Author's Note: Goodness I feel terrible for this long overdue chapter. I'm still updating this story! :) Thanks for your patience and I hope you enjoy! 3

Breathe

Lexi had finally changed out of Tony's clothes into her some of her own that she brought with her to the Avengers tower. His clothes were neatly folded on the dresser that was included in her room. It was a basic room, space wise, with a queen bed, a dresser, a small little desk area in the corner, but every single piece of furniture was pretty fancy. The bathroom had been amazingly contemporary. The lights were dim, and she loved the ambiance of the bathroom. The grey and off colored blue and white hues were really appealing.

Lexi certaintly could appreciate a nice decored bathroom. Her apartment bathroom was pretty basic and plain so this was a treat. Earlier that night her eyes caught sight of the jacuzzi sized tub and proceeded to soak in a very hot bath. Afterwards, she slipped into her grey joggers and a baby pink shirt with a tabby cat wearing sunglasses. She stared at herself in the dresser mirror with a genuine smile, her fingertips touching her bare lips in memory of the heated moment that happened with Tony earlier in the evening.

As the evening carried on she found she couldn't really sleep. Her mind was a mess and she tossed and turned in the bed long after she should have been asleep. Without Apollo and her usual living space, she kind of felt out of place. Her surroundings were just too new to get comfortable. Not long after a tossing and turning, she found herself sitting cross legged in bed, her wings open behind her as she poured over one of her father's journals.

The first one she had looked at in the stack of three was brown leather, torn in some spots, and she swore she had seen a coffee stain on one of the pages. It even smelled like him. Lexi found herself smiling as the pages flipped through her lithe fingers, her eyes catching bits and pieces as the pages flew by quickly. She returned to the front of the journal and her eyes started to pour over every single curve of his handwriting.

For a moment, she swore she felt her father's presence in the room.

She looked around sadly, a flash of memory flashing through her head from when she was little. She could see her father writing in his leather-bound journals, wings splayed out in their study in a grand display of his status as a guardian angel. He glowed all the time, but humans couldn't see it. Her mother had though. Which made her one of the very few mortals that could detect an Angel. Some mortals had the sight, and her father had been convinced her mother had it.

Lexi returned to the present and glanced back down at the journal as her eyes started to take in what she was reading. Some of it was her father's musings, other parts of it were about missions and his life. Other things were about her mother and Lexi. She came across an early dated entry and her heartbeat picked up as she read the words on the weathered pages.

'She was as ethereal as her mother.

She was perfect in her baby pink bundle and I knew right then my heart was forever hers.'

He was explaining the day Lexi was born. Lexi's semi-damp hair fell into her eyes and it was a good thing too because the words stared to blur through the silent tears that welled up in her eyes. She wiped them away quickly and pushed back strands of damp hair, her hands fluffing her damp out in the back as if it would help dry it faster. Her right hand came back to turn the page after pausing a couple more times on other entries from when she was a toddler.

So far, there was nothing she could see that would help them find the seals. She knew she needed to be looking, but Lexi found comfort in reading a few random entries from her father that had nothing to do with the Underworld or demons. She felt very connected to him in doing so. After a while, the first journal proved to be more of a memoir of her father's life with her mother and Lexi. She finally got to the end and flipped past the last few pages briefly and found nothing of use.

It had been at least half an hour or more since she started. Lexi put that journal to her right and went to pick up the second leather bound journal, but something made her look up towards the door to her room. She felt a stirring in her belly that told her to get up. She didn't know where the urgent little voice came from, but it made her pause, her bright eyes staring out at the door to her room. Whatever this feeling was it gnawed at her stomach and made her fidget on the bed.

Lexi swallowed thickly, looking around her room before shoving off the bed and padding to her door. She unlatched the lock and slipped out into the hallway, her bare feet reminding her just how cold nature she always was without slippers. Lexi winced at the sudden bite of cold, but grew more accustomed to it after ten more steps down the hall. That odd feeling she couldn't explain pulled her along the hallway.

Her body was acting as of its own accord and she merely went along with the foreign feeling. She couldn't tell you a rhyme or reason why she felt the urgency to get up and out of bed, but something compelled her to. Being a Halfling, she didn't take these moments for granted. She knew when her powers were at work and this was definitely something divine in nature.

She bit her lip as the quiet hall was almost eerie. She had learned not too long after settling in that the Avengers had their own floors in the Tower, or wings, whatever one wanted to call it. She looked around warily, not familiar with the silence. This place was usually livelier, but at night she had no idea the place took on a very quiet demeanor. It would have been serene had she not gotten goosebumps on her arms. She wiped her arms quickly; her throat grew dry the further she walked down the hallway without seeing anyone.

