stark, peter parker

ii. as a matter of fact, i'm tired, and i'm hungry

after secretary ross left, the group quickly began their bickering. sam and rhodey instantly were arguing, and dakota turned in her chair to watch. soon, vision broke the argument with statistics.

"in the eight years since mr. stark announced himself as iron man," vision announced, "the number of known enhanced persons has grown exponentially. and, during the same period, the number of potentially world-ending events has risen at a commensurate rate."

steve furrowed his brows at vision. "are you saying it's our fault?"

vision shook his head. "i'm saying there may be a causality. our very strength invites challenge. challenge incites conflict. and conflict . . . breeds catastrophe. oversight . . . oversight is not an idea that can be dismissed out of hand."

"tony." natasha spoke, getting the older stark's attention. tony was exasperatedly laying on the couch, a hand over his face. "you are being uncharacteristically non-hyper-verbal."

"it's because he's already made up his mind." steve replied, and dakota nodded a little, knowing her father all too well.

after a bit of complaining, tony projected a photo on his phone that kodie recognized to be charles, the son of the woman she and tony had run into. she lowered her head-- she'd been trying to forget about the guilt that that woman had mad her feel. 

tony then looked up, acting shocked as if he was seeing the photo for the first time. "oh, that's charles spencer, by the way." tony told the group. "he's a great kid. computer engineering degree, 3.6 gpa. had a floor level gig at intel planned for the fall. but first, he wanted to put a few miles on his soul, before he parked it behind a desk. see the world. maybe be of service. charlie didn't want to go to vegas or fort lauderdale, which is what i would do. he didn't go to paris or amsterdam, which sounds fun. he decided to spend his summer building sustainable housing for the poor. guess where, sokovia." the whole group lowered their heads, knowing what he meant.

"he wanted to make a difference, i suppose." tony continued. "i mean, we won't know because we dropped a building on him while we were kicking ass." dakota looked down at her lap, unwilling to make eye contact with her father. "there's no decision-making process here." tony argued. "we need to be put in check! whatever form that takes, i'm game. if we can't accept limitations, if we're boundary-less, we're no better than the bad guys."

steve was next to speak. "tony, someone dies on your watch, you don't give up."

"when i realized what my weapons were capable of in the wrong hands," tony pointed out, "i shut it down and stopped manufacturing."

"tony," steve replied, "you chose to do that. if we sign this, we surrender our right to choose. what if this panel sends us somewhere we don't think we should go? what if there is somewhere we need to go, and they don't let us? we may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own."

dakota shook her head. "if we don't do something now," she chimed in, resting her head on her hand, "then it's going to be done to us later."

"maybe tony's right." natasha added, watching as both tony and kodie sent her an incredulous look. "if we have one hand on the wheel, we can still steer. if we take it off -"

sam turned to natasha, a brow furrowed. "aren't you the same woman who told the government to kiss her ass a few years ago?"

"i'm just," natasha defended herself with a sigh, "i'm reading the terrain. we have made ... some very public mistakes. we need to win their trust back."

"focus up. i'm sorry, did i just mishear you or did you agree with me?" tony asked natasha.

"oh, i want to take it back now." she sighed, making dakota chuckle.