Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Timeline: 6 Months after CA:CW

“You know…you totally suck at keeping secrets, “ Banner’s voice echoed down the hallway. T'Challa stopped abruptly, plate gripped in his hands. Only years of training kept him upright and the food still on the plate.

“How could you Bruce?” I'm offended you would even think such a thing of me.”

He had never met the man but the thought chilled him to his core. The untold rage and strength of the man was all he saw when he ventured to Johannesburg to assist in relief aid. If that hadn't been enough, the stark terror in the eyes of his victims cemented it fully. Layers of dirt covered nearly everything in the epicenter of the Hulk's rampage and Iron Man's attempt to stop him. The smell of death was so pungent he was still unable to rid it from his thoughts. Citizens lying broken and wide eyed on the ground. He grimaced at the thought. His father wanted him to personally assist with the relief aid to get him acquainted with the new destructive beings in the world.

“Point made, I think,” Bruce's voice carried down the hall. T'Challa stepped into view unsure of whether or not he would actually like the man who carried the Hulk inside of him. This was the man that had sparked his father's belief in the Accords.

Tony sat on a stool in front of a workbench. In his hands he twirled a screwdriver and what could possibly be a War Machine component. At closer inspection it appeared to be a long jointed piece of metal. Several computer components lay scattered across the table and a screen hung in his air over the parts boasting Banner’s tired but amused looking face. He locked eyes with T'Challa and Tony swiveled in his chair, tools and strange contraption dropped to rest on his thighs.

“Security breach! FRIDAY? Am I going to have to donate you along with Dum-E? Hmm?”

Bruce snorted.

“I apologize, Boss. Dr. Banner messaged me that you haven’t eaten since you accepted his phone call over 5 hours ago and that he suspected you we going to forgo dinner as well. Ms. Potts would have sent lunch directly to the floor if her access hadn’t been revoked.”

Bruce scowled at his own ceiling, God knows where, as if Friday were responding in his own home. T’Challa wondered why Pepper Potts had been denied access while Tony began grumbling.

“Traitors! The whole lot of you. I'm wounded! Deeply…hey wait…is that peanut butter?”

T’Challa glanced speculatively at the plate in his hand. When he had arrived at the tower they were sat on the counter without a staff member in sight. Suspicious of the intent he had taken a whiff to try to determine if they were safe when FRIDAY startled him by requesting that he take them down to the workshop and meet her creator there. It seems he had been relegated to delivery boy the moment he stepped foot in the communal floor.

“It would appear so,” T'Challa said and handed off the plate to Tony's eagerly wiggling fingers.

“And to what do I owe the honor of your visit by your royal pantherness?” Tony asked around a bite of his peanut butter sandwich.

“Tony!”

“What?”

“He’s a king! You don’t talk to kings that way!” Banner admonished.

“Actually—” T’Challa started to speak.

“It’s our thing, right T’Challa?” Tony said, with his back to Banner’s screen. He nodded at him while Banner shook his head exasperation clear on his face.

“So, T’Challa this is Bruce Banner,” Tony said, more seriously after he’d swallowed down his bite of sandwich. “He’s...”

“The Hulk, I know,” T’Challa said flatly. “I have seen your work in Johannesburg. Very interesting.”

Bruce pulled back from the screen with a pained expression on his face while the omega man in front of him set his plate down and outright glared at him.

“I aided in the relief effort along side your September Foundation,” T’Challa said, not budging beneath the wilting stare the man gave him.

“How kind of you,” Tony replied. “Bruce, I’m going to have to talk to you about the rest of the project later at our usual time.”

“Later, Tony,” Bruce said. His eyes tinged green along his pupils mingling with the hazel T’Challa saw when their eyes next met. He nodded tightly at him and T’Challa had to take a breath at the grief that flickered across his face before the screen went blank and then disappeared completely. The holographic technology was interesting and he had a dozen or so questions at the tip of his tongue to ask the man behind them. Unfortunately he was met with Tony’s fury first.

“What the hell was that?” Tony’s voice was very barely controlled. The scent of his upset was plain in the air and there was a corresponding itch within T’Challa to whine and try to make it better. He swallowed it back and held his ground.

“I should ask you the same question, Stark,” T’Challa snapped. Tony flinched and turned his back to him to pick up the second half of his sandwich. He was dressed more simply than T’Challa had ever seen him. Faded jeans torn and scorched in random places hugged his narrow hips and a ratty t-shirt that might have once displayed a more clearly visible Starfleet insignia hung off of him. Holes that were either strategically placed or accidentally worn-or torched in one spot- gave T’Challa glimpses of the pale skin beneath. His breath hitched and he adverted his eyes when Tony turned back, shaking his head in an attempt to keep his head. It wasn’t why he was here.

“The UN is still searching for Banner,” T’Challa said.

“Like they’re still searching for the other rogue Avengers?” Tony asked with a smug smile gracing his lips.

Teeth bared and T’Challa momentarily startled he took a bite of his sandwich. T’Challa remembered his father’s old saying. You only eat when you feel comfortable, safe. It galled him. He was for the most part Stark’s ally with the UN but as an Alpha he’d never had an outsider disregard him in such a way. Did the man not see him as a threat? His eyes swept across Tony warily taking in his nonchalant eating and blatant eye roll. He felt like he was floundering.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” T’Challa said smoothly.

He’d only been King for a matter of hours really when he made the decision to bring the rogue avengers to his home. As his sister Shuri liked to remind him, it was an impulsive decision no matter how guilty he felt for having gone after an innocent man with the intent to kill. And now, Wakanda was on the hook for it. They had to nearly close their borders and keeping the fugitives away from the general populace had been more than difficult due to their proclivities towards ignoring direct orders. The young woman with them had decided to walk in a barely passible disguise in one of the small villages near the palace. If the Dora Milaje hadn’t been tailing her she would have been discovered. As much as he wanted to believe his countrymen were all loyal he knew better than to discount human nature.

Tony stared back at him, chewing thoughtfully with his arms folded across his chest.

“Calm down, kitty cat, it’s a good thing,” Tony said as if he’d just told him the sky were blue. Because of course. T’Challa’s jaw clenched to keep from dropping his mouth completely open to gawk at the man. It wasn’t everyday that someone could stump him.

“I’ll explain if you pull up a stool,” Tony said, all pretenses dropped and that look of smug satisfaction was disappearing by the second. T’Challa walked to the next closest stool and took a seat noticeably not moving it closer.

Tony quirked an eyebrow at him and with the plate in one hand and his stool in the other proceeded to make his way over. Very slowly. Dragging the chair in an awful screech behind him. T’Challa quirked his own eyebrow while resisting the urge to cover his ears. His more finely a tuned hearing picked up every painful screech and he was absolutely sure that Tony was more than aware of that fact. Tony stopped right in front of him and set his plate down on the table next to him.

“Ah, there we go. Thought it would be better if I came to you,” Tony said as he perched on the stool, looking into T’Challa’s eyes almost daring him to say something. One leg dangled while he notched the other against the step of his stool and rested an elbow on it.

This close T’Challa could see the deep brown of his eyes and the pinch of worry between his brows. He seemed nervous and yet confident. Both skittish and aggressive. His scent this close was metallic and cinnamon with the underlying scent of oil and grease from his work. It was overpowering his senses. He shook his head and blinked a few times to clear himself of it as much as he could. This was not what he came here for. Yet there he was sitting on a stool in Tony’s workshop waiting patiently for the older omega to speak feeling his heart rate increase at every whiff of the man.

“Are you alright?” T’Challa asked hesitantly. He had heard much from the man’s former teammates and knew he was prone to zone out rudely but his expression was far too intense for daydreaming. Tony’s intense gaze focused on him and there it was again, his heart beating wildly only now he itched to lean forward until he could be at the man’s neck to drag his scent in even further.

“I—T’Challa, listen, here’s the thing.”

“Yes?”

“I know you took them in. Don’t worry I’m not going to tattle on you to the council,” Tony rushed to say as T’Challa tensed up again. Often times a man will show you who he is immediately if you pay close attention when you meet him. His father’s words again and T’Challa swallowed the lump that formed in his throat.

“Because you are also shielding Banner?” T’Challa asked and was thankful his voice remained steady.

“I-yeah well no, not exactly. Even if you were to rat me out about him, they’ll never find him. He’s being looked after by one of my closest associates. I’m not worried about anyone finding him unless he decides he wants to be found.”

“That is very comforting, Mr. Stark,” T’Challa replied still not seeing where this was going.

“I’m trying to tell you that I’m glad you took them in,” Tony said. And now that was a bit of a shock. Tony’s face was open and earnest. Was he being honest?

“They’re not my favorite people in the world but the world will need them someday and if it wasn’t you who took them in I’d be scrambling to find them safe places to land,” Tony said.

“Thank you, your majesty. I don’t know where would go where Tony wouldn’t hunt us down,” Captain Rogers had said when he retrieved the rest of his team. “I don’t know what’s going on in his head right now but I know he’d do anything to get at them now that he knows they’ve escaped.”

“Well, we won’t let that happen,” T’Challa had replied and Captain Rogers left his office to help his team settle in. He fortified the borders expecting an attack without a second thought.

“That’s why you never attacked,” T’Challa said. “I wondered.”

“You knew that I knew?” Tony asked.

“I figured it was only a matter of time,” T’Challa said with a tone of relief in his voice.

“Well, now you know,” Tony said.

“Why?”

“Oh, isn’t that the question everyone keeps asking,” Tony said with the shake of his head. His hair, which had grown out from the short professional cut he’d had when they first met, flopped into his eyes with a few gray strands poking out. He blew the errant piece away with a short puff and leaned his chin on his fist.

“I’d like to start over with you if I could,” he said. “If we can. I’d like for us to be allies for real this time.”

For all his rambling the man sure did know how to cut to the quick.

“Tony, we were, are allies,” T’Challa tried to reassure him. Tony shook his head slowly.

“We may have been on the same side briefly for goals that barely aligned but I think we can do better,” Tony said.

“And how would that work Mr. Stark?” T’Challa asked.

“There’s something coming,” Tony said ominously. “Of the alien variety.”

And he had not been prepared to hear that. Tony smirked and chuckled.

“Yeah that’s how I feel,” he said.

He reached out and one of his holographic screens appeared. He began tapping on it and footage appeared of the Battle of New York. The hideous looking aliens flew over New York City and crawled over buildings destroying everything in their path.

Tony stared at it with wide eyes probably matching T’Challa’s own expression. He hoped he hadn’t shown as much fear as he felt when he looked at the creatures. He could fight off any enemy of Wakanda that wanted to take their lands, their vibranium, and seize their technology to do unspeakable things but this he knew he could not face alone and win.

“I have already seen this footage,” T’Challa said quietly. When he met Tony’s gaze he couldn’t determine which cocktail of emotions lurked behind those brown depths.

“You’ve met Wanda and you know of her powers, correct?”

T’Challa nodded at that. The young woman who had nearly revealed to the whole of Wakanda that the Avengers now sought by the authorities were hiding on their soil.

“Well she used them on me when we went after Loki’s scepter,” the omega replied. “And I saw….the end of everything. Each of us dead in space and those—“

He pointed at the screen. “Those monsters headed to earth by the hundreds.”

“The Scarlett Witch can only show you illusions. Captain Rogers assured me that nothing she shows you is real!”

“Yet,” Tony held up his hand to T’Challa’s next response. “Not in the moment, no. But the things she showed us felt more real than anything any of us had ever felt. And every one of them was connected to our fears and even more to a possible outcome of something that is either already set in motion or already happened. We don’t really know all that her powers can do.”

“But where is the proof, Mr. Stark?”

“You’re one of the smartest people in the world, your majesty. Tell me how armies are built.”

“Gathering support, rallying around a single idea or figure head.”

“Right! And we thought that person was Loki,” Tony said. “I mean why wouldn’t we? The guy had motive and a great backstory! He came to conquer the world his brother swore to protect in the godhood version of a damn sibling rivalry! But what if it doesn’t stop there? How could Loki have amassed that large of a force?”

“He’s the prince of a realm he had to have money or—“

“During this time his entire family thought he had fallen to his death. Where did he go? How did he survive to come back not too long after with an army? The supposedly dead prince? ”

“So you’re saying he had to have a benefactor,” T’Challa said but rushed to continue. “Even then...”

“He finds someone with an army big enough to conquer an entire realm and that person just lets him take his army out for a spin? Nuh uh. Loki is a known trickster so why would they even do that? It had to be a deal mutually beneficial enough for this person to loan him a force that large.”

“But if that person, being, alien…has a force that large why would they send Loki instead of going themselves?” T’Challa asked.

“Who knows? Pick a reason. There’s plenty of ‘em. My favorite is that it was just a dress rehearsal. There’s got to be something here that he wants and I’d bet my life that it’s another infinity stone.”

Tony tapped again at the screen and it brought up a schematic of Vision and focused on the gem embedded in his forehead.

“This is the mind stone. You can probably guess what it might control. It came from the scepter Loki carried with him. I think Loki might have had it and agreed to give both it and the Tesseract to his employer when he won earth. It all went wrong though and now we have the mind stone and Thor has the Tesseract on Asgard. They’re coming for this stone and perhaps another one here on earth.”

“Why do you think another one is here?” T’Challa asked and Tony nodded seemingly understanding his need to be sure.

“Vision says he can feel it. Like the stone in him is calling out to another. He can sense the energy. It’s out there.”

T’Challa cursed in his own tongue and Tony nodded as if he understood. Perhaps he really did. This was not the man described to him by his peers.

“Here’s the thing…I’ve seen some of the most powerful people I’ve ever met in my life dead at my feet and it scared the hell out of me enough to try to create something to fight it off so we might not have to and accidentally created a murder bot in the process. But I don’t think I was wrong, not completely. Someday something is going to take us out whether it’s this thing or something else but that’s the life we chose. We chose to take on larger than life threats but what happens when we’re all gone? Who stands up then? Who fights when we can’t, huh?”

“Anyone who can I suppose,” T’Challa mused but the thought nagged at him. Human armies would fall to such a threat and while the Avengers had originally pulled together for the Battle of New York, to hear it from those involved they just barely formed in time. Without any coordination any thing the enhanced people of earth did to fight would fail.

“We can find them, T’Challa. We can find them and train them and prepare them as much as possible to give our home a fighting chance. We can at least get the next generation ready in case we fall,” Tony said.

T’Challa sat up straight at his words. No matter how Tony said it, this was more than creating a new generation of Avengers. This was building a super powered army. The exact fear and oddly enough once goal of one General Ross. This was how the Captain America, the Winter Soldier, and the Hulk were born. By ambitious people hoping to out gun their enemies. Stark had a point. They could count on humanity rising up to defend themselves. Billions of lives fighting to the last even against near insurmountable odds.

“This is about earth’s best chance T’Challa,” Tony said, a sense of finality to his voice. “We have a chance to do this right and I think we should take it.”

“Why are you asking me? You have more than enough resources and space,” T’Challa said and wished he could take the last bit back at the flash of pain in the other man’s face. It was gone before he had a chance to open his mouth again and replaced by determination.

“Because I need you,” he answered solemnly. “I need someone to keep me in check, to tell me when I’m not making sense, to help me make these choices. I need someone to be there if—when--hmm.”

T’Challa watched the man that was described to him as too prideful, too selfish, too destructive swallowed quickly and exhaled.

“In the very likely and probably rapidly approaching event of my death I need someone to pick them up and make them carry on,” Tony said. “Because that’s our job as Avengers. We keep our home safe right down to the end.”

T’Challa nearly fell off his seat. He looked over the man before him covered in sweat and grease. Callused hands tapped against his knees. T’Challa blinked at his hands and then back at the last half of his second sandwich left uneaten. Another look at Tony Stark and it was like seeing him for the first time. The spark of determination in his words was muted at the fear in his eyes and nearly silenced by the bags beneath them. The rhythm of his fingers ate up the silence in the room. Even as the other man looked him in the eyes appearing otherwise confident T’Challa noted the peakiness of his skin. How had he missed how pale he was, even since he’d last seen him in Washington?

“Boss I detect an elevated heart rate…”

“FRI I’m fine,” Tony snapped. He rubbed at his eyes.

“Mr. Stark are you alright?” T’Challa asked. Tony opened his mouth to answer, probably something to the tune of his world famous snark, but instead wobbled in his seat and pitched forward towards the floor.

“Tony!”

T’Challa thanked the Gods for his quick reflexes as he grasped the man around his shoulders and held him up close to his chest. Right up until Tony began to dry heave and subsequently vomit the remnants of his sandwich and a half lunch all over him. The Alpha grimaced at the smell. He turned to brush the last half of Tony’s food off to the side of the long table when he noticed a robot on wheels nearly half his size already scooting away with the plate clasped in its large claw. Another poked him in the back with its longer arm and flexed towards the table as if pointing. T’Challa hoisted the man up onto it as gently as he could. The man’s limbs dropped limply to the table. He looked even paler against the silver surface.

“Fuck,” Tony groaned, eyes still shut. “That’s just…fuck.”

“Ah—hmm. FRIDAY?” T’Challa glanced at the ceiling. He pressed a hand to the other man’s forehead and frowned at the heat he felt. Tony made no more noise and his eyes remained closed.

“King T’Challa Dr. Cho has been alerted and is on her way up with medical supplies,” she said. He nearly detected a note of concern in her voice.

“How often do you monitor Mr. Stark?”

“24/7, sir,” Friday replied immediately.

“How long have these symptoms been present? Is it recent?”

“Boss has been suffering from intermittent fevers, nausea, stomach inflammation that results in vomiting, insomnia, hallucinations, panic attacks—“

“Since when?”

“7 and a half months ago,” FRIDAY replied matter-of-factly. Since the war.

“It sounds like bond withdrawal,” T’Challa theorized.

“Well, you’d be correct,” a prim female voice, sounded from the doorway. He recognized Dr. Helen Cho from her several conference speeches he’d viewed from over the past few years. She stood straight, duffel bag in hand, a dark look warred with concern on her face. She stepped forward through the open door and walked briskly to his side.

“King T’Challa, I cannot help my patient if you don’t move,” she said sharply. He jumped from her path as soon as she reached the table. She sent a curt nod his way and braced her bag on the stool Tony had fallen from and began rummaging around.

“I’m not sure if he’ll be okay with you being here,” Dr. Cho said without looking up. “You should probably wait in the common room. He’ll be fine he just has a bad habit of ignoring his health.”

T’Challa glared at her, a growl worked it’s way up his throat, but she held a hand up and met his gaze dead on. T’Challa folded his arms across his chest continued to maintain his glare.

“Listen, you’re not a family member or even a friend and I need room to work,” she said.

“I am his teammate,” T’Challa said shortly. “He will want someone here when he wakes up.”

“I think he’s had enough of any sort of teammate, your majesty. Have you ever seen someone go through bond withdrawal?”

“My...father when my mother died,” T’Challa said. Dr. Cho nodded solemnly.

“But he took medication to help him through so that he wouldn’t have to temporarily step down from his duties. Is Tony having a reaction to the medication?” T’Challa asked.

“He won’t take it,” Dr. Cho said. “It was completely his decision and against all of my advice. Now it’s my job to make sure he comes through it as healthy as possible for a man his age that has been through the physical and mental trauma he has. I told him to keep the visitors to a minimum.”

It dawned on him that he had probably been locked down here for who knew how long. Months maybe? Only coming out to forcibly eat even knowing he might get sick from it. Chatting with Dr. Banner probably as one of the only means of social interaction until the withdrawals waned.

