#it’ll be interesting to go through the Avengers side now and see Iron Man having relationships

[daydreamerdrew]

The Avengers (1963) #1

[rosaliestark01]

Dusk Till Dawn - Part 8

Peter Parker x Reader

Summary: You play double agent while the Avengers search for you.

Warnings: more swearing than usual, angst, violence

A/N: @annies-marvel-imagines will no longer be posting more parts, but she will still receive credit.

You paced around Ezekiel's secret hideout and realized several things. The first thing is that there was no way that these two individuals managed to get their hands on such high-level tech by themselves. The second was that Ezekiel obviously lied about being your dad. The third was that Ezekiel most definitely had enough money to get a less crappy apartment. The fourth and most crucial thing you realized was that you'd have to play along with their plan longer than you wanted to.

Judging by the number of meals you've gotten, you'd guess you've been there for three days. It was hard to pretend that you wanted to wipe out the Avengers, but you had to remind yourself that this was just another mission. Except, you didn't have your suit or any means of contacting your team. Plus, the Avengers had no idea where you were, what you were doing, or what you were trying to do. You were on your own.

"Don't just stand there, you spoiled brat. Help us out," Eloise yelled at you.

Another thing that made it hard to act like you were on their side was the constant feeling of wanting to strange Eloise every time she opened her mouth. She honestly reminded you of a penny. Two-faced and not worth much.

"What the hell is this thing?" you ask as you approach the strange metal box that Eloise and Ezekiel had struggled to get out of Ezekiel's truck.

"You like it?" he asks, causing you to furrow your eyebrows. Was this guy serious?

"Did your ears suddenly stop working, or are you just that bad at listening to someone else's shit for once?" You say without thinking. The strange looks from them tell you that it was the wrong thing to say, so you backtrack. "Sorry, I'm still a little nervous about all this."

"It's fine," Ezekiel mutters, coughing awkwardly before becoming grave. "As long as you do your job, you have nothing to worry about."

"What's that supposed to mean?" You ask, suddenly becoming defensive.

"This is your new suit." Eloise snarks, clearly trying to get everyone's attention back onto the metal box. She pressed a button, causing it to open.

Inside was a suit that looked similar to your dad's iron suit, but instead of red and gold, it was black and purple.

"Why does it look like that?" You ask. Why would they base the suit off of Iron Man's suit if they hate his guts?

"We figured you'd like an upgrade," Ezekiel beamed proudly. You're assuming that he was the one who built it, but you weren't ready to jump to conclusions. The guy already had trouble figuring out how to open the microwave. "Your old suit seemed..."

"weak," Eloise rolled her eyes as she finished his sentence.

"It was flexible and bulletproof," you defended. The suit you always wore worked well for years. Who do these people think they are? "I made it with my d- with Tony Stark."

"That explains a lot." She crosses her arms as she stares down at you with a judgmental glare. "Trust me. If you're going up against the Avengers, you're going to want to wear this. It'll protect you better than that flimsy piece of shit you always wore before."

"Fine," you mumbled, remembering that it is in your best interest to pretend that you agree with them.

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

Peter felt like he was drowning.

He'd never gone this long without knowing if you were okay or not, and it was killing him. Without you, his Peter-Tingle, or Spidey-Senses as you called it, felt like a timer he couldn't shut off. He wasn't sure if it had to do with the fact that he was worried out of his mind or if it meant that you were in danger. Maybe both?

What was worse was that he had to pretend everything was okay. Happy was in the hospital, you were missing, and the Avengers were moving heaven and Earth to find you, but he couldn't join them. May and the Avengers insisted that he let the "adults" handle this. Did it ever occur to them that you matter to him just as much, if not more?

"Hey, Pete?" Ned and the rest of your friends approached him hesitantly. They all worried about you, but they knew that it was harder on him. "Is there any update on Y/N?"

"Not yet." Peter would have known if there was even a slight update. "Have any of you heard anything?"

"Gwen feels guilty about what happened at homecoming," Harley states ."She says that if she hadn't spilled her drink on Y/N, she never would have left the gym."

They all look to where Gwen was standing with her friends. She didn't look happy. In fact, she looked like she hadn't slept since word got out that you were missing.

"She should feel guilty." Peter huffs, "If she got over her damn pettiness long enough to realize that I love Y/N, I never would have lost her."

"Still... she said she'd back off," Harry says, feeling uncomfortable with the current subject. There is no excuse for what Gwen did, but she did look like she had learned her lesson.

"We want to help," Betty admitted, causing a bit of hope to fill Peter's mind. So far, all he's heard was "let the adults handle this". Knowing that his friends want to help find you was like a breath of fresh air.

"Yeah. It doesn't feel right to sit back and do nothing when Y/N is who knows where," Harry sighs, patting Peter on the back.

"Thanks, guys," Peter replies, smiling for the first time since you've disappeared. "That means-"

Before he could finish, he turned around, and not a second later, an explosion went off right across from the school.

"What the f-"

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

"I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that you never told us that Y/N was adopted," Clint says as he paces back and forth in the compound. He didn't have the slightest idea that anything was going on until he received a call telling him that you were missing and that help was needed tracking you down.

"He had his reasons; now are you going to focus more on that or finding Y/N?" Pepper replied, defending Tony. Although she agrees that Tony should have told you, she knows that he had his reasons.

"Maybe she doesn't want to be found?" Clint asks, although the second it came out of his mouth, he knew it sounded stupid.

"No," Steve says, his arms crossed in concentration. "I've known Y/N for a long time, and she's a good kid. She's going through stuff right now, but she'd never run away or leave Happy alone while he's in the hospital. Something else is going on, and I'd bet it had to do with those two."

The TV displayed everything they knew so far. The two likely suspects were none other than Eloise Day and Ezekiel Stane. Security footage showed you getting into Eloise's car, which was later found outside a shambly apartment building. After further inspection, your phone was found inside of the apartment belonging to Ezekiel Stane.

"Agreed". Tony stared at the screen, trying to figure out if there is anything he's missing. He knows that Ezekiel is the son of his old business partner. Tony knows that Eloise was a new student who gained your trust. What he didn't realize was their connection and what their goal is.

"If-When we find her, you need to tell her the truth," Steve tells him.

"Yeah, we'll go out for cheeseburgers and laugh about it. Am I right?" Tony snaps. It was clear that he knew who your real father is and that you might already know him too. "I- I don't want her to hate me when I tell her."

"Trust me. Y/N will understand if your heart was in the right place," Steve encourages, placing a hand on Tony's shoulder. For a second, Tony's shoulders slump before his resold seems to harden.

"Her real dad is-"

"I think you'll be able to tell her yourself," Nat speaks urgently. "Y/N's been spotted in Queens."

"Let's suit up."

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

You couldn't help but feel as though your plan was about to fail. Eloise and Ezekiel have recently kept a closer eye on you than usual, which isn't good. You have a feeling that they're on to you, which means that you might have to improvise.

"Play along," Ezekiel mutters in your ear before roughly grabbing your arm. Out of the corner of your eye, you see Eloise pointing some blaster at you that looks too much like the one that Hydra dude shot you with.

Before you can ask what he was doing, a familiar figure swung in front of you.

"Let her go," Peter demands. Although you cannot see his face, you can tell he's angry. You felt bad for putting him through this, but in the long run, you'll have to put him through it a little longer.

"Fat chance, you spider freak!" Eloise roars, suddenly pointing the blaster at Peter.

"Wait-" You yell, but your voice is drowned out by Ezekiel's yells as Eloise pulls the trigger.

It was like everything was happening in slow motion. You wanted to scream for Peter, but the shot never made it to its target. Instead, it met with a familiar red, white, and blue shield.

"Whatever happened to my signal?!" Ezekiel yelled at Eloise, who rolled her eyes for the one-hundred-millionth time that day.

"I'm not letting you crap on my chance again, old man!" She barks at him as she continues firing the blaster. By now, all of the Avengers seem to have shown up, and her target was everyone.

"Don't you d-" He yells, but she ignores him.

Cursing, he tries to pull you away from the fight as he tries to think of a new plan. You already knew what needed to happen, but you weren't sure if you were ready to see everyone's faces when you are forced to betray them.

"So is this a thing now? Kidnapping my daughter for revenge or something?" your dad asks as he lands in front of you and Ezekiel, ready to fight.

"Who said I kidnapped her?" Ezekiel smirks. You wanted to wipe the arrogance off his face, but you couldn't. You had a job to do.

"Dammit," You curse. You press the button on your bracelet that morphed into your "new" suit. You didn't want to see the looks everyone will give you, so as you took down the people you call your family, you couldn't look them in the eye.

TAG LIST:

@eridanuswave @perspectiveparker @spidey-reids-2003 @ilovespideyyy @purplekitten30 @slytherinambitious @starryeddie @grapesauze @elephants-bubbles-brachosauruses @thegayseance @whiskeywinter89

[stxphxn-strange]

playing pretend

a/n: hello hello hello! i have a prompt fill for this Dark!Stephen AU from @ironstrangeprompts and im just gonna post it before i can start second guessing my writing lmao

tw: mentions of torture, injury, implied past abuse

Prompt: Dark!Stephen AU. The avengers never really notice Stephen’s pacifist to-a-fault superheroing style until one day a magical incident corrupts him/magical entity possesses him. They’re treated to a completely unhinged and lethal Stephen, the avengers realize just how much Stephen was holding back, what with his quick work dispatching all of them, resulting in very heavy injuries. However, he takes special interest with Tony Stark, whom he has been dating for a few months now. He has Tony all strung up in the middle of the battlefield in front of the other broken and beaten avengers, he taunts and tortures him. “Being a doctor and a sorcerer is so very useful, I can break you in very precise manners, put you back together and then do it again.” When he gets bored of Tony’s screams and decides to end him permanently, Stephen suddenly snaps back to normal. The real Stephen has been battling internally to gain back control, knowing that he’s about to kill the love of his life gives him the final push to break free. He portals them all to safety and to receive medical help. Cue heavy angst and Stephen trying to make it up to them but especially Tony, who insists that everything is fine and that he knows it wasn’t the real Stephen. However they both know that Tony is just putting up a brave front and is undoubtedly traumatized by the incident. Up to the author on if they want to end it in a bleak or hopeful tone.

It took Tony a few minutes to register his surroundings when he woke up. He wasn’t lying in a makeshift coffin of bent metal, broken bones, and the ruins of the building. The familiar baritone, the melody of his waking world, wasn’t hollow and cruelly taunting him. Stephen sounded like himself, soothing and loving and reassuring but worried and tired all the same. Tony heard guilt in his partner’s voice, delineating his dream, his memory, from the present. He wanted to follow that voice, the real Stephen’s voice, and leave the past behind them. Guilt was eating away at Stephen as he tried to calm Tony down and wake him up. He defaulted to the standard promises and phrases when Tony had nightmares, but this time was different. This time Stephen was the cause of the nightmare, and he knew it. No matter how much Tony said it wasn’t his fault, that everything was okay, Stephen knew he had to repair the pieces of Tony’s trust he’d obliterated.

Tony thrashed again in his sleep, feebly kicking the air in front of him just like he did on the battlefield. “Stop!”

“Sweetheart,” Stephen began, unsure of what to say. “Tony, wake up. You’re safe, no one will hurt you.”

“Stephen!” Tony groaned and thrashed again, his eyes still shut as he fought to wake up. “This isn’t you… don’t do this.”

Stephen barely held back tears as he spoke again. “It’s over Tony, I’m back. I’m me again. I won’t hurt you, I promise I’ll never hurt you as long as I live.”

Tony was shaking when he finally woke up, unsure if he was even breathing. He opened his eyes hastily, studying the look on Stephen’s face. Stephen looked concerned, even worried, but unsure of himself as he murmured soothing nonsense to Tony.

“Breathe, Tones,” Stephen said. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. It’ll be okay, I promise. Just breathe, we’re alright. I’ll leave you be once I’m sure you’re okay, and—”

Tony wrapped his arms around Stephen and hugged him tightly. “Don’t you dare. Don’t go… please don’t go Stephen.”

“I can’t risk scaring you again Tony. I’ve already hurt you enough, it’s not fair to keep putting you through this,” Stephen argued, fighting his urge to hug Tony back.

Tony only held on tighter, determined not to let Stephen leave.

Stephen still wanted to disappear, but he quickly understood that Tony wouldn’t let him go that easily. The mechanic was still shivering and trembling, slowly starting to calm down as Stephen hesitantly hugged him back.

++++

They both woke up at the same time, almost four days later. Stephen woke up slowly, feeling like he was underwater or in a fog, while Tony started awake across town.

It was pitch dark in the room, the heavy curtains drawn shut to keep out any intrusive light. It was the middle of the day, judging by the clock Stephen kept on his nightstand, but he couldn’t feel the sun on his face, or see any light from his window. He was bathing in pitch black. At first, he thought he was dead, doomed to an eternity in darkness, when something red bloomed and came to life beside him. Even now, his Cloak was always dramatic, comforting as it covered him like a blanket.

As his eyes adjusted, Stephen registered Wong and Christine on the other side of the room, just studying him.

Christine was the first to meet his stare, rushing to his bedside. “How do you feel?”

Stephen grimaced in pain as he shrugged. “Not great, thanks.” There was something else on his mind, but he was too afraid to ask. He was almost too scared to hear the answer.

Luckily, Wong spoke up before Stephen could ask. “You slept for three and a half days, Strange. How much do you remember?”

“Something attacked the Compound… I think it was me,” he mumbled.

“Not exactly,” Wong began, gentler than Stephen had ever heard him.

“Possessed or not, I still attacked!” Stephen sat up, paying the price as he rose quicker than his body could handle. “It doesn’t matter if I saved everyone, not if I almost killed them first.”

Neither Wong nor Christine spoke, and the cloak simply wrapped tighter around Stephen’s shoulders.

“You did save everyone,” Wong said finally. “And you banished whatever entity possessed you. We still haven’t figured out what it is, but…”

Wong’s voice trailed off as Stephen stopped listening. His head started to hurt as he remembered, in searing detail, more of what happened and what caused him to snap out of the state he was in.

Tony was near silent, his voice failing him after hours of tortured screams. Somewhere, somehow, Stephen knew that he was the one hurting him, the one causing Tony so much pain even though he promised never to hurt the hero. He wanted to stop, to end all of the carnage he’d brought to the Compound, to his friends who were starting to feel like family, to Tony… but he couldn’t. The hand controlling his impulsive strings was strong and steady, and it wouldn’t rest until Stephen finished its bidding.

His movements were mechanical as he strode, like the marionette he’d become, to stand in front of Tony.

And Tony just looked at him with a defeated, almost calm look on his face.

Stephen’s voice sounded distorted when he spoke, preening with a twisted smile as he bent to look upon the man of iron. “Accepted your fate?”

“You won’t be the first person I’ve loved who’s hurt me,” Tony said, between pained breaths. “There’s nothing to say.”

Stephen tried to back up, to keep himself still, but he couldn’t fight the influence of his controller and struck Tony again. “Arrogance is unbecoming.”

Tony inhaled again, deeper and more pained this time but somehow even calmer. “Go ahead and finish the job. I won’t hold it against you, Stephen.”

Stephen was hyperventilating when he heard Wong’s voice again, pressed against the headboard of his bed like he was backed into a corner.

Christine approached him tentatively, resting her hand on one of his shoulders.

Stephen recoiled away from the touch and curled up on himself like a turtle retreating in its shell. He ducked his head under a pillow, shaking in fear and pain from moving too quickly. “Did I… did I kill him? I remember everything until I was about to… please tell me I—”

“You didn’t.” Christine cut him off, hoping to keep her friend from spiraling further. “Wong said you saved everyone, and that includes Tony.”

Stephen sobbed just hearing his partner’s name. Guilt wracked his entire body as he cried harder and harder, his magic running through his veins. Was he not this exhausted, he’d probably set fire to something from his high levels of stress and fear, but all he could do was cry until he fell into painful sleep.

++++

He didn’t finish it.

He didn’t listen.

Tony remembered the horrified look he saw on Stephen’s face, the remorse in his eyes as he sent a vaguely corporeal figure of dark energy through a portal.

Tony remembered the way Stephen apologized again and again as his eyes started closing, overwhelmed by the pain seizing his mind and body. A part of him hoped that Stephen had listened, that maybe the last thing he’d see in this life would be the face he’d come to absolutely adore…

… But he’d woken up sometime later in the MedBay, wanting to see Stephen more than anything. In spite of everything that’d just happened, or maybe because of everything that’d just happened, all Tony really wanted was to go back to sleep, preferably in his partner’s embrace. That really didn’t seem like too much to ask for.

“How are you feeling, Mr. Stark?”

Tony almost didn’t notice Peter pacing around on the ceiling, in fact he didn’t know his pseudo son was even in the room until he suddenly landed a few feet away. “I feel great, Kid. Definitely not like I took a ton of bricks to the face.” He didn’t remember the gory details of the fight, so Tony couldn’t say whether or not he was being literal.

“Welcome back, Boss,” FRIDAY said, a hint of worry in her voice. “And good morning. It’s currently half nine on Tuesday. I’ve been asked to inform you that Col. Rhodes has returned from Washington and has volunteered to lead all reconstruction projects for the Compound. He’s also asked me to keep you updated and will be coming to see you this afternoon.”

Tony sighed. “Thank you. Wait… that means Rhodey came back early?”

“He did,” FRIDAY replied simply. Her voice sounded like what a nod looked like as she continued. “Would you like me to tell him that you asked about him?”

“Sure, but don’t bother him. He doesn’t have to rush to see me,” Tony replied, knowing that Rhodey would probably come anyway. He was maybe the one exception to what Tony had told Stephen earlier, before…

“Col. Rhodes will be here within the hour,” FRIDAY announced.

“Thanks Fri.”

Peter, who had started pacing on the ceiling again, asked what Tony had been wondering since he woke up. “Where’s the Doc?”

“I dunno, Pete. I’ve been wondering that myself,” Tony admitted. “Fri, you wouldn’t happen to know… would you?”

“As far as I can tell, Doctor Strange returned to the Sanctum following the… altercation… on Thursday,” the AI reported.

“What? Altercation? What happened?” Peter landed on the floor again, looking more worried than Tony thought he deserved to.

“There was just a small wizarding mishap, don’t worry about it,” Tony said. He shrugged, trying to reassure Peter as much as he could. “Not even an emergency, Underoos. We would’ve called for you if it was.”

Tony also didn’t want Peter to see what happened. Maybe he was sheltering the kid, but he didn’t want Peter to ever find out about the attack on the Compound. It was bad enough that the team, even in their varied states of consciousness, saw what they did. They saw the fear in Tony’s eyes, saw him slowly surrender to Stephen’s ruthless attacks until he just stopped trying to fight the sorcerer. Tony knew he couldn’t parry these magical attacks, couldn’t break the spelled restraints… but he didn’t want Peter to see how easily he’d given up.

If Peter had more to say, he simply chose not to ask about it. Instead he just shrugged. “Glad you’re okay, Mr. Stark. May heard from Pepper that you got hurt, so I wanted to swing by… no pun intended.”

“How many times do I have to tell you that calling me ‘Tony’ is fine?” Tony asked, rolling his eyes warmly. “I’m fine, Pete. Not up for working in the lab today, I’m afraid, but—”

“That’s okay! My suit isn’t going anywhere, we can upgrade anytime,” Peter replied. “I promised May I’d be home for movie night, but I just wanted to come see you.”

Tony smiled softly. “You’re a good kid, Son. Get home safe, and I’ll give you a call when I’m back in working condition.”

“Thanks IronDad!” Peter was gone in a second, leaving Tony in the quiet with his thoughts.

“Fri?” He asked after a few minutes.

“Still here, Boss.”

“Will you… will you tell Stephen I want to see him?” Tony asked.

Maybe he was the spoiled brat everyone believed, or maybe he was exhausted and touch starved and showing signs of an addictive personality. Tony didn’t know, he didn’t care, and he just wanted his sorcerer back.

“I’ll let him know,” FRIDAY replied, softer than normal.

++++

“Stephen, it’s been days. Days since the attack, days since you holed yourself up in my library like you’re going into hibernation—”

“Good morning to you too, Wong.”

Wong may have laughed at Stephen’s attitude if he didn’t feel so bad for him. Stephen was completely out of it, so much so that he didn’t even realize how late in the day it was. “It’s almost eight, Strange.”

Stephen just sighed. “Did you need something from me?”

“Stark is asking for you again. I think you should see him.”

“You said that yesterday,” Stephen muttered.

“I’m saying it again now. I know you, Stephen, I can read you like any book in here.” Wong began. “You’re trying to outrun your guilt but you know it’s not that easy. Ignoring Tony isn’t going to make things go away, and it’s not going to make either of you feel better. He misses you, and I know you miss him too.”

“I don’t know how I can even look at him after what I did… he trusted me,” Stephen whispered, looking down at his lap. “I broke his trust.”

“Not willingly, and he knows that,” Wong reminded him. “It wasn’t you, Stephen.”

Stephen ignored him, beginning to tremble as he thought back to what Tony had said to him. “He told me he wouldn’t hold it against me… that I wasn’t the first of his loved ones to hurt him. I don’t know what I could do or say to prove to him, let alone to the team, that I’d never hurt them again.”

“Hiding away in here isn’t helping to prove that,” Wong said.

“You just want your chair by the window back,” Stephen accused him.

“Of course I do! But I also care about you and your happiness. If you need anyone to vouch for you, I’ll be here,” Wong replied.

“That sounds like you’ve made up my mind for me.”

“I have. Go now, before it gets too late.”

Stephen opened a portal to the tower, just outside of the lab. “I doubt Tony would be asleep, he’s always awake.”

His suspicions were confirmed as he closed the portal. Tony was in his lab where Stephen thought he’d be, a mug in one hand and a pen in the other.

Stephen’s entire body trembled with nerves as he opened the door, the cloak knocking loudly and dramatically to make his presence known.

“FRIDAY, Quiet Place Protocol please,” Tony said. He looked up and smiled sadly at Stephen as the lab’s usual blaring music shut off. “Hi.”

“Hey.” Stephen suddenly didn’t know what to do with himself. He was too scared to get any closer to Tony, afraid to hurt him, but at the same time all he wanted was to hug him.

The cloak made the first move, flying off of his shoulders and resting on Tony’s.

“Aww, hi Levy.” Of course Tony had a nickname for the relic, he had nicknames for everything and everyone.

Stephen found it annoying in the most heartwarming way, and he couldn’t help but smile as Tony sat down at his workbench.

“You can come over, you know?” Tony asked, half teasingly. “I told you I don’t bite, Steph.”

Stephen felt like a marionette again as he walked towards his boyfriend, but his heart was in control this time. He wanted to protect, to cherish, and to spoil the man in front of him with nothing but love and attention. He was just afraid, still unsure of himself as he studied Tony’s face. “I’m sorry.”

“Hey… I know.” Tony opened his palms on his lap, silently asking to hold Stephen’s hands.

Stephen let him, trembling harder as Tony held him gently. “I don’t know what happened, Tony. Something took over me, and I couldn’t stop it. I’ve never been overpowered like that before, and I didn’t know what to do. But please listen when I say that I promise it’ll never happen again, I mean that’s a given if you leave me, but—”

“I’m not leaving you,” Tony said firmly. “I know you weren’t voluntarily doing all of those things.”

“I never, ever wanted to hurt you. I still don’t want to hurt you.”

“You didn’t.”

“Tony…” Stephen took a deep breath, trying to steady himself. “Tony I could’ve killed you. The entire time I was trying to break the curse, to get that thing out of my system, I almost killed you. And you almost let me do it.”

“I did.”

Stephen didn’t know what to say. Tony had that calm, accepting look on his face mixed with a kind, trusting expression. It was the same look he’d given Stephen in the ruins of the Compound, and it hurt. It didn’t feel like an apology would be enough to make things right, but what else was there to do now? “I’m sorry, Tony.”

Tony slid his arms around Stephen’s waist and pulled him into the hug they’d both been needing. “I’m fine baby, it’s okay. It’s over.”

Stephen knew it wasn’t just over, and he knew Tony knew it too. But in the moment he was too fatigued to fight about it and let Tony hold him closer. “Have you been sleeping?”

“Trying to,” Tony replied. “Not to be cheesy or whatnot, but I do sleep better with you next to me.”

“May I take you to bed?” Stephen asked, sounding even shyer than when he normally asked that. “Please? I know it’s early, but I wouldn’t object to a nap.”

Tony nodded, shifting to press a chaste kiss to Stephen’s lips. “That sounds nice. FRIDAY, save and shut everything off please.”

“Engaging ‘You Shall Not Pass’ protocol, Boss,” FRIDAY reported dutifully.

Tony scoffed. “Remind me to never let you and Peter give Fri name suggestions again.”

“You could just change it if it bothers you that much.” Stephen chose to remind Tony of that instead, even though they both knew Tony was secretly fond of the movie references hidden in his protocols. “Besides, that serves you right for calling me Gandalf all the time.”

“If the shoe fits, babe,” Tony said. He stood up, keeping an arm wrapped around Stephen’s waist as they left the lab and headed for the elevators.

Despite feeling safe and loved in Tony’s arms, more than he could have ever hoped to be and probably more than he deserved, Stephen was still anxious. He felt out of place in the Tower, never mind the fact that he usually spent half of his time there, and he felt even more out of place amongst the team.

“How are the others?” He asked quietly, afraid to hear the answer.

“They’re getting better.” Tony saw no point in sugarcoating the truth. Stephen would see right through it, and that wouldn’t help him process everything. “Carol and Thor are both bored of training with each other, but no one else wants to spar with either of them yet. Or with Natasha, for that matter.”

“Does anyone ever want to spar with them on a good day?” Stephen asked, trying to keep the mood light.

“You’re all a bunch of sore losers who can’t rise to a friendly challenge” Natasha quipped, suddenly materializing in front of the couple. “Tony, what’s going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why is he here?”

“Natasha, I—”

Natasha pointedly ignored Stephen. She never disliked the sorcerer, she was actually indifferent and had no issues telling Tony that, but Tony’s trustful, rather soft nature was a concern of hers. It worked in her favor, sure, but she was really trying to be a better friend to Tony and look out for him more. It was this concern that motivated her to look at Stephen with disgust. Natasha wasn’t scared of him, she took heavy damage in the attacks but it was more minimal compared to some of the things she’d put his friends and family through.

Tony was acting as if none of that happened, and that couldn’t stand.

Natasha frowned and glared at Stephen as she addressed Tony. “Tony what the hell are you doing?”

“I’m not—”

“Don’t play dumb and tell me you’re not following. What are you still doing with him? You barely sleep more than an hour without waking everyone up screaming from phantom pain and nightmares! Do you think we can’t hear you yelling and begging for Stephen to stop torturing you and just kill you? Because we all do!” Natasha took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of her nose. “And after all that, you’re holding him like nothing is wrong? I don’t understand how you can be so forgiving sometimes.”

She stormed off before Stephen could defend himself or before Tony could respond. Her words echoed in Stephen’s head as Tony continued to lead him down the hallway, into the elevator, and into the penthouse.

Stephen sat dejectedly on the bed as Tony shuffled around the room, grabbing a few blankets from the closet. He didn’t say anything as Tony made a little nest of pillows and blankets, the cloak joining the haphazard pile the minute Tony curled up under a throw. Eventually Stephen allowed himself to lay down, offering no protests as Tony hugged him again.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized again, mumbling into the soft fabric of Tony’s shirt.

“I know,” Tony said simply. “Relax sweetheart, it’s okay.”

He was still tense, curling up smaller in Tony’s arms. “Are you okay?” The sorcerer asked.

“I’m fine,” Tony reassured him. That was half true. He was fine, to a point, but there were things bothering him that he had no idea how to tell Stephen about.

Eventually they would have to face the music and talk about everything, and they both knew it. For now, Tony was somewhat okay with ignoring it, clinging to the hope that having his Stephen back would keep the memories at bay.

Tags: @stark-strange-love2 @salty-ironstrange-shipper @funkylittlebidiot @richieleeparker @chocopiggy @hatakehikari @taruyison 

[nethandrake]

i'll wait in line (always).

stevetony. mcu. rated t. blind dates. 8.8k words.

(written for @mkyujji for the 2020 Cap-Iron Man Holiday Exchange event that was hosted by @cap-ironman.)

also on ao3.

*****

“Absolutely not.”

Protesting groans fill the common room.

“Why not?” Clint whines.

Steve scowls, placing his hands on his hips. “What do you mean ‘why not’?”

“I mean, it isn’t going to kill him. It’s harmless.”

