That was a rough start, for both of them Tony had to assume, because he was left squinting across the table at Steve and battling his instinct to take control of this spiraling conversation and salvage it with a wildly derailing quip. It physically hurt. Tony's impulses were only tempered by the sweetness Steve eventually got around to, making him drop his hand and knit is brow and filling him with more words begging to burst out, but these ones were knotted up and misaligned and couldn't flow smoothly without some consideration, or lubrication.
Tony finally couldn't take it anymore when Steve moved to his knee. He jerked upright first, eyes wide, then let loose as he sunk to the floor as well. "Hey, pump the breaks," he said very quickly, hands up as he sidled up close on his knees, until his hands were on Steve's shoulders with his elbows tucked to his sides. "You're not supposed to make the big gesture twice in a row, you're supposed to--to let me catch up because I--" The words stopped rushing out then, stuttering and catching in Tony's throat but he clutched the front of Steve's shirt in a tight fist, demanding the second he needed to struggle through this, please, because they both needed to hear it, so he could finally say, "I love you. Steve, I'm in love with you and I should have said it--the day we found you in the ice and you woke up is the happiest in my life and if you're going to ruin that for me then you can at least not, I'm not..." The difficulty Tony was having articulating this particular conundrum wasn't quite so dire, making him finally start to laugh as he sat back on his heels and tried to drag Steve down with him, on the same level even though Tony couldn't look him in the eye. "What are you doing, you asshole? You can't win at this," he accused, softer and without the driving hysteria but the laugh still in his voice.