FANFIC: "Now I've Seen Everything" - (Avengers- Tony Stark x Steve Rogers)
Title: "Now I've Seen Everything"
Pairings: Tony Stark (Iron Man) x Steve Rogers (Captain America)
Writer: black_prophet
Genre: Angst and Fluff, Humor, Sarcasm, Randomness
Rating: PG13
Warning: Randomness, Brief Swearing, Implied Interest/ Non Relationship, Strange!Tony, Awkwardly!Shy!Steve, Interrupting Rhodey, Robots Because the Author Likes Them Damn It
A/N: Not that anyone will read this but, this is the second 'story' written for what I am going to now call the "Everything"Verse, after "In Spite of Everything". However it technically takes place "before" (i.e. the Avengers are not yet 'moved into' Avengers Tower, etc) we're getting into a real-length 'story'. Dedicated to myeyeswillclose, with all the love I have for her (which is lots).
Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers, Captain American, or Iron Man(though I totally claim calling their pairing "IronAmerica" because I mean really) or any of the Characters therein. This in no way is meant to suggest real or "in character" occurrences. This is a fanfiction, I do own the idea writing and claim all blame for actions and mistakes therein.
***
They’ve already had a fight and made peace and saved the world -twice- by the time Steve sees the arc reactor up-close (he doesn’t count the time he brushed his hands over it when he thought Tony was dead after the nuke-incident). By that point Stark Tower is half-rebuilt and on the way to becoming the Avengers Tower, and Tony is allowing both Bruce and Steve into his sanctuary whenever they care to visit which -Steve knows- is a huge breakthrough. The Avenger’s Tower is impressive in its own right, even half-rebuilt and redecorated, but there’s something particularly stunning about Tony’s personal tech.
Being from the 40’s Steve has little idea as to what the arc reactor does, but recognizes it from the very-thin file Fury had presented him about Tony. It’s an energy source, that much he knows, one created by Howard long before Tony decided to miniaturize it. Why and how it came to be part of Tony, Steve isn’t sure, but when it catches his eye again he can’t help but want to ask. He knows it powers Tony’s strikingly-beautiful articulating armor -the Iron Man- but isn’t quite sure of the fine points.
Tony is the perfect person to ask about ‘the fine points’.
Steve is both confused and surprised when he enters the lab and finds the billionaire draped over a table, shirt-less and oddly vulnerable as mechanical arms whir and crane over him. The machines seem to hesitate as Tony glances his way, muttering a greeting as he waves them back. Robots whirred here and there, furthering the chaos of the scene.
Eyes fixed on the glowing circle set against Tony’s tanned skin, Steve spoke without thinking, blurting out the first thought in his mind. “That’s beautiful, Tony.”
“Everything I create is beautiful, Cap.” Tony replied with a slightly-relaxed flash of his usual cavalier attitude. It’s still suave and seems careless, but Tony is cautious beneath the tone as he sits upright and glances around for his shirt. “U! Help me out, will ya? Good god you are worthless, I have no idea why I keep you around. As I was saying, it’s all beautiful Cap, it just takes a genius to see it.”
“So now I’m a genius?” Steve murmured, and he’s amused enough to grin at the half-mad billionaire as Tony slips off the table and flits around his lab, still griping at his robots.
“Maybe my outrageous intellect is catching.” Tony murmured with a wicked quirk of his brows and a cocky smirk. “You’ve got it bad then Cap, lucky for you.”
Steve tsked, shaking his head as he fought off a smile. “It figures you would be contagious.”
“Oooh, there’s a not-nice joke about my social life in there somewhere.” Tony murmured with a tsking sound, hauling the Black Sabbath tour-t-shirt over his head and dimming the arc’s light with dark cotton. “How vicious of you, Cap, I didn’t know you had it in you.”
“One of the many things you don’t know I have in me.” Steve muttered, grabbing a seat and bracing his elbows on the table Tony had vacated.
“Ooooh.” Tony crooned, and this time he waggles a mocking finger in Steve’s direction. “There’s a not-nice joke about your social life in there somewhere…”
The Captain merely rolled his eyes, fondness in his tone. “Idiot.”
“Boy Scout.” Tony shot back with a dramatic sigh, snatching up a tablet before pacing over to the opposite side of the table. “What brings you here, Oh Captain my Captain?”
Steve tilted his head in question, watching as Tony ran his fingertips over the tablet in what seemed like an almost nervous gesture. The touch-screen flared bright, lit with a sweep of characters and images that cast flickering blue-gray light over Tony’s face before he settled the tablet to one side, bracing his elbows on the table and his chin in his hands like some love-struck girl. To further the impression, the billionaire batted his dark lashes and gave another wicked smile.
Steve crossed his arms over his chest and arched a challenging brow. “So now I’m your Captain?”
Tony made a sulky noise and his smile faded into a petulant expression, hands falling to splay against the surface of the table. The next moment they fluttered in a tapping motion that was typical Tony Stark, Steve had never seen him actually be ‘still’.
“Tease. Do you think I’m going to beg? Do you remember the discussion about my social life?”
“Say no more, I beg you.” Steve muttered, holding up a forestalling hand. “That’s not why I’m here.”
“If you were here to ask about my social life, I’d be a little concerned.” Tony admitted, and suddenly the tablet was in his hand again, fingers gliding over the screen. “And I’d have to edit, severely, because the truth would just blow your mind. What’s up, Cap?”
“A lot, I’m sure.” Steve muttered, shaking his head when Tony grinned and holding up his hand again. “No, just, no Tony. Please no, Tony. I’m here to ask you for your help.”
“Help?” Tony looked intrigued, fingers still skittering over the table and then the tablet, though his eyes were now focused on Steve’s face. “What can I do for you, sweet thing?”
“Can you help me with…” Steve trailed off, and then waved a hand around the lab. “Well, a bit of everything, I guess…”
Tony blinked, glanced around the workshop-slash-garage, and then looked back at Steve. “I think I know what you’re getting at, but do me a favor and stroke my ego anyway.”
Steve huffed, his breath disturbing the spill of bangs that had escaped his usually-careful style as he leaned over the table. “You’re really going to drag this out, aren’t you?”
“The best stroking is done slowly.” Tony replied primly as a robot zoomed to his side and handed him another tablet-looking object. The billionaire didn’t even glance at it as he accepted it and then set it aside, dark eyes fixed on Steve’s nervous blue gaze. “Go on Cap, dazzle me.”
“You’re an egotistical ass.” Steve muttered, bracing his chin in one hand with a heavy sigh. “Fine, fine. Tony Stark -all-knowing tech god and billionaire playboy et cetera et cetera- please help me understand… well, the future, I guess? I know you’re the best one when it comes to technology and, I could use a hand.”
“As propositions go, it could stand some work.” Tony murmured, straightening with a sigh. “But it wasn’t bad for your first time. I accept, on account of your begging blue eyes and the fact that it’s probably my patriotic duty… I mean, if Lady Liberty was feeling chatty and asked someone for a favor, who in their right mind would say no?”
Steve blinked, looking vaguely confused. “Um, alright?”
“Great.” Tony nodded, clicking a few more things and then pushing the tablet aside in favor of the new one the robot had handed him. “Let me take a minute to wrap my head around the fact that you came over here to ask me about technology…”
Steve arched an inquiring brow, tapped his fingers on the table, and gave his best impression of impatiently waiting.
“You’re getting better at talking without talking.” Tony grinned. “I like. Alright, I’ve processed this monumental step forward. Wonderful. So, tech, and the future… Good thing you came to me, being a futurist and the leading force on every tech front ever.”
“If your ego could stop sucking the air out of the room, we might get somewhere.” Steve grinned, and then gave the brunette a warning look. “Turn that around on me and I’ll tell Fury you made inappropriate advances and I feel threatened.”
“Oooh such a buzz-kill, running to Daddy like that… But that’s fair enough.” Tony grinned back, unrepentant.
Steve snorted, shaking his head, and then gestured to the room they stood in. “Tell me about tech in the Tower, to start?”
Tony eyed his (somewhat sub-standard, by his own reckoning) workshop, dark gaze skirting over the banks of computers, wall-to-wall cabinetry and a variety of tool-boxes. “You take your role as den-mother almost as seriously as Coulson, it’s rather sweet actually. Ok, so to start: I’m doing a complete overhaul on the Tower to make it family-friendly, don’t worry about that darling. When things are up and running, everyone will have their own suites, Bruce will have a lab, and my workshop will once again be private.”
“Do you hate having us in here?” Steve questioned, somewhat nervous as he waited for the answer. Tony blinked, something lightening his eyes to an almost honey-color, and Steve could see flecks of emerald and bronze glittering in the depths. ‘Beautiful.’
The billionaire almost looked contrite. “Sweetheart, no.”
Steve’s blush darkened. And he ducked his head.
“Aww come on sunshine, you’re killing me.” Tony muttered, reaching over and chucking Steve lightly under the chin. “If you saw the house in Malibu, and what I did to it when I made the Mark II, you’d get it… I’m just a little dangerous to be around when I’m inventing, like Bruce on a bad day.”
“Right.” Steve mumbled. “Anyway, the Tower…”
“Right.” Tony sighed. “Everything in the Tower will be run by JARVIS, just like in my Malibu home, and it will be powered by its own reactor and run on clean energy. That means that all you have to do is ask JARVIS to do something or find something, and it’s taken care of.”
Steve tilted his head questioningly. “Jarvis? Is he your butler?”
“Yes and no-” Tony began, as a computer voice cut in smoothly.
“Yes Captain?” JARVIS murmured. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Steve jumped in his seat, glancing around as Tony grinned. “Uh, thank you, Jarvis?”
“He’s “Just A Rather Very Intelligent System", or usually just JARVIS, and is an AI.” Tony explained. “Artificial Intelligence that is wired -or will be- wired into every inch of the house. He can lock and unlock doors, turn lights on and off, start various electronics, and handle just about anything else you can think of. He’s basically a super-smart computer-entity that functions like a butler.”
“And babysitter.” JARVIS chimed in. “When Sir requires it, which is, often.”
