So heated a glare from Tony Clint was shot as he and Loki made to depart, as if after this all they'd stay.

Wordless past the group they move along the way Nat and Loki's eyes meet. In them to her is indifference, he doesn't care and she doesn't expect him to. Then they're gone and to Clint she turns, who at her is looking back; her eyes harden.

After everything she'd said, never mind what he tried with Loki but to even think to go after Tony – "What the hell were you thinking?" voices Steve the question on her mind with just as hard a tone but Clint to him speaks not, looks Nat dead in the eye saying certain:

"He wasn't gonna hurt you." And was he so sure? He needed to be – he told himself he was.

Angry at him as the rest sitting still hunched over with elbows to knees and hands clenched Bruce sternly remarks: "Try it again and he will."

"Try it again and I will," adds Thor as fiercely, taking one long step to Clint glaring down wrathfully and from him this rage is not surprising, to Clint because of course as protective of Tony he'd be. 'Oh look. It's the brother-in-law,' quips his mind as he rolls his eyes though a part in minor grows distressed from the god's glaring eyes still he speaks in his defense:

"Would everybody chill? You think I didn't know he'd catch it?" 'Do you actually think I'd hurt Tony?!' "Hello, people! I'm not the bad guy here. It was a test; I wanted to see how he'd react." To the closest chair he makes, sits worn as well from the stress of the escalation.

"And was it the way you expected or do you plan on making more 'tests'?" Irritable up he looks at the Captain's scornful tone.

"No, Steve. I won't. I got just what I was looking for."

"Which was what?" this demanded then from Nat. It's clear enough what one from this could learn but the repercussions – when had Clint grown so reckless? If he knows so well that blade Loki would catch surely he knew at him next it'd strike – didn't he care?!

The look on his face when the knife had come to her she could see that this he'd never meant but really what did he expect?!

In his eyes that for a beat are apprehensive, admittedly, tactfully he tells: "You asked me to give him a chance." And to her he would've listened, to her words to all she'd said and all she'd claimed to hear and see but…To risk that her as justly Loki had fooled, no. "I needed to be sure once and for all," to the others now he's speaking, "at the very least that he actually cares about Tony."

"And are you now?" Steve demands impatiently, scathingly.

Was he?

Was it there in the way that passive greens were lit aflame in rage, was it the malice in his gaze when he placed that blade to Clint's throat, the pleasure in his eyes as Clint's stance wavered when it sooner aimed her way?

Hadn't he cared it would've sufficed to toss smugly aside that knife, no fury in his eyes would've burned so bright, no words would've swayed the desire to hurt when the chance had arised, no promises made to inflict such pain, not to body but heart should his again be threatened only.

"Well enough."

"Because he threatened to kill you?" says Bruce ridiculously.

"Because he went after Nat!" this shouted with more frustration it's obvious it had gotten to him badly. And maybe now he knows what he wanted to know: "…I targeted someone he cared about; he retaliated the same way," said more sullenly because no it hadn't been worth it…

He looks and in her eyes a somber displeasure he knows all she means to say, all she saw as wrong in these choices that he takes that are rash and disappointingly irrational.

He insists: "But he wasn't gonna do anything," to her or himself one can't tell.

Then what he adds takes them aback, because it's coming from him more than anything else.

"Because he won't risk being locked up away from him."

To this Bruce finds himself automatically, scathingly saying: "Because Tony would let that happen." Then as irritable Thor next speaks.

"Were you to blame do you think I'd not take his side? You evoke rage in-"

"And I'm done now," Clint affirms. "You guys wanted me to be fine with him on the team; this was how."

"So now you trust him?" Steve asks incredulously. Clint pulls a face.

"No. But I'm sure enough he wouldn't do anything that'd put Tony in jeopardy." And they'd ask how he was sure, why so suddenly he's decided it's real the way they claim that Loki feels.

Then it is as Clint had said maybe that was all it took for them to see it truly, Loki's manners of retaliation spoke enough.

"Oh and FYI," Clint adds falling back in his chair, on his mind a thought he decides is right and more than probable that verily everyone should be made aware of the possibility. "…If Loki does somehow find a way to escape…he's not going anywhere without him." Because so inseparable they'd become why ever would Loki leave without – more objectively as Nat had earlier put it – the only ally he has on Earth. "So don't rule that out. We've already seen he can stay under the radar for as long as he wants to, and with Tony on his side they'd literally vanish off the grid."

"Not from Heimdall's eye," Thor reasserts. The more dangerous everyone assumes his brother, the harder it is their trust he'd earn. And he must if they together must all now work. "Not so long as Loki's magic is limited."

"Eighteen hours, Thor," Clint snaps back. "That's how long it took to find him, and when we did, it's cause he'd stopped hiding – Do you have any actual idea what kind of power is at his disposal?" asked now incredulously that quite vexedly Thor retorts:

"They were on the move for a constant period of time that Heimdall could not point me in one direction clear enough. He could see Loki but to him we could not be sent. So no, Barton. As I'd said, his magic is restricted and it hadn't been at his disposal those many hours."

"But he found a loophole," the marksman shot back. "Put em on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic, always moving, using enough magic when he's not to disappear then moving again."

"So if it's so easy and doable, Clint," this now coming from Nat, who speaks with a rather shortened temper. "Since you're prodding at every if and what, tell me why the hell is he still here?"

"Why would he leave?" retaliated matter-of-factly. "Unless he's got some master plan to play, this is the best place to be, next to some pristine palace for his highness. Without a hard reason, he isn't gonna risk the likelihood of Tony saying no. Which, and let's not bullshit ourselves, we all know wouldn't happen." They worry this is only too true. "But then what if he does, what Loki'll kidnap him? No. That'd be just as good as leaving him behind, or worse." All that's said for a beat they ponder. And though Clint's words and deductions are of sense his methods are less than admired or appreciated. There were ways surely one to all this could've come without evoking problems seeking in them reflections from actions to one's innermost thoughts and cultivated impulse.

The silence Clint then breaks asking: "Does anybody have any more questions?" Like a professor in a lecture, his dry sense of humor never fails, and never fails to irritate. "No? Good. Cause I have to pee."