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space-mermaid-writing · 2 years ago

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The witchling and the god [Loki x Witch!Reader] Chapter 27

Summary: The Avengers were looking for someone to help Loki fit in with the team. To become socially acceptable, so to speak. He had been given the choice of sitting in a cell in Asgard or serving some sort of community service probation on Midgard. The Avengers and Shield both felt that as long as Loki was on Earth, he should be under supervision. This is now your job. Why? Because you’re a witch. You’re not sure why this qualifies you, but here you are, giving it a shot. What could possibly go wrong?

Tags: Witch!Reader, Magic, Witches, slow burn, everybody lives in the tower, character development, Loki‘s redemption, Stephen Strange is a friend, Loki and Stephen are frenemies, Tony Stark is a good bro, kids love Loki, Tony has stupid nicknames for everybody, eventual smut

Main Masterlist | Series Masterlist | Read it on AO3 | Previous | Next

Chapter’s Note: Beta by @zaria-04

Chapter 27: Old Wounds

You hum softly to yourself as you stand in your garden and pick berries. Normally you wouldn't bother with it and float magically to reach the high branches. But since the witch hunters attacked Gabriel, you've become wary of showing your magic in public. Even if it's in the safety of your own garden and you have no direct neighbors. You never know who may be watching.

The harvest of berries is unfortunately meager. You missed the right time and most of them have been eaten by birds or are already starting to mold. There won't be enough for jam, but maybe you'll bake a pie with them.

Since you spend so much time in New York, you've neglected your garden. The pumpkins and zucchini are doing well and promise to grow big again this year. They also need less care than berries.

You've already weeded to give your important plants more room. Because of your absence, everything is a bit more overgrown than usual.

After you’ve raided the bushes, you go into the house with the bowl and put it in the kitchen. Eloise has placed an order for potions, but you decide that it can wait a few more days and that the pie is more important. With a flick of your hand the berries start to wash themselves in the sink and fly back into the bowl. In parallel, you open a book where you collect your recipes and flip through until you find what you're looking for.

You have two of these books, one for regular recipes and one for magical ones. It's important to keep the two strictly separate, otherwise you may have some unpleasant mishaps, as you've learned.

Your phone rings with a message that you ignore for now. Only when a second and a third message arrive shortly afterwards you do pick it up.

It's Tony, there are a lot of exclamation points and it sounds urgent.

"Alarm! Code: Dangerous Jazz Hands"

You have no idea what that means, but you put your work aside and touch a rune on your doorframe before stepping through.

"Jarvis, what happened?" you ask, after barely setting foot in the compound.

"Thor has returned from Asgard. He and Loki are currently on the thirty-fifth floor."

You hear a loud crash that sends a vibration through the building.

"On the thirty-fourth floor,” the A.I. corrects.

Cursing softly, you run. The elevator takes you up and as the doors open, you hear loud yelling and more crashing.

"...he never cared! It does not matter what I do! I could die and he wouldn't even bat his eye."

That is Loki's voice – furious, hurt – and you rush in that direction.

"You know that is not true." Thor is more collected and firm. He tries to reason with his brother.

"Really? Did he even ask about me? How I am doing? If I'm fine?"

The pause that follows speaks for itself and you hear another crash as something is thrown against a wall and breaks. You turn around a corner and see a hole gaping in the ceiling with metal struts peeking out. The path in front of you is blocked with rubble, which you climb over. You are now very close to the voices and hear the brizzle of raw magic. Shit, that's not good.

"That's what I thought." Loki's words are cold with venom. "I am just an unpleasant thorn in his foot and he has finally found the perfect way to get rid of me."

"Brother, please!... Stand back, Rogers. It's fine. I handle him."

"I do not need to be handled!"

You meet Tony, who is in his Iron Man suit, but faceplate open. "Good, you're here," he greets you, "Tell him the sun is getting low or whatever helps to calm him down."

You nod, but otherwise acknowledge him no further, instead pushing past Steve into a room. It's one of the lounges, but half the furnishings are destroyed. Pictures have crumbled from the walls, a table lies in pieces and the couch is overturned.

Loki's hands glow with magic, his whole body seems to be radiating it. He glares angrily at his brother. Thor has Mjolnir in his hands and the cracks on the wall testify that he has already used his weapon.

Thor puts a hand on Loki's shoulder to calm his brother, but Loki shakes him off and a hand to hand combat fight breaks out between the two. It doesn't look like they truly want to hurt each other, but the two Asgardians are inhumanly strong. A normal person's bones would break over this.

"Loki."

He pauses at the sound of your voice. Thor too, waiting to see what his brother would do, how he would react. Loki doesn't turn to face you. "Leave."

As if! You don't move an inch, not wanting to risk getting too close to him, because you don't know how much control he has over himself right now. But you don't back down, either. "No. This is about Odin, right? Screw him! You deserve better."

That makes him look at you. He sees you standing in his corner, even though you have nothing to do with this. But he also sees Tony standing in the doorway in his suit and Steve on your other side, without his shield but ready to step in if necessary. He feels Thor's gaze on him behind him. The men look at him with a mixture of waiting, wary and pity. Loki hates it. This is exactly what he wanted to avoid. He doesn't need to be handled.

You notice the shift in his aura, similar to when Felix died in the hospital. With your next words you get his attention back on you. "You want to smash things? Sure, I understand that. There are canyons we can go to. Just let's go together, okay? You promised me." Grasping at any straw, you reach out your hand for him to take.

Loki remembers and hesitates only for a brief moment. He prefers to be with you alone over being with these oafs of Avengers. The glow of his hands goes out and he slowly steps toward you. No one else dares to move, but the tension in the room is almost palpable. Only Thor suddenly looks much more relaxed and smiles.

Loki grabs your hand and the next moment you're both gone.

Tony breathes a sigh of relief. The witch still got it. "Jarvis, where did they go?"

"They are currently on the roof-deck," chimes the A.I.'s voice.

Thor steps up to him, his hammer leaning casually over his shoulder. "Stark, I take full responsibility. This has nothing to do with my brother's rehabilitation." He gestures to the resulting mess, but Tony waves it off while retracting his suit.

"I get it, Thor. I've never thought I'd say this but I understand Loki. Your father is really a dick, huh? I know that feeling all too well."

"Howard wasn't-...," Steve starts, but falls silent when he notices Tony's look.

"Let's not open that bottle, Cap, shall we? And don't worry, Manowar," he adds, turning back to Thor. "My insurance got that covered. But for the sake of my beloved tower, next time you want to talk about family with him, please go to that canyon."

He leaves the room to call construction and orders Jarvis to inform him in case Loki did something funny.

Meanwhile Loki and you are standing on the roof terrace, still hand in hand. It's a beautiful day, sunny, but not too hot. Just the right amount of clouds in the sky and with a light breeze in your hair. And of course the noise of the city below you.

You're surprised that Loki transported you up here, but you don't ask about it. Instead, you turn to him and look up at him.

His face is turned away and he is looking at a point in the distance. You know what it looks like when old wounds cut open, relieving the same old fights.

You press a kiss on his cheek. "Hey, you with me?" It's a cautiously, gently question and he snaps out of his spiral of thoughts.

"Yes." His answer is as short as it is cold and he takes a step away from you. He's still angry, a mess of emotions. Loki was expecting it. He knew what Thor would tell him when he returned. Still, he would have liked to be taught better, had still had hope. After all, he is still the little boy who wants his father's approval. A snort escapes Loki. The recognition of his surrogate father. His biological father had abandoned him to die.

You give Loki his space, but squeeze his hand as a sign that you are there for him. "Family can be tough," you offer.

"You have no idea what it's like to be an outcast from your family. To not belong, no matter what you do. No matter how hard you try to please or get even a little attention." Loki's voice is venomous, his eyes narrowed like a snake's, ready to bite. It's defensive, you know he doesn't mean it. Or maybe he means it, but he'd be sorry for his tone later.

"You're right," you relent, looking at your intertwined fingers. "I'm glad that no matter what, at least I could always count on my family. On my siblings. But you have Thor. No matter what might have come between you two in the past, he's there for you now, supporting you."

"That's not the same thing. You don't understand. Your humans' lives are too short to understand some things. You are just too dull."

You inhale sharply by his rude words and your tone gets somewhat colder. "I'm not just a simple human," you remind him, but he laughs tonelessly.

"Of course you are. You just live a bit longer than the average human. But you're still one of them." Loki realizes he's derailing, but there's nothing he can do about it. It's like an out-of-control steam engine hurtling at high speed toward an abyss. And he's not only sitting in the front row, but shoveling coals into the fire to speed it up. It's absurd. He knows better. But he can't help it.

"You're adopted and that's bad, it complicates your life. But if you would just look out of your little shell of sulking, you would find that there are people who love you. Even within your family. And as for the rest: you are a prince. After all, they have to respect you for that. They don't hunt you down and kill you," you say more harshly than you intended, thinking about what just happened to Gabriel.

"I'm sure that they would just love to do that," growls the Asgardian.

"But they don't!" you exclaim and something snaps inside you. Loki seems a little surprised, you have never raised your voice to him like this. His expression darkens a bit more, a reflex whenever someone uses a tone towards him he doesn't like. But before he can even open his mouth, you continue speaking, angrily. "In the past, it wasn't just witch hunters we had to watch out for. I couldn’t stand out and I had to be careful who I trusted. So I know what it's like to live in a world where you're not wanted. They got me once and I pray I don't have to go through that again!" Your fingers slip from his and point accusingly at him.

"These witch hunters don't look like much of a threat to me," Loki says dismissively. "After all, here you are, standing before me, alive."

You stare at him. This is not the Loki you know. This one is cold, heartless with a total lack of empathy. Nothing suggests the kind and charming Asgardian you've become so familiar with. You don't know which of the two is the real one, how much of both is him.

You want to yell at him, you want to shake him, to get him back to his senses. But would that do any good? You're no longer responsible for him, you've quit and you're only by his side as a friend, as a lover. And this part of you is deeply hurt, and it shuts down. You don't feel like dealing with him at the moment. If he really wants to be an asshole, he can do it without your presence.

You open your mouth, but you don't know what you want to say.

A cruel smile creeps onto Loki's face, barely preparing you for his next, devastating words. "Cat caught your tongue? I thought you were so quick-witted. Or did those witch hunters damage your brain in the long run?"

You clench your hands into fists to stop yourself from smacking him. "Do you think your mother would be proud of you right now?" It may be a low blow, but you don't care. You don't even wait for an answer, you wouldn’t get it anyway. Instead, you turn around and swallow your tears as you walk away.

Loki's eyes follow you, the shock of your words bringing him back down to earth and leaving a sour taste in his mouth. He is aware that he has made a mistake. He just doesn't understand why he let this happen.

For quite a while he just stands there, shoulders slumped. The anger is gone from him - he gave it space, unfortunately against the wrong person.

With slow steps he starts to move, his eyes silently fixed on the floor, and returns to the prince's suite.

Thor is there. He is sitting on the couch with the television on. Nothing about his demeanor suggests that just twenty minutes ago he was destroying half a floor of the tower by fighting his brother. Next to him is a bowl of popcorn he made. In the microwave, of course. He wouldn't be stupid enough to use his lightning powers inside the tower for that. There wouldn't be much left of the corn afterwards.

He hears the door and Loki's footsteps. "Did you get it out of your system?" Thor looks up from the TV, but then sees his brother's expression and his face falls. "Oh no, Loki..."

"I made a mistake," the younger Asgardian mutters and drops down on the couch next to Thor.

Thor turns off the TV and turns to his brother. Loki has his head buried in his hands and Thor waits silently until he begins to speak. There is a pause, but Thor knows to be patient with his brother.

"How does mother put up with father? With everything he has done and is still doing?"

The question surprises the elder, but he thinks about it. "I guess she loves him and understands him, even if she doesn't approve of everything."

Another pause.

"How is she?"

"Good." Thor smiles gently. "She misses you, but she said you found something more dear to you since you don't write as often as you used to."

That is true. Since the Lunar Convergence, Loki has taken to pen and ink only sporadically. He has spent most of his time with you. A fact that makes him sigh. "I said some horrible things to her."

Thor frowns. "To mother?" Finally Loki looks at him and it clicks with Thor. "... Oh, I understand. Your Witchling." He says the word with a smile because it's Loki's nickname for you and he talks about you a lot. "So...?" he asks.

"So?..." Loki retorts.

Thor looks at his brother waiting, but nothing more comes. Loki has no further retort, but merely stares sadly at a point somewhere between the wall and the floor. Thor knows this look all too well, knows that a lot is going on in Loki’s head right now. It's a look that is often followed by a long self-isolation, because the younger Asgardian has never learned any other way to deal with the emotional chaos inside him. One would think that Asgardians would be wise and clever due to their long life, but the truth is that they are stubborn and take much longer to learn a lesson.

Thor is willing to nudge his brother in the right direction. By force, if necessary. "You said you made a mistake. So go, fix it." He reaches for the remote again, turns back on the TV, and grabs the bowl of snacks. Leaning back, he puts his feet up on the table.

Loki gives him a sour look. "It's not that easy."

"Good. Then it’s a challenge for once. You're always complaining that everything is so boringly easy here on Midgard," Thor replies nonchalantly. He has averted his eyes from his brother and watches the animated characters on the screen as if they were more interesting than what Loki is telling him.

Loki is gobsmacked by his brother's behavior, not used to him being so dismissive. "You seem to misjudge the situation."

"And you seem to be forgetting something important." He says this like it's something pretty obvious and throws a handful of popcorn in his mouth. "You're Loki, Prince of Asgard, worshiped as a god by Midgardians for centuries. Use your magic, use your silvertongue. Or don't. Maybe it's not worth it. You can watch the time of adventures with me." Thor gestures to the yellow dog on the screen.

Furious, Loki jumps up and glares at his brother. "There's nothing more worth it! I'll show you what I-..." He notices Thor's smirk and realizes that he stepped right into his brother's little trap. That sneaky bastard. He learned a lot from Loki. "Fine," the younger prince sighs, "You are right. There, I said it. Are you happy now?"

