Relationship: Tony Stark/Bruce Banner/Clint Barton/Steve Rogers/Thor Odinson/Natasha Romanov

Summary: The Avengers help to distract each other from their worries.

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Tony

A few weeks ago, Tony Stark had arrived at the end of an amazing, yet terrifying, thought journey of sorts. Himself and Pepper were not destined to work together. Yes he loved her dearly, but he had gradually realised more and more that he loved her as a friend not as a girlfriend.

Now perhaps that was down to the multiple breaks they'd had, yes maybe those should have been red flags?

Maybe it was that Tony felt Pepper didn't understand why he got into that suit, and all the others, every time. That his self-sacrificing nature was bordering on insane to her, but perfectly rational to him?

Or maybe, it was a compound of two other factors? A realisation that Tony felt, no knew that he had the capacity to love and care for more than just one partner, in his life. And then an event, that of the Team moving into the Tower a few months prior.

Tony knew now that all six of them had been gradually coming to similar realisations since moving in, and now that they'd clumsily stumbled into a relationship together, it was time to tell Pepper. Though Tony's new relationship was one month, six days old (he wasn't counting, shut up), he knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with the other four. Pepper would be back from Tokyo today after a three week long Green Energy Summit, and the others had convinced Tony now was the time to tell her.

Tony was sitting now, on a couch in the Avengers shared living area, resting his head on Natasha's lap, waiting for Pepper's helicopter to land.

"Tony?"

"Huh?"

"She's going to be fine with it."

"Nat how do you know that, she's going to hate me forever, I can't lose her as best friend Nat I-" Tony cut himself off, as he felt Natasha's fingers running themselves through his hair, with Natasha occasionally pausing to massage his scalp. The engineer hummed, immediately more calm.

"Tony, Pepper will be fine with it. You two have been on a 'break' for five months. She will still be your friend, she will still support you."

"But how do you know she will?"

"Because I've met her Tony." Natasha replied, just as Clint vaulted over the couch landing next to Tony. Natasha, of course, heard him coming.

"Christ Clint!"

"What're we talking about?" Clint asked, ignoring Tony.

"Tony's telling Pepper today."

"Ohhhh. Have you tried running his hands through his hair?"

"Really Clint?" Natasha's eyes indicated down to her hands in their boyfriend's hair.

"Oh right. How about this." Clint replied, lifting Tony's head and kissing the man hard. Tony was caught completely off guard but he soon relaxed into the kiss. Natasha just laughed.

"Better?" Natasha asked, as the two men pulled away.

"I. Yeah. Thanks Clint." Tony replied, his cheeks flushed.

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Bruce

It was month two of the six's polyamorous relationship, and just over a week since they'd started sleeping together in one bed. Tony had a storage floor redeveloped into a shared floor for them all, complete with kitchen and living space, as well as a sizable bedroom that allowed the group to sleep as soundly as their lives allowed. Tonight, from left to right, they'd ordered themselves Thor, Natasha, Clint, Tony, Bruce & Steve.

Never known to be a light sleeper, Tony awoke at the feeling movement to his right but the billionaire didn't open his eyes until he realised who ever had left ought to have been back by now. Sitting up, Tony smiled in seeing Nat, Clint and Thor soundly sleeping, especially Clint who was known to suffer the most with sleep. However Tony let his smile fall when he gaze fell on the empty bed space between himself and Steve, that Bruce should have been occupying. Allowing his eyes to adjust to the room's darkness, Tony noticed light peeking out from under the en-suite bathroom door and he concluded his boyfriend must be inside. As Tony lifted himself up and reached over Steve for his glasses, he knocked against the man who preceded to pull the engineer into him.

"Steve, please." Tony whispered into the man's chest.

"Tony, sleep." Steve Just mumbled back to him.

"Steve, Bruce has gone."

Those words were finally enough to get Steve moving. Sadly moving up at such a sudden rate that he bumped heads with Tony, as he did so.

"Jesus Christ, Steve!" Tony whispered yelled, holding his nose.

"Some of us are trying to sleep, boys." Natasha said pulling herself up and from Clint and Thor's grasp, with well practised delicacy.

"Steve decided to headbutt me." "Tony and I just bumped heads, Nat." Both mean said at the same time.

"Where's Bruce?" Natasha asked, ignoring them and noticing the empty spot.

Tony just pointed to the bathroom door, "that's why I woke up Steve."

"Again?"

"Again? Bruce has done this before?"

"A lot. You're normally asleep like those two." Tony said, indicating with his thumb at their sleeping boyfriends, either side of Natasha. "Me and Nat just go and talk him back to bed." Tony finished, but at Steve's down look, Natasha added.

