Guilty as Charged [Avengers]

Guilty as Charged

Months. It had been mere months since the psychotic "god" Loki had attacked New York, and the Avengers had become worldwide heroes. Worldwide heroes by defeating the army of Chitauri and disposing of their leader.

"Disposing" of Loki hadn't been pretty. When they found him lying in a crater in the Tower, he had already been mercilessly beaten by the Hulk. But the Avengers had all agreed: he needed to die.

Clint was kind enough to awaken the would-be-king before repeating on Loki what had been done to the man in Stuttgart. After that, Thor informed his companions that even near-immortals couldn't live without their head.

Tony, Natasha, Bruce, Thor and Steve had all ignored the twist of guilt they felt as they watched Loki be killed, and continued to ignore it even now, as the city was being steadily rebuilt and their lives were relatively peaceful. No one was able to tell if Clint regretted it or not.

They all stayed together in Stark Tower, which Tony had reluctantly renamed Avenger's Tower. Steve was slowly adjusting to the future's culture; Thor was learning the ways of Midgard; Tony, Natasha and Clint were learning how to work with others better; and Bruce was beginning to see himself as a man, and not a monster.

Several holidays had come and gone since the battle, but none of them had caused Tony to be this excited. He had been talking about the wonderful fun of "Halloween" for weeks. In fact, he seemed incapable of shutting up about it.

"You've never bobbed for apples?!" he said to Thor in absolute horror. "We are totally bobbing for apples at my Halloween party."

"What do you mean you've never dressed up for Halloween?" he asked Natasha. Before she could reply, he continued, "I'm going to make sure you have a totally amazing costume. You know what? I'm gonna make sure that you all have totally amazing costumes."

When October 31st finally arrived, the other five Avengers were quite near dreading it. Costumes, candy, and an enormous Stark party.... Yes, this event appealed only to Tony-and, to an extent, to Thor. He thought it would be relatively like the feasts held for holidays on Asgard, and was almost looking forward to it. Plus, Tony had assured him there would be plenty of Poptarts. Poptarts made everything awesome.

Tony had somehow managed to drag Natasha into a very form-fitting catsuit and ears-she was apparently Catwoman. Clint was, to his horror and everyone else's amusement, Legolas from The Lord of the Rings. Bruce and Steve had dressed themselves as a scientist and a marine respectively. "You-you murderers of holiday spirit!" Tony had been less than pleased. Tony was a pirate. Well, he insisted he had dressed up as Nick Fury, but the others ignored him. Thor was wearing a Captain America show-suit from the 40s, and looked downright creepy.

The party had all of the traditional games: pumpkin carving, bobbing for apples, etc. The Avengers had all been enjoying themselves for several hours, despite several members' adamant pleas earlier that day to not be required to come.

It wasn't until about 11:00pm that anything noteworthy happened.

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"Do you have anything here to eat that isn't 100% sugar?" Clint asked-okay, he was pretty much yelling-Tony.

"Nope! It's Halloween! The Day of Candy! Don't be a dud and eat normal people food!" Tony exclaimed loudly. "I'm not even having any alcohol! If I can live without that for a night, you can live without potato chips."

"Um, newsflash; alcohol isn't potato chips," Clint said, walking off. "I'm gonna go grab my sustenance. Be back in a few minutes."

"DUD!" Tony called after him, glaring. Steve snickered, and Natasha shook her head.