#their only superhero is ability to tell Exactly how long something is by looking at it

[the-faultofdaedalus]

new superhero called the meter

just beats the shit out of people with their big ruler

courtesy of @tin-can-iron-man : "i'm here to measure your sins"

"i'm the meter, i'm here to rule"

[thegreencarousel]

Summary: I have so very little to look forward to each week so I’ve watched Black Adam 3 times in the cinema during cheap Tuesdays and I just want to talk more about it. Putting this under a cut as it is very long and out of consideration for my followers because none of you followed me for this out of the blue hyperfixation lol. Don’t worry, content you do follow me for will be back soon once I get this obsession out of my system. It also goes without saying there are massive spoilers under the cut because I’m dissecting why this film is making me so obsessed ;u;

I think its a bit unfortunate that you might have to rewatch Black Adam multiple times with the mindset of wanting to dig out the diamonds from the coal to appreciate the quieter moments of the film, which was overshadowed by how much the movie really wanted to be an epic action piece. Granted it did the epic part really well, perhaps a bit too well given how its a sensory overload which can be too stimulating for some and just perfectly too much for me (my adhd brain was so overstimulated it went brrrr hence my obsession in rewatching it). Its also deeply unfortunate that in the battle royale of which writer/director gets to keep their voice in the movie the end result was a draw with at least 4 conflicting tones. 

I wish they let the contemplative voice run the show, I don’t think it would have made the movie any less epic because it would have allowed for some breathing space in the film after all the action. Which were all truly well directed, the cinematography and fight choreographies really embraced their superhero directing and I can tell whoever storyboarded Hawkman’s scenes has become a bird person because he moved beautifully like a bird of prey in the air (also Aldis Hodge gave so much despite having most of his face hidden behind a helmet). I’ve already gushed about the cinematography, so the only thing left is the script, which unfortunately was so confused in its own existence that it dragged everything else down despite the best attempt of the cast, the music and visuals. I think its a shame the script was too scared to really tackle the darker side of Black Adam’s character, or at the very least the grim consequences of his lack of control over his abilities. The script was lacking in a lot of ways but given that this is supposed to be a Black Adam origin story, it is unfortunate that the JSA and even the Tomaz family had more obvious personable moments than the titular character himself.

Personally I really enjoyed Black Adam’s introduction; the way he’s shrouded in shadow with only cracked bits of his lightning icon for light and the jagged edges created by his cloak in the silhouette really evoke Brightburn vibes, which coupled with Dwayne Johnson’s hard stare did enough to tell the audience that Adrianna might have woken something dark and not exactly friendly. I think people are kind of hard on DJ for saying he is just playing another Rock character because imo the way he approached Black Adam kind of reminded me of his character in Faster where he played an ex-con seeking revenge against his brother’s killers and went down a bloody path which he later regretted. Its only in this sense that I would agree DJ was playing a similar character but only in its execution. I admit my bias that I do enjoy DJ as an actor even when some of his movies are not the best, but I do think there is something to be said about how his stoic, hardened fascade as BA was contrasted greatly with how emotional he was as Teth-Adam the father. It was a shame that very little of Teth-Adam the human was allowed to appear in BA, though arguably I can maybe see it in the way he refused to compromise for less collateral damage because in the past he had to repressed so much of himself for fear of his family being the collateral damage. And now that they’re gone, with him being alive because his son refused to let him die as a consequence for him being a hero, I could see how this might twist him to be someone more reckless. Unfortunately the script refuse to explore this aspect, but inklings of it were there in DJ’s acting.

It was also such a wasted opportunity that the script didn’t have Adrianna or Amon react negatively in the aftermath of the mine explosion. I think DJ did a great job there in appearing regretful and subdued despite his bombastic performance in previous scenes, and the twist and his subsequent depowering scene was a beautiful emotional treat. I wish we’ve had more of that, that quiet and sadder BA to juxtapose against his effortless violence. The brief moments where we do get that are unfortunately ruined by rather cheesy one liners or mistimed comedic shifts. Therefore a great transition to his depowering scene would have been a moment where BA was confronted by the consequences of his lack of control, whether it be Amon’s injuries and fear of him or Adrianna’s worry and fury as his mother. I mean he was sort of regretful and aware of how out of control he was, but that acknowledgement went too quick for us to see that this was what made him decide to surrender himself. This is something that should have been very obvious during the first viewing and not a moment that only felt impactful in the second and third viewings only because I was looking out for it and strained to really hear the dialogue.

Another scene which took me repeated viewings to notice and missing it kind of impacted the story beat: I have complained that Black Adam didn’t try to bridge what we know about him from the intro of Shazam, but it’s only on the third viewing that I realised BA actually really did kill the other wizards in the fight to lock him away. Initially when the wizard said BA killed the other wizards I thought he meant it in a figurative sense that they died trying to fight the Seven Sins which were released by BA’s powers. It was really hard to tell with all the rainbow light flying around but if you ignore all that you can also see BA blasting lightning at the wizards, and in the birds eye view you can see their bodies lying on the ground. I can maybe overlook the lack of acknowledgement that him using his powers for revenge resulted in a near apocalyptic event on the world if we could see clearly that he killed the wizards that tried to stop him. The accidental release of demons on the world as a blowback of the misuse of his powers is sort of an understandable accident, but him intentionally killing the people trying to stop him from further chaos seem like it would have been a great point to bring up to support the JSA’s mission. I think it diminished the urgency of the JSA and made them out to be rather flat when there could have been another layer on top of the criticism of American powers on international soil, because there was a difference in BA killing Intergang mercenaries/the king intentionally and slaughtering the Council of Wizards who recognised the danger in letting someone who could let his anger destroy the world go free.

I’ve asked my brother, who only watched the move once (unlike his questionable sibling) if he could remember what happened to the wizards and he admitted the light show was so distracting he could only stare at Djimon Hounsou’s wizard and was also surprised to hear BA killed the other wizards. I think this was a rather important scene the movie should have made clear to audiences because up till now BA just felt like a very misunderstood dark hero and not really someone capable of killing indiscriminately if driven to it. It would have been a great callback to the Brightburn vibes as well as the villainous, darker side of the character that was advertised about and long established in the comics. I think this and the post-mine explosion scene were the two biggest wasted opportunities in letting the audience feel conflicted about BA. I think its harsh of critics to say BA was intentionally written to be simple and deprived of any subtlety because the scenes I’ve pointed out did have indications of a deeper story, was actually included in the film and the actors all acted their hearts out in those moments. However given that I was only really able to appreciate those moments fully in repeated viewings perhaps it wasn’t unwarranted to say it appeared shallow at first glance.

I will now talk about why the film had me hyperfixated, obsessed, and went away hook, line and sinker with DJ’s Black Adam. From now till the end this will be utterly 100% fanning, brain empty no one home in this head. I did say I watched this movie 3 times in the cinema and intend to wait for the blue ray release for more. This says something about myself that I will need to explore at a later date but I have a very weak spot for stories that focused on grieving parents. When BA talked about how the world only mattered with his son in it, staring at the statue of an adult version of his son that he will never be, I think my brain just broke and whatever transgressions the movie committed prior to this with the script was forgiven briefly. In a lot of ways BA came across as rather arrogant in the unabashed use of his powers, confident in the knowledge that no one can stop him. However if you view that unrestrained and uncontrolled use of his abilities through the lense of a grieving father who had nothing else to lose, who only wanted to die so that he could see his family again and was forestalled by the knowledge his son died so he could live, it suddenly felt like the weak veneer of a man who wanted to fight to the top of the food chain for a chance to die a death that was out of his control. 

This also puts a lot of things that seemed rather janky earlier in a different perspective. For one thing, BA constantly having to reiterate he isn’t a hero felt rather flat prior because it seemed like he was just parroting the movie’s byline, that he is supposed to be the anti-hero and a villain adjacent character, but never actually do anything that showed he isn’t a hero. However when you recall these lines in conjunction with the reveal that his son gave up his powers so he could live and then died for it, it made a lot of sense that BA will never call himself a hero because he didn’t work for his powers, it was given to him by the blood of his son. It was only until he gave up his powers voluntarily and then saved everyone from Sabbac that he was on the path to accepting his mantle of heroism (or at least, something close to it). Even his willingness to save Amon from Ishmael couldn’t change his mind on how he viewed himself because his actions then did nothing to challenge his perception of himself and his powers. Giving it up voluntarily meant he recognised in his own self depreciating way that his son would have been ashamed of how he used his power after his death, and if the absence of his abilities meant respecting his son’s legacy then so be it. There is also something incredibly heartbreaking about BA noting that his son thought the world would be nothing without his father, but BA also felt the same about his son and there was a sense of bitterness and defeat that he was unable to achieve the same sacrifice for his son.

On this note, I do think critics were a bit unfair in saying BA was just parroting the Terminator and John’s dynamic with Amon. This was actually something you catch during the first viewing as the film made sure the tone between BA and Amon is quite different from that of the Terminator and John’s. Yes the catchphrase shtick was similar, but imo in Terminator it was an attempt to humanise the Terminator, in BA it felt like it came across as an attempt to modernise BA because Amon was very openly a superhero geek who might have a future in merchandising. I think it was one of the more interesting and endearing callbacks to popular culture because you can see BA actively trying to do what Amon suggested and being frustrated by himself when he failed, and then being pleased with himself when he finally got it right. I attributed this whole thing to his dad mode being switched on full throttle the moment he woke up to Amon after having a nightmare about his son. The film was not subtle at all with that transition, it made it quite clear the audience was meant to see that BA subconsciously view Amon in place of his own son, which while also a bit cliche kind of distanced it from the Terminator comparison. I do agree that the confusion to 21st century living could have been done better, a good contrast would have been when MCU’s Captain America was defrosted and he ran out into the busy street and was instantly overwhelmed by how different it is. Although maybe this established BA as a villain adjacent character than a hero because his first instinct was to kill the people making those loud unfamiliar noises rather than staring at them in confusion lol.

Overall I kind of give the film a solid B-. I’m not sure if we’ll see a Black Adam 2 given how everyone seem rather sure it would be a flop, but since DJ is a producer for it who knows. There are also a lot of things I do want to say about the obvious yet lacklustre attempts in criticism about neocolonialism but it would also involve criticising the film’s lack of callbacks towards the Egyptian culture that inspired BA or any attempts beyond the superficial to cultivate Kahndaq as a culture that felt like it could be a country in the Middle-East rather than the appearance of one. Which I’m not educated enough to talk about so just to put it there, I was very aware of it and it did grate on me but I’ll leave that to the more well learned.

[xavier-elrose]

It turns out that most superheroes don't automatically know what, exactly, their power is. Heck, some of them don't even notice that they have powers, at least at first.

It turns out that most superheroes don't see a reflection of themselves, with their powers listed and described, upon the moment they first get their powers.

Really, it was just one power. But it was a doozy, and there were lots of details to know.

My power was Mirror.

I mirrored that which I wished to mirror. The first order of business was to mirror myself- something I did the moment I got my powers, and have been doing ever since. I found out, much later, that my particular power isn't actually that rare- no rarer than, say, fire or ice powers.

But people with my power are rare, because once they cease to mirror themselves, they cease to be at all.

Believe it or not, that's actually the less horrifying option. Given the human tendency to focus on the negative, someone who thoughtlessly reflected the world around them would be...horrifying.

But mirroring isn't an all-or-nothing thing. I can mirror myself, while also mirroring other things.

I can, for example, mirror the power and destructive potential of natural disasters.

Humans don't really think about the sheer force behind certain disasters. They think about the destruction, but rarely consider just how small a portion of the power of a storm goes to destroying. The vast majority is spent on less destructive things, not least of which is simply...being the storm.

I can bring a lot of raw power to disaster cleanup and relief. Power like that I can mirror with a fair bit of separation in time and space. Not that much, but...enough.

Being precise with it is harder, but less difficult than you might think. As I said, I don't have to just mirror one thing.

Remember what Mister Rogers said: look for the helpers. Always there are helpers, and always I can mirror them.

The mix is quite potent. My arrival at a disaster scene generally means that things are going to get better, and get better quickly.

It keeps me busy.

And that's enough reason, in and of itself. Really, it is. There's more to doing good than punching people. Really, a remarkably small portion of doing good involves punching people right in their dumb faces.

But there's another reason I don't partake in super fights.

Mirrors are blind. They don't see, they only reflect. And while I do still reflect myself...well, part of me is the mirror power. I have more than a little trouble seeing certain things.

Faces, for one. Not just faces, in fact. I can't really tell people apart at all. Mirrors are shallow, and something about my mind now just...doesn't engage with people at more than the most shallow level.

Not what they look like. My powers aren't quite that literal.

What they do.

And not in a long-term sense. Immediate actions, their consequences, their reverberations. People are what people do, and for me that's...unusually literal.

I'd be a terrifying force in combat. Mirroring your powers, your strength, your skill...with my own thrown in, as well. Reflecting attacks, illusory copies...you'd be fighting yourself with extra abilities. And that's assuming it's a duel. In a melee...I would automatically be the strongest combatant. Almost certainly by a wide margin.

But how do you tell a hero from a villain? The differences are almost always beyond the depth of my mirror-vision- motivations and goals and principles. Even when the line isn't normally blurry, it's beyond my ability to tell. Violence is violence, and I can't spot which I ought to oppose, and which I ought to support.

So instead I do the good I can do. And though I do understand that sometimes the greatest good legitimately does require violence...

Well, mirrors never lie. I'd never yet seen a super-fight where I could tell good from bad.

Maybe my power was telling me something.

You're a superhero who specializes exclusively in stopping disasters. The other heroes just don't understand why you need to remain neutral to the villains…

[wordsmith30]

Black Lightning 1×07: “Equinox: The Book of Fate”

Down in the bunker, Anissa is already getting into it with her mom as Lynn checks her injuries. Lynn doesn’t want her being a superhero, saying that it is a life of pain and sacrifice, and that she knows what Anissa is going through.

“Do you have powers?” Anissa shoots back.

Um, excuse you. Don’t be rude. 

This is not your mother’s first rodeo. She’s seen firsthand what this life looks like and she’s concerned for you.

Gambi is back on the lying train again, trying to paint Lynn’s attack as an isolated incident when he knows full well it was Lady Eve’s people. This time, however, Jefferson’s not buying it.

“Why didn’t you tell me Tobias was back in Freeland?”

Oooh, you’re in trouble!

Gambi says that he’s trying to protect him from himself by going after Tobias. He doesn’t want Jefferson doing something he’ll regret. That might’ve carried a bit more weight had he not proceeded to take out Joey Toledo himself. I don’t know what kind of business operation Gambi has going with Lady Eve, but they clearly have a lot of history. He speaks as if they’re partners, saying that Tobias is going to ruin the “ecosystem we’ve worked so hard to build.”

Jefferson says he doesn’t trust him anymore and I can’t really blame him. (But then he still entrusts him with Lynn’s safety anyway.)

Henderson asks Lynn if her research may be the target of third-party organizations and she’s like, “No, I just look at the effects of addiction on the brain. Where’s the money in that?”

Um … Green Light? 

If you’re trying to market a really powerful drug and get kids hooked on substances like Green Light, then your research would be really interesting.

I’ve also got to give sketch artists credit in general. Trying to recreate the likeness of a person you’ve never seen before is quite a skill, especially because it’s based on hearsay and you have to keep modifying it until it’s right. And even then, witnesses’ memories are faulty. The picture may be only as accurate as you can remember. What if it’s not right?

Lady Eve got her hands on that picture real fast! And Gambi is listed as “The Tailor” in her phone. She tells him that “[t]he cleaners are on their way.”

After easily defeating a guy hopped up on Green Light in the ring, Tobias becomes suddenly bothered about the drug when he realizes that “dead customers don’t pay.” We’re so touched by your concern. 

He says that Green Light is too volatile a substance and requests a meeting with Lady Eve.

I still cannot believe that neither Lynn nor Jefferson even considered the possibility of the girls inheriting his powers. This should’ve been on your radar from time! Like, it wasn’t even a passing thought? I mean, we still don’t know how Jefferson got his powers because this isn’t exactly a superhero origin story, but maybe since the girls got this far without any signs, they thought they were in the clear? That Jefferson was just a one-off genetic mutation and that it couldn’t happen again?

How do you plan to keep this child off the streets now? She was getting arrested long before she had powers! 😆😂

They don’t want to rule out Jen either. They say that both Jen and Anissa will have to be tested.

“Is this the electrician?”

Henderson’s got jokes. At least he seems better about working with Black Lightning now. He asks if there’s anyone else in Freeland like Black Lightning with special abilities and mentions the destruction of the Confederate statue.

And now Jefferson knows that it was Anissa. 

She really shouldn’t have done that with so many witnesses around. Now she’s going to be on everybody’s radar!

At least Jefferson’s warned him that Tobias is back.

Aww, Anissa’s all gung-ho about being a superhero. She’s like, “We can do this and this, and this and that, and you can train me!” And Dad’s like, “Hold up!”

“No, Dad. You’re not ready.”

Darn straight. She’s already been using these powers. Ultimately, it’s better to help her control them than try and put them away.

On her way out, Jefferson asks her where she got the box with Alvin’s research. She confesses that she was just trying to figure out what had happened to her, but he reminds her that that research got Alvin killed. After what happened with Lynn at the lab, he says she has to warn David Poe.

So, it looks like Lady Eve is a mortician.

Gambi tells Lady Eve that Tobias is out of control and she agrees to remind him of his place by sending Gambi to take out Toledo.

Jennifer is already becoming suspicious of the tension between Anissa and Jefferson. Yeah, you won’t be able to keep Jen out of the loop forever!

Anissa goes to visit Lynn back at the bunker to apologize and she learns the real reason for her parents’ split: Jefferson’s continued activities as Black Lightning. Lynn says that in the superhero life, everyone gets a happy ending except you.

Anissa, however, says she’s willing to sacrifice her happiness if it means freeing Freeland from the 100 and the crooked police.

Watching Gambi kill off Toledo and his men was not a fun time. You’re supposed to be better than this!

Also, the question I always have in scenes like these: why is it that when the bad guys know they’re being attacked, they never have any kind of getaway plan? They just wait for their assailant to find them!

Seeing Anissa come home in tears after she learned that David Poe was killed was so sad. She’s starting to see the consequences of living the superhero life: that anyone close to or associated with you is a target, and that you can’t always save them.

Lynn finally tells Jefferson that he should train Anissa because they both know she’s not going to stop.

Henderson tells Black Lightning about Toledo’s murder and says it looks like was about to open a jazz club the next day. Chances are that’s where they’ll find Tobias.

Again, we’re shown the flashback of Alvin Pierce being murdered while Jefferson hides under the bed and I don’t know about everyone else, but something about Kid Jefferson’s acting just feels off. Obviously, I know that he’s supposed to stay quiet so that these men don’t find him, but he whispers “Dad” like he’s trying to wake him up in the middle of the night. I’d anticipated a lot more fear: crying, shaking, maybe covering his eyes because it’s too horrible to watch. But instead, there’s just this sense of distance, as if he’s watching this all happen from far away. Like his father’s murder is on a TV screen.

Lynn has asked Gambi to design Anissa a suit and Anissa is just in awe. Lynn tells her that she does get it and knows that Anissa can’t sit idly by while other people are being pushed around.

Jefferson gets the jump on Tobias for the first time and the ensuing fight goes south pretty fast. Tori is shot in the back and Tobias is dragged out by his men, still calling her name. I actually felt so bad for them. She was clearly Tobias’ closest family and his men just left her for dead.

But their plan to get Lady Eve was so devious! Knowing that they couldn’t make a direct move on her without permission, Tori and Tobias sent a bunch of hit men after her with electric guns, frying her and her minions. Because of the burns, the police think it was Black Lightning. Well, there goes his alliance with Henderson!

And because of what happened to Tori, now Jefferson’s going to have Tobias and the police on his back. They’ll be after him with a vengeance!

Jefferson agrees to train Anissa, but says that they’re both going to make mistakes. His eagerness to get Tobias ended with Tori’s death and he wants Anissa to be better than him.

Nothing could have prepared me for that ending. When Lala came back, I screamed. Did Lady Eve bring him back? He just sat up in that motel room like nothing happened!

And Lawanda appearing and becoming a tattoo on his chest … that’s really dark. I don’t know how I feel about that. On the one hand, it’s a reminder of the people that he’s killed. If every person you kill shows up as a mark on your body, then you’re haunted by them forever. You’re not allowed to forget them or what you did to them. But at the same time, it almost looks like a trophy, like what Killmonger did in Black Panther. It’s a kill log on your body.

