AN: This story is set after The Avengers and before IM 3 so they are in New York. I'm using my imagination with what the Stark Tower contains.

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"I'm going to kill you!" Tony screamed as he lunged across the room and threw a punch directly at Steve's face. Steve dodged the punch, grabbed Tony's arm, and twisted him over his shoulder landing Tony flat on his back with the breath knocked out of him. Tony gasped for air with wide eyes and clenched his fists.

"Sorry. It's kind of a reflex." Steve said as he scratched the back of his head and reached out a hand to help Tony up. Instead Tony declined his help and grabbed Steve's arm pulling him down on the ground. He landed on his chest but was back on his feet within seconds ready to take Tony on. Tony jumped to his feet and was a little unsteady but he still swung at Steve, missing. Steve grabbed Tony's arm and twisted him down and held his head with his arm around Tony's neck. Steve had a few inches on Tony so this wasn't a difficult task.

"What are you doing, Stark?" Steve asked with an exasperated tone.

"Trying to kill you!" Tony yelled as he struggled to free himself from Steve's grasp. After a few moments of struggle Tony finally calmed down and let out a deep breath.

"If I let go will you promise to not attack me?" Asked Steve calmly.

"Sure." Said Tony through gritted teeth.

Steve quickly let go of him and jumped back before Tony had a chance to retaliate. Tony wiped the sweat off of his forehead with his arm and glared at Steve.

"You can't be mad at me and not tell me why." Said Steve as he put his hands up to show he was innocent.

"Don't act like you have no clue what I'm talking about." Tony snapped.

Steve looked around the room as if looking to see if he was talking to someone else but as he did that Tony jumped at Steve and punched him square in the nose. He staggered backwards and felt his nose for blood. When he removed his hand he found it red and sticky. He glanced up at Tony and saw him standing there presumptuously. I can fix that Steve thought as he stood up straight. Tony backed up a little because he was in fact smaller than Steve.

"Tony, please stop this. I don't want to hurt you." Said Steve apologetically.

"Hurt me?" Tony sounded pretty cocky.

Tony took another shot at Steve's face, but Steve grabbed his fist in his hand tightly and punched Tony in the face with his other hand. Tony stayed on his feet so Steve punched him again. And again. Tony went week in the knees and lurched forwards. Steve caught Tony and laid him on the ground gently still holding his fist and let go. Tony groaned and lifted his hand to his face and felt the warm blood. His nose was bleeding and he split his lip. Steve turned on his heel and headed for the door but right as he was reaching for the door knob Tony jumped on him from the back and slammed him into the door. Steve whipped around and pushed Tony into the wall but he may have pushed a little too hard. Tony collapsed to the ground, unconscious from the blow to his head.

"Goodness," Steve sighed as he shook his wrist which got bent at a strange angle when Tony slammed him into the door. He shoved Tony with his foot but he was out cold. I mean that is what you get when you try to mess with a super human.

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~3 days earlier~

"Carefully, carefully, carefu-"

"Could you not?" Interrupted Bruce who was very annoyed and becoming frustrated with his work. He was gently laying out an intricate circuit to help Tony because his hands are more steady at the moment,"Whew," he let out a sigh of relief,"Tell me again why you couldn't do that?"

"I don't know. My hands are shaky today." Answered Tony honestly,"and I've got a bit of a headache." He rubbed his forehead and squinted his eyes.

"Okay, well I'm glad to help." Bruce smiled,"Lets take a break for lunch." He motioned to the door while wiping his hands on a rag.

"Nah, you can go ahead. I'll get something later." Tony replied without lifting his head from what he was doing.

Bruce eyed him suspiciously,"Okay then. I'll see you later."

"M'kay." Tony mumbled still not making eye contact with Bruce.

Bruce looked at him for a second more and then walked out of the room only to run into Pepper.

"Oh hey, Bruce."

"Hey, Pepper." He replied awkwardly.

"Is Tony busy?"

"Um a little," he raised his eyebrows.

"Oh okay I'll just bother him later. He's been in there a lot lately. I didn't even see him come to bed last night," she looked concerned.

"Yeah he just seems a bit caught up in his work," said Bruce comfortingly,"I'm sure he'll be done soon."

"Yeah," Pepper replied as she glanced through the glass door at him,"Well where are you headed?"

"I'm going to go get something to eat, care to join me?" Bruce flashed a friendly smile.

"Oh no thanks I'm good! I'll see you around?" Pepper said politely.

