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Title: Lull
Fandom: Avengers (movieverse)
Pairing: Coulson/Clint, Natasha/Pepper
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Five times a teammate got Tony to go to sleep and one time Tony got a teammate to sleep.
Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with Marvel. It’s not my toy box and I’m merely playing.
A/N: The game Bruce and Tony play is borrowed from Stargate Atlantis. Also there is talk of nightmares/trauma in this and if that is going to bother you please don’t read. This is mostly gen, but there is a lot of cuddling and snuggling in here. I also make reference to three comic book characters. One is an Avenger, the other two members of Alpha Flight.
Lull:
Coulson manages to get Tony’s attention when he turns off the music Tony has pounding through his lab. There should’ve been snark the moment Coulson had appeared in his lab, but Tony is distracted because he’s just gotten back from the lasted attempt to end the world and he’s in the middle of pulling up the program he’d saved before suiting up. Delayed through his response might be, Tony still manages to give Coulson a look of contempt.
“Anyone else I’d point out that I’ve given you twenty minutes to put your suit away, how you’ve spent the last week and the half holed up in your lab working and just spent the last twenty-seven hours saving the world, but we both know you won’t see reason,” Coulson tells him.
“Then we’re agreed, you can leave,” Tony tries. Where is his snark? Has it just slinked off somewhere to hide? He needs it when dealing with Coulson.
“No, you’re going to bed.”
“Hang on. I just need to call…”
“Pepper called me,” Coulson cuts him off, “I promised her you’d sleep when you got back.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep.”
“Bed now,” Coulson orders evenly.
“Are you this demanding with Clint?” Tony teases, if he could distract maybe his sudden lack of snark wouldn’t register.
“Now Stark.”
Tony opens his mouth to retort, sways on his feet, closes his eyes and shakes his head. He tries telling himself he not that tired, but then he sways again. He blinks his eyes open when he realizes that Coulson has a hand on his elbow and is steering him out of the lab. He starts to protest and then realizes he feels exhausted down to his bones and concedes, “Only cause it’ll make Pepper happy.”
“Whatever gets you in bed.”
“You didn’t even sound the least bit sexy when you said that, there should be some appeal in those words. Clint! Hey Clint, your man’s manhandling me.”
Clint smirks, runs his knuckles over Coulson’s cheek and tells them both to be good. He’s no help at all!
“I don’t need sleep,” Tony grumbles, because really he was expecting more from Clint. He frowns as Coulson steers him into his room and then the adjoining bathroom. He turns to glare, but stops when pajamas are set next to his sink.
“Five minutes to change and then I’m coming in after you.”
As soon as the door closes Tony leans against the counter and closed his eyes briefly, taking stock of how worn out he is, the grime he can feel all over his body. Tony eyes the grey sleep pants and black t-shirt Coulson had dropped near him. He pushes off the counter and peeks out the door, “I ate. I know I ate, did I shower?”
A moment after he asks he registers that from the way he can smell himself he probably hadn’t. He groans, he hates when everything in his head slows because he’s tired.
“You need one,” Coulson confirms, “Twenty minutes and then I’m coming in after you.”
Coulson makes a point of looking at his watch. Tony glares, slams the bathroom door and starts the water. He’s still thinking of ways to try and evade Coulson, make it back down to his lab when he steps under the spray. With the water warming him, slowly easing at the knots in his back he can’t think of anything better than being clean and crawling into bed. As he’s toweling himself dry and slipping on the clothes he tries to tell himself that knowing Coulson will make him sorry later has nothing to do with his decision that he’s going to go to bed.
After brushing his teeth he steps back into his room and realizes Coulson has cleared a spot on his cluttered and rarely used desk and is working. Clint sits on the floor near him, leaning against the desk, eyes closed. Tony frowns.
“Bed,” Coulson orders, not even looking up.
“It’s big if he wants…”
“I’m going,” Clint grumbles, before eying Coulson with a smirk, “Clever.”