"I was happy to see you blossom at her side in these past weeks." Finally Thor is looking at his brother, his face nothing but honest. "It would sadden me if our family quarrel drove a permanent wedge between you. So, I mean it: fix it."

His brother's nod is enough for him as answer. "Do you want some of my popcorn? It's buffalo wing flavored." Thor holds the bowl out to him, but Loki makes a face in disgust when he sees the sticky brown texture. "Absolutely not."

"Your loss." Shrugging his shoulders, Thor shoves another handful into his mouth.

Loki steps up to the large panorama window, hands clasped behind his back, and ponders what he can do. He realizes he has gone too far. Normally he is a master of words, and knows how to use them in his favor. He made a mistake, but he'll be damned if he can't make things right again.

It's a sensitive subject for you, and Loki feels that it's not just the attack on your brother that's the reason. It must be something else. Something older.

Loki thinks about who he could talk to, who could tell him more about it. Because he is sure that you are not interested in talking to him or even seeing him at the moment. He has no contact with your siblings. Loki knows that he can get to your sister through the door portal in your room, but he doesn't want to use it. The risk of him stumbling over you is too high.

He can only think of one other person who might know something, and he doesn't like the prospect of that. Loki straightens his shoulders. It doesn't matter. If it will help him, he will do it. With renewed determination, he turns and strides with a "Thank you, brother" as he passes Thor, out of the room.

Thor smiles softly. "Anytime."

_______________________

(Please don't hate me. Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better. It's the last time Loki and the Witchling fight. I swear!)

Loki: „I hurt the Witchling with the greatest weapon I know.“Thor gasps „You stabbed her?“Loki: „No!“Thor: „Did you attack her with magic again?“Loki: „No, I meant words. I hurt her with my words.“Thor: „Ooooh….“

Code: Dangerous Jazz Hands = Loki’s hands glow with magic and not in a fun way

Tag List: @lokisgoodgirl @lokixryss @itsybitchylittlewitchy @yokshi-unbeliebubble @fictional-hooman @elennair @all-envy-suyu @purplekitten30 @elisadmaggiore @nothing2113 @ceo-of-stfu @moonlightreader649 @ronipiamka @fluffybunnyu @ninjarose23 @ozymdias @huntress-artemiss @sofi786 @thedistractedagglomeration @rosaline-black @msrawog @moonlightreader649 @paetonnn @eldriidd @r4inlov3r @eleniblue @eleniblue @maeisonline @marvel-love24 @sinsandguilt @kalinaselennespeaks @ohtellmelove @eleniblue @hyojin-2579 @just-someone11 @marygoddessofmischief @fall-myriad @melavoris @baebeepeach

#loki x y/n #Loki x reader #loki layfeyson x you #loki laufesyon x reader #Loki x you #imagine loki #the witchling and the god #imagine marvel #mcu prompt #loki odison x reader #marvel x reader #mcu x reader #loki fanfction #slow burn #loki odinson #loki laufeyson

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commanderquinn · 2 years ago

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Good Space Chapter 1: Flower

! i dont! keep these posts! updated! like i do! ao3!

that means you're going to find typos and shit (and possibly minor detail changes) that don't match the ao3 version! that's because im not going to bother fixing the tumblr posts until i finish good space as a whole. im only uploading them here as a backup tbh

—

master list / ao3 chapter link

—

She’s the one good thing about trips to medical in the Avenger’s Tower.

Every other day, at her direct insistence, her lab is the only place in the entire wing that he’s willing to go to. It smells warm and safe, nothing like the antiseptic that makes him want to break a limb. For the first two weeks, he tries to tell her that she doesn’t have to do this. He’s been looking after the link from his arm to his brain for years. There’s never been a problem with it that he couldn’t handle, and he’ll come back if anything ever feels off. No matter how much Steve hovers, she doesn’t need to waste her time on this.

By the start of the third week, he can’t bring himself to suggest that anymore.

—

psa: there’s some gross ass (sometimes detailed) nazi medical shit all through this fic, so if lobotomy talk of any kind is a no for you, skim over any brain talk. your best bet is just to skip the lab scenes where you can ❤️

fic title is a song by skrillex! we needed bouncy shit that vague hinted at plot. the chapter title is a moby song to lay out the v i b e s 👾 im always going to list these, so y’all have a song to listen to while reading

all i can think that needs to be said for canon clarity (ill make it all clear over time dw) is post-WS buckaroo got picked up by steve and sam to be taken for a shower and therapy. no civil war, no age of ultron. we're taking parts of it and doing other shit, you'll see. fury’s publicly alive and director again, shield got flushed out because mmmmm i said so i guess. no red room here. its not about nat, the lack of consent history hanging between them isnt something i want with this. i want to focus on other parts of their trauma bond. alsomaybeishipnatwithsomeoneinthis.

im sorry, but i never started wanda content on my end, and AI jarvis is comfy nostalgia i want to play in, so likely not a lot for her here. yes, we will be having shuri bully bucky, ofc, she’s the pin that holds this whole plot together (what else is new)

oh and i treat bucky’s arm as more of an atompunk feel rather than “the nazi’s had bleeding edge limb tech in ww2 that only affects bucky’s arm, definitely not anything else”

other than that, we’re firmly in good ‘ol stark tech magic and too many open wiki pages for all my plot device needs

also my grammar aint the good. i write these mf's in my spare time while baked af, you're gonna have to give a bitch a break babes 👾

—

Febuary 17th, 2018

"That's not what I'm asking about."

Tony throws up his hands from the other side of the conference table, then lets them smack back down against the polished surface dramatically. "Illuminate me then, Rogers. I'm running out of ways to explain that she's the best I've got to offer for this."

Steve pushes a hand through his hair with a frustrated huff. "I'm not a brain surgeon."

"No shit, that's what she's here for."

"I meant that I don't know what the fuck I'm looking at."

"Now I know you're worried if you're willing to," Tony clutches at the front of his shirt in mock horror, "swear in public." Pepper smacks his shoulder without even looking up from her tablet. The sight would make Steve smile under normal circumstances.

"You can hand me any resume you want, Tony. I'm telling you that I won't be able to see a difference. I know you're giving me a team who can do the work; I'm asking if they can do it while it's Bucky."

"Are you worried about his safety or theirs?" Pepper asks, finally looking over. Her tone isn't judgemental. If anything, it's veering towards the gentleness it has when she's talking Tony down.

"I'm not worried about theirs. I will be there every time. Even if he has a bad day, I'll make sure that—look. Nothing's going to happen. It's just...." Steve flips open the folder he's been carrying for a week. The edges of it are starting to wear down at this point. Sighing, he slides his summary notes to their side of the table. "He still doesn't... he doesn't talk about the previous escapes. No matter what his therapist tries. He just can't bring himself to do it. But it's not hard to get a clear picture of what used to happen. He does this every time. He builds himself a strong house, then a fallback point, and then he goes to work trying to fix all the damage alone, which he'll never be able to do. No one could. And there's not going to be a goon squad rolling in to drag him back anymore, so he's just going to—"

"Yeah, yeah, push him to help him; I grasped the concept the first hundred times," Tony cuts in. If he weren't so damn anxious, Steve might honestly feel bad about being so far up everyone's ass over this. "You've got me on board. So, what's the concern here? Will she quit the first time he bites her head off? That's a pretty chauvinist perspective, especially coming from you."

"She's had to put up with Tony long enough to befriend him; that should be proof enough." Pepper smiles as the nightmare himself points toward her in silent agreement.

Steve raises his hands amicably. "I'm not trying to insult anyone's professionalism. I'm sure she's had more than her fair share of problem patients to get where she is today. I'm... I'm more asking if—Christ. I'm sorry in advance, alright? But... Tony, I need you to look me in the eye and tell me that you'd have trusted her to get you home."

A stiff, all-consuming silence falls over the spare meeting room. Pepper and Steve waiting on bated breath; Tony frozen as he looks back at him with an expressionless face.

Steve despises himself for doing this to him. The knowledge of what happened in that cave is something the man is unimaginably protective over. It took years—and a night of blackout drinking on Tony's end—for the story to even slip out of him. Talking about Yinsen is the only time Steve's seen him cry that he can remember. It was just one overflow, barely even two tears that got scrubbed off his cheeks within the first minute, but it was there. It's the only way Steve knows to get his point across.

Tony looks down at the table and adjusts his posture. His head shifts and his lips purse in that signature move of his, the one that comes up when he's forced to be a person. With feelings. Pepper's arm moves, no doubt taking his hand under the table.

He looks back up, meeting Steve's eyes as his posture relaxes. "I wish they could have met. I think Yin would have gotten a kick out of her fashion taste. I think she'd have gotten an even bigger one out of putting him in it."

It's the most ringing endorsement he's ever heard the man give. More importantly, Steve knows just how much weight sits behind the guarded words.

—

"I've got their personnel files if you want them. They all volunteered them to you willingly."

"I'm alright."

"Do you want their names ahead of time?"

"No."

"Not even their first ones?"

"They can tell them to me."

"Okay."

"...."

"...What are they?"

"The ones that'll be behind the glass are Hannah and Wyatt." Of course Steve knows to start there, where his nerves will fixate the most. Asshole. "You probably won't even talk to the two of them today, but your main doctor for this will definitely offer to let you. Her name is Ava. She's going to check in with you for confirmation on a lot of things before she does them. I shadowed her for over a week, asshole. It's not about you; she does it for everyone."

Bucky grunts. "I wouldn't have jumped on her for it."

"No, you'd have sat there brooding like a petulant jackass instead, probably making her feel bad." Steve pauses for a long moment, fiddling with the paper coffee cup in his hands. "You should read Hannah's file, Buck."

"Why?" He shouldn't ask. He can hear the motive sitting in his best friend's voice. It's a fucking trap, and he fucking knows it, but he also can't stop himself.

"Her last name is Schuster."

He absolutely despises the way the situation makes his gut clench. They're dead. They're all dead, and the ones in their place have been declawed for much longer than he's been off ice. He's probably not even going to talk to the woman, at least not today. He might catch the sight of a name on a coat, however. Or on a chart.

He wanted to do this without letting old habits in. He wanted to at least start this feeling like a person, not a weapon. But he gets why the dickhead is trying to baby-step him into it.

Bucky holds out his hand. Steve silently passes him the tablet he keeps. Neither of them says a word as he reads the SHEILD file to himself, line by line. Taking in a stranger's entire professional life. Her family, her known associates, every residence she's ever held. It takes a moment of hovering his finger over the subfolder with her medical records to talk himself down from opening it. Nothing is lingering in those shadows; Steve wouldn't allow it. That's not a line he needs to cross anymore.

He hands it back when he's done. "The other two?"

"Nothing I could think of. Ava's seen your hard limit list—you remember I told you I was gonna give it to one of your—?"

"I remember. It's okay. That's why you have it."

"Yeah." Steve takes another long pause. "You remember that she knows—"

"I know."

"Good. The others don't. She says they don't need to for any of it, and it's never going on record again." He looks over out of the corner of his eye. "She's going to bring it up today."

"I had a hunch."

"I just wanted to make sure it didn't surprise you."

"I know."

"Good." Steve picks up his coffee to drain the last of it in one swig. He tosses the empty cup into a trashcan by the wall a few tables over before looking back at him. He extends his now-empty hand. "Ready?"

"Not in the fucking least." Bucky raises his hand to lock with his best friends momentarily. "Let's go."

There's no wing in this tower—and he's been through all of them by now—that he dislikes more than medical. The place makes his skin feel like a thousand goddamn spiders are crawling all over him, and the smell of it, fuck. It sits in his head like a fog while it burns up the inside of his nose, making him want to break anything touching any part of him. He'd make Steve be here with him no matter what; that's a given. But the fact that there's going to be a doctor poking at him today while he's trying to power through it all makes the guy's presence non-negotiable. Bucky needs the safety net for the good of everyone in that room.

Steve doesn't try for talking to distract him, mercifully enough. There are times when it helps. Today isn't going to be one of them. He doesn't even have to bring it up for Steve to know, and the reminder that he's understood helps his nerves. It's been an incredibly long time since he had an incident. He's proud of every last one of those days. He won't be upset with himself—well. He'll try not to be upset with himself if that streak ends. But he really, really wants that day not to be today.

Bucky treats it like a mission. He's braced and ready for the antiseptic when they first get through the entrance. He doesn't flinch or huff through his nose at the invasion, not even as they make their way to the specialized divisions. He's walked these hallways before; he's walked every single one in the tower. It was the only way he could get himself to sleep during his first week here. Aside from a few trips to the emergency intake, he hasn't had to force himself back.

He's definitely never bothered with meeting the specialists themselves. It took long enough to convince himself not to memorize the names of every staff member in the tower. He doesn't need to do that anymore. That's what his therapist and the Star Spangled Spandex keep insisting, anyways.

The door Steve goes for sticks out against the sleek hallway long before they reach it. It's painted, and not just a solid color; it's covered with a garden scene done by several different hands, going by the skill variation. Bucky runs his thumb over one of the hundreds of flowers as they walk past it to feel how thick the tiny acrylic mountains are. One of the petals cracks under the light pressure of the move, making him frown. The mural's not sealed at all, despite being long dried. Not the kind of thing maintenance usually overlooks.

An absolute shock of color hits Bucky's eyes when he gets his first look at the neurosurgeon's office. The walls he can spot from this side of the entryway are lined with tie-dye hanging cloths, and the floor is covered in fluffed-up, vibrant rugs. There's not a hint of SHIELD regulation left in the architecture, with all the walls that aren't glass holding even more heavy paint globs. Some of the murals are more flowers, but a majority of them are space themed.

The stench of antiseptic fades the farther into the room Bucky goes. By the time the door shuts behind him, it's entirely replaced with the warm aroma of apples and cinnamon. A long, curved desk is off to one corner, pushed against the glass wall overlooking the city and covered in picture frames. An arrangement of chairs piled with pillows matching the rest of the decor sits in the center. Each one of them is fucking massive.

The room itself is separated in half by a thick glass wall. He can spot two doctors sitting behind an array of equipment on the other, equally decorated side behind the glass. There isn't any creative paint in there from what he can spot. If it weren't for that, he could almost forget that he's standing in a medical lab.

