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Being a Stark [Superfamily]

Chapter 29

Peter has detention again. Tony sighs when he gets the news. It’s happening way too often, and he’s got a strange little feeling that it’s kind of his fault.

He agrees with May that he’ll be the one to check on the principal; mostly because May is at work, and Tony’s Peter’s legal dad, anyway. It’s easy to explain. What’s even easier is handing Mr. Morita a contract of confidentiality. The man signs it immediately, still seeming extremely shocked about it.

But when the two agree to get Peter so they can discuss this between the three again, it’s not too long until they realize that Peter ran off.

He ran away from detention!

Given, Tony would have run away, too, if he had to watch continuous videos of Steve like that, but he would have thought Peter to be better than that.

Okay, calm down, take a deep breath. Things have been hard on Peter, too. He’s just trying to get past his anger and grief towards Steve by constantly fighting crime all over New York. Tony can’t be angry at him for that, right?

So he tries to be gentle. He calls him the moment he walks out of the school. Happy is driving, so Tony is sitting in the back. He holds up his phone, front camera having a clear view of his face. Now, remember Tony, you don’t want to chase him off. He needs to be gentle.

The moment the line goes over, Tony realizes that he can’t see Peter. He must have his camera turned off, then.

“Mister Parker,” he starts, cursing himself internally after that. That’s not gentle! He takes off his sunglasses. “You got a sec?”

“Uh- I’m actually at school,” Peter says, uncertain. Tony refrains himself from rolling his eyes. He knows Peter’s not, because he just came from there. But he won’t mention that, of course.

“We haven’t really spoken since you came back, and I can understand that. You came back late and you probably didn’t want to wake me, and then you’ve been at school…” Okay, he’s rambling. Tony takes a breath. “Just, nice work at DC.”

“Ah- okay,” Peter responds. He sounds extremely impatient, somehow.

“My dad, he never really… give me a lot of support, and I’m trying to break the cycle of chains-“

“Uh, I’m kind of in the middle of something,” Peter adds hastily in between Tony’s words. Now, Tony, who is not used to being interrupted like that while giving a compliment, frowns immediately.

“Don’t cut me off when I’m complimenting you,” Tony says. Gentle, remember? “Anyway, great things are about to happe-“

He’s once again interrupted, this time not because of Peter. It’s more the low, Tuba-like sound that does it.

“Peter, what is that?” Tony asks, suddenly starting to lose his cool here. Because he could deal with the fact that Peter is swinging around in New York to fight criminals, but if he’s actually where Tony suspects he is, he’s in for a world of trouble!

“Uh, I’m at band-practice?” Peter offers. It’s a weak lie.

Raising an eyebrow, Tony gives the camera a look. He knows Peter can see him. That’s how he built the suit, after all.

But… wait. No, Peter can’t call through his suit yet. That feature hasn’t been activated yet?

“That’s odd, you told me you quit band-practice last year,” Tony says, playing along for now. But the anger inside of him is getting damn stronger each time. “What’s up?”

“Uh- I gotta go! End call!” Peter suddenly says with his voice a few pitches higher.

“HEY!” Tony shouts, immediately realizing that Peter hung up. With a mouth fallen open and a blank screen looking back at him, Tony feels his breath speed up. What’s up with this kid? Why is he doing the exact opposite of what Tony asks him to do? “Happy, how long until we’re at the compound?”

“Ten more minutes, sir,” Happy says. And Tony curses to himself, because why didn’t he take the suit with him? Sure, a visit to a local high school isn’t much reason to bring such a high-tech suit with him, but obviously, the occasion does arise. Especially with a son who is trying to be a superhero of his own.

“Make it five,” Tony tells Happy, who gives him a grin, nods, and then stamps his foot on the accelerator. The car speeds forward immediately.

Happy makes it in three. By the time they’re there, Tony jumps out of the car, almost stumbling onto his knees in his attempt to run towards the workshop. The suits aren’t in the Tower. They’re Avengers-business, and Tony keeps everything related to the Avengers out of his house. If it was for him, he wouldn’t even be using one of these suits anymore.

