Tony Stark (allironedout) wrote in chances_rpg, @ 2022-02-10 20:31:00 |
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Entry tags: | mcu: steve rogers |
WHO: Tony Stark (MCU) and Steve Rogers
WHAT: Old Friends Getting Reacquainted
WHEN: Saturday, January 29 - Backdated
WHERE: The Speed Friending Event
WARNING/STATUS: Low, some feels
It’s not that Tony wasn’t excited to meet the other people around the Station, but speed friending wasn’t exactly on brand for him. Pepper was interested in it, though, and Tony would do literally anything his wife suggested. Tony grabbed a beer, and wandered around saying hello to all the people he knew before he looked at the pairs. Steve Rogers. Tony grinned a bit, the universe sure liked to give him a push.
He moved to the table, and raised his beer towards Steve. “Captain,” He nodded, “Didn’t think that this was your speed.”
Sitting up from his comfortable semi-slouch, Steve couldn't help but roll his eyes before quirking a bemused look in Tony's direction. "Is that a glacier joke? Really? You're stooping this low already? Ouch. Better pace yourself, metal man."
And then he grinned, because how could he not? This wasn't Steve's scene, but he had to admit he liked it better than what he'd heard about the dating variety of these kinds of events. It was a chance to get out of his comfort zone, at the very least. Or it would have been if his first "friend" wasn't someone he already knew. He took a sip of his beer and glanced through the list of questions they'd been given as ice breakers. After all the shit they'd gone through as Avengers, they seemed laughably mundane. Still, it was better to make a real effort. "So, are we actually going to ask each other things, or are we just going to reminisce about the good and bad ol' days for five minutes?"
“Don’t worry, I had a few years to come up with some peak Captain America humor. There was a children's book about you, you know.” He smirked. He didn’t exactly admit that it was on his daughters bookshelf, amongst a handful of other Avengers themed stories, children friendly autobiographies and plushies of his friends that he was able to get sent to them.
“Oh, I don’t know.” Tony mused and sipped his beer. He looked over the list of icebreakers (resisting to make a glacier joke about that) and smirked at him. “How will I live with myself if I don’t ask you… “What superhero would you like to be and why?” Or… “They say age is an illusion, do you agree or disagree?”. Of course, those were the two most amusing to ask a hundred year old superhero.
"Why am I not surprised?" Steve grumbled, but about which only he knew for sure. Still, he was game for this game, but even he wasn't strong enough not to groan and roll his eyes. "Depends, are you going to throw something at me if I say anything other than 'Iron Man'? As for the other, well, that's a matter of perspective. Sure, I'm well into my centenarian years, but do I feel it? Maybe on a spiritual level. Physically though? I'm a damned spring daisy, and not looking to slow down any time soon."
Pausing briefly to take a swig of beer that at least tasted decent, Steve also looked at the list on the table. His attention snagged on one, and he had to seriously debate before asking it. In the end, though, he was brave about it. "What's your idea of peace?"
"I like to think I'm full of surprises." Tony murmured with a grin plastered across his face. He was probably predictable in his old age, but he still liked to keep the illusion.
"Probably," Tony admitted, "I would also accept the Hulk and Spiderman as acceptable counter offers." After all, Bruce and Peter were still top of his own personal list of favorites. "Maybe Cap. On a good day."
Steve laughed, an explosive that was probably disproportionate to the joke. Given their history, however, no one would really blame him for being as tickled as he was.
“Peace?” There was a tip at the corner of his lips. His mind went straight to the house he’d built with Pepper in upstate New York. “I think I knew a girl in Vegas named Peace…” He mused, stroking his beard. “Would you rather be too hot or too cold?” The teasing tone oozing from his voice.
The amount of eye rolling Steve had done in the last two minutes and some change was seriously going to give him eye strain. But that was fair. It's not like he'd really expected a real answer, given the trajectory of their entire exchange so far. "I'll bet she was a lovely young lady." Actually, knowing Tony, she probably was. Like one of those types working her way through school or something. No doubt Tony intuited this and left a big enough tip to cover her books. Steve said none of this, just pursed his lips in faux thought. "Well, there are benefits and drawbacks to both, for sure. I mean, for one, I've had enough cold to last me seven lifetimes, but on the other—you ever been in Brooklyn at the height of summer back before air conditioning was a regular thing? I think I'd rather have a nice range of 67 to 78, with low humidity. Y'know, because of my old bones and all. What about you?"
