A/N: Hi guys! I'm going through and editing all the chapters of all my stories, because I hate looking back and seeing typos or scenes that could've gone better. So please, if anyone sees anything wrong with any of my chapters - typos, something was confusing, you would've liked to have seen something else - please leave a review or message me and I'll get around to it. I'm not sure how long I'll spend on this story in particular, so please don't wait to message me. Thanks!

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Tony had just nailed Steve square in the jaw. Tony knew just a single punch without having his supersuit on would hardly effect the super soldier. That punch was for him - for the sake of feeling better. Sadly enough, Tony didn't feel any different. He was still completely pissed.

Steve looked at Tony with confusion and shock on his face. "Tony…"

Tony still looked angry beyond compare. He'd never been so furious before. Tony was almost growling with each breath he took. "You stupid bastard…." he grumbled. "You don't understand anything, do you? Nothing about people, or love, or how I work." Tony grabbed the younger man by the shirt and pulled him down to his level. "I am Tony Stark. I may bullshit around with random bimbos, and people may call me a playboy, but I am capable of real feelings. It doesn't happen often, but I know how to give a shit about people!"

He pushed Steve back and ran fingers through his jet black hair. Then he threw his arm back in anger and glared again at Steve. "For Christ's sake, I gave up Pepper for you! Do you even understand- can you comprehend how hard that was for me? One of the most important people in my life will have nothing to do with me now, because of you!"

Steve was still confused, but now a bit frustrated. "Me? What did I do?"

Tony groaned, pulling at his black hair in aggravation. "You made me think that-" he paused before glaring down at his shoes, "that there was something…with us." He looked back up at Steve, still angry but now blushing slightly in an endearing yet infuriated way. "You had me convinced that you had feelings for me, too. But no, I ended up being your plaything. I guess I've been doing that to women for a long time, but damn it, at least I never pulled it off with emotion. Somehow you did it perfectly…you made me think that you loved me too…."

After that, Steve was left dumbfounded as Tony walked away from him. Steve watched him leave his lab and go up the stairs. He could only wonder what had set Tony off and made him so angry. He wondered why, after having such a nice night together a few days ago, why was Tony now accusing him of being a stupid bastard that didn't understand anything? Maybe if he backtracked a bit, it'd make some sort of sense…

~One Month Prior~

Steve was in his room at Stark Tower. After the fights with Loki, the Avengers had all decided to live in Stark Tower together. It had been a mostly mutual decision; Tony had just decided not to fight it. Steve liked his room, and he liked being close to everyone else, but all the technology in this place that Tony had created made him feel like a caveman.

At the moment, Steve was rereading one of his favorite books, David Copperfield. He was lounged back on his bed with his right arm folded behind his head, right knee propped up on the bed, left leg hanging off the bed and swaying a bit since he couldn't keep still. Joseph Suk string quartet music spilled out of the stereo in his room in a calming melody. Steve was completely relaxed.

Then he heard loud knocking at his door – extremely loud, heavy knocking – that he assumed would be from Thor. He half smiled a bit and marked his page in the book, setting it to the side. Steve then rose from his bed and answered the door.

Instead of the expected Thor standing there, Tony stood there in his Iron Man suit with the mask risen up. "Could you turn that sissy music down, Cap? I can hear it from the lab downstairs," Tony said in a slightly annoyed tone.

Steve looked back to the stereo, then to Tony. "It bothers you?"

Tony sighed. "Well it's pretty and all, but when I'm downstairs working on my suit, trying to blast my AC/DC and I can hear quartet music upstairs, it's a bit distracting."

Steve chuckled a bit then nodded. "Okay, I'll turn it down." He walked back to his stereo and turned down the knob, just as the song was changing to a Debussy classic. "So, why are you walking around in your Iron Man suit?" Steve asked.

Tony stepped in with thundering steps, stretching the robotic arms above his head. "I made a few modifications and I was going to go try them out. You could be my test dummy, if you'd like."

Steve laughed then shook his head. "No, not me, not today. You could ask Thor, though. I bet he'd be more than happy to help you."

Tony scanned around the room and spotted the book on Steve's bed. "Whatcha reading there, super soldier? Not some girly little erotica book, I hope."

The Captain walked over, shaking his head, and picked up the book. "No, it's David Copperfield. It's one of my favorites. I finished it again last night so I decided to reread it."

Tony walked over to him, his feet pounding. "Geez, you must really like this guy then, huh?" he pondered.

Steve smiled and shook his head. "No, David Copperfield is the name of the book, not the author," Steve corrected him.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Well I bet he's a character, and I bet you keep rereading that old book because you have eyes for him, or whatever people in your day used to call it." The Iron Man looked at the door as if expecting someone to be standing there, then he turned his attention back to Steve. "Well, I'm off then to test the suit. Oh, and uh, if I blow up again, this time, can you make sure no one calls Pepper? Last time, she almost killed me. I was more afraid of her than the suit malfunction."