But he’s got a feeling that he needs to face Peter on this. They need to have a serious talk.

The moment he’s surrounded by his suit, Tony flies. He knows where to go even before FRIDAY can say it. But that’s the thing, right? Because FRIDAY can’t say it.

“Sir, according to my scans, Peter is still in the hotel in DC. I can’t get through to his suit.”

And that just does it now, doesn’t it? Because Peter can get detention, and he can walk away from it. But right now, Tony realizes that his son has been hacking the suit they’ve built together, because he was too impatient to work up to it.

And it’s impossible to hack the suit. Which means one thing.

Peter used the override.

“FRIDAY, you won’t like it but I’m going to program new override codes. I’ll need to tweak you again a little bit.”

A moment of silence. “I understand, sir.”

How could he? How could he use those codes just like that? It could be dangerous for them to fall in the wrong hands! And Peter just uses it so carelessly, not caring who might hear it. Steve already did. Who knows Ned hasn’t been listening in? Not that Tony doesn’t trust the kid, but come on!

The destruction in front of him is incredible. He can see Peter, his son, hanging in between two parts of the boat, trying to keep them together with his web, muscles straining under his suit.

What have you done?

He’ll get a chance to talk to Peter later. First he needs to fix the ship.

So he gives Peter an angry greeting. Hi, Spider-Man. Band practice, was it? Then he ignores him as he starts asking if he can help. Using FRIDAY and the assistance of Veronica to get the ship back together, he’s extremely aware of Peter following him, trying his best to make things right.

But he can’t. He screwed up too much, now.

Adding the last part necessary to put the ship back together, he finally turns to Peter. The people are safe, but he doesn’t want to have this conversation here.

“I think you’ve done enough,” Tony says when Peter asks him what he wants him to do. Then he leaves him on the mast. Peter got himself there, he’ll surely find a way off the ship, too.

Damage control, that’s what Tony needs to do now. He needs to talk to the people, assure them that it wasn’t a trap; that he hadn’t counted on Spider-Man being there when he alerted the authorities. But also to assure them that he’s underage, that he didn’t know any better.

They’re already waiting for him. The FBI must have warned them. The moment Tony enters the room, still in his Iron Man suit, everybody stops talking and turns to look at him, unimpressed. Only one man, Everett Ross, stands up with his hands behind his back.

“Nice of you to join us, Mr. Stark. We were just about to call for you,” he says, greeting Tony, who gets himself out of his suit again.

“I knew where I was needed,” Tony says. It’s all a part of the accords, after all. He did kind of break the rules by showing up as Iron Man, but he only had about five minutes before things would have gotten horribly wrong. “So what’s the status?”

Ross sits down again. That’s when Tony notices the other Ross isn’t present. Good, Tony really doesn’t need to see that asshole. It’s only for the best he got kicked off. It was about time for retirement, after all. Meanwhile, the woman next to Ross drops down her tablet, touches the screen once, and then a hologram shows up.

“We’ve apprehended three men, who have been taken into custody. As far as we know, they’re the buyers, and not the sellers, which means we’re nowhere, again.”

Tony nods before sitting down, eyes pointed at the two men and one woman that have been taken in. They look young; not that much older than Peter. A sick feeling goes through him.

“Eh, three is better than none, right?” Tony suggests. The joke doesn’t catch. Ross rests his head on his fist and gives him a long look, which Tony ignores.

“You said Spider-Man was under control,” somebody else says. Tony doesn’t know the man; once in the past they might have been introduced, but now Tony can’t for the life of him remember his name. It’s not like he cares about it, anyway.

“He was. I had not taken into account that he’s also a teenager.” And can you blame him? Tony never had to deal with teenagers

“So, it was an error from your side that caused the destruction of a full ferry boat?” Ross asks. Tony doesn’t look back at him.

“Yes,” Tony admits. It’s best to just agree to anything they’ve got.

“You know there’s consequences, right? For the kid?”

