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“Your new friends suck, Tony,” informed him Rhodey, as soon as Thor walked away.
“Awh, boobear, did Thor upset you by not taking your War Machine Rox story seriously?” he asked, laughing when the man scowled, pushing him a little.
“You could have laughed a little bit.”
“I was laughing!” said Tony, still doing a bad job at hiding his amusement. But Rhodey's faux irritation was just very funny to him. “On the inside. I can’t be seeing laughing at the nerd’s jokes while sitting with the jocks!”
“I am a US Air Force Colonel, in what world am I a nerd rather than a jock?”
“You are also summa cum laude aerospace engineering MIT graduate aka a literal rocket scientist,” pointed out Tony, with a raised eyebrow. “You are a nerd at heart, accept it.”
A hand found its way to his waist, and it was just Rhodey’s sudden smile and the familiar voice in his ear that quickly followed that stopped him from repulsoring the person attached to the hand in the face.
“You’re both nerds,” came the sweet voice, and Tony leaned back slightly, rather than turning around.
“So are you. I didn’t know you were coming.”
“I didn’t think I was. But then my job got taken care of, so I decided to take advantage of it.” A slight hesitation. “You don’t mind, do you?”
Tony finally turned around, and his eyebrows did raise slightly at the polished white Navy Seals uniform he was wearing rather than his usual ‘work’ get up. He put a hand over the medals on his chest and then looked up, smile growing. “Why on Earth would I mind a chance of seeing you, Erik? I bitched at Rhodey for like 10 minutes when you said you wouldn’t be showing up.”
“Try making it an hour and half,” grumbled Rhodey, which Tony pointedly ignored as the slanderous lie it was.
Erik ‘Killmonger’ Stevens did not ignore him, that infuriating smirk appearing on his face as he put two fingers under Tony’s chin, forcing him to make eye contact properly. “You missed me, sweetheart?”
Tony’s eyes narrowed. “Is it a crime to miss your significant pain in the ass when they’re away for too long?”
“Oh, he thinks he’s punny,” said Erik, eyebrows wiggling, and Tony huffed, headbutting him in the chest to hide the smile blossoming on his face.
But damn.
He had missed Erik.
Tony had known from the beginning of their... turbulent relationship that Erik wasn’t the type who could just stay with him for long stretches of time. Erik was a Navy Seals and a mercenary, and was pretty good at both jobs. Which meant that he wasn’t around all that often, deployed or hired for one job or the other.
It had caused a lot of arguments in the early stages of their relationship, but at the end of the day the choice was clear: Tony had to either learn to accept it or walk away from Erik forever.
And since the second option was too painful for his likings, he had ‘accepted’ it.
It did not make him miss him any less when he was gone, however.
Erik’s smile softened when Tony just kept looking at him, a hand going to his.
“Ugh, you guys are gross. Stevens, nice to see you again and stick around for the afterparty, will ya?”
“Yeah, you too,” distractedly answered the other, discretely fixing a stray strand of hair from the side of Tony’s head. His smile remained, but then turned a little uncertain. “You sure it’s okay for me to show up here unannounced?”
Tony frowned, blinking at him. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
“You’re a big shot superhero now,” pointed out Erik, shrugging. “One of the Avengers. And this is a party with them. I don’t know, maybe you-”
“Shh,” said Tony, pressing a finger against his lips. “You talk and worry too much. First of all, this is a mostly private party, no journalists and no phones. Second, the only reason I agreed to keep things hush was DADT. If the Avengers are uncomfortable, they can move out,” he told him sternly. “I don’t-”
Erik did not let him finish, hands on his waist immediately pulling him closer, flush against him. His lips were only a breath away from his. “Last chance to back out,” he told him. “Cause the little spider has been watching us since Rhodey walked away, as has your friend Banner.”
In response Tony just pulled him down to better kiss him. Erik’s hand was immediately on his ass, which while normally Tony would have allowed and encouraged, they had not seen each other in ten months between one thing and another, and the chances of things going R rated was pretty high.
And Tony was not about to share Erik with the rest of the room.
He pulled back, smirking at the way Erik’s lips chased after him for a second. “Don’t start something you can’t finish.”
