Shaky Hands
The team constantly make fun of Tony for having snacks hidden around his lab. He keeps bags of fruits and sweets laid on desks and on books, but the team never know why. They think it’s just another ‘Tony’ quirk and leave it at that.
But one day, Clint was bored and thought it would be fun to take all the treats, unbeknownst to the billionaire who was on day five of a working streak.
Steve, who had just gotten back from his week-long mission, was anxious to see his husband who he’d been super worried about. He hadn’t been allowed to contact Tony while he’d been away- Fury’s orders- and knew Tony gets extra stressed when he was gone.
Steve left his bags in the elevator in the rush to find his husband to sweep him off his feet. He frowned when he entered the common room to see all the Avengers, sans Tony, at the table eating lunch.
“Hey Steve!” Several of them greeted.
“Hey, where’s Tony?” Steve asked immediately.
“Haven’t seen the guy for several days,” Client shrugged.
“Yeah, he’s been working in the lab,” Bruce added.
“Has anyone checked on him?” Steve asked, eyes narrowed.
They all looked at each other for a second. “I did drop off some papers three days ago,” Bruce frowned.
Steve’s mouth formed a straight line before he turned to go back into the elevator.
“Workshop, Jarvis,” Steve asked.
He frowned when there was neither a response or movement from the elevator.
“Jarvis?” He called, receiving no answer.
Steve felt on edge as he pressed the manual button to bring him to the workshop.
His eyes widened when the doors opened. Papers were thrown everywhere, the bots were spinning in circles, and there was random beeping from several half-finished machines. Tony sat in the middle of it all, surrounded by papers.
“Tones?” Steve called, approaching his husband slowly.
Tony continued to mutter to himself. His face was creased firmly in thought and his mouth was moving a mile a second. As Steve got closer, he grew concerned at the thick layer of sweat on Tony’s face and his noticeable trembling.
“Baby?” Steve asked, kneeling in front of him.
Finally, Tony looked up. “Stevie! What are you doing back? I thought you were going to be gone a week, it’s only been two days.”
“No, it’s been a week, Tones,” Steve said slowly.
Tony frowned into the floor. In seconds, he lost focus and went back to muttering about power levels and electromagnetic pulses.
“Tones?” Steve called gently. He moved a bit closer to Tony and reached for his hands. He noticed they were shaking badly.
“Hmm?” Tony hummed.
Steve cupped both of his hands before smoothingly them gently.
“Are you feeling okay?” Steve looked into his eyes which were glazed and red.
“Mhmmm,” Tony hummed.
“Let’s stand up and go upstairs, okay?” Steve said softly. He stood up and reached to pull Tony up, but jumped when Tony’s knees collapsed under him. “Baby, when’s the last time you ate?” He asked, lowering Tony to the ground.
“I dunno,” Tony responded, blinking quickly.
Steve sat him up against the table when Tony swayed, almost falling over. He grabbed his phone and texted Bruce. After sending the message, he stood up and walked around looking for the snacks Tony keeps around his workshop. He frowned when he couldn’t find any.
“Tony, where are all your snacks?” He asked the man who was focusing hard on sitting up.
“I dunno, on the desk?” He answered, dazed.
“There aren’t any here. Did you eat all of them?” Steve asked.
“No.”
Steve looked around once more before giving up. The snacks had disappeared. He turned back to Tony when he heard a gagging sound.
Tony was extremely pale and now his stomach was rebelling against him. Steve empties a bucket of tools before thrusting it under Tony’s mouth just in time. Nothing came up but stomach acid, further supporting the fact that Tony hadn’t eaten all week.
Steve, noticing Tony getting less lucid, moved to sit behind him with Tony’s head on his chest. Bruce, followed by the rest of the team, came running in just as he was wiping off Tony’s mouth.
Bruce kneeled in front of them. “Here,” he said, handing Steve a chocolate chip cookie.
“Open, Tones,” Steve commanded gently, placing a piece of the cookie into Tony’s mouth. By this point, Tony’s eyes were closed and his head lolled on Steve’s shoulder.
Steve and Bruce coaxed Tony’s limp body into eating the cookie by pushing his chin to chew before rubbing his throat to help him swallow. They continuedl this until the cookie was finished and they followed it up with a glass of orange juice. After the cookie was finished, Tony’s eyes opened into slits and he reached a shaky hand up to hold the glass, but Steve gently pushed his hand down and continued feeding him.
After several minutes, Tony felt less like he was going to collapse and was able to blink himself awake.
“Tones, we discuss this all the time, you need to keep snacks down here and replace them when you’ve eaten them all,” Steve chided.
“I swear they were here a few days ago.” Tony pouted.
“That would be my fault,” Clint spoke up, wincing. “I removed all the snacks as a prank.”
“Clint,” Steve rolled his eyes, “Tony needs those snacks. He has low blood sugar and sometimes forgets to eat, so he needs to eat them or he’s blood sugar will crash- like it did today.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know,” Clint frowned.
“It’s okay. We shouldn’t expect much from you...I mean you are a birdbrain,” Tony smirked, gaining some color in his face.
“Hey!” Clint pouted.
The team laughed.
“You’re still in trouble too mister!” Steve chided. “You are supposed to go upstairs to eat at least two meals a day. And do not turn off Jarvis, he is supposed to be monitoring you!”
“He kept turning off my music!” Tony whined.
Steve glared.
“Fine,” Tony pouted, rolling his eyes. He recited the access code which immediately started up Jarvis’ systems.
“Not cool, sir,” Jarvis deadpanned.
The team laughed.
From then on, every member of the team had felt it their duty to make sure Tony was eating. Each would take turns going down to fetch him for meals, and they even hid their own snacks around the lab for Tony to find when he was hungry.
The team would take care of their little genius even if he forgot to take care of himself sometimes.