Some villains really picked the worst of times to pick a battle with the Avengers. Or rather the Avengers minus Iron Man. They hadn't needed the Iron Patriot in the end and it was just as well as the suit could only travel so far so fast, Rhodey wasn't in the state at the moment due to army business and so neither was the suit. No one else had clearance to use a suit or access the lab where they were kept.
They managed without Iron Man but it didn't feel right, the city suffered some more damage than it might have without the armoured hero as well. They were really feeling the lost of the tin man and annoyingly already the media had too noticed the lack of him, which was really what they needed on top of all of this. 'This' being Tony being out of action, due to having been reverted to a teenager, thanks to a pain in the ass so-called-God who was point-blank refusing to turn Tony back. Instead the man resorted to smirking infuriatingly in his prison at them.
"Loki!" Thor bellowed. "What did you do to my SHIELD-brother!"
Loki merely sneered. "I merely reverted him to the same form as his maturity level is at. I did no harm to your precious SHIELD-brother."Loki spat out the word as if it in itself offended him greatly.
"I'm surprised he's as old as he is." Pepper snorted earning a small agreeing smirk from Loki as if he had thought the exact same thing. Pepper Potts had been in the tower at the time and called on scene as they weren't sure how to treat Tony now and she was the closest thing they had as a guardian to consent for him.
"Why have you done this? What do you have to gain?"
"Do I need a reason?" Loki prompted before sinking back in his cell answering all further questions with merely a leer.
Loki rubbed Clint up the wrong way, not only had the man invaded his head and perverted this thoughts and feelings twisting them until he was willing to kill the people he loved. This wasn't the worst of it, the control had felt so good and he felt like he was peacefully floating throughout all of it. He felt sick with himself and angry with Loki, seeing him smirking (the sick bastard felt no remorse did he?) made him want to put an arrow through his skull and just hope for the best in terms of Tony popping back to normal. "Hey Clint. Psst. Clint." The comms buzzed.
"Hey Tones." Clint responded with a small grin before remembering that Tony was currently a teenager who was supposed to be quarantined and not allowed near any technology. The man had made a revolutionary suit of armour and an arc reactor in a cave with scraps, like hell were they going to trust him with comms technology. Yet somehow some idiot had let him get hold of one and Tony had gotten the secure line of the Avengers and connected straight to him.
"What are you doing right now?" Tony asked with a slow drawl, Clint instantly envisioned Tony sprawled across a bed ready for some girly chat.
"You know... archery." Clint answered releasing the quiver and feeling the impending explosion announcing the fact he had hit his target. "What about you?"
"You know... making stuff. For you, cannot tell you as I want it to be a surprise. Aside from breaking out of the room, LEGOs make shit material for anything you want to glow; I would say I'm behaving." Tony stated and he just knew that the boy was grinning right now. "Well... I would be if they could find me, they haven't even thought of checking the vents yet."
Clint snorted, that's his boy.
"Alright Little Sparrow, me and the vents are friends. I'm assuming you haven't left the floor, on that level I have made a small nest with blankets and all if you wanted more room."
"Little Sparrow to Hawkeye, I found that and that's where I'm working. I thought it belonged to you, has your name written all over it. Literally, there's this massive cushion with Clint wrote across it. I did not think you would mind." Clint chortled as he dived away from another explosion; there were dozens of rather annoying minions scurrying around for him to pick off. If there wasn't this would have been cleaned up a lot earlier, the villain wasn't the best but he had so many annoying devices to pick off.
"Hawkeye to Little Sparrow, I promise not to leak your location to Black Widow or Captain America. Both of which would tell on you faster than I can shoot this robot in its pitiable brain to kill it, which is pretty darn quick." Clint grinned.
"Do you have one in sight?" Tony asked interestedly, Clint raised a brow wondering what the boy genius had in mind.
"Yup."
"Could you grab one without dying?"
Challenge accepted. "Hawkeye is pretty darn hard to kill." Clint stated with a smirk, the other Avengers may have protested once they caught wind of his intentions but they had his hands full.
