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cap_ironman2008-03-04 12:52 am
elspethdixon.livejournal.com) wrote in cap_ironman2008-03-04 12:52 am
Entry tags:
Ficlet: Things Are Looking Up 1/1
Title: Things Are Looking Up.
Authors:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
seanchai and elspethdixon
Rated: PG
Pairings: Steve/Tony, other pairings from The Roughest Day, plus mentions of Matt/Foggy.
Warnings: High fluff content. No appreciable plot.
Disclaimer: The characters and situations depicted herein belong to Stan Lee and Marvel comics. No profit is being made off of this derivative work. We're paid in love, people.
Author's Note: Fluff forcrimsonquills. Set in the same continuity as The Roughest Day.
Summary: The New Avengers go to a jazz club. Steve and Tony flirt. Peter is clueless.
Crossposted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
marvel_slash
Things Are Looking Up
"Steve," Tony said, sounding halfway between exasperated and amused at Steve's expense, "I really don't think Luke and Jessica need a chaperone."
"Peter and MJ are going to be there, too," Steve told him. "Go put on whatever people wear to go clubbing."
Tony frowned slightly. It wasn't the frown he worn when he had a headache, though -- Steve had been watching carefully for that one over the past week, while Tony recovered from the computer virus that had come so close to killing him. "What kind of club are we talking about?" Tony asked, giving Steve a narrow-eyed, suspicious look. "Because I'm not wearing eyeliner and I don't think you'd look good in glitter."
Glitter? Steve very carefully decided not to contemplate why one would want to wear eye make-up and glitter to a night club, much less why Tony would know about it. "It's a jazz club," he said instead. "MJ told us at breakfast that she was going to be singing there tonight. If you'd actually been at breakfast instead of at work, you'd know."
Tony had stayed home from work the first two days after their return from the Savage Land, and his first day back, he'd humored Steve's insistence that he actually eat before leaving. Then he'd started sneaking out while Steve was out running, claiming that consuming anything other than coffee before nine o' clock was barbaric and heathen.
If this had still been the old Avengers, that would have gotten him a five minute lecture on the importance of good nutrition from Thor, who had not only been proud of being both barbaric and heathen, but had also been a doctor in his civilian guise. Well, that, or Hank McCoy would have told him that people who skipped breakfast were however many times more likely to die young than people who didn't.
This wasn't the old Avengers, so when Tony didn't turn up at the breakfast table, Danny Rand had taken his seat, and no had commented on it except Jarvis, who had frowned and sent a tray down to Tony's office. No one had commented on the fact that Danny was wearing one of Luke's t-shirts and Jessica Jones's bathrobe, either. It was probably time they all stopped pointedly not commenting and just got him his own chair.
"I had to reschedule a lot of things while I was sick," Tony said, sounding slightly defensive. "I'm still catching up." He sighed, looking away and running one hand through his hair. "Jazz club."
"You like jazz," Steve pointed out. He'd kind of been looking forward to this, to the chance to go out somewhere with Tony, now that they were officially together.
Tony smiled ruefully and shook his head. "Just as long as there's not swing dancing."
Steve grinned. "You're just jealous that you're too tall for me to slide you between my legs and flip you over my shoulders."
"Just so you know," Tony said, his tone conversational, "if you ever do that with Jan in public again, Hank and I will begin plotting your demise. It will involve poisonous insects and lasers."
Everyone had been entirely unreasonable about that, although in retrospect, now that Steve knew that Tony had wanted things between them to be serious from the beginning, his objections made a lot more sense. "Just because Hank can't dance…" Steve began.
Tony raised his eyebrows. "That wasn't dancing, Steve," he said dryly. "It was extremely athletic sex performed to saxophone music. And for the record, going to a jazz club isn't the same thing as going clubbing, for which you should count yourself lucky."
"Sex performed to saxophone music" was a gross exaggeration. Steve rubbed at the back of his neck with one hand, and said, "It's in a club. What's the difference?"
Tony's lips twitched. "Clubbing tends to involve more sex and recreational drug use."
"So did jazz." Why did people always assume the past had been innocent and dull? Steve would see Tony's men going to nightclubs in make-up and glitter and raise him one Harlem drag ball with men in ball gowns. Not that Steve had ever been to a drag ball, but they'd existed, and it was the principle of the thing.
"Yes, but they hadn't invented ecstasy and black lights then."
"Black lights?" Steve asked.
Jessica Jones and Luke Cage came into the hallway, both of them dressed to go out, as was Steve. Peter had already left, and Jessica Drew was presumably getting ready to go right now. Tony, whom Steve had found tearing apart a Quinjet engine, was the only one not dressed for a night on the town.
"Ultraviolet spectrum lights." Tony gestured at his crumpled white dress shirt. There was a small oil stain on his right cuff, Steve noticed. "They make white clothing glow."
"I think MJ has better taste than to go onstage at that kind of a place," Steve said. Or at least, he hoped so. "Look," he went on, "just go put on whatever people wear to go to jazz clubs these days. This is going to be a team bonding experience."
"Oh good." Jessica Drew walked out into the hall. She was wearing a very red, very tight dress, and the four-inch heels on her equally red shoes left little dents in the carpet. "The last establishment we had a team bonding experience at won't let any of us come back."
"Yes," Jessica Jones said, "but this time Danny's not coming, and if he was, we'd know better than to let him drink."
"You know that wasn't his fault," Luke objected. "He would have been fine if that place had served food."
"I'll go put on a shirt that doesn't have oil stains on it," Tony said, making it sound like the concession it was. Disheveled and grease-stained was a good look on him, and he knew it.
"You make it sound like such a chore," Steve said.
Tony arched an eyebrow. "I thought you liked rumpled dress shirts with oil stains on them."
Steve could feel his face heat. He still wasn't used to the idea that they could mention that they were together so openly and casually. Ending the secrecy had been Steve's idea, but it was still… new.
Tony smirked at him, which only made Steve's ears burn harder, and then turned and sauntered off down the hall.
* * *
Steve had never heard MJ sing before; given that she'd had several small parts on Broadway, it shouldn't have been surprising that she was good. Peter had told them all at great length about how wonderful she was when he'd proudly announced tonight's performance at breakfast every morning for the past three days, but he wasn't exactly an unbiased witness.
She had the right kind of voice for jazz -- alto instead of soprano, and slightly husky -- and Steve enjoyed listening to songs he remembered from before he'd gone into the army, but this time in a setting that was refreshingly free of cigarette smoke.
Even Logan, who had been lurking at a corner table when they'd arrived, a bottle of beer in one hand and his cowboy boots on the table, had refrained from actually lighting a cigar, settling for grinding an unlit cigar stub between his teeth in a manner that reminded Steve of Nick Fury.
In order to avoid ruining Logan's attempt to pretend that he was only at the Blue Note by accident, Steve and the others had sat down at the table next to his, rather than actually with him. Peter stared dreamily at MJ, Jessica Drew waved away the stream of free drinks various men kept sending her, and Steve leaned his shoulder against Tony's, sipped his coca cola, and pretended it was nineteen thirty-nine.
Tony was a reassuringly solid and healthy presence at his side, and for a few moments, Steve was able to forget that just a week ago, in the Savage Land, he had watched Tony burn his armor to slag because he couldn't wear it anymore and hadn't wanted to leave it behind. That was when Steve had really begun to believe that Tony was dying. It had come much closer than Steve liked, but everything was fine now. Better than fine.
Tony loved him, and now he knew that Steve loved him as well, and if he wanted to lean against Tony in public, or put his hand on Tony's thigh or his arm around Tony's shoulders, he could. So he put one hand over Tony's, on top of the table, and squeezed it gently, and slide the other onto Tony's leg, just above the knee.
MJ finished her set and left the stage, coming to sit next to Peter. "So how did I do?" she asked, as the band started to play dance music.
"You were awesome," Peter said.
"You were good," Jessica Jones confirmed. "Very good."
"I'm thinking of booking you for the next charity performance I have to sit through." Tony grinned, using the hand that Steve wasn't holding to slowly turn his mostly-empty glass in a circle, making the quarter inch of coke at the bottom swirl around. "They're usually incredibly boring, but you would make it bearable."
MJ grinned proudly, obviously pleased.
The band switched to a slightly more up-tempo song, and Luke nudged Jessica Jones. "You want to dance?"
"Only if you can keep up," she said.
