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Natasha’s bare feet slapped lightly against the cold floor as she headed down to the gym in Avengers Tower, a towel in her hand. Ever since the Chitauri invasion all of the Avengers (except Thor who went back to Asgard with Loki) moved into The Avengers Tower. It had been weird to see people you never thought you would wake up to in the morning sitting at the table for breakfast, or hear a quiet hum of ACDC from down in Tony’s lab. No one dare say it, but everyone was starting to worry for the mechanic. He barely ever surfaced from his lab and when he did he would walk up the stairs glare at everyone look at Pepper and say.
“There happy now” and would walk back to his lab for another sleepless night. Though there was a few times when they would find no trace of Tony in his lab and would grow concerned until he appeared around lunch time when everyone was at the table to walk over to the fruit bowl grab a piece of fruit and say the same thing to the eyes watching him that he said every day.
“There it’s even fruit” and would walk off, leaving everyone slightly relieved as they saw him walk away in his casual clothes, including a pair of joggers and a long sleeve top, even though it was Summer he was still wearing long sleeved tops. Natasha walked into the gym to find it occupied by a shirtless Tony. His muscly chest and six pack gleaming with sweat as he threw a punch at Steve’s punching bag that swung precariously from a chain that was connected to the ceiling.
But that’s not what she was looking at, she was looking at the long jagged lines that ran down his arms some were old scars and others in different stages of healing. His frame although muscly was severely underweight and she could see his body was calling out for sleep. He suddenly moved as fast as a bolt of lightning as he grabbed his top (long sleeved) and shoved it over his head tugging it down to cover his body.
Casually he walked past Natasha and gave her his most award winning shit eating grin he could’ve possibly of mustered. Natasha stood in shock at what she had just seen, barely anyone could render Natasha wordless. But she soon jumped back into action as she shouted for JARVIS “JARVIS!” Natasha called as she looked around the room “Yes, agent Romanoff?” JARVIS replied in his British accent “Call an Avengers meeting” she paused for a second before carrying on “and don’t tell Tony” She walked of back to the Avengers common room. She found Bruce and Steve sitting in their normal spots, Steve in his; small, old, dark red, leather arm chair, Bruce sitting by the arm of a cream sofa.
They looked up as Natasha entered “Where's Clint?” Natasha asked as soon as she walked in noticing that Clint’s spot was empty.
“Present!” Clint shouted as he crashed down through a vent above his spot on the middle of the cream sofa, somehow landing elegantly. After Clint and Natasha had sat down and were comfy Steve spoke up “So what’s wrong and where is Tony, surely he should be-“
“It’s about him Steve I saw something that I think we all need to know about” Natasha interrupted her face still held a slight look of remorse. "I found Tony in the gym . . . . And he didn't have a shirt on" Natasha stared at their faces as she carried on "He had scars on his arms and cuts . . . . I think he self-harms" Natasha blurted the last bit out so fast it took the team a little time to realise what she had just said.
Steve like the ever dramatic person he was shot up from his chair and walked to the door stopping in the door way and spoke over his shoulder. "We need to talk to him . . . . And now" Steve left the room and the other Avengers followed after a slight delay.
They stepped into the elevator and descended to the bottom floor. After Tony had left Natasha's sight he had headed straight for his lab. When he got there he ended up with 3 screwdrivers logged into the wall and a pocket knife pressed to his skin bringing beads of blood out from his skin and tears leaving the corners of my eyes.
He soon had 3 long and deep gashes on his right arm and 3 more on his left. It was his fault he had been so stupid keeping the door unlocked. "Sir the Avengers are approaching at a steady pace" JARVIS' cool British accent swept over the entire room as Tony quickly got to his feet pulling his black shirt sleeves down and getting on with tinkering with his cars.
The glass door slid open and the Avengers piled in to see Tony with his shirt on, face sweating as he pulled a car engine onto his desk and started to take it apart. The Avengers turned their attention to the 3 screwdrivers and then gave their full attention to Tony.
