#I think I’m wise but I’m really a birdbrain

[robininthelabyrinth]

Nie Huaisang is the cutest thing monsters have ever seen, they can be yao dragons or giant turtles one look at nhs and they want to feed hug or kidnapt him nmj trainning involved recovering his baby brother from every monsters nest around qinge

ao3

“I’m sorry,” Nie Mingjue said, his teeth gritted together and his arms shaking from the strain of holding Baxia up. “He’s mine.”

The massive tiger glared down at him over Baxia’s blade, currently stuck in its teeth, and growled something.

“I know,” Nie Mingjue said. His legs were shaking now, too. “I know, trust me, I know! I’m human, he’s – young, yes, yes, I know. But he’s my little brother! I’m not giving him up!”

The tiger spat out the blade, knocking Nie Mingjue backwards on his ass.

“And when you change your mind?” the tiger demanded. “Will you abandon him then?”

“No!” Nie Mingjue exclaimed. “Never! He’s my brother!”

“Mark your words,” the tiger said ominously. “Or else.”

It turned and stalked off, its tail waving arrogantly in the air, until its towering white form disappeared into the distance.

Nie Mingjue sighed in relief. “Huaisang?” he called, and a small head popped out of the nest the tiger had started building, blinking owlishly at him. “Come on, come to da-ge. It’s time to go home.”

“But Master Tiger said we were going to play…”

“Yes, well, he wanted to play for too long,” Nie Mingjue said. “Only a few centuries, give or take. Let’s go.”

-

It started back when Nie Huaisang was born.

No, more accurately, it started when Nie Mingjue’s father fell in love with someone he probably oughtn’t have, which according to the sect was not a terribly uncommon problem for him to have, and decided to bring home a bride.

Nie Mingjue could still remember the first time he’d seen the Second Madame Nie. They’d all been lined up to greet her, all the sect and close members of the clan in rows according to rank, Nie Mingjue fidgeting in the inside of the house proper in his first tangle with formal clothing outside of the discussion conferences. She had come sweeping in with her head held as high as a princess, seductive and bewitching.

Every movement had been perfect, the eyes of all the men fogging over in lust and the women in admiration – or visa versa, depending on their personal preferences – and a wicked smile had lit up her face when she had stepped across the threshold, officially becoming the sect leader’s wife, and maybe everything would have gone along with whatever plan she’d had back then if she hadn’t next seen him.

“Oh, look at you,” she exclaimed, rushing over to pinch Nie Mingjue’s cheeks between her hands. “What a delectable little morsel you are!”

“Uh,” Nie Mingjue said, staring up at her with big round somewhat-worried eyes.

“You charming little dumpling,” she said. “You adorable mouthful of meat! Spoonful of egg yolk!”

Nie Mingjue cast his eyes around to see if anyone would be willing to help him.

“My eldest son,” Nie Mingjue’s father said, not without pride – albeit perhaps a puzzled sort of pride. “He’s probably just about old enough to come to the forecourt, if you don’t want him to live with you –”

“Oh no,” she said. “He’s definitely living with me.”

And so she stayed, and Nie Mingjue stayed with her, and she doted on him in a way he found pleasant if mildly disconcerting. Within a year, she was pregnant, and irritated with it; six months after that, she was round and complaining, even though Nie Mingjue solemnly assured her that she was as beautiful as ever.

“This is your fault, you know,” she told him, and he blinked at her. “It is! Don’t get me wrong, your father’s a charming bull when he wants to be, and of course he fucks like a champion stud, but I stayed here for you, my little cabbage roll, my charming chunk of liver.”

She patted her belly.

“That means this here is all because of you. So you’d better take responsibility!”

Nie Mingjue considered the issue for a little. The argument seemed plausible, so he raised his hands and put them on her rounded stomach. “I will take care and watch over him for all my life,” he vowed, and the baby inside kicked his hand in response, sealing the pact.

“Oh you are so cute,” she said, pressing her hands to her cheeks. “My darling pork bun! My little fish cake! I could eat you right up, if only you were just a little bit older!”

When Nie Huaisang was born, she disappeared in a welter of blood, but Nie Mingjue’s oath remained.

The trouble started after that.

-

“You can’t raise a cub like that properly,” the winged lion argued, bating its wings as if that would help it make its point better.

Nie Mingjue glared at him. “Watch me!”

“It’s for your own good, little human. He needs his own kind –”

“I’m not listening to a treasure-seeker!”

The lion scowled at him. “I’ll have you know that most humans think I’m good luck!”

“You’re not trying to steal most humans’ little brothers, are you?!”

The winged lion sighed, a deep sound, so very noble and long-suffering that Nie Mingjue couldn’t resist the urge to lift his foot and kick the lion right in the paw.

“Brat!”

“Don’t care!” he shouted. “You leave my brother alone! He’s my responsibility, not yours! Piss off!”

“You can’t even feed him properly -”

“I’ll figure it out!” Nie Mingjue bared his teeth and wished he was old enough for a saber.

“You little…fine. Fine! I’ll bring you a book on how to feed a huli jing kit, and you keep to it, you hear me?”

“I will,” Nie Mingjue said. “But don’t you even think of taking him away!”

“On your own head be it,” the winged lion grumbled. “Not everyone’s as understanding as me.”

-

“Why are you wet?” Nie Mingjue’s father asked him.

“Water monkeys,” Nie Mingjue said shortly. “There was a nest.”

“Water monkeys? Don’t they normally stay away from people…? Or, I suppose, were these ones feral?”

“Thieves.”

“Ah. Well, nothing to be done about it, I suppose…bad luck for you to run into them here, of all places. But good experience! How many people your age can say that they fought water monkeys?”

“Can we go home?” Nie Mingjue asked, a little plaintively, and rubbed his nose. “How much can you really have to say to the Jiang sect, anyway?”

His father chuckled. “More than either of us would like, unfortunately. But if you’ve had enough of water, which no one can blame you for, maybe you and Huaisang can go shopping in the pier instead?”

That would work, Nie Mingjue thought, and nodded happily.

(Sect Leader Jiang was extremely embarrassed about the ghostly rats in the night-market – he claimed they’d never seen neither nose nor tail of them before the Nie brothers had accidentally tripped over their trap and had to flee from the swarm...)

-

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Nie-er-gongzi,” the white-clad cultivator from the mountain said, smiling broadly and saluting deeply.

Xiao Xingchen had made himself famous during his first half-dozen night-hunts alone for his extraordinary grace, bearing and strength, and he said he was on a mission to help the world. He was beautiful, virtuous, and matched each ideal of gentlemanly arts.

Sects throughout the cultivation world were drooling at the thought of enticing him to join them, fighting for the opportunity to put in a good word with him.

Not all sects.

Nie Mingjue stepped forward, purposely putting Nie Huaisang behind him.

“Don’t you even think about it,” he said, hand on the hilt of his saber. “Buzz off, birdbrain.”

Xiao Xingchen might wear white, but Nie Mingjue knew a zhuque chick when he saw one.

-

“I found something for my aviary, da-ge!” Nie Huaisang, seven years old and delighted with his clumsy autonomy, announced.

Nie Mingjue, less than a full year into his new role as sect leader, rubbed his eyes. “Oh?” he asked, only somewhat wanting to scream endlessly into the void, which was better than usual. “That’s nice, Huaisang…”

“Come look! It’s so pretty!”

“I’m a bit busy –”

“But da-ge!”

Nie Mingjue sighed and got up, following Nie Huaisang to the door only to come to a complete stop.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” he said to the fenghuang currently pretending to be a rooster in a cage, as if anyone would actually mistake phoenix flames for regular feathers. “Do you have no dignity left?!”

-

“You can’t adopt the bashe,” Nie Mingjue said to Nie Huaisang, who pouted. “It eats elephants; we’d be broke within three months.”

He turned to the giant python.

“You can’t adopt Huaisang,” he said. “I will literally murder you.”

-

“Why can’t I go watch the eclipse?” Nie Huaisang complained. “Everyone else is going!”

“I’m not risking a tiangou.”

“The…dog that eats the sun? Really, da-ge, is that even real?”

“You know what,” Nie Mingjue said, “you’re grounded just for saying that.”

Nie Huaisang grinned.

-

“Maybe I want to go and live among the qilin!” Nie Huaisang screamed, fourteen and hormonal about it.

“Well you don’t get a choice!” Nie Mingjue bellowed back.

“You’re not my father! I don’t have to listen to what you say!”

“I’m your fucking sect leader and yes you do!”

“I hate you!”

“I don’t care if you hate me! You still aren’t going to go live in a field with some magic pointy deer and that’s final!”

The qilin herd wisely chose to withdraw.

-

“Da-ge,” Jin Guangyao hissed, and Nie Mingjue looked up from his work at him – he hadn’t heard Meng Yao this upset since he’d shoved him into a closet to get him out of way during the whole dangkang boar hunt debacle. “Da-ge, there’s a dragon outside.”

“Again?” Nie Mingjue said, standing up to stretch and feeling oddly unbalanced. They’d just finished another session with the song of Clarity, so he really shouldn’t be feeling like this; he would need to write to Lan Xichen again about his fears that the treatment really wasn’t working. Lan Xichen would probably only say to give it more time, another chance, but still… “Let me go talk to them. Dragons are the worst.”

“No, da-ge, you don’t understand,” Jin Guangyao said. “It’s not a water-serpent or – or even a jiaolong – it’s a dragon.”

“A flood-dragon is a type of dragon,” Nie Mingjue said, following Jin Guangyao outside. “You know that, it’s in the name, what’s the big – oh, I see. It’s a celestial dragon.”

Jin Guangyao glared at him with an expression suggesting that he was under-reacting, but Nie Mingjue really didn’t have the capacity in him to reach with appropriate fervor at the moment. He and Nie Huaisang had been fighting a lot recently, every little thing escalating into a giant argument, and he was no longer sure if he was doing the right thing in trying to force Nie Huaisang onto the path of his ancestors. After all, unlike Nie Mingjue, Nie Huaisang had – somewhat different ancestors, on his maternal side.

And, he supposed, Nie Huaisang was old enough to decide otherwise, if he truly wished…

Still, Nie Mingjue was as stubborn as a mule and had no intention of giving up his baby brother without a fight, so he braced himself and went over to the frankly massive creature draped over the entrance gateway and much of the training yard that the entirety of the Nie sect was doing its utmost best to pretend that they weren’t seeing.

Nie Huaisang was sitting on the thing’s five claws – an imperial celestial dragon, apparently – because of course he was.

“Excuse me,” Nie Mingjue called up to the dragon, which turned its head to regard him, an entire production that took nearly a quarter ké to accomplish. “The brat there is mine, please return him.”

“Da-ge!” Jin Guangyao hissed again, but Nie Mingjue waved him away.

“You have raised him well,” the dragon said, which was…a good deal nicer than most of these interactions usually went.

“…thanks?” Nie Mingjue said suspiciously, ignoring Jin Guangyao’s splutters of “It talks?!” “I think?”

“I have chosen to grant you a boon,” the dragon announced.

“…right,” Nie Mingjue said. “If this ‘boon’ is that you’ll take him off my hands, I’m afraid I’m going to have to refuse. He may be trouble, but he’s still my brother.”

“Da-ge!” Nie Huaisang exclaimed, indignant. “Don’t be rude. I asked him for this!”

Nie Mingjue frowned at him, unable to resist the feeling of hurt even though he’d already told himself to expect something like this. “…you want to leave?”

“No, da-ge, don’t be ridiculous. I asked him to improve your health!”

Ah.

“Huaisang –” he started to say.

“Don’t you ‘Huaisang’ me!” his little brother shouted. “I know you’re trying to hide it, but it’s getting worse, isn’t it? San-ge told me so! He said I should get ready!”

Nie Mingjue made a mental note to strangle Jin Guangyao, who had no right to say something like that to Nie Huaisang even if maybe it wasn’t the worst idea in the world to emotionally prepare Nie Huaisang for the upcoming bereavement and inheritance he would need to face.

“Anyway, he said to get ready, so I did!”

“You can’t just ask a divine dragon to fix me, Huaisang. That’s not how this works.”

“Uh, it totally does, and I did, and he agreed. So there!”

Nie Mingjue crossed his arms and glared. “And what did he want in return?”

“The boon is a reward for your past merit, not a trade for the deeds of the future,” the dragon said, not even slightly hiding how its whiskers were shaking with suppressed laughter. “You have travelled a difficult road, and borne the weight of it well. And besides…”

“Besides?”

“If you were to die, he would undoubtedly petition the creatures of the underworld to return you.”

“Well, fuck,” Nie Mingjue said, having not considered that. “Fine. Whatever. Heal me and I’ll try to keep an eye on my health going forward.”

Maybe more Clarity? He could try to free up his schedule, get in a few more sessions…

“I just give up,” Jin Guangyao said behind him. “I just fucking give up.”

Nie Mingjue, assuming that he was talking about Nie Huaisang’s nonsense, agreed whole-heartedly.

[wiypt-writes]

Stark Spangled Banner

Ch35: Not A Perfect Soldier, But A Good Man.

Summary: Almost twelve moths post the vents in Siberia, the four friends are reunited with two familiar faces. Presented with an opportunity that they find too good to turn down, they find themselves back running missions off radar, one of which takes Steve to a dark place within himself, where he finds himself compromising his moral code. 

And then his phone rings…

Warnings: Bad language, Smut! (NSFW, Under 18s) Bad Language words. Mentions of rape/sexual assault.

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

A/N: Wonderful edit again from @angrybirdcr. And make sure you check out the related one shot- Vanilla, which takes place during this timeframe.

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction and classified as 18+. Please respect this and do not read if you are underage. I do not own any characters in this series bar Katie Stark and the other OCs. By reading beyond this point you understand and accept the terms of this disclaimer.

Chapter 34

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist // Main Masterlist

June 2017

“Well as far as birthdays on the run go guys, this one’s been the best one I’ve ever had!” Katie grinned as they climbed out of their 4x4 at the Safe house.

Steve and Sam exchanged a look over the roof of the car.

“What?” Katie asked, innocently.

“I can’t tell if that was sarcasm or…” Sam looked at Steve before he turned back to Katie pushing his sunglasses up onto the top of his head. “No, honestly guys I’ve had a great morning.” She smiled at them. “Breakfast was amazing, it was a nice walk round the castle, the sun is out and now we have a BBQ to get fired up!”

It was almost a year now since they’d been on the run. After a brief few months apart where Katie and Steve had been in Wakanda, Sam had been flitting round a few old friends and Wanda had been travelling with Vision, they had all reunited at the end of May, Wanda bringing with her some rather interesting news.

“I did find some stuff out.

Apparently Tony hasn’t spoken to Ross properly in months. When you guys broke out the raft, Ross called him for help and he put him on hold for hours.” Katie looked at Steve, both of them sharing a grin.

“It didn’t go down well. They had a huge bust up and apparently Tony told him to err, and I quote ‘go fuck himself’.” Wanda said, smiling slightly. Steve snorted as she continued. “Said he didn’t answer to SHIELD, the Government or anyone else.”

A pang of affection and guilt hit Katie’s chest. Even after everything her brother was still watching her back. She looked down at her food and blinked, the tears threatening to fall out of her eyes.

“He’s err, he and Pepper, they’re getting married.” Wanda hesitated and Katie took a deep breath.

“Wow, he finally did it.” She whispered, not looking up as she pushed a piece of carrot round her plate, swallowing thickly. “That’s…”

“How’s Rhodes?” Sam asked, changing the subject swiftly and Steve gave him a look of thanks across the table, as he gently reached over and wrapped his hand around the back of Katie’ s neck, giving it a gentle squeeze of affection before his thumb gently began to trace shapes on the soft skin just beneath her hair line. She looked at him and smiled. 

“I’m okay.” She assured him “Honestly.”

Steve kept his hand were it was nonetheless as Wanda continued talking.

“Rhodey is good, the braces he has mean he can walk.” At that Sam looked down, Steve glanced at him. He knew he felt guilty about what had happened.

“And that’s it really.” Wanda shrugged. “Nothing else to report.”

“Glad to hear everyone’s doing good.” Katie nodded. “So you want to see Vision again?”

“I know it might seem odd, or even dangerous.” Wanda mused, “And we’re still at odds over the Sokovia Accords, but yeah, I do.” “Odds?” Steve asked. “What do you mean?”

“Well, he still seems to think that the Accords were right. So, we’ve kind of just agreed not to talk about them. But, even with that, well I just can’t be without him.”

“We love who we love.” Steve said wisely, “If we’re lucky they share our feelings as well as our lives.”

“Like you two you mean?” Sam snorted looking at Steve and Katie “You two are so in tune, sometimes I think you’re actually reading each, others minds.” “How do you know we’re not?” Katie grinned and Sam rolled his eyes.

“Like I said, lucky.” Steve shrugged, pressing a kiss to the side of Katie’s head as he moved his arm from around the back of her and carried on with his food.

“No one should keep you from him if that’s how you feel.” Katie looked at Wanda. “That’s the last thing we would ever want.”

“Yeah you go ahead.” Sam snarked, pulling Katie’s attention back to the here and now. “We’ll grab the bags, don’t worry about it.” “Thanks Sam, you’re a darling.” Katie grinned over her shoulder.

Sam sighed and shook his head. “A fucking liberty, that’s what this is! You wanna remind her of those ground rules, Steve.”

“You remind her.” Steve shot back as they watched the two women head unlock the door to the house.

“You scared of your Missus, Pal?”

“Yes.” Steve said simply and Sam laughed, before he turned and opened the trunk of the car. 

In the house, Katie walked through the small porch and into the living room and immediately stilled. There was something wrong, something she couldn’t put her finger on. Holding an arm out to Wanda she stopped the younger girl and looked at her. Understanding straight away, Wanda’s familiar red tendrils began glowing from her hands. As Katie looked around, unable to shake the feeling that someone or something was there, her eyes fell on a bottle on the coffee table, a bottle that hadn’t been there when they left this morning.

Beluga gold line vodka.

Katie felt her lips curve into a smile “You can come out now.” She stated simply, not bothering to turn round. “You know, I thought spies were supposed to be subtle.”

“Who says I was trying to be?” A familiar voice drawled, causing Wanda to spin round, her mouth falling open in surprise as Natasha stepped out of the smaller living room at the far side of the house.  

Katie turned and looked her friend over. “That why you cut all your hair off and dyed it blonde?”

“Changes is as good as the next.” Nat smirked.

“Good to see you Widow.” Katie beamed, striding over to her and pulling her into a hug.

“You too.” Natasha smiled, squeezing her back. “Happy birthday, Nova.”

Katie released her and Nat turned to Wanda, wrapping her up in a hug too. “I’m telling you man.” Sam’s voice filled the room as he and Steve walked into the house each carrying bags of groceries and snacks for their BBQ “She was putty in my hands. If he hadn’t turned up I’d have-MOTHER FUCKER!” He yelled, dropping the bags he was carrying as he spotted Natasha.

“Nice to see you too, Birdbrain.” She smiled before her face turned to Steve “Rogers.” “Nat?” He blinked in surprise, setting the bags he was carrying down a little more gently than Sam. “Dare I ask how you knew where to find us?” The corner of his mouth quirked up in a small, amused smile “Fury.” She shrugged. “Finished the loose ends I needed to tie up and had to make a swift exit, so he told me where you were. Thought I’d come and see how you were all getting along.” “We’re just peachy.” Sam smiled as he stepped forward opening his arms, “Come on not-so-red-anymore, bring it in.” She gave a huff and then stepped into his arms before she turned to Steve who smiled at her as he pulled her into a huge bear hug.

“I like this.” She leaned back, pulling at his beard and he jerked his head way out of her reach, arching an eyebrow at her. What was it with people and thinking they could just touch his face now he had a beard? That was something reserved for his wife and his wife only. Katie laughed, noticing his irritation as Natasha continued. “Hardly recognised you.” “Well that is the point.” He rolled his eyes.

“Are you sticking around?” Sam asked.

“Well I got nothing else to do.” Nat shrugged. Katie and Steve exchanged a grin, her blasé tone didn’t fool them. She looked tired and slightly shaken, so whatever mission she’d been working on had clearly been tough.

“Well in that case…” Katie picked up the bottle of vodka that was on the table. “How about we crack this open whilst the boys get the grill going?”

A couple of hours later they were full of BBQ meat, salads, potatoes, vodka, beer and juicy information. Whilst Natasha didn’t tell them much about what she had been up to in Russia, she did fill them in on what SHIELD was doing. 

“They’re calling themselves the ‘In-Human Resistance’.” Natasha explained as she showed them a few photos of the growing Vigilante group on a tablet, a group that seemed to be fast gaining traction in America. “They staged an attack in LA and Miami recently. Both at the same time, co-ordinated.”

“They’re fighting registration with the Sokovia Accords?” Steve asked, taking a pull from his bottle of beer.

Natasha nodded.

“Those damned accords have already caused more trouble than they’re ever gonna solve.” Sam said shaking his head. “First the ‘Watchdogs’ emerge to fight In-Humans, now this group emerge to fight them back.”

“This was always going to happen. SHIELD monitored Enhanced beings and In-humans.”  Katie shrugged. “And it worked without the need for any stupid laws.”

”Yeah, so now the plan is that SHIELD are going to go legit. Come out into the open again.”

At that Katie raised her eyebrows. “And Coulson?” “No.” Natasha said, “Coulson will be in the shadows, the public director is going to be a bloke called Jeffrey Mace. He seems a decent guy.” “You know him?” Katie asked.

“Met him briefly. He was at the Accord signings in Vienna as a journalist would you believe it?” “Well he will know how to work the PR angle.” Wanda spoke for the first time in a while and Katie looked at her. She was pushing a piece of potato round on her plate, absentmindedly, no doubt wondering what would happen to her if she ever was caught with all the new rules and hatred being pushed out towards Enhanced or In-humans.

“They’re calling him Patriot.” Natasha said, and she looked at Steve, smirking slightly “Brooklyn boy, just like you Cap. Volunteered for some experiment that would give him super human strength in the wake of the Vienna bombing.” Steve let out a groan “Have SHIELD not learnt anything?”

“You had a lucky escape.” Nat quipped “If you hadn’t been on the run, they’d have been asking you to lead them from the front. Coulson wanted an enhanced person to run in the public eye, drum up support, show the world that they’re not to be feared.” “Nothing more than bullshit, political games.” Sam scoffed, and Natasha raised her eyebrows in agreement.

“Which we, thankfully, are well out of.” Steve leaned back, although Katie could see the nerve ticking in his jaw.

“Are you? Thankful, I mean?” Nat asked and Steve looked at her, frowning. “You not missing being in the thick of it at all?” He didn’t answer. If truth be told he couldn’t, not really. Some days he missed the action, missed having a job to do as such. Whilst he’d helped out occasionally for a bit for cash at the harbour, casual labour and muscle when they needed it, it wasn’t nearly challenging enough.

“What are you saying Nat?” Katie asked. Natasha sighed and leaned back.

“Fury isn’t working as part of SHIELD at the moment, not directly anyway.” She looked at her. “He’s running a few jobs off radar. At the moment he’s currently tracking a few old arms dealers that seem to be back trading old SHIELD and Chitauri stuff. Turns out in the wake of the Avengers being disbanded they all started getting brave again.” “Who’d have thought it?” Katie snorted sarcastically as she chewed at her lip. Steve and her had held this very conversation in Wakanda, wondering how long it would be before the groups they had all but eradicated emerged again in the wake of their split.

“So is that why you’re here?” Steve eyed her suspiciously “Fury wants you to recruit us?” “No.” Nat shook her head, before she smiled at Steve. “He’s going to do that himself when he drops by tomorrow.”

*****

"Why don’t you ask one of the ‘registered heroes’ for help?” Steve raised his eyebrows at Fury as the man finished explaining what he wanted the group to work on.

Fury scoffed. “Whilst SHIELD is of course, in full cooperation with the Accords, this case isn’t exactly on their radar right now.”

“What you mean is, that if it becomes public knowledge that more Chitauri and SHIELD weapons are emerging it will damage what little reputation SHIELD have managed to claw back.” Katie folded her arms. “Because they shouldn’t have ever let it get to this because you should have gotten rid of it all in the first place.”

“Look, Nova.” Fury was quick to reply. "I don’t like this any more than you do, and yes, in hindsight there are a lot of things that SHIELD should have destroyed or shut down back in the day, but I wasn’t the only one making those calls. Pierce had a lot of sway.”

“So effectively you want us to protect SHIELD’s reputation?” Steve raised an eyebrow.

“Why should we do that?” Wanda asked, looking at Fury “Where were you when we needed you?”

“She has a point.” Sam looked at Fury “I mean, I don’t remember SHIELD jumping to our defence after we risked everything to get to Siberia.”

Fury looked at Steve who simply raised his eyebrows. Both he and Katie agreed with Sam, they had expected at least some help from the Director but it never came. 

Or so they thought.

“Just who do you think it was that leaked to the press exactly what went down between you all?” Fury asked, leaning back in his chair. Katie felt her mouth curl up in a smile.

“That was you? Huh, I assumed it was Murdock.” “Well to assume makes an ass of you and me.” Fury quipped, looking at her. “Furthermore, thanks to me there’s currently a group of bounty-hunters sweating their asses off looking for you all in Cairo.”

Steve and Katie exchanged glances before they looked at Sam then Wanda.

“And I’ll continue to help leave false trails as I still believe in you all.” Fury looked at them each in turn “The Accords, this entire situation, yes, it’s a mess but I’m still hoping you guys care enough to want to keep fighting the good fight.”

Katie glanced at Natasha who had remained quiet through the entire discussion. She simply raised an eyebrow and gave a small smile.

“Think about it.” Fury stood up. “Romanoff knows how to contact me. When you’ve made your decision, let me know.”

He headed for the door before he turned back and looked at Katie.

“Oh, and Nova, that final trick you pulled, hacking into the CTU. It worked.”

Katie smiled and gave a small ‘huh’ of laughter and watched the man depart through the same door he’d arrived little over an hour previously.

“Okay, colour me intrigued, what did you hack the UN for?” Natasha looked at Katie and Steve tilted his head as his wife gave a coy smile.

“Technically it was Lawson. When he was digging up the information on the illegal arrests I had him wipe all the records of who accessed their evidence vault when all our gear got broken so Sharron didn’t get into trouble.”

Steve’s mouth quirked up into a small smile as he looked at his wife, once again unable to believe how downright clever she was.

“Wait.” Wanda said, frowning “Why did you do that?” “She’s a Carter.” Katie shrugged as if that was supposed to make sense. And it did to Steve and Natasha but as Sam and Wanda looked at her blankly she took a deep breath and explained “After everything Peggy did in the SSR, founding SHIELD, working with my dad, she deserves for her name and legacy to remain unsullied.”

She locked eyes with Steve who could do nothing but simply look at her, his face soft before he smiled “You really are amazing you know that?”

After an afternoon spent deliberating over Fury’s proposal, Steve told them all to sleep on it and they would make their final decision in the morning, but as he found out at three am, sleep was doing it’s very best to evade him completely.    

“Something on your mind, Soldier?” Katie murmured sleepily as he turned over in bed for what felt like the tenth time in as many minutes. With a sigh he reached out and brushed her hair behind her ear.

“Sorry sweetheart, didn’t mean to wake you.” he said. “I just can’t get what Fury said outta my head.” “And even after I tried my best to make you forget as well.” she quipped and he smiled, leaning over to give her a soft kiss. She gave a soft hmmm of contentment before he pulled away and propped himself up on his elbow

"What do you think we should do?”

“Well, we could ignore it, keep laying low.” she elaborated, with a small yawn “But I know you. And whilst you’ve managed it for a year it hasn’t been easy, and don’t try and pretend you’ve been okay because I know you Steven.” He gave a small snort and looked at her as she continued “And now you know that there’s still stuff to mop up, you’re gonna find it even harder to walk away.”

