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Chapter Text

"This is the fourth time this week!"

The Avengers, Earth's mightiest heroes, a team of five remarkable people all sighed at the alarm that blared through the compound.

"This dude needs to take a day off!" Clint continued shouting at no one in particular. "Clint, shut your mouth and gear up, we need to catch him before he'll escape" AGAIN was left unsaid, yet all of the team members could hear it.

"I hate this, I hate him. What kind of a monster attacks at four AM anyways?! I mean, doesn't he have something better to do?"

"Clint-"

"Like SLEEP?!"

"-CLINT! Focus on the mission, and complain later. We have to be faster this time around, no distractions." Steve heard himself say, and almost immediately regretted these words as all of his teammates looked at him with disbelief in their eyes.

"No distractions, captain," Thor boomed, "so you might want to ignore the Man of Iron's words this time," He said, and Clint had the nerve to jump in and say,

"Not only words, Thor my comrade!" he wiggled his eyebrows at the captain,

"the booty is the problem!"

Bruce facepalmed while Natasha slapped both men across their heads for making the captain angrier and quite frankly, embarrassed.

"You make one comment…" Steve whispered, and they all got on the Quinjet. The flight was quiet, and Steve's thoughts wandered back to their last fight with Iron man, the masked yet named vigilante, as the press sometimes called him Iron man or sometimes a terrorist, most of the times the latter.

Iron man flirted with him constantly on their last fight, all the while continuing his attack on a weapon factory of Stane Industries. Steve flirted back ONE time, getting annoyed and distracted while fighting and Thor and Clint started making fun of him for it, Bruce went completely crazy and Natasha simply continued with her life like a mature adult.

Honestly, Steve thought that Bruce was an okay guy, but nobody bothered to look into it, everyone afraid of finding the Hulk instead. Maybe when they first met- not too long after he was found in the ice- maybe he should have started a little bit easier, friendlier, less tough. It seemed that Banner had no one, nobody that actually trusted him. Steve wanted to change that. Maybe start doing some team bonding exercises, so they could all have better connections with each other.

Now, for the mission at hand…

Iron Man.

Vigilante, Terrorist, Villain, Monster, The Merchant of Death- no matter all the nicknames he had, SHIELD was no closer to finding his real one.

At first they all thought it was a robot- an intelligent robot at that, but robot nonetheless- but after their first fight, what with Iron Man's constant bitching about pain in his left arm while flying away, they were all sure that there was a man inside the machine.

Due to voice filters, and high boots, SHIELD could not know if they were dealing with a smart, short man or a child inside the suit, but the team believed it was indeed a man.

It was also obvious that Iron Man was attracted to men as well as women, given his constant flirting with Steve and Natasha. Steve was flattered and yet very much concerned, and Natasha- being Natasha- did not bat one well-kept eyelash in his direction. Steve could only hope whatever Iron Man had for them was either nothing but a tactic to throw them off their rhythm (which worked in Steve's case) or a simple, harmless crush. The last thing they needed was some powerful villain like Iron Man going crazy and starting killing people just to get their attention.

They went over their plan- each fight against this tin-can required a new one-, which now included one paralyzing arrow, courtesy of Stane Industries. The arrow would be able to shut down the Iron Man weapon, as Obadiah Stane himself told them on team briefing. Apparently, they were working on this arrow for months now, but only now it was ready for them to use.

They got off the jet in another one of Stane Industries' factory, where Iron Man was already blowing up weapons and tech.

Again.

For the fourth time this week.

Steve threw his shield at Iron Man, missing only because he dodged it with perfect timing. Damn this suit and its sensors, this could have been a lot easier if he had hit the man.

Iron Man fully faced him now, too distracted by the captain to notice that Hawkeye was no longer in his eyesight. "Oh look! It's my favorite boy-band!" He shouted "oh, hey Widow, didn't see you there. Anyways, will you sign my repulsors?" Iron Man flew closer to them, and Steve could hear Hawkeye on the comms telling him that he was in a good position to shoot.

"I really missed you all, you know? However, I need you to leave now. I really don't have the time to fight you all right now, so please- this time just go. I'll owe you one." His electronic voice said, and even though it was very robotic to the point of no recognition, Steve could still hear the panic over it.

"What's the rush?" he shouted at the man, "you're not going anywhere!" and under his voice he whispered quickly, "Hawkeye, take the shot!"

Everything happened very fast after that.

Clint shot the paralyzing arrow, which hit Iron Man's back. The Iron Man suit started falling, shutting down as it does. Hulk leaped in the air and caught him, laying him on the ground very softly for a man who was their worst enemy for the last couple of months.

His voice cracked through the suit, half-robotic and the other half not passing through the machine.

The suit's eyes were dark, as was the big hole in its chest. Steve grinned to himself. Finally, a successful mission.

The grin was soon whipped out of his face, because just a moment later the suit's lights came back to life, back on.

With his enchanted hearing, Steve was able to hear the voice of an English man coming from inside of the suit. He thought that it was Iron Man himself, but the slight robotic touch to it made it sound more like a robot than a human person. The robotic-English-voice was speaking, telling the man to 'relax, Sir. The reactor is back on, take deep breaths Sir.' And the heavy breathing that was there all the while became steadier and steadier, and right before any of them could move, Iron Man flew away from their grip.

The last thing he heard from inside the suit, even though it was already flying away, was a faint "Thanks, Jarvis" and the suit was out of his hearing range.

It seemed that the suit was fully functioning again, much to Steve's disappointment and dismay because when Iron Man spoke again it was in his usual robotic voice. "I'm offended, Captain Handsome,"

Steve growled in annoyance at the nickname.

"I thought we had something for a moment there." And with that final line, he flew away, disappearing at dawn.

Chapter Text

"I'm so sorry I'm late kiddo."

Young Peter smiled his toothless smile, which was adorable.

"It's fine dad! Harley says that you have a difficult job, so I forgive you!" he said, (more like squeaked in Tony's opinion) and Tony, his father, was so happy that his son wasn't angry with him for arriving late for his birthday party.

The Party included Harley (Peter's older brother), Ned and Harry (both are his son's best friends), MJ and Betty (two girls from his classroom), Rhodey (Tony's best friend), and Pepper (Tony's ex and friend).

