Chapter Text
Tony walked into the living room of his penthouse to the sight of Rhodey and Vision chatting calmly, civilian clothes on, Tony’s tech wrapping Rhodey’s legs.
They looked up at the sound of his footsteps. Tony walked over to Vision and clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Good to have you back. How was the vacation?”
He tilted his head towards Tony. “It was very educational. I find myself with a greater appreciation for human nature. I do hope that the return of our old teammates has not been too hard on you. Colonel Rhodes has kept me up to date with the new developments.”
Tony turned a glare toward Rhodey. “Really, platypus? Talking about me behind my back?”
Rhodey scoffed, “Oh? Like you were going to tell him?”
Silence reigned momentarily before Tony sniffed. “Granted.”
Before anyone else could make another comment, the sound of people chanting “Bill! Bill! Bill!” echoed throughout the room.
Tony whipped out his phone and opened the text.
“The kid’s going to meet us there, apparently.”
Rhodey frowned at the phone. “What even was that ringtone?”
Tony had become engrossed in texting Peter as many emojis as he could, so Vision took it upon himself to answer.
“I do believe that the chanting of the name Bill is part of the intro to a show known as Bill Nye the Science Guy, popular among American youths.”
“Oh. Alright. That explains why Tony has it as a ringtone. Tones. Why is that your ringtone?”
Tony looked up and slid the phone into a pocket. “Peter and I binge watched the show, he’s really into it.”
Vision frowned. “Peter?”
The other two looked up in confusion before Tony’s eyes widened in realization. “Oh! You never officially met him… the spider kid. Spider-Man. My protégé. Have you not watched the news recently? It was a huge story, really annoying, but still huge.”
“I have not.”
“Well… the kid’s a riot. You’ll love him.”
Rhodey rolled his eyes in exasperation before ushering Tony and Vision out of the building and towards the restaurant.
As they neared the place, they noticed that the blinds over the windows had been closed, obscuring the view of the inside. The sign that rested in the door said: closed for private event.
Tony sighed. “I knew he was doing something. Alright. Let’s get this show on the road.”
He walked forward, the other two right behind him, and swung the door open.
The three stood in shock at the view in front of them as the door closed behind them.
A large circular table sat in the middle of the room, food scattered across it. A projector hung from the ceiling, showing a hastily put together powerpoint presentation. And the majority of the persons who’d participated in the ‘civil war’ were sitting in silence and staring at each other. Well, everyone except for Scott and T’Challa. Scott was spending the weekend with Cassie and Peter had been unsuccessful in contacting T’Challa. His attempts had given Ned’s computer a virus that played the ominous chant “you better watch out. You better watch out. You Better Watch OUT. YOU BETTER WATCH OUT” every time Ned clicked the letter B.
Everyone turned to look up at Tony, Rhodey, and Vision.
Peter waved from where he was standing in front of the projector screen.
“Hey, Da… Tony! Colonel Rhodes! Vision! Yas! Have a seat!”
The three glanced around before sitting down across from Steve and Bucky. Sam and Natasha were closest to the new arrivals, with Wanda and Clint sitting on Bucky’s other side. Wanda shot a questioning glance at Vision.
Clint stuck his thumb out at Peter once everyone had finished greeting one another with stiff nods.
“Who is this kid and what are we doing here?”
Peter puffed up. “I’m Spider-Man!”
Clint’s eyebrows raised before turning to look at Tony.
“Tony… oh my god. You brought him to fight us?”
He glared across the table. “Bite me, Barton.”
“Oh, I wi…”
“Hey!” Peter’s voice bounced around the room, cutting off the argument that was about to ensue. “Do you want to know why you’re here or not?”
Steve nodded after exchanging a glance with Bucky. “Go ahead, kid.”
Peter looked towards Tony, who gave him the universal “do continue” hand gesture.
“Alright, so. When Tony and I had that 60 Minutes interview, the question about the Sokovia Accords got me thinking that none of you had all the sides of the story, like, at all. So I was thinking that we could try and talk it out peacefully, and see what can be done about that. I even brought some of the conversational propaganda from all the times my school has tried to get us to bond.”
Sighs were uttered from all across the table as everyone shifted their gazes to watch the others’ reactions. Well. Everyone but Sam, who was happily munching on the shawarma.
Peter picked up a hat full of small pieces of paper and shook them around, his other hand clicking a remote that changed the slide to a page that said “communication is key” in a overly edited font.
He grinned wickedly as he pulled a name out of the hat. “For the first round, you’re going to have one to two minutes to talk about why you did what you did. Remember that this is a safe space.” He looked down and read the name. “The first one up is Natasha!”
The spy stared him down before sighing. “I was trying to keep us together. I made mistakes. That’s it. I’ve already apologized to those who needed one.”
Peter checked his watch. “That wasn’t a minute, but alright, spider buddies, I’ll let you get away with it.” He picked the next name out of the hat. “Next is… Tony!”
Tony glared at Peter. “I’m disowning you.”
“No you’re not.”
“We’ll see about that.”
Peter widened his eyes and frowned sadly. “Please??”
“No…”
“Please???”
“... fine.”
Everyone turned to look at him expectantly. He glared out at the table from under the sunglasses that sat perched on his nose.
