#also the elevator the maximoff twins and on your left!!

[weregonnabecoolbeans]

Ten years of Captain America: The Winter Soldier!!

This movie is everything to me

[sweeter-innocence-fics]

Summer Fic Week 2023 - Day 1: Going Down Swinging

Pairing: Pietro Maximoff x Reader

Work Summary: It's the hottest day of the year, you're exhausted from a mission, and all you want is your bed. Unfortunately, the elevator in Avengers' tower throws a spanner in the works.

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 5373

Read on AO3.

Masterlists.

Summer Fics Masterlist.

Taglist: @kittimbo @mcximffs @noz4a2 @rottenstyx @xlucyintheskywithdiamondsx @lanemarvels @marrigold-2002 @kathrinchek @alternativeprincess @annocaprosmaloka @thrutheburnout @mrs-kai-anderson @ang3l1te @missryerye

Taglist info.

Notes:

Hello and welcome to my week of summer themed fics! I'll be posting a fic every day for a week.

warnings for unprotected sex, creampie, hate-fucking, pietro is a lech, ankle injury, trapped in an elevator, reader has an IUD, oral (both receiving), reader and pietro are both switches, teasing, sweating, heatwave, teensy bit of angst

Update: There's now a sequel.

---

You were exhausted. It was a hundred degrees, and you’d spent the better part of the day fighting some freshly superpowered men on the streets of New York.

Your mission had had two parts: neutralise and bring in the powered people; and retrieve the stolen alien tech they’d used to give themselves the power to manipulate and control energy.

Your foes’ inexperience had been a gift and a curse. On one hand, you outstripped them in every sense: physically, mentally and tactically. On the other, they were unpredictable, with powers barely in their control. That made them very dangerous, especially on the crowded streets of New York City in summertime.

You and the rest of your team – Clint, Natasha, Steve, Wanda and Pietro – had all made it back in one piece. There had been a few civilian injuries but no casualties. Two of the men you’d been fighting, however, had died in the process. Their powers had overcome them and they’d exploded before you could subdue them.

That was the trouble with messing around with alien tech. You never knew what it would do to a human body.

Of course, you had to feel sorry for them. There but for the grace of God…

You had received your powers from dangerous alien tech as well, though through no fault of your own. You had been a junior scientist working for a brilliant xenobiologist, but a lab accident had left him dead and you with the ability to move objects with your mind.

When SHIELD had found you, you’d been out of control and terrified out of your mind. They had brought you in, though, with zero casualties. That you were forever grateful for. You weren’t sure how you could live with yourself otherwise.

You had been an Avenger for several years before a couple more enhanced test subjects had joined the team: the Maximoff twins. Wanda was withdrawn and unsociable, but Pietro was unbearable. He was arrogant, he was cruel and he always found ways to push your buttons.

You were sick to death of Pietro Maximoff, and his pretty eyes, and his toned body, and the way he would leer at you when you stared for half a second too long, because he knew. He always knew.

When you had realised that you would be on a mission with him today, you had groaned, but you knew it made sense. You had experienced being on the other side of this situation. So had the twins. It was also a good opportunity to train up the Maximoffs, who were the newest recruits to the Avengers.

So you had bit your tongue and fought alongside them, and stayed the hell away from Pietro.

Now, as your half-unzipped costume hung from your shoulders, boots in your hands as your bare feet padded across the cool tiled floor, all you wanted was to shower and get into bed.

That wasn’t entirely true. You were hungry too, but too exhausted to even think about eating. You wondered who would be the most likely person to bring you food if you asked. You reckoned that Steve would do it, gentleman that he was.

You were almost home. You stepped into an elevator in Avengers’ tower and hit the button for your floor. The doors were sliding closed when a familiar silver-blue blur shot in between them. You groaned internally as another button lit up, and then Pietro Maximoff was standing next to you, grinning at you with that unbearably boyishly charming smile.

The door closed behind him before you could even think about escape.

“Boy, it’s hot in here,” he said in his smooth, Sokovian accent, and then, without another word, he pulled the shirt of his costume off over his head.

He did it slowly for him, at a normal pace for anyone else, which was how you knew it was for your benefit. If he really wanted to, he could be naked in milliseconds, but he did it slowly to put on a show. Your cheeks heated up at the thought, and you looked away from him, but it was too late. You could see him smirking at you out of the corner of his eye.

“Can’t you wait until you’re in your room before you start stripping?” you snapped.

He didn’t seem bothered at all by your anger. He never was. In fact, he seemed to enjoy it. The elevator began to move, giving you an uncomfortable turn in your stomach that you were sure had nothing to do with the way Pietro was staring at you.

“Come on, prinţesă,” he practically cooed. It was a nickname that he knew you hated.

“I’m not your princessa-”

“Prinţesă,” he corrected. You had once asked him why he called you that, and he’d responded, “because you’re beautiful but you’re such a priss.” You had almost slapped him. Almost.

“I know you’re used to women falling at your feet, Pietro, but I don’t know why you bother with me. It’s never going to happen.”

“We’ll see,” he said in that unbelievably cocky tone. “In the meantime, you’re cute when you’re angry.” He reached out towards you, and you knew what he was going to do because he’d done it before. Before he could ping your bra strap, you slapped his hand away, glaring at him.

“You’re so-”

You were cut off by a horrible screech, and then a mechanical groaning sound. The lights flickered and the elevator came to a sudden, jarring halt, knocking you off balance. You fell back against the wall, and the red emergency lights came on.

“What the-” said Pietro, but you had already gone over to the wall panel hit the emergency call button.

“The elevator is broken, obviously.” The call button crackled. “Hello?” No response. “Hello?” There was a buzzing, and then it sputtered out and the entire panel went dark. “Shit.”

Instinctively, you patted where your pockets should be, but of course, your phone was in your room. Pietro’s suit didn’t have pockets either, and you’d both handed over your earpieces when you’d arrived back after the mission.

“Here, let me try.” He moved past you to get to the panel.

You glared at the side of his face. “All you do is press the button. It’s not like I did it wrong.” He ignored you, jabbing at the button several times in quick succession. “That’s not gonna-”

“Shut up,” he snapped, and you took a step back. Pietro might’ve been an asshole, but he wasn’t usually openly hostile to you. He preferred to annoy you in more subtle ways.

You stared at him. For the first time, you noticed that his hand was shaking. He was nervous.

“There’s a hatch,” you said, not quite apologising (why should you apologise?) but almost making amends. “If you give me a boost up there, I can see if I can climb up to the next floor and get the doors open.”

For once, he didn’t argue with you. He laced his fingers together and let you step into his hand, and, when you were ready, pushed you up towards the ceiling.

You had to put your hand on his head to keep your balance, uncomfortably aware of how close his face was to the vulnerable flesh of your stomach. Not that he would do anything. Still. You managed to pull the lever to open the hatch.

“Higher,” you said, and he grunted in response, lifting you up further. You were glad you couldn’t see him right now. You’d seen him working out in the gym, and exerting himself on the field. The way his muscles flexed always got you a little hot under the collar, and that was the last thing you needed right now.

You managed to grab onto the edge of the hatch and, with Pietro’s help, pushed yourself up onto the top of the elevator.

You stared up into the shaft above you, but it was very dark. You couldn’t see the doors for the floor above. With your hands on the wall, you looked for a ladder, but there was no sign of one.

“Any luck?” Pietro called out to you.

“Can’t see much.”

You did have an idea about how you could see a little more. You couldn’t fly, but with your telekinesis, you could hover a little. Projecting yourself into the air, you tried to get closer to where you thought the door might be. There was only more darkness.

Letting out a frustrated noise, you pushed yourself further up. Your body was trembling with the effort, sweat beading at your brow. High above you, you could make out lights. If that was the inside of the door, then you were a lot further away from it than you thought.

You tried to push yourself a little bit further, just to check if the door was truly what you were seeing, and faltered. As if your slick-sweat body had slid across a surface, your hold on yourself failed and you tumbled out of the air, landing hard on your ankle.

“Fuck.”

Pietro called out your name. He never called you by your name. You felt dazed.

“Are you okay?” he shouted.

“Yeah, I’m…” Your voice had come out high-pitched and wobbly as you choked on the pain in your ankle. You cleared your throat. “I’m okay.”

“You don’t sound okay. Come back down.”

You didn’t fancy trying to climb back down right now. All you wanted to do was stay in one place.

“I’m alright, I’m gonna stay up here for a bit.”

“You can’t stay on top of the elevator!”

You didn’t respond to that. After a few moments, you heard him call out your name again, and when you stayed silent, you heard a grunt, a clang, and then Pietro’s hands appeared at the edge of the hatch.

You were about to lean forward to help him up, but you didn’t have to. He pulled himself up onto the roof of the elevator beside you in an impressive display of upper body strength.

“What’s going on?” he asked. “It sounded like you fell.” It was much darker up here, so you couldn’t see his expression, which unnerved you, because for the first time since you’d known him, he actually sounded sincere.

“I did fall, but it’s okay.”

“Did you hurt yourself?”

“… I landed awkwardly on my ankle.”

He tutted, but for once, it didn’t sound patronising. It sounded worried. “Let me look at it.”

“It’s dark.”

“Well, let me help you back into the elevator, and then look at it.”

“I’m not going back in. We need to get up to the doors.” You pointed vaguely upwards.

You saw Pietro’s silhouette shift as he looked where you were pointing. “There’s no way we’re making it up there. We need to go back in and wait for rescue. Someone will notice the elevator is out eventually.”

You groaned loudly. “I can’t imagine anything worse than being stuck in an elevator with you.”

“Well, you’re not exactly a barrel of laughs either, prinţesă.”

“Stop calling me that!”

He ignored you. “I’m going to climb back in, and then you’re going to lower yourself back down.”

“I’ll fall.”

“I will catch you. Come on.” His tone left no space to argue. He climbed back down into the hatch and landed back inside with a light thump. He was agile, like a cat. You were envious of that right now.

You swung your legs over so you were sitting on the edge of the hatch, your legs dangling into the elevator. You could see Pietro properly now, bathed in the red emergency lighting.

“Come on,” he repeated, holding up his arms. “I’ll catch you.”

“Are you sure?” An edge of nervousness was creeping into your tone.

He chuckled. “I have superspeed, prinţesă. I promise I won’t let you fall. Now drop down. I will catch you.”

He was watching you. That only made you more nervous. You had to close your eyes and shuffle forward. A hand, strong and strangely comforting, grabbed your calf.

“Just a little further, prinţesă.”

Squeezing your lips together, you edged closer. Pietro had a firmer grip on both of your legs now. Putting your life into your hands – or, to be honest, Pietro’s – you shoved yourself off the ledge.

Pietro’s hands let go of your calves and caught you around the waist. You clung to his shoulders as he held you there, feet dangling a foot off the ground.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” he said. “I’m going to lay you down, alright? Let’s have a look at your ankle.” Swallowing, you nodded. 

Carefully, he lowered you to the ground. You held on tight to him until you were firmly sitting down, at which point you released each other. He hooked his hand under your calf again, gently lifting it up so he could get a closer look.

“It looks a little swollen,” he said. “Maybe you sprained it.”

“Maybe.”

“You should get some ice on it when we get out of here. And maybe see a medic, just in case.”

“… Thanks.”

“Here.” He picked up his shirt, which he had discarded at the corner of the elevator. He bunched it up and then placed it under your ankle. It didn’t do much to elevate it, but at least it cushioned it from the ground.

You leant back against the wall, stomach swirling. Pietro stood up and crossed the room, mirroring your position against the wall opposite. You closed your eyes, trying to think of some way to pass the time when you heard the sound of unzipping.

Your eyes flew open to find Pietro with his trousers halfway down his thighs. He was wearing black boxers underneath, which were sleek and strangely pretty.

“What are you doing?”

“Relax, prinţesă. I’m not going to take my underwear off.”

“Put your pants back on,” you hissed, and he rolled his eyes.

“It’s hot. My costume is too tight. I have no idea how long we’re going to be stuck here. I’ll boil alive if I keep it on.”

You huffed and looked away from him. You had to admit he had a point. It was very hot. You wriggled fully out of the top half of your costume, which had already been hanging off you. You were wearing a vest underneath, so at least you were more modest than Pietro, who was now sitting in his boxers with his costume in his lap. There was no way you were taking off the bottom half, no matter how hot it got in here.

A bead of sweat rolled down your neck, and you felt it heading for your cleavage. You grimaced. You’d kill for a bottle of water right now. And ice. For your ankle and for everywhere else.

You glanced back at Pietro and found him staring at your chest.

“You’re shameless, you know that?” you said, no heat behind your voice. You were too sweaty and exhausted to fight anymore.

“I can’t help myself, prinţesă. You have a great rack. It draws the eye.”

It was one of the cruder Americanisms that he’d picked up since he moved to New York.

“Fuck off, Pietro. I’m not begging to be ogled, unlike you. I mean, you were practically doing a striptease earlier.”

A grin spread across his face. “Did you like it?”

You rolled your eyes. “I was just trying to get back to my room to sleep. I wasn’t expecting to have to deal with…” You gestured at him. “All of this.”

He cocked his head to the side, resting his chin on his palm. “What are you dealing with, prinţesă?”

“You!” you snapped. You shoved yourself onto your knees, your costume flapping around your waist. “I’m so sick of you!” You wobbled to your feet, but thankfully your ankle seemed to be able to support your weight.

As you stalked towards him, you were pretty sure you were actually gonna hit him this time, and from the look on his face, you could tell he thought so too.

“Careful,” he warned, on his feet in a split second. “Your ankle-”

You barrelled into him, grasping his chin with one hand and dragging him down to your level. His eyes went very wide, but you were already kissing him.

Wait.

Kissing him?

You were supposed to be hitting him!

His hands dropped to your waist, smoothing over the fabric of your vest, and you leant into him, letting him take the weight off your ankle.

“You’re so,” kiss, “fucking,” kiss, “annoying,” you muttered, and you felt him smile against your lips. “I hate you,” you snarled, pulling away from him, but he held you in position.

“No, you don’t,” he said fondly.

“You’re, ugh-” Your words stuttered to a halt as he pressed a kiss to the spot below your ear, and then one further down at the column of your throat.

“You seem tense,” he said, sounding smug. “Let me help with that.”

Despite yourself, you pressed against him, and then leant back to look at him suddenly. “Are you hard?”

“Honestly? I’ve had a semi since you took your top off.”

You let out a growl of frustration, pushing him back. That shouldn’t have turned you on nearly as much as it did. You cupped him through his boxers and watched the smug smile disappear. His lips parted and he exhaled hard. That was much better.

“Take these off,” you said.

“Feisty,” he said, but dutifully removed his boxers. He was moderately well-endowed, and the thatch of hair around the base of his cock was brown, not platinum blonde. It was something you had wondered about, on hot lonely nights when he’d pushed your buttons just a little too hard during the day.

You wrapped your hand around his cock and squeezed, watching the expression on his face change. He swore quietly, his hands going to your waist, gripping your vest. You swatted his hands away.

“Lie down.”

He arched an eyebrow at you, but did as he was told. He sat down on the ground in one fluid motion, and then lay back, hands behind his head. He was stupidly, unfairly, annoyingly attractive. You knelt down in front of him.

“Shut up,” you said.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Well, continue not saying anything.”

He ignored you. “You know I’m completely naked and you’re still wearing most of your clothes. How is that fair?”

You huffed out a mirthless laugh. “Only because you decided toget practically naked before we even got started. How is that my fault?”

He shrugged, which was a slightly awkward motion in the position he was in. “That doesn’t matter. I want to see you.”

Lips pressed tightly together, you pulled off your vest and then your bra in quick succession. His eyes went wide and he reached for you, but again, you pushed him away.

“Hands to yourself.” And then you bent forward and wrapped your lips around his cock. He swore loudly. You supposed that was a good sign.

He didn’t seem to know what to do with his hands. Pietro was a naturally fidgety person, so they twitched by his sides, trying to find something to hold onto.

You pulled back, letting your cock fall out of his mouth. “What are you doing?”

“You said to keep my hands to myself!”

“Well, this,” you gestured to the motions his hands were making, “is offputting.”

“What do I-” You grabbed both his hands in yours and guided them up to your hair.

“Better?”

He gulped and nodded. You leant forward again and licked a stripe up his cock. His grip tightened, pulling hard enough to hurt, but the pain sent a sizzling sensation through your body.

Still, you wouldn’t let him set the pace, as much as he was trying to. You bobbed your head up and down, swirling your tongue around him. He groaned deeply.

“Prinţesă, maybe you should stop. I’m not gonna last very long if you keep- Fuck.”

You ignored him, continuing to push. Your hand came up to fondle his balls, thumbing over the crease between them. His fingers tightened in your hair, not pulling you off him, but warning.

“I’m gonna- Fuck.”

The hot, salty taste of his cum hit the back of your tongue. You swallowed it, taking pride in the way he whimpered as you sucked him clean.

“Prinţesă, baby, I…” He sounded wrecked. You relinquished your hold on him pulling back and letting him breathe. His eyes were glassy as he stared back at you. “That was… Fuck.”

“You said that already.”

He sat up suddenly, crowding into your space. You were ready to tell him to fuck off again, but then he kissed you, his tongue pressing insistently into your mouth. It was like he was trying to taste himself on you. Maybe he was. He was a narcissist, after all.

When you’d both run out of breath, he pulled back. His cheeks were pink, his eyes bright and shiny with excitement.

“Can I touch you?” He said the words in a low voice that sent tingles down your spine. Here was the flirty, seductive Pietro you knew. You wondered how many women he’d used this voice on. You wondered if it worked every time. It was working on you. You nodded.

His hands were uncharacteristically clumsy as he tugged at your costume, trying to get the bottom half off. You loosened the straps and lifted your hips up so that he could pull them off you.

Now, in just your panties, you were feeling pretty exposed. Sensing your nervousness, he kissed you again. Gentle, insistent hands pushed you until you were lying flat on your back. He moved with you, covering you with his body.

“You’re so beautiful,” he murmured into the skin of your neck. Every breath across your skin left goosebumps in its wake. You trembled, and you were sure he felt it, but for once, he didn’t seem all that smug about it.

You were worried he might try to give you a hickey, but his lips continued to press soft kisses against your skin, persistently kissing and licking, not sucking. You carded your hands through his hair, breathing in time with him.

He moved lower until his mouth found a nipple. You twitched, almost pushing away out of instinct – you were very sensitive – but he held you still with one hand on your shoulder, the other on your hip. His eyes flickered up to yours as he sucked, and his lip quirked up into that annoying (sexy) smirk.

“I was right,” he mused as he nosed his way along the valley between your breasts, lazily looking for your other nipple.

“About what?” Your question came out breathless. He’d just found it and bitten gently down.

“You do have a great rack.”

“I hate you.”

“No, you don’t.” This time, he said it in a sing-song voice as he travelled further down, laying kisses along your stomach that made your muscles jump. “In fact,” he said, lips grazing over the waistband of your panties. “I think you like me.”

“I do not.”

“Hmm.” He hummed, his lips hovering over your clothed pussy. He was right there, where you wanted him most, but he wasn’t moving anymore. Instead, he was very gently nuzzling at you through the fabric.

You let out a huff of frustration. “Stop teasing me.”

“I’ll stop teasing when you admit you like me.”

You snapped your mouth shut, glaring down at him. He stared back up at you with amusement in his eyes, kissing along your inner thigh. It was torture.

“You’re an asshole.”

“You like it.”

“Fine!” you snapped. “I fucking like it! I like you! Is that what you wanted to hear?”

You barely heard his response because your heart was beating so loudly. The blood was rushing in your ears. What were you doing?

“That’s good,” he said, tugging down your panties. “Because I like you too.”

That was all the warning you got before he dove into your pussy. His hands came up, parting your lips so that he could explore your folds with his tongue. The noises that were falling from your lips were frankly embarrassing. You tried to cover your mouth, but Pietro slowed down.

“If you don’t let me hear those god damn moans, I swear I won’t let you cum,” he said. You glared at him, but removed your hands.

He held you down, one hand resting flat against your belly button. His tongue danced over your clit, moving in patterns so fast you couldn’t follow them. It was like his tongue was a vibrator, and you felt a telltale warmth building inside you.

“Pietro!” you moaned, unable to hold back any longer. You grabbed a handful of his hair, holding him as tight to you as you could. You ground down against him, riding your orgasm out on his face.

In the immediate aftermath, you felt too good to be embarrassed. He slid his fingers inside you, filling you with a fresh sensation of pleasure.

“I, uh… Don’t have any condoms,” he said.

You let out a grunt of frustration. “I don’t care.” And then, as an afterthought, “I have an IUD.”

“I get tested regularly.” That made sense. From what you knew, he was a bit of a player.

“I haven’t had sex since my last test.”

“So I can…?”

“Just fuck me, Pietro.”

He hooked a hand under your hip and flipped you over onto your hands and knees. You let out an undignified squeak, which quickly turned into a moan when he pressed against you from behind.

At first, he put just the tip inside you, until you whined and pushed back against him. He slid in further, and you exhaled. It was a strange relief, having him fill you up like that. It was as though, from the moment you’d met, the two of you had been heading for this moment. Now he was inside of you and you were sprawled out underneath him, you felt fuzzy and warm.

As he slid all the way inside you, you leant your forearms on the ground and rested your forehead on your hands. The metal floor was cool against your skin, which was nice because you felt like you were burning up everywhere that Pietro was touching you.

After a moment, you said, “you can move.” He let out a groan of relief.

His movements started slow. He was exceptionally consistent, thrusting in a perfectly even rhythm, hitting just the right spot inside you every time. You wondered if it was practise, or if his powers helped. He certainly had stamina.

“You feel so good, pretty girl,” he murmured, stroking your hip. “So tight around my cock.”

You felt your walls clench involuntarily, which drew a choked out groan from Pietro, making his rhythm falter for the first time. He regained his composure quickly, sliding a hand into your hair as he began to speed up.

Your g-spot was being pummelled, and every thrust pushed the air out of your lungs, forcing you into a gasping rhythm of ‘ah, ah, ah’s.

As his movements grew more desperate, Pietro’s hands were everywhere, lightly scratching down your back, squeezing your breasts, anchoring himself on your hips. When his hand finally found his way down between your legs, you knew it was over for you.

With his fingers on your clit, breast squeezed tight in his other hand, hot breath in your ear, you came with a gasp.

“Shit,” he hissed, and you could tell he was close. You continued to clench around him, even after the aftershocks of your orgasm, trying to push him over the edge. Still, he kept going.

You looked back at him over your shoulder and his eyes met yours, pupils blown with lust. You smiled at him, and he swore under his breath. He clung to you, spilling his cum inside you.

You felt cold as soon as he pulled out of you. There was a gnawing feeling in your gut. Regret. You shouldn’t have done this. He was your coworker. You hated each other.

(No you didn’t)

You rolled over into a sitting position, wincing as you felt his cum dripping out of you. You grabbed your discarded costume and shuffled over to the wall.

Pietro was sitting back on his heels, watching you. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

You shook your head, but you felt tears prickling at your eyes. He leant forwards, putting what was supposed to be a comforting hand on your knee. You flinched. He pulled back like he’d been burnt.

“Was I too rough?” There was an earnest expression in his eyes. “Did I hurt you? Is it your ankle?”

“No,” you said, your voice thick. “It was good.”

“Then what’s wrong?”

“We’re still stuck here. What do we do now?”

Pietro was about to answer, but he was interrupted by your stomach rumbling loudly. He regarded you for a moment, and then scooted over to where the trousers of his costume were discarded. He dug around in them for a moment, and then produced a granola bar, which he slid across the floor towards you.

“Here,” he said. “Eat this.

“Where were you hiding that?” you asked, picking it up and unwrapping it.

He grinned at you, boyish charm back in full force. “Secret pocket.”

“You have a secret snack pocket in your suit?”

“Of course. Don’t you?”

You knew he wasn’t joking. He had to eat a lot. Something about his metabolism. You had seen him at mealtimes, loading up his plate. It made sense that he kept emergency snacks on him.

Right now, you were very grateful for them. You felt your anxiety draining away as you ate.

“Next time, I’ll buy you a real dinner.”

You paused. “Next time?”

“Yeah. If you want to.”

You opened your mouth, but at that moment, the main lights flickered back on. There was a moment of silence, and then the elevator juddered to life. It was moving upwards again.

You had the sudden, horrifying realisation that you were naked, with Pietro’s cum dripping out of you.

“Shit. Shit shit shit.” You fumbled with your panties, but changed your mind at the last second. Trousers were more important. As you struggled to pull them up, Pietro put his boxers and trousers back on in half a second flat.

Your vision went white. You blinked, and you realised you were wearing your vest. Pietro must’ve put it on you.

Meeting your eyes, he slipped your panties into his pocket. “I’ll be holding onto these.” He winked at you. Your cheeks burned.

DING.

The doors of the elevator opened and you scrambled to your feet. Steve and Sam were standing on the other side of the doors, staring at you both. Steve looked horrified, but Sam looked more amused.

You quickly tucked your bra under the shirt of your costume, which was hanging over your arm.

“Hey guys,” you said, trying to sound casual. “The elevator got stuck.”

“There was a power cut,” said Sam. “But I don’t wanna know what you two got up to in here. I’m taking the other elevator until this one has been thoroughly sterilised.” He turned and walked away. Steve stole one last shocked glance at you, before following him.

You looked at Pietro, and found him looking back at you. Sudden, uncontrollable, laughter bubbled up from your chest. Pietro began to laugh too, which only made you laugh harder. You grabbed onto his arm to keep your balance.

“Did you see Steve’s face?” asked Pietro between gasps, and you doubled over, hands over your stomach.

You laughed until there was no more breath in your lungs.

When you had both finally got over your fit of hysterics, you realised that you were leaning on each other. Instead of stepping away, Pietro leant down, pressing your foreheads together. It was a brief touch. He pulled away and you found yourself wishing he hadn’t.

“Next time?” he asked, a tinge of hope in his voice.

You swallowed. “Next time.”  

---

Notes:

Preview of tomorrow's fic: sharing a tent with Steve Harrington.

[secretswiftymarvelfan]

The Demigod From Asgard - Steve Rogers x Reader (Part 39)

Summary: The team face off agaisnt Ultron and the twins with devastating consequences

Word Count: 3.4k

Warnings: Heavy Angst! Language! Canon Typical Violence!

