I'm pretty sure this makes you guys happy, but because this story is getting longer and longer I have to make the chapters longer otherwise it'll have a ridiculous amount of chapters. So yay? XD Unless there's a juicy cliffie that I feel I should leave hanging. I'm mean, I know. And of course, the always sincere thank you to the readers who follow, favorite, and REVIEW. WE PASSED 100 REVIEWS, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! :D

Tony really did go to sleep after that, and the next day was surprising free of memories. He watched movies with the team, and no arguments were exchanged between him and anyone. Steve was still worried, of course, and continually asked Tony if he was all right, and Tony always replied with the same answer: "Fine."

1 week later:

A whole week passed after that, without one attack from Tony's memories, for which he was grateful. He was always on the red alert, but it gave him the chance for his ribs to mend. As it was, they were much less painful than they were. Clint seemed especially glad for the lack of episodes, because he was still working on a poor list of excuses to get the team off of Tony's back. But then again, the archer wasn't sure if it was such a good idea anymore, because Tony was speaking to Steve, Natasha, Bruce, Thor and even him less and less as the days passed. He spent more time in the lab than anything, only coming out when Steve convinced him to eat meals with them. Clint knew it was bugging Steve. A lot.

Because now that things had settled down, he wasn't even close to being Tony's husband again. Clint saw how he lingered more at pictures that he passed, how he dazed off more and sometimes even he could hear Steve wake up at 3 in the morning, go into the kitchen and make some coffee, and just sit there, before going back to bed (they'd placed him in the guest room now, since the couch wasn't exactly a good long-term bedding). At one point he saw Steve cry as he passed the hallway. He didn't do well with helping people with their feelings, especially crying, 'cause Jesus Christ that was his worst nightmare. He did, however, mention it to Natasha, and whatever she said must have helped because Steve had been in a bit higher spirits when he'd seen him at dinner.

Clint, Natasha, and Steve were in the living room on a Friday morning, with Clint sprawled on the couch with his foot propped on Natasha's knee, much to her distaste. He'd complained of a sore ankle from training, quite pathetically, yet Natasha didn't remove it. Steve was drawing silently from the love seat as the TV played a Bruce Lee movie.

"Mr. Barton?"

Jarvis's voice interrupted Clint's contentment. Distractedly, his eyes flickered to the ceiling before falling to the screen again. "Yeah?"

"Mr. Stark needs your assistance with a...project, if you will..."

Clint froze, and Natasha and Steve looked at him strangely. "Oh, okay uh...sure, be right there," he said smoothly, but he jumped to his feet in a flash and tried to keep a calm face.

"What's the deal, Clint?" Natasha asked, "never seen you so anxious to help Stark with a science project."

"Oh, well, you know how he gets if you keep him waiting. All cranky and shit.." Clint sort of laughed, avoiding Natasha's gaze and then darted away before she had a chance to ask any more questions. Jesus, he couldn't handle lying to someone like Nat… she could read him like a book.

Steve watched as Clint ran away and he frowned slightly, turning towards Natasha. "That was strange," he murmured.

She nodded in agreement like that, almost as if she was thinking of following after Clint. However, she stayed put, though the suspicious look on her face didn't disappear. "Very strange."

Clint hurried down to the lab, punching in the access code that Tony had given him. Normally, he entered in wrong the first few tries, but he thankfully got it right this time and the door slid open. "Tony?" he called as he skidded into the lab, his eyes wide. "Are you-" Oh, there he was. "Tony?" The genius was huddled on the floor, his eyes glazed over as he trembled and tried to curl in on himself. He hurried over and dropped to his side, grasping his shoulder. "Hey man, come on."


Tony hadn't seen this one coming. He'd been working on improvements for the suit, since he'd be cleared for flight in the upcoming weeks, hopefully by the next Monday. He'd felt a headache, but he shrugged it off as overwork and had taken some Advil. Yet the next thing he knew he was on the floor, dropping his tool and being swept up in the familiarizing darkness.

He didn't panic this time, because he knew Jarvis would get Clint after a few minutes, he'd wake up and everything would be fine. Except this time the memory started with a sickening CRACK and he was looking around through the visors of his suit and he realized that he was flying over a small town that was smoking in some places. It was very hot. And giant robots were littered across the roads, some on top of houses. He squinted and saw a dirty and sweaty Steve being hauled to his feet from the ground by Thor, and he watched and reveled in the feeling of moving down before he was on the ground and running towards Steve.

"Are you fucking crazy, Rogers?" Tony growled. "Trying to give me a damn heart attack?!"

Deja vu. Steve was looking at him with an apologetic smile. "I'm okay, Tony, thanks for asking."

Tony's helmet shot up, and he had suddenly wrapped his arms around Steve tightly. With the suit on, he was at Steve's height and the bulk prevented almost any skin contact, but he buried his face into his shoulder and breathed in his scent. "Don't ever do something like that again."

"What, put myself in the line of fire of a giant robot? Sure thing." Steve's voice was soft, and the hint of sarcasm made Tony chuckle.

"You sound like me."

"I know,"

and Tony was leaning in for a kiss, and...

