A/N: Welcome to my Avengers story! This story takes place after the events of Iron Man 3, The Winter Soldier, and The Dark World, but before Age of Ultron. I tried to balance this story between action, friendship, and some fluffy romance/friendship tidbits. As a general note, I've changed some things about some of the characters. One important change is that Clint Barton is more like his comic book counterpart in personality.
I hope you guys enjoy reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it!
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Chapter 1.
Steve Rogers strode down the front steps of his apartment building.
It was early winter, damp, dark, and dreary, cold enough for a coat, but not snow. When he was a kid, weather like this meant there would be no ball games in the streets, no gangs of boys picking through the gutters for scrap metal, no girls sitting on the stoops, dragging pants through the dirt as they tried to learn how to sew. Everyone would stay inside and try to keep warm, reluctantly sitting through school lessons, watching raindrops roll down the windows.
It was no different now. He had spent most of the day at home, reading, but he heard restless children above and below. From the sidewalk, he could see a little girl on the third floor, arms folded in the window, frowning at the dark sky.
It was incredible how much things could change, and still stay the same.
His phone rang as he mounted his motorcycle.
Maria Hill.
SHIELD was gone – or it was supposed to be. Its agents were underground now, operating from the shadows, still reeling from a cataclysmic showdown with Hydra. Its roots were rotten, its purpose corrupted, and the only way to fix it was to rebuild from the ground up.
Maria was spearheading that effort.
"Long time," Steve said, resting his helmet on the handlebars. "I was starting to think you'd forgotten about me."
She had a smile in her voice. "I was giving you space. How are you?"
"I'm good. I'm on my way to dinner with the rest of the team."
"You can pass on the message, then," she said, slipping into a more serious tone. "We detected an unknown craft over New York last night. We thought it might be Deltaran, but the signature was all over the place. It fried one of our sensors."
Deltarans.
A few months back, a dozen black rings appeared in the sky above Salt Lake City. Tony called them giant death donuts. SHIELD identified them as an alien race, but their intel on the stars was minimal. Steve, Tony, Clint, and Bruce had only just arrived when one of the ships dropped a hundred feet and carved a burning line through the city, killing almost three dozen people.
Tony had concocted a tech solution, knocking out their navigation systems and sending them spiraling in different directions. Realizing they were outmatched, they withdrew.
"Are we sure it wasn't Deltaran?" Steve said.
"No match, but it could be another type of craft. Can you guys keep an eye out?"
"Of course."
A gunshot came over the line, and Maria said, "I gotta let you go."
"Are you okay?"
Another gunshot.
Maria was breathless. "Oh, yeah, totally fine. Routine mission. Be careful out there."
Steve winced as more gunshots came through. "You, too."
"And tell Agent Barton he still owes me a helicopter!"
Steve took the long way around the city, feeling a little guilty when he handed his motorcycle over to the valet – he looked ridiculous mounting it in his monkey suit.
It was a high-class place. Steve marveled at the multicolored lights illuminating the faces of age-old gargoyles, the delicate stonework, the carefully laid cobblestone. He had never been here as a kid, but he was sure it was around – it just wasn't open to people like him.
It was crowded inside, quiet outside. Steve glanced through the double doors, where a line of socialites chatted in the lobby – women in extravagant gowns, men in black suits, reflective floors, and masterpiece paintings on the walls.
He had never been at home among people like that.
He liked it better outside – chilly, a light rain starting up, a gentle drumming on the metal roof, lightning flashing somewhere in the distance.
If he pretended the modern music was smooth jazz, maybe added some kids slogging through the rain, imagined that just around that corner, Bucky was waiting for him, he could pretend this was the New York he used to know.
It had its own problems, but he missed it.
Natasha was standing under the awning.
Steve suddenly felt underdressed. She wore a striking red dress and red lipstick, hair perfectly curled, the red making the green of her eyes almost unnaturally bright. It looked like she had walked right off of a movie screen.
She smiled when she saw him. "Wow, is that a tie? That's adorable."
"I wear a red, white, and blue uniform and carry an American flag shield – and you think this is noteworthy?" He laughed. "It's really good to see you."
"You, too," she said genuinely.
"And you're one to talk. I'm business casual – you're black tie."
"Yeah, well, I don't get out of the house much. What've you been up to?"
He had not seen her since they buried an empty casket. Nick Fury had gone into hiding. She said she was going to create a new identity, start a new life.
He said, "Oh, you know, the usual – hunting down Hydra operatives, looking for an old friend. Sam and I have been training."
"Exciting."
"What about you? What have you been up to?"
She smirked. "Nothing noteworthy. We should go inside. I can already feel Stark and Banner bickering."
He held the door for her.
They walked past pillars and private dining rooms, where people stared and whispered.
"Warm welcome," Steve commented.
"I think you intimidate them."
"Me?"
"What? I look perfectly helpless in this dress."
