Struck By Night (5/??)
Summary: Fate has a funny way of pulling people together. Whether or not that’s a good thing, only time will tell.
A/N: Hi, it’s been over a year since this fic was last updated, but we’re bringing this bitch back because I still love vampires and Tony Stark. Hope you guys have fun with the Drama lmao
Pairing: AvengersxReader
Word Count: 2.3k
Warnings:
Part 4
I sit on the couch in the common area, a mug of scalding hot tea clutched in my hands. I stare into the fire blazing in the hearth and sink into the cushions as best I can.
“I thought you didn't like human food.”
Startled, my body jerks when I tear my eyes away from the fire and tea sloshes over the side of the mug, onto my bare hands. I hiss in pain and jump up from the couch, shaking the tea from my hands. Tony stands behind the couch, his eyes wide.
“I don't usually. Tea helps me warm up, though. Especially in the middle of winter.” Tony reaches out for the mug and I hand it to him. “Tea isn't much of a food though is it?”
He sets the mug on the counter and grabs a dishtowel from the fridge handle. “I guess not,” he says. “Sorry I snuck up. Didn't mean to startle you.”
I take the towel from him and wipe my hands off before moving on to dab at the spots on my pant leg.
“It's fine, I should have been paying better attention.” I dab at the wet spot on my knee a little before giving up. “What’s up?”
“Bruce told me about your idea to create a blood substitute that would be viable both for human use and a food source for you.” Tony shakes his head. “You think we could do it?”
I shrug and plop down on the couch again. “Do you? Because Dr. Banner seems interested in at least trying.”
Tony takes a seat at the opposite end and folds one leg under himself so that he can face me.
“It's not that I don't think it can be done, we're literal geniuses. The time in which we have to do so is what worries me. You only have so much Hydra blood. It won't last forever. What are your options when it runs out if we don't finish in time?”
“I'm no stranger to rationing food, Tony. I've already started planning out meals so that there won't be any hunger issues along the way. If I get a little light-headed I'll stay in my room.” I scratch my cheek. “Even if it doesn't work for me, as long as it's a viable option for humans, it has to be worth it, right?”
He nods slowly. “You are so much different than I thought you’d be.”
My lips quirk up into a smile. “So you’ve said.”
“I’m serious. I can’t seem to figure you out. Just as soon as I think I’ve got all the information, Barnes or Rogers throw out some new shit or you come out of left field with something like sucking dick to stay fed.”
I burst out laughing. “I never said that I actually did that, just that it happened. But, I aim to surprise, Tony. And if I can surprise you, maybe my work here is done.”
“Oh, don’t go! We’re just getting to know each other.”
“Mmm, there’s nowhere else in the world I’d rather be.” I shiver and wrap my arms around myself.
“What’s wrong?”
I shake my head. “I’m just cold, is all. It happens.”
“Is there anything I can do?”
“Unless you want to cuddle, probably not.” I sigh and push myself up from the couch. “It may be best for me to just go curl up in bed.”
“Alright.” His eyes follow me as I pour my tea down the drain and head for the hallway. “Tell F.R.I.D.A.Y. to turn up the thermostat when you get there.”
I shoot him a smile and pull my hoodie tighter around me. “Thanks, Tony. Really. For everything.”
He smiles but waves me off. “Nothing to thank me for, (Y/N), I just want you to be comfortable.”
I shake my head and turn down the hallway with a smile playing at my lips. For as much as Tony has done for his team, and even for me, he doesn’t quite seem to know when or how to give himself credit.
I shuffle into the lab around 2 pm and find Bruce and Tony hunched over a single tablet. I plop down onto a stool across from them. Neither look up.
“Morning,” Tony greets.
“It’s not morning,” I mumble. I lean on the table with my chin in my hand.
“Did you ever get warmed up last night?”
I nod. “I did, thanks. The vent is right over my bed. It was really nice.”
“I’m glad.”
