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The events that transpired after the so-called “Civil War”, named so eloquently by the media, seemed to pass like a fog through his mind. Tony couldn’t tell you exactly what happened, only that one minute he was lying on the ground in a deserted bunker in Siberia, then everything faded to a familiar black.
Tony opened his eyes after what seemed like an eternity, but immediately shut them again when faced with a blinding white room. It took a couple tries, but he managed to get them open. After determining that he was, in fact, in a hospital, Tony breathed out a sigh of relief. He wasn’t entirely sure what happened, but he could have sworn he saw someone approaching him before he completely blacked out.
Waking up in a hospital though was par for the course in the life of Iron Man. Whether it was the S.H.I.E.L.D. medical bay, or Stark Tower’s own medical facility, or just the closest hospital someone could bring him to, Tony was familiar with all of it. He thought that by now he could administer his own medication at this point, and diagnose his own symptoms. He said as much to Pepper once, and only received a stern look and a scoff before continuing to lecture him about his terrible irresponsibility at getting injured yet again .
Tony began to take an inventory of everything that he could see and feel. He could feel the familiar pain in his chest that told of bruising and fractured ribs, which were never fun. He could feel his left arm had gotten worse than it had before… well, before everything, and it was back in a brace. Moving on, his face felt a bit stiff, but after careful movement of his jaw, he concluded that nothing was actually broken. The worst pain he could feel, however, was in his chest around the reactor. They must have done a lot more damage than he had initially anticipated. The old anger was back when he started thinking about the whole situation. And this time, it was also directed at himself. He should have known that getting them to fight was the plan all along. He should have known that Zemo was trying to manipulate him and his emotions. It wasn’t the first time that someone tried to do so, use his emotions to further their own goals, it was common practice in the business world. However, Tony was smarter than that, should have been, and yet… how could he not react that way? With a shake of his head (and didn’t that hurt to?) Tony dismissed the storm cloud over his head and put it aside for later.
Having had enough of sitting around with his thoughts, Tony found the button to call the nurse and pressed it, then sat back and waited for someone to come. He made a mental note to ask for some ice, his throat really hurt.
It only took a minute for someone to walk through the door off to his left. Tony could have sworn the nurse was a saint, for she already had a cup of ice chips in her hand. This was definitely not her first rodeo.
“How are you feeling, Mr. Stark?” the nurse asked as she placed the cup on a tray next to his bed. He gave it a wistful glance, and taking the hint, the nurse spooned out a chip and fed it to him. The ice melted instantly and soothed his severely dry throat. After giving it a couple chews, Tony swallowed the rest of it and finally attempted to speak, now that his throat didn’t burn like one of the seven circles.
“Sore, but what else is new? The ice certainly helps, thank you by the way,” Tony rasped, and immediately tried to grab for more ice. However, his wrist protested the quick movement with a slight pinch. Tony frowned, and slowly moved his hand again, which was a much better alternative. The nurse watched with a careful eye how Tony picked up the cup and began to shovel more ice into his mouth.
“Trust me, from the amount of patients I’ve had, that ice is equivalent to the Holy Grail around here,” she said with a knowing smile, which had Tony mirroring it back.
“Well, it seems you already know who I am, yet I never caught your name,” Tony said conversationally, knowing that he would probably be in the hospital for at least a week (any longer than that and he was bailing), so he figured he could make nice with the people who were handling all the meds and needles. No need to create enemies where it wasn’t warranted. Pepper would be so proud. He was sure of it.
“Well, Mr. Stark, my name is Mary. I am the nurse assigned to you during your stay here,” Mary said as she started to wander over to the monitors next to the bed, and began fiddling with some of the buttons.
“Mary, well I guess that really does make you a saint, than, huh? And please, call me Tony. ‘Mr. Stark’ sounds like my dad,” Tony said with a flap of his right hand that escaped unscathed, eating some more ice. It was truly a blessing that Tony would never take for granted ever again.
