Tony, casually talking despite getting kidnapped: Hey, Stephanie? Sorry if this is a bad time-
Wong: He says as he interrupts one of the most important intergalactic meetings in the universe.
Tony: Ooh, yeah, sorry. Anyway, I seem to have gotten myself in some trouble.
Stephen: That's unsurprising.
Tony: Well, not all of us can just portal ourselves out of situations, darling.
Alien 1: *Speaks Foreign Language*
Wong: Yes, I agree. These two SHOULD stop flirting so we can get this IMPORTANT MEETING started!
Stephen: We aren't flirting! Stark, just tell me what's wrong.
Tony: Well, Steph, I appear to have been hogtied and thrown over your shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
Stephen: ...
Alien 2: *Speaks Another Language*
Wong: No! This is NOT that kind of gathering!
Alien 2: *Argues Back Petulantly*
Wong: They aren't! Strange! What is he going on about?!
Tony: Well, it obviously isn't Stephanie! He's right there with you, and I'm here with this other guy who's-
Stephen: Tony! You're ranting!
Tony: Oh, right.
Wong, done with everyone's shit: What does this kidnapper look like?
Tony: Um... *Looks at the Guy* Sexy?
Stephen: Sexy???
Wong: How did I get stuck with you idiots?
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Moral of the Story
“Do you even realize what you just told me?” Stephen asked, sounding perturbed.
Tony glanced to the side to look at him. He’d been focusing on the bookshelves so he wouldn’t see the disgust he knew he’d find on Stephen’s face. “What are you talking about?” Tony asked; it was not the reaction he’d expected after telling the story of his 40th birthday party, every humiliating moment of it. The disgust, for one, wasn’t there. Stephen had a strange—ha—look on his face, as though he was in the process of rethinking something he’d thought he’d known.
“You’re telling me your best friend stole your suit, beat you into the ground while he thought you were drunk, then flew off and took the suit you’d done everything to keep out of the hands of other people and gave it to the government, and not just the government, but your competitor.”
Tony made a face, because competitor, that was being a little generous. “Hammer is not—“
Stephen held out a hand to stop him, apparently not about to let himself be distracted. “He was supposed to be your best friend. And he… I don’t care how you were acting, Rhodes shouldn’t have beat you into the ground and then stolen from you, especially in a way that deliberately and explicitly betrayed your very well-publicized view of putting the suit in the hands of the government.” Stephen shook his head. “People could have died because of that, and it’d be your weapons, once again. That would have destroyed you, Tony. I’m trying to understand how you could possibly be okay with this.”
He examined Tony, eyes piercing as though searching for answers in Tony’s soul.
Tony shifted uncomfortably, not sure he wanted Stephen to find whatever he was looking for. He tried to deflect. “Whoa, calm down. You’re focusing on the wrong things.” Because there were some things he preferred not to think about. “I was being an irresponsible ass, dangerously so. And I intended for him to take it,” Tony added. He’d wanted part of Iron Man to live on to protect the world after he died, and he couldn’t think of anyone better than Rhodey. “I trusted he wouldn’t misuse it. So he wasn’t really stealing it.”
It didn’t distract Stephen in quite the way he’d hoped. “Did he know that?” Stephen asked, tone sharp and eyes blazing, clearly getting riled up. “Did Colonel Rhodes know that he was ‘not stealing’ it?”
Tony stared at him, utterly baffled. “Stephen, I was being an irresponsible ass.”
“And that gives him the right to steal?” Stephen demanded. “To beat you into the ground, to tell you, the creator of the suit, that you don’t deserve it.”
Tony flinched, because even now, that one hurt. “Well… yeah?”
Stephen just stared at him for a long moment, but then nodded. “Right. There are so many issues here, I don’t even know where to start. Did he… I don’t know. Apologize?”
The words had been said, but Tony instinctively knew that that wasn’t what Stephen really meant. They’d kind of just moved past it and pretended that the situation had never happened. Something told him that Stephen really wouldn’t like that answer.
Stephen ran a hand over his face, clearly seeing the answer on his face. “You really don’t see a problem with anything that happened then, do you?” Pain, maybe even grief, twisted his tone.
“I do,” Tony protested; that had been the point of the whole story. “I know I handled things in the worst possible way.” And even that was downplaying how badly he’d acted.
“Undoubtedly,” Stephen agreed. “You should have been honest about the fact that you were dying. Isolating yourself the way you did was perhaps nobly meant, but foolish.” The look on Stephen’s face made it clear he thought it was far more foolish than noble. “And you absolutely shouldn’t have been drunk in a weaponized suit.” Stephen sent him a sharp look at that. Tony relaxed a little, because this was the sort of reaction he’d been expecting. “But that doesn’t make theft, escalation, and physical intimidation the right answer in handling the situation.”
“Rhodey was doing what he needed to do.”
Stephen shook his head, expression twisted in clear displeasure still as he looked away. “Perhaps.” His disagreement rang loud and clear.
Tony took a moment to just look at him. Stephen had a furrow in his brow and was glaring down at the book on the table.
“I get the feeling that I shouldn’t have told you this story. You completely missed the moral of the story. And normally you’re so good at that,” Tony said dryly, trying to lighten things, a little. “You’re supposed to be taking from it that I’m reckless, idiotic, and untrustworthy.”
The ferocity in Stephen’s gaze took Tony aback. “I already knew you were reckless. I’m not surprised that you’re occasionally an idiot. And trying to convince me that you’re untrustworthy is a long lost cause.” He met Tony’s gaze, an untold depth of emotions in his eyes that caught Tony’s breath for a moment; something warm settled in his chest.
He shelved it for a moment, because Stephen had completely missed the moral of the story, but he hadn’t gotten nothing from it. He’d just gotten the wrong thing, from it. Tony sighed, because he just knew this would turn messy if he didn’t stop it in its tracks. “Don’t be mad at Rhodey.”
“Too late,” Stephen told him, tone unshakeable. “You refuse to be mad at anything, so I’m going to do it for you.”
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