Chapter Text
When the Avengers alarm goes off, it’s always loud and piercing. Tony designed it that way on purpose, because he needed to make sure that the alarm was audible everywhere in the Tower and that it was dissimilar enough to any other alarms that no one would mistake it. The alarm is also accompanied by flashing red lights, because sometimes Clint’s hearing aids make his ears hurt.
Today, Tony has regrets. They’re just getting to the good part of the movie. The popcorn and hot chocolate is long gone. Natasha, Bruce and Clint are all cuddled together on the couch. Thor is sprawled in the big chair. Tony is on the other couch, Steve on one side and Pepper on the other. He’s leaning against Pepper with his feet in Steve’s lap; Steve’s big hands massage his feet and lower legs slowly, while Pepper occasionally pauses between scribbles to run her hand over Tony’s head.
And then the alarm goes off.
“Aw, man!” Clint whines, raising his voice to be heard. “This blows. Can’t evil take a day off?”
“Apparently not,” Natasha says with a sigh. She unwinds his arms from around Bruce’s neck and struggles out from beneath Clint, nearly dumping Clint on the floor.
“I’ll contact Iron Man and tell him to meet us at the scene,” Bruce volunteers.
Steve gets up, gently setting Tony’s feet on the couch, and stoops to press a kiss to Tony’s forehead. “Be good, baby boy. Daddy won’t be gone too long.” He squeezes Pepper’s shoulder as she wishes them all luck and then heads out of the living room at a run.
“I’m sleepy,” Tony says the moment they’re gone.
“I guess it is time for your nap,” Pepper says, shuffling her papers. Tony’s pretty sure that she and the others think that the Avengers leaving for a mission upsets him. They think that he always gets ‘tired’ as soon as they go because he wants to go sit in his crib and pretend nothing is happening rather than watch live updates with Pepper. It kind of sucks that they think of him as the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand, but Tony’s dealt with worse insults to his reputation.
It’s a given when you’re Tony Stark.
He slides off the couch and takes Pepper’s hand, letting her lead the way into the elevator. JARVIS takes them up to the nursery without being asked. Normally Tony fusses about going down for naps, but today he goes quietly into his crib and cuddles up to his blanky and teddy bear. Pepper checks his diaper, declares him dry, and brushes a kiss over his cheek. Then she slips out of the room.
Immediately, Tony sits up. “Call up the hologram, J,” he says, all business as he nimbly clambers over the side of the crib. His feet hit the ground and he glances over his shoulder in time to see a hologram flicker into life behind him. It looks like him, except it’s curled up on its side like it’s asleep.
Tony nods, satisfied, and hurries over to the door. At one time, he felt guilty about deceiving Pepper, Steve and the rest of the Avengers like this. But those days are long gone. He has to do this. The Avengers need Iron Man, but they don’t need Tony Stark. They need Tony’s money, and they keep Tony around when he’s in his headspace because he’s cute and he’s been told Littles are great stress relief, but they don’t need him. He’s made his peace with that.
He backtracks to the elevator and heads down to the workshop. JARVIS has the armor waiting for him. Tony steps into it, smiling as it assembles flawlessly around him. He always feels more in control when he’s wearing the armor. He activates the thrusters and flies straight up; at the very last second, just as the landing platform on the roof slides open, he also activates the invisibility shield. It’ll only last for ninety seconds, but it’s long enough to insure that no enterprising journalists get a shot of Iron Man leaving Avengers Tower when Tony doesn’t want them to.
After all, everyone believes that Iron Man is just his bodyguard. They think he lives in a non-descript apartment somewhere in Manhattan and refused a place in the Tower for the purposes of keeping his identity secret. No one knows who he is, not even Pepper. Life is just easier that way. He can be the Avengers’ Little, CEO Tony Stark, and Iron Man all at the same time. Juggling three separate parts of himself with no one the wiser isn’t easy, but it’s necessary when he doesn’t want to give up on any of them.
“Sir,” JARVIS says into Tony’s ear, “Captain Rogers is waiting to be patched through.”
“Go ahead,” Tony says. He knows that the voice modulator will subtly alter his voice, making it so that not even Steve’s advanced hearing will pick up on Tony’s voice. So he doesn’t hesitate to say, “Cap? It’s me. I’ve been alerted to the situation and I’m making my way there now.”
“Iron Man, glad to hear you’re available,” Steve says. “We’re in Central Park.”
“On my way,” Tony says, cutting the communication off. JARVIS will let him know if he’s needed. He increases his speed, flying towards Central Park as fast as he can.
As he approaches, he catches a glimpse of a purplish black cloud hanging low over the park. The Avengers are standing below it, staring up at the cloud with a variety of baffled expressions. Tony does a quick scan as he lands, but finds nothing dangerous in the cloud. It’s just… a cloud. A really low hanging, weirdly colored, cloud that appears to be made out of water.
“What have we got?” Tony asks.
“We were hoping you could tell us,” says Black Widow, folding her arms.
“My scans aren’t telling me much,” Tony admits. “Science experiment gone wrong?”
“It’s purple,” says Bruce.
“Food coloring?” Tony offers.
“I’m betting on hair dye,” says Clint. He offers a fist to Tony. Tony gently bumps it with his own fist, mindful as always of the fact that Clint’s human hand is way more fragile than a gold titanium alloy hand.
“Thor, could you like… blow it away?” Steve says after a considerable pause.
“What say you, Man of Iron?” Thor asks.
Tony shrugs, the movement barely telegraphed through the armor. “Go for it. Can’t hurt.”
