Avengers Stories //Oneshots//

Tony Lacks Self Preservation Skills

(There mentions of nightmares in this. One happens but there are no details of the nightmare, just the rection)

  Knock knock.

Who's there?

Just Tony's crazy schedule.

The last five days consisted of barely any sleep. He can't sleep, not with these deadlines staring him right in the face. He would've had the time to finish everything before, but then the board called him in

On Thursday, he caught a cold.

For anyone's information (not really): the arc reactor makes a cold so. Much. Worse.

It didn't help that there was a doom bot attack on Friday.

Now it's Saturday and despite having no meetings, he still has a lot of work to make up from Friday. So Tony sat in his office for five hours doing paperwork, then another eight hours in the lab creating gear and more things for SI. He handled some calls from the board, Jarvis having to change his voice to hide the croak. Finally, at 8 PM, he was finally done.

Tony moves to the couch and lays down gingerly, careful to breathe shallowly to stop his chest from hurting. He knows he's pale. He wiped off the make-up earlier. He shivers, his head pounding. Dum-E pulls a blanket over him and Tony falls into a restless sleep.

At 8:30 on the dot, Clint bursts into the lab, loudly asking where he is. Tony's blanket has moved to be piled around his ankles.

When did that happen?

He throws one hand over his eyes, aware that he is still wearing his buisness suit, and pretends to be napping.

"Tooonnnnnnyyyyyy? TONNNNNNYYYYYYY?" Clint drawls, calling his  name loudly. He turns his head toward the noise, squinting through his fingers. The headache has dulled a little, so has the pain in his chest, but Tony knows he's still a few days from feeling good and not just better.

"Clint," when did Steve come in? "He probably doesn't hear you from here. And you probably shouldn't be yelling anyway. He could be concentrating or blaring that loud noise he calls music."

Tony would scoff if he had the energy.

He hears their footsteps as they enter his main lab - the one he was in. They had just came from his car-tinker-place.... he can't remember what he calls it. His head hurts. And his brain is foggy.

"It doesn't look like he's here." Birdbrain says.

Tony can't hold back the small cough that escapes him. The footsteps stop.

"Tony?" Both ask, sounding shocked and a little concerned.

  The door opens and Bruce's voice, softer than the others, drifts in, astonished. "Wait, is he actually sleeping?"

"I...I don't know." Steve responds. Tony forces his facial muscles to relax. He wants to sleep. Needs to sleep. To get rid of this fog that makes his thinking sluggish and reflexes slow. But he can't. No when the ream is here. Do they need something?

"Tony, you awake? It's movie night and Natasha isn't here to make us watch The Hunger Games for the 50th time in a row."

There's a sound like a light slap and Clint's startled, "Ow!"

"Be quiet!" Bruce whisper yells.

"It looks like he is asleep." The voice comes from right beside him. It's quiet, whispering, but it still startles Tony into opening his eyes and taking his hand away from them.

The Captain's face is filled with guilt. "Oops, sorry Tony, I didn't mean to wake you. Do you want to come watch movies with us?"

"Yeah," Hawkeye chimes in, "the couches in the common room are much more comfortable than this one."