Larger than life was one of the more frequent terms used to describe him but most of the world would be shocked to discover that the majority of the time, Tony felt much smaller than he was. And it had very little to do with physical size. He knew he was on the shorter side physically but he also knew that the rest of him just didn't match up to the strength of character or emotional depth that others held. Simply put, he wasn't enough and he knew it.

Maybe that's why he had stayed even after he realized what was happening. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he had never had anyone proud of him until Pepper. Or maybe it was because he knew that if it ended, she would end up happily married to someone else and he would end up alone until the day he died and then he would be buried alone and spend eternity alone. But whatever the reason, he had promised himself when he entered the relationship that he would do his best to be better for her. And he had.

But it still wasn't enough.

He didn't realize what was happening at first. It was so much easier to stand on the outside and talk about how people should have seen the signs, should have gotten out before it got bad, but on the inside it was like needing glasses for the first time. The change was gradual, slow, and it wasn't until the end when he was out that he could clearly see just how far it had gotten.

Pepper loved meetings. Tony loved that she loved them because it meant that he didn't have to go to as many and didn't have to feel guilty about it. And when the meetings took her to other cities, states, countries, well that was normal.

What wasn't normal was when she insisted he be waiting for her call while she was gone. And when he waited, he should be alone. Oh, he could work on his projects, that was fine, but he could not have company. When he asked why she said that she wanted his full attention, some alone time with him even when they were apart. It seemed reasonable, so Tony agreed without complaint. After all, that was a small price to pay for the woman he loved.

Then she started talking down to him.

Tony was a genius – there were test scores to prove it – but the many grades he skipped caught up to him socially and when it came to people, he was painfully out of his depth most of the time. So when Pepper started talking down to him, explaining how their relationship worked in small words and impatient tones like one would to a child, Tony didn't notice. She made excellent points; he was being needy when he asked her to dinner and she stood him up because of an important business call. He wasn't good at relationships so he should defer to her. He was unintentionally obtuse when it came to emotions so him being constantly in trouble and getting read the riot act by her was reasonable.

Then she got a bit physical.

It wasn't much. Sometimes she just wouldn't take no for an answer when he came in after an inventing binge and just wanted to sleep. Her playful hits became less playful. He was a super hero, a man, he had handled much worse. She rarely even left bruises, not ones that took more than a week or two to heal.

Then there was the cheating.

Tony only knew about that part because it was with Happy and Happy wasn't good at hiding things from Tony. When Tony brought it up with her, it was the worst night in their relationship. Everything seemed to come to a head and by the end, Tony curled up in his workshop with ice and his robots and wished for something to get better.

The next day, Pepper had come down to his shop and punched him for the tabloids printing that he was cheating on her. They both knew it was her but he let it happen because some part of him knew he deserved it and still wanted her to be happy. He truly loved Pepper. So he let her punch him in the face and let her go.

By the time the others figured out what was going on, it was over.

Natasha questioned her worth as a spy if she hadn't even noticed the subtle changes in Tony's behavior over the months she lived in the Tower with him. Clint felt bad that he hadn't noticed sooner but vowed to rectify that in the future, scanning every person who so much as looked at Tony that way. Steve and Bucky didn't know what exactly to do; they had a hard time believing that Pepper could do something like that. Bruce retreated further into himself, taking the news as confirmation that people would only hurt him in the end.

That was three months ago.

"Sir, your team asked me to remind you that movie night starts in the common room in five minutes," said JARVIS, interrupting Tony's music to convey the message.

"Sure," said Tony, distracted as he continued to rework the wiring on the left gantlet of his suit.

Ten minutes later there was a knock at the door.

"Hey Tony?" called Steve, sticking his head through the door with a smile. "You coming to movie night? It started five minutes ago."

"I'm sorry," said Tony, looking up, fear flashing across his face before it was replaced by his cocky mask. "Got caught up, genius at work and all that."

"No worries," said Steve easily. "We figured that would happen so we don't start movie night until at least a half hour after we tell you it starts. So, you about finished?"

"Yeah, just wrapping up," said Tony, putting aside his tools and making his way to the door.

When the two entered the common area, Steve steered Tony to the center couch, the one Bucky was already on. The billionaire didn't protest, only grabbed the throw blanket from the arm of the couch and wrapped himself up in it. Steve retrieved the popcorn from the kitchen and sat on the other side of Tony before JARVIS dimmed the lights and started the movie.

Halfway through the movie, Natasha glanced at the couch, doing her usual scan of the room, and noticed that Tony had curled up and fallen asleep, his head resting on Bucky's lap and feet in Steve's. Neither super soldier seemed the least bit bothered by the closeness so Natasha took it as a win for Tony, who had been avoiding prolonged contact with anyone for almost a year.

Steve and Bucky looked at each other as the movie neared an end, having a silent conversation about what to do with their sleeping genius. The two super soldiers had been in a relationship since Bucky had returned, well before Tony and Pepper broke up and typically sat together during movie night, only allowing Tony to join them when they knew the billionaire had not been sleeping; everyone else had to fend for themselves.

"Your turn to carry him to bed," whispered Steve.

"It was my turn last time," whined Bucky softly, his hand still running through the soft brown locks resting on his lap.

Before Steve could respond, Tony tensed up, left hand twitching in Bucky's loose sweat pants, right yanking at his own hair.

"I'm sorry, I swear," whimpered Tony, curling into himself. "I'll do better. Please. Stop!"

"Sh, you're okay," said Bucky, leaning over and putting his mouth to his ear in hopes of lulling Tony into a deeper sleep, knowing that if the genius woke up now he would never go back to sleep. "It's over. I promise, Steve and I won't let something like that happen again. You're safe. Go back to sleep."

Slowly, Tony drifted into a deeper sleep and relaxed.

"Okay," sighed Bucky. "Sleepover it is."

Clint left and returned shortly with a mound of blankets, handing them out so they could hunker down for the night. Everyone of them had nightmares but over the past three months, Tony's had become more violent and frequent. Whenever they managed to lull him to sleep under the guise of movies or bonding time, they all joined him for sleep so when he woke up he wouldn't be alone or feel embarrassed. Natasha curled up under her favorite blue blanket on the armchair, Bruce on the ground next to it. Clint sprawled across the floor under the window. Bucky shifted so Tony was laying more comfortably on his chest so he could stretch out on the couch as well. Steve settled on top of their feet, head resting on the other armrest. It wasn't perfect, it was actually uncomfortable and each of them would have preferred sleeping in their own bed, but after they had failed Tony for so long, they allowed their own comfort to be set aside in order to give Tony a little piece of mind.