Across the Universe

“Well, that was fun.” Clint pushed the front doors of the precinct open and held them for Scarlett. Stopping in the doorway, Scarlett threw him a skeptical glance as if to ask how on earth that was fun. Around Clint’s right eye was forming a nasty bruise from the fight, dark shades of blue and purple on swollen skin. Considering the beating he’d taken in the alleyway he was lucky there wasn’t much worse than that. Scarlett’s lower lip was puffy, split, and black with dried blood but aside being disheveled and sore, she felt just fine.

Clint watched her walk away and followed down the front steps after her when she didn’t respond to his quip. His legs, feeling still like jelly from the lengthy pursuit of the persistent gang member, he barely made it down the steps in one piece.

“Don’t be like that Raven, it was fun.”

“Oh yes, I very much enjoy spending half my night in lock up while your superiors at S.H.I.E.L.D. argue with the local PD about our release and dropping the assault charges. Don’t forget the breaking and entering charges! Particularly I enjoyed this because I work for said department and will be paid, oh wait…” Despite the bite in Scarlett’s voice she didn’t actually seem particularly angry. Clint was easy to screw with, since at times he seemed to take things far more literally than intended. “Also, I told you that I don’t do nicknames.”

“It didn’t take that long and thanks to you we got what we needed. It was a successful mission! Good thinking hiding that sweatshirt before we were ambushed, by the way. S.H.I.E.L.D. was able to retrieve it and collect evidence against those thugs. Hopefully they’ll be able to leverage one of them into talking since the undercover operation is pretty much blown.”

“Clint, it took four hours for S.H.I.E.L.D. to straighten things out. It’s nearly tomorrow already.” Scarlett checked her phone and then waved it at him as if to prove her point. She couldn’t deny that she’d done a good job on this particular mission. The point was that it wasn’t her mission in the first place.

“Okay, so that part wasn’t very fun. But you have to admit we work pretty well together!” Clint laughed, catching up to her so he could walk in stride with her. A smile crept over her lips to betray the annoyance in her tone.

“That is beside the point, Barton.”

“Of course it’s the point. You had fun. Admit it! You miss being a bad ass and I have done nothing but provide you with ample opportunity to do just that. You’re welcome. For the bad-assery opportunities.” Clint bowed comically while they walked down the dark, empty sidewalk toward the stairway on the corner that would lead them underground to the complex Manhattan subway system.

“The point you’re missing is that I don’t work with you, Clint.” Scarlett started down the steps and Clint whimpered as he watched her. His legs still felt like noodles. Instead, he grabbed onto the railing and took each step slowly and one at a time. At the bottom of the stairs Scarlett turned to wait for him, one hand on her hip and a bemused look across her face. “You really need to work on your cardio, that wasn’t that long of a run.”

“I don’t usually run, I usually aim and shoot. My name is Hawkeye and not Marathon Man for a reason.” Clint made it to the bottom of the steps and then posed with his hands on his hips, proud that he’d made it without tripping over his rubbery legs.

“That’s exactly why you should run more, right? Since you already get all the practice you need aiming and shooting since that’s what you do. You should work on your weaknesses not your strengths.” Scarlett laughed continuing onto the subway platform a few feet ahead. Four or five other people waited for the train that would take them downtown but paid Clint and Scarlett no mind even though they were scraped up and disheveled. That was New York in a nutshell. Seeing crazy things on the side of the road or in the subways meant nothing. Insanity was a normal part of everyday living on the streets of Manhattan.

“I guess you’re right.” Clint sighed dramatically but then nudged her arm. “You know if you did work for S.H.I.E.L.D. then tonight could’ve been worth big money for you.”

“And you know that if I wanted to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. I wouldn’t have told Nick Fury to fuck off when he asked me to. Though he didn’t ask as much as he did threaten me.” Scarlett countered, watching the dark tunnel for any sign of the next train.

“Just think about it at least.”

