Thank you to everyone who reviewed, read and enjoyed. Probably going to go back to doing a switch PoV thing for this story, but try to focus mainly around Steve( Just Tony midway through this time, then back.) Anyway, I really need to stop procrastinating on writing this every week... it's getting silly needing to rush every week. Anyway, hope you guys enjoy.
"I'm just the words, you are the sound, a strange type of chemistry" Be Somebody~ Thousand Foot Krutch
It was impossible... honestly. You'd think that in as huge a craft as the helicarrier, full of spies and fighters, that the medical staff would at least be easy to find when you needed them. Turned out, that wasn't the case, and Steve was starting to get pissed off about it. Tony was being too quiet as he hauled the other man through the corridors and he found he really didn't like it... silence from that man meant that something was wrong, and the people who could fix it kept eluding him. It was frustrating.
To be fair, he was pretty certain that he could just call for some, and the technicians that heard him would send some to him, but that almost felt like cheating, and he wasn't in the mood to lose twice in one day. If it came down to it and he had to, he would... but not until he had to. It would be a lot easier convincing himself that he didn't have to if him teammate wasn't still bleeding.
He had to wonder just how deep that cut ran. They had made it to Nevada and back, after all, and it was just now slowing down... but Tony had proven himself to be tough, so he really didn't have much to worry about.
After five minutes of aimless searching, he was almost prepared to give up. He had to imagine Tony was getting irritated, even if he wasn't saying anything about it... then, miraculously, he stumbled into the medical bay. Where absolutely none of the medical staff happened to be. Perfect.
Steve sighed and glanced around the empty room before turning to Tony. The mans eyes were closed, but he was at least standing steady on his own. He considered going off again to find the staff, but thought better of it after a few seconds, and went to grab one of the first aid kits in the cabinet, and directed Tony carefully to sit on one of the cots.
"Alright, shirt off." Tony smirked and let out a half hearted laugh, but did as he was directed quickly enough, wincing as he pulled the soaked cloth away from his skin. There were a few things Steve couldn't help but noticing straight away... most of the skin of his torso was all but dyed red. The second was that he was more muscular than Steve had expected, but he wasn't surprised, really. Third, up close, scars littered his body. Again, not that surprising, seeing as apparently he didn't care when he managed to slice himself open minutes before a fight.
The fourth was the glowing metal protruding from his chest... Steve jumped slightly, then blushed. Thankfully Tony's eyes were still closed, so he didn't notice. He had seen the reactor on Iron Man... he really had just figured it was part of the suit.
He must have paused for two long, because Tony's eye cracked open, and he smirked.
"If you're going to ask, you might as well." Steve shook his head, knowing that it was not a pleasant story, and he really wasn't up for it while he was trying to patch the man up.
"Later." Tony's smile widened, and he closed his eye again.
Steve dragged his eyes off of the circle, and over to the small box he'd pulled out, managing to find the disinfectant and cotton swabs, first off. He winced as he paused the liquid onto one of them, and didn't give Tony any warning before he pressed it to his side.
"Ow, mother fucker, what the hell?" It was Steve's turn to smirk, completely ignoring the language. Living with Tony and Clint, it wasn't as hard as it once would have been.
"That's what you get for doing something so stupid." He could almost feel the air thicken as Tony contemplated it. Steve just kept cleaning the wound. To the other mans credit, it was a clean cut, not nearly as bad as some of what he'd seen in the war.
"That's fair. I don't like it, but it's fair." Steve laughed lightly. He was having trouble figuring out why they hadn't gotten along in the first place. He set the bottle aside and threw the blood soaked cotton balls into the trash, and glared at the wound. It didn't look like it needed stitches... which was good, he had no idea how he'd do with that. Tony's eyes opened and he looked down at the gash as well, mouth tightening.
"Don't worry, I heal up almost impossibly well. Just throw some bandages on it, it'll be fine." Steve frowned, but nodded as he grabbed the roll elastic wrap. He soaked another handful of cotton with an disinfectant and packed it against the battered skin, earning a yelp and glare from Tony before he wrapped it carefully in place.
For the amount of time it had taken to find the place, it had taken a stupidly short amount of time to actually patch the man up. He stared at his work and sighed. Tony gave him a confused glance. Steve winced.
"We have to go deal with Fury now." Tony looked like he wanted to wince as well, but managed to suppress it.
"Shit. You know he's going to be pissed that she got away again." Steve just nodded. "I vote we run." Steve rolled his eyes.
"Right, and make the others deal with him on their own? You really want to piss Natasha off? Or Bruce, for that matter." Tony looked like he was considering it, so Steve stood up, hiding a smile and tried to look commanding as he tossed the mans shirt back to him and washed the blood off of his hands. "Come on. Let's get it over with."
