#the entire campus was getting tired of them being oblivious and somehow blind to the other openly mooning over them

[nostalgicatsea]

Hi! If you're still taking prompts, stevetony + cheese wheel! (And also, I want to let you know that I enjoy reading your fics and I tried thinking of ideas from the fics you wanted to write but ugh, I'm no help there. If it helps, I actually got excited when I read the plots! I would read all of them!)

On AO3

The biggest block of cheese that Steve had ever seen in his entire life greeted him as soon as he got to his room after a long day of class. He stood in the doorway, nonplussed.

“Uh,” he managed to say intelligently, the strong stench permeating every inch of his room and apparently his brain so that he couldn’t think of anything other than “Big cheese in room. Why?”

“What are you doing? Put your bag down and let’s go. We’re late for dinner and I’m starving,” Sam complained. 

He stepped to the side to let Sam, who was trying to peek into the room from behind him, get a better view.

“Oh, that. I can’t believe it got to you in one piece,” Sam said as if this wasn’t odd at all but was rather something expected, which Steve couldn’t understand because he hadn’t ordered cheese, no one had mentioned getting cheese, and there wasn’t any note attached to it explaining where the cheese had come from.

Jan wriggled her way between them. “It came!” she squealed as soon as she made her way to the front, clapping with glee. “I wonder who delivered it. Maybe Vision? He wouldn’t care that much about trying a bite.” She eyed the wheel as if she were sorely tempted to slice off a chunk for herself.

“What’s all the—oh Cap, you’re back.” Patsy poked her head out of her room as if the cheese wheel had called to her—or maybe it was Jan’s shriek that had sounded the alarm. “Hey, could I try some? I’ve been waiting for Professor Pym to let you guys out to ask.” She pursed her lips at Sam’s snort. “Okay, the past three weeks,” she conceded as she walked over.

“What are you talking about?” Steve asked all of them, baffled. He turned to Patsy. “Three weeks?”

“Yeah…” she said slowly. “Did you forget?”

“I’m not sure how you could forget winning a wheel of one of the most expensive cheeses in the world,” Sam muttered.

“The most expensive—wait, win? Is this about the charity auction we had?”

“Yeah,” Patsy repeated, dragging out the word like she did the first time. She looked as though she were stuck between thinking he was pitifully dense and being insulted that he of all people got the prize when he clearly didn’t appreciate it the way she did.

Nothing about their conversation so far made any sense; if anything, Steve was more confused than when he had first entered his room.

“I didn’t bid for a cheese wheel,” he insisted.

“Yes, you did. Tony went up on the stage, and you shouted everyone down with an outrageous bid. No one wanted to fight you on it, remember? I thought Loki would, at least.” Jan held up three fingers, putting them down one by one as she rattled off her reasons. “I mean, he has the money, he loves antagonizing everyone, and he always raids Tony’s fridge. I’m surprised you went for it considering you don’t love cheese…that…much…” 

She trailed off and paused, staring up at him at the same time it dawned on him that he had made a fool out of himself and couldn’t back out now without looking even more stupid. Jan, Patsy, and Sam were crowded around him, blocking the only exit.

“Steve,” Jan said slowly, “what did you think you were bidding on?”

He could feel the heat of his blush creeping down his face and neck, and considering its intensity, he knew he was as red as a fire hydrant.

“Uh,” he said for the second time in minutes.

“And here’s Tony with his second offer of the night!” Jan said, introducing her best friend with a flourish. 

Tony sauntered onto the stage, basking under the bright stage lights.

“Our last item is another mystery gift. Like the ones before it, I can’t tell you what it is, but you know Tony gives the best gifts and I can personally guarantee that we saved the best for last. To most of you, it’ll be the most valuable auction of the night.” 

Jan winked and a strange, focused quiet that Steve couldn’t make any sense of rippled through the crowd, all conversation ceasing and everyone’s faces shining with anticipation as Tony stepped to the edge of the stage. 

“Jan says ‘mystery,’ but you all know what’s up for grabs,” he said with a smirk.

A few people gasped, and Steve glanced around to see several starry-eyed classmates before looking back at the stage again, taking care not to grip his paddle too hard as Tony opened his arms to the audience, inviting them to look their fill.

The bidding war had started almost immediately, the numbers jumping up second by second. Steve wasn’t going to bid, wasn’t going to do anything that made it obvious just how sweet he was on Tony like blurting out an extraordinarily high bid, but Tony had seemed taken aback by how fervent the bidding was and how many people were bidding on him—by the people who were bidding on him because some surprising bidders had come forward, and Steve…hadn’t been able to handle that.