The little machine tried its best to escape his grasp but was failing.
"Now rip off the top of its skull."
"What?" Clint murmured, that sentence settled uneasily in his stomach, ripping off the top of a skull just sounded way too gory to feel acceptable to hear from Tony's lips.
"Just do it. It's a machine, it cannot feel pain unless you programme it to or introduced measures that will allow the machine to adapt and learn to develop emotions and pain sensors..." Tony's voice trailed off there, Clint had no doubt that his mind was whirring with possibilities but he wasn't really sure he wanted to see the coffee machine develop emotions which was one option he considered Tony having thought of. Being ever the good agent he ripped the top of its head off.
"Stick the comms in." Tony ordered, Clint made a sceptic noise and he practically heard Tony's eye roll.
"How is that supposed to work?" Clint hissed out, his voice was strained thanks to the struggling bot which had dragged him off his feet a good few times by now.
"I've decided to talk it to death." Tony responded sarcastically to which Clint managed out wheezes of laughter. Seriously, this kid. But even if he was a teenager, he was still a genius so if Tony sounded so sure of himself then who was he to doubt him.
"It's all a hive mind, sloppy programming. All I have to do is take out the Queen. Damn I've made better AIs when I was eight. But if you ask me again in an interrogation I would announce no such thing and that I have never once attempted sentient AI let alone made any AIs at the age of eight or any other age for that matter." It seemed like Tony had always babbled. Even without the comms right in his ear he could make out the buzz of Tony's words, it was difficult to make them out but he could feel the vibrations through the drone that he was clinging onto.
"Back the fuck away Clint, this shit is about to blow. RUN!" They were all the words he needed to throw himself away from the drone and just dive off the building, he knew Thor was there to catch him if needs be. Which Thor did just as the drone decided to do just as Tony had so elegantly supplied. It blew.
Clint looked in morbid fascination as the drone screeched and died, as did all the rest. All in pretty little explosions, that would have very possibly killed him if he had been in the blast. Damn. Maybe they had needed Iron Man more than they had thought if all of them could have easily been taken out like that.
He wished that it didn't have to be his comms though as the world had become a whole lot duller and generated more buzz than lucid sound, he had never had the best of hearing. The rest of the team where approaching him now that the annoying little bots were taken care of. No doubt ready with their questions. He pointed to his ears and signed to Natasha the basics of how he had a little tech help.
...
They came back to the tower in panic, well the SHIELD agents were panicking as they had lost the resident genius, Jarvis indicated that his liege was not in harm's way and was as calm as an AI could ever be concerning the lack of Tony apparently anywhere. The Avengers perked up at the news in some state of alarm, all aside from Clint who merely smiled. Natasha raised a brow at the archer and that was all she needed to get her message across and understand that the disappearance of one genius and the mysterious tech support was definitely linked.
Before any of the Avengers could get worked up over Tony's disappearance it was quickly solved by JARVIS announcing to them that Tony was in the very same room he had been left in. Clint shouldn't have found it as amusing as it was to see all the SHIELD agents shitting themselves whilst Tony sat in the room, having acquired a throne and a crown of all things, pretending as if he had never left. He also had a sneaking suspicion that JARVIS had known where the young genius had been all along but opted merely not to inform the SHIELD agents. JARVIS may have followed their instructions not to announce himself to Tony but it obvious where the AI's loyalties lay. There was also a small itch that made him think that maybe the AI was just as amused as he was, he pushed that out of his mind because although Tiny Tony mentioned sentient AIs surely JARVIS was not that sentient.
"I have been here all along. Had any of you ever bothered to look in the room?" Tony scoffed from upon his throne looking down at the poor SHIELD agent who had been tasked in questioning the boy. The boy admittedly looked very regal looking down at the agent with his dark brown eyes and the crown upon his head, but the overall effect was ruined by Tony's dangling feet. Especially the way Tony swung them back and forth. "Call yourself agents, losing a boy in a room which he never left in the first place. Looking everywhere but the room he never left. Pretty pathetic, remind me not to play hide and seek with any of you, I would like to be found at some point."
