"Tony, this is (Y/N), my little sister. (Y/N), this is Tony, my...pain in the ass."

Tony slapped his hand to his chest and feigned shock, "how rude. I'm hurt, red. Just hurt." He pulled his hand down and extended it to you, "Pleasure is all on this side, (Y/N)." Once he had your hand he brought it up to his lips for a light kiss on your skin that you swore you could feel all the way down to your feet.

"No." Nat grabbed your hand away and turned to lead you to meet the rest of the team. You glanced over your shoulder but quickly looked away before your sister noticed. "Stop it, (Y/N). He's taken, he's trouble, and he'd have to get through me."

~~~

It had been six months since you met Tony for the first time, and you still remember the feeling of his lips on your hand like it was only moments ago. The last thing you ever wanted to happen was to have these feelings for him. Like Nat said, he was taken. Taken. If your head would accept that then maybe you could focus on working with him without acting like a lovesick fool. It was ridiculous, and you were pretty sure that he knew and used it against you whenever he could. Either that or maybe Nat was right all along; he was a pain in the ass.

You were fairly certain that Clint knew something was up too. Being Nat's best friend, you spent about as much time with him as she did, more so now that you were an Avenger with them. You had joked that he was the big brother you never had, but now he was beginning to take the role very seriously, as if having Nat on your back wasn't bad enough.

You had just begun unwrapping your hands from the assault on the punching bag when Tony entered the gym. His tight workout shirt accentuated the lines of every muscle, and you had to look away to keep from staring.

"Hey, kid. How about a few rounds?"

"Um...I just finished, actually. I was just...um, about to leave." It would have been impossible for you to be more obvious as you stammered through your words.

"Tough. Wrap 'em back up and get your sweet ass in here."

"Excuse me?"

He turned sharply to look back at you, surprised that you would take issue with what he had said. This was the first time it had ever caught your attention, but he had been on your mind more than ever so it struck a nerve.

"Sorry, I didn't mean anything by that. Please join me." He smirked, "is that better?"

"It's a start." You followed him into the ring as you finished the final wrap around your hand. Slipping your gloves on, you held your hands up for him to pull them down and secure them for you. After making sure his own were tight, he gave each of your gloves a tug and turned to head towards his corner.

Before he made it there, he turned back to say something, but was met with your glove under his chin, knocking him back into the ropes behind him. "Hey, that's a dirty move!"

"Never take your eyes off your opponent. Isn't that what you told me on day one?"

"Oh, you're going down, (Y/N)." He lunged forward at you with a swing at your side but you blocked him easily. You grabbed his arm and flipped him onto his back with a solid slap on the mat.

"I'm sorry. You were saying?"

Tony grabbed your leg that was closest to him try to pull you down, but you anticipated this and spun out of his grasp. He stood quickly and wrapped his arm around your neck, holding you tight against his chest. Thrusting your elbow back into his abdomen, he gasped and released you long enough for you to turn and thrust your knee into the padding on his head. He kicked his leg forward and wrapped it into yours, dropping you solidly onto your back. He knelt down, pushing his knee into the center of your chest and grabbed each of your hands to pin you.

"I win."

You were panting as you looked at him, his eyes boring into you. Even sweaty and tired, he was gorgeous. You hadn't let him win, but this view would have been worth the loss if you had.

"Yes...you certainly do."

It took a moment for him to release you, but he never lost eye contact even as he stood and offered a hand to pull you to your feet. "Go again?" he asked, but his tone made him sound uncertain if he thought it was a good idea or not.

"Sir, Miss Potts is requesting your presence in her office."

"Thanks, J. I'm on my way." He began to unwrap his hands, but paid more attention to you as you did the same. "So, another time then. You've...you've really become quite the opponent, (Y/N). I'm looking forward to it."

"Okay, yeah." You dismissively threw your gloves on the floor, grabbing your bag and all but running out the gym door. You hurried to your room, slamming the door behind you and flopping face down on your bed, exasperated.

"I'm such a fucking idiot!" You yelled into your pillow, relieved that there was no one there to hear you. You rolled over onto your back and groaned, mad at yourself for the thoughts that were now almost constant in your head. "Get your shit together, (Y/N). Please, just get your head straight."

"You know I can hear you, right?"

"Fuck." You walked to your open window and stuck your head out, looking to the right to see Nat looking back. "I'm having a bad day, dear sis, can you just let me have it in peace?"

"Can you stop yelling? That might help with the peaceful part." Nat turned away and crawled out onto the small ledge, holding onto the window frame for support. Something on the street had caught her attention, and she waved at you to join her in spying it. "Hey, take a look."

You slipped through the window just far enough to see Pepper waving her arms angrily at Tony, throwing bags and suitcases into her car. "What the hell happened? She looks livid. Oh!" Nat startled a bit as you both saw Pepper deliver a resounding slap across Tony's face, but he didn't retaliate nor did he walk away. "Nat, this isn't good. We shouldn't be watching this."

You pulled back into your room and closed the window, still shocked at what you had seen. This was definitely not good.

