Tony's POV
Waking up to an empty bed sucks. It has been only 4 hours since Steve woke me up to kiss me goodbye with a promise of me giving him a daily update. We are generally not a clingy couple ,always allowing each other the required space when one needed it, but ever since I was diagnosed anemic (which also sucks) Steve has been giving attention to me with full force, daily cuddling and all. He gets edgy when I don't respond back with the same amount of attention. But it's always his fault really, he only ever asks me these things when I am in the middle of a breakthrough in the lab.
"Good morning sir, Captain rogers has asked me to remind you of your morning iron pills, If you turn to your left you will find them on the nightstand." Oh joy!
"thanks, J" I pushed off the covers stumbling to the shower, today is going to be all work no fun. But that's a good thing, since all he has done the past few days is laid around trying to 'rest' under the watchful eyes of the team.
Halfway through the shower, the almost empty tower echoed with the loud siren for the avengers to assemble. Wonderful! The enemy always the worst of timings. Last time the giant green blob monster had so rudely interrupted the best game of fireball ever played. I quickly dried of calling of the mark % as I exited the shower.
Thor and Bruce were already in the common room, Bruce had a look of utter dismay.
" I feel you bruce" I said as I headed in the direction of the quinjet on the launch pad.
"tony, we need to wait till Fury gives briefs us about the situation" Bruce said. Well yeah, but isn't it more fun if it's a surprise?
"fury can brief us on the way" Thor nodded already excited of the battle and jumped onto the quinjet.
Bruce sighed knowing it was a lost cause, he jogged over to the quinjet, Thor pulling him up.
It was truly a spectacular sight! An entire block was covered in what looked like some sort of radium glow. Anything the creature (with long sqiggly legs and arms as lanky as a man with no bones) brushed against seemed to absorb some sort of energy while radiating a blue and pink light.
It took seven hours of continuous battle with the sqiggles, yes that's we decided to call them ,to finally figure out that the radiating material was the key to kill the seemingly endless energy these things had. It was absorbing energy and releasing the energy in a continuous cycle, the radiation destroying what it came in contact with. Including my suit of armor. It burned away most of the left side of my armor including the face plate. Leaving by an ugly red burn in it's wake. But there was no time to stop and dwell on it , the squiggles were now approaching the community center where all the civilians had gathered for safety.
Thor and the hulk had taken out majority of the squiggles, temporarily giving me some time to reroute the energy transmitted into my arc reactor. The plan was to let the energy be absorbed by the reactor, and once the squiggles don't get their energy back, they are going to have to go back to where they came from through the portal, which Thor would channel his asgardian powers to close.
It worked flawlessly, expect that I didn't take into account what the reactor would do to me when it had reached a point beyond it energy capacity. So when I fell on to my knees from the jerky electric shocks going through me , an almost naked bruce ran up to me
"tony we need take the reactor out, its more energy than your heart can handle!" Duh.
" friend tony, do you have a spare reactor on you right now?" I nodded my head no, unable to speak since I was gritting my teeth so hard from the pain that's was shuddering through me in waves.
"thor we need to get him back to the tower, can you carry him to the jet?"
The last thing I remember was being lowered onto the seat in the quinjet and Bruce buckling me in.
Steve's POV
It had been an eventful two days. It was refreshing to be able to teach a fresh set of minds a few basic battle skills. Nat had especially loved the way she could boss around everyone with just her glare (even I could not handle the glare)
But it had been two days away from home , away from tony. I knew there was some sort of battle the remaining avengers were called in for. Which meant tony was busy fighting bad guys with bruce and thor, which meant I couldn't get in touch with him until the battle was over and the debriefing was done.
Tony' POV
I woke up to the smell of singed metal. Wrinkling my nose I opened my eyes to find the source. Would you look at that! My entire left side of the Armour was black instead of its usual glimmering red. Someone was saying something to me, I should probably respond to them.
"Tony! Are you okay? Did the radiation affect you underneath the armor?" what? Oh yes, squiggles!
I groaned trying to get up "I am fine, the energy overload must have shorted out the reactor. I need to get to the tower, the spare one is in my lab." I said looking down at the reactor which seemed to be flickering consistently, I could feel the jittery movement of my heart from the abnormal impulse it was receiving from the reactor. Steve was going to be so mad, but only if someone told him right?
