Work Text:
FROM: KING ASSHAT
COME TO MY FLOOR @ 8. BRING FOOTIE PJS.
Sharon had no idea what to expect when Tony texted her. She also had no idea how he knew she was in New York. She’d only come to hang out with Sam for a few nights. Nonetheless, she went to the mall and got herself a pair of footie pajamas. They were white with little Captain America shields all over. She sent Sam a picture of herself wearing them in the dressing room, and was given an “LOL” as a response. She didn’t officially change into them until she reached the tower, making sure to put them on before reaching Tony’s floor. She wasn’t expecting any company. He rarely invited anyone up to his floor who weren’t Pepper or Rhodey (or Natasha, Steve, or Fury, whom all have override codes).
He wasn’t there to greet her when she made it up to Tony’s floor. The bottom of her feet squeaked on the floorboards as she padded her way past the kitchen and dining room, still no sight of anyone. She stopped when she entered the living room and saw a giant heap of blankets, pillows, and folding chairs. She knew exactly where this was going.
“There you are!” Tony announced, stepping out of the bedroom. Sharon’s hand flew to her mouth to hide the snort that escaped.
“Are those Black Widow footie pajamas?” she asked. They were black with Nat’s little red symbols decorating it.
Tony turned and struck a pose. “I make these look amazing,” he said. He motioned to the heap in the living room. “Anyway, you ready to do some real work?”
Sharon rolled her eyes and helped Tony put the chairs in a large circle with the couches. “Unlike you, I’m employed.”
“Yeah, by the CIA. That’s not real work for you. Have you tried Interpol? Nat says they’re better than the other American organizations.”
“I like having a steady home, Tony. It’s a nice refreshing pace. And I can live close to Aunt Peggy.”
Tony’s smile fell. He stared at her clothed feet and swung his leg absently. “How is she?” he asked quietly.
Sharon smiled sadly. “She’s doing her best. She wants you to visit, or Howard when she forgets what year it is. And she’s always so enthusiastic that you can’t help but smile.” She and Tony grabbed the longest blanket and draped it across the chair frame. “You should come by soon.”
“I want to, but…” Tony paused before they put the next blanket up.
“It’s hard on all of us, I know. At least try to.”
Tony was quiet while they finished making the blanket fort. He threw the pillows on the floor and plopped down with her face resting on his hands. Sharon looked at him and wished she could just take away all that sadness.
She was only seven when Tony was diagnosed with major depressive disorder. He had fought Aunt Peggy about going to see doctors and therapists for what felt like forever to young Sharon, and each fight would end with him taking her out for ice cream and Aunt Peggy shouting that he wasn’t allowed to kidnap her niece whenever he was pissed, leading into another fight. He would fake taking his pills (“Crazies take pills, and I’m not crazy,” he’s tell everyone) and hide them in a secret compartment in Sharon’s closet that was found later. When he took over Stark Industries as its CEO and hired Pepper as his assistant, he finally started going to bi-weekly therapy sessions. SHIELD made him take psych-evaluations twice a year to make sure he kept from going suicidal after the attack in New York. He had started going into depressive episodes over these past years. He continued blaming himself for everything that went wrong, saying that the Avengers are better off without him, that he was part of the reason why Bruce was never going to come back – Sharon tried not to pity him, knowing how much he hated that.
Sharon smiled as an idea came to her head. “Remember Aunt Angie’s hot chocolate?” she asked.
Tony looked up, a small smirk on his lips. “Yeah. Why?”
“Well, we can’t have a blanket and pillow fort without having her hot chocolate. She’s be disappointed in us.”
The smirk became a smile “And we can’t have that, now can we?” Tony stood up and raced Sharon into the kitchen. Tony had no idea what was what in the cabinets (thankfully, Sharon found a location key on the fridge made by Pepper), so it took them a while to gather all the ingredients. Milk, chocolate bars, chocolate powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, whipped cream, marshmallows, and…
“I’m telling you, Aunt Angie had a version with vodka in it!” Tony insisted.