Tony sighs. He could have expected that.

“You want him to sign, don’t you?” he asks. All the people in the room give him a knowing look. Of course, they want him to sign.

But then he surprises everyone by shaking his head.

“No,” Tony says. Ross frowns. The woman next to him drops her tablet on the table and gives him a long look.

“No?” Ross asks. “I’m sorry, did I miss the part where this is up for debate? If the kid wants to take on the big guys, he has to play by the rules. We closed our eyes so far because he kept to the little stuff. Things hardly worth mentioning on the television.”

“He’s just a kid!” Tony counters. His kid, but they don’t need to know that for now.

“A kid who needs to follow the rules if he wants to take on the bad guys,” Ross counters. “You see, the only reason I’m here is because I was supposed to have a high-tech weapons-dealer in my custody. You see any high-tech weapons-dealer here?”

Holy hell, you’re annoying as shit! Tony thinks to himself. He doesn’t say it out loud.

“The kid signs, or he quits. It’s as simple as that.”

A chill goes through Tony. He shakes his head; he can’t do this to Peter. It’s unfair to give him this choice. Signing means revealing his identity to these people. It’s important that nobody else knows. Tony takes a shaky breath.

“What if I take the suit?” he returns. Peter can go back to his old suit. At least, until he’s old enough to understand what he’s dealing with here. “I gave him the suit; it has many more possibilities than his original one. The problem is that he wasn’t supposed to have access to all of them yet.”

“Yet he did?” Ross asks, with an eyebrow raised. Tony passes a look at the other people at the table.

“He, uh, he used override codes to get an early access. The suit then aided him in his search for this Vulture-guy,” Tony clarifies.

“And how did he get access to these codes?” another woman asks. Tony vaguely remembers her calling herself Evelyn Gilette.

“I, uh- he got them from me in case of an emergency,” Tony admits. “Clearly, I was wrong to give them to him.”

Everybody stays quiet after that. Ross keeps his eyes on Tony, and Tony stares right back. He’s not going to back down. Impossible.

“I suggest you tell him to hand back the suit. You’re the most experienced here, so I suggest you hold it until you deem him ready to wear it again,” Gilette says. Ross breaks eye-contact then, turning to the woman with a mouth fallen open.

“Wha-?” he starts, but Gilette holds up her hand.

“I don’t suppose you have children, Everett? In the end, Spider-Man is still a child, and what better way is there to learn a lesson? He’ll learn responsibility this way, and when he earns it, he’ll get his stuff back,” she says. Tony nods. This is really the best-case scenario he can get right now. If it had been Ross’ choice, Peter would have never swung another web in his life.

“But, he needs to understand that the moment he reaches the age of maturity, he’ll have to make his decision on the Accords.”

Tony nods, walking towards Gilette and holding out his hand for her to shake, which she does. After thanking her, Tony turns to get back to his suit. Before he can get far, a hand on his arm suddenly stops him.

“Mr. Stark,” Ross says, pulling his hand away immediately. “This is all good and well, but in the end I’m still missing my prisoner. Your charge screwed it up, so it’s up to you to fix this.”

Tony glares at him, but he keeps his comments to himself. He shouldn’t insult the guy, not when he’s only barely gotten Peter out of trouble.

“Of course,” Tony says. “I’ll stick my AI on it.”

“Stark-“ Ross starts.

“In case you’ve missed it, I have to be in Wakanda regarding the accords tomorrow. So, until then, the AI and the Vision will be on it.”

Then Tony holds up his hand in a wave, turning his back to Ross to finally get back to his suit.

“Talk to you later, Evan,” Tony says, jokingly.

“It’s Everett,” the man counters.

“Whatever you say, darling.”

“Fuck you, Stark.”

It doesn’t take too long for Tony to find Peter. He never left the port. Tony can see the ship, where everybody is by now evacuated. The ship will be carried off, thrown away. There’s no possible way for them to permanently fix it. Tony’ll have to fund the making of a new ship, too.

