Starvation
Tony and Natasha had been sent on a seemingly seemingly simple mission to examine an underground evacuated Hydra base. While the base was small and obviously abandoned, Hydra had left one last trap for any nosy visitors. Only minutes after they entered the base, the whole thing collapsed in on itself.
Through the dust, Tony saw Natasha fall to the ground and he quickly grabbed her and protected her with the suit. For long minutes, beams and rocks came falling down, trapping them. When the dust cleared and the rocks settled, Tony examined the area, realizing they were trapped in a small air pocket.
Natasha hadn’t moved under him and he had Jarvis confirm it was safe before laying her down in the cramped space. Her head was bleeding but she seemed to have no other injuries. Jarvis instructed Tony on how to care for her using the suit’s small amount of medical supplies. After his teammate was settled, he worked on trying to contact Shield for help.
It was hours later when Natasha finally came to, though far from coherent. Tony had only a small amount of water from the suit’s reserves but he helped her drink as much as she wanted as she swayed dizzily against his shoulder. “Where’we?” She slurred, trying to focus her blurred eyes on their dark surrounding.
“How do you feel?” He asked, deflecting.
“Cold,” she huffed. Tony examined the slowly healing cut that blended with her red hair, but pulled back as she flinched.
Tony checked the suit's energy levels- 75%. It would be enough to turn on the heater for a few hours. He retracted the suit before commanding it to wrap around Natasha. He heard her sigh gratefully as the heat warmed her body.
Four hours later, he was forced to disappoint her as the suit's energy dropped too low. While the heater was running, the suit was also sending out help signals and Jarvis was constantly scanning for a way out. Then three hours after that, Tony was forced to turn off the suit in total to save energy. He kept the arc reactor on for light, though. “Tony?” Natasha rasped, still in a daze from her injury.
“Yeah, Nat?” Tony responded, running fingers through her hair.
“Where’we?”
“Just go back to sleep, okay?” Tony deflected.
Luckily, the spy followed his advice. He decided to follow suit.
Tony didn’t know how much time had passed, just that his stomach was growling loudly. There was no sunlight to indicate if it had been hours, days, or weeks since they’d been buried. Tony’s stomach was used to going without food for several days, so it had to have been a fairly long time since they’d been stuck there.
Tony checked the suit and found an emergency supply of food inside- two issues though. It was a feeding tube attached to liquid nutrients. And it was for only one person. Tony didn’t hesitate to grab the tube and start feeding it through Natasha’s nose. He knew she would fight him if she was actually coherent, but he would never let her win that argument. He watched the food go through her body almost hungrily, but settled back to comforting the red-haired agent while she slept and hoped someone was close to finding them.
Five days later they were still trapped. Luckily, Natasha seemed to be healing without any problems using Jarvis’ medical guidance, but they still did not seem to be any closer to getting out. No one had made contact and Jarvis came up empty on how to get themselves out without being crushed completely. For Tony, this was not an option anymore anyway.
Around a week without food and less than a glass of water had hurt his body horribly. He had lost several pounds of weight and his body was obviously starting to shut down. He constantly trembled and very often he would have random moments where he blacked out. He held it together long enough until Jarvis told him Natasha was out of the clear. After that, he let himself be pulled into the darkness.
He woke to Natasha shaking his shoulder. “Tony, please wake up,” she pleaded.
His eyes flickered open and he realized they were still trapped underground. He licked his cracked lips and tried to focus his blurred vision on Natasha.
“-ony, Tony, can you hear me?” She repeated.
Tony hummed, trying to fight the need to let his eyes close again.
“Tony, what happened, where are we?” Natasha asked.
“Hydra base...collapsed,” Tony slurred.
Before Natasha could ask another question, Tony cried out, whimpering as another hunger cramp ripped through his stomach. There was nothing in it, but still Tony was forced to fight his body’s need to gag.
“What’s happening?” Nat asked, concerned. Hands hovering over him.
Tony shook his head, trying to breathe as he rode out the cramp.
“How long have we been here?” She asked.
Tony frowned. He had no idea how long he’d been asleep for- could have been hours, days, weeks. His stomach certainly felt like it. “I dunno, more than a week,” he decided.
“A week?” Natasha screeched. “Why don’t I remember that? And how would we survive without food and water?”
“Hit your head,” Tony said, eyes losing their battle. “Tube.”
Natasha frowned, but that’s when she focused on the tickling in her nose. She reached her hands up and slowly pulled out the tube. It was with a practiced ease she didn’t cough or gag. When she finished, she held up the tube in question.
“Food,” Tony slurred, eyes completely closed.
“Well what about you?” She asked.
Tony was silent as his body was pulled into unconsciousness.
Though it was dark, she forced herself to take a closer look at the genius. She almost threw up in guilt when she took in his emaciated frame, sweaty body and cracked lips. She put two and two together and realized he must have given her the only food source they had.
Before she had pulled off the suit upon awakening, she had seen on the HUD that the resources were completely drained. She looked around their small cave but found nothing that even remotely resembled food, even so, she was considering making Tony eat a rock if it would cause him to not look like he was on death’s door. All she could do was pull Tony close and hope someone would find them.
Two days later, she became extremely worried when his heart seemed to slow dangerously. She was constantly monitoring his pulse, knowing his heart condition mixed with starvation wasn’t good. Over the last day, his pulse had been unsteady- randomly slowly down then starting up rapidly. The only good news was that she heard what sounded like rocks moving from above them, so she was praying she could get Tony some help soon.
Tony cried out during his sleep and she could physically see his stomach muscles clenching painfully. He whimpered as his abdomen squeezed, sending out signals in its hunger. “Nat it hurts,” he cried softly.
Natasha fought tears at not being able to soothe his pain. “I know, Antoshka. Just breathe.” She lowered Tony down so that his head was in her lap and started massaging his belly. It frightened her how bony his body was and his stomach literally felt like an empty pit. She tried to calm the muscles down and after several minutes, Tony grew quiet as his body relaxed.
She waited until his breaths calmed and his pulse stopped its racing before she let herself calm down. She never felt more guilty in her life than right now. Her best friend, her brother, was dying because he let her consume all the food so she could live. If she would have been coherent, she was sure this whole thing would be reversed.
Fortunately, another day and a half later, they were rescued. The Avengers and a Shield rescue team had spent days digging them out, trying not to crush them in the process.
Steve cried as the rescue team pulled out Tony. He almost didn’t recognize the small, bony man that they placed on the gurney. Tony’s eyes opened slightly, but he whimpered and squeezed them shut at the light. “It’s me baby, I missed you so much,” Steve cried, taking Tony’s thin hand.
“S’evie,” Tony slurred through cracked lips.
“You did so good baby, I love you so much,” Steve sobbed, peppering kisses onto his husband’s forehead.
“Nat?” he croaked.
“She’s fine. You saved her. She’s gonna be fine,” Steve smiled.
Tony smiled gratefully. “Love you too.”