Work Text:
Tony’s not used to being looked at like this - with this much kindness, this sort of genuine care. Sure, he's been on the receiving end of plenty of the generic stuff, but more often than not those came with malicious interests, and ended up meaning nothing.
Working with T’Challa is easy. Tony does his thing the way he always does, floats around his workshop as naturally as someone who can spend three days in a row there. In respect to T’Challa, Tony doesn't put on his usually loud music, not when even himself doesn't really mind the silence. Ever since Ultron, silence has stopped being an enemy and became a fair acquaintance. It’s comfortable, and it feels nice.
It feels oddly familiar, even though it shouldn't. Apart from Bruce, Tony has never worked with anyone in his workshop like this. Difference is, despite the many times Bruce has worked with him, right there or in any other lab, it has never felt this natural.
Working with T’Challa feels like this. He wanders naturally around Tony, walks past him and places a gentle hand on Tony’s naked shoulder for the briefest of moments. Once Tony has something to show him, he stands beside Tony, their arms brushing, and Tony can't help but think of how nice it all feels. It feels habitual, as though they’ve done this before, even though they haven't.
And, besides, he’s constantly distracted by T’Challa. Not only for the man’s ravishing beauty - which, by the way, keeps Tony up in plenty of his nights -, but also for how intelligent T’Challa is. It’s fascinating, and there’s nothing like watching someone who knows what they're doing. T’Challa works with confidence, fingers moving quick and unhesitating. They don't shake.
It’s awfully arousing, and Tony finds himself constantly at a loss of what to do.
But mostly, T’Challa is thoughtful. He remembers to bring a bottle of water for Tony when he goes out to get one for himself. He stares at Tony absolutely unimpressed when Tony makes the biggest and lamest excuses not to go for a lunch break, and actually makes sure that Tony eats. And although Tony, like a normal human being, should sleep at least 8 hours per night, T’Challa seems to pick up that the fact that he doesn't isn't something he can change that easily. So every night through the time when they work together, T’Challa will leave to go to bed just as he seems about to yawn. He places a hand on Tony’s arm, lingering for a second or two, and then he’s muttering “good night” and leaving the workshop.
But three nights after they began to work together, he made sure a spare blanket and pillow could be easily accessed from the couch in the corner of the workshop.
Tony worries he may read too much into it. Surely, T’Challa just wants to make sure his associates won’t die of inanition, dehydration and/or exhaustion.
And touch-starvation, if that’s something that can kill.
Tony begins to return the favor. It’s the little things, he notices, that matter. He brings a cup of tea for T’Challa when he’s particularly entranced in his work. He reminds T’Challa, in many occasions, to drink from the water bottle he brings with himself.
And on a particular day, where, for a change, T’Challa’s the one who refuses to leave the workshop for a break, too close to achieving what he’s been working on for weeks, Tony brings him cake. Apparently, Steve had lost a bet with Natasha who, surprisingly or not so much, decided she wanted him to bake a cake. For no reason at all other than she wanted to eat cake.
Tony tastes it before bringing it to T’Challa, of course. It's good.
When he slides the plate on the table to T’Challa, the other man looks up in surprise for a split second, and then there's the hint of a smile on his face. Tony doesn't know much about the food culture of Wakanda, but he hopes the cake is up to a king’s standards.
He tells T’Challa so. Somehow, the sentence seems to mean more once said than it did in his mind. He doesn't know why he feels it, as though he’s talking not only about the cake, but about the place, and about the workshop, and, most of all, about Tony. He feels the urge to look away, but doesn't.
“It is.” From the way T’Challa looks at him, and from the way T’Challa says it, all serene and smooth, Tony thinks that the other man just might have felt the same. “It is.”