Archive of Our Own

1. Steve

Living in the 21st Century was not easy for Steve Rogers. 

His last memories before the ice was talking to Peggy as he crash landed in the Artic and then, he was waking up and there was technology and lights everywhere, and it was… overwhelming.

And then out of nowhere he was put on a new team and Howard’s son (!!!) was there, and for a second Steve thought that, despite the less than stellar report he had read on him, it was all going to be all right. 

But then guy was too much like Howard and nothing like him at the same time, and, they nearly ended up fighting the first time they met.

It was better now, he thought. Five months after the fight and the team was starting to grow into something resembling an actual team. They had all ended up agreeing to the personalised floors Tony had offered - and it took an embarrassingly long amount of time for him to realise that Tony wasn’t showing off his money when he did that; this was his way of showing the team that he cared and wanted them to become closer - and as much as he missed life before, having almost unlimited access to art supplies was the best thing ever.

So, more or less, things with the team were going well.

Except for one particular detail: James Rhodes.

They first saw the man after the invasion, and for a hot second, when he saw the armour flying down the road they were clearing at a frightening speed he had thought they were under attack again. But then the armour had opened the moment it hit the ground and a man was shooting out of it, zooming past him and the SHIELD agents to wrap Tony up in his arms.

“Anthony Edward Stark, don’t you ever do that to me again!” he shouted, voice muffled from where his mouth was was hidden in Tony’s neck. “I’ll kill you myself.”

Tony had laughed, patting his head, “There, there, sugarplum,” he said, pressing a kiss on the man’s cheek. “Oh, put me down a second so you can meet the Avengers.”

James did not put him down, instead dragging Tony away from them to check on him despite the brunet’s insistence that he was fine.

They officially met him about a week later, when they moved into the Tower. Tony had walked into the common room they were resting and grinned at the four of them - Thor was still back in Asgard with Loki - holding onto the same man from before.

“Alright, Avengers, this is Colonel James Rhodes of the US Air Force,” he told them, and Steve found himself standing straighter immediately. “Honeybunch, these are the Avengers: Agent Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye; Agent Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, Dr Bruce Banner, the Hulk; and Steve Rogers recently unfrozen Captain America!”

While everyone looked impressed after first meeting them, be it the police officers, the civilians or the media, Colonel Rhodes looked… quite uninterested. Mostly.

He did lit up when his eyes fell on Bruce, walking forward with his hand outstretched. “Dr Banner, it’s nice to meet you. I’ve read some of your papers, Tony’s a huge fan. Also, General Ross is a dick and there is no way he can force his way into this tower with JARVIS and Tony around.”

Bruce, who had looked a little apprehensive when Rhodes’ military status had been introduced, relaxed a fraction. “Oh. Thank you.”

Then the colonel turned to look at the rest of them and his expression turned downright frosty. His eyes settled on Natasha. “Hello, Rushman.”

Natasha shrugged. “I was doing my job. I apologised.”

“So I’ve heard,” he agreed. He turned to Clint. “Daring to fight aliens with nothing but a bow and arrow. SHIELD hates their agents?”

Clint didn’t look offended, instead he actually smiled. “I’m alive and they died, didn’t they? I never miss.”

A hint of a smile appeared on the colonel’s face. “Well, it was good to meet you all,” he finished, not bothering with Steve at all and walking out of the room, dragging a confused Tony away with him.

The other three turned to look at him once the door closed, Clint arching an eyebrow at him. “What did you do to him?”

“I’ve never even met him before!” complained Steve, confused. He had never been shut down so quickly before. “Who is he?”

“Tony’s best friend,” explained Natasha. “They have known each other since MIT.”

The conversation ended there; the whole ‘talk to the hand’ attitude from Colonel Rhodes did not. Which was awful because the more he learned about the man, the more fascinated Steve became with him. He didn’t live at the Tower with them, often deployed by the military, but every time they saw each other, he avoided Steve like the plague and, the few times they spoke with each other, he was curt and monosyllabic. He thawed considerably with Clint, and even with Natasha he found a common ground of sarcasm.

But with Steve it was almost like he hated him.

“I really don’t know,” confessed Tony one day when Steve finally breached the topic with him. “He was a huge fan of Captain America growing up, and when I first told him about you being Cap he was so shocked too. He even scolded me about calling you Capsicle, saying I was being insensitive,” he rolled his eyes. “And now… I have no idea anymore.”

In the end, Steve ended up approaching the Colonel himself.

The man wasn’t as tall as Steve was, nor he was as bulky, and he was in his pajamas sitting at the counter eating fruit loops, and still , as he approached him, Steve felt like he was walking to his execution.

“Good morning, Colonel,” he greeted, unable to resist the urge to salute.

Rhodes raised an eyebrow at him, blinking. “At ease, Rogers,” he finally said, shaking his head slightly. When the blond kept standing, shifting from foot to foot where he stood, Rhodes sighed. “Can I help you with something?”

“I’m not racist!” he blurted out, the only thing that had come to his mind as to why the man might possibly hate him. Rhodes stared at him. “Tony told me about the civil rights movement and he showed me a lot of stuff about what changed, and even before, during the war, we had Johnson among the Howlies, and he was a black man and I respected him -”

“Good for you,” interrupted the colonel, frowning. “I don’t recall accusing you of racism.”

“Then, with all due respect, sir, I don’t understand what I did,” finally said Steve, a little frustrated that his guess had been wrong. “You dislike me, and I’m not sure what I did to deserve it. Colonel. Sir.”

Rhodes took another spoonful of cereal, crunching painfully slowly before speaking. “You closed the wormhole.”

Steve stared at him. “Sorry?”

“Tony was on the other side, and you told Romanoff to close it. It’s on video,” he explained, and there was a hint of anger and distrust in his eyes when he looked at Steve. “I’m a soldier and I understand that sometimes you have to lay down on the wire. But Tony? Tony is a civilian . And you were ready to leave him behind.”

