#is a recruiter going to show up when I’m at my weakest

[thelomlisfictional]

Had a dream about being a naval aviator last night… chat am I cooked?

[miniwheat77]

Alibi. (141 x Reader HC’s.)

You guys see those edits floating around tik tok with that Alibi song? (you know what I’m talking about.) so here’s a fic inspired by it. !nsfw, violence, mental health issues, death, blood, mentions of suicide, NO MINORS!

Can you remember when the last time was you felt safe in the dark?

All of the ways reader is valuable to 141, more than just as a soldier.

When I’m out of breath, she’s my vitals.

His heart is thudding in his chest. He can’t seem to calm down. Blood rushes from the knife wound in his side and he’s stressed. He knows he shouldn't have taken it out. He knew better and still did it. He doesn't know what he was thinking. He’s taking deep breaths, trying to calm down. He’s alone, his radio is broken and he can’t call for help. He can’t walk because he can’t stop his racing heart.

Just when he thinks he’s going to die alone, you come running. “I got you.” You breathe. Skidding to a stop, lowering yourself onto your knees in front of him. He’s sitting up against a building. You shove his shirt up, grasping his hand and forcing him to hold it over his wound. “Look at me, you’re bleeding too much because you’re too stressed.” You cup his face, forcing him to look at you. “You’re gonna be alright Gaz, look at me. Breathe with me okay?” You take in a deep breath, your imitation tactics will work on him. He stares back.

He takes in a deep breath, the feeling of your hands on him. Knowing that if he dies right now, he won’t die alone. It already calms him.

After a few deep breaths, he’s calming down. His heart has settled a bit more in his chest. You move his hand, seeing that he’s still bleeding but not nearly as bad. “Keep breathing like that Gaz, I’m gonna patch you up the best I can.” He nods his head, keeping the steady intake of oxygen. Medivac was on their way.

You look up at him. Smiling. "It's not happening today. Not like this." He laughs. Wincing slightly. "How are y-you always there ah?" He laughs. You look at him confused. "Anytime anyone is hurt you always know and you always come running." He laughs.

"I just do. You're my brothers. I'll always come running. I got you.” You breathe. “Keep breathing for me. Medivac is coming. I’ll be by your side no matter what alright?”

When I need to rev, she’s my ride or die.

Your teeth are gritted as you watch the scene unfold in front of you. The new recruit doesn't know you're there and she's been a total bitch to him since she started, but would only do it when no one else was around. When he brought it up, she called him a liar. She didn't know you were here and neither did he. "You know you're the weakest link of this entire task force? I mean really? I don't even know why they keep you around." She snorts. You let her dig her own grave but you can see him and he's fuming. Getting more and more angry as she keeps going. You're worried he might actually explode. You need the perfect moment to show yourself.

"You know I could say you hit me and they would kick you off of this base so fast because no one would believe you."

That was your last straw. You start walking into the room, your footsteps can be heard. The moment she sees you, she's got that same look on her face. The crocodile tears start. "Y/N thank god. He was just threatening me." She cries. Making her way toward you. "Is that true?" You look at him. He says nothing. Expecting you to take her side. You've always been ride or die for everyone and he doesn't know what so suddenly changed when she came around. He is clearly pissed.

"Look. Maybe we can talk this out. In private. Let's go outside and talk." You mumble. He rolls his eyes but knows he has no choice. The both of them follow you outside and the moment the door is closed, you grasp her shoulder and spin her around. Before she has time to react you’re punching her in the gut as hard as you can. His eyes widen. "Jesus!" He mumbles. You clamp a hand over her mouth before she can yell out. Backing her into the wall. "Not a word or I'll put a bullet in your fucking head and than there will only be one side to this story." You growl. He's standing off to the side. Surprised at how quickly this had escalated. "Everyone on this task force. Even him. They are my brothers and if you fuck with them, you fuck with me." You have her pinned. Right in the blind spot where cameras don't see it, which now he realizes was your plan all along.

You take another swing at her, busting her nose. Blood rushes from it. "Go to your room and clean up and if you say a fucking word I'll have your head. Understand?" You seethe. She nods her head.

She rushes away from you.

"You knew?" He asks. You snort. "Of course I knew Johnny." You laugh. Shaking the pain from your fist. "I always know."

"Thank god." He sighs. "Not just my word against hers anymore." He sighs. "Nah, we'll talk to Price and get her out of here. Let's go get a drink, calm you down." You rest your hand on his lower back, seeing the weight has clearly been lifted off his shoulders.

When I’m out of faith, she’s my idol.

It's times like this he wishes he hadn't taken on the responsibility of being a Captain in the military. He has to be someone these people look up to. But he doesn't feel worthy. He feels like he means nothing, sometimes he feels he leads them in the wrong directions. Sometimes going as far as getting them injured or killed. He doesn't know how to combat these feelings.

Some days he wants to give up. Wants to call it quits and leave this all behind. But he knows he has people relying on him. Even if he thinks they'd be better off without him. He sighs. Taking a drink of the flask he had in his hand. He's got the gun in his waistband. He shouldn't be having these thoughts. For some reason, his mind keeps travelling to you. Your smiling face despite being in the worst situations known to man. How you always seem to be so happy and keeping a good attitude. He wishes he could be that positive all of the time. He wishes he could be like you in a lot of ways but doesn't understand it.

He hears footsteps and quickly tries to hide the flask until he sees it's Gaz. "Garrick." He nods. "Cap. Something going on?"

"Ah. Same old. Wish I could change things I can't." He snorts. "Feel you there. Y/N asked if I could come find you, says she needs to ask you something." He nods his head. He wonders what you could possibly want this late. He stands up. "That girl. Swear. No matter what she's always so happy." He laughs. "Yeah you got me. I don't know how she does it all of the time." Captain Price laughs. "Wish I could be like her in a lot of ways."

"That's funny. She says the same things about you." He laughs. "Really?" He asks. He nods. "Yeah. When you're not around she tells stories. Talks about how you're basically her hero. Tells everyone all kinds of cool stuff you've done. Swears up and down that you're the best superior she's ever worked for in the military. Says she doesn't know what she'd do if something happened to you." Captain Price laughs. Shocked at hearing that you've said such kind things about him. "Such a sweet girl." He shakes his head. "Thanks Gaz. I'll see you tomorrow morning." He nods. He's going to go find you.

Right after he returns this gun to his nightstand.

I just killed a man, she’s my alibi.

Ghost sits in his house. His hands shake violently. He fucked up. He fucked up bad this time. He doesn't know how he'll talk his way out of this one. The man had gotten slick with him at the bar after what he’d done. He shouldn't have went in the first place. He should've stayed home. He doesn't know who to call, but you're the closest person to him. He's got no other choice.

You come running at the tone in his voice. He's clearly scared about something. When you arrive, you walk right into his house. "Simon?" You ask. He looks up. "What's going on?" He asks.

You had an idea of what it was. You'd seen the news this morning.

"A man was found dead in the back alley of a bar this morning, footage showed a man wearing a skull mask."

"I.. I don't know what got into me. He..." he trails off. "He corned this girl back there and I didn't know what to do. I just hit him. I couldn't stop."

You press your hand to your lips. Silencing him. "Listen to me-" A knock at the door is what startles you. "Go answer it and don't say a word about where you were until I'm down there okay?" You force him to look at you. You grasp the mask on his face and pull it off of him. He nods. Listening. He makes his way to the front door.

You look around the room, you know what you're looking for. You look across his boots and other shoes that he might've been wearing but they're all clean. Everything is all clean until you spot the gloves in his bathroom. You quickly shove them in your pockets and make your way to him. He's let the officer in. "I really was just wondering where you were last night?" He's got a little note pad in his hand and a pencil in the other. "Is something wrong?" You ask. Stepping into the room. "Oh uh.. just routine questions. Nothing serious ma'am." He smiles. "Oh.. we just got back from a black ops mission a few hours ago, did something happen?" You ask. "Uh.. well we're just investigating a death at a bar last night. Folks say they saw a man wearing a skull mask and we heard from around that you sometimes wear them." He looks at Ghost.

"Oh.. uh. I usually only wear those when I'm on missions to hide my identity. Don't want people knowing who I am and retaliating against my family." Simon explains. The officer explains. "Do you guys have a superior I can follow this up with? Just to double check?" He asks. You nod your head. "Yeah of course. I have his phone number right here." You nod. Drawing your phone out of your pocket. You relay the number and Ghost only hopes Captain Price will cover for the both of you. "You mind if I take a peek around?" He asks. "No. Course not." You answer, seeing the fear rise in Simon's eyes.

The officer disappears for a few minutes before coming back. "It doesn't look like I'll have to follow up after all. Someone made report that he had attacked a female and the person acted in defense for her. However we would like them to come forward anyways. So if you happen to hear about any of this, please give me a call." He passes a card to you and you take it. "Thanks officer." You smile. When he leaves, you lock the door behind him. Tugging the gloves out of your pocket. How fast you had acted.

How fast you were willing to cover for a murderer? What other lengths would you go to. To defend the task force?

"You owe me, Riley."

[bhnsby]

I hate the argument that Heather hiding the immunity idol was stupid and she was really dumb that season because,, she’s pretty much always run on luck and in the moment decisions? She’s good at manipulating a situation in the moment but she’s not Alejandro smart. If it was Alejandro that did this I’d get the argument but I don’t think it’s that bad for Heather.

I mean all of season one she glided through on luck. Yeah she was smart for making alliances but she lost due to kicking the razor out of Chefs hand out of panic. The talent show episode is enough proof because what was the need other than to fuck with Gwen? There was no strategy here she was just being classic heather.

Once again in action she’s not even smart she purely makes it as far as she does because other people where more hated than her eg. Gwen and DJ quitting off his own accord.

World tour she plays better but even then there was like 3 times she should’ve been voted off but didn’t because of luck. She’s not a bad player she just doesn’t have very good foresight, and that’s always been pretty consistent with her.

Arguably she seems to play the best (other than maybe world tour I guess but hear me out here let me be hyperbolic) in All Stars. She tries to work Gwen to get an ally, and the only notable enemy she makes is Jo. Someone more hated than she is. If anything that’s a kind of smart move to play, since as we quite literally see her entire team hates Jo more than her. It could also work well on the heroic team since it’s made up of 4/6(by the time Lindsay’s eliminated) of roti members, all of which probably hate Jo. Her being enemies with Jo would probably get someone like Cameron on her side. I know they all act fearful of her in roti but with world tour I can imagine people like Zoey to take somewhat of an appreciation to her, especially if she’s going against Jo.

Another thing to back up roti siding with heather over Jo any day is who they both go for when trying to recruit different members of their team. Heather goes straight for lighting because he hates Jo and that’s an easy win over, and Jo goes.. for scott. Arguably one of it not the only person in all stars to tolerate her due to this unspoken respect they have for each other that I have spoken about and will speak about again. If the other roti members hate Jo then they all LOATHE Scott. So that’s already looking bad for her. What was I saying? Oh Heather not being hella derailed in all stars.

So she says she can’t walk around with it because someone will see which is like.. yeah. That’s right. So she hides it which is pretty smart. Then she tells Alejandro. Which as for mentioned she doesn’t have very good foresight so she’s gloating that she has this over Alejandro, making him hopefully scared and then less tactful and good at playing the game. To her she’s just rubbing in his undeniable elimination, which is a very Heather thing to do, especially to Alejandro. It’s not smart but it’s also not that bad derailment.

Overall she’s just.. not that bad? I’m kinda shocked at her this season, and might actually put her with Jo and Lightning on the derailment tracker of her being pretty unscathed. This is definitely her weakest season but that’s partly just because her previous seasons were SO GOOD. Anyway heather is my favourite character and I’ll talk about her more eventually

[ac-liveblogs]

Lostbelt 7.2 - The ORT Experience

I have this real problem with Kinoko Nasu’s writing, and it’s that whenever he lets loose and gets real indulgent in his work it’s genuinely one of the best things I’ve ever read.

I had my reservations about some of the choices he made in 7.1, but oh man do they pay off here.

The plot of this Lostbelt is as follows; there’s a giant fuckoff scary alien spider that’s been sleeping in South America since the dinosaurs went extinct. This thing is so powerful humanity hasn’t even evolved to a point where they’re able to comprehend how strong it is but, again, luckily enough, it’s asleep.

So... the Alien God that wiped out humanity wants to fuse with it, our last remaining enemy on the Crypter side wants to wake it up and make it destroy the world, and we would very much like it to just... stay. Please.

With the Alien God rendered amnesiac and our tentative on-off ally, most of the chapter is spent trying to beat Daybit and Tezcatlipoca to ORT’s location in the 9th Underworld. Last chapter went into a lot of detail introducing the two species currently dominating the Lostbelt; the Deinos and the Ocelemoh, while this time we learn a lot more about how this Lostbelt came to be in the state it’s in.

This trip is a lot of fun, though I did admittedly drift off in Ixquic (our AU Archetype Earth, sorry Arcuied fans) and Da Vinci’s history lesson, and while Ereshkigal Alter’s inclusion felt like blatant fanservice that honestly missed for me (she’s by far the weakest of the Underworld Goddesses - most of her schtick was comic relief), Camazotz and Nitocris (Alter)’s subplot was genuinely moving.

Not sure what it is about Nasu, but he’s been knocking it out of the park with the monsterboys lately. Playable Camazotz when, he’s the only bitch I respect in this whole Lostbelt. Camazotz is the best BEAST we’ve seen since Goetia.

This isn’t to say that Tezcatlipoca, Tenochtitlan and Kukulkan dropped the ball in terms of their writing, though. Nasu made me care about all of them - I cried during Tenochtitlan’s last stand, got chills when Kukulkan resolved to fight ORT and Tez and Daybit are by far my favourite Crypter-Servant duo by a literal landslide, but their designs... god, the designs for these characters really do let them down.

Setting aside how shockingly white they all are, I have a lot of difficulty taking any of Kukulkan’s scenes seriously when her design keeps drawing me to look at her ass, and something went seriously wrong during every part of Tez’ design phase. His stage 3 looks seriously off, which sucks given how great his voice actor is, how good his animations are and how fun his rapport with Daybit is. Stage 1 gets off best by far.

I even kinda liked Ixcalli by the end of things.

I got a bit less from Daybit than I was expecting - he’s an OP badass and a fun rival to Ritsuka, but he was always a bit out of focus until their showdown in Tezcatlipoca’s afterlife. It’s actually during Daybit’s final showing that I felt I got to understand him the best, which is why I’m very glad his boyfriend partner is going to pull some strings and revive him as our ally later.

Tez just outright says he’s gonna do that. “Can’t recruit allies” smh Daybit, you seduced a neutral god so hard he’s bending reality and breaking the world in your favour.

It was also great getting some more context as to Wodime and Daybit’s motivations, though we’re obviously still missing the final pieces as to what Marisbury is actually up to. I’m excited for Ordeal Call. It’s filler, but I don’t care. It’s more main quest FGO. I love this game. It has its rough spots, but when it hits, it hits.    

Over at Team Chaldea, Nasu delivered some really strong interpersonal dynamics this time around. Kadoc is melding into the team wonderfully, Nemo is still growing as Best Rider (dude’s just got it all, y’know?), Gordolf continues to trend upwards in my heart and Mash made me cry twice over her friendships with dinosaurs. Sion and Habetrot are still the weak links here, honestly.

And then there’s Ritsuka.

He had a strong showing in Lostbelt 6 with Oberon, but Nasu has again raised the bar on this kid. Ritsuka was the hero of this Lostbelt in a big way - in a way, honestly, he’s never been before. We spent a LONG TIME fighting ORT, and almost all of that time Mash, Kadoc and Gordolf were reduced to supporting Ritsuka long enough for him to summon another Servant - another friend - and send them out for ORT to devour because there was literally nothing else they could do.

The fight against ORT is a draining, challenging slog. Watching my Servants get replaced with DATA LOST was an indescribably empty feeling. The sheer panic that I wasn’t going to make it. The genuine joy when another ally showed up to slow ORT down, even if only for a minute. It was a lot. The atmosphere in the ORT raids is wonderfully constructed, even if the raids themselves are painful in a bad way. (I guess that’s immersive story=gameplay integration for you)

And throughout it all, it’s made very clear that no matter how much Ritsuka is suffering, he is not going to stop fighting, and he’s going to keep a smile on his face the whole time. He is the only one that can.

Kadoc is yelling at you to take breaks. Mash refuses to leave you behind when you try to save her. Despite everything, we still get to have a comedic moment here or there, because Ritsuka wants his friends to keep hope. His good nature won him allies that helped us at the last second, that we would not have survived without. Ritsuka is a kind, selfless hero, and it’s been absolutely wonderful watching him grow from a bland self-insert to a very distinct character, separate from me, that I’ve come to care about very much.

This Lostbelt started with Ritsuka selling his Command Seals to Tezcatlipoca to save his friends’ lives, and it’s fitting that same selfless, dangerous compassion stays with him the entire time. I really care about Ritsuka. I’m going to be sad if he dies.

Also, ORT is TERRIFYING? goddamn like. WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE ORT IN PANHUMAN HISTORY IS STRONGER-

Nasu is the kind of writer that... you can really tell when he’s enjoying himself, and that enjoyment becomes infectious. There were moments I laughed out loud, there were moments I got genuine chills, I cried sometimes. I cried over goddamn dinosaur soccer, man, it’s stupid but genuine.

When I think about a game like Genshin Impact, where it feels like the writers only deal with half the characters out of obligation and shortcut to the easiest way to resolve any given plot, it staggers me. Are any of the writers enthusiastic about their work? Did any of that enthusiasm survive HYV sanding off the edges to make things as marketable as possible? Is anyone really passionate about Genshin Impact for Genshin Impact? It doesn’t feel like it. It seriously doesn’t.

I’m a negative person and I’m often really critical about the media I consume. FGO is certainly not immune to that, but I always end up forgiving it’s missteps more than I do any other franchise’s - and that’s because when it hits it hits. Nasu’s writing really works for me. I always end up feeling really emotional about a chapter he’s written, even days afterwards, and that’s actually really rare for me. I’ll often like media, but very few works really resonate with me the way Nasu’s do.

I dunno. I listened to ORT’s theme music earlier and I got chills just thinking about the fight again. I can’t really say that about many other works I’ve experienced. With him, I don’t even care to theorise about what’s going to happen too much, because if he’s writing a chapter I know it’s gonna be insanely good, and I just have to wait.

I can’t wait to experience Lostbelt 6 again, and in two years time I’ll have a blast replaying this one. That’s about it, I think.

also, my fgo rareship is mash/ritsuka/kadoc. i’m not alone here, right? i think it’s really cute. kadoc is super growing on me and he had a cute rapport with mash in traum and i swear to god i think some of the dialogue choices with him are going to matter later and-

[ashthehermit]

Legends of Tomorrow: A Retrospective 1.6

I don't like this episode.  I'm going to be blunt about that.  It's more or less a crossover episode, without being a real crossover.  It changes the canon of Arrow and The Flash.  It limits the things that Legends can do with its future.  A later crossover will retcon it, claiming that it was a different timeline all along.  I do believe that Legends is better when it is removed from the canons of the shows it spun off from.  The tone is develops is entirely different, and it becomes jarring to see them together.  The stories grow apart.  The episode relies on watching Arrow, which I have never done.  I might not be the target audience, but the existence of stories like this limit the potential audience of this show so thoroughly that I can't help but criticise.

