fandomhigh | Working With Jerks, Wednesday, May 18, 2016 [3rd period]

If Steve and Tony looked annoyed at their current ensemble, it was because they were. Do you know how hard it is to navigate stairs with two people in the same shirt? Very. Especially when neither one will stop bitching.

But this was for teamwork. And teeth would be gritted to get through it to teach their class A Very Important Lesson.

"Hi," Tony said, smiling like he didn't have the urge to elbow Steve in the stomach if he didn't stop moving. Okay, so the smile was a little manic on the edges. Sue him. "This looks ridiculous, doesn't it?"

"Yes," Steve answered for them, "but apparently this is a tactic used to improve teamwork." By stupid people, his face finished for him.

"I don't even know how someone came up with it," Tony muttered under his breath like the only child he was. He cleared his throat and continued on like he was perfectly poised despite... everything happening. "Sometimes a little enforced closeness can help overcome interpersonal friction. And we're going to put that to a test with you all."

Those were some five dollars words that someone had totally picked up from the bullshit corporate retreats he'd been forced on.

Would they talk about synergy and vision statements while forcing the students to sit through Powerpoint slides that they'd read aloud like the words weren't there in front of them? Darn right, they would. Because working with jerks also meant sitting through terrible, terrible "team building" exercises. As a team.

Tony felt the Powerpoint was especially insidious.

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"Hank--" Tony cleared his throat, shifting uncomfortably. "Hank had left the team before Vision was created. The stress of our lives wasn't--well, he had been a pacifist for most of his life."

Which ended with a nervous break down. Followed by a disassociative state where he was the hyper violent version of himself. So, honestly, Steve's Hank sort of got off lucky?

Which was another source of guilt for Tony and Jan, to be honest.

Steve hissed in a breath through his teeth. "So he got shellshock?"

Tony had to sort of pause and run that though his 'quaint things old folks say' filter.

"Maybe," he replied slowly, really giving that one some thought. "Hank had always been a little--"

Watch him struggle to find the right word here!

"--high strung. Even back when he was in school. We just didn't realize how bad it was getting for him."

Edited 2016-05-20 14:26 (UTC)

"Sometimes it's hardest to see in friends," Steve said, nodding.

Or themselves, but that was the usual.

"Just keep that in mind if Jan mentions him to you. She took it hard."

"Were they together?" Steve asked.

"Yes and no? It was a complicated situation." And Tony knew complicated situations.

"Seems so," Steve said quietly. "One of those on-again off-again things? There were girls in the neighborhood...the guy would be real sweet, then really not. And repeat."

Steve was sideways asking about abuse, yeah.

Tony's expression went hard and distant for a moment. "No."

And then.

"I don't--I don't think so. I've known Jan a long time. I don't think she'd put up with that."

"Well, you'd know better than I would," Steve said, chewing his lower lip.

"Yeah." Well, wasn't that a downer? And now Tony was going to be aggressively stalking Hank via technology to make sure. "I'll look into it."

"It's probably nothing," Steve said, "but better safe than sorry, you know?"

"Yeah, you never can tell with people," Tony muttered

Working With Jerks, Wednesday, May 18, 2016 [3rd period]

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