[Fic] 10 comic drabbles - Avengers/Castle crossover
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: G to PG
Warnings: References to character death, blood, shooting.
Word count: In total, c.2500
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.
A/N: These are part of the series felony, theft, and obstruction of justice, an Avengers/Castle crossover in which Steve is Beckett and Tony is Castle. These are not in chronological order, but the series page on AO3 has them in chronological sequence. These drabbles were written for the bonus round of the lj comicdrabbles comm, one drabble for each of the ten previous prompts.
***
#001 - First - for research purposes [200 words]
“Looks like you’ve got a fan, Rogers. Stark, apparently, has a need for research. And he’s requested to accompany you on your cases to do so adequately.”
Tony waggles his fingers at Steve.
Steve gives Tony a suspicious sidelong look. “I wasn’t expecting to...Sir, is this even allowed?”
Coulson sighs. “The mayor thinks so. You’ve never had a shadow before, have you, Rogers?”
“No, sir. I haven’t.”
“I’ll be your first,” Tony says, giving Steve a lascivious wink, which Steve resolutely ignores.
“Get used to it, Rogers,” Coulson says darkly, when Steve shoots him a look.
“Sir, he’s completely incapable of taking anything seriously!”
“He’s a valuable asset, and apparently prepared to put his...research towards new tech for the NYPD. And he’s a friend of the mayor.”
“Well, I say friend,” Tony interrupts. “It’s more like a relationship based on mutual respect, things we’d rather not know about each other, my inventions being of great benefit to everyone involved, and old family history. Nick and I have known each other a long, long time.”
“Very grudging respect, I hear,” Coulson remarks dryly. Steve doesn’t feel very reassured.
“How long?” Steve asks, his voice strained.
“That’s up to him.”
Tony grins.
***
#002 - Fingers - never forget this feeling [300 words]
Tony’s fingers and hands are firm and calloused from his work. He’s an engineer, he builds so many of his inventions himself, and Steve can tell how much of himself, how much time and effort and dedication he puts into it, just from the state of his hands.
“Steve! Steve!”
Tony sees the muzzle flash too late, moves too slow; there’s already a bullet in Steve’s chest when the hit the ground.
Steve can feel those callouses on his cheek, his jaw. He can hear Tony calling his name, but it sounds so far away, and all he can think of is what Tony’s fingers feel like on his face and that strange warmth in his chest that is quickly beginning to burst into sharp pain, a fire that’s sucking the air from his lungs and blacking out his vision.
“C’mon, stay with me...come on, Steve, just stay with me!
Tony wrings his hands, unnaturally slick and slippery and stained red, as Steve’s eyes flicker shut.
“Don’t leave me, please. Steve, I love you. I love you.”
He scrubs them later, and the blood - Steve’s blood - washes away down the sink easily, but the sensation won’t go. The feeling of blood, warm at first but cooling quickly, drenching his hands stays, drying and cracking underneath his fingernails.
And when Steve wakes, the first thing to register underneath the fog of anesthesia isn’t the stiffness or the pain, but the lack of warmth where Tony’s hands rested for too brief a time. He opens his eyes to blinding white and disinfectant, to the beeping of machines--but all he can see are Tony’s wide eyes, all he can feel are his fingers on his face, and all he can hear are those words that he’s not ready to face.
***
#003 - Dancing - in too deep [400 words]
“Tony, what are you doing?” Steve hisses as he’s dragged onto the dance floor. He smiles weakly at another dancing couple who are staring openly at the two of them.
“Dancing, what does it look like?” Tony flashes a bright grin at the couple, who look away quickly, but start whispering to each other. “This was the only place I knew we could talk and not be overheard.”
“Right,” Steve mutters. “Well, what’d you find?”
That’s the first time that they dance. Steve is stiff and awkward, and it’s all about their case. There’s nothing more than discussing suspects and evidence, a couple of calculated spins, one uncomfortably long dip, and Steve moves away like he’s glad it’s over.
The next time they dance, it’s completely different.
Steve saunters into the club like he owns it, hair windblown and cheeks flushed with pleasure at the dangerous ride there in Tony’s best car, and everyone’s looking at him when they walk in. Not Tony; some people are sure to recognize him, but Steve’s just mesmerizing. Jeans so tight that Tony’s not sure how exactly he’s moving like that in them--and god, does he want to know where Steve learned how to move like that at all, and why he’s never seen it happen before.