Lexi knew that Tony had made sure she was staying on his floor in one of the extra rooms, but she had no idea if he would be up this late. She stopped, and rolled her eyes to herself with a small knowing smile.

Yes, he would be up this late.

She walked down to the garage area she had seen before when they suited up for the botched mission to take down Astarte. The garage was wide open, spacious and it smelled like...well, a man's garage. There were tools everywhere, contraptions half built, a desk area that showed off Tony's touchscreen computer system, and then to the right were his suits. Her eyes held fast to the work of art that displayed itself in the glass cases. Each suit was put on display, and she found herself admiring them, and secretly wondering what it would be like to be the person inside one of them.

She could be quite claustrophobic at times, so she had no idea how that would even play out.

All of a sudden, Lexi remembered where she was and backed up a step. She frowned, and realized she was technically intruding in his work space. Not to mention he wasn't down here. It felt wrong to be prying without his knowing. She held her breath for a moment, eyeing the suits before catching a glimpse of movement in the reflection of a large steel toolbox. A shadow moved again and it was enough to catch her interest.

Every nerve ending stood on edge as Lexi bit her lower lip, holding her breath in anticipation as her heart thudded out of control in her chest. The movement stopped, but she knew she had seen something. Whatever it was, it was on the opposite side of Tony's work space, facing the steel toolbox so that it reflected off the surface.

Lexi's bare feet padded across the garage floor, her hands taking on a defensive stance, readying her fists and feeling the angelic blood hum in her veins. Each step she took towards the unknown shadow made her heart lurch with increasing speed. She looked around a moment, wondering if she should get help. But she knew if she ran out she risked being seen or caught.

She neared the edge and felt beads of sweat pop up near her temple. This was too much like a scary movie. She could feel someone's aura around the corner. She bit back a shriek that threatened to escape her windpipe and jumped from around the corner to see what it was.

When she popped out from behind the work space her eyes widened and her heart nearly broke at the sight. "Tony?" He was slumped in a sitting position, clad in blue jeans, converse and a black 70's band shirt with a dark grey long sleeve undershirt that came to his elbows. His back was pressed against his work space table. His reflection in the steel toolbox is what she had seen. Not a demonic shadow! She instantly felt very stupid.

Her eyes assessed his body language in less than a second. His body was rigid, his legs drawn up close to his chest, his shoulders heaving up and down heavily. He looked like he was covered in sweat, and his right hand was scrunched in between the small space where his knees hit his chest, that same right hand clutching his chest. His left hand was against his slick forehead, which was facing down towards his knees.

Lexi reacted in a flash.

She was already next to him on the ground, kneeling before him on the hard floor of the garage.

"Tony!"

His eyes flickered open at the shrill sound of his name, realizing that someone else was in the garage with him. He hadn't even heard her the first time she called his name, but he knew now. His eyes looked defeated and so overcome with whatever was ailing him. He shook his head in his state of panic, words failing the quick witted playboy. She could see the panic swirling in his dark irises. They were wild, rapidly searching her face as his chest continued to lift up and down rapidly.

For a brief second, Lexi thought he was having a heart attack, or some other medical emergency, but then it clicked, and realization flooded her bones. This wasn't a medical condition like that, this was a panic attack. Lexi saw the signs from the sweat, to the panicked eyes and his hand clutching his chest.

He was silent as he stared at her in a vulnerable state of fear. It gripped his entire being. He parted his lips slightly and she was so close to him she could feel his warm breath coming out in sporadic fits. His eyes averted hers for a moment, embarrassment at being in such a vulnerable no doubt.

Lexi felt her eyes well up as empathy overtook her. Her heart sank at the realization that Tony was, and had been, suffering silently all this time. The worst part was that she would bet good money he was suffering alone, keeping this all to himself as best he could without letting the other teammates know just how severe his condition could get. Whenever Tony looked haunted at the mention of the battle of New York she now understood the depth of horror that would hit him.

This was not something as simple as a bad memory.

This was a reoccurring nightmare for him.

She noted the way his body tensed up, which was exactly the opposite of what he needed to be doing. He needed to try and relax, to stop fighting the panic and focus on his breathing. Without thinking Lexi scooted into Tony and used her right hand to gently move his left hand away from holding his head up. She then used her right hand and her left to grasp the sides of his face, his facial hair grazing her lithe hands. She did this with care so she didn't disturb his already panicked state even more.

"Tony, breathe with me. Slowly. In and out."

She felt the surge of angelic power hum through her veins, her hands started to glow a faint golden hue, but she continued to breath slowly and evenly, her words mimicking that of a true angel's voice. Lexi had been through this a time or two, but she never had panic disorder or anxiety on a daily basis, so she couldn't even imagine living each and every day with this.