"I would for you. You know that.”

“But is that what you really want?” she sighed. “Not particularly, no.” he answered honestly. “I want to help but, well, I’m no longer Captain America.”

"Meh, he was an asshole anyway.” she grinned and he gave a snort. “But you ARE Steve Rogers, the, and I quote your best friend here ‘dumbass little blonde punk that couldn’t run away from a fight.” Steve felt himself smile at Bucky’s words. “Long before the serum and the shield, you were standing up for the little guys, for what you thought was right. Okay, you were getting your ass kicked doing it, but still.”

She shrugged and Steve looked down at the silhouette of her face, and he knew she was right. He brought his hand up and with the back of his fingers gently brushed down her right cheek. 

“And you’d be okay with it?” he asked.

“Well, neither of us left the Avengers because we wanted to. So until this blows over…” “If it blows over.” “Steven.” she spoke sternly, and he could tell by the tone of her voice she was glaring at him, even if he couldn’t see her face fully. She was still clinging to some hope that the entire situation would go away, whereas Steve was much more a realist about it all.  “Until this blows over, then, maybe we could, or should keep fighting the good fight. Because that’s what we do best.”

“A band of vigilantes, huh?” He quirked an eyebrow. “Or if we’re getting paid are we mercenaries?”

“Pretty sure mercenaries don’t have ethics behind what they’re doing.” Katie snorted “No, we’ll be, erm, the ‘Nomad Law Enforcers’, NLE for short” she shrugged and he let out a laugh.

As his chuckles died down she gently reached up to stroke his face, his bearded cheek leaning into her touch.

“So, does that mean my new code name is Captain Badass?” He asked, his hand straying down to brush across her bare stomach. “No” She smiled, twitching at the touch “That’s a name only I get to say. Along with Stevie.” “Hate to break it to you, Darlin’ but Buck was calling me Stevie way before you were a twinkle in your pa’s eyes.” he said, his fingers now trailing the inside of her thigh. “Maybe so,” she snaked her arms round his neck and pulling his face down to hers, “but did he ever say it to you like I do, you know, in your ear as I’m about to c-”

“Err no.” he grinned, kissing her on the lips “That one’s all yours, doll.”

“Think you should make me say it now.” she quipped.

“As you wish, ma’am.” he smirked, rolling over on top of her, making her giggle before he cut her off by pressing his lips to hers in a fevered kiss.

The next morning around breakfast they informed the rest of the team what their decision was. Natasha shrugged and said she was in already anyway. Wanda agreed as she had nothing else to do but in the same breath Katie could tell she wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea, so Steve told her that she could dip in and out and didn’t have to do anything she wasn’t happy about. When the only decision left was Sam’s, the man leaned back in his chair with a smirk and nodded. And whilst Steve thought the name Katie had come up with last night for their band of rag-tag heroes was ridiculous, it was ten times better than the offering Sam made.

“The Avengers Secret Society. ASS.” He grinned, draining his coffee mug. “Hell, I’m in. Where do I sign?”

******

Running the missions meant a lot of stealth and covert work, which in turn meant they had to leave the safe house they had called home for over a year for long periods, often months at a time. During those weeks they stayed either in motels or other safe houses which Fury or Natasha had access to in various places across the world as they intercepted various arms trades and took down both buyers and dealers alike. The rest of 2017 past them by in a blur now they were busy. Wanda dipped in and out, choosing sometimes to remain in the safe-house and others she would disappear to meet Vision but always kept them up to date on where she was so they could keep tracks on her. Katie was glad she was getting out and seeing the world, even if she did worry about her from time to time.

As far as lifestyles went, it was tough, hard going, but Katie could see Steve’s sparkle and drive was back in abundance. For the most the missions went without a hitch. Yes, they took knocks, broken noses, cut lips, bust ribs…but it came with the territory, and they all felt good to be back feeling like they were making a difference even if they were doing it unofficially from the shadows. And given that they were indeed vigilantes, they all removed any Avengers symbols from their suits to avoid Tony or the guys back at the compound being dragged into any further political row.

Katie and Natasha ditched their Avenger cat suits entirely, opting for leather cargo pants, jackets and combat vests whilst Sam acquired a new upper body suit for his now battered but sill functional wings. Steve had ripped the star on his uniform from his chest, which was down to a combination of wanting to stay off radar but also because of the fact that he simply wasn’t Captain America anymore, and therefore wasn’t comfortable bearing his insignia. It just didn’t feel right to be operating wearing the symbols once used when they were part of their old team. They were a painful reminder of just what it was that had brought them to this moment, how much they had lost and given up because they were not the Avengers anymore. And this also reflected in the way they operated. They were a lot less sympathetic with their fighting style and they did what they needed to do to get the job done, no more, no less- “Whatever it takes…” as Steve put it. And whilst the Captain still did his best to keep the casualties and fatalities to the minimum, that went completely out of the window one February morning in Jordan. 

They were tracking a suspected group of ex- Hydra stragglers that were, according to Fury’s intelligence, operating a lab with the aim of using a piece of SHIELD technology to manufacture weapons. They’d staked the place out over the last three days or so, and from what they could gather it was a pretty amateur operation all in all, so they didn’t meet much resistance when they stormed the place. Sam and Natasha took one side of the building, Steve and Katie the other. It didn’t take them long to clear out and restrain the hostiles and they set about sweeping the place for any devices they needed to recover before Natasha made her way down to the lab to lay the bombs that would destroy it once everyone was clear.

Steve and Katie made their way down a smaller corridor of the back of the main room whilst Sam and Natasha started to pack up the items they had come for and they reached a fork at the end. Katie went left, Steve went right. He hit a dead end pretty quickly, there only being one more room and that was completely empty. Katie, however had three rooms to look in. The first two were empty, and the third one led off to another smaller room at the back. Scanning round, she assumed the room was clear and headed through into the smaller one, kicking the door open. There was nothing in there bar filing cabinets. Seeing as she was there, she started to pull them open to see if there was anything useful, but it was all older paper work, nothing of interest. Slamming the drawer shut she heard a noise behind her, the cock of a gun and then a voice which made her freeze.

“Back for more you little SHIELD slut?”

That voice took her right back to that painfully bright cell with the hard bed, and the even harder floor.

“You like that don’t you, yeah?” His face was contorted as he grunted whilst he pounded painfully, mercilessly into her over and over again, her wrists painfully held above her head, his weight pressing onto her battered and bruised body which he had played a major part in beating before having joined in the kicking and stamping with glee. “God, she’s so fuckin’ tight…”

She spun round to look at the man who had violated her numerous times, his face exactly the same, wearing the same predatory sneer. Her fists clenched at her side as she weighed up her options, she could probably take him now, even with the gun.

But she hesitated too long.

Her rapist smirked as he raised the gun, keeping it trained on her as he took half a step forward and automatically she moved backwards, her body pressing against the metal of the filing cabinet.

“What? Still no scream?” He chuckled. “You know, we used to have a competition, see which one of us would be the one that made you finally break. But, I gotta hand it to you, you never made a sound. Frankly, it kind of became a bit boring. I’ve had better lays from my palm.” It was then that Katie noticed a movement behind him and looked over his shoulder to see Steve stood in the doorway with a look on his face that Katie had never seen before. Unadulterated anger, rage and fury radiated from every single bit of his body as he stared at the back of the man’s head, his lips curling up into an ugly sneer, a flash of white teeth glinting in the dim white from beneath his beard. “Whatever happens tomorrow you must promise me one thing. That you will stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier, but a good man.”

Steve remembered those words like Dr Erskine had spoken them just yesterday. And for the most part he had lived by them, trying every day to be a man that people could look up to. Years of loss and grief and fighting had made it hard but he had never killed in cold blood and, if possible he always went for the non-fatal take downs. But now, as he heard the words the man in front of him said to his wife as she stood, pressed against the cabinet at the far wall, her chest heaving, eyes wide with a hatred so fierce but yet an unmistakable glimmer of fear underneath it all, he knew exactly who this guy was.

This was one of the animals that had violated her. 

And he wanted to kill the fucker.

At the sight of her husband Katie instantly relaxed, she was safe. There was nothing the bastard in front of her could do to her, not whilst Steve was there. The man saw her change in posture, and frowned as she looked back at him and smirked slightly.

“You want a fight, it’s your lucky day, although I don’t fancy your chances much.” 

She nodded behind her and the man wheeled round fast but he didn’t’ even get chance to point his gun at Steve before the Super Soldier’s fist connected hard with his face, knocking out his front teeth. He staggered backwards and Katie was waiting with a well- aimed leg swipe which sent him crashing to the floor. As he went to push himself up Steve brought his large, boot clad foot down and stomped with all his might on his left hand.

”They broke my fingers and took my rings…” Katie’s voice echoed around his mind as he stamped again, and again before he picked the HYDRA agent up by the collar and smashed his head straight onto the desk.

The man lay groaning in pain on the floor, spitting out blood as he pitifully begged for mercy and Steve allowed him to crawl a few feet away before he kicked him hard in the ribs, stalking him, toying with him, as a cat does with its prey. But like all cats, eventually Steve got bored and hauled him back up again. He spun the snivelling piece of shit round so his back was clamped to his chest, one large forearm over the guy’s throat, palm of the other hand clamped his forehead, pinning him in place and forcing him to look at Katie for no reason other than the fact he wanted her face to be the last thing the bastard’s shitty, Hydra supporting eyes ever looked at.

All the anger Steve felt at how they had abused his wife, his beautiful girl, speared red hot inside him as he remembered the state she’d been in when they’d picked her up. How long it had taken her to heal physically. And all those nights he had held her close after she woke from a nightmare. He’d sworn to himself he would die before he let anyone hurt her again. 

“She told me you did to her.” Steve’s voice was steely, as he spoke into the man’s ear. “You abused her, tortured her, beat her and laughed about it. But now who’s laughing? Look how alive she is, how beautiful and strong she is. How she survived, which is more than you’re gonna do.”

At those words the man, who was groaning to himself began to struggle again, begging for his life. Steve merely tightened his grip.

“I want you to know that you dying is simply because of what you did to my wife. So fuck HYDRA and fuck you.” He snarled, and with a quick, savage twist of his arms, Katie heard the snap and the man grew limp, his neck broken in one, easy movement.

Steve tossed the dead man unceremoniously to the floor, his chest heaving as he looked down at the body on the floor. He’d just killed someone in cold blood. And he didn’t care one single bit.

Katie watched her husband as he looked down at the dead man, utter disgust on his face and she felt a ridiculous surge of affection for her soldier. She knew he’d grappled with the fact he had, in his opinion, failed to keep her safe and, no matter how many times she told him he was ridiculous, she would never convince him otherwise. He’d just abandoned all moral code he had, killing someone out of no reason but the desire for revenge because he loved her. 

He loved her enough to kill someone that had hurt her. As she watched, Steve raised his head to look at her. "You okay?” He asked, his voice full of concern, not a shred of the anger or hatred it had been filled with before was left. She nodded.

“Come on.”  He held out his hand. She stepped over the body on the floor, laced her fingers into his, but they hadn’t even reached the door of the outer room they’d walked through when she pulled on his arm and as he turned to face her, she grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him down to her, furiously kissing him, teeth clashing, beard scratching-fuck she loved the feel of that- as she emptied every single emotion she was feeling into his mouth. She pulled away and rest her head against his, desire flooding her system, some dark inner part of her had awoken at his merciless persona and he spotted it, a curious tilt of his head to the side told her so much. “Steve, if you don’t fuck me right now, I’m filing for divorce.” He arched an eyebrow “Divorces are messy, we can’t have that.” and the words were barely out of his mouth before he had spun her round, slamming her against the wall, kissing her hard again, groaning as she grasped his growing erection through his combat trousers.

“Right here?” He growled and she nodded eagerly, already fumbling with his utility belt. The clanging of buckles, zipping of trousers and the rustling of fabric filled the air as they both shed the minimum amount of clothing they needed to so that Katie could wrap her legs around Steve’s waist as he lifted her up by the back of her thighs, pressing her against the wall whilst he continued to kiss her neck, biting and sucking at any bit he could get to. He didn’t waste any time before he thrust up into her hard, making her cry out.

It was almost depraved, them fucking with a dead body in the room next to them, but neither of them cared, they were too caught up in a whirlwind of lust and emotions that enveloped them completely. Steve’s hips snapped back and forth with a pace and a vigour that was merciless as he pistoned in and out of her again and again. Her palms were scrabbling at the wall behind her trying to gain some traction and Steve quickly pushed further against her to give her more support so she could move her hands round his shoulders, where she clawed desperately at the material of his uniform as her head fell forward and her teeth nipped at his ear drawing a growl from his throat. Her hands moved into his long hair, where she pulled sharply back causing him to hiss and look up her and the pupils of her eyes were blown wide with a desire he would never tire of seeing.  She pushed her hips down against him causing him to drive deeper and she let out an almost primal cry he had never, in their almost five years of being together, heard her make before. It simply revved him up even more, his rapid movements growing even more urgent.

“Fuck, Stevie,” she moaned, her head rolling back against the wall as her hands clamped onto his shoulders as she started to feel that snake in her belly moving. He felt the tell-tale flutter of her clamping around him and he continued his voracious pace until she cried out, a loud scream before she dropped her head to his shoulder, as she moaned his name, again and again whilst he pounded through her orgasm chasing his own.

“Shit, Katie! I’m…fuck!” his words tumbled into her hair as his movements became desperate and he came with such a force that he felt his knees buckling underneath him and even his super strength wasn’t enough to keep him upright, the absolute gratification he felt was just too much. He caught her as the pair of them collapsed to the dirty concrete floor, her on top of him, a tangle of clothing and limbs, chests heaving, sweat on both their brows as he held her to him, panting and shaking. Neither of them had any idea how long they stayed like that, but eventually Steve managed to gain enough control to sit them both upright, his wife on his lap has he gently brushed the tendrils of hair that had fallen over her face back, and looked at her, his lips gently greeting hers in a soft, tender kiss, a stark contrast to the violent ones they had shared moments before. She smiled at him, unadulterated love in her eyes as she moved her hands to brush his hair back before she leaned down and kissed him again, before her nose slide against his.

“I adore you.” She whispered softly, and he pulled her to him, nuzzling into her neck as he sighed.

“Feeling is mutual, Doll” He murmured, causing her to chuckle before they heard a noise in both their ears.

“Yeah, erm, you do realise your coms were on. That whole time.” Sam’s tone was laced with dismay.  “Erm yep, so we errr, we heard everything.”

Steve felt himself grow cold and he let out a soft groan of utter embarrassment into Katie’s neck

“Most excitement Sammy’s had in years.” Natasha quipped

Katie on the other hand, instead of shrinking with humiliation, threw back her head and laughed, and when Steve looked up at her, unsure exactly what she found so funny about it all, he saw her just fucked pink flush, her eyes which were practically crinkled shut in mirth, her perfect teeth surrounding by those plump lips he could kiss all day, and that freckle spattered nose which was wrinkled as she continued to howl with amusement.

And right then he didn’t care what Sam and Natasha had heard, because frankly, seeing her like that was worth whatever digs and snarky comments that were going to get their way. 

******

April 2018

“Huh…” Nat mused as they entered the dilapidated house, her and Katie pulling off their hoods and masks “Guess my old KGB contacts can pull through in a pinch.”

“We should move fast.” Steve looked at the door to the small, market stall lined street outside “Won’t take long for them to notice something is wrong.”

“I’ll keep watch.” Katie nodded, peering out through the crack in the door into the dusty, desert air as Natasha examined the gun she was holding.

“Definitely Chitauri. Although they’ve been heavily modified.”

Natasha effortlessly deactivated the weapons and they worked quickly and efficiently packing them into the crates ready to take them to the outskirts of the city to the drop point.

“You reckon we’ve earned a break after these ones?” Sam asked, as they began to load the heavy crates onto the back of the truck. Steve smiled as he looked at Sam. They’d been on back to back missions pretty much since New Year so far, the latest of which had brought Steve back to a very familiar market place in Yemen, one he had swore he would never come back to after the last time he’d run an op here. It was hot, dusty, and he had to admit to himself (because he would never admit it to anyone else) he was ready for a break.

“Yeah I think Wanda had the right idea.” Katie mumbled. She wasn’t feeling all that great if truth be told. She’d woken up a few days ago with a dodgy stomach after what she suspected was bad chicken, and it was taking her a while to shake it off. 

They made the drop and headed back to the jet where Katie grabbed another bottle of water and sank into one of the chairs, almost draining it in one. After a few breaths, the queasiness she had been feeling all the drive back to the jet dissipated somewhat and she lay her head back, closing her eyes.

Steve passed his wife, his hand gently running over her hair as she leaned back to take a nap. He knew she wasn’t feeling great but she’d assured him it was nothing serious. Steve was pleased to note that she looked better than she had done a few days ago, there was more colour in her cheeks, so hopefully she was over the worst of it.

Sam got them airborne and set the coordinates for the Safe House, and Steve found himself looking forward to getting back after almost five weeks away. The jet was pretty much silent for a few hours, Steve at one point switching out with Sam to allow him to get some rest too. That last mission had been a hard one, but worth it.

“Have either of you heard from Wanda?” Natasha asked a little while later, as she looked up from the tablet she was poking about on.

Steve shook his head as did Sam. Natasha let out a growl. “She’s deactivated the tracker on her phone. I warned her about that last time.”  

“She isn’t a prisoner Nat.” Steve raised his eyebrows, looking over at Katie who was still sleeping.  “She knows the risks. She’s been doing it on and off for the last two years.”

“I get that, but we don’t know where she is.”

“Look, we should be back at the safe house in what, an hour or so? Let’s wait and see if she’s there.” Steve suggested. “If we don’t hear from her by the morning, then we’ll worry.”

Nat opened her mouth to argue back but Steve shot her his infamous captain glare, signalling the debate was over. She shrugged.

“On your head be it.” She said, nonchalantly before completely changing the subject. “Fury’s patched through a new target- another Terrorist Sect grouping for an attack he suspects.”

“Where is it this time?” Sam called from the cockpit.

“Columbia” Natasha answered.

“Alright,” Steve nodded. “We’ll take a proper look at it once we’re back at the Safe House”

At that point. Katie gave a soft murmur as she stretched out her limbs, opening one eye blearily, then the other. She blinked and Steve stood up, heading over to her.

“Hey, sleepy.” He smiled, dropping a soft kiss to her temple as he crouched down in front of her. “You sure you’re okay?”

Katie at her husband, his handsome face sported a few more lines than it had done this time two years ago, and the spectacular beard he had sported hid his jawline, but his eyes never changed, and here they were so full of concern and love over something so minor as an upset stomach that it almost made her laugh.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” She smiled. “I feel much better now.” Which she did. The funny feeling in her stomach and fuzziness in her head was well gone.

Before Steve could say anything else, Sam called his name and he glanced round as he straightened up and looked at the screen on the cockpit.

“Cap, I’m getting a report, some kind of ship”

“Where?” Steve asked as the pair of us turned to face him.

“Seems to be over the mainland UK of all places.” Sam frowned “It’s not much, but it’s big for sure. We’re not far out, fancy a slight detour on the way home, see what it is?”

Before he could answer, Nat strode to the middle of the jet, tablet in her hand.

“You need to see this.”

She swiped at the screen and the footage she was referring to appeared on the hologram display. Katie watched a familiar red and gold figure speeding through the air over the familiar back drop of down-town New York, tangling with, well, she wasn’t sure what the hell they were.

“Oh my God.” she muttered, as she read the tag line playing across the bottom of the news report- New York attacked.

The four of them paused as more footage showed the kid known as Spider-Man swinging through the air, and two other men, one with a long, crimson cloak, all facing off against two foes.  

“When did this happen?” Steve asked eventually, looking at Nat

“15 minutes or so ago.”

Steve didn’t say anything, instead he moved to the locker at the back of the jet, and taking a deep breath, he pulled out his half of the pair of burner phones he had gotten from T’Challa almost two years ago. Stark’s technology still, after all these years, amazed him. An amplified booster on all the jets he owned made it possible to for a mobile phone to continue working whilst in the air. He glanced up at Katie, before flipping open the phone and then all four of them stopped dead as it began to ring before Steve had the chance to even dial. 

“Stark?” His eyebrows furrowed slightly as he asked the question, even though there was no one else with that number…

“Steve, hi, it’s Bruce. It’s err, been a while.”

Steve paused his eyes widening at the surprise at hearing his onetime team mate. “Yeah, yeah it has,” was all he could say. “Listen, there’s not a lot of time to explain but something big, someone big to be exact, is coming, and they’re after Vision.” “Vision?” Steve paused, standing still where he had been pacing unknowingly.

“For the Stone.” Bruce continued. “He’s turned off his transponder so we can’t track him, but Tony…” Bruce took a deep voice and Steve glanced up at Katie who was watching him intently. “Tony went after the ship, Cap, he’s on the ship, heading out to space, but before it all started he was about to call you. He said that you might be able to find Vision. And we need to, we need to before they do. You got any idea where he is?”

Steve listened to Bruce’s rambles, a million and one questions were whirring round his head, but there was no time for that. If this was as big an issue as he said, they had to find Vision. And right now, he would hazard a guess that he was wherever that huge ship over the UK was.

“I don’t know for sure, but I have a pretty good idea.” He sighed.

“You need to get him before they do Steve, and I mean it. This is the biggest threat we’ve ever faced. This guy, well even Thor couldn’t stop him.”

Now that really did worry him, but again there was time to think about that later. “Leave it with us.” he said gently, before he closed the phone and stuck it into his pocket.

“What is it?” Katie asked, “Was that Tony?”

Ignoring her, Steve strode to the front of the jet and spoke to Sam. “That reading. Can you get a lock on it?”

“Piece of cake”

“Get us there, fast.” Steve instructed. Sam nodded to show he had understood.

Steve looked back at Natasha and Katie as his wife crossed her arms, waiting for an explanation, not impressed with being ignored.

“Whatever is on that Ship, chances are they’re looking for Vision.” Steve said simply “They want the stone in his head.”

“Wanda…” Nat muttered gently, as she hurried to the front of the jet.

Katie’s eyes however went back on the footage of the spinning space ship above the city they once called home.

“Steve.” She said eventually “Tell me please, how was he?”

“Sweetheart, it wasn’t Tony.” Steve replied, his voice low as he looked up at the cockpit. Natasha and Sam were busy flicking switches. “It was Banner”

“Banner?” she frowned “But what? I mean how?” “I don’t know but he said that Tony had go-…”

“We got it, Cap.” Sam interrupted. “Just over Edinburgh, I’ve locked in the route, we should be wheels down in ten.”

Steve nodded and then turned back to Katie as she carried on speaking.

“What about Tony?” she pressed.

Steve opened his mouth to answer but he stopped, his eyes falling onto the footage, still playing on the hollovision. Katie followed his gaze, the next line across the bottom answered her question.

Billionaire Tony Stark missing.

Katie couldn’t find any words to say. Instead she felt her breathing deepen and she swallowed thickly staring at the footage. Missing? Like, kidnapped? Missing in Action, missing presumed dead…a thousand and one thoughts  began running through her head, all of them coming back to the last time they had seen one another, the harsh exchange of words and him telling her he was ashamed of her before she left him in that cold bunker in Siberia.

Steve’s hand dropped onto his wife’s shoulder as he noticed her lip was beginning to wobble. 

“We get Vision and then we work on finding him.” He assured her gently, looking at Katie who looked up at him.

“We best hope we find him.” She swallowed again before she looked down at her hands. “Because if worst comes to worst and the last time we spoke to each other was when we parted on such bad terms, I’ll never forgive myself Steve.”

**** O/S: Vanilla

Chapter 36 Part 1

**Original Posting**

[schrijverr]

I Have a Heart Condition, You Dick

Tony lets it slip to Steve that he has a heart condition.

Steve wants to make sure Tony is okay and not needlessly hurting, but Tony thinks Steve is babying him and thinks him incapable of taking care of himself. They talk it out.

On AO3.

