Tower of Secrets

Tony Stark

A/N "One" by SilentGreekArcher

To say the least, I had never been more shocked in my life. Well, I had, but this was still up there. All three if my Doctorates did nothing to prepare me for the monstrosity I had to tackle.

There I stood, staring at the latest Iron Man suit, gaping at the sight before me. Based on what Clint said a few chapters ago, I think you already know what stood before me at the time.

That's right, it was completely and utterly bedazzled.

"Jarvis?"

"Yes?"

"Tell Birdbrain to get his behind down here right now."

The silence that ensued only meant that Jarvis had no reason to talk to me as he passed along my message.

"He says that he's busy."

"Well, he had better un-busy himself or so help me-!" I paused, agitation overflowing. "What's he even doing, anyways?"

"It appears he's eating a snack."

I paused. He wasn't coming down to the lab, and I had no intention of leaving it. But, there were other ways to get back at the mischievous archer...

_/\_

"Team bonding, Stark. Time to meet in the living room," Rogers said as he popped his head in the lab. I sighed, fully immersed in suit repairs.

"Do I have to? We all live together, don't we? Aren't we bonded enough?"

"You can never be too close with your team!"

"I draw the line at you people knowing about the insomnia. I think we're just fine as it is."

"But, Percy just joined the team. And, even if we're not quite sure yet, we've figured out that he's got some sort of power set," Rogers reasoned. "C'mon, just half an hour. Think of it like a break from work." I paused, letting him know that I was listening, but not necessarily caring. "Fury talked to Peter and Percy today. They've been briefed on their first mission. You should say something to Peter, at least."

I groaned, giving in. "Fine. What are we doing?" Not that it really mattered. If Peter was being sent on a mission, I'd need to be there.

"I'm not sure, Pepper is overseeing it."

"Pep? Better not keep her waiting then."

_/\_

"Hey, Pepper!" I chirped, entering the conference room with a genuine smile and quickly striding over to give her a small hug and a kiss to the cheek. Hey, I was happy to see my fiancé, alright? Plus, Clint would be there; this could be the perfect opportunity for sweet, sweet revenge.

"Hello Tony," she greeted, returning my peck with one of her own. "Steve put me in charge of this month's team building. We're going to do this exercise I usually have some of our employees do to get comfortable with each other."

"Steve mentioned that. Do I get any spoilers?"

"Ay, lovebirds!" I froze and turned to the teenager who had spoken. "As much as I love PDA, Peter and I've got homework. You wouldn't believe the crap we got in Physics today. I get that it's review, but I wasn't anticipating doing rotational motion problems tonight."

"I thought you'd love those? They're mostly normal kinematics with Greek symbols," Peter commented.

"Yeah, well, it doesn't help when half the class calls a capital sigma a three and an alpha a fish, now does it?"