You Broke my Heart, Now Cut Your Finger on the Shards
Love was never easy.
Granted, it was not supposed to be.
Easy was the giggling girl in the corner of the room, brain worked and filled with the kind of knowledge Steve would never truly understand, quick to wits as Tony spoke with her, a kind of genius Steve could never truly aspire to be. Easy was the intelligent woman eyeing Tony all evening in hopes of a fun night.
Up to this day, he had always thought that his lack of genius intellect was alright. He was not the easiest one to love, his personality stronger than Vibranium and his tendency to stick his nose into places it was not supposed to be ever-lasting. There was no curbing the needs and wants that he had, there was no taming his wild heart, but he always thought that was okay.
Tony always said that was one of the reasons he'd fallen in love with him, because of his stubbornness and free spirit.
But after that night, that awful, agonizing night, things seemed to change. Tony had gotten himself tangled in the web of the clever woman at the party, but he admitted, though reluctantly, to having been exactly where he wanted to be.
From there on, Steve's free spirit was no longer 'admirable', 'inspiring' and 'desirable'. Suddenly, it was only difficult and tiring. Tony wanted more, but Steve had not quite been ready, and instead of talking it out, Tony used the excuse that he was forced to seek satisfaction elsewhere.
The irony was that Steve had been waiting and careful because of his fear to not be enough.
To hear that he actually was not enough... it was nothing short of a punch in the gut.
While he ebbed away from all those around him, his relationship with Tony on a kind of "pause" that would most likely never end, he had grown closer to the owner of the ice cream parlor, Bucky Barnes. In his hopes of drowning himself in ice cream, because he could never get gain weight because of the serum anyway, he had sought silence and freedom there. The ice cream was really good, so it helped a bit.
Around the time he was quite literally sobbing into his fifth chocolate browney-cookies and cream cup at eleven o'clock in the evening, the man behind the counter came up to his table and sat down with him to ask if he was alright.
Naturally, the man had recognized him. Steve's face was plastered across the tabloids together with a picture of Tony and the woman. Half of what the tabloids said was utter bullshit, but they had most of it right.
Billionaire Superhero Tony Stark Grown Tired Of Waiting On Captain America.
"If he couldn't wait," Bucky said, pushing another cup of ice cream Steve's way, "Than he wasn't the one for you."
"I don't know if there even is a 'the one' for me," Steve said back, eyes rimmed red of tears, blotches all over his face and hair tussled. "I don't think I'm supposed to be with anyone."
"That's nonsense." Without asking, Bucky added a generous layer of whipped cream to the cup. "You just got dealt a shitty hand this round, doesn't mean there aren't any other games to play."
After the long night of ice cream and talking, Steve was left wondering if Bucky had a free slot he could join in on.
|X|
Or:
After finding out he was cheated on, Steve goes to confront his boyfriend, Tony, which results in a shouting match, the shifting of blame, and a sudden pause on their relationship.
He goes to find peace somewhere else, and ends up in a cute ice cream parlor, where he lets his sadness flow free over his cookie dough ice cream. The owner feels for him, and in the man's attempts to cheer him up, Steve may have felt more wanted and validated than he had in a long time.
So it's no surprise he shows up again a few days later.