Tony sighed, reaching for the outdated flip phone in the back of the bottom drawer of his desk. Thanos was coming, they needed all the help they could get- and Team Cap would need a bit of time to come to terms with the fact that Steve Rogers was no longer in charge.
Sighing again, Tony opened the phone and pressed call on the only contact. Steve answered in the middle of the third ring.
“Tony.”
“Hey Rogers-”
“I’m so glad you’ve finally seen reason and done the right thing," Steve interrupted. "I was sure you would, I always had confidence that you would come to your senses! So now that the Accords are gone we can come home and everything can go back to normal.”
Tony gaped, appalled. “Wait, what? Seen reason?”
“Yeah, you know, that you were in the wrong going after Bucky because he’s innocent and the Accords were horrible- the safest hands are our own after all.”
“Steve,” Tony said, obviously strained. “The Accords were amended, just like I said, and are very much in affect and are working very well- haven’t you seen the news? And Barnes may be innocent of the UN bombing, but he was a willing and fully in control of himself participant in that tunnel collapse in Bucharest where millions of dollars of dama-”
“Tony,” Steve interrupted again condescending and disapprovingly. “You should have fixed this by now- it’s your responsibility to fix things. It’s what you’re good at. You should have gotten over all that drama by now.”
“‘Gotten over’ it? You actively tried to kill me when I was obviously and understandably reacting out of anger and hurt! Ross and the Raft are gone now, along with his hideously inhumane and unacceptable ideas, but you still committed a lot of crimes and neither I nor the world have forgotten. Eleven people died and there was 76 million dollars worth of damage. You have to face the consequences of you actions, which were out of bounds even WITHOUT the Accords! I can’t ‘fix this’ for you, Steve, and even if I could, I wouldn’t. You obviously never cared about me-”
“Tony, of course I cared.”
“-if it was so easy for you to turn and attempt to kill me.”
“I wasn’t going to kill you Tony, you know I would never do that. Really, you should have gotten over this by now, I was protecting my friend,” Steve condescended.
“I was your friend too, and looking at the footage it’s clear you were going for the kill when I wasn’t, not to mention you betrayed me and used my resources to search for my mom’s killer on my dime!”
“You're still my friend Tony-”
“No, I don’t want to hear it. The only reason I’m calling is because a major threat is coming- the one I saw after the Battle of New York and no one believed me about. It’s a world-ending danger and we need all hands on deck- you are NOT forgiven and WILL be facing trial when the threat has passed- provided both you and the Earth survive.”
“Tony, it’s your responsibility to fix these things, but I see what you’re doing. You’re letting us to come back to redeem ourselves publicly; no one will be mad after we save everyone.”
“THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU,” Tony screamed, incensed. “Being a hero is NEVER about the hero- it’s about the people you save and protect. Being a hero means putting aside your ego and thinking of others before yourself. If you can’t see that then you never deserved the title hero,” Tony viciously slammed the phone shut, breathing hard. “Friday, send Steve a text message- he is no longer the leader of the Avengers and in the upcoming battle he will be serving under Captain Marvel, as will all the Rogues. I can’t stand to be near him, and he may be a shit hero, but we’re going to need everyone for this,” Tony sighed. Working with Steve again would be horrible, but unfortunately necessary.