“No.” Scarlett shook her head. Even though she objected, it had become a serious discussion in the back of her mind. Working for S.H.I.E.L.D. would have its perks. It was true she had told Nick Fury that she wasn’t interested when he’d shown up in her hospital room in Moscow two months ago. Life had been different then. After weeks of chasing down her ex-boyfriend and the duo that ran MedCo and ruined her life, Marcia Edmonton and Mikhail Ivanov, Scarlett hadn’t trusted anyone. S.H.I.E.L.D. was a greedy corporation just like any other she’d dealt with. While their motives may have appeared to be far purer than MedCo’s she still saw them for what they were.

Often villains were the heroes of their own stories.

Who decided what was right and what was wrong?

MedCo had been hoping to create an army of super soldiers through their efforts. Their motives could’ve been for the greater good in the beginning. It was the means to get to their goal that made them the malevolent force they had become. Vision often obscured the line of morality. S.H.I.E.L.D. aimed to take down terrorist organizations, guide people with special abilities, and supposedly save the world. But what gave S.H.I.E.L.D. the right to choose the villains and the heroes? Saving the world wasn’t as simple as they made it out to be. Different people had different views on what needed to be done to save humanity.

Scarlett wasn’t a hero, of that she was certain. Yes, she was of far above average intelligence and knew how to kill a man in more ways than the everyday person but what about that made her special enough to be a hero? Nothing. The only thing Scarlett could hope to do with her special skills was redeem herself for the evils she’d committed in the past. Years as a mercenary had left a trail of blood behind her miles long. Even if she could make up for a quarter of atrocities she’d committed she would consider herself lucky.

S.H.I.E.L.D. was willing to give her the means to right those wrongs and for that she was truly considering joining their ranks with a long list of terms and conditions. As often as she told Natasha and Clint she wasn’t interested, it was far from the truth. The only reason she continued to argue with them was out of principle. They had annoyingly harassed her for the last two months about joining them and she wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of knowing their attempts had worked. She was not going to encourage their bad behavior.

Scarlett could feel the soreness in her back creeping up on her from being thrown through a doorway thanks to the man standing next to her. That was a giant reminder as to why she objected so severely to their manipulations. Cocking her head from left to right, Scarlett stretched her back in hopes of relieving the soreness she felt. As the subway train approached the platform, Clint watched her curiously.

“Back hurt?”

“I was thrown through a door. If it didn’t hurt I’d probably have bigger problems.” Scarlett waited for the doors of the train to open. No one was coming off of the subway so she stepped inside and took the nearest seat. Clint sat next to her, but turned sideways in his seat so he could face her.

“I’m sorry!” Comically he pouted and batted his eyelashes, which had very little effect. He had absolutely no feminine touch and there was nothing childish about his face despite his personality. Still it was funny enough for Scarlett to offer a smile as a consolation prize.

“You don’t live downtown.” Scarlett spoke up a few minutes into the ride when Clint didn’t get off the train to catch another going in a different direction.

“I’m walking you home.” Clint nodded in the vague direction of where her home was.

“Oh.” Scarlett considered this proposal then nodded her head. “Thanks.” It wasn’t that she needed someone to walk her home but it was kind of Clint to keep her company along the way. He was a good guy and he’d made a kind gesture so who was she to tell him that it wasn’t his place to walk her home?

“It’s the least that I could do after dragging you into my mess.”

“At least you know what you did. Acceptance is the first step.”

The rest of the ride downtown was spent in comfortable silence. Both riders were too tired to argue much or even to joke around as they usually did. Clint was a good friend, despite how often he got her into trouble. Most days they could babble on about any old topic, though their favorites were bad horror films and concerts they’d seen in the past. They’d even joked about going to see some shows in the city but those plans had never come to fruition. In reality, they were both far too busy to put aside that kind of time. Not to mention chaos seemed to find them at every turn. The last thing they needed was to put a room filled with sweaty concert goers in harm’s way.

By the time they reached Scarlett’s stop the subway car had emptied leaving only Clint and Scarlett to exit. They walked out of the subway and onto the dark streets above.

“You owe me so much pizza. It’s seriously not even funny how much pizza you owe me. Brooklyn pizza too, don’t you get me that nasty chain stuff.” Scarlett shoved her hands in her pockets, absentmindedly making sure that she had her cell phone and her mp3 player stowed away safely after the fight in the alleyway. Clint was glad that the tense silence was finally broken and chuckled heartily.

