I'm so sorry this took so long. OMG. My muse ditched me, but she's back and there is only the epilogue after this chapter. Enjoy!
The four that couldn't fly landed on the street of Manhattan in front of the black town car, and exited the quinjet. Thor, The Torch, and Iron man landed behind the town car. The seven waited for the car to make the first move and Steve was not shocked when the door opened. The team waited silent but no one exited the vehicle. Steve was confused, until hawkeye was thrown through the air by an invisible force.
Steve could have kicked himself, of course he had completely forgotten that Sue, the invisible woman, was under Von Doom's spell or control was perhaps a better words. No more magic, Steve thought as he took off after hawkeye. Tony reached the falling archer first and righted him.
"You know, if you wanted to learn to fly so bad, you should have said something. I'm sure I can figure out how to attach wings to your quiver."
Clint glared and dusted himself off.
"It's Sue. She's not going to make this easy." Johnny said landing beside Steve and extinguishing the flames.
"How do we fight her, Storm?" Steve asked. He didn't know the Fantastic Four very well. He was only starting to get to know Reed and Johnny, he'd never met Ben or Sue. He didn't know their weaknesses or their strengths.
He watched from the sidelines with Tony, Clint, and Johnny, as Natasha and Thor, and to a very small extent Reed, battled an invisible force. It would have been quite comical, watching all the missed punches and hits, had the situation they found themselves in not been so fucked up.
"I don't really know." Johnny said honestly, making the three that stood beside him turn their heads. "She's my sister guys, I know how to make her mad, pull her hair, tease her. I've never needed to take her down. I don't know what Victor did to her to make her act like this."
"Is there anything you can give us?" Tony asked turning to watch as the invisible fight escalated.
Thor was thrown off balance, his strike of lightning went amiss and hit the car that had held Sue. The metal screeched and split to reveal an empty car. Steve looked around trying to find Von Doom, realizing that he hadn't actually seen him.
"If I had to guess tin man, I'd say, Reed would be the one to break into her head. He appeals to her level of crazy better than anyone. Knows how to push her buttons, but he also knows how to get her flustered and confused. When she gets like that, she can't keep her powers up. It will force her to become visible. Our powers are tied to emotions. When we were first learning about them, it was anger that turned Sue's on. Maybe, maybe making her remember how much she loves Reed will at least make her visible."
"If we can see her, we can fight her." Clint said readying his bow.
"We have another issue," Steve pointed to the empty car.
"Doom," Johnny growled.
"Where'd he go?" Clint's eyes scanned the street, the part and all the building.
"I don't think he was ever in there. This was all a ploy. He knew we'd go after Sue." Steve turned to the three men, "we need to get Sue on our side. Doom can wait."
"Jarvis, scan for heat signatures. Calibrate against and Ignore The Human Torch."
Steve looked at Iron Man, a look of shock on his face, "why the heck didn't you do that before?" Tony was the one person that could see Sue even when she was invisible.
Iron Man shrugged, "I was too busy catching Tinker Bell over here." He pointed to Clint.
"Keep it up tin can and we'll see how well the new EMP tipped arrows you made me, work."
"Have to catch me first."
"Save it," Steve held up his hand to silence the pair. They were always bickering. Tony hadn't fully forgiven Clint for the mistletoe incident. "We have bigger things to deal with than you two trying to out sass each other."
"Iron Man, locate Sue, get to Reed, see if he can talk her down. Hawkeye, I need you up high making sure Sue doesn't disappear once we have her in our sights. Keep an eye out for Doom or any of his bots. The fact that it's just Sue out here, isn't sitting well with me. Storm, maybe you should..."
"If you say sit this one out, we will find out which one of us will come out alive in a fight. That's my sister out there Rogers, are you trying to tell me, that you would sit on the sidelines and watch Darcy take on The Avengers?"
Steve had been about to bench Johnny, but the kid was right. Steve would never sit and watch Darcy take on even one avenger let alone five and half of the Fantastic Four.
"I'm not really sure what we can do Johnny. Natasha and Thor are already in there with Tony and Reed. How many people can your sister take down on her own?"
Johnny watched silently as Reed was flung through the air, his body wrapped around the tree. The sickening crack of his head hitting the trunk made Steve and Johnny both wince in sympathetic pain.
"Did you see that?" Johnny said, just as Steve threw his shield.
"Sue, she..."
He sure as hell did see it. Sue had lost control of her power, it was only for a second, but it had come directly following the hit Reed had taken.
Steve's shield hit a solid invisible mass and bounced back to him. It had been the little bit needed to change the game. Steve knew how to take Sue down and it was through Reed.
Hours later Tony dropped onto the bed beside Steve, exhausted and sore. The fight had lasted way longer than any of them had expected. Sue had been really hard to pull out the mind control Doom had her under.
Steve was snuggled under the blankets, a book in his hand, the shiner he had received at the hands of Sue was almost healed up. The skin was yellow with a slight green tint.
"You're so lucky you heal so quickly." Tony ran a finger down the slightly raised skin on Steve's cheek. "I don't think I could bare to see you hurt."
Steve's eyes left the pages of the book and focused on Tony. He could feel the heat in the stare, the love and strangth that drew him to the man before him, everything was written on Steve's face.
"I love you, I hate seeing you hurt." It was true. Even the small amount of time Steve had had the black eye, had caused Tony an incredible amount of agony. It was like he had been back in the forest clearing, watching Steve take on Morrigan. The feelings of helplessness and fear gripped at him everytime he thought about that fight. The fight with Sue had been no different. Tony feared for Steve's safety, he probably always would.
