Avengers || WinterIron || Avengers || Assembling the Avengers || Avengers || WinterIron || Avengers

Title: Assembling the Avengers – Living at Stark Tower

Disclaimer: All rights concerning the Avengers reserved to Marvel. This fanfiction on the other hand is entirely mine. No money is made with this, though reviews are more than welcomed.

Warnings: m/m, Canon Divergent Post-Avengers (2012), Team as Family, families of choice, adoption, fluff, hurt/comfort, PTSD, explicit intercourse, anal, oral, m/f, f/f

Main Pairing: Bucky/Tony

Side Pairings: Hope/Darcy, Bruce/Jane, Clint/Natasha, Rhodey/May, Happy/Pepper

Marvel Characters: Anthony 'Tony' Stark, James 'Bucky' Barnes, Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanova, Thor Odinson, Jane Foster, Darcy Lewis, Hope van Dyne, James 'Rhodey' Rhodes, Sam Wilson, Sharon Carter, Katherine Keener, Harley Keener, Gwen Stacy, Miles Morales, Edward 'Ned' Leeds, Peter Parker, May Parker, Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan, Maria Hill

Summary: After the battle of New York, Tony invites the Avengers to live with him in Stark Tower. Everything evolves from there on out. Living together in the tower changes the team-dynamic, changes the fate of the Avengers and how their line-up grows differently over time.

Assembling the Avengers

Living at Stark Tower

Chapter 3: Taking Care of Tony

They were sitting together in the living room when the news hit. Tony had been dragged out of his lab by Steve and Natasha – a team-up always meant he had gone too long without sleep, he knew that. So he had been in the living room, waiting for a sandwich Clint was preparing for him (peanut-butter. With Clint it was always peanut-butter). Tony was pouting, because this was clearly time he could have used in his lab. Instead, he was stuck between Natasha and Bruce, waiting for his sandwich. The two were having a conversation over his head like he wasn't even there!

Before he could complain, the screen changed. It only took them moments to call Steve and Clint back in from the kitchen (Clint couldn't make a sandwich on his own; the toaster was still not talking to him, after all). A guy calling himself the Mandarin showed his face and held a very grand, dramatic speech. Terrorists. Again. Like Tony wasn't still railing from the last time he had to deal with those guys. (Like Tony wasn't still railing from the thing that had happened between.)

The Avengers simply stared, unsure how to process this. Thor was off-world right now – the trial of his brother keeping him more busy. But what were they supposed to do? Were they supposed to do something? So far, they had just been living together. Natasha and Clint going on missions for SHIELD, Tony being busy with Stark Industries stuff (and upgrades) and Bruce keeping himself occupied with his own science projects. They had all come together during a great crisis. A world-ending crisis. An alien attack. So... the rules were unclear. What was and wasn't Avengers territory.

"What... I mean, do we do something?", asked Clint slowly. "Because I'll tell you, my knee-jerk reaction is to do something. I'm just unsure what."

"We... can't take care of every terrorist threat", threw Natasha in. "There are law-enforcements and people whose jobs this kind of thing is. We can't just march in and take over."

"Nat's right", agreed Steve, though he looked tense and frustrated. "We wait for orders."

"Orders from whom?", questioned Bruce. "Nick Fury to call us in?"

"Fury, the president. Someone's gonna go 'maybe we need superheroes on this one' when the need arises. For now, I have suits to upgrade and things to take care of!", declared Tony.

He laughed, shaky and fake, as he made his way out, the Avengers' temporary distraction enough for him to sneak away again. As soon as the elevator doors closed did he slide down onto the floor, his heart racing and his breath short. Just seeing it sent him back into the cave and wasn't he just kind of sort of getting the hang of the whole... wormhole-issue? (Sure, one may suggest that not sleeping to avoid the nightmares was not really getting the hang of it, but Tony would like to argue that it was very much working for him so far.)

/break\

Tony was behaving weird. Clint was the first one to notice. Jumpy. Restless and at the same time tired and exhausted all the time, like he needed to sleep but simply opted out of it. Weird. Well, considering that he was Tony Stark anyway. Tony never slept. He closed his eyes every once in a while, but other than that, he constantly worked. Something about him seemed off though. He also spent more time in his private workshop again, something he hadn't done in months. At least not to this extend. He always had some private project that he didn't want the Avengers to see until it was finished – mostly upgrades on their weapons and suits. But this was extreme. He was hiding something. Something big. At first, Clint kept dismissing it. But then the others started noticing it too. And one morning, when Tony hadn't emerged from his private workshop all night and the others were gathered for breakfast, Clint decided to voice it.

"Something's wrong with Tony."

