literature

Avengers - I Don't Dance

Deviation Actions

lex-n-karu's avatar
By
Published:
5.1K Views

Literature Text

I Don’t Dance (Unless I’m in Love)


Steve was eyeing the dance floor.

Tony was thinking of all the horrible ways that could end up, since he had two left feet when it came to anything more complicated than a basic waltz.

So they sat there with their drinks (cranberry juice) in awkward silence, because most topics of conversation had been exhausted over dinner.

After twenty minutes of it, Steve gave that endearing little disappointed frown of his and said, “Well, aren’t you going to ask me to dance?”

“I don’t dance,” Tony half-lied.

“I’ve seen video of you dancing,” protested Steve.  “With Miss Potts, and with Janet.”

He winced.  “That’s different.”

Steve sat a little straighter.

“No, Steve, not because you’re a guy—although that’s admittedly a pretty big difference just on the matter of size.”

“Then why not?  How’s it any different, if that’s not the problem?”

He’d been cornered into dancing with Jan, and Pepper could get workman’s comp for being injured in the line of duty.

He drew a deep breath, but his voice still came out in a sheepish squeak.  “I’m a terrible dancer.  I know how to dance, I’ve had lessons, but the only dance I can do without breaking my partner’s toes is a basic waltz.  So I don’t dance.”

“But you have,” Steve persisted.  His frown gained a pouty edge.

Yes, he’d danced waltzes, but this was a damn swing club.  There was a girl out there done up like something out of Hairspray, being twirled around like a frigging baton by her greaser boyfriend.

Tony winced again and gulped at his juice.  “Come on, Steve, we’re at this nice club, you deserve to have a dance partner who won’t step on your feet the whole time.”

“Tony,” Steve said softly.

He sighed and met his date’s gaze.

“I’ve never danced before.  I mean, I’ve wanted to, plenty of times…but I was too shy before the serum, and too busy after.  So I’m the one who’ll probably be stepping on your feet.  We don’t have to do anything fancy like some of the couples out there.  I’d just really like to dance with you.”

Well, crap.

The band moved into a slower song, and Tony grinned.  “Far be it from me to refuse such a heartfelt plea.  Shall we dance?”  He stood up, offered his hand.

“I’d love to,” Steve answered.

On the dance floor, they paused and looked at one another.

“Okay, who’s leading?” Tony asked.  “You’re taller, but you’ve never danced.”

Steve blushed.  “Do you think it would be awkward if you led?  I’m okay with it if you are.”

It was only a little awkward, and mostly because Steve was staring at their feet with such intense concentration.

There were a million things he wanted to say right then, to Steve’s beautiful, serious, down-turned face.

You’re adorable.  I love you.  Relax.  You’re incredible.  I’m the luckiest schmuck on the planet.  You have the most amazing eyes.  Why the hell do you want to dance with me?

“Well, we haven’t stepped on each other yet,” Steve chuckled.  He looked up from their feet, caught Tony staring, and immediately took a bad step that almost sent them both crashing to the floor.  “Oh, gee whiz, I’m sorry!”

But Tony just laughed.

I love you.  God, I love you.

They weren’t dancing anymore—just standing together, hands braced on shoulders and waist from their stumble.

“Really?” Steve said.

Oh, shit—did I say that out loud?

Tony blinked.  “What?”

Steve ducked his head again.  “You…you said…”  He was doing a fine impression of a tomato.  “…well, anyway…did you mean it?”

Tony’s heart thudded heavily.  If it weren’t for obsessive maintenance checks, he’d wonder if the reactor might be malfunctioning.  “Don’t worry about it, Steve, you don’t have to say anything.  That’s just my feelings.  It just kinda slipped out.  I mean, I don’t want you to feel oblig—”

“I think I love you, too,” Steve interrupted.  “We’ve been going together for three months; it’s okay to be in love.  And like you said at the beginning, it wasn’t a sudden thing…so if maybe one of us was in love even back then…that’d be okay, too.”

Tony let out the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.  “Were you?  I was.”

The big blond didn’t say anything.  He just stood there and blushed.

“So, how was your first dance?  Was it everything you’d hoped for?”

“Well, I’d actually hoped it’d be with Peggy.  But other than that, yes.  I mean, I didn’t step on your feet, we didn’t fall and break our necks…”  Steve shrugged and gave another dopey little grin.

“We can go back to dancing, if you want,” offered Tony.

So they did.  Steve watched their feet, and Tony watched Steve, and they spun slowly across the floor, and Steve was big and warm and strong under his hands, and it was the happiest Tony could remember being in a long, long time.

“People are staring,” Steve said, sounding quietly panicked.

Tony smirked.  “They’re just jealous of me.  Let ‘em stare, sweetheart.”

They were front-page news the next day, thanks to someone’s cell phone video on YouTube (a hundred and twenty thousand hits and rising).  Classier publications were using the headline ‘Let ‘Em Stare, Sweetheart.’  The Daily Bugle’s headline was ‘Stark Stoops to Shock Publicity.’  Tony was surprised Jameson hadn’t gone the easy ‘liberal agenda’ route.

Pepper’s phone was ringing pretty much nonstop, and she was going red in the face from very politely telling reporters to fuck off.  By nine, she’d turned her phone off and thrown it at Tony.

For his part, Tony couldn’t stop smiling.  The quality wasn’t stellar, and most of the conversation was unintelligible, but the video was just plain cute.  Just him, dancing with Steve, looking awkward and graceless as a pair of kids at junior prom.  Then Steve tripped, and Tony laughed, and there it was for the whole Internet to hear:  ‘I love you.  God, I love you.

