Chapter 4
T’Challa looks shocked and Shuri can’t help but take a small victory in that. “He spoke to you?” he asks as if to be clear with the information that Shuri had given him.
“Extensively, yes. Unfortunately he has awful taste in music,” she says. Eighties rock with a dash of some artists his friend Rhodey preferred. That was hardly music so much as noise and Shuri made sure he knew it too, but he found classical music ‘dead boring’ so she supposed they were even.
“You know what kind of music he listens to?” T’Challa asks, sounding dejected.
“So do you, he is not shy about it and I know you have watched his interviews,” she says. Part of his research, no doubt. Of course he was going about this all in a way that was actively making Tony distrust him but she was going to leave that to him to figure out. Call her spiteful but it was refreshing to watch T’Challa being the one to try and catch up to her rather than the other way around. Besides, he would figure it out at some point and solve his problem and he would live happily ever after just as he always does, it was hardly like this was a permanent hardship.
“Yes, but he has not told me what music he prefers himself,” T’Challa says.
“And whose fault is that?” Shuri points out. T’Challa looks properly shamed so she figures that she has done her job well enough. Had he attempted to talk to Tony himself rather than trying to gather information from anyone but the man in question he would not be in this mess. Tony was well aware of what people thought about him, that people either treated him as a hero or tolerated him at best. Neither image was close to the truth in Shrui’s experience.
“Fine. I have Avengers to question and if you could sit in that would be greatly appreciated. I do not have experience with Tony and apparently you do, you would be more helpful with this than I would be unfortunately.” T’Challa does not look particularly pleased with this but this was a situation of his own making. She agrees to sit in nonetheless; curious about the man Tony seemed to resent so much. From what she had gathered T’Challa was not overly fond of Steve Rogers, or at least not fond of the way he talked about Tony. Shuri was looking forward to the part where the Avengers got kicked out even if she doubted it would happen. T’Challa was far more diplomatic than she was though she felt that her spiteful nature was sometimes more suited to the needs of a situation than T’Challa’s diplomacy. Sometimes people simply had to go.
The Avengers were gathered around the large dining room table looking apprehensive about their summons, particularly Scott. Shuri attributes this to being in unfamiliar territory because the rest of the Avengers minus Wanda look relatively relaxed. Okoye was there too, glaring at the redhead with more irritation than Shuri has ever seen on the severe woman’s face. Well, that was curious. She takes a seat and turns to her brother, wondering what, exactly, he was going to say. T’Challa stands there for a moment, silent, before he finally speaks. “What is going on with the way you all view Tony Stark?” he finally asks.
“Eloquent,” Shuri quips, earning a glare from T’Challa.
“Guy’s an arrogant jackass, what is there to explain?” Scott says, shrugging as if this was a fact. Sam frowns a little but he does not say anything.
Shuri, however, rolls her eyes. “We’re all arrogant, self-centered, and cruel to some extent, do not act as if you have moral superiority over Tony Stark because you are blind to your own selfishness.” It was human nature, even T’Challa had moments of selfishness and he was the best person Shuri knew. Why these people were hung up on Tony displaying human traits she had no idea.
“Shuri,” T’Challa says, giving her a look.
“I cannot help facts, T’Challa. If humans were not selfish we would not have survived for very long, everything in this world is just selfish enough to ensure survival. Tony Stark is no exception to that rule and neither is anyone else sitting in this room. It is absurd to hate someone for displaying their humanity,” she says. Tony Stark’s stepping away from the team after the mess that was the Accords was further proof of his attempting to save himself from more pain and hurt, and to try and save others too. Humans were selfish by nature but she found Tony quite generous in his attempts to survive. At least he did not try and step on others in an attempt to save himself and that was more than she could say for most.
Of course she still thought that at some point Tony would break and deviate from that pattern but that was because she knew everyone had a point where they broke and set out only for themselves. Even T’Challa hit that point, albeit briefly, while he chased down their father’s killer and left Wakanda for her to deal with. If he broke anyone would.
“How does keeping secrets, not listening to orders, and setting deadly AI’s on the world ensure anyone’s survival?” Steve Rogers asks. She decides that she does not like him.
