Chapter Text
With one last miniscule stroke of the brush, it was finally finished. Tony stepped back from the large easel, wiping a hand across his forehead and inadvertently leaving behind a streak of paint. He sighed softly, looking at his masterpiece and nodding in satisfaction.
“Astonishingly accurate as always, Sir.” Jarvis intoned from the ceiling, a slight ring of pride in the AI’s voice.
Tony gave a slight smile at the commendation, setting the brush down with a subtly shaking hand. “Thanks, J.” He glanced up at his painting once more, shuddering softly before turning away.
“Let me know when it’s finished drying.” He instructed his AI, leaving the easel and the table cluttered with art supplies behind.
“Of course, Sir.” JARVIS answered, pausing for a moment before reporting. “The other Avengers are inquiring if you will be coming up to breakfast.”
Tony nodded, heading to a large sink and washing the paint from his hands. “Let them know I’ll be up there shortly.” He dried his hands, inspecting them carefully to make sure he got all the paint off.
Convinced he’d ridden his hands of the evidence, he folded the towel in perfect thirds and placed it on the towel rack, taking off his smock and hanging it next to the sinks, turning off the light over the sink and walking out of the expansive room, past dozens of covered paintings hanging on the walls, a single semi-dull light hanging over each of them, spaces of darkness hovering between the paintings and in the corners and middle of the room.
He turned the doorknob and walked out of the room, lights going out behind him as he closed the door.
** ** ** ** **
“Mr. Stark will be up shortly to join you.” JARVIS informed the team, sounding quite pleased. Surprise flitted across their faces, Bruce looking downright shocked while surprise only hinted in Natasha’s eyes.
Steve frowned a little, not upset, just thinking. Despite their attempts to invite Tony to any team function or meal, he hadn’t accepted their invitations for nearly a month, dating back to their last big battle that had ended badly between Tony and Bucky and had seemed to create a division, not just between them, but also Tony and the team itself. “I didn’t think he’d actually come.” He murmured, turning his attention back to his paper, though he obviously wasn’t reading it any longer.
“I know, he hasn’t even been on the common room floor for the last month, let alone joined us for breakfast.” Bruce murmured, staring hard at the bacon sizzling on the stove as if it could solve the riddle of Tony’s sudden change of heart.
“Whatever reason Friend Stark has behind his decision we must all make sure we do not make him regret it or he may pull away from us again.” Thor decided rather loudly, bringing his fist down on the table emphatically, not hard enough to break it, he’d done that in the past, but enough to make it shudder and the coffee to splash out of Bucky’s mug, Natasha and Steve being experienced enough to pick their cups up.
While Bucky glared at Thor and wiped up the mess, Clint put his two cents in from where he sat on the countertop of the kitchen island.. “Maybe he’s just too tired to avoid us any longer, he hasn’t been sleeping much.”
Natasha nodded. “If he keeps it up he’s going to run himself into the ground. Even Pepper mentioned the other day that Tony was overworking himself. She’s said he’s completely caught up in his paperwork, which apparently never happens, and that he’s months of work ahead in his SI projects.”
“He’s coming.” Bucky warned quietly, his sensitive hearing picking up the slight whir of the elevator as it arrived. The newest addition to the team had sat quietly, not contributing to the conversation. He didn’t know Stark well enough to speculate at his reasons for coming back, especially since Bucky was who he was avoiding most, even before the Incident.
Everyone fell quiet, going back to what they were doing before the conversation began, Steve once again reading his newspaper, Bruce going back to preparing breakfast and Thor entertaining the others with tales of Asgard.