This Makes Me Feel Better
Author's Note: When I'm sick, like I am now (blah) my favorite thing to do is read my favorite fanfics about my OTPs comforting each other when one or both of them are sick. This doesn't seem to be enough this time round to cheer me up, so I thought I'd take a shot at writing a fic myself about sicktimes with an OTP. Enjoy!
Steve had been having a very slow week. Thor had left the tower for the week with his brother Loki alongside him, claiming something about talking to their father about things. Steve didn't get it, but at the same time he wished them luck on their journey home.
Natasha and Clint were out god-knows-where. Fury said something about them being on covert mission and the rest of the team hasn't heard from them since. Well, Steve hasn't, at least.
And Tony and Bruce are locked up in the lab. Every time Steve tries to go join them and see what they are up to, Jarvis tells him that he is not allowed because Tony has locked themselves in for the length of their projects.
It wasn't until a month into living in the newly rebuilt Stark tower that Steve heard anything from anyone.
Steve's phone started ringing. He hadn't quite mastered the cellphone yet, but he did manage to answer the call somehow before it ceased ringing. "Hello?"
"Steve, thank God you answered, it's Bruce," said a hurried voice from the other line.
Steve's brow furrowed. "Bruce, you're downstairs. If you want to talk you can always come up here-"
"Not time. Listen, Tony's been working himself to the bone down here. He hasn't slept, hasn't eaten more than once a week – if even that – and I'm starting to get concerned. Plus, I'm really tired and I need your help," Bruce said at an even quicker pace. "Tony's getting really sick and I need you to come and take care of him because he won't listen to me about it because he thinks I'm just run-down, which I am but not nearly as bad as he is."
"Bruce, what makes you think he'll listen to me?" Steve asked slowly.
Bruce sighed. "Because I think you're the only one left he ever listens to. Now, I'm in the process of letting down the barriers Tony is using through Jarvis to keep the lab locked. I will keep it open for five minutes, just enough time for me to sneak out and you to sneak in, alright? Okay."
Then Bruce hung up. Steve sighed. He ran downstairs, just meeting Bruce at the door as they both passed through, evading the very lacking attention of one exhausted Tony Stark.
Did Tony ever look like that before? Steve found himself asking that question over and over. Tony usually never got this beat up from working so hard, and Steve's seen Tony locked away pretty long on projects. Maybe the lack of tolerance comes with age now?
Steve walked up behind Tony and saw it. Steve saw bags under the genius's eyes, the pale skin, the puffy red nose. Tony had worked himself sick. "Tony, hey, come on. Put down the tools."
Tony jumped a bit, surprised by the new voice. "Cap, oh God, where'd Bruce go? Did he put you up to this?"
"Tony, you need to get some rest and eat and drink something other than coffee. A few days at least, okay? You're getting sick." Steve said softly.
Tony shook his head. He put down his tools for a moment to look to Steve, a very sad look and what looked like tears bubbling up in his eyes. "No, I can't Cap. You wanna know why? Because Clint needs new arrows and Thor needs new armor and Natasha needs better guns and Bruce needs hulk-resistant pants and I need to be able to get these things for them because if I can't what's the use of me to them?"
Steve didn't say anything else for a while, he just yanked Tony into his arms for a big hug. Because, honestly, he couldn't think of words yet. Tony was just so important to him. To all of them, in fact. They were all a big family and the fact that Tony thought he meant nothing more than being their equipment providers just-"Tony you are worth so much more than that, and I'm sure the team would agree that we'd rather wait on supplies from you than see you die trying to get all of these things done at once. Give me a few days to take care of you, okay?"
Tony pulled away, smiling weakly. "You want to take care of me?"
Steve smiled brightly. "What's a best friend is for, right?"
Tony nodded. "So do I have to sleep?"
"You have to try," Steve said slowly.
"Do I have to sleep in my room?" Tony asked gently.
Steve took a deep breath. "You need to sleep in a bed."