“The same way you keeping secrets, ignoring government orders, and dropping all your responsibilities as Captain America onto Tony Stark ensured your survival, Captain,” she says in a sharp tone. Steve flushes and looks away for a moment, turning his head back with a prepared response but Sam cuts him off.
“What secrets?” he asks, frowning.
“Who cares? She obviously got the information from Stark, who would believe him anyways?” Clint Barton asks and Shuri’s eyebrows shoot up in question.
“Says the man who took orders from a man who took the word of a brainwashed assassin freshly out of his brainwashed state. That is not reliable information and yet you followed blindly. Do not judge me for what I believe when you are far more irresponsible than I have ever been, Barton. To answer your question, Sam, your Captain has known for years that his best friend murdered Tony’s parents- as the Winter Soldier-” Shuri throws in when Steve looked ready to interrupt, “and Zemo took advantage of this. After watching the video of the Winter Soldier murdering his parents he was understandably distraught and he asked Steve if he knew. Then he lied but Tony must not have believed him because he asked again. He was not impressed to find that Steve at the very least had a strong suspicion that Tony’s parents’ car accident was a planned assassination and said nothing. For years.” She would have tried to murder both Rogers and Barnes too, even if Barnes was technically innocent. Even T’Challa would have reacted that way, did react that way.
Sam swears, running his hand over his bald scalp, “shit. Is he okay?” he asks and he looks genuinely worried.
“In a manner of speaking. He is not about to fall apart but he certainly hasn’t reacted well to any of this,” she says. Sam swears again, shaking his head but falling silent.
“That does not include the rest of what happened after the bunker either,” T’Challa says. Shuri snorts, knowing how the rest of this story went thanks to a conversation with Tony over Greek food and some absurd American show she had little interest in. Once their initial bonding had taken he seemed far more open to talking to her, perhaps because she both listened and indulged him in information about herself. She knew it made her interest look more genuine but she had not had to fake her appreciation for Tony. He was smart, bitter, angry, and he had no clue how to deal with any of those things. Shuri could relate.
“Clearly Stark’s alive, why do we care?” Barton interrupts, rolling his eyes.
“You should care because after Steve crushed the arc reactor to his suit he had two options of escape left. One, make a distress call and hope it was not Ross who received it, and two, leave the suit behind and walk who knows how long until he found a town to call for help. That HYDRA base was live, HYDRA agents were arrested there mere hours after Vision received Tony’s distress call and came and collected him and the suit. Those agents could have very well made off with that armor considering three of the ten agents Ross’s team discovered there escaped. Could you imagine the damage HYDRA could do with that technology and all of this was because your negligent team mate was feeling petty,” she snaps.
“He tried to kill Bucky, it wasn’t even his fault-”
“You’re right, it was yours. Tony is calm about the situation now, angry for sure, but certainly not murderous. Had you told him about the Winter Soldier killing his parents I suspect he would have reacted much like he is now; angry and upset, but calm about it, objective. He is well aware that Barnes had no control but you cannot expect a man to watch his parents get murdered and be fine with being in the same room with the man who did it, and the man who lied about it. I understand your pain but I find it difficult to pity you when it was your own negligence that nearly got your friend killed.” Harsh, maybe, but it was the truth as she saw it. T’Challa places a hand on her shoulder, her signal that she had gone too far but she felt she had gone just far enough. She understood T’Challa’s need for diplomacy but this was not the time for it. This was the time for the harsh truth on all fronts.
“And,” she adds, “just so you know, Barton, he has relocated your family twice now because HYDRA agents keep finding them. I understand if you do not care for Tony but you should care about what he’s doing for your family.” Not that the ungrateful ass deserved it in her opinion but Tony had been adamant that Barton’s family be protected when she told him this. The kids, he reasoned, had not chosen any of this mess and he did not feel that they should suffer for the mistakes of their father and in part their mother for choosing that particular man to marry.
“You tell him to stay the hell away from my family,” Barton snaps, near leaping out of his chair but Natasha held him back.
