See, the wait wasn't so bad this time. Spicing some shit up in the next chapter so be ready. I don't like begging, but I am desperate- Please leave comments so I can have the serotonin.

IDon'tOwnMarvel

Honestly, leaving the town I spent my senior year in two weeks before prom really put a bit of a damper on my mood. The sadness really trumped the anxious feeling I got around the agents and knowing that I was essentially just subjecting myself to the certainty of seeing the avengers again. I was going to have to talk to them too, but as of now, I had Fury keep my location and status a secret to avoid those conversations for as long as possible. I just knew Steve would have something to say.

Either he'll be happy to see me, or he'll just be majorly annoyed. I rationalized in my head, running my fingers over the back of my lizard after Fury dumped me in a room on the heli-carrier. Or, maybe he'll just not care. I mean, who am I to say I even matter to them after two years?

I was only on the carrier for two days before I caught word of some mission in Sokovia that the Avengers had been sent on. I'd spent the time up to that point, changing very small and specific parts of Jarvis's code onboard so that he wouldn't report back to Tony if I got into the lab. I took a call from Connie too, coming up with some bullshit excuse about my 'parents' sending me to boarding school last minute because I was caught drinking again. She believed it too which really just made me feel worse about missing my date for some dumb superhero shit.

The day after their big mission, I might've had a bit of an identity crisis while knowing that the confrontation date was coming up and begged Agent Hill to cut my hair. She finally agreed one evening after Fury got me an invite to the party on Saturday under a SHIELD alias. Getting my hair cut shorter was not the best decision I'd ever made, but it did make me feel a bit more in control of myself, so I clung to that feeling. Sure, I might not have much control over where I could be or what I could do, but I could still demand to have my hair cut short like Lily Collins.

With two more days then before I was due to appear at the Avengers tower, I got curious and decided to distract myself with finding out what SHIELD had on yours truly. This decision was made after I took one look at the Iron Man helmet I'd dragged between states before deciding that plan was horrible and not ever worth it.

TC was pulled out of his habitat and placed on my shoulder so I might have company as I wandered down the halls of the heli-carrier that had practically imprisoned me when I was taken back from Hydra. The faraway memory chewed like rats on the cardboard boxes in my head. The cardboard boxes that had sat dormant and rotting while I tried desperately to live out a fantasy of normalcy in a world that was the farthest thing from normal. A flash of that damn face passed my vision and I had to stop at the immediate panic that it jabbed in my chest.

I'm not afraid of you. I'm not afraid of you. I repeated in my head, standing still with TC managing to pull me back to reality with a comforting hum. I sighed in relief as soon as that memory was shoved back into a box and closed up. No one needed that when they were busy working.

"See?" I gave my lizard a confident smile before starting back in the direction of my destination and quieting my voice a little. "Nothing to be afraid of."

When I finally found myself in the empty lab and started it up, I forced a smile when addressing the AI. "Jarvis?"

"Yes, Miss?"

The sound of his voice was nice enough to bring an actual smile to my face while I brought up the hologram on the table. "Can you show me all the files on Lincoln Patel?"

TC perked up at the mention of my real name and turned his attention to what I was looking at as screens started popping up. The guy was a little too intelligent for his own good after The Ancient One decided to throw in a little bit of sorcery because of 'the flow of time' and his 'greater purpose'. Didn't know lizards could have a purpose, but go off I guess. Now I just had a good friend and funny looks from a bunch of SHIELD agents these days.

I clicked on the first screen that popped up with several different folders and immediately regretted it. The tapes from my being tortured showed up and I shut the folder as quickly as the rattling in my head started up. I had to wait for the feeling of dread to pass before pulling out the flash drive I'd brought along and dropping copies of all the folders they had on me into it. I was very careful of skimming what the folders held after almost scaring myself so bad with the first one. The other folders were not super exciting though. A few held interactions between myself and the Avengers, complete with a psychological profile and description of my 'capabilities'.

Essentially I was listed as a threat.