“I’m not quite sure I understand?” T’Challa asked. Dr. Cho shook her head at him.

“What do you care?” She snapped loudly. Tony groaned on the table and T’Challa’s eyes narrowed. Though he respected her and her work he demanded answers.

“Dr. Cho I assure you I care a great deal what happens to Mr. Stark,” T’Challa pressed on. “Further more—“

“I don’t know. He won’t really talk about it. Not with me or Ms. Potts or Mr. Rhodes,” she cut him off. Her tone was sharp and meant to wound.

He tore his gaze from her and looked down at Tony. Where were his friends? Someone had to have noticed. Cho was his doctor and he understood her medical need to not overstep but this was so wrong. So hard to look at it physically hurt.

“You really should go now.”

The beta woman stared him down until he stepped further back from the table and walked out of the door. The muscles in his neck strained at his resistance to look back at the man on the table. He stepped into the elevator, pressed the button for the common floor, and let out a surprisingly shaky breath and glanced up once more.

“FRIDAY will you…can you please let me know when she is finished?”

There was a long moment before she answered him while the elevator took him down 5 floors.

“Yes, sir,” FRIDAY answered. The doors opened on his relieved sigh. Okoye, Nakia, and Ayo stood as he approached. Okoye and Ayo were dressed in street clothes while Nakia wore a black pantsuit. They rotated the roles on each visit out of the country but this time Nakia operated as the forward guard while the other two would normally set themselves up to follow behind as the rear guards, seamlessly blending into any crowd they were in. Most of the Doras were alphas but Okoye and Nakia were omegas and two of the fiercest warriors he’d ever seen. They were also too perceptive to leave him to quietly brood. They had known him since childhood and Shuri had taught them too well.

“Trouble, your majesty?” Nakia asked. T’Challa looked to her and she must have read the shock there because she strode to him and examined him closely. She scrunched her nose at the smell but didn't say anything.

“T’Challa?” Okoye queried. “Should we head back to the embassy?”

T’Challa stepped around them and shrugged off his jacket as he went. FRIDAY instructed him to drop it down a chute next to the elevator doors and it would be cleaned. He did as he was told and sank down onto a plush blue couch facing the elevators. He stared resolutely forward almost willing Tony Stark to stride into the room like nothing had happened. But it didn’t. He couldn’t forget the look on the man’s face nor Dr. Cho’s. A bond withdrawal was nothing to be cavalier about.

He didn’t remember much from his mother’s death. He was far too young at the time and barely remembered her warm smile without looking at old photos or paintings. He’d been told to stay away from T’Chaka’s private rooms for a few days after the funeral but was too curious to obey. He was so light on his feet he was able to slip through the palace without his guard knowing. At the time he hadn’t much of a distance between their suites but on small tired feet it seemed like a large adventure. He had to weave his way through the courtyard and up the tallest tree in the palace to reach T’Chaka’s window. He was sure his combat instructor would have been amused at him using his skills to spy on his own father.

From the window he could see several of the Dora Milaje on guard and guiding his father back to his bed. He looked ill with sallow skin and watery eyes. One of the Doras in the room stood at his father’s nightstand grinding something in a bowl with a heavy stone. He noticed a few other bottles filled with liquid and roots on the nightstand were each picked up and added to the mix. The Dora poured the contents into a glass filled partway with water and swirled it around while holding it to her face in a search for perfection. Once satisfied, she handed it to T’Chaka who then swallowed it all down. He heard a rustling on the branches as Nakia landed next to him. The branch didn’t even creak as she shifted next to him, a testament to her own studies.

“I saw you sneaking past my window. Are you unwell?” She whispered.

“Something is wrong with father,” he told her. “He has not been seen for days.”

“Oh, T’Challa,” the sympathy in her small voice had him turning away from the scene in the suite. Where he father was resting in his bed, seemingly calmer than before.

“What do you mean?” He asked. Tears welled in Nakia’s eyes.

“He’s lost his mate,” Nakia said. “He is more than just sad. It will make him sick while he mourns her.”

“Will he get better?” T’Challa asked, fearful for how long it had been going on. He understood his mother was never coming home again and it hurt to think of her. But he was not sick an his father was. He had never seen someone be that sick for that long before.

“The andala root will help him,” Nakia said smartly. “Look.”

She implored him to look back into the room where the lights had dimmed but he could still see his father’s chest rising and falling clearly.

“Your father rests now. Come back to bed before we get in trouble.”

T’Challa had nodded and with one last glance at the man now sleeping peacefully in his bed he ambled back down the thick trunk of the tree and slid into the shadows with Nakia while they made their way across the courtyard.

They never spoke of it again and his father had recovered in less than a month from the sickness but not the broken heart.

Hours passed before FRIDAY’s voice shook him from his thoughts. In the elevator on his way back up T’Challa’s mind drifted the pale body on the table and why anyone would put themself through that. He considered his father to be the strongest man he ever knew and even he had taken medicinal relief rather than bear the natural pain of a body rejecting a bond.

Of course broken bonds were always case-by-case. T’Challa had researched enough into it after his mother’s death and found that it was in the simplest of terms a chemical reaction. One that was often kinder to Alphas than Omegas but still painful. Hormones were thrown into disarray and affected the anterior cingulate cortex and helped prepare the body for another possible bond. Medical advancements helped to keep the physical symptoms at bay while allowing a person to still process the emotional effects. Some of which were produced by a subsidiary of Stark Industries. T’Challa was still wracking his brain for possibilities when the doors opened on the workshop floor and he found himself walking briskly to the door.

Dr. Cho was just packing her things. She pressed a pill bottle into Tony’s hand and shoved past T’Challa with another curt nod. Tony sat on the table he’d been prone on, skin still pale for the most part but a little bit more flushed than before. The back of his neck was a deep red. He wore a clean grey t-shirt. He hopped off the table and patted the robot that was next to him, mopping up the floor in wildly precise swipes.

“Pitiful,” he murmured to the bot then chuckled.

“Mr. Stark I…”

“Please, “ Tony interrupted; finally turning those dark depths towards him and subsequently easing the sharp twist of his gut at the rawness of hurt in his voice. He hopped down from the table with ease. T’Challa released a relieved breath when he didn’t so much as wobble.

“I’m pretty sure after you’ve worn my puke and stopped me from cracking my head open on the floor you’ve at least earned the right to call me Tony,” he said dryly.

T’Challa was unable to keep himself from laughing. Tony grinned at him and joined in and for a moment their laughter filled the room.

“Vomit aside, have you had any thought towards my proposal?” Tony asked once the amusement had dwindled down.

“I could really use your help,” Tony said. He held out his hand beckoning T’Challa forward. He’d be lying to himself if he didn’t admit that he felt drawn to the man. Even so clearly suffering he stood tall. When their hands met and T’Challa’s fingers curled over the hard calluses warmth spread through him like wild fire. Tony’s eyes lit up at the contact.

“I would be honored but I have to ask…why me?” T’Challa answered. Excitement curled around his chest even though he knew he’d get an earful from Shuri when he returned home.

“Because you’re everything I could have been if I were a good kid growing up,” Tony replied meekly. “Oh hey, come on, don’t look at me like that! All frowny.”

T’Challa shook his head at him. Tony smiled at him and shrugged.

“I am sorry for throwing up on you,” Tony said.

“Tony, why won’t you take the pills?” T’Challa asked abruptly. He was afraid the other man wouldn’t answer. Tony had gone completely silent and had begun tapping his fingers on his folded arms. Tony didn’t waste time asking how he knew and swore quietly before answering.

“I want to feel it. All of it,” Tony said and there was something firm in his voice. He was stubborn and clearly digging into this decision wasn’t going to change that but T’Challa pressed on.

“Why? Why would you subject yourself to that? It does not have to be that way, “T’Challa said, getting ready to expound on the more natural remedies in his home country if the pills wouldn’t work for him.

“No, you don’t get it, I need to feel this. I need to know what this is like so I don’t ever entertain the idea of this shit ever again. So that I know this is what’s waiting at the end of the line for me if I do,” Tony said.

“Tony, you could cause permanent damage.”

“Well you’ll be happy to know that Dr. Cho is forcing me to take at least half a dosage a day for the next two weeks to keep the physical strain down. And by forcing I mean she’s called in the big guns, Pepper and Rhodey. They’ll hold me down and make me take them if they have to. I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?” T’Challa asked surprising even himself at how much he doesn’t want to leave the omega’s side.

“When I took these before in college I barely felt anything. This was 5 years of my life just gone. I should know what that feels like,” Tony said then said more to himself. “I shouldn’t have held on for so long.”

“5 years?” T’Challa asked with a growl to his voice. Tony winced and shrugged again.

“Yeah, Dr. Cho believes that’s why it’s taken so long for the withdrawal to wear off. Close to an entire year of this mess. At least she thinks it’s almost over. I’m leveling out more and more each day,” Tony said. T’Challa’s smile was tight but reassuring enough for Tony to smile back.

“Onwards and upwards and all that. Your jacket should be ready to pick up. I could walk you down to the in-house dry cleaners,” Tony said. T’Challa nodded.

“I would appreciate that.”

Chapter Text

“What did you think would happen?”

“Steve, please, I’m sorry,” Tony groaned beneath the weight of his alpha’s shield. His next words were caught behind a high-pitched whine in his throat at the impassive look in Steve’s cold blue eyes. A few feet away Barnes lay, clutching the stump where his metal arm had been attached whining low. His distressed sound seemed to fuel the growling alpha above him who responded by bearing down, using all of his weight to put pressure on the arc reactor in his chest plate.

“You’re hurting me,” he rasped. It was a struggle to take a breath let alone speak but he had to try. He hadn’t believed Steve would do it. His alpha wouldn’t kill him.

The crack in the glass covering sent a panic racing through him. His heart was beating beneath it; just inches away from the vibranium shield that seemed intent on cracking him open. Steve leaned back and for a moment the pressure was gone. Sweet relief was brief for him. The hum of his suit went quiet and even FRIDAY’S frantic voice had left him. There was nothing left but an omegan whine and the sharp gusts of wind whipping in and out of the abandoned facility. The red, white, and blue of the shield came down on him suddenly, perfectly aimed for his throat.

“What did you think would happen?”

*~*~*~*~*

Tony cracked his eyes open at the smell of delicious coffee. His body protested the movement of his limbs and he guessed he could thank himself for falling asleep at his workstation for that plus the near constant ache that stretched from his shoulders down to his lower abdomen. So instead he lifted one eyelid and then he other to search out how close the delicious brew was. He grinned, despite the chill in the room, when he saw it just meters away from his face. He’d take whatever kindness he could get at this point.

“Knew that would do the trick,” Rhodey's voice brought him further into consciousness. He slowly pulled his upper body from the hard surface and groaned at the cracks and pops he heard. Getting old sucked sometimes and crazy omega hormones sucked even more. He shifted and let his head loll from one side to the other in an attempt to stretch the tender muscles there. The tendons nearest to his mating gland were less tight than usual and he had to take that as a good sign. Now if only he could stop having nightmares about his ex trying to murder him he’d be just peachy.

Fully upright and with his coffee gripped tightly in hand he glanced at Rhodey in his wheelchair looking every bit as imposing as always. Tony forced away his frown and replaced it with a smile.

“Mornin’ sourpatch,” Tony said. He took a swallow from the cup and moaned as the hot liquid hit his tongue warming him up even more. “Welcome back.”

Rhodey rolled closer to him.

“You stink. You're literally Tony Stank right now. I hope you realize that. And why is it 80 fucking degrees in here?”

Tony chuckled and leaned closer. Rhodey made to dry heave and Tony laughed at him.

“I’m freezing. Besides, what are a few showers compared to getting you up and walking again?” Tony said offhandedly ignoring Rhodey’s other question. He went to take another sip.

Rhodey rolled his eyes and darted forward so quickly in his chair Tony didn’t have time to avoid the wheels going over his foot. Tony yelped and jumped back.

“Hey!”

“I told you that wasn't necessary!”

“So what? You try to take my foot?”

“Tones,” Rhodey sighed and looked up at him with those large disappointed eyes.

And seriously, he would have thought over the years he'd have built up a resistance to it but no, there he was being glowered at and blinking first. The fight went right out of him. It had always been hard to keep things from Rhodey. Sometimes he had to choose his battles. There were some things Rhodey could never know. Like just how many hours Tony had been really working on fixing his legs. He was sure the airman would pop a blood vessel if he knew the whole truth. Hence why he’d already instructed FRIDAY on what to say if asked.

“It’s just a couple hours a day on top of my other work. I'd really like to show you but only if you don't yell at me.”

“If I ask Friday will she tell me something different?”

Tony rolled his eyes at that. Predictable. His heart ached at it.

“Alright, alright…. I’ve been working with Bruce on something. More than a few hours a day. But it's not just for you.”

“Tony, the last thing I want is you killing yourself over this. I've told you a hundred times and I'll say it a hundred more. This is not your problem to fix,” Rhodey said calmly as if speaking to a skittish animal.

Tony took another sip of his coffee and nodded slowly in understanding hoping to head off making any promises.

“I want to hear you say it,” Rhodey snapped. Tony squirmed under his glare until he couldn't take it anymore.

“This is not my problem to fix,” Tony said grumpily. Rhodey stared at him a moment longer as if he were a human lie detector test. Almost like he could tell just how much of the truth Tony wasn’t telling with the force of his mind. It made the wrinkle between his brows more pronounced. Tony quirked an eyebrow at him then allowed a slow grin to form.

“You’ve been working on your penetrating stare. Go on then… penetrate me with your eyes,” he used his old showroom voice to emphasize his words. Rhodey groaned. He hated that word and of course when 16-year-old Tony had figured it out he hadn’t hesitated on using it in everyday sentences until Rhodey cracked a beaker in his hands during one of their lab classes in college. Something about gross high school sex-ed classes he’d never been able to get over and Tony had been ever so glad to have missed out on.

“Penetrate…”Tony said in a stage whisper.

Rhodey's face broke open in a grin.

“Go shower you ass. We have to be across town at the UN headquarters in two hours.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Tony grumbled into his cup. “We could always send our life model decoys.”

“I’m sure that’ll go really well while trying to sway them towards allowing provisional members, Tones,” Rhodey said with a snort. Tony slid off of his chair and stretched. An unpleasant smell wafted up to greet him and he scrunched his nose. Perhaps Rhodey had a point. He’d never tell him but 72 hour binges were different than they used to be. He could feel the way his second undershirt peeled away from his skin as he raised and lowered his arms. Dried sweat prickled beneath it. Even with so many layers he felt a cool clamminess covering nearly every inch of covered skin. He headed towards the door, coffee in hand. At the sound of a rattle he stopped frowned.

“Forgetting something?”

Tony turned with his hand held out expectantly and Rhodey tossed the bottle towards him. He caught it and shook it himself.

“Would you look at that? Five of these little bastards left and oh…is that one less than yesterday?”

“Good, I never want to get a call from Helen like that again,” Rhodey said with that little frown that had Tony soften his next remark.

“You just want to keep me around so we can play geriatric wheelchair rollerball one day,” Tony snarked on his way out.

“Well, someone has to keep me company when I’m old and wrinkly.”

*****

“I’d love to allow you to recruit new team members Mr. Stark but it’s not like we can trust your judgment on the matter,” Colonel Ross said.

Tony didn’t let his plastic smile falter. He simply leaned back in his chair and nodded genially as if he completely understood the General’s perspective. He hated that he still had to answer the man but the UN Avengers committee still required his input as the current most experienced member with enhanced people associated with the US government. T’Challa stood in for his country and several others were appointed from countries that had signed the Accords. The UK, Canada, France, and Germany representatives were apart of a subcommittee to help flesh out the changes the Avengers wanted to make before presenting them to the larger group. They all smelled very beta-like, save for Ross’ pungent alpha scent, but he could be wrong. He would have taken scent blockers if Dr. Cho hadn’t already advised that they might interact badly with his current medication.

He never thought he’d have missed the day he had to answer to ol’ eyepatch and his merry band of spies. He rather appreciated the devil he knew than Ross the devil he didn’t.

On his right Rhodey sat still in uniform his jaw clenched at Ross’ appraising glances towards his best friend. T’Challa sat to his left and seemed almost relaxed. Tony didn’t know much of how royalty was raised but he assumed this was likely a regular occurrence for the King. Much like business negotiating had been for him growing up as Howard’s shadow. Without warning the memory of his broken face sprang to mind. Howard sat on a dark, wet road eyes staring out unseeing into the night. He blinked several times before his mother’s voice could call out and saw Ross had leaned forward, elbows on the table, a damn near gleeful expression on his face.

Ever since Tony had come back from Siberia the General had been on his ass about possible locations for the rogue Avengers. Constantly calling so much that he had ended up ordering FRIDAY to keep screening his calls unless it was an actual emergency. He was always to be out searching for them or scanning for a new possible lead if Ross asked. Meanwhile, Tony hid in his workshop working on a new prototype for Rhodey...unless Rhodey were asking in which it was really just some new piece of tech for SI.

“I am sure we can come to an understanding for new membership. After all, we would not want to be caught without as much help as possible should another large scale threat become known,” T’Challa had responded in Tony’s absence using his own argument for T’Challa’s continued partnership with him.

Tony nodded at the man and pulled out his StarkPhone. Very reminiscent to his first Senate hearing he commandeered the screens in the room and with a few taps he brought up his presentation. The screens lit with photos of Spider-Man around Queens. Some photos were from the Daily Bugle and some from surveillance cameras.

“This is Spiderman a hero from our own backyard here in Queens,” Tony began. “He is also a hero I called upon during the conflict with Steve Rogers. His abilities include producing a web like substance that’s so strong it can hold a 1 ton truck in mid-air for hours, super strength, the ability to go airborne by swinging from his webs and a lot more we don’t know yet because he’s been forced to only act in the shadows.”

“Because it’s against the law—“

“Currently,” Tony said. “Right now, yes, his actions are illegal but what are those actions?”

Tony tapped his phone again and surveillance footage played on every screen. Spiderman in a bank, webbing money away from robbers. Spiderman on the street stopping a mugging and handing a purse back to an older woman. Spiderman pinning the Winter Soldier and Falcon to the ground in Leipzig.

“Oh come on,” Ross said. Rhodey shot him a glare and Tony noticed T’Challa’s face was carefully blank.

“What? This guy is a hero. Right here, right now. He’s out there aiding the police, saving lives. With the proper training and support he could be an Avenger but obviously not right now,” Tony said.

“You have already expressed your concerns to me that our team may not be enough in the future. I think the solution would be to start looking for people like this,” Tony said. Ross rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to speak but Tony plowed on.

“What I’m suggesting is provisional membership based on a set of terms for the eventual possibility of becoming a certified Avenger. The provisional membership would have general terms and more unique individual terms per member—“

“And you think you should be allowed input on that process?” Ross all but snarled. Tony to his credit didn’t flinch. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves and adopt that bullshit concerned expression he liked to use for the highly aggressive alpha. The other delegates shifted uncomfortably but looked to be in grudging agreement with him.

“As the current team leader, yes. I would expect to have some say in who I’m training with and fighting alongside,” Tony said wryly. “Considering the fact that there’s no one else better equipped or experienced with these threats on this team.”

“Colonel Rhodes,” Ross tried.