Ships: none, could be interpreted as pre-slash Steve/Tony

Warnings: mentions of medical condition

~~~~~~~~~~~~

It started when Clint dropped out of a vent behind the obviously tired genius, who was waiting for a desperately needed cup of coffee, and said: “Boo.”

Tony jumped in the air as he startled violently and clutched his chest as he exclaimed: “Jesus fucking Christ, Birdbrain, you can’t do that! I have a heart condition, you dick!”

Steve had been enjoying his breakfast when the spectacle occurred and looked up in alarm as he asked: “You have a heart condition?”

“I have a heart condition? I have- are you fucking serious, Steve?” Tony ranted, “What do you think this is, a fancy night light?” he tapped his reactor harshly, then saw the faces of Steve and Clint, with a disbelieving voice he said: “Oh my God, you two didn’t know I have a heart condition.”

“That’s important information, you idiot. I could have killed you,” Clint sounded distressed.

“Blah, blah, it was mostly a hyperbole,” Tony waved his concerns away, “I thought it was in my file, granted I did delete a lot about the arc reactor, so maybe it was unclear. Hmm, that would explain why Agent threatened to tase me.”

“Tony, a heart condition is nothing to joke about,” Steve said, looking at Tony intently in the hope his message got across.

In turn Tony only rolled his eyes: “I am aware, Capsicle. Might surprise you, but I’ve actually been living with it for a few years, I know my limits and I’m not going to be a liability out there. Trust me, geez.”

“That’s not what I-”

“Spare me the lecture, Spangles,” Tony got his coffee and left the two there.

Steve looked at Clint and said: “I swear that’s not what I meant with that.”

“I could have killed him,” Clint merely repeated, still distressed.

“No, you couldn- well, maybe, but I don’t think so. Tony will need more than a small scare to take him out,” Steve assured him.

“How would you know?” it was obvious that Clint didn’t believe him.

“Because I used to have one, Clint,” Steve smirked, “A lot of people seemed to forget I was a little squirt from Brooklyn with a list of medical issues longer than army paperwork.”

Clint looked him up and down with distrust, before seeming to take his word for it. Though he did vow to be more careful around his favorite snark buddy and it seemed Steve had decided to do the same, because after that things were different.

Not bad different.

Not even obviously different.

Just different.

It was mostly Steve, though. Clint only started to announce himself when he entered a room Tony was already in and made sure not to scare the man too much.

Steve on the other hand researched foods that were good and bad for heart conditions and made sure to only cook with the good kind for Tony. He also remembered the unpleasant sensations of when his heart was beating too fast from before the serum and made sure Tony didn’t have to do anything too straining and checked in on him during battle. On top of that he started to nag Tony, that was not what Steve called it of course, Steve called it making sure he didn’t overwork himself and died of stress, but same difference.

And Tony noticed.

Of course, he did he wasn’t stupid. He was the opposite of stupid, actually. Though it did take him a while to add it all up.

It had started with a sandwich, which doesn’t sound that dramatic and it wasn’t either, honestly. Just one day, Steve knocked on his shop’s window and held up a plate. He’d done this before of course, but this particular sandwhich would be the start of getting Tony to eat regularly.

Tony had been down there for nearly three full days, living off granola bars, smoothies and coffee, so he merely appreciated the food as he waved Steve in. Snatching the sandwich up, he asked: “What brings you here, Cap?”

“Nothing much,” Steve shrugged, “Just hadn’t seen you in a while, figured you’d be neglecting to eat down here.”

“All I’m hearing is blah blah blah, Stevie,” Tony grinned, there was usually a lecture attached to food offerings, which he allowed because food, “You’ll be talking differently when you see these fire resistant suits I’m making for the squishy members.”

“Fire resistant?” Steve questioned.

Tony lit up: “See, I knew you’d see my wa-”

“Is that safe?” Steve ruined it.

“Is it- He asks if it’s safe. I’m making it, of course it’ll be safe,” Tony said indignantly.

“No, that’s not- I trust your engineering skills, just not your self preservation,” Steve clarified, “How are testing it? Is that safe?”

Tony blinked a few times, not expecting that response. No one had really cared how safe he was before, if he got the results.Then he laughed and deflected: “Steve, Stevie, Capsicle, Star Spangled Man With A Plan, I’m never safe,” Steve looked like he was about to interrupt, “But – and the buts make it important – but I am also never stupid.”

He was well aware that that was a lie and JARVIS had many tapes to prove it, but Steve didn’t have to know that.

“Are you sure?” Steve checked.

“Yeah, Cap, sure,” Tony assured him, “I’ll be as safe as humanly possible.”

“That sounds fake,” Steve eyed him suspiciously.

“And that is your cue to go, thanks for the food,” Tony shoved him out the workshop with a small wave, leaving him stunned for a second, “JARVIS, lock down, don’t let Mr. Health & Safety back in here.”

“Sir, do you think that is wise?”

“I do think that, I also think that a community college would be happy to have you, buddy,” Tony snarked.

“Tony. Tony,” Steve tapped on the glass when Tony didn’t respond, “Stark.”

“What?”

“Don’t do anything too stupid. And rest.”

“Whatever, Mom,” Tony rolled his eyes and got back to work.

It was little things like that which started to add up. They had already been happening, since Steve was unable to let anyone ruin their health in peace, but now their frequency increased.

Then it happened more overtly during battle, Tony had lost his suit and was running down a street, hoping to not get eaten by mutant rats, which was just iew.

His breathing was coming kind of ragged and it was uncomfortable, but he was managing. He still had a gauntlet and determination since he wasn’t going to admit to anyone that he’d been practically useless by some rats.

“Iron Man, status update,” Steve’s voice crackled over the coms.

“Down- Town- Chased-” Tony heaved, firing his repulsors, “No- Suit- Got- Three- Here- Handling- handling it.”

“Thor, get Iron Man out of there,” Steve ordered.

Tony wanted to protest, but he was too out of breath to do so and a small guilty part of him was glad the God of Thunder was coming his way, because- fuck.

He was nearly being chowed down by a rat when Thor appeared and came down with a mighty swing that decapitated the rat. Tony weakly raised a hand and wheezed: “Thanks, Thunderstruck.”

“No problem, Shieldbrother Stark. Are you alright?” Thor bellowed, dealing with the leftover rats in the alleyway.

“I- I’m fine,” Tony said.

Steve injected over the coms: “Get him to a high place out of the fight, Thor. Then head to the Hulk.”

“Aye, Captain,” Thor said, cutting off Tony’s protest of how he was still able to fight as he dropped Tony on top of a building before flying off.

“I know you’re still able to fight, Tony,” Steve sounded tired, “It’s just not a smart idea and we have it handled. Get started on prep for clean up in you want to help.”

Tony grumbled something, but didn’t comment further. He wasn’t in the mood to pick a fight right now and overall fighting didn’t sound very appealing. Steve wouldn’t lie about needing him and he’d done quite enough today.

It was only after that that Tony began to suspect something was up.

He first realized the visits to make sure he rested and ate had become more common. Then, when Steve asked about his schedule, he realized that had become a thing lately, before he noticed the food and added it to the most recent check up in battle.

Steve was babying him.

Once he had made that conclusion, he started to rewind to when it started to see what on earth he had said to make the other man think he was incapable of handling himself. It hit him when he went to grab some coffee and saw that Steve had left a bag decaf for him last time he was here.

“That motherfucker,” Tony said.

“Sir, I do not th-”

“Mute,” Tony didn’t want to listen to that right now. He had confessed a small weakness once and immediately Steve had jumped on it to treat him like less, he didn’t want to hear excuses for him, least of all from his own AI, his JARVIS.

He let the anger built up, he usually wasn’t one for not poking someone’s buttons when they had pissed him off, but he was smart enough to realize that a big fight between them would be bad for the team.

Because no matter how he spun it, they both kept everyone alive through communicating. Tony could see what needed to be done and Steve could strategatize a plan on the fly that completed that goal.

They needed to work together.

Naturally when Tony was pissed at someone, he didn’t want to communicatewith them, which was a minor detail he had forgotten in his grand master plan of ignoring.

His anger only grew each time he blocked Steve entrance from his workshop, denied his requests for his schedule or sparring or when the man wanted to know how he was doing. JARVIS wasn’t any help either and after too many times of trying to talk to him, Tony had ordered him to stop talking about Steve or his health for that matter.

When after two weeks of ignoring everyone – including his own body – the call to assemble went off, Tony suited up, despite the tension. He wasn’t letting New York be in peril when he could stop it, just because Steve thought he was too weak.

Steve would eat his words, or his motherhenning in this case. Tony wasn’t fragile, nor did he need special treatment.

The battle with the squid-robot-type creatures could be described as a proper disaster.

If Steve said go right, Tony would go left. If asked for imput, Tony would just do what he calculated to be right without saying a thing. If someone talked, Tony blasted music.

Sure, his moves worked and if anyone needed air support, he would show up out of nowhere, but he was being unnecessarily reckless.

He didn’t stay when the battle was over, just shooting off to the Tower on his own, giving everyone the cold shoulder. They walked into the Quinjet as Clint frowned: “What did we even do? Did any of you piss him off?”

“No, he just started shutting me out two weeks ago,” Steve said miserably, “From one day to the next I wasn’t allowed into the ‘shop anymore, I have no clue what I did. I didn’t even think it was this bad until now.”

“Well, you better go talk it out, Captain,” Natasha said, “Because that was a disaster.”

Steve sighed: “I will, but let’s just direct clean up for now. Everyone, you did good, let’s get some rest, alright?”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” Clint saluted lazily from where he had collapsed onto the Quinjet pilot seat in exhaustion.

Tony naturally avoided all attempts at communication again afterwards, until it came to a head. Steve had ben asking permission to enter the workshop for the past few days, never yielding any success, so he was trying a different method: “Tony, please come out of the ‘shop, I made food. Just come and eat something.”

“JARVIS why am I hearing Captain America in my workshop?” Tony asked icely.

“You stated – and I quote – “I do not wish to see Captain America or anyone unless the world is ending and they’re all on the brink of death” end quote. There was nothing about hearing, Sir,” he replied.

“J, remind me to donate you to the local High School,” Tony huffed.

“Noted, Sir,” JARVIS said, “Though I would advise to take up Steve’s offer on food. You have been here for 71 hours Sir and have not eaten in 21.”

“Blah, blah, I’m sure I have an energy bar somewhere around here,” Tony waved him away, “If I eat that, will you leave me alone?”

“I would, Sir, however, your emergency supplies have run out,” the AI informed him.

Tony cursed, he was kind of hungry now that JARVIS had mentioned it, but he didn’t want to admit weakness and eat Steve’s food.

In the end hunger won out and Tony mopily made his way to the kitchen.

It seemed like the whole team was there, each as surprised as him that he actually heeded their call for food. Tony would never admit it, but the loneliness had been setting in and getting yelled at and belittled sounded better than being by himself. He’d realized that the moment he’d heard Steve’s voice.

Steve smiled and handed him the plate: “Tony!” the smile faded when he took in the engineer’s state, but Tony ignored that in favor of taking the plate.

It was fish with veggies and nuts.

Health food.

Helps-gainst-a-heart-condition-food.

Fuck this.

Tony snapped, he was tired and hungry and had been beating himself up for weeks for allowing himself to show weakness, knowing what could happen. And now here it was, being shoved in his face yet again.

He just didn’t have the energy for this.

“What the fuck is this supposed to mean?” he demanded angrily.

Steve frowned: “I don’t understand.”

“Oh sure, play dumb, Captain Perfect,” Tony spat.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Tony,” Steve sounded frustrated, “Talk to me about what’s bothering you.”

“Like you’re not perfectly aware of that.”

The rest of the team was watching the argument like a tennis match, no one daring to interrupt the two, but all wanting to know how it ended.

“I am not aware of it, okay,” Steve threw his hands up, “I try to help and all I get is this attitude back. What am I doing wrong?”

“The healthy food, the constant checking up during missions, the benching me during straining stuff, the forcing me to sleep, you knew my goddamn schedule at some point, Rogers,” Tony told him, “I don’t need to be babied, I don’t need your coddling. I tell you one thing – just one – and you jump on it immediately. So, shove off, Mr. Pinnacle of Human Perfection or whatever. Just for once believe that I know what I’m fucking doing.”

Steve connected the dots to Clint scaring Tony all those months ago and sighed. Of course Tony would think that Steve was smothering him unnecessarily.

“Tony, I’m not babying you,” he started, “That was at least not my intention, I just wanted to keep you alive for as long as possible.”

“Because you think I can’t do that on my own,” Tony filled in the nonexistant blank, “Newsflash, I’ve been keeping myself for a long time already.”

“I don’t think you’re incapable, goddammit Tony, just fucking listen to me,” Steve yelled, everyone shocked by the cursing, “I care about you, you’re my teammate, the closest thing to family I have left. I just don’t want you to suffer needlessly, okay. I know how much it sucks and if I can help in the little ways, you can bet your ass that I will.”

Tony opened and closed his mouth while thinking of an answer. People caring for him was a bit new and he didn’t know how to accept that at face value, so instead he grumbled: “How would you even know it sucks.”

Steve smiled, he knew Tony wasn’t trying to be difficult, then answered: “I know for everyone else it is a long while ago, but from my perspective I was running around with countless health problems, including a heart condition, just a few years ago.”

“Oh…” Tony said, remembering the file he’d read on Steve, how stupid to let that slip his mind, “I- uhm, well, I guess that can be a reason.”

“Drop it in the hat of forgive and forget?” Steve held out his hand for Tony to shake.

He shook the hand and shrugged: “Might as well,” he was just glad he hadn’t fucked this up, that they didn’t think him weak.

“I for one am glad mom and dad made up,” Clint commented, finally breaking the silence the rest of the team had held while Steve and Tony made up.

“For that comment, you’re grounded, young man,” Tony said with an eyeroll.

“Resent that statement,” Clint shot back, “Especially coming from someone who’s swaying with hunger and exhaustion. Just eat your damn food and take a nap, Stark, then you can talk about grounding.”

Tony just flipped him the bird as he attacked his food with vigor while the rest started up all sorts of conversations around him.

Later he would get lectured anyway about not taking care of himself, but afterwards he would get pulled into a hug and maybe the next time Steve bothered him with food or sleeping a bit. Well, maybe it wouldn’t be that much of a bother anyway.

~~~~~~~~

DISCLAIMER:

God, I am not a medical person, please for the love of God and everything that is Holy to you: DO NOT and I repeat, DO NOT take anything in this fic as a fact without checking.

[elphenfan]

Nesting (Good Omens) 6/?

Chapter One I Chapter Two I Chapter Three I Chapter Four I Chapter Five I Chapter Six I Chapter Seven

I can only apologise for the time it’s taken me to get this out.

Thank you @top-crowley-central for the rec, that was...wow! <3 <3 Andthank you for everyone’s feedback.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

His breath caught in his throat the moment he’d said it, painfully, waiting for the verdict, for the confirmation. The personal doom.

Aziraphale looked at him with an expression of sheer incomprehension.

“You mean you…you don’t know?” he asked, his voice mirroring his expression, though it also held a stronger version of the previously displayed hope.

“No, of course I don’t, or I wouldn’t be asking, would I?” It was meant to come out snappish but instead it came out sort of quiet and just a little bit shaky. “It’s not Gabriel, is it?”

He forgot that he’d previously discounted him, the name simply being the first angel that came into his mind.

“Ga – Gabriel?” Aziraphale spluttered, gaping. “No, of course – why, of all angels, would it be him? He’s terrifying!”

It didn’t register with Crowley at the time that this was the first time he’d heard Aziraphale say something outright negative about another angel. He hadn’t even cushioned it with something pleasant or deflective.

He opened his mouth to say something but Aziraphale beat him to it.

“It’s not Gabriel. Nor anyone else up there. I promise you.”

“But who else could it be?” Crowley said, mostly addressing himself. Could it be…?

Aziraphale hesitated for a moment, looking everywhere but the demon. Then, lifting his eyes back up, seemingly with some effort, he said, “You…Crowley, you have to promise me.” He sounded earnest, insistent.

“Promise you what?” His heart leapt up to say ‘anything, I’ll promise you anything you could possibly want’, but he pushed it down, so it didn’t make it past his lips.

“That you’re genuinely asking these questions and not just trying to, to, to spare me.”

“Spare you? What from?”

“Promise me.”

“Yeah. Course.” Probably not the way to go word choice-wise, all things considered. “Yes. I promise. I’m genuinely asking you these questions. So…who is it?” Satan, his heart was creeping into his throat again.

In response, Aziraphale squeezed Crowley’s hand tighter. That only got him a frown.

“It’s…I’ve built it for…” He faltered but didn’t look away from the other as he spoke.

“Yes?” the demon prompted, as gently as he could. He could do gentle, however much his heart was in his throat, burning and freezing him simultaneously.

The angel swallowed, hard, inhaled deeply and sharply then began speaking.

“I built it for you, Crowley – but it’s okay if you don’t, I mean, you don’t have, it doesn’t, we don’t have – if you’d rather pretend I didn’t then we can do that, without any problem, I of course understand that you’ve probably never had a single thought in that direction but I kept thinking about it, ever since…and I thought that I might just start clearing up but when I realised what I was doing, then – well.”

It came out as a torrent, a rush of words that was barely distinguishable from one another but nevertheless, the ginger did catch most of it. Though, to be honest, his mind caught somewhat on the very first part of that whole ramble.

I built it for you, Crowley.

He’d built it for…for…no, he couldn’t have. He must’ve misheard. That was the proper explanation. Only, that didn’t tally with the rest of what he was saying, so…he must assume that what he’d heard was true. But what he’d heard was that…he’d built the nest for him.

For him. Not for a human. Not for an angel birdbrain who’d suddenly turned his head something fierce. For him, Anthony J. Crowley, and nobody else. To – but perhaps, Crowley’s mind tried to supply in an unreasonable effort to find any weak points in the idea that would come back to harm him, he’d built it as a token of their friendship?

But nests weren’t friendship bracelets. No feather placed somewhere about the nest ever signalled a wish to be ‘BFF’ to another angel. It was for a romantic, dedicated pursuit and for that alone.

Even so…built it for him. Aziraphale had…

Waiting for such a thing for so long, millennia, really, knowing that it would never happen and resigning himself to the fact while simultaneously hoping desperately, with every fibre of his being, to be proved wrong and have Aziraphale return his feelings, that had been hard enough.

To now have it within his grasp, as real and tangible as it had ever been for him, though, he found that he was hesitating. Backing off from what he should’ve leapt for joy for.

Because this didn’t happen. Not to him, not without some sort of twist or renege on the whole thing. God sure had an odd, and unpleasant, sense of humour. The joke tended to be on everyone else playing.

“Crowley?” The warm voice that was so familiar cut through the jumbled discord of Crowley’s mind. “Please. Say something? Anything, really. Even a curse, just…something. Please!”

“Why the Heaven would I curse you?”

“Why? Because…because I just admitted to having made an advance that you have no interest in, with no consideration for how that might – “

“Who said I have no interest in it?” Crowley interrupted.

“You…you’ve been sitting there, completely immobile since I started speaking, which seems pretty clear indication that you’re…you’re not on board with the idea, not to mention the fact that you’ve not responded at all to how I’ve decorated or….or any of the rest of it, either. Which is quite alright, really, I wouldn’t have expected you to – “

“You nested. For me.” He needed to reiterate that out loud, just to make sure that it had actually happened rather than it being merely a figment of his imagination that had finally bloomed and poisoned everything in there.

“Ehm, yes, I, I did.” Now Aziraphale was actively fidgeting, evidently struggling not to look away. “But like I said, if you – “

For the first time in this entire debacle, Crowley’s heart began to feel a little lighter, the roots of hope gently being scooped up and replanted into their soil.

At the time, he didn’t clock all the clues he’d scooted past or misinterpreted as he’d investigated the bookshop and the resulting faulty conclusions he’d come to. His brain was caught on the revelation that –

“You made a nest,” he repeated, interrupting the angel. “For me. Not for someone else. For me. In the proper sense of a nest.”

Aziraphale bit his lip, looking embarrassed, dejected and rather hurt. “Really, Crowley, must you keep on mentioning it? I know I’m in the wrong and I should never have started, but I would have hoped – “

“But angel, you built a nest for me!” He couldn’t have kept the wonder out of his voice if he tried.

However, it seemed as though the other didn’t hear that part, focusing instead on just the words.

“Yes, I bloody well did!” Aziraphale burst out, surprising himself as much as the demon. “I meant, I did, and it was intentional but that’s not to say that if – “

Crowley, feeling hopeful and happy in a way that he couldn’t remember feeling, took a tremendous chance, or so it felt like, and leaned forward, far enough to kiss Aziraphale. For a moment, he debated going for the cheek or the forehead but recognised that that would be chickening out. It might do for Aziraphale and he’d be overjoyed to receive any of those touches but for him, no. Especially not at a time like this.

It would be the mouth or nothing at all. And nothing at all wasn’t an option. Not now.

This is going to be a mistake, the voice in his mind whispered. You’re going to tip your hand all the way and even if he’s amenable to it now, it’s because he doesn’t know any better and you’re going to be the first nesting pair to ever have a divorce that early.

The thought made him swallow but he didn’t stop. He wasn’t going to stop now, he promised himself. Hell for leather, eh? Or something.

Luckily for him, Aziraphale remained still so he could actually reach him without toppling off the sofa.

If Crowley had had the presence of mind to register it over his own nerves and fears and hopes, he might have noticed Aziraphale’s eyes flicking all over his face, shock, worry and hope warring for dominance on his own. He would’ve spotted the hitch of breath from the angel and the way he leaned forward himself.

As it was, all the demon was aware of over the cacophony of his mind was the lips straight in front of him and the implications of what he was about to do, not to mention the reality of it and how utterly it would alter everything, either for the better or for the absolute worse.

When he made contact, it was soft, both in terms of the pressure exerted and the texture of the lips beneath his. It was oh so wonderfully, amazingly soft and exquisite. It shouldn��t have been, probably, but it was.

More than that, though, more than the touch of soft skin to his own, no matter how wonderful it felt, was the knowledge that this was Aziraphale. He was actually, genuinely kissing his angel, on the lips, however chase it might be – and this wasn’t a daydream, a fantasy or otherwise a construct of his mind. He knew…no, he was almost certain of that.

Please don’t let me wake up back in my flat, either having been already kicked out or about to go in here.

Would he go in at all if this was the dream he had? Yeah, truthfully, he probably would.

He hadn’t even gotten to the realisation that Aziraphale wasn’t responding in any way yet, never mind to the fear and worry that realisation would cause, when the angel let out a small, nasal gasp and pressed back. It wasn’t forceful or demanding, rather it was sweet and hesitant, but it was unquestionably a response.

However, it wasn’t long before he pulled back. In fact, it may only have been a few seconds and Crowley’s heart ached the moment they started to. No, not yet. He wasn’t ready to…not yet!

Only, when he tried to protest or plead his case, he felt lips crash into his again and he realised that it hadn’t been the angel who’d been pulling back but him.

It was still soft and sweet but there was a bit more force behind it. Or perhaps it was better to call it intentionality. And maybe a bit of force.

When they pulled apart this time, it was more of a mutual decision. Even so, Crowley was rather reluctant. He felt certain that the moment they did, reality would crash back in on him and deliver him some sort of twist to what seemed such a positive, wonderful thing.

He opened eyes he hadn’t realised he’d closed, to find Aziraphale looking at him from a much shorter distance than he had expected. He was, in fact, less than half a foot away.

And he was smiling. Crowley couldn’t see his lips, not this close, but the smile was reflected in those gorgeous eyes, even if it was small and wobbly in its uncertainty, it was also warm and, well, there.

“So, you…you weren’t building a nest for anybody else, then?” he asked. It managed to come out lightly joking, which he’d intended, but it masked a need to be sure.

The smile widened a little as the blond shook his head. “No. I’ve only ever wanted to build for – but are you sure? You’re not lying to me?” he asked, the light dwindling just a bit.

“Why would I lie, angel? After everything, why would I lie to you on something like this?”

“But you’ve – you’ve never ever said anything. Is this a recent development?” He squeezed their still entangled hands for unneeded emphasis.

Bloody – no, he might not have outright said anything, but he’d left plenty of hints and indications, hadn’t he? Perhaps he only thought he had, or they hadn’t been all that clear.

Then again, to be completely fair, hadn’t he also been very scared of the angel finding out and had acted accordingly?

Not to mention the glass houses once again.

“Does the day we met count as recent?” the ginger asked.

He watched Aziraphale’s eyes widen to an almost comedic level as he pulled his head back somewhat. Crowley would’ve protested but didn’t; he was still close enough that it was easy to close the distance.

“I – but, that was – but my dear, that was so long ago.” His eyes, if possible, widened further and an edge of guilt crept into his voice. “Have I…oh, my good Heaven, have I been – “

“Leave Heaven out of this,” Crowley interrupted and there was just the hint of a growl in his voice. He did not need to be reminded of those smug white peacocks up there, especially not at a time like this.

“But all this time and you’ve never…at least, not as far as I know, but perhaps…” Aziraphale hesitated and momentarily bit at is lip again. “Crowley, are you absolutely sure you don’t mind?”

“That the one you’ve nested for has been me the whole time? Yeah, I’m sure, in fact, I’m positive. It – it has been, hasn’t it?”

“Always,” Aziraphale confirmed, the smile returning, if only briefly.

“Then why have you been trying to keep me out? And you haven’t said anything that might – “

“I haven’t been trying to keep you out!” the blond exclaimed, frowning in puzzlement and slight indignation. “You’ve been the one who’s turned around and refused to go into the shop. Well, perhaps you…perhaps I wasn’t quite ready to show you yet but when you seemed so adamant that you didn’t want to be here – “

I never said that! Crowley wanted to say that, but he wasn’t entirely sure he hadn’t, at least in deed if not in word. Because he hadn’t wanted to be there, had he? He hadn’t wanted to ever leave his angel’s side but at the same time, the thought of him nesting for someone else had been too much to bear.

“I thought you were nesting for someone else. Well, you’ve probably already sussed that,” was what he ended up saying out loud and in an odd way, it was cathartic, even though he’d said something similar earlier. Maybe it was the next part that made the difference. “I thought that it couldn’t possibly be me you were nesting for. No, I knew it. I mean, why would it be?”

An expression of both concern and love, guilt and adoration settled itself on the angel’s features. He brought the hand he wasn’t still grasping Crowley’s with up and, with only the briefest hesitation, settled it carefully on one somewhat hollow cheek.

The demon immediately leaned into the contact.

“Oh, dearest, I am sorry. It was never my intention to…I thought you knew it was for you. I couldn’t ever imagine it not being for you.”

“But you…you said that you weren’t aware of doing it,” the demon pointed out. “You were being cryptic earlier about who it was you were nesting for!”

“Ehm, ah, yes. Well, you see…” Aziraphale stopped, swallowed and gave a smile that was more of a tight, nervous little grimace. Then his shoulders slumped ever so slightly.

“I’m a coward,” he admitted, his voice quiet. “I was afraid of telling you even as I told you -  and perhaps I thought that if I wasn’t being direct, then it would be more up to you whether or not you…well, you could, what is it you call it? Take or leave it be?”

“Something like that, yeah. But angel, did you – you really did all of that when you thought I wouldn’t be interested?”

Not like you, eh? The one who has remnants of his own nest attempts scattered all over his flat – the plants, for instance, making them perfect even though they were part of your very first nest for Aziraphale, the one you were stupid enough to almost show him?

He felt his heart clench somewhat at that, but it was true.

Then his attention was caught by something else entirely; there was a faint but nevertheless distinguishable colour rising in those soft cheeks. To be blushing again, for the second time in this conversation and also only the second time he’d ever seen it, that was…well, actually, it was incredibly endearing, even if it was because he was embarrassed about something and not in a good way.

“I did hope,” the angel admitted, as quietly as before. “Ever since I realised…And I found that even once I knew what I was doing, I still couldn’t stop it – nor did I want to, really.”

He gave another tight, almost self-deprecating little smile. “I told myself that if you didn’t want it, it was okay, I’d at least have had the joy of imagining it while I built it.”

“I – “

What could you say to something like that? But he had to try because the expression on the blond’s face was quickly passing from adorable to heart-aching.

“Angel, I do. I do want it. So fucking much. I never thought you would do that for me, but I’ve never wanted anything else. I was just so scared to lose you and I’m sorry.”

Aziraphale blinked, a little thrown. “Why wouldn’t I do it for you?”

“Why? Because – “

Because I’m a demon and you’re an angel! Because I’m a failure now as a demon as I was as an angel. I can’t even manage one or the other or take care of you the way you should be. I screw things up constantly and my head is a mess. I don’t deserve your love and kindness and certainly not for you to risk the wrath of Heaven for becoming the nestmate of a demon.

The words, so often repeated in his head when he was starting in on a black mood, sprang easily to his lips but there they stayed. He couldn’t make them go past and become sound, so they lodged, painful, in his mouth and throat.

He swallowed, but in that action, something slipped past.

“Because I’m not…not good enough for you,” he whispered. “You deserve so much better.”

Even with everything here, just before him, apparently for his taking, it seemed he was determined to sabotage himself. Though it was an indisputable fact that Aziraphale deserved better.

The hand, which had fallen away from his cheek at some point without his conscious knowledge, returned to gently cup the cheek, its thumb smoothing over his cheekbone once then again and again. He leaned into the contact, savouring it.

“Now please listen very carefully,” the angel started, careful and determined to keep eye contact and keep his voice warm, it seemed. “I cannot imagine how I could possibly deserve more than you, my dearest. You are brave and kind and charming and just lovely and perfect in every possible way that I can think of. I know you probably don’t want to hear that but nevertheless, it’s true. You know me and I know you and I could not imagine spending eternity with any other person than you. My nest is yours, if you’ll have it, and even if you don’t, then it and my heart is still yours.”

He closed the distance between them to kiss the demon as softly as a feather landing on snow for one long, wonderful moment before he pulled away.

“I’m sorry I’ve been such an idiot about all of this – “

“Hang on, no. If anyone has been an idiot, then it’s me,” Crowley interrupted, shaking his head. “I shouldn’t have – “

Oh, the list was ever so long on that score.

But Aziraphale interrupted in turn before he could get further. He did cheat somewhat, by giving another kiss, more of a peck than anything, to the ginger’s lips as well.

“Perhaps we can summarise and say that we have both managed to be idiots about all of this, yes?” he said.

He removed his hand from Crowley’s cheek and instead grabbed the hand he was still grasping in both of his own, well-manicured ones.

Possibly he meant to say something then but if he had, he must’ve changed his mind because what he did was bring the hand up to kiss it.

The gesture, while in itself perfectly innocent and chaste, innocuous even, once upon a time a relatively casual introduction – oh, the etiquette humans put around even the smallest of gestures, it was endlessly pointless and amusing – was done with such reverence, such naked adoration that it took Crowley’s breath away.

There was a noise that was more the sensation of noise than actual noise. Said sensation was of a whole murder of crows taking off at once or perhaps one enormous bird beating its wings downwards.

Though there realistically wasn’t actually enough space for them where they sat, Crowley’s wings spread out behind him, far more gracefully than they probably would have if he’d done it consciously. The feathers, groomed to perfection, almost glistened in the light of the bookshop as they stretched out.

Aziraphale watched the unintended display keenly, it seemed, and when Crowley became aware of what had happened and coloured, he smiled the softest smile possible, his eyes sparkling.

