Overworked
While the Avengers worked hard on missions, they were extremely lazy in between them. They would often go months between a big city disaster and they spent it staying up all day, partying all night, and eating. They loved to eat. But when you weren’t employed and lived in a mansion with all of your friends, laziness was extremely tempting and easy to give in to.
Tony, though, had three jobs. He was an Avenger like the rest of them, and while their job was done after they came home from a mission- Tony’s was far from it. He had to rebuild his Iron Man suit every time they came home from battle, often immediately because they never knew how soon the next threat would occur. But while he was working constantly on repairs, he was usually often recovering from the battle physically. He didn’t have expert training or supersoldier serum to help him out- he was completely human, and humans get hurt. The suit would protect him from the brunt of it, but the injuries from bouncing around in a metal suit usually included a few broken ribs, a few sprains, and lots and lots of bruises.
His second job was SI. Just because Pepper was CEO doesn’t mean his work was just erased. He still had to attend meetings, fill out paperwork, and actually come up with the ideas. In fact, making Pepper CEO made things worse for him because people assumed he had more time to come up with products and ideas and demanded more. When he did try to take a break for himself, his stocks dropped with investors thinking he was reverting to his old, lazy ways.
His third job was as the Avengers consultant. Fury still wanted him to do the job despite being on the team and it turned out to be the most stressful one of all three. He did more work than Fury with designing and producing Avengers weaponry, writing up debriefs, managing the finances, and handling the legal stuff Fury couldn’t be bothered with.
Tony was very often stressed out but he tried not to make it obvious to his boyfriends. He still managed to hang out when they asked and go to bed with them on time. They didn’t need to know that he waited until they were asleep to sneak down to the lab to work. But of course, it was inevitable they would eventually find out.
Steve and Bucky went to bed early since they were up all night previously. Tony snuggled into his large cuddly boys until 10pm when he heard snores from both sides. Like a cat, he quietly stretched over Steve, making sure to make no sounds at all. When his bare toes finally touched the carpet, he skidded out the room, rushing down to the lab.
His emails were full and he had seventeen missed calls. He scratched his tired eyes and yawned. He had lots of work to do.
He didn’t even realize it was morning until he had two Avengers coming down the steps to his workshop. He was in the middle of updating Karen’s code (Spider-Man’s AI) while waiting for the new StarkPhone update to load when they walked in. He didn’t break his eyes from the four computers around him but he knew it was Natasha and Clint from their soft, almost unnoticeable footsteps as they approached.
“Hey Wonderboy, I need a new bow, this ones too stiff,” Clint said, dropping the weapon onto Tony’s desk and causing a bunch of papers to scatter. Tony jumped at the sound and broke his concentration from the screen.
“And my widow bites are acting up, I need you to fix it ASAP. I have a SHIELD mission tomorrow morning,” Natasha added.
Tony looked between them, the equipment, and the computer, his mind swirling. Code was still flickering in his head as he tried to comprehend what they were telling him. “You need a new bow- no Clint needs...and you. Okay, I got it, just, yeah, tomorrow,” Tony stuttered.
“Morning,” Natasha added, turning to leave.
“Morning. Tomorrow morning. Got it,” Tony repeated. He jumped just as a loud crash lit up the workshop. He turned to see Clint and Butterfingers on the ground along with a huge pile of metal tools.
“Sorry,” the archer said sheepishly.
Tony blinked, clenching and unclenching his fingers. “It’s...fine. Can you just...go?” He said, not unkindly.
Clint huffed and followed Natasha out, who cuffed him on the back of the head.
Taking a deep breath, Tony looked at the mess and the equipment and the robot and the computer and the phone. He walked over to help up Butterfingers and picked up a few tools.
Just as he was picking up a wrench, something beeped causing him to run over to his other workspace. The update on the phone downloaded but took up way too much space- Pepper wouldn’t like it. He ran through the coding and statistics on the phone and took notes on a stray pen and paper. He started un-downloading the update to be reconfigured.
Running back over to Karen’s code, his mind frazzled and he couldn’t remember what digit he was on. Was it 002 or 097 or 054? Putting in the wrong code could destroy his AI. As his hands hovered over the keyboard and his mind raced to sort itself, Bruce walked in, upset.
“Tony? Our experiment?” The man said.
Tony paused his coding thoughts and shifted over to his to-do list. He did say he was going to help Bruce this morning in his lab. “I’m sorry, buddy. It’s just-”
“You forgot?” Bruce said sadly.
“No, I didn’t forget. I’ll come right now, I just-” Tony pleaded.
“No, it’s fine, Tony.” Bruce hung his head and walked out.
