Stocking: Nigmuff

[stevetony_elf]

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Username: Nigmuff
AO3 Username: Nigmuff
Comics Steve/Tony: 616 (I like all canons, but I especially like early canon. Also, if you wanna write about Kooky Quartet era where the Avengers consist of Steve and three reformed villains who ALL HAVE A CRUSH on Steve (who does not reciprocate their crush, possibly because he himself is crushing on Mr Tony Stark; shenanigans ensue) THEN BY ALL MEANS GO AHEAD), Ults (<<<- I love a grumpy-but-soft Ults, yall. Bonus points if you manage to incorporate side characters.)
Other Fandoms/Ships/Characters:

-Avengers: EMH (Stony, Bruce/Clint, Jan/Hank)

-Matt Murdock/Foggy Nelson (comics-verse, PLZ, I LOVE THEM)

-RWBY (anything to do with team JNPR, I love them and I want more content for them)

-Umbrella Academy (I want to read all about the Hargreeves' messed up family dynamics, but I also want them to have a strong bond with each other. Basically, I want them to have kind of a "I can make fun of you, but no one else can" attitude. MUST INCLUDE VANYA! Ben is optional. Preferably platonic; I don't mind having any canon ships, as long as they don't distract from the main family.)

-Jan Van Dyne/Wanda Maximoff (Ultimates)

-Squirrel Girl (powers of squirrel, powers of girl!!! Preferably platonic, and if you can include Iron Dad, I would love you, like, a whole lot.)

-Unstoppable Wasp (definitely platonic. I want whole series written about Nadia's relationships with Jan, Jarvis, Tony, and her friends.)

-Carmen Sandiego Netflix Series (I love a girl and her ninja assassin dad. I also love a BAMF Argent, and a plz-take-a-chill-pill Devineaux. I also like Carmen/Gram. Found family tropes ahoy. Go wild.)


Likes: fluff, competence kink, soft cuddles, mutual pining(!!!), found family/Avengers as family, shenanigans, Iron Dad!!!!, Cap Dad is also pretty swell, basically if Tony and Steve are just The Dads even when they aren't dating I just love that, soft touching, queer A/B/O verse (ex: alpha/alpha OR omega/omega), SOMFT THINGS, yes I want a fleece blanket in fic form plz and ty, cute tropes (I won't apologize and I don't accept con crit), kid fic, angst with happy endings, if you wanna write Stony as divorced husbands who end up fixing their marriage by the end PLZ DON'T LET ME STOP YOU, all the Christmas tropes, I'm talking family dinners, making enough turkey to feed three armies (or one Avengers team), presents, charoling, mistletoe, and also FAKE. FRIGGIN. DATING!!

I would love any type of fandom creation, be it playlist, fanvid, or interperative dance. You're amazing and your creations are amazing.

Dislikes: Unhappy endings are :( and you don't want me to make that face, do you???, permanent major character death, graphic torture, underage, mpreg, infidelity, explicit sex, beak ups (I only want the opposite of those, lol).

Non-fandom related requests/anything else?:

-History documentaries. I'm especially interested in anything to do with Russian or Arab history, but I love other stuff as well.

-Your favorite recipes. I'll eat anything except pork or alcohol.

-I! Love! Playlists!! Fandom or otherwise.

-Podcast recs. I'd like to listen to stuff while knitting XD

-Your favorite knitting patterns for scarves and/or shawls.

-What was some of your favorite music this year?? I love discovering new songs.

-Pet pics!!!! I love animals in general, and cats and dogs, but I really, really love horses. Do with this what you will.

Comments

Re: 616 Steve/Tony: Fake Dating

[isozyme]

Steve puts down the delicate little pastry he’s been munching on and nods. Tony thinks his face might betray literally everything. He’s not that good of an actor. Steve will be able to sense that this is awfully, pathetically real for Tony. Steve looks around for a napkin to wipe away the few crumbs, comes up with nothing, and then -- oh, hell, this isn’t fair -- guiltily licks his fingers.

“Sorry,” he says, thankfully mistaking Tony’s brain having a series of electrical shorts for disapproval about his manners.

Then he takes Tony’s hand, gentle and almost bashful.

