[A/N Uh. Nothing to say. Just go on and read it, nobody cares about author notes anyway :P]

Part 6.

It was only 6 days later (4 of which contained a hug of Steve, I was keeping count) when Fury insisted on my presence in his atrocious excuse of an office again. Really, the man is all about safety , yet his security systems are so bad even that fucker of Hammer technology could have hacked his way through it. Now that, that means it's really bad. So I was sitting, looking at the eyepatch as usual. Thank God for the eyepatch. Imagine him staring at you with two eyes. On the other hand, don't imagine that, that's too creepy. I heavily resisted the urge to ask 'What now?', but my clever brain advised me not to, just to get rid of him quicker. Thank you, whatever scraps are left of my consciousness.

"So here we are, Tony. Our Iron Man."

"Sorry, but.." I cocked my head side-ways and stroked my beard, "last time I checked, I'm nobody's something." I narrowed my eyes at him. "If I remember correctly, in fact, wasn't it me who prevented your superior's nuke from blowing us all up? Oh, I think it was. How funny of you to thank me by making me openly gay!" Fury chose to ignore that, because if something stands in Fury's way he runs right over it without looking back to see what it is.

"I was thinking a sort of punishment, to ensure such shenanigans will not occur again. Are we clear?" I didn't react, but Fury took my silence as an agreement. "Good. I was thinking cleaning duty. For the next two Avengers missions, you will do all the cleaning on your own. That means no robots, no slaves hired from somewhere," he was referring to that one time I hired a bunch of Asgardians to do my job and in return they could have Thor back for a couple of weeks. "and the other team-members can just enjoy not having to do the useless stuff."

"Fury, you can't be serious." I rubbed my hands over my head. "Can I at least use my suit?" my hands were still covering my face, but I still opened a gap between two fingers to look at him hopefully.

"Fine." He said, crossing his arms like the boss he was. This pissed me off, because be honest! Could the Avengers do without Tony Stark? I don't fucking think so.

"Look the only reason I'm not saying 'fuck all of this rubbish, I'm gone.' Is because Steve has this incredulous idea that he needs you for some reason. Don't think I'm doing this because I depend on you, Fury."

"Steve, eh?" Fury granted me with one of his interested looks. He hardly gives people this look, because the things he's seen are so crazy there aren't many things that could keep him interested. So why is he looking at m- "Alright, I'm done here. Don't forget your cleaning duty!" I let out a soft groan when I felt my head drop on the table, all thoughts about Fury's look forgotten as I was reminded of the hell I'd have to go through.

"Cleaning!" I barked loudly. Tonight, everyone was having a night in and we would all be enjoying Thor and Jane's cooking (Jane had been invited over, so the whole house had been swept by my cleaning robots so that it appeared we were all extremely civilized). Dinner at a table, an actually table. The six of us plus Jane. Around a table, with dinner, together. Something was bound to go wrong. "He wants me to clean god damn it." I started walking around, moving my arms animatedly. "Oh, Fury hires the most genius man in the world, who created the best weapon ever made. And no, why use him to fend the Earth from creatures of outer space, when you can have him cleaning. Because cleaning requires so many brain cells!"

"Well actually, a decent amount of brain cells would quicken up the process of cleaning remarkably if a good plan was formed using those brain cells." Thor commented while steering whatever he was brewing in my expensive sets of pans.

"If anyone says the word cleaning again, I might actually kick them in the nuts." Natasha said from her appointed chair at the table (Thor had given everyone their own chair around the table, 'Tony, you must sit next to your lover! ' he'd boomed, sitting me down next to Steve). It was quite effective, because nobody is stupid enough to not take her serious.

"I'll take your word for it." I mumbled, stopping my pacing and sitting down next to Steve, quite embarrassed that I was actually following rules just to sit next to Steve.

"Oh, you better! I've felt one of those kicks and damn, those kicks should have a name for themselves that's how menacing they are." Clint said, appearing with some plates to lay on the table. Jane quickly handed him another set of plates for him to lay.

"Nut-crusher." Bruce said.

"Nah, I think nut-cracker might be more appropriate." Clint mused.

"Ball-breaker!" Jane joined in.

"How about I'll seriously crack them if you don't shut up now?" Natasha said.

As Thor finished his cooking, Jane was finished handing everyone stuff to arrange on the table properly and everyone was finally sitting on the right chairs, things began to become relaxed and friendlier and everyone seemed to be enjoying the foods served by Thor.

"OK, so let me get this straight." Clint said, holding his chicken leg and pointing it in the direction of Thor. He might have been slightly on the drunk side from the strong booze I had laying around in my kitchen. "You, you are a God from Asgard. And you can cook this shit better than Tony, who has lived on Earth all his life. I mean.." He squinted his eyes, a frown forming on his face. "I don't even get, like, how is that possible?" I took this as the cue to direct Clint to his bedroom.

"Alright, mate, I think it's time for you to sleep."

"Sleep? Sleep? You want me to sleep peacefully after having watched Natasha in that skirt all day? I'm surprised all us men are not walking around with boners all over the place!" He laughed, and fell from his chair. Thor was laughing at Clint, but was not overly sober himself as he tried crouching down next to him but instead fell backwards and landed on his back right next to him.

"Oops!" He boomed a laugh, filling the whole house with the sound.

"Is your stomach as strong as it looks?" Natasha giggled, putting her 20th drink of the night on the table to test the theory out for herself by sitting down on Thor's stomach. This got a not-at-all-sober-anymore Jane a bit jealous and she pushed Natasha off, onto the ground, to reclaim her rightful territory on Thor's lap.

Bruce had by now started snoring with his head on the table, drool pooling right under his mouth.

Steve and I exchanged a glance. OK, so maybe my super-hero friends weren't as alcohol resistant as I'd hoped them to be, but why was Steve still standing upright? Oh yes, serum. And that's that awkward moment when I realized Steve and I were the only people still awake and sober in the house. I glanced back at the heap of drunken friends who by now had all passed out one way or another (Natasha's head might have just been bashed in by Thor and Jane's combined forces).

Steve shoved his hands in his pockets, hopping from his toes onto his heels and back a couple of times. "Soooo we.."

"yes, we are the only ones still awake and sober in the house and it's only….JARVIS what's the time?"

"1:23, sir." JARVIS replied.

"Guess that stuff of you is pretty powerful, eh?" I shrugged.

"To them, yes. Me, as a professional drinker, doesn't really feel the effects quite as much." He was just standing there, looking anywhere but my face and I couldn't help but wonder when things had gotten so awkward between us. And maybe it was the way Steve was standing there, all insecure and awkward and shuffling his feet. Maybe I was more affected by the alcohol than I actually had wanted to admit, but frankly I didn't care what was fueling my sudden desire to step forwards and kiss him. All I know was that as soon as I reacted on the impulse, I was regretting it.

[A/N weeh. Sorry this was a tad late!]