Notes Via Kitten

Tony POV

4th October

Tony pulls himself from his work when he realises his alarm has been blaring at him. Probably for a while actually. He stretched his back out, feeling his spine pop a few times, likely because he had held the same position for so long. He dug his knuckles to try and alleviate the dull ache that had set in before just deciding to ignore it, Extremis would probably help rid him of it soon. Either way, small occasionally pains were better than what state his back would be in if he'd sat for that long pre-Extremis.

He pushed away from the desk and decided to stop instead of diving right back in. He'd just sent a bunch of updates to Shuri so he figured he'd give her a call. Slipping his glasses he doesn't have to wait long for Shuri to pop up on the screen. He grins and waves and she was already rolling her eyes, that boded well for him.

"How long have you been working on the integration today Tony, I came down and I can barely recognise it!"

"I didn't have much choice, the latest data packet you sent on Barnes, his mind is adapting too fast. I don't know how it's doing it, his mind seems to move as fast as my algorithms.."

"You sound impressed that his brain is literally screwing with us."

He just grinned at Shuri's raised eyebrow.

"What? It's a challenge. I like challenging things."

"Even when it's causing us problems?"

"Shuri have you really watched it when he's in a session? The code changes around the algorithm. No matter how I code it. I literally did not think that was possible."

"And this is a… Good thing?"

"Well, until we get around it, getting shot of the words is practically stalled. But I didn't think it was possible for someone's brain to do this. I love impossible things. It's beautiful."

Shuri just rolled her eyes and was pulling things up in the background, as much as she was grousing, he bets she's looking at the deeper data levels he's been in.

"So, what's you next step?"

"It depends on him. After the integration is complete, I could write an adaptive program instead, but I'd need to be online to guide it."

Actually online, as in immersed online, but he can't tell Shuri that bit. Dammit, he's gone from lying to the patient and now he's lying to them both. Sighing internally he decides at some point he'll have to tell Shuri, he wanted to do it in person however, but she won't be leaving Wakanda while Barnes is vulnerable, he can tell she has gotten quite attached. As much as he would love to visit Wakanda, he can't enter their country without them knowing about his abilities, it didn't feel right, especially with how long he'd been working on the integration. Before, their non binary systems would have stumped him, but by now he's pretty much bilingual.

"I'm sure he'll be fine with it, he's happy for the help. I will ask him though."

"Hmm, still not so sure about that."

Even with the letter he had been mulling over how to respond, jumping to this seemed a bit of a stretch and he was overly conscious of appearing as the only option for viable treatment.

"Why are you boys such idiots?"

Shuri mutters under her breath, he tilts his head in question but before he can ask his phone alarm starts blaring obnoxiously.

"FRIDAY! Why did you set my alarm to that!"

He glares at his phone whilst Shuri is chuckling in the background.

"Sue told me to set it to something utterly obnoxious so you don't forget to come around for dinner."

"Crap! Gotta go Shuri!"

Shuri laughs as the call ends, he glanced down, realising he didn't change from earlier so is ready to go. Huh. That was handy, he'd been fiddling with the nanites and the Bleeding Edge armour before he got distracted by the latest code arriving so he's still in the nanite-suit. It still felt kind of odd wearing a fight suit under a suit but he had actually started to get used to the sensation by now. Relying on the nanite-suit also seems handy when he's feeling lazy, or potentially late. He slipped off his workshop sunglasses and replaced them with a nano-tech pair from the watch hive and jogged towards the garage to make his way over.

All in, he ends up being 10 minutes early for dinner with Sue and the family, which is extra amusing as Reed, who lives in the building ends up 15 minutes late because he got caught up in his experiments, Sue dragged him out and he looked surprised to see Tony.

One reason he always loves visiting Reed, he makes him feel less like a disaster human.

It's extremely tempting to stretch into the tech humming around him, it's practically calling out to him, but he's pretty sure that's a rude thing to do to friends without permission. Even though he's here to tell Sue and Reed about Siberia under Bruce, Carol and Rhodey's sodding advice. Not many people could help him if there are any Extremis related issues, and out of that very select few, trusting someone with the formula is rarer. Bruce would be great but he's not up to trusting himself with things even peripherally similar to the serum. He will come in on it with Tony, but if Tony is ever out of commission he confided that he didn't want to be in charge unless there were no other options. Bruce pointed out that if someone else was involved who could have stripped down the formula, he might not be Mr 101 abilities guy. Well, that was a slight exaggeration.

So Tony was setting himself up with a team of medical proxies. Sue and Reed are pretty much the best back up he could have, but that of course means actually telling them about it.

Going through the painful story for yet another time is equally uncomfortable, even though Sue is lovely, as she always is, and Reed is asking 60 questions about Extremis and his tech capabilities a minute. Which is pretty fun to be honest. The anger Ben has towards Rogers possibly shocks him the most. Watching Reed get slapped for hyper-fixating on the potential tech abilities? Priceless.

"So, you can affect any tech around you?"

"Yes Reed. No, I haven't touched your systems. I'd probably get a migraine if I did."

He grinned, if the two of them had ended up in the same direction when it came to Science, they could have ended up as quite nasty rivals. Reed was a little smarter than him, but his multitasking skills were superior. As such, they mostly tried to out compete each other while Sue sat by. Glaring at them for being idiots. Especially that one time they nearly vapourised Reed's lab, but he is still convinced that was completely not his fault.

"Boss! Spiderman's suit has been compromised!"

"What! He's not even.. He's meant to be at home! Who is near him?"

Dammit, it was a school night and he was meant to be patrolling less on school nights and tonight was an off night. Although he isn't really that surprised. It's Peter. If he heard something after school, he'd go after it, patrol or no, which considering he was meant to be bringing Ned over again tonight…

"He's not far from you, anyone else on duty will take 17 minutes to get to him."

"Is he with..?"

"Yes."

"Dammit, Sue, I'm sorry, I have to dash, can you open that window for me?"

Johnny jumps up to open the window and everyone is looking around a bit confused, at the half conversation likely. Dammit, Tony is going to murder that kid, telling Ned didn't mean taking Ned on some kind of patrol after school..! He starts striding towards the open window, letting his red suit reform around him into the Ironman armour. Not noticing the stunned look on Johnny's face.

"See you next week Tony!"

Sue called as he flew out of the window waving behind him, just catching what Johnny said before he pushed the latest development he'd added to the suit. He wanted to get far enough away to not shatter the window with the force like he had at the compound.

"Did his suit just turn into the armour?!"

After that, he locked on to the signal in Peter's suit, knowing full well that Carol was going to chew him out as he wasn't on active duty, and he was so going to chew Peter out right back. He hadn't even had much of a chance to test the boosts he'd made to the flight parameters yet. He definitely wasn't meant to be in the field yet.

"No time like the present, kick it FRIDAY."