These ships… that’s a lot of money. The planes at the airport in Leipzig were also horribly expensive. Tony felt that, the bits that he paid for, too. The damage was partly his fault.

“Previously on Peter’s Screws The Pooch. I tell you to stay away from this, instead you hacked a multi-million-dollar suit so you could sneak around behind my back doing the one thing I told you not to do.”

Tony is rambling. He does that when he’s angry. And he’s literally pissed off.

Peter isn’t looking at him. Mask off, Tony can see the shame.

“Is everyone okay?” he asks. Of course, that’s what he asks. It’s still Peter.

“No thanks to you,” Tony says lowly. Calm down, he tells himself. And to think he was just about to give Peter a present for what happened in DC. This whole thing… it just contradicts everything Tony had been thinking. Responsibility, my ass.

But Peter doesn’t take that lightly. He finally turns, and gets himself off the ledge. Then he points towards the boat. The whole scrap of useless junk.

“No thanks to me?” Peter asks, voice shaking. “Those weapons were out there, and I tried to tell you about it but you didn’t listen! None of this would’ve happened if you had just listened to me!”

Tony doesn’t respond.

“If you even cared, you’d actually be here.”

Time to prove him wrong. Tony opens up the suit easily. It’s not a perfect suit, in no way finished yet. He hasn’t even worn one since Siberia. It was just supposed to be controlled by FRIDAY, rather than to have Tony steering it.

Funny how these things go, right? Peter takes a few steps back as Tony comes closer

“I did listen, son,” Tony says, trying his absolute best to keep his voice down. “Who do you think called the FBI, huh?”

Peter startles a bit, probably mostly because Tony is actually there. He’s speechless.

“Do you know I was the only one who believed in you? I’m your Dad, of course I’m supposed to believe you. But everyone else said I was crazy to recruit a kid.”

“I’m not a kid,” Peter says lowly, and that’s when Tony snaps, at last. For the first time ever since he met Peter, he actually snaps at him.

“No! This is where you zip it, alright?! The adult is talking!” he shouts. “What if somebody had died tonight? Different story, right?”

Peter just stares, eyes red.

“’Cause that’s on you. And if you died, who else is to blame but me? Do you know what it would have done to me if you would have gotten hurt? Again?”

“I know, dad. I’m sorry,” Peter says, trying so hard to keep his tears in. “I just- I wanted to be like you.”

Tony shakes his head. Don’t. Don’t achieve to be me. I’m not good. I’m not Steve.

“And I wanted you to be better,” Tony responds. Then he shakes his head; better to break the bad news. “The big people aren’t happy. There are consequences, both for you and me.”

“Dad, I-“

“The suit, I’m going to need it back,” Tony finally says. He hates himself for doing this, but it’s the only way.

“For how long?” Peter asks. Tony huffs out a breath, going through his hair.

“Forever,” Tony says. It’s probably a bit extreme, but it’s the only way to make Peter understand.

“No!” Peter starts, shaking his head. The tears are threatening to fall down, but he still keeps them back. “No, no, no! Please!”

“I’m sorry, Peter,” Tony says. It falls on deaf ears.

“Please, you don’t understand; I can’t go back to the old suit! This is all I have now; I’m nothing without this suit!”

And Tony takes a deep breath, reaching for his wrist. It aches again. It always does. You’re my son, he wants to say. You’re not nothing. But that wouldn’t help him here. Peter will probably hate him, either way.

“If you’re nothing without this suit, then you shouldn’t have it, okay?” he says. God, he sounds like his dad.

“But why?” Peter asks, voice high and shaky.

“You just don’t get it, do you?” Tony keeps on rubbing his hand. Only that way, he’ll stay away from his chest. “I thought you were responsible; that’s why I let you keep the suit. But you let it go over your head, you ignored me. You need to understand that things can’t work the way they used to. Things need to be run over with the big people.”

Peter doesn’t respond.

“Peter, it’s this, or you being forced to sign the accords. And if you do that, they’ll know who you are. I chose the lesser of two evils.”

