![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kathierif_ficFic: Five Times An Avengers Moved In And One Time They Moved Out
by:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kathierif_fic
Fandom: The Avengers (2012)
Pairing: None, but seriously, could just as well be pre-OT7
Rating: FRT-13
Warnings: None, unless you count Cap's nightmares
Summary: Five times an Avenger moved intoStarkAvengers-Tower and the one time they all had to move out.
A/Ns: Hi, I wrote a ficlet. I think this was originally supposed to be for a prompt on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
avengerkink but I lost the prompt and probably derivated a lot from it, as well. Also, story of my life: I wrote a ficlet, I wanna post it -- let's go find a good icon and spend about an hour on that first! About ~3k.
1.
Bruce is first, but even then, it takes time for him to make his way back to New York. He took the first bus out of the city after Loki and Thor went home, left the country and prepared to return to his life on the run, certain that SHIELD can find him anytime they want.
He's almost disappointed when he makes it all the way to India without encountering Natasha again.
Bruce doesn't really have anywhere to go, all his possessions fit into an old, shabby duffelbag that Natasha handed him when they separated. The one thing he keeps close is the phone Tony slipped him, metallic black, sleek and modern, and it's such a foreign object in his current living situation that he thinks about tossing it, just because it is such a strange object that doesn’t fit in with who he is, who he wants to be.
It takes him almost four weeks until he realizes that he doesn't belong and that the phone just a tiny outward sign of it. Getting rid of the phone would not get rid of the problem.
He almost picks it up and calls Tony as he slowly makes his way back, but he doesn't quite bring up the courage to do so. He finds himself with his thumb hovering over the name and number Tony put into the phone, and he always hesitates and puts the phone back in his pocket, until one day, when he finally manages to dial Tony's number.
"I was wondering," he says instead of a greeting, his heart beating a sharp rhythm in his chest, "about that lab you mentioned."
Tony is a genius, he understands immediately what he's talking about, and to his credit, he doesn't hesitate before asking, "When will you be here?"
"Um, actually..." Bruce glances over his shoulder, at gleaming glass and metal. "I'm standing in front of the tower right now."
"Well then," Tony says. "Come in. Jarvis, let him in!"
Jarvis guides Bruce to Tony's personal lab, and Tony doesn't bat an eye at the state of Bruce's clothes. He only flinches when he sees the battered backpack before giving Bruce a bed, a room, an entire floor for himself and spends three days trying to convince him to work for Stark Industries.
When Bruce still refuses, Tony tosses his hands up in disgust, drags him to an unused lab and tells him SI has still the right to take everything he comes up with.
At first, Bruce is sure that he fits even less in Tony Stark's high-tech world than he does in the poor areas in India, but to his great surprise, he finds himself enjoying the quiet of his floor, the unassuming presence of Jarvis, and Tony showing up every now and then, hair wild, grease streaked across his cheek, to drag him out for food. Tony still pokes at him and tries to bring the Hulk out, alternating it with his attempts to make Bruce believe in his own confidence, but Bruce finds himself quickly forgiving him for those moments.
2.
The second to move in to Stark Tower is Steve. His earthly possessions are just as meager as Bruce’s, nothing more than a bag and a small suitcase. He brings his shield and a sketchpad, and he can usually be found with both of them close.
Steve still wakes up in the middle of the night, thinking he's at war, and unable to go back to sleep. He wanders around the tower then, his sketchpad held in a white-knuckled grip. Eventually, he settles down in the living room of Tony's penthouse, where Jarvis keeps him company while he watches TV.
It's almost three in the morning when he wakes up, just a few days after moving in, his heart racing and sweat making his shirt stick to his skin. He is shivering, unable to calm down even when he's awake, and his fingers fumble with the straps of the shield resting next to his bed.
It's always worst, when he dreams of Bucky falling, and he knows from experience that going back to sleep is going to be impossible. He can't bring himself to watch a movie, either, his stomach churning and his pulse racing. He wants to cry, but he can't, his eyes sandpapery and dry.
He finds Tony sprawled half under one of his cars, a part in his hands while he talks to Jarvis, his words flying fast through the room.
Tony interrupts himself when he sees Steve standing by the door, hair disheveled, eyes wild, fingers clenched around his shield and his sketchpad.
Emotions flicker across his face, too fast for Steve to decipher them, and he flinches, expecting Tony to make a scathing remark.
