Chapter Text
It was a normal Thursday for the Avengers and it was also quite normal that not all of the team members managed to come to the training session on time. Steve Rogers aka Captain America was there on time and waited together with Black Widow and Falcon for the rest of the team.
“I can’t believe that it’s so hard for them to come to training on time.” Steven said with a loud sight.
“Well at least Tony said that he won’t come because he has a meeting with Rhodey.” Sam said and offered the Captain a smile.
“A meeting with Rhodey. In other words he ditched training to spend time with his best friend.”
“Let him be Steve. He doesn’t see Rhodey that often and it won’t hurt anyone when Tony takes a day off.” Natasha said. She looked at her wrist as if she would check a wristwatch for the time even when she wasn’t wearing one.
“I’m sick of waiting.” She started to say. “JARVIS, where are the others?”
“Mister Barton, Mister Thor and Mister Hulk are in the common room right now.” The AI answered.
“Did they forget that we are supposed to meet here in the training room or did they just get lost on their way here?” Sam asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe they forgot the training session at all.” Steve said and let out another sight. They left the training room to see why the others didn’t show up.
When they reached the common room the first thing they heard was Clint's voice.
“Sorry guys, you’re too late. We already ate the whole cake.” He said.
“Friend Clint is right! We already devoured the tasty cake!” Thor agreed.
“It was yummy.” Hulk added.
“So you all decided to skip training to eat cake?” Captain America asked his team members. Hands on his hips as if he was only seconds apart from scolding them.
“Well the cake was more important!” Clint said. “Someone else could have eaten it while we were training. And the only way to prevent this was to eat it!”
“This is the common room. Only a few people have access to it and I don’t think any of them would steal a cake. What did you think? That a burglar would break in just to steal a cake?” Steve asked the archer.
“Yes, that could have happened! We are Avengers, we experience weird shit everyday! So why not a burglar who steals cake?” Clint answered.
“Clint please be serious-” Steve said but stopped talking when he heard the elevator door open. A moment later the room was filled with the clicking sound of high heels. No one other than Pepper Pots came into the room. Her eyes glued to her tablet and it took her around half a minute to notice she wasn’t alone in the room.
“Oh hello, I thought you guys had a training session right now.” She said.
“We actually should be training right now but some people decided to simply not show up.” Steve looked at Hawkeye, Thor and Hulk while saying this.
“Tony did tell you that he won’t come to training today. Right?” Pepper asked. She knew Tony for years and knew how horrible he was at keeping appointments or to actually call them off and not just to not show up.
“Yes, we know that he’s out with Rhodey today.” Natasha answered before Steve could open his mouth.
“Good.”
She went over to the table where Steve presumed the cake once stood. Her eyes searched the desk and when they couldn’t find anything on it, her eyes searched the rest of the room.
“Where is the cake which stood on the table?” She finally asked after she couldn’t find what she was searching for. So she was the person who brought the cake here.
“A burglar broke in and stole it.” Clint answered without hesitating. His statement made Pepper turn toward him and raise an eyebrow.
“Someone broke into a tower with one of the best security systems in the world to steal a cake?”
“Yes.” Clint said.
“A really tasty cake!” Thor added.
“Actually Clint, Thor and Hulk decided to skip practice and rather eat cake.” Natasha said and earned a gasp from Clint.
“How can you call me out like that?”
“How can you just eat cake and not invite me?”
Pepper sighed.
“Okay, that was my fault. After all, I just left the cake here in the common room and didn’t even leave a note which says `don’t touch it´.” She said.
“Why did you bring a cake here to begin with?” Sam asked.
“The cake was for Tony, I wanted to bring it to his penthouse but I got an important call from work and didn’t have the time to bring it there. So I left it here and I wanted to bring it up to his penthouse now.”
“So we just ate Tonys cake? No big deal. The guy could buy all the cake in the world. One more or less is surely no problem.” Clint said and leaned back on the couch.
“The cake was selfmade.” Pepper added to her story and seemed kinda frustrated that the cake was gone.
“Fair maiden Pepper, I didn’t know that you could make such tasty cakes!” Thor nearly shouted.
“Well, I guess I don’t deserve all the credits. Rhodey helped me. A lot. Actually he pretty much did all the work with the cake while I was busy with work. But I got the ingredients and we did it in my kitchen. It was better that way, I really have no baking talent.” Pepper said.
“I’m sure you’re not that bad at baking.” Steve said to her.