Steve watched them head towards the club's tiny dance floor. Even on the extremely slim chance that he could get Tony to agree to dance with him, he thought wistfully, it would attract too much of the wrong kind of attention. This was supposed to be MJ's big night, not the night the New Avengers ended up in every tabloid magazine in New York.
"Want me to get you another drink?" Tony offered, indicating Steve's empty glass. Almost before Steve could say yes, he had scooped up both his and Steve's empty glasses and was up and walking towards the bar. "Coke, right?" he asked over his shoulder.
Steve nodded. He didn't even consciously think about not ordering alcohol when Tony was around anymore, which probably should have been some kind of clue that things between them had been more serious than Steve had realized for a long time. He didn't mind; he'd always liked coca cola. During the war, you could get it on all the American air bases in England, and it had tasted just the way it did at home. He liked M&M's for much the same reason -- the army had put them in C rations, and when it was cold and wet and you'd just walked ten miles in ankle deep mud listening to the Howling Commandos bicker with each other, you were really grateful for those pathetic little pieces of candy-coated chocolate.
"Oh damn," MJ said. "I meant to ask the next person who went to the bar to bring me water."
Steve glanced over at Tony, who had reached the bar by now, and felt a small pang of guilt. Tony hated going anywhere near a bar, offers to fetch drinks notwithstanding, something Steve knew perfectly well, and should have remembered. He ought to have volunteered to go himself, as soon as Tony brought it up.
"I'll get you one," Peter offered. "Mineral water or water, water?"
Tony was talking to the bartender, and only someone who knew him very well would have been able to read the discomfort in the set of his shoulders, and the way he kept looking away. A tall, blonde woman in a very low-cut dress was standing next to him, leaning towards him with one arm resting on the bar, which was probably calculated to give someone standing where Tony was a perfect view down the front of her dress.
Tony said something to her, and she laughed and flicked a piece of hair back over her shoulder.
"No," Steve said. "You stay here. I'll get it."
"Thanks," MJ said, smiling up at him as he stood. "Can you ask them to put lemon in it?"
"Sure," Steve told her, his gaze still on Tony and the woman in the red dress. "One water with lemon coming up."
He came up behind Tony, the ambient noise of the room masking his footsteps, and slid an arm around Tony's waist. Tony turned and looked at him, a faint look of surprise on his face.
"I thought I'd help you carry the drinks back to the table," Steve told him. Then he turned to the woman. "Hi," he said, smiling politely. "I'm Steve." It never hurt to be courteous.
Tony arched an eyebrow, looking amused. "Because two glasses of soda are so very heavy."
Explaining that he had come to rescue Tony from the proximity of alcohol would sound silly. "MJ wanted water with lemon. That's three glasses. And anyway, I was just trying to be polite."
The woman looked from Steve to Tony, her eyes finally settling on the arm Steve still had wrapped casually around Tony's waist. "Ah, sorry," she said, to Steve. "I should be going now. I think I see my friends waiting for me."
Steve gave her another polite smile. Then he asked the bartender for a glass of water with lemon.
A few moments later, he and Tony started back for the table, Tony with a glass of soda in each hand, and Steve with MJ's water. Steve surrendered his hold on Tony, but kept one hand on the small of his back, guiding him toward the table.
Steve grinned. The bartender hadn't even batted an eye. Maybe they should come back here sometime. Or maybe not. Tony's back muscles felt hard and tight under his hand.
"I can get the next round of refills," he said.
"Thank you," Tony said, and Steve could feel him relax slightly. He'd never understood Tony's apparently need to continually test himself, either around alcohol, or by continually pushing himself past his limits.
"Or we could leave," Steve offered. "MJ's finished her set."
"We could always go home, and I could put the shirt with the oil stains back on," Tony said, glancing over to give Steve a suggestive smile.
"That sounds like a good plan to me," Steve said, grinning more widely.
* * *
"You really were awesome," Peter said. "I liked the second-to-last one best, the slow one."
"I don't think I lived up to Ella Fitzgerald, but it's good to hear that I didn't mangle it." Then she paused, an amused little smile appearing on her lips, and elbowed him in the ribs, nodding for Peter to look behind him.
Peter glanced back over his shoulder to see Cap and Tony coming back to the table. Cap had one hand on the small of Tony's back, and was wearing a big, goofy grin. Tony was looking over at him with the same sort of through-the-eyelashes look that Felicia Hardy always gave Spiderman, except he managed to do it without the creepy semi-stalker vibes.
"Wow," Peter observed. "That's really not subtle."
"Neither was the way Cap ran off that blonde over by the bar," MJ said, the amused smile still playing over her lips. "I guess they're not bothering to keep things in the closet anymore."
Luke and Jessica dropped back into their seats as the band started playing a new song. Jessica Drew raised her eyebrows at them, and indicated Cap and Tony with her chin.
"How long have you known?" Peter asked MJ. "I've known since we busted that Hydra installation in the Savage Land," he added; he still felt faintly proud of figuring things out on his own, before the two of them had started the really obvious things like flirting in public.
"It took you that long?" Luke said. "The rest of us figured it out two days after we joined the team."
Luke could just be screwing with him, but Peter doubted it this time. He sounded too amused for that. Everyone had known this was going on but him? "And you didn't tell me?" he asked MJ, in what was hopefully an injured tone.
"I didn't think I had too," she said dryly. "They were practically sharing a room. Not to mention clothing."
"So?" Peter said. Clothing didn't prove anything. It was just… clothing. And Cap and Tony definitely had separate rooms. "Daredevil sleeps in his law partner's t-shirts."
Everyone stared at him. Steve and Tony, who had reached the table just as Peter was finishing his last sentence, were also staring at him.
Right. Matt was officially Not Daredevil again. On the other hand, everyone at the table knew his identity perfectly well. "Oh," Peter said, "are we still pretending we don't know? Fine. I mean Matt Murdock. Matt Murdock, who is in no way secretly Daredevil, sleeps in his law partner's t-shirts."
Everyone was still staring at him.
"What?" Peter asked. He'd just essentially announced that he knew what Matt slept in. Surely none of them could actually think… "I only know what he sleeps in because there was this one time when we'd been fighting Tombstone and Matt had broken ribs and a concussion and I was helping him get ready for bed because he's blind and stuff and the concussion was screwing up his bat sonar thing."
"I always figured there was something going on there," Jessica Jones said, more to herself than anything else.
"But Matt's married." The protest slipped out before Peter could help it.
Luke and Jessica Jones look at him.
"Oh. Right." Peter made mental note to avoid asking about kinky lawyer threesomes next time he saw Matt, no matter how tempting it might be. He didn't really want to know; Matt just turned really entertaining colors when you asked him personal questions. On the other hand, Foggy Nelson, Matt's legal partner and possible fellow kinky lawyer threesome member, might hear him and actually answer. Foggy was good at answering questions you didn't really want to know the answers to, and also liked seeing Matt turn colors.
"How is that any of our business?" Cap asked. He stretched as he sat down, laying one arm over the back of Tony's chair. Again with the subtlety and lack thereof.
"It ain't," Logan announced, dropping his evening-long pretence that he wasn't there with them, wasn't listening to them, and didn't know them. "Spidey here was just giving us a demonstration of why it took him until now to figure out that you two have been sleeping together for the past two months."
Couldn't Logan have kept pretending?
"Almost six months," Tony corrected casually, "minus the nine weeks after the team broke up, before we put the new one together."
Cap went red. Even his ears went red. It was almost awe-inspiring; Peter hadn't even known Captain America could blush.
"Oooh, six months," MJ said, in the tone of voice she used when she was being evil. "That's an important anniversary. Peter got me flowers and took me to the top of the Empire State Building. It was very romantic until the Vulture attacked us."
Cap was now wearing the slightly hunted look of a man currently counting backward in his head to try and figure out when it was going to be exactly six months after he and Tony had gotten together.
"Five months, two weeks, and three days ago," Tony said, without turning to look at Cap.
Cap gave Tony a very sappy grin, and Peter's illusions about his team leader's coolness were just being shattered all over the place tonight. Well, except for the part where he'd apparently been having secret sex with Tony for months without the Daily Bugle or any other press outlet finding out about it, which Peter supposed was kind of cool, and certainly took skill.
"Thank you," Cap told Tony.
Tony smiled at him again -- not the smug, through-the-eyelashes one, but a soft little smile that was funny to see on Tony Stark, billionaire playboy -- and the band started playing another song.
