"Welcome home, Tony." Pepper extends her arms for a hug, expecting him to walk into him but instead he walks past.
"So, you broke my toaster?" Tony walks into the kitchen where the majority of the avengers are gathered. He passes past their shocked faces to the back wall where the device is usually kept. He finds it shoved into a cupboard, he clucks disapprovingly as he takes in it's state. Clint's description of it's murder hadn't done the body justice. "I'm sorry, dear." He says looking over the toaster to see if it's eligible for resurrection. He decides it might be, but further diagnostics with tools will be needed. He places the toaster on the center island.
"Why do you guys always break my stuff?"
"To be fair, the toaster started it." Natasha defends herself. She has a slight smile on her face. Tony looks much better then he had the weeks leading up to his incident as they had all agreed to refer to the events leading up to his hospitalization.
"A simple fist fight maybe, you both walk away with a few scratches. You're the one who decided it necessary to brutally murder it."
Natasha shrugs. "I'm an assassin, it's what I do."
"Remind me never to get in a fist fight with Natasha, Jarivs."
"That's one of my primary functions, Sir." The AI responds in his usual sarcastic way.
"So Tony, what are you going to do now?" Bruce asks cautiously.
"You mean now that I've been in the looney bin, do I want to rejoin the Avengers. Not really, Big Guy."
"That wasn't..."
"Yeah, it was. Don't lie. I'm not mad about it, just kind of fed up. You see, the Avengers, we don't exist anymore. Even before I left, we didn't exist. Not really. There was no reason for us too, people, they didn't want us to exist. Since SHIELD fell, I've been monitoring their thoughts on us, and they thought we were not more than vigilantes, we answered to no one but ourselves, and well we caused more damage then we ever stopped. The Avengers aren't a thing anymore." Tony turns to walk away, Steve's hand lands on his shoulder.
"Do you really think that, Stark?"
"I really do, Captain. And nothing is going to change my mind. We're still friends but we're not comrades. If you want to keep this little adventure going, by all means if you can find the funds continue to base it from here, but I'm not going to be your cash cow anymore. Not unless you find someone to answer too."
"I'm sorry you feel that way, Stark."
"I'm headed to Dapaul for a few weeks. I'll see you all later." With that Tony summons his suit, walks out onto the flight deck and takes off.
"Steve." Sam runs into the room out of breath. "I found him." It takes Steve two seconds before he's taking off at a dead sprint behind Sam, who leads the way.