STAR CITY, 2046

The gang get routed by alternate Green Arrow.  Rip reminds them all that time is malleable.  The idea is that these events are not fated.  The Legends can change things so that none of this ever happens.  This is unhelpful in my eyes.  The show does not want to step on Arrow's toes too much, but we are told from the offset that this may not even be canon.  The legends might leave 2046 having learned nothing of relevance.

'There's a reason I recruited individuals adept at misappropriating other's property.'

Jax gets interested in Kendra and keeps asking her to help him fix the engines.  Weird date, but I'll allow it.  This romantic tension is a little jarring.  Her soulmate apparently just died, doesn't seem like she's about to get into any new relationships.  Kendra says that she was a ship yard welder in 1944, but I do keep forgetting that she has former lives.  Very little of what she says or does references this.  She behaves as if she is a modern woman and nothing else.

All of this is building towards a romance between Kendra and Ray.  It does come a little from nowhere.  Apart from that time she was unconscious and he saved her life, the two haven't had many meaningful interactions.  Even then, that episode was more focused on the relationship between Ray and Stein, than Ray and Kendra.  Stein figures out that Jax is jealous and upset about the whole ordeal.  I do like when Stein and Jax's feelings get mixed up.  They're opposite personalities, so it creates good tension.  

'You've met my younger self, I was quite the ladies' man.'

Rory becomes a crime boss in about two seconds and starts wearing a fur coat.  Sara meets Connor Hawke, the new Arrow, and tells him that Oliver Queen is the Green Arrow.  She gives away Oliver's secret identity without a second thought.  There's some Arrow villain knocking about to threaten her.  I don't really care.  Legends never quite examines the relationship between Sara and Oliver, considering them friends, when their relationship is a touch more complex than that.  This episode is full of reveals that I just don't care about.

Stein tries to step in on behalf of Jax, but accidentally gets Raymond invested in her instead.  Kendra is the weakest character in the main cast.  I don't think I'm way off for saying this.  She gets lost in her mystical background, but also in the kind of things female characters have been lost in since time immemorial.  Carter might be dead, but his shadow hangs over her.  Kendra's character gets overshadowed by her relationships, and romantic development is used in place of personal development.  Her relationship with Ray doesn't quite speak to the arc Kendra herself is on, not in the same way that Zari's relationship with Nate later will be about Zari opening herself up to new emotions and accepting her grief.  

'I've got a gang that does everything I tell them to.  I've got a fur coat.  I've got a chalice.'

Rory decides he wants to stay in the future and do crime, which is pretty par for the course.  Sara and Rip go to visit the Arrow cave, where there's a helpful arm lying around.  Sara looks at the mannequins where they used to keep their kit.  I was never sure why they used those.  They always got dressed in a hurry, surely it would take time to get the clothes off the mannequin?  Anyway, old man Oliver is there, down an arm and moody.  He has the classic Green Arrow beard.  The other Green Arrow is Diggle's son, as we all thought.  This has so very little relevance to Legends, though.  Rip is standing here, not knowing any of these people.  Oliver implies that Ray and Sara never came back, which will later be untrue.  None of this was ever going to happen, and we are spending a lot of time on it.  Why would Oliver blame the demise of Star City on the absence of Ray and Sara?  They're not even the most powerful of the legends.  I suspect it's to do with something that happened on Arrow, but I don't care.  This seems to be foreshadowing for another show.

'Ray has no romantic inclinations towards your crush object.'

It is odd that Gideon plays less of a role in these early episodes.  She does not appear often, and has far less attitude than she will.  Poor Gideon.  Please return to us.

Rory's gang get taken to kill Sara and Rip.  Snart asks Rory to consider saving their friends.  Snart has been on an arc to becoming a better person, while Rory is actively holding him back.  Again, that scene in the last episode where he refused to save Ray is just odd.  By all rights, Snart should have been the one in prison with Ray.  He should have been the one trying to save him, just as he is trying to save Rip and Sara in this episode.

It all comes to another punch up.  The later seasons will have better, more varied climaxes.  I'm thinking of a Bollywood musical number here.  Now the gang has to rescue Connor!  Even though, as Rip points out, that once they change the timeline, none of this will even happen.  I am just very frustrated by how little of the events of this episode will even have ripple effects.

'Go to hell.'  'Most likely.'

Sara, by all rights, is the focal character for this episode.  Yet she doesn't get a lot of development here.  Rip is the one who had to change his mind about changing the future, but this timeline was already in flux, so what does it matter?  Sara takes Oliver a bow to use.  This episode becomes about the character of Oliver Queen more than it is about Sara.

I don't understand Rip's insistence on this being a potential future anyway.  Isn't he from the future?  Shouldn't he know what Star City is like in his timeline?  Why does he think of this as a future timeline, when he comes from the future?  He is trained by a society of people who live outside the timeline anyway.  Isn't all of time the same to him?  All mutable or immutable?  I shouldn't question it too hard.

There's another punch up.  Most of the legends aren't even there until the end.  There's a big moment between Oliver and Connor.   Ugh.

Oliver turns on the lights in his lair, revealing that they were always operational and that he was chilling in the dark voluntarily before.

Kendra seems into Ray, but turns him down on account of her life being super complicated.  All of this is fair, but it still doesn't give us much of an idea of how she feels about the whole ordeal.  What does she feel exactly about being a hawk goddess?  She's just going along with it.  Refreshingly, Ray reveals he's aware of Jax's feelings, but there's no bad blood there.  I don't care for love triangles, but I can at least gel with this version of one.  

[extremelyblackandwhite]

innocence - 38

  PAIRING: bodyguard!bucky barnes x innocent actress!reader

WARNINGS: angst, smut (18+), oral (male receiving), handjob, slight innocence kink 

A/N: not me still not fully recovered from the “you wanna see what i can do with leverage” moment. oof, still gets me heated up. anyway, this smut was mostly inspired by my pinterest board showing me this and this which i feel would be something y/n would wear for bucky. enjoy xx 

NEXT CHAPTER

She didn’t know she was running, but she was. She ran off that room before he could catch up to her but through the middle of her thoughts she could hear him yell out for her and run after her. Maybe it was an adrenaline rush, the thought of getting severely hurt or any other thing but she had managed to outrun him, running into the main corridor where everyone was awaiting for the judge to announce the results. As Mr. Hawthorn screaming her name registered in her brain, she rushed to Bucky, taking him by surprise. Out of instinct he wrapped his arms around her, looking down to see her hiding her face in his chest. 

As Bucky started to wonder why she had suddenly appeared and even why she had left in the first place, Mr. Hawthorne made his way down the hall yelling out her name made it all the much clearer. Bucky held her slightly behind his back, hand tightly holding hers as the man made his way to them. Bucky held out his metal arm in front of him, stopping Hawthorne from getting any closer to her. 

     - Give me that phone, Y/N. Now. - he wasn’t yelling, his tone was constant as he starred both Bucky and Y/N down. She moved her phone behind her back, typing while maintaining eye contact with the agency director. - I said ...

      - Back off, man. - Bucky tried to remain calm, he knew having a major fight or even yelling at the man in front of him wouldn’t put him in a good spot. However, he’d be caught dead if he allowed that man to even dare to touch his wife.

      - C’mon, Y/N. You wanna play with leverage? At least step away from your guard dog and confront me or are you already too comfortable with being a housewife? 

      - You wanna see what I can do with leverage? - Bucky pushed him slightly backwards but Y/N stopped him before he could do anything else, squeezing his hand and handing out the man in front of the two of them her phone. Before Bucky could even complain about getting her phone back, Mr. Hawthorne left the two of them in a fast pace. - What the fuck was that? What did he do? Why did you give him your phone? 

      - Trust me, okay? - she cupped his face, leaning her forehead against his when she wasn’t even sure if what she did was going to work. Her eyes darted slightly across the hall, seeing Chuck with the lawyer but quickly returned to Bucky. - I love you. 

      - What’s wrong, princess?  Hm? What did he do to you?

      - I love you too would’ve been nice, Buck. - she teased.

      - You know I love you too that’s not the point. You’re trying to distract me. Don’t shut me out. 

      - I am not shutting you out, Bucky. Nothing happened, it’s fine ... he’s just ... upset at me. 

      - Why is he upset at you? 

      - I ...

      - Mr. Barnes. - the lawyer approached the two of them, interrupting her just  as she was about to start her sentence. - The judge has called everyone in, let’s go. 

      - Has the jury made a decision? - Y/N’s grip on Bucky’s hand tightened and she was almost frozen on the spot as he started to walk to back to the court room, but she didn’t move. 

      - Hey, it’s just us, princess. Just us. - Bucky smiled at her, kissing the top of her head but she could barely register things.

She couldn’t hear anything as the two of them walked to the court room’s door where they were separated again with Sharon, Steve, Sam and Chuck accompanying her to the bench while Bucky took off with the lawyer. She sat down on the harsh, cold wood, her heart beating fast as she tried to read Chuck’s face yet she couldn’t. The jury and judge arrived, and suddenly everyone was on their feet, waiting for whatever decision the jury had taken; however, the jury looked confused, almost puzzled by the fact they were back into the court room. 

      - It has come to my attention that further evidence as been found. As such, bailiff, take the witness Mr. Hawthorne into custody where he will be charged for the harassment and stalking of Y/N Barnes as well as obscuring justice. In the matter of The People vs James Buchanan Barnes, this case is dismissed. Mr. Barnes, you are free to go. 

A few oh my gods erupted into the court room which went into complete frenzy as the bailiff took Mr. Hawthorne into custody who merely stared her down and shouted out in disbelief. She turned over to Chuck who took his phone off his pocket and played the exact same audio which she had played to Hawthorne just a few minutes ago.

     - I could kiss you. - she hugged her friend, a big smile on her face.

     - Please, don’t. I am still largely afraid of your husband, he would crush me like a soda can. Do you want me to die such a painful death? After I had to somehow understand your typo filled text with the worse recorded audio I have heard. Sincerely, Y/N, Bucky would’ve done a better job and he is what? As old as dinosaurs?

     - You’re the best. - she kissed her friends cheek before going over to Bucky who was being swarmed by both his friends that had come to congratulate him, his lawyer and some reporters.

She smiled at him, standing in the back of the crowd and catching his eye despite everyone surrounding him. Bucky couldn’t care less about those people surrounding him, congratulating him and even some complaining that he once again had avoided paying for his mistakes. All she cared was catching her eye in the middle of the crowd, as if a spotlight shone onto her. 

     - I hope you enjoy being being out of a job for 10 years. - Mrs. Olson said as she passed by to probably be with Hawthorne but Y/N didn’t say anything. 

She knew what was on the line but she would throw it away for Bucky. If it came between Bucky being free or her career, she would always pick the first option. However, it didn’t sting any less.  Yet, this was not about her, not today. Today was Bucky’s day. The day where he got rid of the problem that she had brought upon the two of them and while it was now gone, it still occupied a tiny spot of her mind which screamed at her about her own guilt in this whole situation. The flashes were bright and she kept being pulled to the back as more journalists and reporters tried to get some time with the former Winter Soldier but he avoided them, breaking through the crowd to be with the only person he actually wanted to celebrate this with. 

    - What did you do, princess? - he wrapped his arms around her, turning to exit the court room and leave all this experience behind. - And don’t say it wasn’t you, the lawyer told me it was you.

    - He could be lying. 

    - You could’ve gotten hurt. Why didn’t you tell me? 

    - It was just a guess ... I didn’t want to raise your hopes over a guess. I’m sorry. - she leaned her head against his covered arm. - It’s my fault this whole thing happened and I thought if I fixed it, I’d feel better.

    - It’s not your fault this happened. You could’ve gotten hurt, he could’ve hurt you and then what?

   - He was not going to hurt me. - she scratched her neck. She knew it was a lie, everyone is capable of everything in her business. - I had to do something for you. I am ... I am so tired of being weak. 

    - You’re not weak, what are you talking about?

    - Weren’t you in this trial? They talked about you as if you were some cold blooded murderer and me as if I were the weakest person ever. As if I wasn’t standing in that room and hearing to it. If I could defend myself, if I had put my foot down none of this would’ve happened. 

Bucky’s heart broke as he heard her talk, tears pooling in her eyes as what she had been feeling for the past weeks of meeting, court days and witness speeches seemed to finally explode, breaking free from the pressure she had been putting on it so it didn’t show, so she didn’t feel weak. He had never felt weak before, helpless maybe but never weak. Even as the Winter Soldier he could easily overpower his handlers if he wanted to, he could overpower new recruits and pretty much everyone who he was presented with. He’d never felt weak, he’d never know what it was like to feel weak and he had never even considered she felt weak because he just did not see her as weak. She was soft but not weak, she had strength in her softness, in her kindness. She’d done things he couldn’t see himself doing in his mid twenties. 

     - Hey ... - he flushed her close to him, drawing invisible circles on her back and kissing her temple. - Do you wanna get cheesy chips?

     - I need to go say goodbye ...

     - It’s fine. - he combed her hair away from her face to kiss her forehead. - I don’t want you to get caught up in a mess with photographers. 

     - I’m ridiculous. - she cuddled against his side as he led her out the back of the court where he had parked his car. - I should be comforting you, not the other way around.

     - You’re not ridiculous. This was as bad for me as it was for you. - he opened the car door for her. - Besides, I love comforting you. 

     - Really? Because from what I know, you were the one in danger of being in prison for at least 5 years. The only danger for me was trying to get naked during spousal visits. 

     - Aw, princess. You were willing to get naked in prison, for me?

     - You’re ridiculous, Barnes. 

     - So are you, Mrs. Barnes. - he smirked. - You are not weak and you are not ridiculous. Are we clear? 

     - Don’t use your sergeant voice on me.

Bucky chuckled, putting the key onto the engine and turning it on as the car started to roar up. She leaned her head against his shoulder, mindlessly listening to the song on the radio, probably one of Bucky’s favourites. On that moment, she didn’t care her career was on hold for the next 10 years because he was here and he was free like he deserved. As he pulled in front of the chippy shop nearby his flat, she perked her head up to kiss the corner of his mouth. 

    - Can we do takeaway? I wanna go home. - she cuddled against his shoulder once more. 

    - Sure, princess. Stay in the car and I’ll be right back, yeah?

    - Yeah. 

He left the car, loosening his tie as he entered the shop, leaving Y/N in the car. She rose her hand up, looking at the wedding band on her finger. It had barely registered in her that she was married, she of all people. She knew she wasn’t attention’s sweet centre and she knew she definitely did not deserve a guy like Bucky. God, in her wildest dreams she’d never thought she’d even end up with a man as caring and thoughtful as he is. It was almost surreal she’d even gotten married without having to fight her agency, at least too much. Her lips stretched in a smile as her husband came out of the shop, a toothy, childish grin on his lip as he waved the brown paper bag on his way to the car door.

He drove the two of them back to the flat and once they were inside, her shoes were thrown to one side as well as his tie and jacket and the couple made themselves comfortable on the couch. Y/N sat on Bucky’s lap, takeaway on her lap while he held his on his hand with the other searched for something to watch on TV, eventually landing on The Honeymooners.

    - I need to take you on a honeymoon. 

    - I don’t need a honeymoon. 

    - Bullshit. - he held her close by, hearing her giggle through the small digs onto the plastic container. - Where do you wanna go? C’mon, entertain me. 

    - Hm ... - she looked up, nose slightly scrunched. - Italy. 

    - I was stationed in Italy for a while. Nice place, great food. Where about?

    - There’s this movie called Letters to Juliet, it’s in Verona, and I always thought it looked so romantic. 

    - Okay, princess. Whenever you want, I’ll take you to Verona and we will have a nice month long honeymoon. 

    - Month long? 

    - Yeah. If we go any less, we won’t have time to do any sight seeing. 

    - Why is that?

    - Because I do intend to have sex with you in every part of the hotel we stay in. - he kissed the crook of her neck, taking the takeaway container away from her and placing it on the coffee table. - Maybe even try it in those tiny Italian balconies.

    - You just escaped five years of prison and you’re thinking of vouyerism already?

    - You shouldn’t look so pretty, then. - he hooked his finger under her chin and turned her face towards him, giving her a long drawn out kiss. His hand climbed up from her thigh up to her dress, pushing the sleeve down to expose her shoulder. His stubble rubbed against her soft kiss as he laid a kiss on the subtle skin of her shoulder.

   - Mhm, Buck ... - her hand pushed his shoulder back and he immediately pouted. - I have to shower. I smell like the dusty, mouldy court room and I’d like that smell off me. 

    - Mind if I join? - he pulled the sleeve off her other shoulder but she held her dress against her chest before it could fall down. - I can give you a massage.

   - If I allow you with me in the shower, there will be no showering. - she got off his lap, pushing her dress up. - I’ll be back. Try to keep the pouting to the minimum until I’m back. 

   - Just so you know, you’ll need another shower after you’re back. 

Y/N rolled her eyes, before padding into the bathroom, leaving Bucky on his own in the living room shuffling through various channels. The shower on the background was running until it was running for too long, Bucky turned his head around, looking at the door that led to the bathroom.

    - Princess, everything ok? - he prepared to get up and check on her but was. interrupted by her opening the door.

She stood against the door wedge with her typical shyness which made her so endearing to anyone who met her, yet, this time, it was something other than endearment that Bucky was feeling when looking at her. She was dressed in a white corset and knickers with a small floral print and small pink ruffles at the edge of her underwear. The corset was also adorned with a blue ribbon and small blue bow, everything covered in with one of her many short satin robes that she normally used over her pyjamas or over one of Bucky’s shirt which always looked like a dress on her. 

    - Were you wearing that ... - he cleared his throat, trying not to stare at her perky chest. - Were you wearing that today? 

    - No, I bought this one in case you won. - she closed the door of the bathroom behind her, padding barefoot over to the couch, standing in front of him, her robe slightly slipping of her shoulder. - Do you like it? 

    - Fucking hell, princess. - he leaned forward, hands wrapping around her waist to pull her close to him. 

    - It looks silly, doesn’t it? I don’t know, I just thought I’d wear something nice and do so ... - Bucky interrupted her rambling by kissing her, his hands pushing the robe fully off her and throwing it somewhere in the living room. His hands massaged her thighs and upper body until they were cupping her face, kissing her as if he hadn’t seen in her in ages. 

Her hands rest upon his shoulder, lips melded against his in a long, drawn out kiss. She whined as Bucky moved his lips from hers to her jaw and slightly under it, sucking the subtle and sensitive skin he found there. She allowed herself to get lost in the feeling of his slight stubble against her sensitive skin, drawing kisses and leaving hickeys with slightly rough lips. His hands scouted her corset for the square brackets, loosening the garment and pulling it over her head before leaning to kiss her again. She smiled against the kiss, breaking it to look at him which greatly annoyed Bucky, who tried to kiss her again. 

