x

Chapter One

It was a wonderful morning, the sky was a deep blue and the air smelt oddly of roses as Daniel slowly slid from between the silk covers, his feet curling as they first touched the cold, stone floor of his room. Chills ran up his body as he slid on a thick, wool sweater and a pair of worn jeans before he crept into the empty kitchen directly across from his empty room and that lead down an empty hall where there were three more equally empty rooms and a small bathroom with one tooth brush, one towel and one, pitiful robe that Daniel only wore on his worst of days. He cooked himself one, sad egg on dry, wheat toast before once again crawling back to his room, where he sat for another hour, trying to eat. After eating the egg and throwing the toast and plate across the room in a fit of rage, Daniel slipped on a pair of worn slippers and slid down the hallway that met with a dull black, turning the knob before stepping out into yet another hallway. Windows, directly across from Steven's door reminded him that he stood on the fifty-first floor of the Stark tower, sadly they were now bullet proof and could withstand even Daniel's hits. After Daniel's first attempt at his life Tony had all the windows in his tower replaced, not that jumping off the tower would actually kill him. God, did Daniel wish to die. He wanted to die more than anything, but he never could, even if one of his atoms ever survived, Daniel would wake up. He slowly looked to his left as Tony's door swung open and a thinly framed girl stepped out, one more chip on Tony's belt. She smiled at Daniel as she walked down the wall, receiving an angry sneer from the man that barely turned his head from the window. The woman had to slide between the wall and Daniel, careful to not touch any part of him, making him more and more miserable as his eyes grew strained and he carefully bit on the inside of his mouth, to stop a scream from escaping his lips. Luckily woman walked down the hall and escaped into the elevator before tears began to form in his eyes. Quickly the quiet sound of his crying turned into sobs and sobs into screams, drawing out a sleepy Tony.

"Hey, Danny are you ok, did the girl say something, do I need to get wade," he reached out a hand to Daniel before crumpling it and placing it in his pocket to mimic his other one. Tony had moved next to Daniel soon after he had began jumping from the roof to try to kill himself, even Friday was ordered to monitor Daniel's every move and was to report everything to Tony. Since Tony had moved to Daniel's floor, Daniel barely stepped out of his room, his mail and groceries were delivered on Friday and no one saw him otherwise. That is, before this morning.

"No, no, I'm fine just give me a minute," Daniel said, quickly regaining his composure.

"Haven't seen you in a while, I knocked on your door last night, but you didn't answer, I had to get Friday to check on you," Tony looked pained as he attempted to pull Daniel back to the real world.

"Tony, stop, just stop, I don't need you and I would much prefer it if you would move back to your floor," Daniel said as he quickly wiped the tears off his cheek before standing up. Tony's eyes widened as he saw how skinny Daniel had become in the span of a week.

"Danny are you eating, you have to eat, I know what you are going through is hard, but you still have to eat," Daniel physically flinched at the mention of his not eating and turned to stare, hard into Tony's eyes.

"I'm trying hard Tony, but I just can't get myself to," emotion slowly began to bleed into his words, it had been a while since he had talked to Tony, or to anybody for that matter and he hadn't realized how much he had missed conversation.

"Ok well I have some stuff in my lab that might help, let me bring you down there, everyone has missed you," Tony nearly begged, reaching out for Daniel's hand.

"Don't touch me, you know what will happen, Just like with-," Daniel froze, tears once again welling up in his eyes.

"What happed with him was a fluke, you saved so many people, you just had so much power in your body, it wasn't your fault," Tony grabbed Daniel's had firmly and pulled him down the hall to the elevator, that almost immediately opened up and carried them both down to the lab where Bruce, Jane, and Pete were already working, while Wade sat behind Peter occasionally making butt jokes, but mostly toying with Peter's mind.

"Danny! You're back, we've missed you," Wade leapt up to hug the extremely thin male, "you're so thin, are you even eating."

"I'm fine Wade, really, go back to harassing you're boy-toy," Daniel said as he pushed Wade back with a slight smile and turned to see Jane.

"Finally get tired of toast and eggs, huh, I'll bring you up some sandwiches," Jane spoke with a kind voice as she embraced Daniel tightly, before stepping back. Peter quickly gave Daniel a warm hug before stepping back.

"So how long are you going to grace us with your presence this time, we could all watch a movie or something," said Peter happily, drawing hopeful looks from everyone in the room.

"Guys lets just get him some food and then we'll talk more from there, oh and Bruce can you hand me some of those b-12 supplements," Tony quickly refocused the room, causing Daniel to relax once more.

"Yeah, here you go," Bruce crossed the room with a brisk pace, handing Tony a pill bottle and bringing Dan into a deep embrace before stepping back.

"A move sounds nice, actually, I'll have to change though," Dan said while taking three of the pills that Tony handed him, rolling the last in his palm before gulping it down as well.

"Yeah, we'll be in the living room," Peter sang as he put away his laptop, drawing nods from all around the room.

As soon as Tony and Daniel stepped out of the room all four Avengers looked at each other in surprise, "What the fuck, when was the last time he even came down to the lab," Wade spoke in surprise.

"And he's so skinny, I know he can't die but wow, that poor man," Jane added on.

"We need to do something, what happens if he just stops eating altogether," Peter said, edging closer to Wade without knowing it.

"I did that once and it is terrible," murmured Wade, "But now you won't let me go on missions without it so," he pointed at Peter accusingly.

"Oh, please Wade you love when I do that," Peter said while stepping back, "well we should go tell the others." The group slowly dissipated before meeting once again, but this time in the communal living room and with far greater numbers. Daniel and Tony were the last to enter the room and Matt(daredevil) quickly turned to face Tony before greeting Daniel and siting on the Far end of the long black couch. Steven and Loki(his story will be explained later) broke away from each other just for long enough of a time to greet Daniel, Thor gave him a hug that lifter him off the ground, followed by Bucky, Wanda and Vision who gave Daniel an awkward hug before joining Wanda on the couch.

"Where's Clint?" asked Daniel.

"Uh he's with his wife and kids tonight," answered Tony.

"Oh good I hope he has fun, and Darcy and Sam," once again questioned Dan.

"Well Darcy is meeting Sam's mom tonight actually, she was pissed when I told her you were out, she'll probably knock down your door the second she gets here," called Steve as he wrapped his arms around Loki.

"And I see you two are screwing, thank god, when people are hiding things their thoughts get so loud," Daniel said before sitting on a leather chair, making Peter slightly blush.

Tony started the movie and Wade attempted to cuddle with Peter which led to both of them on the floor, fighting for a blanket, which made Daniel smile for the first time in months.