“They’re just as beautiful as I remember,” the angel said. He reached out with one hand only to stop himself almost immediately, fingers curling back as though to illustrate the decision to curb their desire.

That wouldn’t do. Crowley was tempted to reach out himself and drag the plump hand over so he could touch them if that was what he wanted. It would be sensitive, as wings always were, and the demon couldn’t remember the last time his wings had been touched by someone other than himself, if they ever had, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that Aziraphale was willing to touch them, even if he felt hesitant to do so.

Before he could carry out that idea, however, another thought struck him. One which was far superior to the previous one, as well as much more appropriate given the circumstances.

He still reached but it was behind him and to the side rather than towards the angel. At the same time, he curled one wing closer to his body so that he could easily reach.

Long hours of practice while grooming them meant that he could do it with ease and without having to watch what he was doing. Which in turn meant that he could look at Aziraphale while he did it.

Aziraphale, who was watching his hand quite intently.

Even so, when Crowley’s hand reached the feathers and ran softly across them, he could feel not only a shudder run through him at their sensitivity, possibly heightened by the tension in the room and what had gone before, but also that his hand was shaking somewhat.

Was he really going to do this? There would be no going back after this. Or, well, there would, technically speaking, but he couldn’t see how. At least, he couldn’t at all see how he’d ever be able to cope with it should Aziraphale choose to back out of this. He knew he himself would never renege on it.

But the thought of doing this monumental, irreversible decision after waiting and pining for six millennia without ever thinking he’d get more was terrifying, and that was putting it mildly.

Then he answered his own question; of course, he was. He was in the best possible position he could be, given what other possibilities there were, and however terrifying it was, it was also beyond exhilarating and breath-taking and he was feeling lighter and more hopeful than he had for decades, possibly longer.

This might be a precipice that he would topple off by doing it but even though he would, he knew that he wouldn’t fall, as he had someone to catch him. Not just someone, either; Aziraphale.

He could do this. He was not alone.

[what-is-your-plan-today]

Stark Spangled Banner Ch35: Not A Perfect Soldier, But A Good Man

Summary: Almost twelve moths post the vents in Siberia, the four friends are reunited with two familiar faces. Presented with an opportunity that they find too good to turn down, they find themselves back running missions off radar, one of which takes Steve to a dark place within himself, where he finds himself compromising his moral code. 

And then his phone rings...

Warnings: Bad Language words. Smut (NSFW)- it gets a little dark here. No Non-Con or anything like that, just a bit. well, rough for want of a better word!  NO UNDER 18s PLEASE!!!!

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

A/N- SSK O/S- Vanilla takes place within this chapter....

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist 

June 2017

“Well as far as birthdays on the run go guys, this one’s been the best one I’ve ever had!” Katie grinned as they climbed out of the Freelander by the Safe house.

Steve and Sam exchanged a look over the roof of the car.

“What?” Katie asked, innocently.

“I can’t tell if that was sarcasm or…” Sam looked at Steve before he turned back to Katie pushing his sunglasses up onto the top of his head. “No, honestly guys I’ve had a great morning.” she smiled at them. “Breakfast was amazing, it was a nice walk round the castle, the sun is out and now we have a BBQ to get fired up!”

It was almost a year now since they’d been on the run. After a brief few months apart where Katie and Steve had been in Wakanda, Sam had been flitting round a few old friends and Wanda had been travelling with Vision, they had all reunited at the end of May, Wanda bringing with her some rather interesting news.

“I did find some stuff out.” she said, looking round the table as they ate “Apparently Tony hasn’t spoken to Ross properly in months. When you guys broke out the raft, Ross called him for help and he put him on hold for hours.” Katie looked at Steve, both of them sharing a grin.

“It didn’t go down well. They had a huge bust up and apparently Tony told him to err, and I quote ‘go fuck himself’.” Wanda said, smiling slightly. Steve snorted as she continued “Said he didn’t answer to SHIELD, the Government or anyone else.”

A pang of affection and guilt hit Katie’s chest. Even after everything her brother was still watching her back. She looked down at her food and blinked, the tears threatening to fall out of her eyes.

“He’s err, he and Pepper, they’re getting married.“ Wanda hesitated and Katie took a deep breath.

“Wow, he finally did it.” she whispered, not looking up as she pushed a piece of carrot round her plate, swallowing thickly. “That’s…”

“How’s Rhodes?” Sam asked, changing the subject swiftly and Steve gave him a look of thanks across the table, as he gently reached over and wrapped his hand around the back of Katie’ s neck, giving it a gentle squeeze of affection before his thumb gently began to trace shapes on the soft skin just beneath her hair line. She looked at him and smiled. 

“I’m okay.” she assured him “Honestly.”

Steve kept his hand were it was nonetheless as Wanda continued talking.

“Rhodey is good, the braces he has mean he can walk.” At that Sam looked down, Steve glanced at him. He knew he felt guilty about what had happened.

“And that’s it really.” Wanda shrugged. “Nothing else to report.”

“Glad to hear everyone’s doing good.” Katie nodded. “So you want to see Vision again?”

“I know it might seem odd, or even dangerous.” Wanda mused, “And we’re still at odds over the Sokovia Accords, but yeah, I do..” “Odds?” Steve asked. “What do you mean?”

“Well, he still seems to think that the Accords were right. So, we’ve kind of just agreed not to talk about them. But, even with that, well I just can’t be without him.”

“We love who we love.” Steve said wisely, “If we’re lucky they share our feelings as well as our lives.”

“Like you two you mean?” Sam snorted looking at Steve and Katie “You two are so in tune, sometimes I think you’re actually reading each, others minds.” “How do you know we’re not?” Katie grinned and Sam rolled his eyes.

“Like I said, lucky.” Steve shrugged, pressing a kiss to the side of Katie’s head as he moved his arm from around the back of her and carried on with his food.

“No one should keep you from him if that’s how you feel.” Katie looked at Wanda. “That’s the last thing we would ever want.”

“Yeah you go ahead.” Sam said, pulling Katie’s attention back to the here and now “We’ll grab the bags, don’t worry about it.” “Thanks Sam, you’re a darling.” Katie grinned over her shoulder.

Sam sighed and shook his head. “A fucking liberty, that’s what this is!”

“You should know her well enough by now Sam.” Steve chuckled as he watched the two women head unlock the door to the house “it’s her Birthday, and she’ll use that excuse all day.”

”it feels like she’s been using it all week.” Sam grumbled before he turned and opened the trunk of the car. 

In the house, Katie walked through the small porch and into the living room and immediately stilled. There was something wrong, something she couldn’t put her finger on. Holding an arm out to Wanda she stopped the younger girl and looked at her. Understanding straight away, Wanda’s familiar red tendrils began glowing from her hands. As Katie looked around, unable to shake the feeling that someone or something was there, her eyes fell on a bottle on the coffee table, a bottle that hadn’t been there when they left this morning.

Beluga gold line vodka.

Katie felt her lips curve into a smile "You can come out now.” she said, not turning round. “I thought spies were supposed to be subtle.”

“Who says I was trying to be?” a familiar voice drawled, causing Wanda to spin round, her mouth falling open in surprise as Natasha stepped out of the smaller living room at the far side of the house.  

Katie turned and looked her friend over. “That why you cut all your hair off and dyed it blonde?”

“Changes is as good as the next.” Nat smirked.

“Good to see you Widow.” Katie beamed, striding over to her and pulling her into a hug.

“You too.” Natasha smiled, squeezing her back. “Happy birthday, Nova.”

Katie released her and Nat turned to Wanda, wrapping her up in a hug too. “I’m telling you man.” Sam’s voice filled the room as he and Steve walked into the house each carrying bags of groceries and snacks for their BBQ “She was putty in my hands. If he hadn’t turned up I’d have-MOTHER FUCKER!” he yelled, dropping the bags he was carrying as he spotted Natasha.

“Nice to see you too, Birdbrain.” she smiled before her face turned to Steve “Rogers.” “Nat.” he blinked in surprise, setting the bags he was carrying down a little more gently. “Dare I ask how you knew where to find us?” the corner of his mouth quirked up in a small, amused smile “Fury.” she shrugged. “Finished the loose ends I needed to tie up and had to make a swift exit, so he told me where you were. Thought I’d come and see how you were all getting along.” “We’re just peachy.” Sam smiled as he stepped forward opening his arms, “Come on not-so-red-anymore, bring it in.” She gave a huff and then stepped into his arms before she turned to Steve who smiled at her as he pulled her into a huge bear hug.

“I like this.” she leaned back, pulling at his beard and he irritated moved his head way out of her reach, arching an eyebrow at her. What was it with people and thinking they could just touch his face now he had a beard? No, there was only one woman allowed to do that. Katie laughed, noticing his irritation as Natasha continued “Hardly recognised you.” “Well that is the point.” he sighed, rolling his eyes

“Are you sticking around?” Sam asked.

“Well I got nothing else to do.” Nat shrugged. Katie and Steve exchanged a grin, her blasé tone didn’t fool them. She looked tired and slightly shaken, so whatever mission she’d been working on had clearly been tough.

“Well in that case...” Katie picked up the bottle of vodka that was on the table. “How about we crack this open whilst the boys get the grill going?”

A couple of hours later they were full of BBQ meat, salads, potatoes, vodka, beer and juicy information. Whilst Natasha didn’t tell them much about what she had been up to in Russia, she did fill them in on what SHIELD was doing. 

“They’re calling themselves the 'In-Human Resistance’.” Natasha explained as she showed them a few photos of the growing Vigilante group on a tablet, a group that seemed to be fast gaining traction in America. “They staged an attack in LA and Miami recently. Both at the same time, co-ordinated.”

“They’re fighting registration with the Sokovia Accords?” Steve asked, taking a pull from his bottle of beer.

Natasha nodded.

“Those damned accords have already caused more trouble than they’re ever gonna solve.” Sam said shaking his head. “First the ‘Watchdogs’ emerge to fight In-Humans, now this group emerge to fight them back.”

“This was always going to happen. SHIELD monitored Enhanced beings and In-humans.”  Katie shrugged “And it worked without the need for any stupid laws.”

”Yeah, so now the plan is that SHIELD are going to go legit. Come out into the open again.”

At that Katie raised her eyebrows. “And Coulson?” “No.” Natasha said, “Coulson will be in the shadows, the public director is going to be a bloke called Jeffrey Mace. He seems a decent guy.” “You know him?” Katie asked.

“Met him briefly. He was at the Accord signings in Vienna as a journalist would you believe it?” “Well he will know how to work the PR angle.” Wanda spoke for the first time in a while and Katie looked at her. She was pushing a piece of potato round on her plate, absentmindedly, no doubt wondering what would happen to her if she ever was caught with all the new rules and hatred being pushed out towards Enhanced or In-humans.

“They’re calling him Patriot.” Natasha said, and she looked at Steve, smirking slightly “Brooklyn boy, just like you Cap. Volunteered for some experiment that would give him super human strength in the wake of the Vienna bombing.” Steve let out a groan “Have SHIELD not learnt anything?”

“You had a lucky escape.” Nat quipped “If you hadn’t been on the run, they’d have been asking you to lead them from the front. Coulson wanted an enhanced person to run in the public eye, drum up support, show the world that they’re not to be feared.” “Nothing more than bullshit, political games.” Sam scoffed, and Natasha raised her eyebrows in agreement.

“Which we, thankfully, are well out of.” Steve leaned back, although Katie could see the nerve ticking in his jaw.

“Are you? Thankful, I mean?” Nat asked and Steve looked at her, frowning. “You not missing being in the thick of it at all?” He didn’t answer. If truth be told he couldn’t, not really. Some days he missed the action, missed having a job to do as such. Whilst he’d helped out occasionally for a bit for cash at the harbour, casual labour and muscle when they needed it, it wasn’t nearly challenging enough.

“What are you saying Nat?” Katie asked. Natasha sighed and leaned back.

“Fury isn’t working as part of SHIELD at the moment, not directly anyway.” she looked at her. “He’s running a few jobs off radar. At the moment he’s currently tracking a few old arms dealers that seem to be back trading old SHIELD and Chitauri stuff. Turns out in the wake of the Avengers being disbanded they all started getting brave again.” “Who’d have thought it?” Katie snorted sarcastically as she chewed at her lip. Steve and her had held this very conversation in Wakanda, wondering how long it would be before the groups they had all but eradicated emerged again in the wake of their split.

“So is that why you’re here?” Steve eyed her suspiciously “Fury wants you to recruit us?” “No.” Nat shook her head, before she smiled at Steve. “He’s going to do that himself when he drops by tomorrow.”

*****

"Why don’t you ask one of the ‘registered heroes’ for help?” Steve raised his eyebrows at Fury as the man finished explaining what he wanted the group to work on.

Fury scoffed. “Whilst SHIELD is of course, in full cooperation with the Accords, this case isn’t exactly on their radar right now.”

“What you mean is, that if it becomes public knowledge that more Chitauri and SHIELD weapons are emerging it will damage what little reputation SHIELD have managed to claw back.” Katie folded her arms. “Because they shouldn’t have ever let it get to this by getting rid of it all in the first place.” she sighed, “You know, I’m sure we’ve had this conversation before.”

“Look, Nova.” Fury was quick to reply. "I don’t like this any more than you do, and yes, in hindsight there are a lot of things that SHIELD should have destroyed or shut down back in the day, but I wasn’t the only one making those calls. Pierce had a lot of sway.”

“So effectively you want us to protect SHIELD’s reputation?” Steve raised an eyebrow.

“Why should we do that?” Wanda asked, looking at Fury “Where were you when we needed you?”

“She has a point.” Sam looked at Fury “I mean, I don’t remember SHIELD jumping to our defence after we risked everything to get to Siberia.”

Fury looked at Steve who simply raised his eyebrows. Both he and Katie agreed with Sam, they had expected at least some help from the Director but it never came. 

Or so they thought.

“Just who do you think it was that leaked to the press exactly what went down between you all?” Fury asked, leaning back in his chair. Katie felt her mouth curl up in a smile.

“That was you? Huh, I assumed it was Murdock.” “Well to assume makes an ass of you and me.” Fury quipped, looking at her. “Furthermore, thanks to me there’s currently a group of bounty-hunters sweating their asses off looking for you all in Cairo.”

Steve and Katie exchanged glances before they looked at Sam then Wanda.

“And I’ll continue to help leave false trails as I still believe in you all.” Fury looked at them each in turn “The Accords, this entire situation, yes, it’s a mess but I’m still hoping you guys care enough to want to keep fighting the good fight.”

Katie glanced at Natasha who had remained quiet through the entire discussion. She simply raised an eyebrow and gave a small smile.

“Think about it.” Fury stood up. “Romanoff knows how to contact me. When you’ve made your decision, let me know.”

He headed for the door before he turned back and looked at Katie.

“Oh, and Nova, that final trick you pulled, hacking into the CTU.” he said, and it took her a moment to remember what she’d done, but when she did looked at him expectantly “It worked.”

Katie smiled and gave a small ‘huh’ of laughter and watched the man depart through the same door he’d arrived little over an hour previously.

“Ok, I’m curious. What did you hack the UN for?” Natasha looked at Katie and Steve tilted his head as his wife gave a coy smile.

“I didn’t, it was Lawson. When he was digging up the information on the illegal arrests I had him wipe all the records of who accessed their evidence vault when all our gear got broken out went missing so Sharron didn’t get into trouble.”

Steve’s mouth quirked up into a small smile as he looked at his wife, once again unable to believe how downright clever she was.

“Wait.” Wanda said, frowning “Why did you do that?” “She’s a Carter.” Katie shrugged as if that was supposed to make sense. And it did to Steve and Natasha but as Sam and Wanda looked at her blankly she took a deep breath and explained “After everything Peggy did in the SSR, founding SHIELD, working with my dad, she deserves for her name and legacy to remain unsullied.”

She locked eyes with Steve who could do nothing but simply look at her, his face soft before he smiled “You really are amazing you know that?”

After an afternoon spent deliberating over Fury’s proposal, Steve told them all to sleep on it and they would make their final decision in the morning, but as he found out at 3 am, sleep was doing it’s very best to evade him completely.    

“Something on your mind soldier?” Katie murmured sleepily as he turned over in bed for what felt like the tenth time in as many minutes. With a sigh he reached out and brushed her hair behind her ear.

“Sorry sweetheart, didn’t mean to wake you.” he said. “I just can’t get what Fury said outta my head.” “And even after I tried my best to make you forget as well.” she quipped and he smiled, leaning over to give her a soft kiss. She gave a soft hmmm of contentment before he pulled away and propped himself up on his elbow

"What do you think we should do?”

“Well, we could ignore it, keep laying low.” she elaborated, with a small yawn “But I know you. And whilst you’ve managed it for a year it hasn’t been easy, and don’t try and pretend you’ve been okay because I know you Steven.” He gave a small snort and looked at her as she continued “And now you know that there’s still stuff to mop up, you’re gonna find it even harder to walk away.”

"I would for you. You know that.”

“But is that what you really want?” she sighed. “Not particularly, no.” he answered honestly. “I want to help but, well, I’m no longer Captain America.“

"Meh, he was an asshole anyway.” she grinned and he gave a snort. “But you ARE Steve Rogers the and I quote your best friend here ‘the dumbass little blonde punk that couldn’t run away from a fight.” Steve felt himself smile at Bucky’s words. “Long before the serum, long before the shield, you were standing up for the little guys, for what you thought was right. Okay, you were getting your ass kicked doing it, but still.”

She shrugged and Steve looked down at the silhouette of her face, and he knew she was right. He brought his hand up and with the back of his fingers gently brushed down her right cheek. 

“And you’d be okay with it?” he asked.

“Well, neither of us left the Avengers because we wanted to. So until this blows over…” “If it blows over.” “Steven.” she spoke sternly, and he could tell by the tone of her voice she was glaring at him, even if he couldn’t see her face fully. She was still clinging to some hope that the entire situation would go away, whereas Steve was much more a realist about it all.  “Until this blows over, then, maybe we could, or should keep fighting the good fight. Because that’s what we do best.”

“A band of vigilantes, huh?” he quirked an eyebrow. “Or if we’re getting paid are we mercenaries?”

“Pretty sure mercenaries don’t have ethics behind what they’re doing.” Katie snorted “No, we’ll be, erm, the ‘Nomad Law Enforcers’, NLE for short” she shrugged and he let out a laugh.

As his chuckles died down she gently reached up to stroke his face, his bearded cheek leaning into her touch.

“So, does that mean my new code name is Captain Badass, or Captain Sex Fiend?” he asked, his hand straying down to brush across her bare stomach.. “No” she said, smiling, twitching at the touch “Those are names only I get to say. Along with Stevie.” “Hate to break it to you darlin’ but Buck was calling me Stevie way before you were a twinkle in your pa’s eyes.” he said, his fingers now trailing the inside of her thigh. “Maybe so,” she snaked her arms round his neck and pulling his face down to hers, “but did he ever say it to you like I do, you know, in your ear as I’m about to c-”

“Err no.” he grinned, kissing her on the lips “That one’s all yours, doll.”

“Think you should make me say it now.” she quipped.

“As you wish, ma’am.” he smirked, rolling over on top of her, making her giggle before he cut her off by pressing his lips to hers in a fevered kiss.

The next morning around breakfast they informed the rest of the team what their decision was. Natasha shrugged and said she was in already anyway. Wanda agreed as she had nothing else to do but in the same breath Katie could tell she wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea, so Steve told her that she could dip in and out and didn’t have to do anything she wasn’t happy about. When finally the only decision left was Sam’s, the man leaned back in his chair with a smirk and nodded. And whilst Steve thought the name Katie had come up with last night for their band of rag-tag heroes was ridiculous, it was ten times better than the offering Sam made.

“The Avengers Secret Society. ASS.” he grinned, draining his coffee mug “Where do I sign?”

******

Running the missions meant a lot of stealth and covert work, which in turn meant they had to leave the safe house they had called home for over a year for long periods, often months at a time. During those weeks they stayed either in motels or other safe houses which Fury or Natasha had access to in various places across the world as they intercepted various arms trades and took down both buyers and dealers alike. The rest of 2017 past them by in a blur now they were busy. Wanda dipped in and out, choosing sometimes to remain in the safe-house and others she would disappear to meet Vision but always kept them up to date on where she was so they could keep tracks on her. Katie was glad she was getting out and seeing the world, even if she did worry about her from time to time.

As far as lifestyles went, it was tough, hard going, but Katie could see Steve’s sparkle and drive was back in abundance. For the most the missions went without a hitch. Yes, they took knocks, broken noses, cut lips, bust ribs…but it came with the territory, and they all felt good to be back feeling like they were making a difference even if they were doing it unofficially from the shadows. And given that they were indeed vigilantes, they all removed any Avengers symbols from their suits to avoid Tony or the guys back at the compound being dragged into any further political row.

Katie and Natasha ditched their Avenger cat suits entirely, opting for leather cargo pants, jackets and combat vests whilst Sam acquired a new upper body suit for his now battered but sill functional wings. Steve had ripped the silver star on uniform from his chest, which was down to a combination of wanting to stay off radar but also because of the fact that he simply wasn’t Captain America anymore, and therefore wasn’t comfortable bearing his insignia. It just didn’t feel right to be operating wearing the symbols once used when they were part of their old team. They were a painful reminder of just what it was that had brought them to this moment, how much they had lost and given up because they were not the Avengers anymore. And this also reflected in the way they operated. They were a lot less sympathetic with their fighting style and they did what they needed to do to get the job done, no more, no less- “Whatever it takes…” as Steve put it. And whilst the Captain still did his best to keep the casualties and fatalities to the minimum, that went completely out of the window one February morning in Jordan. 

They were tracking a suspected group of ex- Hydra stragglers that were, according to Fury’s intelligence, operating a lab with the aim of using a piece of SHIELD technology to manufacture weapons. They’d staked the place out over the last 3 days or so, and from what they could gather it was a pretty amateur operation all in all, so they didn’t meet much resistance when they stormed the place. Sam and Natasha took one side of the building, Steve and Katie the other. It didn’t take them long to clear out and restrain the hostiles and they set about sweeping the place for any devices they needed to recover before Natasha made her way down to the lab to lay the bombs that would destroy it once everyone was clear.

Steve and Katie made their way down a smaller corridor of the back of the main room whilst Sam and Natasha started to pack up the items they had come for and they reached a fork at the end. Katie went left, Steve went right. He hit a dead end pretty quickly, there only being one more room and that was completely empty. Katie, however had three rooms to look in. The first two were empty, and the third one led off to another smaller room at the back. Scanning round, she assumed the room was clear and headed through into the smaller one, kicking the door open. There was nothing in there bar filing cabinets. Seeing as she was there, she started to pull them open to see if there was anything useful, but it was all older paper work, nothing of interest. Slamming the drawer shut she heard a noise behind her, the cock of a gun and then a voice which made her freeze.

“Back for more you little SHIELD slut?”

That voice took her right back to that painfully bright cell with the hard bed, and the even harder floor.

“You like that don’t you, yeah?” his face was contorted as he grunted whilst he pounded painfully, mercilessly into her over and over again, her wrists painfully held above her head, his weight pressing onto her battered and bruised body which he had played a major part in beating before having joined in the kicking and stamping with glee. “God, she’s so fuckin’ tight…”

She spun round to look at the man who had violated her numerous times, his face exactly the same, wearing the same predatory sneer. Her fists clenched at her side as she weighed up her options, she could probably take him now, even with the gun. But she had hesitated too long. He raised the gun at her, took half a step forward and automatically she stepped backwards, her body pressing against the metal of the filing cabinet.

“What? Still no scream?” he chuckled “You know, I have to say, I preferred it the first time we took you, when you put up a good fight. Then you stopped and, well, it kind of became a bit boring. I’ve had better lays from my palm…” It was then that Katie noticed a movement behind him and looked over his shoulder to see Steve stood in the doorway with a look on his face that Katie had never seen before. Unadulterated anger and rage and fury radiated from every single bit of his body as he stared at the back of the man’s head, his lips curling up into an ugly sneer. “Whatever happens tomorrow you must promise me one thing. That you will stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier, but a good man.”

Steve remembered those words like Dr Erskine had spoken them just yesterday. And for the most part he had lived by them, trying every day to be that good person. Years of loss and grief and fighting had made it hard but he had never killed in cold blood and, if possible he always went for the non-fatal take downs. But now, as he heard the words the man in front of him said to his wife as she stood, pressed against the cabinet at the far wall, her chest heaving, eyes wide with a hatred so fierce but yet an unmistakable glimmer of fear underneath it all, he knew exactly who this guy was.

This was one of the animals that had violated her. 

And he wanted to kill the fucker.

At the sight of her husband Katie instantly relaxed, she was safe. There was nothing the bastard in front of her could do to her, not whilst Steve was there. The man saw her change in posture, and frowned as she looked back at him and smirked slightly.

“You want a fight, it’s your lucky day, although I don’t fancy your chances much.” 

She nodded behind her and the man wheeled round fast but he didn’t’ even get chance to point his gun at Steve before the Super Soldier’s fist connected hard with his face, knocking out his front teeth. He staggered backwards and Katie was waiting with a well- aimed leg swipe which sent him crashing to the floor. As he went to push himself up Steve brought his large, boot clad foot down and stomped with all his might on his left hand.

”They broke my fingers and took my rings…”

Katie’s voice echoed around his mind as he stamped again, and again before he picked the Hydra agent up by the collar and smashed his head straight onto the desk.

The man lay groaning, crying even on the floor, begging for mercy and Steve allowed him to crawl a few feet away before he kicked him hard in the ribs, stalking him, toying with him, as a cat does with its prey. But like all cats, eventually Steve got bored and hauled him back up again, spun the snivelling piece of shit round so his back was clamped to Steve’s chest, one large forearm over his throat, palm of the other hand clamped on the man’s forehead, pinning him in place and forcing him to look at Katie.

All the anger he felt at how they had abused his wife, his beautiful girl speared red hot inside him as he remembered her recovery, all those nights he had held her close after she woke from a nightmare, swearing to himself about how he would die before he let anyone hurt her again. 

And he wanted her face to be the last thing the bastard’s shitty, Hydra supporting eyes ever looked at.

“She told me you did to her.” Steve’s voice was steely, as he spoke into the man’s ear. “You abused her, tortured her, beat her and laughed about it. But now who’s laughing? Look how alive, how strong she is. How she survived, which is more than you’re gonna do.”

At those words the man, who was groaning to himself began to struggle again, begging for his life. Steve merely tightened his grip.

“I want you to know that you dying is simply because of what you did to my wife. So fuck Hydra and fuck you.“ he snarled, and with a quick twist of his arms Katie heard the snap and the man grew limp, Steve tossing him unceremoniously to the floor having broken his neck in one, easy movement. Steve’s chest heaved as he looked down at the body on the floor.

He’d just killed someone in cold blood. But he didn’t care.

Katie watched her husband as he looked down at the dead man, utter disgust on his face and she felt a ridiculous surge of affection for her soldier. She knew he’d grappled with the fact he had, in his opinion, failed to keep her safe and no matter how many times she told him he was ridiculous she would never convince him otherwise. And now he’d just abandoned all moral code he had, killing someone out of no reason but for utter revenge because he loved her. 

He loved her enough to kill someone that had hurt her. As she watched he raised his head to look at her. "You ok?” He asked, his voice full of concern, not a shred of the anger or hatred it had been filled with before was left. She nodded.

“Come on.”  he said, holding out his hand. She stepped over the body on the floor, laced her fingers into his, but they hadn’t even reached the door of the outer room they’d walked through when she pulled on his arm and as he turned to face her she grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him down to her, furiously kissing him, teeth clashing, beard scratching-fuck she loved the feel of that- as she emptied every single emotion she was feeling into his mouth. She pulled away and rest her head against his, desire flooding her system, some dark inner part of her had awoken at his merciless persona and he spotted it, a curious tilt of his head to the side told her so much. “Steve, if you don’t fuck me right now, I’m filing for divorce.” He arched an eyebrow “Divorces are messy, we can’t have that.” and the words were barely out of his mouth before he had spun her round, slamming her against the wall, kissing her hard again, groaning as she grasped his growing erection through his combat trousers.