Instead, Tony invites him with a wave of his hand and lowers the volume of his music with a brief command.
"Can't sleep?" he asks and sets the piece of metal in his hands carefully down.
"No." Steve almost doesn't recognize his own voice, rough and scratchy. "I'm sorry, I can't..."
"Hey." Tony sits up. "I get it, okay? It's okay. You're okay."
Steve sits down on the couch in the corner of the room and runs his fingers through his hair. He doesn't speak, and after a while, Tony returns to his tinkering, but he keeps up a steady stream of chatter. It takes Steve a while to realize that Tony is explaining what he's doing, trying to keep Steve's mind occupied and away from the nightmares plaguing him.
"Why do you do this?" Steve finally asks. His voice is quiet, but he still manages to cut effortlessly through Tony's explanations.
Tony glances down at his hands before shrugging. "Couldn't leave you in that tiny room at SHIELD," he says, his eyes flickering to the side. "Or that run-down apartment."
"There was nothing wrong with my apartment."
"Steve. There were giant cockroaches trying to form a democracy in your kitchen," Tony points out, and this is familiar, the banter and insults. "Plus, your neighbor stole your coffee machine."
"Tony," Steve says, softly, and Tony's shoulders slump slightly, almost invisible if not for the laser-sharp focus Steve has on him.
"I just thought you shouldn't be alone, okay?" Tony muttered finally. "Okay, it wasn't really my idea, except it was, but Pepper told me about the cockroaches, and I couldn't risk Captain America being eaten by sentient cockroaches. Bad publicity."
Steve's heart rate slowly calms down, and he's finally able to release his grip on his shield. There's still no way he can sleep, but at least he doesn't feel like he can't breathe anymore.
Tony makes a thoughtful, humming noise and picks up a different part. "Come here, you can make yourself useful," he points out and gestures Steve closer. "Labor for the fact that I let you live in my tower, that kind of thing. Hold this."
Steve does, and Tony returns to his explanation of what he's doing, his voice low and soothing, and Steve allows himself to fall into it.
It becomes sort of their thing - whenever the nightmares get too worse for Steve to handle, he makes his way to Tony's workshop, and Tony teaches him about cars, or computers, or cell phone programming, and keeps the terrors and tremors at bay until Steve can go back to bed or Pepper walks in with a cup of coffee for Tony and a pile of papers to sign.
3.
By the time Barton moves in, Tony isn't even fazed at the lack of personal belongings anymore.
"Did you all grow up among wolves?" he asks when he sees the battered suitcase and the second case which holds a bow, the only things Clint brought with him.
"In the circus, actually," Clint replies, and Tony just stares at him with narrowed eyes, not sure if Barton is serious.
Turns out, he is.
It also turns out that Clint brought his own set of nightmares and demons, Loki being just one of them. Tony watches him stalk throughout the tower for a couple of nights, bumping into Steve again and again, before he decides something has to happen.
He builds an archery range on one of the lower floors, close to the gym Steve uses for his work-outs. He's sure he saw Bruce in there as well, doing yoga or pilates or something like that, and the knowledge that they are using the things he built for them fills him with a strange sense of satisfaction.
He has to take out a whole floor of SI's labs, but he does without hesitating.
Pepper is not exactly happy, but she forgives him relatively quickly when she realizes why he’s doing it.
Sometimes, Tony resurfaces from his lab to find Steve, Bruce and Pepper sitting in his kitchen, mugs of coffee or tea in front of them, and Clint humming softly to himself as he makes them breakfast.
There is always a cup and a plate for him, too, and Tony knows that it was the right decision, letting the Avengers to move in with him without complaining too much.
4.
Tony doesn't really notice it when Natasha moves in. He blinks, and when he turns around after several intense weeks of programming the new StarkPhone OS, she's there, back from her last super secret spy mission in Africa, sipping coffee with the rest of the team and smiling at Pepper. Tony doesn't know if she owns as little as his other teammates, and he respects her privacy enough not to check her room.
Maybe her collection of knives, strategically displayed one day he stumbles past, has something to do with his lack of curiosity.
"I told you she's back," Pepper says patiently, not looking up from the file on her desk.
Tony shifts from one foot to the other. He feels a little like a schoolboy, standing here and waiting for her approval to his work, and he covers it by talking louder and gesticulating more wildly.
