#ive been pulling on multiple banners but this is the first time i actually got an ssr character

[k0ushii]

oh my god finally my first ssr

[just-dreaming-marvel]

Love and Medicine ~ 14

MASTERLIST

< previous chapter

Word Count: 5,000ish

Summary: Just another day at the medical center, right? (Based off Grey’s Anatomy)

Heading back into the hospital, you went straight for Natasha’s room. The other interns were already in there, surrounding her bed.

“Hey,” you smiled, walking over to her. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m okay,” she responded. “I’m okay.”

You grabbed her hand and gave it a slight squeeze. She needed to know that you were there for her, but you weren’t going to push her into talking about something she wasn’t ready to talk about.

~~~

You slammed down a shot, needing to feel the alcohol rush down your throat. 

“How was Nat when you left, Scott?” Val asked, bringing more drinks over.

“She said she was okay, again,” he responded with a slight shrug.

“Nobody goes what she went through and is totally over it by now.”

“Natasha can.”

“She’s fine,” you added, taking another shot.

“Too fine,” Val said. “She’s cold.”

“No, she’s hardcore,” Clint said. “She’s got ice in her veins. She does what she has to do to get through it.”

“She lost a baby. She lost a fallopian tube and she’s acting like she doesn’t even care. She’s acting like she has no emotions or warmth, like she’s missing a soul.”

“She’s gonna make a great surgeon.”

“Clint!”

“It’s true. You show no weakness, you make it to the top.”

“Some people just keep their feelings to themselves,” you commented.

Your eyes were on the door, where Steve had just walked in. If he noticed you, he didn’t make it noticeable. You watched as he walked over to the bar and sat beside Gamora. Steve ordered a drink from Happy before talking to Gamora. Too bad you were too far away to hear them.

“Y/N kissed me,” Steve told Gamora. “Peggy kissed me… My wife and my girlfriend kissed me on the same day.”

“Happy, do I look friend to you?” Gamora asked.

“Oh, you’re a tiny little kitten of joy and love,” Happy responded, only for Gamora to make a face. “What? He saved my life.”

“His first mistake.” She took a sip of her drink. “Captain McDreamy, go sit by someone who cares.”

“Oh gee,” Steve mocks hurt, but doesn’t make a move to go. “Everything’s gonna be fine. Peggy will leave. Y/N and I will start over. Everything’s gonna be fine. Right?”

“You are so damn stupid.”

~~~

“With Natasha out, I need everyone focused today,” Gamora told her group of interns as you all headed off to rounds. “I have a feeling it’s gonna be be one of those days and since we’re short an intern, you do not want to get on my bad side.”

“When are we not on her bad side?” You whispered to Clint.

“Speak for yourself,” he replied with a scoff. “Scott and I are her favorites.”

The group walked into their first patients room. The woman was sitting on the bed, enthralling a group of hospital workers with a tell.

“So we're in the middle of the Belizean jungle and this jaguarondi jumps out and bites one of the guides,” the woman says. “They all look at me. They're yelling, "You're a doctor, help him!" This is one time a PhD does no good.” The people laugh.

“Sorry,” Gamora interrupted, “did I miss the memo about social hour?” Everyone quickly began leaving besides your group.

“Tales of missionary life,” the woman explained.

“You’re a missionary?” Val asked.

“No, my parents. We traveled a lot. Well, they still do.”

“Lang, tell me about our patient,” Gamora ordered.

“Okay, um, this is Dr. Banner’s patient, Talya,” Scott explained. “She, uh, presents with multiple syncopal episodes and ventricular arrhythmias.”

“So you’ve been passing out?” Gamora asked.

“Yeah,” Talya confirmed, “and having palpitations.”

“Talya has past medical history of rheumatic heart disease with mitral valve stenosis,” Scott added.

“They had to ship me from Zambia to the States for 3 months of treatment when I was 8,” Tayla said. “Rheumatic fever almost killed me.”

“Someone please tell me what the primary causes of ventricular arrhythmias are,” Gamora said.

Before anyone in the room could responded, Natasha appeared in the doorway. She leaned up against it in her hospital gown with her IV stand.

“Valvular disease, mitral valve prolapse, stimulants, drugs, and metabolic abnormalities,” Natasha answered.

“Out!” Gamora ordered.

“I’m fine.”

“Out! And you better be in your bed by the time we round on you!”

“And when will that be?”

“In 15 seconds. 14. 13. 13. 11.” 

Natasha turned around to head to her room, revealing her underwear through her nightgown. The group of interned laughed.

“Nice panties, Romanoff!” Peter laughed.

Natasha flips him the bird as she keeps waking. “In your dreams, Quill.”

They followed Natasha into the room, where she huffed as she got back into bed.

“L/N,” Gamora called.

“Right,” you responded. “Natasha Romanoff. Post-op day 3 from a unilateral salpingectomy.”

“And ready to get back to work,” Natasha said. “I'm taking solids and my pain is controlled with oral meds. I'm ready.”

“Well, it says here on your chart on you had a fever?”

“Y/N,” Nat growled.

“Natasha, did you have a fever?” Gamora questioned.

“Temp spiked to 101 last night. Big deal.”

“She worked 2 shifts last month with a 102 degree flu,” Clint added.

“Yes! Exactly, Clint. Thank you.”

“And we appreciate your dedication but you're staying in bed until it normalizes,” Gamora said. “You need to relax, shut up, and get better. You're a patient this week so you can be a doctor next week. Understand?”

“I understand,” Natasha grumbled.

~~~

Rounds had finished as you were heading to your assignment when you ran into Steve near the elevators.

“Skipping rounds?” He wondered.

“No,” you replied. “They just finished.” You kept walking, when Steve took your arm to stop you.

“Y/N…”

“You’ve got a wife.”

“Yes.”

“You’re life is complicated.”

“Yes.”

“I don’t need more complicated. I have that all on my own.”

“Yes.”

“Stop saying yes.”

Steve smiled. “I’m trying not to make any sudden movements.”

“You think this is funny?”

“Peggy’s leaving. She doesn’t have any more patients. There’s no reason for her to be here.”

“No reason? Really?”

“No really whatsoever.”

Steve stepped closer, bringing his hand up to brush your cheek. You stood there, trying to not let it get to your head or, well, anywhere else. Suddenly, Peggy appeared.

“Well now, isn’t this cozy?” She said. “Can I join in or are you not into threesomes?”

“I have to go,” you said, rushing away. You didn’t go too far, interested to watch everything unfold.

“Y/N…” Steve called with a sign. He turned to Peggy. “You really are Satan. You realize that right? If Satan were to take physical form, he'd be you. Everywhere, all the time.”

“I am so not Satan,” Peggy responded.

“How come you haven't got on your broomstick and gone back to where you belong?”

“Stop being petty.”

“Stop being an adulterous bitch.”

“You know, you are going forgive me eventually, right? I mean you can't just ... I mean there was a time when you thought of me as your best friend.”

“There was a time where I thought you were the love of my life. Things change.”

Peggy sighed and pulled some papers out of her bag, handing them to Steve. Steve quickly flipped through them.

“Divorce papers,” he said.

“Your lawyer said they're ok. I haven't signed them yet. The ball's in your court. If you sign, I'll sign. I'll sign and be on the first plane out of here.”

“I'll sign them immediately. I want you out of here as soon as possible.”

“Steve, have you ever thought that, even if I am Satan and an adulterous bitch, that I still might be the love of your life?”

Not answering, Steve walks away, completely not noticing you listening in from behind a pillar.

“What are we looking at?” Tony asked, appearing out of nowhere.

“Ah!” You exclaimed, jumping slightly. “Don’t do that!” You playfully hit him. “You scared me.”

“Sorry,” he laughed. “I just saw you over here and I was interested in seeing what you were observing.”

“I think… I think Peggy just handed Steve divorce papers.”

“Really? That actually surprises me. I thought she would put in a little more of a fight.”

“Yeah…”

“I guess that’s good news for you, right?”

“I guess.”

“You guess?”

“I want him to choose me because of me, not because of a divorce.”

“In my ever humble opinion, I think it will always be you. Trust me. That man is whipped.”

~~~

Natasha snuck out of her room and stole her chart. She sat in her bed as she made changes to it. Walking by, Banner looked in and noticed that no one else was in there. He quickly took the chart of Nat.

“Hey! That’s my chart,” Natasha complained.

“You're the patient. Not the doctor. Act like one,” Bruce reprimands as he studies her chart. “It's been tough finding you alone.”

“Yeah? Well…”

“How are you doing?”

“Well, you have my chart, you tell me.”

He sighed. “Natasha, how are you doing?”

“I’m fine. Perfectly okay.”

“I had a right to know.”

“Well, now you do.”

“Natasha—“

“Look. Now you know. It’s over. There’ soothing for you to deal with. So I don’t know what else there really is left to say.”

“Plenty. For starters you could've come to me—“

“And what? We could have raised it together? Or you could have held my hand when I got the abortion? I did not need any of that. I’m an intern.”

“Nat—“

“Can you just go? I need to rest. Doctor’s orders.”

~~~

Gamora called you to help her with a patient. You two walked into the patient room together, revealing a younger man on the bed.

“I thought I told you I never want to see you again,” Gamora said to the patient.

“That's only cause you're too lazy to learn anything more,” the man responded.

“Dr. Y/N L/N, this is Nick Tate. He thinks he knows so much cause he was one of my first patient's as an intern.”

“I knew as much as she did. She was clueless about how to treat cystic fibrosis. A simple cholecystectomy turned into a month-long stay.”

“Better not be alleging malpractice. Guy raises about a 100 grand a year for cystic fibrosis, running triathlons. Thinks he's a big shot.”

“Wait, you run triathlons?” You questioned, confused how it could as a patient with cystic fibrosis.

“Yeah, why not?” He responded.

“It’s a pain for one,” Gamora replied, flipping through the chart. “Says here you're finally admitting to feeling a little unwell?”

“A little.”

“How little? Truth.”

“Oh, enough to keep me awake at night. Had some seizures. Um, too weak to work out.”

“Anyone been through here with your CT results?”

“No. It's probably just my pancreatitis kicking up again.”

“All right then. We'll be back. With your results and a plan.” Gamora walked to the door, with you following. She glanced back at Nick. “Huh, where do your parents think you are this time?”

He smiled. “Hmm, San Diego.”

Gamora shakes her head as you follow her the rest of the way out of the room.

“What about his parents?” You asked. “Shouldn’t he, or we, tell them?”

“No, he doesn't like to bother them until he's well or about to get discharged. He understands his reality. He just chooses to ignore it. Denial works for him, L/N.”

~~~

After Bruce had left, it only took Natasha two minutes to have found blue scrubs and change into them. She took out her IV and snuck out to the nurses station. She began looking through patient charts. The head nurse, Phil Coulson, found her like that.

“Where’s your IV?” He asked, looking at her with a disappointed father face.

“I've taken solids. I HEP-locked it,” Natasha replied.

“On whose orders?”

“Mine.”

“Okay.” Phil quickly found her chart and began reading it. “Romanoff. How about this order: best rest, out of bed to chair, bathroom privileges. Nothing about stealing charts at the nurses station.”

“Okay, you know what….” She quickly looked around to find a nearby empty wheelchair. She brought it over and sat down in it. “There, satisfied? I’m out of bed to chair.”

“I’m telling your intent on you.”

“Y/N?”

“Yeah.”

“Oooh, I’m so scared.”

She wheeled off with a patient chart, heading to Tayla’s room. When she arrived, she witnessed Tayla, by herself, taking a pill.

“I saw that!” Natasha exclaimed from her wheelchair in the doorway. “I saw you take that pill.”

“Oh it's, it's my pill,” Tayla excused. “You know... the pill.”

Natasha quickly looked over the chart. “It’s not at all in your chart and you are supposed to tell us the meds you are on.”

“You’re not my doctor. You shouldn't even be here.”

“She’s right,” Val said, appearing from behind. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“I saw her take unauthorized medication!” Natasha continued.

“Well, you’re unauthorized to be here.”

“I’m on the pill and I had grapefruit juice this morning,” Tayla explained. “Since the juice inhibits enzymes involved in the metabolism of OCPs, I thought I'd avoid the interaction by taking it two hours after my meal.”

“She's has a doctorate in neuropharmacology, Natasha.”

Natasha huffed, “Well, Val, I don’t see any place where oral contra—“

“Okay so now you will. Will you just go back to bed and stop bothering the other patients?”

Tayla’s heart monitor suddenly started racing, bringing the other women attentions to her. She fell to the floor, unconscious, and Val rushed to her.

“She’s in V-FIB!” Natasha said. 

“Call the code,” Val ordered as she began compressions.

Natasha practically jumped out of her chair to call a code, which didn’t feel good. Val got Tayla back as the code team arrived.

“No code?” The nurse questioned.

“Not anymore,” Val answered. “Can you help get her back into bed.

“I’ll—I’ll help,” Natasha breathed got, struggling to get back to her wheelchair. “Just give me a minute.”

“Would you just go back to bed? Seriously, please just go.”

Natasha nodded as she finally made it to the wheelchair. “Just… if she’s on OCP’s, mark it down. Okay, Val?”

“Yeah.”

~~~

You had gotten Nick’s x-ray’s back and were currently putting them up to view them with Gamora by your side.

“Nick’s got a mass in his midepigastrium,” you explained. “Diffused enlargement of the pancreas. That, with his hypoglycemic seizures—“

“He's going to need an exploratory laparotomy. But, despite his triathlons, his lungs still make me hesitant to cut,” Gamora added.

“What are we going to do?”

“I haven’t gotten that far yet.”

“Doctors,” Peggy greeted.

“Dr. Carter-Rogers.”

“How old is he?” Peggy asked, studying the x-rays.

“26.”

“Survivor, huh?”

“And them some. My patient for at least 5 years. I'm not gonna lose him now.”

“You planning a laparotomy?”

“Hmm. You know, I think I could help you with this. I've seen one case like this before in a 9 year old. We ended up having to do a total pancreotectomy.”

“I'd be honored to take any help you can give me.”

“You’re a neonatal specialist,” you said. “What, uh… this isn’t your area.” Gamora looked at you, annoyed, as she shock her head. “I’m just saying that—“

“I did 2 years genetic research in cystic fibrosis,” Peggy told you. “I've pretty much seen it all, Dr. L/N.”

“Oh.”