The blond swallowed, uncomfortable. “There was no other way. We didn’t know if-”

“And I might have been able to forgive that,” continued the man, like Steve hadn’t spoken. “But you never apologised to him. He still has nightmares about what he saw on the other side, and you, the field leader on that day, have yet to ask him what he saw or apologise for nearly leaving him behind - and not for lack of trying.” He narrowed his eyes. “He’s a civilian and he nearly died three times that day: when he flew a nuke through a wormhole , when you ordered to close said wormhole, and when he fell.”

And there, in his eyes, Steve saw it. A look that was very familiar, a look that he had seen on himself when Bucky and the Commandos went missing and Colonel Philips refused to send anyone back to save them - if a little more intense, probably because Tony was a civilian.

Tony was Rhodes’ Bucky . His best friend, Natasha had said. And if Steve had low-key held a grudge against Philips not going back for a soldier who knew the realities and risks of war, Rhodes’ reaction to Steve almost leaving his civilian best friend behind suddenly made sense.

(things got better after that talk, and, when Steve managed to apologise to a very confused Tony Stark, Rhodes James thawed significantly, finally calling him Steve instead of Rogers or Captain all the time.)

2. Bruce

Bruce had grown up a lonely child. 

Between his father being an abusive bastard and him being a teen genius, he never really had a chance at a normal life or ‘friends’. There was Betty, for a while, but with her friendship had quickly given way to romantic feelings; and those had not survived her father.

So, the first time he had accepted Tony’s invitation to come ‘play with him’ in the lab, he hadn’t really known what to expect. 

Tony had actually cleared out an empty lab for him and bought him every single machinery he could dream of, not asking for a single thing in exchange. Same way he had freely given each of the Avengers their very own floor in the renamed Avenger Tower.

Bruce had never been one to believe in tabloid gossip, but it was incredible how different the man was from what the media portrayed him as.

Which brought him to the point he had been previously trying to make: the first time he showed up in Tony’s workshop, he wasn’t sure what to expect or how to somehow pay Tony back for everything he was doing to him.

Tony had been sat on the bench, AD/CD playing and goggles on as he tinkered with what looked like one of the propulsors on his suit. He didn’t even look up as Bruce stepped - loudly as to not startle him - into the room, coming to stop in the middle, looking around him in almost awe.

The room was the definition of future, filled with projections and screens everywhere, a row of Iron Man suits on one of the farther walls and a bunch of bits and pieces scattered everywhere.

Two weird looking bots moved towards him, and only then did Tony look up pointing a finger at them and making them freeze. “What do you think you’re doing?”

The one in the front beeped a couple of times and Tony raised a brow at it? him? her? them?, unimpressed. “I don’t think you should be bothering the nice doctor when you’re still in time out, DUM-E.”

More beeps and a whirring sound from the bot behind. “Aht, aht, aht! You know what happens when you break the rules, both of you! Back to the charging stations.” Beeps and whirrings. “Now!”

The two bots skulked back to where they came from still beeping a little and Tony rolled his eyes, turning to Bruce. “Sorry about that, Doc. I should just send them to a community college and be done with it, seriously.”

Bruce shrugged, coming to sit next to him. “No big deal. They yours?”

Despite his earlier words, Tony’s eyes turned fond when he spoke. “Yup. It’s three of them. You just saw DUM-E and Butterfingers. U is still in his changing station because U is a good boy.”

“Technically, sir, it’s four,” pointed out JARVIS, sounding a little affronted at having been dismissed.

Going by the smirk on Tony’s face, it had been on purpose. “Well, last time I introduced you with your siblings you claimed that you were more Rhodey’s than mine, even though I’m the one who built you. I’m just adapting.”

“My, one might say that you’re learning alongside us, sir,” answered the AI, and Bruce hid a small smile at the outraged look on Tony’s face.

The inventor shook his finger at one of the cameras, eyes narrowed. “DMV, J. Thread carefully.”

“Of course, sir,” in a tone that was 100% sarcasm.

Tony shook his head. “The sass on that one, I don’t know where he gets it from.”

Bruce decided to give this friendship thing a try. “Truly, a mistery,” he drawled.

For a second or two Tony kind of stared at him, and Bruce felt a little anxiety starting to bubble in his chest. Did he try too hard to fast? Had he sounded rude? Would Tony kick him -

Then Tony grinned, delighted. “My, oh my, Brucie Bear. I might just keep you after all.”

After that, everything simply fell into place. 

Friendship with Tony was, surprisingly easy. He was snarky and funny but never mean, and he actually seemed to like the Hulk. He didn’t walk on tiptoes around Bruce and he even built a whole room for the Hulk in case Bruce ever felt like letting him out to do something other than smash. It was nothing like the cage they had put Loki in back on the Hellicarrier, and had everything tailored to suit the green beast.

Because Tony looked at it and saw a him , saw a who instead of a what. 

The only thing that was complicated about the engineer was the way his brain seemed to move at 100 kmh in a 45 kmh. He liked learning and learnt things at a pace that was almost supernatural just because he was curios about them. Bruce might have seven PHDs, but if Tony tried, he could easily earn even more.

Sometimes his binges of improving on already almost perfect gear and try out almost science fiction-y stuff was downright frightening. He would lock himself in the lab, and while Bruce had access and could come in any time he wanted, dragging him out was impossible and he ended up skipping meals and sleeping odd hours because of it.

When Bruce brought him food or coffee and put it down in a corner of the workshop, the coffee would always end up on the table, empty, but everything else remained mostly untouched because 'I was too busy to eat, sorry Brucey'.

It was frustrating to say the least. Bruce felt a little like a mother hen as he tried to force Tony to eat something, only for the engineer to get distracted by something and end up with cold food that was by then uneatable.

Bruce was in the lab with Tony, considering if he should try and find a way to synthesise his amazing rice & chicken curry into a drink and then mix it in Tony’s coffee when Colonel Rhodes walked in, a tray in his hands with three plates of sandwiches and three cans of soda.

The Colonel was surprisingly nice to him, all the time. He wasn’t as easy going with him as Tony was, but he didn’t look particularly frightened by the Hulk either (apparently the green beast jumping to save Tony from hitting the ground was ringing endorsement in the military man’s opinion).

