300 reviews? What? I love you guys. So very, very much. And I'm updating like a wild Banshee. Why, you may ask? All will be revealed.

Last chapter, we witnessed some drunken bonding. This chapter, we get to witness something I like even more. Hangover bonding.

This is Natasha centric, so I hope you guys are fans of her.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers. I do own Lily. The poor dear is hungover:(

_-x-_

Day 11

My head. My freaking head. The first thing I did that morning involved the toilet and my mouth. Enough said.

Am I allowed to call in sick?

No.

Damn it. An even better idea popped into my head.

To: Tony, Bruce, Natasha

Not feeling up for room service today. Come get meals from the kitchen when you want them. And could someone tell Steve?

Thor would find out eventually, but I didn't trust Steve with texting. He wasn't the best with phones, or so I'd heard. I didn't want to give him a headache.

But still, I was the only person on base that would be able to get Loki his food. And he knew that. You better believe that he knew that.

_-x-_

"Good morning, Lily," sang Loki, who looked happy. That's a scary though, Loki being happy.

"Yeah," I replied. I didn't put any energy into being nice to him.

"Hangover?"

I glared while opening his cell door.

"Is that why the Beast put you to sleep last night? You were drunk?" he smirked that horrible awful smirk that I wanted to tear off his face.

I held in my anger and smiled. "I don't think I'll ask how you figured that out."

"No figuring involved. I used the super hearing."

I raised my eyebrows and nodded. "Aren't you some hot shit?"

He laughed and laughed. I walked out of the room once I could take no more of his ridiculous cackling.

_-x-_

When I arrived at the kitchen, Steve, Tony, and Bruce were cooking something that smelled like bacon and eggs while Natasha had her head planted into the table. Without a word, I sat down next to her and did the same.

I put it together that Thor wouldn't be hungover and neither would Steve. Damn that giant. Damn that Super-Soldier. It was just me and Natasha left to fend for ourselves.

When Tony finally noticed me, he laughed and pulled my hair. "Wake up, hoe! I made toast!"

I sat up and glared. "Why doesn't she get her hair pulled?" I nodded at Natasha.

"She could hurt me very badly very easily, and apart from spilling boiling coffee on me, you're harmless," he bent over the table and kissed my cheek, which I wiped for a full two minutes.

"Bruce, he's still kissing," I called over to my favorite physicist, who was making eggs.

"Yeah, I found that out last night."

Tony bursted out laughing, "That sounded better in your head."

Bruce rolled his eyes while everyone else chuckled. Except for Steve, who didn't get the joke.

"Who's waking up Thor?" Steve asked, after bringing bacon to the table. The smell made Natasha pull her head up from the table. Much like me, she looked sick.

"I say we wait until everyone else is full," Tony said while showing off his toast that was dark brown around the edges. He was still proud of them.

"That's mean," Bruce whispered. He had a plate full of eggs that looked amazing, even in my state of puking.

"I actually want to eat my toast," Tony said. He sat across from me and went to work on the piece that had the least burned bits, because he's selfish like that.

Steve took the seat next to Natasha and Bruce sat next to me. That made me happy. Much happier than it should have. There was an empty seat between Bruce and Tony, which made the latter a little bit peeved.

"I see how it is, Bruce. Her over me," Tony snapped. He was full of sarcasm. "I thought what we had was special."

"You aren't good enough at kissing," he grinned while chewing. It was painfully adorable.

I stared at the food, but I couldn't bring myself to eat any. I glanced over at Natasha, who was doing the exact same thing.

"So is this what hangovers look like?" Steve asked with a piece of toast in his hand.

I nodded very slowly. Natasha didn't look capable of even that.

"Well, I'm glad I can't get drunk then."

Bruce looked concerned. "If you two want like chicken noodle soup or something I can make it."

I would've melted if I had more energy. I smiled instead. "Yeah that sounds good."

Natasha nodded.

I scowled and laid my head down on the table.

