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Clint never bothered to knock on the door of Tony’s lab because he (rightly) assumed that there was no way anyone could get into an area that secure without Tony knowing, even if they were, purely for example’s sake, sneaking through the air ducts because FRIDAY had turned them away at the door.
He swung his legs out of the vent and landed on the floor with an intentional thump to alert Tony, who was sitting at his desk with his head leaning against his hand and seemingly hadn’t noticed his entry.
“Hey, Stark,” Clint called. Tony didn’t startle, but he also didn’t look up, simply rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands and groaning.
“What do you want, Katniss?” he asked, and Clint blinked.
“Well, hello to you, too.” When Tony didn’t make any effort to quip back at him, he moved in a little concernedly. “Everything okay down here?” Tony moved his hands to look at him and he grimaced at the pallor of his face and the dark circles under his eyes. “Yikes. You look rough.”
“I’m just working,” he replied. “Hit a bug in the programming and I can’t seem to get past it.”
“Seems more like a bug hit you,” Clint accused, but Tony shook his head.
“I’m just in minor withdrawal because Pepper and I gave up caffeine.”
Clint’s eyebrows practically hit his hairline. “You? Giving up coffee? I don’t believe it.”
“Well, believe it,” he muttered. “Pep’s pregnant, and anything she’s not allowed to do, I’m abstaining from, too.”
“Aside from heavy lifting and fighting alien invasions.”
“Yeah,” Tony chuckled lightly, “except that.” He rubbed one hand over his face tiredly. “So, what did you need?”
“Well, I was going to ask you to take a look at the heat-seeking function of my arrows,” Clint started, “but now I feel bad.”
Tony shrugged. “Yeah, tonight might not be the best night for that. It feels like my brain is trying to push itself out through my eye sockets.”
“You drink a LOT of coffee, Stark. Maybe you should titrate down, instead. I could use some Starbucks, anyway, if you want to come with me. You can get half-caf or something. She’ll never know.”
“FRIDAY would tell her.”
“Damn, your own tech would turn you in? I thought it was supposed to by loyal.”
“Fri is loyal,” Tony defended. “To Pepper.”
“Well, I’m sure your wife would prefer to see you drink one little latte than to watch you give yourself a migraine trying to quit cold-turkey.”
He hesitated for a moment, which was telling to Clint that the pain was getting bad—he was both fiercely devoted to his wife and he knew that the “she’d never know” argument was not believable for Pepper—but he ultimately shook his head.
“Even if I did want to go, I can’t take my eyes off this program. I need to be here to fix it if something goes wrong.” Clint looked up at the countdown displayed in holographic white letters above Tony’s head and sighed when he saw that it still had several hours left to go.
“Well, Nat and I are going to Starbucks, so text us if you change your mind.”
Tony grumbled something under his breath that Clint decided not to pursue as he left.
He got a latte for Tony even despite his insistance that he didn’t need it. Clint decided to go in through the front door this time, since he didn’t want to spill hot coffee on himself, and found that FRIDAY didn’t have a word to say to him. The door opened easily, which put him on edge. Maybe Tony had finished early and headed to bed, he hoped more than believed.
Of course, he was wrong. Tony was still sitting at the desk, watching the numbers fly across the display of his computer interface with such a glazed look on his face that Clint was pretty sure he was more asleep than awake.
“Hey, Stark,” he called, startling Tony to his feet. Tony put a hand out, gripping blindly for the edge of the chair, to steady himself.
“You’re back fast,” he remarked. Clint frowned.
“We were gone over an hour and a half,” he pointed out. “Have you, like, I don’t know… moved since I was last down here?” Tony blinked a few times as if he were trying to clear his vision.
“Guess not,” he admitted. Clint rolled his eyes and extended the coffee to him.
“If I tell you this is decaf, will you go along and drink it?” Tony huffed.
“This again?”
“You’re a caffeine addict, Stark,” he sighed, “and you’re not withdrawing gracefully.” Clint was beginning to think that something more was going on than just the lack of coffee. Before he could say anything about it, the display turned red with an incoming call.
