4F Doctor: Sorry, son.

Steve Rogers: Look, just give me a chance.

4F Doctor: You'd be ineligible on your asthma alone.

Steve Rogers: Is there anything you can do?

4F Doctor: I'm doing it. I'm saving your life.

Tony could barely bring himself to look at Steve. He had seen a few pictures before, mostly from his dad's old stuff, but none of that had even begun to prepare him for this. Then again, he never would have thought that something like this was possible.

The blast from that thing had completely reversed the serum. There wasn't a single trace of it in Steve's blood despite how much the scientists were searching for it.

And now Steve… well, as Clint had put it, he was tiny. He was shorter than Tony. Normally, having someone on the team who was shorter than him would have been a cause for Tony to break out the booze and celebrate, but there was no way he could do that. He had never wanted for something like this to happen.

And it was all Tony's fault.

Sure, Steve had made the choice to tackle Tony out of the way, but he shouldn't have had to do that. If Tony had actually been paying attention to his surroundings… If Tony had waited like Steve had told him to…

If, if, if. It wouldn't change anything now. Steve was back to his pre-serum self, and there was currently nothing that could be done about it.

It was enough for Tony to scream, and Steve really wasn't helping the matter.

Sure, Steve was no longer doing the workouts that he normally did, but otherwise, he was acting like everything was normal. He got up and made everyone breakfast, though he ate only a fraction of what he normally did. He sketched in the living room and on the balcony. He read in the library. He watched TV and shouted at the umpires when baseball was on. He went out into the city on walks.

What he wasn't doing was coming into the lab to draw, read, or talk to Tony. Although, on the other hand, Tony had restricted his access so he couldn't come in, so it wasn't Steve's fault. It was Tony's once more.

However, Tony found that he couldn't help it. There were dozens of things in his lab that had the potential to hurt Steve. Normally, he didn't worry about it; after all, he was a supersoldier and didn't break so easily. Now though, Steve looked frail enough that a breeze would knock him over and take him out. So there was no way that Tony was letting him in the lab.

Actually, if Tony had his way, Steve wouldn't be leaving the tower at all. He knew the others agreed with him, as both Thor, Clint, and Natasha had tried to stop him from going out. Every single time, Steve would straighten, give them that stern, piercing look, and then said with his Captain voice that he was going out and that if they tried to stop him then God help them.

Whoever was trying to stop him would swiftly get out of his way.

It wasn't fair that with everything else, Steve got to keep his Captain voice. And stubbornness. And sheer bull-headed tenacity that meant that no one was going to stop him from doing what he wanted.

As much as Tony usually loved him for these things, right now Steve was making him want to pound his head against the nearest wall.

Bruce kept telling him that he and the others were overreacting. Tony didn't know how Bruce could be so blasé about all of this after the initial shock. He almost sounded sensible.

Still, Tony had not been around for any of these attempts. Instead he had been holed up in the lab, along with Bruce, trying to figure out how to fix this.

It wasn't like he was hiding from Steve.

Tony sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He glanced again over the notes that he had found among his dad's things that were written by Erskine and the schematics for the gun that had started this whole mess.

This was his fault so he had to fix it. He really wasn't hiding from Steve. After all, what could a 90-pound asthmatic do to him?

"Sir." JARVIS's voice filtered down from on high.

"What, J?" Tony almost growled, scanning over the screens trying to find the reason for this happening.

"Captain Rogers has felt the need to have me tell you that you have been down here for 72 hours, and if you do not eat or sleep soon, he will have Dr. Banner or Miss Potts drag you out." The AI paused. "And if it comes to that, the lab will be locked down for 24 hours."

Tony's jaw dropped as he listened. "He can't do that!" He pounded his fist on the workbench. "Doesn't he get I'm doing this to help him?"

"At this moment, he is more concerned for your immediate survival since he is as healthy as can be expected at the moment. And I agree." JARVIS continued, worry leaking through his voice.

Tony gripped the edge of the table. He was caught and he knew it, especially if JARVIS was taking Steve's side. "Fine." He grumbled. He started to shut down the screens. "Look over what we've got so far and see if you can cross-reference any possibilities regarding the wearing off of the serum and the potential effects." He wasn't going to have all of this break time be for nothing.

"Of course, Sir." JARVIS already sounded happier.

Tony glared up at the ceiling even as he left the lab, and then he got into the elevator to go to the common floor.

Tony had taken several considerations when he had rebuilt his tower. Each Avenger had his or her own floor and in the middle of them, he had built a communal floor with a kitchen, gym, library, and living room. Each floor had the necessities as well if a particular team member wanted to cook and eat by themselves, but this was an area where they could actually come together as a team. It was also, for the most part, where all of them hung out.

