Living My Best Life - Stony

three

I sat up suddenly having just gone through a bad nightmare.

"Hey, you okay?" I turned around to see Steve holding himself up on his elbows.

"Sorry. Nightmare."

"It's okay. I was already awake."

"Oh."  I looked at the clock. It was 10 in the morning.

"I've only been up for half an hour. I didn't move, I didn't wanna wake you up."

"You could've woken me."

"No, you've been exhausted for probably weeks and now you're sleeping a little better. I didn't want to ruin that." I nodded.

"Thank you." Steve smiled and I laid back down. We stared at the ceiling for a while before Steve got up and went to the door.

"You want something to eat?" I nodded and we walked to the kitchen.

Steve made breakfast and he didn't let me help so I made us some coffee and sat at the table watching him make toast. I sipped my drink and propped my forehead upon the palm of my hand.

"You okay?" I looked up and saw Steve watching me, looking concerned. I smiled and nodded before taking another gulp of my coffee. He placed two pieces of toast with butter on them in front of me and sat down with the same.

"You know, when Nat came to get me I first instantly said no to coming."

"Why?"

"Because I knew you would be here and I didn't want to hurt you more than I already had."

"We were gonna end up bumping into each other at some point or another."

"No, I know. But I'm happy I'm here now"

"Good. You should be." I didn't eat much. I never eat breakfast. Or lunch for that matter, and I usually have a very light dinner. I didn't have an eating disorder or anything, I just never had time to eat and slowly, I've become used to it. 

"Not hungry?"

"No, I don't usually have breakfast."

"You. must be starving when it comes to lunch." I shrugged.

"Sometimes." He didn't need to know the truth, not now.

After a few hours of doing basically nothing, Steve made me another cup of coffee and we went to the workshop to look into some of the stuff I was making.

"Hey, Dummy... clean that up, my desk is a mess and I don't need half of that stuff." The robotics drooped slightly but starting picking up old bis of junk and throwing it in the trash. It could detect what was important and what wasn't.

"So, what're you making as of right now?" I strolled over to a box and gently tugged something out of it. It was a red, white and blue shield with a white star in the middle. It was perfectly circular, was lightweight and had a strap on the back.

"Here." I handed it to Cap.

"Tony, I... what is it?"

"It's your shield. You needed a new one so I made this one. The metal is extremely strong, Thor and I tested it and you can't make a dent in it with his hammer. Please, have it." He stared at me with disbelief and grinned as I placed it on his arm.

"Thank you." He pulled me into a one-arm hug.

"This is what I've been doing in the workshop for the past few weeks - also I've been working on my suits, I've had to make a new element for my arc reactor so it doesn't kill me." With one wave of my arm, the 'closet door' opened revealing four suits - mark 5, 6, 7 and 8.

"Wow, these look great!" I smiled.

"Thank you. Seriously." And then suddenly, my knees gave way and I was gripping to the desk for support.

"Hey," said Steve. He dropped his shield and ran towards me to help me up.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, just get me to my desk." Steve picked me up (like my feet were actually off the fucking floor) and placed me down on the chair at my desk. I rummaged around the drawers for a second before relief hit me like a wave. I found it. The small wooden box. I gently removed the arc reactor from my chest and ejected the core.

"Tony... was that... inside of you?"

"Yeah. No biggie." I opened the small box and inside were seven little pristine cores which looked like black plastic. That's definitely not all they were. I then inserted a new core and clicked the reactor back into my chest and then took a deep breath before looking over at Steve; he looked mortified.

"Hey, I'm completely fine."

"What happens when you run out fo them?"

"I'm only gonna need another - maybe one at most. I told you I'm making a new element. I'm gonna be just fine."

I could tell he didn't believe me.

"That's not what I asked."

"I can make more, Steve. It's not a big deal. Promise." Steve shook his head and I placed the box back in my desk and stood up. My legs were still shakey and my head was throbbing but that always happened when I put in a new core. I fell over towards the stairs and gripped the rail for support before starting to pull myself up the stairs.

"Hey, you can't do that let me help." Cap ran over and pulled my arm over his shoulders - he had to stoop for me to be able to have my feet still touching the floor. Slowly, I gained feeling in my feet which then crawled up into my legs and Steve sat me down in the living room.

"Thank you."

"Tony, you have to get that out of your body."

"Technically it's not in my body."

"I don't care! It's harming you, I can't watch you slowly die while knowing I can't do anything to stop it."

"There is something you can do."

"What?"

"Help me make the element." He rolled his eyes.

"Very funny."

"No, I'm serious."

"Yeah, me too!" I knew Steve was pissed at me so I got up to leave.

"Say I did help." I turned around to see Cap stood up with his arms crossed. He was staring out of a window.

"What?"

"Say I helped make the element - not that you need help - what's in it for me?"

"I stick around to make your life a living hell." Steve turned around grinning.

"I really hate you sometimes, you know that?"

"Yeah, I get it, I hate me too."

"Tony -"