Disclaimer: The Avengers is owned by Marvel Entertainment and I am just borrowing the characters.

Author's Note:

Spoilers for MCU and specifically Iron Man 2 and Captain Marvel. Written in response to a Thursday Vignette over on Rough Trade to practice my writing. Prompt is December 27th and a pictures of Tony and Iron Man.

Power Plays

If Tony had a dime for every time someone had tried a power play on him, he'd be…well, he'd be even more of a billionaire than he was already, but not the point. The point was that Nicholas Fury was trying a power play on Tony.

The eye-patch wearing Director of SHIELD stared down Tony across the small table, the folder about the Avengers Initiative – a folder which Tony would bet was empty – shoved to one side.

Tony had been invited to a warehouse on the New York docks for a debriefing after the events with Vanko. He'd acquiesced more out of curiosity than anything else. He had to admit being impressed by the set-up; the room with its shadow and light; the monitors with their glimpses of information to manipulate him or garner Tony's attention.

Fury held out Tony's assessment by Agent Romanoff and taunted Tony. Tony had a split second to choose whether to take the assessment or not. Power plays usually came with a carrot or a stick and he knew which he was looking at.

He took the folder and read the assessment aloud.

Compulsive behaviour.

Self-destructive.

Narcissistic.

Iron Man, yes.

Tony Stark, not recommended.

He babbled something, anything, to cover his rapid thinking. They were definitely playing him, but it wasn't a stick they were brandishing, it was a hook; a fishing hook to capture him.

Fury did one of Obie's tricks; moving around the table to sit on the edge. Tony waited for the shoe to drop and sure enough, Fury, in an almost fatherly way, offered Tony something.

Consultant.

Behold the carrot, Tony thought to himself slightly hysterically. Tony wondered whether he was supposed to turn it down or accept it.

Fury waited; he hadn't moved an inch, his gaze direct and unwavering.

Tony set Romanoff's assessment aside – and he was pretty sure it wasn't an actual assessment so much as a made-up report specially written for the purpose of the fishing expedition. He wondered whether the spy had even written the thing.

He determined that they expected that he would accept the consultancy because the prize of being an actual member of the Initiative was then a possibility. It put him at a disadvantage; trying to prove himself constantly.

He had to give it to them. The assessment was a steaming pile of bullshit, but someone pinned him pretty well given the power play. He could surmise what they had worked out:

More likely to take an assessment of himself if it came from a woman; his relationship with his mother had been good.

Blatant daddy issues; will respond to a stern fatherly figure who he can look to for validation.

Tell him he can't be a part of something, and he'll want it, just keep the door open a crack.

As a power play, Tony was impressed.

They must really want him.

Which – why? Well, Tony didn't have to think too hard about that; money, tech, his intelligence – Iron Man to be at their beck and call; successfully leashed in a way which Tony had avoided with Congress.

Tony stood up and offered his hand to Fury. "Thanks," he said, "but no thanks." He swallowed down on the urge to comment they couldn't afford him; it sounded too childish.

Fury didn't flinch; he just nodded. And Tony knew he was waiting for Tony to reconsider, to take the bait or to push on the crack in the door they were offering.

As he walked out, Tony could see how it could play out so easily in his head the way they wanted. He could see himself turning back and asking Fury for a favour in return for waiving his consultancy fee (maybe getting Stern to give Tony and Rhodey their medals after the recent trouble), shoving himself through the crack in the door they'd left open for him. He was tempted despite himself but…he kept walking.

He was at the door when Fury called out to him. He turned back and raised an eyebrow.

"So that's it?" Fury asked sarcastically. "You're just going to give up?"

Tony painted on the smirk he'd held back before. "Give up on what, Fury? I said no to you the last time you asked me to part of this." He gestured to where the report sat abandoned on the table. "Offering me a consultancy like it's some kind of consolation prize for a negative report? Seriously, I think I know which of us really wants me involved here and it's not me."

He could see the dawning realisation on Fury's face that they'd misplayed him.

"Look, Stark, I think you've misunderstood…" began Fury, conciliatory.

"Oh, I understand perfectly," Tony countered and gestured at himself, "genius here." He winked and without waiting for a reply, he walked out.

Tony made for his car. Happy scrambled into action seeing him approach and Tony ignored the opened back door in favour of getting into the driver's seat. Happy closed the door and hustled around to the passenger seat.

Tony let the motion of driving settle him. He tapped the radio. "JARVIS, do a sweep of the car."

Happy shook his head. "Nobody got near to the car. I was in the car and I'm telling you nobody got near to the…"

"One tracking device found, sir," JARVIS responded, "left rear wheel axel."

Tony shot Happy a look.

"I swear nobody got near to the car!" spluttered Happy. "Damn spies!"

"You got that right," Tony said tersely.

He drove into New York and headed for Central Park. He pulled up at an entrance illegally and got out, leaving Happy to take the car back to the hotel. He stopped by a tourist stall and picked up a baseball cap. He slipped through the crowds easily and made his way across the park.