~~~

Walking down the hall, Steve found you. Always trying his best to make a conversation with you. This time it was easy.

“Are you sure your wife is leaving?” You questioned. “She offered to help on the case Gamora has me working on.”

“Just because she offered her services doesn't mean she intends to stay,” Steve responded.

“Well, what does it mean? Because it seems to me—“

“It means that she's a good doctor.”

“Huh… why are you suddenly defending her?”

“I’m not. Y/N, she gave me divorce papers. She filed.”

“Good for you.”

“All I have to do is sign, and I’m free… We’re free.”

“Is there anything to think about?”

“No,” he shook his head, “of course not. I have to read through them, sign, then Peggy’s on the next plane out of here.” He grabbed your hands. “This is going to work.”

~~~

After the conversation he had with you, Steve immediately went searching for Gamora.

“Of all the fine doctors in the city, you accept a consult from Peggy Carter,” Steve said, angrily.

“Carter-Rogers, isn’t it?” Gamora retorted.

“The point is she should be on her way home. Are you purposefully trying to drive me crazy?”

“You think this has something to do with you?” Gamora’s voice was loud and upset. “You think I’m even thinking about you and your romantic problems? I’m trying to help a patient very near and dear to my heart. And if consulting with your wife—your ex—your mistress, what ever it is that she becomes! If that’s the thing I have to do to save my patient, them I’m damn well gonna do it.”

“I understand… and I totally deserve the yelling. It’s just that—“

“Just, you look! You have put yourself between two very fine women and you looking for an easy way out and you wanna use me, and the hospital and... somebody to make the decision for you, and it's not gonna happen!”

“Could I just… could I just say a couple of things?”

“No.” Gamora stormed off.

~~~

You found Natasha sitting in her bed, in her room. Thankfully. Though she was looking through another patient’s chart. You pulled a chair up to her bedside and sat down in it with a sigh.

“What’s your problem?” Natasha asked.

“Peggy gave Steve divorce papers, which is good. I mean she’s still here, being Peggy, but it’s not like I’m jealous or anything.”

“That’s odd.”

“It’s odd I’m not jealous?”

“No, you have every right to be jealous. It's your territory and she's peeing all over it.” Natasha went back to focusing on the chart in her hands. “What’s odd is Banner’s patient.”

“Tayla?”

“Yeah. She’s been in 4 other hospitals this year. You know something’s not right.”

“You seem awfully interested in Banner’s patient.”

“This has nothing to do with Bruce.”

“Natasha, you lost a fallopian tube, a baby and a boyfriend all in one day. You have the right to be upset.”

“And you’re losing Captain McDreamy to his perfect wife. You have the right to be jealous.”

“I did not lose Captain McDreamy. Divorce papers, remember? And I’m not jealous.”

“And I’m not upset. I really need to get out of here.”

“You’re on bedrest, remember?”

“Okay, if the situation was reversed, would you wanna spend time with your mother in a confined room with one window?”

“No. I guess not. But still. You need to stay put.” 

Before Natasha could respond, your pager beeped. You looked down at it and groaned.

“I got to go,” you muttered, leaving.

“Good luck!”

~~~

Peggy and Gamora met you in Nick’s room. There you began explaining the surgery to him.

“We won't know for sure until we go in there, but it looks like that I'm going to have to take out your pancreas and re-route your intestines,” Peggy said.

Nick looked at Gamora. “Did you tell her that my lungs don't do well with anesthesia?”

“Don’t I always have your back?” Gamora retorted.

“Your kidney function is decreasing rapidly and I'm afraid you're gonna go into multi-system organ failure if we don't operate,” Peggy continued.

“If I say no?” Nick wondered.

“There’s no guarantees, Nick. You know that,” Gamora answered. “It's gonna be a long, hard surgery and put a lot of stress on your body.”

“Yeah,” he smiled, “but I’m me.”

She smiled back. “But you’re you.”

“So if we don’t operate, I die. And if… we do operate, I may die.”

“Basically, yes,” Peggy responded.

“Well, I like those odds. And 26 years with this disease is awesome. And that's the reality. So if I get lucky ... great. And if I don’t…” Nick grabbed Gamora’s hand, “it’s been sweet.”

“It’s gonna stay sweet,” she replied.

~~~

Natasha was laying on her bed with her harm over her eyes when Clint walked into the room. Tayla’s chart was laid out on top of her.

“Why do you have that?” He asked.

“I’m working,” Nat answered. “Trying to figure out what’s going on with the crazy woman on four.”

“You are the crazy woman on four. Though, I have to say, you have a better patina than me and you don’t even really have a patient.” Clint plopped down in the chair next to her bed. “Y/N’s got a CF case. Peter has a gunshot wound. Val’s got the mystery arrhythmias. I have babysitting a crazy old lady! I’d rather do scut with Scott than this! I’m a surgeon. A cutter. I don’t want to be a fake surgeon! I want to be a real one!”

“She’s faking it,” Nat repeated to herself. She quickly got off the bed. “The missionary. Talya… Thank you!” 

She patted Clint’s head as she walked by. Natasha headed straight for the nurses station, where she saw Val looking around for something.

“Val!” Natasha called. “How how Talya’s studies been?”

“Hey!” Val responded, not pleasantly as she took the chart from Nat. “I’ve been looking everywhere for that!”

“Negative, right?”

“Oh! The echo tests showed mild mitral stenosis, the tilt test was negative. We're doing EP studies.”

“I can tell you what's wrong with her without sticking electrodes in her heart.”

“Really. Just by the chart?”

“No, from the pill she took.”

“They were contraceptives, Natasha! Why are you so obsessed with this? Just go back to bed!”

“I think she’s doing this to herself.”

“You think she's inducing ventricular arrhythmias? She'd have to be crazy to do—“

“No, no, no. She'd have to have Munchausen’s.”

“Okay wait. You think she's secretly ingesting something to produce real symptoms? Seriously?”

“Yes. Run it by Banner and tell me what he thinks.”

“Why don’t you tell him yourself. He is standing right behind you.” Val made eye contact with the man. “Dr. Banner.” 

Then Val left. Leaving Natasha will Bruce. She sighed as Bruce guided her into the small office nearby before listening to her.

“I mean, she obviously loves the patient role. She practically lives in hospitals. And... and, and we're like an imaginary family to her because her really family blows her off to go take care of other people.... And, and I saw her take something.”

“It's not enough,” Bruce said, shaking his head. “We have to rule out everything else. Everything physical.”

“She even lied about her job. She's a pharmacy tech, not a PhD.”

“So she's a liar. I've been lied to before.”

“Hey, we're not talking about us here.”

“Maybe we should be.”

“I didn’t lie!”

“You withheld the truth from me. How was00”

“Okay, you know what? I distinctly remember you breaking things off with me. And you didn't seem so upset about it. And this?” She motioned between herself and Bruce. “This is, this is not a relationship. This is not real.”

“Natasha…”

“Okay, and, and so what's with the big display of fake hurt and drama?” She began walking out of the room.

“Natasha!”

“I’m supposed to be in bed.”

~~~

You absolutely did not want to be in surgery with Peggy. Yet there you were.

“I need more traction,” Peggy stated. “Dr. Y/N?” You quickly did as you were told.

“Here,” Gamora called, “give me some suction there.” So you did. “Now L/N, retract the duodenum. Good. How’s he doing Vis?”

Vis was keeping watch over Nick’s vitals and such. “Harder to ventilate and no urine output since we started,” Vis informed.

Peggy shook her head, “he’s shutting down.”

“Did you increase his peak pressures?” Gamora asked.

“Any higher, I blow his lungs,” Vis responded before the monitor beeped. “Bradycardia. Pushing 1 of atropine.”

“Try ventilating him manually,” Peggy ordered, “see if he starts coming back up.” Vis began pushing on a bag.

“Did we miss any bleeders?” Gamora wondered.

“The surgical field is clear.”

The monitor began beeping faster. “Agonal rhythm,” you said.

“Any pulse with that?” Gamora asked.

“No carotid,” Vis answered.

“Okay, starting CPR.” Gamora handed over her tools and begun CPR. “Push one of EPI.”

“No extraordinary measures, Gamora,” Peggy warned. “He’s DNR.”

“No this is just good medicine.” Sh continued CPR, almost frantically. “Come on! Come on! Don’t give up. Come on.”

“You’re getting tired,” you noted. “Let me take over, Dr. Gamora.” She nodded, letting you quickly switch her places.

“Gamora, his intestines are cyanotic,” Peggy stated. “There’s no blood circulating.”

“It’s been shunted to his brain where he needs it,” Gamora responded as she studied your CPR form. “You call those compressions.” She shoved you to the side and took over CPR. You and Peggy made eye contact, worried. “Fight it. Come on.” Peggy looked around, shaking her head, and everyone stopped what they were doing. All but Gamora. “Why isn’t anyone moving? Whose recording?”

“It's been ten minutes since we've had a perfusing rhythm.” Peggy goes to stop Gamora but is shrugged off. The monitor flat lines. “It’s your call, Gamora.”

Taking a shaky inhale, Gamora stopped. She pulled off her mask as the monitor continues to flat line. “Asystole.” She looked up at the clock. “Time of death: 19:35.”

Gamora rushed out of the OR, trying not to cry. She went straight to the sinks and began cleaning her hands furiously. She paused when she noticed people covering up Nick’s body. Peggy walked in and started washing her hands as well, with you following. You both eyed Gamora a few times, worried. Soon, she left.

Peggy sighed. “It’s hard to accept the end when you’re too close.” She looked down as she slipped her wedding ring back onto her finger. She noticed you watching. “Look, I don't want someone who doesn't want me, Y/N. But if there's the slightest chance that he does, I'm not leaving New York.”

~~~

Val walked into Natasha’s room, not excited for the news she was about to tell her.

“Well?” Natasha asked.

“You were right,” Val sighed. “Talya definitely suffers from Munchausen’s.”

“See I was right…. I was right…” She closed her eyes. “I was right…” Nat began to cry. “I was right. I was… I was right. Oh… I’m—I’m—“ She let out a sob. “I’m right. I’m—I’m right.”

Val looked out of the room to see Clint walking by. “Clint! Page Y/N!”

Clint hurried in. “Why? What—what’s happening? What did you do to her?”

“She just started crying and I don’t know what to do!”

“I’ll get one of the nurses to page, Y/N.” Clint rushed out.

“Natasha,” Val tried, slowly coming closer. “Natasha, calm down.”

“The nurses paged her!” Clint came rushing back in.

“It’s okay, Nat.” Val went in for a hug, only for Nat to shrink away and cry harder. “Okay, okay. I won’t hug you.”

“What’s going on?” You came running in, panicked.

“I can’t stop!” Nat cried. “I can’t—-I can’t stop…”

“Crying,” Val finished for her. “She can’t stop crying.”

“I can’t see that!” You replied. “What did you guys do to her?”

“Nothing!”

“She’s going to dehydrate,” Clint said. “Nat, do you want some water?”

Nat shook her head, “no, no…” You tried to go in for a hug, only to be pulled away.

“NO!” Clint and Val exclaimed.

“I already tried that,” Val said. “It just made it worse.” Clint tentatively handed Nat a tissue.

“Natasha,” you tried again.

“Make—make it stop,” Natasha sobbed. “Make it stop… Somebody sedate me!”

“What’s going on in here?” Bruce asked, walking in. He was dressed like he was about to leave. There was clear concern etched on his face. 

“We can’t get her to stop crying,” you replied.

“Y/N, get everyone else out of here.” Bruce was taking off his jacket. “Watch the door.”

You nodded, quickly ushering Clint and Val out. They voiced protests, but willing left. You shut the door behind you and watched. Peeking through the window, you watched as Bruce got in the bed beside Nat. He wrapped his arms around her and brought her close, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. Natasha willingly curled into him, welcoming his comfort. You sighed and turned away, leaning against the door to keep watch. Steve noticed you and came up.

“Hey,” he smiled.”

“Hey.”

“When are you off?”

“Uh,” you glanced at your watch, “in about an hour. Why?”