The first time it happened her father had been there to guide her through it, but the second time it happened was a short time after her father passed, the pent up emotions she felt had exploded in a violent display of a panic attack. Her mother almost called the ambulance, but Lexi begged her to just hold her until it passed.

"Focus your energy on your breathing, never mind everything else." She whispered lowly. Everything fell away in that moment as Lexi and Tony sat together in the garage. All she could focus on was the fact that was Tony was hurting, and something in her wanted nothing more than to see Tony okay again.

"Just breathe, Tony."

He clenched his eyes closed tightly, his brows furrowed slightly as if he were concentrating on his breathing, doing exactly what she had instructed him to do. Lexi lowered her face closer to his so that her forehead touched his. She had no idea the soothing effect she had on him until she saw his body grow slack, his breathing started to even out in sync with her own slow breaths. The golden aura around her hands enveloped Tony, and he started to feel lighter, more blissful. His panic slowly receding back, being kept at bay by whatever it was she was doing.

His body relaxed considerably and she felt his right hand slip from his chest up to one of her hands that held his face. He placed his hand on hers, his eyes still closed in concentration as Lexi silently watched while Tony collected himself.

The panic attack had passed.

She could see the way his shoulders rose and fell with slower breaths, and her own shoulders sagged in relief. Slowly, Tony pulled away from Lexi, his eyes held fast to her own for a very long drawn out moment. He then quickly averted his gaze, using his right hand to wipe down his face, a small sniff escaping him. For a moment, Lexi wondered if she should just leave, but something told her to stay.

He glanced at her, a silent thank you in his eyes before the fell on her pj's and smirked, "Nice pj's." He offered a very small smile that rose and fell quickly. His body played catch up to the panic and anxiety that had just coursed through his veins.

He looked tired, worn out and Lexi had to fight the urge to run her hands through his dark hair to sooth him. She looked down at the cat with sunglasses and smiled sheepishly, "I'm into cats." He let out a small little breathy laugh, looking away as the awkward moment between them fizzled away slowly.

They stared at one another for a long moment before Tony surprisingly spoke first, his voice low, "You seem to have experience with this." Lexi continued to sit facing him, her left hand pushing back some stray strands of hair while nodding slowly.

"I had a couple myself. The worst one was not too long after my dad passed. I haven't had one in a very long time though." She paused and looked at him with a frown. "Does it happen often?" She spoke softly, but when her eyes looked up Tony saw the genuine concern in her own eyes.

He pursed his lips for a moment, his eyes roaming around the garage for a moment and he shrugged, "Often enough."

She frowned, "That just doesn't sound...safe, or healthy." She found herself concerned for his well-being.

He shook his head, looking away and at the suits lined up around the garage, "Nothing about my life is safe." He returned his dark eyes to her, the beads of sweat on the side of his face falling away, he used his left hand to wipe again. Lexi chewed on her lower lip, unsure of what to say before hearing two words she didn't expect.

"Thank you."

Lexi looked at him as he sheepishly smiled at her, an humbled gaze falling over his face as he stared at her with vulnerability and a raw openness. She nodded silently, a small smile finding its way across her face.

"How did you know I was in here anyways?" He asked while pushing up from the ground and getting up on slightly shaky limbs. He held onto the edge of the work space and stretched his back, before looking at Lexi curiously.

"I didn't," She paused before continuing, "I, I don't know, I couldn't sleep. Something told me to get up and then I found you in here."

As she spoke something in her mind flickered. A light bulb moment that told her it was very possible the reason why she found Tony in here was all because the voice in her head was trying to tell her something was wrong. How could she be connected to Tony in a such way? That was impossible, right?

He raised a brow, "Well, that's totally not creepy, but I appreciate your weird angel vibes, otherwise I might have passed out on the floor." His flippant nature was back and she smirked before reaching for his outstretched hand, pulling her off the floor.

They stood close together and Lexi eyed him silently, her eyes roaming over every feature on his face. "Did the battle in New York cause this?" She had an inkling that it was all because of it, but she wanted to hear it from him. She wanted him to tell her, which would open him up to confiding in her. He needed to talk about it with someone because suffering silently did him no good.

"Yep. I almost got sucked into a wormhole, remember? Thank you for pulling me out, by the way, but I was 99.9% I was going to die, so yeah." He remarked quickly as Lexi nodded slowly, allowing him to vent.

"I know it's not my place, but you really shouldn't have to go through this alone." Lexi remarked calmly, but Tony took a step back from her at this comment, walking around the work space and touching his computer to light it up.