Tony couldn’t help the smirk that crept over his lips, “No, see, I was lucky enough to be born after the invention of Air Conditioning.” He easily teased the Captain. He took a long sip of his drink as he considered it.
Like the true old man he was, Steve stuck his tongue out in retaliation, but otherwise let it slide.
“I’d rather be warm.” He admitted, “Space… it was cold enough to last me a lifetime.” He didn’t like to think about being trapped up in space, losing Peter and Strange and most of the Guardians. He was lucky to have had Nebula, but he remembered the video he’d made to Pepper when he was certain that he would never see her again. There was a shadow of unpleasantness that crossed over Tony’s face. It was probably the most honest that Tony had been that night. “Course, I’m not a hundred year old virgin that has to worry about being sacrificed to a Volcano.”
Steve didn't press for more; he knew a hard truth when he saw one. The kind that came with hard memories and difficult experiences. And he couldn't even be a little mad when Tony twisted it around at the end. Coping mechanisms were just that, and Steve wasn't about to fault him for it. He did, however, pick up his beer and mutter from the lip of it: "I'm not a virgin. Don't believe everything the press tells you. You should know that best."
“Oh yeah?” Tony quipped, taking a drink of his own beer. Of course, Tony never trusted the media, he had been in it enough to know that they would take even the tiniest truth and spin it so far out of the realm of probability that it wasn’t funny. “I’m sure you’ve got all sorts of war stories to tell, right? Those back up dancers really give you the uh… Morale boost that you were looking for when you did those shows, huh?”
The tips of his ears were warm, but Steve was stone-faced. "What those ladies did for the war effort was invaluable, so I'm not going to even dignify that with a response. And, besides, a gentleman never kisses and tells, Mr. Stark, not even to his friends." The edge of his mouth quirked traitorously, but he looked down at the list before it could do any more. "What's the most ridiculous Halloween costume you've ever worn?"
“I see,” Tony said with a smirk, and he raised his glass to Steve in a silent and playful cheers. Oh, he absolutely knew why Steve was smirking and his ears were a little red and honestly, Tony loved making the dude as uncomfortable as possible.
“Well, in my graduate days I went as a marble statue.” He said with a nod of his head, “Stripped myself completely naked and had a few girls help paint me completely white. Walked around the grad mixer like that all night. Got a lot of numbers out of it.” He smirked. “How about you, what's your Halloween story?”
Steve stared at his friend for a beat too long before draining his beer. "I think I can safely say I'm glad I skipped the Eighties. Probably the Nineties, too." With nothing left to drink, he resorted to toying around with his mug, but it was a poor substitute for filling potentially awkward social silences. Really, he was trying to cast his mind back to the days when the slightest chill in the air stole into his bones and stayed there for the next six months. Even so, he had to smile. "We didn't have much, and Halloween wasn't a huge deal back then, unless you knew the right neighborhoods. Even so, Buck and I used to pal around in the same ghost costume every year until it started hitting our knees."
His gaze flicked to Tony's face and away again, very aware he'd just mentioned He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and hoping it wouldn't become a Thing so he plowed ahead. "Anyway, I came home after school, expecting the same ratty sheet, except Ma had left me a package. I still don't know how she did it, but she'd managed to find a Doughboy uniform and tailored it to my size. Even made me a helmet with the leftover fabric and a dented colander. I was so proud of that thing, paraded around the neighborhood like I'd earned it, like maybe I was my Pa, but in obvious miniature. Other kids tried to make fun, but, uh— I got kept from the worst of it, I think. So, yeah. That was mine. Not nearly as glamorous, or scandalous, but we had our own kind of fun, which is what counts, right?"
Tony gave him a flicker of a smile, focusing on the childhood memory instead of the person in them. “Man, we need to get you some better Halloween stories. Big Halloween parties. Maybe some Asgardian booze?” He chuckled at Steve.
"You just wanna get me liquored up so I do something embarrassing." The accusation lacked any kind of sting, especially because Steve was laughing, too.
“I bet little Stevie in his proud costume was adorable.” He smirked, and in the distance, the bell went off behind them. “I think that’s my cue to split. See you around, Cap.”
Sadly, any and all evidence of 'little Stevie' in his costume was only in his mind, but still, he smiled back at him and settled himself to make another new or possibly renewed friend. "Later, Shellhead."