Tony was somewhat disappointed with her, but with her being Stane's personal assistant and all it was kind of hard not to.

Who even needed a personal assistant these days?

Ugh.

He was very glad though, that the encounter with the Avengers earlier today at one of Stane Industries' facilities hasn't turned into a big fight, or else he would have missed the party entirely, and that's without including the bruises and injuries.

The party was fun, as much as a Blue and Red themed party for an eight-year-old can be, (Peter insisted that those were his favorite color and that he wanted to always wear these colors. Tony did not argue with that, whatever suited his son suited him as well.)

The cake was good and it seemed like everyone enjoyed themselves, so Tony was satisfied.

After the party has ended, everyone went back to their home and Peter was fast asleep on his bed, tucked in with his Blue and Red PJ's on under the Blue and Red mattress, Harley and Tony want to the garage- where most of Tony's little inventions were.

Including, of course, his three dumbass robots: Dum-E, Butterfingers, and U, which were all created by him when he was in college. The garage also included one, top of the line yet one of his kind, AI. Introducing Jarvis; Just A Rather Very Intelligent System, as he lied to Harley. The truth was that Edwin Jarvis was a close friend of his father, back in his good days, around the time he helped with the Rebirth Project- back when he wasn't an abusive piece of shit.

Jarvis, the man himself, was long dead. In memorial of his actual father figure, Tony built Jarvis. It was never the same, of course, because Tony couldn't stand hearing his voice but not seeing the man. That's the reason for Jarvis to have a slight robotic touch built in his voice- so Tony won't get his hopes up, so he won't break at hearing a dead man's voice.

Inside the garage, besides of all his other, less important (and less deadly) creations, a couple of the Iron Man suits were hidden.

If Rhodey (a jet pilot in the US Air Force) would have ever been to find out that his friend was the Bogey the Air Force was chasing after for the past couple of months, then Tony will be as good as dead.

Not that Rhodey would kill him, not physically- he would probably stare him to death. Which was one terrifying way to die.

Harley, being his eldest son and the only other person to know of him being Iron Man, was his assistant in almost everything that involved the Iron Man suits. He came up with safety protocols, and cool gadgets his father should have in the suit to help him fight and was the number one fan of Iron Man out there- not that there was very much of a competition, with Iron Man being a villain of the Avengers.

Right at this moment, Harley was starting on rebuilding an older suit, one that had been severely damaged. He made sure that nothing was too damaged in the suit that Tony used today in the fight with the Avengers, or Earth's Dumbest Fuckers as he secretly called them, all the while Tony was hacking onto some SHIELD and SI servers in order to check for any new plans or surprises they had ready for him.

After three more hours, Harley was nodding off, so Tony insisted he should go to bed.

Tony himself stayed up all night hacking into files and rebuilding his old suit.

--

"We need better plans."

"What we NEED, Steve, is better equipment. Iron Man had no idea what weapon we were going to use, yet he still managed to run away. No plans are going to help with that, Steve! Stane Industries is one hell of a sponsor, but not nearly enough against this guy!"

Natasha and Steve continued arguing in the kitchen while Clint sighed to himself quietly. He sat on the couch of their sort-of living room, in the Avengers area at the compound. The compound itself was huge but definitely not designed as a place where the best of Earth's freaks could gather in.

And hearing these two argue day and night about some tin-can gets boring after a while, and considering this was the fourth attack this week, Clint considered actually jumping off a building just to stop these two.

He told as much to Thor earlier, but the god had pointed out that Clint threw himself off buildings all the time, so nobody will actually stop anything while he's at it.

Right now, Clint was sitting on the couch in the sort-of living room, hearing aids by his side (he was so fucking tired of hearing Natasha and Steve, he literally preferred staying deaf), thinking about falling off buildings.

The thing was, that he would obviously be dead falling off buildings all the time with no help at all, and that's why he was glad he had a flying god/super-prince, if you will, Thor on his team, ready to catch him almost every time.

Almost.

Clint recalled three times which Thor wasn't around to catch him. One of them, the Hulk growled before crashing into him, breaking his nose but sparing him two broken legs.

The other two… the other two were on missions against Iron Man.

And in those missions, the rest of the Avengers team hot on his tail, Iron Man was the one to catch him and quickly drop him somewhere close enough to the ground, leaving Hawkeye very much confused but luckily, very much alive.

Why the fuck would Iron Man do that?

Most importantly, for the moment at least, was WHY WAS THOR LOOKING AT ME WITH SUCH CONFUSION?

He put back his hearing aids, flinching at the sound of yelling coming from the kitchen and trying to ignore it at the same time- and obviously, failed to do as much.

"You looked troubled, my friend," Thor explained when he asked him about the look, "you just don't look so deep in thoughts throughout your days, as you never seem to think that much at all. Is everything well?"

Clint gaped in shock at the sass coming from the thousands of years old alien sitting next to him, but then remembered that he should probably tell everyone else about his…

Discovery? Suspicion? Understanding?

…about whatever the thing that popped in his head was.

"Ay yo, Steve! Nat! Can you guys come in here for a sec?" he shouted to the kitchen's direction.

The yelling stopped and the two very annoyed teammates entered the living room, and unsurprisingly- they both looked pissed.

"Clint, I swear to god," Natasha started,

"There is no need in that sort of action" Thor cut her off, cheerfully so.

She groaned in annoyance. "We don’t have to see whatever meaningless tricks you got this time, Clint, so this better be important." She finished, and just before Clint could tell her that, actually, everything he does is important and majestic, Steve joined the fuss-

"And by 'Important' she means SHIELD or Avengers-related Important. Not stuffing-32-mini-marshmallows-in-your-mouth Important."

Clint crossed his arms, pouting before dropping them to his sides again.

"Thor, can you call Banner up here? I think he needs to hear this, 'cause you know- It's really important"

Thor grumbled that he 'had to do everything on this planet' whatever he meant by that, before going to the labs to call Bruce.

"Just so you know, Stevie-my-boi," Steve already looked so done with this shit, "that it was actually 42 mini marshmallows. Mama raised no coward."

That earned him another Nat-Slap, which was no fun considering it was the second one today.

They sat in awkward silence for a while, before Clint smiled and turned to the Captain again.

