Angsty Sat? Or bitter Sunday? Idk it's kinda both lolll. Okay, but like the Rogues come back and everything is fine. Fine. Yep. Tony may be avoiding and ignoring them, but it's fine. Then Peter comes in for his fortnightly training session at the compound and they realise he's a kid. They're mad at Tony, yes, but most importantly, they don't think Petey is up to avengers standards (low as they are). Oh how wrong they are. Queue Peter being the best superhero and Tony being the best Dad.
As easy as it would be to be bitter about his old team’s misgivings regarding Spidey-Kid’s qualifications, Tony tries his best not to be. He swallows down the defensive comment, the reflexive insults. Tones down the eye rolls and mocking grins. It’s harder than he thought it would be, but that’s never stopped Tony before.
And. After six months of barbs and cutting remarks so sharp he could taste blood on his tongue when he uttered them, Tony has grown–tired. The acid has followed him every, corrupted everything he thought and touched, and it’s exhausting.
Tony has never been a man to forgive and forget. He’s not wired to find peace in letting it go. Holding on to everything though, the guilt, the hatred, the blame, is beginning to hold him back. And that? Stagnation? Has never been an option either.
Tony can’t forgive but he can stop obsessing over it. It’s a work in progress still but there is definite progress.
Never one to do things half-way, Tony puts a stop to all the pointless meetings with the pardoned Avengers. Abandons the discussions–arguments–they keep dancing through. Forces himself to stop hacking Barnes’ progress reports every night.
He keeps busy with work for SI that Pepper will thank him for–or be suspicious off. Spends time his engineers, the interns he’s hired at one point or another. Works off a smaller list of projects he’d never gotten around to complete. Spends a surprising amount of time with the Spidey-Kid who’s too much of a hero for Tony’s peace of mind.
Time doesn’t heal all wounds but the distance helps. The whirlwind of emotions, the utter mess of everything that went wrong with the Avengers, is still there but it’s less present.
And when the minor–spoken like a grave insult, a fault that somehow lies in Tony more than Peter–saves Roger’s ass during the next fight, then promptly leaves him dangling at the top of the Empire State Building gives Tony a disproportional amount of satisfaction, well. He’s only human.
He buys the Spidey-Kid pizza to celebrate, which somehow ends with him being invited to an early dinner with his aunt May and Peter, who is beaming suspiciously. It’s surprisingly nice.
Even more surprisingly it’s the start of a new tradition.
Later Tony will still find seven new messages from an enraged Rogers on his voicemail. But the angry words don’t bother him like they used to.
At some point his ex-team mate’s harsh accusations have stopped echoing in Tony’s mind. Helping Peter to figure out how to shoot webbings in different colours is much more important.