“Saint? Well, that certainly is a first. Normally, I get scared looks whenever I come in, though it usually is warranted, since I am the one to insert the needles.” This made Tony chuckle a bit, because before the whole “super-hero” gig he had going on now, he never was all that fond of needles himself. Now, though, he didn’t really care all that much anymore. It didn’t make a difference, between needles or punches, they all hurt.
After a few moments of reading the squiggly lines on the monitor, and Lord knows that Tony respected her for even knowing what they meant in the first place, Mary grabbed the chart hanging off the end of the bed and wrote down whatever it was she had read on the monitors.
She replaced the clipboard and faced him. “It seems, that besides the obvious injuries to your person, you are otherwise healthy, and after looking through your medical history, that comes as a surprise, but good news. We know that Stark Tower is equipped with all the latest medical technology, and so if Doctor Johnson approves, we can have you transferred back home, granted that you somehow procure someone to look after you until you are fully healed. We are also aware of your tendency to leave as soon as you deem fit, so we only are agreeing to let you go as long as you can demonstrate that you will continue to care for yourself at home,” Mary finished with a stern look.
Tony was grateful that the staff seemed to know of his dislike of hospitals, or at least respected his decision. He had already planned to do everything they were suggesting anyway, but it was nice that they seemed to care at all.
After another look at the monitors and checking the IV drip, Mary informed him that now that he was awake, she could let some visitors come in. Tony was a bit surprised that he even had any, besides the ever faithful Pepper, Rhodey and Happy. They always seemed to be there every time he was admitted for whatever occasion.
Soon enough, Pepper and Happy strolled through the door, but they weren’t alone. It seemed the whole Avengers team decided to show up, and were standing outside the room, and waved at him through the glass. Tony was a bit incredulous that they even decided to show up, knowing their tendency to get too busy and remain uninformed of his hospital visits. He gave them a hesitant wave back, and turned to the duo in front of him.
“Oh, Tony,” Pepper said with a relieved sigh as she came over and hugged him, albietly mindful of his injuries, thankfully. “We were so worried when Friday got in contact with us and told us what happened. Why didn’t you say anything?” she said, with a note of frustration in her tone. Tony looked down and sighed, before looking into Pepper’s eyes.
“I couldn’t, Pep. If I came with anyone else, Steve would have seen it as me trying to bring him back once again, and I didn’t want him to be defensive. We already know what happens when he thinks someone is threatening someone he cares about,” he replied with a knowing look aimed at not just her, but Happy too. He seemed to have grown a perpetual scowl on his face recently, but Tony aimed to fix that.
Pepper seemed to understand, and didn’t try to argue the point further, much to Tony’s gratitude. After everything that happened, he just wanted things to calm down. He needed some time to safely process the new information that he learned about his parents’... well, accident didn’t seem to be the right word anymore. But in any case, Tony was a futurist, and looking back at something he could no longer change would not help. Instead, he could focus on how to fix the Accords, or bring the team back together in a way that no one would have issues with.
Tony knew the Accords were awful, and that’s why he sent his trusty Legal team after it, and when they got onto a project, they were dogs with a bone.
“Well, if you’re going to stay for awhile, why don’t you pull up a chair or something? You’re making me twitchy just by looking at you,” he said, trying to lighten the mood. It seemed to work though, because they all cracked the same “Tony-did-it-again” smiles he was so familiar with, and dragged chairs around his hospital bed.
After some pleasant conversation, which he had missed, it had been awhile, Tony once again noticed all of the Avengers sitting outside.
“So… not that it’s not nice to see everybody, but what are they doing out there?” he asked with a curious tilt of his head in the Avenger’s direction.
Pepper gave the team a long-suffering look, one which Tony himself had been on the receiving end of on multiple occasions (so thank God that he wasn’t at least this time), before turning back to him and saying, “They seem to feel bad. It might have something to do with Rhodey over here going complete ‘Momma Bear’ when he heard you were hurt, and thoroughly scolded the team once he was awake again from his hospital bed. And you know when Rhodey is mad, he’s twice as vicious with his words. He let them know that all behavior from the event at the airport was inexcusable, and yes, the whole thing escalated way too much. He told Steve off for not just sitting down and reading through the Accords himself and just state specifically what he didn’t like, and that the rest was up for negotiation. He also mentioned your feisty team of lawyers who was always up for a challenge, and would help correct all that was wrong with the stupid thing. So, naturally, after all of the tongue-lashing, Steve set off with the Accords and hasn’t come out of his room since then, and the rest of the team has been working with Germany to fix the damage by cleaning up and sending out formal apologies, approved by PR, of course.”