Steve is as perfect at dancing as Tony expected. He takes the lead naturally, and Tony lets him, happy to follow. It takes almost an entire song for Steve to realize that he’s dancing with a man and he stutters, trying to let Tony lead for a moment and knocking their knees together.

“Should have asked,” Steve apologizes, spinning Tony deftly towards the corner of the dance floor so they don’t get in anyone’s way. “Haven’t done this with a guy before, really.”

“You keep on just as you were,” Tony says, running one hand over Steve’s shoulder to straighten an imaginary imperfection in his lapel. “I’ll teach you to follow some other time.”

“I’d like that,” Steve says, then looks away and chews his lip as he realizes their mistake. Tony wants to shut his eyes and melt into the marble pillar behind him. There won’t be some other time. This is it.

The song ends, to scattered polite applause.

Steve takes Tony back into his arms and draws him out onto the dance floor for another round. It’s something slow and yearning, exactly what Tony doesn’t need. It’s too late; Tony can’t bring himself to pull away now. He’s just going to have to carry on and break his own heart.

Tony leans into Steve’s broad chest and feels like Cinderella. He should have come as Iron Man -- then he could lose his right thruster boot on the steps and Steve would have to scour the city, searching for someone with a men’s size ten and a half. Too bad Steve already knows who Iron Man is; that would have been very romantic.

“I wish this were real,” Tony whispers, tired and raw from pretending to have what he’s wanted for so long. “Somebody who loved me enough to come out, something just -- easy.”

Steve will understand. He’s watched every relationship where Tony got rolled like the love-blind idiot he is. Tony can say this and Steve won’t guess who it’s really about. And Steve won’t make fun of him for being soft, because Steve is good and kind and more than someone like Tony can ever deserves. He can tell Steve that he wants to be held like this every night.

Steve swallows and clears his throat. “You’ll find that. I promise, Tony. And until then, you can have me.”

“Only until midnight,” Tony says with a sigh. “Then you’re going to turn into a pumpkin.”

“Pretty sure that’s not how the story goes.”

“Wanda is my fairy godmother. She made you out of a scarecrow wrapped in an American flag. I should have told you before.”

“Whatever you say, Shellhead,” Steve says, quietly enough that nobody around can hear the incriminating nickname. Tony thinks he feels Steve turn his head to kiss Tony’s hair above his ear, but Steve must just be scanning the perimeter. Surely -- surely he wouldn’t do that just for appearances. It can’t be, no matter how much he wishes --

Tony’s never going to know, because at that moment half a dozen goons in AIM beekeeper suits crash through a window, riding genetically modified reindeer. Instead of yellow, the uniforms are dyed a festive green. Of course.

I guess this is happening now. Might as well.

At least it will free Tony from his self-inflicted romantic agony.

---

“You finally asked Steve out and you didn’t tell me?” Jan says, kicking Tony’s ankle under the breakfast table.

“I didn’t!” Tony protests, startled and pre-coffee.

“That’s not what I heard,” Jan says, taking a large bite of Boston cream doughnut. When Tony tries to explain, Jan waves the remaining half doughnut at him to shut up and keeps talking, mouth full. “Got a call that there’d be some Avengers public relations wrangling coming up with respect to you, specifically with respect to your date to the Rockefeller Christmas Gala vis a vis his gender. And then I learn from Instagram that it’s Steve!”

“It’s not -- “

“Are we even friends, Tony? Friends tell friends when they go on dates with men they’ve been pining over for years!”

“Years?” Tony croaks, because while Jan is technically correct about the duration of Tony’s crush, he never told her anything of the sort. He’d kept the whole Steve situation under wraps, even to the Avengers, out of fear that he’d disrupt the team dynamic and also to spare everyone a lot of embarrassment.

Now, Tony wishes he’d told Jan about this plan. That way she wouldn’t be teasing him about it when he’s already sore from the party, and also sore from taking a rack of AIM-deer antlers to the chest last night. Tony is one big tender spot this morning.

“I’m happy for you, you big dummy,” Jan says, then takes another bite of doughnut, beaming at him while she chews.

“I didn’t ask Steve on a date!” Tony says. Jan’s face falls. Tony hates to disappoint Jan, but if it’s any consolation Tony’s plenty disappointed too.

