AN: So it turns out that there is a character in Marvel named Puck. I did not know that when I began this story. So if the Puck you see is not matching up to the Puck you were picturing then that is why.
"Robots, why is it always robots lately?" Tony asked, taking down one of a dozen giant robots that A.I.M. had set loose on the city. "It's not that I'm not a fan of robotics. Robots are a beautiful thing."
"Tony, do you think maybe you could focus for a minute?" Natasha said, as Thor tossed her to the back of one of the robots. Grabbing hold she immediately began firing into, what she hoped, was the power source. Meanwhile, Tony had gone to sit on the head of the robot he'd just broken.
"So fine, make a robot. That's a good start," Tony continued, ignoring the battle around him. "But don't just stop at robot. Give it something to set it apart. Don't just make it huge and call it a day."
"Stark!" Steve called over the coms. "Less talking; more destroying."
"SMASH!" Hulk yelled, as he body slammed the robot that had been coming up behind Tony.
"Thanks, Jolly Green," Tony said, with a glance over his shoulder. "But like I was saying before."
From eight stories up, Hawkeye quickly fired off a round of arrows before calling to Tony on his com. "Tony, I understand that you've been disappointed by the villains lately. But do you think that you could get off your iron ass and give us a hand?"
"For the record, the suit's actually a gold titanium alloy," Tony said. "And you all look like you have it under control."
"I know exactly what you mean. If you're not going to take pride in your work then why even bother,"
Tony turned around to agree and saw who it was that had spoken.
"Puck!" Tony yelled, jumping off of the robot head.
"Hello, Iron Man," Puck said, with a grin.
"So you've joined up with A.I.M. now?" Tony asked.
"Please," Puck said, pushing his long, white hair over his shoulders. "I do have some standards."
"Because filling Central park with rabbits was a real work of genius," Tony said.
"You have to admit," Puck said, jumping to his feet. "It was certainly memorable."
"As much as I treasure those memories I think I've had enough. So why don't you get out of here before we have a repeat of your little carpocalypse stunt," Tony said.
"Can I assume that your eagerness to get rid of me might have something to do with the adorable little Audi that I saw parked around the corner?" Puck took a few steps back as he spoke. His smile getting bigger and bigger with every word.
"Stay away from my car," Tony said, raising an arm and readying to fire a repulsor if he had to.
"Now why would you bring a pretty car like that into battle? Why don't I go check on it for you?" Puck said, flying off. Immediately Tony launched and was after him.
"Tony, get back here!" Steve yelled after him.
"But, my Audi?" Tony said.
"For the love of, Tony you have four more at home," Hawkeye said.
"But I liked that one," Tony said, turning back to rejoin the battle. Seeing that Thor was already occupied smashing the head of a robot he veered to join Steve instead. After another twenty minutes of reenacting a Transformers movie and they were down to the last two robots.
"Thor, you take down the one on the left," Steve said.
"Yeah, let's rockum sockum these guys so we can go home," Tony agreed.
"Oh, Tooony, you didn't forget about me did you?" Puck said, as he flew up beside Tony.
"Not this guy again," Hawkeye groaned.
"Would you get out of here!" Tony yelled, swerving around to try and smack Puck out of the air. Puck easily avoided the attack and moved away.
"That's not what you really want is it?" With that last comment Puck shot a blast of blue light at Tony and sent him plunging to the ground.
"Every time he's blown something up he's used those blue lights," Steve said, standing tensely at the head of the table.
"I'm telling you that I'm fine. It was just a push," Tony insisted. "I think he just hit me with a light show."
Clint groaned and slumped back in his chair. In the hour since the team had returned from their battle with the robots they had been forced to watch as Tony and Steve went in circles over whether or not Tony should go to medical. Since it was technically a post mission debrief they all had to stay until the end. Clint leaned back to put his feet up on the table but was quickly smacked down by Natasha.
"We've been over this before," Steve said. "If a villain attacks you then you get medical attention. Especially when the villain in question has a tendency to magically blow things up."
"He shined a light on me," Tony said. "I can't go to the hospital every time that happens. I'd never be able to give interviews."
"Then what's the point of even having Tony on the team?" Clint said.
"Can we even still call Puck a villain?" Bruce asked, from where he was almost sleeping on the table. "Every time we see him I feel like we're watching a kindergartener jumping around for attention."
"What do you want us to do, ignore him?" Clint asked.
