Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It’s insane. Absolutely ridiculous, laughable, asinine, any adjective you could come up with in the book, that this is what it takes for Tony to open the phone and hit that button.

After almost a year, Tony finally calls him.

But it’s just because if he doesn’t, he really thinks he might kill a man in cold blood.

“Tony?” comes the confused, hesitant but still infuriatingly polite voice of Steve Rogers on the other end, and for a second, one split second, Tony considers hanging up.

“Tony, don't hang up. You called me, talk to me. What’s going on?” Steve presses, annoyingly gentle and all knowing like he always is, and it’s so normal that Tony just spits it out.

“I need you to either talk me down from committing murder or help me.”

Steve sends that phone for the express reason if an emergency comes up. Something like New York or Sokovia.

That’s all. At least that’s what he tells everyone.

Sam, Wanda, T’Challa, Pietro, Clint, Natasha…

Bucky clocks him for the real reason.

“Steve… You want him to call regardless,” he tells him on the jet ride toward Wakanda. “Don’t lie to yourself.”

Of course Steve wants him to call regardless. The crushing guilt he feels over the whole damned situation is like a permanent mountain on his chest. Even if he stands by his decision for the accords, he shouldn’t have ever lied to Tony.

“I don’t regret saving you,” Steve tells him firmly, gripping his forearm. “So don’t start down that road.”

“I know that.” Bucky’s lips turn upward for a moment in a sad sort of way. “But he matters to you. More than Howard did.”

“Tony’s nothing like Howard was,” Steve says defensively. “What we went through, all of us, the last few years… Yeah he can be a nosey, self centered bastard but-“

“He’s your brother.”

Yeah, Steve thinks to himself. Yeah he is.

With all the team has gone through, Loki and the Tesseract, fighting those guys who could shoot fire from their mouths, taking down SHIELD and going after the scepter and everything after- somewhere down that line they became a family. The only family Steve had when he woke up.

And the one he just lost.

Steve shakes his head. “I never meant to hurt him. It felt like…”

“Choosing between us,” Bucky finishes grimly.

“Yeah…”

Steve leans his head back against the wall of the jet and refuses to cry.

There’s a narrative spun, about Pilate and the trial of Jesus, one thats horribly anti-Semitic and blatantly wrong, but Steve can’t stop thinking about it.

When the citizens of Jerusalem and the Pharisees demand Jesus’ death, Pilate leaves it up to their vote. He rinses his hands in the basin, removing himself from the conflict and washing his hands of responsibility for whatever befalls them all.

After, when they’re all out of the raft, and hellfire doesn’t follow them, Clint, Natasha and Steve never utter a word about what that means.

Tony ignored Ross’s distress call.

No Avengers are ever deployed after them.

Steve thinks about the story of Pilate for months.

He watches the news, checks the internet when he can, catching up on what’s left of the ‘team’ back home.

He follows the Spider-guy’s actions with what would be dubbed the Vulture, and he worries over what will come between this new vigilante and the wall Tony builds up around himself.

He is… Unbelievably strong. Stronger than everyone on the team including Steve, besides the Hulk or Thor. He doesn’t use it much- usually only in dire situations like potential car wrecks- which means this kid has to have incredible focus to be able to continuously pull his punches.

Because Spider-Man doesn’t kill. That is his M.O., no matter who he was taking down, Spider-Man doesn’t kill.

Steve is stuck between incredible admiration for the young guy, and crushing dread over the naivety of the sentiment. He knows that, just as it was for the rest of them, eventually it’s not possible to do this job without blood on your hands.

“He’s good,” says Natasha when she catches him looking at highlight videos. “Way too green behind the ears, but…”

Sam pipes up from the couch next to Pietro. “He caught Bucky’s arm. Like full stop. Acted as if it was an everyday conversation, and not what is supposed to be the 20th century's leading assassin.”

“His senses are enhanced, not just his strength.” Steve eyes the slight smirk on Pietro’s face slightly warily. Pietro is a little more of a loose canon than the rest of them, sometimes worse than Tony. “I don’t know how, but I never managed to keep the drop on him.”

Natasha looks at Steve.

“The potential new player Tony mentioned… He used him.”

Steve hangs his head. “I don’t know why I didn’t expect him to.”

“Because you’re supposed to be friends, and you expected better of him than coming after you like that-“ Sam tries, and Steve usually lets it go, but he can’t this time.

“It was better he came than anyone else,” Steve tells him firmly. “It’s not his fault we had to fight back. He was just doing his job. As were the rest of them.”

“We both were,” Natasha crosses her arms over her chest. “In case anyone forgot that I started out on the other side.”

Her and Sam share a heavy look.

“Well Scott and Clint got house arrest, what about the rest of us?” Wanda asks, speaking for the first time since they got to their safe house in northern Canada. Her and Pietro lock eyes, a silent conversation flowing between them. Steve still doesn’t know how they do that.

“Now,” Natasha says softly, drawing their attention back to her. “We wait.”

And they do. For months. Natasha teaches Wanda all the languages she can, in between her visits with Vision. Sam and Steve attempt to become better cooks, but they fail spectacularly. Pietro reads and reads. He struggles the most with being cooped up, his powers weren’t made for lulls or stagnation. Being on the run isn’t in any of their natures, but especially not Pietro’s. Steve lets him go off on his own every once in a while, provided he stays in contact and stays low.

He uses the untraceable phone T’Challa gave him to check in with Bucky once Shuri takes him out of cryo, asking about progress. They talk about the old days, before the war. They talk a lot about the war too, and how they’ve changed since then. Steve didn’t have any family left when he entered the army, but Bucky’s folks- his parents and his sister, they’d been alive when Steve and Bucky had apparently died. He won’t say it out loud yet, but Steve knows Bucky’s holding onto hope he can find something, anything that might connect him to the person he used to be.

Steve tells him about the Avengers, about New York and everything since then. Every battle, every injury. Every stupid fight he and Tony stumbled into. He tells him about the good times too, from that first ridiculous dinner at that random restaurant in Manhattan after the Battle of New York, to the night Clint drunk serenaded an even drunker Thor. Tony, uncharacteristically sober that night, would bring up the video any time Clint tried to sneak into his lab.

Bucky forces him to talk about Sharon, and Steve’s inability to hold on to love at any turn. They lost her somewhere in Eastern Europe, she’s long off their radar now. He hopes wherever she ends up, that she’s at least alive. He wishes he’d never involved her in any of this, or that he hadn’t needed to. He hates that everyone’s lives got turned upside down over this, no matter how much he still stands by his decision.

He never wanted any of it to be this way.

It's Natasha who he lays all his regrets about the team out for. She’s the only one who he thinks will understand. She still blames herself for Banner's disappearance, for what she had to do to get him into the fight.

“Maybe if the two of you ever had a real conversation you wouldn’t have ended up here,” is the scolding he gets from her in response.

And as usual, she’s right.

Eventually, a year passes and in the summer they find themselves hiding out in Norway. Steve still carries the phone with him everywhere, always on him, but it never rings. They move through safe houses across northern and western Europe, staying for only weeks at a time.

The team gets antsy. Although, Steve isn’t sure he can call it a team, not anymore. Now, they’re just a bunch of overpowered folk on the run.

The phone doesn’t ring.

Until-

“Are you going to answer it?” Natasha says with a raised eyebrow, as it rings a third time.

Without another thought, without letting it ring another time, he flips it open.

“Tony?”

There’s a pause. A half a second pause where Steve knows exactly where his head is going.

“Tony, don't hang up. You called me, talk to me. What’s going on?” Steve presses, but softly.

“I need you to either talk me down from committing murder or help me.”

Well that wasn’t what he was expecting.

From beside him, he knows Natasha heard what he said. Her eyebrow is raised in genuine concern.

“Give me a sec, Tony.”

He gets up and goes to the other room, locks the door and then puts the phone back up to his ear.

“What happened?”

Tony takes a deep, shuddering breath that sounds just a little like a growl.

“One of my fucking employees has been making advances against my 16 year old intern, and he put his hands on her and I’m about ready to march down to his floor and incinerate him with one of my gauntlets.”

Steve blinks. On the list of things he expected Tony to call him about, this definitely didn’t make the list.

“How did you find this out?”

“One of the other interns came forward about it, said they’d been trying to get her to say something for days,” he bites out. “She didn’t tell me herself.”

Steve tries to connect the dots as fast as possible, trying with all his might to keep up with Tony’s rocket speed train of thought. He packs away his questions to focus on keeping Tony out of jail for the time being.

“If you go down there and kill that guy then you end up in jail instead of him. And then your intern is without you, the most powerful man in New York, to protect her.”

Tony curses and then there’s another shuddering breath, but this one sounds more like relief.

Steve quirks his lips up.

He gets it now, why Tony called him.

“God she’s 16, Cap…” Steve sits down on the bed and leans his arm onto his knee and listens. “And it’s been going on for weeks and she’s in my lab every other day and she never even mentioned it…”

“You think she doesn’t trust you,” Steve translates. At least after all this time, he can still speak the Stark language.

“What else could it be?” he says, pained. “I thought we got past the not trusting me part months ago.”

“She’s a kid, Tony. I don’t think this is about trust.”

“I just… I promised her aunt I would protect her, and I failed. One of my own employees, someone I hired.” He’s beating himself up.

“Have you fired him yet?” Steve asks.

“Pepper said she’s doing it in the morning. It’s best I don’t see his face right now,” he says tightly. “Too many suits in this damn tower.”

Right, the tower. After the mess with the arms dealer known as the Vulture, Tony announced he wouldn’t be selling and moving SI’s main base of operations. On the news, he said he refused to let violent arms dealers try and threaten him out of the city.

Steve thinks Tony’s sentimental.

“How did you end up with a 16 year old intern? I thought you hated teenagers?” Steve questions.

It must’ve been the wrong thing to ask, because whatever spell had been over the conversation up until that point breaks.

“Yeah well, it’s been a long time that you’ve been a war criminal, Cap.” Tony’s tone is icy now, and Steve winces in regret.

“Look, I-“

Tony doesn’t seem keen on letting him speak. “I don’t want to hash over old wounds, Rogers, it’s just gonna end up hurting us both in the end.”

The silence rings through the phone for a moment.

Steve closes his eyes and takes a breath. “It felt like choosing between you two.”

“Yeah well if you’d been honest with me from the beginning about Barnes and my parents from the start you wouldn’t have had to,” Tony snaps.

“I shouldn’t have lied to you, I know…”

“Then why did you?” he demands angrily, then he abruptly sighs. “Forget what I said. Look if we don’t… If we don’t get this conversation out of the way we never will.”

Steve falls back against the bed.

Apparently this is it.

“Because when I died, Howard was still alive. And we were friends, all of us. Buck, Peg, me and Howard,” Steve tried to explain it as best he could, waiting for the moment Tony will hang up on him. “He was such an asshole, Tony, not that I need to tell you that- but- “ Steve sighs. “It was the middle of the worst war in history and they were the closest thing I had to a family. And when I woke back up he was dead, and he’d spent his entire life trying to find me. The tesseract being found, SHIELD and all its glory creating the weaponry and attracting Loki and New York, then Sokovia because of it-“ He took a breath. “It was all my fault. I was a kid and I just… Had to be a hero and I woke up 70 years later and… All of it is my fault.”