"I would like to mention that I'm extremely upset I didn't get invited to the vodka party," Tony said. Even though I couldn't see him, I knew his arms were crossed and he was frowning.

"If you would've you'd be looking like us, so shut your mouth," her voice was an octave deeper, probably from sleep deprivation.

"And we would've had less to go around," Steve said.

"How did you of all people start a drinking party?" Tony mumbled. It took these moments to make me realize how completely opposite Tony and Steve were.

And it puzzled me that opposites weren't attracting like they should.

Something that sounded like boiling liquid made me perk up my ears. Soup really did sound good, even if I was bound to throw it up. It's all in the journey, not in the destination.

Bruce passed Natasha and me bowls with spoons and hot soup, which we both thanked him for.

I tuned out Tony's grumbling about helping at SHIELD and how much he hated looking for the Tesseract.

I couldn't get the noodles onto the spoon. They kept sliding off. Natasha had resorted to cutting them into tiny pieces with the side of the spoon, and I ended up following suit.

_-s-_

15 minutes later, we were both running for the bathroom. It hit us at the same time.

When we got inside, I waved for her to go first.

She shook her head and waved me on.

I ended up just using the sink. Once we were done, we both erupted in laughter.

"I was trying to be polite," she said through little laughs.

I rinsed out my mouth, "What do you think I was doing?"

She took her turn cleaning out her mouth and we walked back to the kitchen together.

It was the oddest sense of togetherness I'd ever felt, puking with someone. I think she felt it too, because she was smiling in the oddest way.

When we got back to the kitchen, Steve and Tony had cleared out and Bruce was doing the dishes.

"You guys alright?" he asked the very second we walked in.

"Never better," Natasha said sarcastically. We laid out on the countertop next to each other and commented on the ceiling fans.

Bruce finished up and headed back up to lab.

"You like him," Natasha stated. Her voice was tired and lazy.

I sighed. "How obvious is it?"

"Ehh, it's not too hard to see. But it's him more than you, if that makes you feel better," she tilted her head over.

It did, completely. Knowing that Bruce liked me back was comforting, and it made the situation much less difficult.

"And I think I should mention that I'm in 136B."

My jaw dropped. She knows everything. Our walls freaking touch.

"Don't freak out. I'm not a gossip or anything. And it's not like you slept together or anything."

I started to smile a little. She was quite right. Everything that I wanted hidden was safe in my head.

"You two are adorable anyway."

I blushed hard and turned my head away.

_-x-_

Thor woke us up at 2:00 to ask if there was any vodka left.

I ignored him and ran to get Loki's lunch. I didn't need him to make anymore assumptions, even if they were inevitable.

"Hello, Loki," I said with little conviction.

"You're two hours late. Should I ask?"

"No," I said as I opened his cell.

"That's okay. I know what happened anyway," he dismissed the thought.

"No you don't. Your hearing isn't that good," I challenged while closing the door.

"How did that soup taste?" he smirked. If he smirked one more time…

_-x-_

Back in the kitchen, I noted that everyone must've put a lot of effort into eating lunch silently. That or they made Tony and Thor eat outside. I would guess the latter.

Natasha was impatiently showing Thor the correct way to use a can of whipped topping, which was quite a sight to behold.

Natasha finally told him to go bug Steve, which he did gladly. About Steve…

"Would I be assuming if I mentioned how much time you and Steve spend together?" I smirked and hoped it wasn't a Loki smirk.

She laughed. "Assuming wrongly."

"Shoot. I was hoping I could prevent you from blackmailing me," I smiled. Honestly, I was just curious. The two were always together and he was lonely.

"I'm asexual."

"Pshh. Don't try that card. I read your file," I waved my hand at her. There was no way she was asexual. No way at all.

She bit her lip. "Damn. I thought that might work."

"Then there must be someone. Tony?" I smirked a bit bigger.

She was disgusted. "I don't want STD's thank you. And I'll stop you before you say Bruce or Loki." She moved to rearrange the cabinet.

