Angsty Tony One-Shots

Tony Understood

Everyone knew Anthony Edward Stark did not like to be touched.
Pepper was the first to figure that out.

After Iron Man came walking out of Afghanistan, he had changed.
And it drove him and Pepper apart.

Every time Pepper moved to touch her boyfriend, he would flinch and tense under her hand. And so she stopped touching him in the hope of bringing him comfort, and with the expectation that he would turn around soon.
He didn't.

"I can't do this Tony. I'm sorry, but you're not the same man anymore."

-:•:-

Natasha found out next.
She was very good at reading people, and all the signs pointed to the same conclusion... Tony Stark did not react well to being touched. Whenever someone even brushed pass him, he would tense up immediately.
Before Afghanistan, it was obvious that the man was already not the type for physical affection, but after the dessert... The hero barely made contact with anyone.
With skilful movements and charming smiles, Tony avoided every touch. And so when Natasha met the man officially, as herself, she only nodded. She wouldn't push her teammate to accept a touch.

-:•:-

Bruce was very confused.
Tony clearly avoided touch, even more than Bruce did. He poked Banner with a pen, when he clasped a hand on someone's shoulder he quickly pulled back.
The scientist assumed it was because everyone had their own demons, and so if his friend didn't want to be touched, Bruce wouldn't push.

The odd thing was though... he was so different with his robots.

Tony touched his robots continuely. And a lot more than necessary, Bruce was convinced he actually petted them. The engineer brushed along the arm of Dumm-E, and lazily wrapped an arm around You.
Actually, the most surprising thing was, the bots touched Tony as well. Bruce had imagined, with Anthony's aversion to touch, that he wouldn't let his bots touch him either. But quite the opposite. His robots touched him all the time. They rested their arms against him, and stayed as close as possible. It would have been cute, if it wasn't so out of character for Iron Man.

-:•:-

When the Avengers moved into Stark tower, now named Avengers tower, they quickly figured out how much Tony loathed being touched.
Natasha and Bruce already knew. Clint got a rant from Nat about it, so he knew. Steve noticed the day they arrived. Only Thor needed a heads up from the others. But the god quickly understand, so aside from a hug at arrival, there were no further incidents.
Tony had welcomed them inside his home, and retreated back into his lab.

The others barely saw him. He only came out to get some food so now and then, and whenever there was a mission. Otherwise, Iron Man was hidden away.

Steve wouldn't let that happen though. Every night he would go down to the workshop and try to coax Jarvis into letting him enter.
Every time he was denied entrance. And so the team had bonding nights without Tony. It didn't feel right though. Like a part of them was missing.

This had to change, but they couldn't force their teammate and friend to enjoy their company.

-:•:-

Big blue bags tainted Anthony's eyes, showing the world his exhaustion. Or, it would show the world, but he was safely locked away in his workshop. The one place where no one would judge him. He was safe here. It was home.