Sweet Nothings

"Staff meeting at the front counter in two minutes!" Tony yelled, bursting through the front door.

Steve and Peter exchanged a weary look. For the past week, Tony had been working on a project. He locked his office at all times and stayed late almost every night. It seemed that today he would be revealing his plans to the rest of them. As the employees slowly gathered together, Tony flitted through the bakery, locking things up and pulling blinds. He turned and surveyed the group, bouncing impatiently on the balls of his feet. 

"Everybody outside and into the delivery truck!" Tony ordered. "Don't question me, just trust me and do it."

They all reluctantly followed his orders and climbed into the back of the truck. Tony stretched up to grab hold of the door latch and tossed Steve a flashlight. 

"Sit down and hold on. We're only going a couple miles from here. And stay in here when we stop," Tony finished, pulling the latch and leaving his friends in the refrigerated darkness of the truck. 

Steve clicked on the flashlight and took a seat between Peter and Darcy. "Does anyone else have a bad feeling about this?"

"I do," Clint raised his hand from his place next to Darcy.           

"Relax," Natasha said soothingly. "Tony's eccentric, but he isn't usually dangerous."

"What if he found out some dark secret about all of us and he snapped and now he's going to drive the truck into the bay with all of us locked in the back so we drown?" Clint said eerily.

"Nay! Anthony seemed in clear thoughts," Thor spoke up confidently. "It is most likely a jest of some sort."

"Um, excuse me, but does no one else remember what happened the last time Tony threw us all in the back of a truck and took us to see a surprise?" Bruce stared at them meaningfully.

"I don't think I was here for that..." Peter murmured.

"Shh!" Darcy hushed him. "This sounds like the beginning to an extremely kinky story that I really want to hear."

"Oh, no," Steve sighed. 

Peter peered around. "What? What happened last time?"

"The bakery," Natasha answered simply. "Three years ago, Tony loaded all of us into the back of this very truck- minus the logo on the outside and the refrigeration- and told us he had a surprise. Ten minutes later, we were standing in an empty building and Tony was telling us we were all proud co-owners of a bakery."

Clint pointed his finger accusingly. "I told you! I told you we shouldn't have gotten in the truck!"

Darcy raised her hand. "I don't see how this is a bad thing. He has a present for us. Isn't that usually good?"

"Darcy," Loki snapped his fingers to get her attention. "The man bought a bakery."

Darcy hesitated. "It's the thought that counts?"

"What thought was there?" Loki asked somewhat less harshly than expected. "None of us had any experience or knowledge. Tony was an inventor, a businessman. Steve was a museum curator and a painter. Thor was building homes, I was supervising him. Natasha was the interior decorator who helped us, and she was a copy editor for the newspaper. Clint was-"

"Woah!" Clint shrieked. "Not in front of the children! We can't talk about that."

Loki rolled his eyes. "Yes, well, the facts remain. It was irrational and brash. It all worked out in the end, but it was an act of spontaneity, not one that was carefully thought through as it should have been."

"Wait, hold on. What did Clint do? Why can't we talk about it?" Peter asked.

Darcy gasped. "You were a stripper weren't you? A hooker? An escort? A pornstar?"

"No!" Clint yelped. "We just can't talk about it. It's classified."

Darcy and Peter traded suspicious glances. Peter opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by Tony flinging the door open. 

"We're here! Nobody move. Just stay right there," Tony instructed, stepping onto the back bumper of the truck. "Now, we have been business partners and coworkers for three years. In some cases, only a month or two, but we're still close. We were friends long before we started the bakery, and we love each other. We're like our own not-so-little family now. Which is why I brought you here. Come inside."

Tony dropped down and stepped aside, revealing the most gorgeous Victorian house in the country.  Calling it a house was a bit of an understatement, really. Mansion would be more accurate. Looking up at the whitewashed walls and the beautifully carved trim, everyone was speechless. A wrap around porch with a gray stone floor protruded from the house, an elegant, hand carved rail surrounding the outer edge. The front door had a huge, ornate gray knocker and looked to be hand-carved. The shutters were a cool gray and the cream colored curtains hanging in the windows seemed too pure to be this close to Tony Stark. There were three full stories, and a smaller studio on the roof. The grounds had been well taken care of. The grass was lush and freshly cut. There were flowers planted on both sides of the stone driveway, and a rose garden decorated the western side of the house. Clint could see the edge of a pool in the back yard as well as what was probably a shed, but looked like a small home.

“Tony…what is this place?” Steve asked carefully.

“Well,” Tony swallowed, suddenly uncertain. “That’s up to all of you, but I’d like it to be our home. Not just ours, Steve, but everyone’s. There’s more than enough room, and with a little bit of remodeling on the inside, the rooms can be customized to their inhabitants. There’s a pool in the back, a bike path through the woods behind the house, a small greenhouse, and a killer kitchen. So…what do you think?”

Everyone stared at the house in awed silence.

“This…” Darcy breathed.

Tony leaned forward expectantly. “Yes?”

“This is the shit. I can’t explain it more elegantly. It’s just the shit,” Darcy said decisively.

Peter jerked his head toward Darcy. “I’m with her.”

“Um, yeah, pretty much. You really bought us a house?” Clint asked.

Tony smiled sheepishly. “Uh, yeah, yeah I did. A little.”

Loki snorted. “How do only buy a house a little, Stark?”

Darcy’s gaze flicked between Peter and Clint as she stepped slowly towards the house. “Okay, well I’m just going to pick out my room.”

She broke into a run, sprinting up the stairs and flinging the front door open. Clint was right behind her with Peter hot on his heels, both of them shouting at a screeching Darcy.

Natasha shook her head. “Let’s go look at the greenhouse, Bruce.”

They disappeared around the corner of the house with Thor and Loki lagging behind, leaving Tony with Steve, who hadn’t said anything in an alarmingly long time.

“The studio is yours,” Tony said abruptly. “All yours. It has a ton of windows, and I’m going to have shelves put in for your supplies. I’ll make a special one with holes for your brushes, too. Unless you don’t want one of those. If you don’t, I’ll just get you a bucket or something.”

“You’re rambling,” Steve murmured.

Tony smiled sheepishly. “So what do you say? Can we keep it?”

Steve turned towards the house. He could hear people shrieking with laughter inside, and he heard Thor’s booming laughter in the backyard. Steve had always envisioned having a large family. He hadn’t quite pictured it like this, but it was better than he could ever have dreamed. They were a family, and families should stick together.

“It looks like home,” Steve told Tony, watching the other man’s face light up.