Avengers Stories //Oneshots//

Sick Tony

It's Monday morning. Tony woke up at 4:17 due to a nightmare and the fact that his chest was on absolute fire.

"Jarvis," he croaked.

"Sir, your temperature is 101 degrees," his son says, sounding worried. "Shall I call Mrs. Stark?"

"No." He groans, running a hand down his face tiredly. "Could you get Dum-E to bring me some medicine and water? Please?"

"Alright, sir," Jarvis says gently. A few moments later Dum-E comes through the Bot Elevator that is a direct way to get from the lab to Tony's room and only for the bots, hence the name, but there are a few exceptions. Like when they pull Tony in there or his (flesh and bone) kids ride them piggy-back.

As Tony swallows down the medication, his throat protesting, he knows it's going to be a long day. Or week, most likely. Pepper is in Japan with Morgan, Peter and Harley are with Rhodey for the two weeks of fun without explosions (Rhodey had looked straight at him as he said it), and Hap is on vacation for another week.

He leans back into the pillows. Maybe he should tell Pepper. She wouldn't like him keeping secrets, especially after the Palladium incident two years back.

"Batter yet J, notify Pepper that I'm sick but it isn't too bad. See if she can get those meetings pushed back a little bit." Tony hates having Pepper push the meetings back, it means negotiating and stress.

"Yes, sir."

Not a minute later, Pepper's voice fills the room from the speakers. "Tony? I got your message," her voice is soft, a blessing to the headache forming behind Tony's eyes. A hologram of her forms beside his bad and she's looking down at him with sympathy.

She holding her StarkPad, typing away. "Most of our colleagues have already pushed there's back, thank goodness, it won't be hard to push the rest." Tony almost sighs in relief.

She looks down at him tenderly, pausing her work. "Get some rest, alright? Jarvis says you should be able to sleep it off. I'll tell the Avengers - " he nearly bolts upright in alarm but she finishes hastily "- that you had an emergency in Stark Industries to attend to in Asia."

This time, he does sigh. "Thank you, Pep." He says, giving her a small, grateful smile.

"Your welcome, honey. Remember, drink plenty of fluids and at least eat a little pit," she pauses, "are you having Dum-E bring you food?" He nods. "Make sure it's packaged."

"Got it."

"I'll be back Friday. I love you, Tony."

"Love you too, Pep. Say hello to my Princess Morgan for me." He blows her a kiss and the hologram shuts off. He moves to get comfortable in bed and drifts off to sleep.

Pepper's plan worked, at least for a while. Tony spent the day sleeping and watching the news. Occasionally, he would scroll through the news and find something about "Pepperony Power Couple"  and how Tony and Pep slayed the buisness world side by side, CO-CEO's, (had had wanted to take some of the load off Pepper, not that he thought she couldn't handle it, but he didn't like to see her so stressed). He commented on all of them, laughing breathily as he watched the internet explode.

  His wife would call every hour or so. Not too different from what usually happened when they were away from each other, but her voice is tinted with worry.

Jarvis says he should be better by Wednesday if he keeps resting.

Sadly, that wouldn't happen.

The Avengers alarm went off. Everyone suited up, including Tony. In his defense, he only left when the fight got bad.

He could've made it look like he had came back from business, but the battle had only been going for five minutes and Pepper had scheduled a (fake) important meeting for him that he wouldn't be allowed to leave on any circumstances.

At the end of the battle, they confronted him. He ended up saying that he had been in the lab for all of yesterday. That got Steve mad.

"You even got Pepper into it? Really Stark?" Steve had hissed. They had only just gotten on first name basis, three months after The Battle of New York, and it stunk to be called 'Stark' again.

It wasn't like they could easily tell he was sick. He's covered his rosy cheeks with concealer and put on the I'm Tony Stark smile and wit, but nothing could hide the slight shiver and sweat forming on his brow.

Tony could barely get any words out, and not just because they were butting in every chance they got, but his throat really hurt and he felt a coughing fit coming on.

"Tony," Bruce said. He sounded concerned and his hand appeared on his shoulder. Natasha is behind him, studying Tony's face with a bit of worry, a rare emotion for her.

"Don't baby the man, Bruce." Clint said, fiddling with his bow. 

"Tony, how about you sit down." Said man wasn't given an option as Natasha gently pushed him to sit on the work bench. Bruce placed his hand on Tony's forehead and his eyes widened.

"Shoot, Jarvis what's his tempature?"

"103.9 Doctor Banner," Jarvis said, sounding extremely worried.

Steve, who had been in the middle of a rant, swiveled to face the genius. Clint nearly dropped his bow.

Tony started coughing, long and hard. They rattled his lungs and he had to lean over as the pain spread through his chest. He couldn't get any oxygen.

"Tony!"

Everything went black.

Tony woke up on the couch, head sitting on Natasha's lap and a thermometer in his mouth as she ran a hand through his hair. He closed his eyes again, running a systems check on his body.

His feet are in someone's lap. He doesn't feel like crap. He actually feels..... a whole lot better.

Cautiously, he opens his eyes. His feet are bare and resting on Steve's legs. Bruce is standing beside him, holding a clipboard and pencil, studying something. And Clint.....

Clint is crouched on the back of the couch, staring at him.

Tony screams.

Clint screams.

Steve jumps.

Bruce nearly falls.

Natasha closes Tony's mouth gently.

"How about we watch a movie?" She asks softly. Everyone nods. There was no way anyone was going against the Black Widow.

In the middle of the light-hearted animated movie, Steve speaks up.

"I'm sorry, Tony."

"I'm sorry, too." Clint says.

Tony gives them a small smile. No one really apologizes to him much.

"It's alright guys." Tony smiles.