"Can I sleep in yours?" Tony asked sweetly.
"Mine?" Steve asked sheepishly.
Tony smirked at the insinuation Steve seemed to take it as. "Yes."
"Why?" Steve asked cautiously, internally cursing the flush trying to fight it's way to the surface of his cheeks.
"Because, Steve, my room is empty and has a lot of bad memories. Yours is nice and homey. Plus, I wouldn't mind the company," Tony said, chuckling and coughing at the same time.
Steve sighed. "Okay, but we're going now, because you really need your rest." With that Steve picked up Tony bridal-style to bring him upstairs.
Tony chuckled again, struggling through the coughing. "I didn't exactly agree to the bridal-style, Cap."
"Would it kill you to call me Steve once in a while?" Steve snapped, suddenly realizing how much it truly bugged him when Tony called him Cap when they weren't working. He tried to take it back. "I mean-"
"Shush, you're right. Steve it is, alright hunky monkey? I just got used to calling you Cap, we do work a lot more than we socialize, you know." Tony said whole-heartedly.
"Well, maybe when you get better we can change that." Steve said as they arrived to his room.
"You really would want to hang out with little old me?" Tony asked slowly.
Steve laughed. "You realize I've had nothing to do for the last month, and the only reason I haven't been spending time with you is because you had the lab on lockdown, right?"
"Jarvis never informed me you were trying to get through," Tony mumbled. "Didn't think you'd like all the work stuff, it's nonsensical to you and its long hours and such."
Steve shook his head. "I find it fascinating." He closed the door behind him, and then moved over to gently let Tony down onto the bed. "I like to learn about what you do down there. I know I won't ever really fully understand it, but I'd rather learn then be totally excluded."
"What have you been doing for the past month then Steve?" Tony asked, sprawling out a bit on the bed and pulling up the bedcovers to crawl underneath a bit. "Come on, I'm not contagious. Well, definitely not to you. Super soldier serum and all, I know you can't get sick."
"Tony, I don't that's appropriate-"
"I don't think I care about appropriate, but if the idea makes you uncomfortable…I just thought if I could try this sleep thing maybe you could too." Tony said, breathing deeply.
Steve nodded slowly. "Okay, alright, that's fair." Steve crawled under the covers beside Tony, turning to face him with a small grin on his face. "I'm just glad I got you here in the first place. Now, sleep."
"Without a bedtime story, honey bunny? I've always wanted one. I heard those are good." Tony said with a weak smile plastered across his face.
"What… have you never had one?" Steve asked incredulously.
Tony sighed. "My mom died when I was pretty young so she couldn't, and my dad was always busy with work and such so he didn't- no, I've never been told a bedtime story. I heard they help though."
"Come here," Steve said, lying on his back with his arms open wide.
Tony crawled up, laying his head on Steve's chest and sighing in contentment. "You're warm." Tony wrapped his arms lazily around Steve, breathing more slowly as he started to finally feel relaxed. "So maybe you can tell me war stories or something? Although I've heard a lot of those of yours already…but what about when you were a kid? All of the stuff before the serum?"
Steve chuckled softly, moving a hand down to run his fingers through Tony's shaggy hair. "Alright, well when I was a kid I-"
Steve went on a lot about his childhood, about his best friends Bucky and Allison. He talked about how Ally used to love how he played guitar, which after a bit of pleading he promised Tony he'd play for him in the morning. He talked about how Bucky had always been his closest friend and how Bucky always used to help him dodge the people that were picking on him.
He talked and talked until he finally heard a soft snore escape Tony, and he too felt himself start to drift off into the abyss of sleep.
oOo
Tony groaned. The sleep had been good, yes. The problem? Now that he wasn't working he could feel the real symptoms of being sick hit him hard. The coughing, the sore throat, the stuffy nose, and the headache- which Tony suspected was a fever.
The next thing Tony noticed was that Steve wasn't there. "Stev-?"
