"Natasha, I don't wanna put pressure on you but it would be really helpful if you would hurry up and close the portal." I pipe up through the comm and dodge the weapon that the alien aims at me. My strength has decreased dangerously, every single bone tries to drag me down and my legs feel as heavy as lead. I struggle to steady my breath and my combat suit is covered with dirt and blood, the strands of my hair fall out of my ponytail.

"I agree." Clint confirms with a sniff. "I'm running out of arrows. And this fight doesn't make sense if more are coming. We're still only seven people."

"I have Loki's scepter now, should be possible." The red-haired declares and I shoot a blast of electricity at the Chitauri as the next one attacks me. Exhausted and tired, I punch it in the face and kneel down, taking a short break while the alien falls off the bridge. A shield flies towards me and I dodge, turning around just to see how the Chitauri behind me dies.

"You're alright?" Steve asks me concerned as he catches his shield again before he helps me up. I nod quietly and look around, the broken pieces of Manhattan arouse nostalgia in me.

"War has never been over. And it'll never leave." I sigh and my chest feels heavy, burdened by memories. I feel helpless, lost in oblivion.

Steve looks around and I see the same homesickness in his blue eyes that isn't too different from mine. Even though his hair is a mess and his skin is coated with dirt, I recognize for a short, barely existent glimpse, the innocent, small boy from Brooklyn who was too dumb to run away from a fight.

"I can close it. Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down." Natasha announces and we both look up to the Stark Tower.

"Do it!" Steve commands but Tony interrupts us, sounding rather urgent.

"No, wait! I got a nuke coming in, from the military. It's gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it." He refers to the portal and just seconds later, I see how Iron Man flies straight up into sky with a huge missile, towards the portal. My eyes widen, shocked by his plan and I suddenly think of Howard.

"Stark, don't! That's a one-way trip, it's suicide. Turn back now, we'll find another solution!" I yell through the earpiece but he keeps flying towards the portal, not slowing down. That's a sacrifice he shouldn't pay, why is he doing this?! He isn't supposed to die, not now, not on my watch. "Tony! Come back!"

I hold my breath and everyone of us watches how he flies into the portal, disappearing out of our sight. My hands are shaking and I swallow, praying that he's gonna come back. For unknown reasons, I feel responsible for him and guilt spreads over my chest. In the next moment, all aliens keel over, turning into lifeless bodies on the ground but we keep staring at sky, hoping for Tony's return. A supernova comes towards us and Steve turns around to Thor who has landed next to us. The God sends us a knowing nod.

"Close it." Steve tells Natasha through the comm and I bite on my lower lip, feeling helpless and numb.

"Come on, Tony...." I mumble, even though the billionaire can't hear me. I should have stopped him, instead I just watched him sacrificing himself. The energy beam of the Tesseract vanishes and the portal closes, my chest almost crumbles until a small figure is hurled backwards through the portal towards the earth. A sigh of relief escapes my lips, almost leading to a laugh. "That bastard."

"Son of a gun." Steve laughs relieved and even Thor smirks with joy. Iron Man keeps falling and falling and the realization hits us when he doesn't stop, panic overwhelms me.

"He's not slowing down!" Thor shouts and swings his hammer to fly up, but the Hulks jumps on the building, catching Tony who has almost arrived the ground with a dangerous speed. They slide down the building and land on the bridge, the three of us immediately run  over to them. Iron Man lies on the ground without any signs of life and concern settles down in my stomach. I kneel down and rip off his mask to face an unconscious Tony, that's what I at least hope. He almost seems... dead. His eyes are closed and his chest doesn't move, not showing that he breathes. If he breathes.

"No..." I gulp and slowly create a voltage in my hands, attempting to resurrect him. "Come on, Tony, wake up, wake- "

Hulk's furious roar interrupts me and we all flinch since we are right next to him, the incredibly loud yell startles Tony awake with a cringe. His eyes are widened, staring at us and gasping as he looks like he's having a heart attack. "What the hell?! What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me."

"Hulk woke you up." I answer and half smile, he seems to be alright. Happiness and easement spreads over my chest, relieved that there's not one more victim who had to give their life.

"With a kiss??" Tony frowns in shock and stares at Bruce, Thor lets out a chuckle and a generous smile arises on Steve's lips. Even the Hulk seems to grin with amusement.

"We won." My best friend confirms genuinely, resulting in Tony sighing with a mixture of exhaustion and relief.

"All right, yay! Hurray. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I want to try it." The billionaire suggests casually as if nothing happened, it almost sounds like an exaggeration.

"We're not finished yet." Thor refers to Loki who is currently in the Stark Tower, defeated and powerless now.

"And then shawarma after." Tony insists enthusiastically with determination, making us all roll with our eyes.

***

"You've done a great job, gotta admit that. We're gonna keep Loki for now before you, Thor, and him return to Asgard. You are all dismissed." Fury praises us highly, it probably costs him a lot of pride to say that. Before he leaves with the helicarrier the ruins of the Time Square, he turns around and glances at me. "Sorry for your treatment before. The bangles are not necessary anymore."

"That's it?" I scoff when he's gone as the nurse takes care of my wounds. Steve and Bruce look up while they receive medical examination, shooting me a rather expectant glance. "I was unable to use my abilities for over a month and that's all he's got to say? Let's not forget how they treated Bruce."

"I'm used to it." The scientist sadly shrugs and pulls the blanket tighter around him. He's gotten away without a scratch, one of the few advantages of being the Hulk. Thor walks towards us and sits down next to me in the ambulance, Mjölnir loyal by his side.

