i've got a lot of debts to pay

ICARUS WAS RIGHT 

Clint leveled Tony with a look and, unsurprisingly, it only took like two seconds for the guy to break. Granted, that was probably less to do with Clint’s look and more to do with Tony having absolutely no sense of privacy, but Clint was gonna let himself feel accomplished regardless. “I mean, I wouldn’t be against it, but there’d probably be a little too much science talk for me. That guy strikes me as the type to talk about chemicals in bed. Total turn off.” It would probably be a turn on for Tony, which was a fact that Clint hated that he knew. “Dude, I’m always on the look out for vibes. I mean, I guess we can’t all be as observant as me, though.” His whole deal was seeing everything that was going on in any given situation, after all! 

Shrugging a shoulder, he replied, “Yeah, okay, I’m in.” It wasn’t like he had anything better to do, and watching Doom’s drama with Tony was bound to be hilarious. “I know. I hate that!” They’d definitely talked about worse, mostly because Clint didn’t know how to shut his mouth. “You could use the exercise, man. I didn’t wanna say anything, but you’re lookin’ a little round there…” That was, unfortunately, a total lie. Tony always looked pretty good. It wasn’t right! The guy was a billionaire, the least he could do was be a little chubby or something.

Most of the time when the cops showed up, Clint responded by getting the hell out of dodge. It was nothing personal, but he’d had a few less than great experiences with police officers, even after he’d tacked ‘Avenger’ to the end of his name. Today, he stayed put against his better judgement. Surely the cops wouldn’t arrest Iron Man, even if they didn’t recognize his buddy as Hawkeye. He rolled his eyes as Trevor went all ‘innocent victim,’ huffing lightly. “Dude, that is not a good look on you,” he commented.

But then, of course, things got complicated. Clint should’ve seen it coming, really. Why wouldn’t the cop who arrived at the scene be the brother of the villain they’d just taken down? Why had Clint let himself believe his luck would ever allow for anything else? Eyebrows shooting up, he turned to look at Tony. “Uh, I don’t wanna assume anything here, but I think this is the part where we high tail it outta here. You wanna split?”

As far as Tony was concerned, there wasn’t really a reason on Earth that he would keep any of his weird kinks from Clint for any significant period of time if they came up in conversation. He wouldn’t volunteer them willingly - that was a gesture that he reserved solely for Pepper, something that he was sure she was insanely flattered by during their relationship and perhaps slightly ambivalent to now that they weren’t - but there were certain things you just needed to share with one of your closest friends and teammates, and your sexual preferences, especially regarding other teams’ members, was definitely on that list. “Talking science in bed is the best, Clint!” Tony argued, slightly personally affronted by the insinuation that it wasn’t. “What better way to show both your physical and intellectual prowess at the same time? I want to know I’m hooking up with the whole package?”

Tony had to admit that when it came to people, Clint was a lot more observant than most. It made sense, really, given his super-hero handle, but a lot of people didn’t give Hawkeye the credit that he rightly deserved. Tony knew that a lot of that was done on purpose, just as he had created an image for himself that hid the real Tony behind a hell of a lot of concrete walls and steel beams and those little pokey things that Hydra liked putting on top of their barricades. Tony was way more perceptive in battle, and in tech, and in … everything but people, really. “I actually have a two pack right now, so fuck you.” Take that, Clint!

It wasn’t a given that cops loved the Avengers. It seemed to Tony that they should be grateful for the part heroes played in making their jobs easier, but cops were strange creatures, and not ones that Tony particularly wanted to spend much time in the psyche of. Still, being on the other side of their scathing glares was not something that he was used to. He was America’s golden boy! Kind of. “Hold on a second, this is nepotism!” Tony announced in a loud voice, drawing the attention of some onlookers. “You mean to tell me that because this man is your brother - this man who just tried to bomb us with rubber ducks - he’s going to be, what? Carted off to some nice little padded cell and let out on bail?”

When they were kids, after their parents died and before they’d found the circus, Clint and his brother had been lost pretty much constantly. They jumped from foster home to foster home and, usually, each was worse than the last. Still, Clint had preferred them to the orphanages. In a foster home, you got to be an individual. Even when you were being mistreated or yelled at, you got to be your own person. In the orphanages, there was none of that. There were far too many lost children for any individualism, and when the lights went out at night, it was often hard to distinguish your own sniffles from those of the kids around you. Clint had always hated that, always found himself crawling out of his own bed and into Barney’s, desperate for anything that reminded him that he was a person. 

One night, curled against his brother and trying not to let his breath hitch, Clint had admitted that he was afraid. He hadn’t been sure what sort of response to expect. Barney was complicated even back then, never giving any outward sign as to what he was feeling. Clint never knew if his brother was going to respond to him with anger or comfort. That night, he’d gotten lucky. Barney had stiffened for a moment before putting his hand on Clint’s head, the same way he used to after their dad beat one of them a little too hard. Everybody gets scared sometimes, he’d said quietly. You just gotta get through it. Do something about it. Like every piece of advice Barney gave him, Clint had taken it to heart. When he got scared, he faced down whatever was terrifying him.

Unfortunately, that was easier said than done in this situation. There was nothing physical for him to face here, nothing for him to do. He couldn’t fight people who weren’t there, couldn’t save people who’d died years ago. He couldn’t even face the fears, not really. Even if he did, they wouldn’t go away. The fear toxin was going to keep drawing them out, keep pulling him in over and over and over again. He laughed as Tony spoke, though the sound was far more hollow than his typical humor. “Be nice, wouldn’t it? I wish I could just… at least give him a piece of my damn mind, you know?” Wouldn’t it be something to scream at him? Wouldn’t it be nice let his old man know that Clint was a hero now? It’d be rewarding to throw that back in his face, to point out that Clint had been saving the goddamn world while Harold had been rotting somewhere under it. “Really? That’s your idea of a comfort? No offense, buddy, but you’re bad at this.” At least the poor attempt at humor made for a fun distraction! Glancing up at the hand on his shoulder, Clint tried to offer Tony a smile. He wasn’t sure how successful he was, but it was the thought that counted. “Sure,” he agreed, wishing he could say it with a little more certainty. “Ugh, you can’t even punch me one time? I thought we were friends.” His voice was a hair lighter now, which took some effort. “I asked first, buddy. I got dibs on getting punched.” 