“Is still in recovery and still a bit behind on fighting flying anything resembling space whales, sir,” Rhodey replied with the straightest face Tony had ever seen from him. “I’ve seen a lot of things and fought a lot of the United States’ enemies but I can’t say that I have the experience to lead a team against that.”

Ross glanced towards the still outwardly calm T’Challa who looked downright regal in his indifference.

“I am still new to this team and was unaware that this was a subject up for discussion today,” T’Challa said rather innocently.

“Be that as it may your taste in teammates—“

“My taste? I think you mean Nick Fury’s taste in teammates. I did not create the original Avengers line-up and I might not have if I were in charge of the same members again. The recruitment process under my command would require heavy checks and balances to ensure the mental state and capabilities of new members.”

“Such as?”

“Mental health screenings, psych evals on a rolling basis, and combat training prior to testing them in the field to begin with. I’d like to have provisional membership under training for at least a year before they’re called regularly for threats. Until then they’re not on call unless a member of the teams calls on them for help and even then their assistance will be on a minimal basis. There would be penalties for stepping outside of those bounds of course,” Tony explained. “Is the idea agreeable to everyone?”

Ross nodded slowly and the rest of the delegates followed. Tony let out a breath of relief. It was a good policy and he knew none of them could deny they needed new blood on the team. Tony laid out more terms he thought were necessary. Some were obvious such as age requirements vs. skill sets and some were effectively bargaining chips like debriefings and individual progress check ins. He seemed to be getting somewhere and just as he finally felt like the constant tightness in his chest could lessen just a bit Ross dropped the hammer.

“Of course since adding to the roster is on the table we should still consider the old roster. Any news on the rogue Avengers?” Ross asked calmly but Tony knew the manipulation was coming. He looked up from his briefing packet and shook his head at the man trying to look as disappointed and weary as he could. Not much of a stretch for a man on 8 hours of sleep for the last 72 hours.

“My scans have pulled up nothing. It’s as if they disappeared into thin air after...”Tony trailed off resisting the urge to grin over their mutual knowledge of the Raft.

Ross narrowed his eyes at him and balled his hands into fists. No one, not even Rhodey, knew that Tony had helped Cap with the escape and he hoped to keep it that way for as long as possible. Especially after FRIDAY cracked through their encryption to find an unofficial list of prisoners. Some were ex-Hydra and some were various villains they had fought in the past but more alarming than anything else was Bruce Banner being kept in a 12x12 cell hidden deep within the submersible.

The jailbreak gave him the best cover he could ask for to get Bruce out and Ross knew some of it at least. It was too easy to draw the escapees towards where Bruce was kept by locking one door and opening the next and thus too easy for them to find him in the first place. With FRIDAY in the system he was able to get instructions to Bruce on where to go afterwards. Tony plastered a deeply upset expression over his face that was not too difficult to fake. He still remembered the look on Steve’s face while he fought his way through the Raft to get to his team. How at ease he seemed with Barnes by his side. His stomach turned at the thought.

“After their last appearance off the coast of Nova Scotia that is,” Tony finished his thought. Ross’ face was so red he looked like he could burst. Wouldn’t that be a tragedy?

“So we shall present this to the rest of the Accords committee in 48 hours?” T’Challa asked. The delegates agreed and Ross gave him a curt nod. They all rose to leave save for Rhodey who began backing away from the table. Ross stayed seated, a cruel gleam in his eyes that set Tony’s teeth on edge.

“One last thing I’d like to discuss. Not on schedule today but I think we still have some time,” Ross said. T’Challa sat back down elegantly and Rhodey shot Tony a look of confusion and worry. Tony squeezed his shoulder and slid back into his seat. He stared back at Ross with an air of indifference.

“And what is that, Secretary?” Tony asked.

Ross eyed him a moment before speaking.

“I would like to talk about Dr. Bruce Banner and his whereabouts.”

Tony drew his lips back into a toothy smile. He'd kept his remarks to himself long enough and sincerely hoped that the delegates noticed the contrast between him and Ross. Ross had half raised from his seat eyes meant to burn holes through Tony, effectively an attempt to bear down on him. Beside him, Rhodey gripped the arms of his tightly. Beneath the table Tony patted his knee hoping the other alpha could stay calm enough for whatever came next. He didn’t dare look to T’Challa and just hoped the same for him. Ross was trying to play games with them.

“I'm not quite sure what you mean Secretary Ross. Could you elaborate?” 

“You know exactly what I'm talking about, Stark,” Ross growled. “I have it on good authority that you are in contact with the creature known as the Hulk.”

“And what Authority is that Secretary? Have you been watching me? If you have then you'd know I haven’t left my home in weeks.” 

“So you say! Do you have anyone who can corroborate that? I have satellite imagery with your armor crossing the Atlantic two days ago.” 

“Piloted by my AI for test purposes. The USAF was notified and the airspace was clear for a flight test.” 

“Bullshit, Stark,” Ross growled, clearly frustrated that he wasn’t throwing the omega off, that Tony hadn’t simply whimpered and lowered his eyes. “That flight test wasn’t scheduled for another week.”

“I got done early and my contact within the Air Force helped push up the clearance schedule,” Tony answered quickly.

Of course he didn’t exactly have an alibi for himself. Rhodey was in therapy and Pepper still didn’t have access to his floor, more for her own good than his, and Tony had still been much deeper in the throes of withdrawals to care at the time. His suit on the other hand had documented data from FRIDAY’s flight that could be authenticated. Ross was close but not close enough for Tony to panic. He’d deployed the AI with a cache of equipment to drop close enough to the safe house he had Bruce stashed away in. The area was remote enough that FRIDAY could drop the care package without any need to stop and hand deliver anything to the man. Bruce had the coordinates and would confirm the pick up when he had the package in hand and returned home.

According to FRIDAY’s report she hadn’t been seen by any locals and the package had been delivered with no interference. That Ross had known about the flight might mean he’d been watching close enough to see something but maybe not. He inhaled slowly as to not draw attention to his distress and bring down his anxiety levels. If Ross knew he’d have already stormed down and had Bruce in hand waving his capture in Tony’s face. Ross wasn’t subtle and was a sore winner to boot. It felt weird to take comfort in that.

“You’re hiding something,” Ross snarled.

“Aren’t we all?” Rhodey asked glaring back at Ross. Tony’s fingers clamped down on Rhodey’s thigh. If they weren’t literally being watched he would have snapped at him for putting himself in the line of fire. The one upside to Rhodey’s injury was that Tony could send him to high priced clinics with the best physical therapy money could buy and keep him out of Ross’ sight. What the hell did he think he was doing putting himself out there like this?

“I forgot to brush my teeth this morning,” Rhodey joked weakly after another one of Tony’s squeezes.

“Now honey bear…”Tony started to continue the joke. The further they were from Rhodey lashing out at Ross the better. T’Challa beat him to the punch though.

“These are very serious accusations, Secretary Ross,” T’Challa’s smooth timbre drew Ross’ attention and for that Tony was grateful.

The delegate from the UK spoke up. “I agree. What does a flight test have to do with Bruce Banner?”

All eyes turned on Ross had his face redden even further beneath the burden of proving his theory. Tony grinned.

“I certainly would love to know the answer to that myself,” Tony said.

Ross sat back in his chair and glowered. “Just a hunch. You were teammates after all. Friends, right?”

“Yeah, we were such good friends that he left me holding the bag over the mess in Sokovia and Johannesburg. We were such good friends that he didn’t answer my call for help when fighting Captain America. We’re such good buddies that Banner hasn’t reached out for contact in more than a year,” Tony said, letting more emotion into his voice. And the last bit was mostly true. Tony did most of the contacting.

“Are we done here?” Tony asked with a hint of finality to his tone. The delegates shook hands with the current crop of Avengers and exited the conference room leaving Ross behind stewing in his chair.

After a few moments of fussing with Rhodey over whether or not he could wheel him out Rhodey relented with a huff and Tony hoped that he got it. That he desperately needed something to do with his hands and some way to keep himself fully upright under Ross’ hard stare. Because for all the joking about penetrating stares Ross really was looking down his nose at him like he could see that he was lying deep in his bones and that it was only a matter of time before Bruce was caught. A whine built in his chest.

T’Challa held open the door for them as Tony pushed Rhodey out into the bustling hallway.

“Stark, I’d see a doctor if I were you,” Ross said menacingly. All traces of his cordial mask had disappeared. His thin lips curled into a sneer. “You look a little pale.”

“See you at the meeting,” T’Challa answered for him. And the snap was at the tip of his tongue but they were already moving briskly through the hallway. T’Challa nodded to a woman, his bodyguard Tony guessed, who sat outside of the door. She followed several paces behind and at first Tony wondered at that but it was clear that she was monitoring the surroundings.

“FRIDAY,” Tony managed to get out without his voice cracking. His heart pounded in his chest and he was more than sure that his suit was drenched in sweat. Even he could smell the bitter scent of distress in the halls and his own faded scent beneath that marked it as his. The crowd parted for them.

“Boss, Happy is waiting on the east 48^th street side exit,” FRIDAY instructed softly.

“We’re heading to the left,” Tony said over his shoulder. T’Challa nodded and continued to follow him. He didn’t stop or stumble until they reached the car. The other exit wasn’t too far from the entrance but it held the least amount of press. The few reporters that were there were still mostly blocked off by security and were only able to pass on their questions in shouts.

“Mr. Stark! Mr. Stark! What do you think of Germany’s own search for Steve Rogers?”

“Where do you think the rogue Avengers have gone? Are you hiding them?”

Happy had the trunk open already and the back door open. T’Challa helped him ease Rhodey into the car while Happy folded the wheel chair and stored it. The slam of the trunk had Tony looking back at T’Challa who was still there talking to his guard. The woman nodded immediately at words spoken too low for Tony to hear. She turned and headed immediately for a car pulling in behind them.

“King T’Challa! King T’Challa!” the swarm of reporters yelled. T’Challa turned his back to them.

“What? Do you need a ride?” Tony asked. T’Challa smiled down at him and for the first time Tony noticed he was actually a foot taller than him. 

“It would seem so. My security will ride behind us,” T’Challa said.

They each slid into the car with Happy closing the door behind them. The genius’ mind whirred and hovered over the thought of someone attacking them. They’d make an interesting target if anyone wanted to try but their shared ride would be too spontaneous to act. His thoughts moved on to more pressing matters. Ross knew, he had to know. About more than just Bruce. He'd exploit his withdrawals too if he had the chance.

“Is your car secure?” T’Challa asked. For some reason he still looked calm. Tony blinked at him and cocked his head to the side thankful for the distraction from his panic.

“FRIDAY deep scan the car for any out of the ordinary frequencies or signals. Are we alone?”

“On it, Boss,” FRIDAY said. The silence in the car stretched out for a long moment.

“You did well in there,” Rhodey said softly.

“I hope so, we’ll see just how well in two days,” Tony said. He tried to ignore the heavy sigh from his friend.

“All clear, Boss. No listening devices detected,” FRIDAY said primly and maybe a touch proudly. Tony breathed a sigh of relief along with the two Alphas.

“He knows something,” Tony said finally after his head cleared somewhat. That wasn’t up for debate. Ross definitely knew something he wasn't telling. 

“If he did he would already have Bruce and all of us really in his facility. He wouldn’t hesitate to shove it in our faces either,” Rhodey said echoing his earlier thoughts.  

“I agree but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t cause for alarm.” T'Challa said. The alpha pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed at his eyes. For all of his youth he suddenly looked as tired as Tony felt. With a wry smile Tony jerked his chin in T'Challa's direction. 

“Nice to see you T'Challa,” Tony's word drew a small smile from the man. Tony found he didn’t like it when the Alpha was upset. He dismissed the twinge as a biological response and moved on. 

“I assume you’ve planned for something like this,” T’Challa said and Tony just knew he liked him for some reason. Tony nodded in affirmation.

“Bruce and I are on a schedule. I contact him every 12 hours to check in. If for some reason I don’t FRIDAY sends out a ping to JOCASTA,” Tony said.

“Jocasta?” T’Challa mused. “Another AI?”

“Of course,” Tony said. “I couldn’t leave Bruce without some kind of surveillance system in place. JOCASTA and FRIDAY have a series of communicative challenge codes. If the parameters aren’t met then one of two things happens. Either I will extract Bruce personally from the safe house or he vacates and is on his own with an untraceable phone with JOCASTA loaded. The latter is incase I can’t get to him. Bruce is smart he knows how to lay low. He’s been doing this for a long time.”

Rhodey shook his head. “If we weren’t sure Ross was watching you like a hawk we know for sure now. He'll be looking for you to take off and go get him. It's a standard military interrogation technique.” 

Tony groaned. It sounded like one of Natasha or Clint's tactics when interrogating Hydra agents. Steve had always been direct with the prisoners and the spy twins loved using that to their advantage time and again. It was like catch and release. His instinct was to protect his friend and Ross was leaning on that. He’d been looking for it in the meeting and Tony hoped he hadn’t given him anything useful.

“Where is he now?” T’Challa asked.

Tony hesitated. He had gone with the least likely place at the time. Ever since meeting Laura and the kids at Clint’s farm the idea of having a safe house that was as off the books seemed fantastic. Hence why he had begun buying several properties in unlikely but useful locales. One of which Bruce was currently residing in. One of which he had a feeling might cause T’Challa to outright leave their partnership before it could even take off. He sighed at the man’s curious look. He was used it at least. He just hoped he could trust him with the information. Or at least hope that his distrust of Ross outweighed whatever he might feel.

“He’s in Morroco. Marrakesh to be exact,” Tony said matter-of-factly. His chest felt tight and his muscles stiff. The throbbing in shoulder returned at the hint of stress. He had to remind himself that he could probably trust this man. Rhodey’s hand on his shoulder squeezed in comfort. T’Challa tensed and had his guard up instantly. That mask for the UN slid right back into place and Tony hesitated on doing the same. T’Challa wasn’t his enemy.

“Morrocco.” T’Challa said blankly but Tony could practically see the gears in his head turning. He wondered if he had figured out that he had moved him the same way T’Challa had helped Cap get his team back to Wakanda. “You moved him to Morocco.”

“We could maybe move him to Wakanda?” Rhodey suggested unaware of the landmine he’d just wandered onto.

“Absolutely, not,” T’Challa snapped as if it were a command. A decree from on high. Tony glared at him.

“He will not cross my borders,” T’Challa said in a low voice.

“It was just a suggestion,” Rhodey growled back.

“Well, go on, say it, it’s on the tip of your tongue,” Tony ground out. He swore he saw T’Challa’s eyes flash and he wasn’t sure if it were simply his hindbrain starting the growl in the back of his throat or if he was just unused to people challenging him right to his face. Tony leaned forward in his seat to get as close as possible.

“You think he’s a monster. Nothing more than a mindless beast, right?” Tony said. His voice was kept low to avoid immediately riling the other man’s hindbrain into an argument. He didn’t need that. He needed T’Challa to listen because he was only going to go through with this just once.

“Because you’ve seen what he’s done up close you think that’s all he is?” Tony bit back a growl. “Friday screen, please.”

The car was flooded with blue lights that softened the hard expression on T’Challa’s features. Tony tapped into the air and pulled up footage of the aftermath of the Battle of New York. Midtown was in shambles, some of the very streets their car crossed over had thick layers of dust covering them and bodies strewn across them. A small tent was set up in front of a wrecked storefront mostly cleared of debris. Bruce Banner stood over a man strapped to a gurney working over him with various instruments until he was wheeled away still breathing. Bruce was covered in dirt and blood but looked almost relaxed as he looked over another patient, a young woman with an apron around her waist. Tony moved on to a few other photos of Bruce in different locales helping others, always calm and at peace.

“I did not mean to imply—“

Tony cut through his words.

“Except you did,” Tony said.

“He’s not just a monster. He helps people and that right there is where he finds his own bit of peace. After every battle, once he’s de-hulked and rested not even Steve could keep him from going back out and helping whatever triage units were operating. That’s what makes him worth saving. He could be out wrecking continents and using his powers for so many other things but he would rather spend most of his time using what he knows instead. He actively tries to atone for what he did. Don’t pretend you don’t know what’s that like. There's not a single person in this car without something to atone for.”

T’Challa leaned right into his space and Tony hoped he wasn’t hallucinating the softness he had there. The King of Wakanda held his hands open before him.

“I appreciate your loyalty to your friend, Tony. But I have a responsibility to the people of my country that I cannot ignore. Say I allow him in and something angers him? How do I explain to my people that I have allowed the same carnage that wrecked Johannesburg into their homes? There are many that are still opposed to us re-joining the rest of the world and I would be helping to prove them right,” T’Challa said, his voice thick with concern.

“And I appreciate your responsibilities to your country but that’s not what I’m talking about here,” Tony snapped. “I’m not talking about the Hulk smashing through buildings and terrorizing people. I’m talking about Bruce Banner. He’s a person who needs our help otherwise he might end up in Ross’ hands again. Is that enough to warrant helping him out?”

“The bottom line is that Bruce needs to be relocated,” Rhodey tried to move them along. Tony nodded in agreement. He paused to stare across at the tense man before him.

The alpha breathed deeply as if trying to remain calm. Tony supposed he should feel bad about that but he didn’t. If T’Challa couldn’t handle having an open mind now then he doubted he could work with the man later. He understood, he really did, the need to keep Bruce away from Wakanda. Bruce didn’t want to be anywhere near any heavily populated areas anyway so it was out automatically but the vehemence of T’Challa’s words about him irked Tony to no end. He hoped he would at least be open to changing his mind.

“I will assist in any way possible,” T’Challa said solemnly. Tony nodded.

“Good, because I’m not sure I could do this without you,” Tony said. “I think I have a plan we could work on to get him to safety but it’s a risk. Think you can handle that?”

He couldn’t resist the jab even as relief flooded his body. T’Challa leaned back in his seat, every feature relaxed as his head hit the headrest, lips quirked upwards into a smirk.

“I am sure I will survive.”

Chapter Text

T’Challa watched Rhodes try to run over the billionaire genius omega as the doors to the elevator closed and a rush of warmth filled him. He hadn’t had many people he could call friends in his life. Nakia stood at his left; the reflection of her had her eyes surveying him with abandon. He cleared his throat and glanced at her fully. Unimpressed by his posturing she raised her eyebrows.

“Nakia?” T’Challa asked.

“I am merely your guard. I am to have no opinion on the King’s affairs,” she said, which had T’Challa’s own eyebrows near to his hairline. While it was traditional for the Dora Milaje to act simply as bodyguards and special warriors for the crown’s tasks she had firstly always been his friend and her duty had never prevented her from speaking her mind.

“If you wish,” T’Challa replied and watched her simmer for a moment, her eye twitching with irritation. He hid his smirk when they reached the communal floor where Tony assured him he’d join them after Rhodes had been squared away. Or the Colonel had caused serious injury by wheelchair. He didn’t doubt the man could do it. For lack of a better phrase he was hell on wheels when he controlled his own chair.

“It is, just,” Nakia spoke then quieted as she scanned the floor. With her partners downstairs securing the building she checked nearly every possible entry point before she returned to his side with a petulant look on her face. The female alpha faced him and sighed heavily.

“This plan,” she said. “It places you at great risk for exposure.” 

“I am aware but it is a calculated risk I am willing to take,” he replied. He moved towards the large windows and peered out at the sun setting over the twinkling city. There was much construction still being completed around the tower but from here he could see the intent of the architects work slightly obscured by scaffolding. The beauty that could rise from destruction.

