Out of all of the times one of Tony Stark's experiments went wrong, this screw up gave the rest a run for their money.
Steve had been sitting with Tony when he'd work in his lab, every day since he flew the nuke into space. He wanted to make sure that his teammate was okay and that he didn't feel alone. Normally Tony would tinker on small gadgets while Steve would sketch anything from the technology around him to Tony himself, so today the super soldier was surprised to walk into a full blown science experiment. The machine Tony had created looked like two giant blenders to be honest. On the inside of one was a thick, blue liquid and in the other there appeared to be a mineral that looked like miniature stars floating in a strange liquid. The machines were connected by large glass tubes that could only be there to mix the two substances together. Around each substance was a glass casing that were alive with electricity. Steve stared at them with amazement in his eyes as he let his mouth hang open. He jumped at the sound of Tony's voice.
"Cap, I'm glad you're here. You get to see me make a new element. I'll call it Starkism." Tony's smile could be heard in his voice.
Steve rolled his eyes, "Sounds more like a cologne you'd make."
Tony snorted out a laugh. It was nice to hear. The man rarely looked happy after his near death experience. Well, one of his near death experiences. He only seemed to be in a good mood when he was with Steve or Rhodey. Steve couldn't help but smirk at the thought of being special to the mysterious Tony Stark.
Now Steve would be lying if he said that he wasn't attracted to Tony. I mean who wouldn't be? But this attraction was only that. An awareness of the man's good looks. Sure he thought about what a relationship between them would be like but the chances of that happening were about as high as the chance of Agent Coulson agreeing to dress up as a flight attendant and sing. There was no way either of those would happen. (Right?)
About a hour and a half hour went by before Steve was annoyed with his drawings and decided to take a break. He got up and walked over to see what Tony was doing. The man in question jumped up from behind a table and grabbed at a lever, his eyes wide and his smile wider.
"Get ready, Capsicle. You're about to witness history." Tony had never looked so excited.
"I was part of history. Don't you remember? I mean I could've sworn you were a genius or something." Steve said, sarcastically.
"I don't understand your old fashion words. You just don't get us young people." Tony joked.
Steve decided to roll his eyes and let that one slide as Tony pulled the lever down. Bright blue electricity flowed around the giant machine in a way that Steve couldn't explain even if he wanted too. All he could say was the sight before him was beautiful. To see the broken man next to him make something so amazing was the definition of beauty.
Then everything went to hell.
A glass tube that connected the two machines shattered letting the electricity out. The first thing it came into contact with was Tony. Steve screamed as his friend was being electrocuted next to him and without thinking he reached forward to grab him. The electricity passed between the two and for what seemed like hours they shook uncontrollably from it, making sounds that were similar to drowning, as it practically boiled their blood. Then with a loud pop all the power went out and everything went silent.
Brown eyes struggled to open after a few hours. Tony's lab looked like the device had literally exploded in their faces.
"That could have gone better."
Well that voice didn't sound right. Who said that? The brown eye that had opened first scanned the room and stopped when they located an unconscious figure.
'Is that..? No it couldn't be.'
Then the other man sat straight up, fear in his blue eyes. His hands flew up to his chest then slowly sank down as realization hit.
"Gotta remember that's not there anymore." The face that showed fear now showed confusion hearing his own voice. Slowly he turned to face the only other person in the room. Fear climbed back onto his face.
"..Steve?"
"Tony?"
Then it hit them. As if their lives depended on it the two men rushed over to the nearest reflective surface.
"Oh fuck." The reflection of Steve mumbled.
The reflection of Tony scoffed and whispered, "Language."
Both men turned to face each other and after a moment of staring, they screamed bloody murder.
"Stark, what did you do? I'm… you! You're me! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?" Steve yelled, his fear rising as Tony's voice came out of his throat.
"How should I know? Just calm down. I'm going to figure this out." Tony's signature Stark look of confidence didn't work well with Steve's facial expressions. He looked terrified. At least now Steve could tell what was on Tony's mind. Even if it was his own face he was reading.
