tiny times [ avengers age regression ]

anxiety attacks

Tony Stark was never one to cry about things.

So when he started finding himself unable to breathe in weird situations, his mind went into practical mode. His chest was tight, so was it something with his heart? His vitals? The shards? It was the first thing he checked, and he panicked when Jarvis told him his vitals were completely fine.

"What's happening to me?" he had asked the AI.

And when Jarvis told him he was having a severe anxiety attack, he ran away. Quite literally too, blasting off right there and then and flying until he fumbled and landed in a puddle.

It didn't make any sense. He was Tony Stark, he didn't have anxiety. He never had anxiety before. Why did he have anxiety now?

Then it was the sleeping situation. For days, he couldn't even stand the thought of closing his eyes for sleep. He ran on coffee and caffeinated tea, tinkering on his suits and managing alright.

After one of his trials failed, a suit malfunctioning, he accidentally wrecked his lab and busted a light. At that point, he decided to try and sleep that night. And that's when the night terrors began.

They were so real, that Tony would swear he was there. New york, mostly. And he hated them.

They sent him so out of wack that on the night he tried to sleep, he accidentally called for the AI protection system in his suit, and he screamed louder than a kid in a bouncy house when the metal shook him awake.

Total, Tony received about two hours of sleep, and he was too terrified to ever try it again.

****

"Fuck!" Tony swore loudly, dropping his wrench with a hiss. He cupped his finger in his hand, sticking it in his mouth to stop the oozing blood from dropping onto the floor. Jarvis alerted just as he did so.

"Sir, Steve Rodgers is looking for access to the lab, shall I-" the Artificial Intelligence spoke in a calm tone, getting cut off by a sleep deprived and annoyed Tony.

"Just let him in." Tony kept tinkering with his suit, trying to fix the whole 'nightmare alert thing issue.' He wanted to get it so he'd only be able to call for the suit by doing something really specific, but every time he figured it out, he overthought whether or not he'd be able to do that in his sleep and started over.

"Hey, Tony?" Steve called, entering the lab. He had a plate in his hand and a glass of water.

Tony hummed, but he didn't look up.

"Well, first, here's food. I haven't seen you eat in days. Actually, I haven't even seen you in days," Steve spoke, setting the plate and glass on a counter far enough away so it hopefully wouldn't be hit by flying objects, because lord knows things tend to fly in that lab. "Second, you've got like fifteen minutes to finish whatever you're doing."

Tony hummed, clearly not listening. "Tony!"

"What?" he snapped, throwing the wrench back down to the ground. He dropped his angry expression almost as quickly as it came, rubbing his temples. "I'm sorry. You were saying?"

Steve rubbed his neck awkwardly. "Uh, yeah. We've all gotta go down Shield, they're making us all get re-classified. Apparently Hydra messed with all our files so they don't have proof of who's what anymore."

Tony groaned. "Really?"

"Yeah, pouty pants," Steve teased. "so be ready."

Tony rolled his eyes, swatting Steve's hand away from his hair. He raised up the wrench in an attempt to whack his friend, but the super soldier was too quick, jogging back upstairs with a chuckle. "Fucking old man."