Okay, yeah, it was just Tony then. That made sense, Steve had no reason to be restless; he got to keep his legs stretched for Tony's excrutiatingly long time out. Everything was probably feeling pretty good for Steve, which made his lead in extra troubling. What did a guy have to ask for if he liked where he was?
Trying to get ahead of his needs, Tony admitted, "I can stay. I mean, I don't need to be anywhere, I was just checking in out West and, you know, Pepper's at 100% again, she's the boss, I'm just the pretty face." It had been a bad time to leave, in retrospect. He had already hardly been around for an entire year, he should have been taking care of home turf before taking off for more trouble. He pushed his face into his hand again, gnawing on a nail this time and determined to keep looking Steve's way so he would believe Tony when he said he wasn't going anywhere and he wasn't going to neglect Steve any more, not when he was getting very close to all Tony had.