"Tony," Pepper finally says, her voice quiet and in control, and Tony forces himself to still.
"I asked her on your behalf to move in," Pepper continues once she's sure she has his attention. "Since she usually lives on SHIELD premises. And you asked Clint to move in."
"He said SHIELD kicked him out," Tony mutters and slouches down in a chair.
Pepper only rolls her eyes and closes the file. "Since people already call it Avengers-Tower, I figured it's only right that she lives here, too," she tells him.
Tony opens his mouth and closes it again.
"Avengers-Tower?" he repeats. "Seriously, there is a reason I put my name on it, who came up with this thing? Actually, I like it. Jarvis, make a note, rename the tower."
Pepper is too used to him to even bat an eyelash, and Tony squirms a little and mutters under his breath about the tower still being his and not being informed, but Pepper knows him and knows what he looks like when he gives in.
She smiles and carefully redirects the conversation back to the StarkPhone and the shareholder's meeting Tony's supposed to take part in.
5.
When Thor moves in, he brings his hammer.
He also brings Jane Foster, who is quickly assimilated in the bundle of inventors and scientists that turn the nights into days and are addicted to coffee.
Jane drags Thor shopping one day when she's not busy trying to puzzle out the Bifrost and the Avengers are not needed, and Thor comes back with a lot of tight t-shirts and low-sitting jeans, but at least it is something to put into the drawers and closets, besides that ridiculous red cape Tony still finds himself making fun of.
He figures that Thor probably owns more stuff than what he brought to the tower, but keeps it in Asgard, just like Tony himself keeps some of his favorite cars and bots in Malibu.
It makes sense, to him.
Thor is an easy person to live with. He likes to eat, he's curious about Midgardian customs, and when Jane is buried in her lab, he sits with Steve and Clint and watches tv, or he spars with Natasha.
It's early in the morning, and Tony would think about going to bed if Steve wasn't curled up next to him, monosyllabic and twitchy from another nightmare. It's the anniversary of Bucky's fall, Steve told him after stumbling in, a few hours ago, when he unfroze enough to bring out complete sentences, and so Tony stays where he is, talking until his voice is hoarse and Steve leans slightly against his side.
They both look up when Thor wanders in, dressed in dark green pyjamas.
"Hawkeye told me where to find you, my friends," he says simply and rests a hand on Steve's shoulder. "I am sorry to hear about your troubles, friend Steve."
Steve swallows thickly. Not a word escapes as he stiffly climbs to his feet, and then, Thor pulls him into a hug and simply holds him.
For a long moment, Steve stays unresponsive, but then, he melts into Thor's embrace, his weight resting against him and his arms coming up to clutch at Thor's pyjamas. Thor's arms keep him upright, one hand rubbing soothing circles into his back, and he's whispering softly into Steve's ear.
It's almost enough for Tony to get jealous, forgotten on the floor as he is, and he opens his mouth to complain when Thor chuckles.
"We shall feast and you shall tell us tales to remember the greatness of your fallen comrades, friend Steve," he says fondly. Steve's smile looks more like a grimace, but he nods.
Tony frowns and coughs, to make them remember he's there, too, and Steve reaches out a hand and pulls him to his feet and straight into the hug without even looking.
It turns out that getting hugged by a supersoldier and a demi-god is kind of awesome, even if their focus is on Steve, who is sniffling softly, and suddenly, Tony is glad that Thor is here to take control of the situation, not that he wouldn't have been able to deal with it if Steve broke down and cried now.
After that, Thor shows up occasionally, when not even Tony's voice can push back Steve's nightmares; when Natasha comes home from yet another SHIELD-mission that leaves her cold-eyed and distant, when Clint visits Coulson's grave. He lets Steve cling to him, he sits and drinks tea with Natasha, he brings Pepper ice-cream, meditates with Bruce, and he learns how to make pancakes from scratch from Clint. He is there when Tony stumbles home from a day of meetings, exhausted and frustrated, follows him to bars and clubs and faithfully makes sure he returns home safely.
He looks out for all of them, not asking for anything in return.
On the anniversary of Jane hitting him with her van, Tony sets them up for a romantic dinner for two. He lets Pepper do the actual organizing, making reservations and buying Thor a nice suit to wear, but it was Tony's idea, because he can look out for his teammates too.
Sometimes.
