Just a warning I will be updating less now that school has started - maybe once or twice a week over all stories.
Previously:
"Bruce, can you trace these files or something?"
"I can try my best." he answered over the comms.
"Okay, we need to get back. Lets go." Steve said.
"Tony, order someone to clean this shit up as you usually do." Clint said casually, as we headed towards the helicarrier.
"Come on!" I mouthed. Bruce and Tony were running a trace on the paper - it's origin, the style of writing, the type of ink. Everything they could.
"Patience Romanoff." Stark said, holding up his hand to silence me, without even needing to. Fucking voice box. Wh
"She does have a point." Clint said. "This is taking a while."
"Of course you would agree with your girlfriend Hawk."
"Shut up!" I 'said' giving him a death glare.
"She is not my girlfriend, Stark." Barton insisted, but he didn't sound right saying it.
"Whatever love birds." He said
"We are not like that."
"Love is for children." I mouthed and I could've sworn Clint huffed as I said it.
"It's unprofessional." Clint said, as I mouthed the same thing also. We looked up at each other and then away. This table looks so interesting.
"See!" Stark shouted. "You two are so in sync."
"Stark, unless you want to get punched, I suggest you-" Maria started, but got interrupted. By me.
"Fuck you Stark!"
"I'm sorry. I don't understand you." He said, smugly.
"Understand this?" I asked, holding up my middlefinger.
"You and Clint are one. I get it."
"Stark!" Steve warned, but my anger was swarming me and I couldn't help but wrap my legs around his neck, pin him to the floor and put him in a headlock. It's how I work.
"UNDERSTAND THAT?" I shouted and held him tighter. I stopped myself and looked up at the others, who were looking at me almost in horror.
"Did you just..."
"Yeah." I said, starting to smile. "I have my voice back."
"Oh yay!" Stark said and I hit him on the spot on the back of humans heads that knocks them out. I got off him and brushed myself down.
"NATASHA!" Pepper shouted and ran over to Tony.
"He's just knocked out pep." I reassured her and she panicked less. "I wouldn't hurt him. Not really."
"Well..." She said, dropping him on the floor. "Because of last week, he can stay like that for a while."
"Last week?" Bruce asked.
She sighed. "He went home with a woman from a party. I haven't said anything yet, but Happy told me."
"And you haven't punched him in the face yet?" Clint said surprised. "Man, you have some patience. Not just the woman thing, but dealing with him on a daily basis without snapping."
"Believe me, it's difficult." She said, sitting down.
"It's so inappropriate." Steve complained.
"This kind of thing happens these days." Maria explained.
"Well it shouldn't."
"I agree." She added, smiling at him. He nervously smiled too and turned back to Pepper.
"You can expect it from someone like Tony, knowing his reputation." Bruce commented.
"I cannot believe the man of iron would do that." Thor said. "He would not hurt his lady in such a way."
"We don't know anything yet, remember." I mentioned.
"For all we know he could have just had a nice friendly chat with her." Clint said. We raised out eyebrows at his innocence. "Okay, maybe not." Since when does Stark just have a friendly chat.
"So...what are you going to do about it?" Steve asked Pepper.
"I don't know whether to ask him about it or not." She said, sighing.
"Ask who about what?" Stark groaned, sitting up from his position on the floor.
"Nothing." Pepper said, smiling, but behind her smile I could see the sadness that was reflected through her eyes. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I've just been knocked out." He said, reaching to grab her, but he fell down again.
"You sure you are alright?"' She asked, as she kneeled over him. His right hand went to her cheek and stroked it.
"God, I need to mention to you that you are beautiful more often." He said, lost in her eyes. God, he's a prick. He leaned up to kiss her, but she pulled back. He looked confused and worried as he said "What is is?"
"Did you...are you...are you sleeping with someone else?" She said, saying the last bit quickly to get it over with.
"What?" He said, shocked that she would ask such a question. He looked round at us, surrounding the pair, and then back to her. "Why would you even ask that?"