Tony works his way over to his bed slowly, watching as the two exchange a quick goodbye and kiss. He opens his mouth to snark and still no snark. He really must be more tired than he thought. He curls under his covers and barely has a moment to enjoy how comfortable he is before he’s asleep.
When Coulson wakes him twice from nightmares he’s at least secure in the fact that he won’t have to talk about it later.
*****~~~~~*****
Tony isn’t sure if he wants to laugh or protest. He squirms in Thor’s grip, pats his teammate on the arm and tells him, in as conversational a tone as he can manage, “You know you can’t just come into my lab, pick me up and make off with me. I have things that have to be shut down properly.”
“I took the liberty of saving your work and shutting your workstation down, sir,” JARVIS puts in helpfully.
“Traitor,” Tony grumbles.
Thor laughs, “I swore to the Son of Coul that I would ensure you went to bed at a decent time…”
“Why would you do that?” Tony interrupts, exasperation coloring his tone.
“He requested I do so,” Thor answers, as if that explains everything.
“Sneaky bastard,” Tony complains.
Thor pats Tony’s thigh, “He wants that you should take better care of yourself. A decent night sleep means you’ll be focused in the field of battle.”
“You couldn’t give me another hour?”
“I did so an hour ago.”
“So basically you’re ready for bed,” Tony concludes, “But don’t feel you can go to bed until you’ve seen to it that I’m sleeping. I won’t tell if you won’t.”
Thor laughs as he dumps Tony into his bed. Tony frowns.
“This is your bed,” Tony points out.
“You can be a man of trickery when you want to be,” Thor concludes as he pushes Tony over, gets in and pulls the covers over both of them, “I won’t be not taken in easily.”
Tony narrows his eyes, tempted to continue the conversation, but Thor looks at him expectantly. Grumbling Tony settles down and closes his eyes and tells himself he’ll sneak out as soon as Thor is asleep.
Thor wakes him up the next morning, enthused because Clint’s cooking.
*****~~~~~*****
Tony’s eyes narrow as he finds Natasha settling down on the couch after their latest mission.
“We were in the middle of an argument,” he points out.
She turns her head, eyebrows rising in query.
“Don’t think I forgot or just because you’re…”
“Tony,” she interrupts, “When was the last time you slept?”
Her question is punctuated by her standing, rounding the couch and studying him.
“Don’t change the subject, I’m trying to argue with you!” he glares.
She smiles, clearly amused. Why isn’t his glare affective? He glares again when she prods him, then steals his phone all while still smiling. He protests, but stills when he realizes she’s calling Pepper and walking away. He hurries to catch up, protesting loudly. Pepper has to be on his side.
“He’s trying to defend your honor. It’s adorable,” Natasha says.
“Honor,” Tony scoffs, “She doesn’t need me for that.”
Natasha just eyes him and picks up her pace, all the while telling Pepper that he’s worried she’s going to hurt her and is threatening her. As if he could ever threaten Natasha, even if she is dating Pepper. He catches up quickly and glares, reaching his hand out for his phone, calling for Pepper not to believe a word she hearing. Tony only really starts paying attention to where Natasha is heading when he realizes that she’s brought him to his room. He starts backing out.
“Where are you going?” she glares as she pulls him back into his room, slams the door shut and stalks over to his bed. His eyes widen when she pulls down the covers. He scrambles for the door handle. There is no way he is doing that to Pepper, even if it’s Natasha and she’s beautiful and she…
He starts trying to talk her into letting him leave when she drags him over to his bed and dumps him into it.
“You hear him protesting?” Natasha asks into his phone as she begins to take off his shoes.
“Pepper she’s trying to undress me! Stop your girlfriend now!”
Natasha gives him an exasperated look before handing him the phone.
“She’s trying to get you to finally get some sleep,” Pepper explains.
“She could’ve explained that before she started in on my clothes!”
Natasha smirks as she tucks him in.
“Seriously though Pepper, does she make you happy?”
“Exceedingly so.”
