It takes a few days for Tony to collect all the Team Avenger name badges, but eventually his baseball card collection is complete. The cards arrive, courtesy of Steve, who has them all in a large manilla envelope.
"Tony. Please don't do this. We're your friends," Steve tries offering out the badges. "I just want to put all this behind us. Tell me how we do that, and keep the team safe?"
"I don't know, Mr. Rodgers, you tell me," Tony quips, taking the envelope and checking inside to see what the contents are. "Oh, my favorite," he says, before opening his desk drawer and dropping the envelope inside. It's just him and Steve right now, Steve having found him in his office actually working instead of playing house with his husband. Which means Peter is either in the R&D department working, or out being Spider Man.
Steve drops into one of the chairs that are in front of Tony's desk and crosses his left ankle over his knee. "You know, that first day you and Peter came to the compound, I had every intention of giving you a piece of my mind," he says, stroking his jaw thoughtfully. "I'm not proud of it now, but at the time I thought you were taking advantage of him, and it made me mad, but it also scared the hell out of me, wondering what was going on in your head. Then, it was obvious that you weren't taking advantage of him, but I was still scared for you. Because you never put less than 200% into what you care about, and I worried maybe you'd put that focus into Peter and if something happened to him, you wouldn't recover. And if something happened to him on your watch, it would be even worse. I never wanted Spider Man to be on your watch, Tony." His voice is heavy as he shakes his head. "I don't know. Maybe I did everything wrong. Maybe I'm completely, totally in the wrong, but I'm still scared for you."
There's something arrogant about the way Tony sits in his office chair, even more so than when he was older. He stares into Steve's eyes as he lets the man say his piece, keeping his expression mostly just to it's usual resting cockiness, until Steve mentions something happening to Peter. Then a shadow of fear moves across his eyes, leaving him unsettled, briefly, until he pushes it away.
"Steve…" Tony begins, before leaning forward in his chair, and propping his elbows on his desk. He folds his hands as if he's about to pray, tapping the sides of his fingers to his lips as he watches the other man. "Tell me something," he continues, lacing his fingers, and resting his chin on the joined hands. "Do you put this much concern into everyone else with their love lives? Because if you do, I haven't seen it. At least, I haven't seen you and Nat try to split the team apart for the sake of dealing with a problem that I seem to present to you by being with Peter."
"I never really had to think about it before the two of you," Steve says plainly. He'd seen that shadow of fear, and he knows he's not wrong, but that doesn't make him right, either. "I never wondered with, say, Wanda and Viz that they wouldn't do whatever it takes for the greater good, and the other stuff you pointed out to Nat... Well, that wasn't really emotional. This, though... I think if it came down to saving the world or saving Peter, you'd choose Peter. Every time. And that's why I wanted to separate you onto different teams."
"Well, you're not wrong," Tony tells him honestly. "Fuck this planet if there's no Peter in it." Maybe Tony is a bit like his father, in that the greater good rarely outweighs his own self interests. Just… Much of the time, the greater good has been in Tony Stark's self interests. Until it tried to come between him and Peter.
"That's what I was afraid of," Steve says grimly, standing and offering out his hand. "I hope it never comes down to that decision, Tony. I truly do. And, I wish you both all the best, whatever you decide to do." There's not much left to say, after that. Tony's already quit the team, and now he's given Steve a reason not to try and get him back. "Don't be a stranger. We're still friends, even if we don't fight for the same team."
Tony rises from his chair, and rounds his desk, taking that offered hand and shaking it. "Thanks for coming by, Steve," Tony says, being, well, polite. Some small part of him still remembers his manners. Steve's trying really hard here to just be a good guy, and Tony can appreciate that. Enough to not tell him to go fuck himself, the judgemental fucking prick.
Steve breathes a small sigh of relief, when Tony doesn't tell him to have the Avengers out of the Compound by the end of the week, but his heart is still heavy when he moves for the door and heads to the elevator. Tony has a view of him through the glass wall of his office, as he bumps into Peter climbing off the elevator. He places a hand on the young man's shoulder and says something to him before entering the car and pressing the button for the doors to close. Peter looks after him for a moment, then turns back to come into Tony's office. "Hey, Mr. Stark," he says, his tone subdued.
Tony hasn't quite made it back to his seat yet, and now he has reason to step away from his desk entirely, cupping Peter's face. "Tell me what's wrong. Did American Spandex say something mean? Because it's not too late for me to go after him and kick his ass," Tony murmurs, thumb smoothing at Peter's cheek as he stares into his husband's eyes.
