Disclaimer - I own nothing you recognise.
Challenges listed at the bottom.
Word Count - 4772
AN: So… this turned saltier than I was intending? Oops? Anyway, Team Iron Man, though I don't actively bash the rogues too much.
Worth A Try
The elevator opened. Tony frowned at it, because he was quite certain he wasn't expecting company, and surely FRIDAY would have alerted him if he had any meetings today.
As it was, he really wasn't in the best position to entertain.
His clothes were days old, and covered in oil, splashes of blood from nicks and cuts on his hands, and sweat soaked. He was pretty sure there were probably scotch stains on them too, but he'd been drinking, so the smell could be just as easily coming from his breath as his clothes.
He was a mess.
"Tony? FRIDAY said you were up here."
Tony grumbled under his breath as Sam stepped out of the elevator onto the penthouse floor.
"What are you doing here, Wilson?" he asked, frowning at him from where he was splayed on the sofa.
He knew he should get up and greet his guest but he wasn't actually sure he could. He hadn't eaten for a few days, and his stomach was topped up with whiskey.
Sam stared at him for a long moment, and Tony couldn't meet his eyes.
"I, uh. I guess I thought we should talk. I didn't really think about you not being in the… uh. State, for it."
"Why can't you just phone ahead like any normal person?" Tony asked, rolling his eyes.
He knew he was being an asshole, but he couldn't seem to stop himself. His long since fired therapist had told him it was a defence mechanism, but Tony wasn't sure he agreed with that.
What defence did he need against Sam? It wasn't like he cared enough about Tony for Tony to be able to hurt him.
"Would you have answered?"
And… well, he kinda had him there, Tony thought. He hadn't been taking any of the calls from the 'rogue Avengers', had he?
"Probably not," he admitted in the end. He waved at one of the plush armchairs, and forced himself into a slightly more appropriate sitting position. "Go ahead. You've made the effort to come all the way across New York, I guess."
Sam perched on the chair, looking incredibly uncomfortable. He twisted his lips for a moment, and then sighed. "I came to apologise."
Tony blinked. "For what?"
"For never even asking for your side of the argument," Sam said quietly. "And for sending you to Siberia. I'm still not sure I know the whole story of what happened there, but I know that you got hurt, and… I sent you into that situation."
"None of that was on you," Tony replied firmly. He was rapidly sobering up, which he really didn't want, but was probably a good thing for the sake of this particular conversation. "You fucked up, Wilson, we all did in one way or another, but own your own actions and let everyone else do the same."
"I'd like to know the whole story," Sam said quietly. "Because I don't think I was fighting for what I thought I was fighting for, and that makes me uncomfortable."
Tony froze for a moment. He understood Sam's wish to know what happened, but Tony didn't know if he could bring himself to tell him. Part of him, albeit a surprisingly small part, wanted to spew all of the details to him. Make Sam take a long hard look at the hero worship he had for Rogers.
The other, more compassionate side of him, wondered what was the point of that. It was over, wasn't it? What good would it do to poison people against each other. Tony was out anyway, and the Avengers would go on and do what they did without him, so what was the point in making them question each other?
"I think you need to speak to Rogers about that."
"I'm asking you."
"Why?"
Sam hesitated. "Because, despite your reputation, I don't think you'll lie to me, and at the moment, I can't say that for Steve."
Huh. That was… new. Tony rubbed a hand over his face. "I'll tell you," he said eventually. "But not now. Not after I've been drinking and I'm not thinking clearly. I'll give you the facts when I'm sober and you can do what you want with them."
Looking a little shocked, Sam nodded. "That's fair. Uh. Should I come back in the morning, or…?"
Tony shrugged. "Come back, stay the night, I don't care. If you want to stay, FRIDAY will lead you to a guest room."
Sam seemed to understand the dismissal for what it was, and he nodded. As he passed him, he dropped a hand on Tony's shoulder.
"You should get some sleep. You look like shit."