Tony had thought a lot about getting away, growing up. Most kids who found themselves in his position, born into wealth and privilege and notoriety with an entire amazing legacy and company just laid out in front of them and theirs for the taking, would have jumped at the chance, would’ve killed to experience it for themselves and get that leg up in life, but Tony knew that the grass was always greener on the other side. Being free - that seemed like a whole lot better than belonging to one or the other, though that too came from a naivety developed through a life of riches. Running away would achieve nothing. He would be alone, he would be broke, and he would be in the same position, cowering under someone that was so much more powerful and important than he would ever be (though that had changed now, he had made himself into something more, and that was crucial to remember).

Running away just seemed so … enticing. Going to a normal high school like they showed on the TV. Walking through cobbled streets in Italy, tracing out the steps of his mother’s ancestors, or going back to where his father came from, if he could ever find out the name of the town or city - there had to be records somewhere, because there was no chance Howard would ever have opened up to his son. That dream continued on until college, when he got down on one knee in front of Rumiko and gave the first proposal speech in history not to include those three words that everyone seemed to be obsessed with. He had wanted to run so desperately that he hadn’t even seen what was going on right under his nose.

@ircnicarus

As a thief, the first thing Scott did when he walked into any room was carefully inspect the furnishings, equipment, and whatever else and mentally work out how much it would all be worth. In Tony Stark’s lab, that number often ended up ridiculously high. Right now, Scott was well into the billions as he took mental inventory of half-finished inventions and Iron Man suits in display cases. His fingers felt that familiar sort of itch as he took it all in, and it was an honest effort to keep himself from pocketing some of the smaller things sitting out on work tables. Old habits died hard, apparently!

Doing his best to keep his eyes forward, Scott followed the sound of mutterings and tools until he finally came across Tony sitting on the floor in front of some obscure looking something or another. Scott didn’t bother with the whole ‘stare at him until he notices you’ routine, knowing it would probably take Tony literal hours to realize he wasn’t alone. He’d learned that lesson the hard way years ago! Instead, Scott gently kicked at the billionaire’s knee. “It smells like ass in here,” he told Tony seriously. “What are you building? It smells terrible.”

Tony had known Scott Lang for a long, long time. That was something he couldn’t really say about a lot of people. Those he had come across in his past life weren't typically people he would describe as friends, and the others that he had been close to ended up trying to murder him at one stage or another. Luckily, Scott hadn’t attempted that. Instead he had joined Tony’s team on a reserve basis, kicked ass when the time called for it, and was smart enough that his eyes didn’t glaze over when Tony started talking tech. Those reasons alone, besides the affection that he felt for him, were more than enough to encourage Tony to ignore how Scott’s eyes roved hungrily over the various inventions in his workshop, or the watch on his wrist. Could he really blame him? Tony had great taste!

Ezekiel told her once, when she was doubting whether or not locking herself in that bunker was something she wanted to do, that her life no longer belonged to her. It stopped being her own the moment that spider bit her, he’d said, and in her childhood naivety, Cindy had believed him. She’d let him convince her that she didn’t get to be her own person anymore, let him twist her mind into thinking that she belonged to someone else. She regretted that now, and she figured a part of her would always hate herself for it. She had always been her own person, had always belonged entirely to herself, but because she’d believed Ezekiel so thoroughly, she’d lost a decade of her life. She could never get that time back, could never know who she might have been. Had she stayed out of the bunker, she’d be an entirely different person now. She could have protected her family from whatever caused them to disappear, could have become a hero long ago and saved countless lives.

Unfortunately, the world didn’t operate on ‘could haves.’ All Cindy had was the present, all she could control was this moment. It was infuriating, but at least this particular moment in time wasn’t bad. Hanging out with Tony Stark in his fancy tower? There were worse places to be. “Have you ever been to the top of the Statue of Liberty? I think that’d be cool.” At some point in time, it had become Peter’s official meeting spot with the Human Torch, which meant Cindy often climbed to the top just to annoy them both. They couldn’t claim ownership on a statue! If she wanted to sit on the Statue of Liberty, she totally would. “Ugh, I’m kinda jealous.” Was there anyone in New York who didn’t have a crush on Thor? Cindy doubted it! “I definitely like thrill-seeking. I’ve never jumped out of a plane before, but I’ve always wanted to.” Even before the bunker, she’d thought skydiving looked like fun. It was probably lucky that she’d never had much of a fear for heights! “So you send him lemonade to make him cry? You’re totally an evil genius!”

Sometimes - often - Tony liked to look back on his life and remind himself that for a lot of what he did wrong, he did a lot of things right too. After Afghanistan he could have continued on the path that was set out for him long before he was born, he could continue to close his eyes and pretend he didn’t see or hear the suffering of others around the world, he could continue to be naive about Obadiah and his intentions, but he had chosen a different path. Iron Man was a hero of Tony’s own creation, he was a legacy that he was destined to leave behind, and one day, a mantle that he hoped would be passed down. The future, after all, was the only thing that Tony had ever fought for. Every life he saved, he did so because he knew that would help the future, whether through that person directly, through someone they loved, or through someone they influenced. Doing the right thing now meant the world would be a better place tomorrow.