“Hey sourpatch,” greeted Tony, not looking up from the specs he was consulting.

“Hey, Tones. Bruce, sandwich?” asked Rhodey, passing him a plate and a soda.

“Thank you,” answered the doctor, then raised a brow at the other two sets. “Good luck getting him to eat anything. He’s in one of his binges,” 

Rhodey gave him a sharp smile, coming closer to him. “I have a trick,” he whispered, before winking and sitting down in front of Tony.

Bruce turned to look at him, curios, as Rhodey put down a plate of sandwiches and an opened soda not too far from Tony’s elbow, before taking placing his own in front of himself. “What are you working on?” he then asked, taking a bite of his food.

Tony pointed at the specs, brows furrowed. “The cooling system in your suit. I did not like that whole situation last week with those flame throwers.”

Rhodey rolled his eyes. “I was fine. Didn’t even get burned.”

“Your suit started warming up, according to CHARLIE’s readings,” pointed out the brunet, looking at him with narrowed eyes.

“But the cooling system worked. I didn’t get burned and the suit was just fine afterwards,” said the colonel, picking up the sandwich from next to him and taking another bite of food. 

And Tony - to Bruce’s shock - imitated the action, picking up the sandwich that had been placed at his elbow without even thinking about it. “And what happens next time when their flamethrowers have somehow more power?” he questioned, taking a bite of his sandwich.

Rhodey shrugged. “Unless they have you supplying for them, I really don’t see how their weapons could get any better,” he told him, taking a swing of his soda.

The engineer rolled his eyes, “Flattery will get you everywhere, sugarplum. You already know that just because something is good doesn’t mean it can’t be better . And I want only the best for you, light of my life.” He batted his eyelashes at the man, who simply snorted.

“I already have you, what else do I need?” he teased, and Tony actually blushed, grabbing his own soda and turning his head to the side to avoid being called out on it. 

They continued going back and forth for a while, until both of them were done with their food - Tony pausing and looking confused when Rhodey picked up the two plates and the two empty cans and placing them on the tray - before the soldier turned to sit next to Bruce again.

The scientist was a little in shock. “How did you do that ? I’ve put plates next to him countless times before but he never even pays them any attention!”

Rhodey was smug. “It’s a cultivated art,” he explained, then shook his head a little fondly. “Tones’ been sort of copying me since we were at MIT. He imprinted on me like a little duckling and, since I did not push him away, he followed me and copied everything I did whenever we were together. At first it was a hassle because there are many things I could no longer do when I had a 14 years old kid following me around, but then I learned to use it against him.” He smirked. “He has yet to catch up. Some genius, he is,”

Bruce shook his head, faux offended. “You’ve been keeping him fed and watered for like 30 years… the utter gall!”

“You laugh, but he would say that way less sarcastically if he ever found out. He’s a menace.”

Tony was truly lucky to have a friend as devoted as Rhodey was.

3. Thor

Thor returned to Earth about 6 months after the battle of New York, Loki in tow.

Well, technically, Thor had returned a bunch of times after the battle of New York, lighting up in delight when he found out friend Tony had prepared a floor for him. But he usually returned alone.

The arrival of his adopted brother had caused a little apprehension from many. It took a while for Thor to convince them that his brother hadn’t been in his right mind when he caused the invasion, but when friend Tony himself had, upon noticing Loki’s eyes when he returned, dug up a bunch of files and showed everyone the same blue in his eyes that Clint and Selving on film, which he confirmed seeing up close when he was thrown out of his window, and that were now a bright green, no one could argue against it.

Despite that, the team - especially friend Clint - had been rather cold in respect to his brother. Thor understood - after all, Loki was the face, if not the mind, behind the invasion - but it still hurt him, and despite acting other ways, he knew it hurt Loki too.

After all, Thor had brought him along specifically because of the way people reacted to him after his fall and the way the All Father and his relationship continued to be rocky because of it.

The only person in the whole team that didn’t seem to hate Loki, actually, was Tony Stark himself.

Thor hadn’t been quite sure what to make of the Man of Iron, at the beginning. He knew him to be a formidable foe and precious ally after the events before the New York Battle and after, but he had also been - or nearly been - a victim of Loki. His brother had - mind controlled or not - nearly killed him by throwing him out the window.

And instead of being frightened by him or angry, the Midgardian was the first to approach Loki, on the same day that he managed - through his influence and various proof - fully clear out his name.

Loki had been in the living room of Thor’s floor - one of his conditions of stay (probation, they called it) was that he was to be his brother’s responsibility - when friend Tony walked in a tablet in his hands.

He had plopped on the same couch as a wary Loki and then turned the screen towards him. “Is it true that you can turn into a woman?”

Loki had blinked at him, as confused as Thor was, for once. “I- What?”

Friend Tony huffed, like he was being particularly slow. “You guys have been to Earth before, yes? At the time of the Vikings. And they had stories about you, so I’m very curios as to which stories are true and which ones are not.”

“And this… magical mirror,” questioned the mage, “has the information you want to know?”

“Magical!” Tony said, sending him a nasty glare. “I ought to wash your mouth with soap for such denomination of my tech!”

Loki looked intrigued. “You don’t believe in magic?”

“Magic is science that hasn’t been explained yet,” he answered, nose turned up.

Loki grinned, and between the blink of the eye and the next he had turned into the lady Natasha, much to friend Tony’s astonishment.”Are you sure?”

The shorter man stared at Loki with interest, even touching his nose to make sure it wasn’t an illusion - and much to Thor’s shock, Loki let him - and shook his head, perplexed. “How… you even got shorter! Where is the extra mass? You can’t just make it disappear!”

“I can,” said Loki, and then he transformed again, this time in Tony himself. “I got even shorter.”

Thor tensed slightly. This was normally the point where people grew creeped out or uncomfortable with Loki’s powers, when the Mischief God showed them how easy it was, for him, to turn into them and all the connotations that brought along.