Tony snorted, rolling his eyes. “And mother, and wife. He’s actually worse than Pepper.”
“Ms. Potts is a shining example of punctuality and organization.” JARVIS returned innocently, and Steve inwardly marveled at Tony’s programming of a machine to make it seem so human. “I am sure the Captain looks up to her just as much as I do, though I understand he is a fine example of clear-headed nobility-”
“Alright, alright.” Tony cut in hastily. “Enough of that, you’re embarrassing me.”
Steve laughed, relaxing as the earlier awkwardness faded. “I think I like him.”
“I am flattered, Captain.” JARVIS spoke again as Tony shook his head and subsided into sulky grumbling. “It is an honor to meet one so esteemed by my Creator and his father.”
“You can stop anytime now, Jarvis.” Tony growled, looking almost-embarrassed. “That’s more than the good Captain needed to know. Really, enough.”
“Of course, Sir.” JARVIS replied, and then silenced.
“What else…” Tony mused into the silence. “Something more exciting than a toaster, obviously, maybe some of the vid screens? I should point them out to you sooner than later, though really the ones in Malibu would be better, because that house has recovered from being wrecked and this one is a work-in-progress…”
Tony gave a much put-upon sigh as a robot whirred past them. “Which is good, because then I can send U and DUM-E back home, as they won’t be able to harass the contractors anymore.”
The machine -clearly stenciled with the designation ‘U’- chirped disapprovingly at its creator and then zoomed along on its merry way.
“Don’t get me started.” Tony scolded, pointing a warning finger at the machine. “And no, I’m not going to tell him about you unless he desperately wants to know because you’re embarrassing. Anyway, Steve we should take a trip to the Malibu house when we talk about my toys, you’d probably love my car collection.”
“Can I ask about that?” Steve murmured, gesturing to the glowing circle of the arc reactor. He was fairly sure he didn’t want to know what had happened to Tony’s Malibu home, as the story of the New York Tower’s destruction involved aliens, gods, and a nuke… It was terrifying to ask what had occurred on the other coast; the arc reactor seemed, safe enough. “I don’t… I don’t know much about it, why you have it or even really what it does… And it seems like I should, since we’re teammates.”
“I… huh…” Tony mumbled, glancing down at his chest before looking back to the Captain. “Yeah I, I guess I can handle that.”
Steve blushed. “I mean, I know that when you came back after taking the missile through the portal… And that it was out, and we thought you were dead…”
“Backing up a bit may help you understand.” Tony nodded, shrugging off his hesitation. Steve was part of the team… he was… safe. “I get it, Cap, I get it. Well to start, you know that Stark Industries used to make weapons. We were the leading name in military tech.”
“You’re the leading name in everything.” Steve smiled faintly, encouraging because Tony seemed unsettled. “Do I need to feign surprise? I can.”
“Now you start stroking.” Tony muttered, pretending to be annoyed, though he couldn’t quite hide his smile. “Don’t try that in the middle of a scary story, sweet thing, you’ll distract me and we won’t get where you want to go.”
Steve blushed. “Right, getting back to the story, then.”
“Alright, fair enough; yes we’re always the best. It’s a Stark thing, you could say. Well… I had a weapons demonstration in Afghanistan, showing off a new missile to our military forces… Basically to whet appetites so they’d buy; a pretty-standard issue gig, not the first personal appearance I’ve made.” Tony gave a careless shrug, waving a dismissive hand.
Steve shifted restlessly on his seat as Tony stood, but remained quiet as the billionaire began to pace along the far side of the table. One of Tony’s hands disappeared into the pocket of his worn blue-jeans, the other rising to nervously brush at the rim of the reactor before dropping away again. Steve wasn’t sure Tony realized he was doing it, but he didn’t want to call attention to the habit either. There was no telling what would make Tony clam-up, or start babbling about something utterly inconsequential. Tony talked about inconsequential things a lot, and Steve was beginning to think it was just his tactic to avoid talking about ‘important’ things. He certainly wasn’t going to let Tony get away with that right now.
“I was sold out, though I had no idea at the time.” Tony sighed, and his spare hand rose to run through his hair, scattering it into casual disarray that was oddly-flattering. “My second -hell, Dad’s second- Obadiah Stane had gotten tired of playing second-fiddle to a Stark… He gave this huge monologue all about it when I fought him as Iron Monger, but that’s later. So anyway he decided to have me removed from the equation. He paid a terrorist group that call themselves the Ten Rings to kill me, though I don’t think they knew it was me at the time… Turns out they’re really big fans of my work.”
Steve couldn’t help but wince at the bitter sound his teammate made in his throat, but again he remained silent. Tony spun back around as he reached the corner of the table, eyes fixed firmly on the ground as he twisted one shoulder to avoid colliding with the craning arm of his robot. “DUM-E, go, go lay down.”
The robot made a sad whirring-noise, and then rolled away. Steve watched in mildly-bewildered amusement, wondering if Tony realized he talked to his inventions like people spoke to their pets. He didn’t point out how the robot and zipped across the room when his master seemed to be distressed either, just waited in silence for the story to continue.
“Good boy. So, Stane had been double-dealing, selling weapons to terrorists under the table while I partied too much to notice.” Tony hissed, stopping as suddenly as he had begun pacing and planting a hip against the table’s edge, eyes fixing on the ceiling. “The Ten Rings attack the military convoy I was part of, killed a bunch of young soldiers, blasted me with one of my own damn missiles, and put me on the operating table. They had a captive dig most of the shrapnel out of me, but Yinsen knew whatever he couldn’t get out would kill me in a week… So he stuck an electro-magnet into my chest and hooked me up to a car-battery, which prevented the shards from finding their way to my heart.”
As though he had been physically struck, Steve jerked in his seat, biting the inside of his cheek to avoid making a sound or interrupting Tony’s story. The billionaire spun to face him anyway, giving a smile that was half-assed at best.
“Fun times, right?” Tony murmured as he considered the super-soldier, and suddenly he was stripping his shirt back off to bare his scars to the light. “Remember, this was your idea, I was more than content showing you vid screens and flirting…”
Steve sighed and Tony made an ‘oh well’ sort of gesture.
“They wanted me to build them a Jericho missile, and Yinsen kept me alive so I could, advising me when he could get away with it and basically not letting me get away with any bullshit. I said no, straight out of the gate, the first time they asked… So they set about persuading me.”
Steve couldn’t tear his eyes away from the scars that ran like thin rivers of white against Tony’s otherwise-tanned chest, the protective tissue glinting in the reactor’s light. It gave the appearance of a ghostly spider-web of damage over Tony’s all-too-human flesh, with the arc reactor and its blue-white light at the center. For all his talk and bravado and science, Tony was so, fragile, so very break-ably human.
“I can’t tell you how many times I drowned in that cave, how many hits I took from their fists and the toes of their boots… How many times the battery shocked me because they’d tried to drown me and then flung water everywhere when they pulled me out again…” Tony trailed off, glancing away, and Steve noted a handful of scars glinting along the side of his face, down his jaw and neck. Knicks and thin cuts, minor trauma from the missile. “So I told them I’d build it, just to get them off me for a while, so I could try to plan our escape, figure out what to do next.”
He grinned -but it was hollow- and tapped his chest. “So I could design and build this… Hoping, maybe, it could get me out of that hell, and Yinsen too…”
Steve watched Tony’s dark eyes glitter with unspoken emotion, and the moment that gaze tore away from him he knew Yinsen hadn’t made it out. The one ally Tony had in those caves -the person that had saved him in more ways than one- hadn’t made it out alive… And Tony blamed himself. The Captain was up, off his seat and around the table, before he could think twice. Tony was stunned and stiff when Steve dragged him into a hug, but surprisingly didn’t react like a cat being wrestled into a bath -a possibility Steve had considered quite likely. Instead the billionaire remained stoic in his grip, head turned to Steve couldn’t look at his face, hands fisted at his sides.
“I’m sorry Tony, I’m sorry.” Steve whispered frantically against the curve of the shorter man’s shoulder, one hand resting on the back of Tony’s neck and fingertips gently stroking at his hair. “I just wanted to understand it, I didn’t mean to- I didn’t mean for you-”
“Steve, it’s fine.” Tony manages a half-laugh, but it sounds bitter and his hands are fisted at his sides. “You asked, and I, I want to tell you… I should tell you, we’re a team right?”
“I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“It’s fine, you didn’t do it…” Tony mumbled, relaxing enough to pat the taller male gingerly on the back and playfully pinching at his hip. “Careful who you’re squeezing there, super-soldier, if you bruise me this is -not- how I want it happening.”
“Tony!” Steve squeaked, jumping back, and was rewarded with a smirk that was at least a shadow of the brunette’s normal self.
“Pink is a good color on you Steve, don’t let anyone tell you different.” Tony replied with the utmost sincerity, and his grin kicked up a notch when Steve socked him in the shoulder in retaliation. “I deserved that, but you make it easy sweet-thing. So damn easy.”
“Your mouth is dangerous.” Steve muttered, shifting a half-step back.
“Only when unoccupied.” Tony grinned with a wicked quirk of his eyebrows and a wink. “Believe me, my mind is worse.”
“It does design high-tech weaponry for fun.” Steve snorted. “That much I could have guessed myself.”
“Oh kitten, you have no idea-”
Once again Steve employed a forestalling hand. “No. Tony, NO. Can you stop with the nicknames and get back to your story?” Steve coughed, hoping to cover his blush.
Tony gave him an injured look that faded straight to pouting. “Oooooh, come oooon Steeeeve! You are such a buzz-kill!”
“So you’ve said.” Steve replied primly, bracing his hip on the table and resting his chin in one hand, elbow propped near where Tony’s hand rested on the table-top. “Go on.”
“Fine, fine, I’ll play with you later. Fix those baby blues on me and I’m yours.” Tony sighed dramatically. “You still should be using that super-power for good, but I’ll let you waste it for now. Right, back to the story?”
Steve nodded, eyes slipping lower when he noticed one of Tony’s hands rise to rub gingerly over the arc reactor. “If you feel up to continuing.”
