Epilogue

A/N: My brain wouldn't shut up! So here is one more chapter, just for you guys! I just had to bring one more.

I ran down the dark hallway. Trying to not run into things. The creature behind me was fast, I knew that much. So to be honest, I have no clue if what I have been doing for the past few months was worth the risk. It's just so much fun poking at people! It's what I do! Clint has his pranks, Natasha her guns, Bruce his books, Thor his hammer; and making fun of all of them for it, is what puts that evil smile on my face.

I could feel the creature's presence behind me. There was no turning back, now. I had made it mad, angrier than the Hulk probably. If you wanted to try running in my shoes, put said Hulk in a cage and just shake him until he gets angrier and angrier by the day! Oh, and don't give him food, or water! Now put the cage down and hop in there with him, the only weapons you have on your person is a stupid metal gauntlet that refuses to get off of your arm and your devilishly good looks. That is the kind of situation that I am in!

Then I hear the venomous shout. I had no earthly clue what the beast was yelling, all I knew was that my legs couldn't go any faster! I'm tired, but thank God for adrenaline because that is the only thing keeping me from crashing to the floor. The only thing between the monster under my bed and my fleshy form.

Tony had been running for what seemed like hours. His arch reactor the only light keeping him from face planting on the soft gray carpet under his feet. Sweat beaded off his brow and he could hear his heart pounding in his ears as he made a sharp left in the hall and pressed his back against the wall.

Now he'd done it! He pissed Capsicle off. He made the mountain explode, he unleashed the great King Kong, or any other phrase that you want to put in that space! He did it!

The last month or two were fun for him though, every single one of the Avengers managed to break their noses and Tony got to be the one to annoy the crap out them. Granted, the only one he did on purpose was Bruce and Clint did that to himself by getting into the air vents, but call it karma all you want! Because to Anthony Edward Stark, they were the funniest things in the world. Heck, Bruce even got a thousand view so far and counting on Youtube! Tony broke out of his quiet musing in favor of hear the pounding of feet.

He held his breath and waited as the person stopped running. Tony dared looking around the corner only slightly, just to see if he had a chance to let the man cool down before trying to approach him. The only problem with that was the fact that Tony was frozen in his place. He had, no, NEEDED to look around the corner for just a second.

So gather every ounce of bravery he had, Tony placed his hand over the faint blue glow on his chest and ever so slowly turned his head around the corner to see his chaser. The only problem was that it was dark, but not pitch black. So Stark could easily find the shadowed figure in the nearly empty hallway. The man before him was Steven Rogers, otherwise known as America's first superhero under the cowl of Captain America, but today he was not saving little kids from burning cars. No, he was hunting. Tony brought his head back to the safety of his wall as Steve moved forward.

When Tony got a look, he was only ten feet away, but due to his long strides it wouldn't take long for Steve to grab him. Tony flinched at the sound of the man's voice as he spoke, "Cob out, cob out, where ever you are, Bony. I jus' vanna talk? Cob on, I bow dis vas an assident." Tony had to fight back the urge to scream. HE thought Steve sounded mad over the intercoms, but this was worse. His obviously broken nose brought a nasally quality to his voice that made it a hundred times scarier than Fury's.

Stark knew he had to move, it was the only way he was going to possibly live through this. Where was the rest of the team? What was the point of being earth's mightiest heroes, when they couldn't even save their devilishly handsome Iron Man!

Wait, since when have I ever needed help? Tony thought, as he began to slowly push off the wall to make as little noise as possible. Since when, have I ever needed a Captain! Especially one who wears freaking spandex! Tony knew the lay out of the building, all he had to do was get back to the rest of the group. Steve wouldn't hurt him there, especially with Pepper finally home! All Stark needed to do was hope that Jarvis wouldn't rat him out and that he was as quiet as possible. Tony turned to the left and started to make his way to the Avengers' living room. Straight down the hall, one left, one right, one left, and then he was there. Tony prepared himself to run, when the he heard Steve speak again.