Relief seemed to go through the others at that, like they had all been thinking it but hadn't dared to speak up. Natasha brushed her hair out of her face, the only nervous habit he had ever seen on her. And she only ever showed it when things concerned Clint's life. Seemed like in the past months, the Avengers had upgraded from 'a team to work with' to 'something like maybe a family'.

"Maybe it's SI. He has been handing the full reigns to Pepper, maybe something did come up and he thinks that we may be here for Avengers-dangers but not for the... ah, real-world-dangers. He has been spending a lot of money on us. This tower, all the equipment for us, the jet, now the pay-check for Hill and the others, all the damage-repairs...", offered Bruce after a moment.

"Yeah, but... he's rich, right?", piped Clint in, looking confused. "Like, really rich."

"But not bottomless rich", grunted Natasha and gave him a look.

"Especially considering he's not exactly... used to responsibilities", murmured Bruce thoughtful. "He's been a player, he brushed off responsibility all his life. Afghanistan had been the first time he ever faced responsibility – and none of us know what even happened there."

"So, do you think we can help Tony, somehow?", asked Steve slowly.

Before their mood could drop any more, Tony joined them. He looked horrible. Bags beneath his eyes, yet not the kind from being overworked but the kind from not having been able to sleep.

"Morning, sunshine. You hungry, Tones?", asked Clint playfully.

"No", grunted Tony, nursing a coffee and nearly cowering on his seat.

"How... How was your dinner with Rhodes?", asked Bruce after a moment.

"Good. Great. Yeah. Iron Patriot. Taking care of the Mandarin. No need for the Avengers."

Bruce furrowed his brows and looked at Natasha. The redhead cocked one eyebrow and shrugged. There was an odd tone to Tony's voice. A displeased one, like more had happened, or this was worrying him more than he let on. Yes, it worried Bruce too, in a way. It'd be unnatural not to be worried about an active terrorist threat, honestly.

"Colonel Rhodes is a very capable man, I'm sure he can handle it", stated Steve after a moment.

One night, when Rhodey had been over, the two military men had bonded over too many beer. Rhodey did know all the best and funniest Tony stories, after all. It had been fun. Tony made a small, soft sound of agreement, that little smile on his face that was reserved to thinking about his best friend with pride and approval. Maybe they were blowing something out of proportions.

/break\

Pepper and Tony had tried a relationship. And failed. Pepper didn't want him to be Iron Man and Pepper worried for his safety. Things had been awkward for a while, working so close together, having their history with each other. Pepper had found comfort in Happy's arms. At first purely platonic – there were only three people in the world who truly understood what it meant having Tony Stark in their lives (even if the Avengers were slowly getting there themselves, the few months of living together did not compare to the bond Happy, Pepper, Rhodey and Tony shared). Over the following weeks, that platonic comfort developed into more. Happy had a crush on Pepper for years, but with the thing between Tony and Pepper, he had never spoken up. Only after talking to Tony about the level of awkwardness this may cause did Happy actually go and ask Pepper out.

"There's a guy here", complained Happy. "He's showing Pepper his big brain."

Tony raised an eyebrow at the very strange euphemism. "Okay? And..."

"And I don't trust the guy. Killian Jones. Something about him is off. He's here with this... other guy. Very sketchy. I don't like this", declared Happy, looking very unhappy.

That did put the smallest smile on Tony's lips. Happy was jealous. How... adorable. More or less.

"Listen, Hap, you have nothing to worry about. She adores you. She doesn't care about... brain-size. I may find this jealousy adorable, Pep may not. So try tuning it down", advised Tony.

He smiled bemused and shook his head, though he did bring up all the data he had on this Killian guy he supposedly had met before in Switzerland. That night was kind of a blur. As were most nights from back in the day when he was still intimately acquainted with alcohol. Oh, how he missed it. But the Avengers were keeping him dry. Not just by not allowing any alcohol in the tower, but... weirdly enough, by being there. When Tony emerged from his room or his workshop in need of a drink, he could always count on finding at least one Avenger in the living room. Watching late night TV, eating a midnight snack, having just returned from a mission, doing some late reading. Tony was pretty sure that Jarvis alerted them of when he was in need of company and they just... came and posed as casually hanging out. Either way, he appreciated the gesture and sitting with them and talking to them had helped him through more than a few hard nights.

There was just one thing he didn't know how to talk to them about. Or if he should talk to them about it at all. The after-effects that the invasion had taken on him. Be that the countless – well, very much countable, 43 at this point – suits he built in a desperate attempt to protect, to improve so he could properly protect, or the nightmares, the many, horrible nightmares that left him breathless and panicked and lonely. So unfathomably lonely. It was the most overwhelming feeling Tony remembered from inside the wormhole. How deep, dark and lonely space was. Jarvis had been offline, there had been no chance for the Avengers to reach him. He was... gone forever. But then he wasn't anymore. Suddenly, he woke up to the Hulk roaring and there they were, all of the Avengers, standing in a circle around him, looking at him so worried. Seemingly caring about him.

