Everyone has moments where their mind is filled with such anger and contempt and regret that they can't stand to be around others, much less look at themselves in the mirror when they got out of bed every morning. Sadly, by the time morning came around- this was what Tony, Steve and Bucky were feeling as they each sat in the main living room of the tower.

Tony nursing a practically empty bottle of aged scotch and Steve and Bucky nursing fifteen empty bottles and one full bottle of bitter whiskey while Thor stood watch over them since Clint and Natasha were both strangely absent and had missed all of the ruckus the night before.

Bruce had worked on Izuku for a good hour trying to stabilize her condition, and finally once he was sure that he had and she was resting comfortably, he had gone in search of the others to give whichever person had hurt the girl a tongue lashing that would have Miss Potts frozen from the utter shock.

Yet the moment that he stepped into the main living room area where everyone gathered to watch movies and bond, he froze up in the doorway. Any scathing words that he had, quickly died on his tongue as he took one look at the three men and then cast a questioning glance towards Thor who quickly filled him in.

"Friend Tony, felt the need to avenge the lady."

"Oh. So they broke the girl and he broke their faces. Nice, but I don't need any other patients right now." Bruce said as he eyed the two soldiers as he walked over to Tony and casually plucked his scotch from his fingers right along with his shot glass and handed them off to Thor with the order to drink it all.

Thor looked at the shot glass and the bottle and then shrugged and downed them both in one gulp as Tony rasped, "How is she?"

"Pretty good considering how close she came to slowly suffocating to death. Her neck was so raw and swollen that her trachea was closing and she wasn't getting enough air..." He heard a muffled curse and a whimper and cast a glance at the two soldiers before saying, "I had to reopen her air way, but she's stable and resting comfortably now."

"H-How long will she be-"

"In the infirmary? A few days or until the swelling goes down enough for her to breathe normally. Until then if anyone wants to see her and maybe apologize for what happened-" There was no mistaking the bite of anger in his seemingly mild spoken words as Tony caught the faint flicker of brow changing to radioactive green for the briefest moment before he said with a sinister grin, "Now would be great." Tony, Steve and Bucky were up on their feet and practically running for the door before he finished speaking, each of them desperate to escape the room just in case the Hulk decided to come out and beat the hell out of each of them.

Bruce watched them all flee in terror and let out a low chuckle that was a mite to dark to be mistaken for amusement as Thor clapped him on the shoulder and rumbled close to his ear. "Well played my friend."

The smaller man merely shrugged his shoulders at the compliment. Feeling that it was unnecessary. After what had been done to the girl and how they had found her, he had been feeling...strangely protective of her. The other guy was feeling much the same way too otherwise he wouldn't have changed eye color for a second there.

He supposed that it was both his and the big guy's way of letting the others know just how displeased they were with them for this incident.

Natasha and Clint had just returned from some down time outside of the tower and were just stepping off of the elevator when Steve, Tony and Bucky practically shoved them back in in some mad scramble that set off warning bells in their minds. "Quick press the button!" Bucky said as he was shoved into the wall by Tony who yelled out,

"I'm pressing, I'm pressing!"

"Why isn't this damned thing closing?" Steve said before letting out a pained yelp as he was elbowed sharply by Natasha whom turned her head and tilted it back some to glare up at him for invading her personal space.

"Just what is wrong with you three?" Nat demanded with her hands on her hips as the doors finally started to slide shut.

The three men just looked at her and Clint warily for a moment before launching into the whole story of the match, Izuku being moved into the tower in secret, Steve and Bucky attacking and injuring her, Tony, Bruce and Thor finding her nearly suffocated in her room and Bruce treating her wounds while Tony snapped and beat the tar out of the Cap and ol Frosty. Or trying to at least. He might have done the two men more damage if stupid Thor hadn't have pulled him off of them.

And upon finishing the story with Bruce's sort of not too subtle threat of unleashing the big green guy on them and fleeing to the elevator- Natasha and Clint had both pretty much gotten the gist of the situation and both sighed and rubbed either the bridge of their nose or at their temples to stave of the impending headache they could feel coming on.

Idiots. The two assassins thought in disbelief. They go out for one night to unwind and the whole damned team falls apart at the seams and starts attacking young girls and each other. Unbelievable.

Finally Natasha let out a little huff and asked, "And you three are going to the infirmary? To apologize, yes?"

There was a chorus of 'yes's from the three as they looked down at their feet guiltily. Good, Natasha thought. They should feel guilty for a variety of reasons. Not just because of the incident that had taken place earlier, but because the girl was a match to someone in the tower.

Though the program to find the ideal mate or companion for supers had only been in play for about three years, she and Clint knew that if they were ever matched to someone- they would treat them like the rare and precious treasures that they were considering that that person would be theirs.

Their mate. Their companion. Their lifelong friend.

They would be personally taking responsibility for that person. Frankly neither assassin could wait until they were matched with someone. They just hoped that the person that they were matched with had a decent sense of humor. They would have to have one if they were going to live with them in the tower.

Plus Clint was already planning for kids. He'd secretly had a walkin closet in his living quarters converted to a nursery. Complete with furniture, little stuffed animals, a book shelf full of fairy tails and fables and so many Dr. Seuss books that the first time that Natasha had seen them all, she had almost retched from the sheer cuteness of it all.

Not that cute was a bad thing.

After all, she tended to do well with small children and even Banner as long as she was around them for a specific amount of time only per day. She figured that when it came to Clint's hell spawn, she would just be the weird aunt that fed the children candy and cake and ice cream and then gave them back to daddy once they were bouncing off of the walls.

"Good. Clint and I will go with you to make sure that you do so." Nat said as the elevator finally stopped moving and the doors slowly slid open.

"Um, no offense or anything Natasha but I think we can go and apologize to Izuku unsupervised."

"Oh? So you don't really care that the Hulk might still make an appearance and come after you three?" Nat asked in a sly tone that had Tony's teeth on edge as Clint finally pipped in and said cheerfully as he followed Natasha off of the elevator.

"Yeah guys, don't think of this as parental supervision. Think of it as saving your lives."

The three men exchanged a look with each other and sighed. Dammit Clint and Nat both had some very good points. Having them around to witness their apologies to Izuku just might keep them in one piece. "Well you guys, lets go see the lady."

"Yeah." Steve said gloomily followed by a depressed sounding,

"Sure."