"Wake up!"

His eyes snapped open and he was in the lab, Clint beside him. "Hey," he croaked.

Clint snorted. "Hi."

"Need a hand?"

He focused on Barton's outstretched arm and then nodded slowly, accepting the help. Sitting up made his head spin a bit and he groaned, his eyes slipping closed again as he tried to let it pass. He definitely hadn't missed this feeling. "Fuck.."

"You okay?" Clint's brow furrowed as he asked. He knew Tony was probably feeling pretty shitty, because he remembered him mentioning it happened when he had one of these little episodes, but he still figured that he'd ask anyways. "Need me to do something?"

"No... no, I'm fine."


Steve stared down at the sketch in his hands for a moment, his brow furrowed as he looked it over with a critical eye. It was finished now, but for some reason he couldn't decide what to do with it. Should he give it to Tony? Today was the day he'd been waiting for, after all. Or would it be better for him to wait and give it to Tony when he regained his memory?

If he regains his memory... A little voice said, causing him to sigh. "Hey, Natasha? Can I ask you something?"

Natasha lifted her eyes from the television to Steve, asking Jarvis to mute it. "Sure, go ahead."

He handed her the sketch. She took it carefully and studied it, her lips quirking slightly. "I know I've seen this..."

Steve smiled. "Its the photo Tony and I liked the most out of all the rest of the wedding photos. I've been working on it for months. And I wanted to give it Tony today for our second anniversary."

It dawned on Natasha. "Steve..."

Steve took the drawing back and hugged it to himself. "Do you think I still should give it to him? Memory or not."

Natasha looked at the man sadly. Steve had really been struggling to keep his cool the last few days, what with Tony disappearing all the time and not talking to anyone much. She thought that it was occurring to Steve that he was losing Tony forever, and she had confronted him about it a few days ago; he'd replied with a soft "I'm not giving up on him yet. I promised, and so did he." She hadn't pressed on. "I think you should."

"You want to tell me that this might just Tony from now on, don't you?" It wasn't an accusation, a very light question.

Natasha sighed. "Something like that. But what do I know? Nothing's predictable with Tony. If anyone could miraculously wake up and get their memory back, it'd be him."

Steve didn't get to answer as Tony entered the living room. He looked pale and he was swaying a little as he walked. "Are you okay, Tony?"

"Yup," he said heading to the mini-kitchen where there was a coffee maker probably calling the billionaire over. "I'm fine. What's up?"

Steve hugged the drawing a little closer to himself, frowning as he watched Tony. He didn't necessarily think he looked fine, but he wasn't going to push it. It would just make Tony angry and fighting with the man was the last thing he wanted, especially today. "Well..." He shifted on the love seat. "Nothing really." His thoughts went to the drawing in his hand and he wondered how he should go about giving this to Tony. Should he just walk up and hand it to him? Say something? He imagined handing the drawing over and saying, 'Hey, I know you're freaking clueless about what today is, but happy anniversary anyways!' wouldn't be the smoothest thing to do. But what could he do?

Tony was now clutching a cup of coffee in his hands, seemingly a little better now that he had his favorite beverage in his hands. He wandered over to where Steve and Natasha were sitting to sit down as well, though he sat down beside Natasha instead of his husband. "So, nothing's up?"

Natasha nodded to Steve to encourage him to go on, and Steve took a breath and began, "You probably don't know this, but today's our second anniversary; and-"

"Of being married?" Tony raised an eyebrow.

"No, since we...got together. We already celebrated our first wedding anniversary a few weeks before your accident." Steve explained. "You were planning it. But you never told me what, and you don't even know me, I'm improvising."

He offered the drawing to Tony and the billionaire studied it with amazement in his eyes. "Steve...this is really good."

Steve smiled softly. "Happy Anniversary, Tony."

Tony swallowed a lump in his throat at the sadness that leeched into Steve's voice. The drawing was truly impressive; he and Steve's features were drawn near perfectly with light and dark shading that made it incredibly 3D. He knew that something about the drawing was more significant than just something that popped into Steve's head as an idea. He frowned. What was so familiar about it?

"Tony?"

"Looks familiar," he slipped out, and cursed mentally.

"You remember the picture?" Steve asked hopefully.

He glanced up to Steve again and saw the look in his eyes. He looked hopeful, but also like he was trying not to let it show. Perhaps so he didn't seem so disappointed if Tony didn't give the response he was looking for. "It just looks familiar," he finally said, his eyes flicking to the drawing once more.

Steve swallowed. Of course Tony didn't really remember the picture. That would just be too good to be true, wouldn't it? "Um," he let out a soft sigh. "it's one of our favorite pictures from our wedding. I know you always liked it..." he trailed off and smiled very slightly before he continued again. "We were out to eat a few weeks after we got married and you pulled your wallet out to find your credit card, I think, and when you did a small print of the photo fell out. You didn't even realize it until I pointed it out, then you shrugged and said, 'You should be proud, Steve, you've turned me into one of those sappy husbands who keeps pictures in his wallet. But can you blame me? Just wanted to have this little reminder of the happiest day of my life in my back pocket. That way, when I'm having a shitty day, I can just look at it and-" he suddenly stopped when he realized Tony was staring at him with this odd expression, and he blushed. "Oh. Um. Sorry," he mumbled and looked away, rubbing the back of his neck.