“Then you can go home and protect them yourself if you are not willing to accept his help,” T’Challa says in a tone Shuri was familiar with but surprised he’d use. She’s only ever heard it twice before and once was after their father’s death. Barton settles very quickly, shifted into compliance by T’Challa’s cool and commanding tone. Shuri is surprised at the shift in T’Challa’s body language, surprised at how much he looked like the king that he was. Barton was wise to sit down and shut up.
“Okay, so clearly there’s some stuff that we didn’t know about. But what exactly are you looking for, your Highness,” Sam asks, shifting forward in his chair and looking at T’Challa.
“I am looking for the truth but it is becoming increasingly clear that I will not be finding it here,” he says, giving the group a skeptical look.
“I’m sure that’s not true, we’ve known Tony for years. We would obviously have important information,” Natasha reasons.
“I do not trust anything from a spy as bad at her job as you are,” Okoye says sharply, drawing attention to herself for the first time since this meeting started.
“Excuse me?” Natasha asks, confusion and hurt flickering across her features.
“Your report on Tony Stark is perhaps the most biased piece of information I came across and I read an unfortunate amount of TMZ articles about the man. You are a fool and if the other Widows your country trained were anything like you it is hardly a surprise that the Dora Milaje destroyed them when they tried to invade,” she says harshly.
“That report was the truth. Tony is reckless, impulsive, narcissistic, and can’t see past his own agendas more often than not,” Natasha says slowly. Okoye’s eyes narrow and Shuri resists the urge to grin because the woman did not take kindly to people implying that she did not know how to do her job.
“Did you read his business reports?” Okoye asks, pulling a stack of papers from the file folder Shuri just noticed was sitting beside her.
“Obviously I did-”
“Then you are an even bigger fool than I thought. The reports tell us that Tony Stark is methodical, highly intelligent, able to predict business patterns people do not see coming and capitalize on them. Obadiah Stane disagreed with near every decision that he ever made and the company profited because of it, much to the man’s chagrin. However when we look at Stark’s personal life we find plenty of evidence for recklessness, lots of gambling, drinking, a very, very long list of lovers, and a strange lack of friends. I found it odd that Tony was so popular and had such a small friend group. A friend group of three, four if you count the driver, and he paid two and made the AI. So he has exactly one friend. The drinking, gambling, and sex was likely to overcompensate, which suggests loneliness and isolation that presented as recklessness. Plus his gambling never lost him money so I would hardly count that as a sign of carelessness. He was likely counting cards. The drinking turned into an addiction, and the one night stands stopped after Afghanistan. If those were signs of recklessness they would not have gone anywhere or turned into mental health issues,” Okoye says, neatly stacking her papers.
“Fine. Then how do you explain the party and every single reckless decision Tony has made before and after that night, hmm?” Natasha asks, red eyebrow raised in question.
“At least you are not so stupid that you do not know what questions to ask. You are right; Stark’s heroism does reflect some frankly rather stupid decisions. After Afghanistan he blew through several terrorist cells with seemingly little care for those around them. You noted the party, and of course we have the showdown with Aldrich Killain that resulted in him destroying his suits, we have Ultron, and then the Accords. When he got back from Afghanistan he was panicked over what his weapons were doing and felt overwhelming guilt. When that party happened he was dying and panicking because he did not know what to do. Aldrich Killain followed on the heels of New York, which followed with panic attacks and the frustration of one Pepper Potts in regards to his over attention to his suits. And Ultron… I am not certain what triggered that but the pattern is clear. We see the same pattern with the Accords. Tony Stark is not reckless, he is guilty, scared, and panicking and it results in recklessness. There is a difference between the two. One is thoughtless; the other is a result of overthinking. Take this as a learning experience,” Okoye says, giving Natasha an unimpressed look.
Natasha, to her credit, looks impressed. “Wanda showed us our fears,” Steve says, drawing attention back to him, “before Ultron,” he clarifies.
Okoye turns her suspicious glare to Wanda, “and what did he see?” she asks in the same cool tone T’Challa had used not long ago.
“The end of the world, the death of the Avengers, he was all that was left. It was his fault,” Wanda says quietly. Sam takes a sharp intake of breath and Natasha’s brow furrows a bit but most everyone either looked nonplussed or indifferent.