"Explosions? I don't recall such a thing ever happening, I was just sat here consuming oxygen." He should really feel more sympathy for the agent but amusement was definitely winning out.
"Where?" Clint had to ask as he entered the room as he gestured towards the throne.
"Clint!" Tony perked up and began to blatantly ignore the agent in terms of focusing his entire attention upon the team.
"Eager to see me much, little Sparrow?" Clint smirked, Tony rolled his eyes.
"Took you long enough, I was bored." Tony grinned dismissing the agent with a wave of his hand. Natasha sent the agent a small nod announcing that she'll deal with the boy; the agent practically gave a sigh of relief as he left.
"We had a glorious battle." Thor informed the boy to explain their absence.
"Oh. Tell me more." Tony said as he shifted in his seat. Thor found himself frowning; it was disconcerting seeing Tony sat upon the throne the way he was. His leg splayed over the arm of the chair whilst his chin rested upon his knuckles. It brought up memories of his brother; it was the way Tony sat. Thor found that it uncannily resembled how his brother sat on a throne. That they sat the same did not quite resonate well with him. Perhaps he was reading far too much into this but the arrogance was the same right down to the little smug grin. He had to wonder whether it was just a common theme with smug arrogant little shits.
Tony gave a large sigh when nobody cared to bother to explain more. "Very well then peasants, do not expand upon this glorious battle." Odin's beard, now they were speaking the same way. He reassured himself that Loki was still in his cell and so had not replaced or possessed their friend.
"Hey, little Sparrow, scoot up and let Daddy sit on the throne too."
"You're not my dad." Tony stated accompanied with an eye-roll. "Well, are you the acting regent then, ruling until I learn to stop breaking my toys?" Tony smirked.
"Nah, doubt you'll ever stop doing that. I'm here for the perks of being King Dad, heard there's good food." Tony's smirk turned into a blinding grin and he scooted up for Clint. There was enough room as teen Tony was tiny (at compared to his adult self) seeing how he hadn't bulked up yet in muscle instead the boy was mostly short stature, pointy knees and sharp elbows.
"Made you something, King Dad." Tony stated bumping shoulders lightly with Clint.
"Oh?"
"Friendship bracelets!" Tony declared joyously. "One for me, one for you, one for Bruce, one for Thor."
Tony paused before biting his lip looking at Steve and Natasha sheepishly. "Sorry but there wasn't enough material for everyone, I may have gotten overzealous with making Bruce's really expandable so when things got a little hairy it grew with him. Surprisingly hard to do when in a tight space, risk of explosions and all that, and on the run from suits. Hey, I could probably make something in a cave with scraps."
Natasha couldn't quite control her facial expression, her brow twitched slightly, at the end statement as he would have to. It didn't sit well knowing that this teenager would have grown up to be water-boarded in cave and made to make a mini-arc reactor just to keep shrapnel out of his heart so he could escape without dying.
Steve's face twitched for a different reason, he felt strangely hurt despite knowing the reason that he didn't get a friendship bracelet.
"Yours is purple... well they all are. Purple is the only colour I could find. But they can glow whatever colour you want." Tony rambled on before waving said bracelets around.
"I shall wear this bracelet of friendship with great pride. A noble gift from a noble warrior." Thor declared he felt a little more at ease as Loki would never offer such a gift, let alone to him. He had to wonder whether that was where the difference lay in them.
Bruce was looking at his with an intrigued smile. "How far does this stretch?"
Tony smirked a little. "I didn't know how big the other guy was so... about the size of Thor and Captain Rogers if they were to form a ring-around-the-rosies chain, probably more"
"It's perfect."
"Clint?" Tony asked turning eager eyes at Clint for some reaction. When he didn't get one he almost visibly shrunk in Clint's silence, finally Clint spoke.
"Purple's my favourite colour." Clint murmured with one of the biggest shit-eating grins anyone had ever seen him pull.
"It can also explode stuff?" Tony prompted.