When he remembers and has nothing more important to do.
Hey, he lets them all live in his tower, and that already counts for something, right?
+1
The day after the tower gets razed to the ground by manical aliens, Tony stands in the middle of all the rubble, blood drying itchingly on his forehead. The rest of the Avengers are somewhere behind him, and he can feel exhaustion like lead in every single of his muscles. The fight was long and hard, and he just wants to curl up somewhere and sleep.
"Tony?" Steve says, his voice quiet and controlled, but Tony doesn't turn around to face him.
He can't.
Not yet.
The tower had turned into a home, not just for him, but for the rest of the Avengers too, a safe place to be themselves, with all their fears and their trust issues and brilliance and warmth, a safe place away from curious reporters, and now, it's gone.
"Tony?" Steve says again and rests a hand on his shoulder. Tony doesn't feel it through the suit, but he can see it from the corner of his eye, the gloved hand resting against the scratched red paint of his armor.
"The others?" he asks before swallowing. "Pepper?"
"She's safe," Steve immediately replies. "She and Jane got out before anything happened. They're safe, Tony. Everybody's safe."
Tony swallows. Pepper is safe, Jane is safe, Jarvis is safe, the Avengers are all alive.
Everybody's fine, he doesn't know why his throat feels so tight suddenly and his eyes are burning, but before he can figure it out, strong arms yank him suddenly backwards, against Hulk's chest, Steve still pressed against his side, and then Thor, Clint and Natasha join them, a giant pile of blood and sweat and dust and weapons, with Tony in the middle of it.
"Too bad they destroyed Avengers-Tower," Clint murmurs after a long moment. "Because I really want to go home."
"Home," Hulk echoes, and Steve makes a sound of agreement.
"Friends," Thor says and smiles, "I have learned that home is not a place, but the people one surrounds oneself with." He gives each of them an earnest look. "You all are my home now."
Tony finally manages to get out of his immobility. "You know," he says, "I still have this mansion nobody's using right now."
"Avengers-mansion?" Natasha asks.
"Doesn't have the same sound as Avengers-Tower," Clint decides, but they start pulling apart nonetheless, and Tony realizes, in that moment, standing on top of what once was a tower, that Thor is right; and here, in the circle of his friends, he is home.
~end.
by:
kathierif_ficFandom: The Avengers (2012)
Pairing: None, but seriously, could just as well be pre-OT7
Rating: FRT-13
Warnings: None, unless you count Cap's nightmares
Summary: Five times an Avenger moved into
A/Ns: Hi, I wrote a ficlet. I think this was originally supposed to be for a prompt on
avengerkink but I lost the prompt and probably derivated a lot from it, as well. Also, story of my life: I wrote a ficlet, I wanna post it -- let's go find a good icon and spend about an hour on that first! About ~3k.1.
Bruce is first, but even then, it takes time for him to make his way back to New York. He took the first bus out of the city after Loki and Thor went home, left the country and prepared to return to his life on the run, certain that SHIELD can find him anytime they want.
He's almost disappointed when he makes it all the way to India without encountering Natasha again.
Bruce doesn't really have anywhere to go, all his possessions fit into an old, shabby duffelbag that Natasha handed him when they separated. The one thing he keeps close is the phone Tony slipped him, metallic black, sleek and modern, and it's such a foreign object in his current living situation that he thinks about tossing it, just because it is such a strange object that doesn’t fit in with who he is, who he wants to be.
It takes him almost four weeks until he realizes that he doesn't belong and that the phone just a tiny outward sign of it. Getting rid of the phone would not get rid of the problem.
He almost picks it up and calls Tony as he slowly makes his way back, but he doesn't quite bring up the courage to do so. He finds himself with his thumb hovering over the name and number Tony put into the phone, and he always hesitates and puts the phone back in his pocket, until one day, when he finally manages to dial Tony's number.
"I was wondering," he says instead of a greeting, his heart beating a sharp rhythm in his chest, "about that lab you mentioned."
Tony is a genius, he understands immediately what he's talking about, and to his credit, he doesn't hesitate before asking, "When will you be here?"
"Um, actually..." Bruce glances over his shoulder, at gleaming glass and metal. "I'm standing in front of the tower right now."
"Well then," Tony says. "Come in. Jarvis, let him in!"