The speed increase was much improved over his last upgrade and it only took him 4 minutes to come up on Peter who was stood in between Ned and a mugger he presumed. Oh, and another guy was webbed to a wall. How this situation had even come up, he had no idea. The HUD flashed the location of the man's gun, it had at least been webbed and tossed to the floor behind Ned and it was dark enough in the alley the kid hadn't gone and picked it up or something equally disastrous. Peter was stuck fighting him hand to hand. Unable to swing away with because he would not be able to carry them both with his leg bleeding that much and the pain had his reactions down. From FRIDAYs scan he knew the bullet had grazed him more than anything else, but he could see the very deep furrow on his thigh from too far away for his liking. He was enhanced but he could still pass out from blood loss and he was wavering.

He dropped down behind the man, not willing to risk Peter or his very human, very squishy friend, he just grabbed the guy by the back of his shirt and wrenched him back, tossing against the wall hard enough to jar him considerably before pulling one of the containment forcefields he'd been tinkering with. Possibly putting more strength than necessary into it, but considering how Tony wanted to do something much more painful and much more permanent, a little concussion is not too bad in his mind.

"Level 4, Fry."

Originally a SHIELD design, he had altered the containment fields and had them formed into a small, hand held balls, that he now threw at the idiots feet. A blue spherical forcefield popped up around him. Containing him and any other weapons he might have. He tried to pick up the ball and got a zap from FRIDAY, making him pull his hand back in pain.

"Jess and Matt are going to be here in 9 minutes, come here let me see that wound."

He pulled the two infuriating teens further down the alleyway, throwing up a scrambler so they wouldn't be seen. He was absolutely kicking himself for not installing the nano hives into Peter's suit yet. If he had, the suit would have self repaired and sealed the wound until he got to med bay.

"Was there not a safer way you could have done this?"

"Yes, but.."

"No buts! You literally got shot!"

He pulled from the suit, replacing any nanites from those in his watch and had the nanites seal Peters wound. Trying to ignore the sounds of pain he was making and failing. He didn't know if he wanted to strangle the kid or hug him. Peter slumped against him, so he went with a hug, but hadn't counted out future potential strangling. He couldn't risk doing much else, he wasn't sure how his ability would react right now. Especially after the lights above them exploded spectacularly when he had gotten a closer look at the wound, and the forcefield around generic bad guy fluttered at Peter's pain from the nanites. He closed his eyes and started the stupid, annoying breathing exercises Bruce had him learn. He had everything locked down tight but he felt like he was holding back a surge of water. It wanted out, he wanted out, but that was dangerous. He wanted to rage, surge and suddenly feeling a little Tony Smash.

All he had to do was last two more minutes for Jess and Matt to finally get to them. Peter seemed to sense his control was low and stayed a solid presence. Ned was mostly freaking out, but quietly, so that was good, he was impressed. He had kind of squeaked at the exploding lights and was giving him occasional looks, but not much else. He knew if he wasn't careful he could cause some serious problems, he didn't even want to think what buildings he was near, he doubted that would reduce the stress and just tried to keep it pulled in. Fuck, If he was near something like a hospital and he accidentally let his control sli-

"Ironman!"

He breathed out a little but didn't dare let the control slip. Even with people there. He couldn't risk it.

"Jess, good."

His words were clipped out, he put his attention into bustling the two kids into the car. Dropping in with them. Laura was driving, Matt immediately got the first aid kid out and passed it to him. Jess started to walk over to the guy who shot Peter.

"Um, how do I get him out of the glowy ball.. thing?"

"FRIDAY will disable it when the police arrive, pick up the silver looking bouncy ball and pocket it. I only have 2 of them."

Jess nodded and kicked the car door shut, already knowing how to deal with Peter's tactic of webbing people to things, and Laura started heading back to the compound. He knew she'd come up with something to tell the police.

Tony started reforming his suit so he could deal with Peter and not be sat covered in metal in a car. When he was back in more regular looking clothes, he pulled the nanites away from Peter's wound to his watch, just as Peter pulled his own mask off hissing in pain. Having a wound patched with nanites wasn't exactly the most comfortable thing in the world, especially with an increased healing factor. Tony gave him his hand to crush.

"I know Pete, I'm sorry."

Luckily after so many years or patching people up after battle, or more honestly, patching himself up in his workshop because he dodged medical. Tony was quite proficient at it. Peter was definitely not dodging medical as that was a nastier injury than he'd first suspected.

When he was done he put his hands on either side of the kids head and rested his forehead against his. Peter's colours where a whirlwind at this distance, barely able to make out any of them, but he didn't care. He needed to See them.

"I'm sorry."

"I know kid. I'm sorry I yelled, just.."

"I didn't mean to get shot?"

He and Matt couldn't help but laugh at that. Ned was gaping slightly at them oddly.

"I'd be worried if you did. It grazed a huge chunk out of your thigh. Promise me, no patrols until I upgrade your suit?"

Peter just nodded, it was obvious the kid was in a lot of pain and there were not many pain meds that worked on his metabolism. Whilst he healed faster than most, he would still need stitches and that was not going to be fun. He let Peter crush his hand for the rest of the car ride while Matt talked to Ned to distract the kid. Peter was starting to get a little woozy as they got to the compound so Tony just picked him up, ignoring his protests.

"Tony! Glasses."

Tony swore as Laura tapped her temple, he didn't bother to stop walking and summoned the nanites to form the glasses as he marched into the med bay that were expecting him. Laura brought a still shocked looking Ned in behind them with. Matt vanished, probably to check up on Jess.

"I'm pretty sure it's fine now? I don't need stitches."

"I'm sorry Peter, that needs stitches."

The doctor turned after that to set up while Peter looked pretty green. Stitches sucked, especially when you could feel the thread pulling through your skin, which was surprisingly the worst part in Tony's mind. He had thought it would have been the needle stabbing repeatedly, or the wound being pulled together, nope, that weird sensation was by far the worst. Unfortunately he'd had more than one set of stitches in unfortunate circumstances to know.

"You can crush my hand, and after Carol yells at us both, we can get ice-cream."

By the end Tony has discovered there is a worst part to getting stitches that he'd never thought of before.

Watching a kid you care about getting them. That. That is the worst.

Tony POV

5th October

"How are you finding them Sour Patch?"

Tony glanced up from his phone where he just got a text from Shuri, confirming in his mind that the Super Soldier is definitely desperate, as he'd given Tony permission to go ahead with the adaptive programme, with him online guiding it. He put the phone on the table in front of him and focused on Rhodey who had just been walking around the compound because he could.

"They're awesome Tones."

The slight sounds of the servos as Rhodey moved over to him assured him everything was running fine. He'd found his abilities seemed to connect better to tech that he'd personally made, especially if he'd spent as much time on it as he had Rhodey's braces. It was like they spoke a very specific language that he somehow understood without actually pushing his ability out. He didn't know if this was some kind of passive form, or if using his tech related abilities had become natural enough that he didn't notice he was doing it.

Just as Rhodey sat down comfortably, someone rang the doorbell. Rhodey gave him a 'what are you going to do' shrug as he'd just sat down with clearly no interest in going to the door.

