Anchor

Clint finally rejoined the team on the street as his teammates looked up at the hole in the sky where Tony disappeared. After hearing what transpired between the billionaire and his sister he jogged to her she as she stared blankly up at the sky.
“Lexi?” In all honestly he didn’t exactly know what to say. “Lexi, I’m so-”
“Please, don’t.” She turned to face him, her facial expression was unreadable. He could usually read his sister like an open book, but not this time. “Just do me a favor?”
“Yeah, sure?” He looked over at Thor and Steve who threw him a worried look.
“Pop my shoulder back into place.” She motioned at her right shoulder without another word. She didn’t want anyone’s sympathy. She just wanted Tony to be okay and as the seconds continued to tick by the less likely he would be. She didn’t want to think it about because she knew if she did… she didn’t want her teammates to see that side of her.
Clint just nodded and slung his bow over his shoulder. He closed the distance between them and stood facing her right side. He placed his left hand on her back and his right on the front of her shoulder. “On three.” She nodded. “One-” Clint pushed her back forward and her shoulder back, popping the bone back into place.
Lex whimpered and crumpled to ground. Clint dropped with her and wrapped his arms around her. This wasn’t from the pain in her arm, he knew that for a fact. They’ve done this plenty of times and never once has she wavered like this. It was her heart that brought her to her knees, but she would never admit that.
“Close it.” Steve said a few feet away. It pained him to make the call, but he had no choice.
Lex’s eyes started to swell with tears she was trying to fight. God, did he even hear her? She hated this. She never opened herself to anyone and now the one time she did, it came back to bite her in the ass, just like it did with Adam. She almost wanted to regret letting Tony in, but she didn’t.
A smirk spread across Steve’s as the portal was closed. As it closed, a red and gold metallic figure fell through, just barely making it out. “Son of a gun…” Steve looked over at the Barton siblings. “Alexis.”
Lex wiped her eyes and looked over at Steve and Thor who had their eyes trained on the sky. She followed their gaze and felt relief swell through her body. She shot up onto her feet walked over to Steve and Thor, Clint not far behind. As Iron Man continued to free fall, Lex and the rest of the Avenger grew concerned with he fact that he wasn’t making any attempt to keep himself from smashing into the ground.
“He’s not slowing down.” Something was wrong. Thor prepared himself to take off into the sky after the falling hero, but was beat to the punch by the Hulk who jumped between buildings to catch him. Hulk slid down the side of a skyscraper with Tony in his arm. Once he was close enough to the street, Hulk launched himself off the building, making sure he created a boundary between Tony and the pavement. The two hit the ground hard and skidded to a holt not far from the grounded heroes. Steve, Thor and the Barton siblings rushed over to their teammates as Hulk tossed Tony to the side.
Once they reached Tony, Thor flipped him over from his stomach to his back. He forcefully pulled the front portion of his helmet off and tossed it aside. Lex went down to her knees next his unmoving body. She checked to see if he was breathing. He wasn’t.
“Tony?” No response. Lex felt herself fighting back tears again. “Goddamnit, Stark!” She slammed her fist down on the arc reactor and rested her forehead on the cold metal. “Please…” She felt Steve place a comforting hand on her shoulder. She sat back on her heals and just stared blankly at Tony’s still form.
As they all stood around Tony, in shock, Hulk let out a chest rubbling roar. It literally made Lex’s heart stop for a second.
Tony gasped and his eyes shot open. Tony could physically see a sigh of relief leave each one of his teammates, except Hulk. He let out another roar that bounced off what was left of New York City’s buildings. “What the hell?” Tony gasped again. “What just happened?”
Tony looked around at the heroes surrounding him. “Please tell me nobody kissed me,” Tony finally made eye contact with Lex. “Well, if it was you i’d be okay with that.” Lex smiled and rested her forehead back on him, wiping her tears that still remained in the corners of her eyes.
Tony placed a hand on Lex’s back and she looked up at him. He noticed her red a puffy eyes as she rubbed at them. “Were you crying? Over me?” He smirked. He was happy she was crying to a certain degree. It took a lot to make her cry and the fact that she cared enough about him to do so made him feel good in a weird sort of way.
“Don’t flatter yourself. Clint just popped my shoulder back into place and it really hurt…” She lied. No matter how much physical pain she was ever in, she never cried. But when it came to emotional pain, noting kept the tears at bay.
“Liar.” His smirk grew bigger as she rolled her eyes.
“We won.” Steve stated, relieved. Tony shared Steve’s relief and laid his head back down on the asphalt with a sigh.
