Everything Left Unsaid

It should be uneventful. Steve has done this a million times, one way or another. Being used in public service announcements and publicity for the army came with the shield long before the ice did, and just because they changed mediums and became online in this century has made no difference for Steve.

Shaking his head, Steve physically tries to chase the memories of last night away. He puts on his most charming smile- one that Tony always tells him that makes his knees go weak, and takes a deep breath, promising himself that he won’t think about Tony until he ends the live stream. These people are tuning in for a good cause, his whole attention is the least he can give back to them in exchange.

Well, things rarely go according to plan, huh?

Steve isn't surprised that a clip of Tony appearing on his zoom meeting just wearing his thong went viral. He is surprised that his friends all think that it was a really weird way of making their relationship public. The thing is, he and Tony aren't dating and really aren't in any relationship.

Four times Steve tries to convince Tony he's ready to put out + the one time it works 😏

“There’s no way anyone survived out here,” said Steve.
“That’s rich, coming from you,” said Tony. “You suspect he’s here; I gathered as much. That’s why you put together this team and why you’re tight-lipped about what’s inside that base,” he said.
“I’ll admit, it’s a smart plan. At best, he’s here. At worst, we’ve learned the ins and outs of a Hydra base and hopefully, the location of another.”
She looked up and met his eyes. “And what if I think he’s here?”
“Are the rumors true?”
“That depends, which rumors?"

The year is 1975: the stonewall riots were only six years ago, the CD has yet to be invented, and Tony Stark is taking his first steps into trans-humanism.

>> initializing(extremis-setup)...

Sir Steven has a great task ahead. Bring King Dreykov the heart of the dragon that took Princess Natalia and the knight would be rewarded with the truth. But all his expectations are thrown off the back of his horse when the dragon whisks him away to a distant land, where he just might end up finding what he had been missing for all those years of his lonesome wanderings. A home.

Steven of Stormwind, Paladin of the Silver Hand, has finally made one too many important nobles angry. Now he’s been sent halfway across the world to assist the Alliance’s new members, the draenei. And he’s been assigned to accompany the strangest of them all - Tony, an artificer - on a goodwill mission across the new territory.

"You have the whole world in front of you, Tony," Steve says, slowly. "When you get off this boat, there's nothing to stop you from living the life you want. If that's as a mechanic with a nice Alpha--you can have that. Just because what you grew up with is trash, doesn't mean that all alphas are. You can still have exactly what you want."

Tony laughs, and it feels brittle, sharp, cutting at his throat as it spills between them. "There aren't nice Alphas, Captain. No one is nice enough to walk away from a billion dollar fortune for someone like me."

"I would," Steve says, and it feels like a confession, like something he doesn't mean to share, and all the more precious for it.

While spending the week in LA on business, Tony impulsively hires a male escort to keep him company after his girlfriend breaks up with him.
Or,
Steve and Tony spend a whole week trying not to fall in love with each other.

His life would be a lot easier if he could just stick to painting other things. Landscapes for example. Landscapes were nice.
But then again landscapes didn’t have that glint in their eye, or that body that had been built from hard engineering and years of trying to do good. They didn’t have that inherent charm and good looks that won them Sexiest Man of the Year four times.
By comparison, landscapes were a joke.
Steve causes himself a whole heap of trouble when he starts to paint pictures of Tony.

Steve finds porn too unrealistic to watch.

Tony gives him a helping hand. And mouth.