Tony didn't go greet Rogers, Barnes, and Wilson. In fact, he refused to. He stayed in the gym for a few more hours with Clint and Nat as they continued to spar and train, eventually joined by Pietro and Wanda.
The twins had definitely come a long way since the Avengers captured them. Their first few weeks here had been practically hell for everyone involved, but especially for Tony. Turns out a fake Stark Industries bomb straight from the black market had killed their parents and they'd had to stare at another one for two whole days in the rubble of their apartment. All while they were ten. So the two of them were nowhere near as mentally stable as they should have been.
They wouldn't have been able to get either of them if it weren't for Loki.
Loki, who apparently wasn't quite as bad as any of them had thought.
After nearly having a rogue murderous AI run rampant, Thor left for Asgard early with the scepter only to find baby brother on the throne wearing their father's face. It seemed their father was in the Odinsleep – whatever that was – and Loki had taken advantage. If Thor had gotten to Asgard much later, Odin might not have even been there anymore.
Thor had later informed them in a grave voice that Loki had been planning on moving Odin to an old persons' home right here on Earth of all places. Apparently, having Odin on Asgard was too high a risk. Thor, however, was like Clint in that he pretended to be an idiot but was actually pretty intelligent. Although, Tony suspected Thor did it more for the shits and giggles than any other reason. Much like any time Steve did his aw geez act. They'd never admit it, of course.
But the point was that Thor was not an idiot, so he forced – ahem, demanded – that Loki, masterful sorcerer that he supposedly was, give them something to help contain a certain pair of magical twins. Unfortunately, giving them what they needed was not so simple and he needed more information about the twins then Thor had at the time. And since time was of the essence where the twins were concerned, with their unpredictability and all, Thor made the absolutely brilliant decision to bring Loki straight to Earth. Without telling anyone beforehand. Needless to say, nobody was pleased with Thor for that one.
None of them were particularly happy to see him, but the most shocking thing about it was Clint's reaction. All of them, even Natasha, had expected him to be a ball of rage and fury at the sight of him, but he wasn't. He was surprisingly calm and was staring at Loki with an intensity only Natasha had seen before. Tony would honestly guess that he was looking for something, but what that was, Tony couldn't say.
Whatever it was, he seemed to have found it because he lowered his bow, successfully bringing everyone's attention to him.
"Clint, what are you doing?" Natasha questioned quietly, keeping her eyes on the perceived threat.
"Look at his eyes, Nat. What color are they?" Clint answered back just as quietly. Nat turned towards Loki fully and along with everyone else, even Thor, automatically looked Loki in the eye.
Loki narrowed his eyes, looking displeased, but didn't shut his eyes or turn away, and let them look their fill.
"They're green," Nat stated, turning partway towards Clint questioningly. Tony being the genius that he was, is, and always will be, automatically connected all the dots together – it didn't help that he'd gotten up close and personal with him just a few floors above them in his penthouse.
"They were blue," seeing everyone turn their attention towards him now, he explained. "Back during the invasion, Loki's eyes were blue. I saw them up close and personal," he paused, seeing realization dawn in Natasha's eyes and confusion in Thor's. Clint, however, looked unsurprised by this new realization and the implications of what it could mean. "J, bring up a picture of Loki in the penthouse."
Everyone, including Loki – his face an interesting mix of displeasure, boredom, and curiosity – turned to look at where the large tv screen had automatically lit up with a zoomed in picture of Loki in the penthouse. The Avengers, sans Tony, all leaned closer in interest, none of them having seen or really heard about this part of the invasion.
Tony, of course, remembered this part all too well. He avoided looking over at Loki, but eventually found himself glancing over at him out of the corner of his eye, anyway. He was staring at his psycho image with an intensity that honestly took Tony by surprise. He found himself flat-out staring at Loki, who quickly seemed to notice and sent him a glare that would have probably had a lesser man pissing his pants.
"Can I help you with something, Stark?," the god almost snarled.
