May Parker was a woman who had gone through much in her life. Her siblings-in-law dead in a plane crash, a few years later her husband shot in front of her nephew, who she discovered had gained superpowers and had been going out every night in dangerous situations for the past 2-3 years. She didn't let any of that bring her down, had given Tony Stark a good talking to, and never let Peter get in situations too dangerous. After all, he was just a boy, no matter his (or the readers) protests, people seemed to forget the fact that he hasn't even graduated high school.
Her darling, idiotic, sweet boy, she loved him as a son, had stayed out in the cold too long and had gone into hibernation. Now that she thought about it, he had always been more reluctant to go out in the cold than before the spider fiasco began. May shook her head. Reminiscing didn't matter when she had places to be, mainly Stark Tower.
As the car slowed to a stop and Happy opened the door for her, she caught a glimpse of Tony waiting on the front porch, if you could call it that, patiently. He smiled a small genuine smile and walked up to escort her inside. The elevator was his personal one when he wanted to evade the press, and she was grateful for the opportunity to go unnoticed. She didn't want Peter to stress about her in case any of the employees connected the dots.
The doors dinged open to a beautiful, quiet sitting room. The couches faced each other over a coffee table (doubling as a footrest on the lower tier), the table part had a lot of tea, freshly prepared with the oolong that May had mentioned she enjoyed in passing. It astounded her how thoughtful the man was, even if people didn't see it. Tony waited until she had taken her seat before sitting perpendicular near her.
"Thank you for having me, Tony." May blew on her cup, careful with the no doubt expensive mug.
"It's always nice to see you May. " She looked at him, studying Tony for any signs of what she knew to be his version of self-destructive behavior. Sure enough, there was the unmistakable texture of concealer underneath his eyes.
"Tony..." She said warningly. "Do I need to bring Pepper in?"
He spluttered, thankfully without the mug in his hands, and waved his objections in a gesture seen in cartoons. "No! I mean, no, I'm fine."
"Good. You need to get sleep dear. You can't go passing out on me, although FRIDAY and Vision are rather nice company. " May smiled delicately, meaning to be reassuring.
"What about Peter, he's been keeping you up, hasn't he?"
"Yes, " Tony replied quickly. Too quickly. She noted his nervous glances, his twitching hands. He was obviously anxious about something to her than the spider baby in his bedroom.
"It's the Avengers, isn't it? that bastard Fury is keeping them in your home without your consent." May scowled, Tony shook his head.
"That would be illegal, but it looks better for them if I do. " Tony sighed, taking a sip of his tea.
"Since when did you care about their opinions? This isn't like you. And don't tell me you feel guilty about the accords, because they weren't your fault, and if Rogers "-she spit out the name like a curse-" Can't see that, he's every bit of an idiot as a doctor in the plague. "
"Well, to be frank, I haven't exactly welcomed him into our home, and right now I simply doing have the strength to care." Tony pinched the bridge of his nose at the thought of the self-righteous superhero.
"Then why is he here? We know your reputation is secure, so your previous excuses don't matter." The man in question opened his mouth to argue, but she continued. "No offense Tony, but a man of your intellect should be able to see right through that bullshit."
"I dunno, I guess I'm not that perceptive, " he tried to joke but sighed at her unwavering stare. A beat or two passed until his explanation. "This is a test."
"What does it prove?" May raised an eyebrow.
"That they are stable and have enough self-control to not go rogue again." Tony stole a glance at his tea and then the sugar pot. "They don't know about it, and they aren't allowed in this floor at all. The doors in this room are soundproof and can withstand a nuclear missle blast, so they aren't going to find out any time soon."
"So we're doing a sort of mental evaluation."
"Yep," he said, popping the P in a mixture of relief and annoyance, the latter clearly directed towards the situation of the tower.
She smiled a devilishly roguish smile, some type of resolve only Aunt May could have in her eyes. "How do I get in on it."
When Clint Barton came down to the kitchen the next morning, he did not expect someone to be there already. It was a woman, not particularly superhero-ish looking, but when she opened her eyes (she had them closed, presumably basking in the scent of her tea), they burned colder than the frozen sun.
He greeted the woman with a nod and went about his breakfast, gathering small bits of crackers and cereal, opting to decide on one when the holes bored into his back were becoming unbearably deep. The other Avengers filtered in one by one, becoming increasingly nervous at the sight of the woman (with the exception of Natasha), whomever she was, at their table.
When Steve finally came down the stairs, everyone came to a halt as the woman stood up. A small smile graced her face as she led him to sit down with the rest of the team-she had somehow gotten them to all sit at a table-which he returned sleepily.
Clint noticed Bruce sitting with them, which was rare, and he was smiling into his mug of tea. He met his gaze with Natasha, who minutely shook her head.
"Ma'am, pardon my asking," Steve started, "but who are you?"
"My name is May, but you will call me ." The smile on her face became more dangerous, sharper. Steve looked unabashed by this and smiled back.
