An Age of Metal

Safe House-Arguments and Reveals

While Peggy talked with Sam, Bruce listened to music in the living room, Nathasa and Clint talked about what had happened, and the New Avengers hung around in the quinjet, Tony and Steve were stuck doing chores. Steve had changed from his uniform to a gray t-shirt. Peggy often said he wore shirts two sizes too small, and this was no exception.

The two men were given axes and a pile of logs. It was a chore to chop wood, but also a stress reliever.

"Thor didn't say where he was going for answers?" Tony asked.

Steve spilt a log. 

Shh-chop.

"Sometimes my teammates don't tell me things," Steve told him. "I was kind of hoping Thor would be the exception."

"Yeah, give him time," Tony reasoned. "We don't know what the Maximoff kid showed him."

Shh-chop

"Earth's mightiest heroes," Steve said, shaking his head. "Pulled us apart like cotton candy."

Steve wasn't disappointed in the team, per say. If anything he was scared that they could be defeated so easily.

"Seems like you walked away all right," Tony said, interrupting his train of thought.

"Is that a problem?" Steve asked.

"I don't trust a guy without a dark side," Tony shrugged. "Call me old-fashioned."

"Well," Steve started, looking Tony in the eye. "Let's just say you haven't seen it yet."

Shh-chop.

"You know Ultron is trying to tear us apart, right?" Said Tony.

"Well, I guess you'd know," Steve said. The tension between the two men could've been cut with a knife. "Whether you'd tell us is a bit of a question."

"Banner and I were doing research," Tony explained.

"That would affect the team," Steve said.

"That would end the team!" Tony countered. He looked at the quinjet only a few feet away. "Both teams."

Shh-chop.

"Isn't that the mission? Isn't that the why we fight?" Tony asked, speaking faster and louder. "So we can end the fight. So we get to go home!"

Steve spilt a log in half with his bare hands. Tony took a step back.

"Every time someone tries to win a war before it starts, innocent people die," Steve said. "Every time."

"What if it was different?" Tony said, not backing down.

"What if it was-"

"Steve! Stark!" A voice yelled.

The two looked back. It was Peggy. She had come out to check in on them, and found them close to an all out fight. She marched down the stairs like she was in an army uniform on the front lines, not in a borrowed shirt on the porch of a farm.

"It's been difficult enough lately without infighting. I'd rather not throw it into the mix," she said, ever the voice of authoritative reason.

"Steve, take a walk. Tony, Laura wanted to know if you'd be able to take a look at her tractor. She said it wouldn't start."

"Yeah, I'll give her a kick," Tony said, taking his cue to leave. "Don't take from my pile."

That was almost comical, seeing as though his pile was about a fourth the size of Steve's. 

"Sorry, Peg," Steve said.

"No need to apologize. I just wish the two of you wouldn't butt heads so much. I'd rather not give Ultron any more ammunition."

"You and me both."

.....

Tony walked into the barn. It was dusty and smelled like hay and machinery, but luckily not animals. And old target board was set up on the wall. A tractor was half-covered in a cloth.

"Hello, Deere," Tony said as he ran his hand along the metal. "Tell me everything. What ails you?"

"Do me a favor," a man in the shadows said. "Try not to bring it to life."

Nick Fury. He'd forgone the dark trench coat and military boots for a sweater. But the signature eyepatch stayed.

"Why, Laura, you little minx," Tony whispered to himself before turning to Fury. "I get it. Maria Hill called you, right? "Was she ever not working for you?"

"Artificial intelligence. You never even hesitated," Fury said, not answering Tony's question.

"Look, it's been a really long day, like Eugene O'Neill long, so how's about we skip to the part where you're useful," Tony said.

"Look me in the eye and tell me you're going to shut him down," Fury commanded.

"You're not the director of me," Tony said.

"I'm not the director of anybody," Fury said, which wasn't strictly true. "I'm just an old man, who cares a great deal about you. All of you."

"And I'm the man who killed the Avengers," Tony said. "My own son. I saw it. I didn't tell the team. How could I? I saw them all dead, Nick. I felt it. The whole world, too. Because of me. I wasn't ready. I didn't do all I could."

"The Maximoff girl, she's working you, Stark," Fury told him. "Playing on your fear."

"I wasn't tricked, I was shown. Wasn't a nightmare, it was my legacy. The end of the path I started us on," Tony said.

"You come up with some pretty impressive creations, Tony. War isn't one of them."

"I watched my friends die. You'd think that'd be as bad as it gets, right? Nope. It wasn't the worst part," Tony said.

"The worst part... is that you didn't," Fury finished.