I made quick work of scrubbing their server of all traces of this information then, leaving the original folders there, but empty, so as not to raise alarms right away if they saw I stole their shit. The only thing I left behind was the character profile they made of me that claimed I was dangerous because I was sure Ultron would be a little suspicious if the internet had absolutely nothing on me. Plus, I didn't really want him to think I was going to be easy to fuck with. The part about my being from another future reality was left out though in order to avoid any hydra-like situations with him.

"Hey, Jarvis?"

The AI replied easily. "Yes?"

Just for reference… I sucked in a careful breath, leaning on the table and looking at TC. "Are all the Avengers at the tower right now?"

"Yes, as of right now."

I rapped my fingers on the desk then before turning to gaze around the empty lap. "Do you have any more information on me here or in your memory?"

"I have hours of recorded conversations, and interactions with not only myself but other people."

"Ah, great, delete those too." I nodded to myself, then bringing my hands up to scrub my face of the fleeting panicky feelings brought on by even being here.

"I'm afraid you don't have clearance-"

"Override code- Delta, Bravo, Whiskey, eight, eight, nine, seven." I relayed over him, effectively cutting him off and making his brain whirr with the bug I planted.

"All recordings have been deleted, sir."

"Thank you." I smiled a little before leaning back on the desk. "Run Anti-malware on yourself, please, and get rid of all inconsistencies."

Honestly, if I was going to plant a bug in the guy to get what I wanted, I might as well let him fix himself afterwards. It just seemed rude not to, especially since I didn't want to risk messing up any of Vision's final code. You'd be surprised at what tiny mistakes could do to months worth of code.

"Look alive, JARVIS. It's playtime." Tony stated, marching himself up to look at the scepter they collected. "We've only got a couple days with this joystick so let's make the most of it. Update me on the structural and compositional analysis."

"The scepter is alien. There are elements I can't quantify."

He turned and walked away again after a brief inspection of the object. "So there's elements you can."

"The Jewel appears to be a protective housing for something inside. Something powerful."

"Like a reactor?" He questioned hopefully, already wondering if he was lucky enough to come across some sort of new alien energy source.

"Like a computer." Jarvis replied evenly. "I believe I'm ciphering code."

Tony nodded at that in approval, his mind buzzing with new ideas as he turned to go back up the stairs and out of the room. He had to make a quick stop for drinks before joining the others where Barton was getting fixed up. "Oh, he's flatlining. Call it. Time?"

"No, no, no." Barton chuckled in a more strained voice, accepting the drink from Tony when he offered. "I'm going to live forever. I'm gonna be made of plastic."

Dr. Cho cut in with a smile. "You'll be made of you Mr. Barton. Your own girlfriend won't be able to tell the difference."

"Well, I don't have a girlfriend." Clint mumbled, sipping the drink and looking over at the woman.

"That I can't fix." She smiled with a small shake of her head before looking to another man in the room. "This is the next thing, Tony. Your clunky metal suits are going to be left in the dust."

"Well, that is exactly the plan." Tony quipped, feeling a little restless with some new brewing plans. "I expect to see you at the party on Saturday though."

"Unlike you, I don't have a lot of time for parties." Dr. Cho said, watching her tablet in a moment's hesitation. "Will Thor be there?"

Tony smiled to himself at that, taking Bruce's sleeve and pulling him down to the lab moments after. As he immediately latched onto the possibility this scepter provided for a past idea of his, Tony could see even Bruce being more curious with every selling statement he threw. Tony was still pretty excited about the opportunity to create world peace that had been so helpfully dropped into his hands. After all, if anyone was going to achieve a safe world for everyone, it would be him and all his years of genius.

"How about best-case?" Tony challenged, pointing at Bruce. "What if the world was safe? What if next time aliens or...inter-dimensional kids roll up to the club, and they will, they couldn't get past the bouncer?"

"Please, don't...talk about Lincoln like she's a threat." Bruce sighed, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "And what you're saying is that the only people threatening the planet would be our people?"

