Tony knew something was wrong even before he opened his eyes when he reached out and found the other side of their bed empty and cold to the touch. Then he opened his eyes and realized it was snowing in July, that was odd enough, what was even odder still was that the sun was shining and he heard thunder in the distance. He sighed as he realized it either meant that Thor was arriving for an unannounced visit which was never a good thing, as he rarely visited Midgard these days if he could help it, as the 'mutual' dumping which ended his relationship with Jane still smarted even now, or it meant that Stephen had a cold and when the Sorcerer Supreme got a summer cold, it meant trouble.
With a capital 'T.'
He sighed again, and threw off the covers, shoved his feet into his slippers, wrapped his robe around himself and went in search of his husband. But first, he needed coffee. All the coffee.
It was going to be a long day.
"Sunshine?"
Early in their relationship, Stephen hated showing any weakness, especially when he started coming down with a cold. His solution was to portal off to Kamar-Taj, or a safe distant moon until he was feeling himself again. The problem with that was that back then, fresh off the ending of his relationship with Pepper, Tony was prone to fits of jealousy, and he had started jumping to conclusions.
By the time of Stephen's third such disappearance, Tony was ready to file for divorce even though he hadn't even proposed yet, and they had to have 'the talk.' Which went something like this:
"I'm not cheating on you, Tony."
"I don't believe you."
"When have I ever given you a reason not to believe me?"
"When you portal off without telling me why. Which you have done three times in the last two and a half months. And then you return with no explanation, and you expect me not to wonder what's going on?"
"I get bad summer colds."
"Wait. Like the sniffles?"
"Yes. Except, when I get colds, it's not like when most people get colds."
"How so?" Tony's inner scientist was intrigued.
"I can affect the weather."
"The weather?"
"If I get the sniffles, it can cause rain when there is not a single cloud in the sky."
"Okay..."
"If I were to sneeze, on a day like today, it's sunny and 85 degrees, right?"
"Sure."
"It will start hailing or snowing depending where I'm standing."
"What happens when you get a migraine?"
Stephen visibly shuddered. "You don't want to know. I'll try to warn you if I start feeling one come on, so you can get a hotel room, seriously, no one needs to see that."
"Sunshine. Next time just tell me, yeah? You know how I get. There are days -"
"Tony. Look at me. There is no one else I want to be with, on this planet or any other. I swear. I just, don't want you to feel like you have to take care of me -"
"Stephen. I want to take care of you, it's part of the deal of being in a relationship. I blew my last one because I didn't hold up my end of the bargain like I should have. I know this is new for you, I get it, and I get that you are a bit high-maintenance at times. But it's why I love you. So next time, let me help you, okay?"
Stephen kissed him lightly in response, then took him to bed for three days.
"Sunshine?"
"In here," came the hoarse reply from the bathroom, followed by three sneezes.
"Oh, hell." Tony whispered, then quickly undressed and joined him in the shower, as he felt more than heard the rumble of thunder as the building shook, and was happy they lived on the lower levels of the Stark Tower these days. "How long have you been up?"
"Three hours, I was hoping the steam might help, but -"
"I picked up some of that tea you like, and we have some NyQuil left from the last time, remember, it knocked you out for a couple of days?"
"Yeah, I forgot," Stephen sniffed then turned and whimpered miserably against Tony's chest. "I hate taking that stuff."
"Not surprised, you had forgotten the previous week when you finally woke up, there has to be something else that's better for you."
"Can we just go back to bed?"
Tony curled his arms around him and whispered, "yeah, Sunshine, course we can."
"Love you."
"Yeah, love you, too."