He squeezed Tony's shoulder once and then left the room. Tony could hear him talking to FRIDAY quietly. He closed his eyes, and slumped back down. He knew Sam was right about one thing.
He felt like shit, so he could only look worse.
God, he was such a mess.
…
The following morning, sober, washed, and wearing a pair of clean worn jeans and a band tee, Tony met Sam in the kitchen of the penthouse.
"Morning," he muttered, passing by him to get to the coffee maker, which FRIDAY had already set to pour him a cup of delicious life juice.
"Morning. I uh. I thought I could make breakfast, but I didn't know what you'd like."
Tony wrinkled his nose. "I'm not particularly fussy, though I don't actually think there's much food in. I can send an order down to the bakery if you're hungry. They'll send it up."
Sam nodded. "Whatever is easiest, though… you should probably get some groceries in, you know? Man cannot survive on coffee and scotch alone."
Tony snorted. "That's what you think. I've made all of my best decisions on coffee and scotch, I'll have you know."
"How many of them turned into a disaster?" Sam asked, lips quirked up.
"I'm a billionaire, I'm allowed to be eccentric," Tony grumbled. "FRI baby, have the bakery send us a platter up would you? A mixture, I don't know what I fancy."
"Of course, Boss."
Tony nodded and then refilled his coffee cup before he sat down at the breakfast bar, facing Sam.
"What do you want to know?"
"Why'd you sign?"
"We need accountability," Tony replied quietly. "Going in and saving the day is great until you see the casualty list. It was… when I became Iron Man, it was because I wanted to do better; be better."
"I saw your press conference," Sam replied with a small smile. "I remember almost every word you said, and even back then, you were talking about accountability."
Tony nodded. "Right. And… Ste—Rogers seems to think that the Accords were mine, but they never were. The writing was on the wall as far back as the first chitauri attack in 2012, and they only gained supporters with every fight. Ultron—Ultron was at least partially on me. And after it happened, the whispers got louder. People were scared of us, Sam.
"I had a lot of guilt from Ultron. I'd just come off the back of the fight with Killian, and then that happened, and I was just done. And the Accords, they protect us too. Police, Army, Doctors, they all have some form of the accords, even though they're called different things. It's a safety net. Someone to hold us to a high standard but also to protect us when we can't save everyone."
Tony swallowed hard before he continued.
"Were they perfect? No, of course they weren't. Is Ross an asshole? Yes. But going into it, I thought that if we all sat down, and went through them, if we could work out what needed to be changed, as a team, we could have fixed a lot of things. We could have made it something everyone was okay with."
"Ross isn't… you had him sacked."
Tony nodded. "Like I said, he was an asshole. That Rogers thought I was what, in his pocket? After what he did to Bruce? Not fucking likely. I have a reputation, sure, but I'm loyal to the people I care about, and Bruce is my friend."
Sam nodded. "What happened in Siberia, Tony?"
Pausing to take a sip of his coffee, Tony thought about how to word it. "Okay, I'm going to give you the facts only, here, Wilson, because you don't need my emotion to colour what happened."
Arching his eyebrow, Sam nodded again.
"You told me where they were," Tony started. "And so I went. I went as a friend. I just wanted to help, and at first… at first, it seemed like Steve was happy to see me there, although you'll have to confirm that with him.
"Zemo…" Tony shook his head. "There were other super soldiers, but they were all dead, they'd all been shot in their chambers. A video played showing the Winter Soldier's mission on December 16th, 1991. I stood, and I watched him kill my parents. I asked Steve if he knew, and it… he knew. He'd known since the data dump on the helicarrier."
Sam's eyes were wide with shock and when Tony didn't continue, he asked, "what happened, Tony?"
"I threw the first punch," Tony admitted. "But… I don't think I actually wanted to kill anyone. I was emotionally compromised, Sam, I can't tell you exactly what happened. Steve hit… uh. He disabled the suit. And then he and Barnes left."
"He left you in the middle of buttfuck nowhere, with a disabled suit?"
