#Steve is like is this going to open the most annoying can of worms ever? yes. am I going to do it anyways? also yes | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

helpistolethesecharacters · 3 years ago

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Hey. Can I request bucky barnes x male reader where the reader gets injured on a mission and bucky freaks out about it with the “Oh shit, is it that bad? Am I gonna die?” prompt. And can they already be in a relationship. Thank you

This was a good request, thanks.

That said, why is it harder to write something if there is more information???

This one didn't give me an immediate idea to follow through on, but I think it turned out alright.

Let me know if this wasn't quite what you wanted and I will be happy to have another go.

Stealth Mission

Bucky Barnes x Male Reader

Word Count: 1611

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

The mission was supposed to be a stealth one. It was meant to be simple, sneak in, steal some information, sneak back out with no-one any the wiser for it.

Funny how the universe likes to laugh at people who make plans.

You roll your eyes at your thoughts as you gather your breath, and your courage. You were pinned behind a series of crates in what was clearly some sort of storage area. The bullets stop flying in your direction for a second. It sounds like the Hydra guys were reloading.

You leap out and unleash a hail of bullets at the men standing by the door. To your unending relief there are only two, both of whom were reloading. Thank God for sloppy trade craft. It takes a depressingly little amount of time to down them after that.

'Two down, one whole compound to go,' you think sarcastically to yourself.

"Hey, anyone out there still?" You put a shaking hand up to your earpiece. You had never been so thankful to hear Steve's voice before.

You tapped your comm to activate it.

"Yeah, I'm in some sort of storage area inside. No idea how many are left outside. Things aren't looking great from here."

You hear Steve sigh into his own comm.

"Y/N, Thank God. Buck would'a killed me if you'd gone down out here."

"Come on Steve, you know that's between me and Barnes."

You smirk to yourself and picture Steve's face at your comment. You don't normally tease the conservative man but it helped to steady your nerves the moment.

"Alright, I'm gonna head out of here, see if I can still salvage this mission. Let me know if anyone else responds."

Caps affirmative is ringing in your ears as you pull yourself back together. You still had a job to do here, there wasn't anything else for it.

You crept closer to the only exit in the room. Your heart was pounding too loud in your ears. This was annoying but adrenaline was running high after you were surprised earlier.

Luckily the hall was empty. It seemed that the other Hydra agents were a bit preoccupied somewhere else.

'Hopefully that means that someone else is still kicking. My bet's on Nat.'

It doesn't take long to find the right room this time. You internally promise yourself to pay more attention to blueprints next time, as you make your way into the room and over to one of the computers.

You were grateful once again that you had started out your illustrious career as a hacker. A few not so minor indiscretions had landed you in some pretty hot water before you hacked into the wrong server and caught shield's attention. Several years and some serious spy training later, here you were.

Your comm crackled as you tapped away at the keys of the computer. You put your hand back up to your comm and listened as Steve relayed that everyone else had checked back in with him.

You breathed a sigh of relief. Everyone was still alright.

"Roger that, I'm almost done here, I'll meet back out front--"

You cut off with a gasped cry of pain. You hadn't noticed the person slip in through the broken window while listening to Steve talk. You had completely missed them as they moved over on silent feet. In fact, you only noticed them as they slipped a dagger in between two of your ribs.

Distantly you could hear Steve calling out to you through your comm, but you were just a little distracted by the searing pain in your side.

You could tell immediately that whoever this person was, they didn't want to kill you outright. With how silent they were coming in and how preoccupied you had been, they had had the opportunity to slit your throat. They hadn't, which was pretty telling.

If you didn't get out of here soon you would either end up as a hostage to make the others give themselves up, or you would be tortured for information.

Not great odds then.

Using the opposite side's arm you managed to elbow them in the face. Their nose made the most satisfying crunch as it broke.

You spun and took advantage of their surprise to kick them back toward the broken window. Seeing the best chance at getting out of this situation alive, you didn't hesitate to give them a second harder kick to the chest. They went out flailing for anything to hold onto.

There was a yell and a loud thud as they hit the ground some several floors below.

You held your breath as you limped your way over there. You had to be sure that they weren't still a danger.

Yep, there they were, laid out on the ground, limbs at awkward angles that would be bad if it weren't for the large puddle of blood forming under them.

You let out your breath in a rush.

There was a ringing in your ears that was not great, and the world seemed to be spinning. You stumbled back over to the desk and the computer.

You grabbed the piece of tech that you had been loading the information onto and made your way heavily out of the room.

Something made you look up. You were glad that you did, Steve was coming toward you but there was something wrong with him. He was opening and closing his mouth like he was trying to talk, but nothing was coming out.

You squint at him in confusion, but you didn't have to worry about it for long. The darkness descends just as he reaches you and you know nothing more.

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

Bucky Barnes was not someone who was known for showing a lot of emotions. Not anymore anyway. He was slowly getting better, but it was just too easy to stay emotionally frozen.

He had been that way for literally years, and it had taken meeting one of the agents at shield to really start to shake him out of it. The Y/H/C haired man had quickly wormed his way into Bucky's frozen heart and refused to leave.

Naturally, having grown up in the 1920's and 30's, Bucky had known he shouldn't want this man the way he did. However, he had lived in Brooklyn, arguably the Gay Capital of the World at the time.

The only way he wouldn't have had at least one experience back then was if he was as oblivious as Steve had been.

In any case it hadn't taken him long to know that he had to ask you out. Getting up the courage had been the difficult thing. You had surprised him by showing up earlier the same day with a box and asked to talk to him alone.

You had put the box on his bed and said that you had wanted to ask him out for a while now, and only just gotten up the courage. The box was a gift which was his whether he wanted to go out with you or not.

Bucky had known that that was the best chance he would ever have, but was curious. He had opened the box to find a big fluffy sweater and fluffy reading socks. He had melted. You were literally the best person in the world - sorry Steve.

Bucky was decidedly not emotionless now however.

You had been brought in from your latest mission unconscious, and had to be rushed to the medical wing Tony kept in his huge tower.

(A/N Yes, we are pretending that they are all friends)

Objectively Bucky was sure that you would be fine, but he couldn't help but worry. You had never looked so small, lying there with soot from who knew what on your face and blood covering a large portion of your shield issued clothing.

Bucky was doing his best not to annoy the medical staff while he waited for you to wake up, but it hadn't worked at all. He had been banished from the area until you were awake to deal with him.

So now he was annoying everyone else.

"Shit Steve, is he going to be okay? Is he going to die? Oh God, what if he dies?"

Poor Bucky was in tears and pacing up and down the communal living space as he waited for news.

Even Sam had the good sense not to provoke Bucky right now.

Apparently Natasha didn't get the memo though.

"Barnes. He's a trained agent. This is a part of the job. Grow a pair and wait for news before writing him off entirely. Besides, Y/N's a fighter, he won't give up like this. He knows you're waiting for him. He won't let you down."

Bucky stared at her, shocked. Nat was notoriously few of words. That was practically a monologue from her.

"Good," she nodded, satisfied that she had gotten through to him. "If you can't calm down and wait for news like a normal person, why don't you go find Clint and stuff him into a vent to find out what's going on in real time."

With that Natasha floated over to the couch and flipped the TV onto her latest binge show.

Steve watched as Bucky stood in shock for a minute longer, before bolting out of the room, most likely in search of their team archer.

"That was mean. He's not even going to be able to explain what he wants properly with how out of it he is right now."

Nat looked over her shoulder at Steve with a smirk.

"Just a little revenge that I owed Clint."

#Bucky Barnes x male reader #Bucky barnes #male reader #Stealth Mission #James Barnes x male reader

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wiypt-writes · 4 years ago

Text

Stark Spangled Banner

One Shot: April Fools (You Can’t Kid A Kiddo)

Intro: It’s April Fools’ Day and Tony is out to play. Avengers, beware!

Warnings: Bad language, very mild smut…no one gets naked but just in case- NSFW, 18+

Pairings: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

A/N: Happy April Fool’s Day! To celebrate I’m taking us WAY back into the SSB timeline, this takes place at some point just before the AOU timeline.

Word Count: 6k

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.

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist // Main Masterlist

Steve’s hands were hot on Katie’s hips, gently gripping her bare skin just above her underwear, the top she was wearing riding up slightly. Her bare thighs were straddling his as he gripped her neck, pulling her down for a searing kiss, grinding up against her, the TV programme they had been watching was long forgotten.

“You know,” Steve pulled back slightly to look at her, one of his hands tangling in the hem of the plaid button down she’d stolen from him to sleep in, as usual, “Captain America doesn’t approve of theft.” “Captain America is an ass hole.” Katie grinned back. “Stevie is my favourite.”

He gave a chuckle and leaned back against the sofa cushions, simply taking in her appearance for a second. “How did I get so lucky?” He asked, reaching up to tuck her long hair behind her ears. She smiled at him, her cheeks slightly flushed.

“What’s brought this on?” Her hands slid up his chest, coming to a stop on his shoulders, fingers gently playing with the collar of his polo shirt.

“Nothing.” He shook his head. “Just seeing you now and then before with that reporter…reminds me about how fierce…” he pressed a kiss to her lips, “and loyal…”another kiss, “and downright sexy you are when you’re angry.”

“He was a dick.” She mumbled, against his lips, her eyes narrowing slightly as she pulled back to look at him, his fingers gently tracing the outside of her thighs. “I mean, it’s not like we haven’t already launched the publicity campaign for the book already.”

“Well its big news.”

“Of course it is, its Harlan Thrombey.” Katie shrugged. “His books are huge!”

“Did you ever get to the bottom of why he’s reached out to SIP to run the next one when he has his own publishing company?” Steve asked and she popped a shoulder in response. “Oh something to do with his Son annoying him and needing to be taught not to take things for granted. I can ask him that in October when I meet him to go over the final edit and discuss the covers and stuff…” She wrinkled her nose as her brow creased into a frown. “But that’s by the by. That ass-hat reporter should have been at the press launch like everyone else, not trying to accost us when we went out for lunch. And what the fuck has whether we’ve set a wedding date got to do with it anyway? Nosey bastard.”

Steve chuckled at her rant and looked at her, his eyes shining. “We haven’t set one though.”

“Yeah well, we’ve kinda had a bit going on.” She pondered. “I mean, there was my extended vacation in Canada…”

“Don’t.” Steve shook his head, swallowing. “It’s not funny. I hate it when you do that.”

Katie chuckled. “I’m sorry, baby.” She leaned over and gave him a soft kiss, he hated it when she made light of her HYDRA ordeal. She pulled away, her hands resting on his shoulders. “Maybe once all this business with the sceptre is sorted we can think about it.” Steve sighed. “It’s certainly taking a little longer than we hoped.”

“Well it’s only the end of March. I’ve always wanted a summer wedding so it’s not…” Katie trailed off and Steve saw her eyes widen and her mouth dropped open as she looked at him. “Oh shit.”

“What is it?” he frowned.

“It’s the 31st March.” She looked at him, swallowing and Steve felt the colour draining from his face.

“Crap.” The reason for their horror was simple. Because, forget Christmas or Thanksgiving, April Fools’ Day was Tony Stark’s favourite time of year, as his long suffering sister could testify. When she was a kid, Tony had done the usual stuff. Flour in her talc, washing up liquid in her shampoo, paper shapes of bugs (never spiders though, he wasn’t that cruel) in lampshades so when she turned the lights on she’d think she had a huge cockroach in there, that type of stuff. But, as she matured, so did the pranks. At one time whilst she had been at the tower for a meeting, JARVIS sent her an alert that someone had slashed her tyres in the carpark. She had sprinted outside to find photos of Slash from ‘Guns and Roses’ struck to the side of her wheels. Another year, Tony had hacked her StarkPhone and Laptop and changed the language to Chinese. Of course she couldn’t read fucking Chinese to change it back. When she found an agent in SHIELD who did and he reversed it for her, within thirty seconds it had flicked over to Russian. And when Natasha fixed that it became Swedish and so on and so on… Steve had also been the butt of a few pranks since he had known Tony. In 2013 he had fallen for the old toothpaste Oreo trick when a box had arrived for him allegedly from the cookie company themselves after Steve had been papped eating a packet. That had nearly made him sick. And then last year there had been the non-stop phone calls asking for Franklin. Every time it was someone different and Steve was getting more and more frustrated as to who exactly Franklin was and why people thought he was on his number. Then, as he and Katie had been on the sofa making out, he’d gotten one last call…

“Leave it…” she urged, her hands on his face turning him back to look at her. He kissed her again, hands sliding up the side of her torso, grinding his crotch down onto hers making her purr with delight as her hands strayed to the buckle of his belt, soft fingers gently skimming his abs as she made to undo it, his tongue tangling ferociously with hers as he gave a soft moan of pleasure… But his phone was going again. Katie sighed as he dropped his head to her chest, mumbling a curse. “Unless that’s a Code Red, you can tell whoever it is to fuck off.” She gave a frustrated growl, her head flopping back against the cushion as Steve reached over and answered it, still led over her. “Rogers.” He spoke sharply. It was another unknown number, but this time it wasn’t an unknown voice that spoke. “Hi this is Frankin!” Tony greeted him and Steve let out a growl of frustration as he realised he had been had. “Have there been,” there was a pause as the inventor laughed, “I’m sorry, have there been any calls for me?” “Tony, I swear to god!” He spat through gritted teeth as the inventor cackled and hung up. “Your brother is a dick.” He looked down at Katie, shaking his head. “Well yeah, I know that.” Katie looked up at her boyfriend. “What did he just do?” “You know those calls I’ve been getting all day, the ones asking for Franklin?” He looked at her and she nodded. “It was him.”

Katie paused and then let out a laugh. “To be fair, that’s a pretty good one.” “I hate him.” Steve mumbled, dropping his head back to her chest.

She chuckled again, and ran her fingers through his hair. “Hey, Stevie, wanna get him back?” “How?” Steve queried, propping himself up on his elbows, looking at her. “Call him,” she grinned, leaning up and nipping at his jaw line softly as he closed his eyes, “leave the phone on the table,” she bucked up under him, wriggling her hips, his trousers feeling uncomfortably tight again, “and let him listen to us make out”

Steve hadn’t done that, because, well frankly the thought of anyone listening to them wasn’t a great turn on in his books, let alone her brother, so Tony had gone another year of getting away with it.

Simply put, Tony was king of the pranks, and this year he had the entire team at the tower to torment.

“We should warn the others.” Steve looked at Katie, and with a sigh she nodded. She untangled herself from him and straightened the legs on her denim shorts.

“JARVIS?” She asked.

“Yes Miss Stark.” “Where are the rest of the team?”

“Agent Romanoff and Agent Barton are in the Common Room. Thor is in his quarters as is Mr Stark and Dr Banner is in the Lab.”

“I’ll cover Nat, Clint and Banner.” Steve nodded. “You wanna go see Thor?”

Katie nodded. “Sure, I’ll pop down and see him now. Then we should probably go for a look around, see if we can spot if he’s set anything up.” Katie climbed off his lap and Steve straightened his pants slightly before giving her a quick kiss and heading towards the stairs whereas Katie made her towards the hidden elevator, selecting the right floor. Thor and Clint shared one of the highest floors in the tower, both preferring to be higher up, closer to the roof but it was still below theirs. Exiting the elevator, she turned left and knocked on the door.

“Little Stark?” Thor answered and stepped back. “To what do I owe this pleasure?” “It’s not strictly pleasure I’m afraid Thor…” Katie sighed “I’m here with a warning.” “A warning?” he frowned.

“Yeah, you got five minutes? It’s gonna take some explanation.”

***** Tony was giggling to himself as he put the final touches to the last of his pranks, before closing the door to the Lab and heading back to his floor. It was ridiculously early in the morning, but needs must. There was no way he could have set this all up the previous evening because Kiddo and Spangles would most likely have done some kind of recon mission before they went to bed.

So, as the saying goes, the bird catches the worm and all that. Fuck Killian and his second mouse bullshit.

“What have you been doing?” Pepper mumbled to him as he walked back into their dark bedroom.

“Nothing.” He answered, with a grin, leaning down to give her a peck.

“Bullshit.” Pepper mumbled against his lips. “It’s April Fools’ Day…” “Is it?” he said, innocently and she rolled her eyes. “JARVIS?”

“Yes Sir?”

“Hey buddy, I need you to set up an alert for me for today. If anyone goes into my office, or the garage, or anywhere in the tower messing with my equipment, I wanna know about it.”

“Of course Sir.”

Tony grinned as he headed into the bathroom for a shower. “Avengers, assemble!”

Prank 1.

Steve was the first victim. He and Katie were making their way, cautiously, down to the large meeting room where they were all due to congregate to look over the plans of an abandoned British prison they suspected of being a HYDRA base. They made sure to check round each corner before they walked round it, checking up high, low, everywhere.

But there was no avoiding this prank.

Steve pressed his palm to the Biometric Pad on the meeting room door and the pair of them gave a loud yell and a jump as their ears were assaulted by a sudden chorus.

“Who’s strong and brave here to save the American Way? Who vows to fight like a man for what’s right, night and day?”

“Oh for fucks sake!” Steve groaned as he pulled open the door, the song echoing through the PA system.

“Who will campaign door to door for America? Carry the flag shore to shore for America? From Hoboken to Spokane? The Star Spangled Man with a plan!”

Clint and Natasha were stood, poised at the table, both wearing identical looks of astonishment on their faces. They turned to Katie and Steve as they walked into the room, the song still playing.

“We can’t ignore there’s a threat and a war we must win! Who’ll hang a noose on the goose-stepping goons from Berlin?”

“I’m assuming this means Cap is the first of us to fall victim to Stark?” Clint asked, his lips quirking into a smile.

“Who will indeed lead the call for America? Who’ll rise or fall, give his all, for America?”

“Please tell me it isn’t going to go through a full rendition.” Steve sighed, dropping into a chair.

“Who’s here to prove that we can? The Star Spangled Man with a plan!”

Silence. The four of them waited with bated breath, but thankfully it had stopped.

“Just the first two verses.” Katie flopped down next to him. “Suppose we should be grateful.” “Kiddo, you’re as much of a sneak as Tony.” Clint looked at her, as Thor walked into the room. “How come you’ve never managed to get him back?”

“He’s too smart.” She sighed. “I’ve tried and tried before. It doesn’t help that he has JARVIS either, watch this…JARVIS?”

“Yes Miss Stark?”

“Has my brother got an alert going for you to warn him if we try and prank him?” “I couldn’t possibly comment, Miss Stark, on whether or not your brother has an alert set up to warn him if any of you attempt to tamper with any of his equipment.”

Normally, Katie would chuckle at the AI’s tone but she was too frustrated with her brother and the seeming lack of loopholes in any of his instructions she could exploit. She leaned back in her chair and gave a huff “See?”

“I could just shock him with some lightning?” Thor suggested

“Think that’s a little harsh.” Steve shook his head.

“See if you still think that by the end of the day when every time you open a door that song starts.” Natasha looked at him.

“What, you think…” Steve looked at her and then gave a groan. “Too much to hope that it would just be the one door isn’t it?”

_____

Tony, watching the events unfold on the display in the safety of his office, cackled. “Of course it isn’t just one door, Spangles!” _______

Prank 2.

Bruce was sincerely hoping that whatever inevitable prank Tony was going to pull on him that the Billionaire had been sensible enough not to shock him so far that the Hulk erupted. Bruce had a pretty good hold on him, so he wasn’t too worried but still, you never know.

The mild mannered scientist made it to his lab in one piece, opened the door and then stopped dead.

In front of him on the floor, for about two metres square were cups of water. And they were positioned that close together it left no space for him to step over in any direction without them spilling all over the floor.

Which meant he couldn’t get into the room.

Had it been anyone else, they would probably have simply kicked the cups over, but not Bruce. He was always paranoid about the liquid seeping through the floors and down onto the machinery which looked after the Iron Legion.

So if he was going to get into the lab, he was going to have to move them one cup at a time.

“Damned you, Tony!” He gave a loud, exasperated sigh. “JARVIS? I need a bucket…”

_______

Tony, watching the events unfold on the display in the safety of his office, cackled. “Good luck finding one, Brucey.”

_______

Prank 3.

“I don’t think there’s much else to go on.” Steve sighed as the rest of the team finished looking over the plans “We need to get out there and do a recon really.”

“We prepping for another mission then, Cap?” Clint looked at him. Steve took a deep breath and nodded.

“I don’t think we have an alternative.”

“Okay, well, if we get everything ready we can go at first light tomorrow.” Natasha suggested “I’ll get Hill onto the British Authorities, let them know we’re planning on coming.” With that an alert sounded on Katie’s phone and she looked down at it. “I gotta go take a conference call but I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Steve nodded to her as she stood up and left the room. She made it to her office, safely and swung the door open, pausing just to make sure nothing fell from the door frame. She darted through, took a look round and everything seemed to be in order.

Suspecting Tony of most likely sabotaging her computer or screen, Katie sat down on her chair and a loud horn sounded causing her to scream. Involuntarily, her entire body jumped, and her chair toppled backwards. She went with it, arms and legs flailing and hit the floor with a crash.