Bruce let me sit up, checking my pupils and asking more questions about the reactor. I knew the fastest way out of this was to deal with it. So I answered as much as possible patiently while the quinjet took us back to the tower. Once the quinjet docked, thor hopped off and turned back to give me a hand. Before taking it I turned to Bruce
"let's not tell Steve about this little incident okay? He has been enough worried lately. I don't want to trouble him on my account"
"but tony" Bruce started but I cut him off. pointing to the reactor and hopping off the jet to get to my lab as quickly as possible.
Bruce and thor followed me down, and thor watched with concern as I took the reactor out and pointed to a box designed to house the reactor which Jarvis had already unlocked for Bruce to pick it up and hand it over to me. He jogged over to the reactor picked up and we switched the ones in our hands. I clicked the new one into place feeling the jolt of the reactor, and thor steadily held on to my arm to stabilize me.
I looked up, to Bruce examining the blinking reactor in hand.
"we can probably Transfer the excess energy onto a different receiver" he nodded looking at me intently.
"what?"I said suddenly self conscious.
"take off your suit Tony" oh yes, the suit, this was going to be painful. I walked over to the station as jarvis said "sir you may want take a mild analgesic first" Bruce turned to me alarmed.
"it's fine j, do your thing!" I nodded and as the mechanical arms grabbed at my gauntlets. Bruce and thor was still looking at me concerned "man of iron, do you need the medical facilities?"
"I am fine guys, probably just a little heat rash from the suit getting singed. Why don't you both head over to shield for the debrief? I am sure fury is already fuming waiting on us." Thor nodded and walked out. Bruce remained rooted in place.
"I'll leave once the armor is off." He said with no place for arguments. I sighed as I nodded up again at jarvis to continue removing the armor. All pieces came off on the right side with ease but the left one's were painful. Should have listened to jarvis and taken the analgesic. But since Bruce was here for the show, I hid the pain as well as I could and winked at him once the chest plate was out.
"All done!" I said stepping off the the station.
Bruce gasped as I neared him " Tony! Your arm!" looking down I saw the red blistering mess on my arm, and felt the same burn along my torso. I let him examine my arm, but stopped him as he moved to lift up the undershirt.
"I just need some ice, come on! thor is probably already half way there by now" I said brushing his hands off walking towards the exit.
"Tony"
"it's nothing, I swear Bruce. I am fine"
He sighed shaking his head following me out the door.
Steve's POV
Just two days away, but was I glad to be home! Entering the tower, the first thing I wanted was to go see Tony. I really did not want to leave him since the anemia situation. But sometimes somethings couldn't be avoided. I hadn't even spoken to him yet after the battle, Bruce had called a while ago saying they were at the debriefing. I sighed unhappily, knowing that was going to take a while.
"you want to head up to shield?" nat asked reading my mind. I nodded my head no because I knew if we went there would only be more questions and that would mean it will take longer.
"Bruce said he was fine Steve, just a little banged up" she said patting my arm and walking towards the elevator. Yeah he did say that.. Might as well get some rest before they come back then. Most of the team was back now except Clint, who was expected to return tomorrow. So they could finally have some team time.
Nat and I decided to get refreshed and watch a movie while waiting for Tony Bruce and thor to return. Thor was probably to go back to jane's though. She always insisted that he see her as soon as the debrief. I understood that, just the same way I needed to see Tony now and make sure he is alright. I walked up to our room, upon entering there were two things I spotted immediately – 1)the bed was unkempt, which meant the call for the team had happened when Tony had just woken up or still sleeping. And 2)the iron pills I had left for Tony on the nightstand still remained in the exact same place I left it. Which meant he has not had any form of iron supplements in the past two days.
"Jarvis? Has Tony taken any of his pills these two days?"
"no captain, he was called in for the battle as soon as he woke up"
"how is he doing right now? Anything you can tell me about the battle?"
I listened carefully as Jarvis briefed the entire battle to me in perfect sequence. I gasped at hearing that tony's suit had been burnt, that had to be some really strong radiation to be able to affect his suit.
"was anyone on the team hurt? Anyone needing medical?" as captain I was always worried about the team. The post battle round up was always the worst.
