Tony wiped the sweat from his face as he looked around at the ruin that was what was left of one of the busiest streets in New York City. It was now filled with rubble and a few injured, that were quickly being ushered away from the sparking remains of the Doom-bots that had been attacking minutes earlier. Idly, he watched as Steve shoved a large bit of rubble off of him and struggled to get back on his feet. Leaning down, Tony reached out and helped steady the man, earning a warm smile and a quick, "Thanks."
Looking around, Tony spotted Clint and Natasha checking each other over for injuries as inconspicuously as they could, Bruce slowly losing the dark green coloring of the Hulk that made him look like he was about to vomit as he shrunk down, and Thor walking around the area with a big smile as he kicked at the machines they had destroyed.
Rolling his eyes, Tony followed Cap towards the others. "Everyone alright?" Steve asked, checking everyone over carefully. Everyone nodded and Cap grinned, looking at the giant mess left behind. "I guess we'll help clean up a bit. At least clear the road, for now."
Everyone groaned but nodded, following the Captain's lead as they started shoving rubble out of the way. Tony had Jarvis call up some people to transport the bots back to the Tower for him, before he went back to helping with the clean up.
Another two hours later, the road was clear enough for Cap's conscience to allow them all to leave. Tony dithered, not really wanting to get back home for once. Everyone noticed how off Tony seemed, and it fell to Steve to corner him and get the story.
"Tony, what's wrong? You seem a bit jumpy." Steve studied the dark haired man closely before reaching out and setting a heavy hand on his shoulder. "C'mon Tony, what's up?"
Tony seemed to weight his options before finally giving in. With a huge sigh, Tony grumbled, "My father." Though that was extremely vague, Steve knew that Tony and Howard had had a rough time together. A hand ran down his face as he tried to get the words out. "There were some weird readings, and SHIELD came to me to get my thoughts on them, but they found someone there. It was my father," he grumbled, his face twitching in irritation.
"Oh," Steve said eloquently, blinking owlishly at Tony in surprise. "Um," he tried again, words failing him all of a sudden. Tony smiled grimly, totally understanding his speechlessness.
"He's back at the Tower right now, with Pepper. Probably watched the news with her. God, Steve. I kind of just jumped into bringing him home with me. I mean, he was freaking out on the agents and confused and I could understand, I mean I would have freaked out if that had happened to me, too, but I just..., I mean, he's my father! What am I supposed to do?!" He spoke in one long sentence, barely stopping to breathe, and then his eyes grew wide as he tried to reign in the oncoming panic attack.
"Tony! Tony, it's alright. How about this, we'll all come back to the Tower with you. Kind of diffuse the tension, yeah?" Inwardly, Steve was growing nervous himself. He had resigned himself to the fact that he would never see Howard again. But now that he was going to be coming face to face with his old friend again, he wasn't quite sure how to feel. He was nervous, and angry, and happy, and so many other things that he couldn't even name. But he had to help Tony out.
Tony looked up, catching his breath and smiling gratefully. "Yeah. Yeah, that'll help. He'll be so busy with all of you, he won't even notice me. Yeah, that'll work. Thanks, Cap." He clapped Steve on the shoulder and then started to move past him to the other curious Avengers.
"You know you can't run from him forever, right? Eventually you'll have to have an actual conversation with your old man." Tony froze mid-step, but then turned a cocky grin on the man over his shoulder.
"I am Tony Stark, and I am brilliant at avoiding things. You just watch." His smile faltered for a moment as he turned back to the others, but then he was oozing charm once more. Steve shook his head in exasperation as he followed the man.
"Alright, everyone. Who wants to meet my old man? He's back at the Tower right now after a freak trip through time, and I really don't want to deal with any of that right now. Now, who's coming?" he asked jovially, continuing to walk as if assuming everyone would just follow after him.
The others turned to eachother, raising eyebrows and grinning like loons, before they turned and followed Tony back to the Tower.
"Pepper!" Tony shouted the moment his foot crossed the threshold. She rushed out from the living room and smiled, wrapping her arms around him. "Alright, I'm alright. Everyone's alright, Pep."
She smiled and then tapped his chestplate, before looking behind him at the others. "Ah! You brought everyone!" she said, grinning. Quietly, she whispered, "Moral support, huh?" Tony blushed but nodded, looking over his shoulder at Steve, who was watching their interaction with a lopsided grin.
"Um, do you mind introducing everyone while I get the suit off? It'll only take a minute, promise." He turned his big puppy dog eyes on to Pepper, and the woman had no defense.
"Oh, alright. Just hurry up. No distractions!" she warned, waving a stern finger in his face before shoving him toward the elevator. The suit would need some work done after that fight, so he would take it off in the lab. As the doors slid closed, he heard Pepper's falsely cheery voice ushering everyone into the kitchen, with promises of warm food and fine alcohol.
He stumbled into the lab in a jittery daze, letting Jarvis deal with getting the suit off of him as he stood in the middle of the room, just thinking. He still wasn't quite sure how he should feel about the man upstairs, but he knew Pepper always stayed true to his word, and distractions would not be tolerated.
He sighed as the final piece of red metal was detached and made his way back to the elevator. The entire way back up to the penthouse, he was giving himself a half-hearted pep talk. He would have people to back him up tonight. Pepper and Steve would diffuse the tension nicely; Pepper, because she was just simply good at that, and Steve because he and Howard had so much to catch up on. They had been friends during the war.
