Total Systems Failure {Steve x Tony}

You're A Mess

"For god's sake," a voice huffed. It sounded irritated, annoyed.

He looked up, mind still swimming from the excessive drinking that had taken place during the train wreck that had been last night. "Mm?" The response he supplied was hardly acceptable. Hell, it wasn't really a response at all, rather a simple sound from the back of his throat that took little to no effort to produce.

"At least have the courtesy to take your sorry ass back to your room," the redhead explained, hip cocked in dark skinny jeans as she took to looking for something in the fridge. "Save us all the pain that comes from seeing your drunken mug. Honestly," her voice was riddled with a mixture of sarcasm and playful amusement as she looked back over, "Do you know how infectious that negative attitude is? You're even making Thor uncomfortable."

Thor? Oh, right. He'd since returned to Earth and was now taking up space in his tower - a building that used to be the Avengers' headquarters.

He shook his head, attempting to clear the fog. "Y'know, I would apologize," he started, looking at the very interesting display that was his dining room table before his eyes moved over to actually look at the other. "But then I'd be lying. Why does it matter?"

"Why does it matter if you lie?" she retorted, back to browsing as she leaned on the fridge door which remained propped open with her hand. "You act like you're so innocent to have not done it before." She retrieved a bottle of water finally, shutting the door and turning to properly face the man at the table. A smile played her painted lips, which were a nice nude shade.

He didn't understand why he noticed that bit, but he blamed his rotting mind. "Alright, you caught me." He put his hands up in mock-surrender before turning and standing from his chair. He stumbled over his own two feet, catching himself on the table. When he regained his balance, he brushed himself off. "I'm an alcoholic with a tendency to not tell the truth- oh wait, that's most of them."

She rolled her eyes with a small sigh. "All I'm saying is that it's a little hard to come downstairs if we know you're down here moping. We don't exactly want to be caught up in all this... mess."

Right. He ran calloused hands over his face, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and stretching. His mouth felt dry. He needed coffee. His body felt like lead. "Well pardon me if my mid-life crisis is getting in the way of you guys freely roaming my tower," he replied scornfully, "Last time I checked, none of you are required to stay here."

Okay, so he hadn't meant to put so much venom behind his words, but he was tired - tired and sad, oh so very, very sad.

She pressed her lips together in a firm line, watching as he moved past her and into the kitchen, his movements stiff and mechanical. She shook her head, cracking open the bottle and heading back upstairs. She paused, looking over her shoulder. "You know, we're your friends, Tony. And - as much as I  hate to say it - you can confide in us."

He didn't respond, too busy staring up at the pantry that held the various junk foods he often kept in stock.

Her brows knit together softly before she simply dropped the issue, continuing her trek back up to the level that held their hall of rooms.

{Hey guys, I know that this isn't a particularly long chapter and I'm sorry for that. I'm just having such a hard time focusing on things like this lately, but I'm gonna try my best to push this story so it actually starts going somewhere. It would definitely help if you guys could leave some feedback, either on what the story is so far or what you'd like to see, but it's not required. Thanks~}