Avengers || WinterIron || Avengers || Assembling the Avengers || Avengers || WinterIron || Avengers
Title: Assembling the Avengers – Living at Stark Tower
Fandom: Avengers; Marvel Cinematic Universe
Avengers 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, Hope van Dyne, Sam Wilson, Sharon Carter, Katherine Keener, Harley Keener, Gwen Stacy, Miles Morales, Edward 'Ned' Leeds, Peter Parker, May Parker, James 'Rhodey' Rhodes, Jane Foster, Darcy Lewis, 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 5: The Fall of SHIELD
SHIELD fell. Tony still couldn't quite grasp how that had happened. And on the day he was all the way in China for a business pitch with Pepper. When word from Nat reached them, Pep thankfully understood that Tony had to return as soon as possible. Thor was, once again, off-planet – well, he was a prince-soon-to-be-king, he did have bigger obligations to take care of than protect Midgard 24/7. Clint, Nat and Steve were stranded alone, had sought out refuge with Steve's running buddy of all people. That was how Tony found them, cowering with Sam Wilson.
"Tony. You finally made it."
"Aw, cousin Shar, you've grown so much since joining SHIELD", cooed Tony playfully.
"Cousin?", echoed Steve disturbed, looking between Sharon Carter and Tony.
"Yes, I can draw you the family tree later on. Tell me what's going on", dismissed Tony.
He was hugging Sharon, surveying the room. He noted that only Steve, Clint, Natasha, Sharon and Sam – well, who he assumed to be Sam, considering he had never met the guy before – were there. Steve had mentioned Sam a couple times, a guy he was running with, who apparently led a PTSD group that he had gotten Steve to join lately. Which was good. Steve definitely had a lot of PTSD from WWII to deal with and the groups seemed to be helping him.
"Fury's dead. Or not. Who knows with him", muttered Clint.
"We're being hunted. By the Winter Soldier", sighed Sharon. "Who is not a myth."
"Never thought he was. Aunt Peggy always believed in him", offered Tony.
Which was when things slotted into place for Steve, judging by his face. Sharon's aunt was Peggy Carter, who had been Tony's godmother. Thankfully, Steve managed to shake it off.
"We need a plan. HYDRA has infiltrated SHIELD", started Steve, all serious business.
Tony leaned in, listening closely to the recaps of what he had missed.
/break\
Taking HYDRA out of SHIELD was kind of hard when all of SHIELD was infested. Steve wanted to info-dump everything on the internet, expose everything – which would have exposed the identities of all SHIELD agents. Thankfully, Tony was there to stop him. They downloaded the info, to have Jarvis go through it, to find every single HYDRA agent inside of SHIELD and track down every active SHIELD agent so they could be extracted from their missions.
The real problem was the Winter Soldier though. James Buchanan Barnes. Bucky. Steve's friend.
"Steve. We'll work together to find your friend", promised Tony. "Jarvis is up and running, searching all cameras everywhere for the Winter Soldier. We'll find him."
"I know. I know Jarvis is brilliant and can do this. I know. I just...", muttered Steve.
"How about you go out on a run, Cap?", asked Tony with a small smile. "Get rid of some energy."
Steve glowered, but he knew Tony was right. He was tense these days, ever since SHIELD had fallen. Tony sighed and leaned back in his chair, watching Cap walk away. His eyes wandered. The office he was sitting in was above, glass-walls, overseeing the training area where Sharon and Natasha were sparring. She wasn't an Avenger – Sharon. But she was one of the now unemployed agents that the Avengers were now employing. It helped. There were enough things not large enough to require the Avengers. Now, the Avengers ran independent from SHIELD because there was no more SHIELD. Tony smiled faintly as he turned some more to look down into the common lab, where Jane was working with Gwen on something.
"Sir. I have found something among the files we downloaded that... will require your attention."
Tony frowned as Jarvis brought up a file dated December 16th 1991.
/break\
"Where is he? What happened?", asked Rhodey with concerned eyes.
"He's been locked into his workshop for the past three days. He hasn't done that in so long", sighed Bruce. "That's why... That's why I called you. Steve, Nat and Clint aren't here, they're out taking care of the exposed SHIELD agents. They're very rarely here since the fall of SHIELD. I've been keeping an eye on Tony, I thought... maybe it's an invention binge, maybe he's so engrossed in encoding the HYDRA files, but it's been too long now."
"Doctor Foster", greeted Rhodey as Jane entered the room.
"We figured we'd... give you some privacy. Bruce and me take Gwen out for dinner", offered Jane.