“Okay, then,” he decides before he says his goodbyes and hands the phone back to Natasha. He slips out of the bed, pads over to his bathroom and brushes his teeth while Natasha and Pepper say their goodbyes. He frowns when he realizes she isn’t leaving.
“Bed Tony,” she tells him as she points.
He opens his mouth to flirt, evade her, but he can’t because she’s with Pepper. Disgruntled he crawls back into bed and frowns when she tucks him in. It’s nice. It shouldn’t be nice. He glares at her.
She smiles and knees down, meets his eyes, “If I hurt her I’ll let you hit me, I won’t even try to block.”
*****~~~~~*****
Tony blinks awake as Coulson covers him with a blanket. He’s confused by the bemused smirk on Coulson’s face until he registers its Clint’s arm wrapped around his waist. At least Coulson seems amused and not murderous. It speaks of his trust in Clint, because Tony knows he isn’t trusted any farther than Coulson could throw him.
“He was waiting up for you,” Tony explains trying for a quiet tone, “We were watching a movie.”
He glances at the blank screen, JARVIS must have turned it off. He looks back up at Coulson who’s looking past him at Clint. Momentarily he hopes he’ll find someone who wants to look at him with that amount of caring one day.
“Mission go well?” he asks.
“The newest Avenger is working her way through medical.”
Tony smirks.
“Tony no.”
“What?” he asks trying to give Coulson his most innocent look, which may be spoiled by the fact that Clint is still curled around him. Either way Coulson is clearly not falling for it so Tony continues, “What can she do?”
“You’ll find out.”
“Come on,” Tony pleads, “You have to give me something.”
“Janet isn’t a mutant like we originally thought.”
That opens up a lot of possibilities as to what she does. Tony frowns, “I know a few mutants.”
“You’re company is one of the few that doesn’t discriminate.”
“Not what I meant, know a guy with superspeed that I occasionally do business with. Can we recruit from Canada?”
“Got a name?” Coulson prods.
“Let me talk to him first. He’s not exactly out about the whole mutant thing. ”
Coulson nods, “I’ll make sure you get back to me on that.”
“Sleep,” Clint complains.
Tony wiggles before he reaches around and pokes Clint, “Fine, abandon me for your boyfriend.”
Clint smiles and shoves at him before moving over him to stand before he wraps himself around Coulson. Tony settles back down into the warmth that Clint’s left behind, pulling a throw pillow close as he gets comfortable again.
Clint’s voice drifts back to him, “Told you I could get him to sleep.”
Tony almost struggles back towards being awake to protest, but he’s too comfortable and too drowsy to make the effort.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
Tony stops what he’s doing when he realizes JARVIS has turned his music down. He glances towards the door, but there’s no one there. He catches movement out of the corner of his eye and turns to register that his phone is jittering its way across the workstation. He glances at it before he picks it up.
“Steve?”
“JARVIS said you’re still up.”
Tony starts turning off his equipment as soon as he registers Steve’s tone. He glances at the time and starts to make sure his work is saved as he says, “Guess I shouldn’t be. Clint’s birthday is today.”
He shuts down everything he has to manually and leaves the rest for JARVIS. Then he’s moving as he’s talking, “Coulson kept him busy all day yesterday and then made him sleep over so that we could get the house set up. I doubt Clint needed much persuading. You and Thor put up the sign while Bruce and I worked on streamers. Natasha picked up the cake. You going to tell me what you got him?”
“You’ll find out later today.”
“Is it purple? I’m not sure I can take much more purple. My whole place is suddenly decked out in it. Not that I don’t like purple, it’s just we’ve surpassed what’s tasteful and gone into complete overboard mode on this.”
“Clint will appreciate it.”
Tony continues to grumble out the details of what they’ve done for Clint’s party as he rounds the corner and makes his way to Steve’s room. Once in the doorway he shuts off his phone and hesitates. Steve turns off his phone and sets it back on the nightstand.
“Thanks,” Steve says as he pushes back the covers on his bed.