Everyone, almost all looking some combination of shocked and contemplative, turned to look at him at the sound of his voice and then turned to look at Tony. Tony, however, barely spared them more than a glance. He was watching Loki, who, when you managed to look past all the I-am-better-than-everyone bullshit, was starting to look oddly self-defensive. Almost... panicked.
"You don't remember this moment, do you?," Tony almost stated. He didn't actually need Loki to answer him because as soon as he finished speaking, Loki straightened up and his face became even more arrogant as he looked down his nose at them all with absolute disdain.
"I rarely forget anything, Stark. Especially something as recent as this. Thor is the forgetful one," Loki said as if this whole conversation was nothing but a waste of his time, while Thor gave Loki the kind of look only a sibling can send another when one has insulted the other.
"Then what did you say when I talked about Stuttgart?," Tony challenged.
Loki paused for barely half a second before replying with his usual carefree confidence, "that it was only the beginning, of course."
Tony smirked at him. "Really? Because I never actually mentioned anything about Stuttgart."
Loki scowled at him, knowing he was caught. He looked at each of the Avengers, pausing on Thor the longest, before scowling even harder. "Fine," he hissed. "I don't actually remember everything that happened while I was here before, and even that is hazy."
"Brother..."
"If you must know, the point at which I can clearly remember everything is while I was laying on the floor of the penthouse in some type of crater," Loki stated, crossing his arms.
"Then how did you respond to our conversation in the penthouse if you didn't even remember it?," Tony questioned, while most of the Avengers fought to keep smirks off their faces at the thought of the Hulk repeatedly smashing Loki into the floor.
An act that didn't go entirely unnoticed judging by the annoyed look on Loki's face. "I said I didn't remember everything, not that I didn't remember anything, Stark."
"Fair enough."
"And here I thought I was dragged here to help you with a magical problem you seem to be having," Loki changed the subject, "But if I'm actually here for an interrogation, then I think I'll just skip that part and leave," Loki said, making as if to leave.
"Wait!," Steve called out. Loki paused and turned back around as he stepped forward. He looked Loki straight in the eyes – almost as if he were confirming Loki's eye color and genuineness through that alone – for a few seconds before making his decision as team leader. "Alright, Loki. We're going to trust you here. But-!," he said loudly, cutting off the initial reactions of Loki and the other Avengers, looking Loki dead in the eye, completely serious, "You need to know something first. Even if it wasn't really you during the invasion three years ago, if you betray us, if you use anything you learn or gain from us against us or against the people of Earth... we will treat you as the enemy that SHIELD still considers you to be... along with all of the resulting consequences."
At their leader's words, all the Avengers subconsciously straightened up and took stances that meant they meant business, all of them feeling confident in their abilities and skills, confident in their honed and trusted teamwork, and empowered by the definite way their Captain spoke. An act which did not go unnoticed by a certain trickster god.
Loki looked them all over with an appraising look in his eye. Slowly, a small smirk grew on his face, before murmuring, "Asking for someone's help by threatening them... what an interesting technique," his smirk grew before he says louder, "I thank you for the warning, good Captain. Rest assured, I tend to prefer the mischief part of my godly titles. Up until a few years ago, humanity only had to worry about my, admittedly chaotic, yet overall harmless, pranks," his smirk grew impossibly wider, with a strange barely-there look in his eye – Thor or Natasha almost called it hope for a split second, but that was completely ridiculous, and was dismissed almost immediately – before gesturing with his hands, saying, "Now I believe you have some information about some twins Thor wanted me to look over...?"
Needless to say, things still weren't all sunshine and rainbows with Loki after that. Dude loved to push people's buttons, usually in ways people didn't entirely appreciate. At least when Tony did it, it was endearing (hopefully).
It probably didn't help that, upon learning how the twins got their powers, Loki demanded to examine the scepter.
That one definitely took a couple days to allow.
