Life in Brooklyn

Chapter 19

They started off with a bit of small talk, then they somehow started about tonys heart condition and why steve was a suspect for his assault. Then they sat quietly for a few seconds before tony continued asking about the war.
Steve broke eye contact and squeezed his hands together until his knuckles were white and fingers were numb. "Uhm... I..." he trailed off and looked around the room quickly before continuing. "It was 'easier' at first. I wasn't a major and I took orders and didn't gave them. But when I did..." he wiped his face and sighed. "I ended up killing a bunch of innocent children." He hit the table.
"You didn't have a choice." Tony said, trying to comfort him a bit. He could tell he wasn't comfortable talking about it in the first place, but tony had to know so he could help. Had to.
"But I did. I made the decision to bomb the place."
"Steve; stop blaming yourself and explain."
Steve sighed. "There were terrorists all over the small town, but a large portion of them were inside the school and around it."
"So, you didn't have a choice."
Steve seemed to get lost in his thoughts, like he was having a nightmare and talking at the same time. "And-and there was this girl. She was just screaming... and crying... I-I tried... to save her, but a bullet meant for me went straight through her head... and there was so much blood..." he clenched his shaking hands into fists as he continued to stare at the floor to his left.
Tony wrapped his hands over steves balled ones which seemed to snap him out of it a bit, but he still had tears in his eyes. "Hey, it's ok."
"Bucky got me back... cause I was shot... and it hurt, it hurt so much... then the camp blew and Bucky lost his arm and-and." He lost his words and just shook his head and wiped his face with his hands.
Tony stared. He knew there was probably more, but steve seemed to be in enough pain remembering what happened. He didn't want to put him through even more.
He couldn't believe steve went through that, still. He's so sweet, so nice, and tony imagined steve hurt, in pain. He tried to force the images out of his mind, but it sticked. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, it didn't do anything, so he opened them again and saw steve standing up and rushing off somewhere. "Steve?"
"I-I *sniff* have to finish cleaning up."
Tony let him. He watching him wipe down the tables and countertops before throwing the rest of the dishes in the dishwasher for cleaning then locking up.
Tony walked him back to his place in silence and stopped in front of his building. He looked at him for a second before pulling him into a hug. Steve didn't hug back at first, but did. •
It was still a little weird at first, but they started going out more again. Tony not bringing up the war now that he understood. Steve would still ask how he was doing, since it was physical and he was still waiting on a heart for transplant. "Shouldn't of drank so much." Tony said.
They both still had bruises on their faces and they caught a lot of glances from different people when they were out. Matching pair with bruises and cuts, so that's why they went to places with less people, or where it was dark. So, the movies, the diner at night then they'd go to the bar. Steve made sure tony didn't even touch a bottle of alcohol.
Bucky and Natasha stayed longer than they expected. Like her parents were, their end was coming soon, and it did. Steve apologized over the phone and made sure to tell Bucky to tell Natasha that he's sorry for her loss. "Hey!" Someone called from behind them. They turned around and saw the same woman as the week earlier stand there with some friends behind her. "Thank you for last week. I didn't think anyone would step up."
Steve smiled when he realized that she was looking more at tony than him, tony didn't notice though and was expecting steve to say no 'problem' or 'anytime'.
Steve turned around and shot him a glance, telling him to say something. He jumped a bit.
"Oh, uh, yeah, no problem."
She nodded and walked away with a quick 'bye'. They weren't expecting a full blown conversation.
"Why didn't you say something?"
"Because she was talking to you."
"But you did most of the work!"
"True, but I didn't even know what was going on until I saw someone getting beat the shot out of on the floor."
Tony raised his eyebrows and nodded in agreement. "Okay."
Steve finished drinking the rest of his drink and set it down before reaching his hand out to tony. "Let's dance."
Tony smiled and grabbed it. "Of course."
He dragged him to the crowd of people jumping and waving their arms around and got right in the middle of all of them and joined in. Tony took it easier, but steve danced like there was no tomorrow. Tony stopped at one point to catch his breath and just watched steve jump around and spin and wave his arms in the air. He kept watching, he looked so happy, excited, beautiful.
Steve just turned in front of him when tony grabbed his cheeks and pulled him straight into a kiss. Steve put his arms down and put them on tonys hips instead while tonys ran through steves hair.
They would've went on forever, but tony needed air, so he pulled away and started dancing with him again. Steve took a second to get going, but when he did, he did. Killing it again.
Tony was exhausted by the end, like, exhausted exhausted. He could barely walk. So steve picked him up and carried him to his place, and he was already half asleep too. Steve set him down gently on the bed and pulled the blanket all the way up. Before he even had the chance to move, he heard tony mumble, "You better get in this bed with me." His eyes remained closed too.
Steve smiled and cupped his cheek. Then walked around the bed, pulled his shirt off and jumped in bed right next to him, wrapping his arm around his chest and tony rolling over to bury his face in his chest.