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Steve’s first thought when he spies Tony lingering on the doorstep of his Brooklyn one-apartment flat, looking bemusedly weary and quite obviously trying to get as far as possible from the apparently very irritated goose behind him is: did Tony buy me a pet goose?
When he asks Tony this precise question, he’s met with the most exasperated look he’s seen on Tony’s face since that time Scott Lang finished all of the Rocky Road ice cream at the Compound while they were planning for the time heist and tried to blame it on Rocket. “Why, exactly, would I buy you a pet goose, Steve?”
“I have no idea, but you’ve had worse gift ideas.”
“You said you liked the Monet!”
“Well of course I liked it, Tony, but you can’t just—“ Steve breaks off from repeating the back and forth of a familiar argument. He watches the goose edge closer to Tony, a strange feeling of suspicion dawning on him. “You didn’t get me a pet goose.”
“I didn’t.” Tony’s confirmation sounds distinctly nervous, and when Steve looks up, he finds Tony avoiding his gaze.
“Did you get Morgan a pet goose?”
“No! You know she’s still asking for another alpaca.”
“So you just—“
“I didn’t do anything!” There’s a definite tinge of panic in Tony’s voice now, and he’s staring down at Steve’s checkered welcome mat as if it contains all the secrets of the universe. “It just—showed up when I was crossing the block in front of the bodega and it won’t leave! I turned the corner away from your place and it kept chasing me back! God, I knew it was a stupid idea to come here in the first place.” Steve’s heart gives a traitorous skip at the mention of the goose deliberately chasing Tony to his doorstep, and he bites back what he knows would come out as a very giddy smile.
“Why did you? Come here, I mean.” Tony’s head snaps up, his eyes meeting Steve’s, and Steve can almost hear the question Tony isn’t asking. Really? That’s what you’re curious about? Steve gives a half-shrug in answer. Yeah, why not.
“I wanted to see you,” Tony bites out after a long beat of silence broken only by a low hiss from the goose, looking like every word is being dragged out of him and he would very much rather fight the goose than say another word.
Steve crosses his arms over his chest, still looking steadily at Tony. “We saw each other at the meeting with S.W.O.R.D. on Wednesday, and I’m pretty sure you haven’t forgotten we have dinner plans with Nat this weekend.”
“That’s—that’s beside the point.” Next to him, the goose flaps its wings angrily, and Tony lets out a tired sigh.
“Oh?” Steve adopts what he hopes is an appropriately curious expression. “And what is the point, exactly?”
“God, of course you’re being a complete asshole about this,” Tony grinds out between clenched teeth. “The point is, you asked me to dinner. In a non-platonic way.”
“Sure did. Last week, in fact.”
“Well, I wanted to take you up on it,” Tony says, “although for the life of me I can’t imagine why right now.”
“You like it when I’m a little bit of an asshole,” Steve points out, letting the corner of his mouth lift up in a grin.
“I…” Tony sputters, clearly caught off guard. “I didn’t know you knew that.”
“I didn’t before, but I’m learning now.”
Tony’s expression softens, and Steve finds himself moving closer to Tony, one hand reaching out to grip the lapel of his jacket.
“So, the goose…”
“Apparently the universe thinks we need a nudge in the right direction, I guess.” Tony shrugs, but Steve reads the hope in his eyes as clearly as if he was looking into a mirror. There’s a loud rustle behind them, and Tony shuffles closer to Steve with a wary glance.
“Maybe it was just waiting for you to catch up,” Steve’s voice catches a little in his throat, the words coming out more sincere than teasing.
“You mean you’ve been waiting on me, Rogers?” Tony’s expression is open and tender in a way Steve’s never seen before. It makes him feel warm all over.
“I’ll tell you once you’ve given me your answer to that offer to take you out to dinner.”
“I think you know my answer.”
Tony’s mouth is soft and warm on Steve’s, and Steve reaches out to pull him ever closer, his hands moving to cradle Tony’s face in his hands.
Blissful seconds pass, until a loud and decisively goose-like honk breaks the silence.
“Fucking hell—” Steve snorts as Tony jumps and wrenches his mouth from Steve’s, directing an angry glare to the animal who is currently glaring right back at him. “Not really seeing the humour here, Steve.”
“I mean, it’s pretty funny that it’s happening at all, isn’t it?”
To think that after all this time, this is when Steve finds out Tony is his soulmate via a very clearly irritated goose. Nat is never going to let them live it down.
“I suppose its timing could have been worse. Could you imagine if it showed up when we met?”
“Loki would have probably tried blasting it with the sceptre.” It’s a ridiculous if hilarious thought, and Tony clearly thinks so too, if his loud bark of laughter is anything to go by.
Steve never imagined this happening to him, to them, after everything they’ve been through, but somehow it also makes complete sense. Of course it’s Tony—as if it ever could have been anyone else.
“Well, the universe took its own sweet time letting us know—“
“Like we did in figuring it out,“ Steve points out.
“I was coming over to say yes to you anyway,” Tony argues. “We figured it out first.”
“We did,” Steve leans down to kiss Tony again, just because he can. “But now we have another problem — how exactly do we make it go away?”