"At The Farmhouse" MCU Tony Stark, M, For Arc Reactor

[SleepingPhlox]

Ummmmmmm hi @Arc Reactor a million years later and I finally wrote it.   Seriously, I am so, so sorry that this has taken so long for me to post.  I could say a whole bunch of excuses but the important thing is it's here and...I hope it's long enough, and decent enough and all that.  If it's not what you were hoping for I can absolutely find a way to extend it, carry it on to when they're indoors later, that sort of thing.  Please, please tell me if it needs to be extended or whatever, I promise it won't take a million more years to write more. 

ANYWAY!  A long time ago I was supposed to write this for a trade, and Arc Reactor wanted the wood chopping scene from Age Of Ultron rewritten to feature Tony with hayfever.  She also ships Tony and Steve so I decided to weave that into this, there are hints of a relationship here - a relationship in need of mending, but a relationship nonetheless.  Angst, with hints at a looming happy ending.

And while I was going through the scene to make sure I had the dialogue just right, I was pausing very frequently and ended up on this frame by chance...I thought it looked SO close to youknowwhat that I couldn't resist taking a screenshot for a visual aide for the story.

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Crack!

Sharp steel met wood yet again, and a shower of splinters exploded in all directions as the two halves of the once proud and thick log separated and fell to the ground, landing with a dull thud in the lush green grass-grass that grew up to their knees in places, grass that seemed to go on forever all around them, a veritable sea of vivid green.  Almost immediately Tony reached for a new log, not even stopping for a moment to catch his breath.  As if he weren’t obviously flagging.  As if he wasn’t being childishly competitive right now, trying with all his might to keep up with the impossible pace Steve had set.  As if he weren’t out of breath and exhausted.  As if there weren’t other obvious, glaring reasons he should stop being so stubborn and just go inside.  Like, for example, that his swing of the axe was very clearly timed to coincide with a sneeze, as if that way Tony could hide the fact that the outdoors clearly didn’t agree with him.   It was a tactic that wasn't working, but it didn't seem to deter him from repeatedly trying.  Stubborn, again.

But “stubborn” was sort of Tony Stark’s whole thing, wasn’t it?  Trying to get him to admit he needed to give up and do something for his own damn good was damn near impossible.  Trying to get Tony to stop being stubborn?  Well, that’s why they were in this mess in the first place, wasn’t it?

So Steve pretended not to notice Tony dragging his wrist under his nose after he placed the log into position for chopping.  Just like he pretended not to notice the wet sniffle that accompanied it.  Just like he pretended not to notice the last twenty times Tony did that.  It wasn’t that he wasn’t in the mood for fussing over Tony right now.  It took all of his self control not to ask Tony if he was okay, offer him a handkerchief, or tell him not to worry about the chores and go inside and rest.  But it didn’t really seem like the time for that right now.

“Thor didn’t say where he was going for answers?” Tony grumbled, punctuated by another small sniffle.

“Sometimes my team-mates don’t tell me things,” Steve answered pointedly.  “I was kinda hoping Thor would be the exception.”

Take the hint, Tony.  Take the damn hint.  Just ask for help, already.  Yes, it was a dig, it was a dig about the things that had recently happened that Steve was feeling wounded over.  But there was another, subtler, more immediately pertinent meaning. There was so much he could forgive if Tony could just swallow his pride about this one tiny thing at this moment in time.  Maybe they could even use it as a starting point to heal some of the bigger things that had come between them in the last day or two.

“Give him time...*sniff*...we don’t know what that Maximoff kid showed him...hehhhESSSHHchh!”

“Bless you...Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and they pulled us apart like cotton candy.”

Even without looking up Steve could feel Tony’s dark brown eyes boring holes into his very being.  He wasn’t sure why.  What could Tony possibly have to feel so angry over?  If he would just stop being so stubborn and just talk about things for once in his life, none of this would be happening.  And why, if he was so furious with Steve, did he insist on staying out here, punishing himself?

“Well it seems you walked away all right,” Tony snapped.

Oh, okay, that was why.  Tony just couldn’t leave well enough alone, could he?  He had to stay out here and push buttons until he got a reaction.  He just couldn’t help himself.  Well, he could just keep pushing and stay miserable until he decided to act like an adult.  Steve wasn’t going to reward him with a reaction.

“Is that a problem?” Steven answered as nonchalantly as possible.