"Maybe if we stop paying attention to his temper tantrums then he'll just get bored and leave." Bruce suggested.
"Or he could decide to raise his game to the next level." Natasha countered.
"Either way, he's shown that he can do serious damage if he puts his mind to it. So until we can figure out exactly what he's after, we keep our guard up," Steve said. "I don't want us to find out too late that everything so far has been an act to make us put our guard down."
"Agreed." Natasha said, standing up and walking out of the room.
"We're not done," Steve said after her.
"She thinks we are," Clint said, with a smile.
"I guess that means debriefing is over." Tony said, getting up to leave. "In that case I need a drink."
"Tony, no," Steve groaned.
"What's that, can't hear you, already in the hall," Tony said as he walked out the door.
Steve watched Tony disappear down the hall and sighed before shaking his head in defeat.
"Fine, you can all go," Steve said.
"Thank god," Clint said, jumping out of his chair. "I'm starving. Any of you want to split a pizza?"
"I'll pass," Bruce said, heading for the door. "I've been up for eighteen hours working on Steve's new suit. I need some sleep."
"Thor?" Clint asked.
"I too must decline," Thor said. "Fenrir and I were in the middle of a saga when I left and I am eager to return to it."
"He's doing what?" Clint asked, after Thor had left the room.
"He's showing Fenrir Star Wars," Bruce explained.
Steve quietly glanced around a corner before heading down the hall. He had been living in the Tower for three years and had yet to figure out how, every time he wanted to relax alone, one of his teammates would appear with a problem.
It wasn't that he didn't enjoy spending his time with his team. Since waking up they had become his family. But without fail, anytime he wanted to watch a show by himself or even just have some quiet time to draw, one of them would appear. This had forced him to find more and more out of the way areas to go to when he needed a chance to recharge.
Taking one last look down the hallway behind him Steve turned into the empty room. Steve wasn't exactly sure what Tony had meant for this room to be used for. It was nothing but an ugly gray couch and a large window. Still it was quiet and completely isolated, which made it perfect.
He listened to the couch groan as he stretched out and reminded himself that Tony had most likely been kidding when he'd said that the couch was made of rhino skin. Hopefully he had been kidding. He turned to look out the window and began to relax. For the moment there were not battles, no intergalactic crises and most importantly no-
"You want to tell me why you are napping on the world's most uncomfortable couch when I have at least twenty better ones to choose from?" Tony asked, shoving Steve's feet off of the couch as he sat down next to him.
"Tony," Steve said flatly.
"Don't worry, if you're determined to stay then we can make it work," Tony said, leaning back into the couch. "I already told Clint and Natasha to meet us here with the pizzas."
Steve straightened up on the couch; resigned. "Sounds fun."
Tony took a sip of the drink he had been holding and stared at Steve.
"My dad used to talk about you all the time, you know," Tony said. He immediately had Steve's attention. "It wasn't always to me; he actually barely ever talked to me but you were always a popular topic of conversation."
Steve smiled awkwardly at his friend and tried to figure out how drunk Tony was. He knew that Tony must have had to drink practically his weight in Scotch if he was at the point where he would willingly talk about his father.
"I mean, he never shut up about you," Tony continued. "You were the embodiment of what our country stood for. Everything that a person should try to be. He even used to make people watch those old propaganda films you made."
"Yeah, those were pretty bad," Steve said, reaching over to take Tony's glass away from him. "Why don't I just take this?"
"But you want to know the best part? Even after all the lectures and annoying Howardness; you were still my hero." Tony confessed.
Natasha and Clint, who had just entered the room with boxes of pizza stood frozen in their tracks. No one could believe what they were hearing.
"When I was a kid I had all your action figures," Tony continued. "My dad couldn't be bothered to listen to me half the time, but when I said I wanted Captain America toys, I got the whole set.
"There was one that I actually slept with until I was twelve. Can you imagine what the tabloids would do if they got their hands on that gem?" Tony asked, smacking Steve in the arm with a laugh.
"Tony, I think you should go to bed," Steve suggested. However drunk he might be now, Steve just knew that Tony was going to hate himself when he sobered up and realized what he'd been saying.
"I don't want to go to bed," Tony said.
"Yeah Cap, if he's not tired then he's not tired," Clint said, joining them on the couch. "So, Tony, tell us more about these Captain America toys you had."
"Clint," Steve hissed at his friend.
