Tony was walking towards the kitchen direction. It was 10 p.m. and he knew that he still has at least two more hours of work to do, but he was already sleepy and needed coffee. As he entered he saw Steve, his back facing Tony, doing something at the kitchen counter. Tony snuck up on Steve and wrapped his arms around his waist.

"Hi there sexy," he said in a seductive whisper. Steve shuddered.
"Tony! Don't scare me like that!" he scolded the brunet.
"Sorry" Tony murmured pecking his cheek. "What are you doing?" he asked looking over Steve's shoulder.

"I'm making brownies for you." Tony smiled hearing that. He always liked Steve's cooking and lately he also got into baking. Still, he refused to use the kitchen robot and preferred to do everything with his own hands, but it seemed that he found comfort in it so Tony was not trying to convince him to use the benefits of technology.

"I like your brownies" Tony said, nuzzling Steve's neck. Steve shuddered again, but this time from a different reason.
"Toonyy.. Go away, you're distracting me." The brunet smiled.
"In a minute" he said, plopping his finger into the cake batter.
"Hey!" Steve scolded him, turning his head to see Tony putting his finger into his mouth licking it. It wasn't the taste he expected.

"Why does it taste weird?" he asked Steve, who turned his head away, looking slightly disconcerted.
"It always tastes like that," he answered. There was something in the tone of his voice that didn't sound right to Tony. He stood on his toes to look inside the bowl with batter. The content was slightly red.

"Why is it red?" Tony asked. Steve preferred to not answer that.
"Steve. Why is it red?" he asked again. After not getting an answer, he let go of Steve and looked through the stuff on the counter. Flour, milk, egg shells, beet peels, cocoa powder, sugar.. Wait, what?

Tony looked at Steve. Steve was red in the face. Red as a beet.

"Did.. Are you always putting beets in my brownies?" he asked. After a while Steve nodded his head. Tony's mouth opened. He was cheated. Betrayed.

"Why didn't you ever told me about it?!" he shouted.
"Because I knew you would react like that," Steve said in a calm voice.
"I thought you were adding chocolate to them! Not beets! Why would you add beets?!" Steve made a tired face hearing Tony's complaints.
"Aren't you overreacting?" he asked.
"You betrayed me!" Tony whined.
"No, I did not. You never asked what is inside," Steve retorted.
"Because I assumed it was chocolate!" he whined again.
"You still ate them. So, now that you know what is inside, do you still want me to make them for you?" the blonde asked, trying to change the topic.

Tony crossed arms on his chest with a pout on his face. Steve outsmarted him. He hated that.

"You're sleeping in your own room tonight," Tony hissed narrowing his eyes at the blonde. Steve snorted hearing that.
"You know that you are also punishing yourself that way." Dammit, he was right.
"Okay, you're sleeping with me. But we will not make-out," he said with a trace of menace in his voice. Steve looked tenderly at him.
"This time you're just punishing yourself." Tony huffed. After a while he grinned broadly.

"You will make it up to me," he said smugly. Steve sighed heavily, if he won't agree, Tony will torment him to death.
"Okay, what do you want?" the blonde gave up.
"You will make me brownies" Tony said, still grinning.
"You mean like regular brownies?" Steve inquired.
"Yep. But I want you to wear an apron," he added.
"Oh. Okay.." Steve felt relief, knowing Tony it could have been worse.
"ONLY an apron. And I'll be here to watch."

Steve froze. Now he knew why Tony was grinning for the whole time. He narrowed his eyes looking at the brunet.
"Very classy, Tony," he said with sarcasm.
"Either that or you will eat a can of corned beef," Tony added, still grinning. Steve's face fell. He turned around, muttering under his breath "Where is that damn apron.."

Tony chuckled and sat at the table. He can skip work.

inspired by me making brownies with beet. everybody ate it and nobody suspected anything ;)

oh, and it is my head cannon that Steve hates corned beef. bad memories from the army.