With one final deep breath, Tony left the safety of the elevator and followed the sounds of talking back into the kitchen. The table and counters were covered with food and drinks, though Barton had decided to perch on the edge of the counter instead of sitting at the table like a normal person. Romanoff stood just to his left, leaning against the counter and staring at Howard as if she could see right through him, which she probably could. She was most likely standing there picking him apart piece by piece. Pepper was standing near the doorway, hovering with a worried look on her face while she waited for him to reappear.
"Hey, Pep," he said quietly, coming up beside her and wrapping her up in a hug as he took in the rest of the scene. Howard was thankfully distracted by Steve, who was trying to catch his old friend up as quickly as he could. Bruce sat on the other side of the man, a tired smile on his face as he watched the enthusiastic conversation going on in front of him. He caught Tony's eye as he entered and his smile became just a bit less sad, but no less understanding.
Tony nodded back at Bruce, grinned at the Hawk and Widow, then reluctantly disentangled himself from Pepper and took his own seat at the table, beside the sprawled out Thor, who was gulping down a large lager, seeming to only be half paying attention to the conversation. Howard's attention was immediately wretched from Steve to look over his new son properly.
"You alright there, Tony?" he asked, his eyes flicking from his eyes down to his glowing chest. Tony bristled; he hated being reminded that the thing was stuck in his chest and just why it was there in the first place.
"Fine," he snapped, earning a confused look from his father, before the man gave him one more long look.
"That was quite the tumble, back there. The television showed the whole thing! That suit of yours must have taken years to make. Do you mind if I take a look at it sometime? Maybe when you show me your lab so we can get cracking at those energy readings from my arrival?" Howard fired one sentence after another at his son, who was getting incresingly paler as the man continued. Steve, sensing the unease pouring off of Tony, tried to change the subject, but Thor beat him to it.
"So, father of the Man of Iron, how did this come to be? You showing up here, now, in your future? How did you best time?" Thor boomed, entering the conversation for the first time that night. It was a question everyone was wondering; even Tony, who hadn't had time to read through the debriefing SHIELD had sent him.
Howard still seemed shocked to be talking with a Norse god, but he tried to answer the question quickly. His face turned intense as he tried to remember clearly. "I was with Peggy at the new SSR base we had just set up. We were going over some papers, and all of a sudden, there was this great white light. I don't know what happened to her, but when I woke up, I was in a pitch dark room. I found out later it was the same room in that SSR facility, but just the wrong time. I tried to get the electricity on, but it wasn't working. As soon as I gave up on that, a team of ten or so people rushed in with torches and guns and had me taken into custody within seconds. They were trying to tell me that I was still where I was supposed to be, when I obviously wasn't."
Despite himself, Tony was hanging on every word the man said. This was a good start to figuring out what had happened in that old facility. And the reminder that the man had been on his own and confused made him relax minutely, remembering just why he had agreed to bring the man home with him. If he could just approach his father as someone who needed his help, and not as the man he had grown up with, they all might just get through this without any serious bloodshed.
The room went silent after his description, as everyone tried to recall if they had ever heard of anything like that happening before. "Well, that has got to be the weirdest thing I've heard in a while," Barton mumbled into his beer, sharing a look with Romanoff before they both started snorting laughs into their brews. Steve rolled his eyes and leaned back comfortably in his chair, while Bruce grinned at Tony, both excited to start unraveling anything to do with science. Thor just smiled, glad that his interjection into the conversation had relieved the tension.
The group passed the next few hours in conversation, Steve trying to keep Howard busy while Tony and Bruce brought a tablet out from somewhere and went over the energy readings from Howard's arrival, bickering back and forth. Pepper and Romanoff watched the scene and traded amused looks throughout the night, Barton and Thor huddled in another corner of the table trading battle stories.
When it got quite late, the team started to disperse, and Tony slowly began panicking again. Barton and Romanoff were the first to leave, giving the excuse that they had work in the morning, which was technically true but really, alcohol never really seemed to affect either of them. After they left, Thor stood as well. He was set to head back to Asgard for a few days, and he disappeared from view quite quickly after flying out the window. Howard blanched as he realized how high up they were when the man simply waved goodbye and jumped out the window, no one else even batting an eye at his departure. Steve and Bruce were both staying at the Tower for now, but they left soon after for the own rooms.
Pepper gave one look at the two men left in the room and sighed. "I'll go get a room ready for you, Howard. You have to be exhausted by now." Her worried eyes roved over Tony momentarily, before she turned and left the room. Tony stood near the door, staring at the floor. Across the table, Howard stood, staring at his son. A nagging feeling in his stomach was telling him that perhaps he hadn't been a very good father, and vowed to find out as much as he could tomorrow.
"Tony, I...," he started, but the second he opened his mouth, Tony's head jerked up and he started at Howard with such an intensity that it almost knocked Howard off of his feet. When he had recovered, he raised his eyebrows and asked timidly, "Tony? Are you alright?"
Tony continued to stare at Howard, until they could both hear Pepper heading back towards the kitchen. Tony let out a long breath through his teeth, took one last look up and down his father, and then turned and left the room, shaking his head and grumbling under his breath.
Howard watched his son leave in confusion. He had no clue why the man was so hot and cold with him all the time, but there really wasn't much he could do about it. He would be gone soon, and none of this would matter anymore, except maybe as a warning on what not to do in his future. Shifting uncomfortably, Howard just couldn't accept that his son couldn't stand to be alone in the same room with him for too long. As Pepper arrived to usher him to his new room, Howard remained silent, staring moodily at the floor.
Maybe he could fix this, before he was sent back?