Chapter Text
Part of Iron Man was Jarvis- sometimes his split decisions saved Tony’s life when there was too much to process during a battle. The other part of Iron Man was him, Tony Stark, fallible but a genius.
Tony had dozens of words and phrases, mostly in Klingon to avoid a passing phrase suddenly making all of his armor disengage- to serve at triggers for protocol, to get autonomous control of the suit, to fire an EMP, to completely take over in case he became unable to fight, to remove all or some of his armor-
Sometimes, Jarvis was an asshole and ignored the trigger words, altogether deleting all of his knowledge of the Klingon language.
There was a last-minute spurt of his repulsors as Tony landed, Jarvis overriding the protocol that had just slipped instinctively out of his mouth, landing too hard at too high a speed. The uneven ground slid under him as he stumbled, Jarvis sighing as he distantly confirmed Tony had broken his ankle.
The pain shooting up his leg was also distant as he tried to continue moving, to get to where Steve was laying in an unnatural position, still, turned away from him. Some of the bullets had gone right through him, Jarvis identifying what organs could have been damaged as Tony took in the large holes-
Steve must have already passed out, the pulse right in front of his eyes faint as Tony dropped down heavily to his knees, turning Steve over as everything dimmed.
“qaD-”
“Sir, I cannot retract your faceplate, I need to scan-”
“We both know it’s bad, legh vIleghjaj-”
“Your HUD is processing visual intake at eighty per-”
Tony tore off the helmet, throwing it at the ground as he moved, pulling Steve’s limp body onto his lap just as the rest of his armor locked with a final click .
The metal of his gauntlet felt too rough as he brushed the hair out of Steve’s already pale face before ghosting his hands over the bullet wounds piercing his stomach. The shield arced Steve’s back as he laid over it, blood starting to gather in it, and Tony numbly took it off his back, not knowing where it went as he returned to Steve’s pale face.
“Baby, stay with me, stay with me-”
Tony shook him, and Steve groaned, muscles twitching in his neck, Tony barely turning him onto his side to vomit blood before it pooled in front of them, the sound stopping Tony’s breaths.
“Wh’t-”
Tony shook him again as he whispered, and Steve opened his eyes, trying to focus on Tony and failing.
“You’ve been shot, you need to stay awake.”
“T’rd.”
“I know, but please stay with me, I love you-”
Steve blinked slowly a few times at that before trying to lift his arm, Tony hastily helping it move to cup his cheek.
“Too-”
“Then stay with me, Steve, I love you, I love-”
Tony looked up blindly, rocking back and forth as he let out a guttural sound somewhere between a sob and a yell, barely inhaling before screaming again.
Someone was in his face, squatting down with both hands on his shoulders, shaking him as they yelled.
A sharp pain spread out from his cheek as they slapped him, and Tony blinked, processing Natasha in front of him, the Hulk’s roars of intense anger, the sound of Clint’s bow, he must be nearby-
Steve was being moved off his lap to somewhere.
Tony grabbed at him, holding too tightly, dragging his limp form up to bury his face in Steve’s sweaty hair as Natasha fought to get him out of Tony’s grasp.
“Tony, I need to inspect the wounds, you need a helmet-”
“He’s dying, please let me-” his voice broke.
Natasha inhaled heavily, placing her hands softly on Tony’s cheeks. “He’s not dying today, please let go, you’re hurting him.”
Tony shook his head, starting to rock again, Natasha slowly getting Steve out of his grasp as he weakly protested.
Once Steve was laying on his back, there was a blur of movement before his helmet clicked back on, locking. It wasn’t coming off until Jarvis said it was.
Natasha was screaming for Thor’s cape for bandaging, Clint holding him back as he tried to grab Steve again, the sound of bullets on the shield as Natasha got into the harness, throwing the shield on her back, ducking her head to try to make it cover her as she bent over Steve-
-something hit the side of his helmet, everything glowing bright and loud before everything went black.
X
-Thor’s armor was squashed into Tony’s face as he slowly came to, leaning back to peel his face off the round plating near Thor’s shoulder.
