Tony Stark was very proud to admit that he could be a normal human being, thank you very much. He can feel human emotions and do human things too, despite what certain individuals he knew liked to joke about. He's even done his own cleaning! It's just that he usually doesn't want to or need to. Or doesn't have the time for it. How is he supposed to properly science! if he's got to sleep? He can't, it would take too long and he's got Avengers to keep safe and prepared, improvements and repairs to make to both his armor and his Rhodey-bear's (only the best for Platypus), deadlines to make to keep his goddess in human form happy, the files from the Insight Incident (and yes, those definitely deserved to be capitalized) that he's still going over, training for the Maximoff twins to help oversee... and that's only a few of the things he has to do!

So, no, he most assuredly does not have time for eating or sleeping. He can sleep when he's dead and food isn't as necessary to his health as people like to tell him. Unfortunately, that doesn't do him much good when his body decides that it doesn't want to listen and wants to go to sleep instead (traitorous thing). And it definitely doesn't help when there's no more coffee in the lab and a certain blond super soldier is blocking his way to more of the heavenly brew in the communal kitchen, at whatever-the-fuck-time-it-is in the morning, wearing his Captain America Is Disappointed In You Face.

"Tony. This is the first time I've seen you in over two days! Have you been in your lab this whole time? What were even doing down there?" Steve demanded.

"Uhh... science?" is Tony's eloquent reply. He was pretty sure he was slurring his words a bit, and sincerely hoped that Steve wouldn't pick up on it. But of course he did, if his expression was anything to go by.

"Tony, was the last time you slept? Properly? In a real bed? Or had any sleep at all for that matter?" He waited a bit for an answer that he already knew would not come. After a few beats, he glanced up to ceiling."JARVIS, how long has it been?"

"J, don't you dare answer that! I'll give you away to a community college!" Tony threatened, glaring up at the nearest security camera with slightly pleading eyes.

"Sir has been up for just short of 61 hours now." came the smooth reply.

It was Steve's turn to glare while Tony looked at the camera in complete and utter betrayal. "JARVIS!"

"Thank you, JARVIS." Steve said, his glare only barely losing its intensity when speaking to JARVIS.

"JARVIS, how could you do this to me? Betrayed by my own creation!" Tony exclaimed, gesturing wildly as he did so.

"I'm sorry, Sir." JARVIS said, sounding faintly amused, "But according to my protocols, as of 58 minutes ago, I am allowed to tell people, when asked, about your state of health. But only about which states of health they specify, of course."

Tony gaped while exasperation started leaking its way into Steve's posture. "Note to self, get rid of that protocol first thing when I get back to the lab." Tony grumbled under his breath "And why have it at 60 hours, anyway? Two and a half days? Why not round it up to an even 3 days-?"

"Tony!" Steve scolded, having been able to hear Tony thanks to his enhanced ears.

"What?" Tony asked, turning to him. "Oh, come on, I've been awake longer then that lots of times before! The only reason I'm even tired at all right now is because my lab ran out of coffee without my noticing or my permission!"

"Tony..." Steve groaned slightly, having long since stopped glaring at Tony, now he was slouching slightly with his hands on his hips. And people wonder why the Avengers sometimes jokingly refer to Steve as 'Mom', Tony thought to himself, slightly amused despite the situation at hand. "Okay, Tony. Here's what's going to happen: You are not going to have any coffee right now. Ah!" Steve said, stopping Tony as he went to interrupt, looking outraged. "No, no arguing! You are not going to have coffee right now. You," Steve said firmly, pointing at Tony "are going to go bed and sleep. When you wake up, you are going to take a shower and then get something actually filling and healthy to eat, and no coffee then, either. Then, you are going to go outside and get some fresh air. You are not coming back for at least an hour. And then, and only then, can you go back to your lab."

Tony stared at him when he was finished, completely unimpressed. "You done?" he asked.

Steve's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Bed, Tony. Now. I will carry you if I have to, don't think I won't."

Tony threw his hands up in the air. Damn him, Steve knew he didn't like being carried around! Tony was a firm believer that the only good reason to get carried around, or picked up at all, was if you were having a little bit of...adult fun. Though, it's been a while since he had any of said fun that included being manhandled."Fine. Fine! I'll do it. I'm going now, see?" Tony said loudly, making highly exaggerated steps back out of the kitchen and away from the coffee. "Wouldn't want you to break your elderly back or anything like that trying to take a fully grown adult to bed!" He grumbled, and with one last pitiful, mourning look over at the coffee machine Tony was out of the kitchen.

