Tony loved giving people presents. He looked for any excuse to get away with it; it was how he showed affection, much like teasing. Each of the Avengers had learned of this particular quirk shortly after moving into the Tower. At first, they had just assumed that Tony had Pepper design rooms for each of them, had Happy stock the kitchen with all of their favorite foods, but then Rhodey showed up for the first time. Tony had been elated.

"Rhodey!" squealed Tony – though he would deny any squealing when questioned later – throwing himself at his best friend when he stumbled out of the elevator and found the man in the living room.

"You need a shower, kid," said Rhodey with an affectionate smile, allowing Tony to lean on him because he knew the genius was normally touch starved. "What, did you bathe in motor oil or something?"

"Oh, I made you this!" said Tony, pulling away and dragging Rhodey over to his corner of the living room, the one that he had claimed by filling with odds and ends that no one else could understand. Tony grabbed one of said odds and held it out to Rhodey. "It's a new locator."

"Thanks, buddy," said Rhodey, smiling at the improved version of the locator he had. "After you've showered and eaten something more than coffee you can show me how to work it."

"Bossy," grumbled Tony, though he turned away to go shower anyway.

When the billionaire was gone, the other Avengers looked at Rhodes with interest.

"So you're Rhodey?" said Steve finally. "It's nice to meet you."

Rhodes sent Steve a glare.

"Well someone doesn't like Steve," snickered Clint, perching on the back of the couch, eating a ham sandwich.

"Look," said Rhodes, glaring at the room in general. "Tony is thrilled to have you lot here because he's a generous asshole, but I'm not sold on the idea."

"We weren't too happy about it either," said Clint. "But when SHEILD went to shit we needed a place to crash and Stark offered this up. How he got Pepper to design our rooms that quick, I'll never know."

"Wait, you think Pepper did that?"

"Well yeah, I don't know a lot of people that Tony give access to these quarters."

"You lot are even bigger idiots than I thought," groaned Rhodey. "I can't believe this."

"What?" asked Bruce, looking up from the book he had been trying and failing to read instead of actively participating in the conversation.

"Tony designed those rooms himself," explained Rhodey. "He agonized over them for weeks after that battler in New York. He knew you guys would probably never move in but he wanted you to have a place to call your own if you ever needed an escape."

"He designed the rooms?" said Steve, shock written all over his face.

"Don't even get me started on you, Captain," growled Rhodey, pointing a finger at the blonde. "You don't even deserve to be in the same room let alone live in the same building as Tony after what you said to him."

Steve had the good grace to look at the floor as guilt flooded his biologically enhanced system; Rhodes was right, what he had said was uncalled for and still made him cringe when he thought about it.

"Hey now, you know what Stark is like," said Natasha, defending Steve when it became apparent the super soldier would not act on his own behalf.

"Yeah, I do, a hell of a lot better than you lot. He's the most annoying, egotistical, obnoxious, clingy, sympathetic, sensitive, kind, giving, self-destructive, generous asshole I've ever met. But that's just it, that's what you are missing. He would give up everything, all of it, if it meant you liked him. Tony doesn't care about money, he likes to spend it on the people he cares about, which strangely enough is you guys. So if I hear that you are making him feel like he's trying to buy your friendship or that you make him feel bad about giving you shit, I'm going to make your life hell. And I won't even do it personally, I'll make a task force do it for me, because if you think that little of Tony then you aren't even worth a visit from me."

They were going to respond – they were the Avengers and they were not cowed by one measly man, after all – but all they could do was nod their understanding as Tony came back into the room, his hair still damp but not dripping (never dripping, the genius had a thing about water dripping) and the moment to act Avenger-y passed.

"Alright Sour Patch," said Tony, throwing an arm around Rhodey and steering him into the kitchen. "Coffee first, play time after. Oh, and you need to see the awesome new arrows I built! They knock out instead of kill. You know, in case Hawk-ass isn't feeling lethal or Agent gets on him again about paper work created by killing."

Clint felt an unhealthy stirring of guilt in his stomach at those words – he hadn't put much thought into how his new arrows came about – but it was nothing compared to the guilt he and the others were beginning to feel as they realized just how much Tony gave without expecting anything in return.

So after many Christmas's, birthdays, Arbor days, Flag Days, Days Days, the team had grown more than accustomed to Tony's gifts – they had come to love them. Tony was undeniably awful at feelings, he couldn't tell most that he cared about them with his words, he panicked when anyone but Steve (and now Emmy) cried, but he would make up for all of that in his thoughtful gifts, the ones the Avengers had initially assumed were his attempt at buying them off when in reality it was him trying to say he liked them.

It took ages for them to open all their gifts but when they were finally done, Coulson stepped forward and handed Steve a folder.

"I'm not doing paperwork on Christmas," said Tony defiantly.

"I gave it to Steve," replied Coulson mildly. "And it's completed."

"Wait, then why did you give it to Steve?" whined Tony.

"Tony, I already gave you my present, a month of doing all your paperwork for you."

"Yeah, and you gave Steve a bicycle built for two, so he doesn't get free paperwork!"

"You big baby, it's the adoption papers for Emmy," sighed Coulson, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I managed to get it all done this morning. It took some doing, government agencies don't like rushing anything or working on holidays, but there. She's officially yours."

There was a moment of silence before the room erupted in cheers and tears, though Tony would deny contributing to the tears later, when he was finished hugging his official daughter.

*Alrighty readers. We are about two chapters from the end. At the end of the story, I will leave it up to you lot if you want a sequel. Always-Ari