"How much time did you have?" Steve murmured in disbelief, they hadn't been in the battle long enough for Tony to manage this, surely.
"Enough. You'll be surprised by what I can manage all on my lonesome."
...
"Hey Natasha, look. Natalie, Natalia, Natasha. Black Widow. Look."
"Yes Clint, I get it. It's the best bracelets of all bracelets." Natasha murmured rolling her eyes, as if she could do anything but see the bright purple bracelet that was waved in front of her face.
"Feel kind of bad for Steve though. He's trying." Clint hummed leaning back against the settee eying up said super soldier who was currently looking at tiny Tony with that same hurt expression that seemed to be permanently stuck upon his face ever since he noticed that this Tony had a blatant dislike for him.
The way Steve looked at everyone else's bracelets longingly before looking at his own empty wrist, was he trying to guilt trip everyone into giving up their bracelets? Or for Tony to make one for him too?
"And me? I didn't receive a bracelet either." Natasha prompted, Clint scoffed Natasha wasn't bothered by something so trifle as not receiving a bracelet from an adolescent bracelet.
"You're a girl. Girls don't wear purple bracelets." Clint replied with as much sympathy that Natasha deserved. Natasha gave a soft tsk of amusement.
"Just as well, Tony Stark made them. If he could make a single band expand as much as it had, explode things and channel electricity through it without harming the bracelet who knows what else he could sneak in?"
"Are you implying that Tony is going to kill us with purple friendship bracelets? That's a really lame way to die; I don't want that on the report you'll send to Fury. If Tony was going to kill us, which I doubt as he would have just blown my head off when he had the chance, he would give us more dignity than that." Clint answered lightly nudging Natasha with his foot.
"Besides I'm King Dad, he wouldn't commit patricide."
"You do know you're not really his father."
"Don't say such hurtful things!"
"Whatever helps you to sleep at night."
...
It was a good idea, Tony mused, returning to his prison cell. They may have called it otherwise but that was what it was, they may pretend that he was no prisoner but they both knew otherwise. He was fairly sure being trapped in a confined location without wanting to be there was considered a prison, that or a classroom. That was why he had acquired the crown and throne, if he was going to be a prisoner then he was going to do so at his own comfort and leisure.
After not escaping or destroying anything aside from avoiding all the agents that swarmed around the building, the others seemed to develop more of a trust in him and he was given practically free reign and he wasn't followed constantly. He was still under surveillance but they were smart enough (or stupid enough) not to keep him locked up.
Part of him had to wonder whether the reason he had not escaped all ready was because he didn't have anywhere he wanted to return to. He liked MIT enough but he didn't really belong, Rhodey was awesome and he loved having a workspace where his father wasn't criticising everything. It wasn't home though. There was also the Stark Manor and he hated the place. It was large and lonely and there was his father.
In both he was always expected to be the boy genius, live up to the Stark family name but always a disappointment.
This tower however, with these people who acted like they wanted him for him. Not once had they really expected much from him. It felt like how a home should do. He also felt stupid for it, he blamed Clint and his affections mostly. Clint calling himself his Dad was nice, Howard acted as if he was ashamed to be related to him but for Clint to act as if he wanted to be...
Even if the archer was only joking. It was nice.
He wanted it.
He was pathetic.
...
"Brother, I implore you to return my shield-brother to his usual state." Thor had tried demanding, he would attempt some form of asking. The similarities he threw between Anthony and Loki had shaken him more than it should have.
"You throw the word brother around so carelessly, Thor no-brother-of-mine." Loki responded from his lounged position on the floor where he lazily threw grapes at the walls, Thor's brows furrowed seeing as he had worked hard for Loki to receive any food from SHIELD considering their (perhaps understandable) hatred of the man, yet Loki merely toyed with and threw his efforts.
"There is no reason for him to remain this way! What do you have to gain?"
"Perhaps I do not wish to. That is all the reason I need." Loki replied with a sneer.
...
He was awake. They had shown him a room in which he was to sleep in. It was a beautiful room that was just his style, the bed was comfy, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with either room or bed. But he was awake. He could not sleep.