Land of Oz my ass, this is more like Wonderland!, which was more along the lines of what Bart was thinking. Actually being invited into a STARK INC building and actually meeting Tony Stark had Bart ecstatic. So much so he was actually concerned touching him would build up a huge static charge that would literally shock Mr. Stark. Thankfully there was no touch needed for a greeting which was fine, perfect. 

The R&D lab looked like all Bart dreamed it would be, and even reminded him a little of home at least the lab where he spent most his time in for the little while he was out of the VR chamber but he shouldn’t think of that now. Speaking of not getting too deep in his thoughts before he was swept away but his mind he smiled at Mr. Stark’s offer, “No thanks,” he said politely. He was far more interested to know why Mr. Stark called him here in the first place. He hadn’t asked anything, like whether or not it was actually Tony Stark getting in contact with him but then again not many people were able to get ahold of him as Kid Flash so how could it not be Tony Stark?

He knows there have been some goings on with the JLA and Avengers, their two big superhero factions in one city he’s sure they’ll want to work together at some point so he feels like Mr. Stark could be reaching out he just doesn’t know why he’s going for him and not maybe The Flash or the other top heroes. Kid Flash is on their roster but he’s not a JLA member so he’s interested to see if that’s all this might be about. “Yeah, I’m way more interested to see what you’re toying with like I’ve been reading about you working on better defense tech to give to local police officers for whenever a crisis happens and I mean, the world seems to be ending every so often so that’s awesome, but like this is stuff I’ve heard about that you might be doing. I also may or may not have 120 questions and counting involving the medical you’ve been working on. Just wanring ya about what you’re in for.”

Bart gives him a bright and mischievious smile, “You have no idea the whirlwind you’ve let in this is a mistake on your part.” He jokes, but he’s also very serious about that. He plans to learn a lot during his visits.

There were people who walked into Avengers Tower, looked around with a vaguely interested expression, and were far more intrigued about meeting Tony Stark - or more accurately Iron Man. Tony could understand it somewhat. Those people either came from scientific backgrounds so it was basically just another day in the life, or they weren’t scientific at all, and so all of the amazing developments the company was pushing out went completely over their heads. One thing that could always be understood, or at least appreciated, though was heroism.

Kid Flash didn’t seem to be jumping around to meet Iron Man, having served alongside the big leagues himself for a time. Instead, he was looking around at the innovations, seemed as if he was almost vibrating in place, and reminding Tony distinctly of what Quicksilver looked like when he found out his girlfriend (best friend? Crush? Reluctant significant other?) came around to visit. Speedsters had a lot of uses, and Tony was one of the few who could even hope to catch half of what they were saying given how quickly his mind worked, but boy they were hard work sometimes.

“Lucky then that I’d be more than interested to show you around the place,” Tony said. “I can’t help you with the business side of things - that’s much more Pepper’s ballpark than mine - but when it comes to R&D, I’m your man.” What better way to foster relationships between the biggest superhero teams in the city if not by sharing a love of science? “As long as you sign a confidentiality agreement on the way out, I’ll be more than willing to answer your questions.” Tony paused for a beat before adding, “That was a joke. A bad joke, but you know. I trust you. Heroes need to stick together in this whole gig, right? Last thing we want to someone like Stilt Man taking over the lower Manhattan area because we were too busy arguing about copyright infringements.”

It was nice, most of the time, that Patsy hadn’t been forced to reveal her identity in some dramatic, highly public fashion. She had been famous almost entirely against her will for the majority of her life and she likely would have handled such an event with dignity. But she decided of her own accord that she didn’t want to fuss with the hassle of keeping her identity a secret. It made her only real power of transforming into her costume at will more handy, too. No need to duck into an alley or public restroom. She understood why most of her peers chose instead not to reveal who they were. In a way, it was conveniently that Hellcat was often times a lesser name than Patsy Walker. People didn’t seem to concerned with hurting her or the people she loved. 

New York was especially dangerous these days, and unfortunately, it was the innocent civilians they were usually tasked with protecting that were causing most of the problems. Even while exercising a concentrated effort to be gentle, fighting off the citizens of New York was a tricky matter. Patsy watched skeptically as the man was trapped against the ground. She supposed it was about as humane as a hero could hope to be, but still. It was unseemly. “It was…! Um, a fine solution. But I feel we can do better.” Patsy hopped up on the roof of a car, placing her hands firmly on her hips. “People of New York! I, uh, heard that the 2 train has magical protection that keeps you safe from anything that scares you. So…you better head down there!” Predictably, most ignored her, while others stopped attacking Tony long enough to shoot her a look. Then a handful broke off from the pack and rushed towards her. “Cheese and crackers,” she hissed under her breath in annoyance. “Okay! Your way was better!!”

Tony’s life had always been a little less normal and a little more surreal. It was part and parcel of being a Stark, even if that name had only been knocking around for two generations (his father had developed a new identity on arriving in America, and he had been so determined to make it a household name that he had gone quite out of his way to achieve it). Insane parties, sprawling holidays, expensive yachts, houses that were perched insanely close to the edge of a cliff and made architects wince each and every time they saw it, they were the cornerstones of Tony’s life pre-Iron Man. Nowadays, his life was crazy in a different way. He could say that he had seen this woman before, but she had been in a different body that usually belonged to a dimension hopper. Yes, that was a genuine, fact driven sentence.

There wasn’t anyone on Earth who was immune from fear. Pepper forgot that sometimes, living her life surrounded by heroes. They all looked so gallant, so untouchable as they sprinted towards danger without so much as blinking, never worried for their own safety. They seemed invincible, but Pepper knew they weren’t. After all, living in close contact with heroes meant seeing the aftermath. She’d been there when members of the Avengers came back to the Tower, bleeding and barely conscious. She’d seen the medical staff Stark Industries kept on sight stitch those invincible heroes back together when a battle proved a little too perilous. She’d also been in bed next to Tony as he woke up in a cold sweat, terror and confusion clear on his features. Fear was a universal thing, and even heroes weren’t immune to it. If anything, they were more likely to experience it. Their lives were a never-ending sort of terror, she knew, a parade of trauma that went on forever. If you needed to incapacitate a city full of heroes, fear was probably a good way to do it.

