potential

[st_a_rk]

You'd have to be stupid or suicidal to be Tony Stark and be out in public without a bodyguard or the suit right now, but here he is all the same, in Central Park after dark. Not sleeping, but more importantly, not drinking.

Actually, right now he doesn't know which one would be worse. If he cracked, if he drank, black out drunk unconscious, maybe he wouldn't run through it again, the way he has every night for weeks now, too vivid, too repetitive to be anything other than significant. He can feel yellow-orange eyes on the back of his neck, the hint of a smile in the dark.

He ate pistachio icecream on this bench once, a thousand years and a million 'better not risk it' excuses ago.

Comments

[nearmint]

"When is someone coming in to check on you?"

He needs to be out before then.

[st_a_rk]

"I've got a meeting I have to be out the door for at- five pm tomorrow, the car will get me downstairs."

[nearmint]

"That late?"

He's surprised.

"And nobody will be around until then?"

[st_a_rk]

"I'm a less popular make and model these days."

He explains, pulling them through to his bedroom door.

"Iced out of- pretty much everything, actually. Or they think I am."

[nearmint]

"I'll have to tell someone that I'll be gone."

Stumbling in after him- and this isn't like the first time he stumbled into Tony's room, where they fumbled with clothes and laughed and were both a little drunk and a little scared- it's different, because Tony is about to drop, and Steve is worried about nightmares and insomnia and helping everything, and neither of them should be doing this, but somehow it was better now that they were.

[st_a_rk]

He pulls his shirt off over his head, in a smooth, baring motion- the arc reactor was 'don't touch ever' even when they did trust each other.

He sinks down on the edge of the bed now, feeling more than naked.

[nearmint]

"Here."

He moves to sit next to him, unbuttoning his collared shirt.

"Do you want me to stay here? I can sleep on the couch or something-"

[st_a_rk]

"Okay."

He agrees, but leans in again, because Steve's shoulder-

[nearmint]

"Hey. Okay."

He's going to move, really, but- he'll just ease Tony back into bed first, moving his free arm to grab for the blankets, throwing them over the both of them.

[st_a_rk]

"Couch is a better idea."

He tells him reluctantly, kissing his shoulderblade, and then rolling off him.

"Until our heads cool. All right?"

[nearmint]

"Yeah."

He tries not to look hurt about it as he moves back and stands up. It's logical enough, especially when he can remember more than one sweaty night spent between these sheets. So he backs off, rubs awkwardly at the back of his neck, and moves to leave.

"See you in the morning, I guess."

[st_a_rk]

"I'll make french toast and suck all of the ingredients off you."

He tells him, sleepily.

"Maybe not the egg."

[nearmint]

"Shush. I'll see you in the morning."

He closes the door behind him and gets the blankets that he knows are in the spare cupboard. Steve takes two steps toward the couch, before hesitating and turning, climbing the steps to his old room.

[st_a_rk]

It's the same as he left. Only as cleaned out as he left it, dust and lint and paralysis everywhere, an abandoned pricetag from an the last shirt Steve bought living here in the otherwise empty waste paper basket. Faintly crypt-like.

Tony is drifting under in the other room. Not dreaming yet.

[nearmint]

He walks in after all these months, and it's like coming home. When he suggested the couch, Steve had thought- that maybe Tony would turn his room into another workspace, or a room for one of the new recruits to his side. But it's here- everything is here.

There's a receipt that he must have dropped on the floor, an illustration half-finished on his writing desk, the pencil still lined up with the paper, like he'd just left his work station minutes ago.

The door closes behind him and Steve leans back against it for a moment, before trudging to bed. The sheets are musty with disuse, but he doesn't care. It's home.

[st_a_rk]

And it means Tony knows where to come find him, when he shoots out of bed slightly less than two hours later. His feet slam down the hallway, the door opens in a hurry.

[nearmint]

He sort of- half rolls over blearily, not entirely awake yet. The past few hours don't come to him immediately, and Steve tenses up, looking above his bed for a shield that isn't there.

"Wh- Tony- ?"

[st_a_rk]

"Sorry. All good."

He tells him, breathing raggedly.

"Back to sleep, Cap."

He'll just, slink out. And make coffee.

[nearmint]

"Wait- no, wait?"

He sits up, rubbing at his eyes.

"What time is it? What's going on?"

[st_a_rk]

"Shh."

He promises, with a slowly warming smile. Watching him is warm, familiar, good.

"I'm here. Sleep, okay?"

[nearmint]

"Is everything okay?"

Leader instincts taking over. Tony woke him up in the middle of the night, obviously something is Wrong and needs Fixing.

[st_a_rk]

"Promise. Yeah."

Smiling wider.

"See you in the morning, okay?"

Stepping back, he pads off quickly.

[nearmint]

He wants to say something else, but he's tired, and Tony promised, and the door is already closing.

Steve makes a small sound and collapses back in his bed, falling asleep in just a few quick minutes.

[st_a_rk]

Tony manages a few more minutes on the couch outside- less comfortable, but closer to him, so easier, strangely.

He'll be slumped there in the morning.

[nearmint]

Steve just- sees him on his way up that morning and sort of shakes his head a little, before moving into the kitchen to start cooking. Tony could probably stand to rest for just a few more minutes.