    - No... - she pushed him back against the couch as he tried to kiss her collarbones. Her hands toyed with the fabric of his shirt, fingers trailing up and down his chest. - Let me do something for you.

    - Princess ... - she ignored his pleas and attempts to pull her in and distribute more kisses all over her body.

Instead she climbed off his lap, standing on her knees in front of him, eyes looking up to him with a devious like innocence which was intoxicating to him. Her hands ran up his thighs, nails racking over the fabric of his trousers until they reached his belt. She bite her lip, unbuckling the accessory and tossing it aside before pushing his trousers down along with his underwear. She gripped his cock in her hand, her finger swiping the pre-cum off his tip before he started to move her hand slowly up and down.

    - Oh fuck ... - Bucky groaned, throwing his head back with his eyes shut. She smirked at this reaction, continuing to move her hand up and down in a painfully slow motion. 

Bucky groaned and moaned, head pressed against the headrest of the couch, eyes closed and lips opened. Her confidence grew at the sight of her completely blissed out husband and she stopped her motions. Before Bucky could whine about it, she kitten licked his tip before licking a broad stripe up his cock eliciting a low grumble from him. He looked down at his wife through half closed eyes, locking eye contact with her. Y/N gave him an innocent smile with innocent eyes before taking him in her mouth. Bucky breathed out, high gasp as his hand gripped onto the couch cushions. He moved his hips forward unconsciously, his cock hitting the back of her throat. She breathe through her nose as she bobbed her head up and down his cock slowly, cheeks hollowed out as she made it upon the spot. 

   - Fuck, princess. Fuck, you’re so good, fucking hell. - Bucky breath harshly as she picked up the pace, her movements almost matching up with his breathing tempo until she started to vigorously suck his tip, getting him almost shaking before returning to take him inside her mouth once more. - Fuck, stop. Stop. 

  - Did I do something wrong? - she pushed her hair behind her ears.

  - Come here. - Bucky helped her up and on top of his lap, pushing her underwear down her legs before he did so. She held herself up by holding onto his shoulders, staying slightly taller than him as he holstered her up. 

She looked down as he looked up, his eyes gazing onto hers as he lowered her down onto his hard cock, silencing her whimpers with a consuming kiss. Her skin seemed to flush hot and cold at the same time as he filled her to a halt. Bucky let her accommodate to his size, kissing down from her lips to her collarbones.

    - Fuck, you’re pretty. - he panted, moving to kiss her neck while his hands held her still. - So fucking pretty, princess.

    - Bucky, please ... move. - she hide her head in the space between his shoulder and neck, a hot flush settling in her cheeks. 

    - I’m not gonna ... fuck ... I’m not gonna move if you hide, princess. - he spoke through moans, voice strained due to the grip of her walls around him, pulsating. - Look at me, look at me when I’m fucking you. Let me see your pretty face. 

Y/N whined, moving to look at him as he flushed her chest against his. She probably looked a mess yet had no time to worry about that once he started to push her hips up and down on him, eventually leading her into riding him. Her hand slide from his shoulder to his chest as she bounced on top of him, the sound of skin slapping against each other along with the moans and groans of both of them as they chased their high. She felt her own walls pulsating with each thrust, her lower belly coiling up as she continued to move up and down his cock as if she were going to die if she stopped. She gasped and whined, continuing with her movements as the coil continued to tighten up and her movements sped up. 

   - That’s it, princess. Such a good girl. - he moaned against her ear, silencing some of her moans with messy, wet kisses. - You wanna cum on my cock, hm? I know you want to.

   - Buck ... - her gasp was high as her walls spasmed and her body tensed. The grip on his dick led him over the edge just a few seconds later and he pulled her completely flush against him, feeling him cum fill her up and leak onto both hers and his thighs. She hide her head on the crook of his neck, mewling while she regained her breathe. 

Bucky chuckled through his breathlessness before slipping out of her which caused her to let out a small whine before he laid her down on the couch, arms wrapped around her. 

   - Make that a 3 month long honeymoon. - he cuddled her against his chest. 

   - How much of that will be sex? - she looked up, completely blissed out.

   - You’ll get a week of sightseeing if you keep pulling this on me.  

   - Right. - she rolled her eyes. - I forget that you are old and cannot take this much excitement. 

   - Are you teasing me, Mrs. Barnes?

   - Maybe. - there it was, the little playful smirk he loved so much. 

   - Oh, princess ... - he lifted her up as he got up from the couch, walking towards their bedroom. - You’re gonna regret that. 

taglist: @disasterbi @lookiamtrying @buckysteveloki-me @americasass81 @jamesbarnesappreciationclub @lostinthebeans @mariahthelioness29 @oh-nohoney @peaches-roses-sins @theadorasabditory @sipsteacasually @saiyanprincessswanie @booktease21 @noiralei @learisa @everythingisoverratedbutgreat @uglipotata72829 @naturalthrone22 @husherstan @mandiiblanche @vicmc624 @itsallyscorner @chipilerendi @emzd34 @writerwrites @bluevxnus @that-girl-named-alex @captnrogers @nsfwsebbie @sarge-barnes-sir @niki-is-a-thing @cynic-spirit @tenaciousperfectionunknown​ @buckyswillow​

[purebarnes]

courage to change— (fem!avenger x bucky!)

ꜱᴜᴍᴍᴀʀʏ ➢ when bucky has the idea to go see zemo to see what he knew and if he didn’t, how he could help them figure out who has made the super soldier serum. bucky then wants to break zemo out of jail making sam and y/n skeptical about it all.

ᴡᴏʀᴅ ᴄᴏᴜɴᴛ ➢ 2.5k

ᴅɪꜱᴄʟᴀɪᴍᴇʀꜱ ➢ angst, yelling(tad), nothin serious

ᴀᴜᴛʜᴏʀ ꜱᴘᴇᴀᴋꜱ ! ➢ this started out fine but went down so my bad about this chapter.

the whole situation with zemo and going to see him was a tricky situation, y/n obviously wasn’t sure she would go through it. zemo obviously wasn’t fond of the avengers giving what he thought they did to his family and country. the girl wasn’t going to lie, she was there to help her dad and the avengers fight ultron but we all know how that turned out.

there was still the possibility that she would leave and head back to pepper but bucky kept trying to tell her to stay. she agreed to stay and see what zemo would say but she knew it was going to be worse then she would imagine. when all three of them made it to berlin, they all entered to go see him but bucky didn’t want sam or y/n to go in. the girl hated the smell of prison, well she just thought it smelled like bad. when they walked towards a door they stopped he wanted to tell them to stay back.

“i’m gonna go in alone—no, why?” y/n asked raising her eyebrows waiting for an answer she liked, “you’re both avengers. you know how he feel about that.” bucky told her making her shake her head in disbelief, “it’s not like you two were know for frolickin' in the sun together—he was obsessed with hydra. we have a history together. can you trust me on this? i got it.”

he looked at y/n grabbing her hand and rubbing his thumb in a circular motion telling her that it would be fine. she closed her eyes nodding before he let go and went to leave to see zemo. she leaned onto the wall where prisons could be kept on the other side of the wall. y/n inhaled then closed her eyes getting a feeling something were to happen soon but pushed it off. sam could tell something was up but never went to ask as she told them to not worry about her.

sam looked up and saw her on the wall, he stayed silent waiting for bucky to come back. she never would of thought she would be doing something by her self and without her dad on her side. she knew she wouldn’t eventually have to start i her own but she wouldn’t of imagined him leaving so soon. when tony’s funeral came around, he made the video about if he were to die then it was for them.

y/n had a video that he made her but she couldn’t bare look at it, she wasn’t ready and days would go by where she would always think about opening and playing it but never went through it. sam took this as an opportunity to ask her something about her. he went to cough obnoxiously and when she looked up, sam was leaning on the wall next to her. “so, you and torres huh?” she chuckled at his accusation, she thought he was too late but something was holding her back. she smiled, pausing then speaking up.

“no. why’d you ask?” she asked sam and he pulled up his phone and showed her the texts from him and torres. they were a bunch of them asking if she was single and asking if he could date her. she leaned over to see the last message about asking permission— “why would you need to ask permission? anyways, he’s cute i guess.” y/n wasn’t lying but she just didn’t want to be with someone at the moment or at least not him. sam pushed his phone back in his pocket then went to lean back down seeing the door open to bucky.

he walked near them, “how’d it go?” sam asked getting up to see bucky telling him that it was done, something seemed confusing about the situation to y/n. she let it go when they all went to be less to a place but bucky told them not to ask any questions until they left, the next thing he said was that he wanted to break zemo out of jail. “what are you talking about? you wanna break zemo outta jail? where the hell are we, buck? have you lost your mind?” sam question boarding him with questions about what he was thinking.

y/n couldn’t see so she ended up falling with a thud sound behind her when bucky noticed her not behind them anymore. “shit. where’d y/n go?—a flashlight would’ve been nice.” she rolled her eyes as bucky went to go pick her up from the floor and apologized. “sorry doll, we only had two.” bucky frowned pushing her forward so that she could see better and not fall like before. bucky went to continue his conversation, “we have no leads, no moves, nothing—what we have is one of the most dangerous men in the world behind bars.” sam fired back at the super soldier.

“we have eight super soldier that are loose—no, zemo will mess with our minds. especially yours. no offense.” sam told him, he still wouldn’t agree on what bucky wanted to and something as this dangerous wouldn’t be pretty. bucky went to turn on the lights then turned off his flashlight, sam doing the same. “offense. super soldiers go against everything he believes in. he is crazy, but he still has a code.” bucky walked away from him, “yeah but we’ve both been on the wrong side of that code.”

y/n still couldn’t get her wrap her mind around what the man was telling both of them and sam went to look at y/n for help. she sighed turning to look at him, “he blew up the un, he killed king t’chaka and framed you for it. did you forget that, buck? you think the wakandans forgot? well they didn’t! i know why this matters to you but it’s pushing you off the deep end.” his face softened when she used buck instead of bucky because she would always say buck when she cared about him. “we don’t know how they’re getting the serum. we don’t even know how many of them there are. look, let me walk you guys through a hypothetical. can I walk you through a hypothetical?”

when he said that, y/n and sam turned around slowly to face him although they knew he had to do something or he wouldn’t have said that. y/n shook her head looking at bucky to start, “what did you do—i didn’t do anything.” the man stuttered and y/n narrowed her eyes at him making him back up seeing that she scared him even if he was stronger, like he would like to say. “the weakest point in any system isn’t the software, the hardware, it’s the meat ware. the human element.” he looked back at them.

y/n shared a uneasy look with sam when he continued explaining what he was going through, “now, in this lockup, it’s none to one, prisoners to guards, and if two prisoners start fighting, then the protocol says four guards have to respond.” sam interrupted him not getting what he was getting at all. “so why would two prisoners randomly start fighting at that moment?—who knows? there could be many reasons... but the point is, these things escalate. lockdown procedures would have to be initiated, and with all those bodies flying left and right, wouldn’t be hard to slip down a hallway or two.”

“and if the fire alarm got tripped while the prisoners were being separated... someone could use the chaos to their advantage.” he finished when y/n breathed in biting her lip, “i don’t like how casual you’re bein' about this. this is unnatural. are you... and where are we, man?” sam asked when the front door opened and someone started walking to them.

the figure was unclear when he finally came into view and y/n, sam widened their eyes going wide. she grew confused and went to go near him, “whoa, what?” y/n started, “what are you doin' here?—i didn’t want to tell 'cause i knew you wouldn’t let this happen—what did you do?” y/n was pulled back from sam telling her he had it all. “sam we need him—you’re going back to prison!” y/n exclaimed pointing at zemo’s direction.

he took off the cap, “if i may—no!” all three of them yelled at him making zemo step back and apologize then looking back at both sam and y/n obviously upset and betrayed he would do that. he turned to sam, “when steve refused to sign the sokovia accords, you backed him. you broke the law and you struck your neck out for me.” he said then turning to look at y/n when she looked at anywhere but him. “y/n look at me. look at me.” he gently grabbed her face making her look at him and she looked up at him.

“what about when you let me go when you saw me and steve on the run, you helped me. i’m asking you to do it again—both of you.” he said letting go of her face then looking directly at sam this time, “i really think i’m invaluable—shut up.” zemo tried to say but sam wasn’t having it. it took a second before sam and y/n agreed to help him. sam looked at y/n and she nodded regretting it, “if we do this, you don’t move with our permission. okay, zemo. where do we start?” sam said, all three of them looking at him.

━━━

the next thing they all did was go and go see a car and zemo told them that it was his, skeptical form y/n and sam. this was dangerous and couldn’t be trusted but also she know where zemo was coming from when he want vengeance against the avengers.

y/n would do anything to get her mother but it was too late—she was already gone when she got to her. y/n was walking to see the cars and she stopped when she saw a yellow one. she thought it was a nice lookin car, “i spent years hunting people hydra recruited to recreate the serum. because once it’s out there, someone can create an army of people... like the avengers.” zemo turned to look directly at sam and y/n, she just stared at him.

zemo looked back into one of the cars before continuing to talk about what he was thinking, “i ended the winter soldier program once before. i have no intention to leave my work unfinished. to do this, we’ll have to scale a ladder of lowlifes.” he said walking away as sam responded, “well, join the party. we’ve already started—first stop is a woman named selby. mid-level fence i still have a line in. from there, we climb.” he left them as the three of them stayed back walking towards him.

the all started heading towards a jet, “so all this time you’ve been rich?—i’m a baron, sam. my family was royalty until your friends destroyed my country.” zemo replied back speaking russian and went to enter the jet while y/n went to get on and she missed the planes and jets. she was snobby about it but she did love them, any chance she could get on one.

when they made it to the jet and they got on, they all sat down in the seats they picked out. y/n was in front of zemo while bucky and sam were across of each other but bucky told her to move seats but she said she was fine. “just sit across of him—it’s fine.” they whispered and zemo could tell something was up, “i won’t hurt her if that’s—i’m not scared of you.” y/n told him crossing her legs and looking out the window. zemo picked up a book before looking at it, “i’m sorry. i was just fascinated by this. i don’t know what to call it, but this seems to be important. who is nakajima?” bucky looked up before sprinting up and holding zemo by the neck.

y/n looked up wanting bucky to let go of him, she hated when he got like that. it was like a part of the winter soldier was still there, “if you touch that again, i’ll kill you.” he let go before going to his seat. y/n couldn’t help but keep her eyes on the man, she never heard that name before and she also wanted to know who he was. zemo apologized, “people you’ve wronged as the winter soldier but why isn’t y/n on here.” y/n closed her eyes not wanting zemo to bring up her mother but that’s exactly what he did.

bucky tensed up, “don’t push it—you must miss your mother? i know i would and now you’re father.” she grew hot and wanted to just take all the anger she had on zemo but that wouldn’t help anything. zemo knew what he was doing and he was doing it well, he was mad about his family so he took it out on y/n. “zemo.” sam warned him not to continue, y/n felt like exploding so she got up before she excused herself.

“excuse me, i uh... need to do something real quick.” y/n closed her eyes before leaving to use the bathroom and she could hear distant yelling from sam and bucky telling him to calm down and not do anything hasty. y/n entered the bathroom then went to sit on the toilet seat and put her hands in her face, “oh dad. i can’t do this anymore.” she silently cried to herself wanting to be with her dad at that moment.

ten seconds later she heard a knock and sniffled to say something that wouldn’t sound like she was crying. “yea, yeah just gimme a second.” no use though because it sounded congested like she was sick, she opened the door and saw bucky. she sighed while wiping the tears from her eyes, “sorry, here it’s all yours—i don’t need it.” she went to wash her hands then bucky went in the bathroom to shut the door and locking it.

this was something you would seen in movies, where they would lock the doors and something else would happen. so she was confused on what was happening, he went to grab her hands and squeezing them tightly, “there isn’t a day where i don’t have nightmares about what i did to your mom—that’s wasn’t you buck.” she reassured him that the winter soldier wasn’t who he was well not anymore.

“it was still me, i put you in so much pain. you never deserved that doll.” y/n stifled a smile before looking at his blue eyes that she loved. “i could never blame you. not now, not ever.” she said letting go and rubbing her thumb over bucky’s cheek this time. she went over to out her arms around his waist and gave him a tight hug. she leaned in to kiss his cheek but stopped when she was close to his lips.

she could tell it was getting awkward and gave him a wide smile before leaving the bathroom to go back to have a seat away from everyone. all that was next was to go on ahead and finish the mission.

[the-chocoholic-writer]

Madripoor

Zemo and Sarah’s time in Madripoor

Warnings: SPOILERS FOR EP3, violence, flirting, ect.

Words: 3527

“He’s just through that corridor.” The security guard points to a door down the large hallway. Sarah stand between Sam and Bucky as the guard stops walking.

“Alright. Give us a sec.” Bucky turns to the two as the guard walks off. “I’m gonna go in alone.” Sam and Sarah look at Bucky like he has lost the plot.

“Why?”

“Cause you’re Avengers. You know how he feels about that.”

“Buck it’s not like you two were known for frolickin’ in the sun together.” Sam gestures to where Zemo is.

“This is dangerous Bucky... HE is dangerous.” Sarah states, looking at Bucky, concerned.

“He was obsessed with Hydra... We have a history together. Trust me...” He looks at them. “I got it.” He walks off before they can say anything.

“I hope he’s alright in there...” Sarah says to Sam, after Bucky leaves the pair alone.

“He will be... He’s Bucky.” Sam places his hand on Sarah’s shoulder and gives her a soft smile.

~Later~

“What are you talking about? You wanna break Zemo outta jail? Where the hell are we, Buck? Have you lost your mind?” Sam shines a torch around the large empty room.

“We have no leads, no moves, nothing.”

“What we have is one of the most dangerous men in the world behind bars.”

“And we also have eight Super Soldiers that are loose.” Sam covers his eyes as Bucky shines the light at his face.

“Sarah how do you feel about this?” Sam turn to Sarah. Sarah quickly turns to Sam.

“I don’t think it’s safe to break Zemo out... remember what happened last time we dealt with him?” The pair look at Bucky.

“Exactly. Zemo’s gonna mess with our minds. Especially yours. No offence.” Bucky flips a switch and these large lights begin turning on. The three switch their flashlights off.

“Offense.” Bucky glares at Sam. “Super Soldiers go against everything he believes in. He is crazy, but he still has a code.” Bucky walks away from Sam and Sarah.

“I’ve been on the wrong side of that code, Buck, and so have you and Sarah. He blew up the UN, he killed King T’Chaka and framed you for it. Did you forget that? You think the Wakandans forgot about it? It’s a rhetorical question. They didn’t. I know why this matters to you, but c’mon it’s pushing you off the deep end.” Sam takes a step forward as Bucky opens his arms.

“Sam, we don’t know how they’re gettin’ the serum. We don’t even know how many of them there are.” He sighs softly.

“This is a little too crazy Bucky... we will figure it out okay? We don’t need Zemo.” Sarah steps forward and gives him a soft smile and she rests her hand on his arm.

“Look, let me run you through a hypothetical. Can I run you through a hypothetical?”

“Bucky...” Sarah’s smile turns into a frown, as Sam turns to look at him.

“What did you do?”