Maybe that was why he had invited them in. Because in that one moment he had felt his loneliest, his most broken, he woke up to all of them around him. The cave, Afghanistan, had been bad, but he hadn't been alone, he had Yinsen. Out in open space, even though it had only been so short, somehow it had felt... even longer than the cave had felt. That was out of whack, Tony knew that, it made no sense, but yet somehow, in his head, it did. Space had been an unknown, ungraspable threat of infinite darkness and loneliness, opening a whole new universe of threats.

/break\

"Why did he do this? Why did he go there to begin with? And alone at that?"

Tony frowned, resting a comforting hand on Pepper's shoulder as she sat next to Happy's hospital bed. There had been another Mandarin attack and somehow, Happy had gotten himself caught in the middle of this. And now he was in the hospital, unconscious and injured. It was staggering to look at Happy like this. To see Pepper next to him like this, crying, holding onto Happy's hand.

"He'll be... He'll be fine, Pep", promised Tony, voice wavering.

He couldn't even convince himself. Would this have happened if he had listened more closely to Happy's concerns? About Killian? Did Happy get involved on his own and hurt because of that? Because he was out there, all alone? Tony hadn't been there to protect him. What was the point of all his suits, all the training, if he couldn't even protect his own family...?

"Pepper, hey. How are you holding up?"

Tony was startled at the familiar voice. When he turned around, he saw Natasha standing in the doorway. The two redheads hugged briefly before Nat sat down next to Pepper. Huh. Well, the two had kind of formed an odd friendship when Nat had pretended to be Tony's secretary (despite the rocky start), so maybe he shouldn't be as surprised that the two had stayed in contact.

"Steve's outside to give you a ride home, Tony", offered Natasha softly after a moment. "I'll keep Pepper company. You, go and track down the bastard who did this."

He nodded sharply, though found himself baffled by the idea of having Captain America as his chauffeur. Why? Dazed and with a last look at Happy, all scratched up and bruised and unconscious, did Tony leave the hospital room, to find a concerned looking Steve.

"What are you doing here, Capsicle?", asked Tony confused, allowing the blonde to lead the way.

"We've been living at the tower for half a year now. And Mister Hogan takes his job as head of security very seriously. We've all... had our fair share of interactions with him. When we heard that he got hurt... And I figured, it wouldn't be good to leave you all alone right now. I know him and Miss Potts are like family to you, Tony", offered Steve after a moment.

Tony just nodded. The concept of Captain America bonding with Happy during a security check seemed strange, but it figured. Cap had that charming personality that just won people over. Smiling very faintly, he allowed Steve to lead him outside. Yet not even the presence of Captain America himself could stop Tony from making bad life choices – when overwhelmed by reporters who had their own dumb thoughts to add to this situation instead of leaving him alone after what happened, he couldn't be stopped from challenging the Mandarin personally. After all, everybody knew where Tony Stark lived. There was still a gigantic A claiming Avengers Tower and it was still officially known as Stark Tower. Before he got too far into his challenge, Steve grabbed him firmly by the arm, glared pointedly at him and pulled him along to make their way home.

/break\

"Tell us what to do, Tony. How can we help?"

"H... Help?", echoed Tony confused, looking around at the gathering of Avengers.

"Of course. This just got personal", huffed Clint offended. "Besides you literally invited a terrorist to come visit us at home. So like. Maybe we should visit him first."

"Tony, you're not alone in this", noted Bruce gently. "What can we do?"

"Okay. Okay. So I have some ideas. Simulations to run, data to analyze..."

"Show me where I can help", offered Bruce.

"And we're just... gonna get ready to go out, whenever you find a lead", offered Steve.

Tony nodded sharply, slightly awkwardly because really, having the Avengers offer help was still unusual for him. For the next hour, him and Bruce were in the lab, working on analyzing the things they had data on. In the end, they figured that tracking the extreme heat-signatures was the best approach. Jarvis found one that was outstanding – one that had happened far before any of the Mandarin related explosions. In Rose Hill. Jarvis agreed to plan a flight route for Rose Hill, but before they could get anything done, they were disturbed by an unexpected visitor.

"She says she knows you and had your help with something years ago", offered Clint doubtfully. "I know Happy wouldn't let her in, but she said it's important and about some guy named Killian-"

"Yeah, we're gonna meet her... but don't let her inside. Let's meet her on the roof. Privacy and no opportunity to snoop", muttered Tony. "Killian, he has something to do with all of this."

