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Chapter Text

A scream of pain tore itself free from his throat, teeth were sunk into the side of his neck and he was falling. Falling down towards the darkened Earth, his wings proving useless with the person wrapped tightly around his back. Their sharpened fingernails digging into his sides, his shirt having rode up during the unintentional free fall.

There were gashes in his skin and clothes, some of his feathers gone from his normally beautiful metal wings. Darkened amber eyes flickered with the far off city lights, how far out did he teleport them?

The hard ground was coming up, he could feel it. They were going to hit it and someone was going to end up dead, he hoped it was the person wrapped around his back. The teeth that had tore into the flesh on the side of his neck bit down harder, tearing a high pitched strangled cry from his lips.

The wind suddenly stopped flying past his ears, it had changed direction- Wait, that wasn’t right-

A startled cry left his throat as the ground came in sharp contact with his already battered frame. He rolled, wings having disappeared into their containment on his chest. His attacker landed with a thud a few feet away, on their feet.

Panting, he dragged himself to his feet. Darkened amber eyes flashing a bright glowing aqua in the night. Streams of metal crawled over his skin, arching over his shoulders and expanding out. They quickly took shape as his wings, flared out in all their injured glory. A feral snarl ripples from his throat. Dark crimson blood dripping into his mouth and staining his teeth that glorious dark colour. The taste was even better; the strong taste of iron, palladium, and electricity.

Bloodstained talons extended from his hands, his feral snarl growing in volume. Echoing around the empty space around them. It must have been a field.

His assailant stood a mere few feet away, glaring right back. Those fierce green-blue eyed having darkened. Storm cloud grey flooded around his pupils. His navy robes were torn in places and stained a brighter crimson in others. A billowing cloak flared out behind him, the red nearly blending into the night. It went against the flow of the wind.

The winged male lunged first, talons extended and aiming for the cloaked, taller, male. The sharp points of the metal sliced through the fabric of his robes on his chest. The ripping of fabric echoing in his ears beautifully. However he had only just nicked that perfectly clear skin. Damn.

He went to strike with his other hand, but found himself suddenly grabbed and tossed to the side. The ground, once again, meeting him with a harsh welcome. Footsteps neared him quickly, the heavy boots of the navy robed male stopping behind him abruptly.

He gasped when roughly brought to his knees, a hand tightening in his shirt collar and pulling it back harshly. It tilted his head back efficiently, but also began to cut off his air supply. A choked snarl gurgled out into the air. When attempting to knock the male back with his wings, he was met with the metal harshly pressed into his back, pinned by the younger male’s knees. The sharp feathers cut into his shirt when he accidentally shifted. Sparkling blood slowly began to leak out of thin gashes, trailing down his exposed skin and torn clothes like cracks on a porcelain doll.

Green, blue, and storm grey irises glared into the darkened amber of his own. Fierce and angry. He brought his hands up, trying to reach around and pry him off of his undershirt’s collar.

A red fabric swiftly moved off of the male’s shoulders, flying around and tearing his hands away. His wrists were quickly encased in the fabric, like perfect fitting handcuffs.

“I can do this for a very long time, Tony. It’ll be better for both of us if you just give in.” The male coaxed, his voice a baritone. His words had an underlying growl rippling beneath them.

The winged male - Tony - gasped and squirmed. He bit back a painful wince as his own feathers tore into his flesh further. A sudden thought came to him, this was probably going to hurt.

Darkened amber irises flashed that magnificent aqua of the Arc Reactor on his chest, and his wings began to dissipate. Without giving the other a chance to think on it, he forced himself to his feet and forced his body back into the other’s.

It worked with freeing himself from his grasp, but the cloak was still tightly encasing his wrists. Tony grunted, rolling over. He shuffled his way onto his knees, somewhat of pinning the salt and pepper haired male to the wet grass. Talons flicked out, tearing at the arm that came up to knock him off.

A sharp cry of pain exited the navy robed male. He pulled his arm back, the blood rolling out of the gashes. Tony reacted just as fast, wings snapping out behind him. If he couldn’t use his hands, he’d just have to get creative!

The sharp feathers bore down in a strong down thrust, tearing at more of the male’s robes and flesh. He shuddered at the sight and smell of the blood. The sharp tang of iron flooding the suddenly thick air around them. It made his spine coil in pleasure, a wicked smirk twitching at his lips.

