed.

“Dammit!” He sat there for a few minutes, then got up.

They were in temporary quarters in Stark Tower since there was really nowhere else for them to go right now. He couldn’t go to the kitchen or anywhere else with this – thing standing at attention.

He looked down at it, no sign of it going away soon either.

Maybe he should… yes, that’s what he’d do.

He lay back down and slipped his hand inside his underwear, wrapping his fingers around his hard on. He closed his eyes, thinking about…

Tony Stark popped into his mind!

What the hell?

He jerked his hand away. He’d think about Romanov. She was hot. Really hot. He wondered what her mouth would feel like… Yes, that was better…

A few floors away in a state of the art lab/workshop, Tony Stark was working. He was moving electronic displays and tweaking numbers for some improvements on the suit. He slept very little, fueling himself with too much coffee, junk food and Scotch.

His mind wandered to Rogers.

Rogers was brawny and damned good looking. He’d been surprised to find the real man more attractive than the photos and little film clips he’d managed to find over the years. Stark had only seen him the once out of the Captain America suit. He cleaned up nice, too. He looked younger than he had in the photos, too.

As a kid, Tony had adored Captain America. He never tired of his father’s stories or Aunt Peggy’s.

The perfect hero was a bit more annoying to a grown man. Especially one as full of crap as Rogers was.

He shrugged off his thoughts about Rogers and went back to work.

*

As New York was put back together at the destruction of the battle, all the Avengers settled into Stark Tower. Tony provided apartments and a place to train and work, and SHIELD gave him loads of grief from Maria Hill.

Tony was in and out, spending part of his time in California with Pepper. She was pretty much running SI by herself these days, but she made him show up for a meeting now and again. He thought sometimes she loved him much more from afar. He supposed he was an acquired taste.

Steve ran the team. He did the day to day planning of their training and he ran things when they were called out. Tony paid for things and did the hardware work. Banner was brilliant and Tony enjoyed working with such a man. He wondered if Erskine and his father had enjoyed working together that way.

Tony was in town and was in the communal kitchen hunting something to eat. He had forgotten food until he realized that he might pass out if he didn’t get something with some actual food value in him. He was actually hunting ice cream. It had milk and calcium. Those were good, right?

“What you hunting for, Stark?”

Rogers.

“Ice Cream. I’m hungry.”

“Natasha may have cleaned out the last of it last night when we watched movies.”

They watched movies? Where was he? Oh, he was in his workshop.

“There’s a little shop down the street. They do all sorts of flavors,” Rogers told him.

Tony thought it might be a good idea to try to find some common ground with Rogers.

“I’m game if you are.”

“Can I get a shower? I, uh, smell. I just came in from a run.”

“Sure. Meet you downstairs in half an hour.”

Steve was waiting when Tony got off the elevator in 45 minutes. Steve had on his standard khakis and cotton shirt. The thought that he’d look damn good in tight jeans and t-shirt flitted through Stark’s mind.

Steve congratulated himself on not being annoyed with Tony for being late. He’d actually just gotten there about two minutes before Tony, but there was no use telling him that.

The two walked down the street to the little ice cream shop. Steve insisted on treating Tony and they decided to eat their cones as they walked back to Stark Tower.

“I figured you for some exotic flavor,” Steve said, nodding at Tony’s chocolate double scoop.

“I’ll change when someone names a flavor for me,” he laughed and licked the frozen treat before it dripped.

Steve found himself watching as they walked.

“I’d ask why you have vanilla, but I’d bet you’re a vanilla kind of guy.”

“I suspect that’s an insult, but I’m not going to bite.”

Stark grinned and shrugged. “Have it your own way.”

“What kind of guy are you? I’ve never seen you interested in much but suits and hardware.”

“Hmm, asking the tough questions?”

Steve shrugged this time.

“I am known as a playboy.”

“And are you one?”

“Not these days. I think those days are gone. I’m getting too old for fangirls and one night stands.”

Steve looked surprised. “I’d have thought your ego needed that.”

“You don’t quit, do you? How about you? Any one night stands for you?”

The quips were biting but the hostility was still fairly low.

“Not since the forties.”

“What about now? Natasha? Maria Hill? Who?”

“No one. Natasha keeps trying to fix me up, but I’m too busy to date.”

“I suppose it’s hard to find someone still spry enough in their nineties.”

Steve laughed. “You could say that.”

“Not even going to argue with me?”

“Not today, Stark.”

They walked along rather amiably, back to Stark Tower.

“Come to the workshop. I’ll show you some improvements I’ve made to your suit.”