Almost.

"Hi there," comes a voice to his right.

The woman it belongs to almost blends in with the office once Bucky turns his head to look at her. The lab coat that comes down to her knees is a solid blue rather than tye-dye, but it's covered in stitched designs. Most of them are shaped like bees. Bucky barely stops his eyebrows from raising at the sight of the outfit underneath. Loose cloth pants hanging low on her hips, with even more bees on them, and a hand-knit top that would have been called obscene during most of the decades he woke up in. The bun she's pulled her hair into must have been done this morning; more than a few bundles are hanging down haphazardly. Bucky hasn't met a lot of brain surgeons that he knows of, but he doesn't remember any of them having glasses as thick as hers. He's pretty sure that good vision is something most of them need for the job. Not that he's nervous.

She walks over with a warm smile, already extending a hand to him. She's a short, round little thing. Barely five feet, if his guess is accurate. It always is. "I'm Dr. Ryder. You can call me Ava. I'm told you're my newest patient."

He accepts the shake with a nod and tries not to think about how sweaty his hand might feel to her. Wiping it against his pants would have been too weird. "James."

"But you prefer Bucky, right?"

"Yes, ma'am. Ava," he corrects himself quickly.

"Oooh, someone's stepped on some toes in the new century." Her smile takes on a teasing edge. "I'm originally from Canada; you won't find me taking offense. Ingrained cultural manners are a bitch to hold back."

"Careful, they're the only manners he's got," Steve warns, already heading for one of the chairs.

"Ignore him. I'm house-trained," Bucky assures her. Taking his hand back, he hikes a thumb over his shoulder, needing something to stall with. "You sure you don't want someone to give your door a few clear coats? It'd be a shame to see all that work chip off."

Ava waves dismissively. "We redo it a lot; it's a relaxation project around here. It'll look different pretty soon." She points toward the glass wall separating the two halves of the office. "I've got the rest of the team working on a project to give us some space, but I can bring them in for a minute if you'd like to meet them?"

"I'm... I'm alright for now, thanks. I can meet them—whenever."

She doesn't insist further or comment on the blatant nerves in his voice. Her hand waves at the arranged chairs as she moves to sit in one. "Take your pick of the lineup, then. Typically I'd offer to take you to the corner of the roof that we've claimed for ourselves as an alternative. But, I need to keep you in environmental controls for sanitation, at least for the initial visit."

Bucky nods a few times as he sits in the one next to Steve's. His ass sinks nearly a foot into nothing but pillows, and his spine goes rigid. "Here's fine."

He'd have said no anyways, not that he'll mention that. Too many open sight lines with his anxiety on edge. He'll be revisiting the roof before his next appointment to familiarize himself, though, that's for sure. His last trip up there was long before she was even hired. The mental image of bead strings and tye-dye throw blankets on patio furniture flits through his head. If she decorates the same way everywhere, he's guessing it won't be all that hard to find the space.

Ava pulls up a tablet from the coffee table to rest in the middle of her folded legs. He's guessing she's into yoga in her spare time. One of her eyebrows arches at them in amusement. "You know, I've never actually seen someone fill one of these before now."

"The benefits of dosed living," Steve quips, his tone a little too positive. It makes Bucky's foot start to bounce silently against the floor on instinct.

If she notices, the doctor doesn't mention it as she focuses on Bucky. "Steve tells me you prefer when doctors keep things direct with you."

Bucky shifts his eyes over to the man in question, who busies himself with one of the pillows, picking at the hanging fringe. Fucker's going to be hearing about this later, that's for damn sure.

He looks back at Ava. Time to get it over with, he encourages himself. "Yeah, if you don't mind."

"Not at all. I know Steve's already told you, but I want you to hear it from my mouth. I have The Soldier's activation memorized."

He can't stop the gut instinct to swallow over hearing the words, but he nods. "I'm okay with it."

"It's not in any of my notes; it never will be. My team understands that there is a specific trigger in place; they need to in order to do their job. But they have no indication of what it is. I'll never write the words out or speak them where they can be picked up. Steve helped me with the pronunciation and the order when he first gave me your records, but you have my word that I won't be repeating them."

"You should," Bucky insists immediately. "If anything happens, you should, and you shouldn't hesitate about it."

"She knows, Buck," Steve assures him with a murmur. "I took her through the worst case drill. She's got a panic button on her."

"Steve tells me that my reaction time is fast enough for working on your case safely." Ava's head tilts to the side slightly. "Your comfort is the priority here. We can always run through a silent drill together if you'd like the reassurance."

He thinks about it. Honest to god, he lets himself sit in the idea of putting Steve's training to the test for more than a few moments. Neither of them push him for an answer. "I might take you up on that at some point."

She nods, the hair hanging closest to her face bouncing slightly. "Whenever you want. That offer is permanent. I'm taking this case on because I want to help undo what's been done; I'm not here to let it be continued, not even in research." Her eyes shift to Steve, with a bitter defiance building in them. "I trust that'll be clarified to the director if our work here ever reaches his ears, captain."

Steve nods, finally looking up from where he's moved on to picking at the pillow's stitches. "There's no more mud in that water. Fury understands how far over the line we went."

Ava doesn't look convinced in the least. Bucky doesn't blame her, not with the scattered memories of his role in all of it sitting in his head. When she looks back at him, the distrust leaves her eyes. "I'd like to get a better idea of what we'll be working with. I know that's probably going to be one of the most difficult parts of this, so we can try to get through it now if you'd like. Or we can wait until you're feeling more comfortable. It's entirely up to you."

Shifting slightly to straighten out his shoulders, Bucky nods. "I'm ready now."

It's an outright lie, but that doesn't really matter anymore. There's never going to be a time when he is ready. He still needs to do this.

"I'm going to need to adjust your head a few times today," she tells him with a relaxed, melodic tone as she stands up. She lifts a black briefcase from the coffee table and brings it over to rest on the arm of his chair, where he can easily see it being handled. "Is there anywhere you'd prefer me putting my hands? Or anywhere specific you want me to avoid?"

Bucky sees Steve shift his head slightly in his peripheral and wants to roll his eyes. Asshole. He'd have made a joke at the most; he wouldn't have been insulted. Probably. "I can't think of anywhere to steer you away from. You're good to do whatever you need to do."

She doesn't take him into the other section of the room like he thought she would. She doesn't even make him stand back up. All it takes to get the nightmare he's been dreading for years started is Ava pulling a wired, plastic wreath from the briefcase to put over the top of his head. She doesn't push a cold faceplate over his eye and against his temples; no bite guard gets shoved in his mouth. There's no frigid metal probing into the top of his neck to make his teeth buzz until he wants to rip them out of his jaw. The air around him isn't humid and suffocating like it was in that bunker. He can't hear the hum of electric coils or the squeak of leather boots on linoleum.

He's not in Siberia. He's in New York. This isn't a HYDRA agent strapping him down. This is a hippie, who definitely smoked pot this morning, putting a sensor on his head that barely has any weight.

"Here, hold this for me," she tells him from behind his chair, offering her tablet over his shoulder. He takes it silently, bringing it to rest in both hands. A digital scan of his brain is already being mapped out on the screen. It's the first time he's seen the anchor that wraps around his brainstem since the X-rays HYDRA used to leave up like trophies. "We can get a look at this thing together."

Bucky takes a deep breath in. It's… not a pretty sight. Whatever they put in him isn't registering in the bright blue lights of the rest of his brain. They're all dark spots, primarily lines branching out from the anchor that might as well be a black hole.

"You see that?" Ava leans forward to run her nail up the path of one of the lines. It starts at the anchor, and it's attached to another point further up, but that junction is the source of even more lines that go all over. There's a fucking mechanical spider web in his brain. "That's your motor cortex, and those links are tethered to your arm, starting there. That—the one right there—is what's making your cybernetics work."

"What's the rest of it?" There's a fucking lot of it, whatever it is. A lot more than he remembers being put in.

"Considering the intent of the Nazis that had you, the end goal was probably total control." Her finger moves, tapping several things that look way too fucking important as she keeps talking. "All of those there are connected to your essential functions: breathing, heart rate, consciousness. From there, they branched out into trying for control over your limbs. Jesus." She leans further over his shoulder and pinches at the screen to zoom in. "It looks like they were already building into your entire cognitive process."

"What does that mean?" Steve asks, worry rising in his tone.

"It means they were reckless on top of being cruel. And fucking stupid—pardon my French."

"You're talking to soldiers, doc," Bucky reminds her quietly, his brows drawn in as his eyes trace the black spots in his grey matter.

"Right. In that case, fuck every last one of them and the horses they rode... into whichever circle of hell they're burning in, I guess." Bucky's lips twitch slightly as she zooms back out. "They were venturing into parts of the brain that haven't been studied enough for human testing, even by today's standards. Blindly poking just to see what worked; my guess is because they knew that you could survive it. You see that big scary thing under your hippocampus?"

Bucky nods as she taps at the anchor. "Yeah. Yeah, that was… that was the first part. That got put in, I mean." He clears his throat when it starts to scratch. "I'm. I'm pretty sure it was the first part."

"Do you want to know why you don't feel sure?" she asks gently. Her voice has dropped to something much softer. It makes him sit back in the overly comfortable chair incrementally.

"Yeah," he tells her quietly, honestly. He wouldn't have a year ago.

Ava circles her finger around the center of his brain, where one of the more prominent lines from the anchor holds several thinner, black branches. "That's your limbic system. It controls emotion, memory, behavioral habits, that kind of thing. They fried it at some point trying to get to your memories, I assume. My team has the photograph from your HYDRA file, the one with the X-ray from your initial brain surgery. I've studied it with my own eyes. That serum in your bloodstream is the only thing that brought you back from being a vegetable. The salvaged notes from the initial facility they kept you in mention months of unresponsiveness and varying levels of brain activity.

"There's a reason you can't remember who you were then, Bucky. They wiped you clean because they knew you, out of all their test subjects, could recover from it. There wasn't enough left of your mind to hold memories, much less any kind of higher will." He hears her clothes shuffle behind him and sees Steve turn his head to look back at her from the corner of his eye. "I'm more than willing to testify to that in any court on Earth, captain. So we're clear."

"Understood," Steve replies, his voice thick. "I appreciate that."

Fuck, so does Bucky. Too bad he can't get his throat to open back up at the moment.

"Now, let's talk about the hard part." He hears Ava sigh. "From what I can see, there's no way we can remove any of this. Not by any standard that I'm willing to entertain, at least."

Bucky shakes his head and tries clearing his throat again. It doesn't feel anywhere near as successful this time around. "That's fine. I don't—I don't think I'd… I wouldn't be ready for that. I just want to know it's not…."

"Capable of being controlled remotely?" she offers when he trails off.

"Yeah. Aside from the code. I don't—that's not a problem. They're dead. Anyone else that had it, I mean." Christ, his foot's going to bounce straight out of his boot, right through the leather.

"I can't make any kind of assurances at this stage when it comes to that. But you have my word that it will be my team's primary focus." Her hand pulls back, and he feels four of her fingertips lightly rest on his shoulder. "I'd prefer to check that connection point they left over your spinal cord before you leave today, but the rest of what we need for diagnostics can wait until another time."

Bucky pulls in a heavy breath through his nose. "Yeah. I'm ready to do that."

"I need to get a few things for it and check in with my team." She taps at the side of the wreath lightly. "You don't have to keep looking at the scan, but you should leave this on while I'm gone so we can get some basic readings."

"You're the boss, doc." He tries not to make it look like he's in a hurry to get the thing out of his hand when he dumps the tablet on his leg.

"I'll be back in just a bit," she tells them, calmly shuffling off into the other half of the office. The glass door hisses loudly as she goes through it, confirming it's a sterile lab. The wall frosts over shortly after with the privacy screen activating.

Neither of them says a word for the first few minutes.

"Well," Steve finally offers up, his voice still as thick as when he thanked the doctor. "There's the confirmation you've been waiting for."

"That's not what that was—"

"Alright, you know what? Fuck you very much, Buck—"

"Fuck me? Fuck me? Yeah, I guess that's how it works now, what with you making alll the fucking calls—"

Steve's finger comes sailing into his face. "This affects more than just—" He stops with a short, muted groan and yanks his hand back to shove through his hair. After a moment, he lets it fall to his thigh in a clenched fist. "You want to sit here blaming yourself for it all, fine. I've got no right to tell you to stop when I'm still doing the exact same thing. But I'm pulling you through this whether," his voice goes high and mocking as he turns to glare a hole into the side of Bucky's head, "yooou like it or not. I let you fall once; I'm not fucking doing it again, asshole."

Bucky stares down a lava lamp sitting on the coffee table for a long, silent moment, his face pinched. He counts the number of wiggling blobs floating from the top to the bottom. He takes in their shared color and picks as close to a stupid paint name for it as possible. One by one, his photographic memory goes down the list of stupid colors from that stupid swatch wall at the stupid art supply store that Steve takes him to when he can't sleep at three in fucking the morning. He decides on fuchsia because it sounds extra stupid. There're twelve in total, they're fuchsia, and his best friend is as stupid as the name of their color.

The anger eventually eases up. "You're the asshole."

Steve sits back in his chair with a sigh. "Love you, too."

It takes a long minute of grinding his teeth for Bucky to force out the question that won't stop echoing in his head. "She doesn't know about the others?"

"She knows there were other attempts, but no, I didn't tell her any of them were successful. I left my notes in her file on what's been held back from her, along with the things she knows that her team doesn't. You can tell her whatever you want; that's up to you. I really think you should read through all of their files."

"Yeah?" Bucky snaps mockingly. "I really think you should kiss my ass."

Steve reaches out to grab one of the magazines from a stack on the coffee table. His posture is resigned and absolutely screaming I know better than you right now, idiot. "You should grow the fuck up."

—

There's no way the notes from HYDRA cover all his surgeries, not with this much framework built up inside his brain.

Steve warned her to expect something like this. The bastards passed Bucky around like a science experiment over the decades. Whenever a station was compromised, all of its records were destroyed to safeguard HYDRA's critical secrets, the work and confirmed existence of the Winter Soldier being one of them. Only a handful were raided by SHEILD efficiently enough to prevent further loss of his medical history. What remains is the scattered works of solitary minds spanned across decades.

In Ava's opinion, not one of those minds should have been granted the mercy of seeing daylight again after their senseless, abhorrent, despicable crimes against the sergeant. Never in her life has she been a violent woman, but given a blunt object and five minutes with the lot of them, she'd have been very tempted to rebalance nature with ruthless gusto.

A hand nudges at her arm, pulling her from her distraction with a quick inhale. "Sorry, repeat that?"

Wyatt's eyebrows pull in sympathetically. "Y'can hand this part off to one of us, boss."

"You can hand it off to him," Hannah interrupts briskly, her eyes never moving from where they're pressed against a microscope.

"Y'can hand it off to me," Wyatt rapidly corrects with a warm smile. He drums his stylus against his arm and leans against the lab's center console. The movable hologram program Tony gifted them is already building detail into one of the darkest acts in human history. Right there, in front of one of the most gentle souls Ava's ever met. The contrast makes her stomach drop. "I mean it; y'know me, I got a real sweet touch. Betch'a the sergeant wouldn't even know I'd been there til it was over."

"Don't make me say it, Combs." Hannah almost sounds bored. The former marine is in a good mood today.

Wyatt doesn't even bother with throwing a quip back at her. He's usually wise enough to know when he's in a losing battle. Reaching out, he gives Ava's shoulder a supportive bump. "You said so yourself; he's alright with meetin' us."

Ava shakes her head, bringing her hand up to rub at the bridge of her nose. Her eyes are stinging hard enough to make them water. She shouldn't have pulled an all-nighter before this; it definitely isn't helping her frustration. "He's okay with it; that doesn't mean he's ready for it. You should see the way he's practically vibrating in that chair. There's not one part of this he isn't forcing himself through. I want to try to limit contact until he feels like he's in control of the space around him."

"That won't take long," Hannah comments quietly, reaching for another slide. "There are certain habits infiltrators don't lose."

"Speakin' from your own experience on that one?" Wyatt asks, curiosity creeping into his tone. Their eternal beacon of southern sunshine has yet to give up chasing details about her, unlike everyone else who visits their little medical corner.

"Infiltrator is not the classification I would have given myself. I was never very subtle in my old line of work."

"Yeah, 'cause subtle's definitely the word I'd pick for your blunt ass now." Wyatt rolls his eyes and extends his hand to rapidly spin the projection of Bucky's brain with the flick of a stubby finger. "Either'a you looked at these trenches much yet? There's different cablin' in every major section. None of it's got a set standard, far as I can tell."

"I don't think he ever had the same doctor for more than two surgeries." Ava leans heavily against the console with a sigh, trying not to let herself venture into the mindset of a terrified soldier. She has to stay detached, or this will eat her alive before they're even halfway done. The enlarged hologram already hurts to look at in more ways than one. "Steve confirmed that HYDRA intermittently lost sections of his records through the years. All of this could be fractured by the decades; we won't know until Paige starts getting a read on the programming behind that main port."

"How do you want us to handle data transfer?" Hannah asks.

"Let's keep this off our internal server as much as we can help it. Tony sectioned off a virtual instance that we can burn when needed, but the only time you should be using that is for his scans. Put everything else on an isolated hard copy here in the lab, wherever you can do it without hindering the work. I want the equipment analysis kept as off-record as possible. I don't want this being recreated. By anyone."

"Definitely agreein' with you on that one, boss." Wyatt pokes his finger into the projection's left frontal lobe, halting its slowing spin. "I know we said extraction ain't the goal here, but I'm gonna be runnin' some sims on that when I've got the time. I don't like the idea of leavin' any'a this shit in, even if we do get it identified and nuked."

Ava nods and reaches up to give his shoulder a warm squeeze. "Let me know what initial paths you route; we can build from there. I doubt he'll be ready for any extensive work for years to come, but the least we can do is present him with some options." She takes a deep breath through her nose as she looks over the port connection on the hologram. "Alright, I'll be back after I finish his consultation."

"Good luck, boss," Wyatt encourages with a smile. "Tell the sergeant we said hi."

She waves her hand over her shoulder with a hum and braces herself to face her latest patient again.

The sergeant himself is sitting just as stiffly as he was when she left, but the captain has moved on to relaxing with a magazine in his hands. They both look up at the sound of the door opening, with a laid-back smile on Steve's face and a forced one on Bucky's. She almost wants to tell him that he doesn't have to make an attempt.

"Sorry for the wait; needed a quick check-in with the brain trust." And to not want to throw something heavy through Tony's fancy glass walls. "They wanted me to pass along their hello's. Dr. Combs, in particular, is very excited to meet you."

Bucky huffs a silent laugh through his nose as she returns to stand at the side of his chair. She doesn't try to move behind him for the moment. "Yeah, I'm sure I'm real—"

"Buck," Steve cuts in softly with a side eye in his best friend's direction.

"Fascinating?" Bucky's eyes lift to Ava's at her teasing guess, and his responding nod is sheepish. She smiles at the attempted manners. "Your case is as interesting as it is horrific, that's for sure. Lucky for you, we're a morbid bunch, so you can go for the gallows humor whenever you want." She taps at Bucky's arm with the pad of her index finger, trying to warm him up to repeat physical contact. "However, I'm pretty sure Wyatt is looking forward to asking for your autograph above everything."

The sergeant's eyebrows rocket toward his hairline. "What's he looking for? Love, The Winter Soldier?"

"Bucky." Steve doesn't even look over this time; he just drops one side of the magazine to pinch the bridge of his nose.

The sight of an exasperated Captain America sitting in her office makes Ava snort loudly. She doesn't miss the way it makes Bucky's lips raise at the corners. "He comes from a long line of history buffs who believe accurate preservation is the best tool to prevent it from repeating. The guy grew up with battle models and field testimonials from every major war. I'm guessing he had some Howling Commando envy as a kid, though he won't own up to that on his end."

"He knows I was one of them for all of five minutes, right?"

"None of us were Howlies for long," Steve forcefully insists, one foot coming over to kick Buckys. "But that doesn't change the good we did while we were."

"It also won't stop him from chewing your ear off about it if you let him." Ava crosses her arms over her chest in amusement. "My advice is to stop him early. Definitely before he starts asking what you remember about the maps. You've got a real Milo Thatch working on your brain now." Bucky looks up at her in confusion. "Haven't gotten around to Disney movies yet? Milo's a character from Atlantis, one of my personal favorites. He and Wyatt share a certain level of academic excitement."

"I'll add it to the watch list." A small smile comes up, making her wonder what his cheeks look like when he really lets it go. "And keep the point of no return in mind."

She stops herself from gushing about the beauty of the art behind the movie, wanting to honor his headfirst approach. "You ready to get the last part of today's visit over with?"

His shoulders rise with another resigned intake, making her want to be ferociously violent toward the closest available Nazi. "I'm ready when you are, doc."

"My go-to hardware specialist built a prototype connector based on the scans Tony got during your initial intake. It's only the first iteration for the sake of data extraction, so be sure to speak up if anything feels off. Anything at all, even if it's just minor discomfort. She can work on changing it for the next build. I'm sure Steve can attest to Paige's efficiency at her job by now."

The slightest hint of a blush comes over the captain's cheeks at the teasing mention of his numerous visits to the engineering department. "Ms. Findley—"

"Does she ask you to call her that?" Bucky jumps on his best friend with immediately. Ava would feel bad about chumming the waters, but the banter is making him relax against the chair.

Steve shuts his mouth momentarily. The blush gets a shade darker before he opens it again. "Paige is a very dedicated worker. And a lovely conversationalist. How do you two know each other? Through Tony?"

Now Ava really does feel bad. She puts a hand on her hip and tries to keep her smile from growing. "No, I'm the one who introduced them. She's been my best friend for about fifteen years now."

Steve freezes, and Bucky's grin takes over the lower half of his face. The sergeant sits all the way back, with shoulders that are perfectly at ease. "Oh, good. If I think of anything later, I can just have Stevie drop it off for me. I'd hate to forget between appointments."

Ava pulls the wireless reader and its port connector from the briefcase on Bucky's chair. She steps up behind him and tries not to let her eyes linger on how his smile lights up his face or how it warms her chest to see. Her free hand comes to rest on his left shoulder, leaving the exit door in his right peripherals. "This shouldn't take more than a few minutes at most. Ready?"

"Hit me." It almost doesn't sound forced.

She lifts his hair and runs her thumb over the port once to brace him for the new sensations before lining up the connector. As she'd explicitly requested of Paige, the mechanism doesn't snap into place when she locks it in, meaning there's no responding vibration to move through his skull. The notes from Bucky's therapist that were passed along didn't mention it, but they hardly mention anything at all. There's a lot he's holding back, there has to be, and she's been trying to preempt as much of it as she can.

Bucky's nails dig into the arm of the chair, and he inhales sharply. After a moment, his fingers start to relax one by one. Ava watches them all, her eyes moving between his hands and neck repeatedly, while the reader begins its data harvest. She gives him long enough to get a few steady breaths in.

"Have you started any animated movie binges?" she prods, wanting to stall for time to get a closer look at his implant. With him letting her hold up his hair like this, it might be her only chance for the foreseeable future.

"Sam's gotten me to sit through a few of his picks," he replies tensely.

"Mmm. I'm guessing Mister Feathers is a Pixar fan."

"I know that's an animation studio, but that's the extent of my expertise on the subject. Are they the ones who made Lilo and Stitch?"

"He did not make you watch that one first."

"He did, but that's technically not my first animated movie. We had them back in the 30s, you know."

"Some of us still call it animation's golden age," Steve mutters in the most crotchety old artist fashion, his eyes back on the magazine in his lap.

"Take a look around this room, Rogers," Ava sasses. "Do I look like someone who'd argue with you about its significance?"

"Point taken."

Her eyebrows pull in while she looks over just how much of Bucky's spinal cord is exposed to outside influence. She knows how far the port runs thanks to the scans, but now she's getting an eyeful of movable hatching and flesh that will never get the proper chance to heal.

"How are you handling the daily care of this?" she asks, running her finger around one edge of the port.

"I do it," Bucky tells her simply.

Her eyes lock on the back of his head in disbelief. "You do… what, exactly?"

"I've got a morning routine for it. Clear the excess buildup, sterilize the whole area, work the skin, that kind of thing."

"You understand that this has direct access to your brainstem, right?"

"I know." He shifts his weight in the chair. "I'm careful."

"I have several medical degrees, one of which is entirely focused on the human brain, and even I would hesitate to approach this on my own body. If anything that can give you so much as a hundred-degree fever touches this, you're dead, Bucky." She lets the hand not holding up his hair come to rest on his shoulder. "I'm not trying to scare you with this, but as your doctor, I need to make sure you understand the severity here. I don't want you doing this yourself anymore; I want you to come to my office for it."

"That's not necessary—"

"What time do you want him here in the mornings?" Steve asks, ignoring Bucky entirely.

"I don't need to come here in the mornings—"

"It doesn't have to be every morning," Ava offers, wanting to give him a compromise. She's definitely not letting him go back to doing it himself. "I can set up a stable cleaning routine every other day whenever you have the time to come in."

"I have it handled, really—"

"I wouldn't push it past three days, though."

"Every other morning," Steve agrees. "That's perfect. JARVIS can keep an eye on the schedules for him."

"I've got working fucking eyeballs," Bucky almost shouts, making Ava and Steve finally let up.

She squeezes her hand on his shoulder, half in apology, half in sympathy. "Yes, you do. But they happen to be in the front of your head. My eyes can see the back of your neck without a mirror, and they've got a decade's worth of disgustingly thorough medical training behind them. You came here because you're ready for this to get done. Now you actually have to let me do it."

Bucky lifts a hand as if he's about to argue but then lowers it with a soft sigh. "Yeah... yeah, alright. But I'm not always going to be here in the mornings—"

"She said it doesn't have to be the mornings," Steve cuts in again.

"You know what I mean, jackass. I'm not always going to be here consistently. I have, you know, a job that you try to boss me around on—"

"We can make sure you've got a trained medic to help—"

"No, Grant."

The words are said softly, and it takes a moment for Ava to even remember that it's the captain's middle name, but something happens in the wake of them. Steve's relentless push stops on a dime, and the fight leaves Bucky's shoulders. The two of them relax marginally, and Steve nods once. "Okay. So, we establish the routine here. Get it ironed out; get you practiced with it. Then I'll clear you for doing it yourself on missions. But if you miss even one while you're here, so help me—"

"I got it, I got it."

Steve watches Bucky with a tightly held expression for another long moment. Then he looks up at Ava with a nod. "He'll be here, and I'll make sure he's not cleared for another mission until you two have a stable routine for taking care of this."

Ava gives Bucky's shoulder another light squeeze. "I promise it'll be quick every time. I'll work with Paige on making you a field kit. In the long run, this shouldn't interrupt your normal day-to-day much at all."

"Appreciate the effort, doc." Bucky gives a soft grunt. "Sorry for the. Y'know. Pushback."

"I think the world owes you a little more than patience as backpay, Sergeant. I'm happy to help where I can."

—

Febuary 19th 2018

"I can handle it if you want me to."

"No. No, I... I can do it."

"You're sure?"

"You think I can't?"

"I think you look like you're about to throw up on my shoes."

"I don't like the idea of... starting off like that."

"That's why I'm offering to do it."

"No. It should be me. There are things you won't be able to explain."

"You can always fill in the blanks when she shows up for Soldat training."

"What a great alternative first impression! Hello, ma'am, not only am I a complete jackass, but I also delegate my role as—"

"You're not delegating; you're assigning the right person to the job. And this takes away the need for you to be a jackass."

"Leaving you to be a confrontational bitch in someone's eyes?"

"What's the issue there?"

"That's not what you are, Nat."

"Says who?"

Steve reaches out to smack the side of her arm. "That's one of my closest friends you're ragging on."