Jarvis guides Bruce to Tony's personal lab, and Tony doesn't bat an eye at the state of Bruce's clothes. He only flinches when he sees the battered backpack before giving Bruce a bed, a room, an entire floor for himself and spends three days trying to convince him to work for Stark Industries.
When Bruce still refuses, Tony tosses his hands up in disgust, drags him to an unused lab and tells him SI has still the right to take everything he comes up with.
At first, Bruce is sure that he fits even less in Tony Stark's high-tech world than he does in the poor areas in India, but to his great surprise, he finds himself enjoying the quiet of his floor, the unassuming presence of Jarvis, and Tony showing up every now and then, hair wild, grease streaked across his cheek, to drag him out for food. Tony still pokes at him and tries to bring the Hulk out, alternating it with his attempts to make Bruce believe in his own confidence, but Bruce finds himself quickly forgiving him for those moments.
2.
The second to move in to Stark Tower is Steve. His earthly possessions are just as meager as Bruce’s, nothing more than a bag and a small suitcase. He brings his shield and a sketchpad, and he can usually be found with both of them close.
Steve still wakes up in the middle of the night, thinking he's at war, and unable to go back to sleep. He wanders around the tower then, his sketchpad held in a white-knuckled grip. Eventually, he settles down in the living room of Tony's penthouse, where Jarvis keeps him company while he watches TV.
It's almost three in the morning when he wakes up, just a few days after moving in, his heart racing and sweat making his shirt stick to his skin. He is shivering, unable to calm down even when he's awake, and his fingers fumble with the straps of the shield resting next to his bed.
It's always worst, when he dreams of Bucky falling, and he knows from experience that going back to sleep is going to be impossible. He can't bring himself to watch a movie, either, his stomach churning and his pulse racing. He wants to cry, but he can't, his eyes sandpapery and dry.
He finds Tony sprawled half under one of his cars, a part in his hands while he talks to Jarvis, his words flying fast through the room.
Tony interrupts himself when he sees Steve standing by the door, hair disheveled, eyes wild, fingers clenched around his shield and his sketchpad.
Emotions flicker across his face, too fast for Steve to decipher them, and he flinches, expecting Tony to make a scathing remark.
Instead, Tony invites him with a wave of his hand and lowers the volume of his music with a brief command.
"Can't sleep?" he asks and sets the piece of metal in his hands carefully down.
"No." Steve almost doesn't recognize his own voice, rough and scratchy. "I'm sorry, I can't..."
"Hey." Tony sits up. "I get it, okay? It's okay. You're okay."
Steve sits down on the couch in the corner of the room and runs his fingers through his hair. He doesn't speak, and after a while, Tony returns to his tinkering, but he keeps up a steady stream of chatter. It takes Steve a while to realize that Tony is explaining what he's doing, trying to keep Steve's mind occupied and away from the nightmares plaguing him.
"Why do you do this?" Steve finally asks. His voice is quiet, but he still manages to cut effortlessly through Tony's explanations.
Tony glances down at his hands before shrugging. "Couldn't leave you in that tiny room at SHIELD," he says, his eyes flickering to the side. "Or that run-down apartment."
"There was nothing wrong with my apartment."
"Steve. There were giant cockroaches trying to form a democracy in your kitchen," Tony points out, and this is familiar, the banter and insults. "Plus, your neighbor stole your coffee machine."
"Tony," Steve says, softly, and Tony's shoulders slump slightly, almost invisible if not for the laser-sharp focus Steve has on him.
"I just thought you shouldn't be alone, okay?" Tony muttered finally. "Okay, it wasn't really my idea, except it was, but Pepper told me about the cockroaches, and I couldn't risk Captain America being eaten by sentient cockroaches. Bad publicity."
Steve's heart rate slowly calms down, and he's finally able to release his grip on his shield. There's still no way he can sleep, but at least he doesn't feel like he can't breathe anymore.
Tony makes a thoughtful, humming noise and picks up a different part. "Come here, you can make yourself useful," he points out and gestures Steve closer. "Labor for the fact that I let you live in my tower, that kind of thing. Hold this."
Steve does, and Tony returns to his explanation of what he's doing, his voice low and soothing, and Steve allows himself to fall into it.
It becomes sort of their thing - whenever the nightmares get too worse for Steve to handle, he makes his way to Tony's workshop, and Tony teaches him about cars, or computers, or cell phone programming, and keeps the terrors and tremors at bay until Steve can go back to bed or Pepper walks in with a cup of coffee for Tony and a pile of papers to sign.