After taking a moment to sort herself out she stood up, and looked at the bottom of her chair. There was an air horn strapped to the main leg which mean as soon as she had sat down, it would push the handle causing it to sound.

“I know you’re watching this you fucker!” She yelled, spinning round to the CCTV camera and flicking it off. “I hate you!”

_____ Tony, watching the events unfold on the display in the safety of his office, cackled. “Feeling horny, Kiddo?”

_______

Prank 4.

Given that there was nothing else to do, Natasha decided to head to the gym, as she did every weekday morning, to practice Pilates. It was a routine she tried not to break as it helped her keep supple and relax. Katie sometimes joined her, and surprisingly so did Steve. He said it helped keep his mind clear.

She knew that the routine made her an easy target for one of Stark’s pranks, but she was damned if he was going to catch her out. She was one of the world’s best spies, no way was he going to get her with some stupid, childish trick.

She entered the room and glanced up and around, checking the corners, you name it. Satisfied that no one was going to jump out at her, and even if they did, she’d floor them- more fool you, Stark- she leaned up against the bench and stretched her legs out.

“Who’s strong and brave here to save the American Way? Who vows to fight like a man for what’s right, night and day?”

Natasha spun to see Steve shaking his head as he made his way into the room in his gym gear

“You joining me or hitting the bag?” She asked as they both tried to ignore the song as it continued ringing from the speakers.

“Joining you if that’s okay?” he said. “I went for a run this morning so…” “Sure.” She nodded, and as the song finally stopped they made their way to the store cupboards, picking out their mats. Natasha picked her favoured one, and lay it down on the floor.

As soon as she stepped on it there was a loud popping noise, like a gun going off, and she jumped backwards, dropping to the floor by instinct.

“Nat,” Steve soothed, a smile tugging at his lips. “It’s okay, no one’s shooting.” Angrily, Natasha stood up and stalked over to the mat. With a furious movement, she reached down and pulled it up off the floor and set about examining it.

“Bastard!” She exclaimed, slipping her hand into a small, almost invisible hole on the underside. She pulled out a tiny little firecracker, the type that kids used to throw on the floor in front of someone to make a loud bag. “He’s filled my mat with these!”

______

Tony, watching the events unfold on the display in the safety of his office cackled. “Even Super Spies get fooled, Romanoff.”

_______

Prank 5 and 6.

Later that day the team met in the common room for lunch. Steve already had a headache from that damned song following him every time he opened a door, Katie was sporting quite a sore elbow after falling harshly on the floor, Bruce was pissed as it had taken him a good hour to get rid of the cups of water, and Natasha was seething at the fact she’d been caught out too.

“I don’t know how you’ve put up with it for your entire life.” Clint said to Katie as he opened the fridge, pulling out a can of his favoured Dr Pepper. He grabbed a glass and then went to the dispenser for some ice, the way he always liked his soda, but nothing happened when he pressed the button.

“What the...” Clint frowned as he opened the freezer compartment and reached into the dispenser tray. After rummaging a little he stopped, and pulled something out before he gave a huge bellow of laughter. He turned, holding up the item and Steve glanced over to see it was a Tupperware tub that was full of ice, in the middle of which was frozen a Captain America action figure. There was a pause before the rest of the team fell about laughing and Steve groaned, shaking his head.

“Why has he picked on me two times?” he looked at Katie who gave a shrug.

“You know what he’s like, annoying you is his favourite pass-time.”

“You wanna go back in the freezer, Cap, or in the sink to deforst?” Clint asked and Steve rolled his eyes.

“I took a long enough nap in the cold, thanks.”

Clint tossed the offending item into the sink and then reached for some ice cubes before he walked over to where the rest of the team were sat on the sofas with various lunch items on the coffee table. He poured the soda into the glass and set it on the table, still chuckling.

“You can stop looking so smug.” Katie turned to him. “He’ll get you eventually, you too Thor, there’s no way he hasn’t set one up for you both.” “I am mighty, Little Stark.” Thor grinned, nursing a plate of his favoured chocolate and sugar covered strawberries he had snaffled from a tray in the fridge. “It will take more than…” “SHIT!” Clint exclaimed, and with a loud yell they all jumped back as the soda in his glass was exploding over the top with such veracity it was showering them all in the sticky drink. As Steve and Natasha headed to grab some paper towels, Katie marched over to the freezer and yanked out the ice dispenser tray.

“He’s put fucking Mentos in the ice cubes!” She groaned with a shake of her head. “Jesus Christ!” “You gotta hand it to him.” Bruce sighed, wiping his glasses off on his shirt. “This is maximum effort.”

“Oh, I’d like to hand it to him,” Katie mumbled, “with my fist closed.” Thor gave a chuckle and popped a strawberry in his mouth, before he gave a grimace, gagged and spat it back out onto the plate.

“That’s-” he stood up, nearly pushing the coffee table over in his attempt to get to the sink.

Katie watched him as he grabbed a glass of water and filled it from the tap.

“What…” Natasha looked at Bruce who was examining a piece of the fruit, holding it in front of his nose.

“Salt.” Thor mumbled as he rinsed his mouth out. “It isn’t sugar, its salt. He put salt on my Chocolate Sugar Fruit!”

_____

Tony, watching the events unfold on the display in the safety of his office, cackled. “Ice Ice baby… no need to be so salty.”

_______

*******

“We have to get him back.” Natasha grumbled as they all sat in Katie and Steve’s apartment, having retreated to the relative safety as their living quarters were the one place there was no CCTV, and Katie had the authority to banish JARVIS from earwigging. (Tony had learnt that lesson one day after hearing something he really didn’t want to hear…)

“Believe me I’ve tried.” Katie sighed “And you heard J before, anyone tampers with his equipment and…” She stopped dead. That was it. That was the loophole. With a smirk she looked round the assembled faces. Steve arched an eyebrow at her, he knew that look very well.

“What you thinking?” He asked and she grinned at them all.

“I have an idea…”

They listened attentively, Clint and Natasha sharing a grin as she outlined her plan whilst Thor slapped his thigh with glee. Steve leaned back in his chair and looked at Banner who was also smiling ear to ear.

“That might just work.” Bruce nodded. “It’s a pretty good loophole, and we have the stuff in the lab so…” “I’ll need a distraction.” Katie mused, “something that’s gonna draw Tony out of his office for long enough for me to do it but…” “That’s easy.” Thor nodded. “I’m sure I can cause a good deal of noise in the Training Facility, break a few things with my hammer.”

“Fry something.” Steve looked around. “If you do that then JARVIS won’t be able to fix it remotely, Tony’s gonna have to get his hands dirty.”

“You all know what you’re doing?” Katie grinned as everyone nodded. “Okay, Avengers, let’s do this.“

Operation Payback.

Tony heard the bang seconds before JARVIS spoke

“Mr Stark.”

“What the hell was that?”

“There’s been an incident in the Training Suite.”

“Course there has.” Tony rolled his eyes in exasperation at how stupid they thought he was. He wasn’t falling for a distraction like that. “Where is everyone?” “Miss Stark, Agent Romanoff and Agent Barton are in the shooting range.” JARVIS informed him. Doctor Banner was in his lab, although it appears he is now making his way down to the Training Facility to find out what’s going on. Captain Rogers is already there as is Thor.”

“What’s the incident?”

“It appears Thor has struck the speakers and the access pad with a bolt of lightning.” JARVIS replied. “I’m currently assessing the damage but as a result he is locked in. And he isn’t happy.” Okay, so maybe this was serious….

Tony gave an exasperated groan and pushed his chair from his desk. “Suppose I best go see if I can help. Remember what I said, anyone comes in here and tampers with my equipment…” “Of course, Sir.”

When Tony arrived, Thor was kicking the door to the training facility, waving his hammer irately.

“Thor!” Steve was stood by the glass, attempting to calm him down. “Don’t buddy, we’ll get you out of there.” “I can get myself out.” Thor blazed, raising his hand and Tony blanched at the fact Thor was threatening to send his hammer straight through the wall. It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence for the walls and glass to get damaged but they’d only just had it replaced after Steve and Thor had been practicing using Steve’s shield and Mjolnir to cause an outwards blasting shockwave. It had taken down two walls and completely decimated a bank of computers in the lab on the other side of the floor.

“What’s going on?” Tony asked, and Steve spun to him shooting him a glare.

“I’ll tell you what’s going on!” Thor roared. “That infernal song!”

His hammer crackled ominously again and Tony looked back to Steve.

“He was fed up of hearing Star Spangled Man With A Plan ringing out every goddamned time I opened a door.” Steve folded his arms. “So he lost his temper. And I can’t say I blame him.” “We’ve talked about this.” Tony looked at Thor. “You need to use your words, buddy!” “Words, I’ll give you more than words, Stark!” Thor roared. “Now get me out of here!”

“JARVIS?” Tony asked, looking at the pad on the door. “Damage report?”

“The Circuit is completely fried, Sir.” JARVIS replied. “I cannot access or override, you will need to do it manually.”

“Great.” Tony mumbled. “Let me just go get my tools from the lab.” Mumbling to himself, he set off down the corridor and once he was gone, Thor grinned and tossed his hammer in the air as he gave Steve and Banner the thumbs up before he caught it expertly again in his right hand.

“Good job!” Steve nodded with a smile as he pulled his phone out and dialled Katie quickly. “You’re up.”

****

It took Tony roughly thirty minutes to replace the wires and unlock the door. Thor stormed out, pushed him harshly in the chest before he left down the corridor.

“Guess they don’t have April Fools’ Day on Asgard.” Tony mumbled, rubbing at the front of his shirt.

“To be honest, Tony, it’s pretty annoying.” Bruce sighed. “Can you turn it off now? I mean its almost two in the afternoon.” “Yeah I suppose.” Tony sighed, before he grinned. “Tt was a pretty good one though, right.” “Hilarious.” Steve deadpanned, his hands falling to his belt buckle. Tony flashed him a grin and a shrug before he gathered up his tools and made his way back down the corridor.

“JAR?”

“Yes Sir.”

“Turn off ‘Prank Spangles’ will you, before anyone else breaks more of my tower.”

“Right away, Sir.” “And I’m assuming from the lack of contact no one’s been in my office or anywhere else tampering with my equipment?” “That’s correct, Sir.” “Today has been a good day.” Tony grinned to himself.

Once he was back in his office he sat down at his chair, and went through his emails quickly. He absentmindedly scratched at his beard, which felt a little dry to be honest. But he hadn’t oiled it since that morning. Reaching into his drawer he grabbed the small bottle, tipped a good amount onto his hand and spread it across the expertly groomed whiskers before he continued with his work. It took him a few hours but he cleared his inbox and then decided it was time to face the music. Heading down to the common room he found the rest of the team lounging in front of the TV. They were watching Kitchen Nightmares.

“S’up Kids?” he asked and none of them looked at him. “Okay, alright, I know, sorry if I pranked you but if I buy takeout will that make you forgive me?”

No answer.

“Oh come on!” Tony crossed the room, sinking into a spare arm chair. “I’ll get Thai.”

The team exchanged glances before Bruce gave a sigh. He was always the one to cave first, the mild mannered Scientist found it hard to stay outwardly angry, which was ironic when anyone thought about it.

“To be fair, that trick with the water was pretty clever.”

“Yeah, and I suppose the salt strawberries were a little amusing.” Thor looked at Katie.

She shrugged, her feet resting in Steve’s lap as he was gently running his fingers up and down her calf.

“Lighten up, Kiddo.” Tony sighed, flopping onto an arm chair.

“Payback’s a bitch, and so are you.” She responded simply, still not looking at him.

“You’ve never managed to get me back yet.” Tony snorted.

At that point he noticed Natasha and Clint exchanging smirks.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Clint shook his head.

“I like your beard” Thor suddenly grinned. “I have always admired how you keep it so neat and groomed. Maybe I should trim mine the same way.” Tony frowned. “Oh is this the part where you pin me down and shave it?” He rolled his eyes. “You know I can call my suit to me in like five seconds flat.” “We know.” Steve replied, looking at him and Tony’s frown deepened. The way the Captain’s blue eyes were shining with mirth made him uncomfortable.

He looked round as six pairs of eyes were all completely focussed on him now before Katie cracked up laughing.

“I’m sorry, I can’t…I can’t hold…” her laughter grew more and more as she threw her head back against the arm of the sofa “You look ridiculous!” Tony frowned and without a word stood up from the chair and made his way to the bar to glance in the mirrored surface between the shelves.

Oh. Holy. Jesus.

His goatee. His beautiful goatee…was blonde.

He spun round and the rest of the guys in the room cracked up laughing. Steve had his head thrown back, right hand clutching at his chest as Katie wiped tears from her face whilst Natasha doubled over on her seat. Besides her Clint slapped his thigh, his chuckles loud.

“What…how…” Tony spluttered, looking again at his reflection, before he glared back at the group.

“Slipped a little peroxide in your beard oil.” Katie managed to stutter between laughs, Thor’s loud rumbles continued, punctuated every now and then by a snort from Banner.

“JARVIS!” Tony roared “I told you to tell me if anyone went into my office, or the garage, or anywhere in the tower messing with my stuff…” “I take zero responsibility for this, Sir” The AI responded. “And I believe your instruction was to alert you if anyone entered your office or the garage or anywhere in the tower and messed with your equipment. Technically Miss Stark didn’t touch your equipment, only your Male grooming product. I believe they exploited a loophole.” That made the group laugh even harder as Tony went bright red, spluttering obscenities at JARVIS. Eventually he calmed down and sighed, before he glanced at his sister.

“You know I’m almost proud…” he said, shaking his head. “Almost…”

Katie gave him a wink in response. “You know what they say…you can’t kid a kidder, or in this case Kiddo…”

Tony gave a groan which turned into a resigned chuckle. He could always dye it back. “Good job, I’m impressed.” He mused, before he reached for some ice from the bucket on the bar and sighed. “Empty.”

“Yeah, don’t bother with the stuff in the dispenser.” Clint scoffed and Tony grinned.

“Wasn’t gonna, Legolass.” He grabbed the metal ice bucket and stepped from behind the bar.

“Oh, that reminds me, nice touch with the ice block.” Steve rolled his eyes and Tony looked at him, frowning.

“What?”

“The scale model Capsicle in the ice dispenser-“

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Old Man.” Tony shook his head. “Are you going senile?”

Steve took a deep breath and gave an exasperated sigh. “You don’t need to pretend anymore Tony.”

“Hey, I’m not.” Tony held his spare hand up. “That, as amusing as it was to watch, was not me. Although I’m kinda pissed I didn’t think of it.”

“It wasn’t you?” Steve frowned.

“Nope. I am not Spartacus.”

“Then who…” Steve started to ask but trailed off as he felt Katie’s legs shift a little in his lap. He turned to see her exchange a glance with Thor, biting her lip and then he realised exactly who was responsible. “Oh you are…”

“It was his idea!” Katie pointed at Thor as Steve glared at her.

“Yes, it was Captain.” Thor grinned and Steve turned his attention to the god. “When I found out what this whole Fools Day was about, I decided that I wanted to pull a prank of my own. Little Stark came up with that one. And, I must say, it was highly entertaining.”

Tony chuckled and clapped Steve on his shoulder from behind the couch as he headed off to find ice. “This has definitely been a good day.”

Steve continued to look at Katie, eyes narrowed as she stared back, her eyes twinkling. “Don’t look at me like that, Soldier.”

“Oh, and how am I looking at you?”

“Like you’re utterly and thoroughly disappointed in me.”

“I am utterly and thoroughly disappointed in you.” His eyes followed her as she shifted from where she’d been sprawled across the sofa, so she was sat upright. She sidled up closer to him, and leaned over.

“We’ll call it even for the plastic spider I found in the shower tray.” She whispered into his ear and Steve stiffened a little, before he swallowed and turned to look at her.

“Sorry?” He offered and she snorted, shaking her head. “To be honest, Doll, I didn’t think you’d noticed given your lack of reaction to it this morning.”

“Yeah, well, I grew up with Tony. You gotta try much harder than that to catch me out.”

“Message received, understood and duly noted for next year.” Steve muttered, his eyes flashing cheekily before he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers. “I’ll absolutely learn how to Kid a Kiddo.”

“Don’t count on it, Soldier.” She smirked as he pulled back, and he chuckled, wrapping his arm round her and pulling her close, pressing a kiss to her head.

All in all, Tony was right. It hadn’t been a bad day.

#stark spangled banner #steve rogers #steve rogers fanfiction #steve rogers fic #steve rogers x ofc #steve rogers x original female character #Katie Stark #mcu fanfic #mcu #avengers #chris evans #chris evans characters

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boop-le-snoot · 4 years ago

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masterpost ☀️ main masterlist ☀️ taglist

previously on...

Star is getting better, Sam is getting a friend, Stephen is a Sad White Boy™. A layover chapter. I'm not very happy with how this turned out but hey, it's an update and its still pandemi-lovato outside, we gotta be gentle on ourselves. PA turned out to be way more serious than I planned it to be anyways and I think that's very yeehaw of me to expand my writing from the usual almost-crackfics that I write. Love you all 3000.

Days stretched like a piece of chewed up gum, bleeding into one another at a snail's pace, one dull grey NYC afternoon after the other. The hospital wing I was forced to camp out in Tony's tower was top notch but everything, starting from the constant beeping to the sharp, chemical smells, irritated me, and what little strength I had to communicate was mostly spent on listening to Sam's tall tales.

Odette had stopped by shortly after the first wave of weakness had set in; no, I didn't dramatically faint or suddenly develop third stage cancer, I simply turned into a near-catatonic vegetable, devoid of any emotion or will to exist. My bones were like Jell-o, my thoughts - sluggish, sparse clouds that rarely swam in the grey plains of my overtired mind.

My boss was fussing over me for hours, I heard faint echoes of her and Stephen's argumentative conversations before she flipped out and shut the door to my hospital room, strong aromas of incense and smoke briefly overshadowing the bleach and plastic stench every hospital seemed to have. I

I became mostly coherent after her ministrations; enough to see the dark circles under her eyes and the ghastly tone of her skin. More often than not, I couldn't even properly focus my vision, things like using the bathroom and eating three times a day were the worst chores I'd ever had to do.

My body was trying to convince me to wither away, to simply allow the vessel for my spirit to become one with the Earth once more. I had no energy to process what had happened on the foreign planet; when I slept, I didn't dream, I didn't have nightmares, time just flowed like a fast, untamed river, my weary body drifting along the calmer streams of the shoreline and occasionally bumping into a stone of daily routine.

My stubbornness, however, was an inherent part of me. I had considered, many times, simply giving up; the voices in my head whispered at me their poisonous ideas. It would be so easy, to fall asleep and never wake up. They baited me with the promises of afterlife, of golden halls and spaces full of light and warmth.

Sam had started spending a lot of time at my bedside absolutely unprompted; sometimes, he'd hold my hand, gentle, tender fingers drawing senseless squiggles on the inside of my palm. Faint echoes of his aura told me he was worried for me, but also grateful for what I did for Stephen and angry at someone. I tried not to think about the last part: I could sense their pity and their unease every time one of his teammates stopped by my hospital room.

A healthy-looking young woman spending most of her days blankly staring at the wall wasn't a picture-postcard view. Sam wasn't bothered by it in the slightest, and when I finally clawed my way out of the dredges to be able to answer questions with a simple 'yes' or 'no', he promptly lit up, speaking to me in a happy tone that almost wasn't forced.

Tony stopped by, too, usually late in the evening, when he thought I and everyone else was asleep. He sat next to me, his intelligent brown eyes fixed on my face for twenty, thirty minutes at a time before he'd stroke my hair or run a hot, calloused palm over my arm, and then took his leave, slow, shuffling footsteps quietly receding into the hallways. I really didn't know what to think about Tony, he had always been quite quirky, but his gestures were... Nice.

Stephen... Him, his actions, I understood the least. He had argued with Tony, argued with Odette and I was sure I heard him and the Black Widow scream at each other during lunch time. Sometimes I thought I heard his voice, at night, the darkness behind my eyelids suddenly bursting with golden sparks and green bokeh but when I finally mustered up the strength to open my eyes, the empty, white walls were all that greeted me.

Stephen never stopped by, I rarely heard his voice outside of my room and almost always it was one bickering or another, mostly with Sam muttering a few choice words as he noisily sat down on the chair next to me. As much as I hated to admit it, it bothered me. Near-death experiences tended to leave a strong imprint on the human mind and whether Stephen liked it or not, we were connected for life.

"Then Steve, the dumbass, just jumps out of the plane. No chute, no warning," Sam's voice, drifting between fond and annoyed, snapped me out of my stupor. "Robot-brain curses, yells at his boyfriend like he can hear him and just... Does the same fucking thing," the exasperation made a tiny spark of mirth settle in me. I flexed my fingers despite the dull ache, gripping Sam's fingers in my palm. I didn't need to see him to know he immediately perked up. "Meanwhile I'm standing there with my wings, trying to figure out where in life did I take the wrong turn to end up with these two idiots."

"You should get them," I swallowed, my throat dry, my vocal cords tense from the lack of use. "One of those... Backpack leashes," the words were a battle to get out, it was a fight with a brick wall to force my brain to string sounds into a sentence, but I persisted.

"Should I say 'welcome back'?" Sam's optimism is cautious.