In his short distracted moment, the other had managed to get his legs out of Tony’s weakening hold. With a harsh kick to the abdomen, he sent the male spiralling backwards with no hands to catch himself.

Tony squawked, trying to catch himself with his wings. The flight feathers had been damaged on his left wing, so even if he had managed to get in the air he would have crash landed again. He landed on the ground, on his back. Wings splayed out behind him on the wet grass. Stars twinkling tauntingly above him. Tony fixated a glare to the sky.

Those heavy boots approached again, a hand grabbing the front of his ripped shirt and hauling him back onto his knees. Another hand came to cup his chin, tilting it upwards until dark amber met blue-green-grey eyes.

“Give in.” The male growled lowly, his lips twitching, breaking the perfect symmetry of his goatee.

“Never.” Tony spat, flapping his wings hard. It sent him up. For a short moment they were at perfect eye level, until his left wing betrayed him and he went crashing into the other male.

They both tumbled down to the ground this time. Tony landing atop of him. His arms pinned between both their chests. Wings folded to his back to avoid further damage done to them.

Blinking at him, Tony gave a sharp toothed smirk. He leaned up, opening his mouth, and in one fluid motion sunk his unnaturally animalistic canine teeth into the flesh of the male’s neck.

“Oh- Fuck!” Exclaimed the baritone voice of the male below Tony. Tony smirked even wider, sinking his canines in deeper. The blood pooled in his mouth and he nearly moaned at the taste of the warm liquid. Blinking back into focus, he jerked his head to the right violently, tearing flesh out.

It was the cloak wearer’s turn to scream. The sound ricocheting off any solid objects in the vicinity and bouncing back at them. It was piercing, high, and full of luxurious pain. He rumbled in appreciation at the sound, but it was quickly cut off by his head snapping to the right from a punch to the left side of his face.

The male winced at the pain in his hand, but ignored it for the time being and rolled them over. He raised Tony’s hands above his head, allowing the cloak to hold them there tightly. Straddling his upper thighs and waist, he leaned forwards, putting pressure on his lower rib cage. His other hand coming up to grasp at the front of his neck, pressing just under his jaw with his index and thumb.

Tony panted, then gasped out a wheeze at the sudden strong pressure. He wriggled in hopes of freeing himself, but found himself quite tightly locked where he was.

The two were almost totally soaked in each other’s blood. To Tony it was a dream come true, sending shocks of electric energy up and down his spine. Making him shiver and shudder.

“I’m- I’m not giving in, St-Stephen!” Tony wheezed out, defiantly glaring up at the taller man.

“I can make you give in.” Snarled Stephen darkly, tightening his hold. Watching the male writhe below him helplessly made a smirk began to crawl across his face.

Tony gasped and wheezed as his air supply was closed off slowly.

Stephen leaned down, pressing his lips to Tony’s. Effectively stealing the last of his air with a kiss.

Tony’s body was beginning to panic and was attempting to force him into taking a breath, but he physically couldn’t. His heart was beating in his chest like a bass drum. He could hear the blood rushing in his ears slowing down. He writhed helplessly below the sorcerer, weakly trying to throw him off one last time. No sense going out willingly.

Stephen savoured the taste of their blood mingling in the kiss. He could feel Tony’s heart slowing in his rib cage, hand still pressed firmly there. He felt his panicked writhing. It was practically rolling off of him in waves now. Opening his multicoloured eyes, he was met with watery dark amber. The colour having drained in the engineer’s face.

Finally, Stephen broke the kiss. Sitting up, he removed his hand from Tony’s neck. Watching as the male immediately gasped in air, then began coughing violently.

When the violent coughing and gasping slowly began to subside and colour had somewhat returned to Tony’s face, Stephen leaned in. One hand on his chest still, the other on the grass beside his arm.

“Do you give in now, darling?” He purred, smirking.

Tony couldn’t speak, his throat hurt too much and he was still trying to get more oxygen in.

He weakly nodded, head dropping to the side.

Stephen’s smirk turned into a wide grin.

“Good.”

Chapter Text

Stephen had opened a portal and had lead Tony through by the torn collar of his shirt. Tony hadn’t made an effort to command the nanobots to cover his obvious cyborg parts. Both were bloody and beaten up, thanks to the other.

Stephen closed the portal with a dismissive wave of his hand, turning and stopping Tony in the middle of the room.. which happened to be the sorcerer’s bedroom in the Sanctum in New York.

