Disclaimer: I don't own anything
They all thought their so called team wouldn't last. After all, they were just a bunch of damaged people with no interest in making friends whatsoever.
However, a rather unusual incident managed to change their minds.
It all started when Fury talked them all into moving in the famous Stark Tower. Or should it be called Avengers Tower? (Gee I wonder who came up with the idea of calling it that? A little hint: his name starts with an 'F').
As everybody had expected, Bruce Banner was the first one to move in. It seemed that a certain billionaire had managed to convince him using his charming personality (and, of course, Fury's wrath).
'I'm glad to finally have someone I can share my genius with!' were the first words that escaped Tony's mouth after he had seen his 'sciencebro' walking into the magnificent and still half-destroyed Avengers Tower.
'It's good to know the New York events haven't altered your pleasant behavior' said Bruce suppressing laughter.
'Let's settle you in. Oh, let me help with your luggage.'
Tony's offer of help was met with a light chuckle.' Tony, there's really no reason you should carry them for me. After all, you're not the one with a green, powerful monster inside'
'Who said something about me carrying them? Jarvis?'
'Yes Sir' came the immediate response from Jarvis
'Get someone to take Dr. Banner's luggage to his room.' then, his eyes lighting up with excitement, turned to Bruce and said 'Come on! Let me show you my lab'
And that was the day two Avengers became friends.
Steve and Thor were, however, another story.
Both being from 'different worlds', they had become friends almost immediately. Both liked being around the one another because they would always talk about each other's home. Steve would tell Thor all about the wars and Thor would tell Steve about Asgard. Despite their extremely different personalities, Thor being the loud and almost always happy one and Steve being the quiet and almost sorrowful one, they did become rather good friends.
Because Steve wanted to be a great team and that means being able to trust any team member with your life, Thor and Steve found themselves in front of the big building with an 'A' on it.
'Now or never, big guy' were the first words that left Steve's mouth as he took in the surroundings
'If this is the only way Director Fury will let me stay on Midgard, so be it. For Lady Jane! Now let's enter and find friend Stark'
As soon as they had arrived at the floor they were told they were going to live from now on, a strange voice coming from the walls of the building told them somebody whom the voice kept calling 'sir' was going to come and meet them in a few minutes.
Before they had any time to respond, the famous playboy, billionaire, Tony Stark himself had appeared in front of them. As his face and some of his clothes had some kind of oil on them, Steve supposed he had been working on something, and knowing Stark, Steve knew he had been right.
'Point Break, Capsicle, happy to have you on board. The more the merrier! What took you so long? Bruce had moved in even before the Avengers floor was repaired, and that was a few weeks ago!' and without waiting for a reply he continued 'Anyway, you may go and choose any room you like from this entire floor. I would have given each of you an entire floor, but since Fury made us share a house to interact more with one another, I thought why not share a floor?' he was about to say something else when Thor's question stopped him.
'Man of Iron, I have heard of some kind of animals you have on Midgard ... rats was it? Are they able to talk?' asked Thor with a confused expression
'As far as I know, Thor, rats can't talk.' was Tony's reply, wearing almost the exact confused look like Thor had worn a few seconds before.
'Then I am sure there is a man trapped in your walls, friend Stark. We must rescue him.' and then he started to shout at the ceiling 'Do not worry, I shall rescue you!' But before he had time to summon Mjolnir, Tony had started to laugh. Steve knew, of course, that there wasn't any man trapped in Tony's ceiling, but yet he didn't know where the strange voice came from. After he had managed to calm down, Tony began to explain where the strange voice came from.
'The voice you had heard when you came in was Jarvis. He is some sort of computer I created to help me around.' Steve nodded, as he was already familiar with these 'computers' everybody was using. Thor was still suspicious but after he had seen that Steve trusted Tony's explanation he gave up on his plans to find out himself if there wasn't indeed a man trapped.
There were a lot of incidents between Thor and pretty much any object inside the tower, but fortunately, nobody got hurt.
Between Steve and Tony, however, there was always a tension. The fact that they didn't like each other was a fact well known to Thor and Bruce, as they always seemed to avoid each other's presence. If Tony was in a room it was impossible for Steve to be there. But no matter how much they disliked each other, they were both mature enough not to fight. They just never talked with each other more than they had to on missions.
