"We're back!" Sam announced as he carefully closed the door behind them at the avengers headquarters. "Loki, fix the window."

Loki stood in front of it and the pieces of broken glass put themselves back into place and became whole again in the window frame. "There," he said, "better?"

"Awesome," Tony said from the top of the stairs, "way to bring a murderer and liar to the avengers headquarters, Sam. I knew I could count on you guys to do the right thing while I was in the countryside relaxing." He walked away.

"Tony," Bruce said as he walked over to the top of the stairs, "sorry guys, come on up."

Bruce, Tony, Steve, Natasha, Sam, Mantis, Scott, and Nebula were in the living room waiting for them. Natasha asked, "What took you guys so long?"

Sam begged, "Please tell me that's a rhetorical question. You know what took so long! Look at who I had to travel with!" He gestered wildly at Bucky and Loki as they ignored him.

Loki walked passed him and said, "Everything is fixed."

Steve said, "That's great news, now we can use the refrigerator and oven again."

"So," Tony said, ignoring them, "time travel is apparently a thing. It works. Actually, what we're doing is going into alternate universes where Thanos hasn't gotten the stones yet. So I guess it's more like universe hopping."

Bruce said, "Yeah and once we use the stones to set everything right we can go back to those timelines right when we took them and those realities will be fine. It's actually really simple."

Scott said, "So, we know what we're doing."

Mantis said, "What are we doing, as a group, I mean."

Bruce explained, "We have to figure out the best time and place to get each stone..."

As he was talking, Bucky picked up a cup of water on the table next to Steve. Panicked, Steve turned around at him and desperately mouthed at him, don't you dare! Fearing Bucky was going to dump it onto him. Confused, Bucky drank some water nonchalently and gave him a WTF face as Steve gestured angrily at him.

"Excuse me," Bruce said, mildly annoyed, "are you two okay over there?"

They froze, as if they were caught by the teacher being naughty in the back of the classroom together. "We're fine," Steve said as calmly as he could, "continue, please." He crossed his arms and looked at Bucky who nodded in agreement.

Tony said, "Everyone here has had a run in with at least one stone, if not straight nearly been killed by one or more at some point or another." He glanced at Bucky who looked mildly confused. "Most of us here have, anyway."

"I have not," Scott confessed.

Tony continued, "Which one should we start with? Why not the reality stone? When did he get that? Where did that come from?"

"Thor," Loki answered as he walked behind Bruce and sat on a couch comfortably.

Steve asked, "How did he get it?"

"Well," he explained painfully, "it was a liquid, for some reason, rather than a stone and it made its way inside of Thor's girlfriend-that Jane girl. It was killing her and then elves showed up to try and get it from her and then I killed them and faked my death before taking the throne of Asgard. When Thor showed up years later it was completely surprised that I was still alive and I had to show him where I put our father on Earth. Then apparently Thor had an older half sister he never knew about and trust me, if you thought I was evil you're wrong to compare me to her. Then she chucked us out of the Bifrost where we landed onto Sakaar, the garbage planet. I for one, was happy there but no, Thor wanted to go back to Asgard where she was killing people left and right. Then I decided to do the right thing for once and had to fight zombie soldiers on the rainbow bridge before I stole the tesseract once again. Then Thanos found us."

"Hold the phone," Tony said forcefully, "stop talking. Your story stopped being about the stone a while ago and I for one have no idea where you were taking that."

Scott confessed, "I got lost in all of that explanation. What were we talking about again?"

"The reality stone," Mantis replied, "also, if Thor is your brother and this sister of his appeared, wouldn't she also be your sister?"

Loki said, "No I'm only Thor's brother because we were raised together. That's the only reason I claim him. I only heard about that woman recently and therefore claim no relation to her, and there isn't any."

Bruce said, "We have to go back to when the stone was inside of Thor's girlfriend. When was that?"

"Asgard, 2013," Loki answered.

"Alright," Bruce said as he wrote it down, "for the reality...liquid? I'm just going to call it a stone."

Natasha said, "We're going to need a way to extract it from her if it's inside of her, right?" She looked at Loki nervously.

"Exactly," he said.

Bruce said, "We can get down to the details of that later."

"We know the tesseract, or the space stone, is in New York in 2012," Tony said, glancing at Loki.

Loki added, "The mind stone is also there, in my staff."

"Yeah," Tony said, "we're well aware of that by now. Bruce, write that down."

"Already got it," he said.

Steve asked, "Where's the time stone in all of this? Tony, do you know?" He looked at him.

"Apparently a wizard named Doctor Stephen Strange in New York City has it," Tony said, he braced himself as he added angrily, "and he just gave it away!"

Natasha said, "Wait, it's also in New York, was he there in 2012?"