Because of all this, Pepper couldn’t help but worry for Tony when news of just what the fear toxin was became available to the public. She knew about his issues with anxiety, knew he struggled with it even without the help of a gas designed to bring terror to the surface. The idea that he was suffering somewhere fed into her own fear, made her more nervous for him. “You’re a bad liar, Tony,” she told him with a strangled sort of humorless laugh. Of course, she was losing it, too. The whole damn city was. Whoever was behind this had likely intended as much. “You will. We both will,” she agreed firmly. Maybe if she said it confidently enough, it would happen. His touch was familiar, and she relaxed minutely at the warmth of his hand, leaning into it without meaning to. “You’re a lot better than a leech,” she told him quietly, offering him a small smile. She found herself disappointed when he pulled away, though she was careful not to let it show on her face. She nodded as he spoke, recounting his fears in the same way she had. “You’re not going to lose me, either, okay? I won’t let it happen.” She’d fight like hell to stay at his side, just as she had in the past. “Hey, we’re gonna be okay. This is New York, right? Stuff like this, it doesn’t last. It can’t.” They wouldn’t let it.

It was times like this that Tony found himself questioning the motivations of the people who had wronged him in the past, the people who were fighting back against him now. Obadiah and Tiberius, after all, had many things in common. They were mercurial in their business, they were intelligent, they were dangerous, and they had both claimed to love Tony more than anyone else in the world. Obadiah had been there when Howard was being a complete and utter asshole, a safe place to run to, and he had been the closest thing to a father Tony had once Jarvis was gone. Tiberius had been his best friend, his confidante, the first person he had loved in many respects, and they had both turned on him just the same. Tony figured out the world using math, and the probability of love ending that way again was high. Still, he knew if Pepper opened the door, he wouldn’t hesitate, just like he hadn’t hesitated to maintain their close friendship now.

When she was a young girl, skin a shade or two too dark to allow her to fit in seamlessly with the rest of the children in her predominately white Rhode Island neighborhood, Pepper spent a frankly embarrassing amount of time sniffling in her bedroom and wondering why she couldn’t be different. The self pity and hate lasted until her father came into her room, sat on the end of her bed, and told her to stop. Pepper had been expecting comfort from him, had hoped for reassurance, but instead, he’d told her to toughen up. Grow thicker skin, he’d told her, because the world doesn’t get kinder. At the time, it had seemed cruel, but in retrospect, it was the among the best advice she’d ever gotten. He’d been right, and when she’d listened to him and stopped letting other people’s words bother her so much, she’d grown stronger.

It was a good thing, too. The sniffling girl she’d been back then couldn’t have handled half of what had been thrown at her. That girl never would have survived Obadiah, much less Killian. That girl would have given up long ago, would have quit Stark Industries or gotten herself killed or, worse still, gotten Tony killed with her cowardice. She certainly wouldn’t have ventured up here to ensure Tony didn’t have to face Ty alone. 

Still, somehow thick skin was so much easier to have when it was her being insulted. The muscle in her jaw tightened at Ty’s comment, and it took everything she had not to snap at him. Tony had worked hard to put his dependency on a bottle behind him, and Pepper didn’t want anyone making him doubt that accomplishment. But he didn’t comment, didn’t say a word, and Pepper knew she should follow his lead. He’d heard worse from villains, even if she hadn’t been beside him to witness it.

If anything pissed her off about Ty’s eyes on her, it was the familiarity with which he spoke. He talked to her (or perhaps ‘at her’ was more fitting) as if he knew her, as if he were anything other than a blip on her radar. “He’s worth more than you ever will be,” she snapped, unable to bite her tongue any longer. She was capable of a lot of things, but sitting back and responding with silence as someone insulted Tony wasn’t one of them. “You wouldn’t be here now if you didn’t know that. Petty jealousy isn’t a good look on anyone, Mr. Stone, but it’s particularly unattractive on you. I’d try to stay away from it — you don’t need much help when it comes to looking unappealing.” 

Pepper’s jaw clenched as Ty stepped towards her, and her feet remained fixed to their position. She wasn’t going to let herself be intimidated. Not by a man like him. Something warm and familiar fluttered in her chest as Tony moved to put himself between Pepper and Ty, and she did her best to push it away. There was no time to feel touched about his characteristic protectiveness when she was facing down an actual supervillain. “Are you a man who enjoys being wrong, Mr. Stone? Do you always throw wild, outlandish assumptions around and hope for something to stick? I have to say, I expected a bit more intelligence from someone who thought it fit to challenge Tony. Apparently, I was wrong. If you think I’m here out of pity, if you think I don’t respect Tony Stark more than anyone would ever be capable of respecting a man like you, you must have gotten where you are on luck alone. No intelligent person would ever assume something so obviously wrong. And if you think I would leave Stark Industries — a cutting edge company that I run — for a job at a second-rate, wannabe copycat, then you simply have no understanding of how the world works.”

Things seemed to happen fairly quickly as the words left her mouth. Suddenly, a gauntlet rose up out of Tony’s hand, seemingly from under his skin. Immediately, a quizzical expression crossed Pepper’s face, and she turned to face Tony. Before she could question the development, the workshop hummed to life around them. Pepper sucked in a breath, struggling to keep her composure from falling. She didn’t want to give Ty the satisfaction, not now. “Tony,” she said quietly, “tell me you have a plan.”

