A ROMANTIC EDUCATION - STEVE/TONY AU [CHAPTER 23] 

Previous Chapters: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3 , Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6,Chapter 7,Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12,Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18,Chapter 19, Chapter 20, Chapter 21, Chapter 22 

Chapter 23

Tony tried to stay calm and act naturally while Steve stormed out off the class. Did he overdo it this time? Or was Steve just too emotional and sensitive to deal with stuff like that? Tony didn’t exactly wait for this kind of reaction. He heard a loud noise from the corridor and he wondered if Steve had hit someone or something judging from the sound. Then the thought that the hit was destined for him made him shift nervously in his seat. He had it coming though. Tony was really good at teasing and upsetting people, and the jock should have gotten used to it by yesterday. He took his book in his hands and tried to look normal while other students walked in; wondering if the blond would come back. Suddenly, the thought of Steve bumping into the new boy again, Loki, in such a sensitive state made him upset. He opened his book and tried not to think of that.
Steve took a second to contemplate what he had done, now that he had hit something he had felt so much better. He had been bullied before, and after years of torment when he was younger, there was no way that he was going to tolerate it again. He had spent so long trying to build himself up as a good person and now that Tony had come along, he had seemed to lose that quality. He wasn’t a bully but young millionaire had brought that quality out in him. After that realisation, he wasn’t going to let it happen again.
He walked back into class with his hand in his pocket, sitting on the chair quietly as others seemed to stare at him after seeing what he had done to the locker. He kept his eyes lowered with a neutral look on his face.
Tony was surprised to see Steve walking back in. Maybe he had stronger self control skills than he thought he did. He looked at him and then down to his book again when Steve sat down. He wanted to say something, but he didn’t want to test Steve’s patience right now. “Feeling better?” he dared to ask, not really hoping for a response.
Steve nodded in return, taking his hand out of his pocket to reach for his pen, though it was smeared in blood he could really care less at this point in time. It was numb, even as he tried to wrap his fingers around the pen, they could barely form a fist because there was so much knuckle damage. He really did hit that locker quite hard.
Tony looked at Steve’s hand with a look of compassion. He tried not to think that this was his fault, after all, he didn’t tell Steve to punch a metal locker as hard as he could.
“Don’t worry about the notes, you can have mine when we finish”, Tony offered.
Steve looked at Tony, his eyes filled with a pained look, though he was actually quite confused. Maybe it just took a glimpse of his violent side to make Tony to suddenly act nice toward him, but he still wasn’t going to let that side out again. He didn’t want Tony to fear him like he had once feared the bullies that had plagued him, he just wanted to get along, but it was so difficult to when they just seemed to clash over everything. He was beginning to give up hope of ever trying to get along.
“Thanks.” He said, looking back down at the papers with a visibly sad look.
‘This is so messed up’, Tony thought to himself. They only met yesterday and their relationship was really confusing him. He didn’t fear Steve; after all he was just another jock in high school. But he could upset him whenever he wanted, and he didn’t want to see Steve’s angry side; it did frighten him a little, so he would act nicely to him. But most of the time, they were just arguing and insulting each other. Even when they made out, they were arguing in between their kisses. This relationship intrigues Tony, it was fascinating but he wasn’t sure if he could keep up doing this. Steve wouldn’t like him as most of people did, despite his cocky attitude, because he was Tony Stark.
“No problem”, he managed to say, resisting touching Steve’s hand.
After a while of silence and note taking, Steve kept his eyes down on the book, still with that sad stare that wasn’t leaving his face, eventually, toward the end of the lesson he looked up at Tony.
“Can we walk after this?” He asked, it had taken him so long to pluck up the courage to ask that, he had been thinking the whole lesson about what he was going to say, how he could say it and possible comebacks that Tony may have, but despite all that, he still just wanted to show that he was going to try to make an effort to be the good guy.
Tony’s eyes widened. “Um…sure”, he replied, cursing himself for not coming up with a better reply. What did Steve want with him right now, was it something that urgent that they had to walk together and discuss it? He swallowed and looked at him again, his sad look made him think that he was the bad guy in this.
Steve nodded again, looking back at the work that they were supposed to be doing. After the lecture that they had, they were supposed to have been working in their pairs to start some of the chemical experiments, but having seen the open cut on Steve’s hand, the teacher had said that it was a health hazard and for Tony and Steve to be doing book research instead.
Tony opened his book to the pages the teacher pointed up, highlighting and skipping most of the lines. He wasn’t really in a state to concentrate, even though their assigned task didn’t require much effort. He was nervous about what might happen later. “Steve, you might want to have your hand checked later, you know, just in case”, he mumbled turning the page.
Steve nodded again, he didn’t speak in response. The only thing that he had said the entire lesson was ‘Can we talk?’ his eyes were extremely unfocused and they seemed as though he was too deep into his thoughts to even read properly. But he read what he could, using the highlighter with his left hand which made uneven lines, but it was the best he could do, being unable to use his right hand. He dreaded going into the gym and showing the coach what he had done, he’d probably get benched or be made to do laps as a punishment.
Of course Tony didn’t get a proper response back. He watched as Steve was clumsily trying to follow, his injured hand making it even harder for him. “Can’t you visit the nurse and go home or something?” he asked again. “And what are you going to tell your girlfriend?” he said, feeling a bit silly bringing up Peggy to the conversation again.
“It’s just a cut and I’ll tell Peggy exactly what happened; I lost my temper and hit a locker.” He said in a calm, quiet tone. A cut was indeed an understatement. It had been bleeding almost the entire lesson and it didn’t look particularly pretty either.
“Right…” Tony replied, looking at his hand again. He got back to reading shortly after staring at the nasty looking wound, realising that the bell was going to ring really soon.

 Next Chapter: [Chapter 24]