"First off- I never said Lincoln. I was referring to whatever dropped her here." Tony clarified, ignoring whatever feeling came up at the mention of her. "Now, I want to apply this to the Ultron program, but JARVIS can't download a data schematic this dense. We can only do it while we have the scepter here. That's three days. Give me three days."

"So you're going for artificial intelligence and you don't want to tell the team?" Bruce asked, still clearly uneasy with the idea.

Tony just needed to give him a little push.

"Right." Tony nodded at him, feeling that excitement build up at the idea of a new project. "That's right. You know why? Because we don't have time for a city hall debate. I don't want to hear the 'man was not meant to meddle' medley. I see a suit of armor around the world."

Bruce crossed his arms at that. "Sounds like a cold world, Tony."

"I've seen colder."

"Really?" I scoffed, looking between Fury and the thing I had been handed. "All I needed was an invitation. I don't want the dress."

"Unfortunately, you will not be allowed to wear the loungewear to a Stark party." Fury shot back, looking pointedly at my current outfit of sweatpants and a dinosaur hoodie.

I wrinkled my nose at him. "That was so judgemental. You think so little of me."

"Do you have occasion-appropriate clothing?"

"Well," I huffed, "Not that you'd even care apparently, but I do have a suit. My prom outfit, actually. I'll just remove the bowtie and...accept these heels."

I picked up said foot-apparel, deciding that the black with small silver straps weren't beneath me. Fury just shook his head to himself before turning to leave. "Be ready in an hour."

It really didn't take a super long time for me to be ready for the party. I toyed with the idea of asking to borrow make-up from Agent Hill, but decided against it and just abandoned the idea in favor of only messing with my pixie cut. The hair needed to not look dumb, so I fiddled with it in my suit and casual unbuttoned collar until Agent Hill came to get me so we could go. The hair got final touches and I shoved my journal into my little clutch bag that Fury had left me I didn't bother to put on the heels until we actually got there though since I didn't want sore ankles when it was time to fight robots.

Walking in with Agent Hill and the small posse of agents (Including one very interesting 'Callie'), I did not notice anyone super familiar right away. TC had come in on my shoulder too and Callie was all over him about how cute he was until spotting Captain America and going to shoot her shot. She was surprisingly energetic for a SHIELD Agent. I guess I just assumed they'd all be hardened and boring like Fury and Hill.

I did decide to place myself at the bar at that point, ordering myself a rum and coke. Something to calm the burn of anxiety in my gut was desperately needed in this situation, and after one or two senior 'hang out's', I did know that a bit of white rum might help with that. Alcohol just had that fun sleepy affect on me which was why I was almost always asleep in the care before nine whenever my senior friends invited me out to pre-game for a club they were sneaking into with the smokers. I'm a little ashamed to say that I'd never actually been in that club. I just 'watched the car' for Connie and Leah.

"Can I see some form of ID?" The bartender asked, giving me a suspicious look with barely a glance in the direction of my lizard.

I frowned a little. "What, you think I'm gonna be let into the avenger's party under 21?"

"I'm just trying to preserve my job." He nodded at me, making me sigh and reach for my wallet.

He accepted the ID when I handed it to him and looked it over before shaking his head and handing it back. I smiled at him, tucking it back away as I knew my ID said I was 23. "Thank you."

The bartender had only barely placed the drink in front of me before someone joined and sat down directly beside me. I was fine with a little conversion at first since it was obvious that was their plan. You know, I was fine until I recognized the voice.

"Crazy party, huh?"

I looked at Rhodey slowly with a hind of scrutiny at his obliviousness. Wait, does he really not recognize me?

After a moment of startled hesitation and a glance at the rest of the room, I took my drink closer and actually answered. "Yeah, I mean...I guess Mr. Stark hosting has it's perks."

"You come here with anyone?" He asked, looking more at his drink than at me while I sipped mine amusedly.

"No, actually." I couldn't wipe with smile off my face as I leaned on the counter and took another small sip. "Just avoiding someone else."

