For years I've never known why man feel what they feel, but I know when you feel the wrong thing, it really hurts.

-Unknown

The sun breached over the buildings in the overcrowded city of New York, bringing the start of a new day to the people of the city, or, in Tony Stark's case, another night and day that had passed straight past him without a blink of sleep. Tony made his round in the shop, making a mental checklist as he went along, uselessly counting off the countless projects he had started, gotten distracted from, then moved onto something else that seemed to catch his attention more. The sunlight glinted off a piece of metal that laid astray from his work table and shone right in his eyes. Tony couldn't help but hiss a little and quickly throw his hands up to shield his eyes. /It's probably time to actually leave../ He thought bitterly. It had been five days since Tony left, and five extra days since he had actually physical contact, let alone looked at another person, and it happened to just hit him how awfully lonely Tony was. He sniffled a little as he briefly pitted himself, but soon got over it. With a soft sigh, he made his way back to the work table and pushed a weeks worth (Or possibly more) of trash to the ground and slowly sat down at it. His table was clean, but also like his mind. The only thing that was on his mind happened to be a nice warm meal and some crappy coffee. It would be amazing if he could land his hands on either, but that would mean human contact, and he drew the line at that. Tony sifted through all the junk that he had knocked to the ground, found what he had been recently working on and picked it from all the litter. He found his soldering tool and quickly heated it up, tacking the last parts of the glove to his newest Iron Man suit together. He inspected it for any impurities and when it passed his careful and judging eye, Tony slipped it on slowly and flexed his fingers. It wasn't hooked to the Arc nor had any life in it, but he could almost feel the ghost of the energy that should have surged through it. His eyes closed, the longest they had been closed in almost a week and let out a deep sigh, letting the feeling of all that power run through his system, this disperse. He opened his eyes, only to see his Arc had flared up and was shining brighter than it usually did. His little moment of complete silence was interrupted when the Avengers that lived above his head in the Stark Towers began to move around. Tony was getting to the point where he knew who they where by just listening to their foot falls. This was Steve first. He knew it was, since Steve was the only one that actually woke up at this god awful hour of the morning. It was so much easier to just stay awake till this hour than willingly wake up. He heard the fridge open and Steve rummage through it, then it close and heard as the walking steps turned into runs and Steve started his daily morning run. Tony only rolled his eyes. "Only idiots see it fit to run at this time in the morning." He muttered sourly and turned back to the glove on his hand. He gave it a appalled look and discarded it into the recyclable metal bin, as if the glove had burned his skin and his eyes. He ran two calloused hands over his face slowly, feeling as his mind gave up trying to cope with no sleep and Tony's constant work and just shut down on him. Tony couldn't hold out anymore, took the shop off of lockdown and then just fell to the floor where he slept in a peaceful bliss for a little while, but soon, his nightmares took over and tortured him the rest of the time.

It had been a nice cool day for Steve on this run, the days lately had been too cold, making the super soldier shiver for at least 30 minutes before he finally warmed up and eventually had to strip off his jacket. But, for once, it was just right and Steve marveled in the perfection in the air. He stretched on the sidewalk, Steve never ran before stretching-against his military training or something-, cracked his neck and then started jogging in place before taking off at a nice leisurely pace. He was perfectly content with this, all his worries about the 40's and what he was supposed to about now being trapped in the 21st century. It all just started to disappear and Steve couldn't help but smile, but one thing constantly chewed and nagged and ripped at his brain. Why was Tony avoiding him. He thought that maybe Tony and him had actually started to build a nice friend relationship, and he was crushed when Tony started ignoring him, then ended up completely shutting himself from the world, leaving Steve a little distressed on what he might have done wrong. Maybe he'd go try to talk to Tony, but spend most of the day looking in the glass door of the shop and occasionally knocking on the door. He didn't have a code, let alone know how to enter a code into whatever panel you were supposed to, but he had grown a pretty nice friendly relationship with Jarvis, and would look to the ceiling and politely ask the British AI to let him, but Jarvis would always sadly apologize to Steve and say he couldn't, which would make Steve huff a little. He did catch a few times when he toted a book down there and had started reading, back pressed up against the door, Tony looking at him with an unreadable expression. The moment Steve would look at him, Tony's head was already down and working again. Steve, shook his head, and almost crashed into a cart that was selling hot chocolate. "Sorry!" He called over his shoulder as he heard the man shout something with a heavy New York accent. /Stay focused Rogers./ Steve chanted in his head a few times until he was completely into the running. His pace sped up and he took off down the sidewalk.

