tony stark whump

"love isn't materialistic."

tony shows love through gifts but steve doesn't understand

set after avengers; avengers live in the tower

tw: sad shit

~NO POV~

Tony Stark was a rich man, and being rich came with a lot of perks. For example, he could buy takeaway whenever he couldn't be bothered to cook, could alternate between driving whatever car he desired whenever he wanted, he had a roof over his head and never had to worry about being financially stable. Because he was beyond financially stable.

However, it didn't make everything perfect. He was brought up thinking people would only love him for money. Howard liked to drill into his head that he was absolutely fucking nothing, and that he'd never be wanted unless he threw money around. This led to Tony over-gifting whenever he met someone new, and people usually didn't care.

Rhodey cared. Rhodey cared a lot. He didn't understand why Tony kept buying things for him when they first met, back in MIT. Tony would pay for Rhodey's shopping, improve his electronics, buy him clothes and Rhodey complained, but couldn't stop Tony, because he didn't know why Tony was buying him so many things.

And then Tony bought Rhodey a brand new Harley-Davidson, and even tried to improve it, and then Rhodey understood. He sat down with Tony and practically yelled at him for the gifts, trying to drill into the young genius' head that he was not only good for his money. It took Tony a long time to realise he didn't need to buy his place into Rhodey's life.

But that didn't stop him from trying with other people. Just because Rhodey was okay with not being spoiled, didn't mean everyone else was. Tony ended up in some very bad relationships with people who just took, took, and took, and Tony could do nothing more than give, give, and give in return.

Rhodey was always there to pull Tony out of those shitty relationships before he became completely stuck. And then, Tony got into a relationship with Captain America, and Rhodey knew things would be okay. He didn't have the observe and protect from the sidelines when he saw how happy Tony was. 

Rhodey went back to active military duty, and that's when everything went to shit.

For the first few months of Tony and Steve's relationships, Tony didn't spend excessive money on Steve. It was their honeymoon phase, and lord, was the honeymoon phase good. The cuddles, the kisses, the sex. Tony was absolutely besotted with Steve, so he didn't feel like compensating for his lack of desirability with money.

But then, once the honeymoon phase wore off, Tony didn't really know how he was meant to act. He'd never gotten this far in his relationships with anyone, except Pepper, and he spoiled Pepper all the time. With all his other relationships, Tony gave and gave and eventually ended up hurt, and his money wasn't enough. 

Tony didn't want to lose Steve.

See, his best relationship pre-Steve was Pepper. And he gave Pepper gifts all the time- he still did. He gave her stunning shoes, gorgeous dresses, expensive jewellery and a hefty paycheck- oh, and his company. And that kept her happy. But him being Iron Man wasn't worth the money, so she left, and he couldn't let that happen with Steve.

So the only option was to start spoiling Steve, because he couldn't let himself get hurt again. He really liked Steve, and could see himself loving Steve in the foreseeable future. So there was absolutely no way he was going to let another good person slip through his fingers again.