Tony nodded. "Eventually, FRIDAY managed to sense the suit, and Vision came and picked me up. I spent a week in hospital and then I came home and I started working on getting the pardons for the team."
Sam stared at him in disbelief. "After all that, you still fought for us."
It wasn't a question, and Tony didn't really know what to say, so they sat in silence for a moment.
"Sir, the package from the bakery is in the elevator," FRIDAY chimed in, and if she was corporeal, Tony would kiss her as he escaped the kitchen for a moment to collect their breakfast.
It had been months, but relieving it, even in such a bare-bones way, was taking its toll.
God, he really wanted a drink.
He collected the box, and with a deep breath, returned to the kitchen.
…
"I misjudged you," Sam said, tearing a croissant apart on his plate. They'd eaten in silence for a while, but the pastry was getting stuck in Tony's throat, and Sam seemed to be suffering the same.
"Most people do," Tony replied with a wry smile. "And to be honest, you probably didn't. I'm an asshole, a world class one at times. It's easier to be what the media presents me as sometimes."
"You might be an asshole, but you're a good man. I don't think I realised that, before. I didn't really know you. I just… I knew Steve, and I took his side, and for the most part… I don't regret that."
Tony nodded thoughtfully.
"I regret that I didn't try to find out more for myself," Sam added. "I just… I followed him without really asking questions, and I think maybe, this has been a wake-up call that I need to think for myself a little more."
Tony's lips tilted up into a smile. "Silver lining. I… I don't blame you for following Rogers, Sam. I really don't. He's your friend and he asked you for help, and honestly, all we can do in life is make choices. Was it the right choice? Only you can decide that, but the only two people I blame for most of what happened are myself and Cap."
"We all made choices."
"We did," Tony agreed. "And we all have to live with them."
…
When Sam left, with a manly hug and seeming somewhat lighter than he had when he'd arrived, Tony thought that was the end of it. They'd cleared the air between them, and Tony knew that if he happened across Sam at any point, they'd be able to smile at each other and say Hi.
That was more than could be said for the rest of 'rogues'.
And for a few weeks, it was. Tony didn't hear anything from him, and in fact, there was a decided lack of calls from the others as well. Tony could only wonder what had been said to them, when Sam returned to the Compound.
A very small part of him was curious, but not actually curious enough to ask.
When Sam didn't come back, and the others seemed to decide to leave him alone, Tony thought that it was the end of all of it. He closed the book on that chapter of his life, and he turned a page on his next.
Pulling his shit together wasn't easy. The call of the bottom of a bottle was strong, and the wish to lock himself away was even stronger. He fought them though, because he might not be an Avengers anymore, but he was still Iron Man, and he was stronger than that.
He was worth more than hiding in his lab or drowning in a bottle.
He spent time with Pepper and Rhodey and Happy, because they were his constants and they helped him. He spent time with Vision—still weird, even years after the fact—and he made time for Peter whenever he could.
Life seemed to be moving on quite nicely.
If he avoided the latest news about the Avengers, well, sue him. If it was something he really needed to know, Pepper or Rhodey would surely let him know about it.
And then, like a really unpleasant blast from the past, Nick Fury was standing in the living room of his penthouse as the sun set, looking out of the window when Tony rode up from the workshop.
…
"We're not doing this," Tony said as he stepped out of the elevator. "I don't know why you're here, Nick, and honestly, I don't care. You need to leave before I phone the police."
Nick turned to look at him. "You can really just turn your back on all your hard work?"
"I can turn my back on people that don't want me," Tony replied firmly. "I can turn my back on people that would rather believe the reputation than get to know me. I can turn my back on liars, and backstabbers, and snakes. So if you don't mind, Nick, I'd prefer it if you left."
"They need you."
"I don't care."
"The world needs them."
"I brought them back, Fury! I should have left them to rot, but I didn't! I got them pardons, I signed over the compound that I paid for to the initiative, what more do you want from me?"