Tony sat there for awhile, trying to soak in all of the new information that was word vomited at him. But the one thing that kept popping out to him was the fact that Steve was still here.
“Wait, you mentioned Steve. What’s up with that?” he asked, very confused.
“Well, according to Steve, he watched you black out and realized you had no way home. So he put Bucky on the plane and then came back for you and took you to this hospital. He looked incredibly guilty, which I think was a big motivator for him to read the Accords so thoroughly. If he hadn’t, I am quite sure Rhodey would put the fear of God back into Steve once he is up.”
That surprised Tony. But, then again it didn’t, actually. He knew Steve was worried about his friend, and wanted to just disable the armor. He also knew Steve was smart, and wouldn’t just leave him in that bunker after completely destroying his suit. He was a kind man, and picked a lot of fights he thought he needed to, but it was always for a good reason. So, despite everything, Tony was relieved that their friendship wasn’t in complete ruins. Now, to make sure Rhodey doesn’t try to kill him…
After Tony talked with Pepper and Happy some more, he invited the team to come in and say hello. There were a lot of smiles and laughs, more hugging (which was new, but not bad, actually), and overall it seemed like the incident had coincidentally brought them all together, in a weird, dysfunctional way.
But Tony wouldn’t have it any other way.
Two months had passed after Tony was released from the hospital, and he currently was wrapped up in a blanket on the couch. Of course, this wasn’t his idea, this was all Steve’s Mother Henning TM . He was waiting on some lunch, after being forcefully dragged from his lab after work binging for close to ten hours. Tony wasn’t quite sure when this all started, but the Avengers team seemed to become really close, and absolutely refused to let one another work too hard, or be by themselves when feeling down. This especially seemed to apply to Tony, somehow. But really, he was touched that they went out of their way to care for him.
Steve became one of his closest friends, and surprisingly enough, Bucky too (after Tony helped make him more comfortable by helping with the removal process of the triggers). Rhodey and Sam Wilson seemed to bond over something (but from what Tony can make out, it was something about “reckless best friends”) and have since hung out more often. After a long talk, Wanda seemed to accept that Tony really was sorry over what had happened with his weapons and their destruction (and maybe a bit of research into that one press conference where he shut the weapons department down), and had since made herself at home. The man behind the Ant-Man suit turned out to be a cool guy by the name of Scott Lang, and he, Clint, and Tony bonded over being Dads TM to crazy kids (Tony thought he counted because he had several A.I. babies and robots, but it seemed like the other two thought he was talking about something else when he brought it up). Natasha seemed to adopt everyone in the building, and by unanimous agreement, no one was going to dispute her on that. T’Challa popped in once in a while to say hello, having made peace with the fact Bucky was, in fact, not his father’s killer. He had since made up with him, and would talk to him whenever possible. Vision seemed to love the new setting, and began to learn all he could, especially enjoying learning new recipes. He made friends with F.R.I.D.A.Y. and all his other bots in the lab, seeming to understand them. He once told Tony that Dum-E, Butterfingers, and U all cared about Tony very much, which prompted him to start crying on the spot (but he would never admit to that, no thank you). As to Peter, he came over whenever he wasn’t busy with school or hanging out with Ned. He seemed to click with the rest of the Avengers, and was promptly adopted by everyone (but for some reason everyone told him that out of everyone, Tony was the Dad).
All in all, life was great, in a way it never had been before.
Tony was pulled from his musings when Steve arrived with the promised lunch. Tony took the tasty looking sandwich and soup from him and pecked Steve’s hand before taking the silverware and napkin too. “Thank you very much,” he said before digging in. He didn’t notice the shocked look on Steve’s face, or anyone else’s for that matter, and just happily ate his delicious meal.
Now, a nap sounded very nice right about now.
