A/N: For hackle, since she requested some ghost!tony. There's a happy ending, I swear. There's also snuggies, you know those weird ass robe things? Yeah.
The first time Steve saw Tony as a ghost, he was in the shower.
They had his funeral three weeks before, first a solemn mourning and then a big celebration in his honor, with music and pretty girls and fireworks. Just the way Tony would want, as he had told Pepper. Of course she knew what Tony wanted his funeral to be like. Pepper knew everything.
Four weeks ago, Tony died. Steve wasn't even in the same state, he was somewhere along the West Coast with Hawkeye for a mission. Director Fury had called them after they finished their task, and that's how they found out, a curt acknowledgement, condolences, and a debriefing for plans of the future. Without Tony. Steve calls Pepper and she's crying, telling him over and over again how he should have listened. Apparently Tony didn't follow Pepper's suggestion of bringing his bodyguard Happy with him to pick up coffee in downtown New York City.
He'd died helping a little girl rescue her kitten from a tree. One minute he's consoling the kid and climbing a tree and the next, he's on the ground, too still, bleeding from a gunshot wound to the chest. It should be ridiculous how it played out, so unlike how Steve imagined a man like Tony would leave, because who dies like that, but it just makes him feel worse. Tony's murderer was found the next day, a man who hated superheroes, who hated everything and when he saw Tony Stark, he took the shot. He laughed, spat in Fury's face, and refused to say anything else. Natasha killed him.
The night before Tony's murder, Steve kissed him for the first time and they were supposed to go out to dinner soon. Those plans had been abruptly cancelled.
Since then, the team's been grieving in their own, silent ways. They do not mention Tony's name, even if they live in Stark (Avengers) Tower. Clint nests in the vents all the time, Natasha will literally hiss at whoever gets too close, Thor went back to Asgard, and Bruce won't leave his lab. Steve's gone through so many punching bags he thinks he hears Tony telling him to calm the fuck down.
Actually, he thinks he hears Tony's voice a lot.
"Steve what are you doing, that's bad coffee."
"No, Cap, your pencil is over there, what the fuck, it's RIGHT THERE-"
"Your ass is so nice it should be illegal."
Steve had been beginning to think he was crazy, but first there's a few opening of doors, an object that had been across the room seconds before, cupboards that slam shut when he leaves the kitchen.
And then he's in the shower, and then Tony's face in his face and what- he stumbles, nearly falling flat on his butt. He regains his balance and whips his head around, but the not real Tony is gone. Steve's heart is beating hard, a lump in his throat that seems to have permanently stuck to him whenever he thinks of Tony.
Still shaking slightly, he stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around himself, trying to relax.
"Cap."
Steve froze. "Who's there?"
"Ooh, so you can hear me! Awesome. Steve. Steeeeve. Oh my god, actual contact."
"Who are you?" Steve growled, "Show yourself!"
"I wish- or I guess I can try again, it might be fun…"
Steve waited a second, confused, a little terrified, and then he barely stifled a scream. Tony appeared then, shimmering slightly before looking solid, real. But not. He was leaning against the wall, grinning, grinning just like Tony.
But the most disturbing part of it all was the blood that still looked wet on his grey t-shirt and the dribble of crimson from his mouth, the paleness and almost deadness in his eyes-
"You're not real." He ground out, shoulders heaving in effort to not cry. "I'm imagining you."
"I am the real, Steve. Pepper saw me, too, just call her." Tony drawled, walking forward. "Did you miss me?"
"Miss you? Tony, you're dead, you-" he took a breath, "You are dead, aren't you? Not a spell?" And ow, was that dangerous futile hope.
"I don't think so." Tony frowned. "I'm pretty sure I'm dead. I can't feel my toes. So, hate to break it to ya, Cap, but I'm dead. And a spirit, check it out."
Steve blinked rapidly, squeezed his eyes, and opened them again. Tony was still there. "Oh, God. You're a ghost."
"Yeah, no shit. Hey, Steve, can you maybe, like, put on Tanked if you're not going to be any fun to haunt?" Tony asked.
Steve's mind was at a standstill. Tony's here but he's gone, and it's Steve's fault because he left, he wasn't there and-
"Stay here." And darted out the room.
Later, Steve waited in the common room for the team with Tony walking around, floating, Steve doesn't know what to call it, impatiently.
"Tony, how long have you been like this?" he asked. "If you're actually Tony, that is."
"About two weeks after I died. I missed my own funeral, how fucked up is that?" he sighed heavily, but it was only the sound, because no breath was reaching Tony. His chest was still.
"And you were talking to me."