"I am a grown ass man, he cannot treat me this way just because he's team leader! This is my tower and I will do as I damn well please! We may call him a mother hen now and then, but he is not, in fact, mother or father to anyone in this tower! What the hell was he doing up, anyway? I wouldn't put it past him to wait to ambush me...I wouldn't put that past any of them, really." Tony's muttering continued as he made his way to his penthouse and to his bedroom from there. "I've proven myself responsible before, multiple times, I'm sure. If it wasn't for me, Ultron would've gotten loose and done who knows what. I've said it once and I'll say it again, nothing good comes from messing with magic. God, I hate magic. I wouldn't have even brought Ultron up again if it weren't for that damn vision from hell. Damn you, Wanda. Damn you."

"Sir, might I suggest you actually go to bed and sleep like Captain Rogers... suggested? You are starting to wear a hole in the floor."

"JARVIS, you know how valuable I am, right? They wouldn't last two weeks without me. My home, my tech, my money, and I'm even the one who deals with the press for them!" Tony replied, as he stopped pacing and whirled around to look at the ceiling.

"Of course I do, Sir. And so do the rest of the Avengers. They are also aware of how badly Ultron could have been had you not been there and interfered. It's a good thing that you'd rescheduled the party to the next night, isn't it, Sir?" JARVIS consoled him, sounding a little too amused for Tony's liking.

"Thanks for the reminder, J. I can always count on you to soothe all my temper tantrums," Tony smirked. He was about to continue the much more amusing pastime of sassing with JARVIS when he, without warning, yawned so hard his jaw popped. "JARVIS...I've only been awake a little over 60 hours, I shouldn't be that bad yet. Why am I so tired right now?" He asked before yawning again, much smaller this time. His words were definitely slurring now he absently noted as he began stumbling towards the bed, stripping down to his boxer briefs as he went.

"I believe it is most likely because of the fact that you'd been awake for over five days before the last time you'd gone to bed and you got up before your body was entirely ready to do so, Sir."

"Yeah, that'd 'bout do it." Tony murmured before he fell into his bed. He was completely dead to the world in only a matter of minutes.

xxx

When Tony woke up, it was still dark out. "JARVIS honey, how long was I asleep?"

"You slept for a little over sixteen hours, Sir. It is currently 9:34 pm."

"Damn. That long, huh?" Tony groaned, rubbing a hand down his face. He stumbled to his feet, blinking hard a couple of times. The last time he'd slept was... actually he couldn't remember the last time he slept that long for, which should really tell you something considering how good his memory was.

...Actually that wouldn't be one of the things he'd remember very well, so that wouldn't tell you much at all. But, it'd definitely been a long time, he knows that much.

Stepping into the bathroom and looking in the mirror, Tony decided that he would take a shower after all. He was greasy all over, including his hair, from working in the lab and from being just flat-out dirty. A quick sniff under his arm confirmed that he smelled, too.

Sighing, he turned on the shower, fiddling with the knobs, before removing his only article of clothing and stepping in. He sighed again, this time because the water was absolutely heavenly. He stood there longer than strictly necessary just enjoying the feeling of the water before grabbing a shampoo at random and lathering up his hair, making sure to get all the oil and grease out as he rinsed. He did the the same with his body, remembering to switch the shampoo for body wash but forgetting to use the conditioner.

Damn it, this is one of the reasons why he doesn't sleep for a long time! It shuts his brain down and he keeps forgetting things (though he won't realize about the conditioner until later). He turned off the water and got out, his stomach growling.

"JARV, Captain Grumpy-pants said to eat something, didn't he? Is there any good breakfast food here?" the genius asked as he quickly shaved his goatee back to what it was actually supposed to look like.

"Actually Sir, I think you'll find that he specifically said to eat something 'filling and healthy'." the AI responded. "And might I add that Captain Rogers will be thrilled that you're actually following his instructions."

Tony paused in the entrance to his closet, "I am? Fuck, he said to eat right now, didn't he? Then go outside, right? Thank Thor's dad it's dark out, it means we can avoid the sun just to spite him! Well, fuck his instructions! We're gonna go out right now and eat wherever and whatever I want! Fire up the coffee machine, J! We're goin' out!" Tony exclaimed, pulling on some random jeans and a band shirt as he went, the rest of his grogginess having quickly faded away.