Tony blinked at him a moment, and then snorted, shaking his head. “Damn you are just too much, you know that? Watch your mouth before it gets you in trouble, kitten, there’s only so much temptation I can resist. If you want to hear the rest of this, keep the racy comments to a minimum, I’ll focus better that way.”
Steve gave him a confused look, and Tony simply shook his head.
“I made the first arc reactor because having actual tech in my skin was preferable to hauling around a battery and wondering when it was going to fail.” Tony’s mouth quirked in an almost-smirk. “And because I would need it to power the suit I designed. Yinsen and I built it from scraps, like I built the arc reactor, hiding what we were doing as much as we could, considering all the security cameras they had on us. With a bit of luck and some acting we made it, and I had the Mark I platform done without any major incident.”
“Major incident here meaning ‘loss of life or limb’?” Steve enquired lightly when Tony failed to continue.
Again Tony half-smiled. “The Leader noticed the arc reactor, and some of the parts we had assembled for the suit, but we more or less bluffed him off… And eventually we were ready to blast our way out of there, to try and go home.”
This time, when Tony fell silent, Steve didn’t press him. Instead he followed Tony’s gaze to a strange glass box on one of the garage shelves, frowning at the blue light glinting within it. “Is that?”
“My first reactor.” Tony muttered, sighing. “Pepper had it made, the pedestal and a box, after I got back and she helped me replace it with a new one I made here… It, it’s important, later.”
“Right…” Steve murmured, because of course it was. Tony didn’t seem like the type to keep something that wasn’t important, and certainly not just because of ‘sentimental’ value.
“Yinsen didn’t make it, I crashed the Mark I suit in the desert, and Rhodey was already looking for me, so I got a flight back to the states. I stopped all weapons development and sales in a charming little press conference about an hour off the plane, and everyone thought I had post-traumatic stress disorder and needed to be hospitalized.”
“You probably did need to be hospitalized, but not for the reason they were thinking…” Steve murmured, lifting one hand to tuck an errant strand of Tony’s bang back off of his forehead. When the billionaire glanced at him, he gave a teasing smile. “You probably still should be hospitalized…”
“They haven’t built a mental facility bad enough to keep me contained, and don’t you forget it.” Tony sniffed haughtily, mockingly batting away his hand. “Anyway, with the Mark I out of the way I set to working on the Mark II with my superbly amazing repulsor technology. I built a new arc reactor, of course, because the first one just wasn’t gonna cut it, and had Pepper help me switch them out. I told her to trash it, obviously she didn’t.”
Steve glanced across the room again, and then back in time to catch Tony’s faint smile before it faded away.
“She did it… I guess it was a gift, a bit of a joke, but still a gift. And I kept it, because it, it meant something by then… She sort of made it mean something, so it wound up on a shelf in my workshop.” He shook his head. “I’m still grateful for that, but, later. Back to the new armor, I took it out on a test-ride and it wasn’t quite right, so JARVIS and I moved right on to the Mark III, made of gold-titanium alloy.”
Tony reached to one of the tablets and flicked his fingertips over the screen, pulling up an image of the Mark I before scrolling through II and III. The Mark III was familiar to Steve, very similar to the same suit Tony had flown to Germany when he sorted Loki out. Not the same, he was sure, because Tony was a perfectionist and seemed to love his ‘next best thing’.
“A splash of hot-rod red and there you are, the first real Iron Man.” Tony managed a half-smile. “We’ll talk about how sexy it is later. Anyway, not quite sure what got me into trouble, what made Stane start nosing around… But eventually he figured out I had the suit, and that the reactor was powering it…”
Steve nodded when Tony trailed off, lifting one hand. Surprisingly, Tony evaded this one, shaking his head slightly. “Not just yet, Kitten, maybe when story-time is over… If you feel like sticking around to pet me.”
Steve frowned, but let his hand drop, folding his arms obediently on the table and waiting for the brunette to continue his tale.
“I’m sure JARVIS will pull up feed from the different flights, and all the specs, if you really care to read about it…” Tony waved a careless hand, snatching up an oil-stained rag and rubbing gingerly at his fingers. “Not the best things I’ve ever made, but obviously light-years ahead of anything everyone else is doing, and supremely stylish at the same time. So the Mark II gets retired to a pedestal and the III is my go-to toy, and Stane is trying to con me into sharing the arc reactor to soothe board tempers and save the company after its dive.”
“Dive?” Steve questioned.
“Eh.” Tony shrugged, flicking a rag across the room to land on a toolbox. “I cancelled all weapon manufacturing and sales of a weapon’s company, and the stocks took a dive of forty points or so… “
“Fifty-six and a half, Sir.” JARVIS interrupted.
“Whatever.” Tony grunted. “Stane said the board members threw a bit of a hissy fit, tried to lock me out, blah blah blah. Still not sure how much of it was true and how much of it was him trying to get me to pitch the new arc reactor, guess it doesn’t matter now. With all the time on my hands, I work on being Iron Man, and Stane has the leeway he needs to jet off wherever he wants. Turns out he went to visit the leader of the Ten Rings, picked up the Mark I, and opened up a secret project at Stark Industries to make his own version.”
“Of the Iron Man?” Steve murmured, wincing at the idea. “But, how could he hope to power it?”
“Stane apparently didn’t think too much of my immeasurable skill.” Tony gave a mocking grin that was somewhat self-deprecating but still handsome. “He got the best minds he could find working at SI -and I admit that our best engineers are quite good, I hired them damn it- and had them draft up a prototype of his own liking. Because of course a half-dozen of the best minds could totally draft up a working prototype of my brilliant garbage.”
“If they weren’t you, they weren’t the best minds.” Steve argued gently.
Tony grinned, and it was a little more real. “Well, the best he could find that weren’t me, at any rate. I guess it wasn’t long after that I sent Pepper in to the office with a chip to hack into the secure network, to find any hidden shipping manifests that would lead me to more of my weapons in the wrong hands. I found out later she pulled them, found blue-prints and the like for Stane’s Iron Monger suit, and a ransom video from my kidnappers…”
The Captain drew breath in a sharp inhale, unable to stifle it.
Tony nodded slightly, glancing around as though taking a moment to collect his thoughts. “It’s… Well, JARVIS has access to everything, if you have questions. Stane nearly caught Pepper in my office when she was stealing the information; I think he scared her, though she didn’t say anything to that affect. I, ah, I think Coulson was lurking in the building about that time… So when she escaped, she grabbed Coulson and bolted out of there, which is probably the only reason Stane didn’t kill her then.”
“Hard to kill anyone with Phil around.” Steve agreed sagely.
Tony laughed, a quick bark of sound that faded under some remembered horror. His features were drawn and his eyes dark, but he continued. “Stane’s suit was done, but he had no way to power it. The best minds at Stark Industries are still not Stark, it’s not their fault, but they couldn’t do what he wanted… So he came to my house, and using some non-approved tech paralyzed me…”
Steve jerked slightly, longing to lunge forward and gather the shorter male in his arms, or perhaps tear off in search of this ‘Stane’… or at least the nearest punching bag.
“I…” Tony began, and then shook his head. “He ripped it out, right out of me… I… JARVIS can tell you, or show you…”
Steve sorrowful blue eyes tracked Tony’s hand as it rose to rub nervously over the gleaming light of the arc reactor, nodding in mute understanding. When the millionaire’s mind seemed to drift, he gingerly reached up, brushing his fingertips over the back of Tony’s hand in an effort to distract him. “Anthony?”
“Kitten?” Tony murmured -a shadow of his usual self, but at least it was something- his hand falling away.
“I didn’t know it would hurt you, to tell me about this.” Steve murmured, brushing the silvered edge of the reactor with his fingertips. “I wouldn’t have asked…”
“It’s alright, it’s, it’s fine, Steve.” Tony muttered, the corner of his lips quirking in a smile before he dropped his gaze, fixing on Steve’s hand instead.
The soldier once again brushed his fingertips over cool-metal before realizing he probably shouldn’t be touching it, since Tony hadn’t given him permission and it was intensely personal, especially when Tony was in the middle of explaining how the one parental figure he’d had left had torn it out of him. And for what? Greed? Ambition?
“God…” Steve whispered, horror crashing over him. “He nearly killed you. You trusted him, and he nearly killed you… For what? To take over your company?”
Tony tilted his head to one side, smiling faintly as his hand rose to catch Steve’s retreating wrist and return his fingertips to the edge of the arc’s light. “Cap, you really are a sweetheart, aren’t you?”
“What?” Steve gaped at him, blushing, and tugged at his wrist, withdrawing from the intriguing metal and glass. “I, no. I mean, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have touched it… You, you have every right to freak out; god, why aren’t you freaking out? I’m sorry, Tony.”
“You’re fine, Kitten, you’re just fine.” Tony laughed softly, shaking his head. “Hell, I’m not sure I’d get through this story with anyone but you, so ease down… Help me out; this is still, hard for me to go over… Not even Pepper knows, not really; the only one with an idea is Rhodey…”
Steve froze, watching the light of the arc reactor play over his pale skin, noting how dark Tony’s tanned and work-roughed hands seemed to be against his wrist. Drawing a deep breath he pressed his hand more firmly against the light of the arc reactor, his gaze flicking back up to meet Tony’s searching look. “Tell me the end of it, then.”
Dark eyes searched bright-blue for several moments, apparently finding what they sought, because Tony continued. “I dragged myself down to the workshop after the paralysis faded, made it to the table… DUM-E actually gave me the case-”
From the corner the robot whirred and chirped, and even Tony managed a smile.
“Yes, you’re a good boy…” He nodded. “Rhodey found me after I reinstalled it… Pepper and Coulson and four or so friends of his went to SI to arrest Stane, but an army of terrorists couldn’t hold back the Mark I and I knew Iron Monger would be worse… So even though the Mark I reactor wasn’t meant for sustained flight, I went out after him.”
“Knowing it was a very-real possibility you were about to get yourself killed.” Steve didn’t bother to hold back the censure in his tone, and narrowed his eyes to express his disapproval. “Are you capable of being anything but the self-sacrificing idiot that likes to cheat death?”