"Sure thing!" Bruce replied and waved at her as he walked off.

Pepper had her hands full and she stared at Tony through the window wondering if she should check on him.

She huffed out a sigh and decided to go say hey. Since her hands were full she pushed on the door with her back and walked in.

"Hey, Tony." She was wearing heals as usual and a pencil skirt.

"Oh hey," Tony smiled and stopped what he was doing for Pepper. He always stopped what he was doing for Pepper.

"You've been in here a while, Tony. Why don't you take a break?" Pepper said with a sweet smile.

"No, I'm good." He replied gently hoping for no quarrel.

"Oh alright." She paused for a moment,"But I better see you come to bed tonight." She smiled and raised an eyebrow.

"Alright. See you later." He flashed her a fake smile then squinted his eyes,"Hey, um, could you bring me some pain killer?"

She looked at him for a moment,"Okay," and she walked out of the room. She hated it when Tony got like this. Sometimes he wouldn't come out of his workshop for days.

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Pepper walked off of the stark tower elevator and into the living room after she got back from a late afternoon meeting. It was awfully quiet and she knew Tony was most likely still I'm the workshop fixing up or modifying his suit, which she thought had enough modifications already. She walked into the workshop and found Tony bent over tinkering with the boot from his suit.

"Ahem," Pepper broke the silence causing Tony to jump up from what he was doing, step on a screwdriver, and fall on his back.

"Whew," he sighed,"You scared me, Pep."

"I'm sorry," she giggled,"Have you even been out of here since this morning?"

"Uh-sure. Yeah, yeah I have." Tony lied.

"JARVIS?" Pepper called out.

"My records indicate that Mister Stark has not left the room for over 24 hours, ma'am."

"Tony! So you didn't even go to bed last night?" She didn't know whether to be sympathetic or angry.

"I'm surprised you didn't notice," he raised his eyebrows.

Angry. She was definitely angry,"Tony, you can't keep running on fumes like this. It's not healthy." Now turning to sympathy again.

"I'm fine, Pepper. I'm not even tired."

"You don't look fine and you certainly don't look not tired."

He shrugged.

"You've got an hour left in here. After that you need to go take a shower and go to bed tonight."

"Okay," he wasn't going to argue.

"I'll see you," she pointed to fingers at her eyes and back at Tony and walked out the door.

Tony bent back over and looked at his boot. He took a screwdriver and snapped a small bit into place causing sparks to fly so he quickly pried it out and rubbed his face in frustration. This was the 6th failure today. He sat in his rolling chair and rolled over to his computer to look over it again and changed a few numbers. He rolled over to another screen and began typing but before he knew it he looked at the clock and it was ten minutes past eleven o'clock.

"Jarvis, please tell me my clock is set wrong?"

"No sir, it appears you have failed to carry out mrs. Potts agreement."

"[Thank you], Jarvis." Tony exhaled and jumped out of his chair and out of his workshop.

Slowly he opened the door and found that the lamp on the bedside table was still on and Pepper was awake, reading a book. She didn't look up as Tony walked completely into the room.

"One hour, hm?" She still didn't look up.

"Yeah sorry. Time kind of got away from me." He replied.

"Oh yes. I'm sure it does. I'm also sure you're not getting into this bed like that so go take a shower." Pepper directed him.

"Okay, sweetheart," he smiled and walked into the bathroom backwards keeping his eyes on Pepper.

He shut the door behind him and turned on the shower. Steam from the hot shower filled the room, fogging up the mirror. He stepped into the shower and let the warm water pour over him and cleanse his body.

After about 30 minutes Pepper was just about to turn off the lamp when Tony Popped out of the steamy bathroom.

"Whew! That was refreshing." Tony beamed.

"I'm glad and I'm also tired. So are you! Lets go to bed."

Tony ran across the room and leapt onto the bed at Pepper's feet.

"Tony I'm too tired. We'll do this another night," she smiled weakly.

Tony crawled around next to her and put his arms around her. She couldn't help giggling but she pushed him off.

"Good night," she turned over on her side facing away from him.

