An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Summary: Steve doesn't understand why Tony dates people who abuse him. Tony doesn't understand why Steve cares.The rest is bad choices, good choices, rehab, milkshakes, paintball, YouTube videos, couples therapy and learning to put the past in the past. Or: How Tony finds his happy ending.
Chapters: 10
Status: Complete
Notes: This ff got my heart. Tony hasn’t respect for himself, he dates people who are abusive and who treats him like he’s nothing, because he thinks he deserves it. But Steve doesn’t agree with him, he gets angry every time someone treats Tony in a bad way. Tony, on the other hand, gets pissed when Steve defends him, and he always twists the cap’s words against him. But Steve doesn’t give up and, eventually, will manage to break Tony’s armor, making him see what he sees. And the rest is a soft and pure fluff and you read it!
I hope you like your secret Santa present, @hightress! merry Christmas!
@marvelholidayswap
pair: stevetony/soulmate au
words: 2.2k
read on ao3
However it developed, Tony fully blames it on Clint - wait no, scratch that. He blames it on himself - he was the one that was an idiot.
But, at the same time, he blames Clint because it was Clint who first introduces them; and honestly, Tony doesn’t even know how it got to that point.
It was Clint who decided to grab Tony by the waist, pluck him out of his and Pepper’s conversation, and tug him across the house to meet - in Clint’s words - ‘a hot stud of a roommate, I promise Stark, he’s a good catch, and besides man, you really need to get some action in before you meet your soulmate, wouldn’t want you disappointing the poor gal or pal.’
And it’s because of Clint that they’re shoved up into a tight corner together, the lights dimmed a bit, the volume of the music low enough so they can get some words in. But those words slowly delve into something else, until all Tony can do is try not to trip over his own two feet as he tugs this man into the room, quickly promising a night of fun, and meaning every word that comes out of his mouth.
It’s all Clint’s fault that he finds himself pressed up the door, his neck being smothered in a scorching hot trail of kisses, his mouth immediately biting back a groan.
It’s all Clint’s fault that he wakes up stark naked, his muscles slightly aching, his back pressed against a warm chest, and wondering if they could do it all over again.
In conclusion, it was, without a doubt, Clint’s fault.
_______
The thing is, everyone knows that Tony is bad at decision-making. Like, makes terrible decisions, decisions that would even make a non sane person doubt.
Decisions like staying up for 72 hours and then dropping his face straight into a bowl of cereal and staying like that until Pepper had to come to fish it out. Waxing the floor of his apartment to a point where he could slide across the entire length of it and only crash into a couple of things along the way. Going on binges to complete the evolution of science and when confronted about said binges, pretending he didn’t know a thing. Or, better yet, decisions like, upon waking up with the man named Steve still in his bed, hastily grabbing his clothes and running out of the apartment before he realized that it was actually his own apartment and not Steve’s.
He then makes his way back in, rubbing the back of his neck, his face burning with embarrassment, only to discover Steve standing in the middle of his living room, trying to pull on his pants.
“Uh, hi,” Tony says, once Steve’s eyes make his way to Tony, his movements stopping altogether, his eyes widening.
“Uh, hey,” Steve replies, pulling the rest of his jeans up, and slowly closing his fly.
Tony wanted to scream.
“So, listen-”
“If you want me to leave-”
“No, that’s completely fine-”
“I had a good time last night-”
“So did I but-”
“Do you want to do it again?” Steve rushes out, ending Tony’ chance to speak up before he could.
Tony feels like the air is rushing out of him - and in an odd way, it feels like a relief, “yeah, yeah, sounds good.”
“So, your number?” Steve hastily asks, the back of his neck slowly turning pink.
And Tony moves.
_________
It’s surprisingly easy how they fall into a routine.
How easy it is to send a simple text, and have Steve all over him in the next few minutes.
How easy it is to softly turn in Steve’s arms, press a kiss to his mouth and cover himself in Steve’s scratchy bedsheets.
