How to Piss Off A Super Soldier. By: Thor Odinson

How to Lull A Super Soldier to Sleep. By: Clint Barton

It had been two weeks since Thor left for business on Asgard, and too be frank, Steve wasn't looking great. His face was extremely tired looking and sunken in, as if he hadn't been eating or sleeping. It wasn't by choice exactly, he was never that needy boyfriend. To anyone. But whenever he slept alone his nightmares were brutal, and he'd fall asleep at nine and wake up at midnight, tears in his eyes and unable to fall asleep out of fear that they'd come back.

With lack of sleep came lack of energy, which meant he almost didn't have the strength to eat some days, like his hunger had disappeared. He was reading the newspaper one day, the round belly annoyingly getting in his way, and tried to focus on the news. "hey there Bella Swan." Tony teased, sitting next to him on the couch. "What...?" "I'm sorry would you prefer Rosemary Woodhouse?" "Tony what are you talking about?"

Obviously his references were flying way over his head. "Come on I'm running out of sickly pregnant characters." He whined almost, sighing deeply and staring at him. "Okay listen here balloon," He was a bit nervous he'd get hit, but it seemed he didn't even have the energy for that. That made him even more nervous for his friend. He didn't even have the energy to smack him! "You look like you are going to die or passout any second, and I really don't want to look at that. Are you alright? ...getting enough sleep?" Tony asked awkwardly, how did you deal with this situation anyways?

It was difficult enough to have compassion and care about others, it took even more so with Steve, and even more than that with a five months pregnant Steve. "Tony I'm fine." He scoffed, shaking his head and grunted as he was yanked to his feet and pulled in front of a mirror. His hair was thin, his cheeks were a bit sunken in and his eyes were almost black they were so dark. "I... See your point..." He muttered awkwardly.

"Look, I know you aren't one for complaining, god knows how, but you need to say what's wrong if there's something Steve." The brunette persisted. "Nothing's wrong!" He continued. Tony almost rolled his eyes. They were so alike but so different at the same time. But they did have the same emotional process: hide at all costs. "How many hours do you sleep a night?" "8 or 9?" "Now how many hours do you actually sleep at night?" "...2 or 3..." He sheepishly muttered, scratching the back of his neck.

"That's not enough to live off of!" "You do it all the time!" "Well, one: I'm not knocked up, and two: I can have as much coffee and redbull as I want." Tony reminded him, taking a deep breath and almost looking to the sky, as if begging Thor to return. Steve might not've been his best friend, or even exactly a friend for that matter, but he couldn't watch his captain look like he was dying.

He took a deep breath and almost growled, "you are going to go into that room and you are going to take a nap alright?" He stubbornly asked, playing mother bird momentarily because obviously Steve wasn't taking care of himself. "It's 2:30 in the afternoon." "Does it look like I care? go on, shoo." He ordered, pushing him into the bedroom and playfully tucking him in. "There? Okay?" "Okay..." Steve mumbled tiredly, curling up and falling asleep, having woken up two hours later with a scream that pierced the tower.

At this, Clint was actually the one to check on him, as he was the only one in the living room next to his room. "Hey, you alright?" He asked quickly, looking around as if searching for an enemy. "It... It was just a nightmare, nothing really." He brushed off, shaking his head and looking down at his lap.

Then he asked the question that was rather obvious at that point. He smirked a bit, "You need a cuddle buddy don't you? To keep the nightmares away?" Steve nodded, ashamed looking. "Thor's been gone for... three weeks?" He nodded again, sniffling. "Right..." He muttered, running a thumb over his lower lip in thought.

"Have you tried a pillow?" He nodded. "something to protect yourself at bedside?" He nodded, "huh..." He bit his lower lip. "You very well can't stay up, you're... You're up the spout," the team had very clever ways of avoiding the word pregnant. "Have you tried sleeping pills?" "I can't take them Clint." Steve grunted, trying not to act snappy but he was tired and in pain and hungry but didn't even have the energy to eat and sometimes it felt like the child wanted to kill him.