~~~

"This is all your fault, Stark. You had one job, and you miserably failed." Natasha was tending to your wound as Steve flew the jet home from your latest mission, chastising Tony but struggling to not lose her cool. "All you had to do was stand by and wait for our signal to move in, but no, you had to fly off on your own to play the damn hero again. This is why people get hurt, Tony."

Tony was sitting quietly on the other side of the plane, looking at his feet and saying uncharacteristically nothing. His hands were playing with something inside his helmet, but the motions appeared absentminded and only to keep from engaging your sister in the argument. After several more minutes of her verbal berating, he finally snapped.

"Romanoff, I got it. I got in the way. I got your precious baby sister hurt. I'm one big fuck up."

Her head snapped around, her eyes filled with rage. She released her hands from holding pressure on your wound and stood to move towards him. You reached up quickly and grabbed her hand, holding her back. "Nat, don't. It's okay."

Tony stood now too, sharply throwing his helmet to the ground. "Yeah, Nat, don't. Let her fight her own battles."

You looked up at him, not knowing what he was trying to accomplish. "Okay, I'm not sure where you're going with this, but let's all just calm down, alright?"

"You got in the way. You were being reckless, and if we're being honest here, you're lucky I was the one who hit you before you got yourself killed."

"I'm lucky that you hit me?!" You groaned loudly as you pulled yourself up to sit, not quite strong enough to stand. You sucked in a sharp breath and held your side, trying to breathe through the pain. "You've got to be kidding me. You should watch where you aim that thing!"

"This is just one more prime example of how you aren't ready for this. If it weren't for big sis watching over you, you wouldn't even be here," he snapped. His tone was venomous and cold, and you had never heard or seen this side of him before. It was ugly and just a bit frightening.

"Alright, that's enough!" Steve called out from the cockpit, turning to prepare to break up a fight. "Everyone sit down and shut up. Well, or lay down, (Y/N). You look like you're about to pass out."