"Unfortunately Sir, I can't do that. The Captain seems to have hidden all the coffee machines in the tower. Excluding the one in your lab, of course. But, I got the impression that he only left that one alone because he knew there was no more coffee to be found there."

Tony froze in grabbing his wallet and sunglasses. "What... he took... and hid... all... no... he wouldn't... wouldn't dare..." Tony said in quickly mounting horror.

"He would seem that he would, Sir."

"Oh, hell no! Fuck no! I remember now, you said I can only get coffee after I've come back! Well, it's a good thing you're a bit of a moron Rogers, because guess where I'm going first thing! A motherfuckin' coffee shop, that's where!" Tony practically yelled in a frenzy as he left his room, slamming the door behind him as he went. He stormed through the penthouse where JARVIS, his beautiful, wonderful AI that he would be completely lost without, already had the elevator doors open, ready and waiting.

"JARVIS, to show you my gratitude for giving me this information, you are so getting some upgrades to your coding. And I would also like to thank you for telling me that I was following his ridiculous instructions, intentional or not." Tony informed JARVIS as he got in the elevator, leaning against the back and crossing his arms impatiently.

"You're very welcome, Sir." The AI answered primly.

xxx

Steve watched from one of the higher floors as Tony left the tower, having been watching for him, feeling quite proud of himself for making sure that Tony couldn't get his precious coffee when he'd first gotten up. The others hadn't been happy with him hiding all the coffee machines (mostly Clint), but there was only minimal complaining (again, mostly from Clint) once he'd explained. He hadn't eaten anything as far as he knew, but hopefully he'd either gotten himself to eat on his own floor or will eat while he was out.

"So, he's finally left, huh?"

Steve didn't startle as Natasha showed up besides him, too used to her showing up out of nowhere.

"Looks like it." he said, briefly glancing over his shoulder at her. She was holding a cup of coffee and he wasn't particularly surprised to find that she knew where one of them was. Knowing her, she probably knew where all of them were (and probably held it over Clint's head). "And he never got his coffee." he declared proudly.

Natasha hmm'd softly, looking down at the streets below with him. "You do know that he's probably going to a coffee shop, don't you?"

Steve slowly closed his eyes as realization set in, and slowly, deliberately, leaned his forward onto the window in front of him and banged his head against it, mentally cursing himself for forgetting about coffee shops and cafes.

Natasha just patted his shoulder, smirking, and walked off, sipping her coffee all the while.

xxx

Tony nearly moaned at his first sip of coffee. Delicious. The barista had been a little understandably starstruck but she got the job done quickly and made it exactly to his specifications. I wonder if she has some student loans or something I can pay off, Tony mused to himself, munching on his muffin. It probably didn't count as healthy considering it was chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate. A thought occurring to him, he pulled out his phone.

"Hey, J. Send out an order to Costco. I want some of those six packs of double chocolate chip muffins."

"Yes, Sir. Is there a specific amount you want?"

"Eh, just buy enough that to fill everybody up. We're probably going to get a least three dozen for Steve and Thor and Pietro and maybe Bruce, but whatever. Just err on the side of caution with it. And I'll want a couple packs sent down to the lab for myself." Tony decided, absently waving a hand around.

"Of course, Sir. When you would like for them to arrive? In time for breakfast in the morning?"

"Yep." Tony smirked in amusement.

"The order has been sent."

"Good, good." Tony says, finishing his drink with a loud, satisfied sigh. Getting up from his seat, he walked back over to the counter and ordered another coffee. He made sure to leave a generous tip for the baristas who'd made his coffee and walked out the door, inhaling the drool-worthy aroma as he went. He didn't know how anyone could live without it.

While walking back to the tower, he realized that he still didn't have any coffee in his lab, so he quickly turned back around. There was a store just a block beyond the coffee shop he was just at, he knew. And he wasn't going to go through all this nonsense again just because he'd run out of coffee!

xxx

Thankfully, the store was near enough to closing time that there wasn't really very many people there. Tony figures he's pretty lucky that the baristas are the only ones to have recognized him back at the coffee shop as he really does need to get back to work. He's got to finish the repairs to Rhodey's armor and the deadline is coming up for when Pepper needs the new StarkPad.

He made his way over to the coffee aisle with a cart, blueprints and schematics running through his mind. He was just turning into the aisle when someone else holding a basket was turning out of it. Tony tried to stop but because he had a cart he ended up hitting the guy in the gut anyway. Immediately, the guy bent over a bit, his hand going to his stomach as a small grunt left him. "Shit..."