How quickly he becomes used to Steve’s presence around him, how he learns what ticks Steve off, how his calloused hands feel on his skin, and especially how he sounds like when he murmurs praises of words and Steve announces some in retaliation.
How easy it is for him to quickly get used to Steve, and not possibly figuring out why he does so in the first place.
“Dude, are you sure this is a good idea?” Clint says slowly, his mouth forming an O to bite the burger that was currently in his hands.
Tony shrugs, “I mean, we’re just friends, and occasional friends with benefits, it’s not that big of a deal.”
Clint chews and shrugs, “Don’t come to me if this turns out to be a bad idea.”
Tony raised an eyebrow, “Where are you going with this Barton?”
“Sleeping around with a non-soulmate, that's a low blow Stark.”
Tony groans, “You’re literally the one that forced me into meeting him, you son of a bitch.”
“I didn’t tell you to sleep with him!”
“He was right there! And willing! What was I supposed to do?”
“How about not sleep with my roommate, you jackass! I had to see you nude, do you know what it does to a guy?”
“Oh, shut up Clint - you should have seen him this morning, the way he looked when he woke up - how could I not sleep with that.”
Clink blinks, takes a bite of his burger and swallows. “Man, Tony, Tones, you’re in way too deep.”
“Shut the fuck up, Clint,” Tony says, a groan escaping his lips.
“Just tell him you don’t want to see him anymore,” Clint replies, finishing the end of his burger and starting to crumple up the wrapper, “It’s not like you love him or anything.”
“Clint, if I thought I could get rid of him about a week ago, I would have. But for some fucked up reason, I can’t lie to him. It’s like, I see those baby blue eyes, and bam. Whatever barrier that I built up from childhood trauma is gone.”
Clint chokes on the last piece of his burger, almost resisting the urge to smack Tony on the side of his head.
Tony was a fucking idiot.
“Tony, you are the love of my life.”
Tony raises an eyebrow, “Clint, honey, I know you love me but-”
“No you dumbass - fuck, just say I love you back.”
“Clint, did you hit your head?”
“Tony.”
“Fuck, okay - I love you?”
Clint snorts, “Thanks for making it believable you asshole.”
Tony grins, “welcome asshole.”
“Now, I want you to call Steve and tell him I’m having a milkshake.”
Tony frowns, “You’re not having a milkshake though?”
“Just do it.”
“Literally doesn’t make the fuck sense why I have to call Steve and tell him-”
“I swear if you don’t do it in the next second, I’m going to tell Bruce to drop you as a science partner.”
“He wouldn’t do it.”
Clint sighs, “Stop being difficult Stark, or I swear I’m going to drop Nat on your ass.”
“Fuck, fine,” Tony says, fishing out his phone and dialing Steve’s number.
Tony didn’t know why his hands felt so clammy, nor the reason why his breath was caught in his throat.
All he knew was that Clint was staring at him, a mischievous glint in his eyes, and his lips pulled in a tight smile.
“Hey Tony, what’s up?” Tony heard from the phone, Steve’s voice ringing through, shaking him from his thoughts.
“I just wanted to let you know that Clint-” and all of a sudden, Tony feels like his throat is closing up, and he can’t get the words out, no matter how hard he tries.
Tony freezes, his brain finally catching up with what had been happening in the few weeks and he realizes, that fuck, Steve is his soulmate.
That’s why he hadn’t been able to lie to him.
That’s why he never questioned why the truth came out so easily when he always struggled to tell the truth to Pepper, or Rhodey for fucks sakes.
That’s why he always felt a little lighter, a little looser, and a little happier whenever he was with Steve - because fuck, Steve is his soulmate.
“I, Steve, fuck, nevermind, I gotta go,” and Tony closes the phone, his wide eyes turning towards Clint; Clint whose mouth is pulled in a wide grin, his eyes dancing with excitement. “Fuck.”
“Indeed.”
“And you knew this entire time?”
“I didn’t know until you went on your love rant for ten minutes - literally ten minutes ago, asshole. Why do you think I made you call him?”
“Fuck.”
“Indeed,” Clint says again, a small laugh making its way out of his throat, “what are you gonna do now?”