“Right here?” he growled and she nodded eagerly, already fumbling with his utility belt. The clanging of buckles, zipping of trousers and the rustling of fabric filled the air as they both shed the minimum amount of clothing they needed to so that Katie could wrap her legs around Steve’s waist as he lifted her up by the back of her thighs, pressing her against the wall whilst he continued to kiss her neck, biting and sucking at any bit he could get to. He didn’t waste any time before he thrust up into her hard, making her cry out.

It was almost depraved, them fucking with a dead body in the room next to them, but neither of them cared, they were too caught up in a whirlwind of lust and emotions that enveloped them completely. Steve’s hips snapped back and forth with a pace and a vigour that was merciless as he pistoned in and out of her again and again. Her palms were scrabbling at the wall behind her trying to gain some traction and Steve quickly pushed further against her to give her more support so she could move her hands round his shoulders, where she clawed desperately at the material of his uniform as her head fell forward and her teeth nipped at his ear drawing a growl from his throat. Her hands moved into his long hair, where she pulled sharply back causing him to hiss and look up her and the pupils of her eyes were blown wide with a desire he would never tire of seeing.  She pushed her hips down against him causing him to drive deeper and she let out an almost primal cry he had never, in their almost five years of being together, heard her make before. It simply revved him up even more, his rapid movements growing even more urgent.

“Fuck Stevie,” she moaned, her head rolling back against the wall as her hands clamped onto his shoulders as she started to feel that snake in her belly moving. He felt the tell-tale flutter of her clamping around him and he continued his voracious pace until she cried out, a loud scream before she dropped her head to his shoulder, as she moaned his name, again and again whilst he pounded through her orgasm chasing his own.

“Shit, Katie! I’m…fuck!” his words tumbled into her hair as his movements became desperate and he came with such a force that he felt his knees buckling underneath him and even his super strength wasn’t enough to keep him upright, the absolute gratification he felt was just too much. He caught her as the pair of them collapsed to the concrete floor, her on top of him, a tangle of clothing and limbs, chests heaving, sweat on both their brows as he held her to him, panting and shaking. Neither of them had any idea how long they stayed like that, but eventually Steve managed to gain enough control to sit them both upright, his wife on his lap has he gently brushed the tendrils of hair that had fallen over her face back, and looked at her, his lips gently greeting hers in a soft, tender kiss, a stark contrast to the violent ones they had shared moments before. She smiled at him, unadulterated love in her eyes as she moved her hands to brush his hair back before she leaned down and kissed him again, before her nose slide against his.

“I adore you.” she said softly, and he pulled her to him, nuzzling into her neck as he sighed.

“Feeling is mutual, Doll” he murmured, causing her to chuckle before they heard a noise in both their ears.

“Yeah, erm, you do realise your coms were on. That whole time.” Sam said, his tone laced with dismay.  “Erm yep, so we errr…heard everything.”

Steve felt himself grow cold and he let out a soft groan of utter embarrassment into Katie’s neck

“Most excitement Sammy’s had in years.” Natasha quipped

Katie on the other hand, instead of shrinking with humiliation, threw back her head and laughed, and when Steve looked up at her, unsure exactly what she found so funny about it all, he saw her just fucked pink flush, her eyes which were practically crinkled shut in mirth, her perfect teeth surrounding by those plump lips he could kiss all day, and that freckle spattered nose which was wrinkled as she continued to howl with amusement.

And right then he didn’t care what Sam and Natasha had heard, because frankly, seeing her like that was worth whatever digs and snarky comments that were going to get their way. 

****** April 2018

“Huh…” Nat said as they entered the dilapidated house, her and Katie pulling off their hoods and masks “Guess my old KGB contacts can pull through in a pinch.”

“We should move fast.” Steve looked at the door to the small, market stall lined street outside “Won’t take long for them to notice something is wrong.”

“I’ll keep watch.” Katie nodded, peering out through the crack in the door into the dusty, desert air as Natasha examined the gun she was holding.

“Definitely Chitauri. Although they’ve been heavily modified.”

Natasha effortlessly deactivated the weapons and they worked quickly and efficiently packing them into the crates ready to take them to the outskirts of the city to the drop point.

“You reckon we’ve earned a break after these ones?” Sam asked, as they began to load the heavy crates onto the back of the truck. Steve smiled as he looked at Sam. They’d been on back to back missions pretty much since New Year so far, the latest of which had brought Steve back to a very familiar market place in Yemen, one he had swore he would never come back to after the last time he’d run an op here. It was hot, dusty, and he had to admit to himself (because he would never admit it to anyone else) he was ready for a break.

“Yeah I think Wanda had the right idea.” Katie mumbled. She wasn’t feeling all that great if truth be told. She’d woken up a few days ago with a dodgy stomach after what she suspected was bad chicken, and it was taking her a while to shake it off. 

They made the drop and headed back to the jet where Katie grabbed another bottle of water and sank into one of the chairs, almost draining it in one. After a few breaths, the queasiness she had been feeling all the drive back to the jet dissipated somewhat and she lay her head back, closing her eyes.

Steve passed his wife, his hand gently running over her hair as she leaned back to take a nap. He knew she wasn’t feeling great but she’d assured him it was nothing serious. She looked better than she had done a few days ago, there was more colour in her cheeks so hopefully she was over the worst of it.

Sam got them airborne and set the coordinates for the Safe House, and Steve found himself looking forward to getting back after almost 5 weeks away. The jet was pretty much silent for a few hours, Steve at one point switching out with Sam to allow him to get some rest too. That last mission had been a hard one, but worth it.

“Have either of you heard from Wanda?” Natasha asked a little while later, as she looked up from the tablet she was poking about on.

Steve shook his head as did Sam. Natasha let out a growl. “She’s deactivated the tracker on her phone. I warned her about that last time.”  

“She isn’t a prisoner Nat.” Steve said, looking over at Katie who was still sleeping.  “She knows the risks. She’s been doing it on and off for the last 2 years.”

“I get that, but we don’t know where she is.” Nat said.

“Look, we should be back at the safe house in what, an hour or so? Let’s wait and see if she’s there.” Steve suggested. “If we don’t hear from her by the morning, then we’ll worry.”

Nat opened her mouth to argue back but Steve shot her his infamous captain glare, signalling the debate was over. She shrugged.

“On your head be it.” She said, nonchalantly before completely changing the subject. “Fury’s patched through a new target- another Terrorist Sect grouping for an attack he suspects.”

“Where is it this time?” Sam called from the cockpit.

“Columbia” Natasha answered.

“Alright,” Steve nodded. “We’ll take a proper look at it once we’re back at the Safe House”

At that point. Katie gave a soft hhmm as she stretched out her limbs, opening one eye blearily, then the other. She blinked and Steve stood up, heading over to her.

“Hey sleepy.” he said, dropping a soft kiss to her temple as he crouched down in front of her. “You sure you’re ok?”

Katie looked up at her husband, his handsome face sported a few more lines than it had done this time two years ago, and the spectacular beard he had sported hid his jawline, but his eyes never changed, and here they were so full of concern and love over something so minor as an upset stomach that it almost made her laugh.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” she smiled, “I feel much better now.” Which she did. The funny feeling in her stomach and fuzziness in her head was well gone.

Before Steve could say anything else, Sam called his name and he glanced round as he straightened up and looked at the screen on the cockpit.

“Cap, I’m getting a report, some kind of ship"

“Where?” Steve asked as the pair of us turned to face him.

“Seems to be over the mainland UK of all places.” Sam frowned “It’s not much, but it’s big for sure. We’re not far out, fancy a slight detour on the way home, see what it is?”

Before he could answer, Nat strode to the middle of the jet, tablet in her hand.

“You need to see this.”

She swiped at the screen and the footage she was referring to appeared on the hologram display. Katie watched a familiar red and gold figure speeding through the air over the familiar back drop of down-town New York, tangling with, well, she wasn’t sure what the hell they were.

“Oh my God.” she muttered, as she read the tag line playing across the bottom of the news report- New York attacked.

“Shit.” Sam said, turning to watch from his seat.

The four of them paused as more footage showed the kid known as Spider-Man swinging through the air, and two other men, one with a long, crimson cloak, all facing off against two foes.  

“When did this happen?” Steve asked eventually, looking at Nat

“15 minutes or so ago.” she replied.

Steve didn’t say anything, instead he moved to the locker at the back of the jet, and taking a deep breath he pulled out his half of the pair of burner phones he had gotten from T’Challa almost two years ago. Stark’s technology still, after all these years, amazed him. An amplified booster on all the jets he owned made it possible to for a mobile phone to continue working whilst in the air. He glanced up at Katie, before flipping open the phone and then all four of them stopped dead as it began to ring before Steve had the chance to even dial. 

“Stark?” his eyebrows furrowed slightly as he asked the question, even though there was no one else with that number…

“Steve, hi, it’s Bruce. It’s err, been a while.”

Steve paused his eyes widening at the surprise at hearing his one time team mate.  “Yeah, yeah it has.” “Listen, there’s not a lot of time to explain but something big, someone big to be exact is coming, and they’re after Vision.” “Vision?” Steve paused, standing still where he had been pacing unknowingly. “For the Stone?”

“Yeah, but Vision has turned off his transponder so we can’t track him, but Tony...” Bruce took a deep voice and Steve glanced up at Katie who was watching him intently “Tony went after the ship, Cap, he’s on the ship, heading out to space, but before it all started he was about to call you. He said that you might be able to find Vision. Well we need to, we need to before they do. You got any idea where he is?”

Steve listened to Bruce’s rambles, a million and one questions were whirring round his head, but there was no time for that. If this was as big an issue as he said, they had to find Vision. And right now, he would hazard a guess that he was wherever that huge ship over the UK was.

“I don’t know for sure, but I have a pretty good idea.” he said eventually.

“You need to get him before they do Steve, and I mean it. This is the biggest threat we’ve ever faced. This guy, well even Thor couldn’t stop him.”

Now that really did worry him, but again there was time to think about that later. “Leave it with us.” he said gently, before he closed the phone and stuck it into his pocket.

“What is it?” Katie asked, “Was that Tony?”

Ignoring her, Steve strode to the front of the jet and spoke to Sam. “That reading. Can you get a lock on it?”

“Piece of cake”

“Get us there, fast.” Steve instructed. Sam nodded to show he had understood.

Steve looked back at Natasha and Katie as his wife crossed her arms, waiting for an explanation, not impressed with being ignored.

“Whatever is on that Ship, chances are they’re looking for Vision.” Steve said simply “They want the stone in his head.”

“Wanda...” Nat muttered gently, as she hurried to the front of the jet.

Katie’s eyes however went back on the footage of the spinning space ship above the city they once called home.

“Steve.” She said eventually “Tell me please, how was he?”

“Sweetheart, it wasn’t Tony.” Steve replied, his voice low as he looked up at the cockpit. Natasha and Sam were busy flicking switches. “It was Banner”

“Banner?” she frowned “But what?I mean how?” “I don’t know but he said that Tony had go-…”

“We got it cap…” Sam interrupted. “Just over Edinburgh, I’ve locked in the route, we should be wheels down in ten.”

Steve nodded and then turned back to Katie as she carried on speaking.

“What about Tony?” she pressed.

Steve opened his mouth to answer but he stopped, his eyes falling onto the footage, still playing on the hollovision. Katie followed his gaze, the next line across the bottom answered her question.

Billionaire Tony Stark missing.

Katie couldn’t find any words to say. Instead she felt her breathing deepen and she swallowed thickly staring at the footage. Missing? Like, kidnapped? Missing in Action, missing presumed dead…a thousand and one thoughts  began running through her head, all of them coming back to the last time they had seen one another.

“You disgust me…”

Steve’s hand dropped onto his wife’s shoulder as he noticed her lip was beginning to wobble. 

“We get Vision and then we work on finding him.” He said gently, looking at Katie who looked up at him.

“We best hope we find him.” she swallowed again before she looked down at her hands. “Because if worst comes to worst and the last time we spoke to each other was when we parted on such bad terms, I’ll never forgive myself Steve.”

Tags

@the-omni-princess​

@momobaby227​

@geekofmanythings16​

@angelofhell-666​

@thewackywriter​

@marvelfansworld​

@cobalt-gear​

[whatcouldgowrong-ohthat]

A Day at Coney Island

Nonnie’s Request: “Could I request all your OCs going to Coney island together? Maybe with Bucky and another of the boys as a chaperone? 😲😲😲”

A/N: I can’t believe how excited I got for this request. Thank you, Nonnie, so much. And just know that my OCs are ALWAYS open for any requests ya got. This was amazing and the highlight of my day. :) Also, for this shot I basically plucked all of my characters out of their worlds and threw them in a new one. XD

Summary: It’s not every day that these guys can catch a break, but go big or go home, right?

Word Count: 3128 words

Warnings: This is tooth-rotting fluff. How could I make this angsty?? Seriously - It’s meant to brighten your day. But there is cussing. There’s always cussing. XD

--

Nothing could ever compare to Coney Island. The feel of the sun warming their skin? The smell of too much salt and sunscreen? Obnoxious laughter and carnival music ringing in their ears? Truly, there was nothing like it.

“Roll the window down! Roll it down!” Marie’s urgency and beating against her thighs was enough to earn a laugh from Jeneva.

Pulling up next to their second vehicle, Jeneva rolled down her corvette’s window. Aviators hid her glowing eyes as she watched the other car’s window disappear. She was met by Andie’s beaming face and Sam peeking around her from the driver’s side. “How did y’end up in the front seat,” she asked Andie, knowing very well that meant Shuri and Bucky had been crammed into the back. Both had wanted to ride with Jeneva instead of the mom-mobile minivan, but Marie had won rock-paper-scissors.

“Same way Marie won your ride,” Andie told her. The passenger doors opened automatically with people piling out. Bucky was grumbling about being crammed in the backseat yet again as Jeneva pulled her keys out of her car.

Sarah rolled her eyes, unable to fight her smile as Typhanie wrapped her arms around Sarah’s shoulders. “He was whining the whole way, Jen. Can you take him next time,” the blonde asked as Sam locked the minivan.

Marie pouted. “No way. I don’t want to ride in that thing.”

“But you made me,” Shuri reminded her. Marie’s ears turned a bright pink as her best friend teased her. It really didn’t matter what that girl said, it was too easy for her to fluster Marie.

Bucky came up behind Jeneva, amusement glittering in his eyes as he watched the younger Lebeau act like such a teenager. She could break into almost any network, rewrite codes as if she were singing her ABC’s, and yet Shuri simply talking to her was enough to make her awkward. “Remember,” he said, giving a pointed look to Andie and Jeneva. “No powers.”

Jeneva waved him off. “Y’no fun.”

“Come on!” Shuri grabbed Marie’s hand, interlacing her fingers and quickly pulling her ahead. “I don’t want to spend the whole day in the parking lot!”

Andie giggled as she ran after them. Really, the idea of going to the beach was her favorite part. She loved sunbathing and that ocean was practically screaming her name.

Sam came up beside Bucky. Them and Jeneva lagged behind, watching his kid and Steve’s quick on their feet. He glanced at Bucky, raising a brow. “This is going to be a mess of a day, isn’t it?”

“Oh, for sure,” Bucky told him, noticing Jeneva roll her eyes even behind her sunglasses. He flicked her hat before spinning the bill around, nestling it on the back of her head. “Let’s get there before they kill the whole park.”

--

While Coney Island was naturally a busy place buzzing with people and energy, the group had brought another sort of life to it. They were so used to their chaotic lives that days like this were rare indeed. But still – if they were planning a whole day here, they had to choose their moments wisely.

Arcade games during the day.

Crazy rides at night.

“And the little lady is a winner again!” Andie smiled far too innocently as she won the sharpshooter game. Again. Bucky looked from his water gun to hers and then to that dimpled smile she had. The silent look on his face said it all. How? How did she do it?

“I think we have a new sharpshooter,” Sam teased Bucky as Andie was handed a massive stuffed giraffe.

“Oh, shut it, Birdbrain.”

Typhanie, Sarah, and Marie were playing ski-ball, albeit all in their own way. Typhanie would shoot hers back to back, consistently hitting the center and second holes. Meanwhile, Marie was using her computer brain to calculate the precise angle needed for countless high scores. The top two holes were hit over and over again. Marie never missed.

Both women were on either side of Sarah, teasing her endlessly. This was clearly not her game. She was lucky to get the lowest ones and sometimes even managed to send the ball flying back her way.  A yelp shot out of her throat as the skiball flew towards her head. She ducked, looking over her shoulder just as Jeneva caught the ball. In her hand and in Shuri’s were caramel apples.

“Y’gonna injure someone, petite.”

“Sorry,” Sarah muttered.

Electricity crackled around the ball as she tossed it into the air, catching it again. Sidestepping Sarah, she took her shot. The ball landed in the middle hole, short circuiting it. Ticket after ticket poured out of the machine as Sarah’s eyes grew to the size of saucers.

“That’s cheating,” Shuri reminded Jeneva, whacking her arm.

“Oh, c’mon. It’s a game.” Jeneva laughed when she saw how big Sarah was smiling. “’Sides,” she whispered to Shuri. “The fille needed help, ca va?”

Shuri glanced at Sarah as she gathered up the tickets. “Fine, klepto, but Bucky did say no powers.”

Typhanie looked up, snorting when she heard that. “You’re kidding, right? He’s still pouting because Andie beat him at the water gun thing. I think he’s ready to declare it rigged.”

“Sounds ‘bout right,” Marie commented, not looking their way. Shuri grinned, a sneaky glint flickering in her eyes.

“Hey, Miss Marie.” She planted a sticky-sweet kiss on Marie’s cheek moments before the ball flew from her fingers. Beat red, Marie watched as her last ball landed in the gutter. Innocently, Shuri asked, “Was that my fault?”

“Uh – I -- “ Marie huffed, ducking her head. “Non. That was ‘cause o’moi.”

A warm pair of arms wrapped around Jeneva and she felt a chin rest on top of her head. “Heard y’lost a shootin’ game,” Jeneva teased, not bothering to look up as Bucky’s arms squeezed her gently.

“Shush you.” Bucky grabbed her wrist and brought the caramel apple to his lips.

Jeneva yelped, squirming in his grip to try to keep the caramel from dripping on her. “Can’t y’get y’own?”

He shrugged and released her wrist, munching on the treat. “More fun this way.”

Andie came over, struggling to keep her arms wrapped around the giraffe. “This thing is awesome.” Typhanie came up, running her fingers through the cheap fuzz that made up the giraffe’s fur. “We all need to leave here with giant stuffed animals.”

“Hell yes,” Typhanie agreed. “We could get a huge photo of them on the beach.” She looked at Sarah. “How does that sound?”

“I’m all for it, but not the shooting game. I suck at that.”

Typhanie whipped her head around, searching for something that would work. “What about that one?” She pointed and Sarah followed her gaze. There was one of those games that was kind of like ring toss, but it was set up with little plastic balls and fishbowls. Sarah smiled.

That would work.

“See you guys in a bit!” Sarah grabbed Typhanie’s wrist, earning a squeal of laughter before the two were heading towards the game.

“Gotta admit,” Bucky told Sam, noting the tension in his shoulders. “They’re cute together.”

“Yeah,” Sam mumbled begrudgingly. “Still don’t have to like it.”

Andie rolled her eyes. “Jeez, you’re such a dad, you know that?”

“Well, I guess it’s a good thing I am one then.”

“Alright, y’guys,” Marie spoke up, finally finding her voice again. “If we’re gonna make this photo happen, we should probably find more games. Where to next?”

--

Two hours passed and finally everyone had their own stuffed animal. Even Sam and Bucky. Since this was Andie’s and Typhanie’s idea, the pair were currently lining up the animals near the water, trying to find the best angles. Andie’s giraffe and Typhanie’s bear were on either end. Sarah’s elephant was propped against the bear and Shuri had managed to win an octopus that was delicately placed next to the giraffe. Not that anyone but Marie really noticed. Jeneva’s long-armed monkey and Bucky’s wolf were propped in the middle, separated at Sam’s insistence for his goofy looking goldfish with way-too-big eyes.

“Alright, perfect!” Andie jumped to her feet, pulling out her phone. “No one touch anything!” Her jeans were rolled up as she stepped into the water, attempting to get a good angle. However, the way the wind was blowing kept knocking her hair in her face. As much as she tried to get it out of the way, it wasn’t willing to work with her. It took Sarah pulling her hair into a messy ponytail for Andie to finally get her photo.

“That good for you,” Bucky asked. His metal arm glinted in the sunlight. Because they were closer to the water, he’d taken off his jacket and let Jeneva wear it. Was it necessary? Maybe not, but he knew it made Jeneva more comfortable about being closer to the ocean.

Andie stuck her tongue out at him. “Yeah, Old man, that’s good for me,” she mocked as the Lebeau girls snickered. She shrugged her tote off her shoulder. It was woven, painted to look like a rainbow. Inside was her beach towel and some sunscreen, but still plenty of room for all their prizes. “Alright, toss ‘em in.”

One by one, each stuffed toy was crammed into the tote until only the giraffe head was peeking out. Andie looked out at the water, noticing how pretty the sky was starting to look. As much as she wanted a chance to lie in the sun, she had to admit. She was having more fun spending time with her friends. “So…we did the arcade games,” she said, looking back at her friends. “What’s next?”

--

“HOLY SHIIIIIIIIIIIII – “ Bucky’s scream carried through the air with ease as they whipped through the Cyclone. It might have been Steve who had thrown up the first time they rode the crazy rollercoaster, but there was a true possibility that it would be Bucky this time around.

He collided into Jeneva, pinning her into the side of the cart. She laughed, her sunglasses tucked safely away and eyes glowing their pretty gold. “Fuck, y’heavy,” she shouted over the roar of rumbling wood and metal.

“Everybody, hold on,” Shuri said, not even bothering to listen to her own advice. She threw her hands into the air as Marie attempted to shrink in her seat.

“Fuck! Shit! Damnit!!” The slurs weren’t enough for Marie. She quickly switched to her French tongue as her thick hair waved frantically in the wind. “’M gonna die, ‘m gonna die!”

“God, you’re no fun,” Sarah shouted at Marie as she and Typhanie slammed into one another around the curve. The ride was old. And creaking. Half the terror that came from the ride was due to the sheer curiosity of whether or not it would stay in one piece.

And being the thrill seeker that she was, Sarah loved it.

Typhanie yelped as her ribs slammed into the metal bar. Oh, that hurt. She twisted slightly, clinging to Sarah as their cackling filled the air. That alone was the reminder for the group that this was certainly their idea.

“I’m picking the next riIIDE!” Sam shouted from behind as Andie cackled next to him.

Half of the team were heroes, used to training and fighting against the bad guys. But facing the Cyclone? That was a whole other beast.

Stumbling off the ride, Bucky leaned heavily against Jeneva as she attempted to put her sunglasses on. “Homme, y’a super soldier! A coaster ain’t gonna send y’t’ya knees.” Bucky chuckled. Apparently her comment was enough to send his mind reeling. He leaned forward, whispering something in her ear that earned a bright pink tinge to her cheeks. Huffing, Jeneva elbowed him in the stomach. The obnoxious grunt that came from him was enough to satisfy her. “Behave y’self.”

“You’re no fun, Doll.”

“How ‘bout somethin’ a petite calmer,” Marie asked, her hand clinging to the crook of Shuri’s elbow. “Sil vous plait?”

Shuri gave her a small smile. Marie was definitely calmer than Jeneva. She didn’t thrive off of energy, something the other Lebeau had to do because of her powers. Marie preferred staying tucked away in her computer lab, exploring a world in technology that no one else had really understood before the two had met. Brushing some of Marie’s tangled hair out of her face, Shuri asked, “What about the Wonder Wheel?” She looked at the others, seeing them all share a look that meant they were on board.

“Wonder Wheel,” Andie said, flicking her hair over her shoulder. “Here we go.”

--

It’s a much calmer experience than the Cyclone had been. Everyone piled into their own passenger cars. The lights flickered, glowing against their skin. “You and your friends picked a good time,” the attendant told Typhanie and Sarah. “The fireworks should be starting soon.”

“Cool,” Typhanie tugged Sarah in, laughing when her girlfriend stumbled into her seat. Sarah huffed, running a hand through her hair as the attendant closed the door. “Aw, you’re pouting,” Typhanie teased, poking her cheek.

“Shut up,” Sarah muttered, throwing her legs across Typhanie’s lap. “You’re lucky you’re cute.”

“I could say the same thing to you.” Typhanie tugged her legs closer, forcing Sarah to get tucked into her side. Knowing Sarah wasn’t really upset, she gave her a sweet kiss.

Sarah giggled against her lips. “I thought the tradition was to kiss the girl at the top of the Ferris Wheel.”

“When do we ever follow tradition?”

Their laughter bubbled up, carrying to Marie’s and Shuri’s passenger car. They were sitting across from each other, the car gently rocking as they looked out at the water. It was a beautiful sight with the moon reflecting in the waves. “Merci,” Marie whispered, fingers playing with the ends of her hair as Shuri turned to look her way.

“For what?”

“Pickin’ this ride. It’s exactly what I needed.”

A small smile tugged at Shuri’s lips. She knew she wasn’t supposed to move around in the car. Not when they were in the air. But it couldn’t be helped. She moved quickly, noticing the way Marie sat a little straighter, and plopped into the seat next to her. “I like you.” Shuri noticed the panic flashing in Marie’s eyes. “A lot. And I know you’re freaking out, but I also know you feel the same way. You aren’t subtle.”

Marie bit her lip, eyes flicking and searching Shuri’s face. “I – I – “ She felt like she couldn’t talk. Taking a slow breath, Marie admitted, “I don’t understand romance. Or fallin’ in love. I’m not like mon famille who just dives in headfirst. I’m awkward…And I like when t’ings make sense. Romance and love don’t. And that terrifies moi.”

Shuri was waiting for the but. There had to be one. Surely, she hadn’t been imagining what was happening between them. Right?

“But I do. Like y’, I mean. I’m just really bad at understandin’ what that means.”

Shuri felt giddy. She didn’t mind the need to understand that came with Marie. It just meant that they had to work together. Intertwining their hands, Shuri gave a gentle squeeze. Marie shifted her gaze to their hands. It fit so well. “Maybe,” Shuri offered, nudging her with her shoulder. “We take it slow? And figure it all out together?”

Marie smiled, looking back at Shuri. “I t’ink I can get behind that.”

Jeneva had been watching from above, peering over the edge and trying to hear everything that was going on. She couldn’t help it. She liked making sure that Marie was okay.

“Get over here.” Bucky looped his flesh arm around her waist, tugging her back into his chest. “She’s a big girl, Jen. Let her figure it out.”

“I know,” Jeneva grumbled as she turned towards Bucky. He pushed her sunglasses on top of her head, smiling when he saw that liquid gold flickering in her eyes. “I just don’t want ‘er t’get hurt. That so bad?”

“No, it’s not,” Bucky assured her, his thumb running along her cheek. He watched as electricity ran under her skin, chasing after his thumb and making her skin glow. There was a time when he had thought those powers could only hurt people. Now…he knew that sometimes her powers had a calming effect. They could provide warmth and an odd feeling of fullness that he had come to love. Just like he loved her. “But we’re at the top of the Wonder Wheel,” he told her just as the ride pulled to a stop. “And I’d like a bit of your attention before you force me into that minivan again.”

Jeneva’s jaw dropped, a shocked laugh filling the air. “I didn’t! Marie won fair ‘n’ square!”