"Oh, my god! Sorry, sorry, sorry!" Tony says quickly rounding his cart to the guy's side. "I've only had two cups of coffee and I literally just finished the last one outside. Two cups is not enough for me to actually be functional; I need at least a third before I'm functional."

"It's fine." he says, waving a hand. He raised his head and their eyes met making Tony's breath catch in his throat. Holy shit. The man had beautiful blue-grey eyes that he felt he could stare at for hours. He'd always been a sucker for blue eyes. Combined with bone structure models would kill for and shoulder-length brown hair that Tony's fingers just itched to run through, and Tony just knew that a pre-Afghanistan him would have already been hitting on him. But his playboy days were long since finished. And he couldn't even make it with Pepper. If he couldn't make it work with her, then he didn't have much faith in how well he could make it work with anyone. "Were you asleep recently or something? Most people don't need coffee like that unless they haven't been awake long." the man said, straightening up as he did so.

Ah, fuck. He's even a little taller then Tony. Tony's always liked his men a little taller. "Well, I'm not most people." Shit, that came out flirtatiously. Hopefully he didn't notice.

But the man raised an eyebrow at him, and why did that simple act seem so familiar to him? "Sure you aren't, sugar. You always go runnin' into people like that?"

"Not... usually. No." Tony faltered, he had no idea why but him raising his eyebrow like that had struck a huge chord of familiarity in him. And now even the rest of him was looking familiar too. "Have we met before? At a press conference or something?"

The man's eyebrow went up again, and this time its twin went along with it. "Trust me, we definitely haven't met before. Woulda remembered somethin' like that." He shifted the basket to the crook of his elbow bringing the rest of him into view, and goddammit, if there was another thing Tony loved on his men, it was the thighs. And this guy could crush a man with those things.

Tony'd been so busy remarking on the sudden familiarity and his goddamn tree trunk thighs, that Tony only just realized the man had not only flirted with him once, but twice.

Putting a hand to his heart in mock-outrage, Tony exclaimed "My good sir, are you flirting with me? I'll have you know that I am a man with a strong family background. You can't just come up to me and demand my attention in such a way! What would my mother think? I don't even know your name!"

An odd look went through the man's eyes at the mention of his mother but it was gone so quick that Tony almost thought he'd imagined it. The corner of his mouth quirked up before he responded with "My name's James. There, now you know my name. But, what about yours?"

Tony answered the question with a little upturn of the nose, figuring that the man – James – was just playing along with their little game, "It's Anthony if you must know. However, my friends simply call me Tony."

The corner of the James' mouth grew a little while the other corner also started to rise. "Well, what have I gotta do to be one o' those people lucky enough to call you by your chosen name?"

Tony pretended to gape at James for a second before, "What a polite thing to ask! Most don't, how refreshing! It would seem that you are a charming young man after all. Just for that, you may call me Tony." Internally, Tony was glad that James had never actually called him Anthony. He could really only tolerate it if it was Thor speaking it. But Thor was such a big golden retriever, that he couldn't really bring himself to correct him. Besides, most of the time he actually genuinely didn't mind Thor calling him Friend Anthony! in his big booming voice. But that was one of the only times he didn't mind.

James smirked a little at him, "Thanks, doll. My mama will be so pleased to hear that she raised her little boy up just right to be the little gentleman she'd always wanted him to be."

Tony snorted, a little ungracefully. "Well, gentlemanly is pushing it a bit," he smirked, mischief shining in his eyes. "I remember you flirting before we introduced ourselves. You're secretly a little bit of a hooligan at heart, aren't you?"

"Guilty."

Tony laughed at that and walked back to the front of his cart and pushed it out and around James. "I didn't actually hurt you, did I? I tried to stop..." James turned with Tony and they both headed into the aisle James had just vacated.

"Nah, just surprised s'all. I'm not hurt, honest. Trust me, I've been hurt a lot worse than that before." His eyes went distant for a moment.

"Yeah, I know the feeling," Tony murmured, several images flying through his head; lying in the sand with fresh shrapnel wounds in his chest, his chest being carved open, his head being shoved under water as his lungs fought for air, feeling shrapnel inch its way closer to heart after Stane took the reactor, palladium slowly killing him, fighting Vanko in Monaco, getting stuck in the helicarrier engine... Tony shook himself out of it before he remembered anymore and turned to James only to find James already staring at him, looking at him with something that looked suspiciously like understanding.