“Meet me at Happy’s when you get off.” He started walking backwards, sly smirk on his lips. “Don’t be late.”

~~~

Steve and you arrived at Happy’s bar at the same time. He gave you a smile as he held the door open for you. You walked over to an empty table, Steve close behind.

“I’m glad we’re doing this,” you said.

“Me too,” Steve replied. He set it briefcase on his chair. “Want a drink?”

“Yes, please.”

Turning around, Steve knocked his briefcase onto the ground. A stack of papers slipped out.

“I’ve got it,” Steve quickly said, bending down.

“I’ll get it,” you said, picking up the papers.

You glance at the papers as you stand back up. There his divorce papers, that he has yet to sign.

next chapter >

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[songsformonkeys]

Digging Up Bones (whiskey x f!reader) - chapter 4

[Banner by the lovely @yespolkadotkitty ]

Summary: You work for the Statesmen as the head of their medical department. It’s your job to patch up anyone who gets back wounded and to work on ways to prevent them from getting badly wounded in the first place.

Agent Whiskey, in particular, seems to be more accident-prone than the rest and he never passes up a reason to come see you, whether for real injuries or imaginary ones. The two of you form a close friendship, which slowly turns into something more.

Then a British man with a headshot wound and a fascination with butterflies shows up in your emergency room and in the events that follow you’re forced to reevaluate just about everything you thought you knew about your partner.

Warnings: Canon typical violence

Masterlist

Chapter 4

Your hands were shaking from exhaustion where they rested in your lap, clutching the bloody face mask you had been wearing for the past several hours. Your scrubs looked like a failed tie-dye experiment in light blue and red and the light in the room was unforgivingly bright, illuminating the aftermath of the surgery in stark detail.

They had wheeled Whiskey out of here about half an hour ago if your sense of time was still reliable. As soon as he and the others were out of the room, you had slumped down onto a chair and you hadn't been able to get up since then.

The pilot had said that Whiskey was stable on the way back but there was a reason you were the medical expert in this operation and not him because stable wasn't the adjective you would have used. Sure, you had been fairly confident that he wouldn't die, but that confidence had been more due to faith in your skills rather than a lack of severity in Whiskey's condition. Multiple stab wounds to his right thigh, his right arm, and a particularly nasty one in his side, as well as a broken leg, broken pinky finger, a cut across the bridge of his nose, and bruising that was out of this world. The pilot had said that Whiskey had fallen out a window and the bloody mess that had been placed in front of you made you believe that. The detail that, surprisingly, had been the most jarring was the fact that Whiskey hadn't been wearing his hat. His head had looked small and vulnerable without it and you had reached out to stroke it before you'd had time to process what you were doing. The others had definitely noticed but neither of them had said anything.

If it had been anyone but Whiskey on that table you would have gotten a thrill from the challenge of putting them back together (another thing Tonic had forbidden you from saying out loud) but, when it was him, the urgency of your movements was instead driven by fear. It was something you weren't familiar with. The fear that you would make a mistake and that you wouldn't be able to save him messed with your head and, more than once, you had to physically shake your head to get the thoughts to stop pestering you. One of your assistants, you couldn't remember who since you had been so focused on Whiskey, had offered to switch with you. She was probably worried that your friendship with the patient would affect your performance. You had refused. You were the one best equipped at handling this and if Whiskey were to die, he would die by your hand. Only then would you have been able to accept that everything had been done that could be done to save him.

Luckily, Whiskey hadn't died. It had taken hours but in the end, you had managed to patch him up and when you declared him stable it was actually the truth. It would still be hours before he woke up and when he did, he would no doubt be in a lot of pain but the immediate danger was over. Whiskey would live and you could relax. Or collapse, depending on whom you asked.

Your legs felt like lead, your mouth was dry and you could feel a massive headache building behind your eyes. You should go back to your apartment, get some sleep before Whiskey woke up, but it was as if your body had stopped cooperating. It didn't worry you. You were sure you would regain control over your body at some point, preferably sooner rather than later.

Another 20 minutes passed without any luck in that department but you never got to find out just how much longer it would have taken because, once those 20 minutes had passed, the door opened. You turned and saw Tonic standing there. He looked at you and then at the state of the rest of the room.

“Whatcha doing here, Moonshine?” he asked a little hesitantly as he stepped into the room.

“My legs don't work,” you replied stupidly. And inaccurately. Your legs worked just fine, you just weren't in control of them at the moment. It was a purely psychological thing which, as luck would have it, was Tonic's field of expertise.

“I'm not surprised,” he said, “You've been down here for hours. I hear Agent Whiskey owes you one hell of a thank you when he wakes up.”

You shrugged as Tonic gently pried the face mask from your hands and tossed it in a trashcan. You began protesting that the trashcan wasn't the place to dispose of the bloody mask but Tonic calmly hushed you.

“The assistants are waiting just outside the door for you to leave so they can clean this place up properly.”

You looked towards the door with a look of confusion.

“Why didn't they come inside?” you asked. Tonic gave you a slightly awkward smile.

“They were...worried about you,” he settled for and you didn't have the energy to question him for further details right now. He held a hand out and as you took it, he pulled you to your feet. Your legs felt surprisingly stable and normal and you shifted a little from foot to foot.

“Let's go get you cleaned up,” Tonic said and you nodded, following him outside.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Sitting still at a sick or hurt person's bedside had never been your thing. You'd watched families and friends do it, and the gesture of just sitting there and maybe holding their loved one's hand had always seemed to bring them comfort and calm. It wasn't entirely clear why. The act probably wouldn't do much to increase the chances of survival of the person they cared for. Although, you supposed it probably wouldn't make it worse either.

You had never sat at someone's bedside that way. Hadn't known anyone who got sick or hurt enough to end up in a hospital. With your parents, they had been gone too quickly for there to even be a trip to the hospital. Every other sick or hurt person you had seen had been your patient, which meant there had been plenty more useful things for you to do than sit by their bed and pet them.

With Whiskey, the lines were...blurred. He was your patient but he was also your friend. And the knot of worry in your belly just kept growing, even though you knew the surgery had gone well. So when you entered his room and found him sleeping in his hospital bed, hooked up to a whole array of medical equipment, you figured that maybe it was worth a try just to see what all the fuss was about.

You dragged a chair over to his side, sat down and took his hand, just like you'd seen others do. But almost immediately you noticed that it didn't feel right. It felt weird. Whiskey's hand was warm and it felt strong even in his unconscious state. Under different circumstances, it wouldn't have been an unpleasant hand to hold. But now, the hand was way too still in your grip and the lack of jokes and flirty remarks was a clear reminder that something was wrong. There was no way Whiskey would have let you hold his hand like this without teasing you mercilessly about it.

For five minutes, you sat there, waiting for the sense of calm and comfort to kick in. All it did was make you go over, in your mind, all the things that could have gone wrong with the surgery, all the ways Whiskey could have died. It made your chest hurt and after five minutes you couldn't take it anymore. So you stood up and instead busied yourself with checking every single one of Whiskey's vitals on the monitors, the IV drip, the bandaids covering his stitches. This was you in your element and as you noted that everything seemed fine, the calm you had been longing for finally began to creep in. It was mingled with pride over the excellent job your colleagues had done.

“You're in good hands,” you smiled and told Whiskey, absent-mindedly, as if you expected a response. When it didn't come, your smile dimmed a little and you went back to check the monitors.

You had been told that he would wake up soon. That the anesthetics should be wearing off within the next half an hour. You didn't want to leave before then. Didn't want Whiskey to have to be alone when he woke up.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 It took another twenty minutes before he did, during which time you'd tinkered with the medical equipment, smoothed out his blanket several times, and tried a second time to hold his hand, with the exact same result as last time.

The almost inaudible groan from the bed, when he finally came to, caught your attention instantly and you watched the way Whiskey's pulse sped up slightly on the monitor before you moved to his side where he would be able to see you.

You waited, holding your breath, for several seconds before Whiskey slowly blinked his eyes open. His gaze moved aimlessly around the room before finally landing on you, although there were no signs of recognition so it was unclear how much of what he was seeing that were actually registering. He opened his mouth and tried to speak but only a soft wheezing noise came out. He closed his eyes and you moved closer, wanting to tell him not to go back to sleep again. He looked so pale and it scared you.

When Whiskey opened his eyes for a second time, his eyes found yours again. He opened his mouth again to speak and this time he managed to get a single word out, though it was barely more than a whisper.

“Angel.”

You felt yourself pale as fear gripped you like an icy fist. Angels? Why was Whiskey seeing angels? Was something wrong? You'd looked at the monitors only a moment ago and everything had been fine. Was there something you were missing?

“W-what?” you asked, eyes wide and afraid. Whiskey looked at you and he must have seen your fear because a second later his eyes widened too. He opened his mouth and made a noise that sounded like a pained grunt. For a second you were at a complete loss at what you do. Whiskey was dying and seeing angels but you were monitoring everything going on in his body and there was nothing wrong. Broken bones and stitches, sure but there was nothing that should be killing him right this second.

Whiskey made the same sound again and then a third time before you realized that they weren't just grunts but him trying to speak. You leaned closer.

“Youu,” Whiskey wheezed.

“Me? Me what?” you asked and you could have sworn to God that Whiskey actually rolled his eyes at that.

“Angel,” he forced out and it took you a moment to realize. When you did, you dropped into the chair like a puppet whose strings had been cut and, with a relieved sigh, you leaned forward to rest your face against the mattress of his bed.

“Don't scare me like that,” you mumbled into the sheets, unsure if Whiskey would even hear you. He might have because you felt fingers move next to your face before the pad of one of Whiskey's fingers touched your left temple. Maybe you were just imagining but the touch felt like an apology. You stayed still for a little bit, letting Whiskey gently stroke the inch of skin which he could reach. It felt nice.

After a short while, Whiskey's finger stilled. When you turned your head slightly to look at him, his eyes were closed again but there was a small smile on his face.

You snuck out, as quietly as possible, not to wake him up.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 “Hiya! How's Whiskey?” Tequila asked as you entered the office next to Harry's cell. You threw a glance at the one-way mirror and saw Harry sitting cross-legged on his bed, scribbling something into a notebook.

“He's...as good as can be expected... considering...” you told him and Tequila looked relieved. You knew the two agents had worked together on several missions and despite them bickering like an old married couple it was obvious to everyone that they cared for each other. “Give him a day or so to wake up a bit more and then you can go see him if you like,” you added and Tequila shrugged.

“We'll see,” he said, “Don't want him to think I miss him too much. Besides, I quite enjoy the peace and quiet around here without his constant hurrying about.”

It was a lie and you both knew it. Besides, the base had been anything but peaceful and quiet for the past two days. You and Tequila had been spared since you were both otherwise occupied, with Whiskey and Harry respectively, but the rest of the base was in a state of organized chaos trying to make sense of the sudden surge of violence all over the world yesterday. There were a couple of other agents who'd also been hurt yesterday but those injuries had been minor enough that they either had taken care of them by themselves or they'd been taken care of by the rest of the medical team once they got back. Whiskey seemed to be the only one from the Statesmen who'd suffered any severe damage, although the death toll among the civilians were staggering.

The agents that had been out on missions when the violence happened all had similar stories of what had gone down. They described that it had been as if a sudden rage had taken control over them and they had been powerless to stop it, hadn't even wanted to stop it. Then, just as suddenly as it had flared up, the rage had disappeared and it had only been then that the agents had realized the consequences of their actions. A couple of them had killed civilians. Two of them had tried killing each other but luckily neither had managed. Tonic had set up shop in Champs office all day to gather as much information as possible about what had gone down. You did not doubt that Whiskey would be put through the same questioning as soon as he was well enough to talk.

No one had any clue why the violence had happened but Ginger was confident that it had something to do with the extreme low-frequency signal she had picked up before bringing Harry in. Speaking of. You nodded in Harry's direction.

“What is he doing?” you asked. Tequila turned to look as well before he answered.

“Drawing, I think,” he said with an almost soft smile in Harry's direction, “He asked for some pen n' paper earlier and I figured there wouldn't be any harm in giving him that.”

“So Tonic has cleared him for handling sharp objects then?” you asked a little curiously and Tequila paled and stuttered. You held your hands up in a calming gesture.

“I'm sure it's fine. If I were him, I would want to figure out where I was before killing myself or anyone else.”

Tequila didn't look at all comforted by this.

“All the same, we should probably...” he said and got up from his chair while gesturing vaguely towards Harry's cell. You nodded.

“He's due for his medical check-up anyway.”

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 The check-up went quick and painless. Harry sat patiently on the edge of his bed while you examined the healing wound under his eye patch and at the back of his head. All was looking good and healing properly. You asked him about any pain, loss of motor function, or if he had noticed anything strange or painful besides the memory loss. Harry shook his head and said that besides not having any memories from half of his life, everything was just fine. You noted the tone of sarcasm in his voice and gave him an apologetic smile.

As you examined Harry, Tequila tried to stealthily smuggle the pen into his back pocket. It wasn't something you or Harry noticed as he was doing it but it became obvious once the examination was done and Harry turned to pick up his notebook again.

“My pen,” he said, looking at the floor around the table, “It must have rolled off...Do either of you see it?”

You shook your head in mock confusion but Tequila immediately folded and blurted out his confession.

“I took it!” he admitted.