Tony limped to his feet and saluted mockingly before pulling the mess of a shirt back on. "Oh, Captain my Captain." Steve shook his head.
"One of these days, you guys will figure out your references are totally lost on me."Tony raised an eyebrow.
"Or we'll watch enough movies that you'll actually get them." He laughed and started to lead the other man back in the direction he hoped the conference room they used for meetings was. It seemed the blood loss had only now just caught up with Tony's ability to balance on his own so he was certainly not going to be much help getting back.
It turned out that the only time his sense of direction was impaired was when he was searching for any sort of help, seeing as they were back in the conference room before he could bring himself to think about where they were going. They managed to walk in on Fury looking quite disappointed at the
group gathered around the table.
"And you! You're fucking covered in metal, how in the hell is it that you were the one who managed to get hurt!?" Without having the context of the "And" didn't faze Tony at all. The man just shrugged as they lowered themselves into the hard chairs.
"Jet engine in the lab." Steve hid a smirk from the Director. It should have been illegal to sound so nonchalant about something like what had almost made him bleed out, but when Tony said it it was just natural. Fury rolled one eye, but was clearly too out of steam to lay into the either of them.
"Of course. Why you're on the team, I'm starting to question." The anger that filled the room was enough to shut down the rest of whatever Fury might have been able to say, and based on the identical glares they all gave the man, it wasn't just in his mind. "The rest of you can fill these two in, I have to go deal with a rather touchy group of people who don't actually understand the circumstances." Steve wasn't sure he'd even seen a man who was obviously fleeing a pissed off group of Heroes look like he wasn't doing anything of the sort, and just chose to leave while he was still in control of the situation.
Actually, the only one who didn't look like they wanted to murder the man as he walked away was Tony. He just looked bored.
After Nick left, they all just sat there for a few seconds, none of them wanting to move. Tony was the first one to break the momentary silence.
"So... who wants to go watch Jurassic Park?" Clint immediately grinned and nodded, sprinting off to hijack a plane for them to get back before the others stood.
Steve looked around as everyone else stood up and followed suit. "Anyone care to fill us in, then?" Natasha looked over at him.
"We let them escape, Fury gets it wasn't our fault, committee is pissed, Fury must therefore be pissed. That's pretty much the long and short of it." He nodded. Slightly less of a reason to be angry at Fury, that was good... it never paid to be mad at the commanding officer for too long. But really... the Avengers without Tony... just unthinkable, at this point. They certainly wouldn't have even been close to Amora today if it weren't for him.
He was hesitant when Tony went to put his suit back on to fly home, but the man just grinned.
"I'm all patched up now... besides, I'll just have J do all the work. Flying doesn't exactly take much effort." He was still hesitant, but it wasn't like he could tell the man what to do... well, he supposed he could, but it wasn't like he would listen to him. And Jarvis , he knew, would inform him if anything were to happen. Part of him decided he was too worried... he ignored that part. Of course he would be worried, he was a valuable member of the team, and was actually starting to be his friend. Even if it was his own fault that he was hurt...
As soon as he got in the plane Clint got his hands on, he was out. He wouldn't really call it sleeping... he was aware of everyone else around him and what happened- not that there was much- but time went much more quickly. He had a feeling Bruce was doing the same thing, given that as soon as they landed, both of them blinked themselves rapidly awake. They exchanged a look and made a silent agreement not to talk about it. He'd never hear the end of the "Old Man" jokes from Tony and he knew it. Bruce probably was just uncomfortable with being comfortable enough around people to nap.
One of the best things about living in the Tower: They could just land on the roof without having to worry about driving to get home. On the other hand, it didn't give them much of a chance to wake up fully. Tony was already back down in his lab again, suit put away as normal, working as if nothing he'd never left. Steve was a little disappointed... he'd been hoping naively that him almost bleeding out- ok, minor exaggeration - would have tired the man out. He should have known better. The old saying of "I'll sleep when I'm dead" might as well have been tailor made for him.
To his credit, as soon as the others came in, he dropped everything we was working with, and collapsed with when onto the couch as the movie started up in between Clint and Steve. Steve managed to stay awake just long enough to notice Tony falling asleep on his shoulder. He smiled and rested his head on his as the helicopters flew over the ocean and realized they'd just have to watch it another time.
T
Ok, so maybe going into the fight with half of his stomach trying to die wasn't the best idea he'd ever had... other than getting Steve's hands all over him, of course. It had made it more painful for a bit, but it numbed pretty quickly. And now, Steve was completely cool with him using his shoulder as a pillow while they ignored a great movie and nap. All in all, worth it.