Tony nods as he crawls in, hands his phone over to be set on the nightstand next to Steve’s. He waits still he has his head on Steve’s shoulder, his arm around Steve’s waist and a leg thrown over his for good measure before he asks, “Which one was it?”
Tony closes his eyes, drowsy and still fighting it as Steve runs a hand into his hair. Tony relaxes into the sensation of Steve’s fingers massaging his scalp as Steve answers, “The one where Peggy was with me and died while I froze.”
Tony tightens his grip and offers, “We could visit, freshen up her flowers.”
“Thank you.”
Tony nods, can’t help but drift slightly. He starts when he realizes he has, but Steve starts in on running a hand through his hair again.
“Which one is it?” Steve asks.
Tony tilts his chin and opens his eyes, meets Steve’s gaze and know he can share this, that Steve won’t laugh or misunderstand.
“I lost my car battery.”
Steve nods, “You don’t need one and I’ll wake you up if you wake me up.”
Tony frowns, “You’re getting up in an hour or so anyway.”
“I didn’t sleep well,” Steve offers, “and you’ll want to be well-rested for Clint’s party.”
Tony agrees and lets himself relax, finally edges towards the sleep he’s been denying himself since he’d woken up screaming a few days before.
*****~~~~~*****
Tony leans in the doorframe and watches as Bruce nearly nods off, catches himself and goes back to the article he’s reading. Bruce looks disheveled, a few days worth of stubble on his chin and his pallor is almost post-hulk exhausted. There are buttons Tony knows he could push, truths he could expose that might push Bruce from over thinking, but it’s the long way towards Tony’s goal and isn’t exactly what Bruce needs right now.
He wants to point out that Langkowski made his own choice to try and replicate Bruce’s experiment, but he knew that he and Bruce would just end up debating it and he wouldn’t actually fix the immediate problem. At least the guy is alive, Tony decides as he walks into the room and then gets a look at what Bruce is looking at. Okay so apparently he’s also turning into a giant furry Sasquatch-type thing. He’s tempted to ask what Department H is. Instead he smiles when Bruce glances up at him and announces, “I have Clint made ham and cheese sandwiches.”
Bruce’s eyes light up, even as he admits, “I don’t know what he does to these.”
“So good, I know,” Tony agrees as he evades Bruce reaching for a sandwich and makes his way over to the couch they’ve shoved into Bruce’s lab weeks ago. Bruce frowns at the print-out he’s been looking at before he shoves it away and joins Tony. Tony waits until Bruce is on his second sandwich before he asks, “2085?”
Bruce blinks at him, glances down at the sandwich and then frowns, “I know what you’re trying to do.”
“Yeah,” Tony agrees as he takes his last bite of sandwich and spreads his arms out.
Bruce frowns. Tony wiggles his fingers and gives Bruce his best innocent face. Bruce shakes his head, but slumps down into Tony’s embrace and says, “Not prime, 1571?”
Tony runs a hand into Bruce’s hair because that always put him to sleep when he’s stressed as he decides, “Prime, 983?”
“Prime, 1698,” Bruce responds as he eats the last of his sandwich.
“Not prime, 2027,” Tony continues the game as he gets Bruce to rearrange with him on the couch, until he’s lying on it with Bruce draped over him and in his arms. He manages to snag himself a pillow and them a blanket.
“Prime, 1759,” Bruce grumbles against his chest. Tony smiles, watches as Bruce fights off sleep.
“I got you,” Tony promises, before he continues, “Prime, 1315?”
Their game continues, slowly and irregular as Bruce slips towards sleep. Tony smiles as Bruce’s breath evens out and he’s finally relaxed in a way he hasn’t been for days. Tony is about to close his own eyes, take a nap too, when Coulson walks in. Coulson’s mouth snaps shut, the words he was about to speak swallowed and kept quiet. He raises an eyebrow. Tony shrugs and gives him a proud of himself face. Coulson gives him a half-smirk that says he’s not impressed, shakes his head and walks away. Tony grins and he closes his eyes. He’s finally impressed Coulson. He never thought he’d see the day.
