A Different Path

Nick Fury

"Sir, Nick Fury is at the door." Jarvis said, voice low.

"Huh?" Tony was barely awake and Pepper was asleep beside him. "Who?"

"Nick Fury of SHIELD, sir."

"Tell him to go 'way." He said, snuggling down deeper into the blankets. There was a beat of silence, then:

"He is persistent that he speak to you."

Tony groaned and slowly got up out of the bed. It was 5 A.M. and Tony had another hour before he had to get up, sometimes two. But today he had planned to get up at 5:30 to get as much done as possible. Pepper had stayed up late last night and he wanted her to sleep in.

"What the date, J?" The genius asked as he got dressed quietly to not disturb Pepper.

"August 1st, 2007, sir." Happiness bubbled up despite Tony's irritation for the man at the door. It had been a few months since they adopted Harley and Peter. Aurora turned ten not too long ago.

Making his way silently down stairs, he ran his hands through his hair in a half hearted attempt to straighten it. He was purposefully going slow.

Hey, if Fury wanted to wake him up so early, then he could deal with him being slow.

He made his way through the homey livingroom and to the polished door. "Sup Nicky," he said as he opened the door, voice low.

Fury rolled his eyes. "Hello, Stark."

"Keep your voice down, my family is asleep."

"I would have thought Mrs. Stark to be awake at this hour."

"Sometimes. But today I wanted to get more work done. Now back to the point, what do you want?"

"Something big is going to happen. You've seen about Thor and Loki, right?"

Tony sighed. As much as he disliked this man, they could almost always agree with what needed to be done in the superhero buisness. He opened the door wide, making Director Fury raise an eyebrow.

"Yes, come in, but if you even try to harm my family I will have the suit out faster than you can say 'Ironman.'"

"Fair enough," Fury said and walked in. Tony shut the door behind him and headed into the kitchen.

"Want coffee? Or soda?"

"Got bottled water?"

"Yep." He chucked the bottle to him. Jarvis had already started his coffee and it was now done. Grabbing his "I am IronDad" mug, he poured it up and went back into the livingroom.

Flooping down on the couch opposite of the other man, he grabbed his tablet and started scrolling through SI files while watching him out of the corner of his eye.

"Stark, put the tablet down."

Tony sighed, sitting it down on his legs. "Fine."

"I want to make you a consultant."

Tony raised an eyebrow. "I already do missions as Ironman, why do I need to be a consultant?"

The inventor tensed ad Nick Fury opened his jacket and pulled out a folded packet. He offered it to Tony.

"Sit it on the table." Tony said. Fury looked at him blankly before carefully placing the packet on the table like it was a precious jewel. Leaning forward, Tony read the bold title.

Avengers Initiative.

Curiosity peaked, he grabbed the packet and quickly read through the front page.