- Natasha Romanoff
Natasha considered herself to be smart. She was one of the best profilers in SHIELD, she was the spy, she was a Black Widow. There was very little that escaped her notice.
But Tony Stark had escaped her notice.
She crossed her arms around her chest, watching the three other people sitting in the common room.
From the second Natasha had walked into Stark Industries for the first time, Tony Stark had confused and irritated her. Fury always kept his cards close to his chest, and shared no secrets with anyone. And it made sense: the man was the Director of SHIELD. It was his job to know everyone’s secrets and give away none of his own.
But it didn’t make sense for Tony Stark’s masks to be as thick and as perfect as the SHIELD’s director. It didn’t make sense for him to blindside her at every stop the way he did. It didn’t make sense for him to look at her like he saw right through her, like he knew her when he didn’t even know her real name.
It left her with an uncomfortable feeling crawling down her back the entire time she was shadowing him. The same feeling she had upon meeting Director Fury or Bruce Banner or Loki for the first time.
That feeling of: do not turn your back on this one. He’s dangerous.
And then Natasha had allowed herself to forget their first interaction.
She had allowed herself to forget the dizzying nerves the man would be able to generate and turned her back on him during the Civil War.
Instead of knowing better and solidifying their partnership, she had turned her back to him and bet on Captain America. Bet on the soldier out of time instead of throwing her lot with the futurist.
And now.
And now here she was, sitting in the common room with a book in her hands, pretending she didn’t see or hear the trio on the couch and pretending she didn’t feel her heart pulsing uncomfortably at the familiar scene.
“I’m just saying,” said Doctor Betty Ross, carefully applying the nail polish. “Logically speaking, it doesn’t make much sense.”
Tony snorted while the third member of their trio rolled her eyes.
“She has a point, Darce,” he said, completely and utterly relaxed. Like she wasn’t even in the room, like either he couldn’t see Natasha or she didn’t register as a threat to him.
Neither option was particularly appealing.
She remembered a time when Tony would immediately find her upon entering a room. A time where he would see her, startle slightly and then give her a beaming smile. A “Hey, Nat”. Happy to see her. Glad to see her.
And she remembered a time when he would leave chocolates imported from Belgium in her usual hiding places, ordered just for her. When he would find her in the middle of the night with a bottle of vodka and not say anything, simply joining her in drinking. When she would wake up the next day with a blanket that still smelled a little like him.
A time when they would sit in the living room as he was now, doing each others nails as he was now, because they were ‘arguably the two youngest members of the team, basically everyone’s little siblings, Tasha!’, and laugh, drink and gossip.
“Okay,” started Tony, taking a sip of the beer Darcy had brought from New Mexico. “So what do you think would happen if we put nail polish on the Hulk?”
Then Tony was probably aware that she in this room, because she remembered having this conversation before.
“Hey, Nutty Nat,” he asked, looking up at her. Maria Hill had just left the room despite him trying to get her to join up with their self care routine, so it was yet again just her and him.
“Uh?”
“What do you think would happen if we put nail polish on the Hulk?”
Natasha looked up at him with horrified eyes. She considered Tony one of her friends now, and she cared about him, but sometimes he could be so fucking stupid. She never said anything about how much he truly believed the Hulk to be ‘his friend’ but…
“Why the fuck would we do that?” she demanded, voice and expression blank.
He flinched appropriately. But it was like he never understood. He wasn’t the one risking his life for a goddamn lullaby to make sure Doctor Banner calmed down. He got to walk around in his suit of armour that would protect him adequately while her neck was exposed as she played little house with the rage monster.
“I just thought-”
“You know what, this was supposed to be a stress free environment,” she decided, dropping the container of nail polish. “I’m going to my room.”
“Wait, Tasha!”
Betty Ross raised an eyebrow at him. “Do you mean in a scientifically ‘how does the Hulk work’ or in a ‘I am breaking toxic masculinity’ way?”
Tony shrugged. “Impress me,” he said, taking Darcy left hand. “Blue or black?”
“Blue. And I think he’d look nice. But would he be able to sit still enough for it? And would it be still there when he shifts back into Doctor Banner?”
“Maybe if we get him drunk,” said Ross junior, like it was a joke. Like giving alcohol to a being prone to destruction like the Hulk wouldn’t have terrible consequences for all.
But Tony laughed and she beamed at him, and Darcy was grinning too.
Neither of the women was a tough as Natasha and yet, neither of them was afraid of the Hulk.
Just like Tony.
It made something unpleasant roll in her chest.
How long had she been wrong about him?
- Clint Barton
Watching the god of mischief who subjugated his mind and tried to take over the world (or New York) freely walk around the Compound while he was forced to wear an ankle monitor at any time was an exercise in containing your fury.
When Clint and the rest of the Avengers had walked in to see that mind raping bastard sitting between Banner and Thor, laughing about something or the other, they had, obviously, freaked out.
