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Tony hated spending heats alone.
It wasn’t unusual, though. This wasn’t anything new—it would hit him like a truck, and he would curl into his too-big-bed, smelling of nothing but himself, pheromones wild. As of now, they rang of bitter notes even to himself. He didn’t know how long he’d been in bed for, whether just a few minutes or a few hours. A shower didn’t help, and the familiar scent of a worn pillow of his was less comforting and more... disturbing. It made him more uncomfortable. Sad. He felt like throwing up.
Jarvis’s voice echoed through the pitch-black room. Sir, Doctor Banner is requesting your assistance in the lab.
Tony swallowed an unnerving amount of saliva and breathed harshly through his nose. “No,” he said, and only when he spoke aloud for the first time in a while did he realize he sounded sniffly. Only when he spoke aloud did he realize he’d been crying for a while now. There was a silence, and suddenly, even Jarvis’s absence felt jarring, despite Tony’s desperate attempts to be left the fuck alone.
Sir, I believe the team is starting to grow worried.
“I don’t care, Jarvis,” he choked out. “Tell them no. Whatever they want... no.”
Jarvis didn’t respond. Tony cried a little harder and held onto his stomach. Everything was aching terribly. He couldn’t stand the thought of anyone seeing him like this. He felt gross. It was maybe more manageable on better days—days where it wasn’t raining, and the coldness of his room wasn’t freezing him into place. But if he turned off the AC, he feared he’d burn alive with how much his skin itched.
His body, though, seemingly couldn’t stand the thought of being alone. There was a nasty pain in the middle of his chest, one that he knew would go away if he had a heavy, warm hand on him, somewhere. Even just the smell of soothing pheromones would cool his rapidly beating heart and the tears he couldn’t seem to stop, even if nothing in particular was making him cry.
He moaned out in slight pain, and realized that not only was his stomach sick from the swirling discomfort and anxiety from isolation during his heat, but he also hadn’t eaten in so long. Too long. He cried harder and shame swirled from it. If he could find strength in him to stand, he could maybe grab something to eat. But, despite this private floor of his, this room felt nothing like actual home, and the thought of wandering into an empty kitchen with an empty fridge only sickened him more.
Another hour or so passed. He floated in and out of uncomfortable sleep, dozing in between small sobs and self-soothing rubs to his scent glands. He took another few pills in the midst of it, but the physical heat kept him mostly awake. On a particularly rough sniffle, his stuffed nose caught something in the air, and all of his senses woke up at the same moment in a blinding mix of panic and strange relief.
“Jarvis,” he said unsteadily. His voice was hoarse.
Apologies, sir. This is needed.
Tony groaned, felt nauseous again, and tugged the duvet hard over him so he couldn’t see the light as it flooded the room. The sudden burst of scents—familiar scents—unlocked a very accidental noise in him, and he cried in his throat but not from his mouth.
There were no words, save from a sharp gasp from one of the men. Tony heard the door click closed, and the little pocket of light he could see through the duvet diminished, leaving him in the dark once more. Silence stretched for an uncomfortable minute as Tony held his breath.
“T—”
“Go away,” he whispered, unsure if they could hear him when he couldn’t even hear himself. The hair on the back of his neck was standing so on edge he thought of himself as some kind of porcupine. It would make him laugh if it were anybody else. But for him, all he could do was swallow around the lump in his throat and try to ignore the blaze in his chest and gut at the sudden smell coming from his doorway.
The men didn’t oblige to his request. He could tell through the thick scent, more than he could hear, that Bruce and Steve took hesitant steps closer. He hated how his body radiated a dire want, a betraying comfort shivering up his spine.
“Tony,” Bruce said. His voice was rough around the edges, a little more strained than usual, but Tony couldn’t find any of the shameful pity he expected to hear. It was mostly just… concern. They were careful, though. Tony bet they could smell his fear in the air, and neither alpha was willing to scare off an omega in such a depressive heat. That could be disastrous for all of them. Tony was weakened, but he wasn’t weak.
Steve came closer, ever the confident man, and Tony could feel the edge of the bed dip. “Tony,” the man said. He sounded more sure than Bruce, but there was that tell-tale sympathy that made Tony sick. “Come on, it’s just us.”
Just us didn’t process in Tony’s head. He didn’t care who it was. But, in his body, there was an undeniable urge to crawl out from under his nest and slam himself into Steve’s scent, his body, the warmth of an alpha, of another human being, of him.
Bruce approached next. The soothing mixture of both of their scents, in the same room, together—god, Tony was drowning in it, like mental whiplash as all of his body untensed. It was like they were doing this on purpose, coaxing him out with their pheromones. It didn’t even matter if they were, because it was working either way.
He felt cornered, but for some reason, that was the most safe he’d felt all day, as another part of his mattress gave way, this time to Bruce’s weight. Both men were now sitting on either side of his bed, no doubt looking at each other. Tony was trapped.
