𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒅𝒐𝒐𝒓 ✘ 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐀 𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐅𝐅

{3⁵} {BROKEN STRINGS}

"Oh this is gonna be beautiful," Rhodey slurred lowly, cut off at the end by Stark's voice.

"Clint, you've had a tough week, we won't hold it against you if you can't get it up." Roxi ignored the double meaning behind the statement and leant back against the couch, her eyes watching carefully to see what would happen. Everyone else chuckled as Clint stopped next to the hammer, facing Thor to provide an excuse.

"You know I've seen this before, right?" He asked, before trying to the lift the hammer, straining to pull it off the table, but inevitably failing. He let out a chuckle once he realised he wasn't getting anywhere and let go of the handle, the laugh trailing off into speech.

"I still don't know how you do it," he summarised quickly.

"You smell the silent judgement?" Stark asked, a slight smirk on his face.

"Stark, by all means," Clint offered, putting a hand out in gesture as he went back to sit down. Tony stood up, looking completely confident that he'd be able to lift the god's hammer. Various greeting met his actions, including an 'okay' from Natasha and an 'uh-huh' from Rhodey.

"Never one to shrink from an honest challenge," Tony proclaimed loudly, obviously also having had a fair bit of alcohol, and in his normal spirit enough to be overly confident and still determined to make references or innuendos wherever he could. Drunk Tony was not a Tony that Roxi would ever get on with. 

"It's physics," he proclaimed, wrapping his hand around the handle, using the trap to secure it. 

"Right, so; if I lift it, I will then rule Asgard?" He asked, as if checking. Thor nodded slightly, replying wit ha simple,

"Yes, of course."

"I will be reinstituting Prima Nocta," Tony informed them, making Roxi roll her eyes as he got a better grip on the handle. Of course he would so something like that with that sort of power. He put one foot on the table and attempted to pull it up, immediately failing, just as Clint had. He didn't give up quite so easily though, holding up a hand to stop any of them from commenting, with a quick

"Be right back." And he was, this time with his Iron Man glove, firing up the thrusters in an attempt to use 'physics' to lift the enchanted hammer. It didn't change the results, so he roped Rhodey in to help him, each with their own suit's mechanical gloves on. 

"Are you even pulling?" Rhodey asked as both gloves' ignition lit up brighter and brighter, Tony's flickering golden, his a dancing blue. 

"Aren't you on my team?" Stark asked, in the same position as he had tried the first time, to equal results.

"Just represent! Pull!" Rhodey insisted, deliberately not looking into the crows of Avengers, instead just over their heads. 

"Alright, let's go," Tony agreed. However much teamwork they tried, the hammer didn't budge. It didn't move for Bruce either, who let out a loud yell as he tried to lift it, carrying on for a moment after he let go, his hands up in the air as if her were impersonating his own alter-ego. He was met with generally bemused and slightly confused faces, while Roxi scrunched her brow slightly and Natasha smiled apologetically. Roxi wasn't sure why he'd done that, but it didn't matter in the long term, because Steve was up next. He didn't look like he was expecting anything at all to happen. In a small way, she was rooting for him, which was why she was slightly disappointed when nothing had happened. But maybe, if she'd been paying more attention and wasn't focusing as much on her feelings at that moment in time, just maybe, she'd have noticed the hammer moving, even if it were ever so slightly. 

"Nothing," Steve said, not sounding disappointed or discouraged at all, laughing along with the rest of them, especially Thor, who let out a rather relieved laugh that Roxi couldn't place in that moment.