It wasn't until he stepped into the kitchen, which showed just how tired he was, that the thought of Steve being there occurred to him. And that was only due to the fact that Steve was there, cooking.

Steve looked up at where Tony was frozen in the doorway. "He lives." He said dryly, before turning back to what looked to be spaghetti sauce. Considering that there were noodles in an adjacent pot, it wasn't too far fetched.

"Hi, uh, Steve. I was just going to, uh," Tony honestly the last time he had felt so tongue-tied. Maybe when he had woken after falling from the Chitauri portal.

Steve raised an eyebrow. "Quite the articulate one."

Tony groaned. He really could not deal with Steve's sass at the moment.

Steve looked back at Tony, and for a moment, an expression that Tony had never seen before crossed his face. It unsettled Tony and he couldn't place the emotion behind it. "Sit down, Tony. Supper will be ready in a couple of minutes." Steve said that as he bent down and pulled open the oven a fraction in order to check on the garlic bread.

"Right." Tony said, narrowing his eyes at the obvious dodge. Still, Steve continued to watch the food, and Tony sank down into one of the seats at the table and just watched him.

It still unnerved Tony to see him like this. He was smaller, but now that Tony looked at him closely, he seemed to have a scrappy kind of strength. His face was the same, along with his voice, so mainly the difference between Steve as he was now and the normal Steve was the height and muscles.

Although a distant part of Tony's mind pointed out that there was some appeal in this version, Tony pushed that back. After all, this still was not the normal Steve and such thoughts would not be entertained until Tony fixed this.

Tony vaguely realized that he was staring at Steve and a voice that sounded like Pepper was telling him that that was rude. He took a glance around the kitchen, surprised that no one else had come yet.

"Where is everyone?"

Steve glanced up, surprised. "They're on their way. Natasha and Thor were venting on each other in the gym, so they'll get in here once they're done in the showers. Clint was sulking in the vents because Coulson told him that he couldn't interrogate the whack-job who made that gun. Bruce went to collect some of his old notes on the serum from SHIELD who managed to get them back from where Ross had stored them." He shrugged. "So, they're around."

"Heh." Tony gave a chuckle that held no humor as he thought about how there should have been someone watching Steve. "I'm surprised they left you alone."

"Oh, they all think that someone else is watching me." Steve said nonchalantly, but Tony could see the smirk twitching at his lips. He stared at him in shock. Steve was so nice and polite that Tony sometimes forgot what a devious little bastard he could be.

"You lied?" Tony knew that Steve could be a little schemer, but as Natasha had pointed out many a time, he sucked at lying.

"Not really." Steve glanced at the ceiling. "JARVIS always keeps an eye on us."

"Naturally, Captain." JARVIS replied, and Steve grinned up at him. Tony looked from Steve to the ceiling in slight horror.

He had to fix this. Not only were JARVIS and Steve teaming up against him, but also JARVIS was enabling Steve. That could not bode well.

Before Tony could yell at JARVIS or something, the vent on the far wall popped open and Clint tumbled out. "Sweet! Spaghetti." Clint made his way over to the stove, but Steve whacked his hand away from the sauce. "Hey!" He rubbed it a bit.

"I don't think we all want your germs, Clint." Steve said, and he went over to get some oven mitts for the bread.

Natasha appeared and picked them up before he could grab them though. "I'll take care of the bread, Steve." She also grabbed the cutting board and kitchen knife. Within moments, the bread was cut and on the table.

"Thanks." Steve said, and he turned to grab the sauce, but Tony was pleased as Thor came in and took it instead.

"I shall take this over to the table, Steven." Thor's loud voice boomed as he picked up the pot without bothering to grab mitts. After all, the god played with much hotter things.

"Thank you." Steve said, but his voice was rapidly losing the traces of humor it had had while he had been talking to Tony.

"And I've got this!" Clint was dumping the noodles into the strainer.

"You're all being so helpful, especially in the past few days." Steve's voice was flat. "Wonder why that is."

The others ignored him as they finished setting up the food on the table. Since he had been shut up in the lab, Tony wondered if this is what had been happening at every meal since Steve's transformation. Given the annoyed expression on Steve's face and the twitching of his fingers, Tony assumed that that hypothesis was correct.

"You know, I won't break or anything just by picking up a pot of food and taking it to the table." Steve said as he took his normal spot next to Tony. The genius stiffened a bit and scooted over away from Steve a bit. He ignored the hurt look on Steve's face when he noticed.

