(MCU) Forged Reality: Chapter 10 - It's me!

Chapter 10 - It's me!

Summary: Old friends, new dynamics, and one unexpected reunion force Tony to face more than just the future.

Before Tony could even blink, both Darcy and Jane were on him, scanning his entire body from head to toe. For a moment there, he thought they were going to take off his clothes so they could check for any marks on his skin.

After allowing them a long moment of inspection and feeling like they were really beginning to consider removing his shirt, Tony spoke up, "Hello to you too, ladies. You got here fast, didn't you?"

Weren't they supposed to be in Texas or something for Jane's research? That's one hell of a distance to cover in the couple of hours it took Tony to get here after Thor left them.

Tony's eyes widened as the option occurred to him. Thor! Did he use the Bifrost to teleport the girls here?!

Darcy shrugged in her usual shameless way and said, "Janey here wanted to pick your mind on something she is stuck on, and I wanted to see if my new taser was ready."

Tony sighed. Darcy had been constantly annoying Tony about that taser for over a month now. He should have never promised to make it for her, but she had to use the puppy eyes on him, and he couldn't say no.

The three of them met during the dark elves attack about a year back. After they took Selvig out of the mental hospital hosting him, there were so many troubles to smooth over that Nick called Tony so he could help.

Tony was in the middle of a meeting with Steve and Natasha about new equipment that wouldn't end, and thanks to Steve's rule of leaving all unnecessary electronic devices out of the meeting room, Tony didn't see any of the messages from Nick until after Thor defeated the elves.

Still, he got there as fast as he could, and when he did, he started by helping Phil and his secret team to clean off the area without endangering themselves. It was after that, he was on his way to his jet when he heard Thor's booming voice calling out to him.

At first, Tony was confused; he and Thor were never really close. Thor always seemed to be more like Steve—punch first and try to fix the problems it caused later, if at all. But that day, something seemed different about him.

After talking with the Asgardian prince, Tony understood. The death of his mother affected him more than anything else. Seeing his mom saving the love of his life not with pure strength but with cunning mind stuck deeply with Thor.

As well as his mother's lessons to him on how to be a good king rather than a strong king. With that, Thor asked to learn from Tony how to fight with one's mind as well as one's muscles.

Tony was so shocked he just agreed without thinking about it, to the delight of the blonde alien. Thor then didn't waste another moment to introduce his girlfriend and her friend to Tony, claiming he was meaning to do so for a while.

Jane apparently was a fan of his and had stars in her eyes when they met. Tony remembered only at that moment that his foundation for independent research was the one to fund most of Jane's equipment, something she wasted no time thanking him for.

Tony tried to wave it off, saying he did it for the sake of science as Jane's research intrigued him and he saw the potential of it. Which had the opposite effect of adding Thor into the mix of thanking him for the opportunity to meet, in his words, "The fair lady Jane."

After that, everything calmed down. Before Thor left, he asked Tony for the favor of keeping his eye on Jane in case something happened. Tony could only agree.

After that, he began talking more and more with Jane and Darcy, both of them somehow becoming friends with him. Each time Thor would visit Earth, he would spend his time either with Tony or with Jane, often all three (more like four) of them would end up in the same place for a day or two.

Tony sighed and tried to lie smoothly, "It will take a little more time, Darcy. I still have to..."

He was cut off when Darcy's face was inches away from his. Tony could only blink at the invasion of his space before Darcy went on the attack, "Oh no, you are not pulling this one on me, mister. Friday already told me you finished with it."

Tony turned his head to glare at the closest camera and said, "Traitor."

Unlike usual, no response came from his baby girl, and Tony could only sigh. When he turned back, he expected to meet Darcy's face again. But again, what he saw was Jane pulling her friend away while scolding her about rudeness.

Darcy pouted and tried to retort, "But Jane, he promised!"

Jane sighed, "Can you really blame him for having second thoughts? I'm afraid to think what you'll do with it."

Darcy looked offended between the two of them for a moment, then she huffed and turned to sit back on the couch.

Tony shook his head with a small smile, "Don't worry, Darc, you will have your taser before you leave the tower." He did promise, after all.

Jane actually looked scared for a moment before she let it go and just accepted it. She turned to Tony with a raised eyebrow, "So dying, huh? I've been there."

Tony chuckled and said casually, "Not my first time."

Jane's face darkened, but before she could say anything, the elevator's doors opened, and another familiar voice called out, "Tony."

Tony sighed and steeled himself for what was going to come next. With a large grin on his face, he turned around and said cheerfully, or at least he hoped it would pass as much, "Pepper, it's been a while."

The blonde woman in a business suit narrowed her eyes as she advanced toward him. "Of course it was. First, you fight a robot, and then you are off to Sokovia; you didn't even bother to call and tell me you are back." Then she glanced at Jane and Darcy, who did their best to look innocent, and added, "And I see you're already entertaining guests."

Tony's face paled a little, and he began to quickly deny, "Wait a minute! Jane and Darcy were already here, and I just got back, I swear."

Pepper's eyes bore deep into Tony's, and he already knew what she was doing. She was sizing him up. After all these years she worked with him, Pepper learned when Tony was bullshitting and when he was honest.

After a moment, the current CEO sighed and said in a much warmer tone, "I'm glad to see you are okay. Even more than that, by the looks of it."

She was talking about how young he looked. Jane then spoke up, "Yeah, I mean, I didn't want to be rude, and Thor did tell me what happened, but still, it's hard to believe it's you, Tony."

"You know what they say, a vial of Extremis will keep death away," Tony tried to lighten the mood with his parody.

