Steve and Tony hardly ever argued.
Sure, they had spats, little disagreements, debates, but they hardly ever argued.
So when they did, it affected everyone. Everybody who lived in Stark Towers, who visited Stark Towers, everybody within a ten mile radius was affected by Steve and Tony's arguments.
It always happened the same way. Something happened, they argued, they went at each other like wild dogs, then Steve would walk away. Steve would go away to think about what was happening, and while he was thinking about it, Tony would be taking it out on everything in his workshop, becoming more and more angry by the minute.
By the time they next met, Steve would apologize for what he'd done, which would crumble away all of Tony's anger and make him apologize for everything, even what Steve did.
In the space of a week, Tony and Steve would go from happy-lovey-dovey couple, to I-will-kill-you-and-get-away-with-it, to I'm-so-sorry-I-love-you, and everybody who came between them within this week would either be ignored (Steve was too focused on the fight) or insulted worse than ever before in their life (Tony).
Except, that didn't happen this time.
Nobody knew what was going on. Nobody knew what had happened. Nobody knew how to handle it.
Everybody was in the kitchen, apart from Steve and Tony. This was normal routine by now, even though Clint and Natasha didn't live there, all of the Avengers would eat breakfast in the kitchen, at roughly the same time.
Clint always appeared first, seemingly out of nowhere. He would snag up the box of Fruit Loops before somebody else got it and hide with it. Two minutes later, Natasha would walk into the kitchen, closely followed by Clint, who she was pulling along by his ear, squeezing the box of Fruit Loops closely to his chest.
By the time Bruce walked in, Clint would be sat at the table, his arms crossed, staring at Natasha. Natasha would be getting everything out ready for breakfast, often shooting Clint a quick glance to check he hadn't moved and hidden the box of cereal. When Natasha looked at Clint, he would stick his tongue out at her, to which her eyes would narrow that little bit more. Bruce saw this scene every morning, and loved guessing which part of Clint's body Natasha would hurt when she got the chance to. If Bruce guessed right, he could eat Pop Tarts for breakfast, if he guessed wrong, muesli.
Today, Bruce guessed right elbow.
At this point, Steve would normally walk into the kitchen, 8 am, right on the dot, thank Natasha for getting out all the plates and bowls and cutlery, pick out some high-protein breakfast, and settle down at the table. Steve never sat next to the same person, he would go to whoever he hadn't sat next to in a while, and everybody knew the chair on the other side of Steve was reserved for Tony.
Not today though.
At 8 am, Clint, Natasha and Bruce looked up at the kitchen entrance. When Steve didn't walk through it, Natasha immediately frowned. Walking past Clint, she punched him quickly on his right arm (Bruce shrugged and counted that as a win, reaching for the pop tarts) and went through the doorway Steve had yet to walk through.
"Pop tarts, again? Didn't you have them yesterday?" Clint asked Bruce as he subconsciously rubbed his arm.
"Guess I'm just lucky at the minute." Bruce smiled at himself. "I thought S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are supposed to be tough?"
"What do you mean?"
"You're still rubbing your arm." Bruce nodded towards Clint's hand, which was indeed still rubbing where Natasha had made contact with Clint's right arm.
"If Natasha ever punches you, come and tell me it doesn't hurt like fuck." Clint said as stood up to get the box of Fruit Loops again. He gasped suddenly, looking at his hand.
"Put the cereal down, Katniss." Tony said as he sauntered into the kitchen.
"What did you throw at me?!" Clint asked, his eyes wide with surprise.
"I don't know, something I had in my pocket, I'm just surprised I hit you-"
"Fuck you, Stark." Clint had crouched down, and stood back up with a little black rectangular object. "What is this?" Clint held up the object to the light. "It's see-through?" Bringing it down slightly, he frowned at it. "But not now…" What is this, Stark?"
Tony looked up from his bowl of Fruit Loops, mouth full of them. "What? Oh that. Experiment I'm working on, try chucking it at a wall."
Clint threw the unknown object towards the wall, expecting it to fall before it reached anywhere near the wall. Surprisingly, it hit the wall and bounced off it, even the rebound going further than Clint thought it would initially go.
Bruce leaned forward, squinting to look at the object. "I've never seen anything like this before." He said as he picked it up, turning it over in his hand.
"Holy shit, look at the wall!" Clint said as he turned his gaze upon Tony, raising his eyebrows.
Tony didn't bother looking, already knowing what he would see. Bruce poked his finger into the dent this small object had made. "Tony how did you make this?" Bruce asked, however Tony's attention was diverted as Natasha walked back into the kitchen. She looked at Tony, and something passed between them, and as he turned away from her, some emotion passed over his face for barely a second.
