Heart Too Cold, but Friends of Gold*Captain America*Avengers*

2) The real problem

It was an early night when you had brought the phone to Tony – now it was after midnight and to say that the Avengers were like kids on their lunch break, loud and trying to shout the other one down, would be an understatement.

"She's not going there alone!" Steve thundered in response to Tony's suggestion, his body language screaming louder than his voice. He was leaned forward towards Tony, who was sitting on his stool, frowning at the blueprints of the building. It was incredible how precisely the call tracing with his tech worked.

"They asked her to do so, we can't exactly walk in, all geared up, including the other guy," Bruce noted, admirably calmly given the mess the lab was.

"I don't give a damn! There's a maniac who kidnapped her parents and knows very intimate things about her. There's no way-"

"Well, maybe you should have been more careful with your PDA-" Tony hummed.

"I'm being careful!"

"Is that really relevant now? We can talk about that later. If you look at the blueprints, you can predict the positions of the guards. And she can-" Natasha started, immediately rejected.

"You can't be serious-!"

"-she can take them down, Cap," Clint finished Natasha's thought. He was another rather stoic figure in the room. Yet, he spoke in loud voice to make sure he would be heard even over some protests.

"It's not gonna be easy, sure. But-"

"Technically, I can send the legion with her. They aren't really teammates. Boom, no condition broken."

"Talk about being literal."

"This guy seems insane enough to be a perfectionist. I'm sure he would appreciate it," Tony grinned, playing with a pen in his hand.

"This isn't funny, Tony. We can't afford any mistake. One wrong move to set this guy off-" Steve started and Tony shot him a confused glare.

"I'm sorry, which side you're on now? You don't want her to go alone, but you want her to go alone...?"

Steve inhaled sharply, his nostrils flaring. His hands curled up into fists. He was ready to scold the billionaire again, but he never got to it.

A new voice joined the discussion, interrupting. Yours.

"That's enough!" you shouted, making everyone's head snap at you in surprise. Clint and Bruce actually blinked, shocked. Natasha smirked as if she was saying 'about damn time'. Steve looked at you with a mixture of compassion and guilt for neglecting your presence. And Tony... well. Tony raised his eyebrow. You lowered your voice – strangely enough, it was easier to detect the tremble in it like that, which was a bit impractical. "That's enough. I'm right here..."

"Care to share your opinion?" Natasha nudged slightly before returning her gaze to the blueprints.

You gulped as you felt everyone else's eyes on you. You opened your mouth uselessly, trying to marshal your thoughts as they kept buzzing and changing any other second.

"We can't afford him to think I'm not alone, it's too much of a risk," you began, already seeing Steve taking a breath to oppose you. You raised your index finger to shush him. "I can't go alone. Not completely. I'm not... I just can't do this alone."

Your voice trailed off as the icy fist of fear squeezed your stomach.

How could even you be able to do that? Save someone on your own? Your own parents of all people? You couldn't afford to— you mustn't fail. But you were not strong enough. You could feel your hands shaking, tears gathering in your eyes at the thought of going there and losing them.