Connections

The room was silent when he entered. It was unnerving after the argument, after the sound of the wind when he took the suit out in the sky.

A box lay on the bed with his name on, unopened, and he hesitated to look inside.

Then he saw the note.

In case you ever want it. -Charles

It was an X-Men uniform.

Tony knew what it meant. When the uniforms came from the Professor, they were always a welcome back of sorts after a long time away. Since he’d let the Avengers into the Tower, they’d taken up all his time, and he’d had no chance to visit since New York, finding it hard to keep Xavier and the others in his life without raising suspicions. He’d chosen his superhero life over his family. But now… Now he had a choice. He didn’t have to stay with the Avengers - he had no reason to. Sure, maybe he was getting closer to Bruce, but really, when it came down to it? The Avengers weren’t ever really a team, there will still major problems between them all, and, for the most part, they still disliked him.

Maybe it would be easier to leave and go back with Xavier, back to his family.

It was hard. There was still his life as Iron Man to think of, and what would happen to the other Avengers if he did leave. Outside of missions, they didn’t need him, but even so… People would be looking for Iron Man, even if they didn’t want him there. It might make things less complicated if he stayed, but if he went back….

He’d be returning home, back to where he really belonged.

The Avengers were content to sit as far away from the X-Men as they possibly could. The X-Men seemed to agree completely with that plan. Tony, on the other hand, was refusing to take sides with either team, and made sure that he was sat between Clint and Ororo.

The Avengers, after seeing how open he was with the X-Men, seemed not to completely trust him. He’d noticed all the confused and curious looks they gave him as while he sat waiting for Fury, and even after he’d given an indication that he’d noticed them, they hadn’t stopped. Obviously they’d expected the son of Howard Stark to share his father’s views, rather than being perfectly happy co-operating with mutants, seeing as Howard’s opinions were common knowledge.

Fury entered the room moments later. “Look, Avengers, we don’t have time for whatever crap you had in the past.” He glared pointedly at Natasha, “And we don’t have time to argue over who gets fairer treatment in the world. It’s pointless, and you’re wasting time. We’re helping the X-Men, defeating Magneto and his team, and then you can all go yell at each other.”

“Thank you, Director,” Xavier took over smoothly, “For those of you who haven’t read through the file yet, we need to get to Mystique, the shapeshifter who joined Magneto.” He grimaced slightly, and Tony knew it was a sore topic. “She’s eager to help him in any way he can, especially in keeping the Sentinel project continuing.”

The X-Men shared a dark look at the name, which didn’t go unnoticed by the Avengers.

“And this Sentinel project is what, exactly?” Clint asked after a second of silence.

“A bunch of robots, which can adapt to any situation, sent to kill mutants.” Logan said.

“The project was scrapped years ago,” Xavier continued, “But Mystique’s managed to convince them to open it up again so they can modify it.”

Tony leaned forward in his chair. “So they’ve changed it from targeting all mutants, to targeting humans instead,” he started simply. It would be easy enough to take them all down without having to fight them. He’d still have to get to one of them, but after that, if he hooked it up to a computer and looked at their programming, he could probably shut the rest down easily. Assuming they were all remotely connected, which was likely, considering how they were planning to make them adapt to all situations. He could send one well-timed command, and they’d all go down at once.

“Stark? You got a way of shutting these things off?” Steve asked him.

He nodded. “We’d still need at least one of them before I could do anything, and it’d need to be intact still.” He turned to Xavier. “Are these things operational yet?”

“They will be, some are still being produced, some ready now. None of them are online yet, if that’s what you were thinking of. Trask, the man behind the original project, didn’t have much government support, so kept the plans for them under lock and key. We’ve tried accessing the originals, but we’ve had no luck with that either, so it’s hard to know what we’re up against this time.”

“And you don’t have any leads on where these things are being produced?”

Xavier shook his head in reply. “Magneto knows how to stop me accessing his mind to work that out.”

“So it’ll be awhile before we get any leads.” Steve sighed slightly.

