Work Text:
“Tony,” says Bruce when he finally tracks the wayward genius down. “I’ve been looking for you for half an hour!”
The other man jumps in surprise, fumbling with the full coffee pot in his hands. He takes a moment to finish pouring before exclaiming, “What’s up Green Bean?” He aimed for innocent but his voice comes off a few shades short of the usual carefree tone; Bruce pins him with a knowing frown.
“It’s team bonding night.”
“So it is,” mutters Tony, snagging a few homemade cookies from a plate on the countertop.
“And?”
Tony uses his free hand to grab his coffee mug, mentally preparing to make a quick escape. “And what?”
“You are coming, right?”
“I’d love to but I’ve just got this one project running, time sensitive, very delicate,” rambles the inventor as he makes a break for the lift to the workshop, “you know how it is.”
Bruce stops Tony with a palm to the chest and a disbelieving frown. Tony can’t help the instinctual flinch as his friend’s hand brushes tender scar tissue. “Sorry,” Bruce automatically apologises, hand moving to grip Tony’s shoulder instead. “Reaction.”
“Ditto,” is Tony’s glib response as he braces for the question he can feel coming.
“Tony.” Bruce gives his shoulder a gentle squeeze, trying to get him to look up and make eye contact. “Why do you always lock yourself away on team night?”
Tony shrugs as hard as he can without spilling his coffee. Time for some misdirection. “I’m not a fan of action movies: we get blown up on a weekly basis, I’d rather not relive it on green screen.”
Another shoulder squeeze. “We all understand that, Tony. We…I just think it would be good for the team – for you – to spend some time together outside of battle. We’ve had some big shifts in the pack dynamic, this is a good way to work through it without-”
Tony tenses, preparing to shove past Bruce - coffee be damned.
“Please, just this one time?” Bruce pleads in earnest. “We can cope without you, but it makes the pack twitchy; it’s going to start affecting us on the battlefield. Wanda barely holds it together out there without the pack bonds destabilising.”
The resistance drains from Tony at the mention of the young woman’s struggles. If Bruce thinks Tony sitting in on movie night would help ease her burden, he will. “Fine, just this once. But I draw the line at shifting.”
Bruce’s expression is painfully happy at Tony’s compromise. “You know Thor and I stay human, it wont be a problem.”
Tony gulps his coffee and tries to shake the feeling of impending doom.
The moment Bruce drags Tony into the theatre room is also the moment Tony knows he’s going to regret letting the other man guilt him into team night. His entrance is met with curious stares and silence from the various Avengers-turned-animals lounging around the room. Tony about-turns and tries to nope the hell out of there.
Bruce is already blocking his exit, obviously prepared for his friend’s panicked escape plan. “It’s okay, Tony,” he quietly says, “they aren’t going to bother you.”
Tony really wants to believe the scientist but the luminous eyes of six predators say otherwise. He’s about to try just running for it (the first thing his mom told him to never, ever do around predators) when Thor springs up from the couch with a grin.
“Friend Tony!” is the booming exclamation. “It pleases me that you would join us.”
Tony shrugs helplessly as the others are broken out of their fixation by Thor’s sudden movement. “It’s nothing.”
“It is in fact a lot, as Captain Rogers explained it to me,” rebuts Thor. “Asgardians may not have a second form but the bonds of family are of much importance to us.” The god takes Tony by the elbow, all but dragging him to perch on the couch he has claimed. “Is you heart not content to be in the presence of pack?”
Tony stays silent even as something tight unwinds in his chest. A screech from overhead draws his eye to the projector. A Harris Hawk stares back at him, the Peregrine Falcon perched at the hawk’s side busy preening it’s flight feathers. “So help me Barton,” sighs Tony in exasperation, anxiety momentarily forgotten, “if you shit up there I’ll pluck you myself and cook you for Thanksgiving.”
Clint flares his tail feathers for the hell of it until Sam bats him in the head with a wing. A short squabble results in Clint being knocked from the projector. Tony watches the hawk’s flight over to a nearby lamp. As far as he knew Pepper didn’t buy lamps with rattlesnakes on the lampshades, which meant that Natasha had figured out a way to climb up there.
Bruce sinks down heavily on Tony’s right while Thor shifts closer on his left. The billionaire finds himself well and truly wedged into place. It’s just as well really because it saves him from an embarrassing jump when something warm and heavy brushes his ankles. He looks down to find a massive lion sprawled on the carpet, eyes closed as if it is attempting to convince him it was there the whole time. Tony would almost believe it if he hadn’t seen the exact same lion crouched over by Natasha’s lamp moments ago. The warm weight he felt turns out to be the lion’s tail carefully draped over Tony’s shoes.
Tony gulps at the sight of the dinner plate sized paws kneading the thick shagpile. He only catches flashes of the razor sharp claws but what he does see sets off a klaxon of instinctual fear. It’s a struggle to keep a level voice to ask Bruce about the rest of the team.
“Wanda and Vision went to pick out a movie,” the scientist replies, noting his friend’s tense observation of the big cat on the floor. “I know digital downloads are what we usually do but Vision wanted to see what a video store is like. I don’t know where-”
A noise in the hallway has Tony’s head turning, expecting Wanda and Vision. He sees nothing in the darkness until the shadows shift. A black wolf steps out, the corner of the doona it is dragging gripped between lethal-looking teeth.
“There he is,” comments Bruce, not at all phased by the wolf as it stalks into the room.
That’s the last straw; Tony has to get out of there before he loses control. “Okay, I actually-”
Vision suddenly materialises through the projector screen, a DVD brandished in one hand and a white fox tucked under the other arm. “I apologise for our lateness,” he says in that almost-but-not-quite-JARVIS voice. “The video store had many movies to choose from.”