“Oh?” Harry said, confused. You looked at Tequila with a raised eyebrow. You did know for a fact that they let this man out on undercover missions, and that he almost always came back successful, but after the display you had just witnessed you definitely began to wonder just how he managed that if this was him under pressure to lie.

“I'm sorry, sir,” Tequila said, straightening his back, “I know I said you could have it but then my colleague here reminded me that we don't want you to hurt yourself.”

“Hurt myself? On a pen?” Harry asked with a frown before he let out another “Oh...” he cleared his throat and looked between you and Tequila.

“Mister...Tequila, miss...Moonshine. Let me assure you that I am in no danger of hurting myself. It seemed I've cheated death once already, for which I am very grateful. Now I simply wish to get well enough that you would allow me to go home...as soon as we figure out where that is.”

Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Tequila begin to reach for his back pocket so you quickly spoke.

“I'm sorry, Harry. It's just the protocol. But I'll try and have To...Tom come by later to talk to you about having some pens in here.”

Harry looked a little disappointed but he nodded and resigned to a penless afternoon.

You and Tequila stuck around a bit longer to talk to Harry. You found out that what he had been drawing in the notebook were butterflies. He told you that it calmed him. Tequila looked at the drawings with something akin to awe and declared Harry a proper artist. You and Harry laughed at the young agent's excitement.

When you and Tequila eventually had to leave, you both felt a little bad but Harry assured you that it was okay. He had books to read until Tonic/Tom got there.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 You swung by Whiskey's room on the way back to your office to write today's report. He was sleeping again so you only stayed a couple of minutes to check on him. Before you left, you stopped at his bedside and reached out to stroke a lock of dark hair from his forehead. Checking for a fever, you told yourself, even though you had his exact temperature on a screen to your left.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Over the next few days, things calmed down on several fronts.

Tequila and Tonic took turns keeping Harry company. The Englishman had been cleared to get his pens back and spent most of his days drawing. Harry was a sweet and caring man and the more time either of you spent with him, the harder it was to believe that he was actually intelligence. Every time the door opened to his cell, Harry started and then apologized for being startled. He was a proper English gentleman. One day you had walked into the office next to the cell, only to find it empty, and as you looked into Harry's cell through the mirror, and saw Harry in the middle of teaching Tequila how to properly make tea. The younger agent had looked deeply concentrated.

The agency still wasn't sure about the motive behind the violent attacks all around the globe but Ginger had managed to trace the source of the extreme low-frequency waves to peoples' cellphones and a couple of days later news reached the world that billionaire Richmond Valentine had passed away. The exact cause of death wasn't revealed but the timing of it all was highly suspicious.

The Statesmen had also sent several people from the medical department out to assist at various hospitals, that were now filled to the brim with people hurt in the attacks. Only you and two others of the medics stayed behind, in case of an emergency and to care for Whiskey.

Whiskey was slowly but steadily getting better by the day. He was still weak and, even though he refused to admit it when anyone besides you were in the room, he was in a lot of pain. You spent more time with him than strictly needed, from a medical point of view, but both of you enjoyed the company.

Whiskey had no memory of what had happened but he found the anecdote about him scaring you with the angel comment highly amusing and laughed out loud, before promptly doubling over in pain and turning pale as a sheet. You kept the amusing anecdotes to a minimum after that.

Tonic came in to question him about what had happened during the attack. Whiskey's story was similar to the others. He explained that he had been fine when he was alone in the room and talking to you, but as soon as the other man had gotten in through the door the rage had consumed Whiskey too and they had fought in the room, outside the room, running down several flights of stairs before Whiskey had managed to overtake him. Whiskey hadn't noticed the other man who came running at him with a knife before it was too late and he'd been stabbed and thrown out the window. After that, he didn't remember much.

Tonic had written it all down before disappearing again. When he left, Whiskey slumped down on the bed with a pained sigh. Without him asking, you gave him some painkillers.

“Thank you, angel,” he whispered.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 A couple of weeks later you walked into Whiskey's hospital room only to stop dead in your tracks as soon as you crossed the threshold. The bed was empty. You looked around the room, even though there were no places in the room to hide.

Frowning, you hurried back outside and found Vermouth by one of the computers in the other room.

“Whiskey's room is empty!” you said a little too loudly and she jumped before realizing it was you.

“Yes,” she said, “He left two hours ago and...Boss, I know you know what you're doing but should he really be up and out of the hospital already?”

You blinked, confused by the sudden incompetence in your otherwise very skilled colleague.

“What? No, of course, he shouldn't! Why would you even let him leave?”

Now Vermouth looked equally confused.

“But he said you'd given him permission to go home for the day. Hell, he even had a signed note from you.”

The two of you looked at each other as the puzzle pieces began falling into place.

Fucking Whiskey!

“If I murder him,” you began, “Will you help me bury the body where Champ won't find it?”

Vermouth nodded, trying to keep a straight face and not smile.

“Of course, Boss. And if we can't find a good digging spot, might I suggest hiding him in one of the old liquor barrels?”

“Excellent idea! I'll call you when I find him.”

“Good luck!” Vermouth called after you as you left the office.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 You banged hard on the door of the apartment before taking a step back and crossing your arms over your chest. It took almost two minutes before you heard the lock click open and you had just begun to entertain the thought of kicking the door in when Whiskey opened. He was still wearing the medical department's gray sweatpants, with one leg cut off to fit over the cast, but had somehow managed to wrangle himself out of the gray sweatshirt and into a white t-shirt with a red and gray plaid button-down shirt over. His Stetson was perched atop his head for the first time since he'd been injured. It was pushed back slightly to reveal more of his pale and tired face. There were circles under his eyes so dark they were almost purple and a slight stubble was unevenly sprinkled across his normally so clean-shaven jaw. He looked about two seconds away from toppling over.

“Moonshine...” he said a little hesitantly, probably noticing the expression on your face.

“What are you doing here?” you demanded to know.

“I live here,” Whiskey replied and you honest-to-god stomped your foot in frustration. Whiskey noticed and raised an eyebrow. A smile began to form on his lips but then he met your angry gaze and he instead adopted a more somber expression.

“Why are you not in your hospital room?” you continued, “Vermouth said you told her I gave you permission to go home. You even faked a note?”

“Darlin', relax. I feel fine. I don't need to...”

“Really? And what degree in medicine makes you qualified to make that judgment?” you snapped, “Because last time I, your doctor, checked you had just broken several bones, been stabbed even more times and the wound in your side is still held together mostly by sheer will-power. So I wouldn't say you're fine.”

Whiskey's jaw clenched slightly. He was annoyed with you, which was just as well because you were furious with him and his recklessness.

“I don't like being cooped up,” Whiskey shot back, crossing his own arms over his chest and only swaying a little as he let go of the support of the doorframe.

“And I don't like it when you're hurt!”

Whiskey's expression instantly softened.

“Moonshine...” he began.

“Don't Moonshine me right now! I didn't spend hours stitching you up just so you could go out and tear those stab wounds open again. It's a miracle that stab to your side didn't hit anything vital.“

Whiskey opened his mouth to speak but you interrupted him before he could get anything out.

“You almost died!...and I was really worried.”

Any trace of annoyance was long gone from Whiskey's face. Instead, there was a softness and almost sadness in his eyes.

“I'm sorry,” he apologized and you held your arms crossed in front of you.

“Yeah well...you should be,” you said, feeling a little calmer now that he'd admitted that you were right, “You're not well enough to be out yet.”

Whiskey pursed his lips and then he sighed.

“Alright, darlin'. Let me just turn off the TV and then I'm all yours.”

[softbiker]

Bucky Barnes Oneshot

Warnings: a couple of bad words

Word Count: 3.6k

Summary: After being injured on a mission, Bucky winds up spending a day with the Avengers newest recruit. Bucky x Reader

A/N: This is my submission for @nacho-bucky ‘s writing challenge! My prompt was ‘the smell of freshly baked bread’. As a side note, I drank a whole pot of coffee yesterday and wrote this in one afternoon, so it’s also unedited :) As always, let me know what you think! 

By the time the quinjet is an hour out from New York, Bucky Barnes is in an irredeemably foul mood.

Breaking up terror cells in Germany was supposed to be an easy mission - in and out, with the practiced ease of their well-oiled strike team. Really, they took the mission to spare German special forces the trouble...that, and a potential connection to an old Red Room contact of Natasha’s. With their “dream team” (Sam’s words, not Bucky’s) of Cap, Bucky, Sam, and Natasha, this should have been a light op, a scrimmage, Nerf ball.

Turns out superheroing is a contact sport, and they’ve got the bombs and broken ribs to prove it. A train station, a decoy, and an explosive device Natasha failed to disarm. With Sam coordinating civilian evacuation, there had only been a couple dozen injuries, but the suspect had slipped away, leaving them bruised and empty-handed.

Bucky had taken a brutal hit as he pulled Nat to safety, and now he is curled in his seat on the jet, metal hand holding his ribcage. He watches Steve scowl in the cockpit, jaw unflinchingly tight as he goes over the mission in his head. The captain doesn’t know how to let things go - never has, never will. Sam is actually piloting the quinjet, making unreturned small talk about a basketball game he went to last weekend. Natasha sits across from Bucky, a Stark tablet in her hands, dissecting bomb schematics and diagrams of diffusion techniques. There’s a little scab of dried blood on her bottom lip that she pokes at with her tongue, red brows lowered in concentration.

Bucky is exhausted - his hair smells like dust and smoke, his mouth is tangy and dry. There’s dried sweat underneath his uniform and he itches and his feet are hot in his boots and his ribs really fucking hurt. He lets his head fall back against the seat, and wishes they were home already.

**********

She pops her head up over the back of the couch when she hears them. What a sight they make: Bucky, propped up on Steve’s shoulder, Natasha dust-covered and buried in her tablet, Sam still sweaty and tugging at the harness on his suit. She still smiles, tentative but kind.

“Hi guys.” She lifts her fingers in a little wave. “Everyone okay?”

Bucky grunts in response; Natasha says nothing, making a beeline for her room and a shower. Sam, without doubt the most talkative person on the team, props himself on a stool and blows a harsh breath past his lips.

“We’re alright, yeah,” he sighed. “Barnes is a little beat up but he’ll get over it - he’s just  dramatic.”

“Fuck you, too, Wilson.” Bucky flips Sam off over his shoulder as they hobble towards the elevators.

She winces, not yet used to their harsh banter.

“Hey man, be nice in front of the rookie, alright?” Sam hollers, mock-offended. “You’re creating a hostile work environment!”

Steve chuckles a little at that, jostling Bucky’s tender ribs, which makes him scowl at his best friend.

“Bucky is a hostile work environment,” Steve deadpans. They’ve reached the elevator, and shuffle inside, turning to face the common room. Bucky catches the rookie’s eyes as she giggles behind her hand.

“She’s fine,” he rolls his eyes, sparing a wink for the rookie. “When I make it hostile, bird brain, you’ll know.”

The elevator doors close, and he leans on Steve a little heavier, and jabs his elbow into Steve’s stomach.

“Thanks a lot for that, by the way,” he huffs.

“What?” Steve feigns innocence, and very poorly. “Didn’t know you were so worried about making a good impression on the rookie.”

“I’m - I’m not.”

“Uh huh.”

“Shut up.”

They meet Dr. Banner in the medical wing where his lab adjoins the clinic; Sam had messaged him half an hour ago that they were inbound with a broken supersoldier, and Bruce had taken the liberty of setting up some of his supplies. Of all the doctors on staff, Bucky favored Dr. Banner - he was mild and soft-spoken enough to not trigger Bucky’s anxiety, in spite of the needles and IV drips and the snapping of latex gloves.

An X-ray and some bandages later, Bucky is removed from the active duty list for two weeks.

“Even with your advanced healing factor, I wanna be careful with this,” Bruce says, taking off his glasses to scratch the side of his nose. “I mean, your medical history is a little blurry, to say the least - and with all the shit HYDRA pulled, who knows what kind of stress your bones have been through before.” He taps away on his tablet, notifying FRIDAY and the admin system to remove Bucky from the roster. “In the meantime, take it easy - no missions, no training, no lifting weights. Probably avoid the motorcycle, too. I’ll check on them again in two weeks, and we’ll go from there.”

Steve is nodding - he never leaves Bucky by himself in medical - and crosses his arms. Neither of them have changed out of their uniforms yet, and in this sterile observation room, Bucky can finally smell the layers of grime and sweat clinging to them. His nose wrinkles when he gets a little whiff of himself, feeling bad for the nurse who bandaged his ribs.

“Oh I almost forgot -” Bruce turns around and reaches for something on his lab bench. A little blue bottle, full of round white pills. “Here. I developed these for the two of you - since you metabolize normal painkillers so quickly, I figured we might need something that would work in the event you sustain heavy injuries which…well, seemed likely. Take 2 every 4 hours, okay?”

His metal fingers grip the little bottle, rattling the tablets inside.

“Sure thing, doc.”

**********

She lifts the hem of her shirt, wiping at the sweat on her forehead, and leans against the wall of the gym. Her breath comes in short pants as her chest heaves, trying to cool down from her last bout with Agent Romanoff.

“Heads up.”

Her hands barely make it up in time to catch the flying water bottle headed for her face.

“Good catch,” Romanoff smirks a little. She’s sweating, too, but in a way that’s decidedly more sexy, little red curls hanging by her face. She looks fresh from a Pilates class, not a suicide workout - the rookie can feel the heat of her own face, the sweat drenching her clothes, and knows she’s not nearly as glowing as her trainer.

“You did really good today,” Romanoff continues. She keeps saying to call her “Natasha” but that is so hard to do with a woman so intimidating her alias is one of the world’s deadliest animals. “Really good. You’ve shown tons of improvement since we started. I’m going to recommend we start letting you shadow on missions in a couple more weeks.”

“Wow, really?” Her face lit up in spite of her exhaustion.

“Sure.” Natasha smiles. “I know it’s gotten a little boring, having you go through all of this.”

“Boring” was an understatement. Despite having a few years of experience under her belt - well, according to Tony Stark, vigilantism barely counts as “experience” - the rookie was assigned to a training program for her first couple of months on the team.