Just as he went to ask, the door went flying open. Steve was carrying a tray with some soup, a glass of juice, and some medicine supplies on it. "Good Morning."
Tony narrowed his eyes. "Did you even try to sleep?"
Steve chuckled lowly. "I did sleep, actually. I just didn't sleep for two days, like you somehow managed to do. It doesn't surprise me really, because you missed out on a lot of sleep if Bruce was correct."
Tony sighed, cursing himself internally as he coughed in the process of trying to do so. "Three days and I still feel this awful?"
Steve nodded. "Bruce and I thought that'd be the case. He's left the tower, but he left me the supplies to help you with your cold. There's medicine for all symptoms. I wish they had all this fancy stuff when I was younger. And, on the side, you've got some orange juice and some homemade soup. It didn't take me long to remember the recipe."
"You have your own recipe for chicken noodle soup?" Tony said, smiling gently as he took the tray from Steve.
Steve shook his head. "My mom did. You see, I wasn't exactly healthy before the serum. She needed to find a way to help me. She didn't like the canned soups, not that we could afford as much those cans back then. So she learned how to make me soup herself, and that was her way of saying she wanted me to get better soon."
"You didn't mention that in your stories last night," Tony said slowly.
Steve shrugged. "Didn't want to bore you, I suppose. But, it is really good soup. I need you to take these pills, this liquid, and then Bruce said if you still can't breathe properly you need to use some of this rub stuff on your chest? I think I remembered that right."
Tony nodded, sitting up in bed and doing as he was asked. Steve was right, the soup was really good. The orange juice was great. The pills and liquid medicine worked alright, but it wasn't enough. He still was breathing pretty raspy. "Steve, could you help me out here?"
Steve turned around, as he was about to bring the tray out of the room before Tony called his attention. "Help you…help you with that?"
"Yeah, I mean, if you don't mind." Tony said in a voice so helpless that Steve felt compelled to help.
Steve put the tray down on Tony's dresser and came forward to sit on Tony's lap. He grasped the little container out of Tony's hand and tugged up Tony's tank top until it came sliding off. Steve sighed. Even when sick, Tony still looked really appealing to Steve. He was trying to shut that down, he needed to. This wasn't about that. This was about helping out a sick friend and – God if Steve doesn't move, he swears, he won't be able to think coherently anymore. He ignores his inner commentary and stays across Tony's lap, slowly rubbing the solution over Tony's chest. When he thought he was finished, he took a deep sigh of relief. "I can hear your breathing better, if you want I can just leave you be for a little while-"
"Steve, we established this before, I sleep crappily alone. Unless you want to go away, which I guess if fine, for whatever reason that – oh," Tony said shortly, not sure how to really finish that statement.
Steve nodded busily. He got up carefully from Tony's lap, clearing any signs of unsure nature off his face as he asked if Tony wanted some more soup. Tony just nodded, and they continued the day mostly silent. Steve would monitor Tony's habits with eating, making sure he wasn't just pretending to eat so he could leave. Steve would lay down beside Tony and gather the brunette into his arms when he saw the exhaustion come forward.
oOo
It was a full week of these kinds of things. Of stories and rubbing solutions and cuddling and homemade soup. Until one day they woke up and Tony was feeling all better. "STEVE, wake up!"
Steve groaned. "Five more minutes," he said groggily.
"I've been a bad influence on him," Tony murmured. He giggled as he moved up to place a kiss on Steve's cheek. When Steve's eyes snapped open, Tony knew he'd made the right decision.
"Hey, look who's finally feeling better," Steve said slowly but surely, taking in all of Tony's appearance. "I guess I don't need to hang out in here any longer then, huh?"
Tony pouted. "Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why would you not want to spend time with me when I'm healthy?" Tony asked self-consciously.
"Perhaps," Steve said shortly. "But I think maybe we should go out. Enjoy the world. Have dinner at a restaurant and go to a new-age movie and such. Have fun."
"You saying taking care of sick me was not fun?" Tony asked jokingly.