With a tug downwards, Tony dropped to his knees, head bowed and eyes cast downwards. He was still quietly panting, the wheezing finally subsided. Dark amber eyes - although his left eye was black and aqua - trained on the wooden floorboards, not daring a glance upwards as the sorcerer walked off to return a few moments later. Stopping in front of the engineer.

“Shirt off.” Cams the baritone order.

At this, Tony risked raising his head a little to look up at the sorcerer confused. He was met with an eyebrow raise and those blue-green-grey eyes that had yet to lighten to their normal striking colour. If anything, they were mesmerizing like this and Tony absolutely adored it. He also noticed a wooden box sitting opened on the male’s bed with what looked like medical supplies.

The engineer wanted to make a comment so badly, but he’d sound like a crackling radio still if he tried. So he remained silent, slowly raising his arms to peel the tattered shirt off his skin and toss it over his head to the floor.

Stephen hummed, turning to grab a few supplies - wipes, antiseptic, antibacterial wipes by the looks of it - and then crouching in front of the kneeling genius. He began to wipe the blood away from Tony’s face and body, taking precise care to get it all.

His fingers skated over the metal that wrapped around from his back over his shoulders and belly. Tony watched him work, watching his scarred hands touch his torso - metal and all. He ran his tongue over his lips, doing his best to stay still when the touches tickled sensitive skin.

He must not have stayed entirely too still because Stephen raised his eyebrow once again and a smirk slowly crawled across his chiseled features. However, he continued on, leaving Tony to let out a quiet breath of relief.

“This is going to sting.” Stephen muttered, bringing a wipe which smelled of alcohol to a cut on his face. Tony hissed even with the warning, pulling back with a silent snarl on his face. A hand tangled in his dark brunet hair, keeping his head still as the ex neurosurgeon went in with the wipe again.

This time a snarl rumbled from his healing throat, raspy and uneven. Stephen tightened his hold, nails scraping against his scalp in warning. Tony groaned, cutting off the warning snarl. Those mesmerizing eyes held a threatening promise, the grip on his hair enhancing the meaning. With a quiet pant of air, he quieted and stilled once more. The grip on his dark hair relaxed, scarred fingers massaging the scalp where he had gripped.

Stephen continued to work, the smaller cuts already almost finished healing. Tony had Extremis to thank for that.

Eventually he packed up the kit, straightening to go put it away. “Stay.” He ordered, staring pointedly at Tony.

“What am I, a dog?” Tony rasped out, his voice sounding better as the abuse done to his airway healed.

“Keep talking and you will be.” Stephen smirked sharply, walking off into an adjoining room - probably the bathroom.

Tony narrowed his eyes at the empty doorway. Hopefully he was joking about that.. right? He sure hoped so. Imagining himself as a dog made his nose scrunch up in displeasure. No thanks.

His two different eyes scanned the room, one cybernetic, the other a hundred percent real. The room was moderately sized, a closet, queen sized bed, nightstands, window, etc.

He was just beginning to study the intricate carvings in the bedposts when footsteps exited the adjoining room and headed his way. Before Tony could look up, Stephen circles around him and stopped directly in front of him.

This time Stephen didn’t crouch down, so Tony tilted his head back to look up at him. Blinking in confusion.

Stephen couldn’t help the smirk that twitched at his lips at the sight of Tony on his knees in front of him. Dark amber and aqua eyes staring up at him in confusion. It caused something to tingle up and down his spine, his eyes to take on an almost primal glow.

Tony blinked at him, watching the sorcerer pull something from a small orange sparking portal. It closed with a snap as the item was through. It made his confusion rise higher. However it turned into a mild pool of dread in his stomach as Stephen brought it into the light.

It was silver, shiny, thin and a hollow cylinder. On the inside were intricate thin carvings, looking oddly like sigils.

“You remember this metal, don’t you, Tony?” Stephen hummed, tilting the item side to side. Tony did in fact remember it, he had given the scrap to the sorcerer a while back. He had no clue what he was going to do with it.

With a nod, Tony gulped, shifting his position slightly. Stephen’s smirk only seemed to grow. “You challenged me tonight and this is my reward, and your punishment.”

Tony swallowed again, inspecting the metal closely before his eyes flicked up to the taller male. “What do you plan on doing with it..?” He questioned.

Stephen broke his stance, circling around to stand behind the kneeling genius turned cyborg. A non shaky hand - magic - resting on the side of Tony’s neck, thumb rubbing circles into the skin. “I’m sure you know what I plan to do with it, dearest.”