“All right, yay! Hurray. Good, job, guys. Let’s just not come in tomorrow. Let’s take the day off.” Steve smiled and shook his head at the billionaire. Tony just narrowly escaped death and yet here he was, his sense of humor and wit still strong. Tony brought his head back up. “Have you ever tried shawarma? There’s a shawarma join about two blocks from here. I don’t know what it is, but I want to try it.”
“I’m so done with you,” Lex chuckled.
“Oh, we’re just getting started, Sweetheart.” Tony gave her wink and a smiled before turning to face Thor as he spoke.
“We’re not finished yet.” Thor was right. They all followed his gaze to top of the destroyed Stark Tower.
“And then shawarma.” Lex rolled her eyes and smirked once more as she stood. She offered her hand and so did Steve in attempt to help Tony to his feet. The suit was fried, but he could still walk in it. Thor, Steve, Clint, and Hulk started towards the Stark Tower while Lex and Tony fell a little behind.
“Don’t ever do that again.” She stated flatly as she walked beside him, looking forward.
A small smile graced his face as he looked over at her. He looked her over as they walked and was just realizing how beat up she really was. Physically she looked liked hell, he could imagine what she was feeling like emotionally. “I meant what I said back there…”
“I know… so did I.” She finally looked over at him and smiled. They walked the rest of the way in a comfortable silence. As they all made it to the top floor of the Stark Tower, Tony could see the look of misery cross Lex’s face and he knew exactly why.
“I told you it was your baby,” Tony mocked. She gave him a playful shove and walked past the billionaire. They lined up in front of a dazed Loki, Clint taking aim at him, not wanting to take any chances.
As Loki came too, his eyes grew bigger as he realized he was cornered. “If it’s all the same to you, I’ll have that drink now.”
XXX
A few hours later, the team had gotten cleaned up and they all met back up in Central Park. It had been decided that Thor would take Loki and the Tesseract back to Asgard with him. Natasha, Clint, and Lex were heading back to S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters in Washington D.C. to help get things situated after the attack. Bruce decided to take Tony up on his offer and stay at the Stark Tower for a while.
They all bid Thor a farewell as he and Loki disappeared, heading back to Asgard. Steve walked over to Lex and gave her a hug. “Stay in touch, yeah?” He nodded smiling as he headed over to the other side of the car say shake Tony’s hand. Lex grabbed her bag out of the passenger seat and walked over to Tony as Steve left.
Tony looked a her duffle bag and then her. “Do you have to go? The faster we get to work on the Tower the better.”
“They need me, Tony.” She didn’t want to go either, to be honest. She would much rather stay here in New York with Tony and Bruce.
“I need you.” Tony reached over and took her free hand in his, interlocking their fingers. Yeah, sure he was being a bit mushy, but anything to get her to stay. After all that had just happened, he wanted her to be here with him.
“You can survive two weeks without me,” She chuckled as she stepped closer to him, putting her bag on the ground. She leaned up and closed the remaining space between them, pressing her lips to his. Just as Tony started to kiss back, she pulled back. “Two weeks.”
“Two week is a long time.” This time it was Tony who initiated the kiss, but his kiss was much deeper than her’s and took her off guard. He felt her smile and kiss back. She felt her whole body tingle as she completely forgot the world around her. If someone had told her she’d be making out with Tony Stark in the middle of central park just a week ago she would have no doubtedly laughed in their face
Much to her dislike, she was brought back to reality by Steve who shouted, “Get a room!” Lex stuck her middle finger up at the super solider as she pulled away from Tony. This earned a laugh from the rest of the Avengers.
“You’re right, two weeks is a longgg time. Make it one,” Lex smirked as she gave him a quick peck before heading towards her brother and Natasha. Bruce gave her a hug as they crossed paths on his way to Tony.
“Keep a close eye on him for me, will ya?” Lex asked as she let the scientist go.
“Will do.” He gave her a smile as he continued to walk towards Tony. As she made it to Clint and Natasha she threw her bag to Clint.
“I really didn’t need to see that by the way,” He said referring to her and Tony.
“Oh suck it up.” She chuckled and took a seat in the back. Instead of ridding up front with Clint, Natasha decided to sit in the back as well.
As all the S.H.I.E.LD members got settled in the car, Lex looked out of the window, seeing Tony take off with Bruce and Steve taking off on his motorcycle. In a way she was sad to see the team going their separate way, but at the same time, she knew that they would all be together again eventually. Whether it was going to be due to a world threatening problem or not, she didn’t know, but what she did know was that when the world needed them, they would be there, whether it be to defend it or avenge it.

Notes