Bucky grinned. “Whatever,” he said, not fully believing that she would have forced Marie into the minivan.

The crackle and pop of fireworks grabbed their attention. Jeneva settled in on Bucky’s lap, resting her head on his shoulder as the sky lit up. Though her eyes watched the glow and show intently, his gaze was focused on her. The way her eyes flickered a little brighter with every new firework. How warm she felt because of the electricity coursing through her veins. The way her steady heart always made him feel calm. Pressing a small kiss to her forehead, he rest his cheek on her head, careful of the sunglasses, and looked back to the show she was so entranced by.

“How much you want to bet that none of them are actually watching the show?”

Sam glanced back at Andie. She had that same old, knowing smile on her lips. He scrunched his nose. While he and Bucky were supposed to be the chaperones for the day, he knew that Bucky would slack off since Jeneva was there. But still…

He didn’t need to picture it.

“I need you to keep those thoughts to yourself. One of them is my kid, you know.”

“Oh, I know.” Andie grinned like the cat that ate the canary, cuddling into her giraffe as another firework burst in the air. “That’s why I said it.”

Sam rolled his eyes. “You’re as mean as Barnes, you know that?”

Andie laughed. “Careful. Imagine if I was his kid.”

He shuddered. “Nope. No, that’s worse than the idea of all of them ignoring the show.”

Andie’s laughter, though drowned out by the fireworks, was filled with warmth. The type that could only come from a day like today. A day with friends. With family. A day at Coney Island.

[avengerscompound]

Fury’s Angels

Fury’s Angels: An Avengers Fanfic

Buy me a ☕ Character Pairing:  Clint Barton x Maria Hill x Natasha Romanoff

Word Count:  2613

Rating:  E

Warnings:  Smut (MFF bisexual threesome, oral sex, vaginal sex)

Synopsis:  Romanoff, Barton, and Hill are Fury’s dream team. They work together like they are three parts of one whole. It’s not just out on the field where these three work well together though.

Fury’s Angels

“Hey Bird, you got eyes on the spider?”  Hill’s voice came in over comms.  Clint sat on the roof, he hadn’t taken his eyes off Natasha since they’d moved into position.  She moved through the room like fluid.   Her red hair stood out in a sea of blondes and brunettes and her tight black dress made sure that once she had their attention, they couldn’t look away.  She’d stop to talk to the most important people.  She laughed at the right things, throwing her head back so her hair flipped over her shoulder and cascaded down her back.  The light caught it so it looks like actual fire in motion.  She held her throat so her target's eyes were drawn there and then down to her breasts.  Clint knew she faking it.  When Natasha was genuinely laughing she double forward holding onto the other person shoulder and snorted.  This was all for show.  She was the lure and they bit every time.  Clint couldn’t blame them.  She looked good enough to eat.

“I sure do.  She’s looking deadly as ever.”  Clint replied.  “She’s going to want her feet rubbed after spending so long in those heels though.”

“Head in the game, birdbrain.”  Hill teased, though she knew he was right.  Natasha could wear heels.  She could fight in heels.  She could do a series of elaborate acrobatic flips in heels.  She could even kill a man four times her size using her heels.  But if she spent a full day in them she whined until someone agreed to rub her feet.

Clint laughed his eyes tracking Natasha through the room.  “She found the target and they’ve taken the bait.  Shouldn’t be too much longer.”

“I call not rubbing her feet.”  Hill teased.

Clint whined.  “What?  It’s always me.”

“Well, your hands are bigger.”  Hill insisted.

There was another whine from Clint.  “You’ll owe me.”

“You know I’m good for it.”  Hill shot back, but the words were heavy with innuendo.

“If you two don’t quit flirting over comms and do your job, I’ll separate you from now on.”  Nick Fury’s voice came through the comms hard and stern.  Both Hill and Clint started laughing.

“You’d never break up the Charlie’s Angels.”  Hill scoffed.  “Our record’s too good.”

“I’m one of the Angels?”  Clint asked.  “Which one am I?”  

“Drew Barrymore’s,” Hill answered.

“What?  I’m at least Lucy Liu.”  Clint yelped.

Fury rolled his eyes.  They might be the best but they tried his patients.  “Agents some professionalism please.”

There was silence on the comms.  Clint kept his eyes on Natasha.  The target, a slimy-looking senator was now leaned right into her, making no pretense other than that he was ogling her tits.  Clint’s fingers tightened around his bow and he reached behind him like he was just making sure the quiver of arrows was still in place on his back.

“Does that make Nick, Bosley or Charlie?”  Clint asked.

“I’m obviously Charlie.”  He responded quickly and Hill and Clint broke down into laughter again.

“I don’t know, boss.  We actually see you.  I think you’re Bosley.”  Maria teased.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Nick said, but when he switched the mic off he chuckled too.

Clint watched as Natasha followed the target to the edge of the room.  His view became slightly blocked by a group of people passing in front of the window.  He shifted trying to see past them.  When they finally move on Natasha was nowhere in sight.

“Fuck, I’ve lost, Widow.”  He cursed into comms.  “Nat. Can you head me?  What’s your status.”

There was dead air on the comms.  All Clint could hear was the hammering of his heart.  “Nat, if you’re in trouble let me know.”

There was a brief crackle where the sounds of struggling were clear and Clint pulls out an arrow.  “Going in.”

He aimed and loosed the arrow, it flew straight, a trail of cord rolling out behind it.  As it got near to its target the arrowhead opened up into a grappling hook and it attached itself to the side of the building.

He tugged on the cable and jumped.

“We’re sending in backup.”  Hill said as Clint crashed through the large glass doors that opened up onto the balcony.  The was a group shriek from the partygoers who all stumbled back away from him in shock.

He groaned and rolled onto his back.  His face and arms were cut up from the glass and his back felt like a flaming hot rod had been switched out for his spine.  Two security guards drew their guns and rushed over to him.

“Aww… guards.”  He whined, as he struggled to his feet and nocked another arrow.  He trained the arrow on one of them as they both aimed their guns at him.

“What do you think you’re going to do there, Robin Hood?”  The guy on the left asked.

“I think, what I’d like to do is ask you what happened to my friend.  Little redhead.  About shoulder high.  Super hot in a black dress.  Then you’ll tell me and I’d walk out and go find her.  What’s probably going to happen is I’ll shoot this arrow into your friend’s hand here and pin it to the wall.  You’ll try and shoot me but I’ll avoid it and then smack you on the back of the head with my bow.”  Clint answered.

“Nice one, wise guy.  Put it down.”  The guy on the right said.

Clint sighed and loosed his arrow.  It punctured the guard’s hand, making him drop his gun and pinning it to the wall behind him.  The remaining guard fired but Clint was already feinting left, he spun around behind the guy and hit him hard in the back of the head, knocking him to the ground.  Clint, stepped on his hand, making him release the gun, and nocked another arrow, pointing it at the guy’s head.

“Would you like to know exactly how much pain your friend is in?”  Clint asked.

The guard shook his head.  “No, please don’t.”

“My friend.  The redhead.  Where is she?”  Clint spat.  The guard pointed to a wall to the left of the room.  “Hidden door?”  Clint asked.  The guard nodded.  “How do I open it?”

“Panel on the left.”  The guy answered.  Clint smacked him in the back of the head again, knocking him unconscious and ran to the wall, pressing the panel.  The wall opened up and he turned on the crowd of party-goers.  “Ladies and gentleman, enjoy your night.  Don’t think of going anywhere, the authorities are on their way.”

He rushed through the hall and down the flight of stairs that lay behind the secret door.  On the lower level, there were multiple doors that opened up into empty rooms.  Some looked like offices, some just storage.  Finally on the bottom left he found her.  Four men were unconscious on the floor around her and a fifth was now tied to a chair while she leaned over him.

“Aww, Nat,” Clint whined, relaxing his bow.

She turned to him and sighed.  “You, birdbrain.  Did you really think they got the better of me?”

Clint ran his hand through the back of his hair.  “Yes.  No.  I don’t know.”

“How long have we been working together now?”  She asked.

“Nat.”  He whined just as Hill appeared behind him with half a dozen SHIELD agents.

“What you too?” Natasha scolded.  “Who do you think I am?”

Hill laughed and waved the other agents in.  “Alright, clean this up.  Maybe we can get home tonight at a reasonable hour.”

With the injuries he’d received, Clint wasn’t back at the apartment he shared with Natasha and Maria until an hour after them.  When he came through the door the two women were in their panties lying on the couch.  Maria was lying half on top of Natasha, her head in the crook of Nat’s neck.  Liho the black cat that had adopted Natasha was curled on the arm of the chair and Lucky the one-eyed dog Clint had rescued was curled up on the floor below them.  Natasha lazily played with his ears while she ran her other hand up and down Maria’s back.

All seven eyes looked up at him as he closed the door.  “Finally,”  Natasha said, as she and Maria retracted their legs to make room on the couch for him.  He flopped down and kicked his shoes off and four feet plopped into his lap.

“Feet.  Maria said it was on you.”  Nat said.

It was hard to define what Clint, Natasha, and Maria had.  They were together.  The three of them.  Though it was open.  Sometimes they weren’t together at all.  They didn’t want to define it.  In many ways, they couldn’t because defining it made it real and making it real meant they had to admit to things they couldn’t.

At the core, it was the three of them.  Together.  Having each other’s backs no matter what.  So when the rest fell into place it was just comfortable.  The way things were meant to be.

Clint started to work his thumbs over Natasha’s arches.  “Is that so?  Did she also tell you she’d owe me?”

Natasha let out a small moan as the tension was released from her tired feet.  “Did you really, Hill?  And what exactly would that entail I wonder.”  She mused, curling a lock of Maria’s hair around her finger.

“I don’t know,”  Maria said, looking up at Clint, her hand slid up Natasha’s side and she started to tease her thumb over her nipple.  “How good is the foot rub?”

Natasha let out another moan as Clint rubbed his thumbs in circles over the balls of her feet.  “Yeah.  It’s doing the job alright.”

“One job deserves another I’d say.”  She said climbing up over Natasha.  Natasha stopped her as Maria’s legs straddled Natasha’s waist.  She pulled her down into a kiss and the two women moved against each other, Maria rolling her hips slightly.  Clint continued to rub Natasha’s feet but he kept his eyes on them.  His cock gradually hardened in his pants both at the sight of them and the promise of a little something for him too.

Maria pulled away and slipped onto the floor.  She positioned herself between Clint’s legs and began to unfasten his fly.

“You look pretty good down there, Hill.”  Clint teased.

She slapped his leg.  “Do you not actually want this, bird?”  She asked as she freed his cock.  It sprang out of his boxers and she quirked an eyebrow at him. “Looks like you really want it.”

“Yes please, Maria,”  Clint said grinning down at her.

Maria ran her tongue up the length of Clint’s shaft before licking her lips.  “That’s what I thought.  Now be a good bird, won’t you?”

Clint let his head fall back and let out a moan as Maria plunged her mouth down the full length of Clint’s shaft.  He let his hands drop to the couch and his fingers dig into the cushions.

Natasha sat up and moved closer to him, pressing her body against his.  Her breasts pushed up against the side of his chest.  “You think you get to just lie back and enjoy that?”  She teased.

Clint curled his arm around Nat’s waist and his hand slid down to her pussy.  His fingers slipped between her folds he ran them up and down in time with the bobbing of Maria’s head before he starts focussing on Natasha’s clit.

“That’s a good start.”  Natasha purred and Clint leaned in, kissing her hungrily.  Their tongues battled for a moment before Clint pulled away abruptly, pulling her up higher and latched onto her breast.

Natasha moaned at the sharp pleasure that surged out through her breast meeting the slow tingle that was building from her cunt in her stomach.  Clint moaned against Natasha’s skin, and his hips rolled up against Maria.

Maria slowly pulled back, sucking hard on Clint’s shaft.  “Bedroom, I think, Angels.”

Clint tried to stifle his laugh against Natasha’s skin unsuccessfully.  “Sound plan.”  He said as Natasha looked at them slightly confused.

The three stood up.  Natasha jumped up onto Clint’s back and kissed his neck as he and Maria kissed their way down to Maria’s bedroom.  When they walked through the door, Clint lifted her and carried her to the bed.  When he placed her down, Natasha slipped down from Clint’s back and kneeled in front of Maria.  The two women kissed and their hands traveled over each other’s skin.  Clint pulled their panties down and off before stripping out of his own clothes.

By the time he was naked, Maria was on her back arching up off the bed as Natasha crouched between her legs, kissing and sucking at her pussy.  As the tart musk of Maria filled Natasha’s mouth making her hum happily as she thrust her fingers inside her friend, fucking her with them and drawing more fluids from her, Clint crouched behind Nat and ran his tongue up her crevice.

Natasha mewled between them.  She and Maria couldn’t keep still.  Their bodies jerked and their legs trembled but they never stopped. Natasha kept stroking along Maria’s g-spot as she nipped and sucked on her clit as Clint’s thumb ran over hers and his tongue swirled around her folds.

Maria came arching off the bed and crying out.  Her hands bunched into Natasha’s hair.  The sound made Clint’s cock jump and precome leak from the end.

Natasha’s orgasm hit as she lapped up Maria’s fluids.  She fell forward into Maria’s lap and lay panting as Clint stroked her through her climax. As it passed she and Maria turned on Clint.  “Come here, ptichka,”  Natasha said.  “You’ve been so patient.  Now you can have your reward.”

Clint climbed up on the bed and Maria and Natasha guided him onto his back.  Maria grabbed a condom from her bedside cabinet and removed it from the packet.  She placed the ring of latex between her lips and lowered herself down, using them to roll the condom down over Clint’s shaft.  Clint groaned and his hips bucked up.  “Fuck, I love it when you do that.”  He almost growled.

Natasha straddled Clint’s hips and lowered herself down onto his cock as Maria straddled his face.  Clint groaned grabbing onto Maria’s thighs and digging his fingers into her muscle.  Natasha and Maria rode him.  There hips rolling in tandem.  They kissed and teased at each other.  Pinching at nipples and running their hands down each other’s stomach until they were each teasing the other’s clit.

Below them, Clint came apart.  He moaned graphically as he swirled his tongue around Maria’s pussy.  The taste of her mixing with the taste of Nat lingering in his mouth.  Her juices flowed freely, and he drank them all up.  His hips snapped up into Natasha as she rode his cock, milking it.

Both women seemed to come together.  Natasha orgasm hitting her a split second before Maria came all over his face.  The intensity of it and the way Nat’s core pulsed around his cock set his off too and he jerked up and emptied inside of Natasha with a graphic moan.

Maria and Natasha slipped from atop Clint and collapsed down onto the bed.  Clint and Hill curling themselves into the redhead.   “Do you think you’ll both sleep?”  Hill asked.

Clint and Natasha hum in unison, both exhausted and relaxed.  “For a while at least,”  Natasha answered.

“Good.  Would hate for all this good work wasted.”  Hill teased.

Clint laughed.  “Well, that is never a waste.”

[slightly-nerdy-rambles]

TTA Oneshot: Spiraling

01/12/20 Edit: Added a couple lines to help clarify things

This story follows "Starlit Flight" from this year's Robstar Week (that's 2019 for those of you reading this in the future). You don't have to read it to understand this one, but for those who have, when I was writing it I was kind of struck with the thought of "What would the other Titans think if they saw this going on out the window?" and found the resulting mental image hilarious. Then I remembered that death spirals are a thing (don't worry if you don't know what those are, it's explained in the story), and so of course I had to write about that because I am a giant animal nerd. Timeline-wise, this takes place not too long after Trouble in Tokyo, and maybe a week or two after "Starlit Flight."

On the "animal nerd" note, this story also serves to indulge a headcanon I have wherein Beast Boy actually knows a lot about animals, having studied them both to better use his animal forms and out of personal interest. His knowledge is somewhat touched on in the previous oneshot, but it doesn't come up often because he's usually too busy messing around or coming up with wild ideas for things to really bring it up.

(This oneshot is crossposted on fanfiction.net, as part of the Moments series)

Spiraling

It was an ordinary enough night in Titan’s Tower. Cyborg and Beast Boy had settled in for a long – and noisy – Smash Bots gaming marathon. Raven had settled in with a steaming mug of tea and an old grimoire she was studying, and years of practice allowed her to drown the boys out as she worked. Silkie had curled up against her at some point, and as Raven flipped pages and took notes, she would occasionally reach down to give him an absent stroke on the head.

For a while, that odd disjointed rhythm – the flashing lights on the screen, the mechanical grunts of virtual robots beating the snot out of each other and shouts of their players exchanging smack talk, the sedate scent of herbs and lavender – filled the common room.

Then Robin and Starfire fell past the window.

Cyborg cut himself off mid-sentence with a panicked yell. He practically threw his controller to the ground and ran up to the big bayside window, Beast Boy following close behind. Their commotion snapped an otherwise-occupied Raven to attention.

“What is it?” she asked, making her way to the boys with long strides.

Beast Boy peeled his eyes away from the window for just a second to glance at her. “Raven!” he shrieked. “Quick, you gotta phase through the window and… Oh, wait, never mind.”

He watched as Starfire shot back up past them, her hands tightly grasping those of the team leader.

Cyborg scratched his head. “Shoulda known Star had it under control. What were those two doing anyway?”

The three of them watched as their teammates… continued flying. Starfire pulled Robin along in arcs and twists, going so high that it was hard for the others to see them through the angle of the window.

One more arc and they were suddenly in another freefall, but this time the others realized it was intentional. Starfire drifted back a foot or so, grasped her partner’s hands, and gently pulled them into a slow spiral. They rushed past the window again, and the faint sound of laughter just managed to drift through.

Beast Boy’s face lit up, and he cackled. “I can’t believe it! They’re doing a death spiral!”

That grabbed his friends’ attention, and they turned to him. “A… death spiral?” Cyborg asked skeptically.

Beast Boy was grinning like an idiot now, and he backed away from the window to address the other two. “Trust me, it is every bit as adorable as it is badass. See, when eagles are courting, they kind of…” he clasped his hands together to demonstrate, “lock talons and go into this spinning freefall. I think it’s for like testing their compatibility or something? But anyway, that is totally what Robin and Star are doing right now! I mean, just look at them and tell me that isn’t a couple thing!”

Cyborg frowned thoughtfully and glanced back out the window, just in time to see his teammates fly back up. “…Huh. I guess Robin really is a birdbrain.”

Raven shook her head. “Interspecies relationships are weird.”

Beast Boy let out a longing sigh and rested his hands against the window, watching the couple as they continued their nighttime dance. “Man, I wish I had a cool flying girlfriend.”

Silence. He looked back at Cyborg and Raven to find them staring at him.

“…B, you can fly.”

Beast Boy rolled his eyes. “Well, yeah, by turning into a bird or something. Which isn’t exactly romantic unless I somehow find another shapeshifter to date.” He considered that line of thought for a moment.

“…Although that would make it even more of a death spiral.”

Raven just shook her head again, though she glanced back at the window with the tiniest hint of a smile on her lips. “I’m going back to studying,” she said, turning back toward the couch.

Cyborg lingered a little bit longer, looking out as well. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "A courting ritual, huh?" he said to himself before letting out an I'm so teasing Robin for this chuckle and returning to the couch as well.

Outside, the couple of the hour were drifting past again. Starfire happened to catch Beast Boy looking her way, and he could swear he heard a soft “Eep!” as she froze in place for a moment before disappearing with her partner.

A little smile quirked at the side of his mouth. Well, he still thought it was cute.

********

On Tamaran, they called it bak’nor. A partnered flight, in which said partners wove around each other and followed one another through arcs and dips and dives as they saw fit. It was reserved for lovers, who buoyed themselves and each other with the warmth of their bond and transformed the joy of flight into an intimately shared experience.

For many, bak’nor was how they announced to their neighbors an intent to marry.

It was a little different for the two of them, of course. Humans, at least in this part of the world, held a more drawn-out courting process than on Tamaran. Partnered flight suited this “dating” stage well, as it turned out. The dance itself also had to be modified, since only one of them could actually fly.

That was all right. Exposing each other to new experiences, and tweaking them as needed, had always been a rather exciting quirk of their relationship.

In any case, Starfire and Robin were laughing as they descended the Tower’s stairwell.

“I did not even realize we were flying that low,” the former admitted, swallowing her mirth. “I cannot imagine what they must have thought we were doing!”

Robin shot her a grin and a playful jab in the side. “Considering how you reacted? I’m not sure I’d want to know.”

A light blush made its way to Starfire’s face. “I panicked! It caught me by surprise, that is all.”

She cast him a pleading look with that, as if begging him to forgive her for the abrupt end of the flight, but it dissolved as they both descended into giggles again. There was no room for regrets in bak’nor.

By the time they reached the common room, they had managed to regain their composure. Raven seemed to be studying a book of some sort, but she spared them a glance in silent greeting. Cyborg and Beast Boy, just finishing a round of Smash Bots, turned as they approached.

Beast Boy grinned and pillowed his head on his hands. “Sooo, how was your flight?”

Starfire kept her smile even. “Very pleasant, thank you.”

Cyborg smirked and waggled his eyebrows. “And should we start planning the weddin’ now, or…?”

There was a beat as Beast Boy snorted out a peal of laughter. Now, not so long ago (and likely even now, under different circumstances), that comment would have earned a solid round of furious blushing, stammering, and unnecessary denial from Robin.

So the two boys were a little confused when all he had to offer was a light blush. He took his girlfriend’s hand and muttered “Told you,” to her before leading her off to the kitchen to continue their conversation.

Robin and Starfire were even more confused when Beast Boy turned back to Cyborg and said, “See? Totally a death spiral.”

[mag7dumbies]

Magnificent Seven Series (1998) Pilot major spoilers

So I finally finished watching the Pilot and good lord I had thoughts, and no this is not the first time I’ve watched this episode, I’m just that extra when I watch TV 

(Here we go yet again folks strap in)

(I have mentioned I hate the confederates- garbage humans the lot)

(Also giving birth is better in a squatting position- or at least that’s what I’ve heard)

(Seminoles are actually a very interesting tribe to read about)

“I respect no man’s law but my own” well fuck you too racist bastard (not only that but you need to get a fucking haircut and someone to repair that ratty flag of yours or better yet burn it)

I hate that he is so right cause we still have nut jobs in the south who are in denial that we won the war 

The movie was so much nicer goodness (I mean violence wise it wasn’t as insane as this is)

I hate that the general is not completely bad (he isn’t close to good but he still has morals, which is hard to believe considering what he believes)

(The general is nuttier than an oak tree)

OKAY HOW DARE YOU, I’M NEARLY A TRILLION PERCENT SURE THAT SAND IS SACRED AND YOU JUST FUCKING CHUCK IT WHO RAISED YOU

AND YOU PUT THAT MASK WHERE YOU FOUND IT GODDAMN IT

“I believe I can turn gold into bullets” (what does that even mean)

(Didn’t realize that this whole episode was a week’s worth of stuff huh)

(I love that they included freed slaves just makes me happy)

Lordy boardy here we go

Chris this is not the time for a drink

The duster flaps in the wind- okay we get it Chris is a badass- he was drinking glass, earlier we know

The Marshall is a coward (this reminds me of a fantastic fic I once found that had the Marshall return and Nathan was understandably pissed it was awesome)

He’s wearing an apron- oh Vin you have fallen so far, (I’m glad he has long hair though, in the movie it was pretty short which didn’t really fit cause you know Vin isn’t one for conventions or white men tradition)

Mary, Mary quite contrary-angry I mean angry good lord I love her

(I always pronounce gangrene as gaygrene and its super frustrating cause I’ll try my hardest to say it right but my mouth doesn’t work that way or at least it doesn’t sound right)

Only in the nineties could you say darkie doctors on TV and not be immediately cancelled or there to be some sorta outrage, same thing applies to lynching, you can hang white folks on TV but the minute a black person is having the noose we have problems (which is really good cause there are people still alive that have probably witnessed a lynching of someone who certainly didn’t deserve it)

That son of a bitch, pushing Mary was stupid because not only are you being racist which is a trait no one likes but also being a sexist pig- (you are in for it now)

Uh-oh Vin is pissed that isn’t good for anyone (well Nathan but that isn’t the point)

Do you think Vin gives a damn about being employed- and how did he get the apron off so fast like damn

THE FUCKING NOD

Here he comes the stupidest boy in the Wild West- (I’m gonna punch something I swear)

He’s so little 

Chris nearly shot Jd’s foot off 

“Where’d you come from” where did you go where’d you come from, tall dark stranger and his weird friend

(The saloon bit tickles me to death)

(For some reason it reminds me of Lone Ranger and I don’t know why)

Vin is a fucking sweetheart and I love him

Poor Nathan I hope his throat is okay

Vin do you have to be negative and suicidal in the same swoop seriously

Its Buckaroo time everybody, hell yeah

Then he jumps out a fucking window like a moron, and Chris is just standing there like a he’s too cool for school

(Is it Josiah or ‘osiah, not entirely sure)

And here comes the Ez, ugh he’s about as cute as he can get

“Sorry for the mess” lordy be

(Love Ez’s one-liners)

“I abhor gambling” carefully baby don’t want Maude to hear you and fuck you too you Southern bigot (I know he gets better but still, that language isn’t okay)

What the fuck is he doing with his fancy footwork just leave the saloon for mother’s sake

It’s too early in the morning to deal with Jd just goddammit (I’m gonna make some popcorn and come back to this cause I seriously can’t)

(Okay I’ve calmed down and I am ready for the stupidity)

What did he think was going to happen, of course, you fell off your fucking horse you side saddled that bitch and startled a horse that you don’t even know you’re better than this

(The only thing he can’t do is have a brain cell)

Chris is an asshole

This damn kid

Buck what the hell are, you doing, leave the kiddo be

(I also find it difficult to trust white men)

And here comes the boy and Buck (Jd’s hair is just bad, it’s like Snape’s)

Buck is right about Jd being a prep

“We’ll carve it on his tombstone” brutal Chris just brutal

(Vin is a sweet boy have I said that already cause he is)

Ezra is so good with kids damn

(Ron Perlman’s arms hell yeah)

Ezra nearly died good lord and he just goes with it and pretends he did it on purpose

Here comes Rainey girl I love her

Nathan why you hurt me, and RAINE THIS ISNT THE TIME TO PLAY MATCHMAKER

I love Raine’s dad he’s fantastic

Buck is such a goof I love him

Why is the guy, so raspy what happened

Jd getting punched is my favorite

This is so cringe, and I really like it “I was in prison for not being white” (that is still the case for some people and we all know it)

Buck CHILL THE FUCK OUT 

Vin are you serious, you don’t know Chris and there you are just hanging out and suddenly you’re like hey dude if I die, take my body to Tascosa you will get a huge payday, he didn’t have to do that at all but he’s just that dude I love him too much

(There’s also a really good fic about Josiah and his crows it's great)

Ezra, I’m done with you, good lord just go home

Here we go

Nathan is a gift to all

Buck don’t waste bullets and Josiah go to a hospital, Jd you’re an idiot and nearly died plus Ezra what are you doing go to Nathan, dumbass

Buck spewing truth everywhere

Bruised my ass Ezra just accept help like a normal human being goddamn

Nathan does not take no for an answer and ow I heard that crack in my own arm ouch

Nathan called him out

Josiah, I love you so much, (usually, I really hate missionaries cause they can be extremely intolerant to other religions especially those of Native peoples,) but Josiah tries his best to respect them which is a breath of fresh air

Josiah fainting isn’t helpful I don’t care what the crows, say (he’s a birdbrain)

Poor Jd, I just wanna give him a hug, and dude chill you are being a mess, like drink like a normal person

Buck stop telling people Chris’s past it isn’t appropriate

And I swear we own an old blanket that looks exactly like Josiah’s poncho no joke

“I’m a spiritual man, sometimes I turn to the wrong kind of spirits” I love this line

Ezra stop corrupting the youth, (Ezra is like O’Reilly and I love that characterization)

What debts they can’t be older than 10, Ezra stop, please 

Nathan, I get you love, her -chill, and Jd “I haven’t shot anyone yet” are you kidding me, seriously

“Buck you’re full of crap” “You’re just figuring that out now” (Had I mentioned I love their dynamic cause I really really do)

(I did some research on Laudanum, purely for fun and apparently, it’s basically just a mixture of every opiate available and then some, plus it’s illegal to make for obvious reasons,)

That’s right Ezra you aren’t a coward or at least not completely

(Jd’s story makes me think that maybe MAYBE he was abused as a kid in the stables, not anything too horrific but still bad and I really wanna write about it)

Btw there is a wonderful thing (I think it was posted by 7men not sure though) anyway it says something about Jd used some of the money to take care of his mama before she died, and after there wasn’t enough to go to college but there was enough to go out west) I think about it at least once a month

(The war is over if only some people could get that through their thick heads)

Ezra you sneaky son of a bitch pulling a Chico

Chris is such a badass I mean that must hurt pulling off that handcuff

Round Three

I’m a bad bitch “You can’t kill me”

John Daniel Dunne- are you kidding me, are you trying to make either myself or Buck die because if you are you’re doing a great job (He is so stupid)

Buck, really you could have tackled him or really done anything else- instead you decide to fucking get stabbed by a sword (this is why you only have half a brain cell- I mean God fucking damn it)

Really Jo seriously like thanks for taking a bullet for Buck but really

Watching this episode has taken almost three hours but it’s totally worth it

(This is the worst part ugh it's like a weird zombie movie)

“You were like a son to me” Bitch you nearly shot him with a cannon

Chris thank you I wasn’t sure if that stupid general was gonna bite it or not

Jd cut out the angst you’re gonna hurt yourself 

This old dude is a gift

“Buck, you look awful” kid your hair looks awful don’t let me get started

Nathan, Raine and the kid look like the perfect family and it makes me smile

“Where you going? Get down off that horse” poor Nathan what did he do to deserve the stress of dealing with those idiots like seriously what did he do

The good thing though is I’m pretty sure Josiah got a new poncho which is definitely a win

Raine gets it though she’s just ‘look those white morons are gonna get themselves killed so it’s better if you at least try to save their skins’ I can handle things here

Poor Josiah, he is just as hunched over as he can be, its pitiful  

Okay I’m FINALLY done with this episode, think I may read a little before I get back on the saddle and on to my absolute favorite episode One Day Out West

[musicalluna]

epistaxis, 7/7

this was originally a not fic written by @samurljacksonwho is allowing me to make it in to a full fic since i’m obssessed

warning: there will be quite a lot of blood in this fic :p

read part 1 read part 2 read part 3 read part 4 read part 5 read part 6

--

Steve is only partially aware of what's going on around him as the surgery wraps up and the doctors wheel him out of the OR. His face hurts so badly he feels blind with it. Breathing hurts and making faces hurts and crying hurts—everything hurts.