Clint and Bruce were still looking at the object, discussing what it could be and the possibilities of what it could do.
"Well Bruce it was quite simple…" Tony began as he moved to sit next to Bruce. Clint listened until the science terminology was too often spoken, then he moved to stand next to Natasha, who was leaning against the kitchen counter.
She looked up at him, frowning. "You went to get the Fruit Loops, didn't you?"
"Maybe." Clint smirked before Natasha elbowed him.
"It's manners to wait for everybody to be at the table, Barton." She looked up at him through her lashes, a look which Clint both loved and feared.
"Stark's eating them-"
"It's Stark's house, he paid for them."
"He doesn't even like them! He only eats them because it pisses me off."
Tony stopped his conversation with Bruce momentarily to say "HAHA" before continuing his explanation.
"Fuck you, Stark!"
Tony didn't even stop this conversation this time, he just turned his head slightly and winked.
"Clint, don't antagonize him, you only encourage him further." Natasha rolled her eyes as she turned around to turn on the coffee machine.
"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" Clint asked quietly.
"You have the same training I do, let's see what you can deduce." Natasha raised her eyebrow at him as she turned back round to face him.
"Steve's not come down for breakfast, something he's never done before. Due to Stark's quick yet joyfully playful mood, I'm guessing they've had an argument. Steve would only not come down if he knew no good would come of him and Tony being in the same room, which means it's a big one. Tony's been up all night, going by the bags under his eyes, which explains where that thing's come from – which, by the way, he threw at me! – but as he's here, he thinks he's right. He'll have thought about it all night without realising he's thought about it and now he wants a fight. He's not pissy, but he's angry, and hiding it. When you came in you looked at him, and he looked away, he knows what's happened and he feels guilty for his part in it, but he thinks he's right and that's why he's here now."
Natasha looked at him for a moment. "Steve's gone."
To anybody who didn't know Natasha like Clint knew Natasha, it would look like she wasn't fazed. But Clint knew Natasha inside out, back to front, and he knew that she worried - her brow was furrowed the smallest amount it could possibly be, something only Clint would notice.
"Where?" He asked, carefully making his voice seem normal so it wouldn't alarm her more. Natasha was hard and tough and kept every worry on the inside, just like Clint. If Clint showed his worry, hers would only increase.
"Jarvis doesn't know, apparently he left last night, at 9.16. Him and Stark had just come back from the cinema, Steve went straight upstairs, packed his bag and left. Tony went straight to the workshop. They didn't speak to each other."
"Call S.H.I.E.L.D., see if he went back to his old room."
Natasha pursed her lips. "I've already done that, idiot. That was the first thing I did. They don't know where he is, and seeing as we normally know his location, nobody's been tracking it. Tony took away his S.H.I.E.L.D. phone, so there's no point tracking that."
"What about his Stark phone?"
Natasha bit her lip slightly. "It was on his bed, crushed."
Clint swore under his breath. "This is bad. They never argue like this."
They both thought for a second, thinking of what could have happened. "We can't let Fury know we don't know his location."
Clint scoffed. "Like I'm gunna go singing and dancing about it."
"My money's on Stark." Natasha said, looking at Tony, who was still animatedly talking to Bruce.
Clint shook his head while Natasha was speaking. "No, even Stark knows his limits. This was something they've both done, if not if all being Steve's fault."
"If it was Steve's fault, he'd have apologized already and they'd have forgotten about whatever's happened." Natasha quickly said.
"You could just ask me what's happened." Tony said loudly, turning his attention from Bruce to the two spies.
"What did you do?" Natasha asked Tony outright, ignoring Clint who was walking away from her, whistling the tune of "SOS" by Rihanna.
"I love how you pin this on me."
Natasha walked up to Tony slowly. "I'd apologize, but that would be stupid. Steve's gone," That emotion that flicked across Tony's face before came back, this time long enough for Natasha to catch. It looked like Tony was in pain, and trying to hide it. Just as quick as it came, it went. Natasha continued, "You went out with him last night. You came back with him. Something happened, and now Steve's gone. What happened?"
Tony stood up slowly. "As much as you like to think it, he's not the man you think he is. He's not this image that he's been built up to be. He's stubborn as hell and he's a nightmare to be around. He's even worse than you, Barton." Tony turned to look at Clint, who was sitting on the kitchen counter, eating Fruit Loops straight from the box. "Steve is an idiot, let's face it he's a prick who's walking round with a stick up his backside." Tony stopped and looking Natasha directly in the eye. "You've made him out to be this hero, well done, now he thinks he's the stuff of legends."