"No captain, Dr. Banner and Thor escaped relatively unscathed."
That meant tony was hurt in some way or another and had instructed Jarvis not to tell me about it. I sighed in frustration and looked up at the ceiling.
"he is alright, captain. Exhausted, and in need of rest, his iron levels need to be tested again. But he will otherwise be okay." I beamed up at the ceiling "thank you Jarvis"
"anything for our sir,captain"
The movie was okay, some thing about a guy stranded on some unknown place with lots of violence. Neither Natasha nor me were too interested but we were pretty comfortably settled on the couch in the common room. One hour into the movie, and we could hear the bickering Bruce and Tony walking into the Hallway of the common room.
"okay, but how does it matter if it's stored in the same form?"
"Bruce you know it's unstable, you saw what it did to my reactor" Tony said as they both walked into the room.
"what happened to your reactor?" I asked already panicking. I saw Natasha sit up straighter as well.
"Steve! Natasha! Welcome back" Tony said surprised to see us, he walked towards me and plopped down in between me and Nat.
"hey guys, when did you get here?" Bruce asked claiming the adjacent single seater.
"a couple of hours back, figured you guys would be busy with the Debrief"
"Jarvis briefed us on the battle, is everyone okay?any one of you hurt? "I asked as I rearranged myself to accommodate Tony into my hold.
Bruce shrugged "we are all mostly fine, just a few bruises here and there" he said looking at Tony, which was Bruce's way of telling me I should currently be paying more attention to the man now snuggled into my arms.
I looked down at him, he was dutifully ignoring this conversation , which made me even more nervous.
"so, what happened to your reactor?" I asked him unable to hold in my concern any longer.
"huh? Nothing, just got a little overloaded with energy from the squiggles, but I switched it out, so now it's perfectly fine" he said nonchalantly before abruptly kissing me.
"did you miss me? Cause I didn't miss you at all" he said smirking. But I couldn't really pay attention to what he was saying, all I wanted to do was make sure he was alright.
"did you both have dinner?"I asked them instead. Bruce nodded "post battle food is always necessary, shield had a very good spread today"he said sighing contentedly.
"except, for the pasta, that was disgusting" Tony made a face.
"Okay I think we should call it a day then, assuming everyone is tired that is"I looked pointedly at Tony, he opened his mouth to argue but I cut him off "come on babe, let's head upstairs and you can tell me all about the disgusting pasta"I said pulling him up with me.
As soon as we entered our room, the first thing I did was pull Tony back into my embrace, kissing him long and hard. He was gasping for breath within seconds.I took the opportunity to quickly slide his shirt over his head and look at the reactor. It seemed okay. It looked just like the previous one, burning bright with the same intensity. And then I noticed it, his entire left side all the way down disappearing into the hem of his pants was a deep red burn, I traced my finger tips over it and he hissed in pain.
"Tony…did you get this looked at?"
"No, but I am going to put ice on it as soon as am done with you" he said as he tugged me back towards the bed. I pushed him gently onto it and his hands locking into my hair my hands working the buttons on his pants.
Tony's POV
Waking up post battle was never pretty, all the soreness and pain always catches up with you. Steve's arm felt heavy around my torso, and it was making my burns ache. As gently as possible I moved to push his hands away, but he just held on tighter.
"steve" I said moving my hand to push his hair out of his face. It was getting longer. But I liked it this way, so I am not going to complain.
"hmm? Tony what's wrong are you okay?" he said half awake, "yes, but I need you to let me go so I can get up"
He whined but let me go snuggling into the pillows. Why was Steve still asleep? It's rare that I am ever awake before he is.
Jarvis, as if reading my thoughts said quietly "it's half past 3 pm sir. You have slept for over 14 hours. Captain Rogers went for his morning jog 4 hours ago and joined you in bed again about one hour ago"
Well that explains it. "why is Steve back in bed sleeping?" I asked Jarvis because I knew Steve hated sleeping away the day light.
"my heart rate sensors recorded during the night tells me captain Roger's did not actually sleep at night, but was just lying in bed with you sir." I groaned knowing exactly why he did not sleep. He would have stayed up all night worrying about the arc reactor failure.