"I don't think you'll get more from him." Clint smirks and joins us with Natasha, his arm is around the red-haired spy whose head lies on his chest. Steve's face flushes awkwardly pink at the sight of the couple and I just look around, focusing my attention on the destruction in Manhattan. SHIELD tries their best to remove the mess, but it's gonna take more than a night. Most civilians are in the hospital, which is why we have the permission to stay here. God knows how they would react to see us, in their eyes, heroes.

"Well, I still think we shall celebrate our victory with a traditional feast!" Thor booms with joy and the nurse next to me flinches, letting go of my bandaged arm and hurrying away. "But where is the Man of Iron?"

"Heard you called me." Tony appears on cue and I just glance at him with curiosity. What did he see when he was in outer space? "Thor's voice is hard to ignore. Sorry, had to call Pepper, but I agree, let's eat shawarma. It's about time."

I would disagree since we're still wearing our combat suits and are consequently eye-catching, especially Thor with his armor, but we are all tired and hungry hence I just nod agreeing. We follow Tony who knows the way to the shawarma joint that he talked about a few hours ago. It's a miracle that he still recognizes the streets and we quickly arrive at the restaurant that got effected by the destruction.

"Uh, you still open?" Bruce awkwardly asks the waitress, who cleans up the mess and damage with a broom. Her face remains neutral at our appearance, she's probably just done with the whole day.

"Sure, till 2am." The old lady nods assuring and motions us to sit down at the big table.

"But aliens invaded the city." Steve frowns and the waitress just shrugs.

"It's only ten. When the opening hours are till 2am, they are till 2am. Get yourselves the menu cards, I'll come later." She continues to clean and we do as she says, not questioning anything. I sit down between Thor and Steve which clearly turns out as a mistake because I feel like a dwarf between two mountains.

"Oh, I'll definitely take the beef shawarma." Clint exclaims excitedly as he reads through the menu. I just frown at the odd meals, what the hell is even shawarma? The words on the card don't really sound like English. Maybe it's some exotic and foreign meal.

"Order for me, I wanna have a talk with Farrell." Tony suddenly shoots me a look and I raise a brow in the air. He stands up from his hair, expecting me to follow him which I then do. "Chicken shawarma on rock for me, by the way."

"Uh, I'll just take what Steve takes." I tell them, still taken aback and receive Steve's confused look before I'm outside with Tony. A stiff and uncomfortable feeling spreads through my chest, it's just weird for me to be alone with a serious Tony Stark.

"I'll just go straight to the point because I'm freaking hungry." He breaks the silence and his voice lowers almost insecurely. "My father was a dick but couldn't stop talking about you which was damn annoying. You seemed to be important to him. Is that true?"

I didn't expect him to mention Howard, he honestly doesn't look like the kind of guy who talks freely about his feelings. The sorrow in my stomach suddenly feels heavy. "He was my friend and partner. I trusted him. But... I haven't had the courage yet to find out how or when he died, it's harder than I thought. I just can't imagine that the Howard Stark that I knew would let something like age defeat him."

"Car accident. Both died." He explains shortly and I gulp. Tony Stark is an orphan, just like me. We have more in common than I thought and he's not as arrogant as he pretends to be. Now I feel guilty because I judged him without knowing his past that he hides beneath a mask.

"I'm sorry." I mutter and look sympathetically at him, still processing Howard's death. Stark has no family while I have at least Steve. "Tony, I know we didn't have the best start but I don't wanna leave us on these terms. I just want you to know that... you're not alone. You don't have to grieve alone. If you want to talk about Howard, you can come to me, whenever you want."

Tony's eyes land on the ground, avoiding showing any affection towards my words but I know that he's deep down actually thankful. He somehow beams an awful loneliness. "Do you miss him?"

"For me, he was still alive a month ago. Of course, I do." I press my lips together to a smile and inhale deeply. "I miss a lot."

"I've got something for you, that was the actual reason why I wanted to talk to you. The SSR took most of your stuff after your death but since the old man founded SHIELD with Peggy, they were able to get some of your stuff. Over the time, some things were taken to museums or got lost but my father kept a certainly important thing like a treasure. So this belongs to you, even though there's another name written on it."

Tony takes out a silver necklace and my eyes widen at the old object from the army, my hands start trembling. It's Bucky's dog tag, the one he gave me when he proposed to me. I remember that I handed it to Howard before I left for my last mission. Could you keep it for me? I don't want to wear it on this mission, otherwise it's like he would be here too and I'd just drag him into danger again.

"Oh, my God... " I mumble and my eyes suddenly burn, my hand covers my mouth in shock. "How is this even possible..." A relieved laugh escapes my mouth as a tear rolls down my face. Even if Tony laughed at me right now, I wouldn't care. "I- I thought I lost everything... Thanks, God... I thought I lost him forever..."

Tony is quiet for once and just rubs with his hand slightly my shoulder as a friendly gesture. For the first time in this century, I smile genuinely and happily, not caring about the tears at all. I take the necklace, holding it tightly in my hand that is clung into my chest. This is the last part of Bucky, the only piece of him that exists apart from my memories.

"Thank you, Tony."

"No problem, popsicle." He half smiles and nods towards the restaurant. "Now let's go back, I'm starving as hell."

"Wait!" I stop him by grabbing his arm and he pauses, raising a brow in the air. "When- when you were outer space... what did you see? Are you okay?"

He smirks, hiding his pain and fear although his dark eyes and the signs of stress reveal his true feelings. "Nothing you need to act all motherly about, icy."

A/N- And in the end, they ate together as the Avengers shawarma :') I had to include this scene, guys, it's just too brilliant 😂