Tony doesn’t say anything, but the line hasn’t gone dead so Steve plows on.

“They were my family, and it was like I just… Went to sleep for a few days and they were all… Gone.” He picks at the tattered quilt, and remembers the lonely first few months after waking up. “And I suddenly had no family, everyone I knew was… Dead or different. And the Avengers, you guys… You became my family, the only people I had. And I hated the fact that it was better than the one I had before, the only thing missing was Bucky. And then he was alive and he’d been brainwashed and his memory wiped but he’d killed Howard, our friend and your father- and- I-“

Steve stops, runs his hands through his hair and wipes his eyes and sits up. Rambling isn’t in Steve Roger’s nature but he can’t seem to shut up now.

“I’m not… I was trained to fight, Tony. I wasn’t trained for whatever this is.” Steve let his hand fall against his thigh. “I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have lied to you. I was just… Scared of exactly what ended up happening. Losing everyone.”

There’s silence for a moment before Steve hears him pour a drink, knock it back and then the glass hits whatever table is in front of him. Likely the lab.

“You knew I’d overreact.”

“Tony-“

“No, you’re right. Even if you didn’t say it. You knew I’d overreact to it at first- and I did. I shouldn't have come at you and Barnes in that bunker.. I just.. Lost it. It’s not his fault I know that… It’s just… They were my parents. And as fucked up as my father was, as much as he never should’ve been a parent to begin with-“

“He’s still your father.”

“Yeah. But I still shouldn’t have turned my blasters on you. That was…” Tony breaks off and swallows. “We’re not invincible.”

There it is again. The sobering realization Steve is constantly having about the fact that because he lied to Tony, they almost killed each other. All the stupid jokes Natasha and Thor would make about how the only ones who would ever be able to kill Tony Stark or Steve Rogers would be each other churn in his stomach. He can’t find it in himself to find them funny anymore.

He was my friend.

So was I.

Staying together is more important than how we stay together.

More than ever, Steve wishes he had listened to Natasha.

“Are you going to tell me how you ended up with a 16 year old intern, Tony? I thought your interns needed to be at least in college.” Steve asks again, giving him an out for the conversation. “What’s her name?”

Tony takes a relieved breath.

“Penny. It was just before… Well everything. Smart kid. Too smart. God, Steve she’s damn near as advanced as I was at her age- and I skipped high school to go to college.” Steve can hear the shaking of his head. He can picture him now, leaned over his lab table, coffee off to the side, with his head in his hands. “But she’s… Just trying to be a regular kid.”

There’s a special sort of pride in his voice, talking about this girl. Something Steve hasn’t ever heard from the billionaire before.

“How’d you find her?”

There’s only a brief hesitance before- “Repeat this, and I’ll fly to whatever hole you’re in and beat the crap out of you but, she’s the one that made Spider-Man’s webbing.”

Steve chuckles and grins. “Should’ve expected that, actually. She’s that smart?”

There’s a story there, one Steve knows he’ll get eventually, about how she’s connected to Spider-Man, but he doesn’t really think he’s in the position to be asking Tony questions. Or, if he even has the right anymore, but it does answer a little more about Tony’s attachment to her.

Steve remembers seeing the video of the disaster that Justin Hammer created at the Stark Expo a few months before he woke up, with the bots that terrorized the crowd. There was a kid in an Iron Man mask who stupidly, and bravely, stood up in front of one and Tony shot him down, but let the kid pretend it was them. Steve still thinks it’s the only video that was leaked to the world that shows who Tony really is, deep down.

Tony chuckles. “More. God, she’s never been tested and I won’t broach the subject with her aunt out of fear of my insides being permanently damaged, but I’d bet my entire company on her knocking everyone out of the park on an IQ test. Even me. Which,” he says sharply, “is why I’m so frustrated she didn’t tell me about this.”

“I don’t think it’s because she doesn’t trust you, but considering recent events, you’re not gonna know unless you talk to her about it,” Steve tells him. “Don’t make the same mistake I did.”

“God I hate it when you’re right.” It’s a lie, one they both know, because Tony didn’t call Steve because he wanted him to be wrong.

“I made it too, if I’m being honest, and repeat this outside the team and I’ll go back to pretending you don’t exist or you’re dead-“ Steve can’t help but laugh a little at that, “but I didn’t exactly trust you either. Should’ve… Came forward earlier about redoing the accords.”

His eyebrows shot up to his head. “Wait- You’re rewriting the accords? How’d you get them to agree to that?”

“We’ll I haven’t yet, not completely, but I’ve convinced quite a few of them to consider hearing an argument for rewrites. I told them if they didn’t Rhodey, Vis and I would resign,” he says frankly. “The three of us alone, we’re not enough. And Spider-Man isn’t ready, not yet. The team only works with all of us, Cap. We lost Banner, and Thor went MIA looking for answers and I abandoned the team. It hasn’t worked in a while.”

Steve feels blindsided. It isn’t all what he was expecting to hear when he picked up the phone.

“What does that mean, Tony?”

He takes a great big breath, and Steve gets the feeling he’s been ruminating on all of this for a while. What happened after Sokovia, the year in between and the pain they all felt. He wonders how long Tony’s been thinking about this, the Accords and the fight that broke out. He knows they wouldn’t be having this conversation if Tony hadn’t been over analyzing the last few months.

“It means I have a lot of promises right now that I don’t know if I can keep, so do me a favor and keep it from the others for now. If I can’t get Ross to back down on his more unsavory requests, I don’t want them to get their hopes up, especially Wanda. She and Vis are trying… Whatever they can to make whatever weird Android and Sabrina the Teenage Witch relationship they have work and it wouldn’t be fair to them if I can’t deliver.”

Steve thinks through what that meant, all of it, and the possibilities that suddenly opened up. They might be able to go home.

“Does Vision not know then?”

“No, and neither does Rhodey. As of right now only you and I know.”

That stumps him. “Why’d you tell me then?”

Tony pauses for a long moment.

“Because we were supposed to be leading this team together,” he says firmly, and a little regretfully, “not that either of us was ever any good at that. But you need to look out for them long enough so that I can give them their lives back. I’ve got Rhodey, Vis, Barton and Lang. You take care of Nat, Wilson and the kids.”

Steve takes a deep breath. He knows what he means. They need to stay out of trouble until Tony can get it done. None of it will matter if they complicated things even further.

“What about Spider-Man?” Steve asks worriedly. “He doesn’t have to sign because he’s not an Avenger, right?”

“I wish it was that simple. I fucked up, brought him in to fight you guys. That put him on the international stage, and opened him up to a lot of scrutiny he didn’t deserve yet.” There’s that patented Tony Stark guilt again.

“Yeah, but… Tony you can’t blame yourself for that,” Steve shakes his head. “I’ve been following you and the kid as much as I can, that business with the arms dealer? That kid isn’t going to stay out of big threats. I saw the video from the beach, trying to save the man who just tried to kill him. Look, I know I don’t know him, not really, but… If I’m right about him, he’s the type to step up no matter what.”

Tony’s voice turns thoughtful. “Talking from experience?”

Steve chuckles. “When I took the serum it was just to become a better soldier. Never a superhero. I ended up one anyway, because I couldn’t stay out of fights I believed in.”

Tony curses a little under his breath and then there’s a weary laugh. “You know, Cap, the first time I met him he told me ‘When you can do the things that I can and you don’t, the bad things happen because of you.’”

Steve blinks, a little stunned. “Sounds like a wise kid.”

“He’s too much like you. I traded one self sacrificing idiot for another.”

Steve can’t help the smile that tugged on his lips. Tony’s pretending to be bitter and annoyed, but it’s the same voice he used to use when Clint would steal his coffee or Natasha would sneak up on him. It reminds Steve of the early days, when someone from the team needed help, and they’d sound the alarm. All the late night paperwork nightmares SHIELD made them go through after Killian kidnapped the President and Pepper, not to mention the actual nightmare that turned into the four of them -and Sam- taking SHIELD down entirely, it was how they really became a team.

They trusted each other. Somewhere along the way they lost that.

Steve is prepared to do anything to get that back, because he meant what he said. This is his family.

And he broke it, he and Tony. They brought them together, and they tore them apart. They can, and they will put it back together.

Steve doesn’t think he can live with anything less.

He bites the bullet and calls Tony himself a few days later while Sam and Natasha go out for supplies. Wanda is off for a few weeks with Vision, and Pietro is the only one in their safe house in Norway.

“Steve.”

“How's the kid?” he asks him, because it’s the majority of the reason for his call. Steve knows, more than he wishes he did, what it’s like to live in the aftermath of something like that. “Your intern.”

“She’s alright, she’s staying at the tower for the week while her aunt works third shift, and Pepper’s in her room right now with her, she understands this a lot better than I do. She’s the wisdom, I’m the teddy bear.”

Steve blinks, because he’s pretty sure he just heard Tony say she has a room with them, and that seems… extreme for a simple intern.

Suddenly, Steve realizes there’s a lot he’s missing here.

“Does she want to press charges?” he asks, because that’s the most pressing issue on his mind.

He hears the tell tale noise of Tony’s robots in the background, and the turning of a wrench.

“No, and I don’t blame her. He only ever physically touched her once and it was her arm. It’s creepy, and even though he definitely intended to go farther, the NYC court system is a joke. For the most part he just… Made a lot of really vile comments that became clear threats, and that makes things more complicated in front of a judge,” he says bitterly, smacking something with some metal tool so hard that with Steve’s heightened hearing, it makes him flinch. “Not even my lawyers can prevent a court trial like this from dragging on, no matter how positive I am that they could win it, and I don’t want to put her through that, especially if she doesn’t want to, and neither does Pepper, even though she’s going complete mama bear on the entire tower.”

There’s no way Tony is letting this guy get off easy though, not with that edge in his voice.

“What are you going to do?” Steve hedges, after Tony turns off the power saw.

“He’s currently taking a ‘vacation’ to Northern Europe, and as tempted as I am to follow and let him lead an untimely demise overseas, when he gets back his life will be over,” Tony says in a grimly proud voice, and Steve hears him plop himself down into a chair, whatever work he was throwing himself into as a distraction apparently abandoned. “My lovely fiancé is having the time of her life right now.”

Steve reads between the lines. He doesn’t have a knack for politics, nor does he really understand the ways in which people like Tony could ruin lives with a phone call, but he knows from experience what he and Pepper do to those who oftentimes get around the law:

Rapid fire social annihilation.

It’s brutal, unforgiving and Steve has still never seen something so absolutely astonishing as watching them take people down without ever throwing a punch, sometimes without lifting a finger. The two of them know exactly where to hit to make these rich people bleed.

“I take it she’s fond of her, too?”

Tony chuckles wearily. “Cap, the kid could get Satan wrapped around her finger, and not even know it. Not even Pepper stood a chance.”

Steve smiles to himself, the image of Tony and Pepper, the very definition of a twenty-first century power couple, one he’s always known to be on the run and the busiest people alive, falling for a teenager accidentally.