“I didn’t know it was going to be cheese,” he said a little more defensively than he would have liked.

Sam gaped at him. “That’s all Tony’s been talking about for ages! What did you think the mystery item was?!”

“Tony was up there, and he looked uncomfortable,” he said instead of answering Sam’s question, his ears on fire. At this rate, his entire body would be as red as Tony’s armor. 

“Because Patsy and Kate were ready to murder Brian for it! And it got all weird when Otto joined!” Jan’s eyes grew as big as saucers. “Oh my God,” she said breathlessly, “did you think he was auctioning himself off?”

“Steve, America was one of the last bidders standing. America,” Sam said at the same time Patsy exclaimed, “You thought I was fighting for Tony? Why?! I’ve never shown any interest in him.” 

“We all know why. How long have we been talking about this?” Sam shook his head as though he couldn’t deal with Steve making a fool out of himself any longer. “He thinks Tony hung the moon, so of course everyone would want to fight for him. But he won’t make a move even though Tony basically broadcasted his feelings for him during his auction too.”

A denial sprung to his lips—he didn’t like Tony that way, and Tony winning his auction didn’t mean anything; he was just being nice, and he spent a lot of money on all his friends—but neither Jan nor Patsy showed any indication that they were surprised as though they had talked about this for a while, and a familiar voice came from behind him before he could speak, banishing all thought from his mind.

“Oh,” Tony said in a small voice, stunned.

He stood there, plates and utensils in hand, his mouth parted in shock. Natasha was behind him, carrying an assortment of fruit and crackers, unruffled.  

Never before had Steve wished the ground would open up and swallow him as much as he did now.

“How much did you hear?” he asked weakly, breaking a long moment of awkward silence where no one quite knew where to look.

“Everything after Patsy said she’s not interested in him,” Natasha replied. “So he knows you’re in love with him, and you know that he’s in love with you.”

“Natasha!” Jan cried, taking pity on both him and Tony. 

“What? Everyone but these two idiots knew for months, and Tony was going—”

“—to hang out with a friend, eating amazing cheese and watching Netflix—”

“Netflix and chill?” Sam replied a bit disapprovingly, as if he were disappointed on Steve’s behalf. “I thought you’d have better game than that.”

“No!” Tony held his hand up in protest before slamming it back down on the plates again, catching the knives and forks that had nearly slid off from the force of his emphatic gesture.

“Ohhhhh.” Patsy snapped her fingers. “You’re wine-and-dining him! That’s cute.”

“I—what? Fruit and crackers aren’t fancy!” Tony said, but he was flushed and his retort didn’t have much bite to it.

This was not going the way Steve had expected. He had seen Tony flustered before, but he was always able to cover it up quickly, either by appearing cool and collected or by managing to divert everyone’s attention while he tried to recover. He had never seen Tony like this.

A thought came to mind, vague and half-formed but with hooks that sank into him so that he could think of nothing else.

Surely if it meant nothing to Tony—which should be the case because he had never shown any sign of interest in Steve before and he flirted with everyone but him—he would have cracked a joke right now.

But he hadn’t and maybe that meant something. 

He couldn’t let that chance go if that were the case.

“Is it true?” he asked. “What Natasha said.”

Tony glanced at him, startled, and Steve could tell he was ready to say no, his heart already sinking, but something on his face must have changed Tony’s mind because he frowned and then bit his lip.

That settled it for him. 

“I’d like to talk to Tony alone,” Steve said to all of them firmly, his expression quelling any form of protest that might have otherwise risen.

Sam cocked his head at the others, stopping in the doorway before he left. “I’ll save you some food if I don’t see you at dinner,” he said kindly.

Steve knew Sam was offering to check up on him after, and he was grateful for it although if his hunch was right, it would be unnecessary.

“It’s fine. This’ll only take a few minutes,” he promised.

Sam nodded and Steve ushered the rest out before he closed the door and turned to face Tony. Tony hadn’t moved from his spot, and Steve was much closer to him than he had expected.

“Is it true?” he asked again, hope both emboldening him and making his words come out shakily. 

“The cat’s out of the bag.” Tony shrugged, giving Steve a rueful smile. “Why else would I have tried so hard to win your auction? I thought I showed my hand, to be honest.”

“You didn’t.” 

He remembered how nonchalantly Tony had raised his paddle and given his winning bid.