Natasha turned back to you quickly and helped you lie back on the cot. She threw a harsh stare at Tony before she directed her attention back to you for the rest of the flight. She saw the tears begin to build in your eyes, but you fought them back. No way in hell you would let Tony Stark make you cry; at least not until you were in the privacy of your own room, then all bets were off.

~~~

Natasha had you bandaged and tucked into your bed within minutes of the return to the tower, having successfully avoided Stark the whole time. "Here, drink this," she handed you a cup of dark green liquid, but you turned your nose up to it when it reached your lips.

"This is awful. Are you trying to kill me once and for all?"

"It's to help you heal. Speeds up your metabolism and boosts your immune system. Tony and Bruce made it for after tough missions."

"Yeah, no thanks." You set the cup down firmly on the bedside table and pulled the blankets up, turning away from her and hoping she would leave you to yourself. All you wanted now was time alone to get your thoughts clear; to get that man out of your head.

"Oh my god. That's why you said you were a fucking idiot yesterday." You turned to face her, trying to look like you had no idea what she was talking about. "You've got a thing for Stark, don't you? That's why you teared up when he yelled at you back on the jet."

"You don't know what you're talking about, Nat." You turned away again, trying your best to be dismissive. "Go away."

"That's it!" She stood from the edge of your bed, her hands on her hips as she looked down at you. "(Y/N), you've got to get over this. He's not right for you. He's...he's a womanizer. Pepper was the longest relationship he's ever had, and she was the only one who came close to tolerating him. Look at how that ended. No good can come from this."

Little did you know, that only one floor and two doors away, Tony was in the lab, hearing every word that you had said. You would call it spying, Steve would call it an invasion, and Bruce would call it immoral. In the future, when this moment would come to light, Tony would use the 'my tower, my rules' defense, claiming to only care about your wellbeing as an excuse for watching you, when really he was battling the guilt from what he had said earlier.

Tony hung his head, his eyes closed in thought. So much had happened in the last two days that he needed advise and someone to guide him in the right direction. Someone who would tell it like it is, whether he liked it or not.

"JARVIS, cut the camera. Have Rogers meet me in the lab."

Part 2

"I have one question for you Tony, before I tell you what I think."

"Only one?"

Steve chuckled quietly, but not enough for Tony to think he wasn't being serious. "Stark, how could you not see it before now? It's totally obvious how she feels about you. We've all seen it. Well, I take that back; I think Nat's in denial."

"Not anymore. She knows too, and I'm just waiting for her to come at me."

"Well, Tony, my advice to you is to take some time. I'm certainly no expert on relationships, but you just ended things with Pepper, and you probably aren't in any shape to pursue it." Steve picked up a tool off the lab table and twirled it in his hands absentmindedly. "What if Pepper comes back? Then what?"

Tony reached out quickly to grab the tool from Steve, holding it up and giving him a harsh look. "I don't go throwing the shield around, so don't touch my stuff."

Steve raised his hands and stepped back from the table, still waiting for his answer.

"I don't think that's going to be an issue, really. She's gone, and made it quite clear that she wouldn't be back if...if..." Tony sat on a nearby chair and rubbed his eyes, groaning at the thought of what he was about to say.

"If what?"

"If (Y/N) was still here."

Steve's face showed shock at first, but quickly changed to an expression of understanding, nodding his head as the picture became clearer in his mind. "Ah, I see. So, how long has it been?"

"Since I've felt this way? I don't know." He stood again, starting to pace back and forth as he thought and considered his words. "I suppose I took an interest on that first day, and it just spiraled from there."

"Is it real? Or is this...one of those...things that you do?"

"Thanks," Tony laughed, "but I'd like to think I'm a changed man." He paused, looking as if he was searching his own mind; he suddenly broke into laughter that made Steve all the more curious as to how the man's mind worked.

"Romanoff is going to kill me. She is going to kill me in some terrifyingly horrific way that I'll never see coming." He stood and gave Steve a firm slap on the arm, smiling as he passed by to leave the room. "So I had better make it worth it while I can."

~~~

The next morning you woke up feeling hungover without having had a single drop to drink. Your head was pounding and the light hurt your eyes. It would have been a great day to stay curled up in bed with your head buried in the pillows, but damn it all if Stark didn't ruin that plan with incessant banging on your door.

"Hey, wake up, we gotta move."

"Go without me," you called back, still refusing to move, "I'm dead."

You rolled over with a groan and a look in your eye that would have stopped anyone else, but Tony walked in without an ounce of fear. "Stark, I promise you the most painful death you can imagine if you come any-"

He swiftly yanked the blankets back and grabbed your foot, pulling you towards him. "I said, we gotta move. Maybe you didn't hear me."

You stayed lying on your back, staring up at him with contempt, but inside you were a ball of nerves and wondered what he was really up to. "Fine," you huffed, "where are we going that's so damn important?" You sat up too quickly and a wave of nausea hit you. "Oh, shit. Hold up." Leaning over to rest your head in your hands, you moaned slightly but loud enough to catch his attention.

"Hey, woah, you okay?"

Without saying any more, you raised a hand up to signal him to back away. He ran across the room to grab a small garbage, setting it in front of you but stepping away quickly. "I can't handle vomit. Are you gonna puke? Warn me first, alright?"

"It's just a migraine, Tony. Give me a minute, would ya?" As it finally began to subside, you sat upright again, slowly regaining your equilibrium but not yet opening your eyes. "Believe me, if I'm gonna puke, you're likely going to be the first thing on my mind."

