Sue pushed a small glass against the water dispenser on the door of the fridge. The living area that was attached to the kitchen was filled with Rhodey and Sam's discussion about the accords. Steve sat with the thick book in his lap, reading through the pages of limitations and sanctions on the Avengers. Natasha was perched on the end of the sofa, where Tony laid with his hand covering his eyes. Johnny stood with his hands in the pockets of his jeans, looking back and forth between the arguing men like he would in a tennis match. Vision and Wanda sat together on the leather sofa, listening to the feud that was civil for the time being.

'A hundred and seventeen countries want to sign this,' Rhodey fought, pointing to the book in Steve's hands. 'A hundred and seventeen, Sam.'

'I have an equation,' Vision started, and Sam gave a roll of his eyes.

'Oh, this will clear it up.'

'In the eight years since Mr. Stark announced himself as Iron Man, the number of known enhanced persons has grown exponentially,' Vision spoke with the voice of JARVIS. Sue appeared beside Tony and bumped the glass of water against his shoulder to alert him that it was there. He peaked an eye out from behind a finger and looked up at her, sending her a shake of his head. Sue shrugged, taking a sip of the water before slipping into the space between his propped-up feet and Natasha.

'And during the same period, the number of potentially world-ending events has risen at a commensurate rate,' Vision finished, looking at the team of supers around him.

'Are you saying it's our fault?' Steve challenged as he looked up from the accords.

'I'm saying there may be a causality,' Vision answered, his blue eyes glancing at Rogers. 'Our very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict. And conflict breeds catastrophe. Oversight... oversight is not an idea that can be dismissed out of hand.'

Rhodey smirked in Sam's direction, who crossed his arms and frowned at Vision's logic. Sue saw Johnny step to be behind Steve's chair and looked over his shoulder at the accords. Steve sensed the man behind him and closed the pages, holding it up for him to take. Johnny accepted it and flicked through aimlessly, hoping there would be at least a graph or two to break up the long paragraphs.

'Tony,' Natasha called to the man lounging beside Sue. 'You are being uncharacteristically non-hyper-verbal.'

'It's because he's already made up his mind,' Steve said, and Tony let out a loud sigh.

'Boy, you know me so well.'

The Stark pushed himself upright and Sue shuffled to the left to give him space on the sofa. He put his hand on her shoulder to assist his balance when standing up, the motion sending an ache of pain through the back of his head. Sue looked down at her hands that fiddled with a loose thread from the stitching of sofa, while the team watched Tony walk into the kitchen.

'Actually, I'm nursing an electromagnetic headache,' he stated as he grabbed a mug from the counter. 'That's what's going on, Cap. It's just pain. It's discomfort. Who's putting coffee grounds in the disposal? Am I running a bed and breakfast for a biker gang?'

'Oh, sorry. That was me,' Johnny looked up from the accords and smiled sheepishly at Tony. 'I saw somewhere that coffee grounds helped clean out the pipes. Don't think it worked.'

A snicker came from Natasha as Tony tapped at his phone that sat on the counter. He looked away as a projection of a young, dark-skinned man was exhibited on the wall. Everyone in the living area turned their attention to it, while Tony looked up and pretended to see it for the first time.

'Oh, that's Charles Spencer, by the way. He's a great kid. Computer engineering degree, 3.6 GPA. Had a floor level gig at Intel planned for the fall. But first, he wanted to put a few miles on his soul, before he parked it behind a desk. See the world. Maybe be of service. Charlie didn't want to go to Vegas or Fort Lauderdale, which is what I would do. He didn't go to Paris or Amsterdam, which sounds fun. He decided to spend his summer building sustainable housing for the poor. Guess where; Sokovia.'

At his last word, Tony threw out the water he filled the mug with into the sink forcefully. Tension grew over the room as the image of the smiling boy hit deep in each of the Avengers. After Thaddeus Ross's slideshow of Avenger aftermath, the idea of civilian deaths had clouded everyone's mind. They always did their best to ensure they saved every civilian when in battle, even at the expense of their own lives. But it was impossible to save everyone, and they were always too busy fighting to notice the extent of the devastation around them.

'He wanted to make a difference, I suppose,' Tony continued while he took some headache tablets with his freshly made coffee. 'I mean, we won't know because we dropped a building on him while we were kicking ass.'

