You can do whichever you feel like doing. Just as long as you come with me.
[The delivery is calm and relaxed, as if Steve were completely unaware of what he was saying. He was focused more on easing the tension in Tony's frame. As much as the engineer might pretend to be fine, Steve knew that he was still shaken after his night of losing control to the lure of pleasure and an unplanned high. He keeps going, lets Tony walk along with him, and at first doesn't really respond to the retort he gets. A dry, humorless joke and a question in return, because Tony has always been the master of deflection, he thinks.
Always a pretender. Sometimes Steve has resented the man for that.
But in the sidelong glance that he gets, with a faint smile that doesn't quite reach all the way, Steve still manages to find the warmth he was looking for. The reassurance that, under all the struggle and guarded regret and unease, he's going to be okay. He can still find Tony in that mess. He hasn't come apart completely just yet.]
I'm fine, Tony. You don't need to worry about anyone else but yourself right now. You can take the day off. We'll let you worry about us after you've had some time to rest, okay?
[Steve looks up at the strange stars that are both unfamiliar and beautiful against the dark sky. He'll probably wait up there even when Tony eventually goes to bed. There's a piece of him that wants to see the sun rise in this strange place and see if it looks as good on a foreign moon as it does when it's familiar to him. What he really wishes is that he knew the constellations.]
I was worried.
[He tells a star, because answering Tony directly is too much like telling him he shouldn't have gone, and that isn't what Steve wants to say. Or it isn't what he wants Tony to hear.]
no subject
[The delivery is calm and relaxed, as if Steve were completely unaware of what he was saying. He was focused more on easing the tension in Tony's frame. As much as the engineer might pretend to be fine, Steve knew that he was still shaken after his night of losing control to the lure of pleasure and an unplanned high. He keeps going, lets Tony walk along with him, and at first doesn't really respond to the retort he gets. A dry, humorless joke and a question in return, because Tony has always been the master of deflection, he thinks.
Always a pretender. Sometimes Steve has resented the man for that.
But in the sidelong glance that he gets, with a faint smile that doesn't quite reach all the way, Steve still manages to find the warmth he was looking for. The reassurance that, under all the struggle and guarded regret and unease, he's going to be okay. He can still find Tony in that mess. He hasn't come apart completely just yet.]
I'm fine, Tony. You don't need to worry about anyone else but yourself right now. You can take the day off. We'll let you worry about us after you've had some time to rest, okay?
[Steve looks up at the strange stars that are both unfamiliar and beautiful against the dark sky. He'll probably wait up there even when Tony eventually goes to bed. There's a piece of him that wants to see the sun rise in this strange place and see if it looks as good on a foreign moon as it does when it's familiar to him. What he really wishes is that he knew the constellations.]
I was worried.
[He tells a star, because answering Tony directly is too much like telling him he shouldn't have gone, and that isn't what Steve wants to say. Or it isn't what he wants Tony to hear.]