Steve grinned a bit then nodded. "I'll do my best there, sir."

Tony flashed him a smile then returned the nod. "'Kay. Take it easy there, Cap. Don't go falling in love with that book of yours. I'd hate to hear you're getting paper cuts in all the wrong places."

With that last little snide remark, Tony was gone. Steve closed the door behind him then paused there. He leaned his head against the door, a slight pink blush springing to his cheekbones. Just recently, he'd become a bit infatuated with the billionaire playboy. After Tony fell out of the sky and Hulk caught him, and Steve was starting to think that maybe Tony was dead, he felt all these emotions swell inside him. They were feelings he hadn't felt since his kiss with Peggy. He just admired Tony so much for his sacrifice, and had prayed that Tony wasn't dead. When Tony was back and jokingly asked, "Please tell me no one kissed me," Steve smiled then came to the realization that…he almost had.

Since then, Cap had been trying to make sense of his emotions. He hadn't even known Tony very long, and in the time he'd come from, homosexuality was something that was to dangerous to be spoken of. So then, why was Steve having these thoughts?

The super soldier grunted, then punched a large dent into the metal door in front of him. He breathed heavily, and in a raspy tone whispered, "I'm no pansy…" He pulled his hand from the door and shook it out, popping one of his fingers. He walked back over to his bed and jumped on it roughly, sprawling out on his back. His book fell down the crack between the bed and the wall, but Cap didn't care.

He was tired of all these jumbled feelings that didn't make sense. He was tired of his breath catching in his throat at certain things Tony said to him. But most of all, he hated the feeling that just by having thoughts like this, he was betraying Peggy. The woman wasn't around anymore, she was gone, but still she haunted his thoughts. And in these thoughts of Tony, she still lingered, looking so sad, but also angry, like she'd been when Steve kissed another girl before her. Was that was this was? Something as meaningless as with that girl? Was Cap's heart really still so dedicated to Peggy? He wanted to believe that it was.

Down in his lab, Tony grew a bit sad at not hearing Steve's music playing. Though it was irritating trying to listen to his AC/DC music over all that classic mumbo-jumbo, he sort of liked the melodies. They were proof to him that he wasn't alone, even when he was in his lab all by himself. Sometimes he didn't like feeling lonely.

"Alright, Jarvis," Tony murmured at first then called out to the AI system, "I'm going to try the new repulsors. Don't you dare have Dummy douse me with a fire extinguisher unless I actually catch on fire this time. Pisses me off when you do that for no reason." He pulled off his helmet, setting it on the floor.

"There is never harm in being safe, sir," Jarvis replied to him.

Tony rolled his eyes then armed the repulsor. "Alright, let's do this."

Bruce sat at the table drinking a coffee – strong and black – reading today's paper. Natasha was looking over a recipe for apple cobbler quickly. She had recently decided that she didn't want Tony's chefs cooking for them anymore, that she wanted to assume the position. Of course Tony had thought a bit less than 'la-di-da' about the proposal, but he didn't protest that either. Maybe he'd become soft lately, but he just didn't want to protest any of the Avengers' decisions, no matter how odd or stupid they were.

In the serenity of kitchenette, all the stillness was ruined. Bruce's coffee cup vibrated on its saucer as a muffled boom came from one of the lower levels. Bruce looked at his coffee cup and so did Natasha.

"Oh damn it, Tony," Bruce mumbled. He and Natasha hurried for the stairs only to notice that Thor and Steve were just ahead of them. Where was Clint? Damn it, was he still asleep at this time? Leave it to Clint to sleep through a small explosion downstairs.

The four of them hurried to the lab and Bruce quickly typed in the code to let them all in. Upon entering the lab, they all noticed two things, to each of them in different orders. One, there was a large black-rigged hole in one of the walls and some fire burning around it. Two, Tony was on his back on the floor. Bruce and Natasha ran to the fire to put it out while Steve and Thor hurried over to Tony.

Steve picked up Tony's head and put it on his knees as he knelt down by his head. "Tony? Tony! Are you alright?" he asked frantically, concern woven through his voice. Thor stood by Steve, cooling his heels as he waited for any requests to carry the man to the infirmary or to his room.

Tony's eyes fluttered open, crossing a bit at first as his head turned lightly back and in forth in confusion. "Wha…what happened?" He tried to sit up, but Steve kept him firm to his lap. "Did it work?"

Steve chuckled a bit. "I'd say it worked, whatever it was."

Tony swallowed, holding up his robotic arm. "I was testing the new repulsor. It's got a lot more kick than the other."

Steve looked at Tony's hands, confused. "You only upgraded one?"

Tony nodded. "Yeah, one's normal, and this new one is sort of like the big guns." He let out a choked laugh and Steve put a hand on his forehead.

"You blew yourself off your feet. You're lucky you didn't crack your head open," Steve told him with stern eyes like a father talking down to his child.

