Everyone looked up at Tony. Bruce glanced at Clint who seemed to turn slightly pale. Bruce looked at Natasha go stiff, her skin gone white before she abruptly stood up. Everyone looked at her before she made a beeline for the front door and left.

"Clint?" Bruce said questionly. Tony turned and started to go towards the hallway leading back to his room. Clint stood up and walked right for Tony.

"Clint." Thor warns but Clint put a hand on Tony's shoulder to stop him and get him to turn around. Clint suddenly punches him with a force to make Tony fall back into the wall they were standing next to.

"For someone who claims to be a genius Stark, you're not the smartest. One thing to know about assassins is that our memories aren't always the best. There's no need to reopen old wounds." Clint said, his voice low and deadly. After that he pushed away from Tony and went out the door.


Four Hours Earlier


The whole team walked into their apartment SHEILD assigned them for the next day and a half. Of course there were only two bedrooms. Natasha and Clint immediately claimed one while the rest argued about who would share the other. Tony finally claimed it but none wanted to share the bed with him.

"Well fine, more for me." Tony had said.

They were in Kansas of all places. Fury wanted them to go to a base there and make sure everything was running well. They all agreed after Fury left that it was just a 'team-building' thing in disguise. It was only a few weeks after the Loki incident and the team was still getting used to each other.

They spent three hours in the apartment's living room when Tony let out the most dramatic sigh. Everyone slowly turned to him. Bruce and Tony sat on one of the two couches and Clint and Natasha shared the other.

Tony has been trying to figure out their relationship since they moved in with the rest of the team at Stark Towers. It was one of the things he enjoyed teasing them about. He did learn however to let up after awhile and give them a break. Assassins tended to cause pain if you constantly annoyed them. Mostly that was Natasha though. He learned that Clint was as sarcastic as him and they picked on each other a lot. That was almost worse than Natasha getting Tony back if he messed with her because Tony didn't know if Clint was in a teasing mood or not. So his teasing the archer could end in a battle of wits or him groaning in pain.

But Tony was determined to break through their wall.

The team still knew little about them while they seemed to know everything about the rest. He knew Fury went as far as to only having one official and the full files on them in paper and somewhere he thought was safe. Tony wondered what they bothered to put on their virtual files.

"Well I'm bored. I'm gonna go hack into Shield and go through some files." Tony said and stood from the couch. He made his way to his room.

"Stay out of ours Stark." Natasha warned as she watched him go. He didn't respond though and she sighed as she looked back at the TV.

An hour pasted before Tony slowly made his way back.

Bruce looked up and right away noticed something had unsettled him. Tony focused on Clint as he got closer. By then everyone was looking up at him.

"You two have some interesting history." Tony said, looking at the assassin and spy.

"You went through our files." Natasha stated, sounded more annoyed than anything else. She knew the majority of their top secret file was locked away somewhere only Fury knew of but she still didn't want Tony snooping around her and Clint's information.

"Yes I was especially interested in a medical report of Romanoff's. She was tortured for eighteen hours, eighteen hours while Barton just watched. All that for just a few Shield secrets." The room grew quiet and Steve looked down. Bruce glanced at Clint who had gone slightly pale along with Natasha.

"You could have done something." Tony exclaimed and Clint actually looked away. Natasha was tense and Bruce thought he saw her shake before she abruptly stood up.


"Are you okay, Tony?" Bruce asked and stood up. Tony nodded and stumbled back to the couch. He collapsed down and eyed everyone.

"Thanks guys," He said sarcastically.

"Well Tony that was kind of a personal story to bring up in front of all of us." Bruce said and sat back down next to him.

"We don't know the whole story." Steve pitched in.

"As I am sure she was not the only one being tortured that day." Thor said. His normally booming voice now calm and quiet. Tony thought about it. He tried to imagine what it would be like if Pepper was being tortured in front of him and he couldn't do anything. Tony swallowed.


"Nat?" Clint called as he walked out into the cool night. He knew she wouldn't stay inside and he was right.

"Here," She called and he instantly located her. He walked over to her and leaned on the wall next to her.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Yeah." She answered with a nod then actually smiled. "Stark, he's something else." Her smile fell. "He shouldn't talk about things he doesn't understand." Clint nodded along as she talked and she glanced over at him. "Are you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah," He answered only after a moment's hesitation. She looked down at the sidewalk and moments past before Clint spoke again. "Do you want to leave? Get out of here, maybe get some food. Knowing you, you probably want a drink. Vodka right?" She looked up at him. A smile playing at her lips.

"We don't have to leave until tomorrow afternoon anyways. Up for it?" He finished already a few steps ahead with his hand extended out to her. Another rare smile lit up her face as she nodded and took his hand. Around Clint though, her smiles were never rare.


"Where the hell are they? We have to leave soon." Tony said and sat down next to Bruce.

"They will return Man of Iron." Thor said.

As if on cue the front door opened. They all looked up as Clint and Natasha walked in. Clint was chuckling and Natasha was smiling as they shut the door behind them.

They froze and their expressions went blank in a matter of seconds when they looked up and saw everyone watching them.

"Hey, Tony has something he wants to say." Bruce said and Tony gave him a look before standing and facing the assassins but staying where he was. His right eye was slightly bruised and he wasn't too eager to get too close just yet.

"Look, I'm sorry for calling you out in front of everyone and I know I don't know the whole story and sorry for 'reopening an old wound' or whatever." Tony mumbled and sat back down.

Everyone starred at him before Thor started to chuckle.

"It's ok. I would say sorry for hitting you…" Natasha looked at Clint with a raised eyebrow. "But I'm not." Clint smirked.

They had already decided last night to brush the topic off no matter what anyone said or didn't say.

"That was easy." Tony smiled and stood once more, "Ok Avengers, let's go home."