InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "well i thought i liked you'_'"

Steve Rogers (captainhandsome) wrote in snapthread,
@ 2019-03-12 15:07:00

Entry tags:

steve rogers (mcu), tony stark (mcu)

WHO: Steve Rogers and Tony Stark
WHAT: Midnight stuff
WHERE: Their house
WHEN: March 11
RATING: PGish

It was good to have routine. In times of great stress Steve took solace in it, in having something to do, somewhere to go, tasks to complete. The longer they were here, the more people arrived and the more people needed. Steve liked to be able to help people who needed, it was something to focus on, a way to put a foot in front of the other. Everything before felt too big and instead he could think small, like food and fires, on a change of clothes and washing the spare. There was actually a calmness to him he hadn't felt in a very long time, like hunting and the like suited him.

The house he'd claimed looked better by the day, the more they collected and the more they didn't talk about the fact they were creating a fortress of sorts. Of course Steve was happy to share what he had, but he also wanted to make sure it ended up back with him. After not seeing Tony for such a long time, it was strange how quick and easy the transition had been to living in such close quarters.

The beds that Steve had made them grew more comfortable with additions and he'd moved Tony's to where there wouldn't be a draft after they'd talked about being cold. It was actually Steve's favourite room, the floor was stone but he'd found old rugs to cover parts of it, so things echoed less and heat had something to cling to.

Even if he didn't really get cold, Steve still recognized it was cold. He'd been laying there for a while, not really thinking but not asleep and he got up to take a leek outside. When he returned Steve headed for the fireplace, quietly moving back the grate to add another large log to keep it burning through the rest of the night.

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allaboutego
2019-03-17 03:52 am UTC (link)

Oh, sure, everyone was happy when he came up with something but Tony didn't much think of it as much. It was like ... necessarily reinventing the wheel. But he supposed even though it was all easy, it did take up his time. And he did feel better at the end of every day when he accomplished something that would help everyone live a little easier, be it building up a power generator or a washing machine. "Plumbing's next," he decided, rather adamant. "I want a shower. A bath. For that coffee shop to be open as soon as possible. I'm not even sure I want it in that order." He could take fake baths with warmed water for longer than he could live without coffee, he was pretty sure.

He shifted when Steve's voice went quieter, unintentionally leaning closer until he was as close as possible without getting up. The beds weren't so spectacularly far apart. "You tell me where I can find any of those ingredients, and I'll build you that oven," he murmured in response, a challenge that didn't sound like it due to low tones. But it was a better topic than his livelihood.

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captainhandsome
2019-03-17 06:36 am UTC (link)

Tony was a natural leader in a lot of ways, it came from being the smartest person in the room. Steve was a leader too but it was different, it was because he put together a good plan, had an air of strength and trustworthiness about him. Which is why between them organising things and people came easily. "They all sound really good," Steve said with a sigh. Hot showers weren't something he couldn't live without, but he missed it all the same.

The oven was already an improvement over Steve's fence over a fire, but a proper wood fired one was the only way to make pizza or bread or the like. "I guess we have to think about branching out from here," he said as he turned to get back into his own bed, rather than sitting on the edge. Because with Tony leaning forward like that he might go and lean forward to if he hadn't.

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allaboutego
2019-03-18 02:27 am UTC (link)

They were good leaders, but it was pretty clear that they did better together than they ever would separately. Steve was better at taking cohesive actions and noticing little things, and Tony was keen on looking at the bigger picture, but focusing a little less on the people as individuals in the equation. Together they worked. Apart they -- well.

Tony never did quite so well alone. Maybe it was just his self destructive tendencies.

That sigh had Tony sighing too. Hot water was pretty hard to come by and it'd been what felt like a lifetime before even this place since he'd had it. "Yeah," he agreed wistfully.

It was a little jarring when Steve backed up to get back into his bed proper and Tony sat on the edge of his still, leaned a little too close because moving now would make it look... weird, maybe? "Branching out? Is that what we're gonna call it?"