After all, Steve probably didn't want to sit next to the cause of this mess anyway.

"Leave them be, Steve." Bruce walked into the room and glanced over the papers that he was looking over. He set them on the counter and sat on Tony's other side. "They won't admit it, but they're just a bunch of mother hens."

"I resent that." Clint stated as he put food on his plate. He continued as the other served themselves, "I am a freaking hawk. I have more class than a simple hen."

"You're a birdbrain either way." Natasha commented.

"Steven, we are simply attempting to look after you while you are in this state." Thor said, looking a touch regretful. Tony hoped that didn't mean he would stop. After all, the way he saw it Steve needed all of the mother henning possible.

"I did manage to survive a little over two decades like this." Steve still sounded annoyed. "Jeez, you guys are worse than Bucky."

Clint pointed his fork at Steve. "I will take that as a compliment."

Steve sighed, and just continued eating. "So how was your sparring match?" He finally asked, obviously trying to draw attention away from the situation.

Natasha and Thor let him do it, and the conversation became what it normally would be. Tony sat back and observed it, not feeling up to joining in. And he steadily ignored the fact that Steve kept glancing at him.

Besides Steve, everything was basically like normal.

Which of course, was when the alert sounded.

Tony had never come awake so quickly. He sat up. "What's up, J?"

"It would appear that HYDRA has unleashed some experimental robots within the city, Sir." JARVIS replied as the others began to get up from the table. "The Avengers have been asked to deal with them."

"Okay, got it." Tony was about to leave when he noticed Steve was also getting up. "WHOA! What are you doing?" His hand pushed him back into his chair. It stunned Tony for a moment, because normally he wouldn't even be able to make Steve sway back.

"They've called the Avengers. I'm coming, too." Steve made to get back up.

"No." Tony vehemently replied. "You are in no condition to go out there."

"Excuse me?" Steve's jaw twitched and he glared up at Tony.

"You can't even fling your shield like this. We can't be worrying about you. That's why you have to stay here and stay safe." The words were rushing out of Tony's mouth before he could stop them. He wasn't even really noticing what he was saying or the fact that his voice was getting louder. All he knew was that he had to get Steve to stay here where he wouldn't get hurt. "Sorry, but like this, it's simply not enough, Cap."

Steve flinched, and there was genuine hurt in his eyes. As what he ran through what he had said, Tony's stomach dropped and turned to ice.

He had basically just told Steve the same thing that he had been told his entire life before the serum. Tony jerked away, and he wished he could take it all back. It was too late though.

"Just stay here." Tony turned away and made his way to his suit, knowing that the others would be in the Quinjet. He started running through how he could deal with the robots, since with Cap here, he would have to take the reins.

He didn't notice the way that Steve clenched his jaw, and the steely determination that entered his eyes. If he had been there, Bucky Barnes could have told him that things never ended well when Steve got that look.

Luckily for Tony and the Avengers, Bucky wasn't there to tell them that.


AN: Thank you for all of the support that you have shown me for this story. Each one is a treasure. As such I'm posting this chapter to celebrate my grad party and my mom's birthday. But, there is a review I have received that I would like to address. Normally I would do this in a PM, but it was a guest so I'm doing this publicly. I know this is not applicable to those who have been and continue to show support, but this review really bugged me.

This guest wrote that I should take out the "gay bit." First off, I have clearly marked this as Stony, so you were warned. If you don't want that, don't read it. If you don't like it but still find my story interesting despite of it, then kudos to you. It's my ship and I'm sailing it. I often read fics that may not have one of my ships, but I still read them for the good story. This person also said that Cap "WOULD BE APPALLED." Why? It's been shown time and again in the comics that Steve is not homophobic. He might be from the 40's, but he is a forward thinker and hates bullies. With all of the hate he has faced, do you really think he would care about the gender of people who are in love? My personal belief is that Steve is either bisexual or demisexual, one being that he likes both genders and the other meaning that gender doesn't matter since he is attracted through getting to actually know a person. Personality over body parts. After all, not only were no girls looking at him before the serum, but he didn't even seem interested in anyone until Peggy, who he got to know during training camp. Also, even if he did find himself attracted to a guy, he probably would have kept it secret since it was the 40's. Guest, whoever you are, you say that Steve would be appalled at being thought of as an open-minded person who disregards gender? Personally, I think he would be appalled that you would think he is so close-minded.

Sorry for all of those who were not involved with this review (which I admit is basically all of my readers). I had to get this off my chest. End Rant.