The Avengers Weakness

Chapter Twenty

Sam stood up, deciding on getting the billionaire to a different part of the compound, "What's wrong Tony?" he asked.

"The damn suit!" the billionaire replied loudly, he tossed the screwdriver in his hand down on the ground, letting it fall with a clattering noise.

Sam bent over to pick it up, "What about it?" he asked calmly, he'd been working with the billionaire on his anger for a few years. The man had come a long way, but every now and then, little things just seemed to tip the pot of emotions over.

"It's not fucking working." the man hissed.

"What about it, is not working?" he asked, keeping his tone neutral and calm, trying to get the man to calm down.

"The arc reactor, the new design is melting the suit when used, I can't get it to balance out, it's ridiculous." the dark-haired mechanic growled.

"How do you fix it?"

Tony spun around to face him, "I don't know dammit!" he yelled, angrily.

Penny flinched harshly next to Peter when she heard Tony yell from the kitchen, she reached out and gripped onto his sweatshirt. Peter looked over at his sister and gently slipped his hand into her's, rubbing small circles on the back of it with his thumb.

"Are you okay Princess?" he asked softly.

Penny slowly nodded her head, not wanting to make her brother worried about her, but it was obvious that she was terrified.

"You sure?" he asked, skeptically.

"Y-yeah." she replied, her voice cracking and shaking slightly.

They listened as Tony started to grow more frustrated; his voice slowly growing louder and louder as he started walking into the living room.

"Tony..." Sam called, knowing that both Peter and Bucky's hearing were sensitive to the yelling; especially the younger of the two. He also had the sneaking suspicion that he knew what Nat meant when she'd told him and Bucky that the people that Penny used to live with weren't the best.

"What?! What is it Sam?!" Tony replied, still yelling.

"Calm down...Take a break." he tried to coax, hoping that if he got the man to take a break, his mood would lighten up.

"No! I need to finish this." the man replied, brushing his off quickly.

"Okay, okay...." Sam replied, nodding his head, "You can finish it later, but you're going to stress out way too much. You're going to-"

"I'm fine." the man replied, cutting him off from his warning.

"....Okay." he replied, sighing, realizing that there was no way to get through to the man at this point.

The pair continued to fuss back and forth for a few minutes before Tony stormed out of the area, the sound of the lab doors slamming carried up the stairwell. Bucky noticed Penny flinch again, she sunk in a little next to Peter, growing paler by the second. He recognized the reaction as PTSD, he'd been told he did a similar thing to certain situations. He watched as Peter called the younger girl's name, to which she didn't respond; she was slipping into herself, starting to zone out from where she was. He watched the teenager gently pat his sister's shoulder and she flinched away from him. He recognized the fear in her eyes when she looked up at her brother. He closed his eyes for a second, 'damn' was the only thing running through his mind.