Note: I know nothing about stock, so creative licence and all that.

5: The One With The Stock

"What to get him?" Tony mumbled to himself as he paced around his workshop, "something personal, something with meaning. Hmm…" minutes passed before the man came to a stop, his fist smacking against his flat palm as an idea crossed his mind, "I think I've got it."

—LINE BREAK—

He stood there bouncing almost impatiently on his toes; he'd finally come up with an answer for what he should give Clint and had rushed to find him the minute the 'gift' had been sorted. Tony barely acknowledged the other Avengers as he stared at his unofficial partner; Clint was reading through the documents the genius had presented him, his back straightening and knuckles whitening as he clutched the papers, his eyes narrowing in anger.

"I need to talk to Tony," he growled, "alone." Without another word, the other rushed out, no one said anything but they were casting worried glances at the two men as they left the living room.

—LINE BREAK—

"So what do we think Tony gave him?" Natasha asked the others as they hung around in the kitchen on the communal floor allowing them to faintly hear what was going on.

"No clue, but I suspect it's only worse than when he bought Clint that holiday," Bruce murmured

"And the house," Natasha added,

"He bought Clint a house?" Steve asked, "last I knew it was a watch or something."

"My friends, I find myself not understanding the situation," Thor announced as he returned with a packet of pop tarts after searching through the cabinets for some,

"Tony… he's been buying Clint a lot of stuff and it seems that the price has only increased," the red-headed woman explained briefly, but Thor got a look of understanding,

"Ah, I myself have fallen into a similar trap many a time," Thor commented without much explanation and it appeared that he wasn't going to elaborate. Before anyone could say anything, a loud bang echoed through the walls.

—LINE BREAK—

Impatiently, the archer waited until the other Avengers had left the room before turning on the now uncertain genius. When he heard the tell-tale sound of the kitchen-cum-dining-area door slide shut, he threw the papers on the coffee table before slamming his palms harshly onto the table as he stood up; he ignored the slight flinch that came from Tony as the loud bang from Clint's actions seems to resound throughout the room.

"What the actual fuck, Tony? What are you even doing? Have you lost your fucking mind?" He shouted as he pointed at the documents that lay seemingly innocently on the table, "90 percent of your stock?" Before the archer could go on, Tony cut in,

"I'm sorry! Is it not enough?" The painful thing was Tony genuinely looked worried that Clint was upset because it wasn't enough stock, "I could give you 95 percent?" Clint said nothing, he just glared, "98 percent? I… I can't really give you 100 percent, I think Pep would kill me, but -but if you want-"

"Shut up." He growled and Tony's lips slammed shut, "I don't know what you're playing at, but I am sick and tired of you throwing your money and wealth in my face. I know you can afford shit, but I don't need you shoving it at me.

"First with the clothes, yeah okay I get that I needed a decent suit for that stupid gala thing, but all the others? I know that I don't have a 'Tony Stark worthy appearance'" he stated sarcastically, "but I don't care. If you were ashamed of me, well. Well, that's just another problem. Then the fucking watch and cufflinks, I don't need them.

"The holiday? What the hell were you thinking? No. You weren't thinking. I said I wanted to go to Africa, on a safari not to some expensive island. Then there was that goddamned house, so what if I said one day I'd love to live at the seaside, I said that I wanted to, not you. You can't just buy someone a fucking house, Tony.

"And now this?" He gestured violently to the papers, "you tried to give me the majority of your stock, are you fucking stupid? This is yours. I don't want it. I don't need it. So stop. Stop pushing your money in my face, it's fucking disgusting. I'm not a charity. I don't care for money so stop trying to change me. If money is all you can think about -all you care about- then consider us -or whatever we are- done." He turned on his heel and stormed passed a frozen and shellshocked Tony.

—LINE BREAK—

The Avengers in the kitchen didn't hear everything, but they heard enough.

"Do you really think Clint meant that?" Bruce asked worriedly, he along with the others knew that the budding romance between the two was something amazing and to hear that it was over before it really ever started was something that worried them all.

"He…he can't have been serious." Steve stammered, "I mean it's Clint and Tony, Tony and Clint, they fight regularly but they always make up."

"I… I think Tony pushed too far this time, Cap," murmured Natasha, her emerald eyes glinting with concern before she caught sight of everyone frowning at her, "don't look at me like that, I know that Tony can't be completely faulted, he didn't realise or understand Clint's reactions and our moronic archer didn't bother to tell him what was wrong." Steve couldn't help but chuckle at her words as he let out a deep sigh,

"Honestly, they are both hopeless. So what do we do?"

"We call in the only backup suitable for a Tony crisis," Bruce commented and at the confused glances, he smirked, "one Colonel Rhodes." Smirks spread across everyone else faces because if there was one person that could not only kick Tony's arse, tell him what was wrong, comfort him and help him before going and beating up the other person involved in making the genius sad, it would be Tony's 'Honey Bear'.

