A few minutes earlier

"This is…" Barton trails off, speechless.

"It's not good," says Steve in a wary discontent. "And I'm not talking about Loki being on the team, I'm talking about-"

"Tony," knowingly ends Bruce.

"What of Stark?" asks Thor and it's not untraceable the hint of defense in his tone.

"Besides the fact that he's inexplicably attached to your brother?" coming from Fury, who knows a lot more than he lets on.

"There's nothing of ambiguity in the matter. They care for one another, what precisely is of concern?"

"Thor," Nat calls calmly. "What Tony said about Loki caring about you, even with what he did, I believe him. But that care, didn't stop him from turning on you."

"He will not turn on Stark," asserted rather irrefutably.

"What makes you so sure?" Nick pushes, trying to pressure an admission from Thor because more than any of them it seems he knows for certain.

"Because…" but he trails off, because it's not his place…

"Because it's not just an innocent, platonic little friendship, is it?" Clint notes crudely.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Steve asks in a genuine perplexation, verily concerned with the explanation. Besides him maybe the only other person surprised hearing this implication is Bruce, for one reason.

A reason Fury would mention now because they should well understand the situation and what it may likely transcend to.

Surveillance on the tower was not necessary, Nick had decided two uneventful weeks after Loki's arrival on Earth. He could rely enough on the eyes and ears of his agents, he could depend on the Hulk's and the God of Thunder's strengths to subdue an escalation, he could count on Steve's coordination.

But Tony…He'll admit he hadn't seen it coming. Any of it. Perhaps it was faintly odd his suggestion to house Loki in the tower, but he made a persuasive case given the security installed in the place, that and the Avengers' permanent availability on the premises.

It was his mistake then having never asked 'why.'

Even if he had, he wouldn't have seen this coming. This that Clint had quipped at first and later expressed concern for in his reports, that Nat confirms more and more with her observations, that Thor avoids discussing, that Loki flips the subject, that Tony snaps hard.

And now – with the tower being surveyed since Loki's escape – that: "Pepper left." This takes back most, some more than others. "Late last night, not an hour after you touched down. Earlier this morning, three Stark employees were let in and left with luggage. Lots of it."

Clint finds himself more shocked than he thought he'd be, because now it's very real. Nat's gaze falls because out of all of them, she had seen this coming. Thor may be disappointed Pepper's gone, but he's not disappointed this happened. Bruce is trying to process and Steve speaks up.

"…So they had a fight," he postulates matter-of-factly. Why was this strange, he wondered. It happened often.

Too often, perhaps, so he asks Nick: "Did they break up?"

"Last night?" Bruce questions doubtingly. "Are you sure?"

"See?" says Clint smugly.

"See what?" Steve stressed irritably.

"Come on, Rogers. You can work it out." And with his tone and the look on his face, Steve's wary he can.

For a man out of time, some concepts were lost on him, foreign…unnerving. A mild pink colors the Captain's cheeks.

"Let's focus on the problem," Fury moves ahead. "Like Agent Romanoff said, whatever's happened between them, whatever feelings however strong isn't enough to guarantee that Loki wouldn't try anything out there."

"What does?" says Bruce incredulously.

"Nothing," Clint asserts. "Which is why it's a bad idea."

"I don't think it is," coming from Nat and truly now Clint is stumped.

"What?"

Natasha shrugs. "Maybe his feelings for Tony don't stop him from turning on us. Maybe they do. Either way it has nothing to do with him being on the team," a phrase Nick's heard before from Tony himself. "We could use him. He's strong."

"Which is the problem," says Steve, doing his best to avoid the 'feelings' part.

"We did beat him once," notes Bruce. "He's not as strong as he used to be now."

"I'm sorry, are we actually having this discussion?" asks Clint bewilderedly, staring wide-eyed at all.

"Put your foot down and say no. What do you think Stark's gonna do?" Nick alludes.

"That is the actual problem. What do we do about Tony?"

"Clint's right," Steve supports somewhat dejectedly. "Stark's been making excuses for everything Loki's ever done. He tries to kill you," looking here at Thor, who's had it with this reference. "Tony says he didn't."

"He tries to take over the planet, Tony says it wasn't him. He tries to wipe out a race, you say they were cannibals!" Clint glares at Thor, whose bushy brows furrow.

"I did not-"

"Yeah, but-" Bruce interjects. "Thor stopped him, didn't he? When Loki went wrong, Thor stepped up and he put a stop to him. And you've known him, you've cared about him a lot longer than Tony has. I-Tony's right. What we're doing; the hypothetical what ifs. We're making problems."

"We are trying to be prepared for the worst," Clint emphasizes furiously.

"But you can't be. You can't predict whose side Tony will take if things go sideways, you can't predict that they will. And you can't be prepared for it. We deal with what happens, when it happens."

"Like we did with the invasion," Nat adds in confirmation. "Did we see that coming?"

"What do you think we were doing with the Tesseract?" Clint asks.

"Was it enough?" Nat retorts. "Loki ended up using the Tesseract, not us."

"So you and Bruce want him on?" Steve inquires uneasily, where Bruce says:

"It's not about wanting him on…Like it or not, we've been living with the guy for over seven months. Like it or not he's a part of this, of us. So instead of sitting out while we clean up the mess that he made, might as well let him pitch in."

"I'm with Bruce," says Thor with a beam of eagerness in his tone. "It would do Loki well to be of use."

"I don't care what would do him well," Clint sneers. "I don't trust him. I don't wanna dagger in my back when I have it turned."

"That will not happen-"

"Won't-"

"Loki is my responsibility. I will not leave his side as-"

"He'll leave yours," Nat passively points out. "I'm pretty sure the main reason Loki's bringing up the team now is cause Tony almost died," the mention disturbs the team a great deal, Nat included. "At least we thought he did. He said it himself he'll fight with him; he wants to protect him."

"You assume," Clint claims. Nat eyes him irritably.

"Tony's the only ally Loki's got on Earth, what happens if he's dead?"