Tony doesn’t know which one he likes more - the long-suffering Steve, the one he works cases with, the one who brought life back into Tony because despite the horrible things they see in this line of work, the one who never gives up because he believes in justice. Or this unfamiliar man who moves like he’s the only one in the room, who uses his confidence like he uses his gun, pointing it at a suspect with the steadiness of a soldier.
It’s not long before he realizes that there’s only one Steve, and all of this - and more - is part of him. The confidence that he doesn’t have to fake, but the compassion that comes right from his heart. The stubborn determination and the warmth in his eyes when he laughs and the way he looks when they have a suspect and when they solve a case, and Tony has no idea when he got in this deep, but he knows for sure that he won’t be able to drag himself out now, not if Steve keeps smiling at him like that.
***
#004 - Dominance - world domination [144 words]
“I’d want Coulson on my side,” Clint says immediately. “Hell, I think he’s the most likely to actually achieve world domination.”
Tony sounds thoughtful. “I would say Steve, but he’d probably try and stop me. Justice and doing the right thing and all that.”
“Breaking the law,” Steve pipes up, from where he’s doing his paperwork.
“Can’t forget that,” Tony grins.
“What about the mayor?” Natasha asks.
“Nah. He’s too sneaky.” Tony gives them a meaningful look. “Sneakier than you think. You’ve gotta be careful with Nick. His secrets have secrets.”
“I think I’d want Tony,” Steve says suddenly, and Tony feels flattered for a moment. “He’s devious enough to be happy to go along with it, but malleable enough that he wouldn’t try to overthrow me.”
Tony stops feeling flattered. “That’s...that’s not a good thing, is it?”
Natasha pats him on the back.
***
#005 - Beach - imagination is a dangerous thing [179 words]
All it takes to start Tony’s imagination whirring is Clint mentioning a memorable trip to the beach back when he and Natasha were involved. (Which, frankly, Tony is a little apprehensive of asking about, because Natasha is terrifying. Clint already has the respect of all the men in the precinct for even daring to go there.)
And Tony’s done beach sex, and it’s not the most pleasant thing - sand gets absolutely everywhere, in places you definitely don’t want it in - but as soon as the words are out of Clint’s mouth, he’s imagining Steve on the beach, in tiny shorts and no shirt and wet--
“Tony?”
“Huh?” Tony snaps out of his trance with a jerk. He can hear Natasha snicker behind him. “What?
Steve gives him a strange look. “You look really flushed. Is something wrong?”
“Uh, no,” Tony mumbles. “It’s. It’s fine.” He glares at Clint, who’s grinning at him manically. Tony suspects that this was his plan all along, and narrows his eyes at him, but Clint just keeps grinning and waggles his eyebrows.
***
#006 - Sharp - sharp as a blade [160 words]
Natasha’s sharp as a blade, and she doesn’t let anyone forget it. She’s not a loner, exactly, but she’s only really close to Steve and Clint and Coulson. Ex-special forces, and nobody except those three people really know what she went through during that time, but everyone saw how she changed when Clint transferred to the 12th.
It was a slow process, but there was something there from the very start. Natasha didn’t take well to a new partner at first, but Clint’s always been stubborn and determined and very, very persistent. Steve liked him, and Natasha warmed up to him quickly - which led to an affair that ended as quickly as it began, but with just as much passion.
Clint will never forget those brief few weeks, too short and too much, and only the beginning of a partnership that works better than anything in those first weeks, Clint blunt and steady and solid, Natasha sharp and precise.
***
#007 - Bond - this family is more fragile than it seems [247 words]
Somehow, Tony’s managed to integrate himself into their strange little family at the precinct. It happened when they weren’t looking; he was one of them before they’d even realized it.
Bringing Steve coffee every morning, bickering with Natasha, and sneaking Clint little prototypes. The strange mutual respect that he and Coulson have, and the firm friendship he’s established with the Bruce in the morgue.
These bonds are formed in adrenaline-fuelled frenzies, in those intense life-endangering situations that they find themselves in far too often, the ones where trust is the only option. Loyalty and reliability, trust and dedication and honour; these are values that Steve knows, as a soldier and an officer and a detective, are judged best in those situations.
Tony is sometimes the most frustrating person that Steve knows. He’s rash and careless and takes too many risks. But he’s good at thinking on his feet and he’s dedicated, and he’s loyal.
