#he put on that stone mask to avenge the family he loves but killed his sister in the process because she sided with the pillarwoman

[foodlesoodlesdoodles]

Rising Suns Joel Arc, the year 2021 (he’s gonna fucking kill you edition)

[oswildin]

that's why I loved the loki series, I'm sick of all the hate that it gets just because loki is different. It's called character growth people! I mean I love all versions of loki. He was awesome in the movies but I also loved him in the show and the finale really made him one of the top 5 best mcu character for me.

Don’t get me wrong, the show isn’t at all perfect, but nothing is! I do feel it could’ve done with 8 episodes per season to really show the progression more of Loki’s character, deal and address some of his past trauma and accepting his true heritage etc (which I suppose they touch on or it is implied, but for the sake of plot they did kinda brush it aside). It did feel a little quick to happen, but again he was just plucked from his timeline and shown his whole life, so I suppose the reality set in pretty quick for him.

I think a lot of people cling onto Avengers!Loki (like I get it, trust me haha) a little too much, when realistically he was wearing a mask (I also am not a ‘Loki was mind controlled’ truther. He knew what he was doing and why he did it. I think the circumstances and possible slight influence of the mind stone just egged him on though). He was extremely angry and hurt during the end of Thor and in Avengers, hell even the beginning of Dark World. He even says it himself:

“Trust my rage.”

I suppose in the series, S1 Loki is just so defeated in a way because he realises that ‘nothing matters’, because it is all set out for him. Loki was never evil, did he do bad things? Yes, but he was not evil.

“No one good is ever truly good, and no one bad is ever truly bad.”

The people in the series around him help him grow, realise his potential beyond the expectations and limitations himself and others had put on him. Classic!Loki helps him realise he is more powerful than he realised, Kid!Loki makes him realise he could’ve actually been capable of killing his own brother, Sylvie gives him motivation to be better, to fight for something that matters and Mobius makes Loki see he can be whatever he wants to be, he doesn’t always need masks and illusions.

S2 Loki feels he has something worth protecting, a chosen family if you will. He knows he can’t go back to his timeline, and he failed to protect his mother, he failed being worthy in the eyes of his father, and he failed to see how Thor truly did care for him on the sacred timeline. So now… He’s determined to change that. We still see glimpses of the many facets of his character, S2 EP2 with his ability to be the Loki/God of Mischief people expect, S2 EP 5 with his selfishness and of course the finale where he reaches his ‘full potential’ so to speak.

‘Sentiment is a weakness’ has always been something Loki said or thought he believed… When in reality, sentiment drove all of his actions in the films. And that is mirrored in the series too.

Loki didn’t just suddenly become ‘soft’, it was always there, he just convinced himself that he wasn’t the same as his brother because he wasn’t like his brother… But if you strip everything back, the truth is he is just a ‘scared little boy’, as Mobius put it, who in the past latched onto what he knows best - chaos and mischief.

I cannot comment on the reasons people hate the show when it comes to the complexity of Norse mythology being used for his character, I am not well versed in it enough. I also enjoyed the Sylvie and Loki storyline - especially the complexity of S2 and their clashes. And I also enjoy Mobius and Loki’s bond and how they both helped one another grow. I don’t care about ships particularly, and I certainly don’t let it affect my opinion on the show because of that reason. Plus, I do love Sylvie as a character.

But as a MCU Loki fan, who has grown up with him since Thor1/Avengers, I think the show just expanded upon the character we finally got to see more of in Ragnarok/Infinity War. Tom even said himself that Loki has variety, he ‘plays all the keys’… Loki is never going to be one thing. And I love that about him, it’s what makes him interesting.

I could really go on and on but uh… I better not. Sorry, the special interest was really special interesting here lmao. 💚

Edit: would like to add that people who dislike the show for whatever reasons are entitled to dislike it, just as I’m entitled to enjoy it!

[river-bottom-nightmare]

Reverse batfam headcanons please centred on dickiee

i think about this entirely too often but yes yes of course.

languages were simultaneously the most simple and most complex thing dick had ever encountered in his long nine years of living. everyone in circ d’caleé spoke multiple different languages, and they'd lived in each other's shoes for so long that the travelling troupe developed their own little language, a mixture of everything and anything that could be understood. in addition to that, everywhere they went, dick picked up local dialects and accents with a tip of a hat and flip of his feet. of course, that made it a bit difficult to properly communicate when he had to live with the waynes. while bruce, tim, and jason could speak a smattering of other languages, english was what they defaulted to first and foremost. damian was fluent in both arabic and nepali first and formost, those just happened to be two languages that dick didn't speak very fluently. cassandra was just now getting the hang of spoken language with a bit of sign language thrown in. so the first few months of dick's shiny new home in wayne manor, everyone fumbled around words and phrases and vague gestures until they settled into hesitantly speaking french and attempting to convince dick to learn fluent english.

jason didn't like having a younger brother, he didn't. especially since that little brother was dick grayson. after all of the heartbreak and loss and weight of malediction bruce had lived with his entire life, jason could almost proudly say that he was one of the few people in the world to drive bruce out of his head, to get him to smile while taking jason out for ice cream, to sit him down and watch football with him, to make him laugh. and then here comes this upstart little brat who couldn't keep both feet on the ground for the life of him and thought football was actually soccer and who could make bruce laugh like it was fuckin' easy. who could so easily clamber up bruce's shoulders for a hug and beam as bruce ruffled his hair and sob into bruce's chest in the middle of the night when everyone was supposed to be asleep. jason had spent years coaxing bruce out of his shell, step by painful step, and dick made it happen with two backflips and a cheeky pun. it made jason's blood boil, the way dick never appreciated what he had, what he could do. the brat had taken to following him around, both in the cave, staring with awe as jason went through training routines, and in the manor, hopping into an armchair and asking jason to read a book aloud for him. it was irritating, just like it was irritating when dick popped jason's latest baking experiment into his mouth and loudly exclaimed how utterly delicious it was, just like it was irritating when dick dragged him to the aerial set bruce had installed in the batcave and asked him to watch his new routine. no matter what the rest of jason's stupid family said, dick was definitely not growing on jason. they could take their smiles and coos over the two "babies of the family" and shove them up their asses.

dick didn't understand why exactly bruce was so overprotective over the smallest things. he never let dick travel anywhere alone, regardless if it was as far away as france or as close as the one gelato place left in gotham. it was so unfair, because dick heard that bruce let jason run off to ethiopia of all places, and only went after him because cass had told bruce about it the minute jason left. he never let dick hang out with his friends, no matter how much dick asked to have a sleepover at wally's or go hang out with donna. on the rare occasions he said yes, they were only allowed to come to the manor. it was unreasonable, because bruce let tim run wild with young justice, despite the stories of tim going crazy after everyone in his team had died. tim wasn't crazy, as far as dick could tell, just a little paranoid and high-strung. also everyone on his team was alive, so dick didn't know what roy was talking about. cass didn't really want to go out anywhere, preferring to stick in gotham with her and tim's friend stephanie, but she had free reign over the city! and dick wasn't allowed to fight any major threats by himself at all. damian had battled deathstroke at his age, and dick was pretty sure damian was still in contact with the league of assassins, but dick couldn't even fight penguin with bruce insisting he be there for backup. he was so overprotective it made dick's blood boil.

being around dick physically hurt tim sometimes. not the crass (yet still somehow funny?) jokes jason made about dick jumping into body-slamming hugs and crash landing into laps so fiercely that even tim could feel it. but it hurt,,,,emotionally, so to speak. dick was just,,,,,dick was so much like stephanie, it ached. to be more specific, stephanie before. steph before she'd desperately bid for bruce's attention and landed herself at black mask's feet for her troubles. steph before the power tools dug her life away bit by bit until she was just gone. steph before she'd come back with green eyes and rage splitting at the seams of her scarred skin. steph before she realized that black mask had killed her and put tim in a wheelchair for the rest of his life for trying to avenge his best friend, and bruce had done next to nothing. tim would sit in his clocktower and force a smile onto his face as dick rambled on and on about the most meaningful of meaningless things, as dick shoved new foods he'd never tried before into his face, as dick laughed loud and bright and clear, trying to forget a time when steph would do the same. she smiles now, grabs lunch with him and cass, wakes up on days when there isn't any green in her vision, but she'll never be who she used to. and tim prays that there never comes a day when dick ends up like her.

dick feels,,,,,isolated sometimes, compared to the rest of his new family. or no, maybe isolated isn't the right word. set apart, maybe, or differentiated. both damian and cass had spent their lives being beat and broken and put back together supposedly stronger than before until they were almost wiped away entirely. steph and jason had both grown up poor and hungry and flinching back from their fathers, bending under gotham's merciless weight. (then steph had died, and come back worse than ever imagined.) tim had grown up lonely, had learned to fend for himself, had turned his name into a half-revered, half-feared whisper even when his legs were taken from him. maybe dick could have related a bit to bruce, but bruce had put himself through so much hardship and so much suffering in an attempt to keep himself from ever being hurt again. in contrast, dick hadn't gone through nearly as much. he'd been happy before the circus came to gotham, happy and cared for and loved. but that didn't mean he couldn't still help. he could sit and listen as they raged, because their anger couldn't touch him; he had no part in it. he could coax out smiles from their stone walls and laugh enough for all of them put together. he could take a name that had previously only been associated with death and heartache and turn it into the light and joy of gotham. he could dust the stillness from the curtains and breathe life back into wayne manor. and that, for him, was enough.

tag list: @woahjaybird @birdy-bat-writes @anothertimdrakestan @subtleappreciation @screennamealreadyused @pricetagofficial @catxsnow @bikoncon @maplumebleue-blog-blog @sundownridge @thatsthewhump @xatanna-troy @red-hood-redemption @capricorn-stark @batshit-birds @comics-observer

[alirhi]

Loki ranting

Okay. I had this thought in my head of like just compiling links of all the Loki shit I've posted/reblogged so far so that when I get into a conversation about the show and how it fucking disgusted me, I can just be like "here. here's this masterlist post, go read all this shit. This is my entire argument, and not only mine, but a lot of stuff posted by people far more intelligent and level-headed and eloquent than I am, whom I happen to agree with." Because the alternative is constantly getting fired up all over again, and that is exhausting.

BUT! I'm stupid and don't know how tumblr works. Apparently I can't just be like "give me all the Loki-tagged shit I've got" I can only search all the Loki-tagged shit on all of tumblr. And I'm not scrolling back through all of my posts. I talk too fucking much for that shit 😂

So, I'll try to remember all of my grievances with how the MCU has treated Loki, and all of the excellent posts made by other, equally upset fans, and put it all together here under this nice, neat little cut for everyone else's sanity and scrolling convenience...

For people who actually read my shit fairly regularly - bless you, you crazy, patient people. I love you! - this is going to be a lot of repetition of shit you've already read. Probably at least twice. I'm passionate and I have a terrible memory lol. Sorry.

Anyway, first, for those who don't know me and haven't been following my explosions of rage for the past couple of months, some quick background: I do not read comic books, so Loki's Marvel comic canon means nothing to me. I know almost nothing about it. The reason I'm so in love with the character in the MCU is because I am an eclectic witch and the deity I've actively loved and worshiped the longest in my life (literally for as long as I can remember) is Loki. So when he was mentioned in The Mask, I squeed. When they named Matt Damon's character after him in Dogma, I cheered.

When Thor came out in 2011, I just about died from happiness. I was hungry for any representation of this underappreciated god, no matter what it was. I didn't even bitch about how underpowered he was, because at least he was there. But I'm getting slightly ahead of myself.

I can hear anyone reading this going "Why Loki? Isn't he, like, evil? Like basically the Norse version of The Devil?" Because I heard all this shit irl all the fucking time. And no. So let me give you a quick rundown of who Loki actually is.

Loki is a Trickster God. He's often referred to as the God of Mischief. He is not and never was evil, simply chaotic and hedonistic. Loki Laufeyjarson was the son of Laufey (that's mama; they changed her to a man for some reason in the movie) and Fárbauti. Right from the start, from his name, we get a sign of how Loki goes against traditional norms of the time, because in Norse culture, families were patrilineal, and surnames were "son/daughter of father" (which would have made him Loki Fárbautitason), not the mother. But Loki's surname is matrilineal. Feminist icon woo! lol

Though he's a Jotunn, Loki is counted among the Gods (Aesir) in Norse tradition. Depending on his mood, he is alternately helpful or disruptive to the other Gods. I'm not gonna sit and teach a whole text class on him lol but I'll use my favorite example of Misunderstood Loki - the conception of Sleipnir!

So, get this shit. This is also part of why I DO NOT follow Odin and never fucking will (a very small part, but still part of the reason). So, the other Norse Gods are petty motherfuckers, and they wanted some shit built but didn't want to pay the dude doing the building. So they were like "okay, if you can get it done in X amount of time, we'll pay you, but if you can't manage it NO MATTER WHAT, this whole thing is free." And they made sure he had NO help, nothing but him, his materials, and his Very Good Horsey. And this guy and his horse were fucking BAMFs. So it was looking like he was definitely gonna get it done in time, and Odin was like "nah, fuck that shit. I'm cheap." and so he sent Loki to distract the work horse. Loki transformed into a mare and lured the horse away, got fucked, got pregnant, gave birth to the 8-legged (for some reason) horse Sleipnir. Odin rides Loki's son into battle. Um. Kay.

So Loki helped Odin be a petty mf, and Odin got himself a new pet out of the deal.

Oh, also, because he's smart af and a shapeshifter and a master magician and genderfluid, Loki "fails" to fit the super fucking toxic and narrow Norse/Aesir view of "a real man". He prefers intelligence and manipulation to solve problems rather than violence, he's not afraid to behave like a clown if it gets shit done, and that grosses the Aesir out, so they constantly ridicule him for being "less than a man".

Loki is the God of the outcast and the misunderstood. The marginalized people from all walks of life. He is the God of the LGBT community. In modern terms, he's pansexual, polyamorous (married to Sigyn and they are deeply in love, but boy gets around and I've never seen any indication that Sigyn gives a shit) and genderfluid.

Okay. Focus, Ali. This is part of why I usually post multiple rants instead of one big long one XD The longer I ramble, the more I get sidetracked and forget the original point.

So. Loki's awesome, and being a Trickster, is powerful as all fucking hell. There's not much he can't do.

And now we come to Thor (the movie, not the deity). Loki's there! 24-year-old Ali is spazzing! All is right with the world!

Oh lord, they've actually done him justice?! Amazing! He's complex and nuanced and emotional, just like the real Loki! I loved this movie. Loved. It. The climactic thing with trying to blow up Jotunheim never really made much sense to me until someone made an excellent point the other day about Loki being raised in a racist society that was racist against his own race, he just didn't know it yet, poor child. Baby Thor was never corrected when he pledged to commit mass genocide, so Baby Loki probably absorbed the lesson then that Jotunns=evil and killing them all will win his father's love. Anyway, 2011 Loki was a beautiful, heartbreaking portrayal of the God I've loved all my life and spent 24 years longing to see depicted on the big screen.

Then The Avengers happened. And I saw another Loki very close to Norse mythology - mainly, how he's treated. In the beginning of the movie, he's sick, exhausted, and in pain. He can hardly stand, he stumbles and needs help when he walks. He was very obviously tortured, and the sickly blue light of the scepter's control is in his eyes. That gets less and less pronounced as the movie goes on, showing Loki working his way free of it, but in the beginning, he's a mess. Because he was tortured and used by Thanos. Marvel directly confirmed this, and that he was under the scepter's/Mind Stone's control. Loki's actions are not his own in The Avengers. He's under both threat and Thanos' direct control. The movie actually shows The Other directly threatening him to keep him on task, because this is not Loki's plan. It is not what he wants. He's being used and villainized... Just like in real life. It hurt to see this done to him, but the accuracy was too beautiful to ignore.

Thor: The Dark World comes out. I've heard people complain that this movie is the weak link in the Thor trilogy. I disagree. I think that's Ragnarok, for a bunch of reasons, but we'll get there. (And for the record, I loved Ragnarok, too. It was a funny movie. Infinity War and the Disney+ series are the only portrayals of Loki in the MCU that I truly fucking hated.) Anyway, good, fun movie. Had its faults, as all movies do, but it still followed Loki's real-life arc in a way. How? By having Loki dragged back to Asgard in chains and imprisoned underground. Again, not super happy that this happened to my love, and having to see it on screen was painful, but at least in the MCU he's not chained to a rock with venom dripping on his face for eternity, so there's that. (poor Sigyn. how tired do her arms get, holding up that bowl? best wife ever, amirite?)

In TDW, we're shown Loki's love for Frigga, who favored him and taught him magic as a child. We see his bravado; his attempts to mask his true feelings, especially grief. We see him slowly coming back to himself after the events of The Avengers, and slowly mending his relationship with his brother. He accepts that Odin will likely never love him, but Thor just might, because they were close when they were young. "I didn't do it for him." No, no my sweet, you did it for your brother, and a little out of guilt for what happened to your mother.

At the end, Loki fakes his death and escapes, taking the throne, and I have mixed feelings about this. Not the writer's choices here; I love that completely! A natural progression in Loki's story. But my joy is tainted by how closely they're following the Eddas now. Because Loki's escape from his prison heralds the beginning of Ragnarok. And Loki will die in Ragnarok. I don't want to see that play out in front of my face. I won't be able to handle the grief (spoiler alert! IW broke me. I almost walked out of the theater. Loki's death was legitimately fucking traumatic for me. I don't even care how pathetic that is. That grief was real, it was intense, and I still shake and cry when I think about it.)

Marvel announces that Thor 3 will be called Ragnarok. The internet treats this as a shocking revelation. I roll my eyes and mumble "duh" to myself and move on XD

Then they say Ragnarok will be a buddy comedy. I throw up a little in my mouth and no longer want to live on this planet. If they're going to make something called Ragnarok, could they at least treat it with even a fraction of the respect they've shown these characters thusfar? Jfc. I mean, I'll see it anyway, because I'm a whore for Tom Hiddleston lol. But come on, people!

I hated that they made Hel the long-lost older sister and Fenrir her fucking pet/attack dog. Those are my favorites of Loki's children! Hel is such an incredible badass that the early Christians named their dimension of eternal torture after her! They were terrified of her, to the point of naming the place that terrified them most after her. That's awesome! And Fenrir's just the best. I love wolves. Those two details, and Odin's retcon of "we're not Gods! ...lol, except your sister. she's totally a Goddess. and def gonna kill literally everything, so... good luck! byyyeeeee" pissed me off royally.

The rest was great. I genuinely liked this movie. Still do. And they finally used The Immigrant Song! That was pretty cool. If they'd thrown in Bring the Hammer Down and Thunderstruck, I might've called this movie perfect. XD

I wasn't totally in love with their portrayal of Loki in Ragnarok. Yes, the falling for 30 minutes line was funny, as was "I have to get off this planet" and "YES! That's how it feels!" And "Get Help" was funny as hell. But also, like... There is no way Loki would have been the dumb one in that first encounter with Hela. Also, he can teleport and project copies of himself and shit, so... He would not have been that desperate to go straight back to Asgard and bring her right along with them. Loki's not stupid. But whatever. Movie's gotta movie.

What I did love was seeing the slow mending of his relationship with Thor continuing, and the badass fighting on the bridge. I also loved that, like Real Loki, Movie Loki helped when help was needed, was quick and clever, and while he was carrying out the main plan, he was also planning ahead and grabbing the Tesseract. Yes, that drew Thanos right to them, but that's a whole other thing. Loki never would have left that thing on Asgard to be destroyed or lost.

And now Infinity War. Hooooly fucking shit. You know what? No. I'm not going into this. He was killed, years of character growth were erased forever, my heart fucking shattered. The end.

Endgame. IW hurt me so bad I didn't see Endgame until this year. I actually watched Civil War first (for context: I had actively avoided all Cap movies until this year because I fucking hate Steve Rogers. I find him insufferable. Did not realize what I was denying myself until I watched CW and finally saw the charms of Bucky. When he appeared in IW, I was so lost. XD I was like "...who dis? Murder Jesus?" also I just... didn't care. I was numb by then from crying through most of the movie over Loki)

So, anyway. Endgame. Loki picks up the Tesseract in alternate 2012, escapes, fans go "yay! he didn't actually die!" I go "yes he fucking did. Five years of his life, gone. Five years of growth and change, erased. Loki is dead. This will not be the same."

I was more right than I could have predicted. Now we come to the point of this rant. Sorry it took so long, but you were warned lol.

The Loki series makes me so angry I actually get sick to my stomach. It was fucking TRASH. When I praised Marvel for following Norse mythology so faithfully earlier? Yeah. I DID NOT MEAN TREAT HIM THE WAY THE OTHER GODS DID. I did not mean paint him as a pitiful clown, a joke, a caricature of who he truly was, with his pain and suffering played for LAUGHS.

This is supposed to be 2012 Loki, newly freed from Thanos' control. The Loki we saw in the beginning of TDW - snarky, exhausted, nihilistic. The Loki who rolled his eyes and said "get on with it" expecting to be killed.

The bumbling clown flipping on a dime from posturing to calling himself weak is not 2012 Loki. That is not ANY Loki. That is Tom Hiddleston in a black wig doing what he's told by a shitty writer who had no fucking idea what he was doing and was salty about his (bad) original script (for something totally fucking unrelated) getting killed.

In Episode 1, Loki is mocked, imprisoned, stripped against his will, tormented, belittled, and given a flippant summary of all the trauma Actual MCU Loki suffered that this one skipped out on, with no context, no acknowledgement of the trauma he's already lived quite fucking recently, and with the narrative twisted to not only erase all the abuse he's suffered, but to make it all his fault. And this is supposed to make him want to help these people?

And worse, IT FUCKING WORKS. WHAT?! I CAN'T- FUCKING WHAT?! Remember when I said LOKI IS NOT FUCKING STUPID?! So why is he STUPID?

Episode 2, he's a child. Mentally, this Loki is a fucking child. Now we've erased all the growth and development of his entire adult life. He's dopey, impatient, impulsive, desperate for a pat on the back and actually shows it. Yes, abused and neglected children crave the positive attention we never received, and we often grow up to be a bit emotionally stunted. But not all of us, and not Loki. Not as we've seen him EVER in the rest of the MCU. Playful and a bit callous at times? Absolutely! But not a big dumb fucking puppy.

Episode 3, a ray of hope, despite Sylvie! (I hate Sylvie) Loki casually admits he's pan/bi; labels never come up, but he admits to being with both men and women! He sings! Not really relevant to whether I approve of his portrayal or not lol but Tom has a beautiful voice, Norwegian ("Asgardian" lol) is a gorgeous, entrancing language, and I could watch that one bit on loop for eternity and never get bored. And then, finally, we see a glimpse - a glimpse - of Loki's power! He stops a falling building and pushes it right back up! Are we finally getting to see what he can really do? Will the next episode bring us Loki in all his glory?

Nope. 4 and 5 we see him mocked and pushed around and utterly irrelevant. Again. We see tiny reflections of what he could maybe theoretically do in other random Loki variants, but the "main" (lawl. main. it was the Sylvie and Mobius show. Loki was never the main anything.) Loki? Nothing. He wears his heart on his sleeve for no reason, bonds with the man who imprisoned, taunted, and gaslit him, is killed, and continues to be a moron and a joke. Always the clown. Always the dumb one. The one with the bad ideas. The inferior Loki.

Don't even get me started on that finale. I can't. This already took so much out of me. Fuck Marvel. Fuck this fucking show. I just... I'm done.

[thefallennightmare]

Vas Prizrak-Seven

Pairings: Bucky Barnes x Reader. Slight Steve Rogers x Reader

Words: 1518

Warnings: swearing, some smut, fluff, lots of angst.

Summary:  Bucky and Reader’s life in Wakanda had been everything they ever wanted. But when they are told about the fight that was on it’s way to them, they fear that life would be dusted away for good.

A/N: I’m really hoping I can get another chapter out while my kiddo’s take a nap so fingers crossed! 

TAGS: @mggpleasedontlookhere @grey-force-jedi​ @austynparksandpizza​

The ship landed outside of Avenger’s headquarters in New York and as soon as my feet landed on the grass, I was met with a bone crushing hug from Natasha. She pulled away and placed hands on my cheeks, forcing me to look into her eyes. 

She looked tired. 

“You alright?” Natasha asked. 

I nodded. “I’m not going to lie, I’m exhausted.” 

Nat wrapped an arm around my shoulder and started leading me towards the compound, leaving Steve to walk slowly behind us. 