Tony was discovered later that day when Steve had come home finally from his run, about three hours after lunch. He hadn't showered yet and was still in his sweaty jacket and workout clothes, but he wouldn't think Tony would even care since the fact that it didn't seem like Tony even knew he existed anymore. He looked down at the book he grabbed. /Tony does have good taste in books./ Steve thought as he read the title out loud. "Oliver Twis- Tony!" Steve saw him laying on the ground. Steve couldn't tell if he was breathing or not, but when he saw him twitch, the muscles in Steve's back and new relaxed a bit and his heart slowed down from the rabbit's pace it had started up to. "Jarvis? May I enter today?" Steve asked kindly as he looked up at the ceiling. "Indeed, Captain Rogers." Jarvis replied much to Steve's shock. He dropped the book as he heard the hiss of the door opening and was almost knocked back as the smell of Tony's shop punched him straight in the face. He gagged once, pulled his not even as close as stinky jacket to cover his nose and jogged into the lab. He had to watch his step because of the incredibly terrible mess that Tony had made. Steve leaped over a pile of metal and landed beside Tony. /Thank god he's finally sleeping. It's been 5 days since I've seen him sleep./ Steve thought, much to his relief. He decided that he'd suffer the terrible smell of the shop so he could pick of the billionaire engineer, also known as the famous Iron Man off the ground with two arms and carry him bridal style. He knew if Tony woke up and saw him carrying him like this, he'd either let out a rude quip on what he was doing, or just completely act like no one was there, and the air was simply carrying him to bed. Steve gently slipped his arm around Tony's back and in the crooks of his knees, and slowly lifted him up, making sure not to wake him. As Steve placed his feet carefully and slowly around all the junk in the shop, it took twice as long to make it back as it did to make it to Tony's side. As he walked down the silent corridor that only betrayed the sounds of the other Avengers sleeping, he kept hearing Tony mumble little things and saw as the sweat began to build on his brow. Steve got a little nervous that maybe he was doing this to Tony and quickened his pace. He opened the door to Tony's own floor that he had when Pepper and him lived together happily, but those days were gone. Pepper had left him months, and Tony had never been all that right after that happened. Steve slowly set him down on the bed, deciding to be all Captain America like and go ahead and at least change Tony from the 10 day old clothes and get him into some fresh PJ's. He slipped Tony's shirt off and swapped it out with a different one, a white shirt, and slipped his jeans off and put some plush pajama pants that had the Iron Man face mask all over them. Steve rolled his eyes. /Oh Tony./ He thought and let out a little chuckle. He pulled the red comforter around Tony, then left his room, the door making a soft click behind him.

Tony woke several days later. /Damn, my body needed more sleep than I thought/ He thought, blinking slowly and trying to get everything to focus. It took a few minutes, but he was able to stand. He looked down at himself, and instantly wondered how he got into bed, AND had a fresh change of clothes on, AND why was there a glass of water sitting on his nightstand? AND is that fresh food? His mind reeled, but singled out on the food and his hunger got the best of him and he wolfed the food down. His stomach cramped up a little from eating to fast and he doubled over just slightly, extremely grateful there was water now, but he still needed his coffee. When the sick feeling passed, Tony stood and walked on shaky legs down the same corridor Steve had carried him down 3 days ago. He made it to the kitchen and smelled this mornings cooking still hanging in the air and sighed a little at that smell. He looked around and saw all the Avengers still sitting around and snacking on what little food they had left on their plates. Bruce spotted him first. "Hey! Tony's awake!" He said with a smile. Steve practically beamed at him, and Tony didn't understand why he blushed. He ducked his head away from them and started to hurry off to the stairs that led to his lab, but felt a hand softly settle itself on his shoulder. Tony looked up to see it was Steve that had gotten up. /God, how does he move so fast?/ "Steve, let me go. I have work to do."

"Tony, no. You haven't taken a shower in almost 10 days, and your lab is so dirty and smells so bad, I'm surprised the air hasn't poisoned you." Steve's voice was stern. "I'm not letting you back in there until you eat more, take a shower and when your lab is clean. The whole team is going to be working on your lab-"

"It's a shop." Tony said slightly annoyed.

"Sorry, shop." Steve said, giving him a look that said 'no nonsense, Tony Stark.' Tony only sighed and nodded in agreement with Steve's rules, soon sitting down beside Bruce and Steve. He watched as Steve got up and brought him a plate of food that smelled so damn good. Tony tore in shamelessly, no one commented on the mess he made though, they all understood just how hungry he really was.

After Steve made sure Tony took a shower-he stood outside the door and asked Tony ever so often if he was okay and so he couldn't escape- everyone but Tony started to work on the shop. Clint and Bruce almost threw up from the smell, but swallowed their bile and trudged on. During the entire time they cleaned, Jarvis filtered new air into the shop, like he had to do for Tony many times when he knew the playboy couldn't breathe. The entire time they cleaned, Tony was only allowed to watch from the sound proof and shatter resistant glass. Jarvis firmly kept him locked out, and even if he hacked Jarvis, Steve and Natasha usually held the door closed until Tony huffed loudly and stormed off to God knows where, but it was most likely the movie room so he could pout and watch Firefly and Serenity to his heart's content. They worked for almost two weeks on the shop until it was spotless and looked beautiful again, and smelled excellent-thanks to Natasha and her various perfumes. When the Avengers retreated from the shop, Steve made sure Jarvis kept it in lockdown. He actually really enjoyed spending time with Tony, a bit more than he thought he would. Tony had started introducing Steve to the marvel of the movies of this century, usually blowing Steve's mind with them. The first movie that Tony had shown Steve just happened to be Avatar, a revelation of it's own. Steve had gasped and oohed and awed the entire time, and every time Steve got so eager about it, Tony would give him a smile that made the corners of his eyes crinkle and he would then chuckle and Steve just reveled in that, and sometimes he faked his own awe just to see and hear that. That smile got him more excited than anything in the 21st century had. As the climbed the stairs, the clear sound of some action movie playing could be heard as the base rattled the walls a little, then realistic gunshots filled the house, making Steve jump a little. He'd never get used to how real that sounded. Steve slowly made his way through the halls that seemed to enjoy confusing him so bad and finally found his way to the movie room. He had to cover his ears, as Tony had it turned up much too loud. He used the volume wheel that happened to be conveniently located right at the entrance of the of the room. He turned it down to where his ears could hear it and heard a loud whine from the pile of bean bags that laid in the middle of the room- Tony had a thing for bean bags and he had no idea why- and made his way over to where Tony lay. Steve sat down next to the pile and caught Tony rolling over next to him. He felt Tony's presence so close, the spark he felt, like lighting on a humid summer day, that kind of lightning that makes your hair stand on end, the kind of lightning that you knew that you where about to be hit with and your life would never be the same. Steve shifted slightly. He felt Tony move closer and they touched, not that they hadn't like bumped into each other before, but this was just different. They touched and Steve felt that summer lightning strike him and his life change forever.