Ready, Fire, Aim

Ready, Fire, Aim 'Verse #1

by gyzym

Fandom: The Avengers
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Natasha Romanov, [past Tony Stark/Pepper Potts]
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Tony leaves the meeting before he’s supposed to—because he is a busy man and he has things to do and anyone who has a problem with that can just shut their mouths, can’t they—without saying goodbye to anyone. He stalks down the hall and into the elevator and out of the lobby and up to the car (where Happy is courteous enough to let him slam his own door) and fumes the whole ride over to Stark Tower. He sketches out schematics for two new models of repulsor boots and a pocket water filtration system on the back of a napkin—he’s nothing outside of the suit, is he, well fine, he’ll show that frosted-over Americana has-been douchebag--and gets out of the car in a whirlwind of irritation and almost-but-not-quite falling on his face.

Art Credit

Genres: Fan Fiction, M M Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Romance

85 pages, ebook

First published October 28, 2011

Reviews

[Irina Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember my early days on GR... (Okay, it was only a year and a half ago, so what.) I read quite a lot of original fics, but I kept seeing johnlock, drarry, sterek and stony fics pop up on my feed and I got curious, so I watched Sherlock – and fell in love with johnlock. Then I read Harry Potter – and found out that drarry actually works very well. Then I watched Teen Wolf – and sterek became my OTP. And now I've watched The Avengers, and stony is like a whole new world of awesomeness.

It works. It works perfectly well. Even with that dreadful business with Pepper – because an MC being hung up over someone is not something I deal with very well, even when it ends well – and the sheer emotional retardedness and the fact that everyone is a freak, it works. It makes me happy. And I don't know if this is the way stony generally is, but this fic cracked me up several times, and then it squeezed my heart a little, then it made me grin like a lunatic, and then it ended and left me craving the second instalment.
Tony sounds kinda Stilesy – and believe me, I know Stiles like I know myself, so I know what I'm talking about - but who cares, it's good.

[LenaLena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wonder if the roombas started here?

[S · Rating 4 out of 5]

The thing I absolutely adore is such exquisite language that unfurls a fragile personality and gyzym has definitely accomplished that here with Stark. His POV is lovely, and I keep finding so so many charming sentences that my favourite quotes down below are growing obnoxiously.
Which, really, goes to show exactly how much I enjoyed reading this.

Favourite quotes:

"Pepper tried for maturity and Tony tried to bait her, hoping she’d reveal in anger what it was he was doing wrong. She never did, just looked at him with eyes that spoke volumes in a language Tony didn’t speak, and he sent flowers, cards, suggested Venice for the second time. He tried so hard it seemed like he wasn’t trying at all."

"Tony is, maybe, kind of, sort of, in what he would call a "mood." Pepper would call it a sulking fit, but Pepper's in LA right now, so Tony is free to define things however he likes."

"But why should I wave it?" Thor says, dangling the WiiMote in front of his face by the strap. "Is it not a weak man's task, mimicry and imitation of a real fight? This is a plaything for children! For cowards!"
"Thor, it's bowling," Clint says. "Hey, Tony, make Thor understand the Wii, give him an upgrade or something."

"Yeah, well," Tony says, which is…really, really lame. He's saved from having to elaborate when Clint lets out a whoop of satisfaction and yells, "Eat it, bitch!" in a Norse god's face.

"Steve?" he says to the silhouette, really hoping it's Steve and not some supervillain with a lurking fetish.
Then Steve turns around, bites his lip, and says, "Tony, hi," with no inflection in his voice at all. Tony takes it back--he'd take the supervillain any day of the week. At least the megalomaniacs they normally deal with would have the decency to actually stab him in the heart, instead of making him feel like they had.

"Hey," he says, "you okay?"
“Sure,” Steve says, shrugging a shoulder. It’s about the least convincing play-off Tony’s ever seen, and he’s watched himself in the mirror. “I...yes. Yeah. It’s fine.”

“I’m sorry,” Tony says, and he’s selfish, he’s always been selfish, so he doesn’t mean I’m sorry for your loss. He means I’m sorry I was such a dick to you and I’m sorry I didn’t see you and I’m sorry, I should have done better. He means I’m sorry you don’t like me, but god, I don’t blame you at all.