“I’ve got your room setup with some clothes. Take all the time you want, we can catch you up to speed when you’re ready.” 

“Clint tell you about our rendezvous together?” I questioned, the familiar halls bringing a small smile to my face. 

She snorted. “It was nothing compared to our time in Budapest together.” 

Gently pushing her away, I came to a stop in front of my old room and told Natasha that I would be down in the living area soon. We said goodbye with a quick hug and I was alone, staring at the dark, wooden door. I only lived there for a week but it still held so many bad memories of mourning Bucky that I was nervous to step inside. 

After taking a deep breath, I entered the room and couldn’t help the very large smile that spread to my lips at the sight. On the nightstand was a beautiful bouquet of black roses next to an old picture of Bucky and I. My fingers traced over his face before picking up the note. 

Buck mentioned that black roses were your favorite. He also made me promise him that I would look after you if anything did happen to him. I have failed the last five years but I promise that I will make up for it by bringing Bucky back home to you. 

Xx Steve

“You knew I was going to come back with you?” I questioned the body that stood in the doorway behind me. 

I didn’t have to turn around to see that Steve was leaning against the doorway, watching me with intent eyes. 

“I knew that you would do anything to get him back, even if it meant seeing me again,” Steve admitted. 

Finally turning to face him, I gave him a confused look. “Do you think I hate you?” 

Steve shrugged and my heart dropped. 

“I never hated you, Steve. Five years ago when Thanos destroyed the stones, I felt like there was nothing left to live for. My life had no meaning so I took my anger out on the people I loved other than Bucky,” I admitted. 

“You know,” Steve started as we walked into the room and sat on the bed next to me, “I spent the last five years telling people that they have to move on but I can’t find it in myself too.” 

He pulled out a familiar compass from his pocket and once he opened it, I saw an old picture of someone that he never talked about in front of me. 

Peggy Carter. 

I knew about his past with her back in the 40’s and knew that he loved her but I didn’t know that he was still in love with her. 

“From what you told me about her, she seemed like a lovely woman,” I said. 

Steve nodded. “She was. I only wish that I had more time with her. We never got our dance.” 

I placed my hand on his thigh, giving it a loving squeeze. Our eyes locked for a brief moment and feeling the tension between us, I threw a thumb over my shoulder towards my bathroom. 

“Uh, I really should shower before the team meeting.” 

Steve reluctantly nodded and stood from the bed. “I’ll see you downstairs.” 

When I was alone yet again, I forced my tired muscles from the bed and to the shower, hot water calling my name. My suit peeled away like a second skin as I stepped out of it, tossing it to the floor. The bruises and old scars from the last five years shone bright in reflection of the mirror, my eyes refusing to look any longer. I then looked at the ink on my left arm, the tattoo mirroring Bucky’s old arm; the one he had when he was The Winter Soldier. 

You’re starting to look like me with the tattoo and mask. 

The familiar voice brought a soft smile to my face as I worked the shampoo deep into my long hair. The redness of my hair was still bright as the first day my powers changed it back in Romania, me even trying to die it a couple years ago, only having it turn red again the next day. 

I love your rose shampoo. The scent always stained my pillow case. 

“God, I miss you,” I muttered to the voice. 

My tears had mixed with the water from the shower head, unsure how hard I was actually crying until my loud sobs were heard echoing off the tiled walls of the bathroom. For the first time in five years, I allowed myself to mourn Bucky, the sobs racking my body, causing me to fall to my knees in the shower. 

“I need you, Bucky. I don’t think I can handle it if this doesn't work,” I sobbed. 

Dorogaya, don’t mourn me. I’m still here, watching over you. 

“It’s not fair, you should be here with me.” 

I love you, Y/N. 

A soft knock on my room's door caused me to immediately stand, wiping the tears from my face, and turning off the shower. Once the towel was tightly wrapped around myself, I padded barefoot over to the door. 

“Yes?” 

“Are you alright? I heard you crying.” 

Steve. 

Damn his super soldier hearing. 

“I’m fine,” I yelled through the door. “I just need to get dressed then I’ll be down stairs.” 

Once I was dressed, I opened the door and almost ran into the hard chest that still stood in the doorway. 

“Fuck, Steve. You scared me!” I curse, stepping back from him. 

“Are you okay?” He questioned again.

His soft gaze told me that he was truly worried about me so I gave him a reassuring nod. 

“I’m okay now. Want to walk with me?” 

Steve nodded and we started to walk side by side down to the living room of the compound, where everyone was waiting to give me the rundown of the plan. Steve hadn’t mentioned anything about it to me on the way here since I had opted for taking a much needed nap. 

“New tattoo?” Steve motioned to my arm.  

“Uh, yeah. Let’s say that it was a dark time in my life.” I admitted. 

A soft chuckle fell from Steve’s lips and we stepped onto the elevator, riding it down a few floors in a comfortable silence. 

“Wait, say it again. My brain is having some trouble processing what you just said,” I spoke to Scott Lang. 

He sighed. “Basically it’s time travel.”

I scoffed before looking between Steve and Natasha. “This is the big plan? Fucking time travel?” 

“It’s going to work, Y/N,” Nat said. 

 My head shook with doubt as I leaned deeper into the couch, looking around the room at the faces I hadn’t seen in so long. 

Tony had a family now, him and Pepper having a daughter. 

Bruce had decided to live a life as the Hulk and Bruce Banner together. It was weird to look at first but eventually as time went on during the meeting, I got used to it. 

Thor, on the other hand, had looked worse than all of us. He had taken the loss to Thanos harder than some of us, choosing to numb his pain with alcohol and letting himself go. 

Clint sat next to me on the couch and he averted my attention from everyone else to him with a pat on my knee. 

“I’m still pissed at you for telling them where I was,” I semi-joked. 

He gave me a small laugh. “I know it sounds stupid but we have to try. For them.” 

We had become incredibly close in the time we went on our killing spree before we parted ways and considered him a good friend of mine so if he had some hope for this plan, the least I could do was to try. 

“Okay,” I nodded then turned my attention towards Steve. “How do we know it’s going to work?” 

“One of us will go back to a point in time. They’ll only get five minutes before we bring them back.” Steve stated. 

“So a test run?” I asked. 

Scott nodded. “Exactly, a test run. Now we have to decide who.” 

“I’ll do it,” I stood without a second thought. 

Dorogaya, no. 

“Not happening, Y/N.” Steve shook his head. 

I crossed my arms while looking at him, putting all the weight to my left foot. The voice in my head and Steve would not be able to change my decision. 

“Steve, you’ve known me for so long, you really expect to change my mind?” 

He sighed, defeated. 

“Let’s get you suited up then.”

[moonlit-imagines]

Next of Kin (Part 2)

Birds of Prey x Sionis-Zsasz!reader

warnings:

a/n: HDTVTVRBEHS IM SO SORRY I COMPLETELY ABANDONED THAT STORY OH MY GOD im gonna be honest with you guys. its not good. i forgot the original ending i wanted.

prompt:

prologue part 1

“Boss?” You heard a henchman wake you from your slumber in your own room. Opening your eyes to complete darkness, you tried not to lose your temper.

“What the hell do you want?” You asked with a huff.

“Right, uh, you told us to tell you when we had a location on those ‘Birds of Prey’ or whatever...we do.” You ripped your sleeping mask off of your eyes and bolted out from under the satin covers.

“You do?! Where? Tell me now!” You shouted while scrambling across the room to get yourself ready for this spur of the moment fight. The blue robe you wore dropped to the ground just before you pulled on a pair of pants and continued. You had to look good for this special occasion.

“A old factory, I guess. ACE or some shit.” He shrugged, looking away respectfully as you got your clothes on.

“ACE Chemicals?” You pulled the shoulder holster over your arms and covered it with a jacket, waiting for the oaf to confirm.

“Uh, I think so.” He was basically useless, an alarm clock at best. You swiped your weapons from your nightstand and pushed past him, ready to end a few lives. It was an eye for two eyes kind of situation.

“Should I call for backup?” He followed behind you as weapons were shoved into all sorts of pockets on your person, so you did what any reasonable person would do and shot him in the foot, the sweet sound of a yelp calmed your shaky nerves.

“Did I say we should call for backup? No, so don’t ask.” He dropped to the floor as he clutched onto his injured appendage, but you just kept on walking. This was personal, you were the only one who could avenge Dad and Papa Vic.

Now you were jogging to the car and stepping on the gas the moment you sat in the driver’s seat. There was no time to lose, no time at all. It was a bit relaxing to hear Britney Spears on the radio as you cut off traffic over and over again. There was a moment of contemplation when someone honked their horn at you, and I mean contemplation of murder. You were going to murder the person honking at you.

But you didn’t have time to stop. Who knows how long those little Birds would be at the factory and how long it’d be until you caught them again. So upon arrival, you ran to the trunk and pulled out the Thompson, your lovely little submachine gun.

With that rested over your shoulder, you left the car running and walked straight into the factory. There was no telling what they were doing here, but damn all the dangers of walking into a severely damaged chemical plant. You wanted your revenge, even if you didn’t make it out of here alive. Ideally, yes, you’d live the rest of your days sleeping peacefully knowing that you put your parent’s killers down, but as long as they were gone, you’d be fine with whatever may happen.

“This is officially the final step to my breakup! This is where I became ‘Harley Quinn.’” You heard a familiar annoying voice echo through the abandoned building.

“This place is starting to creep me out...” Another voice muttered, the voice of a singer. Someone who you and your family trusted until she stabbed you each in the back. God, your blood was boiling just thinking about having relations to these cruel women. But luckily for you, you were about to return a favor.

There’s one little detail I left out, you have been carrying a single hand grenade on your person since you learned about your Dad’s cause of death. It was the perfect revenge. In your head, at least. You yanked the ring with your teeth, you just had to give it a try! But grenades don’t work like that, that’s just a trope in media to made it look badass, as if a giant explosion isn’t badass enough. So you pulled the ring with all your might, this time with your fingers, and popped the pin out. The girls had yet to notice your presence, but that was about to change.

Timing was everything here: you had to give yourself time to escape, but you couldn’t give them time to escape. Maybe ypu should have thought this through before pulling the pin.

Fuck it, toss! The Birds were standing on the grates of the second floor, so there was an alerting clink when the bomb landed.

“Oh, shit!” Harley screamed and bolted. “Run for it!” As they scattered in all different directions, you spectated in excitement. The one that killed Papa Vic, the Crossbow Killer, hopped off the platform and landed on the concrete rubble below, then the sudden force of the explosion pushed them every which way. You, too, actually.

“What the hell? Who’s here?!” Canary cried as she checked her face for cuts, finding blood on her hands. Each of you was covered in dirt and grime, blood and bruises.

“Everyone okay?” The cop asked her company and heard a bundle of groans from the pack, could be worse?

Oh, it could be worse...especially once you revealed yourself to the little ragtags.

“Hi there!” You introduced. “A few of you remember me, huh? Hey, Harley, Miss Lance.” You waved with a pistol in your hand and Papa Vic’s sharp gift in the other.

“‘Course you’re here for revenge.” Harley blew a raspberry as she crossed her arms, but the rest of the group just stared at you. “You’re dads started it.”

“Wait, they were together?” Cass asked the wrong question at the wrong time.

“Shut up, kid. Love you.” Harley pushed the child out of the way and stepped forward. “So ya wanna get back at us, huh? Got it all planned out? Ya don’t have the discipline, sweetie. That’s what did your dads in.”

“Quiet!” You shouted with a haunting similarity to Roman. “Listen, I don’t need to kill all of you. I’d really love to, but I won’t.” You explained as you paced around shifting bricks. “Harley and the crossbow girl are who I really want. I thought about offing the songbird for being a narc, but if she flies away now, maybe I’ll let her go.”

“My name is Huntress.” The girl in distasteful purple makeup growled, you just had to laugh.

“I don’t give a shit what your name is, I just care how you die.” You held the blade out for her to see. “Stab my Papa through the neck, I do the same. It’s only fitting I use the knife he gave me to do it. Poetic, huh?”

“I wasn’t even the one that killed him! Technically it was the kid, tell ‘em!” Said the Joker’s ex-lady.

“Wow, thanks for throwing me under the bus!” Cassandra threw her hands up and you pointed your bedazzled gun at Harley’s chest. “Shit, look out!”

“It might not be a grenade, but it still goes ‘boom.’” You slowly tightened your finger around the trigger, but ducked and missed when a brick came flying towards you, courtesy of Little Miss Trouble.

“Fuck’s sake!” You screamed and came running towards the other target, who flipped you over her back, causing you to land on yours. I can’t even describe the noise you made.

“I had been planning to kill Victor Zsasz for years, alright? I had every right to do so.” She went off for the team to witness. “He murdered my entire family in front of me when I was a child! Do you know what it’s like to be an orphan?!” Huntress’s voice was sharp and rough, there was a slim chance that she’d be taking any more shit today.

“Yes, you idiot.” You glared up at her while she planted a foot on either side of your torso, aiming an arrow at your head. “I was adopted by Roman and Vic after they found me on the street.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that they took everything from me.” The others simply watched the show, how could they not? Helena’s stone-cold voice was chilling.

“And what do you think you did to me?” You asked with and unsteady tone. “I’m a goddamn orphan again!” You caught the back of her knee and escaped her reach for just a moment as you leveled the field by drawing your weapon once more. “I had it good before you came in and ruined it all.”

“Your fathers were the scum of the Earth, the world’s better without them.” It was a wonder how none of her team had hopped in yet, but it worked out for you. “If you thought they deserved to live, you would’ve shot me by now.”

“She’s got a point, y/n/n.” Harley chimed in, throwing you right off your rhythm. Leaving it to the psychiatrist to evaluate you during something like this. “Remember our nights at the club? I saw how controlling Romy was over ya. An’ how Vicky kept secrets. An’ how they put ya into some really uncomfortable situations an’ whatnot. I dunno what when on behind closed doors, but...admit it, y/n, it wasn’t as perfect as ya make it out ta be.”

“They did their best.” You watched each face turn to pity you, it broke you all over again. “Fuck! Fuck you guys!” You dropped your guard and pouted at how easily manipulated you could be.

“That’s more like it.” Renee chuckled as Dinah walked past her. Dinah had seen just as much as Harley, that’s why she went right up to you and took you in her arms.

“You should stick with us for a while. I promise we aren’t that bad.”

taglist: @locke-writes // @captainshazamerica // @ravenmoore14 // @thisetaernallove //

[lady-divine-writes]

Kurtbastian one-shot - “Inflated Egos” (Rated G)

Summary: When Kurt takes one of his students to compete in their first competition after landing their Axel, Kurt is confronted with the conundrum of choosing good sportsmanship or doing anything you can to win...

And Sebastian and Blaine are of no help whatsoever. (2080 words)

Part 69 of Outside Edge

Read on AO3. 

“I wanna add the Axel!”

"I know you do, Kevin. It's exciting to land your Axel. But we can't add it to your routine last minute."

"Why not!? I know the perfect place for it!"

Kurt sighs, steering his precocious pupil down the corridor that leads to the ice, rehashing this conversation they've had close to a hundred times over the past three hours.

“You can't add the Axel because you're competing at a level that doesn't include Axel."

"But this isn't a technical competition!" Kevin argues, the words tumbling around his mouth as if they don't belong. "I'm skating spotlight artistic! I can have an Axel in my program. They just won't score it!"

"Wow. You have such a firm grasp of the rules and qualifiers for a ten-year-old. Almost as if someone fed them to you... " Kurt shoots his boyfriend a dirty look. Sebastian shrugs, but he doesn't look the least bit guilty.

"It might be considered bad sportsmanship, and that could lower your score,” Blaine adds, inching in on Kurt's side of the argument. He has nothing against Kevin adding the jump. It would add pizzazz to his program. But judging at the ISI level can be ambiguous, to put it nicely. Not like in higher levels where it's required to put real-time scores on a readily available screen throughout the performance for transparency. If a judge doesn't like your music or your costume or your coach or you in general for whatever reason, a skater can lose fractions of a point. 

And those add up.

Most ISI judges coach competitors, and they tend to favor skaters in their own skating clubs. Scratches magically disappear if a coach happens to know the performer, knows that they've done better in the past, and cuts them some slack. 

It happens more often than the casual onlooker may think.

Kevin is a talented up-and-comer who hasn't ruffled anyone's feathers (that Blaine knows of), so he doesn't see how one little Axel could sully his reputation. And Kevin is correct - it's not technically against the rules for his event class. 

It's just frowned upon.

But if Blaine joins the Kevin-Sebastian tag team, that would be three against one, and that wouldn't be fair to Kurt. Kurt is looking out for his skater like any good coach would. Bad scoring won't tank a judge, but bad sportsmanship can kill a skater's career before it starts.

“I know the kids at the rink love this event, but I've never competed in spotlight artistic," Kurt admits. "Only technical. So I don’t really know what to expect.”

"I didn't either," Blaine chimes in. "My coach was adamant that it was a waste of time for serious skaters."

“I did a few," Sebastian says, "when I was part of Elite."

Kurt peeks over at his boyfriend, lips twisted behind his mask in an amused grin. "Why? That doesn't seem like Elite's cup of tea."

"Because coach wanted our names on the board for every event possible - technical, spotlight, shoot-the-duck, spirals... "

"What sort of routines did you do?"

"Nothing too impressive. Not like my technical programs. I was a big Avengers fan, so I stuck with that. I was Thor one year. Had a Mjölnir with lightning coming out of it and everything."

"Oh, please tell me there's a video of this somewhere!" Blaine begs, clasping his hands together in front of his chest. "I would pay good money to see it!" 

"You can't afford it," Sebastian says, blowing him off without a glance. "You had to have a prop for spotlight, but coach always said it was about the skating, like every other event. Or it was." He raises an eyebrow at a tractor prop covered in LED lights, quietly questioning, "What the hell song is that for?" as it drives by. "Something tells me that may have changed a tad.”

“Ya think?” Blaine chuckles, pointing to three skaters dressed in inflatable T-Rex costumes pulling an animatronic Indominus Rex the size of a VW bus behind them.

Kevin gasping diverts their attention to a podium covered in holographic wrap, a giant "diamond" mounted on top spinning slowly, throwing colored beams across the floor, pushed by a young lady dressed as a one-eyed spy. "These props are awesome!" he says, his own small prop clutched in his right fist.

"Maybe next time, we can wrap you up in Christmas lights and glue drones to your shoulders to make you fly," Sebastian suggests. "Eh, Kevin?"

"Can we?" Kevin asks, bouncing on his blockers, excited at the prospect of taking his hand-made Elvis costume to the next level.

"No! Kevin doesn't need any bells or whistles," Kurt declares, unsure what Christmas lights and drones have to do with Elvis. "His routine is about his skating. Props are just gravy. We don't need more. One is enough."

"Yeah. Right. Okay," Sebastian and Kevin grump. Even Blaine looks disappointed. 

So when Kurt hears a chuckle, his ears prick up, and his head turns.

Everyone he sees around them seems focused on their warmups. No one is paying attention to them. But off to his right, he spots a brown-haired woman, her smiling green eyes darting their way, then back to the ice. When she looks back and notices Kurt watching her, she knows she's been caught and waves their way.

"I'm sorry," she says, trundling over. "I didn't mean to overhear, but I was wonderin'... are you fellas new?"

It's not often that Kurt walks into a rink in Ohio and isn't immediately recognized. But unlike Sebastian, he enjoys the anonymity.

"Let's just say I am," Kurt says. "What am I missing?"

"A lot." She laughs again so hard, she snorts. "I'm sorry. Saying it's about the skating is admirable. That's what it should be about. But it's not. Not in this category. It's about the props. The bigger the prop, the better. You have to use every advantage you have if you want your skater to come close to winning a medal."

"Not everybody thinks that way," Kurt argues.

"Oh no? Do you see that boy over there in the gold crown?" She motions with her head past the crowd to where a boy slightly older than Kevin, dressed in pale blue and gold brocade, warms up. "That's Michael. He's skating as Tommen from Game of Thrones. His dragon prop is programmed to roll around the ice on its own. It even breathes fire! And at the end, he's going to jump out a tower window."

"Wow," Sebastian says when he catches sight of said tower. It has to be made of styrofoam. The skaters are responsible for getting their props on and off the ice by themselves. There is no way this kid would be able to push his tower around unless it was constructed out of foam. But it looks like stone. It stands at least six feet tall with a platform roughly three feet up and outfitted with a cushion for Michael to land on, painted to look like a cloud that will blend in with the ice. "Kurt, you're super dramatic and stuff. This sounds right up your alley! How about we sign you up for the next go-'round? You can do an excerpt from Wicked. Or Phantom of the Opera! We just need to find you a cape, a mask, and about seven dozen candles! Whaddya say?"

"I say it depends on which testicle you want to lose," Kurt mutters, hoping the bubbly stage-mom dressed in head-to-toe flair doesn't hear.

"Look, it may not be my place to say," she starts. "You are his coach and all, but... uh... " Her eyelids narrow. "What event is your skater in?"

"Thirty-seven," Kurt says.

She sighs, looks strangely relieved. "Okay. My Maggie's in twenty-three."

Kurt's brow furrows. Then he rolls his eyes, realizing she asked to make sure Kurt's skater wouldn't be competing against her daughter after she imparts this valuable nugget of information.

"If you want some advice, let him add the Axel. His prop is a little... well, it's a little... " She glances down at the object Kevin is strangling in his grip, searching for a polite word to describe it "... puny. He'll need a little oomph. Ooo!" She yelps so suddenly, all four boys jump. "I almost forgot! I have a boom box in my trailer from Maggie's last spotlight! It's got a detachable disco ball and flashing strobe lights! It would go great with his costume!"

"Is it big?" Sebastian asks, infuriating Kurt by getting caught up in this woman's prop propaganda. 

"It's the size of an Irish Wolfhound!" 

"And they're big," Blaine concurs, sharing a nod with Kevin, then Sebastian.

"Oh, I couldn't put you out..." Kurt tries, but she shakes her head, refusing to let him turn down her offer.

"Nonsense! I'm parked right outside the loading doors! It'll take five minutes to get!"

"It couldn't hurt," Blaine says, having the good sense to move away after.

Kurt can't reach him, but he fixes him with a glare that could melt glass.

"You can't honestly believe the skating doesn't matter?" he says, not directed at any one person.

"Of course, I believe the skating matters," Maggie's mom says. "But in this event, you have to have some sort of edge. Especially when you're up against stuff like that." She points past them, her eyes traveling up, way up, and Kurt's heart sinks into his stomach before he even turns around.

”Jesus Christmas,” Sebastian moans, staring at the monstrosity traveling their way - the biggest, gaudiest, parade-style float he has ever seen indoors, decorated to look like a six-year-old girl's dream: the base wrapped in tons of fluffy pink tuille intertwined with hundreds of white twinkle lights, crystal baubles and gold balls hanging from fishing line so they look like they're suspended in air, no less than three machines spewing bubbles straight up, a hidden fog machine obscuring the view slightly with pink mist, and in the center, a whole family of inflatable rainbow unicorns on an elevated platform, each one rotating independently, all surrounding a cocoon of pink satin pillows where a skater sits, carried onto the ice by this cotton candy throne. “I’m not even skating, and I’m suffering from some serious prop envy.”

Kurt stares at the thing as it passes by, its smug passenger waving at them like they're peasants waiting for crumbs of stale bread, until the image is burned into his retinas. He looks at Kevin and his pathetic prop - a lime-green inflatable guitar his mother bought for five dollars at the last county fair. There's something wrong with it. It keeps deflating at the neck. Kurt brought a hand pump with him, one he uses to put air in his yoga ball. One of Kurt's jobs as Kevin's coach is to fortify the thing before Kevin takes to the ice. He tosses it about three seconds in to his routine anyway. 

Because it's not the star of the show. 

Kevin is.

Kevin could probably skate circles around half these kids, but if what Maggie's mom says is true, he doesn't have a chance simply because they didn't think to look for anything larger for him to hold than this defective pool toy. Kurt finds it horrible that Kevin has lost before he even begins because his prop is less in-your-face than everyone else’s.

Excuse him for thinking that a skating competition would be judged on skating!

Kurt isn't necessarily proud of his next few decisions since they play into the "anything to win" mentality. But later, Sebastian will convince him he wasn't elevating Kevin so he could win. It was leveling the playing field so he had a chance.

And Kurt can live with that.

"Sebastian? Blaine?"

"Yeah, babe?"

Blaine debates calling Kurt babe, too, if for no other reason than to rankle Sebastian, but now might not be the best time. "Yeah?"

