Chapter Text
Tony hummed to himself, more or less in tune with the AC/DC filling his workshop, while he sighted through his newest ideas for upgrades to the team’s gear. Bruce was close by, reading at least 3 different articles on ‘naturally occurring genetic mutation’ at the same time and, much to Tony’s horror, taking notes on pen and paper.
Bruce was basically a caveman.
“I think I’ve finally perfected those Hulk out proof pants.” Tony said as he moved his current projects, sonic and concussive force arrows, onto the holo platform along with a list of materials Jarvis had deemed appropriate for the task. Not that there was anything wrong with Clint’s current arsenal, exploding tips, flares, taser arrows and just generally sharp arrowheads were fine but they lacked a certain...showmanship, in Tony’s opinion. There was no flare, not style, behind that stuff and Tony was all about style.
The steady scratching sound of pen over paper stopped. “You’re still working on that?”
Tony understood Bruce’s issues with that little project. For one it seemed like a lot of work (it wasn’t actually that much work once Tony had accidently discovered unstable molecules, something he intended to take a closer look at and maybe unveil to the world any day now) and for two it wasn’t like Bruce got big and green a lot and things like this seemed to be ‘planning’ or ‘expecting’ him to have to in the future when Bruce wanted nothing more than to never go big and green ever again.b
Or at all since the Battle for New York, actually, but with Hydra exposed as having their hands in basically everything ever and SHIELD being out of the game, perhaps permanently, and a bunch of alien tech floating in the wind who knew what was going to happen next.
Beyond all that using his brain and his tech to protect the team was kind of what Tony did, what he felt like he had to do. They were pack now, like Pepper and Rhodey, so doing whatever he could for them just came naturally. Floors in his tower, new and improved uniforms, the best tech, shiney odds and ends and expense accounts...it all just kind of happened without thought.
He had some theories on dynamic traits and long term suppressant use but he didn’t particularly want to test them out or consider them too deeply. He liked to think the things he did were because of who he was, not because of unlucky quirks of biology.
He was saved from answering Bruce’s question by Jarvis announcing that Pepper was calling him.
“I thought you had meetings all morning?” He said by way of a greeting once Jarvis had the call connected. He could hear her breathing and the sounds of people talking frantically in the background but couldn’t make anything out. “Not that I’m not always happy to hear from you and I fully endorse slacking off at all times-”
“Tony.”
“But when you call me in the middle of the work day-”
“Tony, please.” Bruce’s head popped up, brow furrowing and eyes narrowing at the note of urgency in Pepper’s voice.
Quirks of biology. Distressed beta and omega tones would affect a certain part of the alpha brain, make them want to protect, fight, eliminate the threat. Pepper, as a beta that Bruce knew well, being upset would be something like a figurative ice pick to the brain.
“I get worried.” He finished. She sighed and it was a mixture of annoyance and fondness he knew was reserved just for him. “What’s going on?”
“Is...is there anyone there with you right now?” She asked and he could picture her cagey look perfectly. He couldn’t help but notice that the voices around her were getting quieter as she, he assumed, moved away from them.
“The good doctor is here.”
There was the soft click of a door closing on the other end and Pepper made a noise that could only be called ‘defeated’. “I’m not...I’d ask you to go somewhere so we can talk alone by I’m not sure there’s much point to be honest.”
She laughed bitterly at the end of that then sighed again. He could picture her, pretty face pale, eyes wide and frantic, normally perfect hair let down and mussed from her running her fingers through it.
Bruce cocked an eyebrow at that then glanced anxiously towards the door, clearly unsure of what he should do. Tony thought he looked a little overly concerned but then he’d never seen or heard Pepper be anything but completely composed and put together, not even while he was helping Tony work on a cure for Extremis. Even when the risk of death by explosion was hanging over her Pepper was perfect and Tony still wasn’t sure what he’d done to deserve her.
“How bad is it?” He leaned forward, hands on the top of his workbench. “Are we talking ‘kidnapped and held in a cave’ bad or ‘SHIELD leaked Stane's death’ bad?”
He’d actually been waiting for the latter since Natasha had put all of SHIELD/Hydra’s dirty laundry on the internet but it hadn’t happened just yet.
Pepper’s breathing hitched. “Bad. It’s-oh god Tony. Turn on the news. Any channel. I’m so sorry. I don’t know how this could have happened like this without me knowing.”
“Jarvis.” He was already turning towards the TV mounted on the wall of the workshop. He felt a trickle of fear going down his spine because he could only imagine two things that would upset Pepper and she’d already ruled out one but the other-
‘TONY STARK: UNREGISTERED omega?’ sat in huge white letters below the faces of two very serious looking newscasters. In the corner of the screen was a time, counting down from 23:41. They were talking but Tony could only just hear it because the TV sounded far away and distorted, like listening to someone talk when you’re underwater, and the sound of his own heart beat was painfully loud to his ears.
“-Again, for those just joining us, we are discussing the medical records released onto the internet by a currently unknown party or parties that imply that Tony Stark, aka Ironman, the Chairman and owner of Stark Industries is an unregistered and unmated omega. Further the source of the leak is saying Stark has less than 24 hours to respond publicly or ‘video proof’ will be release. Currently no calls to-”
Tony's mind caught onto 'video proof' and refused to process any further; the woman's voice fell away into nothingness.
The video.
That Video. There was only one video that could expose him, one moment of horrible weakness in his many years of hiding as a beta.
He saw Bruce moving out of the side of his eye, staring up at the TV with something like disbelief taking over his face. "Is this...you're an omega?"
Tony couldn’t answer him, couldn't even breathe, couldn’t hear above the rush of blood and the hammering of his heart in his ears, and the world was going dark. The table fell away under his hands and the ground rose up to catch him and he was sick and retching and
Everything went away.