"She can take it." Natasha looks over at him, a bored hike to one brow. "Let's stay focused on what the doctor can take. This won't be like the therapists. We can't put him through multiple doctors on this. We'll only get one or two tries before he draws the hard limit."

He nods, turning his eyes back to the closed elevator doors. "Right. Right, it's for a good reason. I can do it."

"You don't have to. I can handle it."

"I know. But it should be me." He knocks the side of his boot against hers. "Thank you."

"Always. Let me know how it goes."

Natasha's off the elevator before the doors are even finished opening, leaving Steve to collect himself alone. He pushes off the back railing with a heavy sigh. No part of this is going to be easy to stomach. He's accepted that. He exits the elevator with a resigned set to his shoulders.

The medical wing is dark this late into the day. JARVIS already confirmed that the doctor is still in the building. From the AI's reports, she pulls late nights like this regularly. It bodes well for what he'll have to ask of her and her team.

He stops to admire the heavy paint on the outside of the lab's door. There's days worth of work here, clearly a labor of love. It takes until he's admiring the fourth flower of his perusal to notice that it's not all the same artist. He scans it a bit quicker after that, trying to take a guess as to how many different hands took part. His best guess is four.

Accepting that he's been inadvertently stalling, Steve pushes it open roughly. He probably should have expected the onslaught of color in the room from seeing the door. It still hits him hard enough to make him do a double-take through his exaggerated annoyance. The doctor sitting on the other side of a very large desk nearly jumps out of her chair.

"Christ Al-fucking-mighty," she swears, one hand coming up to brace against her chest. Steve gets nailed with a furious glare. "Knock much?"

Well, that's one test passed. "Are you Dr. Ryder?"

"I am. Who the hell wants to—oh." Recognition dawns on her face as Steve gets close enough to be illuminated by her desk light. The fury in her shifts toward indignance. "I happen to hold a lot of respect for you, at least during normal business hours. So, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt here and let you have a moment to explain yourself, captain."

He almost starts with an apology, but he catches himself in time. "I've been told you're one of the best neurosurgeons we're in contact with—"

"No, you've been told I am the best." She crosses her arms over her chest and leans back in her chair. Her head inclines toward him. "You can continue."

Steve's reservations about her being able to handle Bucky are leaving rapidly. It almost makes him smile. He holds it together with his best captain voice. "I need your expertise on a consultation. A private consultation. Completely off SHEILD books."

"Am I being roped into the organization's second overhaul?" There's bitterness lingering in her tone. The kind Steve remembers feeling on his own end for months leading up to Fury's near-assassination.

"No. When I say private, I mean private. This isn't under SHIELD purview. I'll be expecting discretion if you think you're up to the case, so we're clear."

The doctor's eyebrows sail up, and her head moves back far enough to hit her chair. "I'll be expecting you to hand over some details before I agree to a damn thing. As a follow-up, you can provide me with an explanation as to why this needed to be done an hour before midnight, with no forewarning and definitely no respect. Otherwise, you can turn your happy ass back around and go find the other neurosurgeons you didn't feel like harassing first."

Damn. He really should have gotten Natasha to do this; she's faster with proper comebacks. "You'll be given information as you need to know it. First, I need to make sure that—"

"First, you can fuck off." Her head shifts to one side as he pauses. "I don't respond well to authority, captain. I'm sure whatever's going on is very important if it's got America's Sweetheart making an ass of himself in the middle of my office on a Monday night. But that's not really my problem. It could be, were I given a reason to care about it."

"Does rectifying war crimes warrant your valuable attention, doctor?" The words feel awful leaving his mouth; she doesn't deserve to get barked at like this. But he needs an honest indication of how she'll react to a bad day.

Ava watches him with a slightly open mouth for more than a few tense moments. Then recognition dawns for a second time, and her eyes roll dramatically. "Oh, for god's sweet sake. You could have just asked if I have experience with PTSD patients. Hell, you were clearly sent by Tony, and I met the man at a veteran's benefit, so you could have asked him. Barnes' presence on the Avenger's roster isn't exactly a secret these days."

Steve holds himself still, then shifts his weight to one foot. "You met at a veteran's benefit?"

She nods slowly, with a bit of mockery behind the motion. "Yes. Almost a decade ago. He funds most of my work with the VA."

That hadn't been included in her resume. He didn't want to invade her privacy by pulling her file until she agreed to it. Steve feels heat rise to his cheeks. Then the anger starts to surface. "You know, I'm not one hundred percent sure I was supposed to know that."

"You think?" The words are bone dry, and her posture is still defensive, but there's a smile working its way up from the corners of her lips.

"Look, I...." Steve raises a hand to the back of his neck sheepishly. "I apologize. I promise it's not about doubting your professionalism—"

"It's about protecting family, yeah, I get it." Her arms don't unfold from her chest. But her eyebrows do come back down.

"He's very important to me. I want to make sure he's in good hands, that's all."

"Well?"

Steve's brows draw in. "I wasn't trying to dump the case on you right now—"

"No, idiot." Her eyes roll again, with much less aggression. "I'm asking if I passed."

"Oh." He nods, his cheeks still feeling far too hot. "With flying colors, so far. There's still a lot more to cover before we get Bucky involved, but. Yes, ma'am. I think you'll handle him just fine."

With a sigh, her arms finally lower. She extends a hand out in his direction. "Ava Ryder. It's very nice to meet you, Captain Rogers."

He takes her hand with a firm shake, inclining his head apologetically. "It's very nice to meet you, as well, doctor. You can call me Steve."

"You can call me Ava. So can James whenever I'm finally graced with his presence."

Yeah. She'll do just fine. "He prefers Bucky. And I'm sure he'll provide you with a much more agreeable first impression. All that can wait until you don't look like you're going to fall asleep on your keyboard, though.

Ava smiles warmly at him, falling back against her chair as she takes back her hand. "I'm looking forward to it. You can send me the details on the case at a reasonable hour to make up for scaring the shit out of me."

"Yes, ma'am." He tips his head respectfully, already backing up from her desk. "Sorry for the scare. And for being so disrespectful. He really is—"

"Important to you." She waves her hand dismissively before reaching up to push at her glasses. "I get it, don't worry. I'd be twice as much of a wreck in your shoes. You're doing fine."

Sometimes, on the rarest of occasions, there are benefits to having the worst moments of his life in the history books. "I appreciate that, thank you. You have a good rest of your night, ma'am. I'll send—I'll have JARVIS send you his file—"

"Captain Rogers is unaware of how to forward SHEILD files, doctor," the AI cuts in gleefully.

"I had my suspicions, JARVIS; thanks." She waves her hand again, this time in goodbye, as she looks back at her computer screen. "Please don't trip on my carpet and bust your ass on the way out of my office."

Steve pointedly turns on his heel, glad for the excuse to hide his burning face. He all but races to the door. "I'll be in contact, doc."

"Mhmm."

When he pulls open the painted door, he's almost unsurprised to find Natasha leaning against the other side of the hallway. She doesn't move at all, but one side of her mouth lifts in a smirk.

Steve lets the door shut softly behind him before cocking his head to the side. "Very cute. You two in on it together?"

"No, but sniffing out Tony's bait didn't take long. You'd have noticed, too, if you weren't so far up Bucky's ass." Her head tilts in the opposite direction as his. "Feel better?"

He straightens up with a nod. The motion feels confident. "Much."

—author's end notes, yoinked straight from ao3—

“what’s paige like?” well. to put it simply. she is every last ounce of karma that steve has earned by lovingly terrorizing his best friend 😌

i feel like the overall theme got covered enough with this to tell if the plot is for you or not. flirting starts next, but isn't super blatant until chap 4. i am in zero rush and will have no problem with dedicating an entire chap to cuddling tbh, this is a comfort project im in for the long haul. check back later for * to get full smut taste, current (possibly changing) map has it in chap 9. OR you can check back for kinktober, i have all 31 days outlined for these idiots. i need starfield to be good so i can do smut for that too, bethesda pls

keep in mind this will get sci-fi weird at times, and loosely ref/revolve around greek myth tropes bc iiiii like ‘em ❤️ im a fandom ancient who takes no issue with cleaning out the dickhead comments 😌 also i might edit shit. im still not clear on what ao3 will email about a bookmark (god willing its not edits that dont include a new chapter) but just in case i figured id warn for anyone who doesn't want email spam

im gonna try to keep ava and paige as vague as possible, aside from a few scattered physical details so i have SOMETHING to write. my favorite bucky fic in existence is a reader!fic (safe with me is Ungodly levels of good, and i dont just say that as a fellow west wing addict. i constantly forget that his apartment in it isn't actually canon and there're no m&ms hiding for eternity somewhere) so you wont get any judgment from me on replacing both of them right down to their names, that’s how im writing them!! it just feels unfair to tag it a reader fic with them being given SUCH a heavy “presence" i guess

main pov's (the undated ones) will always flip between bucky and ava. the dated ones are other characters pov's OOOOOOR its a flashback in which case it could be the two of them, but ill always try to make it clear whose headspace is focused up front, so i dont think ive set up a hurdle there

thanks for reading ❤️ i love and appreciate feedback immensely ❤️ feeds the brain chemicals 😌 no worries abt spoilers, i feel like anyone looking there knows what theyre risking lmao

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes fic #chapter update #man the way thats going to be the extend of effort i have when it comes to promoing this damn thing #truly astonishing how little fandom energy i have lmao #i sure as shit aint taggin the other ones with anything but my sorting tags lmao #i do not have the Energy #good space

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tvseries-writings · 3 years ago

Text

It’s all Peter Parker’s fault

Prompt: The reader pranks her girlfriends , Peter is her accomplice but things don’t end well for her. And her girlfriends don’t like the joke.

TW: injuries, blood

Wandanat x reader

Support me on ko-fi ☕️

You look at Peter and shake your head. « No, we don't talk about it. They will kill me and then they will kill you but only after having tortured you…and after having made you suffer very, very slowly. "

Peter turns the camera at you, waving you to smile. "Come on y / n, for our followers"

You sigh and yank the camera out of his hands, glaring at him. " I hate you Parker, I hate you"

Peter gives you the best apologetic smile he can pull before wishing you good luck and walking away.

"A friendly neighborhood spider-man.….please, that boy is the devil himself"

You shake your head in irritation, muttering to yourself as you walk into your bedroom.

You and Peter had opened your YouTube channel about two years ago and, contrary to what you expected, had reached a million followers in less than twenty-four hours ... and then, well, the number had gone up again and again and again. goes up, never stopping. And your followers keep asking you for particular tricks to play on you, on your girls and Peter, on Tony. And well, what you are about to do is one of the most requested and most liked.

You put the camera above the desk, diligently hiding it behind some plants and carefully checking if it could be even minimally noticed by your girls, also positioning yourself in different places in the room to check.

"Damn Parker, if this backfires me somehow ... I'll kill you with my own hands, I won't wait for Natasha and Wanda to do it"

You shake your head, nervously looking at the time on the clock on the wall.

Your girls will be there in thirty minutes and you don't have much time. You open the bottle of fake blood, sprinkling it a little on the corner of the coffee table in the center of the room and a little in your hair. You put on the biometric mask that Bruce designed and smile thinking about when he created it and, above all, when Peter asked him to make a little secret modification for the two of you. The doctor looked up and muttered something about teenagers scaring him before adding what Peter had asked him.

You activate the mask, brushing your forehead to bring out a hyper-realistic cut and, at the same time, shield your mind so that the Sokovian can't understand that it's all a joke ahead of time. The first time you and Peter saw it, you were amazed and super excited already thinking about all the tricks you could have done. You to your girlfriends and him to Tony. Or rather, "Mr. Stark" as he likes to call him.

« F.R.I.D.A.Y., activation of the “PRANK” protocol » « Immediately miss y / n, do you like the usual modality or do you prefer to make some changes? » " No F.R.I.D.A.Y., use the usual method, thanks“

You and Peter implemented that new mode in FRIDAY a couple of months ago, making sure Tony never found out and it worked great. Or at least, it had up to that point so hopefully it will continue to work.

You lie down on the ground, near the table and dirty the cut with fake blood. You sprinkle some on the ground as well and then settle into a position similar to what you might be after a bad fall.

You close your eyes, waiting for F.R.I.D.A.Y. to warn your girlfriends by telling them you were hurt. Without saying anything more.

You force yourself to relax your muscles, in a very uncomfortable position, as soon as you hear footsteps approaching hastily.

Wanda is the first to enter the room, her heart beating furiously in her chest since F.R.I.D.A.Y. told them you needed help, ignoring their further questions about it and refusing to give any answers, simply remaining silent.

The heart of the Sokovian stops when she notices your body lying on the ground, unconscious and with a deep cut on the forehead.

" Shit, y/n!" The sokovian screams as she hurries to run towards you, falling to her knees next to your body and taking your head in her hands. Natasha follows quickly, a worried frown flashing across her face as she checks your pulse. Her throat forms a lump when she sees that, despite Wanda's light taps on your face, you don't give any sign of wanting to wake up.

" Detka, detka please wake up"

Wanda's voice is full of concern. The Sokovian holds your face in her hands as Natasha carefully examines the cut on your forehead.

The Russian watches the room, looking for whatever may have caused you that wound and when her eyes rest on the corner of the bloody table, the fear grips her stomach. "We have to call Bruce"

Wanda looks away from you and looks at her girlfriend as soon as she hears the concern steeped in her voice. She follows her gaze and notices the bloody nightstand too. "F.R.I.D.A.Y. call Bruce and tell him to come here right now.”

Natasha's voice trembles a little; her gaze rests on your unconscious body and her attention turns back to you. "Hey malyshka, you have to open your eyes for us love."

You barely hold back the laughter, trying to fully immerse yourself in the part before starting to open your eyes - a few minutes later - blinking over and over again before focusing on Wanda's face and then Natasha's.

You take on the most confused face you can interpret before speaking with a hoarse voice.

