Meanwhile~ Avengers Tower. DONK DONK.
One phenomenon that Tony would never quite understand was how exponentially more hysterical the halls of the Stark offices could get when they were just treading on the line of dangerously understaffed. Any less, and the building would seem deserted, whole sections abandoned and eerily quiet, bodies coming together from departments that never naturally touched just for the interaction, checking code and checking accounts on the same cafeteria table and loathe to venture out of the populated pockets. Any more, and it became more and more a regular workday, no matter how much of world outside their windows crumbled, the workload all appropriately dispersed. It was right on the line, when everyone was spread too thin, when assistants didn't show up because they thought they'd spend their last days alive in the Apocalypse with their families instead of fetching coffee for people they hated. That was hysteria. Anxiety, thrumming through those halls that could be dead quiet if twenty, even ten more people had stayed home.
More troubling, Tony realized, was that this happened often enough that Tony could recognize it as a phenomenon. That was far too much worldwide peril for one lifespan. But he felt it, digging between his shoulder blades, and deep in his chest. Always in his chest. Even in the sanctuary of a clean white lab, even in the sanctuary of his fifth finger of whiskey, he could feel that thrum.
His jacket left hanging in his office, his shirtsleeves rolled to his elbows and his tie long abandoned under the pressure. There was no one around to blow off some steam on for asking him when he would be back even as he strode away. All Tony really knew was, there shouldn't have been anyone in the penthouse, and maybe he could find a little relief there. The Avengers didn't converge and stew and let their anxiety fester, they were out there making sure people were safe. He could be in here, catching his breath, ignoring his regret.
There was sound in the common room. "JARVIS--" Tony started, lingering in the penthouse entrance, hand hooked around the back of his neck where he knew he would never massage the knots out.
"Master Barton is on this level, sir. Status: Active. There are no other Active Avengers on the premises," JARVIS filled in for him before he had to ask. That didn't make the news any less troubling. As if Tony didn't feel like he was about to explode without this.
"Hawkeye." It was drawled, Tony at the entrance to the common room, his body loose and casual as ever but the frown a deep line between his eyebrows and his gaze a steely glare. "Is there not enough people in need to hold your attention, or are you just frightened? Because we could try shooting off one of your toes, I hear that used to get you taken off duty," he offered. Not that Tony needed much of an excuse to try it anyway right at that moment.