So now Lady Eve is dead, Jefferson’s got a new hit on him, Henderson’s no longer willing to work with him, and Anissa’s trying to become her dad’s new protégée, all while being a target of the police as herself. They’re going to have to figure out how to clear Jefferson’s name! And if Lala’s back, they’re in some deep doo-doo.

[beels-burger-babe]

The Day You Became The Strongest of Them All

***Now, @kittykitkatstrawberry, I'm not going to lie. I have never watched Invincible and kind of didn't know what to do with this request at first. For me, part of the charm of MC is that they are mortal and powerless and normal. So I was a bit lost with this one at first. But then I thought, "okay but what if something happened that gave MC all those powers for a very short period of time?" So will this fic be exactly what you wanted? Probably not, and for that I'm sorry. This is what I was able to come up with though, and I hope you like it!*** Summary: After an incident with Solomon, MC suddenly has a crazy amount of powers and abilities. They think this is amazing! Not all of the brother share that sentiment, however.

You gasped and blinked at Solomon as the two of you stared at each other with side-eyes. In Solomon's hands was a large, empty beaker. Why was it empty? Because the magical contents of unknown effects that it once contained were now coating your front. "Sol-Solomon?" You stuttered in fear, not knowing what was about to happen to you.

The wizard slowly began to walk towards you while holding a towel. "Okay. Don't panic. Everything will be-"

You shrieked as you noticed your hands begin to glow fluorescent pink. "Solomon!!! I'm glowing!!!" You waved your hands around trying to get it to stop, but the glowing only grew brighter. You flicked your hands forward violently and yelped as a burning bright ball of energy shot out of them and exploded against a wall. You and Solomon went silent as the glowing stopped and stared at the shocked at the burn mark on the wall. The door was thrown open causing you both to whip around as Mammon rushed in. "MC! I heard ya screamin'! What's goin-" Mammon's eyes widened as he stumbled back and gaped at you. "M-MC. Y-You're...You're floating." Both you and Solomon quickly turned your attention towards your feet, and sure enough, you were hovering a good twelve inches off the ground. You looked over at Solomon and smiled brightly. "I'm a superhero!" *** Everyone watched your laughing form as you flew around the student council room. Lucifer pinched the bridge of his nose and glared at Solomon, who was shamelessly taking notes of the effects the potion had on you. "So you're telling me," Lucifer growled, "that you spilled a potion that you had recently made, but had not yet tested, all over MC and that you don't have any kind of counter for said potion yet, meaning that these effects, which we've still no idea how potentially harmful they are, are irreversible?" "Yes, that about sums it up," the wizard smiled smugly at Lucifer before looking up at you. "MC! Do a backflip!" You let out a whoop and did as told, laughing brightly at the weightless feeling that filled you.

Levi was basically bouncing in his seat. "I don't see why you're all freaking out! We are getting to witness MC's protagonist origin story! Do you know how long I've been waiting to be a part of an adventure like this?!" he looks at Solomon with a crazed look. "Can you replicate the potion? Would I be able to use it? I-I mean MC can't go about saving the world on their own. Even Henry had the Seven Lords. Th-They're gonna need a sidekick." You gasped and leaned your arms onto Levi's head. "Oh my god, Levi, you're a genuis! We can be a dynamic duo! You can make us costumes and everything!" Lucifer's headache grew as the two of you began rambling about your ideas and future heroic deeds. Asmodeus giggled and leaned towards his oldest brother. "What's wrong, Lucifer? Don't you want to see MC in a tight, spandex leotard, while they're dripping with sweat from the exhaustion of saving a damsel in distress? Because I most certainly do," a faint red hue dusted Lucifer's cheeks.

Mammon sputtered at Asmo's description and crossed his arms. "Well I don't like it. How do we know that this ain't, I don't know, slowly killin' them from the inside out, or that it won't turn them into some kind of a monster? We don't even know what all the abilities the potion gave them are!" Levi paused his rambling and turned the Avatar of Greed. "If MC becomes a superhero, you can sell all kinds of merch about them. People love superheroes. You'd be rich." There were dollar signs in Mammon's eyes as he grinned widely. "Why didn't you say so earlier! I'm in!" Belphegor scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Of course you are. All concern and rationale go out the window the moment money's involved. Greedy scumbag," he eyed your flying form wearily. Obvious concern filled his expression as he kept his eyes open, watching for any signs of pain. Beel frowned as he kept his eyes fixed on you. "Mammon was right though. We don't know how this could affect MC." Satan watched you skeptically as he held a hand under his chin. "We could run some tests? Try and figure out what their powers are?" You and Levi gasped in unison. "That'd be so cool!" You flew towards the middle of the and started waving your hands around like you did earlier, attempting to recreate the blast of energy. "I'd just pow! And wa-pow! And-" You yelped as a particularly strong blast shot out of you and sent you flying back into Beel's lap. "Ow." You groaned. Beel huffed and held onto you as he looked you over for injuries. "No tests," he grumbled firmly. Satan chuckled and shook his head. "Well, no tests as reckless as that performance. I was thinking something a little more controlled. Who knows how far your abilities go. For all, we know you could be stronger than Solomon or even Lucifer at the moment." Lucifer scoffed at the jab. "As if that could ever happen." You narrowed your eyes at Lucifer and wiggled out of Beel's grasp before flying angrily over to Lucifer. "You listen here, Mr. Morningstar! You have no idea what I'm capable- Aah!" You shrieked as a burst of pain-filled your stomach and gravity suddenly hit you full force. Nobody had time to react before you were slammed onto the ground. Beel, Belphie, Asmodeus, Satan and Mammon rushed over to you to make sure you were alright, frantically looking for any cuts, bruises or even signs of internal injuries. Meanwhile, Levi was whining into his arms, mourning the superhero that you could've been. Lucifer merely grinned. "Well since the potion has seemingly worn off, unfortunately, it looks like I'll never find out," his expression became more serious as he addressed Solomon. "Do us all a favour, and never do anything like this again, or I swear, you will regret it."

***Yay! So it wasn't all that long, but here's just a nice little crack one shot that I hope you enjoyed! Thanks again for the request @kittykitkatstrawberry! It was a lot of fun.***

[elftwink]

no thoughts only taakitz superhero/villain coffeeshop au. taako’s power is shapeshifting but he has a cool gun from lup. kravitz’s power is Big Fuckin Scythe With Unspecified Abilities. also there was no time to get into it but fantasy starbucks isn’t a real starbucks it’s a borderline illegal unaffiliated bootleg starbucks that taako and lup own. like dumb starbucks was.

By all rights, it should have been a fairly routine night for the Reaper. Go out, stop some crimes, arrive just in time to prevent whatever scheme the Mongoose had cooked up this week, exchange some one liners, make some threats that essentially amounted to ‘same time next week?’, the works. A regular Tuesday as a superhero in Neverwinter.

But Kravitz is tired, and more than a little distracted, so he’s not doing so hot on the one liners, and the Mongoose’s attacks are a little closer than they would normally be. He doesn’t even have a good excuse, it’s not like he’s injured, or that he has anything pressing to think of.

It was just— this morning his barista (who he may or may not have been harbouring a small crush on) had mentioned offhand that he thought the Reaper was ‘probably hot under the stupid all-black getup’, and Kravitz didn’t really know what the protocol was for someone complimenting your alter-ego was.

“I think if you were gonna go for the strong silent type, you had to start doing it months ago. Now it’s just acting like an asshole. Are you mad at me?” the Mongoose cuts into his thoughts, firing off another few missiles from his stupid umbrella gun (Umbrastaff, he called it, although it was a gun and not a staff so Kravitz had no idea why he insisted on calling it that).

“We are literally fighting as we speak,” says Kravitz, playing up the cockney accent, spinning his scythe to deflect the missiles off the blade, sending them ricocheting around the room. He’d said something like ‘how can you tell’ to Taako— the barista (well, they’d been on a first name basis for a few weeks, so, Taako), and he’d said ‘I can just tell’ which was not at all helpful in getting Kravitz through the conversation without saying or doing something to give himself away.

He’d almost given Taako his number, but how was he going to justify that? Hey, it’s me under the all black getup. Do you want to go out sometime? As if.

“You can have fights without being fuckin’ rude,” says the Mongoose, firing off another few rounds, which Kravitz deflects again, advancing on him.

“You’re right, sorry. I’m a bit scattered. Not exactly my A game.” As if to prove his point, the Mongoose easily dodges his next couple swings with the scythe, not even bothering to leave his range.

“Clearly. I mean, normally you’re at least close enough that I can feel the breeze from your sword.”

“It’s not a sword, and you know that.” Kravitz brings down the scythe in the space where the Mongoose was only seconds before, having already backflipped out of the way and landed a few metres back. Show off. Not that Kravitz had room to complain about that. The Mongoose spins to face him again, at least this time seemingly aware of what a close call that was. He’s tense, and his hair, which Kravitz supposes has thus far been hidden underneath his costume, has come somewhat unravelled, black braid falling to the middle of his back.

It seems... familiar?

He doesn’t have time for that right now. Kravitz draws back the scythe, feeling the hum of energy under his fingers, swinging again, and—

“Wait! Time out!” the Mongoose puts up a hand and Kravitz, for who knows what reason, stops his scythe mid-swing. The familiarity sticks, so it’s not just a trick of the light. It takes him a second to place, but the hairstyle... it looks a lot like a certain barista he’d been spending all night thinking about.

He shakes his head, trying to clear it. It’s because he has Taako on the brain, is all. Besides, he has other things to worry about besides seeing his crush in his enemy. Namely the fight currently happening with said enemy. “What? You can’t call a time out.”

“I just did,” says the Mongoose, fishing through his pockets and pulling out several bobby pins, sticking them in his mouth so he can use both hands to fix his hair. Kravitz blinks, still trying to shake off the sense of deja vu, but it won’t quit nagging him. “It’s a whole safety issue to leave long hair down.”

“It’s still in a braid,” retorts Kravitz.

“Somebody never took Foodsafe.” the Mongoose gives him a lopsided grin that Kravitz fucking knows he’s seen before, and suddenly it’s more than just passing familiarity, and how could he possibly have not noticed before, and— the Mongoose finishes putting up his hair, raising an eyebrow at Kravitz and his private crisis. “Alright. Ready—”

“You work at Fantasy Starbucks,” blurts Kravitz, without even thinking about it. The Mongoose stops dead in his tracks, and Kravitz can see his eyes widen even behind the mask. He splutters for a moment, and then seems to find his footing, already ready with a snarky remark.

“Yeah, well— your accent is fake.”

Shit. He’d forgotten. At the only time so far that having it would have been useful too. Still, he pushes it out of his mind; the Mongoose hadn’t denied it. And, well, he’s already solidly derailed this fight, so he might as well get some real confirmation out of it.

“...Taako? It is you, isn’t it?”

“Just who the fuck are y—” The Mongoose— Taako— levels the Umbrastaff at him, and then stops again. “...Kravitz?”

Well. Shit. Again. Kravitz doesn’t bother to affirm that; his silence is more than enough confirmation. One of them has to say or do something, but the seconds stretch on.

“You’re telling me I said all that shit to your face this morning?” says Taako.

“That’s what you’re worried about right now?”

“Uh, yeah—” Taako is backing up now, and they’ve fought enough times that Kravitz knows when the Mongoose is looking for an escape route; Kravitz’s feet still feel glued to the floor, even when Taako reaches the window, fingers already turning to talons around the Umbrastaff. Taako breaks the glass (because of course he does, even though the windows aren’t even fucking locked), breaking eye contact with Kravitz in order to swing his legs through the window before his form changes too much. “Look, this is like, a lot right now, and I— I’m getting the fuck out of here,” he says, and then drops. Whatever had been keeping Kravitz in place, slack jawed, ends as soon as Taako leaves his sight, and he’s moving before he has time to think about it.

“Wait—!” Kravitz runs for the window, but by the time he gets there, the bird clutching the Umbrastaff is nearly out of sight.

Well. That could have gone better.

***

Kravitz doesn’t go for his coffee the next day. Or the next day, either, although the day after that he’s sick of making his own coffee. And frankly, he misses chatting with Taako. Even if the guy was trying to kill him like once a week. He couldn’t just avoid this forever.

Still, the fact that Taako is working cash when he comes in makes him want to turn tail and run back home. He conjures up the memory of yesterday’s shitty coffee and pushes onward. The shop is mostly empty still, so there’s no line.

“The usual?” says Taako, like nothing abnormal has happened.

“Please,” says Kravitz, and then, before he can chicken out entirely, adds, “Uhm, do you have a few minutes?”

“My shift isn’t over until—”

“I’ll cover you,” comes Lup’s voice from the back room; she pokes her head out and gives Taako a look that is clearly significant, but that Kravitz can’t quite puzzle out. “Take five minutes after you’re done making his coffee.”

Taako scowls at her, and she smiles brightly before heading to the back again.

“Okay. I guess I have five minutes. Talk to you after I make your coffee.”

Kravitz nods, and goes to hover around the pickup counter, pretending to be interested in things on his phone. Taako makes his coffee in a ceramic mug, which at least means he doesn’t want Kravitz to get the fuck out as soon as possible, so that’s... something.

Taako slides the finished coffee across the counter, circling around to join Kravitz on the customer side as Kravitz grabs the mug.

“Lup!” he hollers, and then starts walking towards one of the corner booths without checking to see if his sister is headed to cash or if Kravitz is following. Kravitz does, though, sliding himself into the seat opposite Taako, hands wrapped tightly around the mug.

Taako speaks first. “To be honest, I kinda thought you would rat me out.”

“That would be shitty of me, to just sic authorities on your place of work without so much as a warning.”

“So is this the warning?”

“No,” says Kravitz, taking a sip of his coffee, “I... can’t really make coffee without burning it. And this is the only place for miles with tolerable muffins.”

Taako cracks a grin, like Kravitz knew he would. “Flattery will get you nowhere.” His smile falls, and he crosses his arms and leans back. “So. Reaper. Why didn’t you rat me out?”

Why indeed. Kravitz takes another sip of his coffee and thinks for a second, not even sure himself what his explanation will be once he starts talking.

“It didn’t seem... fair. You’re less of a villain and more of a pain in my ass—” Kravitz ignores Taako’s indignant noise and keeps talking, “—and while we always have cause to fight when on the clock, you’re not doing anything that I feel needs to leave the bounds of those... work hours, I guess.”

Taako is trying to pick him apart with his gaze; it’s something he’s been subjected to several times, although normally in costume, and in retrospect it’s difficult to imagine how he spent so long not noticing the Mongoose in Taako.

Whatever Taako is looking for, he must find it, because he relaxes a bit, and shoots him a lazy grin. “Plus, Mongoose related insurance just got rolling and it would be fuckin’ rude to take me out of commission before anyone got to use theirs.”

Kravitz laughs. “Sure.” He’s silent for a second, before adding, “You aren’t planning on revealing my secret identity, are you? Awfully rude of you to double cross me like that.”

“Wha— You didn’t even give me a chance to respond! Maybe I wasn’t!”

“Were you?”

“I was,” admits Taako, not even pretending to look sheepish. Kravitz raises his eyebrows, and Taako shrugs. “Oh, like you didn’t think about revealing my secret identity? And could you imagine the hype if I unmasked the Reaper? I was tempted.” He sighs. “But I figured then you’d have no reason to keep my identity a secret. No way am I risking a backfire like that.”

It sounds callous, but Kravitz has been talking to Taako almost daily for months; at this point, he can pretty reliably pick up on when Taako isn’t being entirely truthful about something.

“Hmm. Then I suppose it’d be in my best interest not to tell you that I wouldn’t reveal your identity even if you revealed mine?”

Taako narrows his eyes. “Why not?”

Kravitz makes a face. “It’s just in poor taste. I just think we all go through all the trouble to hide who we are and use these powers for good— or whatever it is you do— that it’s always going to be such a low blow to reveal who we are. There might be times where it’s necessary, but petty revenge is not one of them.”

Taako’s expression hasn’t changed; if anything, he’s narrowed his eyes more. “God, you are like— fuckin’ irritatingly nice. Fine. I wasn’t going to reveal your identity. That would be fuckin’ annoying to deal with. Plus I’m having fun.”

“Fun?”

“Oh don’t— don’t fucking lie to me. I know you’re having fun out there too. With your stupid accent and one liners and shit.”

“Alright, alright,” says Kravitz, rolling his eyes. “But I’m not supposed to be having fun, so keep it quiet.”

“See, that’s why I market myself as a villain. No dumb rules.” He puts an elbow on the table and leans on his hand. “Why do you have a fake accent anyway?”

Heat rises to Kravitz’s face, and he’s hoping he looks less embarrassed than he feels. “It’s my— I do it so people don’t recognize my voice.”

Taako laughs. “Well, it doesn’t really do that if you immediately stop using it when you realize you might know someone.”

“I was caught off guard!” defends Kravitz. “It’s not every day you find out your nemesis is your barista.”

“Nemesis, huh?” Taako grins. “Didn’t realize it was that serious to you. You know I have other heroes to fight.”

Kravitz rolls his eyes again. “I don’t see how you have the time, considering how often you’re causing trouble for me.”

Taako laughs, and it’s so contagious and the whole conversation is so surreal Kravitz can’t help but laugh too, before they both lapse into a comfortable, if drawn out, silence.

“So, uh,” says Taako eventually, “what now?”

“Well,” says Kravitz, “I want to keep coming in for coffee in the mornings. And I assume the Mongoose will continue with... whatever chaos it is you currently have planned.”

“It’s not chaos,” insists Taako, “I have plans. But yeah. And I assume the Reaper is gonna show up and throw a wrench in those plans?”

“Yes, probably. So we’ll just be enemies by night...” Kravitz trails off, not entirely sure how to refer to their by day relationship. Friends? Potential love interests? Acquaintances? There’s a few seconds of awkward silence before Kravitz gives up entirely.

Taako pulls and pen and a napkin out of his pocket, jotting something down and pushing it towards Kravitz.

“Here’s, uh, here’s my number. If you give me a heads up five minutes before you get here, we can have your coffee ready by the time you walk in. If you’re nice to me out there.”

“I don’t take bribes,” says Kravitz, grabbing the napkin and pulling out his phone to type in the number.

“That wasn’t a bribe, it was a threat. You don’t even wanna know what I’ll do to your coffee if you fuck me up.”

Kravitz doesn’t bother to point out that neither of them have ever caused any extreme bodily harm to one another and instead says, “So you’re asking me to go easy on you? I thought you were having fun.” He sends Taako a ‘hey it’s kravitz’ text before he has time to second guess himself.

“Could you stop poking holes in my threats? You’re harshing my fuckin’ vibe, Krav.” He sounds irritated, but Kravitz can see the smile tugging at his lips as he texts Kravitz a couple of skull emojis. “I should get back to work before my sister kicks my ass,” he says, standing back up. “I’ll see you tonight, nemesis.” Then he turns on his heels and heads back to the counter, saying something to Lup as he walks by. Kravitz watches him disappear into the back room.

Tonight.

Kravitz had better make sure he had hung his cloak up to dry.

[robinofgothamcity]

♡ scenario: meeting dick's ex girlfriend and it going awkwardly well

♡ characters: jason todd ( red hood ) x fem! reader

♡ note: not checked for grammar or spelling mistakes / i'm sorry but have yall seen that comparison of Jason Todd from Titans to the comics that the DC Titans twit made? bc every time i look at it, it takes me out. my twitter groupchat have slaughtering it all night :').

you in Dick's apartment, fiddling with a few of his weapons as he sternly told you to put it down before you hurt yourself. you, clearly not bothering to listen, continued to fiddle with the batarang as it managed to hit you on the nose. in between Dick's laugh, he wheezed out an 'I told you so'.

"fuck off, when are we going to your dad's place?" you asked, "I want to get back home before we get back to our apartments later than we already are," you mumbled, getting up and grabbing your keys.

Dick ushered you out the door, murmuring that he'd buy you a coffee on the way to Gotham as compensation for helping his family out. you were Dick's ex girlfriend and although the two of you ended on friendly terms, you managed to know his families secret and thus, you decided to help Dick out with his hero work in Bludhaven.

the two of you had realized a while into the relationship that neither of you were really into each other romantically. it felt a bit forced with the kisses and dates and a part of you saw the way Dick felt about his ex still. you weren't mad at the way he felt about Barbara but you could tell that he still had feelings for her and you didn't want him to deny his true feelings for her anymore.

both of you hopped into your car and made your way over to his father's place. you had met Bruce a while back when you were dating Dick and by extension, you had met Dick's younger brother Damian. he was still a bit of a prick to you every time you met him but Dick had told you that Damian was just that way with everyone. you had a few interactions with Duke and Cassie from time to time but it was only when they stopped by. the only two you had yet to meet were Dick's two younger brothers, Tim and Jason.

you had heard stories about them it wasn't anything too crazy. all you knew was that Tim was a bit on the shyer side and Jason was the one with the crazy backstory. they hadn't told you everything about Jason but you did know that Jason was dead at one point and managed to come back. how? you didn't know and frankly, you didn't want to know. knowing that this world was filled with superheroes from out of this world and held supernatural abilities was enough for you.

by the time you arrived to Bruce's place, you had Dick take in your back pack as you sipped away on the Starbucks he had bought for you. Dick entered through the batcave, waving a hello to everyone as you saw Damian and gave the little gremlin a smirk before chasing him for a hug.

