Chapter Text
Steve Rodgers stood awkwardly in a conference room at Stark Tower. He knew that the Rogue's returning would be uncomfortable, but not like this. They were sitting at a table talking about room arrangements and other things. Tony was sitting stiffly as far away as he could get. Pepper was beside him, clearly uncomfortable. The other Rogue's were just watching Tony warily. They had only been here twenty minutes but it felt like hours. The Accords were finally demolished three days ago.
Steve assumed the Rogue’s would be joining with Tony and the other Avengers shortly but not this soon. He also thought that the Rogue's would get the compound. Steve knew that Tony almost sold the tower before buying it back. Nobody knew why though, Steve thought it might be to get space between him and the Avengers. Maybe not as here they all were at the tower. Tony hadn't spoken, only nodded his head a few times. Pepper did all the talking. "Look why don't we find out where our rooms are and meet up later or something. Give some space, then we can have dinner." The group paused and seemed to mull over Steve's suggestion.
"Sounds great." That was Tony, "I have this project I've been meaning to work on. So you guys come up later, and we can talk." With that Tony practically fled the room towards the elevator. Leaving Pepper who just smiled over at the group.
"There have been changes since you all stayed here. Minor things but the floor you all once shared is now off limits, your rooms are on the floor below it. There is a communal kitchen, the gym and everything else is how you remember it. Do you guys need to know anything else, just ask? Preferably ask FRIDAY, and please just mind your business and be respectful. There is still a company that works here." Nobody moved for a few seconds. "Just ask FRIDAY to take you to your floor I have some meetings to go to." With that Pepper grabbed her clipboard and she left the room. Steve sighed honestly he was hoping for better. He knew things wouldn't be perfect but Tony ignored them all. Not to mention that he was living on a totally different floor then all of them. Steve got up and glanced over to the group.
"Well we better get going. Unpack our stuff and get settled." Everyone got up and followed him to the elevator. Over the past while being a Rogue honestly wasn't so bad. The group supported one another and living on the run was fun sometimes. However everyone was here. Sam, unfaltering loyalty to Cap was unsure about going back to Stark. Wasn't his first preference. Natasha on the other hand seemed relaxed and almost relieved to be back at Stark Tower. Not the reaction Steve had been expecting from her. Wanda was hiding in the shadows, she had not enjoyed being on the run. She was scared of Tony though. they all pretty much were.
All this time the ball had been in their court. They could choose when to be seen, how to be seen, and who they talked to. Over the span of a few hours now Tony was in control. His Tower, his rules. Steve could only thank god that Bucky wasn't here. At first they thought Bucky should come and get settled with all of them. Bucky decided he was going to wait a little longer before coming to New York. Seeing how nervous Tony was it was lucky that he stayed in Wakanda. His treatment was going well, soon he'd be completely cleansed of HYDRA.
The elevator ride was silent, when FRIDAY opened the doors they all shuffled out. "Are we just supposed to pick whatever rooms we want? If so, I get first dibs." That was Sam. He was already headed down a hallway which Steve assumed to be the bedrooms. Wanda followed him, leaving Steve and Natasha together.
"So how long until Tony stops acting like we killed his puppy?" Natasha just smiled sadly at Steve's question.
"I don't know. Hopefully not long, until then we just have to be patient. The Accords being broken did not magically fix everything. We knew that, but it still hurts. Being back here all the memories. We have to wait for Tony to come to us, not the other way around. Dinner tonight should help, maybe we can start up movie nights or something. I don't know anything to get him to trust us again." Steve just looked at the floor. It was so frustrating, why couldn’t Tony just do something. Instead he ran off to go work on some project.
"That sounds good Nat, why don't we go figure out what rooms were left for us." The two of them walked down the hallway finding their rooms. Steve sighed, for once he just wanted things to be easy. Instead they were practically playing cat and mouse with Tony. Waiting for him to get close enough so they can pounce. A friendly pounce, not a backstab, fights you and then leaves you in the cold and bleeding kind of pounce. Steve couldn't imagine what dinner would be like. Awkward, tense, uncomfortable, sounds like a night of fun.
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At 6:30 the Rogue's all got into the elevator. "FRIDAY?" Steve asked. "Can you take us to Tony's private floor? We were invited for dinner." Nothing happened, FRIDAY didn’t answer and they all stood there in the silence.
"Are you sure you had Boss' permission to come to his private floor?"
"Yes, I asked if we could have dinner and he said yes. You can check the cameras, he said we could come." Another very long pause.
"Sorry for the delay Mr. Rogers, one moment please." The elevator started and very quickly arrived at the private floor. The doors opened and the Rogue's emptied out into the living room. Steve glanced around, Pepper said that some changes had been made, she was wrong. Everything looked the same. as the group wandered into the kitchen everyone froze. Sitting on the counter top, eating Oreos sat a child. Steve would say he was thirteen maybe fourteen, he had brown hair. His attention was on his phone, he was texting with someone. The Rogue's all looked at one another, nobody knew this child.
'Well I didn't know Stark had a kid." Natasha clearly spooked the kid as he nearly jumped six feet in the air. He scrambled off the counter top to face them. "And who might you be?"