“I didn’t... do anything...” Bucky loos to the left, refusing to make eye contact.

“The weakest point in the system isn’t the software, the hardware, it’s the meatware. The human element. Now, in this lockup, it’s nine to one, prisoners to guards, and if two prisoners start fighting then the protocol says four guards have to respond.”

“So why would two prisoners start randomly fighting at that moment?”

“Who knows? There could be many reasons...”

“What I’m hearing is that you started it.” Sarah crosses her arms.

“The point is, these things escalate.  Lockdown procedures would have to be initiated, and with all those bodies flying around left and right, it wouldn’t be hard to slip down a hallway or two.” Sarah shakes her head and facepalms, exasperated. Bucky starts up again. “And if the fire alarm got tripped while the prisoners were being separated... someone could use the chair to their advantage.” Bucky does a small shrug.

“I don’t like how causal you’re being about this. This is unnatural. Are you... And where are we, man?” Suddenly, a door loudly opens.

“Bucky, you didn’t...” Sarah gasps at him.

The three look over at a plastic curtain, seeing the silhouette of a man grow smaller the closer he gets, until HE emerges.

“Whoa. Whoa, whoa. hey! What are you doin’ here?”

“No, listen. I didn’t tell you ‘cause I knew neither of you would let this happen.” Bucky looks at Sarah, who is staring at Zemo, eyes wide, knowing memories of what he had done were running through her mind.

“What did you do?!” Sam gets in Bucky’s face.

“We need him, Sam... Sarah.”

“No, Bucky, this is crazy. Even for you!” Sarah growls, a glare plastered to her face.

“You’re going back to prison!” Sam points at Zemo.

“If I may...” The man in question begins.

“NO!” The three yell at him. He looks a little startled by the sudden synchronisation but nods softly and whispers out a small “Apologies.” Bucky turns to Sarah and Sam.

“When Steve refused to sign the Sokovia Accords, you both backed him. You broke the law, and you stuck your necks out for me. I’m asking you both to do it again.”

“I really think I’m invaluable...” Zemo once again interrupts. Sarah groans softly as Sam turns to him, with a glare.

“Shut up.” Zemo squints at him. Sam looks at Bucky and sighs, shaking his head.

“Okay. If we do this, you don’t make a move without our permission.”

Zemo makes a face for a second and nods.

“Fair.”

“I don’t like this...” Sarah looks at Bucky and Sam. The pair shrug and turn back to Zemo.

“Okay, Zemo. Where do we start?” The three look at him as he smiles.

“So our first move is grand theft auto?” Sam looks at the large number of cars.

“These are mine. Collected by family over the generations. I spent years hunting people HYDRA recruited to recreate the serum.” Sarah, Sam and Bucky look around at all of his cars. “Because once it’s out there, someone can crate an army of people... Like the Avengers.” Zemo looks at Sam, his eyes flickering over to Sarah who stands beside Sam. “I ended the Winter Soldier program once before. I have no intention to leave my work unfinished.” He grabs a large coat from the top of his car. “To do this we’ll have to scale a ladder of lowlifes.” He begins walking away from the trio and the car.

“Well, join the party. We’ve already started.”

“First still is a woman named Selby. Mid-level fence I still have a line on. From there, we climb.” Sarah looks at Sam and begins to follow Zemo, Bucky and Sam right behind her.

The four walk towards the door of a private jet where an older man stands, waiting.

“So all this time you’ve been rich?”the look of confusion on Sam’s face made Sarah giggle softly, to herself.

“I’m a Baron, Sam. My family was royalty until your friends destroyed my country.” Sarah watches as Zemo and the older man talk in Russian, happiness and comfort evident on the Baron’s face. “Please.” Zemo gestures and leads the three up the stairs of the jet.

Once the four are in the jet, Sarah sitting across from Zemo. The older man explains the fridge is out.

“If it doesn’t pass the smell test... give it to them. But not the beautiful woman.” Zemo smiles as the older man laughs and leaves. Sarah zoned out of the conversation for some time, translating Zemo’s words and tries to figure out if he had actually meant to say beautiful or not. She is only snapped back to reality when she sees Bucky with his hand around Zemo’s throat.

“I’ve seen that book. It was Steve’s when he came out of the ice. I told him about Trouble Man. He wrote it in that book. Did you hear it? What’d you think?” Sam looks at Bucky expectantly.

“I like ‘40s music, so...” Bucky shrugs.

“You didn’t like it?”

“I liked it..”

“Trouble Man is amazing.” Sarah states.

“It is a masterpiece, James. Complete. Comprehensive. It captures the African-America experience.” Sam and Sarah look at Zemo confused for a second before they turn back to Bucky.

“He does have a point.” Sarah agrees with the Baron.

“He’s out of line, but he’s right. It’s great. Everybody loves Marvin Gaye.”

“I liked Marvin Gaye.”

“Steve adored Marvin Gaye.” Sarah shakes her head softly, takes out her phone and headphones out and puts on some ‘calming’ music by Pan!c at the Disco, trying to delve into her own little world as she looks out the window of the jet.

~~In Madripoor~~

“We have to do something about this. I’m the only one who looks like a pimp.” Sam complains.

“Only an American would assume a fashion-forward black man looks like a pimp. You look exactly like the man you’re supposed to be playing. The sophisticated, charming African rake names Conrad Mack, aka the Smiling Tiger.” Zemo shows Sam a picture of the man he is impersonating on his phone as the four continue walking.

“He even has a bad nickname. Hell, he does look like me, though.”

“Well you aren’t the only one who hates this plan, Sam...” Sarah walks in between Bucky and the Baron, in a small black dress and black heels that Zemo had bought for her to wear. “Do I really have to wear this? And who the fuck am I supposed to be?” She looks at Zemo, an annoyed glare pointed at him.

“Yes, darling. And you are my fiancée, it would be too suspicious for a new face to show up without a specific reason. No matter what happens, we have to stay in character. Our lives depend on it. There’s no margin for error.” Zemo states as a black car pulls up in front of them. He reached forward and opens the door for Sarah, who nods at him as she climbs into the middle seat, between Sam and Bucky. During the car ride, Zemo’s eyes flicker up to the mirror, watching Sarah. She notices his staring and she looks down, a soft blush covering her face. Suddenly, a group of motorbikes come out of nowhere, surrounding the car.

The car pulls up and Sam, Bucky and Zemo climb out of the car. Sarah turns to climb out after Bucky but an outstretched hand stops her. Specifically Zemo’s hand, waiting for her to take it. She reaches out and places her small hand in his and he helps her out of the car, wrapping his arm around her waist. Sarah tenses and he leans down, lips millimeters away from her ear.

“You’re my girl here, that’s your character.” He whispers huskily. The hand on her waist gives her a soft squeeze. She takes a small breath and leans against him, as the four of them walk along the walk above the large crowd of people.

As the four of them walk into the Princess Bar, Zemo’s grip on her tightens, pressing her close to him. The fur on his coat tickles her cheek and neck. “Here we are... Ready to comply, Winter Soldier?” Zemo asks as he leads Sarah, Sam and Bucky to the bar, still holding the woman’s waist. As the four make it to the bar, the bartender walks over, surprise written all over his face.

“Hello Miss, Gentlemen. Wasn’t expecting you, Smiling Tiger.”

“His plans changed. We have business to do with Selby.” The bartender looks at Zemo with suspicion, then looks at the Sam.

“The usual?” Sam nods.

“Ah... Smiling Tiger, your favourite.” Zemo says, watching the bartender cut open a snake, using it to make the Smiling Tigers usual drink.

“I love these..” Sam says with slight hesitation. Zemo lifts his drink.

“Cheers Conrad.” Zemo drinks his own as Sarah sips on her drink, watching the two. Sam hesitates, then takes the drink like a shot, giving the bartender a thumbs up.

A man walks up behind Zemo and as he turns, moves Sarah out of the way of any possible harm.

“I got word from on high. You ain’t welcome here.”

“I have no business with the Power Broker, but if he insists, he can either come and talk to me...” Zemo gestures to Bucky.

“New haircut?” The man questions Bucky.

“Or bring Selby for a chat.” Zemo watches the man. He looks at Zemo, then at Bucky, then Sam and lastly towards Sarah who is peeking out from behind Zemo’s protective stance.

“A Power Broker? Really?” Bucky looks at Zemo, obviously done with this situation.

“Every kingdom needs its king.” Zemo slides his arm back around Sarah, softly and sneakily massaging the small area on her waist. “Let’s just pray we stay under his radar.”

“Do you know him?” Sam questions.

“Only by reputation.”

“That doesn’t sound to good.” Sarah mumbles, taking another sip of her drink.

“It’s not. In Madripoor, he is judge, jury and executioner.” Zemo looks around the room and then turns back to the bar. “Winter Soldier. Attack.” The moment the man roughly placed his hand on Zemo, Bucky’s metal arm shot out, grabbing his wrist and twisting, pushing the man to the middle of the floor.

Sam, Sarah and Zemo watch as Bucky kicks ass left and right, causing not only damage to the people but to the furniture around him. Zemo leans close to Sarah and Sam.

“Didn’t take much for him to fall back into form.” Zemo states. Bucky slams a man down onto the bar, then the sound of guns cocking. Sam and Zemo look around the bar at everyone and Zemo grabs Sarah, pulling her close, trying to protect her. Sam places a hand on Bucky’s arm.

“Stay in character or the whole bar turns on us.” Zemo whispers to Sam, then he turns to Bucky. “Well done, Soldier.” The bartender watches as Bucky doesn’t let go of the man.

“Selby will see you now.” Bucky let’s go of the man, slowly.

“Thank you.” Zemo nods and gives Sarah’s waist a squeeze. Sam turns to Bucky.

“You good?” He says softly. Bucky looks at Sam quickly before following Zemo and Sarah. Sam following shortly after.

“You should know, Baron. People don’t just come into my bar and make demands.” The woman, Selby, state as the four enter the room.

“Not a demand. An offer.” Zemo sits down, Sarah sitting down on his lap.

“A lot has changed since you were here last.” Sarah decides at that moment to play the character she was given and rests her head on Zemo’s shoulder, playing with the ends of his hair, sneakily paying attention to the entire conversation. Sarah then slides off the Baron’s lap, he gestures for her to sit back where he was sitting and he walks over to Bucky.

“And I give you him.” He walks around, behind Bucky, who looks like a statue. “Along with the code words to control him, of course. He will do anything you want.” Zemo runs his fingers over Bucky’s chin, softly grabbing and wiggling the end.

“Now that’s the Zemo I remember. I’m glad I decided not to kill you immediately. However, I want something else to go along with him.” She smirks at the two men, slowly turning to look at Sarah, who is still sitting on the chair opposite her. “I want that pretty little thing as well.” Zemo walks away from the soldier and Sarah scoots out of the chair for him to sit, taking her original place in his lap.

“Not this one, she’s mine.” His hand cups Sarah’s butt and squeezes, as a way of staking his claim in front of Selby. Sarah, deciding she didn’t like the way the woman talked about her as though she’s an object, steps in.

“I belong to my Baron.” She runs her fingers through the back of his hair. Selby looks disappointed by gives Zemo the information about the Super Soldier Serum and a man called Dr. Wilfred Nagel.

“You can’t find Nagel without me.” Sam’s phone vibrates suddenly.

“Sam? Who’s Sam? Kill them!” Suddenly Selby is on the floor dead with a bullet wound and then chaos ensues. Bucky and Sam take out two of her bodyguards as Sarah pulls a knife out from under her dress and stabs another in between the eyes. She lets the body fall and hit the ground, turns to look at the three men who came with her, staring at her in shock.

“Did you three REALLY think I was coming HERE, defenceless??” Sarah rolls her eyes. The four move towards the exit.

“They’re gonna pin this on us.” Sam states, leaning against the door. Zemo sighs, as Sarah sheaths her knife, the three men’s eyes lingering on her exposed thigh.

“We have a real problem now, so leave your weapons and follow my lead.”

Bucky, Sam, Sarah and Zemo quickly leave the area, the sound of phones receiving messages going off all around them. Zemo’s arm is once again around Sarah’s waist.

“This is not good...” suddenly the light above them go out and multiple gun shots are heard. The four duck and Zemo turns and drags Sarah off down an alley, leaving Bucky and Sam.

“Zemo wait! I can’t run in the-“

Sarah trips, her eyes closed as she waits for the rough impact but instead feels the soft fur from Zemo’s coat. He caught me... the two stare at each other for a moment before Zemo picks Sarah up and continues running down the alleyway.

Finally they got to the end of the alley and turn the corner to see Sam and Bucky standing there, as a body falls.

“You seem to have a guardian angel.” He points out.

“Well this is too perfect.” The last person the four expected to see was Sharon Carter to walk out of the shadow. “Let go of Sarah and drop it, Zemo.” Zemo puts the gun down and lets of Sarah reluctantly.

“Sharon?” Bucky takes a step forward.

~~~~ skip forward to the party at Sharon’s~~~~

Sarah stands off to the side of the crowd still wearing the dress Zemo bought her. Bucky and Sam are talking as she looks around at the dancing crowd only to see Zemo...

Sarah let’s put a tiny laugh, shaking her head at the sight. When she looks back up at him, he is gesturing for her to come dance with him. Sarah thinks for a second before a goofy smile appears and she pushes off the bar and joins Zemo in the crowd.

“Those are so great moves!” She calls out to him over the crowd, he grabs her hands and continues dancing.

“Then dance with me!” He calls back, a large goofy smile on his face. The pair end up dancing and looking at some of the artwork together until they meet up with Sam and Bucky, waiting for Sharon.

“Hey, guys. I found him.” Sharon motions for the four to follow her. Sam turns to Bucky.

“Here we go.”

“Alright, he’s in there. Container four-two-six-one. Sarah and I will keep an eye out while you guys talk to Nagel. But hurry. We’re on borrowed time.” Sharon holds out her palm with five ear pieces for everyone. Sarah, Sam, Bucky and Zemo take theirs and Sharon leads Sarah away from the group, noticing how Zemo watches as the two disappear.

Minutes later, Sharon turns to Sarah.

“So, Zemo seems to have taken a liking to you?” She smirks.

“No he doesn’t.” Sarah shakes her head as she looks around, guarding the shipping container. “It was Allan act. I had to pretend to be his fiancée to get into the club.”

“It’s pretty obvious it wasn’t an act, when I showed up pointing that gun at him, he was being protective.” Sarah rolls her eyes as Sharon nudges her.

The pair are oblivious to the fact that their earpieces were still on and Zemo, Sam and Bucky could hear everything. Sam and Bucky turn slowly to glare at Zemo and if looks could kill, he would have been dead already. However he isn’t paying attention to the two, instead distracted by the voices in his ear and the burnin blush covering his cheeks.

~~~ After the explosion and Zemo’s scene of him kicking ass ~~~

Zemo pulls up in front of the group and shrugs.

“Supercharged.”

Bucky climbs in the passenger seat and Sam climbs in behind him, Sarah walking around the front of the car. Before she opens the passenger door behind Zemo, he opens his door.

“Come here for a second.” Sarah looks at him inquisitively but complies, standing in front of him. Zemo reaches up, grabs her waist and pulls her onto his lap, passionately kissing her for a minute, Sam complaining in the back. He pulls away and smirks, giving her a small wink. She blushes and he pats her ass, for her to climb into her seat. She does so in a daze and once she is buckled in, Zemo takes off.

[magnumdays]

Magnum PI 3.08 - Someone to Watch Over Me

Why am I such a sap and the end scene basically had me tearing up?

(Also why is the last scene now- some an hour later - the only thing I remember of the whole episode? Selective amnesia anyone?)

Anyhow, let’s take a breath and try to bring some thoughts back...

We start off with our somewhat clingy “Higgy and Ethan acting like they’re in high school” scene... then progressing into being college students leaving a party to go hook up...

Which I mean...alright, at least we got interrupted with a phone call (also someone i having way too much fun with everyone personalizing their ring tones!)

Honestly, I kind of like Ethan at this moment. 

(When he’s leaving to go take care of a patient, like a good doctor, leaving Higgy all frustrated and ready to play poker and take everyone’s money!)

Then we get one of my favorite moments:

Higgy just casually walking into Magnum’s bedroom and poking him, trying to wake him, and then pouring some water on him to get the job done. I can’t imagine how much fun that was to film (well for Perdie at least).

Anyhow, let’s run down the ep. 

Case of the week is finding Ethan’s dying patient before he...well... dies. 

Magnum/ Higgy are annoyed with each other because she’s trying to help with his sleeping problems  and he is upset she talked to Ethan about him. I kind of see both points of view but I fully agree with Magnum on the whole “What’s between us stays between us, cone of silence”. Which Higgy realizes is right too at the end and that gives us that fab #soft ending! 

Then there is also the side plot with the recruit and the painter girl from last season coming back and maybe being Rick’s love interest (which was on my season 3 wish list!! Yay! Well Rick having a GF/ some more female characters) 

It felt like there was just kind of a lot of things, or so it seemed to me, which meant I only focused on what I felt was most important. Which is Higgy and Magnum, Higgy and Ethan and kinda a bit on the case. 

The case for me was the weakest we’ve had for a few episodes. There was nothing wrong with it really. Some twists and turns, yadayada, feel good moment, take responsibility, at least you have each other... I liked it BUT wasn’t it a little hard to connect with? 

I wish they’d have shown us an actual picture of the person we were looking for at the start (rather than just his lung scans...). Given us a second where Ethan met him even? Or the two brothers taking care of on another in some way? It was like it took too long for me to actually care even though I felt pretty awful for the little kid getting shot, he didn’t feel connected to the adult dying missing character. Does that make sense?

Some of my favorite moments through out this was...

Higgy coming back to the poker table and everyone being just a little confused and then smug about it (presumably until she starts taking their money). 

Magnum being sulky about being dragged along to help Ethan (well for a minute).

TC being honorable and all about the right thing through out the ep.

Higgy trying to explain why Magnum is wrong to be upset about her talking to Ethan about him...

(I really liked this, because she’s all “YOU CAN’T BE MAD I CARE ABOUT YOU!” and I think she does have a point, even if you know it’s not really right -or in Ethan’s case, professional- of a thing to do, it is coming from a good place. She cares about Magnum. He isn’t doing anything about his sleeplessness and so she talks to the person she’s getting closer to who is also a doctor... I can see why to Higgy that makes sense.)

Continuation of this is the Abby-thing!

OMG, I love the Abby conversation. 

I love every single thing about it.

Juliet: Um, what did Abby know about me? 

Magnum: Huhm? 

Juliet: Well, you seem to have this issue with Ethan and I discussing you, but you and Abby were pretty serious there for a minute. And since it's absolutely normal to discuss your partner with your...partner. Surely I must have come up in conversation?

Magnum: No. Not at all.

Juliet: *surprised Pikachu face*

(Okay, I tried to get a good screenshot of just how upset this makes her but I couldn’t. But I think she was actually genuinely surprised and hurt he hadn’t talked about her to Abby!)

Also is it weird I have a dream that I’ll one day find someone to stand next to and just have us look half as good as these two mange all the time?

Moving on...