"get away from me you peasant," Damian screamed, grabbing his blade and pointing it at you. you laughed, sitting down on his chair, "aww, and to think I thought you'd be happy to see me!" you giggled, taking your laptop out of your bag with a few other things.

you noticed that there was another person in the room that you hadn't familiarized yourself with and got up, "hi, I'm ( your name ), Dick's work partner," you said, stretching your hand out for him, "and the pain in my ass." you rolled your eyes as the man chuckled, "I'm Jason," he replied. his voice alone made the hair on your arms raise in goosebumps as you found his voice extremely attractive, "pleasure," you responded, trying not to sound nervous.

Dick wasn't the smartest of all brothers, clearly but it didn't exactly take an idiot to see the way you immediately acted around Jason. he noticed the way you pulled yourself back a bit as Jason stood up to give you a proper hello. when he first met you, you were instantly the confident person you always were but this time, you were pulling yourself back a bit.

"so, how did you meet Dick?" Jason asked. you laughed, "we're partners at work and I even dated the asshole for a while," Dick whipped his head around as you heard Damian hollering from laughter, "I'm right here!" he exclaimed. you rolled your playfully, "please, I heard the way you talk about me to Barbara," you pressed, making Dick slump down in his seat in shame.

Jason laughed at the way you managed to make Dick fall back. he had never seen someone do that to him before and frankly, he kind of liked the way you poked at Dick a bit. everyone knew he was the easiest target to mess with but it seemed as though you were professional at it, just like Damian was.

"so, who are the ones on patrol tonight?" Bruce asked, getting up. Damian and Dick raised their hands as they all looked to Jason, "you're still hurt from your previous run in so you will be sitting this one out Master Jason," Alfred spoke up. you saw the way Jason wanted to argue but Alfred gave him the 'you better not try it' look.

"you can stay with her," Dick offered, slipping into his suit, "she's helping out with communication tonight since Tim is off doing work with the Titans." you gave Jason a wave of encouragement as he agreed, not as excited as you thought he'd be. you shrugged it off, waving everyone off with a 'be careful' lecture.

the batcave went silent as Alfred had offered to bring the both of you coffee for the long night. you were sitting across from Jason, your legs crossed as you slipped in your headphone into one ear to make sure you could hear what Damian, Dick, and Bruce were saying clearly. you cracked your neck, trying to make it unstiff as you gave the three of them their coordinates of where they were to meet if they all separated....which was the first thing they did.

"so, why did you and Dick break up?" Jason asked suddenly. you lifted your head up, "oh, we just realized we were better off as friends," you replied, "everything felt kind of forced and a bit weird so we figured it was best to just be friends before it got any weirder."

Jason nodded, smiling underneath his stoic face. he knew he wanted to make a move on you but realized it was a slimey thing to do so quick. he hadn't known the real reason to the break up but figured since you were still friends with Dick, it clearly meant that there were no hard feelings, especially when Dick was trying his time again with Barbara.

the two of you remained silent, sipping away on water and coffee. a few yawns crossed your face as you tried to keep yourself awake. this wasn't the first time Dick had you doing this but you hadn't went strictly from work to Dick's place and didn't get the chance to take a nap before leaving. Jason saw the way you were fighting off your sleep and chuckled.

"tired?" he asked. you nodded slowly, "long day and an even longer day tomorrow," you replied. you saw your phone ping up with text messages as you let out a groan of annoyance, "something wrong?" Jason asked, seeing the way messages came in left and right.

you flipped the phone over, "it's dumb. some guy I was seeing hasn't stopped messaging me ever since I gave him my number and even when I told him I wasn't interested, he still kept going," you confessed, wanting nothing more than to chuck your phone against the wall to make it stop.

Jason thought for a moment. he could play this one of two ways. one: trying to give you mature, adult advice or two: being the petty teenager he used to once be. "wanna try to get him back?" he asked, quickly checking the communicators and cameras to make sure everything was still okay. you nodded your head a bit slowly, not knowing what he was hinting at.

Jason grabbed your phone, quickly taking a photo before writing a few thing down and sending it. your eyes widened, seeing what he wrote out.

"might wanna stop texting the girl who has no interest in you."

you gave Jason a look as he laughed, "what?" he asked, going back to the cameras and communicators. after a while, you got a message that they were heading back to the cave as others took their place. you clapped in tired happiness as you shut the computers down and put every thing into your bad so you and Dick could head out as quickly as possible.

"leaving already?" Jason poked playfully. you smiled, "I have work in the morning and I doubt you'd want to spend anymore time with me," you joked back. Jason grabbed your phone again, this time putting his number into your phone before shooting himself a message.

"you couldn't even wait a day?" Dick said as he got out of the batmobile. you shrugged playfully, "what can I say? your brother is hot," you responded, waving your phone with his number in it. Jason choked on his spit as Damian gagged, "gross, keep that shit to yourself," Damian yelled, slamming the door of the batcave as he made his way to his room.

you gave Jason a wink goodbye before getting into Dick's car.

"see ya soon sweetheart."

[puppypeter]

✨ All fics are complete! ✨

He Loves Me Cause I’m Cute, He Thinks I’m Pretty Funny | 2588 words 📱

He watches it back one more time after it posts, checking for typos in his subtitles and captions, and has to laugh again.

Steve fucking Rogers? His brain thought he could pull Captain America, literal superhero and America’s favorite sweetheart?

“Hello I’m a 35 year old amputee living in New York and I think that I could get Steve Rogers.”

OR

the one where bucky posts a tiktok and steve is utterly smitten.

Summer Slipped Us Underneath Her Tongue | 10712 words 🧳

Bucky is a tour guide who enjoys sharing the rich history and culture of each city they pass through with a bunch of early-20's college students who just want to know the cheapest place to get drunk.

Except for Steve, who asks Bucky for a personal tour around his hometown.

The rest is, as they say, history.

You Make My Heart Skip A Beet | 3853 words 🧑🏼‍🍳

“I made soda bread.” Steve lets out the 6’2” supersoldier equivalent of a squeak. “Oh, I love soda bread,” he says eagerly, rolling forward on the balls of his feet like he does when he gets excited. “My mom used to make it all the time when I was growing up.” The tips of Barnes’s ears turn red, and he mutters something that sounds suspiciously like, “I know.”

Ollie Meets Bagel | 5517 words 🥯

He was a skater boy, Steve said let's get bagels, boy.

Steve wants to start doing this twenty-first century thing properly. He gets help in the form of skateboarding, skateboarders, bagels, and Sam Wilson.

Taxi | 5113 words 🚕

Bucky Barnes was, he hoped, a good taxi driver.

He's so good, he actually tries to return lost property that ends up left in his car and... well. It has some unexpected consequences involving a National Icon.

Enough said.

Leg Day | 12157 words 🏋️‍♂️

“So talk to him,” Sam says.

“I can’t,” Bucky groans. “I can’t, Sam, I. He just.” He fluffs his hair up and stares at Sam, distraught. “I want him to bench press me.”

“Okay, so it’s serious,” Sam interprets. “Got it."

(Or: The one where Sam is Bucky's long-suffering roommate, Bucky is a hot mess of a millennial, and Hot Steve spends far too much time on the Lat Pull-Down machine.)

Love In Aisle Four | 2127 words 🛍️

When Bucky needs to swing by the supermarket after a long, hard day of work, the last thing he expects is to meet a cute grocery clerk named Steve…

Coming Up Easy | 45515 words ✍🏻

“Listen, I was just thinking,” Steve says, his face open, eyebrows raised in a tentatively hopeful expression. “Why don’t you come stay at my place for a while? I’ve got an office that I barely use, and a change of scenery might do you good, right? Help you beat that writer’s block?” With a crooked smile, he adds, “I promise I’m not a serial killer.”

While Bucky would normally crack a joke about how that’s exactly what a serial killer would say, right now, all he can do is blink at Steve in surprise, heart tripping over itself in his chest. Steve wants him to come and stay at his place. In Massachusetts. Just the two of them.

"Oh," Bucky croaks. "I- Wow."

“I mean, no pressure,” Steve says hastily. “Totally fine if you don’t wanna. I just thought I’d offer, in case it might help, y’know?”

“Yeah.” Bucky ignores the little voice in his head that sounds an awful lot Nat and Becca, telling him he’s setting himself up for heartbreak. “I mean, if you’re sure, that would be amazing.”

Anywhere The Wind Blows | 8845 words 👨‍🚒🎖️

After a catastrophic fire that shakes him to his core, Steve Rogers quits his job as a Brooklyn firefighter and relocates to a cabin in the remote Canadian wilderness, wanting quiet and solitude and to maybe never have to speak to another human being ever again. He gets his wish, more or less, until a recently injured Bucky Barnes is discharged from the Army and rents the cabin next door.

The Safer Course | 7918 words | Part 1 of Won’t You Be My Neighbor 🏡

When Steve moves to the suburbs in 2033, he intends to retire from superhero life.

He does not intend to fall in love with his pain-in-the-ass neighbor.

Every Year I Have You | 7064 words | Part 2 of Won’t You Be My Neighbor 🏡

Steve set the bar pretty high, as birthday presents go.

Bucky is determined to outdo him when July 4th comes around.

Beneath The Mistletoe | 21203 words 🎄

Bucky had a bet with his sister that if he didn’t have a boyfriend to bring home for Christmas by the time he was 25, he had to give her $200 and go blonde for a year. But now he's 25, it’s nearing December, and not only is Bucky as single as ever, but he’s also running low on cash. He doesn’t exactly want to bleach his hair, either.

At least Steve is willing to upgrade their relationship from best friends to fake boyfriends.

The Settler | 52203 words 🍞

“What do you want to do?”

Steve pauses and looks at them.

What he wants is to stay with them. He doesn't have any family left, they all died before he even joined the war and became... this. Captain America turned whatever he is now. But Natasha and Sam have become his family over the years. Not just because they're on the run together, fugitives and vigilantes, but way before that too.

He doesn't want to leave that.

But he knows that, realistically, he can't stay with them and they can't stay with him.

So he looks at them with a smile and lies. “I don't know.”

OR; In which Steve retires and finally finds a place to call home.

You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory | 1148 words 🐈

"Alright, Bucky," Steve slows his steps, watches his neighbour stop at the bottom of the next flight of stairs. There's a canvas bag in his hand that Steve didn't notice earlier, cream coloured with the figure of a sleeping, black cat painted on it. "Have a good day."

He thinks Bucky's cheeks pink up a bit right then and there, but Steve can't tell. He's too distracted by his pounding, foolish heart, by the way Bucky smiles bashfully, and ducks his head. The way he seems like he wants to stay.

To Believe In Tomorrow | 3959 words 👨🏻‍🌾

Bucky's mornings at the community garden get a little more interesting when the new guy shows up.

Maybe This Christmas | 24873 words | Part 1 of Maybe ❄️

Bucky’s not going home for Christmas. But it’s fine. He’s spending Christmas alone in his apartment, but it’s cool. He’s not feeling up to seeing his family after his accident anyway, plus he has to work. He’s totally fine with it. But then he runs into Steve, literally, and suddenly his Christmas isn’t looking so empty after all.

-----

Hurrying was a bad idea. Bucky’s foot hits a patch of ice and slides out from under him in what would have been a comical cartoon banana-peel-like trip, if it wasn’t happening to him, and he braces himself to hit the ground. This is going to hurt.

“Fuck,” Bucky screeches, but as he lands on his back, it’s not the cold hard concrete he expected, but a solid mass beneath him. Oh god, Bucky thinks as he realises he smacked into the person behind him and took them down with him.

Maybe This Year (Will Be Better Than Last) | 133868 words | Part 2 of Maybe ❄️

Last year, Bucky Barnes met Steve Rogers. Well actually, he slipped and fell on him. What followed was the best Christmas either of them had ever had. But what happens when Christmas is over and life returns to normal? What happens after the Christmas miracle?

-----

Bucky should have known. He did know. When things seem too good to be true, they usually are. And Steve is the best thing that has happened to him in a long time, possibly ever, so of course it couldn’t last.

Maybe This Time (I Hope I Get The Chance To Say Goodbye) | 34561 words | Part 3 of Maybe ❄️

Steve and Bucky Barnes are happily married. They've made it through some hard times and come out stronger and happier, together. Then Steve gets called on to come out of retirement for the most important mission of his life and everything changes. Everything.

-----

“Have yourself a merry little Christmas…” Steve starts singing along softly, and Bucky chuckles, before leaning his head onto Steve’s shoulder, always happy when he’s in Steve’s arms.

“From now on, our troubles will be miles away…” Bucky joins in.

Dancing round their living room, just as in love as ever, their troubles seem light-years away, if not non-existent.

Sadly, they’re closer than they think.

The Unexpected Gift | 9504 words | Part 1 of When Winter Comes 🐕

Steve Rogers is fine.

After ending a long-term relationship with Sam Wilson, Steve moves back to New York. He's tired and lonely but depressed? No. At least, that's what he thinks.

From the window of his apartment, he watches a dark-haired man and his service dog sitting in the park, wondering what his story is.

The Winter Storm | 2218 words | Part 2 of When Winter Comes 🐕

"If I could give you one thing in life, I would give you the ability you see yourself through my eyes, only then would you realize how special you are to me."

After Bucky and Steve confessed their feelings for each other, life has its own twisted way to challenge the most profound love.

One January Night | 4213 words | Part 3 of When Winter Comes 🐕

Before going back to work, Steve Rogers still has things to learn: 1- Depression is a bitch and the battle against it isn't an easy one. 2- Dating a person with disabilities comes with its share of challenges.

Bucky Barnes Has His Shit Together (And Other Lies He Tells Himself) | 14159 words 🔒

You’d think a guy who owns one of the most successful bakeries in Brooklyn, has a million-dollar smile and that antiquated good ol’ boy charm, blond hair and blue eyes and biceps for days, would know what’s what.

But don’t let that fool you: Steve Rogers is a mess.

Obvious | 917 words ☕

"Oh, I have a prompt! So, it makes me laugh how painfully obvious Steve and Bucky's feelings are to everyone when they're in that pining, slowburn, does-he-doesn't-he phase. But imagine Steve and Bucky working in a coffee shop together and constantly bickering, nudging and playfully flirting with each other. And all the employees and patrons are so invested in their relationship and just want them to kiss already but no one realizes that Steve and Bucky have been married since they got out of HS."

[margarethx]

Sambucky writing prompts

Because I have a lot of ideas and no ability to focus on writing any of them right now... so I might as well share. Feel free to use any of these. You can tag me or send a link if you want to. (Unless it's ”a story about poor, sad Bucky... and Sam is kinda there to help” type of fanfiction, bacause I love Sam too much to read something like that.)

Let's go!

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1. Both Sam and Bucky are trained to be Winter Soldiers at the same time. On one of the shared missions they accidentally form a connection which helps them with slowly getting their memories back, so they can escape together.

2. The Winter Soldier is sent to kill one Samuel Thomas Wilson, but for some reason he just cannot do it. (Or he almost did and regrets it immediately.)

3. Bucky's a mechanic that Sam called to help with repairing the boat and he works very slowly on purpose to have an excuse to see Sam more often.

4. Sam can actually talk to birds (as he should!) and they start to be annoying always asking about his dating life.

5. Sam is a literal angel. That's the prompt. (And canon.)

6. Sam and Bucky go on long, separate vacation. But they somehow end up in the same country, the same town, and the same hotel. Probably the same room too. What a surprise...

7. Bucky knows a lot of things about Sam and Sam is sure he never told him about any of that. Turns out Bucky migh have done some research between 2014 and 2016 when Sam was looking for him.

8. Sam discovers that Bucky had something to do with picking the designs for his new superhero suit.

9. Bucky finally tries to bond with Redwing and Sam does a very bad job at pretending he’s not amused.

10. Bucky has to deal with a painful realisation that Sam is not a supersoldier and that no matter how strong he is he'll always be more likely to get seriously hurt on their missions.

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11. When they are frustrated Bucky starts to speak Russian and Sam responds to him in Arabic which doesn't solve the initial problem, but at least it's funny. (Bonus points if one of them - or both - pretends to not now the language the other one's speaking.)

12. Bucky has a terrible reputation and looks dangerous, so everyone prefers to avoid him, but then he meets Sam who just makes fun of his edgy persona all the time... and Bucky for some gay reason lets him. Everyone else is just very confused and worried about Sam’s safety. (Probably some University/High School AU.)

13. [It’s more like an art prompt, but whatever.] They both have long hair now. No plot. Just both of them being in love and appreciating how handsome the other one looks.

14. Since both Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan exist in the MCU canon I’d love to see Sam and Bucky’s reactions to their actors being on screen when they watch movies together.

15. Bucky didn’t have much experience with dating since 1940s and he thought he’d be the awkward one once he and Sam get together, but it turns out Sam was never in any relationship, because he was too busy and neglected that part of his life.

16. They both have the canon skills/powers, but only one of them is a superhero. The other is “their” villain. So still enemies to lovers, but a different flavour.

17. Sam always had the ability to talk to birds. He just... forgot to mention it before to other people, including Bucky. So the power-reveal is quite unexpected.

18. Sam and Bucky literally hate each other – it’s not just their canon-like amused annoyance. But then they start to learn what happened to the other one in the past and the feelings slowly shift from hatered into something else. (Might be a No Powers AU)

19. Sam thinks that Bucky misses the 40s. Well, he’s wrong.

20. Sam is a regular civilian (who never met Steve). He finds Bucky right after he escaped HYDRA and helps him go back to normal life. (He might know who he’s helping or not.)

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

21. Bucky learns about Riley, but he doesn’t learn it directly from Sam.

22. Sam and Bucky come back after the Blip, see each other, and try to deal with the situation together, no knowing what has just happened.

23. Bucky explains to Steve why he won’t go back to the past with him. It’s  mostly because of Sam, obviously.

24. A story about Sam and Bucky growing apart between Endgame and tfatws and how they dealt with feeling like they’re losing yet another person so soon. (And about them coming bact to each other again.)

25. Sam and Bucky learn how other people around them see their relationship. It doesn’t really mirror how they see this partnership themselves.

26. A classic role-swap. Sam is the Winter Soldier. Bucky’s the Falcon. Their personalities stay exactly the same.

27. Sam and Bucky try to tell someone who knows almost nothing about them how they met. (They lie or they don’t.)

28. Bucky deals with people who are openly against Sam as the new Captain. Sam deals with people who think Bucky should be locked up for being “with” HYDRA in the past.

29. Sam is still The Falcon and later Captain America, but Bucky’s a regular person who also happens to be Sam’s huge fan.

30. Dr. Raynor said she heard a lot about Sam (presumably from Bucky). But what exactly did Bucky tell her?

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31. Only one of them died after the Snap. The other one has to live for five years, hoping they’ll be able to reverse it.

32. The first time Sam and Bucky saw each other: scared, feeling exhausted, really happy, genuinely laughing, truly angry, crying, completely resigned, flustered, shy.

33. After being frozen in Wakanda Bucky lost all memories related to Sam. Sam has to decide whether he should use the opportunity to start the relationship over or let Bucky know about their less-than-ideal beginnings.

34. Sam accidentally gets super-serum. Bucky helps him with adjusting.

35. Bucky accidentally loses super-serum. Sam helps him with adjusting.

36. Sam used to visit Wakanda when Bucky was frozen and talked to him a lot, even when Bucky couldn’t hear him. (Well, couldn’t he?)

37. They have a conversation about Steve, but it’s Sam telling Bucky stories from their friendship (how they met, what they did as fugatives, how Sam feels about Steve leaving without saying goodbye).

38. Sam and Bucky use time travel (because they survived the Snap or for other reasons) and they see the past versions of themselves alone or interacting with each other.

39. Sam and Bucky are stuck in Soul Stone together. The problem is that they cannot really hide their emotions or memories as well as they would be able to as real people.

40. After disappearing in the Snap Sam gets a chance to talk to Riley. They know Sam will eventually come back to life, but they still can spend time together and get some closure that will help with moving Sam’s relationship with Bucky forward.

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[tumbling-darkling]

You Can’t Punch a Ghost

Ch 6. “Don’t worry, what’s the worst that can happen?”

AO3

First | Previous | Next

Danny found himself hanging out with Denki even beyond the tutoring sessions.