"Well there were the action figures and the comics obviously," Tony said.
"Oh, of course," Clint said.
"Then there were the posters and, don't tell Coulson, but I had a pretty badass trading card collection."
"Mint condition, I hope," Clint couldn't help himself.
"Is there any other kind?" Tony said with a smile. "Actually I think I might still have those in storage somewhere."
"Of course, Coulson might still have you beat since he got Steve to autograph his," Clint said.
"You're right," Tony said, beginning to look concerned. "Can't let that stand. Jarvis!" Tony called, jumping off of the couch.
"Yes, sir?" Jarvis said.
"I need to get my trading cards autographed. Call up my guy and have him go and get the cards out of storage," Tony said.
"I am afraid that you do not have anyone designated for that particular task," Jarvis said.
"I have a guy for everything," Tony said. "Fine, have Happy do it, and first thing tomorrow have someone find me a trading card guy."
"I shall inform Mr. Hogan of his new travel plans," Jarvis said.
"No, Jarvis don't get Happy," Steve said, getting up to try and bring Tony back to the couch. "Just see if you can find where Pepper is and get her down here."
"I can't make Pepper go to Malibu," Tony said, as he let Steve lead him back to the couch.
"No one is going to Malibu, Tony," Steve said. "We're going to get Pepper down here and then we are getting you to bed to sleep off, whatever this is."
"You just don't want to sign my cards," Tony pouted, as he collapsed back onto the couch. "You like Coulson better than me. No one ever likes me best."
"Well, this just got depressing," Clint said, eyeing where Tony was now curling up on his side.
"Tony, I don't like Coulson better than you," Steve said.
"Yes you do," Tony said. "Just like in Prep school. You think that people like you and then they don't."
Steve groaned as he looked at his friend. Of course Tony would choose tonight to lose all of his trademark self-confidence. He was just going to have to accept that, as the leader of the Avengers, he was never going to be allowed to just sit alone again.
"Tony, I promise we all like you," Steve said, looking to Natasha and Clint for help.
"Tony, you're our friend. And you gave us all a place to live, of course we like you," Clint offered.
"Sure, I give you a place to live and you like me," Tony said. "But if I didn't have the Tower would any of you still be here?"
"How could we still be here if the Tower is gone?" Clint asked.
"See," Tony said.
"But, I don't-" Clint struggled.
"Give it up, Clint," Natasha said, from where she was still standing in the doorway.
"Tony, listen to me," Steve said, kneeling down in front of the couch. "You have had a lot to drink tonight and it's making you a little emotional."
"I didn't drink that much," Tony muttered.
"That's not the point," Steve insisted. "The point is that we do all like you. The Tower is great, but even if you didn't let us stay here, you'd still be our teammate."
"And do you really think that I'd live anywhere I didn't want to if I couldn't stand you?" Natasha said.
"That's true," Tony conceded. "So you all like me?"
"Yes, Tony, we like you," Steve said again.
Tony looked back and forth between Steve and Clint for a minute before grabbing them both in a hug.
"I love you guys so much!" Tony said, refusing to let go of either of his teammates.
"What is going on here?" Pepper asked, as she stepped into the room.
"Male bonding," Natasha said, smiling at Pepper before making her exit.
"Jarvis said you needed me?" Pepper said, staring at her fiancé. Steve pushed Tony off and tried to figure out how to explain what was going on.
"Tony's had a little too much to drink," Steve said. "I was hoping that you could convince him to go to bed."
"And to let go of me," Clint added, still struggling to detach Tony from his hug without hurting him.
"At least he's not wearing the suit and blowing things up this time," Pepper muttered. "Tony, let's go upstairs."
"Pepper!" Tony said. For the first time since Pepper had come in Tony realized that she was there. He let go of Clint and ran over to hug her instead. "I'm so glad to see you."
"You just saw me this morning, Tony," Pepper said.
"Doesn't matter," Tony said. "You're the most incredible woman ever and I want to be around you all the time." Pepper stared at Tony for a minute.
"Okay," Pepper said slowly. "Well I'm tired so why don't we go to bed and you can tell me more about all of this there?"
"Okay, Pepper," Tony said, still not letting her out of her hug. After finally getting Tony to let go, Pepper pulled him out of the room and quickly led him to their floor, leaving Steve and Clint to themselves. They sat in silence for a few minutes before either of them could say anything.
"That was weird," Clint said.