So yeah, we get a bit too much surgery/ hospital stuff there for my taste. I don’t know what was going on, like where they trying to show off Ethan’s doctor skills? Make us worried about the outcome? But honestly I’m not watching Grey’s Anatomy, I’m watching Magnum PI!

IDK, I for one would maybe have liked the guy to have died and the brother to have gone off the deep end and for the dad to have been a bit less remorseful and really have gone off the island and into hiding! Like an actual Not So Good ending for once? Perhaps the dad comes back to say goodbye before doing the right thing and going prison but his son is dead?

Because sure, I love me my happy ending and I’m glad that’s what we get most of the time but come on folks, once in a while you gotta throw some else in there. IDK, this was nice too, but maybe one out of 20 cases ONE should be a total fail?

This was a nice moment through.

The most important question I have after this episode is however...

Is Rick not the bartender at La Marianna?

Like I thought that was kind of what he did. Owner and bartender. Apparently not? (I mean I don’t really care if it means we’re getting Susie as a regular character, like come on, how can we have only 2 recurring female characters and 6 male ones?)

Also, not really a question but... can two people just be any more adorable together?

Just look at that; two (NS)SM having a beer and being soft together... does life get any better than that really?

[brave-heroes-of-light]

Bravely Third theories I had immediately after first finishing Bravely Second

Sylvie is extremely suspicious. She's either protagonist or villain.

Egil keeps coming back and is in training to be a knight. He's around the same age as Sylvie so perhaps they'll be protagonists together.

The Bravely Second team were half old, half new. If this continues again, Yew and Magnolia would continue to be protagonists alongside two new ones (Egil and Sylvie?).

Sage Yulyana is in space. Whatever's going on with Ringabel and the Planeswardens is in space. Magnolia's home is up to something in space... We're going to space.

Can't believe Magnolia sent her spaceship back to the moon without her. Now she's stranded on earth and she's going to regret it when they need to find a way into space.

Space seems to be the way between different worlds/realms. Altair came to Luxendarc from the Celestial Realm via space. It isn't just regular starry sky either. Space turned up in the path through the great chasm and inside the mountain of Musa (sealing chamber) ((which I strongly believe to be the same place in different times)) - stars turn up wherever the boundaries are weakest, not just where we're used to them.

Denys isn't dead yet. He speaks during the final boss fight. The screen cracks again before showing him which implies a different realm. He went to space with the space-time compass to fight Diamanté, but do you really think the moon people/planeswardens are just going to leave the compass? Or maybe they'll recruit Denys and confiscate the compass for whatever they're doing with the demon sword...

Sage Yulyana was specifically mentioned repeatedly in Bravely Second, but never seen. Edea and Tiz never explained who he is to Yew and Magnolia (even when they specifically asked what this mysterious sage might be like - Edea and Tiz going along with "yeah,,, I wonder....." and making the others confused). Which means it's likely Yew and Magnolia will encounter him in the next game and not know who he is.

This was based on absolutely nothing, but I figured it was about time there was a good fairy in this series... and for no particular reason, I decided she would have bright blue wings with black edges as well as pastel blue gloves with a gradient to black at the hands as well as star-like specks........ Please understand how Shocked I was when Bravely Default II did exactly that.

The two little girls who found shiny crystals (when time broke) are the new vestals of earth and fire (one was in Eternia/Gathelatio, the other was in Eisenberg/the old fishing house). Sylvie chose them (the crystals were discovered floating to shore in the ocean and she has scary prophecy powers). Potentially the crystals were like Agnès' pendant? (wasn't it the core of the earth crystal or something? from which the earth crystal could grow back?)

Edea is in trouble according to Sylvie... I bet it has something to do with what Ringabel's up to. But Edea has to... become a villain...? Something about tell her friends what she's up too, then make herself a villain, then she'll be okay again when Grandship takes to the skies once more??? Someone's in danger so Edea and Ringabel do not so good things until the danger is gone and they can help make things right again???

Ringabel wrote in the journal a line about Alternis Dim having concealed his identity in order to serve Braev.... which would be why he never took his helmet off. Now that Ringabel's face has been revealed, the people he was hiding from have found him. The people of the moon. Possibly a reason he's in trouble and Edea is forced to become a villain??

Magnolia knows whatever it is Ringabel is up to with the demon sword / Sword of the Brave. Which the moon is behind. I don't like that... (I still can't get over the fact she was the one forcing Ringabel not to tell anyone what he's been doing).

Something about the fallen angel Yulyana spoke of or the Agnès who encouraged everyone to keep going after being defeated. Agnès going through time. (I know they could easily be Agnès from other worlds, but see my next point).

In the Bravely Second demo, Magnolia was there and she already had the flower in her hair (which she gave Yew) and she sure seemed to know who Yew was (and was confident enough to flirt with him- which she wasn't when they first met in the game)... And then the moon was connected with the SP hourglass and time itself PLUS they know about the spacetime compass.... I think Magnolia (or the whole team) is going to travel through time? As I said earlier, the moon people are going to recover the space-time compass and Magnolia is in on whatever their secret mission is......... Incidentally, the demo mission she hijacked involved anomalies. I don't quite remember... but there was something Yew, Janne, and Nikolai were sent (by Agnès) to investigate.... The most important part, however, was that Yew and the others all had her erased from their memories when she left. Yew lent her his handkerchief and she left him her flower. Yet when the main game started, Yew still had his handkerchief (which was specifically brought up right at the start -and I'm certain it was to bring attention to the demo).

[hurricaneonanesthesia]

Ooh, can I request a Golden Deer scenario where the reader was recruited from the Black Eagles to the Golden Deer by Byleth but once the war starts they go back to Edelgard and then returns to the monastery five years later for the reunion, revealing that she only did so to try to garner as much information as possible while stalling Edelgard's conquest by scattering communications and whatnot, offering their life up knowing that she had betrayed their trust?

Warnings: none Genre: Probably angst but it ends happily.

Hi anon of course you can! I had a lot of fun writing this one, I hope that you like it! ~Admin Hurricane

You were very very very nervous about the reunion and heading back to Garreg Mach

Sure you had fought alongside Edelgard and the other members of the Black Eagle Strike force but you were different now.

Edelgard had sent you back in hopes that you could act as a spy and try to gather as much information as you could for her benefit.

Needless to say, as soon as you showed up everyone was immediately wary and sus of you and the professor was just like “ಠ_ಠ tf happened”

Trust me, being on the receiving end of very very pointy weapons isn’t fun

“I swear I’m not affiliated with Edelgard or the Black Eagle Strike Force anymore! I’ve put that behind me, now that the professor’s back I intend to fight by your side.”

They didn’t trust you at first, as to be expected

“Look...I know I hurt you guys when I left to go back to the Empire to fight alongside Edelgard but things are different! Like I said, I want nothing to do with her anymore. I’ll provide all the information I have on the Imperial Army and...after that...you can kill me.”

Seteth did a wholeass investigation and true to your word, you let every single word spill out.

When they finished, to your surprise, they let you go, but without anywhere else to go, you stayed at Garreg Mach

They let you continue to roam around the monastery seeing as you weren’t causing any trouble but you were always under watch, mainly Seteth

It could get fairly lonesome at times cause no one really knew if they could trust you

Since you were by yourself, you’d spend most of your time in the greenhouse tending to the flowers or at the fishing pond sitting on the edge of the dock.

Eventually Byleth took pity on you and went to talk to you about it.

You explained that you didn’t blame the rest of the Golden Deer for being extra cautious with you

Naturally if someone you thought you could trust joined the opposing side of a war but then suddenly up and joined back with you, you’re not going to be sure of where their allegiance lies.

Raphael bless him was the first one after Byleth to willing go up to you without any judgement

“Raphael, you shouldn’t spend time with me y’know, people are gonna talk”

“Aw Y/N don’t say things like that! Honestly, I don’t get why you’re still moping around. If people are going to call you a traitor, so what? You made a mistake but now you’re owning up to it. As long as you’ve changed that’s all that matters now.”

BFDSHJBFJDGJFDS PLEASE I LOVE THIS BIG TEDDY BEAR OF A MAN

Needless to say, you felt much better after talking with him, you slowly started easing your way back into the good graces of the Golden Deer after that.

After that you proved yourself, battle after battle as you wiped the floor with your enemies, knowing where their weakest points were.

Once the war had finished, no one could deny that you were a pretty big asset in helping the Deer win the war because of your insider info.

Want more of my writing? Be sure to check out my masterlist :)

If you wanna request something, don’t be afraid to send something my way! Thanks for reading and have a lovely day!

Anesthesia and I have an official Discord server now! Please be sure to join! There you’ll receive notifications for fics when they’re published right away and be able to interact with us outside of the blog. You’ll also be able to rp and interact with characters from each different fandom that I have written for. Hope to see you there, don’t keep us waiting! https://discord.gg/fEPSkXa3fT 

[villanelleskiss]

KILLING EVE SEASON 3 EPISODE 1 REVIEW

ok... so i’m going to address the elephant in the room before we get started.

this season obviously has it’s issues, the biggest one being that eve got curbed a lot here. she had a lot of potential for a lot of growth here, but we barely see any of it, which leaves a lot of her growth to possibly be half assed in season 4 ( which i hope is not true ). 

the writing overall is ok, as i understand that suzanne heathcote was left with a lot to try and figure out how to pick up. i think overall, she did a good job but it left a lot to still be desired and i do hope that season 4 will address this. 

so now, with getting that out of the way, let’s get on with the show

opening recap here is amazing, i’m sort of upset we didn’t get something like this for season 2. 

also we see young dasha here and i’m wondering if she killed that guy as a contract kill or if she was just a psychopath and the 12 recruited her from that kill. 

totally forgot that villanelle got married. 

here speech here is trying to let us know that she has gotten over eve, but she clearly hasn’t. this is all a gimmick for her to try and force herself to pretend she has. she also talks about Maria in a way that she is only looking at her for what she can give her, the clothes, the house, the pool, etc. not at who she is. 

i just really love this shot. 

so after that whole ballroom scene, they probably instantly got divorced. 

villanelle always looks so good after she’s just gotten beat up, idk what it is about her. 

she still doesn’t like when people use her real name, regardless of who they are to her. (except Eve) 

we see eve’s scar here, and i’m still a tiny bit upset that they didn’t mirror where their scars are. but that’s ok. 

somewhere in here we do see eve shopping at the market buying a lot of junk food ( i will pick back up on this in a few ) 

i love mirroring scene, one of my favorite parts of this episode. 

her room is such a mess, ( to pick back up at the junk food section ). she’s depressed, spiraling, learning how to deal with knowing she killed someone, knowing that she herself was almost killed after she saved that person, then was betrayed by them. 

villanelle just looks so good here and i love how we see tiny bits of her struggling with what she did to eve. she obviously regrets it. 

kenny!!! i love him. 

but let’s take a second to notice the bed pads to the right of him. i have made a post about this before analyzing this which i will link here. this girl is plagued by nightmares and she can’t even escape them in her dreams. i’m so sorry eve. you are the last person who this should’ve ever happened to. and i’m even more angry that the writers took this liberty to do it, bc it’s pretty bad when even the actors were angry about it. 

*not pictured* but we see a scene where villanelle kills again, just a shop keeper and she mirrors one of dasha’s kills, but as villanelle is walking out we get a shot of green screen that apparently the editors forgot to fix. i would put a pic of it here but tumblr has a shitty 10 photo limit on posts. 

rip Kenny. forever in our hearts. and this was absolutely unnecessary. 

this may be the weakest season openings, but i still enjoyed it. 

rating 6.5/10

[moviewarfare]

A Review of “Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)”

The movie that hardcore dedicated Zack fans fought for has finally been released. I'm not a huge Zack fan and I honestly didn't like Batman v Superman (BvS), although I did like Man of Steel, I also supported the movie because I believe the movie released should've been Zack's true vision. I watched Justice League (2017) in theatres when it came out and thought it was a very bland movie that had very obvious reshoots from another director in it. If I had to give that movie a rating then I would give it a 1.5/5. The premise is still the same "Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman's (Henry Cavill) selfless act, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) enlists newfound ally Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) to face an even greater threat. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to recruit a team to stand against this newly awakened enemy. Despite the formation of an unprecedented league of heroes-Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and The Flash (Ezra Miller) -- it may be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions". So does this live up to the hype or is it overrated?

Let's get this out of the way first, this version is infinitely better than the 2017 version. The best scenes in the 2017 version were all Snyder from watching this version. I did wonder how different this version was going to be from 2017 one but it feels completely different. I would say 70% of the 2017 version is in this movie but the editing, removal of Whedon scenes and addition of new scenes changes this into one with tonal consistency and coherent storytelling. Since this version is longer, it also feels like there are more build-up and tension throughout. Due to this every scene that was also in the 2017 one now feel a lot better and earned. The screenplay is still written by Chris Terrio but unlike BvS it feels a lot more engaging and not unironically silly. Some powerful and emotional lines here resonated with me which is quite surprising.

Additionally, the action scenes are more enjoyable in this one due to its R rating and how it's longer now. The biggest change is to the action in the climax where instead of in 2017 where Superman does everything, the team all contribute so it feels like everyone was relevant to the team. Junkie XL returns to score this version from BvS and it is amazing. His score adds a lot of impacts compared to Danny Elfman's 2017 version. It's a lot more memorable and makes scenes feel more exhilarating. There is also an Aquaman and Flash theme of the sort that sounds great albeit not as iconic sounding as say the Wonder Woman, Lex Luthor or Superman theme from BvS. The cinematography by Fabian Wagner is pretty good for the most part and there are still those gorgeous shots that we expect from Snyder. The humour from the 2017 version is now toned down substantially so no more "wHaT iS BRunCh? or Flash landing on Wonder Woman boobs, thank god. Surprisingly, there is still a fair amount of humour here compared to BvS which some say was lacking in a lot of fun. The humour in this version land a lot better and is the right amount as well which add some levity to a mostly serious natured story.

The biggest improvement this version has is the characterization. Cyborg has a proper fleshed out arc in this version. You have a greater understanding of his dislike for his dad and his feelings about his current situation but still having a believable development where he grows to accept who he is now. He is the heart and soul of this movie in thanks to Ray Fisher's wonderful performance.  They turned a character I barely cared about even before the 2017 version, into one of the most interesting and memorable characters. His relationship with his dad played by Joe Morton is some of the best aspects of the Justice League. They also conveyed his power very well and made it seem incredibly powerful. Flash is also improved a lot as he now has more to do. Despite still being the comic relief of the team, he is no longer unbearably annoying or treated as trash compared to Superman and is now actually doing super cool things that make him way more interesting. Ezra Miller is quite lovable in those comedic moments which are genuinely funny but when the serious moments come, he delivers a great performance.

Aquaman has some slight improvements as well. More scenes are explaining his reluctance to become King of Atlantis and also some more scenes showing his stone-cold outwards personality but hidden kindness compared to the others. I also love his interactions with the Flash including a small scene where Flash is asking Aquaman which looks better which is just a nice interaction. He also does a bit more aqua looking powers in the neat climax. Wonder Woman has more action scenes that make her more badass which is nice. Her animosity and rivalry against Steppenwolf is a lot clearer as well. She also has some nice interactions with nearly every member of the league including Superman and Alfred. Batman has a naturally continuing story from BvS where he is the one who is trying to assemble the team. His interaction with Alfred are some of the best with Alfred questioning him not doing things with a reason but from guilt instead. Unfortunately, his action scenes don't live up to that of BvS and he doesn't change at all from beginning to end. Superman appears near the end, so there isn't much to his character arc or story since it was just beginning. He wears a black suit in this version but it doesn't have much significance in terms of story or reason behind it apart from it looks cool I guess? Batman and Superman the most iconic characters are the weakest characters in the story surprisingly. Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds) has clearer motives this time around as he now wants to collect these Motherboxes to get back into his master, Darkseid, good graces again. His new design makes him look more alien and his action scenes make him more fearsome. He is a better villain compared to the 2017 version but is still just someone for the league to fight rather than an interesting villain.

However, some characters don't improve in this version including Lois Lane (Amy Adams) who in every scene is just mourning Superman. She is described as a key character but doesn't do anything else apart from hogging screen time. Commissioner Gordon (JK Simmons) has fewer scenes in this version compared to 2017 and both just involve him talking. Makes me wonder why JK Simmons bulked up for the role just for talking scenes.

The 4-hour length of this movie is honestly fine since it is releasing on streaming and since fans have been fighting for ages, they might as well see everything that Zack shot. However, in terms of the story, the movie could still convey important aspects without having to be 4 hours. There are a lot of scenes that drag on for too long or pointless scenes that don't add much which could easily be cut. The pacing of the first half is incredibly slow as well and it takes a fair amount of time for things to start picking up. There are also some scenes with slo-mo and some vocal song in the background that are kind of cringy and go on for way too long as well. The team don't even assemble until over 2 hours. The ending also goes on for too long which is weird as there is a very satisfying ending but then it keeps going. This new additional shot ending from Zack is cool but it feels slapped on. There are also some scenes concerning a certain character that occurs over halfway through the movie but is just really distracting from the main plot. They then appear at the ending but it feels kind of unnecessary for the story. I don't particularly mind the 4:3/square ratio that this movie has but it does take a while to get used to and I still find 16:9 would look better on my TV. Finally, some of the CGI looks bad and unpolished which is slightly distracting because they are very noticeable.

Overall, I was incredibly surprised at how much I enjoyed this version of the movie. I'm not a big fan of Zack Snyder but this might be his best work so far. I am glad he got to release his vision of Justice League and hope that this isn't a complete one-off thing. This was a great win for fans and was worth the long, gruelling fight.

[paperbagpetrichor]

Hey! Is it okay for me to request Headcanons for jotaro, Giorno, and Joseph reacting to having an s/o who’s very clumsy in everyday life but when it comes to fighting she can take down groups of people twice her size and height ?

[  I hope it’s okay that I just did Joseph and Jotaro!  I’m not far enough in to be confident in writing for p5 quite yet, my apologies, but I hope you enjoy these two!  ]

J o s e p h ;;

At first he didn’t think much of you, other than that you were a hell of a cutie.  Petite, almost always fumbling, both physically and around your words, a pink blush constantly tinting your cheeks, he initially believed you were shy and nervous in nature, and, to some degree, you were.  Perhaps it was the fact that he didn’t think he’d see much of you throughout his journey, but he didn’t pay you much attention.  Whenever he saw someone being a bit of a klutz, or tripping over their own words, nevertheless, his mind would always flash back to you, the girl who seemingly popped out of the background sheerly because of her awkwardness.

It quickly became clear that you weren’t going anywhere.  As it turned out, you were one of Lisa Lisa’s most prized students, excelling in Hamon.  Joseph thought himself insane the first time he and Caesar ran into you.  That same small girl, bumbling about like a lost puppy, was a Hamon master?  It was almost laughable.  In fact, when Lisa Lisa introduced (or rather re-introduced) the two of you, he couldn’t help but let a laugh escape.  “[Y/n]?  [Y/n] [l/n]?  That name must be common, then,” he’d chuckled, rolling his eyes, only for his trainer to cast him a stern glance as you emerged behind her, nearly tripping on the brick flooring.  His jaw practically hit the ground.