He quickly comes to regret his flippant statement, as blowing the cloud away with the force Mjolnir reveals the surprise waiting inside. Mind you, Tony is using the term ‘surprise’ very loosely. He’s not exactly shocked to see the gigantic gun that shoots green lasers that melt things waiting inside the cloud, though he is extraordinarily curious to know how they blocked it from his sensors.
The Avengers move slowly into action. Tony takes to the sky to join Thor, while Steve, Natasha, Clint and Bruce scatter. Bruce backs off, waiting to see if he’ll be needed, while Steve twists around to throw his shield at the gun. It glosses off the top, barely leaving a scratch, and Tony’s jaw tightens. JARVIS is running scans, but whatever was keeping him from detecting the gun before is still active and his scans are telling him nothing.
So, he decides to hit it with a good old repulsor blast and swings his arms forward, firing off a jet of light. At the same time, Thor throws Mjolnir. Tony watches, eyes narrowed, as his blast hits first, followed by the hammer. It leaves a small dent, but not much of one, which tells him this is likely alien equipment they’re working with. No way could something manmade stand up to Mjolnir. Tony’s tried.
“Maybe try hitting it with a blast of lightning?” Tony suggests as Thor twitches his fingers, calling Mjolnir back to him.
Thor grins. “That was my way of thinking as well. Clear!” he calls, and all of the Avengers on the ground promptly retreat a good ten feet. Tony follows, because he’s learned it doesn’t always bode well for the arc reactor to be in close proximity to Thor and lightning.
Thor begins to swing Mjolnir rapidly as storm clouds gather overhead. Lightning crackles from cloud to cloud. The hair on the back of Tony’s neck stands up, though he’s not sure whether it’s because of the lightning or because of the intensity in Thor’s eyes. All he know is that he would not want to be the person that Thor looks at like that. He tenses as, on his last swing, Thor thrusts Mjolnir into the air. Thunder rumbles as all of the lightning in the clouds strikes Mjolnir, lighting the hammer up.
With a grunt, Thor leaps towards the gun, brings his hand back, and slams Mjolnir down on top of it. There’s a few seconds where everyone freezes, and Tony starts to think that maybe this was a stupid plan. But then the gun emits a high-pitched wailing nose that makes him wince, and it literally crumbles apart. Several chunks of alien metal hit the ground, leaving Thor standing on top, hands on his hips and a satisfied smirk on his face.
“Great job, Thor!” Steve calls from a distance.
Tony surveys the area below them and realizes he’s going to be needed here to survey the clean-up. If he leaves, then SHIELD will be sneaky and make off with pieces of the gun and Tony can’t have that. Iron Man, working on ‘Mr. Stark’s behalf as the primary benefactor of the Avengers’, worked out a deal with SHIELD that Tony gets first crack at any weird alien things that come from their battles.
“JARVIS,” Tony says quietly, “would you please flag an incident that needs my attention immediately?”
“Yes sir,” JARVIS says; he’s probably had something on the backburner since the moment the gun was revealed. His A.I. is so clever.
He hangs placidly in the air while JARVIS does his thing, and hears the rapid beeping that signifies something urgent has popped up. Pepper will be getting the same notification. JARVIS is so good now at picking out things that requires Tony’s attention, but not hers. And everyone knows that, while Tony doesn’t mind having people around when he’s easing into his Little headspace, he hates having people around when he’s coming out of it. So Pepper won’t go near the nursery, and will assume Tony’s gotten up, dressed and left the Tower, while the hologram of Tony in the crib just quietly disappears.
It’s a system that works, no matter how exhausting it can be to keep up the charade, and Tony’s frankly proud of it. He’ll have several hours now where no one will expect Tony Stark to be anywhere, which means he can stay here as Iron Man to supervise. When he’s finished he’ll swing by Iron Man’s apartment (rented under the pseudonym of Edward Carter), which is really just a place where Tony keeps spare changes of clothes, and change into a suit before he returns to the Tower.
He lands on the ground as Steve approaches and says, “Hey Cap. I’m going to stick around and make sure all of this alien crap ends back where it’s supposed to be. I’ve contacted Mr. Stark and he’s going to arrange for an S.I. truck to come by.”
“You talked to Tony?” Steve says, looking surprised. Of course he is. So far as Steve knows, Tony is back at the mansion sleeping peacefully.
“Yeah. You didn’t get the memo? Mr. Stark had something come up. He’s currently on his way to a meeting,” Tony says. He no longer feels any guilt for lying. This is just the way it has to be. Sure it would be nice if the Avengers could know who’s behind the Iron Man mask, but that’s never going to happen if Tony can help it.
Tony Stark may be a Little, but Iron Man can’t be. Not only does Tony have a heinous reputation that would instantly tank Iron Man as a good member of the Avengers, but no one would ever trust him to be able to do his job. He knows now that he shouldn’t have been so weak as to let things with Steve and Pepper and everyone else get this far, but he’s never been good at denying himself.
“Oh,” Steve says. Disappointment flickers briefly across his face before it’s smoothed out by a smile. “Thanks for letting me know. You need any help here?”
“Nope, I’ll be fine,” Tony says. He tries to limit how much time he spends with the team inside the mask, terrified he’ll accidentally refer to Steve as ‘Daddy’ or one of the others as aunt or uncle. He turns away, walking over to the nearest chunk of metal, and pretends that he doesn’t notice the way Steve stands there for a moment longer before leaving.
This is how it has to be.