“That seems fair enough.” They turned down the street and instantly their destination came into view. Stark Tower was a few blocks south of them and in the darkness of the night it was beautiful. The tallest building in the vicinity, Stark Tower was a grand monument to Tony Stark himself. It was just like him to build a giant skyscraper towering in the middle of Manhattan’s business district with his last name plastered at the top in lights bright enough to rival the light show on the Empire State Building.

Most people found the building arrogant but it had grown on Scarlett with time. It didn’t mean she wouldn’t continue to tease Tony about his metaphoric penis in the middle of Manhattan even if she had become attached to it. The building not the penis, that was. Scarlett shook the thought from her head then continued down the block. Clint was soon catching up with her, having stopped to watch the lights twinkle at the top of the building. Whether he was admiring it or rolling his eyes at it, Scarlett wasn’t sure.

“How’s that going?” Clint nodded toward Stark Tower but was referring to the relationship between Scarlett and Tony.

“It’s… well, it’s complicated.” Scarlett summed up her romantic life in a nutshell, but a smile crossed her lips. The relationship wasn’t a bad kind of complicated, it simply was complicated. Tony Stark was a genius, a public figure, and sometimes, more often than not, a smug arrogant ass. Scarlett wasn’t used to being in the public eye and it had been a huge adjustment for her. It wasn’t that she couldn’t handle it, just that she wasn’t used to anyone scrutinizing her every move. But for Tony she was willing to make the adjustment. They fought constantly, but the fights were very rarely ever serious arguments. Most of the time their arguments were made simply for the sake of fighting.

Once Tony had discovered how brilliant make up sex was, he’d picked as many fights as he could. It was a terrible habit but Scarlett secretly had as much fun as Tony did through the process so hadn’t pushed him to knock it off. Despite the fun they had together even when they were fighting, they had their problems and serious ones at that.

The problems were what made things really complicated, even conflicting. But they both had to take things one step at a time. Scarlett had never anticipated dating Tony Stark, or anyone for that matter, so she had never expected the experience to be anywhere near perfect.

“I hear that.” Clint responded. Relationships weren’t his forte but as Scarlett’s friend he was obligated to ask how it was going. Plus, after having helped her and Tony escape from a MedCo experiment facility in Moscow a few months prior he had a strange attachment to them both. He wanted to see them be happy together.

Clint had worked undercover for S.H.I.E.L.D. to infiltrate MedCo’s operation in hopes of shutting them down from the inside or at least gathering enough intelligence to bring criminal charges upon them for acts of terror. But MedCo had become aware of his infiltration and strung him along for weeks. He’d made the executive decision to blow his cover when Scarlett had been brought to the facility unconscious by Mikhail, the ruthless Russian thug who had been one of MedCo’s primary leaders. At least he had been one of the leaders before Scarlett put a bullet through his head.

Blowing his cover had been against his orders but Clint didn’t regret having done so. In the end he’d managed to prevent the building from being blown to pieces with Natasha and had saved Scarlett and Tony’s lives in the process. The evidence that had been built against MedCo from what remained of the Russian facility had been monumental. Shortly after the company had gone underground and was still working on disappearing. S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents were in pursuit even as they spoke. With any luck the only remaining leader of the company, Marcia, would be caught and tried for the atrocities committed even if they could only prove what had been done to Scarlett.

Upon reaching the front doors to Stark Tower, Scarlett turned to face Clint expectantly but he didn’t seem to have much to say. Without another word, Scarlett gave him a hug, patted him hard on the back and then walked into the building after staring into the camera. Jarvis, Tony’s intelligent home computer system, scanned her features and granted her access to the building past business hours.

Clint watched her walk inside before turning on his heels and starting back toward the subway. Stark Tower was far out of his way, but it was the least he could do after he’d interrupted Scarlett’s jog and thrown her into the middle of a fight that had never been hers.

Even though she lived in Stark Tower which doubled as a home for Tony Stark she didn’t actually live with Tony. Their relationship from its inception had absolutely no normalcy to it. Every date they’d been on had been a complete disaster. Even when they had their first few romantic moments one of the two had been trying to manipulate the other. Now that they were seriously trying to form a bond Scarlett had insisted they find a way to make at least one thing about their relationship normal.

