#karennina writes

[karenninaaa]

Iron Dad Bingo #2- Trope: Baby Stark

I wrote this on a whim while trying and failing to wake up my irondad muse. it’s been so long since i wrote an irondad fic. this idea just came out of nowhere while i was lounging in a coffee shop. you know the drill, not endgame compliant. tony lives. because that’s all i care about. sort of fix it.

title inspired by the lyrics of the song ‘Leaves’ by a filipino indie pop band ben&ben

Summary: A little girl offered Peter a candy to comfort him when Peter was a bit broken inside after the battle against Thanos had been won.

And all will be alright in time.

Peter was crouched down in the hallway of a hospital. The hallway was empty and the strong scent of antiseptic was wafting in the air. Peter lost track of how long he was in that position. It could have been minutes or hours. He didn’t quite remember anymore. The moment the doctors said that Mr. Stark was not in the critical condition anymore, Peter’s feet had started to drag him away, away from Miss Potts –no, Mrs. Stark now and Mr. Rhodes who were visibly worn out from the battle against Thanos and his armies earlier.

He wore a white t-shirt and gray sweatpants and a hoodie. He also did not remember who had given the clothes to him. Because it seemed like his brain was still filled with the adrenaline rush of the battle, of saving Earth and of surviving through. Everything felt like a blur. It felt like everything was moving in a fast forward motion and he was the only one who had remained in a freeze mode. 

He had been staring at that single white tiled floor and all he could think about was Mr. Stark almost dying. Almost. His brain had chosen that moment to keep on replaying in his head. Mr. Stark who was still as a statue, who wasn’t responding and whose heart was about to give up on beating.

Then the arc reactor shut off. The light had vanished and there was this terrible and dead silence that hit them like an invisible wave. It had knocked the breath out of Peter. It had been the longest awful one second of his life. Then there was a portal and Mr. Strange. Mr. Stark was being wheeled into the Operating Room with Dr. Strange in tow.

Then there was the good news.

Yes. Good news, something to be delighted about. But why Peter couldn’t bring himself to smile and instead tears were continuously falling from his eyes. He hugged his knees more tightly as he buried his face at the crook of his elbow.

Don’t get him wrong, it was a huge relief for him that Mr. Stark was alive. It truly was. The tears were for his own heart that constricted and squeezed at the sight of Mr. Stark who had been willing to give everything he got for the universe even if it meant was the expense of his life.

Mr. Stark, who in a short amount of time, had been a huge part in shaping who he should be as an Avenger, Mr. Stark who had filled the gaps of his days. Mr. Stark whom he had looked up to, Mr. Stark who had helped him with the relativistic mass-energy equation. And the thing was the thought that there would be no Mr. Stark in a new world that had been successfully saved, was a scary scary thought.

That was probably the tears were also for.

That he needed to dispense all those scary thoughts so he could finally smile.

“Do you want candy?”

Peter froze. He slowly lifted his head. A girl probably no older than 6 was standing in front of her. He was wearing a pink floral dress and a brown leather jacket partnered with black ankle boots. She had dark brown hair that reached her shoulder. Her brown eyes blinked at him. Though, there was something familiar with her eyes.

Peter blinked back and sniffed. “W-what?”

The girl played with her hair. “Well, my dad always offers me candy when I cried. It’s effective. It makes me stop crying immediately. Also, it makes me feel better. Though, I don’t think mom likes that dad always gives me candy.”

The corner of Peter’s mouth tugged forming a little smile. He cleared his throat. “Well, do you have candy?”

She fished out something in the pockets of her leather jacket. She extended her hand to him holding a wrapped candy. “I was saving it for later but it’s okay. You can have it.”

“Are you sure?” Peter asked.

She nodded. 

Gingerly, Peter accepted the candy. She stared at him, waiting for him to open up the candy. So Peter did. He popped the candy into his mouth. It was a lemon flavor.

“Well?” She tilted her head at him

Peter smiled. The candy reminded him of the candies that Mr. Stark had in a glass jar in the corner of his lab. It was comforting. “You’re right. It’s effective.”

“And you stopped crying too.” She noted.

Peter chuckled. “Did your dad give you this candy too?”

“No my mom did before she had left earlier.” She sat Indian style beside him. “She said she had some business she needed to attend to. I wanted to come because sometimes she let me come with her. But she said that children were not allowed to be there.”

“Why are you here anyway?” Before Peter knew it, he also started to sit comfortably on the floor. 

“My dad’s here.” It was her only answer as she drew circles with her small index finger on the floor.

“Oh,” Peter didn’t want to pry. The little girl frowned. He didn’t want to upset the kid even more.

“Why are you crying earlier?” She looked up at him.

Peter tried to find the right words. He spoke after a moment. “I was scared.”

“Do you want a hug?” She asked.

Peter couldn’t help but smile again.

“Mom and Dad always give me a hug when I was scared. Do you want one? It will make you better too.”

God, this kid was so adorable. Peter couldn’t help but mentally gushed. Instead of speaking, he spread his arms wide.

She beamed at him and stood up. She bent down a bit and wrapped her chubby tiny arms around his shoulder. She gently tapped his back. She spoke. Her voice was oddly soothing. “It’s alright. You’re going to be okay soon.”

Peter’s face crumbled right then. Involuntarily, his body shook when another sob escaped his lips. Then there were tears again.

“It’s okay.” This time, the girl rubbed his back. “It’s going to be alright now.”

Another strange thing was, the little girl’s words were like warm water washing over him. His taut shoulders started to loosen up. He started to deflate like a balloon in her little arms. He let himself believed her words because the war with bad aliens was over. He released the breathe he didn’t know he had been holding.

Peter pulled away from him sniffing again. His eyes were red and puffy. “Where did you learn that?”

Her brows knitted together. “Learn what?”

“Those words. How did you know how to comfort someone?”

“That’s what mom and dad always said and does when I’m upset and scared. It worked like magic, didn’t it?” She grinned at him.

“Your parents are lucky to have you,” Peter said softly.

“And I love them, three thousand.” She raised her three fingers for emphasis.

“Morgan!”

There was a male voice in the hallway somewhere in the distance.

“Oops. That’s me.” She sucked her thumb. “I should go. Bye-bye.” She waved her hand at him as she stepped back.

“Bye, bye.” Peter also waved his hand at her. “And Morgan, thank you.” He smiled earnestly at her as she continued to step back. “Look where you’re going, you might trip!” He pointed out.

She only giggled. “You’re welcome, Peter.” She then rounded the corner and disappeared.

“Yeah-” He froze. “Wait, what? How did she know my name?”

He sprang from his seat and ran to the corner where the kid had gone to. But the hallway was empty as if no single soul had been there a while back.

“W-what the fu-“

Earlier that day was one of the best times of Peter’s life because Mr. Stark had woken up. He was bouncing on his heels as he walked to Mr. Stark’s room together with aunt May. He was holding a bouquet. They stopped in front of Mr. Stark’s room. There was a muffled voice inside then followed by laughter. Peter grinned. He knocked and opened the door.

He stepped inside. “Mr. Stark-!”

He froze on the spot. Mr. Stark was truly awake as he beamed at him as if nothing life-threatening had happened earlier at the break of dawn, as if they hadn’t gone to a battle and fight for their lives. The upper part of his bed was slightly raised so he was in a half-sitting position. The burn on the side of Mr. Stark’s face was still fresh. There was a red bionic arm where his right arm used to be. The prosthetic was glinting under the pale fluorescent light. 

However, what made Peter froze was the kid who was snuggling beside Mr. Stark. His good left arm was wrapped around her. She was now looking shyly at him.

“You-” He pointed wide-eyed at the girl.

The girl only giggled as she snuggled closer to Mr. Stark’s chest.

“Oh, you’ve already met Morgan?” Mr. Stark’s eyes lit up.

“Y-yeah. . .” Peter answered slowly. “W-who is she again?”

Mr. Stark looked around to the people in the room. Pepper, Happy and Rhodey was there. “No one had bothered to tell him that she’s my daughter?”

“Daughter.” Peter echoed.

“In our defense boss,” Happy said. “We didn’t know that they have already met.”

Morgan looked up at his dad. “I gave him a candy daddy because he was crying.”

“Oh,” Mr. Stark’s gaze fell on Peter.

“Sweetie,” Pepper called Morgan. “Come on, let’s buy some cheeseburgers for dad.”

“Cheeseburgers!” Morgan gasped dramatically as she sat up abruptly. She immediately hopped down the bed. 

“God, you’re as bad as your dad,” Rhodey muttered.

“I heard that.” Tony pointed out. “And I take that as a compliment.”

Soon, Tony and Peter were the only people in the room as if their company had an unspoken agreement to give the two some alone time.Morgan blew a kiss to Peter before sauntering off holding her mom’s hand.

Peter remained on the same spot he had been earlier when he had first entered.

“What? You’re going to make me come to you?” Tony asked. “As you can see I’m quite indisposed as of this moment. Come here squirt.”

Peter stiffly walked towards him. He sat on the vacant seat next to Mr. Stark’s bed. Peter needed to sit. He looked down at the flowers on his lap.

He knew without looking that Mr. Stark was staring at him.

“I’m glad you’re back.”

“Me too,” Peter mumbled.

“Pete, look at me.” Mr. Stark said pleadingly. “I still couldn’t quite believe that everyone who had been dusted was back. I need some validation that you’re here.”

Peter looked up at him.

Mr. Stark smiled. “There you go. You’re here.”

“Don’t scare me like that ever again,” Peter said.

Mr. Stark raised an eyebrow at the hardness on Peter’s voice.

“You almost died.” He choked out.

“That’s part of my job.” Mr. Stark said.

“Then just retire already,” Peter said. 

“Oh, I plan on it. Besides, I have to take Morgan to school because Pep will probably be busy being the boss lady of the company.”

“I can’t believe you already have a daughter. “Peter said disbelievingly combing his hair with his hand. “It’s kinda hard to believe that years had already passed in here when it felt like a blink to me.”

“You’ll get used to it.” Mr. Stark assured him. He was looking softly at him. His eyes were bright, the side of his eyes crinkled. He had more white hair than Peter had remembered.

“Mr. Stark. . .” Peter swallowed. “Is everything going to be alright now?”

“Let’s allow ourselves to think that yes, it will be. Our world is messy but I’d like to hope that every passing moment that will come will be something worth celebrating for.”

There was the beat of silence before Tony spoke again. “Why did you cry? Did you cry because of me?”

“Because you scared me!”

“Now you already know what I felt when you’re out there donning that red and blue spandex.”

Peter was silent. He couldn’t argue with that.

He spoke after a beat. “So, uh, we’re even now, Mr. Stark?”

And all Mr. Stark could respond was a peal of hearty laughter as he threw his head back.

Peter smiled.

Yes, it’s going to be alright now.

[mundanemelusina]

Get to Know Me 1. What is you middle name? Matthew 2. How old are you? 21 3. When is your birthday? Oct 12 4. What is your zodiac sign? Libra sun, Gemini moon, Taurus rising, Scorpio Venus and idk the rest 5. What is your favorite color? Yellow! It's always varied but I love a soft warm yellow. Like the color the sun paints the world at sunset. Like crayolas dandelion crayon. WHICH BY THE WAY CRAYOLA IS FUCKIN RETIRING. THEY ARE GETTING RID OF MY FAVORITE COLOR. 6. What’s your lucky number? 3 7. Do you have any pets? My moms house has a lot but I don't live there any more? Are they really my pets? Idk man. 8. Where are you from? Greensboro nc 9. How tall are you? 5'10" 10. What shoe size are you? 10 in both men's and women's. Idk how it works I don't make the rules I just work here. 11. How many pairs of shoes do you own? In the 20s probably. Maybe more. How many pairs do I wear on the everyday tho? Like two maybe. I'm terrible. 12. What was your last dream about? Honestly last one I remember I woke up with the distinct memory of eating out a trans guy. 13. What talents do you have? Knowing exactly where peoples belly buttons are, whistling like various birds, quoting movies, remembering useless info, coming up with ideas of things I'll never do, sleeping too much, not having motivation, puns and/or bad humor, being able to identify almost any color by its crayola name. 14. Are you psychic in any way? You're asking a witch. That's a loaded fucking question. 15. Favorite song? Nah. I got loads of playlists tho. 16. Favorite movie? BOI. Ok. Listen. Stardust The high school musicals Harry potters, also third specifically Moulin rouge Hocus pocus Thirteenth year Legally blonde Easy a Anna karennina Lion king Hercules Little mermaid Hunchback of notre dam Spy kids trilogy First three shreks but specially no2 How to train your dragon(1/2) Rise of the guardians Series of unfortunate events movie Sucker punch Weekend (2011) The new beauty and the beast movie Lord of the rings Indiana jones 17. Who would be your ideal partner? This is a strange question. Not what would they be like. But WHO ARE THEY. NAME NAMES. GO. honestly idk. If I knew who it was I'd be trying to sit on their lap right now. 18. Do you want children? Error 404 answer unknown. I could be good with kids. I love kids. But do I want to raise them? Idk. And I don't want to raise any unless I know for sure that I do. 19. Do you want a church wedding? What does this mean? I would never marry a church. 20. Are you religious? All religions are simultaneously true and false. Schroedingers religion 21. Have you ever been to the hospital? Yes. Terrible asthma. Last big attack was on my thirteenth birthday. I had my first indoor swim meet at my high school and it was a small steamy space with hundreds of people so the air got supper thick and I had the worst attack ever. 22. Have you ever got in trouble with the law? Nope not do I plan to 23. Have you ever met any celebrities? I've met Julie Taymor! Famous director who directed the lion king on broadway and across the universe! 24. Baths or showers? Showers for physical cleaning, baths for spiritual 25. What color socks are you wearing? I don't wear socks I fucking hate them the stifle my creativity bc I can't think with them on. 26. Have you ever been famous? One of my selfie photo sets has 19,000+ notes does that count? 27. Would you like to be a big celebrity? Eh. I could handle it but that doesn't mean I want to 28. What type of music do you like? Musical, pop, indie/folk/americana, idk just whatever 29. Have you ever been skinny dipping? No. I get self conscious 30. How many pillows do you sleep with? 2 normal full pillows, a star shaped pillow, a moon shape, and a sun. 31. What position do you usually sleep in? Side curl? 32. How big is your house? 2 bed one bath apartment that has a living room and a kitchen. That's it. The whole place. Very small. 33. What do you typically have for breakfast? Harris teeter brand clusters and oats cereal with honey or bagel with cream cheese 34. Have you ever fired a gun? Yeah my dad taught me on his family's farm and my grandfather on my mothers side taught me some too. He loves hunting. 35. Have you ever tried archery? Ye with said grandfather. I didn't like it at the time but I love the idea of it now and want to again. I was pretty ok at it. Besides my terrible eyesight. 36. Favorite clean word? What the fuck is a clean word. 37. Favorite swear word? Fuck it's so vers 38. What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without sleep? I pull all nighters all the time but never really more than 36 hours without a nap. 39. Do you have any scars? I'm sure I might somewhere but I can't really think of any 40. Have you ever had a secret admirer? I wish. Usually I am the one admiring secretly. 41. Are you a good liar? I'm a thespian. It's my literal job. 42. Are you a good judge of character? Loaded question? How the fuck would I know this? Who are you? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH JIMMY 43. Can you do any other accents other than your own? AGAIN. my literal job. 44. Do you have a strong accent? No. I actually have always been told o don't have one. Moms from New Jersey but grew up in the south. She doesn't have a thick one. 45. What is your favorite accent? ????? So many. Any U.K. Miami Cuban? It's specific but. Idk it's less about accents but I just love studying the way people talk. How they form vowels or little sayings they have. 46. What is your personality type? Enfp? 47. What is your most expensive piece of clothing? I have no idea. I don't like to buy pricey clothing. I'm a goodwill hoe 48. Can you curl your tongue? Long ways sideways twist and clover! 49. Are you an innie or an outie? Innie 50. Left or right handed? FUN STORY I was originally lefty but then my first grade teacher thought I was gonna be a gay witch so she made me switch. But lefty staid for everything besides writing. So batting golf all that. Writing texting jacking bowling is righty. So. Mostly right. 51. Are you scared of spiders? 4/10 52. Favorite food? *softly* don't 53. Favorite foreign food? I love food 54. Are you a clean or messy person? Messy af 55. Most used phrased? Changes weekly 56. Most used word? Changes daily 57. How long does it take for you to get ready? An hour with a shower? 30 without? 58. Do you have much of an ego? Huge 59. Do you suck or bite lollipops? Suuuuck 60. Do you talk to yourself? Constantly 61. Do you sing to yourself? ALL DAY EVERY DAY. 62. Are you a good singer? I AM passable but I'm not gonna win a Tony 63. Biggest Fear? Myself 64. Are you a gossip? Did you hear about Samantha and Jim? 65. Best dramatic movie you’ve seen? Check above 66. Do you like long or short hair? On myself? Idfk. On men? Short 67. Can you name all 50 states of America? Nope! Nor do I care. Fuck this place! (I can get most) 68. Favorite school subject? Transfiguration. Wait real school? Ok art, theatre, literature, science, marine biology was fun 69. Extrovert or Introvert? I need a balance of the two. Intro if I had to pick 70. Have you ever been scuba diving? Nah. Been snorkeling tho 71. What makes you nervous? Intrusive thoughts. Heights. Knives. Snakes and spiders. Fire. Mostly nervous I'll do something stupid and throw myself or my phone over the edge or into the flames. 72. Are you scared of the dark? Well I wasn't till you FUCKING MENTIONED IT. ASAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH 73. Do you correct people when they make mistakes? Most of the time 74. Are you ticklish? Yes but tickle and I'll rip off your pickle 75. Have you ever started a rumor? Started? No. continued? Religiously. 76. Have you ever been in a position of authority? Often. I enjoy it. 77. Have you ever drank underage? Whaaaaaat????? Me????? No never. 78. Have you ever done drugs? Gasp 79. Who was your first real crush? Literally. Ok. Listen. Buddy. So many. Idk who was first. All were dumb. 80. How many piercings do you have? Just ears 81. Can you roll your Rs?“ Ye 82. How fast can you type? Snail^2 83. How fast can you run? Turtle^2 84. What color is your hair? Naturally dark brown. 85. What color is your eyes? Dark green and orange. 86. What are you allergic to? Medicines some type of cat/dog/fur 87. Do you keep a journal? A book of shadows but not a journal 88. What do your parents do? Dads a muggle. Mams a witch. Bitofanastyshockwhenhefoundout Honestly I'm tired and don't wanna explain 89. Do you like your age? Age as in era of history??? Years in which I have personally traveled around the sun? 90. What makes you angry? Unfairness. My jealousy. Disrespect 91. Do you like your own name? Yeah I love it 92. Have you already thought of baby names, and if so what are they? Nah 93. Do you want a boy a girl for a child? Wtf is this gendered bs 94. What are you strengths? It's too late to have this crisis 95. What are your weaknesses? Seriously I'm tired 96. How did you get your name? I always forget 97. Were your ancestors royalty? Dads side had something 98. Do you have any scars? I already did this 99. Color of your bedspread? Gray 100. Color of your room? Between crayola jade and olive

[cunningminx]

27 Coming out professionally

0:00-1:55 Introduction Intro, under-18 warning, and an apology. 1:55-7:50 Listener mail Eric Silverbear and poly conferences; Takanami calls in about painting; K writes in about women talking about sex; Vannevar Morgan comments on my approach to smut 7:50-10:30 Comments--erotica: Morgan Hawke Morgan Hawke, author of Victorious Star, Fortune's Star and Fallen Star, writes in about how he came to start writing poly-friendly erotica of the MFM variety and "erotic romance." His work is available at DarkErotica.net or Darkerotica.blogspot.com. 10:30-13:50 Comments: on sending flowers Graydancer of Rope Weekly writes in with some poly advice, and minx tells a story. 13:50-21:30 Comments: Amy Gahran comments on coming out Amy Gahran of Contentious tells more about her professional outing and makes a few corrections. Links: BlogHer How To Get Naked This is a downloadable audio link of the panel discussion. Her blog article on outing herself. 21:30-26:30 Listener mail: single and poly 5x5guy writes in to ask about dealing with being a third and issues surrounding that. 26:30-28:30 Topic: The Anna Karennina principle Pure agnostic's musings in the Polyfi community about the necessary ingredients for a happy poly relationship, including above-average communication skills, above-average problem-solving skills, unflinching honesty and integrity, flexibility and compromise and empathy. 28:30-35:30 Topic: Baltimore Sun article, "Term of Endearments" This wonderful article on the Loving More conference in the Baltimore Sun is unfortunately no longer available online, but the staff writer was John Woestendick if you'd like to write in and compliment him. Robyn Trask of Loving More magazine is quote extensively. 35:30-end Wrap-up

Tags: coming out, loving more, poly, polyamory

  Check out this episode!

