Aquaphobia does not belong to me. It belongs to it's rightful owners
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Guys, we're heading down to the pool wanna come?" Despite Tony's dislike of water, something had possessed Tony to build a pool in the tower. Maybe it was because Pepper wanted him to, or maybe it was to prove to himself he wasn't afraid when he was secretly terrified. Regardless of why, the pool had remained unused until the Avengers came to live at the tower.

"You guys go ahead, I have a ton of stuff I have to work on," Tony calmly told Clint, not looking up from the screen he was messing with.

"Come on Tony," Clint groaned, "you're always holed up in here working on stuff, have some fun!"

"That 'stuff' I work on helps the Avengers stay alive," Tony calmly replied, desperate to notjoin them.

"Aw come on Tony, its hot and the pools so nice…" Clint begged.

"I'm fine guys," Tony told them which was a complete lie, but he wasn't about to let them figure that out. Tony just couldn't bring himself to tell them the truth, he was afraid of what they'd think of him when they learned that Tony was terrified of water.

"Tony you've been in this lab for way to long!" Clint exclaimed.

"Clint's right Tony," Bruce added calmly, "you really need to get out." Tony was backed into a corner, and they all knew it. There was no way for Tony to decline without having to answer questions Tony didn't even want to acknowledge yet. And that's how Tony found himself in his swimsuit sitting by the pool, desperately trying to avoid having to go in.

"Come on in! The waters great!" Clint shouted, diving under the crystal clear water. Then Tony thought of something and wondered why he hadn't thought of it before.

"Shoot, I have a meeting today and I'm already late!" Tony exclaimed backing away from the pool.

"How do you know you're late if you don't have a watch?" Bruce asked, eyebrows raised.

"I'm uhh… I can look at the sun and umm… AHH!" Tony was roughly picked up and thrown over someone's shoulder.

"Since its obvious you don't want to go in the water, I'll just have to carry you in," Steve declared walking over to the pool.

"Come on Steve put me down," Tony ordered, trying to sound calm. Steve paused, thinking about it for a minute before saying,

"Nah," and jumped in. Tony frantically fought the hands that where forcing him under the water. He felt the spark of the open wires burning him, he had to get out, they were going to drown him! Tony opened his mouth trying to scream, but got a mouthful of water instead.

Steve let go of Tony after a minute of struggle, but quickly realized Tony was panicking and not swimming to the surface. Steve grabbed Tony and pulled him to the edge of the pool and pulled himself and Tony out of the water. Tony threw a wild punch at Steve causing him to loosen his grip slightly and for Tony to scramble away, eyes wide and terrified.

"Tony?" Steve asked, causing Tony to violently flinch and wrap his arms around his chest, completely covering the arc reactor. Bruce appeared next to Tony and grabbed his shoulders saying,

"Tony, listen to me. You're not in Afghanistan, you're at Stark Tower with the Avengers, you're safe." Tony looked around the room frantically, the glazed look in his eyes vanishing, but Tony still kept his arms protectively over the arc reactor. Tony looked down ashamed and opened his mouth to say something when someone snapped,

"What the hell was that Stark?"

"Director…" Steve began but Tony cut him off snapping,

"How did you get in here?" Steve could see the walls going up, the playboy billionaire playboy philanthropist façade going up again.

"Pepper let me in," Fury replied, glaring at Tony, "now I expect an answer, what was that all about?"

"It's nothing," Tony mumbled.

"This is about Afghanistan isn't it?" Fury snapped. When Tony didn't say anything Fury pushed on, "This is a liability Stark! If our enemy's found out you're afraid of water they'll use it against us to get information! Is that what you want?"

"Fury it's not the big a deal…" Clint defended.

"This is huge Barton," Fury snapped, "This needs to be fixed, Stark I want you to report to me tomorrow, this will to get fixed." With that Fury swept out of the room, leaving no room for argument.

"Tony…" Bruce began as Tony scrambled to his feet.

"I'm fine," Tony said before anyone could say anything, "it's nothing." Still covering the arc reactor Tony ran back into the tower, not once looking back at his worried team.