So, it was team bonding night. Now, this usually wasn't much of a problem and Tony would often join in to watch a movie or play video games with the rest of them. Not all the time, mind you, he was too busy for that and had therefore missed every karaoke night ever planned with undeniable excuses.

Until now.

There had been a minor(-major) explosion in his lab (it was Dum-E's fault for picking up one of Clint's prototype arrows and dropping it) and therefore had to wait until the smoke was cleared and the bots had finished cleaning.

The Avengers, who always taunted him mercilessly after every missed karaoke night about his inability to sing, decided this was a great opportunity to take him down a few notches and embarrass the crap out of him. They'd all heard the sort of music he listened to, and boy did that just give them more ammunition for teasing.

Honestly, Tony really was sick of it. He'd avoided these things because the last time he'd sung was to his mum playing piano the day they left and died in that fucking car crash. He hadn't sung since and he hadn't really wanted to.

So here he was, sitting on the sofa on the communal floor watching the rest of the Avengers sing their little hearts out. Clint was, unsurprisingly, an okay singer, having grown up in the circus, but he had trouble holding notes. Natasha sang something soft in Russian, nothing special, but it was nice, even if she couldn't do the low notes as well as he song seemed to require. Bruce kind of just hummed, fidgeting nervously until his song ended.

Steve, to no-ones surprise except Tony's, sounded not unlike nails on a chalkboard but seemed to be having fun attempting to sing Shake it Off by Taylor swift either way. Thor was in New Mexico with Jane, so when Steve finished his ear-bleeding symphony they all turned to Tony.

"No."

"Come on Stark! We all know you'll be terrible, but at least it won't be a surprise like Steve was." Clint snarked.

"No, no, I'm good. It was fun watching you guys but I think I'll opt out."

"Come on, Stark, it's team building! We've all done it, who cares if your ego gets a little bruised." Steve reprimanded, using his Disapproving Eyebrow Frown Of Disapproval™ with The Tone™ that he always brought out whenever he felt like reprimanding Tony for not following his orders, even if said orders would have gotten someone killed had Tony not done something different.

Tony bristled with anger. "It has nothing to do with ego, Rogers." He growled, glaring at them. He swallowed and pushed back memories of singing with his mother where his father couldn't hear them.

Natasha scoffed and rolled her eyes. "What doesn't have anything to do with your ego, Stark?"

"I think you find that there are a lot of things that don't involve ego, despite what you may think." He snarled.

Clint groaned and rolled his eyes. "Come on, Stark, just sing."

Tony, who had been on his way to moving out the door, turned around and looked at them with narrowed eyes and a furious expression. They, aside from Bruce, who was pointedly looking at his Starkpad, all held his gaze, varying from annoyance to anger and frustration.

So, he grinned, a nasty thing and clapped his hands. "Fine, if it'll shut your fucking mouths. Jarvis, you know what to play."

Clint and Natasha smirked in triumph and settled back, Clint resting his head against his hands on the back of the couch smugly. Tony took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment, before opening them and nodding to one of Jarvis' sensors.

A soft piano melody began to drift through the speakers and Tony watched numbly as the others frowned in confusion. Then he began to sing.

The words rolled out of his mouth smoothly and in perfect time to the piano as it picked up a bit. His mum had introduced him to some Italian songs she loved, and while teaching him to speak it had gotten him to sing after catching him singing along to one in his room. Ever since then, they'd sit down at the piano and sing together.

He'd long since forgotten what this song was called, he and his mother had written it to comfort each other after one of Howards more violent days and always came back to that. It had been the last song they'd sung together.

When the song ended and the Avengers were left staring at him in shock, he took a deep breath, voice blank as he spoke.

"I haven't sung since the morning of December 16, 1991." He told them, looking into their eyes. "I wrote that song with my mother after Howard broke my ribs for the first time."

"Tony-" Steve started, but Tony cut him off.

"No. Do not. It has nothing to do with ego and I don't give a fuck about what you think of me, but this is why I didn't want to be here. So congratulations, now you've heard me sing, the one thing that was only mine and my mothers."

And with that, he turned and fled from the room and down to his workshop to help the bots clean now that the smoke had cleared.