"Tony, we need to talk about this" Steve started off. "What’s wrong now spangles?" Tony muttered still fully engrossed in his work. Steve took a step toward Tony and pulled him by the neck of his t-shirt so he was facing the group. Tony stood startled for a few seconds before his mask went up and covered his face.
"Can I help you, kind of busy" Tony gestured to the motor of the car his eyebrows raised in a slightly mocking look. Steve looked at him and eyed his shirt sleeves that were somehow getting darker? Wait that's not possible.
"Take your shirt off" Steve was looking Tony straight in the eyes. "Oh Captain I didn't know you were the kinky type" Steve glared at Tony harshly "Tony" he warned, "Now then, as you can see I am very busy, so if you could just…" chuckling Tony gestured towards the door, Steve grabbed his arm and squeezed his hand tightly shut over it to stop him from moving away. Tony hissed in pain "son of a bitch" he muttered. Steve took his hand back which was now painted a dark red. "Tony?" Bruce questioned watching as Tony pulled his arm down to his side, he looked over to Steve who was staring at his hand which was red.
Everyone's eyes had widened in shock.
15.55% getting around them,
52.5% under them,
16.70% getting over them,
15.25% getting into the vents.
Tony duly noted doing the maths in his head as he made his choice. Steve and the rest Avengers were now all looking at him and Natasha opened her mouth to saying but didn't get a chance to as Tony slid under her, coming out on the other side mentally congratulating himself as he bolted up the stairs, the only two in tow that had recovered fast enough were Clint and Natasha.
Tony ran up the stairs and into the Avengers Towers his arms bleeding heavily now as he ran through the corridors, Clint and Natasha still behind him they hadn't thought he would be so fast.
Skidding around the corner he was somehow caught in a pair of strong arms that pulled him up and straight as another found their way around his waist. He tried to push them off away anything when people got close they only ended dead take Yinsen for an example.
But the hands held on strong and he soon gave up Steve and Bruce were soon there and Steve was yanking his sleeves up they all gasped as they saw the mess. The cuts were a lot deeper than they had meant to be and they were bleeding heavily it didn't help that he had also had a struggle.
Bruce all but ran to the kitchen to get the first aid kit from under the sink. Tony had been pushed to a sitting position carefully by the rest of the team and Natasha was whispering soothing Russian words into his ear in vain attempt to calm him before he went into a panic attack but he was already reliving some part of his life and was shaking. Bruce walked over with the first aid box in hand and sat down on the floor next to Tony and started to prepare some anaesthetic on a cotton pad.
The team tried to ignore the way Tony flinched away from Bruce but it was hard not to acknowledge it considering it was so violent. "This is going to hurt a bit" Bruce stated to Tony, he took the minuscule nod that Tony gave him to carry on.
As the cloth made contact with the skin Tony let out a hiss of pain. When Bruce was done they sent Tony to his room for the night. And they sat around the table with mugs of steaming liquids. The air smelling of an odd mixture of tea, hot chocolate and warm milk. "So, what are we going to do" Steve asked
"We watch him, help him" Bruce replied with a look of determination glinting in his eyes. Whilst everyone else had a look of despair in their eyes. "That's it? We just watch him?" Everyone was surprised to see Clint talking with such a caring tone in his voice.
"That's all we can do" Natasha stated "therapists and doctors will push him away" she carried on. Steve let out a sigh and stood up grabbing his cup of hot chocolate and walking to the elevator where JARVIS had already opened it for him. "I'll see you all in the morning" Steve stated as he walked away to the elevator and stepped into it, the doors closing behind him.
Natasha was the last one to head to bed, the door slid open softly as she entered Stark's room, moving over to his prone figure that was snoring lightly, she smiled gently to herself at that, no matter what Tony would deny that he snored, she lent over him in his bed and brushed his hair back from his face with long elegant fingers "It will all be okay my kotenok" almost out of instinct Tony muttered I'm not a kitten and rolled over slightly sighing in his sleep, Natasha's smile grew as she ran her thumb over his forehead one more time before she got up and went to her own room.