Lay Down This Armour.

Seven

Pepper stood on the compound grounds, holding her daughter's hand, who seemed taken by the winged man who landed with Vision and Falcon a little distance from them.
' Is he back again, mommy?' uncertainty rife in her voice.
' Yes, baby. Your daddy's back,'

Twenty four hours earlier.

Tony was led into the common floor by Peter and told to sit. The Four and Hope were not around. The present Avengers and his friends acted like he was supposed to be sitting around with them.
' I am certain I tried to murder all of you last night and your response is to let me mingle?' tone suspicious.
Natasha sighed inwardly. That much suspicion used to not come so easily to him when he was among friends. She realised she had solved her own question. He didn't see them as friends anymore.
'You are becoming too comfortable in the cell. Like you belong there,' Bruce said.
' Don't I?'
' Not if you think I don't. Or most of us here. So you get to stretch your legs a little,'
' I have a question, Tony. Is the blue in your eyes supposed to be permanent. It switched to brown briefly last night,' Rhodey asked.
' Its not permanent. Just more expressed than the brown. In a state of relaxation, it recedes,'
I do not trust some of you enough to let my guard down, was what the team read in between the lines.
A tiny human ran into the room. Tony was asking himself if he was in the right building. The kid skidded to a stop in front of him. The room had gone quiet. She kept looking into his eyes with wide eyes. He narrowed his eyes at her. He knew that at his best, he didn't know how to handle children. Right now he was in a bad way and that made him not care that he was probably going to scare the child.
' You are staring,' he said.
' I know,' she said simply. His eyes narrowed even more.
'Did someone not tell you that is rude?' he asked. The big eyes staring at him felt familiar to him.
'Your eyes,' she whispered.
'Your hair. Done stating the obvious, carrot top?' someone gasped but he did not care.
She scrunched up her nose.
' Rude,' she stated.
' You started it,' he threw back. She crawled onto his lap and glared at him.
' Why are they like that?'
' Why are yours brown?' he asked her.
' Mommy said coz I got them from my daddy,' she said, folding her arms defiantly in front of her chest. Such a fragile little thing. He could break her easily. He shook that thought away.
'Where is your mummy again?'
' Coming,'
Then Pepper walked in. As soon as he saw the same shade of red he knew to be Pepper's hair, match the girl's hair, he sucked in a breath. The eyes should have given it away.
'How old are you, kid?' he asked as he eyed Pepper. He knew the answer that was coming, but he could not help asking.
' Two and a half,'
He closed his eyes for a moment. He tried controlling his breathing. He couldn't, wouldn't snap with the toddler on his lap. The breathing exercises were failing spectacularly.
' Tony. Breathe,' Bruce said.
' What's wrong with him?' the tiny voice sailed into his ears and he felt himself go downhill.
' Peter. Take her, now,' he said quietly, trying not to sound too scary to her.
' Ton...'
'You people are not hearing me. Can someone please get her,' his voice breaking the calm facade he was projecting. He felt the little weight leave his lap and a protesting whining sound was heard. He got up and looked at Pepper, who was now holding the girl. The image sent him reeling.
' Vision, Sam, I need to stretch my wings. You will obviously have to come with. I am definitely going,' he said as he moved to leave. Steve stood in his way. He balled his hands into fists.
' As much as I would love another round with you, Captain, now is definitely not the time. So let us jump to were you end up getting out of my way anyway,' with a creepily friendly smile.
' Punk, let him go. He has company,'
Steve did not move when Tony sidestepped him to go into the elevator. A few moments later they saw him soar into the sky, Sam and Vision trailing him.
' Peter,' Pepper said. He got up and took Nia and went to the balcony with her.
' I was this close to jumping in to grab her from his lap when she crawled onto him,' Clint said,' the look on his face was unreal,'
' Most adults would have spoiled their pants faced with the look he gave her. She is his daughter alright,' Bruce spoke.
' And the conversation. I mean seriously? Does Stark have any experience with kids at all?' Bucky asked.
' The last time he was in front of one, he asked me to take it back to its owner,' Pepper replied.
' Well, she definitely took a shine to him. He doesn't look it, but he did to her, too,'
' That's all we can hope for. Will have to see when he comes back,' Natasha said.
' From the whine she let out when you took her, someone is not going to let him out of her sight,' Steve pointed out.
' Okay, people. Enough with stunts that make me almost have a heart attack. Never knew being a god father was this stressful,' Rhodey grumbled.