Heading over to the shower, I brushed my teeth and took a quick shower, giving Steve a little more time to sleep before I woke him up. The shower burned my skin, probably because I forgot to ice it yesterday. The dizziness was coming back full force, I picked up some of the expensive lotion in the cabinet behind the mirror which I didn't even know existed and lathered it up on the burnt skin. Sighing with contentment from the coolness it provided I wrapped the towel around my waist stepping out the shower.
But before I stepped out of the shower Steve was already gone from the bed, the sheets neatly folded In its place. Okay he was definitely angry with me about something if he just left without saying something. Did I say something wrong yesterday night? What did I do? I was so tired last night I hardly registered anything other than the joy of sleeping cuddled with Steve ,Amongst other things. I smiled to myself as I headed downstairs thinking about last night.
I walked into the kitchen, Bruce and Steve were sitting at the table opposite each other, talking. Natasha was talking on her phone and toasting bread simultaneously. I sauntered over and sat down on the chair adjacent to Steve. Bruce had a plate full of food eating, I was right on time for lunch. They all looked up at me, steve smiled at me sweetly.
"Hey there, looks like someone finally decided to wake up"
"it's not my fault, the bed was extra warm yesterday" I said running my hand up and down Steve's thigh under the table. He blushed a bright red, pecked me on the lips and got up from his chair.
"you missed breakfast, Bruce made curry for lunch, do you want a plate?" he asked me, but was already putting some on a plate. Oh well, I was famished. He put the plate in front of me and sat down next to me again.
"how are you feeling Tony? Steve said you were exhausted last night" my turn to blush. Bruce was still looking at me intently waiting for a reply.
Natasha finally put her phone down, walking past me and sat down on my other side placing a glass of orange juice in front of me.
"I am good, sore, but who isn't?" I said taking a sip from the glass. Steve hmm'd and got up and left the room, God knows to where. I turned to watch him leave while Bruce put his empty plate in the dishwasher. "How are the burns? Did you ice them?"
"I put lotion on them, feels good" Bruce gave me a disapproving look shaking his head.
"Tony, how's the reactor? Have you figured out how to contain the energy?" Nat asked chewing on her toast. "not yet, will work on it as soon as I am done fixing the armor" she nodded her head putting down the toast and turning towards me she asked "so, how are you really doing Tony? Steve said you have not taken your iron supplements since we left three days ago. Combined with the post battle fatigue, you have to be tired" Ah, there it was, the pills! I had completely forgotten about them. Steve probably saw them still on the night stand where he left them for me before leaving. That's why he was angry.
"I forgot about them because of the invasion, not on purpose!" I snipped, slightly annoyed that Steve thought I would have had the time for this between everything that was happening.
"I Am not accusing you, just enquiring, no need to get snippy" she said but had no accusatory tone, just calm and explaining. Fine, whatever, I forgot.
Just as I finished my curry, Steve entered again, and dropped two pills in my hands in exchange for the plate. He didn't say anything about it or about me forgetting it. Just handed it to me casually and walked away with my plate to put in the dishwasher. I put them in my mouth, and washed it down with rest of my orange juice.
"Clint and thor will be back tonight, so movie night and dinner?" Steve asked standing with his arms crossed leaning against the wall, Bruce and Nat nodded in agreement.
"only if I get to pick the movie" I said, as I debated the risk of pouring myself some coffee in front of an angry Steve. maybe I can ask dummy to get some down at the lab.
"you can choose whatever you want, as long as it's not a chick flick." Natasha said as she washed her hands.
"You kill all the fun romanoff"I muttered as she and Bruce left. I wanted until they were gone to look at Steve. He was still leaning against the wall but avoiding looking at me. I stood up leaning against the table, "so…. You are mad at me." I said trying to sound as innocent as possible. Maybe he will forgive me quickly. Steve rarely gets mad, well he gets mad a lot when I dont listen to what he says during a battle. But when it comes to getting mad with me outside of the battlefield, he's not even actually mad. He's always so nice about it. That makes it even harder for me.
"let's talk about this later okay? I promised to go help out the clean up crew" he said nodding, for me to come to him. We met halfway , he kissed my head before walking off. Okay so he was really mad then.