Fandom: Avengers (movieverse)
Pairing: Coulson/Clint, Natasha/Pepper
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Five times a teammate got Tony to go to sleep and one time Tony got a teammate to sleep.
Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with Marvel. It’s not my toy box and I’m merely playing.
A/N: The game Bruce and Tony play is borrowed from Stargate Atlantis. Also there is talk of nightmares/trauma in this and if that is going to bother you please don’t read. This is mostly gen, but there is a lot of cuddling and snuggling in here. I also make reference to three comic book characters. One is an Avenger, the other two members of Alpha Flight.
Lull:
Coulson manages to get Tony’s attention when he turns off the music Tony has pounding through his lab. There should’ve been snark the moment Coulson had appeared in his lab, but Tony is distracted because he’s just gotten back from the lasted attempt to end the world and he’s in the middle of pulling up the program he’d saved before suiting up. Delayed through his response might be, Tony still manages to give Coulson a look of contempt.
“Anyone else I’d point out that I’ve given you twenty minutes to put your suit away, how you’ve spent the last week and the half holed up in your lab working and just spent the last twenty-seven hours saving the world, but we both know you won’t see reason,” Coulson tells him.
“Then we’re agreed, you can leave,” Tony tries. Where is his snark? Has it just slinked off somewhere to hide? He needs it when dealing with Coulson.
“No, you’re going to bed.”
“Hang on. I just need to call…”
“Pepper called me,” Coulson cuts him off, “I promised her you’d sleep when you got back.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep.”
“Bed now,” Coulson orders evenly.
“Are you this demanding with Clint?” Tony teases, if he could distract maybe his sudden lack of snark wouldn’t register.
“Now Stark.”
Tony opens his mouth to retort, sways on his feet, closes his eyes and shakes his head. He tries telling himself he not that tired, but then he sways again. He blinks his eyes open when he realizes that Coulson has a hand on his elbow and is steering him out of the lab. He starts to protest and then realizes he feels exhausted down to his bones and concedes, “Only cause it’ll make Pepper happy.”
“Whatever gets you in bed.”
“You didn’t even sound the least bit sexy when you said that, there should be some appeal in those words. Clint! Hey Clint, your man’s manhandling me.”
Clint smirks, runs his knuckles over Coulson’s cheek and tells them both to be good. He’s no help at all!
“I don’t need sleep,” Tony grumbles, because really he was expecting more from Clint. He frowns as Coulson steers him into his room and then the adjoining bathroom. He turns to glare, but stops when pajamas are set next to his sink.
“Five minutes to change and then I’m coming in after you.”
As soon as the door closes Tony leans against the counter and closed his eyes briefly, taking stock of how worn out he is, the grime he can feel all over his body. Tony eyes the grey sleep pants and black t-shirt Coulson had dropped near him. He pushes off the counter and peeks out the door, “I ate. I know I ate, did I shower?”
A moment after he asks he registers that from the way he can smell himself he probably hadn’t. He groans, he hates when everything in his head slows because he’s tired.
“You need one,” Coulson confirms, “Twenty minutes and then I’m coming in after you.”
Coulson makes a point of looking at his watch. Tony glares, slams the bathroom door and starts the water. He’s still thinking of ways to try and evade Coulson, make it back down to his lab when he steps under the spray. With the water warming him, slowly easing at the knots in his back he can’t think of anything better than being clean and crawling into bed. As he’s toweling himself dry and slipping on the clothes he tries to tell himself that knowing Coulson will make him sorry later has nothing to do with his decision that he’s going to go to bed.
After brushing his teeth he steps back into his room and realizes Coulson has cleared a spot on his cluttered and rarely used desk and is working. Clint sits on the floor near him, leaning against the desk, eyes closed. Tony frowns.
“Bed,” Coulson orders, not even looking up.
“It’s big if he wants…”
“I’m going,” Clint grumbles, before eying Coulson with a smirk, “Clever.”