"Could you please escort this kind woman to her trailer and retrieve the enormous boom box she has graciously offered to lend us?"

"On it," Blaine replies.

"Yessir." Sebastian gives Kurt a playful salute, then hurries away, led by the now effervescent woman who couldn't be more thrilled than if they were outfitting her daughter. 

“And Kevin?”

“Yeah, coach?”

Kurt puts his hands on Kevin's shoulders and gives him a reassuring squeeze as they watch that grotesque, bubble-spitting giant take the ice. “Add the Axel.”

[kitkatd7]

I Hate You More

Summary: You're in love with Bucky- but he hates you. Right?

Pairing: Bodyguard!Bucky x Hydra Survivor!Reader

Tropes: Bodyguard AU - Whump - hurt/comfort

Warnings: Angst, talk of previous torture, cursing, fluff ending

Word Count: 3,883

A/N: This isn't my best work but I hope you enjoy it regardless!!! Please let me know what you think as this is a combination of about 4 things I've never tried writing before! This was written for @waywardodysseys in the @marvelxreaderfanfictionfest!!!!❤❤❤ thank you @fandomsandxfiles for beta reading it!!!!

Masterlist of Masterlists

Marvel Masterlist

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

You had walked into the Avengers Tower conference room timidly, giving all of the Avengers a shy smile and small wave- You weren’t very trusting with new people but something about them felt… safe. As if nothing could ever hurt you again so long as you were with them. It felt like you were part of the family; It felt like home.

----Two months later----

Bucky was head over heels for you; He liked everything about you since the very first day he met you. He craved your touch and loved the sound of your laughter more than anything, the way your eyes lit up when you were excited and how your intoxicating scent drew him in. And for him… that was a big issue. He wasn’t ready to deal with all of the emotions that welled within him when you were around and he definitely couldn’t admit his feelings. He told himself you wouldn’t feel the same way but deep down he knew he was just afraid. 

So he made a decision. 

God, it killed him to do it- but he made himself hate you; Forced himself to give you nothing but rude comments and cold glares at every turn. He didn’t talk to you unless he absolutely had to. 

You tried to be friends with him, you did everything you could think of; Invited him whenever you went out to the bar with Sam and the girls, asked him if he wanted to train together or watch movies- but he just sneered and turned away. After weeks of the same cold treatment you couldn’t handle all of the rejection and blatant hate you received from him, so you stopped asking him to do things with you and eventually you started avoiding him; made excuses not to go to movie night, making sure you were never in the gym at the same time as he was.

Regardless of the hate you received you couldn’t bring yourself to return it- quite the opposite, actually- You fell for him. Hard. Fell for the small smiles he gave so rarely (Even though they were never directed at you) The soft sound of his laughter ringing throughout a room and the sweet way he displayed his love for the team. His ocean blue eyes that you could get lost in so easily, the deep, warm lilt of his voice. 

Why did you have to be in love with the man who hated the ground you walked on?

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

A year later and he still hates you. 

Now you're standing in the conference room of the Avengers Tower, being briefed on your next mission by Director Nick Fury himself- Or you were being briefed before a certain tall, dark and brooding Sergeant stormed in. 

“Director, may I have a word? Privately?” He emphasizes, shooting you a deliberate glare.

“Well I would love to accommodate you, Sergeant, but as you can see I’m having an important conversation with Agent Y/L/N,” He states easily while Bucky looks at you coldly. “I’m sure whatever you have to say to me, you can also say to her as well.”

“I don’t want to be her bodyguard,” he says bluntly, switching his gaze back to Fury.

Chuckling lightly, Fury looks between your fallen expression and Bucky’s stone one. “Care to explain why, Sergeant?”

“She’s cocky, arrogant and reckless, she’ll do anything to get her way and God help us if she doesn’t- she’s stubborn and hard-headed.” Bucky regrets what he’s doing to you; He hates hurting you like this but he doesn’t know what else to do so he schools his features and presses on, delivering the final blow. “I enjoyed my time with Hydra more than I enjoy being around her,” he finishes, immediately regretting it when you flinch away from him and your mask slips, your features morphing into an overwhelming expression of pain and anguish. 

You quickly put your mask back in place, willing yourself to keep your eyes from tearing up. You subconsciously run your fingers over where you know the scars are on your forearm from when you were a prisoner of Hydra. Only Fury knows what happened to you and you’d like to keep it that way for the time being.

Sitting up, Fury starts stacking files briskly, giving you a small apologetic glance; He knows what effect the mention of Hydra has on you. “Well Sergeant, as much as I would love to help- I can’t. You are one of our best agents and she needs to be protected. Hydra wants her and we can’t let that happen. You know what they’ll do if they get her. We have bigger issues than your feelings at the moment, you may both go,” he says dismissively. 

Turning, you make your way out the door and away from both of them as quickly as possible as tears stream down your face despite your efforts to keep them at bay. After all this time his words and actions still cut deeper than any knife ever could. Why does he hate you so much? 

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

It’s been a little over a week since you were assigned your bodyguard and you're sick of it already. Why couldn’t you get a bodyguard that actually likes you? God, it’s frustrating; being tailed constantly by someone who probably doesn’t care if you live or die- especially when it’s literally their job to keep you alive. And as luck would have it, he has to go on your next mission as your bodyguard. You don’t need Bucky to go; It’s an easy mission, gathering intel from a double agent and you could easily do it by yourself. Child’s play. But Fury insists on him going with you. 

So here you are; Sitting in a club, sipping on bourbon and coke- Without the bourbon- Waiting for your contact to show while Bucky watches you from across the room. He’s trying to focus but it’s hard when you're wearing that; Form-fitting black jeans and matching knee-high leather boots, a tight, long-sleeve maroon crop-top that accents your curves perfectly. 

You usually wouldn’t wear this but tonight you're not you- you're just a girl out for a night on the town with her boyfriend- So you play your role, toying with your necklace and squealing excitedly when your ‘boyfriend’ comes and kisses your cheek before taking his place next to you. 

“So what do you have for me?”

He leans closer, whispering in your ear, “Rumlow has a meeting set up tonight, he’s bringing in another weapons shipment on the east loading dock by the river.” 

You rage inwardly at the information but keep in character, pressing your lips  to his before leaning to whisper in his ear, “What time?”

“11 o’clock sharp, he’s bringing his squad with him.” 

“Shit,” you mumble, faking a smile before standing to go to the restroom. “I’ll be back in a minute, baby,” you say cheerfully, loud enough for anyone close by to hear.

Bucky glares across the room at your contact, he knows it’s all a ruse- but he still bristles when the other man touches you, kisses you. 

His girl.

What? Where did that come from? She’s not yours, he reminds himself but he still rages inwardly.

He snaps back to reality when you stand and move towards the ladies' room. Anyone watching would have thought you looked like you were having the night of your life but he could see the energy and rage sizzling beneath the surface.

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

You storm into the bathroom, the door slamming shut behind you. You lean heavily on the counter, staring at your reflection in the mirror as you will the tears to stay down but it’s no use. Rumlow. The man who literally ruined your life. He was your captor during your time with Hydra- He’s the one who gave you your scars. You run your fingers up under your sleeve, grazing the scars gently as the tears start to fall, the only sounds are your quiet sobs of anger and the tip-tap of the leaking faucet. You yank your sleeve down quickly when you hear the door open behind you. 

You whirl around, not expecting to come face to face with Bucky.

“What the hell are you doing in here Barnes? Someone could have seen you! Or what if someone comes in? You could blow my cover!” You fume, not really mad at him but you need an outlet for your rage. 

“Calm down, doll. I just came to see if you’re okay,” He murmurs, locking the door to keep you from being interrupted. 

“I’m fine,” You tell him unconvincingly, swiping at the tears that are rolling in steady rhythm down your face. 

“You don’t look fine.”

Scoffing, you turn away, leaning on the counter again. “Since when do you care?” You spit bitterly, turning your head away from him.

“I’ve always cared…” He whispers softly, reaching out to comfort you but his hand drops to his side, his fingers curling into his palm uselessly. His words surprise you and you look at his reflection in the mirror. You don’t know what you were expecting to see there; Sarcasm maybe? An indication that he was lying? But all you see is a gentle sort of… Openness and honesty on his face that confuses you all the more. 

“What do yo-” You start but you're cut off by someone banging on the door and yelling: “Hurry up!”

Snapping out of your thoughts and confusion, you push past him towards the door; blinking back fresh tears. “I have to go.” And then you're gone- making your way through the crowd quickly without a backward glance at the man who’s calling your name. 

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

Bucky walks towards your contact, sliding in next to him casually, but he’s raging inside. “What did you say to her?” He asks quietly, desperate to know what has you so absolutely wrecked. He’s never seen you like this… He’s seen you storm out of a room with tears running down your face (courtesy of him) He’s seen you punch a man in the nose for making a pass at you- But never like this. 

"Exactly what I was supposed to. It's my job to pass on the information and I did, it’s not my job to babysit the agents afterward or keep track of where they go."

"What. Did. You. Say." Bucky spits through gritted teeth, his metal fingers digging into the bar. 

Sighing, the agent turns towards him fully. "Look, I'm not supposed to tell you this, but since she's your girlfri-"

"She's not my girlfriend."

The agent gives him a disbelieving stare; one eyebrow raised in question. "It sure looks like she is. I saw you on the other side of the room- you looked like you were gonna slit my throat for touching her."

"I'm still considering it." 

Ignoring the not-so-empty threat, he continues; "I told her about the meeting Hydra Agent Brock Rumlow is having tonight and after I gave her the location and time, she split." 

Pushing away from the bar, Bucky slips on his leather jacket. "Who’s Rumlow? And where's she going?" He asks briskly, all business despite his wildly beating heart. 

"You really don’t know who he is? Sorry but that I can’t tell you- You’ll have to ask her. And she’s going to the east loading dock by the river, Rumlow will be there in less than an hour." 

Nodding curtly, Bucky storms towards the door, people moving out of the way when they see the frenzied looking giant of a man.

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

“What the hell do you think you're doing?” Bucky growls, pushing you against the brick wall in the alley that you're using for a stakeout point. You wince when your shoulder hits the wall painfully, your head tilting back to meet his anger-filled eyes.

“Staking out a dangerous Hydra operation,” You say nonchalantly.

“Don’t give me that bullshit, what are you actually doing here? Why are you going in without backup? Or telling me? What’s so important that you have to risk your life for it?” He demands, his Brooklyn accent growing thicker, expression darkening further.

Anger flashes in your eyes at his question. “Why the hell should I explain it to you? It’s none of your business, and even if it was it’s not like you would care anyway!!” You yell, heat rolling off of you in waves as he takes a step back, grip loosening as he stares at you in confusion and regret- He didn’t mean to be so hard on you. He was just worried.

“Doll-”

“I am not your doll,” You growl. “I am not some pathetic girl you can just order around like you own her and then treat her like absolute shit, so don’t start with me.”

He whispers your name as you stalk past him, heading for a better viewpoint. “I didn’t mean it like that, please…” He trails off, but you're already disappearing into the shadows.

“Damn it!” He huffs, slamming his metal hand into the brick wall before tailing you, finding another alley not far from where you are; watching the loading dock.

A little while later, Bucky curses when he sees two dark SUV’s pull up, followed by another two vans. He watches intently as ten men step out and approach each other- five from each group of vehicles. He strains to hear what they say, but even with his enhanced abilities, he can’t make out anything of use.

Before they get any farther than a few words, you spring out of the shadows close by, easily taking out three guards as Bucky swears again before racing out to help you. By the time he gets there, you’ve taken out another three- Thanks to the element of surprise and training with Natasha.

Firing his Glock quickly he takes out two of the remaining four, lost in the flurry of ringing gunshots and the sound of fists connecting with their targets. Springing onto the remaining two, Bucky tussles with them a moment before knocking them to the ground and turning to see another Hydra agent stalking up behind you as you scuffle with another, his knife drawn. Shit. He must have miscounted. Before Bucky can fire his gun again he’s tackled from behind, his gun skidding just out of reach as he scrambles to fight off his opponents. Rolling away from the first and rushing to his feet, he kicks the second squarely in the chest, sending him flying against the truck, his head lolling to the side; unconscious. Clamoring to his feet, Bucky rushes to grab his gun, firing it in quick succession, hitting his targets expertly- 4 rounds. 2 men. 1 goal. Turning quickly to locate you, he sees you straddling the last one, your knife pressed against his throat and your teeth bared dangerously. Approaching slowly, he watches as you whisper a name… Brock.

Bucky looks on in confusion as the man laughs dryly, his eyes glinting with… confidence?

You dig the knife deeper into Brock’s neck and watch as blood trails slowly down his skin, leaving scarlet trails in its wake. As Bucky steps closer, he catches the end of what the man was saying: “-You always were weak.” 

You visibly tense before throwing your dagger to the side and by the time Bucky jumps forward to pull you off, you’ve landed several well-aimed blows and Brock’s face is covered in blood.

You're all breathing hard as you struggle in Bucky’s grasp, lunging at the no longer arrogant man on the ground. “I am not weak, Brock. I survived- I survived every cruel thing you did to me; Every stab wound, every burn, every scar. Every. Single. One. And not only did I survive, but I made the most out of my life after everything you put me through; I got a job that allows me to catch bastards like you, and that job gave me a family- a family that doesn’t know my past and doesn’t care because they love me anyway. And all of that makes me strong. Stronger than you could ever be,” you growl, looking over your shoulder in surprise when you hear sirens and turn to see Fury’s black Tahoe screech to a halt, accompanied by three other black SUV’s; Agents piling out of them, guns drawn.

Bucky grabs your arm and hauls you back as agents surround Brock and you stare up at Bucky. “Did you call him?”

“I did.”

Wrenching out of his grasp, you turn towards him. “Why the hell would you do that? I was doing fine! I had it handl-”

“You mean we! I saved your ass! without me, you would be drowning in a pool of your own blood right now!” 

Snarling, you start with a biting remark when the world around you starts to spin and you stumble unsteadily into Bucky’s chest. You barely register Bucky’s arms wrapping around you or him calling your name as hot pain sears through your side. Everything seems fuzzy; Muffled. You swear you hear Bucky say your name but he sounds… panicked maybe? You can't tell, it sounds so far away and all you know for sure is your side feels like fire and then everything goes black.

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

You try to open your eyes but close them again as bright lights flash above you over and over as you're rushed to the OR. You hear voices on both sides of you but it hurts your head to focus on their words. Opening your eyes again, agony greets you as the too-bright lights worsen your headache. Everyone and everything around you looks bleary. All you can feel is pain and a large, warm hand engulfing yours. You feel like your about to fall back into the abyss when you hear another voice-

Bucky?

"It's okay sweetheart, I've got you. Stay with me doll! Please- don't leave me. You’re gonna be okay, It’s okay." You're not sure if he actually says the last part or if it’s your imagination- what you wished he would say. Hell- you're not even sure if it really is Bucky running next to your trolley or if it’s just the lights playing tricks on you.

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

When you wake up everything seems blurry. Blinking, you glance around for the source of the annoying beeping, your eyes landing on a monitor system, the tubes and wires attached at various points on your body. You shift in your bed, wincing when agony sears through your abdomen.

When you groan in pain Bucky jumps to attention, taking in your tormented frown and confusion clouded eyes.

You look even more confused when your gaze lights on him. “How long have I been here? And... why are you here?” You ask; bewildered.

“3 days. I’ve been waiting for you to wake up- I wanted to make sure you were okay,” Bucky confesses, looking up at you through his lashes timidly- Under different circumstances, it would be funny. You’ve seen Bucky many things, but never so… small looking.

Your expression furrows further, your confusion growing. “You- 3 days- Why?”

“I don’t know.”

You look back down at your lap. “Were- were you with me? When they brought me here? I could have sworn I heard you and that you were holding my ha- Nevermind.” You mumble, keeping your eyes downcast. 

“I was,” Bucky whispers, a light blush tinting his cheeks. “With you, I mean… And holding your hand,” He confesses under his breath but you hear it nonetheless. You look at him again when he murmurs your name gently. “I was really worried about you.” 

Your brows knit together, puzzled beyond belief. 

“Why do you care? I thought you hated me?” You whisper so quietly he wouldn’t have heard if not for his enhanced hearing. His gaze jumps to your face as you pick at an imaginary thread on your blanket, blaming your boldness on the drugs they gave you. 

“I don’t hate you,” he says softly, looking down at his hands.

You laugh dryly, giving him a sad, calculating look. “Really? Because It sure seems like it- Judging by the cold glares and harsh comments. We’ve known each other for over a year and you're still like this- I’m beginning to think it’s just your personality... Why do you hate me?” You try to keep your voice even but it breaks, coming out as a broken whisper.

“Because it’s easier than the alternative!!” He half yells, his face flashing between anger and something you can’t quite place. 

“What’s the alternative?” You whisper, eyes on him as he runs his fingers through his hair.

Huffing out a breath, he stares at his hands like if he does it long enough he won’t have to answer your question. When your stare doesn’t falter he scoffs slightly, shaking his head- 

At you or himself you don’t know. 

“James…”

Bucky gives a short, mirthless laugh; eyes flashing indecisively.

I have a right to know,” you murmur, hoping to coax him into telling you. “Please…” You beg, more perplexed than ever.

“The alternative would be to tell you I really really like you and ask you out but I can’t do that because I’m scared that you’ll say no so it’s just easier to hate you!” He says frantically, face flushing scarlet as his jaw clenches in a hard line to stop himself from saying more.

Your move your lips but no sound comes out as his words sink in; recognition dawning on you. 

“I- You made me think you hated me so that you wouldn’t have to ask me out? What the hell, Barnes?” You fume, watching as his eyes widen at your outburst and he ducks his head in embarrassment. “Yeah… That’s about the size of it, Doll.” 

“Do you have any idea what you did to me Bucky? How many nights I went to bed crying because of you? How many times I rearranged my gym schedule and faked being sick so I wouldn’t have to go somewhere you were? All because you didn’t wanna ask me out! And you know what, the amazing part is that I couldn’t even hate you after all of it- Even though you were a total asshole I still liked you and thought you were amazing!” You finish, breathing hard.

“You like me?” Bucky asks, his whole face lighting up with hope.

“Really? That’s all you got from that?” You laugh, quirking an eyebrow at him as your eyes glint with amusement.

“Um, yes?”

You burst out laughing at his confused puppy look, gasping when a wave of pain washes over you. "Well, I guess that's the important part," you huff playfully. 

Bucky chuckles lightly but his eyebrows draw together in a puzzled line when you stare at him expectantly. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I'm waiting for you to ask me out like you said you would, dummy, " you tease, the corner of your mouth turning up in a smile as his eyes light with understanding. 

"Hey, doll?" He asks, continuing when you give a low hum of acknowledgement. "Would you like to go out with me?" 

Your whole face lit up as your eyes sparkled. "James Buchanan Barnes, I thought you'd never ask."

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Reblog with tags! Please tell me what you think!

[too-gay-for-marvel]

i can take the fall

a/n: so uhhhhhh i found this one tonight. i wrote it forever ago, so its NOT my best by far, but i still kinda liked it. so now you all have to suffer through it, and im not sorry. i mean, im a little sorry, but im not sorry

Word Count: 1197

Warnings: light swearing, canon-typical violence

Pairing: Natasha x Reader

There were very few things Natasha wouldn’t do. She wouldn’t kill children or animals, maybe people with families. She wouldn’t even dream of hurting someone who was pregnant. She wouldn’t drink coffee if she either hadn’t made it herself or watched someone else make it. She wouldn’t indulge your fantasies of turning the compound into an animal shelter. She would never let someone make the sacrifice play if there was any other option.

She wouldn’t let you fall.

Vormire wasn’t supposed to be dangerous. You weren’t supposed to have to do much, just make a bargain, get the stone, and go back home. Hell, the only reason Tony had let you go was because he thought there was minimal risk. So how the hell did you end up like this? Both of you hanging off the edge of a cliff, Natasha holding onto your hand for dear life, your suit surrounding Natasha and not letting her do what she needed to do.

“Damn you, Stark,” Natasha said through gritted teeth, trying her damndest to pull you back up.

“Let me go, Tash,” you said softly, trying to be tough, but Natasha could see the fear.

“I am not explaining this to your father.”

“Tash-”

“-no!” Natasha shouted, fighting the tears and thankful that the suit’s mask was pulled down. “You don’t get to do this!”

And you gave her that look; that damned look that Natasha had seen too many times on both yours and Tony’s faces. It was a look that Tony would have whenever he was going through his self-destructive phases, and Natasha had had to stop him from killing himself. And you had the same goddamn tendencies as your father and were always putting yourself in situations that could get you killed.

“Would you please, for once in your fucking life, think about the consequences of your actions?” Natasha practically yelled as she chased you through your lab.

“I did. I thought “hm, people might die if I do nothing.” So I did something,” you shot back, FRIDAY already helping you take the top part of your suit off.

“You were shot!”

“I lived.”

“What if you hadn’t?”

At that, you turned around, and Natasha almost wished you had stayed with your back to her. While your back looked nasty, with road rash and bruises from being knocked around in your suit, your front was even worse. Your nose had been broken and was still bleeding, your lip was split, and you had bruises on the entire right side of your face.

“Then we wouldn’t be having this conversation, and that doesn’t sound too bad at the moment.”

“You can’t just throw your life away because you think someone deserves to live more than you.”

“Oh, you’re one to talk,” you said as you practically stomped forward, your boots making a loud metallic noise against the concrete. FRIDAY had since given up on taking off the pants of your suit. “You think you don’t do the exact same thing?”

“I don’t try to get myself killed, Stark,” Natasha shot back.

“Well you certainly don’t try to avoid it,” you said with a jab to Natasha’s chest.

“I do what I think is best.”

“And you think I don’t?” Natasha took a step back. She had definitely made a mistake. “I don’t do this hoping I’m going to die, Natalia.” Oh no. “Believe it or not, I don’t want to die.”

“I never said you-”

“-I just believe,” you interrupted, ”-my life is no more important than someone else’s. I’ve done the math, Nat. People hate the Avengers; they think we’re just causing more harm than good. If it takes one of us dying to fix that…” you let out a shaky breath and raked your fingers through your hair. You was avoiding Natasha’s eyes. “I can take the fall.”

Natasha had never been so terrified at seeing how little you cared about your own life.

“Nat,” you said, drawing Natasha out of her thoughts.

“We can find another way,” Natasha said, pleaded, cried. The face plate on the suit lifted up, and Natasha could finally look at you without all those little gadgets in the way. But she didn’t like what she was seeing, and she almost wished the face plate would lower again.

“Remember what I said all those years ago?” You asked. You were trying to keep your voice light, Natasha could tell. But it wasn’t going to distract either of you from the situation.

“Please don’t,” Natasha shook her head. She didn’t want to hear it.

“I can take it,” you said anyway, trying to smile. But Natasha couldn’t smile back. She could feel your grip loosening, and Natasha tried to increase her grip, but the suit wouldn’t budge. Damn you.

“But I love you,” Natasha managed to choke out around a sob. Your hand was slipping.

“It’s okay,” you with a nod, but Natasha knew you were lying. It wouldn’t be okay. “I love you, too.”

Before Natasha even had a chance to say something else, she felt you push off against the wall as hard as you could. Your hand slipped from Natasha’s grip, and Natasha could only watch as you fell. It was like everything moved in slow motion; you falling, a scream ripping its way through her throat, you closing your eyes before hitting the ground. Right before you hit, Natasha turned her head. She didn’t want to see it. She couldn’t see it. She couldn’t see your lifeless body bleeding out on the cold ground.

A flash of light surrounded Natasha, and she sat up quickly, the suit feeling heavier than she had ever thought it would. Maybe it was because it had betrayed her, had saved her instead of you. She looked at her closed hand, opening it slowly to see the soul stone. For a second, she thought she could hear your voice. But it was just a stone. Just a stupid fucking stone. You had traded your life for a goddamn rock. If it hadn’t been as important as it was, Natasha would’ve crushed it in a heartbeat.

But you had given up your life so they could fix their mistake. You had thought the cause was worth losing your life over, and Natasha wouldn’t - no, she couldn’t take that for granted. By god, she was going to get the stone back, and they were going to bring everyone back, and not a single soul was going to be able to ignore that you had given your life to get them back.

With shaking hands, Natasha set her quantum suit’s GPS to the future. She didn’t want to stay on this god forsaken planet any longer. If she stayed, she wouldn’t leave, and then you would’ve died for nothing. In a flash, she was back on the quantum pad with everyone else. She could vaguely hear cheering, clapping, people giving each other high-fives and talking over each other. All she could do was fall to her knees, the stone still in her hand. Now that she was back, it was finally, truly hitting her what had happened.