“I don’t trust a guy without a dark si-...hehhhh...side...hehhh’DTCHHHgghh!...ugh...Call me old fashioned.”

Crack!  Another log split with a shower of splinters, two more halves rolling with a dull thud onto the grass.  Steve had to stop and stare at Tony with disbelief.  Was Tony really going to keep doing this?  Just keep dragging himself through this obvious discomfort just to make...whatever point it was he thought he was making?  Because whatever point it was Tony was trying to make, Steve couldn’t figure it out.  And it wasn’t for lack of trying, either.  He’d been trying to figure it out for the last however long it had been since they’d gotten out here.  He’d given up about fifteen logs ago.

“Well lets just say you haven’t seen it yet,” Steve retorted and then muttered “Bless you” because try as he might he simply could not stop himself from saying it.  It just didn’t feel right.

“You know Ultron is trying to tear us apart, right?” Tony said, and pinched his nose tightly as his head bobbed forward, obviously trying and failing to stifle a sneeze into perfect silence.

Us the team, or us...us?  Steve wondered, searching Tony’s face for an answer.  But he found none.

“Okay, first of all, don’t do that, you’re going to hurt yourself.  Second of all, hey, you’d know, right?”  He paused as he watched Tony lift the back of his hand to the underside of his nose and sneezed again.  At least he seemed to have taken the advice about stifling them on board.  Maybe all hope wasn’t lost.  “Bless you again.  Anyway, whether you’d tell us is a bit of a question.”

“Banner and I were doing rese-...reseahhhhhh-...”  He paused, lips slightly curled, eyes squinted awaiting the inevitable...that never happened.  “Research.  HehhhIHHHTchhhu!”

“That would affect the team!”  Steve couldn’t help but let all of his anger flood into this one simple sentence.  Why couldn’t Tony look at him and see how much he was hurting over this?  He thought they’d trusted each other.  He’d opened up to Tony so much, trusted Tony with so much.  He’d thought Tony had learned to open up to him.  Had it all been so one-sided?  Had they never really had that much between them?  Had Steve only seen what he’d wanted to see?

“That would end the team,” Tony volley’d back, his own voice overflowing with pent up emotions.  Why was Steve being so pissy at him?  Couldn’t he see that this had hurt Tony more than anyone?  He’d tried, he’d tried so hard for everyone - for himself and for Steve and for the whole team and for the whole damn Earth and...

He’d failed.  

He’d failed and in doing so had possibly brought about the very same doom he wanted to protect the world against.  Had thrust the first people he’d ever actually cared about into what might end up being a life or death fight against that doom.  And here he was, making it a point to be out here, pushing himself past his physical limits, enduring no small amount of allergic suffering, needing Steve to just look at him, look at him just once, really look at him and notice how hard this was for him.  How sorry he was.  How much pain he was in.  How much he needed help right now.

Of course he couldn’t really blame Steve for not looking at him.  He could barely stand to look at himself.

“Isn’t that the mission?” Tony continued, now at a point of desperation.  Maybe if he could goad Steve enough he’d finally listen and hear how much he was hurting.  “Isn’t that the ‘why’ we fight?  So we get to end the fight?  So we get to go home?”

And at that moment something snapped inside Steve and he gripped a log and tore it apart in his bare hands.  It was reflex, instinct, something that just happened and it didn’t entirely register to him that it had happened until he had the halves in each hand.

“Every time somebody tries to win a war before it starts, innocent people die.  Every time,” he said, quietly but firmly.

Tony could say nothing, couldn’t even bring himself to do anything as he felt the guilt well up inside him as he remembered, realised exactly why Steve would have that point of view and...oh, shit.  He’d really screwed up this time, hadn’t he?  No wonder Steve hated him right now.  He looked down at the ground, over at the pile of wood, off to the trees in the distance - anything that wasn’t the uncomfortable stern gaze of the blue eyes that seemed to be looking into his very soul...and finding whatever small shred of humanity they found there utterly lacking. Why did he ever think that Steve could possibly understand him?  That Steve-Mr.-Fucking-Perfect-Captain-America-Rogers would ever in a million years understand Tony-Walking-Human-Mess-Stark?  Tony had obviously mis-read everything and what Steve had felt for him was...pity?  Disdain?  Nothing good, that was for damn sure.

“Hehhh...hehhhISSSSHHtcghhh!...*sniff*...god damn it.”

“Bless you.  Why are you doing this, Tony?”