Steve followed him to the next to the top floor. His workshop was here until the repairs were done on the penthouse floor. Loki and the Chitauri had made a mess of that one.

The changes were little but they made the suit more durable as well as more flexible. Steve tried it on to test the flexibility.

Stark was bending over, measuring here and poking there, asking him to bend this way and that, when he noticed how damned good Rogers smelled. Um, he also realized that it shouldn’t be appealing to the part of him that took interest. He looked up at Rogers. He was biting his lip in that way that Stark had noticed before. He wondered if the boy knew how to kiss. He hadn’t kissed a man in a long time.

“Something bothering you, Cap?”

“Me? No. Why do you ask?”

“You’re chewing your lip like you do when you’re concentrating.”

Steve had been concentrating on not letting Stark’s fleeting touches when he measured his thigh go straight to his groin. He had no interest in Stark, but ever since his dream, that stubborn thing between his legs kept noticing him.

“I’m okay.”

Stark nodded and stood. “All done. I gotta ask you a question. What the hell soap, shampoo or cologne do you use to make you smell so good?”

Steve blushed. He had no idea. Natasha had taken him to the drugstore for more modern toiletries than he was used to. She’d asked personal questions, sniffed this and that, and asked for his credit card at the register.

“Stuff Romanov bought. She said my stuff was too ‘old man’ for me.”

“I’ll have to tell her she did a great job. You smell peachy.” He raised his eyebrows in a mock suggestiveness as he said it.

Steve turned bright red. Tony grinned as he turned away to put a note on his tablet.

Both men had trouble sleeping that night.

Steve fell asleep only to wake up after dreaming about Stark measuring more than his thigh. Again, he was achingly hard. This time he didn’t think about Natasha. He thought about Stark, let his mind run as his hand stroked. Would it feel like this to have Stark’s hand on him? He was embarrassed that he’d cried out Tony’s name as he came.

Stark wasn’t sleeping at all. He was sitting in his workshop with Steve’s Captain America suit in his lap. He’d taken it down after he couldn’t sleep and meant to mark where the tweaks needed to be made.

Then he’d gotten a whiff of that Rogers scent. He’d turned the suit inside out and found himself smelling it – he ran his hand over the part that covered those awful tighty-whities that Rogers wore. Maybe he needed to tell Natasha to get the boy some better drawers. He smelled the suit again.

Shit! He had to stop doing this. He was trying really hard to ignore that place his brain was going, but his body beat him to it. He reached inside his flannel sleep pants and did the same thing Steve had done, careful not to spill himself on the suit.

It was hard for either of them to look at the other one the next day.

All the others noticed something odd.

“Did Cap and Stark have another argument?” Clint asked Natasha.

She made that face that said he should know better than to ask her such a question.

“They sat at the breakfast table and refused to look at one another or even speak,” Clint told her.

Natasha went to the gym after she ate. She knew Steve was often down in the gym in the mornings. He was punching the bag.

“What’s going on? Clint said you and Stark aren’t speaking. He sent me to check it out.”

“Just leave it alone, Natasha.” He sounded tired. “It’s not anything to worry about.”

“You’re not fighting with Stark?”

“Nope, just a bit tired today.”

“You sure?” She didn’t quite believe him, but could tell by the stubborn set of that mouth that he wasn’t saying any more. He went back to beating the crap out of the bag.

Steve avoided Tony the rest of the day, and Stark was avoiding him, too.

As a matter of fact, they did such a good job of avoiding one another that neither of them realized the other was doing it. The rest of the Avengers had no trouble noticing it. And they were getting annoyed with their grumpy leaders.

This actually went on for several days. And the reason it did was that Steve kept dreaming about Tony, while Tony kept having fantasies about Steve and his old fashioned underwear.

It was Stark that decided to something about it. He decided to tell Steve about that he was a distraction and maybe should move to DC. Had he consulted anyone else, they might have told him it could be a bad idea, but he didn’t.

He simply marched into Steve’s apartment.

“Cap, um, we could have a problem.”

Steve knew he had a problem, erotic dreams featuring Tony Stark, but what could be bothering Stark? Whatever it was, he already felt defensive before Tony had a chance to say a word.

“What would that be?”

“You smell good.”

That one stumped Steve. “Come again? Not sure I understood you. You mentioned that the other day, too.”

“You heard right. Your scent is making me crazy. I was working on the suit after you left the other night and I could smell you. It had an unexpected effect on me.”

“Unexpected effect?” Steve felt a little like an idiot. “I’m not really sure I know what you mean.”