“Oooh, frowny face of doom!” Tony mocked gently, tapping him lightly under the chin. “And insults, this is a massive breakthrough. Turn that frown upside down, sunshine, or you’ll make me wanna kiss it better.”
Steve sighed, exasperated, and dropped his hand away from the hum of the arc reactor. “Do you ever stop?”
“Awww come on now, I was just getting used to you being all hands and no responsibility.” Tony pouted, tension draining away from his features. “Nothing much left to tell, Cap. I won, pretty much trashed the Mark III, destroyed the Iron Monger, my Mark II chest-piece, and the giant arc reactor powering my factory. Built the Mark IV, added chest-pieces to all the other suits, went on a bender that made Rhodey steal the Mark II, took off to sulk about it, got chewed out by Fury, slunk back home, did some research on dad, re-discovered a new element, trashed the Malibu house so I could re-create it-”
“Basically an average week for the unstoppable Tony Stark, then.” Steve interrupted, amusement warming his tone.
“Oh, somewhere in there I made the Mark V, which is a completely stunning suit-case version of the Iron Man that literally folded up into a red-and-silver briefcase of contained perfection. Which I then used to fend off Whiplash, who created his own arc and used it to feed energy into whip-like tendrils that he debuted by trashing my race car and half the remaining field at the Monaco track. Hello international incident, cut-rate impersonation of tech, and thorn in my side…” Tony hummed, Steve’s words suddenly sinking in. “When did you become such a sweet-talker? Anyway, sometime after beating Whiplash, getting him tossed in jail and making Pepper CEO, I made this.”
Steve’s eyes dropped to the arc reactor as Tony tapped at it, noting the gleaming triangle at the core. “Your element?”
“Vibranium.” Tony replied smugly, and barked a laugh when Steve’s jaw dropped in shock. Shaking his head he reached over and tapped at Steve’s jaw with a fond smile. “There’s my Boy Scout, all wide-eyed and speechless. Definitely a good look.”
“To-ny!”
“Oooh, with inflection, and whining… I like.” Tony hummed. “About that time Rhodey took Mark II to play with the military, let some inferior muck-about with my flawless programming, bolt some popguns on, trash it up a bit, and voila: War Machine.”
“You would put it like that.” Murmured a third voice, and both Avengers spun around to face Lt. Colonel James Rhodes as he stepped into the workshop. “Did you know I was coming, or do you always talk about me like that?”
“Do you really want to know the answer?”
Rhodes snorted. “No, probably not. Hey Tony, Captain… Am I, interrupting?”
Steve glanced back to Tony -still shirtless- and realized how close they were still standing, even if his hand was no longer resting on the reactor… He blushed and took a half-step back, nodding his head in greeting. “Good afternoon, Colonel Rhodes.”
“Rhodey.” Tony grinned, pulling his t-shirt over his head. “As a matter of fact, yes, you are interrupting. And way to trash the mood, but nevermind that, come on in. Not like I have a choice anyway, right? I cannot wait to be back in the Malibu house with my re-set codes and actual room to create.”
“Are you leaving us?” Steve muttered, looking injured.
Tony blinked at him, ran a hand through his hair, and huffed. “We’ll… Later, ok?”
Rhodes glanced back and forth between the two. “I guess I am interrupting.”
“Nothing classified.” Tony replied easily enough. “I was just giving Steve the run-down on the reactor, the Iron Man, and sobbing over the bastardized-tragedy that was the first War Machine draft.”
“Uh-huh, that part I heard.” Rhodes sighed, shaking his head. “For what it’s worth, Captain, I’m sorry you had to hear all about it.”
“Oh, I don’t mind… It’s, nice to know something about Iron Man, and War Machine.” Steve admitted. “I didn’t exactly get files on you guys, since Tony was just a consultant and I’m not sure Fury even thought about dragging you into all of this.”
“Sure Fury thought about it, Rhodey’s infinitely easier to deal with than I am.” Tony scoffed. “But I have the best toys, and am supreme ruler of awesome-”
“Yes yes, we know.” Rhodey interrupted, holding up a hand. “You’re not a villain yet Tony, that means no monologuing.”
“Oooh, low blow.” Tony grumbled.
“Just the way you like it. Captain, what Tony didn’t get to say is that War Machine had to undergo a strip-down and reprogram after Hammer was arrested, because the tech had been installed by him and Whiplash and couldn’t be trusted. So that probably cut me out of the running for Fury’s fan club.” Rhodes continued as he paced over to the table and took Steve’s earlier seat. “Not that I was really ever heavily considered for the Avengers Initiative, and believe me that’s fine. I think I’ll stick to running military ops, and maybe handle the occasional distress-call from Iron Man.”
“If I distress call you, I really must be in deep.” Tony shot back with a grin. “If all the Avengers can’t save me, your pathetic little guns won’t be much help.”
“You’re so jealous it hurts me to be in the same room with you.” Rhodes tsked. “What the hell did Captain America do to be sentenced to your company? I thought he punched Nazis and saved kittens, not the other way around.”
“He does, and thus was rewarded with my shining presence and very-rare friendship.” Tony nodded firmly. “All is as it should be. Steve apparently likes to visit half-reconstructed buildings in the hopes of snooping around to see what his suite will look like. Don’t think I’m not on to you, Kitten.”
Steve jumped when Tony turned mockingly-glaring eyes on him and blinked at the admonishing finger. “I what?”
Rhodey literally dropped his face into his hand with a muffled slap. “I really am embarrassed to be your friend sometimes, Tony.”
“If he’s not the cutest thing ever I will give War Machine a new paint scheme.” Tony snorted, turning back to Rhodes and bracing his hands on the table. “Go ahead, deny it, test me.”
“Have you seen the patriotic nightmare they’ve got planned?” Rhodey snapped, his head flying up and eyes narrowed. “If that was your idea of revenge because of the Hammer thing, Stark I swear to god-”
“Whoa, whoa, cool it Rhodes.” Tony admonished, holding his palms out as though bracing for the solider to launch a physical attack. “I have better things to do than lurk in my villainous cave and pet my cat and cackle evilly about your new geek-tastic paint-job.”
Tony glanced at Steve, then back to Rhodey, amending his previous thought. “Alright, part of that’s a lie. There’s not much I can think of that would be better than petting Kitten.”
“Tony.” Steve muttered as his face flared with heat. “Could you be…. Less?”
“Not in front of an audience? Whatever you say sweet-thing.” Tony winked, looking outrageously cheerful, and nudged the spare seat in Steve’s direction. “Sit, Soldier. Alright, Rhodey, dazzle me with horror stories of your new paint-scheme.”
Steve sat, flicking through the images on the tablet that was still within reach. Various drafts of the Iron Man suit flickered across the screen, as well as a listing of weaponry and some readouts of power and function. Most of the specs flew right over the soldier’s head, but the images of the suit with its dozens of articulating plates were riveting.
Ignoring the other soldier, Rhodes leveled a glare on his billionaire-best-friend. “War Machine will look like the love child of Iron Man and Captain America, Stark, you have to help me.”
Steve’s head flew up and he blinked in confusion, as Tony tilted his head thoughtfully, glancing at the blue-eyed blond. “Hmmm… Well, as appearances go, you could do worse, Rhodey.”
“TONY!”
Tony gave his friend an innocent look, ignoring Steve’s faint smile and the pink in his cheeks. “WHAT? I’m just saying we’re both outrageously attractive and really you should be honored-”
“Tony. They want to slap red-white-and-blue all over your suit. The Mark II, wearing the gaudiest paint job I’ve ever seen outside of a comic book.” Rhodes crossed his arms over his chest. “Think about this for a minute.”
“It… probably wouldn’t be the most flattering thing.” Steve offered cautiously.
Tony sighed, reluctantly nodding. “The Captain has a point, so what do you want from me, Rhodes? It wasn’t my idea, I had nothing to do with it, and you’re the one that took my suit and tore off to play soldier. To be honest, there’s a reason I’m not playing in anyone’s hierarchy, and it’s because I don’t want anyone bossing me around. The fact that they ran you over and let Hammer screw with my tech was your own damn fault-”
“Tony.” Steve admonished. “Natasha told me what a mess the Hammer incident was, I’m sure Rhodey feels guilty. It isn’t fair for you to keep bringing it up and beating him over the head with it.”
Tony considered him for a few moments, and then sighed. “You’re right dear. Sorry Rhodey; just tell them no, alright? Tell them I won’t fix it when you break it if they gaudy it up like it belongs in a Mardi Gras parade. There, happy? Ugh, ok, enough understanding-and-sympathy from Tony, I need coffee.”
Steve smiled as Tony stomped to the far corner of the room, muttering about needing caffeine and ‘how the mighty had fallen’. “You probably should have water, I imagine you’re getting dehydrated.”
Tony whined. “Can I get away with tea?”
Steve sighed. “Fine.”
Rhodey glanced between the two of them for a moment, and then shook his head. “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. Well done, Captain.”
Startled out of his observation of Tony, Steve spun back around to face the other soldier and gave him a confused look. “What was well done?”
“What was…” Rhodey shook his head, waving one hand to indicate Tony and then the room in general. “Nothing… Everything. Just, well done.”
“Uhhh, thank you?”
“Rhodey, is there a reason you’re crashing our date?” Tony demanded as he dragged a bottle of tea out of the mini-fridge for himself and held up one for Steve. “Kitten?”
“Yes please.” Steve murmured as Tony continued on.
“If there is a reason, it better be a good one, because if you’re interrupting my quality time with whining about the military and their bad taste in paint I swear to God-”
“You’ve conned him into dating you?” Rhodey interrupted as Steve blushed. “Now I’ve seen everything.”
“Don’t let him embarrass you sweetheart.” Tony crooned as he returned to the table and offered Steve his drink. “He’s just jealous.”
***
So "In Spite of Everything" and "Now I've Seen Everything" mean I'm roughly 10,000 words into the "Everything" verse. Wow. I have no idea how that happened... I'm 10k into a story and there's no kissing and only the most basic flirting and one awkward embrace that's almost a hug. Am I cock-blocking here? I think so. Did you read this? I bet not. XI I LOVE YOU.