So Tony had surprised her with a whole floor of the Stark Tower building filled with lofts and apartments so that when guests came by they would have a place to stay. The biggest loft had been designated as her living space. He had wanted her to come and live with him but not until she was ready for it. Tony had one too many failed relationships because he’d rushed into things without thinking. He was grateful that Scarlett was looking out for them. But recently Tony had been pushing the idea of her moving in with him and though she’d been considering it, Scarlett wasn’t sure she was ready for it quite yet.

Riding the elevator in silence, Scarlett checked her pockets again and found that she’d lost her headphones during the fight. It wasn’t a big deal, more humorous than anything but she hoped that neither her phone nor her mp3 player had been damaged during the scuffle. Scarlett unlocked her apartment door after walking off of the elevator and down a long hallway. Automatically the lights turned on throughout the living area, courtesy of the intelligent Jarvis system that had control over almost every aspect of her home to make her life simpler.

Jarvis was one of Scarlett’s favorite things on the planet. Charming, helpful, and often sassier than he was programmed to be, Jarvis was the best butler a girl could ask for. Scarlett wasn’t sure how she’d ever lived without him.

“Miss Damien, I see that you have once again returned home bloody. Is this becoming a habit of yours?” The whimsical male voice with the slightest hint of a British accent greeted her once she’d taken off her sweater.

“I swear it’s not on purpose, Jarvis.” Scarlett smiled but could feel her lip split and pull as she did then scowled instead.

“Should I send another warning to S.H.I.E.L.D.? This will be the eighth on file. Frankly if they didn’t listen to the last one this one seems pointless. I’d take more drastic measures.”

“I tend to agree. Don’t worry about it Jarvis, I’m going to deal with them personally this time.” Scarlett walked into her bedroom which lit up for her. “Close your eyes.”

“I do not have eyes, madam.”

“I was making a joke, Jarvis.” Scarlett rolled her eyes and then after grabbing some comfortable pajamas walked into the bathroom for a quick shower. It was a long running joke between her and Tony that Jarvis had a crush on Scarlett since they’d met. Ever since then Scarlett had been threatening to run away with him.

After having run far more than she had anticipated and spent an extended period of time in a jail cell after having been in a fight with a dozen or so gang members she felt the need to boil the sweat and stink off of her flesh.

Once out of the shower, Scarlett returned to her living room where Jarvis, using his high tech holographic technology showed her the updates to her lawsuits and the blueprints she’d been working on when she’d had free time which seemed rarely these days.

“Your lawyer has sent over some paperwork and it should arrive early tomorrow morning for you to overlook, Miss Damien. I do believe that some of the original transactions for your work have been located and proceedings can at last begin.”

“That’s great news, Jarvis.” Scarlett sat down on the couch and rubbed her sore jaw. Part of the ceiling opened up and a tray descended on a mechanical arm. On top of this tray was an ice pack, two ibuprofen, and a glass of water. “You are the best.”

“I am programmed to please, Miss Damien.” Scarlett picked up the ice pack and placed it against her sore lip and immediately winced. She was just beginning to unwind, leaning against her couch when another holographic window opened up in front of her.

“Hey, if you’re up for it I’ve got a bottle of wine open. I’m up for it, but I’m always up for it if you know what I mean…” Tony Stark’s face appeared in front of her. His goatee was neatly trimmed as always, having become his signature look over the years. Brown eyes with a slight tinge of green looked down at her filled with mischief and excitement though they were puffy from lack of sleep. Immediately upon seeing his girlfriend through the holographic communication his smile faded. Scarlett didn’t respond and held the ice pack instead to her lip again, waiting for Tony to let loose.

“Again? Really?” Tony turned his gaze away from the video call and ran his hand through his short cropped but meticulously styled brown hair. “Scarlett this is the sixth time this has happened! Was it Katniss again? Or maybe little Miss Spider-web?”

“Eighth time.” Scarlett corrected and Tony cocked an eyebrow as if to ask if the number of times really mattered.

