By the way, for this story Tony/Toni never got rid of the arc reactor, I hated how they did that. Enjoy!
"What did you say to her?" Pepper asked dangerously, flicking her ginger fringe out of her eyes so she could death stare Steve, along with every other member of the team. Bruce's skin had a green tint to it, lightning was crackling around Thor, and Natasha's glare was enough to send any Shield agent running,
"Well, Cap called her a selfish brat who uses the money she made from selling weapons to enjoy herself and that her dad would be a better Avenger than her." Clint told Pepper. If Pepper looked angry before, I can't explain what she looked like now. She stalked over to Steve and slapped him in the hard in the face. Steve clutched his jaw. (Pepper hits really hard.) He stepped backwards, a red hand print blossoming on his face where she had hit him.
"I'm sorry." Steve said, still clutching his jaw. More out of shock than pain,
"No! You cannot say sorry! Did you mean to hit every sore point that she has ever had?!" she yelled. Steve just stared at her, not sure how this usually mild tempered woman had transformed into… this, "You are already the primary reason her life was crap and if I have to put her back on suicide watch because of you I swear you will regret coming out of that ice!" she screamed, stalking Steve around the room until his back was up against the wall, "The only sore spot you didn't kick in the shins was the lesbian thing, and don't look at me like that because we all know that it bothers you!" she ranted as Steve wiped the look of disgust off his face, "And just for that…" she stepped back, kicked him hard in the shins and left the room without another word to find Toni. Steve looked at the team who were now all on the couch, trying not to snigger at what had just unfolded. Steve gave them a 'seriously' look and they all stopped laughing, but kept smiling, "You deserved that bigtime." Clint said. Steve opened his mouth to make an argument then promptly closed it when he saw Bruce and Natasha glaring at him as if to say that if he even thought about saying something he would have the Hulk and Black Widow trying to kill him, which wasn't exactly desirable when you lived in the same building as them. Ignoring that fact,
"Everything I said was true though." he said, quailing under the glares he was now receiving from the whole team.
"You know nothing about her!" Natasha snapped at him.
Far away on a small planet that lay just off Vanaheim, Loki watched the events of the tower play out in a floating bubble that acted as a screen. As he watched, he became extremely curious about the past of the Stark woman and decided to look through it. As he let the memories wash over him he saw why the pair of red heads had been so protective of her. He watched the older memories shift into more recent ones. When they had come to an end, he felt a certain type of comradery with woman of iron, and a hate boiling up for the blond soldier. He looked back at his bubble which had frozen on Steve's face, "You really know nothing about her." he muttered to himself and came to a decision. He would show this 'soldier' why everything he had said was wrong. He snapped his fingers and the world blurred into black as he transported himself to Midgard.
It was 3:00am on the fourth of June. It was also six days after Toni and Steve's little spat and a few days after Toni had taken off to Malibu, when The Avengers were awakened by music blaring from somewhere in the top floors of the tower. Bruce ran out of his room to see all The Avengers standing outside their rooms, except for Clint who was standing out in front of Natasha's door looking flustered. Bruce glanced at Steve who was pulling a dark grey t-shirt on over his head, to Thor who was standing there shirtless. His long golden hair looked as if someone had poured a jar of honey on top of it and then decided to ruffle it, and he was clutching Mjölnir in his right hand, "Ceiling servant, where is this infernal noise coming from?" Thor yelled looking up at the roof. (He still hadn't mastered talking to Jarvis.)
"Ma'am and Miss Potts have returned from Malibu and are currently in the rumpus room playing music and that is what you are hearing." Jarvis replied smoothly. Bruce and Steve looked at each other and then simultaneously started running to the rumpus room, followed swiftly by the pair of assassins and Thor. They all skidded to a halt in front of the rumpus room and quickly covered their ears, the music was blasting now. Natasha pushed her way to the front of the group and tried to open the door, when it didn't budge she took a few steps back then kicked the door down. The rest of the team just looked at her.
"I generally don't have a lot of patience and I have even less at 3 in the morning." Nat told them whilst giving them a death stare and walking into the room. They all decided not to argue with angry Natasha and followed her into the rumpus room. Inside the music was deafening. Bruce looked over to the kitchen to see Toni clutching a half empty bottle of scotch, surrounded by about a dozen more empty bottles, dancing and singing,
"This is what we dream about. But the only question with me now is, do I make you proud?" over and over, even during the verses. Pepper was standing beside her, trying to grab the bottle of scotch from her hand, eventually giving up and running over to The Avengers. Her red hair was a mess and the bags under eyes suggested that she hadn't slept in a while,
"Bruce!" she shouted over the music, clearly relieved, "Thank God, I have tried everything to get her to stop, but she won't give me the bottle, could you try to get the bottle while I turn this song off and get her instant sober shot?" she begged,
"Sure," he said, "What's the instant sober thing?" he asked.