Even during training he couldn’t believe it.  Somehow, you - clumsy, small, innocent, and somewhat of a mess at times - were ahead of him.  He clung to whatever little logic he could muster.  After all, he hadn’t seen you use Hamon, so perhaps you were simply some relative of Lisa Lisa’s, visiting, exempt from practice because you genuinely didn’t know the first thing about anything, Lisa Lisa simply letting you live your dream.  You were adorable, of course, but something like jealousy and uncertainty held Joseph back, generally avoiding you.

Only after your first sparring session did he realize how wrong he’d been.  “I’ll go easy on you, love,” he’d reassured as the two of you set yourselves into position, only eliciting a small snort from you and a “you don’t need to” under your breath.  The moment he plunged into battle you were able to pinpoint his moves fairly quickly, although, to be fair, after watching him train, you’d grown rather accustomed to his typical moves.  You easily avoided jabs and kicks, dodging clacker balls with ease, allowing a few well-placed Hamon-filled punches and swift feints followed up by some powerful roundhouses left him breathless on his back in what felt like an instant.  Through his panting, holding his head, he saw you step over him, for the first time looking and truly feeling like a giant, worthy of all the praise Lisa Lisa had given you.  “You don’t need to go easy on me,” you informed with a good-natured smile, reaching out to help him back to his feet.  Before he gathered the strength to take your hand, he still had to process it all, bewildered at the transformation from a girl who could hardly stand to one who could beat him almost instantaneously.  “…No shit.”

From then on the three of you, Joseph, Caesar, and yourself, continued on the journey to defeat the Pillar Men.  Although he’d seen your skills, Joseph still saw you as a flower, just barely in bloom and in need of protection.  He couldn’t forgive himself if something happened to you.  Not that he was particularly planning on you falling prey to enemy traps, but even after proving yourself in battle, he still continued to see the you he’d first met pretty much anywhere outside of battle.  Thus, he couldn’t believe when you agreed to help him on his quest.  He tried to talk you out of it.  But, although your words were stuttered and repeated, you were committed, and nothing he could do would stop you.  Eventually he found himself letting his fears go.  Instead, he took to teasing you, pondering aloud how the pretty mess that was you could kick ass in battle.

Your first fights against the Pillar Men only continued to further his amazement.  What took Joseph minutes took you seconds, and even as time progressed and he learned new techniques, you always seemed to be just ahead of him.  Something about the sight of you taking on ancient super-human godlike beings, easily twice your size both in terms of height and muscle, always managed to astonish him.  Although he continued to tease you, he genuinely did admire you.  His affection built but he hid it beneath playful words.  “You don’t mess about, do you?” he’d joke after a battle, when the both of you were finally able to catch a break.  You would smile and shake your head.  “Not in a fight, at least.”  A giggle would follow, and he’d run a hand through your hair.  You were absolutely precious.

After Caesar’s death, the two of you only grew closer, you left wordless at the loss of your friend while Joseph was tormented equally in yells and cries out for his lost partner.  You both tried to help one another get through it, and although evidently your fighting - both of yours - was impacted poorly initially, the two of you quickly learned to read one another to step in should the other need a moment.  In the end your grief only made both of you stronger and more determined to end it all.  “You absolutely confuse me, you know,” he’d admit with a lazy smile when it was just the two of you alone.  You would look at him with innocent eyes and inquire, “Is that a bad thing?”  “Not at all.”  He paused, and suddenly planted a kiss on your cheek.  “In fact, I think that’s why I love you.”

J o t a r o ;;

The instant he heard his klutz of a classmate had a stand, he felt like the world had been flipped on its side.  How were people like him and people like you even remotely similar?  You were practically half his height, almost always stumbling in the hallways, tripping over your own feet and stringing your words together as gracefully as tangled Christmas lights in mid-July.  Quite frankly he thought you were perhaps one of the weakest people he’d ever known.  Your antics were precisely the opposite of his, and he couldn’t care less.

He gave a heavy sigh and tipped his hat down to hide the dissatisfaction that twisted his face when you were recruited to fight Dio.  All you were going to be was dead weight; someone whose constant mistakes would not only drag the group down but possibly risk all of their lives, undoubtedly forcing the more compassionate Crusaders to help you rather than finish up battle.  He, his grandfather, Kakyoin, and Avdol were well-trained.  And up against an immortal being.  And then…there was you.  You could hardly make it up the stairs without your foot catching one of the ledges, and for some godforsaken reason, the others had made the extremely bright decision to take you to fight a person equivalent to a god of sorts.

The first time you were truly able to shine was in the fight against Polnareff.  As most of your group fell into defense, in unfamiliar territory against a powerful man with an equally powerful stand, not to mention a minion of Dio, it was only Jotaro and, surprisingly enough, you, who took to offense.  Before anyone could so much as get a hit in, you were lunging at him, deftly avoiding his quick movements and flashing about at an unprecedented pace, setting elaborate ruses to catch him off guard and swiftly landing the first blows within seconds, showing no intention of stopping as you continued to watch for his movements and make your moves.  After a moment of shock, Jotaro joined you, and even though it was you who ultimately took him down, he still couldn’t believe his eyes.  Perhaps it had just been a stroke of luck.  That had to be it.

You became fast friends with the other members of your team, especially Kakyoin, but Jotaro, given his reserved nature, atop his doubt at your abilities, remained rather cold to you.  It took a good few battles for him to realize that this wasn’t the work of some lucky streak.  Somehow, that same clumsy schoolgirl that he’d found a hindrance was now a warrior on the front lines, tackling enemy after enemy, always managing to find weak points and strike viciously, rivaling, if not surpassing, his own ability.  Eventually an odd sort of respect bloomed in his chest for you.  It rose with every moment in battle, but wavered every moment outside it.  Nonetheless, he figured he should at least stop isolating himself from you, especially as the two of you often wound up working together to take down an enemy.  Your nature was still off-putting for him, but he found you to be a very sweet girl, strong not only in battle but also in mind, even if lacking in other departments.  The two of you began coordinating your abilities for the best outcomes possible, and, in doing so, found affection to one another.

Although he’d never admit it, he was falling hard for you, both the silly klutz and the talented fighter all in one.  He noticed you seemed to feel the same.  Often the two of you spent your free time together, even if it was in silence, partially because of Jotaro’s stoic personality and your quietness so as to prevent you from fumbling your words and appearing stupid.  But as time passed, the two of you opened up to one another (at least, as much as could be expected).  His seriousness played off well with your innocence, and although he’d always find himself giving his signature yare yare daze every time you wound up messing something up, he learned to appreciate it as a part of you.  

After the primary bridge of your friendship - Kakyoin - was hospitalized, he grew frustratingly concerned for you, and you for him.  He seemed much more protective of you, strangely so, not just to you but to everyone, and although you would always assure him you’d be fine a sense of duty to keep you safe would still cloud his mind, only to slowly dissipate as you proved your skills over and over, countless times in countless battles.

“I - um, I probably annoy you a lot,” you confessed one day, after defeating an enemy stand and having a rare moment of peace in a small town, browsing the scenery, just you and Jotaro, your cheeks flushing as you continued, “s-so thanks for putting up with me.”  A nervous giggle escaped you, the redness tinting your face only growing in saturation as you prepared yourself for your next words, continuing slowly, voice wavering despite your best attempts to remain calm, “And I’ve never really…done this before, but I’ve never really felt like this before, and so what I’m trying to say - what I mean is - I think I love you.”  You closed your eyes tight, unwilling to see the expression on his face, only for a ruffling of clothing and a small grunt of acknowledgement to cause you to peek.  Jotaro had pulled his hat down over his face, put you could see a small shade of pink rising on his cheeks, mumbling a small all-too-familiar phrase.  Your heart was beating a million miles a minute - surely he’d reject you.  But instead, you found yourself with his hand on your shoulder, holding you firmly as though unwilling to let go.  “Then do me a favor, and stop tripping over yourself.”  It wasn’t a yes, but as he brushed a few stray strands of your hair back into place, you grinned like an idiot.  It was just as good as a yes, in your eyes.

The first time Jotaro ever said the words ‘I love you’ weren’t to his mother, or father, or any of his family or friends.  They were to the only one he truly, genuinely loved, with every inch of his body and mind and heart, who made his heart race and brain cloud and who he couldn’t start to imagine his life without then: you.  It was right before the battle with Dio when he pulled you aside, and, without any buildup, simply spoke the words with passion.  Before you even had the time to process them he was kissing you, holding you closer than ever before, and in his embrace the two of you formed a pact: no matter what, you were both going to make it through this, and when you were done, and the past was simply that, the past, you would begin your bright future, together.

[tsarisfanfiction]

Thinking thoughts and wanted to know your opinion law went from this seemingly laid back almost easy going personality to this brooding serious man during the time skip do you think he’ll slowly ease back into his old personality once this emperor stuff is taken care of and do you think his crew miss his laid back ways?

Ooh, hello Anon!  This is an interesting question for sure, but honestly?  I don’t think Law’s personality really changed.  What changed is his situation (and two years of additional experience).

Aaaaand my explanation/character study got super long so it’s under a cut.  Oops.  Vague warning for Wano spoilers at some point (I give an actual warning when I get there but a few other things may have slipped in earlier so watch out if you’re anime-only, I guess?)

Okay, so: Sabaody.  Laid back, taunting so-and-so noted by Kid of all people to have zero manners and perfectly happy to poke fun at Drake (note: Drake is also former North Blue, we know their backstories intersected - although whether they know that is another matter entirely, although I headcanon that Drake knows and Law doesn’t but that’s a whole other thing, just like I headcanon that Drake, Penguin and Shachi totally knew each other as teenagers.  I mean, neighbouring islands?  Pirates?  Don’t try and tell me the Barrel Pirates never visited Swallow Island when it was literally right there, and what little we know of pre-Hearts Penguin and Shachi they would totally have been in the pirate kid’s face, but I’m getting off-track).

Law spends a lot of time in Sabaody watching.  When we first see him, he’s watching Killer and Urouge duke it out, and doesn’t do anything to influence what’s going on until Drake arrives (again: Drake, North Blue, a Known Quantity.  Killer?  South Blue.  Urouge?  Sky Islands.  Unknown Quantities, and possibly the first time he’s seen either of them in person).  Then we see him in the Auction House, and we all know he wasn’t there to make a purchase.  One of Oda’s brilliant tie-backs - the Auction House is one of Joker’s things.  Joker is Doffy.  Law is tracking Doffy.  It’s not rocket science that he’s there to get more info.

Then the Strawhats happen.  Law sits there amid all that carnage, seeing the entire crew reunite in the middle of the Biggest Thing Ever To Happen on Sabaody (I mean… punch a tenryubito, nice one Luffy).  Doesn’t join in, doesn’t try to leave.  Sits and watches.  His interaction with Luffy is more info-gathering: this guy just punched a tenryubito and now the Marines are here.  What next?

I love the Three Captains Beatdown.  (I am delighted we finally have the Part 2).  Luffy and Kid are being Luffy and Kid.  They’re crazy, they’re strong, they’re not backing down.  Law has his pride.  He’s the ‘weakest’ of the three (by which I mean he has the lowest bounty and in pirate-speak that means weaker) and both Kid and Luffy are completely not his type of pirate (again, revisited in current manga events and thank you, Oda).  If he doesn’t act then, he’ll lose a whole load of respect, and also put his crew in danger because, you know, the admiral is coming and Shachi already admitted Rayleigh’s haki nearly took him out.  So we have three of Law’s big traits coming out in Sabaody (imo): Protectiveness of his crew, Scheming, and being an Intentional Pain in the Ass (with a subsection of Pride but all pirates have that one so I’m not gonna focus on that too much).

As for Marineford, that’s really a case of sticking his tongue out at the World Government, let’s be honest (plus the whole Will of D schtick we still don’t know the full depth of).  What better way of saying ‘screw you’ to the WG than saving someone who just broke out of Impel Down and has made themselves out to be a royal nuisance but hey it’s okay because he’s dea- dammit Trafalgar came in and now he’s not dead?  Also really got his name on their radar for Shichibukai fun later. 

All three of these traits still show themselves post-timeskip, but up until Zou/Wano there is one big factor that’s changed.

Law is alone.

He’s sent his crew off somewhere safe (there is no other reason for ditching most of his fighting power all the way to Zou other than to just keep Doflamingo’s strings away), his scheming is reaching its peak, and then the Straw Hats come in and make a mess of everything.

I don’t know about you, but I’d be much more serious when I’m alone in a keystone of my greatest enemy’s lair with my nakama too far away to help, and then the Strawhats crash the party.

He’s met them once before, presumably also read about them in the News Coo, so he knows they do unpredictable things at the worst times.  He also knows they’re strong, so Scheming Law comes in again, allies with them to both try and stop them from messing everything up, and also get some additional firepower in to replace his crew’s strength (or at least a bit of it - considering the Strawhats are half the size of the Hearts and if anyone tries to tell me Law, Bepo and Jean Bart are the only powerhouses in that crew I will fight, how much exactly it compares is a grey area).

Too bad Luffy is, well, Luffy, and it doesn’t quiiite pan out the way Law planned (but he’s learning!  Latest chapter is gold).  But again, Punk Hazard: we see Pain in the Ass Law (vs Smoker), Scheming Law (basically main Law right now), and Protective Law (Heart Pirates hidden away safe).

And this continues into Dressrosa, with of course the addition of Tragic Backstory (it’s One Piece, he was going to have one.  Even if Law’s ends up particularly nasty).  Law is facing his greatest enemy, the one he swore to defeat after thirteen years, and then he gets outsmarted.  So we have out of his depth, defeated Law - although he’s still being a Smartass to Doffy because he can.  Again, I think being tense, snappy and generally not a happy guy is pretty fair in that situation.  Luffy simultaneously makes things better and worse - Law has to rely on him to get him out of there, and we know Law’s not one for trusting easily (Jean Bart’s recruitment is an interesting case and I wonder if he was planning on keeping him straight away or if it was another FU to the tenryubito plus ‘hey, fighting power’ moment but then Jean Bart was actually loyal and also a goof).  But Luffy does it, they win, hooray.

But now?  Now we have Law alone with the Straw Hats forming a Grand Fleet and he’s really back-footed here in terms of power balance.  It is Not Smart to rib the pirates who a) outnumber you like hell and you have no hope of backup anywhere and b) are the ones that are going to get you back to your own crew.  This isn’t like Sabaody, where there’s Luffy and Kid and he needs to prove himself to them as well as keep his crew safe.  His crew are safe (he thinks… we’ll get to that in a minute), Luffy’s seen him at his absolute worst in the last 13 years, and all his scheming for the last 13 years has reached a conclusion.

He’s lost, he’s tired, and really he just wants to go home to his nakama now.  Can you blame him?

Then, we get Zou.

Zou is fun.  Zou is really, really fun.  We get the reunion!  Which we see literally 1% of and I’m mad because that would have been so good to see.  Bepo literally jumps on him and he lets him.  I bet the rest of the crew did, too.  We see Law with his crew of idiots and he loves them and there’s so much scope in there for Law finally being able to relax for the first time since Time Skip.  And the Hearts get on well with the Straw Hats.  We see Penguin and Usopp dancing together later on, we see Law teasing his crew (not introducing them?  Their reaction to that is the sort of thing we would see other pirate captains punish for mutiny but he just shrugs it off.  He knew they’d react like that).

But there are two big elephants in the room here (unintentional pun whoops).  Number one: Sanji’s disappearance and his ally’s reaction to that.  We see that covered pretty well in canon, Law realising that his ally is about to have two yonkou after his head at the same time and the problem that poses for him, Law getting dragged into a new alliance with the Minks and Samurai (Law being a total goof about Raizo but Keeping Up Appearances because Strawhats).  Law presumably making the executive decision that breaking his alliance now would be a bad idea (Kaido is still annoyed with him, the Minks adore the Strawhats, Luffy is a clingy rubbery bastard that won’t let him go anyway), and once more we have a back-footed Law.

The second elephant is fun for me.  It’s never fully stated in canon, but.  Jack attacked the Minks.  The Heart Pirates were living with the Minks.  The Heart Pirates fought with the Minks (we saw that).  Bepo was treated by Nami (we also saw that).  The Heart Pirates got caught up in that whole mess.  At the minimum, the whole crew got poisoned alongside the Minks.  I reckon some of them were probably tortured, too.  Law came home to his crew expecting them to have been safe and they weren’t.  And now he’s asking them to go straight to the lair of the crew that did that to them.  That’s not going to settle particularly well with him, either.

We don’t see the journey to Wano (disclaimer: I haven’t seen anything past WCI in the anime so I have no clue what fillers may have been added), but there’s still four Strawhats and the samurai on board, so even back in his own ship Law can’t fully relax, but I bet he’s still like Zou-Law.  A little peeved, trying to work out how the hell he’s going to deal with Kaido with or without Luffy and the half of the Strawhats that have gone on a suicide mission, but genuinely happy to see his crew again.

Then he manages to kick all the intruders once they arrive at Wano, and the first we see of him, he’s chilling out.  Watching.  He even has his crew on info-gathering/watching (we see Penguin, Shachi and Bepo but I bet they’re all doing it).  Hello, Sabaody!Law!  Chilled, keeping an eye on things, scheming (just no-one to irritate because they’re trying to keep a low profile).

And then Luffy returns and we’re back to Punk Hazard, except this time, Law’s crew are in the mess, too.  Law’s plans are crumbling, Luffy is being a royal nuisance, and then things go from Bad to Worse.

I don’t know how far the anime has got so vague blanket manga spoiler warning from here.

Luffy gets captured.  Kaido knows they’re there.  Kaido attacks his crew.  If it wasn’t for Shinobu having a devil fruit useful in that situation, that would have been bye-bye Penguin, Shachi and Bepo.  So there go Law’s plans and his crew are in danger.  Punk Hazard but worse.

Then, thanks to the traitor, Penguin, Shachi and Bepo get captured.  They’re also accused of being the traitor, and Protective Law rears his head big time.  The Heart Pirates in effect leave the alliance.  Not officially, because Law knows he’ll need them later even if it’s only as bait while he gets the hell out of there with his crew, if required, but he strikes out and they hear nothing from him until voila, Penguin, Shachi and Bepo are back!

And this was the return of Pain In The Ass Law.  He’s smirking at Hawkins, and someone else I’m currently running with the theory of Drake.  Oh look, North Blue buddies!  Known Quantities.  Some scheme is hatched (looking forwards to that one).  He’s also protecting the hell out of his crew, because Hawkins hit him where it hurts (North Blue not-so-buddies.  Known Quantities.  Works both ways).

Now?  Now, we’re looped right back to Sabaody again.  The Three Captains are back, Law is back to being surrounded by idiots but still proving himself whilst protecting his crew and scheming (and this time knows how to include Luffy and Kid into his schemes!  Character development!).

It’s been two years, he’s been through hell (again, Oda please give him a break), but the core things we saw back in Sabaody?  They’re still there, and the closer he is to his crew the clearer we see them.