Clearing his throat, Tony turned away and started grabbing random things for making coffee off the shelves and throwing them into the cart. James made a slightly amused sound, "No wonder you talked about not having had enough coffee yet if this is how much you drink."

Tony glanced back at him, smirked, and started paying attention to what he was grabbing, making sure to grab everything they had of his favorite brands – whatever they had of them, anyway. He was not going to run out of coffee in his lab again. "I'd inject it into my veins if I could. Coffee is what keeps me running, you know. Why? You got something against coffee?" Tony asked, turning back around having grabbed what he deems to be a acceptable amount. "I'm warning you now, you insult my coffee and I will fight you."

James looked particularly amused at that, as if him and Tony ever fighting was a ridiculous concept. "Ain't nothin' wrong with coffee. Used ta know a couple guys who lived on the stuff, though not as much as you," he said, pointedly eyeing Tony's cart filled with nothing but coffee as they made their way to the check-out. "S'been a long time since I've had coffee, though. I don't even remember it all that much..." he mused as Tony openly gaped at him, the concept unheard of to him.

"I genuinely do not remember what that's like. Any day without coffee is bad, bad day for me."

The expression on James' face at that was unreadable, "Actually today's been an unusually good day for me."

Tony turned his head to look at him, but James was looking at the ground, the tiniest of smiles on his face. There was something very genuine and... deep, about the way he said that. But there was something almost familiar about it, too.

It almost made Tony believe that he'd had similar good days like what James was talking about, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out why. Figuring that out included delving a little too into things Tony would rather not do at this present time.

They approached the check-out and were about to get in line when Tony abruptly turned to James, "Wait, don't you still have some shopping to do?"

James looked at him a second before he quirked an eyebrow at him. Again, that feeling of familiarity hit him, stronger then ever, but Tony didn't have any time to ponder that before James was responding, "Nah, I was actually done when you ran into me. Was on my here before I ended up scandalously flirtin' with you, doll."

Tony rolled his eyes "And yet the flirting continues! Scandals? Please! We eat scandals for breakfast 'round here!" Tony declared loudly, drawing some attention. The staff and the only other costumer at the check-out stared at them, or more specifically, at Tony but he ignored them and got in line. Tony promptly refused to let James pay for his stuff and paid for him, declaring how much a gentleman he was all the while – Tony personally thought that he was even more of a gentleman because he didn't say anything about James' weird groceries. It was only a bag a green grapes, a bottle of Martinelli's, a bottle of chocolate syrup, and some goldfish crackers, so it wasn't like it was hard to pay for but still – with James looking faintly amused in the background. And since Tony insisted on paying for everything, James insisted on carrying everything. To say that Tony had been shocked when James had actually been able to do it was an understatement. Tony had bought a lot of coffee. They left the store and Tony looked up and realized where they'd been. "We were in Target? Huh."

James snorted behind him, "You didn't know that?"

"Hey!" Tony started defensively, "All I knew and all I needed to know was that it was a store and they sold coffee! Everything else was unimportant."

James started to look decidedly unimpressed with him. "I'm not sure I trust you on your own now."

"Hey-!"

"So, I'll have to at least walk you home." James declared, looking like a real charmer with a little smirk but there was unease in his eyes, as if he wasn't used to being forward but wanted to be.

Tony froze in shock at his words for a split-second before a grin started growing until it took over his whole face. "Well, well, well. Looks like you're a real gentleman after all." Tony said softly. Damn it, Tony had yet to find a flaw in this man. He was gorgeous, had a nice voice, a similar sense of humor to him, was a bit of a smooth talker, had a bit of a Brooklyn accent, and now he was actually asking to walk Tony home. Tony could invite him in for a 'cup of coffee' (where they probably would actually have coffee first because Tony still couldn't believe the fact that James couldn't really remember what coffee tasted like) and he'd accept! And judging by how gorgeous he was and how obviously strong he was, Tony could tell that unless the man was absolutely terrible in bed (which he instinctively doubted), he would more than enjoy it. If nothing else, the view would be more than worth it. But he wasn't a playboy like that anymore, regardless of what the media liked to think. "Shall we?" Tony asked, gesturing at the parking lot before them.