Steve wanted to say something that would save the night. Something to defend Tony's behavior. But after struggling to come up with something all that came out was
"That was weird."
There were a lot of things that Steve missed from living in the 40's but whenever it was Thor's turn to make everyone breakfast, and he came in with at least twenty bags of McDonalds, he had trouble remembering what those things were. A super soldier metabolism required him to eat at least four times as much as a normal man. For the most part he was happy to eat healthy and nutritious foods, but every once in a while it was nice to embrace the modern era with a warm stack of McMuffins.
He of course knew that he was damaging his image every time that he was sighted with one of their bags. While he honestly couldn't see how his eating habits had anything to do with his status as a hero he'd come to accept that he was expected to subsist on nothing but water and patriotism.
Steve looked across the table to where Thor was muttering the word "glorious" into a McGriddle and knew that he was in good company. Even if Fenrir and Bruce were making them look bad by having oatmeal.
"You are sure I cannot persuade you to try one?" Thor asked, holding a sandwich out to Fenrir. "I know that Bruce is fond of the mush but these are far superior.
Fenrir shook his head and continued to eat his oatmeal.
"Stop calling it mush," Bruce said. "You've said yourself that you have it on Asgard."
"We have something similar," Thor said. "But I don't see why anyone would choose it when there are other options, and Fenrir has had it every morning this week."
"He's fine, Thor," Bruce said.
As Thor and Bruce began to debate the merits of breakfast foods Steve looked over and saw Pepper coming down the hall.
"Guess it was Thor's turn to make breakfast again," Pepper said, looking at the pile of fast food on the kitchen table.
"How's Tony?" Steve asked.
"He was still asleep when I left," Pepper said, ignoring the food on the table and going to the fridge.
"I doubt he'll be happy when he remembers everything from last night," Steve said.
"No he won't," Pepper said, returning to the table with a glass of juice. "And unfortunately you are going to have to be the ones to deal with it because Fenrir and I already have plans."
"We do?" Fenrir asked, looking up from where he'd been stirring his oatmeal.
"We're going downtown so you can finally pick out your painting," Pepper said.
"I thought you both did that last week," Bruce said.
"We were supposed to," Pepper explained, as she began cutting up an orange. "But after Tony dropped out of that shareholders meeting to go shopping I haven't been able to get out of anything."
"If you're busy we don't need to go," Fenrir said. "I'm sure that anything you would pick out would be fine."
"No, I'm looking forward to this. Besides, I can't wait to see which one you choose," Pepper said. "Go get dressed and we can go as soon as you're ready."
Fenrir looked around the table and, after getting an order "enjoy yourself" from Thor, stood up and walked away from the table. As he was moving to leave the kitchen he passed Clint and Natasha coming in. No one knew exactly what had happened between Clint and Fenrir after their altercation in the library. While Fenrir seemed to have moved on from the incident, Clint still had trouble being in the same room with the other man. Because of this no one was surprised to see Clint give Fenrir a wide berth when he came in the room.
As soon as Fenrir was down the hallway Clint picked up his conversation where he'd left it.
"We could go this weekend, have some fun before you're big mission," Clint said.
"Not my idea of fun," She replied.
"Then just come with me, you don't have to enjoy it if you don't want to," Clint said.
"Is this how he usually asks you out on a date?" Pepper asked.
"It's not a date," Natasha said, looking at Thor's breakfast with disgust. "He wants me to go to the circus with him."
"They get in this weekend and they're only here for a month," Clint explained.
"Then you'll have plenty of time to find someone else to go with," Natasha said, finally giving in and taking a sandwich.
"Tasha, please, the circus was like my childhood," Clint pleaded. "All of my best memories of growing up and learning to use the bow happened while I was with the circus."
"Didn't your mentor betray you and leave you for dead?" Bruce asked, trying to piece together what Clint was saying, with the stories that they'd all heard.
"Well, yeah, but that wasn't until right at the end," Clint said, finally sitting down and pulling a stack of breakfast sandwiches over to himself.
"Why don't you just go by yourself if it's so important to you?" Natasha asked.
"You have to go to the circus with other people. Otherwise you're just the creepy guy watching the circus alone," Clint said.
"Clint," Natasha said, taking Clint's hands in hers. "You know that I would gladly take a bullet for you. But there is no way in hell that you are getting me into a stripped tent. Find someone else."
Clint sulked for a few minutes as he ate his breakfast and then turned to the rest of his team.
