"Sir. There is a matter of some urgency that needs your attention." It was 2.03am, and Tony had only been asleep for 90 minutes. He rubbed his eyes and rolled over.
"JARVIS?" He growled.
"A 1960's police box seems to have materialised in the living area." Tony sat up.
"What? How did it get there?" He asked.
"I am unsure, sir. It just seems to have materialised." Tony swore.
"This better not be Loki." He muttered, and stumbled down to the communal floor.
"Amy!" A voice that certainly didn't belong to an Avenger called. Tony paused in the doorway. A tall man with floppy hair was scanning one of his favourite original Shakespearian scripts with some sort of electronic device that he didn't recognise. (The fact that he didn't recognise it was itself unusual, although perhaps no more unusual than strangers appearing in his living room.) The piece read:
There comes a storm in a box.
A man innocent but sly as a fox.
The box is old and new.
Borrowed and blue.
And the man likes bow ties and fluffy socks.
The man spun and hollered at the police box, and Tony could see he was wearing suspenders and a bow tie. Right.
"Why is the limerick you wrote on the planet Lear on a piece of 17th Century manuscript?" Tony frowned. A tall, leggy ginger with striking features that Tony presumed was Amy hopped out. She stared at his framed script, and pulled a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket.
"Idiot didn't even get it right." She murmured in a distinctly Scottish accent. "The Oncoming Storm lives in a box. How many times did I tell him?"
"Who?" The man asked. The girl looked sheepish.
"Well I was chatting to Will, and…" Someone else coughed, and an unassuming man stuck his head out.
"Flirting. You were flirting." The girl waved at him irritably.
"Yes, fine, whatever. Anyway, so Will wanted to know if I wrote poetry, so I told him about Lear, and read him my Limerick." The first man sighed and ran his hands through his head.
"Amy, Amy, Amy. What did I say about interfering in our own time streams?"
"I didn't know he was going to steal my limerick!" The girl protested. The second man glanced around, and finally Tony was noticed.
"Um. Guys." He said. Tony smirked as they both answered, mid bicker.
"Not now Rory!"
"No, seriously guys." Rory insisted and the other two glared at him. Tony decided that they'd had enough of that nonsense.
"Hi." He said. Amy jumped, and the first man spun on his heel, a bright smile lighting up his face.
"Why hello there!" The man bounced over and began vigorously shaking his hand.
"I'm the Doctor, and these are my companions, the legs and the nose." Rory rolled his eyes and ambled over, Amy by his side.
"I'm Rory. This is my wife, Amy." Tony nodded. Emphasis on the wife part.
"So. Somebody want to tell me how and why you're in my living room?" The Doctor's grin widened.
"Why, we're looking for Tony Stark of course! And as to how, my faithful TARDIS." He pointed to the blue police box.
"What does TARDIS stand for?" Tony asked. As if he wouldn't recognise an acronym. He was the king of acronyms. The Doctor looked positively delighted.
"Time and Relative Dimension in Space!" Tony filed that away for more research later, along with the fact that the man seemed to think that explained, well, anything.
"Why are you looking for Tony Stark?" He asked, vaguely surprised that they didn't recognise him, although they did sound British. (Or Scottish.)
"He revolutionised technology in the 21st Century, and paved the way for future generations with his green energy program. When he finally miniaturises his arc reactor in an efficient enough manner to power small electronic devices he becomes one of the most influential names in modern history." Tony stared at the Doctor.
"Not to mention his outstanding work as an Avenger. I met him once, several years ago, further on in his timeline. Quite an exciting guy actually. Seen him around?" Rory and Amy were eyeing Tony with suspicion.
"Um, Doctor. You know when you do that thing were you tell someone about something from their future that hasn't happened yet instead of just saying 'spoilers'?" Rory said, and the Doctor peered at him.
"You just did it." The Doctor turned piercing eyes upon Tony.
"Tony!" He crowed, and hugged him. Tony froze.
"Fantastic to meet you again. You were a lot older when we first met. Well, I was younger, you were older."
"Um." Said Tony, still processing 'he becomes one of the most influential names in modern history'.
"Your husband around here anywhere?" The Doctor asked, looking around as if someone was going to pop up from behind a couch, and Tony spluttered.
"What?" He asked, and Rory clapped a hand over the Doctor's mouth while Amy smirked at him.
"Just because you're excited to meet him doesn't mean you can blab about his future." Rory hissed at the Doctor, and removed his hand.
"My husband? I don't have a husband!" Tony said, and the Doctor gave him a weak grin.
"Spoilers?" He offered and Amy snorted.
"Bit late for that." She muttered.
"Tony?" Steve's voice called out, and the Doctor went bug eyed.
"Well, I think that's our cue to go, come along now Ponds." He said in a harried voice before bounding into the TARDIS. Rory followed, then Amy, although she turned and blew him a kiss before shutting the door. Steve walked into the living room.
"Who put that there…" He said, and cut himself off midsentence as the box made a funny noise and started dematerialising.
"Um?" Steve said. Tony turned and patted his wonderful biceps.
"Did I just imagine that?" Tony asked.
"If you're asking about the appearance of the Doctor and his companions, and the inference that they travel through time and space in a blue police box, then no, you didn't imagine that." JARVIS smartly replied.
"What the hell, Tony?" Steve said, and Tony sighed. Why did everyone always think that it was his fault?