"That did not happen!" Clint's voice echoed around one room in Stark Tower, in which all the Avengers were lounging. They were spending a nice relaxing rare, day off together. All that week they had been on 'holiday', high priority missions only, though this day was a "nothing less than another invasion!" day.
Thor wasn't there, but then again, he wasn't really an Avenger due to the fact he had his duties to Asgard and really didn't spend much time on Earth at all – he also no longer had a girlfriend on Earth because "Long distance is a bugger! It's hard enough in a different city, let alone a different realm!" So, Thor was in Asgard, doing his princely business and overseeing Loki's punishment. He had come down to Earth, once, about two weeks after the invasion to tell them the Bifrost was being rebuilt, and Loki had been sentenced; not death, but he wouldn't say more than that. Three months on, they still hadn't heard from him.
Bruce had permanently moved into Stark Tower, there were enough rooms for him; he had been given one of the ninety floors in the tower. His floor was complete with a lab (his own personal candy land), a bedroom, a conference room (though he used it as a study), a bathroom, and a safe room – strong enough for the Hulk if he was feeling stressed. Although he had turned down the offer to convert the extra room into a workshop, he didn't need it, and so he used it as his personal relaxation area.
Steve had moved in part time, he got a small flat in Manhattan, not far from the tower; although far enough that if he wanted some time alone, he could have it – however he rarely spent time in it, and it didn't have any of his personal possessions in it; Tony had joked how it would be the flat Steve would bring women back to, but stopped after much spluttering and exclamations that really amounted that he would need to court a woman before he could ever let himself get to know her so intimately – he was old fashioned that way. He also had his own floor, it too had a bedroom, bathroom and conference room, though no lab, the room in which Bruce had his safe room was his gym, complete with a few exercise machines, weights, and punch bags. The spare room though, had not yet been converted into anything.
Clint and Natasha also had their own flat in which they shared, though none of the other Avengers knew where it was. They spent some of their time on the Helicarrier, as they were still agents, after that they split their time between the flat and the tower; although they had been spending more and more time at the tower . They too had their own floor. The conference room on their floor had been converted into a shooting range and training area, where they could practice with their chosen weapons as well as spar with each other. After that they had one bathroom, a gym similar to that of Steve's and an extra bedroom where the spare room would have been. It was not known to any other than Tony and the two agents if they used both bedrooms. Tony knew because Jarvis saw everything that happened in the tower, though he wasn't going to tell anyone, they didn't, but needed both rooms so as not to tell outright they shared a room (it wasn't anything romantic, at least not yet, but it was logical to have them roomed together, both for their 'intimate relations' and for security).
Pepper was staying with them too; she always stayed at Tony's main home, but moved from place to place when the company needed her to, as did Tony. Stark Tower was the main home to both of them after Malibu; after all, it was their baby – a more reasonable percentage had been discussed. She usually stayed at the Malibu house, as did Stark – sometimes they crossed over in their stays. Mainly she lived in the very top floors of the tower; her bedroom was on the floor directly below that of Tony's bedroom – though they shared the top five floors. In those five floors there were five bedrooms, five labs, two workshops (though Tony preferred the one at his other home), one kitchen/dining area, four conference rooms, three lounges and five bars.
The top twenty floors of the tower were all for inhabitants, the rest was for work. There was one communal floor, equipped with bathroom, kitchen, dining room, living room and a pool room. On the roof, on the same floor as the penthouse, was a swimming pool, no one but Tony used to penthouse, although the Avengers did use the pool.
It was in the living room they were all sitting together (minus Thor), even Pepper was sitting next to Tony – it was a Stark Industries holiday too.
"Of course that's what happened!" Natasha shot back, ready to continue her story when Hawkeye interrupted again.
"You need your memory tested Spider! You and I remember Budapest very differently!" Clint argued.
The Avengers, plus Pepper, minus Thor (the Tower Inhabitants, TI), laughed at their antics. Hawkeye and the Black Widow were trying to tell the others what happened in Budapest. Their story had started out together, however very soon, comically so, their facts started to diverge and contradict at almost every point. It was at then that Agent Phil Coulson walked in, arm in sling and torso heavily bandaged under his suit.
The doctors had given him a diet of physiotherapy, no strain and no stress so Fury had handed him the task of making sure the Avengers didn't kill each other (because of course that's a no stress no strain job!) – they had all had a talk that if they caused Coulson any strain at all "and that means you Stark!" they would be eating their own liver before they could even piss themselves. As a result it turned out that Coulson was more or less on holiday at Stark tower until he recovered but still got to feel useful in some way (Fury had regular updates as to what the TI were up to.) considering how little his injury actually allowed him to do.
The sceptre had just missed his heart, though they did have a hard time draining and stitching his left lung after it had collapsed with two massive gashes in it from when the blade tore straight through. The other blade fortunately did not rupture anything but some minor veins and arteries. When the Avengers had been told he was alive they were overjoyed, at first, then annoyed at being lied to and at the wasted grief and mourning – it was then revealed that Coulson had been dead for all of six minutes – not record breaking, but no small feat, most would still be dead, but not Coulson! Of course it took him almost six months to get to a point he could even sit up – he would be off duty for the majority of the next year before being cleared back for field work.
"Coulson!" Clint called. "Which of us is right?" He demanded.
"About what?" Coulson cautiously asked, though he regretted it almost instantly.
"Budapest." Clint said.
"Oh, not again! When will you two talk about anything other than Budapest?!" Phil groaned.
Tony laughed freely at his annoyance with the two agents.
"Be quiet Stark! I still have a Taser and Supernanny is due to start in five minutes!" that shut him up as the others laughed at his expense. Coulson felt a little better and prepared himself for what he was going to ask.
"What about Budapest...?"
"Who is telling the story right?" Natasha replied.
"I don't know, I haven't heard you tell it." At that moment, Coulson hated himself; he had just damned himself to listen to two different versions of the famous Budapest. He was never going to be able to watch his precious Supernanny (it gave him great tops on how to deal with his SHEILD agents as well as superheroes).
"Okay, so we agree it starts the same." Clint said.
"And how is this?" Phil asked.
"We get a mission to Budapest." Clint and Natasha finish together. They didn't look like they were going to continue to Phil spoke again.
"Is there anything else you agree on?" He asked, already fearing the answer. Tony started laughing to himself again.
"No." They answered.
It was going to be a long night.
Notes: Okay, I am not sure whether I want to carry this on or not - it's fairly long winded, I know, and that is because I was explaining the tower dynamics, for a longer story - though it is largely unnecessary - but I'm not sure anymore, I'm happy where it ended because I don't think I will be able to successfully write out Budapest to my satisfaction - what do you think I should do? (I'm pretty sure that if I do write another chapter or two for it I can work around Budapest)