Hey! This is my first story ever (published, at least) and it is a fill for a prompt I read on avengerkink. It's a one-shot.

Rated: T for language.

Title: Looks can be deceiving.

I don't own the avengers (sadly)

The prompt I mean is this one:

?thread=18864439#t18864439

When the Avengers entered the living room in Stark Tower, the sight they had expected the least to see greeted their eyes. They stared agape from the middle of the room at the sleeping man on their couch.

It took them a moment to realize it was none other than Tony Stark laying there on the couch. He didn't look the ways he always used to look at all.

His hair, always well-kept, was all ruffled and spread all over his forehead.

The next thing that got their attention was his clothes. The usually greasy, faded, worn-out but still ridiculously expensive pair of jeans he always wore in his workshop had been replaced with an old, grey and plain pair of sweatpants they had never seen. His t-shirt was old too, and had MIT written on it.

But the thing that shocked them the most was his clean-shaved face. His trademark goatee was gone and without it the man seemed ridiculously young, barely out of his twenties at most.

They all looked at Thor, who was standing there, trying to avoid their half-accusing, half amused gazes. Just that morning during breakfast, Thor had nonchalantly commented that in Asgard, a beard like Tony's would be considered utterly comic and absurd because he (and his whole realm, apparently) thought a decent beard should be wild, majestic and long, just the opposite of Tony's.

And Thor had concluded his statement with a loud "and that, Friend Stark, is the reason why I believe you should shave that unspeakably absurd attempt of a midgardian beard of yours, or grow it the way a man would feel compelled to."

Tony, caught off-guard at first by Thor's lesson on how to grow beards, recovered quickly, put on his best face of feigned hurt and then said, with his hand over his chest:

"Why, Thor Odinson, thee hath hurt my feelings in a horrible and heartless manner and now I feel compelled to retreat to my workshop to wallow in my dishonor."

And with that he had left the kitchen with his cup of coffee in his hand, and fifteen minutes later they had all gone to the gym to spar or, in Bruce's case, to the 'Awesome meditation place for Brucie and the Big Green Furby'. And when they finished and went to the living room to find a recently clean-shaved Tony sleeping on the couch.

"Why, my intention was not to force the Man of Iron to shave his strange-looking beard" said Thor defensively when the others kept looking at him.

"Yeah, okay, whatever, but have you guys realized how young he looks? He looks almost like a kid right out of college" said Clint amused, taking a step closer to Tony.

"Yes, he does, it's weird. He's the oldest one of us, isn't he? I mean, aside from Thor and me" said Steve.

"I guess so, but has anyone ever asked him how old he is?" asked Bruce.

"Yes, you do that. Ask the cocky, always-trying-to-look-cool-and-young man over there how old he really is" answered Natasha.

"Good point. And don't forget it's his tower. Piss him off and you end up living under a bridge, or worse, in a S.H.I.E.L.D's apartment. I'd rather not risk" said Clint, now standing behind the couch Tony was sleeping on.

"Hey, what are you doing, Clint?" asked Steve.

"What do you think? Waking him up" answered Clint happily.

"You'll end up living under a bridge" said Natasha, and Clint scowled at her.

"Still better than my last apartment. Besides, he's not such a prick. He won't kill me or anything."

"I'll make sure those words are engraved on your tombstone after he's finished with you" said Bruce amused. He knew the way Tony was when someone that wasn't Pepper woke him up. It wasn't nice.

"You have little faith" said Clint as he took hold of the couch to push it and thro Tony to the floor.

But right before he could do anything, Tony murmured something and rolled, still asleep, to end up face down. When he moved, his wallet dropped from his pocket and Clint, changing his mind, walked back to stand in front of the couch and picked it up.

"Changed my mind. Who wants to know Sleeping Beauty's age?" he asked as he walked to the other couch the rest of the team was now sitting on. Clint sat down as well and waved the wallet in front of their faces. "Come on, you're just as curious as me."

"He's so going to kill you" said Steve, but he leaned closer. Showing his interest.

"Us. He's so going to kill us" corrected Bruce. "You in, Natasha?"

"He won't dare to try to kill me, so…" she answered. "What about you, Thor?"

"I indeed believe I should not, but I am fairly curious about Friend Stark's age."

"Okay, so here we go" said Clint happily, opening the wallet and taking Tony's ID. The others leaned closer but couldn't see anything.

"Son of a bitch" said Clint as he looked back at the man on the other couch. "Unbelievable."

"What?" asked Steve, more curious now.

"See for yourself" said Clint, throwing the ID to Steve, who caught it on instinct.

"No way" said Steve after looking at it.

"Fill us in, will you?" said Natasha.

"You're not going to believe it" said he as he handed her the ID.

"Bozhe moi"

"What, is he like sixty years old or something?" asked Bruce, getting a bit impatient. "Thor and I also want to know."