To Thor it had never been particularly upsetting: it was just one of the things Loki could do. It was his brother (sometimes his sister, sometimes his sibling); but he knew that the majority of people didn’t see it that way.

“I’m not shorter than Nat, you ass ,” said Tony, distractedly inspecting his own face back on him. Then he lit up. “It’s not a perfect copy.”

Loki frowned at him. “What?”

Tony’s grin grew. “You are imitating what you see. You are missing some details about me. I know because I watch my face in the mirror everyday because I’m hot and I have to make sure I remain so,” he told him, wiggling his brows.

Loki - still wearing Stark’s face - looked offended. “What have I missed?” he demanded to know, to which Tony just grinned.

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” he said, immediately pouting when Loki returned to his own form, glowering at the engineer with his arm around his chest. “Aw, come on. I have always wondered what it would feel like to make out with myself!”

“I’ve actually tried that before,” informed him Loki, smirking. “Because you know, I can create copies of myself.”

Friend Tony looked interested. “Oh can you do that? I could scan it and figure it out, bet!”

Loki pretended to be worried. “You want to watch me kiss copies of myself?”

The brunet grinned, sleazy. “Are you offering, Maleficent?”

“You wish, Anthony.”

Unlike he had done with Thor, Tony didn’t correct Loki on the name, and Thor was grateful, a weight raising off his chest, because watching friend Tony… it was a little like watching Loki before, before the fall, before the Frost Giants, before.

And with Tony’s stamp of approval and his obsession with dragging Loki along everywhere he went in the Tower, even the rest of the Avengers started warming up towards him.

And then promptly wishing they hadn’t when Loki and Clint decided to bury the hatchet by starting a prank war - a prank war that only friend Tony and lady Natasha were safe from because they could both be lethal and frighteningly efficient.

Thor officially met Rhodey about a month after Loki settled in and immediately noticed the… odd way the man interacted with his brother. He didn’t treat him with the impolite manner the man of Fury did, nor the wary manner the other Avengers used at the beginning.

It was just… odd expressions of misplaced suspicion whenever he saw him walking around with friend Tony, or cuddling on the couch with friend Tony, or messing around with friend Tony, or snacking away with friend Tony -

Thor wasn’t stupid, thank you very much. It took him a while, but eventually he figured out what the ‘odd’ look meant. He hadn’t thought it before because… well, his first priority was his brother and he hadn’t had someone close to him the way friend Tony was in centuries. He had forgotten that friend Tony had other friends.

He waited a few days and then approached him on an evening in which only the two of them, Loki and Tony were on Thor’s floor. Tony had left to go to the bathroom, and when Rhodey went to the kitchen to stock up on snacks, he followed him.

“Friend Rhodey,” he called, checking to see that his brother was distracted. “I couldn’t help but notice that the green monster has tainted your gaze.”

Friend Rhodey blinked at him. “What?”

“You mustn’t worry, your friendship with friend Tony will not waver.” He told him, earnestly, “My brother might be a master in mischief but he cares about Tony enough not to be cruel.”

“Thor, I don’t have the faintest idea what you’re talking about,” informed him Rhodey, looking slightly confused.

“I am referring to your behaviour regarding the blossoming camaraderie between my brother and friend Tony,” explained the blond and there it was. The slight tensing that indicated Thor was right.

“It’s not-”

“Jealousy is only natural,” consoled him the Thunder god, “but this,” he then added, pointing to the ring on Rhodey’s finger, which Thor extrapolated must be the symbol of his everlasting friendship with Tony, “means you shouldn’t worry about it. Your bond with him is stronger.”

Friend Rhodey seemed to consider arguing for a second, then put down the crips he was holding and sighed. “I know that, technically. It’s just that… well Loki is a fascinating guy, you know? And Tony loves things he doesn’t fully understand, he was obsessed with Banner long before he even met the guy. Loki also seems to somehow get him and he keeps up with him with little trouble even though he doesn’t fully understand what Tony is saying sometimes. And Tony lets him call him Anthony, which he normally doesn't let anyone do. Nicknames are Tony's love language. And he is a pretty face and a young one at that.”

Thor wasn’t quite sure what his brother’s looks had to do with anything, but, “My brother is 1048 years old.”

“Seriously?” asked friend Rhodey, dismayed. “Loki is over a millenia old and he looks like that?”

“Why would you care about Loki’s looks, platypus?” questioned Tony, somehow having sneaked up on both of them. 

Friend Rhodey leant back against the counter, arms at each side and shrugged, all casual. “I take an interest in the people you hang around.”

It took the brunet a couple seconds to process and then he snorted. “Seriously? With Captain America and Bruce Banner in the house, Loki is the one you worry about?”

The other shrugged again. “Bruce is straight and the Captain is way too uptight and vanilla for you,” he pointed out. “Also Loki seems to be the god of eternal fucking youth and you like him.”

Thor wasn’t too sure what vanilla and straight meant in this context, but, “Actually, I am older than Loki and he’s not the god of eternal youth. Asgardians age slower than humans do”.

“What he said. Sugarplum,” sighed friend Tony, coming to stand in front of him, smiling when Rhodey’s arms automatically went around his waist. “I’ve been yours since MIT, you know that.” He told him, waving his hand with the matching ring in the man’s face. “Loki is nice and fun and gets me, but he’s not you. No one could ever be you. You’ll always be my favourite.”

The man studied him with an intensity that made Thor feel a little uncomfortable. “Even though you’re now in an elite superhero club?”

Tony smiled. “James Rhodes, you’ve always been my superhero.”

“Oh man,” said Rhodey, ignoring friend Tony’s laugh. “You can’t just say shit like that, Tones. It is now my sworn duty to rim you till you cry,” He professed, ignoring the shriek-laughter Tony let when he scooped him up in his arms.

“Sourpatch, put me down, I’m heavy! You’re gonna hurt your shoulder!”

“Should have thought about that before you got sappy on me!”

Thor watched the two, amused and slightly confused as to why friend Rhodey was going to make friend Tony cry, and what exactly ‘rim’ meant. He resolved to ask the voice in the wall JARVIS or Jane later on.