But these bonds are more fragile than they seem, and betrayal cuts deeper than anything. Coulson is dead in the ground, and Hill doesn’t have their loyalty like Coulson always did. Natasha doesn’t see what Clint did as saving Steve’s life, only betraying them both to Hill. Bruce is stuck between friends, unsure of who to stand by, and Tony. Tony doesn’t know how he can stay and watch Steve go looking for the people who want him dead, and thinks that maybe this is the time that he walks away for good.
***
#008 - Very Bad Ideas - [215 words]
“Does anyone else think this is a terrible idea?”
Clint and Natasha exchange looks, then raise their hands.
“Yeah. Great.” Steve watches the screen, looking for anything that the camera on Tony’s shirt shows them, listens intently for anything that the mic will pick up. There’s a growing apprehension that’s pretty regular whenever Tony does something stupid that Steve can’t ignore.
Steve gapes at the screen as Tony throws a bundle of notes on the table and sits down with a gang of dangerous mobsters like he does it every day. “That’s not part of the plan!”
Clint looks pained. “That’s more than I make in a year.”
That horrible feeling continues to rise, and when Tony makes some fairly non-subtle references to the case they’re working on, Steve finally notices something.”
“I think that’s our guy.” He points to one of the mobsters who is twisting his finger oddly. “That’s a prosthetic - it explains the bruise pattern on the vic.”
They see Tony pull the huge pile of chips towards him, see all the mobsters grimace in an ugly way, and Steve stands up abruptly.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going in there. That’s our guy there, but Tony’s in over his head. If I’m not out in ten minutes, call for backup.”
***
#009 - Gasp - too precious to touch [300 words]
Tony’s been in danger before, he’s in danger on almost every case that he works with Steve. But there’s only been one time before where he’s truly been afraid of dying. When it seemed like a certainty, when he thought he really wasn’t going to walk away.
He listens to Steve’s breathing, panicked gasps at first, then shallower, slowing, but not because he’s calmed down. It’s getting harder every second, as they begin to lose focus, their minds begin to blur.
But, Tony thinks to himself, if he’s going to go, then this is better. Better than alone and shattered and knowing that he never got to fix anything, a hole in his chest and the knowledge that he’d be leaving Pepper with a burden that wasn’t hers to bear. At least now can leave her with something to be proud of.
Pepper’s been nudging him towards making a move, trying to get him to face the thing that he wants to run away from, but that he never wants to let go of. And maybe this is his last chance, here in this locked freezer, as his joints grow stiff and his body numb and his eyes begin to droop.
He won’t ruin this, though. Not like he did with Pepper, rushing into something he thought he wanted, and then being the one that made it all fall apart. He won’t do this with Steve, he’ll do it right. This is too precious for Tony to touch yet.
It barely registers when Clint and Natasha burst in and drag them out, he’s only focussed on Steve, and his still figure, a heavy weight on Tony’s shoulder, and he thinks to himself that one day, he’ll be able to get close to that, to have something and not break it.
***
#010 - Insecurity - floundering and faltering [272 words]
Steve tells Tony off and he definitely means it when he says that Tony’s an idiot sometimes, but he’s gotten used to his antics over the years. He hates to admit it, but Steve even enjoys Tony’s company, and - though he’ll never say; Tony’s ego needs no encouragement - he’s even useful on cases. Clint and Natasha and even Coulson tease him at every opportunity, but they’re all fond of him, and Bruce rolls his eyes about eighty percent more than he usually does whenever Tony’s in the morgue, but there’s really no denying that he likes having him around.
But this is Tony, and despite all his confidence and bravado and ego, he’s more insecure than most people realize. Every time Steve snaps at him with real irritation or Natasha shakes her head and turns away after he’s done something. When Tony won’t let go and won’t listen when Bruce tells him that he should stay out of Steve’s personal life and has to walk away so he doesn’t lose his temper, or when Coulson tells him to go home for the rest of the day.
It’s that sinking feeling, when Tony’s left floundering, faltering, unsure of himself and ashamed that he’s done something wrong. He doesn’t see their fond smiles or the way they try and protect him, their determination to help him when something’s wrong, or how he fits so comfortably with them. He doesn’t realize that sometimes he just steps right in the line of fire when they’re frustrated that they can’t solve a case, unwitting and innocent, and that their snipes are never really for him.