"Darn. Those were my next guesses," I teased. "Fury."

"No."

"Uncle Phil?"

"No. Why would I?"

"Thor."

"That's hilarious."

I pondered for a minute. Who would it be? Who does she match up with? It hit me like a train.

"Clint."

She turned around to look at me. "Don't s-say that." She was stuttering. I just hit the nail on the head.

"It's him!" I fist pumped in triumph. No blackmail, yay!

"No it's not," she turned back around and fumbled with the water faucet.

"You even asked me if I'd heard anything new a few days ago," I crossed my arms and smiled.

"We're not together," she finally gave in.

"That doesn't mean you can't like each other. I get it. Star-crossed lovers. That's cute."

"Please don't call Clint and I star-crossed lovers EVER again."

"What am I supposed to call you? Successful lovers?"

"You're acting like Tony."

"If I were acting like Tony, I would be asking a very different set of questions."

"True."

"So. How did you two meet?" I grinned. This was way too much fun.

"We aren't having a slumber party, Lily," she rolled her eyes.

I figured that I might as well get Loki's dinner to him early, considering how late lunch was and how little progress I was making uncovering the facts from Natasha.

"Okay, I'm getting Loki his dinner, and when I come back, you're fessing up," I pointed at her. She looked half scared. I'd never seen her look scared, and I doubted anyone else had either. I'd found her weak spot.

_-x-_

"Early," Loki said very blankly.

"Good observation," I said with equal blankness. Door opened. Tray on floor. Walk back out.

"I'm still hatching an evil plan that involves using your feelings for the Beast in a diabolical way," he said in a cheery voice.

"I can't wait, Loki. And he has a name, Smarty-Pants."

"Excuse me?" he asked with a confused expression.

"It's a Human thing," I coughed. "You wouldn't understand."

_-x-_

When I came back to the kitchen, I wasn't at all surprised to find that Natasha was standing behind Thor.

Everyone else was in the kitchen also, and it was suspicious. I'd say she asked them to come down early. It sounded like something she'd do. She needed to accept the fact that she couldn't hide forever. On further thought, she could. Natasha's an agent after all.

Tony was all fired up about the salad he made. He even called the dressing exquisite. What a weirdo.

I didn't try any. In fact I didn't try anything. I didn't want a repeat bathroom trip.

Bruce leaned over, "Broccoli?" he whispered with that lopsided smile of his.

I blushed. That was blush worthy. Tony saw. Damn Tony and his all seeing eyes.

When he finally started dispersing, Natasha slipped out quickly behind Thor.

I considered tracking her down, but decided that a nap in the storage room was in line.

_-x-_

Night 11

"Bruce?" I sang. He already knew what to do.

"I'm coming, dear," he teased. We locked arms and stepped into the elevator. He let me kick the button. I love kicking elevator buttons.

"So Natasha is in the room next to mine, and heard you put me to sleep last night," I looked up at him.

He smiled. "How cute did she think it was?" The elevator dinged.

"Adorable."

"You're adorable," he said suddenly. I think it made my heart stop.

He bent down just a little and kissed my forehead. My knees almost buckled.

"Goodnight, Lily."

"Goodnight, Bruce," I smiled, "And thank you for the soup."

"It came out of a can," he smiled sheepishly.

"And I threw it up."

We both laughed and finally went into our rooms. A few minutes later, my phone vibrated.

You're adorable.

Go to sleep, you star-crossed lover:)

_-x-_

Notes

I'm quite proud of this one. I loved getting a scenery change for them and using new situations. My head is pounding from all of this writing, and I need sleep desperately. Writing is painful, no matter what they tell you.

And can I get a woop woop for Clint and Natasha being awkwardly chaste in that you-two-are-totally-doing-it way? No? Okay:(

Next chapter is Thor. YAY! And I think I'll just say now that it could be the best one yet.

Love,

_-Maddie-_