"It's okay," Tony shook his head slightly, his brow furrowing as he thought about that. It felt so... familiar, and, shit, now his head was starting to hurt. He needed to get out of this room, now, before he had one of his little episodes right in front of Steve. "Well thanks for the drawing, Steve. It's great." He said quickly before he was suddenly hurrying out of the room, not glancing back to see the hurt expression on the other man's face.

"Wait, Tony-" Why was he leaving? Steve took a few steps after him, an arm outstretched. Had he said too much? Should he had not told that story? He stopped and let his arms drop to his sides, and his shoulders slumped in disappointment as his husband continued to hurry off. "Great," he said miserably as he plopped down on the love seat again, curling in on himself. "Guess it was stupid of me to think that he might want to.. to..." he blinked furiously, refusing to cry right now.

Natasha sighed softly. "You just wanted to spend time with him, didn't you?"

"Yeah. Just... I mean, we didn't have to do anything. Maybe watch a movie. I just wanted to see him today. You know? Even if we can't celebrate our anniversary as husbands, I just thought we could do something as maybe friends. But he doesn't even see me as that, does he?"

"Steve..."

"Well he doesn't." He mumbled. "I can't even be friends with my own husband."


Tony was holding his head gingerly as he exited the room, and he saw out of the corner of his eye Bruce and Clint watching him. Bruce stepped forward to Tony, but Tony shook his head at the doctor as he rose his head a little. "Fine, just a bad headache."

"Are you getting headaches a lot?" Bruce asked, concerned.

"Tiny ones," Tony told the man assuredly. "I'll be okay with some Advil."

While Bruce seemed to be fairly convinced, Clint did not. He stood perfectly straight, his face in a tight line, like he was just waiting for Tony to go down. Tony gave him a nod and headed to his lab, Clint following him with an excuse to Bruce, "He needs help with one of his robots,"

It was a bad excuse, but it would have to do. Clint helped him down the stairs to Tony's annoyance, but the headache lingered so he kept his attention on putting one foot in front of the other.


Steve was quiet, just settled back onto the couch and let Natasha make comforting circles on his back. He leaned into the touch because he hadn't been comforted by touch for what felt like a long time. "Do you think Tony's given up?"

"No, I think he doesn't realize that what he's doing is just making things worse."

Steve thought about that. Usually when Tony was insisting to be alone and to do things on his own, which he still did occasionally before his memory loss, he did seem to lose track of inhibitions. However, that didn't make a good excuse. "You guys say I should give him time and space but its not working. Nothing's working."

"And how do we know?" Natasha prodded. "We already agreed that Tony was remembering some things. He could be remembering a lot more than we know. Maybe he's working on a plan, or some kind of device that will..."

"Wishful thinking," Steve mumbled.

"That's what you need right now, don't you think? Something to hold on to."

Steve let out a frustrated sigh. "Yeah..." He mumbled, shaking his head. "It's just really hard to stay positive about this, you know? I just can't... This isnt something that anyone is ever prepared for." He closed his eyes and leaned back, pressing his hands to his face. "I just want my husband."

"I know, but you-"

"You don't know," he said quietly, shaking his head.

"Steve-"

"Natasha, my husband hardly speaks to me anymore. I haven't been able to... to get so much as a hug from my /husband/ in weeks. It's our freaking anniversary and he can't even stay in the same room as me for five minutes. I give him the drawing and he runs away. Don't give me this stay positive stuff right now because I honestly can't act like that for the moment."


When they finally made it down the stairs, Clint decided to speak. "Alright?" He nodded slightly. "Tony?"

"I'm fine."

"But you-"

"I said I was fine."

Tony got lucky this time. Once he reached his lab, the headache passed and he sat heavily into his chair. "Its gone. No episode."

Clint breathed a sigh of relief. "Good."

Tony sat rubbing his temples before he shot up. "Shit! I just left Steve!"

"What?"

"He told me about how today is our 2nd anniversary since we started dating and he gave me a drawing of us that he's been working on for months and I have the photo in my damn wallet too I guess and I ran out because I thought I was going to-" he rambled, pacing in a circle.

"Whoa, Tony, slow down." Clint said, not really comprehending all of what Tony was saying. "Its your anniversary?"

"Since we got together, yeah."

"Well, if you were planning your anniversary, what would you do?"

"I don't know, take her.../him/ out to dinner?" Tony said exasperatedly.

"Why don't you just bring him his favorite dinner instead? Then he'll know that you really took an effort." Clint suggested.

Tony raised a skeptical eyebrow. "What's his favorite dinner, then? I wouldn't know. Anymore."

Clint thought about it for a second before smiling a bit slyly. "Fondue."

Captain America fans, you know what I'm talking about ;) (No, no, get your minds out of the gutter Tony isn't going to try to have sex with Steve. There's too much angst to be felt first! I mean...BLAHARG.)
Please review and let us know how it's going!