That had Clint and Steve on high-alert too. They came along upstairs. However, their conversation didn't really get going thanks to some... incoming missiles. Okay. Maybe, just maybe, provoking terrorists was not the hottest way to go. And despite Steve, Clint and the Hulk helping out, the fight was a blur to Tony – or maybe it was a concussion from the explosion, who knew.

Either way, when he came to it again, he was surrounded by snow and in a broken suit. The last thing that Jarvis said to him was that they were in Rose Hill – because it was the last destination Jarvis had calculated for. Okay. Super not how that had been planned. He had meant to get the coordinates down to the team, inform Nat and have them all go to Rose Hill together. Great. Now he was left out here, with a broken suit and a possible concussion.

It was exhausting and it was cold and he hated being out here defenseless and alone, but he managed to drag his suit all the way to town and found shelter inside a barn. Naturally, he didn't really get a break there either, because suddenly there was a kid aiming a potato gun at him. And okay, brave little bugger, facing off a potential mugger like that. The gun was also impressive.

"I need multiple things from you, kiddo. If you wanna be useful", proposed Tony after a bit of admittedly amusing banter with the little kid. "One important one would be a sandwich."

Harley – as the kid introduced himself – he gave him a doubtful look, but in the end, he did provide all the things Tony asked of him and even went to give Tony a tour of Rose Hill. Including the side of the explosion. And wow, how did this little brat call him out on his PTSD? Ouch. But yes, maybe the kid was right. Maybe Tony had PTSD. Maybe Tony really should be on meds. Maybe Tony... needed help. Not right now though, right now, they were being attacked by glowing lava people who set things on fire and exploded. That was just great.

"You look like you could use a hand. Or a water-pistol."

Startled, Tony whirled around and looked at the snarkily grinning archer who had just hit the dude attacking Tony in the shoulder with an arrow. Huh. What... was he doing here? Turning some more, he saw Cap charging from the other side. Okay. Back-up. He had back-up.

"Bruce said you tracked something abnormal down to Rose Hill. It was a long shot but we-"

"Is everyone okay? The attack-", interrupted Tony distressed.

"We evacuated everyone. Some had minor injuries, but thankfully your tower's reinforcements did make it sturdier so while we're missing a roof and half the common area, the tower didn't fold in and the only ones injured were in the upper levels", replied Clint. "Focus on the fight now?"

"Yes. Please. Because I never fought against people who explode on their own", requested Cap.

"Right. Yeah. Fight now. Everything else later", agreed Tony tensely.

/break\

A heated jet was a really, truly marvelous thing. Tony got to lean back and take a breath. Well, when he wasn't informing everyone of his conclusions and findings. They called Rhodey in, since he was technically in charge of finding the Mandarin and they were kind of invading his territory here.

Tony told them all about AIM, about Killian. And then they went on to track the Mandarin down, in Florida of all places. Tony didn't know what he would have done if he had been alone. Probably something ridiculous dangerous, all on his own. Instead though, he had Steve, Clint, Natasha and a reluctant but willing Bruce who really hoped they wouldn't need the Hulk. The spies were great at sneaking in. Finding out the Mandarin was only an actor though? That was a shock. Still, Killian and his minions were surprisingly easily overwhelmed when one had two sneaky spies, a super soldier, a Hulk and an Iron War Machine Patriot as back-up.

"To think that this guy just... hired an actor to play the scapegoat?", snorted Clint. "Insane."

"Come on, let's return. See how Mister Hogan is doing", sighed Steve. "...And fix our home."

Our home. Tony smiled ever so faintly at that. Yes. Their home indeed. He liked that sound.

/break\

The asset was wary as he watched from the shadows how two American patriots, two spies and a very snarky and tricky short man took out AIM. That... was his job though. HYDRA had not been pleased with the kind of attention Killian Jones was drawing and while his Extremis had potential, he seemed unable to work out the kinks. Those two things combined had led the asset's handlers to the decision that Jones ought to be taken care of. It was curious to see someone else do it before him. He found himself staring at the short brunette in fascination. The others came in armor and suits and with weapons, but he just... improvised things and still managed to take out his targets?

Still. There was nothing left to do for him but to return to his handler, since the job was taken care of. Even if not by him, personally. And as he made his way back, he found himself wondering about the short brunette and also the tall blonde, who seemed so strangely familiar...

Author's note: Bit of a slow-burn, but there are two movies that gotta happen before Winter Soldier. Here, we tick off IM3. Next chapter is going to be Thor 2 and after that, we will bring Bucky home! ;)

However, there will be no update next month. August is Writer's Month, a 31 day prompt event I am hosting with two friends and that I also plan on participating in, for all 31 prompts. Due to my severe condition of only being human with two hands to type, I simply can't write 31 oneshots and five chapters total for my ongoing stories, so updates will be suspended. The schedule will resume in September and the next update for this fic will be September 5th.