(no subject)

[starkingenuity]

"Not.  My.  Problem."  He's been raging over the finer points of his Jaeger Academy graduation dispatch for the last three hours.  "Do you not know who I am?  Do you not know the contributions I've made to the PPDC?  How about the genius I've lent to the program?  To the pons devices?  To the Jaeger control cores?  The drivesuits?  I do not--  Listen.  Marshall.  I should get a damned say in who you stick me with."

"That's not how it works, Ranger," the calm man tells the somewhat older gentleman sitting across from him.  Stark is a genius.  No one can or will ever doubt that.  He went through a year's worth of training and breaking and mental and physical exhaustion in the span of three months time.  It's...unheard of.  It's completely unheard of.

There's just one trouble.

Stark isn't Drift Compatible with anyone.  Well, with almost anyone.  Somehow, getting a neural bridge to the brain of his dad's science project isn't really high on the to-do list.  "Let me try the Kwoon room again.  Find someone else not in the Academy.  Just not him.  Yanno, I think you're trying to punish me!"

The Marshall sighs.  Director Fury had warned him about Stark.  He just hadn't listened.

Comments

[starkingenuity]

"Are you always like this?" Tony snaps. "Or do you just have to negate everything I say?" He'd forgotten how much of an asshole Steve is because of the Drift. Understanding someone doesn't mean that you automatically like them though. Why did he think he could get along with Steve outside of their training scenarios?

A lot of venom slips out, through their weird connection, without permission. Tony isn't going to apologize now, but later he might feel bad about it.

He ends up stalking away from Steve to join the other engineers in the observation bay. He wants to watch the fight. He wants to fantasize about being out there. It'll be a few months now before he even gets the chance. And that sucks.

[starspangledspandex]

"If you keep trying to get us killed, then yeah, I do," he snaps back, bristling at Tony's irritation. Steve knows he's being negative but he's not in any hurry to go to a watery grave. He understands that Tony is impatient but he'll have to get over it.

He feels the venom and he presses his lips together. Steve is trying to be the bigger person here but it's not an easy thing to do. He watches Tony go with a scowl. They'd been doing so well and now this.

Steve doesn't go too far either. He ends up heading up to observation too. It's not optimum but he needs to know what's happening and how everything works. He needs to see how these fights go down. He ignores Tony when he heads up and goes to the other side, leaning back against the wall.

[starkingenuity]

So now they aren't talking and Tony finds that so hard to deal with that he actually can't pay attention to the fight. The Jaegers have just reached the Kaiju when Tony turns away and storms out of the room. It has very little to do with Steve as much as it has to do with his own anger at himself.

He should apologize but Tony Stark does not apologize. He should try to smooth things over at least, but the blond is so fucking irritating.

He's not there where the Mammoth Apostle gets its arm ripped off. And it's conn-pod destroyed.

[starspangledspandex]

So now they can't even be in the same room as one another? Really? His presence is so irritating just existing is a problem? Fine, let Tony throw his fit. Steve has already agreed to give him space tonight anyway. He'll make sure they know that he wants to keep his room too.

Steve has nothing to apologize for as far as he's concerned. He's being cautious in the face of something with such a high mortality rate it's a wonder anyone signs up anymore.

He is there and watching as the Jaeger goes down. Maybe it's cruel but Steve shoves the image toward Tony alongside his grief. He hadn't known the pilots but two bright, determined and well-trained people had just lost their lives like it was nothing. It could be them.

[starkingenuity]

It's like getting a rock lobbed at the back of his head. Tony actually stumbles twice and catches himself on the wall. It's slow motion down there, his heart in his throat and medical assistance running to get into rescue planes. They all know that the pilots are dead. That doesn't stop them from trying to do what their job is...

Search. Rescue. At least there will be bodies to bring back. If they're lucky.

Tony has trouble straightening up and wets his lips before he closes his eyes. That was un... That was... Jesus, Cap, they're dead aren't they? Tell me that Romeo Blue is killing that thing.

[starspangledspandex]

, Yeah, they are, he replies solemnly.

