Clint and Natasha were already there, waiting in the living room next to his obscenely large tree when Stark walked in. Even though Tony had been suffocating in loneliness, he was perversely annoyed by them invading his own private misery.
Tony covered it with what he hoped could pass for a genuine smile…until he saw why it was the two assassins were gazing so intently at his Christmas tree.
"Sorry." He said awkwardly, reaching for the ornament with Coulson's picture on it. "I meant to take it down before the party. Didn't want to bum anybody out."
Natasha's grip on his wrist was hard and fast. "Leave it."
Tony hesitated for a second before jerking his head in a nod. It wasn't elegant, but at least it was genuine, the first expression he had had like that in quite a while. Natasha released her hold. He forgot most times that these were the people who had worked closest to Phil.
Clint gave him a swift smack on the back to relieve the sudden silence. "Hey, asshole, where are our presents at, anyway? There's nothing under the tree but what we brought."
Stark looked offended. "If you think my presents could fit under a tree…"
"BEHOLD, MIDGUARDIANS, THE TOKENS OF MY AFFECTION!" Thor burst out of the elevator, even his bulk obscured by the mass of presents in his arms. Clint whooped his appreciation as he and Natasha helped direct Thor over to the tree like they were guiding a jumbo jet in for landing. Natasha had her eye on a package that seemed to be the exact right size for the butterfly knife she had requested for Christmas. It suspiciously disappeared from the pile as Thor settled the presents onto the floor at the base of the tree.
Jane flitted out of the elevator after him, her form a surprisingly dainty contrast to Thor. Of course, Tony was startled and flustered when she went straight up and gave him a little hug and a kiss on the cheek. Not many people were that freely affectionate with him…okay, maybe no one was. Tony was surprised to find that he already liked her.
"Thank you for inviting us." She said with a genuinely warm smile. "I've been dying to peek inside Stark tower. I've heard you've got more processing power than CERN tucked away in here."
Tony's eyebrows shot up as he addressed Thor's back where he was crunched down, studiously arranging the presents beneath the tree. "This is my Christmas present, right? I get to keep her? Because, really, it has been too long since someone appreciated me for my brain and not my sexy, Iron body."
Thor's laughter was booming as he abandoned his post to wrap his arms protectively around Jane in a hug from behind. "Nay, Man of Iron, it would be a fierce battle, indeed, before I would part with her…troublesome though she is."
Jane elbowed him amicably in the ribs.
"Alright, time to give him the booze before I have a barf attack." The brunette who had been lurking next to Jane declared before shoving a bottle into Tony's hands.
Clint's head swiveled around at the mention of alcohol, and his eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw the outfit Darcy was wearing. Natasha gave him a smack to help him put them back in place.
The little Iron Man charm clinked against the glass as Tony accepted his host gift.
"Spiced Apple Brandy. I made it in the lab. So, it's guaranteed to put a lightweight like you on your ass." Darcy quipped.
Tony pulled back as if she had attacked his very dignity. "Is that a challenge?"
"Hell, I accept!" Clint rubbed his hands together as he looked around the room for some glasses. He spotted some on the wet bar in the corner and brought over enough for everybody as Stark pulled out the cork.
Everyone pushed in rowdily for Tony to pour. Once the glasses were full, though, everyone got quiet, waiting for someone to make the toast that nobody had the heart to do. Steve, Bruce, and Betty silently stepped off of the elevator to join them, taking the glasses that were pressed into their hands. Bruce looked happier than he had in a long time with Betty by his side, but Steve was a little rough around the edges after visiting Peggy—not that Tony had been keeping tabs on his teammates.
It was a moment heavy with sadness and the knowledge they should have had one more drink to pass out—that what they had instead was an empty space where a man with a crisp suit and a distant smile should have been.
Clint blinked his eyes wide a couple of times and cleared his throat to break the silence. Tumbler raised high in the air, he said, "To Coulson."
"Coulson," everyone murmured a tribute before tipping back their drinks.
The serious tone was swept away only a moment later, though, as Clint looked like he might vomit up a lung. He managed to spit Darcy's brandy back into his glass as he gasped for air.
"What..did you just…do to my mouth?!" He demanded between wracking coughs.
Natasha quirked an unsympathetic smile as she pounded his back. "I told you to stop putting things in your mouth when you aren't sure of their origins." Her smile turned truly evil. "Ever since that job in Kiev…"
"Oh god, Tasha, shut up!"
Everyone sputtered and laughed right along with them.
Only Thor seemed to appreciate the potency of the alcohol. "This is a truly strong brew, Lady Darcy—though I must say I am relieved you are on no longer melting Jane's beakers. She was becoming most distressed."
Bruce looked horrified at his glass and then up at Thor. "What?"
"I warned you." Darcy shrugged before raising her empty glass triumphantly. "FOR SCIENCE!"
As everyone else clinked their glasses together, Tony tried to tell himself that his trouble breathing was just the burn of the ridiculously strong liquor…that it had nothing to do with the cold of space seeping in through his chest, freezing him from the inside out and making the arc reactor stutter. Tony pushed the bottle at Clint and stepped backwards out of the fray.
Only Steve seemed to notice something was off, standing slightly apart from their celebrating friends who were making another round of Darcy's gut rot. Tony was shivering and he felt like he was falling, with the sound of the wind rushing in his ears.
"Are you alright?" Steve asked quietly, not wanting to draw the attention of the others. Tony didn't seem to hear him. So Steve reached out a hand to grab his arm as the other man stumbled. "Stark?"
Tony seemed to snap back into focus all at once. Total reboot. All systems back online. He shoved Steve's hand away from him, the contact an all too visceral connection to the moment he had just been reliving.
Rogers was actually rocked by the force of Tony's push.
