Maybe We Can Work (stony fanfic)

The Mission Where It All Went Wrong

Steve's POV

"Alright, team, get ready. We got a fire out on 44th street - reports of some Chitauri or something." Nick Fury told the Avengers.

"Suit up, Capsicle." Tony Stark joked as we stood up to get our gear on. He knew I hated it when he called me names. Actually, now that I come to think of it, that's exactly why he did it.

"Shut up, metal man." I hissed back. Hey, that was pretty good for me.

"Ooh, snarky." Tony said. A few seconds later, he burst out laughing.

"What's so funny? Have I got something on my face or what?" I asked self consciously. Usually I was the reason Tony laughed. Not in a good way.

"No, I was just thinking... Snarky? More like Starky!" He laughed hysterically at his own joke. No one other than Tony was laughing.

"That was pathetic. And besides, you should be suiting up, not laughing at your own jokes." I rolled my eyes, pulling on my helmet and grabbing my shield.

"Lighten up, Captain Ice-merica."

---

Minutes later, we were at the scene. A tower had been set on fire, smoke billowing out over the city. Surrounding the exits were about 20 or so Chitauri aliens. We'd dealt with them before, so it shouldn't be too hard to do it again

"Okay, Thor, you do your thing with the hammer," Tony started taking control of the situation. "Nat, Bruce, get inside and rescue anyone that's trapped. Hey, Cap, do the shield thing and try to fight off the Chitauri that are inside the building. Clint, I'll gonna fly you up to the top." Something inside me twanged. I wanted to do that. I wanted to fly to the top with him. I wanted to fight next to him. "You shoot down the Chitauri outside. And I'll try to put out the fire. Let's go!" Everyone went their different ways, ready to fight off what could be a bigger army.

Whacking a Chitauri out of the way with my shield, I followed Bruce and Natasha into the building. The first floor wasn't on fire, but it was filled with scattered bodies and Chitauri warriors. They noticed us quickly.

It didn't take long until the whole first floor was cleared of the aliens. They weren't exactly the hardest things to take down know that we knew their tactics. Taking them two at a time, I ran up the stairs to the next level. This tower had obviously been an office building, but, as it was on fire and filled with casualties, it wasn't really going to be used much after this. 

There were more Chitauri on this level. I threw my shield at one, decapitating it's head. That caught their attention. They turned towards me as I heard Nat speaking through the bug in my ear.

"Hey, Cap, Bruce and I have got out all the survivors. Bruce is gonna stay there with them, and I'll come help you with the Chitauri." Within seconds, she burst in through a window, kicking a Chitauri and shattering the glass.

It didn't take long for both of us to clear the next few levels of the aliens. Working together, we were pretty fast. The fire started on about the 8th floor.

"Hey, Nat, get down. It's all smoky." I whispered, crawling across the floor. There were only a few Chitauri that were still alive here - most of them had been burnt. However, that meant there were also rather a lot of human bodies, most of which were badly burnt. With just a few kicks, punches and shield acrobatics, all the Chitauri on that floor were down.

"Is it just me or are these Chitauri getting easier to kill?" Natasha asked as we climbed the stairs to the next level. The air was still thick with smoke.

"I think it's just you." I answered, shoving an oncoming Chitauri down the stairs with my shield.

---

"Well, I think that's most of the Chitauri killed." I said, rubbing my hands together looking around at the littered bodies of the aliens. Nat and I had done a pretty good job, if I do say so myself.

All of a sudden, there was a loud crash and a dent in the ceiling above us. Nat and I looked at each other, and immediately ran to the stairwell leading to the roof. Sprinting up, we reached the hatch and I threw it open. 

At first, the light adjustment was hard to cope with but I was grateful for the fresh oxygen. However, the mood quickly changed when I caught sight of what had caused the gargantuan dent in the roof .

In front of us was the biggest Chitauri alien I'd ever seen, and judging by the look on Natasha's face, it was the biggest one she'd seen as well. Seriously, this thing had to be about 12 times bigger than the regular Chitauris. And in its grasp was Iron Man, struggling to get free from its monstrous hand.

"What do we do?" I asked Nat, staring at the creature in awe. Nat just shrugged, pulling out her gun and starting to fire at it. The bullets ricocheted off the giant monster's metal body.

This only angered it, and it swung Tony in its massive fist.

"Don't do that! Don't do that!" Tony shouted, his voice distorted slightly because of his armour.

"What are we supposed to do? Stand here and watch it throw you off the roof?" I shouted back. Surely we couldn't just let it hurt Tony?

"I don't know. Just don't shoot at it!" He called back.

"Should we get Thor?" Natasha asked. "Where's Clint?"

"I don't know! Just find a way to get me down from here before this thing eats me alive." Tony shouted, still being waved around in the monster's metal fist."Please hurry up. It's crushing my suit. Do you know how much this cost to make?"

That's Tony for you. He could possibly be killed at any moment and he's worried about his money.

"Tony, they aren't answering. Is there anything else we can do?" Natasha asked calmly. How could she be so calm? I'm dying on the inside.

"You know what? Why don't you just shoot the damn thing?" Clint said from behind us, making Nat and I jump.

"Ah, yes. Good idea. It's not like we thought of it already or anything. Why not just shoot this giant metal alien, which is still holding me? I mean, what's the worst that could happen? It could kill me, it could take me to outer space, it could do anything! So yeah, just shoot it. Great idea, Katniss." Tony said, dramatically waving his arms about in the air.

Clint started to pull an arrow out of his holder.

"Come on, Clint, I was unconscious for 70 years, and even I realised that was sarcasm." I said. He abruptly stopped what he was doing.

"Wait. Actually..." Tony was thinking of something. His face lit up into a grin, which meant it was probably an incredibly risky plan.. "Do you have any of those arrows that can stop machinery?" Clint checked before nodding.

"Well, we could shoot it, and shut it down completely. It'll probably work." Tony shrugged.

"Probably? Tony, probably isn't good enough." Natasha tried to reason.

"Probably is all we've got. Now shoot, Artemis."

Clint pulled out the arrow and slotted it into his bow. He shot the arrow. It sailed cleanly through the air towards the Chitauri's  head.

However, for probably the first time in his entire life, Clint missed. The arrow hit the massive Chitauri right in its eye.

It didn't shut anything down. It didn't do anything, in fact, apart from annoy the thing.

Everything from then seemed to happen in slow motion. The giant alien dropped Tony from it's enormous metal hand. He fell to the floor with a dull thud as the Chitauri proceeded to try and grasp Clint, fortunately unsuccessfully. As I darted towards Tony, out of the corner of my eye I saw Thor swing Mjölnir at the monster.

I reached Tony and a wave of worry, guilt and anxiety washed over me. This was what I usually felt when one of the team got hurt, but it was never as strong as this. The feeling spread from my inside all around my body, filling me with dread. What if he didn't wake up? Why do I suddenly care so much? Then I realised. The feeling I had earlier was jealousy. The feelings now. All these stupid, stupid feelings. It all adds up.

I like Tony. And now he could possibly be dead.