"She knows that you went out with a woman last week and went back to her house while you were away on business." Bruce said, a little bit of anger underneath the surface of his calm expression.
"It was nothing." He said, but it sounded a little too quickly.
"Oh really? Well if it was nothing to you then you can tell me what it is then can't you..." She said.
He sighed and shook his head. "I can't. I'm sorry. I just can't tell you."
She stood up and I could see the tears streaming out of her eyes, down her face. "Then we are over." She said and walked out.
Stark got up quickly, but the pain in his neck pulled him down. "Wait! It's not what you think. Pepper! Please don't! Please" he shouted, but by the time he finished, she was already out of the door and in the elevator. "Someone stop her." He said, slowly getting up.
"I can't believe you would do that, you pig." Maria said, slapping him.
"Ow! If you would just-"
"How could you hurt he like that?" Clint asked...and then the shouting match began.
"You bastard."
"She was the most perfect woman for you. She put up with you."
"How could you hurt such a lovely woman?"
"God, I can't believe this. You such a-"
"HEY! SHUT IT!" He shouted and everybody stopped. "Listen to me.."
"Why should we?" Steve said.
"Because I didn't sleep with that woman." He said quickly, before anyone could get a word in. We all looked round at each other and then back to Stark. "What?" We all asked. "You heard me. I didn't sleep with that woman."
"So...what did you do with her?" Bruce asked.
"Don't you know what's happening next week?" He asked.
"Your funeral?" I asked and he chuckled.
"I hope not." He said. "What's happening on the 18th?" He asked.
"Nothing that I know of." Clint said.
"Peppers birthday?" He said, as if anyone could forget that.
"Nothing that you know about either, it seems. Her birthdays on the 19th." Maria said, face palming.
"Oh...please don't tell her I said that."
"We won't...if you tell us what you were doing with that woman!" Steve said.
"She's a celebrity party planner. She's done everyone. I wanted to throw Pepper a party."
"Ohhhhh...right." Bruce said.
"What do we tell Lady Pepper? If we don't tell her then the surprise shall be ruined." Thor said, dramatically.
"Don't worry Thor." Maria said. "We will think of something, because we can't go with you sleeping with someone. There won't be a party if you go with the that.
"How about we say that she is a personal technological friend of Maria's and her and Stark were discussing business about a new arc reactor. That way, Pepper doesn't find out, Tony has a good reason to go to her house and Maria is your back up so that when she asks you," I said, looking at Maria. "you can say that you arranged the meeting for Tony."
"Why don't we get you to do more of the work around here?" Steve asked and I smirked at him. Clint however lightly glared at Steve for the compliment given to me.
"Oh so now i'm shipping Romanogers." Stark said, nodding.
"What the hell is Romanogers?" Bruce asked.
"Are you kidding me?" Maria said.
"What is the 'Romanogers'?" Thor asked.
"Romanogers. Romanoff and Rogers." she said, almost spitting the words out.
"I'm sorry." Tony said, unsympathetically. "Is someone sad because Captain Hill isn't being shipped?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." she said, sternly, but her red cheeks gave it away.
"We need to be focusing on the real problem here." Steve said, bringing the group back to the room. "Bucky is still out there and we need to find him."
"Before he finds us." Thor finished.
"Great. And we'll all become Liam Nesson's." Tony said sarcastically.
"I understood that reference." Steve said happily.
"Did you know that the Taken Series is a prequel to Batman?" Sam asked.
"No way..." Rhodes said.
"Yeah I heard about that." Clint said, raising his hand slightly.
"GUYS!" Steve shouted. "Going off topic here again." We all mumbled an apology and looked towards the ground. "Natasha, how do you suggest that we go ahead?"
I looked at him curiously. "Why are you asking me? You've known him for longer."
