TO THE SILVER TOWER
TONY LOOKS WILDLY AROUND THE ROOM, AS IF ONE OF ITS TWO OTHER OCCUPANTS CAN MAKE THIS SITUATION MAKE SENSE. Pepper looks just as alarmed as him, though, and Bruce is sipping a chamomile tea like his life depends on it. Her brother is a bear he probably shouldn’t poke, right now.
He focuses his eyes on Olivia again, giving her the most incredulous, migraine-induced expression he can manage.
“What, you come into my tower with— with a bag full of weapons, stolen weapons, even— and you expect me to just… what, give you a thumbs up?” he demands, looking at her like she’s insane. She shakes her head.
“To be fair,” she reasons, “I didn’t steal them. I mean, they’re not even really stolen weapons anymore. They were yours, and now you have them again, so—,” Tony reels like he’s been physically struck.
“You stole these from me?” he repeats, borderline angry. She shakes her head.
“Tony, I just said I’m not the one who stole them from you,” she reminds him. “I didn’t even see them until afterwards. And now I’m giving them back.” Tony takes a deep breath, and then lets it out in a lengthy, stressed sigh.
“Okay,” he decides, sounding pained still, “okay. Fine. Sure. So my tower’s security? If you’re asking me to raise it, you could at least tell me why.” Olivia nods, as if to concede the reasonability of that.
“Well, full explanation is pending, since Steve and Natasha should be by sometime to get it too and I don’t want to say it a hundred times. For now though,” Olivia sighs, “basically I used to work for some shady people and now they’re pissed and want to kill me.” Tony blinks.
“Yeah, no,” he states. “You’re gonna have to un-simplify that a little for me— and when did you have time to talk to the SHIELD lackeys?” She shrugs.
“I ran into them at the warehouse picking up those,” she dismisses, gesturing to the bag of guns. “They looked pretty busy— I think Steve said something about a Hydra? Might have heard him wrong.” This time the whole room does a double take.
“Did you say HYDRA?” Bruce interjects. “I thought he took care of them in the 40s!” Pepper rubs her face, stressed.
“Glad you guys know what that means, at least,” Olivia remarks, “cause I got absolutely nothing.” Tony shoots her a bewildered look, and Bruce sighs.
“Yeah you do,” he contradicts. “You learned about them in history class. They made weapons for Germany in World War 2; Steve took them out before he was frozen.” Olivia processes for a second.
“Oh,” she realizes, “right! The Nazi scientist guys! Yeah, I think I remember something about that from US History. The lesson was mostly about Steve, so I kind of forgot what they were called.” Bruce sighs.
“I—,” Tony starts, cutting himself off. “I’m… gonna go call someone.” He turns succinctly, swiping a whiskey from behind a counter on the way, and makes a beeline for the elevator.
“I should…” Pepper trails off, gesturing helplessly after Tony. She turns and rushes after him, leaving Bruce and Olivia together. Bruce sips his chamomile tea, desperately trying not to let this stress him out.
“Well,” Olivia sighs, “I think that went pretty well, all things considered.”
Bruce closes his eyes to stave off a migraine.
***
“I liked the slushees we had there last time,” Loki hums, swirling his around with the straw. “I should have some extra time tomorrow; I was thinking I could come by and try those mozzarella sticks you keep raving about.” Olivia cringes, hesitating.
“Uh, hmm,” she interjects, “that’s probably not a good idea. Tomorrow’s not really… good.” He blinks, turning to her in confusion.
“Really? Why not? Will you not be home tomorrow?” he wonders. She tilts her head to the side, keeping her face out of his view as she grimaces.
“…you could say that,” she confirms slowly. His eyes narrow in suspicion.
“The day after, then,” he decides. She shakes her head.
“Nope. No, I won’t be home then either,” she denies.
“When will you be home, then?” he presses. She sighs, tossing around a good way to tell him that won’t get Tony’s tower stormed.
“I don’t know,” she admits, “probably not for a while. Maybe never.”
“What happened?” he demands immediately, staring at her with wide, alarmed eyes. She finally turns her face to look at him, and his expression immediately drops to dread.
“You’re not gonna like it,” she warns.