Erik gave him a look. “Can’t finish? Have I been gone long enough for your memory to start failing you, old man?”
“What happened to sweetheart?” complained Tony, taking him by the hand and pulling him towards one of the rooms adjacent to the one the party was taking place in. He could still feel several curious eyes on them, but he did not particularly care.
Him being bisexual had never been a secret and again, this was his party and his tower. If someone had a problem with this, they could simply leave.
“You only get sweetheart when you’re nice to me,” informed him Erik, letting himself be lead. “Otherwise you-”
He cut off, as Tony was on him the moment the doors closed.
Not in a kiss, however, this time. Just in a fierce and tight hug, as he just breathed him in. Solid, here and safe. Smelling of that shea butter shower gel he always liked.
“I missed you,” he told him, keeping his eyes closed.
It had been a long week. The nightmares from that flashback in the Sokovian base, ULTRON refusing to cooperate and this damned distance between them.
He hated looking clingy, but while Rhodey coming to the party had soothed some of his more panicked edges, Erik being here was what was actually putting him at ease.
“Sweetheart,” said Erik, with a sigh, mouth pressing against his forehead. Not an exasperated sigh, but rather an apologetic one. “I’m sorry I was gone for so long. Won’t happen again, promise.”
Tony held him a little tighter, and forced a more smug smile on his face as he lifted up his head, to look him in the eye. “I will be holding you on that. Now, did you not say that you were gonna prove me wrong?”
Erik’s eyes were still tender, but he smirked. “I do remember something about that, yes.”
+++
ULTRON coming online interrupted them, half an hour later.
Tony and Erik were forcibly called from the sofa they were laying on by the sound of fighting inside of the Tower, and now they were standing in the labs, along with the rest of the Avengers, and Tony felt like suffocating as he stared at the orange strands.
JARVIS’ strands... ripped to pieces and left on the ground.
Because ULTRON had gone after him first, and now JARVIS was dead-
“Woah, what are you-”
“It’s going around!”
Tony barely had time to look up at Thor’s loud footsteps approaching before the man’s hand was suddenly at his neck and he was being lifted from his feet. His eyes widened, fear making him suck in a painful breath - because he remembered Loki, and Loki could have crushed his windpipe, but Thor was supposed to be his friend and ally, surely he wouldn’t-
He heard the sound of a smack before he could even open his mouth, and Thor gasped, letting go. Tony had been prepared to crash onto the ground, but he fell against another body instead, that immediately pulled him upright and pushed him behind him.
Erik’s latest gun - one of Tony's - was in his hands, aimed squarely at Thor’s face.
“Yo, are you fucking insane?” he asked, and from the way he cocked it to the way Thor stared at him in confused disbelief, a hand over his shoulder, it was clear that he had used it on him once already. Ineffectively, cause Thor was a god - and Tony had just nearly died again, holy shit - but enough to stun him into inaction.
“Erik-” started Tony, but it came out a little croaky, and he put a hand on his neck at the flaring pain. That fucking hurt.
Erik seemed to grow further angry, while Thor frowned at Tony. “What fucking business does your ass have, grabbing an unarmed civilian by the neck? Look at how he sounds after less than a second in your fucking paws, were you fucking trying to kill him?”
“Of course not!” protested Thor, looking offended. “He was playing with things he doesn’t understand, but I would never-”
“Then why in the fuck were you holding a human by the neck, one of the most weak parts of our bodies, and why the fuck, in a room full of supposed heroes I was the only one to move?!”
“Thor wouldn’t have hurt Tony, and language,” said Steve, frowning at him.
“Gag on my cock, coloniser,” answered Erik, plainly, and when Tony tried to laugh, the sound he made just made everyone in the room wince. Thor had gone paler and looked shocked, while everyone else just appeared uncomfortable. “You call this wouldn’t have hurt Tony?!”
“Who the hell are you?”
“Nah, we ain’t gonna play the ‘you’re an outsider’ game, we’re gonna talk about this fucking now,” told them Erik, and his voice had that steel tone that was always a mix of Killmonger and Lieutenant Stevens rather than just Erik. “And James, what the fuck are you still doing over there? This white boy Aryan fantasy just grabbed your brother by the neck and could have killed him, and you’re just gonna stand there?”