He was the only one so far that knew of his very specific predicament, even though he stumbled upon the truth rather than Danny trusting him with the information. At first he was worried. Worried that Denki would tell all of his friends, worried he would tell Aizawa, worried he would break his promise the moment Danny wasn’t looking.

And he must have noticed how Danny avoided his gaze, his touch, everything the day after the secret was out in the open between them.

Then after classes Denki tracked him down, tapped his shoulder causing him to flinch at the thought of being electrocuted once again and invited him to hang out, to join his group's study session.

Danny had intended to decline, but then Ashido- who asked him to call her Mina, had dragged him along anyhow.

What was odd was how casual it was. A bunch of super powered kids studying for a final exam at a superhero school. And they all studied the basic subjects, asking questions when one got confused and each person jumping in to give thoughts or answers.

The day after, Denki and Danny had another tutor session. It went along as a normal session would and then- Denki offered to hang out afterwards. Danny continued to hesitate, but the begging look on his face made it impossible to say no.

Was he… making friends?

-

-

-

Denki peeked over the edge of the building before turning to Danny with a massive grin on his face, “looks like we got our privacy! If a flying hero shows up we will see them long before they get close enough to hear us! So! I’ve been thinking a lot about your- dimension problem. But I had no clue where to start! So I thought- hey! What if we come up with ideas together? Jump off each other’s thoughts!”

Danny blinked at the suggestion, “just, think out loud?”

Denki nodded, “it works in study sessions! Here, I need some questions answered first and maybe we can end up with a solution! So, how did you get to this world?”

Danny pauses, “well, a ghost zone portal, I think. It’s the only logical answer actually, no other kind of portal would drop me in another dimension of all places.”

“Okay, so how do these portals show up?”

“It’s, um… random really. But mostly only in the ghost zone, it’s much more rare for them to show up outside the ghost zone,” Danny stated.

Denki rubbed his chin in thought, “okay-, so in order to get you home, you need one of these very rare portals to just... pop up at the right time and place. Any way to predict it?”

Danny shook his head with a frown, “I haven’t been able to figure that out yet. I’m sure my parents could have made a device to predict such things, but I don't believe I could make one on my own. I would need Tucker for the engineering side of it, or some kind of mechanic.”

“Could we find you someone to make a device like that?”

Danny frowned even more, “I would… prefer not to. A device like that needs background information about ghosts, ectoplasm, dimension hopping. Dragging another person into my mess isn’t really something I want to do at the moment. Maybe when I start to get desperate.”

Denki leaned back a little, “so man made device may be off the table, what about a man made portal?”

“Do you know one that exists in this world that leads to the ghost zone?”

Denki paused, then deflated a little, “Ah- nope. But! We could try to look into it! So it’s a possibility!” He then glanced back over to Danny, “were there other ways to travel between your world and the ghost zone? Or other ways to open portals?”

Danny knit his eyebrows together in thought, looking down at the street below when a very hairy stranger sauntering down the street reminded him of a friend with exactly that kind of ability, “actually… I have a wolf friend who could tear through the veil with his claws into my world or the ghost zone at will.”

Denki blinked, “that’s… fucking incredible. Do you think he could find a way to get here with that kind of power?”

Danny then felt that glimmer of hope vanish, “...no his abilities are limited to the ghost zone and my world, not other dimensions.”

The pair sat in silence for a few moments, thinking over the ideas they managed to work off of eachother, that is until Denki broke the silence.

“... can you open portals to other dimensions?”

Danny looked over in confusion, “no, what makes you think I could?”

Denki shrugged, “well, you are like a godly powerhouse. You have like 20 quirks; flying, invisibility, going through walls, ice, changing forms, dropping temperatures around you, lasers-, the list goes on! So why not add portal opening in the mix?”

Danny shook his head, “Well it’s not one I have-,” and then he paused.

Wait a second.

Didn’t…

Didn’t Dan have the ability to open portals into the ghost zone?

As much as he hated thinking about the alternate version of himself, sometimes he couldn’t help but compare himself to the other at times. Especially in regards to powers.

Dan had a lot of powered up versions of his abilities, honed powers from experience and usage. Not to mention Danny had to remember a good half of the abilities were Vlad’s.

But he also got powers Dan never had, like his wail. And Vlad didn’t have portal opening abilities. If he did, he wouldn’t have a man-made portal under every damn mansion he owned.

So did that mean… that Danny could develop abilities in regards to opening portals back into the ghost zone?

Danny opened and closed his mouth like a gaping fish before he found his words, “actually, I think I might.”

He looked over and nearly fell off the roof when he spotted Denki’s face mere millimeters from his own, a grin spread out wide across face. “Well it sounds like we have a solution to our problem!”

Danny slowly looked down to his hands, “now… how exactly would I activate them?”

Denki hummed in thought, “that’s a good question. Everyone activates their quirks in their own way. For me, it’s like flexing all my muscles at once. But portals… maybe you have to like, think like a teleporter? Like try to picture where you want to go and try to summon it?”

Danny tilted his head back, “that… may work?” He closed his eyes, trying to picture the ghost zone. Thinking about the swirling green void and floating islands that were scattered within. Picturing the friends he had in the zone, the Far Frozen, Clockworks tower, the Fenton Portal.

He slowly peeked a single eye open, hoping to see swirling green. Then fully opened his eyes when he didn’t see anything and deflated with a sigh. “Or maybe it will never work and I’ll just be stuck here forever.”

Denki leaned forward, “hey now, you can’t just give up after a single try! We can practice and maybe something will happen! Heck, I bet you will figure it out randomly! That’s how a good chunk of society figures out their quirks!”

Danny snorted, “yeah- I guess that is the way it will most likely happen, alright.”

“Besides, this world isn’t the worst place to end up! You could’ve fallen into a world full of spiders! Or mushrooms! At least here we have really awesome and cool powers!” He winked. “How about I show you some really cool and awesome things we can do around here?”

Danny blinked, “what are you suggesting?”

Denki grinned mischievously, “how do you feel about pranks?”

-

-

-

Shouta shouldn’t be this stressed.

His students were dealing with studies for final exams which he already had set up and ready to go, even with Danny participating in the exams for the sake of even pairings. So he shouldn’t be stressed about the exams, he had faith his students would survive. They all should pass.

But of course he would always worry about those with lower grading scores.

No, that wasn’t what was causing his stress.

It was his goddamn problem children.

The ones with good scores have been causing him problems. Midoriya always caused a very specific headache, and his stunt in Hosu was a barely covered up mess. Iida pulling a stunt he never would have predicted, though he had a feeling that he was working towards never trying to commit murder again for the sake of revenge. At least Midoriya was good at slapping some sense into his friends, though he desperately needed to save some of that common sense for himself.

Danny was a mix between a headache and a blessing. He hadn’t caused any issues yet, no running off and fighting villains, no attracting villains, and he rarely injured himself in training if at all. (Unlike one student that could never seem to leave a training arena without at least one shattered bone.) He paid attention in classes, other teachers had informed him of Danny’s progress as well, the young boy being quite brilliant in some of the scientific fields. The only headache was trying to figure out what the hell happened to him.

Who tried to kill him and left him to die amongst trash? Or was he trying to escape someone, or something, and crawled into the dumpster to hide? Did he really have amnesia regarding these events or was he hiding it?

Why was his speech in Japanese flawless yet his writing and reading non existent? Did someone never teach him to keep him under their thumb? Keep him from realizing what was happening to him was wrong?

Then there was that nagging feeling that Danny was hiding something. The flickering looks, the stiff posture from time to time. Even on the first training day when he finally saw Danny in action instead of just the aftermath. Witnessing the fight brought back his thoughts regarding Danny’s handle on the villain attack. He didn’t fight like a child in training. He fought like an experienced pro.

It’s like a switch was flipped.

Danny always seemed to hold himself in a meek way, he would hunch as he walked, hands held close to himself or in his pockets, he wasn’t big on eye contact either and always seemed to watch the surrounding area instead of others. Then when he stepped on the battlefield, everything shifted. His stance would straighten, holding himself steadily as his focus was primarily trained on his opponent. He became confident, he knew what to watch for in order to predict an opponent's attack, bounced back quickly when knocked down, even the air around him seemed to shift. It was almost like watching a different person entirely.

And then there was ANOTHER new problem.

A vigilante that was more public than any other vigilante. Usually they barely lasted a week, facial recognition software finding documented files of the most foolish vigilantes. Pro heroes were also quick to end public vigilantes' antics as they didn’t have the same training and back-up. And finally, Shouta would be the last resort in the area. Once tracked to a familiar fighting ground and sighting area, he would swoop in and cancel out their quirk before any more damage could be done and the capture would be swift and painless. The more painful vigilantes stuck to the shadows, remained out of sight and those were the few that could last years unnoticed.

So this new Vigilante, which the media had shamelessly dubbed ‘Spooky Boy’ since the vigilante hadn’t dropped a name, was very public, very powerful, and very headache inducing.

Midoriya even admitted that Spooky had a hand in helping apprehend Stain before he vanished. Yet the most concerning aspect that Midoriya had reported was his quirk.

Spooky had to have multiple quirks from what Midoriya had seen. Lasers, flying, invisibility and intangibility, and an overall very mutated look. Midoriya even said he may have some sort of delusion in regards to actually being a ghost, joking about being dead and acting like he was a ghost.

So there was a young vigilante with multiple quirks running around pretending to be a ghost, easily avoiding being apprehended thanks to his power set, and had no clear motive in place. He had been lucky to avoid the top 5 heroes so far since he mainly operated at night while the most popular heroes operated during the day, yet his luck was bound to run out. The police had asked him to keep an eye out, to assist if he came across the vigilante but to focus on other issues since the vigilante hadn’t shown signs of causing damage. The only issue so far was just his ability to avoid the law. Which encouraged others to attempt to copy him.

He didn’t need kids not from his class causing more damage based on bad influences.

Not to mention he showed up a night after they found Danny.

It could be a coincidence.

Or it could not be.

It could be a ruse. A trick. Faking heroism to gain public trust. To get close to his real target and strike.

He couldn’t be too careful.

He needed to know Spooky’s motive because if he was connected to Danny in any way… then Danny may be in more danger than Shouta initially thought.

He leaned back in his chair, digging the palms of his hands into his eye sockets in an attempt to keep himself awake and rid himself of another headache that pounded against his skull.

“Late night again? Isn’t this the time of year where the load is supposed to be lighter?” Shouta glanced at his doorway spotting Hizashi leaning against it in a casual way. “Who’s giving you the headache now, Midoriya? Todoroki? Or is it Shinsou?”

“The new one…” Shouta sighed, slowly getting up from his chair and glaring at the paperwork scattered over his desk.

“Oh! Young Fenton, was it? Goes by Danny? Where in the world did you pick up an American transfer student?” Hizashi leaned forward, tilting his sunglasses down to reveal that devilish glint in his eyes, “or should I instead ask what it is about him that you're hiding from everyone.” Shouta shot the other teacher a glare, which only seemed to make that smile grow even wider. “Oh you totally are hiding something! Come on! You can tell me! You know I’m going to find out when I come over this weekend!” He hummed, skipping over to him as Shouta attempted to escape the room. “I’ll find all that pesky paperwork about him, so it’s easier if you just give up now!”

“How much trouble would it be if I had to set Danny up at All Mights house?” Shouta muttered under his breath, which it seemed Hizashi managed to pick up when he very, audibally, gasped.

“He’s staying in your apartment?”

Busted. “Yes, I’m… acting as his Guardian until we can confirm his safety.”

“Confirm his… is he a child of a mob boss or something? Like the bastard child they usually want dead?” Hizashi dramatically asked.

“It’s a possibility, really,” Shouta humoured him, “but it’s suspected to be more… experimental.”

Hizashi’s playful grin dropped, “seriously? You think he was experimented on? By who? And for what reasons?”

Shouta shook his head, “we have no leads that could answer either of those questions. A citizen found him passed out in a dumpster. He wasn’t dressed like he had been on the streets, he had a head injury, has amnesia about his past, and every day I see evidence that it was worse than I would originally think.”

“He’s such a bright kid, a little shy at most. I mean yeah, he gives off some creepy vibes from time to time but I never would have guessed-,”

Shouta placed a hand on Hizashi’s shoulder, “Wait-, what do you mean by ‘creepy’?”

Hizashi scratched lightly at his cheek, “well, it’s just- sometimes he seems to stare at nothing, like your cats do at ridiculous times in the morning. Or the air around him chills, which I think is just his quirk acting up or something. The most prominent is just the presence at times. I don’t know how to describe it but it feels… off. Like how you can just tell that it’s going to be a bad day, or how you can tell the incoming storm is going to be really bad? It’s almost like that but you don’t really know why it feels like that.” Hizashi then shrugged, “but you know, every kid has their quirks, right?” he offered a slight grin, “maybe that’s just a family thing.”

Shouta frowned, trying to piece together the information. He did notice Danny had such an odd presence about him, as well as his accent was something Shouta had such a hard time placing. It was another reason he had a hard time pinning down Danny’s origins. An accent can sometimes pinpoint locations. Southern Japan versus the northern areas. Different countries' citizens all had different accents, American and Canadian English accents in Japanese were slightly different, as well as the ones between Mexico and Spain Spanish accents. Danny’s accent was an outlier. It didn’t fit under any accent he had ever heard before. In fact it sounded… odd. There always seemed to be a wisp of the vowels, a slightly off pitch of the words being spoken, a twist of sounds that made it seem like a forgotten voice was speaking.

Shouta just scratched his chin and managed to shuffle out of his office, waiting for Hizashi to exit after him before closing and locking the door, “it could be anything. Everything about that kid is odd and it worries me. Why does it worry me?”

Hizashi nudged his shoulder with a grin, “because he’s your new cat.”

Shouta blinked slowly, processing Hizashi’s words. “Excuse me, what?”

Hizashi barked out a laugh, “you seriously don’t see it? I’ve never seen you latch onto a kid so fast, but I have seen you latch onto a cat this fast. Hell, you latched onto your other catboy, Shinsou really fast after the sports festival. Your weakness isn’t just cats. It’s cat-like kids!”

Shouta shoved past Hizashi aggressively, which only prompted more laughter from him, “it’s not my weakness, I just know if I let those two flail around on their own they won’t get very far. I don’t have a bleeding heart.”

“You said bleeding heart! You have it bad! Oh man, are we going to have to have custody battles over these kids?” Hizashi grinned, “heck, Danny already lives with you, soon he’s going to start calling you dad.”

“You really don’t know when to shut up, now do you?” Shouta sighed.

“Look, this is what happens when you adopt cat boys, I’m going to mock you over it.”

“Please stop calling them cat boys. This isn’t anime.”

“I will when you can prove they aren’t cats by heart,” his grin became sinister, “maybe I can convince your class to get pictures of them with cat ears just to mock you even more.”

“Hizashi, please.”

“Oh no need to be so serious all the time! Look, Danny may be just a little odd but he’s in no danger! He goes to the most highly secured school in Japan and he lives with an underground hero! The kid couldn’t be more safe!”

-

-

-

Danny glanced over the edge of the top of a light lamp pole in ghost form, a good 50 feet off the ground. He grinned at Denki who gave him a thumbs up from the ground. The area was empty thanks to the late time and construction sections surrounding the area. Danny pulled the walkie talkie Denki gave him close to his face and pressed the button, “so you think if I am in mortal danger, the power might spontaneously manifest?”

He heard a beep erupt from the small device before Denki’s voice followed, “exactly! Sometimes quirks have been known to develop early because someone was faced with a life or death situation so they just- BAM!! Manifest their quirk! So this might jumpstart it into showing up!”

“But I’ve been in mortal danger before. A lot. And I can fly.”

“Just turn off the flying part! And now it may show because you’re thinking about it! Just trust me!”

“Okaaayyy….” Danny said, glancing nervously over the edge again. He leaned back and took a few quick breaths, then squeezed his eyes shut and threw himself off the lamppost.

He tried to think of the Ghost Zone again, the safety of the churning green abyss. He risked a peek and immediately regretted it as all he saw was cold, hard pavement before his face painfully collided with it. Green splattered out of his now shattered nose in all directions, and all he could do was groan in response, turning back to human as he sat up. The green remained but now fresh red blood began to spill out of his nose and mix with the green, making a swirling mess of blood on his face and his shirt.

“Ouch.”

“Holy fuck- dude you were supposed to fly before you hit the ground!”

“Yeah I kinda forgot to do that,” Danny said in a nasally voice, leaning back his head and tenderly touching the mess that was his nose. “Oh god I can’t believe I have to do this again…”

“Do what-,”—Danny snapped his flattened nose back straight with a horribly sickening crack—,”hoLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK!”

Danny twitched his head a little, blinking wildly, “hOO that hurt! I forgot how much that hurt!” He shook his head again. “Oh- well at least it will heal all right. Hopefully before Aizawa notices…”

“How long will it take for it to heal?”

Danny thought back to the last time he broke his nose so horribly, “uh- 2 days. Oh no it’s gonna bruise so badly. He’s going to notice, Denki! What do I tell him? ‘Hey I leapt off a lamp pole to try and manifest portal making powers’?”

“Yes.”

“NO! No, I can’t tell him that!”

“Fine. Ride or die it is.”

“Ride or- what do you mean-.”

Denki punched himself in the face, causing Danny to yelp in surprise, “what did you do that for?!”

“RIDE OR DIE, DANNY!” Denki exclaimed. “I have a black eye, you have a broken nose, what happened? I don’t know! Do you know? No! I don’t know either! No questions asked!”

Danny snorted, which made his nose hurt even more, “you’re my ride or die then?”

“Of course dude! Look, we are secret buddies now. You’re stuck with me whether you like it or not!” He cackled in a joking manner.

Danny sighed and leaned back, looking up at the darkening sky. “Stuck with you, huh? Say we still have some time to kill. Wanna try out some pranks you suggested earlier?”

Denki grinned, “I thought you would never ask.”

-

-

-

Todoroki tapped the whiteboard surrounded by other white boards and cork boards with a long pointer stick he seemingly whipped out of nowhere. Izuku was leaning forward on his seat, his full attention directed towards Todoroki. Mina, Toko, Momo, Tsuyu, Uraraka, Iida, Sero, and Kirishima filled the empty seats of the room around him. The rest of the class was busy with other things and couldn’t make the theory fury crew meeting, Kacchan’s particular excuse being, ‘I’m not joining your stupid insanity club.’

The cork board had many images of Danny, which were very, very bad images. Blurry and out of focus, too dark, or having really bad cases of red eye. All provided by Mina that she gathered on the day she met Fenton a few days prior to the first class (which he felt a little betrayed that she never mentioned that she and Tokoyami had met Fenton beforehand AND saw his quirk in action and never told him) and throughout the first day back to classes. There was also a large tangle of strings, red, blue, white, pink glitter, you name a colour and it was somewhere amongst the cork boards. On the whiteboard that Todoroki was pointing to, was a list.

Theory 1: Danny Fenton is my long lost twin given away at birth because Endeavor fucking sucks.

Theory 2: Aizawa fucked my mom and Danny Fenton is my half brother.

Theory 3: Aizawa had an affair with an American woman and never paid child support but now he has to and also spend time with his son.

Theory 4: Aizawa and Present Mic somehow made Danny. (Young clone of Aizawa??)

Theory 5: SPACE.

Izuku nodded along as Todoroki read out each of the theories, scratching his chin in thought.

Tsuyu raised a hand, “how can he be your twin if he looks nothing like you, your dad, or your mom, ribbit?”

“Well, actually Tsuyu, it’s very possible for twins to have two different fathers, if they’re fraternal that is!” Uraraka pipped in.

Tsuyu tilted her head slightly, “how so? Ribbit.”

“Well…” Uraraka’s cheeks flushed a bright pink, “there’s a lot of… like science and biology about boys and girls but- you know how identical twins are the baby split in two and fraternal twins are two babies from the start? So like if two daddies like a mommy very much during the same week… it’s very possible to have twins that have two different dads.” Her entire face was a bright red by the time she finished explaining, but Tsuyu seemed to get the idea.

Kirishima raised a hand, “what about the ‘space’ theory.”

“That one is very simple,” Todoroki nodded, “he came from space.”

Sero scratches his head, “I don’t get it.”

“Oh! That’s because you all weren’t at the mall! Danny LOVES space!! Once you get him talking about it, he won’t even stop to take a breath! He especially lit up when we mentioned Thirteen, but it was odd how he never heard of the hero before! Or like… any hero before. So someone who loves space and actually doesn’t know a lot about earth customs? He has got to be an alien,” Mina grinned.