"It's not about what I want. The people want Iron Man, Tony."
"I'm retired."
"You were out flying two days ago, it made the news."
"I was flying. I wasn't fighting. I'm done, Nick."
"I know I've asked a lot from you," Nick said, moving away from the window towards Tony. Tony perched on a stool at the bar, watching him with narrowed eyes. "I know that you've been fucked over, and I know that the team really fucked up. They know it too. I made damn sure of that."
"Do you want me to thank you? It's too little, too late, Nick. I'm not interested."
"You're really going to sit back and let people die?"
Tony sighed and shook his head. "You never learn, do you? If people die, that's not my fault. The team is still there, and they can do… whatever they need to do, I suppose. If they get beaten, that isn't my fault either."
"Have you been following the press?"
Tony shook his head. "I have better things to do with my time."
"The last fight—two weeks ago—people refused to leave the area. They told Captain America to go away. They refused his help, Tony. That's not some small problem. That's a big problem. If the people of America don't trust their heroes… Tony, they need you. You're the hero the people are demanding."
"I don't have a magic wand I can wave to fix this, Nick. I'm not rejoining the team. I refuse to put myself back into a position where Rogers can lord his superiority over me when he's just as much of a fuck up as I am. I won't do it."
"I'm not asking you to rejoin the team," Nick said. "I'm asking you to be a consultant to the Avengers. You'll only be called in when absolutely necessary, Tony, I promise."
Tony stared at him for a long moment and then shook his head. "No. You can see yourself out."
…
"Wilson? What are you doing here?"
Sam smiled at him. "Maria decided that we needed to do some PR, so she's sending us all out on the circuit."
Tony snorted. "Lucky you. At least you got to dress up pretty for the night, I suppose."
Sam grinned and fluttered his eyelashes. "You think I'm pretty, Mr Stark?"
Laughing, Tony shook his head. "You're simply darling, Mr Wilson. So. Who else is here?"
"Trying to work out if you need to make a run for it?" Sam asked, raising his eyebrow.
"Something like that."
"Just me and Nat tonight, but uh. Steve is slanted for the benefit next week. Fair warning."
Tony raised his glass of wine to Sam. "Thanks for the heads up."
Sam nodded. "So, who do I want to avoid?" he asked, glancing around the room. "Because I've been watching, and some of these women look like they're on the prowl."
Tony started laughing again. "You're something else, Wilson. But, uh, see that woman over there with the blue dress?"
Sam nodded. "Uh huh."
"She's amazing, but far too much for a beginner to this kind of thing. She'd eat you up and spit you out, Wilson. Trust me, you're not man enough for her."
Sam snorted. "Thanks for the warning."
"Of course." He noticed Pepper gesturing to him from across the room. "Duty calls. Have a good night, Wilson, and if you do decide to take one of these women home, remember that a lot of them have husbands."
…
"Oh good, you're here," Tony said, as he reached the lobby of Stark Tower to see Steve sitting on one of the couches there. The receptionist was glaring at him fiercely, and Tony felt a rush of affection towards his staff. "What do you want?"
"I just… just want to talk to you, Tony."
"I'm pretty sure that I've made my position clear on that," Tony replied flatly. "But apparently, what I want really doesn't matter to you."
"Tony, please."
Rolling his eyes, Tony pointed to one of the conference rooms just off the lobby. "In there. You have five minutes."
As soon as the door was shut, Tony waved his hand at Rogers. "Go."
"Sam said he'd been to see you."
"Okay."
"You told him what happened in Siberia."
"I did."
"He, uh. He wasn't very pleased with me. He told the others too. They're… not very pleased with me either."
"Is there a point to this 'woe is me' spiel, Rogers? I have better things to be doing with my time."
Steve sighed and looked skyward for a moment. "I came here to apologise, first and foremost. What I did… I should never have hidden the truth from you, and I'm so very sorry for that, Tony. I really am. And in the bunker, I shouldn't have fought you. I just… I lost my head. I shouldn't have fought you, and I definitely shouldn't have left you behind."
