Steve would admit to being one of those nice neighbours that were always around and somehow always knew when a neighbour was sick. He was the one who understood, and brought chicken soup to the sick person.
The problem was, Tony wouldn't appreciate that. But there wasn't really that much that Steve could do.
But Steve made some chicken soup anyway and took it up to the penthouse, where Tony had been holed up since the previous night. He had not gone to the workshop and that worried Steve, because that was where Tony spent most of his time. Which probably meant that his cold was pretty bad.
And Steve had heard the way Tony was struggling to breathe. He hadn't heard that in Tony before. It sounded painful, and from the faint memories Steve had of before the weak asthma medication they had been able to afford, it would be very painful for Tony. He had only weak memories of the times he spent lying on the floor, trying to take breaths when his lungs simply wouldn't accept the air.
The penthouse looked just as deserted as it always did. It was plain to anyone that stepped in here that Tony didn't really live there. Because he really didn't. It was clean and spacious, stylish and completely modern in a way that always made Steve on edge, even after a few months of living in the futuristic tower.
But he knew Tony was here, in his bedroom, possibly even asleep. That was what JARVIS had said. Well, he'd said that Tony was bordering on sleep but had not yet quite reached it, so that probably meant that he would be nearly asleep now. But Tony had been getting a lot of sleep recently, according to JARVIS, so Steve wouldn't feel too bad about waking him up. And Bruce said that the chicken soup smelled great and Tony would love it, so Tony wouldn't (hopefully) mind much either.
But then again, he was Tony Stark. There was no telling on what he would think or do. He was still regarded one of the strangest things on planet earth, or so said the press.
And Steve didn't understand Tony. He thought he had, when he'd met him on the Helicarrier. But then he carried a missile into space. There was more than met the eye to him and Steve had no idea how much there was beneath that man he had met and pushed around.
Tony was just performing to the crowd. That thought struck Steve the second he reached the door to Tony's bedroom. Tony was doing what he himself had done so long ago. He was just dressing up and going out to impress people, to raise sales. He'd even heard Pepper say it to Tony, that he needed to go out there and impress the board members, the press, the share-holders.
Tony was trying to be hard to figure out.