“Too much of a risk to put you in the field right away,” Stark had rattled off, handing her forms to sign and an official t-shirt (‘Look Mom! I’m an Avenger!’) and a tablet with a map of the compound. “Legal says we can avoid liability issues with a training program before we gradually phase you in, and I’m inclined to agree, so! Welcome to the team, but not officially!”

Her days consisted of early morning workouts, followed by combat and tactical training with Black Widow herself, and then...well, not much. There was research, of course, and she stayed on top of the intelligence briefings with the rest of the team. She went to meetings and official dinners and unofficial karaoke nights, but the rest of her time was mostly her own. Frankly, she was chomping at the bit to get back out there, in the action. Helping people.

“Well, hopefully it’ll pay off,” she sighs, giving Agent Romanoff an exhausted smile. “I wouldn’t want to be the weak link on the team.”

“You won’t be, believe me,” Natasha shakes her head. With a glance at her watch, she picks up her own water bottle and heads for the door. “Now I’ve gotta run, Skype meeting with Fury in 5. I’ll see you later, Rookie!”

**********

Bucky Barnes was feeling good.

Like, damn good.

Like, ‘Banner should label his controlled substances’ good.

Thing is, post-HYDRA and post-fugitive and post-cognitive reconstruction therapy, Bucky was more mentally okay than he had been in decades. He had the occasional rough day, and he definitely wasn’t perfect by any means, but with the shrinks that Stark had on retainer, he was getting better at dealing with it all. His physical health, however, was more of a moving target. In spite of receiving a bastardized supersoldier serum, he had been pumped full of so much other shit and gone through so much physical stress that his body had fundamentally shifted equilibrium. Multiple appointments with Dr. Cho and Shuri revealed that his chronic pain may never fully heal - if it did, it would be a very gradual process. Normal painkillers in reasonable doses did nothing for him, so Bucky settled in to his discomfort, carrying it the way he carried his knives and his scars - always.

24 hours into his medical leave, a few doses of pills down, and he couldn’t feel a single ounce of pain in his body - he shifted his awareness to each part of himself, like that guided meditation thing Wanda did sometimes, and he couldn’t find the pain, not even lurking behind the muscle and metal. He might be a little miffed at being off the active duty roster, but if his whole vacation is going to feel like this? Well, he doesn’t mind to let Steve handle the next threat to world peace.

With his schedule suddenly wide open, Bucky wonders what he’ll do with his day. He can’t remember the last time he truly had nothing to do - it’s an exciting prospect. So he lets himself ease through his morning, sleeping in, long hot shower, slipping on those plush Black Widow pajama pants Nat gave him as a gag gift. He knows everyone else will have had their breakfast and moved on to morning briefings and training drills by now, and he wanders down to the kitchen in the hopes that they’ve left him some coffee.

He sees her there, perched on a stool at the island and frowning at the tablet in her hand. There’s a little scrunch to her nose when she does that, he notices.

“Good morning,” he says softly, trying and failing not to startle her.

“Oh, hey Bucky,” she smiles, watches him round the island to the coffee pot on the counter. “I didn’t see you there.”

“S’okay. I’m quiet.”

“You didn’t get tapped for the recovery mission? They’re going after your suspect from Berlin again, I think.”

“Oh, I’m off missions for two weeks.” He turns, giant ‘Don’t forget to be awesome’ mug gripped in his metal hand. “Banner’s orders. You didn’t hear about my smashed ribs?”

“Oh no, I guess not - are you okay?” Suddenly she’s concerned, and a little sheepish. “Sorry, I’m still a little out of the loop I guess.”

He feels guilty for that - she’s eager, bright, kind, a brilliant recruit. But it can take a while before you’re ‘in’ with the team. Not because they exclude her, but, well - a group made up of outsiders has a hard time adding new faces to the mix.

“Don’t apologize. Not your fault.” Bucky digs around in a jar on the counter for a few sugar packets, dumping them into his mug. “Anyways, I’m off the roster for now. Gotta figure out something to do with myself, I guess.”

Her smile is slow, ducked under pretty lashes - he really needs to stop noticing these things.

“Would you - I mean, you can hang out with me if you want?” She chews on her lip. “I’m done for today - my training with Natasha ended early and they didn’t need me in on the briefing so…”

The rookie was lonely - he could see that, anyone could. The fact is, between their own training and missions, it had been a little hard for the team to spend very much time with her. Bucky himself was often a bit of a loner in his free time, preferring to hole up in his room with books and movies rather than go out for drinks or another karaoke night. And yet, he found himself feeling eager at the thought of spending a relaxing day with the new recruit, getting to know her a little, hearing that funny little laugh through her nose.

“Sounds great, Rookie - what did ya have in mind?”

**********

“Okay, I just wanna go on the record and say I called it. I called it!” She’s grinning. “I knew you would love this.”

“Well, hey, in my defense, I’ve never hated beautiful women.”

She just rolls her eyes, kicks her feet out to rest on the coffee table in front of them. There’s a pile of DVD’s, all hers, laying across the surface, picked through and ranked in order of what was most important for Bucky to see. His film education was obviously lacking, considering he missed out on 70 years of movies, and didn’t even know what he liked anymore, so he was content to let her pick. After raiding the kitchen for an array of snacks, they settled in, opposite ends of the same couch with a bowl of popcorn and dark chocolate M&M’s between them.

Approximately 20 minutes into the movie, Steve appears, just passing through for an apple from the fridge. He stops in his tracks behind the couch, the crunch of the fruit in his mouth just above their heads.

“What is this?” he says around his mouthful. If his Ma could see him now, Bucky thinks.

“It’s called ‘How to Marry a Millionaire’ - came out in 1953,” she answers, smiling over her shoulder at him. “It’s one of my favorites honestly.”

“That’s - that’s Lauren Bacall!” Steve perks up, smacking Bucky’s shoulder.

“Yeah, punk,” Bucky rolls his eyes. “Betty Grable’s in it, too.”

“No shit!” Steve is grinning now, and he gives the rookie a conspiratorial look. “Y’know, Bucky used to have her pin-up poster. The one in the white bathing suit? Had it in his suitcase when he shipped out.”

“Oh, really?” She’s looking at him now, eyes sparkling at the rosy blush climbing up Bucky’s cheeks. “Betty Grable, huh?”

He clears his throat. “Well, everybody had that picture, I mean...it’s famous for a reason. All the boys had ‘em.”

“No, no, I get that,” she shrugs. “I just had you pegged as more the Rita Hayworth type, that’s all.”

It takes him back for a second, Steve too, that she knows these starlets, that they could’ve been having this same conversation 75 years ago. He can see that look in Steve’s eyes, sly and knowing as they slide towards him. Bucky works his mouth, tries to control his smile.

“Well, nothing wrong with her either,” he drawls, spreading his arms along the back of the couch. “But did you see Grable’s legs?”

“I just thought you might’ve had a thing for redheads!” she laughs.

“They’re alright, I guess - now Dugan on the other hand…”

Neither of them notices Steve leave the room, tossing the apple in his hand and a huge dopey grin on his face.

**********

“Tell me again what the recipe says?”

“One cup of pumpkin puree.”

“Oh - shit, I thought you said one can.”

She smacks her forehead. “No wonder the batter is so goopy!” She rolls her eyes playfully. “You’re trying to ruin my bread, Barnes.”

“I swear I’m not, doll - it was an accident.”

“Okay, new plan - we just make a double batch since the can has two cups in it.”

She shuffles around behind him, grabbing her flour and sugar and sour cream and other ingredients, hands flurrying to measure and fix the dough. It’s mid-afternoon now, a couple of movies down, and they (she) decided they needed to get in the fall spirit by baking a ridiculous amount of...breads. The banana bread is already in the oven, the pumpkin will be on its way as soon as she fixes his mistake, and a blueberry bread (made from muffin mix) is next on the list.

“But...what’s so special about making it into breads?” He had asked, causing her to look at him like an idiot.

“Ask me that again after you try them, Bucky.”

So he shut up and cracked eggs and sifted flour, stirring when her arm got tired. He was already regretting his words now that the smell of the banana bread was drifting towards him from the ovens, and he had to admit the pumpkin and cinnamon from her bowl was making his stomach growl. With all the bowls and measuring cups laying around, they were making enough sweet breads to feed an army, but hey - the Avengers are practically a small army of their own. And besides, Bucky intends on taking an entire loaf - baker’s privilege.

He decides that he likes watching her work, bouncing around the kitchen, some oldies playlist on the speakers, her tongue poking out between her lips. She’s got her sweater sleeves pushed up over her elbows - he had to help with that, after she got dough on them. This song is good, too, and he wants to ask her who wrote it-

“Are you gonna stand there staring at me, or are you gonna help?” she quips over her shoulder. He has no idea when he last smiled so much.

“You’re the boss, Rookie.”

**********

She’s got her feet in his lap now, and they haven’t said a word in an hour, and Bucky doesn’t even remember taking his last dose or two of his pain pills but he doesn’t feel a goddamn thing.

There’s a huge book in her lap, Stephen King - a favorite, he’s learned.

“I read at least one of his books every year in October,” she tells him. “You know, to get ready for spooky season.”

“Spooky season? What the hell is that?”

“You know, Halloween time!” she smacks his arm. “It’s Halloween first, Buck, you gotta get in the spirit.”

“I’m -” he sputters, face drawn in the most adorably confused look. “Halloween first?”

She hands him a book of his own and now here they are - he’s 20 pages into The Shining, but he’s stopped paying attention because she’s yawning behind her book and her eyes are fluttering shut, and it shouldn’t be as distracting as it is.

He forces his eyes down to his own page, to Jack Torrance and haunted hotels, but they’re drawn back up when her book finally drops the rest of the way to her lap. Her head slumps sideways onto the back of the couch, mouth open just a little. He draws the blanket down around her feet and tucks it in a little tighter, but other than that, doesn’t move a muscle. He’s just fine right here, thank you.

He’s sinking in again, driving up the twisting mountain road to the Overlook, when his phone buzzes in his pocket. Carefully - in the way highly trained superspies can be careful - he lifts his hips up and pulls his phone from his pocket, managing not to dislodge her feet or wake her up. She merely sighs in her sleep, nuzzling her face into the couch pillow. A text notification from team group message lights up the screen.

It’s Natasha. A photo, a photo which she somehow managed to take without him knowing, of him and the rookie, practically snuggling on the couch and reading together. Her legs are propped over his lap, and Bucky’s eyes are staring straight at her over the top of his book. Nat has captioned the photo: “looks like Barnes found a good nurse.”

He snorts a little. Natalia. Glances up at her, still sleeping, and tilts his phone upwards a few degrees and snaps a picture to send back.

“She sleeps on the job” he types, thumbs still slow on the phone keyboard. Instantly, his phone starts buzzing with more texts from the team, but he mutes it and lays his phone on the coffee table. He doesn’t feel like talking now. Well, talking to them.

“Hey...Rookie,” he whispers, reaching out and shaking her shoulder a little. She hums in her sleep, but makes no other move.

“Rookie, I gotta ask you something.” He wiggles her leg a little, shaking her feet in his lap, and whispers her name. He’s rewarded with her eyes fluttering open, her mouth drawn down in a pout at being woken up.

“Whatisit,” she sighs, still slumped into the cushions. He clears his throat. Here goes nothing.

“So, there’s a charity gala for the Stark Foundation coming up next weekend,” he starts bravely. “And - and the whole team is going anyway, so I know you’re gonna be there, but - well, maybe you would consider going...with me?” Courage runs out, and his brain backpedals. “I mean, just as a friend?”

She huffs. “I can’t believe you woke me up for that.”

“Oh.” He looks down, hair falling in his eyes. “So...you don’t want to go with me?”

“Of course I’ll go with you, Barnes,” she sighs. “Now shush. I was napping”

His face hurts from the stretch in his cheeks when he smiles. He’s gonna give Bruce those pain meds back.

[virgilisashark]

I’ll Always Love You

TW: Injury, stabbing, bruises, implied bullying, implied homophobia, homophobic slurs used, doctors, fatherly!Tony Stark, tell me if there’s anything else!

This was originally a two part series but I couldn’t figure out how links work so here’s one fic

Summary: Peter gets stabbed, but not when he’s on patrol. The injury is a bit more than he first told Tony.

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

The ring of Tony’s phone was annoying. It caused him to feel irritated, tempted to throw the phone across the room. But, somehow, whenever he sees that the person who is calling is Peter, the urge goes away.

Except for when Tony answers and Peter hissing in pain on the other side.

“Pete?” Tony said, trying his best to keep an anxious tone out of his voice. He stood from his desk, quickly walking down the hallway.

“H-hey Mr. Stark,” Peter gasped, “Oh- ow. Yeah, that hurts.”

“Peter. What happened?” Tony turned down the next hallway, walking faster than he previously thought possible every time Peter made a pain filled noise.

“Okay, not to alarm you-”

“Too late.”

“But I may or may not have been lightly stabbed.”

Tony might have had a heart attack right there and then. “Stabbed?!?” 

“Lightly.” Peter corrected. “It’s not that bad, Mr. Stark, I think I got it- oh, oh no that’s painful. Never mind, I don’t got this.”

“Obviously.” Tony scoffed, finally entering the room that had his Iron Man suits in it. “I’ll be right there. Where are you, kid?”

“Uh-uh.” Peter took a deep breath. “B-brownster road, in an alley. By the school.”

Tony put on the Iron Man suit, practically jumping out of the window. 

“Okay, kid, I’m gonna go-”

“No!” Peter said. Tony half expected Peter to stammer out an apology, embarrassed, but it never came. 

The kid must be really bad.

“...Okay. I’ll stay right here. Can you apply pressure to the wound?”

Peter didn’t respond. Tony hoped that meant he was doing it, and not that he was dead.

“FRI, read Peter’s vitals.”

“I have no access to Peter Parker’s vitals.” FRIDAY answered, calmly.

“What?”

“N-not in suit.” Peter mumbled.

“What?” 

4 minutes. Tony was going as fast as he could. Civilians, who there were a lot of: it was only around 3:30 p.m, probably thought something was trying to destroy the world again. But no, it was just Tony trying to save his kid, who wasn’t in his suit.

What the fuck?

“FRI, find Peter.” 

“Alley,” Peter slurred out.

“I know kid,” Tony mumbled. 

“Right there, sir,” FRIDAY said, highlighting Peter’s body through the buildings.

Tony sped over to where he was, landing next to him.

“Jesus fuck.” 

Peter was worse than Tony imagined. Blood covered his entire leg. His pants were ripped, and the knife still stuck out of his leg. If it wasn’t for his superpowers, Peter would definitely be dead from the amount of blood he’s lost.  

Although there was so much blood Tony couldn’t get a good look, he could’ve sworn blood was coming out of multiple wounds.

He already had a black eye forming. His lip was cut. Puke mixed with the blood. Peter had thrown up, which probably meant he was punched in his stomach, which meant more bruises.

“Okay, let’s just...” Tony walked over to Peter, going to pick him up.

“Ow, ow, ow.” Peter hissed.

“I know kid, but we gotta get you to the hospital wing. Can you hold on tight?” 

“Mm,” Peter murmured, gripping onto Tony. He had successfully picked Peter up bridal style, grabbing him from his back and upper legs so he wouldn’t apply as much pain to the wound(s).