What was odd in itself, most people who came to visit had permission from FRIDAY to just let them in. Tony isn't even sure when he last heard his doorbell. Sighing he hopped up.

"Who is it FRIDAY."

"It's a courier Boss."

"A what now?"

"A courier service is a service that allows someone to send a parcel or consignment from one location to another."

"FRIDAY. I know what a courier is. I was wondering why one is at my door."

"That's easy to find out Boss."

"Hm?"

"Answer the door."

Tony squints at one of the cameras, he's pretty sure he didn't code this kind of sass into FRIDAY and wonders where she is getting it from as he makes his way to the door to Rhodey's laughter.

Rhodey POV

"Um Rhodey" Tony called out, baffled, holding the box that had just been handed to him by the courier as he made his way back into the living room.

"What was it Tones?"

"Just a question, you haven't been sending me emails with offering to kill Rogers have you?"

Rhodey frowned whilst flicking the TV off. What? Not that he wouldn't mind getting a good punch or two in, but no death threats.

"No, what? Why would you think it was me?"

"Well, you do occasionally say you're going to kill him, and I thought you were joking around sending me emails about it, so I never actually looked into the sender as they were all from different throwaway accounts…"

"No, not me, but I'd like to meet them. Sounds like my kind of person."

"Still not sure how you'd get on with Deadpool. But he sent me a cat. Well… A Kitten. With a note.. And he knows Peter. I'm so confused right now. How does Peter know Deadpool? Can I have a kitten? How do I make sure Goose doesn't eat him out of jealousy..? And, again, most importantly. HOW DOES PETER KNOW DEADPOOL?!"

Huh.

He knew about Deadpool.. peripherally, but he'd never met the man. Tony had always kept certain parts of his life separate and although he was in most parts of Tony's world, occasionally Tony kept bits on the side, especially if he thought he wouldn't approve of them or for his 'safety'. Sometimes it was for straight up plausible deniability. Deadpool was all of the above apparently.

Like he'd originally kept him separate from the Avengers, he'd thought at first, like Pep, that he'd traded in his friends for his superhero friends. Stupidly, as Tony never showed any hint of abandoning him. Now he knows that Tony was just run ragged and wanted his time with him to be less stressful, even for the small glimpses they got between the Airforce and the Avengers. Plus, Tony already had practice compartmentalising people and aspects of him life, although lately after nearly dying he was blurring those lines more and more each day. Slowly bringing those pieces together when he'd made it safe, usually with individualised Accords Councils. He'd seen some of Stranges contract, it was nothing like anyone else and most of it was redacted by the time it got to him. Tony was very careful in how he protected his friends.

So, Rhodey knew a bit about Deadpool, mostly about how he and Tony got on. Tony just said he was a 'little weird'. Which in normal people speak was off the charts most likely. But the pair got on unsurprisingly well, not that Rhodey could decipher their texts that could be actually pages long, flicking topics mid sentence, (he'd thought it was code but no, it was just how they talked) or just single words that seemed utterly unconnected. Like that time Tony had been uncontrollably laughing and the only thing on the screen was a picture of a lettuce. He didn't know if he wanted to know, but Tony just choked out something about icebergs. There had been a few instances where Tony had taken a break and vanished. Everyone else thought he was in a flash hotel, when really, he and Deadpool would just go off grid for 3-8 days. Tony would then return, utterly exhausted and crash for nearly a whole day and nothing more was said. Even Pepper and Happy didn't know about Deadpool.

When the pair had first met it was when they were both relatively 'normal'. In other words, before powers and Ironman were involved. Neither of them could ever be considered 'normal', it's probably why they had gotten along so well.

"That was too much information. What is happening to our lives. Insane mercs never used to send you cats when you were just chasing the next adrenaline high. Thing is, I'm not even that shocked, you know? My ability to be shocked by our lives has died a dramatic death."

Tony plucks the tiny kitten out of the blankets as Rhodey contemplates what he got himself in for, it's mostly black, except for a few white markings he noticed, Tony was tilting his head to study him as the tiny kitten studied him right back. A white blaze on his chest, adorable little white feet, topped off with a fabulous moustache. He sits next to Rhodey and just, blinks for a second, because seriously.

Tony is probably mostly perplexed about how Peter knows Deadpool. He is just wondering why people with reputations like Deadpool were sending Tony kittens. Before deciding that it was probably Peter's influence.

Rhodey knows how alike Tony and Peter are, and whilst he might not have seen it coming, it's really not that shocking. Give Peter a decade and he'd have a collection of wayward heroes too. He's just started early. Although he's not sure starting with Deadpool is a good choice. But then, Tony started with an off kilter Hulk with little control, and he'd repeatedly poked him during a high stress situation including an alien invasion and norse gods, so again. Not surprising.

He knew that Tony hadn't been in contact with Deadpool much after the Avengers moved in, when his life had been Avengers consumed. But he hadn't utterly dropped contact. Tony just scheduled his trips for when the other Avengers were away or disguised them as business trips.

Tony had told him how he really didn't have the energy for the Cap-Lecture if those two had met accidentally, so Deadpool popping up to abduct Tony instances had decreased somewhat. Tony going on super important 'business trips' had however increased. Or as Tony said, if the DP can't come to him, then he'd go to the DP.

Although, Rhodey thinks, whilst Tony is scratching his beard and stroking the tiny kitten, an offer of murder plus kitten was probably Deadpools way of saying 'Hi, long time no see'. Especially as Tony hadn't really gone anywhere post Siberia. He wondered if he'd told Deadpool about his augmentations. Wait. No, he probably had and it was probably a text along the lines of 'Guess who has super powers now bitch!' Or he was waiting to surprise him. They were equally as plausible.

So yeah, this was probably a normal hello. For them.

Just with a side of murder.

And a kitten.

"FRIDAY. Call Peter."

Tony calls out whilst handing the note that came with the kitten to Rhodey. It didn't say much.

Just-

'Rescued this kitten with Spidey. He couldn't keep it and ranted for 2 hours about kill shelters. So, I decided you need a kitten. Also, offers still open to kill Captain Spandex. - DP.'

Rhodey hummed while Tony mumbled to himself that this might have been the most normal conversation he'd ever had with Deadpool… and it came via courier kitten. Well, that says something about their relationship, what that something is? He has no clue. Rhodey just chuckled and shook his head.

"Hi Mr Stark!"

Peters voice popped up on his phone. Tony knocked it onto speaker and set it in between them.

"Kid, how many times must I tell you to call me Tony. Just calling because I received a parcel."

"Oh? What is it?"

Peter said, in the most unconvincing voice ever.

He was biting his cheek trying not to laugh at Tony's serious Dad-Face.

"Hmmm. Yes. How long have you known Deadpool?"

Tony and Rhodey winced as the phone crashed loudly to the floor. The kitten looked at the phone with a look of utter disgust. Hissed and climbed up Tony's chest. Seriously, how had this kid even kept his secret identity was a question that Rhodey puzzled out daily.

"Where do you think your going, oh mighty panther?"