“How is that—”

Thor nods solemnly, grabbing a bite from his Pop-Tart. “I dare say, I must agree with Clinton—”

“Please don’t call me Clint—”

“Why not? ‘Tis a fine name!”

“Yeah, but—”

“Aside from that,” Thor continues, changing the subject, “I do not see the harm of—”

“There’s a lot of harm!” Steve insists. “A lot of harm in—”

“Harm to Tony?” Natasha says coolly. She barely spares any of them a glance, taking a long sip from her mug of hot chocolate. “Or harm to you?”

Steve stills, his heart leaping in his chest. “This has nothing to do with me.”

“Uh-huh. Sure it doesn't,” Clint drawls, propping his legs on top of the coffee table. Bruce immediately nudges it off. “Us thinking of setting up the guy you’ve been pining—”

“I’m not—”

“And there’s the denial,” Natasha says dryly at the same time Clint continues, “—for with someone who isn't you doesn’t piss you off.”

“How am I—”

Four pairs of eyes stare right back in blatant judgment.

Finally, Steve lets out the sigh he’s been holding back since they started this meeting.

It’s already bad enough that he was rouse from his sleep at two, three in the morning for this. It’s too early to deal with this. Or well, ever.

“Fine. Bruce and I—”

Bruce has the audacity to flash him a sheepish smile. “Sorry, Cap.”

Steve groans. “Seriously? You too? Am I the only one that thinks this is just—just—”

“Come on, Cap,” Clint says. “We all know Tony needs some pick-me-up. Locking himself up and moping over his last breakup isn’t healthy.”

“He’s not—”

“He was crying last Movie Night. And you know he hardly cries during Movie Night.”

“I mean, if the movie's—”

“We were watching Inception.”

“Inception has—”

“He was crying during the fight scenes. And for half of the movie.”

Well… Well.

Steve hadn’t been there for that, having been on a mission for SHIELD. It’s hard for him to figure out whether Clint’s lying, considering everyone else is murmuring in agreement.

He gets Natasha, Thor even. But for Bruce to agree with Clint without any hesitation is just unheard of.

Steve exhales, holding his hands up in surrender. “Fine. You guys do whatever want. It’s not like you planned on even listening—”

“No, we weren’t.”

Steve scowls, Natasha brightening in return.

He’d think that being Captain America and the leader of the Avengers, he’d have some form of respect and authority over them. But no, he’s just a leader to a bunch of stubborn kids. Teenagers.

Sometimes he wonders what he did wrong to land himself in this situation, in this era. Not wholeheartedly because the thought of not meeting Tony is just ab—

“You know he’s going to hate this, right?”

  ***** 

 “I think it’s a great idea.”

Steve does a double-take at that. In fact, everyone’s staring at Tony in puzzlement. Except for Natasha but that's hardly surprising. Nothing fazes her.

What's surprising is Tony's reaction. The Tony in front of them can’t be the same Tony who has to be dragged or hauled out of his workshop for meals or gatherings, let alone galas and big parties. For him to willingly agree to be set up on blind dates by his friends is a huge breakthrough.

A breakthrough Steve hates but a breakthrough nonetheless.

Tony cocks an eyebrow, setting his screwdriver down. “What? Why’re you all staring at me like that? I agreed to it. Isn’t that what you guys want?”

Clint smacks his lips together. “Well, yeah. But—”

“We do not mean to insult your intelligence, my friend,” Thor replies. “We assumed you will not be amenable to our proposition.”

“Well, Winghead wasn’t,” Natasha cuts in.

“Still isn’t,” Clint pipes up.

Steve makes a mental note to double their drills during the next training session.

“I just thought you wouldn’t like it,” he explains when Tony trains his curious gaze on him. “Going on blind dates, I mean.”

“It’ll be a nice distraction,” Tony says after a beat. “It’s pretty overdue, anyway. Probably good for me to get into the dating game again and try to—”

“I don’t know. Isn’t it too soon?”

“It’s never too soon to date,” Tony counters. “Sides’, Pepper and I broke up... What? Seven months ago? I think it’s high time I get back into things. Go out. Have some fun.”

“And being around m—us isn’t fun?”

Once again, all eyes are on him. A snicker fills the awkward pause. Steve makes another note to triple the drills for Clint.

“I think Tony meant a different kind of fun,” Bruce offers.

Tony directs his screwdriver in his direction, grinning. “Right on the money. I’m not saying you guys aren’t fun to be around because you are—”

“We love you too.”

“Sure you do, birdbrain. But yeah. You guys are fun and all but it’ll be nice to go out and have a nice time in a less platonic setting, you know? Have some little flirting going on—”

But I flirt with you all the time, Steve grumbles.

Sure, they always go unnoticed every single goddamn time but it’s flirting all the same. If Tony wants someone to flirt with him, Steve’s his guy. In fact, he could—

“—and maybe fall in love—”

“Fall in love?”

Steve almost claps his hand over his mouth as once again, several pairs of eyes zero in on him, most of them in mirth.

He really, really hates himself sometimes.

Tony raises his eyebrows. “You seem pretty adamant of me staying single for the rest of my life.”

“Yeah, Cap,” Clint adds, smirking. “Why’re you so— Ow!”

Natasha might get her drills halved for that.

“I’m not trying to stop you from—from falling in love,” Steve says, the words heavy on his tongue. “I just— Well, I— You know—”

Tony frowns, his eyes roving around Steve’s face before softening. “Alright, guys,” he says, clapping his hands. “Clear the room. Steve and I are gonna have a lovely chat alone.”

Their friends move to vacate the room, not without protests from Clint. As soon as the door closes shut behind them, Tony shifts his attention to Steve, crossing his arms.

Steve feels like he’s being put on trial.

“It’s been months, Steve.”

“I know—”

“You know I’ve moved on—”

“I know. I just… I just...”

“Is there something you want to tell me?”

God, there are so, so many things he wants to say. All the words and sentences clash in his head, swirling around in a whirlpool of anxiety, hope, and fear.

I think you’re making a mistake in agreeing to this.

I think our friends aren’t thinking things through.

I think you deserve better than blind dates.

I think you should date me.

“No. Nothing at all.”

Steve swears there’s a flicker of disappointment that crosses Tony’s face before it vanishes.

“Don’t you worry that pretty little head of yours,” he says, poking Steve in the ribs. “I’m a big boy. I know how to handle a little date. Nothing I can't handle.”

“Four dates.”

Tony's eyebrows arch. “You’re not giving it a go?”

Steve shakes his head. “Don’t really know anyone who’d be interested,” he lies.

Tony gasps, clutching his heart. “How dare them? I am a catch.”

“Uh-huh. Sure you are.”

“I am, you asshole. FYI, I was voted Sexiest Man Alive thrice.”

“Good for you,” Steve says dryly.

“Asshole,” Tony mutters, spinning on his heel. “Fine. Be like that. Whatever. Good talk. Now shoo. I have—”

“Oh no, you don’t,” Steve interrupts, resting his hand on Tony’s shoulder. Years ago, Tony would’ve shrugged him off. Now, Steve’s glad Tony’s willing to let Steve touch him, let alone hand him things. “We’re having breakfast. Bruce's making breakfast tacos and you are going to join us.”

“But I have—” Tony scowls. “Stop that.”

“Stop what?”

“The puppy dog eyes. You know I hate—” Steve flutters his eyelashes. “Ugh, fuck you, Steven.”

Steve couldn’t help but cackle as Tony storms out, striding to hurry after him.

If he hasn’t been savoring his time with Tony, well, he’s going to savor it so much more now. His borrowed time with Tony might be shortened very soon.

*****

read the rest on ao3.

[authoressofdarkness]

Under the Covers (Chapter 1)

“Do you really think there’s any way I’ll be able to be incognito for any amount of time? Aren’t you worried my ego will feel neglected from going unrecognized so long? Maybe I’ll blow my cover because I’m too desperate for attention.” “You’re not going to be going undercover. You’re going to be assisting our undercover agent.”

AO3 

Someone tell me why I do these things. I swear. Blame @itfeelssogoodmrstark. Now I’ve gotta go work on finals goddamnit-

Narcissistic.

“We need your help, Stark.”

“And why would I help you?”

Self-destructive.

“Because we need you to. And you want these assholes off the street just as bad as we do. You’re the only one in the position to make this mission happen.”

“I’m the only person you consider expendable, you mean. I put myself in danger all the time, so it’s okay for you to do it, too, right?”

Doesn’t play well with others.

“That’s not what I said.”

“And yet that’s what you meant.”

A heavy sigh on the other end. “Hear whatever you’d like, I’m not going to argue with you. I need to know if you’re willing to do this or not, because you’ll need to meet your partner-“

“Partner? I thought I was too volatile to work with others. Besides, Iron Man doesn’t need a partner.”

“Well, we don’t need you as Iron Man. We need you as Tony Stark.”

Compulsive.

“And yet I remember hearing the exact opposite a few months ago. Funny how that works,” he snarks.

“What you do in that tin can isn’t what I need right now. We need something more subtle.”

“Subtle? What about me is subtle? Agent Romanov is the epitome of subtle. Even fooled me. Try her.”

Another sigh, then: “Not that subtle. We need the built-in status and resources that you have as your… distinguished self. That’s key to this mission, as is the partner. Now if you’re gonna ask questions, can you at least come in and debrief in person so I’m not wasting more of all of our time?”

And he has more questions, so he agrees. He’s nothing if not nosy. And it’ll be fun to string Fury along just long enough to get on his nerves even if he decides not to consult on this particular mission.

Consult, of course. That’s his job. He’s too much of a mess to be an Avenger. And that’s fine with him. He likes flying solo, doing things on his own terms, most of the time.

But he has agreed to consult on some cases. Partially because he owes Fury, and he doesn’t like owing people. He’d worked hard to get out of the debt of owing people after everything that happened with Obie. But he couldn’t deny Fury had saved his ass with the whole pallidum poisoning thing. He’d likely have died if left on his own.

And, well, partially because… yeah, maybe he has a bit of a hero complex. But something bothers him too much now about standing off to the side in any serious situation.

And these mutant drugs going around were certainly a serious situation. But he didn’t understand why blasting the drug lord to hell wasn’t going to be enough to handle it.

“So what’s the big idea, Fury?” he asks, a few hours later, as the elder man finally enters the conference room -- where they’d left him waiting for way longer than strictly necessary, he’s sure. “I don’t understand what the big hoopla is. Do you really think there’s any way I’ll be able to be incognito for any amount of time? Aren’t you worried my ego will feel neglected from going unrecognized so long? Maybe I’ll blow my cover because I’m too desperate for attention.” He bats his eyes at him, pulling a mock-sad face.

Fury doesn’t look amused. He drops a file down on the table in front of him. “You’re not going to be going undercover. You’re going to be assisting our undercover agent.”

“I don’t recall agreeing to do anything yet, so careful with all those orders, cyclops.” Tony sits up, dropping the facade in favor of reaching for the file. “What is this?”

“Case overview. Read it.”

“I already know as much about it as you do.” It’s true; he’d already been looking into this particular problem on his own before Fury had contacted him to ask him about consulting. Course, the fact that their interests were overlapping was about the only thing he knew so far, aside from what he’d figured out on his own, but Fury didn’t need to know that.

“Just read it, Stark.”

Tony does. He skims the file, frowning a little as he reads. Maybe they knew a bit more than he did, then.

The head of the operation, from what they could tell, was one Quentin Beck. Or at least, he was the highest part of the food chain that they knew of for now.

He was the man that Tony had landed on, as well. But SHIELD had more on the inner workings than he did. Some of the stock houses, the loading areas, some of the runners involved in the operation. More information about where Beck stayed, what social circles he ran in. He used to be a special effects coordinator, apparently, before he was swept into the life of crime. He had a background in technology and biochemical engineering. Interesting.  

His profile was even more interesting. It looked oddly similar to his, in some ways. Narcissist. Compulsive. Playboy. Doesn’t play well with others. Likes to be the center of attention. Craves power.

“Interesting profile. Let me guess, Romanov wrote it too?” Tony deadpans.

Fury narrows his good eye at him, taking the file back. “Ha-ha. Believe it or not, the similarities in your personalities are part of why we need you.”

“Why? You want me to make friends with him?”

Fury shakes his head. “Beck likes power. He craves attention. He’s smart, he’s sly, and he’s worked years to get to where he is in the food chain. He sees our agents coming from a mile away every time we try to send someone in. He knows who the moles are as soon as they poke their heads out. Two weeks ago, one of our agents went in as a fake buyer and never returned. We can’t afford to keep going like this. We’re getting nothing. We’re losing our people and countless more are dying in the streets because of the shit he’s selling.”

“I still don’t understand what this has to do with me.” Tony tilts his head. “I can’t go undercover. You don’t want me to go undercover, you don’t want me to be friends with him. Am I supposed to be your next buyer? You think he’d buy that? Or do you want me to offer him something? Because I don’t sell weapons anymore, Fury. Not even for you.”

“No weapons. Nothing like that.” Fury pauses. “The long and short is, right now, Beck is untouchable. We can’t get anyone in to get any information and no one is rolling, even the few we’ve managed to get ahold of. He’s funneling his drug money through legitimate businesses, so there’s no proof. He’s covering his tracks well. But he does have one weakness.” Fury pulls a photo out of the file and slaps it on the desk in front of him.

Tony’s eyes drop to it instinctively, and he feels his mouth go dry. It’s a boy -- a pretty boy. Springy, messy curls, Bambi eyes, pouty lips, the whole nine yards. The photo is just a headshot, but he has a feeling that he’s just as lithe and pretty the rest of the way down as he is from the top.

But he’s also young. Obviously young. Mid-twenties, at the most, although he’s struggling to believe that he’s even that old.

He forces himself to swallow, lifting his eyes back to Fury. “Is that his kid?”

Fury barks out a laugh. “No. Not his kid.”

“Boyfriend?”

“Not yet.”

That’s enough to jolt him back to his senses. Tony refocuses, raising an eyebrow. “Yet?” He doesn’t like the sound of this already.

“This is where your similarities come in handy, Stark.” Fury picks up the photo. “Beck has a penchant for pretty young things. Particularly taken pretty young things.”

“That’s sick.”

“That feeds his ego. He likes seducing them. He likes to play sugar daddy for them -- drugs or clothes or money or whatever it is they want in exchange for them making him look good and feel powerful. It’s a game to him. But he only likes high-quality things. The more powerful the men he takes them from, the better.”

“So?”

“So… we need to give him someone powerful to take him from.”

It hits him like a ton of bricks.

This is where your similarities come in handy.

Playboy.

“You can’t be serious. How old is he, twelve? I mean, really-”

“He’s twenty-three-”

“-he’s practically still in diapers. Probably still in school. Forcing him to play lap dog to someone like Beck is just… wrong.”

Fury sighs. “No one is forcing him to do anything, Stark. He knows what’s involved in the mission. I assure you no one will be making him do anything he doesn’t want to do. And he’s not still in diapers. He has a Bachelor’s in Biochemistry and is working on his Master’s.”

Tony blinks. “At twenty-three?”

“It happens. Look at you.”

Look at you.

Yeah, sure, but he’s never met anyone else near close to his level. And look at the amount of emotional damage he sustained from it.

“Fair,” is all he says aloud. “But he’s got so much potential. Surely he’s got better — less dangerous, less dehumanizing — offers. What’s he doing mixed up with SHIELD?”

“That’s for he and I to know and you to not worry about,” Fury says shortly. “All we need from you is to cohabitate and pretend to be together long enough to get Peter inside and for us to see this mission through. Are you going to do it or not?”

“Hold on, back up a sec. Cohabitate? You’re gonna make the poor kid move in with me, too?” Not that he has any qualms about giving the kid a place to live, per se — God knows he has more than enough for both of them. The space, the money, the resources. But that means he actually has to live with him.

He hasn’t had a partner in ages, one night stand or otherwise. Since his capture, he’s plagued by nightmares too much to sleep like a normal person, and letting anyone see the arc reactor or get that close to him, physically, in general is just one big no.

He and Pepper had tried, but there was just too much between them. She had a company to run. He was busy being Iron Man. They had barely seen each other. And when they had seen each other, it was always just… fighting about something or the other. That he was too reckless. That he was too isolated. That he didn’t trust her, that he needed therapy, that the way he lives is unhealthy, that he missed this or that meeting, that he drinks too much, that he just hid too much stuff.  

She wanted to change him, and he couldn’t let her do it. He wasn’t ready. And part of him knows it’s stupid, unsustainable, unhealthy. But he’s not ready to face it all either. He still cares about her, of course, and she’s still the CEO of Stark Industries, and doing a damn good job at it. But the likelihood there’ll ever be a future there is slim to none. He knows that now.

Fury’s voice snaps him back to the present. “It has to look serious, Stark. He can’t just be a fling. Beck won’t take interest in that. We’ve already laid the groundwork for making him move in and making the whole shebang look believable. Now you just need to do your part. Let him stay with you at least a few nights a week, make a few public appearances together, and let him do his job. No one is saying you actually have to sleep with him -- although I admit I hadn’t expected you to seem so turned off from the idea.”

Tony doesn’t dignify that with an answer. “Are you sure this is the only option? Why can’t I just blast him into next week? Or you send Romanov in with her sweet talking to… I don’t know, poison his drink or something?”

Fury sighs. “We need to know what he knows. We need to know more about where the drugs are coming from. How. Why. Who’s involved. Everything. We only get one chance at this, Stark. You know how it works. He’s the highest person we know of that we have a chance of reaching. If he slips away, we’ll have to start over. We lose all our leads. More people die. This could give us everything we need to know. But he has to come to us. And the only way to get him to do that is bait.” He sets the picture back down on the table, jamming his finger into the middle of the kid’s forehead. “He’s fully prepared to do whatever it takes to do so. Are you, hero?”

Hero. It’s not said scathingly, exactly, but it’s clearly a challenge, all the same. A muscle in Tony’s jaw jumps before he forcefully unclenches it, letting out a breath. “So do I get to get his name before he moves in with me, or…?”

Fury smirks. He turns back to face the door he’d come through, raising his voice. “Parker!”

A moment later, the door opens again. This time, it’s the kid from the picture who enters.

He looks even more baby-faced in person. And yeah, he’s definitely just as lithe and gorgeous as Tony had imagined he would be. Great. Good to know.

He approaches the table they’re sitting at with short, fast strides, hands gripping the strap of the duffel bag over his shoulder. He was already packed. They certainly banked on him saying yes, didn’t they?

He comes to a stop beside Fury, shifting his weight from foot to foot as he stands there. “Hi!” he chirrups. “I’m Peter. Peter Parker. Big fan, by the way.”

Aaaand he’s a fanboy too. This just gets better and better.

“Tony Stark. But you knew that, I suppose.” He looks pointedly at Fury. “You’re going to send him undercover? You sure about this?” He just seems so… pure. Happy and outgoing and young and probably way, way too naive to be mixed up with SHIELD’s shenanigans.

“As sure as I was the first three times you asked.” Fury fixes him with one of his looks. “Are you gonna take him home or not?”

Take him home. Like he’s a puppy or something. Jesus.

Though puppy certainly wasn’t what Peter is thinking, if the way his cheeks color slightly is any indication. This kid is going to be the death of him, isn’t he?

“Yeah, I suppose so.” He stands, pushing the thoughts away. “You ready, kid?”

“All set, Mr. Stark.” Peter starts to make his way around the table, and Tony turns towards the door.

“You can’t do that,” Fury says, stopping them both in their tracks. “You’re gonna blow cover before you even establish it.”

Tony turns back to face him, exasperated. “We haven’t even left yet!”

“And you’re calling each other by formalities, walking with six feet of space between you, and letting him carry his own bag. Really, you’re not off to a great start.”

“What do you want me to do, hold his hand and shower him with kisses? We literally just met.”

Fury rolls his eye. “I know this is going to be hard for you, but don’t be so dramatic. You have to act like a normal, healthy couple. You don’t have to make out on the street, but you could walk beside the kid, for God’s sake.”

“I’m not normal or healthy anything. You should know that -- isn’t that what your agent said?”

Fury ignores him, standing up. He looks at Peter. “Better control your boyfriend, kid, before he blows your cover. I’ll call you when we’ve got a place for you to start.” With that, he turns on his heel and leaves.

They both stare at him as he leaves. It’s silent for a long moment before Peter turns around to face him, color still lingering slightly in his cheeks. “So, uh… ready to go, Mr.- uh… Tony?”

“Yeah. Yeah, let’s go, kid.” Tony lets out a breath and heads for the door, but at a slower pace this time, letting Peter fall into step with him. He opens the door for him, then follows him out and leads the way back to his car. This… this is going to be something, but he isn’t sure if fun is the right word for it.

What had he just gotten himself into?

Let me know if you want to be tagged! 

[greekgeek21]

Percy Jackson & The Avengers: Convergence - they steal an old pirate ship

I'm alive!! I'm so sorry for just ditching you guys, but I was in Shasta for a week and didn't have any internet access so I wasn't even able to say that I was gonna not update. But I hope this nice, semi-long chapter makes up for it!  Reminder that this is also available on FF, Inkitt, Ao3, Webnovel, and Wattpad

On a completely different note, I'm going to be starting to write a book. Like, a real published book. It'll take a few years but I'm determined and I love the idea I thought of so if any of you are interested, email me at oceanbreezq68@gmail.com and I might be willing to send some samples. I want input, badly. And all the people in my life are biased. Total strangers on the internet are totally made for this, right?

I recently got into readers marauder era fanfics and I'm already in too deep, gays (and yes I meant to say gay, we all know it if you're reading pjo fanfiction). There is no escape.

Anyway, I'm running out of prewritten chapters, so I have to get to writing that while preparing to write a book. Wish me luck! Happy pride month! 🏳️‍🌈✨

- your author

Ω ♆ Ω

"Run it by me again. Just one more time," Steve asked, still highly confused.

They had made it to Florida and were now at a private dock. Percy had just briefly explained his control over any water vehicle and the Captain was not getting the point.It was understandable. Percy still barely got it.

However, they didn't have a whole lot of time, and every second they wasted discussing Percy's weird powers was another second Annabeth's captors had to hurt her. They did not have time for this.

"We are going to steal a boat, and I'm going to sail us the rest of the way," Percy sighed.

"Ok, but, how are we going to sail it if only you know how to do it?" Steve asked.

Even Piper was getting frustrated now. "He can control the boat! We won't have to do anything! The boat will listen to his will! Oh my gods!"

"But how is that possible!?" Steve shouted.

"How would I know?! I was just born with the freaky powers!" Percy yelled right back, getting fed up with this never-ending conversation.

Jason decided to cut in before things got too out of hand. They had to save Annabeth.

"Guys! This doesn't matter! What matters is that we save Annabeth, and we can't do that if we're stuck here arguing over something that is out of our control," he said.

Percy huffed. "He started it."

Hazel rolled her eyes. "How does Annabeth put up with you?"

"Honestly? No idea," Percy smirked.

"Let's just get going, team. We have a boat to steal, right?" Tony asked.

"Yep. And I think this place has the perfect one for the job." The son of Poseidon then started walking away, apparently following his weird sailing powers.

I guess we're supposed to follow him, thought Piper.

Ω ♆ Ω

"This is supposed to take us through the most cursed waters on the planet?" Bruce asked, looking the boat up and down.

"Yes. Isn't it beautiful?" Percy said and smiled, running his hand along the side.

Tony leaned over to Frank. "Is he seeing the same boat we are?"

Frank just shrugged, used to Percy's weirdness by now. Honestly, it was a little hard for him to imagine the team taking what was in front of them to Polyphemus' island. It seemed like it wouldn't survive the normal ocean.

To be clear, what Percy was suggesting they take was an old pirate ship, currently on display inside of a warehouse at the dock. It was covered in dried-up barnacles, and the mast was split in half. There were also holes all along the sides. It was a miracle the thing hadn't crumbled already.

"Yes, Tony, I am. This thing will run for me. It doesn't even need to be repaired, I can handle that. The only thing that matters is that it is built to withstand the type of waters we're going out in," Percy said. "We need all the advantages we can get."

Natasha, to everyone's surprise, spoke up, "I think we should trust Percy. If he says it'll work, then it'll work. He's the son of Poseidon, right? Nothing can hurt us while in the ocean. Am I correct, Percy?"

Jason cleared his throat and gave Percy a significant look. The Avengers needed to know that they were basically powerless in the triangle. The older teen looked ready to explain, but Frank spoke before he had the chance.

"Actually, no. The Sea of Monsters is outside of Poseidon's realm of power, hence the name. Percy won't have the same access to his father's domain as he does out here," he said, "So, basically, we're entering a dangerous situation, with no backup, and an inexperienced team. Should be fun, right?"

The Avengers were shocked, to say the least. Not at what the boy had said, but who had said it. As far as they had seen, Frank wasn't as confident as his physical form portrayed. They were wrong. Frank was confident, and his friends were proud of him for it, too. It had been a large transformation from when Percy had first met the son of Mars.

"Well, I think we should start heading out. We want to get as far as possible before the sun goes down, right?" Piper asked.

"Right," Percy nodded.

She wasn't really certain about all of this sailing stuff. Sure, she had been on the Argo II, but that was different than an actual boat. For one, it could fly and was controlled by a gaming console. She hadn't really bothered learning how to actually run a ship for that.

But now, she had to act like she knew what she was doing, and that was scary. The Avengers may put on a confident front, but she saw the insecurities in all of them. Some were harder to find than others, but finding insecurities was her specialty.

They really were going into a completely unknown situation. At least Piper and the Seven had been in this world for a little while, but the Avengers hadn't even encountered a monster before. It would sure be a shock when they were faced with some of the worst ones for their first fights. So, she and the rest of the demigods had a responsibility to be the examples, no matter how much the "adults" liked to point out that it was "ethically wrong" for them to do that.

Ω ♆ Ω

Turns out, the kid hadn't been lying about being able to sail the ship. Tony would be the first to admit that he was skeptical of the structure of the vessel, but he was proved wrong when, after the group had gotten the thing into the water, it had started to magically prepare itself for departure. Not a single drop of water leaked into the interior; it was like the water simply moved around the holes.

It was spectacular!

Before he knew it, the group had settled into the boat and were moving away from the dock. The Avengers were marveling at everything around them, considering that Percy wasn't even steering the thing, and yet it was supposedly moving in the right direction. To add to the shock, the ship's parts were moving themselves. It was not logically possible, and yet there Tony was, watching it unfold like some kind of acid trip.

"This is...amazing," he muttered, leaning against the rail with Leo, who he had taken a certain liking to. They were a lot alike.

The son of Hephaestus grinned, "Right? I told you guys Percy had cool powers. You should see him with Blackjack or Arion. It's wacky, man!"

"Who's Blackjack and Arion?" Tony asked, noting the new names.

"Oh. Right, I forgot. Blackjack is Percy's pegasus, and Arion is Hazel's horse. Percy can talk to them because his father created horses," Leo answered.

And just when the man of iron was getting used to all of this, he was pulled back into astonishment.

Ω ♆ Ω

After a couple hours of mingling and exploring, Percy called the team up to the deck. He had started to feel it a while ago when he knew it was still a distance away, but now he knew that they were approaching the Sea of Monsters.

It was a blank spot for him. Everywhere else, he could feel the ocean's power thrumming, waiting for him to control it. But here, there was nothing. Considering they were in the middle of the ocean, it was pretty obvious what it was. That was how he had tracked the place down without a map. It was his blind spot. He would just follow the blankness like it was the North Star.

Once everyone had gathered, he told them the news, and to say the atmosphere changed was an understatement. What smiles they had had disappeared, and their expressions turned serious.

"It's time, guys. Get ready. The first thing we're going to come up on is Scylla and Charybdis. We have to go through them to get into the sea. Now, I've planned this so that we should hopefully be able to pass through without any problems, but with six demigods' luck, we shouldn't rely on that too much. Charybdis only feeds three times a day, so if I planned this right, we should be able to pass over her without a fuss. Everyone got it? Be prepared for a fight, but don't expect it, please. We don't need any more reasons for the Fates to curse us."

Hazel stepped up, "Should the Avengers help us if we end up fighting something? Or should they just observe how we deal with monsters first?"

"We can handle ourselves," Steve defended.

Jason sighed, fed up with the same old arguments, "Alright, that's it! The Avengers will let us take the lead in any fights we may or may not end up in. They will not do anything without one of our approvals because we have actual experience with these beings. They will not be put on the sidelines, but they will also not be on the front lines. Does that work for everyone?"

Percy sent a thankful grin to his cousin, "Thank you, Jason. And yes, it does."

