AN: it's been a while, sorry! Meant to get this up over Christmas but things. ANYWAY so this is Tasha's pov again because gender equality. I think there'll be maybe four more chapters (Bruce and Steve's) Thinking of doing Steve's next (I promise i won't make it all about Bucky) :P
Thanks a bunch for all the feedback :D
All mistakes are my own!
The sheets in the motel are scratchy and Tasha's one hundred percent sure she can feel bed bugs moving around beneath her. Clint's snoring beside her (they both decided it would be better to give Bucky some space) he's sprawled out like a kid, one arm slung loosely across her waist and she doesn't have the heart to shake him off. They've slept together before, this isn't anything new, but it's the first time they've been the only two in the bed together.
She rolls to face him, jostles his arm and he smiles slightly as he pulls her closer. Despite herself she grins. Maybe it could work between her and Clint. He wasn't like most of the guys she'd met. He understood her, saw her for everything, not just her looks and he didn't seem to expect anything from her. He was just content to just be with her. Even if she didn't reciprocate.
She rolls over again, presses her back to his chest. His arm tightens around her.
On the other bed Bucky's balled up, twitching slightly in his sleep. She wonders, not for the first time, what he dreams about. He whines a little and grimaces and she decides she doesn't want to know.
"You still awake?" Clint murmurs, grip going slack.
Tasha pretends she doesn't miss it, "Did I wake you?" She tries not to sound too apologetic, that's not exactly her style.
He hums sleepily and rolls away from her. "We have to be up at stupid o'clock, stop thinking and go to sleep." She sighs, he tuts, "You know it's okay to be pissed at Tony, right? He's an asshole. But what Bucky did was way worse than what Tony did."
Natasha tenses, "Bucky made a mistake. Tony did that just to be a vindictive little shit."
Clint chuckles at that so she aims a sharp kick at his shins. Clint swears, "Now who's being a vindictive little shit?"
Tasha growls. "Wouldn't you be angry? If Tony had done something like that to Barney?"
Clint snorts, "Barney is a delinquent asshole but I suppose, yeah I would be pissed. But think about it, Bucky's info could have been useful. Maybe they woulda focused less on investigating Odin. They might have caught up with him."
He's right. As usual. She sighs again, "You really still think he's alive?"
Clint grins. "Go to sleep, Tasha."
Tony wakes up to the soft early morning sunlight pouring through the net curtains of the motel windows. He yawns, stretches, enjoys the few sleepy moments before reality comes back to him. Bruce and Steve are still asleep, their snores the only sound filling the room.
He thinks back to his first few days in Malibu, he had sat beside Bruce in chemistry and his eyes had strayed far too often to Loki, sat at the front of the class. "I wouldn't, if I were you." Bruce had said after a few lessons.
Tony had scoffed, "Neither would I, if I looked you." (Not his proudest moment but that had been back when Tony had been a spoilt rich brat – his inner Loki snorts, like you're any different now.) Bruce hadn't even batted an eyelid. Tasha had been sitting behind them, she'd leant forward and kicked Tony's stool out from under him much to the class's amusement.
"Apologise." She'd said simply.
Tony had snarked and glowered and been sent to the principal's office for using some very un-gentlemanly words. Fury had quirked his eyebrows when Tony had swaggered in and dropped his father's name into the conversation and Fury had chuckled and showed Tony what was what. Suffice to say Tony had apologised next lesson.
Bruce had smiled warmly, "No worries, I was the new kid once too. Beside if you hadn't apologised I was looking forward to Loki's brother beating you half to death to defend Loki's honour. Or at least for Tasha to kick you about some more."
Tony had raised an eyebrow. "Well, I'm glad you decided to be the bigger man here, Banner."
And Bruce had laughed.
Tony smiles at the memory. It feels like so long ago.
He'd started hanging out with the other's pretty quickly after that, hurriedly agreeing with Bruce when he'd seen Thor for the first time on the football field ploughing through the opposite team like a hot knife through butter. He wonders how Thor is doing, if Howard's even noticed he's gone yet.
He'd left a note on the fridge but there was no guarantee his father had read it.
He should call.
He swings himself out of the bed and grabs his phone off the bedside table. 6:15, the little screen blinks. Far too early for anyone sane to be up but still, he can at least leave a message.
He pulls on a pair of jeans and a clean top and slips out of the room quietly. The morning air is pleasantly cool; it's almost enough to make him start being more of a morning person. Almost. Not quite though. He's just about to dial the number when he notices Tasha reclining elegantly against the wall between their two doors, a cigarette dangling loosely from her mouth.