“Not a real one -- it’s not like that, we’re not like that. I needed someone to ward off Sunset, and he wanted to help. We’re not dating,” Tony explains miserably.

To Tony’s surprise, Jan reaches for his hand and says, “Oh, Tony, I’m so sorry.”

“You don’t have to be sorry! It’s fine you made a mistake about me and Steve. It’ll be a good story, you know? That time we pretended to be together to save my reputation.” Tony laughs and tries to grin but it comes out misty-eyed.

“Why don’t you tell him how you feel?” Jan asks, ignoring Tony’s flawless explanation and squeezing both his hands with her own.

“We’re just friends,” Tony protests. “And if I told him something, he wouldn’t want me back. So there’s no point.”

“Here,” Jan says, pushing a glossy photo of Steve and Tony towards him, weaving it around the orange juice and the box of doughnuts on the table. It looks like Jan’s torn a page out of a daily gossip rag to show everyone.

“Look at Steve’s face,” Jan says.

Steve does look awfully happy. Nobody is obviously watching him; Tony isn’t even paying attention, he’s shaking Fujiwara’s hand and probably saying something about Stark International. Steve’s wearing a small, wistful smile, and his hand is tucked against the small of Tony’s back. To the uninformed observer, they could be a couple in the blush of early love.

At that moment, Steve walks in. His hair is sticking up at odd angles, still wet from a shower. He leans over Tony to pick up the orange juice and pour himself a glass, then rests a friendly hand on Tony’s shoulder, looking down at the picture.

“Look at that, it’s us,” Steve says, and he’s wearing the same small, wistful smile from the picture in real life.

Jan makes significant eye contact with Tony that clearly conveys do you see this proving my point?

“We make quite the convincing act, don’t we?” Tony says. He’ll never admit it, but he loves Steve’s casual touch. Sometimes he pretends that it’s more than camaraderie. When he’s feeling especially weak he imagines that this is what it would be like if they’d been together for years, easy and domestic together every morning.

Jan mouths, you idiot, tell him!

Steve chuckles, then sighs and takes his hand away. “Wish I could stay, but I’ve got to go volunteer at the library.”

As he goes, he pauses and reaches out to tuck a curl of Tony’s hair into place over his ear, in the exact place he’d almost-maybe brushed a kiss the night before. Tony clamps down on his reflex to shiver.

Across the table, Jan’s eyebrows rise.

“Uh -- bit of lint,” Steve says, going pink. “I got it.”

---

The thing that breaks the delicate balance between Steve and Tony isn’t Jan’s unsubtle encouraging looks, nor is it the explosion of Twitter speculation in the days following the gala. It’s the unholy ubiquity of Christmas carols.

Tony’s sitting in the living room a few days later, flipping through the manual for the television and trying to figure out what he has to rewire to make the universal remote’s volume buttons finally work. Steve is at the table, hand-writing Christmas cards. The radio pipes O Holy Nights and Jingle Bell Discos over the tableau.

Then the song changes to something familiar -- the same song Steve and Tony had danced to. Tony looks instinctively to Steve and finds Steve looking right back at him. They hang in agonizing stillness, the moment teetering in unstable equilibrium.

Steve screws the cap back onto his pen and sets it down on the table. The click is crisp under the familiar melody.

Tony’s voice is rough even to his own ears.

“Care to dance?”

---

Re: 616 Steve/Tony: Fake Dating

[nigmuff]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

OMGGGGGGGGG IT'S PERFECT IT'S SO PERFECT

THEY'RE SO OBVIOUSLY IN LOVE! TONY'S INSECURITY! REFERENCING ALL OF HIS PAST, SHITTY RELATIONSHIPS! STEVE PROTECTING TONY FROM THE EVIL SUNSET BAIN! And then you added that whole bit with the solidarity of the lgbt scene in New York, and I CRY. And Jan, my love! This fic is so perfect I CAN'T

Re: 616 Steve/Tony: Fake Dating

[isozyme]

I'M SO GLAD YOU LIKE IT!!!

I couldn't not give you fake dating fluff, you deserve it! And it was really fun to write our stupid superhero boys being soft and pining and where everything's Christmas and nothing hurts.

And of course I added a hat-tip to gays protecting gays, I couldn't help myself :P

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