"Gettin' there," I forced my eyes to meet his, to see the life bustling in him. To feel alive, even by proxy.

"I should get Strange here, he's been running himself ragged these days, tryin' to figure out how to bring you back," Sam's free hand scrambled for his cell as I struggled to raise my eyebrows. "Yeah, yeah, I was as surprised as you were, Tony barely gets the wizard to sleep and eat."

Faint pangs of shame wormed into my headspace, for assuming the worst when I knew that his façade of vitriol and sarcasm was just that - a wall to protect himself. My rediscovery of the ability to feel, even if it was gooey shame, grounded me in this plane of existence, forcing me to face reality and return to it.

"I feel like shit," for once in my life, I allowed myself to openly, publicly complain about my state of being.

"Yeah, I couldn't tell," Sam's tone was refreshingly teasing. "Odette and Strange explained what you did. Well, sort of," the man scratched his chin. "I understood about half of it, really, but what matters is that you were badass as fuck!"

I struggled to hold onto that sense of being present. "Well, it wasn't my choice," I felt the need to state the fact. "I'm a conductor, of sorts."

Sam's eyebrows rose, both of his hands encompassing my lax palm. "Wizard-man said you consciously directed the energies, or whatever."

I felt the tiniest laugh bubble up from the bottom of my throat, my dry, chapped lips stretched on their own accord. "Because it tickled and itched. It was annoying," I belatedly suspected that there was something... Off, about my explanation.

Sam's gaping expression, exasperated disbelief, put me on edge. "You thought that radioactive ash tickles and severe nerve damage itches?" His head shook from side to side, as if he was trying to get rid of a persistent mosquito.

"Um," I had the decency to look away. "I didn't know it was radioactive," I meekly supplied as the door to my hospital room all but flew open.

Stephen looked - not much better than me, if I had to guess, with the exception of a highly anxious face instead of the (probably) dead inside high school drama club goth that I looked like. The Cape billowed behind him despite a lack of any wind, wiggling as my eyes widened in response to the fabric moving on its own.

"You're okay," Stephen's baritone had me snapping up to meet his stormy eyes with a speed I wasn't aware I possessed at this stage of my recovery. The sorcerer stood silently, eyeing me in turn.

"I'll go get some coffee," Sam delicately interjected, giving my hand a brief squeeze and all but running out the door.

"Radioactive?" I repeated the question that bothered me the most. Shock seized my chest as I fully faced the implications of our impromptu adventure, but I welcomed the acrid sensations, desperate to feel anything at all.

"Yes," the sorcerer took a few long, hurried strides before crashing into the chair. "I didn't notice at first, but then you grabbed my hand and," a jerky inhale followed the confession. "I felt the healing burn, I felt how your body rejected the particles," his speech stuttered. Slender, gloved fingers pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'd be dead in an hour, maybe, if not for..."

I was equally at a loss for words, it seemed. "Weren't we... Harmful to others when we..?" I struggled to form my thoughts.

"You burnt it all off," Stephen replied curtly, puzzled. "Your whole being rejected everything that came from that wretched place. Tony insisted we run tests, do scans. Neither of us have even residual radiation from past x-rays," Stephen's fingers twitched. "But that's not all."

"Your hands?" I offered, remembering some of Sam's words.

A sharp inhale coming from the sorcerer answered my question, if not in detail, and the man himself hesitated to reply for a reason I did not know. I didn't undo the damage, this much I knew was true. He swallowed loudly, eyes firmly planted on the wall opposite me. "They do not hurt anymore," the words were barely louder than a whisper.

I chewed on my lip, slowly, idly, letting Stephen process whatever bothered him that much. He should have been happy, or so I thought, that there was one less thing in this world that had the potential of giving him a headache. "Good," I simply replied, attempting to shrug.

"No, you don't understand," he suddenly lifted his eyes, staring at me hotly. "You did so at the expense of your own life, your lifespan, you energy, your ability to have child-"

I stopped his rant, lifting up one shaky, and my feeble gesture instantly made the tired, broken man deflate into someone that reeked of shame and regret. His shoulders dropped, head briefly touching the side of my bed. For all purposes, I nearly acquired a lapful of kicked puppy Stephen.

Mustering up my very last dregs of energy, I scoffed in his direction: "Don't fucking tell me what to do, wizard," before the familiar weight of apathy began taking over me again. One sluggish thought after the other, I came to a conclusion that he was experiencing a sort of survivor's guilt, except I didn't die.

Or maybe I did? Maybe I'd left some unknown, invisible part of me on the irradiated plains of a foreign world, coming home as a shell of my former self. To their eyes, at least, it could have looked the part; not too long after Stephen's departure, I mustered up the strength and the courage to look into a mirror, to properly see the damage I'd done to myself.

An ashen undertone to my skin, my eyes had sunken deeply into my surprisingly angular face. I had the look of a person who'd survived famine and torture, at least. I appeared to be as dull and disgusting as I felt. For what felt the first time in ages, I carefully, slowly ran myself a hot bath with some of the fancy toiletries placed in the bathroom, because of course Tony would have a full size bath in a hospital room, the steaming, herbal-smelling liquid almost instantaneously giving a boost to my blood flow and speeding up the living energies within my exhausted form.

Sam was waiting for me when I stepped out heated and pruney, a lopsided tilt to his lips and the mouthwatering smell of coffee gathering saliva in my mouth for the first time in days.

"Stephen needs to see a fucking therapist," I grouched, sitting down on the bed, bundled up in a fluffy bathrobe.

Wilson's responding eyeroll was pure reflex. "They all do," he reached out for his thermos, having noticed me eyeing it. A paper cup was promptly filled and given to me. "I can recommend a few, by the way. That specialise in unusual circumstances," he eyed me with kindness, gesturing towards the hospital room with a wide wave of his hand.

I chewed on my lip. "I don't think it will help much, at least right now, since all my hurts are- eh, magical," I shrugged. "I gotta figure out how to stop my limbs from feeling like cooked spaghetti noodles first." The coffee tasted like the usual hospital sludge but somehow, after being devoid of all feeling, it was the single best thing I've had in the past week.

"Seems like a solid plan," Sam agreed. "Your boss is a scary lady, by the way. And I mean it respectfully."

The corners of my mouth tilted up. "Yeah, but she's also very experienced and very kind. She knows her stuff."

Sam quickly looked to the side and as I followed the direction of his stare, i spied a pile of empty Tupperware boxes, causing me to lift an eyebrow at the suddenly bashful man.

"What?" He tried for indignant but it came out as a squeak. "I'm a man, god dammit! I am given free food, I take the free food!"

The realization set in. "She's feeding you now? Did you hit on my boss to get food, Sam?" I wagged my fingers, enjoying the face expressions the man was making, probably, a little more than I should. He looked like a right bird when disgruntled, all puffed up and glaring.

"No!" He almost shrieked. "She cornered me, said I was doing God's work by sitting and talking to you! She just started bringing those... Casseroles, every time she stopped by," the agitation in his voice was quite funny to me. "Not like it's a chore, I actually like the peace and quiet. You've been the best listener I've had in the past year," Sam's grin grew more genuine. "And I don't have to see RoboCop's mug all day or listen to someone argue over the best pasta shape."

"Your house sounds like a nightmare," I supplied conversationally, remembering my own peculiar place and the set of rules and- SHIT, I belatedly realized, someone might went to my apartment to get my stuff and gotten in trouble. "Sam, who went to my place to get my stuff?" I asked, trying to force down the bubbling unease.

"Some lady stopped by, I think her name was also Sam?" He quietly questioned. "Had two kids with her, the boy kept staring at me like I'd stolen his lunch money," the man finished off his coffee, gathering the trash and noisily throwing it in the bin.

"Yeah, that's my neighbor. And Armin is a cool little dude, he's just very shy," I offered absent-mindedly, inwardly breathing a massive sigh of relief.

"He looks like the boy from 'I see dead people' movie," Sam deadpanned, opening a large drawer and extracting my gym bag from it. "I'll leave you to get dressed," we nodded to each other before Sam left the room, phone to his ear and a relaxed atmosphere around his whole being radiating warmth and contentment. That was a nice change from the tense, grim atmosphere of the days past. I could get used to it, could re-learn how to let myself feel like a living being again.

I was eager to return home; stepping in through the portal, my living room greeted me exactly the way I left it the day I went to work, a few books scattered on the couch, my fleece blanket hanging halfway off the couch. Stephen hovered behind me as I set my bag down on the table, immediately surveying the state of my plants and my altar.

"Do you need, um, help with anything?" He was fidgeting, all but vibrating behind me.

Apparently, Sam had talked some sense into the wizard because he stopped by a few times since that day, for a short small-talk or a cup of coffee, the kicked puppy look back on full display.

I told Sam off, of course, saying that I was an adult and so was Strange, but something in his knee-jerk reaction told me that he was so used to playing referee, it didn't even register with him that I might be able to handle my own business. I told Sam that much, taking his hand in me: I wanted a friend, not a parent, not a therapist. It went pretty smoothly.

"No, not really," I figured I could water my own plants and vacuum my own floors. My phone buzzed at that moment, a number saved in my phone as "Tony 😎" coming through with an absolutely outrageous message.

"I'm bringing pizza in 20. You better have Netflix. Tell Dumbledore to pick up his phone."

I promptly thrust the phone in Stephen's face, who instantly developed an equally annoyed and fond expression, as he searched the numerous pockets of his robe for the sleek, light StarkPhone. "Resistance is futile," he sighed, sitting down on the couch as I went to change into something fresh and water my plants while Stephen flicked through my Netflix. I heard him mutter to himself: "Grey's anatomy? Sixth season? Oh my God," with the tone of a man tortured.

"I had a roomie in college who majored in Medical History," I snorted. "When she had a bad day, she'd absolutely pick apart every single thing in the show. From the doctor's misconduct to the way a surgeon was holding the scalpel," I explained, seeing Stephen's eyes sparkle with amusement. "She was absolutely vicious and it was the most hilarious thing."

The sorcerer stroked his chin, leaning back into the couch. "That's acceptable. All medical shows are rubbish," he stated firmly. His phone beeped, causing him to sigh and conjure up a portal within seconds, in the corner of my apartment I had aptly designated to be the landing pad to myself. Tony stepped in, a bottle of wine and three steaming pizza boxes in hand. Smiling at his boyfriend, Stephen turned to me with a curious look: "What did you major in?"

Taglist: @couldntbedamned @mikariell95 @letsby @sleep-i-ness @toomanyrobins @mostly-marvel-musings @persephonehemingway @schemefrenzy @lillsxd @bluecrazedandbeautiful @slothspaghettiwrites @xoxabs88xox @secretly-a-weeb @stuckybarton

#practical alchemy #bun writes #tony stark x reader #stephen strange x reader #tony stark x you #stephen strange x you #tony stark x y/n #stephen strange x y/n #tony stark x reader x stephen strange #stephen strange x reader x tony stark #fun fact: ironstrange x reader was the ship that blocked the suez canal #source: me im the most reliable

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babylooneytoonz · 4 years ago

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Summary: Your first meeting with Sergeant Barnes wasn't exactly charming, hell, it was a disaster. And the only adjectives that came to your mind when you thought about him were words like prick, bastard and a jackass. He made your life hell, and you lived to make sure you made him suffer. And neither of you realized, how your sole mission of tormenting each other became the most important part of your life.

Warnings: Bucky Barnes continues to be an ass // Reader has finally has it // War declared

Coffee Stains - Masterlist

Coffee Stains

Your anger still lingered inside of you like a deep rooted worm, even after you had stepped into the warm soothing shower, after your encounter with whoever the fuck that man was. You were still annoyed, and you were sure as hell worried that your mood might end up affecting your performance at the training today. You stood in your room, the pads of your feet nestled onto the feathery carpet that adorned the floor of your apartment, semi dressed when you heard Friday.

"Miss Y/N, Captain is here, waiting for you."

You frowned, wondering if it was already 7 and somehow, you had lost the track of time, but you noted that it was still 6: 40 pm by the clock.

"Thank you, Friday," that was the fastest you had ever gotten into your yoga pants, pulling it over your round bum, the elastic strap stinging against your soft fleshy belly as it hit it with a slap. The towel still rolled over your hair, you ran up to the door and flung it open, only to see Steve standing there with two people you didn't know of and who were probably newbies like you.

"Y/N, how are you holding up?" Steve asked in soft voice, and somehow you found your previous anger slowly melting away.

"Great, Steve. I thought I'm late on my first day," your lips now crept upwards in a grin, and Steve just shook his head, his hand flying to the back of his head as he ran his fingers through his blond locks.

"I thought I'd introduce you to the two of them, they were the only ones I could find lurking in the recreation room, so I dragged them here."

"No, you did not, I was the one that insisted I wanted to meet the newbie," the dark haired girl just winked playfully in your direction, and you couldn't help but snort at her words when you saw Steve's face turn crimson like a cherry.

"I'm Wanda, well, people around here might call me stuff like the Sokovian witch and all that, but when they're saying that, consider it is me they're talking about." The woman threw out her hand towards you, her hand extended in a shake, and you took her hand, feeling a comfortable warmth radiating from her. Wanda then turned towards the one to her right, and smiled, "Well this one doesn't talk much, but you'll like him."

"Hello Miss Y/N, my name is Vision, and I have taken it upon myself to welcome you to our team."

"Thank you Vision, it's my pleasure." You shook his hand; the little meet and greet causing you to temporarily forget about the man; the stranger you had met in the kitchen a few minutes back.

Steve's thick voice reaching your ears caused you to turn towards him, and you saw him looking at the trio of you with a small smile playing on his lips.

"Well, I'll leave you guys to it– " He took a step away, his front turned towards you, but his steps moving backwards until he was now a good distance away, " Y/N, I will expect you to be at the training room in ten minutes." With that, his heavy footsteps retreated away, until you couldn't hear him anymore, and you were left standing with Wanda and Vision, on your doorstep.

"Around here, punctuality is the key. And in general," Vision began.

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

Vision and Wanda lingered around in your apartment for the next ten minutes along with you, talking to you about the life at the Avengers Towers and how you got used to it once you had started adjusting.

"After a while, it feels like you are living with your roommates, except the fact that they all are superheroes," Wanda chuckled, as she watched you place your glasses away and pull out your contact lenses and fix them into your eyes.

Exactly nine minutes later, you left your apartment, and slowly started making you way towards the training room with your newly found friends, who you realized just couldn't stop bantering and talking amongst themselves; and it was cute, not in a way you felt left out. The three of you made your way to the fourth floor, and towards the training room when Wanda and Vision finally parted ways with you as it was time for their own training as well, leaving you alone.

It wasn't long before you reached the training room, but before you could step in, you heard muffled voices from the inside, until you strained your ears a little and an automatically induced frown found its way to your forehead.

"What's gotten you so grumpy today, Buck?"

Steve.

The other voice that replied wasn't one of the voices you really wished to hear again.

"What's with Stark hiring all the weirdos found in NYC? I can't believe my best tshirt got ruined."

"Come on Buck, it was a tshirt. And besides, I'm sure it was an accident."

"Who the hell cares what it was, if I was Stark, I would have fired her lousy ass right away."

"Buck, language."

You couldn't believe this piece of shit was still stuck over what had happened that afternoon. You couldn't say you had forgotten about it, but atleast you were acting all grown up and weren't bitching about it to anyone. And here he was, bitching around with none other than your mentor. This day was getting worse and worse, and you internally begged to call it a day and disappear into your apartment so you could peacefully spend your night curled in that soft, mushy pillows and the silken sheets.

You cleared your throat, intentionally, so you could announce your presence and as if on cue, Bucky's head snapped in your direction and his scowl widened, making him narrow his eyes at you.

"You again? The hell you following me around for? If you're here to apologize– "

Steve's eyes widened when he sensed the tension slowly rising in the room and it wasn't like he was daft. Having put the two and two together, he understood now that the person responsible for putting Bucky in this foul mood had been you, well not intentionally.

"Buck, easy. She is our newest recruit. Thank you for being on time, Agent."

Bucky took a double take, his eyes raking over you, in a very obvious way; and not in a sexual kind of a way but in a way to believe that he was truly shocked. This annoyed you even more and your fingers clenched against your sides.

"You got to be kidding me, punk. She can't even walk straight while holding a darn mug of coffee."

That's it, you had it with him taking continuous digs at you.

"You know, you deserved it. And now I wish it wasn't just coffee but something way worse. Probably horse piss," you literally spat and if it wasn't for Steve who had now fixed himself in front of you, blocking the two of you from slamming anything you could lay your hands on, into each other's faces, things would have gotten messy in the training room within seconds.

"Bucky–" he warned, his palm outstretched towards him, glaring at him, "we have to train now."

He then turned towards you, his expression reflecting a bit of disappointment in his orbs, "Y/N, I expect atleast one of you to be sensible, and if not, then cordial, he is a senior in here."

It suddenly clicked in the back of your head. You had watched the coverage of the Battle of Triskelion on TV. So, this was him, that ass, Winter Soldier. Of course, this man had issues, like really serious ones. But that didn't excuse the way he was behaving with you. But also, you knew that Steve was right. There was no point in engaging with him, so you decided to just be cordial, if it meant not having to deal with his shit anymore.

"Fine." You grumbled, almost under your breath.

Running your hand through your short shoulder length (Y/H/C) hair, you finally walked up to where Steve was standing, already in the Captain America mode now.

"Today, we'll test your hand to hand combat skills," you heard him say and you nodded your head, zoning out all the unwanted presences in the training room, although you could feel Bucky's piercing gaze on you. You knew he wanted to watch you fail, and falter but you weren't going to give him a chance.

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

Sweat drenched down your face, dripping off your neck, as you shifted the weight of your body and threw out your fisted palm towards your mentor, with a sudden looping overhand, but Steve managed to block your punch, his own aim now towards your nose. Your reflexes had kicked in, causing you to duck at the right time and block his punch, at the same time managing to knock him off his feet with your foot thrown out.

Captain America was hard to beat, but so were you.

The distance had once again taken its place in front of the two of you, and the two of you were ready for another round, and you were glancing at your opponent, analyzing what he was thinking, what his next moves were. He was subdued, the weight of his body shifted to his left, his eyes narrowed at you, probably ready to attack, but you couldn't be sure; maybe he wanted you to attack first, and then he would counter you.

Suddenly, he lunged at you, his fists aimed in an attack and you had been wrong there, to study his body language, and even worse, when you let yourself get distracted when you heard a low, meenacing and annoying voice reach out to you, "Agent.. are you sure you can see Steve, because you don't seem to have your glasses on. Not that you know where to go even with them on."

Your eyes flew to him in disbelief and your mouth curved into a perfect O, making you lose your fighting stance, and your guard. Steve was already fast, and when he heard Bucky's taunt, he tried to shoot him a sharp glare for distracting you, but he couldn't stop himself, he was so in momentum, his heavy palm cracked against your abs, throwing you away, down on the mat with a force you didn't think was possible.

Steve threw his hands in the air, as he rushed over to you, kneeling down beside you, to check if you were alright, but you gave him a tight lipped smile and nodded, sitting upright, shooting Bucky a glare.

"I didn't know they taught you these cheap tactics of distracting people back at the army, Sergeant."

Bucky smiled, leaning forward slightly, so his elbows were resting against his knees, his lips stretched into what looked like an evil smirk.

"Weak people always find excuses, one way or the other. You let yourself get distracted."

He stood up, with slow steps, walking over towards you. By that time, you had lifted yourself off the mat, and your hands had flown to your hips, your neck held upright. Bucky stepped onto the mat, moving in front of Steve, who had opened his mouth in protest, but hadn't yet said anything, until Bucky was in your face, giving you a stare down.

"This is the real deal. I don't know where you came from or what you did. But this is the real deal. There will be real enemies, and they will do everything on their part to distract you. There is no room for weakness here."

Suddenly, a feeling of dread washed over you, it wasn't exactly dread, but it was something else all together, like a sudden burst of adrenaline , perhaps provoked by his words, but also because of his close proximity. You hadn't realized till that moment, and perhaps, neither had he, but he was so close, you could feel his hot breath on your face which caused your eyes to involuntarily fall over his lips for a second, and then back up, until you caught him smirking down at you, probably basking in his little mountain of victory.

You only thanked Steve inwardly, when he suddenly stepped in, breaking whatever this moment was, when he grabbed Bucky's palm and pulled him away from you, his eyes now on him, a look passing between the two of them that you couldn't decipher. Maybe it was a best friend thing between them, something only the two of them knew of.

"Buck, that's enough, she was good, and you know she was."

"I agree."

When a foreign voice sounded in the room, the three heads involuntarily snapped in that direction, only to find Sam Wilson leaning against the door, a half eaten apple in his hand, and his mouth moving as he was chewing on it.

"What?" He shrugged, his voice sounding unclear as his mouth was completely stuffed, "that was the Captain that she just fought. And I am impressed."

Your expressions softened, and a smile broke out on your lips and you nodded towards Sam, who nodded back with his eyes twinkling at you.

Bucky shrugged and finally, he let his shoulders relax, and shot you a quick look, "I don't think so. I think you just went soft on her."