Tony sighed and turned away, reaching for another log.  “I think I did a pretty good job of explaining that.  Like, just now.  Like a minute ago.  Were you not paying attention?  Or were you just waiting for the moments you could get your little digs in...hehhhITCCCHghhh!”

“Not talking about that, and I think you know that...oh, would you just put the axe down for two seconds?  Here...”  He took a handkerchief out of his pocket and held it out in an outstretched arm, taking a few slow and tentative steps forward as if Tony was a frightened cat that needed to be caught and the small square of cloth was a piece of fresh fish.  And just as a frightened cat would, Tony eyed it suspiciously, not sure if he should take the bait.

“What, do you just...like, carry one of those around all the time, or something?”

“Never know when you’re going to need one.  Go on, take it.”

“I don’t need it,” Tony grumbled and went to raise the axe again, only to stop when his nose seemed determined to make a liar out of him.  “HehhhEHHHHtchhhu!”

“Come on, you clearly do.  And if you’re not going to take anything for that hayfever of yours or go inside-”

“I do NOT,” Tony snapped, far too angrily for what should have been such a benign subject.  “Have hayfever.  So just shut up and leave me alone and let me get back to work.”

“But you obviously do.  Come on, I know how hard hayfever can be and-”

Tony threw the axe down onto the ground and rounded on Steve furiously.  “No.  No you don’t.  You don’t know how hard it can be.  You don’t know how hard anything like that can be.  Because you’re physically perfect, remember?  You’re so much better than the rest of us.  Oh!  And hey!  Turns out you’re so much smarter than the rest of us, huh?  You never get anything wrong.  No, that would just be me.  So I guess you get to be the smart one too...hehhIHHHptchuu!...damn it!...so where does that leave me?  I’m the one who brings the world one step closer to total annihilation.  But good thing we have the Almighty Steve Rogers to fix everything, since he knows everything and all.”

Steve exhaled slowly and pinched his nose, trying to summon every ounce of patience he could possibly find within him.  Okay, he’d wanted Tony to open up, and he’d gotten his wish...if not in the form of an utter Pandora’s box of everything Tony happened to have on his mind at this moment in time.  At least, he hoped that was all Tony had on his mind because if there was more in there...that didn’t even bear thinking about.  When it came to Tony, there was an awful lot swimming around in that head of his, it was a wonder he was as normal as he was.

“Okay first of all, will you please take this and blow your nose because you need to, you’ve needed to since you stepped foot outside so please, please just do that for yourself.  Secondly, just for the record, I do know what hayfever feels like.  Did you know they only invented antihistamines after I got the serum?  You know there were years of my life I could only imagine what relief from allergies felt like?  The idea of a pill that would make them go away would have sounded like science fiction to me.  And I was allergic to everything.  You have no idea.  Dust, animals, trees, grass, flowers...and that before-the-serum-Me is in my head screaming at you because you can go into the house right this second and swallow a tiny little pill that will help you and you refuse to do that.  It's the same kind of screaming he does when I hear about people that don't believe in vaccinations.  Come on, be sensible."

Tony continued to glare at Steve warily, though he was beginning to let his guard down, since he stepped cautiously foward and took the handkerchief, wiping his nose with it.  He kept his eyes trained on Steve, watching his every move as if he expected this all to be some sort of a trick.

“And for crying out loud, Tony, would you stop looking at me like I’m trying to trick you.  I just want to help you stop sneezing your head off.  Trust me.”

“Why?  Why would you even bother?”

“Excuse me?”

“Well you hate me now, so...”

“What?  Tony...that’s not how this works.  I’m mad at you.  I am so, so mad at you right now. Unbelievably mad at you. But that doesn’t mean I stopped caring about you, or that I hate you.  It just means that we need to work this out.”

Tony stopped, staring at Steve, his brown eyes full of confusion, trying to puzzle through what he had just heard, as if Tony was struggling to understand that one transgression did not mean he’d be written off forever.  Was this an entirely new concept to Tony?  Maybe it was...he hadn’t been exactly known for forging healthy lasting relationships in his lifetime.  Maybe this reassurance was all he needed.  Steve leaned in, raising an arm to rest his hand on Tony’s shoulder comfortingly.  Tony immediately took a step back, glaring at Steve, all too reminiscent of that frightened cat again.  Okay.  Maybe he needed some time to process things.  They’d come back to this, try it again, maybe get a little further next time.