"Maybe before he came back, but now..." He said, unable to finished those last few words, but I imagined they went along the lines of "But now...he's different and I don't know him anymore." I always felt bad for Steve. I wanted to tell him Bucky was still alive but I couldn't bring myself round to it. He was so pained by it when we were fugitives and he knew. If I told him during that he would've gone mental that I knew before him, although I can't imagine what's going through his mind right now.
"Well...he's angry. Has a chip on his shoulder that he couldn't shake. Thinking about it...he's very much like you Steve. I think that's why he was so hard to defeat when we were fugitives. Actually, we didnt even beat him did we." I explained.
"He's like me?" He asked and I nodded.
"He is a leader. Can give orders easily and likes to be surrounded..." I looked up at Rogers. "Likes to be involved with the concept of war. Wants to find out the dark secrets that lurk in the corners."
"I don't want to do that."
"You want to know S.H.I.E.L.D's secrets don't you." I argued and he kept his mouth shut. "It doesn't matter how he's changed. It matters what he is going to change." I said. "What does he want? What will happen if he succeeds? Is Bucky really Bucky or is he acting on someone else's orders?"
"Before he was being controlled in his mind." Steve said, remembering our time with him and the whole 'who's Bucky?' Incident.
"So maybe this could be the same." Maria added.
"However he went directly for Natasha." Thor said.
"He made it personal." Bruce said.
"But maybe he is acting for someone else." Clint said.
"Or maybe you are all wrong." Tony said. Our heads snapped round to him, the idea that we were all wrong startling us.
A bleeping from the computer made our interrogation of Hill's love life stop. We turned our heads and noticed that there was some information about the paper registered on the computer.
"What is it Doc?" I asked Bruce.
"First of all, the material is flash paper." he stated.
"What is this flash paper?" Thor asked, confused.
"Flash paper is paper that burns easily and doesn't leave ashes behind. Completely untraceable once burned." Maria explained and Steve smile at her, but she was unaware of this.
"Okay, but that's just the facts. How does it help find the location that the paper was printed?" Tony asked.
"Because there needs to be a specific ink that needs to be used for this paper."
"So how does that help us? They could've just shipped it in." Steve said.
"Ah, but there's the thing. They couldn't just ship it in. They need to buy it from the only store that sells it in New York, because it has alcohol in it. It can't be shipped."
"How clever! Did you work out all that by yourself?" Steve asked.
"I knew about the store and the alcohol, but I was unaware that it was flash paper."
"Good work Science Bro!" Tony said, clapping his hand on Bruce's shoulder.
"We are not sticking with that name." Bruce whispered to himself.
"Anyway," Cap said loudly, bringing them back onto the subject. "Where is this shop and what is it called?"
"The name is called Ink Print Industries. It's a pretty big store, but they never moved because it has become more of a tourist thing for New York now."
"So...how do we play this? Steve?" Tony said, looking at the Captain.
"Bruce here on comms as usual. We do not need a code green. Natasha, Maria and Clint go undercover and get into the room where the security cameras are kept. Natasha and Clint you will pose as members of the company and Maria, you will persuade your way back and possibly cause a diversion. We need to see who bought the ink if we can. Me and Thor will take the back entrance of the building. There shouldn't be that much security."
"And what about moi?" Tony asked.
"You can't come. Everybody knows your face and we don't need Iron Man for this."
"Oh come on. That is such a lame excuse."
"He's saying that you are too famous and important to be put in danger Stark." Maria explained.
"Oh okay...well I guess if you put it that way."
"Good. Lets suit up. Banner?" he asked, turning to the scientist. "Get us a map of the building so we can locate the security footage easier."
"On it."
"Oh and Stark I have a job for you actually?"
"Yes?" he asked, eagerly.
"Go and apologise to Pepper." Steve said, making Tony's face drop, and walked to the Avengers bedrooms with the group.
I have absolutely no facts about flash paper! I know it leaves no trace of ashes or anything, but the rest is complete and utter bullshit, so don't take it seriously :P I'm sure you can probably write on it in pen! Anyway, please review! I REALLY APPRECIATE IT! It means that I can update more!