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Tony was happy. All the Avengers were relaxing in the common area watching some action movie Clint had picked out. Natasha and Clint shared the love seat opposite the tv while Tony, Bruce, and Sam had claimed the couch against the back wall. Steve and Bucky sat on the floor in front of Tony, Bruce, and Sam. Thor had taken everyone's favorite recliner claiming he was "tired" from travelling from Asgard. They had all been using the day for relaxation in their various (strange) ways, but had decided to have a team movie night.
Bruce stretched an arm out and put it on the back of the couch behind Tony. Not even thinking about the fact that 1) Bruce wasn't meaning anything, 2) He was in front of most of the team, and 3) nobody but Pepper knew his secret, Tony grabbed Bruce's hand and put it on the top of his head, wanting Bruce to scratch at his scalp. Bruce seemed surprised, but got the hint. Bruce started gently scratching Tony's head, but a few minutes later he drew his hand away like he had just touched something scalding.
"Tony what the hell is that?" Bruce asked, just loud enough that everyone looked over curiously. Tony, now snapped out of his daze, grew panicked.
"I..f-fuck. shit no. n-n-no. No." Tony's breathing was coming in shorter and shorter bursts, his face heating up and tears threatening to spill over.
"Mr. Stark, I have sensed a high heart rate and irregular respiration. Shall I contact Mrs. Potts?" JARVIS asked.
"No JARVIS, thank you." Someone said. Natasha kneeled in front of Tony, using a breathing technique to calm him down enough to be coherent.
"Bruce, what was that all about?" Steve asked, looking concerned at both of them. Tony looked terrified, but Bruce was overly curious and decided to tell anyway.
"Well, Tony grabbed my hand and put it on his head like he wanted to be scratched, so I did. I could've sworn I felt something...fuzzy. Not like hair fuzzy. Almost like....animal fur." Tony looked like he was either going to throw up or pass out. Natasha must have sensed this, because she backed up a bit. Tony stood up from the couch, wobbled for a second, and then moved to turn the lights on. He stood by the wall for a little longer than necessary before moving to stand in front of the tv, the movie having been paused in all the confusion.
"W-well I guess I could tell you now. I've been meaning to bring it up but I've just never felt like it was the right time. I guess I have no choice now." Tony fiddled with his t-shirt and shuffled his feet, only causing the team's curiosity to heighten. Tony took a deep breath, trying to brace himself for what he was about to say.
"My father was an incredibly smart man, always trying to improve the human body, as we know by Capsicle over there," Tony nervously chuckled," But he had a secret project that he never told anyone about. He wanted to see what would happen if a human was given.....animalistic characteristics. But he needed a child. Since he couldn't let his reputation be ruined if anyone found out.." Tony paused briefly.
"Oh no." Natasha raised a hand to cover her gaping mouth.
"Tony.." Bruce's eyes were wide.
"Oh damn." Clint sighed, shaking his head.
"First it was feline hormones. See if they mixed well with a human's in a petri dish. Nothing overly terrible happened, so he tried it out on a functioning child. It seemed to work well, but it didn't have it's intended effect. Instead of speed and agility, it produced hypersensitivity. He decided that maybe the child needed to feel more like his feline counterpart, so he performed extensive surgery, connecting feline muscle to human muscle and nerves to each other, somehow getting them to work together. It left a permanent mark." At this, Tony patted down his hair slightly and allowed his black feline ears to stand up fully, twitching slightly from laying down for so long and getting used to all the sounds. He then unwound his tail from his leg and let it slid past the waist band of his sweat pants, swaying and stretching.
The whole team looked horrified and slightly awe struck. Steve looked disgusted. Tony folded in on himself, wanting to disappear.
"I can't believe this. How could he do this? TO HIS OWN FUCKING KID." Steve was on his feet. Tony flinched hard at the loudness of his voice.
Clint grabbed Steve before he could march over to Tony. Steve glared at Clint, but relented.
"So Tony, what do we need to do? We don't want to alienate you, but we need to know how to adjust ourselves." Natasha said, trying to sound calming.
"Well....uh...some head scratching would be nice. A-and um....please don't be weirded out if I curl up on you or want to-to...touch you. In a totally platonic way of course." Tony grew redder and redder the longer he was in front of the team.
"Tony, we know this is hard, and what Howard did was terrible, but now that we know, we can try to help you." Bruce reached out his hand. Tony looked apprehensive, but took it, grateful for the contact. Tony held Bruce's hand and put his legs over Bruce and Sam's laps, Sam rested his arms on Tony's ankles.
Tony breathed easily for the first time in a while as the movie started again. He was finally safe.