But not now, because Clint’s wife came out to ask for Tony’s help in the barn and Tony seemed only too willing to get himself away from this situation.  But maybe that was a good thing.  Maybe that was exactly what he needed, some time to cool off and clear his head.  For the first time since all of this had kicked off, Steve was starting to feel optimistic again.  They’d fix this.  They’d piece this back together and piece themselves back together and fix this and then they’d face off against any threat the world could throw at them.  Together.

So when he heard a muffled “HehhIHHHptchhggh!” from Tony as he trudged off toward the barn, there was a hint of a smile in the “BLESS YOU!” Steve shouted loudly back.

[kushamisukii]

This was great...ahhh♡ I can just envision this is how the scene went down perfectly. So cute!

[AngelEyes]

Awww. The drama is totally on-point!

[Avengers18]

OMG THIS IS SO AWESOME!!! This scene had so many feels and you made it into a work of art :))) 

[Arc Reactor]

WOW. This was AMAZING. I LOVED IT!!! Thank you soooo much for this. It made my day! This was absolutely perfect, although, only if you don't mind of course, I wouldn't be opposed to an extension where they're inside and there's some cute hurt/comfort moments. It's completely up to you, though. So don't feel too pressured to do anything you don't want to do. 

I'll have my part of the trade up as soon as I can!

[SleepingPhlox]

11 hours ago, Arc Reactor said:

WOW. This was AMAZING. I LOVED IT!!! Thank you soooo much for this. It made my day! This was absolutely perfect, although, only if you don't mind of course, I wouldn't be opposed to an extension where they're inside and there's some cute hurt/comfort moments. It's completely up to you, though. So don't feel too pressured to do anything you don't want to do. 

I'll have my part of the trade up as soon as I can!

Oh twist my arm why don't you, geez! Haha, actually I woke up knowing that I needed to write more of this in a certain way and I just had to do this.  So uh, your wish had already been granted before you even made it.   There will be at least one more part after this one too.  Basically I decided that the moviele

For some reason my cursor gets stuck when I'm trying to tag everyone else but I just wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to kushamisukii, angeleyes, and avengers18, thank you so much for reading and leaving such nice comments, and I hope you enjoy the next parts to come!

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Part 2

Steve heard the loud sneeze, followed by a large clang and some cursing as he approached the barn.  Judging from the commotion, Tony's mood wasn't going to be very much improved, not yet anyway.  He hesitated, stopping in his tracks for a moment as he listened for more clues as to Tony's emotional state.  Should he go in, or wait a little longer before he approached Tony again?  He heard clanging and clattering, but no more sneezing or angry epithets, so he decided to go in and make his presence known.

He stood in the doorway, watching the genius at work for a moment.  He had seen Tony hard at work many times, deep in thought, utterly involved in what he was doing to the point of being oblivious to everything around him.  He was certain Tony had never seen a tractor before in his life, but here he was, probably doing a darn good job of fixing it.  He just had that sort of innate ability to understand how things worked - or if they weren't working, how they should work.  He admired that about Tony.

Had he ever told Tony that?  He couldn't remember.  He should probably tell Tony that one day.

Steve silently watched Tony sit there, with his hands thrust under the dirt encrusted chassis of the tractor, until he finally cleared his throat and knocked on the rough wooden frame of the barn door.  Tony, in response, dropped his wrench.  And whatever happened next couldn't have been good, as a torrent of black oil gushed out with an urgent suddenness.  It spilled out over Tony's hands, coating them, but this was a mere minor inconvenience to the liquid on its way to the ground, where it hit with a loud splatter, followed by a trickle, which eventually slowed to a rapid dripping.

"Damn it!" Tony shouted, leaning back and looking at his hands in dismay.  This was the mildest of his profanity, and it was quickly followed by a few more choice words, each one stronger than the last.  Unlike the oil, his angry shouting seemed to be in no hurry to peter out to a slow trickle, and Steve wondered how long Tony could keep it up.  The question was answered shortly, as Tony drew back, his lip curled and his chest rising and falling with quick, urgent inhalations.  

Tony held his oil covered hands out in front of him, curling his face toward his shoulder in an apparent effort to rub his nose with his upper arm.  He was clearly trying so very hard not to sneeze.  Steve, thinking as quickly as he could, rushed to grab a clean-seeming flannel cloth from a nearby workbench and as Tony turned to hold his hands out expectantly...