"No. He wasn't mean or anything," Peter says, smiling a little as he stares back into Tony's eyes. "I was thinking maybe I'd get you out of the office for lunch. I have hot dogs in the penthouse I can cook. Or we can go somewhere. I got paid today, so my treat. As long as we go somewhere that a level 1 engineer can afford."
"Do you want to be CEO of this company? Because if you keep reminding me that you're only a level 1 engineer, I'm going to go full nepotism on your ass," Tony warns him. Pepper Potts probably wouldn't like her job being taken by Peter, but then again, sleeping with Tony Stark is how she went from personal assistant to CEO of a mega corporation. Not that she isn't good at the job. Okay, stop internally monologuing in dick-ese, Tony.
"Let's go some- Wait. No. Let's have those hot dogs," Tony decides suddenly, because of course he's up to no good. His hands drift away from Peter's face. "You gonna tell me what Steve said to you to make you sad?"
"I'm not sad, Mr. Stark. Promise," Peter rushes to assure him, turning so that both men are facing the door, with his arm wrapped around Tony's waist. "I gotta say, I didn't expect you to want hotdogs, but I make 'em really good. I boil them in the flavor packet that comes with ramen noodles. You've got ramen, right, Mr Stark?"
"Going to be honest with you, kid. I'm not even sure how I got hot dogs in my fridge," Tony tells him, heading for the door and opening it for them. "What's ramen?" Maybe he's joking, but he sounds sincere enough. He ushers Peter along, and presses the button for the elevator. "And I'm not missing the part where you sidestepped my question again."
"You caught that, huh?" Peter says, ruffling his own hair, embarrassed. "I thought I did a better job than that."
"Wow. Sidestep number three. Someone wants the belt," Tony says as they step into the elevator.
Peter's face flushes with that statement, and he's really glad they're alone in the elevator. "You want to give me the belt, Mr. Stark? That's gonna make it real hard to cook hot dogs."
"Four. This is getting impressive," Tony says, scanning his card so the elevator will take them to the penthouse level. "I guess I could drop the whole What Did Steve Say thing, but then you wouldn't be racking up new and fun things for me to try all in the name of punishing you. And by punishing you, I mean making your dick hard, and mine possibly harder."
"Just something about how you'd choose me, if it came down to it, so I shouldn't let you make the choice," Peter says, shrugging. "It didn't really make sense. I think that he's getting dementia."
"I said I'd choose you over the world, in one of those typical fucking Steve scenarios where it's you or the entire planet. I can see it now. Thanos is back. He's going to run away with you, or destroy the planet. Tony, which are you going to let happen?" Tony snorts after saying the words dramatically. "Incidentally, I bet Thanos had a huge fucking di- Pepper?"
"Hi." Pepper says as the elevator doors open, standing with something for him to probably sign. "I didn't think you'd actually be in your office, so I checked for you here, first." She looks from him to Peter, then back again. They look like twins now. How sweet.
"Hey, Pepper. I was just about to cook hot dogs in ramen juice. You want one?" Peter asks, stepping away from the pair and into the kitchen, where he starts rummaging around. "Crap," he calls back to them. "There's no ramen, so I guess we'll just have plain hot dogs. Everybody still want one?"
"Pepper, what's ramen?" Tony asks her, evidently not joking about the whole… not knowing what ramen is. He gives her a smile, and plucks the tablet from her hands and looks it over. "Ha! I'm not signing this." He hands it back.
"God damn it, Tony," Pepper snarls, losing her cool for a moment there, and stalking after him as he heads into the kitchen.
"Plain hot dogs are still good for me, what about you, Pepper?" Tony asks her conversationally, since Pepper doesn't seem to believe in talking to Peter directly.
"No, Tony. I don't want a hot dog. I want you to sign the papers, so I can let those patents we're never going to use go and actually make the company some money off them," she tells him, getting her voice back under control.
"That useless patent is my favorite patent. I was going to use it next week," Tony tells her cheerfully, heading for the bar next. He pours himself a measure of bourbon, then has a sip, watching Pepper over the rim of his glass.
"No, you weren't. You're working on the Emperium merger next week," Pepper bites out the words as he watches her calmly over his drink. "Also, are you really drinking at noon, now? I thought those days were behind you."
"I'm noticing the drinking directly corresponds to you bitching at me. You're back to doing that, and now I'm back to drinking," Tony quips, having another swallow of bourbon. "We could both try cutting back, if you want, but that doesn't seem likely."
"I've had another job offer." Pepper says quietly, letting her hands fall to her sides. She's not speaking in anger now, her voice is calm and collected. "Should I take it, Tony? Is that what you want?"