“S.H.I.E.L.D. thinks they can just throw you into danger when you’ve distinctly told them no? Do you want me to fill Nick Fury’s computer with porn, because I can do that.” It may have sounded like Tony was joking but in reality he was nervous that Scarlett was getting roped into more danger and she had already been in far more danger than he would’ve liked. How many times had he almost lost her in the last six months? It seemed like a petty thing to worry about a woman who was perfectly capable of taking care of herself but it wasn’t. Not to Tony Stark. He’d cared this deeply about so few people in his life that the idea of losing any of them gave him nightmares.

“That’s not necessary. I’m going to talk to them soon. You know I might as well work for them, Tony. S.H.I.E.L.D. ropes me into doing the work anyway so I might as well get compensated for it.” Scarlett laughed but once again didn’t get a response from Tony. In fact, she was sure that his face paled a little. “What?”

“Nothing, I just… Well, I thought you were very anti-working for another company teetering between benevolence and soul sucking evil.” Tony twitched, working his face into a squint as he tried to properly portray his worry without actually letting on that he was worried. Scarlett had spent the last year being manipulated by those around her. Tony didn’t want to see that happen again. He knew just how manipulative S.H.I.E.L.D. could be.

While in the Middle East two months earlier he’d discovered one of his girlfriend’s bigger secrets and that was that she had spent some time in captivity where she’d been tortured and tormented beyond his wildest dreams. On top of that he’d discovered that the man who had set her up for that torture was the one who was supposed to be caring for her.

He’d found Scott’s old apartment, it was something he still hadn’t told Scarlett about. Inside the apartment had been the bare necessities of living. But in the closet he had found a box filled with mementos from his relationship with Scarlett including her bloodied hospital gown. If that hadn’t been enough to make him sick to his stomach, when he’d flipped the lights off in the apartment he’d found hidden writing all along the walls glowing under the blue light of the arc reactor in his chest. The reactor powered an electromagnet in his chest that kept shrapnel from reaching his heart. Tony had his own scars to bear, but he’d since come to terms with them and become the infamous Iron Man, a super hero of his own making.

The scribbling he’d discovered beneath the reactor light was that of a mad man. Bits and pieces had made enough sense for Tony to discover Scott’s true motives. He wanted to experiment on Scarlett until there was nothing left of the woman she was. Somehow their relationship had become twisted in his mind and he’d thought that the reason she couldn’t love him was because the way she thought was wrong. Paying a group of thugs in Afghanistan to kidnap her on a phony mission he’d set up for her had been the first planned step in breaking her mental state. It had partially worked.

When Tony had first met Scarlett after saving her in the wreckage of an explosion in South Africa she had been a broken and confused woman. Slowly, with Tony’s help she had regained her bearings. At least he liked to think he had been helping. It was possible he had only made it harder for her by falling in love with her. They’d fallen in love in spite of each other and their attempts to destroy their blossoming relationship.

“Tony?” Scarlett was watching him as he stared, that obvious look of worry across his face. Tony fancied himself a gifted liar but Scarlett knew better than that. He’d been so used to people accepting the truth from him regardless of what it was, part of his shocking and charming public persona, that when it came for him to find the need to lie about something he was absolutely terrible at it. His face was far too expressive for him to hide much of anything, at least Scarlett thought so. The worry was practically dripping out of his large eyes.

“What? Sorry, that shirt is really distracting. Really, it’s your own fault.” Tony was brought back to reality. “Stand up and shake it for me, it’ll help. Really.”

“Don’t try to change the topic.” Scarlett laughed. Sexist comments and absurd requests had become a regular part of their relationship but she had long since learned how to handle them.

“I’m not changing the topic, you’re the one changing the topic. I like this topic.”

“I said I might approach S.H.I.E.L.D. and you went ten shades paler than you are. You can’t blame that on my breasts, okay? I know from experience that is not the reaction they get from you.”

“Well, you can’t really see the rest of me can you?” Tony cocked an eyebrow and pointed accusingly.

“Tony.”

“Scarlett.”

