((Trigger warning - Abuse))
"I still do not understand why I cannot be the one to pick the movie."
"Thor, we've been over this a thousand times, you pick the same damn movie every time it's your turn!" Clint yelled, exasperated at the Asgardian. You cannot pick any more!"
"We have watched it a maximum of seven times! And the love, joy, and sorrow it evokes are the same with each watching."
"I'm not watching it. I don't like watching you cry."
"I do not cry!"
"You cry every time either Mufasa or Scar dies. Every single time," Clint shot back.
"It reminds me of me and my -"
"I don't fucking care what it reminds you of! No more Lion King!"
"Boys!" Natasha snapped, finally breaking. "Knock it off!" Thor turned away, grumbling, putting Lion King back in its case. He rummaged around a bit more in the drawer, looking for a different movie.
"What..?" Thor pulled out a blank DVD. "What is this one?" He handed to Steve, who looked it over.
"Not sure. No markings on it or anything. Probably just a blank DVD." He looked at Natasha, silently proud of the fact that he knew what a DVD was.
"Put it in!" called out Clint. It's better than watching Goldilocks cry over lions."
"I DO NOT -"
"Shut up!" Natasha yelled again. She put the DVD in the player, and threw herself back onto the couch. "It's not like any harm can come from watching it anyway," she admitted. "It'll give us something to do before Tony gets here. Technically, he's the one who is supposed to be picking tonight." The rest of the Avengers silently agreed and put themselves in their respective positions, Natasha and Clint on the sofa, Steve and Bruce in the armchairs, and Thor cross-legged in front of the TV. The screen flickered to life, and a little boy, no more than four appeared.
"Daddy, Daddy, guess what I have to show you!"
Five Avenger's mouths simultaneously dropped.
"Is…is that Tony?" Bruce stammered out.
"I think so," murmured Clint.
"Look!" The little boy held out a small jumble of wires and various parts for the camera to see. "These are the parts I'm going to use to make a robot, Daddy! A real working one, too!"
Everyone in the room let out a big "Awwwwww!" The screen had a burst of static, and the next clip arrived. It was Tony, just a little bit older, in his room, with his tools and parts surrounding him.
"Don't tape me right now! I'm working!"
"What are you working on?"A voice asked.
"Who is that woman?" Thor voiced the other's confusion.
"I don't know," Bruce admitted. "Probably a nanny."
"What are you working on?" she asked again.
"JARVIS!" little Tony replied impatiently. "I'm working on Jarvis, and he's gonna be able to talk to me, and he's gonna like me, and we're gonna be friends!"
"Why do you need Jarvis?"
"Because I don't have anyone else."
Another static burst, and the next clip was shown. None of the Avengers mentioned the last one.
"Tony?" the presumed nanny called out. "What happened to your face?"
"It was nothing," Tony let out a sad smile at the camera, tilting his head. There was a bruise just under his left eye. "I fell off my bike." The nanny made a sort of a tutting sound, and went to put a bandage on his face, the camera shaking as she did so.
"You boys and your sports."
"Tony's father…" Thor mumbled. "What was the man's name?"
"Howard," Steve chimed in. "I used to know him."
"Was he a good man?" Thor asked.
"Well, I didn't know him well. I think so." Thor bit his lip, and turned back to the screen. Now there was a teenaged Tony, who seemed to be filming himself. As a result, he had to hold the camera with one hand at all times. The camera was very shaky.
"And this," the young Tony Stark clicked a button on his ear piece. "This is Jarvis. Say 'hello' buddy!" A crackly voice was heard and Tony's face lit up at the sound.
"Greetings, Mr. Stark."
"Jarvis is just a prototype now. But soon he'll have his own personality, and me and him, we're gonna rule the world! Isn't that right, big guy?"
"I have full faith in your ambitions, Mr. Stark."
The team smiled. The Jarvis that they knew now had a bit more of an attitude. He wasn't always so agreeable. But then a loud voice was heard from the screen.
"Tony! What the hell are you doing in there?!" The young man's face looked fearful.
"Just working on my experiments," he said softly as the door was pushed open. A man who could only be Howard stepped in view of the camera.
"Look at you. Wasting all your time working on this shit." Tony looked down on the ground and mumbled something under his breath. "What did you say? What did you just fucking say?"
"Nothing," Tony said quietly.
"You don't mumble under your fucking breath at me. Don't you ever."
"Okay." With that, Howard turned to walk away. "There's no need to yell," Tony mumbled under his breath. Howard Stark spun on his heel, smacking Tony across the face with a backhand. The young man lay sprawled on the floor, blood coming out of his nose.
"Don't talk back to me," Howard snarled as he walked out of the room. Tears forming in the young man's eyes, he reached up, and turned off the video camera.
The team sat in silence for a good two minutes. It was only broken when Thor quietly ejected the DVD and put it back where he found it. He sat back down in his spot, and folded his hands on his lap. Natasha eventually spoke up.
"Speak nothing of this," she commanded. "Tony wouldn't want us to know." She whipped her head around as she heard the Tony enter. "Hey," she put on a false smile. "Speak of the devil, I was just talking about you."
"In glowing terms, Miss Romanaoff, I'm sure." Tony smiled cockily. "Why all the long faces? Its movie night!"
"We're bored out of our minds, waiting for his highness to decide to show up so we can start," Clint teased.
"Well, I'm here now, so we can begin!" Tony laughed, as he popped in a DVD. The rest of the team quickly lost their bad moods as the joined in making fun of Tony's pick this time. It was some cheesy shoot-em-up action film as always.
But the team never forgot what they saw, even if they never mentioned it again. And if Natasha noticed that the rest of the Avengers were a bit nicer to Tony since that event, or if she noticed that around Father's day, everyone rallied around him, well….
That's what friends are for, right?
Ah, thank you all for reading. I do hope you all enjoyed. As always, any and all feedback is valued and accepted. Thanks once again!