Rhodey knew that Tony had arrived that day but hadn't seen him since he had gone to his room. Worried that his friend would be freaking out he started up to Tony's room. Passing a doorway he heard his name called out.
"Rhodey?" Natasha called, "You might want to start heading to the meeting room." there are only 15 minutes before the meeting is starting." She stared at him probably because he was going in the opposite direction to the meeting room. Even though she had initially fought with them in the civil war Rhodey couldn't help lacking trust in her after she had let the Captain and Bucky get away resulting in one of his best friends more recent near-death experiences.
"I was just going to see Tony. Haven't seen him since he arrived." He replied calmly watching for her reaction. As usual, she didn't show much emotion except for a softening in her expression.
"How's he doing?" Natasha asked. Rhodey's face hardened at that.
"He's even more fucked up than usual. So thanks for your hand in that and goodbye." He turned away and continued to Tony's room not looking back to see how his words had affected Natasha. He sighed he didn't mean to sound cruel but after Siberia Tony had become even more distant and mistrusting than he already had been only letting in a few people apart from himself including Pepper, Bruce, and Peter. Reaching the door he heard pacing footsteps and ragged breathing. Rhodey knocked.
"Tones you in there?" he asked after there was no acknowledgement of the knock. Still no reply. Rhodey then pushed open the door to find Tony pacing the length of his room looking panicked.
"Hey, Tony, you all right." Then inwardly cursed himself. Of course, he's not alright he's meeting his traitorous friends in a couple of minutes. But Tony had stopped pacing at that and turned to look at him. Tony looked like he hadn't slept for days and considerably older than when Rhodey had departed for Wakanda barely a week ago.
"I-I'm freaking out here Rhodes. Really fucking freaking out." He ran his fingers through his hair. "They all hate me and some want me dead and I'm meeting them. Why am I doing this? Goddammit, why does the universe have to be in danger now and not when the Avengers were still together." Tony rambled and then sat down on his bed head in his hands. Moving over to the bed Rhodey sat down beside him.
"Who gives a shit man. You only have to do this until we save the world or whatever and then you don't have to see them again if you don't want to." He rubbed Tony's back in comfort. "Besides you only have to see them at work not outside of it or anything. Hell, you could stay in the opposite end of the Palace if you asked T'challa." He smiled as Tony lifted his head and sighed calming down.
"I am so messed up Rhodes." He said flopping back onto the bed. "So mentally fucked up."
"Well," Rhodey said smiling sadly. "You could always get the therapist Pepper is bugging you about." Tony stared at him incredulously.
"Platypus, if I got a therapist then they would need a therapist after hearing all my shit." Rhodey snorted rolling his eyes.
"Anyway let's get this shitty meeting over with then." He said standing up and waiting as Tony straightened his suit and put his sunglasses back on. They walked into the meeting room in almost silence and Rhodey could practically hear Tony's heart jumping out of his chest as he approached the room. Arriving at the door, they paused Tony sighed and pushed open the door strolling inside. The room went quiet as everyone looked at Tony as he came in and sat down.
"Hi Tony," Bruce said breaking the silence and smiling at Tony.
"Hey Brucie-bear, glad to see you're doing okay in the calm, stress-free," he lingered on those words, "environment of Wakanda. Everyone in the room was staring during this exchange.
"Tony," The Captain said hesitantly.
"Rogers" Tony replied looking away. Rhodey looked at everyone in the room. Clint, Wanda, and Scott were staring daggers at Tony avoided their eyes. Sam looked uncertainty around, Vision was looking at everyone, in turn, Natasha kept on glancing at Tony while Bucky stared intently at the floor as if he had to memorize every detail to survive, and Steve was staring at Tony, a mixture of guilt and a little bit of hope on his face. The men who Rhodey assumed were Dr Strange and Wong were muttering to each other at the end of the table. Tony was tapping his fingers on the table and it was one of the only sounds heard in the awkward silence that filled the room. Then the silence was interrupted when Peter came into the room.
"Uh, Hey everyone," he said awkwardly obviously torn between wanting to freak out at the fact he was in a room full of superheroes and being loyal to Tony decidedly he wandered over to the seat next to Tony and Rhodey.
"Who's the kid?" asked Steve confused.
"Uh," said Peter, rubbing the back of his head. "I'm Peter, and, um, I'm Spiderman"