"So, how's your man doing?" he asked and watched in amusement as Steve's brow furrowed in confusion while Nat rolled her eyes.

"My man?" Steve finally asked, and Clint's smile grew wider as he answered-

"Oh you know, your man- or should I clarify, your IRON Man? How's he doing?"

Steve only sighed in disappointment while giving him The Look ™.

Bruce and Thor arrived, and they all settled down while Clint explained how Iron Man saved him two times, and not by an accident.

"The Hulk doesn't like smashing Iron Man," Bruce said after a long, silent pause while looking at the floor.

"He thinks it's wrong."

"And why would he think that?" Natasha said, and Bruce looked up at her with one sassy eyebrow in the air and returned a sharp;

"Why don’t you ask him yourself?"

And in that exact moment, Pepper Potts entered the living room.

Chapter Text

"Stane Industries has some leads." Was the first thing Pepper said to them, about the whole Iron Man case."

They all looked at each other, alarmed because of their recent discovery.

"Obadiah Stane decided that you will go with a different plan from now on, and director Fury will be there tomorrow to deliver it for you."

She turned around to leave, and heard behind her Bruce ask, "There?"

She turned around briefly to say these couple of words: "your new home, The Avengers Tower."

--

So yeah, Virginia didn’t have the best day today.

It was hard enough to work for a jerk as your boss, and dealing with life after a break up even without SHIELD and the whole Avengers and Iron Man fiasco. She really didn't have time for this shit.

And when she was too stressed from her job (dealing with Avengers, SHIELD AND SI could be so fucking exhausting, really) –she turned to stress about her private life.

And would you look at that- there was an unoccupied position for an engineer on the Iron Man case. She would have to talk directly to both Stane and Fury to get this one, but she knew that Fury feared her and that Stane needed her desperately, so it wouldn't be a problem.

Now she needed to talk with Tony before she pulled all of these strings.

She knew that a job like this could help him and his kids a lot, because after Harley and Peter's mother died he couldn't really get a stable one. She knew he built and repaired things to escape reality for a bit, to have some rest, and that this was the reason he became a mechanic in the first place- but maybe a good and stable job could help his mental state for the time being.

He was a good man, and even though they broke up not too long ago, she wanted the best for him. He really does have a golden heart, and she knew that even if they weren't dating she wanted to keep it safe from any harm.

So a new job it is.

She dialed his number for the third time now- and he FINALLY answered his phone.

"What's up Pep, I'm busy." She sighed inwardly.

As if she wasn't busy.

"I found you a job, Tony."

"A job?"

"Yes, a job at Stane Industries" and SHIELD, she wanted to add, but that was classified.

"Pep…"

"I know- I know you said you hated this company," even though it really offended me, as Stane's personal assistant,

"But this job can really help you, Tony. It's exactly your type of thing, it really fits you- you would be perfect for this one, I swear!"

"Sorry Pep, I don't think I'll take you on that offer." WHAT?

"And why not?"

"You know how I feel about Stane Industries, and no offense, I'd hate to work under Stane."

Well, nobody will know if she did tell him…

"It's a collaboration with SHIELD."

"…"

"It's what now?"

"A collaboration between SI and SHIELD, Tony. I shouldn't have told you this, and I really can't tell you more, but this job does connect to his case."

She could practically hear the gears turning in his head from the other side of the phone.

…"Sorry Pep. No can do."

What the fuck is going on with him today?

"Are you sure, Tony? This is really not a big deal for me, I won’t be in any problem for doing this for you, you know that right?" well, almost no trouble. She might get a few more frowns, but she was the female boss of many sexist men- she could pull this one off.

"Thank you Pep, but really, I mean it- no. I am not going to work there. Nothing personal, just fucking hate that place. Bye for now, take care."

And he hang up on her, the bastard.

--

'A new home.'

As if they had a previous home to begin with.

Steve packed his shirts into a SHIELD duffle bag in silence, hearing Clint and Thor cheering loudly about moving to the Avengers Tower.

Honestly, Steve thought that Tower was too big, too ugly and really, too useless to be considered such a wonder. He didn't even understand how is it that Stane Industries would let them stay there- The company have been dealing with Iron Man related damaged for months now, and The Avengers were the ones hired to stop him- but they didn't, and yet the company let them stay at one of the best places in New York.

Besides all of that, Steve felt like something fishy is going on there.

Of course, Steve felt fishy about this new world around him. Everything seemed to be misplaced, and not everything he saw and learned in this new century just added up.

But Stane Industries- Stane Industries was a different case. Stane always had a too-tight grin plastered unnaturally on his face, and everything about him screamed 'fake'. Maybe he was just a liar, but Steve thought there was something bigger than that, he just felt it in his gut.

So yeah, Captain America didn't know who he could trust. He considered the team safe enough, even though they really were on edge. Something's keep feeling… wrong, missing. Like the team wasn't well built, and it really bothered him.

Maybe they should recruit that Daredevil guy.

And then there was Iron Man. A foe? A friend? He couldn't tell. He saved Hawkeye's life twice, yes, but he was blowing up things all the time, like a terrorist.

He should just wait, he decided, for tomorrow's briefing at The Avengers Tower.

Their home, apparently.

--

"Shit shit shitshit…"

Virginia couldn't find it.

Why oh why, is this file always right in front of her when she doesn't need it, but on the one time she does it's gone?!

Where are you where are you where are you?

Here it is! Thank god…

She opened the Iron Man file, which was one of the lightest, thinnest ones SHIELD has.

Not much was written there- only upgrades that were used in fights, things he said or his obvious fondness towards the Captain were there.

They never figured out if Iron Man himself upgraded the Armor, or if he had a mechanic to do it for him. The Iron Man weapon, it said, was changing each fight, each time seemingly more powerful or with more gadget. Frankly speaking, it seemed that whoever wrote it was very frustrated about having literally no material to work with- they just couldn't know where Iron Man was going with this.

Virginia sighed in frustration. Iron Man would be the death of her, right after Tony.

Tony…

Maybe Tony could understand the upgrades, or where was Iron Man getting all of his equipment!

Well, it's time to pay her ex a visit.

Oh, joy.

Chapter Text

"Tony, open up!"

….

