**Author's Note: This is the first fanfiction I've ever written, so Id very much appreciate any and all reviews and critiques of my work. I wrote this with the intent of writing additional chapters, but Id like to see how this beginning is recieved. I look forward to any comments! Thanks!**
Note: I do not own any of these characters, Marvel Comics story line and plot minipulation is written by me, with these barrowed characters.
Chapter 1:
"What do you think you're doing!?" Tony shouts as he rushes forward to stop a catastrophe in the making.
"I think that I'm making a sandwich, or is that not okay with you?" said Steve, as he was about to put some organically grown lettuce on his two pieces of rye bread, already slathered with homemade hummus.
"You call that a sandwich?!" Tony said, absolutely appalled.
"You know, it is possible to eat something good for yourself every now and again."
"Well excuse me for enjoying what actually tastes good." Tony scoffs.
"If you'd just give my food a try, I'm sure you'd like some of it just as much, if not more."
Steve continued to layer his sandwich with free-range raised chicken, home grown tomatoes, and onions he grew himself in the indoor garden room Tony designed for him on one of the top most floors of the Stark Tower. Tony stared at the sandwich Steve continued to make with utter disgust, and decided that he may very well have created a monster by allowing him that indoor garden. However would he forgive himself? Not that he had ever had it in himself to ever deny Steve anything in the first place.
Tony was in it deep when it came to Steve, and if push came to shove, he'd probably even eat nasty health food if it made Steve happy, not that he'd enjoy a second of it. Hopefully it never came to that though, Tony thought, because he really did enjoy his junk food. The worst part was though, that Tony was pretty sure this was just the start of it. Once Tony had invited all of the Avengers to come live at Stark Tower with him (which was merely a way to get him and Steve to live under the same roof), Steve had begun to convert all of the rest of them to health freaks, beginning with Natasha and slowly working through the ranks. Thankfully Tony was not alone in his resistance quite yet though, as Thor enjoyed all the pleasantries of junk food as well, though Tony sensed his resolve was weakening against Steve's homemade pies.
Tony supposed it should have been foreseen that Captain America could bake a mean apple pie, whether it was made of all organic products or not. There's nothing more American than homemade apple pie.
After seeing the monstrosity that was being concocted in his very own kitchen, Tony hurried out of the kitchen, afraid that Steve would offer him a bite, being a bite he could not refuse, seeing as it came from Steve with his carefree smile and puppy dog eyes. Tony was sure that if Steve was to just ask the villains to stop being so mean and play nice with everyone, they'd be unable to say no to him.
Heading down to his work room, Tony goes straight for his stash of Twinkies. So stereotypical, he thinks to himself, but he can't help that he's fallen in love. After woofing down one, then another to distract himself from his feelings for Steve, he begins to tinker on some of his projects that have begun to clutter his work desk.
"Jarvis, turn on some heavy metal would you? I need to not think for a while."
"As you wish, sir." Jarvis replies before starting up some Black Sabbath.
As Tony works, he begins to notice a dull pain in his chest. Paying it no heed, he works on until his hands begin to fumble and he clasps on to his work table to steady himself. The pain in his chest has now spread to his arms and Tony isn't entirely sure what is going on anymore. He crumples to the ground and rolls to his side. Just as he begins to feel nauseas, he hears shouts coming from the direction of the doorway, though he's too weak to bother trying to look and see who's calling him.
"Tony! Tony, are you alright, what's happening!? Jarvis, quick, call an ambulance!"
Tony's too lost in the pain and nausea to really focus on what's happening . He feels too tired, and wonders when the last time he's slept is. He simply can't remember. Perhaps, Tony thinks to himself, he should try and sleep now. Sleep seems so inviting….
…
"…*groan*… no, no don't take him away…Steve…" Tony rolls around in his sleep, growing manic in his slumbering state.
"Tony, Tony wake up, I'm right here." Steve quickly stands up from the chair at Tony's bedside.
Slowly, and with much effort, Tony slowly wakes up and tries to make sense of his surroundings. He's in a foreign room, in a paper gown, with Steve and the rest of the Avengers in the room. Tony looks from face to face and tries to make sense of the situation.
"What's going on? Why am I here?"
"Well , it seems that you have suffered from a mild heart attack. During so, you seemed to have passed out from sleep deprivation as well. As a doctor, I have to say that it's incredible that you've lasted this long in this condition without any major incidents before this. That being said, I ask that you take your health into serious consideration from this point on. A man your age shouldn't be so capricious with your health, especially given your situation." The doctor says as he nods to Tony's Arc Reactor. He hadn't noticed the doctor in his inicial sweep of the room, but now that he had listened to what he had to say, he wished he wasn't there at all.
