He’s never been thrown so off balance before. Tony’s fingers press more firmly against Steve’s spine, as if he could see the same person making him feel this way for support against feeling this way. Tony’s blown himself up, had someone sacrifice their life for him, been backstabbed by an old family friend, and literally breathed in the dusty remains of a teenager over the last decade or so, all of which might have ruined his stability, but it took Steve God Damned Rogers to say a few words and lightly drop a few kisses along his hairline to completely undo him.

Steve says things youd expect the good guys in Noir movies to come up with, the ones that have the dame before she decides to fall for the gritty, demon-laden leading man. You’ve been on my mind. I just really wanted to see you happy.

How do normal people react to that? Tony’s first instinct is to push Steve away, but he battles that like he’d been battling his body to keep from flinching. No one has time for him to be physically afraid of his only ally, no matter what circuit his fight or flight mentality is currently wired to. This feeling has nothing to do with physical fear, though. Steve Rogers is intense with a big black hole in the center of his chest, threatening to suck everything in even as it provides stability for other bodies to orbit peacefully.

He should not be thinking of the blond in terms of astromical physics but he can’t help himself, caught in a gravity well. “You’re telling me now,” he manages, though he feels so stiff, his body tense and his voice frozen in his throat. He sounds icy. He doesn’t mean to. This is just a bit much for him. “I’ll be happy when we fix this.”