4. Clint

Clint wouldn’t consider himself a ‘happy’ sort of guy. He enjoyed playing pranks, however, and when you are a normal human running around supersoldiers, gods and angry green beasts with nothing but rifles and, usually, a bow and arrow, you tend to start making fun of yourself a little.

So around the Avengers he was a jokester - really making Loki work for his title - and around the press and the civilians they met, he was ‘the one who was really down to earth, and understood them’. It worked on a day to day basis.

But at night? At night it was hard.

While he had sort of forgiven Loki and replaced his face with the Chitauri to represent the invasion in his head, the effects of the mind manipulation remained.

Clint had been the first to accept Tony’s offer of living in the tower, and it wasn’t because of the luxury and richness the billionaire had thrown at them. It wasn’t even because of the chance of being an Avenger.

It was simple: he was afraid of going back to SHIELD.

He was afraid of going back and seeing who was left, who had survived when he turned his weapons and his sniper skills against the people who worked for him, who would look at him without their fingers itching for a gun to defend themselves with.

He had managed to not kill Fury, but the others? 

He had been in SHIELD for basically his whole life. He had gone on the field with some of the agents he had killed. They had trusted him with having their back and he had trusted them with having his.

And all it took was a little mental manipulation and suddenly he was content with shooting them.

Part of him could recognise that he wasn’t the only one who had been unmade by the sceptre. Loki - a literal god, someone who was so much stronger than he was - had been unmade too, so what real fighting chance did he, a human, have?

But knowing was different from accepting, and every time he tried to close his eyes he couldn’t help but wonder if he had done enough - if he could have somehow stopped it, could have tried a little harder and shot his coworkers in the shoulder instead of going for the killing blow.

Selving had built the machine to open the portal, but he had inserted a failsafe. Clint’s failsafe should have been not making killing shots. But he did.

And every night he slept, he closed his eyes and dreamed, everything became blue and he didn’t know if he was dreaming or if he was remembering anymore.

If Tony had noticed that he had everything blue in his room replaced, the man had thankfully never said anything.

Which was why, when he stepped in the common room after another night of blue nightmares and saw the inventor sitting on the floor, cheek on the window and eyes open as he watched the sleeping New York before him, he considered leaving without saying anything.

He wasn’t surprised to not be the only one not awake. Hell, he’d be shocked to find out that there was anyone among the six superheroes - seven with Rhodes - who managed to sleep the supposed 8 hours every day (Natasha with her past as a cold blooded assassin, Steve who spent almost a century in the ice following goddamn World War II, Bruce with Harlem, Loki with the implied torture that predated his attempt at taking over the world, Thor with having - kind of? - seen his brother die before his eyes, Tony with his kidnapping and torture, James what with him being a soldier).

His need for caffeine to avoid sleeping won over and he purposefully made his steps louder when he walked inside. Tony looked up at the noise, blinking up at Clint who just stared at him back. “Can’t sleep?”

Tony shrugged, turning his eyes to the outside world again. “I’m a genius. We don’t sleep.”

Before he had met and got to know the man, a comment like that would have cemented his beliefs that Tony Stark was nothing more than the arrogant front he presented daily to the media. But after six months of living with the man, he could recognise the words for what they were - deflection.

Clint continued making his coffee and, after a second hesitation, grabbed a second mug and filled it with the bitter drink too.

If Tony was surprised when Clint sat down in front of him with two mugs of steaming hot liquid settled between the two of them, he didn’t voice it. He didn’t really look at Clint, and only then did the man recognise the small object between his hands as Tony’s personal StarkPhone.

He didn’t mention it, content with drinking his coffee and watching outside the window too, losing himself in his thoughts. He blinked back to attention a good five minutes later, when Tony finally spoke to him.

“Insomnia or nightmares?” asked the engineer. Clint was pleased to see that the man had the coffee mug in his hands now.

“Nightmares. You?”

Tony bit his lip, then shook his head. “Neither, this time. I haven’t gone to sleep yet.”

When all Clint offered was a hum, Tony sighed, running a hand through his hair. “It’s 10.00 am where Rhodey is right now. He did say he might not be able to call today, but I-”

That was something Clint could understand. Being the one left behind, waiting to hear from your friend that they were safe, that everything had gone well… 

“Does it ever get easier?” finally asked Tony, and Clint frowned at him, keeping his surprise at bay. 

“Easier?”

Tony raised a brow. “Natasha.” He explained, rolling his eyes when Clint couldn’t keep the surprise off his face. “I’ve seen how you acted around her during the fight and how you still look at her. That’s not how you check on a random teammate.”

Clint considered lying about it, or hiding it somehow. Tony was… surprisingly perceptive (or maybe not so surprising: he was a genius, after all). Or maybe after being unmade by the scepter he was very easy to read, since no one at SHIELD - except Coulsdon and Fury - had ever noticed.

So he answered truthfully. “It does not get easier,” he admitted, grimacing when Tony’s face fell slightly. At least with Tony it was just a friend; with Clint it was the love of his life . But then again friend love was important too. “Every time she goes on a mission without me… it’s scary man. She kicks ass and I know she’s strong and has been through a lot worse before me and that she doesn’t need help, but still. Every time she leaves, I am scared of receiving that phone call. I’m terrified that she walks out and this is the time she doesn’t come back.” He snorted. “She’d kill me if she knew I was even entertaining these thoughts. She’s a big girl and she has even more experience being a spy than I do.”

Tony cracked a little smile and Clint pretended not to notice it when he mindlessly wiped his eyes. “Rhodey too. He did not become a colonel just through his good looks. But sometimes,” he moved his head closer and whispered the next words, like he was afraid if he spoke any louder he’d get in trouble, “I wish he quit.” He looked at Clint with worry clear in his eyes. “Does it make me a bad person?”

Clint shook his head. “You have the power and influence to get him out of the military if you really wanted to. But you’d never do that.”