“He’s my soulmate, Clint, what the fuck do I do?”
“Uh, I don’t know, go find him and hump his bones?”
“I do that on the daily!” Tony cries out, his mind racing a mile a minute.
Steve.
Steve.
Soulmate.
Steve. Soulmate.
Steve is my soulmate.
Fuck.
“Tony, calm down. Just, you literally told me that you have a crush on this guy and now you got to find out he’s your soulmate! Message him, talk to him, figure this out.”
“Clint, I make bad decisions.”
“I know.”
“What if I fuck this up?”
“You won’t.”
Tony snorts.
“Shut the fuck up, Stark. I know you won’t fuck this up, he’s your soulmate for crying out loud. Just go talk to him.”
Tony takes a deep breath, nods, and then nods again.
“Okay,” Tony says while pulling out his phone, his hands slightly shaking.
hunky-dork
Where are you? We need to talk
captain
my dorm, why?
hunky-dork
Can I come over?
captain
Of course
hunky-dork
Okay, see you in a bit
captain
okay <3
And Tony turns to Clint, his mouth forming into an O shape, and he grimaces, “Clint, I really fucking like him.”
Clint groans.
___________
Clint is an asshole, Tony decides when he’s standing outside Steve’s dorm, glaring at the door right in front of him.
Tony promises himself that the next time he sees Clint, he’s going to walk straight up to him and punch him right on his arm.
It serves him for making Tony go through with this.
Tony knew he made bad decisions, but fuck, if this wasn’t the worst one he made in a while. Besides, it was totally, a hundred percent, Clint’s fault for pushing him out of his chair and declaring, ‘go sort out your pathetic love life, you dumbass.’
And besides being pushed out of his chair - which Tony was sure he was going to develop a bruise on the side of his arm, it was hard - he was downright terrified if Steve rejected him.
If his soulmate rejected him.
Tony groans, knocks on the door and then doubts if he should try and run away before Steve opens the door.
But then he does, and he looks gorgeous as ever, and Tony maybe, just slightly, want to cry a bit.
“Was wondering why you took so long,” Steve says, ushering Tony through the door, a small smile on the edge of his lips.
Tony wants to kiss him like crazy.
“Just got caught up,” Tony says, knowing it’s not a lie. He couldn’t lie to Steve anyways.
“So, you said you wanted to talk about something?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“And what would that be?”
Tony grimaces, “you know what? Nevermind, we can just-”
Steve lets out a low chuckle, “come on Tony, out with it, you’re making me worry over here.”
“Try lying to me,” Tony blurts out, his heart and mind racing a mile a minute.
Steve furrows his eyebrows, “excuse me?”
“Just try.”
Steve shakes his head, “Tony, where are you going with this?”
“Please.”
“Alright, when I was nine, I tried jumping out of a tree to see if I could fly like the-” And Steve chokes, his words immediately dying out, and Steve wonders if he just took a breath in and it led to the wrong windpipe.
But then, slowly as Tony figured it out, Steve did too. His eyes slowly widening, the tips of his ears slightly flushing, and the corner of his lips slowly turning up.
Tony was his soulmate.
Tony grins, “I didn’t figure it out until Clint forced me to call you.”
Steve clears his throat, making his way slowly to Tony, “when you choked on the phone?”
“Yeah,” Tony said, placing the tip of his thumb to the edge of Steve’s wrist, “took me one hell of a moment till I figured it out.”
“Fuck.”
“Indeed,” Tony says, drawing a laugh out of himself and Steve in return.
“So, we gotta thank Clint for this?” Steve asks, placing his hands tentatively on Tony’s waist, drawing him slowly in.
“Fuck, no. It was just me and my bad decisions,” Steve raises an eyebrow, “okay, maybe 12% is Clint.”
“We can send him a thank you gift,” Steve murmurs out, his face coming close and close to Tony’s - until it reached the point where their lips were softly brushing.
“Sure, whatever you want Captain,” Tony says, finally pulling Steve in all the way.