Rating: G to PG
Warnings: References to character death, blood, shooting.
Word count: In total, c.2500
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.
A/N: These are part of the series felony, theft, and obstruction of justice, an Avengers/Castle crossover in which Steve is Beckett and Tony is Castle. These are not in chronological order, but the series page on AO3 has them in chronological sequence. These drabbles were written for the bonus round of the lj comicdrabbles comm, one drabble for each of the ten previous prompts.
***
#001 - First - for research purposes [200 words]
“Looks like you’ve got a fan, Rogers. Stark, apparently, has a need for research. And he’s requested to accompany you on your cases to do so adequately.”
Tony waggles his fingers at Steve.
Steve gives Tony a suspicious sidelong look. “I wasn’t expecting to...Sir, is this even allowed?”
Coulson sighs. “The mayor thinks so. You’ve never had a shadow before, have you, Rogers?”
“No, sir. I haven’t.”
“I’ll be your first,” Tony says, giving Steve a lascivious wink, which Steve resolutely ignores.
“Get used to it, Rogers,” Coulson says darkly, when Steve shoots him a look.
“Sir, he’s completely incapable of taking anything seriously!”
“He’s a valuable asset, and apparently prepared to put his...research towards new tech for the NYPD. And he’s a friend of the mayor.”
“Well, I say friend,” Tony interrupts. “It’s more like a relationship based on mutual respect, things we’d rather not know about each other, my inventions being of great benefit to everyone involved, and old family history. Nick and I have known each other a long, long time.”
“Very grudging respect, I hear,” Coulson remarks dryly. Steve doesn’t feel very reassured.
“How long?” Steve asks, his voice strained.
“That’s up to him.”
Tony grins.
***
#002 - Fingers - never forget this feeling [300 words]
Tony’s fingers and hands are firm and calloused from his work. He’s an engineer, he builds so many of his inventions himself, and Steve can tell how much of himself, how much time and effort and dedication he puts into it, just from the state of his hands.
“Steve! Steve!”
Tony sees the muzzle flash too late, moves too slow; there’s already a bullet in Steve’s chest when the hit the ground.
Steve can feel those callouses on his cheek, his jaw. He can hear Tony calling his name, but it sounds so far away, and all he can think of is what Tony’s fingers feel like on his face and that strange warmth in his chest that is quickly beginning to burst into sharp pain, a fire that’s sucking the air from his lungs and blacking out his vision.
“C’mon, stay with me...come on, Steve, just stay with me!
Tony wrings his hands, unnaturally slick and slippery and stained red, as Steve’s eyes flicker shut.
“Don’t leave me, please. Steve, I love you. I love you.”
He scrubs them later, and the blood - Steve’s blood - washes away down the sink easily, but the sensation won’t go. The feeling of blood, warm at first but cooling quickly, drenching his hands stays, drying and cracking underneath his fingernails.
And when Steve wakes, the first thing to register underneath the fog of anesthesia isn’t the stiffness or the pain, but the lack of warmth where Tony’s hands rested for too brief a time. He opens his eyes to blinding white and disinfectant, to the beeping of machines--but all he can see are Tony’s wide eyes, all he can feel are his fingers on his face, and all he can hear are those words that he’s not ready to face.
***
#003 - Dancing - in too deep [400 words]
“Tony, what are you doing?” Steve hisses as he’s dragged onto the dance floor. He smiles weakly at another dancing couple who are staring openly at the two of them.
“Dancing, what does it look like?” Tony flashes a bright grin at the couple, who look away quickly, but start whispering to each other. “This was the only place I knew we could talk and not be overheard.”
“Right,” Steve mutters. “Well, what’d you find?”
That’s the first time that they dance. Steve is stiff and awkward, and it’s all about their case. There’s nothing more than discussing suspects and evidence, a couple of calculated spins, one uncomfortably long dip, and Steve moves away like he’s glad it’s over.
The next time they dance, it’s completely different.
Steve saunters into the club like he owns it, hair windblown and cheeks flushed with pleasure at the dangerous ride there in Tony’s best car, and everyone’s looking at him when they walk in. Not Tony; some people are sure to recognize him, but Steve’s just mesmerizing. Jeans so tight that Tony’s not sure how exactly he’s moving like that in them--and god, does he want to know where Steve learned how to move like that at all, and why he’s never seen it happen before.
