Bruce slumped backward, burying his head in his arms, his hands tugging angrily at his hair. There was nothing he could do. Tony was going to die on the floor right in front of him, and Bruce was helpless to stop it.

His best friend. Dying.

And then Clint dropped to his knees, hands linking together over Tony's chest, resting slightly above and to the left of the reactor.

Struggling to his knee, the scientist scrambled across to Clint's side, "Wait! Wait – he can't- CPR doesn't- I can- The arc reactor has a built-in defib system! If I just-"

Bruce shouldered Clint aside, and Steve watched as green rippled up his forearms, muscles curled and bunched as he ripped the material of Tony's t-shirt down the center, bringing the arc-reactor into full view.

Carefully unscrewing the protective casing from the front of the reactor, Bruce glanced to his left, and gestured to Steve with a nod, "Knife, please- I need something metal to conduct."

Steve grabbed the blade, hopeful heart rising into his throat as he deliberately ignored the fact that Tony was -

He handed the knife to Bruce.

Bruce turned, poised to slip the thin blade down the side of the reactor, into the electric blue glow-

"Wait! Wait- Don't!"

Three heads snapped up, gazes catching on Thor and Natasha as they rushed up the hallway, Thor's deep voice booming to echo after Natasha's urgent order to stop-

"I know of this spell; it is my brothers doing! You must not disrupt the magics yet! "

Bruce froze, pulling away as Thor forced his too large frame into the already over-crowded elevator, Natasha pressing in at his side.

Looking to Steve, Thor ordered, "Breathe for him- the kiss of life from one who holds true affection will rend the spell inert! "

Steve, nonplussed, but reassured by Thor's calm sure confidence, released his death grip on Tony with some amount of difficulty, hand settling into Tony's sweat-damp hair, and turning his slack face towards himself slightly. Bending, he brought their lips together yet again.

Half expecting to be rebuffed by a magical barrier, Steve was pleasantly surprised to be met with no resistance. His gentle puffs of breath (wary should his enhanced lungs damage Tony's with their reduced capacity) causing the soft rise and fall of Tony's otherwise still chest.

Steve felt a hand (calloused with short fingers- Clint) settle on his left shoulder, and he could feel Bruce's body heat to his right. The hope was tangible, heavy and cloying in the small space, and Steve felt his blood thrumming as adrenaline jolted through his veins. He felt high with desperate anticipation.

And then Tony twitched.

Gasped, jerked and coughed violently, tears streaming from watery eyes as he trembled and fought for breath.

Alive. Breathing.

Everyone breathing.

The spell broken.

" - it is a spell he created when he was quite young, around six of your earth years I believe. I remember it only because he would enchant our mother with it whenever she was sad. Our father was in the Odinsleep much for many years across this era."

Thor's voice grew wistful as he continued, and Tony had to strain to hear; the god had turned his head away, perhaps to stare from the window, finding eons ago in the darkness beyond.

"Loki would sit on her lap, this tiny dark-haired mite. And they would exchange breath back and forth and giggle. It was the music that filled the chambers on many a quiet afternoon. I think he was trying, in his typical convoluted way, to remind her that she was beloved. And that she was- their games could go for hours."

Tony all but heard Thor shake himself back into the present, his voice sounding much closer when he continued, "I do not know for which purpose he thought to cast such a spell on our shield-brother, but I will find out. This I promise, along with retribution if desired. Beyond that, I can only apologize for my brothers-"

There was silence for a moment, and Tony waited, semi-patiently-

"My brother's despicable attack, utilizing magic against an unsuspecting innocent. Especially such a vicious heartbreaking assault. I cannot even-'

Tony could hear the disgust and hate, the denial and recrimination in Thor's voice, and he agreed wholeheartedly. Whatever Loki may have been in the past, or may still have the potential to become in the future; what he had done to humanity, and what he had nearly done to Tony, had done to Tony's family today?

Reprehensible.

But Thor's recriminations were aimed at himself.

Tony couldn't have that. Time to stop playing possum and face the music.

He rolled over slowly, cutting across the beginning of Steve's own reassuring refusal of Thor's guilt with his own, "Trust me, Thunder- I know all about family pulling dick moves. None of this is on you. "

Thor's "Anthony! " coincided quite well with exclamations of "Tony!" and "Stark."

Steve squeezed Tony's hand ( had he been holding Tony's whole time? That was nice.) and added his reassurance, "No one is responsible for anything someone else does. I'm just glad you got home when you did."

Tony nodded his fervent agreement, "Really glad."

And Steve squeezed his hand again (still nice), "Really, really glad."

Thor didn't look overly convinced (hallmark hero trait; shouldering responsibility that didn't belong to you) but nodded his gratitude to the absolving kindness, "Thank you. I am still sorry for your great suffering. If there is anything I can do, you have only to but ask."

Tony nodded "Thanks, Point-break, but I think- "

Steve leaned in close to hiss, "If you say you're okay, you will unquestionably be responsible for my actions" and Woah, okay- someone had some anger simmering away there.

Not that Tony blamed him. The whole thing had been dick move upon dick move, and he wasn't absolving himself of at least a little of the dickishness.

He giggled.

"Dickishness."

Clint snorted from across the room. "He's high as a kite. We won't get anything useful out of him at the moment."

"Love you too, feather-ass" Tony sniped, sticking his tongue out in Clint's general direction.

"Yeah. But do you?" Clint fired back, and then bit after the words like he hadn't intended to say them aloud, wanted to take them back and-

"What?" Tony asked, because-

The archer shook his head, leaning back into the folds of the dark curtains gathered to the side of the large window. "Nothing. Never mind. "

Tony frowned.

But once per affection true.

Surely… he narrowed his eyes.

Clint refused to meet his gaze.

Shit.