You scoffed in disbelief, biting your lower lip to bite back from barking back at him and moved away from the mat to grab a chilled bottle of water that lay on a table. Your fingers worked on the bottle and at the same time, your eyes remained on Bucky, and Sam who had now joined the two of the super soldiers. You could see that Steve was trying to knock some sense into Bucky, tell him how he was just overdoing it, but Bucky just deadpanned, his glare fixed on you until he again took a dig at you, and this time you couldn't take it.

"Did it hurt? That blow to your –" He pointed his index finger towards his abs, that cocky smirk still draped over his lips, "Now maybe that's payback, for almost burning me a few hours back."

His words caused you to almost tighten your grip on the bottle, the grip so hard, the plastic of the bottle almost shrank. You took a deep breath, taking one step towards him, slowly, before your pace rose, and you were striding towards him, your eyes brewing with anger. The bottle was still in your hand, the cap laying abandoned on the table, so when you were sure you were at a close proximity from him, you tipped the bottle, letting the cold water drain through his tshirt, right on his abs, drenching him completely.

"There you go, I think it won't burn now, I feel I should have done that hours back, atleast you wouldn't be crying about it till now."

Steve closed his eyes, his palm flying to his face as he swiped his hand over his face. He knew that things were going to get murky now, and things had gotten out of hand, which is why his grip on Bucky's arm tightened. Bucky was seething, partly in rage, and partly due to a sudden flush of what he could only name as embarrassment, while Sam was openly smirking at what he had just witnessed.

A woman had managed to shut the Winter Soldier up, and how, with cold water right on his burns.

Today was a good day.

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dameronology · 5 years ago

Text

the one where you finally talk about it (s.r x reader)

summary: when a mission goes wrong, you end up in a cell with your ex-boyfriend. what a better way to pass the time than to discuss where things went wrong?

i was listening to why we ever by hayley williams and it was a vibe and reminded me of something i went through a few months ago so i’m really throwing my own experiences out into the void here big yikes

- jazz

warnings: angst, language

You curled up in the corner of the cell, feet splayed out in front of you. You were wiggling one of your boots side-to-side, knocking into the metal bars with a rhythmic tap, tap, tap. You could feel the cold concrete against your torso - it was a welcome contrast to the stuffy air of the cell. The fact you could smell your ex-boyfriend’s aftershave from where you were sat didn’t help.

‘Can you stop that?’ Speak of the devil - or perhaps, the devil was speaking.

‘Stop what?’ You innocently asked, lifting your head from the wall to look at him.

Steve Rogers was on the other side of the cell, pacing back and forth. You hadn’t meant for the mission to go wrong - but it had happened. It was a risk that came with the job, and usually one you could deal with. Being locked in a cell with your former lover, however, was not. You hadn’t spoken in almost six months. Maybe it was SHIELD’s fault for thinking you two could possibly work together.

‘Tapping.’ He grunted. ‘You always tap on things. It’s annoying.’

‘And you pacing back and forth like a six foot, caffeinated toddler isn’t?’

‘You are so childish sometimes.’ Steve commented. But, he stopped pacing, instead sliding down the wall to imitate your position.

‘Yeah, that was a point you covered very well when we broke up.’ You snapped.

You weren’t even entirely sure why you’d broken up. You’d been wildly in love one minute and fuming the next. You’d gone from 0 to 100 - stolen kisses turned into yelling, seething fights. Long, sweet nights together turned into I think I hate you sex. At one point, you didn’t think it was possible to hate him - but Steve Rogers always had a way of proving people wrong, after all.

You’d both pretended that you were fine in the months afterwards. In truth, it had taken a lot of wine and and many late-night talks with the ever-wise Natasha Romanoff to even begin to get over it. You didn’t know where you stood now, or how you felt. It wasn’t a can of worms you wanted to open in such close proximity to him.

‘We’re smart,’ you murmured to yourself. ‘I’m sure we can find a way out.’

‘Did you just say something nice about me?’

You let out a groan. ‘Not everything has to be about what happened, Rogers. Get over it - get over yourself.’

‘I am over it.’ Steve raised his hands in surrender.

He stood up, hands wrapping around the metal bars. He glanced at the lock for a minute - he’d been able to pick them at one point. Then, technology advanced past his Boy Scout training and became electronic. People were creating new inventions out of things that didn’t need fixing.

‘Let me guess - it’s still locked?’ You offered, glancing up at him. ‘You might as well just sit your ass down and wait for Bucky to get here with the back-up.’

‘That could be hours.’

‘Oh, I’m sorry. Do you have somewhere to be?’ You held your hand out in front of you, motioning to the concrete walls and tiny window.

Steve let out a grumble and sat back down. The air between you was thick with tension - you both had too much to say, but neither of you were getting to the point. What even was the point? That you both felt the need to remind the other of what had happened, to take pointless jabs at something that happened months ago?

In truth, you didn’t hate Steve - not even a tiny bit. You hated what had happened between you but it’s not like he was single-handedly responsible for it. Failed relationships were part of being an adult. Above all, you were just hurt by the fact you couldn’t make it work with the person you loved most in the world.

‘How’ve you been?’ You tried not to laugh at your half-arsed attempt to break the silence.

‘The usual. I’ve been doing missions, going to the gym, getting stuck in a cell with my ex.’

You pulled a face at him, rolling your eyes. ‘If it’s any comfort to you, I had plans as well. I had a date.’

‘With who?’

‘Two people actually. Men. Very rich, very famous.’

‘C’mon.’

‘Ben and Jerry,’ you winked at him, and Steve simply snorted.

‘Your jokes are still terrible.’

‘Is that why we broke up? Because of my jokes?’ You quipped, but stopped when you saw his face fall. ‘Sorry. Was that too soon?’

‘No,’ Steve shook his head. ‘I just - why did we break up?’

‘I don’t actually know.’ You smiled sadly at him. ‘You said I picked fights too much.’

‘And you said I worked too much.’

The ice between you had melted slightly with the circumstances. The fact you were even having a conversation was a big step.

You stood up, grumbling at the pins and needles in your legs. You walked to the other side of the cell, leaning against the wall and staring out the tiny window. The mountains went on forever; grey skies, grey water, grey clouds, grey everything. Pathetic fallacy, much?

You remembered now - quite clearly. Steve was working on four or five missions a week; way more than his contract required. He was away six nights a week. He was barely talking to you, barely touching you. And, when you did see him, you were so hurt by it that you turned everything he did say into an out-of-proportion fight.

‘You did work a lot,’ you murmured under your breath. ‘And I did pick fights.’

There were footsteps - not pacing, but coming closer to you. Steve appeared in your line of sight, his large shoulder resting on the wall a few feet away from you. He remembered too, just as vividly as you. You’d both pretended to forget - that way you didn’t have to talk about it.

‘Maybe if we’d spoken more.’

‘I did try to talk to you - all the time, but you were never home.’ You tried to hide the hurt in your voice, but it wasn’t working.

‘When I was home, you always fought with me-’

‘- because you hurt me, Steve!’ Your voice broke, and you sharply turned your back to him. ‘I thought you didn’t want to be with me.’

‘Of course I wanted to be with you.’ His voice was soft.

Steve put a hand on your shoulder, forcing you to turn around and face him. For the first time in six months, he was looking at you with something that wasn’t contempt. He was still every bit as attractive, even when he was furious, but the soft look on his features brought you back to a better time - a happier time, when it had been you and him against the world and not you and him against each other.

‘You had a funny way of showing it.’ You said.

‘I was scared,’ Steve murmured. ‘I hadn’t been in love like that before. I was worried you were going to leave me, that you were going to hurt me.’

‘Maybe I was doing the same.’ you countered, voice small.

A silence fell between you again. It wasn’t tense this time - just sad. Break-ups were always hard but this one especially. What you’d had was rare; it was proper love. Perhaps not the kind you see in the rom-com, but the boring, ever-lasting kind of love. Only, it wasn’t everlasting. It was a very temporary love; fleeting, over before it had even properly started.

You returned to your place against the wall, watching as Steve quietly moved over and took the seat beside you.

‘It’s a shame, really.’ You gave him a pained smile, ‘because we were a hot-ass couple.’

‘We were,’ Steve chuckled.

‘I’m sorry things didn’t go the way we wanted.’ You replied. ‘I guess we’re both wiser for it now.’

He thinned his eyes, deep in thought for a moment. You were talking about it in a way that seemed so final - but why? If one of you was about to die or marry another person, he’d understand. But, neither of you had even tried to talk about it - you’d never discussed the things that broke you up, not until now.

Part of you still wanted to go running back to him - to forget the hurt and the pain and the sorrow. You wanted to feel his lips on yours again, to feel his arms around you. You missed the butterflies you used to get when he called you his, and the kick you got from telling people that Captain America was yours. For every bad part, there were ten good ones.

You pushed the thought from your mind. It was tempting - he was tempting. But, the hurt had been too much. You were still quintessentially the same people; if you couldn’t have a healthy relationship then, who’s to say that you could now?

‘You’re thinking about it too, aren’t you?’ Steve’s voice pulled you from your thoughts.

‘If you mean briefly considering suggesting that we try again before realising it’s the worst idea ever - then yeah.’

For what it was worth, at least you were always on the same wavelength.

He laughed knowingly. ‘And I’m guessing that one very intense conversation in a cell isn’t enough to convince you?’

‘Not even close,’ you took his hands in yours, squeezing them. ‘We’d need intense therapy before we even started to deal with the things that broke us up.’

He grimaced, nudging his head to the side as if to say fair enough. He released his grip on your hands, sticking out his pinky.

‘So...friends?’

You smiled back at him, wrapping your finger around his. ‘Friends.’

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winter-turtle · 3 years ago

Text

House Of Wolves - Chapter 2 - Winterturtle - Multifandom [Archive of Our Own]

Tony being human disaster.

Chapter 2: Endeavors And Disasters

The moving came as a surprise to Peter. Stark just showed up a few hours after dropping him off in his cell and then took him here. Instead of the dull grey, the walls here were white, not to mention without stains of suspicious origin like when Peter’s family was forced to squat somewhere and there was an actual bathroom this time. The only downside was that there was no door, but it was still a whole separate room.

Privacy.

Peter kept thinking about the interrogation session ever since it ended. It’s been hours and he couldn’t figure out what had possessed him to reveal his name, but he saw no real harm in it.

For all the world knew, the Parker family’s been dead for years. There was nothing in their name; no bank accounts, no cards, no phone numbers, so they really couldn’t link anything to them. Not even his parents’ clients didn’t know their real names as there was always different name per client. Only codenames remained the same.

And hey! For all the Avengers knew, he could have taken an advantage of a missing family’s identity-

The door opened, pulling Peter out of his musing.

“What the- why are you on the floor?”

Peter lazily blinked. “The mattress is too soft. I feel like I’m about to sink,” he replied flatly to very concerned-looking Stark.

“Uh, yeah, right,” the man rubbed the back of his neck in the same manner like Peter did when he was about to get sensory overload, “we can get a harder mattress if that’s what you prefer. Just please don’t sleep on the floor.”

Funny. Peter was used to sleeping on the floor. Though he preferred sleeping curled in the corner, sticking to the ceiling. He wasn’t sure if his spider part was responsible for that particular habit, but he felt the safest there.

Unfortunately, the option to sleep on the ceiling was taken away from him.

“What do you want?” Peter asked, not getting up from his spot. It was time for breakfast and yet he didn’t see any plate in the man’s hands. So, that’s how it was gonna be. Interrogation without-

Stark pointed to the hall behind him with his thumb. “Breakfast. Let’s go.”

Wait, what?

Peter sat up, confused. “Where?”

“The magic place where food is usually prepared and eaten, also known as,” he drummed his fingers in the air in dramatic pause, “the kitchen.”

“Why?”

The mechanic threw his head back. “Do you want to eat or not?”

Peter did, so he obliged.

Expecting the familiar force to pull his wrists behind his back, Peter put on his best defiant face. But nothing happened. Instead, Stark motioned for him to leave the room. Peter did and still nothing happened.

Were the bracelets faulty or something?

“Well, are you coming?”

“Didn’t you forget something?”

“Hmm, nope, I don’t think so,” Stark said as he walked, not waiting for the boy.

“Why isn’t he concerned about leaving me unrestrained?”Peter thought, going for light jog to catch up, confusion painting his features.

Pleasant smell wafted through the air the closer they got to the kitchen. Peter’s expression shifted into badly concealed curiosity. He sniffed the air once, twice, concluding that whatever was being made there, it smelled good enough to make his mouth water.

They entered and Peter could swear he saw several flashes of shocked expressions coming from the Avenger seated at the table before Stark had the chance to announce their presence. Rogers, standing in front of the stove, was the first one to break out from the stupor. He plastered his typical patriotic smile on his face. “Good morning, Peter.”

Peter gave him an unimpressed look in return. Stark motioned with his hand at the table, his hand barely missing Peter’s back.

His instincts briefly took over, making him stiffen in anticipation of the pain and ready to fight.

Peter, shoulders falling in relief when no touch came, took the nearest free chair, which was between Wilson and Barton. Barnes was opposite of him, looking at him in the way that kind of reminded Peter of the looks Stark sometimes gave him. “What?” he snapped.

Barnes’ expression shifted, this time into one that Peter recognized. Guilt. “Nothing. Sorry,” he mumbled, quickly averting his gaze.

Narrowing his eyes in suspicion, Peter kept staring at the man until Rogers placed a plate in front of him. “Here you go.”

All words died on his tongue, his eyes comically wide when he looked down. He hoped nobody noticed, but holy shit.In front of him laid nicely stacked perfectly round pancakes. And those were no regular pancakes.

They were chocolate chip!

His mouth began to water even more. Peter was basically an acid when it came to sweets. Chocolate was a rarity in his life. He only got it for special occasions like his birthday or if he did exceptionally well on a mission, or when he managed to find enough loose coins on the streets.

Peter dug right in. The heavenly taste of the chocolate spread across the tongue, the fluffy texture making it feel like he was chewing on a cloud. Hands down, these were the best pancakes he’s ever eaten. Honestly, they were so good it could make him start to consider switching the sides.

Kidding. He would never betray his parents. But the pancakes were still good.

“Do you like them?” Rogers asked.

Peter’s head snapped up, his stuffed cheeks dusting pink once he registered amused looks of the Avengers. “Yeah,” he forced out around the food before swallowing, “they’re alright. Thanks, Rogers.” Because he got some manners after all.

The man winced. “Just call me Steve, son.”

“Sure thing. Let me try again then. Thanks, Call-Me-Steve.”

Barton snorted, choking on the food in the process. Romanov slapped his back while, her mutter of the word ‘dumbass’almost drowned out by others’ laughter.

“Ah, you little shit,” Stark said as he wiped a tear from his eye, “I like you. Want some more pancakes?”

Peter shrugged, but mentally cheered. “Yeah, sure, whatever.” And sooner than he thought, he made it through another plate. Then he was offered another refill and then one more.

But… there was something odd to the taste. Something Peter couldn’t quite place, but it made his mouth a bit tingly. In the end, he just wrote it off as not being used to that much sugar and who knew what kind of special and expensive ingredients they could afford to buy.

He was halfway through the fourth serving when the questions started.

“Damn, do you have a bottomless pit instead of your stomach or something?” Stark asked. “I swear I’ve never seen someone keeping up with Rogers and Barnes when it comes to eating.”

Peter briefly considered pros and cons of telling the truth. Last time he gave them a piece of information about himself, he got an upgrade in accommodation. Maybe he’ll get another upgrade after this? Well… it was worth a try. “No, just fast metabolism.”

“How much food do you need?” Romanov asked.

Peter snorted. “More than a single sandwich.”

“Why didn’t you say something?” Rogers asked.

Peter straightened his back and put on his most serious expression. “Hi, I’m Captain America. Whether you’re a student, or a soldier, there’s one thing that will always give you an edge,” he paused, one corner of his mouth rising slightly, “a hot lunch. You don’t have to be injected with secret government super soldier serum to have strong bones and muscles. A well-balanced diet is one of the best ways to keep your body healthy. The food pyramid will help you find the balance,” he finished with a mock salute before shoving another piece of pancake into his mouth. “You didn’t ask.”

Rogers grimaced. “They still show those?”

“Don’t know,” Peter shrugged. “I never went to school, but they’re all on the internet. But listen to me, Call-Me-Steve, what I’m trying to say is: save your PSAs for someone else, ‘cuz they sure as hell won’t work on me.”

Barnes chuckled, nudging Roger with his elbow. “What did you get roped into?”

“Okay, but am I the only one who finds it weird that he has the whole thing memorized?” Rhodes piped in.

“No, but I have different question,” Barton said as he leaned towards Peter, looking at him intently. Peter braced himself. Here it was. The questioning.

“What did Tony do to make you talk in just one sitting?”

Peter blinked twice. That was… surprisingly petty. “He’s… annoying. Don’t take me wrong, you’re annoying too, but he’s special brand of annoying.”

“Geez, thanks kid. I take that as a compliment.”

“So, you did it to shut him up?”

“Yep.”

As it turned out, four plates were his limit. Peter released long, satisfied sigh. Wow. He didn’t remember the last time his stomach felt so full. He only got to eat that much before missions to ensure he was in top condition, which-

Peter frowned. Now come to think of it, he got no extra food before this mission.

“Kid… that’s called abuse.”

That was- no. No!

“…hurting their own children is not something normal parents do.”

There was no way they wanted to… get rid of him. No, they were just waiting for the right moment to strike.

“Same as they came for you in the past three weeks?”

Yeah, that had to be it. So, shoving away the statements that wormed their way under his skin and getting rid of that train of thoughts, Peter focused on the pleasant feeling of his full stomach.

It would be better if the strange tingling left though. It stubbornly lingered in his mouth even after two glasses of water. Oh well. He would trade the slight discomfort for full stomach anytime.

He was led back to his room when the Avengers started to clean the table. He didn’t mind, strangely.

Maybe… maybe they weren’t so bad after all.

Peter’s stomach churned. He wrote it off as being full after such a long time.

“See?” Tony held his head high, the proud feeling radiating off of him. “It worked.”

So early and he was already on a good track. The change of the room and good food – plus the new mattress, but that one had yet to arrive – were only the beginning. He just returned from the gym where he was putting everything that could be used as a weapon away. He assumed the kid would appreciate some physical activity after weeks of confinement.

“He wasn’t even his usual rude self! Well, for the most part. I think he was just cranky because he was hungry.”

“Don’t celebrate in advance,” Natasha warned, “or you’ll jinx it.”

“Me? Jinx it? Please,” Tony rolled his eyes. “I’m practically a lucky charm of this team. Seriously, what could go wrong?”

“Boss,” Friday’s voice came from the speaker, interrupting his boasting. “Peter has been throwing up for the past ten minutes.”

“You were saying?” Rhodey deadpanned after a moment of dead silence.

“Shut up.”

There was no sign of the kid or the pancakes when he opened the door to the kid’s room/cell. “Peter?” Tony called out. A dry heave coming from the bathroom prompted him to move.

The sight that greeted him made his expression fall instantly. The poor kid was hunched over the toilet, shaking like a leaf, his face pale and sweat plastering his messy curls to his forehead. “Oh, kiddo,” Tony said sadly. He kneeled next to the boy, placed his hand on Peter’s back and began to rub soothing circles on his back.

The kid tensed. “Don’t touch—” Another round of his stomach turning itself inside out cut off the threat.

Tony grimaced. Well, there were those pancakes. Reluctantly, he let go, hoping that his presence alone would be enough to provide at least some comfort. After what could have been three minutes, the heaving stopped.

“You assholes poisoned me,” the kid accused weakly.

“What? No, no, no,” Tony was quick to deny, “you were there with us, we all ate the same thing and we’re alright. There was no way someone poisoned you. Why would we ruin Cap’s famous chocolate chip and mint pancakes and made you sick?”

“Mint?! You- bleh.”

And the heaving was back. Honestly, Tony wondered how the kid managed to bring something up after he’s been praying to the porcelain goddess for so long. But… mint? “What’s up with mint?”

The sound of Clint smacking his forehead echoed in the small bathroom. “Spiders don’t like mint. Laura uses it to keep the little buggers out,” he added when the team sent him questioning looks. “And he ate four plates of those pancakes.”

“Leave,” the kid rasped out.

“Kid, I don’t think—”

“Leave!” Peter said more forcefully before he shoved his head into the toilet once more.

Tony, although reluctantly, stood up. “Okay.”

“Tones,” Rhodey let out soft protest.

“It’s no use now,” he mouthed. “Come on,” Tony said and ushered his teammates out, throwing concerned looks over his shoulder the whole time.

“I didn’t know he couldn’t eat mint,” Steve said once they were back in the hallway, his head bowed down.

“Neither did we, Steve,” Sam patted Steve’s shoulder, “neither did we.”

“I didn’t do that on purpose.”

“We know.”

Peter laid curled into a pathetic ball on the floor. The moment his stomach had nothing left to expel, he splashed his face with cold water and dragged himself as far away from the lingering smell as he could, which wasn’t exactly far. He rested his head on a pillow he’s pulled off the bed and he was here, breathing through waves of cramps.

Stupid.