“Nat, where’s Y/N?”

[fic-art-blurbs]

How “Lost In Thoughts All Alone” Connects To Each Route Of Three Houses

OKAY. SO RIGHT OUT THE GATE. I KNOW THIS SOUNDS MONUMENTALLY STUPID BUT HEAR ME OUT. I KNOW THERE IS 0% CHANCE OF THIS BEING INTENDED BECAUSE INTSYS IS INTSYS AND ALSO THESE ARE TWO ENTIRELY DIFFERENT WORLDS BUT THESE VERSES ACTUALLY FIT SOMEWHAT AND IMMA TRY TO BREAK IT DOWN. FAIR WARNING THERE’S GONNA BE SO MUCH STRETCHING THAT YOU’RE GONNA THINK YOU’RE IN A YOGA CLASS.

You can listen to the song itself in its entirety here, I’ll be going by verses and talking about the routes/characters I think each fits. And I’ll be putting this under a read more because I know this is going to be long also @iturbide​ here’s the essay

Also spoilers

First Verse/Opening Verse - Byleth/Sothis

You are the ocean's gray waves, destined to seek Life beyond the shore just out of reach Yet the waters ever change, flowing like time The path is yours to climb

This one isn’t too difficult to talk about. This is the opening verse of the song, and the first verse Azura sings in Fates. This verse also plays in between almost all of the verses in the song - note I said almost. It also plays at the end of the song. This fits Byleth, and by extension Sothis rather well. Byleth is the driving force behind how each route, behind each character’s growth. They manipulate time, constantly going back in time over and over again, whether it’s to take another path, or to try and save a life. Byleth is the one with the power here, and no matter how many times they go back, no matter how they make time bend to their will, it always flows back - the “Golden Route” so many desire is always out of reach, no matter how many routes they play. 

And yet no matter what, you keep going back. Byleth, though I guess at this point I’m talking about the player, is destined to continue trying to reach that happy ending, they’re destined to keep searching for a way to make that happy ending a reality.

The path is yours to climb indeed - as many choose to try and make one, unaware that the path they create is one treaded many times over.

Birthright’s Verse - Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd (Azure Moon)

In the white light, a hand reaches through A double-edged blade cuts your heart in two Waking dreams fade away, Embrace the brand-new day Sing with me a song of birthrights and love The light scatters to the sky above Dawn breaks through the gloom, white as a bone Lost in thoughts all alone

I imagine the white light being referred to here being the reunion scene, and the hand as being Byleth’s. Remember how Azure Moon’s reunion scene left Dimitri shrouded in the darkness, and Byleth in the light? The double-edged blade here could refer to Edelgard herself - he may have been happy to reunite with his step-sister, but it was the reveal of her being the Flame Emperor that “cut his heart in two”, breaking his heart and making him fall victim to his rage. His “waking dreams fading away” to “embrace the brand new day” may refer to his ghosts, how they grow quieter (not quite disappearing entirely, but fading away for now) in the wake of Rodrigue’s death and Byleth’s words finally reaching through to him. 

“Sing me a song of birthrights and love” I think could refer to Dimitri’s mindset. He feels bound by his birthright as the future king of Faerghus, and the love he feels for both his family and his country. When Edelgard’s deception is revealed, a good chunk of the reason his breakdown is so bad is due to the fact she seemingly betrayed that love, betrayed the love that was shown to her by his father and her mother. He views it as her willingly betraying them and directly causing their deaths along with Glenn’s and the genocide of an entire country. He feels it is his birthright not only to right the wrongs committed by his country, but to avenge what happened to his loved ones. 

The next two lines I think reflect his finally quelling his rage, no longer letting it consume him. That “white as a bone” line I can imagine talking about his path - his intentions may have been honorable at the beginning, but his path is no less gory than the one he wanted the head of.

And the final line? It describes Dimitri for a good portion of Azure Moon. He’s lost in his thoughts, all alone, pushing away his support because he believes himself unworthy. 

Conquest’s Verse - Edelgard von Hresvelg (Crimson Flower)

Embrace the dark you call a home, Gaze upon an empty, white throne A legacy of lies, A familiar disguise Sing with me a song of conquest and fate The black pillar cracks beneath its weight Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone Lost in thoughts all alone

No I did NOT just pick this verse for Edelgard because of the conquest thing I PROMISE. I SWEAR THERE’S MORE TO THIS THAN JUST THE CONQUEST LINE I PROMISE

ANYWAY I imagined that first line referring to Edelgard marching home and assuming the throne. The Empire is far from a bright place, and she’s embracing it as she declares herself emperor in order to declare war on the church. The “empty white throne” line? It could mean one of two things, if not both. The first thing could be telling her to gaze upon Faerghus’s empty throne, the throne she made empty by killing her step-brother - even if she didn’t remember him being her brother. The second thing could be referring to Sothis’s empty throne, as she’s unknowingly following in the footsteps of Nemesis by killing the Goddess and her followers - first with the death of Seiros, and then the dissolution of Sothis’s crest stone (even if she didn’t directly play a part in the latter, Edelgard’s route is the only route where the crest stone disappears for good). If you stretch, you could also make it so that this refers to if you kill Claude, but the throne of Almyra wouldn’t be empty - it would just be angry and ready for war.

The next two lines could refer to the Agarthans. “A legacy of lies, a familiar disguise” could refer to Patricia and Arundel respectively. Edelgard’s mother was revealed by Cornelia to maybe having a hand in the Tragedy of Duscur and making that image of Patricia as a kind woman a lie - though this is in the Azure Moon route, so this could be handwaved. This line could instead refer to how Edelgard views Rhea and the church - they’ve passed on a “legacy of lies”, hiding the horrific truth behind the Relics and the Crests, claiming them to be gifts from the Goddess. The latter line, “a familiar disguise”, could be about Arundel. It’s revealed that Arundel is actually Thales in disguise, and Arundel is Edelgard’s uncle - someone she undoubtedly would’ve been familiar with. 

“The black pillar cracks beneath its weight” could be talking about the weight of Edelgard’s war. Even if the game states that Crimson Flower had no consequences in the end, there are undoubtedly consequences scattered across the land. The newly “unified” Fodlan would be cracking under that weight, with new cracks appearing with every new rebellion, every new attack. Every instance that could tell Edelgard that perhaps declaring war so hastily might have been a mistake. 

“Night breaks through the day” can very easily be equated to Edelgard’s war in conquering all of Fodlan. “Hard as a stone” would be her resolve - no matter what route you choose, Edelgard is steadfast in her belief that she is in the right. She never falters, never once wonders if she was wrong. Her only regret when you kill her in Azure Moon is wishing Byleth walked at her side - not regretting her war, regretting that Byleth was not on her side.

And of course, the final line. Edelgard is alone in her thoughts, even with Hubert seemingly knowing everything. She’s lost in her thoughts of conquest, and similar to Dimitri, vengeance. She may not be haunted by ghosts like he is, but she’s certainly haunted by her ticking clock and the deaths of her siblings as they fell in the experiments, one by one, until she stood alone. It could also refer to the ending of Crimson Flower - now that she’s won her war, what now? Stability would not come right away, and the increasing attacks and rebellions depending on certain choices could have Edelgard lost in her thoughts, perhaps wondering for the first time if she should have chosen differently.

((Fair warning, this is where most of the stretching begins - Revelations is strange in that it actually has 2 verses of its own - it has an opening to replace the “You are the ocean’s grey waves” verse, and a verse more similar to the other two routes.))

Revelation’s Verses - Claude von Riegan & Rhea/Seiros (Verdant Wind/Silver Snow)

The path you walk on belongs to destiny, just let it flow All of your joy and your pain will fall like the tide, let it flow Life is not just filled with happiness, or sorrow Even the thorn in your heart, in time it may become a rose

A burdened heart sinks into the ground A veil falls away without a sound Not day nor night, wrong nor right For truth and peace you fight Sing with me a song of silence and blood The rain falls, but can't wash away the mud Within my ancient heart dwells madness and pride Can no one hear my cry?

Again, there’s gonna be a LOT of stretching. I think that first verse might not actually be for Claude or Rhea exactly - that verse sounds a lot more like it’s meant for Byleth. Telling them to accept that they’ll not have their golden route, accept that life isn’t just happiness - but it isn’t just sorrow either. And yet Byleth persists. 

The second verse though - the first half I think fits Claude more, and the second half fits Rhea more. Though you could argue those last two lines also fit Nemesis emerging from Shambala in Verdant Wind - I don’t think so, but it’s there.

Claude’s definitely got a burdened heart - he’s got so many trust issues that if you could build with them, you’d have a skyscraper. But it’s through his interactions with the Deer, and by extension Byleth, that the walls he put up to protect himself slowly fall away. The mask he put on of a carefree individual silently gets dropped, and by post timeskip, you can see that Claude trusts his Deer - and Byleth, if this is Verdant Wind - with everything. He’s the neutral route in this, he doesn’t choose to fight for either side, his fight isn’t for either side. He’s fighting to destroy the borders between lands, fighting for the truth (in that his route is the one where you learn everything), and for peace, equality. He may be the funny upside down meme to most, but he’s the only one of the three to actually fight for truth and peace, the real versions of both - you don’t get to learn the truth in Azure Moon, and in you only get to see what Edelgard believes is the truth in Crimson Flower. 

Rhea’s the one who knows everything. She knows the truth behind the Relics, the Crest Stones, Crests, everything - and yet she stays silent. She stays silent, afraid that more would follow in the footsteps of Nemesis and bring more bloodshed - hence the “sing me a song of silence and blood”. The next line could refer to how no matter what she does, the darker parts of history wouldn’t be scrubbed away. Even if she did succeed in her attempts to bring back Sothis, in an attempt to wash away the dirt from their past, what then? Did she really think Sothis would welcome her back with open arms, with what she’d done to achieve her goal? And the last two lines...those are rather self-explanatory. Say what you will, for a time, Rhea did indeed go mad. She believed herself to be in the right, much like Edelgard did, and became furious when anyone said otherwise. That’s shown in her ruthless execution of those who opposed her, and her downward spiral in Crimson Flower. The final line, “can no one hear my cry?” may refer to how, even if one of her brothers and her niece were there by her side, neither knew what she had become. Neither ever knew what lengths she went to, nor did they know how much pain she was in to have driven her to madness, driven her to the belief that creating and killing at least twelve vessels in an attempt to create the perfect one for Sothis was right. Perhaps if someone had heard her cry, things would have been much different.

Interestingly, this is the only verse to not end with “lost in thoughts all alone”. If you think about it in the terms of Claude and Rhea, this may be for different reasons. Claude is remarkably well-adjusted for someone thrown into war - he gives a “power of friendship” speech during the final fight for crying out loud, if anything, he’s actually grown for the better. He’s not lost in thoughts all alone because he’s learned to actually lean on others for support. In Rhea’s case, her not being lost in her thoughts all alone would be for an entirely different reason - she isn’t lost in her thoughts. She’s not thinking clearly, but she isn’t lost like Dimitri or Edelgard. She isn’t so lost that she can’t command troops outside of “KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM”, nor does she question if she was in the wrong like Edelgard might’ve had the latter won her war at the cost of stability. To the very end, she doesn’t regret her decisions - she may not have made them with a clear mind, but she knows what she did, and she isn’t lost thinking of what might have been. 

((TECHNICALLY there is one more verse, sung by Shigure in the Heirs of Fate DLC. The reason it’s not brought up? That one is much more context sensitive - the only line I can really think of fitting anywhere is “Endless dawn came but not without a price” possibly referring to the end of the war in every route, with “dawn” here referring to peace, and the price being the countless lives lost in the war. Then again, each route’s definition of “peace” is rather shaky, some more so than others, so it could refer to each individual leader’s goals being reached in their routes at the cost of a war.))

[burningpaths-ffxiv]

FFXIV WRITE 2021 // Prompt #21 Feckless

🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑

Trigger Warning - This prompt includes depictions of violence, bodily injury, blood mentions and references murder and arson.

Read at your own discretion.

One cannot kill other people for a living without igniting certain… types of enemies.

Typically the righteous sort; with flares for revenge or avenging angles.

One cannot avoid these types of people, or their perfectly expected retaliations.

Even bad people have family or loved ones, after all.

‘Bad’ could even be subjective, to some.

To Shear, ‘bad’ simply meant someone might be willing to pay coin to have their ‘bad’ influence removed from their lives. Permanently.

And he would be happy to oblige their desires for the right price.

Late summer sunbeams streamed in through the window, curtains and shutters open, facing the rising sun. In the early morning, giving a stir, tanned bare skin shifted against soft-spun silk sheets with a tired groan as tiny beams of light trailed over his face.

One rosy quartz colored eye blearily peeled open, the gold flecked pupil drawing unfocused across the sun-brightened wooden walls of the room and across the grass woven mats across the floor. The room he’d chosen for himself lay on the second floor, along the east side of the building, located on the sprawling estate of Shirogane where they were staying. The muted colors of the painted walls were broken up by the occasionally specifically placed dark wooden shelves in varying leveled patterns and meticulously - albeit sparsely - decorated.

A single paneled shōji set against the far wall opposite where he lay, leading to the private balcony on the north side of the building and was closed, the latch still locked in place. The small rectangular windows set between them and the ceiling in opaque glass, brightly illuminated and unoccupied by any shadows.

A full-length, double paneled shōji was on the joining wall on its left, also still closed and latched. His ears picked up the trickling of the man-made stream that moved through the grounds, set beside the stone garden just below his balcony, and the faint chirping of distant birds on the other side of the house. The sound of sea waves were close, but still a walk down the long, winding stone steps outside the north gate to the beach.

Blonde head rising off his pillow, the viera pushed his body up to a sitting position on the thickly stuffed and layered futons he’d been sleeping on. Clad only in a pair of black cotton smalls, one palm rubbed sleepily at an eye while the other stretched high above his head. Torso twisting, the opposite of the movements were echoed on the other side.

Scratching at the base of both long blonde ears and easing that scratch along the back of his head through the blonde tangle of his overgrown bob, Shear blinked fully open both mismatched, sunset toned eyes. One the rosy quartz flecked in gold, the other sunlight golden and speckled with deeply hued pinks.

Something felt off but the rousing viera couldn’t quite put his finger on what. The estates had been rented a week prior, Kalona’s crew all having various jobs or errands to run in the nearby prefectures. With the size of the house itself, Shear had his own room, as had they all. Kolli had opted not to stay on the grounds, insisting on a room at the hot springs inn in Kugane proper.

With Manjima fucking Yohan.

Stamping down his spike of irritation at the thought of the smug, smiling xaela, Shear pushed himself to his feet. What he realized was odd, then, was that there were no close birds chirping. The bell crickets that had taken to singing in the carefully tended bushes below his window were silent.

A squeak in a floor board on the stairs - and why Shear had chosen the second floor for sleeping- got the viera moving. The pillows he’d previously been resting on were stuffed under his blanket and the blanket tugged over them. Standing from there he slipped the loose, oversized summer patterned garment hanging from the hook over his head over his shoulders, belting it closed quickly. Two curled knives from his belt were removed and placed - by the grips - between his teeth.

Slipping out of the window, he hung there curled on the outside of the wall, listening intently.

He rather liked the estate and he thought it’d be a damn shame to accidentally burn the place down dealing with whoever was coming for him. So, knives it was. Adjusting his handholds, Shear moved to the very northside of his window quietly, ear turned to listen at his balcony.

There. A scuff of a leather sole on the waxed wood. A calming, muffled exhale.

Shear scowled from where he hung on the sill of his window.

Let them calm themselves all they like.

They’d be dead before the next bell’s chime.

The figure on his balcony kicked the wooden brace of the single paneled shōji, rolling into the room with a snarl and there was a distinct whump where a weapon hit the pillows along his futon. The viera swung up onto the waxed dark colored wood, waiting there as he observed the hyuran figure stab his futon repeatedly with a short sword.

Panting, the bandana-masked hyur yanked at the blanket with a disbelieving, “He’s gone!” A man, younger sounding by the pitch of his voice, yelling in Hingan.

Someone else - the one Shear had heard on the stairs to the second floor - shouted from outside the door leading to the rest of the house. “What do you mean he’s gone?!” A woman this time, also young, also responded in Hingan. The viera’s eyes narrowed as the figure previously stabbing his futon shanked it again in frustration.

Now he was curious.

Standing up from his crouched position, the karambit knives in his mouth were eased into his palms, clamped there idly as he gave a small whistle and called out in Hingan to the man in front of him. “Not that gone, idiot.”

The hyur whirled, startled, and nearly tripped on the destroyed padding. “YOU!” He lunged for Shear on his balcony - without his sword. Shear waited until he was near before ducking low, catching the edges of both the curled blades inside the front of both thighs after the man tried to throw a boxing punch for his face. With a pained scream from the masked figure, he shot a look down at his thighs as he clutched his palms around the karambit knives planted into him.

Yanking up and heaving him up over his head, Shear tossed the younger male off the edge of the balcony to the carefully raked tiny pebbled rock garden below. He fell straight to the ground with a yell, abruptly cut off as he landed on his back with a cough. From the lack of scuffling from below and just the echoing, gasping groan, the viera figured he wasn’t getting up any time soon.

“Taku!” A different figure, the one belonging to the woman, barreled into the room after ramming it a few times with her shoulder. Another bandana covered his face and she screamed in fury not finding him present in the room.

The bloodied karambits dripped blood onto the waxed wood of the balcony floor under him. The half-dressed viera braced his legs apart and cocked his head with a broad, taunting smile. “What are you two kids doing trying to break into this place, hm? Looking for someone?”

“We’re not kids! We’re adults!” A bulky weapon snapped up in her hands, pointed his direction. Shear jerked shortly before the tiny crossbow’s string gave a twang of warning, diving to his right. The bolt thunked into the railing where his guts used to be and he gave it an impressed ‘Huh,’ under his breath before gripping for the railing.

Kicking up over it’s edge, Shear landed in the swath of pebbles below with a clatter, heading for the figure still on his back who was struggling to catch his breath. The hyur gave a gasp and a wheeze, trying to scramble away from the approaching figure but was at a disadvantage. His aching legs bled freely, still winded, and his back throbbed at the points he’d landed on it.

Reaching down, Shear hooked the tip of one bloodied karambit onto the edge of the bandana, giving a yank against the tugged fabric before flipping the blade off his finger and tucking it into one pocket of his cloth-belted shirt. Giving the younger man’s revealed face a quick inspection before reaching down to grip a fistful of his dark hair, the viera yanked him up by it and drug him backwards. He kept the hyur pressed close against him as the woman - who’d reloaded her crossbow - pressed her hips to the railing and raised it again, taking aim.

“Nami, shoot him!” The unmasked young man Shear was using as a shield shouted at her but above them, she hesitated, unable to get a clear shot. He continued walking backwards, putting more distance between them and dragging the now struggling Taku stumbling with him. The viera’s other hand settled the still-wielded karambit under his pointed chin, the tip pressing closed and the curve of the blade resting up against his jaw.

The man froze in place. Nami, the one on the balcony, gave a shout and raised her bracing arm off her crossbow. “Don’t--!”

“Drop the crossbow over the side, then.” Shear called up at her, eyes narrowing.

Taku half turned his head and ceased the motion when the karambit dug in closer. “D-don’t do it, Nami! Take the shot!”

“Brave. Stupid, but brave.” Shear muttered it near Taku’s ear, who hissed something callous about the viera’s mother and her various used holes in return. Giving an amused snort, Shear held his position. To the woman, he called up again. “Drop it or I will kill him here and now.”

“Wait! W-wait, don’t--... Please.” The crossbow was tossed over the railing, landing with a clatter below and she raised both of her hands up. “He’s all I have left. Please.”

Scoffing, Shear rolled his eyes and barked at her, “You cannot tell me that, you never tell your enemy your single weakness! Honestly, are you new? Get down here.”

“Do I jump-?” Nami’s brimming fury from earlier was deflating the longer that karambit was held so close to easily sliced skin, although the edge of her tone betrayed a lingering annoyance.

Shear gave her a long-suffering look from behind the bristling hyur in his grasp. “If you can jump it, sure. Otherwise, you took the stairs once, you can take them again.”

“You won’t kill him while I go downstairs?”

“What? No, I want to talk to you, not lose you to grief screaming. Or worse, you trying to come at me senselessly after this idiot’s death and I’d have to kill you, too. Then you’re both dead and I get no answers. So just get down here already.”

“Nami no, just leave me!” Taku shouted and gave a lurch as she turned from the balcony, heading back into the room to proceed back down the stairs she’d come up and threading through the house’s corridors quickly. The hyur gave another hiss as the ache in his legs sharpened and the karambit bit in with the movement.

“She has more loyalty to you than to leave you behind to die in my grasp. How are your legs, by the way~?” Shear adjusted his grip on the hyuran man’s hair, checking that the idiot hadn’t yanked his neck open on the knife pressed to it. There was a tiny trickle where the tip of the blade had nicked skin, but short of the furious look on his face and his blood seeping into his pants, he seemed fine.

“Fuck you, murderer!” The hyur spat the words over his shoulder, which gave Shear a bigger indication of why they were there. “My legs are fine enough to kick your ass.”

“Is that why your knees are shaking like a freshly-born ewe? Don’t struggle, I have a knife to your neck.” The hyur had attempted to lurch away again, and Shear decided then these two would live if only because they were so gods damned stupid they’d get themselves killed before it mattered if he did it.

Nami stepped out of the front door quickly and followed the wrapping porch around to the north side of the building. Shear motioned with his chin for her to approach as she slowed on arrival to the stone garden. “Sit, on your knees in the grass, just there. Pull the bandana down and lace your fingers in front of you on your lap after. Reach for the stones or for another weapon and I will give him the last smile he will ever give you. Understood?”

“I d-don’t have a-any other weapons. But a-ah, y-yes.” The hyuran woman knelt where bid, fingers clasping the edge of the dark bandana and pulling it down off her face. The tongue spoken did match both of their looks and Shear frowned at the familiar looking face she’d revealed that shared features with the hyur in his grasp.

Likely related, and both of them locals to the area, then.

She was passably pretty, not his type, but good looking, with her hair tied tightly behind her head. Speaking of looking, she barely looked of age but he took her word for it. On the back of one clasped hand, Shear could see trailing burn scarring along the uncovered skin. The scarring continued up into her sleeve past her wrist, and he could see more of it crawling at the edge of her shirt’s high collar on the same side, partially up one side of her neck and up along her cheek. Her earlobe was stuck to the side of her neck on that side, her jaw more defined by the irregular shape of the healed scar tissue.

“You really should not tell me that either,” Shear drawled his Hingan lazily, as casually as Iji had taught him. No formalities. You don’t try to kill someone while they sleep and get formalities or respectful phrasing. “Unless you are lying and you do have other weapons, in which I will kill him for that.”

“Stop!” Her clasped hands rose and Shear growled a warning. They thumped back to her lap as her lip quivered. “I r-really don’t. Please, let him go.”

“Nami, shut up, don’t tell him that-” Taku started and was silenced by the sting of the karambit once again. The hand in his hair gripped harder, making the hyur grimace.

“Mmn, I will believe you, if only because of his rude pleading for you to shut up. Since you seem more inclined to speak than he does, why are you here? More specifically, why did you target me?” Shear spoke evenly, staring at the woman across from them.

“W-we were told you s-sleep well into the a-afternoon when y-you don’t h-have work,” She spat the word bitterly. Her voice shook the longer she stared at her companion’s state, deciding to change her gaze down at the disturbed stones leading from the place Taku had fallen to where he’d been dragged and was currently. So much for keeping her eyes off of it. “So th-the early m-morning we thought w-would… Be p-perfect.”

“And who told you that?” Shear’s lip curled and Taku gave another whine as the grip in his hair tightened.

“Sto- hhhhgh, o-one of the people you t-travel with! He was d-drinking and m-mentioned this place he was staying, and c-complained that you sleep t-too m-much.” The laced fingers squeezed, thumbs rubbing against one another nervously as she watched the grimace ease off Taku’s face, Shear’s grip having loosened as she talked.

Shear’s annoyance dimmed some. Maybe this wasn’t personal then. “So you made smalltalk with one of my companions, got them talking about me, and decided to… What? Make me your mark, to rob me or something? Is that it? Do you need gil? Are you starving?”