* * *
Authors:
seanchai and elspethdixonRated: PG
Pairings: Steve/Tony, other pairings from The Roughest Day, plus mentions of Matt/Foggy.
Warnings: High fluff content. No appreciable plot.
Disclaimer: The characters and situations depicted herein belong to Stan Lee and Marvel comics. No profit is being made off of this derivative work. We're paid in love, people.
Author's Note: Fluff for
crimsonquills. Set in the same continuity as The Roughest Day.Summary: The New Avengers go to a jazz club. Steve and Tony flirt. Peter is clueless.
Crossposted to
marvel_slash"Steve," Tony said, sounding halfway between exasperated and amused at Steve's expense, "I really don't think Luke and Jessica need a chaperone."
"Peter and MJ are going to be there, too," Steve told him. "Go put on whatever people wear to go clubbing."
Tony frowned slightly. It wasn't the frown he worn when he had a headache, though -- Steve had been watching carefully for that one over the past week, while Tony recovered from the computer virus that had come so close to killing him. "What kind of club are we talking about?" Tony asked, giving Steve a narrow-eyed, suspicious look. "Because I'm not wearing eyeliner and I don't think you'd look good in glitter."
Glitter? Steve very carefully decided not to contemplate why one would want to wear eye make-up and glitter to a night club, much less why Tony would know about it. "It's a jazz club," he said instead. "MJ told us at breakfast that she was going to be singing there tonight. If you'd actually been at breakfast instead of at work, you'd know."
Tony had stayed home from work the first two days after their return from the Savage Land, and his first day back, he'd humored Steve's insistence that he actually eat before leaving. Then he'd started sneaking out while Steve was out running, claiming that consuming anything other than coffee before nine o' clock was barbaric and heathen.
If this had still been the old Avengers, that would have gotten him a five minute lecture on the importance of good nutrition from Thor, who had not only been proud of being both barbaric and heathen, but had also been a doctor in his civilian guise. Well, that, or Hank McCoy would have told him that people who skipped breakfast were however many times more likely to die young than people who didn't.
This wasn't the old Avengers, so when Tony didn't turn up at the breakfast table, Danny Rand had taken his seat, and no had commented on it except Jarvis, who had frowned and sent a tray down to Tony's office. No one had commented on the fact that Danny was wearing one of Luke's t-shirts and Jessica Jones's bathrobe, either. It was probably time they all stopped pointedly not commenting and just got him his own chair.
"I had to reschedule a lot of things while I was sick," Tony said, sounding slightly defensive. "I'm still catching up." He sighed, looking away and running one hand through his hair. "Jazz club."
"You like jazz," Steve pointed out. He'd kind of been looking forward to this, to the chance to go out somewhere with Tony, now that they were officially together.
Tony smiled ruefully and shook his head. "Just as long as there's not swing dancing."
Steve grinned. "You're just jealous that you're too tall for me to slide you between my legs and flip you over my shoulders."
"Just so you know," Tony said, his tone conversational, "if you ever do that with Jan in public again, Hank and I will begin plotting your demise. It will involve poisonous insects and lasers."
Everyone had been entirely unreasonable about that, although in retrospect, now that Steve knew that Tony had wanted things between them to be serious from the beginning, his objections made a lot more sense. "Just because Hank can't dance…" Steve began.
Tony raised his eyebrows. "That wasn't dancing, Steve," he said dryly. "It was extremely athletic sex performed to saxophone music. And for the record, going to a jazz club isn't the same thing as going clubbing, for which you should count yourself lucky."
"Sex performed to saxophone music" was a gross exaggeration. Steve rubbed at the back of his neck with one hand, and said, "It's in a club. What's the difference?"
Tony's lips twitched. "Clubbing tends to involve more sex and recreational drug use."
"So did jazz." Why did people always assume the past had been innocent and dull? Steve would see Tony's men going to nightclubs in make-up and glitter and raise him one Harlem drag ball with men in ball gowns. Not that Steve had ever been to a drag ball, but they'd existed, and it was the principle of the thing.
"Yes, but they hadn't invented ecstasy and black lights then."
"Black lights?" Steve asked.
Jessica Jones and Luke Cage came into the hallway, both of them dressed to go out, as was Steve. Peter had already left, and Jessica Drew was presumably getting ready to go right now. Tony, whom Steve had found tearing apart a Quinjet engine, was the only one not dressed for a night on the town.
"Ultraviolet spectrum lights." Tony gestured at his crumpled white dress shirt. There was a small oil stain on his right cuff, Steve noticed. "They make white clothing glow."
"I think MJ has better taste than to go onstage at that kind of a place," Steve said. Or at least, he hoped so. "Look," he went on, "just go put on whatever people wear to go to jazz clubs these days. This is going to be a team bonding experience."
"Oh good." Jessica Drew walked out into the hall. She was wearing a very red, very tight dress, and the four-inch heels on her equally red shoes left little dents in the carpet. "The last establishment we had a team bonding experience at won't let any of us come back."
"Yes," Jessica Jones said, "but this time Danny's not coming, and if he was, we'd know better than to let him drink."
"You know that wasn't his fault," Luke objected. "He would have been fine if that place had served food."
"I'll go put on a shirt that doesn't have oil stains on it," Tony said, making it sound like the concession it was. Disheveled and grease-stained was a good look on him, and he knew it.
"You make it sound like such a chore," Steve said.
Tony arched an eyebrow. "I thought you liked rumpled dress shirts with oil stains on them."
Steve could feel his face heat. He still wasn't used to the idea that they could mention that they were together so openly and casually. Ending the secrecy had been Steve's idea, but it was still… new.
Tony smirked at him, which only made Steve's ears burn harder, and then turned and sauntered off down the hall.
Steve had never heard MJ sing before; given that she'd had several small parts on Broadway, it shouldn't have been surprising that she was good. Peter had told them all at great length about how wonderful she was when he'd proudly announced tonight's performance at breakfast every morning for the past three days, but he wasn't exactly an unbiased witness.
She had the right kind of voice for jazz -- alto instead of soprano, and slightly husky -- and Steve enjoyed listening to songs he remembered from before he'd gone into the army, but this time in a setting that was refreshingly free of cigarette smoke.
Even Logan, who had been lurking at a corner table when they'd arrived, a bottle of beer in one hand and his cowboy boots on the table, had refrained from actually lighting a cigar, settling for grinding an unlit cigar stub between his teeth in a manner that reminded Steve of Nick Fury.
In order to avoid ruining Logan's attempt to pretend that he was only at the Blue Note by accident, Steve and the others had sat down at the table next to his, rather than actually with him. Peter stared dreamily at MJ, Jessica Drew waved away the stream of free drinks various men kept sending her, and Steve leaned his shoulder against Tony's, sipped his coca cola, and pretended it was nineteen thirty-nine.
Tony was a reassuringly solid and healthy presence at his side, and for a few moments, Steve was able to forget that just a week ago, in the Savage Land, he had watched Tony burn his armor to slag because he couldn't wear it anymore and hadn't wanted to leave it behind. That was when Steve had really begun to believe that Tony was dying. It had come much closer than Steve liked, but everything was fine now. Better than fine.
Tony loved him, and now he knew that Steve loved him as well, and if he wanted to lean against Tony in public, or put his hand on Tony's thigh or his arm around Tony's shoulders, he could. So he put one hand over Tony's, on top of the table, and squeezed it gently, and slide the other onto Tony's leg, just above the knee.
MJ finished her set and left the stage, coming to sit next to Peter. "So how did I do?" she asked, as the band started to play dance music.
"You were awesome," Peter said.
"You were good," Jessica Jones confirmed. "Very good."
"I'm thinking of booking you for the next charity performance I have to sit through." Tony grinned, using the hand that Steve wasn't holding to slowly turn his mostly-empty glass in a circle, making the quarter inch of coke at the bottom swirl around. "They're usually incredibly boring, but you would make it bearable."
MJ grinned proudly, obviously pleased.
The band switched to a slightly more up-tempo song, and Luke nudged Jessica Jones. "You want to dance?"
"Only if you can keep up," she said.
Steve watched them head towards the club's tiny dance floor. Even on the extremely slim chance that he could get Tony to agree to dance with him, he thought wistfully, it would attract too much of the wrong kind of attention. This was supposed to be MJ's big night, not the night the New Avengers ended up in every tabloid magazine in New York.