He waits and watches long enough to see Romeo Blue retaliate with a vengeance, knowing that search and rescue is unlikely to find anything by the time they get there. Claws had ripped right through the conn pod and he wouldn't be surprised if they had died instantly.

Romeo has it handled.

Steve turns away from the screen as the command center calls it and goes in search of his Drift partner. He knows that had been almost uncalled for but he had to give Tony a wake up call. Now he feels bad and he doesn't know how much comfort he'll be but at least he tried.

[starkingenuity]

It'd been too real. Tony's never known destruction like that. Yes, Jaegers have been destroyed. Pilots have died. But he's never experienced it the way someone else with an actual heart might. He's never seen deaths like that and it's too hard for him to shake.

Cool, calm, collected. Tony Stark is a man that designs weapons, sells weapons, and leaves people to do with them as they will. But Steve's been in war before. He's lost before. And the empathy the blond has is actually overwhelming his co-pilot.

But the time Steve finds him, Tony has pressed himself so far back against a corner that he might as well become one with the paint job.

He's having trouble breathing, but that's only because he doesn't know how to properly be upset. Not until Steve is there and the Super Soldier sort of envelop him that Tony just lets go, tears soaking against the blond's chest.

Give him time. It's a lot to take in.

[starspangledspandex]

As soon as he sees Tony, he's definitely sorry that he'd gone about it this way but it's too late to take it back now. All he can do is pick up the pieces.

He doesn't hesitate to wrap his arms around the man he finds huddling in the corner. It's easy and natural. Steve rubs Tony's back as the man lets go and cries. He knows that this is rare. He can't immediately pick a memory from the older man where this has actually happened.

Steve shifts so he can sit more comfortably on the floor and just holds him, waiting for Tony to calm down. "Shhh... easy..."

[starkingenuity]

Well this is the most embarrassed he's been in a really long time. For a forties man, Steve is really a very sensitive guy. Tony is trying very hard not to take ownership of any of this, but alas. Shit is happening. He's feeling it. And try as he might, he can't shake it. Steve is in his brain and in his bone and it's really got to be some sort of special hell he's in thanks to all of the wrongs he's done to the world.

The floor is dirty. Hundreds of people walk this stretch daily and there are dust bunnies even so in the corners where push brooms and polishers can't get. Tony doesn't mind. one hand pressed to the floor for leverage as he launches fully into a kiss Steve probably had no idea was coming.

Actually, Tony didn't know it was coming either. Sorry about the facial hair.

[starspangledspandex]

There's really no need for him to be embarrassed. He's seen Steve cry in the face of death. It had been that same grief he'd pulled out for the pilots of the Mammoth. It had been heavy-handed and he'd known it but this is something that Tony had to go through.

He can feel plenty of thoughts going through the other man's head but the kiss... that is definitely not there. Steve blinks in shock at Tony, stiff for a moment in his surprise and he decides to hell with it. It's not like his attraction has been that well hidden.

Steve kisses back and he's less concerned by the facial hair than by the fact that it's wet because of the tears.

[starkingenuity]

Steve's entirely too broad back is shoved up against the wall. Tony uses his shoulders as leverage as his fingers sink into perfectly coiffed hair. They'd been sleeping. How can a serum make someone's hair look like that after a few hours of bed turning? It's unfair. Maybe that's what all of the hair tugging is about?

Or maybe he's just trying to get what he already feels out into the physical. Climbing over Steve seems logical to achieve that and Tony plants himself half in the blond's lap as he tugs back his head.

No one is paying any attention to the pilots in the corner half behind the door. No one notices them. And if they do-- Well pilots are strange. They can do whatever they'd like.

[starspangledspandex]

"Mmph," his hands raise and he'd planned on maybe pushing Tony away but his hands find the older man's hips instead as he leans up into the kiss. It's been a long time since he's kissed anyone and Tony knows that he's never gone any further.

The hair tugging doesn't bother him. He ruffles it up a little and it'll fall back in place. He really doesn't fuss with his hair all that much, just enough to look presentable. Steve is very much a willing participant here.

Though at the same time, they might be able to do whatever they'd like but he's not big on PDA and definitely not on making out on the floor in public. With Tony, he's not entirely sure if it's going to stay innocent.