But, no one could deny Loki's results. Because only five days after Thor brought Loki to the Avengers and the truth about Loki's involvement in the invasion came out, the two Asgardians came back to Earth – minus one scepter – with two plain-looking black leather cuffs, each about two inches wide, that would magically seal themselves when placed around the wrist of any magically enhanced person. Loki even made it so that only certain people could take them on or off. The Avengers watched as he performed some kind of spell with one hand over the cuffs in his other hand. He then touched them with his whole hand and held them there for five seconds and went around to each of the Avengers – which included both Sam and Rhodey today – and had them also place one of their hands on the two cuffs and hold it there for five seconds. Upon finishing with Steve, who Loki saved for last on purpose, Loki performed a different spell and had both of them lay their whole hand on both cuffs – not the easiest feat considering the size of their respective hands – and hold it for a further five seconds. Upon completion, Loki handed them both over to Steve, and explained.
"These are specialized power dampening cuffs. They will cut them off from their powers entirely. All that you need to do is get one of them around one of their wrists. Only specific people can do this however. That's what we just did. Any one of you can put them on, if you can just get the opportunity. But with two individuals such as these, you need to be even more careful with who can take them off, thus giving them their powers back, which is why the only two people who can do so are Captain Rogers and I. Rogers, because he is your faithful leader, and I, because I am a magical expert and can truly tell if they are capable of controlling their powers. However, it will take the both of us together to do it."
Everyone stared at Loki in disbelief, and before any possible objections to him having any kind of power could be voiced, Loki turned on his heel, and left, saying, "Good luck!" over his shoulder as he went.
It still took a few run-ins with the Maximoffs before they managed to get that golden opportunity Loki had mentioned. Tony ended up convincing Nat to sneak him one of the cuffs – Steve generally didn't like Tony anywhere near either of them considering they liked to target him specifically, but if it meant getting this whole headache over with then Tony was willing to play bait and Natasha realistic enough to listen when he talked about it being the only way – and he managed to get a cuff on Wanda when she attempted to mind-fuck him again. After that (a gagged and tied to the nearby pipes) Wanda was the bait for her overprotective twin, and those few seconds he slowed down to grab her was all Nat needed to get the other cuff on him as well.
Transporting two entirely murderous twins (now both appropriately gagged and restrained) was unpleasant, but they were mostly relieved to have finally gotten them. Steve even waited until they were locked away in their cells (separate but next to each other, using the same clear glass used for the cage on the helicarrier partially because it was standard for all enhanced and partially so they could still see each other because they weren't stupid, they didn't really want to see what would happen if they actually thought they were properly separated, plus they weren't cruel and the cuffs had already proven themselves effective so there wasn't any harm in it, it might even help in the long run) to reprimand Tony and Natasha.
But even Steve had to admit it was effective.
It took months before the twins were allowed to roam the tower on their own, although you could tell that being locked up wasn't so bad for them once they got to share a cell. They even shared their own suite (talk about codependency). It took lots of visits from (most of) the Avengers, mainly Sam, followed by Steve.
Steve once admitted in a low voice to Tony that he was glad Loki made it so it needed them both to take off the cuffs, because if it was just up to him he probably already would've taken them off, only to later be talking to one or both of them and get reminded that they're still mentally and emotionally unstable and it's good they still didn't have access to their powers.
Tony figures that if Loki knew how Steve felt, he'd have that unbearably smug smirk for days.
Tony gets distracted from his musings from a punch to the cheekbone that knocks him flat on his back.
"Ughhh...," was his eloquent reply, as he sprawled out right there on the mat, vaguely hearing cackling in the background that sounded suspiciously like a certain birdbrain.
Nat's smirking face appeared in his line of vision. "Penny for your thoughts?," she asked, offering him a hand up.
"Just... reminiscing, I guess," he said (half-groaned), accepting the hand and being tugged to his feet.
"Can't get distracted, man!", Clint said, his cackling having only somewhat lessened.
"Yeah, I noticed that," he muttered, as he walked off the mat towards the towels and water bottles, reaching out to shove at Clint as he went. Clint let him, grinning wildly only to grimace and then pout as Nat, faithful friend that she was, gave him a particularly hard pinch as she followed Tony off the mat.
"I think that's enough for you today, Tony," she said decisively.