"Want me to get you another drink?" Tony offered, indicating Steve's empty glass. Almost before Steve could say yes, he had scooped up both his and Steve's empty glasses and was up and walking towards the bar. "Coke, right?" he asked over his shoulder.
Steve nodded. He didn't even consciously think about not ordering alcohol when Tony was around anymore, which probably should have been some kind of clue that things between them had been more serious than Steve had realized for a long time. He didn't mind; he'd always liked coca cola. During the war, you could get it on all the American air bases in England, and it had tasted just the way it did at home. He liked M&M's for much the same reason -- the army had put them in C rations, and when it was cold and wet and you'd just walked ten miles in ankle deep mud listening to the Howling Commandos bicker with each other, you were really grateful for those pathetic little pieces of candy-coated chocolate.
"Oh damn," MJ said. "I meant to ask the next person who went to the bar to bring me water."
Steve glanced over at Tony, who had reached the bar by now, and felt a small pang of guilt. Tony hated going anywhere near a bar, offers to fetch drinks notwithstanding, something Steve knew perfectly well, and should have remembered. He ought to have volunteered to go himself, as soon as Tony brought it up.
"I'll get you one," Peter offered. "Mineral water or water, water?"
Tony was talking to the bartender, and only someone who knew him very well would have been able to read the discomfort in the set of his shoulders, and the way he kept looking away. A tall, blonde woman in a very low-cut dress was standing next to him, leaning towards him with one arm resting on the bar, which was probably calculated to give someone standing where Tony was a perfect view down the front of her dress.
Tony said something to her, and she laughed and flicked a piece of hair back over her shoulder.
"No," Steve said. "You stay here. I'll get it."
"Thanks," MJ said, smiling up at him as he stood. "Can you ask them to put lemon in it?"
"Sure," Steve told her, his gaze still on Tony and the woman in the red dress. "One water with lemon coming up."
He came up behind Tony, the ambient noise of the room masking his footsteps, and slid an arm around Tony's waist. Tony turned and looked at him, a faint look of surprise on his face.
"I thought I'd help you carry the drinks back to the table," Steve told him. Then he turned to the woman. "Hi," he said, smiling politely. "I'm Steve." It never hurt to be courteous.
Tony arched an eyebrow, looking amused. "Because two glasses of soda are so very heavy."
Explaining that he had come to rescue Tony from the proximity of alcohol would sound silly. "MJ wanted water with lemon. That's three glasses. And anyway, I was just trying to be polite."
The woman looked from Steve to Tony, her eyes finally settling on the arm Steve still had wrapped casually around Tony's waist. "Ah, sorry," she said, to Steve. "I should be going now. I think I see my friends waiting for me."
Steve gave her another polite smile. Then he asked the bartender for a glass of water with lemon.
A few moments later, he and Tony started back for the table, Tony with a glass of soda in each hand, and Steve with MJ's water. Steve surrendered his hold on Tony, but kept one hand on the small of his back, guiding him toward the table.
Steve grinned. The bartender hadn't even batted an eye. Maybe they should come back here sometime. Or maybe not. Tony's back muscles felt hard and tight under his hand.
"I can get the next round of refills," he said.
"Thank you," Tony said, and Steve could feel him relax slightly. He'd never understood Tony's apparently need to continually test himself, either around alcohol, or by continually pushing himself past his limits.
"Or we could leave," Steve offered. "MJ's finished her set."
"We could always go home, and I could put the shirt with the oil stains back on," Tony said, glancing over to give Steve a suggestive smile.
"That sounds like a good plan to me," Steve said, grinning more widely.
"You really were awesome," Peter said. "I liked the second-to-last one best, the slow one."
"I don't think I lived up to Ella Fitzgerald, but it's good to hear that I didn't mangle it." Then she paused, an amused little smile appearing on her lips, and elbowed him in the ribs, nodding for Peter to look behind him.
Peter glanced back over his shoulder to see Cap and Tony coming back to the table. Cap had one hand on the small of Tony's back, and was wearing a big, goofy grin. Tony was looking over at him with the same sort of through-the-eyelashes look that Felicia Hardy always gave Spiderman, except he managed to do it without the creepy semi-stalker vibes.
"Wow," Peter observed. "That's really not subtle."
"Neither was the way Cap ran off that blonde over by the bar," MJ said, the amused smile still playing over her lips. "I guess they're not bothering to keep things in the closet anymore."
Luke and Jessica dropped back into their seats as the band started playing a new song. Jessica Drew raised her eyebrows at them, and indicated Cap and Tony with her chin.
"How long have you known?" Peter asked MJ. "I've known since we busted that Hydra installation in the Savage Land," he added; he still felt faintly proud of figuring things out on his own, before the two of them had started the really obvious things like flirting in public.
"It took you that long?" Luke said. "The rest of us figured it out two days after we joined the team."
Luke could just be screwing with him, but Peter doubted it this time. He sounded too amused for that. Everyone had known this was going on but him? "And you didn't tell me?" he asked MJ, in what was hopefully an injured tone.
"I didn't think I had too," she said dryly. "They were practically sharing a room. Not to mention clothing."
"So?" Peter said. Clothing didn't prove anything. It was just… clothing. And Cap and Tony definitely had separate rooms. "Daredevil sleeps in his law partner's t-shirts."
Everyone stared at him. Steve and Tony, who had reached the table just as Peter was finishing his last sentence, were also staring at him.
Right. Matt was officially Not Daredevil again. On the other hand, everyone at the table knew his identity perfectly well. "Oh," Peter said, "are we still pretending we don't know? Fine. I mean Matt Murdock. Matt Murdock, who is in no way secretly Daredevil, sleeps in his law partner's t-shirts."
Everyone was still staring at him.
"What?" Peter asked. He'd just essentially announced that he knew what Matt slept in. Surely none of them could actually think… "I only know what he sleeps in because there was this one time when we'd been fighting Tombstone and Matt had broken ribs and a concussion and I was helping him get ready for bed because he's blind and stuff and the concussion was screwing up his bat sonar thing."
"I always figured there was something going on there," Jessica Jones said, more to herself than anything else.
"But Matt's married." The protest slipped out before Peter could help it.
Luke and Jessica Jones look at him.
"Oh. Right." Peter made mental note to avoid asking about kinky lawyer threesomes next time he saw Matt, no matter how tempting it might be. He didn't really want to know; Matt just turned really entertaining colors when you asked him personal questions. On the other hand, Foggy Nelson, Matt's legal partner and possible fellow kinky lawyer threesome member, might hear him and actually answer. Foggy was good at answering questions you didn't really want to know the answers to, and also liked seeing Matt turn colors.
"How is that any of our business?" Cap asked. He stretched as he sat down, laying one arm over the back of Tony's chair. Again with the subtlety and lack thereof.
"It ain't," Logan announced, dropping his evening-long pretence that he wasn't there with them, wasn't listening to them, and didn't know them. "Spidey here was just giving us a demonstration of why it took him until now to figure out that you two have been sleeping together for the past two months."
Couldn't Logan have kept pretending?
"Almost six months," Tony corrected casually, "minus the nine weeks after the team broke up, before we put the new one together."
Cap went red. Even his ears went red. It was almost awe-inspiring; Peter hadn't even known Captain America could blush.
"Oooh, six months," MJ said, in the tone of voice she used when she was being evil. "That's an important anniversary. Peter got me flowers and took me to the top of the Empire State Building. It was very romantic until the Vulture attacked us."
Cap was now wearing the slightly hunted look of a man currently counting backward in his head to try and figure out when it was going to be exactly six months after he and Tony had gotten together.
"Five months, two weeks, and three days ago," Tony said, without turning to look at Cap.
Cap gave Tony a very sappy grin, and Peter's illusions about his team leader's coolness were just being shattered all over the place tonight. Well, except for the part where he'd apparently been having secret sex with Tony for months without the Daily Bugle or any other press outlet finding out about it, which Peter supposed was kind of cool, and certainly took skill.
"Thank you," Cap told Tony.
Tony smiled at him again -- not the smug, through-the-eyelashes one, but a soft little smile that was funny to see on Tony Stark, billionaire playboy -- and the band started playing another song.