Really, he didn't sleep. He listened to the movie and just relaxed... about ten minutes in, Jarvis turned the noise down almost to muted, so he must have been doing a pretty good job of faking it.
He finally opened his eyes when the ending credits rolled around, and looked around as gently as he could to keep Steve's head from moving too much. The man didn't stir... But Clint was staring at him. They just looked at one another for a few more seconds before Clint raised an eyebrow at him. He smirked, and shifted away from Steve before standing and stretching. Steve just adjusted himself and continued to sleep. He felt a little bad... Steve really should be getting more sleep. It wasn't natural to keep the hours Tony did, and Steve had been trying, it seemed.
He looked around at every one else... they were all out, too. He supposed he could have Jarvis play another movie... or...
"Want to get drunk?"
"Oh, Fuck yeah." because fuck it, might as well. Probably not the best thought process when it came to alcohol, but really, he'd been meaning to drink for a while, but there was constantly something else they might need to be doing later that would make being drunk just a hassle. At least it wasn't as sketchy to be drinking with someone else... not something he was used to, it was either a huge crowd he didn't want to be near or alone. The last time he'd gotten drunk with just one other person... not including Erskine, seeing as he was barely tipsy... was with Rhodey right before the whole Afghanistan thing.
Clint got up more quietly than Tony could manage, and they both snuck their way over to the fully stocked bar in the corner... completely a necessary addition to his shop, of course. He immediately went for a nice bottle of scotch as Clint pulled out two chilled glasses. They both paused.
"Should we be waking Thor up for this?" Tony glanced over his shoulder at the others.
"No... lets let them sleep. If we wake the big guy up, that will be impossible down here, and you know they'll be too stubborn to go somewhere quieter." Clint rolled his eyes.
"You calling anyone else stubborn just seems silly."
"Silly?" Clint shrugged.
"It's an underrated word." Tony laughed quietly.
"Tell me why I'm drinking with you, again?"
"Because it's more fun in a group?"
"Makes sense." He poured a finger into each glass and waited for Clint to try it. He looked surprised.
"Holy shit, that's good." He looked over at Tony, who raised an eyebrow. "That really shouldn't shock me, I guess." Tony smiled and filled the glasses. Clint sipped at it, enjoying it while Tony just downed half the glass. Clint's eyes widened and he almost choked on his drink, coughing before he could say anything.
"Hold fuck, that looked painful." Tony shrugged.
"Been drinking a a long time. Hasn't bothered me since I was 17." Clint just shook his head and muttered something into his glass. Tony decided he didn't want to know. Usually, it was just people saying something along the lines of "Crazy mother-fucker." the pain he hadn't even really noticed slowly faded farther away from his side and he took a much more reasonable sip from his glass. Clint shook his head again.
"Ok, I think we need something easier to get drunk on." Tony rolled his eyes.
"Please, I can get drunk just find on scotch." Clint gave him a serious look.
You're probably one of the only people who can just ignore the rules on how to drink good scotch."
"Fair enough. I think I have some Vodka somewhere around here." The Archer smiled.
"Perfect." Tony rolled his eyes. They both finished their glasses... Tony almost instantly , Clint just finished it as Tony came back with the bottle he'd found. The other mans grin was back.
"Shots?" Tony glanced over at the group with his eyes rolling.
"What are we, college students?" Clint shrugged but poured them anyway. Neither hesitated.
It wasn't until after his fifth glass and third shot that he considered he probably shouldn't be drinking, especially not this much after the whole blood loss thing... it definitely shot his tolerance to hell, and Clint's, unsurprisingly, was pretty damn high as well... but since Clint was pretty sleep deprived, it evened them out so they were pretty equal.
He could see the same thought process as it ran through the other mans eyes, and they both silently agreed not to bring it up, and kept drinking.
They didn't really talk, just sleepily drinking, which was just fine with him. He wasn't in much of a good mood after the day they'd had. It barely even registered with him when Clint stopped drinking and passed out at the bar. He could actually feel him starting to fall asleep when he felt someone grab his shoulder.
He glanced behind him and smiled widely, probably putting a little too much friendliness into it, but he couldn't give less of a shit. Steve looked a bit too sleepy to notice, which was probably a good thing. The man sighed and Tony immediately leaned onto his shoulder, ignoring the way Steve tensed up for half a second.
"You really shouldn't be drinking." He laughed into the Captains shoulder.
"Prob'ly right." Steve capped the bottle and pushed it away from Tony.
"Really, how much have you guys had?" He shrugged.
"Enoughish."
"That's not a very accurate unit of measurement."
"'ts the point of drinkin' Cap... you don have ta measure how much you drank." Steve's shoulder shook as he laughed.
" I really don't think that's the point."
"Mind your elders, Cappy."