Pairings: Tony Stark (Iron Man) x Steve Rogers (Captain America)
Writer: black_prophet
Genre: Angst and Fluff, Humor, Sarcasm, Randomness
Rating: PG13
Warning: Randomness, Brief Swearing, Implied Interest/ Non Relationship, Strange!Tony, Awkwardly!Shy!Steve, Interrupting Rhodey, Robots Because the Author Likes Them Damn It
A/N: Not that anyone will read this but, this is the second 'story' written for what I am going to now call the "Everything"Verse, after "In Spite of Everything". However it technically takes place "before" (i.e. the Avengers are not yet 'moved into' Avengers Tower, etc) we're getting into a real-length 'story'. Dedicated to myeyeswillclose, with all the love I have for her (which is lots).
Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers, Captain American, or Iron Man(though I totally claim calling their pairing "IronAmerica" because I mean really) or any of the Characters therein. This in no way is meant to suggest real or "in character" occurrences. This is a fanfiction, I do own the idea writing and claim all blame for actions and mistakes therein.
***
They’ve already had a fight and made peace and saved the world -twice- by the time Steve sees the arc reactor up-close (he doesn’t count the time he brushed his hands over it when he thought Tony was dead after the nuke-incident). By that point Stark Tower is half-rebuilt and on the way to becoming the Avengers Tower, and Tony is allowing both Bruce and Steve into his sanctuary whenever they care to visit which -Steve knows- is a huge breakthrough. The Avenger’s Tower is impressive in its own right, even half-rebuilt and redecorated, but there’s something particularly stunning about Tony’s personal tech.
Being from the 40’s Steve has little idea as to what the arc reactor does, but recognizes it from the very-thin file Fury had presented him about Tony. It’s an energy source, that much he knows, one created by Howard long before Tony decided to miniaturize it. Why and how it came to be part of Tony, Steve isn’t sure, but when it catches his eye again he can’t help but want to ask. He knows it powers Tony’s strikingly-beautiful articulating armor -the Iron Man- but isn’t quite sure of the fine points.
Tony is the perfect person to ask about ‘the fine points’.
Steve is both confused and surprised when he enters the lab and finds the billionaire draped over a table, shirt-less and oddly vulnerable as mechanical arms whir and crane over him. The machines seem to hesitate as Tony glances his way, muttering a greeting as he waves them back. Robots whirred here and there, furthering the chaos of the scene.
Eyes fixed on the glowing circle set against Tony’s tanned skin, Steve spoke without thinking, blurting out the first thought in his mind. “That’s beautiful, Tony.”
“Everything I create is beautiful, Cap.” Tony replied with a slightly-relaxed flash of his usual cavalier attitude. It’s still suave and seems careless, but Tony is cautious beneath the tone as he sits upright and glances around for his shirt. “U! Help me out, will ya? Good god you are worthless, I have no idea why I keep you around. As I was saying, it’s all beautiful Cap, it just takes a genius to see it.”
“So now I’m a genius?” Steve murmured, and he’s amused enough to grin at the half-mad billionaire as Tony slips off the table and flits around his lab, still griping at his robots.
“Maybe my outrageous intellect is catching.” Tony murmured with a wicked quirk of his brows and a cocky smirk. “You’ve got it bad then Cap, lucky for you.”
Steve tsked, shaking his head as he fought off a smile. “It figures you would be contagious.”
“Oooh, there’s a not-nice joke about my social life in there somewhere.” Tony murmured with a tsking sound, hauling the Black Sabbath tour-t-shirt over his head and dimming the arc’s light with dark cotton. “How vicious of you, Cap, I didn’t know you had it in you.”
“One of the many things you don’t know I have in me.” Steve muttered, grabbing a seat and bracing his elbows on the table Tony had vacated.
“Ooooh.” Tony crooned, and this time he waggles a mocking finger in Steve’s direction. “There’s a not-nice joke about your social life in there somewhere…”
The Captain merely rolled his eyes, fondness in his tone. “Idiot.”
“Boy Scout.” Tony shot back with a dramatic sigh, snatching up a tablet before pacing over to the opposite side of the table. “What brings you here, Oh Captain my Captain?”
Steve tilted his head in question, watching as Tony ran his fingertips over the tablet in what seemed like an almost nervous gesture. The touch-screen flared bright, lit with a sweep of characters and images that cast flickering blue-gray light over Tony’s face before he settled the tablet to one side, bracing his elbows on the table and his chin in his hands like some love-struck girl. To further the impression, the billionaire batted his dark lashes and gave another wicked smile.
Steve crossed his arms over his chest and arched a challenging brow. “So now I’m your Captain?”
Tony made a sulky noise and his smile faded into a petulant expression, hands falling to splay against the surface of the table. The next moment they fluttered in a tapping motion that was typical Tony Stark, Steve had never seen him actually be ‘still’.
“Tease. Do you think I’m going to beg? Do you remember the discussion about my social life?”
“Say no more, I beg you.” Steve muttered, holding up a forestalling hand. “That’s not why I’m here.”
“If you were here to ask about my social life, I’d be a little concerned.” Tony admitted, and suddenly the tablet was in his hand again, fingers gliding over the screen. “And I’d have to edit, severely, because the truth would just blow your mind. What’s up, Cap?”
“A lot, I’m sure.” Steve muttered, shaking his head when Tony grinned and holding up his hand again. “No, just, no Tony. Please no, Tony. I’m here to ask you for your help.”
“Help?” Tony looked intrigued, fingers still skittering over the table and then the tablet, though his eyes were now focused on Steve’s face. “What can I do for you, sweet thing?”
“Can you help me with…” Steve trailed off, and then waved a hand around the lab. “Well, a bit of everything, I guess…”
Tony blinked, glanced around the workshop-slash-garage, and then looked back at Steve. “I think I know what you’re getting at, but do me a favor and stroke my ego anyway.”
Steve huffed, his breath disturbing the spill of bangs that had escaped his usually-careful style as he leaned over the table. “You’re really going to drag this out, aren’t you?”
“The best stroking is done slowly.” Tony replied primly as a robot zoomed to his side and handed him another tablet-looking object. The billionaire didn’t even glance at it as he accepted it and then set it aside, dark eyes fixed on Steve’s nervous blue gaze. “Go on Cap, dazzle me.”
“You’re an egotistical ass.” Steve muttered, bracing his chin in one hand with a heavy sigh. “Fine, fine. Tony Stark -all-knowing tech god and billionaire playboy et cetera et cetera- please help me understand… well, the future, I guess? I know you’re the best one when it comes to technology and, I could use a hand.”
“As propositions go, it could stand some work.” Tony murmured, straightening with a sigh. “But it wasn’t bad for your first time. I accept, on account of your begging blue eyes and the fact that it’s probably my patriotic duty… I mean, if Lady Liberty was feeling chatty and asked someone for a favor, who in their right mind would say no?”
Steve blinked, looking vaguely confused. “Um, alright?”
“Great.” Tony nodded, clicking a few more things and then pushing the tablet aside in favor of the new one the robot had handed him. “Let me take a minute to wrap my head around the fact that you came over here to ask me about technology…”
Steve arched an inquiring brow, tapped his fingers on the table, and gave his best impression of impatiently waiting.
“You’re getting better at talking without talking.” Tony grinned. “I like. Alright, I’ve processed this monumental step forward. Wonderful. So, tech, and the future… Good thing you came to me, being a futurist and the leading force on every tech front ever.”
“If your ego could stop sucking the air out of the room, we might get somewhere.” Steve grinned, and then gave the brunette a warning look. “Turn that around on me and I’ll tell Fury you made inappropriate advances and I feel threatened.”
“Oooh such a buzz-kill, running to Daddy like that… But that’s fair enough.” Tony grinned back, unrepentant.
Steve snorted, shaking his head, and then gestured to the room they stood in. “Tell me about tech in the Tower, to start?”
Tony eyed his (somewhat sub-standard, by his own reckoning) workshop, dark gaze skirting over the banks of computers, wall-to-wall cabinetry and a variety of tool-boxes. “You take your role as den-mother almost as seriously as Coulson, it’s rather sweet actually. Ok, so to start: I’m doing a complete overhaul on the Tower to make it family-friendly, don’t worry about that darling. When things are up and running, everyone will have their own suites, Bruce will have a lab, and my workshop will once again be private.”
“Do you hate having us in here?” Steve questioned, somewhat nervous as he waited for the answer. Tony blinked, something lightening his eyes to an almost honey-color, and Steve could see flecks of emerald and bronze glittering in the depths. ‘Beautiful.’
The billionaire almost looked contrite. “Sweetheart, no.”
Steve’s blush darkened. And he ducked his head.
“Aww come on sunshine, you’re killing me.” Tony muttered, reaching over and chucking Steve lightly under the chin. “If you saw the house in Malibu, and what I did to it when I made the Mark II, you’d get it… I’m just a little dangerous to be around when I’m inventing, like Bruce on a bad day.”
“Right.” Steve mumbled. “Anyway, the Tower…”
“Right.” Tony sighed. “Everything in the Tower will be run by JARVIS, just like in my Malibu home, and it will be powered by its own reactor and run on clean energy. That means that all you have to do is ask JARVIS to do something or find something, and it’s taken care of.”
Steve tilted his head questioningly. “Jarvis? Is he your butler?”
“Yes and no-” Tony began, as a computer voice cut in smoothly.
“Yes Captain?” JARVIS murmured. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Steve jumped in his seat, glancing around as Tony grinned. “Uh, thank you, Jarvis?”
“He’s “Just A Rather Very Intelligent System", or usually just JARVIS, and is an AI.” Tony explained. “Artificial Intelligence that is wired -or will be- wired into every inch of the house. He can lock and unlock doors, turn lights on and off, start various electronics, and handle just about anything else you can think of. He’s basically a super-smart computer-entity that functions like a butler.”
“And babysitter.” JARVIS chimed in. “When Sir requires it, which is, often.”
Tony snorted, rolling his eyes. “And mother, and wife. He’s actually worse than Pepper.”