He was so stupid, thinking that the group of heroes wasn’t that bad. Just look where that got him. His parents always said that he was too optimistic, too gullible and trusting. Ingesting mint used to be a punishment for him, although it’s been so long since there was a need to use it that he forgot how horrible it made him feel.

It was only when his stomach was painfully cramping that he realized that the tingly feeling in his mouth wasn’t because of the sugar, but because of the mint. It happened every time he brushed his teeth, though in much smaller extent, so he was used to it.

Peter released shaky breath, closed his eyes and buried his face further into the pillow. Sleep always helped, so that’s what he planned to do.

Unfortunately, the universe seemed to hate him because Stark walked in in that same moment, carrying a steaming bowl of something and an apologetic expression on his face.

“Hey,” he greeted softly.

“You again?”

Peter was tired. He wanted to rest. He didn’t have any energy left to argue with the billionaire.

“Kid, look. We had no idea this would happen, but I’m sorry anyway.” When Peter didn’t reply, he continued. “You said you have fast metabolism and there’s literally nothing in your stomach to give you energy. You’re also most likely dehydrated. So, here,” he said and approached the sad heap. “I got you home-made chicken broth to replenish those electrolytes and rehydrate you.”

“Electrolytes that you made me lose,” Peter gritted through his teeth. “Don’t want it.”

“Kid, please—”

Peter shot the man weak glare. “Go away.” Another wave of cramps hit his stomach, making him curl into even tighter ball, barely swallowing down a whimper.

If there was something the boy hated the most, it was showing weakness in front of an enemy.

He was aware of Stark’s eyes on him. The man sighed, then placed the ceramic bowl within Peter’s reach. “I will leave it here in case you change your mind.”

The lock clicked after that, leaving him alone at last. He dragged his eyes to the bowl and just watched the steam dance above it. It smelled great. But no, he couldn’t…

Or could he?

What if it was really just an accident? True, he never told them and he didn’t think they had any way of knowing either. So, maybe… just a sip… but he shouldn’t… was it really a good idea?

He hated these conflicting feelings.

Ah, to hell with it! If he threw up again, it’ll be his own damn fault this time.

Carefully, Peter uncurled himself, leaned his back on the wall, reached for the bowl and blew on it before taking a sip. The rich flavor combined with the warmth of the broth spreading through his body made him relax immediately and soothed his stomach.

When he deemed himself full enough, he put the bowl down, and curled back so he faced the bed. Watching the single forgotten dust bunny in the corner, he fell asleep.

Later, when Tony went to collect the almost empty bowl, he got on one knee and threw the blanket over Peter’s sleeping form. Watching the steady rise and fall of the kid’s chest, he carefully moved his hand towards the kid’s head and e began to run his fingers through the brown curls.

The action elicited a reaction, although not unpleasant.

The kid sighed in content and subconsciously leaned into the touch, making Tony smile. It was enough to givie him a confidence boost.

He could do it.

The day his stomach was turning inside out, Peter was left mostly alone. He slept through most of the day anyway, though when he woke up, he was confused about the blanket on him. He didn’t remember covering himself before falling asleep, which meant that someone, and he had a pretty good hunch who, did it for him. He found that weird.

Because why would anyone bother with making sure he was comfy? Back home, if he fell asleep without the blanket, he slept without the blanket. Simple as that.

Oddly, some part of him was… touched by the gesture. It was like something stirred in his soul. Something… something warm.

Sure, the thought of an enemy in the same room as him while he was vulnerable got him on edge, but at least he didn’t wake up cold.

The next day, he refused to leave the room. All attempts to coax him out fell flat. They were back to delivering the meals to him. Thankfully, there were no more sandwiches.

Yesterday, Stark brought him a book. Peter decided not to accept the gift/peace offering, but the boredom eventually won and he found himself reading it. He almost laughed when he spotted the knife on the book’s cover and actually barked out a laugh when he saw that the title.

Should they be giving him a book that was calledThe Knife Of Never Letting Go? Peter didn’t think so.

Though he quickly found himself rooting for Todd to get away from his hometown’s army and reach safety.

And now they were today, back at the coaxing.

“So, uh,” Stark squirmed under Peter gaze. It was strange to see otherwise confident man to act like this. “Do you want to go to the gym? To get some movement? Only if you feel up to it, that is.”

Peter, as much as he hated to admit it, didn’t think about the offer for too long. He would kill to get some actual movement. Those few squats and push-ups he could do in the privacy of the bathroom were nothing compared to his usual training regime. Plus, he didn’t want to get through the book too quickly since he wasn’t sure whether he would get another one.

“You’ll like it there,” Stark, obviously relieved, kept on babbling as he walked ahead of the boy.

Peter was baffled by the man’s decision of repeatedly exposing his back to him. It would be so easy to jump at him, even without his powers, and snap his neck and nobody would be able to do anything about it.

“I think you will be able to use the equipment our two super grandpas.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

But… Peter found himself not wanting to.

Why was Stark being so… so nice? There had to be some ulterior mo-

A sudden stabbing pain in his wrists had him stop dead in his tracks, tiny yelp escaping past his lips. Squinting, he brough his wrists up to his face to look at the bracelets.

A faint numbness began to spread from underneath them. A second later, a wave of lightheadedness washed over Peter’s whole body, making his limbs feel weak and his eyelids heavy in the process. He realized far too late what was happening.

“Oh, motherfu—”

He didn’t get to finish the sentence as his knees buckled. The world turned black just before he hit the floor.

“Come on, kiddo, open those Bambi eyes of yours,” Tony said as he frantically patted Peter’s cheek. How could he be so stupid?No, really. How? He was the one who designed the bracelets. He knew all about the functions included.

So just exactly how did he forget about the fail-safe?

The fail-safe that was specifically designed to inject quick acting sedatives into their wearer in case of an escape. Once they crossed a certain point – bam! It’s a night-night for at least an hour. More that enough time to collect the escapee.

“Man, how did you forget about the fail-safe?” Sam asked from where he was hovering over the duo on the ground, knowing he wouldn’t be much of an use in their current situation. He offered to spare with the kid in case he wanted to since Tony didn’t want neither super soldier sparring with now-average teen, though he doubted that Barnes would say yes if asked and fighting with Natasha could be interpreted wrongly after the horrific revelation.

“I don’t know, I just forgot,” Tony forced through his teeth before he resumed the patting. “Wakey-wakey, spider-baby, nap time’s over.” Lordy, he’s really done it now. Peter didn’t as much as stir.

Tony tapped Peter’s cheek a tad stronger. He hoped the action along with the kid’s fast metabolism will rouse him soon enough.

The minutes felt like the whole eternity, but finally, Peter began to stir.

“Pete? You with us?”

The kid looked painfully young as opened his bleary eyes, blinking several times to get rid of the hazy fog that was without a doubt shrouding his mind. “Wha…”

Tony’s shoulders fell with relieved exhale. “Oh, thank God. You okay?”

He didn’t know why he asked that. It was obvious that the kid was in fact not okay if his weak attempts to sit up were anything to go by. Tony put his hand on Peter’s back and gave him the boost, mindful to be as gentle as possible. One of the points to spark the change in the kid was to introduce him to a concept that not every touch had to be painful.

A concept that was no doubt alien to him.

“Don’t t—”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, don’t touch me, I know,” Tony said as he put his hands up in surrender, but remained in vicinity in case the kid toppled over.

The whole process kind of reminded him of helping an overturned turtle.

“What the hell was that?” Peter asked, some of his usual snappiness returning.

“It was an accident, I swear! This was legitimately my bad. I,” Tony inhaled, “forgot to disable the fail-safe. I’m sorry.”

“A lot of accidents seem to happen ‘round you.”

Tony shrugged, wincing in the process. “What can I say? I’m very accident prone.”

Peter weakly smiled, mischief sparking in his eyes. “For a genius, you sure are a dumbass.”

“Thanks,” Tony deadpanned, “Once again, I take that as a compliment. But look,” he lifted up his watch brought up the menu and with a few presses changed the functions, “now you can roam the building all you want.”

The kid rolled his eyes, clearly not believing him, before making an attempt to stand up. He didn’t get too far before he, as Tony predicted, toppled over; right into Tony’s waiting arms.

See? Like helping overturned turtle. Drunk overturned turtle, but turtle nonetheless.

“Take it easy,” Tony said gently.

Peter pushed him away. “I’m fine. Let’s go to the gym.”

Much to Peter’s annoyance, he was deemed unfit to do any exercise after he struggled to remain on his feet. The process of getting to the common room was tedious and slow, mostly because he refused to accept help from either of the men.

He did pretty well with the wall alone, thank you very much.

With the gym out of the question, the movie night he learned was planned for later got turned into movie marathon. The group of heroes were milling around, busy with final preparations, while Peter nestled himself into the corner of a L-shaped couch, his slouched posture and displeased look radiating clear ‘don’t approach me’ message.

“I think,” Rogers said as he was reading something from his notebook, “Star Wars. I’ve been meaning to cross it off my list for a while now.”

“Finally!” Wilson muttered.

Peter tuned out the rest of the argument about how Rogers always took forever to pick when it was his turn and Rogers defending himself until a bowl of something white but nicely smelling was placed on his lap. “What’s that?” he asked, tilting his head to the side.

“Popcorn,” Romanov said as she sat down with her own bowl.

“People usually eat that while watching movies,” Barton explained, smirking slightly.

“Wait, you,” Barnes joined in, awkwardly casual, “know what movies are, right?”

Stark sat down next to him “Ignore those idiots. They’re just teasing.”

Peter scowled, and for some reason unknown to him, switched to defense immediately. “You know, you all sure expose your backs to me a lot. I don’t think you realize how easy it would be for me to snap either of your necks.”

“Would it really?” Romanov asked, watching him sharply.

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Peter replied, matter-of-factly.

Heavy silence settled over the room, all eyes on Peter as he popped a piece of popcorn in his mouth, tiny smile pulling at his lips.

Stark exhaled, quiet and shaky. “Fri, play the movie.”

Peter’s smugness soon turned into wide-eyed wonder as the movie enthralled him. He leaned forward whenever a lightsaber appeared on the screen and held his breath when the rebels were making the trench runs on the Death Star. His disappointment when the credits rolled was short-lived though. He learned there were several other movies, and since they were doing a marathon, another one was put on.

They were halfway through the third, or sixth, movie when Peter’s head lolled forward. The impromptu nap had to mess with him more than he thought, but he couldn’t fall asleep yet! He had to see how the story ended. When his head felt too heavy, he leaned it on the headrest and through sheer willpower, he kept his eyes opened.

It was only when the final shot of celebrating rebels turned into final credits he left them fall shut.

Peter was out like a light in an instant.

“He looks so innocent when he’s like this,” Bucky whispered.

“Hmm,” Clint hummed, his eyes sad. “It’s hard to imagine that someone like him killed someone. Do you think he really did it?”

Steve shrugged. “He admitted to it, didn’t he?” He turned to Tony. “I think it’s time—”

“To get him to bed?” Tony cut him off, “Yeah, I agree.”

“Tony—”

“I’ve still got a little over a week, don’t I?” he snapped. “I didn’t take you for one to throw the towel in the ring when it came to someone. Not after Germany. Not after Siberia.”

Just as Tony expected, the reminder of the events made the man clam up. Call him a douche, but if playing dirty would get Steve off the kid’s back, then so be it!

Without another word, he bent down and carefully gathered sleeping spider-kid into his arms. Peter nuzzled himself closer and grabbed a fistful of Tony’s shirt, making tiny but involuntary smile appear on Tony’s face.

“Tones,” Rhodey grinned, “you’ve got a giant spider on you.”

Tony, grateful for the ice-breaker, rolled his eyes. “Hardy-har,” he said under his breath as he left the room.

#marvel fanfiction #tony stark #peter parker #villain peter parker #irondad #spiderson #irondad and spiderson #tw vomiting

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wintersoldierland · 5 years ago

Text

ain’t nobody got time for that

Honestly, when the offer came, Bucky didn’t spend too much time thinking about it, which is a new thing for him.

He’s the one who plans and thinks things through, who likes to always be prepared because between Sam and Steve, shit just got down easily but this time, the decision came quickly.

That’s exactly why he finishes putting on his new suit, grabs his guns, gets his new awesome sword and activated Miss Friday.

“Ready?” he asks, grim and determined. Really, it’s not the best idea he’s ever had, but also not the worst. It’s not like Bucky has a lot to keep him here.

“Always,” comes the reply.

Bucky smirks and presses the button.

The world as he knows it disappears, there’s a sharp tugging sensation in his gut and then there’s a cold floor under his ass. Bucky’s on his feet in a flash, looking around. He’s near Howard’s workshop and he really doesn’t have the time to open that can of worms.

“You have 1 minute 55 seconds as we speak,” Friday notifies him dutifully, and Bucky runs to the workshop. He knows what he has to do, and time ain’t on his side.

“Howard!” he calls, sharp and insistent. The young man turns to him in surprise, shock spreading on his face. Bucky really doesn’t have time for that.

He grabs Howard by the shirt and pulls him close. “You listen to me, Howard,” he growls. “You will have a son, whom you will cherish and love and appreciate and shower in price. You will not compare him to anyone, least of all Steve, and you will make sure he knows you’re proud of him. Got that?”

The man stares at him in silence for a second, before nodding. Bucky takes a step back and then narrows his eyes. “I will know if you fuck up, Stark,” he adds. Howard pales considerably, shocked speechless. If he had the time, Bucky would laugh at the irony. “Love your son, asshole. Be a good fucking dad, or I will make your life living hell. Copy?”

“Copy,” Howard finally whispers, eyes still wide. Bucky can see the spark of interest igniting an inferno, but his time is up.

“Good. Take care, Stark!”

With that, the tugging sensation is back and this time, he lands neatly on his feet, in utter darkness. There’s faint humming in the background, getting louder and it takes Bucky a second to realize where he is.

“Avengers Tower, May 2015,” Friday notes again. Bucky stiffens before peeking around the corner. He hasn’t been there, but this is the moment Ultron gets born.

Stark and Banner are just leaving, heading for the party downstairs, so Bucky slides to the table and lays his metal hand on it, where he can see the program forming. On any other day, he would be freaking out in excitement, but he has maybe one minute left.

“Friday, run Wendigo please,” he instructs.

Suddenly, lines of black programming begin to appear in the bright orange and Bucky watches as Ultron gets destroyed. The stone drops to the floor and he leaves it there.

“Who are you?” a voice sounds, warm and male. Bucky freezes, before smiling sadly.

“Doesn’t matter, Jarvis. Keep Stark safe, will ya?”

Not waiting for an answer, he disappears again. It keeps happening. 2 minutes, sometimes 3. He punches Steve, kills Stane before he can create a big mess, steals files when it should happen, saves Riley as he falls. He’s never there to talk because for some reason Fates cannot give him more than 3 fucking minutes at a time, which is annoying as hell.

Finally, he lands in a universe, where things are different. It’s Wakanda, he knows that, but Stark, Spiderman and Strange are there, fighting alongside everyone else, as well as Loki. Bucky looks around, remembering the moments before he died before he shakes himself off.

“We get 8 whole minutes this time, Sir,” Friday chimes in, sarcastic and chirp. Bucky laughs and runs.

It takes him less than 2 to get to Thanos, who’s fighting with Steve, that dumbass. Stark is also there, something that didn’t happen in his world, but Bucky doesn’t think. He throws a grenade, pushes everyone aside, and jumps, drawing his sword in the air.

There’s no resistance as the blade sewers Thanos’s arm, right at the elbow.

For a second, there’s silence, and Bucky looks at the alien. He’s bleeding and snarling and Bucky glances at Loki, nods to him, and takes off his head.

“Went for the head, asshole,” he mutters to the headless corpse and grabs the gauntlet, making sure not to put it on.

Bucky looks around when he notices that the battle has stopped. Everyone is staring at him in shock.

“James?” it’s Stark who asks this time, surprisingly, his voice soft and weird. Bucky doesn’t have the time to think about it.

“You’re not from here.” Strange suddenly appears.

Bucky snorts. “Good to know that PhD is getting used,” he mutters, smirking.

“4 minutes 32 seconds,” Friday informs him quietly.

Bucky nods and cleans his blade, putting it back. “Well, ain’t got much time, but basically I’m from a different universe or somethin’, fixing all your messes.”

Steve looks like he wants to say something, but Bucky just punches him in the shoulder and disappears. It’s not his world anyway.

The next world is also different, but he orients himself and catches Loki as he lets go of the Bifrost. Other worlds come 3 or fewer minutes there. Bucky gets Steve a therapist, locks Steve and Stark in the jet to talk shit out, frees Winter Soldier Steve from HYDRA that one time, kills the Red Witch 4 times at least. Gets himself and Stark to actually talk exactly 34 times. He has a feeling they end up together in at least 14 of them.

It’s annoying that he can’t stay and Friday only gets more and more sarcastic as the time goes by, but that’s their mission.

Then, he lands on the balcony in the Avengers Tower. This world is probably the most different one, something heavy in the air. Inside, his own self is standing, half-naked with glowing tattoos and sharp fangs. Bucky doesn’t think, just smiles when Tony comes and cuddles him, nuzzling against his neck.

“It’s good to see Sir happy,” Friday mentions softly. Bucky nods, his smile a bit sad.

It’s good to see both of them happy. There’s nothing to fix there, they both know that, so he uses all of his 6 minutes just watching before turning to face the city.

“No rest for the wicked, baby girl,” Bucky mutters and they disappear.

The next time, he takes great satisfaction walking away from a sobbing Steve as he tries to fix the Civil War mess, while James and Tony talk outside the airport, unsure but smiling a bit. He really ain’t got time to deal with that.

#winteriron #bucky barnes #tony stark #my writing #dimension travel #bucky basically gets a chance from fates to fix all of the mcu messes #so he does it #not rly sad just different #avengers #steve rogers #friday #friday and bucky are bros #post endgame

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awkwardlyflustered · 5 years ago

Text

Bad Mood

A/N: This fic is for @buchanans-plums, sorry this is really bad, I didn’t really know how to start it or carry it out, or end it for that matter. Nonetheless, hope you enjoy it.

“Steve, would you please leave me alone?” Bucky asked, getting more annoyed by the second.

“But you’re so grumpy, you need cheering up,” Steve replied eerily calm, slowly approaching Bucky.

“Stay away from me Rogers.”

“No can do Barnes.” With that, Steve pounced on top of Bucky successfully pinning him down.

“Dude, come on, let me up.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want to be apart of whatever you’re planning.”

“What am I planning?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t like the look on your face. You only have that look if you’re about to put me through some kind of torture.”

“Well this isn’t really torture, I mean you’ll be laughing the entire time.” Steve said an evil smirk present on his face.

“N-no not that, you can’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Tickle me.”

“If that’s what you want,” Steve replied, his voice laced with amusement, digging into Bucky’s sides.

“Gahahad dahahammit.”

“Language,” Steve scolded, trying to sound serious, but quickly found it impossible to sound serious through the cheshire grin he was wearing on his face.

“STAHAHAHAP,” Bucky said through high pitched laughter as Steve moved up to his ribs.

“But it’s putting you in a better mood.”

“YEHEHEHES, I’M AHAHAHAHALLLL BETTER!”

“Hmm, I don’t know. You definitely are smiling more.”

“IIIIIT’S FOHOHORCED YOHOHOHU DIIIIICK.”

“Ah language! And you’re obviously not better, I think I need to go somewhere that’s a little worse for you.” Bucky could tell simply by the tone of his voice Steve was going to go straight to his worst spot. Bucky’s laugh immediately started to become shaky and nervous, making Steve laugh. Bucky was trying so hard to make his mouth make words, but he couldn’t. He wanted to apologise for calling Steve a dick, he wanted to just do anything, hell, he even wanted to beg at this point. But he couldn’t make words come out of his mouth. Well, nothing coherent anyways, there was plenty of gibberish coming out of his mouth.

“Hm, what was that Bucky? I can’t understand you, maybe stop laughing and I’ll be able to.” Bucky could only shake his head and try to glare at Steve, although he knew he couldn’t. Steve then started to walk his hands down Bucky’s sides, making him squirm. Steve didn’t stop though, he continued to walk his hands down his sides onto his hips ever so slowly. Bucky kept hoping for him to stop, just stop anywhere, his hips, hsi thighs, his knees, anywhere, he just wanted him to not reach hisーnope, too late. Bucky let out an ear piercing shriek as Steve dragged a single finger up each sole of his foot.

“What’s wrong Barnes? Too ticklish?” Steve teased. Bucky wanted to say so many things, but he couldn’t make himself make words. No, scratch that, he couldn’t make himself make noise other than the occasional snort or squeak when Steve hit a particularly sensitive spot on his foot. Steve just laughed at his friend.

“You know, I think he’s had enough, his face is so red it looks like it’s going to explode,” Tony commented, after having stood in the doorway from most of the tickling.

“But it’s so much fun, and Bucky is in such a bad mood.”

“Come on Steve, stop it, you’re going to kill him.”

“Fine.” Steve reluctantly stopped his fingers and got off of Bucky. “You know, you kind of seem like you’re in a bad mood Stark.”