"Gwen. Right. After I took care of the trouble-maker, I'd like to meet the kid", grunted Rhodey.
He smiled faintly at the couple, watching how they left, holding hands. Then he made his way to the workshop. He had an override code – the only override code, really. For cases like this.
"Tony. Tony, please-", started Rhodey, voice wavering as he found Tony.
This was terrifying. Tony looked like he hadn't slept in days, standing in front of what looked like a conspiracy board. Pictures, cases, notes, all linked with yarn. At the center, a picture of Bucky Barnes. Rhodey recognized the guy from history text books and museum trips.
"What... What is this?", whispered Rhodey.
"Steve's best buddy killed my parents", replied Tony with a manic grin, pointing at a picture of Howard and Maria Stark. "So, at first, I wanted to get drunk. God, I wanted to get drunk so badly. Then I wanted to yell at Steve, for... I don't know what. He can't have possibly known, I was the one to download the files, I was right there. We were still going through the files here. Jarvis only just found it. So, after a lot of screaming and... destroying things... I decided to investigate."
Rhodey slowly approached, looking closer at the board. It was a chronology of some sorts, starting with the fall of Sergeant Barnes from the train – when he had died – and ending only days ago, the fall of SHIELD. Rhodey's eyes dragged all over that timeline in awe.
"Bucky Barnes is the Winter Soldier. I brought up every single Winter Soldier sighting, lined it up, I cross-referenced his MO with other unsolved cases, all the way back to the 40s. Pretty sure there are many where he was actually sneaky enough to not get caught, but this is... a collection of his work. I have yet to figure out how he has been alive and young for this long, but... he's been working for HYDRA. Killing for HYDRA. Judging by what Steve said, that the guy didn't even recognize him, I am... assuming brainwashing of sorts. Been trying to track him, based on his past."
"Tones", whispered Rhodey softly as he reached Tony, pulling him into a tight hug.
"...He killed my mom", whispered Tony in a small voice.
His voice broke before he sobbed. Clearly, he had thrown himself into his work instead of trying to grieve. Grieving someone he had grieved many years ago. He clung onto Rhodey as he cried. Cried and cried for what felt like hours. Rhodey just held him, tightly, soothing him.
"What do you plan on doing when you find him?", asked Rhodey, voice low.
"I... don't know", admitted Tony. "I just... know that he need to be taken off the streets. As long as he is under the control of HYDRA, he's a threat. I... I've been hiding here, because I can't look at Steve, how do I tell him that his best friend killed my parents?"
"I'm going to stay a while. Help out. I got leave", whispered Rhodey.
"You're the best, Rhodey", mumbled Tony, burying his face in Rhodey's chest.
/break\
After the fall of SHIELD, Steve often headed out with the Falcon as his partner. Sam had somehow become a part of Team Save Stranded SHIELD Agents. He also helped in the search for one Bucky Barnes. The whole team understood what Steve was going through, helped as best as they could. The team was there for each other. Not just to face danger, but to face life. Granted, the whole Hydra debacle led to the end of SHIELD as it was and changed their routine entirely, but that made them even happier to have their tower, to have a base to connect and root them, not related to SHIELD. Maria Hill joined them permanently, with SHIELD being completely gone, she was kind of out of a job and she had been working with them before.
"I've been... thinking... I... We need to talk, Steve."
Steve raised one eyebrow at that, looking up from where he was sitting at the table as Tony entered the kitchen. In general, it was a good thing when Tony was thinking. Brilliant things were born when Tony Stark put his mind to good use. But he didn't look like he had invented.
"What about?", inquired Steve as Tony collapsed on the chair next to him.
"Coffee first. Trip, coffee", grunted Tony, holding his hand out and making grabby-motions.
Trip the coffee-machine chirped in reply and only moments later, Tony had a steaming cup of coffee in his hand. Something that never ceased to amaze Steve. That Tony had created sentient life. Dummy the helpful arm and Jarvis the AI butler of the tower, every mechanical device in the Avengers Tower had a personality. The machines spoke in chirps and squeaks and such, electronic noises, noises only Tony seemed to fully understand though Steve had seen Natasha try to decipher them too. It engaged and intrigued her spy-mind to decipher this code.
Steve ran his thumb absentmindedly along Trip's frame, causing the coffee-machine to click happily. He understood that now. Those weren't machines. They were more like pets. Their intelligence-level wasn't equal to Jarvis, but it was still enough to difference them from normal machines. With that mindset, Steve had managed to get used to them. The coffee-machine was like a little kitten, the toaster was a puppy. It worked. Steve got along pretty well with Tony's mechanical pets. Clint still sometimes edged on with the toaster though.