Tony works his way over to his bed slowly, watching as the two exchange a quick goodbye and kiss. He opens his mouth to snark and still no snark. He really must be more tired than he thought. He curls under his covers and barely has a moment to enjoy how comfortable he is before he’s asleep.
When Coulson wakes him twice from nightmares he’s at least secure in the fact that he won’t have to talk about it later.
*****~~~~~*****
Tony isn’t sure if he wants to laugh or protest. He squirms in Thor’s grip, pats his teammate on the arm and tells him, in as conversational a tone as he can manage, “You know you can’t just come into my lab, pick me up and make off with me. I have things that have to be shut down properly.”
“I took the liberty of saving your work and shutting your workstation down, sir,” JARVIS puts in helpfully.
“Traitor,” Tony grumbles.
Thor laughs, “I swore to the Son of Coul that I would ensure you went to bed at a decent time…”
“Why would you do that?” Tony interrupts, exasperation coloring his tone.
“He requested I do so,” Thor answers, as if that explains everything.
“Sneaky bastard,” Tony complains.
Thor pats Tony’s thigh, “He wants that you should take better care of yourself. A decent night sleep means you’ll be focused in the field of battle.”
“You couldn’t give me another hour?”
“I did so an hour ago.”
“So basically you’re ready for bed,” Tony concludes, “But don’t feel you can go to bed until you’ve seen to it that I’m sleeping. I won’t tell if you won’t.”
Thor laughs as he dumps Tony into his bed. Tony frowns.
“This is your bed,” Tony points out.
“You can be a man of trickery when you want to be,” Thor concludes as he pushes Tony over, gets in and pulls the covers over both of them, “I won’t be not taken in easily.”
Tony narrows his eyes, tempted to continue the conversation, but Thor looks at him expectantly. Grumbling Tony settles down and closes his eyes and tells himself he’ll sneak out as soon as Thor is asleep.
Thor wakes him up the next morning, enthused because Clint’s cooking.
*****~~~~~*****
Tony’s eyes narrow as he finds Natasha settling down on the couch after their latest mission.
“We were in the middle of an argument,” he points out.
She turns her head, eyebrows rising in query.
“Don’t think I forgot or just because you’re…”
“Tony,” she interrupts, “When was the last time you slept?”
Her question is punctuated by her standing, rounding the couch and studying him.
“Don’t change the subject, I’m trying to argue with you!” he glares.
She smiles, clearly amused. Why isn’t his glare affective? He glares again when she prods him, then steals his phone all while still smiling. He protests, but stills when he realizes she’s calling Pepper and walking away. He hurries to catch up, protesting loudly. Pepper has to be on his side.
“He’s trying to defend your honor. It’s adorable,” Natasha says.
“Honor,” Tony scoffs, “She doesn’t need me for that.”
Natasha just eyes him and picks up her pace, all the while telling Pepper that he’s worried she’s going to hurt her and is threatening her. As if he could ever threaten Natasha, even if she is dating Pepper. He catches up quickly and glares, reaching his hand out for his phone, calling for Pepper not to believe a word she hearing. Tony only really starts paying attention to where Natasha is heading when he realizes that she’s brought him to his room. He starts backing out.
“Where are you going?” she glares as she pulls him back into his room, slams the door shut and stalks over to his bed. His eyes widen when she pulls down the covers. He scrambles for the door handle. There is no way he is doing that to Pepper, even if it’s Natasha and she’s beautiful and she…
He starts trying to talk her into letting him leave when she drags him over to his bed and dumps him into it.
“You hear him protesting?” Natasha asks into his phone as she begins to take off his shoes.
“Pepper she’s trying to undress me! Stop your girlfriend now!”
Natasha gives him an exasperated look before handing him the phone.
“She’s trying to get you to finally get some sleep,” Pepper explains.
“She could’ve explained that before she started in on my clothes!”
Natasha smirks as she tucks him in.
“Seriously though Pepper, does she make you happy?”
“Exceedingly so.”
