Hello everyone! Sorry for the long wait, but here's chapter 4! The Avengers are actually going to get some action in this one.

xxx

Steve finished pulling his gloves on and steeled his mind for the upcoming battle.

For the first time in forever, the Avengers had an actual distress call that they had to respond to. Apparently, there was a man who went by the name "Roboto" who was wreaking destruction in downtown New York, and it had become way too much for local police to handle. The deranged man had created hundreds of specially designed malevolent robots, and buildings and civilians alike were being terrorized.

Steve was secretly grateful for a distraction from the constant pestering from his teammates, even though he knew it was wrong to feel that way. It had been several weeks since the Movie Night incident, and luckily, it had mostly blown over. Tony and Steve never once mentioned it to each other because it was still a rather awkward topic, and even Clint had moved on from it. However, periodic teasing was still a given in the Avengers Tower, especially whenever Tony and Steve happened to be in a room alone together.

Grabbing his shield, Steve cleared his mind and focused only on the task ahead of him, walking with a purposeful stride into the room where a few of the other Avengers were assembled. Natasha and Clint were there wearing tight black clothing, armed with their personal weapons of choice. Bruce was standing there as himself, because he hadn't got a Code Green claiming that Hulk was needed. He seemed perfectly happy to sit this one out.

"Where's Thor?" Steve asked, getting straight to business.

Natasha and Clint glanced at each other uncertainly before Romanoff answered, "Not sure exactly, but I believe he's waiting for his cape get out of the dryer."

Steve fought to not roll his eyes, and nodded as if this was perfectly acceptable and always a pre-battle ritual.

"And Tony?"

"He's gearing up. Said he had to work on a few quick improvements on his suit and that he'd be down here in a couple minutes." Clint answered easily. No wisecracks, no smirks. It was imperative to be focused before a battle, even if the threat seemed small.

"Alright. Hopefully they will be here soon. Every minute we waste, innocent people are getting hurt." Steve's voice was clipped and serious, in a no-nonsense tone.

As if on cue, Tony and Thor walked in, both fully uniformed. Tony had his faceplate flipped up, and Thor was casually twirling Mjolnir in his hand, his cape fully dry.

"Are we ready to go, Cap?" Tony asked.

"We were just waiting for you. Let's go." Steve responded, finishing the transformation from Steve Rogers into Captain America.

Steve Rogers was the one in love with Tony Stark, not Captain America, he told himself. There wasn't time for schoolyard crushes on a battlefield, and he tried to lock Tony away in the shadowy corners of his mind, in order to focus on more important matters.

Cap led the team outside where they could see exactly what was happening. The robots were everywhere and there seemed to be an endless number of them. They sent out huge beams of energy that melted trees and blasted huge holes in buildings, as well as trampling anything unfortunate enough to be in their path.

Steve analyzed and strategized the area around them in seconds and soon was taking charge of his team. "Okay, Clint, there's an ideal sniper position on top of that rooftop there, and I want you taking down anything the rest of us miss. Thor and Natasha, you two will be on the ground in the center, taking them out one by one. Tony—"

Steve cut himself off when he realized Tony was already in the sky, chasing down stray robots that got too far outside the secured perimeter. He tried to ignore the twinge of fear in his heart that Tony would get hurt with his reckless behavior, and wanted to reprimand Stark for not listening to orders. Steve knew that he got onto Tony a lot and that it bugged Stark to no end, but it was because Steve really cared about Tony's well-being and would hate to see him hurt.

Steve had to channel his Captain America persona to keep himself on track, telling himself that Tony could take care of himself. He stubbornly continued giving out orders, trying to sort things out in his overwhelmed mind.

"I'll go after Roboto and keep him in my sights until I can take him down, and Bruce, you stay here, I think we can handle this without an appearance from the Other Guy."

