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He was tired. He was so, so tired, and absolutely famished.
Tony had surely noticed by now, in the way Stephen was sulking where he walked. But he didn’t sulk because he was tired, no. The exhaustion wasn’t the problem, and neither was the famine. He was sulking because of the reason for those two states of being.
“Are you thirsty?” Tony asked suddenly, voice filled with cheer, breaking Stephen out of his thoughts.
He stopped in his tracks and looked up at Tony, not quite wanting to meet his eyes. He tried a smile, but it faltered. “No” he answered - a lie. His voice felt raspy in his throat. Tony didn’t look convinced, so Stephen pulled his gaze back to the floor and resumed his pacing.
“You’re not lying to me again, are you?” Tony said.
Stephen felt guilt rise in his being, causing the muscles in his back and neck to tense. He fought not to pull his shoulders upward. Yes, he was lying, again . He didn’t like lying, especially not to Tony, but sometimes the lie was better than the truth. He was famished, but he wanted a better way to solve it. Something that didn’t involve digging his teeth into someone else’s flesh.
“I’m not drinking your blood” he said with finality. His voice was definitely raspy, more so than he expected. He cleared his throat once while he kept pacing.
“Okay” the other man said from where he was standing. It knocked Stephen off his tracks. He stopped and turned his head to look at Tony once more. That was not the answer he had expected. But the look on the man’s face was genuine, and his tone of voice lacked any sort of venom. Stephen narrowed his eyes as he kept looking, trying to see through a potential facade.
“Okay..?” he asked slowly.
“Okay” Tony said again. “You don’t have to drink my blood, but you should drink some blood”. Stephen pressed his lips into a line. He knew what Tony was going to say next. “You’re starving yourself. I’m in physical pain just from looking at you”.
Now the wizard sighed and let the tension fall away with the exhale. He couldn’t hide from Tony anymore. He had learned to recognize the signs months back.
The engineer walked closer to him and put both hands up to cup Stephen’s face. “Stop doing this to yourself, Steph. You need to drink something” Tony said. Stephen couldn’t help but think that it sounded like he was begging. Then again, he supposed he was actually slowly killing himself.
“Fine, but it won’t be you”. Stephen whisked Tony’s hands away from his face before they became unbearable.
“What about Wong?” Tony suggested, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Have you asked him?”.
“Vampires can’t drink from other vampires”.
“Right”. Tony’s gaze dropped to his feet. “Forgot about that”.
Stephen sighed with defeat. He reached out with trembling hands to lightly grab Tony’s elbows with the tips of his fingers. Tony stepped closer so Stephen could put his arms around him if he wanted to. The wizard elected to keep his hands placed on Tony’s biceps.
“I just don’t like it when you starve yourself for me”. Tony’s voice sounded small - too small for the great man he was. Stephen steeled himself and pulled him in closer to his chest.
“You don’t like it when I drink” he mumbled into the engineer’s hair.
“Well, I like it even less when you don’t drink” Tony argued.
“I know” Stephen whispered, pressing a kiss to the top of Tony’s head. “I’ll ask Christine. There’s usually something in storage at the hospital”. He pulled away from the hug and grabbed the sling ring at his belt.
“Is she in?”. Tony looked at him with furrowed eyebrows, arms crossed over his chest.
“She works late on Fridays. She’ll be there” Stephen assured, offering Tony a smile as he got to work with opening a dimensional gateway to Metro General. He was about to step through, but hesitated and turned. “I won’t be long”.
“I certainly hope not” Tony said, immediately lighting up and straightening his back. “I might start to think you prefer other people than me to hang around”.
Stephen felt an honest smile spread on his lips. “No, Tony, there’s no one else that has caught my attention like you”. He reached for Tony’s hand, pulled it up to his lips, and kissed it.
“Flatterer” Tony mumbled, his free hand flying up to rub the back of his neck.
“Only the truth” Stephen assured. He let the hand go and turned to walk through the gateway, stopping on the other side to throw a look over his shoulder. “No one tastes like you” he mumbled.
“I heard that!” Tony was barely able to shout before the gateway started to close. Stephen saw the smugly grin and threw a grin back, before the gateway closed completely and left little yellow sparkles hanging in the air, before they dissipated into nothing.