" W-what happened? Who are you? "

As soon as the words leave your lips, your girls become even more worried. Wanda caresses your cheeks and you, despite struggling to do so, you dodge from her grip, sitting up despite the protests of the two girls. "Who are you? I don't know you, get away from me "

Wanda and Natasha take a few steps back, giving each other worried looks. « Malyshka..y / n, it's us, your girls. Natasha and Wanda. "

Natasha talks, looking you in the eye and staying as calm as possible. He doesn't want to scare you, especially considering the considerable concussion you got.

Wanda approaches again, trying to put her hands on your temples. She would like to use her powers on you and try to make you remember but you walk away again with a snap and emit a fake moan, immediately putting your hands to your head and screaming in pain.

« Hey, hey… it's okay, we won't get close anymore but please don’t move. You have a bad cut on your forehead and we think you have a bad concussion and we need to get you checked okay? "

You shake your head quickly and stand up; Wanda sprints at you and you pretend to faint.

The Sokovian takes you in her arms before you hit the ground. She starts slapping your cheek as Natasha helps her lay you down again. « Shit… shit, detka wake up. Come on, don't do this to us, wake up please "

Wanda starts sobbing but even though your heart tightens as you hear the girl cry, you force yourself to act for a couple more minutes.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y. where the fuck is Bruce, why didn't he get there"

Natasha screams at the AI, barely holding back her tears as she looks at you without being able to do anything. "Mr. Banner is not at the base at the moment, Miss Romanoff"

Natasha shakes her head, runs her hand through your hair, moving a strand behind your ear and kissing your forehead with shining eyes. «Malyshka wake up, please. Wake up baby. "

You can't take it anymore, you can't continue with this joke. You burst out laughing, sitting up and getting up to go get the camera. “Girls, you have just been trolled"

You frame your girls with the camera.

At first their looks are confused and then, well, then Wanda throws two pillows at you with her powers and you almost fall to the ground. " Oh come on, it was funny”

Your girls glare at you.

" Fun? Fun?? You scared us, you idiot! "

Natasha growls, looking at you with her right eyebrow raised and her arms folded under her breasts. Wanda stays silent, just glaring at you before a small, wicked grin flashes across her face.

" Yes well, let's see how fun a whole month without sex will be, detka"

You open your mouth wide, immediately lowering the camera and throw it onto the bed. Natasha bursts out laughing and nods, pulling Wanda into a kiss that the redhead gladly returns. “ Oh come on, mine was an innocent joke, was it Peter's fault and then, a month? But are you serious? A month is a long time and- "

You whine and that only makes your girls laugh even more, your sexy and beautiful girls caressing each other's hips before turning their attention to you. “The next time you'll think twice before making such a stupid joke"

You take off your mask and throw it in the trash - you'll get it back later - and then look at your girls pouting.

Wanda approaches you, puts two fingers under your chin and lifts your head before letting you kiss on the lips. When you are about to intensify the kiss, the Sokoviana walks away and looks at you with an amused smile. « I think you'll be late for training with Peter, Kate and Yelena malyshka… and you don't want to be late do you? Wanda and I will arrive later, we have 'things' to do "

You open your mouth as Natasha pulls Wanda onto the bed and the Sokoviana pushes you out of the room with her powers, shutting the door.

You walk around the compound muttering to yourself, until you get to the gym. You walk in and walk towards the spider boy with killing fury in his eyes, paying no attention to your surroundings. You are focused on your goal. " I swear to you Parker, this time I'll kill you, I won't be able to have sex with my girlfriends for the next month ... shit, I told you it Will go bad, I'll strangle you with those cobwebs, you little-“

Your fury is interrupted by a stabbing pain in your shoulder, you widen your eyes and fall to the ground as you grimace in pain. " Oh God, oh God y / n I'm sorry, I'm so sorry but you walked by and, I didn't see you, shit-Yelena do something, damn, I'm sorry-"

Kate Bishop, and one of your best friends, begins to ramble, panicking as she just stuck an arrow in your right shoulder.

Yelena is laughing under her breath and Peter looks like he's going to pass out. “Zolovka, it looks like a month has just turned into two months. Sestra won't be very happy with it. "

The blonde points to the arrow in your shoulder and you groan in frustration considering that the girl might really be right.

Peter looks at you anxiously, biting his lip and running a hand through his hair. “ We need to call Mr. Stark and- I know what to do, I saw it in a video. Here, like this. "

The boy paces back and forth before firing a web that clings to the arrow and then - before either of you three can even think of stopping him - he snatches it off forcefully.

You scream, instinctively covering the wound on your shoulder as you push back the tears.

" Stupid spider boy”

Yelena growls, lurching forward and helping you put pressure on the wound. Blood flows copiously from your shoulder and your vision begins to blur.

" Karma sucks"

You giggle without strength, starting to lose consciousness. Yelena gives you a hard slap on the cheek, which makes you prick up your head and wince at the same time. “ Don't you dare die. Sestra loves you and I’m starting to like you, don’t move and stay awake. Stupid Spider boy Go get Natasha and Wanda. Kate, go get Doctor Banner and get first aid kit "

The two teens run, following the ex-widow's instructions. Yelena continues to put pressure on the wound and when your muscles relax and your head hangs down, the Russian hopes she doesn't have to break the worst news in the world to her sister.

…………………..…………………………………

When you wake up, familiar lights and smells make you realize you are in the infirmary. You are forced to blink a couple of times before Natasha and Wanda's faces become clear.

The worry on their faces fades slightly as soon as they see you awake. " Hey malyshka, you made us worry"

Natasha bends down to kiss your forehead, before taking your right hand in hers.

Wanda just rubs her nose against the back of your free hand, leaving a sweet kiss on top. " When Peter ran to call us we thought it was a joke but then we found you unconscious in Yelena's arms, covered in your blood and I think our heart stopped detka"

Wanda's voice trembles slightly; she is terrified of the fear of losing you and thinking that today she almost lost you due to a stupid mistake by Peter and your carelessness ...

“ Hey, I'm fine, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere okay? I love you"

You whisper and look first at Wanda, smiling at her and then at Natasha, squeezing her hand.

You motion them to lie down in the tiny cot with you and your girls carry out the order, despite the small size of the cot.

Natasha puts her arm around your waist as Wanda rests her head in the hollow of your neck, leaving kisses on the spot that you have discovered to be your weak point.

You're about to fall asleep when Wanda talks.

“ Oh, and by the way, don't think we've forgotten your punishment. It's still a month without sex, we actually wanted to get to two months but since this injury will lead you to stay away from missions for at least two weeks ... we thought it was enough punishment " Wanda and Natasha smile in amusement and you groan. “ Oh, fuck you Parker. Fuck you.”

Thanks for reading! It occurred to me the other day while watching a video on YouTube and here we are. I hope you liked it…usual things: requests are always open, now I also write for Stranger Things (just to let you know) and nothing, if you want to support me here is the ko-fi link. Have a Great day!

Taglist: @mmmmokdok @chaekhan @lightwhoranoutoflight @snowdrop1026 @ultroncanpegme @houseofaharkness

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winter-spiders · 3 years ago

Note

HC for how Peter and Bucky and/or Steve got together??

imma do all three bc why not, right?

for WinterSpider

After Shuri helped get the trigger words out, Steve managed to get him a spot on the Avengers

After Peter Graduated HS, Tony finally got him to agree to join the Avengers, but only part-time, bc he goes to MIT online

After studying a lot, peter realizes he hadn't trained in a while and wouldn't be able to sleep anytime soon.

Bucky, bc of frequent nightmares/flashbacks, cant always sleep, so instead of sleeping. he trains in the gym instead.

After a few nights in a row of meeting in the gym at 3 am, they just decide that they would train with each other every other day, if they both were awake.

Neither of them misses a session, bc they both love training with each other because they both don't have to hold back their strength while fighting.

Say Bucky pins, Peter, down on his back, while on top of him, after weeks of training late at night, and the time outside of training they spend.

"Can I kiss you?" "Fuck Yeah Jay" Peter calls him Jay or Jamie because it feels more personal than Bucky or James

They don't go all the way, even tho they both want to. they just don't, they want to wait, till at least the third date.

They just live happily ever after (At least until Steve and/or Tony find out and beat Bucky's ass)

It works out, don't worry, The worst that happens is Tony blasting him a little harder during team training that week

for Spidershield

Steve chose to stay in the present after endgame, but retired the shield to Sam and is only on call for world-ending stuff.

Peter has had pretty frequent nightmares, from his parents to his uncle to the vulture and the building, tony dying in front of him, he's seen some shit.

so he sits outside watching the stars (bc the compound is far outside the city enough to be able to see the stars amazingly).

So he's out on the roof of the compound, just star-gazing when Steve just calmly sits down next to him.

"What up Mr. Rogers?" "Queens, I told you, it's just Steve"

They just kinda banter back and forth, Peter talking about his online courses, Steve talking about his daily paperwork from Fury.

They spend time with each other outside of Star-Gazing, but they always meet up every night at 3am to just hang out

Peter has frequent panic attacks at night, so being outside with steve just prolongs the inevitable

Steve finds Peter having one while they were training.

"Just follow my breathing, Sweetheart, It's okay, We're in the Compound, you're safe, I'll protect you baby" He brings him out of it and brings him to his room to sleep it off a bit

Peter is sticky, and won't just Steve leave him all alone.

Steve and Peter just cuddle until he's fully calmed down.

"I think i love you, Stevie" "I think i love you too, Queens"

for WinterSpiderShield

Steve and Bucky have been together for a long time, like Pre-WWII

They love each other, and Peter won't ruin a beautiful relationship, just because he went and fell in love with both of the Enhanced Men

"Hey Queens, can we talk?" "Um, Yeah? What up Steve"

"Buck, you want to start this?" "Yeah, So, Peter, we see how you look at us, and we want to know if you wanted to join us?"

"Like-like a threesome?" The two men nodded, confirming that Peter's worst nightmare is coming true because he doesn't just want sex, he wants everything.

He wants everything the men are willing to give him.

"I-um I'm sorry if I gave you guys the wrong idea, but i- um I don't want just sex from you guys" The Men look devastated as if Peter just broke their hearts.

Peter just turns on his heel and runs back to his room "Queens? Peter come back!" Peter doesn't.

It takes Peter almost two weeks of avoiding the men before they end up cornering him in the kitchen.

"Look, Peter, I get that we might've made you uncomfortable, and if we did, we are both so sorry, but after a while of thinking, I've realized that you think we only want you for sex." Steve's voice was soothing, it calmed Peters nerves almost instantly.

"It- don't you guys only want sex from me? Look I get it, a pretty little twink to spice things up, I've been propositioned for this kind of thing before, but I'm not interested in a threesome."

"Peter, doll, look, both Steve and I want you for more than just sex. We want it all. We want to date you, we want to wake up and make you breakfast in the mornings, and we want to fall asleep cuddling with you. Stevie and I are stupidly in love with you."

"You-i- You guys both love me? Like you want to be-be my boyfriends?" "Yeah, Queens, we both really love you. If you don't feel the same, that's okay, we won't take it to heart."

"I-I'll do it. Only if I can take you to the best Sandwich place in all of New York." "It can't be better than that one place in Brooklyn" "I promise, it is. Queens is home to the best Sandwich place in New York, and the owner likes me"

"Doll i think everyone likes you."

#winterspider #spidershield #bucky x peter #winter-spiders #steve x peter #WinterSpiderShield #Bucky x steve x peter

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underoostarks · 3 years ago

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Can you do the prompt “you’re gonna hurt yourself”? I love your work btw!

I Won't Heal You

Summary: Tony has a different way to show people how he likes them.

Word Count: 724

Warnings: fluff, a bit of cursing and mentions of wounds, bruises, injuries.

A/N: This is so overdue, I'm really sorry. I copied the wrong thing and posted the unedited one I'm so sorry.

A/A/N: This will also be my entry for @lovelyavengers‘s writing challenge!

You're a healer. You've been blessed with the power of healing ever since you were born. Your parents have found out about it first when you were 4, you had your first wound from falling because of playing too much with your friends and when you mother came back to get the first aid kit, your wound had already disappeared and no any signs as if it there wasn't any in the first place.

When you finished college, that's where you found out that you could also heal other people and many years later, from healing your neighborhood, you're now under SHIELD and is helping the avengers.

For the past couple of months, you've noticed that Tony has been the one to always seek for your power. Well, you knew that guy is reckless and isn't one to being careful but you're getting worried every after mission he has gone to you. It's like he's doing it intentionally which concerns you more.

You've gone from your reverie when you've heard the sound of Quinjet landing. You've prepared yourself, ready to help who's injured and in need.

The first that came to your sight is Clint, feeling more tired than he usually look which made you worried, not only by his condition but the fact that Tony isn't the one to greet you like he usually does.

"You good?" You asked Clint, holding his shoulder, looking at his body to see any major injuries and wounds that needs to pay attention.

"Yea, nothing serious. Just a bit sore than usual." He flashes you his smile which you returned.

"Then I'll have you in my clinic."

After leaving Clint to go to your clinic, you've focused on the remaining that's going down. You feel like you've heart stopped as you see an injured and unconscious Tony laying lifeless in the stretcher, being carried by Thor and Steve.

You rushed to their side.

"What happened?!" Worry and panic can be heard in your tone.

"We're getting outnumbered, he got hit while trying to check the whole parameter." Steve explained but your mind stays focus on Tony.

—

You stayed beside Tony after healing all the other Avengers, though you may have healed him, he still needs rest due to the accident that happened to him. And while waiting for him to wake up, you've fallen asleep as well, with your head resting beside his hand.

Minutes later, you've waken from your nap by the touch of someone's hand in your head.

"Oh, you're already awake." You muttered as you rubbed your eyes and wipe the side of your lips in case of any signs of drool.

"Don't worry, there's no drool, you just snore a little but that's it." He chuckled as you take a glance of his body, checking to see if he's already okay or not. "I'm already healed, no more bruises. Thanks to our wonderful healer." He said, proud and amusement laced in his voice and as much as you wanted to take his compliment, you've already had enough of his shit.

"You seriously had the guts to laugh right now? to joke around?" You snapped which took Tony by surprise. "I've felt nothing but wariness every time you step your foot at the Quinjet because I'm afraid you're so reckless and careless that even my power can't heal you."