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I like Steve's memories of jazz, Coke, and M&Ms! :) It makes him such a special hero, able to understand two different eras (I think he's pretty acclimated to the present by now!). I think that gives him a better identification with America, understanding different generations, though of course he's still learning! ;)
Steve and Tony together are great, and Steve's possessiveness is highly amusing! :)
As is Peter's cluelessness! And knowing Matt sleeps in his law partner's T-shirt! ;)
This fic makes me happy! :)
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Steve gives us full rein to excercise our American History geekery (I've been waiting to use that Harlem drag ball reference in something since my second graduate survey class read Gay New York).
Steve and Tony together are great, and Steve's possessiveness is highly amusing! :)
Steve wasn't being possessive. At all. Really. He was simply introducing himself to Tony's new friend.
As is Peter's cluelessness! And knowing Matt sleeps in his law partner's T-shirt! ;)
The t-shirt idea came from a Daredevil fic by
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That's a great book! :)
I'm sure Steve thinks that a lot of things are better now (less racism, sexism, and homophobia, though of course far more than we'd like), but every era has its pros and cons, and there are things about 1939 and his time that he must miss or look back on fondly.
The Coke reference is perfect, as that was the standard soft drink on military bases. It was an American symbol then and still is, and always speaks of 'home' to an American, I suppose, when they're out of the country.
Speaking of Coke and American symbolism/capitalism, ever see the 1961 James Cagney movie "One, Two, Three"? He's Coke's man in West Berlin in 1961 and the movie is fast-paced and snappy with Cagney machine-gunning dialogue like it's his old gangster days. :) Lots of funny lines and sharp jabs at the Cold War. Historical note: the movie was filmed and completed before the Berlin Wall went up in August of '61, and I believe they mentioned that at the start of the film as they show the characters crossing the line between East and West Berlin without a Wall.
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For me, it was the one fried chicken fast-food place in Cork (located near the city library and called "Hillbilly Chicken," I kid you not). There were a couple of times my semester abroad when I got fried chicken just to remind me of home. And I read James MacPherson's 800+ page tome (Battle Cry of Freedom), which was one of aproximately three books in the University College Cork library, because it had maps of Hannover County, VA in it (and also those awesome little grey and blue arrows to show troop movements that all good Civil War maps have... It came in handy when we were assigned the whole book to read over Thanksgiving break last year, because I could just skim it to refesh my memory).
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Battle Cry Of Freedom is one of the better Civil War books.
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If this had still been the old Avengers, that would have gotten him a five minute lecture on the importance of good nutrition from Thor, who had not only been proud of being both barbaric and heathen, but had also been a doctor in his civilian guise.
*FLAIL* THOOOR! *heart* So I totally started cracking up at this line, and then sort of kept going...
"It was extremely athletic sex performed to saxophone music.
*DIE* Possibly my fav line. This line might have to battle it out with a couple later on, but it's got the definite advantage of high quotability *nods sagely*
Tony arched an eyebrow. "I thought you liked rumpled dress shirts with oil stains on them."
Don't we all? Y/Y?
Cap was now wearing the slightly hunted look of a man currently counting backward in his head to try and figure out when it was going to be exactly six months after he and Tony had gotten together.
Okay, this one is a contender for best line - just because I am SO abysmally bad at remembering the date of ANYthing or determining the length of time between now and some previous date >.> *EPIC FAIL* I LOVE it :)
Cap gave Tony a very sappy grin, and Peter's illusions about his team leader's coolness were just being shattered all over the place tonight.
Onoes! Not the coolness! Anything but the coolness! *weeps for Steve's loss of the coolness factor... yet is still amused that SPIDER-MAN thinks CAP is cool, tehee!*
Well, except for the part where he'd apparently been having secret sex with Tony for months without the Daily Bugle or any other press outlet finding out about it, which Peter supposed was kind of cool, and certainly took skill.
*cackles and arm flails wildly* Secret Sex! It's like the Secret Service, only with more porn *nods* I'm so hysterically in love with Peter justifying Steve regaining his coolness level because he's like a sex ninja!
Pwa >.> so in case you didn't notice, I thought the ficlet was super extra awesome and also I need more sleep. Yes. Later.
-Tro
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Thanks! (she says, ages and ages later)
*FLAIL* THOOOR! *heart* So I totally started cracking up at this line, and then sort of kept going...
Everyone hearts Thor! And somehow he lends himself to comedy really well, maybe because everything is funnier if the word "verily" is involved.
"It was extremely athletic sex performed to saxophone music.
*DIE* Possibly my fav line. This line might have to battle it out with a couple later on, but it's got the definite advantage of high quotability *nods sagely*
*grins* I think it was one of our favorite lines, too, though it might have come in second to Tony being jealous that he's too tall for Steve to swing-dance with.
Tony arched an eyebrow. "I thought you liked rumpled dress shirts with oil stains on them."
Don't we all? Y/Y?
Yes, yes we do ^_^. It's the entire reason people like the Granov-art cover where Tony is wearing goggles and a tank-top so much.
Okay, this one is a contender for best line - just because I am SO abysmally bad at remembering the date of ANYthing or determining the length of time between now and some previous date >.> *EPIC FAIL* I LOVE it :)
I suck at remembering dates that aren't fandom-related. In years to come, I will remember my anniversary by counting forward from when Captain America #25 was published (actually, I already do -- I date everything that happened last Spring relative to CA #25).
Onoes! Not the coolness! Anything but the coolness! *weeps for Steve's loss of the coolness factor... yet is still amused that SPIDER-MAN thinks CAP is cool, tehee!*
Well, Peter isn't exactly the poster child for cool, either. And Steve does ride a motorcycle and wear leather pants, which in most fandoms would be enough to enshrine him in fanon as cool for all time.
cackles and arm flails wildly* Secret Sex! It's like the Secret Service, only with more porn *nods* I'm so hysterically in love with Peter justifying Steve regaining his coolness level because he's like a sex ninja!
Peter is easily impressed by stealth sex, since his experience with People Who Are Not MJ is terribly limited (he probably slept with Felicia Hardy at least once, but it was entirely her idea).
Pwa >.> so in case you didn't notice, I thought the ficlet was super extra awesome and also I need more sleep. Yes. Later.
Yay! We're glad you enjoyed it.
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I honestly had to stop and just breathe for a bit after this part:
---Steve leaned his shoulder against Tony's, sipped his coca cola, and pretended it was nineteen thirty-nine.---
And how slice of life and uplifting this story was just made my entire day!
Steve wanting to rescue Tony from alcohol and pretty girls was so sweet!
And this part made me lose control of my limbs- I swear I must have looked like a crazy person with all of the "awww"-ing and whirling around I did.
---Cap was now wearing the slightly hunted look of a man currently counting backward in his head to try and figure out when it was going to be exactly six months after he and Tony had gotten together. "Five months, two weeks, and three days," Tony said, without turning to look at Cap.
What are they going to do for 6 months!? What are they going to do!? Please please please ^_______^
Miko
xoxo
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Flailing is always good! (at least, I often flail when reading fic, so I assume it is).
I honestly had to stop and just breathe for a bit after this part:
---Steve leaned his shoulder against Tony's, sipped his coca cola, and pretended it was nineteen thirty-nine.---
That seems to be one of everybody's favorite lines -- we just kind of tossed it in there, because it seemed appropriate given that they were in a jazz club listening to 1930s and 40s style music. Steve wouldn't have had Tony back then, though, so if he had to choose, he'd definately pick the present ^_^.
And how slice of life and uplifting this story was just made my entire day!
It's terrifyingly easy to do slice-of-life/curtain fic for the Avengers. I'm not sure why.
Steve wanting to rescue Tony from alcohol and pretty girls was so sweet!
*grins* Steve's not over-protective, or possessive. Really. He's just learned from dire experience that Tony needs to be defended from these things at all times (and, okay, that was supposed to be a joke, but now that I look at it, it's really kind of true and not that funny).
And this part made me lose control of my limbs- I swear I must have looked like a crazy person with all of the "awww"-ing and whirling around I did.
---Cap was now wearing the slightly hunted look of a man currently counting backward in his head to try and figure out when it was going to be exactly six months after he and Tony had gotten together. "Five months, two weeks, and three days," Tony said, without turning to look at Cap.
What are they going to do for 6 months!? What are they going to do!? Please please please ^_______^
Steve trying to remember when their anniversary is seems to be everyone's other favorite part ^_^. Hmmm.... I'm not sure what they'll do for their anniversary, whether it would involve Tony taking Steve to an expensive restaurant, or Steve taking Tony somewhere personally significant, or the two of them trying to go out on a date and getting attacked by Hydra instead, or what.