“I want to try something,” Tony says. He lays the drawing flat against his tablet, raises a hand when Steve makes a noise of protest. “I’m not going to hurt it, I’m just...trying something. I’ll be done in a minute, I promise. Jarvis, you up?”
“For you, sir, always,” Jarvis says, voice echoing into the darkness, and Tony quirks a smile.
“Aww, baby, you don’t have to wait up like that--no, I’m just kidding, you totally do, do me a favor and scan this in, would you? To my personal server, not the Stark ones, and don’t auto-edit, I know how you get--it’s charcoal, it should feel like charcoal, yeah?”
“Absolutely, sir,” says Jarvis. “Did you want me to simply store it, or...”
“No, no,” Tony says, flicking through a couple of screens and absently handing Steve’s notebook back. “Manipulatable file, maybe 75% just so I can work with it, and then axe the bells and whistles--don’t need the spiral imprints, don’t need the bent corner--actually, you know what, could you just clear the paper and leave the lines, the whole thing should be--yeah, like that, that’s good.”

Thanksgiving Day, Doctor Doom (and really, Tony thinks, couldn’t he have named himself something more apt--Doctor Crazypants, maybe, or Doctor Jesus Fucking Christ Don’t You Ever Die) brings every float in the Macy’s parade to violent, unrelenting life.

“Jesus Christ,” Steve says, and scrubs at his forehead with the hand that isn’t holding Tony in place. “Tony. Tony. I don’t...it was awful before I met you, half the time you’re the only thing that makes this century bearable. You’re, I, how could you not know that?”
“But I,” Tony says, “I’m obnoxious and I never listen and I’m not a team player and--”
“Right,” Steve says, and takes Tony by the shoulders. “Okay. Look. I know you’ve got some--uh, issues, for lack of a better word, please don’t take that the wrong way--so I’m just going to lay it all on the table, alright? And stop looking at me like I’m going to kill you, Tony, that’s not really helping me feel better about my friendship skills.”

“You are,” Steve says, “a complete pain in my ass some of the time. You never do what I tell you to do and you never admit when you’re wrong, and sometimes I think you’re going to die from not sleeping enough, and sometimes I think you’re going to literally run yourself into the ground. You say hideously inappropriate things to very important people and some days I want to shake you--”

“I want to blow you right here in the hallway,” Tony says, because he figures that’s the kind of information Steve should have, and Steve’s whole body shudders.

“Guess that answers the question of whether you’ll still like me in the morning,” he jokes when Steve pulls back. Like always, it comes out upsettingly honest, and he winces into the pillow. “Ugh, Jesus, let’s strike that from the record.”

[Lex · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Captain America," he says, "is a dick.”
Then he notices the table full of investors.
“Uh,” says Tony, “wow, okay. Uh. Well then. Good morning--is it morning? It's hard to tell in the whole, you know, basement of doom they've got going on at--uh, nevermind. Right, so, great to see everyone, any chance I can convince you this was a training exercise?"
Pepper sighs, pinches the bridge of her nose, and waves a hand in Tony’s general direction.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” she says, “Tony Stark.”

Ten minutes later, he opens the door in a pair of Armani trousers, a hand-tailored button down left open over this morning’s Black Sabbath tee, no shoes, and mirrored sunglasses. Even to himself, he has no explanation for this behavior.

“Six times, you’ve nearly wrecked the company six times that I know about, and if it’s not that then you’ve murdered someone—“
“Pepper--“
“Or you’ve developed some kind of emotional attachment—“
“Don’t say emotional attachment, god, now I’ve said it, I'm going to break out in hives—“

[Julesmarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first stony fic, and it was lovely. I thought that both Tony and Steve were wonderfully-well characterized. Their banter was delightful, and they were each just so endearingly perfectly what the other one needed.

Toss in the whole team living together and all of the zaniness that ensues, and this was just thoroughly entertaining.

Some Favorite Quotes:
Even to himself, he has no explanation for this behavior.

Thor, being Thor, is smashing people in the face with the hammer and laughing about it. He's Tony's favorite, really.

"I'm always ridiculous.... That's like the point of me, Pep, where you been?"

This, Tony feels quite sure, is the kind of question people who aren't superheroes don't ever have to ask each other.

"we could try philosophy or, uh, math, I'd probably be great at this if it was math."

"Tony. Tony. I don't... it was awful before I met you, half the time you're the only thing that makes this century bearable.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 3 out of 5]

147 - 2018

[karlakolumna · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars