Until The Stars Lose Their Glory

"I'm not calling you my boyfriend," Tony said suddenly.

"What?" A confused voice replied from behind, breath ruffling Tony's hair.

"Boyfriend sounds so... juvenile. We are grown men, Steve. Some of us more grown than others. I will not go around calling you my boyfriend."

An arm tightened around his waist and Tony felt Steve's lips turn into a smile, teeth smooth against the back of his neck.

"What will you call me, then?" Steve mumbled into his skin, his voice husky after having been roused from the verge of sleep.

Tony was silent, unable to think of a proper term that could possibly encompass all of what Steve was to him.

"Lover?" Steve asked.

Tony shook his head minutely. "Ugh. No. That sounds like we're living in a soap opera."

"Well, I did hear something interesting about Luke, Jessica, and Danny," Steve said as he peppered light kisses down Tony's neck to his shoulder. Tony shivered in response.

"Oh, wow. We are so discussing that later when you're not naked and pressed up against me, because that is a conversation that needs to have my full attention."

Steve chuckled. "What about significant other?"

Tony made a noise of disapproval. "Too clinical," he said. "Though you are definitely significant," he added with a wiggle of his hips, pressing back into Steve's. Tony received a sharp nip to the top of the shoulder in return.

"Beloved?" Steve asked, hand tracing the arc reactor absent-mindedly.

"You are from the 1940s, Steve, not the 1840s."

"Life partner?"

"I'm sorry, are we in a Lifetime movie?"

"Mate?"

"Yeesh, and I said significant other was too clinical."

"Other half?"

"Excuse you. I am a complete person over here. I've got all the bits and pieces to show for it."

"What about..." Steve trailed off to press his lips to the hollow spot behind Tony's ear. Tony made an inquiring noise as he reveled in the feel of Steve's soft mouth against his skin.

"Just... yours," Steve said softly.

"Mine?" Tony asked.

Steve remained silent, his arm still wrapped around Tony's waist. Tony turned around slowly in the embrace and lifted his hand to cup Steve's jaw gently. The room was silent and dark, lit only by the light emanating from Tony's chest. Steve's eyes, shockingly blue under normal conditions, was nearly ethereal from the tint of the arc reactor. The expression of total and utter devotion and love that Steve radiating left Tony speechless, so he responded the best way he knew how.

The kiss was soft, lacking the urgency and the white hot blaze of passion from earlier in the night, replaced with the slow burning embers of something deeper and longer lasting. Tony lost himself in that kiss, in the sensations and feelings both physical and emotional that Steve always managed to provoke. When they broke apart, slick lips bruised red, Tony pressed his forehead against Steve's, his hands running through the short hairs on the back of his neck and closed his eyes.

"Mine," he said with a soft smile. "I could deal with that."