Chapter 24

"What did you say to Banner?!" Natasha hollered from the staircase leading down the workshop, making Tony cringe.

"Is that-?" Rhodey began.

Tony nodded fearfully, then turned to find Natasha inches from his nose.

"I said not a thing-" Tony began with a billionaire, genius, philanthropist smile, which was quickly interrupted by a demanding glare from a certain Black Widow.

"He's sad because I blew him off earlier, he'll get over it." Tony told her seriously.

"He's furious because you disappeared without mention of where the hell you were going!" Natasha corrected him, then continued. "He's angry because your suit could've been taken over by an enemy source and no one would have known!" It seemed to Tony that Natasha was the one who had been furious.

"You were worried about me." Tony smiled with a successful look over to Rhodey, who shook his head disapprovingly.

"I worry about all you morons. You just need more attention or else your ego will be damaged." Natasha yelled back with a sorry look at Rhodey, then fled the workshop.

"Wrong thing to say." Was all Rhodey commented before him and Tony got back to searching for the metal spot on other suits.

LA DEE DOO DEE DOO LINEBREAK HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAA I'M HILARIOUS CAUSE REASON

"The metal didn't come from any of these." Rhodey finally said after they'd gone over all of the suits in the building twice.

"It had to." Tony said, breathless from lifting suit after suit from the containers and then putting them back.

He pushed the red and gold suit he had flown during the battle of New York back into it's glass container, eyeing the places where he'd had to repaint and repair it. Rhodey was suddenly on a completely new topic and Tony turned around to try and figure out what he was talking about now.

"-And then Pepper said she didn't care whether Happy was working for her or not, she still wanted to see him, right? And then the guy from the bar walked right into Pepper and Happy socked him in the jaw, knocked him clean across the bar- What?" Rhodey wondered why Tony was looking at him as if he couldn't comprehend what he was saying.

"Hm?" Tony pretended to have been completely into the story Rhodey'd been telling. "So, the guy from the bar... Did Happy get arrested?"

"Please. He can talk himself out of getting mugged." Rhodey replied with a smirk, sending Tony a questioning glance.

"I was thinking about something else, alright? I'm sorry." Tony finally told him, earning a shrug from Rhodey.

"It's fine, Pep'll probably tell you about it in far more detail. And Happy is never gonna stop talking about it." Rhodey told him understandably. "What were you thinking about? Gonna apologize to Brucie and Tasha?" Rhodey finished with a short lived laugh, before Tony scowled at him.

"A, don't name them. They will find you, and they will murder you. B, I don't have anything to apologize for." Tony finished, grabbing his Stark-Pad and headed up the stairs, closely followed by his friend.

"Tasha' will you gimme the peanuts?" Clint requested from his spot on the couch with Natasha's legs on his lap.

"You get them." Natasha told him with a friendly invitation to find out who will get off the couch first.

"Thumb wrestle?" Clint asked happily.

"You're going down." Natasha offered her right hand.

"Not fair, you're right-handed." Clint complained childishly.

"You're right-handed too, besides, you're thumb is bigger." Natasha said.

"What's my thumb size got to do with which hand is my dominant hand?" Clint said, reading into her distraction tactics.

"How about we thumb wrestle to figure out who gets to choose which had they use?" Natasha suggested.

They both looked down at their hands just long enough to figure out that Natasha's idea wouldn't work.

"How about you choose the mighty game of ARENA FIGHTS!" Thor bellowed from the love-seat, which he alone occupied.

"Which is?" Clint inquired.

"You shall fight to the death in a glorious battle!" Thor said excitedly.

"We've tried to kill each other, the fight never ends." Natasha shrugged.

Clint nodded in agreement.

Thor looked disturbed, but left it alone.

Tony and Rhodey looked bewildered by the conversation going on in the living area, continuing on to the kitchen to grab drinks.

"Thanks." Rhodey said when Tony handed him a beer, popping it opened with his bare hands.

Tony did the same and took a long swig, earning a questioning glare from Rhodey, who had always told him he had an alcohol problem.

"It's been a long week." Tony shrugged and turned to leave the kitchen.

"Are you alright?" Rhodey grabbed his arm before he could leave.

"How do you mean?" Tony raised an eyebrow.

Rhodey didn't say anything, just looked embarrassed that he had asked in the first place.

You know what he means... Tony thought to himself. He was referring to Tony ditching that bar before the Mandarin attack, after he experienced his first *inward Tony Stark cringe* panic attack.

"I'm fine." Tony said, because he was. He was Tony Stark, he was always fine.

"Good." Rhodey replied with a friendly smile that they both knew was just him letting Tony off the hook.

"I'd better get back to looking into the metal, you probably want to check out your room anyway." Tony said, then turned on his heel and walking swiftly past a glaring Natasha to the workshop once again.

I hope you guys enjoyed this longer chapter, and if you'd like to give some input on how many more chapters this fic will have, let me know in the review section or DM me.

I'm thinking somewhere around 30 chapters would be a good place to conclude.

As always, if you enjoyed, Favorite, Follow, and Review!

I love Rhodey to death... Is this a mutual feeling?

:D,

MarvelLuver