"I talked to everyone, I just tried the most with you." He explained.
"Why me?"
Tony looked at him strangely with his eyes, not brown but coal black, "Why wouldn't I?"
At that, there was a clatter and a strangled, "What the FUCK?" and Tony vanished.
"Tony?!" Steve yelled in a panic, searching for him. He felt like he needed to keep his eyes on Tony at all times or he would disappear again. That's not Tony, Steve, he thought to himself forcefully, that's a ghost.
Then the ceiling vent door opened and out came Clint plopping to the floor into a heap of purple. He shot up, eyes wide as saucers and mouth set into a thin line, and Steve could tell he was genuinely freaked. "Cap, did you see it?"
"What, silly old me?" Tony said, coming to sight right next to Clint.
Clint yelped and shot three rounds into the wall, going right through Tony. "What the hell is going on? Are you seeing this, Steve? Are we sharing a hallucination? Is it a dickwad supervillian with hallucinogen gas?"
"Tony, why don't you explain to Clint-" And okay, maybe he failed to consider that it might be a trick of the cards like Clint suggested, but he's never seen a bad guy do anything like this. It doesn't make sense, but Steve keeps the thought in the back of his mind anyway.
"I'm a ghost."
"No fucking way."
"We did watch Supernatural, didn't we? Wasn't that a thing?" Tony cocked his head.
"That's a TV show."
"Well damn, they got it right."
Clint set his gaze on Steve. "Did you know about this?"
"Not until about twenty minutes ago."
Clint took a shuddering breath, wrapping his arms around his purple snuggie.
"Is that my Christmas present to you? Hawkass, I'm so touched." Tony smirked.
"You don't seem that concerned that you're dead and a fucking ghost." Clint snarled, "You stupid fuck."
"Clint." Steve warned. They had no idea how ghost Tony might react getting angry. He's seen Paranormal Activity, thank you.
Tony waved him away. "Sorry. It's been long enough that I'm not on the roof screaming like a little girl. However, not long enough to not spy on Steve in the shower."
"Tony, go wait outside." Steve sighed. "Let's break it to them easier than flinging them from the ceiling ventilation."
"Fine. I'll go wait….alone…so aloooone…" he put his hands up dramatically and walked out of the room.
"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, CAP?"
The next hour was filled with yelling, broken glass, crying, and one visit from the Hulk. Tony's grinning, though, like all he cared about was that he was talking, interacting with his team. Steve's heart ached something awful.
"I'm going to contact Thor." He said later to Natasha, whose skin was pale and her eyes red rimmed.
She nodded. "Something isn't right. If anyone can figure it out, it's Thor."
Within the next few days, they got used to Tony's presence. They didn't tell SHIELD, or Coulson who was noticeably absent from the tower all the time. Tony told them only Pepper and Rhodey had an idea, but they hadn't seen him, because he's strongest in the tower.
A week later, they hear a blood curling scream and a large mirror in the hallway shatters to pieces. They all run to the damage, staring at Tony, who just stared at the damage blankly. "Oops."
Clint visibly gets goose bumps.
When Thor returns, he gets teary eyed and his fists are clenched at his side because he can't hug Tony.
"I'm afraid I do not know how the Man of Iron is trapped on the other side. I will ask Heimdall to keep watch of any suspicious activity." Thor says, voice quiet and not booming at all.
Tony nods, content.
The others, not so much.
Steve wanted to believe that Tony could just stay here, talking to them, not alive but still there. But it's selfish even if Tony seems like he doesn't care or doesn't want to go. He can't decide which is worse, him dying or him coming back as a ghost with too many questions attached to him. Steve wished desperately for a second chance with Tony after he initially died, but not like this. Not when he couldn't touch him or he sometimes looked angry and something would break and a cold chill washed over Steve or whoever else made Tony upset. When it was over, Tony would look very confused like he hadn't realized it even happened. That was the scariest part.
But the whole team wanted a second chance with Tony, even if only Steve's was romantic.
Bruce shows ghost Tony his work, how he was taking care of Tony's bots and keeping Jarvis busy. He told Tony that Rhodey would take up his role as Iron Man, instead as War Machine on request. Not really on the team, but a necessary precaution if Iron Man was needed.
Clint shoots his arrows that Tony had left him with his death, how great they were. Tony points out something he could change, and Clint just looks at him with a pained expression.
Natasha doesn't talk to him, but sharpens the knives Tony made her.
Thor eats a lot, talks to Tony about how things are in Asgard and that he loves marshmallows the most of Midgard food the most.
