#// anyway it's sing steve's praises hours ig

[shellheadtm-a]

@shieldslinger / ❝ You think I’m stupid? ❞ locke & key: dissection

“I think you can be a stubborn pain in the ass, sure, but stupid?”  Steve Rogers, stupid?  Anyone - and Tony literally means anyone - who thinks that finds out swiftly that is definitely not the case when they get outmaneuvered by him.  And yeah, Steve can be a bit thick, maybe, when he digs his heels in over something and is sure he’s Right.  And sometimes he is right but Tony won’t say that.  Usually.  Without prodding.  And when he can’t see the advantages of coming to a compromise when it’s needed.  Steve is stubborn.

But stupid?  Never, in this life, has Tony Stark ever thought any such thing.  Can’t, he knows better.  Has known it from day one.  Because for as thick and stubborn and unbending and uncompromising as Steve can be, he’s keenly smart, in ways Tony’s not.  He’s a better leader, for one.  A better strategist.  A better man all the way around.  Tony’s never made any secret, at all, that he thinks that.  Tony may be a founding member, but there’s no Avengers - not really - if there’s no Steve.

This isn’t even a biased, has been in love with Steve secretly for years kind of opinion.  Plenty of people he can name off the top of this head think the exact same thing.  Steve is anyone with a brain’s first choice for something, even among literal gods.  Steve’s the one people rarely hesitate to listen to.  And Tony actually doesn’t need his genius intellect to understand that it’s because of who Steve is as a person, and that includes his smarts.  People wouldn’t do that for someone they considered an idiot.

And the biased, has been in love with Steve secretly for years opinion is that Steve is literally the best thing since sliced bread, and always has been, and always will be.

He puts aside his tablet, because he feels like maybe this is one of those conversations he should be giving his full and complete attention.  He doesn’t know, precisely, what’s brought this on, and that in itself is troublesome.  "I’ve never thought that.  Besides, I don’t fall in love with stupid people.”  There.  There’s an attempt at levity, as the corners of his mouth quirk upward briefly.

He holds out a hand, for Steve to take.  “What’s got you so blue, sunshine.”