“Screw your money! You killed our mother.” Taku snapped it over his shoulder, laced with venom. Maybe it was personal after all. “And you left the place burning where Nami was sleeping, so she got burned real bad! This is revenge, you idiot!”

“Actually, this would be you avenging your mother, and would be her revenge.” The viera’s chin motioned at the woman sitting across from them. ��Although I have to say, thus far you are poorly avenging your mother, so the word choice on the matter is irrelevant.” Shear corrected Taku loftily and barked a laugh when the hyur snarled back at him. “How do you even know your mother died because of me? I do not know either of your faces, or recognize your names for that matter.”

“The neighbor told us she saw a viera man matching your description leaving, long after the flames had already been roaring. If not you, then who? Do you even remember the fire? Or our mother? Ota Emiko. Her name was Emiko.” Nami’s nervous thumbs shifted, rubbing at the scar along the back of one hand as she spoke fiercely.

That name did ring a bell. Two, even. “And you decided to not report this witness to the authorities because...?” Shear pressed for more, figuring the answer before they spoke.

Taku responded when Nami did not, her lips pressed together while she bit back tears as the painful memory resurfaced. “Because they didn’t believe her. She’s older, and claims to see things no one else can. I did though. Believe her I mean. That old lady might say she sees her dead son sometimes and some other weird spirits, but some people can just do that. It doesn’t mean she’s lying. She took care of me while Nami recovered, so we had time to figure out who you were. Not like you rabbit ijin are common in our area, it was easy to put together, stupid.”

Listening, Shear nodded and eased the karambit off Taku’s throat. His hair was also released, giving the hyur’s back a shove towards Nami. “Good little sleuths then. I would say ‘well done’ if not for this piss-poor execution of your plan so far.” Still holding the karambit in his hand, Shear’s other palm rested on his hip as Taku hit the stones with a pained grunt. The hyur crawled closer towards Nami who hesitated.

To her credit, she recalled his previous warning and did not move from her position as Taku crawled into her lap. At Shear’s nod, her hands rose and wrapped around Taku’s back in a hug as he gasped for breath on her folded legs. She eased her hold off him with a murmured apology as he whined at the squeezing.

Hitting the ground on his back had been very painful.

“As you were honest with me, I will be honest with you. I recall Ota Emiko, as well as a house fire around this area. That was a few turns ago now and that house was empty, except for the marked target left inside-- your mother, I presume. You could not have been home, you were with your brother and father at the Ruby Bazaar in Kugane that night.” Brows furrowing, Shear recalled that job and he dug for the memories of it.

He remembered all of his jobs, just not always immediately. They were daily reminders about the scum of humanity, and how easily your life could rest on the edge of a large sack of coins.

“You’re wrong!” Nami finally blurted it out, staring up at him indignantly and openly crying in frustration. “I was home. Taku was out with his girlfriend at the time and our father, not me. I was in my room, on the second floor, asleep.” Shear’s gaze wandered to the girl and her burn scars, his eyes narrowing on them.

Had his lookout been that foolish to mistake them? Had he only seen a young girl with the then-teenage boy and his father and assumed she was the sister?

That was entirely possible. Tymbask* was a hulking wall of muscle that could cleave a person in two with his axe easily, and who had been historically kind to the viera, but as his name’s literal translation meant ‘Dumb Ash’ suggested, that did not mean he was always intelligent.

“When the fire was set on the main floor, it eventually came up through the floor and caught my futon and hair on fire.” Nami choked and swallowed thickly, touching at the space above her ear under her tucked hair. The styled hair was lifted to reveal more of the scarred skin a bit above the edge of her ear. “I-I couldn’t get down the stairs. I had to jump o-out of my bedroom’s w-window, w-while I w-was on fire. I b-broke my arm w-when I landed a-and the old lady saw me jump. She r-ran over a-and helped put me o-out.”

Putting details together, Shear observed her brother push himself up to sit beside his sobbing sister, brushing at her tear-streaked face with one hand gently. It left streaks of red behind from his bloodied hand, leftover from when he’d grabbed at his bleeding thighs earlier. Realizing his error, Taku attempted to keep swiping it off in vain, spreading it further out across her face until Nami was swatting at his hands.

Shear felt a pang of pity and moved cautiously closer. Both of the young Hingans flinched, heads turning to stare up at him with a varying level of distrust and hatred. Shear reached up with his unoccupied hand, claws hooking the fabric of one sleeve and tearing it off. The torn off sleeve was then slit along it’s seam with the karambit into a wide - but now flat - arching square of blue, flower-patterned fabric.

Shear moved to just in front of them, squatting and holding it out towards the crying woman. “I was misinformed, then. You were never meant to be home.” Taku slapped at the hand holding the cloth but Shear, simply to spite him for it, leaned closer to wipe Nami’s bloodied and tear-streaked face clean instead. “Where is your father now, perchance…?” He asked cautiously while Taku simmered in his anger beside them.

Nami looked confused at the question and her sobbing eased some, responding to his inquiry as her reddened face was wiped with his sure motions. “H-he’s dead. He died a bit after our mother did, trying to barter the r-remaining things of value that survived the fire with a corrupt a-appraiser.” Her expression fell again but the tears seemed to have stopped. She gave a sniff. “But he was k-killed for them instead.”

“Nami shut up! Stop telling him shit!” Taku snapped and wiggled between Shear and his sister, shoving at Shear’s chest with one hand. The viera gave a snort at the shove, his crouched form wobbling a moment. He leaned back in, shoving the hyur aside roughly instead, straight back into the stones he’d fallen into earlier with Taku giving an indignant, pained squawk as he landed.

“You should not tell your sister to shut up while she is talking and being reasonable. It is incredibly rude.” Her face clean and dry, Shear tucked the torn cloth into the same pocket as his other karambit and crab walked back a step from her as she turned to check on her brother. Taku waved her off with a grunt. The viera continued. “Although it is a good story, and I may be incorrect on the specific details, I do not believe that is who killed your father, or for that reason.”

“What do you mean? How could you claim to know something we were assured of by the investigators? They even caught the appraiser! He was sentenced and thrown in jail!” Nami objected loudly and narrowed her eyes, shaking her head. The braid Shear had assumed was just a simple ponytail whipped behind her with the movement. “How dare you!”

“Nami- it was Nami, yes?” Shear waited and the heated Hingan stared a moment distrustfully before nodding. “Nami, you seem the smarter and more reasonable of the two of you. Maybe even older, I’d guess by at least a turn or two. Take stock of what I have said and realize I may know more than you, having been intimately involved in this already. I also described your mother as a mark earlier, and you have yet to ask me the most obvious question.”

“Wait, a mark?” Backtracking her thoughts prior to her outburst about him being wrong, her brows knit. “Oh, so you did. What does that have to do with my father and the appraiser? Who marked my mother, then?”

“Your father.” Shear sat his backside on the stones in front of her while Taku gave a shout and lunged for him. The karambit still in the viera’s hand curled up for the lunging man who stopped just short of it’s point, huffing.

“Liar!” Taku spat at him, the wad hitting his bare leg.

Shear’s other hand removed that bloodied, tear-damp cloth from his pocket and wiped it off his leg. “I have yet to lie to you about anything, least of all this.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense. Our father was distraught when he realized our mother was dead. The official reports ignored our old neighbor lady naming you at the scene. We knew better, obviously, and tried to tell our father but he told us not to make demons out of shadows.” Nami shook her head again, gripping the back of her brother’s shirt and tugging him back away from the knife.

“He would, considering he knew it was I carrying it out and that he was the demon in the shadows the whole time. Assuring you to accept a perfectly believable story is entirely why he asked for the job to be carried out in a rather distinct manner. Your mother was known for fainting, right? Something about her weak heart, if I recall.”

The siblings looked at each other and frowned. Taku decided to broach it first. “Yeah. So what? Everyone around our area who knew our mother knew that.”

“So I happen to know your father had been trying to poison her for some time, hence the strange and sudden onset of it, despite being healthy as a chocobo her whole life. All it gave her was a weaker constitution and fainting spells instead. She was very strong willed, I heard. He insisted he had wanted her to die quickly but his poison attempts were failing and he did not want her to suffer unreasonably.” Taku bristled but Nami set her scarred hand over his mouth. After her nod to continue, Shear tucked the cloth back into the pocket at his side and kept going.

“He needed distinct things, which cost him extra for finesse.” The viera counted the contracted details off on his fingers. “First, his wife dead from a posed fainting episode. That was easy. After she was already dead, I had to drop her just right as if she’d fallen and bashed her head on the edge of your living room table to make it believable. By the unmistaken damage on her skull eventually found in the fire. Some would even believe that is when she would have died, on the edge of the table itself. So the body would be next to where it would have fallen before the fire consumed it, either way.”

“Second, the place needed to burn down from the lantern she'd have mistakenly knocked over from her fainting fall in your living room. He indicated clearly he wanted her body taking the brunt of the worst of the flames so no other damage than the obviously damaged skull would be recognizable. He could claim the whole thing as an unfortunate series of events out of anyone’s control about the terrible accident.”

Shear let these details settle into the two Hingans in front of him, the both of whom looked increasingly sick as he spoke. He followed up with the next information more gently. “All this to guarantee the insurance money from your mother’s death, and for the house, which would be paid after the heart-breaking investigation into her death. You all would have alibis, witnesses of the bazaar itself and each other placing you shopping in the Ruby Bazaar during the regrettable incident. All of this plotting and planning to pay off his debts, one of which was a life debt, as well as the debt he would have with us for completing, since he was broke to pay us outright and too cowardly to kill himself.”

“You lie!” Taku exploded and pointed a trembling finger in his direction. Wisely, he did not lunge at the viera as he had during previous shouted dissents. “Our father had no debts, or they would have passed to us! He was an honorable man who did not have our mother killed for money. He loved her! He loved us! Fuck you, asshole!”

“Explain.” Nami, more reserved, stared at Shear with a level expression.

“You can’t believe him!” Taku whirled on his sibling, looking shocked.

“He hasn’t lied yet, Taku. He knew about the lantern, and where and how she died.”

“That you know of! And of course he knew the details about the crime scene, he’s the fucking murdering ijin who set all of it up! You can't trust a word he says!”

“That’s true, although for a ijin, he speaks our language well.” Nami pointed this out and Shear considered passing her compliment to Iji. They really had worked very hard on his pronunciations while sharing dumplings.

Taku did not agree. “So he’s a well-practiced ijin, who cares! He’s a murderous, lying bastard!”

“But Taku, what if it’s true?”

“Shut up! Don’t even entertain it! It’s not!”

While the two siblings continued bickering, Shear eventually cleared his throat. Taku turned his head and glared, Nami looked tired. The mismatched gaze glanced between them before the viera shrugged. “I can prove it.”

“Bullshit! You can not! Asshole! You fucking liar! Bastard! Piss off!” Taku bared his teeth. Nami set a hand on her brother’s shoulder, squeezing it. She took a deep breath and quietly counted under her breath. While she counted and Taku puffed and muttered angrily, the young Hingan eventually simmered his shouting.

Shear waited as well, faintly amused about being told to ‘piss off’ in front of his own - current - home. “Are you finished?”

“Don’t test your luck, shithead.” Taku growled it under his breath after another squeeze of the hand on his shoulder.

Nami spoke louder then, turning her head from her brother. “How can you prove it?”

“We have his contract for the job in a safe, for starters.” Taku looked less certain then and stared at the stones. “My mentor keeps them as insurance in the hypothetical scenario that should anyone who requests services from us attempt to betray us or extort us by threatening to, we would simply take them down with us. The details I spoke of I know about because they are clearly outlined, in your father’s own hand, in that contract.”

“Can we see it?” Nami frowned and pressed her lips together. “Not even Taku could deny such damning evidence.”

“Typically, no.” Nami started to ask something else but Shear continued. “However, this is… a curious case. My mentor may make an exception. Although,” Shear eyed Taku, who despite having calmed his shouting, was still openly seething beside his sister. “Would seeing the source of this pain, knowing it were true, sway you away from attacking me in the future? I was still the one who did the job. I killed your mother, and set fire to your house, and as such subsequently, set fire to you.”

“Exactly!” Taku hissed it and Nami looked torn.

“But if I’m understanding this correctly, you would not have if our father hadn’t paid you to.” Nami chewed the inside of her lip.

“That’s also true. It wasn’t personal to me, it was a job. Normally not even the type of job I would have accepted because your mother, all things considered, was an innocent.” Shear scratched at his bare shoulder with the handle of the karambit lightly.

Taku cut his sister off before she could speak to exclaim at him.“Then why did you?! She was kind! And sweet! And loving! She was innocent, like you s-said, so why d-did you kill her?!”

There, then, was the root of all of that futon-stabbing bluster. Shear grimaced and waved his free hand vaguely. “Because it was as I said. Your father was already trying to carelessly kill her, and I knew she would have died eventually anyway. By accepting and handling the job myself, I could at least guarantee her a swift death, rather than a painful, extended one. His first idiotic suggestion as a means to possible ‘painless death’ had been to slit her throat and let her bleed out. He’s obviously never choked and drowned to death in his own blood before.”

The siblings looked at Shear, clearly horrified.

Both blonde brows perked. “Oh, I see. Well, maybe he understood why I didn’t at his end then.”

“How did you know?!”

“Did you kill him, too?!”

The viera held the waving hand still up in a ‘stop’ motion at the sudden upset assault of questions. “No, I did not kill your father. I expect the ones who he owed his massive debts to did, especially after learning that instead of simply owing them his life, he traded his wife, his house - which arguably had more value than his life anyway - and nearly his daughter in exchange. Someone who is willing to sacrifice someone he loves to save his own skin is not someone to be trusted. I suppose you both should be grateful he didn’t have one of you killed instead.”

“That is not the comforting thought you think it is.” Nami muttered under her breath, rubbing the back of her neck.

As eloquent as ever, Taku glared at him before turning his face away. “Asshole.”

“I will let the two of you talk it over. It would be more likely you would both see the contract your father wrote for us and be set free to return home if you swore to drop the vendetta.” Shear shrugged simply.

“How do you know we wouldn’t simply lie about dropping it and come back to kill you, regardless? Or report to the investigators what we know?” Nami asked it, and Taku thumbed at his sister to echo it silently.

Shear’s shoulders raised in another simple shrug, flipping and spinning his karambit idly in his hand. “The investigators would not want to reopen something they have already tied closed, and especially so old. It would never pass in any kind of court, especially not hinging on someone your neighborhood has labeled as a liar.”

Motioning at Nami with the karambit and making the hyuran woman look nervous, Shear followed up. “As to the former, two words: magic contracts. My mentor knows how to do them. You both would sign one guaranteeing the dropped vendetta, even if you both still feel like doing it. But if either of you caused me harm, especially death, the contract would reap its justice against you in return.”

“So if one of us hurt you, or killed you... Say, me, I would die when you died.” Taku squinted suspiciously at Shear, who returned the suspicion with an unimpressed brow raised.

“Or be harmed equally, by cuts, stabbings, scratches, etcetera. Please don’t go thinking you would valiantly sacrifice yourself to rid the world of me, idiot. It would kill you both. Same contract, same punishment for those involved. It would also, in turn, guarantee that I could not harm either of you, either. Not that I have any plans to. Though you do owe me a new futon.”

“Owe you a-?!” Taku spluttered and sat up threateningly, and Nami’s hand plopped against his puffing chest.

“We will sign it.” Sure of herself, Nami stared at Shear hard who looked bored by that point. His adrenaline had more than worn off at that point.

Taku made another angry noise, shoving the hand off his chest. “Can we talk about this?! He’s still the murderer who killed mom!”

“Taku.” Shaking her head, Nami offered her sibling a small smile. “It would still be answers. And he was simply the tool used against her, he wasn’t truly who killed her. Even if she died by his hand, he was set against her by someone else. That is who really killed mom. Do you understand?”

“No?! Hello, did you fall and hit your head when I wasn’t aware?!” Gripping at his sibling’s shoulders, he shook her gently. “He! Killed! Her! He could have said no-”

“But he said she would have died either way! And then we would be chasing someone else in her name! But that’s not the point, Taku. He was sent after her by someone, possibly our father. I want to know the truth! I want… I want to know for certain.” Shrugging his grip off her shoulders, Nami set her jaw and stared at him stubbornly.

“And if it’s true?!” Taku scrubbed at his scalp with both hands, eyes squeezing shut. “Then he’s already dead and this asshole is still alive! We promised to kill her killer! This just… It just turned into killers, plural!”

“Except we won’t get answers unless we give up something, Taku. Aren’t you ready to go back to Old Biju? She’s still worried about us, Taku.”

“Don’t you dare use the old lady on me like that. Of course I want to see her, but we… We promised each other!”

“And if father is behind it, and he is the reason the rabbit was sent after mom, then he’s dead, and her killer is no longer alive. We would have succeeded.”

Shear considered correcting their word for ‘rabbit’ with ‘viera’ and opted that the linguistics battle wasn’t worth it at that moment.

Taku growled and rolled his shoulders, flinching when they gave a twinge. “But…”

“And if it’s not true, we did say until death we would hunt her killer. I would accept our fate, if you would.” Nami cocked her head in Shear’s direction, whose intrigue in their back-and-forths died inside his irritation.

The viera began talking, heated. “Excuse me, you would ki-”

“Of course I would accept it. So it’s settled. If … If it’s father, then the rabbit lives. If he’s a liar, the rabbit dies. That fair to you, rabbit?” Taku turned to address Shear who looked miffed.

“Viera. I am a viera. A veena, to be precise. And I guess, you could try. The first time went all sorts of in your favour.” Pulling the karambit off his hand and pocketing it, Shear rolled his eyes so hard he was surprised they didn’t pop clean out of his head. Climbing to his feet and stepping past them, he waved his hand over his shoulder. “My mentor will be gone at least until midday, so either leave and come back later or try not to annoy me with your quarreling. And a reminder you still owe me a new futon!”

“Sure, yeah, whatever. That’s definitely not fucking happening, asshole. Consider it collateral damage for you being a prick.” Taku snorted and stood with the assistance of his sister, the pair of them stumbling towards the house. “Don’t suppose you got any bandages?”

Turning his head and glancing at his bleeding limbs, Shear curled his lip in disgust. “... I do. Stay on the porch. If you bleed on the mats, he will kill you.”

“He who?” The pair of them chirped the question at the same time as Shear stepped into the house.

“My mentor, Kalona.”

“Who the fuck is Kalona?” Taku snorted as he eased to the porch. “Sounds like a girl's name.”

Shear called over his shoulder. “You will find out.”

Nami murmured under her breath to her brother after Shear disappeared, nudging him gently as she sat beside him. “Think we’ll regret it?”

Taku exhaled heavily, shoulders sagging, staring at his bloody thighs. “... I got no fucking clue.”

[apheamoon]

Lonely Souls - Chapter 1

Peter Quill x Reader AU 

A/N - omg guys, my first chapter!! I’m not sure how this whole scenario is going to pan out, but it was an idea I had late at night last night and I really liked it. It might be a little confusing to start off with, but please don’t let that put you off! Enjoy guys! :)

Warnings - based off the MCU (set directly after the events of Endgame), there’s going to be a slowburn to the relationship, love triangles, slight angst.

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Searching for Gamora was more difficult than anything else. To the rest of the Guardians, they saw little to no point in searching for her, despite the fact that she worked with the group for more or less 5 years. The Gamora they knew and loved was gone - in her place was, yes, a woman who resembled her in both looks and backstory, but as well as that, this Gamora was from the past. A past that all of the Guardians knew of...but the wrong past all the same. Their Gamora was gone, and that was a fact they had all accepted and regrettably tried to move on from.

Well. Almost all of them.

Quill was still smitten with Gamora. To him, she was everything he wanted in a woman - badass, independent, warm-hearted (when she wanted to be). What more was there to want? He, to be completely honest, was in love with her. Sure, there were other women that he had met on the odd occasion when he went from planet to planet, scavenging for parts to sell and what-not, but they were just one-night flings. Not many of the women he had been attracted to in the past mattered to him...but Gamora...

It was frustrating, in his eyes. Her father, Thanos (stupid name, stupid chin), had killed her in order to grasp his hands onto a bit of stone. Quill didn’t see much of a point in that. To him, it was stupid (like Thanos). But then again, he wasn’t a psychopath. Sure, he was a bit reckless at times, but a psycho? Nah. Nope. Nada. But all the same, it was frustrating. He had finally found someone, apart from himself, that he genuinely cared about. And as soon as he got ahold of it properly, it was taken away from him.

“Where we goin’, Quill?” Rocket slapped the back of Peter’s seat as he made his way towards the front part of the ship.

Drax was snoring soundly in one of the seats, a bag of Zarg-Nuts barely hanging from his left hand. A few of the snacks had, in fact, fallen onto the floor, unknown to anyone else. But that was normal. Groot, meanwhile, was playing on his gaming console, quietly muttering curses under his breath. Nebula was in her bunker of the ship, alone. That was where she retreated to if either Groot or Rocket started to get on her nerves. It was better than screaming or stabbing them and starting a riot in the teams only safe space. Mantis...? She was staring into space. Literally. She was literally staring into space. And who could forget Thor?! The Guardian’s had adopted the Asgardian for a short amount of time, allowing him to ride to space with them for something to do. He was sitting near Quill, speaking about how is ex-girlfriend - Jane - had brutally dumped him. However, as soon as Rocket came towards the two, Thor’s absent rambling came to a slow halt.

“Well, rabbit,” Spinning his plump self to the left, Thor reached over and gave Rocket’s head a good massage, “I think we’re going t-“

“Morag.” Quill cut Thor’s sentence off, a hint of coldness in his tone.

Tracing his fingers over the buttons of the Milano, Quill hooked his music player up to it and set the ship onto autopilot. His eyes began to lighten up, slowly, as the sound of Surrender by Cheap Trick began to play through the cheap speakers that Rocket had managed to win through a gamble. The raccoon sighed softly, shaking his head and looking towards the star stricken paradise the crew were journeying through.

“Quill-“ Folding his arms across his furry chest, the Raccoon pulled a face of disappointment towards his friend’s blunt response, “Don’t ya think, y’know, it’s time to give up on lookin’ for her? She doesn’t wanna be found.”

Rocket’s words were a harsh reality and close to the truth that Quill had tried to block out. If Gamora wanted to be found by any of the team, she would have gotten onto the ship as soon as the battle with Thanos was over. From what any of the crew could gather, Gamora fought her fight, then got back onto a sub-ship of some sort and travelled back to space. It made sense, really. These people where nothing but strangers to her.

“Well,” Peter squinted his eyes for a moment, his forehead creasing over with what could only be described as stress, “What if...she wanted to be found and she just doesn’t know it yet?”

Rocket and Thor both shared the same look of confusion.

“I have to agree with the animal,” Thor sighed, scratching his beard softly, “It seems to me that the maiden doesn’t want to be found. Sorry-“ He burped suddenly, pounding his chest with the palm of his hand. The burp was loud, and nasty, but it made Thor smirk, “Pardon me. Anyway, she doesn’t know you guys. Gamora is from a past that is, I’m afraid to say, very different from our own.”

“What difference does that make?” Quill shook his head, a mixture of sadness and confusion melting into his voice, “If she was our family once, why can’t she be our family again?!”

This wasn’t the Quill that Rocket knew before the whole...snap situation. But then again, Rocket had been without his crew for almost 5 years, so the raccoon knew what it was like to love and lose people of his own. Unfortunately, though, he had to learn the hard way and that moving on was what was best for himself in those dark times. So, naturally, Rocket took it upon himself to make Peter see the bigger picture.

“Look, Quill, you’re actin’ a little sappy now. Even Mantis doesn’t act like this, an’ she’s a hopeless romantic!”

Upon hearing her name, Mantis peered from behind Groot and waved over towards Quill, Rocket and Thor, her eyes glistening and a dazed smile on her face. Rocket looked to her for a moment, his ears going backwards. Then, returning his attention over to towards Peter again, he continued with what he was saying.

“What I’m tryna say is, y’know, maybe it’s for the best if y’move on. I mean, y’got us! We’re still here! Right Groot?”

“I am Groot!”

“I’m going to pretend he didn’t say that,” Quill sighed, aiming the comment over towards Groot and leaning back in his chair, “Also, Rocket, I’m the captain. What I say goes. So if I say we’re going to continue looking for Gamora, then that’s what we’re doing!”

“Well, actually,” Thor stretched his arms upwards towards the sky and hummed out a small laugh, his hands going over towards his stomach and tapping it, “I am the strongest Avenger, so technically, I- Odin’s Beard what is that?!”