He breaks the kiss, "Tony, we can't do this here." Whatever this is. He doesn't even know.

[starkingenuity]

The taste of Steve's mouth is the same sort of sweet that girls that lie about their age have. He knows Steve's young, despite the year he was born. He's a modern marvel the likes of which, maybe, the Jaeger come close to being with their integrated neural piloting system. But he's still virginal. He's still innocent. And Tony had just spent the last two minutes or so thoroughly debauching that once pristine mouth of his.

He's not sure why. Connection? Sorrow? Lust in the wake of hopelessness? It happens in laboratory mice. Why not in humans?

Tony gets to his feet and hauls Steve -- who is going to have to help him if he's to be successful -- right on up after him. "Room. Now."

He wipes his mouth and heads off. The blond will have no trouble keeping up.

[starspangledspandex]

It completely depends on how Tony actually views innocent. Steve knows plenty about what goes on in the bedroom even if he hasn't been there himself. He has his fantasies--he's not totally innocent. Virginal, well, he can't deny that one.

He's breathing a bit heavily as he stares back at Tony. Steve feels a bit debauched but that's a-okay with him. He doesn't know exactly why either but he's not analyzing it and he definitely isn't wondering how they can go from not talking to rolling around in their quarters.

Steve does help him with a nod and deep breath, raising his hand to wipe at his own mouth, "Yeah, okay." He follows without questioning it.

[starkingenuity]

Taking someone half his age to bed had been standard before the world went to all fuck and rationing started and economies even slightly less stronger than America's collapsed. It's been awhile for him and he should care a little bit about who he's dragging with him.

No, opposite of that. He shouldn't care. But this guy knew his dad. This guy won the war in the long run for them. He wore pajamas replicated this guy's uniform as a kid and had Captain America blankets to curl under.

It's not every day you get to fuck a legend. Or one up his dad who probably wouldn't have gone for Steve. They'll never know the answer to that.

They're not in their room for more than a second, door shut, when Tony invades all of Steve's space again to disrupt his balance and knock him over.

[starspangledspandex]

Steve's the one that should really care. A person only gets to lose their virginity once and back when he'd been going to the academy the other man would have been his absolute last choice. An hour ago, the man would have been his last choice.

But here they are and Steve has missed out on so many crushes in his life, so many people, that he's not letting this one slip him by for better or worse.

He throws a hand out to catch himself on something behind them so they don't go tumbling to the floor and knocks... something, off the desk. Steve winces, hands gently trying to steer Tony in the direction of one of the beds instead.

[starkingenuity]

Bed is good. Bed works. Getting Steve out of his shirt is easy enough too until Tony finally sees through their joined sorrow and need for companionship that Steve is trying to make this as good for himself as possible.

And so Tony relents. There is, as Steve has taught him, compromise. But first? Off comes his own shirt. On equal ground, Tony sits back over Steve's thighs and kisses him again. More gently. The passion hasn't died but the need to chew off his face has.

First times should be memorable. And yes. Tony knows Steve is thinking about sex. Luckily, romance is a very doable thing here.

"I'm sorry," he says, which is terribly difficult to say even as he strokes the back of Steve's neck. "I forget that I'm human too sometimes."

[starspangledspandex]

There are no complaints from him when he loses his shirt and the backs of his legs find a bed. Steve drops onto it easily and watches as Tony removes his own shirt. Now he can actually look and appreciate without being sneaky about it.

He is trying to at least make himself comfortable. Steve doesn't want to regret this and he's trying not to be nervous but there are a few jitters there. It's better when Tony straddles him and slows down a little. He kisses back just as gently; he appreciates it.

"I'm sorry. It was a low blow," Steve shakes his head slightly. He doesn't need an apology. "Guess it's a good thing I'm here to remind you."

[starkingenuity]

"Yeah about that--" His skin is so soft. Honestly Steve, how do you manage being a brick house and still have skin like a woman? Tony's beard and stubble precede his lips up the column of Steve's throat as he gently explores parts of the super soldier he's positive no one else has before.

This is probably why Drifting happens primarily between siblings. Sharing everything with someone makes it impossible not to want to share this too. Is this how those Russian pair started out?

