Avengers Stories //Oneshots//

A Con of the Arc Reactor

Temperature.

Temperature was Tony's enemy. It was worse than any villain he'd had to fight so far. And all because of the reactor. Metal heats and cools. There's metal in his chest. This effects his body tempature.

Usually, he can stay in the range he needs. But that's only in his lab and room. Since the avengers (sans Thor) moved in (on his invitation because the helicarrier rooms were very, very bland and small and he had room to spare) Tony wanted to change the tempature up to they would be comfortable. Over two weeks of observation, he concludes this:

Steve loves to be warm. Like, 78 degrees.

Clint and Natasha like to somewhat reflect the outside temperature so they can be used to it if they suddenly have to leave.

Bruce likes about 73 degrees.

Tony told Jarvis to cater to their temperature perferances. It works with the numerous vents and air conditioners and fans and heaters all through the tower. (All powered by the huge reactor).

The genius found himself in situations where he had to use a special suit he created that would allow him to adjust from the temperature he had been in, in order to step outside without getting a sort of whiplash in his chest and shoulder area.

But today, he didn't have that suit.

The Avengers had just come in from a mission in -22 degree weather. Cold. Absolutely, freezing. Tony's armor changes temperature with the climate but he ended up having to use an older model that didn't do that very well. So, he was freezing.

That in itself was horrible, but the effects of stepping into a 94 degree helicarrier was worse. He wore his track suit since it was black and people wouldn't be able to see the sweat soaking it as his body tried to fight something off that it really couldn't. Places on his chest were numb, but others were burning. The skin around the reactor was an angry red. Last he checked, he had a 101.1 degree fever.

The engineer used sunglasses and fake smiles to hide the agony he was feeling. He could feel every beat of his battered heart as it pounded in his ears, his headache doing nothing to help matters. The reactor caused small spikes of pain from sitting up right. He just wanted to go home and sleep. In his room. With Jarvis adjusting the tempature slowly to let his body adapt.

He turned down the hot chocolate he was offered. Then the coffee. Natasha raised an eyebrow at him while everyone else looked either concerned or baffled. Some a mixture of both.

"I'm fine guys." He said as they settled around a conference table, his face a bit pale. He was the only one not bundled up in a jacket. "Just actually wanting to sleep when we get back to the tower."

Clint snorted. "Well, there's always a first time for everything." Steve elbowed him in the ribs, making the archer squawk, but he was smiling in amusement, though there was a little bit of worry in his blue eyes.

"You sure Tony?" Steve asked. "It was really cold out there. That suit is probably doing nothing to help." The captain guestrued to the track suit.

Said man just shrugged, subtly wiping away a bead of sweat from his brow. He made sure to wear a beanie, he didn't want his hair to be plastered with sweat in front of the team. That would definetly clue the team in that something was wrong.

And then Fury stepped into the room, looked right at him, and ordered, "Go lie down, Stark. Don't think I don't know."

..... how? What?

"Sir, what do you mean?" Steve asked, though his eyes were on Tony.

Fury facepalmed. "You seriously haven't told them?" He looked directly at Tony. Tony just shrugged sheepishly and averted his eyes to the floor. He was feeling a little light headed. Maybe he should lie down. In a minute.