Tony let Dummy back in around dinner time, which he refused to leave his room and go to. The robot had left a small pile of Tony's books just outside of his door, bringing to him just like he had asked, and was currently chasing Lucky around the apartment. As soon as Tony opened his door just a little bit, Dummy scurried over and entered through the crack. He grabbed his books quickly, ignoring the calls from the living room and closed the door behind him.
"Thanks buddy. You did good." Tony said and looked down at the books. Most of them weren't even his, either they packed up the wrong people's stuff in his box or Dummy just grabbed whatever books it could find to bring to him. Dummy circled the room excitedly as Tony returned to his bed.
He collapsed onto his bed and curled up under his blankets. Dummy pulled the covers back quickly and rushed over to the door when someone started knocking again. Tony sat up and shook his head at the robot. It then came over and grabbed his hand and tried to drag him from bed.
"No, stop it." Tony said, pulling his hand away and falling back into bed. Whoever was at door the continued to knock, calling out and asking if Tony was alright. He groaned and covered back up. He just wanted to be left alone but these people did nothing but worry. His head snapped up when he heard the click of his lock and looked over as Dummy opened the door. "Dammit." Tony whispered.
"Oh, good. The door's open, I'll just come right on in." Natasha said. She walked right in and let the dog rush in before closing the door behind her. Lucky jumped up onto the bed and laid down next to Tony, nuzzling his head up under his hand.
"I'm fine." Tony said, petting Lucky's head lightly as Dummy reached over to grab the blankets to cover both him and the dog. Natasha sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed.
"The last time you insisted you were fine and locked yourself away in your room for hours you tried to run away." Natasha said. Tony turned away and pulled his blankets closer to him. She reached out and began running her fingers through his messy dark hair. "If we didn't hear you move around every so often in here we would have probably broken the door down."
"So? You have your spy powers. Just pick the lock and come right in." Tony muttered, turning his face into his pillows. Nat sighed.
"We're trying to respect you privacy. But we're also worried about you. So it's time to get up and eat dinner with the rest of us." Natasha said.
"I don't care if you guys come in here to check up on me. I just want to stay right here." Tony said, he rolled onto his stomach then with his face still buried into the pillow. Lucky lifted himself up at Tony's movements only to lay back down closer to him with his head laying across Tony's back.
"No, Tony. You have to get up and do things. It's good for you. You also have to eat dinner." She said. Tony groaned loudly but didn't move. He continued breathing deeply, feeling the weight of the dog next to him was comforting. "What's bothering you?"
Tony laid there for several minutes, not speaking. He instead focused on the sounds Dummy was making throughout the room. Dummy had begun stacking the books closer to Tony's bed so if he wanted to read them while lying around he could. He threw his arm over edge of the bed and patted the robot lightly before it wheeled off to mess with other stuff across the room. He heard Natasha sigh sadly above him.
Tony didn't know what to say, he didn't even want to talk about it much. Every time he started thinking about it he would go into a panic and just be so exhausted he wanted to lay around in bed. Then if he started thinking about it again it would repeat. He didn't want to do that again, but he didn't like them worrying. Everyone always told him to talk about it so maybe he should and if he couldn't stay calm then Nat was here to take care of him. Tony rolled over and sat up, looking down at Lucky, who laid his head onto Tony's lap.
"You're a SHIELD agent." Tony asked, he glanced up to see her slowly nod before looking back down at the dog. "If you kill someone, how do you stop feeling bad about it?" Tony felt horrible for asking, especially when her hand paused in her hair. Her eyes turned into a calculating gaze for several moments.
"It's alright to be upset about it, Tony. It was a huge thing that you weren't prepared for." She said. Tony didn't say anything. Conversations around him usually turned into telling him about how he was feeling was okay and they just wanted him to feel better. He didn't want those talks about how much they loved him, he wanted them to tell him how to make all the bad feelings stop.
"I still shot them. People are dead." Tony muttered, feeling his heart pick up slightly.
"What would have happened if you didn't?" Natasha asked firmly. Tony shrugged, looking up at the serious expression her face had taken. She waited, demanding more of an answer from Tony.
"I don't know. They would have shot us?" He said, waiting.
"Yes. Then Bruce would have hulked out and took care of them or they would have gotten away and killed more people throughout the building." She said slowly. "It wasn't your fault. You had to." Tony nodded. It made sense, but he couldn't shake the feeling in his chest that he had done something very very wrong and something needed to be done.
He moved to lay back down before she was pulling him up and out of bed quickly. He protested loudly as she slung him over her shoulder and began walking towards the door. Tony would have struggled more to be released if he wasn't so tired and surprised at how strong Natasha was. She carried him out of the room, leaving the door open for Lucky and Dummy to chase after them.
"Hey everyone, Tony's up." She said as she gently put him down on the couch. Steve perked up immediately, holding out his bag of Cheetos.
"We're watching Red Dawn." He said as Tony waved away the bag. "It's very good. I like the part where they give inspirational speeches and then talk about being 'Wolverines'." Tony looked over at the tv.
"You're watching the new one. The old one is better." Tony muttered as Lucky jumped up on the couch to lay down on Tony. Natasha opened her mouth to say something, but stopped immediately to glare at Clint.
"Dogs on the couch, Clint. You're lucky Tony seems to like him." Natasha muttered angrily as she stalked off towards the kitchen. Tony was too tired to lift his head and say that it was just the dog didn't want to leave him alone.
"Look at him, cuddling with our boy. That's a damn good dog right there." Clint said, standing off in the corner firing arrows into a target he had pinned onto the wall.
Bruce came in carrying several plates of food with Natasha following behind him helping. Tony took his plate wordlessly and just held it out in front of him. He stirred at the food slowly with his fork while everyone sat down in front of the tv to watch the movie. Dummy rushed in from the kitchen and held another empty cup out towards Tony. He took it and tapped the robot lightly before putting his plate down on the coffee table.
"You have to eat." Bruce said softly. Tony ignored him
"Tony, if you're ever upset we don't want you locked away in your room. Don't lock us out." Clint said softly, sitting down next to Natasha.
"Why? I promised I won't try to run away anymore." Tony said, sinking down lower into the couch.
"We know, we just want to make sure you're alright. Keep an eye on you." Clint said, picking at his food. Tony shrugged, but nodded.
"You also have an appointment with Dr. Moreno in a few days. We would like it very much if you would go." Natasha said. Tony looked around at everyone in the room. Steve was enthralled in the movie, oblivious to everything else. Bruce was pretending not to listen and watching the tv blankly. Clint and Nat were just looking over at him expectantly. Tony shrunk down lower into the couch when he saw how worried they seemed.
"Okay." Tony said. He leaned forward and grabbed his plate off the table. He wasn't really hungry but when he took a bite everyone seemed to relax a bit. He finished it and plopped the plate back down onto the table before striding off back to his room. He left the door open so they could check on him just like they asked and then hid himself back under his blankets.
"Ugh, dammit." He blurted out as Lucky jumped onto the bed next to him. Dummy came in quickly, picking up one of other pillow and holding it up to the dog, who sniffed at it furiously before laying down next to Tony. Dummy then wheeled around the bed, pillow in tow, and held it up to Tony.