"Tony, I WILL break this door if you won't let me in!"

…

"Okay, here goes nothing, then!"

She was already kicking at the door when it opened, so she kicked the man on the other side of it instead.

With high heels.

She kicked her ex in the stomach with high heels.

This day seems to get better, at least.

--

"It's so good to see you, Pep" Tony said after he got himself an ice pack, "but next time, please wait a couple of minutes before you start kicking things, okay?"

She nodded half-heartedly at him before getting the Iron Man file out of her purse.

"I brought you something," she said.

"And what would it be?" he asked her, and she wanted to scream at how tired and sad he looked like this- sitting in his chair like that, with an Ice pack on his stomach while waiting for her answer- "Pep?"

She shook her head mentally while frowning, and gave him the file. She hid almost every bit of information before she came over, and left only the important parts- the thing that an engineer like him would most likely find useful.

"It's Iron Man's file," he said with wide eyes, after a quick glance at the three pages the file contented. "Why give it to me?" he asked in a shaky voice, and Pepper couldn't exactly understand- was he excited as an engineer, to work on something like this, or was there another reason?

"I know you could pull off a major project without any trouble, so I thought to myself- why not let it be a national one? You can pull it off. You graduated early, and you are very famous around here, so it won’t be too farfetched if you figured out Iron Man tech- I bet the government would buy it. And I know for sure that you would want it- our best people couldn't figure it out, and you always say what losers are SI employees- this is your chance to prove me that you are better than them."

He only blinked at her in silence.

She sighed. "Take it as a challenge then. Won’t you like to be the one who caught Iron Man? Or the one that overcame that sort of technology?"

More silence.

"I know you would, so I brought you all that I can."

"Pep-"

 "At least try, Tony."

--

He was so fucked.

What was he supposed to tell Pepper now?

'Oh yeah, the Iron Man armor is so lame, any kindergarten could have cracked that thing. What kind of employees do you HAVE, Pep?'

Too flashy, even for him.

He could at least thank god for Pepper arriving while Harley was out of the house to go pick up Peter from his friend Ned. He couldn't even start to explain to Peter who was Iron Man, and he really didn't want to. What if Peter hated Iron Man, and one day would find the mask just lying around in the house?

And Harley would probably giggle at the ironic situation and blow what little cover he had left at this point, so he was glad that his children weren't home right now.

Speaking of which, Harley and Peter just entered the front door- both with stupid smiles on their faces.

"What's up kiddos? Did you and your friends created more… mee-mees?"

Peter giggled and Harley let out a breathy laugh- "It's MEMES, dad, and no- we were, uh, just hanging around…"

Tony narrowed his eyes, only now realizing that Peter was keeping one he hand to secure his bag.

"What are you hiding over there, mister?" Tony came with a lopsided grin towards his son.

"It's- it's nothing! Just- nothing!" little Pete looked kinda nervous now.

Tony almost felt guilty.

He continued to stare at his son's eyes with that little smile, and Peter gave up.

"Uncle Rhodey gave us candy!" he breathed out as if he was giving national secrets up.

Harley sighed in disappointment. "C'mon Pete! Now we have to share!"

Peter said a very small 'sorry' before giving his dad the bag.

Tony opened it, and indeed- the bag was stuffed with chocolate and lollipops. He mentally laughed- those were his favorite, and Rhodey knew that.

"You can have one each, for now. You can pick what you want, and that's it for today- I don't want you getting your tummies full before dinner, got it?" and Peter smiled so brightly at his, Tony could feel himself smile too.

"What do you say?"

Peter said a loud 'thank you!' before hugging him, and Harley said a tiny 'thank you' as well.

Just as he thought what good, mature kids he raised, both of them Naruto-Ran to their bedrooms.

Oh lord give him strength.

On the TV, he watched the Avengers arrive at the new, flashy, Avengers Tower.

With the Avengers relocating, he could have more time to cause trouble to SI without them on his tail, because they will be too busy adjusting to the new place.

But he really wanted to pay them a visit, too, and he couldn't do that if he attacked SI in the near future.

His thoughts wandered to their last fight. He was almost taken down, and he remembered the fear, no, the PANIC he felt when the reactor shut down.

And Captain America's big smile when he landed at his feet.

Of course, the Captain was the leader of the group that hunted him down, so it was obvious that he would smile at such moment- but it still stung a bit.

He hacked some SHIELD files the other day and was surprised to see that the weapon they used on his was a simple, paralyzing arrow.

That means Hawkeye was his main target now- not to kill, because he couldn't bring himself to kill any of them. But he'll have to keep an eye out for that Hawk. and maybe stop catching him every time he throws himself off a building. He saved them, whether they knew this or not, a couple of times.

He was so deep in thought, that he didn't see the news on TV changing.

The usual boring news about corrupt politicians and shit changed to- what IS that?

'KNEEL!'

A good time to put on the suit, isn't it?

Chapter Text

This was a horrible situation.

A horrible, disgusting, humiliating situation and Tony hated it.

Tony was hiding behind a box on the Helicarrier, trying to hide long enough so the people could go away.

He got to this situation because a certain god decided to go easy on The Avengers and just be put in a holding cell, like a fucking idiot.

Well, yeah, he could've easily flown back home, but where's the fun in that? Besides, Peter was sleeping at Ned's place and Harley was doing the same with his friends, so there wouldn't be anything else to do at home anyway.

Tony followed the jet that picked the Avengers up, the one that the Black Widow piloted, and managed to get on the Helicarrier with it.

Now he was searching for someone… not someone specific, just someone who was similar to him enough so he could steal their badge.

AH! There's one, but he's talking to another guy. That's just unfortunate for the other one really, to be dragged into this mess.

He waited until everyone else left the room, a place more like a little hall, and put the armor back into suitcase mode.

Now he just needed to steal the man's badge.

Tony scratched his nose, just so he could hide his face with his hand when he passed a security camera, and got close to the Badge Guy and his friend. Separating them from each other was now useless, so he decided to go big, and so he swung the heavy suitcase in his hand at their heads.

The Badge Guy's friend went unconscious immediately, but the target himself was just knocked away from the impact.

The guy searched for what Tony assumed was his gun, but the suitcase made sure he won't be searching for anything for at least half an hour.

