Can't Keep Suffering

When Tony came to, the first thing he noticed was that he had been moved from the training arena to the large living room. Steve was sitting the armchair next to the couch, talking and laughing with the others.

“Steve?” Tony asked groggily with a small groan. “Can I have something for my head please?”

Steve’s gaze quickly shifted from the conversation to his husband. “Yeah of course, Tony. Give me a second.”

The super soldier stood up and walked out of the living room towards the kitchen.

“Somebody has to learn how to catch me when I fall like that,” Tony said dryly. “I’m going to end up with some kind of brain trauma.”

“Maybe you can learn to hold yourself upright when I give you some kind of shocking news,” his daughter retorted with a smug look on her face.

Tony waved a dismissive hand and scoffed.

Then, Steve walked back into the room with a glass of water and a bottle of aspirin. “Here,” he said, taking his seat back next to Tony. “This should help.”

Tony held out his hand, accepting the water and the pills. “Thanks, sexy,” he said almost sarcastically with an over dramatic wink.

“God, you two,” Hetalia said with a sigh. “Get a room.”

“Speaking of getting a room,” Clint continued without missing a beat, turning his entire body to look at Toni and Loki. “Congrats on getting knocked up, you two.”

“Ja,” Schaefer added, taking a seat in one of the other armchairs. “It’s about time, too.”

“What do you mean?” Pamplemousse asked. “I heard that it’s perfectly normal to wait a while after getting married to have kids.”

“Well, yeah,” Clint said with a shrug. “But with how much they…” Clint paused and gave a cautious look at Bruce, who had a look of disapproval. “...well, how much they do the frickle-frackle, it’s a miracle they didn’t get preggers earlier.”

“Hey now,” Toni warned, giving Clint a condescending look.

“Well, let’s do a recap here,” the archer responded with a mischievous grin. “There was that time in the laundry room, the time in the car your dad gave you while it was still parked in the garage, the time in the locker room when you thought everyone was gone, and the time in the bathroom on the fifth floor.”

“Oh ja!” Schaefer replied, kinda chuckling to himself. “Und let’s not forget ze time in ze kitchen. Zat looked fairly uncomfortable. Oh, und ze time in ze closet, you probably could’ve had better leverage.”

Toni, blushing and hiding her eyes, gave an embarrassed sigh. “I know, Schaefer. You mentioned that when you caught us.”

“In fact,” Loki added. “You seem quite keen to give us some kind of advice every time you catch us.”

Clint chuckled and looked at his wingman. “Jeez, Schaef. At least I have the decency to keep my comments to myself.”

Schaefer just shrugged and brushed off the archer’s comment.

“Hey, here’s a thought,” Tony interjected. “How about we stop talking about my daughter’s sex life while I’m in the room.”

“Have you guys thought of any names yet?” Pamplemousse asked, smiling at Toni.

“A couple. For girls, we were thinking Emily or Frigga. For boys, Jensen or Aric.”

Tony went pale as a sheet, and felt his heart freeze in his chest.

“You are considering the name of my mother for that of your child!” Thor bellowed happily, not paying any attention to a concerned looking Tony across from him. “That is very kind of you!”

“It was Loki’s idea,” Toni admitted. “But I really like it for a little girl.”

Steve looked over at Tony to ask his opinion when he noticed the billionaire’s state. “Tony, what’s wrong?”

Tony didn’t seem to respond as he sat there in an inexplicable fear.

“Dad?” Toni asked, suddenly concerned about her father.

“I...uh,” Tony stammered. “Who’s idea was Jensen?”

Toni and Loki shared a look. “I don’t know,” she replied. “We both just kinda thought of it one night out of the blue.”

Tony nodded once, and ran a shaky hand through his messy hair.

“Dad, what’s wrong?”

The billionaire just shook his head. “Don’t worry about it, sweetie.” he said shakily. “It’s okay.”

Before Toni could argue with her father, Clint interrupted. “Of course it’s ‘okay,’” he said sarcastically. “He’s just not ready to be called grandpa. I mean, you’ve only just started calling him dad, for god’s sake.”

Tony gave kind of a dramatic sigh and turned a little pale. “Damn it, Barton, you didn’t have to remind me of that little tidbit.”

****

Artyom stood in the middle of the snowy field, feeling the icy wind sting his face. Some of his blonde hair was sticking out of his rabbit fur hat, and his fingers were cold and stiff as he held his AK-47 at the ready.

To the untrained eye, it looked like the 19 year old had either gotten lost from the rest of his military company or he was waiting for a prey to come along as he hunted. After all, who else would be standing in the middle of a field in an uninhabited part of Russia?

But to Artyom, this was where he was meant to be, standing guard at the hidden entrance of Russia’s SHIELD outpost. Never, though, had he been more frightened on the inside than he was now.

Director Kazakov had received word that the Hong Kong outpost had been destroyed. For the past two months, everyone at the base was on high alert. Artyom, usually working behind a desk in the HR department, was sent out in the cold of winter to help the other guards protect the base. He knew how to use a gun. He knew how to fight. All Russian soldiers, no matter what their job, were trained to be fierce warriors. The 19 year old, though, had begged for a sniper position tirelessly. He didn’t want to be standing out in the open for everyone to see when the enemy tried to take them down.

Suddenly, twigs snapped in the woods around him. He quickly raised his gun and put a slight bend in his knees, surveying the land and preparing for a fight.

“Artyom,” Agent Viktor Yenin said, emerging from the woods with his hands in the air. “It’s just me,” he continued in Russian.

Artyom lowered his gun slightly and stood at attention. “Viktor, something feels wrong.”

“Da,” the elder agent replied. “I found this in the snow where Pavel should’ve been.”

Agent Yenin held out a knife with a sleek, curved blade. There was blood on the leather on the handle.

“Is that...Pavel’s knife?” Artyom asked shakily.

Agent Yenin nodded and sighed, looking back out to the woods. “Они здесь.”

Artyom looked in the direction that Viktor was. Before he could raise his gun, before he could shout out a warning, a figure in a black cloak threw a grenade at the two agents.

The explosive flew over Artyom’s head and exploded behind him, sending both him and Agent Yenin flying forward into the snow.

All the teen could hear was a ringing in his ears as more black-cloaked figures ran past him and Viktor towards the entrance to the base.

“Виктор? Виктор, ты в порядке?”

Agent Yenin did not respond to Artyom’s question. His back was charred and his face was bleeding as his lifeless eyes stared into nothingness.

Then, another two cloaked figures emerged slowly from the woods. Artyom looked up at them, unable to see their faces.

One of them reached behind them and drew out a pistol and pointed it at the young Russian boy.

Artyom closed his eyes and tried to hold back his fear before muttering quietly.

“Do svidaniya.”