Tony sighed, knowing that there was no changing her mind. Plus, he was getting tired. "Are you two gonna stay in here, or...?" He began unbandaging his hands.
"No, I'm still good to go some more," she said, patting down her slightly sweaty skin, ignoring Clint's mild boo-ing in the background as she did so.
"Ew, no, if you're gonna end up sparring with Birdbrain: Original Flavor Not New And Improved, then I'm definitely leaving," Tony said, raising his hands and backing away slightly.
"First, nice reference," Clint pointed at Tony. "Second, rude. Third, you know you wanna see all of this," he did a weird almost-roll of his body while gesturing to himself, "in action!"
Tony made a point of looking Clint up and down – making Natasha's amused smirk grow even bigger – where he was currently lounging on some stacked gym mats in an attempt at a sexy pose before pointedly looking away derisively. "I've seen better."
Natasha – also somewhat pointedly – ignored Clint's indignant protesting and answered Tony's earlier question. "No, I'm not gonna spar with Clint," she eyed the twins she had unsurprisingly also noticed where they were currently in a side-room of the gym in the pool, working on their swimming. The fact that neither of them knew how to swim before coming to the tower was honestly just sad. The fact that they could finally learn how only helped them in their acceptance of being here. Not that they'd gotten to take off their magic wristbands yet, but at least they were more understanding of that one, now. "I think I've found something else to do."
Clint looked at her, then followed her line of sight to where the twins were in the pool – apparently Nat was the only one to be aware of their whereabouts, as Tony had lost track of them shortly after they entered – and got visibly excited, automatically over-exaggerating his reaction, complete with waggling his eyebrows and pumping his fist. "Aw, hell yeah, it's swimsuit time- ow!"
He rubbed at his thigh with a pout – 'Always with the over-reacting', Tony fondly sighed – where she had pinched him before rolling here eyes at him, the softness in her eyes betraying how much she actually minded his antics.
"Honestly, Clint, I pinched you harder than that a few minutes ago. And besides, you can hang around when I'm training or sparring with the Avengers, but you make too many comments to hang around with anyone else-" she quickly pointed a finger at him, stopping his protests, "and you know it!"
Clint just pouted even harder.
"So, how about you go play a prank on Sam or something?," she suggested, her devious nature shining through for a second. Clint just grinned at her, prompting to give a big grin right back.
He hopped off the gym mats, and practically bounced right over to them so he could quickly press to a kiss to Natasha's cheek – and then press a quick peck to Tony's cheek before anyone could stop him, because he's a little shit and probably to get back at him for his comment earlier. But Tony didn't go to Pride every year for nothing, so he just accepted it with a challenging wink and a kissy-face, making both Natasha and Clint huff. "Well, it looks like I've got some pranking to do!" he said gleefully, before walking off with a definite bounce in his step.
"Just make sure it doesn't backfire on me or Tony!," she called after him, causing Clint to give her an acknowledging wave over his shoulder and Tony to give her an amused and slightly grateful look.
She smiled at him before dipping her head at him in goodbye and clapping her hand on his shoulder before she walked to the girls' locker rooms where she probably had an extra swimsuit in her locker.
Come to think of it, so did most of them. Including Tony. Though he didn't get as much pool time in as the others did, as he was still working on being able to be fully submerged in water again. Nat had actually helped him the last few times he'd made the attempt.
He smiled to himself as he put his gym bag away and quickly showered before throwing his used towels in the hamper they had in each locker room before exiting the gym, aware that he was going to wake up somewhat sore the next day, especially since this was the first actually serious bit of training he's had in over two weeks now.
"Sir...?"
"What is it, J?"
There was a somewhat uncharacteristic pause that made Tony slow to a standstill before looking at the nearest camera. "J...?"
"Sir...," again there was that pause, as if JARVIS was either trying to find the right words to use or trying to figure out what he should say in general. For all Tony knew, it could be both. Either way, he was starting to feel concerned. "I believe there's something you need to know about Sergeant Barnes..."
Tony huffed in exasperation and continued walking towards the workshop; he'd thought it was going to be about something else. JARVIS knew he was avoiding the whole situation, damn it. Not that Tony would admit to that, though. "Is he settling in okay?"