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I really love how you kept pointing back to how Steve is really from a different decade. Very nice touch and certainly made a greater impact, in my eyes. ^___^
♥ Logan
Well done!
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*squee!* Oh, god. Lovely, cute, fluffy fic. I adored Peter in this. Damn! His musings on Matt and Steve and the rest. Just about floored me. *squishes him*
Yay! We thought everybody deserved some fluff after all of the trauma in Roughest Day, and Peter is always a fun narrator to work with -- you can ramble on and on about anything you can think of.
I really love how you kept pointing back to how Steve is really from a different decade. Very nice touch and certainly made a greater impact, in my eyes. ^___^
We were determined to make our combined history geekery useful somehow ^_^.
♥ Logan
Logan is 1/3 of the reason I'm an X-Men fan (after Rogue and Gambit, who are the other two-thirds).
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I totally loved Steve being offended on behalf of the past, Steve and Tony being obviously together (and how long will it take the Bugle to find out now?), a team-night-out with Logan pretending he isn't actually there, Steve protecting Tonx from the evils of alcohol and blond woman, Peter being totally clueless about various relationships and the team's reaction to that and Tony and Steve being equally sappy about their upcoming six-month anniversary!
And this is kind of the whole story, so I guess I don't actually have a favourite part. Oh, well. *g*
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Yay! Peter being clueless and Steve being possessive are ridiculously fun to write, so we're glad you enjoyed it ^_^.
The Bugle will probably find out very shortly, whereupon Jameson will call his staff into his office and demand to know why they all hate him so much, because surely only personal hatred of him and a deliberate attempt to make the Bugle's circulation drop would explain why they don't have photos of Stark and Rogers playing kissy-face yet! ("Jonah, they apparently don't actually make out in public?" "Don't be an idiot, Robbie. This is Tony Stark. He used to bang supermodels in the back seats of limos. Have the photographers photograph them when they're in private. Show some initiative! That's what they're paid for! Where the hell is Parker when I need him?" "You fired him, Jonah.")
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I loved the clubbing discussion at the beginning. Of course, now I have this silly mental pictures of avengers + glitter + eyeliner + black lights.
Speaking of silly mental pictures, Danny in Jessica's bathrobe is another one. I love those three.
Steve and Tony were, of course, ridiculously adorable. I really liked how these two keep thinking about each other. Plus I love it when Tony teases Steve. :)
Lurking Logan is so appropriate. I bet he loved the whole thing but would never admit it (the singing and the discussions afterwards)
Much love for Peter and MJ. I loved how Peter is just so clueless about everything. I've also realized that just mentioning the Vulture makes things 50% less romantic. Pour Vulture....
And now because I've resisted mentioning it until now: There was a mention of Matt/Foggy!!! I adore you guys for doing that. (But then again, you were probably expecting that) I loved how Peter brought it up and I can just picture him mentioning it to Matt, probably by mistake when he's babbling.
Also the Luke/Jessica look just made that scene even more awesome.
Alright this is getting to be a bit long so only one last point: It figures that Tony would know, up to the day, for how long they have been together.
This fic is really made of adorable.
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Thanks! (And sorry for taking so long to reply).
I loved the clubbing discussion at the beginning. Of course, now I have this silly mental pictures of avengers + glitter + eyeliner + black lights.
Jessica Drew would look awesome in eyeliner and glitter. Luke and Steve... would be really, really amusingly ridiculous-looking. And Peter would look like a back-up singer for My Chemical Romance/Panic! At the Disco. The Marvel-verse's internets would be swamped with fics pairing him with Pete Wentz as soon as everybody's pictures showed up in the Bugle.
Speaking of silly mental pictures, Danny in Jessica's bathrobe is another one. I love those three.
So do we. And so does Bendis, apparently.
Steve and Tony were, of course, ridiculously adorable. I really liked how these two keep thinking about each other. Plus I love it when Tony teases Steve. :)
Steve and Tony are always adorable, especially when they're doing the married-couple-banter-thing, so we're glad we seem to have done justice to it (their adorableness).
Much love for Peter and MJ. I loved how Peter is just so clueless about everything. I've also realized that just mentioning the Vulture makes things 50% less romantic. Pour Vulture....
You're right; the Vulture does make things 50% less romantic! Maybe it's the name.
And now because I've resisted mentioning it until now: There was a mention of Matt/Foggy!!! I adore you guys for doing that. (But then again, you were probably expecting that) I loved how Peter brought it up and I can just picture him mentioning it to Matt, probably by mistake when he's babbling.
Also the Luke/Jessica look just made that scene even more awesome.
We are now determined to mention Matt in every fic Peter appears in. Someday, he may even actually appear in a fic! And we're glad people caugh tthe significance of the Luke/Jessica look ^_^.
Alright this is getting to be a bit long so only one last point: It figures that Tony would know, up to the day, for how long they have been together.
This fic is really made of adorable.
*nods* even if he didn't have the Extremis to help him keep track, he'd know. He can probably tell you the exact date he developed each version of the armor, too, as well as how long he wore each one.
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I do have a question, though, and it might be authorial and it might be canon-based, who knows?
Why, exactly, haven't they begun calling the Jessicas JJ and JD or Jessie-Jay and Jessie-Dee?
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Why, exactly, haven't they begun calling the Jessicas JJ and JD or Jessie-Jay and Jessie-Dee?
Because Bendis is cruel and delights in being confusing (he also didn't give Danielle Cage-Jones a name until this fall, after she'd already been around for about two years).
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Oh, I love Roughest Day continuity! And this is just sooo sweet - Peter is clueless, Steve and Tony are ubercute and everything is just happycakes!
Hurrah!
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Poor Peter -- he's so proud of himself for figuring everything out, until he finds out that everyone else has already kown fo rages (though, to be fair, Logan has certain... advantages when it comes to discovering who's sleeping with whom).
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Thanks! Protective, jealous Steve is unexpected amusing (and hot). The whole fic was basically an excuse to have Steve "rescue" Tony from evil seductresses. That, and the New Avengers siiting around gossiping about people.
feedback part one
And now we get to the part where I copy and paste the entire fic into the comment box so that I can reread and give detailed squee as I go through. :-)
(Er, it got so long that I'm gonna have to break this into two pieces. :-) )
"What kind of club are we talking about?" Tony asked, giving Steve a narrow-eyed, suspicious look. "Because I'm not wearing eyeliner and I don't think you'd look good in glitter."
*laughing* Of course, this immediately had me imagining Tony in eyeliner and Steve in glitter. And both of them in very tight, possibly shiny clubbing wear. :-0 :-)
It was probably time they all stopped pointedly not commenting and just got him his own chair.
*more laughing* *love for random Danny appearances, even though I've never read anything with Danny in it* I suppose I ought to at least check out his basics, all things considered!
Steve grinned. "You're just jealous that you're too tall for me to slide you between my legs and flip you over my shoulders."
Awww. Couldn't they try, though? *grins* *has a terrible love for dancing stories, and also for swing dancing* Alas, he probably really is too tall. But they could get into some interesting tangles trying. :-) :-)
"Just so you know," Tony said, his tone conversational, "if you ever do that with Jan in public again, Hank and I will begin plotting your demise. It will involve poisonous insects and lasers."
Insects for Hank and lasers for Tony! *so much love*
Tony's lips twitched. "Clubbing tends to involve more sex and recreational drug use."
"So did jazz." Why did people always assume the past had been innocent and dull?
I loved this line to death, just because people do tend to think of the past as sweet and innocent and romantic, when nothing bad happened and morals were less "corrupted" than they are now. That's never really been the case and I love Steve commenting on this.
"Yes," Jessica Jones said, "but this time Danny's not coming, and if he was, we'd know better than to let him drink."
"You know that wasn't his fault," Luke objected. "He would have been fine if that place had served food."
*grins* I really, really should familiarize myself with Danny a bit...
Disheveled and grease-stained was a good look on him, and he knew it.
Mmmmm, so true. *pets Tony*
Peter had told them all at great length about how wonderful she was when he'd proudly announced tonight's performance at breakfast every morning for the past three days, but he wasn't exactly an unbiased witness.
