Tony woke up in his shirt little apartment. It had been years since his father had kicked him out. Leaving him to the cold night in New York. Lucky Tony wasn’t along quite yet, his best friend James Rhodes. James had an apartment in brooklyn. It was a cheap studio apartment that looked more like a run down haunted house rather than an apartment. It wasn’t much on an army mans budget. James told him that he could stay as long as he would like. From that point on Tony had to learn to survive in a world he didn’t quite know.
The first thing that he noticed was that everything was very expensive. He could hardly even afford a cup of coffee to get him through the day. James helped teach him about certain things, like the landry, cooking, buying groceries, and of course getting a resume together. However, almost nowhere would hire the son of ‘Howard Stark’ after all the enemies he made. It got to the point that once they learned that Tony wasn’t carrying money or his father's name they would quite literally throw him out. James had offered to move them elsewhere, He could always get stationed on the west coast or something. Tony had simply shook his head no. It didn’t take long after that when he got hired. It was a simple part-time job in a dive bar. He took care of the bookings. It wasn’t until he was caught humming while working that he was told to get on the stage.
“Look I’ll give you $9 a hour if you get on the stage. That's more than I’m paying you now. If you don’t take up my offer than I’ll fire you” HIs boss had said with a wicked smile on his face that mad Tony's stomach turn. However, this being the only job that he could land made losing it not an option. That's how Tony became the singer of a dive bar on weeknights.
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Thursday night a relatively slow night at the bar. Tony was up on stage giving an opening song for the band that booked for the night. One thing that Tony had to give to his father was that he became a good show man.
“Atttt last my love has come along” He sang looking over the crowd. There at the bar was a strangely large group for a thursday night. Six people staring straight at me. One women and five men, the men looked like they where beefed up. The women looked just as deadly as the men, maybe even more dangerous. Tony doesn’t let them get to him. He has gotten dirtier looks before and sure they didn’t look like they could beat him into next week but this was nothing. Tony continued to ‘make love’ to the mic as he sung. Once the song was over he handed over the stage to the band. The band that night was just starting out, hence they were there. One guys from the large group stood as I got off stage.
“T!” The voice of the second most desirable man in the world called. The owner would give ‘surprise’ visits where he would give an excuse to not pay me as much as he said he would.
“Adem I didn’t know you should be here tonight” I said forcing a smile across my face. Tony swore that he was going to quit if he lowered the amount he was going to pay.
“I have a few people for you to meet. They have come here for a show” He said grabbing my arm and pulling me around to the back. In a last ditch effort he gave a quick glance to the bar. Tony knew that the bartender wasn’t going to do anything about this. The bartender couldn’t do anything he had debit and a family to keep afloat. The group that was there however all stood up and was beginning to walk towards us. Tony couldn’t see anymore as we pass behind the curtain to the back.
“What kind of show is it?” He asked not sure if he wanted the answer. Not that the owner gave him one anyway. They just kept walking and all Tony could think was this is how he dies. It was over, He should have left and joined the army like Rhodny. They just got to the end of the hall when another hand grabbed Tony. The other grip pulled him back and behind the man into other arms.
“ Anthony Stark we need to talk to you” A voice said above him. Looking up there was the blonde that was at the bar. Looking behind him was the others of that group, and the person in front of him was a man with long brown, almost black hair.
“Um Okay” He said letting himself be lead in a different direction. “We can go to my place” He added not really sure what was going on. No one had called him Anthony in a long time, and after his name change no one called him Stark.
“What is this?” Adem yelled turning red with rage. ”T if you leave here you're fired!” And there it was. He would have to go job hunting again, maybe this time he’ll get a better job.
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“Okay who are you? And what do you need?” Tony said flopping down on the couch.
“We are shield agents, and your life is in danger” The second blonde said He was the tallest of them, and probably the most muscular of them.
Tony sighed, he had not missed having his life in constant danger. One kidnapping after another from the day he was three. One kidnapping after another Then again it’s not like he was anymore safe now that he was on his own. “Why now? It's been years since I was thrown out”
“Thrown out?” the shorter blonde asked. They all looked kinda shocked at that news.
“What did that old bastard say?” Tony asked rather pissed off. That however got an immediate reaction from the blonde. He stood a little taller like he was going to pick a fight with Tony.
“He said that you ran away” The woman said. She was a redhead woman that looked familiar. “Anthony do you know what happened to him?”
“Why would I care. He threw me out when I came out as being bisexual” Tony said waving a dismissive hand at them, then adding as an afterthought “The homophobic asshole.” That seemed to calm the blonde down, if only to send him into earth shattering thoughts. Tony knew in that moment that he was another sucker of Howard's speeches.
“Howard was found dead. He was killed by some Hydra agents. We have reason to believe that they are coming for you next” The redhead woman said. Tony couldn’t say that he was surprised that his father was killed. Hydra being the people who did it was surprising though. Tony had thought that they had all died.
“We are placing you under the protection of shield. Come with us” The brunet that had saved him said. Sure he felt grateful to them but that didn’t mean that he trusted them.
“Yeah, no. No offence but I don’t trust you” Tony said sitting up a bit. He would run the moment there was an opening. Sure he wasn’t as strong as they where but he knew the area better than they did.
“God damn it Tones. I let someone else handle you for a moment and look how it turns out.” James said as he entered the house. He was dressed in his uniform which wasn’t unusual when he came home. What was unusual was that he didn’t get leave for another month.
“It’s not my fault” Tony said pouting a bit as he stood up. Giving Rhodey his welcome home hug. Tony was always happy when Rhodey returned alive, and well. It wasn’t much to ask that his best friend came home, was it?
“Colonel Rhodes” The blonde said straightening up a bit. Tony could feel the roll of his eyes before he could stop it.
“Did you even introduce yourselfs? I told you that he is smarter than he looks” Rhodey said as he reached around behind Tony pulling a gun from his back pocket. Before turning his attention back on Tony “What else do you have locked on them?”
“Just a few of the security systems” Tony said walking over to the far left wall. There he pulled a painting off the wall to show a panel. It looked more futuristic than they had ever seen. “Okay Jarvis turn it up” Tony said as he pushed a set of numbers.
“Of course sir” A electronic voice said out of a speaker.
“Still haven’t gotten the chance to upgrade his voice?” Rhodey asked as he walked over to the fridge. There he grabbed a water bottle, then made a gesture to the others to see if they wanted some. Except for the small brunet shook her head.
“No my poor baby can’t wait to get upgraded. I however, did get fired so that upgrade will have to wait for a while longer” Tony said completely ignoring the others in the house.
“About that” Rhodey stared “ I may have been talking to Shield. Now don't look at me like that. It’s a job as engineer for the new team called Avengers. You know that group that save New York from being invaded. You get your own lab and everything”
“They what?” The blonde side apparently not flowing along with what was going on. It was all too strange to him. Like Rhodes and Tony were speaking an entire different language.
“Captain Rogers met Tony. He will be in charge of your weapons and armor development from now on.” Rhodes said before gesturing to introduce themselves to Tony.
“Hello Tony. I’m Natasha Romanoff” The redhead woman said before pointing to the other people saying their names. Clint, Thor, Bruce, Steve, and Bucky.
“Well this was something. Who said that I would take the job though?” Tony said giving an obvious pout. However, one look from Rhodey he quickly said “After all I haven’t even seen the lab”