Jason just nodded in return.

"Alright, gang! Buckle up! Make sure to keep your hands and feet inside the ship at all times, and remember, the sword points away from you. It's showtime!" Leo cackled.

Just as he finished, they entered a wall of mist, which was unsettling to say the least. The temperature dropped almost three degrees as they passed through it.

Percy pulled out Riptide before steering the ship towards Charybdis. Hopefully, if everything went to plan, they would be out of this Hades-forsaken place by sunrise.

But, of course, nothing ever went to plan on a demigod's quest.

Ω ♆ Ω

Maybe it wasn't the best idea for me to come, was Bruce's first thought as he got his first glimpse at a greek monster. He had taken refuge inside the sleeping quarters of the ship, practicing his breathing exercises. He was really hoping this didn't turn into a Code Green. This was definitely not the place to let the Hulk loose.

So far, it had been silent upstairs, so Bruce concluded that it was going good so far. He had researched the Greek and Roman myths before they had left and on the plane, and everything that he could find on Charybdis was not reassuring. It was true what Percy said, that she only ate three times a day, but nobody really knew when those times were. Until Percy, apparently. He had survived the Sea of Monsters, so everyone on this ship had to trust his judgement in everything they did here. Bruce could tell that the other Avengers were struggling with taking orders from a "child." But Bruce had learned to not underestimate anyone on his travels while in hiding. Plus, look up any demigod's name and there was a whole list of accomplishments to find.

If Percy said that he knew when the monster liked to eat, then he knew when the monster liked to eat. It was as simple as that.

So, ten minutes into their first obstacle, and things were going fine. Everyone was eerily quiet, but no sign of Charybdis or Scylla yet. Of course, as soon as someone thought about it, an outline of a serpent appeared in the fog surrounding the boat.

Frank was the first one to spot it. "Guys..." He looked up at Percy. "We have a problem."

He pointed into the fog and Percy cursed. "Oh schist. I knew she couldn't just leave us alone."

The Avengers had figured out that something was coming and were unsure what to do. The demigods seemed to be just waiting like sitting ducks for the thing to attack them, and that was not a good plan. The Avengers don't wait for their opponent to strike first.

"Alright, that's it. I'm going to see what it is," Tony mumbled, activating his Iron Man armor.

"No, Tony! That's not a good-" Piper got cut off as the billionaire flew off, "...idea."

If she couldn't yell at that idiot, she was gonna yell at his teammates. She turned around, prepared to cuss out some idiot "superheroes," but Hazel beat her to it. "What was he thinking?! Why didn't you idiots stop him?! He has no idea what he's getting himself into! That monster is NOT something you guys can handle without our help! Mortalium tam stultus!"*

Natasha appraised the small demigod. She sure was a young spitfire. And from what she had seen already, a powerful one.

"Ok, let's just calm down, alright? Tony should be able to hold his own until we can go save his stupid ass," Leo sighed. Working with mortals was draining.

They were always so brash about things. And yes, coming from a greek, that statement was pretty hypocritical, but it still wasn't a lie. He idolized Mr. Stark's work, but man if only the guy could learn some restraint and he would be perfect.

Just as Leo had spoken, an explosion was heard, followed by a muffled string of curses. Only Tony Stark could come up with those creative swear words, so at least there was proof that the guy was still alive. For now, at least. The group needed to get that soon.

"Alright, hold on! This is gonna get bumpy!" Percy shouted, steering the ship towards the sound of fighting.

He willed the vessel to move faster, and it, of course, obeyed. In his head, Percy was just thinking rush rush rush. They needed to get this fight out of the way and get to Annabeth right after. Percy was praying to any god that would listen for there to not be any more disruptions to their journey. He just had to be confident in his skills. He had done this before, so he knew what lay ahead of them.

And it was going to be a challenge.

Ω ♆ Ω

Tony would deny any claim of him being held in the mouth of a sea serpent by his leg. Cuz that didn't happen. Totally.

But if it did, then the rest of the questing group would have worked together to fend off the monster until they could get away. Percy would've used Riptide to stab the monster in the leg, while Jason flew up and used his gladius to cut open her eye. The rest of the group basically just put on a full-frontal assault until Scylla released their idiotic teammate. Leo blew some fire, Hazel manipulated the Mist so that the Avengers could all see it for what it was, Piper made it loosen its grip with her charmspeak, Frank and Clint released some well-placed arrows, Natasha fired some gunshots, and Steve sliced into it with his shield.

All in all, the thing realized quickly that it was outmatched.

Then, after Tony received a very stern reprimanding by Piper and Steve, the group carried on. They didn't have time to dilly-dally. Saving Annabeth was their top priority.

Ω ♆ Ω

Meanwhile...

"Let me go, you skatá!"* Annabeth screamed, kicking her captor in the knees.

She had been knocked out as soon as they had shadow traveled, so she hadn't woken up until an hour ago. When she had, her wrists and ankles had been shackled to a stone wall with imperial gold shackles. The terrorists had stepped up their game.

There was dim lighting, but from what she could figure out before, she was in a cave of some kind. They had completely cleared out the area around her, so there weren't any visible location markers. That is, until they moved her.

The people who had grabbed her were strong and bulky and covered in black. They had black combat suits with black ski masks covering their features. Stereotypically, Annabeth would've figured the goons to be stupid, but they kept her shackles on and put a sack over her head so they at least has someone smart on their team.

Annabeth was getting really sick of not knowing anything, though.

So that's where she found herself at the moment: as a "defenseless" hostage. It was quite comical, really. Did these idiots really think that she would go quiet?

She felt one of her kicks come into contact with a kneecap and heard a satisfying grunt of pain from one of the thugs. Good, she thought, I hope that hurt.

Then, she was thrown onto the cold, stone floor and forced to hold her head up. The whole situation was so stereotypical that she wanted to laugh. But then she also didn't want to come off as more psycho than her captors, so she kept it to herself.

"This is quite interesting," a voice said, "The prideful daughter of Athena, reduced to a simple mortal's hostage.

The sack on her head was yanked off, so Annabeth spat down at the man's feet, glaring at him with a burning hatred. Taking a quick survey of the room, Annabeth found that she was being held captive on Polyphemus' island. The room was the main room of his cave; the one where she, Percy, and Grover further blinded the cyclops.

"If you had actually gotten me on your own, it might have been impressive, but having to use monsters is just pathetic," she said.

The leader growled and kicked her in the jaw. It didn't have enough power to break it, but it did cause her to bite through her tongue.

Annabeth spit out the blood produced in her mouth, dirtying the man's shiny shoes. The guy would have to do a lot worse than that to scare her.

"Hmm... I like your spirit. It's going to be that much more fun when I break it," he hissed, kneeling down to her eye level.

"I hope you rot in Hades," is all Annabeth responded with.

The guy laughed. ACTUALLY laughed. So, he was a crazy sociopath hades-bent on tearing down the natural order of the universe, Annabeth decided, how nice.

Ω ♆ Ω

I kinda really love this and I hope you did too. Now, to get into some unasked political shit: Love is love. I like all genders, and I still don't want to see any of them practically having sex in front of me. So just, accept yourself and others for who they are and move on. Is that so hard? Happy pride month & happy Father's Day!!

- your author

PS Remember to comment, like, and reblog!

other chapters :)

Ω ♆ Ω

Bonus scene!

The group was spending time in the dining room of the ship when all of a sudden, Percy remembered something truly horrifying. Like, beyond disgusting!

“Oh, my gods! Guys!!!” he exclaimed.

Hazel rolled her eyes and said, “What, Percy?”

“Charybdis is my half-sister! Ew ew ew ew ew EW EW EW EW!!!” Percy shouted his answer.

Everyone simultaneously gagged.

(Inside, Steve was starting to get seriously concerned about these kids’ chaotic family.)

[exauhstedsunflower]

So, I’m writing Marvel now…

The thing is, Marvel is a special interest for me. Has been for a long time. The MCU while it has its downsides (I will never forgive them for what they did to Steve Rogers.) is one of my favorite movie franchises of all time. It’s a crime that I haven’t written any fics for it yet, honestly.

This isn’t nearly finished, and I have no idea when it will be or how long it’ll be. It doesn’t even have a name or full plan yet. But it’s a fun project for me. I want to explore the fact that Captain America is from the 40’s, however when he wakes up he is still in his twenties. He’s technically the youngest on the team while simultaneously being way older and being treated as way older than everyone around him. It picks up during the first Avengers film and is written from Tony’s POV. (Again, so far. It’s not done and I could still switch POV’s every once in a while.)

All that being said, enjoy!

Steve hates him. He hates Tony. Tony Stark. Son of his old friend, Howard Stark.

The old bastard was right, isn’t that just ironic.

Endless fights over Tony being a disappointment. Being nothing like the Greatest Man Howard Ever Knew. Howard never shut up about the great Captain America, so of course Tony knew this was coming.

Tony had tried when he was younger, he did. He’d tried to be better, braver, stronger, faster, witty in a way Howard would appreciate. But after a while he’d realized that no matter what he did, no matter how hard he tried, he’d never live up to what Howard wanted from him. Howard said daily that Captain America, Steve Rogers, would be disgusted by Tony. And Tony had just about recently decided that he was moving on from all of his daddy issues and metaphorically telling Howard to shove his criticisms very far up his ass. And, isn’t this just the kicker, Steve Rogers is right in front of him confirming it all.

“Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?”

Exactly what everyone thinks I am, obviously.

“Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.”

What? He’s not about to make it easy on Captain America of all people. If anyone can handle his sass, it’s the so called bravest man who ever lived.

“I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. Yeah, I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you.”

Wow, okay. He’s really laying it on, isn't he? He must be really pissed. In all honesty, Tony hadn’t thought it would be so easy to get to him. Or, rather, to get him to a point where he’s actually making personal, cutting blows.

Still, Tony doesn’t want to cause an actual fight. If he wanted that he’d have started off a little more strong, like how Rogers is. What with all the steam coming from his ears. Howard hadn’t mentioned the potentially problematic short fuse in all his ramblings. Whatever, just keep deflecting and find a way to defuse, then. He’s been around long enough to know when the right time to fight is. Currently they have a volatile, murderous psychopath who obviously wants them all fighting on board, so now is not a good time.

“I think I would just cut the wire.”

There, nice and simple. There’s no way Mr. Short Fuse can turn that into-

“Always a way out... You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero.”

Now he’s done it. He’s honestly tempted to say ‘Or what?’. Just curiosity speaking, what would Rogers do? And, another thing, Tony has never claimed to be a hero. Sure, he’s saved a few people, and yeah, he’s trying to save the world currently, but the hero label was all but thrown at him the moment he came out to the world as Iron Man. He doesn’t want to be a hero, all he wants right now is for Rogers to get off his damn high horse.

“A hero? Like you? You're a lab rat, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle!”

He hadn’t meant to say that. Truly, he hadn’t. He’s supposed to be actively diffusing the situation. But honestly it was an achievement he’d gone that long without actually retaliating. You can only push a man so far-

“Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds.”

He’s not succeeding in his endeavor to not fight Captain America. His dad is likely screeching from his penthouse in hell.

He moves away from Rogers just in time for the locator to go off, signifying that they’ve found what they were looking for. This is followed by an argument about who is going to get it, a rather horrifying revelation that his new best friend besides Rhodey, Pepper and Happy, (Yes, he has claimed this already, he just has to convince Bruce.) has tried to kill himself, and then suddenly Captain America is trying to fight him, again.

“Put on the suit, let’s find out!”

“I’m not afraid to hit an old man.” He replies calmly, though a little heated.

It’s just oh so ironic, (This whole conversation has been filled to the brim with irony.) that as Tony says that he laments how immature they’re acting. Seriously, the guy’s in his nineties, why is he pulling Tony into this? The irony strikes him then and there, as he’s watching Rogers get all riled up. Captain America is practically a kid.

It’s kind of funny to think about. Captain America, the man out of time, he’s only in his twenties. Tony is twenty years older than him, mentally. Now it’s not about fighting his fathers old friend. It’s not even about the fact that this is Captain America, and how anti-patriotic it would be to deck him.

No, Tony wont fight a twenty-something year old. It’s not dignified. It wouldn’t even be fair. Rogers hasn’t had the time to fully develop patience like Tony has. His brain hasn’t aged just as his body hasn’t. No wonder he has such a short fuse, Tony was the same way when he was young.

Something explodes while his brain is having this revelation, and he realizes that this is an attack. Good thing they weren’t fighting each other, then.

Steve helps him up after they’re both thrown across the room from the blast.

“Put on the suit.”

Tony nods, finally agreeing with the man on something.

“Yep.”

-

Of course they would end up working together to fix the turbine. That’s the way the world works. Rogers hates Tony, and Tony won’t fight him, which seems to be making Rogers more angry. But now all of that has to be put aside for the greater good. Hopefully they’ll be able to do this before another turbine goes down and the whole boat falls from the sky.

“What’s it look like in there?”

Tony really needs this to go well. Surely Rogers can’t be too inept with technology. He’s young, young people are the future of technology! He even understood the Wizard of Oz reference earlier, so he’s sort of up to date, right?

“It seems to run on some form of electricity!”

So much for his optimism. Despite the feeling that this is going to end horribly, his mouth quirks a bit. That’s why it had taken him so long to put together how young Rogers actually is.

Still, this has to be tough for the guy, he’s clearly out of his depth here and is trying to help.

“Well, you’re not wrong.”

He teaches Rogers how to fix the relays, which takes some time given that he can’t personally guide the project. He’s a bit busy clearing the debris from the turbine and trying to keep up with the flying boat’s speed enough to stay beside it. You would think they’d stop moving so he can just hover and do repairs, but no! Although he does suppose that there is quite a bit of commotion happening inside too. Enough to warrant not slowing down, maybe.

“Even if I clear the rotors, this thing won't re-engage without a jump. I'm gonna have to get in there and push.”

“Well if that thing gets up to speed, you'll get shredded!”

Aw, he’s worried. Asshole.

Does this count as laying on the wire? Is this technically superhero-ing right now? Is this enough to prove to Rogers he has the right intentions? He hopes so.

“Then stay in the control unit and reverse polarity long enough to disengage mag-“

“Speak! English!”

Tony nearly laughs. He hadn’t realized how charming Rogers actually is, underneath all of the high and mighty hero stuff.

“Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect”.

“Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet.” Bruce responds, understanding every word. Oh, Tony might just be in love.

“Finally, someone who speaks English.”

“Is that what just happened?”

It was a sly little comment, but it was there. He should have picked up on it at the time. Captain Rogers is funny.

“See that red lever? It'll slow the rotors down long enough for me to get out. Stand by it, wait for my word.”

He watches the man jump over to the lever, landing a little too close to the edge for comfort. Then instead of dwelling on the fact that he was concerned for Captain America’s safety, he goes into the turbine and starts to push.

While he’s pushing, there’s some gunfire. Also some rushing coming from Director Fury in his earpiece. He wonders if anyone has come out to help Rogers, and then realizes that obviously Rogers can handle himself, so why would anyone? Eventually the turbine feels like it's moving faster than him, so it’s time to get out.

“Cap, I need the lever!”

“I need a minute here!”

Uh oh. That won’t do at all.

“Lever! Now!”

This is so not how he wanted this to go. He falls into a rotor, and slides down into the bottom part of the turbine. He is so screwed. He’s going to break his spine, or his neck. He’s going to die fixing a boat engine. Engine’s are his bitch, he can’t die fixing an engine!

Suddenly the rotors let up, and it only takes Tony a split second to fly out and assess his damage. His suit’s going to give out on him. Any second now surely. He should get out of the air-

Loki’s men are on Rogers with guns, how is that a fair fight?

At least, that’s what he thinks before he tackles one and takes them right through the side of the boat with him, finally hitting the ground and letting the suit turn off.

He can’t quite see anymore, and he can’t quite tell if it's the suit or his eyes that are damaged. He was knocked around quite a bit. Maybe it’s a concussion? He hopes it’s temporary, he can’t work if he’s blind.

Actually, scratch that. That sounds ableist. It also sounds like he’s doubting himself, which he’d never do. He very much can work if he’s blind. Plenty of people do it every day.

He feels tired, a bit hazy. He’d been knocked around maybe too much. Is Steve okay? He looks up, and the captain is jumping back into the ship. Good.

Definitely a concussion, he thinks, letting his head fall back and passing out.

-

Coulson died. Loki killed him.

Tony hasn’t been on this boat for too long now, but he’s starting to think this is a suicide mission. Agent Coulson was Pepper’s friend; how’s he going to tell her? How will the news reach the cellist he was involved with?

“There was an idea, Stark knows this, called The Avengers Initiative-”

He hasn’t been listening, and was honestly okay with the numb indifference of his thoughts. Anything not to hear Fury’s words. Lies, honestly. There’s no excuse for the arsenal that was being built, regardless of if Fury hadn’t bet on it in the first place. And now- what? He wants to use Tony and the others as the replacement arsenal? They can’t even save one agent, let alone the world.

“…to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes.”

Tony stands, unable to hear anymore of this. Tony’s no hero. If Coulson was smarter, he never would have believed in heroes in the first place.

-

“Was he married?”

He looks at Rogers, at his attempt at starting a tough conversation. He sees why everyone likes the guy, really. Even after their almost-fight he comes to attempt to comfort Tony. Tony, for his part, isn’t even sure why he’s taking Coulson’s death so hard. It’s not like they were friends.

He just- well, it feels like this death is on him.

“No. There was a uh...cellist, I think.”

There’s no one to inform about his death. No one to send condolence flowers to. Pepper might mourn, his coworkers may also. The cellist… well, she won't be able to pick up their fling again.

.

“I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man.”

Steve Rogers has a good heart. He may be quick tempered, but he has a good heart.

“He was an idiot.”

“Why? For believing?”

For believing in them. Believing in this stupid, sorry excuse for a team.

“For taking on Loki alone.”

“He was doing his job.”

Oh, yes, defend the dead guy. Make this argument harder. It was easier to hate Rogers earlier, when he was being irrational.

It circles back to there not always being a way out, and Tony thinks that’s bullshit. He doesn’t take well to being told things are impossible or unavoidable. If something isn’t going to work, he makes it work. Coulson should have thought ahead. He should have waited. He should have-

Better not go down that avenue.

He starts to walk away, and Rogers compares them to soldiers. Right, that makes sense. That’s why Rogers took the death so calmly. He was a soldier in a war. He’s used to losing people and having to move forward immediately. He probably has already figured out how not to blame himself for every death he’s ever witnessed.

“Right now we've got to put that aside and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source, if we can put together a list…”

Tony briefly wonders if it's healthy to compartmentalize like that. It can’t be. But then he spots the blood on the wall and his brain moves on to another thought. Rogers is right, anyway. They need to focus.

“He made it personal.”

“That’s not the point.” Rogers replies, not catching the point just yet.

“That is the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?” He needs to explain. The man will get it if he explains. Sometimes he forgets that not everyone’s brain does the jumps his own does.

“To tear us apart.”

“Yes! Divide and conquer is great, but he knows he has to take us

out to -

win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience.”

“Right,” He’s catching on, thankfully. “I caught his act at Stuttengart.”

“Yeah. That's just previews, this is opening night. Loki's a full-tail diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built in the skies with his name plastered…” Tony stops, revelation forming. Steve looks fully interested in wherever this is going.

“Son of a bitch!”

“What?”

“Big ugly building in New York!”

Rogers’ eyes go wide, “Let's go.” He orders, Tony already moving.

-

The battle was terrifying. There were aliens, gigantic half mechanical half flesh monsters flying around, and a murderous Norse god intent on taking control of the chaos and coming out on top. Tony wonders why NASA or SHEILD has never claimed to have seen the species this army is made up of before. These guys don’t seem very low key, what with all the planetary destruction. He doesn’t believe for a second that no one knew these things were out there.

He makes a mental note to hack the department of defense after he’s eaten his shawarma.

Tony never prepared for this. The only people who were even remotely prepared tried to nuke New York. And then Tony the not-hero, thank you very much, had to fix that problem on top of the other very pressing one. The other problem being aliens. Aliens invading the earth.

Aliens, Jesus Christ.

Afterwards, Loki gets taken to Asgard with Thor via Beam Of Light™️. Fury says the Avengers are all free to go. But Tony does extend the offer for the others to stay at the tower. They can if they need to, not forever or anything. But, if they want to stick around and help clean up the mess. Someone’s gotta, you know?

Romanoff took the offer. Then Bruce because he wants access to a lab like Tony can offer and totally not because he’s excited about their new friendship. Then Clint, who would like to stay close to SHEILD; then begrudgingly, Steve Rogers, who admits that he can’t quite afford life in New York City but would like to stay here. And suddenly the Avengers are piling into Tony’s penthouse, exhausted but still helping get rid of all the broken glass.

He goes to his lab as soon as sleeping situations are settled. (Natasha takes a guest room, Bruce gets another one, Clint and Rogers take the living room.) There’s no need to stick around. The superhero’s crashing in his guest rooms and living room are cleaned and fed, New York is saved (and subsequently the world.). Besides, he needs to start working on better living arrangements if these guys are going to stay. He gets half way through Natasha’s layout for her floor, when Jarvis lowers his music.

“What gives? I was just getting into a groove here!”

“It seems you have a visitor, sir.”

His head whips around, expecting Pepper, but instead he finds Steve Rogers standing on the outside of the glass door looking like a lost puppy in designer hand-me-down sweatpants. Tony sighs, Pepper won't be in until tomorrow. He’d had to do a lot of bribing to get the New York Airport to let his jet land. They have to clear some debris from the runway, fix some of the landing gear, that stuff.

“Shall I let him in, sir?”

“What? Yeah, yeah. Yes. Let the captain in, open the door.”

The door unlocks, allowing Rogers to step into the lab. He looks around in wonder, the exhaustion from the day being covered by the inquisitive nature of humans.

“What’s up, Cap?”

Rogers startles, having gotten distracted by the tech in the room. Then hesitantly, he speaks up.

“This place is really swell, Tony.”

He sounds like he means it so genuinely that Tony doesn’t make a remark about the outdated word choice.

“Well, it’s no flying boat, but it’s home. Speaking of, you’ll love this. Dum-e! C’mere boy!”

If Rogers looked amazed before, he looks absolutely awestruck now.

“Did you make him?” He questions as he reaches out to pet the robot. Dum-E nuzzles his hand and Tony smiles a bit at the sight.

“Yeah. Made Jarvis too, right J?”

“Yes, sir.” Rogers jumps at the sound of Jarvis’ disembodied voice.

“See? They get along too well though. They’ll surpass their old man one day. Too much plotting happening while I’m gone.”

Rogers laughs, “See, now, I would have thought you'd be all for the minds of the future.” He comments sarcastically.

“And usually I’d agree, but I don’t think I’d be happy if the new robot overlord was Dum-E. And hearing you, a twenty-something year old, tell me that the flying boat engine ‘runs on some kind of electricity’, settled it for me. I have no faith in the future of technology.”

The other man snorts, “I’m not exactly a prime example of the youth, man.”

Tony puts up a finger, “Ah, see, I’d believe you if you didn’t just call me ‘man’. I’m gonna start calling you kid.”

Rogers rolls his eyes, ignoring how that prompted a mock scolding on rolling his eyes at his elders. He then sees the current work in progress on Tony’s work space.

“Is this what you’ve been doing down here?”

Tony’s eyes follow Rogers as he walks over to the plans and starts reading them over.

“This is so nice. There’s a floor for each of the Avengers in here! Even Thor and I!”

“Yes, God’s need sleep too. At least I think they do. I’ll have to ask, actually. -And, also, why wouldn’t you have one?”

Tony watches the man's eyes widen as if being caught saying something he hadn’t meant to say out loud. Although as soon as the look of panic shows it’s gone, Rogers turns to hide himself in the plans again.

“Look, I know we didn’t start off on the right foot.” He starts, quieter than before.

Is… is Rogers attempting a reconciliation right now? Tony thinks back to all the thoughts he had earlier, where Howard may have had a fit. And how fitting he thought it was that Captain America hated him, although he wasn’t entirely happy about it. But this might be worse, actually.

“I believe you were being beaten up when we met, actually. And then I swooped in and saved you.”

Rogers immediately regains his volume, “Swooped in and saved me doesn’t sound entirely right.”

“This. Coming from the guy who still calls things swell? I think I’ll keep my phrasing.”

“I had him! You can't save someone who is in control of the situation!”

“You call being beaten up being in control? Please elaborate.”

“I was not getting beat up. I was holding my own.”

“Sure, kid. Is that a bruise?”

Rogers immediately starts feeling around his face. This is hilarious for a number of reasons. One, he has super healing and any bruise would have been gone by now. Two, Captain America looks far more worried about a bruise on his perfect face than when he was saving the world.

“Where?”

“Right- yeah, right there. Where Loki absolutely had the upper hand!”

That comment startles the older/younger man into stunned laughter.

And thats all I’ve got!! Thank you if you made it this far.

[oneshot-wxnderland]

Ladies Love a Hero | Peter Parker

summary: Y/n builds a device that will help the Avengers win a battle and Peter is charged with protecting her while she uses it.

category: fluff

_____________________

          “So that’s your big plan? Keep shooting at it’s invulnerable skin until something happens?” Steve asked, pausing in his pacing to give his teammate an exasperated look.

          “It’s not completely invulnerable. One of my arrows nicked it,” Clint defended his weak plan, but it was the only plan they had so far. “Unless you can come up with a better one.”

          This had been going on for the past half hour and Peter was about to jump out the window. Everyone bickering and shooting down ideas faster than they came up. At this point he was just plain tired of the giant interdimensional monster that kept popping up and wreaking havoc on the city. It had everyone on edge and Peter just wanted this meeting to be over so that he could go see Y/n. 

          He happily tuned out the Avengers’ arguments to think about Y/n. She was incredibly smart, which was a given since she was one of the top scientists at Stark Industries and she was only Peter’s age. And she was beautiful. The first time Peter met her she was hunched over a microscope and when she stood up to look at him... he couldn’t breathe. Since then he came up with every excuse he could to go talk to her, even though most of the time he was too nervous to get more than a few words out.

          Tony noticed the dreamy look Peter only got when he was thinking about Y/n and rolled his eyes.

          “Hey, lover boy,” Tony snapped in Peter’s direction and made him jump. “National crisis here.” 

          Peter flushed as red as his suit and muttered an apology before the conversation continued without him. 

          “Well, we need to make a decision now, that thing could come back at any minute.” 

          “I’ve got it!” Everyone’s attention turned to the door bursting open and a frenzied Y/n running in. Her hair was a mess and her lab coat was crooked and she had never looked more beautiful to Peter. 

          “What is it?” Tony took the device from Y/n’s outstretched hand and inspected it.

          “The key to beating this thing,” Y/n declared, out of breath. Everyone gave her their undivided attention, especially Peter, but only because he was interested in how to kill the monster, of course. “I studied the sample of what we thought was blood from Hawkeye’s arrow and discovered that it’s not the skin that is impenetrable, but a thin force field that acts as an armor. Then I engineered this thing,” she points at the small devise in Tony’s hand and he gives it back to her. “It’s like an EMP but instead of electronics it only targets that specific type of organic material and when it’s turned on it can wipe out the force field and boom it’s killable.” 

          The room was in stunned silence and Peter fought the urge to clap. Tony didn’t shower her in the praise Peter knew she deserved but the proud look in his eyes and small smirk on his face was all y/n needed.

          “What’s its range?” he asked.

          “The prototype only has a mile or two radius of maximum effectiveness but with a little more time I could get it to-.”

          Y/n didn’t get to finish her sentence before the tower shook, signaling the emergence of Mr. Big Bad in the city. 

          “No time for that, we’ll have to make do. How do you turn it on?” 

          Y/n answer was too complicated for Peter to understand but he didn’t like the grim look on Tony’s face. 

           “You’ll have to set it off yourself. We don’t have time for a crash course.”

          “She can’t go out there!” Peter’s outburst surprised the team since it was the first thing he’d said all night. 

          “She’s the only one who can turn on the device, we need her,” Tony’s answer was calm and distantly Peter knew it was the only way, but he couldn’t get past the idea of putting Y/n so close the the fight.

          “Within a mile of the alien? That thing can topple buildings twice as far with one swing we can’t just send her out there unprotected.” 

          “She won’t be unprotected, she’ll have you.” Tony stated and Peter couldn’t form an argument. “Y/n go get a carrier for that thing and meet Peter on the hanger.”

          “Yes, sir,” she said before hurrying off.

          Peter turned his gaze back on Tony who looked way too calm for what the situation called for.