[thatscarletflycatcher]

As a note, it was Jacqueline Durran who got the Oscar for the costumes and not the director, Greta Gerwig.

Durran is known for her costume work for Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice, and Anna Karennina. I think she works best when she's allowed to go crazy and fantasy (the latter one) but otherwise it's usually underwhelming. However, the uggs thing is myth and hastiness. No uggs made it to the final shooting; there are some BTS pictures that show them, and even Bernadette Banner did the careless job of just judging out of those pictures and never acknowledged that mistake. Uggs are very, very commonly worn by actors in shooting of scenes in the cold outdoors, in framings where their feet won't be seen. That's because they are very comfortable and warm, and filming, as the adage goes, is hurry, hurry and wait. If you have to wait hours in the cold for a scene and then shoot it again and again, it makes sense to be wearing as comfortable shoe wear as you can get, if it is not to be seen.

I don't think Durran deserved that Oscar, and not just because the historical inaccuracies. Ultimately they are all bland and unimaginative, vaguely Pinterest Dark Academia Meets Cottagecore aesthetic.

I think us, from a fandom perspective missed the big picture that is that Sony was desperately trying to recreate the unexpected success of Little Women 1994, and this movie was a hurriedly attempt at that. Getting Greta Gerwig, which had been considered snubbed of an Oscar for Ladybird, to write and direct; get the costume designer from those acclaimed Joe Wright movies; getting Alexandre Desplat to score; getting for the main cast the most trendy actors for teenage and early 20s audiences, with bones for the older millennials (that was Meg. Tell me by which other criteria Emma Stone and Emma Watson qualify for the same job, and also James Norton), the nostalgic older folk (Laura Dern and Merryl Streep) and a bone for the indie/edgy sector (Eliza Scanlen and Louis Garrell). They spent almost as much money in publicity for the movie.

Sony was going hard for record box office and awards. They got a pity Oscar for costuming. If you asked me, it backfired spectacularly.

So, Greta Gerwig got an award for costume design. Did everyone just turn a blind eye to the fact that I’m one of the early Little Women trailers Florence Pugh is literally wearing Ugg boots??? Like girl what I know that this entire movie doesn’t make any sense at all but those Ugg boots have crossed the freaking line

I honestly don't remember much from the first trailer, but it doesn't surprise me that Ugg boots would have made an appearance.

I have just basic knowledge of historical fashion, and even I know that the costumes were not at all correct and so backwards that it is truly a wonder that it got nominated at all. To anyone who wants to know why the costumes were not good, I recommend watching any or all three of these videos.

The Academy was right to not nominate Gerwig, she did a poor job of adapting this movie and it's time people said so. Little Women 2019 should not have been nominated for anything at all. Not best costume, not best actress/supporting actress (nothing against the actresses personally, this was just not their best work), and certainly not best movie.

[karenninaaa]

Across the Street updated

Preview under the cut. Spoilers ahead!

Preview:

“This is cute, I can stare right back at you all day,” Tony said serenely. He leaned his elbow on the table and propped his cheek on his hand, looking up. He was in his office at Stark Industries earlier than usual. He had got things to do.

In front of him, Ryan Paxton was standing. He had been standing there for quite a while. He had refused to sit when invited and just stared at Tony with an unreadable expression.

“I knew who you are for some time now.” Ryan’s voice was oddly quiet. “I just chose to ignore it.”

Tony only hummed. “Since when did you know?”

“Since the first time you set foot in here. You’d been the gossip around because of your sudden appearance.”

Tony clasped his hands together on the table instead. His gaze was on his hands. “Does Pepper know too?”

“I don’t know. She didn’t mention anything.”

“So listen,” Tony began. He looked up once again at Ryan. “I talked to some guys around here and you can still go to New York-”

“What if I don’t want to anymore?”

Tony’s eyebrow rose at the challenge in Ryans’ voice. But then he immediately nodded. “Okay, if that’s what you want. It’s payback for doing me a favor for Pepper-”

Ryan laughed dryly. “I wouldn’t hesitate to do it for Ginny whether you ask for it or not.”

“I know.”

“Ginny didn’t know that you called me to be with her last night.”

“Okay.”

Ryan pressed his lips into a thin line before exhaling. “This is frustrating you know.” Another exhale. “You’re making me feel like a bad guy.”

Tony only tilted his head at him.

Ryan continued. “I like her for a long time, in case you aren’t aware of that. I’ve known her for a long time. I was always there with her when she went through a tough time. It feels so unfair that she asked for your help when she barely knew you. It feels so unfair that she didn’t tell me anything. But you know the worst thing, I couldn’t tell her that I was hurt because it would hurt her too.”

Tony nodded in understanding. “You’re doing important stuff and she felt like she’s burdening you if she told you about her stalker resurfacing. She’s that kind.”.

“But how?” Ryan’s voice raised a bit. “How could she trust you with everything? She had known you for barely a week before. How could she dep-” He stopped, swallowing. Swallowing down the words instead of uttering them out loud.

“I told her that I would help her.” The mechanic simply said.

“Ginny was the most independent person I know. She would bleed to death first before asking for help-”

“Agreed-”

Ryan turned away from him. He closed his eyes, letting his shoulders deflate. He didn’t say anything but Tony could see it, could feel it all. All the emotions that were trying to claw their way out of Ryan’s skin and out in the open. Tony could feel and see the intensity of it all, the immensity of it all. And they were all for Pepper.

Ryan opened his eyes and regarded him. He squared his shoulder. The delicateness and vulnerability of his feelings were gone. As if Tony had just imagined it.

Ryan spoke. “Did you tell Ginny that you like her too?”

“Am I that obvious?”

“Let’s just stop this bullshit please.”

“Yes,” Tony sighed.

Ryan looked like he hesitated for a bit. “Does she like you back?”

“She hasn’t answered me yet.” Tony tried to be nonchalant by the way he shrugged his shoulder. He was careful not to show how this was a big deal for him too, and how much this meant to him, and he would probably die if Pepper so much turned her back on him.

Ryan seemed to hesitate again as he bit his lip. “S-she didn’t straight up say no to you?”

Tony shook his head carefully. He was still careful because there was some sort of rivalry going on here. And it wasn’t like he was backing out from this either.

There was a beat before Ryan spoke again. “Well then, Ginny hasn’t said yes yet. Just so you know I’m going to ask Ginny on a date tonight.”

“Okay.”

Ryan stared hard at him. “It doesn’t affect you that I’m whisking her away from you? And that I’m going to do everything to whisk her away from you at every chance I could get?”

Actually, Tony wanted to burst out from his seat. He remembered how he had used to tease Pepper with Ryan as her prince charming. But it was quite different now. There was uneasiness in the pit of his stomach at the mere thought of Pepper choosing Ryan over him. She hadn’t answered him yet, and he had no idea if the feelings were mutual. He had no idea what’s inside Pepper’s heart. He had no idea if she’s saving her heart for someone. He had got his hopes up because he was holding unto to that goddamn kiss in the car like a highschool teenager who had a crush. But there were also infinite possibilities and those possibilities were eating him slowly from the inside out.

And Tony could only shrug, careful as ever. Even though he was nervous and a bit scared of the endless guessing and hoping. “It’s her decision, in the end, there’s nothing I could do about the things or people she wants to be with.”

“Okay then.” Ryan nodded. “You know, I’m good at making people get swayed on their feet if I put my mind into it. You bet that I’m going to do the same with Ginny. I recently closed a five million dollar deal. My negotiation skill hasn’t waned down yet.”

With that Ryan turned around and left Tony, who was holding his breath, and who was so afraid to move an inch from his seat, and let Ryan get a glimpse of how his fortress had shaken, agitating the calmness of his little turf. All because of Pepper yet again.

[karenninaaa]

you chase the darkness away (and you put a light in my chest)

Summary: Peter was on the verge of losing his mind over his secret superhero identity reveal. Morgan brought him a book.

Iron Dad Bingo: Cuddles

Read on Ao3

or just continue reading down below

Buy me a coffee?

Mr. Stark had said that he should get some sleep. But Peter had figured out a little bit later as he lay on the bed in the Stark cabin that his body was too keyed up to fall asleep. His hands had twitched every time he would try to lie still. He had tossed and turned around trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in. Soon, Peter gave up on the concept of sleep and how it was not something he would probably be able to do that night. He bolted up from his bed as he exhaled frustratingly. He peeled off the duvet covering his lower body. He sighed again. He hunched forward, bowing his head. He carded his hair with his hand. His breath got ragged every passing second.

Everyone knew I am Spider-Man. . . Shit. Shit. Shit. What am I going to do?

He shut his eyes tightly willing the thoughts to go away. It wasn't helping with the anxiety and paranoia bubbling up in the center of his chest. Mr. Stark had said that they would fix it and there was nothing to worry about. But it wasn't right. His mind protested. It was his problem that he should be fixing himself instead of dragging Mr. Stark into it. He had retired for gosh sake. He should be living peacefully here in his cabin with his family and not give him something to worry about. Saving the universe had been enough to fill up a lifetime quota of being in the superhero business.

Peter's heart became erratic as his breath became even more shallow. His head turned at the window. A stream of moonlight seeped through it giving the darkened room a luminescent glow. For one second, as Peter's shoulders rose and fell from his uneven breathing, he thought of running away, away from everyone he cared about. To put them away from harm's way and every negative effect of people knowing that he was Spider-Man. His aunt would be safer here than being with him.

And then the door suddenly creaked open. Peter almost jumped up to the ceiling. He stared wide-eyed at the door moving then a small head popped in.

Peter blinked, relaxing a bit at the sight of Morgan on the door.

"Oh good, you're still awake." Morgan's voice was in a hushed whisper as if afraid of waking up everybody in the house if her voice raised any higher. She stepped inside and closed the door softly. She sauntered towards him hugging a picture book and holding a flashlight.

Peter stilled in his position as Morgan put down her things on the bed and climbed up on the bed with a little difficulty. That's when he moved and helped her up on the bed.

"Why are you still up?" Peter asked.

"Sshhh." Morgan put her tiny index finger on her lips. She sat comfortably on the bed with her legs folded underneath her. "Lower your voice, Mom and Dad might hear us, especially dad. I have my suspicion that Dad has super hearing and he's just hiding it from us."

"Oh?" Peter's eyebrow rose.

Morgan nodded conspiringly. She spoke in the same low tone and leaned forward to Peter. "Dad knows when I'm still not yet asleep at night and reading my book." She patted her book on the bed. "I was probably reading it too loudly and he heard me."

"Then he'll probably come here soon." Peter guessed.

"Nuh-uhh." She shook her head and whispered. "Not if we talk like this and hide under the blanket with a flashlight on." She held her flashlight under her chin and turned it on, giving her face a yellowish glow. "I think we're safe enough." She waved the flashlight while making funny faces.

Peter giggled at that.

"Sshh." Morgan shushed him. "I can't sleep either and I want someone to read to me, but Mom and Dad are already asleep. I don't want to bother them."

"I can read it for you if you like." He offered.

That's how they found themselves underneath the covers with a flashlight and an open book on the bed. They lay on their stomachs as he held the flashlight over the book and read in a low voice as Morgan had told him to. The book was about a doctor who can speak to animals.

"That's interesting," Peter whispered, flipping the next page.

"I know!" Morgan whispered back excitedly. She beamed at him as her light brown eyes gleamed from the little light coming from the flashlight. Then she paused. "Since you're Spider-man, can't you talk to spiders?"

"No, I can't." Peter sighed tiredly. It was a question bound to be asked when people had learned that he was Spider-Man.

"Aww." Morgan momentarily looked dejected that Peter felt bad about it. But then, she asked him to resume reading so he did.

They reached the part where the protagonist was about to go on a voyage to cure and save the dying animals.

"Should I go on a voyage too?" Peter muttered absentmindedly and flipped again the next page

"Where are you going?" Morgan interrupted his reading. Her brows pulled together.

"Somewhere far away."

"You can't leave!" Morgan gasped. Horrified at the idea of Peter leaving.

Peter opened his mouth to calm her down when another voice interrupted him.

"Why are you still awake?"

Peter and Morgan froze as they stared at each other. They knew that voice very well. After a beat, they emerged from underneath the blankets and sat up.

Tony was standing by the bed with his hand on his hip. Peter and Morgan smiled sheepishly at him.

Tony looked expectantly at them. His eyebrow raised.

"I told you dad has super-hearing. He can even hear us in his sleep." Morgan muttered as she leaned sideways to Peter.

Peter wanted to say that it was probably because of some traitorous artificial intelligence who had ratted them out and not because of some enhanced senses. But who was he to shatter the kid's fantasy of his dad looking cooler in her eyes? So he kept his mouth shut.

"So no one's gonna tell me why you're still up at midnight?"

"I can't sleep," Morgan answered honestly. "And Peter's going away." She pointed at Peter.

Peter's mouth hung open at Morgan. "What happened to the siblings’ pact we've done to keep things between us?"

Morgan huffed. "This is an exception, I don't want you to go away!"

"Hold on, hold on." Tony signaled for a time out. "Peter's what?"

"He's leaving us!" Morgan said. "Daddy, quick! Do the thing when someone tries to run out of the house."

"W-Wha-" Peter looked back and forth between Morgan and Tony. "W-what thing?"

He had gotten his answer when in a flash Tony moved. He jumped onto the bed and managed to wiggle his way behind Peter and sat with his legs on Peter’s both sides. Peter found himself being wrapped around Tony’s arms. His bionic arm glinted in the moonlight.

Peter tried to squirm and wiggle his arms out of Tony's hug. "Mr. Stark!"

"No. No one leaves the house." Tony said. He was smiling. Peter could tell without even looking up at him.

"Yeah!" Morgan squealed and tackled Peter in a hug. "You can't go. You can't leave me!" Morgan looked up at him with puppy dog eyes. Her arms wrapped around his torso. She was sprawled on the bed on her stomach.

"How can I possibly leave like this?" Peter gave up on squirming his way out.

Tony stilled behind him. "You were not serious about that, were you?"

"Uhhh,"

"Peter. How can you think of that? Where are you going?" Tony asked. His arms around him loosened.

"I don't want you to worry about me about this whole revelation of my identity thing," Peter mumbled, staring down at Morgan's crown. Her cheek pressed on his stomach.

"Of course, we'd worry about you! You're a family!"

"But you are retired and you shouldn't be dealing with superhero business anymore!"

"Yes, I am retired," Tony answered patiently. "But it doesn't mean I would stop caring about you."

"But it's still felt like I am bothering you or something."

"Kid, I've sacrificed my one arm off and risked my life just to get you back and you're calling yourself a bother?"

That's when Peter started to smile and relaxed in his mentor's embrace. Peter leaned back against his chest.

"So, stop thinking of running away or something, you're gonna give me and your aunt a heart attack."

Peter hummed.

"Answer me, Pete."

Peter could feel Tony's eyes on him.

"Yes. I am not going anywhere." Peter answered. In his heart, he knew that he was telling him the truth. He continued. "I just thought that it was a problem I have to solve on my own."

"But it doesn't mean that you have to do this alone," Tony answered softly.

Peter could only hum. Strangely, the anxiety in his chest was replaced by a warmth spreading throughout his body. It was comforting. His head that buzzed with a lot of uncertainties started to clear off.

"Y-yeah okay, you can let me go now," Peter said.

"Not a chance," Tony said, tightening his embrace around his chest. He glanced over Peter's shoulder. "Besides, I think little miss is already asleep, you don't want to wake her up or else she'll hulk out like her dear old' uncle Bruce."

True enough, Morgan's grip around him had slackened. She wasn't chiming in their conversation anymore.

"So how did you learn this trick?" Peter tried to gesture with the whole despite his arms being locked in Tony's embrace.

Tony laughed softly. "Morgan was always running away when I tried to feed her. My only way so she wouldn't get past the dining table."

Peter chuckled.

"You should sleep too," Tony said after a moment.

And so Peter did. This time, he was quite certain that he would fall asleep. It was cozy. The arms around him were so reassuring that it melted his worries away.

There was a hum. Peter vaguely remembered as his eyes drooped. It was Tony's voice. He recognized. He was humming a tune. He tried to recall the familiar tune. His eyes were finally closed when he smiled in satisfaction at finally remembering what it was.

Itsy-bitsy spider

Climbed up the water spout

Down came the rain

And washed the spider out

Out came the sun

And dried up all the rain

And the itsy-bitsy spider

Climbed up the spout again

[karenninaaa]

Hi, I revived my old solangelo fic, please go check it out!

[karenninaaa]

Across the street, updated!

Preview under the cut. Spoilers ahead!

Preview:

Tony stared down at the tablet resting on the counter. The screen was frustratingly silent and black.

“You’re putting too much whip cream,” Rhodes said.

