His every syllable flirted. His every fibre of being flirted. I was torn, placed between my undeniable attraction to the man and my complete lack of experience in terms of romance. My silence seemed to end the conversation anyways. "Well," I motioned vaguely for the stairs in front of us, "I'll see you around, Tony." I wheeled my way to the steps, leaving Tony behind me, but only for a moment.

Soon he was next to me, matching my excruciatingly slow pace step for step. "You should see it. V for Vendetta." I nodded. "Okay, yeah. I'll look it up." Tony stopped me. "No, I mean right now. At my place. With me."

I stopped. "No offense Tony, but knowing you and your reputation, you could probably kill me with that right there." I tapped his chest, hitting the faceplate of the…thing in his chest, the thing that kept him alive. Tony quirked his head to the side. "True enough, Steven Grant." He walked past me, up the stairs, and I watched him go. His back was straight and his footsteps echoed in the stairwell, but not nearly as loud as the noise of my hand tapping his chest, which still rang in my ears. Everyone knew Tony Stark had been kidnapped a few years back, but not everyone knew that Tony came back missing pieces of his whole.

I followed him up the stairs, having fallen behind Tony a considerable amount. When we finally reached the exit to Jesus' heart, the unpleasant noise of slurping came into focus. I turned to the left to see Clint and a tall blonde who I could only assume was Bobbi, kissing rather furiously against the S.H.I.E.L.D building.

Somewhere between where they began to whisper 'always' and when Clint began to feel her up, Tony appeared next to me, camera phone in hand. "It's beautiful and disgusting, isn't it?" I laughed. "Coming from you, that's rich." Tony nudged me in the side, similarly to his nudging of Clint. "At least I have the decency of not devouring faces whole next to a government building."

"No you don't; you're fear of Nick Fury is what keeps you from doing that." I replied.

Tony snapped another picture. "That's also true."

Bobbi whispered always into Clint's mouth before probing her tongue so thoroughly she might have been giving him a dental exam. "Why do they keep saying 'always'?" I asked. Tony shrugged. "They'll always be together or something, I don't know. Honestly, the commitment thing puts me off so…" I tried to ignore along with the growing disgust at the scene in front of me. The senses must feast while there is yet hunger, I supposed.

Tony dug through his pockets for something, before finally pulling out a box of cigarettes. I stepped back as he placed one in his mouth. "Really?" I asked, trying to sound authoritative. Tony looked at me, the cigarette dangling from his mouth unlit. "What?"

I motioned towards my cannula, towards the tube that led from it down to my oxygen tank. "I thought maybe, you know, Tony Stark? He's not all that bad! He looked at me and we made jokes about literality and he called me beautiful which is a first in my books, but no, of course not. Tony Stark has a fatal flaw." I tried to ignore the hurt look on his face when the words registered to him. "And his fatal flaw is even thought he almost died, he is will to pay a company for a chance at cancer."

By this time, Bucky had pulled into the driveway of the building and had stepped out of the idling car. I turned to him and he gave me a look. I knew it well: Do you need me to back you? I shook my head and motioned for him to get back into the car. "I'll be there in a few, Bucky. I just have a few more words for him." Bucky nodded and stepped back into the car. I turned back toward Tony, wheeling close enough to him that I could hear him breathing.

"Let me tell you, let me assure you, that not being able to breathe is horrible. I would never wish it upon anyone, let alone you, Tony Stark." There was a mixture of anger and disappointment welling up within me and I turned away before Tony could see it on my face.

I felt a hand reach for mine.

Yanking myself free from Tony, I turned. "They don't kill you unless you light them," Tony said simply, "and I haven't lit one for a very long time." I stood rooted to the spot, confused. "It's a metaphor. You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don't give it the power to do its killing."

"It's a metaphor," I repeated, dumbfounded. Tony nodded, looking straight at me. "It's a metaphor."

From the car, I heard Bucky call out: "You choose your behaviors based on their metaphorical resonances?" Without looking away from me, Tony replied, "Oh yeah, I'm a big believer in metaphor."

I turned to Bucky. "I'm going to go watch a movie with Tony. Tell Sharon not to set a place for me at the table." Bucky looked between us for a moment before nodding, putting the car in drive, and speeding away.

"So, is Sharon your girlfriend?" Tony asked. I laughed, shaking my head. "No, she's my best friend. Sharon, Bucky, and I live together." Tony nodded and I could practically see the gears turning in his head with the information.

For awhile, we walked in silence before reaching a limo and a driver who Tony addressed as Happy.

"Why the cigarettes?" I finally asked before we stepped into the car. "Hmm?" He had been playing with his phone again, of course. "Why did you choose cigarettes to make your whole metaphorical point?" Tony thought about it for a moment as we stepped into the car.

"Having a cigarette in your mouth is a lot more pleasant than the barrel of a gun, I'll tell you that much."