TC had decided to take a sudden interest in whoever I was chatting with and tried to peer around my shoulder to look at him.

"And who would that be?"

I actually opened and shut my mouth at him with no real response before starting to laugh. "Oh my god, Rhodey. Please, quit while you can still spin this."

The man looked offended at first, looking up at me before his jaw went slack in realization. "Lincoln?!"

"Yes?"

"Where did you come from?" He demanded, looking around the room before his eyes fell on my drink and he gasped, snatching it away. "You can't have this! What are you, twelve?"

I opened my mouth in offense with TC changing shoulders to get a better look at him. "Hey!"

He took a step back when his gaze switched to my shoulder then and set down the drink. "Is that a lizard? Why would you have that?"

I motioned for a second from the bartender before responding. "Living alone is boring. And you can't criticize because you just hit on me."

"I did not." He glared a little, the look faltering when TC tilted his head back.

"Sure, sweetcheeks." I smirked, taking a sip from my new drink and pointing at the one he had stolen away. "I'm billing you for that."

"No, you're n- Stop that!" He snatched away the second drink with a scowl, putting it with the other and pushing it further down the bar. He motioned at the bartender then, not getting his attention but still pointing at me. "No more for her. She's underage."

"Woah," I exclaimed, looking back at Rhodey in annoyance. "That was rude."

"Rhodey." A new 'familiar face' appeared, and having a thing for Anthony Mackie, I was pleasantly surprised as Sam offered out his hand for me, turning it over to kiss when I gave it to him. "Looks like he's blowing it. He's supposed to warn me when he finds a pretty lady."

Sam barely batted an eye at the lizard while I smiled at the whole situation. I just knew I could piss off Rhodes more.

"Finally." I smiled back at him innocently. "Someone has game. Buy me a drink?"

Sam smiled back. "What do you want?"

"Rum and coke."

"No, no!" Rhodey stole away the third drink I had gotten my hands on after Sam handed it to me, shoving it down the bar with the others. "Wilson!"

"Dude, you're harshing our mellow." I scoffed with a small chuckle, shaking my head at his glare.

"Yeah, Rhodes." Sam chimed in, looking over at him while I tried not to laugh my ass off. "You're harshing our mellow."

"Sam, that's Lincoln." Rhodey deadpanned, pointing at me like he was telling on me to the teacher. "The eighteen year-old."

"Ouch." Sam shook his head, putting a hand over his heart briefly and looking pointedly at the guy. "You were just going to let me be creepy like that, huh?"

"He did the same thing."

"I didn't." Rhodey defended quickly as Sam then offered out a hand again for me to shake.

"Sam Wilson." He introduced again in a more professional manner. "Sorry about that."

I shrugged it off. "It's cool. Nice to meet you, Falcon."

"It's nice to meet you too." He took his hand back, stuffing it in his pocket. "You're pretty popular around here."

Okay, that was not exactly what I was expecting. I furrowed my brow a little. Probably from turning everyone's life upside down the second I showed up.

"You sure about that?" I chuckled uneasily, spotting Steve over with Thor and a few veterans trying a drink.

"Yeah, of course." Sam leaned on the bar a little bit. "You fell from the sky, saved a bunch of people, and then dropped off the face of the earth the next day. Now you apparently tame lizards."

"This is ThunderCracker, AKA- TC." I gestured to the lizard briefly, leaning so my back was to the bar. "And I went back to finish school. No need to dramatize a boring story."

My mood improved significantly, even without the drink, and I was feeling less stressed about being here with at least two people happy to see me. I did distract Rhodey briefly though to snatch back one of the drinks and hold it away before he could try to grab it, much to his annoyance.

"Lincoln!"

Sam just laughed and clapped me on the shoulder that was not holding a lizard. "You're awesome. I'm going to rescue Steve."

"So what brings you back?" Rhodey asked with a small sigh, clearly giving up trying to control my drinking.

I took a sip of my drink with a haphazard shrug. "Fury broke into my apartment and sat on all my furniture."