Only Natasha’s foresight of reading the goddamn documents they had signed had stopped most of them from attacking.
She had managed to let them know he was a ‘magical consultant’ and ‘cleared of his crimes’ before everyone but Wanda and Clint could attack.
Not that either of their attacks landed; Loki did not even have to turn his head around to create a barrier between them and him.
But it still got him and Wanda a warning each and none of their complaints about how they didn’t know he was going to be there or how seeing him was distressing were being heard (for the first one, they reminded them that his name was on the roster of Avengers and consultants, and that if they didn’t read the contracts they signed it was their fault; for the second, Bruce had looked at Wanda straight in the eye and loudly questioned if he could get a mind raping bitch out of the place because seeing her distressed him).
The worse thing was? Loki had not even attempted to be hostile towards him.
He did not apologise for what he did to him and New York, and he did not avoid him when he saw him in the room, but he mostly... ignored his existence. When Clint shot barbs and acid words at him, he shrugged them off like they didn’t bother him. When Clint glared at him during moments in which they were in the same room, he raised an eyebrow at him and continued doing whatever it was he was doing.
It was like his existence did not bother him in the slightest, whereas Clint could not see him without his blood pressure raising.
On top of this, the thing that bothered him the most was how suddenly close to Tony Stark the would-be dictator was.
When they had returned from Wakanda, Clint had expected to find Tony holding every repair and upgrade known to man and begging them to forgive him. He had expected to hand out a few more tongue lashings and make the man grovel for a while before returning to their dynamic from before. He did not blame him for the Accords, just for the Raft - and he understood now that it was not fully his fault.
But it wasn’t what they had found.
They had not even seen Stark for the first two weeks of their arrival. The first time they had seen him, he was dressed to the nines and talking rapidly about numbers and concessions with a woman Lang identified as Hope Van Dyne, and did not even blink in their direction.
That became quickly a pattern. Whenever they saw Stark, he was either too busy for them, or hanging out with one of these ‘New Avengers’. And unfortunately, these new Avengers included Loki.
He pulled his thoughts away from that dark corner, only to feel even worse when he noticed Stark walking back into the common room where he, Loki and one of Stark’s brats were sitting.
Loki and the brat - Harley - had been giggling and chatting for the past half an hour in a language Clint did not know (and he knew it was intentional) as he drank his coffee and glared at Loki, and immediately beckoned the engineer when he walked in.
Stark gave him a brief glance before focusing on the other two, looking amused. “You two are smiling. Why are you smiling? It makes me want to run as fast as I can and as far as I dare,” he informed them, even as settled beside the two of them.
Loki didn’t say anything, just pointed at the room in front of them, the kitchen. Where one James Rhodes was, giving the final touches to the roast chicken filling he had decided to prepare - Clint was ready to bet that it would be mysteriously all finished by the time he and Steve’s team got to the kitchen.
Then, as Rhodes moved to open the oven, Loki put both hands on Stark’s ears.
Clint did not even have time to stiffen at the sudden contact, and suddenly there was the sound of chicken in heat coming from the kitchen that made Rhodes cry out in a panic.
Harley, Stark and Loki all busted out laughing at the display, though they tried to hide their giggles behind their hands. Loki must have put a spell on them, because Rhodes did not once look in their direction or accuse them or anything.
“Why did you cover my ears?” questioned Stark after a minute or so of laughter that started up again whenever Rhodes approached the oven and his dead chicken started crying again.
“Cause you have a heart condition and I’m not a dick?”
“What are you doing?” questioned Tony, coming to stand beside Clint.
The archer simply smiled at him. “Nothing, my good sir. How are you this fine morning?”
Tony did not look impressed. “You are up to something, birdbrain.”
“When am I not, though?” he asked, trying not to laugh as Tony rolled his eyes and opened the cabinet with the mugs.
Just to scream like a little girl when he saw several knives fall rapidly towards him. Clint immediately dissolved into giggles at the over the top reaction, while Tony started to glare at him, one hand over his chest, once he realised the knives had been secured and wouldn’t actually injure him.
“What the fuck, Barton! You know I have a heart condition!”
“Don’t be such a baby Stark,” he said, still chuckling as he walked away from the genius. “Oh just wait till Nat hears about this.”
“Tell me you got a video of the whole thing,” begged Stark, looking at Harley with happiness in his eyes.
Now that he thought about it, even when they planned practical jokes together, Stark had never found Clint’s ideas for fun particularly amusing.
His coffee suddenly did not taste as good as earlier.
- Steve Rogers
Unlike most people, Steve Rogers knew he had fucked up.
He was aware that it was his actions that, in the end, split up the Avengers. He had blamed Tony in the beginning and at the airport, but the warm air of Wakanda was pretty good at waking up braincells.
That, and T’Challa did not make a secret of how much he wished Steve had not broken his friends out of the Raft and brought them to his house.