Someone puts a hand on his arm and says, “We're going to give you some pain medication, Captain. It should help a little bit.”

They have a few things, that, if carefully administered, can help him manage his pain. Steve waits desperately, praying with every second that passes that it will kick in soon.

Finally, finally after what feels like another eternity, the pain starts to draw back. He relaxes shakily against the bed, just now realizing how tense he'd been. He doesn't like feeling slow and foggy, but right now anything is better than the sensation of his face feeling inside out.

“Welcome back, old man.” Natasha leans into his field of view and smiles at him, one hand cupping his jaw. “I know you probably feel like you got hit by a Mack truck, but you're okay. The surgery went as well as could be expected. Tony is verbally eviscerating the team of anesthesiologists, and we're here. Do you know where you are?”

Steve starts to nod and then stops when it sends pain sparking out in a starburst through his face.

“Blink once for yes and twice for no.”

He blinks once.

“Okay good,” she says, voice warm and smooth as honey. “Where are you pain-wise? Use your fingers.”

Steve curls his fingers to indicate a six. Not feeling great, but not the worst he's felt either. He starts to ask how long it's been and the moment his throat starts to move, everything explodes with searing level-nine agony.

“...it's all right, ride it out, Steve, you'll be okay. Are you with us again?”

Steve twitches his head in a nod, because his eyelashes are clumped together with tears. That had been fucking excruciating, he won't do it again.

“You're probably not going to be able to talk for a little while, Steve,” Bruce says and steps into view on Steve's other side. “Everything is connected and it's going to cause you a fair amount of pain.”

No shit. Steve wants to say, but he doesn't dare try.

“Do you remember what happened?”

Steve's hand judders in a gesture that means sort of and thankfully it's understood.

“You underwent surgery to remove a piece of shrapnel caught at the back of your nose near the top of your throat. It went well, except you woke up during surgery, which was something I hope to god none of us have to witness ever again.”

Steve vaguely recalls the sense of panic when he'd woken, and he hopes not either.

“Your job now is to rest. Are you thirsty?”

Steve blinks once and someone hands Nat a cup. She carefully feeds a piece of chipped ice into his mouth. If he weren't tired to his bones, Steve would be more embarrassed. He tries not to move his mouth too much, nudging the ice around with the smallest movements possible.

Exhausted, he closes his eyes even though Bruce is still talking.

When Steve opens his eyes again, the sun is coming up. He feels groggy, eyes sticky and his mouth is horrible. To his relief, the pain has banked, reduced to a steady, low-level throb.

He looks around the room and discovers Tony slumped in the chair next to the bed with his head tipped back on the seat back. His mouth is hanging open a little and he's snoring. Natasha is curled up in a chair on his other side, eyes fixed on the screen of her phone, which is casting shifting blue light across her face. Last, he spots Clint tucked back in one of the corners sitting on a countertop. He's watching Steve.

Steve lifts his fingers in greeting and Clint's single-minded focus eases a little. “Hey, Cap. How you feeling?” he asks, keeping his voice low.

Remembering how bad it hurt last time he tried to speak, Steve swallows carefully, testing how it feels. It sharpens the discomfort in the back of his throat briefly, but compared to how it felt before it's not bad. “Better,” he tries. His voice sounds terrible, but it works.

“Good.” Clint tosses a small object at Tony and it hits him in the forehead before Steve can protest.

Tony jerks awake, blinking blearily.

He stares at Steve for a moment and then shoves himself upright, scrubbing his face. “Steve! Hey, hey, you're awake. Hallelujah, I don't want to be the boss anymore.”

“You're not,” Steve replies and Tony winces at the sound of his voice. “Nat is.”

Clint snickers.

Tony ignores him. “How's your face?”

“Aches,” Steve admits. “'s better though.” He's surprised when Tony puts a hand on his head and pushes his fingers through Steve's hair. It feels nice, despite how weirdly intimate it is for Tony.

“You hungry? Thirsty?”

“Yes,” Steve says, aware of just how much the instant the thought is placed in his head.

Tony huffs. “All right. The docs said you should have cold, soft foods. Birdbrain—”

“Already on it,” Clint says mildly, fingers flying over his phone screen.

Meanwhile, there's movement on Steve's other side and he looks over to find Natasha has put aside her phone and gotten a cup of ice chips from somewhere.

She smirks at him and holds out a spoon with a chip. “Open wide for the airplane, Stevie.”

“You are the worst,” Steve informs her, but he opens his mouth and takes the ice. It's cool and refreshing, but he wishes he could have water instead. It's just enough to make him want more. “How long was I out?” he asks, the shrinking chip clicking against his teeth.

Tony shrugs. “Eight hours or so.”

That explains why it doesn't hurt as bad. It must be starting to heal.

Thor arrives then, carting a tub of Steve's favorite ice cream. “I come bearing a feast!”

Thor plops the tub down in Steve's lap and he grunts.

“You need help?” Tony asks when Steve accepts the spoon Thor offers and Steve's temper flares.

“I'm not an invalid,” he snaps.

Tony immediately draws back, his lips thinning. “Yeah, got it, never mind,” he mutters.

Natasha pinches the back of his arm and Steve yells, “Son of a bitch!” around the spoon in his mouth.

“Don't be an asshole,” she says severely.

“Then don't treat me like I'm helpless,” Steve retorts.

Natasha's hand darts out again, pinching and twisting the side of his nearest pec. He swears even louder this time, a sear of pain tearing through his throat. “You went through something traumatic, Steve, and we want to be here for you while you recover. If you could try not to be a self-centered asshole for thirty seconds maybe you'd realize that.”

“Besides, letting your friends help you when you're down is not the same as being an invalid or being helpless.” Clint raises his eyebrows. “Unless you think you guys helping me out after I lost my hearing was that.”

“That's...not the same,” Steve mutters.

“Uh, yeah, it fucking is,” Clint retorts. “You don't get your own set of rules. You're not that special.”

Steve's mouth pulls into an almost-smile.

“Let us love you!” Clint mostly yells, overdramatic.

“Believe it or not, this isn't entirely about you, Steve,” Natasha says, voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Aye,” Thor agrees. “It comforts me to know that you remain here with us and have not gone on to Valhalla.”

“You may have felt it but you didn't have to see the way you looked on that table,” Tony says.

Before Steve can say anything in reply, the door opens again and Angavu steps inside. “Welcome back, Captain,” she says and then gently lobs a tiny glass jar at him. It lands with the faintest impact on the blankets over his chest and Steve looks down, picking it up.

Inside, there's a tiny shard of needle-sharp green plastic.

Staring at it, Steve can hardly believe this tiny piece of plastic is what nearly did him in. After everything he's been through and survived.

He hadn't realized how heavily he'd started relying on his new serum-fueled health. He's gotten cocky, expecting to come out the other side of just about anything unscathed. This is the first time something so insignificant has come so close to ending everything. All because he hadn't taken something minor more seriously. He should know that because of his enhanced body, seemingly insignificant issues could be signs of more serious problems.

He looks up at Tony and, swallowing his pride, says, “Thank you.”

Tony's head wobbles and pulls back. “What? Are you talking to me?”

“If it weren't for your paranoid fussing, I probably would have kept ignoring it and that...could have ended really badly. So thanks.”

“Oh, well.” Tony shrugs, eyes skipping nervously across the floor. “I'm happy to annoy the shit out of you in the name of keeping you alive. Kind of fond of you, you know, Rogers?”

Tony never fails to be better than Steve expects. Even after all this time, he's still letting the brash exterior fool him. He owes Tony better than that.

And, he realizes, looking down at the little piece of shrapnel again, he's still acting like that ninety-pound asthmatic with something to prove. His limits have shifted and he's probably worse now than ever about recognizing when he's reached them.

He needs to stop. He needs to rely on his teammates to recognize not only his strength but his weaknesses.

He holds out his hand and Tony steps forward uncertainly, fingers curling around the tiny bottle when Steve puts it in his palm. “Keep annoying the shit out of me,” Steve tells him. “You saved my life.”

“Holy shit,” Clint stage whispers, “I think he just had an existential epiphany.”

Tony curls his hand around Steve's and squeezes. “You got it, Cap.”

The impulse to prove himself strong enough, sturdy enough, worthy enough is always going to be there, but Steve wants to do better. His team deserves that.

[radi0active-thoughts]

SUTRA - Chapter 3

A/N: I have nothing to say besides MY TAGLISTS ARE OPEN (for Sutra, Ghost and permanent) and feedback is always appreciated. That's it, enjoy.

Warnings: Sam being really superprotective, Thor being the cutest silly thing, NAT BLUSHING, Bucky being sassy, cursing, bad Spanish, cheesy pickup lines. I think that's all.

Word count: I don't even know.

Catch up here!

Y/N Wilson's POV

"Y/N/N, are you done already?" Sam asked me for what seemed like the millioneth time.

"Sam" I screamed. "I'm doing makeup, I need some focus here!"

"I know, but" He began. "They're all asking if we're getting laid."

"Dude, trust me when I say" José began. He and Sam were sitting on the couch and talking about manly things. "Don't hurry her."

While they chatted about any bullshit, I was focusing on doing an eyeliner wing to complete my makeup. I was already dressed to the nines for that party, with my red jumpsuit and black stiletto heels.

The last time I got dressed like that was when Juan asked me to marry him, I thought.

Brushing the thought aside, I finished my makeup. My hair was down in curls and I looked flawless.

"Okay, I'm done." I said entering the living room, not before grabbing a black clutch bag and putting my phone, documents, credit card, money and two condoms in it (because we never know how the night will be finishing, right?).

"Final- HOT DAMN!" Sam began saying but stopped himself before looking at me. "Girl, you look great."

"Aren't you a hot girl, mamacita?!" José said and left out a wolf whistle. I blushed. "Are you really blushing? You're hot and you know it, stop with that fake modesty."

"Let's go, shall we?" Sam said and looked at me while wearing the black leather jacket he came with, matching the white shirt and black jeans he wore. "We got a party to attend and money to make."

He smirked and I returned the same smirk. This night is going to be amazing, I thought after feeling great for leaving my house to something that wasn't wedding issues and family lunches after a long time.

Steve's POV

A few minutes later

"Do you think that Sam is bluffing?" Nat asked. "About his cousin not being a girl he's fucking."

"I don't know." I answered. "I just doubt because he'd never mentioned her before, so..."

"I think it's all bullshit." Bucky said while drinking a shot of the Asgardian alcohol that Thor had brought with him. We were playing snooker. "He just doesn't want us preying on her."

"Whether she's his cousin or not" Thor began. "I'll totally try something."

"She might be a goddess for him to hide her that way." Rhodes commented.

"She's a Goddess?" Thor asked excitedly. "Great!"

"He got it literally again." Clint said after hitting the red ball in one of the holes.

"Attention guys" Tony came at us, the party happening around. He had a whiskey glass in his hand. "Wilson and his mamacita just arrived. They're in the elevator."

"He's coming for us first of all and I'm 200% sure of that." Nat said.

"I hope so" Thor said. "Because I wanna meet that mamacita girl real bad."

"It's 'mamacita', not 'muh-muh-see-tuh', Mr. Odinson." a sweet but strong feminine voice said behind us.

We all turned around to see Sam and another man holding arms with the most beautiful woman I've seen nowadays: she had skin that made me remember of caramel, her hair was down in curls and she had those big brown eyes and lips painted in red that looked like the vibrant red of the American flag.

She wore a red jumpsuit that hugged her curves perfectly, black high heels and her well manicured hands were holding a black clutch bag.

That is a stunning dame, I thought to myself.

"Are you really Birdie's cousin?" Tony asked.

"Y/N Wilson, nice to meet you, Mr. Stark." She answered politely.

"Are you Sam's cousin?!" Rhodes asked. Y/N nodded. "You're too beautiful for that, girl."

"Agreed." Nat said. Y/N and her gave a friendly handshake. "Natasha Romanoff. Call me Nat."

"Call me Y/N/N." Y/N said with a smile. A beautiful smile. "You call me for my name and I listen to my mother's voice."

"Don't we all?" Tony said and she left out a laugh.

"This is José." She introduced the man that came with them. He, who had a pair of green eyes and tanned skin, nodded at everyone and said his hello awkwardly. But Natasha seemed to be his main target.

And Hell, he wanted to impress.

"Hola, Bonita. ¿Estás perdida? Porque al cielo hay un largo camino desde aquí." (Hello, beautiful. Are you lost? Because heaven's a long way from here.) He said and grabbed her right hand for a kiss. She was definitely taken by surprise.

"Díos mio." (My God) Y/N sighed. "José, stop being cheesy."

"Can't control myself when an Angel of a woman is near me, Y/N." He commented and everyone laughed, leaving Nat as red as her hair.

"Lady mamacita" Thor began to flirt with her with all braveness he had while wearing a white dress shirt and jeans. "They said you are a Goddess. Goddess of what and in which of the Realms may I ask?"

"Goddess?" Y/N asked confused. "The last time I checked, I was human, born and raised in Bronx... and my name's Y/N by the way."

"But why do they call you Mamacita?" Thor asked and almost everyone involved in the conversation sighed in annoyance.

"Vamos a bailar, mamacita?" (Let's dance?) José asked, pulling her by her arm. He wore a white shirt, white blazer and black jeans.

"Toda la noche, Papi." (All night long.) She answered him and he lead her to the dancefloor, so they'd dance to one of those latin songs that they play nowadays. I learned it's called Reggaeton.

"See?" Thor asked.

"Do they..." I began asking to Sam.

"No, dude." Sam answered. "They're best friends."

"So the flying ballerina is single?" Bucky asked and left a smirk. "Good to know."

"You better not lay any of your fingers on her, Barnes." Sam said, in a threatning tone.

"You can't stop me, Birdie." Bucky said.

"Talking about no stops" Sam began and smiled. "You all owe me money! Give me all my bucks now."

"There's just one of me, you know that, Birdbrain" Bucky said.

"You know what I meant, Tin Man." Sam said. I sighed with a laugh and pulled 50 bucks from my wallet.

"Here we go." I said and gave the money to him.

"Thanks for your contributions, Steve." He said and everybody who entered the bet gave him all the money. Tony seemed to hesitate.

"You're lucky for two reasons, Wilson." He began. "The first one is that I couldn't find anything that says Y/N isn't your relative. The second is that you earned a 100 dollar bill from me, so use it wisely."

"I'll definitely do it, Stark." Sam said when he grabbed the 100 dollar bill from Tony. "Okay, now that I won this bet, drinks everyone?"

"Let's see the ballerina cousin flying first, shall we?" Tony said and pointed to the dancefloor, where we all could see Y/N and her best friend dancing amazingly and becoming the main focus.

"That dude is losing the opportunity of giving that booty a squeeze." I heard a man speaking.

"If I had her grinding on me that way, I'd already have pulled her from that dancefloor." the other one said.

I was about to say something, but Sam, who was by my side and also heard the dialogue between those guys, went in first.

"Too bad that any of you will never have the opportunity to touch those fucking wanker hands on her." He said.

"Why you say so, hm?" one of them asked in a teasing tone.

"First of all, it's because she deserves respect as a woman." Sam said facing the dude. "Second, she is my cousin. Any of you touch her, both of you will have no hands or dicks to brag about it. Do I make myself clear?"

I never saw Sam with such a threatening voice. But now I could see it and I was surprised to say the least, like everyone else in the team.

"What was that, Birdie?" Tony asked after those guys left our side.

"No one messes with my family, Stark." Sam answered. "Also, Y/N/N just split with her ex-fiancee and I won't let any bastard fuck around with her."

"What happened?" Clint asked. Sam sighed.

"Dude" He began. "She'll tell you better if she wants, but in a brief, the bastard cheated on her a month ahead of their wedding."

"She's still really hurt about that, even though she doesn't show it." Wanda commented and Sam nodded. Vision, who was on his human form, looked at her. "What?"

"You need to stop reading people's minds, sweetie." He commented.

"I know but" Wanda began. "She was wearing a sad look and I wondered why."

"Look at your cousin giving a show, Birdbrain." Bucky said and everyone looked at the dance floor, where Y/N and José, were dancing.

"It's like they are making love." Natasha commented.

And Nat was right: it really looked like they were making love. But there was a single thing that bothered me.

Suddenly, I was one of the many men in that party who wanted to be at the dance floor making love to her.

Tags (open): @coal000 @sofipatey @id-rather-be-sleeping95 @steve-thotgers

[rogue-bard]

I’ll Write Your Name

Fandom: Marvel Avengers ( Earth-3490 ) Ships: Tony Stark / Steve Rogers (not yet though) Summary: It’s your usual story. Girl meets boy. Girl defrosts boy. Girl hides secret identity from boy, who just so happens to have become that secret identity’s best friend. Oh, and someone forgot to close the door to the multiverse and if they and their weird counterparts don’t find out who did it, the world might just fall to some kind of firy apocalypse or something. So there’s that.

This is a sneak-peak at my current background project that I work on every now and then, because I needed content for my advent calendar.

Prologue

“According to Wikipedia, underwear exists for at least 7000 years, Miss.“

“Exactly! And I'm a futurist!”

“A futurist who is currently flying over the north of Greenland,“ Jarvis informed Toni over the suit's earpiece, unbidden as ever. “Am I meant to assume that the future you are expecting, is significantly influenced by global warming?”

„Well, I didn't have time to change into that full-body anti-chafe condom. Thought I did. Didn't. Not my fault, I'm commando now,“ Toni complained into her helmet, just quiet enough for Natasha not to hear. Clint had stopped listening after their argument with the navigation system on the Avenjet anyway.

“Maybe if you had started taking off your pajamas when the alarm started sounding, Ma'am....” Jarvis' voice suggested but was wise enough not to finish that sentence. It wasn't her fault that she ignored the alarm! Everybody in Avengers Tower ignored the alarm. Which, okay, might be a bit her fault. She'd change the code word as soon as they got back.

“The armor is chafing,” she continued venting to her AI instead of rising to its accusation and defending the perfectly sound reasoning why she had pulled her cushion over her ears once the alarm started blaring. You know, the one that signified that the world was in danger of possible annihilation and other fun stuff like that.

God, she hated chafing. There was enough of that in her gruesome teenage-years.

“What are you mumbling about?” the redhead next to her interrupted their conversation. Natasha was staring at some useless SHIELD-issue radar that she steadily refused to let Toni upgrade for her.

“He's not wearing panties,” Clint supplied.

“For Tesla's sake, how come you never listen when I'm actually talking to you?”

The archer didn't so much as move a muscle. “It's called 'selective hearing',” he said with a perfectly straight face. “You should try it some time. Your boss? Toni? You know, the woman you climb into that metal coffin for? I'm pretty sure she invented it. Ask Fury.”

Okay, time to change the subject. “It's cold.” Iron Man's complaint was thankfully distorted beyond recognition by the speakers, as always. She didn't need to be coming off whiny.

“That's what underwear's for, from what I heard.”

“Jarvis, please give birdbrain the exact difference a pair of boxer-shorts would be making to my bodyheat.”

“Your suit can turn your piss into filter-coffee,” Clint countered, thumping at his earpiece, since Natasha apparently had no intention of chiming into the conversation. Being on missions with Iron Man, who didn't move his mouth whatsoever, always made him even more irritable than he usually was. But god forbid that metal head would open his helmet and give away his super secret identity! “Are you recovering from a bad nose-job or is it pimples?” Clint asked. “I bet it's pimples. You don't want us to know your face because the pimples are just awful.” The others knew the hearing aid was tempering his usually so sunny disposition. Well that, and the fact they bodily dragged him away from the coffee-machine when they left.

“Your point being?” Iron Man demanded.

“I'm sure there's a thermostat in there, somewhere between the controls for Pokemon Go and Tinder,” Clint finished, stealthily signing something that the others didn't understand. It didn't look nice though.

“It stopped working,” Toni admitted, begrudgingly. “After I got hit by that drone. Which is weird, because the readings suggest-”

The archer pressed his index finger to his ear again and frowned disapprovingly. “Great, now I only get static,” he hissed. “I didn't catch any of that last sentence, but I can guess it went along the lines of 'bla bla blablabla'.”

“Clint!” Natasha grabbed him by the arm. The urgency in her tone wasn't foreboding anything good. “It's not you.” When he turned to face her, he saw Iron Man standing there completely frozen in place, in the midst of taking a step. The usually blue-gleaming eyes of the faceplate a dull grey.

“Iron Man, are you okay?”

Toni let her voice drop from her head register. Without the static of the transmitter, she wasn't too sure they wouldn't recognize it. Plus, speaking deeper than she liked to helped with the volume. “The suit seems to have temporarily shut down.” Despite the yelling, she knew Natasha and Clint barely heard Iron Man's muffled voice through the helmet.

“What the shit! I'm not carrying him back to the Avenjet.” Clint threw his hands in the air theatrically. “Do you think Toni will come and pick him up if we just leave him here?”

“Trouble, Team?” A voice rang out before a yellow flash blinded their eyes for a second, before a shattering impact sent ice shards flying in their eyes.

“You're late, Carol,” Natasha greeted the other woman cold as ever, but her eyes betrayed a smile. “Can you fire up Iron Man again? He just shut down.”

Captain Marvel frowned at the red-gold ice-sculpture. “What's wrong?”

“Suit broke down due to a significant lack in underpants,” Clint supplied.

Letting out a huff, Carol raised a finger and lightly touched the breast-panel that she knew held the suit's power source. A short, yellowish flash discharged into Toni's chest and the interface flickered to life around her vision. Perfect!

Unfortunately, her repulsors also started firing into the ground which might have been a side-effect of having the suit kick-started by photonic energy. Clint and Natasha were once again showered in ice shards and a tiny snow hurricane.

“Huh, that was weird,” Toni admitted unapologetically.

“Not as weird as that.” All of a sudden, Carol's voice sounded strained.

“Is that...” Natasha started.

“Yes.” The other woman answered before she could finish.

“Is he...” Clint drifted off, not able to tear his eyes from the red-white-and-blue uniform that Captain Marvel's landing and Iron Man's malfunction had laid bare in the ice under his feet.

“Alive,” Toni answered, much to her own surprise. But the readings Jarvis gave her were unmistakably a pulse rate.

“That's incredible,” Black Widow said, having her hands tucked under her armpits while she was staring down the figure that lay on their stretcher and letting the air-force general pilot the jet back to New York. “He's waking up!” As the man before them was stirring, the weird drone that had attacked them in America and then lured out into the arctic sea, was forgotten. For now at least.

“Is his brain okay?” Clint sounded dubious. But then again, he hadn't had his coffee, so that was probably the only tone of voice he could muster in spite of the world just continuing to turn. Without being fueled by caffeine, and all.

Toni decided to act upon her duty, being the only one in the makeshift infimary without fried brain cells or manners buried somewhere in the icy ground of Russia. So she addressed their star-spangled patient directly: “Are you alright?” Maybe, she decided in the split-second, the metal shield needed to dig itself into her face-plate, leaning over a deep-frozen supersoldier waking up from an 80-year coma wasn't the smartest idea after all.

The formerly comatose man threw his foot into Natasha's stomach, catching her off-guard and throwing her hard into Toni's chest. “Bucky!”

He hadn't even finished the second syllable and Hawkeye had an arrow cocked, bow pulled back. “Stop!”

“Woah, calm down, soldier!” Carol shouted in her Captain-voice. It was enough for the frozen man to hesitate.

“You're safe,” Natasha tried. But looking at Clint ready to go, that didn't seem to do much to convince him.

“You're with friends!” Toni confirmed, taking a step to the side so Natasha was no longer between the two of them.

That finally got a reaction from their captive: “What are you,” he yelled. “Some kind of Hydra automaton?”

“What?” Behind the face-plate, she wrinkled her nose in disgust. “...No??” Her suit? Medieval Hydra-tech? Really?

“Sharp-tongued as always, Iron Man,” Natasha came out of nowhere behind their assailant and drove an injection from her Stingers into his neck. He folded himself to the gurney like slinky.

“... Did you just kill Captain America,” Clint asked, incredulous.

Carol heaved a deep sighed.

[buckybarnesappreciationsociety]

“Broken Souls Made Whole” Part 1

Summary: This is for @amarvelouswritings​ 2.1K Challenge. Thank you for allowing me to participate. Hope you’re pleased!

Prompt #5: “You’re one of the most important things in my life”

Pairings: Bucky x Original Character of Color

Word Count: 2,018

Warnings: Brief mention of suicide, racial indifference, and a little sexual innuendo

A/N: Sorry I’m late!

The mind sometimes plays cruel tricks on you. James Buchanan Barnes knew this better than anyone.

Sure, he had lucid days when past demons ceased to exist and he actually formed a thought not laced with darkness.

Other days weren’t so pretty. Today, Bucky was off kilter.

After a night of fitful sleep, Bucky left the tower with his black baseball cap pulled down low, hands tucked in his stonewashed jean pockets.  