"How do you have an apartment?"

"Same way I got this." I held up the drink a little. "And I did have one. Now I might have to move out of state. SHIELD has all but run me out of Mississippi."

Rhodey took a glance back at the other drinks thoughtfully before picking his back up to taste what I assumed was white wine. "I meant more on the lines of- How did you afford it?"

"I had a job." I replied casually, starting to scout the room some more discreetly. "Two, actually. I'm not entirely helpless."

Thor had moved on to talk to none other than the Stark himself at the opposite bar. Avoiding the idea of Tony, I was a little excited to speak with Thor again. By the way TC was staring at Thor too, I could tell he was interested in meeting the god as well. I made a mental note on that.

"A lot of us have been pretty worried about you." Rhodey mentioned then, pulling me back to the conversation.

"What?" I chuckled nervously at that. "Why? Think I'm gonna blow up the planet or something?"

"Not exactly." Rhodey was less joking than I was, passing me a more serious look. "Everyone short of Thor got into a big argument over it. He was off in Asgard at the time."

My heart sank a little. So much for making their lives easier by not being around.

"Oh, um," I looked at my drink awkwardly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cause trouble. I just thought maybe-"

"Oh no it's okay," Rhody interrupted, shaking his head and waving it off. "They settled it in less than a day, but Tony still beats himself up for making you think you had to leave in the first place."

"Yeah, right." I actually cracked a laugh at that. "Funny."

There was no way we were talking about the same Tony. You know- the one who couldn't bother to show his face in the two weeks I was in a hospital alone. He would never.

"You should talk to him."

I shook my head, laughing again. "No, thank you. I need way more than one drink to even remotely consider doing that by choice."

He opened his mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by another voice.

"Nice haircut."

Steve stood to my immediate left with a small smile and a Bucky Barnes to his left.

"Uh, thanks?" I clenched my teeth together in worry as TC pressed closer to my neck away from the chill of added air conditioning in the room. "Nice to, uh, see you, I think."

"It is." Steve had a growing smile when I accepted his offer for a handshake. "What brings you back? Lord knows I failed in that department."

"Fury held my life as a recluse hostage." I eyed Bucky as little before tossing an annoyed look back at Rhodey. Upon seeing him again, a mischievous smile grew on my face while I turned back to the two other men. "Both Rhodey and Sam flirted with me."

Steve was quick to shoot a look at the man. "She's a kid. Why would you do that?"

"She was drinking alcohol." He pointed at me again like a snitching third-grader and I slapped his arm with the back of my hand.

"What have you been up to?" Bucky asked, clearly not minding that I was drinking. "We looked everywhere for you."

"I actually saw Steve a couple days ago at my school." I looked pointedly at the mentioned man. "Don't do that man. It's weird."

He gaped. "You actually jumped out a second story window?"

"No," I stifled a smile. "I was in the supply closet."

"But the kid-"

"High schoolers lie for each other, Steve. It's an unspoken rule." I shot another glare at Rhodes. "We aren't snitches."

Steve and Bucky eventually sat down too and had me tell them what I'd been up to for the past 16 or so months. My lizard was mentioned, making TC bubble with pride after Steve thought that an empathic link that The Ancient One gave us was cool. Rhodey was still a little lost on who that was though. I didn't mention much about my work and leisure life though because of how sketchy a lot of it was. To be fair, selling malware on the internet to criminals and then going out at night and fighting other criminals on the street wasn't exactly the thing you told Captain America to keep him on your good side.

Now, here's the issue of the night- Someone was here that was not supposed to be and I was using a fuck ton of energy trying not to call him out. I don't think worrying people would be an efficient way of using this night. Besides, how could an extra metal hand be at all negative to a situation where we would have to fight evil robots? Kicking him out so I knew he was safe, sounded like a good idea, however, I did kinda want to see how he handled this.

By the time I finished the story and stopped giving Bucky estranged and thoughtful looks, I had finished my drink.

