Chapter 30
“Rogers, are you here just to keep insulting me or to actually do some work? Or is it that you still can’t understand what we are doing?”, Tony muttered looking at him. “I tried to break it down for you, it seems that I need to do it all by myself”.
Steve sighed and he scratched the back of his head, trying to stay cool, “Well considering I thought of the idea, I think I know how to do it” He said in a semi-annoyed tone. If there was one thing he hated it was to be called stupid or even the implication of it.
Tony crossed his arms. “Go ahead then, do it”. He too was getting annoyed with the situation and he knew Steve was feeling the same. Last time this built tension had led to many interesting things happening, but Tony wasn’t sure if he was in the mood to enjoy an opportunity like that. He was still feeling jealous about the situation with Loki, even if he did have Steve in his own house all for himself.
“I would if I could.” Steve said, holding up his injured hand and showing Tony.
“Right. You didn’t get that checked as I told you, did you?”, Tony frowned, taking Steve’s hand in his own to examine it.
“What’s there to check? It’ll be fine it just needs to be rested or something, that’s why I’m not using it.” He said, looking at Tony, seeing the concern in his eyes and watching him examine the hand.
“That leaves you as the brains for this, I’m the muscles”, Tony joked and let go of the jocks hand, even if he didn’t want to. “I’ll start working on this then, you can watch.”
There was still a lingering buzzing, warm feeling as Steve placed his hand back into his pocket, “Sure I guess, but I feel pretty useless…” he muttered.
“Don’t, just pay attention so you do it yourself next time”, Tony said, regretting letting go. Touching Steve again did felt really nice, but he wasn’t sure if Steve liked that as much as he did.
The captain looked at the dark haired boy and nodded, “I guess I’ll watch then” He said with a sigh, trying not to seem too demoralized about not being able to help. He didn’t want to use Tony, or make him do any of the work himself and the last thing he wanted was for Tony’s ego to grow even more - amplifying the fact that Steve couldn’t do anything made him feel even more stupid.
“Hey, just don’t worry about it”, Tony said, noticing that Steve did feel uncomfortable. “We can start working on it another time, when your hand heals?”, he offered.
“I guess, but we might as well… I don’t know, whatever you want to do, we can get started at least - now we know what we’re doing.” He said with a short shrug.
“We can plan it out and do the practical part another time so you can join in? Whatever you want Rogers, I’m fine with it. I don’t think that it will take us much time anyway”, Tony insisted.
“Are you sure, I guess… It’s entirely up to you.” He said, glancing away.
“No, no it’s up to you .I could finish the project myself tonight if I wanted to. But it’s supposed to be a group project, so you should be able to participate and get something out of it too”, Tony replied, shaking his head.
“I thought you don’t like working in groups?” He asked, arching an eyebrow subtly
“I don’t. But I guess that I need to, this time around”, Tony said, starting to get annoyed by Steve’s constant questions. “Listen, do you want to do this or what?”
“Well I don’t know, you’re the science expert and it’s your house, so you do what you feel like and I’ll just go with it.”
“Fine. We’re going to get the theoretical part down then and leave the practical for when you can actually do some work yourself”, he said, pushing the equipment away from him.
“Well I’ve done as much research as I could on it, I spent all of last lesson in the library preparing…” He said, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Yes, I noticed, no need to bring it up all the time. You did get a better idea on what we have to do though and that counts a lot”, Tony replied looking down.
“No need to bring it up all the time? I’ve said it twice… And Loki helped out a lot so you’d better thank him when you see him.”
“Oh, he did now? Then why take pride for something that Loki did?”, Tony said with an angrier tone .He was already annoyed, but when Steve brought him up, it was the last straw for him. “Do you even do anything by yourself Rogers? And you dare to ask the same for me?”
Steve was trying so hard to bite his tongue and keep quiet and calm, but now he could see that the young boy before him was getting agitated, he wanted to rebuttal but he really had to pull back.
“I am not taking pride in anything, Stark, I am just saying we both worked together; he has more knowledge when it comes to science than I do. And yes, I do things by myself; there is no need for me to prove myself to you.” He said, “Perhaps I ought to leave before you end up losing your cool.”
“Then you might as well as do the project with him, he clearly has the patience to work with you.”, Tony opposed. “I’m calm, Rogers”, Tony said sighing and leaning back on the desk. “But I can blame you if I lose my temper”, he said coldly, looking back at Steve’s blue eyes. Why the same desire to pin Steve down and not let him move an inch always return when they were arguing and the mood was so tensed? He shook his head, trying to get those thoughts away.
“You know what Stark, I’ve been trying to be nice but you’re really pushing me. Fine, I’ll go ahead and work with Loki; I guess he doesn’t have a partner anyway because he’s just come in. At least he appreciates my company.” Steve said, returning a tone just as cold to Tony as he picked up his things, “I’ll find my own way back to my place.” He said, turning his back on the millionaire.
“Fine, I work better on my own anyway”, Tony shouted at him, annoyed that the jock turned his back to him. Part of him wanted to run after him, but his pride wouldn’t just allow that. “Glad we worked this out”, he added sarcastically.
“Have fun failing; you’re supposed to work in groups.” Steve said as he made his way up the staircase.
“I can find a partner easily”, Tony shouted back, turning his back to him too.
Just as the blond was making up the stairs he was greeted by a tall figure, a man with hair slicked back in a similar style to Tony, wearing a suit.
“What is all the commotion about; I’m trying to work here…” He said, spotting Steve who looked like a deer caught in the headlights just as he was going to leave.
Next Chapter: [Chapter 31]
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