A Flash From The Past ~ An Avengers Reacts Story

Three ~ Tony

The avengers sat around the screen, waiting for the next memory to play.

"Ok, in the next memory, Tony is still six," Hayden said as the screen lit up again to see young Tony sitting in a classroom full of older kids. It looked like he was in an advanced class, one older than his age group, which made sense after the last memory. 

The class whizzed by, Tony answering every question with ease. He smirked at all the other classmates, who were clearly getting angry at him for winning everything. 

"Oh great, I know where this is going," Tony sighed, putting his head in his hands. Some people frowned at him, but Steve saw where this was going. He knew the looks young Tony was getting from his classmates.

Once the class ended, young Tony got his bag and walked out of the room and to his locker, which was placed opposite the lockers of the other people in his class. Tony was just putting his books away when a boy, about ten or eleven, tapped him on the shoulder.

"Yeah," Tony said, barely turning around.

"Stark, right?" The boy said and young Tony sighed, turning then.

"Look, I can't give you any money, I can't get you to meet my dad, I-" Tony listed, obviously being used to this, but the boy stopped him.

"No, I don't want any of that," The boy said, scowling at Tony. "I just wanna say this. I'm the smartest in our class, not you."

"Well, clearly, you're not," Tony said, a bored look on his face. "Can I go now?"

"Not yet," The older kid pushed Tony against the locker, hard, "I just wanna make it clear about how much I don't like you, Stark!" The kid drew his fist back and punched young Tony in the stomach, leaving him to slowly fall to the floor, leaning against his locker as he did.

There were cries of outrage from the watching avengers, all with mixed emotions. Thor and Bruce for defending their friend, Nat, Clint, Bucky and Loki (even though he didn't care much) for wanting to kill the kid that punched him, and Steve in sympathy, for knowing what that felt like. Steve had had his fair share of bullying and getting punched when he was at school, and getting punched after school, for saying something wrong, or doing something different, or even just being himself. It was stupid, and wrong, and it was fair to say that Captain America hates bullies. A lot.

The memory continued to see a crowd of kids gathering and yelling, 'fight, fight, fight,' around young Tony and the bully. Tony, despite being much shorter than the other kid, stood back up and stared at him, dead on. 

"Wow, that hurt so much," Even at age six, sarcasm dripped from Tony's voice. "I can't wait to see what you do next."

Young Tony was really pushing his luck here, and it showed as the bully punched him in the face. Tony's head flew backwards and hit the locker behind him. There were a few cheers and shouts from the crowd as Tony sat on the floor, once again. He put his hand to his face and felt warm blood drip from his nose.

"I'm gonna kill that kid," Clint said, hands balled into fists.

"He's probably, like, fifty by now," Tony said.

"Fifty year olds can still die," Nat said, gripping her knife. 

Although he didn't say it, Bucky felt a need to protect the small kid on the screen being bullied. He didn't really know where it came from, but he knew it had something to do with Steve. Bucky didn't really know, not having gained all his memories back yet. Maybe this weird memory therapy session could help him remember. That would be nice.

Tony turned back to the screen, watching his younger self get punched a couple more times. The crowd had thinned out now, the importance of the fight long gone. It was clear who was winning, and who was getting beaten up. Tony glanced behind him at the rest of the avengers. Thor, Loki and Bruce were glaring at the screen. Romanoff and Barton were literally making a plan on how to capture, torture then finally kill this guy. Barnes was just staring at the floor, looking a little desperate and lost. What was his story? Tony guessed that he would find out soon.

Steve was the one that confused him. He was looking from the screen to Tony with a look of familiarity and sympathy towards him. He just looked like he knew what Tony must have felt, and that worried him a little bit. It sometimes takes him a while to remember that Steve grew up in the '20s and the '30s. What was his childhood like?

The memory then went on to see young Tony running home, tears stinging his eyes. He ran through the Stark building and up the stairs until he got to his room. He stayed there for a while until there was a knock at the door.

"Come in," Young Tony said, wiping his eyes and sitting up on his bed.

"Sir," Jarvis said, walking in. "Your father wants to see you."

Tony nodded, following Jarvis out of his room and down to his father's office. Jarvis knocked and Howard answered. All avengers glared at him, now they knew what he was really like. Young Tony walked in and stood by Howard's desk. 

"That will be all, Jarvis," Howard said, and Jarvis left quickly. "I saw you running by here earlier. Were you crying?" 

"Well, there were people at school who-" Tony was cut off by Howard.

"I don't care," Howard snapped, "You do not cry, okay? Stark men are made of iron. So you do not cry. Ever. Now, get out of here."

Tony looked down, "But-"

"I said, get out!" Howard shouted and Tony ran out, obviously scared. 

"I hate that guy," Thor said suddenly, his hammer in his hand.

"We all do," Steve said, an angry glare on his face. Everyone had the same steely look on their faces and Tony just kind of sat there, a little embarrassed by all this. It was weird, having your childhood memories shared with two gods, two assassins, a scientist, Captain America, and another assassin he didn't really know.

The screen faded to black and the whole room was left staring with an angry expression at no one in particular.

"You grew up thinking that?" Natasha said to Tony. She knew what it was like to grow up being told lies. Even if it was only one small lie, it still hurt. 

"Everyone cries, Tony, it's natural," Bruce said.

"Yeah, not for me, it wasn't," Tony said shortly, "And it wasn't for my dad either. So that was how it went."

No one said anything for a minute, knowing that no words could make the situation better. Nothing they said could ease the silence.

"Ok, onto the next memory," Hayden said as the screen lit up.

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A/N

Hey, RedCorvette084 here

I hope you have enjoyed this part, please comment what you think, it really helps with inspiration

Anyway, see you in the next part xx

Lulusurfista here!

Yeah, I know you guys wanna murder Howard…

But please don't, it's hard to build the fourth wall!!