“What if I was serious about S.H.I.E.L.D.?” Scarlett hadn’t exactly been joking when she’d brought it up. Even if she ended up not taking the job with them she needed to approach them about the jobs she’d somehow managed to get roped into over the past few months. If they were going to continue interrupting her life then something had to be done. Tonight hadn’t been the first time she’d wound up in lock up thanks to Clint Barton and her health insurance rates were already through the roof simply because she lived with Tony Stark.

“Don’t do it.” Tony leaned back on his dark brown leather couch, pulling the screen that was showing him Scarlett’s face. Her lip was bloody and while he couldn’t see any other wounds he had a feeling there was more to it than that. How many times had he taken care of her after Romanoff or Barton had dragged her out on some adventure? Eight apparently, according to Scarlett. He knew that she wasn’t the type to walk away from the opportunity to help them in a dangerous situation either. It wasn’t her fault. He didn’t blame her. He blamed S.H.I.E.L.D.

“Why not? You do it.” Scarlett sighed, leaning forward, her elbows on her knees. “S.H.I.E.L.D. isn’t going to let me out of some kind of involvement with them, Tony. You know that as well as I do. After what happened in Russia…”

“What happened in Russia is exactly the reason why you shouldn’t go work for them. You nearly died.”

“The point is I can prevent more of what happened in Russia. If I try to do it on my own then I’m going to end up in prison.”

“Not with my firewall.” Tony smirked.

“Tony, I can do it legally if I approach S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“But what if you end up being their bait for what’s left of MedCo? I can’t watch that happen!” Tony snapped finally, practically barking the words. It wasn’t that he meant to be nasty, just that it had been building in the back of his mind for some time. Each time he’d gone to consult for S.H.I.E.L.D. in the last month he’d been asked about Scarlett and Tony had told them she was off limits. Obviously Phil Coulson needed a hearing aid.

“I won’t let that happen.”

“How do you know they won’t do it anyway? You know how S.H.I.E.L.D. is with telling the whole truth. They have more secrets than I do.”

“You don’t have any secrets, sweetie.” Scarlett pursed her lips, trying to turn the conversation back around. It wasn’t the first time they’d argued about S.H.I.E.L.D. but usually they were on the same page. Only recently had she changed her mind about taking a position amongst their ranks.

“Okay, that’s true. But Scarlett… they could get you killed.” Tony pouted and then worked her words over in his mind. “Did you just call me sweetie?”

“I was being condescending.” Scarlett held up her hands before he could respond. Often Tony interrupted their topic of conversation with several other topics that had absolutely nothing to do with what they were talking about. It took hours to get back to the matter at hand when that happened. She was learning very quickly how to stay on point. “Look I can take care of myself, you know that Tony. I’m stronger than I have been in a long time and we’ve been working together on many fancy new toys that I can use to stay out of harm’s way. It’ll be a part time thing anyway, sort of like when they ask you for help. But I’m a fighter so you know that’s what they’ll use me for.”

“That’s what I’m worried about!”

“I know you are, but you can’t keep me wrapped in bubble wrap all day to keep me safe! I like danger, Tony. It’s part of what attracted me to you, remember?” Scarlett felt like a broken record. They’d talked about danger a hundred times and neither one had changed their stance on the matter.

“I can’t argue with that, I am pretty dangerous…” Tony managed a small smile at long last.

“It won’t be too frequent anyway, Tony. I’m so busy there’s no way they’d be able to take up too much of my time. Between testing the arc reactor power converter upstate with you, trying to obtain a grant to start up my private projects, and trying to get the patents obtained for all my ideas that Scott stole from me over the years I don’t have much time to offer them. Thankfully I still have those notebooks that I’d hid in safety deposit boxes so it shouldn’t be a problem in the long run just very time consuming…” When Scarlett laid everything that was going on currently in her life out on the table it seemed very overwhelming. The arc reactor power project had been put on the back burner. When she’d first met Tony he’d been working on an amplifier to properly transmit the power from his new element on a grander scale.

Scarlett had then signed a contract to work with him on the project as part of Stark Industries in hopes of changing the world. But life had gotten in the way and they hadn’t had much of an opportunity to work on the conversion process since they’d returned to their new home in Manhattan. It had taken weeks to transport their supplies from Malibu and the set up process was still in the works.

