pre-author's note:
soooooooooooo sorry it took so long to update I'm SUPER sorry, even though I know a lot of people aren't reading this book anyway, for those who are, hope this is an okayish update, also sorry for any spelling probs :)
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It was a drive-thru ice cream shoppe. Tony ordered his flavor in a waffle cone while Steve decided what he wanted. He skimmed the list of flavors about three times before deciding what to get, "I'll have strawberry in a dish, please." The lady nodded and asked how many scoops he wanted, "Two, please." The lady nodded once more and handed Tony his, walking back over to the cooler to make Steve's.
"How much is it?" Steve asked, reaching into his pocket, pulling out his wallet. Tony shook his head, looking at Steve while taking a lick of his ice cream, "No, I call paying for both of us. It was my idea in the first place."
Steve argued, "No, it's fine, I'll pay for mine."
Tony shook his head again and bit the edges of his cone, "Nope."
The lady came back with Steve's dish and leaned over, handing the dish to Tony who gave it to Steve. "Thank you." Steve smiled and took the spoon, taking a small chunk of ice cream from the dish and sliding it into his mouth. It was amazing ice cream. "How much was it?" Tony asked as he pulled out a ten dollar bill. The woman gave the price and it was just the right amount. He handed her the ten, "Keep the change." he smiled politely.
The woman smiled, "Thanks, have a good day boys." Tony started to drive away. "You too!" Steve replied as they started to leave the drive-thru. Tony drove over to the small parking lot near the shoppe and parked the car, allowing them both to eat before going back to school. They both sat in silence for a few awkward seconds eating their ice cream. "This is really good." Tony bit more of the cone and spoke while he munched on it. Steve nodded, "Yeah."
Steve thought about what he was doing. He was with the one person who he really wanted nothing to do with, parked at an ice cream shoppe. He didn't even know why he agreed to come with Tony. He should've said no but he didn't. He felt stupid, he literally was telling himself earlier how he wasn't going to involve himself with Tony at all. He was the one that got Steve drunk and thus led to him kissing Tony.
"So-"
"About my party," Steve was about to start random conversation, but Tony cut him off. Though, Steve didn't mind, seeing that Tony actually had something to discuss while he was merely going to pull something random from his mind.
Steve watched him while holding his spoon, pausing to take a bite of his ice cream while waiting for Tony to finish his sentence. He was actually interested in what Tony had to say.
"I just wanna apologize. Face to face. I'll admit that me and Barnes did plan on getting you drunk with that whole pepper thing. We thought it would be fun, we weren't planning on... well, you know." Tony examined Steve's facial expressions to find any sign of forgiveness. He knew deep down Steve always disliked him. He knew that they would just shrug it off and not really care about it, but now after the party, he definitely knew that Steve wanted nothing to do with him- which is why it shocked him so much that Steve actually agreed to come with him today. He was sending him mixed messages. Steve had been ignoring him and would give him small glares in the hallway and now, now they were currently sitting in a parking lot together eating ice cream. The thing is, even though he was confused that Steve actually agreed to come, he was also grateful because he had been planning on finding a time when he could apologize to him. It all worked out.
Yet, Steve didn't know what to say. He didn't know if Tony was being serious or not. He thought about the apology, it seemed genuine, but he also didn't know if he should forgive him. Being blunt, Tony was a dick. He honestly was. He lied and he always got his way. And most of all, Tony wasn't one for giving sincere apologies... ever.
"How do I know you're not just apologizing to make yourself feel better?" Steve felt like he should've just taken the apology and regretted saying what he did immediately after it came out of his mouth.
They were now both holding their ice cream without eating it. Tony sighed, "Dude, I don't usually do the "sorry" thing, but I'll be honest, at my party, I wasn't planning for you to kiss me. I really wasn't. And the way I saw you today, how paranoid you looked, I felt really bad, man." Steve could feel his cheeks going red at the mention of him kissing Tony. He felt embarrassed and didn't know what to say. He only wanted Tony to know that he was mad at him, he didn't know Tony was able to see how paranoid he truly had been about everyone. He looked at his ice cream and felt that his agreeing to leave with Tony was the dumbest decision he made. Though lately he has been full of making dumb decisions.
Not knowing how to respond, Steve just decided to go with the apology and try to let the whole thing go. It was only Monday, and the party was only three days ago, but he saw that Tony did look pretty sincere compared to how he usually is. Steve could actually see the seriousness in his eyes for once. "Well, thank you..." Steve gave him a light smile, "Except this doesn't really solve the problem of people assuming I'm gay for you." he joked while being serious at the same time.
Tony, seeing that Steve seemed to be forgiving him little by little, started laughing a bit, "Don't worry about it, It'll be old news by next week and hey, you can just date Peggy or someone to show everyone you aren't."
Steve now took a spoonful of ice cream into his mouth and nodded, "Yeah, I can do that."
Steve thought again about how he could simply just date a girl to clear the air about the assumptions. Bucky and Sam brought it up to him earlier and then he remembered the way Peggy glared at him at lunch. Her eyes were lit with pure anger and with a little of what Steve thought was jealousy. He also felt different now. After the kiss, as much as he hated to admit it, he felt differently about certain things.