He flew fast, but not as fast as possible. He could tell by the painful whimpers that the faster Tony went the more it hurt, so he opted to flying fast enough to get them to the medical care center in the tower in less than 10 minutes, but not fast enough that Peter was in unbearable pain. At least, he hoped the kid wasn’t in too much pain. 

“FRI, alert Doctor Banner that Peter got stabbed, and open the landing window in the Medical Center.” Tony ordered, holding Peter tightly.

His blood was all over his suit. He landed in the medical center, bringing Peter into the first room, setting him down on the bed carefully as Bruce and 3 other doctors ran in.

“Peter! What happened?” He began to grab things to clean up Peter’s wound.

“Stabbed,” Peter replied, breathing heavily.

“Yeah Pete, we know that. But how?” One of the doctors asked.

Peter closed his eyes. Bruce tapped his cheek lightly.

“Gotta stay awake, Peter.” Bruce turned to Tony. “Can you go, please?”

“Go? That’s my kid, Banner.”

Bruce nodded. “I know,” He ripped Peter’s jean leg clean off, tossing the bloody fabric into a trash bin. “But we need to work-” One of the doctors grabbed some anesthesia. Peter lifted his head with the other doctors help.

Tony stayed still.

“Tony, go. Peter will be fine.”

He huffed, turning and exciting the hospital room.

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

When Peter woke up, his first thought was ow. His leg still had the pain from yesterday, although it was much dueler than before. His left eye was closed shut.

He looked to his right. IV’s were connected to his arm. Out the window, he could see that it was currently night time.

To his left, Tony laid on a chair, passed out.

“Mr. Stark?” Peter frowned. He pulled the blanket up from where his leg laid.

His shoulders slumped. It was wrapped in bloody bandages.

“Peter?”

Turning to look at the source of the noise, Peter saw Tony sitting straight up.

“Kid. Shit, are you okay?”

Peter opened his mouth to respond, but Tony cut him off. 

“Stupid question. Of course your not.” Tony added. His tone was softer than it usually was, almost pitiful.  “Kid, is there anything you want to tell me?”

Peter stiffened. He could barely remember what had happened, but he had a few ideas of what Tony might be referring to. “No.”

“Really? Because you weren’t only stabbed. Something was carved into your leg.”

Peter took a shaky breath, closing his eyes.

“Here’s a reminder, that no matter what, you’ll always be our school’s number one fag.”

“Is it permanent?” Peter asked, silently praying that it wasn’t. He wasn’t ready for the questions, the rejection.

“We don’t know.” Tony leaned back in his chair. “Do you know who did-” Tony gestured vaguely to Peter’s entire body. “that?”

A pause. The answer hung in the air for a few seconds. “No.”

“Pete-”

“I don’t know who it was, Mr. Stark.”

Tony called bullshit, but he wouldn’t press right now.

“Peter, I need you to tell me. The carving...” Tony cleared his throat, trying to think of a way to say it. 

“It says fag, doesn’t it?” Peter asked, the sadness and exhaustion in his voice. His eyes were still closed, his head lying on the pillow.

Tony sighed. “Yeah. Kid-”

“Not now.” Peter said. It sounded like he really, really couldn’t deal with it right now.

And he couldn’t.

Tony nodded slowly. “Yeah, okay. Not now. Bruce said you’re out Friday, we can talk then, okay kid?”

“Y-yeah.”

A knock came at the door, followed by a nurse holding a clipboard walking into the room.

“Alright, kid.” Tony gently ruffled Peter’s hair. “Get some sleep.”

“Okay.” 

Tony sighed softly, turning and walking out of the room as the nurse ran simple tests on Peter.

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

Peter was dreading Friday. Even though he got out on Thursday (Bruce said his healing powers allowed him to leave earlier than expected), he wasn’t able to enjoy the take out May ordered, or the movie he was watching with her.

Not only was he nervous for Tony and his conversation, but he was sure that May knew what was carved into his leg. If she asked, Peter knew that he would panic, probably to the point of a panic attack.

But she never did. 

Peter got up at 9 p.m, obviously he didn’t half to go to school, and got dressed.

His phone rang as he got finished brushing his teeth.

Peter answered after the second ring. “Hello?”

“Hey, kid.” Tony’s voice rang out. “I’m gonna be there in about 5, so you better be waiting outside for me.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Actually, I’ll come up to your apartment. I want to see your hot aunt.”

Peter whined, “Mr. Stark!”

“Relax, kid. I just want to talk to her. And you, for that matter.”

Peter felt the panic in his chest grow. “O-okay. I’ll see you in 5 minutes.”

“Great.” Tony hung up. 

Peter plopped down onto his bed, going to rub his eyes before remembering that they were still slightly bruised.

He let his arms fall to his side.

Then, he allowed every possibility to play in his head. Over the last few days, he had planned out what questions Tony was most likely to ask them. None of them were good to Peter.

First, he’d ask if Peter was okay. He’d say yes.

Second, he’d question who hurt Peter, and why they did it, and why he didn’t fight back.

His answer was going to be simple. Something he could stick to. 

He didn’t know who, or why. He didn’t want to accidentally reveal his secret identity by fighting back.

Those were believable.

Then, he’d ask the question Peter was dreading most: his sexuality. 

The “Fag” carved into his leg wouldn’t scar, thanks to his super healing, but it would bring a lot of questions.

Peter might die if Tony asks him if he’s gay.

He’s been debating all week if he trusted Tony enough. He’d only ever came out to Ned and MJ, but that was completely different. He could get new friends. It would suck, yes, but he would move on.

He didn’t think he’d ever get over it if he lost his father figure his status as an Avenger because of who he loved. 

In the end, though, he knew Tony would figure it out eventually. He mine as well just tell him.

(Of course, that didn’t make it any easier.)

Tony had to accept him. He’d donated money to LGBT+ centers before, so he couldn’t be completely homophobic, right?

Right.

Peter jumped at the knock on the door. 

“Come in!”

May opened the door.

“Hey, Peter. Tony’s here.”

Tony smiled at May. “We’d like to talk for a few minutes, is that okay?”

May nodded. “Yeah, take your time. I gotta head out, call me if you need anything, Pete.”

“Okay.” Peter mumbled.

As soon as May left, closing the door behind her, Tony took a seat next to Peter on his bed.

It reminded them both of when Tony came to recruit Peter to go to Germany.

They both ignored that.

“So, kid. Do you remember who did-” Tony gestured to Peter’s entire body. “This?”

“No.”

“Really?” Tony questioned. “Cause you seemed to be conscious when I came to get you.”

“Well yeah,” Peter paused, scrambling for a reason. “But like, during it I was going in and out of consciousness. So I don’t remember.”

Tony nodded. “Sure, Underoos. Whatever you say.”

Peter took a deep breath.

In 4, hold for 4, exhale for 4.

“So, about your injuries.” Tony said, clearly trying to approach the topic with care. “The- what they wrote.”

“Yeah?” Peter asked. His eyes were already filling with tears, and Tony hasn’t even asked yet.

In, hold, out.

“I just- You know I don’t care, right?” Tony asked, wrapping his arm around Peter’s shoulder. (But why did he stiffen?) “I’ll always love you, kid.”

“Yeah, yeah I know.”

“So.” 

God, just keep talking, Peter begged. I can’t take these pauses.

“Are you...” Tony cleared his throat. “You know, gay?”

Peter took a deep breath. He closed his eyes. 

Just say yes, it isn’t difficult. 

Except, it was. So many bad things could come from this. 

But did that really matter?

“Kid, I really, really don’t care.”

“Yes.” Peter breathed out, surprising himself. In the back of his mind, he fully believed he’d always be closeted.

But now he wasn’t.

It was nice. And terrifying.

“Yes?” Tony unwrapped his arm from Peters shoulder.

Peter nodded quickly. He was trying desperately to not cry, but it was so hard.

“Pete, come here.”

Tony pulled Peter into a hug.

He broke.

He felt pathetic, sobbing onto Tony’s shoulder. He accepted him, so why was Peter crying?

“It’s alright kid, I’ll always love you.”

Peter sniffed, pulling away from Tony.

“S-sorry,” He mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

“Save it, kid.” Tony said. “Anything else you need to tell me?”

“No.”

“Great,” Tony clapped one, standing up. “Now come on, I’m hungry.”

Peter laughed, following Tony out of the room.

Everything was okay.

[freyayuki]

Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia Ceodore and Cyan Banner

The Supplication for Catastrophe event just started in the Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia (DFFOO) mobile game. This event came with 2 banners.

Supplication for Catastrophe Banner 1

The Supplication for Catastrophe banner 1 features the following chars and their weapons:

Ceodore Harvey from Final Fantasy IV - 15cp, 35cp, Ex, LD, and Burst or BT

Cyan Garamonde from Final Fantasy VI - 15cp, 35cp, Ex, and LD

Gabranth (Noah Fon Ronsenburg) from Final Fantasy XII - 15cp, 35cp, and Ex

My Ceodore’s 15cp, 35cp, and Ex are fully MLB. His Ex is at base Ex only. Missing his LD and BT. 

My Cyan’s 15cp is MLB. His 35cp has been limit broken once. Have his Ex but it hasn’t been limit broken at all. Missing his LD. 

Have all of Gabranth’s weapons fully MLB.

Ceodore Harvey from Final Fantasy IV

Ceodore Harvey from Final Fantasy IV is a mix between a DPS and support. He has okay enough buffs and auras. He can enchant the party and imperil enemies with the holy element.

Cyan Garamonde from Final Fantasy VI

Cyan Garamonde from Final Fantasy VI (#ad) is a DPS with some utility such as being able to remove the party’s debuffs.

Thoughts about Cyan Garamonde and Ceodore Harvey

Both Ceodore and Cyan are nice to have but not necessary. Honestly, I don’t need either of them. 

Already have other chars who can fulfill their roles. Have plenty of DPS like Machina Kunagiri from Final Fantasy Type-0. Have Eiko Carol from Final Fantasy IX who can enchant and imperil holy. 

Have Yuna from Final Fantasy X who can remove the party’s debuffs. Even have chars like Aeris or Aerith Gainsborough from Final Fantasy VII who provide party-wide 100% immunity to debuffs.

Not only do I not need either Cyan or Ceodore, neither are also faves or anything. I could and should just skip the Supplication for Catastrophe banner 1.

Supplication for Catastrophe Banner 1 Tickets Pulls Results

But I decided to toss some tickets here anyway. Currently have 545 tickets on hand. My plan was to just use like a hundred tickets then walk away even if I fail to get anything.

Aside from the usual bronze and silver trash and the occasional 15cp and 35cp dupe, also got dupes of everyone’s Ex weapons. 

Got way more dupes of Ceodore’s Ex than Cyan’s or Gabranth’s. Too bad their Spheres aren’t all that good. 

The Ceodore Ex dupes were especially annoying because I remember getting multiple copies of these on the last banner he was featured in. 

I also failed to get his LD on that banner. Now it looks like that might be happening on this banner as well.

Got a few 10-pulls that didn’t have a single gold which sucks. Thankfully, I soon got a gold orb which gave me my first copy of Cyan’s LD. Yay!

Super pleased to see this. Also got dupes of Cyan’s 35cp and Ceodore’s 35cp on this draw. Still have 484 tickets left when Cyan’s LD came home.

In retrospect, should have stopped here. This was already more than good enough. I don’t need any of these chars. 

Ceodore’s LD isn’t even new. I’ve been able to manage just fine without it, which just goes to show that I really don’t need it. 

So I really should have just saved the rest of my tickets instead of continuing to pull. But couldn’t seem to help myself. Kept tossing tickets on this banner. 

Eventually, I did get another LD. Too bad it was the wrong one though. Yeah, that’s right. Just got my second copy of Cyan’s LD. Eff! At least I had yet to limit break my first copy.

I really should have stopped now but no, just kept on going. I regret this now because Ceodore’s LD didn’t even have the decency to show up. Instead, all I got was my third copy of Cyan’s LD. Ugh. Ceodore LD, doko da?

Also, Cyan, stop trolling me, please. This is utterly ridiculous and feels like some kind of joke but Cyan’s LD kept on trolling me. 

It was like every time I actually got an LD, it always turned out to be Cyan’s. But if I got an Ex, then it turned out to be Ceodore’s. Argh! So frustrating. Even started doing single draws, but still no dice.

When I finally managed to tear myself away from this banner, I ended up with enough dupes of Cyan’s LD to be able to fully MLB my first copy without having to use a single Power Stone. In contrast to that, I only got 1 dupe of his Ex.

It was nice to get Cyan’s LD but I really ended up spending way too much on this banner. I really regret that now, especially since I didn’t even get Ceodore’s LD or BT. Sigh.

Conclusion

So, what about you? Did you pull on either of the Supplication for Catastrophe banners? What do you think about Cyan, Ceodore, and all the other chars featured on these banners? Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below or by reblogging or replying to this post.

Notes:

screenshots are from my Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia game account

[freyayuki]

Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia Mission Dungeon Ancient Relic of Prosperity

The Mission Dungeon: Ancient Relic of Prosperity event just started in the Dissidia Final Fantasy (#ad): Opera Omnia (DFFOO) mobile game. This came with 2 banners as well as 2 modes - Normal and Hard.

Note: This is yet another one of those old drafts I finally managed to finish editing, so it’s now ready to be scheduled for publication.

Mission Dungeon: Ancient Relic of Prosperity Banner 1

The first banner features all the weapons of the following characters:

Fujin from Final Fantasy VIII

Cyan Garamonde from Final Fantasy VI

Oerba Dia Vanille from Final Fantasy XIII

Fujin from Final Fantasy VIII

My Fujin is currently Level 40 and Crystal Level 65. She has 0 Summon Boards completed. I have the passive from her 15cp though the weapon itself has long since been sold for Power Stones. She’s currently equipped with her fully MLB 35cp.

I’m pretty sure I ended up getting multiple copies of her 15cp and 35cp back when I was trying to acquire a copy of Balthier’s Ex. She happened to be featured on the banner alongside Balthier, and I think the third character was Cait Sith from Final Fantasy VII.

I don’t have her Ex since this is the first time it’s showed up in the game. She’s actually pretty good with her Ex+, and it’d be great to have her. Unfortunately, I don’t have the resources to spare for her. I’m gonna have to wait until she shows up again on another banner.

Cyan Garamonde from Final Fantasy VI

My Cyan is currently Level 39 and Crystal Level 65. He has 0 Summon Boards completed. I have a copy of his 15cp that’s been limit broken twice. He’s currently equipped with his 35cp that hasn’t been limit broken at all.

I think I got copies of his weapons back when I pulled on the banner featuring Vayne Carudas Solidor’s (from Final Fantasy XII) Ex. The other copies of his 15cp might have been an off-banner draw from somewhere.

Like with Fujin, this is the first appearance of Cyan’s Ex, so I also don’t have it. He has a bit of utility on his kit such as being able to dispel and cleanse the party of debuffs, but, overall, he’s mostly a selfish DPS. I already have a lot of DPS, and I don’t really know anything about him, so I’m not that interested in him.   

Oerba Dia Vanille from Final Fantasy XIII

My Vanille is currently Level 70 and Crystal Level 70. She has 6 Summon Boards completed. She is fully MLB and Purple with decent Artifacts. She even has 1 Attack 108 with Max Brave 330.  

I’m pretty sure I managed to get her Ex on the banner that came with the introduction of the Ifrit Summon Board. I’ve used Vanille a lot before. I’ve even managed to lock her on to a Dimensions’ End Entropy Tier. She’s a great support who can also hit pretty hard.

She can dispel the buffs of all enemies. She can inflict a potent Defense Down debuff. She has a fast-charging Ex. She can battery her allies with her abilities. She can’t heal though, so she can’t be the sole support in a party unless enemies don’t HP attack a lot. Nowadays, I don’t really use her much anymore unless I need her dispel since I have plenty of other supports who can also heal.

Mission Dungeon: Ancient Relic of Prosperity Banner 2  

The second banner features all the weapons of the following characters:

Setzer Gabbiani from Final Fantasy VI

Paladin Cecil Harvey from Final Fantasy IV

Balthier (Ffamran mied Bunansa) from Final Fantasy XII

Setzer Gabbiani from Final Fantasy VI