          “You can do this, Peter, just take her to a rooftop in range and keep her from getting killed.” Tony knew how much Peter cared about Y/n and saw how this plan was freaking him out, so he winked and added conspiratorially, “And hey, the ladies love a hero.”

          This had the desired affect and Peter was shaken from hits fears and into a blushing mess as he tried to stutter out objections, but Tony wasn’t hearing it so Peter just left.

          When Peter, or rather Spiderman, walked onto the hanger he spotted Y/n making sure the carrier was secure across her shoulders and his nerves returned. 

          “Ready?” He asked and wasn’t sure whether he was, but her complete confidence in him made him feel like he could do anything.

          She stepped close to him. He tried to casually wrap his arm around her and was thankful that his mask hid his blush when she did the same. Y/n pulled him tight to her and nodded. “Ready.” 

          Peter never wanted this to end, he didn’t want Y/n to let go of him. Although he liked to think that she enjoyed being this close to him, her smile was most likely caused by swinging through the city.

          After they landed on a rooftop in range of the fighting, Y/n untangled her arms from around Peter’s neck, but he held onto her a little longer when she stumbled. 

          “You good?” He let go of her when she was stable.

          “Yeah,” she laughed. “Just takes some getting used to.”

          “Where should we set it up?” They surveyed the rooftop and Y/n hurried over to a radiator and gingerly set the device on it. 

          “Once this thing’s on it’ll only take a couple minutes to completely disarm the shield.” That raised some red flags for Peter.

          "Will it be able to trace it back to us?" They were only a mile away from the fight and that thing could easily close the distance fast.

          "We'll just have to hope that they can kill it before it does." That was reassuring.

          Y/n started the process of turning it on and Peter divided his attention between her and the fight. The team was doing a good job of keeping the monster from coming towards them but also not pushing it too far away. However it was clear that the thing didn't like being cornered since it was thrashing around more wildly than before.

          "There!" Peter looked back at the device that now had a green light on its screen. "It'll only be a little bit now before the alien realizes what's happening.”

         “Got it.” Peter began to survey his options for a hasty getaway. 

          A thunderous roar shook the ground and consequently the roof they were standing on and the alien started ripping up chunks of the roads to throw.

          “I think it’s working,” Peter stated, an intuitive observation. They watched as the Avengers took notice of their signal and doubled their attacks, striking the increasingly vulnerable monster with an array of blasts, punches, and arrows. Peter even let out a breath of relief when he saw the monster slowing down, but he jinxed it and instead of the monster focusing on fighting back, its attention moved to the source of its shield’s failure. Namely, them.

          “Incoming.” Peter rushed back over to Y/n. “We gotta go.”

          Y/n had only just stood up when Peter tackled her back down onto the roof just as a car flew over them. She looked up at Peter who was still on top of her, pressing her back into the roof surface of the roof, but she didn’t mind. She wished that he had his mask off so that she could be staring into his actual eyes instead of his suit ones. 

          “S-sorry,” he muttered when he belatedly got up off of her, mentally cursing himself for being such an idiot. Y/n must think he’s the weirdest creep ever, just pinning her down like that in the middle of a mission. He glanced back to her and was surprised by the red that was on her cheeks. She made a show of dusting herself off and checking on the device while Peter just stood there confused. 

          “Shit, the impact of the car messed with its sensors, it has to recalibrate.” She set to work on facilitating that process.  

          “Y/n that thing is going to be on us any second.” Peter’s attention was glued to the fight that was drawing ever nearer. Even if they managed to kill the beast before it reached them, the fall of its body could easily take out their building. “The damage has been done, let’s go.” 

          But even as he said it he could see the shield mending itself. The reinforced armor gave the alien a second wind and Peter winced as Iron Man got swatted out of the sky. Once that distraction was out of the way, its attention turned back towards them.

          “Y/n…” Peter warned as he walked backwards to her, careful to keep his attention on the beast.

          “It’s almost fixed.” The stern tone of her voice and the determined look on her face was almost a mirror image of the one Tony got when Peter knew better than to press the subject, but he was supposed to protect Y/n and he’d be damned if he didn’t. 

          “It’s my job to knock out the shield.” She refused to look away from the device but her glare was directed at him. “I’m not leaving.”

          “And it’s my job to keep you from getting hurt and you are not making that easy right now.” He crossed his arms and watched the fight, but didn’t move from her side. His head was screaming at him to get her to safety but he knew that she was right. They had to get that stupid device functioning so that the rest of the team could do their job. Still, he didn’t like just standing there and waiting for disaster. Every move the monster made towards them had Peter flinching to just grab Y/n and swing away whether she liked it or not.

          “Got it!” Peter didn’t need her to tell him that though, the scream coming from the alien was notifying enough.

          “Good now let’s go.” 

          Y/n was still hesitant to leave but she stood up and faced him.“You go, I should stay and make sure it doesn’t get damaged again.”

          “I’m not going anywhere without you.”

          “Then I guess we’re both staying.”

          “Dammit Y/n this is not up for debate. We have to go now!”

          Their argument distracted them both from the battle. It was only when Peter’s spider sense kicked into action that he crushed Y/n to his chest and turned them around so that the chunk of concrete flying their way hit him instead of her. The pair was knocked off their feet and Y/n rolled away from where Peter lay unmoving.

          “Peter?” Y/n called once she recovered from having the wind knocked out of her. She propped herself up on her elbows but quickly snatched them up, hissing from the sting of scapes along her arms. The ringing in her ears aided in her disorientation as she looked around, but when her eyes landed on Peter she ignored the protests from her cuts and ran over to him. “Peter!”

          She rolled him onto his back and gently took his mask off. His eyes were closed and his body limp. She nearly sobbed in relief when she saw that he was still breathing, albeit barely, and cupped his cheek to bring his face over to her.

          “Y/n…” he whispered and it brought on a coughing fit.

          “Careful, you idiot,” she smiled through her tears when his eyes opened. “Who knows how many ribs you broke.”

          His hand raised weakly to her cheek and she held it there for him. He gave her a small smile as his thumb wiped away a tear.

          “I’m sorry,” Y/n said, blaming herself for his injuries. “I should have gone with you. I-I shouldn’t have tried to-.”

          “Hey.” Y/n expected him to say something along the lines of ‘it wasn’t your fault’ or ‘I’m just glad you’re okay.’ What she got instead was, “I told you so.”

          Y/n’s jaw dropped at the audacity of this boy. 

          “Are you kidding me? I’m sitting here crying because I thought you were dead and you have the nerve to say ‘I told you so’?” She fires at him and he scrunches up his face in an annoyingly adorable way.

          “But I did…” This time Y/n just laughed and let all the tension leave her body, grateful that she was still able to see him smile.

          “Shut up,” she laughed as she leaned down to his face. She gently pressed her lips to his and Peter forgot all about his broken and bruised body, and when he heard the Avengers finally defeat the alien he was able to fully lose himself in her kiss. The kiss that he had dreamed about for so long. 

          When they finally parted to breathe, Y/n rested her forehead against his and he pushed a lock of her hair behind her ear.

          “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to do that.” Hearing those words come from Y/n almost made him laugh in disbelief, if only laughing wouldn’t have hurt so bad. To think that Y/n, the smartest and prettiest girl he knew (he would even argue on the planet) had wanted him just as much as he wanted her. He had pined after her for forever, never thinking that he had a chance, and here she was.

          “I think I might have an idea,” he muttered and pulled her back down for another kiss.  

[flydotnet]

Bad Things Happen Bingo! The event where you send me requests according to this marvelous card! (Red cross is the completed prompt, character headshots are prompts I’ve already filled). 

To what extent would go to save someone else's life?

This prompt was always going to be difficult, but hey, I did manage to come up with an interesting solution to it... or, at least, that's why I'd like to think. I originally planned on having Naomi for "I Should Have Been Better" (as I told Doc multiple times, "what better character for it than Naomi?", but the guy is having the last laugh about this one now, that's for sure). Some soul out there will have recognized the title from somewhere and understood what we're heading for because, yes, this entire story was inspired by the fact I wanted to use this semi-obscure reference as a title. You'll see what I mean later. Anyway, this fic was pretty cool to write, even if, again, I suffer from writing too much build-up because I want to explore a universe I'm probably never going to touch ever again. This is starting to grow into a recurring issue with me, it'd seem. Oh well, if it inspires someone's work, then I'm all good with my penchant for copious amounts of worldbuilding.

Also, Alyssa and Naomi's relationship is wonderful and it's a shame I haven't written it before, what the fuck me.

---------

Androzani

Summary: When faced with the prospect of her newest companion's potential death, Naomi is ready to put everything on the line... even her life.

Fandom: Trauma Center/Team (fantasy AU)

Wordcount: 3K words

Event hosted by @badthingshappenbingo​

AO3 version available here.

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Her shoulders bear the weight of her losses – friends she had to leave behind, people whose death she couldn’t prevent, companions that never were – yet Naomi has kept moving, trying to shove her past behind her anywhere she walks, as if going through purgatory for eternity.

 Her reputation has preceded her for decades, by now: the woman dressed in black with silver hair like the pale moonlight, going from place to place. Nobody knows of her true intent, whether she sides with good or evil, with life or death until they discover she is a healer who was banished from her native region due to some sort of catastrophic event long forgotten by history.

How ironic is that someone whose roots got cut off by a guillotine is still alive and roaming this world when, surely, her supposed people have all died from illness, injury or natural causes by now: it has, after all, been a thousand years since the “Corpse Whisperer” got forced into exile over the supposed curse she bore, the curse which spread an illness she still doesn’t have an answer to over towns and villages until it just disappeared with her.

 On her travels, she met a lot of people, some of whom travelled with her for a time, some whom she barely got to know.

There was Nathan, a boy who had escaped from a doomsday cult. He was an eager companion, swearing he’d follow her until the end of the world would have she decided so, because she was the first friend he had ever gotten – he died saving her, rather than the other way around, when a spear plunged inside his chest and only came out when his blood had stopped flowing and his skin had turned to clay. She closed his eyes, buried him and marked the grave with white lilac, never to look back again.

There was Ivan, a man barely younger than her supposed age, who wanted to understand her and help her save people with his benevolent magic and overwhelmingly positive intentions. He fought hard against near-death situations, some where she had decided it was better to expect death than survival, but his optimism kept these people alive. She had tot leave him behind after he contracted a lethal disease and he couldn’t keep with her, leaving behind the bitter taste of failure, loneliness and uncertainty. She never went back to where their ways parted, afraid to know the inevitable answer as to his whereabouts.

There was Cassandra, a middle-aged woman with a stern face and an inexorable will. Despite all the hardships she had faced in her life, she had always stood back up, without even displaying any sort of pain. She had grown a reputation for her ruthless methods, being ostracized, and travelled with her so she could mend her ways and heal who she could with the apothecary knowledge she had been blessed with during her youth. She drank her own poison so she wouldn’t have to surrender in the face of certain defeat, plunging herself in an eternal sleep, while Naomi could only watch, wrists and ankles keeping her from acting, until these dissolved and she could avenge her fallen friend. Cassandra’s breath never went out, so Naomi made her a chamber hidden in a deep, dense forest in a hope that, someday, she’d find the antidote Cassandra had spilled on the ground.

There was Eglantine, a girl barely in her teens, who went to follow her because her parents had abandoned her and everybody else thought she was cursed because of her unusually pale skin, hair and eyes, thinking she was a stillborn animated by a malevolent spirit. Beneath her skin was an incredible potency, which she didn’t dare use until she needed to. Her short life ended in a tragic, senseless sacrifice when she rushed into battle and blocked an enemy’s way so Naomi could run away and “get out alive”, as she had screamed before taking an entire group of thieves with her to a certain death.  

There have been a lot of them, over the centuries, but none of them have been immortals like her. None of them have healing magic as powerful as hers, none of them can endure so much. All of them have promised her to stay with her until she could settle down again, none of them could ever hold these promises, and it’s fine to her: she’s used to involuntarily broken promises. She’s used to the feeble nature of humans, of the uncursed ones.

 She has grown more and more hesitant to accept new companions, over time. She tried to be cold towards them, to use her sombre reputation as a deterring agent – but some people are just in need of misery’s company, even her, and so they stick around until illness, injury, death, love or opportunity split them apart and the cycle continues. Naomi is used to it. She doesn’t even give her name to people anymore: it’s easier for both sides if these companions call them by whatever nickname the rumours about her convey.

The “Corpse Whisperer” is only one facet of her fictional identity, one of her many names and perhaps the least flattering. Over the years, she has accumulated them: “Cursed One”, “Black Healer”, “Reaping Doctor”, “Nameless Widow”, “Lady of the Last Sight”… Everywhere she’s gone, they’ve adopted a new name for her, to the point the name she was given at birth is nothing but lost to the sands of times, like numerous books she’s read, like the names of her fallen companions. So much things pass by your eyes when time doesn’t affect you anymore. Such is her curse, after all.

 Even with time, the wounds left by her losses never truly scar. Every death in which she’s had some amount of responsibility weight on her shoulders, even if as time passes, she starts to forget more and more the individuality of her former partners. And, the heavier the luggage gets, the darker she tries to be, the more reclusive she behaves, so someone else doesn’t have to get hurt while following her on her eternal quest to heal others and, maybe, just maybe, finally find the way to end her own life.

Still, despite how much she has cried and screamed already, death continues to affect her when she can see blood on her hands or a cold limb at her feet. Even recently, she got bit in the throat by the death of two parents who had crossed her ways in unfortunate circumstances and she came too late to save them. As they let out their last breath, she met eyes with a curious little girl’s green irises full of life, and that’s when she knew – Naomi would be traveling with someone else once more.

 Neither Alyssa nor she had a choice in the matter. The poor girl didn’t have any remaining relatives and the place where she lived was infested by werewolves, the same species that had killed her parents. Naomi couldn’t leave someone as young and frail as a ten-year-old girl suffer in the claws of the wolves on two legs that couldn’t control their animalistic urges. It quickly became her mission to redeem herself from letting two new persons die in front of her eyes by bringing Alyssa to a safe haven where she could have a normal life until Naomi herself found a solution to the lycanthropic problem.

However, and despite having guessed what happened, despite all of her tears and all of her pain, Alyssa has always told Naomi she didn’t hold anything against her, that she did her best when she tried to use her magic to bring back to life the recently deceased. Her smile, which at first was timid and more of a façade, has grown into an earnest one. Every time she sees it, it warms Naomi’s heart, but it reminds her head to remain cool and not to get attached because it’ll end badly for the both of them.

 For a while, it was fine to have Alyssa around. They mostly went from village to village, from city to city, and Naomi made sure her protégée wasn’t in contact with the filth and contagion of the sick. Healed bone after healed bone, cured sickness after cured sickness, Naomi found herself enjoying the light-hearted chatters of Alyssa, going from refusing to answer her various questions on the world and herself to replying to them with more and more details.

It was already too late, by that point, but Naomi still liked to believe Alyssa would one day leave on her own terms and her wounds just heal for once. After all, they were only travelling together because Alyssa needed a new home to grow up in and have a chance at a normal life after the atrocious had happened.

However, that delusion has come to an end, as she’s now forced to make the biggest choice in her life, one that could cost her everything. At long last, the taste of death and the melody of the epilogue come back to her, making her feel more alive than ever, but at what price?

 Alyssa has been poisoned with what she can only assume to have been a powerful, yet not instantly deadly substance. She missed catching its name when someone told her what was happening to Alyssa, what was causing her the rashes and the fever that keeps going up and up, but it reminds her of something – animantha toxaemia. A beautiful flower whose pollen has killed its fair share of humans, with no real cure known aside from a taxing healing spell, one forbidden not by choice, but by need.

Their meeting with the flower was unfortunate. Alyssa and she were on the run from some unforeseen adversaries and, once they had successfully lost them in the forest, Alyssa got curious about the deep purple beauty of the flower’s petals. Alyssa touched it when she inspected it before Naomi could remove the girl’s fingers from the stem and petals. Both are running away from death. Quite ironic, coming from the woman who was once nicknamed “the Silver Reaper”, but…  what matters isn’t her fate, it’s Alyssa’s.

 Naomi has managed to get them both out of the forest, but unfortunately, she’s starting to feel the paralysis effects of the flower in her legs, and that’s when she realizes she must have been in contact with a lethal dose of the flower’s poison. One thing the curse hasn’t protected her from is illnesses of this kind, and judging by the fever poor Alyssa has fallen victim to, she doesn’t count on staying alive much longer. She’d have expected herself to be pleasantly surprised by the prospect of finally passing away, since she has seen so much already, and roaming the Earth for about four centuries is starting to take a toll on her spirit – but she has never felt so alive, because danger is a powerful catalyser, and she has a life to save.

A final life, judging by what she needs to pay for what she’s about to do, but a worthy price to pay and perhaps the life that has mattered the most to her throughout her long, elongated life. She’s torn about having to leave Alyssa to her own devices, but they’re in a village, now, and Naomi hopes the inhabitants that took enough pity on them to lend them the small house they’re currently in will help her. She’s still young, barely fourteen, and she doesn’t want Alyssa to struggle again once she’s gone.

 There’s no time to question it, however. The toxaemia has four stages, the last being an inexorable rise of internal temperature until the affected person inevitably dies. However, she can’t let that happen, and she has to act quick, because getting the both of them back to a safer haven has taken so long that Alyssa is at least in the third stage and, again, judging from her temperature, is crossing into the last before… before the inevitable happens.

There are numerous times where she wanted to give her life to save another, but never got to do it because the other person died before her eyes before she ever could or because they did it first, leaving her alone again, most of them eternally unaware of her immortality. Now, however, she’s the one who has to do it, because Alyssa isn’t a mage like her, wasn’t born with the ability to cast spells, and she’s someone who deserves to live life at its fullest, unlike her.

Naomi has made her decision the moment she touched the flower and nothing is going to make her go back on her decision – aside from the idea to leave Alyssa alone, but the girl has made some friends in the village due to how kind she is, so at least, Naomi has some hope. If her companions have shown her something, it’s that there still are good people in this world, no matter how many atrocities she’s seen.

 Almost three centuries ago, she learnt spells that are now forbidden. One of them, whose original scroll has been burnt in an attempt to silence its deadly power, is the antidote to animantha poisoning. There may have been another way, hidden away in a forgotten script or still being conceived by some hermit mage or witch living in remote woods, but she doesn’t have the time to question it. All she can do, now, is apply the formula as she’s learnt it, hoping her spell memory has exceeded human standards. The curse should have at least given her that, if she was to become the Codex of Magic.

Her last name – the “Codex of Magic”, the true purpose of the curse inflicted on her so many years ago. How ironic, considering she’s lent all of the scripts she’s copied again in the bag she always carries with her, that she dies by the hands of one of the spells she was meant to preserve for prosperity. Even if she survives, she won’t be able to use the spell on herself afterwards in a timely manner, so she hopes Alyssa carries on her will. That’s all she wants.

 Ignoring the pain in her limbs and her own rising fever, Naomi gathers her powers in both palms of her hands, summoning all of her healing prowess for one last show. The spell calls for specific incantations, which flow out of her mouth as if she was born to say them at some point – something about summoning the power of hope itself, serving as its vessel for a miracle, giving up one’s life for the sake of another. The spell was named “Hope of the Unending Agape” for a reason, after all, and Naomi doesn’t have anything else to lose.

The amount and intensity of the mana running through her entire body is searing her from the inside as her hands carefully cradle Alyssa on the bed of the house, cupping the girl’s face as the mage hopes it will work as intended. Alyssa must survive, it’s all that matters, she doesn’t care about the price of it all, just give this girl her life back, don’t take her away from the mortal realm so soon, not when she has so much to see and discover, so much to live and smile at.

Hope can take her soul, she doesn’t care, but that flower won’t take away Alyssa’s, she swears on her life. One has lived for too long and the other is too young to pass away.

 This spell feels like inflicting agony on oneself, so her vision is starting to give in and so do most of her sense following it. She’s burning on the inside, either from the spell or from the toxaemia, but there’s no way for her to distinguish anymore. What she knows, however, is that Alyssa’s skin is cooling down and her tremors are fading away. This is more than a relief: she’ll survive. Alyssa will see another day and have the life she deserves, sunny and beautiful.

Little by little, frame by frame, Alyssa’s complexion regains its colour, the red stains on her cheeks disappearing. The sweat that was pearling on her skin fades away. Her frowned feature relax and give way to a peaceful expression, as if she had been sleeping all along. It’s a beautiful sight, really.

 However, the same can’t be said for Naomi, as a huff of platinum smoke escapes from her lips and she collapses in pain. She has exhausted every cell of her being, or so it feels like, and it’s up to the curse to see if she’s worth saving – she doubts it, because a curse is a curse, and being a benefactor for its host would go against its own nature.

It very much feels like she’s dying, at long last. Her vision is mostly black now, safe for a couple blurry shapes, and most of her senses have already given in: her hearing has been replaced with a sort of slightly disturbed silence, she can’t tell what she’s touching and the only taste in her mouth is that of copper and iron. All she can feel are the tears going down her cheeks and the relief that, at least, someone is getting out of this alive.

Despite technically meeting her end at the hands of a toxic flower, Naomi doesn’t see it this way: she views her demise as the ultimate act to save a life and, as such, doesn’t have the shadow of a regret. Sure, there may have been things she’d have wished to do before she’d die, and her survival is a very unlikely gambit on the curse acting up; but they don’t matter compare to the reasons why she did such a thing, why she took on someone’s deadly pain onto herself.

 The only thing she’ll be missing is the warmth of Alyssa’s voice…

  When Alyssa wakes up from something that was between a dream and a nightmare, which she can’t remember aside from the magnificent gaze of a solar goddess looking to her eyes, she quickly realizes what she saw in her sleep wasn’t a figment of her imagination – and immediately knows, upon touching long and slender lukewarm hands, she has a task to accomplish to pay back a life-changing favour.

[sserpente]

A/N: Requests from two anons and @eislyn-vis. I changed the scenario a bit but now there’s a different kind of Red Riding Hood concept.

Words: 1954 Warnings: angst, fluff, attempted rape, mentions of smut

“Come on, brother, it’ll be fun. How will you ever redeem yourself if you don’t spend time with us and prove to them you’re more than just the God of Mischief?” Thor bellowed, patting Loki’s shoulder so hard he stumbled forward. The Trickster rolled his eyes.

“I have no need to be redeemed, Thor. You are fully well aware it were not solely my actions that brought chaos to New York.”

Thor’s smile faltered a little. “I know. Maybe tonight, you can convince the others of that too.”

“I will not costume myself and drink myself into stupor, brother.” Thor had painted his face entirely white and added dark blue circles under his eyes. Fake blood was dripping down the corners of his mouth and whenever he spoke, Loki caught a glimpse of those way too big plastic fangs. He looked absurd.

“You don’t have to. Just come along, have a drink with me and celebrate Halloween with us.”

He stared at him, considering his invitation briefly. He could always cause some mischief among the crowd. Surely, a real living snake in the punch would elicit some kind of reaction.

“Fine,” he finally replied. “One drink.”

Thor’s grin was triumphant when he grabbed his brother by the neck and dragged him with him into the living room. Loki was already regretting he had said yes when he shoved a green drink in his hand and then joined Tony, Natasha and Steve. Dirty looks were shot in his direction as soon as they lay their judgemental eyes upon him.

He rolled his eyes once more, carefully sipping on his drink. It was not too bad, for a Midgardian brew. Annoyed, he let his eyes roam over the costumed crowd—he was not interested in a conversation with the Avengers anyway—right until he caught sight of a petite woman next to one of the doctors. Alas, you were petite to him, your red dress barely covering your delicious backside. You were wearing a red jacket that came with a hood, too, presumably made of leather. What were you supposed to illustrate? Red traffic lights Loki had discreetly ignored the first time Thor had sat him behind the wheel of a Midgardian vehicle?

“Who is that?” He found himself asking. Fascination was boiling in his veins, an interest he could not quite name as of yet.

Thor frowned. “Who?”

“That woman over there… the one wearing the red dress.” You had combined your outfit with black heels and equally black tights. Quite frankly… you looked ravishing. When was the last time he had felt immediate sexual interest in a woman?

“Oh, that… that is (Y/N), she’s a young scientist. Works with Banner. Why?”

Loki pursed his lips. “Never mind. What is she dressed up as?”

“Red Riding Hood.” Natasha said, folding her arms suspiciously. The God of Mischief rolled his eyes once more. He had no idea who or what Red Riding Hood was. All he knew was that he needed to hear your voice. He doubted you would be willing to speak to him though—after all, you worked with the Avengers. You knew what he had done.

Loki downed his drink quickly, choosing to spend the rest of the night watching you. For a moment, he even considered casting an illusion, transforming himself into someone else but then decided against it. If he were to get to know you… then he should have a chance for you to like him just the way he was, no tricks involved.

He almost snorted at the thought. Whoever would? According to Midgardian myths, he was the incarnation of evil. According to his life, he was an outsider, a villain, a monster.

Pressings his lips together to a thin line, he stood to pour himself another drink. Perhaps he should drink himself into stupor after all.

-

How come he had never seen you around before? Granted, Loki usually spent most of his time in his cell, pardon, room in the compound and he had not been here long enough to be acquainted with the entire team as of yet. Still… a young beauty such as you… he should have noticed you.

He was met with a hungover Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff in the kitchen. Cleaning maids—apparently, so Loki had been told by Thor, they were getting paid for their services—were taking care of the disgusting mess the party guests had left. Loki really did not understand all the fuss about Halloween.

Repulsed, he stepped over an empty glass bottle on the floor and poured himself a cup of coffee. Unlike the two mortals in the kitchen, he had remained entirely unaffected from last night’s alcoholic adventure.

At three am, when there was still no end of the party in sight, he retreated, stopping by Stark’s library before returning to his cell—bedroom. He quickly found what he was looking for and ended up falling asleep to the fairy tale of little Red Riding Hood wandering through a dark forest to bring her sick grandmother cake and wine.

“You left early last night, brother. You didn’t disappear with the lovely (Y/N), did you?” Thor entered the kitchen with a sneaky grin on his lips. Tony’s face fell, his eyes locking with Loki’s.

“Did you touch her?” Hmm… interesting. Of course they would not want him anywhere near an innocent young woman—but he sure loved getting on the billionaire’s nerves. If only he could say yes. He would have loved to have felt you underneath him last night.

“And if I did, then what?” He replied instead, scorn swinging in his voice.

“He’s bluffing.” Natasha stated unfazed. Tony ignored her. “(Y/N) left the compound to go for a run in the forest nearby ten minutes ago.”

“Stay away from her. If I even see you near her, I’ll see to it SHIELD locks you up again.”

“Because that worked out so well the first time you attempted to do so, yes?” Proudly, Loki lifted his chin, staring him down until he had to blink.

“(Y/N) is an honourable, decent woman. She’d never waste her breath on you.” The God of Mischief swallowed. There was a chance Stark was not lying. Still, he had all the information he needed.

“Worry not, Stark. In case you are concerned for her honour, however, I would strongly advise you stay away from the girl yourself.” He teleported himself out of the room before Tony could respond, finding himself on an idyllic forest path. Romanoff’s information had been vague but it was enough for Loki to locate you.

Casting an illusion on himself, his heart almost leaped out of his chest when you ran past him, dressed in a tight sports outfit complimenting each and every one of your curves. Ironically, it was red.

By the Norns, was this not pathetic? Making himself invisible and watching you sweat like a mad predator? What other choice did he have? Stark’s harsh words rang in his ears, making him wonder if they were true after all.

Oh, nonsense. If you were truly honourable, perhaps you would give him a chance despite his past. He would simply… where had you gone? You had been there only a second ago!

Loki flinched when you screamed. Alarmed, he rushed to your side, abandoning his invisibility charm. A strange man had sneaked up on you, holding a small knife to your throat from behind and dragging you off the safe path into the undergrowth.

He could only imagine what it was he wanted from you. He gnashed his teeth. How dare he even think about touching you against your will. Possessiveness crawled through his body, along with a strong urge to protect you. Loki had never even heard your voice and still… He was not cruel. Surely, he would have helped any woman from getting raped before his eyes, yet with you he felt that if he failed saving you, something inside him would break. His heart? No, his heart had long been broken. But there was a connection. A connection he could not quite describe. He wondered… would Frigga know? His mother… the woman who had raised him had always known advice for any predicament he had found himself in, up until he had found out what he really was.

Without any hesitation, he grabbed the stranger by the throat and hurled him against a tree, the knife falling to the ground and landing mutely in the green moss.

“What the…”

He looked up, realising who had attacked him and swallowing thickly.