His head tilted to the side instinctively, staring ahead of him while listening to Stephen behind him.

The hand rubbing his neck gently grabbed his chin and righted his posture. He heard the click of something unlatching. Stephen’s breath was suddenly next to his ear. “You alright? You need me to stop?” He whispered, gentle and caring.

Tony went to shake his head but paused. “No, I’m okay.” He voiced instead, sturdy and sure of it. He felt the breath on his ear disappear and a light squeeze to his jaw in response.

Cold metal suddenly met overly warm skin and he shuddered and wriggled at the temperature of it. The metal collar clicked in place at the back, securing it closed.

Tony moved his head once Stephen retracted his hand from his jaw. Surprisingly it was a comfortable fit, almost like a second skin. It didn’t constrict his breathing like he thought it would, he barely even noticed it was there. The only reason he did was because it was warming to his skin’s temperature - which was always lower than normal.

“I saw... carvings? Sigils? on the inside of it, what are those?” Tony inquired, tilting his head back to look up at Stephen - the sorcerer’s hands on his shoulders. He had totally forgotten he was still shirtless in front of the ex neurosurgeon.. then again they had been less clothed before.

Stephen hummed quietly, running his thumbs over the metal exposed underneath his scarred hands. The way how it blended together smoothly, but the splits in between each segment was noticeable to touch - and sight upon close inspection.

“Well, some are to ensure that only I can take this off of you, and that it is resistant to breaking.” He started, beginning to trace the area where skin met metal on Tony’s shoulders.

“And the others?” Tony pushed, trying his best not to melt into the light touches.

He adopted a sly smirk, blue-green-grey eyes meeting dark amber and aqua. Oh how he loved the entrancing swirl of bright aqua in the black void of his left eye. “They’ll give you a little shock every time you say certain words, certain actions.. or just at random.”

Tony gaped, then glared up at him. “Stephen!-“ He yelped at the sudden jolt of electricity zapping his skin. It wasn’t enough to really hurt, but it was enough to sting. He glared even harder at the sorcerer. “I have a meeting-“ Zapped again. “- tomorrow!”

Stephen chuckled, bending down to press a kiss to the engineer’s forehead before straightening again. “I know, that’s the whole point.”

“You’re fucking-“ He yelped again, then glared directly into this mesmerizing eyes.

“Ohh, watch that mouth.” Stephen taunted, grinning.

“- evil!” Tony ground out as his skin prickled with another mild jolt. He crossed his arms and huffed. “How long do I have to wear this?” The engineer grumbled.

“Hm, a day or two.” Stephen smiled innocently down at him, tilting Tony’s head back when he tried to look away from him.

Said genius groaned in protest at how long he’d have to wear it, keeping his arms crossed and his glare fierce.

However fierce the glare may be, the sorcerer definitely wasn’t moved by it. “Oh, you’ll survive.” He paused, thinking. “Come to bed?” Stephen smiled genuinely at him this time.

Tony dropped his arms, giving in. “After we take a hot shower.. wait a minute, you don’t have blood on you.. you cheating bastard!” He bit the word out as he was zapped.

Stephen laughed. “So you finally noticed. Well, how about that shower then bed? It is late.”

“Deal.” Tony conceded.

Chapter Text

The next day had rolled around, the morning sun blaring in through the Tower’s windows and into the conference room. The bright golden light reflecting off the glass table and painting the room in a soft golden glow.

Each Avenger except Thor was present at the moment. Steve, Clint, Bruce, Natasha, Sam, and Rhodey sat around the glass table. Steve at the head of it.

Tony sauntered into the room, steaming cup of coffee in hand. He wore blue skinny jeans, high tops, and a hoodie that had the hood pulled up around his neck. Dark amber eyes scanned the room, wincing at the light flooding in. Why did the meeting have to be in the morning? He was half awake on his feet, and his body was sore.

He had been awoken by JARVIS in his head reminding him he had a meeting. The genius had essentially said “fuck that” until Stephen had woke up. JARVIS - the traitor he was - had told the sorcerer via Tony’s phone’s speaker. He nearly fought the sorcerer, but a quick harsh zap from the collar around his neck had him up.

Ocean blue eyes looked up at the entrance of Tony, so did multiple other sets of eyes. Including emerald green. “Tony, glad you could make it.” Steve greeted.

