Chapter Text
Tony has been in his lab for three days straight with the door to the lab locked, probably so nobody could barge in and force him out to sleep or eat. Bruce had asked JARVIS if he could come in, since he was usually an exception to Tony’s lockdowns, but the A.I. informed him that Tony didn’t want anyone to see him, not even his science bro that Tony seemed to always want to talk to. Bruce could swear he heard a faint sigh from the A.I. when JARVIS spoke, sounding irked that his inventor wouldn’t come out of his own makeshift cave. When Bruce came back to the main floor of the Avengers Tower without the iconic snarky mechanic, Steve and Natasha sighed defeatedly while Clint rolled his eyes and Thor just frowned, which had unfortunately become a recurring look on the god’s face in the past couple of months.
“What is going on with him?” Steve asked with a disappointed, parent-like look, shaking his head slightly and staring down at the floor. “You know how he is,” Clint starts, “he wants to be alone with his robots to tinker until his hands fall off.” Natasha’s lips rise into a small smirk, chuckling softly at her teammate's words. “No, he’d probably still find another way to tinker even if his hands fell off.” Everyone let out a small chuckle of their own before reverting back to silence, all of them individually thinking about the missing elephant in the room: Tony. Bruce rubbed his eyes slowly, thinking. “Maybe we could get Peter to come over. Tony always makes an effort to hang out with the kid.” Thor nodded his head, agreeing and coming up with something to add. “And that wizard! Stark always tries to impress the funny man, dressing up and telling jokes.” The god spoke with a proud smile on his face at his suggestion, and Natasha nodded her head in agreement. Despite how crazy the idea seemed to others, it was crystal clear to her that Tony had some sort of crush on the Sorcer. Tony always had the habit of trying to impress people, but it was different with Strange; it was like Tony was trying to convince him that he was worth paying attention to. Natasha expected that Stark picked up the habit because of his father.
“He certainly does enjoy being around the kid,” Steve spoke, rubbing his chin with his thumb in thought. “JAVRIS, could you call Peter and ask him to come over?” The Captian asked while staring up at the ceiling like he was waiting for a physical manifestation of JARVIS to come answer his question. “On it,” The A.I. responded, already directing a message to FRIDAY for Peter.
The room went quiet again, the tension rising as everyone started feeling more concerned for their friend and fellow Avenger. Maybe I should go down and try to check on him, Bruce thought, despite not having any previous luck, his leg bouncing away in solicitude. When Bruce finally lifted his gaze away from the corner of the room, he noticed Thor flashing him a small smile of comfort, so Bruce smiled back. Natasha was on her phone, discreetly texting Wong to see if Stephan was available to come see Tony, which made her feel like a tired mom who was trying to set up a playdate for her kid.
“Mr. Parker is on his way,” JARVIS informed the anxious Avengers, to which they all let out a breath of relief. It was so strange to them, so unexplainable how much Tony cared for the kid. Despite how much the engineer tried to hide it, everyone in the tower knew that Tony would take a bullet for that spider-kid. Clint suddenly stood from the couch and grabbed his wallet and keys. “I guess I should go get some apple juice and animal crackers for the kid,” Clint muttered as he walked into the elevator. “Get me Poptarts!” Thor yelled before the metal doors shut.