“What?” said Rhodey, pressing a hand over his forehead. “He did what?”
“Erik-” tried Tony again, this time his voice a little clearer, and Erik did turn around.
He was still covering Tony with most of his body, gun in his hand ready to go ham on anyone he perceived as a threat, and the Avengers were clearly mindful of it, staying behind.
Tony did not care about them, right now. All he cared about was -
“He killed JARVIS,” he managed, looking at him as if Erik could miraculously make JARVIS whole again, make him more than the strands he was on the ground.
“The program you created,” pointed out Steve, voice just a little snide.
Tony forced himself to look at him. “It was nowhere near complete. It should not have gone online, it was not ready. We tried, but it wasn’t working-” he turned to look at Bruce, looking for him to back him up but the man was just looking warily around himself, deliberately avoiding eye contact with Tony.
Tony swallowed down the hurt (both figurative and physical). “It should not have gone online,” he repeated. “It couldn’t have. Nothing we did was working.”
“Well clearly something did, otherwise-”
“What school,” interrupted him Erik. Tony felt Rhodey come to stand beside him, and even though he too kind of covered Tony behind him with his body, Tony could see he looked a little dazed.
He had hit his head during that quick impromptu fight, hadn’t he?
So perhaps-
“I’m sorry?” asked Steve, frown growing.
“What school,” repeated Erik, glaring back at him. “What school did you go to that gave you the right qualifications and information to boldly stand in front of the most successful MIT graduate in our country, the leading expert in everything AI and tell him that his assessment is in any way wrong?”
Steve’s cheeks coloured, as he appeared a little embarrassed. “Did you not see that thing?”
Erik tilted his head. “I saw a thing, that apparently came to life when me and Tony were too busy fucking for him to have done something.” Rhodey groaned, and Tony wasn’t sure it was in literal or metaphorical pain. “And from what I gathered so far, it was something tech-y that attacked JARVIS, but mixed with something alien. Considering Tony would never willingly or unwillingly hurt JARVIS, I’m betting on the something alien taking over. So?”
“The Scepter,” said Thor, frowning in realisation. He had taken several steps back from Tony and Erik, but Tony felt more and more uncomfortable the longer they were in the room together. Thor had actually choked him. Had actually grabbed him by the neck earlier and no one other than Erik had moved.
Holy shit.
“It... It did look like a supercomputer...” timidly added Banner, and Tony did not look at him even though he was finally coming to his defence. “You guys gave us the go-ahead to look into it, and we saw that.”
“I’m sorry,” said Erik, turning his attention on him. His voice was dangerously polite, and Tony immediately reached to grab on his arm. “Are you telling me these two specimen of Hitler’s favourite Aryan ideology, one of whom is your supposed expert on alien bullshit and the other one who’s your field leader, gave you permission to study the alien artefact and now that it’s gone fucking rogue, one is telling Tony that he was ‘playing with things beyond his understanding’ and the other is suddenly an expert in engineering and AIs?”
The room fell immediately silent, Bruce jerkily nodding once, while Steve and Thor avoided eye contact, clearly embarrassed.
Erik stared at them.
Then he moved, Rhodey just managing to catch him before he could throw himself at Steve.
“Woah, woah, woah, Erik-”
“Nah fuck this, man, lemme at him, these fuckers need to meet the business end of my fist,” said Erik, trying to free himself, glaring fiercely at them both. Steve had taken a step back, while Thor just observed him with the same embarrassed light in his eyes. “I’m gonna kill one of them. Let me kill one of them.”
“My apologies-” started Thor, and Erik pulled back from Rhodey, looking pissed off.
“I can wipe my ass with your apologies, you fucking hypocrite. You touched Tony, so you need to-”
“Killmonger,” finally said Romanoff. She had been standing near the back this entire time, Tony had almost forgotten she was still in the room. “That’s who you are, aren’t you? Erik ‘Killmonger’ Stevens, the mercenary.”