Tony had been scared for most of his life. It was something he was ashamed to admit, something that he had desperately tried to and and succeeded in hiding for decades, but it was yet another truth that he hadn’t yet managed to face. When he was Iron Man, things were easier. It was easy to be unafraid when you were surrounded by metal, when the stakes were on the table, when it was you versus them and you knew without a doubt in your mind that they were in the wrong, because you had spent months gathering intelligence, because you had that feeling in your gut, because you were an experienced hero. Heroes weren’t afraid. They didn’t shy away from adversity. They stood up, they did what no one expected, and they saved the day. Tony did that on a regular basis. He led a team of people who did that.

When he was a kid, though, and his mother was the one in danger, his mother was the one in need of protecting, he hadn’t stepped up. He had tried at the beginning, of course, but Howard had a way of breaking even the most indomitable of wills, and Maria was never a woman to accept help from anyone, both her strength and her eventual downfall. Would his mother still be here today if Tony had stood up to Howard, if he had given her the strength to leave, if they had forged a life elsewhere? Would the world still be standing if he had never become Iron Man, if the Avengers hadn’t formed? Would he still have met Tiberius, and Obadiah, and Pepper?

He had months to prepare for facing off against Ty again, had months to plan out what he would say, what he would do, to ensure that he never jeopardised what Tony had built here again, and yet he was standing silent, shellshocked. What Ty was saying was the truth, he had always been dependent on something - but at least this time, he was dependent on something worthwhile. He was dependent on his legacy, and that was what was in danger here.

When Pepper continued to speak, no hesitation whatsoever even though Tony knew her well enough to know that she had to be terrified as well, Tony’s first reaction was to step forward and ask her to stop, but he didn’t. She knew what she was doing. Ty wasn’t here for a catchup, he was here with a plan. Pepper was giving Tony time to think - and then he didn’t need to, because the fight was starting.

“Oh Potts,” Ty said, the smirk on his face only becoming more pointed, more like a grin. “You have no idea how intelligent I am. People used to think Tony was the prodigy between us, but that was only because of dear old dad, wasn’t it? Howard’s dead now, and so is everything he represented. You’ve twisted his legacy, Tony, and you, Ms. Potts -- you helped him do it.” Ty continued to grin, the expression only faltering when Pepper said ‘copycat.’

“I guess that’s why you had to use my tech against me,” Tony said with a shrug, as the armor continued to form over his skin. “The thing about smart guys, Ty, is that they always have something up their sleeve.” The Bleeding Edge closed around the arc reactor, protecting it and making it glow even brighter. Ty stepped back, allowing the Iron Legion to rouse themselves for attack.

Like most little girls, Pepper had grown up loving fairy tales. She’d adored stories of princes and princesses, loved watching them find one another in a million different ways. Though she’d grown out of it, there was a time in her life when she’d been dead set on finding her own happily ever after. Maybe there was a small part of her that had carried the desire on into adulthood, a part of her who’d looked at the handsome marketing rep who’d put a ring on her finger and told herself he could be her prince. Deep down, she’d known it wasn’t true. When things with Marc hadn’t worked out, she hadn’t been surprised or heartbroken. She’d expected it. She couldn’t say the same for the end of her relationship with Tony. With Marc, she’d fallen out of love, but with Tony? She loved him even now, loved him more than anything else in the world. Unfortunately, life rarely worked out like a fairy tale. You could love someone with everything you had, and it could still hurt. It could still fail to earn you your happily ever after. There was no way around that, no way to prevent it. It was cruel and it was terrible and it was life.

“Well, if not, I know you can afford to replace them,” she teased lightly. Even with all the pain in her chest each time she saw him, conversation remained easy. Some days, Pepper thought she might have preferred the opposite. Maybe if there had been some sort of bitter anger between them she wouldn’t miss him so goddamn much. “Ooh, this is starting to feel like a bribe. Fortunately, I’m pretty easy to sway.” Shoes, Tony knew, were sort of her weakness. (He was her weakness, too. She wasn’t sure if he was aware of that.) “I think we can consider ourselves lucky that people aren’t like Dum-E,” she smiled, but there was a lot of truth to what he was saying. Pepper had always liked numbers, always loved the consistency and predictability of them. People had none of that. “Always be prepared, right? I was never a Scout, but I know their motto well enough.” It was sort of a necessity when working with Tony Stark. “God, don’t even bring that up. I thought we agreed, Tony, we’re not talking about Elvis!” She couldn’t contain her laughter as she said it. If there was one thing Tony could always do, it was make her laugh. The world could be ending around her, and he’d still be able to draw it out of her.

Few stuck around long enough to make even looking at them bittersweet. At the beginning, that had been far from an intentional choice. Tony had rushed into his relationship with Rumiko, had barely finished college before he put that ring on her finger. He had rushed into every single love affair with his heart wide open, ready for the taking, and found again and again that was the worst possible thing that he could do. After that, and a few other occasions which just reaffirmed the lesson that he should’ve learned the first time around, Tony purposefully kept people at arm’s distance. The only friends he had were people that worked for him, Rhodes included. That was safe, he thought. Pepper couldn’t abandon him as easily as so many others had because she relied on a paycheck coming through at the end of the month. Tony couldn’t leave her because that would mean finding another assistant that could put up with him, something that proved nigh impossible. It was easy to convince himself that was the only reason for both of them, that it was entirely professional loyalty and nothing more, but that wasn’t the case now. It hadn’t been the case for a long time.