“Forgive me but, you did not seem so inclined towards risk this afternoon before the meeting. You spoke of playing it safe to protect Wakanda’s interests at home,” Nakia questioned without challenge. T’Challa turned from the window to see one of his oldest friends looking at him so strangely he felt compelled to rush with an explanation.

“We are out of the shadows, Nakia, beyond what even my father could have imagined before his death. He wanted to ease into this but we can no longer walk that path. Secretary Ross has proven to be an amoral man with dangerous ambitions and if left unchecked who knows what could happen once he sets his sights on our homeland. I do not intend to give him the chance,” T’Challa said. Nakia simply nodded and resumed surveying the area for threats, checking in with her partners downstairs via their comms. 

He didn’t doubt for one second that Ross didn’t already have plans for Wakanda in that twisted mind of his. 

Tony stepped off the elevator on Rhodey's floor only to narrowly avoid being run over for the second time that day.

“Hey!” He shouted as he leapt back. Rhodey stopped in front of him now that he had his attention.

“No unnecessary risks to yourself, Tony,” Rhodey said.

“Alright, alright, Mom,” Tony grumbled.

“C'mon Tones I need to know you’re going to be safe out there by yourself. The last time you went off without me...”

“Hey platypus. I’ll be fine. You watch yourself, too. Don’t leave for the meeting without Okoye. I don’t want you without back up around Ross. No matter how much of a badass you are.”

Rhodey grinned and nodded. Tony clapped him on the shoulder and took off towards the now open elevator. T'Challa was waiting downstairs and they needed to do this right if they were going to try it at all. As the doors closed he caught Rhodey’s grim expression that surely matched his own. They never explicitly said it all these years but he knew that look. The same one his mother used to give him before he would try again and again to impress Howard. One of the few expressions he knew to recognize as familial concern wrapped up in a lost cause.

With the doors closed Tony rubbed furiously at his eyes. He groaned under the pressure and began to focus on what was to come next. Either this would work or it wouldn't but it was worth it to try. 

“FRIDAY...stop the elevator and call Priority 4,” Tony said softly. With his hand scrubbing his face his breath hitched at the cautious voice that came over the line.

“I didn’t think I’d ever hear your voice again. Not like this anyway.”

He laid out the request simply without any of his usual flourishes and just concentrated on explaining the how’s and the why’s. What was necessary was cut and dry with little room for error but a lot of necessary trust. His hand dropped to his chest fingers tapping in the silence of the four walls waiting for the answer.

“You’re sure about this?”

“I’m sure that you’re the only person within that area that I trust to make this happen,” Ton replied trying to sound more sure than the tremor that was running through him. His hands shook even with the light taps keeping the rest of him from losing it. The truth was, he wasn’t sure about it at all. Oh, it would work for Ross and keep everyone else safe for all the good it would do him if he didn’t come back home. Just maybe one of his plans would get him killed after all. The dark thought had crossed his mind at least twice since he set everything in motion. Perhaps it would be an adequate apology—

“I’ll do it.” Relief flooded his system and he nodded to FRIDAY to get things moving again. The elevator didn’t even jerk as it began its smooth descent back down.

“This is seriously crazy, even for you.”

He resisted the urge to snap at, well, nothing really. His contact couldn’t see him anymore than he could see them and for that he was thankful. A shake of his head had his mind a bit clearer of the heavy thoughts clouding his mind. His skin crawled with the idea of maybe not knowing where his symptoms ended and his real pain began.

“Hey, you already agreed. No take backsies, here. I’ll see you at the rendezvous point in 10 hours.”

“Copy that. Stay safe, Tony.” The line went dead. Tony sucked in a lungful of air and straightened up to the sound of the elevator’s ping.

“Yeah,” he muttered to no one but FRIDAY. “I’ll do that.”

Tony always appreciated the feeling of flying and had been quietly envious of Rhodey shooting through the air in his plane for years. His friend had described it as conscious free fall. Once in the air you only had trust in yourself and your plane to see you through. He’d never admit out loud that just maybe his words had inadvertently inspired the creation of Iron Man in Afghanistan. Becoming so one with your plane that you are the plane had him lying awake once during one of his first nights without Rhodey's snore lulling him to sleep in an MIT dorm room. Rhodey was off saving the world as an airman and Tony was…lying in bed wishing he could help.

He also would never under pain of death admit that the thought of joining his friend had crossed his mind in moments of panic after realizing he was leaving him for a new family so soon after Jarvis' death. He rationalized that maybe he could work in military intelligence but he’d never survive basic training. Not even with Rhodey as a motivator. He was absolute shit at taking and following orders and always rushed ahead without a second thought.

Instead he became content with making weapons that could support the military until he couldn't anymore. Fucking Obie. He wished he could hate him as much as he was expected to but he felt hollow every time he tried. It was the same with Steve. A firm press of unease slid along the edge of his consciousness in response. In retrospect he really should thank them both. If not for Afghanistan he’d still be that irresponsible asshole and if not for Steve…his heart clenched at the implication. Perhaps there was a silver lining to Steve practically leaving him for dead in Siberia. One could only hope. 

“FRIDAY what's my ETA?” Tony asked.

“At your current speed you’ll arrive in Malibu in 4 hours, Boss,” FRIDAY answered.

“And T’Challa?” Tony asked.

“By my calculations he should arrive at his destination in 5 hours, Boss.”

“Good,” Tony said more to himself. Their timetables would matchup enough that old Thunderbolt would have no choice but to cave to the more obvious trail Tony was leaving for him. For his part in this he was mostly alone and he felt it acutely in his bones like he had when he was left lying in that freezing cold bunker. T’Challa had even offered extra support once Tony landed. Tony snorted at the thought, remembering the conversation from hours before. 

“I could have another jet scrambled or divert security from the embassy in Los Angeles. I do not think it wise that you go by yourself,” T’Challa had said in the elevator on the way down.

“How many jets do you have?” Tony snarked. T’Challa smirked at his indignation.

“An entire fleet. And you?”  “It wouldn't work,” Tony replied with an eye roll. “Are you actually worried about me kitty cat? I’m touched.”

T’Challa's hand squeezed his shoulder firmly in immediate response and Tony found himself oddly still. He turned and caught T’Challa staring at him intently. His lips were thin and his eyes boasted questions Tony would rather not answer.  

“I do not mean to overstep. I worry for your safety,” he said.

“So, what are we friends now? I have to warn you. I don't really do friends that well. I’m not an easy person to get along with apparently.”

The elevator dinged signaling its approach of the ground floor. Where the other two Doras and the press were waiting. T’Challa shook Tony’s outstretched hand and smiled so broadly it felt genuine in comparison.

“You should know then that I have never particularly enjoyed easy,” T’Challa replied simply, leaving Tony stuck still in the elevator lip pulled between his teeth. He gripped the metal bar that ran along the sides of the wall for balance and locked his knees as a rush of concern ripped through him. He shook as the elevator lowered slowly into place, seconds ticking by with his words caught in his throat. His conscience warred with logic before he felt the elevator settle right along side with his thoughts.

“Be careful out there, Lion O,” Tony tried to sound as light as possible. T’Challa nodded solemnly and stepped out when the doors opened leaving Tony oddly comforted with the promise in the young King’s eyes. The elevator doors slid shut on his guilty expression.

The urge to have FRIDAY call T’Challa was damn near overwhelming. He asked for another update from FRIDAY to take his mind off of it. He used to be able to have full conversations with JARVIS during long flights in the suit but he just wasn’t quite there with FRIDAY yet. He hadn’t been able to move past the possibility of allowing another Ultron into existence. So FRIDAY stayed silent to the nervous twitches he exhibited. As long as his heart rate didn’t go through the roof she wouldn’t intervene.

And that just left him in silence wishing he could ask anyone about the horrible feeling that was creeping through him. He hoped Steve had been this fucking miserable holding it all in but somehow he doubted it. He was probably so damn focused on protecting his omega that Tony had barely factored in beyond an obstacle or occasional resource.

Tony had promised himself early on when he began exhibiting symptoms of bond withdrawal that he would just let it go. It was the easiest way to deal with Steve pulling away from him. The longer he tried to clamp down and hold onto Steve the more pain he would cause himself. And then he promised himself again after Vision found him in Siberia, waiting for the ice to claim him, that he wouldn’t beat himself up over Steve’s lies but then there he was, en route to Malibu with Steve’s words banging around in his head. 

“Did you know?”

Tony hadn’t even really needed to ask. He knew the truth with one look in his Alpha’s eyes. He knew and he didn’t care. He knew and he chose to protect his former omega over his current one. Over the man he’d been planning to mark within the last year. And Tony was, well he was sitting on a secret almost the same. Lying to a friend who had more than extended his hand of help and put himself in harm's way because Tony had asked it of him.

Tony ran over his talk with T’Challa in the elevator and recounted the seconds between them, how the moment came and passed. He hoped the man would forgive him but wasn’t holding out for it. He’d warned him at least. He was absolute shit at being a good friend.

T’Challa had a habit of gripping the arms of his chair during take off. His father had been the first to notice it when they were flying out to survey the foreign campus of his alma mater. Of course it had been his first time going so high and the feel of his stomach rolling turned the harsh incline was to be expected. He hated flying. At 18 years old his fingers curled around the arm rests, nails dug into the metal, while his father sat relaxed as if they weren’t climbing to a high altitude in a metal death trap.

He didn’t notice until their trip to Geneva that after they landed T’Chaka let out a small breath and his large fingers would flex over his knees. He’d never said anything but he liked to think his father hated flying, too. The moment the plane reached a cruising altitude T’Challa exhaled slowly and relaxed into his seat. Usually when they flew two Doras sat in the row ahead and behind while he and his father sat in the middle. T’Challa still hadn’t sat in his father’s chair. Instead he spread maps over it and the table before him. He’d marked off their landing. He would pilot the flight to Banner himself. No one else would know the coordinates. Not even the Doras accompanying him. He had to admit he was a better pilot than passenger.

“You should sleep,” Nakia said from the seat at his back. T’Challa shook his head.“I must know this map backwards and forwards,” T’Challa said. “I do not intend to use the advanced navigation system. There should be no record of our path.”

“As your oldest friend I must say I do not wish to die due to your exhaustion,” Nakia said quietly, her voice lilted up towards amusement. T’Challa rolled his eyes at her prodding.

“Do you not trust in your King?” T’Challa asked. Nakia’s silence spoke for her. T’Challa sighed and rubbed his eyes. She had a point. What would they do if he crashed their plane? T’Challa carefully folded the maps and tucked them back into his suit pockets. The rustle of paper kicked up Tony’s faint scent as if T’Challa needed a reminder of others counting on him. As if he needed reminding of what was at stake.

 As much as he hated to admit that Nakia was right the moment his back hit the soft plush of his chair and stared across at his father’s seat. If he concentrated he could still hear his booming laughter filling the cabin. T’Challa’s eyelids slid heavily towards one another only to jerk open again at the image of T’Chaka thrown feet away from him. T’Challa breathed deeply, inadvertently inhaling the last of Tony’s scent as he pulled out the maps again and pressed them to the table.

“Your highness?” Nakia questioned. T’Challa let his own silence speak for him and began pouring over the maps again. If he couldn’t sleep, another look wouldn’t hurt.

Tony touched down in front of his Malibu home with a heavy clank. The rebuilt mansion still boasted the old late 90’s facade despite being completely new. The auxiliary lights for the landing pad powered down once he stepped off and plunged the property into near darkness save for the electric blue of the suit’s arc reactor.

The residence had the least amount of staff that only came by weekly to maintain it so no one was actually on the premises to welcome him. He hadn't been back since the rebuilding had been completed which left him no time to install FRIDAY and since his bots had been relocated to New York he was for once actually alone. He couldn’t decide if that was a nice change of pace or mildly terrifying. The tight clench of his insides was his only response to it.

“FRIDAY inform Rhodey and T’Challa that I’ve arrived with no complications,” Tony said. FRIDAY replied in agreement. After his very public flyover of Los Angeles and Malibu he was sure the media was aware he was back in town. It wouldn't take long for the swarm to descend on him.

Once inside he stepped out of suit and set it to Sentry mode just in case anyone out there had any ideas about getting the party started early. The suit followed him with solid metal thuds and whirrs.

“Home sweet home,” he murmured to no one.

Finding and turning on all the lights by himself was another ordeal. He hadn't flipped a light switch on his own since his early twenties and was just seriously regretting having way too many lighting fixtures when he came upon the stereo system. When he’d had everything restored he’d hoped Pepper would like to stay there since Steve had been reluctant to leave New York. If they were both honest she’d practically lived there anyway. While he liked the blaring music in his studio, Pepper enjoyed putting on a record and reclining on the couch with a full glass of wine. His record collection had been mostly replaced; some more priceless albums were gone though. Probably smashed to bits or sunk beneath the debris of his house that had slid off into the ocean. 

He spotted a familiar looking album covered in plastic, pulled it out, and tore into it. He grinned and set the record on the player and dropped the needle. Upbeat Christmas music came on and nearly drowned him in the memories of his last Christmas here.

“Jarvis, drop my needle.”  

Nervous energy filled him from head to toe radiating outward into snaps of his callused fingers. He began to wander through the house stopping at each of the eight rooms he’d had redone as guest rooms for Avengers that would never come to visit. Everything was too untouched and bright. He eased on down the stairs to the lower level and stopped at the sight of bright light flooding the stairwell. Unease coiled within him with each curious step until he reached the bottom floor.

All new equipment waited for him in his unused workshop, some already set up and some still boxed, minus his bots. Several empty display cases lined the wall waiting to be filled. He slid the glass door open and was hit with the smell of gardenias and honey. There sat at one of his work stations, immaculately dressed in a smooth blue silk dress and dangerous looking black heels was a sight for sore eyes, Pepper Potts.

Red hair spilled over her shoulder as she turned her gaze from the Stark Phone in her hands to his presence. One look at the cool anger that resided in her blue eyes had him wishing he’d donned the suit before he came down the stairs.

“Um, hi?” He tried to sound cheerful but realized his mistake a second too late as the beta damn near growled at him. With wide eyes he took a step back and ended up against his suit, which did not open automatically for him. Probably FRIDAY’s doing and if he didn’t know any better he’d think it was revenge for her having to field all of Pepper’s calls. His best friend and one time crush was formidable when she really wanted or needed something. Her resourcefulness was nearly unparalleled. He’d expected her to be pissed when they finally got to talk but he’d hoped they’d be in a boardroom where there would be witnesses and not trapped alone with her in a basement where his closest way out was blocked by his own damn suit piloted by his own damn AI.

“Um, hi?” Pepper said in that cool calm tone that usually meant serious business. “Um. Hi!? That’s all you have to say to me?”

“Uh, how are you?” Tony tried, inching his way behind another workbench.

“What the hell, Tony?” Pepper snapped. “It’s been six months and not a word from you!”

“Pep, listen.”

“No, you listen! I have been worried out of my mind for months about you! James comes back injured and you won’t see me or anyone at all. I thought…I thought something had happened to you!”

 “Well you’re not wrong—“

“And then Steve and the others are now terrorists? What in the hell is going on? FRIDAY wouldn’t answer any of my questions and there was just nothing. For all I knew you could have been dead,” Pepper’s voice had started to quake but Tony stayed hidden behind the table until tears started forming in her eyes.

“Well, technically FRIDAY has a protocol if I should pass, so you would have known—“ Tony stopped short in his explanation at her murderous expression. He stepped forward and cautiously wrapped his arms around her, hoping not to lose both his limbs in the process. 

“I had the Secretary of State in my office four times over the last three months about your location,” Pepper said. If seeing Rhodey wheeling around and talking shit in his workshop in the tower was like coming home then wrapping his arms around Pepper was like a return to near complete normalcy. Pepper squeezed him back.

“I missed you, Pep,” Tony murmured into her hair. “I’m so sorry.”

“Can you please just tell me what’s happening?” Pepper asked. “Why did you leave for so long?”

“I’ve been experiencing bond withdrawal symptoms. I didn’t want any of this to touch you or the company so I wanted to distance myself just a bit.”

“Just a bit?” Pepper snorted. “I’m going to kill Steve.”

It was Tony’s turn to snort at her remark. More so the vehemence behind her words. Most people didn’t know because they underestimated her but when Pepper Potts made a threat she meant it. There was steel behind her sweet smile and kind words.

“We’re going to talk about this,” Pepper announced as if he had no choice in the matter.

“Actually, I already have plans for tonight,” Tony said just shy of meekly. His hand rubbed at the back of his neck but flew out in front of him at her sudden turn. “It’s Avengers business!" 

“It can wait,” Pepper said. She turned her back on him and began climbing the stairs.

“Pep! Pepper! No, we cannot…I’m on a time table here!” Tony shouted after her. The beta woman ignored him even as he hurried out after her.

“What was that restaurant you liked? I’ll give a call. Or rather can you have FRIDAY do it? They always keep a table open for you on the balcony,” Pepper called out knowing exactly the restaurant she was talking about.

“You mean Mosconi?” Tony muttered.

“Yes! That’s the place,” Pepper said then turned to the suit. “FRIDAY can you please make a call for us and have them hold a table for two?”

The suit turned and looked at Tony who sighed and nodded. There was no shaking her. She was supposed to be on a plane out of the country later that night according to the schedule FRIDAY had sent him. Being out of the loop did mean last minute changes FRIDAY wouldn’t know about unless he had her be more intrusive. Tony groaned once the redheaded beta had stepped outside. There were dozens of flashes firing meaning the media had finally arrived.

He removed the needle from the record player and huffed.

“FRIDAY please inform the others that plans have changed,” Tony said then continued lower after she was a minimum safe distance away. “I need Pepper kept out of this as much as possible, no matter how much she’ll try. Your priority is Pepper once we’re inside, understood.”

“Understood, boss.

T’Challa jerked awake to the sound of the electronic ping announcement surrounded by the last vestiges of Tony’s scent. He straightened in his seat where he’d slumped over his maps and shook off the sluggishness by running his hands across his face for a few times.

“Nakia?” T’Challa questioned.

“Just over 6 hours,” Nakia responded meaning the time he’d slept. “A new record for you, your highness.”

T’Challa huffed and rested his forehead on his raised fist. He hadn’t slept longer than 2 hours at a time since his father’s death. Always a nightmare or the thought of his father’s lifeless body lurking behind his eyelids. If he’d really been asleep that long they should have been preparing to land within the hour. It was a benefit of their technology many companies had been dying to get their hands on. Hence why the plane was guarded by Doras wherever he landed. Many had tried to get an in depth look at their specs at their own risk.

“We’ll be landing soon?” T’Challa asked. Nakia hummed but then abruptly stood up, her body tense and alert. Her fellow Dora’s followed her lead setting T’Challa’s sense on edge.

“What is it?” T’Challa wanted to know. Nakia tapped at the comm device in her ear listening intently. Her frown deepened.

“Apparently there’s been an incident at your landing strip, involving your guests, sir. I could try to secure another as tightly but at this point we may miss our rendezvous point,” Nakia answered him. 

“What kind of incident?” T’Challa demanded, standing at attention.

He began to tug at his tie to reveal the very top collar of his suit beneath. Horror warred with rage within. The rogue Avengers were warned to keep themselves hidden and to not disrupt life in the palace. But trying to run off? After months of negotiating he’d gotten Rogers to agree to that in exchange for the man standing down on his need to run off for so called missions He had very few restrictions for them and this is how they repaid him? His jaw worked furiously while he waited for a answers. They dared to put his people in danger?

