literature

The Avengers - Not invincible

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Literature Text




"Tony?"
"Mmm?"
"Come to bed."

It was past midnight. Steve was standing in Tony's lab, near the entrance, watching his boyfriend sitting at the desk, back slumped, hands constantly moving, as he was reaching them for new tools, never stopping, never slowing down.

"In a minute," came the short reply.
"You said that an hour ago.." blond sighed deeply. Lately Tony spent most of his nights working. It wasn't nothing new, he usually did that, but what followed it, was sleeping till noon. Now, he was coming back nearly at dawn, just to get 1-2 hours of shallow sleep and then run off for S.I. board meetings. Board meetings lasted for few hours, and when he was back it was with a huge stack of paperwork and after few more hours of just reading and signing, or hanging on a phone, negotiating, yelling, pacing all around, he changed from a suit in his work clothes and was back in the workshop for few more hours. And it lasted for over a week now.

"Tony, you can't continue living like that.." Steve stepped further into the workshop, standing next to him, gently carding his hand through Tony's dark hair. He felt him shiver under his touch, and then big brown eyes turned to look at him, like not fully registering that he was even there. But then he leaned into the touch, closing his eyes, enjoying for a few seconds the soft caress of his lover, before he pulled back, turning away to just to get entangled in work again.

Steve sighed one more time. He was worried. He knew that his boyfriend was a busy person, but this.. This was starting to get ridiculous. He looked around. Tony's workshop was usually messy, thrashed around with different machine parts, tools, projects. But the truth was that it wasn't a mess. Tony always exactly knew where everything was and didn't have problems with finding anything, repeating that everything was in its rightful place. Now, he could see that even Tony would have problems with finding anything. He saw some pile of papers, not far from his boyfriend, and frowned, seeing something sticking from underneath it. He gently removed the first documents and his eyes got wide. Under the papers was food - all food Steve brought down to him for the few last days, untouched, hidden under the pile.

"Tony!!" he yelped, terrified. "Tony, you can't stop eating!"
"Hm? I'm eating," Tony shrugged, eyes focused on the mechanism in front of him.
"Drinking coffee is not eating!" Steve scolded him more. He roughly turned Tony around on his stool, holding him by the shoulders. "You need to sleep, you need to eat, you're not a machine, Tony!" he scolded him more, voice getting desperate. Tony just groaned. He brought hands up and rubbed his face vigorously, as trying to wipe off the lack of sleep, tiredness and the overall feeling of being suffocated by work, and lowered them, bracing on his knees, forcing a smile.

"Steve, I promise I will eat, soon, okay? And that I will get some sleep. Soon, I need a shower anyway, I think I'm starting to stink," he laughed, joking, in a failed attempt to make Steve laugh, but he just made him frown more. "Look," Tony sighed, "two more screws, and I'm done for today, okay? I promise," he said with a tired smile.

Steve looked closely at him. Tony was exhausted - his whole posture gave such message, his eyes were encircled from the lack of sleep, but the most significant sign that gave away how Tony was tired, was that, that his goatee was loosing it's usual sharpness and gradually was blending with the rest of his scruff, slowly disappearing.

"Okay, babe," Steve placed a gentle kiss on Tony's forehead, trying to sound convinced. He wanted to believe Tony, he really did. But they both knew that he was lying.

The days were passing and Tony didn't slow down. It was painful to admit, but Steve was slowly getting used to falling asleep in an empty bed and waking up alone. He still tried to reason with Tony, but soon the brunet just started to yell at him, demanding to be left alone. So Steve tried to leave him alone, even if it was heartbreaking for him.

Another day came, and Steve slowly woke up. He turned around in the bed, hoping to see his boyfriend next, and for those few seconds he felt his heart beat faster, but it slowed down, seeing him not there. Steve ran his hands on the smooth, cold sheets, which again told him that Tony didn't even made it to the floor, just stayed again in his shop for the whole night. Giving another disappointed sigh, he stood up, going to the bathroom, planning to later on prepare breakfast for Tony, which he won't probably even eat, or will just nibble on it, as Steve recently started to blackmail him that he won't leave until he eats something. But when he reached his hand for the doorknob, he realized that the door was locked. He pushed again, just to make sure.

"Tony..?" he asked insecurely. He heard something falling in the bathroom, with a soft sound. Tony was in there. Steve frowned. They both never closed the bathroom's door, not having anything to hide from each other. "Tony, what's going on? Are you okay?" he asked again, just to have silence as an answer. Steve snapped his head up.