“No, stop, get away,” Tony said, panicking. While trying to keep Steve away from himself he didn’t notice Bucky coming up from behind him. Bucky took advantage of this and tased Tony, making Tony crumble.

“Wha- hehey I hehehlped yohohou.”

“Yeah, but I need to get you back for last week, you stole the last doughnut,” Bucky said, using his metal arm to pin Tony’s arms above his head.

“Ihihihi’m sohohohrrrry.”

“Why are you laughing? We’re not touching you yet?” Steve asked, just as teasing as always. Tony’s face turned the color of a tomato, and he just shook his head. Steve and Bucky looked at each other, laughed, then dug their fingers into his underarms and his hips. Tony jerked, bucked, and arched his back as much as his body would allow him to. And boy did he laugh, he was screaming with laughter, hw was so loud that Steve and Bucky could have sworn that people in Australia could’ve heard him.

“Damn Stark, Steve told me you were ticklish, but damn.”

“SHUHUHUT UUUUUUPPP.”

“You know, Steve also told me that if I go like this,” Bucky traced over Tony’s rib bones, making Tony snort, “You’d do that.” Steve laughed lovingly at his friend, knowing that he was ready to kill them both.Bucky continued to tickle Tony’s ribs coaxing more snorts out of the younger man. After drilling into Tony’s hips one more time, causing yet another squeal to leave the billionaire's mouth he moved up to Tony’s sides. Tony could only shake his head in response. Steve dug all ten of his fingers into Tony’s sides making him shriek. Steve then tried lightly dragging all of his fingers across Tony’s sides making him squeak, then fall into high pitched giggles. Steve continued to experiment with what sounds he could bring out of Tony while Bucky would switch between lightly tracing over Tony’s ribs to digging in between the bones.

“Hey, Bucky, how many ribs are there in the body again? Is it twelve on each side? Or maybe it’s thirteen?”

“Hm, I don’t remember, maybe I should count?”

“NOHOHO, NOHOHO COHOHOUNTIIIIING, THEHEHEHER’S TWEHEHEHELVE.”

“No, I think Steve is right, I think there’s thirteen, there’s only one way to settle it. One, two, three, Tony would you stop moving, I’ve lost count, what was that? Three? Five? May as well just start over.” Tony was going to remind him what number he was on, but he couldn’t make an entire word come out of his mouth. Bucky continued to count and “lost count” a couple more times before finally concluding that there were indeed, twelve ribs. “Hey, good job Stark, you were right, there were twelve ribs.” Bucky stopped tickling him because by this point Tony had gone into silent laughter. After a few more pokes to Tony’s sides Steve stopped and got off Tony. As soon as Steve was off of him Tony tackled Steve, immediately prodding his sides and stomach, reducing Steve to a giggly mess. Bucky stood there stunned for a second before going over to pin his friend’s arms down.

“Why did you tell him about all that stuff?” Tony asked, enjoying the light, boyish sounds being emitted from Steve’s mouth.

“Ihihi’m sohohorry.”

“Sorry isn’t good enough,” Tony replied, digging into Steve’s abs. Both Bucky and Tony laughed at the squeal made by Steve.

“Dude, did you just squeal?” Bucky asked.

“Plehehehease, yohohou sohohounded sohoho much wohohorse.” Bucky was going to snap back, but was cut off by a loud shriek followed by booming laughter. He had snaked his hands under Steve arms by accident.

“Sorry, what was that? I couldn’t understand you, could you please repeat that?” Bucky teased as he wormed his hands deeper under Steve’s arms.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that, he hates that.”

“Yeah, oh hey, you know what else he hates?”

“What?” Tony asked, tracing all of Steve’s ab muscles, making Steve thrash.

“Raspberries,” Bucky said smirking as Steve started frantically shaking his head. He quickly lost his smirk, however, when Tony just gave a confused look.

“Raspberry? Isn’t that a fruit?” Steve started laughing even harder despite the fact that Bucky had taken his hands off of Steve’s underarms.

“You’ve seriously never had a raspberry before?” Tony opened his mouth to reply, but Bucky cut him off. “The non fruit kind.”

“Oh, well then no.”

“Let me show you then, here, take his arms, and hold them down tight.” Tony did as told while Bucky pulled Steve’s shirt up to his ribs. Tony watched Bucky closely, an amused look always present on his face. Steve face just paled as Bucky flashed him a cocky smile before leaning down and blowing a raspberry onto Steve’s stomach. Steve laughed louder than he ever had before, and was thrashing around harder than a bull would. Bucky continued to blow raspberries into Steve’s stomach eliciting more shrieks and peels of loud, boisterous laughter. Steve was trying to beg, and he had finally managed to get voice to make some kind of words,

“BUHUHUHUCKY PLEHEHEHEASE-” Steve got cut off by his own shriek that scared Bucky so much, he jumped two inches into the air.

“Dude, what the hell did you do?” Bucky asked looking up to see Tony blowing raspberries into Steve’s neck and digging into his underarm with his non occupied hand. Steve was writhing around on the floor, emitting more of the loud boisterous laughter that all the guys loved. Bucky went back to blowing raspberries all over his torso, sending Steve into silent laughter.

“All right, we had better stop, he’s redder than you were,” Tony said, making Bucky turn pink. Bucky got of Steve and let him sit up to catch his breath.

“Hey, Tony, didn’t you say you’d never had a raspberry before?” Steve asked through heavy breathing, but still having an evil smirk on his face.

“Oh shit,” Ton said, already running. Bucky and Steve chased after him, all three of them wearing playful grins on their faces the entire time.

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quietlyapocalyptic · 6 years ago

Note

My curiosity has no boundaries, mind if I ask for FrostIron/IronFrost domestic headcanons??

I hope you realise you’re opening a barrel of worms here, I have so many thoughts that haven’t made it into fics (at least, not yet)

Both Tony and Loki are total blanket and mattress hogs, the result of having huge beds all to themselves their entire lives. In the beginning there was a LOT of pushing and shoving, but as time passes it usually just means that they end up sleeping on top of each other all the time.

They both have nightmares. Calming each other down usually involves lots of “you’re safe”s and “I’m here”s. They understand each other enough to know that’s all that’s needed.

In the morning, it’s usually Tony that gets up first, though Loki refuses to allow him to spread that fact. (Actually, I think I have put that in a fic, maybe?)

The coffee machine in the penthouse wasn’t bought by Tony. It was put there by Steve at the behest of Thor, who had been forced to see his little brother saunter naked and rumpled into the kitchen in the morning far too many times (“You could have just summoned it!” Thor complained. / “I have heard Midgardians put stock in the ‘thought’ behind gestures, Thor. You wouldn’t want me to be a neglectful lover?”) The machine in the penthouse doesn’t get used. That’s just as much to annoy Thor as it is for any other reason. Tony actually wouldn’t mind if Loki summoned the coffee, but he finds the entire thing far too hilarious to say so- and Loki actually knows this, but since he’s doing it to be a little shit anyway he doesn’t really mind.

Most of their evenings are spent just quietly together. Not necessarily talking to each other or doing the same thing, just. Sitting on the same couch, sharing the same space.

Loki has discovered the secret to getting Tony to go to bed early. The other Avengers are all really confused because they’ve been trying for years??? and Loki just??? manages it??? Thor especially points out that Loki is usually terrible at going to bed on time himself. Turns out, Loki just keeps falling asleep on the couch in the workshop, and since Tony can’t carry him to get him into bed and doesn’t ever want to wake him he ends up curling up on the couch as well. A few restless nights and sore necks were enough to kick their asses into gear and soon they actually start to listen to JARVIS’ requests for them to go to an actual bed when they get tired. Loki’s teleportation comes in handy for that, too.

They are constantly snarking at each other and picking fights, but very rarely actually get angry at each other. It’s like a sport. (Loki’s always been good at flyting.) It confuses the others a bit, but mostly they’re just glad when Tony and Loki are focusing their chaotic energy on each other rather than combining it to prank other members of the team. Also, Loki has different parts of the penthouse booby trapped. Tony’s mostly learned to take it in his stride, but it’s always entertaining when someone else comes up for a visit.

Loki isn’t really into PDA. Tony is, definitely, and Loki will do kisses and possessive touches and, if necessary, comforting embraces with other people around, but when they’re alone the way he touches Tony is very different- it’s softer, and Tony notices pretty early on. He comes to cherish that really, really quickly.

They are both really, terrible, awful, no good cooks. Loki can only do meat and stews, you know like, camping stuff. Tony is entirely useless. He’s set the oven on fire twice. This means they only have more reason to invade the kitchen when the others are there. (Thor thinks this is brilliant, so long as they both have all their clothes on.)

Look, I’m going to leave it there, otherwise I’ll keep going all day. Sorry not sorry for the length of this thing

#frostiron #domestic headcanons #tony stark #loki #guys look I am capable of fluff when I want to be #thanks for the ask #long post

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statierogers · 7 years ago

Text

The new recruit - Bucky Barnes (Part 1)

Title: The New Recruit (Part1)

Pairings: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: It’s Bucky’s new job to train (Y/N). They just really, really don’t like each other.

Words: 3’532

Warnings: Language

Genre: I don’t know. not really angsty nor really fluffy. Maybe something in between.

A/N: I went very overboard. So I put it into two parts.

My Masterlist

Your name: submit What is this?

(Y/N) - your first name

(Y/L/N) - your last name

- Katie xx

Part 2

"Okay, so her name is (Y/N)," Steve spoke and pointed at the file he had thrown o the coffee table, "and she is enhanced."

The Avengers, except Thor and Peter, sat spread out on the living room couches. Some on chairs, some on the floor and some occupied the two sofas. They usually held briefings in the meeting room, but they all had a long week behind them, so no one was in the mood for uncomfortable office chairs.

"You know we have met her before. She started her training two weeks ago," Clint said and chewed one of the Gummy Worms Sam brought by.

Most of the team nodded at his statement. Well, not Tony; he was typing away on his phone.

"She was at your birthday party last week," Natasha added and tried grabbing some of the sweets, but Sam knocked her hands away.

Steve rolled his eyes at his teammates. Having a serious meeting was impossible. They were acting like children. It already took him 2 days to find a day where everyone was available. He liked to include and ask the whole team for his pledge because he knew half of them would pretend o be busy and not do him this favour. And he could do what he really didn't want to do and choose Bucky for this task. He had the hunch that it was going to end like this. The rest of the team tended to not engage in the extra activity. It's weird how lazy a budge of superheroes could be when it wasn't about Thanos Level threats. Well, except for Peter, but he had no say in this or anything for that matter. He was still in training, and Steve had his hands full with that one. Also because Tony had taken him under his wing and kept on updating his suit. The kid loved trying out the new technologies. Peter was also in school at the moment. Which was more important. Oh, and Thor. He was somewhere. Well, he probably making decisions as a king or beating up some otherworldly being.

"Okay... yea, anyways. Well, I started training (Y/N), and she isn't really good at hand to hand combat," he explained, and now Steve also felt the sudden urge to grab a Gummy Wurm.

Sam gave him a look. Apparently, Falcon didn't enjoy people taking his food. Steve took his hand back slowly and gave him an apologetic look. In the end, it was Sam's own fault to bring his precious snacks to a room full of those guys.

"And what exactly is your question?" Tony, who finally put his phone away, asked.

Steve sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. He stole an unsure glance at Bucky, who just sat on a chair with crossed arms. His face was a gruff mask. He stared at the picture of the young woman. Her smile seemed to be mocking Bucky, and he didn't like it. He didn't like her. Well, no, he did, but there was something about her that he hated. She got under his skin. She was just so reckless, sassy and straight up made stupid decisions all the time. But then she could just stand there looking so beautiful, being so funny and say something brilliant. And he hated that. He hated that he liked her and that she seemed to be the only woman that didn't put up with his shit.

"I need some help. I just can't get through to her," Steve sighed.

You could see in his friend's faces that they were looking for a way out. Their brains working for an excuse.

"And why do you need all of us here for that? The only people who seem to be able to help are Romanov, Clint and Icicle over there, and maybe Sam," Tony added.

He nodded to the grumpy soldier, who just narrowed his eyes at him. Steve ignored them and looked with hopeful eyes to the two Ex SHIELD agents.

"Don't look at me. You know I can't get through to her either," Clint held up his hands in defence.

Steve sighed. Wanda furrowed her brows and looked between the guys, not wholly understanding their issue with (Y/N).

"Why exactly can't you get through to her?" Wanda wanted to know and made it quotes at the word through.

Steve blushed and looked at the floor. He hated admitting it, but she was just so adorable, he couldn't go hard on her. She just gave him one of those smiles, which she used to charm everyone's pants off, and he wouldn't be able to even near his fist her face. He knew she manipulated him so she could get out of training.

"She has those two guys wrapped around her pinky," Natasha smiled.

Clint narrowed his eyes at the redhead. Natasha knew all along. She had observed the men around her. All falling for the girl's coy act. Clint seemed like he was about to adopt her, and Steve looked at her like she was the most innocent woman ever. That girl was good at manipulating men. If she wanted to.

"Then you train her," Clint said and bumped her shoulder.

Natasha shook her head apologetically.

"I am knee-deep in Wanda's combat training," She shrugged her shoulders.

The women shared a look. Wanda didn't need to see into Natashas head to find out how she wanted this to play out. With Bucky training her. Vision tilted his head to the side. He seemed to have calculated something.

"It appears there is only one solution. It seems like most of us aren't really trained in this combat mode, except for James," Vision pitched in.

Bucky raised his head by the mention of his name. His posture suddenly turned stiff. He shook his head.

"No," he stated.

"Buck...," Steve started and reached his hand out in a comforting gesture.

He was interrupted by Bucky getting out of his chair. The usually so calm soldier seemed unsure now.

"No, not going to happen," he added and pointed at Steve accusingly.

"But, it would help her. You are the only person that can get through to her," Steve said and jumped up as well.

What did that even mean? She was just a girl. Steve made a soothing gesture in his direction. The rest of the team watched them, intrigued. But they knew, they knew Bucky was irritated by (Y/N). It was no secret. Not even to her. She just enjoyed disagreeing with him.

A humourless laugh left Bucky's lips, and he shook his head in disbelief. He didn't want to believe that Steve would suggest or even agree with this idea.

"Are we talking about the same woman? She disagrees with me constantly," he said and pointed between himself and Steve.

Steve now also shook his head. That wasn't completely true, and Bucky knew it.

"Are you sure? Every time she suggests something, you disagree with her," Sam added.

Sam was on her side, always. Also, because he and Bucky didn't agree on things either. They enjoyed bickering, but it was different. He knew Sam would have his back and that they were actual friends. With (Y/N), he was really not sure if she would just stab him if she got annoyed by him. Bucky opened his mouth and closed it again. There was no point in denying what Sam said, though.

"That is because her ideas are stupid," he argued then anyways.

Steve was tired of this. Obviously, he knew that it would end in this argument. But Bucky ran away from her whenever he could. He knew that deep down, Bucky liked her. He just wasn't used to being challenged by a woman. She knew what she wanted, and she was headstrong, and Bucky hadn't met a lot of ladies like that. And maybe knowing her and exchanging more than those arguments with her would help him.

"Do it for me, Bucky. She needs help. I can't do it. And she promised she would listen to you," Steve asked.

She never promised such a thing, but Steve hoped he would forget about that statement tomorrow. His resentment crumbled. Bucky needed some pushing.

"Fine, I'll do it," he barked.

Without another word, he stomped out of the room. The team's eyes followed his angry steps.

"Seriously, that was easier than I thought," Tony said with a short nod.

Steve wouldn't say this was easy. He would hear Bucky complain for at least a month.

"Steve, do you think this is a good idea? Letting those two train together?" Natasha asked him.

Steve crossed his arms defensively. No, he wasn't, not at all. He wasn't sure what the deal between those two was. They had only known each other for two weeks, but they didn't seem to like one another from day one.

"No. But I didn't see you volunteer," he answered.

Natasha laughed and got off the chair elegantly. She didn't take Steve's defensiveness serious. To other people, he probably looked intimidating, but not to the Black Widow.

"Bucky is a freaking Drill Sargent, and you know it. And (Y/N) is just really stubborn. And lazy. A perfect combination," she mentioned and patted Steves' shoulder.

Sam tried to hide a laugh. Okay, she wasn't the only one who noticed.

"It's going to be fine," Steve said, his voice steady.

But his face didn't seem so sure anymore.

—

(Y/N) was ripped out of her sleep by someone pulling her blanket off.

"Get up, sleepyhead," a stern male voice said at the foot of her bed.

(Y/N) opened her eyes and was faced with a grumpy Bucky staring at her. The usually messy hair was tied to a bun at the nape of his neck. If it weren't this early, she would have stared at him and soaked in his attractive physic. She did that a lot. Stare at him. It's like her brain didn't want to, but her body had a mind of her own. Her eyes always travelled to him when he was in a room with her.

"Are you kidding? What time is it?" she mumbled, rubbing her eyes.

Her head moved around, trying to spot her phone to look at the time.

"It's six a.m. You are already thirty minutes late," Bucky stated and stepped to her closet.

"What are you talking about?" she asked and grabbed her phone from the nightstand.

It's not like she didn't trust him, but she needed to see the time herself. She spotted five texts and one call from Bucky. All of them urged her to get up or asked her where the hell she was. Stalker much? Where did he even get her number?

"I told you yesterday, the morning run starts at 5.30 a.m., and then we train," he said.

She dropped her phone on the bed with frustration and turned to him.

"I thought that was a joke," she whispered and then added with a louder voice, "what the hell are you doing?"

Bucky had opened her closet and started searching for something. How rude. Her underwear was in there.

"Looking for your training clothes," he said.

She frowned. Okay, Bucky was acting weird.

"I can dress on my own," she mumbled.

Bucky turned around suddenly. He seemed to have found what he wanted and dropped it on her bed. Yoga pants, Tank top and running shoes. (Y/N) sat up and stared at him.

"Are you sure? Just as good as you can be on time?" he asked sarcastically.

She wanted to slap that grin off his face. He always grinned at her like that. It seemed to be reserved for her. Bucky just liked being a pain in her ass.

"This isn't the freaking army, Barnes," she growled and stared at the pile.

It felt like she hadn't seen workout clothes in years. She didn't enjoy working out. This was weird for someone who wanted to become an Avenger. She knew she had to give her everything so they would take her fully into the team.

"Doll, if this were the army, you would be calling me Sargent Barnes," he said with a cheeky smile.

Then he turned around to the door. (Y/N) hated how much swagger he had in his step.

"Five minutes," he added.

(Y/N) grabbed the shoe on the bed and threw it. But it only hit the door and not his head.

"Well, screw you, Sargent Barnes," she yelled.

Then she fell back on the bed and let out a frustrated groan. She was sure she heard a male laugh through the door.

Natasha told her that this would be exhausting. Being trained by Bucky. He would go hard on her. She said something about the military background and Hydra training. But these were the Avengers. She didn't even understand why she needed this training. She had powers. She could adapt abilities by touching. If she touched Steve, she was just as strong as him. When (Y/N) touched Spidy, she could crawl walls and so on. She just couldn't fight. She never inherits their skills.

—

"I hate you," she said to him about the 50th time today.

Her back landed on the matt again. And she was surprised it wasn't broken yet.

"Your endurance as well as your upper body strength suck," he lectured her.

Bucky ignored her statement about hating him. She had mumbled it under her breath so many times he didn't feel the need to acknowledge it. (Y/N) huffed and stared at him reproachfully. Even now, she looked beautiful. Propped up on her elbows, covered in sweat with furrowed brows. She was pissed. At least she acted like it. She seemed to be angrier at herself for not getting it than at him. She did mess up a lot of the instructions he gave her. But she had potential.

"If you let me use my powers, it wouldn't be this bad. I would get your super serum strength," (Y/N) mumbled and rubbed a hand over her face.

Bucky laughed and stretched a hand out to help her up. It was the gentleman in him. Something he never got entirely rid of over the years. He wasn't going soft on her, but he still had basic manners, like holding open the door and helping a woman up.

"Steve let you use your powers, didn't he?" Bucky asked her.

(Y/N) sighed and stretched her limps.

"He did, but it was easier. Because he is fucking strong. How am I supposed to beat someone like you?" she growled.

"Natasha does it every day," he pointed out.

(Y/N) stopped rubbing her sore neck and rolled her eyes.

"Yea, I know she is good at everything. Stupid perfect woman," she said.

Bucky knew what she was trying to do. It was not gonna work with him. She tried getting his reassurance. She was trying it for about the fifth time today. To get his sympathy. He only understood now what Steve meant. He was close to giving in. She gave him one of her innocent smiles, and if he didn't know what she was doing, he would have dropped everything then and there.

"Doll, not gonna work. I'm not Steve. I won't let you use powers or get out of training," he said with a cheeky smile and raised brows.

(Y/N) dropped her head. She swore under her breath. Good, that girl swore like a pirate. And he found it slightly endearing.

"Screw you," she said, "Sargent Barnes."

She placed her hands on her hips and huffed.

"In position," he laughed, "Recruit."

---

"No, she can't. She isn't ready yet. She wouldn't last five minutes in the field," Bucky said and puffed his chest out.