The next ‘incident’, as the team was now prone to calling it, happened one morning when Tony slept in. Everyone was sitting down around the kitchen somewhere, whether that be the counter-tops or the bar, or the couches in front when Tony came shuffling in. Everyone was curious as to why the engineer gave out little kisses, and wondering when the next one would happen. It came in the form of when Bruce handed Tony some coffee (or sweet nectar from the gods according to Tony himself), and Tony just gave him a little kiss on the cheek and shuffled off to the couch.
Everyone stopped to stare, unbeknownst to Tony, while Bruce quietly went to touch his cheek in confusion. At that point, though, everyone was confused. Since when did Tony give out affection so easily? And who does that in real life? The team just shrugged it off as yet another quirk of Tony’s, but wondered who would be the next to receive one.
It didn’t take long, apparently. Two days after, everyone was sitting around the living room, about to watch a movie as the team was prone to do every Wednesday. Tony was in the kitchen making popcorn for everyone, when Natasha finally wrangled the remote out of Clint’s hand. An audible sigh of relief was heard throughout the room as Tony walked in with the finished popcorn.
“What are we watching tonight?” Tony asked as he handed out the popcorn.
Natasha, proud of her achievement, said, “Not Terminator again. I have the remote,” whilst waving it victoriously, smirking in the face of Clint’s mutinous glare.
“Oh, thank God, Nat. You’re a lifesaver,” Tony said, while planting a kiss on her head as he handed her some popcorn.
The group watched with wide eyes as Tony casually took a seat in his usual spot after everyone received their share of buttery popcorn. No one said anything, but they all realized that Tony doesn’t give out affection to people. The only people he does are… Pepper, Happy and Rhodes.
They all decided then and there they would do their best to get one themselves.
The next person to receive a little smooch from the resident genius was surprisingly Wanda. She was attempting to learn how to be a functioning human, rather than a weapon, and had so decided she would do the laundry. She had gone out of her way to steam Tony’s shirts and suits because she knew they were important to him. Once done with the laundry, she took them all, with Vision’s help, to everyone’s rooms.
When Tony came back from a meeting, he saw all of his laundry finely pressed and laying on the bed, and had thus inquired who had done him such a nice favor.
Everyone then pointed to Wanda, who was in a conversation with Vision about something he was cooking. Tony wandered over and gave her a little peck on the head and told her “thank you”.
Wanda looked stunned for a bit, before looking absolutely pleased with herself that she had snatched one of the Tony Kisses TM , before turning around and smirking at everyone.
It was game on, now.
Bucky happened to be walking by the kitchen when he saw Tony struggling to reach something in the cabinet above his head. Seeing this as his chance, he walked over and grabbed what looked to be what Tony was attempting to grab. Bucky then passed the cup to him.
"Oh, thanks, Bucky," Tony said as he leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek, before walking over to the coffee pot that had just finished brewing.
Bucky immediately went to Steve to brag about his accomplishment.
Tony didn’t quite understand what was going on. Sure, everyone was already very nice to him, but he didn’t understand why everyone was trying to be Extra Nice now. All he knew was that when he gave someone a bit of affection, he would turn around and somehow catch a person fist-pumping the air or have a big grin on their face. Well, it didn’t truly matter, since it wasn’t anything bad, and he wasn’t getting any weird vibes from the team, so he decided to just let it go for now.
Peter had just settled down on the couch with some food from the kitchen and was talking to Tony about how he did really well on his Chemistry exam. The rest of the team had found spots all around the living room and were lounging in various positions. Everyone was very proud of their little Spiderling, even if they all knew he would get a good grade on it, seeing as he was very smart.
Tony reached over and ruffled Peter’s hair before giving him a kiss on the temple. “Good job, kid. I knew you could do it. Here, I have some cake in the fridge you can have. I’ll go get it.”
Tony got up and wandered over to the fridge, not realizing Peter was sitting there with a very big smile on his face. He thought they weren’t there yet with hugs? Let alone kisses on the temple. Peter turned to look at the rest of the team to see what their reaction was. They were giving him weird looks, and a few seemed to be pouting? That was strange. He decided to ask about it.