“A very valid point,” Todoroki nodded, “though his lack of knowledge could be because he lived a very sheltered life. If he was my half brother or twin, he, as you said, shares none of our family attributes. Black hair and blue eyes? I’d be suspicious if his quirk was a fire quirk but instead it’s ice, which my mother has white hair and grey eyes. So his father must at least have black hair. So clearly, an affair had happened and Endeavor covered it up to protect his precious reputation. If Danny was kept away from hero propaganda, he would never be encouraged to pursue a life of a hero and therefore remain a hidden secret from the public for the rest of his life.”

“So… who’s his father then?” Momo asked.

“None other than,”— Todoroki dramatically tugged a sheet off a covered board revealing a massive picture of Aizawa with red arrows and circles drawn around his face—,”Our own teacher, Mr. Aizawa!”

Several gasps were heard from the members of the theory club.

“Black hair, walking zombie look, sinister grin when he attempts to smile, and unkempt hair. There is no denying that he is somewhat related to our homeroom teacher,” Todoroki slapped his pointing stick against Aizawa’s picture.

“But what about the eyes?” Toko asked. “Neither Aizawa or Todoroki’s mom have blue eyes like his.”

Izuku spun around so fast he nearly knocked over his own chair, “this is where I can add explanations!!” He jumped up next to Todoroki and whipped off another covered whiteboard, revealing an absolute mess of words, circles, arrows and various theory looking images. “His eyes are like that because of his quirk!” Izuku explained. “You see, some users have extra features that are like side effects of a quirk! Like Kirishima! You have very sharp teeth despite having the transformative hardening quirk! It’s slightly related but not as directly! Or Mina! You have pink skin and hair, black whites of your eyes and horns, but your quirk is acid! An emitter type quirk!” The room nodded and hummed in understanding. “Therefore his eyes don’t need to be taken into account in terms of genetics because they are a direct result of his quirk!”

Izuku flipped their whiteboard over, revealing even more writing and notes that looked even crazier than the first. He knew how it looked, but he couldn’t help it, he couldn’t stop when it came to quirks. “Now, to discuss his quirk. Phantom ice! We have to consider what that means for ice to act ‘phantom-like’, so we can start with the definition of ‘phantom’, which from the thesaurus is-,”

“Slow down there, bro. This meeting is mostly about theorizing who his parents are. We can have a separate meeting for his whole quirk analysis aspect,” Kirishima stopped him before he could go buck wild.

Izuku dropped his head in sadness at his inability to rant about what Danny’s quirk could be to a full extent and slowly flipped the white board back over and took a seat back in his original chair.

“Thank you for your contribution, Midoriya,” Todoroki nodded. “Now it is voting time. We shall vote on our most likely theory and continue our research back at our homes to discuss at our next meeting.”

-

-

-

Tomura glared at the shop windows full of merchandise surrounding that new pest. He’s barely been here a week and his stupid fucking crest was everywhere.

What the fuck did the D even stand for?!?

He should be getting all this attention! All this credit!

First Stain and now some little glowing freak that doesn’t even photograph well? What do these brain dead NPCs even see in this fucker?

‘He’s the one who took down Stain,’ Kurogiri’s voice rang in his head. ‘A single hit and the glorious hero killer was down. We should consider recruiting him.’

Recruiting!! Recruiting he said! They tried to recruit Stain and all they got was a bunch of freaks! He was getting tired of putting together a circus instead of a boss-crushing team!

Sensei hadn’t spoken on the manner yet either, it was up to him to decide what he wanted to do about this ‘illegal hero’.

Well… he wasn’t easy to track, so maybe they will just ignore him and one day some stupid hero will kill him.

He grinned to himself, that would be quite fun to watch.

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[true-blue-megamind]

What Makes Hal a Great Villain?

Okay, I’m saying it upfront: this one is going to get a little dark and very real.  Potential triggers for harassment, stalking, sexual predation.  Nothing graphic or heavy, of course, but if these are especially highly sensitive subjects for you, please proceed with caution.

Also, SPOILER ALERT for anyone who has not yet watched the animated awesomeness that is Megamind.  (If you are that person, the DVD is on sale on Amazon, and the movie is available to stream on NowTV.  Go watch it.  I’ll wait.)

We all know Megamind is an awesome protagonist--multi-layered, relatable, and surprisingly complex-- but, truthfully, his antagonist is just as interesting.  In fact, when compared with other animated villains of the early 2000′s, he’s by far the most memorable... and the most terrifying.

Many may question my assessment.  I mean, let’s be honest: this guy doesn’t exactly look like the face of evil.  But make no mistake: Hal, who later becomes Titan, is an extremely scary person.

I don’t want to leave readers with the impression that this character is one-sided, however, so before we get started on just what makes this fellow complete nightmare fuel, let’s look briefly at a few of the other reasons that Hal makes a fascinating Bad Guy.

One of my favorite things about Hal’s character arch is that it defies expectations.  Superhero comics have a long tradition of Average Nobodies who somehow receive extraordinary powers and go on to save the city.  Or the world.  Or the universe.  You get the idea.  Many comic book fans, upon watching Megamind for the first time, probably expected Hal to do the same, but he doesn’t.  In fact, he goes rogue, choosing to use his newly-obtained gifts for wanton destruction.  Thus the film inverts the established trope.

Like the protagonist he faces, (and is thankfully conquered by,) Hal is complex, and his true nature reveals itself slowly.  I’ve heard some people say that they actually felt a bit sorry for him in the first scene he appears, as he awkwardly tries to express his feelings to reporter Roxanne Ritchi.  At first he seemed like nothing worse than a socially inept and sexually frustrated nerd.  Only as the move progressed, and the aforementioned viewers saw his creepiness more clearly, did they begin to revile him.  One of the many clever things about the movie is that the gradual development provides audiences with the experience of slowly getting to know the characters.  While Megamind is the somewhat anarchical Goth who worries you a little at first, but whose heart of gold has you loving him once you really understand him, Hal is that guy you really, really regret talking to at a party.  You know, the one who quickly starts sending your internal Creep-o-Meter off the scale and persistently follows you around for the rest of the night.  This is, indeed, part of what makes Hal disturbing; just like real villains, he hides in plain sight, wearing the guise of an ordinary fellow.

Which brings us back to the scary part.  Even before he gets superpowers, Hal is bad guy deep down.  He’s a creep and a stalker.  He harasses Roxanne at work and keeps pestering her for a date no matter how many times she says no.  Either consciously or unconsciously, he assumes that she’s shallow, and that once he has a muscular body and a bevy of godlike abilities, she’ll fawn on him.  The idea that he himself might be the problem never seems to occur to him.  In fact, he seems to feel that she will then owe him her affection.  This is because, even before becoming Titan, Hal appears to have an overblown sense of self-importance and an unrealistic concept about what he deserves.  (I go into detail about that in an earlier post, Megamind and Identity, which you can read here.)  The fact that he doesn’t get what he feels is his right seems to have created a deep-seeded bitterness in him that rises to the surface once he obtains power.

But Hal really is the problem.  His combined possessive harassment and complete lack of empathy are exactly why Roxanne neither likes nor trusts him.  And she’s right to feel that way.  Almost immediately after gaining his powers, now feeling that he is above society’s rules, Titan begins revealing just how terrible of a person he really is.  He uses his supervision to spy on Roxanne while he and Megamind (disguised as Space Dad) are in the park, and that must not be the only incident because he later tells Roxanne: “I know everything about you.”  This is just before he grabs her off of her balcony, without her consent, and begins throwing her around like a rag doll, terrifying her and putting her life in real danger because, apparently, he thinks she’ll be impressed.

Yeah.  This guy is pretty much human garbage.

Once he finally understands (more or less) that Roxanne really means it when she says she’s not interested, Hal/Titan reveals himself to be a man-child.  He  begins by using his abilities for selfish and criminal reasons, essentially stating that he doesn’t feel heroism is worth his time.  When he learns that Megamind has been dating Roxanne, (albeit in disguise,) he reacts with violence.  This is because Megamind, like Hal himself, is an outsider: unpopular, unwelcome, and considered unattractive by most of the population of Metro City.  In Hal’s mind, this revelation highlights the fact that none of these factors were the cause of Roxanne’s rejection, leaving only he himself to blame.  (In fact, the movie contrasts Megamind, who, although imperfect, respects Roxanne’s wishes and intelligence, with Hal, who basically views her as an object to be won.  Again, you can read more about that in Megamind and Identity.) Hal can’t handle that.  He can’t accept it.  So instead he turns his rage on the city as a whole.  (This is despite the fact that, deep down, Hal knows he is the problem, hence why he rejects his identity as Hal and fully embraces the new one as Titan.  That’s illustrated by his final line before abandoning Roxanne on Metro Tower: “It’s Titan, not Hal!”)

Hal abuses his power, and society suffers as a result.  Even then, however, Hal/Titan still tries to lay claim to Roxanne.  He accuses Megamind of “stealing his girlfriend,” and later tells Roxanne: “Let me guess, after seeing how awesome I am, you’ve come to your senses.”  All the way to the end, Hal still can’t quite seem to accept that reality is not following his design.

If the idea of a man who lets power go to his head, objectifies women, won’t take “no” for an answer, and reacts violently when denied what he feels he’s owed sounds familiar, that’s because it is.  Humanity has a huge problem with these sorts of behaviors, ranging from sexism and sexual predation to unfeeling abuses of power.  The Sarah Everard case in London, and the fact that several officials essentially blamed the victim, asking why Sarah was walking home alone rather than asking why some guy felt he had the right to attack her, is the most recent well-known testament to this, but it’s sadly far from the only one.  A.J. White said it best in his YouTube video, The Terror of the Incel Superman, when he expressed that news archives are full of stories about women being murdered by the sort of overgrown boys who can’t accept their refusals.  And although men of that sort do not have the ability to fly or shoot lasers out of their eyes, some of them do rise to social and political power.  They are Hals. 

That is exactly what makes this character so especially scary.  Unlike more farcical supervillains, he is based upon something that truly exists.  Preternatural abilities aside, Hal is terrifying because he is very real.  Let’s just hope our world will see more Megaminds willing to stand up to them. #BeMegamindNotHal

[alyssadeliv]

The Forgotten One

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Chapter 5

Ladybug and Chat Noir made their debut on a sunny Monday of September. Just as her master had feared that intense energy they felt was only the beginning. Hawkmoth started his reign of terror, releasing his akumas on unsuspecting civilians, using their strong negative emotions, and creating his champions. It was a vile move, attacking someone when they were vulnerable. But Marianne had to admit that he was good. She was trained to do exactly the same thing, to manipulate and exploit someone’s weakness, but at least she had the decency to never use her abilities for personal gain unless extremely necessary. She was a soldier, everything she did was by the order of someone. Her whole training so far had been preparing her for this moment. 

So when Stonehart appeared, she was ready. 

She knew everything she needed to do, she had been trained since birth for this. Her Master was confident that she had what it took to take down these akumatized people, and allied with the one he had chosen to wield the Cat Miraculous they would be unstoppable. He didn’t tell her the identity of the person he has chosen, but she knew he wouldn’t. For safety reasons, only the Grand Guardian would know the identities of the wielders. But she didn’t need to know his identity in order to work with him. 

Chat Noir surprised her a lot. She knew he couldn’t possibly have the same training she had, but he still knew how to fight. He’s trained in fencing from what she can tell by his style of fighting, and he’s very good. After some time they became the perfect duo, always in synchrony and ready for anything. It’s nice to have someone on her side, in the League she mostly acted alone, so having someone that had her back full time was new. 

It took two years to defeat Hawkmoth. In those two years that she lived in Paris, a lot changed. First was her name. In order to live completely off the radar of the League, she needed a new name. They had lost contact with the League after the attack, so they never discovered what exactly happened, or who won in the end. She was glad the Mayor of Paris decided that it would be better to ban any rumors of a supervillain in the city from the outside world, fearing that that would cause the tourism to diminish. That allowed her some security, but one could never be too careful, the League was known to have spies everywhere. So she changed her name. In the documents that her godmother forged, she was called Marinette Dupain but preferred to be called Mari because that was closer to her real name. Daughter of a kind baker and his traveler wife, her backstory was that she spent most of her childhood traveling the world with her mother, but now her parents decided that it would be good for her to stay in the same place for more time. She would be homeschooled by Sabine, which was enough for social security to allow her to be kept from attending school. It was kind of funny that she lived so close to a school but didn’t study there. 

Another thing that changed was that for the first time she had people she could rely on. Before it was only Damian. He was the only one that she ever told about her fears and insecurities, confiding in him was something she missed in those years apart. They were very close before the attack, and after two long years of thinking she was dead, she wasn’t sure what would happen when they finally reunited. But she hoped it would go well.

When she first transformed, she felt invincible. It was something she would never forget, feeling that kind of power was memorable. It was normal for the suit to incorporate traits of your personality, but it still was a surprise when she saw herself as Ladybug for the first time. She wore a black skin-tight suit that covered her entire body from the neck down, in her torso making the illusion a corset, a part of the suit was red with black spots. She also had boots and a jacket to complement her look, also in red with dots. Her hair tied back in a ponytail was rather practical and allowed her better motion. On her right leg strapped to her tight was a knife holster with a small dagger that served for surprise attacks, her specialty. Around her waist was where she tied her yoyo when she wasn’t using it. To conceal her identity, she wore a domino mask also in red.

In the beginning, she wanted to use another name for her superheroine self, one that paid tribute to her Arabic roots, but Master Fu thought it better to go with a more generic name, that way it would be harder to obtain any type of information about her. In the end, she relented and went with Ladybug. 

When Ladybug and Chat Noir first appeared, most of Paris newspapers and tabloids started to question the origin of their superheroes. Some believe them to be aliens, which her Master thought hilarious. Others were certain they were metahumans, born with their powers, and their Miraculous just served as an amplifier, and Hawkmoth wanted all Miraculous to increase his power to the maximum level, in Mari’s case they were partially right about the part of the powers. The one that came closer to the truth was the writer of the Ladyblog, the amount of research she had was impressive for someone so young. She discovered that the Miraculous were older than they thought, dating back all the way to the ancient Egyptian Empire, other than that she was way off. She had this theory that the Miraculous holders were a group of immortal entities that always appeared in ties of need, but recently one of them must have gone bad, tired of centuries in hiding, and the others are trying to defeat them and restore peace. It was a good theory that had some truth behind it, but still very exaggerated. It didn’t help that Ladybug was obviously experienced and that only served to fund this theory even more.

It became a game for Ladybug and Chat Noir to find the funniest theories and share them during patrol. Chat was really good in that, normally he just asked one of his friends what they thought. Mari, not having friends to ask just bought stuff the media printed. These kinds of games helped them relax a little after a tiring battle.  

After two years of fighting evil forces, it was impossible for the two superheroes not to be close. Their kind of relationship always reminded Mari of her brother, and she often felt guilty for not being able to reach him. But that only motivated her more in defeating Hawkmoth. Only then she would be able to leave Paris. 

Living in Paris was nice, for the first time in her life she created a routine for herself. She had training with Master Fu in the mornings and she helped at the bakery during the afternoons. Every other day there would be an Akuma attack and she would step into her role as Ladybug. Other than that her life became pretty calm compared to what it was at the League. She even got the time to explore her creative side, drawing and sewing became her favorite hobbies.

But nothing ever stays the same for long, not for her. 

It was about one year and a half after the attack on the League, just as her Master was getting close to discovering the exact location of origin of the source of evil energy. They knew the owner of the Butterfly Miraculous knew how to read energies, being that what alerted him of the Ladybug Miraculous being activated after Mari was brought back from the dead, but they weren’t expecting him to be able to track them. Her Master energy was easier to locate, even with him being the Grand Guardian, because of his old age. 

To this day she wasn’t sure what exactly happened, only that one afternoon she felt as if the energy around shifted and became unbearable. Fearing the worst she went to her Master in search of guidance, but when she was nearing his house she saw him. Hawkmoth in the flesh. Around him were five Akumas previously defeated.

He was at a rooftop engaging Master Fu, who at the time had already transformed with the Turtle Miraculous, in a heated duel. At the side was Mayura, trying to reach the Miraculous Box that was secured inside a green dome. Not wasting one minute she transformed in a nearby alley and went into action attacking the Peacock wielder. She was ruthless in her blows, never leaving space for the other woman to attack. Chat Noir arrived a couple of minutes later and went for the akumatized people, but at that point it was already too late. Master Fu knew that would be his last day on earth, he didn't have the strength to fight and maintain the Box inside the safety dome, so he did the only thing he thought possible. He relinquished his position as the Grand Guardian of The Miraculous to Ladybug. 

The box immediately disappeared from the dome and appeared in Mari’s arms. Without wasting a second she used her hidden weapon and stabbed her opponent in the thigh in order to subdue her. Her cries of pain were enough to attract Hawkmoth's attention from Chat Noir, with whom he had just engaged in battle. He immediately went to comfort his partner, using his champions as a barricade to protect them. He escaped. Or rather Mari let him escape. Because she couldn't stop looking at her Master’s body. He was dead. Died protecting the Miraculous. Inside her she felt some piece of her break. Death wasn’t new for her, but it felt surreal to believe the man that saw her grow and taught her almost everything she knew was dead. But there was no time to mourn, a soldier only mourned after the war, and this war was far from being over. But at that moment, looking at the lifeless body of her Master she made a vow to herself. 

She would not rest until Hawkmoth perished.

And she would make sure that before he did, it hurt

Next

Another fresh capther for all of you. To be honest I had planned this chapter to be compleatly different, but I was inspired and just lost myself, and when I realised I couldn’t finish this chapter anyother way. Hope you all liked it! Fell free to leave a comment with your theories of what’s going to happen next! (Also, the taglist still open)

WARNING: Major character death; description o violence.

Ladybug suit was inspired by this drawing from Eden Daphne 

Taglist:  @macncheesemonster @jumpingjoy82 @silversaphire12 @jinx-jade @swiftie-miraculer13  @greatcatblaze @megaafangirl @ramos123 @theamityislife @maskedpainter @toodaloo-kangaroo @nyx-in-line @ketchupqueenboiiii @blackroserelina @lozzybowe @user00000003 @kashlyn @msshadows97 @ira-sairain @stackofrandomstuff @myazael @frieddonutsweets @asrainterstellar @our-preciousss @laurcad123 @nyaabinch @rverfades @thefangirlwholiterallydies @astoriaandromeda @unnamed2357 @little-lady-bird @imdaqueenie @meismu @dorkus-minimus @a4-machete @arty-shadow-morningstar @catthhay @sizzling-fairy-oil @poodapup @charme-de-malchan @jayjayspixiepop @fusser90 @adrestar @iloontjeboontje @buginetye @macncheesemonster

[messedupfan]

Infinity & Beyond (Wanda Maximoff x Reader) Chapter 4

Summary: This chapter focuses on the journey of the reader during the five years without Wanda.

A/N: Thank you for the likes and reblogs! Hope that you are all enjoying the story.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You wake up a few months later in the Avengers compound once again. This time with your memories intact and feeling unbelievably disappointed. “She found him,” you find yourself saying to whoever was in the room as you involuntarily sit up on the bed. The nurse brushes it off as some weird superhero thing and not something to address. But then you repeat yourself again and again until she alerts Bruce who grabs the attention of the other remaining Avengers.

"What do you think she means?" Natasha questions as you make the statement again.

"Maybe she's talking about Wanda and Vision?" Steve chimes in with a concerned look on his face and his arms crossed over his chest.

"Why would she be talking about Wanda and Vision? Vision was an advanced robot with a stone in his head, he had no soul for Wanda to find. If any of that exists," Bruce points out.

"I don't know then," Steve shrugs. Then you repeat the phrase again. "Maybe it's Wanda and her brother? I don't know, maybe we're too focused on the cloudy eyes thing. We could be thinking about this too hard."

Then Rhodey comes into the room to inform the members that the radar has picked up a signal of an unidentified flying object. He thinks that Carol might be back. "Just say UFO," Natasha rolls her eyes as she follows the guys out of the building. On their way out she spots a worried Pepper Pots and quirks her lips into a reassuring smile. "I think she found him," she says to the woman and leads her to the landing zone of the compound. It's only then that Natasha realizes what you meant. Sure enough, a woman is carrying a ship into the landing zone with Tony Stark and someone named Nebula. Pepper wraps her arms around Tony in tears and relief. He is quickly brought to the medical wing where you remain. Somehow having watched the whole thing from your bed.

When you come out of it the nurse informs you that your eyes had gone cloudy for a moment and you had predicted the return of your father. "He isn't my father," you grouched. Huh, must be another ability, you think to yourself.

Later, after passing a few diagnostic exams with flying colors, you are discharged from your hospital room and are eating across from a very serious Thor as people argue and yell at each other. It was weird to eat actual food. Thor was almost amused watching you figure out how to hold your sandwich.