Still no answer.

“Peter, you can at least say something,” Tony finishes, not liking how he’s being ignored here. But the hard look on Peter’s face makes it clear that he’s having trouble keeping everything in. Peter blinks a few times, before nodding.

“I don’t have any other clothes,” he says, and Tony’s heart breaks at the hurt in his voice. He doesn’t like this. Not one bit! Peter’s a good kid, so what if he’s been making a few mistakes lately? He’s a teenager! That’s what they do, for crying out loud.

But, they told Tony to do one thing, and he needs to see this through. Because if he doesn’t, Peter will become part of a whole system Tony desperately wants to keep him out of.

“Let’s get you back home, okay?” Tony asks. Still looking down, Peter nods, tears now actually rolling from his eyes. Jesus, Tony doesn’t like how much the kid’s been crying in the past few months. This shouldn’t happen, he shouldn’t be this sad all the time. So he does what any father should do right now; he pulls him into his arms, and holds him in a strong hug.

And Peter sobs against his shoulder, giving him apologies and holding on to him.

They’ll sort this out. Eventually.

After all, there’s a whole new suit waiting for Peter back in the Compound. And he might not get it as quickly as Tony had been expecting, but one day he will wear it.







After making a quick stop in the tower to get some clothes for Peter, Tony personally drives him back to Queens.

There’s a slight awkward moment with May; she’s angry she couldn’t reach him the entire evening, Peter skipped detention, Tony personally got him here. That could only mean that he’s been doing crap he shouldn’t do.

But Peter can’t form words. All he does is apologize, bursting out in tears, and allowing May to pull him into her arms. After that, Peter leaves to take a shower, and May and Tony are left in the room together. Tony explains to her that he’s already talked to him, that Peter had his scolding.

Tony leaves for Wakanda the next night. The flight takes about eleven hours, and Tony’s feeling like he’s not at all mentally prepared to go and visit the King of Wakanda to look over the accords. It’s not that he can’t see eye to eye with T’Challa. In fact, they’ve been talking to each other once in a while to arrange this meeting.

Though in the way the King was speaking, Tony wouldn’t be too surprised if the man has ulterior motives to bring Tony all the way to Wakanda instead of visiting himself. Then again, he’s king. He can’t just leave his country like that.

Tony sleeps in the plane. He’s tired, exhausted from the day. First all the arrangement at the school, then the ferry… Tony’s feeling like he’s been flying around in circles today. Even now, just to be sure, he has a suit in the plane, easy to access. He doesn’t want to chance another situation where he can’t fly anywhere because he’s missing one.

They’re eight hours into their flight when Tony wakes up again. His neck is stiff, and he could really use a little walk, so he gets up. One small look through the little windows, and Tony sees they’re still above the ocean. He decides not to disturb the pilot. Just a quick little visit to the bathroom.

He tinkers a bit with some devices he brought along to pass his time. He has a phone call with May, tries to contact Peter but fails to catch him. It’s school, he tells himself. Peter won’t pick up. There’s an update from Vision, who says he’s going through all the past sightings of the weapons. It’s a shame they don’t have any facial visuals on the Vulture.

Though Peter saw his face. At least, Tony thinks he did. But he can’t reach him. Tony sighs and puts the phone away.

T’Challa is there to greet him when he lands at a private airport. The two men shake hands, and Tony gets greeted with three kisses on his cheeks. He’s not new to that, so he doesn’t pull away.

“Welcome to Wakanda, Mr. Stark,” the King says, still holding on to his hand in a strong grip.

“Please, your majesty. Tony will be fine,” Tony assures him. T’Challa laughs and then lets go to point towards a car.

“Then it’s T’Challa for you, too,” he says. Tony nods, following the King into the car. The drive isn’t long at all. When he’s offered a glass of champagne, Tony refuses.

“I’m trying to stay away from it,” he offers. T’Challa raises an eyebrow, but then smiles.

“I am happy to hear that,” he says. Despite his strong accent, his English is flawless. “So you have brought the copy with you?”