Tony doesn’t know which one he likes more - the long-suffering Steve, the one he works cases with, the one who brought life back into Tony because despite the horrible things they see in this line of work, the one who never gives up because he believes in justice. Or this unfamiliar man who moves like he’s the only one in the room, who uses his confidence like he uses his gun, pointing it at a suspect with the steadiness of a soldier.
It’s not long before he realizes that there’s only one Steve, and all of this - and more - is part of him. The confidence that he doesn’t have to fake, but the compassion that comes right from his heart. The stubborn determination and the warmth in his eyes when he laughs and the way he looks when they have a suspect and when they solve a case, and Tony has no idea when he got in this deep, but he knows for sure that he won’t be able to drag himself out now, not if Steve keeps smiling at him like that.
***
#004 - Dominance - world domination [144 words]
“I’d want Coulson on my side,” Clint says immediately. “Hell, I think he’s the most likely to actually achieve world domination.”
Tony sounds thoughtful. “I would say Steve, but he’d probably try and stop me. Justice and doing the right thing and all that.”
“Breaking the law,” Steve pipes up, from where he’s doing his paperwork.
“Can’t forget that,” Tony grins.
“What about the mayor?” Natasha asks.
“Nah. He’s too sneaky.” Tony gives them a meaningful look. “Sneakier than you think. You’ve gotta be careful with Nick. His secrets have secrets.”
“I think I’d want Tony,” Steve says suddenly, and Tony feels flattered for a moment. “He’s devious enough to be happy to go along with it, but malleable enough that he wouldn’t try to overthrow me.”
Tony stops feeling flattered. “That’s...that’s not a good thing, is it?”
Natasha pats him on the back.
***
#005 - Beach - imagination is a dangerous thing [179 words]
All it takes to start Tony’s imagination whirring is Clint mentioning a memorable trip to the beach back when he and Natasha were involved. (Which, frankly, Tony is a little apprehensive of asking about, because Natasha is terrifying. Clint already has the respect of all the men in the precinct for even daring to go there.)
And Tony’s done beach sex, and it’s not the most pleasant thing - sand gets absolutely everywhere, in places you definitely don’t want it in - but as soon as the words are out of Clint’s mouth, he’s imagining Steve on the beach, in tiny shorts and no shirt and wet--
“Tony?”
“Huh?” Tony snaps out of his trance with a jerk. He can hear Natasha snicker behind him. “What?
Steve gives him a strange look. “You look really flushed. Is something wrong?”
“Uh, no,” Tony mumbles. “It’s. It’s fine.” He glares at Clint, who’s grinning at him manically. Tony suspects that this was his plan all along, and narrows his eyes at him, but Clint just keeps grinning and waggles his eyebrows.
***
#006 - Sharp - sharp as a blade [160 words]
Natasha’s sharp as a blade, and she doesn’t let anyone forget it. She’s not a loner, exactly, but she’s only really close to Steve and Clint and Coulson. Ex-special forces, and nobody except those three people really know what she went through during that time, but everyone saw how she changed when Clint transferred to the 12th.
It was a slow process, but there was something there from the very start. Natasha didn’t take well to a new partner at first, but Clint’s always been stubborn and determined and very, very persistent. Steve liked him, and Natasha warmed up to him quickly - which led to an affair that ended as quickly as it began, but with just as much passion.
Clint will never forget those brief few weeks, too short and too much, and only the beginning of a partnership that works better than anything in those first weeks, Clint blunt and steady and solid, Natasha sharp and precise.
***
#007 - Bond - this family is more fragile than it seems [247 words]
Somehow, Tony’s managed to integrate himself into their strange little family at the precinct. It happened when they weren’t looking; he was one of them before they’d even realized it.
Bringing Steve coffee every morning, bickering with Natasha, and sneaking Clint little prototypes. The strange mutual respect that he and Coulson have, and the firm friendship he’s established with the Bruce in the morgue.
These bonds are formed in adrenaline-fuelled frenzies, in those intense life-endangering situations that they find themselves in far too often, the ones where trust is the only option. Loyalty and reliability, trust and dedication and honour; these are values that Steve knows, as a soldier and an officer and a detective, are judged best in those situations.
Tony is sometimes the most frustrating person that Steve knows. He’s rash and careless and takes too many risks. But he’s good at thinking on his feet and he’s dedicated, and he’s loyal.