Tony bit into his cone again and continued to eat away at his ice cream, while Steve did the same with his spoon and dish. They sat in the parking lot for around 10 minutes while they finished their ice cream.
"So how's the football season going?" Tony asked out of nowhere, bringing up a new topic, just hoping that Steve had maybe started to forgive him. Steve was glad that things weren't left awkward after the whole apology thing and his mind jumped to football, "Oh... um, it's fine. We're doing pretty great so far." Tony nodded, "Yeah, that's what Rhodey's been saying too."
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As they both started to finish their snack, Tony started up the car again and in a matter of no time they were on their way back to school, onto next period. Steve looked at the time in the car as they drove, class had already just started, "We're gonna be late." he said, not in any particular tone, just announcing. Tony then glanced at the time and sighed, "Darn... I would hate to miss any bit of AP U.S. History..." he said sarcastically. Steve laughed a little and nodded in agreement- he and Tony both had that class together, so he could relate.
They drove down the streets back to school and as they reentered school grounds Tony parked his car in the student parking lot where it had been previous to them leaving earlier. They both unbuckled their seatbelts, "Well, we're only about ten minutes late, I guess it isn't that bad." Steve said as he opened his door and got out. Tony did the same and they both started walking to the school doors. "What are we gonna say?" Steve asked, not really wanting to get into trouble with the teachers.
Tony just smirked, had Steve forgotten who he was with? "Don't worry, I've been late before, I just talk the secretary into giving me a pass each time."
As cool as Steve thought that was, he was a bit annoyed and jealous of it at the same time. He didn't think it was fair that just because of Tony's status and his parents, that he should get away with all the things he does. But then again, there was nothing he could do about it, so there was no use in thinking about the unfairness of it all.
Life was generally unfair, that was that.
They opened and walking through the school doors and entered into the main office. The secretary looked up from her computer behind the desk and right as she saw it was Tony, she smiled warmly, "Would you like a pass Mr. Stark?"
Tony nodded, "Yeah, one for the both of us." he smiled back, walking up to the desk as Steve just stayed behind him. They both eagerly waited for a few moments while the secretary finished writing on a yellow slip of paper. She looked up, "Name?" she asked Steve. "Steve Rogers." he replied. The secretary put the pen down after signing her initials and then looked back up at Tony, still smiling, "Here you go, you're both excused."
--
After walking through the halls of the school and up the stairs they stopped outside the AP U.S. History room. "What are we gonna tell friends? They're obviously going to ask..." Steve asked Tony before he opened the door. They shared the class with not only each other, but also James Rhodes, Peggy, Thor, and Sam. Tony thought of what they could say, knowing that Steve wasn't going to want to tell people they went out and had ice cream together- Tony didn't want to tell people that either. "Just say I offered to..." Tony had the beginning of an idea, not knowing how to finish it off.
"Help me fix my car!" Steve tried to talk quieter- they were just outside the door.
Tony nodded, "Yeah." he whispered as he opened the door.
They both walked in casually and Steve heard the teacher stop talking mid-sentence. Steve started to walk to his seat and Tony was about to give him the note. The teacher's back was turned, "Late." was all he said. He had been in the middle of writing something down on the board. He turned around and gave Tony a straight glare of annoyance, "But of course, I'm sure you have a pass Tony." He then smiled, but not the nice smile, the smile that you could read as 'of course you have a pass, you get away with everyfuckingthing you do in this school.'
Tony gave a genuine smile back as the Teacher stopped smiling and took the slip of paper from Tony's hand, reading it. He glanced over to Steve who had just sat down and then walked over to his desk to mark them both in class, late, but with a pass. He bent over and clicked things on his computer. "Tony, I'm not surprised, seeing as it's nothing new. Steve however..." The teacher looked up at him. Steve could see his eyes through his glasses and then their eye contact ended as the teacher went back to marking him present. "That's something new." he muttered to himself, standing up straight again and walking back over to the board, "Where were we. Ah, okay, so once Amerigo Vespucci left..."
The teacher continued talking as Steve heard his name, it was a quiet whisper. He turned and saw it was Sam, "Where were you two? I thought you wanted nothing to do with-"
"He offered to help with my car, so I thought, why not, it needs to be fixed anyway."
"You still haven't gotten that thing fixed?"
They whispered back and forth and Steve was glad that Sam believed it so easily because now instead of talking about him and Tony, Sam had already directed the conversation elsewhere to Steve's car.
Steve shook his head and Sam just chuckled softly, both of them turned back to face the front of the room.
The rest of class progressed slowly as Steve took notes on what the teacher started explaining. The whole time he paid attention, except for a few times when he would glance around the room. He would think about his lunch period, which still left him hungry. He thought about the ice cream. Had he really had a decent time out with Tony Stark? As of the hours before that, he wanted nothing but for Tony Stark to leave and never come back. Now, he didn't know how he felt.