So to answer the question will he go back to that?  No, because that’s not how character development works, but I do think we’ll see the Pain In The Ass Law more once Protective and Scheming Law aren’t needed in earnest (unfortunately, as long as the Strawhats are around, he’s always going to have some sort of guard up because he’s learnt and he’s not stupid.  As they’re our protags, that means we’re probably only going to see Law much while he’s with them).

As for his crew?  We know, thanks to the SBS, that Penguin, Shachi and Bepo have known him since basically the day he lost Rocinante.  Whatever hell of a mess he is at the moment, it’s not going to be anything like 13yo Law after his whole life crumbled again.  It’s not known exactly when he meets the rest of the crew (except Jean Bart), but it’s somewhere in those 11 years between Minion Island and Sabaody (and maybe some again in the time skip).

So some of his crew, at least, have seen him worse and basically learn to love again (as cheesy as that sounds).  They might not like the blip, but they’ve seen him worse, so they’ll know that it’ll pass.  And as I’ve been saying, we’ve seen him far more without his crew than with them.  There’s a high chance that how he acts with them hasn’t changed as much as the change we’ve seen as readers.

This basically turned into an Essay on Law oops.  But it was a very interesting question!

[lowkey-lokis-bitch]

our chosen family - dad!steve.rogers

request - can i request for steve rogers x teen!reader? they have a father daughter relationship ever since he recruited her for team cap. they see each other again back @ the avengers facility after a long time. reader got affected by the snap (they shared a moment before turning to dust like peter & tony in titan) her last words: “i love you dad” and she’s the last one who’ll turn into dust. steve cries, vowing to avenge her and the others. reader has strength, speed, heat vision and flight. thank u!! - @barnes-parker – i’m so sorry it’s taken so long aha but i got so invested in this story and couldn’t stop ahaha <<33

word count - 7679

pairing - dad-figure!steve rogers x teen!reader, uncle!bucky barnes, uncle!sam wilson (btw the uncle figures are so much fun to write i love it omg), pretty much team cap family

a/n - hi! this became a long one and I’m kind of really proud of it so I hope you enjoy!! please let me know if this is the sort of thing you would like to read more!! also this kinda jumps between timelines so the lil ‘—-’ are the same scene just jumps, but the proper ‘——’ are different scenes :::))))))

Stars lit up the sky as you floated above the metropolitan horizon of New York. Your mask covered the bottom half of your face, but you could see your breath cloud as the evening became cold. Landing on a rooftop, you squatted and scanned the area for any disturbances. Your eyebrows furrowed as you saw a group of bodies, all crowding around a young woman. The heat signatures they gave off were crazy, deep reds and bright oranges almost hurting your eyes. You jumped across a gap to the next building, trying to get a closer look. Then the woman screamed.

You leapt down from the building, landing in a crouch as the bodies turned to look at you. You stood up quickly, taking in the gasps from the men as they realised who you were. The first man sprinted towards you, throwing a punch at your face. You blocked it with your forearm and jammed your fist into his stomach, doubling him over in pain. You drew your knee up to hit him in the face and jumped over his falling body. Throwing yourself onto the floor, you swung your leg in front of you and tripped up two of the remaining five bodies. As they fell you grabbed their heads, banging them together just hard enough to knock them out for a few hours.

A knife flew by your face, missing you by only a few centimeters. You turned quickly, sprinting towards the attacker and buried your elbow in his face, taking out his legs with your foot. As he fell to the ground, you grabbed his body and threw it against the remaining men, taking them out like bowling pins. Walking towards the young woman, you helped her up and checked her over.

“Thank you,” she stuttered, tears falling on her cheeks. You gave her a smile, hidden by the mask, before sending her on her way. You began lining the bodies up against a wall, ready for the police, when the sounds of footsteps approached you from behind. You spun, holding your hands up in a defensive measure.

“Hello (Y/N),” a man in basic black and purple armor spoke, a quiver strapped across his back. You were taken aback by his use of your name; you had never told anyone of your true identity.

“How do you know my name?” your voice was tense, as were your fists. “Who are you?”

“I’m Clint, this isn’t my normal way of introducing myself,” the man laughed to himself, rubbing a hand against his forehead. “I’m just gonna cut to the chase, we need your help.”

Days later you found yourself in Europe with Captain America, having been recruited for his fight against Tony Stark. The two of you had clicked instantly, him taking the fatherly role that had been missing from your life. You trained together, Wanda helping you with controlling your powers and Steve taking responsibility for your hand-to-hand combat. The progress you saw within yourself in just a few days was outstanding and you found yourself imagining a life with the team, training and becoming friends. But that was a dangerous fantasy.

                                                    ———–

“Take the new guy, he seems about your age,” Steve didn’t look at you as he spoke, his eyes still focused on Tony as he ran across the airfield. “Save Buck and Sam.”

“Ah, my boys always need me,” you laughed despite your anxieties. Sprinting towards the glass building, you flew into the air and crashed through one of the walls. You landed in a traditional “superhero” pose, looking up to assess the situation. Bucky and Sam lay on the floor, tangled up in some kind of web, as Spiderman crouched against a tall pillar.

“Woah, you can fly?!” the kid spoke, his voice revealing his youth. As you considered, he probably wasn’t much younger than you, a year or two at most. How could Tony bring in someone this young?

“Hey kid, haven’t you got homework or something to be doing?” you cocked him a brow, a smirk hidden beneath your mask. Spiderman’s eyes flicked up to you, widening in shock. You threw yourself towards him, arms outstretched to tackle him to the ground. Landing with a thud, you launched Peter across the room where he hit and slid down the wall. You bolted towards Bucky and Sam, ripping apart the webs that bound them. “What would you boys do without me?”

“Probably not have all of my food stolen,” Sam muttered, standing quickly and bringing his hand to his goggles. You sent him a glare before standing alongside Bucky. Glass shattered behind you, and you turned to see Spiderman caught by one of Sam’s drones, pulled outside.

“That works,” you shrugged your shoulders, leading the pair of men towards the building’s exit. “I can’t believe you got your asses handed to you by a kid.”

                                                   ————

Deep breaths echoed, bouncing off of the prison cell walls. You sat by the bars, your arms wrapped around them and your hands intertwined. Your head rested against the cold metal, your eyes barely open as exhaustion took over your entire body. You had barely eaten, you couldn’t remember the last time they had given you water and you were sure the fatigue was obvious on your face. A sigh escaped your lips as you forced your head up to look across at Clint in his cell. He was sat on his bed, his head in his hands - as had become his usual position.

The opening of the main door caused you to look up; you half expected Tony to be back to gloat about his victory, to try and weasel any secrets out of you, but the silhouette in the doorway was taller, broader. As he stepped into the light, you heart broke and your lower lip quivered. Steve’s face was rugged, a hint of a beard tickled his jaw as he walked towards Sam’s cell. The two had a brief conversation, Steve glancing around the room at several points. You assumed Sam was explaining what had been going on. Steve reached into his pocket, pulling out a tablet that had hacked into the Raft’s mainframe. With a click of the screen, the cell bars lifted and you lifted yourself from the ground slowly. Your head spun and your legs shook beneath you as you stumbled your way to Wanda’s cell.

Wanda was the weakest of the group, she had been wrapped up in a straitjacket with an electric collar around her neck. Her eyes were sunken, deep bags hanging beneath them. She dragged her eyes up from the wall to look at you. A tear landed on your cheek as you knelt down before her, looking for some way to remove her restraints. Your breathing sped up as you began to panic, unable to find a solution. A hand touched your back, throwing you off balance as you spun around quickly, falling as your head went fuzzy. Large arms wrapped around you as your consciousness began to fade. You forced your eyes open just long enough to see Steve’s face, smiling down at you as you drifted off to sleep.

                                                          ———–

“She needs to be here, where I- we can look after her.”

“She’s old enough to make this decision herself.”

The steady beeping of medical equipment steadied your breathing as you began to regain consciousness. You tried to lift your hand, but it felt like dead weight. Your fingertips twitched and you let out a soft groan, attempting to communicate with anyone who was in the room.

“Hey kiddo,” Steve’s voice calmed your racing heartbeat as he stepped towards your bed.

“Where are we?” your throat felt as though you had swallowed broken glass and the taste in your mouth was foul.

Steve looked towards the other man in the room, who you could now see was Sam. He sighed, his head hanging before looking back up at you, “A safe house in Sweden, the whole team’s here.”

“How did you- what happened?” your eyebrows furrowed as you coughed, your chest aching with each exhale.

“Well, I couldn’t leave my best girl,” Steve smiled up at you, but his eyes showed his true sadness. “Can’t be part of a team if the rest of the team isn’t there.”

“So, everyone’s staying here? What about Tony?” Steve flinched as you mentioned the name, taking a deep breath before speaking.

“We have to stay under the radar, according to everyone we’re criminals now. Tony isn’t going to try and change that. Nat, Sam and I are going to go underground and Wanda’s gonna be with us most of the time. What you do is up to you,” Steve looked up at you once again, his eyes pleading for you to stay.

“I-I don’t know.” “I don’t want to interrupt a lovely moment,” Sam stepped forward, his hands in the pockets of his jacket. “But you’re young. You can’t be giving up your life before you’ve even had one.”

“Whatever you do,” Steve started, rubbing the back of your hand with his thumb. “We’re always here for you, whatever it is, I’m here.”

In the time after Germany, your physical and mental health took a hit. It took you days to be able to walk again, and weeks beyond that to start training. Natasha and Clint would often find you pottering around the safe house at 3am, a dazed look in your eyes and various weapons in your hands. Not to mention the nightmares, they woke not just you, but Steve who would race through from his room - adjacent to yours - when you began screaming, your lungs crying out for oxygen. It was decided that you would go with Wanda, she was the only one who could fully comprehend what was going on in your head, and you would return when you had fully recovered. Whenever that was.

“I’ll come visit as soon as Wanda thinks it’s okay, kid,” the tears in Steve’s eyes threatened to spill as he held you close to his chest. Your cheeks were already damp with salty tears as you had said your goodbyes to the rest of the team. Your arms were tight around Steve’s waist, and you didn’t want to let go. He pulled back to push loose hairs away from your face and to look into your eyes one last time. “I love you.”

“I love you, and thank you,” you hesitated. “Dad.”

———————————————————————————————————

You kicked your leg out as you leapt into the air, thrusting your foot into the chest of an Outrider and slicing another in half with your blade. As you returned to the ground you drove your foot into the fallen Outrider’s face, leaving the Wakandan dirt splattered with black blood. You wiped your face with the back of your hand, a grimace painted across your expression, before looking up to see Steve struggling against a pack of creatures. You launched yourself into the air before hurtling into the group, sending Outriders flying in all directions.

“Thanks kid,” Steve breathed, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he tried to regain his momentum.

“You know, maybe you’re getting too old for this,” you joked with a quick salute. Steve simply raised an eyebrow at you in response and the two of you sprinted in seperate directions. You grabbed a pistol from the holster at your thigh and sent bullets flying towards two Outriders, dark gore showering the dusty ground beneath you. You increased your speed as you lifted off the ground, taking an aerial view of the battle. From your viewpoint, you saw Wanda fighting against one of Thanos’ children, and she wasn’t exactly winning. You bolted towards her, your hair flying behind you as you landed on the ground, sending dirt flying from under your feet.

“She’s not alone,” Natasha spoke as Okoye readied her blade. You stood next to the assassin, fists out in a fighting position. Proxima Midnight looked between the three of you before lunging towards Okoye, blades prepared to strike. She dove, striking at Okoye’s chest as you plunged your foot into her lower back, tripping her onto her back. She rolled up easily, landing in a crouch as she kicked out at Natasha’s feet. Wanda, now up from the ground, lifted Proxima into the air and sent her flying into one of Thanos’ large tanks.

“Anyone got eyes on Vision?” Sam’s voice came through your comms and you spun quickly to see Vision fighting another of Thanos’ children. You gave Wanda a quick nod before she used her power to give you a boost into the air. You hurtled through the air to the forest, your landing ruined by the dense trees. You dropped through branches before arriving at the floor, the air sucked out of your lungs. You wheezed, your eyes closed as pain surged through your entire body. Your adrenaline was starting to wear out, and you weren’t unscathed from the fight. Looking down at your body, blood and dirt was caking your armor, skin exposed to show deep wounds. You lifted yourself onto your knees, looking up to see Vision stabbed by Corvus Glaive. You stood quickly, grabbing a dagger from your belt and lunged towards the creature, sinking the blade into his side.

Suddenly, Corvus was tackled to the ground and you whipped around to see Steve getting to his feet, yelling across at you and Vision. Vision was visibly injured and struggling to move. He nodded at you and the message was clear. You sprinted towards Steve and Glaive, landing a punch on Glaive’s cheek and kicking your shin into the back of his knee. As he fell, he grabbed your arm and threw you into a tree, your spine curving around the trunk. You cried out in pain as you landed against the ground. Steve blocked Glaive’s blade with his shield, landing a punch and grabbing the blade and throwing it in the opposite direction. Glaive grabbed Steve by the neck, throwing him onto a fallen tree where Steve rolled, grimacing in pain. Corvus walked towards the tree where you were still shaking with agony, and wrapped his hand around your neck. You gasped for breath, your eyes beginning to go hazy.

As you sucked in a shallow breath, Glaive’s eyes went wide. His body lifted as a blade protruded from his chest, revealing Vision holding the staff behind him. Letting go of the stave, Vision fell to the ground. You gasped for oxygen as Steve sprinted over, blood trickling down his face from a cut on his forehead. You crawled towards the pair as Vision’s eyes began to droop, Steve holding his head.

“Hey, you’re good,” you spoke slowly, breathlessly. “We’ve got to get you out of here, okay? I can take you-”

“There’s no way you’re doing anything,” Steve’s voice was stern. “You’re injured, we can’t risk you any further.” “Steve, we need to get him out of-”

“I know, but-”

Wanda arrived on the scene, her face painted with worry as her eyes landed on Vision.

“Don’t cut me off!” your voice was raised, filled with urgency. “I can fly him up, get him back into the building. I’ll take out all of the Outriders, I can do it.”

“It’s too danger-”

Steve stopped speaking as dark clouds appeared between the trees, an ominous noise wiping out all cries from the battle field. A large figure stepped through them, a familiar golden glove decorating his left hand. He tensed and flexed his fingers, the stones making beautiful sounds as he glanced around, assessing the area. You looked towards Steve, his eyebrows furrowed as he stood.

“He’s here.”

———————————————————————————————————–

early 2018 - remote europe

The bed creaked beneath you as you sat, the old wooden bed frame groaning at your presence. You pulled the medical kit out from your drawers, opening it to grab the antiseptic and cotton wool, before pulling up your shirt. A grimace crossed your face as you pressed the ointment to your skin, the stinging sensation dancing across your stomach. Grabbing a bandage from the box, you unwound it and wrapped it around your torso, ensuring it was tight enough to stop any bleeding. Then you moved on to the multiple wounds across your arms.

“Got yourself in kind of a bad state, kid,” you turned slowly to see the familiar face of Sam Wilson. “Need a hand?”

An aggravated sigh left your lips as you stood from the bed, “How did you find me?”

“Well, the deal was you were with Wanda. But that’s obviously not how it played out,” Sam gave you a serious look. “She told us the last place you said you were going and we took it from there.”

You rolled up the leg of your suit, cursing under your breath as you saw the bruising that had begun to appear. “Are you alone?” The uneasy tone of your voice didn’t go unnoticed. Sam looked across at you, his eyebrows furrowing slightly as he considered the team.

“We didn’t want to undo anything Wanda might have-” Sam struggled for his next word, thinking carefully of his next word.

“Fixed?” you finished the sentence for him, looking up and giving him a breathy laugh. “Well, don’t worry. I can take care of myself.”

“You don’t have to.”

The words stopped you in your tracks.  You took a deep breath, turning to face the man before you.

“You’ve heard about the Infinity Stones?” Sam crossed his arms over his chest.

“Wanda and Vision mentioned them a few times, told me a bit about them. Why?” “Some big, scary guy is trying to get them all. They went for the Mind Stone, but we got to Vision first.”

“Is he okay?” you spoke, your voice raising slightly with concern.

“He’s fine, he’s back at the compound with Steve and Nat,” Sam stepped towards you. “We need you, (Y/N).”

“Now, where have I heard that before?” you joked with a sigh, rubbing your forehead with your palms.

“He needs you.”

You looked up, pained eyes searing into Sam’s.

“What’s the mission?”

                                                          ——-

The quinjet landed beside the Avengers facility and your heart jumped the second you reached the floor. You were instantly aware of how you looked, the weight of your backpack, the noises your jacket made as you stepped off of the jet. Sam moved to stand beside you, giving your shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

“You ready, kid?”

You gave a quick nod in response, your eyes fixed on the main doors directly in front of you.

“You’ll be fine,” Sam began to walk, his large strides putting distance between the two of you. Gritting your teeth, you forced one foot in front of the other, counting down the seconds until you were inside. The training hall was the exact same as when you had left. A sense of comfort washed over you, releasing the tightness in your chest as you looked around. A small smile broke onto your face as memories flooded back: training with Bucky, long nights talking with Wanda, Natasha trying to teach you new moves, leading to you on the floor, the breath stolen from your lungs.

Footsteps alerted you to a presence behind you and you spun around to meet Wanda’s kind eyes.

“Hey,” you breathed, a wobble in your voice.

“I’m sorry, I know you wanted to be by yourself bu-” Wanda began to walk towards you, taking your hands in hers.

“It’s okay,” you reassured her, pulling her into a hug. “I understand. Plus, everyone was probably missing me tons. You know, I don’t know how they survived without me.” You feigned a confident front, but you weren’t sure that Wanda was fooled.

She laughed nervously, taking your arm in hers and leading you towards one of the main rooms. You stopped before the door, looking across at your friend. She gave you a comforting smile before opening the doors and walking in. Your body felt like lead as you stepped through the doorway, seeing the same people you had left two years ago.

Nat’s eyes met yours and she rushed over, wrapping you in her arms. Although she rarely showed it, Natasha was one of the most caring people you had ever met. It was an extreme contrast to the act she maintained, but you knew her in a way no-one else did. She pulled back, her hands on your shoulders as she studied your face. You could see the relief on her face as you took in her appearance.

“I like the hair,” you let out a laugh. “You know, it’s hard for a redhead to pull off blonde.”

“Good thing I have the attitude for it,” she smirked, hugging you once again before returning to the large screen in the centre of the room.

You spotted Vision at the other side of the room, talking with Wanda, and gave him a quick wave. He responded with a smile, still growing accustomed to human greetings.

“Where’s Steve?” you spoke softly, to no-one in particular.

Natasha turned to look at you, “He’s in his room. Something about not wanting to make you uncomfortable or nervous.”

“I’m gonna-” you trailed off, leaving the room.

The corridors were hauntingly familiar, the same lights flickering as your shoes moved quietly along the wooden floor. 84. It was still 84 steps from the stairs to your room. Your heart rate increased as your hand stroked the door handle, pressing it lightly to reveal your room. Nothing had been moved, it looked as though you had been there only yesterday. The light streamed in from the closed window, thin, white curtains sitting perfectly still. You walked slowly towards the centre of the room, dropping your backpack onto your bed. It was a weird sensation, being back in a place that held so many mixed emotions.