Tony taps his case with a nod.

“It’s all in here,” Tony says. “After we’ve looked it over and add our suggestions, it’ll be brought back to the leaders.”

“And what about the Soldier? Or the Android?”

Tony sighs.

“Rhodey’s out for the time being. Vision looked it over but didn’t add anything.”

T’Challa nods in understanding. They don’t say anything else until the car stops. Once they’ve exited the vehicle, Tony is guided inside, the two of them surrounded by guards. Tony quickly realizes that he hasn’t even taken the time to look around while they were driving. It’s a shame, apparently Wakanda is supposed to be a highly advanced country. Tony would have loved to get a look at their technology.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get to go sight-seeing after we finish this. If I can make a suggestion; the Royal Gardens are a great place to start; especially around three in the afternoon.”

Tony raises an eyebrow at him.

“I’ll take that into consideration,” he says in return. T’Challa just smiles, guiding him through the hallways until he gets to a place that looks mighty much like his office. Once inside, Tony is facing a massive window that gives a wonderful view of the nature outside.

So far, the whole place seems to contradict himself. If Tony wouldn’t have known about the advanced technology, he would have expected more… old buildings. What he’s seen so far is only modern looking, standing out with the nature bright and green on the outside. It’s more like the tower, or the Compound. Nothing he would have imagined a palace to be.

“Is that a panther?” Tony asks. T’Challa turns to look to where Tony is staring at. Then he nods.

“Yes, it is,” he answers. Tony makes an impressed face.

“Cool,” he answers, not finding any other words for it. Eventually the two sit down at the desk. Tony opens the case, takes out the book Steve’s group corrected and puts it down on the table. T’Challa, seated in front of Tony, takes it and gives the pages a quick look.

For a few hours, the two work on it, discussing on their agreements with the changes, and adding the things they would change as well. There’s not much Tony can remark on it. The only things he mostly wants changed is the rules on minors, who shouldn’t be allowed to sign as long as they’re not considered adults.

And he tells T’Challa so. He agrees.

Around half past two, they finish. For about five hours, they’ve been at it, and Tony’s pretty much done with it. He rolls his neck a bit to loosen it, stretches his arm, and then rubs his left wrist again.

“Is it still troubling you?” T’Challa asks, probably remembering Tony hurting it a few months back.

Tony shrugs.

“It, uh. I had a small fracture. We noticed it a bit late, so it wasn’t immediately put into a cast. Mostly, I’ve gotten this brace I don’t particularly like wearing since it keeps me from working,” Tony admits. He takes the wrist brace out of his case and shows it to T’Challa.

“As far as I know, if the doctors give you something, it’s usually to help,” the man says, wisely. Tony just chuckles at that.

“Yeah, uh, I broke a few fingers, earlier this year. Nothing major, and it healed up pretty quickly, but, I don’t know, they’re still a bit stiff so I can’t work on the small stuff as well as before,” he admits. He doesn’t even know why he’s telling him this, not even Steve or Tony know about it. “I suppose it’s just old bones.”

“If you want, I have a couple of good doctors who could take a look?” T’Challa asks. Tony blinks twice before shaking his head.

“No, it’s fine. It’s not like they can stop the aging process, right?”

“That’s right,” T’Challa admits. Tony then stands up.

“Now, uh, you said something about, uh, the Royal Gardens at three?” Tony asks T’Challa smiles and nods.

“Yes, I’ll show you the way.”

The two leave the room. The case stays inside; Tony will get it later, or T’Challa will have it brought to the room he’s staying at. That’s the good thing about being able to stay at the Palace for the coming few days. He only wishes he could have taken Peter along. He might have been able to relax a bit on a holiday.

The two walk together through the hallways until they get to a door that leads them outside. The beginning of the fall hasn’t reached Wakanda just yet, seeing that the temperatures still seem at its highest. It’s probably why T’Challa is walking around in nothing but a light pair of pants and a short-sleeved shirt. Tony wisely kept his coat inside, and rolls up his own sleeves.