And during that time, Bruce and Thor became friends.
It all happened while they were trying to get Tony and Steve to talk to each other. They would come up with hundreds of plans, but they found out later that all they had needed was some evil freak to almost kidnap them.
Being both alone in a dark, cold room, made them open up to each other and somehow understand each other. Tony learned how hard it had been for Steve to wake up in another time, and Steve learnt that there was more to Tony than just the suit. After they escaped, they realized they could be great friends, and they had been right.
As everybody had expected, Natasha and Clint were the last to move at the Avengers Tower.
Unlike Thor's moving in, Nat and Clint's moving in was less funny. Both of them being assassins and the tension between Tony and Natasha made things more awkward than any of them would have liked.
Despite all that, Hawkeye was the first to open up to the rest. He actually tried to become friends with them.
Thor with his loud and cheerful personality was the first person Clint got to call his friend. Like all of the Avengers before, Clint tried to teach Thor some things about 'Midgard' as he calls it. As everybody expected, after a couple of days he gave up too.
Making friends with Bruce had been pretty simple for Hawkeye, both being hunted by their past. They both knew how to be controlled by somebody, having their choice being taken from them. They both used to be lonely people, opening up just to a couple of people, not trusting themselves or anybody else, sometimes wishing they had just died. They never got over it, and probably will never get over it, but at least they stopped thinking so much about it.
Bruce and Steve's friendship formed around a common interest: art. Steve loved to draw and Bruce loved to talk about any kind of art.
Probably the most troubled friendship was the one between Tony and Clint. After they found that the sarcastic remarks, sense of humor and pranks had been the base for their friendship. They would pair up and trick everybody else, and when they wanted to spice things up, they would start a prank war against each other. Fury was the only one that was able to stop them.
Even after they talked about their past, about Clint's brother's betrayal, about the circus, about Tony's father, about Obi, they still acted like children. And maybe that was a good thing.
Natasha was the last one to become friends with the rest. After all, making friends with the Black Widow wasn't a piece of cake at all.
Nat took, however, the first step.
She knew that Bruce thought she was afraid of him. She wasn't. Not anymore. Not after she had realized that they all had a big green monster inside of them. And she wasn't talking about jealousy. Each and every one of them had made some pretty terrible stuff. And perhaps Bruce made the least terrible things out of all of them. So, she had tried really hard to make friends with Bruce, before he arrived at the conclusion that she hated him. She even prepared a speech. It was a long, almost heart-breaking speech. She wouldn't even have to act. It all came naturally, because she really wanted to become friends with the good doctor. Heck, she even wanted to become friends with the other guy. It turned out Bruce knew she wasn't afraid. He had known all along. And when the Hulk saved her from being crushed under an entire building, she realized Hulk knew it too.
Making friends with Steve had been a natural thing. He was their Captain, after all. They needed to know him and trust him, and Nat was pretty good at following orders. She had always had a superior, somebody she had worked for. She thought she knew how these things work. It turned out she was wrong. Steve never made a decision about the team or battle tactics, without asking them first.
Unlike the rest of the team, she actually managed to help Thor about his culture issues. She had tried to explain to him everything, from wars to Christmas. Christmas was now Thor's favorite holiday. He just loved the idea of an old man giving gifts. However it took him a while to understand Santa Claus wasn't real.
Her relationship with Tony Stark was another problem.
Tony Stark, as they came to understand, had trusted only a few people in his entire life. The only ones left were Pepper, Happy and his friend Rhodey. Now, in less than a year he had to live with five strangers he somehow manage to trust and become friends with. When Tony had met Natalie Rushman he had felt he could trust her. He actually did trust her. She had been, perhaps, the only person he had ever trusted after only a few weeks. That was why, when he found out it had all been a lie, he had taken it so hard. He really liked Natalie, and that's why he thought he was never going to like Natasha. She practically killed Natalie.