“Okay, then,” he decides before he says his goodbyes and hands the phone back to Natasha. He slips out of the bed, pads over to his bathroom and brushes his teeth while Natasha and Pepper say their goodbyes. He frowns when he realizes she isn’t leaving.
“Bed Tony,” she tells him as she points.
He opens his mouth to flirt, evade her, but he can’t because she’s with Pepper. Disgruntled he crawls back into bed and frowns when she tucks him in. It’s nice. It shouldn’t be nice. He glares at her.
She smiles and knees down, meets his eyes, “If I hurt her I’ll let you hit me, I won’t even try to block.”
*****~~~~~*****
Tony blinks awake as Coulson covers him with a blanket. He’s confused by the bemused smirk on Coulson’s face until he registers its Clint’s arm wrapped around his waist. At least Coulson seems amused and not murderous. It speaks of his trust in Clint, because Tony knows he isn’t trusted any farther than Coulson could throw him.
“He was waiting up for you,” Tony explains trying for a quiet tone, “We were watching a movie.”
He glances at the blank screen, JARVIS must have turned it off. He looks back up at Coulson who’s looking past him at Clint. Momentarily he hopes he’ll find someone who wants to look at him with that amount of caring one day.
“Mission go well?” he asks.
“The newest Avenger is working her way through medical.”
Tony smirks.
“Tony no.”
“What?” he asks trying to give Coulson his most innocent look, which may be spoiled by the fact that Clint is still curled around him. Either way Coulson is clearly not falling for it so Tony continues, “What can she do?”
“You’ll find out.”
“Come on,” Tony pleads, “You have to give me something.”
“Janet isn’t a mutant like we originally thought.”
That opens up a lot of possibilities as to what she does. Tony frowns, “I know a few mutants.”
“You’re company is one of the few that doesn’t discriminate.”
“Not what I meant, know a guy with superspeed that I occasionally do business with. Can we recruit from Canada?”
“Got a name?” Coulson prods.
“Let me talk to him first. He’s not exactly out about the whole mutant thing. ”
Coulson nods, “I’ll make sure you get back to me on that.”
“Sleep,” Clint complains.
Tony wiggles before he reaches around and pokes Clint, “Fine, abandon me for your boyfriend.”
Clint smiles and shoves at him before moving over him to stand before he wraps himself around Coulson. Tony settles back down into the warmth that Clint’s left behind, pulling a throw pillow close as he gets comfortable again.
Clint’s voice drifts back to him, “Told you I could get him to sleep.”
Tony almost struggles back towards being awake to protest, but he’s too comfortable and too drowsy to make the effort.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
Tony stops what he’s doing when he realizes JARVIS has turned his music down. He glances towards the door, but there’s no one there. He catches movement out of the corner of his eye and turns to register that his phone is jittering its way across the workstation. He glances at it before he picks it up.
“Steve?”
“JARVIS said you’re still up.”
Tony starts turning off his equipment as soon as he registers Steve’s tone. He glances at the time and starts to make sure his work is saved as he says, “Guess I shouldn’t be. Clint’s birthday is today.”
He shuts down everything he has to manually and leaves the rest for JARVIS. Then he’s moving as he’s talking, “Coulson kept him busy all day yesterday and then made him sleep over so that we could get the house set up. I doubt Clint needed much persuading. You and Thor put up the sign while Bruce and I worked on streamers. Natasha picked up the cake. You going to tell me what you got him?”
“You’ll find out later today.”
“Is it purple? I’m not sure I can take much more purple. My whole place is suddenly decked out in it. Not that I don’t like purple, it’s just we’ve surpassed what’s tasteful and gone into complete overboard mode on this.”
“Clint will appreciate it.”
Tony continues to grumble out the details of what they’ve done for Clint’s party as he rounds the corner and makes his way to Steve’s room. Once in the doorway he shuts off his phone and hesitates. Steve turns off his phone and sets it back on the nightstand.
“Thanks,” Steve says as he pushes back the covers on his bed.