Dividers by @firefly-graphics​

Series Masterlist / Masterlist

Chapter 39: Firecracker Girlfriend

“You know when I said I might have a headache in the morning, I thought it would be because of the alcohol” Steve groaned rubbing his forehead tiredly as you walk towards the lab.

“Have you taken any painkillers?” You ask him.

“Doubt they’d do any good, wear off too quickly, it’ll pass soon” he sighs as you step into the elevator.

Just as the doors were about to close Maria steps in tablet in hand “I’ve got some updates on Ultron” she says as the door close behind her.

“Has he had a change of heart and become a pacifist?” You ask her.

“Unfortunately no” she sighs.

“Right well let’s hear it” Steve says.

“They’re all over the globe, robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet propulsion labs” Maria says as the elevator doors open.

The three of you step out careful to avoid the shattered glass that still littered the floor as you head towards the stairs.

“Reports of a metal man, or men coming in and emptying the place” Maria continues.

“Fatalities?” Steve asks.

“Only when engaged, mostly guys left in a fugue state going on about old memories, worst fears and something too fast to see” Maria explains making you sigh deeply.

“Maximoff’s” you say shaking your head.

“That makes sense he’d go to them, they have someone in common” Steve adds.

“Not anymore” Maria says passing Steve the tablet.

He sighs shaking his head before turning it towards you. As you look down at the screen you see Strucker with a large wound on his chest. The word Peace written on the wall behind him in what you could only guess was his own blood. Despite the distaste you had towards the guy for stealing the sceptre and what he did with it, seeing his body didn’t give you any pleasure.

“Well that’s kind of a mixed message” you mutter.

“Is it? If it was my mission, world peace I’d probably take out Strucker too” Maria says with a small shrug.

“Ultron could be in any system, he could be pulling planes down from the sky, what if he’s just doing what he’s supposed to?” She continues.

“If I thought Ultron were bringing peace, I’d hang up my shield” Steve says shaking his head looking down at the tablet.

“Would you?” Maria says her brow raised in disbelief.

Steve looks up at her before glancing down at you. You knew this was a topic that had been on his mind recently, just last night he brought up his desire for ‘a normal life’ but you both knew your lives would never be normal like everyone else’s. You also knew how much Steve loved what he did, serving, helping people.

“Let us know if he leaves any more messages” you tell Maria.

She nods her head and starts walking back down the stairs. You glance up at Steve go see his brows furrowed in thought. You give him a reassuring smile before running your hand up and down his arm, slipping your hand into his. He gives you a small thankful smile before the two of you continue up the stairs.

As you round the corner you could hear Clint on the phone.

“Don’t worry about the wolf, leave the nightlight off” you hear him say.

“That’s a negative I answer to you, yes ma’am” he says as you and Steve stop to look down the corridor at him.

“I gotta go, girlfriend” Clint says hanging up when he spots you.

You furrow your brows slightly trying to work out if he was joking or not. As far as you were aware he didn’t have a girlfriend. He said so himself.

“Any of your old contacts come through?” Steve asks.

“Still waiting” Clint answers.

“Wait faster” Steve says before the two of you carry on towards the lab.

“I thought he didn’t have a girlfriend” Steve says quietly to you.

“That’s what I thought” you say glance over your shoulder at Clint.

As the two of you walk into the labs you see Nat and Tony at the computer talking to Rhodey. You then notice Thor walking down the stairs into the lab.

“Any help from on high?” Steve asks as Thor walks over.

“Heimdall’s either away from his post or he’s been ordered not to answer” Thor sighs.

You look over at him confused “why would father order him not to respond” you question.

“I don’t know, but hopefully with good reason either way Ultron can’t hide forever we’ll find him” Thor says as the three of you walk over towards Nat and Tony.

“Well he’s not exactly hiding” Steve says passing Thor the tablet.

“What’s this?” Tony asks walking over.

“It’s a message” you say as Thor slaps the tablet into Tony’s chest.

“Ultron killed Strucker” Steve explains.

“And he did a Banksy at the crime scene just for us” Tony comments looking down at the tablet.

“This is good” Nat says as Tony put the tablet down.

“No that’s not good” Bruce says shaking his head at her.

“He’s showing us his hand, this isn’t his pattern. Why send a message when you’ve just given a speech?” She points out.

“Strucker knew something Ultron wanted us to miss” Steve sighs.

“I bet he...yeah look everything we had on Strucker has been wiped” Nat says as she taps away at the computer.

“Not everything” you say glancing over at Tony.

“Yeah it looks like your old fashioned habits might pay off” Tony agrees.

“Well when I said technology is evil, it wasn’t an invitation for you to prove me right” you say crossing your arm over your chest.

“You’re not gonna drop that are you?” Tony sighs.

“Nope, everyone let go grab a box” Steve says walking off towards the archives.

Soon enough everyone has gathered in one of the larger and nicer conference rooms. Boxes of files from SHIELD and intel the Avengers had gathered over the years. Everyone sifting through the files trying to find something of importance. It was a long, painstaking process that took a large majority of the day.

“Known associates” Steve sighs putting a box down on the table.

“Baron Strucker had a lot of friends” you comment as Steve passes out a couple files to you and Bruce.

“Well these people are all horrible” Bruce mutters as he flips through the file.

“Wait I know that guy” Tony says pointing to the file in Bruce’s hands.

“From back in the day, he operates off the African coast, black market arms” Tony explains as Bruce passes him the file.

“There are conventions all right? You meet people I didn’t sell him anything” Tony says when he sees the look you and Steve gave him.

“He was talking about finding something new, a game changer” He continues passing a picture to Thor.

“This?” Thor asks pointing to a mark on the guy’s neck.

“Ah it’s a tattoo, I don’t think he had it” Tony says.

“No those are tattoos, this is a brand” you say taking a closer look at the photo.

“Pass it here I’ll look it up” Bruce says taking the photo from Thor and walking over to the computer.

He taps away for a moment before a march was found “oh yeah its a word in an African dialect meaning thief in a much less friendly way” Bruce explains.

“What dialect?” Steve asks.

“Um Wakanada... wa wa wakanda” Bruce says stumbling slightly on his words.

Tony and Steve glance over at each other at the mention of the country “if this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods” Tony says.

“I thought your father said he got the last of it” Steve asks.

“I don’t follow what comes out if Wakanda?” Bruce asks walking back over.

“The strongest metal on earth” Tony sighs as everyone looks over at Steve’s shield.

“Where is this guy now?” Steve asks.

“My best guess would be South Africa” Tony says.

“Alright, we need to beat Ultron there, everyone suit up and on the jet in 5” Steve orders looking around at everyone.

When you arrived it looked like Ultron was already there. So instead of going in all guns blazing, you chose a more stealthier approach. You, Steve, Tony and Thor would approach from the front while Nat and Clint would hide in the shadows on the sides. Bruce opted to stay in the jet since the ship meant enclosed spaces.

As you arrived you could hear Ultron giving a speech about how much he hated Tony.

“Ah junior you’re gonna break your old man’s heart” Tony says landing in front of you, steve and Thor.

“If I have too” Ultron say stepping closer.

You looked up at him taking in his new form. He was now easily 7 feet tall, a clear show of strength and power, as he made even Thor look small.

“Nobody has to break anything” Thor states.

“Clearly you’ve never made an omelette” Ultron responds.

“He beat me by one second” Tony says glancing over his shoulder.

“Like father like son” you mutter under your breath.

“Ah yes he’s funny. Mr Stark. It’s what? Comfortable? Like old times?” Pietro says walking forward.

“This was never my life” Tony says glancing down at the multiple firearms on the deck below.

“You two can still walk away from this” you say stepping forward holding your hands out in a calming manner.

“Oh we will” Wanda says with a condescending tone.

“We know you’ve suffered” Steve adds.

Ultron scoffs “Captain America, God’s righteous man, pretending you could live without a war” Ultron says and you could see Steve jaw clench.

“And his firecracker girlfriend” Ultron continues looking over at you “who doesn’t know how dangerous she really is, especially to those she loves”

You glare over at him, insulted at his insinuation. You could and would never hurt the people you loved. It killed you enough that you couldn’t protect your mother or brother. You see Thor look over at you a look for anguish on his face. You both felt to blame for your loved ones deaths.

“Enough! If you believe in peace, then let us keep it” Thor demands.

“I think you’re confusing peace with quiet” Ultron counters stepping forward.

“Uh huh what’s the vibranium for?” Tony interrupts.

“I’m glad you asked that, because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan” Ultron smirks.

Suddenly three smaller versions of Ultron land in front of you, Steve and Thor. Ultron pulling Tony forwards towards him. Tony then gets blasted back but you don’t have time to think about that as the robot attacks you.

You duck down avoiding the hand that grabbed for your neck, swinging your leg around to knock it to the ground. You then grab it around the neck, you heat up your other hand before hitting the robot in the chest. You melt the metal grabbing its inner workings and ripping them out. You then throw the robot over the railing to the deck below.

As you turn back around Pietro wizzes past you knocking you off balance. You nearly fall over the railing yourself but use your powers to keep yourself upright. You see Steve kick the robot attacking him down and the two of you turn to face Wanda. You both run towards her, but you get blasted back by a wave of red energy.

As you sit back up you see the robot that Steve had kicked down getting up and walking over to you. Albeit with a slight limp and a dent in the head. You use your powers to form ice up around its legs and chest stopping it. Steve then throws his shield at it decapitating it.

As quickly as he threw it you saw him get knocked down, you didn’t have time to react as you felt yourself get tackled and thrown against the metal wall.

“Pietro” you grumble as you stand back up.

You turn to offer Steve a hand up but as you do you spot Thor’s hammer and Pietro flying back towards you. So, you push Steve back down to the floor but don’t have time to duck yourself so take to full brunt of both the hammer and Pietro flying into you. It knocks you onto the deck below, falling with a heavy thud.

You groan rolling over onto your back, clutching your chest. You were fairly certain you’d broken a rib or two. You see Steve jump over the railing landing just behind you. You glance over to see him hit Pietro in the head with his shield warning him to stay down.

He quickly turns kneeling down beside you, helping you sit up.

“You okay?” He asks.

“Peachy, maybe a broken rib but I’ll walk it off” you groan rubbing your head slightly.

“Guys is this a code green?” You hear Bruce say over the comms.

“Negative, stay on the jet” Steve says as he helps you stand back up.

“Sure you’re okay?” He questions once more.

“I’m fine, we’ve got more important things to worry about” you tell him.

You could see he was hesitant but he nods his head “okay, you go find Wanda, I’ll deal with the pirates” he says.

You nod in agreement before using your powers to fly back up to the deck above after Wanda. As you walk through the deck you see Thor storm past pushing a pirate to the floor.

“The girl tried to warp my mind, take special care. I doubt a human could keep her at bay, fortunately I am mighty” he grumbles before suddenly stumbling falling to his knees.

“Thor?” You question heading over to him.

You’d only taken a couple of steps when a hot flash of white, almost like an explosion pushes you back. You instinctively hold up your hand to shield your face from the blast. When you lower them, you see the room around you in flames. Except the room wasn’t on the boat, it was an old apartment. Through the flames you could hear a baby screaming.

The heat around you was more intense than you’ve ever felt before. Normally you could deal with extreme heat and cold but this was a new level. You fought your way through the flames to get to the child. Eventually you found the crib, the baby inside seemed perfectly fine the flames avoiding it. You then spot the body of a women on the floor, her skin completely blackened and burnt. You could tell by looking at her she was long gone. You went to reach for the baby but a voice stopped you dead in your tracks.

“Father what are we going here?” You hear Thor say.

“Saving a life” you heard your father say.

Through the smoke you see your Odin reach into the crib pulling out the baby.

“Who is she?” Thor questions looking down at the baby.

“Your half-sister” Odin answer with a sigh.

“Why are we taking her? Should we not find her a home on this planet?” Thor questions shaking his head.

“No she’s too dangerous to stay here” Odin explains, his voice grave.

As he does so you feel the floor give out and you fall through the hole in the floor. As you fall the scene changes, you see flashes of different memories. You see Frigga’s body, Loki’s death. Flashes of destruction, large fireballs and explosions, the earth tearing itself apart, cities flying. You see a wasteland full of fire and damage, the earth still smouldering, you recognise the area it was the land where the compound was being built. You could hear screaming again but you soon realise it was yourself. Screaming in pain, anguish and anger.

You finally feel yourself hit the floor the impact of cold metal flooring jarring you. You reluctantly open your eyes scared of what you might see next. To your relief to see the familiar surroundings of the ship. You go to push yourself up but hear the metal floor hiss as your press your hands against it. You instantly recoil your hands staring at them, flames erupting from your hands without you wanting them too.

You hear Steve groaning, spotting him lying on his back a few meters away. You desperately wanted to make sure he was okay, but you could feel your powers going out of control. As you stand ice shoots out as you step forward. You ignore it running out of the ship to get yourself a safe distance away from everyone leaving frozen footprints in your wake.

As he lay on the ground Steve spots you running past him tears streaming down your face.

“Y/N?” He questions confused, blinking a couple times.

“Y/N wait!” He shouts getting up and running after you, stumbling slightly as he got up.

You ignore his calls running out onto the beach, you want to try and fly away but nothing was working.

“Y/N stop!” Steve says finally catching up with you putting a hand in your shoulder.

You instantly recoil away from his grasp “no stay away it’s not safe!” You beg taking more steps away from him.

“Hey whoa it’s okay you’re safe” Steve says not approaching again holding his hands up.

“No you’re not safe, safe from me, you need to go” you stutter tears streaming down your face.

“It’s okay, I know you’re not going to hurt me, I trust you” Steve says calmly taking a step closer.

“I can’t... I can’t stop it” you cry holding your hands close to your chest out of his grasp.

“You can just look at me doll, it’s over, it’s okay, just take a couple deep breaths” he tells you taking another small step closer.

You shake your head not believing him despite desperately wanting to. You wanted nothing more than to step towards him and fall into his arms. Be comforted by him, but you couldn’t. You didn’t want to hurt him. You couldn’t hurt him.

“Sweetheart, you trust me right?” Steve asks you.

“Yes of course, I just don’t wanna-“ you tell him but he interrupts you.

“Then listen to me, just focus on me and my voice and take some deep breaths” he tells you calmly.

“C’mon doll you can do it, close your eyes if you have to, just listen to my voice” he says when he sees you hesitate.

You take a deep shaky breath as you close your eyes. You listen as he tells you to breath in and out. His voice gets gradually louder before suddenly your feel his arms wrap around you. Your eyes fly open expecting him to recoil away in pain but he doesn’t. Relief floods your body as your break down again clinging onto him. Your legs give out beneath you but Steve holds you steady dropping down to his knees pulling you close.

“Its okay, you’re okay” he whispers kissing the top of your head.

“You’re safe nothing is gonna happen” he tells you as you bury your head in his chest sobbing.

The wind picks up around you and you start to shiver, a mix of the breeze and the adrenaline leaving your body.

“Let’s get you back to the jet” Steve says hooking his arm underneath your legs picking you up.

You wrap your arms around his neck burying your head into his shoulders, tears still falling as he carried you back to the jet.

Your tears had started to subside when you got back to the jet. As Steve sits down you spot Thor on the opposite side of the jet placing a blanket around Nat’s shoulders. The red head looking the most shaken you’ve ever seen her.

He glances over at you and his face fills with worry instantly “sister” he questions walking over to you.

He goes to place his hand on your shoulder, but you flinch away from him. The memory of him in your vision still painfully present. He glances up at Steve who looks back down at you sadly.

“It’s okay I’ve got her” Steve says quietly.

Thor clears his throat taking a small step away “yes of course, thank you” he nods before turning away.

You could see the pain on Thor’s face and you really didn’t want to hurt him. But deep down you felt betrayed, he knew something about your past and never told you.

You felt a fresh set of tears falling as you looked away from your brother turning back towards Steve who held you close. Whispering reassuring words in your ear, trying to calm you back down.

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[randomshyperson]

Wanda Maximoff X Reader - The Parent Trap

Summary: When the identical twins Billy and Tommy Maximoff are sent to the same summer camp, they hatch a plan to get their mothers back together by switching places. Or, The Parent Trap AU. / AO3

Warnings: Fluff and a bit of language.

Words:  4.229K

Notes: I want to know if anyone likes this, please tell me your opinion ;) And good reading! By the way, gif is not mine!

Part Two

The whole thing looked suspicious to you. Billy was acting too strange. He didn't run and throw himself on the couch when he got back from camp, or throw his shoes around the house like he always did. He also didn't pick up the basketball reference you made to him in the car. At first you thought maybe it was puberty. But he told you he was tired from the trip, and you messed up his hair, and told him to go get something to eat. When your dog Krypto didn't recognize him, you told him that he needed to change his clothes, because he must be smelling the camp.

Running the vineyard was taking all your time, but you were hoping to spend some time with your boy now that he was back.

You were surprised when your fiancée showed up at your house unannounced. You were trying to find a way to tell Billy about Tabitha. You met her when Billy was at camp, and you hired her as a publicist for the vineyard. And even you yourself were surprised when she asked you out. Many dates later, you were engaged to be married. You tried not to think about it so much, and to remember Tabitha's words, saying that Billy would be happy to have two mother figures, that she would help you take care of him because she had a freer schedule than yours. Honestly, you were surprised that she was in love with you.

Natasha, your best friend and housekeeper, gave you an incredulous and debauched look when you told her about your engagement, but didn't question you. You imagined that she just wanted to make fun of you.

Tabitha told you that you should tell her about the engagement right away, like ripping off a band aid. You were trying to find the right moment.

When you and Billy went out riding, you decided to tell him, hoping that he would be happy. You were a little nervous, finding it strange when he didn't even remember your usual camping trip before the end of the summer, but you thought he was just distracted.

- Hey honey, I want to tell you something. - You said, and he looked away from the vineyard in front of him and looked at you curiously. - What do you think of Tabitha?

- Like what, Mom? - He replies. - Your publicist? Your friend?

- No, dear, just what you think of her as a person. - You clarify a bit awkwardly.

Billy thought for a few seconds.

- Well, she's pretty, has good teeth and nice hair. She can spell. - He replied. - But honestly, Mom, she's a complete stranger to me. Why do you want my opinion?

You hesitated for a moment, and swallowed your nervousness. 

- Well, Billy, I'll tell you why. - You said with a trembling voice. - Because believe it or not...

- Race to the house, Mom! - He shouted, interrupting you and riding away at high speed.

You choked in surprise, as you shouted that you were trying to tell him something, but he kept riding away. You mumbled to yourself, as you rode after him.

When you finally reached the house, Natasha was crying. You ran up to her to ask if she was all right, but she just smiled, saying that they were tears of happiness, that Billy was so big and healthy. You frowned in confusion, but you were too distracted in telling your son that you were getting married to think much about it. And then Natasha left the room saying that she was going to prepare a special lunch for you both, and you sat with Billy on the sofa.

- Honey, we need to talk now. - You told him, trying to sound serious and gentle at the same time. Billy just nodded. - Honey, I want to know how you feel about Tabatha being part of the family.

- Part of our family?

- Yes.

- I think it's incredible. - He said, and you felt a wave of relief wash over your body.

- Really?

- Totally, Mom! It's a dream! - he said excitedly. - I always wanted a big sister!

It was as if a bucket of cold water had fallen on your head.

- Honey, I don't... I think you've got it wrong.

- No, mommy! I love it! - He says. - We're going to adopt Tabitha! That's so sweet, Mom.

- No, honey. - You deny it flatly. - I'm not adopting her. I'm marrying her.

It takes a second, and then Billy lets out a mixed exclamation of surprise and anger, getting up from the couch.

- Marry her? That's crazy! - he shouts. - How can you marry someone who is young enough to be my sister?

And then he starts shouting in a language you think is Russian as he paces in circles around the room, and you raise your eyebrows in surprise.

- Honey, calm down! - you ask, pulling him gently towards you. - And since when do you speak Russian?

- I learned it at camp. - He answers quickly, and then assumes an almost hurt expression. - You can't get married, Mama! It will ruin everything!

And he lets go of your grip, rushing out of the room. You let out a sigh of dissatisfaction, thinking about how it all went wrong, and throw yourself on the sofa. Natasha looks at you from the kitchen door.

- That was shameful. - She comments.

- He thought I was going to adopt her. - You retort with your eyes closed and your head against the pillows.

- That's exactly why it was embarrassing. - She scoffs, laughing softly. You don't answer, beginning to feel a slight headache forming.

You barely have time to absorb the whole conversation, when you hear a radio noise in the distance. But a few minutes, and Tabitha enters the room, sitting on your lap.

- Hello, sweetie. - She said - You look stressed.

And then she kissed you, wrapping both hands around your neck. You really just wanted to go back to bed. You let out an unsatisfied sigh, interrupting the kiss. Tabitha looked at you curiously.

- I told Billy about our wedding. - You said, and she seemed excited.

- And how was it?

- Horrible! - you said, upset. - He was furious. He yelled at me in Russian, and I didn't even know he spoke Russian!

Tabitha let out a giggle.

- Take it easy, sweetie. - She said, rubbing her hands on your shoulders. - It's a very common reaction. I'd be worried if he didn't have a reaction like that. - She argues, and begins to deposit kisses against your collarbone. You appreciate the touch, even if they don't really affect you that much. - Let me talk to him. He needs to know that I'm not an enemy.

You let out a low grumble, running your right hand over your eyes.

- Okay, Tabi. - You agree. - But be gentle.

She giggles mischievously, giving you a kiss before getting up. You sink your face into your hands as she leaves, feeling tired.

It's been a few days since you told Billy about your marriage. He hasn't mentioned it again, but he is treating you normally. Tabitha told you that the conversation went well, and you believed her.

Now you are packing your bags, getting ready to go for a weekend in the Hamptons, where Tabitha's parents, whom you haven't met yet, will be staying. You have a strange feeling, as if something is going to happen, but you can't tell what it is. 

And when you drive to the hotel, you sit with Billy in the back seat while Natasha drives, and you share some snacks. Billy also begs you to take Krypto, and you agree while ruffling his hair.

Tabitha's parents seem nice, you think. They greet you quite enthusiastically, and you are embarrassed when Tabitha slips her hand to your buttocks for a moment when you hug. 

After you check in, you and Tabitha say goodbye to her parents temporarily as they leave toward the bar, and you both make your way to the elevator to your rooms, with Billy and Natasha following a bit behind as they try to get Krypto to obey. Tabitha is particularly needy today, and you wish she wouldn't cling to you so much in such a crowded place, feeling uncomfortable. 

As you press the elevator button for your floor, while Tabitha snuggles up to you, you look toward the lobby and widen your eyes in surprise. Your ex-wife, Wanda Maximoff is standing in the center of the lobby, and she waves to you just before the elevator door closes completely. You think you are hallucinating, and wonder if you have finally lost your mind.

Tabitha continues kissing your collarbone, but you are completely disconnected from reality. When you arrive at your room, she pulls you inside, trying to take off your clothes.

- No, darling. I'm sorry. - You deny it, pushing her hands away as you try to think of a plausible excuse. - I need to see if everything is okay with Billy and Nat, okay? We'll see about that later.

Tabitha pouts, but lets you go, strutting sensuously into the bathroom. You smile awkwardly, then leave the room. 

You look around as if you're looking for someone, and you really are. And then you bump into Billy in the hallway.

- Hey baby! - You greet him by bending down to his height and putting your hands on his shoulders. - I'm going to go to the lobby. Do me a favor and look after Tabitha for me, will you?

- All right, Mom. 

- Oh, honey. - You say hesitantly. - How do I look? Do I look good?

Billy smiles, giving you a thumbs-up.

- You look beautiful, Mom.

- Okay, okay. - You say clumsily, and mess up his hair before heading back toward the elevator.

When you reach the lobby, you look around, trying to locate Wanda around. And you're startled to see Billy again.

- Honey, I thought you were going to keep Tabitha company. - You say, and he looks slightly nervous.  But you're not really paying attention.

- I will, Mom. - He says, looking around quickly. - I'm just trying to find her.

- Okay. - You mumble without really listening to him. - I'll walk around here, and see you upstairs.

But then Billy hugs you tight around the waist.

- It's good to see you, Mom. - He whispered, and you frowned in confusion, but smiled, bending down to return the hug quickly.

- It's good to see you too, honey. - You joked, and pulled him away slightly to make sure he was all right. He looked happy.

- It's okay, Mom, you can go. - He said, and you ruffled his hair before heading off in the opposite direction, looking around with a mixture of nervousness and excitement.

The hotel was quite large, and you had been looking for many minutes by the time you got to the pool area.

And then you saw her, in all her glory, coming down the stairs on the opposite side from where you were standing. A smile slipped from your lips at the same moment, and you felt your heart race. Wanda looked just as beautiful as the last time you saw her, almost twelve years ago.

Your feet moved automatically, but it seemed that suddenly all the people in the pool area were in your way to get to her. You heard Natasha call out to you, warning you to be careful, but then you are bumping into one of the waiters, stumbling backwards and falling into one of the pools.

You think Billy screamed in surprise, but you kept following Wanda through the water, she noticed you with all this commotion.

Coming out of the pool, completely drenched, you let out a happy sigh as you stopped in front of her. 

You should be grinning like an idiot, but Wanda also seemed amazed to see you. 

- Wanda. - You sighed.

- Hi Y/N.

- Wow, there you are. - You said, still impressed. Wanda just smiled at you, equally embarrassed. - Sorry, something's happened that I don't know about. I'm completely surprised to see you, but you don't seem surprised to see me at all. - You say and Wanda looks away quickly. - I haven't seen, or known anything about you for ten or maybe eleven years. And suddenly on the same day...

- Hi Mom. - Billy interrupts you, and you look at him in surprise. - I can explain why she's here.

- Honey, do you... do you know who she is? 

- Actually, I do. - He says, smiling awkwardly. - And actually, I'm not Billy.

- Actually, I am. 

You choke in surprise to see your two twins together, next to each other.

- What... You two...

- You and Mom must think alike, because you sent us to the same camp. - Billy says. You feel your heart racing, still completely in shock. - We met there, and everything came up.

- They switched places, Y/N. - Clarified Wanda beside you.

You let out a sigh.

- You mean I was with Tommy all this time? - you ask with emotion in your voice.