Sue winced at his blunt statement. She glanced up from the loose thread that looped through her fingers at Wanda, who sat on the opposite seat. The woman's eyes were swimming with troubles and Sue knew that Wanda was affected by what happened in Lagos, and from what Ross showed the team. Ever since losing Pietro, the Maximoff was working towards being good. She was a part of the Avengers and wanted to save people who didn't have to ability to compare to extra-terrestrial beings and AI murder robots. But every time she tried, someone ended up dying. Someone was always hurt, or angry, or indifferent. Wanda never thought that wanting to do what's good and what's right, would come with so many consequences.

'There's no decision-making process here. We need to be put in check,' Sue turned her head over her shoulder at Tony's voice. 'Whatever form that takes, I'm game. If we can't accept limitations, if we're boundary-less, we're no better than the bad guys.'

'Tony, someone dies on your watch, you don't give up,' Steve stated, and the Stark made his way out from behind the counter.

'Who said we're giving up?'

'We are, if we're not taking responsibility for our actions. This document just shifts the blame.'

'I'm sorry. Steve,' Rhodey shook his head and let out a humourless laugh. 'That, that is dangerously arrogant. This is the United Nations we're talking about. It's not the World Security Council, it's not SHIELD, it's not HYDRA.'

'Who says that the United Nations couldn't be infiltrated?' Johnny backed Steve, his voice void of his usual playful tone. 'Swayed to push us in a direction that benefits someone else?'

'Why do we have to be the ones to worry about that?' Sue raised an eyebrow at her brother. 'Politics isn't our field.'

Sue noticed the way Johnny's eyes narrowed before he looked away and put the accords back in Steve's hands. Johnny was angry by the attempts to sanction the team; Sue could see that. The Storm was never one for rules and hero work was something that he took great pride in. If he had to take orders from an organisation that's main goal wasn't to save the day and look good while doing it, Johnny didn't want to be a part of it. Sue, on the other hand, would like to have some of the responsibility taken off their shoulders. Casualties will always be a part of what the Avengers did, and most were out of their control. If they had the United Nations behind them, the proper aid and facilities for those casualties would be there in immediate effect. If it meant that they saved almost everyone, Sue wasn't opposed to losing their uncoordinated planning and spur-of-the-moment battles.

'When I realized what my weapons were capable of in the wrong hands, I shut it down and stopped manufacturing,' Tony stated, his stare on Steve who stared back with the same confidence in his argument.

'Tony, you chose to do that. If we sign this, we surrender our right to choose. What if this panel sends us somewhere we don't think we should go? What if there is somewhere we need to go, and they don't let us? We may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own,' Sue resisted the urge to scoff at Steve's words and she felt like the less reasonable Storm for once. Scoffing at people was always Johnny's thing, teamed with crossed arms and rolling eyes. But Sue felt that Steve was being naive to the fact the world didn't run on independent roles. Times had changed since the confirmatin of extra-terrestrial in their universe, but the Earth had to keep its order. 

With Tony and Steve going back and forth, the disagreement ended with Steve leaving suddenly after receiving some bad news through text. The team wandered their separate ways, with Johnny leaving first in a sour mood from the direction the discussion went. Sue stayed put as Vision and Wanda were the last to leave the room, the two wandering off with his arm around her shoulder. She thought Tony had been one of the first to leave, but she was proven wrong when he plonked down next to her on the sofa and made her jump in surprise.

His loud sigh filled the quiet living area, his hand sitting over his eyes with his elbow resting on his knee. The half-filled mug of coffee sloshed up the sides at his movements but didn't spill over its rim. Sue bit her lip at the vein that protruded from Tony's temple, and she put her hand on the back of his head, soothing it with her thumb. She felt his jaw unclench from her touch and his hunched shoulders relaxed.

'I'm glad you're backing me,' he mumbled, his eyes still hidden in his palm. 'You've always been the only one with sense.'

'They're worried,' Sue defended the team, her thumb tracing circles on his skin. 'Most of them have been stabbed in the back by organisations they thought they could trust. Give them time.'

'You really think Rogers is going to admit he's wrong?'

'He's a gentleman. Johnny is the one I doubt would ever admit fault. He was the one who would have rather cut off his own foot than admit he burnt the seating plans for the wedding.'

Tony snorted out his nose and let a toothy smile break through his lips. He pulled his hand away from his eyes to stare at the woman next to him. She had chosen to cut the last of the brown hairs off from her blonde locks. Half was tied back in a small braid while the rest fanned out over her shoulders and down her back. Her plump lips pulled into a smile as she looked at him, her eyes glinting from the lights of the room. Tony loved the way her cheeks dimpled, and her nose tilted upwards as she smiled, and he was just as in love with Sue as he was when he first saw her.