AN: I'm just going to apologize profusely right now for this chapter sucking. I'm seriously sorry. Life has been a bitch to me the past couple weeks and I had no idea where this was going, I just had a prompt and knew I needed Tony to trust the others more. I'm super sorry. The prompt for JARVIS telling the other Avengers something personal was from MagicWarriorDragon. Don't worry, the next chapter will be awesome, I promise!

"Sir is scared," JARVIS told them. Obviously, they didn't believe him. This was Tony Stark they were referring to, after all. "Not like that," the A.I. added dryly, clearly responding to the look on Steve's face. "Sir does have fears, obviously. If any of you cared to look. But that is not what I am referring to. He is not fearing bodily - sir trusts the Avengers very much, with his life at least."

"You mean because he's been letting us examine the arc reactor when it's hurting him?" Bruce knew how particular his friend was about the unfortunate hardware in his chest.

"Yes, Doctor Banner." There was a pause. "Are the Avengers aware of Obadiah Stane?"

"He used to run Stark Industries, didn't he?" Natasha answered, knowing where JARVIS was going and deciding to play along. "He died in some sort of accident."

"Yes," JARVIS said sourly, clearly showing his distaste for the man. "He was also Mr. Stark's godfather. The two were very close." Steve frowned. He knew what it was like to lose someone close to you. "He is the man who ordered a hit on sir which seems to have led to his confinement at the hands of the Ten Rings terrorist group."

"Oh," Clint breathed as Bruce all but collapsed into a chair. Thor clenched his fists and looked ready to summon Mjolnir, but stayed silent for once.

"When sir returned with the miniaturized arc reactor, he refused to let others see it - there are still no saved plans anywhere. It was a revolutionary piece of technology." JARVIS's pride in his creator was clear. "Stane wanted it, obviously," he continued dryly. "He managed to get past my defenses and paralyzed sir before taking the reactor out of his chest. It is very lucky sir still had possession of the one he created in the cave."

Now Steve sat heavily. He could imagine losing someone close to you... but complete betrayal by someone you loved and trusted, he couldn't. Just trying to picture someone like Bucky doing that too him caused an immense amount of pain. And it had happened to Tony. Natasha's face was stone, her arms crossed. Clint looked lost. Thor looked upset, and Steve realized it was because he was sympathizing - what Loki had done probably seemed an awful lot like betrayal from his perspective.

"I told you this because I would like the Avengers to know how deeply sir trusts you with his life. Mr. Stark's emotions are another thing entirely. I am not sure if he even trusts Miss Potts fully with all that he feels."

"What do you mean with this?" Thor boomed, looking up at the ceiling.

"Sir is afraid that if he allows himself to act as the child he now is, you will see and treat him diff-"

"JARVIS." The voice was firm, shaking slightly with anger, and they spun around to see a tiny Tony Stark standing with clenched fists and a white face. "What have you been telling them? What did I tell you about privacy?"

"I have only told them what I deem necessary to keep you healthy, sir. That is my programming."

"Tony," Steve started, but the genius cut him off, pointing a shaking finger.

"No." His voice cracked. "No, don't you say a word. JARVIS, you and I are going to have a long reprogramming session. Whatever he told you was personal." They saw his face turning red. Bruce rose to his feet.

"Sir-"

"Shut up JARVIS!" Tony shouted, his shoulders shaking in rage. "How could you..." His voice cracked, and they knew he was feeling betrayed. "What else did he say? Other than I'm emotionally stunted. What did he tell you."

"Tony, you can trust us," Steve said quietly, unsure how to handle the situation. He normally knew how to deal with Tony; but that was when he was blustering, bluffing, and bitching, not when he was like this. He had never seen him like this.

The billionaire faltered, his face falling a bit in confusion. "I know that," he answered.

Clint started to say something, but Bruce waved his hand, giving him a look. The physicist approached his friend, kneeling to his level. "Tony, this situation is... unique." The boy snorted. "We understand that there is a conflict right now between what you know and what you feel. Naturally, you're going to have more childish impulses."

"Aye," Thor interrupted, a grin suddenly lighting up his face. "Loki often enjoyed letting our warriors trist as young ones for a day. The mischief of a child is something to be foretold!"

"We aren't going to blame you for them," Bruce continued softly. Tony shook his head, and suddenly he looked like he was about to cry. Alarm rang in their heads as they tried to find a way to backtrack.

"I know that," he whispered, his voice breaking, and Bruce felt like his heart was breaking with it. "I know you don't blame me and I trust you. But you're looking at me different. I'm not different. I'm still me, Bruce. I- I don't want things to change when I go back to normal. I don't want that. And you guys don't want me to act like a child. No, hear me out! The only one who has paid me the light of day and actually played with me like a child has been Thor. The rest of you want me to be brilliant Anthony Edward Stark, and hole myself away until I get better or figure out a solution." He took a deep breath, and let it out in a sigh.

"I'm scared, okay? I don't want you guys to see me differently. I know that I'm a kid now, but the adult part of me is still yelling at me to be more mature. I... I want to play and stuff like that, but I don't really know how. And I don't want it to affect our dynamic whenever I turn back." He ran his hands through his curls, and Natasha had to smile as his hair stood on end. "I don't feel like myself. I don't know what to do. You guys were never supposed to see me like this. I'm not vulnerable." He spat the word like it was poison, glaring at the air. "I'm not weak or something, I swear-"

"We know that," Clint interrupted, crossing his arms. "Geez, Tony, with all the crap you've been through you deserve to be 'weak or something'. But you're not. That's why you're goddamn Iron Man."

