As Tony watched his city as he stood on the roof of his tower with a glass of scotch in his hand, he thought about what had led him here.
It had been three months since the battle of Manhattan and Tony Stark, had successfully rebuilt his tower to its former glory. However, it was not Stark Towers anymore, it was the Avengers Tower.
After the battle, Tony had invited Dr. Banner to come and stay in the Tower and somehow that had become an invitation for every individual in the Avengers Initiative. And now all of them lived with him.
He had surprisingly bonded with most of them. And he loved them and viewed them as his family, although he would never admit that to them, after all a guy's got to uphold his reputation.
Dr. Banner or Brucey-Bru was his science bro. The one guy who actually knew how to speak English. He would help Tony out in the lab and they would get up to much mischief within the lab. The doctor was a great scientist and it only increased his awesomeness within Tony's eyes that he could turn into a enormous green rage monster. Which usually caused a lot of tension within the house because Tony just loved provoking Bruce to the point where he would have a lunch date with said enormous green rage monster. However, something that not anyone would every had envisioned was that The Hulk liked Tony. And quite enjoyed they're little 'lunch dates.'
Clint or Feather face was his bro too. He was the one of the only ones who could match Tony's sharp tongue and their various battles of wits were certainly very entertaining. They also were the best team when it came to pranks. Turns out, feather face did not always have a stick up his ass and he loved pranking. This usually led to Tony and Clint teaming up which therefore resulted in mayhem in the Stark Tower.
Natasha, the Black Widow or as he liked to call her Tasha. She was the one who he had known the longest, as she was undercover within his business. Tony did hold bitterness towards her for a while, after all betrayal was definitely something that Tony was very paranoid about and something that he could not stand but after fighting a god of mischief together and living together for the past three months, he and Tasha had become close. They supported each other and comforted one another with their nightmares, something that was quite torturous to the both of them. And throughout those months she had become a little sister to him - a little sister who could probably kill him with anything in his house in less than a minute – but never the less, she was still his little sister.
Thor, the goofy and vibrant god of lightning. He could make Tony just laugh and laugh. His humour, naivety and childlike innocence were what made him who he was and that made Tony quite fond of him. It also was quite awesome that he shared Tony's love for pop tarts. He as well as all that usually did not own one mean bone in his body and that was a nice change for Tony. He usually had his walls up and was snarky and rude but with Thor, they all fell down – well with most of the Avengers they fell down – and he was the real Tony.
Not the man who hid being his various masks. It actually startled him just how much he had let this people in but he realized soon enough that he liked it.
He liked it a lot.
However, there was one person within the Avengers that Tony had yet to bond with and quite frankly, Tony did not want to.
Captain Steve Rogers.
The guy who was out of commission for seventy years and was the man who knew his father.
Howard Stark.
Ton chuckled bitterly at how Howard shouldn't even have the title of 'father' after all he was never there for him, he was always out looking for his precious Captain.
But what irked Tony the most about the Cap, was that he thought that he could come in and just take control of them.
But if he was completely honest, then the real thing that irked Tony about the Cap was that he could see the truth and was able to tell it to your face.
The words that Rogers said to him replayed in his mind, over and over, like church bells on an early Sunday morning.
Big man in a suit of armour. Take that off, what are you?
I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you.
Always a way out... You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero.
And as Tony stood there on the roof of the tower he agreed with what the Captain had said. It was the same thing that Tony had been told his entire life.
A short burst of laughter escaped his lips as his frame shook with it. It was the laughter of someone broken.
A man who all his life was told that he was not good enough. That he was nothing. And then his favourite hero, the one who had gained his fathers love, something that Tony himself never achieved told him practically the same thing.
That he should just stop.
He was nothing.
Tony put his head in his hands as he tried to get his emotions under control but found that he couldn't.
Tony once again let out a loud cracked laugh at exactly how pathetic he was, breaking down over something as petty as this.
And as all these thoughts rolled round and round in his head like an endless Ferris wheel, Tony skulled down his drink, activated his emergency suit and flew out into the sky.