“Panic, fear, and guilt. The same pattern that fuels near every stupid decision he has ever made with the exception of the party, that was just panic and fear. Tell me, Natasha, did you take his very clear poor mental health and inability to handle extreme emotional duress into account when you wrote this report? We have seen this behavior before, after the death of his parents. And even if we had not there was no immediate reason for Tony Stark to go back to drinking too much and partying. Everything in his life was perfect in that moment and you decided… what? That there was no stressor that resulted in this behavior? Every time we see him act like this there is a clear reason for it, at least by the time you met him though I would argue this has been a longstanding pattern. Instead you assumed he was arrogant and a narcissist instead of looking for the real cause of his problems. You were the arrogant one, not him. If you wanted evidence for his arrogance you should have looked at the way he describes himself as a lover,” Okoye says, rolling her eyes.
“I am sorry… can we go back to Tony being shown his worst fears, what was the purpose of that? Some sort of… training exercise gone wrong?” T’Challa asks, frowning.
Wanda looks at the table, “no. At the time I blamed him for my parents’ death and I altered his mind as a method of revenge,” she says.
“And how did Tony kill your parents?” T’Challa asks, tilting his head to the side.
“One of his missiles did, technically, but he made it,” Wanda says, throwing in a bit of her own defense at the end.
“Next time someone gets killed in a car accident I will be sure to tell the victim’s family to kill the CEO of the car company,” Shuri says lightly, earning a look from T’Challa. It was not her fault that that reasoning was stupid, Okoye’s squint in Wanda’s direction proved as much.
“Alright, I understand why you might have fixated on Tony,” T’Challa says slowly, ever the diplomat, “so what happened after you altered Tony’s mind? Did you leave, remain in the vicinity to see how Tony reacted?”
“She altered all of our minds,” Natasha says, “Bruce hulked out and nearly killed a town full of people. Tony managed to stop him before too much damage was done though.”
T’Challa pinches the bridge of his nose, “so you blamed Tony for your parents’ death, I understand in a very roundabout way why he would be a target, but why bother with the other Avengers?” he asks. Logical question, Shuri thought, but not the right one. The question was what the hell was she doing with them after invading their minds like that?
“She was working with HYDRA at that point with her brother, Pietro. We were storming a HYDRA base looking for any evidence of HYDRA and Bucky,” Steve says.
“And how did she end up on the team?” T’Challa asks.
“She found out about Ultron’s plan to exterminate the human race and her and her brother flipped sides, helping us out. She’s the only reason we even won that fight and her brother saved my life,” Clint says a note of pride in his voice. He looks over at Wanda and winks confidently, giving her a small grin. Wanda smiles just a bit, looking marginally more confident in herself before turning back to T’Challa. He does not look impressed.
“Let me try and understand something. You, Steve, are upset with Tony because he tried to kill Bucky because he was innocent of his actions, yes?” Steve nods and T’Challa continues, “but Wanda targeted Tony for something he was not really guilty for, and that is perfectly okay? Not only that but she invaded all of your minds, and one of your teammates nearly murdered a town full of people and Tony was the one to deal with it. What is going on here?” he asks, looking genuinely confused.
“We’ve got a bad case of hypocrisy and stupidity,” Shuri says and this time she does not get a warning look from T’Challa. Ha, he should have listened from the beginning.
“That’s different, Tony actually did make that bomb, it isn’t like Bucky could help being the blunt tool HYDRA used to kill his parents,” Barton says, indignant on Wanda’s behalf.
“No. Tony runs the company who made the bomb; while he would have designed it and tested it he would not have made that particular bomb. How deep would this blame have gone? Would you have killed the particular people who made that bomb, all those who were implicated in its release, all the people who brought it to your country so that it was possible to release that bomb? I understand why Tony would have been a target because he is famous and the need to direct your anger at something is strong, but why would you blame the maker of the bomb instead of the people who detonated it? That is senseless,” T’Challa says, throwing his hands up in frustration.
