Chapter 50
Avengers Tower
June 2011
Clint wasn’t sure where to look.
Tony was on the floor. Darcy had a hand over her mouth. Steve was lunging in slow motion for Tony on the floor. And Loki, of all the fucking people, was standing at the bottom of the stairwell.
“Tony,” Steve said.
Clint made up his mind and knelt on Tony’s other side. “Grab his legs,” he said.
Steve helped Clint lift Tony onto the couch. Loki meandered over and watched with clinical detachment. Tony’s eyes were open, blank, pupils massively dilated, jittering from one thing to another. Things that weren’t really there. It was one of the creepiest things Clint had ever seen.
“Here,” Darcy said, and splashed water on Tony’s face.
He sputtered and choked and blinked several times. Gradually, his pupils shrank to a normal size and came to rest on Steve’s face, then Clint’s.
“Did I pass out?” he asked.
“Puppet. Strings.” Darcy made a scissoring motion to punctuate the statement.
“Damn, I didn’t think I was that drunk…” Tony tried a laugh and struggled to sit up. The laugh sounded distinctly fake.
Steve shoved him back down. “You’re not,” he snapped. “That’s not inebriation. I’ve seen plenty of drunk guys. Stop lying, Tony.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Tony snarled, and shoved back against Steve.
Steve resisted.
Tony socked him in the jaw.
Clint recognized the signs of raw animal fear: eyes wide, labored breathing, desperation to escape a trap, to get away, hide, protect oneself. Problem was that Tony’s trust issues ran so deep, he considered other people threats.
“Back off,” Clint said, and pushed Steve away. “You’re not helping.”
Steve glared at Clint for three seconds, before he jerked to his feet and marched out of the room.
“JARVIS, call Bruce up here, and tell him to talk to Tony. Right now.” Clint poked Tony hard in the shoulder. “You’re going to be honest, get over your pride, and trust him. The rest of us are going to go over by the kitchenette, I’m going to make coffee, and someone is going to explain why Loki is in Avengers Tower. Okay?”
“Sir, yes, sir,” Darcy said, grinning, and patted Tony on the head. “We’re here for ya, bro.”
Clint noticed a lot of things, always. It was his gift and his curse. He noticed that Tony was trembling very faintly, and that the bottles along Tony’s minibar were a lot emptier than they had been on Clint’s last visit, and that someone had added an extra seat to the table. But what he mostly noticed in that moment was the way Darcy added a bit of a swing to her hips on her way over to the kitchen area, and that Loki’s eyes tracked her all the way across the room.
How interesting.
Clint glared at Loki, waited until the Asgardian began walking over to Darcy, and followed closely behind.
“Okay,” he said when they congregated. “Someone start talking.”