“It was the highest bid of the night, Steve.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh.” Tony laughed. “Did you know what I—never mind, stupid question. Of course you did. I kept blabbing about the cheese all week. And I know that was against the rules, but I felt bad about people bidding on something they didn’t know.”

“No one would have minded. Everyone knows you give the best gifts. Sometimes when we don’t ask for any and you don’t need to.” He paused. “A lot of times, actually,” he added.

It was one of the things he loved most about Tony; he was the most generous and caring person Steve knew, never hesitating to offer help in any way he could. 

“Don’t you hate my robots?” Tony asked, but Steve could tell he was joking.

He rolled his eyes, trying and failing to keep a straight face. “Don’t start this again. You know I don’t.”

“I remember a lot of arm-wrestling that says otherwise.” Tony grew serious again, nervously picking at the gold circle lining the edge of the plate as if he could peel it off. “You seemed kinda nervous about it after you won so I thought the least I could do was show you what it pairs well with when you got it. But I get it if it’s awkward so I can just go.”

“Tony, I don’t even know what that is besides that it’s obviously cheese.”

“Then why—”

“I kind of—” he blurted out too loudly and too quickly, getting ahead of himself in embarrassment. He rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously. “I might’ve thought you were putting yourself up for auction.”

Tony’s jaw dropped. “Wait, that’s why you’ve been acting weird lately? You paid that much money because you wanted a date with me?”

“No! I mean, yes, I do want to go out with you. I think Sam made my side of this fairly obvious, but…you looked really uncomfortable up there,” Steve said softly. 

He had hated how Tony looked, his megawatt smile flickering before turning bright again, but awkward and pasted on this time.

“Yeah, that’s because the whole idea behind the mystery items was to give people who couldn’t offer big bids a chance to win something and the bids got out of control real fast. But that was sweet of you, protecting me like that.” 

He smiled, and Steve wondered if he was teasing him or if he meant it because what Steve had done was mortifying, not sweet. He had misread the situation and had rushed into things, thinking Tony needed help when he had been perfectly fine.

“You could’ve just asked me for a date, you know,” Tony continued, completely unaware of Steve’s internal crisis. He was still smiling—but there had been a subtle undercurrent of nervousness below the surface of his words too, taut as invisible wire, making him sound less flirty than shy and making Steve recall a conversation that he had overheard some time ago.

Tony was a harmless flirt, Natasha had said. He flirted with everything that breathed because it was safe, never meaning anything by it or expecting anything to come from it. He always got flustered when it was reciprocated. 

And sometimes people flirted back because of that.

“It’s cute,” Tigra had said.

But Tony had never flirted with him even if it was supposedly safe. Not once.

For the first time, Steve wondered if it was because Tony was afraid of it meaning something, the way that it did now, when he couldn’t keep how he really felt from bleeding through.

He never could, now that Steve thought about it. Tony had always hidden behind masks and bravado when he felt that he needed to. It had taken a while for him to see past that. Once he did, though, he had been able to read Tony like a book, to see when he was joking and when he was putting on his public persona or was wary of showing that he cared too much.

Steve wondered what would happen if he pushed back. He stepped closer, placing a hand on Tony’s hip and slipping his fingers through the belt loop there, reeling him in before he could think better of it. He could hear Tony suck in a breath, surprised, and he wanted to chase it past Tony’s lips. But that would have to wait even if he did give in a little and lean over him, watching Tony intently as he spoke.

“Then this is me asking for a date,” he said seriously.

Tony’s eyes were big and bright with incredulity, as if he were struggling to believe his good fortune. 

“Yeah?” he asked, that one word so radiant with hope that he didn’t stand a chance of hiding it.

Not that Steve thought he wanted to, what with the way he was looking at Steve, entranced.

I think I know a bit of what that’s like, he thought because there was nothing else but this, his entire universe, bright and glorious and full of hope, existing just in Tony’s eyes.

“Yeah,” he replied, unable to look away.

“Okay,” Tony said, dazed, “you can have it then.” 

And Steve could see everything, all that Tony said and all that he meant.

You can have me.

“You have me too,” Steve reminded him because Tony had won his auction too and because everything Tony was offering, he wanted to give back to Tony as well.

Tony laughed. “I guess I do, don’t I?” he said, and when he reached up to kiss him, smiling against Steve’s lips, Steve thought that it had all been worth it, all the misunderstandings and all the embarrassing mistakes, because he had ended up right where he wanted to be.