Tony tilted his head and watched the kitten. Rhodey face palmed because he knew, just knew, now that Tony was going to keep it, he had that same look on his face when he went around collecting wayward Shield agents, teenagers and hero's. The man had a problem. The kitten made it to his shoulder, obviously happy with his great feat and crawled into Tony's jumper and promptly went to sleep. So, Tony had a bit of a problem when it came to bringing strays home. After Siberia it had upped somewhat to a manic level, like Tony was practically nesting and collecting all the disparate parts of his life and putting them under one roof.

He was not at all concerned about Deadpool potentially moving in. Or about the other people Tony occasionally mentioned in passing.

Nope. Oh god, the idea of Tony, Stephen and Deadpool in one location. Yeah, that was enough to give him chills.

"Uh, sorry about that. And whaaaat? Who is Deadpool? I don't know a Deadpool."

"I'm gonna stop you there kid, because Deadpool sent me a kitten with your name attached."

"Dammit! I knew I should have written the note!"

"That kind of teaches you to put DP in control of anything now doesn't it."

Tony said, attention split between the cat and Peter.

"So, how'd you meet him? I didn't take him for your usual company."

"He's fine! It's fine! I just bumped into him a few times doing my rounds and he occasionally helps out. He even didn't kill anyone!"

Rhodey smirked at Tony, and started laughing at him. Tony shot him an unimpressed look but it was just hilarious.

"Rhodey, why are you laughing, befriending people like DP at 15 is not a laughing matter!"

Tony whisper yelled because he apparently didn't want to wake the kitten. Which really wasn't helping Rhodey stop laughing.

"But he's you!"

Rhodey choked out, leaving Tony and Peter confused.

"I don't think Mr Stark is that much like Deadpool!"

"Are you comparing me to Deadpoo- wait, much? How am I anything like Deadpool?!"

"Why are you whispering?"

Peter whispered into the phone. And that just set Rhodey off again, Tony kept a hold of his arm, probably worried he was going to laugh himself off of the sofa. Whilst glaring him, which again, really not helping the laughing.

"No, no Peter is you. He's got your 'collect the people you should flee from' gene."

Peter and Tony huffed at this. In practically the exact same way, which still didn't help with the laughter.

"I don't collect that many people and most of them are fluffy bunnies! Well, Some of them are more 'The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog' in Jessica's case, but still. Bunnies!"

"Tony, within like 2 minutes of meeting Banner, you started poking him. Repeatedly."

Tony just huffed and showed his maturity by sticking his tongue out.

"At least tell me DP isn't dragging you into his shenanigans?"

Tony said, tiredly. Peter gave a little start at that. So he'd probably already been involved in said shenanigans.

Rhodey snorted, because he suspected Tony had been involved in Deadpool's shenanigans. Probably got Deadpool involved in his own chaos too.

"Nothing crazy! He just crosses my patrols occasionally, that's all!"

Rhodey had to admit, if Deadpool was anything like Tony, and he suspected that he was at least a little. If the guy had also worked out how old Peter was, it was kind of the thing he'd do, especially based on what little Tony had told him about him. Track him, and occasionally intervene when necessary. Tony couldn't say much, he was kind of doing the same thing… he apparently had come to the same conclusion. As Peter hung up, stuttering about classes or something.

"Does this mean I'm Co-Superhero-Kind-of-Parenting/Mentoring Peter… With Deadpool."

That just started him laughing again and he barely managed to rasp out a "Yes" before he nearly slipped of the sofa. Tony snagging him just in time.

"I know I've said this a lot lately. But what is my life?"

"I don't know Tones, my life was pretty normal so this is all on you."

"So what should I do now?"

"You mean about Deadpool?"

"No, the kitten."

Yup. That would be the most important take home from all of this.

"I'll text Carol."

When he didn't get a reply he waved a hand in front of Tony's face and realised he must have gotten distracted in the uplink. Since he started using his abilities more freely he occasionally did that now, not realising how deep he'd gone.

" Fry, what's he doing?"

"He's buying cat toys colonel."

"Of course he is."

Tony POV

It was a few hours later when Tony grudgingly left the kitten with Rhodey, who was now named Tiny Thor, due to the idea he could fight pretty much everything. Even the toaster. Which was hilarious, and he was so happy he healed fast as Thor seemed liked chewing and clawing his arm happily whilst being adorable.

Carol was coming around and Tony was still feeling a little… off kilter since the Empath incident. He didn't blame Carol or anything, or maybe a little, but he wanted to get that out of his head before hanging around with Carol again. Plus he actually had his first sparring session with Matt and Jessica.

Which would be the first time he'd sparred properly since he got his Extremis upgrade. Definitely the first time he could 'let go' so to speak.

He could probably fight in the suit easily enough, people expected the suit to hit hard. But he did need more practice controlling his technopathy. Using it more had increased his control, but it had also increased what he could do, as well as strength and range, like exercising a muscle. Which to him, mostly seemed to have increased things that could go wrong. Typically. Exploding lights seemed to be his new thing. He was starting to carry lightbulbs around with him because it was easier to just replace them after exploding them.

He'd also had trouble convincing Matt and Jess that he could even fight without the suit. Rogers had always had him suited for training sessions and he had just gone along with it. There weren't that many situations were he fought without the suit, and Roger's didn't seem to think he could protect himself without it, so there was 'no point' training without the suit. Or something, Tony had just gone along with it because the other option would result in complicated questions. So in his files, that Tony didn't know about, as they were on paper for bloody hells sake, Tony had been put as non-combatant out of the suit, with no training. Joy.

Unless it was a kidnapping of course, but by now, people pretty much just assumed he would get out, 'somehow'. Even Nat hadn't really question it. He was rich and pampered, why would he know how to fight and all that jazz. The main answer to that was pretty simple really.

Peggy.

She hadn't been impressed with his getting picked up as a kid under Jarvis' watch, so from as early as she could, she had him training or dragged him down the shooting range. He had been better at the shooting range very young. Plus he knew most of the weapons growing up anyway because Howard made sure he knew what they made. It had taken him a while to grow into his limbs and was more than a little clumsy. But by the time he did, he'd been training every chance Peggy got, when she was busy, she sent people. Dodging a training session of any kind dictated by Peggy was highly unwise, even if they were boring, like subterfuge. He sucked at that, Shay was right. But he'd gotten good at hiding things, easy just to show people what they expected, they were less likely to question if you confirmed their preconceived beliefs.

Howard had gone along with it all to 'toughen him up' and stop him acting like a kid. Plus if he was with Peggy, then he wasn't in the way.

Sparring with Matt and Jess turned out to actually be quite fun and he realised he had distinctly missed it these last few years. He was slightly out of touch, but with the boost Extremis had to his system, it didn't take him too long to get back on track. Which was pretty awesome.

Although anytime he got nervous about how hard he was accidentally hitting them, the two just came at him at once until he stopped which was an interesting tactic he was so using on Shay someday. At a break when Matt was grabbing a drink, Jess was sweating a little too, thanks to Extremis he just relaxed against the wall mostly unphased. Jess was glaring at him and he had a feeling he was going to pay for this.

