Steve didn't remember falling asleep but he did remember the pain starting to ebb around the time that the sky was transforming itself into a faint orange. He blinked awake but his eyes felt heavy and he fought to keep them open. His clock beside his bed read 7:34 and he cursed his internal body clock for being so consistent. He could do with a couple more hours of sleep after the trauma of the night before.

He was about to close his eyes when he heard a snuffle of a snore from behind him. Turning to face the usually empty side of the bed, he realised that Tony Stark, a man with which he shares a mutual hatred, was sleeping beside him in bed. The soldier frowned slightly until the pain-distorted memories of the night before came filtering back: Tony had helped him up to his room and refused to leave until Steve was asleep. However, it now appeared as though the man had taken on the burden of being babysitter in case Steve needed anything in the night.

Not knowing what to think, he stared down at the genius and felt the hardness he felt towards the man soften. The protective ice around his heart began to thaw. He pushed himself up into a sitting position and peered around the room to where he saw his prosthetic lying on the floor, bent at an unnatural angle. His eyes followed up the wall to where a large hole had appeared and he quickly put two and two together. The memory of him throwing the leg come back to him and shame flushed through him quickly sending his face red.

"Oh God." He groaned and allowed himself to flop down onto his pillow.

The soldier jumped as a croaky from lack of use voice asked, "Does it still hurt?"

It took a moment for Steve to compose himself enough to answer, "No, it's just... I broke your wall."

Stark's head lifted minutely from the pillow but barely wasted a glance on the damage, "Don't worry, someone will come and repair it today." The genius lowered his head back down and closed his eyes, "You're not seriously getting up now, are you? You're body probably needs a rest after last night. Not to mention, I'd appreciate another couple of hours."

Steve managed a chuckle, despite the humor coming from a man he never thought he'd like, "I guess I could probably try another few hours."

"Good. You'll want to get as much peace as you can right now since I'll soon be telling the team that you kept me awake all night with your moaning." Steve could see the cheeky smirk as Tony laughed at his own sexual implication.

The soldier fired back quickly while tucking himself back under the blanket, "And I'll just tell them that you climbed into my bed unprompted."

They were both smiling gently as they drifted back off into a peaceful sleep.

—

The next time Tony woke up he could hear Steve moving around the bedroom but he didn't want to open his eyes to face the day so he just listened. Something sounded strange. Footsteps were distorted or oddly placed and a slight metal clicking sound was interspersed between the footsteps.

It was the sheer frustration of not knowing that forced Stark's eyes open and he had to lift his head a fraction to see the other man. An eyebrow raised as he was confronted with a sight he wasn't particularly prepared for:

Steve Rogers was completely naked, fine droplets of water were still on his broad shoulders from his shower. Hair damp and perky butt on display, the man looked unbelievably model like. The soldier was using crutches, Tony couldn't imagine where he'd been keeping them, but as he was putting a large amount of weight on them the muscles in the backs of his arms bulged nicely. Tony's jaw fell open at the sight. He'd refused to allow Steve to take up any space in his brain until last night so he'd never had a chance to fantasise over the man's adonis like body. From that distance he couldn't quite see the faded scars that littered his side and back. The super soldier was rifling through some drawers in search for some fresh clothes.

Suddenly, the man began to turn as though to check on the supposedly sleeping genius so Tony allowed his head to drop and opened his mouth just a touch; he'd been reliably informed by many bed partner's that he slept with his mouth open. There was a moment of silence as Steve must have been looking across at him but it dissipated quickly as Steve continued dressing. He had to perch on the edge of the bed to get his pants on but was gentle to ensure he didn't wake up the secretly-awake man.

It was only 20 minutes later that Tony emerged from the bedroom, his suit from the night before was creased as he'd not taken it off and he looked pretty disheveled from being up most of the night. He paced over the where Steve was sat at a table with a newspaper in front of him.

The genius sat opposite him and stared at the soldier until he realised that he wasn't about to be thanked. Frowning he confronted the man, "I do a fucking good deed and you act like I'm still just trash that someone left on your lawn." He was used to praise and reward for his actions. That's how Pepper had taught him to behave himself.

"Oh, I'm sorry... thank you, Tony." He lowered his newspaper to look directly into Tony's face.

"How'd it happen?" Leaning his head, he looked like a puppy as he enquired.

There were several beats of silence and Tony was convince that Steve was about to completely ignore him, "I don't want to talk about it."

The memory of it brought back bad memories as he could still remember the absolute all-consuming nature of the pain, the panic of his troops and the feeling of complete helplessness as he was stretchered back to base. He'd only recalled the actual event a handful of times and that was mainly because he had no choice.

There was a beat of silence before Tony stood up, "Okay, I'd better get going."

Steve barely looked up at him when he left. Sighing, Steve was ashamed of himself for acting this way but he could practically see Stark's thoughts forming. He knew that the man was only trying to be nice to him because he felt sorry for the poor cripple who needed help. Steve threw the newspaper aside despite its innocence in the situation. One thing he knew was that Stark hated him 24 hours ago but now is acting differently due to him being perceived as an invalid and Steve couldn't accept that.

Little did Steve know that Tony didn't feel anything like this. He recognised Steve's pain in the pain he felt in his arch reactor so he wanted to reach out and help the soldier. If Steve was going to have a stick up his ass then Tony wouldn't bother. He'd try to go back to hating the ass although it would be difficult now he knew they had survivorship as something that connected them.

—

At the briefing the next morning, Steve strode in as though nothing had happened. Tony surreptitiously eyed his walk and leg in an attempt to assess what happened with the man's broken prosthetic. From Tony's untrained eye it appeared as though SHIELD had quickly replaced or repaired the tech. It wasn't exactly like they could have Captain America running around on crutches during a mission. He wasn't sure if it was his over analysis or reality but it appeared as though Steve was walking with the slightest limp.

The soldier sat opposite Tony but turned his chair to face the area where Fury would be talking to avoid eye contact. Miscommunication was running rampant as Steve thought Tony pitied him for his leg and Tony thought that Steve was just being a cold ass despite his attempts to help him.

Steve remained mostly silently throughout the briefing and Tony was similarly quiet as he spent the majority of the time covertly watching the other man. The rest of the team easily picked up on the strange tension that had subdued the pair's usual dynamic of bickering like children.

Nobody had time to question the men on their sudden behaviour change as within the hour they were being suited up and shipped out to the emerging battle scene. They'd been informed and prepared to face a giant globular monster that had landed only an hour ago with intentions to destroy the human race.

Hopefully, their argument wouldn't jeopardise the team.