#16woodsequ

13. Massaging their head to get through migraines

"Again, huh?" Tony asks, sounding sympathetic as Steve collapses unceremoniously on the workshop couch, closing his eyes and puts his head in Tony's lap to shut out all the light. Something—god knows what—at SHIELD headquarters set off his migraine this morning and he's held it together all day, with the irritating headache and the suddenly too-bright lights and the waves of nausea, but he doesn't have any more appearances to keep up now that he's home. "JARVIS, lights down."

Even with his face buried in Tony's lap, Steve can feel the workshop get dimmer. The low light means Tony won't be able to get much of anything done. Tony's like this every time Steve gets an intolerable migraine. He joked once that taking care of Steve's migraines was easier than taking care of himself when he was hungover. Another time, he said you never need me like this—I'm not about to screw it up.

"I love you," Steve says muffledly, patting Tony's leg, and Tony laughs.

"Oh, poor Captain Rogers. The serum didn't kill his migraines," Tony says, sliding his fingers into Steve's hair to rub his scalp, and Steve pretty much melts. Tony is so good at fixing things.

"Do you have a piece of armour around here?" Steve asks after a few minutes of Tony massaging the worst of his headache away, because he'd really like something cold on his face and because he's stopped having reservations about asking Tony for things.

"Yeah, I've got a gauntlet right over here," Tony says, pulling his hands away. Steve hears metal sounds. "Why, want me to knock you out with it?"

Steve laughs. "Not your worst idea."

"Kidding. Turn over. I'll put it on your face."

Steve knows how silly he looks with an Iron Man gauntlet on his face (because Tony cracked up and took a picture the first time they did this), but the cold metal is so soothing. Tony says it's a testament to how good his cooling is.

"Thank you," Steve says on an exhale after another few minutes of laying there with Tony, his thumbs still rubbing gentle circles on Steve's scalp. "I've been wanting to get home all day."

Tony is quiet for a moment at that. Then, low and soft, "Well, isn't that nice to hear."

Can we do Tony doing 15 for Steve?

many thanks to the steve discord for brainstorming steve slander 🤭

15. defending their name when they’re not present

Tony wants to let it go because he's only at the Trisk to meet Steve for lunch, and what does he care what two idiots with the clearance levels of a Central Park squirrel and a subway rat have to say about Steve? Tony keeps his head down, his cap hiding his face. Steve should be down any minute now and Tony isn't particularly interested in making a scene at the moment.

"—American symbol my ass," Squirrel continues. "I mean, maybe that was true in the forties. Easy to be a good guy back then, right? I still can't believe they put him back on that pedestal."

But seriously, what?

"You're telling me," Rat says. "What's SHIELD even paying for him to do? They don't seriously expect us to believe a meathead like that is running point on actual missions or leading the goddamn Avengers. He's just a figurehead."

Tony actually has to close his eyes because he's starting to see red, and as soon as he does, he sees Steve the night before a team operation, sitting by himself and going back over the map they'd outlined their plan on, over and over until he's sure he's come up with every last exit strategy to make sure he can get everyone out in one piece.

Just a figurehead.

"Yeah, a figurehead I have to see at work walking around with a stick up his ass," Squirrel says. "I swear I've never seen him smile. You think they replaced the real Captain America with an android or something?"

"Something like that. Either way, incapable of feeling anything."

And then they laugh and it's not the nastiest thing they've said in the last few minutes, but for some reason, that little comment is what finally sets Tony off.

There's a lot he could say, and stunningly, most of what he's thinking right now isn't even venomous. He's thinking about how much Steve smiles these days, and how he'll take the shield off his back and melt against someone's shoulder on the ride home, and how easily he allows his heart to get broken over everything from a sad movie to an underfunded animal shelter—

But god forbid he doesn't cartwheel down the hallways at SHIELD's headquarters grinning ear to ear, apparently, and if these two can't manage some basic decency for Steve Rogers of all people, they definitely don't deserve to know about all that softness.

So Tony lifts up his cap and says, "Are we gonna have a problem?"

The way they freeze up when they see Tony's face and realise that it's him they've been talking shit within earshot of isn't even satisfying. It just tells Tony that they wouldn't have the guts to say half of what they've been saying to Steve's face, and he realises that he's a little more ticked off than he thought he was.

"Uh—"

"You know he's a better man than the two of you stacked on top of each other, right? Not only does he run point here and lead the Avengers back in New York, he's half the reason this place exists. And maybe the reason you've never seen him smile is because he had to look at you. See, I'm looking at you right now. Am I smiling?"

Rat looks nothing short of petrified. "Mr. Stark, we—"

"And, for your information, Steve's a fucking cupcake. So if he's actually a dick to you, take a good look in the mirror and think long and hard about why. Now if I—"

"Tony?"

Tony shuts his mouth and turns around.

Steve is standing there, looking genuinely confused. "I'm a cupcake?" His gaze travels past Tony and lands on Squirrel and Rat, who he nods at. "Hi there."

Tony turns back around momentarily just to say, semi threateningly, "We're leaving. Go do some thinking." Then, at Steve, "Come on. I'm hungry."

"What was going on with those kids?" Steve asks, glancing over his shoulder as they head out.

#abusive brock rumlow is some of my fav kind of Steve whump

thank you so much!!! here's some of my fake dating modern au for you <333

many

Or maybe Bucky was a sex athlete and slept with as many people as he could. Steve’s brain took a late lunch break at that point until the guy next to him – Gabe Jones? – kicked him in the leg and saved him from another tongue lashing.

picture

“Sure,” Clint said, and looked around shiftily. “Only don’t ask me to prove it, because I promised Freddie Barnes that I wouldn’t do any handstands in the house. But I teach now; if you’re interested in acrobatics, trapeze, juggling, or archery, I’m your man.” Steve couldn’t really picture a world where he was compelled or physically capable of any of those things, but he still thanked Clint.

so sorry i missed this until now, @16woodsequ! thank you for sending this one in! here is my only use of the word scramble:

He ran across the street, unloaded two dozen bullets into the alien’s vague stomach area, and before anyone could even tell who he was, jumped and scrambled up the alien’s glistening leg. He barely even noticed the disgusting sticky surface, he was so intent. He had a garret wire around the alien’s fat neck before the Avengers realized what was going on. “Holy heck,” Iron Man buzzed from behind his dumb armor. “Is that—” “ебать,” the Hawkeye and the Black Widow said in unison, and well, Bucky understood that word in any language.

(Just Say It Out Loud by Gamma Skies, my new song obsession)

Tony hosts an elaborate forty third birthday party because he hasn’t seen Steve in a while and figures he’d be too polite to decline an event like that, and then he spends the night getting drunk off his ass for reasons he can’t name. He keeps an eye out for Steve from across the room and he’s all dressed up and handsome and Tony suddenly wishes he took his birthday in a different direction. Smaller, so he’d actually get time with Steve.

[fruits + veggies asks]

🥔 - I just think you're neat