“Natasha Romanoff, the honeypot assassin from the Red Room,” answered Erik in the same tone. She stiffened, and he smiled. “See, I know names too.”
She glared. “Unlike you, I cleaned up my act.”
“Have you?” he asked, one eyebrow raised. “I could have sworn that you were still assassinating people as early as this time last year before SHIELD fell. Or were those the records of a different Natalia Romanova, former KBG turned SHIELD agent I read about on the wiki-leaks you threw on the web?”
Steve turned to stare at her in confusion, but Natasha gave nothing away, eyes narrowed as she stared back at Erik.
“Alright, that’s enough,” said Rhodey, speaking in the uncomfortable silence the room fell in after. “I clearly need something to drink and to get checked up if I honestly missed someone attacking Tony, but spirits are too high and volatile right now. Lieutenant, stay with Tony or put JARVIS back on?”
“Sorry Colonel, but I’m not moving until he does, or these fuckers all leave his tower,” said Erik, while Tony looked over at Rhodey frowning.
“JARVIS is gone,” he reminded him, and pretended that it did not rip at his soul to say those words.
Both Erik and Rhodey were looking at him in confusion. Rhodey blinked first. “Uh, I’m the one with the concussion. JARVIS isn’t dead?”
“What do you call that?!” he demanded, pointing at the strands in front of them, laying immobile at their feet. He couldn’t even bring himself to look at them.
Erik’s expression went worried, and he moved closer to him slowly, one hand on each of his shoulders. “Tony,” he started, and Tony kind of hated the ‘kind and gentle’ approach he had decided to take. “Why do you think JARVIS is dead?”
Why was he looking at him like this? Couldn’t they see his... mind, ripped apart in front of them.
“Tones,” said Rhodey, voice equally gentle. “You made backups of JARVIS. Don’t you remember?”
Tony stared.
“After Stane and then SHIELD tried to play too much with your boy, you got worried that they could cripple him somehow forever,” reminded him Erik. Tony kept staring at him, eyes going a little unfocused. “So you made sure you had weekly and bi-weekly back-ups of JARVIS in storage, in the Tower and several different secret locations. Don’t you remember?”
Their words made... sense. Of course Tony would make back-ups of JARVIS. He’d never risk losing JARVIS.
But his heart kept telling him that JARVIS was dead. Something in his brain kept telling him that JARVIS had to be dead, because everything Tony touched-
He put a hand over his head, pressing his eyes closed together.
“Tony? Sweetheart, what’s wrong?” asked Erik, voice a little harried now.
It should definitely bother both of them showing this much possible weakness in a room of people Tony was no longer comfortable calling allies, but his head hurt too much, and if Erik had ever had a soft spot, it came in the shape of one Tony Stark.
“My head,” he complained. “Like I hear what you’re saying, but every time I think too hard on it, this fucking migraine comes on-”
“Migraine?” suddenly said Clint, and Tony opened one eye slightly to see the man had approached them, a look of slight horror on his face. “Like every time you try to question something it just... burns.”
That was... an apt description. Tony nodded, and if possible, Clint became paler.
“Since when? When did this start?”
“I know your ass ain’t a doctor, so who-”
“Just let him answer this, please,” said Clint, voice almost begging. “Tony, buddy. Since. When?”
It wasn’t that hard to remember. “Since Sokovia,” he explained, and Clint swore loudly, putting a hand over his face. “What? I had this... flashback-” but flashback wasn’t the right word, was it? “Waking nightmare?”
“Vision,” finished Thor, worry in his eyes.
Both he and Clint were staring at Hill, who was also looking worried.
“If someone doesn’t start talking,” started Erik, glaring, and Hill scowled back at him before focusing back on Tony.
“Sokovia is where you guys met the twins,” she reminded him. “One of them? She had mind manipulating powers.”
Tony felt as if the ground had been opened under him.
“Oh shit,” said Bruce, looking over at Tony with wide eyes. “That’s why you were so obsessed with trying ULTRON again. We scrapped it, and I was confused as to why you wanted to work on it again, but...”