3.
By the time Barton moves in, Tony isn't even fazed at the lack of personal belongings anymore.
"Did you all grow up among wolves?" he asks when he sees the battered suitcase and the second case which holds a bow, the only things Clint brought with him.
"In the circus, actually," Clint replies, and Tony just stares at him with narrowed eyes, not sure if Barton is serious.
Turns out, he is.
It also turns out that Clint brought his own set of nightmares and demons, Loki being just one of them. Tony watches him stalk throughout the tower for a couple of nights, bumping into Steve again and again, before he decides something has to happen.
He builds an archery range on one of the lower floors, close to the gym Steve uses for his work-outs. He's sure he saw Bruce in there as well, doing yoga or pilates or something like that, and the knowledge that they are using the things he built for them fills him with a strange sense of satisfaction.
He has to take out a whole floor of SI's labs, but he does without hesitating.
Pepper is not exactly happy, but she forgives him relatively quickly when she realizes why he’s doing it.
Sometimes, Tony resurfaces from his lab to find Steve, Bruce and Pepper sitting in his kitchen, mugs of coffee or tea in front of them, and Clint humming softly to himself as he makes them breakfast.
There is always a cup and a plate for him, too, and Tony knows that it was the right decision, letting the Avengers to move in with him without complaining too much.
4.
Tony doesn't really notice it when Natasha moves in. He blinks, and when he turns around after several intense weeks of programming the new StarkPhone OS, she's there, back from her last super secret spy mission in Africa, sipping coffee with the rest of the team and smiling at Pepper. Tony doesn't know if she owns as little as his other teammates, and he respects her privacy enough not to check her room.
Maybe her collection of knives, strategically displayed one day he stumbles past, has something to do with his lack of curiosity.
"I told you she's back," Pepper says patiently, not looking up from the file on her desk.
Tony shifts from one foot to the other. He feels a little like a schoolboy, standing here and waiting for her approval to his work, and he covers it by talking louder and gesticulating more wildly.
"Tony," Pepper finally says, her voice quiet and in control, and Tony forces himself to still.
"I asked her on your behalf to move in," Pepper continues once she's sure she has his attention. "Since she usually lives on SHIELD premises. And you asked Clint to move in."
"He said SHIELD kicked him out," Tony mutters and slouches down in a chair.
Pepper only rolls her eyes and closes the file. "Since people already call it Avengers-Tower, I figured it's only right that she lives here, too," she tells him.
Tony opens his mouth and closes it again.
"Avengers-Tower?" he repeats. "Seriously, there is a reason I put my name on it, who came up with this thing? Actually, I like it. Jarvis, make a note, rename the tower."
Pepper is too used to him to even bat an eyelash, and Tony squirms a little and mutters under his breath about the tower still being his and not being informed, but Pepper knows him and knows what he looks like when he gives in.
She smiles and carefully redirects the conversation back to the StarkPhone and the shareholder's meeting Tony's supposed to take part in.
5.
When Thor moves in, he brings his hammer.
He also brings Jane Foster, who is quickly assimilated in the bundle of inventors and scientists that turn the nights into days and are addicted to coffee.
Jane drags Thor shopping one day when she's not busy trying to puzzle out the Bifrost and the Avengers are not needed, and Thor comes back with a lot of tight t-shirts and low-sitting jeans, but at least it is something to put into the drawers and closets, besides that ridiculous red cape Tony still finds himself making fun of.
He figures that Thor probably owns more stuff than what he brought to the tower, but keeps it in Asgard, just like Tony himself keeps some of his favorite cars and bots in Malibu.
It makes sense, to him.
Thor is an easy person to live with. He likes to eat, he's curious about Midgardian customs, and when Jane is buried in her lab, he sits with Steve and Clint and watches tv, or he spars with Natasha.
It's early in the morning, and Tony would think about going to bed if Steve wasn't curled up next to him, monosyllabic and twitchy from another nightmare. It's the anniversary of Bucky's fall, Steve told him after stumbling in, a few hours ago, when he unfroze enough to bring out complete sentences, and so Tony stays where he is, talking until his voice is hoarse and Steve leans slightly against his side.
They both look up when Thor wanders in, dressed in dark green pyjamas.