Unfortunately, Tony couldn't find any ropes to tie those idiots up. Instead, out of lack of options, he stole their guns and tied their arms and legs with their clothes. A bit embarrassing for them, but at least they won't run around and tattletale about him.

He took both badges, just because.

So now, his name was Gary. And he worked as a data analyzer, on the main floor of the Helicarrier. That means no good because Tony needed a scientist to get access to the labs here, so the man he just stole from was pretty much useless.

He was here for the Tesseract, he needed it badly. It could power up all of his suits and more, it could destroy Stane Industries completely. He could be so powerful, unstoppable even.

Well. Time to get down to analyze some data it seems.

--

Pepper was sure that her ex was hiding something.

A new girlfriend, maybe?

She knew he might get all protective about this sort of thing, but why would he reject a job offer then?

This was getting complicated, because on the one hand- she didn't want to pry too much, she didn't want Tony thinking she was involving herself too much in his life, but on the other hand- she was scared for him, she really was. He wasn't doing well since they broke up, and she didn't know if he had found a solution or got himself into more trouble.

Somehow, she feared it was the latter.

She sat down, trying to figure out what was going on with him by focusing on all the data she has.

Firstly, he hated Stane's Industries, which all of Tony's friends knew as well. He didn't try to hide it, and they were okay with their weird friend.

Secondly, he was recently, as in the past few months, going away more and more. Rhodey even called her and told her that he thought Tony got involved with the mob, or in some fight club, because of some odd injuries he noticed Tony had.

Thirdly, he didn't want to take the case she gave him about Iron Man…

Iron Man.

Tony, and then Iron Man.

Oh my GOD----

--

Just before he managed to sneak into the working place, Tony ran into someone familiar.

Literally ran into them.

And of course, with his luck, this had to be the Avenger Bruce Banner- the Hulk.

"I'm so sorry Dr. Banner, are you okay?" he asked, trying to help the scientist he just knocked down up on his feet.

"Yeah, it's fine. But you need to be careful running around like that…" Banner searched for the nametag, and Tony held it up, "…Gary. Are you going through there?" he asked, pointing at the door that leads to where the original Gary worked at.

Face palming mentally at his bad luck, because he would have to actually go there now- Gary didn’t have any reason to go and see the Scepter, not all alone with a briefcase just like that.  Tony smiled his best fake smile, and nodded, "yeah, I am. It was so nice to meet you, Dr. Banner; I'm a huge fan of yours. your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster." Banner looked a bit overwhelmed.

"Well, I have to get back to work now. I will hopefully see you soon." please, god, don't let it be soon.

And with that, Tony and Banner went to their separate paths.

Tony, also Iron Man, was playing Galaga just in front of the Avengers, instead of analyzing data, as Gary should be. Poor Gary got into so much trouble over being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

He had it coming, Tony reasoned with himself.

The Avengers notice him, and he didn’t want them to. There were simply too many other agents in this room to fight against, so he had to be quick about his plan to get the Tesseract- quick and careful before anybody would notice.

The moment he saw the group of heroes leave elsewhere, he got up and left just behind them.

This was just too easy.

So he ducked his head each time they passed the visible cameras and hoped that SHIELD was stupid enough to not place any other ones, ones that he won’t be able to locate.

When they all started arguing inside one of the labs, he realized something crucial- the Tesseract was not here. There was a scepter- Loki's Scepter, just besides Banner. This was so bad.

The Scepter seamed to radiate this energy; it glowed with a power that Tony could feel all the way over here.

So, new plan- taking this Scepter instead of the Tesseract, which was evidently not here. Maybe it had enough power to power up his machines, and maybe just some of them0- but it certainly was something.

Maybe it's time to act like the guy who literally opened him doors- time to act like a Gary.

--

The Avengers were arguing, but it was basically Fury against all the four of them. Tony didn't know where Hawkeye was, but the Black Widow seemed sad- maybe he was injured? Captured? 

Why was he caring about a hero in the first place? He shouldn't. He's Tony Stark! Iron Man! He's their enemy!

Though that couldn't stop him from worrying.

One by one, all but Banner cleared the lab. Tony pulled out his phone while they passed by, ducking his head all the while Fury and the Widow passed by him- the only two able of seeing that he didn't actually work there.

Thankfully, the pissed off spied looked too damn stressful and angry to care about him for the moment.

The looks the Captain and Thor had on their faces were ones of anger- it looked as if one more person was in the room to argue earlier, something would've exploded between all of them.

Maybe he should be glad that they were the only ones inside the room earlier.

So Tony went into the room, acting as if he owned the place, as if he belongs here.

"Hey, Gary was it?" he heard from behind him, and he put on the fake smile again.

"Yeah, nice to see you again Dr. Banner."

"What are you doing inside this lab?" shit, he did not need to get caught right now.

"Well, Director Fury asked me to bring him the Scepter for inspection. The Gem inside was an energy source, a bit like the Tesseract." Not a lie, a totally valid point, "so he wants us to analyze the energy source in a compartment to the both of them."

A good excuse, and yet Banner lift one eyebrow.

"You're very smart, Gary. Why aren't you working for something more than analyzing data? You could go places." If you'd let me, I'll get fucking out of here right now.

"Thanks, Dr., but I'm new around here. I need to get used to the rules of the place, you know?" Banner smiled at that as if he was actually feeling nice talking with him.

Poor Dr. Banner. Probably no one ever had a simple conversation like that ever since the Hulk thing.

"Well, I gotta give this back to Fury. He seemed pretty furious back there, right?" he joked, and got the Scepter with a glove he found laying around the room.

"he sure was." And Banner told him his farewell, and Tony snuck away with the Scepter in hand.

He went down the hall, and once getting out of Banner's view, started to check out the path in front of him, Scepter behind his back and as hidden as possible.

Thank god he did that because on the last turn he had to make were the Black Widow and Captain America, talking strategy about what sounds to be against him, Iron Man.

As much as Tony wanted to stay and hear more of the gossip about how awesome and undefeatable he was, he couldn’t take the risk of getting caught with the Scepter in hand, and a Badge not his.

And that's without mentioning the Iron Man case in his other hand.

So he turned away from the two Avengers and got into another room.