“It is a place of much wonder,” responds Thor eagerly. “Which chronicle did you choose?”
Vision gently places the arctic fox down before loading the DVD into the player. “The continued adventures of the starship Enterprise.”
Tony is too distracted by the wolf curling up beside the lion at his feet to comment. He flinches as the lion sits up but it only bats the doona away from the wolf with a paw. The wolf growls lazily, its head tilting towards Tony with intent. Tony freezes like…no, he’s not going to continue that thought; he’s on the edge already.
The next thing Tony knows Bruce is wrapping the wolf’s doona around Tony’s shoulders. “Wha’?” he asks, huddling beneath the cover instinctively.
“It’s alright,” says Bruce in his Doctor Voice. “You zoned out for a minute. You’ve been working too hard again, Tony.”
The smaller man doesn’t protest, it’s better than having to tell the truth. “I meant what am I doing with this blanket?”
Bruce’s cheeks tighten like he’s fighting a smile. “Bucky thought you might get cold without your fur.”
Tony looks down to the wolf in surprise, Bucky stares straight back. The moment is broken by the lion trapping Bucky’s bushy tail between its paws. Bucky looks away to growl at Steve who starts mouthing playfully at the wispy fur. Tony watches the two predators wrestle with a fascination that is part fear and part something he doesn’t want to acknowledge.
“You could join them, you know,” whispers Bruce, watching Tony watch the supersoldiers play in their shift forms. “They wouldn’t mind.”
Tony wraps the doona tighter, curling up defensively.
They are halfway through the movie when Tony again feels warm pressure against his legs. Tony barely has to shift to see the black-furred paws pressed against his knees. The angle however makes him inch forward to see just what Bucky’s done. The wolf is on it’s back, hind legs pressed to Tony’s legs, intently grooming the lion’s ruff. A thrill runs down Tony’s spine when he makes eye contact with Steve who is watching him with big amber eyes. Tony turns away, trying to curl his legs up onto the couch but Bucky presses back harder, trapping him.
“Friend Tony,” Thor says quietly from his left. “Does it discomfort you being in the Avengers pack?”
Tony looks around at the others who all seem to be focused on the movie again. “No,” he finally answers softly. “It’s not that. I just…you wouldn’t understand.”
“Perhaps if you were to explain-”
“I can’t,” Tony interrupts, feeling his heart rate pick up in fear.
“You will not know that unless you first-”
“No, I can’t!” he exclaims, forgetting to stay quiet in his panic. “You’re all- you can’t- I wont-” Tony flails, trying to get away.
Bruce presses against his right side, trying to help but only making Tony feel more trapped. “It’s okay, calm down. We’re not going to hurt you.”
And in that moment Tony realises they’ve all talked this through together without him, they have something planned. Whatever intervention is happening, everyone in the room but Tony is in on it!
The fear and panic snowball in Tony’s mind, triggering a literal cascade of adrenaline. He struggles frantically to stop the instinct he’d long ago buried away but there’s no stopping it- he’s trapped and he has to RUN
“Oh!” Bruce utters in surprise when he finds his lap full of wriggling deer. Tony struggles, his t-shirt and track-pants tangled around his body. It’s been so long since the last time he shifted that Bruce manages to get the clothes peeled off before Tony remembers how to coordinate four legs; though once he does remember he struggles so hard he falls off both Bruce’s lap and the couch.
Tony freezes as only a deer can when he hits the floor, remembering too late that Bucky is still lying belly up under the couch. Tony is small for a white-tailed deer but no one likes 50kg falling directly on them. He expects the wolf to attack but instead it makes a pleased rumble, forepaws curling down to hold Tony against its chest. Tony is too stunned to continue his harebrained escape.
Steve inches closer, pressing tight to Bucky’s side. The way Tony has fallen means he’s lying chest-to-chest, belly-to-belly with Bucky. His brain finally reboots and he tries to push up and back to escape Bucky’s loose grip. He gets a bit of space between them before something presses back against his hind end. Tony glances round to find Steve’s giant paw planted firmly on his furry ass.
Fear is again the automatic response, even though the claws are fully sheathed. Tony is literally sandwiched between two of the biggest predators he’d ever seen. Then Tony looks up and makes eye contact with Steve who looks entirely too pleased with himself. If they were human, Captain America’s hand would be on Iron Man’s naked bum. Despite himself, Tony starts giggling the best a deer can.
After a moment, Bucky wriggles and rolls towards Steve, tipping Tony into non-existent gap between them. Tony ends up curled into the solid golden bulk of Steve’s chest as Bucky practically spoons him from behind. And then, for the first time since his mom died, Tony feels the comforting brush of another shifter grooming his fur. Steve’s angle is awkward and Bucky is licking against the grain of his fur but the feeling of warmth and safety is there all the same.
Tony slips into a half-doze, waking when he feels a different sensation on his flank. He opens his eyes (and when did they close?) to find Clint and Sam perched on Steve’s foreleg. The two birds carefully side-step until they’re in the circle formed by Tony’s chest and legs. They flutter their wings, Clint taking care to whap as many people as possible with his, before settling down to roost.
The pressure on Tony’s flank turns out to be Wanda’s little fox body curled into the dip of his hip. He wonders for a moment how she got up there without him noticing before he sees Vision, now sat between Bruce and Thor on the couch. The doona is across their laps with Nat spread on top of it, the very end of her tail draped down to rest on Tony’s back hooves.
Tony drops off to sleep, safe in the embrace of his pack.