“Whatever your reasoning is it makes little sense to me but grief will do things to people, I accept that, you have all accepted that with Wanda, including Tony. While we can all agree that Bucky Barnes was not guilty of killing anyone, not under such extreme circumstances, his body was used as the blunt instrument to kill Tony’s parents, Tony watched video footage of this happening. You cannot expect him to not go after the weapon when the weapon is a man that is standing right in front of him as horrible as that is. He watched Barnes murder his parents. Why are you all so willing to accept Wanda’s senseless grief pattern but not Tony’s far more reasonable, though still illogical, grief pattern? And more than that you have all accepted my own grief pattern and it is near identical to Tony’s. From my calculations you are all willing to accept anything that reaffirms your opinion that Tony Stark is a horrible man, which begs the question as to why you would even work with him. I am sorry but I am simply confused by the double standards here.” T’Challa rubs his temples and finally he sits down next to Shuri, sighing.
“Can’t help it if it’s true,” Clint says in a snarky tone and T’Challa’s head snaps up.
“Insult my soul mate again and you will be left in the middle of the continent with nothing but the underwear on your ass,” he snaps. That draws a reaction, mostly of surprise though Shuri is unsure what they were reacting to, T’Challa’s comment of the revelation that Tony was his soul mate.
*
Tony looks at the ground, annoyed with this lecture before it even started. But no, Pepper found his latest conquest doing the walk of shame and now she had all sorts of opinions he was sure he was going to hear a lot of. “Are you okay?” Pepper asks, hands on her hips and lacking a caring tone that Tony would have used to assume she cares. Translation: are you about to fuck up majorly once again, leaving me to clean up the mess?
“I’m fine, Pep,” he says with no conviction. Translation: leave me alone, I just wanted a good lay, we aren’t dating so why do you even care?
“Are you sure, because if you’re sleeping around again than something must be wrong,” she says. Translation: you’re going to fuck up again aren’t you?
“Or maybe I’m single for the first time in years, just a thought,” he says with more attitude than he intended. Translation: no I’m not going to fuck up again damnit; I just wanted a good lay, is that so unbelievable?
“Are you drinking again?” Pepper asks and Tony doesn’t even have a translation for that.
“No I’m not drinking, Pepper, I had a one night stand, I don’t see how that equals alcoholism. Jesus.” Not that he hasn’t thought about it, obviously he’s thought about it, but he was done with that and he wasn’t going back. The last thing he needed was something that encouraged him to screw up and alcohol has never done anything good for him.
“Then where are you even picking these guys up? And why do they all look the same?” she asks, frowning at her StarkPad.
“The daycare down the street, and they don’t look the same,” she says. He didn’t even pay attention to what they looked like. Pepper gives him her ‘are you kidding me’ look and he feels the need to defend himself. “I’m obviously not picking them up from daycare, seriously. There are children there; you know how I feel about kids. I’m a pretty social guy, there are lots of events to choose from,” he points out.
“Please don’t tell me you’ve been slutting it up at Avenger’s press conferences,” she says, pinching the bridge of her nose.
“They landed in jail on international charges of treason and you think people are worried about what I’m doing with my dick? Come on Pep, people have bigger worries than that, myself included. Let a guy live,” he mumbles.
“Well you’ve been very alive for the last two weeks and it’s starting to draw attention, not the good kind either.” Pepper’s giving him that look, the one she would give him when she thought he was doing something stupid but she wasn’t going to out and out call him on it.
“Oh my god, the Avengers have been called up on international charges of treason and people seriously care about what I’m doing with my dick, this is unbelievable. It’s my dick, I’ll do what I please with it, why does the public need to care?” Honestly, of all the things happening right now with the UN, all his government meetings trying to settle some sort of agreement without the Accords, the news of Spiderman getting bigger after being spotted at the airport during their fight, and people cared about his sex life? He has officially lost all faith in humanity. Pepper opens her mouth to respond to that but Tony’s phone rings so he fishes it out of his pocket. Peter. Damnit. “Hey kid, what’s going on?” he asks and he’s greeted with the sound of metal hitting glass and brick, “what the fuck?” he asks, more urgent now.