The Asgardian’s eyes widened as he saw a figure begin to come towards the Milano at a colossal speed. Whatever the figure was, it was masked and dressed in a coat that was honestly too heavy to be worn when flying through space, if they were flying through space at all. Upon further inspection, the figure looked as though it had been chucked out of something, rather than gone for a flight, because it wore no rocket boots, and had no amount of flying equipment on it.

Sighing, Quill stopped the ship and watched as the figure smushed itself into the front window of the ship. The noise of the window and the figure colliding together boomed through the ship, and Drax awoke from his slumber abruptly, his arms flailing in the air and the Zarg-Nuts in his hand falling to the ground.

“Quill!” He shouted, jumping up from his chair and pointing over to the figure on the glass, “Someone is trying to get on the ship! I have spotted an intruder!!”

“Drax, y’late to the party. Sit down!” Rocket scowled, pointing a finger over towards the Mutate and shaking his head.

Meanwhile, Quill was in silent thought. In pure honesty, this situation reminded him of the moment The Guardians had met with Thor, but something seemed...different. He got up from his chair quietly and pressed on his ear piece, a heavy sigh escaping from his lips.

“Let’s get this show on the road.” He told them all, his face serious before it disappeared behind his mask and he left the ship.

As soon as Quill left the ship, it went silent between the three who were at the front of it. As Drax slowly picked up his bag of Zarg-Nuts from off the floor, he began to crunch into them, the silence being engulfed by the sound of his chewing.

“Huh,” Thor sighed, kicking his feet up and smiling eagerly, “I wonder what type of show Quill is going to be putting on for us!”

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Tags:

@peterspideyy

[tonystarkbingo]

TSB Mark IV Week 2 Roundup!

This includes the Round Robin fic that several participants wrote as part of our Discord Party, as well as a whole bunch of other amazing works.  Go leave them some love!

Title: Adventures of Tiny Dragon Tony and His Treasure (Loki) - Chapter 41: Snapshot #41: The First of Many Meetings Collaborator: tinydragontony Card Number: 4005 Link: Tumblr Square Filled: T5 - more than a partner Ship: FrostIron Rating: Gen Major Tags: Fluff, first meetings, 5+1 Summary: Here it is, the most requested chapter to date! How Loki met tiny dragon Tony! Word Count: 3300

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Title: Snowed In Collaborator: eachpeachpearplum Card Number: 4003 Link: Tumblr Square Filled: S2 - snowed in Ship: none Rating: Gen Major Tags: snowglobe, possible imprisonment?, art Summary: Tony was just minding his own business, taking a quick zip around the city, just because he can. Next thing he knows, he’s in a glass ball sat on some evildoer’s shelf. To make things worse, he’s not the only one…

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Title: Man on the Run Collaborator: ceealaina Card Number: 4008 Link: Tumblr Square Filled: R1 - Old Team Ship: Background Pepper/Nat, Background IronHusbands Rating: Teen Major Tags: Fluff and Humour, Team as Family, Post-Endgame, Fix-It Summary: Saving the world is important. But Tony really, really just wants to retire and spend time with his family. And if faking his death is the only way to do that, that's how it goes sometimes. Word Count: 1115

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Title: Inktober - Day 19 Collaborator: monobuu Card Number: 4040 Link: Tumblr Square Filled: S3 - AU: Star Wars Ship: WinterIron Rating: Teen Major Tags: Scandalous amount of leg Summary: Uuuuuh. Yeah. (*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)

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Title: Scrunch Me Collaborator: martianwahtney Card Number: 4011 Link: AO3 Square Filled: A2 - Victorious Ship: WinterIron Rating: Gen Major Tags: fluff Summary: 3 times Tony asks Bucky why he wears scrunchies, and 1 time he figured it out for himself Word Count: 995

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Title: The Best Bathtub Collaborator: camichats Card Number: 4049 Link: Tumblr Square Filled: K4 - Kink: Bath/Shower Sex Ship: Tony/Sharon Rating: Mature Major Tags: Minor sexual content, allusions to sugar daddy/baby relationship (though not actually present in the fic) Summary: Sharon is a tough Shield agent and she’s proud of that, but sometimes it’s nice to relax and feel pampered. Word Count: 1649

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Title: Baffled, bewildered and bemused. Collaborator: JehBeeEh Card Number: 4058 Link: AO3 Square Filled: K1 - Learning to be Loved Ship: Stony Rating: Mature Major Tags: Super Fluffy, Implied Sex Summary: Baffled. Bewildered? Perplexed. Tony couldn’t quite figure out which version fit this situation best, but they all seemed to apply. Perplexed seemed a bit much though. Puzzled? Bemused. Word Count: 3197

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Title: wound with your eyes (kill with a smile) - Chapter 3 Collaborator: deathsweetqueen Card Number: 4066 Link: AO3 Square Filled: A5 - Restrained Ship: WinterIron Rating: Mature Major Tags: graphic depictions of violence, Spy Kids AU, Secret Identities, Kidnapping, Indian Tony Stark Summary: Tony Stark and Bucky Barnes were once the renowned superheroes, Iron Man and the Winter Soldier. Eventually, they put aside the masks and the armour to get married and raise a family together. Twelve years later, SHIELD agents go missing, and Tony and Bucky decide to go on their first mission since their eldest child was born. When they're mysteriously kidnapped by a psychotic TV show host, it's hardly a great first step to getting back in the game. The worst thing, though, might be the fact that the only people who can rescue them are their own children. Word Count: 12,872

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Title: with or without his unhallowed touch - Chapter 24 Collaborator: deathsweetqueen Card Number: 4066 Link: AO3 Square Filled: K1 - myths and legends Ship: Tony/Thanos, Stuckony Rating: Explicit Major Tags: Tony is Kidnapped by Thanos, Tony is the Soul Stone, Female Tony Stark, Obsessive Behavior, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Emotional Manipulation, Stockholm Syndrome, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Physical Abuse, Domestic Violence, Forced Relationship, Gaslighting, Rape/Non-con Elements, Warnings for this Chapter: Explicit Violence, Major Character Death, and Cannibalism Summary: Toni sees the Chitauri mothership high above her, sees the hundreds and thousands of warships that circle the Earth, and she knows, she knows. She thinks, oh, I understand. A beat. Her hand burns. Wow, we are so fucked. She lets the bomb slide out of her hands, watches as it floats towards the mothership, and fire rains down on her, even in the dark, pale, cold hollow of space. She laughs, breathlessly, thinks of all the ones who’d loved her the most, and dies. Word Count: 129,402

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Title: What We Do in the Tower Collaborator: newnewyorker93, rebelmeg Card Number: 4042, 4034  Link: AO3 Square Filled: S2 - Forcibly Adopted (4042) A5 - WTF (4034) Ship: Peter & Tony, Pepperony Rating: Gen Major Tags: Vampire AU, Avengers family, crack and humor, unapologetic cherry-picking of vampire lore Summary: Peter Parker has been having an awkward time as a brand new vampire. But now he's got Tony Stark whisking him off to meet a whole group of weird and hilarious vampires that live in Stark Tower and maybe this won't be so bad after all? Word Count: 5185

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Title: Prince Tony and the Red Headed Princess Collaborator: PoliZ Card Number: 4007 Link: AO3 Square Filled: K2 - AU: Fairy Tale Ship: Pepperony Rating: Gen Major Tags: fairytale elements, domestic fluff Summary: Morgan asks her daddy for a bedtime story with knights and monsters, and wizards and princesses.  With some help from Pepper, Tony is happy to oblige. Word Count: 866

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Title: A Bottle and a Half of Whiskey Later - An 1872 Playlist Collaborator: moosh Card Number: 4037 Link: Tumblr Square Filled: S5 - Canon: 1872 Ship: None Rating: Gen Major Tags: Playlist Summary: A playlist based off some of the songs that Tony sang in the comic. Word Count: N/A

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Title: The Gift of Jab Collaborator: dracusfyre Card Number: 4032 Link: AO3 Square Filled: A2 - Dares/Bets Ship: WinterIron Rating: Gen Major Tags: Pre-Relationship, Sparring Summary: For the ImagineTonyandBucky prompt: Hi! I'm always up for some sparring hotness, so how about Tony being present for physical training sessions (working/watching), but says no everytime Nat/Clint/Steve/etc invites him to do it. Rhodey laughing every time the team says that it's bc Tony doesn't want to embarass himself. Bucky suspects his BF is actually well-versed in hand-to-hand/martial arts/self-defense; so he gives himself the challenge of getting Tony onto the mat. When he does he ends up a)on the floor & b)really aroused. The fill is less horny than the prompt, sorry. Word Count: 2453

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Title: Lady in Red Collaborator: JehBeeEh Card Number:  4058 Link: AO3 Square Filled: A5 - Steve Rogers/Captain America Ship: Stony Rating: Mature Major Tags: Summary: “I GOT SCARED, ALRIGHT?”“Steve, sweetheart-"Steve kept pacing their room like he hadn’t even heard her. “I got so scared, you have no idea. And I know, okay. I know you can take care of yourself, and you don’t need me to save you or protect you, and it is sexy as all hell, but in that moment, I forgot all about that, and I was scared that I couldn’t protect you.” He collapsed on the bed, elbows on his knees and his head in his hands and Toni could hear him take long slow breaths.This had definitely not been how Toni envisioned their return home going. Word Count: 1176

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Title: i come as a woman, dark and open Collaborator: simi Card Number: 4066 Link: AO3 Square Filled: A5 - Resolve Ship: Toni/Steve/Bucky Rating: E Major Tags: Female Tony Stark, Regency AU, Misogyny, Racism, Explicit Sexual Content, Emotional Infidelity, Slurs, Marital Dissatisfaction. Summary: When Toni first meets Captain Steve Rogers at one of the biggest gatherings of the season, she is not impressed. On the other hand, his best friend, the charming James ‘Bucky’ Barnes, was an utter delight. Unfortunately for her, after a series of misunderstandings at said party, she is forced to accept Steve’s hand in marriage in order to save her family’s reputation. And while Toni never expected a fairy tale, she had always hoped that companionship would one day turn into something more. How was she to know that Steve was just as charmed by Bucky as she was? a.k.a. Steve and Toni get married to each other; there are more misunderstandings; Bucky is an absolute delight and possibly the saving grace for their marriage; and somehow, all three end up falling in love with each other in the process. Word Count: 25, 335

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Title: TSB October Discord Party Round Robin Fic Collaborators: rebelmeg 4034 Politzania 4007 EachPeachPearPlum 4003 summerpipedream 4045 Ducky 4013 Magica 4019 SomeSortofItalianRoast 4036 DarthBloodOrange 4010 Link: AO3 Square Filled: rebelmeg: A4 - Huddling for Warmth Politzania: A5 - Dog Park EachPeachPearPlum: S1 - Premonitions summerpipedream: A5 - Clint Barton/Hawkeye Ducky: R5 - Fortune Telling Magica: T2 - Fortitude SomeSortofItalianRoast: S2 - Magic DarthBloodOrange: T4 - Robots Ship: None Rating: Teen Major Tags: animal transformation, magic/witchcraft, Kate is a hero, Clint is a disaster human being Summary: Tony has been turned into a dog, and he is going to straight-up murder whoever made him a corgi. Word Count: 2634

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Title: I Know You Collaborator: iam93percentstardust Card Number: 4012 Link: AO3 Square Filled: R5 - Sam Wilson/Falcon Ship: IronFalcon Rating: Gen Major Tags: Established Relationship, Domestic Fluff, Sickfic Summary: When Tony gets sick and hides away from everyone else, it's up to Sam to find his wayward boyfriend. Good thing he knows him so well. Word Count: 1316

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Title: Thriller - Michael Jackson Collaborator: monobuu Card Number: 4040  Link: AO3 Square Filled: A5 - Murderchildren Ship: None Rating: Teen Major Tags: Creepy?  Summary: N/A Word Count: N/A

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Title: I’ll keep your brittle heart warm Collaborator: peachy Card Number: 4017  Link: AO3 Square Filled: K3 - Protectiveness Ship: Stony Rating: Teen Major Tags: Breaking up and making up, fluff, getting back together Summary: They got married when they were young, just twenty-four years old, despite the arguments from their friends that they should wait, that neither of them were ready for a commitment like marriage so young. Steve distinctly remembered Sam pointing out that the male brain isn’t even fully developed until age twenty-five. But they were young and passionate, so sure they’d found their perfect person that they could overcome anything and everything life threw at them. And it was true. For six months. Word Count: 4223

[just-dreaming-marvel]

ONE HUNDRED TWENTY NINE - THE FINAL BATTLE (1)