"He killed my parents", whispered Tony softly, startling Steve. "Your Bucky. My parents were killed by the Winter Soldier. It's... been among the files, the ones we got from HYDRA."
Steve stared at him and slowly, he realized something. "Is... that why you've been avoiding me?"
"Because I didn't know how to... tell you that", whispered Tony, motioning for Steve to follow. "And it's not just my parents. I... reconstructed a timeline. He killed so many people, Steve."
Steve. Tony was always quippy with the nicknames, but if he used someone's actual name? That usually meant he was being very serious. Which, Steve appreciated, because this was serious."
"W... What are you saying, Tony?", asked Steve softly as they entered the workshop.
"I understand that you want to bring your friend back, Steve. But I think you need to know, to realize, that... maybe you can't", replied Tony, turning to look at Steve with soft, pained eyes. "Either he was brainwashed into this, or he flipped sides. In one of these scenarios, he has to be held responsible for his crimes. And in the other... he may be too far gone to be helped."
"No",grunted Steve firmly. "No. He... He recognized me. I know he did. He saved me. He's still in there, Tony, you have to believe me, I know he's still in there."
Tony gritted his teeth and averted his eyes from the sad puppy-dog eyes. "Steve, you need to brace yourself for the worst-case scenario. I love the optimism, you know I do, but..."
"I will... I will try to brace myself, but promise me we do everything we can. If he's... There is no way he did this willingly, he would have never killed your parents – we were friends with Howard. He wouldn't have killed his friend. Please, Tony, I know it. I know."
Heaving a sigh, Tony motioned for Steve to step up to the workbench. "I am... working on something that should help with brainwashing. But we still need to find him first."
"We will", declared Steve seriously before softening a little. "I... I'm sorry. I know there was no love lost between you and your father, but..."
He looked guilty. And it hurt Tony. Tony didn't know how to make it better. He had channeled all his energy into tracking the past and present of the Winter Soldier, making something to fix him. Tony didn't know what he was going to feel once he had nothing to do, once Bucky Barnes would be here. He didn't know what he'd feel about that then. For now, he had work to do.
/break\
Rhodey liked the girl. Gwen. She reminded him of a younger Tony. So he had been more than happy to go and pick her up from her friend's, give them some time to be alone so he could really talk to her. Sure, she could theoretically walk back home all on her own. But with the mind-controlled or brainwashed Winter Soldier on the loose, the Avengers wanted to be extra careful and the kid was the weakest link among them. So Rhodey had volunteered to pick Gwen up from the Parkers. Bruce and Jane were on a date, Tony was buried in his work, trying not to think about what would happen when they found the Winter Soldier, Steve was out with Sam and Sharon, following a lead on said Winter Soldier. Thor was less and less frequently on Earth nowadays, from what Rhodey heard, he had his duties on Asgard to fulfill. Straightening, Rhodey knocked.
"Hell... o..." Started the beautiful brunette woman who had opened the door.
After she looked at him, she straightened and brushed her hair out of her face, smiling at him. Well, that was subtle. Rhodey smiled, a bit flustered and very flattered. It had been a while since he had last taken some me-time – flirted, hooked up, even more since he had a steady girlfriend. Between the military, War Machine/Iron Patriot and trying to help Tony, he was stretched thin.
"Good afternoon, Mrs. Parker. I'm-", started Rhodey with a charming smile.
"Colonel James Rupert Rhodes", gasped a very eager teen. "War Machine."
Rhodey blinked as, one by one, teens popped up behind Mrs. Parker, who smiled. "Miss Parker. Or May, if you may. And yes, I do know who you are. But..."
"I'm here to pick up Gwen", offered Rhodey, spotting the blonde girl.
"I don't need to be picked up", groaned Gwen embarrassed. "No one else is being picked up by their parents, or guardians, or whatever. You don't need to babysit me."
May too gave Rhodey a curious look. "Why don't you come in for a tea. The kids were still just in the middle of something. Miles... pick your jaw up from the floor, it's rude to stare."
The boy who had gasped out Rhodey's name earlier now ducked away flustered, followed by the other two boys and Gwen. Rhodey gladly followed May into the kitchen.
"What's going on?", asked May more seriously once the kids were gone.
"I assure you, everything is alright", promised Rhodey smoothly.
"Yeah, not buying this. I've befriended Tony and Jane over the past few months now. And Gwen's normally very much okay to come and go on her own. So why the extra protectiveness? Not to mention, you are not an Avenger. So if they're getting backup... I saw the one with the wings and the blonde one is new too. Something's going on, I'm not daft", huffed May pointedly.