“Uh, yes, excuse me I’m trying a make a phone call at the moment so if you could stop-” there was another loud crash and the sound of scrambling, “holy shit! You could at least not throw cars at me! Honestly I figured we could have a little time out but- hey, stop throwing cars at me! People own those, they can’t afford to replace them, asshole! I need your help, Tony, can you get here- excuse me, I’m not even over there. You’re a bad villain. Seriously though, I could use the help and- what are you even doing? Put that down! Gotta go save a food truck, bye!” Peter says quickly, hanging up and Tony was almost to the roof, ignoring Pepper calling out for him to explain what was going on.
*
“You are the best worst superhero ever,” Tony tells them when they finally wrangle Peter’s Villain of the Week into submission. They managed to ruin three city blocks but that was actually pretty good considering all the cars that got tossed around. Tony hoped these people had superhero insurance or they were fucked.
“Um, excuse you, who got hit in the head with a cab and who webbed the guy the wall? Oh that’s right, I’m the hero here,” Peter says, doing a weird little dance that displayed how embarrassingly fifteen he was.
“I can’t wait to show you footage of that in five years so you can know how embarrassing you are,” Tony says.
“Oh what? Some of this?” Peter says, doing some weird hip gyrating thing.
“Oh god, please Spiderfetus, keep the hips in check. Don’t you dare point those things at me, this is the kind of thing people get sent to jail for, direct those hips elsewhere Spiderboy,” he says, skittering away from Peter’s weird hip thing. God that poor kid was going to regret all of this when Tony pulled up the videos at his wedding, and if he was lucky Peter and his partner would get to watch the whole thing in color.
“It’s Spiderman, thank you. And I saved the day,” he says excitedly.
“Yeah, yeah, that’s because I let you. Now hop on my back so we can get out of here before you end up arrested and have to explain to Aunt May and the rest of the world why the hell a fifteen year old who should be in his fourth period chemistry class is in the middle of this wreckage,” he says, turning around so Peter could climb onto his back. Peter, thankfully, complies, “hold on tight,” he says and Peter presumably tightens his grip. The important thing was that Peter didn’t go flying off when he lifted into the air and flew off to the Tower.
“Hey, so what do we do now?” Peter asks when Tony lands, climbing off his back.
“You go back to class and do… I don’t know, whatever it is fifteen year olds do these days and I will handle the press, got it?” he says, raising an eyebrow.
“But I wanna help you do… whatever it is you do,” Peter says, taking a hopeful step towards the inside of the Tower.
“Oh no, you go back to class. You can’t do much to help without giving yourself away and right now you have a terrible reputation. Which I’m going to try to fix, which may go horribly since half the country hates me but we’ll see. Go to class, frolic, be a fifteen-year-old kid, and never, ever do that hip thing again. No, no you stop that, oh god FRIDAY are you getting this? Make sure you get tons of footage of this so we can show him how embarrassing this is later,” he tells the AI.
“I have several angles, sir, to ensure maximum shame,” she says and Tony grins, happy that the AI was catching on in the sassing department.
“Oh my god Tony, please do not tell me that is your new conquest,” Pepper says, making her way towards them looking unimpressed. He thanks god that Peter didn’t take his mask off or he’d have to like… mind wipe Pepper Men in Black style or something. Or just pay her a stupid amount of money to never ever say anything.
“Spiderbaby? No way. Get back to your… duties,” Tony tells him, making a shooing motion at him. He expects Peter to take the elevator out but instead Peter gives him a salute and jumps off he side of the building. Tony just about looses it, lifting himself via the suit into the air only to spy Peter swinging away between buildings until he rounds a corner and out of sight.
“You’ve teamed up with Spiderman. Do you have any idea what kind of reputation Spiderman has?” Pepper hisses.
“An undeserved one?” he quips.
“Tony Stark you cannot afford to be pulling stunts like this you leave Spiderman alone,” she says.
“Pep, he needs my help I’m not going to let the media eat him alive because the Avengers and I did some stupid shit that makes his saving people look bad, okay? He doesn’t deserve to suffer for my mistakes,” Tony says. None of that shit was Peter’s fault and he wasn’t going to let the media throw him under the bus for it.
“The Avengers’ mistakes,” Pepper corrects softly.
“These days those are synonymous, ask the Avengers.” It comes out more bitter than he means it to be but it was true nonetheless.