“Mmm,” I hum. “What have you two been up to today?”
“We’ve been looking into your blood substitute,” Bruce answers.
“Oh?”
“We know that no one has been able to successfully do anything like this, so if it works, it could completely change the world.”
“But?”
“But there’s no way to know whether or not it would be a viable source of food for you.”
I shake my head. “Fine. If you can figure out a way to make something that can help other people, you should do that. You could change the lives of people with chronic anemia, sickle cell, dialysis patients, and millions of others. It’s worth it just for that.”
“I almost forgot you were a nurse for a moment,” Tony says.
“I’d thank you to remember that I’m more than just a vampire, Mr. Stark,” I say. I smirk when his eyes widen. "Anyway, where were you thinking of starting? I'm assuming that you're looking at artificial hemoglobin, at the very least."
Tony laughs. "Yes, actually. That's exactly what we were thinking."
"Perfect. I haven't been able to run tests myself, so I can only guess, but I believe that that is the one thing that my body metabolizes when I take in blood. On a base level, it holds the most nutritional value."
"It's a protein, so that would make sense," Bruce says. "Outside of baseline volume replacement, it's the one thing that's been hardest to reproduce for any kind of artificial blood supplement.”
I nod. “That would make sense.”
“I think we need to have a backup plan,” Tony says. “Just in case this doesn’t work out, where will you be getting blood?”
“I don’t know. Somehow I doubt it’d be as easy as crashing a bunch of Hydra parties and draining them for fun afterward.” I run my fingers over my lips as I think. “I guess I’d have to go out into the city and see if I can pull anything.”
Tony pulls a face. “If you have to.”
“Well it’s not like you guys want to be my blood bags, now do you? Mass anemia isn’t exactly ideal, especially in a team of Superheroes.” I bite my thumbnail, brows pulling together. “I’m not sure how enhanced blood would even affect me. I’m not sure it’s really something I want to experiment with.”
“Sounds like college,” Tony says.
“I know you’re trying to make a joke,” I say. “But do you have any idea what happens when you mix something like me with the biological material of someone like Doctor Banner? Hell, even Steve could be a risk.”
“She’s right, Tony,” Bruce admits. “You remember my cousin Jennifer?”
“Yeah, health problems a while back, right?”
“Yeah. I was the only one who could give her blood. Now she’s the greenest lawyer in all of New York.”
“Shit.”
“Now do you understand?” I ask. “There are too many variables, and I’m already enough of a danger as is.”
“I think you’re putting a little too much pressure on yourself there, (Y/N),” Tony says. “If you were a danger to us, you would’ve bit one of us already. Your self-control, from what I’m guessing, is off the charts. When you start sneaking around and nibbling on our necks, then I’ll consider you a danger.”
“I think you’re letting inexperience cloud your judgment.”
Tony stares at me. “What’s your hangup with this?”
“What I am, at the core, is dangerous. If there’s one misstep, I could seriously hurt someone, potentially myself if it comes down to isolation.” I shake my head. “It’s not a hangup, Tony. It’s being self-aware. I’ve seen too many good people hurt when they trust a monster.”
“You’re not a monster.”
“Hah! Cute. That’s really cute. But I’m not going to debate the definition with you, because I suspect we have very different experiences with it.”
“(Y/N),” Bruce says. “I’m sure he didn’t mean-”
“Bruce, don’t. Please. Just don’t.” I look between the two of them. “Look, if it doesn’t work for me, keep going with the project. It’ll help a lot of people.”
Bruce nods and I give a tight-lipped smile before excusing myself from the lab.
I run into Steve on the way down the hall and I just barely manage to sidestep him before crashing into him.
“What’s the rush, (Y/N)?” he asks.
“Sorry,” I shake my head. “I need to go back to my room. Clear my head.”
He follows after me and places his hand on my shoulder. I turn to face him and he stoops to look me in the eye. “You okay?”
I sigh. “I’ll be very honest, Steve, I’m tired.”
