Tony sat at the bar with his elbows on the counter and his head resting on his hands, one of which held a glass of scotch. He glanced at the clock in the recently reconstructed living room. 3:30 am. Another night spent at the bottom of a bottle. Sure, that happened a lot, but this was the first time in recent memory that he had found himself here every night for over a week. Usually Pepper convinced him to drown his sorrows another way by the fourth night in a row, but she was consumed with her own grief over the whole Barton thing.
He wasn't sure if he was surprised or not when Bruce pulled up a bar stool and sat next to him. What did elicit a look of utter shock was Banner pouring himself a glass of scotch. He ignored Tony as he took a sip from the glass and set it on the counter.
After a moment, Bruce decided to be the one to break the deafening silence. "How's Pepper doing?"
"About as good as the rest of us, I suppose," offered Stark as he gestured to the glass in his hand. The motion caused the ice in the half-filled glass to clink against the sides.
"You did all you could, Tony." Banner wasn't sure how his sympathetic tone would go over. They had all felt so helpless and each of them reacted to that helplessness differently.
"Well, it doesn't seem like enough, you know?"
"You saved Pepper."
Stark turned to face Bruce, his expression somewhere between serious and frustrated. "But I didn't save Barton." His rant sped up and his voice began to rise as he continued. "In fact, Clint saved Pepper. Let's give the man the credit he deserves. You know, my only thought through it all was Pepper. I barely gave Barton a second thought."
They had all noticed that Tony was taking the whole situation really hard. Maybe they all felt a little guilty at the fact that Clint was often a second thought. The team had united to save the world and slowly began to form friendships and bonds in the months since, but the archer always seemed to be an afterthought. They barely noticed if he wasn't present unless Natasha was also missing, never spoke of just Clint but always Natasha and Clint or Romanoff and Barton. Hell, more often than not they referred to him only as Barton or Hawkeye, rarely Clint.
Banner racked his mind trying to find a justifiable reason for it. The man had been rather distant after the Manhattan mission and understandably so. They all had demons to deal with, but Hawkeye's were recent and something that none of them could really understand. Sure, they could relate with some of their own experiences, but none of them had been forced by Loki to kill friends and colleagues. Maybe part of the problem had been that, deep down inside, some part of them still held him responsible for the situation, as ridiculous as that idea sounded.
"That's understandable in that situation. Someone you love was in danger. People prioritise based on their feelings and relationships..."
Tony snorted and cut Bruce's attempt at a comforting justification off. "You know who Barton was thinking about? Pepper. So who the hell was thinking about Barton while all this was going down? Sure as hell wasn't us. He's Fury's guy and he was willing to sacrifice him for the greater good of SHIELD."
"I think this team thing is all still new to all of us. We're bound to make mistakes here and there."
"This was a pretty big mistake, don't you think? It's not even my birthday."
"What?" Bruce asked with a furrowed brow.
"Pepper told Clint that she needed his advice on a surprise birthday present for me. That's why he was with her at the bank, transferring funds to cover her excuse to get to know the guy better. Neither of them would have been there if we- I - had realized how withdrawn the man was. Look what this team thing has cost us. First Coulson died and now Barton's ..." Tony slammed his empty glass on the counter and stood up. He stormed towards the door but he turned to face Bruce before he left. "We can't keep getting this team thing wrong."
"I know," whispered Banner into the night.