Tony sighed, shaking his head and turning his eyes on the phone. “I wish I was more selfish. But then Rhodey would hate me, and I can’t have that.” He snorted. “How fucked up is it that the only thing stopping me from being selfish is not my conscience but the thought ‘Rhodey wouldn’t like that’?”

“Makes you a little bit questionable, definitely” agreed Clint, cracking a smile when Tony laughed.

The rest of the night was spent in companionable silence, and when he went to bed, later that night (early morning?), it was to the tune of a warm reactor blue that he fell asleep.

5. Natasha

Natasha was in the business of knowing people. Of being able to read them better than they were able to read themselves; she had to be, in order to turn them into weapons against themselves.

Had she ever made a mistake as big as the one she made when she tried to read Tony Stark? Cause she really didn’t think it was possible for her to be that wrong.

She had ignored a lot of warning signs when she had started her assessment on him: the fact that she didn’t like his persona, the fact that she was perhaps too sure of herself and the fact that he was dying .

Because the Tony Stark she had been interacting with since they moved to Avengers Tower? That was a very different Tony Stark than the one she had met during the whole Palladium poisoning debacle.

Apparently when he wasn’t busy dying he was a pretty nice person to be around. He gave her a second chance without even thinking twice about it, shaking away her apology about the whole ‘stabbing him in the neck’ thing.

She was glad the man had someone like Colonel Rhodes around who did not forgive easy, because holy shit . He trusted people he had never met before with their own floors in his tower simply because they had saved the world together. He was like a kitten that, once shown an ounce of kindness, decided to follow you everywhere.

He didn’t trust them yet, at least not with his close civilian friends; so there was that at least. But apparently banding together to save the world they were living in made him consider them friends.

Natasha was basically forced to adopt him, much to James Rhodes’ suspicion and amusement.

“He grows on you, doesn’t he?” he asked her one night, after most of the team had gone to sleep after an impromptu movie night.

Natasha would have retreated too, weren’t it for a Tony shaped kitten curled up on her side, fast asleep. The red head sighed, a hand going to play with the older man’s curls. “Like a fungus,” she answered, snorting at Rhodes’ chuckles.

“Want me to put him back in his own bed?” asked the colonel, and she shook her head.

“Nah, you’ll wake him. It’s not uncomfortable,” she replied, forcing her voice and expression to remain blank.

Seen as the older man just smirked at her, it was clear it hadn’t worked.

So she sort of stopped pretending and fully adopted Tony Stark as her own after the whole thing.

It was actually sort of funny how easy their friendship came once Natasha put away her ‘Tony Stark not recommended' glasses. They had a bunch of stuff in common, and even after more than 10 times of her kicking his ass in their sparring sessions, he felt comfortable and safe enough to continue falling sleeping and cuddling up to her whenever they were on the couch together. But then again, the man cuddled up to Loki a week after the man returned on Earth, when the Earth courts hadn’t even finished clearing his names of any wrongdoing. And the former-villain hadn’t even blinked at the action.

And after Clint had told her that Tony had, somehow, figured out that they were closer than they let on, her next course of action was easy: dragging the man to a sex shop with her.

Loki tagging along did not surprise her as much as it should have. 

Having Loki around meant that the mage simply cast a spell around their faces so that whoever looked at them would simply see random and fairly common and easily forgotten features staring back at him. Tony, of course, spent the whole time they were driving to the boutique Natasha tended to frequent when she couldn’t order online arguing with Loki about the ‘science’ behind it. It was all very amusing to watch.

When they finally arrived though, Tony turned to her and wiggled his eyebrows at her. “‘ Satin Affairs ’. Natasha, you pretentious little minx!”

The spy sniffed, closing the door behind her. “What do you expect me to frequent, ' Cum and Go' ?”

Tony laughed at that, and even Loki couldn’t stop a smirk. Boys were so easy to entertain.

Once they walked in, like pirates following a siren, they all ended up in the bondage section. Loki picked up a pair of cuffs and raised a single brow. “I know midgardians are weak, but would this really restrain anyone?” 

Natasha plucked them from his hands and made a face. “Not really. They wouldn’t even hold a baseline civilian, I’d think.”

Tony spared it a look, “I think these are for teenagers playing around but are still nervous about ending up in their own version of Gerald’s Game.”

“Movie?”

“And a book,” said Tony, turning his eyes on the rest of handcuffs displayed. “But if you find a design you like, I could strengthen them to be able to contain your strength too, if you don’t want to use something Asgardian. Speaking off, that mouth gag slash handcuff thing Thor put you in last time… is it for sale?”

“My, my, Anthony. Are we looking for excuses to see me in cuffs?” leered the mage.

Tony raised an eyebrow at him. “Do you want Rhodey to castrate you or…”

With the way Loki and Tony flirted and bantered, Natasha wasn’t surprised the man was going full protective older brother/best friend on Loki. 

Natasha picked up a purple blind fold, running her hands over the satin with a thoughtful hum.

Loki frowned at it then looked at her. “That’s not really your colour.”

“Yeah, but it’s Clint’s,” she told him, very amused by the way the god grimaced at it. “I even have matching cuffs and-”

“Desist at once!” pleaded the god, quickly stepping farther away from her. “You evil evil woman.”

“Hey,” called Tony, two objects in his hands. “Which would suit me better?”

The first one was a black and silver crotchless body stocking made of lace with bows on the knees and on the shoulder straps. The second was a red stocking and panties set that was slightly see through.

“Red, always,” said the Black Widow, running her fingers over the material.

Loki shook his head, pointing a finger at the black and silver set. “That one is way better. Plus it’s the full set.”

“Don’t listen to him. Red is your colour anyway, and this one is daring enough,” 

“But black is always sexy.”

Tony rolled his eyes at the two of them and pulled out his phone with a sigh. “That’s it, I’m calling Rhodey.”

“I thought he wasn’t around,” asked Loki, apparently not finding it odd at all that Tony was calling his best friend to ask for advice on lingerie. 

Even though she didn’t have a childhood or an adolescence, beaten out of her by the Black Widow program, she knew it wasn’t exactly normal behaviour for best friends slash brothers. “You’re asking Rhodes for advice on your lingerie?”

