Blissful Despair ~> Tony Stark

Tony

"Elbow up!" Clint groaned for the fifth time today.

"If only I had a dollar for every time someone told me that." I sassed, and he just rolled his eyes and motioned for me to continue with this endless torture.

"That's enough for today." Nodding at Clint, Steve grabbed my hand and helped me down.

I have been training for the past 3 hours with them, and let me tell you it's not as easy as it looks.

My eyes started jumping around the corners in fear as we walked down the hall in the compound.

"He's not here." Steve and Clint said in unison, and I blushed in embarrassment. I was caught.

"Crap. Is it that obvious?" Frowning, I tilted my head to the side.

They glanced at each other once before nodding at me quickly.

I groaned in aversion, plopping on the brown comfy couch.

"Yeah." Clint shrugged taking a seat next to me.

"Hey, you deserve better." Patting my shoulder slightly, his eyes grew wide when we heard a very familiar voice bounce of the walls of the living room.

"Who deserves better?" And there he was. Tony Stark with all his glory just strolling inside with both his hands stuffed in his pockets, wearing one of his rather very elegant suits.

You would think that after a month of not seeing him, things would start to be easy, but it was far from that. Nothing was easy once my eyes met his. Nothing was easy when I spotted the bags under his eyes, probably depriving himself from sleep. Nothing was easy when I easily recognised the pain in his brown orbs.

And no that wasn't even the worst part. The rest of the team walked in after him, and the once empty room was now filled with whispers and awkward glances from the team to me.

"Nothing." Steve shrugged, unaffected by the awkwardness.

The silence was killing me really. No one has said a word ever since they stepped in the room, and the tension in the room was hard to miss.

Coughing awkwardly, I stole a quick glance at Tony, who had his eyes fixated on me.

Fidgeting with my fingers, I decided to break the silence, but apparently Tony had other plans when he decided to speak first.

"So we were planning on throwing a party next week, Val. Can you make it?" He spoke up so casually that it made my heart hurt.

The mention of my nickname on his tongue stung me, and it pained me to know that what once made me so happy easily turned into something that caused me pain.

Once I registered his question in my mind, I bit my lip in nervousness.

"I can't next week." I spoke the truth.

"Oh, do you have work? That's fine. We can reschedule. We can-"

"No. I'm actually going on a little vacation." I bit the inside of my cheek, knowing that I couldn't keep it a secret any longer.

"Oh." In the few seconds where I watched his face fall in disappointment, I felt my heart break, and I was angry that I felt that way in the first place.

"With who?" Nat jumped in, curiosity jumping in those eyes of her.

"Seth." I gulped, and all their eyes snapped up towards me, including Tony's.

"And my family." I added in hope that they would let it slide but no.

"What do you mean Seth?" Wanda crossed her arms, and it was Natasha's turn next.