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captainhandsome
2019-03-19 05:49 am UTC (link)

Apart they'd lost, when in the past they'd come together and succeeded. When he'd been talking strategy, making plans, he'd missed Tony's advice and unique perspective. It would have given them an advantage and they'd needed as much of that as they could get.

There was a big part of him that never wanted to move away, that wanted to let himself get closer and closer. Like that night on the farm, when they'd looked at each other and Steve knew they both felt it, that tug. But there was always a reason, a hundred reasons that Tony's dark eyes were too dangerous to drown in.

"It's the only way we'll get those pizza ingredients," Steve pointed out as he stretched out on his side, still facing him. "Or what you need for plumbing and hot water."

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allaboutego
2019-03-19 06:25 am UTC (link)

Yeah, there were always reasons not to. Even more now than there'd been back in Iowa. Ultron felt like mistakes from a hundred years ago and things had only gotten worse since then. Now there was practically more dividing them than there was keeping them together. Even with their arrangement of safety and convenience, Tony sometimes marveled over how it was even possible that they could put their shared pasts to the side and function.

So it was right for Steve to move back, to lay down and avoid what probably shouldn't have been anyway.

"Yeah," he said, sounding tired, even as he moved to lay back, staring up at the ceiling and sort of missing the comfortable blue glow that should have been there. "Branching out it is, then. Whatever it takes for pizza. Do you think more people'll show up that disappeared previously? I can't -- I can't figure it out."

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captainhandsome
2019-03-21 02:07 am UTC (link)

The Reasons Not To grew chapter by chapter, pages that fell between them as they got further from where they'd been. It'd been right once, the right time, Steve felt sure of it and like all things in life that were good and that he wanted it had slipped away. Now all that remained were things so hard to talk about and pain so ingrained that Steve really didn't think there was any coming back from it.

Yet there they were, breathing the same air, creating layers of trust, security and teamwork like they were right back at the start.

Steve sighed as he looked up at the roof, something he was already used to staring at for hours on end. "I don't know, I don't know why we're here, or how. I know some people are better off, but others certainly wouldn't be. Maybe this is where we can gather a second strike, I really just - can't figure it out." Steve said with a gentle little smile.

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allaboutego
2019-03-21 02:39 pm UTC (link)

They were getting right back to the start, certainly. But that was -- the start had been an awfully long time ago, the same way it felt like it'd been a million years since he'd clawed his way out of that cave with his first suit of armor. He still remembered it, it was still important but everything had changed back then - including the core of himself.

It was a strange consideration. And not really one he had time for right now.

Tony didn't expect Steve to have the answers. Of course he didn't. But it would have been nice anyway. Still, he had a point: this was a great place to gather a second strike. To be ready for something that they weren't the last time. Steve's leadership and people skills would have been a boon back on Titan -- possibly one that could have changed the tide of the battle. Steve would have been able to talk Quill down from his heartbreak and rage, something that Tony had failed at spectacularly.

"We'll get there," he decided quietly. Not that he hadn't already decided that, but it was a good reassurance. "Go to sleep."

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captainhandsome
2019-03-28 12:14 am UTC (link)

He didn't want to get back to the start, the start hadn't been what he wanted for them either. But somewhere there had been a middle, a really fantastic middle and even if that was just friends and trust. Well Steve wanted that. Nothing seemed quite right without it, not when together they were such good leaders. They needed to channel that now as best they could.

But under that was something personal, a place Steve kept firmly Locked Down. It was easier to just not consider it, there was no time, there was always something else he could focus on. It had always been that way, although when he'd been young it had had a lot more to do with being self conscious of how he'd looked. Now Steve worried about people liking what they saw too much.

That sounded like an order and Steve wasn't used to following them, but Tony was right. They should sleep, there would be time tomorrow to think through everything another hundred times. So he settled down, but didn't shut his eyes right away. Because looking at Tony's profile was nice, actually looking at Tony was always nice and in the darkness you could nearly get away with looking, like it covered all sins.

Besides the view was so much better than what Steve saw when he closed his eyes.

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