Their lives had never been pretty. Even before Tony’s fateful trip to Afghanistan, the world of weapons manufacturing had left them on edge far more often than other business owners might be. Pepper had known the moment she started working for Tony directly that she was inviting a certain level of danger into her life, but she hadn’t hesitated. She’d also never regretted it. She wasn’t sure how many times she’d stared into the barrel of a gun since she achieved her position as his PA, wasn’t sure how many more times it had happened since she’d been promoted to CEO, but she found she didn’t care much. It was all worth it just to be near him, to be close. She would have died for him in an instant, as evidenced by her willingness to walk into the fire now. There was even a faint smile on her face as his voice echoed through the speaker on her phone, and she found herself nodding her head. “Don’t you ever forget it,” she told him quietly.

Pepper had hated a great many people throughout her life. She wasn’t particularly proud of it, but she couldn’t lie and claim otherwise, either.  She’d hated Obadiah for what he’d done to Tony, hated Killian for what he’d done to her, and now she found herself hating Tiberius for what he was doing to them both. As it turned out, her track record for dealing with said people sort of spoke for itself. Neither Stane nor Killian was around to speak of the fury in Pepper’s eyes as she’d faced them. She couldn’t say what would become of Ty. She didn’t want history to repeat itself, but if it did… Pepper couldn’t say the world wouldn’t be a better place without men like him in it. 

“Something tells me it’s not for a pleasant chat, either,” Pepper muttered, jabbing at the elevator’s buttons in an effort to make it move faster. The last thing she wanted was for Ty to spend any significant amount of time with Tony alone. In the end, she managed to succeed in that if nothing else; she didn’t think Tony had been there more than a few moments by the time she arrived. The man’s voice was cold enough to send a shiver down Pepper’s spine, but she held her ground. She let her eyes flick to Tony briefly, meeting his for a moment to assure herself that he was okay. He seemed unharmed, though his fear was clear. “It’s a miracle I did. My schedule is very busy, you know. So’s Tony’s. Next time you’d like one of these meetings, I might suggest scheduling it in advance.” Wouldn’t the world be a better place if supervillains had even an ounce of politeness? 

The situation was serious, there was no denying that. Every movement Ty made seemed to seep with ill intent, and his very presence in the Tower was an incredibly direct threat. Still, Pepper found herself snorting lightly at Tony’s comment, feeling a little more at ease by the retort. It wasn’t as if his humor would ever leave him, but it was still a relief to know he had it.

It took everything Pepper had to stand her ground as Ty stepped towards her, memories of Killian always fresh at the forefront of her mind. She refused to let him see her fear, refused to let anyone know when she was afraid. Maybe it was a small act of defiance, maybe it didn’t do much in the long run, but it meant something to her. “I don’t care about you at all, Mr. Stone,” she informed him evenly. “In fact, before you decided to come back into Tony’s life, I really only knew your name from the occasional tech magazine. You really don’t leave much of an impression, you know. But coming after Tony? That level of stupidity tends to capture someone’s attention.” Her cold, professional smile remained in place as she spoke, and though it took some effort, her tone never faltered. “And if you ever call me a girl again, I can promise it won’t go so well for you.” 

Mere days ago, Tony had scrambled to find understanding for Ty’s actions. Pepper had told him that the simplest answer was usually the most likely, and as usual, she had been right. Ever since they were boys, Tony and Ty had been fiercely competitive. Sports, grades, who could go out with Susan Beaumont first, who was prom king, who was valedictorian, who got into college at a younger age, who won a drag race on the streets of Monte Carlo. It started off as a game, something for them to entertain themselves with when they were bored out of their minds in boarding school but over the years, without Tony noticing, it had grown more and more intense, more and more sinister. And now they were here, with Ty holding the key to destroying everything Tony had built, unless he was stopped. Unless they stopped him.

“Don’t tell me she’s working you to the bone, Tony,” Ty said, that smirk on his face that always had Tony losing his goddamn mind, for a different reason now than before. “We all know what you turn to when you get stressed, don’t we? What is it this decade? Are we having a throwback to the nineties, or can you still not put down the glass?”

Words meant nothing. Super-villains had tried for the past decade to psych him out, to give themselves a leg up in the fight, and it hadn’t worked then. Nothing was different, Tony told himself. Still, no words left his mouth, no cocky retort, no witty comeback. Lucky for him, Pepper took over, and her insane ability to capture the complete attention of anyone in the room meant that Ty couldn’t take his eyes off her (gross).

“You really are something, Ms. Potts,” Ty said, his smirk only growing. “I have to say, I never quite understood why Tony seemed to garner so much … loyalty, would that be the word?” Ty’s glance went briefly to Tony, and Tony resolutely kept looking at Pepper instead. “Maybe loyalty isn’t the word, considering. Affection, maybe. But if he’s managed to keep your attention for more than a hot second, maybe he is worth something after all.”

At that moment, Ty moved forward. Tony instinctively stepped across, half beside Pepper, half in front of her. “Oh,” Ty said, pointing between both of them. “I get what this is. You pity him. Poor Tony, always going for the person who doesn’t like him back.” Ty stepped closer again, seemingly unperturbed by Tony’s presence. “I know what it’s like, you know,” he said to Pepper, “to have him on your heels for years. It’s tiring. You might talk a big game now, but when you have time to think, I’m sure you would consider a job at my company, instead.”

In spite of a few last minute assists she’d provided to Tony throughout his time as Iron Man, Pepper wasn’t a superhero. She didn’t have a suit like his, didn’t have powers like Steve or skills like Natasha. She had her own wit, her own quick thinking, and most of the time, that was enough. She could hold off the bad guy until someone more qualified arrived to take care of them, could even take the bad guy out when the situation called for it. Pepper was far from helpless, and she made sure people knew it. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to be done in this situation. She couldn’t fight what wasn’t really there, couldn’t tackle her greatest fears with words or fists or pepper spray. All she could do was listen to her heart pounding in her chest and try to calm it, try to keep it from beating too fast, too hard.

