"SO, BASICALLY," TONY RECAPPED after the Cap, "basically what Capsicle here means to say is that we aren't really ordering you, a small-time hairdresser, into rooming with the evillest supervillain of the universe who is also immortal and slightly...
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POST CREDIT SCENE #1
Tony kicked a piece of rubble around the floor of his Tower, looking around at the disastrous state it was in. He had just returned from having a huge argument with Steve, which had seen them parting once again and right now he wanted to hit something.
He sat down on his dusty sofa, sighing. He was sweating profusely but he wasn't sure if that was from having worked non-stop at containing the multi-dimensional rift those aliens had created in his basement or whether it was because he was dead tired after the events of the past few days.
He lay back with an ironic smile.
"This is all because of you!" he had punched Loki at the hospital where the doctors had hopelessly tried to save Naz.
Loki had turned away with cold stare as if he didn't care what was happening and it had burned Tony with fury. "She was the one who was supposed to be rescued. You should have been the one to—"
"Shut up, you're hysterical," Loki had commented in the most matter-of-fact tone.
That was when Tony had shrunk back because in Loki's calm voice he realized his own complicity in Naz's state. He had convinced her to take the Trickster in. That was how it had all started. No, he had signed her fate the day he had decided to track down the mutant from the SHIELD files. He had made her visible, he had placed a target on her back.
And then, of course, they had got a message from the fucking Nick Fury himself.
"Why aren't you dead?" Tony had called back almost venomously.
"Mr. Stark," came the jovial voice, "nice to see you were worried."
"You were supposedly blown to smithereens."
"I was—kind of. I have a new arm and leg now but I am very much alive. Regained consciousness just in time to see you Avengers saving the world yet again. Well done."
"Why the hell were you building a spacevault? Are you nuts?"
"Let's meet and discuss this over a nice cup of coffee."
"How about you drown in that cup of coffee and I discuss your obituary?" Tony spat.
Fury let out a sigh, "Is this because of the girl in ICU?"
"She has a name!"
"And there are various spatio-temporal breaches still live all over the world. Captain and Thor realize the gravity of the situation, do you?"
Tony's eyes flickered to where Steve and Thor were observing him almost cautiously.
"Stark, we are all under immense danger at this moment."
"Yeah, yeah, now you say that." But he went along anyway.
He got up hating how his mind was fidgeting and then lay back again. His fractured leg throbbed ominously, as if painfully reminding him that nothing was over yet.
He realized nothing would ever be over and he almost screamed in defeat as he told himself to stop ignoring that he sucked at fixing things.
So, he got up and decided to plan a system in which everyone could be contacted, even stupid Steve, in case a situation ever presented itself. He had hated contacting people and feeling helpless when most of the Avengers contacts hadn't even been able to show up on time. Never again. So what if he wasn't great at fixing things? It had never stopped him before.
---
Natasha sat beside the hospital bed, twirling the empty coffee cup between her fingers as she observed the unconscious figure lying on the bed.
"Natasha?"
She jumped out of her reverie and smiled at the visitor, "You're up and about."
Clint smiled cheerfully, brandishing the plaster around his arm, "Yes, I got discharged today. On the road to recovery."
"Are you going home?" she asked.
"Just for a bit," he said. "I need to see them or I'll go mad." He shifted uncomfortably, "I only get a day at the most. Fury wants me to help round up the corrupt SHIELD agents and track down Ajax's contacts."
"Good luck," she smiled.
"He...also asked me to ask you why you haven't answered his calls."
She gave him a look, "Tell him I'm busy," and settled down comfortably in her chair.
He nodded with a proud smile, "I will."
As he walked out he caught sight of a bouquet of golden flowers, shining with an almost supernatural glint. It reminded him of the illusion Thanos had caught him in and he felt a pang of familiar guilt.
When the Avengers had needed him most, he had fallen for a trick. He remembered reaching as close to Thanos as the glass partition separating the corridor from the spacevault control room. He had no arrows left but he had fought off plenty of hostiles with his arms—arm, he corrected himself as the sharp stiffness reminded him of the multiple fracture in one of his arms.
Thanos threw him into a never-ending loop of fighting hostiles. Loki had found him fighting off imaginary figures several miles away from the scene nearly a day later.
After he collapsed, he didn't remember anything except waking up in the hospital room two days ago ever since when he had been monitoring SHIELD squads and co-directing hauls.
At least, all the breaches had been closed off by now, thanks to the combined efforts of Rogers, Thor, Stark, Maximoff, T'Challa and the others.
His phone beeped and his eyes widened as he looked at the message from Fury. He typed back, "On it."
---
Thanos sat at his majestic throne, eyes closed, face pensive. Around him darkness swirled in sublime shapes, waiting for him to awake.
With a tremor that rocked the entire palace, his eyes opened wildly and then, finding himself where he was, his stare hardened in anger, alive with recent memories from his failure.
"Bring me the infinity stones," he thundered.
***
Dedicated to evethespy for being this wizard on a reading and commenting marathon. I swear I was on a happy cloud for the rest of the day! Love you, bae <3