Everything around him was bright and shiny, slightly out of focus as the fog refused to lift out of his mind. Thor was jostling him as they ran, Tony looking around blurrily to see Clint and Natasha supporting Bruce as they ran, ran behind a gurney-
Steve.
Tony weakly fought to get out of Thor’s grasp, his breathing speeding up as more of the world got through, everyone screaming. Fighting to get out of Thor’s hold was useless, but he had to get to Steve.
They all reached what he assumed was an operating room, pulling the gurney through a set of double doors, nurses holding them back.
Tony was screaming again, his eyes fixed on the seam of the doors that was separating him from Steve as he collapsed to the cold floor. Several people were gripping his shoulders - to hold him back or to comfort, he didn't know - his mind racing too fast to keep up with as the crowd that was gathering behind him squeezed all of the air out of the bright room.
His throat rebelled against his agony, and his eyes shut as a wave of pain washed over him.
The crowd pressed closer, the hands slipping under his arms and around his waist, bundling him somewhere as the life drained out of him. Eventually, his cheek was replastered to Thor's armor as they walked in a small sea of nurses and agents.
Thor tightened his grip as if to transfer strength to Tony as he bobbed back to darkness.
X
Tony woke slowly, ambling in the dark behind his eyelids as consciousness rolled down his body, noting everywhere he hurt- and god , did he hurt. A super warm hand gripped his, and his heart spread tendrils of calm out into the pain until he realized how small it was- how it wasn't-
Natasha started awake blearily from beside his bed as he shot up.
"Steve."
She blinked at him a couple of times.
"Steve." Tony's voice was barely a whisper, his throat was so sore.
"Uh-" she shook herself, sniffing and squeezing his hand. "-he'll live. Not much, but the last update we got."
He collapsed towards her, forehead on the scratchy triskelion sheets as his shoulders curled inward, a wad of tension diffusing from his stomach.
He’ll live.
“Nat, his concussion-”
Clint’s voice cut through the fog, and she eased him up slowly, hand behind his neck as if it would spontaneously snap, and he gave her a look which she very pointedly ignored as the others gathered around the base of the bed. Or Clint and Thor did. Bruce was pacing anxiously near the door, arms crossed.
Tony tried to ask what was wrong, only producing a cough that shook his whole body.
“Dude, you screamed so fucking loud at Steve and at that door, you probably won’t speak for a week.”
“-anyways-” Clint glanced over his shoulder at Bruce before looking back at Tony. “-He won’t tell us what’s up, and we’ve been asking him for hours.”
“I’m allowed to worry!” Bruce bit out, sitting heavily in a chair, his leg promptly starting to jump.
Tony slapped the bed to get their attention, gesturing at Natasha.
“They told us they stabilized him, and that he’d live.” She shrugged, sighing. “I’m sure we just have to wait. That surgery on Clint took 6 hours that one time.”
Bruce grumbled.
“Here.” Clint placed a water bottle in Tony’s hand, the plastic crinkling loudly in the quiet room as he opened it and drank.
“Bruce-” Tony tested, his throat still very much on fire, but he ignored it. “Bruce is there something we need to know- I need to know about my-”
“Boyfriend?” Clint finished sarcastically, Tony ignoring him.
Bruce was definitely avoiding his eyes.
If that’s how it was going to be - “Where’s my phone.”
Clint raised a curious eyebrow.
“Wasn’t a question.”
Thor dug in a pile of their stuff, pulling out Tony’s phone and handing it to him.
Tony checked Bruce, giving him another chance before sighing, steeling himself.
“Sir-”
He overrode Jarvis, pulling up a hologram of their marriage certificate.
Clint, Thor, and Natasha screamed, Bruce not even glancing their way as he sighed.
“Tony, SHIELD wouldn’t have allowed it.”
“Why? We’re both adults-”
“You and Steve are MARRIED?”
Natasha slapped Clint as Bruce finally looked at them, his arms wrapped around himself.
“Tony, the serum- Natasha, Steve, and I aren’t-” He cut off, biting his lips, shaking his head. “We aren’t human.”
X