Tony nods as he crawls in, hands his phone over to be set on the nightstand next to Steve’s. He waits still he has his head on Steve’s shoulder, his arm around Steve’s waist and a leg thrown over his for good measure before he asks, “Which one was it?”
Tony closes his eyes, drowsy and still fighting it as Steve runs a hand into his hair. Tony relaxes into the sensation of Steve’s fingers massaging his scalp as Steve answers, “The one where Peggy was with me and died while I froze.”
Tony tightens his grip and offers, “We could visit, freshen up her flowers.”
“Thank you.”
Tony nods, can’t help but drift slightly. He starts when he realizes he has, but Steve starts in on running a hand through his hair again.
“Which one is it?” Steve asks.
Tony tilts his chin and opens his eyes, meets Steve’s gaze and know he can share this, that Steve won’t laugh or misunderstand.
“I lost my car battery.”
Steve nods, “You don’t need one and I’ll wake you up if you wake me up.”
Tony frowns, “You’re getting up in an hour or so anyway.”
“I didn’t sleep well,” Steve offers, “and you’ll want to be well-rested for Clint’s party.”
Tony agrees and lets himself relax, finally edges towards the sleep he’s been denying himself since he’d woken up screaming a few days before.
*****~~~~~*****
Tony leans in the doorframe and watches as Bruce nearly nods off, catches himself and goes back to the article he’s reading. Bruce looks disheveled, a few days worth of stubble on his chin and his pallor is almost post-hulk exhausted. There are buttons Tony knows he could push, truths he could expose that might push Bruce from over thinking, but it’s the long way towards Tony’s goal and isn’t exactly what Bruce needs right now.
He wants to point out that Langkowski made his own choice to try and replicate Bruce’s experiment, but he knew that he and Bruce would just end up debating it and he wouldn’t actually fix the immediate problem. At least the guy is alive, Tony decides as he walks into the room and then gets a look at what Bruce is looking at. Okay so apparently he’s also turning into a giant furry Sasquatch-type thing. He’s tempted to ask what Department H is. Instead he smiles when Bruce glances up at him and announces, “I have Clint made ham and cheese sandwiches.”
Bruce’s eyes light up, even as he admits, “I don’t know what he does to these.”
“So good, I know,” Tony agrees as he evades Bruce reaching for a sandwich and makes his way over to the couch they’ve shoved into Bruce’s lab weeks ago. Bruce frowns at the print-out he’s been looking at before he shoves it away and joins Tony. Tony waits until Bruce is on his second sandwich before he asks, “2085?”
Bruce blinks at him, glances down at the sandwich and then frowns, “I know what you’re trying to do.”
“Yeah,” Tony agrees as he takes his last bite of sandwich and spreads his arms out.
Bruce frowns. Tony wiggles his fingers and gives Bruce his best innocent face. Bruce shakes his head, but slumps down into Tony’s embrace and says, “Not prime, 1571?”
Tony runs a hand into Bruce’s hair because that always put him to sleep when he’s stressed as he decides, “Prime, 983?”
“Prime, 1698,” Bruce responds as he eats the last of his sandwich.
“Not prime, 2027,” Tony continues the game as he gets Bruce to rearrange with him on the couch, until he’s lying on it with Bruce draped over him and in his arms. He manages to snag himself a pillow and them a blanket.
“Prime, 1759,” Bruce grumbles against his chest. Tony smiles, watches as Bruce fights off sleep.
“I got you,” Tony promises, before he continues, “Prime, 1315?”
Their game continues, slowly and irregular as Bruce slips towards sleep. Tony smiles as Bruce’s breath evens out and he’s finally relaxed in a way he hasn’t been for days. Tony is about to close his own eyes, take a nap too, when Coulson walks in. Coulson’s mouth snaps shut, the words he was about to speak swallowed and kept quiet. He raises an eyebrow. Tony shrugs and gives him a proud of himself face. Coulson gives him a half-smirk that says he’s not impressed, shakes his head and walks away. Tony grins and he closes his eyes. He’s finally impressed Coulson. He never thought he’d see the day.