"But you always do, right?" He tries to assure you, his hand trying to reach yours but you avoid his gesture.

"You're gonna hurt yourself very badly one day and I won't heal you anymore." You said, stern. You've had enough of his attitude and you don't want to be a part of it. "Either you try to be care--"

"I'm sorry." He muttered, which cuts you off. "I know it's childish. Really. But I can't help it."

"What do you mean? Do you want me to set up an appointment to--"

You got cut off again the second time around.

"That's the only way I could think of to catch your attention. You're always busy healing other people, I can't even catch you freely walking around the compound, either you're healing us or you're in the SHIELD headquarters doing work."

"That is quite possibly the dumbest thing you’ve ever said and I've heard in my entire life, why would you do that? I thought you're a genius?"

"Can't you see it? I've liked you for a while now."

#feeling2022wc #tony stark #tony stark fic #Tony Stark fanfiction #tony stark fluff #tony stark x reader #ironman #iron man fanfiction #ironmanfanfic #iron man fic #clint barton #Thor Odinson #hawkeye #steve rogers #captain america

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rayshippouuchiha · 3 years ago

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The Sokovia Accords were super vague in the movie. Im sure it was to give people more a mixed reaction but for me it meant that I basic assumed it was the Registration act with a different name. I'll admit to some comic based Iron man hate but I think what bugs me most is that Tony is a rich powerful figure whose inclusion in the Act is dependent on something he can control(he can take off the suit) I like MCU Tony ok but it stinks of powerful figures making laws that won't impact them the same.

Setting comic canon aside, when it comes to the MCU Sokovia Accords specifically, Tony didn't make shit.

The UN did.

The Sokovia Accords are a United Nations sponsored and developed piece of legislation. Nothing in MCU canon suggests Tony had his hands in creating it. He just agreed with and signed onto what they laid out and then did everything in his power to stop Steve and the others from being killed and/or arrested as they smashed their way across various non-US countries.

When it comes to how Tony would be impacted by the MCU Accords the same could be said about the others.

Because the Sokovia Accords (at the time of the film release) basically just said "hey you don't get to do whatever you want, wherever you want, the countries you're operating in have a say and if you don't like that then retire".

That's it.

Either abide by the wishes of the people you're supposed to be protecting or retire.

And yeah Tony can just put down the suit but he's not the only one fully capable of making that kind of decision.

Clint could, and did for a portion of the film, refuse to sign and instead accept retirement. That means he can't act as an Avenger, it doesn't mean someone was gonna follow him around and keep him from ever touching a bow again.

Natasha, who did sign, could have chosen not to and then she'd just no longer legally be allowed to act as an Avenger.

Steve could have put down the shield, Wanda could have stopped being Scarlet Witch, Vision could have went on to try a normal life, Sam could have put down the wings etc etc.

They all could have chosen to not sign and the only penalty would have been the inability to act as a combat force. No where in the film was it ever presented as there being any other kind of consequence for not signing. They weren't arrested for not signing the Accords, they were arrested for committing acts that the Accords would have made it legal for them to do. There's a difference.

They might like to sling that Spiderman quote about as a justification but it does not realistically work for every situation.

Just because you have an ability that could be useful in a situation doesn't mean that it's your place to interfere. Sometimes, no matter what power you may or may not have, you just make things worse.

#RayRambles #MCU

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tonystarktogo · 3 years ago

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I just read your time travel au, and i gotta say its the most ive enjoyed myself when readjng in awhile!!! Are you considering adding onto it at all or is the fic the last of it? I dont wanna make you feel pressured to do anything you don't want to do but i would love to see more of this au!!!!!!

I'm glad you're having as much fun with that fic as I did! At the moment I don't plan to continue this 'verse beyond what I posted in As Subtle As Cognitive Recalibration on AO3.

But if there was a continuation, it would probably go something like this:

Team Conclusive Evidence That Any Moron Can Time Travel is at a loss.

Oh, sure, the overall plan is obvious: Get Earth ready for Thanos. With a strong focus on Priority 2: Burn HYDRA to the ground. But, well. How exactly are they supposed to do that? After they just gave SHIELD the middle finger and handed the scepter and mind stone to Asgard? How are they supposed to convince Natasha and Tony of the insane truth or — failing that — a credible lie?

Also what the fuck are they supposed to do with Loki— Easy, Thor, no one here has any sort of problem with your baby bro, not even a hint, not a a smidge, nope.

Thor wants to prepare his realm for the invasion of the Dark Elves which, fair enough. No one argues. (The deal is he takes that damn scepter off planet immediately, along with the tesseract and Loki, and comes back as soon as possible to give them an idea how Asgard's gonna handle things this time around.)

(The only one unhappy with that deal is Loki who has taken to staring at Thor with something disturbing like concern. Or wariness.)

In any case, the alien side of things is officially not their biggest immediate problem and how sad is that.

Clint and Steve agree that they need to deal with SHIELDRA ASAP. That doesn't tell them how. Last time they pretty much set SHIELD on fire and watched it burn.

(Steve got so much shit from Tony for that fiasco. So many "there were better ways to handle that"s. Which he used to counter with "there was no time". They both had a point back then — but this time around time is the one resource they don't lack. And Steve knows they need to do a better job. Tony would never stand for anything less and Steve won't let him down.)

There's also the matter of avoiding the entire Winder Soldier and Accords mess if at all possible but one logistic nightmare at a time.

Hulk sulks because no one lets him spend time with Tin Man.

On an unrelated note, Hulk is the worst secret keeper on the entire team and that includes a sleep-deprived, self-medicating Tony running on caffeine and spite.

Steve and Clint start the very complicated process of trying to identify HYDRA agents and missions that they remember, putting together charts and timelines and generally doing a great impression of two increasingly panicked and paranoid conspiracy theorists. If they're gonna do this, they'll do it right and proper this time around, with research, preparation and hopefully limited collateral damage.

So they plan. Natasha would Judge™ them if they didn't. (Right after she'd murder them for keeping this secret from her.)

Maybe they can hunt one or two bases down, infiltrate the network to get their hands on SHIELDRAs data without making it obvious that they're only targeting HYDRA (SHIELD, after all and despite the fact that it kills Clint to face up to it, isn't distinguishable from HYDRA). And hey, Clint thinks he vaguely remembers one or two contacts he could call about some hacking, so there's no need to pull Tony or JARVIS into this mess either. The mere thought that HYDRA might pay him more attention than they already do thanks to his innovations is...

Steve breaks five mugs and the coffee maschine. Clint just breaks his hand.

(They'll both sleep better knowing Tony is far away from any potentially life-threatening situation until they can look their team mate in the eye without seeing his bleeding and broken body on that fucking battle field, thanks.)

Meanwhile, Hulk — still sulking and angry about it — leaves the Tower to go smash any SHIELD agents he encounters. Which, considering the teams Fury has sent to reacquire the tesseract, are quite a lot.

Right in front of Tin Man's entrance door too.

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aurumacadicus · 3 years ago

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Thor x tony, clothes thief

Thor/Tony 👀👀👀 I love

Clothes Thief

"Oh dear," Thor said when he arrived back at the tower to find Tony's clothes strewn about the common room. Steve was holding Clint on his shoulders in an attempt to pick a sock off the light fixture. "This doesn't bode well."

"Here's a list," Natasha said, handing him a notepad with a surprisingly long list of missing garments.

"Did he literally strip you of clothes you were wearing, or," Thor trailed off, grabbing the sheet of paper to tear it free only to find that the list continued onto a second piece. He flipped that over too. "Three pages?"

"Steve, Natasha, and I do our laundry together because we know if we don't, we won't fold it, and Tony's tired of pulling knives or Steve's shield out of the wall when we think our laundry chair is a demon in the night," Clint explained, ignoring the way Steve muttered violently at him when he made him bob and weave to keep him upright.

"In our defense, we thought he was in a business meeting," Natasha added, shrugging a little.

"A fourth page," Thor said sternly when he saw the list continued that far as well. "At this point, you deserve it."

"He bit Steve," Clint said.

Steve perked up and held up his arm, which still showed a dark, teeth-shaped welt on his forearm. "He's like a shark."

"You still deserve it," Thor muttered. "You should have done your laundry in one of your rooms."

"We thought he was in a business meeting," Natasha reminded him.

"That was your first mistake," Thor replied shortly. "A fifth page. I'm only going to half-heartedly find these or you."

Steve, Clint, and Natasha considered this. Finally, Natasha said, "Two pages would be enough."

"He stole all my socks," Clint added, letting out a cry of triumph once he finally swiped the sock down from the light fixture. "If you can't get any back, I'm keeping these pair. They probably cost more than all the ones I've bought, anyway."

Thor sighed, leafing through the list again. "I'll see what I can do," he said, frowning. His eyes lingered on the list for a moment before he looked back at Natasha.

"I understand I won't be getting all of it back, so he better be ready to take me lingerie shopping," Natasha told him firmly, and Steve tripped over a shirt that hadn't been stolen and he and Clint both toppled to the ground.

Thor and Natasha stared at them for a moment, but then Clint mumbled 'I'm okay' and Steve groaned loudly, so. It was probably fine. "Just so you know," Thor said before he turned to leave. "He was in a business meeting, which is why I wasn't here. So he definitely left it specifically to swoop in while you were folding clothes together."

"If Pepper shows up, I am jumping directly into the garbage chute," Clint said, just before the elevator doors closed again.

.-.

"Listen you little gremlin," Thor said, bursting into the bedroom.

Tony screeched and flailed off the bed. The bed was covered in purloined garments. Thor took a moment to be endlessly tired before Tony popped back up on the other side of the bed, arms already trying to swipe any clothes within reach close to him. "I got these fair and square."

"You stole them," Thor corrected. "Clint says he's out of socks."

"He's only got three pairs and none of them match," Tony scoffed immediately.

Thor ran a hand over his face. "If I let you steal my cape, will you give me everything to give back?"

"I will give you.... two pages worth," Tony replied magnanimously.

"No," Thor said. "Tony."

"I have to go to China for a business trip and I want hugs," Tony growled.

"Literally if you just told them that," Thor began, then took a deep breath. He let it back out slowly, then started again more calmly. "You may keep a sweater from each of them."

"Natasha's not getting her lingerie back," Tony said mulishly. "It's shit. I'm getting her nice stuff. This bralette is itchy."

Thor rolled his eyes and sighed, walking over to the bed to gather as much of the clothes as he could together. He couldn't help but watch fondly as Tony scampered around him and pawed three sweaters free. "I hope you don't steal any of the nice lingerie you buy Natasha, Tony. That's quite personal."

"You're saying you don't want to see me in a lacy bra and thong?" Tony asked skeptically.

Thor swallowed down an 'only if they were yours,' because Tony would certainly come up with some sort of loophole, instead letting his lips spread into a languid smile. "I'd prefer you covered in my cape and nothing else," he corrected, trying to sound suggestive as possible.

Tony squawked in embarrassment and flailed into the closet so hide his sweaters. Thor couldn't help but stare after him, wondering if he'd ever stop being surprised by his lover and sincerely doubting it.

#aurumacadicus answers #ask meme #fic title meme #thunderiron

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i-lovethatforme · 3 years ago

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pleaaase could you give us your version on how Peter met MJ’s dad ? I still don’t know if they will make it as if the met previous to the ffh kiss or in the middle of homeco and ffh/the developing “falling in love” moment

oh hohoh here is one i wrote the other day

and there's another one for you under the cut

Peter is late to study with Michelle, so realistically he should be changing out of his suit and shoving it to the bottom of his bag because she is entirely terrifying and he thinks she might actually hate him. But he hasn't done anything on patrol today.

He hasn't really done anything of use since he stole Cap's shield and even then he had to sit out for the majority of the afternoon. Tony hasn't called him in on another mission and Happy is still ghosting his calls and he wants to be useful for once.

So when he sees a burly guy with a piece of metal trying to jimmy a car door, Peter practically fist bumps as he swings into action.

Well, he webs one of the guy's hands to the roof. The alarm starts blaring and lucky for Peter, the guy can barely move because he looks like he might just murder him on the spot.

"What the -"

"Hey, Mr Criminal," Peter says, her feet landing lightly on the roof of the car.

"Criminal?! This is my car!"

"What's going on?!" someone shouts from their apartment window a someone else chimes in asking why Spider-Man is accosting his friend. It would appear from the numerous people that poke their heads of their windows, Peter is wrong. This guy isn't a criminal, just trying to get home from work and his car door is a piece of shit.

"I'm - I thought -" he panics.

"Well you thought wrong," the guy growls and Peter pulls the webbing from the car carefully... and then he runs.

"I'm sorry! I have to go study! Er, to my job! Taxes! Gotta go fax -"

Peter is thirty minutes late to Michelle's house and she looks less than pleased with she opens the door. He takes a second to notice because she changed from the outfit she was wearing at school and it threw him. Also he hair is down and her hair is never down. It's nice.

It would be nicer if she weren't glaring at him from across the dining table.

"I'm really sorry, Michelle," he says, twisting his pen between his fingers as he tries to figure out if she keeps looking at him to see if he's working or if she's looking for a weak spot to take him down.

But before he can work it out, her front door opens and Peter's stomach sinks to the ground and he almost trips over it in an effort to stand from his chair.

"Sorry, Meesh," the man, who Peter can assume is her dad from the general likeness and his age, says. The guy still has webbing stuck to the back of his hand and his knuckles and Peter thinks he might throw up.

"Your favourite resident Spidey," he mocks, just as Michelle goes to interrupt him.

"He's not my favourite," she grumbles and when Peter looks over at her, she won't look at him at all.

"Mhmm, sure, honey. Anyway, that swinging nuisance webbed me to my own car!"

"Oh, they did, did they?" she says, her voice full of humour as she looks over at Peter like she knows things about him he hasn't told anyone.

"Yeah, the webs pulled my finger hair out and it hurt like hell so now I guess I just gotta hope this dissolves..."

"It does! In two hours," Peter stammers before he can stop himself.

"Oh, great, thanks, champ," her dad says, a smile across his face that puts Peter at ease even if he shouldn't be with the way Michelle is looking at him.