This was a different one; he could already tell by the way that the door looked.

Inside, was a huge, glass cage. And, inside the cage, was one god named Loki.

Chapter Text

"And who might you be, running around with my weapon like that?" the villain asked, more like purred really, his eyes squinting and his grin growing darker by the second.

"None of your business, Reindeer Games, I'm not here for you." Tony looked around, finding that he could see from where he was standing way too many cameras for his liking.

"You don’t happen to know where the exit is, do you?" he asked theoretically, even though he guessed the god knew more then he let on.

"Oh, I just might- but you, you're not a real SHIELD agent, are you, human? Why would an ordinary, pathetic, human-like you would need MY Scepter?" Loki hissed at him, walking closer to the glass that separated them.

Tony checked the door behind him, which thankfully was still closed. He stepped aside, where he thought the cameras couldn't make his face and pointed the Scepter at the cage. "Stop calling it yours, I already called dibs. I'm just trying to get out of here, so you really shouldn't care too much about little ol' me. Do you actually know where there is another exit from this god awful place, or are you just annoying me on purpose?"

He didn't expect an answer, but received one anyway.

Loki pointed to a door in the far corner of the room, his face not giving up anything, not one emotion. But if Tony would've looked closer, his eyes gave the story up- he was curious about this human, so confident while in danger that Loki was sure was coming for him.

Tony circled the room, almost getting to the door, his head facing the floor the whole time, trying to avoid the cameras. Loki almost smiled at that- Stupid mortals with their stupid problems, such as none-magic magic devices. He sometimes wondered how they could live in a world so naked of any magical artifact, no places to learn true witchcraft. In some way, Loki almost felt sad for them.

Almost.

Just before Tony got to the door, Loki raised his voice, surprising the short man in front of him.

"You're an enemy to the Avengers, are you not?" he asked, voice and eyes sharp, digging into the man's back.

"Time will tell," came the vague reply, and the man was gone, the door shutting behind him and making an echo inside the room.

Loki smiled a real smile for the first time in hours in this place. This man could be an allay, he thought to himself, and his smile grew even wider when the alarm started blaring and shouts were heard from outside of his room.

--

The Chitaury invention went horrible, in everyone's opinion. The humans on Earth just discovered how much they were not prepared for any attacks from space, and the Avengers were considered heroes now more than ever. People started digging into their past, asking all sorts of questions- from will they continue to fight ordinary, human villains such as Iron Man, or will they be focusing on Aliens more, to what exactly was the relationship between Hawkeye and the Black Widow.

The real question, the one that bothered everyone- was what exactly the Avengers would do about Iron Man now.

You see, the world was shocked when a missile was released at the alien invasion, at New York. And the world simply didn't know how to take it, when a mysterious figure took the missile with both hands and sacrificed themselves for the greater good of saving New York.

The world held their breath when the figure, which turned to be Iron Man himself, came back from the wormhole in one piece, falling rapidly back to the ground.

And despite all of the surprises they had, Hulk catching the vigilante did not give the world a shock. Instead, it warmed most of the people on earth's hearts. A good in the Evil, they said about Iron Man now.

Some thought he saved his own skin, some said he was downright suicidal to go through a wormhole in space with no allays, no backup plans, and a missile.

Steve believed Iron Man was a good person at heart, and for the moment-, almost nothing could change that thought.

--

Of course, Steve just couldn't think something without anyone ruining the perfect image he had in his head.

Iron Man decided to ruin his good reputation by continuing his attacks on Stane Industries, causing a million dollars' worth of damage to the place and the products.

The Avengers were called, and as they never planned anything too special for their next encounter with Iron Man, they fell into the same positions they had on a regular team mission-

Hawkeye lurking somewhere high, Steve on the field, Natasha on the ground, waiting for the best moment to attack, Thor, unfortunately, back on Asgard (he hadn't come back since the whole Chitaury business, and Steve was starting to get worried.) And Bruce, sitting in the Jet, ready to jump in and fight at any giving moment.

When they found Iron Man, after about twenty minutes of searching, they discovered they were too late, again. It seemed that this place was completely ruined, probably some explosion chain caused by Iron Man's shooting at some missiles and bombs.

Steve had to stop the urge to stomp his foot on the ground in frustration.

Iron Man noticed them, of course, but instead of facing them in a proper fight, he flew back, to the other area of the facility, which remained unharmed until this point.

Until this point.

Hawkeye groaned into the comms in frustration, cursing to himself Iron Man and most of the world, as he had to change his shooting position, again.

Steve shot him a quick 'Language' before swinging his shield at Iron Man, the loud sound of metal on metal colliding as Iron Man was thrown back from the impact, just next to the Quinjet. The others ran toward them, and Iron Man threw the shield aside and got up, a new dent in his abdomen.

Next to the villain, inside the Quinjet, Steve could see Bruce getting up, his eyes already turning one shade greener.

Steve put a hand to his ear, wanting to warn Banner not to Hulk out near the Quinjet- but Iron Man beat him to it.

"You don't want to destroy your only ride home, right?" he asked skeptically, and Bruce looked sheepishly at Steve's direction while stepping closer to Iron Man, who backed away in return.

"Listen, Iron Man! You can surrender now and come with us willingly, or we will have to use more force than necessary!" this was a long shot, and it never worked on the man before, but Steve didn't want to hurt the guy more.

"As much as I would just LOVE to go home with you, Captain Spangles, and believe me when I say this sounds lovely, I think I'd rather prefer going with you alone than with all of your team… you know, just us, to a place more… private."

Steve fought the blush down. This had to stop, right now, and if they won’t get Iron Man in their grip he'll just fly away again, never to be seen until his next attack- and they really cannot have that.

The Black Widow whispered 'Banner!' in the comms, and the man turned greener slowly.

Unfortunately, Iron Man noticed it as well.

"Whoa, there, Banner, I'm really happy to see you again, I don’t think seeing the other half of you is quite necessary." He said, his hands held in front of him with caution as if he was trying to calm an animal down.

And of course, it seemed to work, the soothing robotic voice, the harmless position, everything- seemed to calm the Hulk just enough so Bruce would pass out, and Iron Man flew away from them, AGAIN.

--

Steve couldn't help but blush every time he thought about the rather sweet things Iron Man told him.