Rhodey loved a clever woman. "There may be... someone out there with a personal vendetta against the Avengers. We're working hard on capturing them, but until then, we just... want to make sure Gwen is safe. In fact, I think it would be safer that, if she is over, you would have some... personal protection. Please, feel free to call me. If you see something strange or suspicious too."
He wrote down his number on a notepad laying on the table. May smiled, tucking her hair behind her ear as she accepted the piece of paper. The smile turned more playful as she looked at Rhodey.
"Can I call even if there is... no immediate danger?", asked May.
"Well. If you... felt like... going out, to a restaurant, you could... call me and I could... accompany you. To make sure you're safe", offered Rhodey, a bit awkwardly.
"I will keep that in mind, Colonel Rhodes", hummed May, looking pleased.
"James, please. Or Rhodey", corrected Rhodey with a charming smile.
/break\
Clint had a fall-guy for the coffee-machine now. Well, fall-girl. Jane was an angel, who was willing to make Clint coffee and he loved her for it. Admittedly, the tower was by now so full, it wasn't hard to get someone else to make him coffee – there had been six Avengers when they started, now there were Jane, Darcy and Gwen, currently also Rhodey, Sam was spending a lot of time here too ever since he helped out, Maria and Sharon were working from the tower too. Clint smiled pleased as he cradled his coffee in his hands, legs pulled up against his chest. Thor was making breakfast – he had just returned from Asgard again and decided to celebrate by making a feast, which Clint always appreciated. He used the opportunity to catch Thor up on everything that had happened.
"And you think that... Steve's friend, he was controlled, like you were by Loki?", asked Thor.
"...Yes. Kind of", grunted Clint, voice cracking at the reminder.
He was in therapy about the whole ordeal, but it still stung to remember it. Though the control may be more similar than they thought for now. After all, the tesseract had been in HYDRA possession before. Perhaps they had used it to control the Winter Soldier. Clint's thoughts were interrupted as Natasha joined them. She sat down next to Clint, pressing a gentle kiss against his temples.
"So we're trying to find Steve's friend and help him, as we helped you, break the mind-control?"
That was enough to tell Nat what they had been talking about. Her eyes softened as she looked at Clint, wrapping an arm around her partner in silent comfort. Clint gladly leaned into her.
"We will help him. Tony's already working on something to help. We just... need to find him."
"Urgh, I hope you find him soon", groaned Gwen as she entered the kitchen. "Look. I totally feel for Steve and his friend. But this whole... helicopter-parenting you guys have going on ever since is driving me up the wall. I want to go out with my friends without an Avenger hovering by."
"We have to be careful, Gwen", whispered Natasha gently.
Clint knew Nat was soft for the little spider who danced ballet with such passion. She saw a lot of herself in the girl and, more importantly, she didn't see a lot of herself – the darker parts – in her. She wanted to protect Gwen, to allow her to love and enjoy ballet, live a safe life.
Sudden alarm-bells disturbed the morning. Thor frowned and put down the pan, turning off the stove, while Natasha and Clint immediately got up, pushing Gwen protectively between them.
"Jarvis. What's going on?", called Natasha out.
"An intruder has breached into the Avengers section of the tower. I am blind, I can not see him."
"Where is he now?", asked Clint, looking around for weapons.
"The elevator. It is moving up toward you now", replied Jarvis calmly.
"Thor, can you take Gwen? Take her to the hanger, somewhere away for now", requested Natasha.
Thor simply nodded, knowing the child's safety was the most important thing when someone was invading their home. The rest of the Avengers would be able to handle the attack on their own. But he? He could, if things became explosive, fly off with Gwen, keep her safe. Gwen didn't even protest. An attack on the tower was apparently enough to have even her accept retreat. Clint and Natasha all the while made their way to the elevator door. Steve came in from the balcony, where he must have sketched – he loved sketching the skyline in the morning. Tony, Bruce and Jane emerged from the common labs, Tony already having a gauntlet around his hand while Bruce had his arms around Jane in a protective manner. After a quick glance did Natasha convey where Thor and Gwen had gone and Bruce quickly took Jane with him to follow them. It was better to not unleash the Hulk inside the Avengers Tower. Finally, the the elevator doors opened and silence fell.
"I... I need help. I keep seeing your face. Why do I keep seeing your face?"
"B... Bucky...", whispered Steve, voice wavering as he approached the man in the elevator.
Author's note: Next chapter, we're going to work on healing Bucky!