"Jarbis? Where's Bony?"

Crap. Tony froze, uncertain as to what his artificial butler would say. Would he rat him out? He had annoyed the AI just as much as the others, but at the same time how much emotion did he give the computer anyway?

"He is less than five feet in front of you to the left, Captain Rogers. I believe he is heading back to the living room to seek the protection of Miss Potts."

The traitor! Was the only thought Tony had as he started to run again with a fiery passion. He made the first left in a heartbeat, Rogers was gaining on him. He could hear the man's wheezing breaths behind him. Wait, wheezing? Crap, he had crack ribs! And all of this running was probably doing more harm than good. Tony would have groaned, but he needed all the sweet precious air he could get at the moment. He made the right turn, only a few more feet! He could see the light from the living room! He was almost there!

When all of a sudden, the air was knocked out of him. Stark was sent to the ground with a heavy weight pushing his knees forward. He wasn't physically injured during the fight with Loki, but he no doubt had some form of bruising now. Tony tried to turn around and hit the weight behind his knees, kicking and screaming much too girlishly for his liking, but at the moment. He didn't give a! All he knew was that he was dead.

The weight got off and flipped Tony over, so now he was flat on his back still not able to breath properly. Steve was holding his shoulders down as he straddled the man beneath him. Knees on either side of his waist, and hand firmly holding his shoulders on the ground. The blue light from his chest cast on eerie glow over Steve's face and if this was a horror movie, Tony had no doubt that he would be screaming himself silly right now. Steve smiled and Tony could see just the extent of the damage his gauntlet did to Steve's face. His nose was very much tilted in the wring angle and blood now decorated his lips and teeth. Thank God, it had stopped bleeding by now, but still the blue light and crimson fluid made Steve's teeth purple. And he looked downright scary.

Steve glared down at Tony and spoke in a voice that sent chills down the man's spine. "You bink is funy messing wid people Bony?"

Tony being every the sarcastic one replied with a most definitely not fake smile he could muster while looking into Steve's cold eyes. "Uhm, you sure you got the right guy there, Sparky? I mean, I like messing with people yes, but only for the fun of mess with them. Not to scare the LIVING CRAP OUT OF THEM LIKE YOU ARE!?"

Tony's eyes widened as Steve threw his head back in laughter. That's not good.

"Well, Bony, I wike you. You dry tu find the interesting vways tu make someone feel beder, by making bem feel stupid."

Tony was confused. Is Steve complimenting him? Or encouraging him? And how did he understand the nasally voice?

"What?!"

Steve chuckled. "Making Bruce drip ober your sneak'r,' he released on hand to count on his fingers,' poking at Thor afder he bought with 'is broder, fluwshing Kwint out of the air vents, and aboying Natasha…"

Tony was very confused. "I didn't do anything to Natasha! I'm not stupid! I am called a genius for a reason and messing with one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most powerful weapons is pure stupidity!"

Now Steve was confused. Now was Tony's chance to prove his innocence!

"Tasha must have called you over the comm system through Jarvis while I was down in the lab! I swear I didn't do anything to her! I swear! Bruce, yes, he was on purpose. But Clint was just a freak of nature! I thought that he was the stupid pigeons that always manage to get in the air ducts! And Thor was just too hard to resist." Tony nervously chuckled at that one, as Steve's eyes narrowed. This is SOOO not gonna end well.

Steve fist slowly raised up behind his head, the smile wasn't there anymore. But a smirk replaced it now.

"Well Tony, do you even know how to break a nose?" Steve's voice was crystal clear now.

Tony shook his head, too afraid to speak for fear that his voice would shake.

"Then let me show you." And with that Steve's fist hit home.

Everybody was in the living room listening to the conversation in the hall way. No one was going to move in fear of who was going to walk out, but when they heard the shuffling of feet everyone stood around the door way and waited to see who would emerge first.