:-) I adore the mental image of Peter being all excited and proud of MJ and babbling about her to the others. *hugs Peter and MJ together*
and Steve leaned his shoulder against Tony's, sipped his coca cola, and pretended it was nineteen thirty-nine.
Awwww. This is sweet and poignant at the same time. *melts for Steve*
He didn't mind; he'd always liked coca cola. During the war, you could get it on all the American air bases in England, and it had tasted just the way it did at home. He liked M&M's for much the same reason -- the army had put them in C rations, and when it was cold and wet and you'd just walked ten miles in ankle deep mud listening to the Howling Commandos bicker with each other, you were really grateful for those pathetic little pieces of candy-coated chocolate.
This was a great little detail from Steve's past that makes him feel so much more complete as a character. :-)
Re: feedback part one
Awww. Couldn't they try, though? *grins* *has a terrible love for dancing stories, and also for swing dancing* Alas, he probably really is too tall. But they could get into some interesting tangles trying. :-) :-)
Someday, we swear we'll figure out how to get Steve and Tony dancing in formal wear into a fic, since we're convinced it would be meltingly romantic.
I loved this line to death, just because people do tend to think of the past as sweet and innocent and romantic, when nothing bad happened and morals were less "corrupted" than they are now. That's never really been the case and I love Steve commenting on this.
Steve is probably perpetually puzzled/irritated when people assume he'll be stuffy or easily shocked just because he grew up in the 30s -- people tend to think everything between WWI and the 1960s was like the fifties, with June Cleaver vacuuming the livingroom in heels and couples sleeping in seperate beds, and to forget that the 20s and 30s were a lot less conservative than that (and even the 50s were a lot less "stuffy respectability and conformity" than television portrays them as).
*grins* I really, really should familiarize myself with Danny a bit...
I highly recommend Immortal Iron Fist, despite my current feelings toward Brubaker and the fact that I'm lukewarm about Matt Fraction's writing in The Order. Fraction may not be very good at writing Tony Stark, but he does a great Danny Rand. Plus, the current storyline is like a Hong Kong kung fu movie in comicbook form, with bonus Luke Cage.
:-) I adore the mental image of Peter being all excited and proud of MJ and babbling about her to the others. *hugs Peter and MJ together*
Yay! Peter and MJ are adorable together (and will be in canon again, I hope), so we try to include their relationship in fic as much as we can ^_^. Luckily, everyone else seems to like them, too.
This was a great little detail from Steve's past that makes him feel so much more complete as a character. :-)
Oh good *smiles* We stuck it in because Coke being Steve's favorite soft drink because it's familiar just seemed inexplicably cute to us.
Re: feedback part one
My brain went, "Wedding dance!" Which just goes to show how far the sap has infiltrated, because in my brain it was their wedding. *somewhat embarrassed* I never used to go for wedding fic, but I've turned into a hopeless sap. I kind of like being a hopeless sap, though. *g*
Steve is probably perpetually puzzled/irritated when people assume he'll be stuffy or easily shocked just because he grew up in the 30s -- people tend to think everything between WWI and the 1960s was like the fifties, with June Cleaver vacuuming the livingroom in heels and couples sleeping in seperate beds, and to forget that the 20s and 30s were a lot less conservative than that (and even the 50s were a lot less "stuffy respectability and conformity" than television portrays them as).
*nodding* People have always and probably always will romanticize the past. One of the interesting things we talked about in one of my sociology classes (Crime and Society, I think) was how people are constantly saying that the crime rate is so much worse and things used to be so much better etc. etc., but when you examine the statistics, it's not true! Crime rates have stayed pretty much the same, relative to population, and in some case have gone down quite a bit.
I highly recommend Immortal Iron Fist, despite my current feelings toward Brubaker and the fact that I'm lukewarm about Matt Fraction's writing in The Order.
Heh.
Fraction may not be very good at writing Tony Stark
Have you heard about the new Iron Man book Fraction is going to be writing? I'm not very well plugged in to the grapevine, so I heard via
Oh good *smiles* We stuck it in because Coke being Steve's favorite soft drink because it's familiar just seemed inexplicably cute to us.
You know, it totally is inexplicably cute. *g*
feedback part two
Bwa ha ha ha ha ha! Jealous!Steve! Pretending not to be jealous! *dies of love* And also rescuing Tony from alcohol, but you know he mostly wants to make sure people know Tony's taken. :-)
Luke could just be screwing with him, but Peter doubted it this time. He sounded too amused for that. Everyone had known this was going on but him? "And you didn't tell me?" he asked MJ, in what was hopefully an injured tone.
Awww, poor Peter. And he was so proud of figuring it out all on his own! *pets Peter* One of these days we need to take pity on him. *g*
"What?" Peter asked. He'd just essentially announced that he knew what Matt slept in. Surely none of them could actually think… "I only know what he sleeps in because there was this one time when we'd been fighting Tombstone and Matt had broken ribs and a concussion and I was helping him get ready for bed because he's blind and stuff and the concussion was screwing up his bat sonar thing."
*laughing* Oh, Peter. No one thinks that you're sleeping with Matt. *grins* But the babble, it is so much fun.
Peter made mental note to avoid asking about kinky lawyer threesomes next time he saw Matt, no matter how tempting it might be. He didn't really want to know; Matt just turned really entertaining colors when you asked him personal questions. On the other hand, Foggy Nelson, Matt's legal partner and possible fellow kinky lawyer threesome member, might hear him and actually answer. Foggy was good at answering questions you didn't really want to know the answers to, and also liked seeing Matt turn colors.
This whole paragraph had me laughing out loud in sheer glee. *grins* I've never really gone for Matt/Foggy before (I've only read about 40 issues of Daredevil, just after he was outed the last time), but you make me love this anyway.
Cap was now wearing the slightly hunted look of a man currently counting backward in his head to try and figure out when it was going to be exactly six months after he and Tony had gotten together.
There are so many awesome lines and parts in this fic, it's hard to choose a favorite, but this definitely ranks right up there. Oh, Steve. *hugs him* You're a good boyfriend even if you can't remember. :-)
"Five months, two weeks, and three days ago," Tony said, without turning to look at Cap.
*loves Tony for both knowing, and letting Steve off the hook*
Well, except for the part where he'd apparently been having secret sex with Tony for months without the Daily Bugle or any other press outlet finding out about it, which Peter supposed was kind of cool, and certainly took skill.
I love that this contributes significantly to Steve's coolness in Peter's eyes! :-) :-)
Tony smiled at him again -- not the smug, through-the-eyelashes one, but a soft little smile that was funny to see on Tony Stark, billionaire playboy -- and the band started playing another song.
*melts again* So wonderful!
Thank you so much for this. :-) :-) :-)
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So, thank you.
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So?" Peter said. Clothing didn't prove anything. It was just… clothing. And Cap and Tony definitely had separate rooms. "Daredevil sleeps in his law partner's t-shirts."
~ Cluelessness is such a perfect offset to everyone else knowing.
*cheers* Another great one and there wasn't even the hurt vefore the happy this time!!! Squeee
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It just seemed lke MJ ought to be a good jazz singer -- though I admit, there's probably a little inspiration from the 3rd Spiderman movie there. Roughest Day continuity Danny is probably pretty much an honorary New Avenger by this point. After you've been to the Savage Land topgether, you are bonded by an unbreakable bond *nods sagely*
~ Cluelessness is such a perfect offset to everyone else knowing.
Peter is not always all that good at interpersonal things, being the adorable geek that he is (he's better than Reed Richards, but then, who isn't?). And of course, he makes such a great narrator that it's always fun to do things from his pov.
*cheers* Another great one and there wasn't even the hurt vefore the happy this time!!! Squeee
*laughs* We promise to make up for that glaring oversite in the next fic.
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Of course, I have no idea who he's married ot. :P This was great, btw, everything from the six month anniversary to Logan's lurking.
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Maybe threesomes are going on, maybe not. The t-shirt thing is actually inspired by a detail from a daredevil fic by
Of course, I have no idea who he's married ot. :P
A woman named Milla Donovan (well, Mudock, now), who's also blind. She's also kind of crazy at the moment, thanks to Mr. Fear screwing with her, but that's not her fault.
This was great, btw, everything from the six month anniversary to Logan's lurking.
Thanks! Logan's very good at lurking -- it allows him to enjoy all the benefits of socializing without actually having to talk to people.