“I had been notified of the Accords early on, and had already contacted my team of lawyers to begin the process for adding amendments into it. After the events with Ultron, I realized that we needed to be put into check because we were starting to be just as dangerously unaccountable as my weapons were.”
Wanda muttered under her breath at the mention of his weapons. He glared at her quickly before continuing. “I ran the calculations, and the Accords were the best option in front of us. I didn’t expect everything to devolve the way it did. I certainly didn’t expect to have to fight the team that I had cared about. I also didn’t expect for someone to have lied to me for years about a personal tragedy that had really messed me up. So there. That’s why I did what I did.”
He sat back in his chair, arms crossed. Rhodey patted him on the leg while Peter shot him a blinding smile.
Peter grabbed the next name. “Bucky!”
The soldier shifted and leaned into the arm that Steve had slung over his shoulder. “I didn’t mean to get mixed up in this. I’m real sorry about what happened.” He looked at Tony. “About everything that I’ve done.”
He went silent and Peter awkwardly picked the next name.
“Wanda!”
She glared at Tony and spat out, “I wasn’t going to let my parents’ murderer get away with imprisoning me.”
Peter, to everyone’s surprise, groaned loudly. “I promised myself that I would try to remain impartial, but nope, can’t do it.” He placed the hat on the table. “I had a friend of mine hack into the Stark Industries archive…”
“Hey!”
“It’s your fault for giving me the wifi password. Anyways, we tracked the weapons shipment and the one that landed on your home was sold under the table. Tony had nothing to do with it.”
She turned to stare at Peter. “What?”
“Tony didn’t kill your parents.”
She looked down and the table before standing up and backing away from the group. “I… I need to go.” She briskly walked out the restaurant, the door closing behind her.
Peter pulled another name out of the hat. “Clint! Your turn.”
Clint set down the shawarma and wiped his hands with a napkin. “Cap called me and said that Tony had locked Wanda in the compound. I went to rescue her. It devolved from there. End of story.”
“Alright. Sam!”
“Come on, man, you know for a fact that I’ve already talked this out with everyone.”
“Fine… you get a pass.”
Sam did a fist pump and went back to eating.
“Steve!”
He raised his head and confidently began to speak. “I had to save Bucky and I couldn’t let the Avengers be controlled by the government. I wasn’t told that it was possible to change the Accords to what they are now.”
“You do realize that the United Nations is technically an organization and not a government, right?” Peter asked.
“Yes...”
“Did you actually read the Accords before fighting everyone?”
“... Not really.”
“Wow.”
Tony snorted. “I thought you were trying to be impartial, Pete.”
Peter flung his hands in the air in frustration. “I can’t help it! It’s too ignorant to not comment on it.” He turned back to Steve. “Is that all you’re going to say? No other defense?”
Steve sniffed. “I’ve said all I needed to.”
Bucky rolled his eyes at the obstinance sitting next to him.
Peter pulled the next name out. “Vision! You’re up!”
Vision placed his hands together on the table and looked around the room. “I ran the calculations, and the Accords seemed like the best option. I acted according to those calculations.”
“Oh hey! It’s me now!” Peter took a deep breath before embarking on his statement. “So Mister Stark randomly showed up at my apartment and was like ‘hey! Wanna go to Germany?’ and I was all like ‘yeah! Cool!’ He didn’t really tell me what was going on but like… current events class… Then we all fought each other which was really awesome… er, I mean… awful, awful. So that’s my story.”
Natasha smirked at him. “Eloquently put. I like how you said of that in one breath.”
Tony grinned. “That’s my kid.”
Peter smiled. “Colonel Rhodes! Your turn!”
“It was the right thing to do. Being in the Air Force taught me a thing or two about bureaucracy, and the Accords was the only solution that would have healed the problems evident in the system. I thought it through, I know that Tony thought it through, and I stand by my actions.”
The room went silent with various people nodding in affirmation as they all turned to look at Peter.
The teen shifted. “Oh. Right. I guess we’re done now. I do have to say, Tony was the only one who went with the whole one to two minutes thing, so shame on the rest of you. The only thing left to do now… is dyads!”
A chorus of no’s were shouted across the room.
“In that case… you are all free to go and reflect about everything you’ve heard today. Feel free to take some food with you!”
The Avengers each stood and grabbed some of the food off of the table, heading out the door by themselves or in pairs until it was just Tony and Peter in the restaurant.
Peter cast his eyes at the ground as Tony walked over to him. The billionaire frowned and put a finger under his chin.
“Hey. Kiddo. Look at me. What’s up?”
Peter sniffed. “Was that okay? I just… you were so miserable every time that the whole situation came up and I wanted to try and make it better.”
Tony paused a second before embracing Peter, who returned the hug instantly.
“You did good, kid. You did good. I never thought that any of us would be able to sit in the same room and do what you just made us do. At the very least, we should be able to moderately stand each other now.”
Peter sniffed into his shirt and Tony paused, a frown flitting across his face. “Hey. Who’s paying for this?”
Peter giggled. “You are.”
“That’s it. I’m disowning you.”
“No you’re not.”
Tony smiled. “No. I’m not.”