"Is this another one of those Chase Me, Tony, tests?" Tony asks, finishing his glass of bourbon, and taking the glass to the kitchen to rinse it out. He glances at the casually cowering Peter making the hot dogs in silence. The kid's just leaving him to the wolves.
Peter shoots him a sympathetic look, but nope, he's not getting involved in this spat between the former lovers.
"It's not. I've been sitting on it for a few days, trying to decide what to do. I've put a lot of time into helping build Stark Industries, but I'm not sure we're ever going to work together the way we used to. Maybe it's time to let go," she says softly, looking down at her hands a moment before she raises blue eyes to Tony's.
"Stay," Tony says simply, taking in a deep, audible breath that makes his chest rise.
Peter puts the hot dogs on plates, two of them, and slides both plates over to Tony and Pepper, before he makes himself scarce again, heading into the bedroom to tinker with his web slingers.
Pepper is silent, thinking, while Peter leaves, then she takes up the hot dog, having a bite of it. She chews slowly, then swallows. "I want to stay, Tony," she says quietly. "But, I need us to work together again, and I'm still so angry with you." She sighs heavily, as her mind works. "I can do it. For the company."
Tony decides letting her talk and not saying anything shitty is probably the best way to get through this, so he stays silent as she works her way through everything, picking up the other hot dog and taking a bite, chewing. He swallows and goes to get a soda, getting her one too, and setting them both on the counter before cracking his open and taking a drink. When it looks like she's waiting for him to say something, he scours his brain for something decent to reply with. Something meaningful. Something that isn't in dick-ese. "I really appreciate that, Pepper."
Pepper nods and holds out the tablet again, "I really do need you to sign this. Those patents are a never ending pit of losing cash," she explains to him.
"That was low. Now you know I have to sign this, or you'll get mad again and leave," Tony grumbles, taking the tablet and giving it his signature. He passes it back to her. Then he has another bite of his hot dog. A part of him is still wondering what ramen is, what their packets contain, and how this hot dog could be improved with such ingredients.
"I told EnviraCorp I'd get back to them in a few weeks. If things don't improve, I'll do us both a favor and take the job," she says flatly. "Tell Peter thanks for the hot dog."
"I double dog dare you to tell him yourself, Mrs. Robinson. You know, do that thing where you actually speak directly to him? And you could have more than one bite. I'm the one that's supposed to starve himself until he remembers to eat, not you," Tony gripes, having more soda. "And, furthermore, the part where I'm to walk on eggshells for the next few weeks is duly noted."
"No eggshells, Tony. If we can't get along for real I need to know it before this opportunity goes away," Pepper corrects. There's no way she's walking into her old bedroom to say thank you to the man who lives in it now. She holds the tablet to her chest and begins the walk back to the elevator.
Tony lets her have the last word, and the cool exit, ignoring how long it takes the elevator to get to her before she disappears into it and away. He finishes his hot dog, and puts Pepper's untouched soda back. He stews there in the kitchen a little bit, drinking his soda and eating her hot dog, until he's finished it, too. Then he's heading into the bedroom with his soda, opening the door and leaning against the frame. "Did you eat anything, Peter?"
"No. I'll make myself another hot dog. Aunt May always said food's a good diffuser for a tense situation, so I thought you guys needed it more than me," he says, putting away the web slinger he's working on and his tools. "You okay?"
"I'm great. Pepper might leave, if I don't start kissing her ass, though. She got another job offer," Tony mutters, kicking off his shoes and dropping onto the bed with a flop. He stares up at the ceiling. "I don't want to run this company. I know you don't want to run this company. I'm fucked if she leaves."
"I don't know how to run this company. I'd do it for you, if I did," Peter says solemnly, dropping onto the bed beside him. "So, I guess we have to play nice. That shouldn't be too hard. I'll just pretend I don't exist, and she can keep ignoring me."
"She said thanks for the hot dog, by the way," Tony tells Peter, reaching for his hand and lacing their fingers. Over the course of the week and a half he's been younger, Tony's hands are already starting to toughen up and form the beginnings of callouses from all his machine work. Soon enough, they'll actually feel like his hands again. "And I know you'd run the company if you knew how." He turns his head, looking at Peter. "I love you, Peter Stark."
"I love you, too, Tony Stark," he says with a half smile, squeezing his hand before he sits up. "How was your hot dog? Not as good as with the ramen, right?" He asks, as he climbs to his feet and slides his shoes back on. "I mean, I know you haven't had 'em that way, but you can imagine what they'd taste like."