"I've had the pleasure of talking with your colleagues here, and they have agreed to help you in your recovery. Furthermore, Mr… umm, or well Captian America has volunteered to help get you eating right." The doctor adds, officially ruining any hope Tony had of playing this off as a minor issue and returning to his life as before.
"Tony, don't you have anything to say? You sure did before you woke up." Clint says with that last bit under his breath causing Tony a brief moment of confusion. Natasha digs her elbow into Clint's side, making him take a quick inhale of breath.
The room all turns to Tony, eagerly awaiting what he has to say. As he sits there, he feels the truth sink in and watches as his life of glorious junk food and all nighters slips away…
"…Well shit."
….
After being discharged from the hospital, the troupe all head back to the tower, having had more than enough excitement for one day. After pulling up, they all pile out and head their separate directions, Tony making a beeline for his different food stashes, to ensure their safety.
"Well you really know how to steal the spotlight, Stark."
"Shut up, Clint." Tony's in no mood for his jabs. "I had a heart attack, which was inconvenience in itself, I don't need your harassment on top of my impending doom."
"Ah, it wasn't your heart attack I was talking about. Why, I had no idea before that you were in love with Cap." Clint quips as he turns around to face Tony, who's heading for the elevator.
Tony stops dead in his tracks. "What are you talking about, I have no idea what you're talking about. You have it all wrong, I'm not in love with Cap, that's… that's just… insane!" Tony rushes on in a panic.
"Wow, so it really is true… I was only guessing before, but there's no denying it now… Wow Stark, you're in deep too, aren't yah?" Clint just stares at the stock still Tony with his hawk eyes, watching as Stark tries to figure out how to get himself out of this one.
"I still have no idea what you're talking about." Tony says with as much serious calmness as he can muster. "What made you say such ludicrous things in the first place?"
Clint chuckles, "You started it. 'No, no don't take him away! Steve!'" he mocks while playacting a damsel calling out to her lover.
Tony's face goes white as a sheet as he recalls his dream from right before he awoke in the hospital. He remembers calling out to Steve as he was being taken away by black shrouded figures. No matter what he did, he couldn't go after him, so he had called out. That's the last thing he remembers before waking up to Cap reassuring him that he was right there… it all makes sense now…
"Sheesh man, calm down, it's fine, really. I mean, hell, if I would of known before, I'd have been doing my damndest to get you two together. About time you were serious about someone again, I mean, after Pepper dumping you and all…"
Tony hadn't paying much attention to what Clint had been saying as he'd gone into auto pilot to walk to his work room. How could he have been so careless as to shout out in his sleep with everyone around him. Who else knew? Did Steve?
This is enough to shock Tony out of his little daze. He immediately locks eyes with Clint and demands "No one else can know! Do you hear me, no one, especially Steve, can find out!"
"What? Dude, but why?!" Clint demands right back, being thrown off by Tony's sudden proclamation.
Tony looks down at the concrete floor of his work room, where he's built so many creations and made so many memories, where he's always felt safe and at home. He hesitates for a second more before finally replying, "Because he wouldn't understand. Steve comes from another time, a time where a relationship between men wasn't only a sin against God, but an action that was seen as an ultimate taboo. How can I ask him to love me, another man, when everything he knows and believes in tells him that it's wrong?..."
Tony walks away, feeling totally dejected and wanting to be alone. Clint watches as Tony walks over to one of his many unfinished projects and begins to tinker halfheartedly. He never knew that Tony had been harboring such intense feelings of both love and dejection… For a moment he was out of sorts, unsure what to do, until, in a mere second, it hits him.
"Tony, Steve isn't in that time anymore. He knows that, you know that, and you also know that he's taken it surprisingly well. How do you know he wouldn't be open to a relationship with you?" By now Clint's getting really fired up, "I think you're just scared." This stops Tony in his tracks. No one calls Iron Man, no correction, no one calls Tony Stark a coward and walks away from it alive. "I think you're just afraid you couldn't handle a man like Captian America. That you couldn't win him over if you tried. Coward!" Clint knows that he's provoking a bull in a china shop, but he can't help himself, he need Tony out of his self pity.
Tony turns to look at Clint. "Take it back. Take it back right now…"
"No." Clint won't back down, for Tony's own good. "I bet you I could get Steve to go out with me way before he'd ever go out with you! What do you think about that, Iron Man?"
Tony looks Clint dead in the eye and says, "You're on."
…