“Captain Rogers and Clint Barton have torn through security to get to the landing strip,” Nakia informed him. T’Challa inhaled sharply but the growl burst forth anyway. Nakia barely acknowledged him with a slight incline of her head. Her own eyes darkening. “No casualties but several injuries to the palace guards and one Dora Milaje in training in his path.”

“We land as previously scheduled,” T’Challa said firmly. It was time he and his guests had a talk.

“You’re nervous,” Pepper commented lightly during the drive. Her voice shook him right out of the thoughts that had consumed him once they surpassed the small contingent of reporters in front of the house. With his suit flying above them and scanning for threats he’d yet to relax into his seat. He half wished that Pepper had caved to Happy’s insistent nagging that she ride in his car. It would have allowed him more time to plan or just plain ditch her for her own good.

“Just thinking,” Tony answered her in a half lie.

T’Challa should have crossed into his own continent by then and be only an hour or so away from landing in his home country. With any luck no one would notice the second stealth plane taking off and would still think he was home caring for his sister. That bit of inspiration came from T’Challa and the Princess of Wakanda’s childhood illnesses. Of course no one needed to know that she was at her prime health now and as strong and capable as any one of the Dora’s that guarded her. It was too soon after T’Chaka’s death for anyone to question the young King on his behavior. At least Tony hoped no one would be brazen enough to try.

Upon arrival they were quickly greeted and seated with as much discretion as possible. They were ushered towards the normal table on the balcony of the penthouse restaurant. Tony used to love it because it made the paparazzi work to get a picture of him if they wanted. They’d have to post up in one of the surrounding buildings to even try and that usually thinned the herd significantly with Happy and his guys covering all of the entrances.

Tony played with the edge of the tablecloth, fraying the edge with his fingernail, and tried to avoid looking at Pepper for too long. The woman had a fairly accurate bullshit detector and he was absolutely sure she’d see through his act and blow the whole thing. Even then, as Pepper gently speared some of her chicken cacciatore, she remained calm and quiet, nearly serene when she chewed slowly and smiled at him. Tony glowered at her. It was a game they used to play when she was his assistant, before they became friends, and he should have known better than to let her push him into this dinner.

Pepper set her fork at the edge of her plate and delicately scooped up her wine glass. Tony’s glower morphed into a glare. Whenever he was upset about something Pepper would give him this pleasant silent treatment. She was never rude or angry, she never sought to hurt him or further upset him. She just waited silently, patiently, without a hint of annoyance on her end until his emotions just boiled over. She knew he hated long silences.

Tony watched her sip languidly from her glass, irritation bubbled beneath his skin, and place the delicate china back on the table with a light thud. That did it. The tight coil of emotion sprung before the redhead could pick up her fork. Tony gripped the edge of the table, shaking the glasses, and huffed loud enough for her notice but not enough to have their over eager waiter rushing over.

“Fine!” Tony snapped.

“Okay?” Pepper said slowly as she picked up her fork and resumed eating like nothing had happened.

“Something you needed to talk about?” Pepper asked coyly and Tony narrowed his eyes at her and snorted good-naturedly.

Tony blew out a breath and slid his fingers through his hair, wild without product holding it still. Some strands flopped into his face defiantly. 

“I’m sorry I shut you out,” Tony started. 

“Hmm?” Pepper said around a mouthful of pasta. Tony rolled his eyes.

“I said,” he began louder, “I’m sorry I shut you out!”

“Oh, I thought that was what you were saying. The music in here is really loud,” Pepper commented with a grin. Tony flopped back in his seat and shoved his uneaten lasagna away from him. The chef would probably have a coronary over it but the thought of touching food made his stomach roil. His shoulders began aching soon after.

“I just didn’t want any of this to blow back on you even though apparently that was all for nothing,” Tony said. “Like a lot of things I guess.”

“Like with Steve?” Pepper prodded. Tony shifted uncomfortably. He glanced out at the sparkling city. Nothing like New York but still home in more ways than one. He scanned the nearby buildings for the telltale glint of a lens.

“Last I knew I was still helping you prepare a ceremony. Getting a press release ready and still trying to convince you to draw up a pre-nup. And then nothing,” Pepper said softly.

She set her plate aside to lean forward with her hand reaching over the table to his side. Tony barely hesitated before leaning forward and taking it. The press was probably eating it up. They loved nothing more than to speculate about him and Pepper. Doubly so since she’d been promoted to CEO. Tony just felt like he was coming home. He felt safe the second their skin made contact and it didn’t even matter that she was a Beta without the proper pheromones to soothe him. He didn’t really believe in the concept anymore but his hindbrain screamed Pack! His shoulders slumped as her thumb ran reassuringly across his knuckles.

“That is until they reported on the Accords. And then you went missing for almost 48 hours. You forget how easily it is for me to work around FRIDAY when I want to. Even after you shut down my override codes for basic information like whether or not one of my best friends is still alive. All Helen would tell me was that you’d been injured and had to have several surgeries that would require you to be left alone in recovery for a few weeks. I thought…it was like last time. Except it wasn’t something poisoning you but rather someone who had broken you open. ”

“It was St-“ Tony coughed and cleared his throat under her watchful gaze. “It was Steve. Not just someone, some bad guy, it was Steve.”

Pepper sucked in short breath and took a sip from her drink. Her eyes scanned every available inch of him looking at him anew. To anyone else she looked merely contemplative but Tony saw the slight flare of her nostrils meant otherwise.

“I’ll kill him,” Pepper ground out as she set the glass back down with a heavy thud. Her fingers still coiled around the stem.

“He’s still mostly indestructible so you know,” Tony said, amused. “But you should know Rhodey already called dibs.”

Another flash of anger in her eyes gave him her answer. If Steve thought he’d be safe from Pepper Potts in Wakanda he had another thing coming. Warmth filled him alongside the heated urge to snap at her. A phantom limb-like instinct to protect a mate that was no longer his. Tony winced a second later. His words died in his throat and washed away when he swallowed a mouthful of water. Instead the dirty details came spilling out between them, right over his barely touched meal and Pepper’s rapidly cold expression. Her grip on the stem of her glass tightened so much by the time he told her about the shield she’d nearly snapped the delicate glasswork.

Pepper’s smile was brittle. Her eyes lingered on his chest when she spoke and he hoped she wasn’t thinking of the other time someone he loved had quite literally torn his heart out.

“I’m okay, Pep,” Tony said quietly. “I’m alive and it’s over. He’s gone and he took damn near everyone else with him.”

Pepper nodded slightly and bit by bit her features relaxed back into a cool expression.

“I’ll kill him,” Pepper said again. And this time her voice was firm and her words seemed absolute. Like a promise. And when Pepper promised things…

“We should melt his shield down into vibranium bullets,” Pepper said so evenly that Tony couldn’t help but break down into a fit of laughter. Pepper smiled at him and looked relieved. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed like that.

“What? I’m serious!” Pepper said through her own light chuckle.

“That’s what’s funny,” Tony said to the sound of a voice in his ear unsurprisingly cool and professional. His gut twisted at his next words.

“He’d never see you coming,” Tony said. A loud crack sounded over the light jazz the and pain bloomed from his neck. His body jerked and in the sudden motion another crack sounded. The force of the next bullet sent him forcibly to the floor, propped up by one arm, his chair overturned by his feet. His neck was slick and he wasn’t exactly sure why. It actually burned as if someone laid a hot piece of metal against his throat. His other arm shook as he steadily reached up to touch it.

There was a whirr of the suit at Pepper’s side, covering her even as another bullet struck the table. He meant to call to FRIDAY and tell her to get Pepper out. The redhead was screaming and straining towards him. He could see her just demolishing her manicure by scratching at the floor. Her eyes were wide with fear he’d never meant to put there. Not since the Mandarin.  

“It’s okay,” Tony mumbled but even his own voice was far away. He wasn't sure if the comfort carried. He wobbled on the bit of leverage he had trying to inch over to the table for cover. There was a lot more screaming that direction. He didn’t hear the final shot that knocked him face first to the ground, pain exploding across his back. His head bounced off the ground with a truly sickening crack and there was nothing. 

Chapter Text

“No, no,” Tony woke to the sound of Pepper’s voice full of ice. He shivered as she continued in the way she had over the years, without fear, a quiet storm brewing from within.

“Tom, I will be frank with you. I’m sure you won't mind. If you continue to play the footage you will be lucky to have a press pass anywhere by the end of the day.”

The muttering voice on the other end of the line stopped short.

“Oh, yes I can. You are but one journalist on a network of dozens. You think you can't be replaced?” Pepper scoffed as the voice continued loudly. 

“By now I’d think you would know a threat when you heard one, Tom. This is about putting yourself in another’s shoes. Can you do that for me, Tom?”

 There was a beat before she continued.

 “I will pull every source you have at this company and then shut down the others your network uses for resources in any of our partnerships, including the one we just inked with Pym Technologies. And you know what that means. So be thoughtful. Think about how your producers will feel when they hear the news.”

“Oh, I’d love to see you try,” Pepper said sweetly. “Ask Bill O’Reilly how well that worked out for him.”

 Tony smiled slightly. A peek at her from his side on the hospital bed had his smile widening. She paced barefoot around the hospital room, her face a mask of fury, with her heels dangling from her free hand. It had to be really serious for her to slip out of her shoes. He watched her dark expression deepen.

“How about this, you make your calls and I’ll make mine. Simple as that. It's an easy choice.”

The call must have been over because Pepper had leaned on the wall with a heavy thump. The light clack of heels across linoleum had to be her new assistant. And sure enough.

“Ms. Potts?”

“Yes, Emily?” 

“I have Mr. Conway on the line from our press department.”

There was silence and then Pepper cleared her throat just as Tony's eye lids began to feel heavy.

“Anyone still playing the video will get cut from our approved media outlet list. Don't argue with me, Gene. Just do it. They’ll fold within the hour. Talk to you soon.”

Tony drifted off feeling safe with Pepper so near and doing her best impression of a lioness, exhaustion pulled him down deep.

“I do not know what else to tell you, brother.”

Shuri’s voice came over the speakers once they were in range for a landing. T’Challa had just finished with the clasp on his gloves. He huffed indignantly at her usual dry tone.

“We received news that Stark had been shot but nothing else. Someone over there is doing a damn good job at keeping the details out of the media. They’ve even stopped replaying the video. No more information has come through those talking heads they love so much. The Captain viewed the footage and went on a rampage throughout the palace.”

“None could stop him?”

“Not with the parameters you’ve set,” Shuri snapped. He could practically see his sister coiled and ready to strike in her seat in the control room. Times like this showed him how different they really were. Shuri would end this particular narrative while T’Challa chose to try to control it. He was confident Rogers word see some reason. 

“At most we have him cordoned off using the highest voltage possible in some of the experimental weaponry from armory. He will get through eventually.”

“Can he be held for at least a half hour?” T’Challa asked.

He slid the final piece, his helmet, over his head and secured it. He’d make an emergency landing if he had to. They didn't have time for this. The schedule was as tight as could be for more than one reason. To give Tony time to keep Ross’s eyes on him for one. The implications of that now had T’Challa’s gut churning. He hadn't seen the footage. Had refused even when the intel was brought to him for fear of...what exactly he couldn't quite place. It was unclear if the attack had disrupted Tony’s plans or if this had been his plan all along. The unknown factors had him on edge and Captain Rogers’ display only escalated things 

“Negative,” Shuri said testily. “He has help. Even now I suspect Barton is clearing his way through the ventilation system. He set off a smoke bomb with one of his arrows to facilitate Rogers’ escape from the Doras guarding their section of the palace. By my estimate, if he doesn't get lost, he’ll make it to this corridor to help his Captain in 10 minutes.”

T’Challa looked towards his pilot who simply nodded. “I will make it 10 minutes then.”

“You had better, I have never seen anything like this before. He is uncontrollable and irrational.I would say it was an Alpha rage but his bonded is safe. We checked Sergeant Barnes’ condition just an hour ago. He can't be in rut, either. The medical intake information we got from him states that’s far off for him. Perhaps he’s still harboring vengeance against Stark?”

T’Challa frowned behind his mask. Earlier on the mere mention of Stark’s name was enough to result in broken furniture or holes in his walls. At worst once the other rogue Avengers had been rescued prompted enraged voices and hate-fueled words. At best Rogers was sullen and seemingly contemplative when regarding his former teammate. T’Challa had observed their behavior enough to notice that Steve Rogers had a tick regarding these arguments. He was clearly still angry but at a certain point, often when they were deep into the engineer's worst perceived qualities, he’d stalk out of the room or end it all with a single glance or word. It was curiously protective.

“Down to 10,000 feet, your highness,” the pilot called out. T’Challa simply nodded and moved towards the small hatch at the back of the plane.

“You have your orders” he called out. The pilot was to land and to continue with final checks as if he were still aboard. Nothing could be amiss. He looked to Nakia, who also had orders to begin preflight checks on the smaller aircraft waiting in the hanger, and simply nodded.   

With a push of a button the heavy door slid open and T’Challa dropped through. His body fit easily through the space and within seconds he fell through the open air, his descent barely controlled until the plane started to climb in altitude again. Then he was in complete free fall near the tarmac he had intended to land on. For the most part he was still over enough foliage for a sufficient landing strategy. T’Challa felt the impact of his landing on the nearest thick branch in his bones.

Wood cracked beneath his feet as he leapt from branch to branch, dropping closer to the ground. His claws hooked into the trunk of the tall Boaboa tree and shredded through the bark until he came to a stop halfway down. From there he could just barely make out the plane beginning it’s descent and further out where a large building loomed behind the asphalt he could glimpse a large crowd. Without another thought he sheathed his claws and dropped to the ground in a dead run.

At a mile out he could make out that Rogers had made it to where his plane should have landed. Several Dora Milaje had him surrounded, using their staffs at possibly the highest voltage. It made little difference. Rogers caught hold of one and the attacks intensified.

He was already on the ground before the sharp snap of bones breaking could be heard. The closer he got the group the clearer the picture became. One of his Doras lie on the ground folded over her left leg, which sported a clear break. Some of the others helped to pull her back even as she struggled to stand and face her attacker. Shuri saw him first and her dark eyes narrowed. Her words were sharp in their language and very briefly his warriors began to stand down.

It seemed to shock the soldier and his companion whose hand relaxed slightly on his bow. T’Challa slowed as he approached them both noticing the twitch of the Captain's fingers.

“King T’Challa,” Barton said firmly. “We have a problem.”

“So it seems,” T’Challa said. He unclasped his helmet and let it dangle from his fingers. “What is the meaning of this? Why have you attacked my people?”

“They attacked first,” Barton snapped.

“That is a lie!” Shuri snarled. The Captain growled in her direction but his sister came closer. She drew herself up fully and maintained an unimpressed look. T’Challa half expected her to turn her back to them, further symbolizing her lack of respect or concern for the other Alpha. T’Challa breathed easier when she held her ground.

“I want answers,” T’Challa growled deeply. The Captain’s eyes snapped to him and there was a wildness there that T’Challa was unprepared for. His sister was right in that this wasn’t rut-like behavior. This was something different. Deeper. If he didn’t already know James Barnes to be safe that was his mind would have immediately jumped to.

“You will give them to me,” T’Challa said. He knelt down before Rogers close enough to feel the heated puffs of breath from each heavy pant.

“This is about Stark,” Barton explained. “Have you heard?”

Captain Rogers tensed at the mere mention of the name and drew in a deep breath that had his eyes widening. His aggression lessened just enough for T’Challa to see the fight go out of him.

“My mate,” his voice dragged heavily as if the words were being pulled from him. 

"I can have you escorted there,” T’Challa said calmly.

“No, he’s—Tony,” Captain Rogers stumbled over his words.

He inhaled deeply again, sucking in lungful after lungful of what T’Challa assumed to be the faint scent of one Tony Stark. It was surprising that he could smell anything at all. Just what was left on his skin and even then T’Challa could scarcely pick it out of everything else himself.

Rogers had to know the exact scent to look for and even then that wasn’t an easy task. It took time to memorize a scent like that, something so particular outside of a hunt. He could understand if he was drenched in it but that was not the case. T’Challa eased back then, watching the other Alpha carefully. He would have to know such a scent intimately. As only a bonded would. 

“Please, I need to, I got to get back,” Steve ground out like the words hurt to be voiced. Almost dragged from his throat.

“I’m unsure of what you mean, Captain, Rogers,” T’Challa replied. “Explain.”

His gut churned at the pieces fitting together in his mind and no doubt also in Shuri’s. He watched the corded muscles in the Captain’s neck strain at having to speak any further. His jaw clenched so hard he was nearly sure the man was hurting himself. His sister shot him a dark look over the top of the good Captain's head. 

“Tony is--was my bonded,” Rogers spat out. 

He moved to stand but the Doras kept close, staffs at the ready to drop him to the ground again. At a discreet nod from their king he was allowed to stand and meet T’Challa’s hard gaze dead on. He was no doubt surprised at the coldness he found there. In a word that was how T’Challa felt. Horror pricked at the edge of his thought when he considered the predicament he’d found himself in. The broken bond that Tony was recovering from, that he was so desperate to feel the painful withdrawal from so keenly, that he was seemingly killing himself to get over had been with Captain Rogers.

He’d wondered as much at first but didn’t recognize any withdrawal symptoms from the Captain himself and disregarded it just as quickly. Aside from that he had heard the battle that raged between Rogers, Barnes, and Tony.

Now he was not just unsure that the Captain wasn’t just lying about his health and mental state but about many other things. Just how much was the Captain keeping from him?

“And so he is no longer,” T’Challa told him. The purr of his stealth plane’s engines firing up reminded him of his task. He glanced to Shuri.

“They will be restricted to their compound until I return. No exceptions.” 

“Hey!” Barton shouted when two Dora’s grasped him by the arms while another relieved him of his weapon. “Don’t you think that’s a leap?”

Shuri came to stand beside her brother and sent the beta the deadliest of glares to silence him. Barton stilled immediately still stiff as his warriors began to move him.

"I cannot perform my duties and keep a watchful eye upon you all to ensure you won’t cause such a disturbance again. Perhaps when I return we can revisit your actions but until then I must request you keep to your quarters. While I am gone, my sister, Shuri is the ultimate authority. I would not upset her.”

“As always, Mr. Barton, you and your friends are welcome to leave Wakanda any time you like,” Shuri said pleasantly. “However you would not be welcome to return once you do.”

Barton huffed as he was directed back towards the palace with little to no resistance. Captain Rogers took a step in the King’s direction and found himself surrounded yet again.

“Please, I need--”

“You need?” T’Challa growled his response loudly.

“Is he alive? Do you have any other information?” Captain Rogers rushed his words hands up to avoid getting tased.

“If he could survive you. He will survive this,” T’Challa answered him without pause. Rogers stepped back with raised eyebrows and his mouth open in shock. T'Challa turned his back to him before he could respond only aware of the Captain's movements through the shallow breaths he drew and the sudden flood of angry pheromones filling his nostrils. 

“Shuri,” T’Challa placed a hand on his sister’s shoulder and squeezed. She sent him a withering look in return but nodded solemnly.

“This will work best, Captain Rogers, if you do as you’re told,” Shuri said calmly. He maintained his stance, arms up but his body tensed as he moved with several Doras walking alongside him, weapons down but charged. 