"Don't touch me." Stark said, his voice emanating from the frozen place inside of him. The words were strong enough to catch the attention of the rest of the group, causing them to fall silent.
"Right." Steve said, words clipped. "Right. I should go."
He turned on his heel in true military fashion and just walked away. Steve tried to manage a weak smile for the rest of the group, but it was pretty pathetic. He stopped next to a side table, and without looking back, he draw a DVD case from within the inside of his leather jacket and set it down.
"I thought you all might like to watch this." He said. For a moment, it looked like he might add something else to his statement, but he didn't. He just squared up his shoulders and left without another word or a backwards glance.
The Avengers' eyes fell on Tony who was steadfastly memorizing the texture of his expensive carpet. "I'm sorry, I just…" He took a deep breath. "…Just, have fun without me. I have something I need to work on." He unknotted his bow tie as he made as quick a retreat to his workshop as he could without actually running.
…
A few hours and a large pile of wrapping paper later and Tony still hadn't reemerged from his hidey hole. Natasha was casually twirling open and closed one of the many, many butterfly knives she had received and staring at the two plaintive piles of unopened presents on the glass coffee table—one of them for Steve and one for Tony.
They bothered her. It was the first time apart from Clint and Coulson that she had taken the time and effort to find a Christmas present for anyone. She already had a mint condition Captain America trading card that would never be opened…she didn't need anything else cluttering up her life.
She threw her knife so that it stuck straight up out of the carpet. "Let's watch a movie." She announced to the people with their eyes suddenly trained upon her.
"Like what?" Clint asked, having never looked away from his intense game of Bullshit with Darcy.
"I am curious to see what movie it is the Captain left for us." Thor suggested from where he was seated by the fire with Jane.
Out of habit, Natasha was closest to the exit. So, she reached up from her cross legged position on the floor to snag the case from the table. "…It's a Wonderful Life"
Everyone but Thor visibly cringed.
"I do not understand." He admitted. "Is it not a joyous movie?"
"Bullshit!" Darcy called Clint's bluff with a gloating smile, forcing him to pick up the pile of cards. She turned her attention to Thor as Clint grumbled. "It's not that it doesn't turn out to be a happy movie…It's the fact that certain unfavorable parallels could be drawn between the plot and Captain Tightpants' life."
"How so?" Thor asked, truly curious.
"Well…" Darcy gestured with the single card left in her hand as she thought of a way to explain. "Okay, this guy has made sacrifices for other people all of his life. Then, suddenly the bank he works for is going under. So he decides to off himself by jumping into an icy river. He doesn't die, though, because some guardian angel dude decides to show him what the world would be like without him. In the movie, everyone is noticeably worse off without George, but here? The world kind of moved on without Captain America." Darcy shrugged. "It's actually pretty tragic, when you think about it."
Thor didn't look like he agreed, though. "But, my friends, this is an Asguardian tale! Passing mortals from one universe to another is an easy pastime amongst my people." He clapped his hands in excitement. "This is a perfect opportunity to cure what ails both the Man of Iron and our Captain of America!"
"You want to show them a world where neither of them exists?" Bruce asked skeptically. "I don't think Tony would last five minutes without Jarvis."
"Thank you, Mr. Banner." Jarvis sounded pleased.
"No problem."
Thor chewed on his lip as he pondered the situation. "Nay, I do not believe they would do well in such a realm…but perhaps…" He bounded up to collect items from the bar.
Clint peered owlishly around the room. "I know we're all more than a little hammered here," (Darcy cheered to that), "buuuut…are we actually agreeing to this? I mean, obviously we're not above colluding in a little kidnap and interdimensional displacement…but magic? All up in Stark's tower? You know he'll have a shit fit, right? The kind of shit fit that only a 'billionaire, playboy philanthropists' with a profound distaste for anything he doesn't understand can produce."
Natasha shrugged, unimpressed. "We may have to relocate for a while."
"Alright, cool." Clint accepted the excuse to put down his cards where he was losing so viciously to Darcy. "As long as we're all on the same page."
"Hey!" Darcy complained. "You fold, you lose!"
"I can't hear you over the sound of impressive magical shit happening right in front of us." Clint taunted as he escaped to the bar.
Clint made it in time to see the last dregs of Darcy's brew make it into a glass with other unknown bits of whatever Thor had found during his rummaging. Clint repressed his gag reflex. He had switched to scotch a while back, but it still felt like the Apple Brandy was alternating in trying to either climb its way back up his esophagus or burn a hole through his stomach.
Thor seemed to be finished at the bar now, though. So, he made his way back over to the fire as he casually retrieved a concealed knife from inside of his sleeve. He used the blade to prick his thumb and slide a few drops of his blood into the alcohol. He frowned as it started to boil rather vigorously.
"This is more of a reaction than I had anticipated." He smiled proudly at Darcy. "You truly have made some fine spirits."
"Thanks, big guy, but uh…" Darcy pointed at the glass that had started smoking in his hand. "I think we're about to have another melting situation."
…And then, of course, the smoke lit itself on fire.
"Stand back." Thor cautioned the others rather unnecessarily as he moved to gently toss the container into the fire.
They all held their breath in covered positions behind the sofas, waiting for something terrible to happen.
Thor smiled after a minute with no reaction. "See, my friends, all is well…"
BOOM! The stones of the fireplace blew outwards.
Everyone was knocked well clear of their original positions as the tower noticeably swayed from the force of the blast.
None of the supporting walls were blown out, though. So, historically speaking, it was really one of the smaller incidents to take place at a Stark residence.
That's what Clint was going to say, anyway, he thought to himself as he shifted the couch from where it was pinning his legs. A fine, purple smoke was roiling out from the fireplace, though, making it seem like too much work.
Maybe he would just…take a…nap instead…