James quirked an eyebrow in amusement at him, that eyebrow was going to drive him nuts, and said, "We shall. I'd offer you my arm and all, but uh..." he lifted his arms a bit, gesturing to them, as they cut across the parking lot and started on the sidewalk that would take them to the tower. But what Tony noticed was that not only was he strong enough to carry the bags, he could even lift them.

"Oh, alright," Tony laughed, distractedly. "We'll just walk side-by-side like a couple o' pals. A pair o' chums. Just absolute besties," he teased.

James' smile grew a tiny bit at that. "Well, of course. What else do you call people whose stuff you paid for and now they're carrying everything for the both of you?" he said looking down at the numerous bags in his arms with the one bag carrying his own stuff.

"Hey, I protested! You're the one who wouldn't let me carry any of it! How dare you accuse me of not doing something that I actually tried to do!" Tony raged, faking offense.

The corner of James' mouth started curving upwards again, "I'm accusin' you of bein' over-dramatic, that's all," he said in an entirely too innocent tone of voice.

"Oh, is that all?" Tony asked sarcastically, trying and failing to mask his amusement. He couldn't help it; when James wasn't looking and acting super sad and serious, he almost looked like a completely different person. It made him want to see more of it.

They were nearing the tower when James stopped and said "'M sorry, but I don't think I'm gonna be able to walk you all the way home."

Tony stopped too, and stared at him, startled by the change in subject. "What? Really? How come? What happened?"

"Hey, slow down. 'S just that somethin' came up is all. I'm down that way, anyway." he pointed across the street. "Don't worry, you live in that tower, don't cha?"

Tony nodded, still confused. "What on earth came up? You haven't had any phone alerts or anything." He really needed to work on his brain-to-mouth filter.

James glanced at him from where he'd been looking at the tower. "If you're worried about all these groceries, you don't need to be."

"That's not even what I'm thinking about, but I'd definitely like to know why you think that-"

James cut him off there which was probably good because Tony was probably going to ramble... again.

"I think that because of that." He gestured with his chin towards the tower and Tony turned to look only to realize that the angle they were at meant that he could see inside the lobby and to the elevator doors on the opposite wall. Elevator doors which were opening up to reveal Steve coming out and making his way towards the entrance.

"How did you-?" Tony turned back towards James, questions on the tip of his tongue – because seriously Steve didn't come out of the elevator until after Tony had turned so how the hell had James seen Steve? – only to find that there wasn't anyone there. He looked around quickly trying to spot him, but to no avail.

"Tony!", came Steve's voice surprisingly close, startling the genius.

"What!?", Tony demanded, whirling around to face Steve, noting and promptly ignoring the unimpressed scowl on Steve's face. "You wanted me to go out and I went out. Honestly, you should be proud of me for listening to your instructions so well for once."

"I might have been closer to that if it hadn't taken me three tries of calling your name to get your attention! And worse, from what I can tell, all you bought was coffee!"

"Well, coffee is a necessity of life", Tony defended, trying to glance around without Steve noticing what he was doing, but of course he did.

"What are you looking for?", Steve asked, glancing around as well. His eyes darted to Tony to find him not even trying to hide his looking around anymore, and clearly not having heard him.

"Tony?", the blonde asked, concern quickly taking place of whatever annoyance remained. His hand came up to touch Tony's shoulder, but as soon as his hand made contact, the shorter man startled and whirled around to face him.

"Rogers – Steve – Cap, did you-?", Tony cut himself off and seemed to hesitate, which Steve didn't think he'd seen before. The cutting himself off part, in particular. "Did you by any chance... see anyone out here with me? When you first came out, I mean?"

Steve stared at Tony for a few seconds before he cautiously turned his head and looked around again, his eyes scanning the all the people passing by and all the doorways and alleyway entrances before he turned back to Tony. "No, Tony. I didn't see anyone with you. And I don't see anything out of the ordinary, either." Steve said much to Tony's disappointment. "Tony", Steve started, "are you feeling all right?"

"What?" Tony's eyes snapped back to Steve's face from where he'd been looking off to the side, "yeah, of course I'm all right. I'm always a-okay, you know that. Come on, help me get these inside. You should help because, after all, you are the one who wanted me to go out. And I mean what kind of advice – I'm not calling them orders no matter what you say, Rogers – what kind of advice was that anyway? What if something happened? I could've been kidnapped and then where would you all have been?..."

Tony continued talking as he and Steve carried the bags from Target inside the tower, both unaware of the blue eyes that had been watching them the whole time.