Life in Brooklyn

Chapter 26

Tony sighed, and let it be for now. He climbed in the bed as steve unpacked most of his things. Natasha had his meds, and Bucky had brought the duffel bag with all the clothes for him the night before leaving the hospital.
He climbed in bed with tony, and they just watched some tv before falling asleep. Nice little shows that didn't trigger anything, that were also super boring, which is probably why they fell asleep so fast.
Things got better. Tony healed up quite well and steve was still going to the therapist and taking his meds. He didn't have anymore 'episodes' though.
Eventually went back to work and back to their apartment. THEIR apartment. Steve wondered why they didn't just stay at tonys huge house, since it is bigger. He said he liked steve apartment more, no more explanation. Simple, easy, and agreeable. The little apartment with the kind and welcoming people all around who supported them very much, was amazing.
When they first got back, there was a bunch of flowers outside his apartment door. They got hugs from a few older woman and pats on the back from their husbands. Younger couples stood at the door and said hello, and that it was good to see them again.
It made tony happy and appreciated, not that he wasn't. But as mentioned before, tonys childhood was rough and he didn't have many friends. With steve and at steves apartment, he felt great, like nothing was ever wrong.
But steve was different, a little.
Tony noticed he smiled less, and when he did, it was a short lasting smirk.
He held tony even closer at night, wrapping his arms tightly around him and burying his head in his hair and digging it into his shoulder. His leg hugging his.
Every now and then, tony'd ask, "You ok?" Only to get, "I'm fine." As an answer.
Tony tried telling him a bad joke, but he used to laugh at how ridiculous it was, but that night, he smiled slightly, and looked back down. Tony sighed as steve got up and walked to the kitchen counter so he could take his meds.
Tony followed him, just to the table and asked, "are you ok?" He only just swallowed them and was going to put them back in the cupboard when he heard tony. He slammed the close bottle of pills on the counter top. "Stop asking me if I'm ok!" He had the right to be annoyed, but tony was worried. "I'm fine! Okay?!"
tony stood there, stunned for a moment, while steve turned back around and put his mess away. "Well stop acting like you are!"
He slammed the cupboard closed. "But I am-!"
"Steve!!!" He shouted, really loud and he shook his hands. It got his attention, but he still seemed like he wanted to lie and say he was fine. He took a deep breath before continuing, "You're acting different! And I'm worried!"
"How? How am I acting different?" He raised his voice.
Tony sighed. "You aren't smiling as much, you don't laugh as much, We don't go on dates anymore-"
"What do you expect?!" He shouted. Tony closed his mouth and clenched his jaw. "I watched you die! You were dead, tony!" Tears made their way to his eyes and he played with his hands. Tony looked down at his chest and saw the end of the large scar that was on his chest. "I'm ok now, steve-"
"But you weren't!" His jaw shivered as tears fell down his cheeks. "And the girl wasn't and you were in surgery for so long, and I couldn't..." he took a deep breath only to find he couldn't speak over the gasps of air he took between sobs.
Tony took the few steps it took to get to steve and put his hands on his arms before pulling him into a tight hug.
He was a little hesitant at first, but after tony moved his arms away from in front of his chest and pulled his hands apart, he grabbed tony desperately and leaned over the shorter mans shoulder he was crying on. "It's ok. You're ok. I'm ok." He closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around his torso as far as he could and pulled him even closer, if that was possible. "We're ok." He whispered.
Steve took a few deeper breaths and calmed down slightly, "I love you." He whispered in between quieter sobs.
"I love your too, steve." Tony whispered back.
The rest of the day consisted mostly of sitting around and sleeping and cuddling and crying. But the oncoming days, they went out a few times, steve started working more, tony even went back to work.
They weren't far from each other though, tony only went to his company building a few times a week, and when he did, he didn't stay for long. Steve couldn't work for that long, or he could, but his therapist suggested him not to. He took her advice.
They'd gone back to the bar too, where they found that a whole lot of people left cards and flowers for them. They were people who knew them from the bar, they were definitely well known.
Sam handed them the box-full of cards. "It's good to have you guys back here."
Steve smiled and took the box from him. "Can't stay away for too long."
He smiled and went back to his bar tending.
The whole night, they barely danced, because people were always hugging them or talking to them about the whole thing. Small, tiny details leaving the biggest ones out.
You'd think they'd just leave, but they can't stay away, and leaving is just postponing the question asking.
As planned, time went on, quite normally actually with no interruptions. Nobody trying to kill them, no health issues, no panic attacks, steve started to go to the therapist less too. Which is a good thing, means he's getting better.
They redecorated the whole apartment too. With a new door, repainted, re furnished, took down the wall between the kitchen and the living room so it 'spacier'. And they had a blast doing it. Small chunks of plaster thrown at each other, paint ended getting on the floor when they had the paint fight. Not little drops either, there was a huge puddle of 'spearmint haze' paint all over the floor. They had to replace the old and splintered wood anyways.
But at the end of the paint fight, you could only imagine what their shower must've been like.
The use-to-be white tiles on the floor and walls, were all 'spearmint haze' too, so was the shower curtain, and the mirror, in fact, so was the entire apartment.
They'd been invited to have dinner with Bucky and Natasha in their humble and clean apartment that night as well, but they seemed to have forgotten about it during their... occupations.
They slept on the only clean spot of the entire place, the couch, on top of the cover they kept over it to keep it from getting dirty.
The next morning they walked out of their apartment at the same time as Bucky and Natasha.
Steve stopped in his tracks, closed his eyes and sighed. "Oh... im so sorry." He mumbled and caught up to Bucky.
"It's fine, you two seemed busy so we left it alone." They both chuckled. "Some other time man." He patted him on the shoulder and walked away with Natasha.
Tony walked back up to steve and grabbed his hand, interlocking their fingers. "Shit..." he whispered.
Steve smiled and held back a laugh as they got to work.