I remembered you guys! Okay, here's another chapter. I know it's not Father's Day, but whatever. Roll with it.
It was a lovely day at Stark Tower. The sun was shining and a few wispy clouds streaked the bright blue skies. The wind blew cheerily threw buildings and all along the streets people wished each other a good morning.
Meanwhile, Tony was sitting down in the dark, spider-webby basement of Stark Tower crying. And drinking.
Yep. He was weeping his eyes out and drowning himself in a bottle of Vodka. Several bottles of vodka. Suddenly the lights turned on as the elevator door dinged and someone walked out into the dank room.
"Oh, Tony." Pepper's soft voice said.
Thor munched on his pop tarts as he walked toward the giant freezer where he stashed his ice-cream flavored pop tarts. (Banner had tried to explain that they didn't need to be frozen because they were pop tarts, not actual ice-cream, but Thor was not convinced.) It was a walk-in freezer and Thor hummed to himself as he rummaged around the ice-cream shelves.
Thor was in a good mood. The man of iron had thrown a party yesterday in celebration of some day…..whatever it was…..and Thor had won a drinking contest! Yes, Thor was happy.
As he removed a large tub of chocolate, he yelped in surprise. Loki was sitting behind the shelf in his blue frost-giant form. His red eyes were watery and his face was streaked with tears.
"Brother," for once Thor didn't shout, "What is wrong?"
The lovely smell of pancakes and scrambled eggs floated from the kitchen. Bacon sizzled and popped on the stove, mingling with the sound of Steve sobbing loudly.
Banner, upon walking past the kitchen, stopped in utter shock. The table was stacked high with pancakes, eggs, toast, bacon, and orange juice. Banner blinked once or twice as he looked from Steve to the table and then back at Steve
"Steve…what? What are you…..are you okay? What is this?"
"Breakfast." Steve snuffled loudly.
"Um…..Steve are you? Um…I…uh….?"
"Happy father's day!" Steve cried, bursting into tears again as he fled the kitchen.
He ran down the hallway until he stopped in his room. He could hear water running in the shower in Bucky's room next door.
That was weird. Bucky had been showering when Steve first got up to make breakfast at six in the morning. It was nearly eight now. He hurried into Bucky's room and knocked on the bathroom door.
"Bucky? Bucky are you alright?"
There were only the sounds of the shower streaming steadily and Bucky's muffled crying.
"Bucky? Bucky!"
"Go away, Steve!" Bucky sobbed from the shower.
Tony blinked blearily at Pepper.
"Pep…" he croaked, rubbing his eyes furiously, "I'm just…I was just…" He accidently dropped the bottle and promptly burst into tears.
Pepper sat down on an overturned bucket beside him.
"Tony, what's wrong?" she whispered.
"Nothing!" Tony slurred. "I'm fine. I'm fine."
Pepper put her arms around him. "No you're not, Tony. What's wrong? You seemed happy yesterday. You got drunk at that party yesterday. Actually, you were completely crazy yesterday."
"I know." Tony mumbled.
Pepper thought back to one of Tony's birthday parties several years back, when he had wrecked his house with his crazy party. Back when his core reactor was slowly poisoning him and he thought it was the last birthday party he was ever going to have. Pepper realized Tony had been trying to hide something yesterday.
"Tony, something was wrong yesterday! What was it?" a sudden thought struck her. "Oh my god. I forgot. It's Father's day. I'm sorry Tony, I'm so sorry." She stroked Tony's hair
Tony started bawling something that sounded like: "Daaaaaaadd!"
"Tony. Tony, listen to me!" Pepper said, firmly forcing Tony to look up, "Your dad was a good man, okay? And I don't think he'd want you to just sit here today. He wouldn't you to mourn. Or have the same problem he did." Pepper took away the bottle Tony had reached for. "He'd want you to celebrate the good life of an amazing man. Wouldn't he? Can you do that? Tony, what do you do best?"
"Be awesome?" Tony hiccupped.