Tony is then rolled into the room with a furious energy. You can tell that he is really hurting from this loss, that he is frustrated and you can even feel betrayal radiating off of him somehow. Of course, it's not until he's shouting at the Captain that you realize you are feeling his emotions. You were feeling everyone's defeated emotions and it was beginning to suffocate you. As you try to distract yourself with the food, your mind wanders to how overwhelmed Wanda must've felt being able to read people's minds. That leads to the memory of Wanda slipping from you and it's almost too much to handle. You toss the plate in front of you, disrupting the ongoing argument. You’re squeezing your skull as the tears come and you scream for it all to stop. Natasha and Steve fall to your side as they do their best to calm you down. Once the memory leaves you and you've settled, everyone in the room gets serious about finding Thanos.

Nebula is useful as she provides the only lead to finding Thanos and you join them on the spaceship, brushing off everyone's concerns. The talking racoon asks how many of you haven’t been to space before, you raise your hand among the others which seems to be enough to make him laugh. You don't understand why until the ship rushes off to space.

Arriving just outside the planet, a floating woman you hadn't been introduced to yet appears at the front window and is surprised to report that the planet is just Thanos. Along with everyone else, you are heart broken to find out that he had destroyed the stones. You feel for Thor when he says he went for the head and shed another tear for the woman that Thanos had taken from you. It feels like you just lost her all over again.

The first year is the longest. The days feel never ending and drag on. Most nights were spent jolting out of bed in a cold sweat as you're being haunted by memories. It often felt like you were back in the hands of Hydra being electrocuted and injected, spoken to in a language you didn't know, probably German. Everything that was done to you in the time you were captured, everything that your mind had originally suppressed, was attacking you each night. Going through it alone made you miss Wanda even more. So once you could remind yourself that you were safe, you had also been reminded that you were alone. Lots of tears were shed in the night.

After Tony built up enough strength to leave the compound he did but he never stayed gone long. He would return often to attempt to build a relationship with you. It wasn’t easy trying to let him in, the lack of sleep being no help, so you didn’t. Your resistance never stopped him from making the effort to get to know you. Now that he knew you existed, he wanted to be part of your life. Tony knew that you needed family and he was all you had left, even if you didn't want to accept it. He promised to never abandon you ever again.

That didn’t mean he stopped living his life. Within a few months of his recovery, Tony invited you to his surprisingly low-key wedding which you begrudgingly attended with Natasha and Steve. They had been helping you out a lot with coping and figuring out whether or not you wanted Tony in your life. Steve often joked about fighting him again to get him to back off, but you never took the offer. You did your best to enjoy yourself at the wedding but it only reminded you of what you couldn’t have.

You smiled your way through the night as you thought about Wanda.

Her smile, the dress she would’ve worn, her laugh, that look in her eyes that is so full of love and only reserved for you. Your mind went even further back to a time when Pietro was alive and how they would’ve danced together and how happy he would have been for the two of you. You even imagine the wide grin he would have walking Wanda down the aisle and the single tear he would shed. Once he found that ring of yours he was constantly harassing you about when and how you were going to ask his twin. Even giving unwanted advice and ideas. It was all so consuming. That night you fell asleep crying in Natasha’s arms.

Months later, while Tony was visiting you he included you in on a secret. Pepper was pregnant. You didn’t exactly give the most joyous reaction but you were happy for him and Pepper. “When she’s born, promise me you won’t come back here,” you find yourself saying.

“Well I don’t know if she’s a girl yet but… why don’t you want me to come around here?” Tony asks as he returns the ultrasound image to his pocket.

“I want the three of you to be happy. I don’t want you to worry about me. Besides, I’m thinking of asking Nat to start assigning me to missions. I probably won’t be around as much and I really just need to get my mind off of the things I lost and the things I can’t have.” You keep your eyes on the promise ring Wanda had given you on your first anniversary. “But I want you and Pepper to be happy. Enjoy your life Tony. You don’t need to make things right with me to do that.” Tony disagrees but hugs you as he says his goodbyes and you find Natasha for your first assignment.

You are there for the birth of Morgan Stark. You forge her a special necklace from your powers and smile at the little bundle of joy. “Congrats you guys, she is so precious,” you say as you hold the baby.

“Thank you, Y/N,” Pepper says with hooded eyes and a tired smile. You hand the baby back to Tony and leave before thoughts of Wanda could invade and cloud your head. She always wanted a family. She used to fantasize about the kinds of parents the two of you would be. The types of kids you guys would raise. Baby names… Being away allowed you to forget her. But moments like these threatened to tear you down.

More years pass and Natasha is forced to ground you from missions because you have become too mentally unstable and a major liability. Steve drags you to his group therapy sessions but you hardly pay attention or contribute. You just miss Wanda and you allow yourself to feel that pain because running from it has only made it grow. For the most part you spent your time sitting in meetings with Steve or Nat. You preferred being in Natasha’s meetings since they were about mission updates and strategy and not about people crying over first dates. Shortly after that particular meeting Steve began to hint that maybe you should give it a try, you shut him down and turned it around on him. He quickly dropped the subject.

Among that daily schedule you would end your nights curled up on your bed in the room Wanda stayed in while she was waiting for you to come back to her. You would hold some clothes that still smelled like her to your nose as you listened to sad songs. For a while you’re stuck listening to Little Talks wondering if her spirit was lying by your side trying to reach out to you. Some of the things you felt were too painful to keep around and you had them stored at a special place far enough from here. One of them being the old computer. Well, they had been stored away for you but sometimes you convinced yourself that you made the call on your own. Not that Natasha arranged a team to steal most of your belongings.

Tony was generous enough to copy every video and photo file from the computer and put them into your phone. They helped you go to sleep at night.

Then one day, a man you swore had to have been on the vanished list that Nat viewed often, appears at the gate. “Is this old?” Steve asks.

“This is live,” Natasha says. They let him in and the three of you stand around as he explains how he can help. You, Nat, and Steve are skeptical but not so much that you guys don’t have hope it won’t work. Immediately you guys are on the road to find Tony Stark.

Over the years you tried to visit between missions, when you could. Not for Tony but for Morgan. You couldn’t help but fall for the little girl, she was your sister and you wanted to be the best big sister you could be for her. You also wanted to make sure she knew how many people cared for her and that she would always be safe and protected. Natasha was also captivated by her and would sometimes join you on the visits. You girls would play once she was able to run around and you even showed her some of your powers. During this time you finally allowed Tony in and even established a healthy relationship with him and Pepper because whether or not you wanted to accept it, they were your family.

When you arrive at the cabin, Morgan jumps out of Tony’s arms and runs into yours. “Y/N/N!” She shouts happily. You greet her with just as much energy and take her into the house to let them do the talking.

Pepper prepares some drinks and has you take them out to everyone. You re-enter the kitchen to help her with lunch. “Why aren’t you out there with the rest of them?” Pepper asks conversationally.

“Because my powers are connected to my emotions and if your husband says no… I might accidentally blow him into bits and pieces,” you sigh.

Despite herself, Pepper laughs a little. “You know,” she starts. “If you called him dad, he won’t have any other choice than to say yes.”

You shake your head, not this again. “Not going to happen.” Tony hasn’t directly asked you to say it but Pepper has and she keeps bringing up how much it would mean to him to hear you say it. “Besides with what we’re trying to do there’s a chance that he might lose all of this. I’m not even sure if I want him to say yes.” Your gaze lands on Morgan playing with her toys. Pepper follows your gaze and smiles softly.

“Hey Morgan, sweetie?” Pepper calls attention to her daughter who curiously looks up at her mother. “You should go out there and rescue daddy,” Pepper says. The little girl's face lights up as she stands to run to the front door. “Knowing Tony, he will find a way to protect everything he loves and save the world. Even if it kills him,” there is something in the way she says those words that causes the two of you to share a look. A hopeful let’s hope it doesn’t come down to that.

She then gives you a hug and tells you to stop by more often, she wishes you luck, and you leave the warmth of the home to the frowns of your rejected friends. You don’t look at Tony when you bid him goodbye.

Next you find yourself in Bruce’s diner and watch as Scott Lang fails to be recognized as Ant-Man by some kids. Bruce is willing to give the time travel a try and on the day the test run is done, you begin to lose hope again. You eat your taco near a window as you observe Scott set up in the landing zone. You laugh when Nebula and Rocket arrive blowing away his food. You almost can’t believe that is the guy who had access to the closest thing they had to a time machine. Steve walks in smiling at your laugh, you don’t do that often, with Tony barking orders behind him. People get to work on the machine and that pesky flicker of hope is restored.

As you work on things Tony is by your side teaching you about every part you are using and putting together. You just let him rattle on and on as you let yourself fantasize about holding Wanda in your arms again. Before you know it they are doing the first test run with Clint Barton. He disappears and instantly reappears with a baseball glove and a stunned expression. “It works,” he says and that feeling of hope causes your heart to pound in your chest. You are going to see her again. Now to find out when to travel to.

“See you in a minute,” Nat says with contained excitement. She is just as excited to complete this mission as you are. After a lot of thinking and planning they separated into three teams of people. Tony, Steve, Bruce, and Scott leave to 2012 to retrieve the tesseract, scepter, and the time stone. Nat, Clint, Nebula, and Rhodey vanish to 2014 to grab the power stone and the soul stone. The last team is just Thor and Rocket to grab the reality stone that is apparently inside of Thor’s former girlfriend. Tony, Steve, and Nat wouldn’t let you go on the mission because they still think you’re a liability. You argue that Thor isn’t exactly the picture of mental stability but they point out that Thor is the only one on their team that knows Asgard and where that stone is.

So you sit and pout in a chair for the quick minute that everyone is gone. Part of what has you so pissed off is that you didn’t get to experience time traveling. All because of a few bad missions. You watch them disappear and stare at the platform but time seems to drag on and you look down at your phone with a sigh. In that second everyone has returned with their stones and your heart drops. You notice one person missing and frown. “Where’s Nat?” You ask. Clint wears a broken expression and takes a breath before explaining how he received the stone. “Oh,” is all you can come up with.

Clint felt that it should’ve been him and you didn’t disagree but you understood why Natasha sacrificed herself. She confided in you a few times about how she felt like a monster because of what she was forced to do when she was being raised in the Red Room. She even talked about the mandatory hysterectomy and hated that she could never carry kids of her own. You did your best to try and cheer her up by telling her that adoption was always an option. “No agency is going to allow a former assassin to adopt a kid. Trust me… I tried.” She then boasted about Clint and his family, she loved them as if they were her own family. “I’ll deny it if you tell anyone but I cried like a baby the first time his daughter called me aunty Nat,” she got teary eyed and you passed her another shot of vodka.

Natasha missed them so much and you knew she would sacrifice herself to get them back. She wouldn’t have been able to live with herself if his family came back and she had to inform them that he died to save her. She probably would have felt like a bigger monster than she already thought she was. You stood up and left the room to collect yourself and get as far away from everyone’s grief as possible. Natasha had easily become your best friend these past few years. In the past year that you’ve been stuck at the compound there were days when it felt like all you had was each other. You can’t believe she’s gone but you have to hope that there is still a way to bring her back.

Banner finds you later and makes you some food and Rocket sits with you and the rest of the guys sit by the dock to talk. You force the comfort food down despite feeling too sad to eat and notice Nebula walking back into the time machine area. They call you into another room where they’re going to put the stones together but you ignore them and follow Nebula. They let you go, assuming that you’re still upset about losing Natasha. The first time you went on an actual mission with Nebula, you were put off with how serious she was so you came up with random nicknames to call her. She was annoyed initially but eventually she mentioned how funny she thought it was. Her tone had remained emotionless as she told you that and you had to refrain from laughing because it felt rude to do so as she was opening up. Nebula was still a very serious person to be around but she loosened up a bit around you, even called you her friend.

“Hey Neb-Neb!” You called out after her but she ignored you. “Bu-Bu! Hello?” You followed her to the control panel, “Nella, what’s going on with yo–” she cuts you off by wrapping her hand around your throat and speaking to you through gritted teeth. There was definitely something off about Nebula but you couldn’t quite figure it out. So you fought back because you weren’t fighting your friend, you were fighting a stranger. The two of you go hand in hand until she slips out of your hold and goes back to the control panel. You move to stop her but are too late. Next thing you know, you are waking up in rubble.

With a groan you sit up and dust yourself off then quickly panic, you don’t even know if they had time to do the reverse snap. You crawl your way out of the rubble and find Steve, Tony, and Thor speaking in hushed tones. “Did you guys do the snap? What happened?” You ask frantically, you need to know that you’ll be seeing Wanda again. Losing her a third time was simply not an option. Then you see a very alive Thanos just sitting there. That’s when it connects in your head. It was a different Nebula and she was getting a past version of Thanos into this present. “Please tell me you guys did the snap,” you look at Tony and he nods. But the look on everyone's faces told you that they didn’t know if it worked.

You join them as they attack Thanos but he is powerful and not easy to bring down. You’re tossed into another pile of rubble and shake your head, annoyed with yourself because you felt useless. Your powers were failing you and you couldn’t fathom as to why. Out of nowhere you see portals open up one by one, the people that had vanished and the people that hadn’t stepped through each portal. Then an enormous Ant-Man emerges from the ground and drops off a few more people that must’ve been trapped from the destruction of the compound. You gather with the rest of them and really focus to activate your powers as Steve grabs Mjolnir and shouts, “Avengers… Assemble!” Despite the unsuccessful attempt, you still charge along with the rest of them to fight against Thanos’ army.

Without seeing her, you could just sense that Wanda is among the rest and as much as you want a reunion, saving the world takes precedence at the moment. You could practically hear her telling you to go be a hero anyway. As you fight against Thanos’ army, using the hand to hand combat skills Natasha and Steve taught you, a part of you is still distracted and searches for Wanda. Regardless of where you want your focus at the moment. You make your way around the battlefield hoping to knock into her or something so that you don't get yourself killed trying to find her. Then you hear her.

“You took everything from me,” her tone is heavy and her eyes are glowing. You come to the conclusion that she must not know whether or not you are alive. So you don’t let her know and wait to find out what she does.

“I don’t even know who you are,” Thanos responds, angered by the woman's threatening glare.

“You will,” she says before she starts attacking him with her powers. Discreetly killing off a large gathering of Outriders hurtling towards you, you watch Wanda as she comes very close to killing Thanos herself. He calls for the ships to rain fire on everyone and that’s when you finally make yourself present to her. You jump from your spot and land right beside her and create a force field to protect the both of you. Other members are being protected by the sorcerers and it isn’t until Captain Marvel comes flying through that the bullets stop coming down and people are trying to get the gauntlet out of there. You turn towards Wanda and feel her mixed emotions, you wink at her with a smile as you let the barrier go.

“It’s time to be a hero right now, love. We can say hello later,” you tell her before you go back into the fight, the adrenaline rushing through you as your powers have finally activated. Each member does their best to keep the gauntlet out of Thanos’ reach but sadly no one succeeds and he holds the extreme amount of power once again. Carol fights him with as much power as she has to keep him from snapping his fingers but eventually gets tossed aside. You step up next using everything that you have inside of you, using abilities you had no idea you even possessed. But in the end you are tossed onto a metal rod that had been protruding out from the destroyed building. It had stabbed you through your side making it difficult to breathe. As you fight for air you look around to watch Thanos and his army disappear. Tony collapses beside you. “No,” you cough out weakly. You reach out for him and luckily he was close enough for you to touch his shoulder. “Tony,” you gasp as the tears sting your eyes. His eyes follow the sound but you can tell that he’s not actually looking at you.

“Mr. Stark, we won. Mr. Stark,” Peter says as he tries to grab Tony’s attention. Rhodey lands beside his best friend with understanding and sadness in his eyes. Yours tighten shut for a moment as your tears start to fall. You want to wake up from this horrible nightmare but this is reality, a piece of you knew that you couldn’t avoid. Then Pepper arrives and pulls the boy in the spider suit away from her husband. You look up and see that he has finally returned somewhat enough to recognize his wife.

She tells him that he can rest now, then she looks over to you so that you know that now is the time to say something so you don’t regret it later. With a weak grip on his shoulder you nudge him to return his attention to you. It looks like he’s trying to smile at you but is obviously far too weak to do as such. You offer him the best one that you could muster in your current state. “I love you, dad. It’s okay, we’ll be okay,” your hand lands in his and he gives it the lightest squeeze before it falls limp.

Wanda makes her way over to you and panics at the amount of blood you’ve lost but at the moment you don’t feel anything. Not even the pain of losing your father. You just feel… numb. It dawns on you that your body must be failing but that doesn’t scare you. She takes your hand as your loud thoughts of just letting go enter her mind. “No,” she starts through frustrated teeth. “You can’t leave, Y/N. Please, keep fighting. This can’t be our ending. I need you, please don’t leave me,” she sounds so broken but equally determined to keep you alive. As you hold her gaze she lets out a broken sob and tenderly whispers, “I love you to infinity.” She continues to beg, depositing small kisses to the back of your hand. As her words sink in, you find the strength that you need to fight off the thoughts of letting go. Then, with your heightened vision, you look around and find every remaining Avenger kneeling out of respect for your father and you have the urge to join them. You struggle to get up from your position, Pepper and Wanda try to stop you from moving but all rational thought has left you.

“I’m not dying right here,” you grumble as you reach behind you and cut the rod. You shift your position and Pepper sprays your wound to close it around the remaining bits of the rod that was still in you so that the bleeding would stop until you could get it properly treated. Then you kneel for your father to show your respect for him in his death that you failed to show while he was alive. You think about how grateful you were for the last five years and how much you appreciated that he never gave up on you. You silently thank him just as the adrenaline leaves your body and it succumbs to the full extent of your injuries causing you to collapse and pass out.

Chapter 5

[wannabe-fic-writer]

All Over Again - Chapter 1

Summary: What was lost can be found. - DC & Marvel AU

Pairings: Lena x Reader ; Implied Natasha x Reader ; Platonic!Avengers x Reader ; Platonic!Superfriends x Reader 

Warning: 18+ Smut, Language, Violence

* * * * * *

Sighing, you splay yourself out on the grass, looking up at the distorted view of the sky as the red leaves of the tree above you sway. The gentle breeze sends a chill over your skin but it’s much too calming for you to move.

“Am I going to have to start carrying jackets around with me again?”

The familiarly sultry voice meets your ears over the sounds of nature. It makes your heart thump faster like it always had but this time an ache accompanies it. Her joking tone holds an underlying nervousness and you have to resist the urge to scoff at the drastic change in your conversations together. 

You could never forget the moment everything shifted. Your entire relationship with Natasha fell to pieces. All the love and trust that had grown stronger each year that you were together seemed to mean nothing to her suddenly.

Months on the run from the U.S. government, planning your futures together, it blew to hell in literal seconds. 

Everything you’d grown to know and love was pulled out from underneath you with three simple words: Hi, Bruce. Followed by the awkward pause and nervous, Nat.

Hope rose in your girlfriend’s eyes and you were unsure why. The main reason being that you were recruited by Fury during the Sokovia incident. You never met the infamous Bruce Banner turn Hulk, and didn't know about his history with your girl. And Natasha hadn’t found it necessary to tell you about it either.

Which left you in the dark and completely blindsided by Natasha’s decision to end things with you. Simply telling you she owed it to herself to see where things with Bruce went. And you being the person you are and loving Natasha the way that you do, you wanted her to be happy despite your heartbreak. 

All of that rested on your shoulders at the same time that Thanos appeared. Your broken heart seemed to shatter further when you lost your best friend Wanda and the many friends you’d gained. 

For five years you hurt. Grieving your lost friends and dealing with your broken heart. It seemed as though Natasha breaking up with you wasn’t even worth it as Banner left after Thanos and they didn’t see each other for five years.

Even after the five years though, you still were coping with your heartbreak despite the Avengers having gotten rid of Thanos for good. As you then had the privilege of seeing Natasha and Bruce together. And you could admit that they look good together, happy. 

Which means you need to find your own. You just aren’t sure how. 

You take a deep breath and look up at the redhead who’s watched you in your silence.“ I hadn’t planned on staying out here long so I didn’t grab one.” You respond, deciding to ignore her not so subtle hint at your relationship and personal quirk. 

Jackets are just the last thing you think about before you leave out and Natasha used to take it upon herself to bring one for you whenever you were with her. 

She smiles tightly and nods,“ okay. Well I was just coming to let you know that Steve and Bucky are almost done with dinner.”

When you nod in answer Natasha waits, silently debating if she wanted to say anything else or not, but chose not to and finally walked away. You waited a few extra minutes before pushing yourself up and heading toward the compound.

As you’re walking up to the door, your red leather clad friend lands beside you, her magic vanishing from her hands before she flings her arms around you. 