Right, his hands were occupied with another thing. He tore his eyes away from the tablet as he looked down at his handy-work instead. The plate was covered with too much white that the waffle underneath it could be barely seen.

“Harley and Peter like whipped cream.” Tony retorted, putting down the whipped cream can on the counter.

Rhodes only sipped on his mug of coffee while his other hand was in his robes’ pocket. He leaned back on the counter next to Tony.

“You’re waiting for Pepper to wear her wristwatch, are you?” Rhodes remained on his spot, while Tony turned around carrying the plate of whipped cream covered waffle on the table.

Tony wiped his hand on the apron he was wearing. “I was waiting for an email from Thomas actually.”

“Bullshit.”

Tony glared at him. “Why ask when you already knew the answer?”

Rhodes shrugged. “It’s fun messing with you.”

Tony smiled sweetly. “Ah, is that so? Well then, have fun making your waffle.”

“Oh, I’ve already eaten.” Rhodes put down the mug on the counter.

Tony’s head snapped in the direction of the table. There were four plates of waffles on the table, but two plates were empty. Tony could have sworn that he had put waffles on the third plate, and he was about to make the last batch.

“Wow.” Tony’s mouth hung open at Rhodes. “You’re really amazing-”

“Of course.”

“That’s not a compliment, that’s sarcasm. I just turned my back on the table for a sec. How did you not choke eating all of that?”

“It’s a skill eating fast, and discreetly. That skill is handy most of the time.” Rhodes burped. “And also you were one hundred percent distracted because of a certain neighbor. You’re really not going to notice anything. I wouldn’t be surprised if I burst in here driving a tank and your eyes are still glued to that tablet. ”

Tony just gave him a cold pointed look, a way of telling him to shut up now.

He cleared his throat and straightened up. “Anyway, I should go and wake up my handsome godsons.”

“Yeah, get out of my kitchen.”

“My handsome godsons, who took after your uncle Rhodey, wake up! Breakfast is ready.” Rhodes called out in a sing-song voice. He walked out of the kitchen while Tony followed his retreating figure with his steely gaze.

He faced the waffle iron. Apparently, he had to do more because there was a mammoth living at his house. He glanced once more at his tablet. It was still as silent as ever.

He went back to his task.

[karenninaaa]

Chapter 11 of Across the Street

read entire fic on AO3.

The moment Tony stepped foot in his garage, Friday told him that he had 17 missed calls from his best friend.

“Boss, incoming call from Col. James Rhodes,” Friday said.

“Answer.” He sat on the worn-out swivel chair near the worktable.

“Why aren’t you answering my calls?!”

“Woah, woah, Yosemite Sam, what’s with the tone –what’s the matter-?”

“What’s the matter? I’ve been calling you for-”

“Yeah, this is like the 18th time to be exact. We’ve just talked 8 hours ago. Did you miss me already?”

“After hanging up on me and leaving some alarming message, how could I not call back? I was so close to calling out a SWAT team.”

Tony was confused. “Alarming message-?” Then it clicked. “Oh! The black car I told you about that was outside earlier.”

“Yeah,” Rhodes answered immediately. “What was that all about? Were they spying on you? Do you think they’re dangerous-?”

“He’s not spying on me. He was spying on my neighbor,” Tony explained. “Pepper’s the one who’s in danger.  I was at her house earlier to help her out. That’s why I wasn’t able to answer your calls.”

There was a beat of silence. “This is the second time I’ve heard of Pepper. Who is she exactly?”

Tony leaned his head back on the headrest as he stared on the ceiling. He spun around in his chair. “Just a neighbor.”

“That you’re helping out?” Rhodes continued.

“Yeah, I told you she’s in danger. There’s a psycho stalker lurking around her.” He sat up straighter. “Wait you said you can call in SWAT?”

“Yeah, do you want me to make a call?”

Tony sagged into his seat as he waved his hand. “Forget about it. It would be hard to explain to her how I  got a SWAT team on site. It might freak her out too.”

“Wait, doesn’t she know who you are?”

“She doesn’t know my surname and I have no plans on telling her just yet.” He reached for a small screw driver on the table and began to fidget with it.

“I’m a bit confused. Are we back to playing secret identity here? Does she look suspicious to you?”

Tony sighed. “It’s not that. She works at Stark Industries and it would be awkward if she knows who I am.”He was curious about her from the moment they had first met. So maybe he had done a bit of research about her way before. He paused and smiled. “Besides, I like that I’m just Tony to her, you know, just the neighborhood mechanic.”

“Now I want to go back to the States immediately,” Rhodes said.

“Why, because you miss me?”

“Cause things are starting to get interesting.”

Tony raised an eyebrow. “Are they?”

“This Pepper gal is making me curious, man. I want to know why you’d consider calling in a SWAT team, just for her.”

Tony sat up straighter once again. He waved the screwdriver in the air. “Tsk. You know how dangerous stalkers can be.”

“Since when did you start to care so much about your neighbors? All you cared about in the past was their car engines when they needed them fixed.”

“I. . .” Tony trailed off. He paused. He wasn’t quite sure how  to phrase out loud the things that had been on his mind lately. “She’s like me ten years ago. She’s got her own Unknown too. She doesn’t know when the Unknown is going to come for her. And we both know how maddening that can be, right? And I . . .” He exhaled. “I can’t just turn my back on that. I’ve got you, Happy and Obie. You all had helped me to be where I am today. I would have gone crazy if it wasn’t for you guys. And she . . . She’s so stubborn to go through all of that alone because she doesn’t want to burden the people close to her. Someone has to volunteer and step up and help her, just like what you did for me back then.”

There was only silence on Rhodey’s end.

Tony blinked. “Hey, Rhodey, you still there?”

“Yeah, I am . . .”

Tony snorted in laughter. “What? Were you moved by my speech?”

“I’m so close to tears man.”

Tony snorted back a laugh.

“Thanks.”.

“And you know, just proud. . . “

“You should be. You’ve got a genius best friend after all.”

“And my best friend has come a long way.”

Tony smiled.

“I expect to meet Pepper when I come by there.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

“Is she pretty?”

“She’s okay.”

“She’s really pretty then.”

Friday voice suddenly echoed. “Another incoming call from Thomas Patel.”

“Hey, hate to interrupt our lovely conversation, but I’ve got another call coming,” Tony said.

“You’re always so eager to escape a conversation when you’re embarrassed.”

“I’m not.”

“Don’t try to fool someone who has known you since you were fifteen. See you next week.” He hung up before Tony could protest.

Tony glared ahead. Sometimes, he wondered if it was really okay to have a friend who knew how to get to him. He ignored the warming of his cheeks as he answered Thomas’ call. He rubbed his neck.

“Why did you not tell me that Ms. Potts is also working at Stark Industries?”

“Why do people keep on yelling at me on the phone? Nobody has any phone manners today,” Tony griped. “Hello to you too.”

“Sorry. It’s just that, I’ve looked her up.” Thomas elaborated. “Miss Potts is working in the Accounting Department.”

“And?”

“Did you forget to tell me that?”

“Sort of.” Tony shrugged.

“Yep you forgot to tell me this tiny but very important detail. What if we meet in the hallways? What am I gonna tell her? You’re the one who’s so adamant about keeping everything a secret!”

“Then do your best to hide from her, I guess.”

“Wow, I really love my boss. . .”

“I’m detecting sarcasm. And aren’t you supposed to be in a meeting?”

“Should I just submit a resignation letter?”

“You’re not going to really do that.”

“You’re right. I can’t do it because I need this job to survive in this harsh world full of capitalism. How am I supposed to hide from her? We’re working on the same building!”

“Look, you two never crossed paths until now, so what are the chances that you’re going to see each other in the hallways like you said.”

“What if we do?”

“You figured out Poincaré Conjecture when you were ten. I’m sure you’ll figure something out. I’m hanging up. I’m gonna grab some lunch. Bye.” Tony hung up.

“I’m done installing the cams and they’re working just fine.” Tony gazed down at the tablet in his hand. Footage from every angle of the house were displayed on the screen.

He was back at Pepper’s house. Like he had promised, he went back to her house when her friends had left. He was standing in the living room. Meanwhile, Pepper was sitting down at the couch. The box containing the tech was opened next to her. Plastic and bubble wrap littered the floor. She tried to be helpful earlier, but after plugging in all the wrong cables one after another, Tony just made her sit down. Though, Pepper being the stubborn woman she was, refused to do nothing at all. She resorted to passing some screws and pliers to him and occasionally rebooting the system when needed to. Tony had learned that she was adept when it came to software.

“I am going to teach you how to work with the OS later.” Tony looked up at her.

Pepper was staring into space. She looked like she hadn’t heard any of what he had just said. Her forehead creased in a small frown.

He had the sudden urge to wrap his arms around her, and comfort her. He wished he could take his thumb and smooth the wrinkles out of her forehead. Instead, he awkwardly perched himself next to her on the couch.

Pepper blinked. She turned her head to look at Tony.

He picked up a white rectangular box on the coffee table, then peeled off the seal. He was aware that she was watching him, curious what might be inside of the box. He hadn’t told her yet what was inside the box, only that they would open it last.

Tony removed the lid. Inside was a digital wristwatch. A thick, black rubber strap was attached to both ends of a silver, square screen.

He plucked out the watch. “Give me your hand.”

“Huh?”

He glanced at her as he held out his hand. “Your hand, I need it.”

Reluctantly and slowly, she extended her right hand to him. Tony held her hand as he fastened the wristwatch around her wrist. He noticed how petite and pale her hand was and how soft her skin was under his rough fingers.

“This wristwatch needs to detect body heat signatures to turn on the system. It doesn’t have an on switch on it, that’s why.” Tony explained. He locked the wristwatch. “But don’t worry, you’ll only have to do that once.  When the OS starts to work, you’ll only have your fingerprint to turn it back on. It will shift to sleep mode when not in use.” Moments later, the screen lit up. Several menus popped up.

“Oh! It already turned on.” He grinned at her and then looked back at the screen. He reached for her other hand as he settled down her right wrist on his lap. “Let me borrow your left thumb please.” He pressed her left thumb on the screen. The screen scanned her fingerprint. “It’s for identification. By default you’re the only one who can access this watch but you can always change it if you want. There, it’s done. I’ll tell you about the other features later. For now, you just need to know that it’s not just a watch.”

“How come . . .?”

His thumb caressed the back of her hand. Tony looked at her. “It’s also a panic button.”

“Panic button?” Pepper tilted her head.

He nodded. “If you’re in trouble or if you’re in danger or something, just press the screen really hard with your left thumb and I’ll get an alert and I’ll be there.”

“You?”

He nodded again.

“Why you?”

“Don’t you want me to be?”

“I mean it’s not that I don’t want to but with my anxiety I might press the panic button every minute-”

“Then I’ll be there.”

Pepper laughed.

“You can’t just be there every time I’m a little nervous, you have your own life I just can’t-”

“I told you, I’m the most reliable guy you could ever ask for. So I’ll be there.”

Pepper stared at him. Tony couldn’t gauge if it was because she doubted him. He was usually confident at reading body language and subtle gestures, but with Pepper he was always double guessing. Sure, sometimes, he could figure it out immediately. But there were times that Pepper was so composed and guarded, like right now. Most women wouldn’t hesitate to lay out their feelings for him. Why couldn’t Pepper be like that?

“Uhm, Tony . . .”

“Yeah?”

“My hands.”

Tony looked down. His face burned. He pulled his hands away immediately.

“Sorry,” Tony looked away.

“It’s okay. So uh, how are you going to know where I am if I pressed the panic button?”

“There’s a tracker-”

“Tracker?” She cut in. Her brows knitted together.

“Yeah.” It was his turn to frown. “Why? Do you feel uncomfortable-?”

“Killian put a tracker on me before.”

“Shit. I didn’t know you’ve got a peeve on it-if you don’t like it we can-“

“It’s alright.” She looked down at the wristwatch. She smiled at him. “Maybe it’s a good thing anyway. Like a reminder that trackers aren’t that bad.”

He’d known since the beginning that Pepper’s smiles were pretty. But now, Tony had realized that her smiles weren’t just pretty. Her smiles that came from her deepest fear and were drawn out by her unyielding courage made them extraordinary. Tony liked that even more.

Initially, Virginia thought that her heart was pounding out of fear.

And then, she realized that her heart felt like it was about to burst from her chest for another reason.

Was it because of the way he looked at her when he had said that he was the most reliable guy she could ask for? Or was it the way he smiled at her? At that moment, she felt like she had momentarily forgotten the existence of fear. The time around them had warped-- every second felt like a long time where she was free from the crushing anxiety that had been weighing her down. She was left free to breathe and all she could hear was the giddy pounding of her heart.  Was it the excited look on his face when he explained the technicalities of the technologies she couldn’t understand? Was it the gleam in his eyes or the concentrated look on his face as his hands twisted and plugged the wires? Was it the hours that they spent together that told her that it was alright to trust this man, because unlike her who was light as a leaf that quakes under the influence of the slightest breeze, he was as steady as a boulder in a hurricane, as he confidently solved every problem he was faced with.

Or maybe, it was the way he held his hands oh so gently as if her hands were paper-thin porcelain. His hands that felt so warm in contrast to her hands that felt like ice because of the anxiousness that plagued her every moment.

In all those moments with him, her heart beat like it was scared, but she was sure didn’t feel scared. Contrary, it was those moments that she felt safest.

That night as she lay in her bed with her eyes closed, she could feel the coldness of the metal of the wristwatch against her skin. It was somewhat soothing. She thought about her day. She thought about how she was lying calmly in her bed instead of tossing and turning around, despite knowing that Killian knew where she lived. Perhaps, Tony was right. It was easier to go through the rough things with someone at your side, someone whom she could share her fears with and not worry that she was sharing her burdens with him as well.

She opened her eyes. She raised her arm and stared at the wristwatch.

In the end, her heart that was like a drum inside her ribcage was softly telling her that it was okay to believe in him, that he was going to be there when she called his name.

She was thankful though, through the years, she had mastered how to collect herself and hide her jittery heart. That no one but her who could see how fragile her heart was and listen to the agitated beating of her heart. And then, she had a fleeting thought. What if she let Tony listen and hear what her heart sounded like? Could he tame it and hold it like how he had gently held her hands before?

She drifted off to sleep with his name as her last thought and her first thought when she had woken up.

And funny, how she had woken up late in the morning on a weekend when she was always an early riser. Strangely, she’d had a goodnight’s sleep, which had become so rare.

She yawned as she climbed down the stairs tightly wrapping her silk robe around her. She was at the end of the stairs when her doorbell rang.

She froze.

Her first thought was Killian.

She swallowed. Her mind was suddenly on high alert. She wrapped her hand on her wristwatch. That was right. If it was Killian, she could easily call Tony. Might as well put the wristwatch into use and see if it truly worked. But then, knowing Tony it would definitely work.

She cautiously went to the door, gripping her wristwatch.

She opened it.

She blinked.

“Oh my . . .” Tony was standing at her door in his usual plaids. He looked at her from head to foot. “Don’t tell me you just woke?”

She nodded.

“It’s past 10 in the morning. You’re usually an early riser.”

“I thought so too.”

“I thought you were holing yourself up in here.” Then he smiled. “I’m glad you’re still getting sleep.”

There. That smile again. It wasn’t like he hadn’t smiled at her before. But what was different with his smile now that it was making her heart skip a beat? It was the kind of smile where the side of his eyes crinkled and showed all his perfect white teeth. It reminded her of the first time she saw him at Mayday and like that very first time, she couldn’t help but be drawn to that smile.

“So,” Tony spoke jolting her up from her thoughts. He rubbed his hands together. “I heard from my twins that you bake.”

“Yeah, and?”

“I was thinking of inviting you to join us. We are planning to bake some pastries for my twins’ bake sale at school. And they straight up told me that you’re a better baker than I will ever be.”

Virginia laughed then she tried to rein her laughter by pressing her lips together. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be laughing.”

“No, it’s fine. I like that my kids were being honest with me actually.”

That made her laugh even more.

“So are you up for it or . . .?”

“Sure. Give me an hour and I’ll go to your house. I promised them that we would  bake some time anyways.”

“Cool. Then we’ll prepare the ingredients. See you later.”

Tony went back to his house. Virginia smiled as she closed the door. It had been so long since she last baked and baking was something she liked doing the most. Lately, it felt like there was no place for her where she could do the things she loved without feeling suffocated and overwhelmed. She only had this house as her own safe haven, but now it felt threatening all of a sudden because of the thought that Killian could show up in any corner at the least expected moment.

She didn’t know that something fun could still be inserted in the midst of the chaos she was in. Tony, in his own way, had managed to provide a small refuge where she could breathe again, even if only temporarily.

[karenninaaa]

Iron Dad Bingo #1

AN: wheew! glad to finally cross out something after staring on that bingo card for days! i love this au so much so i took the liberty to play with this idea. also i love tony stark interacting with kids! there would probably be a lot of plot holes and inconsistencies but whatever.

Unbeta-ed Chapter.

enjoy!

Summary: In which, instead of Mr. Harrington, Mr. Stark was the head of the Decathlon team at Midtown Tech. 

(alternate events of Spider-Man Homecoming and Tony never recruited Spider-Man for Civil war. Though CW still happened (lets just fit everything within the timeline :D)) 

For Irondad Bingo:  Au: Teacher and Student

--

Chalk and Rebel

Peter could feel Mr. Stark’s piercing gaze at him. The science teacher and the head of the school’s Academic Decathlon Team remained quiet when Peter had broken out the news to his teacher that he couldn’t go to Washington for the Decathlon competition. He was sitting adjacent to Peter and arms crossed on his chest.

“Can’t you take one weekend off?” Finally, Mr. Stark asked sitting up straight. This time, he settled his one elbow on the desk. “It’s nationals. We’ve been preparing for this for weeks.”

“I-I’m sorry. I really can’t, Oscorp internship is really strict and-”

“If you were interning for Stark Industries, things like this wouldn’t be a problem.” Mr. Stark said shaking his head.

“W-wait, what’s happening?” Cindy, one of their decathlon teammates, asked. She was sitting behind the desk on the stage.

“Parker is not going to Washington because apparently, the internship was more important to him,” Flash said who was sitting at the far behind with his feet propped on a chair. He was holding their reviewer booklet.

“Flash,” Mr. Stark called in warning not bothering to look at him.

“You can’t really go, Pete?” Abraham asked who was sitting next to Cindy.

“Really? Right before the Nationals?” Liz was standing behind a podium. Dismay was evident in her voice.

“He already quit the marching band and robotics club.” Michelle piped in from the corner of the stage. All heads turned in her direction.

“I’m not obsessed with him, just very observant.” Michelle defended.

“Flash, you’re in for Peter.” Liz glanced back at Flash.