“As a sign of good faith,” she told the super soldier.

“Good hunting, brother.”

T’Challa rushed to his stealth plane where Nakia stood on watch for potential threats.

“Time?” He questioned as he climbed aboard and into the pilot’s seat. Nakia followed suit and situated herself into the co-pilot’s seat.

“We’re looking at a two and a half hour flight. Half an hour behind but we may make that up with good tailwinds,” she replied noncommittally.

“Bast, give me strength,” he murmured as they finished the meager preflight checks left and shot down the runway and rose steadily into the air.

The next time Tony woke up he shook to the sudden awareness of a hand on his ankle. The strong press of thin fingers rubbing across his skin had his eyes jerking open in alarm. Pepper's voice was gone but her scent was still heavy in the air, soothing him briefly until his eyes landed on the red headed nurse at the foot of his bed. He attempted to speak but his mouth and throat felt like they were filled with cotton. The sensation sent panic thrumming through him and he immediately tried to sit up.

How long had he been out? His back screamed with the effort and Natasha was at his side in seconds. In her hand a cup of water with a straw. He looked at it suspiciously and she simply rolled her eyes and out the cup under his nose. With a raise eyebrow he sniffed out nothing but water. Not that it mattered anyway. They both knew she could poison him with something odorless. Master Assassins were good like that. Then again he spied his suit in the corner, obviously piloted by FRIDAY, standing guard over him. Couldn’t get safer than that he supposed.

“Fine,” Natasha sniffed. Her eyes were red rimmed and glassy. He wasn't really sure what to do with that. In the years he'd known her he thought he knew every expression, every laugh, tilt of her head, or quirk to her lips. He thought he’d known her. And time and again she proved he knew nothing about her at all. Nothing concrete besides her swift ability to deceive, betray, and kill.

 With a heavy sigh he watched her lift the cup to her lips and took a sip from the bright pink straw. Her eyebrows rose high as he watched.

“See, not poisoned.”

Tony cleared his throat before answering in a gravelly voice.

“For all I know you could have built up an immunity,” he said. Natasha snorted and placed the cup close to his lips. Tony sipped through the straw.

“To what? Iocane powder? Inconceivable.”

“You keep using that word. I don't think you know what it means, “Tony said softly. Natasha nodded. 

“A lot like trust,” Natasha said. It was Tony's turn to snort.

“You know what it means.”

“Do you?” Natasha snapped. Tony shrank back and went on guard instantly. 

“That was reckless,” she said.

“Says the sniper,” Tony replied. “Good job by the way. I think it really did the trick. Friday?”

 “Everything is proceeding on schedule sir. Colonel Rhodes is in session now.”

 “And the other matter?”

 “En route,” she replied cryptically.  

Natasha breathed a sigh of relief and Tony nodded.

“Your job is done. I uh...I appreciate the assist,” Tony said lifting his hand towards her. Natasha stared at him for another beat. Her hands had begun to shake.

“Why me?”

“I knew you could make the shot,” Tony replied simply, trying to keep the quiver from his voice. “And I still trust you.”

Natasha’s eyes swept over his chest, covered by blankets and a gown but still, it was like she knew. He didn't doubt it. Perhaps even her buddies had told her. He’d prepared for this. He’d known she would have something to say about Siberia the moment he called. There wasn't much about the team that she didn't know through her own special resources. Tony tilted his chin up at her defiantly. Just as he was about to tell her to get it over with she spoke first.

“No you don't. And you really shouldn't. So why did you?”

 Tony huffed quietly. His voice was thick when he spoke.

“I knew you'd do this for him,” Tony said. “You’d do anything for...to make it right. Something we have in common, obviously. Even work with me again. Putting a couple of bullets in me was just a perk...you know.”

She sucked in a harsh breath and he stopped abruptly.

“You didn't do this for me," he said knowingly. "Don't insult me by trying to convince me otherwise." 

“What if I did it for both of you?” Natasha asked.

“Then I’d call you a liar,” he said. “And currently not a very good one.” 

Natasha looked away from him then. Currently more interested in the beeps of his monitor. Her jaw worked in a short rhythm halted by his next words.

“Fool me twice and all that. Don't worry about it. You can resume whatever you had going on before,” Tony said evenly. Perhaps even leaving the challenge open. Go on and group up with Cap and the others. Maybe his call had interrupted her from doing just that.

Tears brimmed in her eyes and once again he had no idea what to do with or how to trust it. True he’d never seen her cry and just the sight of tears slipping quietly down her cheeks had his instincts on edge. An Alpha was in distress.  His hormones screamed for him to reach up and comfort her but all he could do was grip the scratchy blanket in his hands as tightly as possible and wait for her to leave.

He wasn't entirely sure why his heart sank when she turned around and did.

Tony shifted again in his sleep, slowly feeling more rested than he had in a year, to a familiar snore. It was so close that he jerked in his bed away from the sound and into firm hands.

Tony blinked against crusty sleep and the thick remnants of his tears.

“Hey, it's okay, I’m here,” Pepper said and instantly he relaxed. The snoring continued and before he could gingerly turn his head to see her he caught his first glimpse of Rhodey in days.

Thick stubble coated his chin and he leaned his head against the mattress from his chair. He was still in his uniform and it occurred to Tony that he might have come straight from New York and the UN Headquarters.

“We're both here,” Pepper soothed. She brushed the hair back from his forehead and sat on the side of his bed. In her hand was another cup of water with a straw. She held it to his lips and after a long sip he blew out a harsh breath.

“Pep-”

“I’m okay,” she said. “Just a scrape on my knee. FRIDAY kept me out of the line of fire.”

“Good girl,” Tony said glancing at the suit guarding the door.

“I guess I’m just lucky. You probably sent the suit to protect me after the first shot.”

Tony blinked up at her with wide eyes. This was going to go well. He side eyed the door thinking Natasha would siddle in having told her.

“Except I know almost every one of FRIDAY's protocols and unless I’m mistaken she's coded to protect you first. Even piloting the suit she would have gone to you first and me second.”

“Uhhhh”

“The interesting thing that I’ve noticed over the past 48 hours, 16 of which they played that video nonstop by the way, is that there wasn't a second wasted. Not even mid-flight did she redirect towards me. She covered me first and you not at all.”

Tony physically shrank back as she reached over to take his hand in hers and gently squeezed in contrast to the clear fury in her eyes.

“And for that to happen,” Rhodes continued. Toby jerked at his voice not expecting him to be awake.

“It’s an ambush!” Tony shouted, scandalized.

“You would have had to tell her before shots were fired to ignore her primary protocols and protect Pepper,” He continued. Under the burden of both their heavy gazes had him pulling in. Strangely the heavy sensation that had been his constant companion for the last few months was silent. He burned through excuses as he avoided looking them in the eye, infinitely more interested in the pattern of his blanket instead.

“What the hell, man?” Rhodes was angry and Tony sunk further into his pillows. Maybe if he closed his eyes they’d go away again.

“This wasn't a part of the plan!”

“Not your plan,” Tony muttered. He sighed at their expectant silence.  He should have known they’d figure it out. Rhodey was a genius in his own right and Pepper was, well, scary. Speaking of which she began tapping her foot on the floor impatiently again.

With a heavy sigh Tony gingerly sat back up not surprised to see Rhodey stuffing a pillow behind his back from where Tony had no idea.

“I knew it wouldn't be enough,” Tony said directly to Rhodes. “And I had to give them their best chance otherwise this wouldn't be worth it at all.”

“What plan?” Pepper huffed, clearly irritated about being kept out of the loop. Tony grimaced and explained as concisely as possible that they had needed to get Bruce to safety. That Ross was closing in and Tony couldn't go get him on his own so he agreed to be the bait. Something to distract Ross while another party got Bruce to safety. It was also the perfect opportunity for Rhodey to be present to push the new amendment through.

“Tell me it didn't work,” Tony said defiantly. Rhodey rolled his eyes.

“The amendment passed almost unanimously with me as the primary recruiter for the provisional team members. Ross still has some final say on their full time status, though. It’s not entirely his word though. They have to be approved by the committee,” Rhodey said. He rolled his eyes at Tony’s small smile.  

Tony chuckled at that.

“FRIDAY I need to see the video,” Tony said.

“Already cued up, boss,” FRIDAY said with a touch of sarcasm. Tony frowned at the suit’s back. Oh, great. Now his own AI was mad at him.

“Did either of you miss the part where we won?” Tony snapped. “Rhodey it worked. Like a charm. Ross’ll have a hard enough time trying to gain back that tiny bit of power. He won’t be able to be all over us all the time while we recruit. He can’t risk undermining us much more than he has.”

“Did you miss the part where neither of us give a shit?” Rhodey snarked back to Tony’s disbelief. He shrank back against the pillows, not daring to look anywhere else but his own hands, his left covered with bandages and a needle connected to his IV drip.  His eyes remained downcast as he spoke.

“Tony-”

“Look, I know I put you in danger Pep. I’m sorry and I wish it hadn’t come to that. I actually had planned around your departure from the city so you would be as far away from this as possible when it went down but there wasn’t time once I’d seen you. You were determined to go to dinner and the timeframe was so tight I couldn’t change course. That’s why I had FRIDAY on call for you.”

“TONY!” Pepper shouted causing the omega to flinch.

“Did you really think either of us would just be okay with you nearly dying over this?” Pepper asked softly. Rhodey wheeled closer to the bed and reached out for Tony's hand while Pepper took the other. Pepper shifted beside him, sliding around to his front.

“Look at me Tony,” she quietly demanded. Mild panic consumed him. “We were so worried.”

“There's nothing to worry about.”

“You just allowed someone to put two bullets in you!” Pepper's voice rose.

“I know stock will drop. It always does when something like this happens--”

“For fucksake Tony this isn't about the company,” Rhodey spoke up. His glare rooted Tony to the spot. Not that he couldn't move anyway but now he couldn't look away even with how much he wanted to. His gaze swept over the chair briefly.

"And don't you dare start folding into your guilt,” Rhodey said. “We were worried about you, dumbass.”

The thought hit him so hard all he responded with was, “Oh.”

It was like finally getting a glimpse of life through a thick fog. Everything just stopped. Pepper ran her thumb across his knuckles and hit him with another question.

“Did you think we wouldn't care? That we’d just gloss over you getting shot?”

“No, I just,” Tony struggled for a moment. He really hadn’t. He could remember clearly when he had FRIDAY call up Natasha. Or perhaps he had, in a way, expected the detail to be waylaid by the frenzy of the Accords business. He hadn’t really thought much about it at all.

“It was a calculated risk. It was necessary.”

“To risk yourself?” Pepper said.

“It's not the first time,”Tony muttered. “At least this time it was worth it.”

“The Accords aren't worth that,” Rhodey said. “We could have figured something else out!”

“In such a short time? Really? What would have worked better, huh? Nothing else would have worked with the stakes so high!”

“He wouldn't have wanted this! You know that. Hell, I know that. What do you think will happen when he finds out?”

“I- it was my choice!”

“Bullshit. This is about the withdrawals!”

“Rhodey!” Pepper said in warning. Tony had gripped her hand tightly. His eye squeezed shut against that familiar heavy feeling that never came. His eyes snapped back open.

“What the hell did you do?” Tony growled. Admittedly it sounded weak to his own ears. He pushed himself further up in the bed until he was completely up and as far away from them as possible.

“You weren't doing well, man. And it was jeopardizing how you were reacting to life saving medication,”Rhodey admitted. “So as your power of attorney I had to make a decision.”

“What the hell does that mean.”

“The withdrawals were complicating your recovery!” Pepper said firmly. “We’re not going  to apologize for saving your life! Don't ask us to.”

“Like I was even that bad,” Tony snorted.

“Tony, you were willing to die for this. Don’t insult our intelligence here. We practically know your medical records as well as anybody,” Rhodey said.

“A shock to your system like that?” Pepper said softly. “You know that was more of a risk than you’re making it out to be. Your judgement was askew.”

“I was doing the right thing,” Tony said. “You it was worth it to get Bruce back to safety.”

“Was it?” Pepper asked. “If we lost you…”

“You’re not replaceable man,” Rhodey said just as softly. “Never in a million years would losing you to get one over on Ross be worth it. Ever. You have to know that.”

“You do know that right?” Pepper asked. She reached forward to run her fingers through his hair and he found himself leaning into the touch. Both of them looked at him expectantly and he offered them a nod. He really wasn't so sure anymore. 

"Sometimes I wonder," he said no louder than a murmur but he knew they both heard. Rhodey's hand tightened around his and Pepper's fingers stilled against his scalp for a second before continuing their circuit. He concentrated on the path her fingers took and the warmth of Rhodey's skin against his until there was nothing else. 

Chapter Text

Steve shuffled uncertainly into the common area where Clint sat on the couch surrounded by their teammates. Wanda on his left and Scott on his right. Steve came to stop in front of him and stand next to Sam who crossed his arms against Clint's outrage.

“It’s obvious that he got under his skin,” Clint said. “What do you think Cap?”

A bit of rage slid through him at the implications of Clint's words.

“It’s possible,” Steve said as casually as he could. “They were allies during…our conflict but I don't know Clint. They seemed to go easy on us at the airstrip. If T'Challa wished it...We could be dead.”

“We need to go,” Clint said sharply. “Who knows what he's told that bastard by now in retaliation. The UN could come get us any day.

“Go where Clint?” Sam asked. “Is there a super secure safe house you haven't told us about somewhere? You're not wrong about Stark but if T’Challa had told him do you really think he'd be capable of holding off? You heard what Cap said when he got us out of the RAFT same as me!”

Steve sucked in a sharp breath at the reminder and they all seemed to pause to watch him. His muscles bunched under his shoulders when he tried to shrug off the emotional punch to the gut. Not to mention the pheromones he was putting off. The onslaught of thoughts of hot rod red armor coming at him. Trying to kill Bucky. Steve grit his teeth against the anger and nodded, conceding Sam’s point.

“I think if Stark knew he would have already been here,” Steve agreed keeping his voice as calm as possible. “ Tony….He’d come after us. He’d try to finish what he started.”

For the lies. For every night they’d laid beside each other and Steve hadn’t told him. It wouldn’t matter that an innocent man’s life had been between them either. Steve swallowed thickly and barreled on. He couldn’t let his team fall apart even more than they already had.

“So, what? We stay and wait for him to decide to come after us?” Clint snarled.

“What’s with you man? I don't think he's in the position to--” Scott started.

“Do you really think T’Challa would stand up to the UN for us? If we trust him any further we could end up back in the RAFT!” Wanda said quietly.

The young woman shuddered and Clint quietly squeezed her shoulder. Of all of them she’d had it the worst in there. Steve would never forget the hollowed out look on her face when he found her with that damn collar around her neck. How Tony could ever believe their friends belonged in there was beyond him.

“Once again...Why hasn't he come?” Sam asked. “If T’Challa wanted us out do you really think we would be here? In relative opulence? Or would we be in a Wakandan prison waiting to be extradited?”

Clint rolled his eyes at Sam’s earnestness. The archer had a point. It did seem to only be a matter of time until T’Challa either threw them out or handed them over to the UN. No thanks to his display at the airfield. Steve huffed quietly as his team began to argue again. Clint and Wanda vs. Scott and Sam. He couldn't let them become any more divided than they were. Steve stood quickly.

“That’s enough!” Steve growled. Four pairs of eyes snapped to him instantly and Steve at least had the decency to look a little apologetic.

“I’ll talk to T’Challa and apologize for my reaction at the airstrip. I did injure one of his people in the process. Sam’s right, we don’t really have anywhere else to go right now. And until we do then we need to stay in T’Challa’s good graces and try to smooth things over. At least until we have the resources to move on our own.”

Sam glared pointedly at the archer until Steve sighed even more heavily when he dropped the other shoe.

“But Clint is right, too. We’re at T’Challa’s mercy here and I don’t like it anymore than you all do. He may have taken us in but the closer he gets to Tony the more likely the possibility is that he might give us up. When I talk to him I’ll try to get a better idea of where he stands. If I get any inkling whatsoever that he’s about to give us up we run, no more discussions. Agreed?”

Clint and Sam nodded gravely Steve felt proud of them. This was how a team, a pack in the old days, should work. He smiled reassuringly at them as tension slowly eased from his three betas. Scott looked relieved as well while Wanda appeared more neutral as she watched her teammates. There was an all too familiar ache in Steve’s chest that caught him by surprise, knocking the breath from him. He snuck a look at his team and saw that they hadn’t noticed, too engrossed in smoothing the ruffled feathers from their disagreement.

He guessed they had at least 24 hours before T’Challa would make contact again. If he were going to have success with the other Alpha he’d have to let off some steam.

Tony jerked awake to the soft glow of his suit’s arc reactor. The suit still stood sentry near the door except now it was facing him arm extended palm facing outward and repulsor charged at the ready.

“It's just me,” Natasha said softly causing him to jerk again and whip around to look at the far side of his room on the other side of his bed. She leaned on the wall arms crossed and dressed in blue scrubs with little alligators all over them, or mushy triangles, which ever. Hair tucked back she looked almost as gentle as he knew deadly.

“FRIDAY, what the hell?” Tony asked turning back to the suit.

“Intruder alert,” FRIDAY said simply. Tony could only laugh. And once he started he couldn't stop. Full belly aching body-shaking laughter bubbled up from the depths of who the fuck knew where and filled the room.

“I think she's angry with me.”

“I’m not sure what to tell you,” Tony said, though a thrill of fear ran through him at the thought of possibly fathering another homicidal AI. By the time his laughter subsided his sides hurt more than they had in awhile. He secretly relished in the forgotten feeling while schooling his features as best he could.

“Do you think she shouldn't be?” Tony asked, unable to stop once he started. FRIDAY knew the plan but he supposed since Natasha's last visit his AI had categorized Natasha differently. At least she hadn't put Natasha through a wall yet. The omega blinked owlishly at Natasha. Her lips quirked, as he had seen then do a thousand times before, but her eyes were trained on his chest.

“I don't know what to think,” Natasha said softly. “I haven't since...”

Anger filled him. Burned on its way up, too. For all her hesitation he couldn't look anywhere else but at her. Straight on at the baggy scrubs and circles beneath her eyes. At the slight shake of her hands. He supposed he should have felt sympathetic. And to a degree he did. He wondered if she were eating properly since it wasn’t usually her MO to not take care of herself even when she had to go to ground. He couldn’t remember if she looked like that yesterday and realized with irritation that perhaps the withdrawal symptoms really were dulling his senses.

“You don't get to not know,” Tony spat venomously. And where had that come from? That burning rage hadn't been seen since...It had seeped out of him every second he’d spent sprawled across the floor of that Siberian bunker.

Natasha winced at his words but stayed silent. Meanwhile he had sat up, shoved himself upwards without a care to the stinging pain of his back and shoulder wounds and glared fully at the woman he’d had the audacity to think of as family.

“I don't get to not know what to do and neither do you. You let them go, you’re just as culpable as Zemo, as Steve!”

“You knew just as well as he did,” Tony said. He'd worked it out himself when he’d got back to the tower. Everything was in the Shield data dump she was responsible for. How could she not know?

“You knew and you watched me dig myself deeper and deeper. You watched me love him, fight for him, and you knew every second it was a lie. All of it!”

“I thought,” he said weakly, the words caught in his throat. “And you knew.”

“I did.” Natasha said, simply with a touch of remorse.