Tony pressed a hand over his head. This was too much information, nothing was making sense and the more he thought about it, the more his head hurt. Tony had always had a high pain tolerance, but his head was pulsating, stronger than he believed was natural or in any way safe, and he could feel himself be shaken and someone calling his name, but it was too much and when the darkness and silence came, he welcomed them both.
Tony woke up in a hospital.
He blinked up at the white ceiling for a second or two, trying to get his bearings. He wasn’t a stranger to waking up in hospitals, but usually it did not take him so long to remember why he was in one.
When he turned his head, he was even more confused to find Erik asleep on the chair beside him, his face on his palm. Where the hell had he come out of? Don’t misunderstand, Tony was very happy to see his boyfriend back, but-
His attention was captured by the television in the room, as he heard the Avengers being mentioned. It was put on low, perhaps to not disturb him, but Tony’s focused on it immediately.
On screen, Rhodey was standing, his face doing that ‘I’m diplomatically killing you in my mind’ thing he liked to do around people he thought were wasting his time. “Yes,” he was saying. “Until a time where a full review can take place, Captain Rogers will be temporarily replaced by me as the leader of the Avengers.”
“Say what?” managed Tony, squinting in bafflement at the screen.
Rhodey had never been a big fan of the Avengers Initiative, so what the hell was happening?
“Sweetheart,” came a relieved voice, and Tony looked away from the screen to where Erik was sitting, clearly having been woken up by Tony’s voice. He was immediately coming to sit on the side of his bed, a hand finding his way in Tony's hair, and a slightly anxious look on his face. “Oh thank god you’re okay. Are you still hurt?”
Tony blinked. “Hurt? What? Why would I be hurt?”
Erik’s worry grew. “You don’t remember?”
Tony pursed his lips together. “Kinda? I mean it’s coming back to me slowly, but it’s fuzzy. Just... what happened? Please?”
The man took Tony’s hand in his. “Do you remember ULTRON coming online?”
There are no strings on me.
“Vaguely,” said Tony, nodding, and Erik continued.
“Your supposed team mates tried to blame you for it, but obviously you had not activated a murder bot and set it off against the world, especially one that would attack JARVIS like that.”
“JARVIS!” said Tony, pushing himself upwards and nearly headbutting Erik in the face.
He remembered-
“Easy. We got one of the latest back-ups running, and he’s missing some days but he’s otherwise right as rain. Here,” said Erik, pressing on his phone.
“Indeed I am,” said the AI’s voice, and Tony immediately relaxed, forcing himself to not just break down. He remembered the strands and that had been… terrifying.
“You scared the hell out of me, J.”
“As have you, Sir. Next time you are in hostile territory, I recommend you remain in your armour so that I can best minimise the attacks on your person.”
Tony turned to Erik, frowning once more, and the man spoke up again. “You were convinced that JARVIS was dead, and complaining about migraines and through that we figured out that the female twin enhanced - Wanda Maximoff - had fucked with your head while you were in Sokovia.” He gave him an exasperated look. “You have an armour. Keep your ass inside of it when in enemy territory, for the love of everything holy.”
Tony ignored the last comment. “I remember red. And pain. After you and Rhodey started defending me,” he said. He also recalled Thor’s fingers around his neck, and the way that, had Erik not been there, no one in the room would have moved to help him.
That sucked.
“Yeah,” said Erik, glaring at the air. “As soon as you realised some mind control thing was going on, I don’t know, you flipped out. You passed out, but it was like you were stuck in a nightmare and couldn’t wake up.
“I still hate his ass, but thankfully Thor, immediately called upon one of his mystic healers from Asgard, who was able to figure out that the witch put a compulsion in your head, something that exacerbated your fears or something, I did not really understand. Only, either because she is an amateur, or because she is very skilled and malicious, the spell was set to turn into something pure nightmares the second you became aware of it.”
Holy shit.
Erik held his hand in his. “She was able to stabilise you, Lady Eir, but said the only way to undo it was making her undo it or finding a way of stopping her powers.”
“Killing her,” guessed Tony, and Erik nodded once more.