Pepper laughed. "I was going to say party, but yes. There's the Tony I know."
Tony leaned on her shoulder and smiled a little as the tears ceased to fall.
Leave me alone, Thor!" Loki snarled, horror springing out behind his eyes, "I don't want you to see me!"
"Loki I do not care if you are in your frost giant form. You are weeping, so I must help you."
Thor grunted as he pulled a large box of ice cream sandwiches from the bottom shelf so he could crawl through. He nearly knocked over the shelf as he squeezed into the space in the back. Loki was sitting on the ground with his head in his hands.
"Loki, what is wrong?"
"Nothing!" Loki yelled, making several boxes fall from the shelves. He was shaking all over. But clearly not from cold.
Thor crouched down in front of Loki. "Brother you cannot forever shut me out. I only want to help you."
"I don't need help." Loki croaked. "Not today, not any day!"
"Not today?" Thor asked quizzically, "What about today?" Was there something special today he missed?
Vaguely, Thor remembered the Eye of Hawk mentioning the name of the day Tony had thrown a party for. It was supposed to be today that…that…day of the father? Or something like that? Then Thor suddenly realized why Loki had been hiding in a freezer, of all places, and crying. He tentatively reached out for Loki's ice cold hands. "I understand." He said softly.
To his surprise, Loki did not withdraw his hands, but continued to shed tears silently in the cold. Thor did not speak but sat quietly with his brother, knowing that sometimes no words could bring the comfort that could only be bought with silence.
"Bucky, please let me in!" Steve pleaded, hammering on the bathroom door, "You've been in there for two hours! What's wrong?"
Bucky continued to weep. Two hours. Had he really been crying all alone for two hours? The thought made Steve's insides turn.
"Buck, I'm going to kick down the door if you don't tell me what's wrong!"
The shower stopped and Steve could hear Bucky moving around in the bathroom. Bucky soon opened the door, dressed but still soaking wet. His eyes were red and he wiped his nose with one hand. Steve reached out and touched his shoulder.
"Buck, the water's got have turned cold after two hours of running."
Bucky blinked. "It was supposed to be hot at first?" he sniffed in surprise, clearly not knowing about the hot water tap.
"Bucky!" Steve cried, scandalized, "Oh never mind. You're gonna catch a cold. Come on."
Bucky grabbed Steve's arm and studied his face. "What's the matter with you? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Steve said, dragging Bucky out of the cold bathroom and draping towels over him.
"Now tell me what's up." He prompted.
Bucky sighed. "Well I remembered what Father's day was." He began.
Steve's eyes lit up. "You remembered something else? How much more did you remember? Did you remember your dad? But Bucky, your dad died before you were born….why were you…..?"
Bucky's eyes filled with tears. "Is that why you're crying? Father's day?"
"Yeah," Steve nodded, quickly wiping his eyes, "I just started thinking about my dad from when I was young. And I miss him a lot. I started cooking breakfast as fast as I could to distract myself...I probably used a hundred eggs..."
Bucky looked at the ground, a tear rolling off his nose. "I didn't remember my dad or anything else. I just knew I had a dad once and today I was supposed to be celebrating him, but I didn't even have any memories of him. And then I just felt like I was sitting in an empty hole where I couldn't feel anything. I didn't even remember my dad so I could miss him."
Steve out an arm around his friend, despite the fact he was soaking wet. "It hurts, Buck. It hurts to miss people. It's not a pleasant feeling."
"I know." Bucky sobbed, "But I'd rather have that hurt. I'd rather have the pain of knowing I lost something I loved and that loved me back than the pain of not even remembering someone loved you."
"I'm sorry, Bucky." Steve whispered as he squeezed his friend tighter. "I'm sorry."
The two sat on the floor for a long time. Just two old men who were still children, lost and alone in an unfamiliar world they could never truly become a part of.
Sorry for the feels! I made myself sad writing this. :P Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading about sad Avengers. I'll try to update tomorrow. Thanks for all your awesome reviews, y'all are the best!
~Grey