Really, the man looked to be more and more peaceful at heart each fight they had. He didn't attack anyone on the team, only striking when he had to. And for some reason, Steve could almost see himself fighting side by side with the man, sharing these stupid jokes he said and the probably meaningless flirts together.

He could almost see a future together, him and Iron Man- or more likely, him and the man behind Iron Man.

Of course, it would never happen. This isn’t a love story, he reminded himself, no. this is more of a… tragedy. He could never have the man he loved, yet looked after him while attacking him as much as he could.

And if one day he would get to know who Iron Man was, it was either after the Avengers would defeat the man, kill him and find out themselves who was the man they cursed all this time.

(A possibility that chilled Steve to the bone, he actually shuddered at the thought of a limp suit in his arms, completely lifeless and silent-), and the other possibility- the second and last one, the one which he preferred yet tried to avoid altogether. A possibility, where the Avengers did win over Iron Man, but instead of killing him on the spot will bring him to justice, jail maybe- or again, death or his actions.

Steve didn't want to think of Iron Man behind bars, he couldn't even picture it.

Steve shook his head as if it will help getting those awful thoughts out of his head for good. It didn't, of course, so he got up and went to the kitchen.

Maybe some hot chocolate would help his case of a broken heart.

--

Tony cursed to himself.

It was late at night, both kids already ate and went to sleep, Harley staying two hours later then Tony liked to help him with a suit.

When the kid almost drank the motor oil beside him, Tony put a stop to that nonsense and sent him to bed.

Now, he was treating the wound he got today in the fight while trying not to think of how his heart ached more than his bleeding abdomen.

It was just so hard to stay focused like that- Steve, Captain America, his stupid, silly crush- that could never love him, obviously, the blood-soaked rag in his hand spoke plenty. It was humiliating, even. Not only he was crushing on Captain America (and couldn’t shut his mouth about it near the guy), but he is, most likely, the one and only person on the planet that would never have any chance of getting his feeling returned. The Captain, plain and simple, could never love him back. He was the guy that gave him all the work, all the headaches. He probably wanted to strangle him by hand or shoot his chest a couple of times.

This train of thoughts was depressing and Tony didn't like that.

He missed tons of calls from Pepper and wondered if he should call her back- but decided against it since it was nearly three AM. She sent many text messages, too, all that read something about calling her back as fast as he could and that they had to talk, and as soon as possible.

He sent her an 'R U OK?' in return, hoping that this could be delayed until he could pull himself together just enough to look like a human being.

He went to the kitchen, and made himself some coffee, even though his fingers itched for something stronger.

Most of these days, he didn't get The Itch, but from time to time, when he was feeling really down in the dumps, he would've wished for a bottle of some good whiskey.

He reminded himself how proud was everyone he knew when he got through his ninth year without drinking alcohol.

It was hard, but he stopped for his kids. He was drunk almost every other week, and he couldn't take it anymore- because he saw how Harley was looking at him, sadness and fear for his father coming up every time he saw his father drink another bottle. The kid grew up mostly with Rhodey taking care of him, so now, when Tony was constantly sober, he treated both his kids as best as he could.

They deserved nothing less.

He thanked God he wasn't a mean drunk like his father was, and that he never got violent with his child. He couldn’t even think of what he would've done to himself if he would have laid a finger on Harley, he just couldn't.

So The Itch stopped, but Tony was still going to contact his sponsor in the morning.

He blinked and started the coffee machine.

Maybe some fresh coffee would help his case of a broken heart.

Chapter Text

Steve bumped into Iron Man by accident.

More like, saw him in the distance, just popping around every half an hour or so as Steve rode around on his motorcycle.

After about three hours, Steve stopped in his tracks and waited for Iron Man to show up.

Iron Man didn't fail him, and Steve was glad that he had his shield with him.

"What do you want now, Iron Man? There are no SI factories nearby! Why are you here?" he shouted up at the metal man in the sky.

He got the static response he was waiting for. "I was just looking for you, capsicle! And don't you tell me you didn't miss me as much as I did you!"

Steve just wished he could stop the blush from climbing to his cheeks.

"I knew it!" he heard Iron Man louder now. The man -the machine- was landing on the ground softly.

"I may not have the team with me right now, but believe me- targeting only one member wouldn’t get you anywhere." He spoke, now in his normal tone, hoping that he somehow managed to sound intimidating.

Iron Man stepped closer, the repulsors up but not lit up.

"I'm not here for the usual official business."

Iron Man wasn't here to fight or threaten him, Steve understood after a bit.

Steve could never be too sure, not with a person like Iron Man. "So what exactly are you here for?" he asked, now softer.

The suit of armor was getting closer. Iron Man was walking slowly towards him, intentions still unclear.

"I think you know why."

Steve raised his shield, and Iron Man stopped in his place. "I don't want to fight you," Steve told him, "but…"

"But what?"

"I'm not too sure what I do want from you, either."

Iron Man tilted his head to the side, as in signing him that the man under the suit is thinking.

"I suggest a dinner, then. No attacking, no missions." The static voice sounded almost hopeful, as in hesitating to ask- and Steve felt a pang of pity in his chest. Or maybe it was hope too, Steve couldn’t tell for sure.

"Your place or mine?" he asked with a smile, and he could swear that the suit looked relieved.

"I'll contact you. Is seven okay?" Steve nodded, and Iron Man nodded back.

"I'll see you then," Steve said and watched with a hopeful smile of his own as Iron Man flew away, disappearing into the clouds above.

--

Pepper was supposed to attend for a short while today, at the common room of one of the Avengers floors.

Steve already informed Natasha that he wouldn't be attending today's meeting, because he got plans for tonight.

Natasha only smiled at him and told him to use a condom.

--

Excitement and worry filled Tony's gut, and he didn’t know which he was supposed to rely on for tonight's date.

On the one hand, this was Captain America. The leader of a team designed to take people like him down.

On the other hand… this wasn't only Captain America.

But this was a man who blushed at the nicknames Iron Man gave him. This was Steve Rogers. And Steve Rogers was the one to smile at him so beautifully when he took off and flew away. And to go on a dinner with someone who cannot see your face, or know your name, would be one of the most challenging things for someone to do.