"Just don't tell the others. They'll freak out, then Fury will find out and I'll never hear the end of this." Tony was getting annoyed. He couldn't tell what Steve was thinking because he had Tony's face. That lucky bastard.
"Alright, Stark. But you better fix this fast. Or else."
"Or what, Capsicle? You come at me it's basically a game of 'quit hitting yourself.' Tony laughed but raised an eyebrow at the sound.
Steve noticed he felt weaker. He wasn't use to not feeling the effects of the serum. He was a normal person again and it definitely was taking a toll on him already. He felt what he assumed Tony felt all the time. Tired, hungry, and sadly he felt fragile. Physically and mentally.
'Oh my God. Is this what Tony feels all the time. No wonder he seems like an ass when you first meet him.'
Steve's now brown eyes went wide as he realized, if he didn't tell the other Avengers what happened, he was going to have to pretend to be Tony Stark.
"Steve, you need to relax. Worry is not a good look for me." Tony said as he patted Steve's back.
"Keep patting yourself on the back for your mistakes, huh?" Steve joked. He wasn't sure why he wasn't losing his mind right now. He decided to blame it on being Stark now.
"Is that what I sound like for real?" Tony asked, "If so I sound sexy as hell."
Steve rolled [Tony's] eyes.
The two men spent at least an hour trying to figure out how they were going to keep this between them. After they believed they acted like each other well enough they went their separate ways to their rooms to try and sleep.
Tony walked up to his room and expected the door to open instantly like normal, only to run face first into the door. Super serum or not that still hurt.
"JARVIS open the door." Tony was shocked at how 'Captain America' he sounded.
"Sorry Captain. Only Tony is allowed in there."
"But I am-"
'Fuck'
JARVIS must not have rebooted quick enough to know what happened after the power shut off.
"Oh yea. Sorry my mind isn't right tonight. Um, where was my room again?" Tony felt guilty about not knowing where Steve's room was. They had been getting closer, he should at least get to know the guy.
"One floor down, the door all the way to the left."
" Thank you JARVIS."
" Captain, might I recommend some water or something. Forgetting something like where your room is, isn't a good thing."
"I'm just tired. Thanks again JARVIS." Tony was really trying to sound polite even though he was annoyed he wouldn't be in is own room. Once he reached the stairs Tony jumped to see Steve coming up the stairs. Well seeing himself walking towards him is why he jumped, but that's not important.
"Wrong room?" Steve asked.
"Yep." Tony said flatly. He prayed Steve's bed was comfortable and not a military cot or something.
Once Steve was inside Tony's room he flopped face first on to the bed. He could care less where he was at. He was beyond tired.
'God, Tony needs to sleep more.'
The thought of taking a shower sounded nice until he realized he'd see all of Tony and without the man in question's permission. Steve could feel his (new) face get warm at the thought but ignored his mind and hugged the pillow. He noticed the pillow smelled like Tony. Coffee and oil were the most noticeable scents, but there was a hint of mint and what Steve could imagine was sweat. Even Tony's sweat smelled good to Steve and that bothered him slightly. Little did he know, Tony wasn't doing much better.
Tony was sitting in the middle of Steve's bed, knees pressed into his chest, protected by his arms that held all of him together in a ball. His mind was racing and he tried to figure out what happened earlier. With a loud sigh, he fell onto his back, letting his head fall to the side. With half his face in a pillow, Tony could smell Steve on the bed and it drove him crazy, so he rolled over, grabbed the pillow and hugged it to his face, until he was half asleep.
Tony didn't know what was worse. Causing them to switch bodies somehow or wishing the pillow was Steve. Being Captain America did not sound all that fun to Iron Man to be honest. That meant he had to be up early so no one was suspicious.
"Fuck." was mumbled from a now sleeping Tony.
Upstairs Steve was wide awake realizing why Tony never slept. He felt scared to close his eyes and he didn't know why. Steve decided he was going to find out what caused such a brilliant man to become so dysfunctional.
After he kicked his ass for getting them into this situation.
