The Iron Legion

Chapter 3 - Baby Blues

Tony was working on the Iron Man suit in his lab when Jarvis told him that Rogers wanted to speak with him. He set down his wrench with a sigh, knowing what the other man wanted. The American flag wearing hero had been bugging Jarvis to bug Tony about joining in with their team bonding nights for weeks. He was actually surprised that the man had waited this long to talk to him in person. 

"Alright." Tony told Jarvis, quickly making up his mind. "Send him up."

The last two months had been hard for the Stark family, and having to deal with the Avengers moving in and several projects for SHIELD that Fury wanted him to complete had made it even more difficult. After the Chitauri invasion and his near death experience, Tony had been determined to spend as much time as he could with him family, and the Peter and Harley had been particularly clingy, refusing to leave his side for longer than the time it took for him to go to the toilet or take a shower. This resulted in a lot of father-son lab time, and there had been many nights when all five members of the Stark family had ended up in Pepper and Tony's bed, because the two boys had climbed in, seeking comfort and Morgan hadn't wanted to be left out. 

Tony loved those nights, when, after a nightmare, he could stretch out an arm and touch his children's hands, or hair, and be reassured that they were safe, and that he wasn't still carrying that nuke up through the portal, surrounded by thousands of Chitauri warships and endless space.

Today, however, Pepper had decided that it had gone on long enough. The kids would eventually have to go back to school, so she had taken the boys and Morgan out on a picnic at Central Park, giving Tony instructions not to enter the lab under any circumstances. Of course, he hadn't been planning on listening, as he was eager to get started on upgrades for Mark IV, which he had been putting off in favour of spending time with his family and finishing the projects for SHIELD.

Tony saw the lab doors slide open from the corner of his eye as he crouched down to solder some wires together in the left boot of the suit. He motioned for Jarvis to turn off the music that was blasting through the speakers and heard Steve call out his name, unable to see him where he was crouched.

"Over here, Capsicle." He called out. Tony heard the man's footsteps coming closer, and a few moments later Steve appeared beside him. "Whatcha need, Cap?" Tony asked, holding the screwdriver between his teeth as he replaced the panel over the boots components. 

"Uh," Tony watched as America's favourite boy scout stood there awkwardly, clearly very much out of his element. "I just came down to ask you if you wanted to join us for movie night? The whole teams going to be there." It was obvious that Steve wasn't expecting Tony to actually agree, so he decided to have a little fun.

"Sure." He said offhandedly, turning back to the suit.

"Ok, well-" Tony heard the moment his reply registered, and looked up to see the stunned expression on the man's face. "W-What?" Tony grinned, pleased that he had been able to render America's idol speechless.

"I'll come up for a bit." Tony repeated, having decided that this movie night might prove to be amusing at the very least. Plus, the surprised look on Pepper's face when he told her that he had actually listened to her for once would be worth all of the team bonding rubbish. "Nearly done here anyway." He said, standing up and wiping his hands off on the rag tucked into his jeans. He looked down at the greasy, worn clothes that he reserved for his work in the lab and added, "Just let me change and I'll be right up."

"Yeah, okay." Steve replied. He left the lab, a look of shock still on his face.

***

It only took Tony five minutes to change from his grimy lab clothes into a pair of comfortable sweatpants and an AC/DC shirt, and wipe as much of the grease from his hands as he could, before taking the elevator to the downstairs common room that had been reserved for the Avengers.

Entering the common room, he paused at the sight of Barton perched on the arm of the couch, valiantly trying to snatch a bag of popcorn from Natasha, who was holding a conversation with Steve whilst occasionally moving the bag out of Barton's reach. Banner sat in an armchair, reading what looked like a scientific journal, a single piece of popcorn caught in his hair. Thor was sat on the floor, taking up two whole bean bags and digging into a box of Pop-Tarts, an empty box already sitting beside him. The rest of the snacks were piled high on the coffee table, several bags of chips nearly toppling off onto the carpet. Bruce looked up from his book as Tony entered.

"Nice of you to join us, Stark." Barton snarked, abandoning his fruitless attempts at stealing the popcorn to send him a wide, cheshire-like grin.

"I know." Tony replied, smirking. "I decided that it was about time I graced you all with my presence." Seeing that Barton was going to reply, he cut him off. "So, what movie are we watching?" He asked, dropping into the spare armchair beside Banner's. 

"Steve hadn't seen any movies since the 1940's, so we've been going by decade. We're up to the 70's, so Clint decided on Star Wars today." Natasha supplied, ignoring Clint's pouting face as she continued to munch on the popcorn.

Tony resisted banging his head against the back of the chair. He couldn't count the number of times that he had watched the Star Wars movies. It was, according to Peter, the best movie series of all time, and he felt obligated to re-watch at least every month.  Clint saw Tony roll his eyes and pointed a finger at him accusingly. 

"What's with the eyes, Stark? Star Wars is sacred, a must have cultural experience! You haven't lived until you've watched it!" He cried dramatically.

"Yeah, well, when you've watched it a hundred times ...." Tony muttered under his breath.

Clint huffed, scowling as if Tony's dislike of the movie franchise had personally offended him.

"Jarvis, play Star Wars: A New Hope, please." Natasha asked, crumpling up the now empty bag of popcorn and throwing it at Barton, who caught it with a disappointed frown.

"Of course, Miss Romanoff." Jarvis replied as the theme music started playing and the iconic introduction began to roll up the screen.

Tony was bored to death by the time they were twenty minutes in, and was contemplating sneaking away back down to the lab when Jarvis spoke suddenly, the movie automatically pausing. 

"Sir."

Barton let out a squawk, his newly acquired bag of popcorn spilling all over the couch and Natasha, who glared at him dangerously. Clint squeaked out an apology, scooting to the other side of the couch, his arms wrapped protectively around his popcorn.

"Yes, Jarvis?" Tony asked, grateful for the interruption. 

"Miss Potts has initiated the Baby Blue's protocol." Jarvis informed him. 

This made Tony tense, jumping up from the armchair. "Call Happy and have him meet me out front with the car." Tony called out as he rushed to the elevator, ignoring the questions that were being thrown his way by his confused teammates.

"Mr Hogan has been called." Jarvis replied. "He is waiting for you out front."

As the elevator travelled down to the lobby, Tony called Pepper, tapping his foot impatiently as the dial tone rang, and rang, and rang... Finally, just as he was about to hang up and try again, she picked up.

"What happened?" He asked without preamble, walking briskly through the lobby. He spotted Happy's black BMW parked outside the glass front doors.

"Peter had an asthma attack and his inhaler wasn't working. He's fine now. He's asleep and they've got him on oxygen. They want him to stay overnight, but that's just a precaution." Pepper told him, her lowered voice letting Tony know that she was sitting beside Peter's bed.

"Where are Harley and Morgan?" Tony asked, getting into the car and nodding to Happy, who pulled out into the traffic.

"They're here, with me. Morgan's asleep, but I sent Harley out to get a snack from the vending machine. He was getting antsy." She sighed. "It was bad, Tony. The worst he's had in a while. He was terrified. Morgan and Harley were too."

"I'll be there in ten minutes." Tony told her, before hanging up and turning to his driver. "Step on it, Happy."