"Well yes-"
"You said he took the room right next to Rogers', right?"
"Yes Sir, but-"
"Then what's the problem?" Tony asked as he stepped onto the elevator, confusion evident.
"...Have you seen Sergeant Barnes recently, Sir?"
Tony frowned at the seemingly random question before answering. "JARVIS, I'm pretty sure you know that I haven't looked at any of the pictures or videos of the guy."
"Perhaps you should, Sir."
"Oh, I should, should I? And may I know why I should look at him?" he asked, stepping off the elevator and quickly entering the workshop, emphasizing how ridiculous it sounded.
"Like I said, Sir, I believe there's something you should know."
"Does it have to do with his metal arm?"
"No, Sir. It has more to do with-"
Unfortunately, at that moment Dum-E came zooming around the corner and straight towards Tony, followed quickly by a frantic U and Butterfingers. He was brandishing a fire extinguisher in his claw and Tony felt a sinking sense of dread.
"No Dum-E! Bad Dum-E! Put it down! Drop it!" Tony yelled as he attempted to run away in an effort to not get covered in foam again. He ended standing on one of the tables jumping from table to table while Dum-E had to maneuver around them, apparently taking a childish determination to spray his creator.
"Sir!"
"JARVIS, whatever it is about Barnes can wait! I'll see him around the tower at some point anyway! You should have been telling me about Dum-E going crazy with the goddamn fire extinguisher! We hide it for a reason- oof!"
Tony's scolding had absolutely zero effect as his foot finds what has to be the tiniest screwdriver ever and he falls off the table onto his ass in a very undignified manner. He has just enough time to contemplate the bruises that will leave (as if the bruises from sparring with Nat earlier weren't enough) before Dum-E comes around the corner and with a triumphant beep, Tony is being covered from head to toe in foam.
When Dum-E finally stops spraying, Tony hears the muffled rattling of an empty fire extinguisher and a sad beep before Dum-E rolls away. He can only heave a deep groan from deep in his stomach as he lets himself slowly fall back so that he lays flat on the floor, feeling very done with everything.
It hasn't even been an hour since my last shower and now I need one even more than I did the last one, Tony thought, suddenly feeling very exhausted.
Distantly he hears Dum-E's charging station start up and the human equivalent of that sounds like a wonderful idea. He forces his hand up to face to wipe it off when the need to breathe becomes too much. U is already there with a mop that trying to clean up the mess while Butterfingers is trying to very carefully throw away the fire extinguisher but still ends up dropping it or knocking something over, bless their little artificial souls.
With a silent heave, he slowly gets up off the floor, causing U to try to clean him directly which, unfortunately, only helps so much. Between the two of them they manage to get enough foam off to the point where he won't make more of a mess if he moves around, so he slowly shuffles off to the elevator and then to his penthouse where, upon reaching his bedroom, starts to take off the now dirty clothes.
"I took the liberty of starting the shower for you, Sir."
"Thanks, buddy," Tony says as he goes to take his second shower that afternoon.
Afterwards, he pulled on a pair of boxers and climbed into bed, determined to take a nap.
He didn't actually remember falling asleep (he must've actually been tired, besides mentally), but he was woken up by an alert from JARVIS that a Steve Rogers was inquiring after him.
A partially asleep Tony grumbled out a mostly illegible question as to his intentions which JARVIS must have understood because the response came through less than a minute later.
"He is wondering whether you'll join them for a movie night tonight. He also convinced Sergeant Barnes to join them as well, due to the movie choice being The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Apparently he was a fan of the book when it first came out."
Tony, more awake now, huffed with half annoyance and half exasperation as he stood to put on more clothes than just his boxers, stretching as he did so.