“Oh, I don’t know, I have to check my calendar first. I’ve got a hot date with Black Widow coming up.” Flash answered looking down at his booklet.

Abraham rang his doorbell. “That is false, right Mr. Stark?”

“I’m not quite sure about that, I haven’t seen Widow in a while and why did I tell you about abusing of the bell?” Mr. Stark said then turned to Peter. He relented. “Fine, you may not go but it would be such a shame that you wouldn’t be with us. This kind of competition just happened once in a while you know.”

Peter’s eyes wandered on the stage where his best friend sat. Ned Leeds was looking back at him. Ned was the only one who knew the real reason why Peter couldn’t go to the competition.

Three days ago, Spider-Man discovered a group of robbers stealing in a bank one night. They were using weirdly looking and enhanced weapons. Unfortunately, they got away after Spider-Man chose to save Mr. Delmar’s bodega that had been hit by the said tech. However, they might have gotten away but a piece of tech fell out from that weapon. Ned was holding that tech for safekeeping since his best friend was the only person who knew his gig as Spider-Man. And now, Peter was going to use the weekend to track down those robbers. The whole Oscorp internship was obviously a lie because he quit the internship months ago when he had gotten so busy being Spider-Man.

Peter felt bad for lying to Mr. Stark. After all, Mr. Stark was the coolest teacher he ever had. He remembered freezing in his seat when Mr. Stark casually strolled into the classroom and introduced himself as their new science teacher. He remembered feeling giddy, because the person he had been idolizing his entire life, was standing in front of him and whom he could now see every day.

--

“Can’t you just ask Mr. Stark about the glowy thing? Maybe he can help you out or something?” Ned whispered to Peter as they walked through the hallway full of students milling around.

“I just couldn’t bother him with that,” Peter glanced at Ned. “He’s probably so busy being a teacher, Iron Man, and an Avenger.”

“It’s just that, he’s always feet away from you most of the time. He’s got a lot of resources. You could probably ask him for tips about this whole superhero-ing.”

“But, I got you,” Peter smiled at him. “My guy in the chair?”

“Oh stop that,” Ned waved his hand at him in dismissal, though he was visibly pleased with the title.

“See you later okay? Same time?” Peter said.

“Fine and bring some chips on your way to my house later,” Ned replied.

“You got it.”

--

In all honesty, Peter had a lot of questions.Often times, he would find himself faltering on his way out of the classroom as everybody had dispersed out and he was the only one remaining standing next to the desk. There was one time when Tony Stark was erasing the writings on the whiteboard and Peter was dumbly standing there. He should be leaving but the things that he wanted to ask Mr. Stark left him rooted to his spot, things that he didn’t know how to voice out loud. Tony turned around and paused when he saw Peter was still there.

“Mr. Parker.” Tony put down the eraser on the table. “Is there something wrong? Or do you have questions about our earlier lesson?”

How do you deal with bad guys and still looked cooler?

Where are you getting that huge amount of courage when facing life-threatening situations? Cause I still get scared most of the time.

How do you deal with failure when things had gone wrong in a mission? Have you ever failed? Cause you looked like someone who did things in perfection.

How to be a great superhero like you?

“N-nothing, Mr. Stark, t-the lesson was great, I learned a lot today.”

“Well, that was the goal.” Tony sat on the edge of the table crossing his arms. “And because of that, I expect you to be ready for our quiz tomorrow, yeah?”

“Yes, Mr. Stark.”

Tony nodded. Peter was about to walk away when he paused once again. Instead of asking the questions that had been swimming in his head, he asked a different one.

“Mr. Stark?”

“Hmm?”

“Why did you suddenly become a teacher?”

“I need a change of pace.” That was all his teacher had said. He glanced at the window. Rays of sunlight were seeping through the window making Tony’s brown eyes appeared to be lighter. For one second, Peter could see his teacher’s tired and worn out eyes. There seemed to be more wrinkles on the side of his eyes. He looked sad and resigned. Another question popped in Peter’s head, a question that would probably stay unanswered.

--

“I told you they’re gonna come back!” Spider-Man was swinging through the buildings chasing a gray truck zigzagging on the street.

“Yep, but the cops are moving too slow. Your bad guys are quick and smart. Are you closing in on them?” He heard Ned answered through the Bluetooth earpiece under his mask. His phone was on the pocket of his red hoodie, his improvised costume. Well, not everyone was as reach as Tony Stark to make cool superhero outfit. Meanwhile, Ned had a walkie-talkie that was intercepting the signals of other walkie-talkies used by the cops. That was how they were able to get some news from NYPD.

“I am!” Another web shot out from his webshooter. It hit the wall of a building nearby. Spider-Man made a great swing like a pendulum and landed on the rooftop. He ran and used his web to leap off another building. “And I would never let them get away. They were our only shot on knowing the source of their weapons.”

Spider-Man had been chasing the same robbers who were using enhanced weapons. They successfully robbed another bank. They immediately fled before Spider-Man could even reach the scene. When he was sure that no one got harmed on the scene, he switched to plan B and the chase was on.

As Ned had predicted, the robbers lost the cops. Spider-Man continued to tail them until they reached an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the borough. The truck went into the warehouse as he quietly sneaked in by crawling on the wall. The robbers, seven in total, climbed down the car whooping in joy because of their successful heist.

Spider-Man crawled in closer to them but not close enough that he would be noticed.

“This is awesome!” Robber no.1 guffawed. “I can’t believe those idiot cops fell for our bait.”

“But of course,” Robber no. 2 piped in. “This wouldn’t be possible without our babies.” He patted affectionately the weapon he was holding. It looked like a shotgun but bulkier and instead of bullets, it was shooting off a laser beam that could cut through almost anything. Spider-Man had witnessed how it worked earlier.

Another roar of laughter echoed among them.

“Hey, have you heard that boss is going to Maryland for another heist?” Robber no.3 said to Robber no.4.

“Is that at Crain Highway? I’ve heard some of them talking about it.” Robber no. 4 said. “It would be fun if we could join that heist. It is going to be one of our biggest heists so far!”

“Maryland huh?” Spider-Man mused as he crouched on the steel frame of the ceiling looking down at the robbers.

“That was too far,” Ned said.

“But not too far from Washington,” Peter supplied.

“I think I know what you’re thinking,” Ned replied.

“Yep, we can’t let these bad guys pulled off another heist,” Peter said. “But first off, let’s web these people up.”

And so Spider-Man leaped in action.

Soon, patrol cars surrounded the warehouse. The cops had found the robbers webbed up in different areas of the warehouse. Another cop had found a letter from Spider-Man webbed on the wall, letting them know that they were the robbers from the earlier heist.

--

Peter jogged towards the bus that was parked on the school grounds. Their bus wasn’t your ordinary yellow school bus. It was a private air-conditioned bus owned by Tony Stark. Once Tony had a full look of the bus they’re going to use for their future out of town decathlon competitions, it only took three seconds for him to decide to replace the school’s old and cranky bus with a luxury one, with built-in speakers and fully automated system run by Tony’s very own AI, Friday. His decathlon teammates were lounging next to the bus with their luggage.

Tony Stark climbed down the bus clapping his hands and calling the attention of the students. “Alright guys, it’s time-”

“Hey, it’s Peter!” Abraham cut in and pointed at Peter. Everyone looked in his direction

Tony Stark turned and saw Peter approaching them. He smiled at the teen.

“I-I was hoping I could rejoin to the team. . .” Peter said.

Flash walked up to him. “No way! You can’t just quit on us and strolled up and be welcome back.”

“Actually, he can,” Tony butted in. He patted Peter’s shoulder. “Welcome back, Pete and Flash you’re back on being the first alternate. Come on guys, let’s all get into the bus.”

When they reached their destination, the group walked through the lobby of the hotel where they would stay for the night.

“Wow, this place is huge!” Charles marveled looking around.

“Kids, stick together,” Tony instructed as he talked to the facilitators of the event sitting behind the desk.

Soon, Tony gave them their keys to their designated room. Ned and Peter were roommates and retreated to their room. Later that night, Peter suited up. He wore another hood and jeans to hide his suit.

“Just ring me up if something happens,” Ned said who was sitting on the bed. “Be careful.”

Peter nodded. “Yeah, I’ll do my best to be back before the competition starts.” Then he headed out of the room. “Keep the glowy thing safe. That would be our evidence.”

Ned nodded picking up the purple glowing stone on the table.

Peter closed the door behind. He sneaked through the quiet and dimly lit hallway. He made another turn around the corner. “Shit!” He cursed under his breath. He backtracked immediately and hid behind the wall.

Peter slowly poked his head from his hiding spot. Tony Stark was walking towards his direction. Thankfully, Tony hadn’t seen Peter yet since he was looking down on the phone on his hand. Peter leaned back on the wall and took a deep breath. He looked at the railing on his left. He took a few steps back. Then he ran straight to the railing and jumped off. Web shot out and stuck on the railing. Gravity took over. Peter twisted around and swung towards the floor below. He safely landed on the ground.

Meanwhile, Tony Stark paused and looked up. He blinked on the empty hallway.

--

Peter hitched a ride on a car carrier truck towards his destination. At first, he thought that he had gotten lost along the way. He reached his destination and jumped off the truck a while back and was walking along the darkened road. He stopped at a gas station and crawled towards the roof of an abandoned bodega.

Peter looked around and muttered. “Is this really the place or the Google maps is wrong?”

It was then that three trucks came lined up together. Suddenly out of the sky, something with huge wings came down. Thanks to Peter’s enhanced senses, despite the darkness of the area, he easily figured out that it was a human with mechanical wings harnessed to him.

“Oh, that’s the boss!” Peter straightened up, more alert.

Big Bird anchored himself to the truck that was on the rear. He dropped down and disappeared inside the truck leaving his wings strapped to the roof of it. Peter swung towards the truck to investigate.

He also dropped on the roof and looked closely. The roof had gotten a rectangular hole thanks to the small stones placed on 4 corners.

“Woah cool, this looked like some kind of a matter phase shifter!” Peter said in quiet awe.

When the masked man emerged from the hole, he dropped the bag on the roof to retrieve the stones. That was Peter’s opportunity to web up the bag pulling it towards him.

“Hey, Big bird this doesn’t belong to you!” Spider-Man quipped.

Big bird turned to him with green glowing eyes. He growled at Spider-Man.

“Oh, god,” Spider-Man said, a bit startled by his eyes.

Big bird attached himself to his wings, retracting his strap anchors. He flew towards Spider-Man. Spider-Man ducked down and stepped back. He shot Big Bird with his web but the latter dodged it. He charged at Spider-Man again, taking the bag from him with his feet claws. There was a tug-of-war between them as no one wanted to let go of the bag. Then, Big Bird kicked the bag and letting it go. Spider-Man toppled backward and into the hole. He fell with a thud inside the truck. He immediately stood up and was about to jump off the hole again but ended up banging his head unto the concrete metal roof.

Spider-Man blacked out.

--

Ned Leeds was already dressed and pacing back and forth in his room. It was already morning and Peter was not yet back. He tried calling him but Peter wasn’t answering the phone. He was worried about Peter’s status and also about what alibi he was going to tell the team, especially to Mr. Stark about why Peter was missing.

“Ned? Peter?” Liz knocked on their door. “Come on guys, we’re gonna be late!”

“Y-yeah! Coming,” Ned stuttered. He quickly grabbed his bag and the glowy thing on the bed and headed out.

--

Peter woke up with a dull pain on his head. He guessed that he had a mild concussion from hitting his head earlier.

“Ugh, my head?” He groaned and observed his surroundings. He was surrounded by metal cages containing junk techs. “Wait, where am I?” The gears on his brain started to turn. “Wait, they must have hijacked the truck and had taken it to their evil lair.”

“I must find a way out of this one.” He briefly stared on the wall ahead. He squared his shoulder and ran straight to the wall. With his superhuman strength, the wall broke. Spider-Man rolled on the ground. He stood up in a fighting stance.

Spider-Man blinked. The place didn’t look like an evil lair. It looked like a huge storage warehouse with rows and stacks of huge container boxes in it.

“W-where am I?” He turned around to get some clue as to where he was. He paused. On the wall, there was a huge DODC-VO5 written.

“DODC?” He muttered. Then it dawned on him. “Oh come on, you’ve got to be kidding me. Am I in a Department of Damage Control facility now?”

--

Tony Stark gathered his student in the backstage. Any second from now, his students would be called to be on stage and the competition would start.

“So, guys,” Tony said to them. “No pressure, alright? Just enjoy the competition.”

“Hey, Mr. Stark,” Abraham said. “If we win this one, pizza is on you, yeah?”

“Sure,” Tony said without missing a beat. “We’re gonna have a celebration party if you win.”

That seemed to boost up the team’s morale as they cheered upon hearing the news. He looked at everyone and noticed something.

“Ned,” He called a certain teen. The teen was hiding behind Charles and was quiet the whole time.

“Y-yeah, Mr. Stark?” Ned answered peeking from Charles’ back.

“Where is Peter Parker? You two are roommates.” Tony asked.

All the team’s attention was now on Ned who was fidgeting with his yellow coat.

“I-I don’t know, Mr. Stark. . .” Ned answered.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Tony frowned.

“He sneaked out last night, said that he was going to study in the business center and he didn’t come back.”

“And you’re just telling me this now?!”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Stark. . .”

“The next team that will participate in this year’s Decathlon competition is from Midtown School of Science and Technology!” They could hear the emcee speaking from the stage.

The team was quiet and seemingly didn’t know what to do about their teammate’s sudden absence.

“Flash, you’re up on Peter’s place.” Tony finally decided.

Flash punched the air in delight.

“Come on guys, Go on stage.” Tony forced an encouraging smile on them. “Go kick some butts!”

He continued to smile at them as the team disappeared on the stage. That was when Tony’s smile slipped off. Peter Parker was many things. He was hella smart for his age that sometimes, Tony couldn’t help but to remember his youth when he was Peter’s age. He was aware that the kid had potentials, potentials that could take him anywhere he wanted. Yet, it was the same potentials that were giving Tony Stark an incoming headache.

--

Peter’s first thought when he reached the 246th sequence trial on overriding the time lock of the storage vault was, he wouldn’t make it to the Decathlon competition. He still didn’t know how he would explain it to Mr. Stark and not get into any trouble. He tried calling Ned earlier but a secured facility like this; he should have known that the signals would be jammed. Though, getting in trouble with his teacher was for later problems to brood over, when there was an even bigger problem before him. He just couldn’t wait for the vault to open up later or for who knows how long, so he took it in his own hands to find a solution.

Somehow, he managed to find a way to navigate through the wirings of the time lock. He used his scientific calculator and wired it to the circuit to control the system. He needed some sort of password to open up the vault so far, he was on 246th combination of the code and probably counting.

“Right, here’s 247th trial. . .” He punched in the codes on the calculator.

To his surprise, the door slid up and opened.

“Oh my god! It worked!”

--

The Midtown tech team cheered as they exited the auditorium hall. They won the national, thanks to their group effort, especially to Michelle Jones who gave the answer on the Sudden Death Round. The group was taking pictures when Ned checked the phone that was given back to him after the competition. There were 5 missed calls from Peter. Then his phone rang. Peter was calling.

“Peter!” Ned hissed walking away from the group. Unknown to him, Tony Stark was looking at him.

“Where were you?” Ned continued when he reached an empty and short hallway. “You completely missed the decathlon, we won! We’re still here at the building.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry, I got locked up at the Damage Control facility-”

“What?”

“Yeah, long story, I’m just gonna tell you afterward. I’m on my way back there. How’s the glowy thing?

“It’s safe, it’s in my pocket-”

“Hey,” A voice came from behind Ned.

Ned turned around putting down his phone. There were two unknown guys standing before him. They were tall and bulkier and had a menacing look on their faces. And when Ned looked down, he could see a gun peeking out underneath the jacket of one of them. Though, Ned was sure that both were armed. How did they get in despite the security, he didn’t know.

“Ned?” Peter was still on the line. Ned dropped the phone on the ground.

“Where’s the gem?” The guy with long hair and cap asked stepping forward.

“W-what gem?” Ned stepped back.

Long hair dude raised a small rectangular machine. There was a red and blue light on it and it was beeping. “This thing is reading high energy signatures from you. You have the gem.”

It must be the glowy thing, they were after. Ned thought. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Ned continued to step back.

“Alright, you die or you’re gonna give us the gem.” The other man, the bald man, fished out his gun and pointed it at Ned.

Ned was frozen in his spot in fear.

“Hey!”

Suddenly, there was a deafening shockwave that momentarily paralyzed the two men, even Ned. Then there was a blinding light. Ned got yanked away by someone, away from the men.

When Ned returned to his senses, he looked up and saw Tony Stark was dragging him away.

“M-Mr. Stark!”

“Who are they and why they were after you?”

Before Ned could answer, gunshots echoed. Tony and Ned ducked down. People around them started to scream in panic and ran away.

“Shit.” Tony pushed Ned into the corner, into the safety. “Stay there!”

Tony stood up and tapped his chest twice. Blue light glowed in his chest as the detachable arc reactor underneath his shirt activated. Nanites seeped through the fabric and spread around his body. His nanite mask covered his face, eyes glowing blue.

“Fuck, that was Iron Man!”

“Hell yes, that was me.” Tony flew towards them, his hand repulsor aimed at them. However, to his surprise, the bad guy whipped up his weapon and shot off a purple laser beam. Tony raised both his arms shooting off a similar laser beam. Two laser beams collided. When the energy of collision was too much, it exploded throwing both parties away. Though, Iron Man immediately regained his stance. There was thick smoke everywhere. The fire alarm was blaring. His students were still there and could be in danger. A lot of civilians could get hurt

So Iron Man flew straight to the smoke, using the smoke as a cover. He knocked down the weapon from the bad guy’s hand. Then he grabbed hold of the two of them and went straight to the nearby window. The glass shattered as Iron Man flew out of the window. He dropped the bad men unto the lawn and aimed his repulsor at them again. The two men remained laying on the ground as Iron Man hovered over them.

“So, why you guys are after a kid?”

Friday was doing a facial scan on them but none of them were on FBI’s wanted list, which confused Tony even more.

They remained quiet even though, fright was evident on their faces.

“Oh, so we’re playing bad cop and good cop here? I don’t have all day.” Iron Man fired his repulsor above their heads.

“W-we’re after the gem! The kid has it!” The bald man replied hastily, shaking in fear. “Please don’t kill us!”

“What gem? What is it for?” Iron Man asked.

Before Iron Man could get anything from them, there was an explosion from the building where they had come from. Iron Man glanced back at the building. There was smoke coming out of it and a huge chunk of wall was starting to collapse from the third floor. There were civilians down below right where the wall could drop and crash them.

“Fri, what the hell happened there?”

“An exposed Chitauri core has detonated,” Friday said. “A section of the wall was about to fall off.”

