𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐄 | 𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐤

Part Forty

Fury gathered Steve, Tony and you in the briefing room just a few minutes later. Just before you went inside, you let go of Tony's hand. As soon as you walked inside, Steve noticed both of you had red eyes from crying. Tony expected you to sit close to him, but he was disappointed when you sat a bit further away. He frowned, craving your touch.

Your eyed focused on Fury, who kept quiet for another few moments before he spoke up.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. Guess he never did get you to sign them." He said, throwing Captain America trading cards on the table and towards Steve. You smiled as you remembered how much Coulson loved Captain America. Steve picked up the cards, stained with blood.

"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming." He said. "Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract." He said, making Tony look at you and you avoided his gaze as you looked down at your lap. "I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Starks know this," He referred to you and Tony, making you squirm in your place when he called you a Stark, "called The Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes."

You raised your head and saw Tony getting up before he walked away, not wanting to listen to Fury anymore.

"Well, it's an old fashioned notion."Fury added.

You shot a look at him before you got up as well and went to try to find Tony.

You found him looking at the empty cell container, the same place where Coulson died. You carefully walked inside, Tony not even registering you walking in. Until, you placed a hand on his shoulder and he turned his attention towards you.

"It's you."He said.

You nodded, "It's just me. How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine." He answered quickly.

"Are you sure?" You asked.

Tony nodded his head and looked away from you, to the wall in front of you. "You spent more time with him than I did."

You nodded with a little smile on your face as you remembered Coulson.

"He was a good man." You said.

Only then, Steve walked inside, making you part from Tony.

He looked like he heard everything you and Tony talked about. He was quiet for a few moments, but then he spoke up. "Was he married?"

You shook your head. "No. There was a cellist, though."

Steve nodded at you. "I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man."

Tony looked up at him, then back at you. His jaw clenched. "He was an idiot."

"Why? For believing?"

"For taking on Loki alone." He said, moving away from you and walking down towards Steve.

"He was doing his job."

"He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have…"

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony." Steve said, walking towards Tony.

"Right. How did that work for him?"

"Tony... " You shook your head before following him. Before you could get to Tony, Steve spoke up.

"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?" Steve asked.

Tony turned around sharply towards Steve. "We are not soldiers!" He said, and you saw the way his eyes changed when he said it. "I am not marching to Fury's fife!"He added after a pause.

"Neither am I! He's got the same blood on his hands as Loki does. Right now we've got to put that aside and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source, if we can put together a list…"

Tony looked at the wall stained with Coulson's blood, then back at your red eyes. "He made it personal."

"That's not the point." Steve said.

"That is the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?"

"To tear us apart."

"He had to conquer his greed, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience."

"Right, I caught his act at Stuttgart."You looked between the two of them.

"Yeah. That's just a preview, this is opening night. Loki's a full-tilt diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built in the skies with his name plastered…"Tony stopped talking, looking right at you. You raised an eyebrow at him and he seemed like he only then realized something. "Son of a bitch!"

Some time later, you put on your suit and walked out of the room, only to see Tony going to put on his own.

Tony's eyes stopped on you and his eyes widened. "You look... wow."

You chuckled, "Thank you."You both looked at each other for a few moments in silence before you spoke up again. "Be careful, okay?"

"When was I not careful?" Tony asked, making you raise an eyebrow at him."Okay, okay, I will be."

Your laughter died down, and you found Tony looking at you with a smile on his face. Your lips parted as you looked at him, and he looked down at your lips before quickly looking up towards your eyes.

He lowered his head towards you and you closed your eyes, waiting for what will happen.

Suddenly, you heard footsteps and you and Tony quickly parted before Natasha came into view. Tony cleared his throat and you scratched the back of your head. The whole situation became awkward. Tony was about to kiss you, and you would've let him.

You were thankful for Natasha interrupting you. You weren't ready to forget about everything just yet.

"Are you guys ready?" Natasha asked.

"I'll, uh... I'll go put on the suit."

You nodded your head and Tony quickly left you and Natasha alone.

"What was that about?" Natasha asked, looking at you.

You shook your head, "Nothing. We were just talking."

"Sure." Natasha said before she gestured at you to follow her.