“Damn, Capsicle. You’re dense sometimes. I smelled your suit, everywhere, and your scent made me, what is the word?” Tony was just being an ass now. Steve had made this impossibly complicated.

“Horny?” Steve supplied. He wasn’t quite as thick as Stark seemed to think.

“Give that man a medal!”

“But why?”

“The dick wants what the dick wants? I have no fucking idea, Rogers. Now tell me why you’ve been ignoring and avoiding me.”

“Dreams. You’re in my dreams.”

“We tend to dream about the people we’re with.”

“In my dreams, you kiss me. And measure me for my suit, touching me sometimes.”

Stark stared at his tablet as if it were giving him all the answers. He was stalling. His heart had sped up a little at Rogers’ words.

Finally he looked up in that way he had, that said he knew everything. “The idea of kissing you has crossed my mind. I like people who know what they’re doing, though, and you strike me as the inexperienced type.”

“Depends on what experience you mean.”

“Have you ever kissed anyone? Another man?”

“Is there a difference?”

Stark stopped and thought. “I suppose not.”

“Want to stop asking questions and find out if I know how to kiss?” Steve took the tablet that Stark brought with him and set it on the end table. He sat down on the sofa beside Stark, put his hand under Stark’s chin, and kissed his lips. The kiss was slow and sweet, a touching of lips that promised more, that invited more. He pulled back and smiled at Tony, whose mouth sort of hung open a little. “How was that? Do I pass muster?” Steve’s voice was low and throaty.

“Uh, yeah. That was fine. I want to try it again.I feel like I might be able to improve-”

Steve whispered, “You talk too much, Stark.” Tony shut up and Steve kissed him again. This kiss was a little more demanding, hotter than the first one. Tony made a sound when Steve’s tongue slipped past his lips, encouraging Steve to explore his mouth.

They paused and looked at one another.

“Shall we move forward or wait a bit to see if we change our minds?” Tony asked Steve.

“Think I’ll chicken out?” Steve grinned and kissed Tony’s cheek.

“No, but I do want us to be sure we know what we’re getting into. We do work together, you know.”

“I can buy that. Perhaps we take it slow?” Steve kissed Tony’s cheek again.

“Do you know how badly I want to drag you to the bed and see if you taste as hot as you smell?” Tony asked.

“Yes, I do. But you said we should take it slow and I agree.”

“So, while I know I said it, what does it mean?” Tony touched Steve’s face.

“We wait, do other things, maybe we need to get to know one another a little more.”

“You think you’ll like me if you know me? I’m pretty much a snarky bastard.”

“I know. And I’m a goody two shoes,” Steve took Tony’s hand in his and kissed his palm.

“But you smell amazing,”

“I think I’ll be staying in my room a lot.” Steve grinned.

“Let’s not. Let’s wait until we’re together.”

“You mean not at all?”

“Yep. No touching ourselves until we touch each other.”

“You are a wicked man, Tony Stark.”

“I am also hungry. Let’s order in and you can hang out in my workshop… I’ll work on your suit.”

“I’m not letting you sniff my suit again.”

Tony blushed, thinking about what he’d done when he smelled the suit before.

“You didn’t?” Steve asked, shocked but smiling.

“I didn’t get any on it!”

“Now every time I put it on, I’ll think of you jerking off.”

Tony laughed. “And that’s a bad thing?”

Steve kissed him again. “Order food. I’m hungry! I’m expensive to keep. I eat like a horse.”

“I drink like a fish and I’ve got plenty of money to feed you, so we’re good.”

Tony ordered Chinese food. The doorman called when it came and it was sent up via one of Tony’s robots. Both of them ate hungrily, perhaps in the place of what they really wanted to do.

“So are we dating?” Steve asked as he finished his rice.

Tony laughed. “I guess we are… it’s either that or sneak around so no one sees us.”

“I’m okay with either, Tony. What we do when we’re alone is our own business.”

“This waiting thing is going to be torture, isn’t it?”

Steve rubbed his hands together and wiggled his eyebrows at Tony. “I hope so. We can still make out though, right?”

“That depends on what kind of making out. Most of the making out I’ve done ends up with nakedness and body fluids.”

“I meant the clothes staying on, kissing and breathing hard kind.”

“Can I feel you up now and again?” Tony asked as they both finished eating as sat back on Steve’s sofa.

“Maybe.”

Tony was surprised that this big, strong man was so affectionate when he let his guard down. Tony had trouble acting that way with anyone, ever. He moved closer to Steve and put a hand on his shoulder. Steve turned to him and embraced him, kissing him again.