“Hello to you too.” You chuckle, hugging her back. 

Wanda smiles brightly,“ hi.” 

A small smile of your own hitting your lips. You’d missed the young woman as she was away on a mission with Sam. They weren’t far, just on the East Coast, but they’d been gone for a week, which was more than enough for you to begin to miss her.

Before either of you step into the building, she grabs your hand and laces your fingers together, gently tugging you off to the side. Soft light green eyes stare back sympathetically,“ how are you?” 

“Wan-” you sigh, running a hand up and through your hair.

“I’m just worried about you.” A little pout hits her lips followed by a joking smile,“ and I’m kind of the only reason you’re sane.”  

You throw your head back with a laugh. Then shaking your head and wrapping an arm around her shoulders,“ I’m fine Wanda. Thank you for the concern and sanity.”

Placing a quick kiss to her temple, you guide her into the building, more than happy to have your best friend back.

Like Natasha had told you, Steve and Bucky already have the table set and everyone is sitting around. No matter how hard you try, your gaze finds Bruce and Natasha, the man leans over to say something to her and a cute smile rises, reminding you of the one you’d caused her to have before. 

A squeeze of your hand pulls your eyes away and you nod to Wanda before sitting down beside her. Usual chatter circles the table, Sam and Wanda talking a bit about the mission briefly, and then asking all of you about what’s been going on. 

By the end of dinner you’re a mix of annoyed and happy. Your friends had made you laugh and smile just like usual, except every time you got lost in the joy of it all you forgot what was across from you and your gaze caught the image of Natasha and Bruce flirting, laughing, and smiling. It makes you so upset that you still wish it were you with her.

It’s been six years! What happens to time heals all wounds? Was that just a load of shit? Would you genuinely have to deal with being all bitter and jealous for the rest of your life.

“Welp,” you smack your hands to your thighs,“ Steve, Buck, dinner was incredible, thank you, but I have a few things I need to attend to so if you’ll excuse me.” Standing, you grab your plate and glass. 

“Not so fast Y/Ln,” his voice rings clear not but a second after you walked away.“ You’re all here for once so I’d like to inform you that you’ll all be attending the Stark Industries Investment dinner tomorrow night.” Tony smiles, eyes crinkling in the corners.

Your eyes narrow,“ what exactly would the Avengers be doing for your companies investors.”

“Persuading, encouraging, indulging. Investors would kill to hear mission stories and about all your equipment.” His tone is sweet, as if he’s trying to convince you all to come.

A party/dinner isn’t exactly what you’re feeling up to right now. And quite frankly it’s not necessary for every Avenger to show up.

From the looks of Steve’s face he isn’t going but you still have a bit of hope that is, until he speaks up,“ Bucky and I have a mission.”

Tony gives an expectant gaze to the rest of you.

“I’m always down to party.” Sam shrugs nonchalantly before returning to his food, pretty sure this is his third plate.

Bruce sighs,“ I’m under the impression that this isn’t an option for me.” 

Tony’s grimace is answer enough, but he still says,“ it is not. Also, no offense, probably don’t show up all big and green. The venue is large but-”

“Ah ah ah I got it.” The big green man waves his hand, then smiling down at Natasha,“ mind accompanying me?” She instantly smiles and nods and that small little gesture is enough for you to head out. 

Further, Tony goes,“ Maximoff?” 

And Wanda responds,“ I’ll only go if Y/n does.”

Dammit Wanda!

Turning on your heel, you have every intention of saying no. Only to find her giving you that damn pout, followed by her whispering,“ please.”

“Alright whatever.” 

With that you leave, cleaning your dishes, and then going straight to bed. In the morning you take extra care to avoid Natasha, you eat while she’s in the gym, only going to train after she’s long gone, and eating lunch on the roof with Wanda. 

You make it as far as into the venue for the Investment dinner before you have to see her again. Even then you wish you were blind. 

God she’s beautiful. It’s criminal the way that dress fits on her. And just as your eyes trail up her long legs and over the curves of her body to her piercing green eyes, her looking back at you pulls you to reality. 

You no longer have the right to look at her that way. No matter how good she looks, you can’t look at her like that. No, the man beside her is the only person who carries that privilege. 

“I’m gonna need a drink to get through this.” You sigh, beeligning for the bar instead of your seat. 

Wanda sticks close to you, definitely having seen your staring. 

Leaning against the bar, you wait for the bartender to come your way, then asking for an old-fashioned and you wait. Beside you, Wanda’s eyes flicker over the room, a nervousness in them. 

“Hey,” you nudge her arm with your elbow,“ I’d say it’s not that bad but it is.” The young woman’s eyebrows raise but you wave it off,“ you just have to put up with most people speaking to you like you know less because you make less. Other than that it’s alright.”

As she takes in your words, you accept your drink from the bartender and hand Wanda a flute of champagne. She’s not a drinker but the little boost is needed. 

With a reassuring smile to her and the last swig of your drink and guide her through the scattered crowd to Pepper. The blonde is more than happy to walk Wanda around, introducing her to a few people while you make rounds on your own. 

Just like usual, most conversations revolve around everyone else’s business, or the occasional question about your work that you can’t even discuss. But you manage to do as Tony asked, impressing them with talks of your abilities and that of which you can disclose. 

Majority of the people you talk to take a liking to you, or at least the superhero you, and you convince them to invest in Stark Industries, giving the whole “a company that leads in medical and technological advancements” spiel. 

“Still hate these things huh.”

Breathing in deeply, you exhale and turn to face Natasha. Her green eyes watch you cautiously and you’re in genuine disbelief that the badass Black Widow is so wary of you. Since the breakup she’s interacted with you as if she’s afraid you’ll hurt her.

You lick your lips,“ Natasha you speak to me like you don’t know me anymore.”

A sigh falls from her lips and she looks down at the bracelet on her wrist,“ I know. I’m sorry I just- I don’t want to say anything I shouldn’t.”

“Right,” you scoff lowly.“ You don’t have to worry about my feelings anymore I promise.”

“Y/n I-”

“Nat.” Bruce approaches, completely oblivious to the awkward tension flowing between you and his girlfriend.“ I’m sorry, do you mind if I steal her away for a moment.”

You smile bitterly,“ oh she is all yours.”

Green eyes look at you with an unreadable emotion but you brush it off, walking away with a glance back that reveals Bruce twirling the redhead on to the dance floor. 

You square your shoulders with a deep inhale and head back to the one place that you’ve been able to breathe tonight. 

“Another old fashioned please.” The lady nods and quickly makes the drink and you smile in thanks.

Taking a long swig from the dark liquor, you sigh contentedly at the burning trail down your throat. Your few seconds of peace interrupted by a deep voice speaking cockily. 

“A beautiful girl like yourself drinking dark liquor leads me to believe you’re not enjoying yourself.” The man smiles brightly showing off his, no doubt surgically whitened, teeth.“ Perhaps I could change that for you.”

Narrowing your eyes at him, you pointedly down the rest of the drink, and tap the bartop in call for another.“ Bold of you to assume that I’m not having a good time.”

Before he can reply with his planned flirtatious remark, a lightly accented soft voice joins in,“ I’m sure Mister Richards meant no harm, he’s just a rather presumptuous man.” Her statement has you turning back to see who it came from.

Your eyes meeting the most gorgeous woman you’d ever seen. A sentiment you didn’t think you’d ever make after Natasha. 

Her black hair pulled back into a neat ponytail, not a single strand falling loose. Beautiful light green eyes stare back accompanied by a red lipped white tooth smile. 

In your daze of taking in her appearance you miss what she says to Mister Richards, but it sends him away, leaving the two of you alone. 

“Um, forgive me for this, no doubt, repetitive question but, what company are you here representing?” Your eyes subconsciously trail down the line of her jaw and it’s incredibly hard to draw your attention away when she speaks.

“Luthor Corp.” Her lips turn up into an almost knowing smile and it has you quickly looking up into her eyes, heart pounding when you realize you’d been caught staring at her lips.“ I’m Lena Luthor.”

Clearing your throat, you hold your hand out to her,“ Y/n.” You expected a warm hand but while it’s soft, it’s fairly cold.“ Thanks for the save Miss Luthor.” Your hand returns to your glass, the chill of it like that of her hand. 

“It was nothing, I could tell from across the bar he’d said something you didn’t like.” She makes mention.

You grimace, a soft chuckle falling after,“ you’ll have to forgive me, controlling my expression isn’t a mastered craft as of yet.”

She waves you off, casually leaning her side against the bar as her drink is sat down,“ it takes years, I’m still working on it. Come to enough of these and you’ll get it.”

“Oh I’ve been to plenty,” her eyebrow quivers at that,“ I’ve just never been good at. . .lying. No offense to you in any way, I think you’re ability to deal with all this social-”

“Bullshit.” She finishes for you with a chuckle.

Nodding, you laugh as well,“ yeah that. It’s a true superpower Miss Luthor, and of my many, that is not one.”

“Superpower is a stretch.”

Your eyes narrow at her, a small smirk on your lips,“ something tells me it isn’t.” 

Throughout your continued conversation, her charm and genuine goodness radiates off of her. The woman listens intently to you speak, she makes you laugh, and indulges all your questions with zealous passion. 

As the night goes on neither of you find much entertainment outside of your little space at the bar. Not wanting to go home inebriated, you’d long since switched your liquor for plain club sodas, Lena suggesting the addition of cherry grenadine just for flavor. 

“The idea is brilliant, which I’m sure you know, I just think it has more potential than power storage. What if you used it as a power core instead.” You shrug simply. 

Lena’s hand halts in movement, the drink in her cup sloshing slightly as the action,“ that’s genius. But it wouldn’t be easy. I’ve toyed with alien energy before, it’s much more powerful than expected.”

“Which, I think, makes it all the more useful. Depending on how strong, you could power an entire village or a small town. Imagine giving small pieces of the core to third world countries.” 

An amused smile tugs at her lips for the nth time tonight,“ is your first thought always to help others or is that just the Avenger in you?” 

You chuckle,“ myself and the hero. I just don’t see why we wouldn’t use the knowledge and resources we obtain, alien and human, to help those who truly need it.”

Lena’s mouth opens in preparation for her next reply, however it doesn’t come as a body weakly collides with yours. Wide eyed you look over to see your best friend, obviously drunk, leaning on you.

“I’ve been looking for you everywhere. You have to try the strawberry cake thingies.” Wanda tugs at your arm in a childlike manner. 

Frowning in Lena’s direction, the CEO shrugs. Gentle grabbing Wanda’s shoulders, you turn her to face you,“ what strawberry cake?” 

She smiles,“ the ones on the tray Y/n. The servers are walking around with- oO right here.” Fast as lightning, her hand shoots out and she grabs a small plate off the servers tray. Three little white chocolate truffles sit on it with milk chocolate drizzled over.“ Try.”

“O-” your reply cuts when she shoves a piece in your mouth. As good as it is, your eyes widen for an entirely different reason. Your tongue runs over your bottom lip as if to ensure you’re tasting what you’re tasting.“ Wan, how many of these have you eaten?”

Her hand raises to show three of her fingers.

Yep. The small woman ate nine strawberry champagne truffles. She’s drunk.

Lena, wanting to understand, retrieves one of the truffles and bites into. Her response is the same as yours. 

With an apologetic smile you look at her,“ I hate to cut the conversation short but I should probably get her home.”

“Of course of course. Hopefully we’ll be able to continue sometime.” She smiles sweetly and you nod.

After a short wave to her, you gather yours and Wanda’s things, and leave the building. 

“Y/n!” 

You freeze in step, tightening your hold on Wanda’s waist and pushing your free hand into your pocket, then turning to the source of the voice. 

Pepper takes the stairs quickly but with all the grace of a trained performer. She stops on the same step as you and smiles a little.“ I had to catch you before you left, Lena Luthor wanted me to give you this, and let you know that she’s expecting you at Luthor Corp soon.”

A slight frown pulls your eyebrows closer together as you stare down at the business card, her personal number scrawled on the back,“ did she say why?” Pepper simply shakes her head.

Truthfully she hadn’t been expecting Lena to approach her about you. Mainly because she had no idea the two of you met, she swore she’d introduced you to every investor there tonight. 

“Okay, how soon is soon?”

An apprehensive smile tugs at her lips, brows raised slightly,“ four days.”

[ladyeliot]

It will always be you

Prequel: Stay with me

Pairing: Tony Stark x Avenger Female Reader

Summary: The snap has happened, the return of Wakanda has not been as you all expected, but now you have to face reality, and you just can't stop thinking about him, about Tony.

Warnings: Angst, Fluff.

Word count: 4101

A/N: Post Infinity War. Some of the dialogue is taken from the film. Sorry for my spelling and grammatical mistakes, English is not my native language, I am learning.

Reader Powers: Psionic. You use psionic force to track any sentient being. You also create psychic shields to protect yourself. You can project psychic force bolts which have no physical effects but which can affect a victim's mind, causing them pain.

Life is a continuous struggle of choices that you have to make without stopping to think for a second. It is said that hope is the last thing to be lost, probably because the choice you made almost left you without it. You must also learn that happiness is the last thing to be found, probably because the choice you have made has made you unhappier than you will ever be. Your life has been full of choices, you might have regretted many of them, but you decided at the time to make them, so you never allowed yourself to regret your actions, until that day.

Three weeks after Thanos snapped, hope was completely lost. The new facility has been uncharacteristically silent, no one has been able to say more than two words in a row, and you had barely managed to say one since your return from Wakanda. Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, James Rhodes, Bruce Banner and you, those were the surviving Avengers, the ones that life had given you a second chance, but it didn't really feel like one.

You were in your old room, old because two years ago one of your decisions had taken you away from that place, yes, you were against the Sokovia Accords, that had led you to take the side of the Captain and to fight against the side of Iron Man, who had been the person who had saved you from the madness that your powers had generated in your mind. But even if you had turned against him, you knew you owed him everything. Evidently this was something he didn't understand, which led to a wide rift that had never been bridged on either side, and which led to a breakdown in your relationship of closeness.

Every corner of that room had been kept exactly as you had left it that night when you fled with Wanda. Your drawings together with the charcoals scattered on the desk, the book 'In Search of Lost Time' by Marcel Proust on the bedside table and that bracelet that Tony had given you for your 26th birthday that you had left next to the open jewellery box on the bed. It was really painful to see all of this, knowing that those facilities would probably never be what they once were, that Wanda would not suddenly appear at your door, that you would never sit around the dinner table and that Tony would not occupy the armchair next to your bed to try to cheer you up after a mission that hadn't gone so well. You didn't know whether frustration was taking over the fear and sadness or whether you just didn't know how to control your feelings on that occasion.

The days were long, each of you working in silence trying to make sense of what had happened, looking for a solution that would never come to the problem. You shared the hours, but the solitude that enveloped you was too austere to realise that there was a person by your side. You didn't know Thanos' location, however, even if you did, especially if you did, it had become clear that you could not stand alone against his entire army.

"Would you like some?" asked Natasha offering you a plate with a veggie sandwich on it, which you took with an almost soundless 'thank you'.

Yes, actually that had been your first word in five days, since you said goodnight to Bruce last Sunday, food and sleep were not high on your priorities, especially when you spent the night using your telepathic detection trying to find some sign of life that would make you believe Tony was alive, but it was useless. Your psionic senses allowed you to track any sentient being, you were able to scan large areas, but your ability did not address the entire universe.

That night your spirits seemed to be running low to the ground, three weeks without having achieved anything that would allow you to have any lucidity in your plans was too long as the situation stood. You could hear in the background a soft murmur coming from a conversation between Natasha and Steve, but you weren't really paying attention to it, it was all in your thoughts. But at that instant, an inner burst made them evaporate. A signal came into your brain, a psionic emanation that alerted you to the presence of a spaceship entering the stratosphere, with a fixed direction, yours. You rose from your chair, standing upright, capturing the attention of the people around you. You closed your eyes, heightening all your senses, taking in all the information that was coming to you, at that moment you felt it. You opened your eyes and looked at them.

"He's here," were the only words you could utter before you rushed outside. Your companions soon followed your path, asking questions to explain what was happening, but your inner euphoria prevented you from saying a single word.

That ship appeared above you as you raced across the garden, night was falling relentlessly and you could only glimpse a halo of light that seemed to direct the ship as it landed delicately on the wide grassy esplanade. The five of you paused, taking in the scene, discovering how a side door opened to project a flight of stairs. When you saw his face for the first time your lungs deflated, letting out all the air they had accumulated over a long period of time. Your body went rigid and you didn't react until Steve ran past you and approached the ship to help him down.

He looked terrible, it was evident in every facial feature and in his body movements, you knew what you had been through, but you had no idea what Tony had been through since his disappearance in New York, although you could get a pretty good idea. Before your eyes were Steve and Tony in custody, reunited again, after all that had happened, none of it mattered, at least not to you, and perhaps you had a vain hope that it didn't matter to anyone else either. Even so you didn't know how to act when your eyes connected with his, for a slight moment you wanted to approach him, offer him a hug and tell him that you were relieved to discover that he was there, with you, after all, but you chose to stay where you were, next to Natasha.

It wasn't until you headed inside that the stiffness disappeared from your body. A whispered 'are you okay' from Steve made you react again and pay attention to Natasha's words that were projecting all the information gathered during those days.

"The governments are destroyed," she reported as she projected images showing the missing, like Wilson, Maximoff and Parker, among others, "the working parts are trying to do a census, and it looks like he did it. He did what he said he would do. Thanos wiped out 50% of all living things."

Silence echoed around you, you were sitting in an armchair, somewhat away from the other members, playing with your fingers, trying not to look up, until he spoke.

"Where is he now?" asked Tony. "Where?"

"We don't know," Steve informed him from beside you, sitting at a table. "He opened a portal and went through it. We looked for Thanos for three weeks, with deep space scanners," Steve looked at you, "and satellites, and we found nothing." He looked at Tony. "Tony, you fought him."

"What are you talking about?" asked Tony from his wheelchair. "I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the wizard gave away the store. That's what happened, there's no fight..."

You took a breath and sighed, because you could contemplate what was about to happen right now, the nerves were there along with the negativity and failure of some of the superheroes on that planet and others, and you knew it could explode at any moment.

"Tony, I'm going to need you to focus..." Steve repeated again hoping that Tony would offer him some clue as to the whereabouts of Thanos.

"I needed you," interrupted Tony in a raised tone. "as in past tense.  That trumps what you need. It's too late, buddy. Sorry." He used a second of his silence to look at Steve and another second to look at you, who stood beside him. You took in most of the feelings hidden in his gaze, and none of them were positive or forgiving. "You know what I need? I need a shave," he tried to get out of the wheelchair, taking everything on the table in his stride. "I don't believe I ever remember telling you this..." he ripped out the IV that connected the drip to his left arm. "To the living and the dead, What we needed was a suit of armor around the world! Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not," he looked back at you and Steve repeatedly. "That's what we needed!”

The discussion continued, avoiding an upset Tony explaining everything he thought about the current and past situation, ignoring the suggestions Rhodes was giving him to calm down and take his seat again.

"[...] Bunch of tired old wheels!" he pointed at Steve. "I got nothin' for you, Cap! I've got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options! Zero, zip, nada. No trust - liar."

Almost ipso facto he turned to you ripped off the reactor prostrate on his chest and handed it to Steve in his hand, leaving those present virtually speechless, if you still had any left.

"Here, take this. You'll find him, if you put that on. You hide-"

After those words you gazed again into his eyes full of resentment at the past, before his body could take it no more and he collapsed in the middle of the room.

In the hours that followed, you were the shadow of a ghost gazing at him from a distance from the door frame of one of the recovery rooms in the new complex. On the one hand fearing his reaction against you when he woke up, while on the other hand wanting to hear it because you knew that sooner or later it would come but you wanted it to come as soon as possible so that you could face it. Those words she had said to Steve were harsh, but they were really nothing to what you expected might happen. It seemed absurd at the time to have entertained the idea that it might have been forgotten.

"Bruce gave him a sedative," Rhodes said, looking up at you, who were leaning against the doorframe. "He'll be unconscious for the rest of the day. Do you want to sit down?"

"No...I'd better..." but Rhodes didn't allow you to finish your words, as he had risen from the armchair next to Tony and offered it to you. "Thank you."

The door to the room ajar to offer you some more privacy. As you turned your gaze towards him you realised the fragility his body conveyed in those moments, he had spent weeks wandering through space not knowing if he was going to get the chance to return home again and yet he had been able to stay alive and find himself there. You closed your eyes and settled back on the couch, you remembered the first time you did that with Tony, he had spent too much time without sleep after the events after the Chitauri invasion, he could barely sleep because of the nightmares and he begged you to stop them every night, so with your eyes closed you concentrated and invaded his mind with caution releasing the tension you found in it and giving him the peace he needed. When you opened your eyes again, her expression seemed to have changed, she seemed to have found some relief inside her, that fact made you smile. But a knock on the door woke you up.