She handed him the ID and he took off his glasses and squinted at the card, clearly not believing what he was seeing. "You gotta be kidding me" said he at last, clearly surprised.

"I demand to know the Man of Iron's age" boomed Thor, and they heard Tony mumble something from the couch he was sleeping on, but surprisingly he didn't wake up.

"Jesus, Rapunzel, calm down. You are going to wake him up" said Clint, and now they all stared at him.

"You were going to, not five minutes ago" pointed out Bruce.

"Yeah, but like I said, I changed my mind" said Clint defensively. "You wanna know, Thor? Okay, I'll tell you, but first you gotta tell me what your bet is."

"This is most unfair. All of you know except me. I demand to be given this strange card in order to find out his age."

"Thor, you wouldn't understand how to read it on the card" said Clint, amused due to the demigod's frustration. "You wanna know? Okay. He's 26. 26 years old."

"Thor's mouth opened and he stared at Clint before saying

"This is clearly another joke of the Eye of the Hawk. Friend Stark cannot be as young as you claim."

"Here, see for yourself then" said Clint as he snatched the card from Bruce's hand and handed it to Thor. "See that over there?" said Clint pointing to a group of figures, "that's his date of birth."

"This is most surprising" boomed Thor when he saw it.

"What's most surprising, Goldilocks?" asked Tony sleepily from his couch as he sat down and rubbed his eyes.

"Why, Friend Stark, you are awake. Come here with us."

"Um, okay" said Tony, a bit taken aback, and he stood up and walked towards the other couch while the others kept staring at him.

"What? I just shaved, it's not like I grew a second head or something, awesome as it would be, though" said Tony when he saw their faces.

"It's not that" said Steve slowly, trying to find the right words, "it's just that Clint, well, um, you dropped your wallet and…"

Realization dawned on Tony and he stopped midway.

"No" said Tony. "You haven't… God, tell me you haven't…" he trailed off and looked at them.

"Why didn't you tell us anything?" asked Steve, and Tony snapped.

"Well, you never asked, did you?" said he, a mixture of defiance, anger and rage in his voice. "Go ahead, Cap, now tell me I'm too young to be a member of your super secret boy band."

"What? Tony, no, it's not what I meant, it's just that—"

"That what?"

"That you should have told us. I mean, I sure as hell wouldn't have treated the way I did—"

"That's exactly why I didn't say anything" yelled Tony. "I didn't want anyone treating me like I was made of glass, or like I was a defenseless kid you have to be careful with because he might break down. I just wanted to be your equal."

Thor looked up suddenly when he heard that last sentence and he looked at Tony. Still, standing, angry and, yes, sad too, Tony reminded him of his brother when he had said that same sentence to him, and Thor couldn't help but telling Tony all he regretted not telling Loki then.

"You have always been our equal, Friend Stark, and we wouldn't have thought any differently of you. Please forgive us for our curiosity and be sure we will not treat you any differently. You have proved yourself worthy of this team and of our comradeship, and we are utterly proud of having a member so young, brave and prepared in our team."

The room fell silent after Thor's speech and Tony stared at him, in amazement and not believing him completely. Before he could react, Thor had stood up and hugged him tightly, carried him to the couch they were sharing and dropped him there.

Then they all started talking again, and they asked him the obvious question he knew he was going to face sometime.

"How come you are so young? I mean, Howard was more or less my age when I took the serum, and well, 1986 seems a little bit late for him to have kids."

"Hey, don't ask me. I guess he just got lucky or something. Either that or I'm so awesome the world couldn't go on if I wasn't born" said Tony grinning.

"And what about MIT and all that stuff?" asked Clint. "I mean, I thought you told us that by 2003 you had three doctorates."

"And I did. I just went to college very young. And by 2007 I had seven of them" said Tony, proud of himself.

"What about Afghanistan?" asked Bruce quietly, almost a whisper.

Tony looked at him and then sighed. "Well, it was three years ago, two years after I took over the company. But it doesn't matter. I'm sure as hell the kidnappers wouldn't have cared about how old I was."

Then the room fell silent again while Tony just looked absent-mindedly at the wall in front of him.

"Hey" he said finally, pointing an accusing finger at Clint. "Give me my wallet and ID back."

"Here, Friend Stark. Take your card. And allow me to say your beard, although it is most strange, looks very well on you, and therefore you should grow it back, for your face without it is most unnerving."

"Okay, I don't know if I should take that as a compliment" said Tony as Thor handed him his ID. "Now Legolas, where's my wallet?"

"Here you go, Sleeping Beauty" said Clint as he handed him his wallet and rushed to the air vents, crawling inside them. Thirty seconds later, Clint heard Tony shout:

"Clint, you bird brain, give me my money back! I had two thousand dollars there, and I know where you sleep. Believe me, you don't wanna go back to your old S.H.I.E.L.D's apartment. Stop hiding in the vents and face me like a man. Clint Barton, stop laughing right now."

He just laughed harder and kept crawling.

THE END