LEGACY: A Tony Stark Daughter Story

FULL STORY MASTERLIST

ENDING ONE MASTERLIST

< previous

Word Count: 1,660ish

Summary: The final battle begins.

~~~

We were all thrown in different directions. Steve quickly grabbed onto me to try to shield me from the blast. The impact, along with all the emotions, caused me to be easily knocked out. Steve also fell unconscious. Tony got up and quickly found the two of us, finding Steve’s lost shield in the process. He knelt down between us and gently shook the two of us. 

“Come on, guys. Wake up,” he urged. Steve moved first. “That’s my man.”  

Tony held up the shield for the Captain to take. “You lose this again, I’m keeping it.” 

Tony turned to me. “Bailey, kid… Get up.”

I groaned. “What happened?” I asked.

“We messed with time. It tends to mess back. You’ll see.” Tony helped me up and then Cap. “You okay, B?”

“Mmhmm,” I nodded. “I’m fine. It was just a lot of emotions all at once… Everyone’s definitely back.”

When we walked out of the ruble we were in, we found Thor looking down at the destroyed facility. I followed his eyes to see what he was looking at to find Thanos sitting on a pile of debris. 

I looked into the villain’s mind. He was the 2014 version of Thanos. He had found out that he had been successful in the future because of the 2023 Nebula and he switched them out. How had I not seen that? He knew that we were trying to undo his plan. Thanos was leading us into a trap.

“What’s he been doing?” Tony asked.

“Absolutely nothing,” Thor answered, his eyes not moving from their target.

“Where are the stones?” Cap asked.

“Somewhere under all this,” Tony answered, motioning to the rumble. 

“I’m in his head. He definitely doesn’t have them,” I cut in. “Nor does he know where they are.” 

“So we keep it that way,” Cap instructed. 

“You know it’s a trap, right?” Thor said.

“Yeah,” Tony replied. “And I don’t much care.”

“Good… Just as long as we are all in agreement.” Thunder and lightning made their presence none as Thor summoned Stormbreaker and 2013 Mjolnir. “Let’s kill him properly this time.” 

I began walking with the three of them, but soon Tony glanced over and the three of them stopped. They turned to me and I already knew what they were planning on doing.

“I can read your minds, you know that right?” I said. “I’m fighting with you guys. I’ve already been in his head and he hasn’t even noticed yet. I can help.” I grabbed one of Tony’s hands and one of Steve’s. “I know what you are going to say. You want me safe. Well I can’t be safe when my home has just been destroyed and you are here fighting. I can help. I’ve trained for this.”

Tony nodded once in response before hugging me and giving me a kiss on the cheek. “I love you,” he whispered.

“I love you too.”

I turned to Steve, who quickly pulled me into his arms. “I can’t lose you,” he whispered. “Please, go home to Pepper and Morgan.”

“This is my home, too. And I won’t leave unless you and Tony do.”

“This isn’t going to end pretty… We’re going to lose people…”

“I know.” I pecked his lips quickly before resting my head back on his chest. “I’m still not leaving.”

“You’re so stubborn.”

I pulled away to look at him. “We’re going to end this. Once and for all. Whatever it takes.”

“Whatever it takes. I love you.”

“I love you too.” 

We shared a brief kiss before the four of us continued towards the Mad Titan. Thanos was still sitting on the pile of debris, watching us carefully. I was waiting for the right time to enter his mind once again.

“You could not live with your own failure,” the purple giant started. “And where did that bring you? Back to me. I thought by eliminating half of life, the other half would thrive. But you’ve shown me that’s impossible. And as long as there are those that remember what was, there will always be those that are unable to accept what can be. They will resist.”

“Yep. We’re all kinds of stubborn,” Tony shot back. We all moved around, surrounding the Mad Titan on all sides. 

“I’m thankful. Because now, I know what I must do.” He stood up. “I will shred this universe down to its last atom.” He put his helmet on. “And then… with the stones you’ve collected for me, create a new one. Teeming with life, but knows not what it has lost but only what I has been given. A grateful universe.”

“Born out of blood,” Cap stated.

“They’ll never know it. Because you won’t be alive to tell them.”

The four of us began attacking him from all sides. Punching, kicking, shooting, throwing, every thing we could do. 

Tony landed in front of Thor at one point, a target on his suit opening up. 

“Okay, Thor,” Tony called. “Hit me.”

Thor summoned lightning and then hit his two hammers together, directing the lightning to Tony’s suit. 

The suit took in the energy and shot it all at Thanos. Thor then used Mjolnir to hit Thanos as I attacked from behind. Thanos used Tony as a shield from Thor resulting in his suit being damaged. Thanos then threw Tony to the side.

“Dad!” I shouted as he landed on the ground. I knew that he had passed out.

Steve then tried to attack Thanos but was easily shielded away. Thor then went after him but was blocked by a sword. Thor began to be beaten and choked by Thanos. I quickly tried to help but was tossed to the side. Thor tried to reach for Stormbreaker but Thanos grabbed it quickly and began using it against Thor. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Mjolnir lifting off the ground, the hammer flying into Steve’s hand. Thanos watched in amazement as I smirked. 

“I knew it!” Thor excitedly proclaimed.

Thanos kicked Thor back to the ground before turning to Steve. Steve charged at Thanos while swinging Mjolnir, successfully hitting Thanos in the face and knocking him down.  

He then threw his shield at the Man Titan who deflected it. Mjolnir is then thrown to the Captain’s shield, creating a shockwave and knocking Thanos off his feet. I finally got back up after being in shock at watching Steve fight using both his shield and Mjolnir. I began shooting at him as Steve summoned lightning, aiming it at Thanos, and the Titan tried to get the upper hand. 

And it wasn’t that hard for him to. He grabbed me by the neck and I quickly got into his head. He could feel me this time.

“What are you looking for, my child?” He asked.

“Your-r… w-weakness…” I stuttered, grabbing at his hands to let me go.

“Bailey!” Steve shouted. 

I glanced to the side as Mjolnir flew passed and barely missed hitting the giant purple grape that was clinging onto me. I pushed harder into his mind. Gamora was still alive, still one of his weaknesses but not like the other Thanos. Nebula definitely wasn’t his weakness. Getting the Stones were but I couldn’t figure out how to use that against him. He began to squeeze my neck harder as I ventured further into his mind.

“Get out!” Thanos frustratedly demanded. 

He gave my neck one final squeeze before tossing me on top of Thor. Thor tried his best to protect us both as I collided with him. He laid me down in his lap, I was coughing and my helmet disappeared into my suit. Thor began brushing my hair out of my face.

“It’s okay,” he tried to sooth. “I’ve got you…”

“W-where’s…” I coughed. “my dad?”

“I don’t know,” Thor shook his head. I began to push myself off of him. 

“I have to find him.” As the two of us helped each other up, a crackling noise came through the coms. We glanced at each other.

“Cap,” the voice sounded familiar, but it wasn’t one I hand heard in a long time. “you read me?” Steve immediately stopped walking towards Thanos and his army. 

We made eye contact. Hope finally making its way to both our eyes. “Cap, it’s Sam,” the voice sounded through the coms again. “Can you hear me?” 

I glanced behind Steve as I saw a yellow portal, similar to the ones I saw Dr. Strange and Wong use five years ago, begin to form behind him. “On your left.”

Steve looked behind him to see the portal. Three figures step through, Okoye, Shuri, and T’Challa, all ready to fight.  

Sam zoomed through from above in his Falcon armor. Then dozens of more portals opened up around our side of the battlefield. I watched all of them open, finally seeing my once fallen friends, family. 

Dr. Strange and Peter, oh my precious brother Peter, came through the same portal and I almost cried at the sight.

The Wakandan army came through as well as the Asgardians and the Masters of the Mystic Arts. I saw Wanda and Bucky, making eye contact with him. He gave me a strained smile. I finally caught site of my father lying the the ground and ran up to him.

“Dad!” I said, crouching down besides him. 

All of a sudden, a purple and silver Iron Man suit landed in front of the two of us. The mask flipped open to reveal my mother, Pepper. 

“Mom?” I asked as I walk over to her.

“You think you and your father are the only ones in this family that can put up a fight?” She retorted.

As all of our side gathers together, Pepper and I hover up above them. Seeing everyone back brought me so much joy, but what we were about to do scared me. Everyone just came back, and we could lose them all again in a more permanent way.

“Avengers!” 

I heard Steve shout as he summoned Mjolnir.

“…assemble.” 

We all then charged at Thanos and his army. Ready to end this once and for all. 

next >

[what-is-your-plan-today]

Stark Spangled Banner Ch 57: We’re In The Endgame Now

Intro The Time Heist worked, but at a cost. Natasha gave her life for the Soul Stone. Following a promise to make her sacrifice worth something, the Avengers continued their plan and succeeded in reversing the Snap. But along with everyone else, the biggest threat the Avengers have ever faced re-appeared.

Thanos.

 Now Steve and Katie, along with the rest of their team are locked in a fearsome battle, between light and dark, life and death. Simply put, it’s a battle which they cannot afford to lose because they’re in the Endgame now…

Warnings:

“Language!” 

Character death. Please have your tissues ready…there’s gonna be tears.

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist

So…I’m REALY nervous about this one!! I hope I do it justice. It flits between perspectives so I hope you can follow it, and used a lot of visuals too...  Please re-blog and leave your thoughts xxx

"Baby…” Steve heard Katie’s voice, it was desperate, shattered, and something else inside him broke even more. “You gotta get up…” she pleaded, shaking his shoulder, “Come on…”

Steve grit his teeth as he rolled to the side, Katie’s hand still on his shoulder as he rest against his forearm, trying to muster the strength to get up.

“Come on…” Katie whispered, “We need to try, keep him distracted until Tony and Thor come round….hopefully the others can find their way back to the surface. And then if we can get the stones we can end this.” It was a long shot, beyond long in fact. Steve knew that. Katie knew that. But whilst there was hope…no matter how small a hope it was, or how beaten they felt, they had to try. Steve turned his head to look over his shoulder at his wife. Her face plate was open and there were tears streaking down her cheeks. She looked at him and then glanced to her left, and he saw utter hatred and fear cloud her pretty face.

“In all my years of conquest, violence, slaughter... it was never personal.” Thanos spoke as Katie and Steve both glared at him, from their vantage point on the floor, Katie almost shielding Steve with her body as she knelt by his side. “But I'll tell you now, what I'm about to do to your stubborn, annoying little planet...I'm gonna enjoy it. Very, very much.”

And then, as they watched, behind Thanos, a blue light shot down and when it dissipated it left what looked like thousands of soldiers stood in rows. Thanos had brought his entire army. The so called Children of Thanos, Chitauri, those damned dog things they had fought in Wakanda...

Katie took a shaky breath, and let out a sob as she realised that any hope they had was gone. They might have, just might have stood a chance against Thanos alone, but not against his full army. She locked eyes with his Steve before he looked down at the ground, away from her eyes.  More of her tears fell as she understood this was it. This was the end. For them, for their kids, for the world.

According to some, there’s a calm serenity that descends on you when you know you’re time is up. But Steve didn’t feel calm, he felt anger, hatred…all towards himself. This was down to him, he’d brought this upon his family, his friends…he should have left those fucking stones in the past and dealt with his feelings of failure. Instead, here he was, a failure again. Beaten on a battlefield by the very man they actually killed some 5 years previously that was now about to wipe out the entire world. How fucked up was that?

“We are not going like this…” Katie said, openly sobbing as she shook her head, looking from Steve to the assembled army. “Not like this. We stand up, and we go fighting, you hear me?”

“You always get up Stevie, ya hear?” his Ma looked at him, wiping the blood from his split lip, ignoring his flinch. “No matter how hard they hit ya, you never give them the satisfaction of stayin’ down, lad, never. You push back, and eventually they’ll realise that they can’t fight forever...”

He glanced at the broken shield on his arm, swallowing as he remembered Jamie looking at him when he told him he used to be Captain America. His beautiful baby boy’s eyes that were so like Steve’s mother’s, wide with awe, and pride.

“You were Captain America?” Jamie frowned. “When you fighted with the Avengers?”

“Yeah” he sighed, running his hand through Jamie’s golden hair “I was.”

“Are you now?”

“I dunno.” Steve said, glancing back at his shield.

“I think you are” Jamie cocked his head to one side as his hand reached out to touch the shield. “Because Cap’s a hero and you’re my hero”

Well fuck this. Katie was right, his Ma was right. If he was going, then he was going down fighting. Alongside his best gal, his partner, the woman who gave him more strength than any serum ever could.

He pushed himself to his feet, teeth grit, fierce determination across every line on his face. With a shaking hand he tightened the leather straps on his broken shield around his arm and stood tall, turning to Katie.

“I love you.” he choked out, holding out his right hand to grip her left “’til the end of the line.” She turned to him, her eyes streaming with tears before she reached up and pulled his face to hers, pressing a fierce kiss to his lips.

“The very end…” she stuttered out, before they turned to face their death.

Man and Wife walked slowly towards Thanos, who simply stood, his head cocked to his right. They’d barely made it 4 foot however, when their communicators started crackling.

“Hey, Cap, you read me?”

It was faint…and broken…but it was a voice they hadn’t heard in 5 years other than in their nightmares about that fateful day they failed in Wakanda. A voice they would never forget. 

Sam.

Both of them stopped dead, Steve’s mouth dropped open and he looked at Katie, raising a shaking hand to his head in an attempt to press the comms piece further into his ear. They both turned to each other, their faces shocked, not quite sure whether to believe if they were hearing things or...

“Cap, it's Sam. Can you hear me?”

Both Katie and Steve’s chests rose and fell deeply as they tried to understand where Sam was. They knew Banner's snap had worked, but surely if everyone came back where they had vanished then they should be in Wakanda. Nevertheless, Steve instinctively glanced upwards, and Sam spoke again.

“On your left.”

They both turned, seeing a sparkling yellow circle to the left of Steve. As they watched, utterly dumbfounded, three figures stepped through and Katie realised from their Silhouettes alone who it was- Okoye, Shuri, and T’Challa in his full Black Panther garb. Katie’s hand flew to her mouth as T'Challa's mask faded away to look at Steve. The soldier breathed shakily and relieved and thankful smile broke through the filth and grime that covered his face. T'Challa gave him a small nod, before he turned to Katie and bowed slightly, the way he always did.

Katie’s breathing suddenly became erratic as she gripped Steve’s hand and the sobs began again, but this time they were punctuated by laughs, laughs and stutters of utter relief which turned into a yell of pure joy when Sam zoomed in above them in his Falcon armour. They watched as he flew and circled back round, Katie ’hands flying into the back of her hair, gripping as she doubled over and sobbed, simply unable to believe it. 

Steve could do nothing but watch in a relieved, thankful and astounded awe as dozens and dozens more portals opened up all around the battlefield. He knew who the man that descended at the front was- Doctor Strange and he was joined by 3 people he also knew to be Rocket’s friends- The Guardians of the Galaxy- then came Spider-Man, his mask flopping down to reveal an alive and well Peter Parker behind it. Katie tore her eyes away to look for Tony who was now sitting up, a look of utter shock on his face. He found her eyes and gave a small twitch of his mouth as he scrambled to his feet, and turned to Thor who was now grinning ear to ear as he watched the portal that was bringing Valkyrie and the Asgardian army to their aid. Katie could heard chanting now and she turned to see the full Wakandan Army stepping through another portal headed by Bucky. The number of people arriving to support the Avengers rose as Dr Strange continued to conjure portals, and Katie screamed as a familiar red energy alerted them both to Wanda’s appearance, where she landed not far from Bucky, her eyes blazing. And then, with a clang Pepper landed a few feet away from Katie clad in her own Iron Suit and Tony joined them, shooting his wife a proud look. Finally there was a loud roaring, crashing noise and Katie and Steve spun to see Scott Lang as the Giant-Ant Man emerging from the rubble with Banner, Rhodey, Rocket and Clint. 

The group of thousands behind Katie and Steve up their fighting stances, brandishing whatever weapons or powers they had, Steve looked around, almost bursting into tears himself at the emotions flooding his chest. He glanced at his wife who looked back, wiping her eyes, her breathing still deep as she couldn’t quite believe how all these people had come to help. Steve didn’t either, but all he knew was they had. And now they were almost if not completely equal on numbers. And they had hope once more.

In fact, they had more than hope. They had a chance. And that was good enough for the Captain. He’d beaten worse odds before, and he was damned sure they could do it again, especially when he turned to look at Thanos and saw for the first time something that looked like fear, apprehension even on the Titan’s face.

He turned to face Katie again as she gave him a nod.

“Call it Captain…” she said, her voice full of determination as her face plate slid back into place.

And call it he did.

“AVENGERS!” his cry echoed across the battle field as he held out his hand, summoning Mjolnir to his palm. Thor landed by his side just as the hammer slapped into Steve’s glove and he glared up at Thanos, his teeth grit with utter determination “ –Assemble.”

Behind him Thor gave a loud battle cry as did Black Panther and the Avengers’ army began to charge. Katie, Tony and Pepper flying almost in formation as they sped forward. Almost instantly the two sides collided violently, and the fighting began. Bullets, beams, punches, kicks, knives, spears, all flying and smashing against one another. The air was filled with yells, grunts and the clanging of metal against metal.

Thor and Steve found themselves fighting off a large group of the dog like creatures and somehow Steve ended up holding Stormbreaker. Not for long, because that belonged to Thor. His Thanos killing axe. No way was the God of Thunder letting the Captain wield that. 

“No no, give me that…”  he held out his hand, tossing him Mjolnir. "You can have the little one," 

Katie, Tony and Pepper were circling back to back in a 3, their booster beams shooting at anything and everything, spiralling into groups of the warriors, helping anyone they could. Katie spotted that Clint was swamped a little so she flew down, freeing him before she shot into the air and found herself flying along side Sam.

“Mrs R…”he turned to face her and she gave him a nod.

“Good to see you Sammy…” she smiled.

“You know me, never one to miss a good fire fight!” he smirked, shooting his semi-autos at something that was flying into the air in front of him.

Tony shot down, barrelling into a group of Chitauri warriors, just like he had in New York. With a whoop he scattered them like bowling pins, landing and shooting off guns and beams, before something hit him hard on the side of the head and sent him flying. He landed, and pushed himself up on his elbows ready to fight but at the same time the Giant Ant-Man crushed his assailant.

And then, the kid was there. Peter was running straight to Tony. In the suit Tony had made for him. The Billionaire blinked, retracting his helmet as Pete’s usual, incessant and enthusiastic rambles filled his ear.

“Hey! Holy cow! You will not believe what's been going on. Do you remember when we were in space? And I got all dusty? I must've passed out ‘cause I woke up, and you were gone. But Doctor Strange was there, right? He was like, "It's been five years. Come on, they need us." And then he started doing the yellow sparkly thing that he does all the time..” he started using two fingers to demonstrate Strange's swirl in the air but Tony stopped him, the emotions of seeing the kid alive again were swirling in his chest, and with watery eyes he stepped forward and pulled the kid into a hug.

“What are you doing?...” Peter said, shocked at his mentor’s display of affection before he hugged Tony back. “This is nice”

The fight raged on and on and on. But no one gave up, they knew they had no option but to win this, for the sake of everything and everyone on the planet, and none more than Steve, who was fighting with every goddamned bit of strength he had to get back to his kids and his wife and finally buy that fucking holiday home in Orlando that Katie had been eyeing up.

Across the field he could just about make out Clint, who was sprinting like his life depended on it. Which, in fairness, it did. The gauntlet was clutched to his chest and he spoke into his comms, asking his leader for instructions.

“Cap, what do you want me to do with this damn thing?”

“Get those stones as far away as possible!” Steve instructed, punching another creature in the head.

“No!” Banner yelled back “We need to get them back where they came from.”

“No way to get them back” Tony sighed “Thanos destroyed the quantum tunnel”

“Hold on…” Lang spoke, and Steve saw the 100 foot or so man shrink out of the air "That wasn't our only time machine!"

The sound of Scott’s van horn, rang out across the battle ground and Steve immediately ran up to higher ground, trying to spot the van, following the noise.  

"Anyone see an ugly, brown van up there?" Steve asked, looking up.

Katie shot above him and he watched her as she circled over the fighting armies before she stopped, hovering and pointing down underneath her

“Yes!” She yelled victoriously, as Valkyrie flew alongside her on her winged horse, shooting her a look.

“You're not going to like where it's parked!” The Asgardian finished, pointing her spear to it.

Tony flew up into the air shooting another Chitauri warrior off his…well, whatever the hell you called those flying scooter things before he glanced down at Lang.

“Scott, how long you need to get that thing working?”

“Maybe ten minutes”. 

“Get it started.” Rogers instructed  We'll get the stones to you.”

And then as Tony watched, ready to cover Lang as he broke for it, a woman materialised next to him. Nothing should surprise Tony anymore, nothing, but it did. And he had absolutely no idea why.

“We're on it, Cap.” she spoke softly, before they pair of them shrunk again and FRIDAY kept a lock on them as they flew away, no bigger than ants.

Ok, so maybe Lang didn’t need covering after all. Tony watched them via FRIDAYS scanners as they flew towards the van, and saw Katie and Pepper fighting in tandem, the pair of them bringing down a huge Chituari beast that looked like a gorilla. He grinned at the sight of his wife and sister kicking ass, and then spotted Strange in the corner of his eye, trapping a load of Chitauri in his magic, sending them through portals. Recalling the conversation they had on Titan, he had to know and so he landed, turning to look at the Wizard.

“Hey. You said one out of 14 million, we win, yeah?” he asked, glancing around “Tell me this is it.” 

“If I tell you what happens, it won't happen” Strange said back, and Tony groaned. Jesus this man was infuriating. 

“You better be right.” Tony shot back, pointing an iron clad finger at him.

As Scott was hot-wiring his van, because of course it was dead, the fight was raging on and the gauntlet was in some kind of relay across the battle field towards them. T’Challa took it off Clint and as Thanos advanced on the black Panther, Wanda landed in front of him, her eyes blazing. She then began to fight Thanos furiously, and she seemed to be getting the upper hand as bits of his armour began to peel off him as he hovered in the air, surrounded by her red power. Wanda was attempting to tear him apart. 

In desperation Thanos gave the instruction for his ships to fire down on the battle field, not caring that his own troops would also be hit. As the missiles began to hit the ground, everyone tried to dodge as best they could. Strange and the rest of his troops held up their arms conjuring magic shields to attempt to keep the troops on the ground as sheltered as possible. Katie and Pepper employing evasive manoeuvres as they sped across the sky, until a large explosion caught their attention and they glanced over to the bank of the river. One of the missiles from the ship had blasted part of it away and the water was now rushing up and over the edge and threatening to flood the canyon the battle was taking place in. After a nervous shout from Pepper, Strange jumped to it and conjured up his power, capturing the water in some kind of magic and holding it still. 

“Where are the stones?” Katie asked frantically, circling above, still dodging the fire. And Steve had to admit, he’d kinda like to know as well. It was then that they both heard Peter Parker yelling, and they realised he had the gauntlet.

"I got this…” there was a scuffle "Ok, I don't got this. Help! Somebody! Help!"

"Hey Queens," Steve said, "Heads up!" He took a couple steps forward flung Mjolnir through the air. Peter shot his web at it, and it catapulted him through the air where Katie caught him.  

"Hang on, I got you Spider-Kid!" she said, as they flew through the air and she tossed him to Valkyrie as she flew past. But her horse was hit by the fire from Thanos’ ship and Peter was blasted to the floor.

“Tony, have you any idea how we can shut that thing down?” Katie asked desperately, looking at the ship. They needed that damned thing out of order to stand any chance. The missiles were coming even harder now, and Steve dove to take cover behind a rock.

And then, all the noise stopped, and the cannons on the ship lifted upward and they began to fire into the sky.

“What the hell is this?” Sam asked, as he flew along side Katie.

"FRIDAY, what are they firing at?" Tony asked, his voice slightly worried.

"Something just entered the upper atmosphere," FRIDAY replied in both Tony and Katie’s ear.

Then a huge, bright ball of pulsating energy came surging down straight through the ship, and then back up through it again.

“DANVERS!” Katie yelled, watching as the woman hovered above the fast descending ship as it crash-landed in the lake.

"Now that’s how to make an entrance," she, glanced at her brother where he was hovering not far away from her. He turned to look at her, and even though she couldn’t see his face she knew he was rolling his eyes.

"I used to make a perfectly fine entrance, thank you Kiddo…”

"Danvers," Steve glanced up, hardly able to keep the smile of his face, even though he knew this was far from over. But Thanos was looking worried now, he could see from the Titan’s body language, and that was enough of a boost for the Super Soldier to sweep back into Captain mode, they could win this...

“We could use an assist here…” he looked up.

“What on?” Carol asked, flying towards Katie.

“We need to get the stones to the brown van…” Katie said, circling and then she spotted Peter who was crouched in a crater, the gauntlet tight within his arms. Gesturing to Carol she landed by Peter, her helmet sliding away and Carol gently dropped besides her and looked down at Peter..

"Hi. I'm Peter Parker," he said, looking up at her, his nose blooded.

Carol smirked, almost flirtatiously. "Hey Peter Parker. Got something for me?"

Peter pushed himself up and handed her the gauntlet, before he looked at the Army who was crawling towards them. “I don't know how you're gonna get it through all that” he said quietly.

Wanda then landed next to Katie and glanced around, her red power surrounding her.  “Don't worry.” the Sokovian woman said as Valkyrie landed on her winged horse 

“She's got help” Okoye said stepping up as she looked around. 

“Where’s Nat?” Wanda asked as Pepper landed next to Okoye. Katie hung her head slightly as she looked at her, as more and more of the women from the battle landed in front of them- Mantis, then Shuri  Hope, Gamora and Nebula.

“She didn’t make it Wan…” Katie said gently, and she heard Okoye gasp and then realised that no one had told the Warrior “She didn’t make it back from the mission to get the stones.” Okoye spun her shield in her hands, her face stoney as she eyed up the army which was advancing on them. “Then this…this is for her…” The Wakandan woman said, turning to Katie who nodded.

And then they attacked. Thanos' army charged while the women helped Carol Danvers go through the swarm of aliens, Chitauri, animals alike. Okoye took out the larger fighter that Katie recognised from the train station in Edinburgh as Wanda, her, Pepper and Valkyrie destroyed two leviathans. Carol Danvers then started flying towards the van with the Gauntlet, at a rate of knots, going through every blockade that was in her way with ease. Thanos, seeing this, started running towards her.

“We gotta cover Danvers!” Katie yelled as she flew down, followed by Pepper as Shuri and Hope also stood tall, the 4 of them unloading their various weapons and succeeding in blasting Thanos backwards. Danvers sped past him, but through the heat and flash of various beams and weapons, no one spotted him launching the half of his sword towards the van until it was too late. 

Steve felt the explosion and looked up at the huge flash of light, seeing Danvers being catapulted back through the air, her grip on the gauntlet lost and it fell to the ground. Then, it was almost like time slowed down as Thanos paused, looking at the Gauntlet, at the same time as Tony sat up and did the same. As Steve sprinted towards the pair of them Tony went to tackle him from behind only to be batted away to the side somewhere. Steve continued to sprint, he was almost there, almost…and then Thor landed swinging his lightning covered axe at the Titan before his hammer flew into his hand and he used both weapons to hold Thanos at bay. Steve threw himself on Thanos’ back grabbing at the axe, pulling with all his might in an attempt to slice it straight through Thanos’ neck. But it was to no avail. With a might head-butt Thanos sent Thor sprawling backwards and he reached up and pulled Steve off him, flinging him through the air like a rag doll. He landed hard, his head colliding with something, and he was out cold.

“Steve!” Katie saw him go flying, and was about to go after him, but she saw Thanos reaching for the gauntlet. Surging her suit forwards she shot at him, desperation flooding her system, and she kept her beam going as she flew down. Her fingers grazed the gauntlet before a harsh kick to her head sent her flipping back and through the air with no control over her flight plan. She landed heavily, groaning as she felt blood trickle down her temple. She had taken a bad hit there and felt herself zoning in and out, the sounds of the battle muting slightly as she lay on her back, her helmet flying open as she took deep gulps of air before it all went black. 

Tony, meanwhile, had come to. He sat up, and saw that Thanos and Danvers were locked in combat, Danvers’ hands were both wrapped round Thanos’ left and Tony could see that he now had the gauntlet. They were so close, surely…surely not. He couldn’t snap again. He grimaced as Thanos went to head but the woman, but nothing. It simply bounced off the energy surrounding her. And Tony felt a glimmer of hope, maybe she was their secret weapon. The one in 14 million, 605 that meant they were gonna win. As he watched she surged upwards, forcing Thanos to his knees but the Titan pulled the Power Stone out of the gauntlet and clutching it in his right hand he hit Danvers hard and she flew through the air, landing harshly. With pure desperation, Tony turned to look at Strange who was watching him. The magician simply raised one finger, which was trembling slightly. Trembling, Tony assumed, because the one win he foresaw was now at risk. But as he looked at the man, Strange’s eyes filled with sadness and Tony realised that it wasn’t Carol he saw winning the battle after all.

It was him. 

And then he understood completely. And he knew what he had to do. With a deep breath, resigned to his fate he threw himself at the Titan. 

With a heavy moan, Katie sat up, just in time to see Tony grappling with Thanos. With an angry cry she fired her suit up again and shot forwards, but as she did Thanos cast aside her brother easily. She bore down on him she shooting her beams, using her boosters and everything she had, but once again she was forced to quit after one of the Chitauri Leviathons came straight for her. She just managed to dodge it by shooting to the right, but was caught heavily by one of its fins and for the second time in as many minutes she was spiralling though the air with no control. The heads up display in her helmet flickered slightly and there was ringing in her ears mingled with FRIDAY’s desperate calls. The ground was rising to meet her but just in time she managed to pull herself round and righted herself in the air. Spinning round she saw Tony knelt up, his helmet retracted as he stared at the Titan, who was leering down over him with a twisted grin on his face.

“I am inevitable…”He said. It was the second time she had heard him say that.  And then he rose his hand which bore the gauntlet.

Katie’s desperate scream echoed around her helmet as she hovered in mid-air and before she could so much as move, the Titan snapped. But instead of the beams of light and the shaking of the ground that had happened when Bruce did it. There was nothing. Katie’s face plate slid back, because the thought the displays were damaged but her eyes widened as Thanos glanced down at his gauntlet. She realised at the same time he did that the stones were missing. And then, as if in slow motion, the pieces started to slot into place, both figuratively and mentally.