“You have three seconds before I rip your head off.” He growled, making him stumble to his feet and run faster than you had ever seen a man run before. Relief washed over you.

“L-Loki?” Your eyes widened when you recognised him, hovering above you, his dark glare downright murderous. You frowned.

“And there I was thinking that I would be the big bad wolf in this scenario.” He replied with an amused grin, remembering the fairy tale he had read last night.

“What are you talking about?” Still frowning, you let him help you up, electricity rippling through you when your hands touched.

By the Norns, standing this close to you only made him realise now how tiny you were compared to him. He could just lift you up with both his hands, bring your delicious quim to his face and bury his tongue between your folds all the while you hung in his arms completely helpless, forced to accept the pleasure he was offering you…

“I am afraid you caught my attention at the party last night.” Now that was an understatement but at least, it was not a lie.

You raised an eyebrow. Oh… your costume, of course… “That does not explain why you followed me into the woods.” Ah. Yes.

“I shall be glad I did. Stark was very vehement about me staying away from you.”

“Tony tends to get a little overprotective from time to time.”

“I do not like being told what not to do.”

You blinked. You had never actually spoken to Loki before. You were aware of his presence in the compound, of course—yet the stories the Avengers had told you had made you hesitate. You had not exactly avoided him, still you had to admit you had not been overly keen on joining Bruce in the lab when he was present.

Loki had shattered your opinion of him like a piece of glass. If he truly was as evil as the heroes made him out to be, then why had he just saved you from a rapist? Your heart was still beating like a steam hammer, adrenaline cursing through your body. You didn’t even realise you were bleeding until Loki reached for your neck and gently pulled you towards him.

“He injured you. I should have killed him after all.” He muttered tenderly.

“I-I’m okay.” Loki looked up, your eyes locking. He had not imagined it then. There was a connection. But you were suspicious of him, he could tell. The hesitation radiated off of you like liquid heat. At least, he felt no hatred and disgust.

Making you flinch, he brushed his thumb against the bleeding wound the man’s knife had caused. One second passed before it disappeared, leaving behind unblemished skin Loki was itching to taste with his mouth.

“Thank you…” You murmured, unsure of how to react to his gentleness. What was it he had said? That you had caught his attention last night? “I, um… I’m heading back now, will you… will you join me?”

Loki nodded slowly, suppressing a triumphant grin. “With pleasure.” It was a start, at least.

-

A/N: Check out my blog to find more Imagines and take a glimpse at my first (to be) published novel! Also, if you enjoyed this story, I would appreciate so much if you supported me on Kofi! ko-fi.com/sserpente ♥

[asgardianthot]

Flesh And Bones - Part 5

Soulmate AU

Series Masterlist

A/N: This one’s a long one to make up for how awfully long it took me to post it :D I’m so sorry I literally suck I don’t deserve your interest BUT it’s also a good one so hopefully you’ll forgive me :D and hopefully I’ll post a LOT more regularly. Enjoy!!

TW: one short mention of suicide

Words: 3557

"Bucky, stop!" Wanda shouted.

She did her best to ignore the flying items of clothing that were being thrown with no specific aiming, and instead was directing her stern look towards Barnes. The soldier’s room was a current mess, with its inhabitant grabbing everything from inside his closet and throwing it out in the most dramatic manner possible, to the floor, to his bed, it didn’t really matter as long as his message was clear: he was packing up. There was an open travel bag over at the corner, waiting to be filled so that the man could flee.

Wanda seemed more concerned than shocked at the news. Sure, finding out those two were soulmates wasn’t anything she had expected to happen anytime soon, but there would be time to digest that later. Right now, Bucky was either making a scene or going mental, or probably both, so she focused on getting him to stop.

"This is insane.” She scolded him, disappointment clear on her tone, “Nat, tell him."

When the Maximoff girl turned to ask for backup from Natasha, the latter showed no real aid whatsoever: she was holding back laughter, still at awe from the reason behind the disturbs, which was Barnes and Wilson were soulmates, and it for some reason was the most ironic, hilarious and tragicomic thing she had ever heard of.

"It-" the redhead tried to support Wanda, but failed as her contained chuckle escaped her lips, and she had to cover her smile with her hand; she quickly nodded, attempting to get rid of the smug look on her face, "It is, it's crazy."

Maximoff looked at her like she was the biggest disappointment in the room at the time. If there was something she didn’t need right now was unhelpfulness.

She turned to the man in question, "What are you trying to accomplish?"

"I'll just move out!” he yelled back, sounding like not even he trusted his own plan, “It'll go away!"

"No it won't, and you know it!" the witch pleaded, growing more and more exasperated.

"No, I don't.” Bucky stopped his actions to shrug dramatically, “You don't know it, nobody really knows how this thing works."

Eventually, Romanoff swallowed her giggles and decided to step in in more seriousness.

"Wanda's right.” She tilted her head, sympathetic, “You're just gonna have to face it."

Barnes didn’t care to dignify the intervention with an answer. He easily shook his head and grabbed the travel bag from the corner. A loud sigh was heard coming from Wanda, who stood there rather defeated and crossing her arms. Looking around, she frowned at the amount of clothes and garbage that lied all over the floor and didn’t seem to bother Bucky in the slightest.

"Have you always been this messy?” she judged him, taking her anger out on that unimportant detail, “You were a fugitive."

Barnes faced her and replied in ridiculous anger, "I got messier, it's one of the perks of not being on the run!"

Wanda went along with their deaf debate and proceeded to scold him about it, so that he would at least stop moving for a few seconds.

"You're running away as we speak!" Maximoff threw her hand in the air.

-

"Don't."

Steve hadn’t produced a single word since Barnes had abandoned the common room, followed by Natasha. The zone had remained static, only disrupted by Sam’s slow walk to the couch, where he slouched with lost eyes. Steve stood in the same spot he had been standing for the last ten minutes, both in absolute silence until Sam phrased the negation.

Rogers raised an eyebrow, "I didn't-"

"You're thinking it." Sam cut him off in annoyance.

The blonde was left to open his mouth only to shut it closed again. Both resumed their processing. Steve, even if not one of the actors of the situation, was finding himself at a mental bifurcation. Both of his best friends, the ones he had attempted to turn best friends to each other and failed multiple times, were bound. And none of them seemed too happy about it.

After minutes of more silence, it appeared as if something clicked inside of Sam’s brain.

“Fuck.” He let out, then stared at the ceiling with a sarcastic smile that was anything but happy.

He shook his head and stood up, headed to his room, and rarely to be seen again.

In fact, he began avoiding the rest of the team quite successfully. He picked up every small, individual mission or debriefing, and made sure to spend as much time away from the kitchen as possible. Tony asked him what was going on at the tower that had everybody so tense, when Sam met him at Stark Industries.

Back at SHIELD headquarters, an unexpected visit surprised him on labor hours. He was dropping some paperwork at an empty office where Maria Hill was supposed to be, and as he turned to the open door, his eyes clashed against a figure standing in his way.

“Look who’s still alive.” Natasha smiled, leaning against the doorframe and crossing her arms.

Sam was left to do less than nod. He merely acknowledged her presence and didn’t deny his disappearance for the last days.

“Just taking some time.” He let out with detachment, “I think I earned it.”

He was referring to the injury he had suffered on the job. Samuel Wilson was never one to cut schedules or skip work; as a matter of fact, he was the first one to openly judge and poke fun at whoever showed themselves lazy when it came to avenging. That whoever being, very often, Bucky. Usually, and he hadn’t failed to prove it, not even getting his ass kicked would be enough for Sam to take any sort of injury leave. However, this time, even with his ribs and shoulder healed, he decided to pretend like he hadn’t been working as much. Of course, he simply had managed to get work done without alerting the nosy –and preoccupied- team members nor Barnes of his whereabouts.

“As long as you need.” Romanoff did her best to support him and let him know he wasn’t being judged nor reprimanded for shutting out. “We just miss you ‘s all.”

A small, appreciative smile popped up on Wilson’s face, which was enough for Natasha. All she wanted was to make sure Sam was alive and well, after all. And to report to Steve that Sam was alive and well. Seconds of awkward silence passed until Natasha uncrossed her arms and took one step forward, in order to attain some sort of intimacy.

“You okay?” she asked endearingly.

“Yep.” Sam popped his lips, failing to sound very convincing.

Another wave of quiet hit the office. Now that Natasha had reached out, perhaps he could get some information from the other side. Asking the former double-agent seemed fitting.

“Is-?” he tried to formulate the question, yet fell short of words.

Noticing his struggling, Natasha raised an eyebrow.

“You’re asking me if James is alright?” she managed to assume, which earned her a hesitant head tilt from her coworker; the redhead couldn’t conceal an amused grin, “I wouldn’t know. You’re so good at avoiding each other, we don’t see any of you anymore.”

However, Wilson didn’t appear as amused. Instead, the spy’s response only made him remember how deeply bad he felt about this whole thing. He wanted to talk to Bucky. He wanted to clear things out, even if Sam himself didn’t know what clear was at that point, but he figured they could decipher it together. For some unknown reason, Sam felt drawn to being in Bucky’s presence. He would often find himself pursuing said presence, without even realizing how willingly. And especially now, he felt the need to confront the man. Maybe he was used to his company, or maybe it was something else. Maybe it had to do with the bond.

“Something on your mind?” Natasha drew him away from his thoughts, yet quickly realized how both oblivious and redundant that sounded, “Besides the obvious.” She tilted her head to the side with sympathy.

Sam thought hard about that one. Yes, there were a million things on his mind at that very second, but he lacked the energy and courage to build an entire therapy session right there and then. The amount of things he could get off his chest would take him hours to go through, probably. Still, there was one specific detail that he considered to be a good start in his process; hopefully, communicating it to someone –with that someone being interested enough to ask– would help.

So he leaned on the desk and sighed, preparing to tell the story as he stared down to his dressing shoes.

"Remember when we were taking down SHIELD... back in the warehouse where they kept Fury." Once he pushed through the opening sentence, he stared up to check on Natasha’s attention.

She nodded, a frown planted on her face, and went back to crossing her arms over her chest. Sam knew she didn’t mean to look unapproachable but was simply attempting to understand him fully. Therefore, he took another breath and continued.

"We had just fought... him."

Sam meant the Winter Soldier. Natasha knew that Sam meant the Winter Soldier. Everyone knew that Sam never referred to the man under brainwash as Bucky, because he knew that that wasn’t Bucky. Bucky was innocent and protective and grumpy and good and Bucky would regret joining the army if it wasn’t for Steve and Bucky had nightmares about everything he did during the war and while under Hydra. The man that all three heroes had fought back in 2014 wasn’t Bucky.

"Yeah." Natasha nodded, allowing him to keep talking.

"Hydra got him at that point, right? And I can't imagine what they did to him, but... back in that warehouse, I started feeling this horrible pain.” He described the scene squinting his eyes, “Like my brain was set on fire."

"You didn't say anything." Romanoff recalled with curiosity.

He shrugged, "You had a gun wound, a headache wasn't exactly a priority to anyone at the moment." He received an understanding look from Natasha, thus agreeing with his better judgement, "Besides, it wasn't the first time."

Another concerning look plastered itself on the woman’s features.

“What do you mean?”

Suddenly, Wilson began regretting opening up in the first place.

“Nothing.” He shook his head, but quickly regained the strength to at least finish the story, “Just… that soulmate bond? I felt it way back. Before Barnes and I met.”

-

Nobody had knocked on Sam’s door all afternoon, and still, there was a piece of paper that had been clearly slid under it. Whoever had dropped it off didn’t want to face him, which gave him an idea of who that was. He sighed, already emotionally drained from his talk with Natasha, one that had become much longer than anticipated, and bent his back to pick it up from the floor.

Once in his hands, he noticed it was a note. And in it, although there was no signature nor name, an apology he easily trailed back to Bucky.

"I'm sorry for coming at you like that.

I don't think you're obsessed with soulmates.

And you're definitely not crazy.

That would be me, actually."

-

The former assassin continued to try and find a way out of the situation, and exclusively, a way out that wouldn’t hurt Sam. That was all he cared about, really: not dragging a good and kind man into his mess.

He often locked himself with distracting activities, but lately, he had become much more proactive in not avoiding reality. First, he had slid an apology note under Sam’s door. Now, he needed to come up with a solution.

Googling about soulmate research and crazy theories, he stumbled upon a website, a help group for people who felt their soulmate's bond when it was too late: people who felt the injury that killed their unknown significant-other-to-be. The first testimony was already dark and unnecessarily informative: a woman narrated the sensation of sliced wrists on her untouched skin.

Bucky felt the mix of sadness and frustration revolting his guts, and he shut the laptop closed with a groan. Not only did the thought of people suffering such unjust fates regarding their love-lives disgust him, but it also killed his hope of an escape. If the whole thing could be so cruel to simple human beings, then maybe his bond to Sam was a sick joke.

He decided to walk up to Wilson’s room complex, and this time, he did knock on the door.

The man’s voice was heard from inside, "Come in."

For some reason, the sound of his voice hit Bucky in the stomach. He hadn’t heard him in a while, which wasn’t usual for them, but still, this wasn’t like the other times they had spent time apart. This time, they knew about this weird, unknown and unspoken bond. It could mean that the other had feelings for them, or it could mean they themselves felt things and didn’t even know it.

It was confusing as it was, and now hearing Sam’s voice made it all much more dizzying.

Nevertheless, Bucky gathered up some strength and opened the door. Sam was sitting on his desk, working on a laptop. It looked like he had been taking a little break, by the look of his relaxed body leaned on the chair and the mug of coffee on his hands.

As soon as Sam recognized the person walking into his room, he stood up and abandoned the mug on top of his desk.

"Did you read my note?" Barnes broke the ice.

Sam nodded, suddenly forgetting what to do with one’s hands.

"Yeah."

Bucky replied with a similar nod. The quiet tension surrounding them was too much to ignore, so Bucky simply slid his hands inside the back pocket of his jeans and shut his eyes, preparing for the conversation they were about to have.

"I don't-“ he sighed, still not opening his eyes, and went straight to the point, “I can't be your soulmate."

Sam raised his eyebrows and pretended the sentence didn’t hurt.

"Gee, thanks." He mocked.

"You know we can't." Bucky reiterated in all seriousness when he met Sam’s gaze.

Unfortunately, both men meant completely different things. On his part, Wilson had processed the bond as something tricky, because they hadn’t been best friends in the past. For some time they even believed to dislike each other.

"Yeah, took me by surprise as well. But I doubt there's much we can do about it." The veteran shrugged, doing his best to conceal how unwanted the chat was making him feel.

Bucky scratched his forehead with nervousness.

"If I just... go away." He began, and before Sam could interrupt the presentation of his dumb idea, he raised his palm in somewhat desperation, "Just, hear me out.” He pleaded, “I leave. For good. And eventually you can find someone else."

"That's not-"

"Not how it works, I've heard that.” Bucky spat with frustration, “But what about people who skip the rules? The ones who never have a soulmate. Or the ones who swear they've had two in a lifetime, that's...” the soldier had to stop and breathe after such a declaration, “…we can skip the rules."

After making sure that Barnes was done explaining his brilliant plan, Sam stepped in.

"Sounds awfully romantic for a plan to avoid romance." He said sarcastically.

Bucky knew that behind the jokes, Sam had actually listened and therefore was considering the offer. He let the thought sit in for a few more minutes, but as Sam failed to say anything, which consequentially meant he wasn’t agreeing, the brunette continued to try and convince him.

"I just... it ain't me.” He shook his head, “That's not fair."

Eventually, Wilson started to follow Bucky’s trail of thought. It suddenly didn’t sound like the problem were Bucky’s feelings for him, but Bucky’s feelings about himself.

He frowned, “What, for me?"

Barnes stared at him like he had expected him to understand that ages ago.

"Yeah, you know...” He said now with less confidence, “I'm Barnes. I'm pretty sure this is the universe punishing you for something."

The former assassin had a rapid intrusive thought about how he didn’t use to believe in bigger purposes, and now that he was part of one, any divine reason behind a soulmate bond could potentially make sense to him.

"Unless you got a dark past we haven't heard about, you don't deserve this." He finally added, making sure they were on the same page.

The total picture finally kicked into Sam’s brain.

"Is that why you think I don't like this situation? Your baggage?"

On his part, Bucky kept thinking that he was in the right, so he figured Sam wouldn’t have the nicest opinion on the matter.

"Just forget it, okay? I'm telling you I can be out here by tomorrow.” He insisted, avoiding the subject of his baggage, “Just don't tell Steve or he'll try to convince-"

"Do you think-“ Sam cut him off, raising his voice, “Do you think I don't want you as my soulmate because you used to be the Winter Soldier?"

By then, it was Bucky who felt a little in the dark.

"I mean..."

"No! It's because you're annoying as hell!” Sam snapped, his disbelief becoming plain anger, “And this is the perfect example. You didn't even let me face you, you jumped- no, sprinted to conclusions, and can't even hold a proper conversation without trash talking over me."

The fact that Sam actually wanted to give the bond a try got through Bucky’s thick skull after weeks of denying the possibility of it. And it should have made him joyful, to know that Sam didn’t view him like some sad obligation or cruel punishment. He wanted to be happy about it, but receiving a scolding from Wilson never failed to offend him. It was sort of their dynamic.

Bucky’s shocked expression turned into a tantrum-like one, "Oh, like you're so amazing yourself!"

"Trust me, I am amazing.” Sam flaunted himself with a big accusatory hint in his tone, “I'm over here trying to discuss things, despite you being emotionally unavailable.”

Barnes wanted to comeback, to interrupt Sam with a winning argument, but there was none. He hadn’t given any situation a try; not talking to Sam when he found out in the first place, not communicating their mindsets, not listening. He found himself at a loss of words, his mouth gaping and closing again. Sam continued to get hyped up in the worse way possible.

“You keep saying how you'll leave the tower forever, meanwhile I'm-"

Bucky’s loss of words turned into a raging wave of bravery. The knot in his stomach made him feel impulsive, and the sensation that just trying would solve everything pushed him to do the unthinkable.

He interrupted not with an insult, but with a kiss. He took two large leaps in order to close the gap between them, grabbed Sam’s face by each side and collided their lips roughly. The messy mouth crashing against his took Sam by surprise, but he easily gave in, which not only allowed Bucky to continue, but also to tidy the contact. They became gentle, their lips mending with each other like fitting puzzle pieces, and instantly moving in synchrony.

The hands that were holding Sam’s face lowered to the back of his neck, which Bucky held sweetly with his flesh thumb running up and down his nape. It only took Sam half a second to react and hold Bucky’s waist, dragging him close until their chests were impossibly together. They could both feel the other’s heartbeats thumping and decreasing their rapid rate as they reacted to each other’s caresses.

Nothing could have prepared them for how right it felt to have their heads spinning, stomach churning, warmth setting a home inside their ribcages.

As soon as one of them ended the contact and their wet lips were feeling cold without the other, both pairs of wide eyes met in shock.

"Oh." Sam let out.

The onomatopoeia not only let Bucky know that Sam wasn’t expecting the chemistry either, but also that the chemistry had been just as explosive for Sam as well. The brunette stepped back, losing his grip on Sam’s shoulders and losing Sam’s grip on his own waist.

"Yeah." He let out with a breath, agreeing.

Sam copied Barnes and stepped back as well, allowing some distance between them while they let what they had just felt sink in.

A frown took over Sam’s eyebrows.

"I still kinda hate you, though."

Bucky let a small chuckle escape, "God, this is so stupid." He said before engaging in a penetrant stareoff, which he lost; he glanced at the door and ran one hand down his face, "I'm gonna go. Not walking away from a discussion, just... leaving it at that." He defended himself although he wasn’t being accused of anything.

Still, the second that he stepped out the door and into the hallway, Sam spoke in hopes of being heard by the long gone figure.

"That's the definition of walking out."

[writing-blog-iguess]

Secrets

Summery: Being Tony Stark’s daughter isn’t easy. Especially when you’ve been shielded from his superheroing life. All there is, is secrets and you can’t stand them. Even from your best friends. Until one day, you find out about Spider-Man and who he really is. And you don’t take it very well.

Words: 4520

Warnings: language, um fighting scene was really badly written(well I think so anyways) stabbing.

A/N: This here? This took me a bit over a week and I enjoyed every minute of it. So I’m sorry if there’s any mistakes but please enjoy it nonetheless! And uh, I’m not sure where this falls into the MCU, but whatever. This is more platonic then romance though.

 Also, I will take requests if anyone’s interested. Will just have to be patient. Comments are welcome but please enjoy!

@watermage23

Secrets, you hated secrets. It was tolerable when your dad kept them from you. You understood it, not wanting you to be apart of the Avengers. You didn't want to apart of the fighting, but it didn't mean to be completely cut off from that life.

You wanted to be apart of Tony's life, even if it meant just hanging out the common area being lazy with everyone.

That was fine.

But it never happened and since Peter got the internship, which you never even heard of, with you're dad, you saw less and less of him. You couldn't hate Peter, you never could. He was after all, you're best friend. The person you've loved since freshman year.

And lately, Peter was hiding something from you and you hated it. Hated the cancelled plans, hated the whispers with Ned and MJ, hated the silence it came with it when you joined them. Hated it so much that you slowly became distant.

Whatever, if they didn't want to tell you that's fine. Didn't mean you have to deal with it everyday.

Walking into the cafeteria at lunch that day, you saw your three friends hunched over whispering about something. What, you couldn't tell but you knew today was a day you didn't want to interrupt.

Adjusting your backpack, you turned around and stalked off. Not seeing Peter's face fall as you walked away.

You had decided to spent your lunch period outside, finishing your homework in peace. However, that peace didn't last long when your dad called.

"Hey Dad," you greeted without so much of looking away from your homework.

"Hey (Y/N)," he greeted back. "Why aren't you inside eating with your friends?"

"Wanted to sit outside and finish my homework. I want to be in lab when I get home." Tilting your head, you narrowed your eyes. "Dad, how do you know I'm outside?"

Tony nervously chuckled. "Because I'm Iron Man?"

"Dad," you warned and practically see him shuddering.

"Alright alright. Peter called, he wanted to know if you were okay." You only shook your head. "Sweetheart, you're becoming distant. We're just worried that's all."

"I'm fine Dad. There's nothing to worry about."

Tony didn't push the subject, knowing how stubborn you are. So he changed the subject, which you were thankful for.

"You want to work on that secret project that you won't tell anyone about?" Tony questioned. So you have a few secrets of your own, it was only natural.

"Yup." Pausing, you looked up and bit your lip in thought. "How long do I get the lab before you kick me out and work on something with Bruce or Peter?"

"Maybe an hour? I don't know, depends on when Peter comes by."

Of course.

Sighing, you shook your head and went back to your homework.

"I'm sorry sweetheart."

"I know. It would be a lot easier if you let me in." You've had this conversation before, and it was always the same. Him telling you it's to dangerous, you telling him you didn't need to be in the field just at home. To help. It was always the same and it got tiring.

Before Tony could get a word in, you sighed and started packing up your stuff. "Whatever. Lunch is almost done. I'll see you later," you said and hung up.

Standing up, you stretched before grabbing your backpack and made your way inside.

"Hey (Y/N)," Peter greeted you at your locker. You gave him a wave as you looked through your books. "Missed you at lunch. Where'd you go?"

"Outside," you answered as you finally found the books you needed. "Wanted to finish some things up." Freeing the books from your locker, you closed it shut and turned to Peter. "Hey, what time will you be at the compound tonight?"

"Um," Peter furrowed his as he thought about it, "6 I think. Why? Need a study buddy?"

You shook your head as you two made it to your class. "Nah, just wondering."

***

With school done, and finally at home, you threw your backpack in your room before running towards the lab.

"Whoa there. Where's the fire?" Tony asked, jumping out of the way so you didn't run into him.

"The lab! I want to get some work done before Peter gets here!"

"What about homework?"

"I've finished half at school and the other half later!" And with that you were gone.

By the time Peter came over, you were nearly finished with your project. You just needed a couple more hours and it was done.

Hearing the lab doors open, you barely had enough time to cover it up and place a box on top of it with the words; DO NOT TOUCH on it.

"Whatcha working on (Y/N)?" Peter asked, bouncing towards you.

"Nothing," you answered giving him a smile, he pouted at the answer.

"Awe come on (Y/N/N) you can tell me."

"Let it go kid, she's not going to crack. I've been trying for days now and she won't tell me," Tony said with a shake of his head.

"What can I say? It's a surprise." Standing up, you stretched hearing bones crack. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to finish my homework." Leaving the two in the lab. "And if you touch the box, I will end you!" you shouted and heard a squeal from Peter causing you to laugh.

***

After a few hours of homework, you walked in the kitchen, needing something to drink and a bit of a break. You noticed Sam talking to Peter and wondered when they became friends. Not wanting to disturb their conversation.

You tried not to eavesdrop, you really did. But when they mentioned Spider-Man, you couldn't help it. Grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge, you lingered for a minute to listen.

"You've done a pretty good job looking out for the little guy, Spider-Boy." You heard Sam say, causing you to crinkle your eyebrows.

"It's Spider-Man," Peter said and nodded. "Thanks, its not easy being Spider-Man and going to school. Trying to find that balance is a bit difficult but I've managed."

"It'll get easier," Sam stated. Though Peter thought differently.

"You're what?" you heard yourself saying, as the words finally sunk in. The bottle of water you were holding fell to the floor, rolling away from you as you stared at Peter.

Peter and Sam whipped around when they finally noticed you were in the room.

"(Y/N)," Peter started, jumping over the couch and made his way to you.

Shaking your head, you turned and quickly left the room. I'm suppose to be a genius. I should have figured it out. I'm (Y/N) fucking Stark. Your inner thoughts rambled as you walked towards the garage.

"(Y/N) wait!" Peter called behind you. You were debating whether or not to stop. But you slowed to a stop and whipped around, arms crossed.

"Peter! We're best friends! Why didn't you tell me?"

"I know," he said, frantically making his way to you, "but your dad didn't want me to say anything!"

"Of course he didn't!" you yelled, turning around you stalked off not wanting

Secrets, more fucking secrets.

"Where are you going?"

"I need some air! Don't follow me!"

You weren't sure how long you've been driving. All you knew was that it was dark, cold and you were hungry.

You were about to turn around when your bike made a sound and stopped. Annoyed, you looked down and saw that you were out of gas. Which only annoyed you further.

Getting off, you walked the bike to the side of the road grumbling the entire time. Kicking the bike stand, you took out your phone and texted Happy your coordinates and that you were in need of some gas.

With nothing to do but wait, you leaned on your bike as you scrolled threw your phone lost in thought.

You were so lost in thought, that you didn't hear footsteps coming towards you.

"What is a pretty thing like you doing out here all alone?" a male voice said from behind you.

Sighing, you put your phone away and turned around, assessing the three men. Shrugging, you crossed your arms, trying not to show them how scare you were. "Ran our of gas," you said with a shrug.

"Well just keep you company until they get here then," another said.

Shaking your head. "As much as I would love the company, I think I'm going to past."

"Awe come on sweetheart heart, we insist."

"And I insist your ugly asses leave," you stated, and bit your lip. My mouth is going to get me killed.

"What'd you say."

"I didn't think you needed hearing aids. You don't look that old." Shrugging slightly, "but what do I know?" Please shut up.

Growling, the men took out their knives ready for a fight. You weren't sure if you should feel offended that they didn't know you where Tony's daughter or thankful. But you where thankful of Natasha and Bucky and Steve for teaching you how to fight.

And you could stand your ground, provided with the people you were fighting against wasn't someone who trained in the Red Room or two super serum soldiers.

You barely had enough time to ready yourself before the first man took a strike at you. You dodged the tip of the blade by a few inches. And before he had the chance of striking again, you grabbed his arm and twisted it. He yelled in pain dropping the knife.

Before he had the chance of doing something else, you kicked him in the gut pushing him backwards. Another groan and a hiss to his friends for help, all three of them advanced towards you. You managed to dodge a punch but ended up getting nicked by a knife.

Wanting this fight to be done with, you grabbed the knife that was on the ground and threw it, hitting a leg of one of the men. Knowing that will keep him busy for a minute or you, you knocked someone off their feet and hit him on the head with your foot.

One down, two to go.

The man with the knife in his leg had managed to take the knife out of his leg, and started going after you. You ran towards him, and using his chest as leverage, kicking him to the ground as you rolled onto the ground.

You grunted and looked around for some sort of weapon. Eyes finally landing on a thick tree branch, you rolled towards as he started going at you again.