"Probably," Tony said hastily, "why?"

"You don't know what I'm saying?" she explained, "If we pick the right year three of the stones are in New York City." She looked around at everyone.

After the epiphany, Steve said, "Well that narrows down tracking some of these things but what about the rest of them?"

Mantis explained, "I know where the power stone is. Before my master Ego found his son Peter Quill, also known as Starlord, Peter took it from Morag before it eventually made it to Xandar. I'm assuming that's where Thanos got it."

Scott asked, "Who's Morag?"

"A planet," Mantis said, "not a person, and Starlord was there in 2014. That's what he told me, anyway."

Steve said, "Alright, what about the soul stone? Where is that?"

"I know where it is," Nebula said sadly, "Thanos killed my sister in order to get it on Vormier."

Sam asked, "That's also a planet in space?"

"Yes," she answered seriously.

"We'll write that down," Bruce said, "now we just have to figure out who is going where."

Tony explained, "So, New York City, 2012, probably right after we defeat Loki for obvious reasons. If I remember correctly I am the one that carried the tesseract down the elevator before giving it to Thor. I'll take myself out for that one."

Scott asked, "Will you need help?"

"What are your powers again?" he asked, "What do you do?"

"Seriously?" Scott said, "I'm Antman. I can shrink down really tiny and fit anywhere or I can get really giant. You don't remember?"

Tony replied, ignoring the question, "Perfect! I have a plan! It's set in stone. We'll get the tesseract together."

Bruce asked, "What about the staff? How are we going to get it from Hydra without causing a massive scene in the middle of everything?" Bucky tensed up and anxiously crossed his arms merely from hearing him say that word. Steve put his hand on his shoulders to help him relax.

Natasha noticed and said calmly, "If we intercept them in the elevator we should be able to get it from them no problem. I'll do it."

Bruce wrote that down and said, "I'll talk to Doctor Strange in 2012 New York."

"I'll go to Morag for the power stone," Nebula said.

"I want to go too," Sam said, "I want to see space again. That was awesome."

Steve said, "I'd love to go back to space too. Which other one was in space again? The soul stone, right? Buck, what do you say?" He wrapped his arm around Bucky's shoulders tighter.

"Sure," Bucky replied, smiling, "I'm ready."

Tony asked, "Mischievous one over there, Loki, aren't you going to go to Asgard for us? Are you paying attention or listening to anything we're saying?" He looked over to see Loki slumped on a couch behind Bruce.

"I guess I can go there," he said sadly.

"What's your problem now?" Tony demanded angrily throwing his arm on the table for emphasis.

"I'll have you know that's the day my mother was murdered," Loki said, staring at him.

Everyone turned to look at Tony awkwardly. He said as he lowered his eyes, "I'm sorry."

Mantis said, "I don't think you should be alone. I've never been to Asgard, I've heard it's beautiful and that everything is made of gold!" Loki smiled as he remembered.

Tony took a deep breath and said, "Well we have our assignments."

"Wait," Steve said, "how are we going to perform the snap when we get back here? Who's going to do that?"

"We just need a glove," Tony said, "a gauntlet, yeah? Right? I'll make one out of the ironman suit materials. It can't be that hard."

Bruce said, "We can figure out which one of us here will do it later. Why don't you make the glove now while Scott and I calibrate the exact coordinates and times we need while building a time machine."

"Universe hopping machine actually," Scott corrected him.

"Yeah," Bruce said, "that."

Mantis, Nebula, Natasha, Sam, Steve, Bucky, and Loki sat around the next living room over as Tony worked on building a glove and Bruce and Scott were elsewear building the universe hopping machine.

"Well this is boring," Nebula said.

Steve explained, "This kind of stuff takes time. There has to be a few boring moments every once in a while."

Sam leaned back on the couch he was sitting on and said, "Man it's going to be wild for everyone when they get back. Can you imagine missing a whole month of your life?" He glanced at Bucky and Steve before he looked away.

"It's not so bad," Bucky said, "you wake up, you're told time has passed and if you don't move on you'll stay stuck in the past so you move on." He glanced up from sitting at the end of the couch at Steve who was standing beside him. "Right Steve?"

"Yeah," he replied nervously, "yeah. You move on."

Natasha, while sitting in an armchair next to them, asked, "Wouldn't you want to rethink your life for the future?" She gazed into Bucky's eyes.

"That's too new to me," Bucky replied as he gazed back at her, "I need someone to show me how."

"Are you asking for my help?" she asked.

He asked half-heartedly, "What else do you think is happening right now?"

Natasha asked, "Why don't we teach each other that skill? The idea of planning an entire future for myself, I'm new to that as well." She smiled at him innocently.

Nebula groaned in annoyance. Mantis said, "Remember what we talked about, Nebula? You can use words to describe your feelings."

