Title: Healing
Summary: Blue eyes lost their focus once more as eyelids fluttered, snapping back open at a rough slap across his face. "No. Sleeping." Tony snapped as he glared at Steve as much as he could, a worried look in his eyes at the same time. "Don't get all senile on me and turn up your hearing aid. You need to stay awake, Captain Spangles."
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Warnings: Mentions of blood/injures, mentions of swears, and poor grammar/spelling.
When it came to war wounds, none of the Avengers were exempt from feeling the wrath of their surrounding and their enemies' weapons. But, just how they were all of different mettle and tempers, Steve had come to realize that they all took care of their wounds in different manners...
The first time that Steve had seen Natasha get severely injured, Steve had made sure to draw the enemies away from her while Clint had quickly moved from his nest to aid his comrade. After the battle was over, she gave a slight nod to the Captain before slinking off and reminding him more like a cat than a spider. She was graceful throughout the battle, moving in ways that the blonde was certain that if he had attempted, he would have injured himself and those around him. While she mended, though, the redhead was full of icy stares, threats, and glares aimed at those who tried to help her so there was no chance that she would hurt herself while on the mend. After she was fully healed, the assassin acted as though she was never hurt at all. Steve really began to think that she should change from Black Widow to Black Cat.
Clint, on the other hand, sulked when he was wounded. Unless his bow was wounded, then he looked downright pathetic and scurried off to Natasha's side, leaving the rest of Avengers trying to listen in on the exchanged whispers between the two assassins before the pair hurried towards Clint's assigned floor in the recently renovated Tower. From what Steve was able to see when he checked in on the archer, Natasha had set him into his bed and refused to let him leave until he was no longer bleeding profusely and could move swiftly. Needless to say, he was at the butt of jokes about becoming a damsel in distress while the Black Widow became his knight in shining armor. Clint had only grinned at the accusation and took all of the jokes in stride, often joking back with the other Avengers.
Bruce rarely was injured in battle. The most that happened after he had changed into the Other Guy and back was that he felt off for a while and needed to regain his bearings and grasp on the world around him. That was not say that he was never hurt, though. Steve had witnessed an experiment gone wrong, according to Tony, and the thin scientist had managed to cut himself deeply. He happened to be walking by while the scientist was wrapping his hand and trying to assure Tony that he was not going to "Hulk-out" and that he did not have to worry so much. A small smile lit up his face when Bruce sighed loudly at Tony's plans to baby-proof the lab, promising to only give the other scientist "kiddie" scissors and construction paper in the meantime. Steve was not too sure what he meant by that but he knew that it had to be some sort of joke by the way Bruce's face twisted into a wry grin while he asked for a little help stitching his hand shut. Out of all of the Avengers, the brunette was the most willing to ask for and accept help when he needed it and Steve was not going to turn away someone who needed assistance.
Thor, however, almost rarely got anything larger than a few bruises or scrapes. Once, as far as Steve could remember, the blonde Agardian demigod had gotten his ribs cracked during one fight that had left him winded and wincing for a while. He bore it all with a bright smile and booming laugh even though if left a slight grimace on his face afterward from the strain on his ribs. Steve remembered that incident clearly because he was the one who cracked the blonde's ribs accidentally when he knocked around and the God of Thunder stepped in to help only to get knocked down when the Captain was blown into his path. He felt horrible for it but his fellow blonde assured him that nothing was wrong and that he had gotten worse dealing with his brother when they were younger. Steve found that hard to believe but nodded and Thor had just smiled fondly and told him more about life on Asgard.
Tony was, by far, the worst of them all in Steve's opinion. During a fight, he played off any damage that his Iron Man suit took and sniped at all of the Avengers with crude jokes and comments. Afterward, when everyone was able to get a good look at the scraped and sheared metal, he would snap at them about the time it was going to take to fix his suit. Once he was out of the suit and the rest of the team could see his injuries, a full-on argument blossomed about medical treatment. The genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist sulked and argued that he was perfectly fine while picking at the tender spots in everyone's past to make them leave in frustrations. Unfortunately, all he managed to ever do was annoy the people who were trying to help him and he was often threatened to be dragged to SHIELD's infirmary bay. He cussed up a storm, which Steve thought was just plain rude in front of a dame and often let the genius know how he felt about it, only to turn it into some sort of twisted, unwilling game that he was a part of.
Tony fought against every tactic that they threw his way if it meant that he did not have to be sent to a doctor's and patched up. He would rather sit in his lab and commence the repairs to his suit and made sure that everyone knew it, too. Much like a child, Steve knew that he needed to be helped out against his will and it usually took someone calling Pepper over to force the brunette to get some medical attention. Once he was all cleared to leave a bed, the playboy sneered at them all, his usual quips having more bite than usual but Steve tried to pay it no mind because he knew that Tony was on the mend. He poked at people harder, snapped more often, and sulked around while looking at his lab longingly until he was cleared to drink and go back to his projects. His eyes lit up like it was Christmas morning and the entire Tower was filled with loud music that grated on Steve's nerves but could not help but make him smile because it meant that Tony had forgiven them for forcing him to get help.