And it wasn’t like they’d kept it a big secret before.  Occasionally, some nosey magazine would have a blurry picture of them on one of their dates, but nobody’d officially asked if they were dating, so they’d never confirmed or denied it.

Shortly before ten, Pepper bustled into his office.

“It’s over there,” he said, waving toward where her phone had landed.

“Are you still watching it?” she asked sourly.

“It’s in my favorites.”

“Well, pause it and change your tie.  Press conference downstairs in five, and I still have to find something for Steve to wear.”

“Should’ve seen this coming,” he pointed out.

She glared and shoved the gold tie at him.  “Hurry up and ditch the scarlet, it’s too aggressive.  We want calm and unapologetic.”

“I’ll leave the jacket, too, I think.”

“Which suspenders have you got on, the sapphire or—okay, yes, fine.  Just so you know, I think I should get hazard pay for this.”  And with a swoop to get her Blackberry, Pepper marched back out of the office.

He let the video play through while he flipped his collar up and slipped off the scarlet tie.

Slowly knotting the fresh tie, Tony ambled out the door.  At the front hall, there was a sudden flurry of innocent mouse-clicks and sudden studious attention to work.  One of the secretaries peered over her monitor at him.

“Sorry ladies, I’m taken,” he said with a wink and a cheeky grin as the elevator door opened.

Steve was standing there (jeans, sneakers, Stark Industries tee) blushing bright pink.  “Miss Potts seems upset,” he hazarded when the door shut out those curious stares.

“Hm,” Tony said neutrally.

“Have you got a speech for this?  I mean, Colonel Fury seems to like to keep things very tidy and official for the most part—”

The elevator door opened.

Natasha dragged them toward the press room with a brilliant smile on her face.  “If any classified information comes out of your mouth in front of those cameras, I will knock you cold and leave you bound and gagged in the room next to Mr. Parker’s for an entire night.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Miss Rushman.”

Pepper was talking at the podium, but the press drowned her out with an eager roar of questions as Tony and Steve entered the room.

“Good morning,” Tony said cheerfully into the microphones.  “Apparently, we’re having a press conference.  I’ve never had to call a press conference about my dating habits before; it’s quite a novelty.  I’m not actually sure why we need one, come to think of it.  Maybe one of you would like to enlighten me…how ‘bout Blue-Eyed Chick from Fox?”

“Mr. Stark, what do you have to say about the video footage on YouTube that appears to show you and Captain America dancing?  Are there any plans to sue the video’s creator for violation of privacy?”

“No, I do not intend to sue, I think a warning will do the trick.  As for the video, I can only say…”  He paused gave the cameras a frown of dismay.  “Only a hundred and twenty thousand, people?  Really?  I thought I was being pretty charming, worthy of at least two hundred thousand overnight views.”

The crowd laughed.

He looked back at the girl from Fox.  “And I’m flattered that a member of the press would use the term ‘dancing’ for that sad, uncoordinated foot-shuffling we were doing.  Turns out that between us we have four left feet, and as you saw in the video, that can be pretty dangerous on the dance floor.  Yes, Ginger Guy from CBS?”

“Captain Rogers, what do you have to say about the situation?  Are you, in fact, dating Mr. Stark?”

Steve leaned in shyly and said, “Yes.  We’ve been going steady for about three months now.  We’re in love—or I’m in love, anyhow.”

“I’m very in love,” Tony added.

Christine Everhart shoved her recorder through the crowd.  “And what have you got to say about being labeled a ‘gay superhero’?”

He looked at her with a raised eyebrow.  “That’s preposterous, Miss Everhart.  I’ve been in love with four people in my life, two of whom were women, that makes me a ‘bi superhero,’ thank you.”  He pointed at the next reporter.  “Jada-Look-Alike from NBC.”

“Will you be attending any public gatherings with Captain Rogers?  Auctions, awards ceremonies, charity balls?”

“Yes and no.  We’ll go as long as there’s no dancing.  For the safety of bystanders, we don’t dance.”


.End.
done now. i think. yeah. sure.

(double-posted)

warnings: iron man movieverse, which is something like the Marvel Ultimates universe so far (a little au-ish).  slash (TonyxSteve).  language: pg-13 (for s*** and f***).

timeline: let's call it ~3.5 years after the first movie, with the Avengers firmly established, Tony and his entourage moved to Manhattan, etc.  evening of/day after Not Sulking.

disclaimer: all the characters belong to someone not me.

notes: 1) Tony 'doesn't do swing' because he's a crap dancer.  2) Hairspray is a musical about the universality of dancing (and that you don't have to be skinny, pretty, popular, or white to love dancing).  3) don't know what a greaser is?  The Fonz from Happy Days, Danny from Grease, and Mutt from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull are all greasers.  50s punk rebel boys.  4) 'going together' is older slang for dating (usually exclusively, see also 'going steady').  5) by 'Peggy,' Steve means Peggy Carter, the hot sassy agent from the movie who almost got to be his girlfriend in the comics (but we all know how that ended up).  6) running gag in my Avengers fics:  Spidey snores loud enough to wake the dead.  7) 'Natalie Rushman' is Natasha's cover identity at Stark Industries ('she's from legal,' i believe was what Pepper said, quickly followed by 'potentially a very expensive sexual harassment lawsuit').

:pointl: Not Sulking :bulletyellow:
:bulletred: Blood & Tears 38: Rocket Surgery :pointr:
© 2011 - 2024 lex-n-karu
Comments8
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
MileenaKahnum's avatar
This is just 😭
Your are literally the best writer omg