He nods and wraps his arm around my shoulders. “I’ll walk you back.”
I roll my eyes. “You don’t have to do that.”
“I don’t, but I’m gonna because I want to.”
“You gonna tell me why you were in such a hurry to get away from the lab?”
I crawl onto the bed and sit with my back against the wall. “It’s overwhelming.”
“The lab?” Steve sits in the reading chair in the corner. “It can be. I figured you’d be used to that kind of stuff, though.”
I shake my head. “Not the lab. Working with Tony.”
“Ah.”
“He’s just… a lot, y’know? And we butt heads like you wouldn’t believe. Sometimes it feels like we were made to contradict each other.”
“And other times?”
“Other times it’s like someone else takes over and it’s so easy to talk to him. Like there’s something there.” I wring my hands. “Scares the shit out of me.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m practically immortal. I’m not… I don’t like attachments.”
“You’re attached to Buck ‘n’ I.”
“Neither of you have aged in the past eighty years. I’ve got more in common with you two than I do him.”
Steve shrugs. “Nothing’s happened yet.”
“Very true.” I frown. “Do I even want something to happen? And there’s no saying that he feels the same connection.”
“That’s right.”
“Who’s to say he’d want it anyway?” I laugh. “There I go, worrying about things that haven’t even happened yet. Not to mention things that would probably never happen to begin with.”
“It sounds like you’re talking yourself into and out of something,” Steve says.
“Better to do it now than later, right?” I let my head fall back against the wall and laugh. “Oh man, I’m fucked.”
Steve laughs. “In all the years I’ve known you, you’ve never talked like this.”
“What, the cursing?”
“No, like you have a crush on someone.”
“Well, Steven, when we were last around each other we were also around a bunch of grimy, rank, disgusting soldiers and SSR officers who were either skirt chasers, or women who weren’t exactly my type. Not to mention we were in the middle of a literal war. There wasn’t time for this… this-” I gesture wildly. “Mess.”
“Not even after the war?”
“No, I was pretty focussed on staying alive and off the government's radar, not to even mention S.H.I.E.L.D.’s. It was hard enough getting away from the SSR after the war, after Peggy took over, it got harder.”
“So you’ve been on the run for the better part of seventy years.”
“Pretty much, yeah.” I sigh. “Pretty sure this is the most time I’ve had to relax since you went into the ice, and I’m certain that should be a joke because being here is anything but relaxing.”
Steve snorts. “All things considered, it’s been relatively quiet since we dragged you in.”
“I’ve noticed.” A knock sounds at the door and I sit forward to see who’s there. “Yeah?”
The door opens and Tony appears in the entryway.
“Hey,” he says.
“What’s up?” I ask.
Tony glances at Steve. “Could I talk to you alone?”
“Oh, uh, sure.” Steve grins at me and I flip him off.
Steve laughs. “I’ll be going.”
Tony watches him go and turns back to me. “What was that about?”
“We were just talking.” I lean forward and pat the bed. “Have a seat, Stark.”
He plops down on the bed and braces himself with one arm. “So.”
“So…” I fold my arms. “You wanted to talk?”
“Right.” He sighs. “I want to apologize for what I said in the lab. It was insensitive and I wasn’t thinking.”
I blink slowly, surprised. “What?”
“I’m apologizing.”
I wave off his apology. “No, I heard that part, I just don’t get why. I was abrupt and ran away. If anything, I should be the one apologizing.”
“I brushed off your concern, (Y/N). And they were valid concerns.” He pauses for a moment. “I want to know more about what you are. I want to understand how we can help you, even if this little project doesn’t work out.”
“I… really?”
“What, you think I can’t recognize when I need to step back and learn something?”
“N-no, it’s just a lot of shocking content for one day is all. It’s a lot to process.”
“I get it,” he says. “If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine. We can sort something out.”
“No, it’s fine.” I bite my thumbnail before looking Tony in the eye. “Where do you want to start?”
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