Natasha sensed that so she tried her hardest to make him change his mind. Natalie was, after all, a part of her. Working for Tony had been way better than she had imagined. She half-expected him to scream at her for lying and pretending she was someone else. Instead of that, he acted like she was a stranger. In fact, she might have been as they only talked when it was absolutely necessary. Just like she wasn't even there, like she didn't exist. She had, of course, seen the look of betrayal on his face when Fury told him the truth. It was just a moment, so short she hadn't even been sure it was there to begin with. That's when she realized the mistake she made when she had written that report on him. She spent many sleepless nights thinking about the consequences of her actions. How that report could have left the team without one of its most precious members. She wasn't used to this, to mistake. When she wrote a report about somebody she was right. That was until Tony Stark. He wasn't even the most damaged of the all people she had ever written about. He was just extremely good at hiding emotions and reading and playing with people's head. He managed to fool the entire world he was just an egoistical playboy.
Deep down, the only thing Tony had ever wanted was a family. Somebody you could watch movies with, spend Christmas with, stuff like that. But family means trust, and that had always been Tony's curse: trusting the wrong people. Bruce, Steve, Thor and Clint managed to see trough the rough exterior and realize he cared about all of them. Little did he know that deep down, he cared about Natasha too. He, however, realized just how much he cared about her. Like in other cases, they just needed a catastrophe.
Even if Nat and Clint were a part of the Avengers, Fury still called them sometime, when a mission seemed far too complicated for other agents. They were called once or twice a month.
One of Natasha's missions ended badly.
When the rest of the team had found out Nat was at the S.H.I.E.L.D hospital wing, they literally flew over there. After they had fought some doctors and got inside their faces lost so much color that they matched the white sheets on Nat's bed.
She was unconscious on a big white bed, her fire-like hair being the only memory of the woman they knew. She looked so small and fragile, they were afraid to breathe next to her, afraid she might break. Clint rushed to her side and started whispering soothing words in an unknown language. Without another word he left the room. Probably to find the ones that did that to her.
They all took a seat on a couch that had been brought for them from Fury's orders. Even Fury came to check on his best spy.
'You have to go with Clint' Fury's voice rang through their ears.' You can't help her from here. She's still unstable, and I don't want you to get your hopes up.'
They all knew, deep down, that Fury was right. Yet they didn't have the heart to let her there all alone. They all voted that Tony should be the one to stick around in case she woke.
Three days long, the only thing that Tony ate was some snacks Pepper had brought him. Despite her efforts, Tony never left Nat's side. He just sat there waiting for the moment she would wake. Because he was more than sure she was going to. She was Black Widow after all.
In those three days the only thing on Tony's mind was his relationship with Natasha, or better the lack of one. He had of course realized she wanted to become friends with him. He just never tried. After all, Natalie was a mission. She had been a S.H.I.E.L.D agent. It's not like she was given the chance to choose. Oh, how he wished to start fresh with her. To have this chance. That's when he realized he cared about her. He always had. He was just afraid, afraid of being hurt. He trusted her, and he knew she trusted him.
A moan broke his thoughts. Then a pair of green eyes looked around the room and landed on him.
'Tony?' she was exhausted and her head was killing her. 'Where am I?' she asked as she took in the surroundings
'S.H.I.E.L.D'S hospital wing. You got hurt pretty bad. We thought we've lost you. You were out for almost four days'
That's when Nat looked at Tony and noticed the black circles under his eyes and the pallor on his face.' Were you here the whole time?'
'Well, yeah. The rest are off with Clint to revenge you or something. Revenge isn't really my thing, y'know' he babbled
Nat looked into his eyes and realized he had stayed on a couch, four whole days, and judging by his looks, barely sleeping and eating.
'Thank you' she suddenly said
Three seconds passed before Tony was able to say something. The Black Widow just thanked him.
'You're ... you're welcome'. Then Nat did something she never thought she would have done. She hugged Tony Stark. That was the moment they both realized they were part of a family. A big damaged but happy family and they loved it. They wanted to cherish every moment of it. Because nothing lasts forever.
'I'm sorry' she whispered. 'I don't know if it's the headache, but I had to say it'
'For what?'
'For Natalie'
And that's how the rest of the team found them when they returned a few minutes later.