"You're not going to offer me anything?" Bruce asked Tony with a smile.

Tony looked at the doughnut in his hand. He swallowed the bite in his mouth and replied, "You should have asked before I went out."

"Right," he said, going back to concentrating on what he was doing - fiddling with some sort of mechanism.

Clint walked purposefully into the room and told Tony, "The Higher wants to see you."

"Oh yeah?" Tony sat on the back of the armchair, taking another bite of his doughnut. "What did I do this time?"

Clint gestured to the food in his hand, "Well, you keep bringing back food for a start. You do realise you don't need to eat?"

Tony took another bite defiantly. "It tastes good."

Clint sighed and left the room. He couldn't be bothered with Tony's shit today.

Bruce looked up at Tony from his desk. "One day you'll be exiled for going down too much."

"Exiled where?" Tony scoffed. "Earth? Exiled to where I going that caused me to be exiled in the first place? I can see a flaw in that plan." While he was speaking, he'd stood up and twisted to face him.

Bruce shook his head with a small smile.

"What?" Tony spread his arms. "I don't notice you complaining when I bring you back toys."

Bruce made no comment and broke eye contact, fiddling with said toy.

Tony sighed, but grinned after a moment. "You know they have different names for us down there?"

Bruce looked up. "How bad is mine?" he asked.

"Ezekiel."

He winced.

"I know, right? Bit mouthy. Zeke might be more acceptable," Tony decided.

"What about the rest of you? What's yours?"

"Steve is Michael, Clint is Uriel, Natasha is Raziel, Thor is Ramiel, and I'm Gabriel," Tony counted them off.

"Why do you and Steve get the normal ones?" Bruce mutters, a smile breaking through despite the upset act.

"Gabriel? Really?" Tony wrinkled his nose. "No way."

Bruce chuckled and did a minute shake of the head, turning his attention back to his work.

(Time Skip)

"Anthony."

"Tony, actually," he corrected. "You would think you'd have got the hang of it by now."

"I did not call you to bicker about the name you chose."

"Yeah, I gathered. What did I do again?" he asked, pretending to ponder on it.

"You ventured down to the human world."

"Yeah, that was like a million years ago. Thought you were meant to be keeping an eye on me."

"Anthony."

"Yes, dear?"

"It has come to my attention that you... acquaint yourself with human women on a regular basis."

"That's what you wanna talk about?"

"I have no wish to discuss it, Anthony, only to warn you against it."

"You're threatening me? Really?" Tony said, sounding as if it bored him.

"Yes."

There was a wooden-sounding knock, and Tony opened his eyes, breaking the connection with the Higher. He twisted around to face the door and Natasha opened it, not waiting for a "come in".

"Heard you were getting a lecture," she explained, crossing her arms. "The Higher finally found out about your adventures?"

"Yep," Tony stood from his desk, and turned to face Nat. "How come you never get lectures?" he asked, flicking a contraption on his desk with his finger so that several cogs started turning and it whirred quietly.

"Maybe I don't let Him find out I go down," she smiled somewhat smugly.

"Or maybe you're just Daddy's favourite," Tony muttered.

"You'll get in even more trouble if you keep calling Him 'Daddy'," Natasha pointed out.

"And why is that?" Tony asked, meeting her eyes.

She shifted her weight, "We weren't born, Tony. We were brought into existence as adults and told our duty. We're not humans."

"Yeah, sometimes I wish we were," he muttered, then rose his voice so she could hear, "Humans have their childhood to figure out who they are. Have fun. Prepare for adulthood. Not us. We were thrusted into this and expected to follow every order without question."

"Tony, don't do this again," Natasha said, like it was an order. Then she turned to leave the room. Then, so softly that Tony thought he might have imagined it, she added, "You know what happens to angels that get ideas."

(End of Chapter)

AN: Let me know what you think of it so far? I'm kind of new to fan fiction writing. Thanks.
Credit for the original idea goes to tumblr user azriels