"I notice you didn't answer my question, Stark." Steve's heart beats a little faster when Tony calls him his lover, and he can't keep the goofy smile off his face. He doesn't even bother to defend his own driving skills or point out that his head would probably be fine in an accident; he just burrows in closer to Tony.
"What, about any tickets? Why?" Tony squints at Steve with faux suspicion, but Steve's goofy smile catches on, contagious. Tony's turns out smaller. "You better not be gunning for blackmail in something so unimpressive. I've already handled, count 'em, two sex tape scandals... So, minor traffic infractions? Not a blip on my radar."
"Just curious, is all." He runs his fingertips idly over Tony's hip, enjoying the freedom to touch as he pleases. "I'm not exactly a blackmail kinda guy." To put it mildly. Natasha might manipulate people like that, but Steve? He's not sneaky and underhanded enough.
"Shame. Could maybe make for some fun roleplay." Mirth lights up Tony's eyes. "Ooo, how 'bout you as the hardknock cop tempted by me, the irresistible prostitute?"
Steve just snorts at the suggestion. "I'm not roleplaying with you, whether it's cops and robbers or cowboys and...well, I guess horses." Which just makes it sound even weirder to him. He doesn't get the point of sexy roleplay.
"Not even me as a captured hero and you as a diabolical Bond-esque villain?" Tony says, smirk wide, humored. He finds most roleplay more funny than sexy, considering the already fantastical nature of their lives. Pepper felt similarly, he thinks. She wanted them able to be themselves together, alone, without the stalwart masks and public facades -- and there he goes again, thinking of her in comparison, his benchmark for a relationship, the gold standard. The thought of Pepper only occurs for a split second before Tony pushes it aside, pained, but it burns an afterimage in.
"Definitely not." Anything related to heroes hits too close to home, and Steve wants that as far away from their relationship as possible. Some of the humor seeps out of his tone for a split second, but he shores his mood up again. "How 'bout I'll be an artist, and you can be a muse." He nudges Tony with an elbow. "I'll draw you like one of those French girls." See? He's not completely unfamiliar with pop culture.
The smirk softens same as Tony's eyes, which gain a twinkle long lost: some muted form of happiness. This thing between them can work. He lost his chance with Pepper, but like she said in that restaurant, like Rhodey echoed that night he visited on the anniversary of Howard and Maria Stark's deaths, Tony has more than one person in his life to depend on now. Doesn't change the fact that the Sokovia death toll reached one hundred seventy-seven or that the world's governments are growing angry and restless, no longer abated by a fear that the Avengers are their only hope in a world gone topsy-turvy after SHIELD's fall. But Tony can find purpose again from this.
"Square deal," he says. "Be like that first time, except buck naked. I even have my mom's priceless necklaces somewhere... Gotta be a sapphire there... Would that be weird wearing it?"
Steve makes a face. "I'm not sure you have the, uh, assets to pull that look off." He leans over and cups Tony's pecs playfully, pretending to shove them up and together. "But I'll find something that'll work." He already has an idea, in fact, although he isn't going to share it with Tony. "I'll bring the couch from my office in here so you have somewhere to pose if you bring a car we can steam up afterwards." He's mostly kidding about that; his room is perfectly fine for that purpose, thank you very much.
"I'mma hold you to that," Tony says, seemingly serious, no reaction to his chest being fondled besides a glance (he's as flat as a dude can be; barely anything to actually cup).
Steve does take the opportunity to brush his thumb against a nipple, just for the hell of it, but he lets his arms fall again sooner enough. "I know you will." Just like Tony knows he'll follow through. "Mm, I still need to get body paints, too. Make you art in more than one way." And it'll be even better with Tony naked and the freedom to paint wherever he wants, he thinks, lost for a moment in imagining the situation.
Pepper secretly liked being pampered -- foot rubs, manicures, massages -- just like how Tony enjoyed servicing her. That wasn't all they did in scenes, but it characterized most of their non-sexual activities, even if it led to being sexual. Having the disparity between her preferences and Steve's will help, though Tony would gladly work out any knots in Steve's muscles. "Hm. Think we've figured out your kinda kink?" he muses.
"Dunno." Steve shrugs. He's not terribly concerned with figuring out any kinks he might have, although this does make him consider a vaguely formed idea regarding waxplay in a new light. Right now, he's just trying to get a decent hold on the whole dom thing. "What if I don't have any kinks?" he half-jokes. "What if it's just...this?" He makes a gesture that's supposed to encompass the pair of them. He's thought about that, about simply not being interesting enough or good enough to keep Tony's attention. He's heard rumors of Tony's exploits, though they might be vastly exaggerated. (But he doubts that.) Steve feels incredibly simple compared to Tony.
Silently Tony studies Steve's face. Reads between the lines. Then, he shrugs, unconcerned. "Eh, we'll figure something suitable out for the both of us. Either way, it'll be fun exploring."
"I think we've already found something suitable," he offers dryly. "But I'm willing to look for more." Because Tony's right, and Steve does have that stubborn adventurous streak that makes him want to press forward, to explore in spite of his fears. He's just worried it won't work somehow.
"Huh, I guess the whole D/S thing is a kink unto itself," Tony says thoughtfully; by this point, it feels like a staple. Before his brain wanders too deep into just how new and uncertain dating Steve will be, Tony stretches with his whole body, back arched and arms out, and grunts, "Enough pillow talk. I want up."
"All right, all right," Steve relents. "I bet you wanna get dressed again too, don't you? So demanding." But something in his hindbrain really likes the way he looks when he stretches, and he stares at Tony for a long moment. "You got something in mind, or are we just going back to the party?" Once Tony's out of the way, he scoots to the edge of the bed and sits up, doing a brief stretch of his own to work the kinks out of his back.
Tony hums without raising his head and hops into his pants. Suddenly, right then, he needed some space from Steve, just -- not too much. Too early to sleep, anyway. "I'm thinking ... Christmas movie. Just the two of us," he says over his shoulder. He shrugs his dress shirt on, but leaves the rest.
Steve pulls on a pair of lounging pants and a t-shirt, then, after a moment of deliberation, grabs his Snuggie. It's long since been removed from the plastic dry-cleaning bag for one of his Netflix binges. Although he doesn't put it on yet, he tucks it under his arm. "I'm gonna make some popcorn first," he decides. "Meet you in the screening room?"
Tony smiles. "Call it a date," he confirms as he leaves. After he slips through the door, the smile falls. God, he hopes he's doing the right thing here, for both himself and Steve.
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"Square deal," he says. "Be like that first time, except buck naked. I even have my mom's priceless necklaces somewhere... Gotta be a sapphire there... Would that be weird wearing it?"
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