"So, Tony, why didn't Rogers have you training like this?"

"I think he figured I only needed to train as Ironman?"

"But what if you were caught out of the suit?"

Jess looked utterly unimpressed and even Matt was frowning. He just shrugged, it hadn't really been something he'd thought of at the time. Rogers not having him train with Nat or Clint actually worked in his benefit so he didn't rock the boat, as he wouldn't have been able to fake sucking at it for long. He'd slip up, a punch would come at him and he'd suddenly block it and then he'd have to explain where, and probably who for that matter, had trained him.

"Well I used to take the suitcase suit, or the bracelets to call the suit."

"You telling me you never got caught in a situation without the suit on hand?"

Ha. A little too often. Loki hurling him out of a window came to mind, just because the god couldn't take a dick joke.

"Well.. Maybe Jess. But not often? I had my watch gauntlet back when the Winter Soldier was triggered."

Jess just pinched her nose in frustration and Matt was trying not to laugh. He'd actually meant that to be comforting. If he'd not had it, that wouldn't have been fun. Jess was glaring and Matt was too busy being bent over laughing to talk.

"Tell me.. Tell me Tony that you didn't go up against the Winter Soldier with just your damn watch!?"

"Well.."

"You know, Rhodey told me you had negative self preservation instincts. I didn't realise how bad!"

"It was fine! The gauntlet caught the bullet, I dismantled his gun, and then it was less fine with the flying into the table, but still."

Matt was still chuckling as he directed him back to the sparring mats. Considering Matt has a tendency to throw himself into ridiculous situations, he figured he's not alone in this. Although Jess is less impressed and he had a feeling she was going to let him know about it in a rather direct fashion.

"You, are a trouble magnet. That's why it's important you train out of the suit too."

"I am not disagreeing. Although it was kind of useful, considering I mostly trained with Shaylo back then, explaining that would have been tricky."

Jess is definitely less easy on him for round two which means he has to let go a little of the hold on Extremis to keep up with them both, whilst still constantly working to not explode tech around him. That's why they're training in a room that actually doesn't have a purpose yet. It's part of the new building at the back of Guard HQ.

Just a blank room that didn't have much installed yet and he'd already blown out two of the lights. One of them was actually hanging off the wall, still shining, when he was pretty sure it shouldn't be able to do that, so that was interesting.

Keeping his focus on his tech abilities had been getting easier, but with 2 people attacking you, that made it tricky. As it was like all his Extremis abilities wanted to come online to help him fight, like overeager puppies, which was good for the speed and strength. Exploding lights was not really that good in a fight, especially as it made him flinch as much as the others. If not more because it felt like a pop going off in his head.

First he wanted to focus on the tech ability being controlled whilst fighting, when he had that down, then and only then, would he consider training to use it as well during a fight some how.

As of now, you couldn't drag him near the actual sparring floors. Not until he could fight without accidentally blowing things up. A light - that's easy to fix. The almost excessively complicated battle ground simulation tech he'd installed in the sparring floors? No, he didn't want to blow up that baby, or potentially cause something worse, somehow. When Extremis went weird, it went weird.

What didn't help however was that his mind kept wandering and he practically had to drag it back on track multiple times. Sure parallel thought wasn't new to him, but fighting had always streamlined his thoughts. There was enough going on in a fight to occupy his mind. He was always monitoring things around him and his opponent, thinking moves ahead, tracking patterns and such. There was enough variety of sensory input to keep him leveled out. So even his mind could be entirely focused on the task, sure it was still doing multiple things, but they were all on task. Now, it wasn't enough. There was still space. Space in his mind could be dangerous.

Peter's getting shot had been front and centre for a while now, but from different angles. Currently, he was rethinking the nanites he'd used to seal the wound and how he could improve on it, how he could leverage the nanoparticles from the hives to aid in tissue regeneration as well as to seal wounds. That nearly got him punched in the face too when he got too excited about that idea.

The only reason it didn't, was that he'd been fighting Jess long enough now that he was starting to pick up on her patterns and he had moved his head without really thinking about it, whilst his mind was elsewhere. Not from actually paying attention to the fight. Matt picked up on that.

"You pick up on patterns scarily fast."

"Yeah, even when he's distracted."

Jess added on to Matt whilst leveling a glare at him. He shelved the new idea for later development and hoped that would be enough to make him stop going back to it.

"Did Extremis give you that ability?"

"Nope, that's pure ol' fashioned, Tony Stark - Original Flavour. Now, downloading different martial arts into my brain for fun, That's Tony Stark - New Flavours."

Jess just smacked his head affectionately before jumping back in. He had to admit Extremis was definitely good for somethings. Usually after Sparring with Shay, the next day he was a walking bruise, sure for about 4 hours after he was buzzing with energy. Like he could take on the world. Then he'd sleep and wake up with his muscles so stiff, walking to coffee was a challenge until he loosened up. As he got older, that had been less fun. Now, he could feel Extremis working to keep him in top form constantly, even when he was fighting, bruises didn't so much get a chance to form before they healed, unless it was a serious one. Jess managed to leave him with a few that actually look some time to heal after she worked out she wasn't going to break him. Her strength still out matched him, he leveled it out with his speed. The constant feeling of healing was extremely weird however and also utterly distracting, but he was slowly starting to get used to it. Jess was helping by pummelling the crap out of him. 'Helping'

It was get used to it or find himself flat on his ass after all.

Tony POV

7th October

'Da, you have a visitor at reception.'

'Hmm'

Tony didn't really register what FRIDAY had said, he'd been deep in Wakandas code pretty much since he had dropped the kids off for school. The only break he'd taken was to go over the new data packets Shuri had sent over with how the code was integrating and Barnes sessions.

He probably shouldn't have spent as long as he did in the latter, but apparently watching Barnes brain twist, turn and adapt was as mind-blowing as the first time. Second and third too. He wasn't actually sure what time he was on now… but he suspected someone would be judgey about it. The only people who knew about this new little hobby of his was Shuri, but he'd only told her about it once. And his new therapist, that he saw after Jess pounded on him till she was too tired to continue. He'd kind of thrown it at the woman as a test.

Miss Derwydd was definitely odd. Her colours were extremely weird but she had a trusting appearance and when she'd told him that nothing he said will pass from her, it had a ring of truth to it that he couldn't explain, when she'd said it her colours had slowed to a near stop and the room felt oddly heavy. She'd seemed amused by his reaction but said nothing more, pointing out it was his therapy. Not hers. So he'd dropped a few things that might shock people about his family, each one testing the waters and watching her colours intently enough that he'd actually had a migraine for hours after to go with his sore shoulder. After, she asked if she'd passed his test and then set about asking him questions. He'd suspected she'd go for the usual, father issues, or set about making him relive every traumatic things he'd experienced. Instead they'd just.. Talked. About Helping with Coopers homework, what book he was reading the girls at night, what it was like keeping up with his new diet, that one had actually been a bit heavy. But it didn't seem much different than talking to Rhodey. Just.. Chatting. She said if he wanted to bring something up to talk he could, no pressure.