"JARVIS? What's happening with Tony?" maybe it was stupid, but each time he was talking to JARVIS, he looked up at the ceiling.
"I'm sorry, Captain Rogers, but Sir doesn't wish you to know," he got a reply. Steve winced, not liking this. He started to feel really anxious.
"Can you open the door for me?" he asked the A.I. again, knowing that even if they had a traditional lock, just for Steve, JARVIS could still control it.
"I'm sorry, but I was forbidden from doing that," he replied and Steve could swear that he heard regret in his voice. Maybe JARVIS was a machine but Steve was ready to argue that he still registered human emotions.

"That's okay, thank you," Steve replied, with a soft smile.

Tony was listening to this conversation from the other side. He felt relieved, knowing that he will keep his boyfriend away for a while longer. He heard Steve walk away, just to hear him rushing forward, hitting the door with force, making it snap out of the hinges. Tony cringed, his eyes getting wide. In the meantime, Steve just calmly put the door aside, leaning them on the wall.

"Tony, what's go.. Oh God," Steve whispered terrified, seeing him. Tony was sitting on the tilted floor, his back leaned on the wall. He was pressing a red and white towel under his nose. What terrified Steve, was that the towel was once only white white. His breath quickened as he looked around at the floor, covered in scrunched tissues, also soaked with blood, then bits of toilet paper, also red. He came closer on wobbly legs, eyeing Tony who was looking down, his eyes puffy, nose swollen. The closer he got, the more he saw that Tony was pale and was slightly shaking, due to the loss of blood and probably shock.

"It.. It won't stop, Steve.." he whined out looking down, his voice trembling.
"Sh, it will be alright.." Steve dropped on his knees, gently moving away the soaked towel, just to replace it with a clean one. "Dammit, Tony, why didn't you call anyone.." he said worriedly, not expecting an answer. They both knew why. He took his trembling boyfriend in his arms, holding close. "JARVIS, how long?" he asked, referring to Tony's nosebleed.
 "An hour." Steve sent a glare towards the smaller man, hearing the answer. Tony kept looking down, shaking slightly, giving a miserable impression. Steve could scold him right now. No, he should scold him. So much that he would remember it for the rest of his life. But.. He couldn't do it. Not when Tony looked like something the cat dragged in.

"JARVIS, please call Bruce here," Steve said quietly, holding Tony closer, making sure that his head will be leaned down.

After a few tests, some prescriptions and many many many layers of gauze, Tony was bedridden. Steve helped him change, Tony still weakened, his nose filled with wrapped gauze which just made him feel even worse. Steve tried to keep his face neutral the whole time, not showing how much upset and angry he was with this whole situation. He carefully listened to everything Bruce said, well knowing that it will be his job to make sure that Tony will follow doctor's orders, which included a lot of rest and no workshop or Iron Man work. When they were done and Tony was safely wrapped in covers, Steve laid down next to him, pulling his boyfriend closer, and slowly, slowly Tony started to fall to sleep, calmed by Steve's warmth and scent. Steve just ran a soothing hand on the other's arm. He needed sleep.

Steve was idly brushing his fingertips up and down Tony's arm, thinking about what happened. He should have stopped Tony. 

Tony already knew that he was in deep trouble with his boyfriend. So after two hours when his eyes started to flutter open, he closed them back, opening one eye, to have a glance how the situation looked like. Just like he predicted, Steve was wide awake, alert and his lips were still pressed together, forming a one line, as always when he was upset with Tony, a worry line between his eyebrows. Tony quickly closed his eye, nuzzling gently into Steve's side, taking as much of his warmth as he could. He felt Steve's chest rise up and down as he took a deep breath.

"I know you're awake.." came a quiet, irritated voice, and Tony winced, but just nuzzled more, pretending to be still sleeping. "Tony.." Steve repeated again, his voice having this firmer note.

Slowly and carefully Tony lifted his head up, his nose and whole head hurting from the wrapped gauze stuck in his nose. When big brown, slightly terrified eyes met the blue ones, which were looking down back at him, they both didn't say anything. Steve had prepared a whole speech. He exactly knew what to say. But whenever talking with Tony gave any results? Steve just sighed tiredly and giving up, leaned his forehead on the other's, closing his eyes. Not saying a word. He knew that silence was the worst punishment for Tony - the silent, disapproving aura around Steve was unbearable for him. So when after a while he opened his eyes back, he wasn't surprised that brown eyes were slowly filling with tears, filling with regret and sorry and a silent plea for forgiveness.

Steve blinked, moving his head closer, kissing Tony's eyebrow, making a tear roll down his cheek when Tony closed his eye.

"I love you.." Steve whispered. "Don't do that to yourself ever again, ok?"

And just like that, Tony nodded his head, wrapping his hands around his soldier. And this time, Steve believed him.


so, this is kinda based on true events.

wrote this during a very hectic week in my life.

also, wanted to write Steve give Tony a whole lecture, but I think it's better this way ;D

happy ending people!!
© 2013 - 2024 lemonlollipop
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emmie796's avatar
I'm not crying, you're crying...