A Flash From The Past ~ An Avengers Reacts Story

Two ~ Tony

"Alright," Hayden said, drawing the avengers' attention back to them. "The next clip is from when Tony is five. Just watch and… you'll see."

"You seem… sad. What's going to happen?" Nat said, frowning.

"You'll see," Kylie said as the screen lit up again.

A five year old Tony was playing with a toy airplane around Howard, who was, yet again, sitting above a stack of papers, typing furiously on an old computer. Young Tony suddenly tripped and bumped into the table Howard was at, spilling coffee over a couple sheets.

Tony gasped, recognizing the memory. He now knew exactly what was going to happen. He had a feeling Hayden and Kylie would show the team something like this, something he really didn't want them to see.

Meanwhile, on screen Tony stumbled back, afraid he would get in trouble and Howard stood up in shock.

"What did you do? You stupid boy!" Howard stepped forwards and hit Tony across the face. The whole room gasped and looked at Tony.

"Tony, what?" Bruce stammered.

"It's all in the past," Tony mumbled, "It doesn't matter."

"Yes, it does," Natasha said, furious with the genius on the screen. "This is serious, Tony. Did he do that often?"

"It taught me to never do shit like that again," Tony said sharply, clearly upset with reliving some of his childhood. 

"I can't believe that's the same man that I knew in the '40s," Steve said, shocked.

Bucky was a little relieved, though, knowing he didn't kill a completely innocent man in 1991. It was still wrong, but it could have been worse.

The memory started playing again and it showed young Tony being yelled at by Howard.

"You idiot, clean this up. NOW!" Howard walked out the room and left Tony to clean up the spilled coffee.

Young Tony walked up towards the desk and started on an attempt to finish it before someone walked into the room

"Sir?" A voice can from behind Tony. It turned out to be Jarvis. "Are you alright?"

Tony turned around, revealing a huge bruise that was slowly turning from blood red to a dark purple, in the shape of a hand forming on his cheek. The avengers gasped and some of the cursed in out rage.

"How hard did he hit you?" Clint shouted, "That's ridiculous!"

"My dad wanted me to clean this up because I spilled it and it was my fault his paper got all ruined," On screen Tony said, almost crying now.

"Please don't cry, I can get someone to clean this up, don't worry," Jarvis said, kneeling down next to Tony, who was wiping his tears away with his hands.

"No! I have to do it, or I'll get in trouble again," Tony cried, "I hate getting in trouble with my dad, he's scary!"

All the Avengers watched, sadness in their eyes. They couldn't believe that their own teammate, their friend, was scared of his own father.

"I won't let you get in trouble, Tony. Come with me and Ana and I will get someone to clean this up," Jarvis took Tony's hand and led him out of the room. The screen faded to black and the memory ended.

"If you didn't know, Ana is Jarvis's wife," Kylie said, breaking the silence that hung over them all. No one could bear to speak after what they had seen. No one even suspected that Tony had gone through this as a young boy. He didn't seem like the person to have a bad childhood. Most of them had just assumed he had tons of money and spent it on anything and everything, without caring at all. Always making jokes, Tony seemed like a care-free person, that had no less than an amazing childhood.