Lamborghini | Tony Stark

TWENTY TWO - DISTANCE

The Christmas decorations in Sasha's apartment were taken down on January 6th, though she hadn't been round to Tony's place since New Years Eve to know whether it was still decked out top to bottom in tinsel and mistletoe.

It was the end of January when Sasha realised she hadn't spent the night with Tony since the evening of Christmas Day. The two of them had consecutively celebrated her birthday, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day together, though work commitments dragged Sasha away from Tony as soon as the festivities were over.

She went back into work feeling a lot happier than she had done before the holidays, fulfilled from a wholesome and loving few weeks with Tony. Sasha felt like Tony had showed her a different side to life than she'd ever seen before, that not everything had to be so dark and gloomy.

Tony had hosted a New Years Eve party at his place and again, the two of them had managed to make everyone turn a blind eye to their relationship.

Although it was hard for Sasha to ignore the hot glances and touches of his hand on the small of her back throughout the evening, they both stayed strong, acting no more friendly towards one another than they always had done.

She had intended on staying the night with Tony, though when she announced that she was leaving, and by leaving she meant taking the elevator upstairs to bed, it was Steve that jumped to his feet and offered to walk her home.

There wasn't really a way for Sasha to say no, and so with a pit of sadness in her stomach, she had to start her New Year without even so much as a kiss in bed with Tony since one at midnight hadn't been an option.

As frustrating as it was for Sasha to have to go home alone, the walk back through New York in the early hours of that morning with Steve had turned out to be quite pleasant. They both laughed and joked, talked about old times and enjoyed being in one another's company, alone.

Sasha had always liked Steve, and although things between them weren't written in the stars the way they both thought it might be, it didn't change the fact that they had a close bond and similar personalities that made the chemistry between them undeniable, even if platonic soulmates were all they were meant to be.

Ultimately, Sasha fell asleep that night with a smile on her face. Despite being in bed alone beneath cold sheets, she felt warm inside, happy with her life for the first true time since her brother had passed.

That being said, things had started to feel darker again when Sasha spent more days in the office and nights alone at home, barely having time to call Tony on her way home from work most evenings.

New cases were drowning Sasha and although this time she was able to keep her head above water and maintain a liveable work to life balance, it still didn't free up enough time for her to be with Tony as much as she wanted to be.

On top of that, the days Sasha did have free on weekends seemed to never coincide with Tony's spare hours. The Avengers had been working tirelessly on getting to the bottom of the two attacks on New York City, desperately trying to find out information to help prevent another devastation in the city, or anywhere else in the world.

Tony was sometimes in New York and sometimes on the other side of the globe, meaning that even if Sasha did call, it wasn't always daytime where Tony was.

She missed him, and he missed her. Tony felt the strain on his relationship with Sasha after just one week of them not spending at least one night together. He missed hearing her voice and the way she'd kiss his shoulders in the middle of the night. Tony didn't sleep at the best of times but found it even harder to drift off when he was alone, the only thing sending him to sleep recently being pure exhaustion from work.