It was a little easier to do when she could see Tony, when he was really there and not a fear-induced hallucination of something terrible. She’d seen him die so many times since the beginning of the fear toxin’s spread, watched him choke on his own blood or fly a missile into space and not fall back to Earth after or fall into the arc reactor with Obadiah. She’d seen him fall victim to his own bad habits, seen her hands as the ones that hurt him, seen herself arriving too late to save him. Pepper had a lot of fears, but thanks to everything they’d been through over the last ten years, many of them were related to Tony, to losing him. They were unfortunately very realistic, and that only made them more difficult to cope with. “I’m okay,” she said quietly, leaning into his brief touch and allowing it to ground her in the moment. “I’m here. What about you? Are you okay?” There was little more terrifying than the moments when Tony Stark uttered the words I don’t know. Pepper swallowed, closing her eyes for a moment. “We’ll figure something out,” she promised him, though she wasn’t sure it was true. How did you fight a gas? It seemed impossible. “I…” She trailed off for a moment, shaking her head. “Killian,” she admitted quietly. “I’ve been seeing him a lot. And Obadiah, and… And you flying into that wormhole, or falling into the arc reactor, or never coming home from Afghanistan.” Was it too much, admitting that her fear of losing him ranked among the fear of men who’d nearly killed her? Pepper couldn’t bring herself to care at the moment. He deserved to know, and it wasn’t doing her any good to keep it from him. “What about you?”

When people saw Iron Man on the TV, Tony doubted they thought about a man like him behind the mask. They knew, of course, that it was Tony Stark in that metal suit - he had made the executive decision to reveal his identity early on in his superhero career, mostly because he was absolutely incapable of stealth in any version of the word. Tony Stark just so happened to be a mask as well. The billionaire, genius, philanthropist, always cool and calm under pressure, always charismatic, always with a smirk or a grin on his face and a quick wit to match the tales of his vast intelligence. Tony, though, was something different. He was scared the grand majority of the time, he jumped when something in the workshop clattered to the ground, his mind was utterly preoccupied with the ‘end-game,’ meaning that anything else fell to the wayside.

Growing up, some part of Clint always assumed his situation was normal. He went to school and saw other kids with their skinned knees and their band-aids, and he figured they were dealing with the same shit he was. They all loved their parents, spoke highly of them, and Clint had just figured that was what you were supposed to do. In his childish naivety, he’d assumed that everyone’s fathers were exactly like his and that they were all expected to love them anyways. It had messed him up for a while, made him uncertain and confused. He wasn’t sure how old he’d been when he’d realized his worldview was a little tilted. Barney had told him, he was sure. Barney never let Clint stew in his own stupidity for long. If nothing else, he’d always owe his brother for that.

“Is that your way of saying you wanna bone him? ‘He’s got a very specific way about him.’” Clint’s tone was clearly meant to be an imitation of Tony’s, though it wasn’t a particularly good one. In his defense, impressions were particularly hard for a deaf man to accomplish! “I’m just saying, it’d make sense! You can’t tell me Doom doesn’t look, like, slightly turned on every time he’s fighting those guys.” Sure, Doom wore a mask that made his expression utterly impossible to make out, but it was all about body language! The guy’s body language said his mind wasn’t entirely on fighting. “I wish we hadn’t talked about it,” he sighed, rubbing at the back of his neck. Somehow, his conversations with Tony always wound up here. It was all Tony’s fault, he was sure of it. Clint swatted at Tony as his foot snaked out. “Aw, don’t kick him while he’s down! Look at him, he’s sad.” Duck Man did look sort of sad, but Clint figured if he was on the ground in a duck costume, he’d be sort of bummed, too. “I buy pizza all the time! Just not for guys who could buy, like, the pizza shop.” Clint shifted instinctively as the cops pulled up. Even a decade or so after his criminal career had ended, he was still a little uncomfortable around cops. “I’m great at talking,” he said defensively, though he made no move to speak to the cops. Tony was right; they’d take a lot more kindly to hearing the situation from a well-known billionaire! 

“That is absolutely false,” Tony said, but he couldn’t keep a straight face for long. Sighing, he shrugged and said, “Yeah, okay, maybe I’d bang him if I was given the chance. You can’t tell me the whole elastic thing doesn’t intrigue you too!” If there was someone on this earth who knew more about Tony’s strange attractions than anyone else, it would be Clint (or Pepper. Pepper knew everything, to her benefit or distress). “To be honest, I’ve never really paid attention to the vibes coming off Doom when he’s trying to murder people. Maybe I should watch the tapes back again. You free tonight? We could order in.” Pizza and a takeaway in one day was something his cardiologist would not appreciate, but it was good for the heart in a metaphorical sense. “Too late. It’s not even the worst thing we’ve talked about.” That went to some frankly disturbing conversations about Doc Ock. “I’m kicking him because he made me work up a sweat fighting sonic quacks!” What a dick, really.

The cops appeared before long, and Tony stepped forward, feeling significantly like how moms were depicted in sitcoms. “Hey there, Officer. As you can see, we have this completely settled, and Duck Man is out of commission from this point on.” The cop, though, didn’t look entirely grateful. He walked past Tony and leaned down beside the Duck, his eyebrows furrowed. “Hey, man, you okay?” he asked. “No!” Duck Dude argued. “These two whackjobs just attacked me for no reason! All I was doing was cosplaying!”

Tony let out a splutter, lifting up the mask to look at the cop. “Are you serious?” Tony asked, gesturing to the man. “He came at us with sonic quacks! He tried to blow us up with rubber duck bombs!” The cop and the Duck looked at Tony with expressions of total and utter disgust. “I can’t believe a superhero would lie about me, brother,” the Duck muttered, under his breath but loud enough for Tony to hear.