“Oh I’m really bad at it. Years ago Tony and I had a competition who could make the best cake. Rhodey had to play the judge. My cake was horrible but I still won because Tony’s cake was even worse. Poor Rhodey had to go to the hospital after he tasted the cakes.” She smiled when she remembered the day which happened years ago.
“And why did you and Rhodey make a cake for Tony?” Natasha asked. Pepper worked a lot and already did a lot for Tony but they never saw that she made him a cake (or let Rhodey bake a cake for Tony).
“It was supposed to be a birthday present.” She answered.
“A birthday present?” Steve repeated. “Does he… I… I don’t think I know when Tonys Birthday is.” He added.
“It’s today. 29 May.” Pepper answered. Before she could say more her cell phone started to ring and she had to answer the call. It must have been an important call from work. “Yes, I understand. I will come right away.”
“Sorry I have to leave.” She said, “I’ll try to get Tony something else but promise me that if I brought another cake, that you won’t eat it!” And with these words she already stepped into the elevator and told JAVIS to bring her down.
The Avengers stood there in silence for a moment.
“Sooooo… did anyone know that today is Tonys birthday?” Sam asked. After all, he was the newest Avengers and didn’t live with Tony in his Tower for two years. The others just shook their heads.
“It is in his file but I didn’t pay it any attention.” Natasha answered.
“I thought he would throw a giant party to celebrate himself and we would notice his birthday like that. I mean we talk about Stark, he loves himself! But it doesn’t look like he was planning a party.” Clint said.
“I don’t think I ever asked him when his birthday is.” Steven said. “And now that I think about it… have we ever celebrated his birthday since we lived together?”
“Nope.” Natasha answered and sat down on the couch beside Clint.
“Isn’t Tony the guy who always makes a big fuss over everyones birthday? Weird that he never did anything for his own Birthday.” Sam said.
“A big fuss is a little bit understated. He threw a giant Party for my birthday and when I told him it was too much he just said, I quote: `You missed 70 Birthdays and who am I when I don’t give America's golden boy the best birthday party ever? Now sit down and drink this extra strong alcohol I made only for you.´ Honestly I thought he just liked parties.”
“To be fair, it’s your fault. You said he should surprise you, when he asked you what you wanted to do for your birthday.” Natasha said with a small smirk on her lips.
“And he organized a great cliff scrambling trip for my Birthday. Even though Bruce didn’t want to join.” Clint said. As an answer he got a loud grumble from Hulk.
“Hulk smash the cliff!”
“Yeah, one second thought it’s better you didn’t join us.” Clint said.
“Am I the only one who feels bad for never doing anything for Tony’s birthday? Not even asking when it is?” Steve asked the other Avengers.
“At least you didn’t eat his cake.” Natasha said and threw another glance at Clint.
“Pepper could have left a note or written on the cake `Happy Birthday´ or something like that. It’s not my fault that the cake didn’t look like a birthday cake!” Clint protested.
“Maybe we should try to do something for his birthday. I mean we don’t really have a lot of time but maybe we could do something small for him.” Sam suggested.
“Sounds good. Does anyone have an idea?”
“We could go with him in a great battle about life and death and when the battle is won, we're gonna have a great feast!” Thor suggested.
“Let’s make that plan B.” Steve said. He didn’t believe that intentionally going in a battle would be a good Birthday Idea. As Avengers they already had enough battles without starting them intentionally.
“Hulk could smash something!”
“And that’s gonna be plan C.”
“It should be something Tony likes. What exactly does he like?” Steve asked. He just realized that he didn’t know what his teammate does when he isn’t working in his lab, working for SI or being Iron Man.
“He likes technology and spending all his time in his lab.” Sam said.
“But he does that everyday. Shouldn’t it be something special?”
“He likes parties, women, himself…” Clint started to list. “We could get him a mirror!”
“Do you actually have information about him, which doesn't come from a gossip magazine?” Natasha asked him.
“Not really. I mean look at him, he really does love himself. You don’t need a gossip magazine to know that. Otherwise… I guess he really spends all his free time in his workshop.”
“I got the feeling that Friend Tony likes to spend time with this other man made of iron.” Thor said.
“You mean War machine aka Rhodey? Yes, he’s Tony’s best friend.” Sam said.
“But he already spends his day with Rhodey.” Steve answered.
“We don’t really have time to plan something big. We should probably go for something small. How about dinner? Or we could bake him a new cake?” Natasha suggested. Steve looked at her with a smile on his lips.
“That's a good plan. And implementable.” He said to her and turned to the other Avengers.
“We should split into groups. One group will make the cake. Another group will decorate and the last group will look if they can find a gift for Tony.” Steven said. The other Avengers agreed.