There was a deathly silence as everyone stared at Tony with very concerned glares, even the speakers gave off static tones portraying Friday's own distress.

The elevator opened again, and Happy strode inside without a care in the world and said in his usual tone, "Hi, boss, heard you are back."

The bodyguard paused when he noticed the tense atmosphere and looked around; when his eyes landed on Tony, he stepped back and pulled out his gun.

Tony was surprised; sure, he looked different, but come on, no one reacted to it by pointing a gun at him! Tony raised his head and said loudly, "Happy, it's me!"

The gun wavered, and the chubby man looked at him with a shocked expression as he yelped, "Boss?!"

Pepper sighed and decided to finally intervene, "Yes, Happy, it's Tony." Then she looked up at the closest camera to her and said firmly, "Friday, schedule another session with Dr. Walker for Tony."

Happy said, "Yes, Honey," at the same time Friday's voice filled the room saying, "Yes, ma'am."

Even with his intellect, Tony felt a little overwhelmed, and he started to throw questions, "Wait, did he just call you honey? And why do I need to see Dr. Walker again? I thought I was done with her after my panic attacks stopped."

Pepper decided to take a seat on the couch closest to the exit and pointed for Tony to seat next to her.

Tony felt apprehensive but complied nonetheless. After he was sitting, Pepper locked her eyes with him and began speaking, "You had another panic attack a couple of weeks ago, but I let it slide because it was one-off, but when you speak like that, Tony..." her voice grew softer and more worried as she finished, "It's a red flag. You need help; a lot happened in the last two weeks, and it's the best for you."

Tony was touched that Pepper still cared this much about him. Even if they weren't dating anymore, they were still best friends, and that meant a lot to him, so all he could do was nod in acceptance.

The mood got lighter for a moment, until Tony's eyes narrowed at Happy, making the other man squirm where he stood as Tony asked, "Now about the honey thing..."

Pepper sighed again—Tony noticed a long time ago it was something she was doing often around him—before saying, "I hoped to find a better time to talk with you about it, but since Happy blurted it out..." She threw a small glare at said man, who began to sweat even though the temperature in the room was comfortable, before looking at Tony again and finished, "Happy asked me out last week, and we decided to try dating."

Tony could hear some whispers coming from behind him, and he could only suppose that it was Darcy and Jane already going over the new gossip they just overheard.

Tony did feel a small pang in his heart, but it quickly was replaced by warmth as he smiled and said genuinely, "As long as both of you are happy, I will support you with everything I've got."

Pepper smiled at him and said in a mixture of relieved and happy voice, "Thanks, Tony, it means a lot."

Happy then added from behind Pepper, "Yes, thanks, Boss."

Pepper's face then changed; Tony knew that expression—it was her business face, as he called it. Her voice was measured and calm as she said, "I do have some business with you, mostly dealing with the board's worries."

Tony leaned back on the couch and asked tiredly, "What do they want now?"

"The Avengers." It was the response he received from Pepper. He expected as much, to be honest.

Tony sighed and said calmly, "They wanted them out of the tower, so I did just that. I know the compound is a bit expensive, but most of the money came out of my private account, so they have nothing to complain about."

Pepper shook her head; her voice remained calm as she said, "It's not about the compound; what's done is done." Tony turned to look at her with confusion. Pepper pulled out her tablet and handed it to Tony.

Tony looked at the numbers presented on the document, and his eyebrows climbed to his hairline as he asked incredulously, "What is this?"

Pepper nodded in agreement with his sentiment and explained, "The Avengers' last spending report."

Tony looked over the data on the screen again as if he was seeing it for the first time as he thought aloud, "I know I gave them cards so they could order food, clothes, and things like that..."

Pepper finished the thought for him, "But those numbers are far exceeding anything like that. And it's not all."

Tony felt a pit forming in the bottom of his stomach; the numbers were bad enough, and now Pepper had more. With fear growing in his heart, he swiped his finger across the screen to show him the next tab.

What he saw confused him even more and made the pit in his stomach grow. Those logs showed unauthorized use of the Avengers' jet, many of them for the past year. What worried him most was the fact he didn't know about it, even though at the time he was supposed to be still a member of the... Oh right, Natasha did say they never acknowledged him as anything more than a consultant.

Tony put down the tablet and sighed. As much as he wanted to know what was going on, now was not the time to start anything like that. Ignoring the growing pit in his stomach, he said as confidently as he could, "I'm sure Steve has a good reason for it, and he knows what he is doing."

Pepper scoffed in clear disagreement, never having been one to like the American Icon. Still, by now she knew better than to argue with Tony about this matter and instead voiced the current problem, "The board will not allow this to go on without a solid reason."

Tony nodded in agreement and explained, "They don't have to; I got a call from the UN today. The superhero accords they were talking with us about for the past three years... they will be here sooner than we thought."

Pepper's calm face cracked a little to show the surprise she felt at the news. After a moment, she asked, "How soon?"

Tony raised two fingers and answered, "Two years at most."

Pepper leaned forward, an eager look in her eyes as she asked, "And what then?"

Tony shrugged and answered as if it was the most obvious thing, "We sign it, and all the responsibilities of the Avengers label will belong to the UN and their Accords council."

Pepper stood up with a large grin on her face, obviously satisfied with the answer. She said, "I can hold them off for that long. It was good to see you, Tony; call me when you have some time this week."

Tony nodded his agreement, and both Pepper and Happy left his floor back inside the elevator.

After they were gone, Darcy broke the silence, "So what are you going to do now, Tony?"

Tony leaned back on the couch; it was a good question.