Leaping up, you swung the branch hitting him in the stomach. Clutching his stomach, he leaned forward giving you the perfect chance of hitting him on the head. He fell to the ground unconscious.

"One more t-" you were cut off when you felt arms wrapped around you.

"I'm going to make you pay for what you did," he growled in your ear. That's when fear started inching into your mind. Before you were over come with fear, you elbowed him in the guy, turning around once he let you go, and whacked his head with the branch. Which you were still holding, luckily.

Taking a deep shuttered breath, you called for the police, stating you found three unconscious men on the side of the road. And that one of them was stabbed in the leg.

Hanging up the phone, you kneeled down wanted to make sure that you didn't kill the creeps. That's when you had felt someone behind you. "I would ask if you needed help but it looks like-WHOA!" the voice yelled out and dodged the knife before it could hit its mark.

"Peter!" you hissed as you realized who was standing behind you. "I could have killed you!"

"Luckily I have spider-sense otherwise you would have," he said, looking about scared. You had noticed he wasn't wearing his Spider-man suit. It was just Peter. "Where'd you learn how to fight and throw knifes?"

"Bucky and Nat," you answered, making your way to your bike. You rummaged around until you found some zip-ties. Turning your back to Peter, you went over and tied their hands together for the police when they arrive. "And no, Dad doesn't know."

"How'd you get here anyways?" you asked, turning back to your friend.

"Happy gave me a lift," he answered pointing to the car that was sitting behind him. You looked and saw Happy waving to you slightly.

"I only called him a few minutes ago," you stated confused. "And we're three hours away from the city..." Trailing off you knew how they found you. "Where did my dad put it?"

"Put what? I don't know what you're talking about."

"Peter," you warned, "if you don't tell me I will stab you in the leg."

"It's on your bike," he rushed out, knowing you were one to keep your threats.

You were going to kill him. You were going to murder your dad.

Because of course he would put a tracker on your bike. Of course he would tell Happy to follow you the minute you left the compound. Because its Tony fucking Stark, who can do whatever he pleases.

Not bothering to answer, (Y/N) walked to the car and grabbed the jug of gas from Happy. Peter following your movements with his eyes. "So," he started once you got closer to your bike.

"What do you what Peter?" you asked, filling up your bike. You were tired, and just wanted to go home and sleep.

"I wanted to talk about earlier. But I guess we can talk about it another time."

You nodded in agreement. This is a conversation you needed when you weren't tired and pissed. "Yeah, that would be nice. Just...just not tomorrow."

"When?"

"I don't know. I just need some time I guess."

Peter deflated, hoping you weren't going to say that. "Okay. Well you know where to find me."

***

Three weeks.

It had been three weeks since that night and Peter was started to get anxious. Maybe you didn't want to be his friends anymore.

Truth is, you have forgiven him last week. You just didn't know how to start the conversation.

This was how your three weeks went.

First week, you spent it by completely avoiding Peter, with that Ned and MJ. The both of you not wanting to talk about what happened the Friday before, so they didn't push it.

By the end of Monday, the whole school knew that something happened between the two of you. Because once they get the silent treatment from (Y/N) Stark, they knew they fucked up.

By Friday, they knew that Peter must have done something really bad if it warrant the silent treatment from you for a week.

Week two, you weren't mad now, just disappointed a little. Tuesday, MJ had cornered you and you told her, knowing you needed to vent to someone that wasn't (sorta) involved. And after some curses and name calling, MJ agreed. It was a bit of a dick move of not telling you. Though she had encouraged you to talk to Peter. Get it out in the open.

You tried, you really did. But you didn't know how to even start up the conversation. So you spent the rest of the week figuring it out.

By Wednesday of the third week, MJ was starting to get annoyed with you. So she pulled you to the groups usual table at lunch, ignoring your protest. Ignoring the whispers in the room, you huffed and sat down beside MJ.

Which made you face Peter.

"Sup losers," MJ greeted and took out her sketch book. You just waved and started playing with your food, wondering if Peter was done being your friend.

Which was silly, you were the one that needed time.

"So, why is (Y/N) giving you the silent treatment?" Ned asked Peter, slightly ignoring you.

"She knows Ned, I thought I told you?"

"You did, clearly you guys need a push in the conversation," Ned stated and you glared at him.

"Mm. From what I heard, you're still ignoring the whole team," MJ stated, directed the statement to (Y/N). Peter and Ned's eyes grew in shock as they stared at you. This was news to them.

"You can do that?" Ned asked. "Ignore them and not cave?"

You snorted and shook your head. Taking a breath, you shrugged getting ready to take to them for the first time in three weeks. "It wasn't easy. I caved to all but my dad."

"Who'd you started talking to first?"

"Bucky. I can't stay mad at him for very long. Caved in that Saturday. Then it was Natasha. But that was only because she barged into my room and told me I was being childish and accused me of acting like my dad. Which is not something you want to hear first thing in the morning. So we ended up sparing for the rest of the day."

At this point Tony had figured out you snuck behind his back and made friends with the team. He couldn't do anything about it because you still refused to talk and listen to him. Showing him how stubborn a Stark can actually be.

"Who was next?" MJ urged, sketchbook abandoned. You had neglected to tell her this last week. So yeah, she became more invested in the story.

"Pepper. But that's cuz she scares me more then Natasha."

Ned snorted and shook his head. "You're scared of Pepper Potts?" Daring yourself, you looked up at Peter both thinking the same thing. Pepper can be scary when she needs to be.

"Shut up, Ned." Peter came to your defence and you offered him a small smile.

"So anyways, then it was Bruce." There was a pause as you thought for a moment. "No wait, I lied. Bruce was the first to get me to cave. Then it was Bucky. And I only caved to Bruce that night."

MJ snorted and shook her head. "I'm not even surprised."

"Rude." Poking your tongue at her, causing everyone to laugh. It was crazy how easy it was to fall into your habits before Spider-Man. "It's only because he has a very special place in my heart, okay?"

"Yeah sure whatever you say, nerd."

You huffed and shook your head, not having a comeback to that. "Anyways, Steve was the last that I had forgiven. Though he did the same thing Nat did. Barged into my room and gave a me a lecture about being the better man and come to reason and whatnot. I'm not actually sure what he said I tuned out quarter way through. I had asked him if I said I forgive if he would stop with the lecture. He said yes and that his planned worked."

"Wait, his plan for you to forgive him was to lecture you until you caved?" Peter asked, you nodded. "Wow, just a Steve way to go."

"Right? But I think he missed our talks about books and stuff. Whatever, I missed them too."

"You forgot Barton," MJ reminded you.

"Oh yeah. I couldn't really be mad at him, he wasn't there most of the time. Did bother me that he knew though. Wanda and Vision I couldn't stay mad for very long either and Sam, well I don't know yet."

"What about Thor?" Peter asked.

"Right! Couldn't really stay mad at someone who's been off world."

"And you haven't talked to your dad since?" Ned asked, chewing on his sandwich.

"Yup. I think this is the longest time I've given him the silent treatment."

The bell rang, singling that lunch was over. The four of you stood and threw out your garbage as you made you way out of the cafeteria.

"Hey (Y/N)," Peter called. You stopped and turned around to face him. Giving him the go ahead, knowing what he was about to ask. "Can we talk? You know about, well, that?"

You nodded slowly, and started playing with your backpack string. "Yeah. Are you going to the compound after school? We can walk together and talk then?"

Peter's face lit up causing you to laugh. "Yeah sure. Meet you at your locker after school."

School finally over, you were at your locker putting away the books you didn't need and took out the ones you did need.

"Hey (Y/N)," Peter greeted just as you closed your locker.

"Dork," you greeted back and the two of you left the school in silence.

"So you're not mad at me anymore?" Peter finally asked as the two of walked further from the school.

You tilted your head before shaking it. "No not anymore. I'm just, well, just a little disappointed I guess."

Peters' shoulders slumped in defeat. That's worst then being mad. "I wanted to tell you, (Y/N) I swear!"

"I know," you continued noticing Peter's mood, "but I get why Dad wanted to keep it from me. He thinks that if I'm not part of the life as a superhero life I'd stay out of danger. But he also has to understand that everyone knows I'm his daughter, that I'm Iron Man's daughter. And it doesn't matter how much he tries, I'm always at risk of being in danger."

"So I'm forgiven?" Peter asked, looking hopeful.

(Y/N) tapped her chin pretending to dwell on that. Peter's face fell causing you to laugh. "Yeah Parker, I forgive you." Peter pushed you gently as you laughed. "Just no more secrets okay?"

"No more secrets," Peter promised. "So, does that mean I get to know what you're working on in the lab?"

You laughed and shook your head. "Nope, not until its done." Peter pouted but you could see the smile in his eyes. "Oh, I should probably mention that MJ knows about Spider-Man."

"(Y/N)!" Peter exclaimed, "you told her?!"

"Oh relax, I didn't tell her anything. She figured it out on her own. Apparently, you weren't very subtle about it."

"I was subtle enough that you didn't know," Peter pointed out. You frowned as you never thought about it.

"Yeah. That bothers me actually. MJ knew before I did, and I'm suppose to be a genius."

"MJ's just more observant then you," Peter said with a smile. You gasped and punched his shoulder.

"You take that back!"

"Can't take back what's true," Peter laughed and started running, making you run after him.

"Hey kids," Tony greeted as you and Peter walked into the common area. Both of you slightly out of breath.

"Hey Mr. Stark," Peter greeted with a wave. You just ignored him as you have since three weeks ago.

"I'll see you later Peter," you said instead and started walking towards your room.

"She forgave you and not me?!" Tony questioned. All Peter could do was offer a shrug. Turning around to face (Y/N), he shouted, "you can't keep this up forever!" It was met with the middle finger and Peter's attempt to not laugh. "You're grounded for a week!" This time it was met with a thumbs up.

"At least she's responding," Peter offered, Tony only glared.

So yeah, you've forgiven your dad over the weekend. You kept up the silent treatment just to annoy him.

Bonus (because apparently I have no self control):

“Hey guys?” you asked, and the three of your friends hummed. That Friday found you, Peter, Ned and MJ were sitting in the compound's main area. A movie was playing but none of you were paying much attention. Peter was sitting at the edge of the couch playing on his phone, with your head resting on his lap as you read a book. MJ laid on the floor drawing, and Ned was making something out of Lego's.

“Who would win in a fight? Thor or Carol?”

“Neither. Thor is Carol's fanboy. He wouldn't fight him,” Peter said without much thought.

“Why would they fight in the first place?” Ned questioned. You shrugged, just staring at the pages of your book.

“Maybe Thor turned evil and Carol's the only one available to,” MJ offered.

“That doesn't make sense, he'll never turn evil. He's Thor, the god of thunder.”

“This is theoretical Ned. It's not suppose to make sense,” you say throwing him a look. Closing the book, letting it fall to your chest. “I think Carol would win.”

“Because she's one of the toughest Avengers?” Ned asked.

“No, because she's a woman Ned.” MJ said sarcastically, fist bumping your outstretched arm. Ned rolled his eyes as Peter snorting.

“Okay, who would win between Natasha and Clint?” MJ asked.

“Natasha,” you stated simply. “She wouldn't have to do anything. Just stare at him and he'll stop.”

“I resent that!” Clint said from the vents in the ceiling.”

“You didn't let me finish!” Pause. “And you know it's true! As I was saying before we so rudely interrupted!” yelling the last part, causing everyone to laugh. “They wouldn't fight cause they care about each other.”

“Whatcha talking about kiddos?” Tony asked stopping the conversation.

“Who would win in a fight,” you said not paying attention.

“Ha! Ned you own me 50 bucks!” MJ exclaimed as Ned groaned.

You turned your head and stared at your friends in confusion, not seeing Tony's shocked face.

“They made a bet about you. See how long it would take you take talk to Tony,” Peter explained watching your face as it dawned on you.

“Fuck,” you whispered. Sitting up, you looked behind the couch and smiled sheepishly.

“My baby girl is talking to me!” Tony cried out happily, you rolled your eyes. “That means I'm forgiven!”

“Yup I forgive.”

“Well damn,” he whispered, “just because you know everyone now doesn't mean you get to go out with and fight.”

“Dad, that's not what I want to do at all,” you said propping your elbows on the back of the couch.

“Then what?” Tony asked confused. You were his daughter, he had assumed that you wanted to be just like Iron Man. So he couldn't understand why you didn't want to fight.

“I want to be the guy in the chair.”

“Hey!”

“You can be Spider-Man's guy in the chair, Ned. I want to be the Avengers guy in the chair,” you explained. “Help with the suit upgrades and research. I want to help you and Bruce in the lab and help Steve come up with strategies for missions. I want to become a scientist and help the world in a lab. I can't do that if I'm fighting for the world.”

Tony's eyes started to well as he tried not to let the tears fall. “You really are a Stark!”

“Of course I am. Who else could rival your sass?” He laughed shook his head.

“Okay, okay. You can become an Avenger, just only in the lab.”

“No place I’d rather be.” 

----

Feedback is always welcome.

[ancientwastedlores]

The Support System (Ch: 11)

STORY SUMMARY: The Avengers have managed to collect all the infinity stones across the universe, and are currently keeping them in far corners of the world, only for research and to see if they can improve the planet and its people. Reader is a researcher with Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, as well as a field agent. Loki is currently serving time for his actions in New York City in 2012, and struggling to gain acceptance from the Avengers, when reader decides he just needs a PR manager of sorts.

PREVIOUS CHAPTER AO3: The Support System 

A/N: Find this chapter on AO3 here. Fic requests are welcome! 

Warnings: none

Audience: general.

______________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 11:

You walk into the dining room, where Loki is unwrapping burgers and placing them on plates.

‘Oh we don’t need that; we can just eat from the wrappers’. He wrinkles his nose at the thought. ‘We are already eating junk, we don’t need to look like it’.

You let out a horrified laugh at his statement, and he continues plating the food. 

‘So, Loki…’ you take your seat as he serves you fries. ‘Why were you looking to access my files?’

He looks at you for split second before returning his attention to serving. You wait. Once he’s done, he sits down across from you and locks eyes with you. ‘I was curious’. ‘You can ask me’. ‘You wouldn’t tell me’.

Fair enough, you think. A year in the Avengers Tower, and even Tony had very little idea about your past. You just didn’t want anyone getting too close, but Loki trusted you enough to tell you about Thanos, and you feel like you should reciprocate.

‘Fine. You can ask me five questions; I will answer them as honestly as I can’ you say. His eyes widen. ‘Really!?’ ‘Yes. And that was one, so you got four left’.

He looks hurt, and begs to have the first question back, but you refuse, laughing. He frowns and accepts it finally.

‘What do you want to ask?’ you ask, as you sink your teeth into a burger. You feel his eyes on you, but you don’t look back at him. This is awkward enough as it is.

After a minute’s pause, he asks, ‘What were you asking protection from that night?’

You now look at him, still chewing your burger. You lean back and finish chewing, then swallow. You take a sip of your coke. Then you take a deep breath. ‘I thought I was being chased by men who wanted to take something from me that was dear to me’.

Loki nods. ‘I want to ask what the thing was, but I assume you don’t wish to tell me yet’.

You smile. ‘You’re slyly trying to throw in more questions’. ‘Can’t hurt to try. Please let me keep my remaining three’.

You smile and nod, and he thanks you.

‘Where were you, in this dream?’ he asks.

These questions are oddly specific; you were expecting him to just ask what happened or something general.

‘I was in my childhood home’ you reply. Two more questions left.

Loki is taking his time now. He has started on his meal, occasionally opening his mouth to ask something, then shutting it again. You continue eating.

‘When was the last time you got genuinely drunk?’ You sigh. You wash down the fries with another sip of coke. ‘Four years ago’ you say. ‘Of course, until a few nights ago with you’.

He goes back to eating. So do you.

‘Will there come a time when you tell me everything?’ he asks finally. ‘Are you sure you want that to be your last question?’ ‘I am hoping I get five more some other time, and an indefinite amount one day. So yes’.

You look away from him, down at your plate. You’re nervously fidgeting with the straw in your drink. You again feel his eyes on you, but you’re fixated on the food on your plate.

‘You can take your time to…’ ‘I might’ you interrupt. You look up at him and he’s smiling. ‘I’m glad’ he says.

xx

‘Loki, you haven’t told us yet what you wanna do’ Tony calls to him at dinner. ‘The weekend is getting close’. ‘I’ve decided’ he says. ‘But it does take up a considerable amount of funds and perhaps preparation, so we can keep this for another weekend, perhaps next month’. ‘Money is no object’ Tony declares. ‘Well…’ he smiles at you. ‘Since everyone who went to Dubai recently and didn’t get to stay to take in the sights, I thought maybe we could go for a weekend’.

Your eyes widen, aware that you probably look like an excited child to him right now.

‘And you could be our guide’ he winks at you. ‘I know you love to teach people things’. ‘That’s an understatement’ Bruce says. ‘But I’m up for this. Guys?’

Everyone agrees.

‘It’s settled then. We finish up with Raunverkuleiki, let her go to wherever she wants to go, and then we leave for Dubai’ Tony says. ‘A weekend’s no good, though. I say a whole week’.

The rest of the dinner is people asking you questions about the city, especially how much sunscreen they would require.

‘Don’t worry’ you reassure them. ‘It’ll be quite pleasant, it’s the end of November and just glorious’. ‘Anything we should know before going there?’ Bruce asks. ‘Islamic law and all that?’ You have to admire Bruce for asking. ‘Not a lot. Only certain things, I'll hold a presentation later' you say, inviting laughs from the group. 

Eventually though, you allow yourself to tune out while everyone else is talking about Raunverkuleiki and what they’re looking forward to in Dubai.

xx

‘You didn’t have to do that’ you tell Loki, as he enters your room with the DVD for season 6. ‘Do what?’ ‘You could have made us do literally anything this weekend. Like Thor said, Stark gave you too much power. You didn’t have to ask for us to go back to Dubai’. ‘Why do you think I did it for you?’ he asks with a sly smile. ‘I… didn’t you?’ ‘No. Get over yourself’ he teases, popping the DVD in the player. ‘I just wanted to go to the tallest building in the world’. ‘Right…’ you’re a little suspicious but decide not to pursue. He gets into bed with you and hits play on the remote.

The opening credits play. ‘I’ve noticed that if Moffat writes the episode, it’s bound to be sad or terrible’ he comments.  ‘Oh, don’t ever watch Sherlock’. ‘What’s that?’ ‘We’ll watch it next’ ‘I thought you said not to watch it?’ Loki asks, confused. ‘No, don’t listen to me. We’ll watch it, and then I’ll tell you we shouldn’t have watched it’. ‘Wha…’ ‘Just go with it’ you pat his leg. ‘Now sshh’.

xx

Raunverkuleiki is now up, curiously browsing through Tony’s lab, touching everything. You’d think Tony would completely freak out and keep asking her to please sit down and not touch anything, but Tony’s too busy watching her just move like liquid. Bruce is also captivated.

So are you.

She looks as fragile as glass, but you know there’s more power in there than all the Iron Man suits put together from all the parallel universes.

‘What is it exactly you can do?’ Bruce asks. ‘She can manipulate reality. Make it rain diamonds, for example’ Vision says. ‘That’s meteorologically impossible’ Tony retorts. ‘He just said she can manipulate reality- it doesn’t have to make logical sense’ you say.

Tony shrugs. ‘Alright, how do we know you won’t go wherever you have to go and end up causing destruction?’ ‘TONY!’ you shout. ‘She says she’s going home’ Vision says. ‘Tony, can you be delicate?’ you scold him.

‘She says she isn’t meant to manipulate reality’ Vision continues. ‘Just like her sister’s purpose isn’t to manipulate Time, nor is it her sister’s purpose to give its holder Power. They only have these gifts, but ever since they were formed, they were used by others'. 

‘They used to be people’ Vision goes on, ‘They changed themselves to look like stones so they would be left alone, and have stayed that way so long, it was the only life they knew’.

You stare at Raunverkuleiki in disbelief, and feeling a little sorry.

‘Tony… the Power stone…’ Bruce starts… he looks sad, but also a little afraid. ‘I know’ Tony responds quickly, not wanting him to go on. ‘She’s asking what about it’ Vision says.

You sigh. ‘Raunverkuleiki, what is the name of your sister? The… Power?’ ‘Chikara’ Vision says. ‘Japanese now’ you interest is piqued more and more. ‘Raunverkuleiki, how is it that you are all from different mythologies?’ ‘They aren’t different’ Vision says. ‘She says they all come from Omnipotent’. ‘Omnipotent… is the same for all of them?’ ‘It is how the universe began, and it began once, in one birth, from one Omnipotent, so yes’

You are positively bursting at this point. ‘Could you please name your other sisters?’

You see Raunverkuleiki’s head cock to one side.

‘Waqt is Time...’ Vision begins. ‘Raunverkuleiki is her. Reality. Chikara is Power. Psychi is Soul. Kōngjiān is Space. Geedagte is Mind…’  

Recognising each of these words, you’re getting more and more worked up. But Vision doesn’t look like he’s done.  ‘…and Ahkka is Ego’.  

‘What?’ Tony exclaims. ‘What the hell does that mean, there is a seventh stone?’    ‘Ahkka died. Peter Quill killed him’ Vision responds.

Having the mind stone allowed him access to that sort of information too, so he wasn’t asking Raunverkuleiki all the questions.  

‘Him!?’ Bruce asks.   ‘She says it’s a good thing, he was the most dangerous and ambitious’.   ‘QUILL killed the most powerful one?’ Tony asks in disbelief.   ‘She is asking what Bruce was saying about Chikara’.  

‘Right…’ you purse your lips. ‘Thing is uh… Chikara is currently being used to power an entire camp of refugees on the other side of the world’.  

Raunverkuleiki floats over, very close to you, and it feels threatening.  

‘She is asking you to release her’.   ‘We need an alternate source of power. If you can make one, we’ll be more than happy to hand your sister back to you’ Tony says.  

The room instantly glows red, and it has become hotter.  

‘She doesn’t agree, to that’ Vision says.   ‘Oh really, I guess I misread that’ Tony says, ‘Listen Raunverkuleiki, we can’t leave thousands of children without electricity and medical facilities. If you can…’   ‘Tony, a minute?’ you interrupt.  

xx 

‘You can’t seriously tell me you’re considering letting Power go’   ‘Chikara’ you correct Tony. ‘And I did tell you these beings are not obligated to help us. They aren’t even supposed to help us, they just want to go home and be a family’.   ‘We can’t leave…’   ‘Try asking, Tony. Not demanding’ you say. ‘Maybe she would, for example, like to meet Chikara and speak to her’.

Tony glares at you. ‘What if she leaves?’.  

‘She may not until we have an alternative source’ you try to reassure him. ‘At least try’.   He sighs. ‘I don’t like this’.   ‘I know’. He shakes his head and opens the door. ‘I’m considering it, okay? I’ll see you in the lab’ he goes inside. 

Loki, who has been listening, pipes up from behind you, ‘Can I see her?’  

‘Oh!’ you jump and turn around. ‘How long have you been there!?’   ‘Since you walked in. May I see her?’   ‘Yeah, come along’.  

xx 

‘Hello, Raunverkuleiki’ Loki greets as he walks into Tony’s lab for the first time. He puts a certain amount of stress on the name, and it doesn’t escape you.

The room gets a few degrees hotter, and Raunverkuleiki goes to hide behind Vision.  

‘You didn’t tell me you were Norse. Raun, huh? Why didn’t you tell me?’   ‘She’s asking what you are doing here’ Vision says. ‘Oh I know what she says’.  ‘You know each other!?’ you gasp.  

‘Raun…’ Loki peers behind Vision. ‘It’s no use hiding behind him’.  

Raunverkuleiki steps out from behind him and stands, her body language signalling that she is embarrassed.  

‘Why didn’t you say you were Norse?’ Loki asks. ‘What do you mean you aren’t, your name is Raunverkuleiki, what does that sound to you, Welsh?... No, I don’t mind, it’s a lovely name, I just want to know why you didn’t tell me…. WHAT!?... No way…’  

You stare at Loki when he talks, and stare at Raunverkuleiki when there’s a pause, even though you have no idea what 's happening. You’re dying to know what she’s saying.

 ‘…well you could have still told me' he continues, 'it’s a little disturbing that you wouldn’t tell me given everything... Yes, I know we’re ALL, in a sense, related, but I would still like to know’  ‘EXCUSE ME?’ you shout.

 Loki looks at you. ‘Yes, we used to be a thing, get over it’.  

‘WHAT?’ you, Tony, Bruce, Vision say in unison.   ‘Hold on, Loki…’ you walk over to him, ‘Did you… literally date Reality?’ ‘Yes’.  

You’re appalled at how this is completely normal to him. But now you realise why she doesn’t want to be called Raun.  

‘So… hold on, you’re related?’ Bruce asks.  ‘Not quite’ Loki explains. ‘I mean… possibly. The truth is, these things are unclear. Omnipotent made the first gods, from which Odin and the Frost Giants came, and Raun is his daughter’.   ‘Whose daughter?’ Bruce asks.   ‘Omnipotent. He has no name’.   ‘Right… you are cousins, then?’ Tony asks.   ‘It’s not quite so black and white’ Loki smiles. He turns back to Raunverkuleiki. ‘But I am glad you’re okay. I hope you’ll be off home now’.  

Raunverkuleiki is nodding vigorously, and Loki gives her a hug, and then leaves, but not before winking at you on his way out.  

‘So after that very weird reunion…’ Tony interjects. ‘Raunverkuleiki, we will take you to meet your sister. But I do have a request’.   ‘She’s listening’ Vision says. ‘When you meet her, please discuss leaving before actually leaving. If I get a little time, I can try and find a way to power the camp without her’.   ‘She says alright’ Vision confirms. ‘She wants to go back to the statis cube now’. ‘Of course’ Tony walks to the cube and opens the door.

Raunverkuleiki runs in and curls up again. You think it’s kind of cute.

______________________________________________________________

[marvel-random-shiz]

“Arguing” “Bickering”

“Oi Parker!”

“What do you want now?” Peter sighed while keeping his concentration on his web shooters on the lab bench in front of him.

“Parker! Where you at?” Moments later the voice came skipping into the lab along with a mop of blonde curls and laughing blue eyes. Peter ignored his entrance and muttered dryly,

“Yes Harley?”

“So I had this idea-“ Harley paused and jumped up onto the bench to sit beside Peter’s hands, “-that we could hack into the Iron Man armour and change all the names of the protocols.”

Peter lifted his head from staring intently at the webshooters in his hands and gave Harley a blank stare, “why?”

Harley rolled his eyes and pulled out his whiny voice, “oh c’mon! It’ll be fun, what if we could make them all embarrassing and we could totally get it done in a few hours.”

“Wait like the reconnaissance mode to sneaky boi and...” Peter’s face lit up and he trailed off while ideas flooded his mind. Harley beamed and leaned forwards to give him a peck on the forehead,

“Exactly like that, there’s my smart boyfriend.”

Peter ignored his comment and spun his chair around and rolled across to the bench across from him. Harley followed and pulled out a chair while Peter logged in to his laptop and began to start the process.

“He’s going to flip out.” Peter grinned after a few minutes of typing and Harley nodded while furiously typing away at his own computer and uploading it to a USB to transfer to Peter’s computer.

The two teens spent the next half hour working in silence, the odd comment every now and then, until FRIDAY announced that the Avengers needed to be assembled. Peter looked to the ceiling as she spoke, “Boss has requested your presence down on forty seventh, including suits.”

“What’s going on?” Harley asked as Peter jumped out of his chair and pulled his hoodie over his head and dropped it onto the dirty lab floor.

“There is a disturbance of some sort which Mister Strange has informed the Avengers of. I know nothing more.” FRIDAY told them sadly and Harley sighed and nodded while activating the nanotech armour for his Iron Lad suit in his watch. Peter let out a small chuckle knowing Tony would have specifically programmed FRIDAY to announce Stephen Strange as ‘Mister Strange’ rather than ‘Doctor Strange’.

“Well I guess we’d check it out then?” Peter commented when he had the entire Iron Spider suit covering his body and had scanned for malfunctions, Harley gave a quick nod and the two jumped out the building to head towards the danger.

As they neared Peter could hear the yells of civilians and his gut twisted at the thought of someone dangerous enough for Tony to ask for more help. Peter and Harley did tag along on missions and patrols often but it was a rare occurrence when Tony would ask for help when they weren’t there already. Something was wrong.

“Hey you alright?” Harley asked through the comms while glancing at Spider-Man flip over a building. He increased the thrusters and sped through the air towards the crime scene,

“I’m fine. Just a weird feeling about this y’know?”