“It’s ridiculous, actually, because it feels like my brain chemistry has been altered somehow. I know now what Wanda meant when she kept shouting ‘yeet’ or whatever over and over again when that mechanical bull ran through DC. I can’t explain it with words but unfortunately it now makes sense to me.” Tony scoffs even as he speaks, and the sigh he lets out is weary and exhausted, like he’s almost at the end of his rope. “She said that and threw a wrench across the lab, a wrench. Then, twenty minutes later she dropped a beaker and got glass in her foot and I had to pick it out with tweezers. She’s brilliant, I swear to you, but it’s like there’s a short circuit in her brain sometimes that tells her when something is dangerously stupid.”

He sounds… Like a father, Steve realizes in sudden clarity, and it’s like the completed picture slaps him in the face. Tony’s all consuming anger, guilt and anxiety when he first called, the fact that she has a room with him and Pepper, it makes sense now. Steve had thought maybe it’s just that Tony sees himself in her, and he still thinks that, but it’s more than that now.

Penny Parker has carved her own special place in Tony’s heart.

“She’s your kid,” Steve practically gasps out.

“She’s not- What in the world does Natasha have you smoking in whatever hell hole you're in? I thought Captain America was anti-drugs. I never said she’s my daughter!” Tony exclaims incredulously from the other end of the phone.

Steve scoffs. “Please, when has that ever mattered in our world, Tony?” he asks, thinking about how Clint begged him and Natasha to keep the twins safe when they finally had to separate all those months ago, and the way Laura always demands they call her twice a month. “I know we’ve never seen eye to eye, and honestly I don’t expect that to change, but I think by now I know you better than that.”

Tony sighs again, loud, exasperated and incredibly irritated. “You and Rhodey both, I swear-” Steve valiantly hides his laughter, because he definitely knows he didn’t read this wrong now, not if Rhodey has been the same things he is, “she’s my intern.”

“An intern who has a room in your penthouse, and who you were just about to murder for, Tony. I wish you could hear yourself talk about her, you sound like Clint.”

Steve wishes he could see the open mouth gape that he knows Tony’s sporting, because comparing him to Clint is a low blow.

“Jesus fuck,” Tony groans. “Damnit…”

Steve grins wider.

“God, I’ve become Clint,” he bemoans, but doesn’t sound all that upset about it.

“He’s been begging us for years to accidentally knock someone up so he could be Uncle Clint, and I gotta say, Tony, this is a really great Christmas present for him-“

Tony cuts off his quip. “Why do you love torturing me like this, Cap? And since when are you the one with the smart mouth, Jesus, it’s like the world is upside down.”

“Because this is a good tune on you, Tony,” Steve replies, but ignores the ‘world upside down’ comment, “ and Nat and I have been worried about you.”

“Ugh, lie to me next time.”

Steve cracks another smile, because this is the Tony he missed the most, the one who volleyed with him back and forth with biting words that had no heat behind them.

But then, Steve gets an idea.

Because, as it turns out, he and Natasha are a little bored lately.

“Where exactly in Europe is this guy’s ‘vacation’?” Steve asks him far too casually.

Through the phone, Steve can hear FRIDAY’s answer.

“Travel plans say his final destination is Denmark, sir.”

Steve waits for Tony to say something, but when he doesn’t, he sits up.

“I won’t do anything you don’t want, Tony,” Steve says slowly. “But we’re not that far, and Natasha will be back tomorrow.”

There’s a long pause on the other end of the line.

“Nothing that can be seen outside of clothing, and don’t let her kill him. I can’t ask my lawyers to get her out of jail for that again, they were up for seventy two hours the last time.”

He pulls Natasha aside the next day when she and Sam return.

“Got a job for the two of us.”

She follows him to the bedroom she and Wanda are sharing, arms crossed in suspicion, but by the time he finishes saying the words “Tony”, “16 year old intern” and “pedophile”, she’s already reaching for her holster.

Pietro doesn’t ask questions when he and Natasha gear up and leave early in the morning while he’s awake, but Steve suspects it’s because he already knows at least part of what they’re doing. He’s given up trying to keep too many things from the boy, he moves too fast for Steve anyhow.

Natasha finds Skip Wescott in a brothel of all places. One whose employees appear to be only barely of legal age, and it solidifies for Steve that what they are about to do is in everyone’s best interest. Steve read his file: as a scientist, he’s incredible and is why he worked for Stark Industries, but one jump down the rabbit hole that is his private internet search history reveals a whole different side. His success in his career has made him cocky, and entitled in the most vile way possible.

This man intends to do whatever he can, to get what he wants.

Steve grips the baton in his hands a little tighter.

Natasha catches him when he stumbles toward his rental car, grossly over excited and way too comfortable after coming out of the kind of building he just did.

They don’t drag him far; whenever he wakes up they want him to at least be able to make it back to his car, so they only go a few abandoned buildings over.

Natasha straps him to a chair hard enough that his circulation suffers.

“W-What- Captain Rogers-!”

“We heard we have a mutual friend in common,” Steve says dangerously.

The man gulps, sweat beading down his face already. “Uh… Mr. Stark-“

“No, no, we were talking about Penny Parker,” Natasha tuts sweetly, and he flinches when she drags her finger across the back of his head.

“I-I- I didn’t know she was-“

“I wouldn’t go lyin‘ to us now.” Steve holds up his phone, and Wescott’s face turns green. “We saw everything.”

“9867,” Natasha recites. “Your birthday, backwards. Horribly predictable password, and really disappointing for someone who worked for Stark Industries for five years.”

“Tony’s going to be even more pissed with you when he finds that out,” Steve offers conversationally.

“An ex-employee leaving his phone so vulnerable to passing criminals…”

Steve smiles brightly at her. “Hey, Nat, we count as criminals right?”

“Well, yes but we’re war criminals, Steve, don’t forget that, the charges against me are for torture, espionage-“

“Can’t forget treason, murder, terrorism, assassination…” Steve lists off on his fingers.

“But you know what?” Wescott jumps when she moves to whisper in his ear. “I never really liked doing any of that. I mean I have the stomach for it, but all of that blood is really hard to get out of combat leather.”

Steve sighs wearily. “So many ruined harnesses… I can’t say I miss that.”

The man is trembling, eyes darting back and forth between him and the terrifying Black Widow behind him.

Steve rarely sees this side of her, the true Widow. The woman trained to kill, maim and torture without feeling. Like Bucky, she treats it like a switch she hates flipping, but the only difference is, there was never a before and an after like the Winter Soldier, and Natasha’s actions have been all her own.

The darkness doesn’t come from a HYDRA cyro-brainwashing machine.

No, it comes from herself.

And all she did under her own mind.

“But, I did it, and I’m good at it.” She comes over to sit on the side of Skip’s chair and give him a feral smile. “And you know, to this day, there’s only ever been three exceptions to my distaste.” When she leans forward, he leans back. “Fascists, child predators, and people who come after my family.” His eyes widen and Natasha pauses for a sort of twisted comedic effect. “And racists, so I guess that’s four. Though those usually tend to also be the first too, so.” She stands and walks around his chair, heavy steel tired boots thumping against the old concrete and echoing off the walls. “And you, you’ve managed to tick two of those boxes on my list, and what do you think that means?”

He shakes his head, truly terrified and looks desperately at Steve, but he’s not going to offer an out. Not now.

“He’s not going to help you, Skip,” Natasha says sardonically. “No, Captain America’s morals have the same exceptions. It’s why we get along so well.”

She sends a wink Steve’s way and he chuckles at her.

“You like the theatrics almost as much as Tony.”

She makes a face. “Well, I kinda miss him, but if you tell him that I’ll test out the new Widow bites on you instead of this moron.”

It was a crack, because Steve knows she doesn’t actually have any new Widow bites to test out on Westcott, but it makes the bastard panic nonetheless. “L-Look,” Westcott stutters out and Natasha slides an icy gaze back over to him, “I was never going to do anything to her, she was just-“

And that’s what does it: “she was just”. Steve really didn’t want to lose his control like this, but Natasha’s right. He does have the same exceptions to his moral code.

He lunges and grabs his throat, pulling Skip forward. “She’s not ‘just’ anything. She is a child, one our brother is responsible for and loves like his own.”

Steve enjoys it then, the moment Wescott realizes just exactly who he messed with and the last little bit of color he had drains from his face.

“It’s cute,” Natasha comments, “In a sad sort of way, that you seem like you didn’t even know.”

Steve tightens his grip on his throat and the man gasps for air just a little. “You came after our family, a kid.”

Natasha picks up the dagger from the table, and Westcott jerks back as much as he can. She lightly runs it down his chest, just barely catching the delicate expensive fabric and tearing it. He attempts, pathetically, to struggle away, but Steve keeps him firmly still- by the shoulders, because, well… He did promise Tony to keep it where clothes would cover it.

Natasha flashes a feral smile at him again. “And we’re here to make sure you understand the consequences.”

Steve finds her the next time after they get back to the safe house, Natasha that is, sitting in the light of the floor lamp in the armchair, staring at her phone with a soft smile on her face.

She waves him over and shows him the screen. “Pepper sent this to one of my alias emails. It’s from a few months ago.”

It’s a picture, one of Tony and a short teenage girl.

Steve cracks a smile. “That’s her?”

They’re outside on the balcony of the tower, the one leading from the penthouse living room, the Chrysler Building lit up in the background. She’s holding a blue ribbon up, grinning widely and wearing the most obnoxious yellow colored blazer that Steve’s ever seen. She’s got wild, long, curly light brown hair and if he didn’t know she was 16, he might think she’s even younger. Her eyes, big and a deep brown, are wide and alight, and she looks like she was in the middle of a laugh when the picture was snapped. She reminds Steve, wildly, of Bucky’s younger sister Rebecca. The last time he’d seen her was before he’d been sent to the front lines for the USO shows and she’d been only fourteen or fifteen years old then. He hasn’t been able to find anything about where she ended up yet since he woke up, but something about the scrunch in Penny’s nose and the trouble making smirk on her face reminds him of Rebecca Barnes.

Tony’s hand is on Penny’s shoulder, for once without the shades he normally wore. He’s got what Clint liked to call his “Assassination Suit” on, the jet black pinstriped one he always wore for public appearances where he wanted to send a signal to everyone to fuck off, but Steve’s never seen a softer look on Tony’s face. There’s the crinkle in the corner of his eye that only shows when he’s genuinely smiling, not one of the fake ones he and Pepper use for press pictures, but more like the candid ones Rhodey always had FRIDAY snap during late paperwork and movie nights.

He misses that stuff more than he can express.

“That’s adorable,” is what Steve says, because it is. He can see exactly how Tony and Pepper caved for her, just from one picture alone. He tries to imagine the Tony Stark he met on the Hellicarrier five years ago accidentally parenting a sixteen year old, genius or not, and he just can’t.

But the Tony Stark he’s come to know, the one who flew into the wormhole expecting to die, and the one who dropped everything to grab Clint and fly into DC to help him, Natasha and Sam take down SHIELD?

This is exactly where that Tony should be.

Natasha’s lips quirk a little. “She is,” Natasha corrects and Steve chuckles.

Steve rests on the arm of the chair. “It’s good for him,” he says softly. “Parenthood, or some quasi-version of it.” Natasha looks up at him thoughtfully. “He’s… He seems actually happy.”