Tony came out with an unreadable expression on his face and a hand pressed on the bridge of his nose. Pepper quickly handed him a tissue which he grabbed, and silently thanked her as he went to flop down on the couch. Everyone turned their attention back to the hall when Tony spoke, "He's coming. I dink he tore some stitches dough and messed with 'is ribs. He bas wheezing and holding 'is side when he helped be up." Everyone turned to Tony, who looked up at their startled expressions with a hint of confusion and humor.

"Vhat?"

Pepper was the first to speak," Are you okay?"

Tony lifted one eyebrow. "Yes? By?"

Now everyone looked at each other. "Because you were screaming and running and…well?" Clint was scratching the back of his neck, not sure of what else to say.

"Is jus a broken bose, guys! Is not wike Ste broke my arm!" Tony looked pointedly at Thor, who was trying his best to conceal his smile. When they all heard heavy footsteps enter the living room, everyone turned to look at Steve who was holding his side and seemed a little out of breath. He looked at everyone staring at him, then at Stark.

"By are dey all staring at me?"

Tony through his hand, that wasn't holding a bloody tissue,e up in the air in exasperation. "How the heck amb I suppose do know?!" Tony then patted the area not the right of him on the couch and Steve limped over to it. He plopped down next to him and leaned his head back against the soft leather. Tony looked over at Bruce.

"Hey, Bruce, can you pwease ge Spankles sone new bandgaes? H's bweeding on my couch!" Bruce stood there for a moment, then left for the first aid kit in the infirmary. Steve turned his head to look at Tony and Tony met his gaze. The two men smiled wickedly at each other, then looked back at the team.

Clint and Natasha knew that look, but couldn't place a finger on it. It scared the crap out of Pepper as she went to find baby wipes so the men could clean their faces and Thor was just confused. Little did they know that Steve and Tony already had a little discussion about this earlier and almost all of this was planned just to see the very faces that were right in front of them.

~FLASHBACK~

This wasn't very long after Thor broke his nose in Asgard when Steve took Tony aside after watching Finding Nemo.

"Steve, have you ever wondered why no superhero ever seems to break their nose?"

Steve looked up from rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. He looked questionably at Tony, "What?"

Tony rolled his eyes then repeated the question," Do you know of any superhero who has managed to break their nose? Like we get concussions, broken limbs, sprains, ECT! But never a broken nose!"

Now that Tony mentioned it, Steve did notice that it was a little odd. "Yeah, what's your point?"

Tony smiled. Steve raised one eyebrow and leaned back. HE wasn't going to like this idea.

"Well, now that Thor broke his, we have to keep the trend going! I'm not stupid enough to do it to Clint and Natasha, but it's bound to happen. So I was thinking that when they do, and whenever it happens to you, 'Tony poked his finger into Steve's chest,' you break mine or cause an accident to happen and it can be one of those crazy things that happens in the Avengers Tower!"

Steve looked skeptical, "And why would I do that?"

Tony huffed," I want some excitement in the tower! Not just whenever some funky alien tribe decides to have a powwow in the backyard! Come on Steve, you know you want to."

It was pretty tempting, and the idea of not being the butt of someone's joke was rather appealing. So Steve nodded his consent in the little prank and said goodnight to Tony before heading to his apartment. Tony looked up at the ceiling and leaned against the wall," Hey Jarvis, don't tell anyone our little plan alright?"

The AI replied in his British accent, "Yes, Sir."

And with that Tony went to bed.

~END FLASHBACK~

Now that their little prank was done, the two had left the rest of the team with something to chew on for a while. Natasha and Clint would probably figure it out sooner or later. And Pepper would more than likely force him to admit it on their way to bed, but it was all worth it! As Bruce came in with the first aid kit and Pepper with the wipes, the man out of time and the iron genius exchanged one last look before accepting the medical treatment and the mother-henning.

Yep, it's not fun breaking a nose, but it is when you have a team like the Avengers. At least until they figure it out.