Tony lays Steve back against his pillow, the scent of expensive shampoo clinging to the sheets. They don't have to go at this full force. This doesn't have to be much more that this. He can feel Steve's nerves. He'd never press him.

Of course, Tony is use to getting down and dirty right out of the cage so the blond would likely have to speak up. Loudly. If he doesn't want this to continue.

"I could probably do with less reminding but if you want to take the job of my cricket, go ahead."

Disney's Pinocchio wasn't a thing in the 40s, Stark.

[starspangledspandex]

That would be serum, Tony. His cells regenerate fast enough to make him look young and supple. It's probably going to be that way for awhile. Well, provided that he lives long enough to get old.

He tips his head to let Tony kiss his neck and twists to drop back against the bed. Steve wouldn't know expensive shampoo from anything else but it does smell nice. The jitters are only natural. They're likely going to be there no matter what.

Steve does want this. He feels a connection to Tony now and he can't possibly think of what else to share. There's nothing more intimate than drifting--this is second best.

He's distracted by the comment and he gives Tony a confused look. "Beg your pardon?" Steve could just poke about in his head but he prefers real interaction. He finds the telepathy thing weird.

[starkingenuity]

Crickets, puppets on strings turning into real boys, yadda yadda. It's not the sexiest thing to be thought at but hell, it happens and it's better than moving his mouth from skin to have to say anything verbally. Maybe this thing isn't so bad after all. "Forget I said anything," he murmurs. Steve can be his cricket without even knowing the Blue Fairy or any of that.

Undressing takes time. He takes care of Steve first, mostly to gawk and to be sure he's not going to look stupid getting his own pants off, and because he's curious about his father's handiwork.

He knows all about the Steve From Before. And he can't help it if he silently thanks his father for making him look so fucking beautiful. Maybe he should be a little more sensitive but this is Tony Stark. He needs some help with that matter.

After pulling the last of Steve's socks off, and kneeling between his legs as he sits on his heels, Tony runs a hand up the blond's thigh.

"What do you want and how do you want it." I want to hear you say it.

[starspangledspandex]

Well that was all... interesting. Steve still isn't sure he totally gets what Pinocchio is about but he'll find a copy or something later. He's a little busy now to think too hard about it.

His hands slide up Tony's side as the man explores his neck with his mouth and he lets him pull away, lifting his hips to help in the removal of his pants. He's surprised by the care that goes into all of it. Good surprised.

Steve shifts his legs apart a little further at the fingers teasing him. He stares at the older man and promptly blushes because most of the ways he comes up with to say it are either dirty or a bit, well, ridiculous.

You know what I want.

[starkingenuity]

Tony pauses, head tilted to the side like a little lost puppy before he grins almost maliciously and drops his lips towards Steve's knee. Oh. I know what you want.

Kiss. "You want a Milky Way. No. A Baby Ruth." Sorry, Steve. He's a dick. At least his mouth his traveling upward even if you have to put up with him gazing at you through a dense forest of lashes. "A new set of charcoals." He licks over the curve of the knee towards Steve's quivering thigh. "And a golden retriever. Puppy."

Sorry. Mind reading is a bitch.

[starspangledspandex]

Steve gives him a flat look at the list that he rambles off even if he's kissing up his leg. Seriously, Tony? Way to ruin the mood. He shakes his head and the blush recedes.

He is a dick.

"I don't have anything to do with a puppy," he tells him. Unless, of course, Tony wants to live with it which he seriously doubts.

Steve wets his lips and adds, "I know you've done this before. I didn't think you'd need directions."

[starkingenuity]

Don't worry Steve. He's not a buzz kill. You'll see. "Everyone likes it differently," Tony says with a laugh. "Even Captain America." Maybe he just gets off on it. Maybe he likes the direction. The ideas. Maybe he just wants Steve's voice to flutter like butterflies.

Tony sucks a hickie into his thigh and watches as it recedes.

"So no S&M," he says with a laugh and nuzzles the spot just after. "Do you want me to jerk you off? Suck you? Fuck you? Let you fuck me? Back, front, sideways-- You have to know what you want, Steve. And I know that you know what you want. But let me hear it."