Bend Around the Wind by Scyllaya

Chapter 45: We're Marching On

Chapter Forty-Five

We're marching on

Milky Way Orbit

It wasn't that they didn't travel for this many weeks and months in a row before. It was the fact that he knew exactly how slowly they were moving that drove him up the wall. It was also the limited space they had inside the ship with most parts in lockdown. Tony definitely had problems with enclosed spaces since his first captivity, so he was surprised that he didn't feel like crawling out of his own skin sooner. Now it was like a constant itching in his brain and under his skin. He focused on the future and tried to distract himself with anything that caught his interest.

Now that he knew that Juyu and Bee had no qualms about coming with them all the way to Earth, he could make even more plans about what needed to be done once they got there. They had a lot of planning to do, even if they did not have to do it immediately. He didn't believe for a second that walking back into his old life was going to be a piece of cake. On the contrary, he expected a lot of annoyance and headaches. Sure, he was absolutely 100% certain that Pepper - being a wonderful human being - was going to help sort things out. He was also about 85% sure about Rhodey too. His best friend only lost that 15% perfect in the first place because of his position in the Air Force. Fortunately, he had a few ideas how to push it back to 100%.

He didn't even dare guess about the other Avengers. He simply did not know them well enough. Banner definitely got the highest percentage. Bruce was a bro, he had a willingness to listen, and he was smart enough to understand different standpoints. The Captain was a lottery, on one hand he was a hopeless goody two-shoes with a head stuffed full of noble ideas, but he was also a morally unwavering soldier who was bound to object to the presence of a war criminal. And while he knew that Natasha was going to consider all advantages and disadvantages, Barton was a big obvious 0%, which would probably sway even the practical Miss Romanoff against them. Now Thor... was interesting. He still did not know the full story about what went down between the brothers, and until he knew all variables he couldn't predict him completely. One thing he could rely on; even when he was furious at Loki and ready to fight him, there was fierce resolute hope in his eyes. He still called him brother and would not let him in Fury's clutches. But still Thor... it depended on Loki, and he was really not looking forward to that particular confrontation. He did not have any siblings, but he heard enough heroic stories from his father about one Steve Rogers to get at least a tiny part of the roots of Loki's problems. He still needed the full story. At this point he had more assumptions than facts and he couldn't build anything on those.

Now, trying to ask Juyu whether they wanted to come with them or not opened up a can of worms he didn't even know existed. Even after she was willing to speak up and tell him everything, he did not know how to go about fixing things. He had no idea how to even approach Loki about it. He was so glad that he didn't have to do anything in the end. He noticed that Loki was training the girl in close combat a day after that first argument. Since he had his own experience with Loki's teaching methods, he was not at all surprised about Loki's hard-ass/smart-ass approach. But at least it made Juyu annoyed enough that she forgot to be worried about what she was saying to him. She had to learn that cursing or even yelling at Loki was not going to get her in trouble, especially if she had a reason to curse and/or yell. He was never going to disagree that Loki was a dick, and it would do Juyu good to learn how to stand up to him. Once she was tired and mad, it came naturally so it seemed. That first day Tony just stood in the doorway and listened to their conversation with amusement.

'I thought the whole point of this was so I can hit someone!' Juyu said, argued really.

'You need to know how to punch correctly, yes, but that is never going to be the most efficient way to fight, because you're a woman.'