p • r • e • s • s • u • r • e

Burned Out

He sighs. Bruce was downstairs on the phone with the woman herself, and god only knows what they were they were talking about.

The engineer flops down into bed, and stares at his chest.

I really need this

I'm not gonna die

It'll be fine

Sighing, he taps the reactor twice and screams into a pillow.

His body rebels against him, and Tony's thrashes against the covers.

The module sizzles and sparks, and the engineer smells something burning.

Oh shit.

Barely able to lift his head, he somehow manages to dislodge the mechanism from his chest.

Tony tosses it to the floor, and breathes.

"Okay. Okay, okay. It's okay."

I'm going to head downstairs, I'm going to put in one of my old reactors, and I'm going to pretend that I'd just forgotten my coffee mug.

Breathing hard, he pushes himself off the bed and creeps downstairs, past Bruce.

Once in his garage, Tony rifles through drawers and cabinets until he finally finds it.

Flicking a few switches on it, the engineer watches the energy core hum to life.

Recalling how painful reinsertion can be, he pockets the reactor and heads back upstairs.

Oddly, Bruce was nowhere to be found. The engineer runs into his room and lies down on the bed, panting. He's growing weaker. Wiping off the chestpiece with his sleeve, Tony slides it back into place.

He screams out, panicking as he can hear the toilet flushing and the sink running.

Fuck.

"Tony what are you doing?"

Bruce comes running in from the bathroom, concerned.

"What happened?"

"MMMMMmmmmm!"

Tony bites down on his lip, drawing blood.

Bruce wipes the man's face.

"I-" the engineer gasps for breath, and Bruce notices the reactor.

"This one's different-why did you switch them?"

"C-can't-AAAAAAAAHMY-GOD!"

Tony howls in agony through gritted teeth, and takes nearly a minute to calm down.

He breathes heavily, and lazily wipes the sweat from his brow.

"What happened?"

The engineer licks his lips.

"I-it was burning."

"It did that on it's own?" Bruce asks, gesturing to the blackened core on the ground.

Tony's breath hitches, and slows.

"No."

"You tapped it?"

"Yeah..."

"Tony, you can't do that."

"I know, I know. I burned it out. Had to replace it."

Bruce nods sadly.

"Well, dinner's ready. You feeling up to it?"

The engineer nods.

"You don't have to, Tones."

"I'm good. It's okay."

The scientist sighs.

"You wanna change?"

"Yeah. I've got it, Bruce. See you downstairs."

"No way I'm leaving you alone."

"Fine."

Tony stalks off to his closet to change, emerging a minute later in casual pants and a shirt in his hand.

"Give me a hand?"

"Of course."

Bruce helps him into his sweater and the two head down to the kitchen.

Soon, they're cuddled up on the couch watching The Great Gatsby, a bowl of pad thai in everyone's laps.

Tony slurps down a few noodles and puts the bowl on the coffee table, getting up and sitting down in Bruce's lap. Everyone looks at them briefly; Sam angrily hands Clint a twenty.

The engineer giggles and cuddles up to Bruce, ignoring the movie. He can feel Bruce smiling.

The movie's over in half an hour, at which point Tony's sound asleep.

Steve turns on the lights and everyone gets up, Sam grabbing people's bowls and everyone grinning at the slumbering man.

"They're adorable!"

"I told you so." Clint elbows Sam.

Steve winks at Bruce, and eventually the rest of the team is hanging out at the bar next to the kitchen in the next room over.

Bruce nudges Tony.

"Hey, you gotta wake up sweetie."

"Mmm?"

"C'mon."

Tony opens his eyes groggily.

"G'morning."

The scientist chuckles.

"Not quite yet."

He stands up and carries Tony bridle style upstairs.

"Bruce! I can waaalk," he whines, earning snickers from the team only a wall away.

He gently lies the engineer down in bed, and creeps in next to him.

"You good?"

Tony just nods.   

Liar.