He stumbled upon a pond with ducks and ducklings. The ripples in the water reminded him of days gone by. Bucky made a mental note to bring bread to feed his quacking friends.

Sitting over to his left, a woman with empty cognac colored eyes, bronze complexion with braids woven into an intricate pattern, stared into the abyss of nothingness.

Her mind riddled with so many unsavory thoughts. She’d been dealt a shitty hand and wanted to throw in the towel.

Lately, the wheelchair had become her jailor. All she wanted was freedom to walk or run like the old days, before a drunk driver ran a red light, stripping away her independence.

Bucky didn’t know her story because it wasn’t his place to be rude and ask. All he knew she appeared to be broken. That’s one thing they had in common.

A week passed. The beleaguered super soldier stayed away from the park. Not only did the ducks miss their feeding, Aniyah missed him as well.

She knew who he was and about his past. It didn’t matter; they were two bookends on a rickety shelf, holding onto whatever normalcy they could.

Bucky resurfaced . While feeding the ducks, Aniyah took a chance and wheeled over to him.

“James Barnes right?. How are you?”

Clearly taken aback, Bucky responded. “H-hiya. How do  ya’know who I am?”

Chuckling, Aniyah mused, “That’s easy. Everyone knows the infamous James Barnes”

“SInce you know who I am, what’s your name dollface?”

“Please forgive my manners. I’m Aniyah. Pleased to meet you.”

Extending his flesh hand, Aniyah shook it and smiled.

“The ducks are happy you’re back. Did you go on vacation?”

Rubbing the back of his neck, “Naw, uh been locked away in m’room. Ain’t felt right,” Bucky tapped his head.

Aniyah nodded, understanding what Bucky felt because she was there now.

They sat in silence for awhile until Aniyah decided to break the  monotony.

“I know you won’t ask so let me unburden you. I was hit by a drunk driver over a year ago. Guess walking in the crosswalk doesn’t matter anymore. There’s been days when I wanted to end it all.”

Bucky didn’t say a word. He knew Aniyah needed to vent and he was more than glad to listen.

“Life sucks man. I used to dance with a modern dance troupe in Manhattan. Now, here I am. Stuck in this damn rolling contraption.” Tears trickled down her face.

Bucky pulled her wheelchair close to the bench he was sitting on and hugged Aniyah as she shed pinned up frustration in the form of tears.

“Hey hey doll. It’s alright. I got’cha. Shh.” Bucky understood better than anyone.

“Guess I’ve been holding that for awhile. Thanks for allowing me to mess up your shirt.”

Bucky shook his head, “S’okay. I didn’t mind. Listen, would’ya like to have dinner sometimes?”

“I’d like that Bucky. Hand me your phone.” Aniyah typed in her address and phone number.

At first, they’d meet at the park twice a week. Soon, they graduated her favorite coffee shop. Eventually, dinner evolved into a full blown relationship.

8 months passed, Aniyah and Bucky  couldn’t stand to be apart from each other. Her sister, Trinity, had trepidations about her baby sister’s new beau, but she kept any snarky comments to herself.

One night while out to dinner Bucky suggested Aniyah come to the compound and meet the team.

“Do you think that would be wise, Bucky? I mean, look at me.” He disliked the self-loathing that would befall Aniyah sometimes.

Placing his hand on her cheek, Bucky smiled, “They would love to meet you.  I talk about ya so much, Nat doesn’t believe you’re real.”

Laughing, Aniyah shook her head. “Well, we can’t have everyone thinking you have an imaginary friend, can we?”

“Great. Tomorrow is movie night at the compound. I’ll come pick’ya up at 6 p.m. You can hang out and meet everyone. One more thing. Ignore Tony and Sam; they’re real pains in the ass.”

“Alright Bucky. It’s a date. Goodnight.” Aniyah kissed Bucky lovingly on the lips.

“You’re gonna be the death of me woman. Goodnight”

MEETING THE “FAMILY”

Aniyah wore a button down white shirt, black tattered skinny jeans and simple black flats.

Bucky loved Aniyah’s braids. He found the criss cross pattern creative and beautiful the way they fell onto her delicate shoulders.

Looking at her reflection in the elevator glass, Aniyah adjusted her shirt and checked her modest make-up.

Noticing her nervous demeanor, Bucky pointed out, “You’re gorgeous babe. No need to fix anything.”

“You’re biased Sergeant.” Bucky gazed deep into Aniyah’s eyes and kissed her.

Unaware of their surroundings, Bucky and Aniyah were pulled out of their searing kiss by Steve clearing his throat.

“Uh, ‘cuse me lovebirds,” rubbing the back of his neck.

Obviously startled, Aniyah blushed. “H-hi. You must be Steve.” She extended her dainty hand.

Bucky wiped lipstick from his swollen lips. “This is Aniyah, Stevie.”

“Pleased to meet ya. Everyone’s waiting in the common room.”

Aniyah rolled her wheelchair into the room, as Nat and Wanda greeted her.

“Wow, you’re not Barnes’ imaginary friend,” Natasha quipped.

“Oh goodie. I’m so happy to finally meet you,” Wanda was absolutely giddy.

“Hello Nat and Wanda. Nice to finally meet you guys also.” Aniyah was pulled into a hug.

Sam just couldn’t resist. “Frosty said you were beautiful but to finally see you, he lied. You’re radiant.”

Bucky growled and slapped Sam’s hand away from Aniyah’s. “Back off Birdbrain. She’s spoken for.”

Tony made his way over. “So, you must be Manchurian Candidate’s love interest. I’m so sorry.”

Aniyah threw an insult of her own. “Why are you sorry Tony? I should give Ms. Potts my condolences. Dating you must be pure hell.”

Nat, Wanda, and Bucky couldn’t hold their snickering. “Barnes, she’s a keeper.” Nat mused, sipping a vodka and tonic.

The movie choice, “21 Jump Street”, didn’t appeal to Bucky. So, he suggested showing  Aniyah around the compound.

Bucky thought it would be a good idea to show his best girl the view from the rooftop deck.

“It’s so peaceful up here, Bucky. I could sit and star gaze all night.” Aniyah’s voice was laced with a touch of sadness.

“Shuga, what’s wrong? The smile has left your face and those bright eyes gone dim.” Bucky scooted next to her.

“Your friends treat me like a normal person baby. It’s so refreshing.Trinity means well, but she acts like I’m an invalid.” Aniyah’s voice trembled.

Taking a leap of faith, Bucky proposed Aniyah move in with him at the compound.

“Dollface, you have no idea how hard it is saying goodnight and leaving ya. I know ya love Trinity, but it’s time to enjoy life again. I’d love to wake up to your smiling face and go to sleep with ya wrapped in my arms. You’re one of the most important things in my life. Would ya do me the honor of moving in with me?

“James Buchanan Barnes you’re important to me as well. Thank you for taking a chance on us. And to answer your question, yes I’d love to move in with you!”

Bucky sealed the deal with a kiss. He loved Aniyah and wanted her with him all the time.

Aniyah broke the news to her sister. Trinity balked at the idea of her moving into the compound. “Are you crazy Niyah? You’ve known this man how long? 8 months! Use your head girl!”

Determined to take control of her life, Aniyah stated her case. “Look let’s lay our cards on the table. It’s not about how long I’ve known Bucky, is it? This goes deeper than that.”

Trinity whipped around, peering deep into Aniyah’s eyes. “Okay, I’ll spell it out for you. He’s an assassin and he ain’t a brother!”

Aniyah became enraged. “You’re prejudice! James is a former assassin and his skin color doesn’t matter! Sorry to burst your color blind bubble, but I’m moving in with him whether you like it or not.”

Snatching her phone from the bed, Aniyah called Nat. “Hey Nat. Are you busy?” Aniyah’s voice quivered.

“Aniyah? No I��m not. What’s up?”

“Would you mind helping me move my things? I don’t want to wait until James comes back.”

Wanda’s brows furrowed. “What’s wrong?”

“I dunno but we’re going to get Aniyah. She’s really upset.” Nat grabbed her car keys, pulling Wanda along to the garage.

Meanwhile, Trinity, against her better judgement, helped Aniyah pack. “I’m just looking out for you Niyah. It’s too soon.”

“Trinity, like it or not, I’m going. I hope you find it in your heart to accept my choices. If not, oh well. I’ll always love and miss you.”

The doorbell rang. Aniyah greeted Nat and Wanda. The female Avengers introduced themselves to Trinity. She feigned interest while helping her baby sister load luggage into the tinted window SUV.

Wanda put the last bag in the back. Aniyah reached out for her sister; Trinity simply waved good-bye walking back into the house.

It was a bittersweet moment as Nat and Wanda held Aniyah. Trinity’s blessing meant the world to her.

Nat carefully lifted her into the seat, folded the wheelchair and closed the door. As they drove away, Trinity peeped through the curtains, watching her baby sister leave.

MOVING IN

Tony was the official welcome person. “So, you decided to stay with Tin Man in our friendly asylum?”

“Yes Tony, I did. Figured one more crazy person wouldn’t hurt!” Aniyah laughed.

“Glad you’re here. Now Barnes can shut up about how much he missed you.” Tony sipped on scotch. “Wanda and Nat will be your tour guides. See ya!”

Aniyah waved, as Tony went back to his lab.

Helping her get settled, Wanda couldn’t help but feel Aniyah’s aura. “Are you alright?”

“Trinity and I had a fight. She still thinks of Bucky as his past. He’s a different man from the Winter Soldier. Hell, he can deactivate his metal arm and we’re talking about him getting a service dog.

Breathing deep, Aniyah poured her heart out.

“When I met James, life as I knew it was bleak. Truthfully, I’d considered ending it. Then one day, I built up the nerve to speak to him. The more we talked, we knew our meeting was kismet. Here you have two broken humans, coming together to make a whole person. I can honestly say I love him.” A tear escaped her eye.

Bucky stood in the doorway, listening to this fragile dove pour her heart out.

“Guess you couldn’t wait huh? Glad you’re here doll.”

Making grabby hands, Aniyah couldn’t wait to wrap her arms around the man she loved.

“Buck, I’m happy you’re home. I’ve missed you.”

“I know something happened ‘cause you’re here early. We won’t talk ‘bout it now. Tomorrow. Right now, m’gonna light some candles, drop one of them fancy bath bombs in the water and spend time with the  woman I love. First, I gotta rinse  all this shit off m’body from the mission.”

“Now that sounds like a good idea. Are you trying to get frisky with me?”

“Hell yeah woman. I’ll be back in a flash.”

Reaching for his flesh hand, Aniyah kissed his knuckles. “I love you too James Buchanan Barnes.”

They’d found each other under the weirdest of circumstances. Two halves coming together to make one whole person; one heart; one love.

TAGS: @omalleysgirl22 @erisjade @barnesvogue @love2rhyme@pegasusdragontiger @irene-rogue-adler @vampirephile @supersoldierslover@rebelslicious  @caplanbuckybarnes@this-kitty-has-claws @goodnightwife@buckybabybaby @writing-is-my-elixir-of-life @magellan-88@theimpossibleg1rl @sebstanfanma@magellan-88 @blackcaptainrogers @sgtjamesbuchananbarnes107th @captnbarnesrogers @sgtbxckybxrnes

[overhere-series]

Over Here: Chapter Five

Having a buffer is so lovely. Here you go! Next chapter goes up this coming Saturday if I remember among all of the laptop and self-care shenanigans that day. Love you folks!

Do let me know how you think things are going or share if you enjoyed it enough!

Marcy Faust takes both travelers by the hands and drags them toward the path, Hazel and her brother close behind. She makes her siblings look downright anti-social, twittering about how much they’ll like the kid’s mom and their food and every single detail about her and Mason’s day prior to finding the hole. The only thing keeping Cass from clamping a hand over the girl’s mouth is the thought of Hazel going bear over it.

Besides, Marcy’s story takes on manic speed when they come to the half-withered horse thing and its voice. “And Mason and me weren’t scared yet until we got under and it was so pretty with all the metal and Over There things everywhere but we did get scared when it got asking for our names, because we know what the stories say but it kept asking and asking and got scarier- but I was smart! I told Mason ‘don’t you tell’ and then you came and-”

“Breathe, Marce,” Hazel says.

“You were very wise to hold onto your names,” Winston assures. “And courageous, especially when a fragment requests them.”

The smile he offers only encourages Marcy to take one on, too. “Yeah! I told Mason not to say my name or his name, because I heard from my aunt you can lose your name if someone else gives it away-”

“Not possible, I’m afraid. You can only give away your own name, never another’s.”

Cass blinks but continues on. Already the list grows longer and longer for all the questions she’s got, but it’s all she can do on their walk to hide the tick in her jaw and the stiff steps to help her knee.

When they arrive the Fausts lead them to a private kitchen upstairs, the one in their home above the restaurant. It’s all tapestries and wall to wall cupboards, small and cozy and definitely better than the dining room below. They’re told to wait and then left be at a table in the center.

At the Fausts’ retreating backs, Cass eases into her chair. Her knee thanks her for it. Now seated and idle, though, Winston twitches, raking his hands through his hair, drumming his long fingers on the tabletop. Cass squeezes her eyes shut to ignore it, but eventually the tap-tap-tap of his nails and the bounce of the vase acting centerpiece grates on her ears.

“You wanna cut that out?”

“We need to be going and-”

Cass kicks back in her chair, arms folded. “Oh yeah, you really wanted to get out of here when you signed us up for this,” she mutters, throwing a wave over the room. She tries to keep her voice down but keeping her tone to a raspy half-yell takes more effort than she’s got left.

“That’s different,” Winston says.

“I don’t know, I didn’t get any input when you decided to play hero. Guess we’re even for that now, right?”

“Cass, this isn’t-”

“Except for you trying to sell me to a freaking monster back there. Want to explain that one to me, birdbrain?”

Winston quits drumming on the table. “Yes, that. My apologies, but I had to think quickly, you see. You should have come with me from the start,” he says. “The plan might have worked better, actually, though it’s amazing enough to believe the fragment fell for the scheme as it was. With a bit more preparation it could have been fun indeed.”

He’s got a wistful smile Cass doesn’t like one bit. “Yeah, no. That was the exact opposite of fun.”

“It made a decent plan, even if it relied on our friend being so very broken. And you proved yourself rather capable in there. All the same, I’m sorry I didn’t ask your thoughts. I just wanted to work quickly so we could be out of here.”

“We can’t just bail, they sort of owe us,” Cass shrugs, even if her jaw pangs a little from her low words. Under the table her foot bounces up and down. Just a little time to feel better and then they could get moving without making it worse.

But Winston straightens in his seat. “That is not why we do this.”

“What’s with the ‘we’? I’m not a warden. We’re not doing this again.”

“If the need comes I have no choice. It’s my job. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you much earlier, I just hoped things wouldn’t-” He pauses, closes his eyes, and takes a deep breath. “I hoped it wouldn’t be relevant so soon. Which reminds me,” he adds, “I need to scribe the others so they don’t worry.”

“Other wardens?”

Winston lays out his map and bottle on the table in front of him. The map sketches out four main countries, Ellis just beneath a group of mountains with a coast running its lower border. Haven’s marked with a big black dot on the far east of it. “Yes. Our work isn’t about reward, Cass. It’s about doing what must be done.”

“Poetic,” Cass says with a roll of her eyes. “Well, I’m not honor-bound or whatever. I got hurt helping them. I say we reap the benefits.”

“You could be, with time. Some training with Jermaine and Rissa and you’d- wait, why didn’t you say you were hurt?”

Before she can answer, his bare foot prods hers under the table. Her skin crawls, not just from his touch but like warm water spilling down to wash over her leg. Said comparison doesn’t thrill her. She shivers but the sting of her scrapes smooths away.

“Fascinating,” Winston says.

Cass stiffens. Being called fascinating, the way science experiments and unexplainable deadly accidents are fascinating, doesn’t endear her to the bird any more than his touchiness does. “Keep your magic to yourself,” she rasps.

“You’re no longer injured, yes? At any rate, it was not my magic.” His hands spread over the map, tracing the lines with his fingers.

“What’s that mean? Did you like pull out of the air or something?”

“No, I pulled a fair bit of it from you.”

“Like I had some on me.” Magic from some tree or other living thing, powdered on her like pollen. It’s not a question, just an explanation- even if she can’t see it, he claimed it’s everywhere.

Winston looks up from the map with a deep breath, folds it like he’s closing his mind on it until he’s handled the conversation. “From within you. Honestly I’m surprised the fragment noticed what little you have or it’d never agreed without a name. I wish you would have told me earlier or you wouldn’t have had to walk with your knee as it was.”

“Back the hell up to where you said I had magic in me? You said seeing magic,” she hisses. “You never said anything about making it.”

“I told you, magic is a fact of life here. It’s a system in the body, necessary as the heart or the brain. You don’t will its production any more than you can the blood in your veins. From the moment you fell here the roots have been forming around your nerves-”

“Magic equals life just sounded like some fancy fantasy BS! What is this, a virus? You’re telling me there’s nothing I can do?”

“Well, I can bind the magic in your vessel to slow the effect. You’ve got to keep me informed of how you feel, but… generally, yes. You’ll be able to control the magic in your body once it’s there, but there’s not much even I can do once you’ve developed an inclination. I must say, most otherlanders are much more pleased about it.”

Cass can’t deny to herself how much the idea pleases her, just a little bit. The same part of her that wanted to know what lay behind the gap once and for all, but look how well following that voice turns out. The heat in chest pulses out, humming through her spine and out as far as her fingertips in a ripple. Basically she’ll get magic powers. Something the little kid on the bridge always wanted.

Whether she wanted them here and now or not.

“So, what? I don’t get back in time, I turn into a bird or something?” How’s that for controlling jack?

“It’s quite possible, should that be how the magic decides to express. I doubt you’re therian as I am but taking other forms is just a single way the magic could adapt. Guiding magic in other organisms, controlling materials of life- changing yourself or the world around you. It’s personal as a name.”

Cass forces down the heat in her chest and plants her feet on the floorboards, ready to run. Get out before things get crazier than they already are. “Can we go back to the part where I can stop it? How long do I have?”

“Days, likely.”

“And we just wasted an afternoon here.” She tries to ignore how she factored into it, wasting even more time retracing their steps back.

“I wouldn’t call it a waste, Cass Douglas. We have time. Breathe.”

“I’m fine. I just don’t have time to sit here and you just put us off tracking knowing I had a time limit. What’s wrong with you?”

He chuckles, opening the map again. “I’m well aware of our time. I’ll try to keep you better informed, but it’s my duty as a warden to handle this sort of thing. Hopefully we won’t encounter many more incidents like this but I’m afraid our barriers are only going to get weaker the further we are from Haven.”

“Why’s that?”

Winston blinks, like he’s forgotten what he’s said. “Well, the amalgam we keep the barriers with is in Haven. The further the magic extends from the amalgam, the weaker its effect- with a whole country, quite a lot of room for holes and errors. We’re at the edge of Ellis as it is but even so, it shouldn’t be happening so soon.”

Cass flinches with the return of Marcy, who gives her a tap on the arm. “It’s ready! You want to come to the kitchen down there?”

“What’s ready?”

Marcy pulls on her arm again and they both rise to follow. With all her focus on the conversation, Cass had mostly ignored the combination of smells wafting up the stairs. Cheese, bread, some sort of fishy smell she remembered from camping on the coast with her parents...

They come to a table against a few barrels lining the walls, on them two plates with bread bowls on them. Marcy sits them down with a flourishy little bow. Cass takes a seat as the rest of the Fausts circle the table with chairs of their own. The aunt, the “guard” Perrin, a few more ladies who’d been cooking and might have been a couple.

“It’s lunch soon anyway so we thought we’d treat you,” the aunt says. “Perrin insisted, and you can’t sway them when they get an idea like this.”

Perrin puts an arm around each traveler, tears in their eyes. On first glance they look pretty feminine, but they just seem to go by guardian instead of Mom to the Faust kids. “You save my babies, you’ve earned a free meal.”

Cass eyes the bowls and tries not to blush. Or be tempted by the food, but by the time everyone’s seated Cass already has a spoon in hand. It ends up cramped, but she can’t care less.

Fortunately magicians don’t have a blessing and she can dive into her bowl with as much gusto as Marcy and Mason. Maintaining her level of activity requires calories and lots of them. The soup melts in her mouth, the bread stiff enough not to get soggy before she finish off the goods inside but not stale.

The Fausts listen while they recount the thing from the pool, although Hazel and Winston are careful to tiptoe around the parts that might frighten her. Cass pitches in with her kick to the thing’s face once they get there, which got a nice chorus of ew’s.

“I’m glad no one was hurt,” Perrin pops in. They stare into their bowl, tapping a foot under the table.

Winston ate half the bowl before anything else, but keeps drumming too like he’s waiting for a Faust to untie him from his chair. “It’s the least we could do.”

“We do need to go soon,” Cass adds. Not too eager-sounding, she hopes.

“Warden business?” Dani asks. A knowing grin crosses her face for the two guests. “Always curious when one of you longcoats come to town, but you didn’t look the kind until you said something.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, my dear.” His tone’s playful, amused even. “But yes. For that matter, we need to tend to a bit of closing business now. Thank you very much for your kindnesses today.”

There’s some hugging and promises from the kids not to go running off behind the barriers again, then they got the okay to finally leave. Yet again Cass tries to look miffed about stopping, but the kids’ reactions are too good when she winks at them on her way out the door. The last thing she catches is Marcy’s grin and Mason’s big ol’ saucer eyes.

“So where next? Clemence?” she asks the bird as they go roughly along the same path they’d come. For all the time-wasting they still got a map and a meal out of the afternoon. Time seems to work the same here as it does back home, so that leaves them a few hours before dark and the rest of the evening for travel. Not much in the grand scheme, not if she knows she’s got a timeframe on this trip.

They continue back along the stream, Winston keeping an eye out for the opposite shore. “To finish our business, yes?”

“You mean the hole? Why? That thing’s trapped, we’re good to go.”

“The hole’s still there,” he says. “I still haven’t scribed Finch to close it, and light won’t stop our fragmented friend for long. I wouldn’t like to see their attempts to take anyone else. Would you?”

“Alright, alright,” she says. “Back there and then back on track again, though. Right?”

“Right,” the bird agrees. He keeps his hands at his back as they walk the way they’d come, back through the mud and carefully across the stream where they found the hole again. He stands there a moment, considering the tunnel worn through the bushes.

“Would you like to come with me or would you like to wait?” he asks, peering still further inside.

Cass stares at him. What is this, a test? At least he’s asking her this time rather than just ditching her, but knowing what lies behind that tunnel doesn’t make her all warm and fuzzy about going this time. She gives the bird nod and watches him disappear into the bush.

Then she stands there and gives it a little more thought. The bird doesn’t see her coming this time. She can get the chance to see what he’s up to when he doesn’t think she’ll be watching, and to see the kelpie again at a safe distance.

She looks into the hole and lets out a groan, teeth grit together. Fine. Still growling she gets down on her hands and knees and crawls.

[jumpchain-drop]

Chapter 3.5: 0.2 Years

Year 1, day 75: Today, we decided to begin our expedition down the train tunnels from the Terrydactyland station. Do not try this at home, kids; we are professional explorers.

I explained the dangers as well as I could. Chuffy the train had started Banjo-Tooie derailed. With all the stations closed, it seemed very unlikely that there would be other trains running on the Isle’s rail network. But it was still a possibility. Luckily, both Terra and I had some kind of tremorsense from being Ground-types; if we could feel a train coming, I would dig out a nook if possible and Terra would use Wonderwing if not. Whatever would result from a train at full-speed hitting an invincible Terra, I didn’t want to know. Her Giant Feathers had been safely stored in my backpack where we could get them out whenever we needed.

Bitbit protested “why risk running into the train at all when there was still the route to Witchyworld left,” to which I replied that the Mine that would be at the end of the tunnel would be a better place for treasure-hunting, which was a thing that he couldn’t argue with.

So we opened the station and headed for the right-hand tunnel, but we barely got a couple feet in when...

“I wouldn’t go in there if I were you!”

I turned. A mole wearing a military uniform and shades was standing at the corner of the tunnel, smacking his palm with some kind of stick.

“There’s very bad things in there...” finished Jamjars.

“Like what?” I asked.

“Like a severe lack of discipline and copious amounts of stupidity!”

I wish I could’ve argued with that. “Well what’ll you do if we do?” I said.

“You talking back to me, punk? Am I going to have to use my moves to get you back in line?”

“Look, we don’t want trouble,” Terra interrupted. “We just want to get out of this valley, but the main entrance is blocked and our ideas were running low.”

“Is that it? Hmm...” It was hard to tell with the shades, but I could still feel him looking us over. Eventually, he said, “Normally I reserve my hatches for official military personnel only, but I’m feeling generous today. I can escort you through the tunnels to the public silo network and you can take it from there. Tortoise is going to be a tight squeeze, though.”

“I can turn her into a frog!” Piddle declared. “She’ll be the smallest of us all then!”

“That’ll do it. Name’s Sargent Jamjars. Now get in formation and follow me.”

Thankfully we didn’t have to go the entire way back single-file. Jamjars lead us to the hatch that was near the main entrance; I think it was the one where he taught how to use the Springy Step Shoes. Or will teach, probably. I have no idea of the timeframe. One by one (after Piddle did the transformation, of course) we descended into the legendary realm of the moles.

It was pretty dark in the tunnels, but I didn’t have any trouble seeing. There were a surprising amount of other moles down here, all in military uniform. They gave us some weird looks as we went through, only for Jamjars to give them a significantly less weird glare back until they went back to what they are doing.

“Mole military operations are top-secret, civilians,” he told us. “Can’t have the witches finding out what we’re doing.”

“We swear we won’t tell a soul,” I replied. (Thankfully, I’m not sure this, whatever it is, counts.)

Eventually we arrived in a wider tunnel, more brightly lit, with trolley tracks along the bottom. There was a currently a small trolley on it, parked on the platform we arrived on. It was manned by another military mole.

All their work was really impressive. I guess you could call it a proper underground movement.

“And this here’s a silo network station,” Jamjars said. “These tunnels are open to civilians and connect most of the major parts of the island. Free of charge to use to anyone fighting the witches. On the house this time-” He slapped a handful of Notes to the trolley driver. “-but it’s 20 Notes a ride for up to eight after this.”

“We got it, Sargent,” I told him. “Thank you for all your help.”

“You can thank me by wising up and not walking into a train tunnel like a birdbrain,” he replied.

“Hey!” Bitbit barked. He had taken to my backpack, which was becoming his second-favorite spot behind the top of Terra’s shell.

“Dismissed!” he shouted at us before matching back into the hatch tunnels, sealing them behind him.

Piddle turned Terra back to normal as I thought about where we should go. It took a moment going through the listing when I got an idea.

“Where to?” the driver asked once we all boarded.

“Jinjo Village,” I told him.

The transit took awhile, so I took the time to fill them in on what Jinjos were. We hadn’t seen any in Terrydactyland – not a surprise, as the Jinjos in Tooie were from the Village and scattered due to the witches driving through the place in a digging machine. They were magical bear-bird creatures, but much nicer than any dinosaur we had met.

The village was vibrant and very much more alive without having one of houses flattened. The Jinjos were friendly and welcoming. Piddle really liked them.

That said, when we went to the palace to see if we could live here, the King was rather adamant about Jinjo Village being a place that the Jinjos lived. It was important, OK? Sorry. Luckily, I had a backup idea.

So I spent 20 Notes on the silo to take us to the Plateau.

“So why are we here?” Terra asked when we arrived at the rather flat and desolate location.

“Because Glitter Gulch Mine is right over there,” I said, pointing over to the closed mineshaft. “Also, we might be able to find shelter under that giant beehive. It’ll have to do until we can suss out… something.”

“Something?”

“Today has been a very busy day...”