Steve's POV
I was so hungry by the time I reached the tower, the traffic had been grueling. The cleaning process for the day had been exhausting in every which way. It was estimated to be wound up by tomorrow evening. Which Meant working without a break for hours together. Tony had sent out his entire stark clean up crew. But looking at the scene, even that didn't seem enough.
It didn't help that I was in a crappy mood all day, I was frustrated because I didn't know how to handle the situation with Tony. He has zero self worth and that was the problem. His burns from the battle are extensive, they needed attention. And Jarvis had said to check his blood counts again which only worried me even more. I don't even know if I am mad at Tony or at myself for not being there when it happened. But I know I am currently exhausted from being mad. Tony needs me right now and here I was sulking all day. Deciding to go make it up to him, I headed down to the lab knowing that Tony had intended to work on his armour all day. I stopped at the glass walls, watching Tony from behind wearing the boots of his Armour. He was moving rigidly like he was too sore to be moving at all. He stopped abruptly looking up and directly at me, smiled and waving for me to come in, immediately masking the pain. Jarvis must have told him I was waiting at the door.
I walked in after punching the code into the lock pad. Tony motioned for me to sit on the Chair in front of the desk.
"Have a look at what I did!" he exclaimed as he backed up a bit. He motioned for Jarvis to start the jet on the boots to lift him up. And the normal orange bright colour of the jet was now burning bright blue.
"I managed to make the jets completely oxygen dependent"
I didn't know what it meant, but Tony seemed excited so I smiled anyways trying to appreciate whatever he had managed to accomplish. "j, let her down easy" he instructed. The boots came off, after he stuck the landing gracefully. Wiping the grease off his hands, he sauntered over to me. I opened my arms, and he sat down on my lap, locking his hands around my neck. He looked so pale and exhausted. I wrapped my arms around him pulling him close tucking his head by my shoulder and kissed his head.
"Steve"
"yes Tony?"
"I am sorry" he said softly. I melted at that, sighing knowing that my grouchy mood had ruined his day as well.
I pulled away slightly putting a hand at the base of his neck and lifted his head to kiss him, trying to kiss away all the frustration. He pulled away, waiting for me to look at him, once I did he said "what can I do to make it up to you? You name it, and I'll do it." He said raising an eyebrow his hands moving up my shirt suggestively. I moved my hands to still his hands roaming my chest "I need you to let Bruce check your burns, and do a blood test" I stated taking advantage of his offer. He physically deflated at that. I felt him sag in my hold "okay" he said softly.
Taking a deep breath, He pushed up from my lap, standing hands on his hips, "now?" he asked so quietly it broke my heart.
"please" he nodded yes.
"okay let's go then, it's my turn to pick the movie! So let's make this fast!" he said trying to sound chirpy, but I could hear the tremble in his voice.
I walked him to the elevator, letting the door close.
"so where is Bruce?" he asked avoiding looking at me, the guilt was ripping me apart now. I didn't like when Tony went from being his normal cocky confident man I love to this nervous quiet Tony.
"Tony.." I waited patiently for the five seconds it took for him to actually look up, I ran my hand through his messy hair, and let my thumb stroke his ear trying to calm him down.
"I love you, you know that right?" he nodded yes "I just don't want to see you get hurt or let you run yourself down" he nodded again "I know" he said closing his eyes leaning into me.
"Bruce and Natasha are waiting for us in the common room" I said to him and he visibly tensed when he realized that we had already discussed this behind his back. "Clint and thor will join us in an hour for dinner" I continued as the elevator opened and we stepped out.
"sounds good" he shrugged as he walked toward the couch waving at bruce and nat.
"Tony! Are you done with the Armour?"Bruce asked, Tony made a so and so gesture at him sitting down on the far end of the furthest chair from Bruce.
"Come sit here" Nat said gesturing to the couch space next to her. Tony made no effort to move.
"tony"
"geez! Okay I am going!" he said glaring at me all the while.
"okay, let's not prolong this more than we have to" Bruce said "can you take off the shirt so I can see the burn?"
I sat down next to Tony on the other side and Bruce settled on the edge of the coffee table in front of Tony.
"not in front of the lady" Tony pouted. I sighed this was going to take longer than they thought. "yes, because you are a shy kind of person" Natasha said already reaching for the hem of his shirt. She was all business, she knew there was no point beating around the bush. He swatted at her hand and removed the shirt himself.