- Well, I wanted to know what you were like. - Tommy said. - And Billy wanted to know what Mom was like. Are you angry?

- Honey of course not. - You denied it by bending down to his height. - I just can't believe it's you, look how much you've grown. - You say happily, pulling him into a tight hug. You pull him away a moment later to look at his face tenderly, running your fingers over his cheeks. - My boy looks so handsome.

Tommy smiles at you, and then releases your grip, returning to his brother's side.

- And you, Billy, have you been in London all this time? - you ask, and he shrugs. You let out a short laugh before hugging him tightly. - I can't believe you're together.

- Mom is awesome, Mom. - Says Billy looking at you. - I don't know how you let her get away.

You laugh uncomfortably, then let him go.

- Boys, let me and your mother talk for a moment, okay? - Wanda asks with a smile. Billy and Tommy nod slightly, and you put your hands in your pockets awkwardly as you and Wanda walk around the pool until you sit on one of the benches, facing each other. You think you should try to stop smiling so much, but this must be the happiest you've been in twelve years.

- I can't believe this. - You comment, biting your lips for a moment. - Seeing them together. Seeing you.

Wanda giggles, a slight redness in her cheeks.

- How are you, Wands? - you ask, and realize that the nickname escapes your lips with ease. - Or does everyone call you Miss Maximoff now?

She smiles, a little awkwardly, denying it with her head.

- My brother still calls me Wands. - She says. - You can call me whatever you like. - She smiles awkwardly. 

- And how is Pietro? - you find yourself asking. You were overflowing with curiosity, wanting to absorb as much of Wanda as possible, afraid that she would disappear at any moment. - Is he married?

- Oh no. - She giggles. - Pietro lives with me now. He retired from racing. He goes on casual dates, but he says he doesn't want anything serious.

- You haven't changed a bit. - You comment, looking at her adoringly. God, she looks so beautiful.

- There you are! I've been looking all over for you! - says a female voice startling you both. You look away from Wanda quickly, Tabitha looks at you both with a frown. - Good, you have met. Honey, Miss Maximoff designs wedding dresses, and she's going to make... Wait, how do you two know each other? And honey, why are you all wet?

You and Wanda stand up awkwardly, you run your hand straight down the back of your neck, trying to think how exactly to explain, feeling Tabitha's confused gaze on you.

- You are going to make my fiancee's dress. - You say, turning to Wanda.

- I didn't know she was your fiancée. - She retorts.

- How we met... How I know you... - You turn to Tabitha again, trying to find a way to tell her. - How do you two know each other?

- Sorry, am I missing something here? - Tabitha asks with narrowed eyes.

- You know, this world is so small. - You comment with a wry smile.

- How small? - She replies seriously.

- Hello, Tabitha. - says Tommy, appearing next to the blonde. She greets him back, but then looks at you waiting for your answer.

- How are you? - Billy asks, appearing on the other side, and Tabitha jumps in fright.

- How... - She spins her body around quickly, varying her gaze and finger pointing between Billy and Tommy. - Two of them... How?

- So, did I ever mention that Billy was a twin?

- You forgot that little detail. - She replies with slight irritation in her voice, looking at you and crossing her arms.

- Don't be upset. - said Tommy. - She didn't tell me either. And by the way, I'm not Billy. He is. - He explained. - I was pretending to be him, while he was pretending to be me.

- And that's our other mother over there. - Said Tommy quickly pointing to the redhead next to you. - Wanda Maximoff.

Wanda smiled, but Tabitha didn't look happy at all.

- Is that your mother? - she asked incredulously. The boys nodded in agreement. - Were you two married?

- Yes. - Both of you confirmed clumsily.

- Oh, yes. Small world indeed. - Tabitha says.

- It just got smaller. - You comment nervously.

- And what a coincidence that we are all here together at the same weekend. - She adds wryly, while the boys exchange a mischievous glance. - Can I talk to you privately, Y/N?

You nod slightly as she turns and walks away, and then you turn to Wanda.

- It was ... it's ... good. Good to see you. - You say awkwardly, Wanda smiles and nods slightly. - We... I don't know...

- Go change your clothes and talk to your fiancée. - She pokes you lightly. But her gaze is not malicious. - We'll talk later.

By the time you reached Tabitha, she was already entering the elevators. You think you should be worried, but you just feel uncomfortable. You want to go back to the pool and talk to Wanda. Tabitha doesn't say anything until you are in your suite. Then she yells at you. You think she said something about trust, but you're not really listening. And then Tabitha slams the door on her way out, and you have a smile on your face, thinking of Wanda.

Tommy and Billy insist that the four of you have dinner together. And honestly, you make no effort to find excuses not to go. 

And then you find yourself standing in front of the hotel, completely breathless at the image of your ex-wife wearing a red dress that embraces her in all the right places.

You feel embarrassed, not knowing exactly what to say or do, but Wanda lets you hold her arm as you walk together toward the harbor, the boys ahead of you.

And then you approach a big ship, and you feel your heart soar.

- Is that ?

- Yes. - Wanda confirms with a smile, looking as surprised as you are.

Parked in the harbor is the same ship you met twelve years ago. As you walk up the stairs, Wanda asks how the boys managed to get all this, and they just say they pooled their allowance with a little help from Uncle Pietro and Aunt Nat, which makes you and Wanda laugh.

When you arrive at one of the private dining rooms inside the ship, the boys guide you both inside, and you frown as you look at the dining table.

- Darlings, why are there only two chairs? - you ask, looking at your sons. They exchange mischievous glances.

- We're not having dinner with you. - says Billy.

- What? - Wanda asks

- I should have known better. - You make a humorous remark. 

 - Come on, Mom. Don't be angry. - asks Tommy without looking the least bit sorry for his little plot. - We think you two have a lot to talk about.

You let out a sigh, agreeing. The boys leave a short time later, and you and Wanda sit down at a small table. It is an intimate and romantic dinner, and brings up feelings you have held for a long time.

- Are you okay with this, Wands? - you ask as soon as you are settled at the table. - With dinner I say. With me.

Wanda giggles.

- I'm the one who should be asking you that. - She says. - You're the one getting married.

The teasing makes something in your stomach turn nervously, and you give her an embarrassed smile and look away from her to the table. And then Pietro and Nat enter the room, dressed as waiters, and you both let out surprised exclamations.

- I won't even ask. - You joke, but the two of you just smile politely.

- Good evening, madames. - says Pietro. You notice how much older he looks since you last saw him. - We'll be serving dinner for you tonight.

- And these are the hors d'oeuvres. - Nat says as she places a few items on the table. You look at the dishes with curiosity, and are happy to see that they all look delicious.

They leave next, and you and Wanda exchange a look of amusement. You both sample a few things, and then you find yourself looking at Wanda again. She smiles when she notices.

- You want to ask me something. - she says with a smile. - Just ask.

- It's not a question, I think. - You say after a moment, trying to clarify your thoughts. Being with Wanda makes everything seem like background. - I was just wondering, how did this happen?

Wanda takes a sip of wine, raising her eyebrows slightly.

- What exactly happened? - she replies. - The ship? The children? The dinner?

You giggle, slumping back in your chair.

- Us, Wanda. - You say. - What happened to us?

Wanda looks away from you, looking slightly upset. 

- I don't know Y/N. - She answers. - We were so young, immature and so, so temperamental. We both said stupid things. - She says with a slight nostalgia. - And then I left, and you didn't come after me.

She finishes her sentence with a quick sad smile, and you feel your stomach drop.

- I didn't think you would want this.

Wanda shrugged, a glint in her eyes that you couldn't read.

- It really doesn't matter anymore.

And then Pietro and Nat are back with the main courses, and you look away from Wanda quickly, an immense feeling of guilt and regret in your chest. 

You have a lot to think about, but it has been so long, and now you had a fiancée, a life that went on without Wanda. You let out a sigh, raising your hand to the glass of wine, and turning it over in your mouth with a single gulp.

You ate in silence for a while, the food was tasty, but you thought you two had become quiet because of the conversation. But then Wanda looked at you again.

- What will happen now that they know? - Wanda asked, and you frowned slightly.

- Why would that be a problem?

 - We live in different countries. - She clarified. - What are we going to do, half of the year I stay with Billy, and the other half with Tommy?

You laughed awkwardly, running your hands through your hair.

- Wow, this is a terrible idea. - You declare and Wanda raises her eyebrow slightly. - The kids will never accept this. We'll just have to find a way to make it work.

You're starting to get a migraine thinking about everything.

- Maybe... things could stay the same. - she says. - And then they visit each other on vacation.

You nod in agreement. You hold the smile on your face even as you feel a great wave of nervousness at the thought that it was settled: Wanda would return to London, she would be out of your life again. 

You finish dinner in a polite and friendly way, not talking any more. You think you might cry, but you drink more wine to calm your body. 

When you and Wanda say good-bye in the hotel lobby, you kiss her cheek, and see in her eyes the same sadness and longing that you have.

You are trying not to get angry with your children, even though they are stubborn brats. You have already checked out of the hotel, and were getting ready to leave, when Tommy and Billy came down from their rooms to say goodbye. And then they matched clothes, and refused to say who is who so that you could leave.

- This is absolutely ridiculous, boys. - You comment next to Wanda. - Your mother will miss her flight.

But your children just kept their arms crossed, and you let out an impatient grumble.

- Kids, what's this about now? - Wanda asked. - Even if I miss the flight, eventually Tommy will come with me.

The boys exchanged a thoughtful look.

- We want everyone together at the camp at the end of the summer vacation. - Said one of the boys, you thought it might be Billy, but you weren't sure.

- And when we get back, we'll tell you who's who. - Completed the brother, maybe this was Billy.

- I have an even better idea! - you exclaim. - You obey your mothers and Tommy goes back to London as we agreed.

And that's how you ended up in a car with Wanda, and your two sons, and your fiancée heading for home. Tabitha was not at all happy about the whole situation.

[wannabe-fic-writer]

Moment In Time

Pairing: Natasha Romanoff x Reader

Summary: Just when you've gotten out, you’re given a reason to come back.

Warnings: Mild Language

Chapter 5

* * * * * * *

“You and Fury seem to forget that I’m retired pretty easily.” You say, eyes focused on your surroundings instead of the man talking to you.

A nice breeze flows past, followed by another crowd of passersby. The street is busy as always at this time of day but you always appreciate the hustle and bustle of the city. Something about it appealed to you. 

New York has always been busy, for as long as you can remember. Admittedly, with the lack of advanced technology in your time, people spent a lot more time talking to each other in passing than they now spend on their phones.

“No one’s forgotten, except maybe you,” Tony says and you turn to refocus your attention on him.“ Or did you forget that it was you who copped a ride with Fury to Sokovia.”

Of course you didn’t forget that. That mission had been more dangerous and life threatening than any one you’d previously been on. 

The man hums and nods, a soft chuckle leaves his lips,“ unless of course you weren’t there for the team.” 

“What?” Your eyebrows pinch together,“ what’re you talking about?” 

“I’m talkin about you and Romanoff.” He leans forward, pushing his coffee cup away a little.“ Clint told me about that little moment you two had before the city fell. What’d you do? Spring to action when you realized Natasha was in danger?”

Your eyes roll but you avoid answering his question. Cause that is actually what you did. On top of being generally concerned with the safety of your friends, your main focus was Natasha. You’d never admit it, out loud, but you know that’s what happened. And you know why you did, even if you won’t admit it at all. 

“Awe, don’t want me exposing your crush on Nat?” He further teases and your nose turns up at him.

“Think I liked you better when you were running around in pjs and building robots and stuff.” He makes an offended face and you smile sarcastically at it.“ If I agree to train the Maximoff kids will you not mention these supposed feelings for Natasha that you assume I have.”

For a moment he looks at you, then nods.“ You’ve got yourself a deal Y/ln. Also,” he pushes his chair back and stands up,“ you’re just training the girl. Rogers apparently has some special plan for Speedy.” Picking up his cup, he claps his hand on your shoulder with extra force, and walks away.

Just as you’re about to slouch into your seat to stay an extra few minutes he calls out for you to come with him and you resist the urge to groan. Sighing softly, you finish your tea and get up. 

As you expected Tony takes you to the tower. His choice of music blasts through the sports car and you can’t help but chuckle. Since he was thirteen he’d been obsessed with classic rock. You have no idea what the first song he heard was but whatever it was it hooked him to the genre.

Through the loud music he explains everything you’ll have to go over with Wanda and mentions that he’s getting a facility together upstate that will become the new Avengers HQ, but that move is going to take some time so the tower is still “home” as of now. You nod along, knowing that if not for your enhanced abilities you wouldn’t be able to hear him correctly.

By the time Tony pulls into the private parking garage, whipping into his spot and turning the car off, you completely understand what role you’re about to play in terms of training Wanda.

“What? Eager to get to work?” He asks after you’ve practically sprinted out of the car. 

“More like eager to get out before my ears start bleeding.” You tell him, glancing over your shoulder at him to stick your tongue out playfully. You don’t have to keep looking at him to know he rolled his eyes. 

The familiarity of the building makes it easy to navigate. Pretty much leaving Tony in the dust, you walk through the lobby to the elevators. Taking them up to the training floor. 

Your plan hadn’t been to see anyone just yet. Mainly coming here to form some sort of plan as far as training the Maximoff girl goes. Only for her to be the person you run into once having stepped into the training room.

She’s across the room, fingers running over the edges of a treadmill as her eyes look through the large floor to ceiling window. You imagine she’s taking in the sight the tower provides of New York. 

“Beautiful isn’t it?” You ask, effectively grabbing the young woman’s attention. She turns her head to face you, eyebrows pinching together as she’s not familiar with you, only having seen you just before you hugged Natasha in Sokovia. 

“It is.” She replies shortly and you chuckle at it, stepping further into the room. 

Giving her a soft smile you introduce yourself,“ I’m Y/n,” you move over to the weight benches,“ Stark asked me to come in and help you adjust.”

Her eyes narrow and that draws your attention to the fact that her eyes are green.“ Are you an Avenger? Because I haven’t seen you around here.”

“I am not. I’m supposed to be retired but no one seems to give a damn so here I am.” Spreading your arms a little to emphasize your current location.

For whatever reason your words make her giggle and you smile at that, happy to have broken the ice at least a little. 

“So how’re you going to help me adjust Y/n?” Her inquisitive gaze follows her moving closer to you.

“Not sure. What do you need help adjusting to?” Your head tilts and your eyebrow quirks.“ The training regiment? Your new chaotic teammates? Living in New York?” 

“Is all of the above an option?” She asks, and although you know she’s serious you still hear the teasing in her tone. 

With a quiet laugh you nod,“ all of the above is an option.” You let her know.“ Um, I’m not sure of all the details with the move upstate but how about I show you around the tower and we can go over the basics of your training and such?” You decide to pose it as a question in case she doesn’t want to.

“That would be nice actually.” She smiles and you notice that it’s truly genuine. So with a smile in return, you motion for her to follow you out of the room. 

With her being on this floor, you assume she’s seen it all. Not that there’s much to see. It’s the training floor so there’s nothing but gyms and a locker room. Getting in the elevator, you press the number for one of the floors dedicated to just hanging out.

Not liking the silence of the elevators, Wanda breaks it with a question.“ So why didn’t you join the Avengers?” 

“Um,” you take a deep breath and release it as a sigh,“ I’d already done the whole superhero thing before. The Avengers came in and I was no longer needed.”

“Oh really?” She asks and her tone of voice makes you chuckle, then nod.“ And what made you want to be a superhero?”

The elevator stops and the doors slide open.“ I saw what they could do. The difference superheroes make in people's lives.”

Picking up on the shift in your energy, Wanda frowns, ignoring the very expensive looking stuff in the room.“ What happened?” She asked carefully, as if she were trying not to trigger something. 

“I-” you sigh softly, contemplating whether to actually tell her or not. Looking into her eyes you see past the general curiosity and what you find pushes you to tell her. 

So you both get comfortable on one of the couches in the room and you open up to her.“ I was taken by HYDRA when I was fairly young. And it’s not like the guards and scientists were interested in anything other than making me the perfect weapon. So when they started to experiment on me I was already in a horrible state physically. My health was on a steady decline and none of their experiments worked, it actually made me fatally ill. And with no further use of me, they’d left me there to die.” 

Wanda listens intently, eyes misting with tears at the information of your mistreatment.“ But you didn’t.”

“No I didn’t,” you both laugh softly at that.“ The, at the time soon to be, founders of SHIELD were working with the US military to shut down HYDRA after World War II and they found the facility I was being held in. While they saved everyone who was being held captive there, I was in the worst shape. Seeing that I was on the verge of death, they made a decision to administer the super soldier serum to me to save my life.”

Wanda’s eyebrows raise and you have to admit that her expression is amusing.“ You’re a super soldier from World War II?” You nod.“ How old would that make you?” 

“I’m 90. And I wasn’t in the war. I was born before the war. When it started I was 16 and already in a HYDRA base.”

She looks down and bites her bottom lip. You know she has another question on the tip of her tongue. And with her background, having volunteered to be experimented on by HYDRA, you know she’ll have a lot more questions after that.

So with a deep breath, you ask what’s on her mind and tuck in for a long conversation.

* * * 

After a long day at SHIELD, going over papers to further induct the twins into the Avengers, Natasha finally gets back to the tower. She ignores all the SHIELD agents rushing in and out of the lobby and goes straight for the elevators. 

Mentally, she admits that after the headache that is going into SHIELD, the sound of your laugh as soon as she gets on the main floor is refreshing. A small smile forms on her face and she makes her way towards the kitchen where she hears your voice.

While she knows you’re friends with the rest of her team, she can’t help but wonder if you came here to see her.

That thought falls short the instant she reaches the kitchen doorway. She quickly finds that the source of your laugh is the same young woman she’d just been recruiting onto her team. 

In fact, laughter comes from you and Wanda as you cook together. The aroma smells incredible but she can’t help but to remember that this is the very same thing the two of you had done on multiple occasions. 

“Nat, hey, when’d you get here?” 

Your voice pulls Natasha from her thoughts and she almost smiles again. Almost. 

“A few minutes ago.” She decides to take a step closer, which puts her right in the doorway.“ What’re you two making?”

“Um,” your eyebrows pinch together and you look at Wanda.

“Paprikash.” She answers with a quiet giggle and a shake of her head. 

You smile at her then look back up at Natasha,“ we’re making Paprikash.”

The redhead hums, debating with herself on whether she should stay or not. An indescribable feeling nagged in the back of her mind, growing more persistent as she looks at you and Wanda happily interacting with one another. It gradually chips away at her excitement to spend time with you and she hates it.

With a huff she says,“ I’ll leave you two to it.”

She turns on her heel and walks away, effectively dodging the blue blur that is Pietro running into the kitchen, heading back to the elevator. With her floor practically empty due to the move, she wasn’t eager to go up but it seemed more relaxing than watching someone else make you laugh and smile how she did. 

Just as the elevator doors have started to close you slip through, narrowly missing getting your arm caught between the doors, and stand directly in front of her. Your eyes scan her form, up to her face and lingering there. She watches as you take her in, your eyes finally meeting. 

In a soft voice, one that practically melts her heart, you ask,“ are you okay?” She can’t say she expected you to ask that, plus the equally as soft look in your eyes, she grasps for an answer. One that isn’t ‘I didn’t like seeing you so happy with someone else’.

“Just tired. It’s been a long day and my floor isn’t exactly relaxation friendly right now.” She excuses. 

Nodding along, you smile a little at her,“ think I could help with that if you’d let me.” And there’s no way she’s saying no.

That’s how, a little over thirty minutes later, she finds herself following you into your apartment building with takeout bags and beer in hand. 

You hadn’t explained the plan until you were picking up the food. Telling her that a change of scenery might be exactly what she needs. Her trying to relax and unwind at the Tower was equivalent to a lawyer trying to relax at their firm.“ You can’t destress from work at work.” You reasoned. 

Unlocking your door, you gently push it open and hold it for Natasha. She wasn’t sure what to expect of your apartment, but what she finds definitely isn’t it.

Walking into your apartment makes her a little confused. It’s like stepping into a time vault that housed a number of different eras all at once. While things like your appliances and a few tables or paintings were modern or at least from the last decade, your couch, chairs, and even your cabinets look dated.

It was as if you furnished your home without a single clue of what you actually knew you wanted to present. But it’s you. Natasha finds that it almost perfectly embodies the person she’s come to know you to be. 

Since the moment she met you it was clear you were equally as present as you were stuck in the past. Your friendships with Tony and Steve showed that in an ironic way. With Tony the majority of your conversations or bonding was over the future, things he was planning, building, or tinkering with that would change the future. While with Steve you focused on the way things used to be in the era you grew up and were raised in.

“Nice place.” She finally says, moving her eyes from the kitchen to you.“ Very, you.”

The look you give her makes a small giggle leave her lips. You seemed so proud of her first comment and then the second one made you frown, as if you couldn’t tell if you should take it as an insult or a compliment. 

“Don’t think too hard Y/ln, your ears are starting to smoke.” She says jokingly, patting your cheek without giving it any thought. Her turning away makes her miss the way you flush at her inconsequential touch. 

At your invitation, she makes herself at home, finding a spot on the couch and starting to unpack the food. You join her shortly after with plates and forks, turning the tv on and going to a channel you both enjoy watching. 

“How you feelin about the move?” You ask, picking up your plate and leaning back against the couch. Even though the tv is on, Natasha can’t help but notice that all your attention seems to be on her. 

While she is definitely used to the attention, men and women alike focusing solely on her because of her looks, your attention is different. She knows it would be unreasonable of her to think you aren’t paying attention to her for her looks because well, when she gives you attention the first thing she looks at is your looks. You’re incredibly attractive, especially to the redhead. But it was more than that. 

On both ends, yourself and Natasha saw the physical beauty, but you looked beyond that. You saw the beauty of each other’s personalities. 

You’re lighthearted, you have an outlook on life that she finds intriguing, and not just because you’re decades older than her, it was how you maintained a fairly optimistic view on things despite the cards you’d been dealt in the past. On top of that you’re honest and caring, especially to the people you consider friends and family.

As far as she goes, you see her in, almost, the same way she sees you. She’s honest. Shows her care in a way that you find adorable, mainly because it’s so nonchalant. Her will to keep going, to endure the many trials she’s been through. Her strength never fails to amaze you. Not to mention the absolute admiration you have for her in regards to her clearing her ledger. Especially since being an Avenger means so much more to her than just that. 

That thought alone sends a rumbling of butterflies in her stomach and she hates how childish it feels but loves it all the same. 

“Um,” she looks down, letting her hair curtain between you two to hide the blush that rises.“ I can’t say I feel any particular way about it.”

When she feels your fingers ghost over her cheek, she has half a mind to grab your hand and break it, but it’s you and she’s been secretly craving your touch. In the softest gesture she’d ever been on the end of, you brush her hair back. Your fingers lightly run over her cheek and temple as you hook her hair behind her ear. 

She looks over to see you drop your head slightly to catch her eye, a little smile on your face.“ It is okay if you aren’t all that happy to be leaving. The tower has been your home for the last few years. An attachment or even familiarity with it is understandable.” 

“I-” she sighs, just barely tilts her head closer to your touch, then lifts her head.“ I’ve never had a home Y/ln.” She knows you can hear the hurt in her words, cause admittedly she didn’t hide it like she usually would. She doesn’t feel the need to with you.

You go quiet for a moment and Natasha wonders if maybe she should’ve kept her somber comment to herself. The instant she considers walling herself off again, you speak.“ Well then maybe,”

She raises an eyebrow at you.“ Maybe what?”

“Maybe this could be your home.” You swallow, nerves manifesting in the way you play with your food.“ I know you’ve only just been here today but, everyone deserves a safe haven. Somewhere they can escape from the rest of the world. Everyone deserves a home.” You finally look back into her eyes,“ especially you Nat.”

You didn’t know but in that moment you got to her in a way no one else ever had. You didn’t tear her walls down. Instead, as if understanding the very reason the walls had been put up in the first place, you built a door to her heart and soul. And only you hold the key to it.

She’s hit with the weight of her feelings for you, feelings she’d never had for anyone before. As terrifying as she finds it, she can’t help but think that if there’s anyone who she could trust to be gentle with these feelings it’s you.

* * * * * * *

Taglist: @owloftheshadows @natasha-danvers @blackxwidowsxwife @yumusak-yastik @b-5by5 @fayhar @lostandsearching @iliketozoneout @thewidowsghost @ecruzsalaz

[avengerscompound]

The Tower: Family - 12

The Tower: Family An Avengers Fanfic

Series Masterlist PREVIOUS //

Pairing:  Avengers x OFC, Bruce Banner x Bucky Barnes x Clint Barton x Wanda Maximoff x Steve Rogers x Natasha Romanoff x Tony Stark x Thor x Sam Wilson x OFC (Elly Cooper)

Word Count: 2588

Warnings:  Pregnancy, mentions of past child abuse

Synopsis: With new powers, Thor now living on Earth full time, a wedding to plan, and Natasha and Wanda expecting, a lot is changing for Elly and her large and rather unconventional family.  When Elise’s parents try to reestablish connections, Elly questions what being a family actually means.

Chapter 12: Confrontations

It took a lot of legal toing and froing to get to an agreed time for my parents to come.  They were reluctant to agree to the terms of having lawyers present or having the meeting here at their expense.  They ended up agreeing to everything because, in the end, it was them wanting something from me, not the other way around.  By the time it was all arranged and the meeting was happening my morning sickness had well and truly kicked in.

There were now three of us with morning sickness and it made for some awkward mornings.  For starters, we could set each other off.  If Natasha or I had morning sickness, it always made Wanda’s worse.  Natasha could hear someone throwing up, but if she saw it, we had to move or she’d be throwing up on top of us.  It was a good thing we had lots of bathrooms, and it was becoming a little more common for the three of us to decide not to spend the whole night together for fear of setting each other off in the morning.  Not always, we usually had a little warning before it got bad, but if there had a few days in a row where we were all very ill, we would take a break.

A whole array of temporary house rules had been established because different things set us off.  Coffee had to be drunk in the kitchen away from me and Wanda.  All the shampoo and conditioner was now unscented and we had found exactly one brand of soap we could agree on.  Bucky and Tony weren’t allowed to wear their preferred aftershave.  No bacon at all in the house.

