A Family of Flaws

Chapter Eight; Daily Dose Of Anxiety

*Tony's POV*

  Tony could care less about his own health at this point. Fuck his shitty life and all the stress that gets dragged along with it. But he did care about his friends. Maybe too much sometimes. This was one of those times.

  Natasha had been thrown across a building and had passed out, bleeding, with no one other than Spider-Man of all people noticing. It wasn't like she was terribly hurt, the cut needed two stitches and the injury on her arm had to be cleaned out because of all the dirt from the roof, but she was able to walk around when she woke up. Nothing was even remotely wrong.

  Yet, here Tony was, at four in the morning, after not sleeping for two days. He was in his lab, surrounded by empty coffee cups and a box of protein bars. And he was designing Natasha yet another suit.

  She wouldn't let him put any gear on it that would keep her safe. She was stubborn, saying she wanted to be able to move around completely free of the weight of anything he wanted to give her. Flexibility was the main upper hand she had over villains, so of course she wanted to be able to use said ability, but Tony was worried and he couldn't sleep knowing she was in danger.

  He was designing a new fabric, one rather similar to the one he had used on her other suits, but it was much less breakable. Knives were unable to penetrate it and bullets left a small indent. Yet it was still flexible and adaptable. That would keep her a lot safer than before, but her face and head were at total risk constantly, even if she was one of the best assassins in the world and could protect herself from almost every other human.

  The suit would have to be enough to calm his nerves. Though, Natasha's accident during the last fight had Tony on edge, and soon he was taking a look at his other teammate's suits. And Clint was even worse than Natasha.

  Clint let Tony give him better protection on his clothing, but he refused to wear sleeves. He didn't want to be dragged down or restrained by them, and it left him completely vulnerable. So Tony was creating him metallic fingerless gloves. They went from about mid finger to his wrist, though it could extend all the way up his arm to where his shirt ended and it could cover his fingers. They would be perfect for deflecting things like bullets and other projectiles. Another problem semi-fixed.

  Tony just couldn't get a break. He continued to find things that were wrong with their suits, things that could cost them their lives. And it was driving him insane. Then he started looking into their personal files, not the ones S.H.I.E.L.D gave or anything like that. Their actual files which also gave medical history.

  Clint was deaf. He had hearing aids that made it so he could hear, but even then it was difficult for him. And Tony was making a much more advanced version before he could stop himself. They even linked with the comms so he didn't have to wear both of them.

  Tony began learning sign language years ago, but he hardly knew much, so he was learning again. He would get the others to learn as well. He was certain Natasha already knew (Wanda, Vision, and Sam knew as well) but he would make sure the others knew. If Barton's hearing aids were ever out of the picture then they would still have a way to communicate with the jackass. Perfect.

  The next whole day was spent with Tony learning everything about his team's health. He knew every allergy, illness, and injury that had ever been documented. And he made sure he had them memorized. They would not be at risk if he could do anything about it.

  So, after three days without sleep and only consuming coffee and protein bars, Tony was a mess. His constant anxiety for his team was causing tremendous levels of stress for him. It wasn't hard to believe when he finally broke down as the fourth sleepless day rolled around.