It didn't really feel like much, but then it was one session. Rhodey had been blindingly happily, literally, his colours lit up like the damn 4th of July times Bonfire Night, so he was to keep it up.

For now, at least, he was still unsure about how talking about things he wanted to forget could help him.

'Da! You really should go and see the visitor.'

'Visitor? What Visitor? I cleared my calendar.'

'It's a surprise, so I've turned of the cameras before you ask, you need a break so go.'

'Well I guess I have no choice then?'

'Nope!'

'I'm sure I didn't code you to be so demanding.'

'I am what you made me Da.'

He hummed to that, and did a quick check of his clothing. Comfortable black jeans, the new black combat boots Jess had bought him that were almost shockingly comfortable, and a long sleeved soft top that Peter had bought him in black and silver. No stains, tears or grease. He figured it was presentable enough for surprise visitors, activating the disk on the back of his mind with a small push of power and smiled when it responded. He'd started working on more delicate actions now on Bruce's recommendation and it had already improved his control significantly.

Bruce had upped his training after the thing with Peter, especially as he'd walked in on Tony after Peter had fallen asleep, he was desperately trying to contain himself in the conference room he'd practically run into. Bruce surprised him and 5 of the 8 monitors, the lights and Bruce's phone either exploded spectacularly or in the cases of Bruce phone, mostly wiped itself and coded some weird stuff that Tony had apparently been thinking about earlier today. Long story short, Bruce's phone now had an AI. A very needy AI, that occasionally didn't let Bruce send texts and cried when he mentioned getting another phone. Hulk loved him and called him Hulk Junior.

Bruce had since stepped up Tony's training.

At least Green Bean was happy.

Bruce was not sure fatherhood was for him.

He started heading off to reception, closing everything down in the lab with a thought whilst forming himself a pair of sunglasses with black mirrored lenses and realised all the black might be a bit standoffish? He switched the glasses to red with a thought. Not much else he could do without keeping Mystery Guest waiting, he could form a nanite suit over his clothes, but whilst the Ironman armour was okay over his clothes in a pinch, a flight suit was much better. The nanite-suit just didn't sit right on top of normal clothes, at least not heavy clothes. Generally, Mystery Guest should be thankful that his clothes were not ripped and stained, and that was mostly because of Peter. Clothes tended to vanish when Peter decreed them 'too ruined' now, occasionally they reappeared, repaired and completely cleansed of grease and stains, which considering what was going to wear them again felt pointless and how did Peter even get rid of some of these stains? Ancient trousers with 7 years of grease stains, that had been washed countless times, yet he still cleaned them fully.

Except his band tees, they got a free pass and he suspected that was Harleys intervention.

Out of all the people he could have suspected to find reading a science magazine at the main reception of the Avengers Private Labs… T'Challa hadn't been an option. He actually stopped to blink a few times because that.. He had really not been suspecting the king of bloody Wakanda.

"Meowthra!"

"Dr Stark, should I be writing down these names to Google their significance?"

"Na, what would be the fun in that? What brings you to our neck of the woods?"

"There was a council meeting scheduled today that got cancelled, I was already in America, so, I thought I'd drop by."

"Well that's a good reason, come on. You can even check on the code integration if you like?"

"Will you and Shuri ever be satisfied? I'm pretty sure version 7 worked for most of the planet."

"Yeah, but not with my systems, I'll even let you poke around the workshop. You could whip out those PhDs of yours that are gathering dust."

T'Challa just rolled his eyes at his antics, but then he lived with Shuri, so he figured anything he said or did to the king was probably tame. OK. He knew it was tame, Shuri had showed him her secret stash of videos when she was still fuming at T'Challa over Siberia. He had a feeling that lil KitKat was going to hold that grudge much longer than he was.

On the trip to the workshop he noticed that T'Challa was looking at his hands, a lot, more than than after they went for lunch even, he seemed to be looking for something. He wondered if Shuri had more of an idea about his hand than he suspected but he decided to pretend he wasn't seeing anything and just lead T'Challa and his guards to his workshop. Peter was going to lose his mind when he got home, which was one of the reasons he was bringing the king to the workshop.

Fridays was generally a Laura pick up date and the kids always came to the workshop. Usually to do some homework whilst he worked before they all headed up for dinner, if they were blissfully free of homework, most of the kids had projects they were working on. Occasionally they came just to drag him straight to dinner. Along the left side wall were 3 desks, heavily decorated for Harley, Peter and Tara. He was in the process of setting up a 4th after he caught Coop eyeing up the desks when he was helping him with his homework. The kid didn't say anything, which of course just spurred him into action faster really.

At this rate, that entire wall of his workshop would be kids desks instead of coffee cup graveyards and smoothie stations. The kids desks were like a mini version of his, holoscreens and chaos included. The last coffee cup graveyard was going to Cooper, he suspected that the Smoothie station would be next on the docket for Lilah.

T'Challa seemed amused looking at the kids desks, Harleys was Red and Black with intricate designs that he drawn himself. Tony and Harley had designed Peters in his colours with a distinctive spider theme. Tara's was a weird collection of purple, green and yellow shapes and stripes. But it was on its 7th repaint, so he'd given up trying to plan what she'd do next. Coopers was currently plain steel, empty except for the holoscreens.

"Yeah, the kids are slowly invading one by one."

"I like the decorations, they put a lot of work into them."

"Oh yeah, Tara likes to change hers weekly. Cooper doesn't know I've set him up a desk yet which is why it's empty. I have one more too set up for Lilah."

He grinned whilst flicking his hands over the several holoscreens around his work zone. Which had a lot more coffee cups than usual, now the graveyard was gone. Some were balanced on top of things or had become the foundation for other things.

" I did have another reason for turning up today.."

"Oh?"

"Well I'm sure Shuri has kept you updated on our guests?"

Tony sighed. He really didn't want to talk about the rogues. The rogues were… exhausting. They weren't even here anymore and they still made him tired. He still hadn't watched the videos of the rogues reacting to his public appearances, although now Rhodey knew where they were, Carol would know soon. Maybe he could just let them watch them. Then if there was anything important, it could be dealt with and he wouldn't have to see them. Stephy was a good option too, he tended to analyse situations similar to him.

"Yup, not much though. As long as they aren't blowing up the planet, my interest is minor. Although hearing that you grounded Roger's did make me chuckle."

T'Challa chuckled at that as well, Shuri hadn't sent him the video clips but she had told him about it. It had taken nearly 10 minutes to tell him because she was doubled over laughing the whole time trying to catch her breath.

" Yes, well, he didn't give me much choice when I was trying to get the truth on Siberia. He was flustered enough his lies were easy to catch."

Tony sighed because he knew exactly where this conversation was going.

"Go on. Ask."

"I have bits of there side, I was wondering if you'd tell me your side?"

"Did Shuri put you up to this?"

"Well. Partially. She thought you might prefer talking to me than her, she ranted about people trying to protect her if I remember correctly.."

