“Nice moves, doc,” Tony says. He packs as much innuendo into the phrase as he can given the distortion of the armor’s voice transmitter, the occasional blast and clang from the rest of the Avengers’ battle, and the fact that he and Stephen are playing goalie with spiky purple somethings that keep bouncing away from the battle and toward the general public.
Stephen deflects another three somethings with a shield and turns an incredulous gaze on Tony. “Are you flirting with me? Now?”
“Yes!” Tony exclaims, relieved. This wasn’t exactly the reaction he was going for, but at least it got through. “Thank you for finally noticing.” He blasted a series of somethings.
“It might have gone a little smoother if you’d tried at some time other than during a battle,” Stephen says dryly.
“Come on, Merlin, when else do we see each other?”
“You know where I live.”
Pointing out the sheer creepiness of the Sanctum probably isn’t going to work in Tony’s favor right now. “The point of the flirting is to determine if you want me in your personal spaces,” Tony says instead. “So? What’s the verdict?”
Stephen looks distinctly thoughtful even as the two of them deal with another wave of somethings. “Points for persistence,” he says eventually. “Good enough for dinner.”
“Give me a dinner, I’ll take a mile,” Tony says cheerfully.
“That’s not supposed to be a good thing!” Stephen protests, but he’s laughing.
Tony cooed over the video Peter had sent to the group chat of the fluff ball of a dog running on tiny legs. “Let’s get a dog.”
Stephen looked up from where he was tossing a salad for dinner. “We literally have thirteen alpacas,” he said flatly. “We’re not getting a dog.”
“We have one alpaca,” Tony argued. “Gerald. I don’t know what those magical abominations you brought home are, but they’re not alpacas.” Sure, they looked like alpacas whenever anyone visited. But they weren’t. No one believed Tony when he said they were demon creatures.
Tony didn’t know where the tentacles, wings, and fangs disappeared to when they had guests. Stephen had hidden the books that would tell Tony more. Tony suspected Stephen was waiting for the abominations to grow on Tony before he revealed they were something mildly terrifying.
Tony was onto him.
Unfortunately, the demon alpacas were kind of adorable when they wanted to be.
“I don’t think my ‘magical abominations’ want to share space with a dog,” Stephen said. “They were here first.”
Tony considered the situation. “What about a demon dog?”
Stephen paused. “Huh.” His eyes brightened with an idea. “I have the perfect thing.”
Guys, I just found out that if I read a fic on ao3 and log out, I can give kudos as a guest, and when I log back in, I can give kudos with my account, and both is counted, which basically means I'm finally able to give fics kudos more than once!!!
one thing people never understand is that i can and will ship characters with multiple other characters. like, we’re not discriminating here. not in this household, my good sir. equal opportunity. if they want to make out, they can make out. don’t stand in the way of that. love is beautiful. thank you for coming to this ted talk.
Stephen smiles when he sees that Tony’s made himself a cappuccino. They hadn’t planned to hang out today, but the Sanctum had been full of students and discordant energy, and it grated on Stephen’s nerves. When he complained by text, Tony had offered a respite.
As he sits, Tony holds out a second mug to Stephen. He’s about to protest when the fragrant smell of his favorite tea reaches him.
“If you give it 45 more seconds,” Tony says, “it’ll have steeped for exactly three minutes.”
Stephen’s heart warms: Tony has remembered, just the same as Stephen does for him.