On the day I was supposed to meet with them I woke up and immediately dashed to the bathroom, emptying my stomach of its contents and then just dry heaving.  Bruce followed me in, having shifted into just Bruce.  While I threw up he held my hair back off my face and when it was clear I had nothing left he wet a washcloth with cold water and wiped my brow and down the back of my neck.

“It seems extra bad today,” he said.  “I missed it last time.  Is this just how it is or are you stressed about today and it's making it worse?”

I shook my head and pressed my forehead to the cold tiles on the wall.  “It was bad last time too, but I was also stressed then, wasn't I?”

“Right,” he said.  “Of course.  What can I do?”

“Help me up?” I asked.

He helped me to my feet and started the shower.  I ran my fingers through the threads from me to the others.  My morning sickness had set Wanda’s off and Sam was currently with her as she threw up in the bathroom down the hall.  Natasha was in bed with Clint and Bucky all of them were awake and she wasn’t feeling great.  Steve and Tony were downstairs with the twins, while Thor was just getting up.  He appeared in the bathroom and began to strip his underwear off.

“Perhaps I should go to Asgard and get some elixir for the three of you.  It works much better for nausea than the pills you’ve been taking,” he said.

“That might be a good idea,” I agreed as I stepped into the water.

Bruce and Thor followed me in and Bruce grabbed the shampoo and began to work it through my hair.  “Are you sure you want to go through with this today?”  Bruce asked.

I shook my head.  “No,” I said, feeling myself tense up again, even as Bruce’s fingers worked over my scalp.  “But I’m going to anyway.  Better I end this.”

Thor cradled my jaw and tilted my head up to look him in the eyes.  “You are in the position of power now,” he said.  “Do not let them return you to that frightened child you once were.  You are not that little girl anymore and stressing so much is not good for the baby.”

I gave a small nod and he leaned down and brought his lips to mine.  I relaxed into him and Bruce kissed my shoulder gently.  I pulled back and sighed. There was a huge part of me that wanted to forget everything.  To just have shower sex so that it might chase off the last of my nausea and then to head downstairs and have a nice normal day with the people I’d chosen to spend it with.  Instead, I ran my hand down Thor’s chest and gave a small nod.  “Okay.  I better get a move on.”

I showered and took a long time deciding what I wanted to wear.  The last time my parents had seen me in person I was 16 and goth.  I didn’t know if right now the image I wanted to go for was professional or more me.  I didn’t want to give them a reason to think for a second I was there in a casual capacity.  I didn’t want them to have a reason to pick at me.  But at the same time, I didn’t want them to think I’d turned out to be the person they wanted me to be.

I ended up opting to dress how I wanted to.  This wasn’t a trial.  This was my parents and they needed to see me how I was now.  I put on a black romper with a sheer duster that attached at the waist and had a Maleficent print.  I did my hair and makeup and headed downstairs to breakfast with Thor and Bruce who had now shifted into his midway form.  Wanda was in the dining room eating a millet porridge next to Sam who had a plate of eggs and sausage.  The kids were in the living area watching cartoons with Clint, Bucky, and the puppies, while Steve, Natasha, and Tony sat on the couches near the spiral staircases.

Steve, Tony, and Natasha stood as I came down and followed me over to the table.  “You’re sure you want to do this?”  Steve asked.

I took a seat and grabbed myself some toast and chuckled.  “Already had this conversation today.” 

“Right,” Steve said.  “Well.  Just remember we’re all up here if you need us. Whatever you decide to do, we’ll support you.”

“Thank you, Steve,” I said and sipped my tea.  “You’re making it sound like I’m going to negotiate for national security.”

He chuckled and rubbed my arm.  “I know, sweetheart,” he said.  “But I know how anxious this has made you.  It’s a big deal.”

“Thanks,” I repeated.  “I don’t think I can handle another pep talk though.  I just want it over with.”

“Have they arrived yet, FRIDAY?”  Natasha asked.

“They’re just going through security now,” the AI replied.

Bruce seemed to panic a little and just started shoving food into his mouth.  I laughed and patted his arm.  “Relax.  They can wait.  Take your time.”

“Thanks, El,” he chuckled and slowed back down again.

It took a little while for Bruce to finish eating and it made me spitefully happy thinking about my dad trying not to lose his mind while I made him wait.  When he was done everyone stood and they walked me to the elevator.

“If they want money, you can give it to them,” Tony said, just as the elevator door opened.  “Pay them off and get them out of your life again.”

I shook my head.  “I don’t want that, Tony,” I said. “If they want money, they’re out of my life.”

He nodded and he, Natasha, and Steve kissed me goodbye, and Wanda, Bruce, and I caught the elevator down.  Wanda took my hand wordlessly, and when she did that, Bruce placed a large hand on my back so that his fingers curled around my side.  The elevator stopped and we were greeted by three of Tony’s legal team.

“Doctor Cooper, your parents are waiting through here,” one said and led us through into the conference room.

My mom and dad and their lawyer stood as soon as we came in.  They’d aged so much since I’d seen them.  Dad was going bald and his hair was more grey than brown, and mom was clearly dying her hair.  Seeing them, even as different as they looked, only made me think of him hitting me and her telling me that's just how men were and I should expect it from my husband too.  There was no thread between me and my father and the one to my mother was so faint I wasn't sure if I was imagining it or not.  I knew then it didn't matter what else happened today, these people weren't my family, and I wasn't going to let them back in my life.  Not how they were.

“Elise,” mom said, taking a step forward and holding out her hands.

One of our lawyers cleared his throat.  “We have organized this meeting at the request of Mr. and Mrs. Cooper but it should be clear, Doctor Cooper has no desire to rekindle any kind of relationship with her abusers.”

“Elise...” my mother said, furrowing her brow.

I took a seat and everyone else sat down too, Wanda and Bruce flanking me on each side.

“Well, here I am,” I said.  “Tell me what it is you want.”

Mom looked at dad who just folded his arms over his chest.  “We want our daughter back,” Mom said.  “You ran away, we didn’t kick you out.”

“Oh, please,” I scoffed, rolling my eyes.  “I left because he was beating me and you were grooming me.”

“Honey, I know your father could lose his temper…” Mom implored.

I felt Bruce tense and he leaned forward over the table.  “No, I think you’re mistaken.  I can lose my temper.  Your husband beats helpless children,” he growled and balled his fist.

My parents blanched and scooted back in their chairs.  I placed my hand on his arm as he sat back in the chair.  Mom looked at dad and nudged him.  He scowled and let out a breath in a huff.

“Elise, you know I love you,” he said.  “I’m sorry for the things I did.  I was sorry when I did them.  I want us to have a relationship.”

“Uh-huh,” I said.  “And despite the fact that for over six years where I was has been a topic of media coverage, and for the six years before that, I wasn’t even hiding and had my name on academic papers but you’ve only chosen now I’ve married one of the richest men on the planet to try and get in contact, that’s a coincidence?”

“It’s not a coincidence,” he said.  “We saw you get married and we realized we should have been there.”

“So you could be seen hobnobbing with the rich and powerful?”  I hissed.

Wanda put her hand on my arm and I looked at her, her eyes glowed pink.  ‘He’s not exactly lying.  There are some things there about the connections they could make, but they have missed you,’ she sent.

‘Have they changed?’ I sent back and she shrugged in response.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.  “I don’t think I want that,” I said.  “What you did to me, how I was the family scapegoat, the way you would hurt me and then buy my forgiveness, how you’d make me lie to people about my injuries so you wouldn’t get in trouble, how nothing I did was good enough for you; those things fucked me up for so long.  They made me doubt whether anyone could love me.  They made it hard for me to trust anyone.  I can’t accept gifts from people without expecting that some kind of pain will be attached to it.  You made me feel like I was worthless and it took a long time to retrain myself to know that I wasn’t.  I can’t have you back in my life because I don’t want to be reminded of how the people whose job it was to love me couldn’t even do that.”  I had told myself they weren't going to make me cry, that they didn't get to see how they were still able to hurt me, but by the end of my rant I was openly weeping.  Wanda had taken my hand and was holding it tightly and Bruce was caressing my back.

“I'm sorry, Elise.  I'm sorry we made you feel like that.  I'm sorry I never stopped him,” mom said.

“You're still with him!” I shouted.  “And Amanda looked scared.  Why was she scared about going back to you alone?  Why are you still with the man who broke your daughter's bones on multiple occasions?  Wasn't it your job to protect me from that?”

Mom opened and closed her mouth like a fish and dad has stiffened up in his chair.  “Now look here, Elise,” he huffed.

“No!” I shouted.  “You look here!  You don't get to be part of my life anymore.  You aren't my father.  You forfeited that when you first shattered the bones in my arm.  I don't care if you've genuinely changed.  You had sixteen years to show me you loved me, but all you taught me was self-loathing, pain, and fear.  I won't let you do that to me again!  I want nothing to do with you!”  I turned to my mother and she flinched from me.  “If you do honestly want a relationship with me, that might be possible.  Under these conditions; you leave dad.  Completely.  If you need help, I will do that, but you're not to have any contact with him outside of divorce lawyers.  You will get therapy.  I can help with that too.  Then I'll let you see me.  If things go well I'll let you meet some of the others and eventually the kids.  But know this, this is me, mother.  I am a bisexual woman in a relationship with nine people.  These aren't my friends, they are my lovers.  We have children together.  I did not follow your life plan of marrying rich and being a good housewife.”

“Elise!” Dad snapped and had he used that voice a moment ago I probably would have cowered like a kicked dog.  Something had snapped in me though.  I was well and truly done.  I knew who I was and what I was worth and I would not be afraid of him ever again.

I got up ignoring him and I looked at the lawyers.  “I’m done here.  I'd appreciate it if one of you would sort out getting a restraining order set up against my dad, for both me and the kids.”

“Of course,” the one closest to me said.  “We’ll get that started right away.”

I turned back to my parents and folded my arms.  “Goodbye,” I said.  “I'd say it was nice seeing you, but you never did like it when I lied.”

I strode out of the room followed by Wanda and Bruce and when we were out Bruce scooped me up into his arms like a doll and hugged me.  “I am so proud of you,” he rumbled.

“Me too, Elly,” Wanda said, rubbing my leg.  “You were amazing.”

“Okay, okay!” I said, snuggling into Bruce’s chest.  “Take me back to my real family.”

Bruce chuckled and hoisted me up onto his shoulder. “You've got it,” he said.

// NEXT

[wiypt-writes]

Stark Spangled Banner

Ch23: In The Flesh Part 2: Unwelcome Distractions

Summary: The Avengers are hot on the trail of Ultron...but once again, things don’t go according to plan and a tangle with the Maximoff twins leaves the team shaken.

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

Warnings: Bad language, violence and crazy assed robots.

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.

A/N: Huge credit to @angrybirdcr​ for these stunning edits which perfectly capture Steve and Katie’s visions...

Chapter 23 Part 1

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist // Main Masterlist

The normal schedule at the tower was utterly disrupted the next morning. Maria had come to Katie and Steve’s floor to inform them the team was assembling in the lab and had given them both a quick briefing. The previous night they had been able to reboot most of the servers, and the environmental controls of the tower were finally online again, but there was still no trace of the sceptre or the robots. Thor was busy trying to get help from someone on Asgard, Clint was working with some old contacts to see if he could get anything, whilst Tony and Bruce were trying to track him from the lab where Katie had a suspicion they would probably had been all night

The elevator doors opened with a ding; Steve, Katie and Maria exiting and she continued her report on what she had found out about Ultron so far, following them up the stairs as she did.

“He’s all over the globe. Robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet propulsion labs. Reports of a metal man, or men, coming in and emptying the place,”

“Fatalities?” asked Steve.

“Only when engaged,” replied Hill, beginning to type on her tablet while she continued to talk. “Mostly guys left in a fugue state going on about old memories, worst fears, things moving on their own, and 'something too fast to see’.”

“Maximoffs.” Katie concluded.

“That makes sense he’d go to them. They have someone in common,” Steve said nodding as they reached the top of the stairs.

“Not anymore.” Maria replied handing the tablet over to Steve. On it was a picture of Strucker lying on his bed in his cell; dead. On the wall behind him, the word 'peace’ was painted in blood.

“Bit of a mixed message don’t you think?” Steve asked.

“Is it? I mean if it were my mission, world peace, I’d probably take out Strucker too.” Katie shrugged as Steve looked at her, before glancing back down at the tablet in my hands. “Ultron could be in any system, he could be pulling planes down out of the sky if he wanted.” she sighed, “What if he’s just doing what he’s supposed to?”

"If I thought Ultron was bringing peace I’d hang up my shield.” He shook his head, leaning against the banister.

“Would you?” Maria questioned curiously. Steve looked at her, taking a deep breath and cocking his head slightly to the right.

“Let me know if he leaves any more messages.” he said simply, ending the conversation.

Katie shot Maria a look, mouthed thanks at her and then headed after him.

As they walked towards the lab they both heard Clint talking on the phone to someone, apparently someone with authority.

“I answer to you. Yes Ma’am.”

He looked over, saw the Captain and ended the call. “I gotta go…” He looked at Katie, then Steve, waved the phone and said “Girlfriend.”

“Any of your old contacts come through?” Steve asked, seemingly on the outside accepting his explanation, although they both knew full well he had been talking to his wife. Only Steve wasn’t supposed to know that.

“Still waiting.”

“Wait faster.” Steve said simply, turning and heading off down towards the lab. Clint shot Katie a look before he glanced down his phone and headed off in the opposite direction. Katie caught up with Steve who cast a glance over his shoulder at Barton.

“Girlfriend.” He quipped and she laughed

“I know, as far as cover stories go, explaining away your wife as a girlfriend is pretty lame.” They entered the lab and immediately could her a gabble of voices as Rhodey was talking to Natasha and Tony through one of the screens.

“If you hear something we need to hear it too.” Nat said as Steve strode past towards Thor who was pacing behind where Banner sat at a computer.

“That goes for you too, watch your six.” Rhodey replied.

“Any help from on high?” Steve asked, as Thor walked down the few steps into the lower part of the lab. He shook his head.

“He’s either away from his post or he’s been ordered not to answer” Thor said, striding across the floor as they both turned to walk back towards Katie “Ultron can’t hide forever”

“He’s not exactly hiding.” Katie said, handing Thor the tablet. He glared down at the offending item and the picture it was displaying.

“What’s this?” Tony asked moving to get a closer look only to have the tablet slapped into his chest by the obviously still annoyed God.

“It’s a message,” Steve replied. “Ultron killed Strucker.”

“And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us,” Tony said sarcastically waving the tablet.

“This is good…” Nat glanced at the picture, her brows knitting together.

“No, it’s not good!” Banner shook his head as he rounded her chair

“No, Nat’s right, he’s showing us his hand, this isn’t his pattern” Katie nodded down to the tablet on the desk. “I mean why send a message when you’ve already given a speech?“ 

"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss” Steve concluded.

“I bet he-” Natasha mumbled searching something on the computers. “Yeah, everything we had on Strucker’s been wiped.”

“And that’s good?” Banner asked, as everyone looked at him.

“Yes because he didn’t wipe everything” Tony said suddenly.

Moments later they were all in a room where a bunch of paper files were kept, files that had been rescued from SHIELD. They pulled the boxes containing information on Strucker and it seemed from most of them that he had gone rogue long before the events a few months prior.

“Strucker had a lot of friends.” Katie mumbled as besides her Thor was throwing random files across the room after deciding they were of no use.

“Well these people are all horrible.” Bruce commented digging through his own box.

“Wait,” Tony said pointing to the file Thor was flipping through. “I know that guy. From back in the day. He operates off the African coast. Black market arms.”

Steve stopped what he was doing to shoot Tony with a glare

“There are conventions. Alright?” Tony explained “You meet people. I didn’t sell him anything. He was talking about finding something new, a game-changer. It was all very Ahab”

“What’s this?” Thor questioned, pointing towards one of the pictures of the man Tony had found. I peered over at it too.

“Uh, it’s a tattoo, I don’t think he had it,” Tony said

“No, those are tattoos, this is a brand,” Thor corrected, pointing towards a spot on the man’s neck right underneath of his left ear which obviously was a mark that had been burned there as it still looked red and raw in the picture.

“Yeah,” said Bruce as he placed himself in front of the computer, quickly searching what the mark meant. “It’s a word in an African dialect meaning 'thief’. In a much less friendly way.”

“What dialect?” Steve asked.

“Uh, Wak- wakanada – Wakandan,” Bruce said jumbling the pronunciation a few times before getting it right.

Katie swallowed and looked at Tony. “Tony, if this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trace goods…"

“I thought your father said he got the last of it,” Steve said, cottoning on.

“I don’t follow,” Bruce interjected. “What comes out of Wakanda?”

Steve, Katie and Tony all shared a look before Steve looked back at Bruce and stood to the side gesturing to his shield.

“The strongest metal on Earth”

*****

Ulysses Klaue’s warehouse was located in an old ship in a Salvage Yard off the African coast. Unfortunately Ultron, fresh from the murder of Strucker, had gotten there first, along with the Maximoffs

The fight had started, Katie and Tony both tangling in the air with Iron Legion bots and Ultron himself as everyone else took them out on the ground also trying to deal with the Maximoff twins, which was proving easier said than done.

"The girl tried to warp my mind,” Thor grunted, over the comms,“Take special care I doubt a human can keep her at bay, fortunately I am mighty.”

“Where is she?” Katie asked, looking round, her heat scanners showing her nothing.

“Thor?” Steve bellowed into his earpiece “Thor, do you read me?”

Thor didn’t answer.

Taking down another bot, Katie flew off down the hallway, in search of the god, but was knocked sideways by something into a pile of scrap metal. She stood up and prepared to take off again but, the world became dark, dim and gloomy. She paused, suddenly wary, trying to remember why she had come here in the first place.

She was in a church, at the end of the aisle. Steve was stood at the front, Bucky next to him. Both in smart suits. She frowned as she started to walk towards them when music started and everyone stood up. Katie was beyond confused, and she turned in the direction everyone was looking at to see Peggy Carter walking down the Aisle, in a beautiful white gown. She looked just as she did in the 40s photos Katie had seen.

But she didn’t belong like this, in the time. As Peggy glided past her, she turned to see Steve looking at the woman, his face smiling, features soft. And Katie felt he entire world collapse around her as Peggy reached the front of the aisle and Steve took her hands in his.

“Steve…” she managed to croak out. The Soldier looked at her from where he was stood and he smiled kindly at her.

“I hope you understand…”

“You love me.”  Katie choked out and Steve shook his head.

“You could never be enough.” He said, shrugging “I’m sorry. It’s her, it’s always been her. You were merely a welcome distraction”

“No, no…that’s not fair, you said I was, you said I was yours…” she cried, dropping to her knees as the world shook around her.

Steve had seen Katie get knocked sideways out of the air, and was heading down to help when suddenly, he felt cold. Everything in front of his eyes seemed so far away, and a wave of calm spread over him. There was no rush, was there?

He was in a ballroom in the 1940s, loud jazz music hit his ears and the sounds of people laughing and joking. He tentatively stepped forward through the crowd but flinched when an explosion flashed near him. No, not an explosion, a camera. Then there was a gunshot. No, not a gunshot, a bottle being uncorked. Confused he looked around and saw a man lying on the ground, his friend dabbing at blood on his shirt, but it wasn’t blood. Steve looked again and he saw it was red wine.

All around him, people were celebrating, but all he saw was war and death.

Then, a very familiar laugh made him turn and he saw his girl in a gorgeous pink dress and she was being spun round the dance floor by Bucky. His face was creased into a wide smile, both his arms intact as he whirled Katie around the floor. She looked the same as she always had, but…she didn’t belong in this time of his life.

“Are you ready for our dance?” another familiar voice spoke as a hand tapped his shoulder. He spun round to find Peggy stood there, in a blue dress, her outfit and hair and make-up belonged here, in the 40s, in his past, but Katie didn’t. His eyes turned back to Bucky and Katie who were now swaying slowly, foreheads pressed together and he could do nothing but stare as Bucky dropped a kiss to his girl’s lips.

Then he was dancing with Peggy, but he had to stop, this wasn’t right.

She was his girl, not Bucky’s. He was with her, not Peggy. He needed to get to Katie…

“What’s wrong?” Peggy asked him. “The war’s over Steve,“ she told him smiling, "all of them.” She added. “We can go home. Imagine it.”

The party in the ballroom stopped. Everyone disappeared and the room went deathly silent.

He gave a loud gasp, it felt like he had plunged into an icy lake. He blinked, resisting the urge to vomit, taking deep breaths and slowly everything came back into focus and then he remembered where he was and why. The fight, Ultron, the warning from Thor….and Katie, where was she? He staggered to his feet, and stumbling slightly set off to find her.

She wasn’t far away, she was knelt on a walkway just below him suffering the effects of her own vision. Steve swung down a level, gently landing in front of her and knelt down on all fours.

“Katie…”

She could hear a familiar voice talking, through the fog and suddenly it cleared as if someone had poured a bucket of iced water over her head. She blinked, before she let out a groan of pain and dropped forward, grasping at the rough metal of the walkway beneath her palms- somehow and for a reason she didn’t know, she was knelt on the floor on all fours, and no longer in her suit. Every inch of her body was aching and her head felt like it was full of cotton wool and horrible lights were flashing behind her eyeballs, like she had had the worst migraine ever.

“Hey, you’re alright…” Steve said as she sat back on her heels, his hands either side of her face as she drew her eyes up to look at us.

“You’re …” she reached out to touch his chest, feeling the roughness of his uniform under my skin. “You’re still with me?”

“Yeah, baby course I am.” He said, frowning slightly, wondering what the hell the Maximoff kid had forced her to see. Deciding there was plenty of time to discuss that later he waited with her quietly whilst her breathing began to even out. She let out another groan, scrunching her eyes shut as the pain behind her eyes became too much and she lurched sharply to the left, throwing up all over the metal walk way.

Steve gently rubbed her back as she retched again, groaning in pain.

“It’s ok…” he soothed gently “I got you…” Eventually she stopped and the throbbing in her temple subsided somewhat and she wiped my mouth, sitting back down on the floor harshly. “What happened?” she whispered.

“The Maximoff girl.” Steve said gently by means of an explanation, his hand reached round to gently stroke her hair.

“It was… it was so real.” She mumbled, glancing around.

“I know, tell me about It.” Steve swallowed, kissing her clammy forehead. Katie was surprised to find he was shaking slightly as well, drops of cold sweat were beaded across his brow “We need to get back to the ship. Can you stand?”

“Yeah” she said, and together they stood. Katie was a little bit shaky at first but Steve held her up and took a deep breath, shooting a furtive glance around.

“Clint?” Steve spoke in to the coms as Katie got back into her suit.

“Cap, you back with us?”

“Yeah, how is everyone?” He asked as they made their way slowly up the stairs. Katie didn’t trust herself to fly. Instead she kept the face plate open, needing the fresh air.

“Nat’s in a bad way, she’s still not out of it.”  Clint replied. “What about Nova?”

“I’m alright.” She said, shakily as they left the warehouse, blinking in the light of the sun, the light making her heave again and she bent over, emptying what little was left in her stomach on the floor. “Sorry…” she mumbled as she straightened up and turned to Steve who shook his head.

“Nothing to be sorry for, Doll.” He assured, looking at her, hands reaching out to gently stroke her face. He looked around and spoke, mopping at his brow. “Thor?”

“I’m here.” the God’s voice came, he also sounded shaky. “That witch, she warped my mind after all. Her power… I’ve never seen or felt anything like it.”

“Tony?” Steve asked as we set off walking, slowly, across the sandy stretch to where the jet was parked.

“She got to Banner.” Tony said over the coms. “And whatever she showed him… well, Hulk just levelled a local town…”

“Casualties?” Steve sighed, looking at Katie.

“I dare say a fair few.” Tony replied. “Veronica and I did our best.”

As they reached the jet Thor landed next to them bringing Clint who in turn was carrying Nat. It was clear to see that everybody, bar Clint was severely shaken. It was a blessing that at least one of them had presence of mind. Clint got the jet off the ground, tracked Tony’s whereabouts and helped get a semi-conscious Bruce settled while Tony took off the suit. It all seemed very distant to Katie and Steve, who both felt like they were watching the interior of the jet through a fog.

“It was always her,” Steve’s voice echoed in Katie’s ears, and it hurt, a deathly pain deep in her being. She tried to swallow, tried to breathe, but the sickening panic she had felt during her vision threatened to wash over her again. Besides her Steve wasn’t faring much better. Bucky dropped a kiss to his girl’s lips. He moved slightly in his seat. It was an involuntary move, almost like he had been startled by something, which he had been, and Katie spotted it. She unclipped her belt, stood up and gently sat on his lap, pressing her head into the crook of his neck, shivering. He pulled her closer, kissed the top of her head and the pair of them just stayed there, not a word uttered between them.

Katie fell asleep, and when she woke up it was dark through the front of the window, showing they’d crossed time-zones. She was still on Steve’s lap, his head was lolling against the head-rest of the chair, his arms still around her whilst he also slept. Gently she untangled herself from him, and stood up, stretching. Clint was still piloting the jet to wherever it was they were headed and Tony was looking at something on a tablet a few seats away.

“Hey kiddo.” He placed his arm round her as he settled into the seat next to him. “Feel better?”

She shrugged.

“Well you’re doing better than Nat” he said, and Katie looked over. She was sat, staring at the floor. Her eyes darting to the sides every so often.

“She still not come round?” Katie asked, laying her head on her brother’s shoulder.

“She’s with us. But she’s really shaken…hasn’t said a word.”

“Seems I got off relatively lightly” Katie mumbled as she glanced over at Steve who was still asleep.  

“Wanna talk about it?” Tony asked, his chin resting on her head.

“Erm… I saw Steve and Peggy” she muttered, looking down at her engagement ring, twirling it round her finger “it sounds silly but… they were getting married and I couldn’t understand why he wasn’t with me. Then he told me…” She trailed off, swallowing, she felt sick again.

“You know none of its true, right?” Tony said, his eyes locking onto hers “He loves you, not Peggy. The Maximoff brat is messing with your head.

 “I know…” The tears sprang forth into her eyes. “ But it was so real, physical, I could touch things and people. I can’t explain it.”

“You don’t need to…” Tony shook his head, gently reaching out and wiping her tears away with his thumb. “I had one, at Strucker’s base when we got the Sceptre.”