Bruce slowly pulled the blanket from his grasp, and he heard a small gasp. Bruce’s hand was cold to the touch—shocking, for how warm the doctor usually ran—when he touched Tony’s forehead. “Oh, you’re burning up, pup.”
Tony quivered at the nickname and joint touch. Steve’s curiosity led him next, and Tony felt another cold hand on him, this time on his forearm, close to the scent glands on his wrist. Tony shook lightly at the touch. “He is,” Steve said, talking not to Tony but to Bruce. “Want me to get him some water?”
Bruce must have nodded, because Steve’s weight disappeared and reappeared a few moments later. “Come on, Tony. Sit up.”
Tony didn’t make eye contact with either of them. He was still reluctant to accept anything, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up in defense, feeling his jaw ache, as if ready to bite. As if he could ever protect himself against two alphas while in this state. As if he needed to. Bruce and Steve were the last alphas he had to worry about, and he knew that in his heart as he slowly propped himself onto his hand and gently took the glass of water. It was refreshing, washing down some of his nausea as he sipped, before committing to drinking the whole thing. He was so dehydrated from panting and crying into the sheets and he didn’t even notice it.
A hand found its way to his head. Maybe Bruce’s. Maybe Steve’s. It didn’t matter. All he could process was the comforting pressure and a soft voice saying, “good, good.”
He looked at Steve first. Handing back the glass, he shamefully lifted his eyelids, revealing to the alpha his eyes and all their red-rimmed glory. Steve’s face was softer than Tony had ever seen it, and when they made eye contact, their scents mixed in a rush, and Tony unwillingly sighed in contentment. Steve left to put the glass back somewhere safe, and a finger on his chin brought Tony’s head the other way, to Bruce.
“Hey.”
Tony still couldn’t find his words, but he spoke with his eyes. His body ached painfully. Bruce seemed to know, without him having to say anything, because his hand trailed down Tony’s cheek to his shoulders and arms, gently squeezing at his tender skin while strictly avoiding the swollen sides of his neck.
The rough touch was good. He was so sensitive that even the brushing of the sheets made him flinch if they hit him wrong, so Bruce’s sturdy, strong hands massaging out the aches in him naturally calmed him.
Steve came back, and only then did Tony realize he could barely find his own scent anymore. He was finally free of the physical weight of his sorrow, and both alphas looked calmer now that the stench had been muffled out by a more dominant, soothing smell.
“You’re running a fever,” Steve said at his side, joining Bruce’s grounding touch by rubbing his flat palm against Tony’s spine. Tony grumbled comfortably in his chest at the feeling. He’d never been pet before. He didn’t expect either of them—Bruce nor Steve—to want to pet him. To trust getting close enough to do so.
Who was Tony kidding? Let alone being pet, he hadn’t been taken care of before, period. He didn’t ever have someone near him in heat, whether it be packmates or family. He preferred riding out his heat alone, even if it required the brief period of suffering that came with a particularly gloomy week.
After a moment, Tony finally swallowed again, and he got hold of his vocals again. “I’m sorry,” he croaked, crowding in on himself. Steve’s eyes widened.
“No, no,” he said, tone suddenly stern, straightening his shoulders.
“Steve, careful—”
Steve cut Bruce off, and the spike in his pheromones shut Bruce up quickly. “No. He shouldn’t be apologizing. This is our fault. We both knew something was up, and we should’ve been here sooner.” Steve clenched his free hand and unclenched it. Tony could tell he was blaming himself—no alpha can easily stomach the feeling of an omega, especially a friend, being isolated like this for so long.
“We’re here now,” Bruce murmured, ever the voice of reason. He reached over Tony’s body to grab Steve’s curled fist, slowly unfurling his fingers until they were holding hands. “Let’s take care of him now that we can, okay?”
Steve took a startling breath through his nose before exhaling it calmly from his mouth. He nodded reluctantly. Tony felt in awe watching the two communicate in a way he’d never seen before. The nonverbal motions between the two alphas—Steve as the strongest but Bruce as the wisest—made him feel immensely safe.
“Tony, baby,” Bruce started, “tell us what you need.”
Steve looked at him with wide, waiting eyes. He was kind of cute this way. Tony always thought so, but he suddenly felt familial in a way he hadn’t felt before. His glands pulsed, and Steve flushed. He could tell what Tony was feeling. “I don’t know,” he ended up saying, leaning further into the hands that were now playing in his hair—Bruce’s fingers, he knew—while his eyes wandered Steve’s face and torso.
Steve looked weakened, like he could finally let his guard down now that his senses knew no threat. He glanced over at Bruce. Bruce nodded.
“Tony, I...” Steve started, but he resorted to moving his hands delicately instead, asking for what he wanted by dipping in and tilting slightly toward Tony’s neck. Tony flinched, and Steve took that as the warning it was and paused.
“Yes,” Tony said, despite his body’s hesitance. Having Steve soothe his glands was intimate. It would probably hurt, just at first, but he needed pressure there and the swelling pain was too much to bear, driving his fever higher all day. He wanted it gone. “Yeah.”
