A/N: Falls under Humanformer AU. Random story that doesn't fit into any storylines but was fun to write. Also, OMG my first ever try at a multi-chapter fic! Let's see how it goes. I'll try to post a new chapter once every day or so. Okay, here we go.
Chapter 1: The Silver Six
It starts with Tony. Tony, who, at 3 in the morning, is awoken by nightmares and flashbacks of the Battle of New York and his escape from the Ten Rings. Tony, who, after tossing and turning and offering a silent apology to Pepper, finally gives up on going to sleep and gets up to head to the living room. He's the only one out there at such an early hour, and he's a bit uncomfortable with that, but he wants to keep up his tough guy persona, so he doesn't mind.
He turns on the TV and tries to find something good to watch (but is at least partially unsucessful beacuse it's 3 in the morning, and literally no-one is awake at 3 in the morning so nothing good is on). He settles on some documentary about the Big Apple, and it's interesting enough so it stays on.
About a week or so later, it's Steve. He wakes up after yet another thoroughly unpleasent nightmare about falling and being trapped in the ice. He falls out of bed, struggling his way out of the sheets and blankets that have wrapped themselves around him tight enough that he's a little freaked out, but loose enough that he knows it's just sheets.
He decided he's not even gonna try going back to sleep after that, so he wanders to the living room where he's slightly surprised to see Tony sitting there on the couch, watching the History Channel and something about aliens. Tony glances back and sees him, but doesn't say anything and goes back to waching TV. Steve thinks that he's here for the same reason Tony is, and the glance might've been an invitation, so he picks a chair and crashes in it, watching the TV as well.
Bruce stumbles in next, after particularly terrifying nightmares about hulking out and killing everyone. He immediately goes to the kitchen adjoining the large living room and downs about a half a gallon of water. His hair is already wet, so he probably doused his whole face in bone chilling water (Tony's seen him do it before and fully believes that it's his pull back to reality) before he even thought of coming here.
After he drinks down the last sip, his gaze finds the two men on seperate couches, watching some History Channel thing on US Government conspiracy cover-ups of alien visits to the planet. "You guys know they're probably making half of that up, right?" Bruce asks as he walks over and sits on one of the other couches.
"Yeah, but it's, like, the only decent thing on TV right now, so..." Tony remarks with a shrug and they watch it till the sun comes up and they all get to work. Bruce finds it strange how normal it seems for the other two, but doesn't ask because nobody really wants to discuss why they're out here watching crap TV every night instead of sleeping.
A few days later Clint staggers in after some horrifying dream and just collapses on one of the comfy chairs, wiping tears of panic and imagined smoke from his eyes. Not one of the other three men judge him or pry, and the TV is the only sound in the room. It's almost another week before Clint points out that they do have a whole room's worth of movies that they can watch instead of sad soap operas, reality TV shows, and the History Channel.
The conversation is short, consisting mainly of Clint's idea and murmured consent from the other three. Clint comes out of the closet across the room with the first Mission: Impossible movie. Tony chuckles, Steve sighs, and Bruce shrugs his shoulders in a 'Why not?' approval. Clint puts it in and they watch the movie till Thor comes in as the credits roll and the sun comes up.
And Thor turns out to be the next one joining. He says it's not for his sake, and none of the guys ask what that means till Thor sheepishly walks in with Loki almost a week later. By then, Natasha has joined and they weren't all occupying their own chair. She and Clint shared the love seat while Tony, Steve, and Bruce took the couch where Tony had first sat a while back.
Nobody asks what Nat's nightmares are about - mainly because nobody asks what anyone's nightmares are about, period - and she never even tried to take her own seat, instead sharing Clint's as he strokes her hair and occasionally murmurs something that the others didn't catch.
There is a little tension when Loki first walks in, but he does so with his head down and he looks so exhaused and honestly scared that it's hard to turn him down. He doesn't even speak for the first couple weeks, and the first words out of his mouth are "Sorry for the New York mess," which does shock a few people. He also offers an apology to Barton for 'that thing he did,' and Clint just nods his forgiveness or acceptence of the apology.
The mood does get a little less tense after the apology, and even more so after Loki accidently falls asleep during some random movie that nobody remembers because all they do remember is him waking with a scream and clawing at his shoulder and neck, almost as if he's trying to pull something off his shoulder (Thor leaves for literally two minutes to get a drink, and this happens, but not even Tony jokes about it for another full week).
Thor comes racing back after Loki wakes up and the others try to get him to remember where he is. Thor steps in front of his brother's field of view and holds his hands up, showing he doesn't have anything (the others suspect he's showing that he doesn't have Mjolnir), and Loki actually cries as he hugs his brother.
He's pretty much forgiven after that.
It's slow to get truly comfortable, but once everyone settles into a routine, it's easier. Tony's always first, waking at 3 on the dot (which is admittedly weird, because it is literally always 3 on the dot). Steve is second, waking anywhere from 5-15 minutes after him. Bruce usually stumbles in around 3:20, followed five minutes later by Clint and Natasha. Thor and Loki show at 3:30, whether or not that's around when they actually awoke. Sometimes some of them sleep through the night, but usually they all end up awake.
There's always some input on what's being watched that night, and somehow, they ended up watching the whole of the Star Trek: Voyager series. It actually even gets to a point where some of them are comfortable with falling back asleep, and they find that none of them has any more nightmares that night when they do so. Which pretty much results in half the group being asleep while the others watch TV till morning.
Sometimes, when they feel like it, they'll just talk. Even Loki eventually joins in, at first with a comment here or there, but soon, he's as much a part of the conversation as anyone else. It's casual and comfortable, and they actually feel like a family, which is comforting to all of them.