“This is making out,” he murmured as he claimed Tony’s mouth again.

They kissed for a while and talked for even longer. Tony talked about his childhood, about Howard.

“Am I so much like him? Is that why you don’t like me?” Tony asked Steve.

“You are a lot like him and I do like you. Why else would I have you here on my sofa, kissing me until I can’t think?”

“I think it might be that you want me more than you like me.”

“Not true. You and I are so different from one another that it might seem that I don’t like you. And the want thing? I want you so bad, it hurts. A little.”

“Gonna hurt a lot more the longer we wait.”

“Your father was smart and smooth. I was still little Steve a lot of the time, inside. Howard treated me a little like a rube but he was never mean.”

“How about your family?”

“My dad died in the war, before I was born. It was just me and Ma when I was a kid. I had everything, I was scrawny, had asthma, earaches, allergies, I was short, skinny. But I could take a damned beating. I never backed down. Sometimes, Buck saved me from myself. Ma got TB in the hospital where she worked and died when I was sixteen.”

Tony had known some of this, but to hear Steve talk was different. He’d never really, truly realized that the skinny weakling part was very true. It seemed all part of the myth.

“Buck watched after me, protected me.”

Tony began to see why Steve was so stubborn about helping people and about his ideas of right and wrong. He was beginning to see that what he’d considered a weakness was actually a great strength in his friend.

His friend.

“Are we friends?” he asked Steve.

“Yep, I think we are.”

“Are we crazy to start this,” he waved his arm around, “other thing?”

“Maybe. But I don’t think we can unwant one another now.”

They talked into the evening and into the night. Tony seemed reluctant to leave, so he didn’t. They watched television and finally both fell asleep sitting side by side on the sofa, leaned up against one another.

Tony woke sometime in the wee small hours. Steve was moaning in his sleep. He didn’t dare move; he didn’t want to wake Steve.

“No!” Steve almost screamed. “Bucky! No!” He shot upright and Tony could see that he was still sleeping. He didn’t move.

Steve’s eyes opened as he gasped for breath for a moment. He saw Tony there.

“I’m sorry. Nightmare,” he explained.

Tony patted his arm, unsure of what else to do. He wanted to gather him in his arms and soothe him, but wasn’t sure Steve would welcome it right now. Steve sat still for a bit.

“I dream of him and the train. Over and over. Thanks for not running away.”

“Nowhere I’d rather be, Cap,” Tony said quietly.

After Steve had a few minutes to compose himself, he stood and reached for Tony’s hand. “The bed sleeps better. Come on.”

Tony followed him and soon they were huddled together in Steve’s bed, sleeping like children.

*

Their courtship was a real thing after that. They took care not to be overtly affectionate in public, but neither of them was given to that sort of public display anyway. The others knew. It was hard not to know about people when you all spent a lot of time together.

They were keeping to their promise not to dive into a physical relationship, too, but it got more difficult. Tony had trouble keeping his hands off Steve, and Steve wasn’t exactly discouraging him.

It seemed as if months had passed but it was actually only a few weeks.

Tony hadn’t had so many cold showers since he was a teen.

Steve wasn’t faring much better. He ran miles and miles all over Manhattan every day.

One evening, after dinner, two weeks into the courtship, the two men were in Tony’s workspace. Tony was tinkering with Steve’s suit again and he couldn’t seem to stop himself from holding it up to his face and smelling it.

“Really?” Steve asked. “Why don’t you sniff me?”

“Can I?” Tony asked, not breathing in anticipation of the answer.

“I might die if I have to wait much longer. I’ve run far enough to circle the globe in the last two weeks.”

“I’ve taken so many cold showers that my skin is permanently wrinkled.”

“We’re really pitiful, aren’t we?” Steve grinned as he took his suit from Tony and laid it to the side. He pulled Tony to his feet and pulled him close, close enough that their bodies were flush against one another. As he kissed Tony, Steve slid his hand down between them and rubbed Tony’s erection.

“Mmmm, feels good,” Tony growled. “Do that some more, Cap.” He pushed his hips forward, pressing his crotch against Steve’s hand. Steve slid his hand up and down as his mouth explored Tony’s ear and his neck, nibbling and tasting his skin.

Tony’s hands began to explore a little, too. He ran his hands down Steve’s back to his hard ass, caressing it through his trousers. He wanted to touch bare skin so he reached around to the front and began to unbuckle Steve’s belt. The button and zipper followed.

Steve found Tony’s mouth again and his kisses were hungry, demanding. He thrust against Tony’s hand as Tony worked the zipper. Tony ignored him and moved his hands back to Steve’s behind, slipping them inside his trousers to feel his naked skin.