"If you don't mind," I got up off the stool with TC and collected the refill the bartender made for me. "I think I'm going to find Thor since it's been a bit. I'm going to be around all night, so don't think you need to follow me."

"Still might." Steve nodded at that, watching me go with Bucky. "Don't leave without saying goodbye this time!"

I held up a finger to signify that I heard him before making a sharp detour through a group of people when Tony branched away from Thor to talk to someone else. He walked away then and I took that chance to walk up to someone I knew I could be comfortable with.

Thor smiled when he looked down and noticed my presence. "Ah, the lightning child. Lincoln, I believe."

"The one and only." I smiled back, tucking a hand in my pocket and sipping my drink with a glance around to try and see where Tony disappeared too. "How is it with Jane?"

"Well, you were correct with your prediction. We are dating now." He admitted, glancing over my head at something before looking back at me. "Tell me, not-midguardian, did you ever figure out how to control the lighting?"

"Did you want to see?" I raised an eyebrow at him, making the god smile even wider in excitement.

"More than anything."

I moved my hands together then and rubbed my palms past one another to generate a small glowing purple ball of electricity. The shocks from the glowing ball rolled across my open hand while Thor decided it was a smart idea to touch it out of curiosity. The shock had him retracting his hand quickly before breaking into a laugh.

"Incredible." He laughed, shaking his hand out while TC took that chance to climb down to my hands and soak up the left-over heat from using my ability. "Does it go bigger?"

"Oh yeah," I chuckled a little with him, standing up straighter in pride. "I can create whole lightning bolts now. Leaves a bit of a headache, but still."

"Well," Thor huffed to himself, reaching out to pet the lizard too. "You will have to show me someday."

"Oh, you'll figure it out eventually." I smiled at the happy feeling TC had emanating off him. "How's Asgard been?"

He didn't answer at all and instead looked over my shoulder again, but this time at someone I sensed standing a little too close behind me. I almost turned around to see who until I heard the all too familiar voice.

"Don't let him bore you with his tale of woe from last year." Tony chuckled, making me freeze in place with TC trying to peer around me at who was stressing me out. "Hello?"

I didn't respond and instead shared a pleading look with Thor before placing a hand on his shoulder and walking around him, away from the scene. So much for facing these people head on…

Not entirely sure what I was supposed to do about the sick feeling in my stomach after hearing that man's voice, I just tried to remove myself from the situation. Abandoning my drink on a table with concerned motions coming off of TC, I ran by an oblivious Natasha on my beeline for what looked like an empty hallway. She didn't recognize me or even look in my direction which was fine since I really needed to step out and breathe for a moment. I kept going into the hallway until I was out of sight of the room and leaning back against the wall to catch my breath at the obscene amount of uneasiness chugging through my body.

"See?" I spoke to my lizard and myself, taking a deeper breath. "We're okay. We're being dramatic, I think."

"Lincoln?!"

I sighed, dropping my head in exhaustion. This is getting old really fast.

Looking over to the voice tiredly, I tossed up a hand at Clint. "What?"

"Where the hell have you been?" He demanded, rushing over in the empty hallway. "What happened? You just left. You were supposed to see us in SHIELD and...what has it been, 2 years?"

"Yeah," I ran my hand over my face to try and avoid the lingering anxiety. "I didn't expect to be back either, but you know how it goes when Fury breaks into your apartment and pulls a Goldilocks with your chairs."

"Woah," Clint took a step back and pointed. "What the hell is that?"

I followed his point to the mildly disgruntled lizard. "TC. He's a bearded dragon. Not a 'that'."

"Oh okay," Clint came closer curiously and reached out to pet the lizard down his back. "Sorry little man."

TC melted at the touch, making me almost a little jealous when he decided that he did not want to be on my shoulder and instead crawled off onto Clint's hand. There, he settled down onto the assassin's hands while Clint grinned at him.

"I think he likes you." I chuckled a little, running my fingers through my shorter hair. "That, or you just have really warm hands."