Steve chuckled. "I'm saying I want to go out with you."
"Like friends?" Tony asked, eyebrow raised.
Steve moved his face to be inches away from Tony's. "Maybe more." Steve moved forward to kiss Tony once softly, which was well-received and returned by the billionaire.
"Or maybe we could just stay in bed all day, besides who needs the outside world anyhow?" Tony said, smirking.
"We can save that for tomorrow, today we're going to Coney Island," Steve said triumphantly, slowly getting the strength to pull them both out of bed. "Because I'm guessing if you've never heard a bedtime story you've never been there, and the docks are really nice, and we can ride the teacups-"
"-till we're sick? I don't want to get sick again, Steve, and that's what I've heard of those things," Tony said, scrunching up his face a bit at the thought.
"They have really good food," Steve said slowly.
Tony sighed. "Alright, deal, but we come back with nobody sick and we're gonna spend another week here. Capiche?"
"You never say that, Tony." Steve said humorously.
Tony chuckles heartily, throwing Steve a pair of sweatpants and a big sweater as he goes about grabbing himself similar clothes. "Can I borrow some stuff to wear?"
Steve laughs too. "I've brought you some clothes down from your room, just go get dressed and I'll get dressed and meet you downstairs in about…hm…thirty minutes?"
"Thirty minutes, how long do I need to get ready?" Tony asked, clearly confused.
Steve shakes his head. "Showers, clothes, whatever. Just meet me in the garage in twenty minutes then. I'll probably be playing around with your motorcycle."
With that Steve was locking himself in his own bathroom, and Tony walked out trying to compose himself to get ready to go.
oOo
"I said we shouldn't have taken the motorcycle, I just wanted to look at it," Steve said sadly, tracing his hand up and down Tony's side, comforting the near-traumatized billionaire.
Tony took very many deep breaths, focusing mostly on Steve's hands and trying not to think of the ride from hell they just had on the motorbike that Tony thought he could handle this time, just for Steve- but apparently not as he seemed to be in a state of near-panic. He sighed. "I'm sorry."
Steve chuckled softly, leaning forward and putting his head on Tony's shoulder. "Don't be, everyone has something that they're afraid of, it's fine."
"At least this is kinda comfy," Tony says softly, leaning into Steve's embrace.
Steve smiles, relishing in the groan of disapproval as Steve pulls himself away and off the bike, holding out his hand to take Tony along with him. "Come on, let's go. We did manage to reach the beach."
"To go scrunch our toes in the sand and eat hot dogs?" Tony said, still unsure about it all.
Steve smiled brilliantly, taking Tony's hand and yanking him off the motorbike. "Yes! You said you weren't up for the tea cups, so we are at least going to eat at the beach!"
oOo
Hours later, Tony decided that he didn't mind it at all. The weather was nice that day, the beach was fun, the food was rather good and definitely up Tony's alley (even though he claimed that it would be better if it was a burger instead of a hot dog, but they'll figure that out eventually). He especially liked watching Steve.
Instead of being all Captain-y and serious, Steve was actually letting loose and having fun. They had competed in building sand-castles, to which Steve's artistic ability trumped over Tony's building ability to a greater advantage. Tony may have been a bit of a sore loser and stomped through Steve's castle, but instead of making a fuss Steve just laughed, toppling on top of the sand tower with him, tumbling around until he accidentally fell on top of Tony, grinning like mad. "Fancy meeting you like this."
Tony chuckled. "I, I wish I could see you like this more often."
"As you wish," Steve said, leaning down and claiming Tony's lips with his firmly, grasping onto the smaller man's hips as he did so.
Tony smiled into the kiss. Grasping onto Steve's hair and holding them together for a short while, just relishing in the pure joy of it. When he pulled away, they both were giggling like mad. "I think we should go home after this, I know of a movie you'd like."
"That would mean me getting up first and us getting back up on the bike-"
"No, that bike is staying here and we are getting a cab," Tony said firmly.