...pressed it over Tony's mouth and nose instead.

He was just in time to catch a wet and forceful "hehhhhTCHHHHmmphh!" into the welcoming folds of the soft fabric.  Tony was sniffling wetly, clearly fighting a losing battle against a profoundly watery nose and it just seemed to make sense to keep the cloth where it was.

"Do you...do you want to blow your nose or anything while I have this here?"

And that was a step too far for Tony.  "Eew, NO!" he protested, pulling his head away.  "Seriously what were you thinking?  That was clearly not my most pressing issue here and that's what you go for?  Seriously?  Give me that rag.  I don't know if you noticed but I kinda have a thing going on with my hands here.”  He snatched the cloth far more rudely than was called for when Steve offered it, and tried his best to remove the slick black oil from his hands.  It was somewhat successful, though it left lingering patches in his cuticles and the deeper of the wrinkles on his well worn hands.  He let the cloth fall to his feet carelessly when he finished, amongst the dirt and hay and pebbles and screws and soda can tabs and other detritus strewn about underfoot.  And then, completely ignoring Steve’s presence, got back to work.

Steve was determined to remain undeterred this time, however.  He wasn’t about to throw away everything they had built between them, not without fighting for it first.  So he watched, silently, as Tony worked, silently.

“Hehhh’ISSSSSchhhggh!”

And sometimes not-so silently.

“Bless you,” Steve said quietly.

“Uh-huh,” was Tony’s entirely unimpressed answer.  But at least it was an answer and not the silent treatment.  

This went on for several minutes, Steve watching Tony work in relative silence, punctuated by sneezes from Tony and the requisite follow up “bless you” from Steve.  Until, eventually, Steve ventured:

“You know, you’re doing a really good job on that.”

Tony stopped, letting his arms drop heavily into his lap, rolling his eyes petulantly.  “Well, I’m so glad I have your seal of approval.  Let me guess, you used to fix lots of these when you were growing up and you’re better than everyone at this too.”

“I grew up in Brooklyn, remember.  We didn’t have tractors.  Tony, I never once said I thought I was better than anyone.  Honestly, I just wanted to tell you that I think it’s incredible that you can look at any machine and just figure it out.  Just like that.  It really is one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen anyone do.”

Tony looked up, once again seeming as if he couldn’t quite figure out if this was a trick or not.  Eventually he seemed to come to the conclusion that it was a genuine compliment because he offered a reluctant “Oh...well thanks, I guess...hehhhIIEESSSHHchhu!” in response.

“I take it you haven’t taken an antihistamine yet?” Steve ventured.

“Haven’t been in the house yet,” Tony grumbled, dragging his wrist under his nose and sniffling.  Steve could tell from where he was standing that simply wiping his nose on his wrist or the back of his hand had stopped being a viable solution for Tony quite some time ago and it seemed it was pure stubbornness that kept Tony from using absolutely any other solution for wiping his nose or, heaven forbid, actually blowing it like any reasonable person might do under the circumstances.  Steve wanted to point that out, but then again, why throw away the small bit of progress they had made so far?

“So what do you think the problem is?” is what he said instead.

“The problem is people take machines for granted,” Tony grumbled.  “They don’t maintain them, and expect them to run and run indefinitely and then always act surprised when something breaks down because it was working just fine yesterday.”

“Yeah, you have to look after things before they break.  I guess that’s true for a lot of things, not just machines.”

“And what the hell is that supposed to mean?” Tony snapped.

“I was just thinking...”

“You were just trying to get one more little dig in at me, weren’t you?  Couldn’t wait to find something you could turn around and use to twist the knife, huh?  So what is it that’s broken here, huh?  Did I fail to maintain our relationship?  Is that what you’re talking about?  Or hey, maybe it’s me!  Tony finally snapped and broke and now he’s useless and-”

“Damn it, Tony, will you SHUT UP!”

The words, shouted so loudly they echoed off the wooden walls of the old fashioned barn, took Tony by surprised and he froze in place, looking utterly shocked and at a complete loss as to what to do in response to that.  But nobody looked more shocked than Steve himself, he stood, staring wide eyed at Tony, half shocked and half apologetic, his mouth moving as if he was struggling to remember how to form words.  But somewhere in the recesses of his mind he knew that Tony was going to remember to be indignant any moment now, so he should take advantage of the silence to say what he’d been needing to say for some time.