"Hey, are you paying attention?" a voice called out as fingers snapped in front of his face, drawing Steve back to the present as he blinked slowly. Blue eyes focused on the metal-covered face in front of his, noticing the dirt and blood that was splattered across the faceplate.
"Tony?" Steve asked, his voice cut down to a rasp as pain radiated through his core, his mind focusing on the blood that was dripping down his faceplate. "You're-"
"It's not mine," the brunette replied as he pulled off his helmet, mussing his already wild hair and revealing his face, a worried grin on his face. "See? Not mine."
The previous moments suddenly came rushing back to Steve's mind. Bombs were placed throughout the city of Manhattan and they had managed to disarm three of them before the fourth went off. He remembered slamming into a building before the world began to fade in and out of focus, hearing names called over his earpiece while he struggled to grasp at his consciousness as it fled like water through open fingers.
"Natasha," Steve asked, remembering a panicked voice calling out for her over his earpiece.
"She's on her way here with Cupid," Tony remarked with a roll of his eyes. "Couldn't get out of the way of some punk with a knife and she got shanked. Our archer, on the other hand, nearly broke his wrist so they're sulking as they move their asses over here." Some of what the genius meant was lost on the blonde while the world around him began to lose its focus once more. "Woah!" a metallic hand slapped his face gently, bringing him back down to earth as his eyes focused on the brunette in front of him once more. "No napping."
"Bruce?" Steve asked in a way of trying to find out what happened to the other scientist.
"Trying not to vomit. Luckily for Thor, his hair isn't long so he doesn't really need to hold back his hair while Brucey empties his stomach," the brunette replied, his snark coming back to full scale. "They're both fine and will probably get here before the assassins do."
"...You're hurt," the Captain muttered as he frowned, his mind connecting the pieces together while Tony rolled his eyes.
"Seriously? You're calling me out when you're lying here with a support beam and rubble as a blanket? I mean, come on, you even have a rusted steel rod sticking out of your thigh!" The pain came back at full force at the brunette's words and Steve could feel nausea bubbling in the pit of his stomach. Ignoring it for the moment, he pressed on.
"What happened to you?"
"I took out the bad guys, no thanks you, Gramps."
"...Sorry."
Blue eyes lost their focus once more as eyelids fluttered, snapping back open at a rough slap across his face. "No. Sleeping." Tony snapped as he glared at Steve as much as he could, a worried look in his eyes at the same time. "Don't get all senile on me and turn up your hearing aid. You need to stay awake, Captain Spangles."
"...Where are you hurt?"
"Oh my God!" Tony cried out in frustration. "Just once could you be a selfish prick and worry about yourself? The world isn't going to end if Captain America grows a pair and wonders exactly why he's in so much pain, you know!" At the sudden outburst, Steve rose an eyebrow slightly at the genius. "Fine; if it'll amuse you, Cap, I was thrown pretty good by that bomb. In case you forgot, I was closer to it that you were."
"Oh..." Steve muttered, looking a bit ashamed at the fact that he did not recall that detail. "You should...get checked out before Clint calls Miss Potts about you."
"Pepper," Tony snapped as he rolled his eyes once more, at least grateful that the blonde was able to keep up with the conversation and stay awake at the same time. "And she's going to have a fit when she hears about you!"
"...Me?" Steve asked as he blinked anywhere, not understanding why the strawberry-blonde woman would be upset with him when he would heal quickly. Or maybe she would be upset because he did not do that good of a job protecting her boss, friend, and, well...he was not too sure about their relationship status and it was really none of his business, anyway.
"Yeah, you! Everyone else copes and gets help when hurt but you; you're the worst of us all!"
"I am?" Steve tried to think about what he did that was so wrong when he was injured. He did not sulk, glare at his teammates, swear at them, snap and ridicule them until they felt horrible about themselves, or even put up a physical struggle until he was literally dragged to an infirmary. He thought back to the last time he was hurt; he had let everyone get medical attention and made sure that they would be fine before going to his room and binding the cut on his arm. It was a small cut and didn't even need stitches considering his body would heal if left on its own. "I don't-"
"You're damn right you don't! Your weapon might be a shield but that doesn't meant that you need to turn yourself into some fucking martyr! We won't die if you get some damn medical attention to keep your blood inside your body, you know! We can and will wait if it means you get the help you need, Cap! We're a team!"
"I know that," Steve said slowly as he tried to think back. Did he actually do that? He could not recall worrying them about his health; he helped out as much as he could when it came to convincing his brothers in arms to seek medical help when necessary. Most of the time, it was not a necessity for him.
"Good, then you're going to lie there until we can free you without running the risk of you bleeding your patriotic blood all over the city's ground. Besides, we can't exactly risk having Thor sweep you into a crushing hug to celebrate you still being alive." Tony smiled slightly as his eyes made a sweep over the blonde. "I'll make you a deal, Cap: you stop squirreling away when hurt and I'll stop putting up a fight. Sound good, Captain Misfortune?"
"...Deal," Steve agreed, knowing that just about anything was worth the price of getting Tony to actually behave like an adult for a few moments so everyone could heal in peace.
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