"It's definitely the hands." Clint pulled him closer and the Beardie snuggled into his hands, closing his eyes with a quick huff. Clint shook his head at that, looking up at me and away from the happy creature. "We, uh...we thought you could've died. You didn't text anyone or call us."

I waved him off quickly. "Look, if you want the story of where I was you'll have to ask Steve or Bucky. I already filled them in and you know how I feel about explaining things twice."

He nodded slowly looking back down at the lizard. "Did you talk to Tony yet?"

"No." I glared a little at that, not entirely sure why, but still doing it until I tried to change the subject. "Do you think I look different aside from the haircut? Rhodey didn't recognize me."

Clint ignored my attempt. "You should talk to him."

I just stared at him for a moment in exasperation before shaking my head with a small sigh. "Can you just watch TC for a bit? I need to check on something and I don't want to make him move."

"Yeah, I don't mind." Clint muttered, eyeing TC in his hands with a small smile and dropping the previous subject. "I'll be back in the other room showing him off to Nat."

"Thanks." I pushed off the wall to go him and down the hallway. I pointed to his side as I went too. "Glad you're feeling better by the way."

I saw Clint look down to his side when I walked away which made me feel a little better as I ducked down a hallway without anyone around. After seeing that I was, in fact, alone, I looked to a camera. "Jarvis? Are you there?"

Silence.

Great, I frowned and pulled my journal out of my clutch. Ultron's got him already.

There were so many deaths in this adventure. The easier ones to save would be the ones where I knew the time and manner of said death, like Pietro. He shouldn't be too hard to save. The issue arose when I tried to take the scientists who created vision's body into account. I was still working on saving them as the civilians should be covered by the A-plan Fury helped me put together. He knew vague details about the coming days, so he was surprisingly helpful in getting SHIELD involved with assisting the Avengers.

Taking a deep breath, I tried to relish the last few moments of calm before heading back down the hall to the party, tucking my journal away as I went.

I retrieved TC when I got back, despite his disapproval of moving out of the warm hands and into my cooler ones. Both Nat and Bruce were surprised and actually pleased to see me while I got him too. They were less shocked because Clint had definitely told them I was there, but still just as excited, which was nice to experience since I was sure they'd all be ready to either scold or kill me. Bruce and TC had become close acquaintances while I was off too which was pretty cute to witness. They too were directed to Steve, Bucky or Rhodey if they really wanted to know the story of where I was.

So, after telling them that I wasn't going to explain it a second time, I went back to stick around Leah, that one SHIELD Agent for the remainder of the big part of the party. Rhodey mostly ignored me for the rest of the time with Steve definitely keeping me in sight while I hung out with Leah. The only reason why I could tell he was keeping me in sight was because I once moved behind a pillar and he switched positions with the person he was talking to so that he was back to being able to see me out of the corner of his eye. I didn't confront him about it though and instead just stayed with Leah.

"Always hot, or always cold?" Leah asked, leaning heavily on my shoulder after TC had gone back to Bruce. "Linkster."

"Well, if I'm cold, I'd just put a blanket on, so cold." I stated simply, supporting her as Clint walked back over.

"Alright, Pfizer," Clint chuckled, beckoning over another Agent. "See you on Monday."

"No," Leah whined. "It's always cold...Do you think cows should have different flavors?"

"You are gone, Lee." I snickered with Clint while an Agent friend tossed Leah's arm over her shoulder.

"Oh my goodness, do you want to see the cows outside and ask?" She asked, clearly trying not to snicker with us while leading the woman away. "Let's go."

"Well, she's something else." I smiled back at Clint. "Do you, by chance, know how old-"

I was cut off when someone grabbed my shoulder and turned me around quickly. My heart sank through the floor at Tony's piercing glare that wiped the smile off my face in milliseconds due to the lack of warning. He stared between my eyes for a moment before taking my chin to turn my face as if he was looking me over for injury with my entire body frozen in fear. Then he just huffed to himself and released me, marching past me, right by Steve and Bucky.