“I really thought he would have told you. I kept reminding myself it wasn't my place to come between an Alpha and his Omega. I had Bruce and he was opening up to me and that was all that mattered. And when he was gone. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that kind of pain. I didn’t even know it could hurt that badly, a broken bond. By the time I found myself rejoining the world I couldn't take from you what I had lost.”

“Sometimes I wonder now what was real for any of us,” she said.

“What do you want from me?” Tony asked, not proud of how thick his voice was the. Of how much information he was giving her with just the sound of his voice. Information she was bound to take back to Steve.

He could empathize with her pain but had to remind himself that it was dangerous. Too dangerous to even voice. He and Natasha had always had scent blockers in common. She never could afford to have anyone scent her and he could never let anyone in. Their vulnerability had lapsed in their time in the tower. He’d become far too used to knowing her scent. To knowing when she was upset to when she was lying. He couldn’t smell her the first time she dropped in and he definitely couldn’t smell her now. She was hiding herself again.

“I guess I’d like to come home. But it's not really home anymore is it?” Natasha said.

Tony shook his head. It surely wasn't. She couldn't come back without facing an inquiry from the UN. Ross would try to imprison her without a doubt. He caught her staring at his chest again and rolled his eyes.

“What?”

“I went to Siberia.”

“Of course you did,” Tony spat. She pulled something from her back pocket, a plain silver thumb drive. Plain by all accounts to the naked eye but a sinking stone in his stomach to him. He both knew exactly what it was and hoped to never really find out. His voice caught in his throat when he went to ask.

“I don’t believe it’s the only copy,” she admitted softly. Slowly she inched forward mindful of FRIDAY’s keen observance of her and placed it just within his reach on the bed. “It’s the last anyone would get from there.”

The thought hadn’t crossed his mind to return to the base for evidence of what went down there. To at least keep his mother’s death under wraps and keep her memory as pristine as it had ever been. She was owed that dignity. Hell even Howard was owed that. He thought back over the hazy memory of the past few months. All he could remember was work and pain. Every ache, every cold sweat, sitting in his workshop and replaying his Alpha beating him senseless while breaking their bond into pieces. Everyday overturned a new bruise across his psyche. There hadn’t been a single thought spared to this. He had been off his game. And now? Anyone in the intelligence community or worse could have a copy of one of the worst moments of his life.

“I know a thing or two about letting things slip by you while recovering from bond withdrawal,” Natasha said almost reading his thoughts but more likely knowing from just watching his face. “You know the longer you hold on the worse it gets.”

“Maybe I needed it to be worse!” Tony snapped defensively.

“For what? To punish yourself? I know all about that, too.”

She eyed his chest again and looked away like it physically hurt her to recall the imagery.

“Why do you think I said, yes, to your little mission,” she asked with a small quirk of her lips. She sank down at the farthest edge of his bed, near his feet, and lightly tapped at his ankle.

“I gave him a second chance to do what was right. I didn’t think he’d do what he did. Then again maybe I did know. I read people for a living and I knew he wasn’t going to stop even if someone got hurt,” she said.

“So I made a choice and I put that choice in his hands to go do what needed to be done and he---” she paused looking far off. “I wish I hadn’t. You can believe that or not. I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t believe a word I’ve said. I’m starting to have a hard time with that myself.”

Tony swallowed back the comfort he wanted to offer. She could be playing on his sympathies and his worry for her. Especially because she had once told him that the one semi-decent skill the Red Room had beat into her was an unwaivering belief in her self. It was the sort of confidence you could bet your life on. The type to take leaps of faith on. Without it she wouldn’t have lasted the long days of her training. The tricks and tests set forth by her instructors to insure her loyalty. He wished he could scent her to know for sure but that simple trust was long gone beneath scent blockers.

Natasha pulled her legs up and folded them beneath her. He could remember days spent watching movies on the couch with her just like this. Usually it was a sign of her making herself comfortable. It was a strange choice considering she obviously couldn’t stay for long. They were lucky enough at this point that no one had walked in to take his vitals and interrupt them.

“So, you're here for forgiveness?” Tony asked trying to ignore the part of him that hoped even though he knew not to expect. It was foolish to try.

Her gaze rested heavily on him as she shook her head and he struggled to keep his face from dropping.

“I don't deserve your forgiveness. Not yet at least. Maybe never,” Natasha said and he searched for any sign of a lie. His eyes wandered her soft features looking for the manipulation that had to be there. Natasha sat there unmoving and unperturbed save for the slight shake of her hands in her lap. Even with the way she sat open to him his heart constricted painfully.

“I can't,” he said quietly. How could he let her back in?

“I know,” Natasha replied. Slowly she stood and slipped her shoes back on. Like she didn't want to leave and some part of him didn't want her to either. His fingers itched to grab hers but he kept them bunched up in his sheets, knuckles white.

“Stay safe, Tony,” she said. Her hand reached out and easily brushed an errant tuft of hair away from his eyes. Her touch was like a shock to his system flooding him with a similar kind of comfort he got from Rhodey and Pepper. He blinked, surprised to find her gone. FRIDAY lowered her arm and resumed guard duty.

“Boss?”

“Yeah FRIDAY?”

“Are you alright?” she asked in that familiar Irish cadence. He swallowed around the lump in his throat.

“Always, baby girl,” he murmured.

Tony stared at the door for a few moments hoping to see Natasha come back or maybe not, he didn't know. He clutched the drive to him. He wanted to crush it, warp the little thing into broken slivers and grind the rest to dust.

“FRIDAY is Pepper nearby?” Tony asked.

“Ms. Potts is in the hospital cafeteria with Mr. Rhodey,” she said.

“Call them,” Tony said. He owed them an apology after all.

T’Challa stared out at the vast clouds stretched before them and huffed silently. There was tension coiled in his gut the moment they hit cruising altitude that had yet to cease. Nakia sat in the copilot's seat and continued to monitor their levels and scan for incoming threats. All had been quiet since they left in the Dagger. Not even a word from Shuri about the wayward Avengers cooling their heels in the palace. He supposed Shuri wouldn't have called anyway. She was most disappointed in the heroes they had both admired from afar. It was clear though on the first day of their stay in the palace that her admiration had dimmed to irritation if not outright hostility. Having watched from the sidelines while her father died and her brother sought vengeance T’Challa supposed she had time to mourn and gather herself and was now set in her role of guarding his interests.

T’Challa wished he'd had the luxury.

Every moment of their conflict had seemed to go so quickly. He couldn't remember coming up for air until after long Zemo had confessed his crimes. He’d been officially crowned King then. Gone through the rigorous testing of his council and found worthy. His fingers gripped the controls tightly. Just as easily as he had been consumed by vengeance he’d also let guilt for nearly killing an innocent man override his good sense. And now what was he left with?

Nakia sighed beside him.

“Nakia,” T’Challa said softly.

“She will endure.” She said just as softly though she needn’t have bothered. They were the only passengers until they retrieved their cargo.

T’Challa nodded slowly. “It looked like a clean break. She will walk again.”

“And will he pay for his crimes?” Nakia asked.

Assaulting a member of the Dora Milaje was nearly unheard of. For centuries it was punishable by death and considered as much as an insult as an attempt on the royal family’s life. It had only been in the last 50 years since T’Chaka had married outside of the Dora Milaje for his second marriage that the women had begun to be seen as more than potential wives to the King. Even still, their names continued to carry a heavy significance, they were adored by their people. Even though the young one had been injured in the line of duty this wasn’t a normal circumstance. He could only hope to keep this quiet and handle the situation Alpha to Alpha once he returned. If all hell hadn’t broken loose by then.

T’Challa stilled beneath her heavy gaze feeling oddly pinned to his seat. Had it been anyone else outside of his family he would have bristled with irritation. In regimes past he would have been well within his rights to remind Nakia of her place. However, it wasn’t someone else. Nakia held herself rigid in her seat, muscles of her shoulders tight with tension and if he were more honest, a type of fury all too familiar to him because it boiled deep in his belly. Her gaze bore into his telling him more than anything that this was beyond a matter of the Dora Milaje.

“He will,” T’Challa replied resolutely. Almost immediately relief poured into his friend’s features but her gaze held true and a sort of coldness settled over her that he had never seen before.

“Good,” she answered. He couldn’t say that he disagreed.

“What’s this about, Tony?” Pepper asked immediately. She slid her thumb across the titanium exterior of the drive almost nervously. Her chipped manicure caught the light distracting Tony from thoughts of vibranium shields piercing titanium alloy.

“FRIDAY?” Tony asked. The suit stepped forward.

“If you’ll allow me Ms. Potts,” FRIDAY said almost somberly. A holographic display shined over the bed courtesy of the suit’s projector array. The video began immediately. It was from a single vantage point just above where Zemo had stood but the wide-angle lens had caught everything. The audio was for shit though the point got across. Pepper gasped at his left while Rhodey grit his teeth next to her. He watched his friend’s faces morph from worry to horror in seconds right up until the end.

The video froze on the image of Tony propped up struggling to stand. He couldn’t even begin to express how glad he was that he’d had the foresight to watch it first. Not that he could ever hope to get his red rimmed eyes past Pepper or Rhodey.

“Are you okay?” Pepper asked and it was one of those genuine things that had his gut clenching and his chest hurting.

“I will be,” Tony said. “When you leak this to the public.”

“Uh, come again?” Rhodey asked through clenched teeth and incredulously raised eyebrows.

“I have to second that,” Pepper said worriedly.

“Someone dropped this off to me today,” Tony said and jumped ahead while the other two began to exclaim. “I didn’t see them, it was just here when I woke up.”

“It was—“ FRIDAY began. The suit’s head turned towards him in such a way he could see the disapproval coming.

“Mute!” Tony barked. FRIDAY fell silent and turned away just as quickly in silent protest.

“It doesn’t matter who it was,” Tony said.

“How can it not matter who it was!” Pepper said. “We need to know what they’re after so we can guard against this!”

“No,” Tony said steadily, proud that his voice had firmed up from the long moments of quaking tears from mere moments before they arrived. “We need to get ahead of this.”

“This thing is out there,” Tony said. “In probably so many other forms we can’t even possibly imagine. Whoever brought me this is sending me a message. It’s going to come out one way or another. We’re lucky enough that it hasn’t hit Youtube already. I say we shore up our defenses and release it when we’re ready.”

“So you want to leak the worst moment of your life to the public,” Rhodey said skeptically.

“At least it’s my choice,” Tony said imploringly with hopeful eyes. “As long as someone else out there has a copy of this then it’s going to be hanging over our—my head! And that’s not even considering the unholy amount of glee for Ross when he finally has a reason to fully frame the Avengers as unhinged monsters that need to be put down.”

Pepper sucked in a sharp breath and stepped away from the bed, from him. Her hands shook as she pressed them to her lips and ran them up and across her cheeks. Tony hated to see her cry. He’d hoped they were finished with all that. When he decided to take a break from the Avengers after Ultron to give him and Steve some breathing room the relief in her had been almost immediate. Tony itched to move off the bed and apologize. No matter what he did someone else always seemed to pay the price.

Rhodey wheeled forward and blocked his path, though Tony hadn’t even been aware he was moving at the time. Yet there he was, closer to the edge. He stared down into the worn face of the man who had always watched his back and slumped back against the pillows in defeat.

“You’re still trying to protect him,” Rhodey said with a grimace. Tony shook his head vehemently.

“Not anymore.”Rhodey’s eyebrows rose high enough for Tony to know he didn’t believe him. Tony snorted under the scrutiny but shrugged his defeat anyway.

“You’re going to have to come out of hiding for this,” Pepper said abruptly, having moved closer. She had that contemplative look about her. Like a lioness deciding the right time to pounce. Her gaze swept briefly over the holographic image then back to Tony himself.

“I’m not in hiding!” Tony said. “At least as of 24 hours ago I wasn’t.”

 “It’s not necessarily a bad time,” Pepper contemplated.

“Pepper!” Rhodey pivoted his chair to look at her. The redhead shrugged tiredly.

“He’s right. You know it’s going to come out. Either we do it soon or they do it later,” Pepper said. “At least we can control the narrative.”

“Yeah, yeah, we won’t be in total freefall,” Rhodey said sounding so much more tired than he looked. Tony flinched at his choice of words but nodded nonetheless.

“Now that the hard part’s out of the way,” Tony said. “Let’s talk about getting me out of here.”

The twin groans lit a warmth in his chest he hadn’t been aware he was missing.

It was maybe a half hour later when Nakia informed him of their proximity to their target. T’Challa had lost himself to the mechanical ease of trajectory and navigation along the path he’d carefully charted. And since when had rescuing Bruce Banner become a simpler task than his own home affairs? Since when was potentially dealing with the Hulk much more amenable than maneuvering around the ticking time bomb that were the rogue Avengers?

There was much he couldn’t admit even to Shuri and Nakia but even as he slowed the craft to hover close to their rendezvous point he could at least admit it to himself. Nakia took the controls and T’Challa dug out the specially modified phone. At the press of a button FRIDAY greeted him.

“Good evening your majesty,” she said politely.

“Good evening, Friday, we’re nearly 100 kilometers from the rendezvous point. Please begin.”

“Acknowledged. Challenge initiating.” The AI replied. Then nothing. She would be beginning and completing a series of codes shared between her and Bruce Banner’s companion AI, JOCASTA. As Tony had explained it the challenge codes were more like a conversation between the two AI’s ranging in more complicated codes only Tony could crack if necessary. If either of them met with interference or the AI met with a line of code that did not match the conversation broke down and each followed their next line of protocol.

It was really ingenious and only possibly due to the genius of his AI’s who could run through endless lines of challenges until sufficiently satisfied. In order to intercept either AI you had to speak their language.

“There’s something strange here,” Nakia said more to herself. T’Challa looked away from the phone to her pinched expression still visible in the dark cockpit.

“What is it?” He asked.

“My king, we are not alone,” Nakia said. T’Challa crossed to the cockpit in quick strides to peer over her shoulder. The proximity alert was lit up.

“Are you sure? It could just be Banner,” he tried but Nakia shook her head. She pulled up a screen displaying a range of frequencies that were jumping around.

“I should be able to tap into them,” Nakia said. Her fingers flew across the controls adjusting where she could while T’Challa’s heart threatened to hammer through his chest.

“US Military frequencies. There are several different voices.”

T’Challa dropped heavily into the pilot’s chair and pulled up a screen to begin checking for heat signatures. He thanked Bast that they remained cloaked. Between their current position and the rendezvous point there was something suspect. They couldn’t get closer to Bannervwithout alerting anyone nearby. And it would take more than a few mere minutes to find him and recover him without their knowledge. The plan hinged on him disappearing from the area without a trace.

The screen loaded at least 20 different notifications; red dots appeared along the graphed area notating the likely body heat signatures hiding along the brush. This was Ross, T’Challa just knew it. This could only be made worse by the man being on sight to oversee the mission himself.

“By Bast, that’s too many,” Nakia said in shock. Perhaps if they had another Dora with them they could flank the squad as they moved but that was nearly impossible now.

“What should we do?” Nakia asked.

“Challenge complete,” FRIDAY announced, reminding him of his mission. T’Challa cursed. Banner was here. If he didn’t get to him then Ross would capture him, set off another Hulk attack, or both. He’d have to tell Tony that they failed. That his sacrifice was worth nothing now.

“Your majesty?” Nakia questioned, looking for orders.

T’Challa hung his head.

“I need you to divide their attention should they notice anything amiss. We cannot risk another appearance of the Hulk on African soil. This may not be our country but I refuse to put more lives in danger. The Hulk can move much more quickly than you might think. Even being so far out he could find his way to civilization. I won’t risk another Johannesburg,” T’Challa said.

“Keep this as quiet as possible. Mr. Stark has indicated that even nearby gunfire can rile the Hulk. It does not need to be directed at him personally.”

“Understood my King.The hatch is open,” Nakia said and immediately began preparations to leave the Dagger running smoothly above them if necessary. T’Challa moved the stealth hatch and easily dropped through the small opening designed for one. He tumbled onto the soft ground easily enough; the impact absorbed throughout his suit, and took off.

“They are changing position,” Nakia said through the comm link in his helmet. “Their path is not direct though. They’re headed to the safe house, 20 kilometers from you now and 40 kilometers from the rendezvous point. It should take them thirty minutes on foot.”

“Keep your distance,” T’Challa replied. It was up to Bast now. He could only hope to make it to Banner first. The brush only got thicker as he moved through, changing from small pockets of cleared area to older parts of the forest surrounding him with taller trees with thicker trunks and rotted out branches covering the ground. Everything seemed to catch on him and he had to slow to keep his approach as quiet as possible. Though Banner knew he was coming the risk was too great.

“Checking in,” T’Challa requested the update while he easily vaulted over a downed tree rotted from the inside out.

“Less than 10 kilometers,” Nakia answered.

“And Ross?”

“They’ve approached the house,” Nakia said.

T’Challa slowed further on his approach. There was a small clearing just ahead but he supposed you’d have to know to look for it at this time of night. He barely saw it thanks to his enhanced night vision and the planned meeting of course. It wasn’t easy to get to without making the maximum amount of noise so he climbed up and slid through the thicker branches easily to drop down just outside of it. The man they called Bruce Banner sat on a knarled tree stump with a worn back pack slung over his shoulders staring at what appeared to be a biochemistry journal. He seemed to hunch in on himself to maintain the idea that he was smaller but for all that T’Challa could see he was. It didn’t lessen his caution or stay his fears but he could see the weakness of the man in this state.

“Doctor Banner,” T’Challa said once he’d removed his helmet. He intended to keep his distance until the other man acknowledged him.

Banner’s shoulders tensed for a moment and relaxed in the next. He slid easily off the large stump and faced the King of Wakanda with a rather humble expression and what could only be the same self-deprecating smile Tony described.

“Your Majesty, thank you for coming.”

Chapter Text

“Tony, no,” Pepper groaned as she stepped back into the room with two cups of gelatin in her hands.

Tony grimaced and managed to glance at her wide eyed and mouth slack. He’d meant to be much further along by now but sitting up had sent a sharp frisson of pain down to his lower back. He’d almost instantly broken out in a cold sweat and now that he was awake and they were dialing back his pain medication to balance out the withdrawals treatment everything felt worse.  Every movement felt like it took years off his life. Tony got as far as swinging his legs over the side of the bed to rest on the cold floor. If he could get into the suit he could have FRIDAY remotely pilot him back to the Tower in time to meet Bruce. He should at least be there to greet him. He should..he should…he should move. His muscles screamed at the thought.

“Get back in bed!” Pepper barked. She deposited the cups on the bed and immediately set herself to gently grabbing his ankles and lifting his legs up.

So much for that.

“Whatever do you mean, Pepper Pot?” Tony tried for mirth through the pain but clearly failed miserably when his next breath was ragged and his next words came out more like a groan.

“Come on,” Pepper continued as if he hadn’t spoken and together they eased him back towards the center of the bed inch by agonizing inch. No wonder he’d been sweating like he ran a marathon. When had the center of the bed become so far?

They got him settled somewhat comfortably with his back gently resting against several pillows and his quivering legs stretched out before him.

“You could have torn your stitches,” she said as she checked him over briefly to ensure that he hadn’t. Finding nothing amiss she rearranged the pillows and gracefully slid into the chair next to the bed.

“Well, I’ve got bigger problems,” Tony muttered.

“You always have bigger problems. They’re a fact of life. Something you won’t have if you don’t get your rest and heal up. This grace period won’t last forever you know.”