Natasha frowns, catching his doubtful tone at the end. “But?” she pushes knowingly.

Steve glances at her, then sighs. “I thought you didn’t want to be in the middle again?”

She rolls her eyes. “I’m always in the middle of you boys.”

Steve looks up and out the window, out at the view of the fjord and the mountains behind it. He doesn’t think he’s seen anything quite as beautiful as the nature in this country, the glaciers and the jagged peaks underneath, the beauty that is the northern lights, but right now all he wants is home. He wants skyscrapers and tall street lights, the sounds of honking into the night. He wants the blinding lights of a baseball stadium- even if it has to be Yankee Stadium, and a hotdog at the top of the Coney Island Carousel.

(The worst thing, he decided quickly after waking up in the 21st century, was learning the Dodgers weren’t the Dodgers anymore. He doesn’t care what Sam says, if they’re not in Brooklyn they don’t count.)

“I’m afraid I’m going to screw it up again,” he says sadly. “Is that pathetic?”

Natasha smiles and shakes her head fondly. “Steve, he called you. Stop doubting yourself, and trust him a little more.”

“I should’ve listened to you,” he says, thinking about her words in the church again. “Staying together…”

Natasha considers it, but looks like she now might disagree with her past sentiment. “Maybe, but… You were right about them. The accords.” Steve raises an eyebrow at her. “As they were, they never would’ve worked. We could’ve tried to change them.”

Steve can’t help the secretive smile that pulls at his lips. That gets her attention and she squints at him.

“What?”

He bends down and presses a kiss against her head and she huffs. Like Tony, she pretends not to like it when one of the others show any sort of physical affection, but Natasha is still the baby sister, no matter the fact that she could kill all of them with a single paper clip.

“Let me be the one with secrets this time, Tasha.”

The others already know, thanks to Pietro’s affinity for stirring the pot, that he and Natasha had left for a day for a favor to Tony, and that they’re speaking, but none of them know how much, or exactly what, they’re talking about. Steve keeps it that way for the most part, and abides by Tony’s wishes by not mentioning accords rewrites. But he makes it clear, in no uncertain terms, that what he and Natasha left to do was his idea.

“It wasn’t something he was going to ask for himself,” he says to both Sam and Clint, the latter over a secure line on Natasha’s burner, “and I wasn’t going to let it go, either.”

“Clint,” Natasha says firmly, “if you knew, you’d have begged to go with us, trust me.”

“Then why the hell can’t you say anything? What the hell is Stark trying to keep from us?” Clint snaps.

“Nothing,” Steve stresses, “but it’s also not his or our business to tell.”

“When they came back, Natasha had blood on her,” Pietro inserts dryly from the other end of the room, and Steve glares at him, “if that gives you any clue, Clint.”

Sam raises an eyebrow at him. “Steve?”

Steve and Natasha share a look. “We… Educated someone for him,” she says evenly, and very very dangerously.

Clint hums, as if he suddenly gets it. Murder Twins, a voice says in his head, one that sounds suspiciously like Tony and Bruce.

“So it was personal, not business?” Sam says with a raised eyebrow.

Steve nods once while Clint chuckles, long and low.

“Did you use the dagger, Tasha?”

Natasha sighs, content. “Still the best Christmas present you ever got me, Clint.”

After that, they talk around twice a week. Tony tells Steve more about Penny, information he packs away for later, when hopefully they’ve fixed the Accords and maybe Steve can actually meet her.

“She’s got the same obsession for that old jazz music like you, her and her aunt both,” Tony complains sometime in mid July, and for weeks it makes Steve laugh because all Tony ever did was complain about his music taste, but the kid’s got Billie Holiday and Harry James blasting through his lab speakers now.

Steve updates him on the others, on Wanda’s attempts at Italian, “You’re the only one of us that’s fluent, ironically it’s a language Natasha’s lost her touch in.”

“She can join May and I in cooking dinner, the kitchen becomes a strict Italiano only zone.”

Tony manages to at least, as a first step, shorten Clint and Scott’s house arrest sentence by six months, meaning, at the latest, their time will be up by the end of December. Hopefully they can fix the accords before then, and it won’t even matter but it’s something accomplished for the time being.

Steve knows the two of them, Clint and Tony, haven’t spoken since the raft. Tony hasn’t spoken to any of them still, except for Steve, and sort of by proxy, Natasha.

But Clint and Tony said almost as hurtful things to each other that Steve and Tony had, and he is the most worried about them seeing each other face to face, so he takes a note out of Natasha’s book, and decides he’ll press the two of them himself.

“Have you called Clint?”

Tony falls silent then, and Steve watches the way the snow falls on the ground. He’s been all around the world now, but he’ll never get used to the way snow falls in the middle of the summer up here.

“Not yet, I… I should, because he and the twins ended up in the raft because of me, but I just don’t know how in the hell he’s supposed to forgive me, Cap.”

“You just have to talk to him, Tony, he might be more understanding than you think.”

“Wanda and Pietro were put in shock collars.”

“You didn’t know that had been added in, none of us did.”

“Doesn’t really make it better.”

“Nothings going to get better unless you call him.”

He doesn’t call him.

So, Steve tries Clint.

“You know he didn’t know about it, right?”

“None of us did, Steve, and I know that, I just…” Clint sighs, big and deep. “I still see that, I still see them with those fucking things and I…”

“Will you just call him? For me?”

Clint practically gags at his words. “‘For me?’ Do you hear yourself? What’s with this push towards a reconciliation the last few weeks? Natasha says you’re being all shady. It’s weird, and it means the world is upside down.”

Steve rolls his eyes and very kindly doesn’t snap at him. Tony said the same thing; insinuating the world is somehow all screwed up because of how Steves has been acting lately. They might act like they annoy each other half the time, but they sound just alike. “Call him, Clint. If… If he and I can find a way to try and get past all of this, then so can the two of you.”

“If I ask you a question, are you going to be honest with me?” Tony asks him. “Barnes?”

And there it is. The reminder of how exactly they lost their trust.

It’s late August now, and in only a few days, Tony is due to approach the board with the possibility of rewrites. They’ve been working for a month and a half now, the two of them, just trying to put together as much of an argument as possible for him to present, and Steve prays they agree. All of this, these complicated long emotional talks the two of them seem to keep having, pulling the others into it…

It will be for nothing if they can’t pull this off.

“He’s in Wakanda,” Steve admits, because if they’re ever going to trust each other again, he can’t keep lying. “King T’Challa, he offered to see if their doctors could remove the Winter Soldier from his brain. I flew him there once T’Challa secured his claim to their throne. He’s been there ever since.”

“I’m sorry,” Tony says, and Steve knows he means it. “That I tried to kill you and your best friend, and that you had to leave him when you just got him back.”

They’ve never talked like this. Not even before.

“He wasn’t… Safe to be around until we knew if HYDRA’s mind control could be removed,” he explains, even if they both already know the truth behind it, like Steve just needs to say it out loud and accept it. “It was his choice, not that I had to like it.”

“Did it work?” Tony asks.

“It did, he’s finally clean. It took…” Steve hesitates, and clears the lump in his throat. “He was under cyro for a long time but it worked. Now it’s just… Getting past the memories.”

That’s what is taking the longest, sorting out what’s HYDRA, and what’s Bucky Barnes. Shuri calls Steve during some of his sessions for help, but it’s extremely tough that he can’t be there in person. The more Bucky digs deeper, the more nightmares come up and the more things are twisted in his head.

Tony is silent for a long while. “I might have something that can help him. The BARF technology, it’s too… It’s something I don’t want in the wrong hands, but I’ll send it to Shuri. She’ll know how to use it properly, just tell him don’t use it without her, Ayo or Okoye around, it can be… Intense.”

Steve vaguely remembers BARF, horribly named though no one could make him change it. It was the last thing he remembers Tony working on before everything went to hell.

“Thank you.”

“Clint called,” Tony says, wildly changing the subject though Steve suspects that’s on purpose. He won’t force him to talk about Bucky longer than he’s able.

“Oh?”

“You meddled again.”

Steve snorts. “Don't be upset just because I stole your move.”

“You’re a prick and I hate you,” he says flatly.

“And?” Steve presses, and then Tony groans, self-suffering.

“And laughed his ass off when I told him about Penny, said watching me freak out over a 17 year old that I’ve emotionally adopted as my own kid will be how he collects his just desserts.”

“17?” Steve questions.

Tony chuckles. “As of about a week ago yeah, and I think we’re stepping into her rebellious years, and her aunt seems to think we better start preparing now, and I’m never going to argue with that woman. Ever.”

“I’m guessing her parents aren’t in the picture?” Steve can’t exactly imagine they would, considering how attached the kid is to him and Pepper now, and how Tony’s only ever mentioned an Aunt May, but he’s never felt comfortable enough to ask until now.

Tony pauses. “No, they’re not,” he says quietly. “They died in a plane crash in 2006, her aunt and her uncle took her in after that. Her uncle was killed in a robbery gone wrong a few months after the mess in Sokovia.”

Steve shakes his head. “Poor kid…”

“Her aunt is an ER nurse, and her hours are constantly all over the place, so Pepper and I help out when we can- when she lets us, but that usually translates into feeding and housing her when work gets in the way.” Tony makes an ‘ah!’ sound. “And her phone, because the one she had before gave me hives and I can’t let her walk around with company and team secrets on an old brick smartphone.”

“Team secrets?” Steve asks, brows pinching together.

“I’m not getting any younger, Cap, someone has to know how to fix all your equipment and run my company when I kick the bucket.”

And Steve understands then, at least part of it, how and why this girl has become so important to him, and what he’s shaping her into.

The next Tony Stark.

His legacy.

What he leaves behind is what Tony has always been most worried about. His tech, his company, they all know someone has to take the mantle eventually.

“Does she know, Tony?”

There’s a telling silence, and when he speaks it’s almost a whisper. “Well, I didn’t say it was happening right now. I’m not that old.” Well he knows that, but even still. “For now, she’s just barely entering her junior year, she’s only barely talking about college. I don’t want to overwhelm her until I know whether or not she even wants it. She’s good Steve, sometimes too good. She’s… She’ll be better than all of us. Her and Shuri, this bandage they designed it’s incredible, and it’ll be groundbreaking for emergency medical in the field, worldwide.”

Steve smiles fondly and shakes his head. He’s heard this kind of fathers speech before, from his army days all the way up until now, but hearing it from Tony Stark is another thing entirely.

“You know Clint is going to blab his mouth about her though, right? He is never going to let this go.”

Tony abruptly laughs. “He can do it, but I’ll find a way to resurrect the group chat and spam the drunk serenading video. I’ll even add Lang and T’Challa.”

The first time Tony mentions that something feels off, Steve almost brushes it aside. He can’t remember exactly what Tony said he heard outside the offices in Vienna, but from certain angles it could seem innocuous.

Ross had revealed to the UN council months previously about the Winter Soldier's actions against the Stark family, even against Tony’s own wishes, so hearing one of his aides mention how Steve apparently lied to Tony’s face about it might not have been weird, except that the second time he heard something, it was about Bucky specifically, and what he said.