"It was a fucking magic spell! Created by that dry-iced fruit-loop! For fuck's sake Clint, I don't know what bloody identifiers it attached to that so-called 'affection'! If say I care about you and I damn well do!"

Clint had crossed his arms defensively during Tony's little tirade, but now raised an eyebrow questioningly (Tony half expected him to threaten tazing and Super Nanny reruns for an instant. Fucker.) and whined, "Fine. Point. But who was four? Rhodey one, Pepper two, Steve three. Who's four? Am I four?"

Tony stared.

"Four? Why four? What fou- -You damn vent-squatting ingrate! You counted?! So, what - I'm supposed to just admit to liking one of you more than the rest? Number four is probably the workshop coffee machine! How the hell would I know!"

"Hey- hey, calm down…" Steve injected, squeezing Tony's hand again and moving from his chair to perch on the bed beside Tony.

All very nice and loving.

Except Steve was the only one who knew how many times they'd passed the damn thing back and forth.

"Calm down? You calm down! I'm not talking about this anymore. And get off my bed. " Tony griped, but he knew the dopey smile on his face was in blatant disagreement with his last order, and Steve seemed to realize this as he didn't even attempt to pull his hand away.

(Clint was jealous, Steve was caring, and Tony was breathing, and everything had turned out okay after all).

"If you don't want to talk about that, how about we talk about this?" Steve replied, holding up the now very crumbed and frayed piece of simple stock card between two fingers with his own raised eyebrow and- oh shit.

"Um."

Steve sighed, retorting "very eloquent" as he backed down, "You and I are going to talk about this later though-"

But Tony didn't want to. He'd had The. Worst. Day. He had enough new nightmare material to fund the Drive-Tony-Crazy-Endeavor for months. He'd potentially, almost, kind of attempted to kill the guy he was sure he actually might love. People were angry with him. His people. He didn't need anyone else disappointed in him – he just-

Everyone was suddenly shuffling out of the room, Thor regaling them with some tale of his days' adventure, something to do with the reason the god had needed to procure the several sizes too small 'I heart New York' t-shirt he was currently wearing. The story entailed, as far as Tony could gather from his few snatched words, a hotdog vendor, a screaming two-year-old, and a poodle.

And then they were gone like some unspoken signal had been received.

Steve's voice was quiet, from close by, "Tony? Babe? You with me? Take a breath- "

Tony giggled wetly through his tears-

Oh.

"Oh." Tony whispered, touching fingertips to his damp cheeks, pulling his hand away to look at the glistening wetness with more than slight bafflement.

Steve felt the carefully banked fire of his anger dampen as if by those same unnoticed tears.

God, what a mess of a day.

He sighed, shifting closer and reaching to press Tony's moistened fingertips between his own. His voice was gentle and unassuming as he spoke "Hey- you're all good. A few hours sleep and you'll bounce right back. You're just exhausted. It's all just catching up to you suddenly. We're okay. "

"We're okay. " Tony parroted, turning his hands slightly in Steve's, glancing at the letter now barely visible pressed between their palms.

Steve wasn't looking forward to that conversation at all. It was one they'd had many times before, and it always followed the same script.

Steve would get angry even when he knew he really shouldn't. Tony would get defensive, devolve into petulant, steamroll through belligerence, and finally steamroll straight into a blistering temper himself. And in full circle, Steve would become defensive of his knee-jerk reaction.

They were both wrong to be upset; they were both right to be upset. It was an ever-revolving argument, dependant on the situation; who ended up in the bed and who was left with only remnants of fear, and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness.

"Sorry I lied. Sorry." Tony apologized.

Steve glanced up. Stared.

It had never started like that before.

The apology, if forthcoming at all, was usually begrudging, and it never came before less than 15 minutes of back-and-forth volleys, several decibels higher than reasonable.

Tony sounded completely sincere. The fact that he still seemed on on the verge of tears didn't help Steve's heartstrings any as they stretched painfully to accommodate the ridiculous amount he loved this ridiculous man.

"I was just– I couldn't let it be you. Any of you. It had to be me. I didn't want it to be me, but it couldn't be anyone else and I just- I knew if I told you how to stop the spell... It would be you. You'd make sure of it. Lying to you was the only way I could-"

Steve gathered him forward into his arms properly, his reply nearly as disjointed and rambling as Tony own explanation, "I know. Thank you. I'm so upset with you; you should have given me a choice. But I know that you knew what decision I would have made, so I get why you didn't. So, maybe I'm not angry? But I am sorry as well."

Tony sniffed, turning into Steve's hold, thumping his head against Steve's shoulder, whining softly, "Today Sucked. Loki sucks. Loving you sucks."

Steve snorted, hugging tighter, answering, "You're not exactly a picnic yourself, you know. Luckily, I'm an enhanced individual, equipped to withstand such battering of the heart. And you're more than worth it. Now shut up- I'm trying to listen to you breathe."

Two shallow breaths later, Tony's chest stilled beneath his hand, and Steve pulled back sharply to with a heart stuttering concern-

Tony let out the shaky breath he'd been holding, sniggering between words, "Sorry! Sorry- too soon? Way too soon. Sorry! I love you! "

Steve closed his eyes listening to Tony take exaggeratedly reassuring breaths, unable to keep a ruefully amused smile from creeping across his face.

He pressed a kiss to Tony's lips and pointedly didn't think about fluid silver light, instead focus on sparkling liquid brown before him as the white card fluttered to the floor and disappeared from view beneath the bed.

To take a breath,

Press a kiss.

Lips to lips,

For what you miss.

When death approaches,

A life must end.

Steal another's breath,

Brother, lover, sister, friend.

Break the cycle,

But once per affection true.

Recieve the kiss of life,

Choose the one to die for you.