Sorry for the wait. A few things before you start:
1.) I have started another story (probably dumb) but I have had so many plots running through my head for so many fandoms that I had to at least get some of them down. Now because i have started it and I now seem to have balanced my life out and gotten back into my writing grove I will be alternating updates between the two. Every other Sunday I will be updating this story guaranteed with possible early updates.
2.) This chapter is a bit shorter than I originally intended, but I really like where I left off. Lots of feels…
3.) I am trying to make the chapters after this longer, but I cut off when it feels right. I don't care if this story has 100 short chapters until I get done!
Now I hope you all enjoy!
Chapter 13: How was the fun-vee?
The team watched with wide eyes as the Tony on screen raised his arms an unleashed a torrent of fire.
Flames blasted from makeshift flamethrowers built into the arms of the archaic suit. The men were yelling at each other and Tony moved forward, flooding every tent he saw with fire. Then they started firing at him again while also moving away from the mass of metal and fire that was moving toward them.
"Damn." Clint breathed, voice conveying his awe as him normally laid-back teammate utterly destroyed the camp.
"Stark is scary when he is angered." Phil said simply, like this was expected and there was no part of him that was surprised. "Even more so when he is protective. He's like a bear."
"Did you honestly just call Stark a mama bear?" Clint asked incredulously.
"If the shoes fits." Phil said with a shrug.
"How did he manage…?" Steve muttered to himself, arms crossed and a hand pressed against his upper lip nervously. Those were explosives and he was in the center of the camp. There was no escape that Steve could see and he found himself caught between worry and annoyance.
A man higher up on the mountain was shown readying a high caliber gun. He locked on to the suit and started firing quick and rapid but the bullets ricocheted of the metal and Tony stopped the flames. A bullet caught him in the knee joint, locking it up and pulling him down to kneel.
Pepper let out a pained gasp and snapped her eyes shut. Phil rested a reassuring hand on her shoulder without looking away from the TV. Pepper clinched her hands in her neat skirt, lip trembling. This was so hard to watch. It was so hard to look around the room and see people that worked so close to her husband so unconcerned. Particularly Natasha, who she had considered a friend. She had thought the woman was simply exasperated by the man's antics. They were sometimes annoying but most of the time they were endearing, but then no one saw Tony Stark like she did, except Rhodey and possibly Bruce Banner.
Most of them saw her husband as a superficial man with no cares in the world, made of money and uncaring toward any life that wasn't his own. The Captain, she was certain, saw Tony as a loose canon while being stuck mentally on a time with Howard Stark who was similar yet vastly different than Tony. And Tony aggravated that with his hostility toward anything Howard, not that Pepper would ever hold that against him. She didn't know what had crawled up Natasha's ass but she had best consider fixing her problems if she still wanted to consider the strawberry haired CEO a friend. Fury, from what she knew, was an ass but generally didn't wish ill of her husband. Clint and Thor were reaching for Bruce levels but fell just short in her books now. Phil had somehow folded himself into their little family as a strange taser happy brother that sent calm benign smiles at them as he watched supernally from their couch when he popped in before his 'death'. She knew next to nothing about Maria Hill, therefore wouldn't hold anything against the woman. And then there was Bruce who had been a warm surprise for Pepper when she rushed home after the Battle of New York. The two were sitting next to each other on the couch, talking quietly but excitedly about some of their notes from their respective fields. Tony had smiled when he saw her, waving her over before happily introducing them. Bruce smiled shyly and reached out a hand for her. It had taken no time for Bruce to accept Tony as he was and vice versa because Tony had a way of keeping people at a distance.
Pepper was shaken from her thought's by gun fire and metal. She took a calming breath and looked back to the screen.
The men continued firing at him and Tony spit a few last licks of flame at the shooter. The crate near the shooter exploded, taking care of him, but still more bullets were coming.
Explosions were coming quicker and less men were firing at him. Fire enveloped the area and Tony finally pulled pulled himself back to his feet. Tony reached for a red switch on the arm of the suit. Smoke rose from under his feet and he rose a few feet in the air before the scene paned out as explosions rocked the camp site. From the massive fiery explosion, there was a smaller tendril of white smoke that veered away from the area.
"He flies!" Thor boomed triumphantly, raising a fist into the air.
And damn if that wasn't impressive. The others in the room sat dumbstruck, except Pepper, Bruce, and Phil.
"It was in his file." Phil said flatly, sending a sharp side eye look to the others in the room.
"Reading is different then seeing." Natasha replied equally flat toned.
Steve nodded as he continued to stare at the screen. There had been a way out… but it had been gutsy and probably nearly cost Tony his life.