You were snapped out of your memories as footsteps quickly approached from behind. You spun around and saw Steve standing in the door frame, an apologetic look on his face.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realise you were back already,” Steve diverted his eyes, avoiding meeting yours. “I thought someone was-”

He stopped talking as you walked towards him. Once you were within touching distance, your lower lip began to quiver and you wrapped your arms around him quickly, sobs escaping your lips. He sighed in relief and hugged you back.

“I’m sorry,” you spluttered, pulling away to look up at him. “I shouldn’t have gone off on my own, it was stupid and-”

“Hey, no,” Steve pulled you back into his chest. “I just-, I got scared. But that’s my fault, not yours.”

You stayed in the same position for a few minutes, just taking comfort in his familiar heartbeat. When you pulled away, he wiped the tears from your face before walking you back through to the meeting room. Natasha was now joined by Rhodey and they were deep in discussion, frequently referencing to various sheets of paper that were strewn across the table. They looked up when you entered, Rhodey folding his arms across his chest.

“Welcome back,” you hadn’t met Rhodey before, only briefly encountered him at the airport battle, but you could tell you were going to get along with him pretty well. “You heard of Thanos?”

———————————————————————————————————

“What did you do?” Thor bellowed. The gauntlet was fried, burned into Thanos’ skin. The titan looked around, a smile growing across his face, before summoning a portal and falling through. You looked across at Bucky, who was standing from where he had been thrown. A sense of unease settled across Wakanda and glancing around, it was obvious that everyone felt the same. You launched yourself into the air, trying to see the battlefield, to see if the same dread could be felt across the nation. And that’s where you saw it. Soldiers floating away in the wind, nothing but ashes. Your heart dropped as your mouth opened, your breathing staggering. You crashed back into the forest, looking around at your fellow Avengers.

“Something’s not right, people are-are-” you stuttered, your heart racing faster than it ever had. Steve looked across at you, concerned.

“Steve,” Bucky’s voice came from behind you as you turned. A pile of dust was on the floor, where Bucky’s body would have fallen. Your breath hitched as tears pricked your eyes. Steve staggered over, his heart breaking in his chest. Kneeling down, he ran his fingers through the remains of his best friend, his face obvious with distress. He looked up between you and Thor, the three of you sharing a thought. What the hell is going on?

Something inside of you felt off. Your stomach lurched as you looked up at Steve, tears beginning to stream down your cheeks. He stood quickly, racing over to hold you in his arms.

“Steve, I-I don’t know-” you spluttered, tears staining his armor.

“It’s okay, it’s going to be okay,” Steve’s voice cracked, his facade of strength dissolving before your very eyes. Natasha burst through the trees, her breathing heavy and her face panicked. You had never seen her this way before, the unshakable assassin, shaken. You fell to the floor as your knees gave out, Steve going with you. He held you in his lap, his hands running through your hair.

“What’s going to happen?” your voice wavered as you looked up at your mentor, your face tacky with salty tears.

“I-I don’t know,” Steve could barely look at you, feeling sick to his stomach. “But it’s going to be okay, I’m gonna figure it out, okay?” He nodded, trying to convince himself most of all.

Your legs went numb and you tilted your head to look down, but Steve placed his hand under your chin, lifting your eyes back to his. Your breathing sped up, panic settling in your stomach as you felt like you were going to throw up.

“I love you, Dad.”

Steve fell forward as your body dissolved before him. A tear fell from his eyes onto the ashes on his arms. Natasha walked towards him, placing a hand on his shoulder as she chewed on her bottom lip, her anxieties getting the best of her. Steve looked at the floor, his body heating with despair and anger.

“This isn’t over. I will get them back, and I will kill Thanos.”

Your eyelids were heavy as light beamed through the thin layer of skin. Squinting, you lifted a hand to cover your face and sat up slowly. Steve was gone. Looking around you could see Bucky standing up, Sam on the floor and the tree guy next to a log. But no Steve, no Natasha, no Rhodey. You made eye contact with Bucky, and confusion was plastered across his face, as you were sure it was across yours.

“Where’s Steve?” you stuttered, your legs shaking beneath you. Stumbling over to Sam, you took his hand and he gave it a quick squeeze. “Where’s anyone?” “I don’t know,” Bucky spoke slowly, moving to join the pair of you as T’Challa and Wanda emerged from seperate parts of the forest. You lowered yourself to the ground slowly, your body exhausted from whatever had just happened. Sam rubbed his forehead, desperately trying to hold it together and figure out an answer to the thousands of questions running through his head.

Your breathing was speeding up, your heart pounding in your chest; it felt as though your ribs were about to explode from the pressure. Your worried eyes met Bucky’s and he knelt down beside you, taking your hand in his larger, calloused grip. He gave you a soft smile, exaggerating his breathing to encourage you to fall in sync with his. Due to his past, Bucky was no stranger to anxiety and thus he was the one you always went to when your body started to act against you. He was more than happy to help, seeing you like a little sister and wanting nothing more than to protect you from the big, bad world. Your lip quivered before you took it between your teeth, hard enough to draw blood. Your eyes darted between Bucky and Sam, but as you looked at them you saw them looking in an entirely different direction.

A man stood before a glowing, amber circle, his red cape floating behind him as he strided towards you.

“My name is Doctor Stephen Strange. I was with Tony Stark as we fought Thanos, and I’m assuming you lost as we did,” Stephen’s eyes danced across the group, trying to devise the leader.

Sam stepped forward, “Nah, this is our victory party. You don’t see the balloons?” Despite his jokes, his voice was dark, serious.

“It’s been 5 years since our defeat,” your eyebrows furrowed at Strange’s statement. “And the Avengers need us.”

———————————————————————————————————–

“Avengers, assemble.”

Roars broke out from all around you, an army running and fighting as one. Steve was at the forefront, his shield in one hand and Mjolnir in the other. You could see the grime and dried blood that coated his face from your position, despite being fairly far away. You sprinted forward, a cry escaping your lips in anticipation of the extreme battle that quickly approached. Holding your arms out before you, you launched yourself into the air and thrust your fist into an oncoming Leviathan. The punch reverberated through its entire being and it began to fall as a white horse came flying through the air, the Valkyrie atop it slicing the beast’s spine. You sent her a quick smile before turning to observe the ongoing battle. You bolted into a large group of Outriders, a shockwave exploding beneath your feet and sending creatures flying into the air, where they were quickly taken out by Tony and Pepper. You were moving at an incredible pace, legs and arms flying as you obliterated any Outriders that dared to threaten you.

“What do I do with this thing?” Clint’s voice was familiar over comms, and instantly you knew the object he was referring to. The gauntlet.

“Get it as far away from here as possible,” the sound of Steve’s voice made your heart skip a beat. A smile broke onto your face as you realised, this could be it. This could be the end of Thanos, the end of constantly looking over your shoulder for trouble. You could have a life after this. Your eyes roamed the battlefield, searching for a glimpse of the red glove. Amongst the hoards of creatures, you spotted Clint diving and dodging oncoming attacks and bulleted towards him, your feet leaving the ground and your body becoming streamlined.

“Hey kid, not really an ideal time,” Clint spoke, his breathing heavy as he dodged under a blade that flew towards him.

“Gimme that thing,” you nodded towards the gauntlet.

“Hell no, I’ve already fallen for that once today,” he continued to run, the glove tucked underneath his arm.

“Clint,” you looked at him, your eyes stern. “I can fly. They can’t get it up there.”

The man hesitated a moment, before holding the gauntlet out to you, “Touché.”

With the gauntlet secured in your grip, you bolted into the air, your hair flying out behind you. The roars of battle echoed from below, but your focus remained on getting the glove away from Thanos. A searing pain shot through your abdomen as you were thrown to the ground. Looking down, you saw the hilt of a knife sticking out of your side. You gasped, blood trickling down your side as you brought yourself to stand again, gripping the knife and pulling it out of you. Gritting your teeth, your eyes roaming for the perpetrator as you began to run. Your feet were heavy beneath you, swinging back and forth across the uneven battlefield. Shots rang out around you, but you didn’t flinch. Once again, you jumped into the air, throwing your head back to look at the ships above you.

Bullets flew past you, bolts of energy and weapons you couldn’t recognise skimming your armor. Leather could only hold off so much, and little cuts and digs were becoming bigger and more painful. You could feel your power draining as your body began to give out, failing under the increasing pressure of losing oxygen and blood. Your eyes struggled to remain open as the air became thinner and you felt your grip on the gauntlet loosening. In a panic, you scrambled to hug the glove to your chest and you began to fall. The ground was closing in as you squeezed your eyes shut to prepare for impact.

“Hi, I’ve got you!” a familiar voice rang out as you felt arms catching you. You forced your eyes open and saw the familiar mask of Spiderman. A breathy chuckle escaped your lips as Peter raised an eyebrow, a cheeky smile across his face. “I thought you said you could fly.”

You simply nudged him in response, trying to maintain any kind of energy that was left in your exhausted body. “You have spider-legs now?”

“Oh these things?” Peter glanced at his suit as you reached the ground, him letting you down gently. “That’s not even the best bit.” He reached out for the glove, and you gave it to him gladly. You smiled at him before he swung off, gauntlet in hand. You allowed yourself a few moments to catch your breath, glancing around at the battlefield and trying to find your teammates. You spotted Rhodey in the air, thrusters lit up as he attacked a Leviathan, with Sam on his tail, shots firing out at a rapid speed.

Blood rushed through your body as you gathered your strength to stand, muscled legs holding you up. A herd of Outriders watched you rise and sprinted towards you, teeth scratching and drool flying as they ran. You gritted your teeth as your rubbed your hands together, readying your familiar fighting stance. Your fists acted upon muscle memory, driving into chests and faces, legs flying and stomping on fallen creatures. Your armor became covered in Outrider gore, staining your skin with a deep blue tint. You fought until an entire group of monster corpses lay at your feet, your breathing was heavy and sweat droplets coated your forehead. With a quick swipe of your hand, your face was almost cleared of Outrider blood and your eyes focused once again as you looked towards the surrounding creatures.

“I am inevitable,” Thanos’ voice rang out over the battlefield and you spun to see the heavy gauntlet on his hand. Your breath caught in your throat as his fingers touched, the sharp snap cutting through the dense air. A confused look appeared across the titan’s face as he turned his hand, revealing the lack of infinity stones. You gasped as your eyes roamed to Tony, who was kneeling with the stones implanting on his suit.

“I. Am. Iron Man.”

A sharp, metallic tone shattered the air. Pain was instantly shown on Tony’s face as his body crumpled to the ground. The hoards of creatures that had begun to charge towards you stopped, all seeming to share a thought. These monsters that you had previously thought incapable of emotion were scared. A quick look around the battlefield showed that their entire race was reacting the same way. The area was almost silent, only heavy breathing could be heard over your comms.

Your feet began to move slowly beneath you, carrying your body towards the familiar presence of Wanda, who was stood near to you. Without turning to look at you, she took your hand in hers, her eyes still glued to the titan knelt in the centre of the fight. Around you, ships fell from the sky, exploding as they met the ground. Fire burst out in the perimeter of the battlefield, but you couldn’t tear your eyes away from the monster stood before you. His breathing slowed as his eyes dropped to the ground, his elbows resting on his knees. He remained there for a few seconds before looking up towards Tony, and dissolving away with the wind. Your breath hitched in your throat as he turned to ash. You tilted your head up to look at Wanda as a single tear rolled down her face. She dragged her eyes towards you and a relieved smile broke onto her face as she looked at you. You pulled her into a tight hug, sobs escaping both of you as you felt her arms around you.

You pulled away after a few moments, your tearstained face smiling up at her with a mix of relief and heartbreak. You couldn’t imagine the cacophony of emotions whirring through her body. Your heartbeat was steadily increasing as you looked around the battlefield, looking for one person. Steve. Your comms were alight with conversation and celebration, making it impossible to identify individual voices. And then, from across the battlefield, your eyes locked with his. A breathy sob escaped your lips as you began to sprint towards him, your injured legs stumbling as you crossed the uneven terrain.

His arms were around you within an instant, your face pressed into his chest. Tears spilled from both of you, neither in belief of what had actually happened. Steve pulled away to look at your face, and despite being in his old uniform, you could see the weathered effect the past 5 years had had on him. His eyes were swimming as he assessed your face, barely an hour older than when you had disappeared before him. Your mind raced with questions but you couldn’t bring yourself to speak.

“Hey kid,” Steve’s voice cracked as he looked down at you, his hands on your shoulders.

“Hey,” you stuttered, your voice shaking. “So, it’s not weird that I called you dad right?”

Steve laughed, shaking his head, “It would be an honor.”

He pulled you into him once again, pressing a kiss to the top of your head. You spent a few moments just relishing in the familiarity of your family. Wanda had approached the pair of you, alongside Bucky and Sam. Steve took Bucky into his arms, patting his back as he pressed his face into Bucky’s soft shoulder. Sam jokingly wrapped his arm around the pair, encasing them in a group hug. You smiled at the action, taking Wanda’s hand once again. Once the group of boys had separated, Steve gave Wanda a quick hug, smiling at his friend. You situated yourself between Steve and Bucky, an arm around each as you settled into the comfort of your family.

Peering around the group, you noticed an empty space, “Where’s Nat?”

Steve’s face dropped as he looked around the group, “She -uh, she didn’t make it.”

Your eyes clouded over as your eyes fell to the ground. The group shared a few minutes of silence, grieving for your fallen sister. You reached to take Steve’s hand in your own, giving it a squeeze and looking up at him through clouded eyes. “She knows we won, and we won for her.”

———————————————————————————————————–

Tony’s lakeside cabin was beautiful during the summer, the rays of sun beaming through the windows. You could have sat out by the lake for hours, not a single thought crossing your mind. It was peaceful, and you felt the most peace in knowing that Tony and Natasha were at peace as well. The funeral had been deeply emotional; you hadn’t known Tony too well yourself, but seeing the effect he had had on people’s lives proved to you how important your job was. You sat on the porch, watching Tony’s young daughter as she played by the lakeshore. An absent-minded smile danced across your face, the cool breeze tickling your face.

“Hey kid,” Steve approached you, his hands in his pockets as he sat next to you. You lifted your eyes to meet his, noticing the nerves he was trying to hide. Your eyebrows furrowed, but you shifted to give him some space.

“Hey,” your voice was soft. “How is everyone?”

Steve took a deep breath, surveying the horizon before you, “As good as they can be, I guess. Bruce is setting everything up, should be ready to go pretty soon. Best to just get it all fixed now.” You nodded up at him, leaning your head on his shoulder. He responded by wrapping his arm around your shoulder, hugging you into his side. “Can we talk?”

“What else were we doing?” you turned to face him, your entire body shifting as you crossed your legs beneath you.

“I mean, a serious talk.”

“Of course, what’s up?” nerves rumbled in your stomach as he looked down at you, his well known “serious face” on display.

“I think I’m going to stay there,” Steve’s eyes dropped to the floor, as though he was trying to look at anything other than you. Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“Where? What are you-” you stopped yourself as realisation vibrated through your body. “As in-?”

Steve nodded, his eyes clouding with tears.

“With Peggy?” Your voice cracked as you felt your throat thicken. Tears threatened to spill, but you focused all of your efforts into staying strong, for him.

“I- I can’t stay here when I could be living the life I truly want.”

You ducked to meet Steve’s eyeline, drawing it back to you. Giving him a reassuring smile, you took a deep breath and composed yourself. “I understand, and I love you. No matter what.”

Steve pulled you towards him, tears falling from his eyes onto your hair. He pressed a kiss to the crown of your head then placed his cheek on top. He could feel your chest rising and falling unevenly as quiet sobs escaped your lips. Your face was pressed into his shirt, taking comfort in being able to hear his heartbeat.

“Say hi to Peggy for me,” you smiled, your lower lip quivering as a tear dropped onto your cheek. Steve pulled away from you, taking your face in his hands. He pressed a kiss to your cheek, his eyes alight with emotion as he looked down at you.

“Do you want to come out, stand with Sam and Buck?” You nodded in response, taking his hand gently in yours. “I’ve spoken to Bucky, but we’re not gonna tell Sam. I don’t think he would take it too well.”

“Judging by some of his previous reactions, I would say you’re correct,” you laughed slightly as the two of you left the lodge. The brief walk through the forest was a daze, you barely felt as though your feet were touching the floor. You tried your hardest to take in every moment, knowing it would be some of your last with Steve, but your uncertainty took hold of your consciousness.

You reached the clearing where Bucky and Sam were deep in conversation with Bruce. The pair turned as they heart your footsteps, Bucky giving you a knowing smile as his eyes met yours. Sam jogged over, throwing an arm around your shoulder.

“You okay, kid?” he looked down at you.

You wiped your face quickly, having forgotten about the tears. “Yeah, just allergies.”

“I keep telling you to go outside, instead of stuck in your room all day,” Sam’s eyebrows raised in an “I-told-you-so” manner.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” you shoved his chest jokingly, making a beeline towards Bruce. You watched as he pulled a small briefcase out from beneath the table. Steve stepped towards you, unclasping the buckles to ensure that all of the Infinity Stones were counted for.

“Remember, the exact second they were taken, then-”

“Then back, yep. Got it,” you were surprised at how Steve sounded, confident. He closed the case, taking it in one hand and Mjolnir in the other. It still shocked you to see the magnificent hammer in his grip. He climbed the stairs, not looking back at the group of friends behind him. You found yourself moving towards Bucky, wrapping your arm around his.

“Okay, and 3, 2, 1,” Bruce pressed a button on the machine and Steve was gone. You breath faltered and Bucky reached to take your hand, his eyes still fixated on the spot where his best friend had just stood. You remained silent, not wanting to bring Sam’s attention to you, not wanting to let him know anything that was happening.

“And back in 3, 2, 1.”

You turned your head into Bucky’s shoulder, trying to steady your breathing as you began to accept that he was gone.

“Where is he?!” Sam’s voice boomed through the bare clearing as he glared across at Bruce, who was panicking and rushing around his equipment.

Bucky nudged you with his shoulder, causing you to look up and across at the bench by the lake. A small silhouette was outlined in light, white hair sitting atop of a frail, old body.

“Sam,” Bucky’s voice pulled Sam out of his confusion as he turned, following Bucky’s gaze towards the old man. “You go ahead.”

Sam walked over slowly, his hands in his pockets as he looked out to the water. You watched the conversation, too far away to hear any of the words spoken. Bucky remained in silence, your hand still in his. He pulled his eyes from the scene before him and looked down at you, trying to gauge your feelings towards the situation. “You wanna go speak to him?”

You considered for a moment before shaking your head. “We said our goodbyes, I’m okay.” Bucky gave you a soft smile before turning his attention back towards his friends. You pressed a quick kiss to his cheek before spinning on your heels, your gaze fixed on the cabin through the woods. A tear fell to your cheek as you left, leaving behind the comfort of your father. Thoughts spun through your head as you walked, but you brushed them to the side.

The future is bright, so full of opportunity and possibility. And you have to take it. For Natasha, for Tony, for Steve.