But because he had been the one who broke the team dynamics, he had thought he would be able to be the one who fixed them too.
It had not been the case.
Every time he tried to be alone in a room with Tony, or tried to accost him, several immovable objects appeared in his way. Steve had often thought himself to be an unstoppable force (“plant yourself like a tree and tell them ‘no’, you move”) but there was no way of doing anything when Danvers demanded he stayed behind for some made up reason, Rhodes monopolized Tony’s time with questions about his braces, Jones straight up threatened him and then there was that goddamn fucking wizard and his stupid cloak.
Stephen Strange.
Steve was a child of god and would never wish ill on people, but Doctor Strange was truly a piece of work. He threatened to have Wanda’s powers removed within the first hour of their meeting. He had outfitted several superheroes with amulets and runes that made it impossible for her to hear their thoughts (and Scott, Clint, Bucky and Natasha had accepted those). He walked around like he owned the Compound and always looked down on them.
And his stupid portals that made you fall for ages and that no one said anything about. They all - especially Tony - had problems about Wanda performing magic around the Compound, but Strange could open portals anywhere and pull Tony away before Steve could approach him, and no one complained.
How could he fix what was broken in the team - his relationship with Tony - if they did not allow him to? The entire line up of the New Avengers enabled all of Tony’s actions.
They let him put the Avengers in galas and press conferences; they refused to pull him out of his workshop when he was having his binges (and FRIDAY did not even agree to pass on Steve’s worried messages); they even made him second in command for the science division of the Avengers, working under Doctor Ross (daughter of the bad Ross) and let him play with space tech. Thor himself brought Asgardian tech for Tony to play with, and the one time he tried to tell him off for that and remind him of ULTRON, Loki had dragged Thor away from him, both of them scowling at Steve for some reason (and Steve did not miss how they doubled the amount of tech they shared with him and invited the Guardians to ‘tinker’ with him, Rhodes and Van Dyne).
He was in the main room with Strange - who blatantly ignored him and his greeting when he walked in - and a couple of New Avengers, busy with his statements when Tony walked into the room.
(that was another thing that Steve wished he could speak to Tony about; instead of the free credit cards Tony got for them, now the government was paying them, and taking out money when they broke stuff. They had to be extra careful during their fights because now, if they used someone’s car to stop a bag guy, they had to pay for the car which made no sense)
Tony did not look at Steve instead throwing himself at Strange, who was busy reading a book on the couch.
Steve’s chest hurt slightly at the picture, though he could feel a little annoyance at the genius’ actions.
Steve was sitting on the couch, drawing the view from outside the penthouse window when Tony emerged from the workshop.
The rest of the Avengers minus Bruce were sat around the living room, each of them busy with their own things. But the second Tony walked into the room he let out a slight cry and threw himself on the couch, startling the calm out of the room.
Steve couldn’t help but feel irritated, especially when instead of apologizing, Tony squirmed around until his head was laying on Steve’s lap, a dumb grin on his handsome face. “Hi. Guess what?”
The blond did not allow himself to feel fond. “Tony. Can’t you see we are all busy?”
The grin slid off his face. “Oh. I thought-”
“I am trying to draw, and you don’t even bother asking before you throw yourself at me,” he complained. “What if I accidentally hurt you with my pencil? Or if you ruined my drawing?”
“I didn’t-”
“Friend Tony,” called out Thor, suddenly standing up. “Can you help me with something?”
Tony looked away from Steve, expression closed off and nodded, following the Thunderer out of the room and looking like he was the hurt party.
Sometimes Steve truly did not know what he saw in him.
Apparently, the years and separations had not taken his dramatic self out of him, thought Steve as he watched Tony squirm his way until his head was on Strange’s lap.
“Hey. Guess what?”
Steve prepared himself for a similar speech - everyone knew that Strange was not a patient man - from the sorcerer, but Strange did not get annoyed. “Hold on, let me finish the chapter.”
And instead of becoming more irritating and demanding the attention then and there, Tony kept his mouth shut, quietly waiting for Stephen to be done.
Like it was that simple.
None of the ‘New’ Avengers said anything or acted peeved by Tony’s obnoxious interrupting of the peace, continuing their activities in utter silence for five more minutes until Strange was done with what he was reading.
And then Tony was quietly explaining something regarding the repairs for the Sanctum to Strange, and the man was carefully listening to his words, even if he wasn’t an engineer.
Natasha and Clint had told him that it felt like they were what was wrong with Tony and the original Avengers line up, and he never truly believed them until this moment.
‘Locks can be replaced, but maybe they shouldn’t’ he had told Tony, hoping he understood that he should be changing his behaviour, but that the Avengers understood if he couldn’t.
But instead, Tony had changed the Avengers instead.
They might be back at the Compound, but in that moment, Steve understood.
Tony had won the war, and they had lost Tony.
(and he understood, they had never had him in the first place)