“Exactly. Me, Rhodey and Barton were obviously ready, but then Rogers started spewing some bullshit about them being kids despite male twin having a whole ass beard in the picture that had everyone wondering if he had been mind whammied too. Spoiler alert, he wasn’t.”
Tony knew he looked confused as hell. “Captain America defending HYDRA?”
“Right? Weird as fuck, but anyway, Hill suspended him pending a psych evaluation because of HYDRA sympathising. He threw a fit, and I shot him.”
Tony stared at him.
Erik stared back.
“You... shot. Captain America.”
“Yes, I did,” answered Erik, looking very proud of himself too. Tony wasn’t sure if he wanted to kiss him or just continue to stare incredulously because on one side Steve was his... uh, not friend. Not really an ally, Tony remembered him acting as if Thor had not nearly killed him.
Well, that made the choice much easier. “Very sexy of you,” he said, leaning forward and pressing a soft kiss on his lips. “Thank you, my knight in shining armour.”
“That’s Rhodey with the armour, but you’re welcome,” said Erik, visibly untensing as Tony seemed to get more of a hold on himself. “Anyway with JARVIS’ help and Captain White Patriotism out of the way, it was pretty easy to track down the twins and ULTRON to South Africa. I shot that bitch the second I had eyes on her, Clint got her brother when he started crying over her death while JARVIS, Rhodey and Thor went after ULTRON and stopped him.”
Something about how he said it made Tony think that he was not quite telling him everything, but he knew that if something that was dangerous to him was going on, Erik would not hesitate in protecting him, or JARVIS to spill his secrets. The silence meant if it was something, it did not have much to do with him.
“So now Rhodey is the leader of the Avengers?” he asked instead and Erik nodded, snorting.
“Basically, since you were not around and Thor’s an alien that I still have beef with and would not ever listen to. He wants to ‘apologise’ by the way. Something about not realising that not all of you were as strong as Rogers or something.” He scoffed. “Convenient excuse, if you ask me. I bet no matter how mad they made him, he’d never lift a finger against Foster or Selvig.”
Tony was inclined to agree, as he rubbed his neck. Instead he asked, “So now what?”
Erik shrugged. “Now, you rest. You should be in the clear for ULTRON between Thor’s testimony and Lady Eir and JARVIS’ proof, and according to every doctor you just need to rest. Rhodey and Pepper should be coming in like an hour or something, and then all three of us are going to be asking that you get the Avengers out of your Tower for good. Those are not your friends.”
“The Invasion-”
“Tony you’re a billionaire. Who’s gonna stop the Invasion, six people in fancy costumes or the might of the world’s military as well as any mercenary you hire? Hell some might not even need the money to convince them, we live on this planet too. You don’t need the Avengers.”
The nightmare from the bunker was easier to ignore, now that he knew it was a mind manipulation trick, but it was still in his mind.
But Erik made sense too. So long as he could finally go out and convince the world - which shouldn’t be too hard if he tried, considering the three unexplained alien phenomena in three years - he did not need the Avengers themselves. Sure Thor and Hulk were hard hitters, but Romanoff? Rogers? Clint?
They were replaceable.
And he’d rather surround himself with people who would not immediately turn their backs on him and just watch as he was lifted by the throat by someone who was more than 10 times stronger than himself.
“I’ll think about it,” he sighed, leaning back down on the pillow. “When can I leave?”
“Of course that’s what your ass is worried about,” huffed Erik, shaking his head.
Tony winked at him. “How are you going to get your hands on said ass if I’m stuck in here? Erik, I’m doing this for you.”
He did not want to think about how worse things could have been without Eric, about that witch inside of his head, about why the fuck Rogers would be so ready to side with HYDRA when Tony’s health was at risk or any of that.
Erik seemed to sense it, considering he rolled his eyes exaggeratedly, turning the television off.
“You’re so bossy. And for what, when I’m the one always doing all the work? Modern day slavery, I swear!”
Tony clapped a hand over his mouth. “If I laugh at this are you going to start a Twitter thread on why I’m problematic and cancel me?”
“Hell yeah, that’s what your bitchass deserves.”
“You’re such a dick.”
Erik grinned, pressing a kiss on his forehead. “Love you too, sweetheart."