Tony was in a miserable mood. Just as he'd been since he woke up alone that morning and had seen what day today was.

Valentine's Day.

If he ever met the guy who thought Valentine's Day was a good idea (and considering how often he'd already travelled to the past that was a definite possibility), he'd shoot him.

Not only was the whole world going crazy overdosing on romance, but the press was always hounding him more than any other day of the year and the women chasing him were more obnoxious than usual. And all that additionally to the hell that was corporate business these days. At least there was no super villain stirring up major trouble.

That Steve was away on a mission right now, instead of with him wasn't helping his bad mood. So he'd spent the day being miserable and everyone was doing their best to avoid him.

Well, everyone but Pepper. But then again, her temper should be considered a super power, scary as it was.

As should her stubbornness, which she was using to her best extent to get him to finally leave the office, since it was already past nine o'clock in the evening.

He was doing his best to ignore her by staring out the windows and tuning her voice out as much as possible. The last thing he wanted was to sit at home, where everything was reminding him that his lover was away – especially away on Valentine's Day.

Why had he decided that drinking was a bad idea again? Not that he was ever going to start drinking voluntarily again. As long as he had Steve he could deal with anything, even if Steve wasn't always with him.

He still preferred spending the night alone in his office (or the lab, if that wasn't locked down for security reasons right now) to being alone at home, though.

"Really, Tony, you should go home. It's late," Pepper's voice penetrated his thoughts.

"I don't want to," he shook his head and then he sighed. "I have no reason to."

"Are you sure?" Pepper asked with a tone in her voice was that she only used when she knew more than she let on. "Maybe you should make certain that you have no reason to go home. I, for one, am leaving. Happy's waiting." And with that she turned around and went to the door, only calling out a "Night, Tony!" before the door closed behind her.

After standing alone in his office for a few more minutes Tony decided that maybe he should heed Pepper's advice; she had the habit of being right in these kind of things, after all.

Shutting down the computer that had been running in the background this whole time, switching off the lights and locking the door Tony left his office and used the elevator to get to the garage with his car, before he took one of the longer routes home. Just because he'd chosen to go home didn't mean that he planned to spend much of what was left of the day there. Maybe he would even go straight to bed, it wasn't like he couldn't use the sleep.

When Tony was finally opening the door to his apartment after a minute-long search for the keys – and why had he put them away anyway? – he knew instantly that something wasn't quite right. The door had been unlocked and he knew for sure that he'd locked it when he left that morning. That in itself didn't have to mean anything, of course. There were a number of people who had a key to his apartment, after all. But he didn't survive this long on carelessness, so he cautiously stepped into the apartment and silently closed the door behind him. Then he listened for any noise that didn't belong here before he moved forward again.

Sounds of cooking were coming from the kitchen – from what he smelled someone was making pasta with some kind of sauce – and when he came into the living room he could see Captain America's shield leaning against the wall.

Tony was overwhelmed with surprised happiness at the presence of his lover and his face split into a huge grin. His dark thoughts and depressed feelings suddenly disappeared.

"Steve?" he called, the excitement obvious in his voice.

"In here!" the reply came from the kitchen, as Tony made his way over.

When Tony stopped in the door to the kitchen he could see Steve stirring something – probably the sauce – in a pot, setting the table and putting the pasta in a bowl.

"Hi, Tony, had a nice day?" the blond asked with a smile, while at the same switching off the stove and hurriedly grabbing the pot to keep the sauce from spilling.

"It just got better," Tony answered, sounding slightly amused at his lovers troubles. "And not that I'm not glad that you're here, but I thought you weren't supposed to return for a few days."

"Yeah, well, the mission was over sooner than expected and Fury was being a nice guy for a change", and here both had difficulty to keep from laughing, because Fury and nice really didn't belong in the same sentence, "and let me put off the post mission work." Having finished explaining Steve moved over to where Tony was standing and, placing one hand in Tony's neck and the other against his cheek, pulled his lover into a long and deep kiss.

After a while Steve broke the kiss and leaned his forehead against Tony's.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Tony."

Tony smiled softly. "Now it is."