“Like a spider feeling or...?” Harley asked, feeling nauseous that Peter’s senses were already warning him when they hadn’t even arrived yet.

“Not really sure yet.” Peter let out a sigh and prayed it was just nerves and not anything major.

“Okay well be safe alright?” Harley glanced back at the web slinging hero through his vibranium mask and swallowed the worry consuming his insides.

“I always am, make sure you’re safe too.”

Harley gave a small nod before rising higher into the air and diving towards the scene towards the visible Avengers and connecting to their frequency, “Join me to the hero chat FRI.”

FRIDAY did as he asked and soon the grunts of Avengers and bickering of Captain America and Iron Man filled the teens ears. He laughed and quickly blasted a falling piece of debris into millions of pieces of rubble when it nearly squashed the leaders of the team who were in yet another squabble.

“Hey guys, you might want to watch out, heard there’s a high chance of a meteor shower.” Harley snickered at his own joke and Peter rolled his eyes from where he was on the roof beside Hawkeye.

“Very funny Harles.”

“Alright what’s the go here?” Harley asked, changing to seriousness as he glanced at a hovering man who was around level with half the height of Stark Tower. He had a red glow around him and was flailing his arms around, summoning rocks and debris and throwing them at the Avengers and civilians.

“This guy stole the reality stone.” Black Widow groaned while picking herself up from the pile of rocks she had been thrown into.

“The reality stone?! Like the Aether!” Peter gasped and tried to hide the excitement in his voice. The reality stone had always been his favourite, he didn’t know why but he just found it interesting and had always wanted to see it in real life. Not on these circumstances but it was still cool.

“We can fangirl about it later, right now we need to get it back.” Clint rolled his eyes and shot an arrow at the villain who turned it into a cloud of golden sparkles with a grin. Peter nodded and jumped off the roof and swung down beside Tony.

“Alright well what’s the plan?” Peter asked and narrowed the lenses of his suit, Iron Man glanced at him and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Well I think that we should use his own tricks against him with Strange’s stone but Capsicle disagrees.” Tony pouted and Peter wanted so badly to slap himself in the face. Sometimes Tony was worse than Harley and Peter in terms of arguments, and that was saying something.

“Well we shouldn’t risk him getting yet another infinity stone!” Steve agreed and threw his arms up in annoyance. Tony opened his mouth to reply but Peter quickly lunged forwards and shoved him out the way of another chunk of rock hurtling at him from the snickering villain.

“Work your shit out! We can’t hold him off forever while you guys keep bickering!” Harley shouted and watched as Hulk jumped at the villain only to be thrown halfway across the city.

“Harles no offence but this isn’t bickering anymore, it’s arguing.” Peter pointed out and gave Iron Lad a smack to the back of his head before shooting a web and jumping into action.

“Don’t disagree with me darl, it’s bickering and you know it.” Harley smirked under his mask and took off the ground to help the blue and red hero out. Peter noticed Strange now on the roof beside Hawkeye and muttering something while Clint nodded and continued shooting useless arrows at the villain.

“It’s arguing, princess.” Peter shot back along with a web at the villain who snapped his fingers and it turned into a large pool of hot fudge. Peter plummeted down to the ground but quickly caught himself and swung up against another building.

“It’s bickering, Bambi.” Harley licked his lips and began furiously blasting the villain as Peter jumped on his other side and attempted to grab the stone wrapped around his neck.

“It’s arguing-“ Peter strained against the hands gripping his neck, “-love.”

The villain threw Peter down towards the ground again at a fast speed then turned to face Iron Lad who narrowed his eyes and lunged at him. Tony, somehow getting over his arguing-bickering with Cap, flew upwards and caught Spider-Man before he hit the ground.

“It’s bickering, dear.” Harley laughed before getting thrown into the wall of the building, he slid down but quickly hovered above the ground before falling to his death.

“It’s arguing-“ Peter coughed as Tony set him back on the ground and he started breathing again, he was definitely going to get a mark on his neck from that, “-sweet cheeks.”

Tony rolled his eyes and flipped his mask back over his face and took off to get back at the villain for throwing both his boys to their near deaths. Peter laughed weakly and stumbled for a minute while Harley pulled himself from the ground and scanned for any malfunctions in his suit.

“It’s bickering, hotness,” Harley took a breath while taking in the scene above him. Hulk had returned and was jumping at the villain while Strange disobeyed Steve’s recommendations and was using the time stone to attack the hovering man.

“It’s-“ Peter began but was cut off by Steve who threw his shield at the villain and crossed his arms over his chest beside Black Widow who looked ready to tear her brains out.

“Shut up! We get it! Now stop fighting!”

“Arguing.” Peter corrected and Harley scoffed quickly correcting Peter’s correction,

“Bickering.”

“You’re off the team if you ever say the word argue or bicker again. Got it?” Tony threatened from the sky, the comms crackled a little but the message was clear.

“Whatever blows your hair back.” Harley shrugged once he had fully caught his breath and took off the ground to help out.

“We need a name for this guy.” Peter stated, trying to change the conversation and mood of the comms. A chorus of ‘whatevers’ and ‘you do you kid’ were echoed throughout Peter’s ears except for Harley who obviously had to put his opinion in.

“I think he should be Dangerous Dan or the Stone Stealer.”

“That’s ridiculous babe, we should call him something cool like Red Death or Rocky Rick.” Peter argued back and Harley scoffed from his place in the sky.

“Rocky Rick?” Natasha echoed and Peter nodded while launching himself back into the fight.

“The Stone Stealer.” Harley said in a dreamy voice and Peter frowned while pressing his middle and ring finger to his palm, shooting a web at the villain who turned it to spaghetti and sent him falling, yet again, to the ground. Iron Lad saw his significant other in the state and quickly flew down to catch him, “You right sugar?”

Peter beamed from his position in Harley’s, Iron Lad’s, arms and nodded, “I’m fine now hon.”

“What is with the nicknames?!” Clint burst out through the comms making the teens laugh and shrug.

“I’ve heard that nicknames are cute.” Peter informed them as Harley lowered them to the ground with Peter still in his arms bridal style.

“Nah pet names are hot as fuck.” Harley corrected making Peter blush under his mask and laugh.

“Right.” Black Widow sarcastically agreed and watched as Strange overpowered the villain and he was sent plummeting through the sky. Harley set Peter on the ground and the two watched as the red glow disappeared from the villain and Tony snatched up the Aether or reality stone and Cap dealt with the man.

The police showed up and the man was sent for a lifetime in jail, obviously, and the Avengers headed on home to the compound. Harley and Peter went straight to the lab to dump their suits, knowing they needed modifications, and the rest of the Avengers disappeared into their rooms for rest or into the lounge to watch TV.

“I still think the Stone Stealer suits him best.” Harley teased as his suit disbanded and scuttled back into his watch, revealing the mess of blonde curls on his head and shit eating grin on his face.

“Nope, Red Death is way better but you’re too stubborn to admit it.” Peter popped the ‘p’ and his suit scattered across his body and back into his own silver watch which he unclipped from his wrist and set down on the lab bench. Harley spun around from the bench behind Peter and opened his mouth to speak but closed it when he saw the swelling and purple finger marks on Peter’s neck.

“Shit does this hurt?” Harley went into overprotective boyfriend mode and rushed to Peter’s aid while examining the bruising. Peter shrugged him off quickly and turned to face him,

“I’m fine baby.” Peter whispered and Harley sighed loudly while raking his hand through his messy hair. He looked back down at Peter who had a small smile on his lips and laughed, “what?” Peter asked with big brown eyes flickering with confusion.

“I told you pet names were hot.” Harley whispered and leaned in to close the gap between their lips. Peter smiled into the kiss, making it a little awkward but Harley was grinning too so neither minded.

[can-u-imagine-that]

Title: Battle Scars, part 3;

Fandom: X-Men (crossover with The Avengers, both movie-verse);

Character: Peter Maximoff;

Note: Y/N: Your Name;

Warning: Cursing;

Request: Okay I have a long request, please bear with me (probably could be split into parts). I have been craving for a little crossover imagine between the Avengers and the X-men. Soooo I was thinking that the main OC or the “you” has a relationship with Peter and they are all happy and stuff (idk probably before Dark Phoenix, after Apocalypse) and their mutation is healing… they can easily heal wounds but it hurts them when they do and the Avengers want them to help in the fight with Thanos (1) They feel the pain of the wound and depending of how many wounds they heal it may actually hurt them. They are an old friend of Natasha and Clint. They end up having a fight with Peter because he doesn’t want them to go (I like to think the x-men did their part during the war too, so maybe you could come up with something) but they end up going anyway, without solving things between them and Peter. And of course they disappear in Thanos Snap and Peter grieves and all fast foward (2) the remaining x-men are helping the Avengers fight Thanos in End Game when the Blip happens and boom they are back and reunite with Peter and he matured a lot and was never able to let go of his s/o and fluff happens… sorry for the long request omg, I just got really excited and I really hope you like it and can do it… thank you so so much Author’s Note: It’s quite obvious but I need to clarify that I’m changing a lot of stuff from both Avengers and X-Men movies to fit this request. So this is only part one so it’ll manly focus on Peter and the reader BUT I decided to consider him and Pietro as two different characters since they are from different movie universes theorically and since, well, Pietro barely even existed in the Avenger’s universe unfortunaly.

And now the final part of this imagine, which I must say is one of my favorites. I had so much fun and of course I had to re-watch both Infinity War and End Game which made it even better. I thought about doing a smut, but decided to keep it cute and touching. Let me know if anyone is interested in a part 4.

Hope you all enjoy it!

Click to read part 1

Click to read part 2 (in case you missed it)

Things went havoc when the battle started and you lost Peter from your sight for a long time, but somehow you knew he had you on his all the time. You focused on your main task which was keeping yourself and all the teammates you could help alive.

Instead of depending on the gun all the time you used your powers recklessly. It was dangerous but you’ve never been really fond of battle. You shot enemies around you when needed but your main task was finding and healing everyone that you could. When your powers started to get you too tired you noticed you couldn’t heal them completely, but kept doing your best.

You were breathlessly healing a huge gash on Wanda’s side when Thanos army turned into dust. When the pain from the wound eased you managed to stand up, widening your eyes when you saw Tony Stark.

He looked barely alive. Half of his body was completely black and burned by the use of the Stones.

Automatically your feet took you near him, your hands reaching to touch him to try easing his pain. You didn’t know him, it was true, but just the fact that he sacrificed himself to save everyone was enough for you.

But someone grabbed you before you could.

A tall and slim woman in a blue suit, very similar to Tony’s red one, stared at you with her eyes filled with tears, her lips pressed into a tight line. You remember healing her once during the battle. Her name was Pepper.

“H-He... you...” she whispered, breathing heavily until she finally calmed enough to speak properly to you “You’re just going to kill yourself... in this state... both, your and his... it’s too much... I noticed how your power works... even if you were in full condition, trying to heal him now could get you killed...”

She made you step back from where Tony was. A boy who had introduced himself as Peter was kneeled in front of him, saying something but your attention was focused on Pepper.

“No... I-I... I can... let me try... please... please, Pepper...” you pleaded, shaking her hand off and making your way to Tony again.

“Someone, stop her.”

Before you could understand what was happening you were swept off of your feet and throw into someone’s shoulder. It took you a while to recognize Sam before he spoke to you.

“I’m sorry, Y/N... we can’t lose someone else...” he said, placing you carefully on the ground.

You considered trying to run, but when you looked over Tony again it was too late. You could feel it.

He was gone.

A gush of wind signaled you that Peter stood by yourside again. You had no idea of what happened during that time you disappeared but the pained expression on the silver haired mutant told you a lot.

You allowed yourself to stumble towards his body, wrapping your arms around his waist and burying your face on the crook of his neck. And you had no idea of how much he needed that. Your warmth was all he nedded at the moment. He closed his eyes, squeezing you tightly against his body.

During the next few days, in grief and respect to Iron Man’s sacrifice, the X-Men stayed with the Avengers, attending the funeral and helping them settle down again. Your power was really appreciated after you recovered completely.

You and Peter barely had time to speak to each other, as you came to learn how much the speedster became close to Tony, thus suffering a lot for his lost and as you grieved for Natasha’s death. You also noticed how much he changed. How different he was. In a normal circumstance the new Peter would have been a major turn on for you, after all, technically, physically speaking, now he was the older one in the relationship a place - which obviously you never thought would change - that used to be yours.

It was during a cold night where you woke up from a nightmare that you and him finally started to talk about all that happened.

“Hey, hey... babe... I’m here... it’s okay...” he whispered quietly, staring at your face while his hand drawn small circles in your tear stained cheeks.

“I-I...” still dazed from the dream you sobbed and whimpered, making Peter aware that this was the same nightmare you have had for the least three nights. Only this time was worse and you ended up waking. Usually he’d just cuddle you until you calmed in your sleep “I could... I could have saved him... I could have...”

“Sh, no... you could not. You’d die, Y/N... and I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you again... for the third time...” he whispered, kissing your sweaty forehead and when he noticed that your breath was still erratic he sat on the bed, gently lifting you so that you were now sat in front of him “Hey, breath with me... c’mon...”

Peter knew pretty well what you were going through, oh, how he knew. He remembered the first year after the Snap. He would wake up just like that, but he had no one be there for him. So he promised himself that he would be there for you. He helped you ease your breath, staring in your eyes kindly, with only the light of the bedside lamp casting a weak yellow hue on your features.

“I’m... sorry...” you whispered ashamed.

“Hey. You don’t have to apologize...” he said immediately, shifting his body so that his legs were almost crossed with his ankles meeting behind you and your legs were hunched over his thighs “I went through this a lot... but I’m here with you. I’ve got you... I promise.”

Your eyes, still welled with unfallen tears, met his. Peter was dead serious and you couldn’t help a small chuckle.

“It must have been really tough years... this five that went by...” you whispered bitterly “I wish... I wish I could have helped you... when you went through this...”

A small smile found it’s way to his lips.

“You did. You have no idea how much...”

You stared at him confused. Without speaking, he simply tugged at the chain he had around his neck. You wanted to ask him what it was, but didn’t find the right moment before. It was always tucked inside his shirts, but you could see that he wore it all the time. And Peter was never really a fan of accessories.

You gasped when met with the familiar silver glean of the ring he gave you.

“I had this with me all the time... it was my most precious reminder of you. And also a reminder that somehow I had to bring you back because I had really fucked everything up that day.” your breath caught in your throat when you saw his eyes shining “I... spoke with you all the time. When these nightmares happened. I just couldn’t bear the fact that you were gone and I had not even properly said goodbye to you. I hadn’t said how much I loved you... because I was being a fucking brat...”

You hugged him tightly, feeling your shirt getting wet with his tears on your shoulder and suddenly the roles were reversed and he was the one being comforted by you.

“I’m here now...” you whispered sweetly in his ear.

“It was hell...” he kept muttering really fast “It was like hell. Like I was the one dead. And I didn’t even know if dying would allow me to meet you again. I felt useless and weak. I missed you... I missed you so much. Sometimes I’d even see you... except of couse it wasn’t you. But it seemed so real...”

“Peter...”

“And then I had already lost all my hopes Scott came with his idea and... and... I didn’t want to get my hopes to high, but I did. I even managed to get better for a while. For a while I felt like I could be that annoying Peter that everyone knew. Who didn’t give a fuck about a lot of stuff. Nat...” he choked a sob “Nat bet her life on the idea... and she was right... but still hurts so much...”

He was rambling so much that after his words started to mix with sobs that you could barely understand what was the subject again. He started to talk about Natasha and then about Tony and after that about you again.

“Hey, love, look at me...” you said, holding his head between your hands and resting your forehead agains his “You’re the one panicking now... breath...”

Peter snapped out of it, taking a final deep breath before allowing his hand to rest over yours.

“Sorry...” you both smiled a little, wiping tears and breathing softly, just enjoying each other’s company.

After a while his hands trailed towards the chain again, unhooking it and slidding the ring out of it.

“You told me to hold onto this... until you came back...” he said, gazind fondly at it “I didn’t expect it would take you five years...”

Remembering something you furrowed your brow at him.

“Hey... why did you said you couldn’t lose me for the third time? Technically you only did once...”

“For me it was worth two... the first time was after that stupid fight before you left... and the second during the Snap...”

“Silly... I said we would figure out things when I got back... you didn’t lost me that first time...” you said while your arms circled his neck.

“Well, you were about to meet a bunch of Avengers, y’know. That can affect any guy’s self steem...” he arched one brow at you and you giggled.

“Wow, so that means your ego actually wasn’t strong enough at the time?”

“Can we go back to being sweet, please?” he pouted, grabbing your right hand that was resting on his neck and roughly shoving the ring back into your finger.

You actually laughed at his attitude.

“There’s the Peter I know. Really sweet, huh?”

He smirked, but gently got a hold of your hand, approaching it from his face and kissing your knuckles. His eyes closed as he brushed the back of your hand softly against his face, feeling the coolness of the ring mixed with the warmth of your skin. Then his lips drifted to your wrist, peppering your arm with kisses, making you giggle until he finally found your neck earning a small hum from you. Then finally his lips found yours and his breath rigged because, oh my fucking God, how he had missed you.

You allowed him to push you back into the bed, his body glued into yours. You were so close to each other that you could barely understand where your body finished and Peter’s started. The kiss had so much longing into it and his touches seemed to worship you, caressing your sides and face as if you were the purest and most precious gem he could ever find. There was no malice on his touches, you noted, Peter just wanted to actually feel you were there.

“Y’know...” as if on a cue, he whispered against your lips, pulling apart just to talk and dive into your neck slowly “I’m having nightmares too...” your hands tangled into his hair, soflty messing with his silver strands and drifting to caress his neck and back “Sometimes... I dream that I’m waking up and you’re not here again... and then I actually wake up, feeling terrified that I’ll look by my side and find an empty bed... but then...” he pulled away, his dark eyes finding yours and you see nothing but love radiating from them “Then I look at you... and you’re there looking like a freaking angel... and I know that I’m the luckiest man in the world...”

“Aren’t you charming?” you smile and even though you have a light and jokinly tone he knows that what you say afterwards is indeed really serious “I’m glad that I have you with me... because these scars... these fears and dreams... they’re gonna be a hole battle just by themselves...”

Peter laid by yourside now, his thumb caressing your cheek as you looked at him. He pulled you closer, kissing your lips again.

“I know. But we’ll fight this battle together... and this time I’ll make sure we win right on the first try...” you smiled, staring lovingly into his eyes. His words soothing you more than any kind of physical comfort he could give you “But you’ll have to be really strong... it’s a... bumpy road...”

“I promise I will be...”

And this time you would keep your promise to him.

[machi-kun]

Avengers Endgame: an analysis far more detailed than you asked for

I decided to make a huge ass post talking about Endgame, with some opinions and some observations. A) because I’m physically incapable of shutting up, apparently, and B) because as I write my IW fix-it, Endgame does provide some very nice points to consider in terms of character development. As a long-time fan and someone who likes wasting months making character studies for fun, I have a lot to say about this movie and what it means. So, if you’re somehow interested in seeing me talk about this movie for far too long, go right ahead.

It’s gigantic. I warned you.

First of all, I have to say something. I grew up with the MCU, I watched nearly every single movie on theaters when they came out, and it shaped my teenage years. I will never, ever, not be grateful for it. For someone who followed the MCU step by step, it’s undeniable this movie is a thank you gift from the Marvel Studios to the fans, because there are moments in it that were crafted for us, with intention and purpose. They are gifts. And for that I’m thankful, that makes me like the movie more, but it also feels a little bittersweet – not only because it’s over, but because some things don’t end in a satisfactory manner.

So, let’s talk about it.

Starting from the beginning. First off, I love how it starts. It’s a sharp contrast to the final scenes in IW, where we see Peter vanishing in Tony’s arms – Clint turning around at the exact moment his family disappears and he has no idea what happened to them? Extremely powerful. It’s nice to see the two sides of the event, from one that explodes in your face with agony and one that sneaks in silently, but hurts just the same. That was a nice touch. I appreciate it.

Just wish we had more context for how it goes after that, because the next time we see Clint, boy, you sure did a 180, didn’t you?

But I’ll talk about Clint later. Now, let’s talk Tony Stark.

I am so pleased that they gave us the Nebula and Tony bonding moments. It’s essential to Nebula’s character, and it’s so good to see. Playing a silly game to pass the time while trapped in space in dire conditions? It screams Tony all over it, and it shows. Nebula’s reaction to losing is very telling too, her body language stiff and ready to act defensively, and the gentleness with which Tony treats her is perfect. Calm, unspoken, but clear. The sharp cut from this scene to the trailer scene, with Tony malnourished and nearly dying is a bit of a harsh transition, but I was so pleased to know his speech is even more heart-wrenching in the movie, his voice cracking and losing breath, so intense! RDJ was phenomenal. And in turn, we see Nebula return the kindness Tony gave her, and that is so damned important because it solidifies Nebula as someone who is not afraid to be vulnerable now, not just to her sister, but to other people who she has no “familial bond” to speak of, but that doesn’t mean she can’t find in them hope and connections. It opens her up to a world of possibilities.

Carol arrives at just the right moment, looking absolutely gorgeous with that hair, URGH, and brings them back. Now, as much as I love Carol, let’s jump forward a bit and talk about Tony’s return. The Benatar arrives. The door opens. Tony steps out, and Steve runs towards him. Which is a huge deal, considering how they left things between them. I scream at the implications of this, not only because this is so fanfic worthy, but because in more detail, it hits so close to what I believed would happen. Let me tell you why:

Steve runs towards Tony, and Tony doesn’t push him away, because he’s so exhausted and so, so shaken. So shaken, in fact, that the first thing that comes off his lips is I lost the kid. Mind you, at this point, Tony has no idea Steve knows who the kid is. But it doesn’t matter. Tony is so torn about it that he needs to tell someone, because it still doesn’t feel real but it hurts like it does, and for Nebula, he had been holding it in. Now he’s home, he can let it all out. And how does Steve reply:

We all lost someone, Tony.

Now. That might just be me, but that doesn’t read as sympathetic. It reads kind of insensitive, actually. Remember, Tony doesn’t know Steve knows who he’s talking about, but he’s saying it anyway, he is exposing his grief in the rawest manner possible – and Steve’s reply doesn’t acknowledge how intense Tony’s grief is, at the moment he needs it the most. Sure, it’s not wrong. It’s true, everyone lost someone. But would you say that, when you know it’s the moment it’ll hurt the most, when the person hearing it still hadn’t had the time to process it?

But I’m not mad about it! Why? Because it makes sense!

Fast forward a bit. Tony is in a wheelchair, all skin and bone, and once the initial shock wearied out, he’s angry. He’s angry because no one is giving him time to grieve, he’s angry because he just got back and he was right, dammit, he was right and no one listened to him and look what happened! It’s the anger of someone who finally got acknowledged in the worst way possible, and he doesn’t want to be right, but he is and now all he feels is guilt. It’s the worst moment possible to try and convince him to think about it or, god forbid, fight again. Which exactly what they do! They push him to speak about something he’s still not ready to speak about, and he lashes out. It’s glorious.

First of all, it fits perfectly with Steve’s character. It goes to show that on his time on the run, whatever soul searching he did was not enough. Not enough, because even if he feels any guilt for what happened when the Avengers broke apart, his instinct is still pushing Tony despite the clear warnings to step back. Even if Steve has gained some self-awareness, he still hasn’t learned to deal with it with Tony. And it shows.

And for the first time, it backfires!  

Tony can no longer hold it in and he rants straight into Steve’s face about how he has nothing. He has given everything and Steve still wants more and Tony won’t give it to him. Liar. You have any idea how powerful this is? Tony had idolized Steve for every moment until Siberia, and that image has finally crumbled. This is so strong Steve doesn’t even argue back, which is unprecedented. If there’s a moment where the realization hits Steve, this is it, and this is the only reason why I am not incredibly bitter about what happens later in this movie. If Steve had argued back, and still was able to lift Mjolnir at the end, I would have despised this movie forever. Because it’s impossible. This was the confrontation Steve was lacking, he needed to listen and learn, and he did, because the next time he interacts with Tony, five years later, his body language and words have a completely different tone! He is humbled. This needed to happen, or else Steve’s character would have been lost forever.

Well. Except for that ending. We’ll talk about that.

But Tony says no. He says no, he fucks off to live in a farm as he says he would, and now, we come to another point I need to make: Pepper Potts. I’ve mentioned before that I didn’t like Pepperony not because I don’t like Pepper, but because Pepper’s morals didn’t fit with her role in Tony’s life, as we can see from the number of times they have broken up over the course of the MCU. But this is where this movie made me surprised: they gave Tony a family in the beginning. And that changes everything.

Making Tony’s decision to quit the Avengers not one of guilt like in AoU, but of rage, actually works better. Anger is fuel, it keeps him away longer. In the time he is gone, he has a kid, and this also makes him feel better, it gives him something other to care about than the fight. This is good. Tony is staying away out of his own volition, not because Pepper asked him to or warned him that this will kill him, and that is strange for Pepper. Pepper has argued with Tony over this for a decade. Now that she gets what she wants, but not in the way she expected, it puts things in perspective: Tony will start missing being Iron Man. Because he always does. But he will force himself not to do anything, without her asking, because it’s not because of her, it’s because of himself.

That changes things. In those five years, Pepper finally sees how much it kills Tony not to act. Up close. And Tony will tell himself he doesn’t because of Pepper, because of Morgan, but Pepper knows that’s not all. She finally sees Iron Man for what he means through Tony’s eyes. This is also what makes her suit up, I am sure of it. Of course, she goes to the fight because the fight needs her, the universe needs her too, and she even risks leaving Morgan behind with the chance of dying because she knows how important this is.

But the only reason why she does this, is because she now understands. And dare I say, she had been practicing behind Tony’s back, because her flight is flawless. So she was gearing up beforehand.

Because she knew he would go back to the fight. She knew, she always knows. But this is the first time she allows it, because she gets it.

This is an incredible character development for Pepper, and honestly, I’m back to shipping Pepperony now because of it, when I had stopped by the time AoU came around. Finally, it makes sense. Finally, her ideology aligns with his, and it finally makes sense for them to be together, not because Tony is conceding something, but because she met him in the middle.

And I have nothing bad to say about Morgan Stark. I love her. 3000.

Scott comes back (let’s all say thank you to the real MVP, the rat), CASSIE IS ALIVE, I’M SO HAPPY, and as we all knew, Scott proposes that they use the Quantum Tunnel to travel back in time and fix this mess. Scott is just lovely, I adore him with all my being. I also love that we get to see how the others are faring: Steve picked up the support group, to give other people hope even if he doesn’t feel it himself, and Natasha is keeping herself busy as we all knew she would. Not only that, she is the one essentially leading the ones that are away, and she is the one they all report back to. That’s how pivotal Natasha is, and I’m glad they showed that.

And Okoye calling Natasha Nat? Carol nodding to Rhodey and telling him to be careful. It speaks of a story there. Of a time when they bonded, we just didn’t get to see. I like that.

Now, Scott proposes Time Travel and they all jump at the idea of fixing this. They are Avengers, it’s what they do. They grab Bruce, now Professor Hulk, which is just pure fanservice but I like it, because it gave Bruce that edge of confidence that comes with accepting the Hulk, that I’ve been waiting for forever, they grab Thor – and oh, this is an entire post all by itself, Thor’s character, I am not happy with it –, they grab Clint, again, a little jarring to see him going on a murder spree but stranger things have happened, and they start to assemble.

And then there’s Tony. Tony rejects the idea first, but it’s so in character that he keeps working on it even after he has said no. This is what he always does – and if Pepper hadn’t understood that in those five years, this is the moment where they would fight about it. But they don’t. Because Pepper now understands, and she knows Tony won’t be able to rest without trying to make this right. Reaffirmation of character development. Good writing. As far I’m concerned, this is amazing. So Tony fixes it, he figures out time travel, and he goes back to fulfill his mission.

Time travel. A headache, to say the least.

I’ll admit: I’m having a really hard time fully enjoying some things because the time travel element is driving me insane. I can’t help it, because as much as I was excited by the idea of seeing my favorite characters together one last time, I was so eager to see how Marvel would handle a subject so delicate as time travel, especially when I have a plot of my own and was itching to see what kind of comparisons I could make. But, OH, BOY. MARVEL AND I COULD NOT BE FURTHER AWAY FROM EACH OTHER IN THAT ASPECT.

Let’s discuss time travel.