"Well, that's kinda mean."

You could hear the pout in his voice, and you just had to open you eyes to see if his face matched his tone. "I'm sorry," you chuckled, "but please, stop pouting. You look ridiculous." You pushed back on your hands to move back into the bed and pulled the blankets up. "Tony, I have to sit this one out."

He regarded you for a moment, looking as if he were deep in thought. You wondered how long he was going to stay that way, but you finally gave up and buried your head, relived to be back in the darkness and close to falling asleep again. You were drawn from your near-slumber at the sound of his voice.

"Hey J, tell Cap I won't be going along today. I have things here to take care of."

"Yes, sir."

You pulled your head out from under the covers and looked at him, shocked at what he had just said. Certainly he wasn't staying off a mission to take care of you? Why would he do that? He didn't even like you. He was a jerk. He was a big, arrogant jerk. But he was a cute big, arrogant jerk, and no matter how much you tried to convince yourself that you wanted nothing to do with him, he was all you wanted.

"Tony, no. Don't stay behind because of me. I can take care of myself."

"Yeah, I can see that." He sat on the edge of your bed next to you, straightening the blankets and reaching up to tuck a loose strand of hair behind your ear. "So, tell me what helps, and I'll make it happen."

~~~

The team arrived in the hangar, ready to take off, but Natasha stopped short of boarding when she noticed that both you and Tony were missing. Her gaze narrowed when she looked at Steve, who quickly ducked away from her line of sight.

"Rogers. I know that you know something. You're a terrible liar."

"I didn't even say anything!"

"You don't have to. That's how terrible you are." She turned and stomped out of the jet, walking with a quick pace to your room. It was all she could do to keep the thought of what might be going on out of her head; she stopped just short of your door and shuddered at the vision playing in her mind, not prepared to see it in real life but determined to stop you nonetheless. Her hand rested on the door as she took a deep sigh and resolved herself to enter.

What she saw was nothing like what she had expected; your room was dark, with blankets covering the windows. Tony was on the bed next to you, leaning back against the pillows with his arm around you as you slept against his chest. When he saw her, he put his finger to his lips to keep her quiet as to not wake you.

"What's going on?" She hurried to stand at his side, leaning down to whisper, but anger was still clear in her tone. "What are you doing?"

He furrowed his brow and whispered in reply, his own tone now building in annoyance at her being there, worried that she was going to interrupt your rest now that he had finally made you comfortable enough to sleep.

"I'm helping. She has a migraine and was really sick. I couldn't leave her here alone." He raised his free arm towards the door, trying to get her to finally leave, "I've got this, go get the job done."

She was skeptical. She didn't trust him, and he knew it.

"Really, Romanoff. No other intentions. I'm doing the right thing here, okay?"

The expression on her face didn't change as she turned and walked away, glancing back at him just before closing the door. He looked down at you, studying your peaceful look and enjoying being close to you, even though you were asleep. It was comforting to know that you trusted him, and he needed to prove himself to both you and your sister.

"The right thing," he whispered to himself, nodding his head at his resolve.

~~~

You woke to the sound of the jet flying past your window, preparing to land. You startled awake, feeling an arm tighten around you when you jumped. Your room was almost too dark to see anything, the sun had set and your windows were fully covered, but you knew that it was Tony who still held you after hours of lying at your side.

"You're still here?" you whispered.

"Where else would I be?"

What was going on here? This was not the Tony Stark that you knew, and you were completely uncertain of how to act around this version of him. "Don't take this the wrong way, please, but what are you doing, Tony? What's your play?"

You felt a shake in his chest as he laughed and his arm tightened around you, "No play. I just...I just wanted you to feel better. I wanted to help because I care about you." He paused and took a deep breath, maybe a little nervous after all. "I think I care more than I may have realized."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

His head quickly snapped to look at you, his mouth open in surprise. "It's not?"

A warm smile crossed your lips as you put your hand on his face, rising up to kiss his cheek. You put your arm across his chest and pulled yourself tightly into his embrace, resting against him again. A small hum escaped your lips as you sighed, "It's not."