Tony didn’t realize how long he was staring at the wooden floor of his house, up until he noticed his son, Peter, staring at him with a wide grin and wide eyes, unmoving.

"Het Pete," he said, shaking himself out of his worries for now, "whatcha' doin'?"

"You looked happy!" Peter called out, making Harley come out of his room, "you are very happy!"

How can Tony not smile at that? Peter was radiating innocence like the sun radiated heat.

"That's because I am happy, Pete. But what about you? Are you happy?" he asked, but Peter frowned at him in return.

"Not happy like that, daddy!" he squeaked. "You were happy-happy! Like when you were with Pepper!"

Tony had to fake his smile at that.

"You're very observant, buddy. But I don’t know about you, I am very hungry right now. C'mon, let's go make some sandwiches. Harley, wanna join us?"

Switching topic lines is something Tony's very good at, but this was his eight years old son. He didn’t need to try any harder than that.

Harley nodded, and thus the family of three started making lunch together.

Chapter Text

Pepper could feel her heart pumping in her chest while taking the elevator.

She was nervous, but you couldn’t tell that on her right now. She needed to look as calm as possible.

For Tony.

The Avengers called her in, something about the Iron Man case. This could go pear-shaped rather quickly, and she most certainly couldn't let it be that way.

The elevator to the Avengers common room dinged as she arrived, and Pepper blew out a breath she didn't know how much time she held in.

She stepped out, her designer bag in her hand, and arriving exactly on time, as usual.

The common room in there floor contained a television, a big' round table made of fine wood, and eight chairs. They had a kitchen and three restrooms. The other Avengers floor was the one above the common one and had their rooms and five more restrooms.

The Avengers did not look good.

She learned after a while of checking in on them with Phil Coulson, their actual manager assigned by SHIELD, that they were not as perfect as some pictured. They were a wreck, a bomb ready to go off and blow in the world's face. It was a wonder they could keep it all to themselves because their issues were a very serious, potentially dangerous case. Cases. Too many issues tied to each one of them to be considered one case.

She could already feel another headache forming in her head.

"Avengers." She greeted. Even though they were some sort of friends by now, as they all went by their first names with her and she was seeing them much more often now that they lived in the tower, she still kept on professional manner while around them. She couldn't afford her sanity by being friends with both heroes and villains; one was more than enough already.

She noticed Thor, the one farthest away from her nodding off.

Hawkeye, Clint as he insisted she called him, nodded his head towards her. "Thank you for coming, Pepper. We needed your insight on a form from Stane Industries, the one about potential enemies of the company?"

Pepper, of course, knew what he was speaking of. The form, one she emailed them herself, listed many names- and she tried to look into the form, she really did, but she knew he couldn't temper with the names. She wanted desperately to take Tony's name off the very long list of people thee, but she knew SHIELD would track any changes back to her. She couldn't risk herself that way, because she wouldn't be able to help Tony at all if she was in SHIELD's custody.

She did look into Tony's file at SI. It was mostly classified, but she couldn't understand why was it classified to her- she was one of the highest ranks, possibly the higher, short for Stane himself. Why couldn’t she see the file about a random citizen?

The only data she could gather about Tony's actual connection to the company was that his father, Howard (which Tony never spoke of), was one of the men to build the company. Tony then worked there for a couple of years, before being fired without any warning or reason, as much as she could see.

But why would Tony be so mad about SI, mad enough to blow up their factories, if all this was only about being fired? As much as she knew, Tony didn’t have any anger issues…

Though he WAS Iron Man, after all. That she couldn't deny to herself anymore.

"I know about the file you are referring to. What did you want me to see?" she asked and was handed the copy by Natasha, sitting to her left around a big, round table.

Pepper took one look at the file and pulled the chair next to Natasha, sitting down herself. She dropped her bag on the table and took a closer look at the paper in her hands.

"This is not the same file," Pepper noted, and Natasha nodded.

"It's not. We checked the background of all the potential enemies of SI, and we wanted you to take a look at all the names on who was left. This, the list you're holding." She said, pointing at the paper in Pepper's hands, "is our final list of potential people to want revenge and are capable of going against SI."

Clint nodded and picked up the sentence. "We are asking you to give us, as in SHIELD, a report about each individual. The list only contains about a dozen people; we need SI to give us its information about each one."

"Alright. I will look at it, of course, and will come back to you about what SI has on them. I will have to talk to Mr. Stane about it, of course, but I don't believe it will be a problem. This is likely to take a couple of days, so I will contact you." Pepper replied, taking a final look at the list before picking her bag from the table, and standing up. "Will that be all?" she asked, in the same manner she would ask Stane himself.

"That will be all, Miss Potts," Natasha said and she turned to leave the room, not before noting the calculating looks on both Clint and Natasha's faces.

She left without another word.

--

"She was freaking out" Clint threw the sentence in the air immediately after Pepper left.

"She did look a bit stressed. Maybe more than usual." Natasha replied, shrugging.

Bruce furrowed his eyebrows. "She has a stressful job; of course she would be freaking out all the time. Who wouldn't?"

Thor snored loudly.

"Do we have anything else on our to-do lists today?" Clint asked sarcastically, and Natasha rolled her eyes.

She sighed. "As a matter of fact, we do," she answered. "We need to go through our last two fights with Iron Man"

Clint groaned loudly, loud enough to cause Thor to jump, now wide awake.

"We're just going to see if we can get anything from the last two fights, and then you can go."

The television now showed them their first fight out of two they needed to go through, from a higher perspective- one filmed from a helicopter. SHIELD took the video, so they could hear the conversations and orders through the comms just as they happened on the battlefield, including Iron Man's chatter.

Right at the end of the video, Clint tensed.

"Can you move it back?" Clint almost whispered, and Natasha nodded before moving the feed to show Bruce, about to Hulk out next to the Quinjet. Iron Man was next to him, trying and succeeding in calming him down.

The common room filled with Iron Man's heavily filtered voice.

'Whoa, there, Banner, as much as I'm happy to see you again, I don’t think seeing the other half of you is quite necessary.'

"Pause it!" Clint shouted, and Natasha did as he said.

Clint's eyes turned to look at Banner. "What did he mean, 'happy to see you again'?"