"Falling into You" 4, 9, 11? :)
Hello! Thank you for the ask. Ah, Falling Into You. One of my favorites.
4. Favorite line of dialogue: “I got no problem with you calling someone out when they have it coming. None of us avoid trouble. It doesn’t have to find us. All of us…we stand out there and shout at it until it comes down on us, because that’s what we do. That’s who we are. Just…maybe don’t do it on your own next time? We’re a team, right?” Steve pointed out, pushing lightly against ‘Shifty’ and letting the bag bounce back against his hand. “We should act like it.”
Seems...oddly appropriate at the moment. And, this bit between Tony and Pepper:
“Tony! Enough. Yes, you missed his interest, but I know you. You pay attention. So damn closely, it’s overwhelming at times. You didn’t catch on that Steve was asking you out, and, I’m not saying that was well done, Tony, because it wasn’t, but…you don’t miss the really important stuff. You knew when he was upset the other night at the benefit,” she went on. “You got him out of a situation that could have gone a very different way. You talked to Sam about making sure he got Steve to come early to pick him up from the VA so that Steve could stand around waiting for Sam to be done and basically attend a meeting that Captain America needs but can’t have. You spent three days in your shop making him a better uniform after what happened over the Potomac. One that can stop bullets and bring his shield to him when he loses it,” Pepper continued.
“Drops it on purpose,” Tony muttered harshly under his breath.
“You modified your suits to carry him. You trusted him with the override codes. Nat tells me everything,” Pepper explained with a dismissive wave of her hand at his stunned expression. “You’re having JARVIS help find Barnes because Steve wants his friend back, even though I know that the thought of it absolutely terrifies you,” she finished gently.
“But months, Pepper. Months. He thought---he thought that I don’t, but I would, I mean, I do—I…” Tony stammered. She hadn’t seen Steve’s face. She hadn’t seen that, and she hadn’t been the one to put that there.
“I’m not…I’m not saying you did everything right, Tony. You didn’t hear the question he was asking, true, and I think you should seriously think about why that is, but everything you did, Tony…everything you did for him was an answer,” Pepper said, her voice going soft, one hand reaching out to rub at his arm. “You’re already more than half way there. You like Steve. Steve likes—or liked--you. Those feelings don’t just disappear over a bag of takeout, Tony,” she continued, so sure that he could almost believe it, though he was fairly certain that was desperation trying to convince him she was right. “Maybe he doesn’t remember he cares about you, but he’s the same person, give or take a few years. Whatever it is in him that made him fall in love with you in the first place, it’s still there, somewhere. You just have to find it again.”
9. Were there any alternate versions of this fic? Not really. I saw the prompt from @brandnewfashion and the whole fic just sort of dumped itself, fully formed, into my head. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it, how I could use the flashbacks to mirror Tony’s later actions trying to woo Steve, and it all just seemed so clear. Which never happened before and has never happened since, alas!
11. What do you like best about this fic? I think Tony’s voice sounds really, really Tony to me here. Sometimes, I feel I get him more right than others, and here, he sounds very MCU-Tony to me. I like his stream of thought, with it bouncing around and the shoutouts and references thrown in. I think it is very tightly written, which is unusual for me. So, yeah, I guess there is a reason it is my most popular fic, at least by kudo count, though, weirdly, not based on the comments. You just never know what will inspire people. I think you all like the pain and angst!