Tony dropped down into the seat between Natasha and Rhodey. “Yeah, well I was so close to hitting snooze and skipping this.” He shrugged, sipping at the coffee in his hands. Letting the caffeine wake him up slowly.

“I’m sure you were.” Steve commented, letting his eyes wander over the others. “I called this meeting because we’ve received information from Director Fury.”

The others turned to look at Steve, Natasha even sitting straighter in her chair. “What kind of information?” She questioned, cool as ever.

Steve pulled up images on the screen behind him. Images of a blazing fire consuming an abandoned warehouse, a map with red dots highlighted, and an energy reading.

Rhodey leaned forwards in his chair, narrowing his eyes at the picture of the fire. “That picture is dated from two months ago, Steve.”

“Not only that, Rhodey, but that’s the date Maria Hill was found dead-“ Tony’s breath hitched as he spoke the last word, the electric jolt curling down his spine. His fingers curling into fists as it coiled around his muscles before finally subsiding.

The others glanced at him curiously at the hitch of breath, Natasha side eyeing him longer than the others.

A nod from the blond super soldier had their attention back on him. “Exactly, that happened two months ago and SHIELD has been looking for who had murdered her.”

Clint folded his arms over his chest, blue-grey eyes cast down as a shadowed look crossed his face. Natasha reached over and squeezed his forearm comfortingly, her own emerald eyes downcast.

Sam was inspecting the map with red dots all over it. “So what’s the map about?” He spoke up, pointing at it.

Ocean blue eyes fell onto the map. “Fury believes HYDRA killed Hill.”

Bruce shifted in his seat. “It would make sense why they would target SHIELD.. but why? What would they get out of it?”

“What HYDRA gets out of killing Hill is one less high level SHIELD agent.” Clint spoke up, his voice quieter. Rougher around the edges.

Sam hummed, drumming his fingers on the glass table. “So, the red dots on the map are what?”

“Recent reported sightings of HYDRA over the past three months.” Steve answered, bringing the map front and centre.

Tony sipped his coffee, finally setting the cup down on the table. He brought up a miniature of the bigger map, manipulating it in his hands. He jumped as a jolt of electricity randomly ran through his body, nearly knocking his coffee off the table. He hadn’t even said anything that time! Rightt, Strange had said it would go off randomly as well..

Dark amber eyes scanned over the miniature map in his hands, ignoring the stares he could feel burning holes into him at his random startled jump. “Problem with their suspicions of HYDRA killing-“ He bit his tongue, neck and arms twitching. “- Hill is there are no HYDRA sightings in our area until a month and a half after. Even then they’re scarce and very minor.”

“That doesn’t mean they couldn’t of been around.” Rhodey pointed out. Sam nodded in agreement.

“Tony, are you okay?” Bruce questioned, worry tinging his voice. The genius had twitched for the third time and it concerned him.

“Hm?” Tony glanced up, dark amber eyes meeting warm brown. “Yeah, just exhausted is all. Barely slept.” He brushed the question off, hoping no one else would ask or question him about it. Damn Strange and this collar.

The scientist gave him one last fleeting glance - Tony knew that one all too well, Bruce didn’t believe him - and looked away.

Others around the table were now giving him concerned looks. Tony was so going to give Strange a hard time about this. He was worried that even thinking his first name would zap him.

Natasha tore her eyes away from Tony, she was skeptical. Emerald eyes landed on the image of the energy signature. It wasn’t too big, just a small fluctuation from what it looked like. “What does this have to do with all of this?” She inquired, pointing to it.

Steve turned to look at it. “Fury believes it’s HYDRA, however he’s uncertain. The reading barely appeared on his radar apparently.”

Tony switched his miniature map out for the miniature of the energy reading, spinning it in his hands. “Yeah, it’s too small to appear on standard radars.. did they figure out what kind of energy signature this is?”

The blond super soldier shook his head. “Fury believes it’s magic of some kind, but he sounded extremely skeptical over the phone earlier.” He shrugged.

Rhodey raised an eyebrow. “Just when did they pick up on this reading?”

“Last night, roughly around midnight.” The blond replied, leaning on his elbow.

Natasha glanced to Tony quickly, emerald green eyes meeting dark amber. Tony tore his eyes away to look at the energy reading, the redhead wanted to know what was up. Of course she’d notice immediately. “And they didn’t send anyone out to investigate it?” He questioned, glancing over to Steve.