“I knew something else had happened to you” Katie sighed “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I thought it was just a funny turn but now I know it was her. I saw you all dead. I felt it. The whole world too. Because of me. I didn’t do enough.”

Katie slid her arms around him, pulling him into a hug.

“So that’s why you restarted the Ultron thing again” she said gently

“Yeah… really worked out that didn’t it.” He sighed.

“We’ll fix it.” Katie replied softly, shrugging as she sat up.

“How do you know?” Tony looked at her with eyes that were so like her father’s. She could do nothing but shrug back.

“Because we have to.”

*****

It was dawn as they all stepped off the jet and followed Clint as he confidently led them up to the porch of a large farmhouse, literally in the middle of a field. The sleep seemed to have done most people good, although Natasha was still not quite right, so Clint supported her as they walked up the path. Steve had his arm round Katie’s shoulder; hers in turn was round his waist, but not for support, for comfort.

“What is this place?” Thor asked looking around at the farmhouse and its surroundings.  

“A safe house?” Tony responded unsure.

“Let’s hope.” Clint opened the door and stepped inside, with everyone else curiously following close behind. “Honey? I’m home.”

To nearly everyone’s surprise, a woman, who Katie figured was Clint’s wife, walked out from the kitchen and into the living room. She had long brown hair and was holding a bunch of colouring books in one hand, but one thing that was hard to miss was that she was very pregnant.

“I brought company. Sorry I didn’t call ahead.” Clint told the woman as he walked up to her and gave her a kiss.

“This is an agent of some kind.” Tony muttered pointing at the couple.

“Guys, this is Laura.”

“Hi,” she greeted awkwardly, “I know all of your names.”

Tony not knowing how else to react just gave a small wave that was just as awkward.

“Oh, incoming!” Clint warned as the thudding of feet and loud voices of young children hit their ears. A boy and a girl hurried into the living room, both running over to Clint as they yelled “daddy”.

Steve’s face was a picture, despite herself Katie almost laughed at the genuine-fake shock he wore across his features.

“Hi sweetheart! Hey buddy!” exclaimed Clint while kissing the top of their heads. “How are you guys doing?”

“These are smaller agents.” Tony said, adding to his previous statement.

“Did you bring Aunty Nat?” the little girl questioned.

Nat stepped forward, suddenly finding her feet. “Why don’t you hug her and find out?”

“Sorry for barging in on you.” Steve said, always one for keeping his manners.

“Yeah we would have called ahead, but we were too busy having no idea you existed.” Tony remarked with his usual sarcasm. Katie shot him a look.

“Yeah well Fury helped me set this up when I joined.” Clint explained, his arm around his wife. “Kept it off SHIELD’s files and I’d like to keep it that way. I figured it’s a good place to lay low.”

Thor, who had been extremely quiet since arriving, made to step closer to the group but a loud crunching noise stopped him. Katie and Steve looked down and he raised his boot seeing the lego house he had just crushed. He glanced upwards and caught Steve’s eye, then Katie’s as he kicked the broken pieces underneath the table. Then a toaster popped and all 3 of them glanced at it, before Thor turned and hastily left the room. Katie looked at Steve and the pair of them followed Thor out.

“Thor,” Steve said, and he stopped dead.  

“I saw something, in that dream.” he explained. “I need answers, I won’t find them here.”

“Be careful” Katie said to him, he nodded and then with a whirl of his hammer he was gone.

They both turned to go back into the house when Steve stopped dead, the image of that damned vision flashing in front of his eyes.

“We can go home…imagine that”

He was home, with Katie, there was no home without her…

Katie, who had been heading back into the house, noticed Steve had stopped. She turned to look at him, his face was glazed slightly, a look on his face she knew extremely well, the one he got whenever he was thinking about his past.

“It’s always been her.”

Katie tried to ignore the flash back and gently spoke to him, her voice shaky.

“Steve?”

He suddenly focussed and looked at her, smiling softly.

“Walk with me?” he said, inclining his head away from the house.

Katie nodded with a swallow, taking his outstretched hand, the pair of them heading down a worn path through the field outside the house. Neither of them said a word for a while, they just walked taking in the large fields and the various trees and shrubs and they reached a clearing which was clearly where the family spent a lot of time. There was a picnic bench to the right of a large oak tree which sported an archery target, 3 arrows currently protruding from the middle circle. 2 bikes lay propped the trunk under the target and a baseball glove lay discarded on the floor.

Frankly Katie loved the levelheadedness of it. Steve loved the normality of it.

“You know, all I ever wanted was to join the army, hold down a good job, have a wife and a family…” Steve broke the silence as they both walked towards the bench. Katie looked up at him as he glanced around. “I mean a farm was never really what I imagined but…”

“A town house in Brooklyn?” She smiled softly as she took a seat.

Steve shrugged. “It doesn’t matter where, I just want to build a life with you, whatever madness that brings with it.”

Katie turned her face away, blinking away the tears. She knew her vision hadn’t been real, she knew it was all a dream but there was part of her that would never stop wondering, whether given the chance he would go back and live his life over with Peggy. Was he settling here for second best?

“Sweetheart?” Steve asked, his voice cracking slightly.

“I’m sorry just, she really did a number on me and now my head is all over and…” she looked at him as he moved so that he had one leg either side of the seat and he was turned side on to face her.

“What did she make you see?”

She took a deep breath and told him, by the time she got to the part about him saying she wasn’t enough and was a mere distraction, she was really biting back the sobs as Steve reached out and pulled her to him. She pressed her face into his chest, breathing him in, relishing his touch and the fact he was real, and there with her.

“Seems like she got us all pretty bad.” Steve said, his voice thick.

“What did you see?” Katie asked quietly.

“She showed me a dance.” He took a deep breath his arms still around her “But it was back in the 1940s. You, me, Peggy and Bucky were there.”

“Dancing?” she frowned “In the 1940s?”

“Yeah, I know. For once you were the one out of time.” He mused gently, looking at her for a second before he carried on “But you were dancing with Bucky, you were with Bucky, and I was with Peggy and she was telling me the war was over and that I could go home…”

“Maybe my vision wasn’t that far off after all.” Katie sniffed gently.

He pulled back from her slightly, and frowned. “What do you mean?”

“No matter how much I try to ignore it, how much I love you there’s always going to be part of you that’s back there, and a wishing you and Peggy had gotten your dance…”

Steve blew out a breath through his nose, shaking his head. She’d got this all wrong “Baby that’s not what I saw, at all…”

“You know sometimes I notice that look in your eyes, that haunted look like you’re somewhere else…” she continued, looking at her hands “I convince myself I’m seeing things because the thought that you might be wishing you could be elsewhere breaks my heart…”

“Baby, I-“

“If I am second best then, fine, I get it but I need to know….” she looked at him through her tears. “If you knew then, what you know now, and had the chance to… would you do things differently?”

He took a deep breath and moved slightly, reaching into his pocket for something. When he turned round Katie noticed he had the compass with Peggy’s photo inside it in his hands.

“You will never be second best.” He shook his head as he turned the compass over, in his hand. “That dream I had was awful.” He sighed “Not because Peggy was with me but because you weren’t.”

He clicked open his compass and passed it to her. The black and white picture of Peggy was gone, and inside was a photo she instantly recognised as one they’d gotten from a photo booth in Coney Island on her birthday last year. They were both looking cross eyed into the camera, happy and carefree, joking and playing. An hour or so post the photo being taken, he’d asked her to marry him.

“I changed it over the moment we got back that day.” He said gently, “I love that photo, it reminds me of just how much you make me smile and that I can just be me around you. I don’t have to be Cap or anyone else, just Steve.” HE reached out with his still gloved hand to brush her hair behind her ear. “You wanna know what my biggest fear is? Losing you.”

She glanced up at him, her eyes searching his but even as she did she knew he was telling the truth. Steve didn’t lie.

”That part of my life with Peggy is over, and it’s okay. I can live without it, but I cannot live without you.” He sighed, his voice slightly choked and he moved his hands up to wipe the tears off her cheeks that she wasn’t even aware she had shed. “So would I do things differently? Not one fucking second.” He gently pulled her face to meet his in a soft kiss and whispered. “Please believe me, kitten.”

“I do.” She nodded as her lips met his again, melting into his hold. She kissed him back, urgently, needy and he was happy to oblige, his arms wrapping round her, pulling her into him.

“Bet I look a right state.” She pulled away, her head resting against his. He chuckled slightly.

“Well we could both probably do with a shower.” HE nodded, looking up over at the house, “Why don’t you go back in? I’ll grab us some stuff from the jet.”

She nodded and he kissed her forehead once more as the two of them headed in opposite directions.  Steve watched her go heaving out another sigh as he stood up. Frankly it said something about their deep rooted issues that their visions took them both to losing one another to other people and not death. Especially after everything that had happed the last year and what was going on right around them now with Ultron. But it also made perfect sense, neither of them could face being without the other. They’d fallen in deep, real deep, and whilst in some ways it was frightening in others it was so, so right.

There was absolutely no doubt in his heart at all where Katie sat in his life. And that was forefront and centre. He just hope she realised that too.

By the time Steve had made it back she was already asleep on the bed in the spare room Clint had directed him to. Dropping the bag gently to the floor so as not to disturb her he headed into the bathroom and stripped off out of his suit. He lay his forehead against the cool tiles, the warm water was soothing as he washed away the grime of the fight. He dried off, changed into a pair of jeans and an under-armour shirt and headed back into the bedroom. Katie was still out of it, and deciding that a nap seemed like a damned good idea he slipped onto the bed besides her. Sliding one arm underneath her he pulled her back so her back was pressed into his chest, his other arm gently draped over her, his hand tangling with hers.

“I love you so fucking much.” He mumbled into her neck as he closed his eyes “So much.”

***** Chapter 24 Part 1

**Original Posting**

[pietropatrol]

Breaking the One Damn Rule (Part 11)

Read Part 10

A/N: Happy Fic Friday! Two weeks in a row! It’s also my birthday tomorrow and will hopefully be celebrating with a charcuterie/cheese board and wine!  

Sure, you’re 100% down with having Pietro Maximoff’s baby—you couldn’t imagine anyone else fathering your children. But neither of you planned for this, you’re not even supposed to be together according to the Avengers. Finding out while Pietro was away on a mission was bad enough and now telling him during an attack, with your future family in danger, was not what you had in mind; and this is exactly why they forbid Pietro from having serious relationships in the first place. Whoops.  

Pairing: Pietro x Reader

Warning: Kidnapping children, trauma, language

Words: 1,500ish

The skies had opened up over the city of New York City that early evening and never let up. An even bigger storm brewing behind the horizon of skyscrapers. Rain pelted against your window as a streak of lightning lit up your dim hospital room, followed by a sharp clap of thunder. Sharp enough to wake the dead.

Sharp enough to wake you from your comatose state.

Your eyelids felt like they had been glued together. When you opened them, they were out of focus and it took a moment for your eyes to adjust. Where were you? Where was Pietro?

Flowers covered every open counter space and a dozen of assorted baskets littered the floor. There was one that contained muffins and your stomach growled at the sight.

Your hand strayed down to your abdomen to rub your bump and it never reached one. Your stomach, though not as flat as it had been prior to pregnancy, was flat. All of a sudden it became hard to breathe and something was beeping in the distance.

What had happened? Where was Pietro? Where was your baby? When you tried to sit up it, a tube stopped you from ripping your blanket off.

You looked down at your hands to see an IV and a pulse oximeter. You were in the hospital? How long had you been here?

It didn’t matter, you had to get out. You had to get to Pietro and your baby. Your baby had to be with him, and safe, right? You ripped out the offending tubing, and swung your legs off the side of the bed, and pushed off.

The door to your room opened and your gaze met the familiar fatherly face of one Clint Barton.

“Y/N!” Clint dropped the cup of coffee in his hand and rushed over as you began to teeter. “You’re awake!”

“Where’s my baby?” Your voice was low and shaking, you could barely hear yourself. As if you were already afraid that you knew the answer.

“Please lay back down, Y/N. You’re looking a bit pale.” Clint tried to guide you back to the bed.

You jerked your arms away, leaving a smear of blood on Clint’s arm.  “No! Tell me, Clint.”

“Only if you get back in bed.” Clint saw the manic look in your eyes and was afraid that if he said anything you would fall apart before him.

You lowered yourself onto the edge of your bed. Your baby had to be with Pietro. That could be the only possibility.

Clint gently pushed your back into the bed, covering you back up with the blanket. He swung a chair next to your bed and took a deep breath. “Y/N, what’s the last thing you remember?”

Your memory was murky and you tried to grasp onto any piece of memory. “Hydra attacking the restaurant. I fired Tony’s repulsor hoping to cause enough of a distraction.”

“Y/N,” Clint took your hand, “You’ve been comatose for almost a month.”

“A month?” you echoed back, “I’ve missed that much time? How’s Pietro handling being a dad on his own?”

Clint took a deep breath. He did not want to be the one to tell you, but Pietro and Wanda were across the world if he had to guess, which left him as the next person in line to tell you. “Y/N, we found you… alone. Hydra left you to die, Pietro found you just in time.”

“By alone you mean…”  Your voice caught in your throat.

“I’m sorry, Y/N. Pietro and Wanda are out looking for them right now. As soon as you stabilized, they started following any lead they could. Last we heard they were in Nepal. I will have Nat send out a message that you woke up.” Clint squeezed your hand. “I can’t even imagine what your feeling right now, but we’re all here for you and they’re going to find them. Pietro and Wanda are strong on their own as is, but together and out for vengeance, they are unstoppable. When we first met them, when they were under Hydra, they gave us a run for our money. They also took Vision with them.”

“When you say looking for them—”

“It was twins, we don’t know how to explain it. Wanda saw it in your head.”

You swallowed the tightness in your throat. “I’ll take your word for it.” The hollow chuckle that bubbled out of you terrified Clint. “Clint?”

“Yes?”

“I want you and Nat to train me. I’m not going to sit idly by.”

Clint saw the spark of anger in your eyes and the determination set in your jaws. He wasn’t sure how to react. He could handle crying, but this was rage brewing. Much like your other half, he assumed you were a force to reckoned with when provoked. “You need to heal before anything.”

That would buy him some time. Pietro should be able to get back to you before then. Clint wouldn’t dare do anything to piss Pietro off and letting you hurt yourself would definitely do it.

“Heal?” You questioned.

Clint gave you a perplexed look. “Y/N, you were cut open.”

“It doesn’t feel like it.” You didn’t feel any pain.

“Maybe it’s the shock?”

You pressed your lower abdomen. “I had my appendix taken out in college, and that hurt. Now… now I feel nothing.”

“Um, I’m going to get your nurse.” Clint shot off the chair and out the door.

****

The moment Pietro received word you had woken up he made plans to get back to you. Wanda wanted to come too, but Pietro wanted her to keep looking for the twins. They were in deep, trying to find Hydra hideouts and it had taken almost three weeks for Pietro to get Nat’s message.

He practically ran back to you, save for the ocean he had to get over. He took one flight and started running as soon he got out of the terminal.

Pietro had prepared to see you broken and inconsolable. Steve was waiting by the elevator as Pietro arrived. “Cap?”

“Welcome back, anything?”

“Nope, look I’d love to chat, but I need to get to Y/N.” Pietro turned to walk down the hallway to your room, but Steve stopped him.

“She’s not in her room. Come with me.” Steve lead Pietro back to the elevator and to the 15th floor.

“Why is she on the training floor?” Pietro’s jaw tightened. He thought he had left you in good hands. “She should be resting.”

“You can bring that up with her. We tried.” Steve pulled him over to one of the simulation mazes.

Pietro looked at the tracking monitors to see you suited up, working your way through the maze with Clint and Nat. “Are you fucking crazy?! Get her out of there!”

“This isn’t her first go.” Steve motioned to the hologram with your stats. Not as good as Clint and Nat’s, obviously, but you had excellent marksmanship and your hand to hand combat was ranked above Tony’s out of the suit. “You’re free to end the simulation—”

Pietro slammed his hand on the stop button and glared at Steve. “I am not happy about this.”

“Clearly.” Steve grimaced.

The lights went on in the simulation maze. Making it hard to see, you had been doing a night test. “Steve, what the fu—”

“Draga!” That voice made your heart skip a beat. You didn’t even see him coming. In a split second, you were in his arms being squeezed tightly. Your face nestled into his chest.

“Piet.” You melted into him, having to bury your tears deeper and deeper. Now was not the time.

“You should be resting,” he softly growled in your ear.

“I missed you too,” you whispered back.

Pietro let go after a lingering kiss to your temple as he breathed you in again. “Seriously, explain. Clint, I put you in charge of her care, and I come home to find she’s been simulating?”

“Pietro, don’t be mad. I begged.” You finally got a good look at him. He was rougher around the edges and he had grown a slight beard. If it hadn’t been caused by your current circumstances, you would have dwelled longer on how ruggedly handsome he looked.

“Oh, that makes it so much better.” Pietro gave you a look. “You need to be taking it easy.”

“I’m fully healed and I’m not going to get hurt,” you countered.

“The last time I saw you, you were on death’s doorstep. It can happen again. It will happen again if you try to get involved with this.” The pain was evident in Pietro’s eyes. He had spent so much time trying to block out the image of you basically lifeless. It would haunt him forever.

“Seriously, I can’t get hurt.” You pulled out a small dagger from your thigh holster and ran it across your palm before Pietro could figure out what you were doing.

“Draga!” He made to grab your wrist, but you turned away. Crimson pooled in your cupped hand for a moment and you wiped it away on your pant leg to reveal no wound.

Pietro grabbed your hand to examine it closely. “What the hell?”

****

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[cottontail20]

The Domestic Life Of The Vision And His Witch, Chapter 13: Tiny Speedster

Summary:  Vision and Wanda get in a quick talk about the future before returning to the compound to deal with Tommy's reign of terror.

Ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18461504/chapters/46177507

Eventually, despite his concerns over Billy's growing powers, Vision did manage to relax enough to truly enjoy his night out with Wanda. With the circumstances being what they were at the time, with Wanda on the run, and then her unexpected pregnancy a year into their relationship, they had not exactly had the most traditional of courtships. It was nice to just be a normal couple for a little while.

"How about we take a little walk?" Wanda suggested as they left the restaurant.

"Well.. Alright" Vision clutching a take-out bag packed with his uneaten meal, hesitated for just a moment before he agreed. He couldn't pass up a little more alone time with the woman he loved, and the twins were probably asleep now anyway. Surely Natasha would have called them by now if anything had gone amiss.

As they walked, hand in hand, they found themselves peeking into shop windows. Most of the shops were closed at this time of night, but quite a few of the window displays remained dimly lit. Once again, like on the night of their anniversary date, Vision found himself lingering at the window of a jewelry store. Tony's impending nuptials had brought his own plans back to the front of his mind. He still very much intended to propose to Wanda, and he would prefer to do it sooner rather than later, especially since she already knew that he was planning to, and did not want his delay to make her think that he had changed his mind, because he most definitely had not.

Keeping in mind what she had told him, Vision had formed a picture in his mind of the kind of ring he wanted for her. Something simple, but special. He was leaning towards a ruby as the central stone. It seemed more 'Wanda' than a diamond. What he wasn't sure of yet was how exactly he was going to ask. Vision knew Wanda wouldn't need some grand gesture, like her name written in fireworks. Simple and meaningful was much more her style, which was good, because that was also what he was more comfortable with. But Vision knew that the moment needed to be special. Wanda deserved special. Wanda Maximoff deserved the world.

"Vizh?" Wanda squeezed his hand, and Vision turned to look at her. She was blushing faintly, a soft, almost shy smile on her face. His own cheeks flushed.

"I was just.."

"I know.." She pulled him down to kiss him soundly before he could say anything more, and when she broke the kiss, Vision was a little too dazed to say much at all. Which had obviously been her intention, if her current cheeky grin was anything to go by. She gently stroked his cheek. "You worry too much, Vision. A gandi prea mult. You don't have to. Whatever you come up with, I will love, because you came up with it. There's no need to rush anything."

"You think so?" Vision smiled softly.

"Stiu asta" Wanda grinned. --

When Wanda and Vision arrived back at the compound, they found their babysitters scattered around the baby-proof floor, looking a little troubled. Clint seemed to have mostly recovered and was currently making coffee, but Sam, Bucky, and Bruce all seemed a little worse for wear. Steve, who had only recently arrived home himself, looked at the three with an amused expression.

"I think the twins might have broken your babysitters."

"What happened?" Wanda frowned.

"Was it Billy?" asked Vision, concerned.

"No" Clint poked his head out of the Kitchen. "Billy was perfectly behaved.."

"..But it turns out Tommy takes after his Uncle" Natasha emerged from Wanda's old bedroom, now Wanda and Vision's, after putting the twins down to sleep. She had also temporarily shut down the elevators to keep the tiny speedster from escaping the baby-proof floor again.

"Oh rahat.." Wanda's eyes widened.

"Is he okay?" Vision looked a little pale.

"He's fine, thanks to the Hulk" Natasha assured them, while Bruce managed a weak smile and a thumbs up.

"The Hulk?!" Wanda grew pale herself.

"Well, Tommy almost knocked a shelf onto himself.. But it's fine, Hulk saved him, it's all good" Nat explained.

"Okay.. Okay.." Wanda grasped Vision's hand as they both tried to absorb what they were being told.

"Oh, and, uh, one other teensy thing?"

"What?" Vision frowned, dreading the answer.

"Well.." Nat smiled nervously. --

A short while later, Vision and Wanda headed into their room. They stared into the portable cot in which Tommy was sleeping. He looked so peaceful, oblivious to the chaos he had caused.

"How is it possible that our son setting up a playdate with the Hulk is the least concerning thing that happened while we were gone?" Vision frowned, keeping his voice low so as not to wake his sleeping sons.

"I.. really don't know" Wanda sighed.

"I was so worried about Billy's powers it didn't even occur to me that Tommy.. What kind of Father does that make me?"

"Vizh, you are an amazing Father" Wanda looked up at him, squeezing his hand.

"But.."

"No buts. I wasn't worried about Tommy either. You don't think that makes me a bad Mother do you?"

"Of course not" said Vision quickly. "You are a wonderful Mother."

"And you are an amazing Father" Wanda repeated, cupping Vision's cheek. "Our boys could never ask for better."

"You think so?"

"I know so. We are lucky to have you, Vizh. There was no way we could have known what was going to happen tonight. Yes, I know it's a bit scary, but we'll work out a way to deal with it. We always find a way, don't we?"

"Yes" Vision managed a smile for her, pulling her into his arms and holding her close. "We do." --

The next morning, Wanda and Vision were woken by a crash, and Billy wailing. They sat up in time to see Tommy's cot tipped over, and the tale end of a tiny blue blur zipping out of the room.

"Oh no.." Wanda rushed after the blur, while Vision tended to Billy. "Thomas Maximoff, get your fundul mic back here.. Whoa!" as she headed into the lounge, Wanda almost crashed into Carol Danvers.

Carol was holding Tommy, a duffel bag dropped at her side.

"Morning. I believe this cheeky little guy belongs to you" Carol smiled, passing the baby back to his Mother.

"Yes" Wanda breathed a sigh of relief as she took him. Tommy fussed, annoyed at having his fun thwarted. "Thank you."

"I was looking for someone to ask if you guys knew the elevators are out of action, but I passed the party floor on the way and.. Clearly some stuff went down while I was gone. Care to fill me in?"

"That could take a while.." Wanda sighed.

"I've got time. Just let me put on a pot of coffee.."

Notes:

A gandi prea mult: Overthink

Stiu asta: I know so.

fundul mic: little butt

[floral-and-fine]

The Silent Treatment

Pietro Maximoff x Female reader

Soulmate AU where the words their soulmate speaks first are tattooed on their arm.

Warnings: a little smutty, and angsty

A/n: just wanted to write something about Pietro Maximoff. (Still refusing to acknowledge his death 😅) Also I used google translate for some stuff, so like I hope it makes sense.

‘Another Tony party,’ you thought to yourself rolling your eyes. This was to supposedly celebrate 3 new members joining the Avengers. There were so many guests, that it was hard to find any of your teammates in the crowd.

You were wary of meeting the newcomers, you weren’t around for the whole Ultron fiasco, instead, you volunteered to help Sam find Bucky. Sadly, the two of you didn’t have much luck.

Across the room, you noticed a tall blue-eyed stranger with striking white hair that made him stand out. He was happily chatting away with a group of girls. They all giggled and laughed. One casually placed a hand on his arm.

It was obvious he was a total flirt.

However, your eyes kept wandering over to him, it wasn’t difficult to locate him, each time you saw him though he was talking to a new girl.

Right now, he was dancing with a red-head. He was a decent dancer, his movements were fluid.

He seemed to have a pretty energetic personality. There was a smile on his face that never disappeared and a playful gleam in his eye.

Oh fuck, he caught you staring at him. He smirked giving you a little wink.

You looked the other way immediately. ‘Damn, damn, damn!’ you wanted to kick yourself!

You prayed he wouldn’t come over to talk to you. As fast as you could you scurried over to the balcony hoping he wouldn’t find you easily.

“There you are my heart, I’ve been looking for you,” you heard a thickly accented voice from behind you. It was the handsome stranger.

You blinked your eyes rapidly. What did he just say? You looked at his face wide-eyed. Those were the words on your arm. There wasn’t a doubt in your mind that he was your soulmate.

He smiled brightly at you, waiting for a response.

You couldn’t believe it, why him? This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. You were supposed to meet your soulmate at a quaint little bookstore, or on a sunny day at the park or at a cute coffee shop. He was supposed to only have eyes for you. You guys would bump into each other, there would be this immediate connection, and then he’d say those words, those special words that have been on your skin since birth.

But instead, you were just another girl out of many for him to flirt with and use his charms on.

You started feeling overwhelmed. You wanted to cry, and scream, and curse fate for setting you up with a jackass playboy.

You refused to accept this. You walked off keeping your mouth shut. As long as you didn’t speak to him, he’d never know.

The white-haired man’s eyes followed, his brow furrowed in confusion over your actions.

You considered going to the bar and grabbing a drink or finding one of your teammates to hang out with. But, you could practically feel his eyes still on you.

Worried that you’d bump into the stranger again, you decided to leave the party without even meeting the guests of honor.