“Hey guys… is that normal? You know, getting affection like that from Mr. Stark? I didn’t know he did that,” Peter asked hesitantly.
Thankfully, Natasha seemed to be able to tell him the answer. “No worries, Peter. He seems to be doing that a lot lately. I guess you’re now apart of the game,” she finished with a smirk.
Game? What game?
One morning, Steve made breakfast for the team. As soon as the smell hit the living room, the whole team rushed out to get some food, already loading plates with the wonderful home-cooking.
However, after awhile, Thor all noticed that the resident engineer was not present for the wonderful food. He quietly put away some bacon and eggs, and then continued eating.
Finally, Tony stumbled into the kitchen after an hour had passed, and everyone froze, realizing that there was no food left. They all looked guiltily away. Thor, however, wore a triumphant smirk, knowing that this would happen.
“Tony, I saved you some food. Come, and eat some of this delectable breakfast,” he said as he pushed the plate in Tony’s direction.
The team suddenly knew they were outplayed.
A bright smile came over Tony’s face as he walked over to the proffered meal. “Thanks, Point Break. I really appreciate it.” He stood up on tiptoe and gave Thor a little kiss on the forehead, before sitting down at the table and beginning to eat.
Thor was so excited he punched a hole in the wall, to the amusement of the team, and the bewilderment of Tony.
The team was introduced to Dr. Stephen Strange when they heard about a massive disturbance in Hong Kong, that was completely handled and reversed almost as soon as it happened. Needless to say they were curious, and Tony looked into the whole matter.
They subsequently learned about sorcerers and the Sorcerer Supreme, and arranged to meet the new Sorcerer Supreme, because apparently the other one had recently passed away.
Dr. (“Not ‘Mr.’, thank you. I worked too hard for that title for people not to use it”) Strange seemed to fit in with the group right away, what with the classic snark and sarcasm. Wanda immediately went up to him and started asking questions, because maybe this person could actually give her some tips about magic.
The team was in for a surprise when Dr. Strange’s cloak started moving on its own, and then flew off to circle the room.
“Oh, don’t mind him. He tends to do that around new people, to gauge everyone’s reactions, and which people he should mess with first,” Strange said with a mischievous smile. He wouldn’t elaborate any further than that, but the team got the message.
Tony, who normally didn’t like anything magical, due to bad experiences in the past, was instantly entranced by the floating cloak. But apparently the cloak was too, because apparently people weren’t all that interested in it when it hung around Strange’s shoulders.
It floated right up to Tony, making a gesture that the team didn’t really understand, but Tony seemed to.
“Well hello to you too. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Tony,” he said with a smile, while looking the cloak over. The cloak seemed to preen under the attention, and wrapped itself around Tony’s shoulders, which garnered a laugh from the genius.
The look of surprise from Strange was one the team would remember for a long time, because apparently that wasn’t normal. But they knew Tony didn’t do “normal”.
After that, Tony and the cloak got on like a house on fire. It seemed to love Tony, and Tony too seemed to adore it, and they just walked around and communicated like they were old friends. After the initial shock, Strange seemed to smile and joke, “I think he has a type, if rich genius could be considered a type.” The team chuckled at that, and just watched as the cloak nudged at Tony’s cheek, prompting him to give it a little peck.
Well, would you look at that. Another competitor in the game.
One time, Strange ended up dropping a bowl on the ground, which made him very embarrassed, since he absolutely hated his shaking hands. However, Tony wouldn’t stand for that, so he quickly dragged Strange away from the mess and set him down on the couch. He kissed his hands and said, “You know, these are the strongest hands I’ve ever seen. It’s due to the fact that even when faced with the impossible, they meld together the universe in a way that makes anything possible.”
Needless to say, Stephen volunteered himself to be another contender in the game after that.
As the score stands, everyone had gotten at least one kiss from the billionaire. The leader was the obvious candidate: Peter. It seemed he would get a kiss just for breathing at that point, which the team couldn’t deny he deserved.
That didn’t mean they wouldn’t keep trying, of course. They weren’t known for standing down, after all.