“Hang on,” Tony mumbled, “gotta take this.” Clint didn’t have much time to object as Tony answered the call, still standing to face a spot near his computer where Clint didn’t see a webcam but figured there must be one. Pepper was projected onto the screen, looking dewey and glowing in the natural light from the window of her hotel room. Clint had seen Laura go through two pregnancies and knew that glow could be from either the miracle of life growing inside her or just from morning sickness, but he didn’t say a word.
“Hi, Pep,” Tony greeted, trying to force cheer into his tone and missing the mark. Pepper looked immediately concerned.
“What’s wrong?” she demanded, and Tony had the nerve to chuckle.
“What do you mean?”
“You look terrible.”
Tony smiled, genuinely this time. “Well, you’re radiant as ever. How’s the conference?”
“I’m serious, Tony.”
“So am I.”
She sighed. “It’s fine,” she caved. “A little boring. Is that Clint in the background?”
“Hi, Pepper,” he called by way of confirmation. “How has pregnancy been treating you?”
She wasn’t a long-winded speaker by any means, but if you got her talking about how excited she was for the baby, Clint was discovering, she was eager to give all the details. He genuinely was interested in the anecdote she was giving about her strange pregnancy cravings, Clint found himself unable to peel his eyes away from Tony, who was swaying on his feet a little. Knowing it was useless to try to get him to admit that he wasn’t feeling well with Pepper on the line, Clint angled himself so that only Tony could see his face and mouthed a question along the lines of “you good?”
Tony didn’t respond. His face had gone purely white and his blinking was fluttery and long, as if he were fighting to stay awake. Tony didn’t even look in his direction when he cleared his throat, and that was the final straw.
“I hate to cut you short,” Clint interjected, “but I need to borrow your husband for some private SHIELD stuff, and I’m in a hurry. Can he call you back?”
Pepper seemed a bit caught off guard, but recovered, as she always did, quickly.
“Of course,” she replied. “Take your time. Tony, don’t forget to call me back before bed tonight.”
“I’ll remind him,” Clint curtailed before her image on the screen went away and he moved forward to support Tony as he slumped forward heavily into him. “Woah, hey,” Clint startled as he guided more of Tony’s weight than he’d anticipated down to the floor to sit with his head between his knees. He seemed to recover pretty quickly from there, poking his head up and shaking it after only a brief moment.
“Sorry about that,” he apologized uncharacteristically, “just got a little dizzy.”
Clint wasn’t buying it. “It seems to me more like you blacked out.” A shrug was the only reply given and the only one needed. “Okay,” Clint sighed. “Well, you’re done in the lab for today. When was the last time you ate? Or drank water? Or slept?”
“Ate, uh, a few hours ago,” Tony replied, likely omitting that his definition of a meal was the empty bag of Cheez-Itz that was still sitting on his desk. “Water this morning. Sleep… Not sure what that is but it sounds heavenly.”
Clint swore that hanging out with Tony was like raising a toddler again.
“Then do I have a surprise for you, because guess where you’re going,” he said, taking the no-nonsense tone that he reserved for when his kids wanted to stay up past their bedtimes. Predictably, Tony resisted.
“I’m good,” he insisted, “I swear. I have to finish this.”
“FRIDAY, set an alarm to alert Tony if something goes wrong with his stupid program,” Clint commanded. “You’re taking a nap.”
“I can’t—”
“I could call Pepper back, if you prefer,” he threatened. “Seriously, Stark. You’re going to be a dad soon. Are these the kinds of habits you want your kids to see? Because if not, I suggest starting to break them now.” Looking equal parts guilty and annoyed, Tony reluctantly gave in, allowing Clint to help him up off the floor.
He’d expected a lot more of a fight and was a little disappointed when he didn’t get one. Pepper really WAS a good influence on him, and probably so was the thought of having a child. If nothing else, it was good leverage.
“I’m going to get you a bottle of water and a blanket,” he announced after depositing Tony on the couch in the lab. “Just sit tight, okay?”
Tony nodded, but he was already beginning to drift off by the time his head hit the arm of the couch. By no means was he easy to deal with, but Clint did have to admit that he was a little more tolerable lately. It was almost friendly, the way he felt the need to step in and care for Tony when he wasn’t doing it himself. Like they were a family again after so many things had attempted to divide them.
Plus, he really wanted those heat-seeking arrows.