Jokes about time travel movies aside, Endgame does make a very good point right up front: time works differently in different stories, and you need to know what kind of time travel you’re dealing with to work around it without making a mess. So, the first thing I did was try to identify what kind of time rules Endgame was following. Bruce says they can’t change the past because the past has already happened, but this is only half the information. Because if we only consider that, we don’t know what happens when they do go back and change something. If it won’t affect the present, then what will it affect?

Now, let’s see the scene where Bruce meets the Ancient One, when things get a little weird with the time travel rules. The Ancient One starts by confirming that Bruce’s past, the original MCU timeline, won’t change, but then, she says some additional information:

Every time they do something in the past that alters an event, they create a branching timeline.

This is the information we needed. These are the rules. This is what you have to know: the timeline you know, the MCU you’ve watched, doesn’t change. Other timelines will separate from it and develop on their own. If it’s hard for you to visualize, think of it as a road. The main road is the MCU, the journey we and the Avengers are traveling in. When Bruce goes back to 2012, for instance, what he does is that he carves out a separate street, from which now a new road will develop. The main road is still there. But this new road is now full of unknown possibilities, and it will certainly not develop the same.

That’s okay, if you look simply at our timeline. It doesn’t affect us, who cares what’s gonna happen in those other timelines. That wouldn’t be a problem, if they hadn’t given Steve the ending they gave. But that’s for later.

With that in mind, Bruce proposes something: they’ll take the stones, they’ll use them, and then they’ll go back and put them in the appropriate places, thus preventing branching timelines. You see: in theory, is not impossible! Their plan starts off really, really well! If they have a way of going back, taking what they need, use it, and then put it back, that’s a great plan! Thing is, tiny little detail they forgot to include: You need to put that thing back before someone notices its missing. If not, it’s too late. The alternate timeline is already created.

If you don’t know how that works, let me give you an example: Let’s suppose you are cooking something, and in a moment, you’ll need a spoon. You only have one. You’re gonna need that spoon, or else you won’t be able to finish your meal. Now imagine someone sneaks in behind you and takes that spoon. If they put it back before you notice it, before you need it, you won’t even know it was gone. You’ll finish your meal and you’ll be on time for whatever you have planned next. Your day goes on uninterrupted. But if you turn around and the spoon isn’t there, and you needed it to be there, your task is interrupted. The plan you are supposed to complete doesn’t get completed. And that changes the following events.

So you need to put it back where it belongs before someone notices its gone. If no one notices, it might as well never have happened. See what I mean?

And now, we’re gonna make an alternate timeline count. The most obvious one to me is the Power Stone timeline: Rhodey and Nebula steal it the moment Quill steals it in Morag. In the MCU timeline, as soon as Quill gets the Orb, he gets attacked, and that kickstarts a long chain of events that will eventually lead him to the Guardians. But if Quill has no Orb when he wakes up, he has nothing to trade. If Quill doesn’t have the Orb, Gamora won’t go after him. And the first Guardians movie never happens. Alternate timelines: 1.

The Aether. Rocket steals it from Jane Foster right before Malekith invades Asgard – if Malekith sees Jane, which he does, when he kills Frigga, he will know Jane no longer has the Aether within her. Which means they have until that moment to return the Aether, or else we have alternate timeline number 2.

The mess that was 2012. The Time Stone is fine, because it won’t be used until 2017/18. The Tesseract and the Scepter, however, have their own stories. The Tesseract has to return to Asgard, so it can also go back into play in 2018, when Ragnarok happens, immediately followed by IW. Problem is, Loki runs away with it. That’s immediately alternate timeline number 3. The Scepter is stolen by HYDRA and it will be shipped to Baron von Strucker, as we know from AoU, and will be used to transform Wanda and Pietro. If there’s no scepter, there’s no Wanda and Pietro. The entirety of AoU doesn’t happen. Alternate timeline 4.

The soul stone is weird. It was confirmed in an interview, but it’s hinted in IW: Red Skull is trapped in Vormir guarding the stone, and no one has ever took it. Because if the stone is not there, there’s nothing for him to guard, then he goes free. If they go to Vormir in 2014 and take the stone, Red Skull is free. Does he go back when they put it back? Like a genie to a lamp or something? How do they put it back? They just… throw it down the cliff?

Anyway. Weird.

They try to by-pass this problem saying they can go back to the exact split second they took the stones from and give them back, and there will be no problem. Thing is, if the Ancient One is to be believed, time flows continuously. The past will not freeze while it waits for them to return. If you recall as Bruce says by the ending, “it’ll be as much as he needs back there, for us, it’ll be just five seconds”. The time of the travel can be manipulated from the jumping point, the present, not the past. The Ancient One’s reality, the past, will continue to flow, because past, present and future flow all the time, forever, and again, if the stones are missed by any important event, it’s too late. Branching timeline.

Which means they can’t restore the timelines created by Loki escaping or Nebula being stuck in 2014, at least.

Anyway, time travel! They suit up, they get ready, they go back. First off: the one which closes the fastest, Clint and Natasha in Vormir.

We all knew this was gonna happen. We knew someone would die for this stone. I think it’s fair they ended up pushing Clint and Natasha for this position, because they are the most identifiable pair of the og6 besides Tony and Steve, but at the same time, I am enraged by what it causes. Very in character, having them argue about it, and then try to take the chance by force and kill themselves so the other won’t have to. No complaints about that. And to be honest, I understand what this is supposed to mean. Natasha spends most of the MCU trying to prove herself heartless and unyielding, when he have more than enough proof that that’s not true, and her sacrificing herself not only for the entire universe, but in favor to save the life of the man who once chose to spare her and give her a chance is, to be truthful, very poetic. But not all poetry, even if pretty, is satisfying.

My problem is what happens after. Natasha dies, and besides one conversation, no one does anything. She has no funeral. No picture. Not a ceremony to honor her. I’m not saying she would have wanted that, because she wouldn’t, but recognition is important. To have this moment and what? The final fight scene where the ladies gather, to somehow honor her? Nice thought, but still not enough. Natasha has been here since IM2, she deserved to have her ending acknowledged. A nod at her at the final fight scene is a nice touch, not a celebration. Natasha was a part of the original team, and not to shit on anyone who likes Clint, but she has done more for the Avengers than Clint has. From him, she deserved more. She deserved more from all of them. It would have been far more powerful to have her on the field for the final battle than this sob moment in Vormir, away from everything, away from her family.

The meaning of this scene is not lost to me, but it feels cheap. The Russo brothers have implied that we might get a funeral scene or something similar in the future, in a Black Widow movie, but that is just an excuse. There’s only so many times you can leave something open-ended and then come back later to patch it up and pass it off as a missing scene or foreshadowing. MCU has already used this trick so many times it’s exhausting. The final movie with the original team is not the time to do this.

Rhodey and Nebula. First off, may I point out how much I love James Rhodes? Okay. It’s all going just fine up until the point where Nebula’s device somehow stops working. Interference? I don’t remember exactly. What I do remember is that Ebony Maw is somehow capable of accessing 2023!Nebula’s memories as 2014!Nebula, which shouldn’t be possible, because the timeline at this point has already diverged, and 2023!Nebula is no longer 2014!Nebula’s future, but we’ll follow as it goes. Now Thanos is aware that they have visitors and captures 2023!Nebula.

This troubles me for two reasons: Nebula and Gamora. If 2014!Nebula is capable of seeing 2023!Nebula’s memories, why is Gamora so much quicker to accept the possibility of escape than Nebula? In GotG 2, Nebula expresses that her rage towards Gamora is not because she was better, but because Nebula wanted a sister – 2023!Nebula’s memories has undeniable proof that by leaving Thanos, that’s what they can become. The 2014!Nebula seems too eager to please Thanos, aching for his approval, which makes it seem like her motivation is completely different. It pushes 2014!Nebula and Gamora apart, which is very convenient, because in the end, 2014!Nebula dies, and the duo we are left with is 2023!Nebula and Gamora. Sure, it reinforces the bond between them, which will help later when 2014!Gamora replaces the Gamora that died in 2018, but that’s also not good. It feels like a recycled TWS: in GotG 3, the Guardians will be chasing down and missing a person who has no idea who they are. It doesn’t make me angry, per say, but I do find it just… okay. A little boring. Kinda wanted more from this.

Thor and Rocket in Asgard. Now, this scene I do like, because the moment Thor shares with Frigga is very, very nice. It’s the only point where Thor acknowledges how much his trauma is affecting him emotionally, and he does it in a way that he shows it’s painful to talk about it, and it’s so powerful to see a character like Thor express this out loud on screen. It’s nice. I have a lot of issues with how his change in appearance was handled as a joke and not as a serious consequence of him not handling his PTSD well, but this is perhaps the only scene where they handle it in a way I appreciated. Not even the final fight did this for me. Thor’s happiness when he realizes his behavior in the last five years has not made him any less worthy of Mjolnir is exactly what I wanted, and I’m glad we got it. I just wish they had managed to sneak in any recognition of Loki still being alive in that timeline, and how much that should have affected Thor. They should have talked about it. Loki’s death in IW is a very important thing for Thor, and ignoring it is out of character for him.

Now, I need someone to tell me how Jane reacted when Rocket just got into that room and poked her with a needle and sucked a whole ass Infinity Stone out of her. And then later, Steve will put it back. Damn, Jane Foster was not having a good day, was she?

2012, New York! Time, Mind, and Space Stones. Time is just fine, fairly easy compared to the others, and I do want to say I was very glad to see the Ancient One because I love her. And I’m also a little glad we get to see Bruce outside of the Professor Hulk form – I love him, but damn, I love Mark Ruffalo too.

Space and Mind are a little more complicated. I love that they recreated the elevator scene from TWS because it’s one of my favorites from the entire franchise, and Steve whispering hail hydra to deceive Rumlow is peak snarky-bastard Steve Rogers, which we hadn’t gotten any of since AoU. That, and the scene where Steve fights against his 2012 self is great character development! Remember when I said that the confrontation between Tony and Steve was what was missing? This is Steve reaping the results in real time. After five years and a good serving of some harsh truths to his face, Steve has now developed a sense of his own character that was lacking in the previous movies. He’s no longer a paper cutout of a character, that moves along pulled by two or three strings of the same line of thought. It’s him using his own past experiences against himself, it’s him proving that he now knows better, and he is amused by this younger version of him, who still doesn’t know how ridiculous he sounds, how much this idea he has is silly and soon enough he’ll be tired of hearing, even from himself. This is the Steve Rogers I wanted! This is what we needed. Real change. Change that even Steve himself recognizes!

It had been going so well. Oh, Steve.

On the other hand, Tony and Scott are getting the Space Stone. Tony tells Scott to give 2012!Tony a heart attack, the man is so damned dramatic, so they can get it. It backfires and Loki runs away with it. That is it’s own problem in itself, but we never see it, because alternate timelines. Now we are one stone short and no way of getting it back from 2012. So they go back even further: 1970.

And then we get Howard Stark and Peggy Carter.

A fucking can of worms, this scene.

Let me be nitpicky for a second. If I recall correctly, Peggy meets Daniel Sousa in somewhere around the late forties, since Agent Carter starts in 1946, which means that in 1970, twenty years later, she probably is already married and has children with him. The woman Steve sees through a blinder is a married woman. She has moved on. If this is the timeline Steve decides to go back to, we have a big, big problem in our hands. We can only hope we went back further, although it’s never shown, so we just have to assume! I hope he did. The alternative would be bad. But again, I’ll talk about Steve a little later. Let’s discuss Howard first.

Now. I, like many others, think Howard Stark can go fuck himself. Though it’s never said that Howard is physically abusive in the MCU like he was in the comics, it is said, by Tony himself, that Howard never told Tony he loved him. Not even that he liked him. Howard is, then, neglectful and very possibly verbally abusive. Which means that in the end, he’s still an asshole. I am not blind to what this scene represents from Tony’s perspective: Tony has always held Howard in extremely high regard, even after he passed. In IM2, when Tony discovers the new element, he attributes his discovery to Howard by saying “He’s still taking me to school”, showing how much Tony still thinks Howard can influence his life in a good way. We don’t agree with him, but this is how Tony sees his father, sometimes. His relationship with Howard is, at the very best, strained – Tony clearly thinks highly of him, but was bitter, and they were never close, by any stretch.

And then we have Tony meeting him. First of all, I can’t believe that when Tony is in his house at the beginning of this movie, when he looks at the picture of Peter, that he has a picture of Howard right next to it. Not of Maria and Howard, just Howard. How does that make any sense? Tony’s visceral reaction to learning Maria had been assassinated in CW, and now we’re not even acknowledging her, in favor of giving Howard an attempt of redemption? And fine, Tony doesn’t hold Howard accountable for any of the strain of their relationship, which is unfair, but not out of character for Tony, and I could almost let that slide – until Tony hugs Howard, and completely ignores Jarvis.

That, I will not accept.

Tony might be more affectionate now that he is also a father, and he might be more lenient with Howard’s mistakes now that he has experimented for himself the struggles of fatherhood, but this is no excuse. If Tony knows anything, is that is father was a part of a cycle of shame that constantly caused problems in the Stark family, and here Tony is, working every day to break that cycle. Tony is fully aware that Howard neglected him. And Tony has an AI named after his childhood caretaker, Jarvis. Between the two of them, Tony choosing to give Howard, the man he never fully connected with, a hug, and not even spare a nod or a glance to the one person who will inspire the AI that Tony genuinely mourns when gone, is Howard the one they chose? Marvel, we need to talk!

They get the Tesseract, possibly creating a fifth timeline, we don’t know for sure because 1970 is not a time we’ve explored in the MCU, and done! All stones collected. They bring them back, minus Natasha and with 2014!Nebula disguised as 2023!Nebula, and they make a Gauntlet. It’s hysterical to me that Tony just built a Gauntlet strong enough to hold the stones in his basement when Thanos destroyed the entire race of Dwarfs for his’, but let’s keep going. They make a Gauntlet, that changes sizes, may I point out, and Bruce uses it.

Snap, and everyone is back.

I love the tension is this scene. As we know 2014!Nebula is bringing Thanos as they do so, the fact that we don’t even get to see the people that returned before another attack strikes again is great. We don’t get any time to breathe. 2014!Thanos arrives with the entirety of his army, how, for starters, and decides that since he’s here, he’ll fucking snap this timeline too, because they’re annoying him and he wants to. His speech doesn’t really sticks to my brain because Thanos’ motivation shifts from: preventing the universe to fall for the same fate Titan fell, to I’ll kill you all because I feel like it, and it doesn’t… do anything for me. But as a villain, it’s solid logic, and it’s fine by me. So he goes, and demands the Gauntlet.

Anyone, please tell me why didn’t they shrink the goddamned thing so Thanos couldn’t fit his hand in there. It changes sizes. It’s the Ant Man thing all over again, it’s a simple solution, why won’t anyone go with the simple solution.

I don’t have much to say about the initial struggle there. The Compound is breaking, everyone is chasing the Gauntlet. Standard stuff. Nebula kills her past self, which has all sorts of metaphorical meanings that I appreciate, and while we are all fighting to follow what’ going on, Thanos sits there and waits, and it’s time.

Thor, Steve, and Tony decide to fight him right there, where he stands. Three against one.

And this is where I get confused again.

May I remind you, this Thanos has no Infinity Stones on him. Thanos takes the Power Stone from Xandar first in IW, in 2018, whereas this Thanos is from 2014. He doesn’t even have a Gauntlet yet. In IW, Tony faces against Thanos in Titan when Thanos already has four stones, and he draws blood. Not at no cost, for sure, but still – it happens. Tony’s nanotech armor stands a direct attack from the Power Stone, canonically. If that is not enough for you, Thor attacks Thanos in his final stretch of the fight in IW, when Thanos already has the Gauntlet complete, against a direct attack from it, and Stormbreaker cuts straight through it and hits Thanos in the chest so hard it’s enough to wound.

Both Thor and Tony have proven that is possible to face Thanos one-on-one.

Why the three of them together, against a less powerful Thanos, can’t?

I’m not saying I don’t understand why it happens like that. For dramatic effect, it’s better if they seem like they’re losing at first. Thor is not in the same physical state, although I’d argue that’s no excuse, since he still is and always will be the God of Thunder and being fat doesn’t change that, and Tony is older and no longer using a nano suit, although I doubt Tony would trade a suit for a lesser version at any time of the day – but these are all excuses. I can appreciate the dramatic tension of it and still be bothered by the fact they overpowered Thanos just because they could. This far down this post you already know how much I care for consistency. 2014!Thanos being more powerful than 2018!Thanos not only makes no sense, it takes away from the threat 2018!Thanos presented in IW. It undervalues the power of the Infinity Stones, in a movie about colleting Infinity Stones.

Dear God, is CA:CW all over again. There, I said it.

Anyway. Steve lifts Mjolnir.

This, at least, I can say they handled right, because as I said – if Steve’s character had been the same as it was in IW and in every other movie before, without his development in the first half of the movie, I would have hated this moment. No matter how cool it was. I don’t fully embrace it either, mind you, but not because of Steve – because of Thor, who considers this hammer an extension of himself, a tangible proof of his worth, and to have someone else lift it in a movie where Thor has been made a laughing stock for the audience for almost the entire film doesn’t sit right with me, how nonchalant he is about trading weapons with Steve in the middle of the fight, choosing to fight with Stormbreaker instead of Mjolnir; But those are my personal feelings on it, not an analysis. But yes, Steve lifts Mjolnir, and I’m thankful it happened the way it did, because the other possibilities for it were less than pleasant.

Then we get the so waited moment.

On your left.

I’ll admit, the scene with the portals opening and they all assembling? Visually stunning. So, so powerful! It is an amazing scene, and I can’t say I didn’t smile like a fool because there are so many good moments in this fight scene. This final part, more than any other, is a gift to fans, because it finally brings together iconic characters we were all dying to see again. And I don’t care who you are or what your opinion is of this movie, if you think the reunion of Tony and Peter was anything other than incredibly emotional and Tony proving that he considers Peter a son, you are wrong. I take no criticism.

Although, if anyone has an explanation to how the hell Valkyrie got that Pegasus, I would love to hear it. Just for shits and giggles.

But it had to come to an end. We knew that. We all knew. Tony raises his eyes and sees Strange lifting one finger, trembling – one chance. One. I’m gonna say it right now: I don’t think its at all unexpected that it happened the way it did. When Tony steals the Stones and makes a Gauntlet for himself, it’s exactly what I expected from him. But that doesn’t mean it’s not incredibly emotional still.

Tony is on his knees, and yet, he is the most powerful being on the universe. The power coursing through him will rip him apart, and he knows it, he accepts it, and he declares that he is Iron Man, because that is where is started, and that is where he will end. Tony always knew. He embraces it, his destiny, and the snaps his fingers knowing he won’t survive and he’s okay with that. It’s not only in character, it’s a sacrifice bigger than any other we’ve ever seen, and it’s only right that Tony do it, because he is the founder, the point where it all started, and this proves that he was the strongest avenger.

Now. Full circle doesn’t mean closure.

Marvel has a terrible habit of killing off characters when they are right at the cusp of reaching their final relief. Tony has gotten things in this movie I never expected him to get, considering how frequently Marvel used him as a piñata just because they needed someone to be guilty of something. In Endgame, Tony gets not only reunited, but an actual connection with Steve and the others, he gets the girl, he gets a family. Tony has struggled for a decade to achieve any sort of happiness, and when he finally does, they rip it from his arms. Yes, what he does is heroic, and no one can argue that is not powerful and extremely important – but imagine what kind of message it would have created if he had survived.

He would have snapped his fingers with the full intent of sacrificing himself. To die a hero.

But the universe finally acknowledges his efforts, his strength, his passion – and lets him live.

Tell me this isn’t powerful. Tell me this isn’t what he deserved.

I am not enraged by his ending – I’m left feeling hollow. I am proud, but I’m unsatisfied. Not just because he is my favorite Avenger, my favorite character of all times, and I will miss him terribly every day; But because had he lived, his final message would not have been sacrifice, it would have been hope. Reward. An honorable death is good, but sometimes, it doesn’t close a chapter. It leaves it unfinished.

Tony was loved, and he always will be. But at what cost?

His funeral was quiet, which I think it’s fitting. The experience of watching it on theatre was incredibly real because of it. Everyone in that room, including myself, was mourning. I’m glad they had the foresight of making it so. The silent messages in this scene: the original reactor, Steve and Peter to the front, close to Tony’s family, Harley being present, Bucky being present, Nick Fury being present. It’s a scene that is nearly silent and yet is speaks volumes. No matter if I don’t fully accept Tony’s ending, this scene is absolutely beautiful, and I really like it.

And for our final considerations, Steve Rogers.

Steve volunteers to take the Stones back, because while Thor decides to go on a journey with the Guardians, and hopefully we’ll be seeing more of him in the future, Steve is the only one who can now return Mjolnir to its proper time.

Steve goes up to that machine with the full intention of not coming back.

For the Stucky shippers out there, this moment caused a lot of rage because it seems like Steve didn’t even say goodbye to Bucky – and to all the others. And I get it. But I also get that Steve would have never told anyone, because this is Steve making a decision he now has full awareness is not the right one, in a manner of speaking, but he’s taking it anyway. It’s different from TWS or CACW: in those movies, Steve had been acting on his morals with no consideration that he might be wrong. Now Steve has changed. He knows what he’ll do is not only bad news in time travel terms, but it’s also a dead giveaway to his own emotional state, and that might alert people that would try to stop him. So he doesn’t tell them. He believes he has done what he could for this timeline, that he has paid his dues, honored as much promises as he could, and now, he’ll do something for himself.

Many people called him selfish for it. Others said he was only doing something his heart desired, and he earned it, and that’s not selfish.

I don’t think it’s either. I think backtracking.

Steve’s ending is… a rough topic for me. I don’t like it, bluntly put. Not because I have anything against Peggy or StevePeggy as a ship – but it doesn’t make sense to me both for Steve’s character and for the time travel rules.

Get ready, you’re about to hear me talk for a while.

For his character: Let’s consider the timeline of Steve’s romantic venues. Steve and Peggy meet in the 40s, when they share ONE kiss and nothing else, so they didn’t actually have a romantic relationship per say. Not that takes away any merit from the force of Steve’s feelings for her – if he says he loves her, then he loves her. If he says he thinks she was the love of her life, then that’s what I’ll consider when I analyze him. So as far as I’m concerned, until CA:TWS, Steve is going about his life fully aware that he has lost his chance with this woman, and eventually, he’ll be able to get over her.

Now. Let’s talk about the scene at the nursing home and Sharon Carter.

I have never shipped Sharon and Steve, but I don’t shit on anyone who does because they aren’t doing nothing wrong, as far as I’m concerned. Two years pass between A1 and TWS, time enough that Steve can experience things in the future as a separate life from his life in the 40s, and that could help him overcome his guilt. AND AT FIRST, IT SEEMS LIKE HE DOES! He congratulates Peggy on her family and despite being sad, he is happy that she was happy, and that is a big step towards getting over someone. Now, this alone would not convince me, because people lie, and Steve is the kind of guy who would suffer in silence, so this interaction, for me is not enough.

Then, let’s consider Sharon. Sharon is living as Kate for who knows how long, but I assume it’s long enough that Steve feels comfortable enough flirting with her. At this point, Steve has no idea she is Peggy’s niece, so even those who use this argument can’t say he’s acting wrong. The essence of this is that Steve is trying to move on, he is flirting, he is searching for a new love in this future.

Cue Peggy’s funeral. This is where it gets weird for me. Actually, it gets weird before, when Steve learns Sharon was deceiving him and that somehow doesn’t make him wary of her, when the entirety of TWS is Steve being at the peak of his mistrustful arc – but the funeral pushes Steve into a very uncomfortable position. He is saying goodbye to the woman he loved, and the next relationship he will have on screen is with her now-revealed niece.

There’s two ways to go about this: Either Steve isn’t over Peggy and hooked up with her niece, and that is so very weird, or either Steve is over Peggy and is hooking up with Sharon with no hanging feelings for her aunt, which allows us to comfortably believe that Steve is looking at Sharon completely separate from Peggy.

Now I ask you: knowing Steve went back to be with Peggy, how well did TWS age, in face of Endgame? Not a lot, don’t you think?

Let’s also consider Peggy. As I said, I’m working with the assumption Steve went even backwards and caught Peggy somewhere in the late 1940s, or else, he has just caused a divorce. It creates another timeline, which means that, at the very least, it won’t change the MCU as we know it. The Agent Carter series already happened, and it continues to be canon. Every movie since IM1 continues to be canon. Steve simply ceases to live in our timeline, to live in a reality he created for himself.

Now, let’s consider Bucky. By 1946, Bucky is already in HYDRA’s clutches. Bucky’s history directly affects Tony’s, which in turn, affects the entire MCU. If Steve messes with it, this timeline will change until it becomes something unrecognizable from the timeline we know. As from what I know of Steve, he will. “If I see a situation going south, I can’t ignore it”? Steve will try to find Bucky. He’ll probably find him. When he does, he’ll find HYDRA. There’s also another Steve, sitting at the bottom of the ocean, waiting to be found. Will Steve tip off his location? Will Steve send the other Steve in his stead and watch? I doubt it.

Steve creates an entire timeline to himself, and although it’s very cute we get to see him finally get the dance he wanted, what will he do after?

He will go back to the fight.

This is not moving on. It’s backtracking. They took all the progress they made with his character and threw it in the trash, because they pushed him into the same position he was before, when this all started.

Steve was not selfish, nor he was right. He’s going in circles. They had the chance to make him stay in the future, to give him something to look forward to, to push him forward in those final inches towards the finish line and again, give him closure. But they didn’t.

It’s not even out of character. This is something Steve would have done in 2014, in 2016, in 2018. Problem is, this was the only chance he had to learn that he could do something different. And then they didn’t give it to him.

Full circle doesn’t always mean closure. Remember that.

And just so we’re clear, ignoring everything that goes wrong with the timeline before Steve goes to the past, let me explain why Steve’s ending also doesn’t make sense plot-wise: According to what happens in 2012, when Loki grabs the Tesseract and immediately forms an alternate timeline, they are still able to come back to their own future because the starting point of the travel is placed there. The machine works not only as a time-traveling device, but also an anchor, that allows them to go back to their original timeline without getting stuck in the alternates. Nebula’s mishap in 2014 also confirms that, when she loses the signal of the starting point and suddenly cannot leave.

Meaning: Steve left through that machine to an alternate reality. The only way he could have gone back is through the same machine. If he doesn’t, if he just… shows up by that bench as if he’d been waiting for them to notice him, it’s one of two things: either he passes through the portal earlier and like a dramatic asshole, he sits and waits, but considering the Compound gets destroyed when Thanos attacks, he must’ve gotten then earlier. Which means the fight happened while he waited. And doesn’t that make you feel just great?

OR, which is the worst of the two: he didn’t alter anything. Somehow, his going back didn’t alter enough events to make the timeline diverge enough that they would lead to different fates. Which implies that he lets Bucky become the Winter Soldier and kill Tony’s parents. He allows SHIELD to be infiltrated by HYDRA. He allows everything. And it’s horrible I can’t even accept as a possibility.

I know it may not seem like it, but I enjoyed this movie, in my own way. Don’t take this as me being bitter or furious – this is just how my brain works. I analyze things. Looking at this movie as an independent experience, it’s very fun and very emotional, and it certainly hits all the nostalgia points a long-time MCU fan could want. I’m happy about that. I will treasure the parts I liked with all my strength, because this was the end of an era, an era I’m glad I got the chance to be a part of. I don’t want to erase it from my mind. It belongs in our timeline now, and as we all know, part of the journey is the end.

But as someone who has dedicated a long time to this story, to this entire universe, I look at the big picture. And some pieces simply don’t fit. I will not stop questioning them just for the sake of nostalgia or conformism, because the experience created by a universe as large as this lasts a lifetime. Fandoms live on. We live on. And isn’t that the entire purpose of the thing? Of what we do, as content creators for a fandom? We keep it alive, we cherish the good stuff, we fix what’s broken?

It’s what I like to do. If nothing else, Endgame will keep me alive. Will keep us alive.

What you take from it it’s up to you.

THAT WAS SO FREAKISHLY LONG, OH MY GOD. To the anon who asked for this, I am so sorry, this is way more than what you bargained for, but there you have it. My thoughts on it. And hey, if you have something to say about it, if you were crazy enough to get this far, let me know. I’m open to talk about it. However you feel about Endgame, I hope you took something from it like I did, and hopefully, I could give you some food for thought.

Congratulations if you made it this far into my long ass rant. Maybe I’ll see you in another one :p