A shrug was his response. “Fury did send a few agents out to investigate the area it appeared, but according to those agents upon their return they didn’t find anything there.”

Tony bit down a smirk. He looked back to the energy reading, it was definitely from last night. Zooming in on the area it was located, he nearly burst into laughter. Strange had a sense of humour, that’s for sure. The location of the energy signature had been shifted to the other side of New York, completely opposite from where the sorcerer had teleported them last night. But that brought up another question, how had the sorcerer known someone would go looking for the source of it? Maybe he didn’t, maybe it was a chance he decided to take for fun.

“So why are we being informed of this..?” Bruce hesitantly brought the question to the light.

Steve looked over. “Because Fury wants us to keep a sharp eye out for any HYDRA agents.” He paused. “Also because Fury’s showing an interest in the dubbed Iron Phoenix after the murder of a teenager a few weeks ago.”

Clint rose an eyebrow, huffing. “Fury’s interested in that guy? Girl?.. Doesn’t matter. No one can get an eye on this.. person.”

“Probably why Fury’s interested, then.” Tony shrugged. “That guy wants control on absolutely anything that poses a threat to Earth; including us.” He grit his teeth on the word “Earth”, stupid electric collar! What kind of pleasure does Strange get out of this?

He shook his head, he challenged the sorcerer and lost. Fair is fair, they both had agreed on this.

When the others finally tore their gazes from him, the meeting continued. It was fairly short for the rest of it. Tony was thankful for that.

~~~~

The genius made his way down to his lab after the meeting, of course grabbing more coffee first. He knew Natasha would follow him in a few minutes - she wanted answers, he could tell.

Setting his coffee down, he’d wander around. Checking on the bots and ensuring they were alright. The three bots whirred and nudged him, and in return he ran a hand over them. Almost like having pets, but as machines. Tony chuckled, thinking of the many cybernetic animals he had wandering his mansion grounds.

Now those he’d have to show to Strange one day.

He turned at the sound of footsteps outside the lab approaching, the glass doors slid open after the proper code was punched in. His favourite redhead entered the room, heading directly for him.

The two greeted each other with a kiss to the lips. “Hey, hun.” Tony greeted with a smile.

“Hm, morning.” Natasha gave a small smile in return, sliding her hands up his arms to rest on his shoulders. “So tell me, what’s with all the random twitching during this morning’s meeting?” She raised an eyebrow.

A chuckle left Tony. “Remember the doctor I told you about?” He questioned in return. He got a nod in reply. “Well...”

Natasha grabbed the hood of his hoodie, pulling it down so it didn’t crowd his neck. It revealed the silver ring of metal wrapped around the engineer’s neck, reflecting the lights in the lab. Emerald eyes widened slightly.

She circled him, fingers trailing over the smooth metal as she went. The assassin couldn’t find any way that it had gone on.. weird. “Does that energy reading from last night have anything to do with your disappearance?”

A chuckle escaped the genius once again. “Caught me red handed, love.” He smirked, watching as she circled around him again.

“And that energy reading from last night?” Natasha pushed, wrapping her nimble fingers around the near skin-tight metal.

“Completely opposite direction of where he and I were.” Tony replied honestly. He stumbled back in surprise when she tugged on the metal. It didn’t budge from its position around his neck.

She narrowed her eyes in confusion when the metal didn’t budge against her strength. “Good.” The redhead circled around to stand in front of the brunet. “What exactly did he do to this? It doesn’t even move an inch when I pull on it.”

Tony rolled his shoulders, moving his head side to side. Barely feeling the metal collar around his neck. “It’s unbreakable, he made sure of that. Also won’t open to anyone but him.”

Natasha held a palm up, small flames dancing between her fingers. “I would try to melt it off, but that risks burning you.”

“That hasn’t stopped you before.” He raised an eyebrow at her.

Emerald eyes rolled in response. “You know what I meant, asshole.”

Tony grinned like a shark. “Why yes, I do have one-“ He burst into laughter when she reached out and slapped him.

“So how does this work?” Natasha motioned to the collar.

“It’s essentially a shock collar, but it’ll go off at certain words, or at random-“ Tony yelped, turning dark amber eyes to the ceiling and glaring.

“Like that?” Nat snorted in amusement.

“Yes. Just like that.” Tony grumbled, looking back to her. “You gonna hang around? I gotta work on my wings-“ He jolted, glaring at her when she giggled. “- messed them up last night.”

Natasha dropped herself into a chair, spinning around. “Sure, why not.”

Tony headed for his desk chair, dropping into it. He got to work, the hours ticking by. Occasionally making small talk with the redhead.