"Okay."
Steve blinked. "Is that it?"
"What do you want me to say?" Tony asked, leaning against the wall. "Do you want me to tell you that it's fine, we can go back to how we were and forget all about it? It's not fine, and we can't go back. Is that all?"
"We all messed up."
"We did," Tony agreed. "I've been trying to make up for the messes I made. I got you all pardoned, didn't I? I fixed the accords. I don't really understand what more you want from me, Rogers?"
"I want my friend back."
"We weren't friends."
"Come on, Tony! Of course we were—"
"If that's how you treat your friends, I'd really fucking hate to be your enemy. Look, it happened. It sucked. We fucked up. The end."
"It doesn't have to be the end!"
"It does," Tony replied. "It really, really does."
"The Avengers need you," Steve said, and he was practically pleading and Tony felt himself wavering. Just slightly, just for a moment.
"Nick came to me and gave me the same argument. I'll tell you what I told him. No."
"Sir, there's an anomaly in the sky above New York," FRIDAY interrupted loudly in the room, just as Steve's Avenger's alarm went off on his belt.
"Ah, fuck. Aliens, Fri?"
"It would appear so, Boss."
Tony left the room, ignoring the way Steve shouted his name as he followed. The suit covered Tony and he took off into the sky, leaving Steve on the ground.
Tony wasn't an Avenger, but he was Iron Man, and no aliens were going to hurt his home if he could help it.
…
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
…
"Why is it always you that ends up in a bloody hospital bed?" Rhodey growled, when Tony opened his eyes. When Tony tried to move, Rhodey put a calming hand on his chest. "Stay where you are, Tones. You've got some pretty brutal injuries."
Tony rolled his eyes. He'd heal. The extremis he'd used to work with the nanobots for the bleeding edge armour would take care of his injuries.
"What happened?" he asked, when it became clear that Rhodey wasn't going to let him move.
"Fucking aliens. We thought the battle was over, and then Sam nearly got his ass blown out of the sky and you took the hit for him."
Rhodey nodded to Tony's left, and he turned his head to see Wilson in the chair, head lolling back uncomfortably as he slept.
"How long have I been here?"
"About a day and a half," Rhodey grumbled.
"Alright, grumpy bear, gimme all the bad news," Tony requested.
"You pretty much got a hole blasted in your left side. The extremis is helping, but it's still going to take about a week before it'll be fixed," Rhodey said. "You'd have died if you hadn't used it, Tones."
There was a guilty flicker in Rhodey's eyes, and Tony reached out to squeeze his hand. Rhodey had been dead set against Tony using the extremis in the first place, they'd had quite the fight about it.
"You need to stop diving in front of people," Rhodey muttered, shaking his head. "It's not good for your health."
"I'll be fine," Tony replied softly. "It would have killed him, if it managed to do so much damage to me through the armour."
"You're not a bloody warrior, Tones. You're just a regular bloke in a tin can. You've gotta look after yourself better."
"Of course I'm a warrior," Tony replied. "We all are. You are, even Pep is, albeit in a slightly different capacity. Honestly, Honeybear, I'm okay. I'll be okay."
Rhodey merely huffed. "I thought it was over," he admitted. "I thought that I wouldn't be sitting beside your hospital bed anymore, that you were done with the whole lot of them."
"This was never about the Avengers. This was a big ass wormhole over the place I call home," Tony said sharply. "It was about protecting the people I love."
Rhodey just looked at him for a long minute before, finally, he softened. "Yeah. Yeah, I know, Tones. I'm sorry. I just… I really fucking hate it when I don't know if you're going to live long enough to annoy me again, okay?"
Tony nodded. "I know, I'm sorry I made you worry."
Rhodey just rolled his eyes, but then he glanced at Sam. "So, what's that about?" he asked, nodding to the sleeping man.
"What's what about?"