“Why is this only about your feelings right now?  Do you think you’re the only one hurting from all of this?  Tony, I am trying so hard here and you won’t even meet me halfway.  I thought we trusted each other.  I thought we cared about each other.  I trusted you, Tony, I trusted you with everything.  And then I found out that you didn’t trust me at all.  Not enough to let me in.  Everything that happened, I don’t even blame you for that.  I don’t.  And I want to help you fix it.  But you didn’t trust me, you didn’t let me in, and that’s what’s hurting me, Tony.  And you still won’t let me in.  You’re pushing me away instead of letting me be the one who’s feeling something, letting it be about me just for a little while.”

And he had to look away, because he couldn’t bear to see the wounded expression Tony was fixing him with, and he needed to stay strong and stick to this because he needed Tony to hear it.  Whatever happened between them after this, he needed Tony to hear this.

“But this is about you,” Tony said quietly, almost meekly, and it nearly broke Steve to see Tony look so uncharacteristically...deferential.  “It’s been about you ever since I saw...since I saw...”

“Oh, Tony.  You know that wasn’t real.”

“It was real, though, Steve.  You were there and you told me I should have done more to-”

“Tony.  No.  That wasn’t real and it could never be real because I would never, ever say something like that to you.  I would never say you didn’t do enough.”  He knelt down so that he was eye level with Tony, and put a hand under Tony’s chin, forcing him to look up and look him in the eyes.  “Come on, Tony.  You’re the guy who always wants to push a little bit harder and look a little bit deeper for an even better solution to whatever problem is in front of you.  Okay?”

“But it was so real,”

“Tony, I promise you.  It wasn’t real.”

“But I...I...uh, Steve?”

“Yes?”
“I’m about to sn-...hehhhIHHHTCHHHggh!”

He turned his head away as quickly as he could, and managed to spare Steve’s face from the mist that flew from his lips, spraying the muddy tractor instead.  And he was pretty sure the tractor wouldn’t mind.

“Bless you.  Are you finally ready to come inside and take something for that.”

“In a minute,” Tony said, in a much brighter tone of voice than he’d been using all day.  He even physically looked like a weight had lifted from him.  Perhaps finally, finally, Steve had gotten through to him after all.  He stood up and stepped up onto the side of the tractor, grabbing onto the side and using it to pull himself up to reach the ignition.  “I think I finally made a breakthrough, and if I’m right, I’m gonna have this thing roaring like a lion.”

“Don’t you mean purring like a kitten?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.  It’s a tractor, they’re supposed to be loud.  I won’t accept anything less than a mighty roar-ah!”  His face lit up as he started the mighty behemoth of a vehicle and after a shudder and a scrape, it started.  It shook powerfully as it idled, belching diesel fumes into the air, indeed loud and powerful like a proud large cat.  Tony gestured grandly with his free hand, and Steve couldn’t help but grin in response.  There was something so genuine and earnest about Tony when he was excited about fixing or building things, and it was truly infectious.

“Do you hear that?  What do you think of that?” Tony said gleefully, before switching the engine off.  He’d needed this win.  Because, hey, maybe fixing a dumb tractor might not redeem him in anyone else’s eyes for the whole whoops-accidentally-created-a-murder-bot thing but for him it made all the difference in the world.  He wasn’t one hundred percent a screw up because hey look at this one little thing he hadn’t screwed up.  It was awesome!

He curled a hand to his face as his breath gasped again, and okay, he’d take an antihistamine, maybe Steve had a point with that, he’d admit that much.  He swung his feet out to make the little hop from the tractor’s side to the ground.

“Hehhh’DTCHHHgggh!”

In a split second his foot slipped in the puddle of oil and the next thing he knew he felt two very distinct types of pain.  Hot, sudden and searing where a piece of errant metal caught his upper arm; and dull and large where the ungrateful heap of a tractor decided to hit him right in the forehead.  He was disoriented, but present enough to realise that he hadn’t hit the ground.  Two strong hands had caught him by the shoulders.  And those hands were connected to a voice that seemed to be asking him if he was okay.

“Yeah, I’m good...” he mumbled blearily.   “Think I’m ready to go inside now...”

 

 

[AngelEyes]

This is great. I love the part where Steve yells at Tony and he's even more surprised by it than Tony! Totally realistic.

[Arc Reactor]

I think my heart just melted. This was BEAUTIFUL. Thank you thank you thank you!!!