Steve goes through a few punching bags and smiles as Tony makes remarks about his ass and muscles, trying not to notice how it doesn't sound like Tony's heart is into it.
Tony looks sadder that night.
They have a mission a while later, and Tony is using so much power to be visible he's too weak to leave the tower.
As they fight off the Enchantress's enchanted goons, Thor captures Amora and when it's all over, he asks the Avengers to regroup at the Shield helicarrier.
He actually seems shaken.
"She says that Tony is not truly gone, but instead under a spell of a death sleep." He drops his eyes. "It went wrong. He was supposed to wake up, instead his soul reacted with the enchantment and he now resides in a sort of limbo."
"Why?" Steve demands. It's hard to understand, Tony's not dead, or dead, he's not really sure but there might be a way to have the real Tony again? It's something out of a sci-fi movie and he feels a migraine coming on.
From the other's expressions, they had similar train of thoughts.
"She will not say. She poisoned the man who had befallen friend Tony, made him murderous if he were to see him." Thor said bitterly, blue eyes thunderous with rage.
"So she's responsible for Tony's death." Natasha said coldly, slipping her dagger out of her belt. Steve put a hand out to stop her, knowing they needed the Enchantress for now.
"Does she have any idea how to bring him back? Can she?"
"Not she. But I feel my brother might."
"Why is she telling you all this, anyway?" Clint demands.
"Amora has a type of fondness of me." Thor's rage turned into slight embarrassment. That's a subject Steve doesn't want to get into.
Filled with new hope, they enter the Tower while chattering idly and feeling more normal.
Until they see some of the rooms. Steve's floor was trashed, and so was Tony's. The kitchens were a mess, and a few other places.
Natasha looked to Steve. "We don't have much time, I think."
Steve has a very bad feeling about all this.
Later, there's no sign of Tony except for a few slamming of doors and a chill. It's eerie, and Clint stays out of the vents and instead cuddles with Natasha on the couch and watches Brave, Bruce works on an experiment that he thought Tony might enjoy to watch and maybe calm him down. Steve is sitting at the counter drawing Tony when he hears a shuffling of an object and he looks up, searching for Tony's spirit.
There's nothing.
No, there's literally nothing. The counters are absent of dirty dishes and the coffee maker and toaster and- Steve's whirls around to see all materials of the kitchen floating above him like an invisible field. "Tony!" he exclaims and all the objects drop around him, smashing and clattering all at once, clearly deliberately missing him. Steve feels a cold terror in his gut because that's not Tony.
There's a whisper in his ear, faint and soft, "sorry."
Steve goes to bed that night and cries himself to sleep for the third time since Tony died.
A month after Steve first saw Tony, and two weeks after Tony knows about the Enchantress's antic (he's furious and becomes determined to try to wake himself up), they haven't gotten any farther in helping Tony.
One day, Tony stands in his penthouse, clutching his chest, the not real arc reactor, and screams.
While the rest of the team keep a slight distance as to make sure Steve isn't alone, the leader walks up to Tony, wincing at the sound. Natasha at least knows that Steve had a stronger bond with Tony out of all of them.
"Tony. I'm here. It's Steve. You're okay, you're going to be okay." Steve says loudly, noticing that his eyes were pure white. "It's okay, Tony."
Tony turns to him, but it's not Tony, it's much more evil than that and Steve finds him flying backwards with an invisible force. He hits the wall with a sickening crack. Panting, gasping, he continued to talk to Tony even as his team yelled at him to back off.
"I'm here, I'm here, man. Your friends are here, your family. It's okay. Tony, snap out of it." He has to almost scream to hear himself. He tries to think of what he needs to say to Tony, that he was going to say anyway. "I love you."
There's a stuttering in the screeching, and Steve bubbles out a laugh. This was not the way he imagined telling Tony he loved him, but he'll what he gets. "I love you, Tony. Calm down. I'm here."
The screaming stops, and Tony whips around, eyes back to normal. He's paler than usual, and that was saying something. He makes a sobbing sound. "Are you okay?"
"Yes, Tony. Are you?" he asks carefully, not daring to move.
"No," Tony says and then vanishes again.
When Natasha helps him up, he realizes that the hit broke two of his ribs. The others look both freaked out and worried and he knew they were struggling just as much as he was how to feel about all of this.
They didn't have much time. Whatever was happening with Tony, it was getting worse. They had to save him, for all their sakes and his.
Tony doesn't make any sign he's there that day, but Steve thinks Dummy and Butterfingers and U can tell he's around, because they whir and whine constantly when Steve visits the workshop, like dogs would with a ghostly presence. It's weird.