Steve chuckled. "Then who's going to take home the bike?"
"I can do that for you," said a familiar voice from the unfortunately not-so-distant patch of sand.
Steve buried his face in Tony's shoulder, and Tony looked back towards his friend, laughing. "That'd be great of you, Bruce I think you still have a copy of the master-key."
Bruce chuckled. "Indeed I do, and don't worry Cap I saw that one coming from miles away. I won't interrupt your movie night when I come home, promise!"
"You are a gentleman and a fantastic friend, Banner," Tony claimed loudly as Bruce ran down the beach to a woman who looked a suspicious amount like Pepper.
"And don't you forget it, Stark!" Bruce said as a last comment with a wink, before completely escaping away.
Steve looked up finally, cheeks still beet red. "Guess that solves the dilemma on how to tell the team."
"Tell the team what?" Tony teased, and they grappled a bit and ended up turning over in the sand until Tony was on top of Steve. "Tell the team what, Steve?"
"I, I was, um," Steve's face turned impossibly flushed as he tripped over his words. "I thought maybe…"
"I will say yes, Steve, if you just ask me the question," Tony said softly, leaning forward to place delicate kisses along Steve's collarbone.
"Will you be my boyfriend, Tony Stark?" Steve asked in a very soft voice, clearly pleased by Tony's ministrations.
Tony sat up on Steve's lap, smirking greatly. "Only if you will be mine, muffin, would that be amenable?"
Steve laughed softly, sitting up as well. "Yes." He leaned in to kiss Tony, and it wasn't even moments before they felt the flashes of cameras imposing upon their evening.
Tony pulled away. "Shall we go home, not caring that we're most likely going to headline the news tomorrow?"
Steve cleared his throat. "I think that'd be appropriate, yes."
Tony called his driver, and before they knew it, they were safely back in the comfort of Stark tower.
Immediately, Tony dragged him into the living room, pulling The Princess Bride out from his collection, grinning. "I figured you hadn't seen this yet, but it was just something you said- ah, you'll see what I mean. I think you'll particularly like this film."
Steve smiled softly. "But, Tony-"
"But nothing it's a classic, hun, get your sweet ass on this couch with me and we're gonna watch this, alright?" Tony said assuredly.
Steve raised his hands up, showing his lack of ability to argue, and sat on the couch to cuddle with his boyfriend and watch what Steve already knew was going to be a film to his liking.
When it came to a close, Tony looked over at Steve sweetly. "Now, do you know what made me pull out this movie in particular?"
"I said 'as you wish' when we were rolling around in the dirt, and you wanted me to get the reference that I totally already understood," Steve said softly, running his fingers slowly through Tony's hair.
"You already – and I – and you – you could've said something!" Tony said exuberantly.
"I tried to, but you cut me off and told me I was watching this, which I never mind watching it. You're right, it is a classic." Steve said softly, leaning forward to take Tony's in one sweet kiss.
Tony cleared his throat after Steve pulled away, now curious. "So if you understood the reference, does that mean that you meant what he…?"
"At the time, I didn't think you'd notice," Steve said, a flush coming to his cheeks.
Tony smiled brightly. "It's okay, because, you know…I'd say the same to you."
"Really, I mean," Steve began, not sure where he was going with that.
Tony shrugged. "I know, such a shock, but I'm sorry but if you don't really want to hear it I just won't say it."
"You haven't even said it and you've taken it back?" Steve said, giggling.
Tony was taken aback. "No, that's not what I meant to do. Shit. I'm bad at this, this romantic stuff, you know. Okay, here, let's try this: I love you and I do mean it and I'm not taking it back."
"I love you too, you idiot." Steve said softly. Then, he sneezed.
Tony groaned. "That's not fair – I thought you couldn't get sick?"
"I guess it's your turn to take care of me then?" Steve said softly as he curled into Tony's side.
"I guess it is," Tony replied softly.
FIN