The battle was over. The shawarma was eaten. Nothing to do now but to sit back with a cold one and toast themselves on a job well done. And that's what everybody did.
Everybody except for Tony.
Tony was in his shop. Parts of his suit and been torn to hell and he just couldn't abide by that.
"Save it for tomorrow, Tony." Bruce urged him gently. "Look! Even I have a beer. Me! If I can unwind after today, so can you."
"No can do, Jolly Green. I'll have my own one man party with the suit and a bottle of Talisker."
Bruce slumped his shoulders; he knew when he'd been defeated.
"Alright, Tony, but it won't be the same without you." He turned and went got back into the elevator, "You were right though. This place is Candyland." He smiled, and the doors shut.
Tony tinkered on his own for an hour or two, when he heard the familiar ding of the elevator.
"I already told you, Kermit, I'm not coming up-" he turned. It was Steve.
"It's really some swanky set up you got here." Steve said as he looked around. Tony could tell he was trying to break the ice. Tony thought he's do better with ice, all things considered.
"…Thanks." Tony said, knocking back his sixth scotch.
"…So…what is it you're working on, exactly?" Steve said as he craned his neck to see the leg of the suit Tony was fixing.
"The right knee hydraulics." Tony didn't look up from his tinkering.
"Ah. Right. The hydro-licks." Steve nodded.
"Hy-draul-ics." Tony looked at Steve, and punctuated each syllable with a motion of his hand. "They're what allow me to bend my knee in the suit that I'm apparently not valuable without."
"Oh…about that-"
"Save it, Uncle Sam, I don't have enough scotch in the tower to deal with one of your, 'We all play an important role for the team' speeches."
"I just wanted to apologize. It was wrong for me to say that. I mean, you'd have to be pretty brilliant to come up with the suit in the first place, right?"
"Brilliant, right. Yeah, you knew my dad, right?"
"Briefly…" Steve didn't know where this was going.
"My father, created you. HE was brilliant. What I do, here, with the suit and crap; tinker toys compared to my dad's work. I'm just a kid, playing in his reject scrap pile."
"Tony, that's not true. I had time to do some research when I- when I woke up. I read your story. You did what your dad never could. Yeah, he made me, but I'm just another weapon. You make things so the fighting can stop. You have done things in that suit, that I would have seen hundreds of men die trying to do." Tony snorted. "I mean, I can only think of one thing that Howard Stark made, that is better than that suit."
"Here we go, what is it?" Tony stood and looked Steve in the eye, "Go ahead and rub in whateve-"
"The man that goes in the suit."
Tony fell silent. He gaped like a fish for a few moments, before he turned around and picked up a rag to wipe the hydraulic fluid from his fingers.
"Unbelievable. I've been struck speechless by G.I. Joe. That's new." Tony laughed. So did Steve.

"…Do you need a hug?" Steve said with a boyish grin.
"Screw off, Stars and Stripes." Steve took a step towards him. "I said back off, Rogers." Tony brandished a screwdriver at him. Steve was still coming towards him. "No- no- NO!" Tony took off running. Without the suit he was no match for Steve's enhanced speed.
"Come on, Stark. We've got a victory party to get you to."
Tony fell limp, as Steve carried him to the elevator, thrown over his shoulder.