"This isn't going to change anything," Steve suddenly declared in his Captain America voice. "Listen, Tony, we understand what you're going through. It's not going to change how we think of you." He flushed slightly, but it didn't show. "I, for one, respect you a lot actually. You deserve to be on this team, and honestly, if I was in your position I definitely wouldn't be handling it as well as you are." Clint snorted.

"I would probably be hidden in a corner somewhere avoiding everyone until someone figured out how to fix me."

"It is not always an enjoyable experience," Thor said with a thoughtful nod.

It didn't matter, because Tony was still staring at Steve, tears pooling in his eyes, and all the captain could think was Oh crap, I made him cry again.

"You mean it?" Tony whispered, not sounding sure of himself. "You respect me?"

"Oh God, Steve, it's going to go straight to his head," Natasha teasingly groaned, and Tony barked out a watery laugh. Bruce tugged him into a hug that Tony willingly fell into, burying his face in his friend's shirt and letting himself be surrounded in warmth and relief. It was okay. He would be okay. He didn't have to watch what he did or said anymore - they promised it wouldn't matter.

Maybe this childhood would be better.

It was still hard.

The trouble came in trying to find a balance between allowing Tony to act like a child and not making him feel patronized. They could tell Tony was still struggling with his own feelings and whether to truly trust them or not; he was subdued and often frowning in thought, when he wasn't laid up on the couch binge watching Disney movies and breathing through the pain in his chest that hadn't diminished. Bruce and the SHIELD doctors were tearing their hair out to locate the problem, or at least find a way to reduce the pain. Tony assured them there wasn't a problem, that it hurt all the time and this body simply couldn't handle the pain as well, and Steve had to resist scolding him for never telling them about his discomfort. Thor praised him for handling his battle wounds so gracefully.

There came to be two defining points of the next few days.

The first was legos.

Of all things, it shouldn't have been surprising that the building blocks were what brought little Tony out of his shell. Clint had brought them, and the two sat building and chattering in the living room. The others left them alone, sending glances and peering around corners to watch Tony so engaged and excited. It was only after several looks that the others realized Tony wasn't using the instructions at all; despite that, the model spaceship in his hands look exactly like the picture on the box, with a few modifications.

Clint was slower than Tony at putting his spacecraft together, but not by much. Soon the two were in heated battle, Tony shouting and running around the room, jumping off the couches and turning his spaceship to pretend to shoot at Clint's while the archer chased him, misquoting Star Wars. It honestly wasn't all that different from what the two would get up to normally when the genius had time for it, which is probably what made Tony more comfortable.

They played for a good hour, shouting at each other, before Clint managed to knock the wing off Tony's model. He let it spiral to the ground before collapsing with it, throwing his arms out. "Barton," the boy giggled in a voice of fake-pain. "Tell Pepper... don't forget the dry cleaning." He let his tongue hang out in fake-death while Clint collapsed in laughter beside him, clutching his sides.

"Tell her yourself," the woman herself teased as she walked in, dropping down to tickle Tony's stomach.

"Pep!" Tony laughed as he scrambled up, hugging her tightly. "You're home!"

"I wish I got this enthusiasm from you all the time," she laughed back, stroking his hair. Clint was still gasping for air, unrecovered from his laughing fit. "I have a business trip tomorrow so I decided to come home early today." He beamed up at her and she forced herself not to react. Seeing her lover, even as a child, so openly happy was a completely new experience, and one she wanted to have again.

"You work too much," he muttered as he began to pout. "Aren't there other people who can do some of the things you do?"

"Says the hypocrite." She shook her head, smiling slightly, and tried to tame his curls. They had become increasingly unruly. He stuck his tongue out at her.

"I'm not a hypocrite."

"Are too," Clint piped in childishly.

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Children," Natasha chastised as she emerged from the kitchen. "Welcome back Pepper. You're staying for lunch?"

"I'm home for the day." Pepper knew it was all pleasantries and Natasha had heard what she had already said to Tony, but the domesticity of this situation was nice. Maybe Tony's accident was more of a blessing than anything else. He certainly seemed happier.

Then again, work had been hell since his 'disappearance'. Investors were hesitant, and the board was freaking out. Stocks had dropped. Despite her constant press briefings and reassurances that Tony had simply gotten sick and was taking a much needed break away from the public eye, the press continued reports of his death or capture because of his work on the Avengers, and she was working nonstop to counteract the damage. They were all avoiding the news while in the Tower for now, not wanting to stress Tony out about his situation even more.

"What are we having?" Clint asked as he sat up. Tony gathered the pieces of his space ship and deftly reassembled it - Pepper watched and had to remind herself for a second that Tony was still a genius, and he had been at this age even if he didn't remember anything.

"Steve and I made some BLTs. Bruce is making some weird Indian dessert."

"Food," Tony suddenly moaned, looking up quickly. "Is it ready?"

"Come on, Stark. We know how you starve."

The second was not as joyous.

Steve had walked in just in time to catch Tony as he fell off the counter, and was chewing him out with gusto.

"What were you thinking?!"

"I'm a big boy, Capsicle. I know what I'm doing." In truth his heart was beating madly from the near miss.

"That's the problem," Steve scowled, poking Tony's chest. "You're not a big boy right now. You can hurt yourself. If you need something, ask us. Damn it, Stark, why can't you just rely on us!"

"Language," Natasha teased as she walked in before noticing Tony's teary eyes. "Steve, stop."

And Steve did something she wasn't expecting.

Captain America knelt and pulled Tony into his arms, close to his chest. "You can trust us," he sighed finally. "You don't need to rely just on yourself anymore."

Tony clung to Steve for the rest of the day, and they knew that he was no longer Tony Stark, genius, billionaire; he was just Tony for now, and they would all have to adjust.