ＢＲＯＫＥＮ

ʟᴏꜱᴛ//ꜰᴏᴜɴᴅ

We'd made our way back to the living room, the ring back on my hand and we were both day drinking, talking about the situation.

"Well. Where even are they?" I finally asked him. Everything with Thanos and the blip happened when I was just a kid, I didn't remember much. Tony smirked, and took a sip of his scotch. "They're here." I gasped then; eyes wide, shaking my head.

"The whole time?" I asked him, I hadn't seen or heard of these stones in years. He nodded.

"But where?" I asked, and he got up out of his chair, taking his drink with him walking out the door, beckoning me to follow.

He led me to the lab, and walked over to a seemingly flat panel of wall- one I have walked past and overlooked for years of being in this house ( if you could call it a house ).

He pressed his hand to the white plaster, and it jutted out and slid to the left, revealing a metal safe fit snug inside.

I just looked on in complete shock.

He pressed in a combination, and opened the door, looking back at me as the original iron man infinity gauntlet- the stones glowing and pulsing- came into view. I laughed in disbelief, as I beheld them, stood right there.

"Me and Banner decided to keep them- just in case. We wanted to run tests- try and learn more about their origins. After that, we didn't see a need to get rid of them, put them where anyone could find them. So they're here. Safe."
He concluded, and i shook my head again, as he closed up the safe, and the panel shifted back.

"We'll get Bruce in on it." He winked "Run some tests soon." Then he smirked, walking over to me and placing a hand on my shoulder.

"I won't make you do anything you don't want to do." He said sternly now, squeezing my shoulder.

I understood he wouldn't.

I put pressure on myself, it wasn't him.

We waited for the team to be done, and they all filed back in, looking worse than before, sweaty and out of breath.

We talked for a while, and Steve ordered pizza.

We ate and drank and when the sun set, everyone was out to the bar for more drinks and they were meeting up with Clint there.

I politely declined the offer. I was feeling super tired and I'd already been drinking- I didn't think my weak stomach could take anymore.

This is what I said to the team and Tony laughed. They all gathered their coats, saying goodbyes to me before I was left alone in the tower.

I trudged up to my room, and jumped into my bed, letting out a sigh as I did so.

I slept with the ring on.

It wasn't that I felt unsafe home alone but I was just paranoid. All of the guards, the doctor, they were all dead, and no one could get into the tower anyway. It had every layer of protection imaginable after it was almost completely destroyed.

Sleep swallowed me up.

My eyes opened to a thudding. A thumping noise, sounding like it was coming from downstairs.

I shot up in bed and listened for a moment, trying to determine where the sound was indeed coming from.

And it did sound like it was below me.

The time on my phone read half 6.
Early.

I pulled back the covers, and reached for my knife on the bedside table- the same one I'd used for training.