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that´s the absolute right thing to be reading now (I should study for a history test...but this is better^^)
Thor cracked me up
claiming that consuming anything other than coffee before nine o' clock was barbaric and heathen.
If this had still been the old Avengers, that would have gotten him a five minute lecture on the importance of good nutrition from Thor, who had not only been proud of being both barbaric and heathen, but had also been a doctor in his civilian guise.
brilliant^^
It will involve poisonous insects and lasers."
perfect revenge^^
Disheveled and grease-stained was a good look on him, and he knew it.
that´s not only a look, but also the definition of Tony Stark
settling for grinding an unlit cigar stub between his teeth in a manner that reminded Steve of Nick Fury.
great^^
when it was cold and wet and you'd just walked ten miles in ankle deep mud listening to the Howling Commandos bicker with each other, you were really grateful for those pathetic little pieces of candy-coated chocolate.
chocolate makes everything better^^
"We could always go home, and I could put the shirt with the oil stains back on," Tony said, glancing over to give Steve a suggestive smile
That´s so Tony (and yes, I make nouns into adjectives when I want)
Cap was now wearing the slightly hunted look of a man currently counting backward in his head to try and figure out when it was going to be exactly six months after he and Tony had gotten together.
I loved that mental image!!
Tony smiled at him again -- not the smug, through-the-eyelashes one, but a soft little smile that was funny to see on Tony Stark, billionaire playboy
awww....
that was perfect and they really deserved it after the Roughest
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Thanks so much (and so sorry it took so long to reply)!
that´s the absolute right thing to be reading now (I should study for a history test...but this is better^^)
*grins* RR&R cost me about half a letter grade in my graduate history research seminar -- Steve/Tony seems to be poison to history classes all around.
Thor cracked me up
You can't go wrong with a gratuitous inclusion of Thor, it seems. *grins* Once we thought of it, we were really amused by the idea of Don Blake and/or Thor lecturing the other Avengers about nutrition -- Tony could certainly use a lecture or two.
It will involve poisonous insects and lasers."
perfect revenge^^
Hank won't be allowed to work on the lasers part of it, though -- I think the other Avengers have revoked his access to anything combining computers and weaponry.
Disheveled and grease-stained was a good look on him, and he knew it.
that´s not only a look, but also the definition of Tony Stark
Well, sometimes he's disheveled and blood-stained ^_^.
settling for grinding an unlit cigar stub between his teeth in a manner that reminded Steve of Nick Fury.
great^^
Thanks. Logan and Fury have a lot in common in some ways, though I'm not sure if they'd get along or kill each other.
chocolate makes everything better^^
It does. Even sharing a tent with Fury and Dugan.
"We could always go home, and I could put the shirt with the oil stains back on," Tony said, glancing over to give Steve a suggestive smile
That´s so Tony (and yes, I make nouns into adjectives when I want)
Tony can make any sentence suggestive, probably even computer code (actually, maybe especially computer code, given his relationship with the Living Armor).
Cap was now wearing the slightly hunted look of a man currently counting backward in his head to try and figure out when it was going to be exactly six months after he and Tony had gotten together.
I loved that mental image!!
Yay! A bunch of people seem to like that part.
that was perfect and they really deserved it after the Roughest Day Month
Thanks! They really did, didn't they? Especially Steve and Tony.
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I LOVE all the bits about Steve's era, because so many people seem to forget that he was born in 1923. Steve, of course, makes it easy to forget, since he's more well-adjusted than most middle-aged people who grew up in this era, but he really is from an earlier time, and he did go through the war. The part about Steve wondering why everyone assumes the past is innocent and dull is so true, and I loved how Tony clearly knows this but counters with, "Yes, but we have very potent drugs now."
Steve whimsically pretending it's 1939 was so sweet, but it also seemed the tiniest bit sad—as well as he's adjusted, he was torn out of his own timeline and put in a world that had moved on without him. I'm sure there's things about the thirties he really does miss. Of course, none of them measure up to having Tony, so Steve's fine where he is. =]
And Steve's jealousy is so cute. Of course, he genuinely did want to rescue Tony from the bar, but the presence of the blonde woman had nothing to do with him getting over there so fast. Not at all.
Logan is always great. He just happens to show up where the New Avengers are a lot, doesn't he? Coincidence, I assure you. He's not at all doing these things because his support is appreciated or because he likes them. Of course not.
The bit about Peter being so proud of himself for figuring it out, and everyone else being like, "It took you that long?" was hilarious. Hey, now, the boy's making progress!
"That's an important anniversary. Peter got me flowers and took me to the top of the Empire State Building. It was very romantic until the Vulture attacked us."
That was hilarious, because it would so happen.
This is so sweet. As much as I love angst, I really, really have a massive love for fluff that isn't cloying, and you two do that so well.
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Fluff is always fun to write, though it sometimes feels like cheating because there's no action plot. We're glad you had as much fun reading it as we did writing it.
I LOVE all the bits about Steve's era, because so many people seem to forget that he was born in 1923. Steve, of course, makes it easy to forget, since he's more well-adjusted than most middle-aged people who grew up in this era, but he really is from an earlier time, and he did go through the war. The part about Steve wondering why everyone assumes the past is innocent and dull is so true, and I loved how Tony clearly knows this but counters with, "Yes, but we have very potent drugs now."
American history geekery FTW! (I at least had been waiting to use the detail about Harlem drag balls ever since my US history survey class read Gay New York in our section on early 20th century gender and sexuality).
Steve whimsically pretending it's 1939 was so sweet, but it also seemed the tiniest bit sad—as well as he's adjusted, he was torn out of his own timeline and put in a world that had moved on without him. I'm sure there's things about the thirties he really does miss. Of course, none of them measure up to having Tony, so Steve's fine where he is. =]
*nods* In some ways, Steve is almost like a time-traveller, though he's spent almost a third of his life in "the future" now and is likely entirely used to it by now. For one thing, I bet he misses the days when romantic comedies were actually both romantic and actually funny. Also, the days when fedoras and trenchcoats were cool.
And Steve's jealousy is so cute. Of course, he genuinely did want to rescue Tony from the bar, but the presence of the blonde woman had nothing to do with him getting over there so fast. Not at all.
Oh no. Steve was in no way marking out his territory with that arm over Tony's shoulders. He was just being friendly.
Logan is always great. He just happens to show up where the New Avengers are a lot, doesn't he? Coincidence, I assure you. He's not at all doing these things because his support is appreciated or because he likes them. Of course not.
After the X-Men, the New Avengers are probably refreshingly drama-free (or possibly boringly so) -- and Logan may claim not to be a team player, but he's been with the X-Men a long time, so something of team spirit/team loyalty has to have rubbed off.
The bit about Peter being so proud of himself for figuring it out, and everyone else being like, "It took you that long?" was hilarious. Hey, now, the boy's making progress!
He is! And he figured it out all on his own, without the help of a heightened sense of smell or private investigator training.
"That's an important anniversary. Peter got me flowers and took me to the top of the Empire State Building. It was very romantic until the Vulture attacked us."
That was hilarious, because it would so happen.
*nods* Interruption-by-supervillain is a continual factor in Peter's life (and therefore in MJ's). "I was going to get to class on time, but then the HobGoblin attacked wall street..." "I was going to get these photos to Mr. Jameson, but then the Rhino knocked the side of the building in and I dropped them in order to go fight him and then when I came back the camera had been smashed..." "I was going to go to the faculty meeting, but there was this Wasp-woman who wanted to lay her eggs in me, and, yeah, you don't want to know the details..."
This is so sweet. As much as I love angst, I really, really have a massive love for fluff that isn't cloying, and you two do that so well.
Thanks! We were trying ot to make this too sappy, so it's good to hear we succeeded!
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Favorite line, though many (many, many) other competed: "Oooh, six months," MJ said, in the tone of voice she used when she was being evil. "That's an important anniversary. Peter got me flowers and took me to the top of the Empire State Building. It was very romantic until the Vulture attacked us."
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Favourite moments:
- Tony's jealously over Steve and Jan's swing dancing
- Steve leaning against Tony's shoulder and experiencing the best of both worlds (of course)
- Steve running off the blonde at the bar who has designs on Tony
- Peter demonstrating he's the last (except possibly Steve and Tony) to get a clue
- Steve's hunted look trying to figure out when their six month 'anniversary' is
- Tony's tender smile at the end.
I repeat: awwwww!
(I've got to find some Steve/Tony icons.)