Tony knelt tall, the stones twirling round his hand. Lights circled his forearm and bicep and he let out a loud yell, the utter pain and power consumed him. It bore into every cell on his body and took everything he had inside him to keep himself upright. This was it the end that he always knew he was going to meet. And strangely, he wasn’t scared. Not for him anyway, this was his destiny… the only way it would ever end.

“We’re in the Endgame now...”

Morgan’s face flashed across Tony’s mind, then Pepper’s, then his sister’s as his head fell back, the power surging up his arm and shoulder. Pulling his head up with an almighty wrench, his eyes locked on those belonging to the Thanos and he could feel the stones vibrating on his gauntlet, humming, almost like they knew what was coming. Maybe they did. 

The bastards words echoed in his mind. “I am inevitable.”

Well, eat shit you fucker…

His eyes flickered to his sister, who was watching the entire event unfold, paralysed in mid-air behind the Titan, her helmet retracted and mouth open in a silent scream. With a soft smile he then turned back to the Titan and looked him square in the face, speaking with the most conviction he could ever remember having.

“And I…am…Iron Man.”

He raised his fingers, concentrating on what he wanted to happen, and snapped. The power surge made Tony collapse forward, his skin was burning and his throat felt like it was being closed off. He pushed himself to his feet, hand clutched to the arc reactor in his chest as he tried to speak into his Comms, but the words wouldn’t come. Staggering a few feet, he stumbled to a large upturned piece of concrete laced with rebar before he collapsed against it, hard.

Steve who had just got to his feet was aware of a bright flash of light and the vibrating of the ground underneath him and new instantly that someone had snapped. He spun round in desperate hope it wasn’t Thanos, and then as he saw one of the animals bearing down on him he braced himself, aiming a hard punch to it’s head. But he connected with nothing. He paused, his eyes widening, mouth falling open in shock as he watched Thanos’ army turn to dust all around the field and he realised that they’d won. It wasn’t Thanos who had snapped, it was one of them. With a relieved sigh, he wheeled around expecting to see Thor or Banner with the gauntlet, his mouth suddenly going dry as he realised the effect it had on Banner the last time but they were nowhere to be found. And that was when he spotted his wife, deactivating her suit as she ran, scrambling over piles of concrete and stones to get to someone.

Tony’s breathing was laboured and his eyes were full wide when Katie finally reached him, grabbing his gauntlet clad hand.

“Tony, come on…look at me…” He was done, he understood that. But they’d won. Morgan, Pepper, Kiddo, Jamie, Emmy, Steve…his family were all safe. The world was safe. He tried to speak, tried to tell her it was ok, that he accepted what was happening, but his voice was merely a whisper.

“I…”

“Shhh, save your strength…” Katie gently placed her hand on the side of his head, down the cheek which wasn’t badly burnt and she was aware that someone had landed next to her. Rhodey dropped to his knee gently, his hand falling to Tony’s shoulder as he looked at his friend, not saying a word. Katie turned to him, his eyes filling with tears.

“Mr Stark?” Peter Parker landed between her and Rhodey Katie turned back to her brother as his head collapsed against the concrete. “Hey Mr Stark, can you hear me…it’s Peter…” Tony’s face turned to the young man, a flash of recognition on his face as he tried to smile.

“We won…Mr Stark” Peter said, his breathing deep. “We won, you did it Sir, we did it…I’m sorry…don’t….” He began to cry as Tony’s head lolled to the side and then Katie was aware of someone else behind them, gently pulling Peter up and away. She turned to her right as Pepper crouched next to her. She gently squeezed Katie’s arm before she touched Tony on his shoulder, placing her other hand over the arc reactor on his chest.

“Hey…” she said softly.

“Pep…” he managed to whisper as his hand fell on top of hers and Katie placed her own over his.

“FRIDAY? ” Pepper spoke with a thick swallow, even though Katie knew there was no need to ask the AI. The stones had almost killed Thanos and Banner. Tony stood no chance. He was dying.

“Life functions are critical…” the AI spoke and Katie bowed her head, her tears falling to the ground.

“Tony…” Pepper said softly, and Katie looked back at her brother, who was smiling up at his wife. She gently smiled back, as he turned his head to his sister and she tried her hardest to keep it together.

“The stars…”He mumbled out, and Katie nodded chocking back a sob as she gripped his hand tighter, finishing the saying for him.

“And back…”

He turned back to Pepper who gently ran her hand up his arm “We’re gonna be ok” she said, her voice soft as she glanced at Katie

“We all are.” Katie assured him, sniffing slightly.

His head lolled back once more and Pepper spoke gently, this time her voice cracked. “You can rest now…” Her hand brushed his hair back from his temple as he lay so still, his eyes glanced over Katie’s shoulder to where Steve was stood, stock still, his own tears clouding his vision. He locked eyes with Tony who gave him the faintest of smiles. Steve nodded to him, his chest heaving with sorrow before his brother-in-law’s eyes stopped focussing and his body slumped. Steve saw Pepper bow her head next to Katie, and as his wife glanced down at her hand, still over the top of his, Steve saw the light go out in his chest.

He was gone.

Katie let out a soft sob as she removed her hand gently taking Tony’s with her. Kneeling up, she pressed her forehead against his, scrunching her face up against the physical pain that was brewing in her chest. Pepper leaned up to kiss his face as a silence fell around them, not one single sound coming from the battle field. Pepper dropped her head to Tony’s shoulder and then she too began to cry. Katie placed a soft kiss to his cheek, his skin still warm and bowed her head, listening to Pepper’s sobs through the silence of her own.

Steve limped forward, dropping heavily to his knees besides his wife “Katie…” he said softly, she turned to face him, noticing his eyes were red and the dirt on the parts of his face visible under his helmet were interlined with the tracks his own tears had made. The two looked at each other for a second, before her face crumpled and he wrapped his arms around her and she buried her face into his chest, her small body shaking with silent sobs, hands fisting around the Kevlar of his uniform. Steve lay his cheek against her head, his own tears pouring down his face as he held her to him. His eyes scanned immediate vicinity of the battle field and his eyes fell on Clint in the near distance, dropping to his knee, his head bowed, hand resting on his fist. In front of him T’challa did the same, then Carol, and the Bucky... everyone, all out of respect to their fallen warrior.  

Eventually it was Thor that broke the silence, but not by speaking. There was a huge rumble of thunder and Katie jumped, pulling back from Steve slightly, looking upwards as lighting flashed in the sky. The clouds that had descended with Thanos’ ship began to part slowly, a chink of the red sunset falling onto where Tony was sat, chinks of light bouncing off his Iron Man suit.

Katie turned away from Steve and gently reached out with a shaking hand to close Tony’s eyes

“There, he could be sleeping…”she said softly, her hand falling to Pepper’s shoulder. Pepper reached up and gripped it, almost painfully as she turned to her sister-in-law, her face streaming with tears. There was a moment’s pause before Katie wrapped her arms around her, gently stroking her hair.

“We should… we should move him.” Rhodey said, his voice cracking. Steve pulled himself to his feet with a groan and he looked around.

“Has any of the compound survived?” he asked softly, wiping his face as Sam approached him.

“The Hangar area and the labs are totally gone, Cap.” Sam said gently and Steve looked at him properly for the first time in 5 years “But some of the living quarters and part of the training facility seems to be ok.”

“Can we check it’s safe to house people?” Steve said, switching back into Captain mode. “We need to set up somewhere to treat the wounded.”

Sam nodded.

“I’ll come with you.” Rhodey said before he looked at Steve. “I’ll get onto the Emergency Services and Ross too.”

The two men nodded. Rhodey took off straight away whereas Sam paused.

“It’s good to see you Sam.” Steve said, with a soft smile.

“Well like I said, when Captain America needs your help…”

There was a pause, before the two men hugged. Stepping back, with a nod, Sam launched back into the air.

“Steve…”

He spun round to see Bucky, watching him tentatively.  For a moment Steve stood still, just observing his friend before he rushed forward into a manly embrace, Steve choking up once more.

“I leave you for what, 5 minutes and you start another war?” Bucky teased gently and Steve gave a watery laugh.

“Try 5 years you Jerk”

“Punk.” Bucky said gently, before he looked down at Katie who was still knelt by her brother, her arm round Pepper. He gave a sigh and dropped his head.

“Sorry.” he offered to Steve, not sure what else he could say.

Steve nodded, wiping his face as he glanced around, the Captain and the Sergeant both surveying the survivors. Banner was stood with Clint and TChalla, the three of them talking with their heads bowed. Clint reached out and patted Banner on the arm as the green man began walking towards where Steve was stood.

“Living quarters are secure…” Rhodey said in Steve’s ear and he nodded.

“Ok, let’s set up some form of command centre, a triage maybe if we need it…” he took a deep breath and turned back to Katie as he dropped to his knee again, a little gentler than last time and he touched her shoulder.  

“Honey…” he said softly, wiping away the blood from her temple. “We can move Tony now, take him inside…that is if you’re ready…”

She turned to him, taking a deep breath she nodded. “Pep?”

Pepper gave a sniff and nodded as well.

“I’ll take him.” Banner said, sniffing as he stepped forward. Katie watched as he picked up Tony’s limp body as easily as if it was a rag doll and set off walking through the rubble.

“I don’t want him to be alone.” Pepper said gently from her side before she stood up and walked after Bruce.

Katie took a deep breath. She didn’t want to leave her brother either but she knew there was nothing more to be done for him, he was gone, and there were other people that needed their help. She turned to face Steve who was still knelt next to her. He reached out to gently cup her cheek with his hand, and it was then she noticed the bone-deep almost foot long gash down his forearm.

“Steve…your arm.” she said, taking his wrist in her hand and gently flipping it so she could look at it. “I’ll be fine.” He said.

Knowing better than to try and argue with him, she looked around and asked with a shaky voice. “Did anyone else…” “No.” Steve shook his head, instantly understanding “Few minor injuries but…everyone’s fine.” “Except Tony…” she said, her breath catching as the tears once more flooded from her eyes.  

“I’m so sorry sweetheart.” Steve’s voice cracked as he wrapped his arms round her and cradled her close, the pair of them lost in their grief for their fallen brother. *****

The night began to draw in. Thanks to Rhodey, the Emergency services had swamped the area to begin a full clean up and treatment of the walking wounded. 

And there were so many people to greet, so many to thank, so fucking many.

Katie’s head was a complete mash. She was utterly numb. Hugs and tears were shared with the people they had lost 5 years ago, thanks were given to those who had stood by them and come to their aid, and then more tears were shed for the two fallen heroes. Eventually, she told Steve she needed a break and he gave her cheek a soft kiss, both of them knowing full well her breakdown would come later. She headed into the compound to find Pepper and her brother before he was taken away by one of Ross’ men, the Secretary having actually proven useful for once.

Strange transported everyone who wasn’t staying at the Compound back home, in the same way he had led them there. He bid goodbye to Steve, shaking his hand, before he himself disappeared.

With a sigh and a glance down at his bandaged arm, Steve’s attention was caught by something shining in the dim light. As he looked harder he noticed that it was a piece of his shield. Bending down, his fingers swept the dust and debris off the large piece of Vibranium. Picking it up, he swallowed slightly, remembering the horror and surprise he had felt as Thanos had hacked through it, as if it had been made of nothing but aluminium.

“So you met Danvers?” a familiar voice cut through his thoughts. 

Steve looked over his shoulder to see Fury stood behind him. He stood up and gave the man a weak smile.“Yeah. You were holding out on us all this time.”

“In a fashion” Fury shrugged. “Code red only…”

Steve gave a snort, no in the least bit surprised.

“He's a spy. Captain, he's THE spy.” Tony said, gesticulating with his arms to make a point “His secrets have secrets”

Steve looked down at the fractured piece of his shield which was held in his hand, before he glanced out over the now destroyed compound where the battle had been raging mere hours before and he shook his head.

“You know, all this…bringing everyone back…” he sighed heavily “The victory kinda feels pyrrhic with losing Nat and Tony…”

“They both made their choices.” Fury sighed, softly “Both gave their lives for a cause they believed in.”

“Tony didn’t even want to do this you know.” Steve sighed “He said no at first but I talked him into it…” “Stark never did anything he didn’t want to do.” Fury said, turning to face Steve straight on. “He made a choice. As did Agent Romanoff. And you need to allow them the both the dignity of their choices by not blaming yourself. They clearly thought it was worth it.” With those words the Captain was catapulted way back in time to a conversation in a blown out London bar, the evening he realised he could no longer get drunk.

“It wasn’t your fault.” Peggy looked at him across the table.

“Did you read the reports?” Steve shot back.

“Yes.”

“Then you know that’s not true.”

“You did everything you could. Did you believe in your friend? Did you respect him?” Peggy asked and Steve looked at her, incredulously. Of course he did. She nodded and continued “Then stop blaming yourself. Allow Barnes the dignity of his choice. He damn well must have thought you were worth it.”

Only this time, unlike Bucky, there was no second chance. If calling what Bucky went through a second chance was really accurate that is…

“What?” Fury asked as Steve shook his head, a sad smile on his face.

“Nothing.” Steve said, “You just reminded me of someone.” “Anyone in particular?” “Peggy.” Steve sighed, looking around at the ruins of the compound. “Well there are worse people to be likened to.” Fury considered what Steve said for a moment before he changed the subject “I hear you and Nova have been busy these past 5 years, couple of kids...” “Yeah we do, boy and a girl.” Steve smiled as he looked at Fury, the thought of his children temporarily stemming the hollow feeling in his chest at the loss of his brother-in-law and friend. They were safe.

“You should go home.” Fury turned to Steve.  “Be with them.”

“Is that an order?” Steve arched an eyebrow looking at him.

“You don’t work for you me anymore, you haven’t done for a long time…in fact I’m not sure you ever really did…” Fury said, smirking slightly. “And I don’t think you never will again.”

He gave Steve a significant look, one which Steve instantly understood. This was Fury’s way of relieving him from his leadership of the Avengers.  It was symbolic more than anything because Steve didn’t need releasing from service at all. Fury wasn’t his boss, no one was his boss, but this was closure. It was Fury’s promising Steve he would never be called upon to fight again if that was what he chose.

And he did choose. He was ready to quit. 7 years ago when he had been forced into it he hadn’t been, not really, but now he was. His fight was done. He was buying that fucking holiday home, and they were going to be a normal family, that did normal things, in normal ways. Tony and Nat had both sacrificed their lives, and he wasn’t going to dishonour their memory by putting his family at risk ever again.

Captain America was done.

Steve looked down at his feet, before he glanced up at Fury, and held his hand out. “It’s been an honour.” he said, as Fury shook his hand. “But you’re right. It’s time for me to hang up my shield, for good this time. “ he looked down at the broken metal in his hand. “What’s left of it that is…”

“Or you could pass it down.” Fury said as Steve looked back at him, snorting.

“I think Jamie is a bit too young, and Katie would murder me if I even-”

“I don’t mean to your son.” Fury said, cutting Steve off and giving him significant look. “Captain America has been a symbol of hope for years. And that’s something the world is always gonna need Cap, regardless of who it is. So think about it, maybe there’s someone else worthy of that title and shield, broken or not.”

Steve watched, pondering his words, as Fury gave him a final nod, and turned back towards the destroyed buildings

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[epicstuckyficrecs]

2019 New Writers Fic Rec

After seeing some Discourse on Twitter, I decided to make a fic rec with some of my favorite new writers! All of these writers only started posting Stucky fanfic in 2018 or 2019. So here are some “new” writers and some of my favorite fics from them! (in no particular order)

PS: sorry for not putting the trope, word count and rating as I usually do, I wanted to try and make this fic rec quickly! 

PS2: also sorry if I chopped all your summaries, but some of them are hella long and this post is already... pretty long.

PS3: this went way past “favorite new writers” and just became “great new writers” because I wanted to prove a point, oops. 

verzacefatale 

You be yours and I'll be mine : “Oh, god. We got married, didn’t we?” 

14-Inch Cock and a Few Hundred Bimbos : There are some things in life, Steve muses as he stares down at his crotch, that nothing can prepare you for. His dick suddenly growing six inches in length and another two in girth, just because he opened a box in a Hydra dug out that maybe he should have read the instructions on before he did? How was he to know it was literally magic that would make his cock grow huge?

~

2bestfriends 

Collar Full of Chemistry : AKA a fantasy BDSM romance featuring heavy mutual pining, feelings denial, and enough kink to blackout a bingo card. 

Like Real People Do : AKA the "Lumberjack Steve/Twink Bucky" fic of our hearts.

~

deadonarrival

100,000 Miles And Feeling Very Still : Steve Rogers took a job at NASA and his life is pretty okay. Maybe not great but he has some good friends and things seem to be mostly stable. Except one day their new astronaut recruit walks in and everything in Steve's life goes upside down.

Latte Art and Slow Dancing in the Dark (WIP): Bucky is a somewhat well-adjusted former army sniper that got his shoulder blown out. He took his discharge and went home to finish school and is working on his international relations masters. His best friends and roommates (Nat & Clint) are CIA agents and tip him off that their local Sbux is hiring. He gets a job there and meets none other than the hottest guy on earth.

~

voxofthevoid

(series) couldn't get the boy to kill me (ongoing): Captain America and the Winter Soldier are a terrifying duo on the field, working together with a well-oiled precision that tears through their enemies. Captain Rogers and Agent Barnes are distant coworkers, all polite nods and mission briefings. Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes are fire and gasoline; the sparks between them have no choice but to roar into raging infernos.

happily ever after has bite marks in it : In which Bucky is aggressively okay with his self-imposed exile from society, and Steve is a werewolf who’s nothing like the Brooklyn boy Bucky still dreams of.

darling heart, i loved you from the start (but that's no excuse for the state i'm in) : Or, the one where Steve saves the mind stone for last and decides to fuck the timeline beyond all recognition, which regrettably involves crawling delicately up Hydra's asshole and less regrettably involves showering a very confused Bucky Barnes with affection.

(series): i'm guilty of treason (i've abandoned control) : S.H.I.E.L.D Agent Bucky Barnes is captured on a mission and meets Commander Steve Rogers, the erstwhile Captain America.It escalates quickly.

four dreams in a row where you were burned : When Steve uses the last of his Pym Particles to travel to 1944 and save his best friend, he doesn’t have a plan beyond leaving behind the battlefield and living his life alongside the people he loves. But the life that finds him is not the one he expects.

~

deisderium

much tattoo about nothing : Steve Rogers gets a lot of email requests, but never one like this: James Barnes wants to use his healing factor to practice tattoos.

(series) tits out, lads : On the walk back from Azzano, Bucky keeps touching Steve's chest. Then he touches it some more. And more.

Let Them Eat Cake : Bucky wanted to know why their new pastry chef had gun calluses on his right hand.

deep dive : In which single dad Bucky Barnes has a crush on his daughter's dive team coach and thirsts awkwardly. 

thot through the heart (and you're to blame) : In which Bucky is a baby vampire, a disaster, out to have a good time, and hopelessly in love with his roomate; and in which Steve has a few secrets of his own.

Political Animals (WIP) : or—Steve’s best friend is the U.S. Constitution and he can’t seem to stop fucking a hot Republican. They shouldn’t fall in love, but somehow they do.

~

thedoubteriswise

time on my hands (could be time spent with you) : "You doing okay, kid?” Steve releases a breath, deciding how honest he wants to be. No point in lying. No point in telling the truth, either. "Glad to see you.""That’s not what I asked, but same to you, punk."

honey don't feed it, it will come back : He’s stroking the cat’s fur, which is soft and fine now that it’s clean. He looks so open and inviting. Steve doesn’t close his eyes, watching Bucky’s gentle fingers and trying to come up with a plausible excuse to go touch him.

Ill With Want : Bucky pretends to be asleep when Steve crawls into bed, too tired to feel guilty over the quivery pleasure that settles in his belly when Steve’s arm brushes his. He drifts to sleep in a comfortable haze and tries not to wonder where this feeling was two hours ago when he had Marie in his lap.

~

steebadore

Controlled Release : Bucky's just having a little trouble...finishing. Completing the mission. He can squeeze the trigger but he can't make the shot is what he's saying. Which is why he's here, loitering outside a nice brownstone in Park Slope, trying to find the courage to knock on Captain Come Control dot com's door for his three o'clock appointment.

it takes a lot to know a man : Bucky flips to the next page, and the world around him grinds to a halt as his brain struggles to process what he's seeing. The noise of the train fades and static fills the inside of his head as he looks down at the sketches of the metal-armed guy without the mask. It's—that's him. It's Bucky's own goddamn face staring back at him from this stranger's sketchbook.

~

AidaRonan

Quench : Or the one where archeology intern Bucky Barnes meets actual archeologist Steve Rogers and reaches levels of thirst scientists once believed to be theoretically impossible.

Carnal Synchronicity : AKA A Tale of Two Stevies

Fraternizing With the Enemy : Steve and Bucky are both the presidents of their respective fraternities. Steve thinks Bucky's frat is filled with selfish party animals who care about little else. Bucky thinks Steve is a giant pretentious douchebag who owns too many Lacoste polos. They hate each other. Passionately.

~

lockedlocke

I just need you to show me : A quick google search tells him that the app he needs to get for something quick and easy, with no strings attached is Grindr. He downloads the app while he watches a bit of a Simpsons episode. It doesn’t take long, and when the app is downloaded, he looks at black icon with the yellow mask.

Pride : So here he was, at Pride despite the fact that he’d rather be at home. It’s hot, boiling and his feet hurt a bit from standing all day. Converse might be nice shoes, but Jesus they were terrible for his knees.

~

mcwho

it never hurt nobody : “I thought we agreed that that was creepy.” “No,” Bucky says slowly. “I asked you what you thought about people calling their boyfriends daddy, and you said you thought it was creepy, and then I asked you what the hell you’d done with my grey sweater after you did laundry, and we never talked about it again.”

(series) the serum amplifies : Little PWPs about Steve and Bucky’s sex life and the serums effect on it.

~

missandrogyny

don't know where i'm going (but i'll get back to you and me) : AU where Bucky is an assassin who just can’t seem to kill Steve

~

LeeHan

The Right Partner : Steve meets a beautiful man with a bright laugh on a sunny day in Italy. Captain America meets the elusive Winter Soldier moments later.

The Best Way to Wake : James Buchanan Barnes lay in a glass pod in the middle of the table, frozen since he fell. Steve’s hands were on the glass before he realized he’d moved. “Get him out,” Steve whispered, his hands searching for a clasp, a keypad, something.

~

amethystkrystal

Taking This One Step At A Time : In the weeks that follow, Bucky's omega urges start going haywire, and he realizes that night with Steve may have left him with more than just a fond memory.

Realignment : After assembling their own Infinity Gauntlet, the Avengers defeated Thanos and brought back everyone who disappeared. But their victory came at a great cost: in order to take the Soul Stone, Steve had to sacrifice the Captain America mantle and all the super-soldier strength that came with it.

~

cydonic

Home Is Wherever I'm With You : This is what happens when you buy a house to flip having only seen the online images: you get more than you bargained for. Bucky Barnes brings all the tools to handle a dilapidated home, but he's hardly prepared for a smart-mouthed child (with poor aim), a crying baby, and the hottest dad he's ever seen in his life living right next door.

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deadto27

The Sweetest Spark : Steve Rogers runs a successful business. He has great friends and a great life. It seems like he has it all. So why is he sitting in a diner on a Friday night alone? Maybe he's just a little lonely. Maybe Bucky Barnes can help with that.

Maybe This Christmas : Bucky’s not going home for Christmas. But it’s fine. He’s spending Christmas alone in his apartment, but it’s cool. He’s not feeling up to seeing his family after his accident anyway, plus he has to work. He’s totally fine with it. But then he runs into Steve, literally, and suddenly his Christmas isn’t looking so empty after all.

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NachoDiablo

Reconcilable Differences : AKA, "What To Do When Your Zany Fake-Relationship Scheme Actually Works."

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odetteandodile

If Only In My Dreams : Bucky is a highly successful cooking and lifestyle blogger. He writes all about life in his Connecticut home with his D.H. (darling husband). Only problem? It’s all complete fiction.

So I Took a Faithful Leap : Bucky doesn’t fall and Steve doesn’t crash. The Howling Commados take out the remaining Hydra bases…and then they go home, just like all the other allied soldiers. Steve buys a farm in Washington state, and tries to relearn how to be at peace.

Art Thief, Heart Thief : Agent Steve Rogers is facing a series of art thefts that has him stumped, and looking for a break in the case. Convicted art thief and general high end criminal Bucky Barnes wants to make parole and happens to know all of the right people who could make Steve's job easier.

Under the Hawthorn Tree : A young man wanders into the woods one night, and wanders until he isn't a young man anymore—but something else. Seventy years later, another man follows him. Inside of a magic ring, they meet.

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canistakahari

don't threaten me with a good time : Steve's taken him on vacation to a cabin in Canada in the middle of winter, so it's obviously the perfect time for his body to go haywire. Bucky is determined to stick it out, though, partly because he's a stubborn bastard, but mostly because he feels some kinda way about Steve.

Heckin' Chunker for Love : On the inside of the big floor to ceiling window of the office across the street, someone has used Post-it Notes to spell out a message: W H A T I S Y O U R C A T ’ S N A M E ?

(TBR) All of Your Love is Sunlight : Sometimes the path to happiness involves bad timing turned good, a butt plant, and a little everyday magic. For Steve and Bucky, it's all that and more.

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birdjay

(TBR) STAR PLAN : He’s the most gorgeous thing Bucky’s ever laid eyes on.He’s his new tentative boss. Maybe. If this interview goes well enough, anyway. “So, Mr. Barnes?” Steve asks, blinking at him from across a particle board table. “You ever work security before?”

stay : The platform buzzes, and suddenly goes quiet. The cycle has finished. Bucky doesn’t bother to look. There’s no way Steve’s coming back when he has the chance to stay. He moves to walk away, to move on with his life, somehow. “Buck -- ?”

(TBR) The Conservation of a 17th Century Painting : Steve can’t even remember the last time he’s spoken to someone actually interested in art, who coincidentally is also someone he’d like to bang. Actually, no. He’s never had that happen.

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dragongirlG

Searching Every Lonely Place : After the Battle of New York in 2012, Steve searches for Bucky with the help of the Avengers as he bumbles through a series of comedic misunderstandings with undercover HYDRA agents.

Reclamation : The Winter Soldier’s mask never falls off when he fights Captain America on the overpass and the helicarrier. That doesn’t stop the Soldier from recognizing Captain America and wondering why the man’s face is haunting his scattered memories.

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megs_bee

Nothing Good Ever Happens On A Tuesday : Recently discharged soldier James Barnes is back in Brooklyn, down an arm and missing five years of memories, but he’s got his PTSD mostly under control, a fancy metal prosthetic, and what’s starting to feel like it could be a half-decent life. What he doesn’t have is any memory of the kid looking at James and asking him, “Are you my daddy?” -- or the gorgeous blond guy standing next to her.

A Ghost Before You Were a Ghost Story : “I’m sorry to wake you, Sir, but there appears to be an intruder on the roof. ”Tony finds the camera showing a figure standing alone on the roof, black tactical gear blending into the black night sky. Barely a shadow among shadows, save for the glint of silver along the figure’s left side. The Winter Soldier.

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VenusMonstrosa

Extant : After a sudden and violent storm forces the crew of Insight III to perform an emergency evacuation, astronaut James Barnes was believed to have died and was left behind on Mars. Two years later, Commander Steve Rogers still refuses to let go. Fortunately, so does Bucky.

Through The Woods : There’s a legend in Mansewood, nearly as old as the town itself, about a pack of werewolves that once lived in the forest. They say only one survives; a monstrous and snarling beast with fur like a blizzard and fangs the size of daggers. Steve doesn’t care about any of that. He only wants to know if it prefers T-Bone or ribeye, and would it please stop tracking dirt through his house? He just mopped the floor.

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BlueSimplicity

(series) You Are Responsible For What You Tame : After the events in DC and on the helicarriers, and the realization that his friend Bucky Barnes is still alive, Captain Steve Rogers swears that he will do anything he can to find him. It is easier said than done, as Steve searches desperately for any hint or clue that will lead him to his friend. Steve searches, but Bucky does not want to be found. And so begins their game of cat and mouse, as Steve does everything in his power to convince Bucky to come home.

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GoldBlooded

A Midsummer Knight's Dream : Sir Steven, knight, alpha, and baron of a small countryside estate, receives an invitation to a Royal Tournament: It’s a winner-take-all competition, and the prize? The hand of Prince James, the kingdom’s most eligible omega, in marriage.

Feast On This : Steve, Sarah, and Bucky are headed down to Florida to visit the Barnes family for Thanksgiving. Bucky's tired of the interrogation about his love life from his Ma, and Sarah suggests the simplest solution would be for he and Steve to fake it for a few days. How hard can it be, right? After all, they've shared a bed before. After all, it's only pretend... Right?

Luck of the Irish Stroll : Every year Steve and Sam go on the Irish Stroll Bar Crawl, and ever since their first time on the Stroll four years ago, Steve and Sam cross paths with Bucky and Natasha. Every year Steve’s world is rocked by the gorgeous, blue-eyed man that has captivated him since they first locked eyes fighting over a couple of pints of Guinness from the bartender. But Steve's starting to want and need more of Bucky... will this be the year he can make it last for more than one night?

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girlbookwrm

(TBR) (series) The Hundred Year Playlist : Steve and Bucky, start to finish. "Come on, pal, it's me. Take another hundred years if you want, I'll still be here."

sidereal : Captain Rogers never did a self-portrait; we can only speculate who his soulmate — or soulmates — might have been.

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ClaraxBarton

Holding On : “Your poll numbers are way down, and we need to get them back up.”

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stfustucky

Salt & Sugar (collab with GoldBlooded) : Steve Rogers is a bigshot celebrity chef in New York City, and Bucky Barnes is a classically trained pastry chef in Moscow. When billionaire and mutual friend Natasha Romanoff calls on them to collaborate for her Memorial Day Benefit Gala, they both brace themselves to spend the week working with some jerk they're bound to hate. 

Honestly, Fuck Brooklyn : Or, the one where it takes yet another apocalypse for the somewhat oblivious Bucky Barnes to figure out that his dorky artist boyfriend Steve is actually Captain Goddamned America.

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writeonclara

How to Woo the Winter Soldier : Or: Steve courts the Winter Soldier.