The same disobedient hand that itched to run down the front of his jeans to cup the bulge pressed against the zipper.
Fuck.
"God, I wanna tap that ass." Tony slurred, pointing his glass in Steve's direction. He looked so nice in that suit—so so very nice. Steve looked nice all the time.
Beside him, Pepper did a double-take. "You—what?" she asked disbelievingly, following his gaze.
"I–" He glanced at her and okay, this was awkward. His head was throbbing, he couldn't really remember where they'd left off the last time they had seen each other, and if it was horribly inappropriate to say stuff like. It didn't use to be. "Steve. He's attractive. That's all," he finally decided on. Attractive wasn't so bad. He was allowed to find a guy handsome.
Pepper stared at him numbly but not unmoved. He knew for the way her mouth fell open, closed, opened again. "So you are..."
Tony waited patiently, and when she didn't go on, he raised an eyebrow at her. "Openminded? Bi? Poly? Occasionally into dicks? Well, yeah."
She offered a nervous laugh. "I didn't know that—at all. How could I not know that?" she asked.
"Well, it's not exactly Wikipedia knowledge."
"But you never... in all these years..." Their gaze held for a minute longer before she broke away, her body wrought with tension. "Does James know?"
He snickered. "I guess he got the drift when I tried to go down on him in college, yes." Pepper groaned in the way that said he was doing the oversharing-thing again. "Although he probably thinks that was just a phase. I haven't really done that in a long time. Always been more of a ladies man... when you see a room full of pretty dresses it's rare to notice someone in a tux."
Except for Steve. Steve in a tux made everyone around him fade into darkness.
Her gaze darted into the room again. "And Steve..."
He waited for a second, but she didn't continue. Rather, she reached for the glass of whatever she was drinking and took a long sip. "Does he reciprocate?" she asked then, pretending to be casual. Pretending that nothing had changed. But it was hard not to notice that her voice wavered a bit.
Fuck, he really should've stopped with the hard booze at some point.
"There is nothing to reciprocate," he assured her, and he wanted to grab for her hand, but he didn't want to give mixed signals. Not more than he already had. "I don't want to marry him. Well, I wouldn't mind blowing him, or him blowing me, really, I'm not picky but that's about it. And no, I don't know if he swings that way. He won't tell me." That probably came out a bit whiny.
Pepper nodded slowly, her eyes darting back to Steve and Rhodey. They were now talking to a gorgeous redhead in a flimsy black dress and shit, Steve looked so comfortable around her. The usual tenseness of his shoulders was completely gone and he was even slightly leaning in towards her. The woman's gaze was very fond when she put a hand on Steve's cheek.
That was probably answer enough whether or not Steve returned his feelings.
"For what it's worth I think he might." Pepper said, contradicting his thoughts, and sat up slightly. She leaned in and pressed a kiss on Tony's cheek. "I'm going to go home now."
"Pep," he said, because drunk or not, he couldn't let her go like that. "You mean everything to me, you know that, right?"
Pepper smiled and reached for his hand, a long shudder coursing through him when their fingers entwined. "I know," she whispered, her thumb gently rubbing over the back of his hand. And then she was gone, just like that.