“I’m just worried about you. I don’t want you to get in over your head again.” Tony sighed, realizing that he wouldn’t be able to distract Scarlett from the topic.

“I’m never in over my head.”

“And that delusion is exactly where our problem lies.” Placing his hand against his temple he pinched, pretending to have a headache from their conversation. He really was worried about her. Hell, he was so worried that he had nightmares all night long and very rarely got enough sleep. Half the time he avoided going to sleep because he was nervous of what he’d see when he closed his eyes. Two months ago Tony had fought tooth and nail to learn the truth of what had happened to Scarlett and his excuse had been that his brain was over active and instead of accepting her story on face value his imagination filled in the blanks with various horrific scenarios. He thought that learning the truth would have rectified that but instead it had made his nightmares only more vivid and intense.

“It’s not a delusion, Tony. Look I know you’re worried about me…”

“Don’t baby me.” Looking very much like a child as he pouted and turned his gaze away, Tony immediately betrayed his words

“I’m not babying you. I think it’s sweet that you’re worried about me. I can’t stop living because we’re worried about how things will pan out. Our lives are very dangerous, Tony and it’s something we’re going to have to come to terms with if we expect this to work out.” The familiar feeling of guilt washed over her. It was her fault Tony wasn’t sleeping and even more so that he wouldn’t admit he wasn’t sleeping. He didn’t want to worry her with his worrying. It had become a vicious cycle that they’d dealt with every night since they’d returned home from Moscow.

Scarlett wanted nothing more than to repair the damage that she’d done to his psyche but she had no idea where to begin. It was hard enough for her to find rest at night, how was she supposed to give Tony advice on finding his? All she could hope to do was wear him out until he passed out and finally got some rest. This had worked on several occasions but had managed to exhaust her and leave her restless.

“I know that. I really do. It’s not that simple.”

“Why don’t you come over and stay with me tonight?” Scarlett smiled, hoping to draw the topic of conversation away from her possible future employment with S.H.I.E.L.D. If she could distract him well enough then maybe he wouldn’t worry so much when it came to fruition.

“This is silly.” Tony stood up even though he was arguing with her over what came next. They’d had this argument before too, at least once a week for the past six weeks. “You should just move in with me already. There’s plenty of room for the both of us here and we live in the same building anyway. We’ve spent every night together since we got home. We’re technically living together already so why not take the plunge?” Tony knew how the argument would end so he got into the elevator that would take him down a few flights so he could show up at her door and spend the night with her. He may not sleep very well with Scarlett but he slept even worse when he was without her. They’d tried to spend a few nights apart but it had only lasted until about midnight before one of them showed up at the other’s door, lonely and plagued by their racing thoughts.

“I know it’s silly but I’m not ready yet, okay? Soon though. I promise.” Scarlett smiled, watching Tony making his way to her door. Seconds later there was a knock at her door. Grabbing the video screen by either side, she slammed it closed with her hands and it disappeared with a pop. Walking to the door and opening it, Scarlett was relieved when Tony wrapped his arms around her and offered her a kiss in greeting. Then he leaned against the frame of the door, hands still lazily on her waist.

“Okay, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop asking.”

“I didn’t expect you to. I don’t’ want you to stop.” Scarlett leaned into the hand that touched her cheek. His thumb brushed close to her swollen lip.

“How bad is it this time?”

“Not too bad, my lip and my back. Probably the least damaging experience so far.”

“Not true, when you’re with Romanoff she at least makes sure you get taken care of.”

“Clint’s just a little more reckless at times.” Scarlett smiled. She really did enjoy spending time with Clint even if she gave him a hard time about it when they were together.

“How did you hurt your back?” Scarlett pulled away from Tony’s arms and led him into her apartment.

“I was thrown through a door.” Scarlett looked at him over her shoulder. “I didn’t go see a doctor. I probably should” Biting her lip in a smile she narrowed her eyes at Tony playfully. “You have a few doctorates, don’t you?” Tony instantly walked inside the apartment and followed her through the hall, his mind successfully taken off of the matter at hand.