I tried coming up with a way to fit Sam in here, but it never worked. I'm sorry – I really do like him, but there was no reason to throw him in because if Steve wasn't living in DC, he wouldn't have met him on his morning run and it wouldn't have gone down like it did in CATWS. So…sorry!
...
Tony never would have expected something like this a couple of years ago.
No – two years ago was when everyone was at each others' throats. He had invited the other Avengers to come and stay with him in the Tower as soon as it had become habitable again. It had been six weeks after the battle, and they'd not spoken since then, but it was too quiet in the Tower and Tony had needed something to distract him from his nightmares and his PTSD that he'd steadfastly denied existence of at that point.
And surprisingly, they'd come. Looking back on it, he could see their antagonism for what it was – uncertainty and pain, pain because of their pasts, be they recent or otherwise. Clint and Natasha had been the first to move in, because Clint needed to get away from the accusing stares of the SHIELD agents and Natasha stuck beside him in his support. Bruce had arrived days later, tempted by Tony's offer of his personal lab and someone who would understand and even help with his work. (It certainly didn't hurt that Tony and his legal team could protect him from the likes of Ross.) Thor never moved in, having duties on Asgard and with Jane still living in London, but he visited often enough that he had a room for when he would stay over for a night, and so it was basically a second home to him. Then Steve had come, snappish and brooding and not looking at all happy to be there. (But Tony had interrogated Fury quite thoroughly and knew that no one had ordered Rogers there – it was his own choice. And that was enough to try and pay him some attention.)
It was a tense couple of months as they had tried to sort themselves out as a team and maybe even something more than that. And then one day, Steve had disappeared for a week, and came back with a jumpy former assassin at his side and a light in his eyes that hadn't been there in all the time they'd known him.
Tony knew that it had been his actions then that had been the turning point of the relationships amongst the Avengers. After learning who Bucky was and what had been done to him, it had been his money that paid for the best lawyers, doctors, and psychiatrists to make sure that Bucky would be safe and heal. It had been Tony that had made a new arm for the haunted man, so that he didn't have the pain or the constant fear that the arm would suddenly show a mind of its own and follow Hydra's bidding no matter how he hated it. And then it had been the rest of the team that had worked with Steve and Bucky to take down Hydra around the world, to annihilate it entirely.
And in that time, the whole team grew closer. The painful barbs exchanged between Steve and Tony changed to an easy relationship of bantering like brothers, and this trickled into the rest of the team. Bucky and Clint had been able to bond over their shared experiences of mind control, however different they were to each other, and Natasha spent more time with Steve as their respective best friends went off with each other. In the times when Natasha went on a date with Bruce (finally!), Steve could come to Tony to hang out with him in his workshop or go have a wrestling match with Thor, the only one besides Bucky who might be able to beat him in hand-to-hand.
Over time, it seemed silly to break off into their little groups, and they began coming together in the evenings more often. Movie night became a thing on Saturdays, and on Sundays and Thursdays they had team dinners. On Tuesdays and Saturdays they had team breakfasts.
After Steve had made a comment a few months back about how no one seemed able to cook, they began taking turns cooking the meals for everyone. They discovered that Clint was best at making desserts – his cupcakes were to die for – and Natasha was best at side dishes. Tony could only make breakfast foods without destroying something, and even then it was simple things, like bacon and pancakes or something like a breakfast casserole where all of the ingredients were just dumped into the dish and shoved in the oven.
From then on, the kitchen seemed to be their main place to gather. It was doubtlessly the most homey-feeling place in the entire tower, and it was something that many of them hadn't experienced growing up. In this kitchen that Tony had never cared to renovate to be sleek and modern and new, people with sad pasts were welcomed with open arms and made to feel at home. Here, where they learn how to make Cajun chili and how to work a fancy coffee machine, no one is turned away. There is always some spot of disarray in here – spilled hot sauce never wiped clean or a bowl left in the sink – but it doesn't grate on Tony like it would have a couple of years ago. Music plays quietly from the dock in the corner – rather than loud and blood-pumping like Tony has in the lab when he's working. Old copies of the Times sits in a rack on the side of the fridge, because Steve and Bruce like to thumb through these whenever their hands are idle, even if they've already memorized the contents within.
Sitting on one of the bar stools at the counter, Tony gazed across the room at where Steve and Bucky were making some sort of sauce on the stove to go with the noodles. Bucky was trying to steal bits of it with his finger while Steve stirred it and batted his hand away, and finally after Bucky got some in his mouth, he smirked at Steve and Tony could read his lips across the noisy kitchen, just barely hear the words – "Want a taste?" – before he leaned in close and pecked Steve teasingly on the lips. In their distraction, Clint stole a taste from the pan with a quick swipe of his finger before he darted away, laughing with glee as Steve playfully scolded him and snapped the hand towel in his direction.
Bruce and Natasha sat at the table, having a conversation in Hindi that Tony didn't bother translating – they both looked content enough that he knew it was nothing serious. And then Thor swept in, late as was rather usual, and Clint immediately went to make conversation with him, asking something about the toaster and his quiver of arrows.
Bucky turns then, seeing Tony alone at the counter with a small smile on his face, and with a few words, convinces Tony to come over and learn how to make this sauce for the pasta tonight. Abandoning his drink, Tony goes over, playfully complaining how he'll never be able to make something this complicated, and don't blame him if they all end up with food poisoning.
It is in this kitchen where everyone feels the most content and at peace, where they might make noise loud enough for the street below to hear them or where they sit in companionable silence after a nightmare. It is here that they learn how to say "Pass the salt" in Russian and how to say "I love you" without saying anything at all. It is here, in this unassuming kitchen that smells of wheat bread and Indian spices and melted butter, that they become a team and a family. And all of them, in the depths of their own thoughts, can only consider themselves grateful that they can be counted a part of this.
...
Hope you liked it - thanks for reading!
Also, I used several lines in the prompt, so the credit for any of this that you recognize in my fic - "Here, they learn to make Cajun chili and how to remove barbed arrow tips, how to work the fancy coffee machine and quiet nightmares, how to say 'Pass the salt' in Russian and 'I love you' without saying anything at all; here they become a team, and a family, and someday, in this unassuming kitchen full of music and Indian spices and old copies of the Times, something more - and also Tony builds a waffle iron that looks like Mjolnir, which even Jarvis agrees is pretty cool." - goes to panicandstartariot on AO3