"I commend Barnes on his choice of literature, but somehow I'm not surprised that it's only for Barnes that he's finally watching anything of either of those trilogies." He scratched at his cheek as he debated with himself. "Honestly, if it were anyone besides Rogers asking I might do it. But since it is him... I think I'm allowed to still be petty for a good long while so... no. I don't think I will. Besides, there's the situation in the lab to take care of." Not that Tony was particularly enthused about that but it needed to be done. And unfortunately, the bots couldn't be trusted to do all of it on their own. They'd certainly try and they could actually do a pretty decent job if they gave it their all, but that was about as far as they'd get without supervision. Usually JARVIS was enough, depending on the situation, of course. But Tony needed to go down there anyway.
There was a certain bot who needed a scolding.
"Shall I tell him that word for word, Sir?"
Tony thought over what he said before responding with a snort. "Hell no, J. He doesn't need to know anything about what's going on in the lab. You can tell him about commending Barnes on his literature and that I decided to be petty and say no. Don't tell him about the part where it was because he was the one asking, though. He'll just ask other people to do the asking and I might not want to say no to them."
"Yes, Sir."
When he made it to the lab, it was better than he was expecting, which means that JARVIS really was helping direct their efforts, but the bots couldn't get everywhere due to its awkward spot, so Tony had to step in and help finish cleaning anyway. Which took longer than expected, because of course it did, then he went to find his firstborn menace on wheels.
After scolding Dum-E, ending with a threat to be sent to McDonald's which he had no intention of following through but Dum-E seemed to believe enough to be properly chastised, he went and found the damn screwdriver that made him fall. A fall that he was definitely already feeling, which is not how he generally preferred to feel an ache in his ass. Though he was not always the one leaving such encounters walking funny... He had to stop that train of thought right there if he was going to be getting anything done that night.
Upon finding the stupid screwdriver, he made the mature decision to put the thing away where it was actually supposed to go.
The biggest thing to combat being lazy however, is being impulsive. Both of which Tony had in spades. Usually his being impulsive led to headaches for whoever had to deal with it (which was usually Pepper, which meant that she was practically a pro at dealing with his eccentric billionaire-ness), but this time there were no headaches involved.
When Tony put away that one screwdriver, it somehow turned into him cleaning and organizing the workshop. By the time he was done, and had a completely clean lab for the first time in months, it was well into the early hours of the morning. Tony hadn't realized just how messy the place was. The bots certainly seemed proud of the work the four of them had done (despite the fact that they technically made it take longer, but Tony wasn't going to inform them of that) and JARVIS definitely approved.
All that hard work (he'd forgotten just how satisfying fully and properly cleaning could be) combined with having missed dinner made it so that he was very suddenly realizing just how starving he was when his stomach gave a very loud rumble.
"Perhaps you would like to go to the kitchen for some food, Sir? There are always leftovers in the fridge after all," his very trusty AI suggested in a very suspicious tone that sounded entirely too innocent.
Tony immediately narrowed his eyes at one his AI's cameras. "I'm not sure if I like that tone, JARVIS. Is there something you'd like to tell me?"
"No, Sir. Of course not."
"Uh-huh." Tony's stomach chose that exact moment to loudly growl at him again. And since he now knew for sure that the only things safe to consume in the lab were coffee, smoothie ingredients (all oil was firmly moved away from that area), and a few water bottles that he'd actually forgotten were in here. Which meant that he was going to the kitchen because he needed something to actually eat.
He'd just have to hope that whatever JARVIS was up to wouldn't have any consequences or anything like that.
When he made it up to the kitchen, there was already somebody else in there. It wasn't exactly unusual to find someone in the kitchen in any hour of the night, so he barely spared them a single glance while he made a beeline straight for the fridge. All he noticed was male, which wasn't exactly helpful considering the stupidly large gap between how many guys there were and how many girls. Because they seriously needed more girls. Tony was well aware how badass women were and there were too many men here.
The point is Tony wasn't sure who it was, just that it was one of the guys with brown hair. As Tony pulled out the leftover Italian they had for dinner (Tony approved), he realized that based on the long brown hair and unfamiliar build, there was only one person it could be. He turned to look at Barnes, who was already looking at him, only to have the (thankfully unopened) container almost slip out of hands.
"James?"
"Heya, Tony. 'S been a while, huh?"