“I remember all of them.”

And that threw Tony into red alert.

“We should tell the others now, Tony. The UN agreed to hear the rewrites. If Ross is somehow involved deeper into this, they have a right to know.”

“Remember when I said I hated it when you were right?”

Steve tells them a few hours later, when Wanda returns from Austria.

“You’ve been what?!” Sam exclaims.

Clint, from Natasha’s phone, says, “Is this what you’ve been so shady about?”

“Tony didn’t want you all to get your hopes up if it didn’t work. Ross is… Roadblocking us. Most of the fine print stuff, the worst of it, came from addendums from his own office and with us trying to get it all thrown out, he’s not pleased.” Steve takes a careful breath. “But the UN has agreed to hear our argument. Or, Tony’s argument because he’s not supposed to be talking to us.”

Wanda looks floored. “You-You mean we could go home?” The hopeful look on her face and the small tear in her eye pull at Steve’s heartstrings.

Even Pietro looks looser now, like the hope of more freedom has unwound him.

Natasha smirks, proud. “Wow, Steve, I didn’t know you had it in you.”

“Tony’s hoping once T’Challa hears it, he’ll also back it. He didn’t want to compromise any of the presentation by talking to him early, lest it look like it would sway the vote. Now that they’ve agreed to hear our proposal, he’s going to bring him in. They affect him, too.”

“Have we heard from Lang?”

“Tony’s been in contact. He’s laying low in San Francisco for now, and he’s said he’ll contact Hank Pym and his daughter as well. Spider-Man, T’Challa and Lang are complicated circumstances, because they were never official Avengers, but because T’Challa is a king, he’s already international. Pressure will likely make him sign them regardless. Lang could join the team if he wants, but he’ll have to sign as well. Spider-Man has already turned down Tony’s offer-”

“Woah, the kid what?” Sam gasps. “He said no?”

Pietro and Wanda share equally shocked faces, but Natasha looks calculating.

“All Tony said is he told him he wanted to stay on the ground a little while longer, I guess.”

“But Stark is still seen with him all the time?” Clint questions.

“Well, Tony was the one who gave him the suit, and I guess Tony’s trying to teach the guy. He’s obviously young.”

Sam raises an eyebrow. “Suspiciously young,” he drawls.

Pietro crosses his arms over his chest. “Wanda and I were quite young when we started, Sam.”

He snorts. “Yeah, that’s my point.”

“Well, it sounds like he made the mature decision. If he can recognise he’s young and not ready, at least we know he has a good head on his shoulders,” Natasha interrupts, sliding off the table to stand. “And if Tony’s built him a suit then he’s looking after him. He’s not an Avenger yet-”

“But he will be,” Steve finishes, nodding at her. “Likely the council will request Tony sign for him in proxy, since he’s involved with a member of the team, but he doesn’t work outside his own area. He’s still a small-time vigilante for the most part, Tony’s determined to keep it that way.”

“We have a junior league now?” Sam says wryly.

Steve gives him a look. “Sam.”

Pietro clears his throat. “When are they supposed to read and vote on the rewrites?”

“The end of October.”

“That’s two months away…” Wanda mutters, eyes roaming back and forth.

“A lot can happen in that amount of time,” Pietro says.

“That’s why we have to keep ourselves extremely low. One wrong move and Ross could ruin it all. We don’t know how much he does or doesn’t know anymore.”

The air sucks out of the room.

Natasha looks worried. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Steve sighs, sitting down into an armchair. “We have no idea if we’re just being paranoid, but Ross might know more than he’s supposed to about recent events. It’s why we’re going to this island, Tony’s said it’s completely off the grid. Can’t take chances.”

“Recent events like what?” Clint asks dangerously, circling back to the beginning of his statement. “Steve, I swear if you say Zemo-”

Steve interrupts him, because both he and Tony have agreed to keep the things said in the Siberian bunker between the three of them, if at all possible. Neither is exactly proud of their actions.. “We don’t know. Ross is being smarter than we thought. It’s gonna take a little for Tony to break into his systems without being noticed. Right now it’s just…”

“Circumstantial,” Natasha finishes.

“I don’t believe in coincidences,” Pietro grumbles.

Natasha hums. “Neither do I.”

“I should probably stay until then,” Wanda sighs, a little sad. “Vision will understand.”

Pietro squeezes her shoulder. “Well if Stark can pull this off, then perhaps you won’t have to sneak around, sister.”

Sam looks a little unconvinced. “God willing.”

“What can I do?” Clint asks.

“With you and Scott both still on house arrest, nothing for now,” Steve tells him. “You’re being heavily watched and this is dangerous enough as it is. You and Lang just enjoy your families.”

Clint hums. “Well I won’t complain about that- oh! Did anyone else notice Tony turned into a Dad?”

Steve snorts.

“What?” Sam asks, thrown. “What the fuck do you mean?”

Pietro frowns. “Stark had a baby?”

Steve shakes his head. “He stumbled across this genius teenager, made her and intern and he and Pepper are a little… Attached,” he finishes wryly.

“Attached is an understatement, Cap.”

Steve laughs. “Tony says she’s a great kid, and it’s good for him.”

“I told him his heart grew three sizes and he told me to fuck off, but he didn’t mean it,” Clint says fondly. “It’s karma.”

Wanda smiles softly, “Vision’s mentioned her. He says she tries to help him study human body language, and he helps her study for her exams.”

Sam’s face melts a little and Natasha smiles. “Okay, well, that’s actually cute,” Sam begrudgingly admits. “Someone teaching the Android to be human.”

Clint cackles on the phone. “I asked Pepper for a photo, and she’s seventeen but she looks like a baby, she’s absolutely adorable and it’s so funny, I can’t stop laughing. Tony’s screwed.”

Natasha, like some sort of proud aunt, pulls up her phone and shows the others the picture Tony sent.

“She’s not that much younger than us,” Wanda says with a happy smile, and she looks up at Pietro, who has a thoughtful look on his face. He knows the two of them are always a little out of their element- they’re both at least a decade younger than all of them, and becoming Avengers made it almost impossible to have friends their own age. Penny is only about two or three years younger than them, and Steve again prays with all his heart these rewrites work. Pietro and Wanda deserve a shot at some sort of normalcy, as much as they can give them at least. They’d almost found it, before the Accords got in the way.

Sam chuckles. “He found another nerd.”

“He made the mistake of telling me he has her school schedule memorized and she stays over half the week when her aunt has third shift at the hospital. He’s a Dad, y’all. We have one measly superhero family feud, and he doesn’t even call when he becomes a father,” Clint says mournfully. “What a dick.”

Steve chuckles and shakes his head- because it’s just like them to cover up their issues with jokes and laughter. None of them have truly forgotten any of it, and he doubts they will.

This fight, this Civil War, has changed them and he worries about what will happen if they can- no, when they can fix the Accords.

Can they work as a team again? Even if they can fix the politics, does that mean they can fix the resentment? Tony has said he forgives him over the phone, but they’ve still never seen eye to eye.

“Alright guys,” Steve says, standing and grabbing his packed bag holding his few important possessions in his modern life. The notebook he wrote down all the little things he wanted to catch up on, the journal Sharon gave him a few months after Sokovia the last time they’d seen each other before the funeral (“Try writing it down, Steve. When you feel that darkness seeping in, write it down. It will help.”). The small photo album with his few pictures of Bucky, and all the ones he’s collected of those around him the last few years. The few shots of Barton and Tony soaring through the New York skyline during the invasion, Natasha, Thor, and Bruce sprawled on the couches in the rec room, only about two blankets between the three of them, watching one of those strangely animated Christmas movies. Tony, Pepper, Natasha and Sharon at the Christmas Gala the last year they were all there together.

Tonight, they are moving to Tony’s private and completely unknown island in the South Pacific, and Steve knows this is Tony’s biggest sign of trust. The next two months would determine their future, but Steve forced himself to focus on the past- all of those conversations with Tony where they finally said what they needed to, he and Natasha’s favor, how he was able to convince Clint to call Tony- and what it all means. For all of them.

They have a chance to go home. To be a team, to be a family again.

“Let’s move.”

Chapter Text

It’s not too long before Tony starts to realize something.

It’s not working.

The team is barely a team. Realistically, there’s just him, Rhodey and Vision. It’s sometimes only just enough manpower, especially once Rhodey is back to his regular missions.

And Spider-Man -Penny- isn’t ready yet. The kid is sticking to the ground, and Tony intends to keep it that way.

Especially with Ross breathing down Tony’s neck about ‘him’.

Just because he’s been unable to convince the UN that Spider-Man is a threat, doesn’t mean Ross isn’t doing everything in his power to piss Tony off about it anyway.

And it makes Tony realize something else:

He can’t let Penny sign the Accords as they are.

He just can’t. But the only reason she’s not in jail is because he’s been vouching for her non stop, feeling like he’s practically selling his soul every time Ross threatens to arrest her if she steps a foot out of line. He knows eventually he won’t be able to put on the suit, and they’ll want to know who’s under the mask.

Tony knows he did what he had to do last summer with the Accords, but he wishes that he would’ve stopped to consider if they could’ve fixed them. Changed them, worked with the UN and the rest of the team.

The three of them, Rhodey, Tony and Vision, they’re not going to be enough for whatever’s coming, for whatever Tony saw through that fucking wormhole.

But now, Tony’s not sure if there’s even a chance he can fix it at all.

He tries his best not to think about it. He’s successful, for the most part, and distracts himself with SI, Pepper, and wrangling the kid into the spring.

Rhodey sends him diagnostics and he sends fixes back. He tries to get Tony to open up about Ross, and about Siberia and all the horrible shit they’ve had to shoulder the last few years, but he’s not really all that into talking about it much.

The hardest part comes when he makes that realization- when he decides the Accords as they stand aren’t something he can do for much longer, and he extra keeps his mouth shut.

Because then part of him knows that Rhodey was hurt for nothing.

Paralyzed for nothing.

And then there’s Steve.

Steve, who Tony isn’t mad at for the Accords, because damnit he was right, but who looked him in the eyes and lied to him.

Steve, who Tony considered a brother to him.

Steve, who answered on the first ring when Tony was desperate for a way to save both Pepper and the President of the United States. Steve, who brought pizza back from DC every time he went for some meeting just because he knew Pepper loved the specific Mom & Pop shop. Steve, who would sit long into the night with him in the lab sketching while Tony would fix whatever on their equipment when neither could sleep.

They never said anything during those evenings usually, they’d just sit in comfortable silence, listening to whatever random music his AI might queue from the teams playlists; from Clint’s obsession with 90’s country music, Tony’s classic rock, Natasha’s affliction for ballet, Steves ungodly old-timey show-tunes, and Banners 80’s kick. He still has a few of those sketches in the bottom of his desk drawer. Tony took them down gentler than he intended, as if he couldn’t bare to ruin them, and stuffed them away the day he returned from Siberia.

Other times, though, they would talk. Tony would tell him stupid stories about he and Rhodey’s college days, and Steve would tell him about 40’s New York, and his long dead best friend Bucky Barnes.

Tony will never say it to anyone, never admit it outloud, but Steve had been -for a moment there- his closest friend. Rhodey would always be his best friend, there really isn’t any debate on that, but New York changed Tony in a way that only Steve could really understand.