"Hawkeye told me where to find you, my friends," he says simply and rests a hand on Steve's shoulder. "I am sorry to hear about your troubles, friend Steve."
Steve swallows thickly. Not a word escapes as he stiffly climbs to his feet, and then, Thor pulls him into a hug and simply holds him.
For a long moment, Steve stays unresponsive, but then, he melts into Thor's embrace, his weight resting against him and his arms coming up to clutch at Thor's pyjamas. Thor's arms keep him upright, one hand rubbing soothing circles into his back, and he's whispering softly into Steve's ear.
It's almost enough for Tony to get jealous, forgotten on the floor as he is, and he opens his mouth to complain when Thor chuckles.
"We shall feast and you shall tell us tales to remember the greatness of your fallen comrades, friend Steve," he says fondly. Steve's smile looks more like a grimace, but he nods.
Tony frowns and coughs, to make them remember he's there, too, and Steve reaches out a hand and pulls him to his feet and straight into the hug without even looking.
It turns out that getting hugged by a supersoldier and a demi-god is kind of awesome, even if their focus is on Steve, who is sniffling softly, and suddenly, Tony is glad that Thor is here to take control of the situation, not that he wouldn't have been able to deal with it if Steve broke down and cried now.
After that, Thor shows up occasionally, when not even Tony's voice can push back Steve's nightmares; when Natasha comes home from yet another SHIELD-mission that leaves her cold-eyed and distant, when Clint visits Coulson's grave. He lets Steve cling to him, he sits and drinks tea with Natasha, he brings Pepper ice-cream, meditates with Bruce, and he learns how to make pancakes from scratch from Clint. He is there when Tony stumbles home from a day of meetings, exhausted and frustrated, follows him to bars and clubs and faithfully makes sure he returns home safely.
He looks out for all of them, not asking for anything in return.
On the anniversary of Jane hitting him with her van, Tony sets them up for a romantic dinner for two. He lets Pepper do the actual organizing, making reservations and buying Thor a nice suit to wear, but it was Tony's idea, because he can look out for his teammates too.
Sometimes.
When he remembers and has nothing more important to do.
Hey, he lets them all live in his tower, and that already counts for something, right?
+1
The day after the tower gets razed to the ground by manical aliens, Tony stands in the middle of all the rubble, blood drying itchingly on his forehead. The rest of the Avengers are somewhere behind him, and he can feel exhaustion like lead in every single of his muscles. The fight was long and hard, and he just wants to curl up somewhere and sleep.
"Tony?" Steve says, his voice quiet and controlled, but Tony doesn't turn around to face him.
He can't.
Not yet.
The tower had turned into a home, not just for him, but for the rest of the Avengers too, a safe place to be themselves, with all their fears and their trust issues and brilliance and warmth, a safe place away from curious reporters, and now, it's gone.
"Tony?" Steve says again and rests a hand on his shoulder. Tony doesn't feel it through the suit, but he can see it from the corner of his eye, the gloved hand resting against the scratched red paint of his armor.
"The others?" he asks before swallowing. "Pepper?"
"She's safe," Steve immediately replies. "She and Jane got out before anything happened. They're safe, Tony. Everybody's safe."
Tony swallows. Pepper is safe, Jane is safe, Jarvis is safe, the Avengers are all alive.
Everybody's fine, he doesn't know why his throat feels so tight suddenly and his eyes are burning, but before he can figure it out, strong arms yank him suddenly backwards, against Hulk's chest, Steve still pressed against his side, and then Thor, Clint and Natasha join them, a giant pile of blood and sweat and dust and weapons, with Tony in the middle of it.
"Too bad they destroyed Avengers-Tower," Clint murmurs after a long moment. "Because I really want to go home."
"Home," Hulk echoes, and Steve makes a sound of agreement.
"Friends," Thor says and smiles, "I have learned that home is not a place, but the people one surrounds oneself with." He gives each of them an earnest look. "You all are my home now."
Tony finally manages to get out of his immobility. "You know," he says, "I still have this mansion nobody's using right now."
"Avengers-mansion?" Natasha asks.
"Doesn't have the same sound as Avengers-Tower," Clint decides, but they start pulling apart nonetheless, and Tony realizes, in that moment, standing on top of what once was a tower, that Thor is right; and here, in the circle of his friends, he is home.
~end.