Pulling Himself Together

Two days ago, Steve had taken a bad fall off the corner of a building onto the railing of balcony eight stories down before dropping to the street below. The impact with the cast-iron railing had split Steve open and messed up his guts pretty bad.

Pushing the suit Tony was there within moments, cursing himself for not getting there faster. He knelt down beside Steve on the blood stained concrete and did his best to hold Steve together, and keep everything that was meant to be inside inside. It was a horrible, bloody scene, one that Tony hopes to scrub from his memories.

Tony looks down over his partner who curled up against his chest on the couch, sleeping restfully, still recovering from the long surgery to put his belly back together. Steve flinches in his sleep, a quiet groan falling from his lips, hands gripping the blanket draped over him tighter.

Carefully, Tony slips his hand under the blanket and Steve's shirt, rubbing his hand soothingly over the bandages wrapped around Steve's middle, hopping the warmth of his hand would be some form of relief. It feels like a bad cramp under his hands. A sharp, tight tug Tony could feel even under all the bandages. He frowns, glancing over at Steve's pinched face.

Tony lets his hand rest firmly against Steve's stomach, feeling the odd twitching and running through his head what it could be. It was almost like hiccups, but way too low in the man's chest. And it sort of felt like it was pulling in a particular direction.

That's when he feels it, when he finally understands what he has been feeling. The sicking slosh below his hand is Steve's mussels pulling his guts around inside him. Steve's intestines shifting back up into their proper positions. He knew that the serum in Steve's veins worked fast, he'd seen the numbers, but he didn't quite understand just how fast that was in practice. 'metabolism eight times the speed of the standard human baseline', 'an accelerated healing factor' somehow just didn't add up to being able to feel the man's guts rearrange themselves.

There is a wet pop, so quiet he nearly missed it. Somewhere deep in his mind he tells himself to not think about it. Not to wonder if that just happened to be one of Steve's broken ribs realigning itself... or something else really. Because Tony does't think he knows what is going on inside of Steve anymore, and frankly he doesn't think he wants to either.

He looks down a Steve's belly, watching as his boyfriend's bruised and swollen stomach deflates slightly as everything is pulled back into place. Steve's stomach released a nauseating gurgle. Tony swallows down the bile crawling up his throat and pointedly ignores the sensations under his hand. He focuses on the movie he was watching, rubbing Steve's belly soothingly.

______________________________________________________________

THE END

For the Stony Bingo 2020 Round 1 prompt "Body Horror" [N2]