He flew that plane into the ice to save the world, knowing that he’d likely die in the process.

He didn’t expect to live.

Tony flew through that godforsaken wormhole, expecting to be part of the shrapnel debris that’s likely still floating through space.

He never thought he’d make it through the portal before it closed.

Sometimes, remembering those nights makes Tony want to throw up, because he hates that even though he’s pissed about the fact that Steve lied- Tony could see a world where he’d do the same for Rhodey. Or Pepper.

He can even see a world where he’d do it for Steve.

But they can’t lie to each other if this team was ever going to work long term. No matter how much they want to protect each other.

Tony knows then that if that’s ever going to work, he has to figure out how to control his temper.

Because they almost killed each other back there. He turned his blasters on Steve and Barnes, and Steve slammed the shield into his chest. They were supposed to be teammates- a group of extraordinary individuals- but teammates don’t turn on each other.

They never saw eye to eye, almost on anything. But after a while, it seemed to matter less. Even with Ultron.

How can you possibly hope to stop me?

Well, like the old man said. Together.

For a moment there, for a few years, they worked, and they built a team. One that managed to do the impossible, over and over again. One that didn’t cast him aside when he made a colossal mistake again, even if that mistake had an end result that also gave them Vision.

As weeks drag on, he thinks more and more about how the team used to be, and what it is now. It can’t work, and it won’t. He knows this.

He also knows, if he does what he thinks he has to, that it comes with addendums. Additions.

Apologies.

But can he live with himself if he doesn’t? He can’t exclude them from this- his own issues with Steve aside, if he admits that the Accords were a mistake, then the others deserve their second chance. God even Steve deserves his. He knows that casting him aside completely is pointless, they both fight the same fight. And they need each other no matter how much he loathes to admit it.

But can he live with himself if he does? All worries it won’t work aside, they don’t really have a choice in the matter, and can Tony confidently say he could look Steve in the eye and not want to punch him?

Things were so much easier when they were just fighting over Loki or Ultron.

When a war is busy raging in his head, the next time he’s in Vienna the kid gets attacked by, of all things, giant fucking lizards crawling out of the sewers, and his heart falls out of his chest.

Ross hollers all over him about Spider-Man during the UN councils meeting, and Tony is impressed with himself for not decking the man on his face.

“He’s a menace and you’re letting him go unchecked-“

“I’m sorry, Ross, would you like me to tell the only totally non lethal hero we have to cut it out just because you don’t like not having every detail about him? Absolutely not,” Tony practically spits at him, standing up and leaning against the glass table to glare at him.

Ross’s face grows cherry red and he stands up from his chair as if trying to intimidate Tony. It doesn’t really work, but Tony almost appreciates the effort anyway. If Ross is going to be an asshole about all of this, at least he has the balls to actually try and go toe to toe with him.

“If he has something to hide then-“

“It is not up to us to demand the young man reveal himself,” Madam Malchip, an older woman and the representative from Canada of all places. “He wants no payment, no recognition, just to help and save lives.” She stares at the rest of them. “How many of you can say your own families would do the same?” She shakes her head. “No, this young man has truly given us no reason not to trust his motives. His past failures aside, Mr. Starks influence over the last year has shaped him into quite the responsible hero. For us to ask something more out of either of them would be an egregious error in judgment.”

“But Secretary Ross has made a point,” another member piles up. Tony doesn’t remember exactly who this man is, because in his mind he’s always referred to him as Egg Head. “Spider-Man is not permitted to participate in any international threats. Should you decide to make him a member of the Avengers, he will have to sign and reveal his identity to the council under the Accords.”

Ross turns a satisfied grin on Tony, and Tony just knows he didn’t win this battle.

The next day, he files the first injunction with the board.

Vision, who is more childlike sometimes than even Penny, takes to the kid with ease Tony hadn’t expected. It’s a wonder to watch him adapt to the world around him, and learn to fit into human society more. Penny still encourages him though, to embrace himself as much as possible.

“You’re the only one like you, Vision,” she told him one May afternoon in the gym between sets with the practice drones, completely unprompted and with a wide childlike smile. “And that’s pretty cool.”

Vision is usually silent, but the way he paused there was as close to touched that an Android could be. He smiled at her then, his own real smile, and thanked her.

Tony is constantly amazed by her, especially once he gets a sneaky look at her with the interns in R&D. She’s the youngest one there, but the others treat her like one of their own, and she rises to every occasion. Dr Shanice Williams, the Intern Lab Head, someone he’d swiped from Caltech’s biochemistry department (“I adore teaching,” she told him and Pepper during a conference a few years ago in Dallas, “but sometimes I wish I could do more.” He offered her the job on the spot), sends him weekly reports on her and the others.

She tells him Penny is a natural born leader, even for her age, and she’s constantly full of inspiration. Big or small, Shanice wrote in her latest debrief, the kid has an idea for just about anything. And if she doesn’t, she’ll have one before you finish speaking. I don’t know where you found her, Stark, but you struck gold.

He chuckles because only Shanice and Russ, Pepper's witty assistant, can get away with addressing him by only his last name. They get his bias privileges, what can he say? They’re plucky, and Tony intends on keeping them around. He has the same feeling about them that he did about Pepper and Happy. Good people are good people.

And, it makes him think about Penny again, and the feeling he’s been having the last few weeks watching her blossom at SI.

“What are you laughing at?” Pepper asks him, lightly kicking him from the other side of the couch. She’s knee deep in new hire documents, but his quiet guffaws have drawn her attention.

“Shanice’s debriefs from this week. Anna and Jack accidentally made their robot explode with liquid nitrogen but somehow Penny figured out how they could piece it back together.” He shakes his head in disbelief.

“She’s clever,” Pepper says with a smile. “It’s good you have her working with the other interns.”

“She needs the space to spread her wings a little.”

He feels like now is as good a time to bring it up as any, especially with the way she’s looking at him.

“Tony,” she says gently, with a raised eyebrow. “Say it, honey, I know you’ve already brought it up to a lawyer.”

“I don’t want to make any decisions without you, though,” Tony says, setting the briefings down and scooting closer to her. She turns to face him head on. “You’ve been running this company with me for nearly 16 years.”

Pepper smiles softly. “That’s true, but I haven’t ever been the brains behind it, that’s still always been you.” She runs her hand up and down his arm comfortingly.

“She’s still young, and I’m not making any plans to keel over and die, but even then-“

“You want to be prepared.” Pepper smiles and he intertwines their hands.

He nods, and then smiles ruefully. They both know why, in his line of work he’s had too many close calls already. Who knows how many more he has left?

“And I’d liked to retire off into the sunset with you at some point, knowing our company is in good hands.”

Pepper giggles, light and bubbly. “Yes, that would be nice wouldn’t it?” She caresses his cheek. “I think… I think Penny is the perfect successor.” She smiles teasingly at him, and gives him a soft kiss on the cheek. “And well, who else but your kid is going to take over all of this?”

Tony groans, but a smile tugs at his lips despite himself. “You and Rhodey with these ‘my kid’ comments-“

Tony ignores all the calls from Ross once the council begins their deliberations on the injunction he filed. He calls around to those he has pull with, and slowly starts placing in seeds of doubt. He’d feel guilty about subtle manipulation if he didn’t think it absolutely necessary. Plus, is it really manipulation if what he says is true?

He will withdraw if they don’t consider rewrites.

And the team does need everyone back.

And if he leaves, so will Vision. Technically, though the distinction still makes his skin crawl, to the international governments Vision ‘belongs’ to him and Dr. Cho considering it was he, Bruce, and Helen who ‘built’ him. He doesn’t like the fact that he has to lobby for Vision as if he’s simply an object and not someone with the complete ability to think for himself, but the worlds governments refuse to see him that way. This is the only way to keep him safe. He and Helen are working on proving he’s more than a hunk of vibranium with advanced AI’s for his brains, and Tony won’t let Ross try and get his hands on the Mind Stone.

And if Tony leaves, well then Rhodey would follow. The US government can claim ownership of the War Machine armor until they’re blue in the face, but even their most advanced of engineers can’t fix a suit with arc reactor technology. Once the suit is out, they’re done, and Tony won’t fix it.

It’s cruel to an extent- to threaten them with their remaining legal heroes' collective exodus- and deep down Tony knows he’d never fully abandon his life’s work if something horrible happens, but the threat is enough to start chattering through the council.

Enough chatter that, during the May session, King T’Challa makes his first appearance in nearly a year.

T’Challa greets Tony warmly, and he can’t help but return in kind. They’ve talked in length over the phone since their first meeting, about Wakanda’s Youth outreach centers. He and Pepper had made a… Sizable donation, and he’s been in talks with his accountant about setting up scholarships for the kids as well. They’ve already started donating laptops, phones, and other technologies for the centers to give the kids as well.

Plus, it’s hard not to feel a kinship with him either. Both of their lives had been irreparably blown apart by HYDRA’s creation of the Winter Soldiers, and Helmut Zemo’s obsession with their eradication.

“I have heard interesting rumors, Stark,” T’Challa says genially, with a pleased but subtle smile.

Tony smiles wryly. “If I could speak with you about them, I would. Once a decision is officially made I will officially bring you in.” He lowers his voice. “If they think you’re in on this, Ross will bring it down.”

T’Challa nods, understanding in his eyes, and winks. Tony knows that he’ll be getting a call once he’s back in the tower- where they know they can ensure they’re able to speak freely.

T’Challa gestures to a young woman next to him with braids carefully and beautifully gathered into a bun on her head.

“This is my sister, Princess Shuri.”

Her noise wrinkles. “Shuri,” she corrects , extending a hand for him to shake, and he obliges. She eyes him, and for someone so young she’s incredibly intimidating. She’s been making quite the splash on in the scientific community now that Wakanda has revealed themselves to the world more fully.

And T’Challa’s suit is mind-blowing.

“You figured out how to condense the arc reactor technology to fit inside of a chest plate,” she announces. “No one else outside of Wakanda had even considered it possible.”

“I tend to think beyond the idea of the impossible. Much like the kinetic blast you designed for your brothers suit, incredible by the way,” he tells her praisingly. “And what you said to Osborne- thank you.”

Shuri breaks out in a wide grin. “He is pompous and believes himself to be the pinnacle of his generation, yet he is leagues behind you and Hank Pym.”

Tony laughs loudly. “He doesn’t like it when you point that out to him, and the fact that you’re still a teenager makes it worse. Please continue, it’s the funniest thing I’ve ever read.”

Tony catches sight of Pepper and Penny coming their way, and waves the kid to his side.

“This is Penny,” he says, dropping a hand on her shoulder. “Pen, this is King T’Challa, his sister Shuri,” he pointedly leaves off the title for the Princess, and she looks grateful, “and General Okoye.”

Penny smiles and Tony chuckles a little at her nervousness, but the kid is nothing if not determined, and she shakes T’Challa’s hand when he offers it.

“It’s an honor to meet you all,” she says, and her tongue gets slightly ahead of her mouth as her face starts to heat up, “and your work with non-biodegradable plastics and medical equipment, and high energy proton shielding is amazing, my academic decathlon team watched your speech to the Paris Accords committee live. It was iconic, I can’t believe you quoted Bo Burnam- my school talked about it for weeks.”