“Ms. Potts is a shining example of punctuality and organization.” JARVIS returned innocently, and Steve inwardly marveled at Tony’s programming of a machine to make it seem so human. “I am sure the Captain looks up to her just as much as I do, though I understand he is a fine example of clear-headed nobility-”
“Alright, alright.” Tony cut in hastily. “Enough of that, you’re embarrassing me.”
Steve laughed, relaxing as the earlier awkwardness faded. “I think I like him.”
“I am flattered, Captain.” JARVIS spoke again as Tony shook his head and subsided into sulky grumbling. “It is an honor to meet one so esteemed by my Creator and his father.”
“You can stop anytime now, Jarvis.” Tony growled, looking almost-embarrassed. “That’s more than the good Captain needed to know. Really, enough.”
“Of course, Sir.” JARVIS replied, and then silenced.
“What else…” Tony mused into the silence. “Something more exciting than a toaster, obviously, maybe some of the vid screens? I should point them out to you sooner than later, though really the ones in Malibu would be better, because that house has recovered from being wrecked and this one is a work-in-progress…”
Tony gave a much put-upon sigh as a robot whirred past them. “Which is good, because then I can send U and DUM-E back home, as they won’t be able to harass the contractors anymore.”
The machine -clearly stenciled with the designation ‘U’- chirped disapprovingly at its creator and then zoomed along on its merry way.
“Don’t get me started.” Tony scolded, pointing a warning finger at the machine. “And no, I’m not going to tell him about you unless he desperately wants to know because you’re embarrassing. Anyway, Steve we should take a trip to the Malibu house when we talk about my toys, you’d probably love my car collection.”
“Can I ask about that?” Steve murmured, gesturing to the glowing circle of the arc reactor. He was fairly sure he didn’t want to know what had happened to Tony’s Malibu home, as the story of the New York Tower’s destruction involved aliens, gods, and a nuke… It was terrifying to ask what had occurred on the other coast; the arc reactor seemed, safe enough. “I don’t… I don’t know much about it, why you have it or even really what it does… And it seems like I should, since we’re teammates.”
“I… huh…” Tony mumbled, glancing down at his chest before looking back to the Captain. “Yeah I, I guess I can handle that.”
Steve blushed. “I mean, I know that when you came back after taking the missile through the portal… And that it was out, and we thought you were dead…”
“Backing up a bit may help you understand.” Tony nodded, shrugging off his hesitation. Steve was part of the team… he was… safe. “I get it, Cap, I get it. Well to start, you know that Stark Industries used to make weapons. We were the leading name in military tech.”
“You’re the leading name in everything.” Steve smiled faintly, encouraging because Tony seemed unsettled. “Do I need to feign surprise? I can.”
“Now you start stroking.” Tony muttered, pretending to be annoyed, though he couldn’t quite hide his smile. “Don’t try that in the middle of a scary story, sweet thing, you’ll distract me and we won’t get where you want to go.”
Steve blushed. “Right, getting back to the story, then.”
“Alright, fair enough; yes we’re always the best. It’s a Stark thing, you could say. Well… I had a weapons demonstration in Afghanistan, showing off a new missile to our military forces… Basically to whet appetites so they’d buy; a pretty-standard issue gig, not the first personal appearance I’ve made.” Tony gave a careless shrug, waving a dismissive hand.
Steve shifted restlessly on his seat as Tony stood, but remained quiet as the billionaire began to pace along the far side of the table. One of Tony’s hands disappeared into the pocket of his worn blue-jeans, the other rising to nervously brush at the rim of the reactor before dropping away again. Steve wasn’t sure Tony realized he was doing it, but he didn’t want to call attention to the habit either. There was no telling what would make Tony clam-up, or start babbling about something utterly inconsequential. Tony talked about inconsequential things a lot, and Steve was beginning to think it was just his tactic to avoid talking about ‘important’ things. He certainly wasn’t going to let Tony get away with that right now.
“I was sold out, though I had no idea at the time.” Tony sighed, and his spare hand rose to run through his hair, scattering it into casual disarray that was oddly-flattering. “My second -hell, Dad’s second- Obadiah Stane had gotten tired of playing second-fiddle to a Stark… He gave this huge monologue all about it when I fought him as Iron Monger, but that’s later. So anyway he decided to have me removed from the equation. He paid a terrorist group that call themselves the Ten Rings to kill me, though I don’t think they knew it was me at the time… Turns out they’re really big fans of my work.”
Steve couldn’t help but wince at the bitter sound his teammate made in his throat, but again he remained silent. Tony spun back around as he reached the corner of the table, eyes fixed firmly on the ground as he twisted one shoulder to avoid colliding with the craning arm of his robot. “DUM-E, go, go lay down.”
The robot made a sad whirring-noise, and then rolled away. Steve watched in mildly-bewildered amusement, wondering if Tony realized he talked to his inventions like people spoke to their pets. He didn’t point out how the robot and zipped across the room when his master seemed to be distressed either, just waited in silence for the story to continue.
“Good boy. So, Stane had been double-dealing, selling weapons to terrorists under the table while I partied too much to notice.” Tony hissed, stopping as suddenly as he had begun pacing and planting a hip against the table’s edge, eyes fixing on the ceiling. “The Ten Rings attack the military convoy I was part of, killed a bunch of young soldiers, blasted me with one of my own damn missiles, and put me on the operating table. They had a captive dig most of the shrapnel out of me, but Yinsen knew whatever he couldn’t get out would kill me in a week… So he stuck an electro-magnet into my chest and hooked me up to a car-battery, which prevented the shards from finding their way to my heart.”
As though he had been physically struck, Steve jerked in his seat, biting the inside of his cheek to avoid making a sound or interrupting Tony’s story. The billionaire spun to face him anyway, giving a smile that was half-assed at best.
“Fun times, right?” Tony murmured as he considered the super-soldier, and suddenly he was stripping his shirt back off to bare his scars to the light. “Remember, this was your idea, I was more than content showing you vid screens and flirting…”
Steve sighed and Tony made an ‘oh well’ sort of gesture.
“They wanted me to build them a Jericho missile, and Yinsen kept me alive so I could, advising me when he could get away with it and basically not letting me get away with any bullshit. I said no, straight out of the gate, the first time they asked… So they set about persuading me.”
Steve couldn’t tear his eyes away from the scars that ran like thin rivers of white against Tony’s otherwise-tanned chest, the protective tissue glinting in the reactor’s light. It gave the appearance of a ghostly spider-web of damage over Tony’s all-too-human flesh, with the arc reactor and its blue-white light at the center. For all his talk and bravado and science, Tony was so, fragile, so very break-ably human.
“I can’t tell you how many times I drowned in that cave, how many hits I took from their fists and the toes of their boots… How many times the battery shocked me because they’d tried to drown me and then flung water everywhere when they pulled me out again…” Tony trailed off, glancing away, and Steve noted a handful of scars glinting along the side of his face, down his jaw and neck. Knicks and thin cuts, minor trauma from the missile. “So I told them I’d build it, just to get them off me for a while, so I could try to plan our escape, figure out what to do next.”
He grinned -but it was hollow- and tapped his chest. “So I could design and build this… Hoping, maybe, it could get me out of that hell, and Yinsen too…”
Steve watched Tony’s dark eyes glitter with unspoken emotion, and the moment that gaze tore away from him he knew Yinsen hadn’t made it out. The one ally Tony had in those caves -the person that had saved him in more ways than one- hadn’t made it out alive… And Tony blamed himself. The Captain was up, off his seat and around the table, before he could think twice. Tony was stunned and stiff when Steve dragged him into a hug, but surprisingly didn’t react like a cat being wrestled into a bath -a possibility Steve had considered quite likely. Instead the billionaire remained stoic in his grip, head turned to Steve couldn’t look at his face, hands fisted at his sides.
“I’m sorry Tony, I’m sorry.” Steve whispered frantically against the curve of the shorter man’s shoulder, one hand resting on the back of Tony’s neck and fingertips gently stroking at his hair. “I just wanted to understand it, I didn’t mean to- I didn’t mean for you-”
“Steve, it’s fine.” Tony manages a half-laugh, but it sounds bitter and his hands are fisted at his sides. “You asked, and I, I want to tell you… I should tell you, we’re a team right?”
“I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“It’s fine, you didn’t do it…” Tony mumbled, relaxing enough to pat the taller male gingerly on the back and playfully pinching at his hip. “Careful who you’re squeezing there, super-soldier, if you bruise me this is -not- how I want it happening.”
“Tony!” Steve squeaked, jumping back, and was rewarded with a smirk that was at least a shadow of the brunette’s normal self.
“Pink is a good color on you Steve, don’t let anyone tell you different.” Tony replied with the utmost sincerity, and his grin kicked up a notch when Steve socked him in the shoulder in retaliation. “I deserved that, but you make it easy sweet-thing. So damn easy.”
“Your mouth is dangerous.” Steve muttered, shifting a half-step back.
“Only when unoccupied.” Tony grinned with a wicked quirk of his eyebrows and a wink. “Believe me, my mind is worse.”
“It does design high-tech weaponry for fun.” Steve snorted. “That much I could have guessed myself.”
“Oh kitten, you have no idea-”
Once again Steve employed a forestalling hand. “No. Tony, NO. Can you stop with the nicknames and get back to your story?” Steve coughed, hoping to cover his blush.
Tony gave him an injured look that faded straight to pouting. “Oooooh, come oooon Steeeeve! You are such a buzz-kill!”
“So you’ve said.” Steve replied primly, bracing his hip on the table and resting his chin in one hand, elbow propped near where Tony’s hand rested on the table-top. “Go on.”
“Fine, fine, I’ll play with you later. Fix those baby blues on me and I’m yours.” Tony sighed dramatically. “You still should be using that super-power for good, but I’ll let you waste it for now. Right, back to the story?”
Steve nodded, eyes slipping lower when he noticed one of Tony’s hands rise to rub gingerly over the arc reactor. “If you feel up to continuing.”