“I’m not done with you.” That was all Iron Man said as he flew away from them and towards the building.

--

As Spider-Man reached the building where his teammates were, all he could think was, his best friend was in danger, because of the glowy thing he entrusted him with. He webbed up his backpack somewhere as he ran towards the auditorium hall. They must somewhere near there. He used the Fire Exit staircase to reach his destination. He was on the second round of stairs when he heard a gunshot.

He froze. Then he started to imagine the worst. He swung his way up faster.

The Fire Exit door burst opened. People ran for the stairs against Spider-Man’s direction. Spider-Man fought his way against the tide. Then there was a sound of an explosion.

“Excuse me, coming through!” Spider-Man shouted dodging people left and right.

But then when he reached the floor, Smoke was everywhere and Iron-Man zipped past him holding two men towards the window and out of it.

“Holy shit, what the-!” Spider-Man was flabbergasted.

“Spider-Man!”

He turned to see Ned running to him.

“Ned! Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine!” Ned answered which was to Peter’s relief. Then Ned fished out the glowy thing from the pocket of his coat. The glowy thing was brighter. Ned continued hastily. “There were two guys who were after this. I don’t know, they were able to track this thing. Then Tony Stark came and saved me.”

“I know,” Peter said. “I’m sorry, you almost got in danger because of that and because of me. Give me that.”

“It’s alright.” Ned gave him the stone. “Wait, is just me or the glowy thing was hotter than usual?”

Peter accepted the stone and Ned was right. It felt like the stone was burning in his hand. His glove was started to blacken. Ned looked at Peter in panic. It mirrored Peter’s expression.

“Get back!” Spider-Man shouted. “All of you get back!”

“W-what are you going to do?” Ned asked stepping back. Some of the people listened to Spider-Man as well and some were even more confused as to what was really happening.

Spider-Man turned around. He threw the stone to the wall next to the shattered window and webbed it up. He coated it with a lot of webs until it looked like a white cocoon.

“This better works,” Spider-Man muttered.

Soon, the cocoon glowed purple. Spider-Man stared at it and so were the civilians and authorities who were on the scene. As if all of them were anticipating on what was going to happen next.

Then, there was a blinding purple light that they all had to cover their eyes. Afterward, there was another sound of an explosion. People screamed.

The light was gone. And when Spider-Man looked up there were cracks on the wall, quickly spreading out like a web. Moments later a huge chunk of the wall started to fall off outwards. Spider-Man webbed up the wall. With all his might, he pulled it in. He couldn’t let it fall back when there were civilians down below.

He pulled harder, his feet sliding on the floor. Suddenly, the chunk of wall moved inward easily without even Spider-Man’s effort.

“What?” Spider-Man let go of the web as the wall fell on the ground with a thud.

Iron-Man was floating right outside the hole. Everyone cheered.

--

Tony Stark had enough as he watched the news of the earlier incident in Washington on the holographic screen in his lab at Avengers Compound. Fortunately, no one had gotten hurt from the incident. Thanks to Iron Man and Spider-Man’s immediate rescue. The news believed that it was rogue shooters who just wanted to wreak havoc in the place. Their faces were now on the wanted list and the authorities were searching for them.

Then he gazed at another holographic screen where the feats of Spider-Man showed. He should have talked to that young vigilante sooner. He should have come to Peter Parker before he got himself killed in one of his adventures.

He knew for a while that Peter Parker was the one under the mask. After all, he was keeping tabs on people with potentials who could be trained as an Avenger.

Peter Parker was the reason why Tony Stark chose Midtown Tech to teach, so he could keep an eye on him and see for himself what the kid was like when he wasn’t playing hero.

Well, what he had discovered about him exceeded all his expectations.

Peter Parker was the kind of kid who refused to pick up a fight with his bullies. Instead, he avoided it when he could have easily won the fight because of his abilities. He was this bright spirited boy who could easily be awed by simple things. There were so much wonder and curiosity dancing in his eyes and who was so eager to know more about the world. He was this kind of kid who would not hesitate to step forward and help when no one would and could. There were just so many things ahead of him and Tony could see all of that.

That was probably why he hesitated to recruit him for Avengers.

There was a future waiting for him and Tony didn’t want to steal it from the kid. So he remained quiet and watched from the distance instead.

But he couldn’t watch now when he discovered, thanks to Ned’s phone he hacked down earlier when the kid was on stage competing, that the kid was actively chasing criminals that used junks from Chitauri’s as weapons. Peter had disappeared last night to do another chase. Tony was also aware of Peter’s lie about Oscorp’s internship, but he initially didn’t know why the kid couldn’t join. And for whatever reason, he came back and Tony learned the reason why later on.

Tony reached for his mug of black coffee on the table and sipped. He was about to put it down when a hand reached for his mug instead.

He looked up to see Pepper smiling down at him.

“Hey, hon.” Tony smiled back.

“You’re watching him again,” Pepper noted as she sat on the armrest of the chair Tony was sitting on. She sipped on the mug and blanched at the bitter taste of it. His fiancée was the type who put lots of cream on her coffee.

“I swear, that kid is gonna kill himself sooner or later.” Tony leaned back on the chair. Pepper leaned on him as she put her arm on the top of the backrest of the chair. She crossed her legs resting the mug on it.

“I told you, you should mentor him so he would know how not to kill himself with his little adventures,” Pepper said.

Tony looked up. “Do you think I’d be a good mentor?”

“You are a teacher now at his school, do you really need to ask me that?” She raised an eyebrow at him.

“That was different,” Tony argued.

“Oh, how different?”

“Being a teacher was easier because you’ll gonna spout things that came from a book but mentoring someone to be a hero? I don’t think I have the right qualifications for that. You knew I screwed up far more many times that I could actually count on this superhero business.”

“Oh, Tony,” Pepper put down the mug on the table and wrapped her arm around his shoulder. Tony leaned into her as he rested his head on her stomach.

“Yes, you screwed up a lot of times but you are also the type of hero that always fights for what was right and doing your damn best to protect this vulnerable place. And I think that was the most important thing of all. So get your ass up and just mentor the kid, the kid needs someone who could guide him, that job will suit you.”

Tony closed his eyes and smiled. “Yes, ma’am.”

With that Pepper stood up. “I’ll just be in my office.” Then she paused when she had noticed the papers and notes laid haphazardly on the table. “What are those?”

“That, my love, is my lesson plan for next week and test papers that I haven’t checked yet. But first off, I have to be somewhere.” He stood up.

Soon, Iron Man flew into the night sky.

Iron Man set his course to Peter’s apartment. He wasn’t even nearing his destination when Tony saw something he truly didn’t expect nor imagine happening.

Tony didn’t expect to see Peter Parker on the way, falling from the sky, a hundred feet to the ground and falling at a speed that could totally kill him on impact without something that would slow down his descent.

There was a screeching sound from the sky. Tony looked at the source of the sound. His night vision scan could see a man with mechanical wings. Tony had a lot of questions as usual, like how the kid had gotten himself in the air and been thrown down by a mechanical devil out of nowhere. But questions could wait; he had a spiderling to save first. After all, spiders couldn’t fly.

Tony dived down towards Peter’s direction increasing his thrusters. As he neared him, he could hear Peter screaming.

Iron Man zoomed in and grabbed Peter before he could hit the lagoon. The mechanic teacher made a loop in the sky before changing his flight course towards the Avengers Compound instead.

--

“So, uh, you knew the whole time that I was Spider-Man?” Peter asked in a small voice as he played with his mask. He was sitting on the couch of Tony’s lab.

Tony was looking down at him with arms crossed on his chest. “You know that wasn’t the issue right now, you could have gotten died! What-why are you even up in the air?!” He threw his hands in the air.

The kid, again, was a lot of things and one of them was giving Tony a consistent migraine, vertigo, aneurysm and all other kinds of headache. The mentoring wasn’t even starting and Tony’s hair was starting to turn gray quickly.

“The guy with wings threw me down. I was chasing bad guys then he swooped in and dropped me on a hundred feet.” Peter explained.

Tony took a deep breath. “That’s it! I am going to mentor you if you’re so sure about this career path and please remove that onesies, you’re going to have a new suit.”

And all Peter could say was, “W-what?”

Tony rolled his eyes and turned around. “Friday, unlock 16-A.”

At the far end of the lab, the wall shifted and slid open. A big glass transparent cylinder emerged. Inside the cylinder was a new Spider-Man suit. Tony walked to the cylinder. He glanced at Peter who remained frozen in his seat with wide eyes staring at the suit.

“Your new suit.” Tony knocked on the cylinder for emphasis.

Peter finally stood up as he walked in a daze towards the cylinder, still staring at it.

“T-that’s mine?” Peter asked stopping in front of the cylinder.

“I just said that,”

“Thank you, Mr. Stark!”

What surprised Tony, even more, was when Peter hugged him. He froze on the spot while the kid squeezed the oxygen out of him.

“This is so cool!” Peter exclaimed pulling away. “I have a new suit and Mr. Stark is going to mentor me! You’re not just going to be my science teacher. This is the best moment of my life! I have an awesome mentor and dope suit. Oh my god!”

And with that, Tony had a fleeting thought that maybe mentoring this kid wasn’t going to be that bad after all.

[karenninaaa]

Update Chapter 6 Across the Street

Tony Stark tiredly trudged down the gravel path near the docks. Night had fallen and he had just finished his repairs for the day. He swung his toolbox up and rested it on his shoulder. His eyes wandered towards Mayday, where the music could be heard even from a distance. The resto-bar was busy as usual. There were people lounging around the resto holding beer bottles. He could see through the window that all tables were occupied, with people laughing and enjoying their meals.

And then someone, in particular, had caught his attention, who was also sitting by the window, alone.

Tony decided to make a slight detour before going home.

He went inside. Summer of 69 by Bryan Adams was blasting out of the speakers. He dodged a couple coming his way. Two guys sitting by the bar counter greeted him when they saw him and invited him to join them. Tony waved his hand in refusal.

“Hey, Tony!”

Maya beamed at him, a mop in one hand.

“Nice of you to come.” She went to him. “Are you going to order the usual? I’m going to get-”

“No, no,” Tony immediately said. “I was just gonna go over there.” He pointed at a table not far away.

Maya followed the direction he was pointing at. She looked back at him and rolled his eyes. “Whatever.” Then she went back to mopping the floor.

Tony walked over to the table where Virginia Potts was sitting. Her head was bobbing to the music. From the way her lips moved, she was probably singing along with the song too, even though he couldn’t hear it clearly because her voice was drowned out by the loud music

“Dear Ol’ Bryan Adams would appreciate it more if you wouldn’t keep your golden voice to yourself.” Tony stopped at her table.

She looked up, startled. “Oh hi, Tony!”

“Are you alone? Or waiting for someone or something?” Tony trailed off, looking around, half-expecting Ryan Paxton to appear out of nowhere.

Virginia smiled.  “Something,”

“Huh?” He looked back at her.

“You asked if I was waiting for someone or something. I’m waiting for something. I’m waiting for my takeout to arrive.”

“Oh!” Tony said. He didn’t know if he should be relieved about that. It was, after all, embarrassing to come all the way over there to talk to her, just to find out that she was already with someone. He pointed at the empty seat across her. “Well, do you mind if I join you. . .”

“Sure, no problem.”

Tony took the seat, his toolbox beside him. He leaned forward on the table and rested his elbow on it. “So as I was saying, golden voice. By all means, please don’t stop on my account. Continue your intimate jamming session with Adams.”

Virginia laughed. “You didn’t hear that.”

“I didn’t.” Tony agreed. “But you could always resume so I could hear it.”

“Uh-huh,” She was nodding. “And why would you assume that I want you to hear it?”

Tony shook his head. “Never fear showing your talent, Pepper, never. Always, show ‘em what you’ve got.”

“Really?” She raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, like. . .” He cleared his throat. Then he belched out, high pitched. “Oh yeah, back in summer of sixty-nine, oh yeah!”

Virginia threw her head back as she burst into laughter.

Tony cleared his throat again, rubbing his throat. “Too high. I should have done exercise on my vocals first –but hey! That’s what I was talking about, giving all you’ve got.”

“Have you considered becoming a singer?”

“Well, I didn’t-”

“Good. Please don’t.”

“Yup. I’m just gonna stick with machines.” Tony said. “I don’t wanna offend a Bryan Adam’s fan.”

“Not exactly a fan,” She shrugged. “Not my type of music.”

“Ohh, what type of music are you into then? Dead Kennedys? The Misfits? Bon Jovi?”

“Well, you’re not wrong.”

“Woah!” Tony was genuinely surprised. “I never pegged you for a metal rock fan. You look more like a Schubert, Pavarotti, Flemming type of person.”

She wagged her index finger at his face and playfully narrowed her eyes at him. “Looks can be deceiving…  You need to take time to get to know a person.”

He was about to respond when Maya came and put down the paper bag, a little too hard, on the table. Tony frowned at that.

“Here’s your order, Miss Potts. Enjoy your meal.” Maya smiled at her, then left. Her smile didn’t even reach her eyes.

“God, did she put poison in my food?” Virginia muttered. Tony frowned even more upon hearing her. But Virginia just smiled up at him.  “Well, here’s my order now. Are you going home too? I’ve got my car.”

“I won’t say no to a free ride.” Tony grinned.

“I need to hear your playlist.” That was the first thing Tony said when they both slid into the car.

Virginia laughed as she buckled up. She turned on her speaker in the car. The first song on her shuffle list was “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses. Tony laughed in delight. His head bobbed up and down with the music. Meanwhile, Virginia backed out of the parking lot and maneuvered into the main road.

“Come on, Pep, sing with me,” Tony said as he sang along with the music. He rolled down the window. His voice was carried by the wind.

“Nah, it’s your spotlight. I don’t wanna steal it.” Virginia smiled.

Tony was belting out the chorus as his fingers strummed over an invisible guitar when they stopped in front of Virginia’s house. He glanced back at Virginia, who was just staring and smiling amusedly at him.  He stopped singing and smiled back.

“You are full of surprises, Pepper.” He picked up the handle of the toolbox sitting on his lap. “I didn’t expect my night to involve belting out rock music, but it was fun.”

“To be fair, I didn’t expect my night either to have someone giving all he’s got with his talent.” She air quoted the word talent.

Tony laughed. “Well, I should get going then. Thanks for the ride.”

“And thank you for a highly entertaining night.”

Tony tilted his head in an attempt to bow. “I always aim to please.” He opened the car door and climbed down. Pepper followed suit.

“Good night, Potts!”  Tony waved at her and started to walk towards his house.

“Tony!”

He looked back.

Virginia was standing with her elbow on the roof of her car. The car door was still open. “I was just kidding. You, singing, wasn’t that bad.”

Tony snorted a laugh. “Are you sure you don’t wanna show me your talent, we could do duets at Mayday. They host live shows every Friday night.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Your loss!” Tony turned around once more and crossed the street, his toolbox on his shoulder.

Tony looked up at the sky. It was cloudless and the stars were twinkling. Maybe it was cheesy, but Virginia reminded him of the stars. She was bright and shining, different in a way Tony hadn’t experienced for a long time.

Continue reading on Ao3

[karenninaaa]

Chapter 5 - The Clash of the Dead and the Living

Read it on ffn

V - WILL

Having a death angel as your visitor in your apartment was nice. Will had decided.

Even though Nico ate like a glutton, it was still nice.

So death angels did eat normal food.

They also sleep.

Will remembered how Nico glared at him when he voiced out his amusement about the death angel's sleeping and eating.

'Solace, I hope you are not mistaking us for vampires. We are immortals at some point but our bodies also need nutrients and sleep.'

Will couldn't help but grin at his thoughts. He felt a combination of surprise and amusement when the wind blew a different way and Nico had suddenly decided to crash at his apartment like he was an old friend. He always had this fleeting thought that Nico was always out of reach, well for the obvious reason that the death angel hated the Hades out of him. Will barely knew the guy and then suddenly yesterday, he learned and realized that regardless of Nico's status as a death angel, he could be so… human.

Now, Will was curious, there seemed to be a lot of things needed to be discovered about Nico. It wasn't like Will hadn't been paying attention to the guy before. In fact, out of all death angels that Will encountered before, Nico was the only one who was interacting with him most of the time. So it felt like Nico was not a total stranger to him. Still, he only knew a little almost to none about the death angel. And Will had this urge to know more about the guy.

"And why are we smiling like an idiot, Dr. Solace." Kayla put down her can of soda on the table where Will was currently lounging. She sat across Will. They were both in the cafeteria of the hospital in the middle of the night.

"There are a lot of things we need to smile about, Dr. Knowles. It was summer, we heal people, and it was a nice night." Will waved his hand dramatically. No one knew the existence of Nico di Angelo, except for him. As if he could go telling people 'hey, a death angel visited me, how nice' or 'a bunch of death angels wanted to shred me to ribbons. Scary' Heck, no one even knew that he can see death angels and he had this glowing trick.

"You cannot fool me, William, you have the same idiotic smile when your ex-boyfriend Dr. Lee Fletcher asked you out, or when you are crushing with our neurologist, Dr. Tim Alistair. I know your anatomy from inside out." Kayla stated and started to sip on her soda.

Will stared at her and then blinked. It wasn't like he wasn't open about his homosexuality; in fact, the whole JHH already knew his sexual reference since he dated one of his male colleagues. He was proud of who he was. Though, there's this one tiny detail from Kayla's statement that made Will looked like he had swallowed a billiard ball and then his stomach suddenly felt heavy.

"I.. Do I really look like I have a crush on someone?" Will said, his mouth forming an o.

Kayla nodded giving him a side glance. She continued to sip on her soda. "Yeah, so who's the lucky guy? Does he work here?"

Will was suddenly gawking "B-but that's impossible!" Him? HAVING A CRUSH ON NICO DI ANGELO?! Will mentally listed the impossibilities of being attracted to Nico. First of all, they were ENEMIES, whose lives were complete opposite that led to the second reason that Nico was a death angel who was like existing on a different side of a universe. Third, he was always grumpy and angry that led again to the fourth reason that Nico HATED the hell out of him and that would go back to the first reason. See, their beginnings and endings always ended up with ENEMY AND HATRED. There was just no way that…

But then, there was this tiny part of his brain cells that told him the reason why he felt so drawn to the death angel and the reason why Will wanted to know more about Nico. And Will was lying to himself if he wouldn't admit that despite Nico's grumpiness and cold-heartedness, he, in his own way, looked cool, awesome, handsome and –okay point taken.

"What's wrong with you?" Kayla leaned forward and looked closely at Will who remained frozen in his seat and whose eyes were wide as a dinner plate. Then Kayla's eyes widen also. "Oh my gods! William Solace, don't tell me you've turned straight! You started to like a girl?!"