"He hasn't left your side since you got brought in. He told Rogers to fuck off when he said it was time to leave for debrief. So… what's that about?"
Tony snorted. "I guess… I guess we have an understanding. And hey, I did save his life. He probably wants to shout at me like you did."
Rhodey grinned. "I think he likes you, Tones."
Tony rolled his eyes. "I think you've lost your marbles, Sour Patch."
"You didn't see the way he reacted to you being hurt," Rhodey replied softly.
Tony shook his head. "You're being ridiculous. I told you, we came to an understanding, that's all."
When Rhodey arched his eyebrows, Tony huffed. "He came by the tower when I was still uh. Being a mess? I guess. And we talked and… we're good. He's a good guy."
Rhodey nodded. "I agree. He is. And he likes you."
"You're a child, Platypus. I'm—" he broke off to yawn, wide and long, "gonna get some more sleep. You should go home, you look terrible."
Rhodey snorted. "Love you too, you little brat."
…
"What… why are you here?" Nat asked, when she met Tony at the door of the compound.
Tony arched his eyebrow at her. "What, I'm not welcome anymore?"
"Of course you're welcome, Tony," she replied softly. "I just… I guess I didn't expect to see you. From the way Steve and Fury sell it, you're determined to stay as far away from the team as possible."
"Well, maybe that'll teach you to stop listening to other people," Tony said, stepping past her into the compound.
Clint, Wanda and Vision were all in the living room when Tony strode through, and they all seemed somewhat surprised to see him there.
FRIDAY told him quietly that he wanted to head to the Gym, and Tony sighed but did as she bid him. Sure enough, Sam was in there, jogging on the treadmill while Rogers and Barnes sparred in the ring on the other side of the room.
"Tony?" Steve asked, groaning when Barnes landed a punch on him before he realised they had an audience.
Tony chuckled, but otherwise ignored them and leant against the wall by the treadmill grinning at Sam.
"Alright, Wings?"
"Wings?"
"Hmm. Pterodactyl was too long to say."
Sam laughed. "What are you doing here, Tony?"
"Well, a little birdy told me—"
"I'm going to kill Rhodes."
"—that you might like me, so I thought that maybe we could do dinner and a movie and you can tell me yourself?"
"That so?"
"That's so, squidward. You game?"
"Not if you're gonna call me squidward, I'm not."
…
"Next time you decide you want to go on a date, how about you call me?" Sam asked, later that night as he climbed into the passenger seat of Tony's car.
Tony chuckled as he pulled away from the compound. "Oops?"
"Nuh uh! You did that on purpose!"
"Little bit," Tony agreed. "Did you… is that why you agreed?"
Sam frowned. "I thought Rhodey told you how I felt?"
"Uh. No. He just said that he thought that you liked me. I uh. That's it."
Sam facepalmed. "Bloody nuisance man. Of course I like you, Tony, but it goes… it goes deeper than that. You've got to understand that even before I met you, I didn't expect to like you, and then when I did meet you, we were fighting against each other pretty much immediately. When I had the opportunity to actually get to know you, I was really surprised to find out that you're nothing like I'd thought you were."
"That's what you meant about reputation?" Tony asked.
"Exactly. Tony, that day when I came to see you, you were… you were normal. I mean, you were a mess, but you were still a normal person. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't that."
"Huh. And you don't mind that I'm… a bit of a mess? It happens quite often, Sam. I'm… a lot for anyone to deal with."
"I think we're all a bit of a mess sometimes, Tony. And… Well. I think you're worth it. We at least deserve to give it a go, right?"
Tony nodded, and smiled. He could do that.
Written for:
Character Appreciation: 7. "Why can't you just phone ahead like any normal person?"
Scamander's Case: 1. Warrior
Film Festival: 6. Phrase: Bad news
Game Of Life: Children: Laughing
Geek Pride: How To Train Your Dragon: Write about a character seeing past someone/something's reputation.
Say It With Flowers: Tulip: Wine