So much had happened in the time between Morrigan and Doom and yet, nothing had. There had been no villains that required the attention of the Avengers. Tony had been able to finally live a domestic life. A life he never, even before he became Iron Man, thought he would live, let alone come to desire. The man next to him on the bed, in all his spangly, perfect, superhuman glory, had changed that.
Tony would willingly give up the Avengers and Iron Man, if it meant the man beside him would never again feel the sting of a blow. Tony was being fanciful, he knew that, but he couldn't help it. Steve was his weakness.
That fact scared him. He had seen how Sue's love for Reed had hindered her power. They had exploited it and used it to their advantage but it was still a scary thing. Love could make you strong. Together, in the field, Tony and Steve were a force to be reckoned with, but use one against the other and they would both fall. Tony never wanted Steve to be used against him, he never wanted to be used against Steve either.
Both Johnny and Reed had been willing to play the pawns in the fight, but it wasn't a game Tony ever wanted to have to play again. Injuring both Johnny and Reed to get Sue to drop her cloak and shield was perhaps one of the worst things Tony had ever had to do, next to being sidelined in a fight for Steve's life.
It had showed him just how powerful family was. It made him want his own, but the idea scared and worried him. He didn't want to scare Steve off by telling him he wanted a family, and he didn't want to have yet another chink in his armor, something else the bad guys could use against him.
"I love you too," Steve said pressing his lips to Tony's making his internal struggle dissipate.
"Marry me." Tony hadn't meant for it to come out. He had been planning on asking Steve to marry him, but not like that. Not in their pajamas, in bed, after a fight.
"What?" Steve asked pulling back slightly. Bright blues eyes locked onto Tony, searching for a punchline or a quirk of a lip, something to tell him it was a joke.
Tony sat up, he couldn't go back, he couldn't play what he said off. He didn't want to. He reached into the drawer of his bedside table and pulled out a black velvet box.
Tony ran his thumb over the smooth material and collected his thoughts. Steve hadn't moved, his eyes fixed to the box in Tony's hand. If the situation Tony's inability to think before he acted had got himself into wasn't such a scary and mildly traumatic one, the look on Steve's face would be comical. Tony wanted to retort with a smart ass remark about Steve's eyes falling out of his head, but the words were lost. He had never proposed before, never considered it even, but Steve was different. Steve had always been different.
Tony opened the box, a solid silver vibranium band with a single line of three bright blue diamonds sat set into the middle.
"You are my everything." He said pulling his eyes away from the box and fixing Steve with the most honest stare he could. He wanted Steve to see into his soul, to truly know and understand the depths of his feelings.
"Watching Reed fight Sue today, seeing the pain in his eyes, knowing he couldn't get through to her, without something so drastic as being hit by lightning over and over, made me realize just how fragile relationships are. But It made me realize just how much I never wanted to lose you. It showed me how much I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you. I hadn't planned on proposing like this, but the events of today made me realize, I don't want to wait anymore. I've waited a long time for you. Will you marry me?" Tony held his breath and extending the arm holding the ring.
"Tony, I..." Steve closed the book and moved to sit on his haunches, "yes, yes I'll marry you! Yes."
Tony could have flown around the room, propelled only by pure joy if the embrace and passion filled kiss Steve had planted on him, hadn't knocked the wind out of him.
A soft buzzing sound rumbled on the bedside table behind Steve, and he pulled away to look at the tiny pink pager they had been given by Happy a few months ago.
Steve picked it up, "code pink," he said looking down at it.
Both of them were off the bed and getting dressed within seconds. Suddenly the subdued tower was alive and humming as every single person had coming to life when their pagers had gone off.
Pepper having a baby was almost enough to overshadow the ring Tony had slipped on Steve's finger.
"OH MY GOD!" Darcy screeched as she grabbed Steve's hand in the elevator on the way down. "Tony proposed!"
The excited chatter died with two simple words.
Everyone stared gaped mouths at Tony who simply shrugged. "Seemed like the the right time."
"This is going to be amazing. I'm going to help plan the most amazing wedding you've ever seen." Darcy was talking animatedly with Steve, who said nothing, just wrapped his arm around Tony.
Tony melted into his side, he was content. Even in the face of a Doom attack, Tony was happy. Steve had said yes and Pepper was having her baby. Nothing could make the day any better.
Darcy held onto Johnny as she chatted away at Steve, who simply smiled. Tony knew that smile well, it was one of appeasement. Tony knew Steve didn't care so much about prep work for a wedding, but Steve would let Darcy have her fun and enjoy the hard work. Natasha stood silently beside Clint, a small smile - the only indication that she was even human, let alone happy about anything - on her face.
Clint smiled bright, "it's about time you made an honest man out of Tony, Steve."
Steve snorted and Tony looked indignant, but the laughter from the people he considered his family, warmed his heart. He had become such a sap, thanks to Steve.
"Just don't any of the rest of you go getting any ideas," Johnny elevator doors opened before any of them could respond. Thor, Bruce and Reed had hung back to do tests on Sue but they were just as invested. The rag tag family Tony had somehow found himself, piled into the limo, anxious to meet the newest addition. Sharon Hogan would be the most protected kid on the planet. Tony was already planning her iron baby suits and how to make the tower kid proof. Hint, it involved a lot of rubber.