The suit was shown flying through the air before the thrusters began to cut out. Tony was screaming as he began his decent, pieces of the suit crumbling away. He crashed, sending up a cloud of sand. The suit crumbled, littering the sand with scraps. There was a groan and with slow stiff movements, Tony started pushing off the remains of the suit. With his arm free, he reached up and pulled off the face plate, tossing it aside.
His face was strained with obvious pain, streaked with dirt, blood, and sweat. He slumped, eyes squinting in the harsh light. "Not bad," he muttered to himself.
"Damn Stark," Clint said, rubbing a hand over the lower half of his face. "No one else could have pulled that stunt off."
"But Friend Stark doesn't seem as impressed." Thor said in confusion.
Bruce sat and wondered how that crash landing and affected the reactor. It must have been unbearable painful and yet Tony had powered through it. And this was something he wondered if the others even thought of.
The scene changed again. Tony was walking through the desert, stumbling occasionally. He had his jacket draped over his head and shoulders in an attempt to protect himself from the sun. His arms were bloody and there were signs of burns on his arms. His clothes were as tattered and dirty as he was, but through his shirt, the arc reactor glowed brightly.
"How long was he out there?" Steve asked voice a mix of curiosity and concern. His eyes were away and it was obvious to the team that this had reminded him of something that had happened during the war.
Bruce felt this odd bubble of satisfaction in his chest as he looked at Steve, seeing that the captain was beginning to understand that Tony had gone through more than his fair share of pain. That he wasn't simply a civilian playing at being a hero. That he was qualified for his position.
Tony was working his way up a sand dune, pace slowing. In the distance,sound was cutting through the air of the silent desert. A helicopter rose over the dune causing Tony to stumble in shock. It was followed by a second and Tony forced himself back up to his feet, stumbling after them, arm raised and waving. "Hey!" he shouted. "HEY!"
There was breath of relief in the room. Thor is grinning from his chair, arms crossed over his chest. Anthony was a patient man as Thor had learned staying with him occasionally. The man helped him with the customs of Midgard that Lady Jane had yet to teach him. Their Friend Stark was also a strong man to have survived such horrors, and Thor found himself glad to fight beside him in battle and that he hadn't found his seat at Valhalla before they met.
The helicopter landed a distance away from him, but Tony was to tired to keep going and he sank down to his knees a weak laugh bubbling up from his chest, one arm still raised with a piece sign, before it two fell to his side and he slumped further. Men rushed from the helicopter toward him and Tony gasped as he saw a very familiar face.
"How was the "fun-vee"?" Rhodey asked as he stopped in front of his fried, sinking down in front of him.
"Is that really the best thing to say?" Clint asked, face twisted in confusion and humor.
"Coming from you?" Phil asked with a slight quirked eyebrow. "You've made plenty of comments during this film alone."
"But this isn't real time. And I haven't said anything during really serious parts. Just trying to keep the air light like Tony. He is always the one to crack jokes when it got to heavy. I don't know how he does it…" Clint defended himself, and his comments.
"Rhodey was trying to do the same thing." Pepper supplied quietly. "He and I talked about it soon after they came home and how he felt like such a jerk for saying it, but he thought Tony would appreciate it. He did of course."
Tony choked out a weak, hoarse laugh, tears gathering at the corners of his eyes as Rhodey rested a hand on his shoulder.
"Next time, you ride with me, okay?"
Rhodey's voice was shaking and nearly cracked as he pulled Tony into a hug. Tony leaned into him, burying his face into his best friends chest, shoulders shaking. He pulled his hands up, grabbing fistfuls of Rhodey's uniform. Rhodes pulled him in higher for a moment before he slowly pulled Tony to his feet.
"I think someone's waiting for you." he said softly. "Let's get you home."
The room was silent with a large majority shocked at seeing Tony Stark act so open and dare they even say… fragile. They had never seen the man so soft, use to only the slick, sharp-tongued confidence the man oozed on a normal basis. They were seeing him for the first time out of his fancy suits or oil stain work cloths, ragged and tattered. Far from his normal pristine clean cut image.
Also, as far as they knew, Stark was not a tactile person. He avoided physical contact as much as humanly possible it seemed, going as far as to refuse to take things he is handed. So to see him so readily accept this… comfort by touch was disconcerting at best.
Pepper sniffled in her chair but managed a small smile as she watched her husband. That year had been so rough on both of them, but they had come out of it stronger for it in her opinion.
Really her only hope now was to get her husband's… co-workers, on the same page. Looking at it now, it seemed more promising than she had originally hoped.