Was he supposed to sleep? He felt like he should be sleeping, that he was expected to sleep; most of the superhero team were probably fast asleep. Worn from the battle they had. Sure he had an exhausting day from the rollercoaster of emotions, from crawling through vents, so on and so forth. But he could not sleep.
He breathed too loudly, how was he supposed to sleep when he was breathing so loudly? Now that he focused on his breathing he had forgotten how to breathe instinctively and he felt the need to remind himself in and out. How was he supposed to sleep when he needed to breathe?
It was dark, he couldn't see. He hated not being able to see, he wish he had some sort of night-light to see what was lying in the dark corners of the room. There could be hostiles waiting for him to sleep so that they could inject him with a serum or something. What if he awoke in another strange place?
He was alone, he had grown used to sharing a dorm with Rhodey. Where was Rhodey? He needed Rhodey, to hear the other's soft breathing lull him into drowsiness as he matched his own breathing to Rhodey's.
The comfort that Rhodey was there, that was gone. He couldn't sleep alone. He was out of the bed then. Bruce's room was closest if he remembered correctly; he vaguely figured that perhaps he shouldn't startle Bruce awake considering how the man could turn big, green and ugly really fast. He decided that he would risk it as even a sad teddy bear could help people sleep, right?
He was going to do this before he talked himself out of it as it was... well he didn't know what time it was but it was late or early depending on who you asked. He just wanted to sleep, he liked sleep, sleep was his friend. Right at this second however it was being a really shitty friend and not answering his calls.
Bruce was close and Bruce felt safe, Bruce was the best person to visit for some impulsive request for a sleepover. He tentatively knocked on Bruce's door; there was shuffling and the door swung open to reveal Bruce in his pyjamas. It seemed someone else was having trouble sleeping.
"Hey." Tony smiled, Bruce's brows arched up a little at the sight of him.
"Hey."
"Couldn't sleep?" Tony prompted.
"Neither could you from what I can tell." Bruce responded.
"Well you know, the usual, monster under the bed. Would say nightmare but that would mean actually getting to sleep in the first place."
"If you're so afraid of monsters under the bed why visit a real one?" Now that just made him sad, he had gotten hints of Bruce thinking badly of himself but to actively call himself a monster.
"Seriously Bruce? Why do you have to be so self-deprecating all the time? I've met plenty of people who are more monsters than you and they don't have a little green problem bundled inside them either." How on earth was he supposed to make the guy understand that he wasn't a monster? He hardly knew the guy enough to judge but he felt like he did. He had met monsters scarier than Bruce as those were the ones who hid in plain sight, the ones which pretended not to be the monsters they were. The ones who would take advantage of others without remorse. Bruce did not pretend and he felt guilt. The true monsters were those that did not realise that they were, or did but didn't care.
"You haven't met the other guy."
"But I've met you." Bruce took one look at the earnest, tired face and found that he wanted to believe him. He had gotten into plenty of similar arguments with the adult Tony. The adult Tony wasn't quite as open as the teenage one and considerably more broken, some of the times it felt like the adult Tony was trying to convince himself just as much as he was Bruce that they weren't both monsters.
Hearing the same from the considerably more innocent teenage version of him however. It meant a lot.
"Okay, whatever, call yourself a monster. Maybe I need a big green one to scare away the one under the bed. Sleep with me?"
"Tony." He was admittedly a little panicky as he was pretty sure the teenager meant platonically but he wasn't one-hundred per cent sure, what about if he turned and crushed the kid? He did not know how he could cope with being the one who killed Tony Stark.
"Brucie. I cannot sleep by myself alright? You're not sleeping. So I figured we either both not-sleep together or actually manage sleeping. It'll be like a sleepover." Impromptu seemed to be Tony's thing no matter the age.
Perhaps he'll regret this in the morning after accidentally crushing the lad but Tony's unwavering faith despite the changing ages, perhaps he could bring himself to place a little faith himself.
"Very well, my bed's open." He could have sworn that Tony could have broken a Guinness World Record with the smile he just given.