“Yeah, yeah, Ross must be chomping at the bit,” Tony said. He reached out for the abandoned gelatin cups and smiled when Pepper handed him one then tried to hand him a spoon.

“Please.”

Pepper’s lip curled as he ripped the aluminium lid back and began artfully, if he did say so himself, licking the wiggly substance. She rolled her eyes and neatly tucked into her own cup with delicate bites while he slurped.

“Gross.”

“And delightful. Who needs spoons?”

“I’m serious. His secretary has left 12 messages with FRIDAY and 6 with my office. He shouldn’t have too much free time though. What with the inquiry and all.”

“Sounds deliciously boring. Poor guy.”

“Apparently leading a black ops mission on foreign soil without permission is costly and illegal, even for the Secretary of State with a hunch on the location of the Hulk. It makes people ask questions. Who knew?”

“He’s gonna have to keep his nose clean for a while if he hopes to keep his position.”

“You know he’ll come back more vicious than before. He’ll try to hit you as hard as he can the moment he catches wind of an opportunity.”

Tony shrugged then regretted the movement instantly.

“Of course. In the meantime, he’s probably very busy groveling and assuring himself his dirt will stay out of the public's awareness, FRIDAY?”

“Already on it boss,” she replied rather smugly.  If his girl were human he was sure she’d be grinning viciously from ear to ear.  

“I think the Secretary could use quite a bit of down time, don’t you?”

Pepper smiled, a vicious thing, teeth gleaming. He found that he had missed it more than he could say.

Bruce shifted in his seat completely unable to keep from taking in the vast technological advancements of the Wakandan stealth plane. He marveled at the controls and the sleek almost whisper quiet sound of the engines gunning beneath them. He’d been lost trying to figure out the propulsion systems since T’Challa sat him down. He became so distracted he lost track of the time. Each new device he laid eyes on elicited new questions for the Wakandan King though he was sure he wouldn’t get any answers. Not with the way T’Challa shifted uncomfortably, always in motion, probably to distract from how often his gaze landed back on Bruce.

When T’Challa found him he had been unsure of how they’d get out of the jungle. Against all of his instincts he sat out in the relative open itching to disappear into the thick brush as he had countless times before when he was on his own. The minutes had ticked down to the tune of every doubt his mind could run with. He was being relocated because it was a given that Ross had finally worked out what Tony was doing. Once he had, they both knew he’d make an attempt to grab him. How could he not? He was Thaddeus Ross’ own personal white whale. This wasn’t the first time Ross had caught his trail and begun a dangerous pursuit of him and definitely wouldn’t be the last no matter how much Tony tried to reassure him.  Bruce wasn’t even entirely sure what more Ross thought he would to do with him once he got him. There were the usual theories of course, but there was no way the Hulk would let him after the Raft. Each attempt at testing brought on a near appearance from his angry alter ego. Ross would have to try and put him down if he even tried to take a single vial of blood from his body.

In their time alone together, without a village to save or an aggressive strain of a virus to combat and distract him, he and the alpha living within him came to a sort of understanding.

As much as they both hated to admit it they needed the other to survive. It was necessary to keep the other safe. As much as he could keep the Hulk safe, that was. And the Hulk took that job seriously. A little too seriously at times giving credence to the old theories of the Hulk being a chemical alpha response to the omega side of his human form.

Even as T’Challa approached as a friend, he could feel the beast moving beneath his skin, flexing as if ready to leap. To burst through his skin and rise up in rage fueled defense.

Thankfully he didn’t. He breathed easy, the lumbering feel of him shifting around inside his mind slowed to practically nothing at all. They were all safe as long as no one meant Bruce any harm.

Without his helmet T’Challa looked every bit the regal King Bruce had imagined. Alpha, obviously despite being unable to scent him through the suit. He’d only seen him a few times on holo screens and broadcasts after the war. He’d come a long way from that angry look in his eyes just after the bombing that Bruce easily recognized just as readily as the guilt that marred his every carefully chosen word and action. Guilt tended to eat men alive. He’d been there. He’d seen it tear a man down to his bones and seen it be the catalyst to rebuild or self destruct. He wondered what type of effect it was really having on the man before him. He stared up at the King curiously as he came to a stop a few feet away. He seemed apprehensive despite his commanding presence.

“We’ll be over the United States within six hours. Nakia thinks that with luck we should make good time to New York,” T’Challa announced, stiffly.

Bruce leaned to the side to peer around his broad form and lay eyes on the pilot. Her shoulders tensed as if she could feel his gaze and Bruce flinched in response. Of course.

They were afraid of him.

“Thank you,” Bruce said as genuinely as he could muster through the exhaustion.

He tried for a small smile but was met with a short nod and a blank look. T’Challa’s answering expression as cool as the crisp air filtering around them. It brought his hackles up or rather the Hulk’s or perhaps it was really both in equal measure. He wasn’t wanted here. He had been used to that once. Always careful to notice when he’d worn out his welcome so he could make preparations. That, more than anything had kept him safe over the years. Knowing exactly when to move on so that he was but a mere memory in days. Staying under the radar had become an artform for him. So he knew by the slight incline of T’Challa’s head and with the tight shift of his jaw when he turned just enough to the side to take a seat closer to the cockpit on the adjacent bench that he was keeping his distance but was equally unwilling to take his eyes off him. Placed himself between Bruce and the pilot, Nakia, as Bruce assumed she was the only other person aboard. As if she needed protection from him.

T’Challa’s gaze found other things to rest on though, on what exactly Bruce was unsure. The cabin was actually quite spartan for all of its gleaming surfaces with a large table in the center of the room that could possibly hold some technological significance. The few things he did see seemed to be the bare minimum of what the craft could hold. He guessed he couldn’t blame them on that front. From what Tony told him the Wakandans as a people were only just now coming out of a millennia of isolation. He wouldn’t trust him either. Or anyone for that matter.

Bruce tried to settle. He was in for a long flight after all. At least he’d have some peace and quiet.

*****

The hours seemed to drag on. T’Challa wasn't sure what he expected. Approaching the rendezvous point had been fraught with tension and unexpected visitors. Now, with the adrenaline leaching from his body by the second and leaving behind a sort of bone tired exhaustion behind, his mind kicked into high gear.

What had at first been musings on how Banner stayed hidden for so long without an incident, especially towards the end with Ross right on top of him, turned to his usual irritation at the man. Where was this control in Johannesburg and Sokovia? And what exactly had garnered such loyalty from Tony Stark. Avengers missions aside the entire team was in shambles and it seemed to be something long in the works. By the way the Rogue Avengers in Wakanda spoke and the way things escalated at the airport and in Siberia the schism couldn't be recent.

After Ultron the Hulk disappeared from all Avengers outings. There were stray sightings of Banner from time to time doing relief work but even then those came to an abrupt end. It could be that they were both omegas in alpha dominated fields. T’Challa shook his head. Even with only having known Tony Stark personally for a short time he could imagine the immediate glare the omega would give him for the mere thought. No, there was something missing here. Something beyond the raw hand both omegas had been dealt.  

“You seem to have a lot of questions. So just ask,” Banner’s voice sounded loud over the near silent hum in the cabin though it was just barely above a whisper. T’Challa huffed at the challenge and turned to find the omega met his gaze head on. He supposed he should. He might not get another chance once they landed and the doctor was swept up in the protection of Tony Stark.

***********

“Does it ever keep you up at night?”

Bruce cringed, already pulling his shoulders in and hunching in on himself. He almost hated to ask. “What?”

“The people you’ve terrorized?” T’Challa said in an even tone.

His eyes belied his anger, dark and narrowed when set upon Bruce, pinning him to the spot. “Or better yet the people you’ve killed? I look at you and I cannot help but wonder how you look so well rested. Or do you not concern yourself with the damage you’ve wrought? Perhaps the people of Johannesburg are not worth your thoughts.”

Bruce sucked in a deep breath to steady himself at the onslaught of the King’s words and the simmering green rage at the back of his mind. Memories of a red haze sliding over him all at once made him shudder and his stomach turn. He’d never stood a chance, it had happened so quickly. His teammates were on the comms and then suddenly all gone in a matter of minutes. Natasha had been the worst. The silence from his alpha was terrifying and already had him on edge when the witch found him. And when it was all over no one had asked save for Tony. Natasha had been mind whammied herself and was in no position to ask until much later.  In the end they all knew that the Scarlet Witch had gotten to him but not many knew what she made him see. No one knew that the first thing the Hulk saw when he burst forth was her blinding saccharine smile.

“I’d ask you the same thing since you’re the one helping her evade authorities,” Bruce replied.

“Or are you as exempt from the law as they believe themselves to be?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Where else could they go? None of them are particularly stealthy save for Clint and Natasha. Together they tend to, well, stand out. Steve is terrible at laying low for long periods of time and even less if he doesn’t have a mission to keep him occupied,” Bruce said. He slid his glasses off and began methodically cleaning them, keeping his focus on the soft circles his fingers made with the edge of his shirt.

T’Challa snorted indelicately at his remarks.

“And Wanda, well,” Bruce said bitterly as he slid his glasses back on, “she doesn’t strike me as a person who cares about collateral damage at all.”

“That still doesn’t absolve you from what you’ve done.”

“I know what I’ve done,” Bruce said defensively. “More so than anyone I know the costs.”

“Because you come skulking around after the damage is done?”

“Sometimes I’m there,” Bruce said calmly. “When it happens that is. Not all the time though. Most of the time he shuts me out.”

“He?”

“The Hulk. You know, big terrifying rage monster? He’s like another part of me and yet not. An alpha. A parasite. A whole other being that I can barely control, whichever you prefer. When he’s here you can bet I’m often not in the driver’s seat.”

“Even still--”

“You have no idea what it’s like,” Bruce said.”To wake up to untold destruction and have that guilt heaped upon you. Because no matter what he’s a part of me and I’m partly responsible even when I’m not.”

“You contradict yourself.”

“You should know all about contradicting yourself,” Bruce replied bitterly and recognized the error of his words in the flash of T’Challa’s eyes.

He could dump him practically anywhere if he wished it. The pilot certainly wouldn’t ignore the wishes of her King. He suspected that the only reason why he hadn’t was due to whatever deal he had made with Tony. Bruce wasn’t naive enough to believe the King of Wakanda was doing this out of the goodness of his heart.

He was still a politician with a country to run. This was a favor and Bruce was heavily trading upon Tony’s good name right now for safety. That got under Bruce’s skin even more. Despite everything, Ultron, Bruce’s abandonment after the fact, the entire blow up with the team and in the midst of a broken bond, Tony was still trying his damnedest to help him. He didn’t know what Tony had to do to get T’Challa to risk himself like this to retrieve Bruce but it must have been big. And Tony was just self sacrificing enough to do whatever it took to get Bruce to safety.

“Care to elaborate?”

“I can’t believe you’re not only housing them but you’re protecting them too. Especially, her!”

“Who?”

“Wanda Maximoff. The woman who unleashed the Hulk on Johannesburg. I understand blaming me for what happened. Sometimes I don’t think I should be close enough to any civilian population in case he’s triggered beyond my control. But here you are protecting her. Shielding her from her own consequences. You’re almost as bad as Rogers himself.”

Bruce let out a shaky exhale when he was finished, glad to have finally said it. He could deal with the blame. He blamed himself enough for everyone. However, he would not stand by while T’Challa refused to acknowledge the other piece of the equation. Where was Maximoff’s blame in all of this? He had never been triggered so strongly in his time with the Hulk and hadn't since then. Not even with Ross trying to experiment on him.

“What?!”

Bruce opened his eyes again to the shocked expression on T’Challa’s handsome features and to find that even the pilot had turned in her chair and stared open mouthed at him.

“You didn’t know?”

“My King,” the woman began but stopped short when T’Challa raised a single hand for silence. His nostrils flared as if scenting for some sort of lie in the air while his dark eyes seemed to dial up the intensity of his stare. He looked incensed and Bruce wondered momentarily why Tony wouldn’t have told him when it hit him.

“Oh, Tony,” Bruce murmured to himself though no doubt the King picked it up. He was still protecting them . Self sacrificing fool that he was.

“Tell me,” T’Challa demanded. Bruce looked away under the heavy alpha gaze and his submission rankled the Hulk who growled from the depths of his thoughts. He inhaled deeply then exhaled to keep calm though he was furthest away from the emotion as he could be. He could still clearly remember the panic that overtook him the moment the witch’s red magic slid over his field of vision and how much more upset he had become when he closed his eyes and the red had followed him there. There was no escape from her will. The worst was when she had made it his own. His worst fears come to light.

T’Challa crouched down before him but kept his distance to about a foot away. A kind gesture meant to put him at ease. It satisfied the Hulk as well.

“Please tell me what happened,” T’Challa tried again, gentle and quiet. When Bruce looked again there was only concern in his eyes. He refused to believe the concern was for him but so few people had shown him any sort of kindness lately he decided to take it anyway.

“I was alone on the Quinjet. Most people don’t know but I’m sort of considered a last resort,” Bruce said, finding that once he’d begun it was easy to let it all out and hope that good could come of it. Tony trusted T’Challa it seemed and Bruce trusted Tony.

“The team had gone inside the tanker after Ultron while I stood by for their call. The wait was unbearable. Natasha, my...former alpha, was keeping me updated. There’s always a lot of chatter what with Tony and Clint on the line. Everything proceeded according to plan when suddenly Thor went silent in the middle of telling us the Witch was trying to affect his mind. Then Steve went down. Just gone. No one was directing the flow of the battle anymore. I started to panic. Minutes had gone by with just Natasha, Clint, and Tony on the line. There was another enhanced in the field. A speedster that was helping the witch by keeping them just off balance to give her an opening. I was debating just going in against orders. Pretty soon there wouldn’t be anyone left to give the order anyway.  Natasha was in the middle of trying to calm me down when she went silent as well.”

T’Challa shifted uncomfortably in front of him while the pilot kept her eyes lowered. Unused to the subtle sign of respect from an alpha Bruce paused until T’Challa inclined his head to get him to continue.

“Ultron had led Tony away from the tanker and in retrospect I guess we should have seen it coming. They were splitting us up. From what I understand she would have needed him to be out of the suit for her magic to work but it’s never been tested. Understandably when Natasha went down I left the jet. I shouldn’t have. I wish I had stayed secured inside with the bay closed. You have to understand that Natasha is extremely competent. That’s not just an omega proud of their alpha. She’s very...effective. That they had taken her out of communication with me...I knew it had to be bad. When I stepped out I was overtaken immediately. It felt like a haze came over me separating me from the Hulk more so than usual. I couldn’t feel him.”

“For a moment, it was peaceful. Then I must have turned because the next thing I saw was,” Bruce paused again as nausea rolled through him swiftly. He never really went into details. Not even with Tony though he got close enough that he was sure his friend put the pieces together.

“Dr. Banner,” T’Challa said so softly Bruce had to struggle to hear him. “I’m going to touch you now. We need to maneuver your head between your knees. It should help.”

Bruce nodded and tried not to tense when T’Challa touched him and failed. The young King waited a moment, just letting his hand rest on his shoulder until Bruce’s muscles relaxed then continued to press until Bruce was in position taking deep shuddering breaths.

“I think I have heard enough,” T’Challa said in the same gentle and earnest tone.

“No,” Bruce said quickly. He swayed in his haste to sit back up and correct the alpha. “You need to know what she does.”

A part of him chastised himself for not taking the easy out when presented but he shook it off. T’Challa had to know. She needed to be kept from doing it to someone else.

“Alright.”

“I’m...she…” Bruce stumbled over the words then sighed in irritation. “For the others it was the past or the future. For me it was the present. Natasha was limping back to the jet supported by Clint. They were maybe 10 feet away when it started to happen. I could hear the Hulk roaring and it was the only warning I got before I changed and I was shunted aside for his rage. It wasn’t like before. Sometimes, I’m not aware of him when he’s in control or if I am aware of what’s happening it’s dulled like I’m standing behind fogged glass. This was...the clarity…”

T’Challa opened his mouth again, presumably to object, but Bruce shook his head sharply. He needed to tell someone.

“Natasha and Clint tried to get to cover but there wasn’t much aside from the tanker and the jet. He didn’t respond to our lullaby. That was the other part of the bond Natasha had fostered a way for her to connect with the Hulk and soothe him until he felt safe enough to let me back out.  He wanted to destroy and so he did. They didn’t stand a chance. He...I felt all of it. Every snap of bone, the warm slick of their blood, her screams. Natasha begged him to stop. She begged me to stop, but it was like it just made him even more enraged. It’s like Maximoff found a check list of some of my worst nightmares and ticked off every single one. The next thing I knew I was lying in the rubble of a building in Johannesburg. I couldn’t even look at Natasha when she climbed aboard the jet later.”

Bruce let out a breath of relief. Finally. The whole story was out. He slumped in his seat and rubbed his sweaty hands on his pants leaving damp spots as he went. There was no sense in trying to hide the evidence of his nervousness now. Not when he’d just laid his worst fears out in front of the other man. He chanced a quick glance upwards at the alpha and immediately shrunk back at the wide eyed look of horror on his face. His fists clenched rhythmically. Over his shoulder the pilot had come to stand behind him leaning against the wall panel for support.

“And the others,” the pilot spoke up.

“They know what she did. Rogers felt that she had paid for her mistakes by turning on Ultron and the death of her brother made up for any wrongdoing on her part.”

The pilot scoffed mirroring how Bruce felt. That was the unofficial statement between the team on the eve of the battle of Sokovia. Officially Wanda had never been publicly seen with Ultron. In fact much of the footage of Ultron was surveillance footage from the actual battle itself. The skirmish in Seoul was covered up and any remaining footage showed the Maximoffs minimizing damage and civilian casualties. All that with a ringing endorsement from Captain America had set them up nicely as heroes. Who could say any different?

“I believe I owe you an apology, Dr. Banner,” T’Challa said in that same soft tone. “I had assumed--”

“I know,” Bruce was quick to cut him off to avoid any further awkwardness. He wasn’t as allergic to apologies as Tony was but when it came to his exploits as the Hulk it just didn’t seem right. What else could anyone think?

T’Challa simply nodded and slowly stood. He tapped an innocuous looking panel on the console in the center of the room and Bruce watched as tiny beads slid across the surface to form a sort of platform. Above it a holo screen appeared displaying a young woman who shared similar features with the King.

“Brother, have you completed your mission?” She asked, sounding every bit as regal as T’Challa himself. Still, she looked young, perhaps in her early twenties. From where Bruce sat he could see her and her surroundings almost as clearly as if he were in the room with her. She sat slumped over what appeared to be a large desk, decked out in minimalistic looking armor. She rested her arms against the desk with her hands massaging her temples gently. She looked exasperated.

“Soon, sister. How are our guests?”

“Quiet, so far,” Shuri reported solemnly, even a smidge disappointed. She scowled when T’Challa brought it up.

“I’m merely anxious to deal with the problem. I will not sugar coat things, brother.  The council has expressed their displeasure at your guests’ continued presence here. The incident at the air strip has merely made their stay more visible to everyone else. You’ll need to address this eventually.”

“Soon,” T’Challa promised. “I’ll contact you again when we’ve landed. Keep me apprised of the situation.”

“Understood.”

The transmission cut off.

“Nakia, how long until we reach our destination?” T’Challa asked.  

“2 hours, your majesty.”

Bruce breathed out a sigh of relief. Not much farther.