Avengers is one of my fandoms. It’s been a while since I really plunged in, because I started in the comics and then Marvel went batshit and my favorite book is Iron Man, which is a FUCKING TRAGEDY because Larroca’s art makes me cry almost as much as Fraction’s writing. But THANK GOD FOR THE MOVIES, because they’re pieces of utter joy and I can continue to indulge my inner fangirl that way.
This is a long fic (rated NC-17 by the author, though personally I find the sex to be more on the tasteful R-rated side) that starts out Tony/Pepper in a way that is beautiful and good and true and then becomes Tony/Steve in a way that does justice to the characters and complexities of the relationships involved. Plus there is amazing perfection every time somebody else from the gang is on screen (which includes all the Avengers, plus Happy, Rhodey, Jane, Darcy, ) and gems like this:
“Coulson doesn’t actually live here, right?” Tony asks Clint one night. He’s honestly getting a little worried, because the guy’s here an awful lot, and that’s where Tony draws the line. Superheroes: yes. Sadistic automatons: no. “Have we checked the crawl spaces, made sure he’s not living under the stairs, sneaking into the kitchen at night and stealing our food?”
“More likely the basement,” Clint says. “I’m pretty sure he hangs upside down when he sleeps.” Which is not funny at all, because for all Tony knows, that might actually be true. He lives in a house with an immortal party planner and a twenty-six-year-old guy who was born in 1917. Anything is possible.
And Tony is sharp and witty and hilarious and, without ever actually pondering it for himself or discussing it or I think even exactly realizing it, heartbreakingly lonely, and the upshot is that I started reading and basically couldn’t stop.
Avengers (movieverse) rec: Semaphore by DevilDoll