Bruce smiled, relieved, while the rest of the team went to their assigned positions, ready to kick some Robo-butt. Steve ran straight into the battle, swiftly dodging attacks from the robots and deflecting energy blasts with his shield, searing the robots with their own power. He kept his eye on Roboto, and steadily went towards him as he fought through the miniature army of robots.

The battle continued on fairly easily and the Avengers remained organized as they destroyed the robots efficiently and minimized collateral damage to nearby citizens. Steve continuously checked up on his teammates, trying to be aware of all the dangers all around at once, as well as planning how he was going to take Roboto out. He was the one behind all the robots, and was controlling them through a device connected to his arm. It was Steve's job to take him out of commission, which would effectively shut down all of the robots.

Steve couldn't help but notice that he was looking over in Tony's direction far more than anyone else's, and that the worrying, nagging feeling that Tony would get hurt was growing as the battle continued. After cleanly decapitating a robot using his shield, Steve looked back over at Iron Man for the hundredth time; this time to see him being swarmed by the robots, which apparently could fly.

Without thinking twice, Steve felt his protective instincts that were naturally geared towards the brown haired genius kick in, and he took off running to help out. He hopped up onto an abandoned car and threw his shield as a boomerang, taking out a bunch of the robots in the process.

He was going to throw his shield again to ensure Tony's safety when a laser suddenly sliced all the robots surrounding Tony in half. Steve watched as their metal, sparking carcasses rained down from the sky, and he suddenly felt foolish, realizing that Tony had never needed his help to fend off the robots.

"Cap? What are you doing? You're way out of your area." Tony's voice came on over the comms unit, sounding perplexed and slightly chiding.

Steve looked around quickly and realized he had let Roboto get away. He felt panic wash over him, and his eyes darted desperately across the smoking destruction, searching for the man he was supposed to be responsible for. After several long, tense seconds, Steve finally saw Roboto sneak out from behind a chimney and onto the roof Clint was on.

Only now Roboto was armed with a huge metal gun that resembled a bazooka, and he was creeping up behind Clint who hadn't noticed him yet. Steve's eyes widened as he watched Roboto lift the huge weapon and take aim…

"Clint! Watch out!" Steve yelled through the comms unit in a last desperate attempt of a warning, but it was too late. The psychotic man had already shot his oversized gun, hitting Clint squarely in the back. Clint fell to the ground and was perilously lying halfway off the roof, spasms shaking his body.

Steve took off running and climbed up the fire escape to the roof faster than humanly possible. He sprinted a few yards and then pounced on Roboto from behind, knocking the still smoking gun out of his hands with a well aimed punch. In a matter of seconds, the man was lying on the ground unconscious, and Steve then pressed the button on the remote to deactivate all the robots.

Steve could hardly breathe as he pulled Clint away from the edge of the roof, before the archer completely toppled off and smashed into the ground several stories below. He felt Clint's twitching subside, his body going still and breathing quiet. The sudden and complete quiescence was terrifying.

The threat had been obliterated, but there was no feeling of victory in the air. The rest of the Avengers had now made it onto the roof and circled around Clint, jaws clenched tight and clinging to their hopes that he would be alright.

Steve couldn't say anything. He could feel the weight of the air around him, suffocating him, because what happened to Clint was all his fault. Roboto was his job to take care of, and he got distracted by Tony freaking Stark and let Clint get hurt.

Bruce came over to where Clint was lying and Steve carefully moved out of the way, crossing his arms and standing rigidly by himself on the outskirts of the group. Bruce placed two fingers to Clint's wrist to check his pulse, and then did some visual checks to discern if there were any other harmful injuries.

"He appears to have lost consciousness; Tony can you fly him over to the hospital right now? It'll be the fastest way to get him there."

"Sure thing." Tony replied without hesitation, walking over to Clint and scooping him into his arms before taking off. Steve felt queasy looking at how limp and pale Clint had looked as they had lifted off the ground, and he already felt guilt compiling at the bottom of his stomach.