"Stark," she greets.
"Romanoff. Those things will kill you, you know."
Tasha flicks the cigarette away and Tony is suddenly very aware that she could very probably snap his neck. "Wasn't there a Russian dynasty of Romanoff's?" he asks idly.
She quirks her mouth up into what might pass for a smirk. "That was Romanov."
"Right," Tony says, "Because that's different."
Tasha's smile slips inelegantly from her lips. "You know Stark, what you did to my brother yesterday was low even for you."
Tony swallows. "He lied to the police, Natasha. I'm not sorry for what I said."
"You should be," she growls.
A hot flash of anger coils its way through Tony's stomach. "What part of lying to the police don't you get, Romanoff?"
She looks like she's about to hit him but she must think better of it because instead she pushes off the wall and stalks back into the other room. Tony barely bites back the urge to shout something after her and dials his father's number.
When they pile back into the best up old van Bucky slides into the driver's seat, Steve stares at him for a bit before he nods and rides shotgun. After that the drive is awkwardly quiet until Clint suggests a game of I-Spy which some hoe degenerates into a quiet shouting match between him and Tasha over whether or not 'wind' is allowed to be used.
By the time they pull into the motel just outside of NYC Tony is about ready to kill someone. Or at least take a leaf out of his dad's book and drink the anger away.
Not that he can do either because it's like, illegal.
Bruce comes in with him to pay for the rooms, he went for two again because yeah, he could afford one each but he isn't exactly feeling generous right then. The guy at the counter is overweight, bald, has some serious body odour issues and godammit he hums when Tony signs his name.
"Stark? Stark? Now where've I heard that before?"
Tony rolls his eyes, "Game of Thrones, perhaps?"
The guy gives him an amused look. "Naw, it weren't there. I don't watch that shit, way too complicated."
"Well, dads a little famous," Tony sighs.
The man nods, "Ya don't say." But then he has a sudden epiphany, "AH! I got it! You guys wait here a second..." He ducks into the room behind the counter.
"Think he wants your autograph, Tone?" Bruce asks, grinning quietly at Tony's side.
Tony shakes his head. This is the last thing he needs. When the man reemerges he's brandishing an envelope, "Some kid stayed here a few weeks back. Left this."
Tony snatches the envelope from the man, rips it open.
"Loki?" Bruce asks, eyes wide.
"Think so."
"What's it say?"
"Guy's," Tony reads, "If you're reading this you've some how managed to follow me out here, God knows how but I'm assuming it wasn't strictly legal. I'm also assuming Tony's paying because this is the fanciest motel for miles. Here's the thing: I want you to stop following me. Even though I know you won't. This is something I need to do guys and I'm not coming back until I've done it. I don't expect you to understand just know that I'll come back and if I don't well, hopefully I'm better off."
Bruce raises his eyebrows, "We need to tell the others."
"Definitely."
It's Clint who breaks the silence after Tony's done reading, "So what? He's out here looking for something?"
"Could be," Bruce nods.
"He just found out he was adopted, he's probably looking for his parents." Steve points out.
"Someone needs to tell Thor about this," Tasha murmurs.
Steve stands up, "Absolutely." He draws out his mobile and steps out of the room. Like magic Bucky sighs and relaxes. Tony glares at him and Bucky looks away.
"If he's looking for his parents in New York he musta seen something about them, right? I mean why else would he come half way across the country?" Clint says.
"Yeah, maybe that's what he was arguing about with his dad that night?" Tony suggests, it makes sense right? Loki finds out he's adopted, stews for a few weeks before trying to find out who his real parents were.
Bruce frowns, "Wouldn't it have made more sense for him to have, you know, found out who they were legally rather than running away?"
"You can't," Bucky says from his corner, everyone turns to him. He sighs, picking absently at a frayed hole in his jeans. "Not until you're eighteen, anyway. And even then it's only if the parents gave their consent. Normally anyway."
"Normally?" Tony repeats, eyes narrowed. Maybe there's a little mire bite than necessary but Tony's pretty sure Bucky deserves it.
Bucky gives them an exasperated look, "This is Odin we're talking about here."
"He's got a point," Bruce frowns. "This is Odin. What if this isn't a normal adoption?"
Tony snorts, "What like he kidnapped him or something?" But then he stops and thinks. "Holy shit."