My lungs released the breath of air I didn't know I was holding when he walked away. I raised my hand to my chin to rub away where he grabbed me before turning back to Clint. "Okay, then."

"What the hell was that?" Clint demanded, frowning the direction that Tony left in.

"How the fuck would I know?" I shot back, feeling the anxiety turn into annoyance and anger against my will. I took a breath before speaking again. "I don't know. He's mad, I think."

I was suddenly not super sure if a third drink was the right path right now as I looked back down at my newest rum and coke. Setting it aside, I had to shake my head. I really can't be drunk tonight. I'm supposed to fight robots sometime soon.

Clint followed my gaze to the drink, pointing at it. "How much have you had?"

"Not enough." I groaned quietly, scrubbing my face with my hands. "I'm gonna knock myself out or something."

"You alright?"

"No." I shook my head at Clint in an annoyed way. "Tony hates me and now I have to be around him for the next few days."

"Tony doesn't hate you." Clint replied, furrowing his brow with a bit of confusion. "And what do you mean you have to be here? Is there something coming up?"

I held up a finger at him. "I can't tell you the future, remember?"

"Oh," Clint nodded with a small sigh. "Right."

The beat of silence passed while I felt a pair of eyes watching my back. I looked in the direction of where I was sure someone was staring at me, and sure enough, there was one Tony Stark staring at me after setting down another drink. I forced a blank expression at that, willingly letting the annoyance take the place of anxiety here. "Why is he doing that?"

"Probably because after a little while we thought you might be dead or back where you came from." Clint deadpanned, giving me a look I couldn't place. "Tony didn't take it super great."

"What do you even mean by that?" I snapped, "He's still fucking pissed about the whole Pepper thing. And rightfully so."

Clint shook his head at that. "I don't think so. Tony wouldn't've spent as much time as he did trying to track you down if he hated you."

"Have you ever heard of revenge?" I looked back to where Tony was staring, only for him to look away then and pour another drink. I groaned lightly at that to myself with the alcohol headache starting to take hold in me. "Oh come on, Tony, don't drink tonight."

"So," Clint started slowly, raising an eyebrow. "Something is going to happen."

"Oh my god." I gave him an annoyed glare and he held up his hand in defense before putting his own drink aside on a table.

"Right, don't ask."

I took that chance to separate myself from him and go find some cold water. It wasn't exactly going to be a perfect fix to my buzzed feeling, but it might make it better for fighting Evil Killer Robots. You can guess who followed me to the bar too.

This time I was a little more prepared and didn't let the panic creep up on me, taking a breath that could pass as an annoyed sigh. "If you're still mad, I'm gonna need you to wait until tomorrow to yell at me. I'm really tired."

Tony stopped beside me, making me turn to look while he looked over my face carefully. After a moment of staring in contemplation, he decided to meet my eye-line and actually reply. "We thought you died. No one stays missing without a trace for that long."

"Sorry to...disappoint?" I questioned back, sipping my water and avoiding eye contact.

"No," Tony looked away too and shook his head a little. "I'm...uh- It's good that...you're okay."

I settled the churn of anxiety in my stomach with a sip of water before speaking again. "I am...sorry about Pepper."

"It's fine. It turned out okay." He paused for a minute, looking at me. "You didn't stop her from being kidnapped because she was supposed to kill Killian, right? No other reason."

"No other reason." I confirmed. "Not really. I knew you could fix her and she'd survive it, so it would be risky to try and change any part of a path to a happy ending."

"I guess so." Tony tapped his drink with his finger, a nervous tick that I brushed off. "Weird time to show up. Anything cool, or you just miss me?"

"Just missed you." I gave a brief insincere smile through the obvious lie before looking to a hallway. "I'll see you later, Mr. Stark."

Tony let me leave and I did not miss the other sparse avengers around the room who looked away quickly, back to the few remaining members of the party that they were conversing with. No one wanted to be caught staring at the two emotionally stunted fools who hadn't spoken to each other in over two years.