Tony Stark had been famous long before Cindy was bitten by a radioactive spider. He’d been famous before she was born, being the genius son of a billionaire and all. She’d never thought much of him as a kid, never spared him a second thought until the whole ‘I am Iron Man’ interview. The press had gone wild with that one and Cindy, naturally, had been intrigued. Superheroes were an interesting concept, something she’d always thought was sort of cool. She’d never expected to find herself among them, never expected to be standing in an elevator with friggin’ Iron Man pretending she didn’t run around in tights she spun out of her fingertips every evening. Life had gotten pretty weird for her after that fateful field trip!

One of the biggest surprises of meeting Tony Stark — aside from, you know, him being Tony Stark — was how nice the guy was. You never expected celebrities to be nice, even when they seemed like they might be in interviews. Typically they were disconnected from society, on an entirely different level than normal people. That might’ve been true for Tony, too, but he didn’t show it. He didn’t let it give him a rude attitude with strangers who hadn’t earned it. Cindy appreciated it. “Oh, yeah, I bet!” She knew firsthand, of course, just how the city looked from the top of the Chrysler, but Tony didn’t know that. Secret identity and all! “I would love to meet Thor! He seems pretty cool with the hammer and the… arms.” That was probably shallow, but it was true! She found herself shifting as he continued, a little uncomfortable with the idea of places you ‘never had to leave.’ She’d spent ten years in a place like that, after all, and the idea of ever doing it again was utterly terrifying. “It’d probably get boring,” she offered, mostly to fill the silence. “Does he like lemonade? That doesn’t seem like much of a punishment thing!”

It was a bit uncanny, sometimes, looking at someone who was at the beginning of not only their career, but their life. Cindy was in her twenties, she had memories and experiences already, but Tony knew that even at twenty and with his various issues and dependencies, life had been a hell of a lot simpler. Tony fought to protect civilians and innocent people on a daily basis, but he also fought, primarily, for the future. He believed in it, he worshipped at its feet, and that meant putting faith in the younger generation that would one day rise up and take their place in a world that hopefully didn’t need people like the Avengers, as much as Tony loved the team. The whole reason why they fought, after all, was to end the fight and get home. Tony hoped by the time Cindy was in his shoes, she would never need to throw a punch in her life, or even know how to.

Back in SHIELD, many agents claimed they weren’t afraid of anything. They’d get handed a dangerous mission and smile, squaring their shoulders and shaking their heads and talking about what they’d do when they got back. More than once, a fellow agent had caught Clint on the way out of a briefing with their next mission in hand, inviting him to grab a drink with them when they all got back. More than once, he’d found himself grabbing that drink on his own, staring at the empty seat across from him. He’d learned never to make plans he didn’t know if he’d be able to keep, learned not to extend an offer for a dinner until after his mission was over and done with. Clint had never been the sort of man to pretend he didn’t have fears. Like his heart, his fears often found themselves pinned to his sleeve, exposed for anyone who cared enough to glance down. It was a lot harder for someone to use your terror to hurt you if you handed it to them with a bow on top.

It was not, he’d learned, impossible. People would use things against you no matter what, and being aware of your fears didn’t make them any less terrifying. He still remembered a mission in Caracas that went south, remembered the enemy hanging him by his writs from the ceiling and beating him like a goddamn pinata. He could’ve handled the torture, could’ve stomached the pain, but when they brought in the agent he’d been paired with and put a bullet in her head… He’d lost it. He’d screamed, he’d kicked, he’d cursed, he’d threatened. When it came to fears, Clint didn’t often find himself terrified for his own safety. If he got himself killed, he figured it wouldn’t matter much. He’d already lived far longer than anyone had ever expected him to, had technically lived longer than he was meant to. He could handle the idea of himself getting hurt, but the people around him? The people he was responsible for? That was a little harder to stomach.

At a certain level, he knew that was probably what made his feet take him to Stark Tower, to Tony’s lab. Tony was one of his closest friends, regardless of how much they both denied it. More than that, Tony wasn’t quite as capable of taking care of himself as some of Clint’s other friends were. He didn’t have extensive training, didn’t have superpowers. If Clint was gonna look out for somebody, it probably ought to be Tony. Plus… Tony would understand. The image of his father looming over him, bottle gripped tightly in his hand… Tony would get that. “Clear as day,” he muttered, tense as Harold lifted the bottle to his lips. He wasn’t there, and Clint knew it, but it didn’t stop his heart from pounding against his ribs like it was looking for an exit. “You know, somehow that’s not really a comfort.” Tony not having the answers only made his throat feel a little tighter, only made his palms sweat a little more. “You totally got this. Yay, science. We’re all gonna be fine.” He squeezed his eyes shut as the agent he’d gotten killed in Caracas joined the scene, bullet wound fresh and bleeding on her head. “This sucks, man,” he said quietly. “This really fucking sucks. Hey, what if you just socked me in the head. Just knock me out one time, it’ll be sweet.” 

In boarding school, a lot of the other kids were only children too. When you were rich and successful, there was only so much time you could dedicate to raising a family, but most of the families Tony knew wanted an heir to take over the family business, someone they could mould from the very outset to carry on their legacy. Tony was one of the few who actively wanted a sibling. Perhaps it was a selfish desire considering how tumultuous his house was, but having someone else to go through it with him seemed pretty enticing when he was in his room alone for the fifth day in a row, hiding away from the arguments and the yelling and everything else that came with being home for Christmas.

Things changed when he was in the cave. Initially, Tony had appreciated having Yinsen around. The doctor’s presence had inspired him, his assistance had made the suit possible, and it had prevented Tony from losing his mind. When Yinsen died, though, Tony realised that he never wanted to be responsible for that again. He never wanted to put someone else in danger, never wanted them to suffer in order to help him, because he didn’t deserve that. His teammates were different, they were fighting because they wanted to be there, but the people in his personal life who loved him, who fought for him, that was something else entirely.