~~~~

It was later in the afternoon when Tony emerged from his lab. Nat had gone off to start her daily work out.

The brunet walked around the penthouse common area, hands shoved into his jean pockets. Dark amber eyes were trained on the floor to ceiling windows, staring off into the skyline of New York. Aimless thoughts wandering through his head.

The sun was lower in the sky, painting the city below in dark shadows. The tops of skyscrapers shone with the slowly disappearing sun as it lowered out of sight behind the tall buildings.

He loved early morning and late evening in this city, the sights this high up were gorgeous. Malibu was even more stunning, and he craved to go back there soon.

Tony had stopped to look at the city below, his posture relaxed. Weight balanced more on one leg as his dark amber eyes looked out longingly at the city. He really needed to go back to Malibu soon. The air was much fresher there.

The brunet was yanked backwards suddenly, someone’s cold fingers curled around the edges of the collar around his neck. He came in contact with a warm chest. The other person’s free hand pressed to the glass, trapping the genius.

Tony writhed in their grasp, his head tilted back suddenly via a tug on the metal collar. Dark amber met blue-green-grey eyes.

“Motherfucker-!” Tony yelped, the end of the word going up in pitch. “Stephe-!” The second jolt made him squirm and writhe in the male’s grasp, clawing at the air. He was panting and whining as it subsided.

The sorcerer - decked out in his robes and sentient cloak - let out a low growl, the hand against the glass snaking under his arms. Stephen’s arm lay diagonally across Tony’s chest, his scarred hand splayed out as he brought the shorter male flush against his chest. The hand grasping the collar snaked around and grasped his jaw, keeping his head tilted backwards.

“It’s d-dangerous for you to be here..” Tony panted, dark amber eyes unable to wander from those blue-green-grey ones.

“Shh..” Stephen squeezed his jaw, thumb massaging circles into the side of Tony’s jawline.

The genius quieted, relaxing against the ex-neurosurgeon. He was curious of why the male decided to show up now.

Feeling the male relax into him, Stephen gave a rare smile. “I came to check up on you. Making sure you’re still doing okay with this on.” His voice was quiet, only able to be heard if in really close range. But it was perfectly clear for Tony.

The enhanced genius thought it over, other than the zaps when he spoke certain words or even just at random, he was okay with it there. The metal was barely noticeable to him, and it gave him a sense of security.

After a few moments, he spoke up. “I’m alright, I don’t really notice it there other than getting zapped..” Tony replied just as quietly, gaze still locked with Stephen’s.

Stephen hummed, lightly running his fingers up and down the engineer’s jawline. “That’s good. So I’ll take that as you don’t want it off yet?”

“Yep.” Tony responded, basking in the physical contact. “Why do I have a feeling you’re gonna milk this collar for all it’s worth?”

A wicked smirk crawled over the male’s defined face. “I certainly don’t have a clue of what you mean.”

Tony gulped and squirmed in his hold, it becoming difficult to move as Stephen tightened his grip on him. A jolt ran through his body and he jumped, startled. He didn’t get very far as the sorcerer had him tightly flush against his chest.

Stephen suddenly broke eye contact, looking up and over to the left.

Tony wiggled in his tight hold, casting his dark amber eyes to the side in hopes of catching a glimpse of what had caught the male’s attention.

Stephen allowed his head to tilt to the left, but kept it tilted backwards.

Standing by the elevator, dumbfounded and frozen in place, was Steve Rogers staring open mouthed at the two. He had one foot placed in front of him, as if to intervene. Ocean blue eyes and azure blue-green were locked in a stare down.

The cloak swayed in irritation, whether that be Stephen’s irritation or it’s own, Tony had no clue.

Steve was the first to break eye contact from the intense glare he was receiving from the stranger, looking to Tony.

Tony mentally groaned, how long had the blond been there? And why hadn’t he picked up on the footsteps? Damn sorcerer and his distracting hot self. Had Stephen known the blond super soldier was there and was basking in the confusion of the male? Perhaps.

Stephen, his posture straight and weight balanced perfectly on his feet, raised an eyebrow at the blue eyed blond. He didn’t let Tony go, fingers still lightly running down the side of the engineer’s jawline.

“Can we help you?”