Finally, when Tony does make himself seen, he apologizes to Steve, glancing at his torso. "There's something with me. It's not me, it's evil, and it keeps trying to take over me, Steve. You have to fix this. I don't want to hurt you."
"We'll figure something out, Tony."
"You have to promise me something, then."
"Yes, Tony?"
"If bringing me back doesn't work, you won't be too sad I'm dead, okay?" he pleads, his face so raw and white and there's more fear now than Steve has ever seen on him. Steve wants to reach out and hug him with all his might, but when Steve tries to touch him it goes through him like Tony's not there. "I don't say please often, Steve. I will kill you. It won't hesitate."
"…I promise."
Loki arrives, telling him he's working on a solution. He's annoyed with them and not very courteous and Tony mentions he didn't remember him so sassy.
The trickster also mentions that he doesn't know if the counter spell will put Tony's soul back into his body or Tony will cross over to wherever he wants to believe he'll go.
It might be Tony's last day. Again.
Steve honestly feels like he's waiting for Tony to die and leave them again. The thought of Tony being brought back to life was too bizarre for him to process, even if they've had movie marathons of these types of situations.
Clint breaks the lengthy silence after Loki leaves and asks what Tony wants to do. Tony grins. "Let's have a party."
It's silly, knowing this may be the last time they see Tony and they decide to do absolutely nothing productive. But the others, including Steve, agree. So Tony goes to visit Pepper and Rhodey, talking to them even though they don't really know he's there.
Steve goes to the gym with Tony, and Tony says hello to the Hulk, who snorts softly and tries to touch him. When he can't, he actually whimpered and kept trying over and over again. It's both adorable and depressing.
When the Hulk goes back to Bruce and they leave, Tony speaks. "J, put on some music."
Steve snorts. "Are you going to dance?"
"Dancing in my own grave is so cliché, Captain." He scoffs, then smirks. "Do you even know how to dance?"
"You taught me, Tony. Remember?"
"Oh." He blinked. "I guess I did. Then dance with me. Gangnam style or twerk?"
"What." Steve's pretty sure they are terms of modern dancing, but they must not be very good because Clint and Tony would joke about them a lot.
"Nothing." He quipped, and he grins devilishly.
Dancing with a spirit is probably the strangest thing Steve's ever done by far. It's also like flying, because Tony moves in sync with him even if they're not touching, the music's loud enough that Steve can focus on where his feet move and Tony. It's Tony, dead or not.
It hurts, but technically it's their first date, albeit short. And it's great. He prefers this over Tony dragging him every which way in the city, showing him everything, every date place Steve could imagine. And by the end of the dance, he's laughing for no reason at all.
Tony waves a hand. "You had a good teacher."
"Have."
"Huh?"
"I have one. He's still here." He says firmly.
Tony gives a little smile. "I hope."
They tell Tony to leave for a bit so they can get ready ("Are we going to braid Thor's hair and talk about our crushes? What the hell do you have to get ready for?")
But Tony's delighted, despite the rude teasing, to see that there's Avengers themed balloons everywhere in the workshop and the bots have party hats and the team are wearing snuggies. Tony remarks Steve's American flag one is his favorite one, making Steve blush tomato red to the tips of his ears.
They sit down on the big couch with Tony in the middle, and watch all the James Bond movies, including the newest one, Skyfall, in which Tony died before could see.
When the rest of the team is asleep, Tony is quiet as the credits roll for the 2009 Star Trek movie. Steve frowns a little at him.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm kinda freaked out." He chuckles. "I'm Tony Stark, and if I could piss my pants I probably would. Maybe. That's a big maybe, by the way…"
Steve stays silent, waiting.
"I don't want to leave. I don't want to say goodbye especially because well, I suck ass at it." He shakes his head, lips pursed into a thin line.
"Then don't say it. Say hello instead." Steve says, dead serious.
Tony nods and then grins, looking Steve in the eye. "If I was tangible, I'd probably try to have sex with you."
"Is that usually the outcome of the second date?" Steve laughs, and Tony grins even wider.
"The second date on the same night as the first? I'd say so. They're like…connected. It works." Tony snarks. "If I come back, will there be one?"
"What, a second date? Of course. Maybe a better first date, too, one that you're alive for."
Tony hums in agreement. "But sex too?"
"Second date, but maybe. I'll think about it," and Steve winks. Tony spluttered.
"Did you just wink at me? Steven Grant Rogers, you have discovered your charm. That's hot."
Steve laughs and wants so badly to wrap Tony up his arms until he has to say goodbye. Or hello.