"Elders..? Tony, you do realize that I'm older than you, don't you?"
"Suspended animation aging doesn't count."
"Well, that's hardly fair."
"Life's a bitch, Cap."
"... True enough." He looked over at Clint again. "Think we should get him to bed..?" Tony shrugged.
"I don't know... maybe a bad night of sleep will make sure he won't Clint around in the ceiling tomorrow." Steve laughed. "Maybe... but think about it. You'll both probably be hung over, do you really want to deal with him complaining all morning as well?" Tony considered for a few seconds.
"I won' be hung over..." He didn't have to see the look Steve gave him to know he was amused.
"Consider how much blood you lost." Tony moaned.
"Don't make me think." Steve laughed.
"That's the only time I'll ever hear the great Tony Stark say that."
"Pshhhh"
"Let's at least move him to the couch or something." Tony lifted his head from the other mans shoulder and raised an eyebrow at him.
"You jus' pointed out I'm drunk... you really wan' my help movin' him?" Steve blushed.
"I suppose not, sorry, didn't think about it." Tony ruffled the mans hair and gained a stunned look for his trouble.
"Forgot you can't get drunk." Steve paused.
"How do you know that?" Tony almost hit himself. Stupid alcohol.
"In Shield files." Steve stood and laughed again as he grabbed Clint.
"Should have known you broke into those." Tony smirked as Steve carried Clint over to the couch with the others, careful not to wake the others.
S
It was probably a good thing the others were deep sleepers, since because the shop was dark with them all sleeping, he tripped over just about everything on the way back over to the bar. He could hear Tony snickering the entire time, and all he could manage to do was smile at the sound. Once you accepted that none of what Tony said was actually meant to be malicious, he turned into a completely different person.
And Tony drunk was actually pretty, well... adorable. He'd never intended to use that word when it came to the other man, but that was the only think he could think of to describe it. He was more relaxed, less guarded, easier to read. He could have hit himself for thinking adorable, but that was it.
Steve wasn't naive... he could see, even at their first meeting, that Tony was gorgeous. He'd been able to ignore it until lately, of course, given that he could still see him as some jerk. And with how stupidly adorable he was being, drunk. He had to accept it for what it was.
And it wasn't like he'd never had to deal with a crush before, even someone he worked with, he'd just thought he'd changed a bit when he managed to fall for Peggy. But it was something he could accept and work through... it would help if Tony wasn't quickly becoming the one he'd go to when he was bored or miserable, or at least if he wasn't so accepting of Steve when he did so. He might complain about things, but he quickly found Tony was the type to accept anything.
He eased himself back onto the stool beside Tony and managed not to jump this time when the other man settled his head comfortably on his shoulder.
Steve sighed and leaned back against him tiredly. "Think we'll get lectured by Coulson too?" Tony shrugged with one shoulder.
"No idea. Migh' have to ask 'Nat or Hawky." Steve shifted his head to look over at him. "Hmm?"
"I just thought the two of you were friends." Tony's shoulders shook from unamused laughter and smiled up at him sadly. "I can't really call Coulson a 'friend'...he'd rather taze me and watch bad TV than deal with me, any day. But he is a good man."
Steve frowned at the man, unable to ignore the inflection his voice was trying to hide. "You're a good man, too, Tony...You have to know that?" Tony just looked at him, small smile quirking up one corner of his mouth. The sadness in his eyes betrayed him.
"Oh, Tony." At that moment, there was nothing that Steve wanted more than to gather up the smaller man into his arms, and whisper at him until the man believed just how amazing he really was. Then, kiss him senseless...But that's not what something that friends did. He really needed to get over this crush thing quickly, before it got out of hand.
Tony sighed an leaned his head back against the warmth of the his steady shoulder. "Sorry, Cap. It takes just the right amount of alcohol to get me into depressive mode, and you managed to cut me off at just that point." Steve frowned again.
"Any way I could cheer you up?" Tony lifted and eyebrow. "Without shoving more alcohol down your throat." Tony laughed at his sudden glare.
"Naaaa, I'll get over it." Steve sighed and leaned his head back onto the darker mans.
"If you say so. Let me know, though, alright?" The other man nodded and covered a yawn.
"Want to go to bed?" It wasn't until after he said it that he thought about it and blushed, thanking God when Tony didn't notice it.
The other man shook his head gently and Steve didn't argue. Even in the bar stools, he was too comfortable to press it. And if Tony was drunk enough to allow it for now, he'd take advantage of it.
Alright, last Steve bit was shortish, but that's alright... had to switch back to him, because I wrote bits of it a while ago in his PoV, this was the best place to put it. Plus, you know, story progression and shit. Hope you guys enjoyed.