" , I'm Steven Grant Rogers, also known as Captain America. Please, call me Steve." Clint once again glanced at the woman, , and found himself to be liking her more and more though he couldn't explain why.
"Well, Steve, I have a few small things to discuss with you and the lovely newly returned avengers." Steve swallowed back something like fear. "First of all, the fact that you live in this tower is sickening after what you've done to Tony. He's been so generous as to look past his pain and anger to let you in and all you've done is try to figure out his secrets and personal life like he doesn't deserve privacy. "
"Ma'am-"
"Don't you dare interrupt me young man, and that's another thing, don't try and blame anything on others because most of this mess is your fault. Your arrogance, your selfishness, do you even realize what Tony has done for you? He took months out of his year to get the accords to a manageable level, so you could manage it, and all you needed was to sign them."
"The accords were restricting our freedom, they-"
"They restrict your freedom just like the laws constrict your freedom. They're going to be negotiated regardless of when you sign them, so why not simply do it? But what did you do instead? You decide to run away because you don't trust Tony to take care of you and the team like he's always done."
"That's not true, I trust Tony."
At this May actually snorted. "Well not very much, clearly, considering instead of letting him get rid of HYDRA's triggers in Bucky you left him to die in one of their bunkers in Siberia."
Clint looked up, shocked. When did that happen? Was that why Steve was so concerned about injuries? But May was continuing.
"And that was after you showed him the video of his parent's assassination. And what did you tell him?" She paused. Steve was growing red, with anger or embarrassment, Clint couldn't tell. "You told him 'it wasn't Bucky.' This isn't even half of how much you've hurt the team, including Tony, and I'm not even going to start on how you first met him."
May shook her head and stood up. "Perhaps if you thought of yourself as one of the members and not the leader, you would all get along better instead of brushing everyone else off. That's all I had to say. Have a pleasant day."
Clint looked at Natasha, who was smiling a bit. Bruce was silently laughing, Wanda was measuring the worth of the man in front of her, and Bucky was staring at his boyfriend with a curious expression. Clint had never thought that Captain America would be taken down quite like this, but he had to say that he enjoyed it.
FRIDAY had given May the directions to Peter's room after she left the Avengers to their breakfast. She followed these now to find her boy sleeping on an absurdly high loft (really Tony?) Nonetheless, she climbed the ladder put there for normal person use and now sat, staring down at her nephew.
She could see how Tony must have been so scared when he first found him. Peter was breathing so slowly, his body unmoving and from what she saw on the heart monitor, his circulation was low.
May shook her head. When she had first found out about Spiderman, she had lectured Peter for an hour and then went on his phone to lecture Tony for an hour. Despite his supposedly arrogant nature, Tony proved himself to be sweet and kind, going to far as to offer her a home in his tower. She had refused at first but seeing how happy Peter was with Tony...
Well, she might consider his offer.
It bothered her to think of having to live with the Avengers, but most of them seemed nice enough, taking into consideration the amount of talks they would need. However, she had gotten on especially well with Bruce, but they had been company for a long time. Of course, she had been briefed on the situation by him, and Peter was expected to wake up increasingly frequently until he was back to normal.
When he woke up, May would have to keep him safe from the other Avengers. He was a strong kid, she knew, but his large heart would end up like Tony's if she wasn't careful. She wouldn't wish that pain on anyone.
And to do that, she'd just keep the Avengers in line, and hopefully make them happier as well.
"Mmh." Peter made a small noise but didn't open his eyes, he shifted closer to grab at her pant leg. Well, all the more reason to protect him.
For the next day and a half, Steve was silent.
had given him a lot to think about, and he had all the time in the world to think about it. So he did. He thought about Tony, about Sokovia, about the Accords.
He had never ended up signing them, and from what had told him, he probably should've. Now he had created more work for Tony. Speaking of, how much work had he created for him over the course of the time they had worked together? "Oh, it's fine." he da always said over the endless mugs of coffee and makeup
Tony seemed to say that a lot.
Speaking of, wasn't Steve supposed to be a perceptive man? How had he not noticed the smiles that Tony always gave him were close to his press smiles? He sat on the stairs to the balcony, staring out over the city line. The sun dyed the sky in purples and pink, reminding him of the new day tomorrow. The visitors from Wakanda were coming.
A hand tapped his shoulder. Bucky. "Hey punk, whatcha thinking about?"
"I'm thinking about... well, what said." Bucky smiled softly, strained. Steve sighed. "She's right, isn't she."
" was right. You made some mistakes, buddy, but she was wrong about one thing." Steve glanced at his boyfriend, tracing the curve of his metal arm, the one that T'Challa had given him.
"And..." Steve gulped. "What is that?"
"She never mentioned the part where you could make it better. It won't be perfect, and it won't be what could've been, but it will be better."
Steve nodded, smiling. "When did you become so wise?"
"Well, you certainly didn't get any wiser trapped for seventy years in the ice." His teasing voice came back.
Steve chuckled. "I suppose that's true."
And Steve found himself leaning into his boyfriend as the world turned darker around them.