The first time Bruce hulks out in the lab, it isn't Tony's fault, but fucked if he's going to let that stop him.

When Thor fell, everything trembled.

Steve Rogers is no stranger to the silver screen.

Tony is trying very hard to be the perfect boyfriend. Maybe too hard. But that's okay because Pepper has a simple solution to get Tony to relax and nurture his other relationships too. "Hello, Captain. What can I do for you?" "It's about Tony," he says immediately, his soldier's efficiency not allowing for any dallying. "We - the Avengers, that is - have some concerns."

“If you don't turn your life into a story, you just become a part of someone else's story.” -The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, by Terry Pratchett In which Darcy Lewis works for SHIELD, dates Spider-man and his issues, is roommates with Jessica Jones and her issues, befriends the Avengers she hasn't met yet, and generally manipulates the situation around her to better suit her expectations. Because that's how she rolls.

Pepper didn't want to know how Natasha had access to a camera overlooking the gym showers. She just wanted more margaritas.

ust a brief missing scene between Pepper and Tony prior to the end of Iron Man 3.

One day Steve was going to figure out how Tony kept talking him into these things, he really was.

Tony isn't so much introducing Steve to twenty-first century sex as enabling him. Steve already knows what he wants.

Tony used to think that the 1940s were repressed. Steve's repertoire of racy songs makes him reconsider.

One rainy afternoon Tony gets home to find a wet-haired child in an over-sized bathrobe sitting on the penthouse couch, watching cartoons. “Um, what,” says Tony. “Oh, hey,” Harley says, noticing him. “JARVIS showed me where to go. He told me to leave my clothes in the bathroom so they could dry, and said I could borrow one of your bathrobes. You have a really big TV, you know that?”

Thor takes a good look at Loki once he has hauled him back onto the quinjet, and realizes that there is something odd about Loki's eyes. Thor has grown and changed much in the last year, and no longer takes anything for granted. So he starts asking questions. It doesn't take long to figure out that Loki is not acting of his own free will. Tony Stark knows what it is to be forced to do as an enemy commands. Steve Rogers has seen the atrocities manipulative madmen are willing to commit. Clint, Logan, Bruce and Natasha have been subjected to said madmen. They all know what it is to lose themselves, and to seek redemption. Together, this band of broken heroes draws a line in the sand. They will not tolerate any tyrant, foreign or domestic. That includes Nick Fury and the WSC, who have used everyone on the team for their own aims. It includes Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross, who has hunted Bruce against all reason. It includes Odin, who treats his sons like commodities. And it includes Thanos, who has delusions of conquering Earth. Along the way, they learn to trust each other. They learn to help each other. They become a family.

"Oh god," Pepper says. "Are you kidding me?"

"In which Darcy gets Steve's number and proceeds to drag him into the modern world via text messaging and their friends start to ship it."