“He’s seeing his mom, he hasn’t been deployed yet,” answered Tony, before frowning at Natasha. “And I’ll have you know my sourpatch has incredible taste- Platypus!”

Rhodey’s face appeared on the screen. “Hey, Tones,” He noticed Natasha and Loki behind him and waved. “Oh. Hey you guys. What’s going on?”

“We’re out shopping,” explained Tony, before lifting up the stockings and putting it in Loki’s hand so it could be seen fully and doing the same with Natasha and the red ones. “Which one would look better on me?”

Rhodes blinked and then nearly choked on his own tongue when he figured out what exactly the two of them were holdng. “Jesus, Tones .”

The brunet did not look the littlest bit concerned. “Well? Do you need me to try them on and send pictures?”

If he could visibly blush, Rhodes would have. “My mom is in the same house, you heathen !” he hissed, then bit his lip. “Get the silver black one.”

“My my, colonel, your colours on me?” teased Tony, and Rhodes rolled his eyes at him.

“I’m turning this call off.”

“No wait, I haven’t spoken to mama in a minute, pass her the phone.”

“Find a neutral background first, mama does not need to know or see where you are.”

Natasha huffed and shook her head, instead grabbing one of the huge horse dildo innocently sitting on the side and turning to Loki. “What do you think?”

He made a face. “For you or for me?”

She smirked. “For Clint”

“You evil evil woman!”

+ 1. Loki

It took Loki exactly one day of watching Colonel James Rhodes and Anthony together to figure out that the two were together.

In his opinion, it was quite obvious really: the way Tony’s eyes lit up when the man walked into the room and he launched himself on him; the way the Colonel’s eyes found him immediately when he walked in, like they were magnetised by the presence of the smaller man; the way the remaining of the evening they appeared to be on some sort of bubble where only the other existed before leaving the room together.

And if that wasn’t proof enough, the suspicious way the man eyed him whenever he was around Anthony was confirmation enough.

Though it was particularly amusing how Rhodey thought that Loki could ever pose a threat to him. Sure, he was appreciative of all forms, binary or non, but he doubted there was anyone or anything in the world beautiful or interesting enough to make Anthony stop looking at Rhodey like he hung all the stars and the moon himself.

Still it was flattering that a man with as much common sense as Rhodey saw Loki as some sort of threat. Flattering and also a little bit scary, because, unlike the rest of the Avengers - minus maybe Natasha - the man was distressingly efficient. He really would not like to be on the other side of the man’s ire.

“Ugh,” he huffed as Anthony basically climbed on top of him, leaning back with his head on Loki’s chest. “Is this your attempt at having the colonel shoot me so you can study my healing rate?”

Clint snorted from where he was laying on the ground, while Anthony rolled his eyes, reaching a hand over his head at attempting to pat Loki's cheek. “You’re immune to most bullets and he is still asleep.”

Loki narrowed his eyes at him. “That is not reassuring in the slightest,” he grumbled, making no move of shoving the man away from him.

Loki found that he… didn’t mind these ‘movie nights’. At the beginning, even with Anthony taking it upon himself to become some sort of safety blanket for Loki, and Thor sitting not too far away from him, the whole thing had been uncomfortable. Everyone - except Anthony and his bro- Thor - was tense and for the life of him Loki wouldn’t have been able to recall what the movie they attempted to watch was about.

But neither Thor nor Anthony let this affect them. They never let him stay behind no matter what he said, and started actually arriving first at movie nights so that him and Anthony could commandeer the couch, leaving an empty spot next to the Trickster.

3 weeks later, Bruce Banner started to relax, joining Tony and Loki in discussing the magic displayed in the movie they were watching.

5 weeks later, Natasha Romanoff sat down next to him on the couch and Steve Rogers asked him if he had any preference in popcorn.

6 weeks later Clint Barton threw a popcorn at him when he dissed his favourite character, which of course, started a prank war between the two of them, much to the horror of everyone else - minus Anthony  and Natasha, Anthony because he had a heart condition and you’d have to be insane to try and prank him when he could simply make JARVIS go against you any time he wanted and Natasha because she was scary.

Nowadays he didn’t need Anthony around to feel comfortable with the rest of the team, but the man had gotten a taste of Loki’s cuddles and now craved them - also, Loki was slightly touch starved, so he took anything with little complaint.

Anthony’s phone buzzed, and Loki turned his head curios.

“No phones, Tony,” scolded Steve, not even looking away from the screen.

“Uh uh,” answered the genius, opening the text before Loki could look away.

my sourpatch ❤️💕❣️💘💝❣️ : babe, I’m in your lab, where are you?

you know who I am: it’s movie night 

you know who I am: come up, i miss my cuddlebug, loki is bony

Before Loki could get to the man about being ‘bony’, the screen lit up with another text. 

my sourpatch ❤️💕❣️💘💝❣️ : what movie are you watching

you know who I am : idk bruce’s pick. 

you know who I am: it’s french

my sourpatch ❤️💕❣️💘💝❣️ : ew, don’t think so

you know who I am: meanie

my sourpatch ❤️💕❣️💘💝❣️ : I’m already in your workshop, I’m gonna do some minor repairs to the my armour

Tony bit at his nail for a second, before typing again.

you know who I am: what if I said I was wearing my very own war machine armour

my sourpatch ❤️💕❣️💘💝❣️ : ...

my sourpatch ❤️💕❣️💘💝❣️ : Come down to the lab. Now.

Anthony let out a little huff, before quietly pocketing his phone. Then very slowly, he extracted himself from Loki, trying to put as little attention on himself as possible as he stood up.

“Everything all right?” asked Loki, clearly enough for everyone to turn around and look at him, because he might not prank Tony but he was a trickster. Come on now!

Anthony froze, everyone’s eyes on him. “Uh, yeah. I’m just gonna grab some… thing. Snack.” He made a vague gesture with his hand that everyone accepted, turning back to the very boring movie.