"Who likes a girl?" Lou Ellen joined and sat with them together with her boyfriend Cecil Markowitz, who was a medical technologist at JHH.

"HIM!" Kayla pointed at Will

Lou and Cecil gaped at Will.

This made Will snapped out of his senses. He shouted. "I do not!"

"Then why you looked like a fish and why were you saying it's impossible?!" Kayla countered.

Will groaned. Then he leaned his elbows on the table and covered his face with his hands. "It was just so impossible! How can I like him ..." He threw his hands in the air in frustration.

"And who is him?" Cecil asked.

"Hah! I knew it!" Kayla laughed triumphantly. "You are too easy to read!"

That made Will paused again. "Am I really easy to read?"

"Yeah, like an open book." Lou nodded. "Like, it only took seconds to know that you really like someone, one look at your sappy face and bam!" She clapped her hands together once for better emphasis.

"Exactly what happened earlier," Kayla smirked.

"And that will lead back to the question of who is him!" Cecil said

But Will seemed not to hear Cecil when his mind drifted to something in particular.

'You're wrong, Solace. There are still a lot of things I can't figure out about you.'

Will remembered how Nico looked at him at that moment as if there was a blaze in his eyes that Will swore he almost melted on the spot. Now, he already understood why he felt that way.

And when…

'Will you at least sit your butt down on the floor instead, Solace. You are one fall away from the underworld'

He also now understood why he felt funny when Nico seemed to care that he's one fall away in the underworld. Not that he was giving more meaning to it… It's just that, wasn't it more convenient to the death angel that there will be two souls to be escorted in the underworld just in case...

But in the end, the point was... After all this time...

Will slumped forward to the table and muttered. "I am so screwed…"

Will was sure that being attracted to an enemy much less to a death angel was trouble.

"Are you going to tell us now, who on earth is he?" Cecil asked again.

"Not a chance." Will suddenly stood up. He added mentally. Besides, it's not like you can see him when I was the only one who can.

There was a chorus of complaints from his friends.

Will just waved his hand dismissively. "I am going to do rounds on my patients. Bye." Then he turned and walked away.

"We will know who is him no matter what, Doc!" Lou shouted.

Will just shook his head as he walked out of the cafeteria. Impossible.

Will wasn't making an excuse when he said that he's going to do rounds just to get away from the grilling questions of his friends. He was really doing rounds and one of the patients he visited that night was Percy Jackson who was now looking livelier after weeks of being hospitalized.

"You are doing great now, Mr. Jackson." Will put his stethoscope back around his neck after using it on Percy. "You're breathing was now was stable. We can discharge you in a matter of days. We will just wait for your other lab test just to make sure that everything is fine."

"That's great!" Percy grinned. His wife, Annabeth, who was standing next to his husband smiled.

"Now that I am okay, can I now visit my pal, Jason Grace, you medic guys wouldn't let me no matter how I said that I was fine!" Percy said.

Will just smiled. "Not at the moment, Mr. Jackson. Remember you still have bullet wounds and we wouldn't want to strain and reopen those wounds. Don't move so much for the time being. Four bullet wounds are serious."

"That's what I was talking about," Annabeth said looking pointedly at Percy.

Percy pouted.

"But Jason Grace is fine now, right?" Annabeth asked and looked up at Will. "He was really a close friend to us and his girlfriend Piper was worried sick about him. She just couldn't fly over from Las Vegas because of some commitments."

Will briefly thought about how Kayla would react when she learned that her blondie and cute patient was already taken.

"I really couldn't say anything since he was not my patient but from what I have heard, Mr. Grace is doing better too, still weak but stable," Will answered.

The couple nodded in acknowledgment.

"Okay, that's all for tonight, take rest," Will said and Annabeth walked him out the room.

"Ah, that reminds me," Will turned to Annabeth when he was already outside the room and Annabeth was at the door "What's his reaction when you told him that-" Suddenly Annabeth covered his mouth and her eyes widen. She also went outside and immediately closed the door behind.

"I haven't told him yet," Annabeth said pulling her hand from Will's mouth.

"Why not?" Will was surprised.

Annabeth sighed. "Knowing my husband, he'll over-react, in a good way of course. He might probably faint or jumped like a kangaroo or run around the hospital in delight. We don't want to strain his wounds right?"

Will laughed. "Right. So when are you planning on telling him?"

Annabeth smiled. "Probably right after his discharge. That will be also his early birthday gift since he's celebrating it in a month."

"How about your morning sickness, didn't he notice?" Will inquired.

"He's asleep most of the mornings, so he didn't really notice. He can be dumb at times." Annabeth rolled her eyes.

The doctor shook his head in amusement. "All right. Congratulations again to both of you."

"Thank you doc." Annabeth continued to smile.

Will patted her shoulder and walked away.

He turned to a corner and in a flash, he recognized someone walking towards the other direction, not from afar. He immediately stepped back and leaned on the wall to hide. He slowly peeked from his hiding spot. Surely, Nico di Angelo was walking from a distance then he was out of sight.

Will sighed and started hitting his head when he realized how stupid he reacted. Why in Hades was he hiding now from death boy, as if he committed some heinous crime? After realizing that he liked the guy, he couldn't just run away from his feelings or to him.

"I'm going to be really glad if you're hitting yourself because you'd turned into some kind of lunatic and you will be carted off to a mental institution."

Will stopped hitting himself and turned to see Bianca di Angelo who was crossing her arms and looking weirdly at him.

Will put down his hand. "Sorry to disappoint you, still sane to annoy the hell out of you."

In all honesty, Will was annoyed too, he still remembered the insult that the death angel fired at him. He never saw her again ever since that time until now.

"And that brings me to something I badly wanted to tell you from the time you insulted me," Will said and fully faced her.

"Let me tell you this, Bianca. I don't care if I became a doctor because of my special power or mere wits. But all I know is I became I doctor because of my dedication to saving a life. I do trust what I can do and I am intending to use it for the greater good no matter how much I pissed the hell out of you. No amount of insults will pull me down." Will said and started to walk past the unfazed death angel.

They were standing shoulder to shoulder when Bianca spoke. "At least, leave my brother alone."

Will stiffened but immediately composed himself. He did not speak.

"My brother was giving you an unhealthy amount of attention. You two are different, always remember that. He does not belong here in your world." Bianca said.

"You do not control my life Bianca, and it's not your business whoever I interact with," Will said, looking ahead.

"It became my business because he's my brother." Bianca hissed, slightly turning to him.

"Then it's not my problem anymore, it's his." With that, Will walked away.

Actually, it's kind of my problem too since I am also having an unhealthy attraction towards your brother. Will thought

[karenninaaa]

Heartbeat and Memories in a Bottle

(Post-endgame fix it fic)

Read it on ao3

Summary: They tried to live in a world without him. Until one day, they started to see a glimpse of a man they thought was already dead. ENDGAME SPOILERS

--

Peter Parker decided that it was easier to pretend rather than to live in the moment.  It was easier to go through the halls of his school and just smile at everyone who greeted him. It was easier to give Aunt May a kiss on the cheek and ask her how her day went before she could ask the same thing to him. And if she did ask, there were always the pre-made answers he could choose from. Ranging from, it’s good –his most common answer. So sometimes he had to switch up to, I had a great day, our teachers were giving us lots of homework and project, I am fine, just tired –that was one of his favorites if he didn’t want to talk at all, especially if a particular day had been so overwhelming.

Because, sometimes, when Peter would look around him and see how everything looked so normal and everyone was at peace, at last, that was when he was going to notice the void in him. Then there was the worst part. The worst part was he had to go out of the streets and see someone’s face everywhere.

Tony Stark was everywhere.

For months, the tributes for him were flooding, from social media to the news, from the Iron Man statues in some places to his pictures plastered left and right celebrating his name, remembering his heroic deed to save the universe.

And sometimes, remembering hurt. The void in him, probably bigger than his entire being, ached so badly and it overwhelmed him. It had been six months since Tony saved the universe but for Peter, he was always stuck in the time where he witnessed how Iron Man’s arc reactor flickered and shut off.

Mr. Stark, we won. . .

I’m sorry.

“Mr. Parker! Are you still with us?”

Peter looked up, a little bit startled. Ms. Brandt, his history teacher was looking at him with a stern expression. He glanced around to see that his classmates were looking back at him.

He sat up straighter. “Y-yeah, I am. . .”

“Then can you answer my question?”

“W-what was the question again?”

The class erupted in laughter. Then the bell rang before Ms. Brandt could silence them.

Instead, Ms. Brandt sighed in resignation. “Alright, class dismissed. We’ll continue the lesson next meeting. And Parker, would you stay for a sec?”

Peter froze as the students around him shuffled and one by one left the room. He remained seated, slightly dreading what was about to happen. Was he going to get detention now because he wasn’t listening to the class? Well, admittedly, there were several occasions that he zoned out on Ms. Brandt’s class. It was just that Ms. Brandt had a habit of correlating the past events with the present and there were a lot of things in the present that he didn’t want to hear or trying to avoid hearing. Peter’s brain must have subconsciously blocked it as a defense mechanism.

“Mr. Parker.” Ms. Brandt called when it was just the two of them in the room. She sat on the table in the front.

Peter exhaled and stood up. He slung his backpack on his shoulder and made his way to Ms. Brandt.

“Am I in trouble?” Peter asked when he reached her. “Is there something wrong?”

Ms. Brandt clasped her hands together on the table and gazed up at him. “I think I should be the one asking that question, Mr. Parker. Is there something wrong? Don’t think I haven’t noticed how your head was always somewhere far away when you’re in my class.” She paused. “You know, with the recent happenings, I am hyperaware on how some students are still traumatized-”

“I am good. Ms. Brandt.” The answer came faster than Peter would have expected it. His tongue and his brain knew what to do when things like that popped out.

Ms. Brandt just looked at him in sympathy that Peter had to look away. It made him sick. People who knew what he had lost always looked that way at him. Though, Ms. Brandt wasn’t aware of any of that.

“Peter, teaching was my job and it was also my job to help my students. We have counseling-”

“I swear Ms. Brandt, I’m okay.” Peter glanced back and looked at her steadily in the eyes, just to prove how okay and calm he was. He clasped his hands behind his back to avoid fidgeting. He tried to hide the restlessness in his eyes. Though, there were dark circles underneath it. He swallowed down the lump in his throat so he wouldn’t stutter and his voice wouldn’t break. He learned that a still composure always did the trick on adults when they were trying to dissect him on the spot.

Ms. Brandt stared at him some more before she relented. “Alright, Mr. Parker, but next time I see you not paying attention in my class, you’ll go straight to the detention. I just wanted you to know that you’re not the first student I’ve talked about this and it’s okay not to be okay and to tell someone about it. We were all not okay at some point and talking it out usually helps. That’s all, you may go, Mr. Parker.”

“Yeah, I appreciate your concern, Ms. Brandt. Thank you.” Peter turned around and walked out of the classroom.

An empty and silent hallway greeted him. Some students must have gone to their classes. It was his lunch break so Ned must be in the cafeteria waiting for him. As he made his way through the corridor and to the cafeteria, he thought about what Ms. Brandt had said. He didn’t agree with some of her points. Talking it out didn’t always help. He tried before. He tried talking it out with Aunt May. But all it did was worry her to no end and after all that she had been through, he couldn’t give her another burden to carry on her shoulder. He tried to do the same with Pepper. Though, it was an unintentional breakdown when everything felt so heavy suddenly and Pepper’s voice was just so soft and comforting and he let his walls break down. Pepper was also worried. With all the things that she had in mind, worrying over him who wasn’t even blood related was maybe too much.

Even then, even when he talked about the emptiness and the loneliness, it didn’t help at all. All those ugly feelings did not lessen. Instead, it had gotten heavier each day. Nothing in him felt better.

Nothing would help him feel better because no one could be able to bring Mr. Stark back. No one and nothing.

Peter faltered in his steps as his vision got blurry. Then their tears were falling from his eyes like waterfalls. He tried to stop it really, but the more he did, the more those damn tears wouldn’t stop falling. His shoulder shook as a soft sob escaped his lips.

And it hurt all over again.

Please, Mr. Stark, just come back.

I can’t handle the pain anymore.

How do I make the pain to stop?

I am so so so tired.

His phone in his jeans’ pocket vibrated, startling him. He immediately wiped his face and fished out his phone from his pocket. Pepper was video-calling him. He frowned. She knew that he had school. He immediately answered it.

Instead of Pepper, Morgan’s face appeared on the screen. Her ever-cheerful voice resonated in the silent hallway. “Hi, Petey!!”

“H-hi, Mo,” He tried to match her enthusiastic voice. “W-what’s up, why are you calling, something’s wrong?”

Morgan hummed as she shook her head. “I am in Mommy’s office. Mommy had a meeting and I was with Uncle Happy but he was outside to take some calls. I got bored and I saw Mommy’s phone on her desk so I called you.”

Peter couldn’t help but smile at her adorableness. “So Pepper took you to her work huh?”

She hummed again this time in agreement. “She said that we’re going to get ice cream after her work. I’m excited.” She giggled.

“Aww, I am jealous. I wish I could get ice cream with you too.”

Her face suddenly lit up as if she remembered something. Her voice was rushed and excited. She moved her face closer to the screen and whispered. “Petey, Petey, do you want to know a secret?”

“What secret?”

“Mommy and I are going to New York to visit you!”

His smile got even wider. “Really, you’re going here?”

She bobbed her head up and down. Then she frowned. “But Mommy said it was a surprise. That was why it was a secret. Will you still be surprised if you see us there?”

Peter threw his head back in laughter.

“Morgan?”

“Oopsie.” Then the screen went black though the call was still connected and Peter could still hear voices from their line.

“Who are you talking to?” It was Happy’s voice. His voice was gentle and curious, far from the grumpy Happy that Peter used to hear before. He was surely wrapped around her little finger.

“Uhmmm, Petey?”

“Come on, give me that phone. Peter has school so he shouldn’t be bothered. He needs to study first.” Happy said.

Then the screen revealed Happy’s face. “Hey, squirt.”

“What’s up, Happy?”

“Are you in class?”

“No, it was lunchtime so it’s okay,” Peter assured them.

Happy nodded and looked at his side. He appeared to be crouching down as Morgan was sitting to a chair beside him. “Morgie, say bye to Peter.”

“Bye, Petey! See you soon.” She gave him a flying kiss.

“Bye squirt.”

Then the call ended.

Peter let out another breath. Maybe Tony was listening somewhere and heard his pleas so he sent a little angel to make him a little bit better. Well, it was effective.

He resumed walking down to the cafeteria.

Nothing had changed much on Peter’s routine after his class. He still did patrols but there wasn’t much activity during his patrols. Sure, there were still petty criminals but they were mostly easy to catch. He guessed that even some of the bad guys were still reeling from the recent events.

He stopped by the pedestrian lane waiting for the traffic light to turn red so he could walk towards the other side of the street. He was going to change into his Spider-Man suit and start his patrol. He stood there waiting as he shoved his hands in the front pockets of his hoodie. He had his earphones in. His head was bobbing up and down with the music. His eyes were wandering around idly.

That’s when his eyes locked on someone on the other side of the street.

He paled.

He couldn’t breathe.

He was seeing a ghost.

On the other side of the street, Peter was looking at Tony Stark.

No, no, no, it wasn’t him, right?

The man was wearing a cap and shabby clothes: navy blue plaids and red vest partnered with jeans. Not the usual type of clothes that someone like Tony would wear. Sure.  His face couldn’t be seen clearly because of his cap. He was looking around as if he was trying to figure something out from the towering buildings and the never-ending crowd and chaotic streets of Queens.

Maybe, it was his heightened vision. Maybe it was because Peter wouldn’t be able to forget Tony’s face ever. Maybe because he was hallucinating and his grief was making him see Tony everywhere. Maybe it was the lack of sleep that was why his eyes were playing tricks on him. Maybe it was his desperation just to see Tony again because he sorely missed him. All the maybes and logical reasoning were screaming at him but they weren’t enough to outweigh the urgency to know.

The traffic light turned red. People crossed the pedestrian. Peter ran.

He tried to dodge people left and right as he got caught in between the mob of people.

“Mr. Stark!” He tried to shout but his voice was caught in his throat. His chest was suddenly constricting.

Peter could see a glimpse of him in between the bodies that were trying to push him in a different direction. Before Peter could get a proper look on his face and before he could reach the other end of the pedestrian, the man turned and started walking away.

“No,” Peter gritted out. “Excuse me, please. Mr. Stark!”

Peter reached the sidewalk. But the man was gone. He craned his neck looking around wildly as he tried to retrace the steps that the man had probably gone through.

But the man was nowhere to be found.

As if he didn’t exist just a minute ago.

And Peter’s short-lived hope ended right there.

But if there was one thing that wouldn’t end, it was the tears and the ache. They would haunt Peter as long as he lived.

And boy, Peter was tired of going through the torturous cycle all over again.

[karenninaaa]

Across the Street Ch.4 Updated!

Here’s the link!

If you want to read an excerpt here it is.

AC/DC blasted through the speakers as Tony worked in his garage one morning. He sat at his work table, cleaning the detached outboard motor of a speed boat. He had been putting some grease on a certain part of the engine when news on the television had caught his attention. There was someone he recognized on the TV. He looked at the flat screen TV attached to the upper portion of the wall.

“Fri, mute down the music,” Tony ordered. “And up the volume on the news. I want to hear it.”

The AI obeyed silently. The song disappeared and was replaced by the voice of a male anchor. Tony put the grease gun down on the table.

“- as Mr. Obadiah Stane, CEO of Stark Industries, went on stage to receive his third Business Leader Awards this year.”

Obadiah Stane stood proud and tall at the podium, holding a glass trophy. He was a bald man in his fifties with a white scruffy beard. He was wearing a black suit with a charcoal gray necktie. Spotlights were focused on him as the camera zoomed in.

Stane looked briefly at his trophy, then glanced back at the crowd.  “This is wonderful. It’s always an honor to receive this prestigious award. You know, every year, it is our goal to give the world more clean energy and better technology, and better and cleaner will be the lifelong brand of Stark Industries. Thank you!”

The video cut off and went back to the male anchor sitting behind the table together with another female anchor. The male anchor spoke. “There you go, Stark Industries is really ushering the world into a new era of cleaner and better. Weapons manufacturing is long gone as the Fortune 500 company stirs in a different direction.”

“Of course, John,” The female anchor piped in. “The switch from weapons manufacturer to an innovative research company in clean alternatives to energy was ten years ago and Mr. Obadiah Stane has, again and again, proved that he is worthy of receiving all the awards he has gained for everything he has done for Stark Industries and the world. Congratulations, Mr. Stane! And on to some other news. . . .”

Tony zoned out after hearing the news about the Stark Industries. Nonetheless, there was a proud smile etched on his lips as he resumed on his work. “Nice one, Obie. . .”