My Setzer is currently Level 70 and Crystal Level 70. He has 4 Summon Boards completed. He is fully MLB, but at base Ex only. He has triple Attack 108 Artifacts, all with pretty crappy secondaries. 

It’s been quite a while, so I don’t really remember where I got Setzer’s Ex. I think it might have been from one of the Ultimate Summon banners. Ramuh, maybe. As for his 15cp and 35cp - I’m pretty sure I got these MLB long before I acquired his Ex.

Setzer is pretty good since he can delay enemies by a turn and his Freeze debuff prevents opponents from gaining brave. He can also battery the party a bit, and his Ex charges fast. He has low skill counts though.

Paladin Cecil Harvey from Final Fantasy IV

My Paladin Cecil (#ad) is currently Level 70 and Crystal Level 70. He has 7 Summon Boards completed. He is fully MLB, but at Ex+ 0/3 only. He has awesome Artifacts (2 Attack 108 with Max Brave 330, 1 Attack 108 with Initial Brave 170, and 2 Attack 108 with Ordeal Grasping Light Boost★★) though not because I actually seriously farmed for them.

It was more like I got his Eidojas while farming for other characters, so I ended up fusing them and RNG decided to be nice. Wish the same could be said for the charas I want to give perfect Arts to without me having to fuse thousands of their Eidojas first.

I’m pretty sure I got copies of Cecil’s 15cp and 35cp on Vayne’s event banner. His Ex wasn’t featured there though. I got it from this campaign event thing that gave us tokens, which we could then use to exchange for an Ex weapon. The only Ex available were the ones that belonged to the protagonists of all Final Fantasy games. 

Cecil’s Ex was one of the few I didn’t have on the list. I ended up choosing him, but I didn’t use him since he wasn’t MLB and his Ex couldn’t even be Realized at that time. When his Ex became Realizable, I still didn’t use him. I didn’t really feel like I needed him. That changed when I was trying to tackle Dimensions’ End Entropy Tier 8. 

I thought I would need Cecil to Perfect that stage. This was because he could Enchant (turn all of the party’s non-elemental moves into a specific element) and Imperil (make the enemy weak to an element) the party with the holy element via his Additional Ability. 

Cecil’s 15cp was already MLB, but his Ex and 35cp weren’t. I had to spend 12 Power Stones to MLB his 35cp and then another 12 to MLB his Ex. After that, I gave him a Book to Realize his Ex to Ex+ 0/3.

I found myself hesitating before I could give him an Ingot. Which was just as well because, as it turned out, I didn’t actually need him. I was able to Perfect Dimensions’ End Entropy Tier 8 without having to use Cecil or anyone else who could Imperil and Enchant the party.

Now I have an Ex+ 0/3 Paladin Cecil that I have yet to lock on to a Dimensions’ End Entropy stage and who I’ve only used a few times. At Ex+ 0/3, he’s practically still at base Ex. He doesn’t hit that hard at all though at least he gives the team HP Regen.

Balthier (Ffamran mied Bunansa) from Final Fantasy XII

My Balthier (#ad) is currently Level 70 and Crystal Level 65. He has 4 Summon Boards completed. He has 1 Attack 108 with Initial Brave 170, 1 Initial Brave 170 with Max Brave 330, and 1 Attack 108 with Rapid Speed★★ Artifacts.   

Both his 15cp and 35cp are fully MLB. I got the copies from chasing after his Ex. I tossed hundreds of tickets on the banner featuring his and Cait Sith’s Ex weapons. Unfortunately, while I managed to snag a copy of Cait Sith’s Ex, I failed to get Balthier’s.

I kept trying because I thought I needed him to Perfect Dimensions’ End Entropy Tier 5. The enemies on this stage like to buff themselves so having a dispeller in your team is definitely helpful. Balthier can steal the buffs of enemies so he was one of the most recommended characters for Tier 5.

I was trying to Perfect Tier 5 without Balthier, but I kept failing. This led to me continuing to toss tickets on his banner. I can only be glad that I didn’t end up using my gems.

Balthier’s Ex never came home. It was frustrating, especially since I’d wasted hundreds of tickets trying to obtain it. 

It turned out that I didn’t actually need him to Perfect Dimensions’ End Entropy Tier 5. After a couple more tries, I actually managed to get the Perfect. I wish I’d managed to do that before I ended up throwing away so many tickets.

Mission Dungeon: Ancient Relic of Prosperity Event Information

Quests in the Mission Dungeon: Ancient Relic of Prosperity event require you to bring different characters depending on their Crystal Color in order to complete the mission requirements. 

For instance, a fight could require you to bring 1 or 2 Black Crystal characters. There are also quests wherein you’re required to complete all the mission requirements at once or in one battle in order to get the Perfect.   

I didn’t find this that bad since I’ve been playing DFFOO for a while now, so I thankfully already have quite a few characters of varying Crystal Colors built. The battles weren’t that hard either, especially the ones in the Normal mode, so the requirements could be fulfilled without much trouble.

Mission Dungeon: Ancient Relic of Prosperity Chaos Quest Information

The mission requirements to complete this Chaos quest are:

Clear without anyone dying

Clear within 120 turns

Take 15,000 or less HP damage

Get a score of 430,000 or higher

The Mission Dungeon: Ancient Relic of Prosperity Chaos quest has 2 waves. The first has 2 Chimera Nova who are weak to the fire element. They can remove their own debuffs though framed ones are excluded. They can give themselves several buffs, including Defense Up, BRV Regen, Attack Up, and Speed Up.

The second and final wave has 2 Ankh Beast who are weak to the thunder element. They can also give themselves several buffs, including Attack Up, Defense, Up, Initial Brave Up, and Speed Up. They can inflict the Defense Down and Speed Down debuffs on their targets. One of their moves also has a low chance of inflicting Paralyze. 

Mission Dungeon: Ancient Relic of Prosperity Chaos Quest Team

I decided to bring the following characters to this fight:

Zack Fair (#ad) from Final Fantasy VII and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

Aeris or Aerith Gainsborough from Final Fantasy VII

Jack from Final Fantasy Type-0 

I know this isn’t the best team for this fight. It would have been better to bring a dispeller like Vanille. Arciela V. Adoulin (from Final Fantasy XI) is one of the most recommended supports for this quest for several reasons. She can heal. She can battery the party. She can dispel the buffs of enemies. She can inflict debuffs on enemies, including one that prevents them from using HP attacks for 2 turns.

However, I really enjoy using Zack, Aeris, and Jack, so I wanted to keep doing so for this quest. This is especially the case with Zack since he’s currently my fave char in this game. I figured I’d see if they could work here, otherwise I could just try again with a different team.  

All 3 are double Purple and fully MLB with all of their passives and extensions equipped. They have their Bloom Stones and all of their Summon Boards have been completed. They also have perfect Artifacts.

Zack has three Attack 108 with Max Brave 330.

Jack has three Attack 108 with Positive Swordsman Boost★★ (Raises own Max BRV, Attack by 5% while Every Ounce of Strength active).

Aerith has 3 Attack 108 with Charged Healing Wind Boost All★★ (Healing Wind use +1; raises party’s Max BRV by 15%).

Zack is equipped with the following Spheres:

Machina Kunagiri’s (from Final Fantasy Type-0) Break Hit Initial Attack Shorter A Sphere

Jecht’s (from Final Fantasy X) Critical Initial Attack Shorter A Sphere

Snow Villiers’ (from Final Fantasy XIII) Target Attack Up B Sphere

I’ve also completed Zack’s Character Enhancement Board. The screenshot below says 100/103 and Master x 0 because the treasure chests containing the voice lines of the characters have yet to be implemented in the game. All the passives and boosts from the Board are already obtainable though.  

I would have completed the Boards for Jack and Aeris as well, but, unfortunately, theirs aren’t available yet.

Mission Dungeon: Ancient Relic of Prosperity Chaos Quest Take 1

On my first try of this quest, I actually lost. I couldn’t even get past the first wave. Well, I was still getting a feel on how the battle worked, so I ended up being too conservative with my skills. I was aggressive when it came to attacking though. If I wasn’t using anyone’s abilities, then I was using their HP Attack. 

This was only an issue whenever enemies were set to attack everyone at once. Usually, they only targeted Zack since he taunts them into hitting him, keeping Aerith and Jack safe from single target moves. But if the enemies were targeting everyone, then both Jack and Aeris were liable to get broken.

Jack won’t get broken if his 100% Evasion Up buff was currently active. Zack gets a bit of brave back after using any of his moves, and, after casting his Ex, he gets a barrier shield, so he isn’t likely to get broken. Which meant that Aerith was usually the one who was broken. 

I let this happen because I wasn’t worried about any of my charas dying. They all have a Last Stand passive, meaning, as long as they have at least 50% of their health remaining, any fatal attack will drop them down to 1 HP instead of killing them. Besides, their opponents don’t have any guaranteed hit moves, so even if Jack was currently at 1 HP due to casting his Ex, his 100% Evasion Up buff will keep him safe.

Too bad I forgot that enemies can get brave if they manage to break someone. They can even get a second turn in a row. Which was exactly what ended up happening on my first run of this quest. The Chimera Nova attacked everyone at once. Aerith had no brave so she got broken. The Chimera Nova managed to obtain a lot of brave. 

He attacked Zack whose Last Stand passive kicked in and dropped him down to 1 HP. Unfortunately, before any of my charas could move, the Chimera Nova got another turn and immediately killed Zack. Sigh. If only Aeris had a chance to move, she could have healed Zack back to full health.  

Mission Dungeon: Ancient Relic of Prosperity Chaos Quest Take 2

On my second try, the Chimera Nova managed to do their group brave + HP attack. This took off quite a bit of everyone’s health, but their HP bars were still green, so I thought it would be all right if I held off on healing them for now. 

I was trying to save everyone’s abilities in preparation for the final wave, which resulted in me being too stingy when it came to using Aerith’s Healing Wind. This, coupled with her getting broken again, soon resulted in the Chimera Nova taking back-to-back turns, which then led to my loss. Again.

Mission Dungeon: Ancient Relic of Prosperity Chaos Quest Take 3

Welp, third time’s the charm, right? Hopefully, I can get it right this time. This time, I tried to avoid letting any of my characters get broken. This meant using Aerith’s Brave Attack+++ or Healing Wind to battery the party or having Jack use his Brave Attack++ even if he won’t be able to proc his Deliverance move just to avoid being broken.

The Chimera Novas in the first wave were really annoying, to say the least. They love dealing single target HP attacks, so I always had to make sure that Zack had at least 50% of his max HP to ensure his Last Stand passive would work. This meant being less stingy with Aerith’s healing skills.

This turned out to be the same for everyone else. Being stingy with ability uses really wasn’t cutting it. Much as I wanted to have a lot of skills saved for the last wave, it just wasn’t working because I still needed to deal a lot of damage to the Chimera Novas in wave 1.

I couldn’t let that part of the fight last too long because otherwise the enemies would become way too tanky with their Defense Up buffs then they’d just end up killing everyone. Using more skills against the Chimera Novas definitely helped speed up the battle.

It also allowed my characters to deal more damage even though their opponents currently had their Defense Up buffs active. Speaking of buffs - man, but the buffs the Chimera Novas can give themselves were all so annoying.

Having a dispeller really is a great thing for this fight. Since I didn’t have any, I had no choice but to ignore those buffs and just keep trying to chip away at the health bars of both Chimera Novas.

In all my runs of this Chaos quest, I borrowed a friend support Arciela. I planned to use her in the second wave to dispel the Ankh Beasts and prevent them from using their HP moves with her HP Silence debuff. Since I never got past the first wave in my previous runs, I never got to use her.

But in this run - well, my plan was still to use her in the final wave. However, there was a time wherein Zack got hit with a fatal attack. His Last Stand passive kicked in and dropped him down to 1 HP. Jack was also at 1 HP since he just cast Transience.

One of the Chimera Novas had enough brave to one-shot Zack. If he gets hit with this before I had the chance to get him back to at least 50% of his max HP, he’ll die. 

It was Aerith’s turn. The Chimera Nova who was set to one-shot Zack was moving right after her. She could use her skills to heal Zack or her Ex to deal some damage and heal the entire party a bit. I wasn’t sure if she could shave off all that lethal brave though. I mean, I’d like to think she could. 

But, at the same time, I didn’t feel up to gambling, especially since I’ve had to repeat this fight twice already. Honestly, I was getting sick of having to do this over and over again. So I didn’t want to risk it. 

I could have her heal Zack, and I was at least confident enough that she could get him back to full or near full health with her Healing Wind or Prayer of the Cetra. But then that would mean the Chimera Nova would still be able to hit Zack with a lethal attack. 

Of course, he’d survive since Aeris just healed him. But that would bring me right back to the issue of him being at 1 HP and needing to be healed yet again. And so I decided it was time to call on my friend support.

I switched out Aerith for Arciela. I ignored her Ex in favor of using her Descension & Sight Unseen skill. This is the one that inflicts the HP Attack Disable debuff on all enemies, preventing them from using moves that deal HP damage for 2 turns. I then cast Naakual's Vengeance, which healed the party a bit. It also batteried them and dealt damage to the Chimera Novas.

As soon as she could, I also had her activate her Ascension & Expunge Magic skill. This heals the party a bit while also dispelling the buffs of all enemies. Arciela doesn’t heal as much as Aerith does, but she did well enough. It helped that Zack had his own HP Regen and Jack could heal himself, so the 2 were soon back to full health.

Arciela’s HP Attack Disable debuff was indeed very helpful even if it only lasts for 2 turns. However, it’s important to note that said debuff isn’t framed, which means it can be pushed off if the enemies give themselves a lot of buffs, especially if those buffs are framed.

The buffs of the Chimera Novas are framed and they have the ability to remove their own debuffs though framed ones are excluded. This meant that whenever they cleansed themselves of their own debuffs, which they often like to do, Arciela’s HP Attack Disable would get removed.

And so I also often found myself repeatedly using her second skill in order to reapply the debuff. Which meant it wasn’t as useful and helpful as it could have been. The same could be said with regards to her job as a dispeller since even if you remove the buffs of the enemies, they will just reapply it all over again a few turns later.

At one point, Arciela got hit with an HP attack, and I was worried that I wouldn’t have time to heal back the damage before she left the field. Thankfully, I somehow managed to get her back to full health using her Ex and her first skill. It was a good thing she didn’t get attacked any more so she was able to leave with full HP.

I was so pleased to finally get past this wave. The downside was that all my skill counts were on the low side coming on to the final wave. Seeing the 2 Ankh Beasts, I couldn’t help feeling anxious about my chances of winning. I was starting to lose hope that I could get the victory with this team.

Nevertheless, I decided to keep going. I thought I might as well go all the way and see where it leads me. Good thing I didn’t give up because there was no reason to.

The Ankh Beasts weren’t that bad at all. In fact, I found the Chimera Novas much tougher to deal with. The Ankh Beasts didn’t have much in the way of single or group HP attacks. They can inflict debuffs, but they don’t last very long. They can buff themselves too, but it’s not like I can do anything about that, especially since I’ve already called on my friend support Arciela in the first wave.