"The team has enough problems already." He shrugged while pulling up some images on his computer and scrolling through them with his fingers, pushing page after page out of the way. She walked around the work space and leaned against the computer, her eyes watching what it was he was doing with mild interest.

"So, carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders and bottling up your own problems is the route you go?" She asked, her voice firm, no hint of playfulness was detected. He stopped what he was doing and turned to look at her with an incredulous look.

"My problems are minuscule compared to the world's problems. When you're an Avenger that's the sacrifice you make. You put others' needs before your own, and all that hero mambo jumbo." He grumbled lightly, an annoyed look overcoming his features.

"But you can't possibly help other people if you don't fill your own cup first." Lexi countered seriously, her arms now crossed across her chest, her wings fluttering behind her.

He gazed at her with a mocking look and snorted, "Did you read that in Eat Pray Love?"

Instead of getting irritated Lexi steadied her breathing. She breathed deeply, her nostrils flaring slightly as he completely went back to being normal snarky Tony. As if nothing serious had just happened moments before, as if he would literally just bottle it up and try to forget it. There was a tense moment between them. Tony gnawed on the inside of his cheek as he stared at Lexi, her ethereal form still taking his breath away every time he really got a glimpse of her and her divine beauty.

He looked away for a moment, and then down at his computer in an odd display of regret at his callous comment. She meant well and only wanted to help. Tony knew that as he spoke roughly. "I just gotta deal with it in my own way, Lex. That's all."

The fact that he called her Lex hadn't gone unnoticed. She liked the nickname, and moreso she found she liked it coming from him.

He couldn't let on to the fact that his anxiety and panic had gotten worse over time and more often than not he found himself waking up to horrific images in his mind that replayed on a loop. When Lexi caught his gaze she saw the the haunted look that plagued him. She breathed in deeply, her chest rising and falling as she gathered her thoughts. He could try and fool her all he wanted, but she knew better.

She pursed her lips and took a small step towards him "I understand that. I just-can you promise me something?"

He gave her a quirky grin, "My track record with keeping promises is really bad."

"For me." She stated firmly, her lips ghosting up into a small grin. He couldn't help but smile back. He truly was captivated by her in every way possible.

"You drive a hard bargain." He murmured with a relenting smile.

"Just promise me you'll at least consider not going through this alone. I'm not going to say anything to anyone, but -" She paused, her cheeks growing a tinge of red, "I'll be here is what I'm trying to say. Whenever you're ready, or whenever you need me."

She sheepishly looked down, then back up at Tony. He stared at her, his eyes surprised by her genuine tone.

That snarky smile crept on his face again and he mulled this over, "When I need you for anything?"

Lexi shoved him playfully, knowing where his mind and he laughed. A genuine laugh that made her cheeks blush a darker shade red. It was nice to hear that come from him.

"I'll at least consider it." Tony finally lamented with a appreciative smile in her direction.

A few moment laters, she looked to his computer and pointed at the large repulsor like gadget floating as a hologram. "What's this?"

Tony smiled widely as excitement flickered in his eyes. "Oh, this? This is a new gadget I'm working on for another concept suit." He raised a brow after a pause, "Wanna see?" Lexi smiled and nodded enthusiastically.

Late into the night, Tony showed her what he had been working on, explaining to her how everything worked. Sometimes she caught on to the big words he used, but other times it was foreign to her. Sometimes her eyes would casually glance at his lips or his taut biceps, and he would catch her.

"I know you're still thinking about that ravishing kiss we shared, but my eyes are up here." He mocked playfully. She'd roll her eyes before paying attention again.

Lexi found she enjoyed his company, and as they talked well into the wee hours of the night she got the distinct feeling he enjoyed her company too. At one point, he gave her a chair to sit in and she must have fallen asleep with her wings folded up because she woke up in the night. Her head was on part of his work bench, a blanket now draped around her that she didn't have before.

Tony silently worked. His back was to her so she could see his muscles coiled while he worked on something she couldn't see. He had left the hologram up of the suit he showed her earlier, but this time it was less bulky, more fitted for a woman. As the hologram spun around she saw two large openings in the back of the suit that were carved out. Before she fell asleep again, she swore the two openings in the back of the suit looked like a place for a pair of wings.

Author's Note: This chapter comes close to my heart because I know what Tony goes through as far as anxiety and panic attacks. I used to have severe panic attacks myself. And can we just talk about how cute they are?! And how he calls her Lex? Not to mention he might even be making a suit for her? Maybe? In the movies, he always makes suits for those he cares about. Rhodey, Pepper, Peter. It goes without saying Tony might care about her more than he realizes. I think it's because they just met and it's weird for both of them how drawn to one another they are. Ahhh this chapter reignited my flame for Texi [Tony/Lexi] Hope you enjoyed!