“I can make the cake! My mom and I often bake so I’m pretty good at doing it.” Sam explained.
“I’m in the cake group too!” Clint announced which earned him a raised eyebrow from Natasha.
“Are you sure that you don’t want to eat this cake too?” She asked him. Clint's answer was an over dramatic gasp.
“How dare you assume I would just eat the birthday cake of someone else?”
“Because you already did.”
“That was such a long time ago! When will you let the past be past?”
“It was ten minutes ago.”
“Like I said. A long time ago. Also I’m great at baking.” Clint praised himself.
“Really?” Natasha asked, her eyebrow was still raised.
“Yes. I have many talents! I’m also great at making people's make-up! You should give me more credits!” Clint said. Natasha let out a chuckle.
“And you say Tony has a big ego.” Before Clint could answer her Steve interrupted them.
“Sorry to interrupt you two but we don’t have all day. So Clint can bake? Good then you and Sam will make the cake.”
“Well, I know that his make-up skills are real. I don’t know about his baking skills.” Natasha said.
“At the end of the day you will know that I’m one of the best baker ever!” Steve didn’t react to Clint's statement and tried to form the other two teams.
Natasha stepped closer to Steve and whispered in his ear. “I don’t think Thor and Hulk should be in one team for obvious reasons. I’m team decorating and you are team shopping. How does that sound to you?” She suggested. Steve understood that putting Thor and Hulk in one team would end in a disaster and it would probably destroy a part of the tower.
“Okay, Thor you and I are going shopping and Hulk will help Natasha decorating.” He announced.
The decoration Team didn’t even have to buy any decoration stuff because Tony loved to throw Birthday Parties for everyone except for himself. It went surprisingly well for the team. Hulk held the stuff and Natasha did the fine work like pinning the banner to the wall or placing anything breakable in the room.
The cake team had way more problems than the decoration team. Sam and Clint didn’t lie when they said they knew how to bake but they just couldn’t agree which kind of cake they should make. Sam wanted to bake an old-fashioned style chocolate cake but Clint said it was too boring for someone like Tony.
“Something simple like that would fit Steve but this is about Tony! As if that guy likes anything simple!” Clint said.
“Tell me one person who doesn’t like chocolate! Everyone loves chocolate cake and I’m sure Tony will love it too!”
“If he even perceives such a boring cake. Nat back me up here!” Clint shouted so Natasha could hear him in the other room.
“Just make the damn cake Clint!” She shouted back.
The cake ended up being a three-tier cake with different tastes and filling.
Team shopping met a problem while they tried to find a gift for Tony. The problem was: What do you give a man who already has everything?
“I slowly understand why Pepper and Rhodey went with a self made cake as a present.” Steve said while looking through the sixt shop.
“Don’t worry friend Steve, we will find something fitting for friend Tony!” Thor said. He lifted up a vase.
“How about this?” Thor asked.
“I don’t think he wants a vase.”
“And this?” Thor pointed at a desk filled with Avengers merches. There were little Iron Man figures and also figures from the rest of the team. Steve let out a quiet laugh while imagining how Tony would react if they gave him an Iron Man figure but then he shook his head.
“I think he has more than enough Suites.”
They left the shop and still had no idea what kind of gift Tony Stark would like. Steve really tried to think about what Tony would like while Thor pointed at almost every store window and yelled “What about this?”.
For the 23 time Thor pointed at a store and asked if that would be a gift Tony would like. This time it was a pet store. “You Midgardians love adorable beasts, right? That would be perfect!”
“Tony barely remembers to eat and sleep. I don’t think it’s a good idea to give him a pet.”
“It seems like our quest is harder than it seemed.” Thor said.
“You’re right. I didn’t think it would be this hard to find something for Tony.” Steve said.
After they went inside five other shops without finding anything Steve stopped on the sideway.
“I don’t think we will find anything like this. We should try to think of something he likes and not just go into random shops.” Steve said.
“I still think the little furred beast from the feet amory shop would be a good gift!” Thor said.
“You mean the cat which sat in the shoe shop? For the last time Thor, I don’t think they would sell the cat.” He stated.
“What does Tony like? Spending money, technology, science… more science… some movies I still haven’t watched. He likes to know stuff and figure stuff out.” Steve said to himself. Suddenly Thor's face lit up.
“Friend Steve, you gave me the perfect idea!” He shouted exited.
“What-” Steve couldn’t say anymore before Thor yelled “HEIMDALL!” and a rainbow beam teleported him away.
