Stark Industries, Saturday afternoon

[heroic_jawline]

Steve came into the shop and let his shield drop to the ground with a muted clang. He wiped at the dust on his face, then squared his shoulders with visible effort and called out, "Tony? You around?"

Another lead, another fruitless Bucky search, this time in stupidly muggy Singapore. Steve needed a shower, a pizza or three, and a nap.

And a hug, but he was kind of hoping he wouldn't need to ask for one of those.

"I'm back!" he added a little needlessly.

Comments

[imafuturist]

"In the lab, Captain," JARVIS informed him kindly, unlocking the door down to it for him.

Because Tony was welding and hearing anything above that was asking too much of him.

[heroic_jawline]

"Thanks, JARVIS," Steve murmured with a soft, tired smile, heading for the lab. He found a spot to lean against the wall and watch for a little bit. Steve had a competence thing from way back and watching Tony work was one of his very favorite activities.

[imafuturist]

Which he got for a few minutes more before Tony was removing the face shield to more closely inspect the results on what appeared to be the breast plate of one of his armors. And then turned to pull up a holographic display to make a small change to.

When he turned back, he finally caught sight of Steve, starting a little before smiling. "When'd you get in?"

[heroic_jawline]

"About ten minutes ago," Steve said, smiling back. "You were in a zone. Didn't want to interrupt."

[imafuturist]

"I get in those," Tony replied, peeling off the thick welding gloves to drop next to the armor. "Not always with dangerous equipment in my hands."

[heroic_jawline]

Steve's smile turned fond and lopsided. "I've noticed," he murmured.

[imafuturist]

Tony held out a hand to him. "Picked up on it, hmm."

[heroic_jawline]

"Well, I'm not a genius," Steve demurred, walking closer and taking Tony's hand, clinging just a little, "but I notice stuff."

[imafuturist]

"Oh, I've had some very intelligent people walk up right behind me when I'm working on something dangerous," Tony said, pulling their joined hand up to kiss the back of Steve's. "Near got me banned from one of the labs at MIT. So, you're infinitely smarter than them."

[heroic_jawline]

Steve smiled and swayed a little into Tony. "I'll put it on my resume."

[imafuturist]

"Hopefully you've put in the effort on your cover letter," he teased, reaching up to just ghost his free hand over the side of Steve's face. Because it'd be rude to get him all dirty with grease and soldering flux.

[heroic_jawline]

Steve wouldn't care. At all. He leaned into Tony's hand and closed his eyes. "It was another bust," he murmured.

[imafuturist]

"I'm sorry," Tony replied, going up on his toes to kiss him on the forehead.

[heroic_jawline]

"Yeah," Steve said, blowing out a frustrated breath. "Least we got to blow up a Hydra facility?"

In case you were wondering why he smelled like explosives.

[imafuturist]

Hopefully he had fun with that part. Blowing up HYDRA bases was the best.

"You'll find him. Or he'll come in from the cold when he's ready," Tony said, messing up Steve's hair with a little engine grease as he bushed it back off his face.

[heroic_jawline]

Steve nodded. "My brain knows," he murmured.

But his heart got bruised every damn time. "This seemed like a good lead. He'd probably been there a month back."

[imafuturist]

"You're getting closer then," Tony replied, tugging him to one of the work benches to sit down.

[heroic_jawline]

Steve sat down a little heavily and nodded again. "I hope so," he said. "Or I'm really starting to delude myself."

[imafuturist]

Tony sighed and pulled him in for a hug, one hand on the back of Steve's neck comfortingly. "Is hope delusional?"

[heroic_jawline]

Steve hugged him back. "I like to think that the answer is no," he said.

[imafuturist]

"Hope is what gets us through bad times." A beat. "And stubbornness. Which I know for a fact you have in spades."

Because gentle teasing mixed with overly emotional discussions was how they rolled.

[heroic_jawline]

That startled a chuckle out of him and he nudged his shoulder against Tony's. "Need it to keep up with you. Other Tony says hello. I saw him when I dropped the jet off."

[imafuturist]

That eared him a little kiss on the cheek as Tony looped both arms around Steve's waist to lean back against.

"Did the play-date go well between the two of you?" he asked because that was infinitely easier than thinking about the strange differences between their worlds in that regard.

[heroic_jawline]

"Better than it has before," Steve said with a little smile. "I don't know if that's because Bruce was there or I speak better Stark now. I could almost follow what he was saying about the new AI advancements he was working on."

Lots of robots, apparently. Surely that won't go wrong.

[imafuturist]

"He didn't mention anything called Technovore, right?"

Because that was the only thing that went wrong for Tony. Oh, and the time his armor became sentient and tried to kidnap him because it just loved him so much. It wouldn't have to break your arm if it didn't love you so much, Tony.

Yeah, Marvel wasn't subtle at aaaaall.