“Y/n!” Tony called you over. “I want to introduce you to our new colleagues.”

You groaned you were so close to getting away unnoticed.

“I know you can hear me!” Tony shouted.

You looked over at him, he was waving you over.Tony was standing next to a girl with long dark hair and a red man. Reluctantly, you joined him.

“This is Vision and Wanda…” he introduced the people next to him.

There was a quick blur of white and blue, suddenly the man from earlier was standing in front of you.

Your heart started pounding.

“And this is Pietro,” Tony said gesturing to the newcomer.

Pietro, so that’s his name.

“Ah! We’ve met, sort of,” Pietro said with a twinkle in his eye. “You left in quite hurry, beautiful.”

You didn’t speak, you couldn’t. If you said anything in front of him, then it would be official. So you waved, then turned back around heading to the elevator to return to your room.

“Y/n?” Tony questioned as you left without saying a word. This was so unlike you, you usually had such a warm welcoming demeanor.

Tony laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head, “She’s usually much more… social. Y’know she’s had some bad run-ins with Hydra. Just give her some time.”

Wanda nodded, it was understandable. Pietro intently watched you leave. Something about the whole encounter with you, had him feeling different.

A few days passed, and your attitude hadn’t changed much.

Everyone on the team who knew you well, questioned you're out of character behavior with the Maximoffs.

You weren’t the type of person to openly disregard people.

But every time the twins came around your lips locked tight, even if you were in mid-sentence.

Tony blamed it on your past experiences with Hydra. Steve was willing to let it slide the first few times, but was becoming irritated that you continued to blatantly ignore the Maximoffs. There was no way the team could function with you being so unreasonable.

The rest of the team pretty much minded their own business about it.

“You should come with us,” Sam invited you.

You shook your head. You couldn’t risk going to a bar or club with Pietro around.

“Why not?”

You shrugged.

Sam rolled his eyes, “I honestly don’t get you right now.”

You stood up from the armchair, you were about to head towards the kitchen when Pietro ran by you, causing your skirt to flutter in a gust of wind.

He gave Wanda a quick hug.

He looked handsome wearing a dark blue button up and jeans. He was obviously dressed up to go out again. Every night he went out and didn’t come back until the wee hours of the morning.

Watching him only added fuel to your anger that. Plus you knew you’d be hearing him talk the next day to Clint, Sam, and Tony about his experiences which made your blood boil. It was always about all the girls he danced and made out with, and it physically made you ill to think about it.

If he was destined to be the love of your life, then you didn’t want him! In fact, you were determined to never utter a word to the man!

You tried your hardest to ignore them now.

“So that brunette last night,” Sam winked at Pietro. “How’d that go?”

“Fine,” Pietro stated nonchalantly while fixing his collar.

“Just fine? C’mon, she was all over you,” Sam said raising his eyebrows.

Pietro just shook his head, “I don’t kiss and tell.”

“Please, you love to brag,” Clint butted in.

“Man, to be single again,” Tony sighed.

It took all your strength not to shout at them. Apparently, Pietro loved his life as a bachelor, you would just get in the way of all it. Trying to keep your composure you stomped past the group of men.

Pietro’s eyes followed you.

“Hey man,” Sam said grabbing his jacket. “Let’s go.”

“Alright,” Pietro muttered still staring at the direction you left in.

You slammed your bedroom door shut. How did he get under your skin like this! Nothing you did made you feel any better.

You spent the remainder of the day trying to keep yourself occupied by reading, watching TV, cleaning your room, but you kept thinking about him.

You had to admit he was charming, funny, and a decent guy despite his flirtatious ways.

Even though you tried to ignore him and stayed away from him as much as you could, he still managed to make you smile.

He tried getting you to talk to him, coming up to you and trying to start small talk.

Not to mention he was incredibly handsome with his pretty blue eyes, and you loved his smile. Plus there was that one time you saw him without his shirt, you felt your face heat up.

This wasn’t fair. Here you are hung up on him while he was probably fucking some bimbo.

You screamed into your pillow. This was so frustrating, you hated him and wanted him at the same time.

Pietro removed his jacket, just letting it fall to the floor. Another night and no luck. He stripped down to his boxers. Lately, he’s been feeling rather lonely, even though he was constantly surrounded by people.

He flopped onto his bed and stretched out, getting comfortable. Staring at the ceiling, his mind wandered to you.

It annoyed him that you were so distant. He couldn’t figure it out why. Stark’s excuse was getting old. Pietro knew deep down he did something to make you mad.

It was tough being ignored by such a pretty girl.

Those jean shorts you were wearing the other day were so sexy. When you weren’t paying attention he took his chance to admire you. The way they fit the curves of your ass and gorgeous thighs and showed off your perfect legs made him want you.

God, how he imagined your legs wrapped around his waist while his hands held you by your thighs. Your lips pressed against his neck.

Pietro’s hand slid down into the front of his boxers.

Fuck, why was he so attracted to you?

He moaned, desperately he wanted to hear your voice. Actually, he wanted to hear you scream his name.

His hand moved faster. Pietro bit his lip as he got closer to cumming.

You were driving him crazy.

A couple of days later, you woke up in the middle of the night. Your mouth felt dry, you groaned as you rolled out of bed.

You hadn’t had a good night’s sleep all week. Slipping on your robe, you headed downstairs for a bottle of water.

As you got further down the stairs you heard whispers.

‘Wanda…’ you thought to yourself hearing her distinct voice and accent. ‘What was she doing up so late?’

Taking a couple of more steps, you focused on the sound of her voice.

“It’s going to be alright,” she soothed. “Everything will work out.”

“But Wanda, I’ve never even heard of something like this happening to anyone else.”

You bit your bottom lip, that was Pietro talking.

“Look at your mark compared to mine,” he continued. “Mine’s so much lighter. They used to be exactly the same,” he groaned.

Wanda sighed, “Pietro.”

“What did I do wrong?” he asked her, his voice sounding desperate.

Hearing him, broke your heart.

Was his mark fading because of you? He sounded so distraught over it. You never pictured him as someone who cared so deeply for his soulmate.

You sat on the steps in the dark with your head in your hands, what could you do to fix this? You were worried how he would react to the truth, would he be angry with you?

This isn’t what you wanted, you were just mad and frustrated with him. But choosing not to talk to him was

You looked at the words on your skin, they were exactly the same. For whatever, only his were affected.

“I see you with Vision, and I want that,” his voice sounded so sincere. “I want that connection with someone.”

“You will,” Wanda reassured her brother.

“I’m not so sure,” Pietro muttered.

Worried that you might get caught you returned to your room as quietly as you could. Back in bed and under the covers, you thought about Pietro. He didn’t deserve this just because you were feeling petty.

In the morning, Pietro kept staring at his arm. Even though he was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, you knew what he was thinking about.

You continued to subtly watch him, using your book as a cover.

He looked so worried about it. After listening in on him and Wanda talk you started feeling horribly guilty.

You needed to talk to him, but you wanted to find the right moment, just you and him.

His breakfast was sitting next to him getting cold. He barely touched it. Usually by now with his super speed, he’d be done eating, washing his dishes, then zooming off to train.

“Hey, Speedy! Look alive! We’re training!” Clint scolded walking into the kitchen.

“Huh? Oh yeah,” Pietro looked up from his arm, over at Clint who kept walking towards the direction of the training room.

Pietro was moving much slower, instead of zipping away immediately, he begrudgingly walked behind Clint.

“Oh shit!” you heard Clint shout in the hallway. “Why are you following me like a zombie?”

Clint was accustomed to Pietro just leaving him behind that it was odd watching him move at a slow pace.

“Sorry,” Pietro muttered.

“You’re acting really weird,” Clint noted.

You sighed and closed your book, what sort of complicated mess did you make.

Steve had also noticed the change in behavior. As the team’s reluctant father figure he felt like it was his job to make sure everyone was mentally healthy and felt supported.

“Wanda, do you know what’s up with Pietro lately?” Steve asked.

“It’s a personal matter,” she stated rather sharply. Wanda looked over at you, “Y/n can I speak with you?”

Your body turned rigid at the question. Why did she want to talk to you? You weren’t exactly friendly to her either, considering that you avoided her brother and refused to speak with him. So simultaneously you rarely spoke to her.

Did she somehow figure it all out?

You had been so careful, making sure no one knew about your soulmate tattoo. But, she does have strange telepathic abilities.

“S-sure, what’s up?” you asked in a startled voice.

Wanda looked slightly uncomfortable, “um, alone, please?”

You gulped and nodded, then followed her to the empty living room.

“I know you heard my brother and I talking the other night,” she started.

“Oh, sorry about that. I didn’t mean to intrude,” you averted your gaze, you felt embarrassed that you were caught eavesdropping.

“It’s ok, but could you please keep what you heard to yourself?”

“Of course,” you nodded.

“Thank you y/n,” Wanda said giving you a kind smile. “Pietro doesn’t want anyone to know.”

“I understand.”

“I’m worried,” she sighed. “He has been looking for her non-stop his entire life. I don’t know know how many times I’ve told him to slow down, that it’ll happen.”

She shook her head,“But you’ve seen how impatient he is.”

You rubbed your forehead, you had to talk to Pietro. You had judged him too harshly, and in process jeopardized your relationship with your soulmate.

Later that day you dressed up in one of your favorite outfits. You did your hair and makeup, trying to look your absolute best.You decided you would go to whatever bar or club he planned to visit and try to get his attention.

Putting on your favorite shoes, you headed out of your room, and down to the living room. You expected to find the crew getting ready to head out.

But instead, you just found Pietro sitting on the couch looking miserable.

Typically on a Friday night Pietro, Rhodey, Sam and occasionally Natasha would go out to different clubs and bars. Since everyone else was either in a relationship or married to their work.This is the first time he’s opted to stay home.

“Do you have a date or something?” he asked in a hoarse voice noticing you staring at him.

He looked terrible. He had dark bags under his eyes and they looked red because they were so bloodshot. The thought of him crying over this, hurt your chest.

He was wearing a pair of loose fitting sweats and a long sleeve tee.

You didn’t answer him, you just stood there trying to work up the nerve to speak. Pietro wasn’t phased by your silence.

“You look so beautiful,” he murmured softly. “Just like that night I first met you.”

You averted your gaze. The fact that he remembered what you looked like that night took you by surprise.

“Still not talking to me?” he chuckled slightly. “It’s ok, even though you don’t like me, I like you,” he gave you a sad small smile.

You tried smiling back.

“What’s weird is that I don’t even know why I like you,” he ran his hand through his messy silver hair.

Your eyes went wide.

“I don’t know what I did to make you hate me, but whatever it was, I’m sorry,” he apologized, he looked so sincere.

With his head hanging low Pietro walked passed you towards the door.

“Everything,” you mumbled before he left.

Pietro turned around, staring at the back of your head.

“You’re…” he started in disbelief. You just said it, the word on his skin. He could feel the connection between the two of you. It all made sense now.

“You did everything wrong,” you sobbed finally breaking your vow of silence.

“That night I watched you flirt with almost every girl at that party before you got to me,” you confessed.

Your back remained turned towards him.

“And when you spoke those words, those very same words that are on my skin, I-I felt so angry!” Your hands balled into tight fists. You were trying your damnedest not to cry.

“Meeting you wasn’t supposed to be like that! It should have been a sweet moment for us to treasure,” you continued ranting. “I want to hate you! You can’t imagine how it pisses me off more seeing you go out to meet other women!”

“Y/n,” Pietro whispered.

Finally, you turned around to face him. “I didn’t expect to feel so many different emotions when it comes to you… But I didn’t want to hurt you at least not like this…”

You were too nervous to look directly at him. You heard him laugh softly.

“Wanda always warned me about how flirting with all the girls would bite me in the ass,” he explained.

“I’m sorry, Pietro,” you gently touched his hand.

“Don’t be sorry,” he murmured getting closer to you.

He took your face in his hands, his soft lips met yours in a tender kiss.

The two of you sat on the couch, your legs were draped over Pietro’s lap. He was watching you, his fingers gently rubbed the back of your knee.

Nervously you twiddle your thumbs. His hands continued to stroke your calves. You had to admit it felt wonderful just being near him. You had all of his attention, but no idea what to do with it.

He looked comfortable with a small smiling on his lips. His blue eyes were studying your face.

“Can we stay just like this forever, totul pentru mine?”

“What?” you asked.

“Oh, I was just saying that I like being here like this with you,” he explained.

“Not that part, what was the last part?”

“Totul pentru mine? It means my everything, you are mine now, yes?”

You bit your lip, he was so sweet.

Pietro blushed, “It’s a silly nickname, I know.”

“I love it.”

“Good,” he replied. Pietro stretched his arms above his head. He leaned back, closing his eyes.

“Can I sleep in your room tonight?” he asked.

You sat up in surprise.

“Oh! Not like that prinţesă, just to sleep… I just want to be near you,” he admitted sheepishly. “I feel exhausted.”

With newfound energy, Pietro zipped around your room looking at all your photos, knick-knacks, and things.

He flopped onto your bed.

“Why is your bed so much softer!” He inhaled deeply, “your pillows smell like you.”

“Come lay down with me,” he invited you with his arms wide open.

You giggled, “first I should change.”

In the bathroom, you put on your comfiest sleeping clothes.

Pietro pulled you into bed and wrapped his arms around you. He rested his head on your tummy, his hands running up and down your sides.

He asked you random questions as the two of you cuddled. Pietro kept repeating how he wanted to know everything about you.

“What’s your favorite color?” he asked half asleep.

“Silver,” you whispered.

He smiled with his eyes closed, “you know I’m silver.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Gently you played with his hair. It was so thick and soft.

“Pietro?”

He didn’t answer, he had finally fallen completely asleep.

In the morning, Pietro was back to his speedy self. You woke up to him grinning ear to ear, he reminded you of an excited child.

“Good morning! I’ll make us breakfast, then we can do whatever you want today, prinţesă.” He kissed your cheek his eyes shining happily.

He leaned back in kissing you on the lips, his hand on your neck.Pietro moaned as you kissed him back.

Your hands run up his chest, you could feel goosebumps on his skin. Lightly you peppered his neck and shoulder with little kisses.

“We should stop…” he panted, parting from you.”You’re making me so hard, prinţesă.”

You practically jumped away from him and off the bed.

“Oh gosh! I’m sorry I won’t do that again.” You covered your face with both hands out of embarrassment.

Pietro sprung out of the bed, “don’t say that! it felt so good, just not now… not yet. I’m still getting to know you.”

Downstairs, Pietro made breakfast like he promised.You sipped on your coffee while he worked. It was amazing him watching him zip around, getting eggs, pancake batter and bacon ready.

“Here you are, prinţesă,” Pietro kissed the side of your head and sat a plate down in front of you.

“What is going on here?” Tony questioned, entering the kitchen. Steve and Sam followed behind him.

You shrugged and Pietro just grinned.

“We’re just having breakfast,” you finally answered. Their faces were priceless after you spoke, a mix of pleasantly confused and surprised.

“Oh, I should probably tell Wanda,” Pietro said, talking to himself.

“You haven’t told her yet?”

“Tell me what?” Wanda asked walking over to the counter near you. “Y/n are you speaking with my brother?”

“Well how else will I get to know my soulmate?” you responded smiling.

Pietro’s eyes lit up the moment you called him your soulmate.

“Totul pentru mine,” he whispered, staring at you lovingly.

Tony scrunched his nose, “are we sure this is better than her giving him the silent treatment?”

Pietro wrapped his arms around you possessively, “I think this is much better.”

Tags: @skellingtonbatz , @starfirette , @i-wished-upon-a-star-one-night , @captainbvckfire

[meganlpie]

Always Running

A Wattpad request! I do not own Pietro or Wanda. They belong to Marvel. 

Warnings: Body-switching AU, some fluff...and I tried something a little different writing Pietro this time. 

Pairings: Pietro Maximoff x reader, mentions of Wanda. 

Pietro was probably one of your least favorite people in the world. It wasn't that he was a bad guy really, but his arrogance got under your skin like nobody's business. That and the fact that he was constantly running. You felt as if he was always trying to show off his super speed. It irked you to no end. There was also the fact that Pietro knew exactly how attractive he was. Yes, you could admit that he was a gorgeous man, with those brilliant blue eyes that seemed to bore into your soul and a body that most people would drool over. He was beautiful, but that didn't mean he had to be so damned cocky.

           "Can you please shut up for five minutes?" you snapped. You hadn't meant to, but it had been a really long day. Training had not gone well at all. You were too tired and Pietro's constant chatter about his upcoming date was not helping at all. "I think you are jealous, no?" he asked with a smirk. You rolled your eyes. "Not in the least, Pietro. I just want some peace from your voice." You tucked your book under your arm and left the room with a huff, missing Pietro's eyes following you out.

           Unlike you, Pietro didn't have negative feelings toward you. In fact, you fascinated him. He really wanted to be close to you, but had no idea how to do it. His usual charm didn't work on you. Pietro was at a loss as do what to do. Nothing seemed to work. Quite the opposite. Everything he did only pushed you further away.

           "You know, you could just ask Y/N out. Start out trying to be friendly instead of your usual flirting," Wanda commented, taking a sip of her tea. Pietro glanced back at his twin in confusion. Wanda sighed. "Try to get to know Y/N first. Put yourself in their shoes. If someone was constantly trying to flirt with you, but also went out with other men, wouldn't you think twice about the kind of relationship you could have?" Pietro didn't reply. He sank down. "I do not know how to put myself in Y/N's shoes." Wanda rolled her eyes before leaving the room. She knew what she had to do, but she had to enlist Bruce's help first.

*short time skip*

           "SPEEDY!!!!" Your voice rang through the Tower. Pietro didn't respond. He was too busy sulking. It didn't matter. You came rushing in a second later, promptly running into a wall. "Oof." Pietro bit back a chuckle. You whirled around and him sitting in a nearby chair. Except it wasn't him. Not really. It was you, or at least your body.

           You don't know how it happened, but you had woken up in Pietro's body. As soon as you stood up, you realized that you not only were in Pietro's body, but you had his speed. Unfortunately for you, you had no idea how to use it. You kept running smack dab into every wall you could. Needless to say, it was a bad morning already. And you hadn't even had your coffee yet.

           "WHAT DID YOU DO?!" you screamed, still cringing at the sound of Pietro's voice coming from your mouth. Hearing his accent when you were speaking was weird. "I didn't do anything, Y/N. Talk to her," he answered, gesturing toward Wanda with his head. "Wan? Please tell me he's lying and you had nothing to do with this?" She blushed a little. "I did. I could not stand to listen to the two of you fighting all the time, so I decided to try and get you to understand one another better."

           "By switching our bodies?" Pietro spat. It was clear that he was in just as bad a mood as you were.  Wanda shook her head. "No. The idea was to loan you my powers for a little while so you could understand how the other thinks...something went wrong and you switched bodies instead. And, judging by the fact that you keep running into walls every few seconds, you got each other's powers as well."

           You let out a groan at the same time Pietro did. "I need coffee." You made your way over to the pot, but once again, you moved too quickly and hit the counter instead. You let out a loud swear while Pietro tried to bite back another chuckle. "Oh, shut up." You reached for the pot only to have Wanda move it away from you with her mind. "What the hell, Wanda?" She smiled sheepishly at you. "Sorry, Y/N, but not while you are in Pietro's body. You have seen how he is normally...trust me you do not want to see what this stuff does to him."

           In a huff, you moved to leave the kitchen, running into yet another wall. "DAMMIT!" you yelled. You could feel the bump forming on your head from where you hit. Pietro sighed and got up. He made his way over to you, griping the whole way. "Your body is too slow, Y/N. How do you get anywhere? It is inconvenient, no?" You shrugged. "It works for me."

           You winced as he checked the bump on your head. "This is nothing. It will bruise, but heal quickly." You smiled a bit. You were amused to hear his way of speaking in your own accent. "Thanks." You got up and tried to leave slowly. Pietro followed you out and Wanda watched with a smile on her face. It seemed to be working after all.

           Your day was extremely eventful to say the least. Not only did it take you most of the day to figure out how to move without running into things, but you also had to avoid Pietro's screaming fangirls all day. You didn't give any of them any indication that you were interested, but it didn't help. No wonder Pietro was so cocky if this was the kind of attention he got all the time. You turned down several date offers just because you didn't know when you'd be back in your own body and you didn't want to get stuck with the dates. If Pietro got mad, so be it.

           Turned out, he wasn't mad at all. When you finally got back to the Tower, Pietro came hurrying over to you with wide eyes. "Y/N, how do I stop it?! I cannot make it stop!" Your brows furrowed. Pietro grabbed your hand and pulled you toward the elevator. You had to admit that, while holding your own hand felt odd, there was something about it that felt right. "Pietro?" He turned back to you with his eyes still wide. "Stark and Wanda are angry...but I cannot seem to stop. I need you to help me."

           He didn't say another word as he lead you to his room. Before going inside, he turned to you. "You must promise you will not laugh. Do you promise?" You assured him that you did. He opened the door at you gasped. There, all over the room, were several rabbits. "W-What did you do?" He shrugged. "I don't know! I have had the sneezes all day and every time I sneeze, another rabbit appears." You had to fight not to laugh. You remembered this kind of thing happening. It kind of came with the territory of being able to summon anything at will. Over time, you'd learned control, but Pietro didn't know that.

           "Stark says if I summon another rabbit, he will kick me out of the Tower for a month. Please, Y/N, help me." You sighed and nodded. "First off, take my allergy medicine. That's why you keep sneezing. And second, try to relax." Pietro walked toward the door. "How can you stand it?! Moving so slowly!" You smiled softly as he left. He came back a few minutes later and sat down on the floor. A rabbit hopped over and into his lap. You sat across from him. For the next few minutes, you did your best to help Pietro with your powers. You both had your eyes closed as you tried to help him get rid of all the rabbits he'd accidentally conjured up.

           While you worked together, you couldn't help but enjoy the peace between you. Pietro really wasn't that bad. Sure, he had his moments, but right now, when he was vulnerable, you really couldn't help but like being near him. You wished it could last. Soon, all but one of the rabbits were gone. The one that had climbed into Pietro's lap. "Perhaps Stark will let me keep him, yes?" You smiled and shrugged. "Maybe." After that, he asked you about you day. You licked your lips before telling him everything that had happened.

           Pietro looked at you gratefully. He wasn't sure he was going to be able to handle it anymore. He now understood what Wanda meant. Not only did he now have a sense of appreciation for you and your powers, he understood how much control you had to have all the time in order not to throw the Tower into chaos like he had. Pietro also got what Wanda meant about his feelings toward you.

           You had told him about the constant barrage of admirers that day. Even though he knew they were his admirers and not yours, Pietro couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy. It bothered him a bit. Was that how you felt every time Pietro had another date? Or whenever he bragged about his exploits, which actually weren't that many? He just had a reputation to keep. If so, no wonder you seemed to hate him.

           "Hello? Earth to Pietro!" Pietro shook himself out of his daze. "Forgive me, Y/N. I just realized that Wanda was right. I was not seeing things from your point of view. Now that I have, I cannot help but feel guilty for it." You smiled before placing your hand on his arm. It felt strange and yet comforting at the same time. "That's okay, Pietro. I wasn't either and I'm kind of glad we had this little mix up. I get it now. Maybe we can be friends now?" Pietro frowned a bit. "Yes...friends. Or perhaps more?" You bit your lip or rather, Pietro's lip and shook your head. "I'm not ready for that yet, but maybe someday." Pietro beamed.

           "I can accept this." He leaned over and kissed your cheek. He had to be honest, he didn't like the way the stubble felt under his lips. Maybe he should shave. However, he didn't feel it for long. He pulled back and stared at you, stunned. Your eyes were closed, but Pietro wasn't looking at his own face anymore. He was looking at yours.

           He let out a laugh, prompting you to open your eyes. You blinked in disbelief as you joined in his laughter. Moving the rabbit off his lap, Pietro stood, bringing you with him as he hugged you. You hugged back when suddenly, you were in his arms. "Now, let me show you how the speed really works," he said with a smirk. Without waiting for a reply, he sped off. You felt the wind whipping your air. It felt like you were flying and, in Pietro's arms, you were okay with that.

(a/n: Based on some constructive criticism I received, I learned that the way I was writing Pietro’s accent was making it difficult to read, so I changed it. I hope you like it.)

Tagging: @brewsthespirit-blog @gameofwinters @fairytalesexistxx @aikibriarrose @esoltis280 @jotink78 @iwillbeinmynest @mala-firebringer

[pitubea1910]

Holy Shit

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader (platonic)

Featuring: Wanda Maximoff, Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson, Bruce Banner

Words: 2879

Warning: -

Tags: @vashanatasha @timeislove16 @esoltis280

Request: requested by anonymous:

“Can i request a bucky x reader platonic where the reader is buckys granddaughter and she's steve's best friend too and they discover it when the reader gets hurt and her blood shows she's related to Bucky? Maybe they act very similarly and the reader and steve mock him about it? If you can, that would be lovely 💞 –N”

Notes: -

MASTERLIST

Your first year as an Avenger had been a success. At the beginning you didn’t really trust yourself but with the daily training with Steve, you soon found yourself getting stronger, your endurance improved and your fighting skills too. It was exhausting but when you were allowed to go on your first mission, you would have never changed the feeling for anything. This was your place, this was your duty and this was what you lived for. Plus, you had found your family in the team.

Thanks to your daily training sessions with Steve, you two grew closer and closer every day, until you two ended up becoming best friends. You were always together, every single day. He was your confident. Bucky was really close to you as well but in a different way, he was more protective, more like a brother to you, the brother you would always tease and annoy. That was Bucky. Tony was like a father to you. He always made sure you were okay during missions and also when you were just at home, it didn’t matter how many times you got on his nerves, you were his girl. Bruce had taught you so much about everything since you first arrived at the compound. His work was the most interesting thing you had ever seen and you loved spending time with him at his lab, listening to him mumbling about biology, chemistry, and so on. For some people it could be boring, but for you it was fascinating.

Your bond with the girls, Natasha and Wanda, was unbreakable. You would spend days together, in Wanda’s room, gossiping about everything that was going on around you. You would have girls day at the cost of Tony’s credit card and you had your weekly movie night. Your relationship with Peter was like the one you would have with a young brother. You were always there for him to help him with high school stuff, as long as it didn’t involve pure maths since you had no idea about it. And Sam and Thor were your party partners. It didn’t matter how long a day had been, they would always been up for a few drinks that would evolve in a massive hangover for you and Sam while Thor was a fresh as a daisy. It was pretty annoying.