This was new for (Y/N) to see Bucky was always the one making himself smaller than he was. He didn't want to be seen. Or to seem less dangerous. But not now. He stood next to her chair with his legs firmly placed and his Arms crossed. Not with his hips jolted out. She had noticed the difference between Bucky Barnes and Sargent James Buchanan Barnes. She liked Bucky better.

"Are you sure? I need another asset," Steve said and looked between her and Bucky.

(Y/N) seemed furious. Bucky didn't believe she was ready for the mission. And he told Steve, in front of everyone. She felt embarrassed and humiliated.

"Yes, she isn't good enough yet," Bucky then said.

Or Sargent Bucky. She looked up at him. He only spared her a glance. She thought to see something that resembles regret. But then he looked away. So she let her eyes travel over the Avengers. All of them looked at her with pity. Without another word, she got up from her chair. She didn't feel the need to argue. Because the worst part was Bucky was right. It had been two months, and she still didn't learn it. Her head was held high as she stepped past the soldier and out of the door. She needed a drink.

"(Y/N)," Bucky yelled behind her.

He must have noticed that she was upset, but she continued walking. She didn't wanna see his face right now. She would punch it most likely.

"Wait," Bucky then said and grabbed her hand.

He had caught her just when she stepped foot into the kitchen. He grabbed her wrist to stop her. (Y/N) Spun around to the brunette man. If her look could kill someone, he would be dead. Very dead.

"Look, we'll train more. And then you can go on missions. I promise you. I just don't want you to go out there unprepared. Something could happen," Bucky tried to explain.

"I can do it. Why do I need this training? I could just get Wanda's power and use it in the field," she yelled.

Her eyes were fixed on his hand gripping her wrist. It was his metal arm; she was never bothered by it. She actually liked when it touched her while training. It cooled her down.

"You don't get it. What if you are in the field and none of us is near. I know the power manipulation doesn't hold for long. What if you are somewhere with no superpowered human? You are useless," he grunted.

He hated her stubbornness. Why couldn't she just listen like Steve promised him she would. Training her was exhausting because she didn't want to train. If she would actually put effort into it, she would be better.

(Y/N) gave him a look, and a sudden urge overtook her. She wanted to show him that she could beat him. She wasn't useless. She had survived without his help for so long, so she didn't need him now.

"Oh yeah?" she asked, and with that, she stretched out her other hand and touched his forehead.

Her skin touched his, and he felt a sudden rush go through him. Like something was pulling on him. And it wasn't because he touched her. Before he could register what she was doing, she had turned her hand so that she was gripping his arm, spun around and flipped him over her shoulder. Bucky landed on his back next to one of the kitchen chairs. Her left boot on his chest. She gave him defining smile. She had stolen his power. Well, he still had it, but they were equal now. His mouth opened slightly and closed again. What just happened?

"Sorry? What was that about being useless?" she asked teasingly.

Okay, if she was going to play it like that. Without warning, he kicked his foot against her other leg. She lost her balance, and Bucky rolled out from under her left foot. He jumped to his feet and stood opposite of her. They stared at each other. Both of them were in a defensive position. He couldn't help but notice that it looked exactly how he taught her. Not bad.

"Oh, Doll. You really wanna do this?" he asked her with a small smile.

(Y/N) Didn't feel the need to answer. She just stormed in his direction and threw a fist at him. He caught it midair and held it in his palm. And he felt the force she used to hit him. That was his strength in her. He spun her around. The girls back was pressed against his chest. He had one arm pinned to her chest and the other around her neck, where he applied light pressure. He could smell her perfume and feel her rapid breathing.

"You would be dead just about now," he mumbled into her ear.

"Not so much," she grunted and stomped her heel to his foot. Bucky let her go in shock.

Bucky realised now this was different. This wasn't like training. They were fighting, and she was intent on winning. (Y/N) spun around, and then she grabbed a vase and threw it at him. He ducked it in shock while it shattered against the white wall behind him. She was angry. This wasn't fun for her. Bucky felt bad for a split second, then he remembered that none of this was his fault. Slowly he got up from his position. He studied her face. (Y/N)'s eyes looked more like slits and not as bright as usual.

"Have I ever told you how insane you are?" he mumbled.

She huffed out air from her nose. They stared at each other for another second before both of them fully charged at each other.

"Au," (Y/N) moaned while Bruce stitched up the cut on her forehead.

He wasn't feeling sorry for her, that much she could see. She sat at one of the barstools. The one that was still standing. With a bruised lip and a cut on her forehead. But she still had Bucky's ability, so she did already feel it healing. Bucky sat on another chair where Tony was fixing his metal arm, where she rammed a knife into. It had gotten out of hand really fast. Some of the decor in the room was broken, while Bucky and (Y/N) were both hurt. And (Y/N) felt like a madwoman. She wasn't sure what came over her. She was just so angry, and Bucky being Bucky made it worse. And now, she felt ashamed. She needed to apologise to Bucky, and she hated that.

"Normal people just have sex to blow off their steam, but you try to kill each other," Sam said as he cleaned up some shards.

"We didn't try to kill each other," (Y/N) mumbled, her eyes cast down.

She hissed when Bruce knotted the thread. Great, that would scar. She didn't dare to look at the former Winter Soldier. But she heard Tony's tool shut off.

"You two need to clean this and get this issue between you out of the way," Tony said, pointing at them.

The rest of the Avengers left the room quietly. (Y/N) gave Bucky a shy look. He seemed just as embarrassed as her. So she decided to start.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, just as Bucky said the same.

Bucky looked up at her. He studied her face for a second before he got up and took a careful step closer. Only now (Y/N) noticed that she could hear his heartbeat, courtesy of his own power. It was steady and slow.

"Look, I know you are frustrated that you can't go on missions yet. I am not refusing it because I want to hurt you, quite the opposite, actually. I don't want you to go out there and hurt yourself. I want you to be ready and be able to take care of yourself," he explained slowly.

(Y/N) stopped playing with her fingers and raised her head with a sigh. She hopped off the chair and met Bucky in the middle.

"I know," she said, "I am sorry I threw a plate at you."

Bucky laughed, and it was like music to her ears. This wasn't new. She always enjoyed his laugh.

"You know, sometimes I wonder why we fight so much," he then said.

(Y/N) joined his laugh and decided to just be helpful for a second. She grabbed a broom and continued sweeping.

"I think it is actually because we are very alike," she told him and shrugged.

Bucky shook his head at her and started placing the chairs upright. He couldn't believe what she was saying. (Y/N) was very different from him. She was pure. As stupid as it sounded, she was. Her heart was good, and she loved people with all her heart. She lived in the sun, while Bucky was a man with a dark past and a jumbled memory.

"No, we disagree constantly," he said.

(Y/N) was about to be annoyed with him, but then she saw his wink and knew he was joking. And then she laughed. This was weird. Bucky and her joking.

"Funny," she commented.

"I can be fun if I want to," he said with a cheeky smile.

(Y/N) shook her head over the man's behaviour. And even if she didn't want it to, a genuine smile slipped on her lips. She watched him for a second. Maybe she and Bucky could have fun as well and not just fight.

"Are you staring at me?" Bucky suddenly asked her and lifted his head.

She tried covering her blush, but not so lucky.

"Uhm, no... Just continue cleaning," she mumbled and concentrated on her sweeping.

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes imagines #statierogers #katies writings #marvel #avengers #wintersoilder #sebastian stan #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes x reader #bucky fluff #marvel fic #avengers imagine #avengers fic #mcu #white wolf #white wolf x reader #wintersoilder x reader #james buchanan barnes

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vennilavee · 7 years ago

Text

fresh eyes

Pairing: sam wilson x poc reader

Summary: You’re a pharmacist in one of the busiest pharmacies in Brooklyn. When some of the Avengers start picking up their medications from your pharmacy, you know life is about to get infinitely more interesting.

Warnings: cursing, mentions of anxiety/PTSD

Word Count: 2497

A/N: Pharmacists never get any love! ANYWHERE- in books, in television, in fanfiction or anything lmao (maybe I’m biased). and also sam never gets any love so here we are. I’m nervous for this cause I’ve never written Sam before, please let me know your thoughts! Enjoy!

12 hour shifts at the retail pharmacy were a walk in the park to you now, almost ten years after you had graduated from school. You remember when you were a fresh graduate and you remember how your feet and calves would ache from standing on your feet all day. You remember how you would always be hungry and you would end your shift with a pounding headache.

But now, you were a pro. You opted for comfortable shoes rather than stylish flats, you brought in enough food to last you the day, and you always kept cases of water and plenty of snacks in the pharmacy for you and your technicians.

Most of your patients were well-mannered and kind. You had come to get to know many of them over the years. They knew you by name and whenever they came to pick up their prescriptions, they would give you a quick update on their lives and ask you about yours. They were almost like your family, in a way. You felt the ache when people sometimes moved away and stopped coming to your pharmacy. But of course, there were people who gave you an attitude when their medications weren’t ready or when you couldn’t get hold of the doctor for more refills for their medications.

You gave attitude right back, though. In the beginning, you were afraid to. But then you realized that this was your house, that people shouldn’t talk to other people the way that they sometimes spoke to you. With their profanities and raised voices. So you gave the attitude right back, and you quickly became known as the pharmacist who would take no shit from anyone. You had thought that corporate would come down on you hard for being firm and feisty, but it was quite the opposite.

You were the only one who had lasted this long in this particular pharmacy, and it was a title you wore proudly. This job made you get a thick skin and taught you things about empathy that you thought you already knew.

Your staff was a godsend- always helpful, ready to take charge when necessary. They were like your family, too. You even hung out sometimes outside of work, when your schedules matched up.

Your pharmacy was busy almost all the time and Mondays were often the worst. Phones would be ringing off of the hook, people would be coming in and out. But you thrived in well-organized chaos. Because that’s what it was- despite all the noise, you were calm and level headed.

You think nothing of it while you verify prescriptions for Steven Grant Rogers. That was a common name, right? And then you verify prescriptions that a psychiatrist has called in for James Buchanan Barnes and Sam Wilson and you know this is not a coincidence. Your technician squeals in excitement- “do you think the Avengers will come here to pick up their meds?!” You scoff, because there’s no way that the Earth’s mightiest soldiers are going to pick up their medications at your pharmacy. Surely Tony Stark has his own personal pharmacy in that obnoxious tower that sat in Manhattan?

You are curious, though, at the medications that they’re taking. Some part of you is glad that they are treating their PTSD and anxiety appropriately, when you see the prescriptions for paroxetine, sertraline, and fluoxetine. You’re benignly proud of them for getting the help they needed. Your heart clenches at the thought of all the things they’ve gone through over and over and over again.

You sincerely hope they stop by.

Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes walk into the pharmacy and they’re both pleasantly surprised when nobody recognizes them. Or if they do recognize them, nobody says anything. They’re greeted with eager smiles and starstruck eyes, that they return.

Bucky picks up a pack of peanut M&Ms and Reese’s peanut butter cups before following Sam to the back of the store, to the pharmacy. There’s a line of three or four people, waiting to be called upon. The pharmacy must be short staffed today, because he sees you running back and forth from the computer inside the pharmacy to the bins behind the counter and helping patients as quickly and efficiently as you can.

Sam watches you curiously when he sees your smile fall and your lips set into an annoyed line.

“Can I speak to the pharmacist, please?” The woman in front of them asks you, ignoring your white coat that has pharmacist emblazoned in black print.

“I am the pharmacist,” You say, not bothering to keep the bite out of your voice.

“Oh, but you’re so young,” The woman says quickly, “I was expecting someone... else.”

You want to say, “were you expecting someone that didn’t have brown skin?” But you refrain and physically bite the inside of your cheek. The woman asks you about refills on a medication that she wants to pick up, and you tell her that you were unable to fill the medication because the doctor had not sent over the prescription.

And then she raises her voice at you, her eyebrows furrowing in irritation. You sigh and take it, allowing her to use you to get her frustrations out. Because it was your fault that her doctor didn’t send over her medications, right?

Sam watches you grow almost bored at the interaction. You even play with the ends of your curly hair and push up your glasses, and he can tell you’re raring to roar back at her for raising her voice at you.

“Ma’am, I’m going to have to stop you right there. I can contact your doctor for you about the script, but I can’t fill something that I don’t physically have,” You say calmly, but Bucky and Sam can hear the venom on the tip of your tongue, “I would appreciate it if you didn’t raise your voice like that in my pharmacy.”

The woman sputters at you, as if you would dare to challenge her. She walks away, but not before timidly thanking you for contacting her doctor for her. You stop yourself from rolling your eyes as she walks away.

“Hey, how can I help you today?” You turn the charm back on and give the two men in front of you a wide smile. As if you hadn’t been thinking of twenty different ways you could feign sickness and close the pharmacy early for the day not even ten seconds ago.

You feel your stomach drop to your feet when you realize that Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson are standing in front of you, with grins on their faces. You’re certain you look like a fish out of water, with your wide eyes and mouth opening and closing without any words coming out.

“What happened to the woman who told that lady off not even five minutes ago?” Bucky smirks at you while glancing at Sam.

“Yeah, cat got your tongue?” Sam teases.

“Well,” You manage to say, “It’s not everyday I’m in the presence of greatness.”

You ask them to verify their birthdates before retrieving their prescriptions and try to keep your hands from shaking as you ring them up. You’re certain you’re drooling every time your eyes meet Sam’s eyes. He even winks at you when he notices your staring and you don’t bother to look away. Sam doesn’t miss you push back a stray curl behind your ear, or the way your lips curl up into a smile, or the way your eyes light up at him.

Bucky stares at the interaction between the two of you and feels like he’s watching a moment that maybe he shouldn’t be watching.

“That was the most flirting I’ve ever seen between two people who hardly exchanged fifteen words,” Bucky informs Sam once they leave and are in his car.

Sam pushes his shoulder and tells him to shut the fuck up before he shoves him out of the car and Bucky rolls his eyes.

Sam and Bucky start to become regulars at your pharmacy after that. You wonder why they venture all the way from Manhattan to Brooklyn, when there are dozens of pharmacies around the Avengers tower. You realize that they don’t all live at the Tower when you verify their prescriptions- Steve and Bucky live together in Brooklyn and Sam lives not too far from them.

You try not to feel too much like a stalker, but hey, it’s your job right? To make sure that your patients lived where they said they lived?

You’ve even met Steve. He was just as polite as you thought he would be, with a slight flair for sarcasm. You’re surprised by how quickly these three boys have wormed their way into your life in such a short amount of time. Despite your quick 5 minute interactions, you look forward to the next time you’ll be able to see them.

Your technicians are equally as starstruck as you were when you first met them when you told them to ring them up on a particularly busy day.

Bucky noticed Sam’s pouting that day. He wouldn’t shut up about how pretty he thought you looked, with your curly, black hair tied up and strands of it falling into your face, with your white coat and your quiet confidence. He wouldn’t shut up about how he wanted to talk to you, just to even say Hi.

“You just want to make eyes at her,” Bucky says in a sing-song voice later that day, “And you wanna love on her- you wanna take her out on dates, take her home, you wanna-”

“Dude, are you serious? Are you fuckin’ eight years old?” Sam rolls his eyes at Bucky and punches his shoulder, “Tin man thinks he’s got jokes, huh?”

“I’ve got more than just jokes, pal-”

Sam lets him punch his shoulder back and he thinks to himself well, he’s not wrong.

Robberies in pharmacies, especially in the city were pretty common. It had never happened to you, so you hadn’t really thought about what you’d do in the event of one. You had heard from friends and colleagues that people would come in and demand all the cash and all the oxycodone/hydrocodone/Adderall/Vyvanse/anything that could be sold on streets for a profit basically.

You should have probably prepared for this, you think mildly, as the man in front of you at the counter demands for all the cash while waving a handgun in your face. He is demanding for all the oxycodone, Adderall, Fentanyl, and Vyvanse in your safe. You barely even register the thundering in your ears or the shaking of your hands.

You had stupidly told your technician to go home early for the night, since it was a Friday night and Fridays weren’t usually that busy. You couldn’t even give a silent signal to let your technician know to call 911. You wished you had gotten that emergency button installed beneath the counter that would automatically dial 911 for you, rather than having to use your phone. Another stupid move on your part.

Your hands are up in surrender, ready to comply. But then you think, who the hell does this guy think he is?

Another stupid move.

“What could you possibly need all that for?” You can’t stop your voice or your lips from moving. You’re terrified and yet it seemed that you didn’t know how to act. He looks momentarily surprised at you. You’re glad that nobody else is in the pharmacy- it’s just you and the front employees who you’re not sure know what’s going on.

You could scream, you think. You could scream and you’d probably be shot in the face. You could try dialing 911 but then you’d still probably be shot in the face.

So the obvious solution is to be a sarcastic little shit. Until you got shot in the face.

“Are you stupid? You stupid fuckin’ bitch-”

“Alright, relax. There’s no need for names,” You say, gulping. Maybe you should stop being reckless and just acquiesce to his demands. You make your way over to the safe where all the pain medications, Adderall, and Vyvanse are stored.

Sam can smell the tension and he knows something is wrong when the store is eerily quiet. Goosebumps raise on his flesh unwillingly as he makes his way to the back, where he knows he’ll see your smiling face and your dimples.

He’s come alone this time and he came near closing time because he wanted to talk to you. Maybe even charm his way into getting your number. He doesn’t actually need anything, although he told Steve that he would pick up some Claritin since his allergies were picking up despite his super soldier serum. Old habits never really died, he supposed.

A frown his on his lips when he sees this man waving a gun in front of your face. And you’re mouthing off at him, as if his threats don’t scare you. As if you’re made of steel. But Sam sees your hands shaking and your eyes darting around for someway to get help. Your eyes meet his and you struggle to hide your surprise, but you manage to do it anyway.

Tension begins to leave your body when you realize that of course, Sam is here to save the day. His warm, brown eyes make you want to trust him, and you do. You did, almost instantly the first day you met him. You can’t thank his impeccable timing enough and you watch Sam disarm the guy from behind him. He didn’t even see it coming and within seconds, Sam has the handgun in his own hands and the man is on the floor.

All Sam wants to do is beat him to a pulp for threatening you, for waving a fuckin’ gun in your face. But he watches you, standing there warily. You lock up the pharmacy and dial 911 to let them know what has just happened.

You make your way to Sam and don’t realize that you’re shivering. The man is staring at the pair of you with such contempt in his face. It’s weird to you, that you’re staring the man who threatened to shoot you in the face right in the eyes, but here you were.

When the cops arrive at the pharmacy to collect the stranger, you’re left alone with Sam.

“Hey,” You murmur to Sam, “Thanks. For being a hero and shit.”

“Can this hero have your number?” He waggles his eyebrows and you can’t help the grin that breaks out on your face.

“I suppose my knight in shining armor can have my number,” You agree and press a soft kiss to his cheek.

“Walk me to my car?” You ask, leaving his embrace to gather your coat and purse.

This time, he’s the one who’s a little starstruck when you grasp his arm as he walks you to your car.

#sam wilson x reader #sam wilson x you #sam wilson #sam wilson x poc reader #sam wilson x reader fluff #bucky barnes x reader #steve rogers x reader #poc reader #my writing

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nightmareonfilmstreet · 6 years ago

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7 Horror Reads to Chill Your Soul This Summer

It’s summertime, and word on the street is that the livin’ is easy. If you’re anything like me, summer’s arrival means that you’re hiding in the air conditioning and comfort of your home (mosquitos find me quite the tasty treat and I’m not trying to contract West Nile). Othersout there who aren’t as delicious to the carnivorous ectoparasites of the world as I am are hitting the road. They’re going to the beach, they’re camping, and they’re laying in the sun to absorb the delectable, radioactive rays of the sun. It’s the time of cold drinks, loud music, and if you’re a fiend like the rest of here at NOFS, spooky stories.

While the rest of the world tries to limit the creepy and macabre to the month of October, we live a life of perpetual petrification. When you’re at the beach or hanging out by the pool, let the other people get in and splash around like shark bait. We know that there’s nothing sweeter than a horror novel to help keep you cool and take your breath away. So, for this article, I’m going to highlight some of my favorite horror novels that are great summer reads.

So what makes a horror novel a “Great Summer Read”? Well, brevity is a plus. We don’t really want to be lugging around Stephen King’s IT or Robert McCammon’s Swan Song on our way to the beach or up a hiking trail. I struggle to carry those beasts from my bookshelf to the couch, to be honest. So, while it’s not an automatic disqualification, I tried to stay away from the 1,000 page behemoths of the horror world. I also tried to take a look at subject matter and pick titles that involve summer, summer breaks, vacations, or basically anything that can whisk you away to land of pure imagination. Basically what I’m saying to all of you is that this is a completely subjective list. I loved reading these titles either this summer or in summers past, and I think you will, too.

So, without further ado, here is my list of Great Summer Horror Reads:

1. The Troop by Nick Cutter

This was the first novel I read from Nick Cutter, and it hooked me for life. It follows a troop of 5 14-year-old boys as they embark on their yearly summer scout adventure on Falstaff Island, an uninhabited area not far from their home on Prince Edward Island. Their excursion is cut short when a bone-thin, obviously diseased man who tries to eat everything in sight lands on the island. Scoutmaster Tim does his best to help the man, but he is soon overtaken and the boys face a nightmare that worms its way into the group and destroys what they thought they knew about themselves.