Shuri’s eyes light up with something Tony knows all too well.

He meets T’Challa’s gaze, and somehow they both know letting the two of them meet was a mistake.

Shuri holds her hand out. “I think the two of us are going to get along, Penny Parker.”

It’s times like this one where Tony actually misses Steve the most, because Steve had been Tony’s voice of reason.

The one to talk him off the ledge.

(Not that it always worked, because Sokovia and the existence of Vision are perfect examples of when Tony refused to listen.)

Tony was the shoot first, ask questions later kind of guy, and Steve carried the patience for the both of them. At least, in theory it worked like that. They agreed early on that they needed to lead this team together, that they’d keep each other in check, and he remembers exactly how it started too.

He can’t even count the amount the team had that first week after their first big battle in New York. Fury practically forced them to live in one of the Tower’s conference rooms after they returned from the shawarma place. He’d been pissed they’d snuck off for it to begin with, and punished them with a never ending spiel of government workers and SHIELD agents.

Tony had almost died for crying out loud, and Clint and Natasha were near dead on their feet. Bruce was still suffering the after effects of such a long Hulk transformation. The team needed rest, and Thor needed to speak with his brother. It drove Steve and Tony crazy, and that was the first time he remembers Steve stepping up and putting himself between Tony and someone else and telling him much kinder than Tony deserved, that he needed to knock it off and Tony actually listened.

“Tony, if Fury tries to drag this out any longer I’ll walk out with you, but yelling at the governor isn’t going to do any good for us right now.”

Tony hated it with all his might, but whenever he got the most off the rails, it was Steve who slapped him back into reality. Steve who kept him from making colossally wrong decisions every other mission.

Above all else, Steve is fair. As much as it annoys him, it’s also the thing Tony admires the most about the man. It was what made the mess of the accords even worse. Because he was only trying to do what was fair and just above all else. Disney concepts the Captain refuses to give up on.

Tony’s not and has never been the fair one. People call him a hero, but he’ll be the first to admit he’s also an asshole. He doesn’t hit back as much as he gets, he hits back harder, and Steve has always been the one to pull him away from the line.

And as Dr. Williams barrels furiously in his lab, ordering FRIDAY to pull up security footage from the stock room on the inter lab floor, and Tony’s brain comprehends the words coming out of her mouth and the images on the screen, he needs nothing more than for someone to give him a reason why he shouldn’t leap over that fucking line and kill ‘Skip’ Westcott with his own bare hands.

Pepper stares stone-faced at the holoscreen and Shanice crosses her arms and taps her foot incessantly.

For thirty seconds, the silence stretches on but all Tony can hear is a roaring in his ear.

“I’m gonna kill him,” Tony growls.

Shanice huffs. “Not if I get to him first-“

“Neither of you will go after him,” Pepper interrupts them both, looking between them sharply. “It’s late and I will handle firing him tomorrow, and speak with the lawyers.”

“Anna said it’s been going on for weeks now, but Penny made her promise not to say anything. She said she didn’t want anyone to get in trouble.”

Tony’s fist slams against the table before he can blink. “Damnit…” He groans and runs his hands over his face. “I’m gonna call Happy. Tell him I’ll grab the kid tomorrow for the work day instead, take her to the compound.”

Pepper grabs her StarkPad and fingers fly over the keyboard faster than his brain can process. “There are still people down in legal.”

“I’ll come with you.”

Tony lifts his head up at Pepper when Shanice leaves, “Her and Anna get big bonuses next paycheck. Tell HR to triple them.”

He paces for god knows how long, minutes, hours, days- words fly over and over again in his head and it takes a moment from him to pull together his mind.

He sees the kid the night he first met her on the top of a warehouse in Brooklyn. She’d been wary, understandably so, when he revealed he knew the truth, and pretty much everything about her past.

”Penelope Parker, 15, daughter of the late Richard and Mary Parker, world class geneticists,” Tony listed off, stepping out of the suit while FRIDAY put it into sentry mode lest someone come snooping in. “Getting ready to enter your freshman year at Midtown School for Science and Technology, top of your class.”

“H-How do you…” she stuttered out, and Tony could hear the amateur voice box and was impressed.

“I’m Tony Stark, kid.” He leaned against the concrete railing, a careful distance away as not to spook her, and she didn’t come any closer. “You’re good, but you’re a little predictable about where you stash your bag during your nightly acrobat routine. Wasn’t too hard to figure out.”

“Why did you?”

“Because it was obvious to me that you’re young, you need help and a new suit. You’re wearing sweatpants. I’ll give you credit for being younger than I expected though, you’re good.” He flipped his phone up and the bus video played in the air. “Mad skills.”

She snorted at him. “No one says that anymore, Mr. Stark.”

And she was young. Too young, even now a year later. It’s all he can think about now.

Westcott is a grown man, and she’s still a child- Spider-Man or no Spider-Man.

And Tony had promised May he would protect her.

He failed.

Fucking hell he failed.

He punches the table again, ignoring the sharp pain and not thinking of the regret he’ll surely feel later when the bruises form.

She didn’t come to him.

Why didn’t she come to him? He thought the last few months had gotten them past the distrust, he thought he’d gotten her to understand.

He looks down at his cellphone, flat on the table knowing he needs to call Happy first, and then think about how much he’s going to explain this all to May. And then he’s got to figure out how the hell he’s supposed to bring this up to the kid when all his mind is calling for us to put on a suit and incinerate Westcott where he sits in the labs dozens of floors below.

His eyes float to the bottom drawer of his desk fifteen feet away, and the flip phone he’s spent nearly ten months ignoring the existence of feels heavy deep in his pockets.

It’s insane. Absolutely ridiculous, laughable, asinine, any adjective you could come up with in the book, that this is what it takes for Tony to open the phone and hit that button.

After just over a year, Tony finally calls him.

But it’s just because if he doesn’t, he really thinks he might kill a man in cold blood.

“Tony?” comes the confused, hesitant but still infuriatingly polite voice of Steve Rogers on the other end, and for a second, one split second, Tony considers hanging up.

“Tony, don't hang up. You called me, talk to me. What’s going on?” Steve presses, annoyingly gentle and all knowing like he always is, and it’s so normal that Tony just spits it out.

“I need you to either talk me down from committing murder or help me.”

The silence on the other end of the phone is deafening, and telling. Tony figures he would be equally as shocked as he imagines Rogers is.

After a moment, Steve says in a worried tone, “Give me a sec, Tony.”

A few moments later Tony hears a faint click of the door and a shuffle.

“What happened?” That’s his mission voice, straight to the point. Tony’s never been so grateful.

He breathes in deeply, trying to control his anger as best as possible, feeling the rage now more than ever as he forces the words out. “One of my fucking employees has been making advances against my 16 year old intern, and he put his hands on her and I’m about ready to march down to his floor and incinerate him with one of my gauntlets.”

“How did you find this out?” he asks, sounding a bit lost but putting forward an admirable effort at following.

“One of the other interns came forward about it, said they’d been trying to get her to say something for days,” he bites out. “She didn’t tell me herself.”

It’s probably the part about this whole thing that worries him the most, because this is his tower. It happened in his home and under his watch to his fucking intern.

He bites the inside of his cheek, leaning forward against the table and fighting the urge to grab for his nanotech chest plate.

“If you go down there and kill that guy then you end up in jail instead of him. And then your intern is without you, the most powerful man in New York, to protect her.”

Killing him does nothing but put you behind bars instead of him.

And he leaves the kid.

Fuck.

He curses, and sags back into his chair.

“God she’s 16, Cap... And it’s been going on for weeks and she’s in my lab every other day and she never even mentioned it…”

“You think she doesn’t trust you,” Steve says cautiously, like he already knows but he’s translating in his head. Tony almost rolls his eyes, even if the thought fills him with a bit of a warm feeling. Something hasn’t changed, at least.

“What else could it be?” he says, pained. “I thought we got past the not trusting me part months ago.”

“She’s a kid, Tony. I don’t think this is about trust,” Steve says kindly.

It’s not your fault, is what Tony knows Steve isn’t saying. He can’t tell if that makes him feel better or worse.

“I just… I promised her aunt I would protect her, and I failed. One of my own employees, someone I hired.” Tony runs his hands through his hair, trying to calm his erratic heart and feeling inexplicably tired.

“Have you fired him yet?” Steve asks.

“Pepper said she’s doing it in the morning. It’s best I don’t see his face right now,” he bites. “Too many suits in this damn tower.”

The image of aiming a blaster at Westcott and shooting him straight through the wall is still fresh in his brain, even if the urge to commit premeditated murder is subsiding little by little.

“How did you end up with a 16 year old intern? I thought you hated teenagers?” Steve questions, and it sends an ice pick through his heart.

And there it is. He shouldn’t be surprised- how could this not come up? Did Tony expect them to just forget about? Ignore it? For fucks sake it’s never fully out of his mind, Tony can’t even pretend to forget it.

He doesn’t think Steve can either.

“Yeah well, it’s been a long time that you’ve been a war criminal, Cap.” Tony practically seethes, and he can see the picture of Steve’s face, practically emotionless, but holding the weight of everything behind his eyes. The more he feels the more he hides it.

But something about this time…

“Look, I-“Steve tries, and Tony almost lets him.

“I don’t want to hash over old wounds, Rogers, it’s just gonna end up hurting us both in the end.”

“It felt like choosing between you two,” Steve chokes out like a confession, one that took everything in him to say out loud.

“Yeah well if you’d been honest with me from the beginning about Barnes and my parents from the start you wouldn’t have had to,” Tony snaps, unable to control himself.

“I shouldn’t have lied to you, I know…”

“Then why did you?” Tony practically shouts, but something in him breaks and he sighs. “Forget what I said.” He drags a hand over his face and through his hair, resisting the urge to pull it straight out of his scalp to prevent himself from saying what he does next.

Dr. Roth, his therapist, rings in his head just like it did when he laid everything out for May the day she stormed into his tower.

‘Anthony, eventually you have to trust people for them to trust you.’

“Look if we don’t… If we don’t get this conversation out of the way we never will.”

If Tony doesn’t get this over with now, he’s not sure he’s ever going to be able to.

“Because when I died, Howard was still alive. And we were friends, all of us. Buck, Peg, me and Howard,” Steve says painstakingly like he’s choosing every word. “He was such an asshole, Tony, not that I need to tell you that- but- It was the middle of the worst war in history and they were the closest thing I had to a family. And when I woke back up he was dead, and he’d spent his entire life trying to find me. The tesseract being found, SHIELD and all its glory creating the weaponry and attracting Loki and New York, then Sokovia because of it-“ He’s rambling in a way Tony’s never heard before, and it shoots through Tony for a moment. “It was all my fault. I was a kid and I just… Had to be a hero and I woke up 70 years later and… All of it is my fault.”