A waiter led them to a private room in the back. Isolated. It was probably the best place for them, because Tony and Bruce were already arguing about some science nonsense. Steve took the seat between Natasha and Thor, and before he had even hit the chair, Thor had him in a one-armed hug.
He gave a suffocating squeeze. "Steve! It is good to see you! Pepper was beguiling me with tales of your encounter with the Deltarans while I was away. I would have loved to join you in sending them back home. I despise them. Warmongers. I suspect they want to mine the Earth for salt."
"We managed, but it would have been good to have you," Steve said.
Thor had chosen a muted, casual outfit, hair pulled back, Mjolnir hanging on the coatrack in the doorway. Tony and Bruce were dressed similarly, but Pepper and Natasha had both chosen evening gowns, classing up the table.
Clint was the last to arrive. He patted Steve on the back as he passed, and then stopped to tell Thor he had been promised arrows from Asgard.
"Must have gotten lost in the post," Thor said.
Clint sat beside Natasha.
Steve leaned over to say, "Agent Hill said you owe her a helicopter."
Clint winced. "I was hoping she would forget about that."
"Did you crash a helicopter without me?" Nat asked.
"Well, sort of. I shot it down. It's complicated."
"I'm gonna need that story later," Steve said.
It was a rowdy bunch. Steve drifted between conversations, laughing, smiling, getting up to speed on what they were all up to.
Tony and Bruce were talking over each other, barely stopping to breathe, fixated on a specific point in some greater tech topic that no one else could understand. Great minds, bickering like little boys. Pepper occasionally tried to distract them, but eventually she gave in and had a long conversation with Clint instead. He was still going on missions for SHIELD, receiving orders from Maria. He had been all over the world in the last few months.
Thor told dramatic tales of his adventures on other planets, how he was sewing peace among the stars – he was a little full of himself, but he meant well.
When their food arrived, Tony stood, gracefully downing half a glass of scotch so the waitress could get him another. "Okay, okay, settle down everyone. I have an announcement. Please direct your attention to the screen."
He tossed four metal balls onto the ground, and from them, a holographic screen spawned. It was big enough to obscure an entire wall.
Tony whispered something to Pepper.
"Oh, right," she hopped up and turned the lights off.
"Thanks, babe." Tony strolled to his projection. With a flick of his wrist, he summoned a world map. It had little symbols marking locations.
Steve knew what it was immediately.
"Hydra."
Tony nodded, "Ten points to the guy voted most likely to show up at your base and kill your dudes."
Steve frowned.
"What? It's a well-known reference." Tony zoomed in on Russia. "I compiled a laundry list of information and used an algorithm to identify the most likely places for Hydra installations. If we use this program, we can find Loki's scepter – but, more importantly, I think we can wipe Hydra off the map."
Steve nodded along with him, "Get us some locations as soon as possible."
"Aye, aye, captain."
His presentation launched him into another long discussion with Bruce, and the table devolved again. Steve was pensive. His discovery of Hydra working within SHIELD last year had shaken his faith. He brought the organization to the ground twice, but it just kept creeping back from the brink. It seemed to be haunting him, taunting him, reminding him that he still had work to do.
Maybe now he could finally put an end to Hydra, for good.
Halfway through dessert – after a dramatic story of how Thor singlehandedly took down an army of strange stone creatures in the depths of a forgotten moon – Nat nudged Steve.
"Hey, you're being quiet."
"It's rude to talk with your mouth full."
"You should join a book club," she said, shoving a chocolate truffle into her mouth and talking through it. "Make some friends your own age, maybe share knitting ideas."
"Very funny."
"You could talk about the good old days. Eat some boiled shoes."
"Boiled…?"
"I'm not a history buff."
He laughed. "When are you going to find some new material? You can't harp on my age forever."
"Says who?" She ate another truffle, watching him thoughtfully. Nat had expressive eyes, easy to get lost in. But she was a spy, trained to deceive. "Did you ever call Karen?"
"I did. She moved states after SHIELD went down."
"I'll sign you up for a dating website."
"Do not do that."
"I have so many ideas for your profile."
He wished she would drop her obsession with filling his social calendar.
"How is everyone?" she wondered. "No news from SHIELD?"
Steve remembered suddenly, "Maria called me when I was leaving my apartment."
He stood up, tapping his glass to command the attention of the room. Tony and Bruce finally relented, though Tony murmured something, securing the last word.
"I got a call from Agent Hill a few hours ago. An unidentified aircraft was flying over New York last night – the signature was different from the Deltarans."
Tony said, "You got anything more specific? Is it bigger than a breadbox?"
"I will need a breadbox for scale," Thor said.
Clint said, "Unidentified as in no visual, or they saw it and couldn't identify it?"
Tony nodded along with him. "We talking stealth?"
Bruce snorted, "If it's government, we know where that tech came from."