"I really can't. I still don't know what ramen is," Tony says, watching as Peter gets up and gets his shoes on. "You going to make yourself that hot dog?"
"It's like these cheap noodles you put a seasoning packet in, after you've cooked them. I like the beef ones, or the spicy chili flavor, personally," he says, laughing a little at explaining ramen to somebody who went to college. Then again, they had very different college experiences. "And, yeah. I'm starving. Unless you want me to stay with you, instead. I could do that, too."
"I'll come with you, then we can do both," Tony says, sliding off the bed and getting his shoes back on. He gives Peter a kiss, then gets the door for them, and heads back into the kitchen. "You know what? We should see about recruiting more people for our team. Team Stark with just, you know, the Misters Stark in it is great and all, but it might be nice to-"
"Finally, you got to this point in the conversation," Dr. Strange drawls, stepping out of a portal and into the Stark kitchen.
Tony jumps about a mile, and stares at the man like he's got three heads. Or like he just stepped out of a portal and into his kitchen. "Could you not do that from now on? I mean, seriously?"
"Whoa!" Peter exclaims, watching as Dr. Strange steps through his portal. "That's never not going to be awesome!" he enthuses, then he thinks about how he was just in bed with Tony, and that could have gone another way pretty easily. "But, yeah, I'm all about the knocking first life. You never know what you might see around here, if you don't."
"Let me guess. Father/son fun times with the belt?" Dr. Strange asks, unimpressed, and heading to the fridge to look inside. "Or I guess it's more brother/brother now, if we're keeping with the really dark family analogies." He takes out a bottle of beer, twists off the cap, and has a drink.
"Excuse me, all that aside for a second, but how long have you been spying on us?" Tony asks, trying to decide if he's horrified or turned on slightly.
"At least since the elevator," Peter pipes up helpfully, then he realizes how long ago that was and he glowers at the older man, arms crossed over his chest.
"If the two of you could stop being offended by my complex existence for a moment, we might get around to why I'm here," Dr. Strange murmurs, having more beer.
"Okay, why are you here?" Tony asks. "I was just bringing up making a team of more than just Peter and me, so is it something to do with that?"
"Yes," Dr. Strange says, giving him a faint smile. "I have some defectors you might like to see. I could get them here with a portal, if the two of you can contain yourselves for the event."
"You say that like we just have sex all the time," Peter grumbles, to which Dr. Strange raises an eyebrow. "Well, not in public, we don't!"
"Alright, let's see these defectors," Tony says, resigning himself to a house full of Dr. Strange groupies, or whatever the hell Stephen is about to come up with.
Dr. Strange makes the next portal, and motions with a hand for the people to step through. Rhodie comes through first, then Wanda, followed by Vision.
"Ah, home sweet home," Vision says fondly, glancing around. "Hello, Mr. Stark. Hello, Peter."
"We heard we might be wanted over here," Wanda says next in that husky voice of hers, her hand laced with Vision's.
"Okay, I only just stated the idea out loud. Have you been playing with time or-" Tony begins, but Dr. Strange stops him with a look.
"That's rich, coming from you, Marty McFly," Dr. Strange murmurs, before shrugging a shoulder. "I'm aware of things. I could pretend I'm not, and let you take the five minutes out of your day that you're not having sex for the next two weeks to slowly form this plan, or I could give you a gift." Dr. Strange motions to the three visitors. "Behold. My gift."
"Marty McFly. That's from those really old movies about time travel, with the car, right?" Peter pipes up, always up to point out a pop culture reference.
"No more pop culture references, either of you," Tony says, pointing first at Dr. Strange, then at Peter. He steps up to Rhodie, who hasn't said anything yet, and crosses his arms. "You're a sight for sore eyes. I haven't seen you in ages."
"Try not having your head up your own ass for about ten minutes, and you'll see me well enough," Rhodie replies easily. Then he grins and offers out his hand to shake Tony's.
Tony takes it, then gives him a hug on top of that hand grip, clapping him on the back. "Well, this is fun. Hi Vision. Hi Wanda. So, I hear I'm making a team, and everyone wants to be on it, right?"
"I'm actually not vying to be on any team," Dr. Strange amends. "I'll help whoever I like, and you'll be happy for the assistance." He inspects his short nails absently, having more beer.
"Thanks for clearing that up, Doogie Howser, MD," Tony grumbles.
"I thought you said no more pop culture references!" Peter gripes, because he totally could have made a Team Switzerland reference, when Dr. Strange said he wasn't taking a side.
Wanda breaks into a slow smile. "Viz and I didn't want to be separated into two different teams. We were hoping things might be better over here, with the Misters Stark."