"We need to talk," Steve's words sounded serious.

A new piece of information about Thanos' whereabouts came as a surprise, but for you the surprise came right after.

"Wait, is this some kind of punishment or something?" you said completely dumbfounded, just outside the room where Tony was, with what Steve was proposing. "Why me?"

"Because we need someone to stay with Tony," he said calmly crossing his arms.

"Is it because I'm the smallest of the whole team? Because I could really knock you all out right now with the blink of an eye," you said crossing your arms too.

"It's because Tony needs you," Steve lowered his tone, "and you need him."

There was nothing but truth in those words. You didn't know if Tony really needed you, but what you had assumed was that you'd needed him for a long time, and you'd put a lot of things before that need, creating your close relationship to go to shit, basically.

"I wouldn't forgive myself if something happened to you on this mission," Steve said frankly. "And he wouldn't forgive me either if I said that happened."

You lowered your face as you nodded, accepting his words and the job you had been given.

"Be very careful," you said before Steve disappeared from in front of you to take a path that you had no idea what could be in store for them.

From that moment on, the hours went by really slowly, you took your position in that armchair again, you needed to have a clear mind, you couldn't continue martyring yourself with all the events that had happened, so you started reading 'In Search of Lost Time', that book that had been forgotten on the bedside table since you left that place. News was nil, you barely got a sign of what might be happening and you knew it would probably be days before you got it. 

Night was falling on the compound again, Tony was barely making any sign of waking up, which also gave you time to consider how the situation would play out, and various possibilities for coping with it. Some of his belongings had been salvaged from the ship, and his helmet, or rather what was left of it, stared at you from the dresser in the room. Without having a reason in mind you approached him, causing a blue light to suddenly flash across his eyes, showing you his figure in the middle of the room.

"Is it on?" a figure of a seated, completely haggard Tony appeared before your eyes. "Hey, Ms. Y/L/N, Y/N," your brow furrowed, but you approached his reflection. "If you find this footage don't put it on social media, it'll be really tearful," his words brought a sad smile to your face. "I don't know if you'll watch these videos. I don't even know if you're still... Oh god, I hope so..." there was a silence from his words, but you could see him bring his hands to his face, something inside you cracked. "I guess it's easier to do this if you know the chances of seeing you again are practically nil," something inside you made your heart shrink. "I probably should have realised this a lot sooner," he fell silent, "yeah, but I was busy trying not to hate you too much, you know, when you decided to abandon me and choose the other side," exhaustion almost prevented him from keeping his eyes open. "Anyway, anyway that made me realise how important you had been to me," he let his gaze wander, "I tried to be there for you ever since I met you and... god, this is getting too depressing," he ran his hand over his face. "I just want you to know that I wish you were here, because you're the only person I'd like to share my last hours with," he nodded slightly, you knew what he was trying to say with those words, which made your eyes water. "Don't feel bad about this, I mean, if you stay prostrate for a couple of weeks... and then move on with immense guilt..." he hid his face in the palm of his hand and closed his eyes, you wiped away a tear that ran down your cheek keeping the bitter smile you had been wearing all along. "I want you to know... when I've fallen asleep, it will be like the nights we spent together. I'm fine. All right," he gestured towards you. "I'll dream of you. Because it will always be you."

Suddenly, as if nothing had happened, his image disappeared in front of your eyes, leaving you with hundreds of feelings invading your body and mind. You looked up and there he was, still there, sleeping pleasantly, barely knowing what had just happened. You hurriedly wiped away the last tear running down your cheek and sat back down, putting your feet up on the couch, unable to take your eyes off him. Perhaps those thoughts were drawn from his most desperate moments, believing that his life was about to come to an end, perhaps he was unwilling to show them to you now that he had resumed the course of his life, so even though it was not possible you tried to send them to a hidden place in your mind.

You had hardly slept in those three weeks, your mind hadn't rested for days and you didn't know why, but finding yourself curled up in that armchair next to Tony was giving you back the tranquillity your body hadn't known for too long. It was impossible to stop your eyelids from closing, on the contrary you were willing them to do so and for sleep to warmly invade your body, no matter how long you could stay asleep. That's how it happened, making the hours pass without you even noticing. 

Like a little gust of wind, something in your body made the light enter through your eyelashes. Slowly you opened your eyes, feeling in various parts of your body a tightness due to the position in which you had fallen asleep in that armchair. You discovered that a woollen blanket covered your limbs, but what kept you alert was the bed next to you was completely empty. Tony wasn't there. You jumped up, looking around, the bedroom door was ajar and Iron Man's helmet was missing.

"Tony?" you asked, raising your voice, stepping out into the hallway. "Tony! Where are you?"

You barely heard an answer, so you were thankful those powers were within you, you stopped in the middle of the corridor and closed your eyes, your receptors picked up a signal coming from downstairs, it was him. You found him leaning on the kitchen counter, his eyes closed as he tried to stand. You ran to him, grabbing his arm to hold him up.

"What do you think you're doing?" you said, leading him to the nearest armchair in the living room.

You discovered that he had shaved, taken a shower and was wearing one of his Tom Ford suits that were so recognisable to you. That meant he had been wandering around the house unsupervised for over an hour without waking you up. You knelt down next to him.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" you asked with a worried look on your face as you contemplated that he was extremely tired. "Bruce gave a set of instructions for you to follow, you can't just walk around..."

"It was your turn?" he cut you off with an angry tone. "Be my babysitter? How did you do it? Did you draw lots?" his countenance was serious, you could still see the puffiness in his eyes and his face fully dehydrated. "Whoever draws the shortest stick gets to look after poor Stark, all right, listen..."

"No! You listen to me," you cut him off, raising your tone above his, standing up and resting your hands on each armrest "Tony, we all lost. We all fought and lost, none of us made it," your face was three feet above his. "So now all we can do is try, in some completely illogical way, to move the situation forward. And if we can't, at least look to the future by doing our best to honour those we have lost."

Silence flooded over you.

"So please don't make the situation more complicated," you continued, lowering your tone, almost begging him. "If I've stayed with you it's because Steve has made me understand some things, because yes, it wasn't really my intention to stay with you from the start, but then I realised that if anyone had to stay with you it was me. I realised that if I had to risk my life again I didn't want to go on the mission, because that would mean never seeing you again.And I've also realised that I've needed you for a long time, that I'm finally by your side and I have no intention of separating from you. Whether you like it or not." Tony cut his gaze with yours by ducking it, but brought his right hand over yours.

That gesture provoked you to bring your other hand to his face, placing a gentle caress on his cheek.

"I know there are a lot of things we need to talk about, but one thing we do have is time," you explained as Tony intertwined his fingers with yours. "So please, don't do anything more stupid and don't disappear," maybe it was the atmosphere generated by the situation, but you risked saying the next words. "Because it will always be you."

Tony closed his eyes a little regretfully, a little embarrassedly, and brought his free hand to his face.

"I knew you saw that," he added calmly removing his hand from his face. "Well, at least I've saved myself from having to repeat it in person."

"I'm not sure I got it right," you said falsely. "You know, there was a lot of interference, and besides, I couldn't really understand what you were saying, so..."

"Sorry, there was only one pass for the film," he said wryly which caused you to smile widely as you rediscovered that the old Tony was still hidden in it. "We won't know when there will be a revival."

"Too bad, I really liked that movie," you sat down on the armrest without letting go of his hand and looking up at him.

"Really?" he asked for the first time modestly, and putting aside all the irony that surrounded the situation.

"Totally," you nodded, trying to express all the many feelings through your eyes.

Silence again kept you company, until Tony somewhat uncomfortably broke it.

"I suppose you know that by now I would have kissed you and created a fully effective plan to make love to you for hours until you begged me to stop in pleasure," he stated lamely, "although I think if you give me a couple of hours..."

"All right, Don Juan," you cut him off with a chuckle, "we'd better leave all that for later, and I'll take you back to bed now."

"I think it's a good start if you take me to bed," he continued with his insinuations.

You got up from the armrest and helped him put his arm around your shoulders, even though he repeatedly told you he could walk unaided. 

"Have we heard from the team?" he asked, slowly climbing the steps of the ladder.

"Soon," you said with a halo of hope. 

You definitely made it back to the room, having made it successfully through the journey. You helped him get rid of the shoes and shirt that his pride had forced him to wear, but which now made no sense when he was going back to bed.

"See, you're finally going to get what you wanted, I'm undressing you," you said jokingly causing a smile to appear on Tony's face as he lay back down. "You rest, I'll be here. I'll always be here."

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[blkgojo]

Two Superheroes, One Bed | Carol Danvers x Reader

In which, you and Carol hate each other, but have to share a bed. 

Request: Anonymous

Despite popular misconception being a former terrorist does not make people like you. If anything, it makes them hate you. Despise you. Question you incessently with things such as, "Why did you do this? What is wrong with you? How could you have justified those acts?" And to be honest, your answer was less than satisfying. There was no tragic backstory. No great villain speech. Just you and your hatred for the government.

Living in the Avenger facility did little to change that.

See, the thing about Carol Danvers was that she wasn't an "Earth" hero. Logically speaking, there should've been no reason you disliked eachother as much as you did. You didn't work for the Kree. You had no squabble with saving refugees from colonial rule. On paper, you two were two peas in a pod. Both looking after people who didn't have others to help them, but you hated her the moment you laid eyes on her. Carol Danvers with the huge ass ego. Carol Danvers who somehow was fighting an intergalactic empire, but saw no problem with the way the US military conducted business. She hated you because honestly, who likes a murderer. Redemption arc be damned. You know how it goes.

"I just feel like I've done nothing to deserve this."

"You've killed hundreds of people."

"In total, the Avengers have killed like 2000 so, I don't really see how that's relevant."

Natasha sighs. Steve steps forward and when you cut your eyes at him, he raises his hands in plea.

"Half the universe's population is gone. The US government just needs a win."

You nod slowly. "And sending me across the fucking galaxy with-" You gesture vaguely to the blonde who until that point had decided to be quiet. "- is somehow a win."

"I hate to say this, but I agree," Carol interjects. "I work better alone. Y/N will just hold me back."

"We just need someone to go back to the planet where the infinity stores were destroyed. Make sure there are no remnants."

"It'd be quicker if I did it by myself."

"Y/N is the only one with the ability to replicate organic life," Steve retorts. "If there's a possibility she can locate some particle of infinity stone and replicate that, we need to take that chance."

"It'd be good publicity for her image and it'd bring us one step closer to bringing them back," Natasha continues.

"The world needs you to put aside your differences for the mission."

That was another thing you regretted about joining the Avengers. Steve had no shortage of motivating speeches under his belt. The good thing about villains was that they weren't much for conversation - there was no need to give motivating speeches when the odds were in your favor.

But, people were gone. Wanda, the only one you remotely liked, was gone. Snapped. Looking at Carol now, it looks like she must've lost someone, too. Her unpleasant face looks somehow more restrained than it usually did.

You sigh and fold your arms. "Fine."

All Carol does is nod.

--

It would take two earth days to reach his planet. Two. There'd been complications with the engine and so, it would take not the twenty four hours you expected, you know the time span that was customary for light travel, but it would take two days. Between that and the ship having to lower the heat to maintain proper oxygen levels, it wasn't fun.

"I could fly us there," Carol offers.

"Are you forgetting I can't breathe in space?"

Carol shrugs. "You replicate organic life right? Just replicate yourself a new pair of lungs."

"Fuck you."

She smirks, takes the only other available chair next to you. At first, she seems content to annoy you by tapping her fingers against the dashboard. Then, she grows bored. Worse, she tries to talk to you.

"Isn't all of this stuff automated?"

"Yes."

"So," she begins, stretching out the word. "You don't actually need to be here monitoring it. You can get on the cot." She shrugs. "Take a nap."

"I'd rather keep watch."

You think that'll be it and she'll be done, but she continues. You never would've pegged her as the type to not like silence. But, maybe that's not even it. Maybe, she just wanted to squeeze information out of you. God knows you weren't exactly open with the other Avengers when Fury made you join.

"You ever been to outer space?"

You shake your head. "When you're flagged as a global liability they tend to prefer you on the ground."

"A global liability? Is that what terrorists call themselves?"

"At least, we don't give ourselves cutesy nicknames like Black Widow or Captain Marvel."

She scoffs. "No. You guys just blow up innocent civilians."

"Yeah, I guess accidentally killing them is way better." You smile thinly. "For the greater good and all, you know?"

She stares at you long enough that you don't think she'll actually speak. Finally, she looks away and out to the empty abyss in front of you. "I don't pretend to know what the Avengers did while I was off-world. I see them now and they're good people."

You don't respond and she continues. "You must agree. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here."

"Fury said it was either this or experimentation."

"Fury didn't say that."

You laugh bitterly. "He didn't, but he didn't need to. The governments experiment on all mutants - that's how we got Steve and Wanda - they just don't talk about it anymore." You spare her a glance. There's nothing in her expression that would tell you what she's thinking. "So, I chose the Avengers. And here we are."

"You could've escaped."

"Where?" You lean forward in your seat and prop your elbow on the dash. "Please tell me. Where can someone who's wanted internationally hide?"

She squints her eyes. "I'd help, but unfortunately, my knowledge of ideal vacation spots is pretty limited."

Carol's lips seem to be trapped in a permanent smirk - the corner always tilted up in vaguely hidden amusement. Even now. Her snark never stops. You feel your own anger dissipate as quick as it came. There was no point being angry with her. She loved it. Fed off it like a parasite or leech.

"It's almost like you're trying to piss me off."

She places her elbow on the console, leaning forward to shrink the gap between you two.

"Would it make you more angry if I was?"

One time, you and the raccoon had a bet. Whose eyes were more blue: Captain America or Captain Marvel? Like this, you'd have to say Carol. Her eyes had their own halo wrapped around the rim, highlighting the blue and making it fluorescent.

You rub your lips together and lean back in your seat, turning away from her to once again, look at the controls.

The ship breaks down when you reach his planet. You and Carol spend the first ten minutes after landing, arguing back and forth, blaming eachother. The next fifteen, Carol leaves you. Fucks off like a glow stick and searches the planet. When she returns, you haven't moved. Haven't left. You opted instead to lie down in the flowers. It was a beautiful planet. Perfect for retirement. The air was pure, almost light enough to get high in.

"I found his cabin."

"Great." You jump up. The blood rushing to your head and spotting your vision briefly, almost enough to cause you to wobble. "Let's go."

She steps in front of you, quick. You stop just short of bumping into her. Your faces are inches apart. That same infuriating smirk on her lips. Your eyes dart down, down to her chest - she was quite muscular, you could see that even through her clothes-  down enough that she has to clear her throat.

"It's too far by foot." When your eyes meet, she's trying to not look smug.

You arch a brow. "Well, we can't fly."

"I'll have to carry you."

You groan.

"Believe me. I'd be more than willing to do anything else."

"Fine. Do it."

You step back and gesture at her to turn around. She rolls her eyes and in a breathe you didn't know you were holding, throws your arm around her shoulders, wraps her arms around your waist, and jumps. You scream. Through the rush of wind, you think you hear her laughing or perhaps, that's a lie and it's you. Laughing hysterically. No. You are screaming. Hitting her chest. And she's laughing. Fuck Natasha. Fuck Steve. When this is over, you're quitting.

When your feet touch the ground, you bend down and kiss it. Pray to it.

"Anyone ever tell you you're dramatic?" She asks.

"Anyone ever teach you about consent?"  

"You told me to do it."

"I don't care!"

The two of you spend hours looking for remnants of the stones before you finally give it up and return to the ship. You were careful not to drift too close to his cabin. The Avengers never recovered the body. The rot of Thanos was thick, enough to gag over if you got too close. This planet wasn't used to death, not the harsh meat of Thanos. It had been months and he was still there, newly rotting as if it had been a week or two.

"I'll look again tomorrow before we leave." Carol pops a chip in her mouth, her feet kicked on the co-pilot chair while you lounged on the cot. "For now, you should get your rest."

"Don't you need to sleep, too?"

"I have been." She gestures to the chair.

You stare. Frown. The chairs were nowhere near comfortable.

"We can switch. I'll just take the blanket," you offer reluctantly. The nights here were cold anyways. Much colder than space. You involuntarily shiver.

"I prefer to sleep sitting up."

"Is that a military thing?"

To your surprise, she laughs. "Why?"

You shrug the blanket higher - the thin layer providing little comfort. "Cap likes to do that too."

As the sky gets darker, the cold filters in the cracks of the ship and between the layers of your comforter. You snuggle tighter within yourself, curl your knees up to your chest, burrow your hands underneath your pits. When that doesn't work, you shift again. It was always something. The blanket doesn't cover your feet here. You're uncomfortable there.

"You still up?"

You peek up to glance at Carol. She's leaned back in the chair, her head propped back against the headrest. When you shift, she pops one eye open.

"It's cold," you respond. "Are you cold?"

She shakes her head. "Temperature stops being a concern when you get superpowers like mine."

"Oh, yeah. Forgot you're a glow stick."

She snorts. "You talk a lot of shit for someone whose close to being an icicle."

"Bravado under pressure. It's my best quality."

You think she's gonna retort with another snort, but she stays silent. You make a move to stand, but she stops you.

"It's colder over here. See." She breathes out and you can see the cloud of her breathe. You frown.

"I can't sleep like this."

You think she's gonna do something like procure a blanket or throw you her jacket. You even think she might use her powers to heat the ship. It would make sense. Now, that you thought about it - she could've flew your ship to Thanos's exact location. You open your mouth to say as much, maybe, even yell at her as well, but she surprises you by standing.

Her head tilts to the side. Her mouth opening and closing again as if she's mulling over her next words carefully. If it were brighter, you might say this is the closest to nervous you've ever seen her get.

"I could lay down next to you." You blink. "My body generates a certain amount of heat due to -"

"Your powers. Yeah, I get it."

Slowly, you scoot over in the small cot. There wouldn't be enough room. You'd be touching regardless, but if you didn't turn over, it'd be okay. You could pretend instead of Carol, it was some space heater next to you.

"Come," you order.

You feel her weight in the cot, the warmth of her sinking in and spreading across the fabric. It hasn't even been a minute and already the cold has been dissipated. You could sleep if you wanted to. But, you don't. No matter how much you had wanted to pretend she was just some space heater, she was Carol. She felt stiff like a board and she was unbearably loud in her stiffness, her unwillingness to move.

"You can relax you know," you mumble.

"I sleep on my side."

You wonder now if she's smirking.

"No one's stopping you from doing that."

She moves and you know without looking that she's facing you. Her breathe tickles the hair on the back of your neck. You wouldn't be able to sleep like this. She's thinking so loud that whatever thoughts she's having are sure to interrupt your dreams. You turn over towards her - your faces are a hair apart. She's not smirking. Her lips are parted and her eyebrows raised, her expression torn between surprise and delight.

"You're making it difficult to sleep," you say simply.

"Am I?" She retorts. There it is. She's grinning. "That sounds like a personal problem."

You don't take the bait. "You know why you're making it difficult?"

She shifts her head slightly to imply 'no'.

"You're too far away. I'm still cold," you say.

She arches one brow. "This is too far away for you?"

You nod.

She shifts closer. Close enough that there's no room for you to glance at her lips. There's only her eyes staring into yours.

"This good enough?" She whispers.

"No."

"You're proving difficult to please, Y/N." And you can tell she's trying to be smooth, but right now, you just want her to shut up.

You barely have time to open your mouth to say as much before she's kissing you. Pressing her soft lips to yours, her hand finding its way to your hip and resting there. She tugs you closer to her until your bodies are flush against one another. The soft pecks growing longer. Light sparks from her fingertips, burning the trim of your jacket. She fists it as she presses you into her. Her touch still gentle if demanding.

You pull away slowly to breathe. To catch air. You forget why when your lips stop touching.

"Been wanting to do that for awhile," she says with a smile.

"I didn't know I wanted to do it honestly," you respond because it's true. All you knew was that Carol was infuriating. Still is. Only now you want to kiss her, too.

"Really?" Carol asks. "You didn't know you wanted me?"

"You find that hard to believe?"

"I do," she grins. "You know the raccoon and Groot have a running bet on which one of us would crack first. Groot bet on me."

"Groot lost, then." You mean to kiss her, but she pulls back.

"You're the one who invited me into bed with you."

"Because you offered your services."

"Because you complained about being cold."

You groan, snuggle into her chest so you don't feel the need to respond to her. Thankfully, she stops. Her spare hand strokes your back and slowly, you drift into sleep.