Her dad looks between Peter and Michelle a couple of times before he gives up and introduces himself.

"Sorry about her," he jokes, holding his hand out. "I'm Sam, MJ's dad. Sorry about the webs."

"Hi, I'm Peter. Peter Parker."

"You're Peter?" he asks, a gleam in his that Peter can't figure out. Does Michelle talk about him? Oh God, so her dad knows how late he is to class and how he never does his homework and oh -

"Dad," Michelle groans, her cheeks ever so slightly pink.

"Yes, sir," Peter stutters.

"Huh," he replies, letting go of Peter's hand to glance over at Michelle. "Well, that explains the hair."

"Dad!"

#spideychelle #petermj #pre relationship #ask

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megamindsupremacy · 3 years ago

Text

Hawkeye(s) fic recs

Killshot by arrowsandbows

When Clint abandons Kate, Kate finds a new sidekick.

On second thought, Yelena would probably have an issue with the word 'sidekick.'

Of arrows and soulmates by FluffyLlamacorn

The timer on Kate's arm only has a couple of hours left, which is just bad timing. There had been months left when they planned the date, then a couple of hours ago it jumped.

Kate isn't entirely sure, but meeting your soulmate while on a date with someone else is probably considered rude? When she meets him, her actual soulmate, aren't they supposed to start dating ASAP? That's what's supposed to happen to people with just the one timer: You've found the one, so you can trust fate and let yourself fall in love.

Kate isn't even sure she knows how that feels.

Backup by thebroadcast

She gets the text at two pm on a Tuesday.

KIDNAPPED NINJAS WARWICK HOTEL BRING BACKUP BATTERY DYING CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS SHIT

In which clint Barton is not the most well-adjusted avenger by cosmicocean

Clint gets the door open. The apartment is medium sized, with clothes and things strewn haphazardly all over the place.

“Honey, I’m home!” he yells.

“Don’t give me that shit!” A woman yells back. “You are in so much trouble.”

In which Clint takes them somewhere off the radar, where SHIELD won't find them.

(Short Ultron AU)

Cuddles by tonytones

Basically a bunch of small, happy fics about asexual soulmates Clint Barton and Kate Bishop. I want to mention that all my soulmark fics were inspired by tumblr and amusewithaview, who writes the best soulmark fics. There are going to be a lot of loving, platonic, cuddly superheroes in this.

My life in retirement by cuupid

Clint Barton has been a man of many different names

He has been Barney's Baby Brother. He has been the vigilante and superhero Hawkeye. He has been Agent Barton of SHIELD.

And now he's ready to be Clint Barton... thirty-seven year old retiree?

EDIT: ROUND TWO ADDITION

A Good Feeling by dentalfloss

“You work for SHIELD” Barton spat the agencies title at Coulson as though it were the nastiest cuss he knew. “We have nothing more to talk about.” Which was all good and fine, except-

“I have some things to discuss with you, actually,” Tony said and Clint’s bruised and swollen gaze turned towards him. “Many things. Nice things,” he tagged on when Clint’s gaze narrowed darkly. The kid might be passing out in slow motion before them but Tony was well aware he was still a threat and he made no move to approach. “Let me help,” he insisted anyway.

Or: the one where Clint may be a pretty formidable assassin for hire, but he was broke and his brother needed help he couldn’t afford so he needed a legitimate job for a little while. How fortunate Stark Tower was hiring.

Wiping off the Dust by dentalfloss

Teenaged Clint, it turns out, is a little shit.

Naturally this makes him Tony’s new favourite person.

what's my age again by verity

A for effort, H-A-W-K-E-Y-E, Kate says as soon as she frees herself from her harness. They really need to come up with a real sign instead of just fingerspelling all the time. Maybe miming drawing a bow, then pointing to the eyes. Something cool. You have to get over your boner for that boomerang arrow.

"Did you just sign 'angry penis'?" Sam says, distracted from his unresolved sexual tension with Natasha.

"Whatever," Kate says. She flips her hair. "I'm learning."

#mads posts #fic recs #fic rec list #marvel fic recs #marvel fic rec list

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bumblesimagines · 4 years ago

Text

Green Thumb

Part 21

Request: Yes or No

TW: Tonys death

Kind of short?

Part of you didn't believe it. Part of you didn't want to believe it. You expected Natasha to appear, laughing about pranking everyone. You weren't mentally well enough to deal with another loss. You were just so tired. You stared at the water, tuning out the guys behind you. You felt that familiar numbness wash over you, turning your head when Bruce tossed a bench.

"She's gone.. We have to make it worth it. We have to." Bruce breathed out. You stood up, sniffling softly and nodding.

"Nat would kick our asses for sitting around and mourning her for too long. She desperately wanted for this to work so.. We'll do this for her." You looked over them all. The men nodded, heading back to the facility to work on the stones. You sat down as Bruce, Tony, and Rocket began working on the glove and making their own gauntlet.

"It should've been me." Clint said quietly as he sat down.

"Nat would've hated herself for leaving the kids without you, Clint." You looked at him, gaze softening.

"Right now, you may have no one but.. You might have a family to go home to soon."

"I have you." Clint said, turning to look at you. His gaze dropped to the ground briefly.

"I'm sorry. I should've been there for you. I was supposed to be your father and I failed you. I let my anger and grief cloud my judgment.. I left you to deal with your own emotions when I should've been there to comfort you and help you through it. I know an apology won't make up all the years that passed but.. I plan on making things better. I won't force you to forgive me and I won't hide things from Laura if this works." Clint told you. You nodded, turning your head when the smart trio walked out with the gauntlet.

"So, who's gonna snap their fingers?" Rocket asked.

"I'll do it!" Thor said, walking towards it. Everyone quickly stopped him.

"We haven't discussed it yet." Steve said, placing a hand on his chest to keep him in his spot. Thor blinked a few times, scoffing softly.

"Well, I'm sorry, are we all sitting down waiting for the right opportunity?" He questioned, glancing around.

"We should at least talk about it." Scott said with a light shrug.

"Sitting here and staring at the thing won't bring everybody back. I'm the strongest Avenger, so this responsibility falls on my back-" You could tell Thor wanted to do it because he felt at fault. You frowned, glancing at Clint. Thor sniffled, looking at Tony.

"Let me do it." He whispered. "Let me do something good."

"Look, it's not just the fact that the glove is channelling enough energy to light up a continent, I'm telling you, you're in no condition." Tony said quietly. Thor gripped his shoulders.

"What do you think is coursing through my veins right now?"

"Cheese wiz?"

"Enough alcohol to kill a man?" You tried, tilting your head. Thor pointed at you and Rhodes, giving a small nod.

"I have lighting."

"Lighting won't help you, pal." Bruce said gently. "It's gotta be me."

"You saw what those stones did to Thanos.. It almost killed him. None of you could survive." Bruce said, walking towards the glove.

"How do we know you will?"

"We don't." Bruce answered Steve softly. Bruce gently picked up the glove, being careful not to drop it or break it.

"Let's do this."

"Okay, remember, everyone Thanos snapped away five years ago, we're just bringing them back to now. Don't change anything from the last five years." Tony instructed. Bruce nodded, looking down at the glove. Tony tapped the reactor, putting his suit on. He pushed you behind him, making a shield in case the blast was bad. Metal covered the doors and glass ceiling, incasing the room. Bruce slowly put his hand in the glove, crying out as energy went through his arm. You watched in concern, seeing his arm begin to burn. Bruce continued to scream, snapping his fingers and passing out, the glove sliding away. You quickly crouched down behind him, having the root bracelets extend and touch his burnt arm. Bruce panted softly, the burns slowly easing.

"This might take a while." You said softly. Bruce swallowed, nodding. You glanced over at Scott when he exited the room. Clint went to check his phone.

"Honey?" You turned your head towards Clint, eyes wide. You gave a small smile, looking back at Bruces arm. You noticed a shadow, looking up.

"Oh fuck." You whispered. You screamed as the floor fell out from under you, falling down. You grunted when something hit the back of your head, feeling water begin to soak you as pain shot through your leg once you landed. You groaned, seeing spots in your vision as you pushed your upper half up. You turned your head.

"Fuck me." You stared at the pole stuck through your leg. You licked your lips, hearing Rocket shouting. You turned towards him, raising your hand and lifting the structure he was stuck under. He rolled out from under it, panting. Rhodes crawled towards you, looking at the pole.

"Will you be able to heal yourself?" He asked. You looked down at the half rotten roots, shaking your head.

"No." You breathed out. "Not until we're back up there."

"Shit." Rhodes muttered. You noticed more water rushing in, most likely from the river. You raised your hand, making a water wall to stop more from spilling in.

"Don't waste your energy."

"I'd rather not drown." You looked at Rhodes, panting softly.

"I can't hold it forever, you guys!" You called, glancing at Rocket and Bruce. Rhodes ripped off some of his shirt, motioning to your leg. You swallowed, eyes welling up as you slowly lifted your leg, screaming out in pain.

"I got you, (Y/N). Don't worry, I got you." Rhodes whispered hurriedly, wrapping the cloth around your leg. You lost focus, arms trembling.

"The water, (Y/N)!" Rocket called as the water rushed into the room, quickly filling it up. Rhodes wrapped an arm around your waist, keeping you close. You whimpered softly, head resting on his shoulder.

"Sorry."

"No, no, it's alright." Rhodes kept his and your head above the water. You swallowed, gaining some focus back and moving your arm, the water slowly returning back from where it came from.

"I'm gonna take.. A big fucking nap after this." You whispered, feeling Rhodes patting your back.

"Same here." Rhodes mumbled. You blinked when a large hand wrapped around you, holding onto Rhodes as everything trembled. Scott opened his hand, letting Bruce hop off. Rhodes got his suit on, arm still around you as he flew down. You made a root rise, wrapping around your leg and healing it. You looked up, seeing portals and millions of people.

"Damn." You whispered, making fire balls. The armies rushed at each other. You swallowed, using wind to fly you up into the air. You extended your hands forward, fire shooting out of them and burning the aliens below. You landed on the ground, raising a hand and making ice spike come out of the ground, implaing the aliens in sight.

"Still as awesome as the first time." You froze, staring ahead before slowly turning around. You stared at Bucky. He looked the same. Sam landed besides him, giving a small smile.

"How you been, (Y/N)?" He asked. You gave a small tired smile.

"I wanna die." You answered, raising your hand and blasting some aliens back with fire. The two blinked at your response, brows furrowing in concern.

"We can.. We can catch up later." You told them, noticing T'Challa running with the gauntlet. You flew up, seeing one of the aliens attempting to get the gauntlet.

"So this is the squidward look alike." You threw a fireball at him, knocking him down as Peter grabbed the gauntlet. You landed near the alien, making roots grab onto his arm.

"Nice to meet you." You breathed out, hands extending. You watched his face contourt as he began gasping for air but you took it all out of him.

"And goodbye." You relaxed when he stopped squirming, making the ground swallow him just in case. You looked up, seeing one of the ships shooting down at the ground, quickly flying up and away from it. You noticed a man keeping the battlefield from being flooded, going over to him.

"Mind if I take some?" You asked, taking controlling of the small water twister he had going on. The man gave you an odd look.

"You could always help."

"I am." You made the water turn into a large ice spike, shooting it forward at one of the ships. It got the wing of it but the beams didn't ease. It stopped firing at the ground and instead fired up.

"Carol.." You breathed out, gently landing on the ground. You looked at the man, glancing at the water and making the ground rise in order to stop it from flooding. Carol took care of the ship, bringing it down.

"Couldn't have done that sooner?" The man asked. You shook your head.

"No, I was busy." You replied, looking down at your leg. It might've healed on the outside but it still hurt on the inside. You flew up, looking around for Bucky and Sam. You spotted them, going over to them and helping them up.

"What the fuck was that alien shit about?" Sam asked, panting. You chuckled tiredly, turning your head. You blinked, noticing Tony with the stones. Bruce had gotten badly injured from just wearing it.

"Tony.." You breathed out, walking towards him but he snapped his fingers, causing a bright light. The aliens around turned to dust, just like your friends. You ignored it, quickly flying over to Tony as he stumbled. Rhodes got there first, patting his shoulder. You landed near him, quickly walking towards him.

"Tony, just stay still, I-I'll fix you up in no time." You said, blinking away tears. You couldn't lose someone else. Natasha's death was still fresh. Tony turned his head towards you, mouthing a word.

"Promise."

"Tony.." You stared at him, hands trembling. Tony had made you promise the day everyone found out time travel could work to take care of Morgan and Pepper. You thought it had been silly.

"Tony, I can heal you. Just let me-" Rhodes placed a hand on your shoulder as Peter crouched down beside Tony. You clenched your jaw, tears spilling down your cheeks. Peter cried as he spoke to Tony. You stood up, looking at Pepper as you sniffled. Pepper gave Tony a sad smile, holding back tears until he went limp. Pepper leaned forward, kissing his cheek before sobbing. You took some steps back, sniffling.

"He needed this." Rhodes said softly, patting your back.

"Yeah.."

~~~~~~~~~~

You stepped off the jet, seeing Lila step out of the house. You smiled softly, watching Cooper step out as well. The two quickly ran towards you and Clint. You opened your arms, Coopers body colliding with yours. You couldn't help the sobs that left you as you held your younger brother. Clint couldn't either, sniffling as he held Lila. The two siblings switched, Lila giving you a tight hug.

"You've gotten taller." Lila said with a smile. You chuckled softly, shrugging.

"It's what five years can do to someone." You replied, smiling softly. You gave her another hug, walking back towards the house. You smiled softly, seeing Laura and Nathaniel.

"Mom.." You whimpered, arms wrapping around her tightly. She hugged you back, smiling softly.

"I'm here, baby. I'm here." Laura whispered, rubbing your back. You kept your arms around her, relief flowing through you. You pulled back, smiling down at Nathaniel and picking him up.

"Hey, buddy." You cooed, holding him as you walked back to the house. You set him down, taking out your phone and seeing Wanda's contact.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Would you mind coming with me somewhere?"

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