Peter turns hopeful eyes to Tony, waiting for him to answer, because this is absolutely his team to lead. He's just lucky enough to be the first one on it.
Tony looks from those hopeful Peter eyes to Wanda, Vision, and Rhodie. Then he grins, "I just basically stole the best of the Avengers. I mean…" Points at Wanda, "God Mode Powers." Points at Vision, "God Mode Powers." Points at Rhodie, "G- Uh. Well. You're basically me, just better looking, so what's not to love about that level of perfection?" And then he looks back to Dr. Strange. "And you're on my team sometimes? That's more God Mode."
Peter grins hard as Tony adopts the wayward Avengers onto his fledgling team. "So, we gotta name yet, Mr. Stark?" he asks, eager to cement this new team into something tangible.
Dr. Strange sighs as Tony seems to think that over and everyone else in the room looks ever so eager. "Team Stark," he says flatly. "You're going to pour over various team names, and find all the great ones are already taken. By then, everyone's going to be calling you Team Stark, and it'll stick. Sure, you'll try different names, but the masses will just keep calling you Team Stark." Has more beer.
"Could you try dialing down the God Complex just a little?" Tony complains, before shrugging. "I like Team Stark. Does everyone want to be an honorary Stark? We'll be a family. Which is so much cooler than those egg sucking Avengers with their couple-splitting rules."
"Do I have to marry you?" Rhodie asks. "Because you just told me I'm better looking than you, and now you want me to take on your name. I don't like where this is going."
"I'm the only one marrying Mr. Stark," Peter says firmly, leveling Rhodie with a hard stare. "Speaking of which, you feel like pinning down a date yet?" he asks Tony, deciding to put him on the spot in front of everybody.
"Still going to need at least a month for that, because I know important people with busy schedules," Tony reminds Peter. "So, how about thirty days from today? We can start sending out the invitations tomorrow."
"I just love weddings," Vision says fondly, squeezing Wanda's hand gently.
"So, are you guys moving in? Because there are some apartments here that are really nice. I've seen them, and I'll bet Tony can get a couple for you, because he's the majority shareholder and he owns the building and everything," Peter asks, just making sure everybody knows they're not going to be sleeping on the couch or having slumber parties. There's way too much sex in this house for that.
"I did hope we might get an invitation," Wanda says with a smile.
"I already have an apartment here. Tony and I go way back," Rhodie says helpfully. "So I'm definitely in for that move."
"I have a house," Dr. Strange says. "I can't very well stay with either team." Not that anyone's really listening to him.
Tony and Peter excitedly go about getting their new team members shown to whatever apartment they'd like, grabbing the keys for them and having the appropriate badges made. Then it's back to work for Stark Industries for the Misters Stark, going about the rest of their day in their respective sections of the building.
When dinner time comes, Tony invites everyone out to eat to celebrate. They go to one of those 24 hour breakfast diners, so they don't have to dress up, and sit at a table, sucking down milkshakes as they eat their food.
"So one of the best things about being young again is I can order milkshakes with Peter, and no one even bats an eye anymore. Used to be, he'd order one and I'd get a coffee while staring disapprovingly. It was so much pressure," Tony says, before taking another sip of his chocolate shake.
"That's such bullshit. Old people order milkshakes too," Rhodie pipes up, drinking from his. "Nobody ever gives me the eye for it."
"You're not old, Rhodie," Wanda tells him with a fond smile.
"Everyone's old, compared to me," Peter points out, then holds up his hands to ward off the barrage of food that comes flying at him. "Hey! Was it something I said?" he laughs, then laughs harder when Viz points out that technically he's the youngest at the table, since he's only technically existed for a few years.
"Yeah but you have that Infinity Stone that makes you go," Peter defends. "That makes you part ancient, so it doesn't count. Like people who were born on leap year and insist they're only six, or something!"
That sparks a debate about who's older, with the group coming to the consensus that while Vision may technically be younger, Peter's definitely the youngest of the group. He gives Tony a proud smile, because he knows the other man likes the reminder sometimes of just how young he really is.
When the meal is over, they return to the Tower, soon to be renamed Stark Tower, and the group separates off to their own living quarters. Once they're behind closed doors, Tony spends hours and hours showing Peter just how much he likes that reminder of how young he really is.
A/N: So, this was a short chapter to set up the next. Keep your seatbelts fastened. Things are gonna be a little bumpy for a while! We're almost done with the next chapter, and we're planning to submit it as soon as we're done with it, so you may have two chapters in a day from us. We hope you won't mind too awful much! Comments, questions, and concerns are always welcome!
