Spooky Action at a Distance | Frostiron

Show Yourself

Tony wasn't sure what was going on. It could've been the effects of the numerous Irish coffees he'd drunk, but he wouldn't admit that. One moment everything was normal, Steve was giving him the 'it's too early to be mixing alcohol and coffee' talk, Natasha was watching amusedly, Clint was defending Tony and even made his own Irish coffee, Bruce was trying to sleep and Thor was nowhere to be seen. Now... Thor had come back and has invited them all to a ball. A ball on Asgard. Bruce jumped at the opportunity and said yes without hesitation. The rest of the team eventually agreed, which meant Tony had to. Tony wasn't happy about it. Until he realised there would be alcohol. Then he could be swayed.

"Tony, you're not going to get drunk. This is somewhere we have to be respectable," Steve frowned, his usual disappointed anger screaming through his ocean eyes.

Tony had had a bad day, so Steve lecturing him was the last straw. First, he'd woken up with glass in his foot, then he'd had a lecture from Bruce about taking care of himself, then Steve lecturing him on his alcohol consumption, then Thor inviting them to Asgard, now Steve lecturing him again. He hadn't even had the chance to look at his new toy. He felt like a kid, feeling disappointed because of that, but it was an important thing! He needed a clean lab!

"I never mentioned drinking, so calm your chariot," Tony replied, rolling his eyes.

Clint sat back, sipping his coffee. Natasha gently whacked his arm, seeing how the archer was enjoying the daily argument. No matter what happened, Tony and Steve just couldn't see eye to eye. No one really knew why. Of course, Steve and Tony had their own personal issues with each other. Tony had grown up with stories about Captain America. How perfect he was. How he was the son Howard never had. How Tony could never live up to him. Tony initially loved Captain America and strived to be better than him. Howard never saw that though. He just saw Tony Stark. The kid who could never do enough. The kid who was never worth his time. The kid who would never be enough. Tony knew that it wasn't right for him to take all that trauma out on Steve, but he didn't know how to process it. He never meant to do it, it just came out. He felt bad, but until Steve started being nice, he wouldn't apologise.

"We can't go anywhere without you ruining it by drinking!" Steve started to raise his voice, revealing just how angry he was.

"And we can't go anywhere without you ruining it by constantly lecturing us!" Tony yelled, standing up as he did. "I can do whatever the fuck I want! I'm not a child, Rogers! I never have been! I know what I'm doing and if I want to drink myself to death, then so fucking be it! Why do you even care?"

The rest of the team went quiet, seeming surprised by Tony's sudden outburst. Sure, they knew Tony wasn't dealing with everything as well as he made out he was, but they'd never seen him yell. They'd never seen him lose his temper. Not with Loki. Not with Ultron. Not with anything. He'd always been calm and relatively collected. Seeing him yell at Steve... They can't say they didn't expect it, but they were still surprised. Tony Stark had finally been pushed over the edge. Bruce could figure out why this had happened when it did, but he doubted the rest of the team, apart from Natasha, would figure it out. They had no reason to notice the timing.

"I care because we're a team!" Steve replied, his anger growing with each passing second.

"You only care about the money!" Tony snapped in reply, instantly grabbing everyone's attention. "Let's face it, I wouldn't be on this team if I didn't have the money! So stop with all this bullshit that you care about me because you don't! You just don't want me dead because then you risk losing the money!"

Tony missed the looks of confusion. No one thought that. They were all surprised that Tony believed that they were only using him for money. Even Steve was surprised. No one knew what to say after that, but the silent agreement was that Steve should be the first to speak. Partially because he started it, and he was the team leader. They would all use that to their advantage at times. If no one wanted to do something, the team leader had to do it. Steve didn't like it, but at the same time, he wouldn't have it any other way. None of them could grasp the fact that Tony thought he was only on the team because he paid for everything. Hearing that broke Bruce's heart. He could see where the thought came from, but he thought that they'd built up trust. He was in shock, as was the rest of the team.