Loki just rolled his eyes at how gullible the Avengers were as the man basically ran out of there. Even Natasha and Clint didn’t blink.

It took 20 minutes for someone to speak on it - surprisingly, Thor. “Friend Tony has been gone for a while. Has he left to purchase this thing-snack?” he asked, frowning at the spot Anthony had vacated. "Or has he fled from this boring movie?"

"Hey!" complained Bruce.

His adopted brother rolled his eyes. “There was no snack. Rhodes messaged him,” he explained.

Steve turned to him, confused. “Is something wrong with Rhodey?”

The blond’s kind of hero worship thing with the colonel was sort of adorable. But also, hadn’t Loki been suggestive enough? “No. Rhodes messaged him,” he repeated, hoping his tone was clear enough.

Considering the five looks of confusion the rest of the Avengers were sporting, it was clear it wasn’t. Which was just weird, because, how obvious -

Unless.

Unless .

“You… don’t? Know?” he questioned, watching them in surprise. When their expressions didn’t clear, he couldn’t stop an outright cackle. “Oh this is good. This is so good.”

Natasha narrowed her eyes at him. “What don’t we know?”

Loki stood up, a grin firm in place. “Oh, it’s so much better if I show you,” he said, trying and failing to contain his snickers when his brother’s expression went even more scolding and Natasha’s more suspicious.

+++

“Fuck,” let out Tony, hand clutching Rhodey’s shoulder tight enough to be painful. “You’re killing me.”

The other man hummed, his teeth worrying his nipple through the body stocking he was wearing.

“Rhodey,” he moaned, arching his back even as Rhodey’s larger hand kept him firmly perched on the workshop table.

Tony’s outerwear was discarded on the floor and he was in nothing but the body stocking, while Rhodey was still dressed in his sleep clothes. In Tony’s mind, this did not make it any less sexy.

Rhodey finally let go of his nipple, pressing a kiss on Tony’s collarbones. “You’re so pretty like this, Tones,” he let out, breathless.

“Had I known, oh, how much you’d like this, fuck sourpatch,” Tony keened when he felt Rhodey’s nails raking over his thighs, “I’d have made my wardrobe, fuck fuck fuck, blacknsilver ages ago, shit.”

“You should,” agreed the older man, a finger teasingly going along hia exposed dick. “Or just wear this little uniform of yours,” a thumb going over his shaft and making Tony mewl , “under your clothes at all times.” He pressed his teeth on Tony’s ear, smiling at the way the brunet shuddered, “a spectacle. Only for me.”

“Honeybear,” moaned Tony, trying to buck his hips forward. “Come on, stop being a tease.”

Rhodey kissed his jaw, smirking slightly. “Why, I thought you were going to give me a show?”

“I don’t think you’d want this crowd for the show,” spoke a different voice, and Rhodey and Tony both froze, looking around until they spotted the six people standing looking mortified, horrified and vaguely interested all at once.

“What the fuck, when did you,” started Rhodey, picking up Tony’s shirt and putting it over the man’s lap. “JARVIS?!”

“Yes, Colonel?” answered the AI, sounding completely not bothered.

“A little warning?!”

“Well, when I tried to remind you that you had a rule of no sex in the lab, you shushed me. So I muted myself.” If an AI could sound petulant, then that was what JARVIS sounded like.

Tony didn’t look as embarrassed as Rhodey felt, but he did roll his eyes at his AI. “What a dramaqueen.”

“Since when?!” finally burst out Steve, alternating between trying to look away from Tony’s body stockings and being unable to tear his eyes off it. 

Tony cocked his head to the side. “The teddy? I got it with Nat and Loki the other day. Why, do you like it?”

Steve sputtered, possibly growing even redder as Rhodey covered Tony’s chest with the man’s jumper.

“I believe,” said Thor, and props to the man for looking very unaffected. Then again, his brother was Loki. “the Captain refers to the relationship between the two of you.”

Steve made a dying noise, while Rhodey blinked in confusion. “The relationship… between… me... and… my husband?” he questioned, exchanging a look with an equally as puzzled Tony.

“You’re married ?!” shouted Clint, staring at the two of them like he had never seen them before.

Tony was growing even more confused by the second. He shook his hand in their direction. “The rings are not just for decoration. Even Thor noticed them?”

The god of thunder scratched his head, ears tinted red. “I believed them… a symbol of your friendship.”

“A symbol of our-” Rhodey shook his head, incredulous. “We’ve been married for over 20 years! I was being all jealous of Loki, what, did you think I was worried about being replaced as… best friend?”

From Thor’s embarrassed look, it was clear he had thought that.

“Banner, fine, I can see how my interactions with Tony when you’re around look mostly like flirty friendships, but. Rogers, I was literally refusing to speak to you for months because of the whole wormhole thing, what exactly did you think that was about?”

Steve looked even more embarrassed than Thor. “I thought you two had a friendship that was even more intense than the one between Bucky and I.”

“Aw babe, you care!” cooed Tony, before turning to regard Steve him, unimpressed. “You and Bucky fucked, according to Howard,” he informed him, making the man splutter some nonsensical thing. “And you two spy couple. I’ll allow Barton - though I’m disappointed in your skills, agent - but Nat, I video called Rhodey in a sex shop,” cue more dying noises from Steve, “to ask him what type of lingerie would look better on me!”

Natasha pouted, crossing her arms together. “In my defence, you are very weird, and it’s very hard to figure you out.”

“Thank you,” said Tony, like it was a compliment. Then he pointed at Loki, “And you-”

“Oh, I knew.” Immediately interrupted him the trickster. “I just figured out that they didn’t, so I wanted to see their expression when the penny dropped.” His grin grew. “And it was oh so very worth it.”

Tony rolled his eyes, “Of course you did.” Then he pulled Rhodey closer to him again, wrapping his legs around the man’s waist. “Now where were we, uh?”

“And that’s our cue to leave,” said Bruce, immediately covering his eyes.

Loki pouted, not looking away from Rhodey and Tony. “I thought we were offered a show?”

That day Rhodey did end up shooting Loki.