Chapter 23
“Spidertwit, what are you doing?” Tony asks as Peter swings directly into a wall.
“Ow,” comes Peter’s response over the comm. “I think it’s safe to say that I was not expecting that wall to be there,” he says.
“It has been there the whole time,” T’Challa points out.
“Someone needs a lesson in heroics,” Natasha jokes.
“Do not,” Peter mumbles, “I just forgot that wall was there and accidentally smacked into it a little. On your left, Nat.” Natasha spins and kicks one of the latest Villain of The Week’s cronies off the building she was currently fighting on. Another of the cronies tries to take a shot at T’Challa only to find themselves kicked over the building edge too.
“These people are terrible tacticians,” T’Challa mumbles more to himself than the team. Tony had to agree given that they all could have ended this like thirty minutes ago. He’s pretty sure that everyone is drawing things out so that no one feels bad in the end. Actually no, it was just fun to play with the villains and they weren’t causing much property damage outside some broken windows so.
“Who’s going to tell Ross we broke the law?” Sam asks, dropping another minion in the group currently webbed to the wall by Peter. Tony hoped that the kid’s reflexes were fast enough to have caught the falling villains that were kicked off the building. Probably, he was pretty good at this sort of thing.
“Technically according to subsection six in the emergency situations clause any uses of magic means that the situation is an emergency, so we haven’t broken any laws,” Tony points out. Part of why he amended the things in the emergency situations clauses was because he knew Ross would dick around before sending them all out and putting the most common kinds of occurrences into the emergency clauses meant it was legally irresponsible to hold back the team. Tony’s been doing this kind of thing his whole life, the fine print was always where people fucked you over and being a highly successful CEO- at least back when he still was one- meant learning to play with words. Steve’s worry of agendas didn’t really matter if you knew how to use that agenda to your advantage and because Tony was so known for out and out disobeying Ross didn’t expect that he was just as good at underhandedly disobeying too.
Dumbass. “You know what, that’s pretty smart Stark,” Sam says.
“It is almost as if he is a genius,” T’Challa says in an irritated tone.
“Thanks, babe,” Tony says, “now if we could pay attention to the guy in the overdramatic coat that’d be great. Honestly, what is it with villains and fashion faux pas?”
“With the wardrobe you had in the nineties you have no place to talk,” Natasha tells him.
“Uh, excuse you, we can blame the space aged suits on my nasty cocaine habit of the nineties. What’s this guy’s excuse?” he asks.
“I think dramatic fashion statements are just a villain thing,” Peter says, swinging himself over to Overdramatic Trench Coat.
“I do not understand you people sometimes,” Okoye tells them, “you are complaining of over dramatic fashion when one of you is fighting in a metal suit, another is in a ridiculous leotard, there is a man dressed as a cat, another as a bird, and a woman dressed in one of the least functional suits I have ever seen. What is the purpose of that belt?” she asks.
“Point taken,” Sam says over the comms, “web him up Sipidey.” They wrap up their villain fight just as Ross lands on the scene looking pinched and annoyed.
“You know damn well you aren’t-” he starts but Tony cuts him off.
“Uh, no, subsection six of the emergency situations clause dictates that any magic use escalates the situation to an emergency,” Tony says with a grin.
“That is a stretch at best,” Ross snaps, hands planted on his hips.
“Yeah, and so was your year long smear campaign against Spiderman despite him never having broken any of the laws we negotiated. Besides, what were we all supposed to do? Wait till a hole opened up from the damn sky with aliens pouring out of it to decide that maybe this guy is actually dangerous? Obviously that would be a stupid idea so we figured we’d deal with it before we found out that this guy was dangerous to more than fashion norms.” Ross tries, and fails, to argue with him so they all go off to collect the remaining minions from the side of the building that they were webbed to courtesy of Peter catching them while falling.
“So,” T’Challa says when the minions and their team leader were being carted off, “do you like birds?” he asks Sam.
Sam snorts and rolls his eyes, “I do, actually. I have a beautiful cockatoo at home.”
“That is nice. I hate birds,” T’Challa says and walks off. Sam frowns at Tony, a silent plea to tell him what the hell just happened but Tony only laughs. T’Challa’s dislike of birds had nothing to do with Sam- he had bad experiences with the animals and thus disliked them. Even Tony had to admit T’Challa did have some bad luck with pigeons at least- they constantly tried to steal any food T’Challa was carrying right out of his hands. That was how Peter and Tony managed to catch a video of the King of Wakanda smacking a pigeon in the head with a hot dog.
“Stark,” someone, Natasha, says as she walks up to him. “What’re you doing after this?” she asks somewhat hesitantly.
“Nothing with you,” he says bluntly and to his surprise she looks a bit hurt by that. “So you signed off on the Accords, that doesn’t make up for all the shit you put me through, and our friendly banter on the field is more for my own piece of mind. I’d say you know how I react to trauma but you like to blatantly ignore that in favor of seeing whatever it is you want instead. But I do appreciate the help, and I don’t mean that in a back handed way either. It kind of sounds like it given the previous rant but I do genuinely appreciate what you do.” He did, even if he wasn’t fond of her as a person he would be stupid to pretend she wasn’t useful.