Disappointed, he laid on his back and stared at the ceiling. Although he was quite sleep deprived he couldn't seem to fall asleep. He turned on his left side and turned on his right side. Laid on his stomach and on his back. Right when he sat up Pepper abruptly turned around,"Please! Find a side to lie on," she hissed. Slowly he laid back down for a moment but then he got hot. The comforter on top of them all of the sudden seemed very insulated and seemed to be obtaining all of their heat. He fluffed the blanket up and felt the cool air seep under the blanket. It felt so good that he folded it over and exposed his legs, but then he got too cold so he covered himself back up. Suddenly he was too hot again so he threw the blanket off of his body and quickly turned over onto his stomach making a lot of noise. Pepper couldn't stand it any longer and once more abruptly turned around to face him. She pointed a finger at the door,"Get. Out." She said deeply.

"Okay," Tony sighed and grabbed a pillow as he headed out the door,"Love you."

"Go." She said with a flat tone.

The door softly clicked behind him as he shuffled over to the couch with his pillow. He threw it down on the couch and fell on the couch roughly. The cold leather felt good and he stared at the ceiling and looked out the window then over at the clock on the wall. It was about five minutes before twelve o'clock and he could still hear the busy streets of New York. He glanced over to his workshop and had a thought. It was a good thought so he jumped up off the couch and ran on his tip toes to his workshop. When the door opened all the fluorescent lights automatically buzzed on and Jarvis welcomed Tony,"Hello, Sir. Do yo-"

"Shh! Shh! No, no. Be quiet." Tony quickly interrupted the AI.

"Hush mode activated," Jarvis said in a quit voice."

"Thank you, Jarvis."

"Always my pleasure, sir." Jarvis almost whispered.

Tony glanced over at his suit and out the window.

"Pepper would kill me, wouldn't she?" Tony said to his AI quietly.

"Indeed, Sir. Figuratively that is."

"Yeah." He lowered his head and scratched the back of his neck,"but I mean, why would she be able to find out? Jarvis, ready my suit."

"Are you sure?"

"As sure as I am an idiot."

"Readying your suit."

"Alright," he huffed.

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Pepper awoke again after she sent Tony away. It was twelve thirty so she hadn't been asleep for very long. The guilt was beginning to get to her and after a while she couldn't get the image of his puppy eyes when she sent him away out of her mind. Why did she love this man so much. She got out of her bed slowly and quietly opened the door. She tiptoed over to the couch and saw what she thought was tony under a blanket on the couch. He was being suspiciously still so she tapped him. He was suspiciously plush. The smiled on her face quickly faded to anger. What was he doing that he had to set up a decoy? She briskly walked over to the workshop door and found the lights off so now she really had no clue where he was. She walked over to her cell phone and dialed his number and waited.

Damn, Pepper's face appeared on the screen in front of him showing she was calling him.

"Answer it? Or don't answer it? Not answering it would be the easy way to go but then she'd worry about me. Jarvis, do you think there is anyway I can pull this as I was going on a walk?"

"Well, Sir, it is most unlikely but always worth a shot."

"Very well then." He answered the phone.

"Tony? Tony! Where did you go?" Pepper almost screamed into the phone.

"I just went on a walk because I can't sleep."

"You went on a walk? In New York? At night? As if, Tony."

"Okay so I went on a night... Fly," he waited for her to explode.

"Get your ass back here! You haven't slept in over 24 hours, Tony. You're on a slippery slope. This could be dangerous."

"Pepper, how could this be dangerous?" He inquired.

"I don't know, you could pass out at any time." She threw that one out there.

"Pepper, relax. If I passed out auto pilot mode would take over," Tony caught it and threw it back at her.

"Tony! Is that supposed to be assuring?" She yelled.

"God," he said under his breath,"I'm on my way back." And he hung up the phone.

Pepper took a deep breath to control her anger and slammed her cell phone down. She waited with crossed arms for Tony to get back.

Finally the iron man suit landed on the platform of the Stark Tower and began to be disassembled off of his body with robot arms as he slowly walked across it. Pepper stood there watching with crossed arms and glaring.

"God this is awkward. I feel like a child waiting for his sentence."

"Maybe if you quit acting like a child I would have to make you feel like one!" She spat.

He gave her those puppy eyes and looked down at the ground.

"Tony, you're a grown man and I know I cannot stop you from doing things, but could you please just for me quit being so self-destructive? I worry about you. So could you please, for me, take care of yourself for once in a while?"

"Yes, Pepper. Anything for you." He smiled at her but she didn't smile,"Does this mean I still have to sleep on the couch?"

She didn't say a word and turned around.

"What is this? A yes or no?" Tony called out.

Pepper got to their bedroom and shut the door.

"No?" He whispered.

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Thanks for reading! All comments and critiques are greatly appreciated!

I'll try to have the next chapter up next week!