—LINE BREAK—

He managed to work his way into the elevator before going down to his workshop with the intention of losing himself in his Iron Man armour upgrades; Tony just wanted to ignore the problem until he had worked out what to do.

The genius wasn't sure how long he was working for but before he knew it, his blaring AC/DC music was cut off and arms were wrapping around him.

"Platypus? Why are you here?" He asked as he realised it was Rhodey who was hugging him,

"I got an emergency call relating to you and Clint," the colonel answered honestly as he gently pushed Tony onto the couch in the workshop and took a seat beside his friend, "want to tell me what's happened?" It was more of a demand than a question,

"Not really,"

"Yeah? Well, you're going to, so best start explaining now. You know I can and will wait you out."

And reluctantly, Tony explained to his first and oldest friend what had happened; how he'd bought Clint presents yet he seemed angry each time, so Tony thought he hadn't spent enough on his unofficial partner. He told Rhodey how he'd spent more and more each time; mentioning the holiday to the Seychelles, the house in Malibu and the most recent disaster, the stock. Rhodey listened quietly, taking in the information without interrupting.

"…I just don't understand what I did wrong. He never told me what he wanted, so I had to guess and work it out from our conversations. I really thought I had found the perfect present but then he blew up…I think…whatever our relationship was…I think it's over." Tony turned to look at his friend, who had his elbow on the arm of the couch, his chin rested in his palm as he soaked in the information and a thoughtful expression passed over his face.

"Well…I don't think you can be faulted. Clint should've noticed that you always buy stuff for people and that you don't do it maliciously or to highlight your wealth, it's not as though you're doing it because you think he's a charity. I also think Clint should have been much clearer about his reasoning. However, I do believe that all of this is just a very large -very large- misunderstanding."

"Rhodey…what can I do to fix this?"

"Tones, firstly, I don't want you to solely take the blame, okay?" He murmured grabbing his friend's hand, "it's your curse. You buy people things because you want them to be your friend. You have it ingrained in your brain that people only want from you; add that to one of the many many things I hate about your father," he mumbled the last part under his breath but Tony still heard, though he chose to ignore it only rolling his eyes, "so I suggest that you do something different -very different. Explain to him that you don't mean to, it's just something you do. Take him out on a date -maybe talk to Thor about this. I think he's had a similar problem before you know considering he's from royalty and all that. Plus he's a romantic at heart; he'll probably be able to give you some ideas for what you should do."

"Thank you, Honey Bear." Tony murmured into his friend's chest as he hugged the man, Rhodey just chuckled and hugged back, running his hand comfortingly up and down Tony's back,

"Anything for you, Tones."

—LINE BREAK—

Before he could leave, Rhodey made one last stop on Clint's floor. He knocked on the man's bedroom door when JARVIS informed him as to where the archer was. Slowly the door opened and Rhodey couldn't help but feel both sad and delighted at the pale skin and bags under his eyes that Clint wore -served him right for hurting Tony, Rhodey couldn't help but think.

"Rhodes."

"Barton, I believe you and I need to have a little chat."

—LINE BREAK—

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't beat you half to death," Rhodey demanded when they settled in the small kitchen and dining area of Clint's floor, a cup of coffee held tightly in the colonel's hand as he stared at the meek-looking archer,

"Because it'll upset Tony?" Clint answered trying to get a laugh in the tense atmosphere, though he failed,

"You don't get to use that excuse," Rhodey snapped,

"Because I won't be able to make it up to him." He answered more seriously as he looked down at his own cup of coffee.

"Better." He snarked, "look, with Tony, you need to be blunt otherwise he doesn't understand the problem, which typically just leads him to do the same thing but it worsens. I won't go into detail or explain from his side, I will let him do that. But all he's seemed to think is that he hasn't spent enough on you. That's all that he has seen each time he's gotten you something and you've been angry. When I became friends with him -he was barely fourteen and in university- he always bought me stuff.

"At first, I didn't understand it, but when he tried to buy me a car, I suddenly realised and well it took a while but I got it into his head that he didn't need to buy me anything. Ever." He took a sip of his coffee, "what I'm trying to say, is talk to him. You need to explain why you're upset and he needs to explain his reasoning." He finished off his coffee and stood up, "the next time I'm here, you better be in a happy loving relationship because I am not above locking you in a closet, which technically is a step backwards but I will do it."

Then he left. Simple as that. He left without allowing Clint to say a word.

Here's my Tumblr if you're interested, it also has the story collages: anxious- - -soul (no spaces between the dashes, this site sucks and wouldn't allow them without spaces).

Anyway,
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