To sum up, you loved your life, you loved waking up to the smell of coffee made by Natasha, you loved cooking with Steve, partying with Steve and Thor, learning with Bruce, but what you loved the most was teasing Bucky. Most people said that teasing Bucky was impossible, that it was like trying to tickle a mountain, but for some reason you always managed not only to get on his nerves easily, but to make him laugh. Wanda said you had a gift but you actually did nothing special.

“Yeah right” Natasha said laughing. Bucky had left the room some minutes ago after you had been teasing him for like 15 minutes about how much he loved his knife. “You two are too alike”

You rolled your eyes and took the cushion that Bucky had thrown at you to hug it. It had been a few weeks since they started saying those things. For some reason, they thought that you and Bucky were related due to some things you did similarly. Like the way you crunched your nose when it itched, the fact that you two loved eating but the only food you couldn’t tolerate were carrots, apparently you had similar fighting styles and many other things besides the blue of your eyes.

“It’s creepy” Wanda chuckled.

“What’s creepy?”  Steve asked coming into the living room from the lab and taking a seat next to you.

“They’re talking about me and Bucky being alike. Again”, you explained with a shrug.

“I noticed it too!” He exclaimed looking at the girls.

“You too?” You asked raising both eyebrows.

“I’m serious”, Steve said.

“That just makes it worse” you sighed leaning against the sofa and put the cushion over your eyes.

“The other day I was in the kitchen making a sandwich and suddenly I heard Bucky’s laugh” Steve explained. “You know, that one when he’s laughing out loud, not chuckling or anything”, he added. Everyone nodded. “And when I came to the living room it was (Y/N) watching Friends”

“You really thought I was Bucky?” You asked taking the cushion from your face.

“It was the same laugh!” Steve exclaimed.

“You guys are nuts” you sighed before getting up. “Those are just coincidences or the fact that I spend too much time with him” you shrugged.

While you walked towards the elevator to go to your room you could still hear them commenting all those things they swore you and Bucky had in common. It was stupid. With a sigh, you walked into the elevator and closed your eyes for a moment, actually thinking about what they said. It was true that sometimes you and Bucky had agreed on things that were too specific but none of them was as freaky as they made it seem. Actually, the only thing that had freaked you out was that when he was little he had lived in the same building in Brooklyn in where you had grown up. But that was just a major coincidence. The doors of the elevator opened and you walked out of it, going straight to your room but you stopped when you heard a door being closed. It was Bucky coming out of his own room.

“Hey there, old man” you smiled with a hand on your doorknob. He was so focused on something he was looking at on the screen of his phone that he hadn’t see you, but he looked up as soon as he heard your voice.

“Oh hey” he smiled. That was nice between the two of you. It didn’t matter how much you teased him. Ten minutes later both of you would behave like nothing had happened.

“Where are you going?” You asked.

“I’m going with Sam to get some ice cream” he shrugged. You raised an eyebrow, already forming the sentence in your brain to make fun of him. “Shut up, okay? He says he has a craving” he laughed.

“Hey, I said nothing” you lifted your hands in the air. “But you two are so cute together” you smirked.

“Fuck off” he laughed, making you laugh as well. He kept on walking towards the elevator and you walked into your room still smiling.

A few days later, on a Saturday morning you had decided to go for a walk around Manhattan. You were in need of some new sneakers for training and having the morning off was the perfect opportunity to get some shopping done. Manhattan was as crowded as always, but after living in New York for your whole life you had learned to move with the masses.

Still, it took you the whole morning to finish your shopping. Of course, it wasn’t because of the sneakers. It took you no time to find some you liked, but you took the chance and started shopping here and there, items you didn’t need but were too cute not to get them. You even bought a wallet for Steve when you remembered he had been complaining for a few days about how old was the one he had and about how he didn’t have time to purchase a new one. You knew he would like it.

When you got back to the compound everyone had already had lunch. Luckily, you had bought some food before coming and had ate it on your way home so you weren’t hungry anymore. Wanda, Bucky, Steve and Sam were scattered around the living room.

“Hey! I guess you bought the sneakers?” Steve asked from the sofa when he show you with three bags on each hand.

“Maybe” you shrugged. “And I got something for you”, you informed putting the bags down before sitting next to Steve and started looking through the bags.

“Is it my birthday?” He chuckled. “Bucky also got me something” he informed you.

“Then you’re just lucky” you chuckled.

Finally you found the bag and gave it to him, not paying attention to his face since you were putting back into the bags the things you had taken out. But when silence surrounded you, you looked up to see Steve holding the wallet you had bought for him a few hours ago. He was looking at it almost laughing, which you didn’t understand.

“What’s wrong?” You asked. “Damn, you already bought it, right? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t buy it” he said, trying not to laugh.

“Then? What’s the secret joke?” You asked as you saw Wanda and Sam almost laughing as well.

“He didn’t buy it…” Bucky said from his spot on the other couch. “I did”, he added.

“What?” You frowned.

Steve smiled and took a wallet from his back pocket and showed it to you. It was the exact copy of the one he was holding on the other hand. Wanda, Sam and Steve started laughing out loud at your face, even Bucky laughed a little, but you were just shocked. It was a coincidence of course, but what the fuck?

“You guys are like twins” Sam said when he stopped laughing.

“We’re not!” Bucky and you exclaimed at the same time, just making the situation funnier.

“Okay, stop it” you laughed this time as well, looking at Bucky. “I got something else! Remember I wanted to frame a photo I have of me and my mum right?” You asked carefully taking out a frame. “I finally found the perfect frame”, you said handing it to Wanda. “I went to that place you recommended me”, you told her.

“It’s beautiful (Y/N)!” Wanda exclaimed looking at the photo you had framed.

“I have never seen you when you were little” Bucky commented, getting up from his spot to join Wanda to look at the photo.

“I was the cutest girl ever” you smirked.

Instead of laughing, or just smiling, Bucky stared at the photo as his face turned white, like he had just seen a ghost. Confused you got up to look at the photo, maybe you had taken the wrong one? Or something had gone wrong when printing it? You took the frame from Wanda’s hands and looked at it. Everything was perfectly fine. The photo showed you when you were seven and your mum. It was your favourite photo from the two of you and probably the only one you had left.

“What’s wrong?” You asked looking at Bucky.

“That’s your mum?” He asked pointing at the photo. You nodded slowly and looked at Steve, like he would have the answer to Bucky’s sudden behaviour. “That…that’s not possible” he frowned.

“What are you talking about?” You chuckled confused.

Bucky did not reply. Instead he just shook his head and hurried towards the stairs. He climbed them two at a time until he disappeared, leaving behind a silence that was only broke when you heard Bucky’s door being closed upstairs.

“Okay, what was that?” Sam asked looking at Steve.

“I have no idea” Steve mumbled getting up as well to take the frame from your hands.

You all heard footsteps upstairs again and then Bucky came back downstairs. This time he was holding a photo on his hand and was looking at him in disbelief. He walked straight towards Steve and took the frame from his hand, looking at the photo he had in his hand and the one on the frame. Slowly Sam walked around the coffee table and stood behind Bucky also looking at the photos. When his eyes opened widely it creeped you out.

“Holy shit” he commented. “How’s that possible?”

“How’s what possible?” You asked taking a step forward.

Sam and Bucky looked at you, astonished, before Bucky gave you both the photo and the frame. Confused as hell you took both of them and looked down, feeling how the air left your lungs immediately. The woman in Bucky’s photo was an exact double of your mother which made no sense at all. Why would Bucky have a photo of your mum?

“What was your mum’s name?” Bucky asked.

“Katie” you quickly replied looking at Bucky, who just looked more shocked than before. “Bucky what the fuck is this?” You asked now getting really nervous.

“Okay, calm down, this is not really possible” Bucky said running a hand through his hair before looking at Steve. “You remember Dot right?” Steve nodded even though no one else understood the question. “A year later after I went to war, even before you enlisted I think, she wrote me a letter. In this letter she said she had a daughter. Our daughter”

“What? You and Dot?” Steve asked now shocked.

“Who’s Dot?” Wanda asked.

“Oh my god…” Sam mumbled as he started to see where Bucky was going.

“A girl I was with before the war” Bucky explained. “We had a daughter and I even got a permission to go and meet her. She was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen” Bucky smiled a little at the memory. “But I had to go back and you all know what happened then”

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Steve asked slowly.

“We named her Katie” Bucky said looking now at you.

This time it was your turn to go white. Was he saying that…? No, it wasn’t possible. It was just another coincidence. A huge one. But in that story there were too many coincidences.

“That can’t be possible” you shook taking a step back.

“Did you ever met your grandparents?” Steve asked looking at you. You shook your head gulping.

“When I…came back” Bucky sighed. “When I became me again, I started doing some digging, trying to find Katie, or at least to know if she was still alive. I found out she had died. Cancer”

Your eyes filled up with tears as pieces kept on coming together. It was hard to believe but your mum had always told you that your grandparents had bought died when she was a teenager, she even told you their names: Dolores and James. But it still wasn’t possible, you couldn’t believe it. But your mum name was Katie and she had passed five years ago after fighting that damn illness for two years. And Bucky’s daughter’s name was Katie and she had also passed out due to the same illness.

“That’s the only photo I have of her” Bucky added pointing at the photograph you were holding.

You and Bucky just stared at each other. Still too confused to process all this information, or to believe it. Wanda, Sam and Steve were looking at the two of you like you were ghosts. They did believe the story but it was still such a long shot that it was hard to believe, but there were too many coincidences.

“Wait a second” Wanda said after a few moments. “When we join the team, we all get out blood tested. I’m sure Bruce can…throw some light into this”

Ten minutes later you and Bucky were at Bruce’s lab. Sam, Wanda and Steve had chosen to stay in the living room, claiming this was something you two had to find out. Telling the story to Bruce wasn’t easy. At first he didn’t believe any of you and thought you were just messing with him, but when you two showed him the pictures he immediately went to the cold chamber where he kept all the biological specimens he used to work with, along with the team’s blood samples in case they were ever needed.

While he was running the test you and Bucky sat in front of each other, looking straight into each other’s eyes, wondering if this was even impossible. If you thought about the timeline it made sense, it was possible. And you swore you were starting to see some of your mum’s eyes in his and some of yourself in him as well.

“Guys” Bruce said. You two looked at him. He had a surprised face but at the same time he was smiling a little. “It is so weird to say it but… you’re related”

Bucky and you looked at each other not knowing what to say or do. Actually some things made sense now. But it was still so strange to think about it. Regardless the confusion, you two found yourselves smiling before you two got up and hugged each other tight. You had been thinking you were alone in the world, that you had no real family left, just like Bucky and now you had just found yourselves living with someone from your family without even knowing about it. It was a blessing.

“So…you’re my granddaughter” Bucky mumbled when you two walked out of the lab.

“Does that mean I have to go easy on you when we train?” You asked looking at him with a smile.

“I won’t go easy on you so… do as you please” he smirked.

“Okay grandpa” you laughed nodding. “Just don’t break a hip” you winked.

[mutantsandmarvels]

gifts from the heart

pairing: pietro maximoff x reader

prompt: “i’d do anything for you.” i’ll run around the entire world just to see you smile.”

summary: pietro is so in love that he ends up being the reader’s secret gift giver.

hello !! i’ve been offline for quite a long time, so please do excuse how bad this fic may be ! anyways i hope you enjoy it and stay heatlyhy and happy !!

love, april

          “Tony” (Y/n) said as she poked the said billionaire. Tony simply shook his head as he continued to rummage through the fridge, looking for something to snack on. “Tony” She said again, followed by another poke. Tony inhaled as he tried to keep his calm, he didn’t want to get mad but she was testing Tony’s nerves. “Come on Tony you-“ Her sentence was cut short as Tony turned around to glare at the (h/c) girl. “What do you want kid ?” He asked as he took out a beer from the side of the fridge, she was giving him a headache. “Did you eat my pudding ?” She asked him, staring directly at his eyes as if she was intimidating him. Tony sighed “If you wanted pudding this entire time you should have asked F.R.I.D.A.Y.” He said as he turned back to the fridge, he grabbed a chocolate pudding cup from Thor’s stash. He held it out for (Y/n) to get but she shook her head “Gross, that’s revolting. I meant my milk pudding. It’s a white cup and says Morinaga.” She said pushing Tony’s hand away from her. “All puddings taste the exact same trust me, besides what’s so special about that pudding ?” He asked, placing the cup back into the fridge and closing it. “It took me forever to find that pudding Tony, I was saving it for a special occasion, never mind I guess I’ll just have to sulk in my room and mourn for my pudding.” (Y/n) rambled before going away from the kitchen. Tony took a sip from his beer and suddenly Pietro appeared in front of him. “How did the pudding looked like ?” He asked rather quickly. “Excuse me ?” Tony asked, confused, all he heard was pudding, a dessert he wasn’t very fond of. Pietro looked from side to side, as if he were making sure someone wasn’t there, before saying “The pudding (Y/n) was talking about ? How did it look like ?”He asked again, clearly impatient. “It was white and it said Morinaga. Why don’t you ask-“ Tony’s statement was interrupted as the speedster disappeared. “God damned youngsters.” Tony mumbled under his breath as he headed back to the lab.

           (Y/n) stared at her laptop, scrolling through an online grocery that specialized in imported goods. “It should be in the dairy section” She mumbled to herself as she scanned the entire page until she reached the end of the site. She threw her pillow across the room out of frustration, “I swear to God, whoever ate my pudding will die a gruesome death. It will be a slow painful-“ Her scheming was cut short by a knock on the door. She grumbled under breath, something along the lines of “I just want to mourn over my pudding”. She opened the door, surprised to see nothing. “People can be so inconsiderate at times.” She mumbled as she proceeded to close the door, well until she saw something on the floor. It was as if a miracle came down from heaven and decided to take form in front of her, there was a pyramid of white pudding cups, her favorite milk pudding with the note that said “Enjoy”. “Oh my god” She shouted as she began to jump around in the halls, she was practically raised from the dead as she took one of the pudding cups, she pulled the top open and took the plastic spoon that came with it as she began to stuff her face with the milky white goodness. After she finished her pudding, (Y/n) smiled to herself. “Wait, where did this come from though ?” She thought to herself as she held the empty cup in one hand. Suddenly she realized who her benevolent gift giver was. She placed the empty cup in the trash can in her room and grabbed a jacket and another pudding cup, she walked towards the elevator and pressed the button for going down. The doors opened to reveal Pietro standing there, staring down at his phone. She entered the elevator, she looked down and thought of something to say. There was obviously something going on between her and Pietro, sure he may have flirted with her a couple of times but it was just friendly besides it wasn’t like she was head over heels in love with him, which she was. It took her a couple minutes of awkward tension between them before she said “Do you want this ?” She held up the cup she brought with her as she held it out. Pietro looked up from his phone and stared at the cup in confusion, “I mean, you can have it. It’s my favorite pudding and I thought that it would be great to share it with everyone else.” She started to stutter a bit which great. A few seconds passed which made (Y/n) start to regret her decision but out of nowhere, Pietro chuckled and took the cup. “Thank you draga.” He said, offering her a sincere smile. As he said this, the elevator reached the ground floor. “I’ll see you later ?” She said but it ended up sounding more like a question. She waved at him as she left the elevator and began her journey to the nearest convenience store.

           “Tony” A singsong voice called out. “What is it now ? I’m rather busy.” Tony turned around to see (Y/n) standing by the door of the lab, holding a pack of Tony’s favorite chips.  She gave him a giant grin and walked towards him. “What’s this for ?” He asked as she hands him the chips, she simply smiled as she sat on top of one of the many desks. “It’s a thanks for the pudding.” She said as if it was the most obvious thing in the word. She then reached into the pocket of her jacket, taking out one of the many white cups and holding it up in front of him as proof. Tony chuckled “ You’re welcome kid, I guess but I’m not the one who gave you that He said as he opened the chips. Meanwhile (Y/n) stared at him in confusion, “You want ?” Tony asked holding out the opened bag of chips. “What do you mean ? Last time I checked, you were the only person I told about my pudding.” She asked as she took a handful of chips. “Beats me kid, now get out of the lab before Cap has to drag you out for training.” Tony shrugged as he continued to eat his chips

           “It sounds pretty obvious for me” Wanda said as she grabbed one of (Y/n)’s many pillows. Currently the two of them were relaxing in (Y/n)’s room, they were supposed to discuss about their. “Really ? Who do you think it is ?” (Y/n) asked as she moved closer to the brunette. “It’s your secret admirer” She said as she gave her a shit eating grin. (Y/n) scowled as she threw a stuffed animal at Wanda. “Woah no need to get violent, wait isn’t this new ?” Wanda asked as she looked at the stuffed toy, she was pretty sure that (Y/n) never had a stuffed animal that looked like a corgi. “It’s another gift from the admirer, it was outside my door yesterday.” She said as she took out her phone. “It’s super cute, remind me to ask your secret admirer where he got it” Wanda said teasingly as (Y/n) playfully stuck her tongue out at her friend. “But seriously thought, is he cute ?” She question her friend, suddenly serious. “Is that really your first question ? Then again, I can’t really answer because that would be giving you a hint.” Wanda said as she squeezed the pillow. “Unfair, after all I’ve done for you. I’m hurt.” (Y/n) placed her hand on her hurt as she exaggerated her fake hurt. The two stared at each other before bursting out into laughter.

           (Y/n) entered the training room, looking a certain redhead. She wasn’t surprised to see that the training room was almost empty. Aside from her and Natasha , the only people were Pietro and Wanda who were busy with training. “Nat, I need your help” (Y/n) said as she walked towards her. At the sound of her voice, the twins seemed to stop there training, Wanda smirking a bit as she took a sip of her water. Meanwhile Pietro seemed to move a bit closer to the two, as he grabbed a towel. “What is it ?” Nat asked calmly as she unwrapped the tape from her hands, she finished a light training and was about to head to her room to freshen up. “Have you seen my sweatshirt ? I can’t seem to find it anywhere ?” (Y/n) asked her as she swiped through her phone to look for a photo of the said sweatshirt. “Sorry I haven’t seen it around but you’re always welcome to borrow mine though.” Natasha said as (Y/n) showed her the photo. “It’s okay, thank you though” (Y/n) said before walking out of the training room. For the rest of the day, (Y/n) spent every moment tearing apart her room in search of her sweatshirt, it was a sweatshirt from her high school days and it held lots of memories, plus it was super comfy. In the middle of her search, she heard a knock , she ran towards the door. It was pretty obvious that it was her admirer probably leaving her a gift to cheer up, she was rushing to the door not because of the gift but because she wanted to know who the admirer was. Yet she was too late again, as once she opened the door all that was left was a small blue paper bag with a grey note stapled to it. The words “Found it in the laundry room.” were hastily written on the note, she detached it and folded it, placing it in her pocket. She looked inside the bag to see the sweatshirt she spent hours searching. As pulled it out, it had a familiar scent as if it ended up in the wrong closet but the scent was intoxicating. (Y/n) ended up sleeping the said sweater that night.

           It’s been happening for over a month now, gifts appeared every other day outside her door. Aside from Wanda, she was sure that practically everyone else knew who the gift giver was. Tony teased her endlessly, meanwhile Nat simply laughed and gossiped with Wanda regarding the gifts you received. (Y/n) were determined into finding out who her gift giver was. She ruled out Bruce because of Nat and the same reasons with Clint. Thor, Tony and Vision were also an obvious no. Bucky was ruled out because he happened to be gone the same time the gifts started to appear. After some time, she also ended up ruling out Peter mainly because he was very busy with highschool things and homework. Of all the candidates, she was left with Steve and Pietro, it also didn’t help that Wanda and Natasha refused to give her hints. Yet (Y/n) had a foolproof plan, it just had to be put into action. At breakfast where everyone was gathered, she moved closer to Wanda with her tea to make small talk. “Wanda, do you happen to have a copy of Vanity Fair ?” she asked her, knowing that the both of them shared the same taste in books. She also happened to notice that Pietro’s head perked up, yet it could have also been because Tony was calling him regarding the shoes he was making that could withstand all the running that Pietro did. “By Thackeray ? Sadly no.” Wanda said, giving you a soft smile as she continued to spread marmalade on her toast. (Y/n) didn’t notice Wanda’s reply as she continued to observe Pietro, she thought that was stealthily observing him until he gave her wink to which made her stare down at her lukewarm tea. For a top notch spy, she was easily spotted.

           The rest of her day went by rather quietly, she had training and managed to help out in the labs. To her surprise, she hasn’t seen Pietro since breakfast which made her start to question her plan. She was relaxing in her room, cuddling with her corgi pillow as she continued to drown herself in her thoughts. “What happens if it’s actually Steve ?” She thought to herself, she stared at the pillow and began to talk to it. “Well he is nice, but I don’t think I like him that much. I mean he is a gentleman but there’s no spark y’know.” She said to the corgi, as if it could reply. “Then again if it is Pietro, he is nice and he is pretty hot.” She mumbled under her breath as she hugged the corgi closer. She continued her train of thought until she heard the faint sound of running. Excited, she ran to the door and immediately threw it open. Instead of Pietro, she saw Cooper, Clint’s son, looking like a deer in the middle of the road. He was panting slightly, a sign that he was running, he simply smiled at (Y/n) “Hi Auntie (Y/n) !” He greeted rather quickly before continuing to run away, She looked side to side as she began to close the door but she stopped. It turns out the Cooper was running away from the tall blonde that she was expecting. She continued to stare as he offered her a goofy grin, she also happened to notice he was holding a book, with the words “Vanity Fair” gracing the cover in an old looking font. Pietro seemed to notice that she was staring at the book and ended up hiding it behind him. “So I take it that you’re my secret admirer.” She said as she walked closer to him, the corgi pillow, still in her arm as she gave him a bright smile. He chuckled “Surprise, I wanted the reveal to be a bit more romantic.” He said as he scratched the back of his neck nervously. She laughed, a soft melodic sound that seemed to drive Pietro crazy. “This is kinda romantic in a way” She joked lightly. “Well I’ve gotta go so see you around I guess” Pietro said nervously, he wasn’t used to being like this in front of a girl, he was usually confident in his abilities but there was something about (Y/n) that made him like this. He prepared to run off out of embarrassment but he was surprised when she suddenly wrapped her arms around his neck, the corgi pillow falling to the floor. “You know, you’re a dork right, but at least you’re a cute one.” She said as she tiptoed to give him a quick kiss. He blushed as he continued to stare at her, ”So I guess you like me back” He said rather happily with another shit eating grin. She chuckled again “Of course I do you dork.” She said before Pietro leaned down and kissed her again.

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[imaginetonyandbucky]

And Still, You’re Next To Me - Chapter 4/4

Once Bucky stopped freaking out about his relapse, he noticed the only one freaking out was him. No shrieks of horror from the civilians, no glares from the Avengers…Wanda was even smiling at him for fuck’s sake! He knew the Soldier wouldn’t listen to that agent, no matter how many trigger words he had in store for them. Murder’s just not in his nature anymore. He knew, but still freaked about it because in all honesty, he expected Clint to riddle him with arrows the second he snapped into the Soldier.

And then there was Tony, who witnessed the Soldier in his new element many times by now and wasn’t fazed by him coming to the surface at all.

So it took a failed HYDRA attack for Bucky to realize a lot of…interesting things. Concerning Tony. He can’t sleep through the entire night after the attack, mulling over the revelation and devising his next move.

The Avengers beat him to it during breakfast.

Steve approaches him first, apologizing for not supporting him more in the past few months.

Being half-way through his sandwich, he doesn’t really know what to say, completely caught off guard by his absolutely devastated looking best friend so he just nods and waves him off.

“S’not a big deal.”

“Yes it is!” he widens his eyes and keeps apologizing for the remainder of his meal until Bucky finally persuades him it’s fine and forgiven.

Because it is. Since Tony subtly inserted himself in between him and the Avengers’ bullshit – quite literally like a knight in the shining armor – Bucky decided not to dwell too much on it anymore. Of course it hurt. And it was so unfair on so many levels. But with Tony in charge of damage control, the Avengers were slowly coming around and he also shifted his demeanor onto the positive side as a result.

Natasha whips around the corner at one point, giving him a challenging look. “I was a real bitch to you. Wanna spar after lunch and kick my ass for it?”

“Uh…,” he frowns and her look intensifies a hundred fold which is just damn scary. “Yeah, sure.

“Cool,” she nods in approval and disappears again.

One by one, the other members approach him to say sorry – each in their own specific way. Except for Wanda, who is probably not in the apologizing stage quite yet, but at least she’s not all up in his business anymore.

And then there’s Clint, who mandrops on him from the vent in the hallway leading to the elevator some time later.

“Yo, Barnes!”

He’s lucky Bucky doesn’t scare easily these days. No need to let him know that he caught him completely by surprise though. God forbid he’d grow an ego. “Lemme guess. You wanna say sorry by…challenging me to a cook off. Oh wait, no. That was Vision. So, what are we gon’ do?”

Clint’s the surprised one now. He takes a step back and squints. “Guess I’m the last one, huh? Well, I was thinking I’d take you on a tour de Compound, show you all the secret paths and hideaways so we could do some serious spy off later…while profusely apologizing.”

“Sounds like a plan,” he grins at the archer and takes a step forward, but Clint blocks his way.

“Great! So in the spirit of apologizing, you might wanna know that Tony is in the workshop…as usual.”

“O…kay? Why are you - ”

“He’s in the lockdown mode…meaning that he won’t be coming up anytime soon and nobody’s making it past the doors inside either. Unless you know the supersecret password of course,” he smirks. “Which I can tell you.”

“Becaaause…?”

“Because you were heading there anyway? And because he only ever goes into lockdown mode if he’s either in the middle of a scientific breakthrough, or in the middle of a personal crises. My money’s on the second one this time. So you might wanna go…lift his spirits.”

Oh. Who knew Birdbrain - as Tony so loves to call him - was this insightful? He actually thought Hawkeye doesn’t even like Tony very much, and yet…

“Dinner would…lift his spirits. Or a movie night. He likes movies. Especially bad sci-fi ones, those entertain him to no end.”

