The next five days passed slowly for Steve. Not seeing Tony made every hour pass like it was a year, each second straining across time.
But one perk was that Bruce had returned with his newfound self-relaxation. His teachers probably just assumed he had somehow achieved "Nirvana" or something.
Clint and Tasha were still in his gym class, too, which was a plus. The best day that Tony missed though was dodgeball. Clint was almost too good at hitting the opposing team and Tasha was practically invisible as she skillfully dodged all the balls thrown at her.
Friday finally came.
Steve wandered down to the lab for the first time in a few days, finding Tony passed out on his desk.
He got closer to Tony, convinced that he was hearing a sound similar to that of a chainsaw. Of course, it was only Tony's snoring.
Steve couldn't bring himself to wake Tony up (god knows how much sleep he didn't get over the week), but he knew he had to. He had this thing about missing dates...
Gently, Steve put his hand on Tony's shoulder and whispered into Tony's ear to get up. When that didn't work, Steve shook Tony a little bit, and when that didn't work, Steve had to resort to his final plan: he gingerly kissed Tony on the cheek and said, "wake up, sleepy head."
Tony's eyes crept open, a smile on his face as he woke up. He groaned, stretching out his arms and yawning from his nap and wet his mouth. "Good... shit, what time is it?"
Steve glanced at his watch, "it's about 5. I just thought I'd get you up so you could get ready to go see the Shakespeare at the school with me.
"Oh..." Tony shuffled the gadgetry around on his desk until he could see his calendar. "Shit! Is it already Friday?"
Steve nodded. "I'm afraid so. You've been hard at, well, work all week."
Tony shot up out of his chair, a newfound energy getting him to almost sprint around the room. "Oh, Steve, I have got to show you my final product, though! It's-there are no words to describe it."
Despite the glint in Tony's eyes that had been absent for the past week, Steve sighed. He grabbed Tony's wrist.
"We're going," he said firmly, and led Tony up to his room by way of his wrist. As Steve waited for Tony to finish showering, he happened to notice that same piece of art-there it stood, in all its red and blue glory, the half star triumphantly standing out.
"So," Tony began, coming out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist, "why exactly are we going to Shakespeare on a Friday night?"
"I have a friend performing in it," Steve responded, snapping out of his trance of the art.
"Got it," Tony said, dropping his towel as he stood in front of his walk-in closet.
Steve turned his head away quickly, blushing a shade of red darker than may have been possible.
And so the evening began.
As they stood in line for the school's makeshift ticket booth, Tony chuckled. "Midsummer Night's Dream, huh? What, is your friend playing the queen of the Fairies?"
Steve shook his head, picking up a program. "No, he's playing Bottom."
"Sounds like one hell of a role," Tony said with a snarky bite to his voice.
"It is, you'll enjoy it," Steve responded, chuckling to himself as he purchased their tickets.
As Thor, or who Steve would have assumed was Thor, came on stage halfway through the play with the head of a donkey, Tony started shaking from laughter.
"I see their knavery: This is to make an ass of me;" Thor began, his voice echoing in the paper maché donkey head. As he started to sing, he also added in his own improvised brays. Tony was dying; never had Steve been so glad of his decision to interfere on his inventing.
Once the play ended, and Thor no longer wore a donkey's head but a cape instead, the two met him in the school's "lobby."
"Thor!" Steve shouted, catching the Norse god's attention. Thor's smile gleamed as he approached.
"Yes, good friend Steve?"
"You did very well tonight, I'm impressed."
Tony nodded in agreement. "But I have one question."
"Feel free, sir-" Thor paused, looking at Steve for assistance.
"...Tony," Steve added.
Tony did a small bow with a wave of his hand. "Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?"
"Young Tony," Thor said, putting his hand on Tony's shoulder, "I wear a cape, for it is tradition in my realm. I am royalty, my father is Odin, all-father."
First, Tony looked legitimately concerned, giving a glance to Steve, who shrugged.
Then, "Oh, so the cape wasn't just a Shakespeare thing?"
"Aye," Thor responded, a terse nod following. "Though sir Coulson has informed me that your realm does not smile upon capes, and instead finds your 't-shirts' and denim pants to be acceptable. So I wear that to your school. I do not see you, which is odd, is it not?"
"Our schedules must be different," Steve replied, grabbing a confused and slightly frightened Tony around his waist and bringing him closer in. "I'm sad to say we should be going, though."