Tony blinked at him a moment, and then snorted, shaking his head. “Damn you are just too much, you know that? Watch your mouth before it gets you in trouble, kitten, there’s only so much temptation I can resist. If you want to hear the rest of this, keep the racy comments to a minimum, I’ll focus better that way.”
Steve gave him a confused look, and Tony simply shook his head.
“I made the first arc reactor because having actual tech in my skin was preferable to hauling around a battery and wondering when it was going to fail.” Tony’s mouth quirked in an almost-smirk. “And because I would need it to power the suit I designed. Yinsen and I built it from scraps, like I built the arc reactor, hiding what we were doing as much as we could, considering all the security cameras they had on us. With a bit of luck and some acting we made it, and I had the Mark I platform done without any major incident.”
“Major incident here meaning ‘loss of life or limb’?” Steve enquired lightly when Tony failed to continue.
Again Tony half-smiled. “The Leader noticed the arc reactor, and some of the parts we had assembled for the suit, but we more or less bluffed him off… And eventually we were ready to blast our way out of there, to try and go home.”
This time, when Tony fell silent, Steve didn’t press him. Instead he followed Tony’s gaze to a strange glass box on one of the garage shelves, frowning at the blue light glinting within it. “Is that?”
“My first reactor.” Tony muttered, sighing. “Pepper had it made, the pedestal and a box, after I got back and she helped me replace it with a new one I made here… It, it’s important, later.”
“Right…” Steve murmured, because of course it was. Tony didn’t seem like the type to keep something that wasn’t important, and certainly not just because of ‘sentimental’ value.
“Yinsen didn’t make it, I crashed the Mark I suit in the desert, and Rhodey was already looking for me, so I got a flight back to the states. I stopped all weapons development and sales in a charming little press conference about an hour off the plane, and everyone thought I had post-traumatic stress disorder and needed to be hospitalized.”
“You probably did need to be hospitalized, but not for the reason they were thinking…” Steve murmured, lifting one hand to tuck an errant strand of Tony’s bang back off of his forehead. When the billionaire glanced at him, he gave a teasing smile. “You probably still should be hospitalized…”
“They haven’t built a mental facility bad enough to keep me contained, and don’t you forget it.” Tony sniffed haughtily, mockingly batting away his hand. “Anyway, with the Mark I out of the way I set to working on the Mark II with my superbly amazing repulsor technology. I built a new arc reactor, of course, because the first one just wasn’t gonna cut it, and had Pepper help me switch them out. I told her to trash it, obviously she didn’t.”
Steve glanced across the room again, and then back in time to catch Tony’s faint smile before it faded away.
“She did it… I guess it was a gift, a bit of a joke, but still a gift. And I kept it, because it, it meant something by then… She sort of made it mean something, so it wound up on a shelf in my workshop.” He shook his head. “I’m still grateful for that, but, later. Back to the new armor, I took it out on a test-ride and it wasn’t quite right, so JARVIS and I moved right on to the Mark III, made of gold-titanium alloy.”
Tony reached to one of the tablets and flicked his fingertips over the screen, pulling up an image of the Mark I before scrolling through II and III. The Mark III was familiar to Steve, very similar to the same suit Tony had flown to Germany when he sorted Loki out. Not the same, he was sure, because Tony was a perfectionist and seemed to love his ‘next best thing’.
“A splash of hot-rod red and there you are, the first real Iron Man.” Tony managed a half-smile. “We’ll talk about how sexy it is later. Anyway, not quite sure what got me into trouble, what made Stane start nosing around… But eventually he figured out I had the suit, and that the reactor was powering it…”
Steve nodded when Tony trailed off, lifting one hand. Surprisingly, Tony evaded this one, shaking his head slightly. “Not just yet, Kitten, maybe when story-time is over… If you feel like sticking around to pet me.”
Steve frowned, but let his hand drop, folding his arms obediently on the table and waiting for the brunette to continue his tale.
“I’m sure JARVIS will pull up feed from the different flights, and all the specs, if you really care to read about it…” Tony waved a careless hand, snatching up an oil-stained rag and rubbing gingerly at his fingers. “Not the best things I’ve ever made, but obviously light-years ahead of anything everyone else is doing, and supremely stylish at the same time. So the Mark II gets retired to a pedestal and the III is my go-to toy, and Stane is trying to con me into sharing the arc reactor to soothe board tempers and save the company after its dive.”
“Dive?” Steve questioned.
“Eh.” Tony shrugged, flicking a rag across the room to land on a toolbox. “I cancelled all weapon manufacturing and sales of a weapon’s company, and the stocks took a dive of forty points or so… “
“Fifty-six and a half, Sir.” JARVIS interrupted.
“Whatever.” Tony grunted. “Stane said the board members threw a bit of a hissy fit, tried to lock me out, blah blah blah. Still not sure how much of it was true and how much of it was him trying to get me to pitch the new arc reactor, guess it doesn’t matter now. With all the time on my hands, I work on being Iron Man, and Stane has the leeway he needs to jet off wherever he wants. Turns out he went to visit the leader of the Ten Rings, picked up the Mark I, and opened up a secret project at Stark Industries to make his own version.”
“Of the Iron Man?” Steve murmured, wincing at the idea. “But, how could he hope to power it?”
“Stane apparently didn’t think too much of my immeasurable skill.” Tony gave a mocking grin that was somewhat self-deprecating but still handsome. “He got the best minds he could find working at SI -and I admit that our best engineers are quite good, I hired them damn it- and had them draft up a prototype of his own liking. Because of course a half-dozen of the best minds could totally draft up a working prototype of my brilliant garbage.”
“If they weren’t you, they weren’t the best minds.” Steve argued gently.
Tony grinned, and it was a little more real. “Well, the best he could find that weren’t me, at any rate. I guess it wasn’t long after that I sent Pepper in to the office with a chip to hack into the secure network, to find any hidden shipping manifests that would lead me to more of my weapons in the wrong hands. I found out later she pulled them, found blue-prints and the like for Stane’s Iron Monger suit, and a ransom video from my kidnappers…”
The Captain drew breath in a sharp inhale, unable to stifle it.
Tony nodded slightly, glancing around as though taking a moment to collect his thoughts. “It’s… Well, JARVIS has access to everything, if you have questions. Stane nearly caught Pepper in my office when she was stealing the information; I think he scared her, though she didn’t say anything to that affect. I, ah, I think Coulson was lurking in the building about that time… So when she escaped, she grabbed Coulson and bolted out of there, which is probably the only reason Stane didn’t kill her then.”
“Hard to kill anyone with Phil around.” Steve agreed sagely.
Tony laughed, a quick bark of sound that faded under some remembered horror. His features were drawn and his eyes dark, but he continued. “Stane’s suit was done, but he had no way to power it. The best minds at Stark Industries are still not Stark, it’s not their fault, but they couldn’t do what he wanted… So he came to my house, and using some non-approved tech paralyzed me…”
Steve jerked slightly, longing to lunge forward and gather the shorter male in his arms, or perhaps tear off in search of this ‘Stane’… or at least the nearest punching bag.
“I…” Tony began, and then shook his head. “He ripped it out, right out of me… I… JARVIS can tell you, or show you…”
Steve sorrowful blue eyes tracked Tony’s hand as it rose to rub nervously over the gleaming light of the arc reactor, nodding in mute understanding. When the millionaire’s mind seemed to drift, he gingerly reached up, brushing his fingertips over the back of Tony’s hand in an effort to distract him. “Anthony?”
“Kitten?” Tony murmured -a shadow of his usual self, but at least it was something- his hand falling away.
“I didn’t know it would hurt you, to tell me about this.” Steve murmured, brushing the silvered edge of the reactor with his fingertips. “I wouldn’t have asked…”
“It’s alright, it’s, it’s fine, Steve.” Tony muttered, the corner of his lips quirking in a smile before he dropped his gaze, fixing on Steve’s hand instead.
The soldier once again brushed his fingertips over cool-metal before realizing he probably shouldn’t be touching it, since Tony hadn’t given him permission and it was intensely personal, especially when Tony was in the middle of explaining how the one parental figure he’d had left had torn it out of him. And for what? Greed? Ambition?
“God…” Steve whispered, horror crashing over him. “He nearly killed you. You trusted him, and he nearly killed you… For what? To take over your company?”
Tony tilted his head to one side, smiling faintly as his hand rose to catch Steve’s retreating wrist and return his fingertips to the edge of the arc’s light. “Cap, you really are a sweetheart, aren’t you?”
“What?” Steve gaped at him, blushing, and tugged at his wrist, withdrawing from the intriguing metal and glass. “I, no. I mean, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have touched it… You, you have every right to freak out; god, why aren’t you freaking out? I’m sorry, Tony.”
“You’re fine, Kitten, you’re just fine.” Tony laughed softly, shaking his head. “Hell, I’m not sure I’d get through this story with anyone but you, so ease down… Help me out; this is still, hard for me to go over… Not even Pepper knows, not really; the only one with an idea is Rhodey…”
Steve froze, watching the light of the arc reactor play over his pale skin, noting how dark Tony’s tanned and work-roughed hands seemed to be against his wrist. Drawing a deep breath he pressed his hand more firmly against the light of the arc reactor, his gaze flicking back up to meet Tony’s searching look. “Tell me the end of it, then.”
Dark eyes searched bright-blue for several moments, apparently finding what they sought, because Tony continued. “I dragged myself down to the workshop after the paralysis faded, made it to the table… DUM-E actually gave me the case-”
From the corner the robot whirred and chirped, and even Tony managed a smile.
“Yes, you’re a good boy…” He nodded. “Rhodey found me after I reinstalled it… Pepper and Coulson and four or so friends of his went to SI to arrest Stane, but an army of terrorists couldn’t hold back the Mark I and I knew Iron Monger would be worse… So even though the Mark I reactor wasn’t meant for sustained flight, I went out after him.”
“Knowing it was a very-real possibility you were about to get yourself killed.” Steve didn’t bother to hold back the censure in his tone, and narrowed his eyes to express his disapproval. “Are you capable of being anything but the self-sacrificing idiot that likes to cheat death?”