What was it that Obi used to say? Every troll had their use. Besides, she’s shown that she wasn’t fond of him either, minus a few confusing moments of actual compassion. He could have done with her asking if he was okay at his birthday party all those years ago instead of in some government facility a year and a half ago but he guessed late was better than never. She nods though, accepting his words and walking off graciously. “That was a bit cold,” Sam says gently, raising an eyebrow.
“So was telling me to do whatever I want when I was in the middle of a downward spiral full well knowing that I’d be stupid enough to put everyone else in danger with my antics to… I don’t know, see how worked? Pretty sure I already made an ass of myself enough at that point for her to have gathered her information. I have a right to be mad about being lied to about who she was and the danger we both put people in. And she zapped T’Challa like six times so Steve could run off, following the word of a guy who barely even knew his own name,” he points out. He might not like what she did to him, but ultimately he was responsible for his own actions however much she might have influenced them. T’Challa, though, was something that he was not likely to forgive her for. T’Challa didn’t care but he was far better at processing emotions than Tony was.
Sam eyes him for a long moment, “and where do I stand with you?” he asks.
Tony shrugs, “we still don’t know each other that well, but from what I’ve gathered you’re a decent guy. You’re still the only one aside from Peter and T’Challa to have asked about Rhodey after he fell, that means a lot. Sorry about the repulsor blast, by the way, you were only trying to help.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Sam says, “when I finally managed to get back to Riley I punched my superior for trying to comfort me. Grief does awful things to people, but I would appreciate that you don’t do that again. I had a big ass bruise for like two weeks.”
Tony half smiles, “duly noted. Spidey, you done here?” he calls out, scanning the immediate area for Peter.
“Over here,” Peter tells him before jumping onto Tony’s back so they could take off back to the Tower. When he takes off, though, he assumed that Peter would have been smart enough to hang on but instead he goes flying off. Tony hears, and feels, the thwip of Peter webbing whatever was closest to him and sighs. “FRIDAY, did he just web himself to the ass of my suit?” he asks.
“It appears so, yes,” FRIDAY informs him.
“Sorry,” Peter says sheepishly.
“I look forward to the pictures of the suit with a Spiderman shaped dingleberry in the news tomorrow,” FRIDAY says. Tony lets out a sharp laugh, shaking his head as he flies off to the Tower.
*
“Since when do you not want to replace me as Black Panther?” T’Challa asks Shuri skeptically, head tilted in confusion.
“I said that I could not, not that I was unwilling to if I were able,” she says. Rhodey looks exited about something, which is kind of confusing to Tony considering the damn battle Shuri went though to get the title of Black Panther to begin with. Villains were assholes and they took up a lot of time that T’Challa needed to keep his country running. He hadn’t been impressed with Shuri’s suggestion that she take up his warrior mantle while he dealt with politics. It was dangerous, he argued, which was an argument that fell flat when Tony pointed out that he played hero regularly and T’Challa had no problem with that. He had tried to argue that he did worry about Tony but his argument didn’t exactly go over well with Shuri, who pointed out that he’s never told Tony that his job was too dangerous for him to do.
Eventually T’Challa had to confront that his reasoning for not wanting Shuri in the field were inadequate at best. In the end Tony told him that it would be easier for him to relinquish the title of Black Panther for awhile than it would to give up his leadership, though he was sure that Shuri would be adequate at that too. T’Challa eventually gave her a trial run, probably with the intent on proving her wrong about being able to handle his position but Shuri ended up being the only reason Peter, Tony, Sam, and a few of the Dora Milaje hadn’t been killed by a rather nasty bomb that Shuri managed to disarm. And that was when Tony was deeply offended to learn that no one told him that Shuri was an engineer too- including Rhodey, a fellow engineer. They’ve made a few projects together since then.
“Well what would possibly make you unable to take up the mantle? You are quite good at it, actually,” he says, sounding surprised by this.
Shuri narrows her eyes, “I resent that, brother. We went through the same training, what could have made you better at it than me?” she says, waving a hand around. The other, Tony notices, settles on her stomach.
It clicks for him then, but a look at Rhodey confirmed it. “Nice,” Tony says, grinning, “congrats.”
“Thanks, man,” Rhodey says, smile growing wider.
“Congratulations on what?” T’Challa asks.
Tony shakes his head, “you are so dense sometimes. She’s pregnant.” T’Challa faints.
*
“I cannot believe they asked you to be the god parent but not me,” T’Challa sulks.
“To be fair you’re the kid’s uncle biologically, and we’re together. I think the assumption was that if something happened we’d raise the kid together,” Tony points out.
“They still could have asked,” T’Challa says, pouting. Tony shakes his head at T’Challa’s dramatics but he loves him anyways.
*
“Tony, I can’t take this,” Pepper says, frowning at the box in her hands.