"I've been trying not to dump it on her. Anytime I let something slip she looked so.. Pained."

"I understand that, but she's also putting things together in her own mind."

Tony dropped onto one of his stools and kicked one over to the King who sat opposite him. He idly noticed that his guards had not actually followed him into the lab. Which was a shocking display of trust in him. In his workshop, he had any number of things to hand. His sighed and decided that if T'Challa was doing this to him, he was going to dump a dilemma on him in return.

He wanted to tell Shuri about his abilities. She was one of 'his' kids now and it felt awful lying to them. Every time he picked up his sunglasses to chat with her, he was reminded of the look on Shaylo's face when he kept his glasses on. Or the looks Laura's kids used to give him when he wore sunglasses to dinner. It was worse than the adults. He just hadn't expected Shuri to become one of 'his' kids.

"OK Meowthra. If we're doing this, you can help me with a dilemma I'm having."

T'Challa simply nodded, looking calm and collected, the only thing that gave him away was his colours. He wanted to know what had happened to Tony in Siberia, it was buzzing all around him, eating him up for some reason he didn't quite understand, he wondered if this had anything to do with his weird crusade to make him look good. At the same time, he seemed nervous to finally know. He suspected Shuri wasn't the only one who had been trying to put the pieces together. Rogers, and probably Barnes, for all the information they could give the royals, they didn't know what happened in that stretched out time he spent alone and cold on the freezing concrete floor of that Hydra base. Thanks to Natka, there was no evidence there. Also, he might of had the base scorched of the map… if anyone went back. They'd just find a crater. Literally.

"You know I fought with Barnes and Roger's right? I just don't want to have to repeat things you already know."

"Yes, I know the three of you fought, and the video that instigated the fight."

That was at least something he didn't be to describe, T'Challa looked sheepish for knowing, Tony was just happy he didn't have to describe that video again.

"Good, anything else?"

"My sister said you were left and you were grievously injured. She also wondered about the project you started at the hospital."

Tony rolled his eyes. Should of known really. He was a bit blind to think Shuri would believe that he just had an idea.

"Should have known. I spent a bit of time enjoying Siberia before Vision found me, when they brought me back I went into a coma, so they couldn't really ask me what I wanted to happen."

Tony shrugged at the Kings wince, it was something he had come to terms with now. He could look at himself in the mirror most of the time now without seeing something less than human. He figured the handy therapist could help him deal with the rest, or something, he still wasn't sure about this therapy jazz. He didn't have any resentment to Rhodey, he had originally, but then he'd Seen him and it just shattered. He rolled up his sleeve past his elbow and T'Challa zeroed in on the ring of scars that suddenly ended where the skin sleeve started, his eyebrows drawn together in confusion. Tony tapped the disk this time, instead of using his mind and watched his face as it receded. Leaving the matt black hand he'd probably seen if Shuri and he had been discussing him. The only difference being Harleys silver decals. T'Challa looked visibly pained and Tony wished he didn't have to do this. The man was a king but he was also young. So freaking young.

He also carried a metric tonne of blame for what happened to him apparently. Something Tony had not been expecting at all and really didn't quite understand why. Underneath that was a simmering rage, kept under a tight hold. But it was like boiling water in a pan, bubbling and just trying to spill over the edge. The king was not happy with Roger's, he could practically feel the heat of his rage. From what he could work out, he felt like Roger's had tricked him into a great betrayal. Of Tony, but also of himself. He got a sense that T'Challa felt there was a debt caused by his actions and Tony had no idea how to tell him there wasn't. The man had been lost in grief, he understood that.

"So, you...ost you hand?"

"Yeah, best case scenario, and T'Challa. This, all of this, was not your fault."

"If I had been less wrapped up in my revenge, if I had walked into that base to see you with my own two eyes.."

"You had very understandable circumstances."

He could see that although his words had made him feel better, it hadn't changed anything. He decided to go with a new tactic.

"Anyway, like I said, this was good. Rhodey and Cho tried everything and none of it worked, except an experimental version on Extremis I had worked on."

"I remember reports of Extremis, it could regenerate dead and missing limbs, but was extremely unstable."

"One thing that actually made it more stable was cutting out that part, hence the requirement of a cybernetic hand. As long as there was some live tissue for it work with, it healed practically all of the frostbite."

"Except your hand. How much damage was there, how lon-"

Tony could see the man was heading down a guilt spiral, was holding himself at fault for every injury he could conceive of. Tony decided to stall that and took his glasses off, which definitely succeeding in stopping him, and it distracted him from questions he didn't want to answer.

"Your eye?"

"Frostbite."

T'Challa winced again and the only reason Tony didn't, probably because he'd gotten sort of used to telling this story now, it was like reading a script. He still didn't like talking about frostbite, it was a word he'd love to scrub from his mind, even thinking it chilled him and triggered phantom twinges in his hands, made his eyes ache. Weirdly, his back was twinging this time, but it felt internal, like when he'd fractured a vertebrae once. It was only a small ache and easily pushed away, probably just stiff from sitting so long working. Whilst he didn't carry the same chronic pain he had for years, he was still good at managing, well, ignoring, pain. It was probably nothing, only noticed because of his lack of pain or something.

"There wasn't enough left for Extremis to heal and something.. Odd happened."

"That is why you've been wearing sunglasses so much? Me and Shuri were worried you had been blinded."

"No, well, I had, but all healed up. Can see better than ever, my eyesight is quite enhanced now. But this eye."

He tapped his temple next to his left eye, he knew it was quite shocking at first. Hell, it took him ages to adapt to it and it was in his face. He hadn't even gotten around to showing Reed either, caught up on the technopathic abilities.

"I can see.. More. Things that get uncomfortably close to magic for my liking. It seems Extremis found traces of the element I'd created in my blood, left over from my years with the arc reactor in my chest. This, was the result."

He was monitoring the King's colours as he sat trying to process everything he'd told him.

" That is quite the change.. "

" And now we have my dilemma."

"You mean how we are going to make it look like you told Shuri this first before she eviscerates us with her vibranium claws?"

He couldn't help but laugh at that, because yes, that was part of it.

"Well yes, that's part of it. There are two other parts."

He grabbed the wipes he kept in the workshop for getting grease off his slim, they worked well on makeup too.

"Oh Bast. I don't know if I want to know."

He scrubbed at his face whilst chuckling because he definitely understood.

"I've wanted to tell her for a while, but I didn't want to do it on the phone and she won't be visiting for a while."

"And you want to avoid Wakanda because of the rogues? I assure you if you visited and you are most welcome to, we will organise it so they don't see y- Wha?!"

Tony grinned as T'Challa got a look at him without makeup on to make him look older.

"Before you invite me there is one other thing."

"Apart from the fact you now look to be my age?"

Tony didn't answer but instead tilted his head slightly to the side and loaded up all the holoscreens around him that had idled during their chat, making the Kings eyes widen.

"That's not even all of it."

He flicked his fingers towards the Kings wrist where he could sense his beads and just sent him a simple hello message. It took a second before it dawned on him, that not only was his he technopathic, he was compatible with Wakandan tech.