“Okay… I guess I will just keep looking for a gift alone…”
It took around an hour for Thor to reappear on earth with a loud thunder.
“Friend Steve! I think I have a gift for the man of iron!” Thor announced. Steve raised an eyebrow, not sure what he should think about Thor's announcement. After all he already suggested more than once to get Tony some kind of animal for his birthday and Steve didn’t want to know which kind of animal he could get with Heimdalls help.
“You’re sure Thor?”
The blond god dug in his pocket and pulled something out. It was a little glowing orb a little bit smaller than a table tennis ball. Around the orb six little golden rings with strange symbols engraved into them floated around the orb. The whole thing was three centimeters above Thor's hand.
“Thor that’s… what is that?” Steve asked.
“It's a toy. Or a riddle… to be honest I never really understood it. Loki said it’s a puzzle game, where you have to find out… well something about it. He loved it back then when we were kids.”
“Well even when he can’t use it as a puzzle game, it’s still pretty. I think it could be a great gift. Good work Thor!”
All teams finished their work in time and the only thing missing was Tony. And they need Tony to throw him a birthday party.
“Did he say when he will be back? Or if he will come back today?” Natasha asked.
“Maybe we should have asked before we planned a party.” Clint mumbled.
“To your information, it seems like Mister Stark and Mister Rhodes just arrived back at the tower and they head for the elevators. They should be in the common room in 30 seconds.” JARVIS informed them.
“Oh great. That’s not much time to decide how to welcome him. Are we just all gonna scream `Surprise! We totally knew it’s your Birthday´ or what?” Clint asked but there was no time to answer him because the elevator already opened his doors.
There was no time to say anything because Tony stormed out of the elevator.
“Just admin it Rhodey. You used your position in the air force to manipulate it!” Tony said. Rhodey stepped out of the elevator too.
“Yeah, you got me Tones. I worked years for my career and to get this position just so I can do this. You unmasked my evil plan.” He said while rolling his eyes.
“I knew it.” Tony said while sounding way too dramatic.
“What happened?” Steve asked and just in this moment Tony seemed to realize that the other Avengers were there.
“Nothing happened.” He said right away. Rhodey on the other hand didn’t seem like he wanted to cover up where they just were.
“Well, you know I barely get a day off and now that I got one I thought I should do something with my best friend since college.” Rhodey started telling the story.
“Don’t think sweet words will help you!” Tony said but only got a laugh from Rhodey as answer.
“Like I was saying, I was looking for a fun activity for the both of us and I didn’t let Tony choose because his definition of fun isn’t normal.”
“Hey! I can hear you, you know?!”
“Then I found out that there is a `Tony Stark look alike contest´ today where we joined. Well Tones joined. I don’t really look like Tony Stark.” Rhodey told them.
“Sounds like something you would like Tony. A whole contest just about you.” Clint teased.
“That was a stupid contest.” Tony muttered as answer.
“In the end Tones got second place.” Rhodey chuckled and showed the silver trophy he held in his hand.
“Yeah, because it seems like I don’t look enough like Tony Stark!”
“No, it just means someone else looks more like Tony Stark.”
“Not helping.”
“Please tell me you got a video from the contest. I need to see it!” Clint said excitedly.
“I do have a video.” Rhodey answered and showed his phone. He wanted to show the video but just before he could do it the screen started to flicker.
“Tony!” Rhodey shouted and looked at Tony who tipped something on his phone. He didn’t let himself get distracted by Rhodeys shouting.
“No one will ever see this video.” He said and put his phone away.
“I can’t believe you just hacked the phone of an air force general just to delete a video.” Rhodey said while shaking his head in disbelief.
“Like I never did something like this before.” Tony waved off.
Finally the billionaire looked at the other avengers, which still stood around the elevator entrance. He eyed them with a raised eyebrow.
“What are you all even doing here? Shouldn’t you have a training session right now?” He wanted to know. Steve took this question as the perfect opportunity to lay one hand on Tonys shoulder and to lead him in the other room, where they decorated everything for the birthday party.
“Well we decided to skip training today to prepare something. Sooo…” They reached the party room. “Happy Birthday!” The other Avengers said and it sounded more or less synchronal. Thor started saying the words way later than the rest of the Avengers and he also said it way louder than the others. Rhodey, who followed after Tony looked at the decorated room in shock.
Tony didn’t say anything. He looked at the decorated room, didn’t move and stayed silent.
“Tony?” Steve asked after the genius didn’t react for a while.
Suddenly Tony started to react again. “I have some work I need to finish left in my lab.” And before someone could stop him or ask something, Tony was out of the room.