Life in Brooklyn

Chapter 6

Last time he let someone in, they ended up lying and leaving for some useless job across the country. But he seemed so innocent, so nice, almost perfect. But he could just be good at first impressions. Only way to find out, to dance with him and get to know him. Steve asked him out before they both left. Tony smiled and nodded his head. "Yeah, for sure."
He was about to leave, when steve stopped him and wrote his number down on his phone.
"Bye."
"Bye. See you tomorrow."
"Yeah." He smiled an left. Tony didn't want to leave. He wanted to stay there, with steve, but it was 2 in the morning and he was actually exhausted. They'd danced so much, but it was definitely worth it.
Steve walked back and thought about it, he seemed so cool, like a great person, nice, smart, understanding. He really did seem perfect, but steve knew everyone had flaws and he'd discover tonys at one point and tony will discover his.
But over the many dates they had, all of the 'flaws' they found in each other, were cute little things. Some people might think how tony does the weird thing with his face at random times was ugly, but steve found it beautiful. And the way steve... Well tony couldn't find anything. Or maybe he just couldn't see them because he felt so in love. It was amazing, but then Rhodes and Bruce had to find out.
"You're dating someone!" Rhodes shouted. Those two were like frat boys, honestly. Work hard play hard. Literally them. They did their jobs awesomely, but really loved getting into people's business and fooling around with them.
"No, I'm not." Tony tried to say, to back them off, but they were smart.
"Tony, stop lying. Who is it?"
Tony just tried ignoring them, but then his cellphone in his back pocket dinged and Rhodes went straight for it.
Of course it was steve who texted him. "Who's steve? And you have plans... oooOoOooo."
"Stop, give it back." He reached for his phone. But Rhodes pulled it away.
"I'll give it back when you tell us more."
"Rhodes-"
"Cmon tony."
He eyed him, then gave in. "Fine. I met him at the gay bar you guys wanted me to go to so frickin badly. He's nice, and I really like him so I'd appreciate it if you guys didn't fuck anything up."
"Last name?" Bruce pushed.
"Rogers." Shit, maybe he shouldn't have said that. Crap. Bruce can do a lot of things on the computer. "You guys better not-" he turned around to see them walking into Bruce's lab in the building. "No, you guys!" He ran after them, kicked the door open. They were already behind the computer and reading through all the different steve Rogers. Then all the ones currently living in Brooklyn. Only one. Of course.
"Steven Grant Rogers." Bruce said and clicked on the file.
"Bruce-" Bruce's eyes grew as he read through the file, so did Rhodes'. "He was in the army, major Rogers-"
"Bruce-!" Tony tried to push him away from the computer but also saw the file and his stomach churned. "Holy shit." He mumbled.
Reports, of missions. Terrible, traumatizing, horrible. He saw the last reports, when steve gave the order to blow the school, he was shot, twice, shoulder and lower abdomen.
Next was, his camp was attacked. Missiles, blowing the place up. His friend, Bucky, lost his arm, and more of his friends, lost their lives.
He came home then, he didn't put a reason, but tony could guess why he did.
It's why he didn't want to talk about it, why he got nervous when it came up accidentally, and many other reasons.
Tony kept his eyes on the screen, even with both Bruce and Rhodes staring at him. They weren't smiling, or laughing, they, for once, was taking it seriously.
"Oh my..." tony mumbled and shook his head when he realized he was going through his boyfriends personal war file. "We shouldn't be going through this. It's none of our business. It was a bad idea to begin with." He closed tabs and shit the computer off completely. "And do. Not. Go through it anymore." He said firmly to both of them and left.
On the way back to his house, what he read kept running through his head. He imagined steve in that situation, and it hurt. He frowned and pulled over. He had to stop thinking about it. Not his business. Even if they were dating, this relationship could end up ending tomorrow. It wasn't serious yet.
He let out a long breath and shook his arms out a bit before pulling back on the road and driving the rest of the way home.
The next day he had a date with steve, and he was nervous, he had the right to be too. After what he read, he couldn't imagine him any other way.
Like, when he entered the small restaurant steve had chosen, and saw him sitting behind a table at a booth, he saw tony and lit right up, he was really happy to see him. He was really happy. Tony couldn't imagine this happy ball of sunshine, at war, shooting at people and making hard decisions for everyone, even less being hurt, seeing him in pain.
He waved tony over, who slapped a smile on his face and walked there. He sat down across from him at the booth.
"Beginning to think you weren't gonna show." Steve said, still smiling.
"Oh, just, traffic, and I got up late this morning." Tony shrugged. "No way I'm missing today." He smiled back.
They continued with some small talk until the waitress came up and they ordered their lunch.