Tony wakes up the team, including Steve who had fallen asleep, and just stares at them for a minute, smiling a little, as if soaking them in. "Hello."
Steve closes his eyes, swallowing hard. When he opens them again, Tony is glowing. His usual black (not his chocolate brown, like they should be) eyes are a soft white, not the demonic whites like Steve has seen and he's shimmering.
They're all mesmerized, tense, waiting for a sign of the outcome of Tony's life or death. Then Tony disappears with a dancing white ball of light and energy, and then it's silent.
They wait two minutes, three, a half hour. Nobody dared to move except for the tapping of Natasha's fingers. Steve realizes he's forgotten to breathe and gasps, heart pounding in a panic.
"Did anyone consider that Tony's spirit might literally go back to his original body?" Clint asked, and Steve cocked his head. "Like six feet under the ground in a casket?"
Steve's gaze flew to Thor, mouth about to open. "Oh my God, please tell me no."
"Loki did not entirely clarify this," Thor admitted, standing up. Steve flies to the workshop door and punches in the code, already demanding orders, shovels, because who the fuck knows if Tony's stuck in the ground alone in a casket oh god-
"Steve!"
He whips around, and Loki is holding Tony bridal style, and Steve forgets to breathe again, as he waits. As soon as he sees the rise and fall of his chest, he dashes over and yanks Tony out of Loki's grip and into his own. "Thank you," he says shortly and then brings Tony over to the couch, the others eagerly trailing behind him.
He's wearing exactly what he was buried in, an Armani suit with a little Iron Man pin that apparently Tony told Pepper ahead of time he wanted to be buried with, he's covered in dirt and he's pale, just like his spirit form was.
"Tony?" he asks carefully, brushing back the hair on his forehead loving the feel of the softness and the fact that he can actually feel it. "Can you hear me? Please, Tony. Wake up."
At first there's no reaction and then Tony's snap open wide and he gasps in a heaving breath like a drowning man. "Oh Jesus, please tell me you kissed me."
Tony spends the rest of the night getting hugged, eating and drinking (Steve won't let him get near anything stronger) and breathing really loud as if to remind himself he's breathing again.
He wants to do everything, he wants to announce his arrival back from the dead, he wants to give Loki a fist bump who had left as soon as Tony woke up, he wants to call Pepper and Rhodey but by the time Steve drags him to bed, he's out cold.
Steve talks a while with the team, agreeing to explain to Coulson and Pepper and Rhodey and SHIELD what had happened over the last month right under their noses.
For the first time since Tony died, Steve smiled himself to sleep.
And when he woke up, Tony was curled into him, his breathing loud enough that Steve could hear. "Hi, Tony."
Tony makes an unintelligible sound, nuzzles into Steve tighter and Steve's chest bloomed with happiness. This morning, he didn't go for a run bright and early.
Two days later, Steve's barely spent any time with Tony. That first morning was the last time they got to be alone and anything after that was Natasha chewing him out, Clint playing a nerf gun game with him, Pepper crying and scolding him, Coulson giving him paperwork and smiling just a little, and Fury's colorful swearing.
It's hectic and busy and Steve's elated. Tony's back and that's all that matters.
After the first day, they come up with the story that once Tony was rushed into the hospital after the shooting, they told everyone he was dead as to drive away the attention of the men after them. Once the threat had been detained, as of now, Tony "came back from the dead".
He makes a public speech, snarky and unaffected with a nice Stark touch. All the sympathy cards and drawings kids had drawn them turned happy again, all at once.
Finally, though, they get their first real date. They have another dance that Tony can actually participate in, a dinner of Italian food from a restaurant on 5th street all in the penthouse.
"It was kind of terrifying." Tony says, looking at his hands in his laps. "The evil thing inside there with me clawing at every second."
Steve nods in understanding, letting Tony talk. It takes a lot for Tony to ever talk about the awful things that's ever happened to him, and Steve wasn't going pass up the chance for Tony practically asking for help.
"Wanna know something, though? It was easiest with you. To hold it back. Is that weird?"
"No. Not at all." Steve smiles. "It's over, Tony."
"I know. Hey, what about that second date?"
"We're in the middle of the first date."
"We've had this discussion, Steve. Think carefully."
"What do you-" Steve blinked. "Oh."
"Do you want to or?"
"I don't-"
"Because we don't have to-"
"No, it's-"
"We'll work our way around, and that's not implying-"
"TONY." He says exasperatedly, grinning. "C'mon. Time for our second date."
END.
A/N: In which I blatantly denied Tony's death and used magic to bring him back to life. Like it? Love it? Hate it? Let me know! Reviews are love.