“Uh, a’right? Why would I - ”

“Because I’m not blind? And only half-deaf, so make a move, Snowflake, before he either drowns in self-doubt, again, or someone else will. Make a move. If you know what I mean.”

Maybe too insightful, for Bucky’s liking. “Okay, fine, give me the damn password, Birdbrain.”

Clint’s shit-eating grin as he tells him the password is probably going to stick for days, that’s how strong it is. But Bucky can wipe if off for him later when he totally owns him in the spy off.

He’s got a date to plan and a man to dig out of a workshop first.

(read-more ahead!)

“This doesn’t look right, DUM-E,” Tony inspects the bot’s handy work. How hard can it be to sort the tools in alphabetical order?! In DUM-E’s case real damn hard apparently, otherwise the welding stuff wouldn’t be put first and the hammer wouldn’t be all the way over there with the screwdrivers. “Wh…why is U and Butterfingers in here too?!”

DUM-E, the little shit that he is, just beeps happily and considers his work done, rolling away from the scene. 

“We’ll be talking about that later young man! You can’t think of your brothers as t - ” he yells after him, but cuts himself off as soon as he spots one very much present Bucky Barnes sitting on the table opposite of the workbench. “Tools. And we’ll be going over your alphabet! You little…should have left you in the Tower,” he mumbles when the only reply he gets is another happy beep that seems to be aimed at Bucky anyway. “How did you get in here?” he looks between the definitely password protected entrance and the…grinning supersoldier. Nope, he’s beaming. He’s been smiling more lately but this is…a suspicious increase by a ton.

He looks happy. And hell if that sight doesn’t do weird things to Tony’s brain.

“Through the door,” he answers, grin widening.

Tony glares at him, folding his hands. “It’s password protected!”

“Yeah,” he nods, still smiling. “One, two, three, four, five is a real good password.”

Son of a…okay, the password is the worst but he didn’t expect the tech illiterates here to crack it and anyone with any tech knowledge would never guess his password to be this shitty.

“Clint gave it to me. I bet he’s spied it off from the AC vent over there.”

“Son of a bitch!” he grumbles out loud this time. Usually, he would go inspect the vent…and rig it with deadly explosives, and then have Fry change the password to something more formidable this time around, but he can’t tear his eyes off of the man in front of him. “What’s with the…,” he waves a hand at the whole of him, realizing he doesn’t know how to describe what he’s seeing. It’s a bit weird to ask ‘oh hey, why are you looking so damn happy?!’. And what the hell is he wearing?! A beige shirt?! Since when does he own colors other than black?! And those jeans he totally got from whoever Steve stole his pair of the all too fitting ones years ago. What’s with supersoldiers never wearing their actual clothing size?!

He’s dressed to kill. Not the assassin kinda killing.

“All the…what?” he smirks and that’s it.

That’s the end of Tony, right there. “The uh…you’re…smiling. Like…a lot,” he stutters out, willing his thoughts to behave.

“Had a good day. A really good day,” he adds.

“Yeah?”

“Uh huh,” he hums an octave lower than should be legal and continues to just stare at Tony. “Had five club sandwiches for breakfast along with seven heartfelt apologies from the team and then Wanda took me shoppin’. And didn’t kill me on the way there or back so yeah, that’s my definition of a really good day.”

Tony’s brain takes a minute to stop conjuring dirty thoughts and then processes what he’s just said. “Wait…apologies? They apologized? The team?” he shakes his head, holding a finger up. “No no no, never mind that, but Wanda took you shopping?!” he blurts out and Bucky nods. “Wanda…are we talking about the same Wanda? Are you sure? You’re not hallucinating or anything?” he asks but the man only gives him more nods and wider damn smirks. “Am I hallucinating? Or drunk?”

“Your haven’t drunk anything, boss,” FRIDAY reassures him. “Including water, by the way. And I can confirm that Sergeant Barnes did actually go shopping with Ms. Maximoff. Without any incidents.”

So if he’s not drunk or losing his mind…that means the Avengers really did apologize to Bucky and Wanda took him shopping…what?!

He decides solving the mystery behind those actions is not the priority right now and focuses on the result instead. The happy, grinning result standing just over there and looking at Tony like he’s the Sun and Bucky’s the Winter and he can’t get enough of the warmth.

Yep, his brain is so done for. 

He relaxes his tense posture and slowly cracks a smile of his own. “Wow…was about time they got their heads out of their asses. You better not be letting them off too easily, especially the SHIELD twins.”

“Nah,” he shakes his head. “I’m happy with the way it turned out…no vengeful thoughts in mind. Yet,” he shrugs. “Besides, I’m gonna be too busy anyway.”

“Busy?” he tilts his head to the side, eyebrows raised. Busy doing what, looking like a new deadly sin?

“Yeah. Busy inviting a guy to dinner to thank him…for a lotta things.”

“Oh?” Oh…okay, sure. A thank-you dinner. Awesome. Very…friendly. And appropriate. And is it too late to fly into a black hole in the sky and disappear forever? He hopes not.

“And when the thank you’s part is done, I’m thinkin’ we forget the food and just…make out. Hoping the Soldier won’t go berserk because of the spaghetti he’s made are going cold in the background,” he says with a flare of confidence Tony didn’t think he possessed.

“Oh really? S’what you’re thinking?” he asks, trying to look and sound uninterested but failing miserably. He can’t stop the excitement and he can’t stop the smile.

“Unless I got this all wrong…me and the whole team, by the way…then yeah. That’s what I’m thinkin’.”

Tony’s brain snaps back into action and with one swift motion to the side of the workbench, he shuts down the project he’s been pretending to work on through the night. “Why don’t we forget the thank you part and just make out on the way up to the kitchen and eat? Wouldn’t wanna make the Soldier angry, would we?”

“That’s a great idea,” he chuckles, leaning away from the table.

Tony walks up to him with a smirk and winks. “Been full of great ideas lately.”

“Yeah, you have,” Bucky’s grin eases into a gentle smile and it’s the final thing that wipes all the fears and doubts away from Tony’s mind.

They move in for the kiss and Tony has to quickly forget about the damn Birdbrain, who he’s gonna have to thank for all this later. And then promptly kill him for spying on people from the vents.

But for now, he’ll enjoy the moment, the kiss, the dinner and the man whose smile is definitely gonna be the death of him.

~Fin

[diinofayce]

Like A Whisper In The Night - 13

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x OFC (Layne Hardin) | Word Count: 2,613 | Warnings: Swearing probably, fluff, angstyfluff? | PREVIOUS CHAPTER

The group all settled around the kitchen table, Wanda and Vision serving everyone large bowls of a yellow meat sauce over rice. It had the consistency of curry, but was much sweeter and very rich. Layne picked at it and mixed it around in her bowl as she tried to get the first few bites to sit calmly in her rolling stomach, it had been over a week since she had eaten anything substantial, but she wanted to show the team that she could handle herself. It was Bucky, who watched her with intense eyes from across the table, that finally stood and went over to the fridge. He came back with a small pack of applesauce and a spoon, ripping off the tinfoil lid and setting it down in front of her and pulling her bowl of Wanda’s lunch to him.

“Small bites, doll,” Bucky said softly. Layne flushed and cast her eyes around the table, the others acted like they didn’t notice and so Layne sent Bucky a timid smile of gratitude. He smiled back and dumped the food from Layne’s bowl into his and Steve’s.

Layne took tiny slow bites of the applesauce, finding that sat way better in her stomach as she picked at the torn flesh on her knuckles, the android laying torn apart on the floor behind them.

“Are we going to tell me what is happening?” Thor finally asked through a mouthful of rice.

Steve cleared his throat and wiped his mouth off on a napkin, trying to collect his thoughts on how to best go about explaining everything the God of Thunder had missed. It was Layne who reached over Natasha to her left to extend her small battered hand to Thor.

“I’m Layne Hardin; I take over people’s minds, make them tell the truth, and can make them relieve their worst memories. This is my friend Susanna Sweet, she is not an Avenger, but she did a very good job holding down Hulk for me so I could force Bruce back in control the other day so we might keep her.” Sue choked a little on her food and elbowed Layne softly in the ribs which she ignored. Thor blinked at Layne for a moment before taking her hand in his large meaty one and shook it furiously.

“Excellent! A great addition,” he boomed. He looked over at Susanna to Layne’s right and smiled. “You held down the big green guy? That is fantastic. We must battle later.”

Layne smirked as she saw Sue go a brilliant shade of red out of the corner of her eye and continued to pick at her applesauce.

“Um. Yeah. I’m not planning on staying much longer,” Susanna waved him off, trying to deflect. “I’m just staying to make sure Layne is back on track and then I have a job to get back to.”

“So if I stay a hermit you wont leave?” Layne teased, giving her friend puppy dog eyes. Sue chuckled and shook her head, already more than overly familiar with Layne’s antics.

“You mentioned something about her brother?” Thor asked Steve and Layne bristled.

Steve and Bucky both carefully watched Layne’s reaction as she froze at the mention of her sibling down in lockup. She shook herself slightly and went back to eating her applesauce and staring intensely at the table as if it was the most fascinating thing in the room.

Steve licked his lips before proceeding with caution. “Yes. Layne’s older brother is also an Inhuman, they seem to have similar powers based on a hereditary chain. He is also quite knowledgeable in the world of robotics and it seems he has been making androids to look like that woman. She’s the daughter of the scientist who experimented on the Maximoff twins,” Steve answered. Wanda shifted uncomfortably at both the reminder of Dr. List Sr and her deceased brother.

Thor had a small frown on his face and he looked across from him to address his brother. “Why did you not contact Heimdall to send me to you sooner?” Thor asked and Loki shrugged.

“A good thing I refrained, brother. Who would have been there to defeat that,” Loki replied sounding bored as he motioned to the pile of scrap behind them.

A clatter of silverware came from one end of the table as Tony put his fork down and wiped at his face with the napkin from his lap. “What I’m curious about, Hardin, is how come when you gave us a debrief on your brothers abilities you didn’t tell us he could also take over minds and bodies like you can.” He was, of course, referencing the trouble her brother caused when he took over Steve’s body on their arrival back to the tower.

Layne squeezed her eyes shut, she was hoping no one would realize and it would never come up. That was a bleak hope, though, as she was surrounded by people who only survived by being extremely observant. “Because he couldn’t,” Layne answered quietly. “Just like I knew absolutely nothing about robotics or mechanical engineering or any of that until last week.”

Tony squinted his eyes at her and chewed on the little patch of hair on his bottom lip. “Care to expand on that?” he retorted.

“As soon as Ava List attached this enhancer to my brain it was like it caused a neuro-sync with Daniel. If you closed all the blinds I could probably disappear into the shadows like he can. But I can tell you that he’s baking under the lights you’re pouring into his room, how he’s slowly going insane because he can’t sleep because of them. I know what you’re feeding him every day, I can feel that he’s chewed his fingernails down to the quick and has resorted on chewing on his skin around them, and I know that he’s planning his escape even though it’s futile. As soon as I looked at that android I knew exactly how he built it, I knew what was important, what to remove so it can’t be activated, that Thor only did artificial damage and that it was a ticking time bomb until I pulled that chip out,” Layne’s chest was heaving as she worked herself up to a panic attack. It was Bucky’s hand reaching across the table and wrapping around her wrist that gave her something to anchor to and calm down.

The team looked at her with dropped jaws and wide eyes, Layne flushed and covered her eyes with her hand to block them out.

“So  you gained each other’s extra abilities?” Natasha asked, trying to wrap her head around everything.

Layne lowered her hand and chewed on her bottom lip in thought. “It…doesn’t feel like an extra ability? It feels like it was supposed to be something I could do and that he could do…we just I don’t know…learned our abilities differently?” Layne tried to explain.

“Like a video game,” Sam piped up. “You have the same skill tree, but you both went down different branches of it, but once you have the skill points there’s no reason you can’t unlock that branch.”

Layne nodded. “Yeah. Exactly. It’s like we combined our skill points.”

“This means that Daniel has knowledge of everything we’ve been working on in the lab. The super solider serum, my problem with the big guy, even data on the blood that Loki donated,” Bruce commented, looking worried. Layne sighed and nodded in confirmation. “Can you…delete…memories?” Bruce asked.

Layne shrugged. “Like extract a memory permanently?” She thought back to her ex-boyfriend back home, how he followed her around for months showing up at her apartment and work until she had basically wiped herself from the grid. Until he found her again and she snapped, delving into his mind and pulling out every memory of their time together and destroying it. She thought about him sitting in the mental health ward at the hospital as he drooled down his shirt. Maybe it was the sheer quantity, taking out two years worth of memories, or maybe it was her erratic emotional state when she did it either way she wasn’t looking to repeat it.

“I can, but it’s too risky,” Layne conceded. “I’ve done it once, the results were less than satisfactory.”

Bucky studied Layne’s face carefully, watching the emotions flick through her eyes with her recollection. He watched as she picked her words, Bucky didn’t know if she had always been so flippant or if this was a new development to her personality. His gaze flickered over to Susanna who didn’t seem concerned in how Layne was acting so he chocked it up to just another aspect of Layne he wasn’t familiar with. Layne had this way of skirting around her truths, she never lied but would never go out of her way to give details unless pressed. It was something that Tony had noticed months ago with her, always demanding her to ‘expand’ or ‘explain further’ and she usually would without a second thought. It just made Bucky wonder into her past, what had happened that Layne only ever spoke in halves?

Layne could feel Bucky’s eyes locked on her, his gaze burning into the side of her face as she talked to Bruce and Tony. She clenched her jaw in discomfort and finished the last bit of her applesauce before flicking her gaze to his. Her caramel eyes were rimmed with amber fire and Bucky quickly looked away, knowing he’d been caught.

“When do I get to see Danny?” Layne asked suddenly, setting her spoon down gently.

Bucky and Steve looked at each other, Steve then turned to Tony who shrugged. “Whenever you want, Layne,” Steve answered softly.

Layne stood, pushing her chair back. “Excellent. He’s in lock up five, right?” She turned and strutted off without waiting for confirmation. Bucky immediately stood and glared at Steve before rushing off after her.

Thor clapped his hands on the table, a broad smile taking over his face. “So, Lady Susanna. About that battle?”

~*~

Bucky rushed into the elevator with Layne before the doors closed. “What do you think you’re doing?” Bucky asked more harshly than he meant to. Layne’s face bunched up and she took a deep breath before answering carefully, her tone clipped.

“Going down to see my brother. What are you doing?”

Bucky slammed the emergency stop button on the elevator and Layne sighed, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning against the railing. She was preparing herself for the lecture that she was sure was coming. Layne knew she did herself a disservice by locking herself away in her room because now everyone was treating her like fragile glass. Which she kind of felt like, but at the same time she was determined to stay glued together and just be normal functioning glass. Or maybe just chipped, relatively okay glass.

What she did not expect was for Bucky to cradle her face with his hands and crash his lips into hers. The taste and feel of him immediately overwhelmed her senses, she unfolded her arms and grabbed onto his waist, pulling him flush against herself as she opened her mouth to him to taste him further. Bucky kissed her desperately, holding onto her for dear life like he was afraid she would disappear. Layne let Bucky take control, his tongue brushing against hers and his thumbs sweeping over her cheekbones. He slid his flesh hand up and tangled itself in her hair, his metal hand sliding down her body to rest at her hip. Bucky pulled away, realizing they both needed to breath, but bit softly at her bottom lip with his departure.

“I have never been so afraid in my life,” Bucky said suddenly, his voice deep and rough. He opened his ice blue eyes to stare deep into Layne’s warm brown ones; he held onto her like a life line, as his eyes roved her face memorizing every line, freckle, and scar. The way her lips were red and swollen from him and the way her blood had rushed to her cheeks in surprise, how silky her hair felt in his fingers and how warm her skin was beneath his metal thumb as it traced up under the hem of her shirt.

“Of the elevator?” Layne asked dumbly, her brain failing to catch back up after the sudden attack of one James Buchanan Barnes.

“Of losing you. Of not being able to tell you I’m an idiot and ask you to go on a date with me. Of never being able to kiss you again. Of not getting a chance to try to do something right for the first time in a really long time.”

Layne took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Yeah, but you found me.”

“Because of you. We were failing at every corner, I don’t want to fail when it comes to you.” Bucky removed his hands from Layne and set them on the railing on either side of her and taking half a step back so that he could lean down and rest his forehead on Layne’s shoulder.

Layne reached up and threaded her fingers through Bucky’s hair, fiddling with the hair band absentmindedly. “Bucky…I am less afraid of anything Hydra can do to me than I am of hurting you. Of fucking this entire thing up so horribly you’d never look at me again,” Layne confessed, her heart aching in her chest. “I’m like a poison when it comes to relationships.”

Bucky turned his head so his face was pressed against Layne’s neck, he inhaled the soft blackberry and vanilla scent of her body wash and the mango of her shampoo, she basically always smelled like a smoothie and it was one of his favourite things. “You can’t poison a relationship, doll. I adore you exactly as you are. I just want to be allowed to be the person that gets to watch you go and become the greatest, truest version of yourself. Because I think you’re swell and beautiful and strong and I would be beside myself if I got to call you my girl.”

Layne’s heart was pounding in her chest at his proclamation. Everyone in her life had always tried to change her, to mold her into their perfect idea of Layne Marie Hardin. No one had ever said ‘I think you’re exactly how you should be’, not even close. She was never smart enough, or pretty enough, or thin enough, or witty enough. And here was this broken boy soldier telling her that she was swell. Tears fell from Layne’s eyes unbidden and Bucky felt them hit his nose causing him to look up with worry.

“Doll?”

“You’re just the bees knees, James Barnes,” Layne said with a watery chuckle, swiping at her cheeks with the back of her hands.

Bucky looked at her unsure and swiped his thumbs under her eyes to knock the tears off her eyelashes. “Is that you saying you’re going to be my girl or you making fun of me?”

Layne let out a full laugh this time and stretched up to kiss Bucky softly on the lips. “Both. You’re a real stand up guy.”

Bucky blushed furiously and kissed her back, trying to keep the corners of his mouth curving up. “Shut up, Layne.”

“Hey, guys. Whatever is happening is cute and all, but other people need to use the elevator. So if you don’t get this tin box moving I’m going to have FRIDAY over ride it.” Tony voice sounded through the little speaker on the wall of the elevator and Layne smirked, reaching around Bucky to hit the emergency stop button and get the elevator moving again.

NEXT CHAPTER

[avengerscompound]

The Tower: Family - 8

The Tower: Family An Avengers Fanfic

Series Masterlist PREVIOUS //

Pairing:  Avengers x OFC, Bruce Banner x Bucky Barnes x Clint Barton x Wanda Maximoff x Steve Rogers x Natasha Romanoff x Tony Stark x Thor x Sam Wilson x OFC (Elly Cooper)

Word Count: 1534

Warnings:  Pregnancy

Synopsis: With new powers, Thor now living on Earth full time, a wedding to plan, and Natasha and Wanda expecting, a lot is changing for Elly and her large and rather unconventional family.  When Elise’s parents try to reestablish connections, Elly questions what being a family actually means.

Chapter 8: Return to the Tower

Our honeymoon was over too soon, though I couldn’t pretend I wasn’t missing my babies like crazy.  We picked them and the puppies up from Sam’s sister and took them straight to the tower.

It was strange going back to the tower but not in a bad way.  I had a lot of happy memories attached to the building.  This was where I fell in love with my family.  Going up in the elevator, all of us crammed together - we were going home.

The elevator opened up right into the penthouse.  It was a huge open space, the ceiling seemed to start at what would be normally two stories above us and funneled up as it got to the window on the opposite side, so it was several stories of glass overlooking the city and acted as the focal point of the room.  Closest to the window was an open circular sitting area that had a modern chandelier hanging over it.  It was slightly raised and there were plenty of seats for all of us and more to sit around, and despite how large it looked, it also looked cozy and inviting.  In the center of the space, a glass spiral staircase led to the upper floors, and running down the middle of it was a glassed-in fountain, the water running right down the glass.  My immediate thought seeing it was that it would be a great place to put the glass Thor and I had inadvertently made.

Directly to the left and right of the elevator were rooms split into two levels each with stairs running up in a curve along the lower level.  The bottom level of each was a solid wall with large dark wood doors, while the top levels had glass walls.  Along with sculptures and other decorative pieces, there were various paintings, photographs on the solid walls.  None matched and yet they all worked together.  It included things like a Monet, photographs of the city skyline from the early 40s, artwork featuring the Avengers that you could find in poster form at Walmart, and photos we’d taken of each other or the kids, printed onto canvas.

“Alright, so,” Tony said as we spilled into the entryway.  The puppies immediately just took off, running around and sniffing everything.  “On the left, there’s a cinema room on the bottom and games and playroom on the top.  On the right is the kitchen and above it a home gym.”

He led us toward the sitting area.  “The bedrooms are all upstairs,” he said as we passed the stairs.  “I cut the number for us down to just three.  One big family one and two spares for when we might need space.  There are more kids’ rooms and a nursery.”  We reached the sitting area which brought the rest of the space into view.  On the right was a dining area with a large glass table and a bar at the far end.  To the left was some more entertaining space. Couches, a big-screen TV, and a grand piano.  “There are bathrooms at either end and obviously more upstairs.  What do you think?”

“It’s perfect, Tony,” Steve said.

Clint collapsed down on one of the couches and put his feet on the coffee table.  “I think to celebrate our triumphant return to the city, we should order a bunch of pizza.”

“What a surprise that you’d suggest that, Clint?”  Natasha said, sitting down next to him.

“What?  Pizza is good,” Clint argued.

“You heard the man, FRIDAY,” Tony said.  “You know what we like.”

“Yes, sir,” the AI replied.

“Where’s dis?”  Riley asked as she walked over to the window and pressed her face against it.

“This is our new home,” Tony answered.  “What do you think?”

“Dis isn’t home,” Pietro said.  “No…”

“Oh, honey,” Bruce cooed, going down on one knee and drawing Pietro close with one large green hand.  “We still have the other house and this one means you get to go to a nice school.”

“But I wike da outside.  Dis too high up,” Pietro sobbed, his lip quivering.  “And my books.”

“Come here, bumblebee,” Bruce said, scooping him up.

Pietro started crying and hid his face in Bruce’s arm.  “I wanna go home.”

Bruce carried Pietro over to the window.  “Your books and toys and clothes are all in your bedroom.  We can take you to the park and look - look at all the things you can see up here.”

Pietro poked his head up from where he was hiding it in Bruce’s arm.  “So much,” he said in a hushed voice.

“Pretty cool, huh, buddy?”  Clint said.  “And there’s a garden just downstairs with a slide and even a pool.  We can go there every day with the puppies.”

“This is where your new brothers and sisters will be born and where you’ll start making lots of friends who are your age,” Bruce soothed.

“Kids?”  Riley asked.

“Daddy Tony worked really hard on your bedrooms too,” Bruce said.

“It’s true,” Tony agreed.  “Your bed is up in the roof and has a special walkway to it, so it looks like your bed is in a tree.  And Riley’s looks like a pirate ship.  And if you don’t want to sleep in different rooms, that’s okay, because the wall can move the wall and you’ll be in the same room.”

“An’ my books are hewre?”  Pietro asked.

“Yeah, all your books are here,” Bruce assured him.  “Will you give it a go?  For us?” 

“Otay,” Pietro said, softly.

“Why don’t we all have a nice movie night?”  Steve suggested.  “We can make some popcorn and eat our pizza while we watch Frozen.”

“Yeah!”  Riley said, bouncing over to him.  Steve scooped her up and spun her upside down, making her squeal loudly and a breeze pick up in the room.

“Then let's go make some popcorn!”  He carried her out to the kitchen, and Bruce followed after him carrying Pietro.”

“So, how’s this gonna work?”  I asked, taking a seat on the couch.  “I mean, staff wise and going into work.”

“Well for starters, you’re not doing Avengers stuff while you’re pregnant, so you don’t have to worry about going into work,” Tony said, folding his arms over his chest.

“If I knew you were going to be such a pest, I wouldn’t have said yes,” I snarked.

Clint snorted.  “Like you didn’t know he was going to be like that.”

“We all do agree though.  You guys need to take it easy while you’re pregnant.  No missions and backing off on the training,” Sam said.  “Even Nat.”

Natasha shrugged.  “It’s true.”

“Traitor,” I pouted.

“The labs are still here, including your one,” Tony said.  “You can still do that, and I’m going to focus more on R&D over Avenging too.”

“Fine,” I huffed.

Clint started laughing and he put his arm around me and pulled me close.  “You’re worse than the twins.”

“The landing bay for the Quin is directly under the garden,” Tony said.

“And there are offices here as well as the training arena.  So we’ll keep up with what we can here, and when we’re needed we’ll use the Quin,” Sam said.  “Probably one or two of us will go over to the compound every day, but by Quin, it’s only a half-hour.  Hopefully, it starts running without us being there all the time and we’ll just be desk-jockeys unless it’s something big.  And then with all the new enhanced popping up, hopefully, we can basically bow out of the hero-ing game and focus on the training and parenting game.”

“That’ll be good,” Bucky hummed, stretching back on the couch and putting his hands over his head.  “Maybe I can go back to school.”

“That would be wonderful, Bucky,” Wanda said.  “This could be a chance for all of us to get the things we missed out on.”

I smiled and hummed, curling into Clint’s side.  “We’ll almost be normal.”

“There ain’t nothing normal about us,” Clint said, pulling me close.

“We may not be normal, but we are happy,” Thor said.  “That is better.”

“Yeah, it is, you big softie,” Sam teased.  Thor laughed, pulling Sam close and kissing his cheek.

“The pizza has arrived, do you want security to bring it up?”  FRIDAY announced.

“Yes, please, FRIDAY,” Sam said,

Steve came out holding both the twins and he was followed by Bruce who had a huge bowl of popcorn in one hand and a box of soda’s under his arm.  “Come on you lot,” Steve announced.  “Time to have some family time with our kiddos, who we missed so much.”

The kids giggled and kicked their legs and we all got up and followed after them.  The pizza arrived as we were heading into the cinema room.  Clint and Sam collected it and Bucky called the dogs along.  They immediately followed him into the darkened room thanks to his new powers and jumped up onto the recliners with the kids.  As I settled into the large reclining seat and Wanda tucked herself into my side, pulling a blanket over both of us, I relaxed.  It was good to finally be home.

// NEXT