This book is gory. It is disgusting. It is a vivid walking nightmare that is best read out in the open air, surrounded by other people. Nick Cutter has proven himself to be one of the most visual authors in the horror genre, and never is that more evident than in The Troop. He uses the remote setting and the fear of foreign beings inside your body with an insatiable appetite to create a suffocating sense of paranoia and claustrophobia. You are trapped on this small island with these boys as they fight the disease that brought the skeletal man to their shores, and you must find the survivor inside of you to make it off.

Perfect For: A long hike and camp in the wilderness. Read it by the light of your Coleman lantern. Don’t worry about the noises you hear in the darkness, they only approach when they’re hungry…

2. The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

I didn’t think that a book would ever crawl inside my bones quite like Tremblay’s A Head Full of Ghosts did. I was wrong. His new novel, The Cabin at the End of the World is his most tense, terrifying book to date, which is saying a lot.

Seven-year-old Wen and her dads are vacationing at their cabin deep in the forests of New Hampshire when she is approached by a giant stranger. He seems pretty weird, and he tells her that her dads are not going to want to let him in the house, but that they have to. Then three more just like him show up. Wen runs into the cabin and her parents barricade the door. The strangers approach, and they knock. They are disciples of a god that visits them in visions, and Wen and her parents are the only people capable of ending the coming apocalypse.

This is much more than a home-invasion story. It’s s tale of survival, sacrifice, apocalypse and doom that has you guessing until the very last chapter. Not only is the fate of this loving family at risk, but the future of the entire human race may just rest on their shoulders. (Side note: The Cabin at the End of the World is the first horror novel that I have read that has a queer family at its center. I know there must be others, but this is a first for me. Well done, Paul Tremblay.)

Perfect For: Staying at that creepy lodge you booked online. You and your family should be just fine! Maybe just don’t answer the door when you hear a knock, ok?

3. Providence by Caroline Kepne

You may know the name Caroline Kepnes from her amazing novel You, which has been turned into a series for Lifetime that will air this fall. Her depiction of narcissist/psycopath Joe Goldberg was refreshing, funny, dark, and utterly terrifying. Providence, her third novel, follows a different path than her earlier works, but it is just as gripping and horrifying.

One morning, middle-schooler Jon Bronson is abducted from his small New Hampshire town (what is the deal with New Hampshire, you guys? I mean, is it really that spooky?). He awakens at his home four years later with no memory of his kidnapping or his captivity. Beside him is a copy of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror and a letter from his abductor that tells him that he is fine, but he has an un-specified special ability. The joy that his best friend Chloe feels after his return is smashed to pieces once they find out that his “special ability” begins to threaten the lives of those he loves.

Kepnes is one of the finest authors in the world and she is a master at creating pace and tension. All three of her novels force your eyes across the page like they are tied to the front of a freight train. Providence is an exploration of not only what makes us human, but what keeps us that way.

Perfect For: Sitting on the back porch with a sweet tea and plenty of sunshine. Be sure to pack sunscreen for the rays and extra Kleenex for the nosebleeds that will splatter the page.

4. Some Will Not Sleep by Adam Nevill

A bestial face appears at windows in the night. In the big white house on the hill, angels are said to appear. A forgotten tenant in an isolated building becomes addicted to milk. A strange goddess is worshipped by a home-invading disciple. The least remembered gods still haunt the oldest forests. Cannibalism occurs in high society at the end of the world. The sainted undead follow their prophet to the Great Dead Sea. A confused and vengeful presence occupies the home of a first-time buyer . . .

If you have read any of my articles, then you know how much I love Adam Nevill and his terrifying tales. I was able to interview him last year (check it out HERE), and that piece remains the highlight of my journalistic career. Most of you may know him as the author of The Ritual and Last Days, but I fell like his work that is most like a “Great Summer Read” is his collection of short stories, Some Will Not Sleep.

While the book itself has some girth, it is conveniently sectioned into several perfectly crafted short tales of the horrifying and disturbing. These stories, according to Nevill on his website, were written and published between 1995 and 2011, and they reflect fears that are often the author’s own. About the title of the book, I can’t explain it better than the Master himself:

Some within it do not sleep, some who read it may not sleep, and he who wrote it often doesn’t sleep.

Perfect For: Reading in the car on the way to your destination. That way, the nightmares hopefully won’t be able to find you as you travel down the road.

5. Rabbit in Red: The Complete Series by Joe Chianakas

(Disclaimer: Joe is a local author that I have had the pleasure of working with in the past through my job. The inclusion of his series was neither asked for nor was it paid for… Joe… come on, man. GIVE ME SOME MONEY, BRO!)

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory was designed, created and run by Rob Zombie? Well, wonder no more! This series of books (the first of which was selected to be included in a 2016 Horror Block and sent out to tens-of-thousands of subscribers), compiled together in one volume, follows a group of teens as they spend their summer vacation competing for an internship under the reclusive owner of a horror film company.

They compete in VR challenges that mirror some of the most iconic scenes in horror film history and intense trivia that will leave even the most knowledgable horror hounds scratching their heads. This series of books is a quick read that will keep you up at night as the kids win their internships and enter the dark web of their beneficiary. It is a love letter to the horror genre and, as it did with me, it will make you fall in love with the genre all over again.

Perfect For: Handing out to your teenage niece or nephew when they visit for the week. They have annoyed you enough with the youth-words that they use, so it will feel really good to keep them up at night.

6. Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten

You didn’t think I would put out a list like this and not include a shark book? You know nothing about me! Instead of going with the classic Jaws by Peter Benchley (which, to be honest, I really do not care for), I decided to opt for the book that started the series that the next great shark movie, The Meg, is based on.

Jonas Taylor is a deep sea diver working with the United States Navy. He spots a Megalodon while on a top-secret mission in the Mariana Trench. No body believes him, of course, because the Megalodon is supposed to have been extinct for millions of years. To prove them wrong, Jonas becomes a paleontologist (as one does) and attempts to find the beast again. His wish is granted when he returns to the Trench, only this time, one of the beasts follows him back up to the surface.

Chaos ensues. People are gobbled up like Tic Tacs and there’s only one man in the world that can stop it. JASON MOTHERF**KING STATH… oh, sorry… JONAS TAYLOR!

It’s ridiculous in all the right ways. It is a 50’s monster movie come to life with thrills, chills, blood and awesome one-liners.

Perfect For: Enjoying the bay while laying on one of those giant inflatable pool floats that look like a swan. You know the ones! Take a deep breath, relax, and hope that there’s nothing watching you from beneath the waves.

7. Malevolents: ‘Click Click’ by Thom Burgess and Joe Becci

I must say that I am a novice in the realm of horror comics. I know that there are a lot of them out there, but I’ve just never gotten into that style of horror literature. I can gladly say that Malevolents: ‘Click Click’ has opened my eyes to a whole new world of terror.

This incredible comic book from award winning writer Thom Burgess follows four school friends who dare one another to spend the night in one of Britain’s most haunted houses. They bring along with them an Ouija Board (what could go wrong), and tell each other the story of the ghost that lives in the walls and wants to take your tongue from your mouth.

I include it in this list because it is short (only 32 pages or so), it’s horrifying, and it transports you to a different place and time. If you’re stuck at home due to work or insufficient funds, Malevolents will take you on a trip that you will never forget.

Perfect For: Reading by flashlight after a summer storm has knocked out your power. If you don’t look at the shadows crawling out of the walls, they won’t come after you… I promise. ‘Click’

So, there you have it! Whether you’re out and about this summer or hanging out in the house like me, here are 7 horror reads that will chill your bones and keep you cool as the temperature rises. Do yourself a favor and pick these titles up today! While you’re at it, join our Facebook group, Horror Fiends of Nightmare on Film Street, and let us know what you think.

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reidandweep · 7 years ago

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Tattooed, Pierced, and a Runner?

Thomas x Reader Hey guys. My name’s Hollie. I am not new to the Maze Runner fandom. I have actually been a part of it since 2012 (books and movies) but I just never posted any fan fiction that I’ve wrote. But I saw a prompt request by @labyrinth-of-thoughts that really interested me. So here it is. My first published fan fiction. Hope you like it. P.S The tattoos mentioned (except the Star Wars one) are actual tattoos I have.

Word Count: 2622 words.

Contains: Mentions of nipple piercings, broken bones, and balls.

Prompt: Anyone want to write a fic of Loki, Steve, Thomas (Maze Runner), Gally (Maze Runner) or Stiles and a curvy, sporty chick with tatts (a star wars one too) and piercings (including nipple piercings)

It was the tenth day of the month which meant supplies and the day the new Greenie would come up in the box, had arrived. Since Thomas had come up in the box, he had been loaded with information. He’d been told the rules by Alby, introduced to some fellow Gladers, learnt somethings about the Maze from Chuck, pushed to the ground by Gally, and now here he was, at the Bonfire, next to Newt. Thomas didn’t like this place one bit. Nobody was answering his questions with the answers he needed. No one except Newt. Thomas was sat next to Newt, leaning against a log, talking about the runners. “you see those guys? There, by the fire? Those are the runners. That guy in the middle there, that’s Minho. He’s the Keeper of the Runners.” Newt told Thomas. Thomas looked over at the group of Runners. He could see Minho surrounded by multiple guys, all dressed in similar clothing; long sleeved tees, cargo pants, and running shoes. Next to Minho was a girl. “Who’s the girl?” asked Thomas, not taking his eyes off her. Newt chuckled, taking a swig of Gally’s juice. “That is Y/N. Came up her around a year ago now. Not like the rest of us you know. For one, she’s the only girl here. Second, she came up in the box, leapt out and punched Gally right in the face. Broke his nose and spent her first night here in the Slammer.” Thomas looked at Newt with disbelief.

“I didn’t just break his nose, I bust his lip open too.” A voice from behind Thomas stated. Thomas jumped with fright, clenching his chest from the sudden voice. Y/N quickly sat down next to Newt, taking the drink from his hands and gulping the rest down in one. “Oi, I was going to bloody finish that you shank” Newt whined. Y/N laughed, rustling Newt’s hair with her unoccupied hand. “Sorry Newt, you know I’ve been running all day. Been looking forward to this bonfire and, dare I say it, Gally’s homemade drink”. Thomas looked between the two, feeling slightly out of place. “You’re right love. Next time, I’ll get you a drink ready.” Newt said to Y/N, both sharing a smile. “So how long have you two been a couple?” Thomas asked the pair. Y/N quickly burst out laughing, holding her stomach as tears fell from her eyes. Newt looked at Thomas like he had just said that he had an extra leg. Thomas was confused, not knowing what he said that was so funny. Newt chuckles lightly. “Y/N and me? Mate, were like brother and sister that would be like- ““Incest” Newt and Y/N said at the same time.

Thomas let out a sigh of relief. He didn’t know why but he felt a lot happier knowing Y/N and Newt weren’t together. Y/N wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “Greenie, I’ve been here nearly a year now and not one of these shanks have caught my eye. I know I’ve caught most of their’s, but just cause I’m the only girl in this damn place don’t mean I’m going to be treated like klunk. You got that?” Y/N said to Thomas, pointing a finger towards his face. Thomas gulped shaking his head up and down. Y/N pulled back her finger and placed the mason jar onto the ground. Looking around the Glade, Y/N’s hands pulled the elastic out of her H/L, H/C hair. She tied it into a bun, wiping her forehead with her sleeve. “Aren’t neither of you shanks hot? This bonfire making me sweaty as hell.” Y/N complained. Thomas looked at Y/N’s face taking in her glistening features. Her E/C eyes were the most beautiful things he had ever seen. It appeared he had been staring for too long as Newt nudged Thomas, knocking him out of his trance. Thomas looked at Newt, a blush covering his cheeks. Newt smirked towards Thomas, quickly turning to face Y/N. “If you’re so bloody warm then take of that dirty long-sleeved top you’re wearing. You’re wearing your tank top underneath anyway. The shanks know not to stare. Not after you kneed Ben in the balls.” Y/N chuckled looking towards the two boys. Shaking her head, she lifted the long- sleeved top over her torso. Once it was completely off, she tied it around her waist and sat down with her legs crossed, facing the two boys and leaning on to her arms to the side of her. Thomas didn’t mean for his eyes to wander but they did. Her body was curvy. It was clear that she ran and took part in other fitness activities as her arms and legs both showed evident muscles. Her arms and collar bones were covered in tattoos. These caught Thomas’ attention. “What are they?” Thomas asked pointing towards some of Y/N’s body art. “Full of questions aren’t you Greenie?” Y/N said. Newt chuckled, wiping his hands on his trousers. Standing up he turned to face the two Gladers on the ground. “I’m going to bed. With the amount of tattoos Y/N has you’ll be here all bloody night hearing about them.” He said. Y/N and Thomas both laughed. Newt turned towards Thomas “Tomorrow you start trials to see which job you’ll fit best in. Don’t stay up too late Greenie, you need to be up early.” Turning around Newt waved goodbye, leaving Thomas and Y/N alone by the fire.

Thomas turned his body so that he and Y/N were now facing one another. Y/N scooted closer to Thomas. He could now see her tattoos more clearly. “These are my tattoos.” Y/N began. “I came up here in the cage just like the rest of them. Only I couldn’t remember my name. I actually didn’t remember it for another four days. But I did remember what all my tattoos were and what inspired them the minute I woke up.” Thomas pointed to the first tattoo he saw. It was a large tattoo on her left forearm. “What’s this one?” Thomas asked. Y/N looked down at the tattoo that Thomas had asked about, a large smile growing on her face. “That is my Star Wars tattoo. Before you ask what, Star Wars is, Star Wars is an epic science fiction franchise consisting of multiple movies, novels, comics, and tv shows. It is way too complicated and too much to explain if you’ve never seen it, but it is amazing. Thomas smiled at Y/N. He admired the way her eyes lit up as she spoke about something she loved. “It’s something that I am so happy I remember but also sad that I can’t share it with anyone else in here. I know Newt and Chuck would love Star Wars. Maybe even Gally would too. I could see Minho having the hots for Princess Leila because she is the most beautiful person in the galaxy.” Even though Thomas had no idea who Princess Leila was, he could argue against her statement. He was looking at the most beautiful person in the universe, let alone the galaxy. Y/N looked at Thomas to see if he was paying attention. “You listening because I’m just going to tell you about my other favourites and you can learn about the others another day, okay? Or else we will be here all night like Newt said.” Y/N stated. Thomas smiled. “That’s fine. We can talk more about the others another day. Tell me about your favourites. I am all ears.” Thomas told Y/N. A soft smile took over Y/N’s face. The idea that Thomas wanted to learn about all her tattoos made her happy. No one else except Newt and Minho had took time to listen to her ramble about them.

Y/N sat up and moved even closer to Thomas. Both of their legs crossed and bodies facing each other. “You ready?” Y/N asked Thomas. Thomas laughed and shook his head. “Yes, I’m ready.” He answered. Y/N pointed to her left wrist. “This one was my first tattoo. I remember that. I remember the pain I felt getting it but also how happy I was after. It says ‘Carpe Diem’ which means ‘Seize the Day’. It’s a quote from one of my favourite movies called “Dead Poets Society”. It reminds me to take every day and make it my own. I look at it when I am out in the Maze. I want to make my time in their important.”

Y/N moved her left arm and pointed at her right forearm. “This one is another movie tattoo. It seems that before the Glade, movies were an important part of my life. This one says ‘To die would be an awfully big adventure. I’m petrified of the idea of death. We don’t know whether we come back as something else or if that’s it. Maybe we just become worm food, or we end up becoming soldiers in the Great Skeleton War? Who knows? But having that on my arm. Seeing it everyday whilst living in here with these shanks. I know if I died tomorrow, my life would have been worth it.” She looks down a sad smile on her face. A single tear falls down her cheek. Without realising, Thomas immediately wipes it away. He pulls his hand back quickly and apologises. Y/N looks up at Thomas and wipes away her tears; replacing the sad smile with an enthusiastic one.

“We will discuss one more and then I’m calling it a night. I’ll even let you pick.” Thomas gulped. His eyes searched the visible tattoos across Y/N’s body. The one that caught his eye was on her left collar bone. Y/N took note of where he was staring. “That one says ‘Ohana means family, and family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten’. Seems as though I’ve always cared about family. Everyone in here is now my family in different ways. Newt is like my over protective brother. Alby is like a father figure. Chuck and Minho are those annoying brothers that you love and hate. Frypan reminds me of a grandfather figure. He may be young, but he has an old soul. Even Gally. Gally is that cousin that your forced to hang out with and pretend to like.” Thomas let out a loud laugh. Y/N soon joined in. Once their laughter died down Thomas asked Y/N, “Who am I?”. Y/N looked at Thomas. She looked deep into his eyes. They stared at each other for a long time before Y/N spoke once again. “I don’t know yet but you’re going to be part of this family as much as everyone else. Like I said, I don’t leave my family behind or forget them. Hard to forget the shanks in this place.” Y/N stood up stretching her back. Thomas followed her actions. Looking around he realised that all the other Gladers had headed to bed. The fire in front of the still burning. The began to walk side by side to the Homestead.

“Do you know where your bed is?” Y/N asked Thomas. Dread covered Thomas’ face. “I can’t remember. Chuck showed me, but the Homestead looks different in the dark.” He answered. Y/N turned to Thomas. “You can stay in my room for the night. I have one separate from the boys. Just in case any of the shanks try anything at night. Follow me.” Thomas didn’t deny Y/N’s offer. Just simply choosing to follow. Y/N walked towards the Deadheads. Just to the side of the entrance was a small hut. Y/N entered with Thomas following behind. Inside the small hut was a bed, slightly bigger than a single, a wardrobe, dressing table, and a lamp. “You can sleep in the bed. I’ll take the floor.” Y/N told Thomas, grabbing a pillow and throw blanket for herself. Thomas walked towards Y/N. “You take the bed. You’ve been running all day and had to deal with me for the past few hours. You deserve the rest.” He told her, grabbing the pillow and blanket from her hands. Y/N quickly snatched them back. “And you Greenie, have had a very traumatic day. Coming up in the box, learning all this shucking information, and dealing with not only Gally, but me talking your head of about my klunking tattoos. So, you’re having the bed.” “No. You’re having the bed” Thomas argued. The pillow and blanket continuously being tugged between the two Gladers. Both refusing to sleep in the bed for the others comfort. Y/N placed a foot back and pulled with all her strength, but Thomas one stronger. Thomas tugged the blanket one final time, getting it out of Y/N’s grasp. Only for Y/N to lose her balance, falling onto Thomas and knocking them both to the ground. They landed in a twisted pile of limbs and blanket. Trying to untangle himself, Thomas moved his arms; his hands brushing against something hard and small. A gasp left Y/N’s lips. “Hey Greenie!” Y/N shouted. Thomas looked over their tangled limbs and towards Y/N’s face. “Stop touching that.” She told him. Thomas looked very confused. “What is it?” He asked. Y/N rolled her eyes. She quickly untangled herself and pulled Thomas up. “That Greenie, was my shucking nipple piercing. It’s sensitive so don’t touch it you klunkhead.” Y/N told him. Thomas’ face turned a deep shade of red. He quickly fumbled with the blanket, picking it up from the ground. Y/N turned around and climbed into the bed, moving towards the side of the bed that was against the wall. “As neither of us is going to give up the floor, we will both sleep in the bed. No funny business and keep your hands to yourself. Now get in here I’m tired.” Once again, Thomas didn’t argue. He was already embarrassed enough. His first day and he had already fallen over trying to escape, gotten knocked down twice by Gally, and now he accidently touched the only girl Glader’s nipple. How shucking fantastic?

Thomas climbed into the bed, staying as far as possible from Y/N. He slowly began to close his eyes. They quickly opened again once he felt his arm being tugged. Y/N pulled Thomas into the middle of the bed. Their faces only separated by a few centimetres. She placed the blanket over the pair and tucked the pillow under her head. Silence surrounded them. Y/N closed her eyes. Thomas soon broke the silence. “Do you only have one nipple pierced?” Thomas asked. “No” she answered. “Two nipples pierced?” he asked again. Y/N still had her eyes closed. “If not one, then of course two. I haven’t got three nipples.” Thomas became red once more with embarrassment. “Now go to sleep.” Y/N told him. She snuggled deeper into the pillow. Silence. Until…. “Did it hurt?” Thomas spoke again. “Go to sleep.” Y/N demanded. Thomas took in a deep breath. Before he could ask the question once more Y/N cupped Thomas’ face. Her eyes open once again, moving herself till there were only a few inches between them. Thomas’ eyes moved between looking at Y/N’s eyes and her lips. “If you go to sleep right now.” Y/N said. “I will answer all your question about my nipple piercings and tattoos tomorrow. I promise. Now go to sleep.” Y/N pulled her hand back from Thomas’ face only for Thomas to grab it with his hand, intertwining their fingers. He placed their entwined hands between their bodies. “Okay.” He said with a smile on his face. Y/N closed her eyes, a faint smile taking over her face as well. Both slowly falling into the deep sleep they both need. “Maybe this place won’t be too bad.” Thomas thought before sleep finally took over.

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