Tony feigned offense, "Why do you always assume it's me?"
Nat rolled her eyes. "Because it's always you."
Steve raised his voice to quiet them, "I'm not sure what it was. She was vague on the phone, but
she seemed worried about it. She has a good head on her shoulders. I trust her judgement."
A moment of silence.
And then Tony said, "You see, this is why we should have a global defense system."
And there it was.
Clint groaned, "Come on, not with this again."
Pepper said, "Honey, maybe not now?"
Tony stood up, spreading his hands on the table to give a real time demonstration of his words. He shifted into an insistent, matter-of-fact tone that never failed to irritate everyone.
"No, no, hear me out. Satellites forming a global network, able to pinpoint individuals and identify threats. We have a rudimentary grasp of it right now with the program I created to track down Hydra, but if we really applied ourselves we could address threats on and off planet proactively instead of reactively."
Nat said, "Steve and I just took down a system like that in SHIELD. I know you have a lot of big innovations going on, but how could you miss that?"
"I know what happened," Tony said, returning her glare. "This would be different. This time, the good guys would have control."
Steve cut in, "And when good guys try to be judge, jury, and executioner, they become the bad guys. I said it the first time you brought this up, and I'll say it again – it's not happening. It's not safe. We didn't form the Avengers to police the world. We're here to protect it."
"If you get off your high horse for a second-"
"Can we drop this?" Pepper said.
Clint said, "I think this makes four times, maybe five. Who had five?"
"Me," Thor said, accepting a twenty-dollar bill from Clint.
"Sometimes you have to protect the world from itself," Tony said, an edge entering his voice. Pepper put her hand on his arm, whispering something.
Steve had had enough of this argument. It was ongoing. Tony brought it up whenever there was a crisis. "Tony, I've seen firsthand what happens when people try to force order."
"Jesus, I'm not suggesting we turn the world into Nazi Germany."
"It sure sounds like you are. Hitler exercised complete control. I was there."
"Oh, were you in the war? I don't think you've mentioned that before. Did anybody know that Cap was in a war?"
"I saw what autocracy looks like. I know you have good intentions, but-"
"Don't talk down to me, Rogers."
"Tony," Pepper said, looking between them. "Relax. Come on, let's just drop this."
Tony ignored her, focusing intently on Steve. "What happens if the Deltarans come back? What happens if you're on the other side of the world, and Thor is off-planet, and Clint and Natasha are off the radar? We were lucky we were so close to Utah. If those ships had gotten any closer, millions of people could have died. A system for the detection and elimination of threats is the only way to protect the world when we aren't there."
Tony was intense and angry, a rare state. He was arrogant, pigheaded, frustrating, antagonistic – but beneath it all he was a good man. He had something new in his eyes now, an instability that was inherently threatening.
Steve had not seen Tony since they stopped the Deltarans.
Maybe he should have checked in.
Steve kept his voice level, volume low, carefully suppressing how frustrated he was.
"I'm serious, Tony. It's not happening."
Tony clenched his jaw.
Steve braced himself for the fight to go on.
But the spark inside of Tony faded. He left the room.
Pepper jumped up, "I'm so sorry, Steve, I don't know what's come over him."
"Don't worry about it," he said.
She left, murmuring apologies on her way out.
It was tense for the rest of dinner.
Steve ate in silence. Tony was dead-set on this idea and he refused to see reason. His obsessions could be extreme. It was part of his personality, part of what made him great. But they fundamentally disagreed on this, and it was clear neither of them would budge.
When the dinner broke up, Steve was the last to leave.
It was pouring rain now.
Ribbons of water flowed over the pavement, beautiful in the reflection of the streetlamps.
Nat was waiting for him under the awning. She looked like a character in a postcard, standing there in that dress, bright lipstick, curled hair propped on one shoulder – beautiful.
She said, "So that was… let's be honest, it was better than most of our gatherings."
Steve laughed. She smiled.
"Tony and I usually agree to disagree," he said, tapping his helmet against his leg. He felt pent-up, caged. "But he's obsessed with this global protection thing."
"He's been edgy ever since New York. And what happened with the Mandarin made it worse. You have to admit Tony has always been a little… unstable."
"Aren't we all? He was fine before this. We took down the Deltarans together."
"I should have been there."
"I thought you would be."
He regretted saying that immediately. Nat looked a little wounded – rare, because she usually hid her vulnerabilities.
He said, "Sorry. I know you were… busy."
She looked away.
Steve watched the water again, circling back, "Tony means well. I just hope he isn't planning something without us."
"You think Tony would do something that major behind your back?"
Steve said, "I wish I could say no."
"We should keep an eye out, then."
"Does that mean you're staying in town?"
Her eyes softened. Green. But in the light of the streetlamps, it was more of a gray. "I think so. Seems we have some business to take care of with Hydra."
Steve nodded, "We could use the backup."