The suit he wore was sparking and malfunctioning, his mask in pieces scattered over the floor. He lay still unable to move from the spot blacking out quickly. His eyes felt heavy his face was marked with cuts and blood. Many news reporters were already taking pictures of the lifeless superhero until he groaned.
"Some one call an emergency service" he mumbled, his body aching with every breath.
Knowing no-one knew where he was, he lay staring at the ceiling not expecting any visitors. His body was cut and bruised so breathing felt like daggers were lay in bed with him, his eyes glazed with tears. God this kills like hell he thought as he raised his hands to his face and groaned in pain. He didn't regret a thing he had done, no-one but him was injured. The blue eyes were watering in pain but his smile was genuine. He had saved the world at the price of pain. Totally worth it.
"Tony." He heard a familiar voice so he looked.
"How did you know where I was? And why are you here, Steve?" Tony muttered.
"You were on the news and I'm here to scold you." Steve grunted sitting with Tony. "You're an idiot Tony!"
"I know" Tony tried to talk.
"I'm not finished." Steve glared at Tony. "You put everyone else first yeah but what about you, people care for you more than you think! And you're willing to throw yourself away? What kind of idiot are you?! You've done that before!"
"What I do is to save lives!" Tony growled. "You don't understand me. I do it so I die knowing I saved the city" he looks out the window "I haven't done much good so I'm making up now."
"What do you mean you haven't done much good?" Steve wondered.
"I made weapons for Americans and the enemy got hold of them." Tony sighed and held his side "urg" was the only thing he could say.
"You made them to protect Americans and it did work. Then you stopped weapons." Steve looked at him.
Tony looked at him and smiled slightly. Steve sighed and rubbed the back of his head, smiling sheepishly. Tony groaned as his stabbing pain was getting worse, his head began to spin as if he was drunk or ill. He has begun to black out again, moving his arms to his side he mumbled good night Steve before falling into a sleep he wont come out of for a while.
Half a year managed to pass, Tony was hooked up to all sorts of machines, Steve barely left his side all the time.
Steve began to feel restless.
He watched Tony flicker and twitch. Waiting for him to wake up. But still, he had been reading to Tony some tails that were around for him when he was a child.
"Once upon a time there lived an unhappy young girl. Her mother was dead and her father had married a widow with two daughters." He started but Tony groaned. "huh? Not want Cinderella?" Tony almost hummed seeming to agree.
He had almost gone through all the stories he new... The last one now was Sleeping Beauty.
Yes. That was it, Sleeping Beauty fits this so much.
"Once upon a time there lived a good king and his queen. They had no children for many years and were very sad." Steve started, the words slipped off his tongue like people walking on ice.
"Then one day, the queen gave birth to a lovely baby girl and the whole kingdom was happy. There was a grand celebration and all the fairies in the kingdom were invited. But the king forgot to invite an old fairy. She came to the celebrations but was very angry. Soon it was time to gift the baby with special wishes. The good fairies wished her well and said, "May she grow to be the most beautiful girl in the world! She will sing sweetly and dance so well! She will live happily!" All the fairies blessed the baby and gave her beautiful gifts." just like you Tony, this is you. Steve though.
"When the baby is sixteen she will touch a spindle, and die!" The king and queen were shocked and begged the fairy to forgive them and take her words back but the fairy refused to do so. When the other fairies saw the king and queen crying, they said, "We cannot undo what the old fairy has spoken. But we certainly can make it different. Your child shall not die when she touches the spindle. But she will fall into a deep sleep for a hundred years. Then, a prince will come along and wake her up." Hearing this, the king and the queen were relieved. The king forbade everyone from spinning so that the princess would never touch a spindle.
Steve was that prince.
The princess grew up to be a kind girl and helped people in need. Everybody loved her. Years passed. When the princess was sixteen years old, she was walking in the woods when she saw an old lady spinning. "What is this? May I try?" she asked The old lady said, "Of course, my pretty little child!" And the princess sat down to spin. But the moment she touched the spindle, she fell to the floor in a deep slumber. The old lady took her back to the palace and the king and queen laid her on her bed and tucked her in. They were very sad and called the good fairies. The fairies felt sorry for them and cast a spell over the whole kingdom so that when the princess woke up after a hundred years, she would not be alone in the palace. Everyone, including the guards and the servants and the animals were now fast asleep. For a hundred years, they all slept soundly.
And WHO was your witch, Tony?
A hundred years passed. There came a prince from a far off land. He, along with his servants, went deep into the forest and crossed many rivers. Once the prince lost his way and was separated from the rest of the travelers. He came to the sleeping kingdom and was amazed. The guards, the servants, the cats and the cows were all fast asleep and snoring.
WHO put you under that spell? The Mandarin. Ten rings found on an alien space ship gave The Mandarin the power to send Tony into his deep sleep.
Steve sat silent for a little while watching over the bed, rehearsing the story in his mind before smiling. He stood up and leaned over his dozing princess and looked at the calm expression softly chiming the rest of his story he heard so many times before.
The prince reached the palace and entered it. And still no one moved. The prince then found the sleeping princess tucked up in the bed, the king and queen close by in a slumber too.
Steve watch Tony's eye's flutter before continuing.
She was such a beautiful girl that the prince leaned down to her and kissed her. By that time, a hundred years had passed by and everyone was waking up, one by one.
Slowly Steve dipped down and lightly kissed Tony, it was a soft kiss but still full of meaning. Tony had begun too stir, Steve was delighted.
The princess yawned and opened her eyes. She saw the prince and smiled. She asked him "Are you my prince?" He was happy to hear her speak.
Tony looked up to Steve who had begun to blush. Tony smiled, not that flashy smile, no, a sooth calm smile and he whispered up to Steve "thank you, my prince."
"The king and the queen arranged for a royal wedding. All the clothes the bride wore were a hundred years old, but she looked beautiful. Soon, they were married and then they rode away to the prince's kingdom far, far away." Steve finished blushing even deeper than before.
Tony lightly tugged on Steve's shirt pulling him down for another kiss, as their lips meet for the second time they both flushed and both got hit, not with evil, but with cupid's arrow.
And they lived happily ever after.
You know minus the villains and all that.