Tony ran his hands through his sweat-stiffened, greasy and blood clotted hair; it stuck up in filthy tufts and transferred some of the grime onto his bruised hands. He licked his lips, the taste of salt transferring to his tongue, as he hovered outside Steve's room.

Despite what the others kept suggesting, Tony had actually fully realised his feelings towards Rogers had developed beyond mere friends. He wasn't as emotionally stunted as they all believed. Stark lifted his fist until it was only millimetres away from the wood of the door but he couldn't bring himself to knock. They'd been back from the mission for over an hour now and Steve had occupied Tony's mind for every second of that. The Captain had sustained some hard blows and, from where he was watching from the relative safety of the suit, Tony knew the man would be left pretty beaten up. It took every fibre to his being to stop himself running straight to Steve's room as soon as he was out of the suit.

For over a year, he had silently lusted for this Adonis but, since allowing himself to actually get closer to Steve, his feels had only doubled. Not only was he a walking Greek statue but he was actually super kind, intelligent, funny and lovable. Tony rolled his eyes as he caught his train of thought wandering... Did he seriously call Steve loveable?

He hissed through his gritted teeth to steel his nerves before knocking on the door. His stomach did a flip as he listened. However, after waiting a couple of minutes, he knocked again but slightly harder. He listened again, brows furrowed so hard that they almost met in the middle.

Scenarios began to flash in from of his eyes: Steve could be lying bleeding on the floor or collapsed in the shower. Panic raised up as Tony began considering more possibilities: He could have been kidnapped by someone wanting revenge or being murdered by them right now. With that in mind, he swiftly opened the unlocked door and burst into the room. Belatedly realising that he was definitely defenceless.

However, despite the fact that he was ready to fight, the room was nearly completely silent. His dark eyes scanned the room quickly and was almost surprised that his paranoid mind had been wrong.

He was mulling over the lack of danger in the room when his eyes fell upon Steve sprawled, on his stomach, on his large king size bed completely naked. Tony blinked rapidly, realising that this was the very first time he'd seen his crush completely without clothes and he definitely wasn't disappointed. He blinked a couple more times before snapping himself out of the trance and running over to the man to check he was actually breathing. The man was littered with bruises and scratches so there was nothing to prove he was still alive. He held his cheek close to Steve's mouth until he could feel gentle breath. Relieved, he nodded and backed away. He closed the door gently, ensuring that the click of the door handle wouldn't wake the man.

He hurried away, slightly embarrassed that he'd seen Captain America in such a vulnerable position but knowing that the man's butt would haunt him whenever he laid eyes on him again.

—

-The next day-

Tony had been praying all morning that this wouldn't happen but it did. He heard Steve enter the kitchen while he was making his coffee. He purposely didn't turn around as he didn't feel like he could look at Steve after last night. He knew the man's face would make him think of the man's butt and he liked Steve too much to just think about his butt without him knowing what happened.

"Morning." Steve called across the kitchen and Tony replied with grumbling.

The taller man tried to make conversation a couple of times over breakfast but failed after a couple of sentences as Tony was proving to be an unwilling participant. The two ate their breakfasts and drank their coffee in an awkward silence. Steve kept glancing up at his companion, worried he'd done something to upset the man.

Once the Captain was finished he rose to wash his dish but turned back to face Tony.

"What have I done?" He demanded, steeling himself.

"What?"Tony was not prepared for this confrontation. He hoped that Steve, like himself, would be happy living a life where they never communicated again due to his mistake, "What are you talking about?"

Steve dropped his plates down and put his hands on his hips in his classic pose, "You haven't looked me in the eye all morning and whenever I try to talk to you you act so weird."

On this, Stark looked Steve directly in the eye but the man's butt sprang to his memory so he had to look back down at the surface of the table. He cleared his throat as he realised that he just proved Steve's point so was now in a pretty sticky situation.

"You've just proven my point!" Steve cried whilst Stark's gaze shot between the man and the surface, "And again! What have I done to you?"

Tony licked his lips before saying, with his characteristic lack of eloquence, "I've seen your ass."

Steve blinked and frowned, "You've what?" His hand ghosted over his right butt cheek self-consciously.

"Yeah, exactly." Stark spread his palms open as though everything had been explained.

"How... What..." The usually smooth Captain stumbled speechless. Cranberry red inched up his neck.

The engineer sighed, knowing that Steve would be horrified and never speak to him again made it hard to admit, "I came in to check on you last night after the mission because I saw you getting beat up pretty bad and I knew you'd just try to ignore your injuries. When I walked in you were naked on your bed, bare ass up."

Steve blinked slowly at this. He swallowed slowly before realising that it was probably his turn to explain, "I've always slept naked. It's just more comfortable." His statement fell awkwardly between them.

There was a moment of silence, they stared at each other until Stark filled the gap, "I always pictured you sleeping in a full pyjama suit, buttoned fully up."

Steve laughed softly, he rubbed his hand through his hair, "Never been the type for that much clothes in bed actually." He flushed as he suddenly realised how that sounded, "Anyway, why didn't you just tell me?"

"I didn't want you to think of me as weird... I'd walked into your room and seen your butt."

Steve's eyes followed the lines in between the floor tiles as he answered, "I guess it's not so bad. Out of everyone I don't mind that it was you."

Tony frowned and blinked rapid, was that some sort of admittance?

"Out of everyone's butts, I'm glad it was your butt." Tony whisper in response knowing that he was taking a risk.

They peered at each other for a second to gage whether this was a prank before laughing.

Steve asked with optimism in his tone, "Is this your way of saying you like me back?"

Grinning, Stark resisted the urge to slap the man's ass.