“Fine, then give it to charity, or pawn it, or give it to a random homeless person or something. To be honest I didn’t really expect you to keep it anyways,” Tony says, shrugging.
“Why are you even giving this to me to begin with?” she asks. She looks somewhat skeptical of his motives and Tony figures that’s fair. It wasn’t like he hadn’t considered giving her the ring just to throw it in her face when they first split- it was logical to assume that’s what he was doing now.
“I’m moving on with my life Pepper, I have better things to do than dwell on the past so I’m going through things and getting rid of stuff that I’ve been holding on to for too long. That was first on my list to go.” There was a time when he thought Pepper was perfect for him but he’s come to realize that Pepper had only ever been a good match for him on the business side of things. They had been great friends too, but they never had the romantic chemistry that they tried to force for a long four years. It took the easy, natural chemistry with T’Challa to make him see that clearly enough to let go so he could move on. Things were far less tense for him these days with all the support he had from the people around him. Hell, he and Okoye fell into a weird but pleasant pattern of drinking coffee together in the mornings. She had thawed towards him quite a bit since this all started- as had the rest of Wakanda once they realized that Tony had no interest in taking over their country or stealing their vibranium like his father had.
“Are… are you sure?” she asks.
“No offense, Pep, but I have no interest in marrying you anymore so it seemed senseless to keep the ring. But it was always meant for you so I figured I’d give it to you and let you choose what you wanted to do with it,” he says. “You’ve always wanted a lump of some sort of metal with stones in it, make it out of that,” he suggests. The notion of a metal lump with stones in it made zero sense to Tony given how ugly that would look but Pepper is weird so he left it at that.
Pepper stares at the box for a moment before her eyes travel across Tony’s lab, fixing on the trash for some reason. He frowns for a moment, not sure what she’s focused on until she walks over and pulls a glass case from the trash. Right, the first reactor with a lovely little ring of metal around it that said ‘proof Tony Stark has a heart’. It had been a cute gift when he got it but now it was just painful to look at so he chose to toss it. “Can I keep this?” Pepper asks softly, not looking at him.
“Sure. I don’t have much use for it now.” He already had the schematics- the only thing useful about the reactor- somewhere.
*
“Kings do not get days off,” T’Challa says, trying to pull himself from bed.
Tony gently presses him back into his bed, “they do when they’re emotionally distraught. Wakanda can survive one day without you doing a bunch of paperwork and they’ll thank you for it later. Trust me, I know what it’s like to go making really important decisions when I’m in no condition to be making those decisions. It never ends well so lay down and take some time for yourself,” he says gently.
“I will be behind in my paperwork,” T’Challa says weakly.
“If I didn’t know you’re ahead in you paperwork I might consider that argument. A good leader knows when to step back and take time for himself,” Tony says, repeating words that he once dreamed T’Chaka say. Sighing, T’Challa flops back into bed, unable to argue with the words of his late father. “Wakanda will thank you later,” Tony says, rounding the bed and crawling in.
The cats jump up after him, settling themselves into their allotted spots across the bed and out of each other’s space. Tony gestures for T’Challa to come closer so he does, curling into Tony’s side. They stay there like that for a long time, Tony tracing patterns onto T’Challa’s arm lightly with his fingertips. “I thought this would be easier,” T’Challa says after awhile.
“Losing people is never easy, and neither is the first anything after they die. I never celebrated my parents’ birthdays, Christmas, anniversaries, nothing. But every time one of those dates passed on the calendar I’d get so wasted I forgot who I was because I didn’t want to think about them or the time I didn’t spend with them. I doubt that would have changed much if I spent every waking moment with them either- death finds a way to make you feel guilty for just about anything.” His father had been horrible to him, and the last time he came home for Christmas- the year they died- he got insulted by his father so he had rolled his eyes, declared that he hated the man, and left while he ignored his mother’s protests.
He’s regretted that ever since that cop showed up at the party he was at and informed him that his parents were dead. He felt even worse about the fact that he assumed Howard paid the cops to tell him that as some sort of tough love lesson until the cops managed to convince him that his parents were actually dead. And then the funeral, god, that was a spectacle. Obi, for his part, had handled Tony declaring to the entire world that Howard was a piece of shit who deserved what he got pretty well. He’s always missed him mom though, she did the best with what she had and he should have told her that when she was alive.
“Does it get easier?” T’Challa asks.
“Sort of,” Tony says, “the pain never really goes away but you learn to manage it and eventually it gets to a point where you’ll be having a bad day and you won’t know why until you realize why the date is important to you. You’ll never get the piece of yourself you lose back, but it doesn’t need to be a bad thing. Losing something doesn’t need to leave nothing else in it’s place, you just need to learn how to build something new.” It took him a long long time to learn how to build something new and he full well knew he was still learning. But Iron Man was a good start to his change as a person, even if a lot of the shit that came after that only taught him that life sucked.
“I love you,” T’Challa says softly.
Tony smiles, “I love you too.”