"Hey, Bruce, how would you like to-" Clint began.
"No thanks," Bruce said quickly.
"Steve, how about you?" Clint said, shifting focus.
"Sorry, Clint, I've just never liked the circus much," Steve admitted.
"Thor?" Clint asked. Thor looked at Clint for a moment. Thor still hadn't quite forgiven Clint yet so it was not surprise to anyone when he shook his head.
"Pepper?" Clint said, quickly running out of hope. "You and Tony, it'll be great."
"Tony swore that he'd never go to a circus again after an elephant stole his cotton candy in the third grade," Pepper said, as though there was nothing at all wrong with her statement. Meanwhile Thor, who had finished the last of the McGriddles got up and left the kitchen.
"Go by yourself," Natasha repeated.
"I'll just wait until the next one," Clint said. Clint slumped down in his chair and began eating again. He immediately perked up when Tony entered the kitchen.
"Hey, Tony, any chance you want to go to the circus with me?" Clint asked.
"No. Elephants," Tony muttered. Tony scanned the room before he spoke again.
"Last night…" Tony began. "Did I say some things that weren't normal?"
"If you mean you getting drunk and telling us all about your childhood man crush on Captain America? Then, yeah, it happened," Clint said, clearly still annoyed at being shot down. "Not to mention you attack hugging me and Steve."
"Tony, how much did you drink?" Bruce asked, staring nervously at his friend. It was no secret to anyone in the room that Bruce worried about how much Tony drank. He had in fact gotten Tony to cut down on his drinking a lot since he'd moved into the Tower.
"I…didn't drink that much," Tony said, shaking his head like he was trying to figure something out.
"But not a lot, for you, could give alcohol poisoning to most average people," Bruce said.
"No I mean that I did not drink that much," Tony insisted. "After the debrief I had two drinks and the next thing I know I'm acting like some whiney teenager."
"You also didn't remember drinking when you took the suit to Sea World and tried to ride that whale," Steve said.
"I didn't remember anything from that night. I remember all of last night," Tony said. "I remember leaving the meeting, having two drinks, talking to Clint about pizza, and then going to you to whine my heart out."
"Trust me, we remember it too," Natasha said.
"The point is that I wasn't even close to being drunk," Tony insisted. "I was nowhere near drunk enough to start talking about my dad."
"Tony, it sounds like you had a rough night. Why don't you grab something to eat and then go back to bed." Bruce suggested.
"You're not listening," Tony said. "Something happened last night. I didn't drink and I sure as hell didn't want to tell any of you about the things I said. But I had to. One second I'm looking for Steve so we can have pizza and the next minute I had to tell you everything."
"Tony," Steve began.
"I don't talk about things!" Tony yelled. "Ask Pepper, she's seen me drunk before. Even at my worst I never talk about feelings." Tony said the last word as if it left a bad taste in his mouth.
"Bruce," Steve said. "How about you take Tony downstairs and give him a quick medical exam. Make sure that everything's okay." Bruce nodded his ascent and he and Tony were soon gone.
"You really think that there might be something wrong with him?" Clint asked, once they were out of earshot.
"Either way it will be good for him to get the exam. If something's wrong we know and if not then at least Bruce has some time to get Tony to calm down." Steve said.
"He has a point though. Even when he thought he was dying and melted down at his birthday party, he didn't open up. If anything he closed off even more," Natasha said, rising from the table. "I think I'm going to check what Tony was drinking last night."
"I'll come," Clint said, grabbing a sandwich to go and hurrying to follow after her.
"I guess it's just you and me," Steve said, looking at the now empty table.
"Just you. I need to go finish getting ready," Pepper said, standing up.
Steve began gathering up his plates as Pepper began to leave. Despite Tony's continued instance that there were easier ways to get things clean, he couldn't get out of the habit of doing his own dishes. He was rinsing his glass when he noticed that Pepper hadn't left yet.
Pepper stood in the doorway of the kitchen and looked nervously at her watch before turning to Steve.
"I think I'm going to have to ask you for a favor," Pepper admitted.
"What is it?" Steve asked.
"Probably nothing," Pepper said. "But if it is it could be…awkward."
Steve waited for Pepper to tell him what was going on.
"I think there might be a problem with Fenrir," Pepper said.
AN: Sorry for the long wait. Promise that the next chapter won't take half as long. Keep reading and reviewing.