"Don't feel bad you didn't know, we're light sleepers is all." Natasha said, climbing over Clint and Tony, ending up in Bruce's spot and kissing Steve's cheek. Actions she performed so quick, Tony was once again very glad she was on their side.

Elegantly jumping off the bed and landing with no sound, Natasha held out her hand to Tony. "Let's go get our scientist back."

Taking her hand, Tony climbed over Steve and slid off the bed, hitting the floor quietly but not as silently as his girlfriend. Before they walked hand in hand towards their bathroom, knocking softly and pushing the door open without waiting for a reply. Bruce glanced up at them from where he sat on the edge of the bath. He smiled weakly at the two. Taking the initiative, Natasha sat next to him ramping an arm around the scientist and pulling Bruce into her side, while Tony followed by crouching at Bruce's feet and taking both of his hands.

"Was it the same again?" Natasha asked, softly.

"It's just. What if I lose control, y'know? Like what if he... and I'm sleeping with you guys..." Bruce said, trailing off finally at Tony squeezing his hands.

"Brucie, we know you won't lose control. You've said it yourself, that you feel much more relaxed around us."

"Let's get you back to bed. Maybe think about talking to the others tomorrow. It'll help and you know Steve and Clint can empathise."

"Yeah and it's also really cold without you." Tony finished, a faux whine to his voice. Bruce managed to break his furrowed expression into a snort at that.

The scientist smiled watching Natasha roll her eyes dramatically at Tony's comment, but flushed bright red when both his boyfriend and girlfriend kissed him on either cheek.

"Two months and you still blush every time." Natasha giggled, and Tony tried to laugh along as quietly as he could. The two of them made Bruce just blush an even darker red.

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Natasha

Natasha spent a lot of time here, whether it was for extra training she didn't need or for when her mind went there. Unloading bullet after bullet into the set of targets, reloading a new clip lightning fast, and emptying it into the targets all over again. The daylight streamed in brightly through the Tower's large windows, but Natasha couldn't have felt more dark, more lost in that moment.

With the life she had left, the past she had carved for herself, she obviously didn't expect everyday to walk in the park, but on days like today Natasha wished it was a bit more bearable. It wasn't like she had her past played out for her, every time she closed her eyes, but she thought about her life in the Red Room, KGB and then as quote on quote 'Freelance Assassin'. Really it was guilt. Natasha felt guilt for what shed down. Guilty for tearing herself apart over it so often. Guilty for hiding it from her boyfriends. Only Clint knew it all, well most of it. She didn't need to tell the others, she'd much rather focus on her own problems. They'd only been dating together as a group for three and a bit weeks, maybe it would get easier to tell them.

A sudden knock brought her out of thoughts, and she swung round to point her gun at the figure in the open shooting range doorway. Relaxing and lowering the gun, on seeing it was Clint. Natasha sighed and flicked on the gun's safety, before laying down on the bench and walking over to him.

"I would've put my hands but." Clint said, pausing to indicate with the two mugs in his hands, "Hot Chocolate, thought it might help."

"With rum?" Natasha asked, as she took an offered mug from Clint.

"Of course. What kind of boyfriend would that make me if I forgot the rum?" Clint asked, following his girlfriend over to a few barstools, just opposite the lanes.

"How'd you know?" She asked, sipping slowly at hers as Clint spoke.

"I always know." To which Natasha just raised her eyebrows back at him. "Alright fine. I walked by earlier and saw you just shredding those poor targets to pieces. Oh, and you missed lunch."

"How?" Natasha cut herself off, glancing down at her watch. Lunch was two hours ago.

"They're not mad you missed it. This whole relationship is fairly new to us. But I think it's silly for you to believe they'd see you any different." Clint said, looking up at Natasha's puzzled look. "That's what this is about right? Why you're down here. You feel guilty about not telling them your past life?"

"I just. It's a trust thing. You think I should?"

"It's not up to me, but yes you should. I get where you're coming from, but they wouldn't have agreed to date you if they had no trust for you. And I think the same goes for you?" Clint said, stopping briefly to drink. "Of course tell them whatever whenever, but know they'd only want to be there. We all have pasts."

"Maybe you're right." Natasha conceded, looking up from her mug, enjoying its warmth in her aching hands.

"See not just a pretty face." Clint replied, victoriously.

"What was your plan B?"

"I actually did have one. An awfully cheesy, sappy quote I saw online."

Natasha sighed happily, knowing Clint loved these sorts of quotes. "Go on then, I'll bite."

"Let the past make you Better, not Bitter." Clint said, as seriously as he could.

"That's the worst one yet. I love it."

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End of Part 1 of 2