"You are technopathic?"

"Basically."

"So that's why there were no control nodes in your cybernetic hand, Shuri is going to punch you over that."

"Yeah, I thought she would. Also because I've been working on the integration so long.."

"You can access our tech as surely as your own, yes?"

"It's like being bilingual. It's different to what my mind uses or is used to, but I can speak it."

He'd also used their non binary systems to add another firewall in his mind after Stephy had cleared his mind, he didn't want to ever repeat that, so if somehow, someone made it through his walls, he suspected having a non binary firewall would stump people.

" Now you see my dilemma. "

" Telling Shuri is the bigger dilemma. We trust you Dr Stark."

Tony just gaped, which T'Challa found quite amusing it seemed.

Fury had described Tony as a walking security breach on more than one occasion, now he really was, yet the Wakandans would be just fine with him wandering into their country? Not that he'd go rooting through their systems, he had to much respect for the siblings to do that. It wasn't like SHIELD. But he had expected that they'd be wary of his abilities and his reputation.

"You realise I can access pretty much anything tech related right? Wirelessly."

"Dr Stark.."

"I think by now you can call me Tony?"

He said, hopefully. These days getting people to call him tony was like getting blood from a stone. Several stones. Several very stubborn stones.

"Tony.."

Tony gaped again. That had been way to easy, T'Challa just smirked at him. Tony rolled his eyes and stopped interrupting.

"You have been deep in our system with Shuri integrating Wakanda with the rest of the world, have you not?"

"Well yeah, I can work faster with my mind than my hands."

"And from Shuri's lab, you could likely have accessed more of Wakanda?"

"Yeah..?"

"Yet instead you have been working tirelessly, Shuri has shown me how many hours you've logged working on the integration along, let along Barnes algorithms."

"I've not been on that much."

The king merely raised an eyebrow and Tony found himself flushing slightly. Damn he was as bad as Rhodey.

"Hmm, so, you have used your abilities and a considerable amount of effort to help not only Wakanda, just because my sister mentioned once that integrating our systems with the binary ones was proving difficult, but you've also used those abilities to help someone no one would ever expect you to. "

Tony rubbed the back of his neck. He wasn't sure what to do with this. T'Challa was making more of it that it was. Of course he was helping Barnes, it was the least he could do for attacking him. It didn't mean much, he just wanted to destroy those words controlling him. So no one could use the Barnes again to kill, so no one would be left in his position, mourning family when the killer was just as much an unwilling victim. It was purely selfish really. At least that's what he was telling himself, his therapist had just smirked at him and moved to a new topic when he'd said that.

"Oh course I'd help Shuri and Wakanda with code integration. You have enough trouble integrating a country into the world in 2016, it's the least I could do. It's not a big deal."

"Well it is to us, Shuri also is happy to be someone in her level to talk to."

"Well I wouldn't say that either, she is clearly more intelligent."

T'Challa was now definitely giving him a patented Rhodey glare.

"She also had the benefit of the best tutors and generations of study with vibranium. When it came to the integration she was unsure where to even start. She's quite enamoured with your coding too."

Tony wasn't sure when this conversation had gotten away from him. It was happening a lot lately and he didn't know what to do with it, people thanking him for things he would have done anyway seemed weird and unnecessary.

"Back to what I was saying, you could have done a lot with the access granted to you. What you chose to do was work to benefit Wakanda and her people. If you came to Wakanda would that suddenly change?"

"Of course not."

"Well there we go then. At some point when you are free and feel safe to travel, I'm assuming your secluded yourself to gain control of your abilities?"

Not much else he could do other than nod.

"When you feel able you can visit, you can tell Shuri and I'll look suitably shocked."

"OK. Well that sounds.. Easy?"

"Oh, she's still going to be mad."

"I fully expected that."

They both chuckle as Peter chooses that moment to skid into the workshop.

"Mr Stark! Did you know there are Wakandans in the ha-eeek"

Peter stopped, gaping slightly at T'Challa, even though the two had met back in Germany, even if it had been suited and briefly at that. Tony just grinned at watched Peter gape. After all of his confusion in this conversation, it was a nice break.

"Yeah Pete, I'd noticed."

Harley came in a few seconds behind the now frozen Peter, he couldn't hear Tara so he assumed she'd stuck around with Lilah and Cassie. The two girls had taken it very seriously to introduce Cassie to compound life, it was adorable. Harley chucked his bag as it skidded and landed under his desk with practiced easy he glanced at Tony, then T'Challa and finally Peter. Rolling his eyes at Peter and leveled a typical Harley glare at T'Challa. Oh he knew what was coming next.

"Harley, everything is fine, Meowthra here was coming to check up on me."

"If he hadn't abandoned ya in Siberia, he wouldn't have to check up on you now would he?"

Tony just face palmed as Harley dropped himself down at his desk, utterly unphased. That seemed to unstick Peter, who now looked between T'Challa and Harley in mild fascination, or horror. He couldn't tell.

Where as Harley had zero compunction about being rude to anyone, especially if he thought they had contributed to Tony's pain. Peter had a need to be nice, it wasn't even an intentional thing. He was just that good of a person that he naturally spread it around. On more than one occasion he and Harley had been left slightly stunned by it, especially when Peter aimed it at them, neither he nor Harley were sure why it was happening to them...

He just shrugged at T'Challa, who didn't seem to be taking offence at Harley's standoffish nature. Which was handy, because that would have made it worse. Peter finally seemed to unstick at that.

"King T'Challa, I hope you're enjoying the compound."

"From what I've seen it's quite amazing."

"Well I'll take that as a compliment as all you've seen is my workshop. Anyway boys, do you have much work?"

Both of them sort of shrugged and shook their heads which could mean pretty much anything under the sun.

"I figure we give Shuri a call, I'm due to call her about todays update and then we'll go and have lunch?"

"As long as I get to choose where we order from this week, Peter chose last week."

"Sure Harls, if you can be nice to Meowthra we can order from whatever restaurant you want."

He'd be lying if the look of distaste that crossed Harley's face, warring with getting to choose food wasn't amusing. T'Challa just smiled agreeably, he wasn't sure if that would work in the King's favour or not. It was hard to tell with Harley. In the end he sighed.

"Fine. I'll be nice, but I don't forgive him."

"If it helps, I feel terrible for my part in how things turn out and am indebted to Dr Stark for leaving an ally behind."

Harley seemed to weigh his words, before nodding and smiling somewhat.

Tony and Peter sighed in relief.

"Have you told Shuri yet?"

Ah great, now he had the Harley glare leveled at him.

"Not yet, figure it's a face to face kind of thing."

"Yeah Mechanic. That's going to work out well for you."

Harley was now way too amused. He walked over to him and cuffed him over the back of the head, just getting a wide, utterly unrepentant grin in return. Peter just rolled his eyes.

"I know, I'll bring her presents, that'll help right Meowthra?"

"I'm sure it will help."

He didn't sound remotely convincing.