Tony felt like shit. He turned back to his mess of a lab and pulled at his hair in frustration. He fought back the tears that threatened to fall and tried to calm his racing heart. The air seemed to get thinner as he tried to sort out his thoughts.
“Goodmorning, Tones. Do you think you could look at Buck’s arm? He said it’s- What’s wrong?” Tony felt hands on his trying to remove his tight grip from his hair. “Baby, stop that, what’s going on?” Steve said softly, standing in front of him.
Tony couldn’t meet his boyfriend’s eyes as his thoughts still raced. “Bruce needs Widow bites, and Clint has an experiment, and Nat needs to know if its 054 or 065 or 003 or-” Tony rambled, swaying. He looked a right mess with tears flowing from his bruised eyes which flickered around the room, lost. It wasn’t until Steve grabbed his forearms to steady him that he realized how dizzy he was.
“Breathe baby, you need to breathe.” He vaguely heard Steve call for Bucky but he was too focused on the numbers circling his mind and the suffocating feeling in his lungs. It suddenly felt like he was drowning and soon even Steve’s voice sounded far as he drifted away from the shore.
Bucky arrived just as Tony’s knees gave out. Steve grabbed the genius from around the waist to hold him up and Bucky stood in front of him. “I’m fine,” Tony slurred, stumbling. He grabbed onto Bucky’s arm to help steady himself.
Bruce and the rest came running downstairs seconds later. Steve slowly removed his arms from Tony as the man kept insisting he was fine. “What happened?” Bruce said as he reached the group. As he said it, Tony’s knees collapsed again. Steve and Bucky held the men up by his bent arms and Bruce held him from the front. “Why don’t you sit down, Tony?”
Tony blinked slowly and looked to Bruce. “I’m fine, I got work...I got work….I’m fine,” he mumbled. “I got lots a work to do.”
“Doll, I know you’re fine, but let’s lay down alright? Let's take a break then you can work,” Bucky spoke up. His heart was racing in concern for Tony.
“Don’t feel good,” Tony slurred, his body going weak again. He fought to keep his head from his chest but something was pulling him to the darkness. It wasn’t long before he was yanked brutally and everything around him disappeared.
Steve gasped as Tony collapsed like a puppet. He switched his hold so that he was holding Tony around the waist again and helped lower him to the ground. The genius was pale and clammy. His hair was limp and unkept and he seemed thinner than they remembered. “Tony, baby wake up,” Steve said, grazing Tony’s cheek.
“Come on doll,” Bucky pleaded as the rest of the team moved in.
Bruce turned into doctor-mode and took Tony’s vitals. “His heart is racing, what happened?”
Bucky and Steve looked at each other. “I have no idea, I just came in and he was just muttering about bows and numbers and you guys,” Steve said confused.
“He has a fever,” Bruce said. “And he’s really dehydrated.”
Suddenly, Tony groaned and his eyes flickered. “Hey, baby,” Steve smiled, running his fingers through Tony’s hair.
“Don’ feel good,” Tony mumbled again, his eyes dragging. Bruce tapped his cheek until his eyes fluttered open again. Steve pulled the genius up by his armpits so he was sitting upright.
Tony’s head lolled against Steve’s chest and Bruce kneeled in front of the pair. “Does anything hurt Tony?” He was satisfied when Tony’s head shook lazily. “Dizzy,” the genius supplied, closing his eyes again.
“Okay, just rest for a second, Tones,” Bruce said to the man. “I think he’s just exhausted and overworked,” he said to Tony’s anxious boyfriends.
“So he’s going to be okay?” Steve asked, holding Tony tighter.
Bruce nodded. “He’ll be fine, but this is a warning for us. If he ends up so stressed and overworked so bad that he faints like this, it could be something worse next time, like a heart attack.”
Everyone’s eyes widened. “I feel bad, I asked him to fix my bow when I know he is so busy,” Clint said sadly.
“It is not just you, Mr. Barton,” Jarvis spoke up. Suddenly a large hologram appeared in front of them. “This is Mr.Stark’s To-Do List.” The hologram scrolled, showing over 100 tasks.
“That’s a lot for one week,” Clint huffed.
“This is a to-do list for one day, Mr. Barton,” Jarvis corrected.
Steve and Bucky felt tears come to their eyes at the immense guilt that filled them up. They didn’t know Tony had so much on his plate. Everyone demanded so much of him, they shouldn’t be adding to that.
Bruce sighed. “Listen guys, we all have a lot to be guilty for, but let's not feel sorry for ourselves, let’s help Tony. I’m sure there are some things we can do to lighten the load, we should all step up.”
They all nodded firmly, determined looks on their faces.
And that’s how Tony woke up a day later to breakfast in bed and his to-do list drastically reduced. They were a team, and they would help their own.