"Good friend Steve, I wish you farewell, then." Thor caught both Steve and Tony in a bear hug and sent them on their way.
Despite the good news of Tony's enthusiasm over what he had invented earlier, Steve was dreading the return to the mansion. He feared that, because of his lack of sleep, Tony may not have made the most, well, stable of contraptions.
Tony charged down to the labs upon their arrival, shouting something about the most beautiful thing Steve will ever see and the best Stark invention of all time.
Steve reluctantly followed Tony down, sitting in the lab and patiently saying, "Ok, Tony, what is it you need to show me?"
Tony darted into a backroom of his lab, followed by an array of varying robotic sounds and clanging of metal. Whatever was going on, it didn't sound safe.
And then, total silence.
The silence was interrupted by the sound of clangs of metal, each followed by a robotic-sounding motion and another clang. A cycle.
Steve had no idea what to expect.
The first thing he saw was what he wanted to believe was a boot. A silver, chrome-finished boot. And then a chrome glove reaching out to grab the wall for balance.
An entire chrome-plated metal man emerged from the back room, the face with two glowing blue slits for eyes and what looked like a permanent grimace for the mouth. But the most prominent feature was the little circle of glowing blue light in the direct center of the chest, right where Tony's reactor normally was on his body.
"Well," Steve thought he heard Tony's voice begin, "what do you think?"
Steve couldn't answer the question he was asked. "Tony? Tony, where are you? I see your robot, but where are you?" He jumped when the faceplate of the metal man lifted up, and underneath was Tony's young face.
Again, Tony asked, "What do you think?"
"I-" Steve's jaw was beginning to drop, his eyes darting around and constantly blinking, trying to make sense of what was right in front of him. "What is it?"
"You know," Tony said, the suit moving to put its hand on its hip with yet another hydraulic sound, "I'm not sure. I was considering calling it the 'iron man' suit, you know, with the Black Sabbath song, but it's really a titanium alloy, so..." He faded off into thought.
"What were you planning on doing with it?" Steve continued to ask. He had no idea what to think.
"Well," Tony moved his hands back together, trying to count on his fingers, "I guess I could go out and anonymously help the general public, because that's always good. But I was thinking I could just show it off. It's just an experiment."
"Does it do anything other than look pretty?"
Just as Steve asked this, Tony shot his hands downward and began to lift up, being launched up like a rocket. Steve gasped and ran to Tony's side to grab him, but Tony just smiled.
"Don't worry, Cap," he hollered over the flight stabilizers, "I'm fine! I've got this down to a science!"
And then one of the stabilizers faltered, and Tony fell. Straight into Steve's arms.
"Right," the blue eyes bored into Tony's face, "you've got this."
Tony jumped out of Steve's arms and landed on the ground with about as much grace as a running giraffe. "That's not all it can do though. Look!" He held out his two hands, and they began to glow with a blue tint.
"Um..." Steve pointed at the repulsors, "what are those supposed to do?"
"Blow stuff up," Tony exclaimed cheerfully.
Steve's eyes widened, and he gently aimed Tony's hands back down at the ground. "Let's... not use those inside, ok?"
Tony moped. "Fine... by the way, I made something for you."
Steve's ears perked up, like a puppy. Tony Stark went out of his way to make someone other than himself a present? "...You did?"
"Yeah," Tony replied, beaming with pride. "I saw you were looking at that piece of art in my room, and I came up with this idea..."
Steve sat down in the chair again and waited patiently.
"You see," Tony shouted out from behind the wall, over the sounds of the suit coming off, "I figured, you're a soldier. And If I have this awesome suit, I can't go around fighting crime by myself..." His head popped out from behind the wall. "Close your eyes."
Steve did so.
"Ok," Tony said from directly in front of him, "open them."
He couldn't believe his eyes. It was the vibranium shield that he had found when Tony was first developing the Iron Man repulsors, the one he was shot at with. And now, it was painted almost exactly like the art in Tony's room. The center had a plain, silver star, outlined with blue around the inner circle. The shield then had three rings: red, silver, red.
"It's... beautiful..." Steve said, taking the shield into his own hands. He gently set it down, and held Tony in his arms. "Thank you," he muttered into Tony's hair, "so much."
As he let go, he went over to the shield, picked it up, and slid it onto his arm.
It fit perfectly.