“Yes, the weather is particularly hot today,” T’Challa agrees when he sees Tony adjust his wardrobe. Before they can walk outside, a person (a butler?) hands both of them a bottle of water. T’Challa thanks the man in his native language, and he gets a bow of the head in return. Tony watches it happen, and then he takes a grateful swing of his bottle. The two start walking again afterwards.

“Now, what makes these gardens so special at three in the afternoon?” Tony asks. Looking around the place, he finds nothing but the beauty of nature. With the sky blue and cloudless, and the plants as green as is possible, he finds himself in some sort of utopia.

There’s a slight relief when they walk on a pathway underneath trees. The sun is cut off from their skin, and the smell of the plants go straight into Tony’s nose. He smells something fruity, and his mouth waters immediately. T’Challa chuckles, plucks something out of a tree above him, and then throws it at Tony, who catches it only barely.

“Well, around this time, the sun reaches a position which illuminates the garden just perfectly. Sometimes artists and photographers come all the way here to put it into an image, but nothing is better than seeing it in person, no?”

Tony smiles a bit. Yes, Tony can imagine Steve sitting here, waiting for the sun to get on the right spot, with his sketchbook on his lap and crayon in his hand. A small wave of sadness goes through him. He clears his throat.

“That, and around three, the gardeners take a break.”

Tony laughs then. He’s about to comment about liking his sense of humor, but then T’Challa’s phone goes off. The King looks down to his pocket, and he fishes out a device that looks maybe even more advanced than the latest Stark Phone. Maybe Tony can get some inspiration in his coming few days here.

“I’m sorry, I need to take this. You just look around, when you’re done you can ask one of my people to help you out.”

Tony nods at him, watching the King walk away as he picks up his phone. Then he lets out a sigh, putting his hands behind his back as he starts walking. One quick look at his watch says that it’s nearly three. One look above, he can see the streams of sunlight getting through the leaves of the trees and he smiles.

He’s never really been one to enjoy nature this way; he prefers the familiarity in modern technology. But once in a while, Pepper used to take him out into the open, whether it was on a holiday or just a walk in Central Park. Tony can appreciate it enough.

He walks the entire pathway, wondering where it will lead him. He hopes he won’t end up getting lost, since he’s not sure he’ll find his way back so easily. He’s surrounded by flowers, but he’s not able to distinguish one from the other.

He walks and walks, until he finds himself on an open field. The sun shines brightly over the water, illuminating almost everything and practically blinding Tony when he looks at it directly. T’Challa hadn’t been kidding, it really looks like some sort of paradise in here.

One short look, Tony can only spot one of these artists T’Challa had been talking about. A white man, with a beard and a cap over his head. Tony can’t see his face, but he looks muscled enough. Should he greet him? Tony puts his hands in his pockets and walks towards the bench.

The moment he nears the man, he looks over his shoulder to take a look at the drawing. It’s not bad at all. The man is using aquarel, and though he’s only just started (it’s only five past three), the garden is already pretty recognizable.

“That looks good,” Tony says with a smile. He’s surprised when the man suddenly startles. The drawing pad flies out of his lap and drops onto the ground. The cup of water he’d been using to wet his brush tips over. “Shit, I didn’t mean to startle you!”

“Tony?” the man asks. And shit, that voice sounds familiar. Too familiar. Tony’s breath shakes, and his first instinct is to put his hand on his scar, which he keeps himself from doing. Even before Steve can turn around to face him, Tony takes a few steps backwards. He can’t do this, he’s not ready to see him. Not yet.

But he’s here. And Tony can’t just walk away, because he knows Steve will go after him, and give him those eyes, and Tony will break.

“Tony, when did you get here?”

Tony’s throat is dry. The same goes for his mouth. He wants to speak, but he can’t.

Because Steve is here, and Tony’s chest is aching as he’s wondering if he should punch him, or hug him. Instead, he stares.

Steve has a beard. It doesn’t look bad, at all.

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