He felt nothing but respect for the old man. Tony had once led Stark Industries. He knew how hard it could be to lead something so big, especially after the monumental change that had happened in his– the –company. He was aware of the obstacles that Obie had had to go through for the company to be where it was right now. Obie was the one who had taken the hits when the company made a turnaround when Tony made his final decision of stopping the weapons manufacturing before he had stepped down as CEO. He had put Obie in that position. He knew that it was unfair for the old man to be in that tough position in such a critical time, while he just ran away, but Tony was still firm about the decisions he had made in the past, that it was all for the best.

And now, he was seeing the fruition of the decisions he had made. The company remained stable, still on the top, while he was living a quiet and safer life together with his kids. They were happy in the life they had chosen and that was what mattered the most.

He was broken out of his reverie when the doorbell suddenly rang.

Tony jolted a bit. “What was that, Fri?”

“That was the doorbell, boss,” Friday answered.

“Exactly. Why is the doorbell ringing? Are we expecting a guest?”

“Yes, boss. Miss Virginia Potts is at the door. And I believed you scheduled this day to tune up her car.”

Tony dropped the grease gun on the table. It thudded. “That was today?”

“Yes, boss.”

He looked around in mild panic. The whole garage was a mess. Equipment and motor parts were scattered around. There was some motor oil spilled on the floor. Dum-E, Butterfingers and You– his robots slash assistants that consisted mostly of robotic arms and claws –were whirring in the corner as if they were all worried. Dum-E tried to be helpful to his master by moving forward and offering a fire extinguisher.

Another ring from the doorbell and Tony stood up, rattling the table. He pointed at the three robots.

“You three, try to be useful and clean the floor. See that motor junk there-” He pointed again at the mess where some screws and bolts in varying sizes, empty bottles of unknown substances, and some disassembled engines littered the floor. “Sweep all of that. I need the space clear because another car is going to be here. I don’t want them to be run over. And for the love of God, Dum-E, when will you drop that stupid fire extinguisher?  Try holding a mop, will you? Mop that oil on the floor.”

Another whirr came from the bots.

“Yeah, don’t be a useless heap of metals. Or I’ll disown all of you.”

The bots produced a sad whirr. There was another ring of the doorbell that sounded more urgent than the last.

“Gosh, why is she harassing the doorbell?” Tony mused out loud. “Friday, please tell the lady that I’ll be out in a sec, so she will stop ringing. It’s giving me anxiety.”

“Understood, boss,”

Tony went out towards the door in the corner that led to the dining hall of the house, frantically attempting to wipe the grease off his face. He glanced in the mirror in the hall and winced. All he’d managed to do was make black smears across his forehead. It was too late to fix it then. Tony jogged through the living room and finally, to the main door. He opened it.

And there she was. Virginia Potts was standing at the door. Her blonde hair was down this time. Her hair reached her chest, the end of it was curled and bangs cascaded gently over her forehead. She was wearing denim shorts and white long sleeves. He tried not to stare at her long and even-toned legs. From where Tony stood, he could smell the jasmine scent coming off of her.

Tony mentally winced at his own state. He was a mess and probably reeked of sweat and motor-oil. He should have taken a shower, or at least changed out of his greasy black tank top. His hands were practically black. He inconspicuously tried to wipe off his hands on the brown plaid shirt tied around his waist.

Nonetheless, he gave her a bright smile. “Hi, Pepper!”

“H-hi . . .” She stammered. “Uhh, am I too early? Are you busy? I can come back later-”

“No, you’re just in time,” Tony tried to reassure her. “I was just tidying up in the garage. Give me your car keys so we can park your car in my garage. Friday, roll up the garage door.”

Continue reading on AO3

[karenninaaa]

Update!

I’ve updated my fic Across the Street. You can read chapter 3 below! If you haven’t read it yet, it’s my new pepperony fic and you can read the firs chapter on Ao3!

Chapter 3

Tony didn’t know what to make of his new neighbor as he watched her from his window, early at dawn. She wore a black pencil skirt and a white sleeveless button-down blouse. Her hair was up in the same ponytail as the night before. She was standing in front of her car with the hood open. She kicked the front bumper of her car in frustration with her black pumps. Given the recent events, he had sworn that he wouldn’t get on her bad side, especially if she was wearing any shoes that had pointy edges.

“She’s obviously having trouble with her car.” Peter was standing on his right. He pushed up his baggy white shirt to scratch his waist.

Harley yawned on his left. “As a good neighbor, you should help her out. You’re a mechanic.”

Tony couldn’t figure out what his twins’ deal was. They seemed to be favoring their new neighbor, despite only meeting her yesterday after moving in.

“How about you two get ready for school and stop being so nosy?” Tony demanded, crossing his arms as he continued to watch Virginia get even more frustrated with whatever was wrong with her gray sedan.

The twins shuffled away like zombies as Harley grumbled. “Aren’t you being nosy too?”

“I heard that!” Tony called out, still staring out the window. Virginia had disappeared inside her car.

He sighed and decided to help his poor neighbor out. He pushed the sleeves of his blue flannel shirt up to his elbows as he crossed the street. Virginia hadn’t emerged from her car by the time he had reached her. He took a quick glance at the opened hood and walked towards the driver’s side where she was. The car door was open.

He tilted his head to look at her. She appeared to be reaching for something underneath the dashboard, her other hand on the wheel.

Tony put his hand on the top of the car door. He cleared his throat. “Hey-”

“Shit, don’t come near me!” Virginia was obviously startled as her hands flew in the air. Tony stumbled back a bit and pulled his hand away from the car door just as it slammed shut. Through the window, he could see a spray bottle of some sort magically appear in her other hand. Her eyes were shut tightly. The spray can was pointed in his direction.

Tony blinked at her. He definitely didn’t know what to make of his new neighbor.

Virginia opened her one eye to look at him, spray can still in position. Tony raised both hands, as if in surrender. He smiled thinly at her. Her eyes widened in recognition. The spray can fell on her lap. There was a beat of silence as she stared at him, open-mouthed. Then she rolled down the window.

“You sure are a bundle of nerves,” Tony stated when the window was completely rolled down.

Virginia exhaled. “I have issues.”

“Yeah, a lot of issues,” Tony agreed.

“And you came out of nowhere, startling me.”

“My bad.” Tony raised his hands once again in defeat. “I saw you from across the street.” He waved vaguely towards his house. “You seemed to be having trouble with your car.”

“It won’t start.” She sagged in her seat, stress line visible on her forehead. “It was fine yesterday and now it isn’t. And if it doesn’t start any time soon, I will be late for work.”

“You go to work early,” he noted.

“I work in Los Angeles. So if I’m going to tread through the heavy traffic and make it work on time, I need to leave for work early.”

Tony frowned. “You work in Los Angeles and you decided to move to San Diego.”

“I told you, I have issues.”

“Right.” He nodded. “And good timing, because I am a mechanic who knows his way with cars. Have you tried jumpstarting your car battery? That’s the usual problem with cars that don’t start.”

Virginia perked up. “No, I haven’t yet.  . .”

“Do you have jump starter cables?”

“I don’t think so.  . .”

“I’ll be back in a sec.” Tony turned around to go back to his house and into his garage.

Soon, he was back with portable battery jump starter in hand. It was a small rectangular black box with cables on it. Tony attached the cables on the negative and positive side of Virginia’s car battery. She watched him do it.

“I think I should invest in one of those,” she said as she looked at the device being attached to the battery.

“You should,” Tony agreed, bent forward over the hood. “It’s pretty convenient.” He straightened up and turned to her. “Why don’t you try and start your car and see if it works?”

“Yeah sure.” She immediately climbed inside her car. She turned on the keys. And Virginia heard the most wonderful sound as the engine roared to life.  She poked her head out from the opened car window. Relief was evident in her voice when she spoke. “You saved my life.”

“It’s more accurate to say that the battery jump starter saved your life. And your car needs a fine tune-up. No offense but your car sounds like it’s dying,” Tony said.

“None taken. Do you know where I can buy that device and where I can bring my car for a tune-up?” She turned the engine off.

“O’Reilley’s downtown has the best car related stuff you can buy. And the nearest place you can go for some car tune up is right across the street.” Tony was leaning on the side of the hood near the door. He was looking at Virginia as he crossed his arms. “Not to brag, but I’m the best mechanic in this neighborhood. If you want some Yelp reviews, you can just ask our neighbors. I fixed half of the cars in this area. And don’t worry. Despite my stellar reputation here, I won’t overcharge you.”

Virginia couldn’t help but laugh and shake her head in amusement. Tony didn’t miss how her cheeks flushed and the spray of freckles appeared on her cheeks. It was one of the things he had first noticed about her when he first saw her back at Mayday.

“Let me think first about your offer,” she said, still smiling. She brought her head back into the car.

“Sure.” Tony nodded. “Just bring your car to my garage if you’re up for the offer, preferably on weekends, because I fix boats at the docks on weekdays.”

“Is that what you do?” she asked curiously, looking at him through the windshield.

“Yep. I tinker and fix machines in general, and occasionally hunt down my twins when they are still out past their curfew.”

She snorted a laugh but nodded in acknowledgement.

“Can I ask a question?” Tony asked casually, still leaning on the hood.

It didn’t escape his notice how she briefly stiffened at that.

“Shoot,” she decided.

“Do you usually have pepper spray or was it just a coincidence that there was a pepper spray can on your center console?” Tony tilted his head with a mischievous smile.

Virginia threw her head back in laughter once again.

“I gotta know,” Tony continued in between her laughter. “I can’t risk being pepper sprayed every time I go to casually greet you from behind. That thing would hella hurt in the eyes. And I feel like every time we meet, I have some dire consequences to suffer from first before I can properly talk to you.”

She couldn’t stop laughing by then.

“Oh my god.” She wiped the side of her eyes when she sobered up. “I’m terribly sorry. It’s out of habit I guess. But yeah, I usually have pepper spray in my bag.”

“Now I can’t decide which is worse: potentially being pepper sprayed or getting decked in the head again.”

“Get off of my car, Tony,” She said, but there was still a smile on her face. She opened the door while Tony moved out of the way.

He was unhooking his portable jump starter from the battery when he spoke. “You know, it’s nice to see you smiling now, you looked so stressed earlier this morning.”

She didn’t speak, but he could feel her eyes on him.

“There, it’s all set and your car is ready to sail.” Tony closed the hood of her car.

“Thank you so much, Tony,” she told him gratefully.

“Sure, no problem, Pepper.” He shrugged. She shook her head and smiled amusedly with at the nickname.

“Always happy to lend a hand to a neighbor,” he added. There was another beat of silence. There was a pull in her gaze and there was something mesmerizing in her smile. Tony couldn’t help but stare at her.

“Yeah, I appreciate that.” Virginia continued to smile.

He realized he was staring at her. Tony looked away and cleared his throat.

“I should get going.” Tony pointed his thumb in the direction of his house. “God knows what my twins are doing. They probably fell back asleep in the middle of showering or something. They’re going to be late for school.”

“Oh yeah, right,” She was nodding.  “I should get going too. I’m going to get caught in traffic. I’ve got a long way to go.”

“Phew, good luck with that.” Tony turned around and started to walk away.

As Tony trudged back to his house, he reminded himself that he just did what he did out of good will. He liked to be in the company of machines as much as he liked to be with his sons. That was the only reason he had offered to fix her car. And it had nothing to do with her endearing freckled face or her laugh. Besides, he still didn’t know what to make out of his neighbor. She was jumpy and evidently had a thing against people following her around. Tony couldn’t help but wonder why.

It was a whirlwind of a morning for Virginia, to say the least. At first, she had been so confident that she could make it work to drive back and forth from the nice little suburbs on the edge of San Diego to the bustling city on the central part of Los Angeles and vice versa. Then when her car wouldn’t start, the panic had started to creep in. How was she supposed to get to work without a car? Then the next thing she knew, she was laughing because of her neighbor, who had come to her rescue.

She was definitely not thinking about her mechanic neighbor along the stretch of a hundred and twenty miles to LA . . . or at least was trying not to. There was a smile on her face that she tried to wipe off, but failed.

It was pure luck, after the delay and a ton of traffic, that she made it on time. When she reached the floor she worked at, she put final make-up touches on in the elevator and took off her black coat, and then out she went as she zoomed past some of her co-workers.

“I made it,” She declared, out of breath. She plopped down at her desk. “I should be proud.”

“Barely,” Her brunette co-worker, Margaret, leaned over Virginia’s cubicle. “So how’s the drive?”

“Torture.” Virginia shook her head, dropping her bag on the desk in the corner.

“And I might as well remind you that you’re gonna endure that every single morning of your life,” Margaret said. “You sure you don’t want to back out?”

Virginia swiveled her chair around in Margaret’s direction. “How can I back out, when I’ve already signed the contract? Oh, that reminds me. . .” She turned once more, in the direction of her cork board where sticky notes, methodically arranged by date and importance, were plastered. She peeled off a particular one and crumpled it. She spoke more to herself. “I’m on half-day today. I’ve got to meet my realtor, something about the final clarification about my contract lease. . .” She put the crumpled sticky note into the trash bin underneath her desk.

“Is Ginny already there?” A familiar male voice echoed. Then Ryan, in his dashing business attire, emerged holding a cup of Starbucks coffee. “Good morning, Ginny, here’s your Decaf Chai latte. . .”

“Oh!” Virginia was reluctant to accept the cup. “Y-you don’t have to do this, Ryan.”

“It’s fine. I went to get my own coffee anyway.” He raised his other hand with another cup of coffee.

“What about me, Mr. Paxton, don’t I have a cup of coffee too?” Margaret teasingly raised an eyebrow at Ryan.

“Well, you’re not Ginny, so there’s no cup for you. See you later. I’ve got a meeting in ten!” Ryan disappeared before Virginia could say her thanks.

Margaret gave Virginia a look. She spoke in a hushed voice. “I just don’t understand why he can’t be your boyfriend, when he’s so boyfriend-material and obviously likes you, like a lot!”

“We’ve had this conversation a lot of times, Marj!” Virginia answered in the same tone. “I don’t want to force myself on someone whom I only see as a friend.”

Ryan had confessed to Virginia that he liked her, but she had turned him down.  He was the nicest guy Virginia had ever met but all she felt for him was purely platonic and she didn’t want to lead him on. So she had immediately made it clear that all she could give was friendship and nothing else. To Ryan’s credit, he took the rejection good-naturedly, but also added that he wouldn’t back down so easily. He was optimistic. He believed that someday, just maybe, Virginia would change her mind. He had good reason to keep on trying. Virginia hadn’t been with anyone in a long time. So far, there had been no one who successfully tamed her jittery heart. It was sweet how optimistic Ryan was— he believed he could.

“I tell you, Ginny, you’re going to regret it someday.” Margaret shook her head. “There are not a lot of guys like Ryan, who is patient and kind, and who bring you decaf coffees from Starbucks.”

“Go back to your desk, Marj.” That was all Virginia could say as she turned her back on her. “Our boss might come.”

“Whatever, Ginny,” she responded. “But remember, Ginny, what you’re missing out on.” She walked away.

Virginia stared at the blank screen of her desktop monitor. Her therapist had once said that she kept on over-analyzing things that she missed out the present, the essential and what was in front of her eyes. She glanced at the Starbucks cup sitting on her desk with the name Ginny on it. Was Ryan one of those essential things that she was missing out on?

She shook her head, deciding to just focus on her work. There were still loads of financial statements she needed to finish. Well, it was her job as an accountant, anyway. She looked around her small cubicle. All three of the flimsy plastic walls were plastered with cork boards; papers and pictures of her mom and some of her colleagues, such as Margaret and Ryan. She opened her desktop computer as she sipped on her coffee. She started to work, temporarily losing herself in the sea of papers and thinking of nothing else.

It was noon when she stopped working. She walked down the narrowed hallway while carrying a stack of manila folders, her finished work, to bring to her supervisor’s office for signatures and final revisions. She rounded on a corner and almost bumped into Ryan.

“Hi, Ginny!” He said cheerfully.

She stumbled back a bit in surprise upon seeing him. She inhaled. “I told you not to do that!”

“Do what?” He asked innocently. “And let me carry those that look heavy.” He took the tower of manila folders from Virginia’s hands.

“Coming out of nowhere!” She said. “I might have hit you with those.”

“But you didn’t.” They started to walk side by side as Ryan carried the folders. “And you’re not as jumpy as you were before.”

“Oh, believe me.” She shook her head. “Nothing has changed. You’ll never guess what I did to my new neighbor last night.” At his inquisitive eyebrow, she elaborated. “I hit my new neighbor in the head with my wedges.”

He briefly paused to look at her, his mouth slightly open. “Please don’t tell me he didn’t sue you or something. . .”

“Nope, he’s quite nice.” She smiled.

“I should meet him to thank him,” Ryan said as they reached the door of their supervisor’s office. He gave the folders back to her. “I’ll wait for you here. Let’s eat lunch together. There’s this new Italian restaurant a block away. We should try that.”

“Sure.” Virginia nodded and knocked on the door. Then she entered and disappeared behind the door.

“Uh, Mr. Thompson, did you check the errors I presented to you the last time?” Virginia spoke as she stood in front of the table of his supervisor. Her supervisor, Mr. Thompson, was sitting behind his table, staring at his phone. He was a bald man in his fifties, with a bulging belly.

“Yeah, yeah, I checked those. I already corrected them,” Mr. Thompson said. He was more focused on his phone rather than talking to her.

“But do you know where the five hundred million dollars had gone to?” She asked. “It wasn’t adding up with our monthly miscellaneous expenses.” Then she added almost hesitantly, “It’s the third time that millions of dollars had vanished and we don’t know where the company spent it.”

This time, Mr. Thompson looked up at her. “And in the end, we always manage to find out where it was spent, like right now. There were just some miscalculations with the accumulation of new assets.  That’s where the five hundred million went. I’ve already corrected them. That’s all you need to know.”

“Oh, is that so . . .” Virginia trailed off.

Mr. Thompson laughed lightly. His big eyeglasses glinted under the fluorescent light. “Consider it a human error. We are just human, Ms. Potts. So rest your case. You’re dismissed. Thank you.”

“Y-yeah, of course.” Virginia’s frown deepened.

She was still skeptical about Mr. Thompson’s answer. Despite that it was “resolved”, it was still bothering her. There was a gut feeling telling her something just didn’t add up. She pushed the thought out of her head when she saw Ryan was leaning on the wall waiting for her.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” He frowned, walking up to her.

She smiled at him. “Nothing. Let’s go eat. Is Margaret coming with us?”

“Yeah sure, she can come. You should tell her what you did to your neighbor.”

