2.

After the first incident, they had (for no apparent reason) become slightly over protective of Tony. Not that Tony was complaining. Okay, this was him complaining.

Ever since Fury had demanded (demanded, because the man never asked) that the rest of the team moved into the tower, it had seemed like they were doing everything they could to annoy him. They insisted he come to all three meals (seriously, he could run a few days with just coffee, geez), dragged him of the workshop for sleep (so overrated), and pretty much fucked up his normal schedule so much he felt like he was in boarding school again. This was his house, goddamn it, and he hated to be treated like an invalid.

In short, he was pissed off.

Today was a bad day; the arc reactor had been extra troublesome, and his lungs painfully ached with every halfhearted attempt at a breath. Sure, his lungs ached every day, but not as sharply and as much as it did right now. It hurt, but it wasn't like he couldn't deal with it. He was Tony Stark, he'd been dealing with this for years, he'd been through torture, he'd been thrown out a window, he could handle a little chest pain.

But them the fucking alarm went off, and Cap yelled them to assemble, and Tony was offically done with this mission before it even started.

He quickly scampered into the suit, and JARVIS' concerned voice entered the genius' ears.

"Sir, with your current issues, I would advise agains-"

"Shut it, JARVIS. I know. I'll be fine. A little breathing trouble means nothing when a world is at stake."

"The other Avengers are more than qualified to-"

"Got it, JARVIS. Just tell me what we're looking at."

In a second Tony was in the sky, hovering over the city below.

"Sir, it seems to that there are monsters made of earth attacking the city."

"Can they rebuild themselves?"

"I'm afraid so, Sir."

Tony swore, gritting his teeth. "What can they rebuild themselves from?" he asked finally.

"If I had to guess what what I've observed, any type of rock or dirt."

"Got it." Well, that made things easier. "Cap, we have to get them in the river!" It was simple, really. The water would do one (or both) of two things. They would immediately break apart and disintegrate in water, or the attacks against them would be fatal without the rock to regenerate with.

Steve must have mulled it over, because there was silence for a good two seconds. Then, he spoke. "You heard him, Avengers!"

After that, it became so very repetitive, even if it was exhausting. Lure them to the water, get 'em in, attack until they die. Repeat, repeat, repeat...

Tony would have found it insanely boring, if he wasn't finding it more and more difficult to breathe.

With each punch, kick, and hit, he was having increasing trouble putting air in his body. It got to the point where ordered JARVIS to pump pure oxygen through the suit and turn off the mic so the team couldn't hear his strained gasps.

However, after a while of no sarcastic humor, the Avengers began to get suspicious. "Stark, you alright in there?" Natasha questioned.

"Fine!" he replied quickly, trying his best to sound like he wasn't possibly dying of lack of air. Though he couldn't check, he suspected his fingertips might be blue. Also, the black spots clouding his vision and the dizziness probably weren't good sighs either.

"You don't sound fine." He could almost see her raised brow.

"I can take care of it," Tony assured.

She probably would have pushed more if Clint hadn't spoken. "Tash, he's Iron Man. If he's breathing a little hard I'm sure he's fine. He's been battling non stop since he got on the field."

Luckily, the battle was soon over after that. Repetitive battles never lasted too long. Unlike usual, Tony didn't stay long enough to chat. He flew straight to the workshop to get himself out of the suit so he could relax. However, like most planned things, it didn't work out like that.

It wasn't too long later that Steve dropped by, and Tony was too out of it to see him quickly enough to lock him out. "Hey, I just came by because-" But then the man was beside him with eyes widened and the billionaire couldn't remember how he got there, which most likely wasn't okay.

"Oh god, do you have asthma? God, Tony, you never told me! Do you have an inhaler? I can get you one if you-"

Steve was rambling. Steve never rambled.

"No, no, no," he wheezed. "It's my reactor..it squishes my lungs..."

"Why didn't you tell us!" the man demanded.

Tony just shrugged. "Didn't-doesn't matter."

"Of course it does, Tony!" The blonde was getting exasperated now, an expression so much more familiar than the worried one that was there a few minutes ago. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to tell the other Avengers. I don't make a habit of revealing stuff like that, but it could be life threatening and we care about you."

Natashsa didn't speak to Clint for a week.