He bared his neck towards Steve’s mouth, and the alpha firmly pressed his nose under the crux of his jaw. He breathed deep, and then Tony was fully blinded by only Steve’s pheromones. The only reason he knew Bruce was still there was the man’s hand now rubbing soothing circles into his thigh.
Steve’s tongue was wet, hot—lava, really—when it first landed on Tony’s neck. But it quickly turned into the soothing water over a wild brushfire, the alpha’s saliva acting as a layer of protection between the open air and Tony’s glands. He twitched and writhed, but Bruce pet gently at him and it was bearable until—
Tony yipped when Bruce dipped in to the other side of his neck. It was like instead of breathing in oxygen, he was breathing in the musk of both men, and their mouths were these wicked little things taking away all the pain and sadness and turning it into a pleasurable, devastating mix of sensation.
Tony closed his eyes and sat back like that for a while. He didn’t know how long, and didn’t care, and eventually, Steve pulled back, leaving just Bruce scraping his teeth gently across the sensitive skin there before he, too, removed himself. Both them had saliva-slicked lips, a darker haze in their eyes. Like something in them had been satisfied by taking care of Tony.
“How are you feeling?” Bruce asked, shuffling onto his back so he could sit propped up against the headboard. Tony, without thought, lifted his neck from the pillows beneath him and curled his torso almost perfectly around the man’s thighs. Bruce let out a protective, satisfied growl, and Tony shivered again.
“Good,” he muttered into the man’s pants. They smelled so much like him, like Bruce, like Tony’s lab, a comforting place on Earth, that Tony wanted to take them off and wear them around his head. Steve’s body heat came from behind him and he shuffled until he was sitting upright next to Bruce, the lower half of his body nesting Tony into the space between them.
Tony looked up, eyes feeling heavier and shoulders feeling lighter than either did when they first walked in. Steve wasn’t speaking, looking dazed from soothing Tony. His canines were fully retracted, his mouth hanging open comfortably. Bruce followed Tony’s gaze to see Steve’s expression, and he smiled a bit before tilting his head awkwardly and kissing Steve.
Tony’s eyes widened. “What—”
Bruce shushed him for a minute, kissing Steve’s cheek and forehead and playfully nipping at his ear, ruffling his hair. Tony had never seen two alphas be affectionate like that before, and it came so naturally to the both of them, as if Bruce and Steve...
“But...”
“Shh, pup, it’s okay,” Bruce willed.
Steve opened his eyes, even more blissed and satisfied. He brought his hand to Tony and started rubbing his head like he was a dog. Tony wanted to deny the omega in him, but it won over, submitting as he turned and exposed his neck and stomach again. Steve dipped down and licked at him a little more, like he was grooming him.
“We would have been better alphas,” he spoke into Tony’s neck, back curved to reach different parts of his sweaty skin, “we could have done better.”
“Steve, stop beating yourself up,” Bruce said, exasperated. “We’re taking care of him now. See? Fever's almost gone...”
“You guys... planned this?”
“Not this,” Steve growled. “Not leaving you alone. But taking care of you, yes. We figured something was wrong, when...”
Bruce picked up the thought when Steve had reduced his frustrations to gentle teething at the soft part of Tony’s skin to the right of his Adam’s apple.
“When we found out you were an omega a few months ago. We figured you were able to manage your heats with something or someone. Clearly, we were wrong.”
“I told Bruce something was wrong when I picked up your smell the other day...”
Bruce sighed. “Steve’s nose is better than mine, I admit. I’m getting old.”
“So you guys wanted to? All this time? As... alphas?” Tony couldn’t push Steve away, but the man got the point, sitting back up and leaning his head on Bruce’s shoulder to look back at him.
“Nothing like that,” Steve snarled. “But, well, we couldn’t deny, we both wanted to bond you. You’re our packmate, Tony.”
Bruce nodded. “And it really sets the rest of us off when we can smell your distress. Makes it really hard to focus.”
“If you would let us, this could be avoided in the future—”
“Steve, be gentle,” Bruce commented under his breath. Tony’s head was spinning, trying to follow—both Bruce and Tony wanted to bond with him to prevent his heats from happening like this again. What did that mean for them? For the team? Was that even possible? “Tony, you don’t have to think about it right now. Even if you say no, we’re happy to help with any of your heats. If that’s what you want. But, I will say, I highly recommend you lean toward yes, or at least find... someone else who can help.”
Tony’s eyes flitted between the two, and he could tell in both of their gazes that they weren’t really keen on ‘someone else’ being the solution here. He sighed, taking into account how much better he felt; he was both physically and emotionally relieved, soothed so his heart rate was back to resting, and both alphas had gently scented his room and cooled his glands for him. All this, and Tony didn’t even have to ask.
Who else would he trust, but these two alphas?
“...Okay. Let’s do it.”