“Oooh, frowny face of doom!” Tony mocked gently, tapping him lightly under the chin. “And insults, this is a massive breakthrough. Turn that frown upside down, sunshine, or you’ll make me wanna kiss it better.”
Steve sighed, exasperated, and dropped his hand away from the hum of the arc reactor. “Do you ever stop?”
“Awww come on now, I was just getting used to you being all hands and no responsibility.” Tony pouted, tension draining away from his features. “Nothing much left to tell, Cap. I won, pretty much trashed the Mark III, destroyed the Iron Monger, my Mark II chest-piece, and the giant arc reactor powering my factory. Built the Mark IV, added chest-pieces to all the other suits, went on a bender that made Rhodey steal the Mark II, took off to sulk about it, got chewed out by Fury, slunk back home, did some research on dad, re-discovered a new element, trashed the Malibu house so I could re-create it-”
“Basically an average week for the unstoppable Tony Stark, then.” Steve interrupted, amusement warming his tone.
“Oh, somewhere in there I made the Mark V, which is a completely stunning suit-case version of the Iron Man that literally folded up into a red-and-silver briefcase of contained perfection. Which I then used to fend off Whiplash, who created his own arc and used it to feed energy into whip-like tendrils that he debuted by trashing my race car and half the remaining field at the Monaco track. Hello international incident, cut-rate impersonation of tech, and thorn in my side…” Tony hummed, Steve’s words suddenly sinking in. “When did you become such a sweet-talker? Anyway, sometime after beating Whiplash, getting him tossed in jail and making Pepper CEO, I made this.”
Steve’s eyes dropped to the arc reactor as Tony tapped at it, noting the gleaming triangle at the core. “Your element?”
“Vibranium.” Tony replied smugly, and barked a laugh when Steve’s jaw dropped in shock. Shaking his head he reached over and tapped at Steve’s jaw with a fond smile. “There’s my Boy Scout, all wide-eyed and speechless. Definitely a good look.”
“To-ny!”
“Oooh, with inflection, and whining… I like.” Tony hummed. “About that time Rhodey took Mark II to play with the military, let some inferior muck-about with my flawless programming, bolt some popguns on, trash it up a bit, and voila: War Machine.”
“You would put it like that.” Murmured a third voice, and both Avengers spun around to face Lt. Colonel James Rhodes as he stepped into the workshop. “Did you know I was coming, or do you always talk about me like that?”
“Do you really want to know the answer?”
Rhodes snorted. “No, probably not. Hey Tony, Captain… Am I, interrupting?”
Steve glanced back to Tony -still shirtless- and realized how close they were still standing, even if his hand was no longer resting on the reactor… He blushed and took a half-step back, nodding his head in greeting. “Good afternoon, Colonel Rhodes.”
“Rhodey.” Tony grinned, pulling his t-shirt over his head. “As a matter of fact, yes, you are interrupting. And way to trash the mood, but nevermind that, come on in. Not like I have a choice anyway, right? I cannot wait to be back in the Malibu house with my re-set codes and actual room to create.”
“Are you leaving us?” Steve muttered, looking injured.
Tony blinked at him, ran a hand through his hair, and huffed. “We’ll… Later, ok?”
Rhodes glanced back and forth between the two. “I guess I am interrupting.”
“Nothing classified.” Tony replied easily enough. “I was just giving Steve the run-down on the reactor, the Iron Man, and sobbing over the bastardized-tragedy that was the first War Machine draft.”
“Uh-huh, that part I heard.” Rhodes sighed, shaking his head. “For what it’s worth, Captain, I’m sorry you had to hear all about it.”
“Oh, I don’t mind… It’s, nice to know something about Iron Man, and War Machine.” Steve admitted. “I didn’t exactly get files on you guys, since Tony was just a consultant and I’m not sure Fury even thought about dragging you into all of this.”
“Sure Fury thought about it, Rhodey’s infinitely easier to deal with than I am.” Tony scoffed. “But I have the best toys, and am supreme ruler of awesome-”
“Yes yes, we know.” Rhodey interrupted, holding up a hand. “You’re not a villain yet Tony, that means no monologuing.”
“Oooh, low blow.” Tony grumbled.
“Just the way you like it. Captain, what Tony didn’t get to say is that War Machine had to undergo a strip-down and reprogram after Hammer was arrested, because the tech had been installed by him and Whiplash and couldn’t be trusted. So that probably cut me out of the running for Fury’s fan club.” Rhodes continued as he paced over to the table and took Steve’s earlier seat. “Not that I was really ever heavily considered for the Avengers Initiative, and believe me that’s fine. I think I’ll stick to running military ops, and maybe handle the occasional distress-call from Iron Man.”
“If I distress call you, I really must be in deep.” Tony shot back with a grin. “If all the Avengers can’t save me, your pathetic little guns won’t be much help.”
“You’re so jealous it hurts me to be in the same room with you.” Rhodes tsked. “What the hell did Captain America do to be sentenced to your company? I thought he punched Nazis and saved kittens, not the other way around.”
“He does, and thus was rewarded with my shining presence and very-rare friendship.” Tony nodded firmly. “All is as it should be. Steve apparently likes to visit half-reconstructed buildings in the hopes of snooping around to see what his suite will look like. Don’t think I’m not on to you, Kitten.”
Steve jumped when Tony turned mockingly-glaring eyes on him and blinked at the admonishing finger. “I what?”
Rhodey literally dropped his face into his hand with a muffled slap. “I really am embarrassed to be your friend sometimes, Tony.”
“If he’s not the cutest thing ever I will give War Machine a new paint scheme.” Tony snorted, turning back to Rhodes and bracing his hands on the table. “Go ahead, deny it, test me.”
“Have you seen the patriotic nightmare they’ve got planned?” Rhodey snapped, his head flying up and eyes narrowed. “If that was your idea of revenge because of the Hammer thing, Stark I swear to god-”
“Whoa, whoa, cool it Rhodes.” Tony admonished, holding his palms out as though bracing for the solider to launch a physical attack. “I have better things to do than lurk in my villainous cave and pet my cat and cackle evilly about your new geek-tastic paint-job.”
Tony glanced at Steve, then back to Rhodey, amending his previous thought. “Alright, part of that’s a lie. There’s not much I can think of that would be better than petting Kitten.”
“Tony.” Steve muttered as his face flared with heat. “Could you be…. Less?”
“Not in front of an audience? Whatever you say sweet-thing.” Tony winked, looking outrageously cheerful, and nudged the spare seat in Steve’s direction. “Sit, Soldier. Alright, Rhodey, dazzle me with horror stories of your new paint-scheme.”
Steve sat, flicking through the images on the tablet that was still within reach. Various drafts of the Iron Man suit flickered across the screen, as well as a listing of weaponry and some readouts of power and function. Most of the specs flew right over the soldier’s head, but the images of the suit with its dozens of articulating plates were riveting.
Ignoring the other soldier, Rhodes leveled a glare on his billionaire-best-friend. “War Machine will look like the love child of Iron Man and Captain America, Stark, you have to help me.”
Steve’s head flew up and he blinked in confusion, as Tony tilted his head thoughtfully, glancing at the blue-eyed blond. “Hmmm… Well, as appearances go, you could do worse, Rhodey.”
“TONY!”
Tony gave his friend an innocent look, ignoring Steve’s faint smile and the pink in his cheeks. “WHAT? I’m just saying we’re both outrageously attractive and really you should be honored-”
“Tony. They want to slap red-white-and-blue all over your suit. The Mark II, wearing the gaudiest paint job I’ve ever seen outside of a comic book.” Rhodes crossed his arms over his chest. “Think about this for a minute.”
“It… probably wouldn’t be the most flattering thing.” Steve offered cautiously.
Tony sighed, reluctantly nodding. “The Captain has a point, so what do you want from me, Rhodes? It wasn’t my idea, I had nothing to do with it, and you’re the one that took my suit and tore off to play soldier. To be honest, there’s a reason I’m not playing in anyone’s hierarchy, and it’s because I don’t want anyone bossing me around. The fact that they ran you over and let Hammer screw with my tech was your own damn fault-”
“Tony.” Steve admonished. “Natasha told me what a mess the Hammer incident was, I’m sure Rhodey feels guilty. It isn’t fair for you to keep bringing it up and beating him over the head with it.”
Tony considered him for a few moments, and then sighed. “You’re right dear. Sorry Rhodey; just tell them no, alright? Tell them I won’t fix it when you break it if they gaudy it up like it belongs in a Mardi Gras parade. There, happy? Ugh, ok, enough understanding-and-sympathy from Tony, I need coffee.”
Steve smiled as Tony stomped to the far corner of the room, muttering about needing caffeine and ‘how the mighty had fallen’. “You probably should have water, I imagine you’re getting dehydrated.”
Tony whined. “Can I get away with tea?”
Steve sighed. “Fine.”
Rhodey glanced between the two of them for a moment, and then shook his head. “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. Well done, Captain.”
Startled out of his observation of Tony, Steve spun back around to face the other soldier and gave him a confused look. “What was well done?”
“What was…” Rhodey shook his head, waving one hand to indicate Tony and then the room in general. “Nothing… Everything. Just, well done.”
“Uhhh, thank you?”
“Rhodey, is there a reason you’re crashing our date?” Tony demanded as he dragged a bottle of tea out of the mini-fridge for himself and held up one for Steve. “Kitten?”
“Yes please.” Steve murmured as Tony continued on.
“If there is a reason, it better be a good one, because if you’re interrupting my quality time with whining about the military and their bad taste in paint I swear to God-”
“You’ve conned him into dating you?” Rhodey interrupted as Steve blushed. “Now I’ve seen everything.”
“Don’t let him embarrass you sweetheart.” Tony crooned as he returned to the table and offered Steve his drink. “He’s just jealous.”
***
So "In Spite of Everything" and "Now I've Seen Everything" mean I'm roughly 10,000 words into the "Everything" verse. Wow. I have no idea how that happened... I'm 10k into a story and there's no kissing and only the most basic flirting and one awkward embrace that's almost a hug. Am I cock-blocking here? I think so. Did you read this? I bet not. XI I LOVE YOU.