I Summoned The Brothers rather early. Neither of the health bars of the 2 Ankh Beasts were in the red, but I decided to Summon anyway since one of them had enough brave to one-shot Zack. He was at full health, but I thought I might as well Summon now and try to deal as much damage as I could before it ended.

Zack’s Ex was charged, so I readily cast Apocalypse during the Summon. It dealt a lot of damage then gave him back all of his brave and then some. As always, I was very pleased to see Zack deal such a huge amount of damage. Seeing all those high numbers showing up on the screen was awesome. The best part is he can hit hard even outside of a Summon. 

When The Brothers Summon ended, both Ankh Beasts were still alive though they’d been heavily damaged. I kept going though my skill counts were all on the low side. I was actually trying to save them, which meant using a lot of HP Attack+. Good thing everyone’s HP Attacks dealt pretty great damage. It also helped that Aerith can battery the party. 

Eventually, I managed to win. I’m really glad I was able to. I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it with this team. Welp, I shouldn’t have doubted any of them. Zack, Jack, and Aerith were all super special awesome.  

After finishing this Chaos quest, 3 more showed up.Unfortunately, I can’t bring this exact lineup to these fights because they require you to bring characters depending on their Crystal Color.

Mission Dungeon: Ancient Relic of Prosperity Chaos Red and White Quest

This Chaos quest has the following mission requirements:

Clear within 120 turns

Use 1 Red Crystal character

Use 1 White Crystal character

Get a score of 430,000 or higher

The battle info is the same as the first Chaos fight.

For the Red Crystal character requirement, I decided to bring Jack to be my main and primary damage dealer. For the White Crystal character requirement, I decided to bring Penelo (from Final Fantasy XII) to be my support slash healer slash battery. For my third party member, I decided to bring Zack to be the tank as well as a secondary DPS.

Penelo is fully MLB and Purple with all 7 of her Summon Boards completed. She has her Bloom Stone as well as all her passives and extensions equipped. She has 2 Initial Brave 100 with Max Brave 200 and 1 Attack 108 with Max Brave 330 Artifacts.

Since I have no dispeller, once again, I had no way of dealing with the annoying buffs of all the enemies. Thankfully, Zack and Jack were more than capable of dishing out spectacular damage even if they had to contend with a framed Defense Up buff.

Penelo did very well as the party’s support slash healer slash battery. Her auras and buffs are pretty good. However, there were times wherein I found myself missing Aerith’s ability to heal everyone at once. This was usually whenever Zack ended up at 1 HP due to receiving a fatal hit, causing his Last Stand passive to trigger.

If I had Aeris in my party, she could have healed him back to full health on her turn. But Penelo doesn’t have that kind of healing ability. Instead, she gives allies an HP Regen buff, which heals them a bit during each of their turns, at least until the buff runs out. Like Aerith, she can heal everyone by casting her Ex, but both don’t heal that much via that method at all.

Sometimes, I found myself worrying that Penelo’s healing might not be enough, but it turned out all right in the end. Besides, Penelo may not have burst healing, but she more than makes up for it with the rest of her kit. Her skills don’t add to the turn count. Her Ex charges fast.     

Intercession can also reduce massive amounts of brave in one cast. It’s awesome. Enemies could be ready to unleash a deadly attack and then Penelo activates her Ex and brings thousands of brave down to zero seemingly in the blink of an eye. The best part is that, in case of emergencies, you can spam her skills to quickly charge her Ex.  

Penelo also batteries a lot. However, unlike Aeris, she isn’t good at brave shaving at all. There were times wherein she was actually hitting for 1s. Good thing she gets a lot of brave so she can still reduce the enemy’s HP even if she can’t shave off all their brave unless she’s using her Ex.

I wanted to borrow a friend support Arciela again. Unfortunately, none were available during the time I was trying this Chaos quest. So I settled for borrowing an Alphinaud Leveilleur (from Final Fantasy XIV) instead. Honestly, I’d have been better off picking someone else or just not using my friend support.

I ended up switching out Penelo for Alphinaud after Summoning The Brothers. I don’t have Alphinaud’s Ex and I don’t have him built at all, so I’m not really familiar with his kit. As such, it was only after calling him when I found out that he gets another turn immediately after casting his Ex. 

I didn’t want to do that because that would mean pushing off Zack’s and Jack’s turns. I wanted Zack and Jack to cast their Ex during the Summon in order to deal a massive amount of damage. Alphinaud’s first skill has the same mechanic as his Ex so that was also out, leaving me with no other option but to use his second skill. This one deals some damage while healing the party a bit. 

After the Summon ended, I finally got the chance to cast Alphinaud’s Ex. Afterwards, I couldn’t help feeling disappointed because he hit like a wet noodle. His damage output was terrible. I suppose this was largely because of the Defense Up buffs of the enemies. 

Nevertheless, I found myself wishing I had chosen a different friend support or that I hadn’t bothered to summon him and just let Penelo handle things. After all, she was doing a great job. 

I just thought that I’d save some of her skills and that I might as well make use of the support I borrowed. I also wanted the chance to check out Alphinaud’s kit since I had yet to see his Ex’s animation.

Just like in the previous Chaos fight, I ended up using a lot of skills to get past the first wave. I still feel that the enemies there are more dangerous than the ones in the second wave. 

I’m really glad I was able to win using this team. Now onwards to the next Chaos fight.

Mission Dungeon: Ancient Relic of Prosperity Chaos Blue and Black Quest

This Chaos quest has the following mission requirements:

Clear within 120 turns

Use 1 Blue Crystal character

Use 1 Black Crystal character

Get a score of 430,000 or higher

The battle info is the same as the previous Chaos fights.

For the Blue Crystal character, I decided to bring Cloud Strife (from Final Fantasy VII). For the Black Crystal character, I decided to bring my fave Zack, of course. For my third character, I chose Aeris so I could have a full Final Fantasy VII team.

In the beginning, I was actually debating between Rosa Joanna Farrell (from Final Fantasy IV) and Cloud for the Blue Crystal character requirement and Jack and Aerith for the Red Crystal character requirement. If I picked Rosa, I would have had to go with Jack since Rosa has the same role as Aeris.

In the end, I decided to go with Cloud since I wanted to run a full FFVII party. Besides, I do like Cloud well enough, not as much as Zack, but he’s fine, and I haven’t used him in what felt like forever.

He actually has triple Attack 108 with Max Brave 330 Artifacts. He’s double Purple and fully MLB with all of his Summon Boards completed, and he has his Bloom Stone and all his passives and extensions equipped. 

He even has 2 Spheres - Agrias Oaks’s (from Final Fantasy Tactics) A Sphere (increases his Max Brave by 10% if he’s at full health) and Faris Scherwiz’s (Sarisa Scherwil Tycoon from Final Fantasy V) E Sphere (removes a bit of the brave of all enemies each turn when certain conditions are fulfilled).

Cloud’s Character Enhancement Board is available, but I haven’t completed it for him since it’s been a while since I added him to my party. Since I was planning to use him for this battle, I considered mastering his Board. However, I was rather hesitant to do so. I couldn’t seem to stop waffling between doing it or not doing it. 

I worried that I wouldn’t be using him much aside from this one fight. But, really, the main reason why I was so conflicted was because of the Final Fantasy Record Keeper (FFRK) mobile game. I’m kind of starting to hate Cloud in that game. It’s because he and a few other character are always the ones who seem to be getting all the new relics (weapons and armor) there. 

For instance, he already has a Sync Soul Break (equivalent to the Ex weapons in DFFOO), but, later on, he was given a second one even though there are so many other charas in FFRK who have yet to get even a single Sync. I found it unfair. I mean, I get it. Cloud’s popular. I like him, too. But can other chars be given these new relics too, please? 

In this regard, I much prefer the way Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia does things. Here, everyone gets the chance to shine. Everyone is viable. Cloud gets an Ex, but so does everyone else. And I like the game’s revolving meta. Cloud was great, even meta, when he first got his Ex+. 

Then he was powercrept as new and other chars got their Ex+. It didn’t mean he was completely unusable though. You could still make him work. There were just others who were better now since they were released after him. But that’s perfectly fine. 

When Cloud gets a new weapon, he’ll be back to being meta as the cycle repeats. I feel like this is fair since everyone gets the chance to shine, and in the Chaos era, you can try to make anyone work, so you can keep playing with the chars you like even if they’ve been released months ago.   

In the end, I decided to complete Cloud’s Character Board. After all, it wasn’t DFFOO’s Cloud that I had a problem with. I’m still conflicted with regards to FFRK’s Cloud, but let’s not get into that now.

So, anyway, about this Chaos fight - with Cloud in my party, I now had a dispeller. Yep, that’s right. Cloud can dispel if he has the passive from his World of Illusions weapon. Even if he can only do it one at a time, it’s still better than nothing.

Actually, I don’t think it would have mattered that much even if Cloud can dispel all or multiple buffs at once, or even if I had brought a dispeller like Vanille or Arciela because all the enemies love to refresh their buffs. 

Every time you remove one, they’ll reapply it all over again a turn or two later, so they rarely spend any time without a buff. Good thing my chars hit hard enough that they can just ignore the Defense Up buff.

For someone who isn’t really meta anymore, Cloud did pretty well. Having his Character Board maxed definitely helped. He can paralyze and launch. His Ex charges fast after the initial cast. He has a buff that lets him regen back quite a bit of brave every turn. 

As usual, I ended up using way too many skills just to quickly get past the first wave. So glad there are only 2 waves to this fight. If it was any longer than this, I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to get away with mostly spamming skills.  

I borrowed a friend support Beatrix (from Final Fantasy IX) though it was more because I couldn’t find an Arciela or another character I might have wanted to use. Never got to call on my support for assistance. Every time I thought about doing so, I end up deciding no, wait, not yet, now’s not the time; let’s wait for another opportunity. This kept happening until it was all over.

There were so many times throughout the entire battle wherein the enemies managed to acquire thousands of brave, more than enough to one-shot someone multiple times over. Thankfully, my party was able to survive and get past these situations. 

As always, I enjoyed seeing everyone get such huge amounts of brave, even outside a Summon. This was especially the case for both Cloud and Zack. Aerith’s auras and battery as well as having The Brothers as my Summon really helped skyrocket everyone’s brave, so they’re usually at max. 

Mission Dungeon: Ancient Relic of Prosperity Chaos Green and Yellow Quest

This Chaos quest has the following mission requirements:

Clear within 120 turns

Use 1 Green Crystal character

Use 1 Yellow Crystal character

Get a score of 430,000 or higher

The battle info is the same as the previous Chaos fights.

For the Green Crystal character, I decided to go with Galuf Halm Baldesion (from Final Fantasy V). For the Yellow Crystal character, I went with Lightning (Claire Farron from Final Fantasy XIII). For my third character, I chose to bring Aerith to be the party’s support. 

Just like with the previous quest, I had some trouble deciding who to bring to this fight. For the Green Crystal character requirement, I was trying to choose between Galuf, Snow Villiers (from Final Fantasy XIII), and Ultimecia (from Final Fantasy VIII). If I picked either Galuf or Snow, then I wouldn’t be able to go with Zack because they’re all tanks. 

For the Yellow Crystal character requirement, my choices were between Lightning and Y’shtola Rhul (from Final Fantasy XIV). Y’shtola’s a support, so if I went with her, then I wouldn’t be able to bring Aeris as well. 

I considered the team of Y’shtola for the Yellow Crystal requirement and as my support, either Snow or Galuf for the Green Crystal requirement and as my tank, and Jack as my main DPS. However, I worried that Y’shtola’s healing may not be enough since she can only restore HP via casting her Ex.  

I also thought of going with Y’shtola, Zack, and Ultimecia. However, in the end, I decided to go with Galuf as my tank. It’s been quite a while since I last used either him or Snow. The main reason why I Purpled Galuf was as a tribute to my Grandfathers. It felt like I was able to get his Ex thanks to them. And that’s why I went with Galuf over Snow.

Anyway, both Lightning and Galuf are double Purple and fully MLB with all of their Summon Boards completed. They have their Bloom Stones and all of their passives and extensions equipped. Galuf has 1 Attack 108 with Max Brave 330, 1 Attack 108 with Bravery Cover★★, and 1 Attack 108 with Bravery Shirahadori★★ Artifacts. 

Lightning has 1 Attack 108 with Max Brave 330, 1 Attack 108 with Max Brave 110, and 1 Attack 108 with Max Brave 200 Artifacts. Her Character Enhancement Board is available, but I chose not to complete it yet. I didn’t want to because I don’t have perfect Arts for Lightning. I know perfect Artifacts aren’t necessary. Still, if I was going to complete someone’s Board, I want them to have perfect Arts.        

So, about the Chaos fight itself - well, I won, so that’s good, but it took me much longer than the previous battles. Unfortunately, it looks like Lightning isn’t such a good DPS when compared to the likes of Jack, Cloud, and even Zack. Maybe she’ll do better if I have her Board completed. Then again, Jack doesn’t even have one, but he’s doing very well anyway.

I was pleased to see a Jack friend support, so I readily borrowed him. I also ended up using him in the final wave, switching Lightning out for him. He dealt a lot of damage, as always.

Lightning’s free turns helped. I’m sure I would have had a higher turn count were it not for those free turns. She Enchants herself with the thunder element, meaning she turns all of her moves into thunder elemental attacks. At the same time, she Imperils enemies with the thunder element, meaning she makes them weak to thunder. Since she’s hitting for weakness, she can deal more damage.

At one point, Aerith’s Cetra’s Favor buff expired. This caused her to start hitting for ones. I’m pretty sure this was the first time I ever saw this happen, so I was surprised. I was like, whoah, what’s going on here? It was only after looking at her stats list screen did I realize that she was missing a buff. 

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to reapply Cetra’s Favor right away. Good thing she batteries herself before attacking so even though she was hitting for 1 brave, she still ended up dealing high HP damage.    

Galuf did a wonderful job as the party’s tank. He can evade and counter physical attacks. There were so many times during the battle wherein the enemies were able to gain massive amounts of brave. Then they proceed to attack one of my chars. If they’re targeting Lightning or Aeris, then Galuf will take their place. The attack will miss thanks to his evasion buff, bringing the attacker’s brave down to zero. 

As usual, I ended up using a lot of skills in the first wave. By the time I got to the final wave, everyone only had a few skills left and I had to be more conservative when it came to using them.

Conclusion

So, what about you? What did you think about the Mission Dungeon: Ancient Relic of Prosperity event? Which characters did you use to complete all the Chaos battles? Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below or by reblogging this post.

Notes:

pics are from Amazon.com; links shown above

screenshots are from my Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia game account