"It's an injection that Toni developed that instantly sobers her up, she gave it to me to use if there was ever an Assemble while she was drunk." Pepper answered, already running off to get it. Bruce watched her run off then turned back to Toni who had temporarily stopped singing to down some more scotch. While Bruce was walking over to her the music cut off and all The Avengers sighed with relief. Toni sat on one of the rotating chairs clutching the bottle even tighter now as she noticed the team creeping over to her,
"Was it you who turned my music off?" she slurred, watching Bruce who was next to her now.
"Toni," Bruce said softly, "Will you give me the bottle please?" he asked gently,
"NO!" she pouted, holding the bottle to her chest, "It's my baby" she said looking down at it, the light from the arc reactor giving the bottle an eerie blue glow. Bruce sighed,
"Natasha, could you grab the bottle out of her hands?" Bruce whispered to her so Toni wouldn't hear what he was saying.
"Gladly." she said, she walked up to Toni and quickly snatched the bottle out of her hands before she had time to react.
"Hey! No fair!" Toni pouted as she glared at Natasha, who was drinking the contents of the brown bottle she had just stolen from Toni. "Traitor." Toni muttered under her breath, her unruly brown hair flopping over one eye. The Avengers all turned to the doorway when the heard the sound of Pepper's high heels clicking down the hall. She appeared in the doorway looking flushed,
"I got it." she said breathlessly, holding up a syringe filled with bright yellow liquid.
"Thank you," Bruce said taking the syringe from her and turning to Clint and Thor, "You two grab her and hold her down on the couch. I'll inject her." they nodded and went over to Toni and picked her up easily. Pepper glanced at her silver watch,
"I have to go, I have a business meeting in Tokyo to get to. Sort this out." she said glancing around at all of them as she started to walk out the door. Bruce turned back to see Toni struggling to escape Thor and Clint's strong grip. He walked up to the red sofa that they were holding her on and pulled her chocolate brown hair away from her neck. As soon as he found the right vein, which was difficult because she was still thrashing like crazy, he slid the syringe in and pushed all the yellow liquid in. The effect was instant. Toni immediately stopped thrashing and sat up,
"That's only supposed to be used for emergencies." Toni groaned clutching her head.
"Toni! That was an emergency!" Natasha exclaimed. Toni held her head even harder.
"Ahh, inside voices Nat. The injection sobers me up but it does not get rid of the hangover." Toni whispered looking around at them all, "Where's Pep?" she asked when she didn't see her in the room.
"Lady Pepper has travelled to Tokyo for business." Thor whispered, he and Toni often went drinking so he knew how to handle the hangover,
"Damn, that lasts a week!" Toni complained. Steve, who had been looking awkward for the whole time, shuffled towards Toni. She saw him coming and glared at him,
"How was your ski trip?" he asked nervously. She looked at him, eyebrows raised,
"Fine." she said shortly. Suddenly all the lights in the room went out leaving only the azure glow of the arc reactor as a source of light. Bruce thought that the tower must have blown a fuse but then the room started spinning and they were all lifted up into the air by the strong wind that was blowing. Then everything went black.
When Steve looked up he saw that they were now in a room that looked like a cinema. He glanced around to make sure that everyone was okay. Clint was being helped up by Natasha, Bruce was looking around as if trying to work out where they were, and Thor was trying to get Mjölnir from out under a clear white-ish force field? Then he saw Toni. She was chained to a white balloon-looking chair and she was unconscious. "Doc! Toni is unconscious!" Steve yelled, and tried standing up as Bruce ran over to check if Toni was okay. As he was checking her pulse, her eyelids fluttered and opened.
"Where are we?" she moaned trying to sit up, only to find out she was chained to the chair, "Okay then." Toni said looking down at her wrists.
"Brother." spoke a nervous but familiar voice. All the avengers whirled around,
"Loki?" Thor said.
The song that Toni was singing is called do I make you proud by Taylor Wick (I think that's who sung it?)
If anyone has any suggestions/head cannons for Toni's childhood memories please review or PM them to me and I will include them as a scene. I only have a few so please give me any that you think of! Nothing is stupid! Anyone that does will get a virtual prize!
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