Fury stood up from his chair. “And that’s why you’ll be staying with the X-Men at Xavier’s mansion for the next few weeks, while we work to get some.”

There was silence for a moment as his words sunk in.

“No way in hell.” Natasha glared murderously at Fury, but he didn’t flinch.

Clint put a hand on her arm, speaking softly in an attempt to calm her. “Tasha, come on. It’s only for a couple of weeks.”

“No, I agree with her.” Scott said, voice starting to raise slightly as he looked directly at Natasha, then to Xavier. “Who says we want all these guys knowing where we live?”

“Didn’t we just say we needed to put aside our differences for the time being?” Ororo calmly asked. “Why can’t we just try and co-operate for now?”

“I don’t know,” Natasha fired back, “Maybe because the redhead over there can’t control her powers?” She gave a pointed look to Jean, who tried to avoid making eye contact.

Scott immediately stood up. “Leave her the hell alone. You shouldn’t be surprised after telling us we can’t be trusted, it was an accident.”

“One we can’t afford.”

“Well, what about him?” Bobby gestured vaguely at Bruce. “He can’t always control what he can do, and you don’t seem to mind in the slightest.”

“Bobby!”

He ignored the reprimand, and continued staring at Natasha. She gave him a look of shock for a moment, and she turned to Bruce, who merely shrugged at the statement, seemingly agreeing with him. “I can trust Doctor Banner to control the Hulk.” Scott scoffed.

“Isn’t that a little hypocritical.” Tony muttered.

“Something you want to add, Stark?”

“Nothing at all,” he replied casually, finishing a message on his phone, before looking back up to the table. If he had a choice, and if it hadn’t got this bad, he’d be having nothing to do with this fight, but he couldn’t stand Natasha’s attitude. Wasn’t she normally the rational one? “Just a comment on your obvious hypocrisy. Carry on being a prejudiced bitch, absolutely fine by me.”

He knew that was the final straw as the room went silent.

He kept his eyes locked on Natasha’s, not able to tell if he regretted his words as his heart rate increase dramatically, and waited for someone to speak.

“Romanoff - out. Pack your bags and be ready to leave within two hours. We’ll discuss this later.”

Natasha snarled viciously, but stiffly left the table, still scowling at Tony. “Пошел ты.”

“Нет, спасибо.” He followed her movements as she left, before sighing, turning to Fury calmly. “You were saying?”

“Any of the rest of you got problems with this?” Fury asked coldly. There was silence. “Avengers, you’ve got two hours, pack a bag, then be here ready to leave.”

Jean and Scott both gave Tony a small smile as they left, and he was suddenly hit with another pang of regret for not seeing them for so long.

He didn’t look at anyone else’s face as he walked out the room.

“Hey, Pepper.”

“Tony, where the hell have you been?” He could hear the tapping of Pepper’s heel on the floor as she spoke, and he smiled fondly. “You haven’t answered my calls for three days, what’s happening?”

“I’m sorry, Pep.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I spent a few days in the workshop and then got called out for a mission, and so I’m gonna be gone for another week at least -”

“Tony, what’s happening?”

Her voice grew concerned.. “We’re working with the X-Men,” he answered finally, “And with no solid leads on the mission, we’re staying at the mansion for a while so we’re ready. It’s just…” He drifted off.

“It’s just…?”

“Xavier offered to have me back. As one of the team.”

Pepper stayed silent for a moment, obviously thinking. “And what have you said?”

“Nothing,” he answered quietly, “Yet. I don’t know.” Tony sighed. “I mean, I became Iron Man for a reason, and I can't just give that up, but I just… It’d be home.”

“Leave it for now, Tony. I know you haven't told the others yet. Wait, until you hear what they say, then make your decision.” There was a noise in the background, and a voice he recognised as Happy’s. “I'm sorry, Tony, I've got to go. Keep me updated?”

“Sure. And Pepper?” He paused. “Thank you, really.”

The X-Men uniform ended up being packed at the bottom of the bag.

(Because fuck it. The Avengers wouldn't know.)