God, Steve…

“They were my family, and it was like I just… Went to sleep for a few days and they were all… Gone. And I suddenly had no family, everyone I knew was… Dead or different. And the Avengers, you guys… You became my family, the only people I had. And I hated the fact that it was better than the one I had before, the only thing missing was Bucky. And then he was alive and he’d been brainwashed and his memory wiped but he’d killed Howard, our friend and your father- and- I-“

Tony closes his eyes, feeling weary and exhausted, because family is the thought that plays over and over in his head. They should’ve been a family more than a team.

“I’m not… I was trained to fight, Tony. I wasn’t trained for whatever this is,” Steve continues softly. “I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have lied to you. I was just… Scared of exactly what ended up happening. Losing everyone.”

Tony shouldn’t- because control is a virtue he’s never been all that well versed in but he grabs the crystal whiskey bottle from under his desk and shoots a shot back and lets the burn of the alcohol set in.

He decides then that if Steve will lay out his mistakes, Tony should at least attempt it himself.

“You knew I’d overreact.”

“Tony-“

“No, you’re right.” He squeezes his eyes shut and tries to block out the memories that still keep him up at night, and all the regrets he still has about the Accords; not listening to Steve when he tried to tell him, as best he could, about Zemo and Barnes before it became a fist fight. Both times. “Even if you didn’t say it. You knew I’d overreact to it at first- and I did. I shouldn't have come at you and Barnes in that bunker.. I just.. Lost it. It’s not his fault I know that… It’s just… They were my parents. And as fucked up as my father was, as much as he never should’ve been a parent to begin with-“

“He’s still your father,” Steve finishes in mournful understanding.

“Yeah. But I still shouldn’t have turned my blasters on you. That was… We’re not invincible.”

No matter how much they really want to believe they won’t live forever. They can’t.

Tony still sees the visions from Wanda and the mind stone again, clear and fresh in his mind, especially the image of a dead Steve Rogers next to a broken red, white and blue shield.

Like always lately, his mind freezes unwittingly on how in his darkest nightmares it’s not Chitauri killing his team, but himself.

I’m gonna miss him though. And you’re gonna miss me. There’s gonna be a lot of manful tears.

I will miss you, Tony.

Are you incapable of letting go of your ego for one goddamn second?

Not for the first time, he wishes he’d listened to Natasha better.

“Are you going to tell me how you ended up with a 16 year old intern, Tony? I thought your interns needed to be at least in college.. What’s her name?”

Tony’s relieved, because he doesn’t know if he can continue to talk about this. He doesn’t think he can bring up Barnes or bear it if Steve did it himself, but the Captain is handing him an obvious out to the conversation. Tony isn’t about to disregard it now.

“Penny. It was just before… Well everything. Smart kid. Too smart.” Tony shakes his head, remembering the excited call he got barely a month and a half earlier when she won first place at the STEM fair at school with the bot she built. The picture Pepper had taken that night on the balcony of the kid and him, the bright lights of the Chrysler building in the background, is sitting in front of him on his desk, next to a picture of Pepper from a vacation to Paris, and Happy and Rhodey the night of Tony’s 35th birthday.

“God, Steve she’s damn near as advanced as I was at her age- and I skipped high school to go to college. But she’s… Just trying to be a regular kid.”

“How’d you find her?”

Tony thinks for a moment, before he decides trying to lie completely is going to be incredibly fishy. “Repeat this, and I’ll fly to whatever hole you’re in and beat the crap out of you but, she’s the one that made Spider-Man’s webbing.”

Steve chuckles, Tony hears a bit of surprise. “Should’ve expected that, actually. She’s that smart?”

Tony tries not to overthink the fact that Steve doesn’t ask how she knows Spider-Man. Maybe Steve’s decided he’ll accept whatever Tony decides to tell him.

Huh…

“More. God, she’s never been tested and I won’t broach the subject with her aunt out of fear of my insides being permanently damaged, but I’d bet my entire company on her knocking everyone out of the park on an IQ test. Even me. Which is why I’m so frustrated she didn’t tell me about this.”

“I don’t think it’s because she doesn’t trust you, but considering recent events, you’re not gonna know unless you talk to her about it,” Steve tells him. “Don’t make the same mistake I did.”

“God I hate it when you’re right.” Except, perhaps this time, because Tony needed Steve’s unapologetically righteous reasoning when he called him up out of the blue.

Then, Tony considers something else. The giant glaring neon sign in the back of his mind that reminds Tony he didn’t just call to be talked out of a felony.

“I made it too, if I’m being honest, and repeat this outside the team and I’ll go back to pretending you don’t exist or you’re dead-“ Steve actually laughs at that, light and loose like an old man and Tony kind of hates that he misses it, “but I didn’t exactly trust you either. Should’ve… Came forward earlier about redoing the accords.”

Tony can practically hear Rogers choke. “Wait- You’re rewriting the accords? How’d you get them to agree to that?”

“We’ll I haven’t yet, not completely, but I’ve convinced quite a few of them to consider hearing an argument for rewrites. I told them if they didn’t Rhodeyt, Vis and I would resign,” he says flatly. “The three of us alone, we’re not enough. And Spider-Man isn’t ready, not yet. The team only works with all of us, Cap. We lost Banner, and Thor went MIA looking for answers and I abandoned the team. It hasn’t worked in a while.”

“What does that mean, Tony?” Steve asks, awed and breathless like he can’t believe what he’s hearing.

“It means I have a lot of promises right now that I don’t know if I can keep, so do me a favor and keep it from the others for now. If I can’t get Ross to back down on his more unsavory requests, I don’t want them to get their hopes up, especially Wanda. She and Vis are trying… Whatever they can to make whatever weird Android and Sabrina the Teenage Witch relationship they have work and it wouldn’t be fair to them if I can’t deliver.”

Out of everyone that he wishes hadn’t gotten involved, it’s the twins. They’d only been 18, they deserved to grow up normally with lives and friends and opportunities- Wanda had been considering college when the Accords had blasted through the team.

“Does Vision not know then?”

“No, and neither does Rhodey. As of right now only you and I know.”

He doesn’t mention T’Challa or Pepper, because technically T’Challa only knows that he’s threatened to resign. He doesn’t know that they’re attempting full rewrites.

“Why’d you tell me then?”

Tony pauses for a long moment, trying to figure out the words to say.

“Because we were supposed to be leading this team together,” he says only a little sardonically, but he feels it’s justified, “not that either of us was ever any good at that. But you need to look out for them long enough so that I can give them their lives back. I’ve got Rhodey, Vis, Barton and Lang. You take care of Nat, Wilson and the kids.”

“What about Spider-Man? He doesn’t have to sign because he’s not an Avenger, right?” Steve questions, with worry bleeding through his voice.

“I wish it was that simple. I fucked up, brought him in to fight you guys. That put him on the international stage, and opened him up to a lot of scrutiny he didn’t deserve yet.”

Tony still isn’t sure how he’s going to protect Penny completely- but he does know he isn’t going to settle until he’s satisfied Ross can’t touch her.

“Yeah, but… Tony you can’t blame yourself for that,” Steve replies kindly but firm. “I’ve been following you and the kid as much as I can, that business with the arms dealer? That kid isn’t going to stay out of big threats. I saw the video from the beach, trying to save the man who just tried to kill him. Look, I know I don’t know him, not really, but… If I’m right about him, he’s the type to step up no matter what.”

It's clear Steve had thought a lot about Spider-Man since the airport. “Talking from experience?”

Steve chuckles and it’s a touch self deprecating. “When I took the serum it was just to become a better soldier. Never a superhero. I ended up one anyway, because I couldn’t stay out of fights I believed in.”

Tonys eyes roll back into his head because of fucking course Steve would say that. “You know, Cap, the first time I met him he told me ‘When you can do the things that I can and you don’t, the bad things happen because of you.’”

“Sounds like a wise kid.”

“He’s too much like you. I traded one self sacrificing idiot for another.”

It’s then that Tony notices the tightness in his chest is nearly gone, and the immediate panic he felt when Shanice first confessed the assault to him and Pepper has almost subsided.

There’s a weight that’s risen off his chest, and for the first time Tony thinks there might actually be hope for the team- the entire team. If he can get Rogers’ input on this, then he can make the right changes, ones that hopefully mean the others could come back as well.

This is… This is about more than just a team, or about being prepared whenever the moment comes that they’re facing whatever Thor went out looking for.

It’s about family.

Tony decides that talking to May has to come after talking to the kid, because it should come from her and he doesn’t want to blindside Penny more than the situation is already calling for.

He spends the drive from Manhattan to Forest Hills thinking over Penny’s behavior the last few weeks, and how he shouldn’t have ever left it alone. He noticed that she’d been quieter, but he wanted her to come to him about whatever was going on.

He wishes with all his might that he hadn’t been such a coward about it, because he would’ve put a stop to it immediately.

Tony takes her to the lab first, and they work on the latest War Machine armor fixes while he tries to decide how he’s supposed to bring this up. He left the doors open on purpose, because he wants her to know she’s free to leave if she needs to. In fact, he always made it a point to never put himself between her and the door for the first few months they worked in the lab together, and to leave it open unless she shut it herself. It’s the benefit of the lab being in the residential areas- he can always ensure classified information or tech is completely protected.

She’s quieter than she usually is, though quieter has been her M.O. the last few weeks. He’s noticed it increasingly, usually when he’d see her for their lab day on Thursdays- just like today.

Her intern lab day is on Wednesdays.

When Penny successfully repairs the right blaster, Tony closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He sits down across from her on the other side of the desk.

“Underoos, we need to talk about something,” he tells her.

Penny looks up at him and lifts an eyebrow. “Everything okay?”

Tony’s not fooled. “Sit down, honey.”

Her face crumbles a little, lips wobbling and hands shaking, but she sets the welder down and pulls the work gloves off, all while sliding into a chair. “Annay said something, didn’t she?”

“She told Dr. Williams, who came to me and Pepper last night. She had already pulled the security footage,” he tells her softly and kindly, making sure nothing he says sounds accusing. “Why didn’t you say anything? To Shanice, to Pepper, Happy, or me?”

“I-It’s gonna sound so stupid,” she whispers painfully, looking down her her lap and wringing her hands, “but I was just afraid no one would believe me or I’d get the wrong person in trouble. I’m an idiot-”

“It’s not stupid,” he refutes firmly, but quietly. “You’re not an idiot, kid, far from it.” He places his hands down on the table, palms up in an invitation, and she places her own over his. He squeezes her hands, and makes her look him head on. “No matter what, Penny, I’m right here and I’m always going to believe you.” Horribly, a single tear falls down her cheek and he hates the way he just knows Westcott tried to pull that over her. As if he’d ever believe she’d lie about something like this.

She shakes her head after a moment, “But he never actually did anything-“

“I don’t care, kid, he still touched you when you told him not to, and he was making advances against you. He’s an adult and you’re sixteen. This isn’t your fault.”

A quiet sob rips through her and Tony’s entire heart breaks. She holds onto his hands stronger than he knows she’d ever dare, and he carefully stands and kneels down next to her chair and she throws her arms around him, and his heart bursts from the fact that she has every reason to shy away from everyone at the moment, but she still trusts him.

Once again, Steve Rogers is right.

“I love you, kid.” Penny cries into his shoulder at his admission and her skinny arms squeeze around his shoulders. Tony holds on tight, kisses the side of her head and whispers, “I will always believe you, honey. Always.”