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"No, I mean…not exactly, he's a lot quieter and his sense of humor is really different and he's such a meatball sometimes but that's not the point, he just…they both tend to see the best in people. They're both really…really good, y'know?"
"I do." Tony nodded mutely.
"So I want to know how you got Mr. Robinson."
"I swear to god, Downey, for the millionth time—"
"Yeah, yeah, you're 'just friends', I know. As a 'friend', then." Robert rolled his eyes, sarcasm thick in his voice. "How'd you get him to be 'friends' with you?"
"You're a little shit, you know that?" Tony groused.
"You said you'd help."
"Grab him and never let go? I don't know!" Tony threw his hands up. "I don't know, Robert, I really don't. That sort of thing...all you can do is be honest and hope for the best. That's my advice: be honest. It's cheesy and cliché but it's also surprisingly important."
"So what, I should just walk up and tell him I like his face?"
"You…" Tony shook his head with a laugh. "High schoolers, honestly. Do yourself a favor and make it a little more special than 'I like your face', but you've got the basic idea."
"What'd you say to Mr. Robinson when you told him?"
"As I've told you repeatedly, I haven't told him anything."
"Okay, what would you say?"
"If I liked him, which I'm sure as hell not admitting to a scrawny teenager who exists purely to make my life more difficult—" Tony shot Robert a look. "—I'd tell him that he makes me a better person. That I'm happier with him than I've ever been, and I'd like to stay that way for as long as he'd have me."
"Holy shit, are you gonna propose to him? Is that your proposal speech?" Robert grinned gleefully. "I totally called it, Fluffalo owes me a hundred bucks—"
"Propose? Are you insane, we only met a few—you know what, get out, I'm done with you, no more advice for obnoxious brats that ignore me anyway." Tony all but shoved Robert out the door. Propose, honestly. Teenagers.
Steve could really use Tony's insight.
The attack on StarkIndustries had SHIELD in a tizzy; they had no idea what Iron Man could've found on StarkIndustries' servers, had nothing on Obadiah Stane, and had no leads on where Iron Man could be going with this whole thing. The public was worked up too; most speculation now assumed that Iron Man was an ex-StarkIndustries employee, and that Obadiah had done something to personally offend him.
Steve had been over StarkIndustries' employee records for the past decade though, looked into every employee that had ever ceased to work there for any reason, be it they were fired, let go, quit, anything, and hadn't turned up a single possibility. They'd all seemed to move on with their lives easily. For all that could be said about Tony's tenure as CEO, he was undoubtedly generous. His severance packages were among the very best, and he'd taken especially good care of those that left on good terms.
None of this was of any surprise to Steve, who'd seen Tony stay after school for four hours once with a struggling student, but it did mean the Iron-Man-is-a-vengeful-ex-employee theory held very little water.
It was tied into Obadiah somehow, Steve was sure of it, but he wasn't keen on asking Tony outright. Last time he'd pried he'd given Tony a panic attack, something he intended to never, ever repeat if he could help it. It'd been more than a month since then, and Steve could still see it clear as day in his mind. The naked fear in Tony's eyes, the curve of his hunched shoulders as he curled into himself, the shake in his voice even as tried to convince Steve he was fine; he hated that he'd been so helpless, and he hated even more that he'd inadvertently caused it.
Not that he thought asking about Tony's old business partner would bring on a panic attack, but he still tried to be more cautious about these things, and—
"Oh my god, you're making the face again." Tony paused the movie to turn to him accusingly. "Seriously, your anxiety is giving me anxiety, would you just ask already?"
"I don't have anything to—"
"Yes you do, don't even try and tell me you don't, you keep looking at me and making the face—"
"What face?"
"The I-need-to-phrase-this-carefully face."
"You're becoming disturbingly accurate at naming these."
"You have a very expressive face." Tony grinned, bumping his elbow against Steve's. "Now come on, out with it. I'm very interested in learning Jack and Rose's fate and I can't watch the movie in earnest with you sitting there making faces at me, it's very rude."
"Tony, the movie is about a boat that sinks. I'm fairly certain they die."
"Shh." Tony shushed him with a hand on his face.
"Besides, you've seenthis before, you know how it ends—"
"I'm having an emotion, Steve, don't ruin it."
"You know, the longer I know you, the stranger you get."
"Strange awesome?"
"Let's go with strange interesting."
"You know what would be really interesting?" Tony poked him in the side. "If you told me why you're making the face."
"I was wondering what your thoughts were on Iron Man's latest stunt." Steve admitted.
"The virus thing? I told you, I think it's hysterical, the guy's got talent—"
"No, I mean…well, I was wondering if you had any idea what he might have found. Everyone's speculating, but you're the only person I know that would have any real insight. You worked with Obadiah, didn't you?"
"We had a falling out." Tony shrugged, leaving it at that. "There's a number of things Iron Man could've dug up about him. Stane is dirty business."
"You sound like you agree with Iron Man."
"He and I have a common interest, I suppose." Tony sounded amused.
"If you have a common interest, what do you think he's after?"
"Revenge, sounds like." Tony shrugged, not seeming very invested in the topic of conversation. "Who knows?"
"You're not even curious?" Steve frowned. "Are you feeling well?"
"Shut up." Tony grinned. "I just don't think it matters so much anymore, that's all."
"What do you mean, anymore?"
"Well, seems to me like he's going out of the supervillain business, don't you think?"
"What?"
