Narrator's POV
"Hm?" Tony groaned as he woke up with the sensation of empty arms. He opened his eyes slowly. Stephen wasn't in his arms. "Stephen!" He sat up. "GAH!" He jumped up when he saw Stephen to his right, floating.
"Good morning." Stephen told him.
"What are you..." Tony gripped his chest. He gave a long sigh. "Why would you do that?"
"I just wanted to make sure you were okay." Stephen said. "I'm guarding you. Just in case anything or anyone tries to come and attack you."
Tony rolled his eyes. "Are seriously taking that seriously?"
"Yes." Stephen said. "He almost killed you last time. I won't allow that to happen. I can't lose you."
Tony looked up at Stephen. His cheeks blushed red. "Aww, Stephen." He opened his arms to embrace him. "You don't have to worry. I'm gonna be okay. Nothing's going to happen to me."
"I have to make sure." Stephen said in Tony's arms.
"How about we protect each other?" Tony offered. "Sound like a deal?"
"Mhm." Stephen nodded in Tony's chest.
///0///0
"Hey, Thor." Bruce said, holding up a test tube.
"Yup." Thor said, hopping off the bed and running over to Bruce's side.
"Could you hand me some sulfur?" Bruce asked.
"Sure thing." Thor went over to a shelf organized with small cubicles that held each element on the periodic table in their order. "Uh, which one is that one again?"
"Number sixteen." Bruce said.
"Hmm." Thor scanned the shelf. "Sixteen, sixteen..." He kept looking. "Sexteeeeeeeeen. Ah, sixteen." Thor got it and went over to Bruce.
"Thank you." Bruce said taking it and putting some of it in the test tube.
"I swear you cheat every time!" Tony said as Stephen had just beat him at checkers...again.
"No, I've played the game for a very long time." Stephen said.
"You've had more experience. That's cheating." Tony said.
"Tony, it's a brain game. You've got to think." Stephen pointed at his head.
"Think about this!" Tony flipped the board.
Stephen just put the board back with all the pieces where they were.
Tony screamed at Stephen.
Thor and Bruce turned to Tony.
"Do not scream at me." Stephen said.
Tony screamed at him again.
"I said don't-"
Tony screamed again.
Stephen screamed back at him. Tony screamed louder to establish dominance.
Bruce grew concerned. "Should we do something?" He asked Thor. "Guys-"
"No. No." Thor said, stopping Bruce. "I wanna see who wins."
///0///0
Stephen was watering his succulents on the windowsill as Tony read a mechanics book on the bed.
"Knock. Knock."
Stephen and Tony both turned to the door.
"Hey Thor." Stephen smiled.
"Hello." Thor smiled. "I was wondering if I could borrow Tony for a few minutes. Bruce needs some help with some stuff, and he says I have more muscle than brain, which is obvious. I don't know why he'd point that out."
Stephen and Tony smiled at each other.
"Of course you can." Stephen said.
"Great." Thor said. "Come on Tony." Thor walked away from the door.
"Bruce probably doesn't want Thor to touch anything." Tony said. "The last times he's helped him; things got a little "boom"." Tony said, getting up from the bed and stretching.
"Well, you better hurry." Stephen said.
"Hey Tony, I-" Thor stopped when he saw Tony and Stephen face to face. He backed up and hid behind the wall attached to the doorway. He watched carefully.
"I'll be back." Tony said, leaning closer to Stephen and kissing his cheek. "I'll be quick."
Thor's eyes widen. He went behind the wall again. "Tony and the wizard?" He looked down at his hands and intertwined them. He looked at his hands, then gasped. "No way." He raced back to his and Bruce's room.
Stephen smiled. "Okay." He watched Tony walk to the door. "Oh, hey." Tony looked back at him. "Take cloak with you. Just in case things do go "boom"."
Stephen's cloak sat on Tony's shoulders. "Thanks." He winked at Stephen as he exited the room.
Stephen smiled and turned back to his succulents, maintaining them.
///0///0
"Bruce! Bruce!" Thor said, coming into the room.
"What is it?" Bruce asked.
"Can I talk to you about something?" Thor approached him. "It's really, really important." He said, taking Bruce by the shoulders and drawing him close to his face. "Extremely important."
"Yeah. It must be if you used a big word like "extremely"." Bruce said.
"I-" Thor stopped. Was this the best time to talk about this? Tony was about to come and help Bruce out. He didn't want to make things awkward. "Actually never mind." Thor said, letting go of Bruce.
"What?" Bruce said. "You can do that. You have to tell me now."
"No, no. It's nothing." Thor said, going over to his bed.
"Thor." Bruce said. He hated secrets.
"Well..." Thor rubbed the back of his head. "By any chance, do you happen to know something about Tony that might not be very public?"
Bruce gasped. "What do you mean?"
"No, never mind. It's nothing." Thor said.
"Why?" Bruce approached him. "Do you know something?"
"No." Thor said. "Do you?"
"Were you gonna tell me what I think you know?" Bruce asked.
"Do you know what I know that you know?" Thor asked squinting at Bruce.
"I just think you know what I know, that you know that I know."
Thor gasped. "Do you know what I know?"
"Oh my gosh." Bruce gasped. "You know what I know!"
"You know?!" Thor stood up.
"I know! You know!" Bruce smiled.
"We know!" Thor jumped in happiness.
"Oh, finally!" Bruce sighed in relief. "I've been dying to to talk to someone else about this!"
"I know. Me too." Thor said.
"Since when have you known about Stephen and Tony?" Bruce asked.
"Oh, wait." Thor's smile dropped. "We're not talking about how Tony's been wearing his shorts backwards all day?"
"Uh..." Bruce went pale.
Thor laughed. "I'm just messing with you." He slapped Bruce on the back.
"Oh, thank goodness." Bruce put a hand to his chest and sighed in relief.
"How long have you known?" Thor asked Bruce.
"Since spring break." Bruce said.
"I just saw them right now." Thor said.
"Saw what?"
"GAH!" Both, Bruce and Thor jumped up. They turned around to see Tony at the door.
"Tony." Bruce said.
"What're you two so secretive about?" Tony asked.
"Nothing!" Thor's voice cracked.
Bruce slapped his forehead. Thor had just exposed them both.
///0///0
Stephen was reading on the bed, enjoying the silence that fell in the room. Suddenly, something hit the floor. Stephen looked up. He saw a wrench that was on Tony's desk on the ground. He got up and picked it up.
He looked at the wrench and the surface of the desk. "Hm." There was no way a wrench could've just rolled off. "Uh!" He groaned as he felt a sting on his neck. Suddenly a hand covered his mouth. He whimpered, trying to call for help. He reached behind him to try and get whoever was muffling his cries for help.
"Shh." Said a voice.
Then Stephen felt very heavy and sleepy. His eyes fell shut and his body limp.
"There, there...Stephen."
It was Timothy.
He stepped out of one of the small pots Stephen had on the windowsill. "Thanks for showing me what you love the most, Anthony." He chuckled.