“Aunt Angie was not like that!” Sharon also insisted.
“Not in front of you! You were a kid!”
“Oh, please, like she shared it with you!”
“Yes, she did! When you weren’t looking! Why do you think you were given a labelled mug?”
Sharon opened her mouth to respond when it clicked. “I never knew…”
“Now your childhood has been tainted forever, I know. Start making it already!”
“Don’t you know?”
“I only know how much alcohol to put in it!”
Sharon begrudgingly made the hot chocolate, telling Tony that she found it amazing that he graduated from college at the top of his class with three doctorates, but didn’t have a big enough attention span to watch someone make hot chocolate. Tony let her say so, and only interrupted to tell here when to stop pouring into the mugs to fill the rest with vodka. After it was topped off with marshmallows and whipped cream, they went back into the living room and settled on top of the pillows and under the blankets.
“FRIDAY, play The Room,” Tony said.
“Yes, Mister Stark,” Friday said.
“The Room?” Sharon whined. “You know that movie sucks above all else.”
“That’s the joy of watching it! It makes you feel like you couldn’t possibly screw up anything worse than he screwed up that movie!” Tony grabbed the remote from the floor and turned up the volume. Sharon rolled her eyes in disgust.
“We can watch The Room only if we watch Rocky Horror Picture Show next – and you have to do the Time Warp with me!” Sharon exclaimed.
Tony rolled his eyes in disgust.
Two hours and four more hot chocolates between them later, Tony and Sharon were dancing along with the movie and shouting the lyrics at the top of their lungs as they jumped to the left and stepped to the right. Tony tripped over his own feet and Sharon fell over from laughing too hard. Tony tried to sit down but slid off a blanket-covered chair and landed on the floor, making them start laughing all over again.
Sharon and Tony’s phones started ringing. They paused the movie and collected themselves before answering their respective calls. Sharon walked into the bathroom before saying, “Hello?”
“Did you know?” Steve asked.
Sharon blinked. Twice. Rubbed her right eye. “What?”
“Did you know? It’s your division doing this, right?”
“Steve, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She hears something crinkling on the other line. She takes the silence as a chance to try to unzip her pajamas. She really has to pee.
“We just got a file from General Ross asking for any and all superheroes to register under the United States government. Any and all who oppose will be arrested and be stripped of their title. Signed by the president and the directors of the CIA and FBI. Did you know?”
“I already told you that I didn’t know!” Sharon sits on the toilet and starts to pee. “When did this happen?”
“A few days ago. Fury went AWOL and Maria took over in his place. She doesn’t know what to do about this either. I just found out five hours ago. I tried bringing it up to some of the other Avengers about it, but they don’t want to talk about it. Natasha gave me a weird look.”
“Did you spring it upon them out of nowhere and expect them to agree with however you felt?”
“Hey!”
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Sharon looked at the toilet paper roll and sighed. “Steve, sleep on it and call me back in the morning, okay? We’ll worry about it then. I’ll try to find out whatever I can from work and let you know what I find.”
She heard Steve sigh back to her. “Okay, I’ll do it. Thanks, Sharon. Good night.”
“Night.”
After finishing in the bathroom and washing her hands, she came back into the living room to see Tony sitting on the floor and staring at the paused screen. She assumed he got the same call and sat next to him. Their fun evening was shot to hell now.
Sharon nudged Tony’s foot with hers and smiled at him. He got out his phone and snapped a selfie of them that he posted to Twitter. Sharon made a face at him, then laughed when she saw that Aunt Angie retweeted it (when did she get a Twitter account?). They took turns making faces for their cameras, then did a session in front of the full-length mirror. The most obnoxious pictures were sent to Rhodey, Sam, and Pepper, all of whom were mildly amused, though Pepper told him that they woke her up two hours earlier than her alarm before she attended a meeting in London.
That was the last time they had a chance to have fun for a while.