She drove back to San Diego after lunch to meet her realtor. Afterwards, she went grocery shopping and even went to O’Reilley’s, the hardware shop Tony had told her about, to buy necessary things for her car. If she wanted her car to survive for long drives, she truly needed to take care of it. It was past five when she dumped the paper bags of groceries and some car accessories in the car trunk. Then she was driving back home.

She was on the road when she recognized two teens at the sidewalk. It was Peter and Harley. They had their backpacks on, so they probably had come from school. They were standing in front of a building while engaged in a seemingly serious conversation. When she reached them, she honked at them. She pulled over in front of them.

The two teens were startled by the honk and looked at the direction of the car. Virginia rolled down the window on the passenger’s side to speak to them.

“Hey!” She greeted them, leaning a bit to the passenger’s side. “I was about to go home, you want to hop in, or is there some place you’re still going?

Instantly, the teens scrambled over to her car.

“I call shotgun!” The two simultaneously declared and raced over to the front side of the car. Harley beat Peter to it. He victoriously stuck his tongue out at Peter. The latter just glared at him in defeat and opened the door to the backseat.

“Well then, buckle up, kiddos,” Virginia announced when they were seated inside. She was smiling amusedly at the teens’ antics. She turned back on the road.

“So you two are in high school?”  Virginia asked conversationally.

“Yep, sophomore.” Peter leaned forward in between the two seats.

She nodded as she watched the road. “Not too far from college. Have you thought of what you want to be when you grow up?”

“We’re going to be engineers!” The twins chorused as they beamed. There was an excited gleam in their eyes.

“Wow. That’s great! You must be good at science and math, then.”

“People say we take after Dad,” Harley told her. “Dad’s a great engineer and we’re going to be like him.” There was pride in his voice.

She glanced at Harley. “I thought your dad was a mechanic?”

“A mechanic and an engineer, he can do both,” Harley answered.

“And speaking of. . .” Peter trailed off, holding up his ringing phone. Virginia briefly saw the phone screen and on that screen, a wacky picture of Tony was being displayed. “Dad’s calling.” He answered and put it on a loudspeaker. “Hey, Dad.”

“Hey, squirt-” Peter rolled his eyes at that. Tony continued to speak. “Where are you? You were supposed to be out of school a long time ago and you don’t have robotics club today. I thought we were going to have a nice boat dinner tonight.”

“I swear, sometimes he can be so overprotective,” Harley muttered. Virginia chuckled.

“Am I on a loudspeaker?”

“Yeah, Dad,” Peter spoke. “So stop embarrassing us, we’re actually in Miss Potts’ car.”

There was a beat of silence before Tony spoke. “Are you stalking our neighbor now?”

Virginia snorted out a laugh and decided to speak up. “I saw them on the road on my way home and offered to drive them home.”

“That’s nice of you, Pepper. Thank you.”

Virginia rolled her eyes, though she continued to smile. “Will you stop calling me that?”

“Not a chance, Pep,” Tony spoke. “Your name is quite a mouthful-”

“You mean the whole three syllables?”

“Exactly. It’s tiresome to call people by their name when they go past my two syllable limit.”

Virginia laughed.

Harley cleared his throat. “Uh, hate to interrupt, but Dad, maybe you could continue your flirting with Miss Potts later-”

“Harley, I swear to God-” Tony said and Virginia flushed. Their car swerved on the road. A car that passed by honked angrily, as Virginia narrowly missed hitting the vehicle.

“-when we’re not around anymore...?” Harley tried to continue. Peter was shaking as he tried to hold in his laughter.

“It’s not-” Virginia tried to say.

“Hey, you’re too young to know what flirting is,” Tony shot back. “You don’t know that word means yet.”

“We’re fifteen, dad.” Peter was grinning. “And we’re old enough to understand what flirting is but too young to witness it firsthand.”

“Miss Potts,” Tony said. “I deeply apologize for my twins. Sometimes, they truly have a loud mouth.”

“I-It’s fine.” Virginia cleared her throat. She was doing her best to appear calm, but there was part of her that wanted to shrink into her seat.

“You two see me at the docks. I’m ordering our favorite at Mayday.” Then there was a pause. “Miss Potts, do you want anything from Mayday? They have excellent seafood here.”

“I-I’m good, actually. I can just cook-” She said.

“Their Cajun salmon belly is worth a try,” Tony stated.

“We second that, Miss Potts.” Peter gave her a thumbs-up.

Then Virginia remembered the files she had taken home to work on. Suddenly, the idea of cooking wasn’t so appealing anymore. “All right, order me some. I’ll pay you when we get there.”

“That’s a deal, Miss Potts. Bye.” Tony hung up.

Virginia released a shaky breath. She was gripping the steering wheel so hard that her knuckles had turned white. Well, that was one hell of a call.

The twins burst out of the car and ran down the wooden platform when they reached the docks. The sky was tinted with blue and violet, slowly eating away the light on the distant horizon. Overhead lights illuminated the area. Virginia was walking behind them. Her heels made a clink-clink sound against the platform. They found Tony among the rows of boats that surrounded them.

He was in a gray button-down shirt, a black long sleeved shirt underneath, partnered with the usual faded jeans. He was lying on the back seat of the boat. Virginia couldn’t tell if he was sleeping since he was wearing a pair of sunglasses. His hands were behind his head and his feet propped up on the gunwale, the upper edge part of the boat. He looked like he was posing for some magazine cover.

Peter raised up his phone to take a picture of their dad. “This is going in our meme folder,” he declared.

“And I already have an idea what the caption is going to be,” Harley added, without missing a beat.

“Awesome, dude.”

Virginia cleared her throat. “Should we wake up your dad?”

“It would be cooler if we had pots and pans to bang,” Harley said, snickering. “We did that once to him.”

���And boy, that was a morning to remember.” Peter was also chuckling, a wide smile on his impish face.

“Yeah, do that again and I’m cutting your allowance in half.” There was a voice from behind them. Tony had sat up in his seat. He pulled off his sunglasses and folded it to hang on the collar of his sleeve.

“Bummer,” The twins muttered.

Tony turned his attention to Virginia as he stood up. “Well, good evening, Miss Potts. Is your car still holding up?”

“Of course and let’s hope it will be for a long time,” she answered. “God, I don’t know what I would do without it.”

Tony bent down to reach something on the floor of the boat. It was a paper bag from Mayday. “Here’s your salmon belly. And if you want, you can join us. The boat’s capacity is four people.”

“Oh no,” She shook her head. “It’s your family time. I hate to intrude-”

“It’s totally fine! You could join us.” The twins chorused eagerly. Peter spoke. “It would be fun. We’re going to eat while stargazing in the middle of the San Diego bay!”

“The juries have decided.” Tony smiled.

It was so tempting, but her deadlines at work were coming up and she hated the thought of being behind. “I still have some paperwork I brought home to finish, so maybe next time.”

“Boring alert,” Tony deadpanned. “Anyway, kids, you heard her. She’s got work to do and we can’t force her.” He extended his hand to give her the paper bag.

“Oh, wait. How much is it?” She fumbled for her bag to get her wallet. “I’ll just get the payment-”

“Consider it paid,” Tony said.

“But-” She looked up at him.

“You gave my kids a ride, so you’ve already paid,” he said.

Virginia was about to argue when he beat her to it. “Come on, Pepper, just accept it, my arm is going to fall off.”

“Right.” She accepted the bag from him. “Thank you.”

“And thanks for driving my kids here.” He smiled up at her.

There, that kind of smile again, where his pearly whites were showing and his eyes were crinkling. It was charming in its own way. It was also contagious. She couldn’t help but smile back.

“No problem. I should get going.”

“Sure.” Tony nodded.

“Bye Miss Potts,” the twins said.

“Bye.” She gave them a little wave and turned around.

She reached the cemented ground above the docks when she saw a woman smoking, leaning casually against the cemented railings that separated the ground and the bay. She recognized the woman. It was Maya from Mayday. She was still wearing her waitress uniform. Maya looked in her direction, extinguished her cigarette, and tossed it to the ground.

Virginia slowed her walk and gave the waitress a little smile, then continued on her way. She was walking past her when Maya spoke.

“Be careful with him.”

Virginia halted. She looked back at Maya. Maya’s hands were shoved into the pockets of her navy blue apron tied around her waist. The waitress was regarding her, head tilted slightly to the left. Brown locks fell over her shoulders in waves that nicely framed her face. Virginia couldn’t deny it. The waitress was beautiful.

“I’m sorry, what?” Virginia asked confusedly.

Maya jerked her head in the direction of the docks. From where they were, they could see Tony and his twins in the boat. The boat had left its spot as Tony stood behind the wheel. It was making its way out of the docks and towards the greater part of the bay. As Virginia watched, it disappeared from sight.

“Be careful with Tony,” Maya repeated. It sounded ominous. “I told you before, didn’t I? He’s not into serious relationships. He has a way with women. He’ll make you fall for him. Then when you confess it, he’ll just give his notorious apology, and nicely say that the two of you can’t be together.”

Virginia didn’t know what to say or react.

“I’m telling you now to warn you because I’ve been there. I’ve fallen for that smile he gave you earlier. It’s a trap. And soon enough, you’ll realize that he’s not going to take your hand to bring you beyond the stars.”

“Yeah, okay?” Virginia said awkwardly. “Besides, we’re just neighbors. . .”

“You never know, babe, you never know.”

Later that night, when Virginia was sitting in her sofa enjoying a plate of Cajun salmon belly, she briefly wondered about Maya’s warning. She had to admit that Tony was just appealing in general. He was nice and good to his kids and she couldn’t help but admire it about him. She didn’t take Maya’s warning lightly but didn’t fully believe it either.

She put down her plate and picked up one of the folders scattered on the coffee table in front of her. Her laptop was turned on, her blue-lit screen illuminating her files. She opened the folder.

There, on the uppermost part of the paper was the logo of the company she worked at.

The logo read, ‘Stark Industries’.

[karenninaaa]

Chapter 1- The Clash of the Dead and the Living

Read it on ffn

PART I

PUNISHMENT

I - WILL

When Will Solace had received a call from Lou Ellen, his friend and who also happened to be the on-duty nurse at the emergency room, he had a sudden ominous feeling that he wasn't going home any time soon that morning. Call it, doctor's instincts, but years of working at Jupiter Half blood Hospital polished the said instincts that it rarely failed him. So, Will swiped his phone screen to answer the call. He was staring at the window in front of him as he held his phone against his ear. His light blue eyes were paler from the sunlight seeping through the window.

"Hello, Lou-"

But Lou beat him on the other line, her voice was rushed. "I'm so sorry. I know that your duty's finished and you're about to go home but we could really use a cardiothoracic surgeon right now. There's an incoming patient with multiple gunshot wounds and one bullet wound in the chest."

"All right, I'm coming." Will said. See, doctor's instincts scored points again early in the morning.

"You're the best, Will. You're teaming up with Dr. Fletcher on this one. Patient's ETA is five minutes."

"Yeah, sure, I'll be waiting in the operating room." Then Will hang up.

Will looked down and stared longingly at the backpack on the table waiting for him to be carried back at home. He hadn't been home in two days and he missed his own bed back at his apartment. But of course, it was duty's call and it meant he had to set aside his own pleasure and comfort for the sake of others. It was something he had accepted long before he embraced this job. There were people who were relying on him to live and it's not like Will could deny them of that.

So, Will found himself standing in front of a full body length mirror in the corner of the on-call room. The room was mostly littered with empty packs of Chinese takeouts and bottles of energy drinks. The bunk bed, that was situated by the wall, almost turned into a coat rack with doctors' white lab coats hanging on its corners. A shelf was pushed by the other side of the wall. It was loaded with several thick medical books and some were haphazardly shoved in it. The room was a whirlwind of a mess than Will would have liked but that room was the closest place he could call home. He shoved his tanned arms inside the sleeves of his long white lab coat. He tugged the collar of the coat for final adjustment. Underneath the white coat, was his light blue surgeon's scrub shirt. He combed his tousled blond hair with his fingers and briefly stared at his reflection. There were bags under his eyes and he looked like he badly needed to crash a bed and rest.

Which, he really needed.

But again, duty's call.

So, Will smiled, his dimples showing up.

This was his life most of the time, always tired and occasionally sleeps but hey he didn't say that he didn't love his job.

Will entered the operating room with a mask on his face and scrub hat covering his mop of blond hair. A nurse came to him and assisted him in wearing protective clothing and another nurse was helping him wear a pair of latex gloves. Will was gazing at the patient unconscious on the bed and hooked to several medical machines.

"You've seen his CT scan results?" Dr. Lee Fletcher came up to Will who was also geared in the same attire as the blond doctor. "Jesus, I don't know how he's still alive-"

"And let's be thankful, that he is." Will strode towards the patient. "I'll go first, it was just an extraction of a bullet that stopped at the pericardium, it should only take a minute." He reached the side of the bed.

"Of course," Fletcher nodded in awe at Will as he stood on the other side of the bed "It will probably just take a minute for you and hours for me since I have to extract bullet wounds around the pancreas, small intestine, and kidney."

"Good luck," Will looked up at Fletcher.

And so, the surgery began when Will sliced up the chest open with his scalpel.

"Suction," Will ordered to Lou. And the blond continued to work as his hand moved skillfully on the chest cavity, hands that knew what to touch inside a human chest and what instrument to pick to aid him. It was more of muscle memory, from years of practice and training.

True to his words, Will had managed to extract the bullet wound in a minute, as he pulled out the tweezers with a bullet from the opened chest. Will dropped the bullet in the metal plate. The bullet made a clinking sound as metal hit another metal.

"Gosh, I felt like, it only lasted thirty seconds," Fletcher commented, still in awe.

"Don't, just don't make it sound easy. It made me feel queasy. Nothing is easy when it comes to surgery." Will had started to stitch up the perforated heart. His gloved hands were expertly moving swiftly with every twist and knot he was making with the nylon thread.

"Cut," Will ordered again, and Lou cut the thread with a pair of scissors.

Will gazed up once again at Fletcher, "Now, he's all yours-"

Suddenly the heart monitor of the said patient beeped. A flat line was indicated on the screen that alerted them.

"He is in cardiac arrest!" Lou Ellen reported.

"See, I told you nothing is easy in surgery," Will muttered and picked up the two metal spoon-like equipment with wires attached at its end, the internal paddles of a defibrillator.

"Charge to 20 Joules," Will ordered.

He put the paddles at either side of the heart. "Clear,"

Will looked at the heart monitor as he pulled out the paddles from the heart, still flatline.

"Charge to 60 J," Will said again.

"Clear," He repeated the process.

There was still no response.

Suddenly in the corner of the operating room, a guy clad in all black appeared from a wisp of black smoke. Will noticed him immediately and his eyes widen. He knew the guy in black very well, as a guy like him always appeared every time there's someone who's in the brink of dying. He's a death angel with a name of Nico di Angelo. Not everyone could see a death angel but Will was one of the few.

"No!" Will growled underneath his mask.

"He's mine, Solace." Nico gritted his teeth.

"I said no," Will whispered. He knew that Nico heard him.

Will set aside the paddles and started massaging the heart.

"Just give him up!" Nico hissed.

"No, he still has a chance," Will said and smirked. Suddenly, he glowed in a golden light invisible to everyone else but to Nico.

"No! You little-" Nico cursed.

Meanwhile, Will continued to massage the heart while repeating the mantra in his head. You will live. Seconds after, the heartbeat of the patient went back. The lines on the monitor rose and fell. And as Will looked down at the heart, it was truly beating back.

Will smiled in relief as the glow around him faded. He gave Nico a wink.

Nico just continued to glare at him. He dissolved in the air, leaving a trail of black smoke behind.

It was already afternoon when the operation had successfully ended and all the bullets had been removed from the patient, whose name was Percy Jackson. Will was exhausted, the kind of I-am-going-to-drop-on-the-floor-any-second-by-now exhausted. It didn't help that he used the glowing trick that he could barely make a walk back to the on-call room and get his things so he could go home.

Will discovered his glowing trick when he was nine and when he accidentally healed a pet dog. And ever since that day, he also had started to see death angels from time to time. Witnessing those death angels took the souls of those dead people, was the reason why he became a doctor. He wanted to save lives and prevented the sorrows of those people because their love once died.

Where this power came from, Will had no idea. But it doesn't matter to him, as long as he was able to save people with his power. Using that power too, he created some enemies from the Dead. Because every time Will glowed it means no soul for the death angels. One of those enemies was Nico di Angelo.

Will leaned on the wall to rest for a bit. He closed his eyes. He was so tempted to sleep on the floor right there.

Then, he opened his eyes and stood straighter. He summoned last of his strength to make a trip back to the on-call room. He turned to walk but paused when he saw Nico di Angelo striding towards his direction. From years of knowing the death angel, Will hardly jumped out of his skin in surprise every time Nico would appear out of nowhere.

Since there were no other people in the hallway, Will spoke raising an eyebrow. "Going somewhere?"

"Yes, I have a tight schedule since I wasn't able to reach my quota because of meddling people like someone I know," Nico said as he continued to walk towards him, he had this hard look on his face.

Will shrugged. "Couldn't help it. It's my job."

"But you're cheating!" Nico hissed stopping in front of Will. "No normal doctor would be able to save Perseus Jackson from his demise. You are always interfering with the course of death!"

"He responded to my power that means he can be saved and it's not my fault if I have this glowing trick, I am just putting it into use." Will shrugged again and then he sighed. "And besides you already know the cycle of all these things, shouldn't you at least get used to it?"

"What? Get used to having overtime in the Underworld just because you happened?" Nico spat.

Will was going to throw some witty remark when his vision suddenly tilted and he fell forward.

"What in Hades Solace?!" Nico said in outburst holding both of Will's shoulder preventing the doctor from kissing the floor.

"Sorry about that, lack of sleep and the glowing trick was not a good combination." Will tried to steady himself. Nico immediately released him.

"Why do you keep on using that power when you know it's dangerous? When you drained yourself, your soul is possibly the next one I need to take to the Underworld." Nico said.

Despite Will's growing vertigo, he couldn't help but smile while rubbing his temple "Did I detect some concern from an enemy?"

"Concern?!" Nico looked scandalized. "We death angels don't feel human emotions. Nothing beats here." He pointed at his chest.

Will frowned at his statement. "Pity. Human emotions are quite fascinating if you asked me."

"We don't need it. Emotions make one person pathetic." Nico said

"Another Pity." This time Will put his hands on the front pockets of his long white coat.

"I don't care." Nico walked passed him. "You need a rest."

Will looked back at the retreating figure of the death angel. Most of the time, he was annoyed at Nico because he was always grumpy and angry and cold-hearted. But there were teeny-tiny moments that Will couldn't help but feel amused every time Nico was going to throw random things that were out of his character, like throwing a you-need-a-rest line. It was a mere statement from Nico's own observation rather than a show of sympathy or concern but still...

So, there were also times that Will would question if death angels didn't really have emotions….