Natasha had an impassive expression on her face, but her eyes were cold and lips pressed tightly together as she dialed the number to call Director Fury. Steve could tell she was worried for Clint, just like they all were.

Bruce took the responsibility to bag up the charred gun so that he and Tony could run tests on it in the lab to figure out exactly what Clint had been hit with. Thor looked solemn and sad, and shook his head as if he was wondering how this could've happened.

Steve felt ashamed and guilt ridden, blaming himself for what happened to Clint and feeling like everyone else was too. Captain America had let the team down because Steve Roger's feelings for Tony Stark got in the way.

That could not happen again.

xxx

After 3 days of being in constant worry, the Avengers received the news that Clint was going to be okay. Steve felt immensely relieved, because nervousness had been eating him up inside and he had been spending several hours inside Clint's hospital room each day. At first Clint was completely unresponsive to anything the doctors tried, and that terrified Steve and the rest of the Avengers. Tony and Bruce had hardly left the lab at all since they had gotten back, determined to figure the gun's power out and hopefully find a way to cure Clint's ailment.

Finally, after Tony and Bruce had broken down the gun's components to the last atom, the duo solved the case. They quickly alerted the doctors who were working with Clint what the antidote was, and stood back and watched their good work as Clint was revived.

However, even after Clint was up and walking around again, Steve still felt guilty. Clint never should've been hit in the first place, and Steve knew in order to protect his teammates from another careless mistake, something was going to have to give.

That was when Steve decided that he was going to have nothing to do with Tony Stark, and began avoiding him so that his feelings for him would dissipate.

It wasn't that hard, considering Tony practically lived in his lab or workshop most of the time, but it hurt all the same. Steve loved being around Tony, just to hear his sarcastic voice or feel his presence nearby.

But it was for the best, and Steve was just going to have to live with it.

"Hello everyone! In honor of Clint returning to the land of the living, we are going to have a team dinner tonight, my treat." Steve felt his stomach drop when he heard the unmistakable sound of Tony's voice come from behind him. Turning around, Steve faced the ever charming Tony who had a wry smile on his face, as well as Clint who was walking with only a slight limp beside him.

The other Avengers around Steve grinned or voiced their approval of the idea, but Steve still felt tense and uneasy. Did Tony remember that it had been Steve's fault that Clint got hurt, after he was stupidly helping Tony for no reason? Steve looked down at the floor to avoid eye contact with any of the others so they wouldn't notice his unsettling inner thoughts.

The restaurant Tony chose was called Paradiso in Terra, which was a very expensive Italian restaurant whose owners knew him well, as he went there often. Tony ordered everyone to change into some decent clothing, and once all the Avengers were ready they met back in the living room.

"I'm driving and so is Bruce, so split up and we can meet there." Tony stated. Clint went with Tony and got in the passenger seat, while the other three went with Bruce.

"Are you coming with us?" Clint asked Steve when he noticed the latter hadn't moved to either car.

"No, I think I'll take my bike." Steve responded distantly.

"Are you sure? There's plenty of room." Tony called over his shoulder to Steve.

"I'm sure." Steve said shortly, and then turned and walked back to where his motorcycle was waiting for him.

"Okay, see you there." Tony said, sounding dismissive of Steve's brusque attitude.

Steve swung onto his bike, feeling melancholy. Ignoring and avoiding Tony was going to be difficult. Every time Steve saw his face or heard his voice, a part of him wanted to reach out and touch him, to embrace him. Now he couldn't.

An image of Clint's lifeless body floated to the surface of his mind, and Steve knew that he didn't have time for distractions, which was all Tony was to him. He could live without ever talking to him unless he had to for missions, or ignoring him until this stupid crush he had on him faded away. It couldn't be that hard.

Right?

xxx

Aww poor Steve feels guilty and doesn't want to be around Tony anymore. I guess we'll see how long that will last…

Anyways, please review! It feeds my writing! If you have any ideas, constructive criticism or comments, please leave a review.

Thanks!