This is the second installment in a series of pieces I will be writing about what the bad days of various characters look like. They are all independent works and probably don't even exist in the same universe.
Disclaimer: None of the Avengers are mine, nor ever will be, unless I become a comic book writer and get to make a superhero who ends up on the Avengers which would be wicked awesome.
Tony tells them it's in case of mind control.
"Wouldn't want you to feel bad about destroying Harlem again when it wasn't even your fault," he teases. They laugh, even Bruce chuckles.
They believe him. Bruce believes him. Trusts that Tony, Tony who trusts him, would never doubt his control or think he would destroy anything deliberately.
Some days, Tony even believes himself.
But late at night, when everyone else is sleeping, and Tony is alone in the lab, only awake because of too much coffee and too much work, a more genuine truth rises from the depths of his mind.
"I'm afraid," He whispers to JARVIS and the bots and the empty room, "I'm afraid that one day you'll wake up and realize what kind of monster I am."
Because Natasha doesn't like him and Steve doesn't like him and Thor agrees with them and who knows about Clint but he's SHIELD and the only one who trusts Tony is Bruce and one day he's going to wake up a realize what Tony is and Tony is too much of a coward to take the beating he knows he deserves.
So Tony tells them it's in case of mind control and does what he does best - building something to hide behind.
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