"I am deeply uncomfortable right now," Nebula said.

"Seriously," Sam said, "what is even happening here? When did this start?" He gestured to Natasha and Bucky but they completely ignored him and remained unmoving. Sam looked over at Steve from across the room on the couch he was sitting on and said, "Cap you're not even surprised?"

"Knowing him," Steve gestured to Bucky, "I'm surprised this didn't happen sooner." He remembered the countless double dates Bucky forced him to go on throughout the 1930's in the 40's before the war.

Bucky continued talking as if they were the only two people in the room, "I think we should start improving ourselves by telling the truth to each other at all times."

"Oh?" Natasha asked, "Does that mean there's something on your mind you want to tell me right now?"

"You're really bad at flirting," he confessed, "it feels like you're trying to seduce me in order to get information."

She shook her head, smiling, and replied, "I apologize, that's all I've ever been trained to do. How bad am I?"

"You're worse than Steve," Bucky said, "and I thought he was as bad as it gets."

Steve scoffed and said defensively, "I know how to flirt!"

"No, no," Sam said as he leaned forward in his seat in anticipation, "don't shut him down yet. I want to hear this. How bad is Steve at flirting?"

"You haven't seen him?" Bucky asked, "It's hard to watch, and listen to."

Steve said defensively, "I can flirt well, no matter what you say, Buck."

"I don't want to hear it, Steve," Bucky said seriously, "you thought fondue was a sex thing." Sam and Natasha burst out laughing as Steve glared at him.

"No-" Steve stuttered as his face turned redder, "that's not true...at all. He's lying. Oh for crying out loud! How did you even know that happened? You weren't even there when I had that conversation or when I heard that word for the first time."

Bucky replied, "Howard told me."

"Who?" Sam asked, still cracking up, "I need to know what happened, when it happened, why it happened, everything that went down." He looked at Natasha who couldn't keep a straight face.

Bucky's face fell as he said, "Howard...Stark, told me." He looked over at the doorway, hoping Tony didn't hear anything.

"Really Bucky?" Steve asked as he gave him a disappointed look.

Natasha asked, "What's the matter?"

"Nothing," he answered coldly, unable to look her in the eyes.

Natasha said in Russian, "I thought we were telling the truth to each other at all times now." She stood up and walked over to him seductively, then stradled his lap as she sat down.

"That's it," Nebula said as she stood up, "I'm leaving." Mantis and Steve followed her out of the room.

Steve turned around just before he left to see Sam and Loki still in the room. "Sam," he said, "Loki." He gestured to the exit in front of him.

"I want too see how two ex-assassins get down," Sam said.

"You can leave if you want to," Loki replied, "this is the best entertainment I've had in months."

Bucky ignored them and said in Russian, "Your accent sounds strange, like a foreigner."

"It's been a while since I've spoken to anyone in it," she replied in Russian, "you don't sound like a native yourself."

"I'm not," he replied, still in Russian, "it's a second language for me, why would I sound like a native speaker?"

Natasha replied, switching to English, "Steve said you were quite the ladies man back in the 1930s and '40s but times have changed and you haven't been at it for a while. I'm wondering if you still got it in you. Teach me your ways."

He caressed her hair with his right hand, careful not to tug at the strands, and explained, "It's different for everyone. For someone like you, I'm sure you've been called beautiful more times in a single week than you can count."

"Every time I walk the city streets," she replied, "day or night."

He said, "That means I have to compliment other parts of you. I have to find parts that you feel no one pays any attention to. The way you check in on people, subtly or not, when you know they're hurting, is beautiful."

Natasha smiled and whispered, "Thank you. You really are good at this. It's my turn now. I love the way you can rattle Steve. No one else can do that. I admire it, in a fun way, not a sociopathic way, I promise."

Without warning, Bucky leaned forward and carefully placed Natasha on her back on the coffee table and did a complete handstand and flipped over her and the table to the other couch in front of Sam. "Oh," Sam said, "What the-! You could have hit me!"

"Hey!" Steve said, standing behind the couch with a pitcher of ice water in his hands, "Nat you were supposed to hold him down for me!"

"I was holding him down," she replied.

Steve asked, "How'd you know?" He stared at Bucky.

"I heard your footsteps," Bucky explained, "and sloshing water so I knew what you were going to do." He gave Natasha a disappointed look as he walked passed her.

She stood up and said in Russian, "Wait, I meant everything I said. I promise."

He replied in Russian, "Thank you." He walked passed Steve and shoved the water out of his hand playfully, soaking Steve completely down the front.

"What just happened?" Sam asked.

Loki started clapping from across the room and said, "Now that was a great show. I had no idea midgardians could be so dramatic."