Tony took time to notice that his head was in Steve's lap, then his eyes wandered. "Yeah, well, I could have a concussion, just saying. No need to make a big thing about it, though." Steve helped him sit up. "I feel fine, really." With that lie, Tony collapsed onto Steve. Steve caught the genius man's head and noticed blood now on his hand. Maybe he'd spoken too soon about Tony cracking his head open.

Steve looked up to Thor and asked the big man nicely if he could carry Tony up to his room. Thor nodded and draped the man over his shoulder before hurrying back upstairs. Steve thought about if maybe they should take off Tony's supersuit to make him more comfortable, but as he looked at the fire that hadn't been put out yet, he decided there'd be time to think about that later. Instead he hurried over to see if he could help Nat, Bruce, and Dummy at all.

Tony woke up in a panic on his bed, not in his supersuit anymore. His head was killing him. He felt the back of his head and traced his fingers around to his forehead as he noticed someone had bandaged his head. He laid back down with a groan.

Steve came into his room then, quietly closing the door behind him. He smiled a bit at Tony, walking over to his bedside. "Hey, Tony. How's that head doing?"

Tony cocked an eyebrow at him then shook away his question, choosing to ignore him. "What the hell happened?" he asked groggily.

Steve sat down on the bed by Tony's legs. "Well, after you blew yourself up, we all came down into your lab to help you, but you had a concussion. So Thor carried you up here and I wrapped up your head. JARVIS deactivated your armor. You're just lucky that thick skull of yours didn't crack," he joked.

Tony half smiled. "Yeah, I guess so, but you don't have to baby me. So I bumped my head. I'm fine." Tony tried to sit up but then hissed at the stinging pain in the back of his head and laid back down. He looked at the doubtful Steve, then said with a huff, "You know, if someone gets a concussion you're not supposed to let them sleep for a while."

Steve looked at him suspiciously. "Really?" Then he shrugged. "Well I don't know many medical things." He leaned to Tony's nightstand and grabbed the gauze. "I should probably change your bandages."

Tony waved a hand then reached for the gauze for himself. "No, don't be stupid. I can do it myself, just give it to me."

Steve glared at him. "I'm not stupid, I'm trying to help you. Now why don't you just hold still and let me do it?"

Tony turned his eyes away. "I don't need anyone's help." When Steve tried to take off his bandages, Tony slapped his hand away. "Don't touch me!" he yelled.

Steve grit his teeth. "Why are you so stubborn? Why won't you let anyone help you? Are you so self-centered that you really think you can take care of yourself? Have you forgotten that you have robots to do everything for you?"

Tony sat up, his eyes boring into Steve's. "Yeah, robots I created. I can take care of myself. I can do something as petty as bandaging myself!" His headache started to be too much, though, and Tony laid back down. He sighed then held his hand back out for the gauze.

Steve's glare softened then he shook his head, lightly pushing away Tony's hand. He attempted once more to take off Tony's bandages. "You can try to kick my ass when you're healed, but until then I am going to take care of you."

Tony looked at him angrily. "Why? Why do you care, Rogers?"

Steve stopped then looked down at Tony's face. He swallowed then answered, "Because we're teammates, we look out for each other. That's how things are. …Besides," he turned his attention to Tony's bandages again, "if I had been your test dummy, I would've been wrapped up way more than you. I can only think that maybe you might've cared that I was hurt, too."

Tony just watched him now, more calmed down. This man… Why did he still care so much even after Tony was such a jerk to him? Tony sighed as he thought to himself. He hated being a burden to people, so he tended to want to take care of himself or maybe have Jarvis' help, but he didn't want anyone else to worry about him. He wasn't used to having people care about him. He still wasn't even too used to having Pepper pay him so much attention, though he knew he needed her around. Now Steve?

Speak of the angel, a knock came at the door, before Pepper walked in. She went right to Tony's bedside, her arms crossed as she looked down at Tony with frustration. "Jeez, you're always doing something to yourself, huh Stark?"

Tony smiled a bit weakly up at her. "Nice to see you too, Pep. I was just telling Cap here, if I'm to die from this, yours is the last face I wanted to see."

She rolled her eyes and smiled, sitting on her knees by the bedside. "Oh, stop lying, Tony." She smiled at Steve. "Hey Steve. Thanks for looking after him, but I can take it from here."

Steve nodded, swallowing dryly. He gave her a strained smile. "Sure thing, Pepper. Just glad he didn't kill himself before you could get here." He stood from the bed and let Pepper assume his position. He walked to the door and took one last quick glance at the happy couple before walking out. Once in the hallway, he sighed. 'Damn,' he thought to himself. As he walked to his room, fists tight, he repeatedly thought to himself, 'I'm not gay. I'm not a pansy. I'm not gay. I'm not a pansy.' And he continued to think that until he was in the safety of his own room, where he could be as questioning as he wanted to be. "Tony…"