The mansion on Fifth Avenue wouldn't be on anyone's list to search for Tony; it was well-known that he had mothballed the place after his parents' death. He entered through the back-gate and made his way across the overgrown lawn to the back door.

He got the spare key from its hiding place and entered, instructing JARVIS to turn off the security alarms. He made his way through the house to the music room.

Thin sunlight swamped the space, highlighting the motes of dust which swirled in the air.

Tony tapped his arc reactor absently as he took in the dust sheet covered furniture. He headed for the piano and tugged the sheet from it; there was another over the stool and he tossed both to the floor.

He sat down and started to poke at the keys. Discordant notes sounded in the empty space. The piano needed tuning. He began to pick out random notes, his hands wandering over the keys with half-remembered familiarity from the lessons his Mom had insisted upon.

His heart ached a little as it always did when he thought about his mother. He missed her.

A plaintive meow cut through the music and Tony stopped abruptly, his gaze snapping to the doorway where a ginger cat sat primly.

"Hello, there," Tony murmured.

The cat strolled over to him as though it owned the house. Tony watched amused as it rubbed its head on his leg. He reached down and picked up it up tentatively, relaxing when it snuggled into him and rubbed its head on his reactor. Tony frowned. OK, not an it, he mused, the cat was female. He glanced at the single disc hanging from the simple leather collar.

Goose.

Someone was a Top Gun fan.

"Cool name, huh?"

Goose purred at him.

Tony scratched Goose's ears. "Doesn't explain how you got in."

"I picked the lock."

Tony glared at the lurking figure of Fury. "How did you find me?"

"I followed the cat," Fury said dryly.

Tony continued to glare at him.

"Seriously," Fury said, finally stepping into the room; he gestured at the cat, "not a cat. She's an alien lifeform."

Tony frowned and glanced down at the cat in his arms.

Goose looked guilelessly up at him.

Tony looked back at Fury.

Fury sighed. "Yeah, I didn't believe it until an alien stuck some kind of scanner in front of me."

Part of Tony figured Fury was bullshitting but the other part…

"JARVIS, scan the cat," Tony ordered.

"Yes, sir," JARVIS responded.

There was a moment of suspension with Fury simply standing, arms crossed waiting; Tony looking back at him.

JARVIS spoke again. "Sir, the creature you are holding is not a cat."

"Robot?" asked Tony, still scratching Goose's ears.

"No, sir," JARVIS sounded reluctant to explain, "its internal organs seem to be a void and occasionally some kind of carnivorous tentacle monster."

"Flerken," Fury stated. "The cat is a Flerken."

Tony looked down at Goose and tried not to give away how much he wanted to drop it. "Right."

Goose purred back at him.

"We have cat-tentacle monsters?" asked Tony incredulous.

"No," Fury said, "we got invaded by shape-shifters…"

Tony's eyebrows shot up.

"…but not really," Fury said, "it's a long story."

"I don't think I'm interested," Tony replied blandly. He was interested. He was very interested. But he couldn't show Fury that. Give the spy an inch and he'd take an entire continent.

Fury sighed and finally dropped the attitude. He walked over and slumped against the piano. "You want me to hear we screwed up with you? We screwed up with you."

"Thank you," Tony said dryly.

Fury reached over and stroked a finger over Goose's head. The cat leaned into the spy's touch. "Goose followed you as soon as you left the warehouse."

"You always follow the cat?" asked Tony sceptically.

"She's got good instincts," Fury said. "We need you on board, Stark." He paused and his single eye met Tony's directly. "I need you."

"You need Iron Man," countered Tony.

"No, I need Tony Stark," Fury shot back. "Goose? She has a thing for genius scientists who are trying to save the world and redeem themselves."

Goose reached out and touched Tony's reactor with a paw. She meowed.

Tony stroked the cat – Flerken – Goose. The whole thing seemed surreal. He was holding an alien. And there had been shape-shifting aliens.

"The Avengers Initiative is meant to bring together a group of people who can fight the battles we ordinary folk can't," Fury said. He pointed a finger at the cat. "Threats like an army of Flerkens. Or shape-shifters. Or Kree."

Tony rubbed his head with a thumb. His arms were getting heavy holding the cat but Goose didn't seem to want to move and given she was apparently a cat-tentacle monster, Tony wasn't going to move her. He sighed and looked at Fury. "You done playing games?"

"With you?" Fury nodded.

Tony held his gaze for a long moment, trying to see if there was an deception. Maybe there was, but maybe not. He couldn't see anything but genuine sincerity. He gave a nod of his own. "OK, then," he said. "I guess I'm interested in that story now."

And Goose meowed as though in celebration.

Fury inclined his head a touch. "It was nineteen-ninety-five and we had a report of a woman falling through the roof of a Blockbuster video store…"

The End.