The kid looked over each Avenger slowly, when he looked at Steve for a split second there was a look of anger before it was gone. If Steve hadn't felt the heat behind that glare he may have forgotten it. "Uh-I am Parker. Peter Parker I mean." The kid's voice only clarified how young he was, Steve took another look at his face. his brown eyes felt awfully familiar. He did the mental math, Tony was still fooling around thirteen years ago. Is it possible Tony had a kid?
"You sure your last name isn't Stark? You look like his kid." Steve watched as the kid just laughed awkwardly.
"No, Mr. Stark isn’t my Dad, I'm just an intern. You know I help out and stuff."
"I didn't know Stark took interns." Sam was awfully suspicious of the boy. Not that they all weren't, but a kid couldn't hack FRIDAY. He may not have been an intern but he was somebody.
"I was a special case, me being a child genius and all. Lucky me." Nobody moved or spoke for about a minute. Natasha took a step forward in Peter's direction only to have her movements matched.
“How old are you? Like twelve?” Sam curiously studied the kid.
“I’m fifteen not twelve. But it is not really your business.”
“Not our business? I don’t know a kid, who claims to be an intern on Tony's private floor sounds like our business.”
“Why? Cause your the Avengers? Pardon me I mean the Rogues. Or even better outlaws, fugitives. You don’t have any reason to be here, or question me.”
“We were just wondering why a child was here.” Wanda finally spoke up. “We haven’t heard Tony mention any child before.” They then heard a voice from down the hallway.
"So Pete do you want Chinese or Pizza for dinner? Or do you want-" The voice abruptly cut off as Tony entered the kitchen and saw who was there. "What are you guys doing here?" Tony’s voice was cold and harsh as he addressed the Rogues.
"You said we could have dinner as a team. FRIDAY let us up." Steve tried to ignore the earlier hostility from Tony. "You got a cute kid." That got him a look from Tony. Not the best ice breaker but it was all he had.
"Not my kid, just an intern. He's from Queens." That only seemed to fuel Natasha's suspicion. Tony had passed the Avengers and in front of the kid. Steve noticed he was partly shielding the kid from them. He still didn't trust them.
"Your intern gets to have dinner with you? And access to your private floor? As an intern?"
"Yes as an intern, look, dinner is postponed. You guys can order something in or whatever I don't care to just get out."
Steve glared at Tony. "Look I know that things are rough right now. I get that you don't trust us and that we don't trust you. We can fix it if you stop hiding. You can not keep making excuses for eventually people will be suspicious. We are supposed to be the Avengers, the team that saves the world. How the hell are we supposed to be a team if you keep avoiding us." The kid, Peter took a step forward before Tony put an arm on his shoulder. Peter glared at Steve, while Tony just looked exhausted with this whole thing.
"Steve." That was Natasha, she was warning him but Steve didn't care.
"Look, we can have dinner some other time. I am not hiding, but please leave right now." Wanda began to make an exit, Steve didn't budge. Natasha grabbed his arm and tried to pull him towards the elevator. Sam glanced worridley between the two guys. He didn’t move though.
"Enough Tony! We have been here hours and the first thing you say to us is to leave? It is your fault that all this is happening right now. What Bucky did with HYDRA wasn't his fault! Look I get why you were angry, but you have to make an effort to do some good for once!" Tony visibly flinched and the kid, Peter scowled. His eyes flickered with anger, scaring Steve for a minute.
The next he knew Steve was sprawled on the ground getting his face pounded in. Peter was above him punching his face repeatedly. He wasn’t letting up and Steve couldn’t get him off. He cried out for help and the rest of the Rogue’s moved forward. They couldn’t pull the kid off, he just kept punching Steve. Tony watched the whole thing with a twinkle of amusement in his eyes. Finally Wanda used her magic to lift the kid off him and place him on a nearby stool. Peter kept struggling trying to break loose of the magical bonds.
"What do you know about being a part of a team!? You left! You left your team! You didn't even try to talk like any other adult! You left Mr. Stark to die! Then you say it is his fault!!! How stupid are you?!" Sam helped Steve off the ground and they all watched Peter as he continued shouting. “You don’t understand! Mr. Stark does good! More than you! He is ten times the guy you will be! So shut up!!!”
"Kid, hey it is okay. Let it go." Tony finally made his move and walked over to the kid. Peter slowly stopped moving and Wanda released her hold. "As you can see, things are not the greatest right now. How about the rest of you go back to your rooms. I need to talk with Peter, we can meet later." This time nobody protested as the Rogue's headed into the elevator. The doors shut and it started moving.
"Well damn Steve. You just got beat up by Stark's kid intern." Sam let a loose half hearted chuckle.
"Shut up Sam." Steve could feel the look of anger and disappointment form Natasha. He didn't want to deal with it right now. Wanda offered to make dinner, they all agreed. Steve sat in the living room with Sam. Neither spoke, Steve couldn't stop thinking about the kid Peter. He wasn't necessarily wrong.Steve had left Tony, but Tony was also at fault. But now Tony would be even more distant, not to mention that kid hated Steve. It was obvious Tony cared about the kid, meaning Peter would not be near the Rogue's again. Unless Tony wanted another one of them beat up. Getting to be a team again would be harder than Steve thought. A lot harder.