But these bonds are more fragile than they seem, and betrayal cuts deeper than anything. Coulson is dead in the ground, and Hill doesn’t have their loyalty like Coulson always did. Natasha doesn’t see what Clint did as saving Steve’s life, only betraying them both to Hill. Bruce is stuck between friends, unsure of who to stand by, and Tony. Tony doesn’t know how he can stay and watch Steve go looking for the people who want him dead, and thinks that maybe this is the time that he walks away for good.
***
#008 - Very Bad Ideas - [215 words]
“Does anyone else think this is a terrible idea?”
Clint and Natasha exchange looks, then raise their hands.
“Yeah. Great.” Steve watches the screen, looking for anything that the camera on Tony’s shirt shows them, listens intently for anything that the mic will pick up. There’s a growing apprehension that’s pretty regular whenever Tony does something stupid that Steve can’t ignore.
Steve gapes at the screen as Tony throws a bundle of notes on the table and sits down with a gang of dangerous mobsters like he does it every day. “That’s not part of the plan!”
Clint looks pained. “That’s more than I make in a year.”
That horrible feeling continues to rise, and when Tony makes some fairly non-subtle references to the case they’re working on, Steve finally notices something.”
“I think that’s our guy.” He points to one of the mobsters who is twisting his finger oddly. “That’s a prosthetic - it explains the bruise pattern on the vic.”
They see Tony pull the huge pile of chips towards him, see all the mobsters grimace in an ugly way, and Steve stands up abruptly.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going in there. That’s our guy there, but Tony’s in over his head. If I’m not out in ten minutes, call for backup.”
***
#009 - Gasp - too precious to touch [300 words]
Tony’s been in danger before, he’s in danger on almost every case that he works with Steve. But there’s only been one time before where he’s truly been afraid of dying. When it seemed like a certainty, when he thought he really wasn’t going to walk away.
He listens to Steve’s breathing, panicked gasps at first, then shallower, slowing, but not because he’s calmed down. It’s getting harder every second, as they begin to lose focus, their minds begin to blur.
But, Tony thinks to himself, if he’s going to go, then this is better. Better than alone and shattered and knowing that he never got to fix anything, a hole in his chest and the knowledge that he’d be leaving Pepper with a burden that wasn’t hers to bear. At least now can leave her with something to be proud of.
Pepper’s been nudging him towards making a move, trying to get him to face the thing that he wants to run away from, but that he never wants to let go of. And maybe this is his last chance, here in this locked freezer, as his joints grow stiff and his body numb and his eyes begin to droop.
He won’t ruin this, though. Not like he did with Pepper, rushing into something he thought he wanted, and then being the one that made it all fall apart. He won’t do this with Steve, he’ll do it right. This is too precious for Tony to touch yet.
It barely registers when Clint and Natasha burst in and drag them out, he’s only focussed on Steve, and his still figure, a heavy weight on Tony’s shoulder, and he thinks to himself that one day, he’ll be able to get close to that, to have something and not break it.
***
#010 - Insecurity - floundering and faltering [272 words]
Steve tells Tony off and he definitely means it when he says that Tony’s an idiot sometimes, but he’s gotten used to his antics over the years. He hates to admit it, but Steve even enjoys Tony’s company, and - though he’ll never say; Tony’s ego needs no encouragement - he’s even useful on cases. Clint and Natasha and even Coulson tease him at every opportunity, but they’re all fond of him, and Bruce rolls his eyes about eighty percent more than he usually does whenever Tony’s in the morgue, but there’s really no denying that he likes having him around.
But this is Tony, and despite all his confidence and bravado and ego, he’s more insecure than most people realize. Every time Steve snaps at him with real irritation or Natasha shakes her head and turns away after he’s done something. When Tony won’t let go and won’t listen when Bruce tells him that he should stay out of Steve’s personal life and has to walk away so he doesn’t lose his temper, or when Coulson tells him to go home for the rest of the day.
It’s that sinking feeling, when Tony’s left floundering, faltering, unsure of himself and ashamed that he’s done something wrong. He doesn’t see their fond smiles or the way they try and protect him, their determination to help him when something’s wrong, or how he fits so comfortably with them. He doesn’t realize that sometimes he just steps right in the line of fire when they’re frustrated that they can’t solve a case, unwitting and innocent, and that their snipes are never really for him.