Steve yanked Tony’s shirt up, pausing for a moment to look at the Arc Reactor before pulling the t-shirt over Tony’s head and tossing it away. He smiled at Tony. “You glow. I like it.” He ran his hands over the skin around the reactor then pulled Tony close for another kiss.

Tony loved the kissing. He’d always been a non-kisser, preferring to just do the sex bit and not so much with the affection. He’d never had kisses that made his knees weak before either, but Steve’s did. Every damned one of them.

Tony felt like he was going to die if he had to wait much longer, but Steve was stubborn and in no hurry at all. He was in no hurry until Tony ran his hands around inside Steve’s clothes to the front, taking Steve’s thick length into his hand. Steve made a sound that was all animal when Tony moved his hand slowly up and down.

“Oh,” Tony said as Steve lifted him and carried him over to the sofa against the wall farthest from where they stood. He lay Tony on the sofa and stood to strip his clothes away. Tony stared as Steve’s shirt flew to the floor and his eyes were glued to what was exposed when Steve slipped his pants and underwear down. He stepped out of them and stood before Tony, tall, muscular with a light dusting of hair across his chest and a darker patch around his very erect penis.

“Like what you see?” Steve asked.

“Want it, all of it,” Tony answered with a hungry gleam in his eyes.

Steve nodded and moved closer to the sofa, getting on his knees beside it. Tony lifted his hips for Steve to remove his jeans, after he unfastened them. Tony watched as Steve looked at him, saw the heat, the lust in his gaze.

Once Tony was naked, Steve began his torture in earnest. He leaned over Tony and kissed his belly just above his navel. He darted his tongue out to lick the tender skin as well. Tony squirmed.

“You’re a mean bastard, Rogers.”

Steve grinned up at Tony and took him into his mouth. Tony sucked in a sharp breath and arched his back, not expecting Steve to do that quite so suddenly. He brought Tony close several times, but stopped short of allowing his release.

“I’m going to kill you if you don’t do something. Now!” Tony said.

“On your knees,” Steve told him as he stopped his actions. “I want, I need you now.” He reached for his discarded jeans, found a small tube in the pocket and dropped to his knees as Tony knelt down with his elbows on the sofa.

Steve pressed a slick finger inside Tony.

“Goddamn, Cap!” Tony ground out.

“Language, Stark,” Steve whispered as he simultaneously pressed another finger inside and rubbed his own cock against the outside of Tony’s thigh.

Once convinced that Tony was okay with the fingers, he poured the lube on himself and pressed his cock inside. The heat and snug fit were almost his undoing. He had to take a moment to slow himself down before he began to move, to thrust into Tony. He leaned his body over Tony’s back, bracing his hands on the sofa.

Tony slipped one hand between him and the sofa, taking himself in hand as Steve moved faster and harder. He shivered when he felt Steve’s lips touch the back of his neck in a series of wet kisses.

Steve whispered his name as he shifted position just enough to hit that sweet spot inside Tony that sent him over quite quickly. “Oh fuck!” Tony cried out, surprised that it happened so fast. He lost any thought processes he had for a moment, before realizing that Steve was extremely close, too.

Steve shifted again so he could put his hands on Tony, putting one on each shoulder as he reached his pinnacle. He drove into Tony hard, pressing inside deeply.

“Tony!” he cried out.

When he was finished, he didn’t move at all for a few seconds. He finally realized that he had Tony smushed up against the sofa. He pulled out of him and moved away from for a moment, as Tony turned around and reached for Steve. They sat side by side on the floor.

“Was that worth all the anticipation?” Steve asked Tony as he kissed his forehead and pulled him closer, wrapping an arm around his back.

“It was. For a novice, you’re pretty damned good.”

“I read a lot and I’m quite flexible and strong,” Steve said with a laugh. “Should we go somewhere less public? I kept expecting Bruce in here at any moment.”

“I’ve been sleeping here mostly since they’re working on the penthouse. On one will come in this late.”

“You can come to my place. That is, if you want to spend the night with me.” He looked very young and shy for a moment as Tony looked at him.

“Cap, Steve, this is not casual, hasn’t been since the first. Not for me anyway. I’m too old for that. It’s exhausting to fuck strangers.”

Steve grinned at him. “Glad to hear it. What d’you say we get a shower and sleep a little then?”

“You sure you ready to sleep?” Tony asked as they slipped their clothes back on to go to Steve’s apartment.

“Nope, not sure at all.”

As it happened, it was several hours before they finally slept.