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gagmebucky · 4 years

Text

[steve. breeding kink. baby.]

“Wanna know what makes it worse?” Steve leans in and trails his nose along the inviting curve of your shoulder and neck until his lips are adjacent with your ear. “My sense of smell, it tells me when your body is just ripe for the taking. It’s like you’re fucking calling me every single month—begging me to put your little pussy out of your misery. . . fuck and fuck until you’re milkin’ my kid right outta me.”

in which you’re playing with a baby and steve can’t resist himself. (includes steve’s pov, avenger!steve rogers x girlfriend!reader, breeding kink, dirty talk, praise kink, mild daddy kink, unprotected sex.)

do not repost.

—

Procedure requires debriefing at the end of every mission. In this hours-long process, an agent must recap the objectives and the means used to achieve them; deviations to the original plan and why; as well as whether success was gained, and any other pertinent intel possibly acquired.

This routine is mandatory for all those working for and with an organization like S.H.I.E.L.D.; not even the Avengers are exempt from this. Except in this particular case where the titular first of the super-powered team has forgone the professional necessity, and instead, is in search of you.

Normally, America’s golden boy can handle the dangers that occur in such a violent but imperative field. He understands the risks and pressures inherent to his line of duty, and he’s always accepted it, dealt with it because the overall outcome dwarfs the bad.

On this particular assignment, however, the stakes were higher than usual and although the quick snap-quick decisions he made ultimately paid off, it didn’t soften the blow of the sacrifices made. Times like this, he has to wonder if it’s worth it.

The tension weighs on his shoulders and crackles underneath his skin; his synapses are frayed with the memory of each fallen agent, the orders he doled out preambling every one, and the electricity curls his fists and locks his jaw. It’s corrupting that logical part of his brain, and that craving for vengeance can’t be sated with his knuckles breaking a few punching bags.

In rare moments like these, when the serum is pumping through his veins like rabies, there’s one thing to straighten the edges and bring him back from the trenches. That solace is you; your alluring smile and twinkling eyes, the musical carry of your laugh, your seemingly innate ability to figure out what’s wrong and quell the turmoil cycloning inside of him.

So he doesn’t report to Fury like he’s supposed to, doesn’t go over the myriad of errors that only worsened as the mission progressed—no one stops him either.

When employees spot him marching down the corridors, stealth suit still on and rippling across his hulking mass, his strides colliding deafeningly with the floor, handsome and affable features tightened intensely, their only recourse is moved out of the way. Thankfully, they get the hint because if someone hadn’t, he knows he’d snap and do something he might regret.

His senses, formerly haywire in his manic state, have lasered into tunnel focus; his eardrums hone in on the specific sound wave of your crooning voice, and the olfactory nerves in his nostrils guide him in a trail to the source of your intoxicating essence.

Steve slams the door open and storms into the upper, restricted level of the headquarters. His hastened pace slows upon your increased dose, lulling his awareness and distance waning significantly. As his search nears its end, he recognizes where he’s at: the luxurious space designed by and created for Tony Stark.

The doors are open so he doesn’t waste time knocking (not that he possesses the patience to abide by his hundred year old manners). Upon entry, he’s taken the tranquility occupying the atmosphere and the sight of you bathed in the sun’s glow; bright rays beam through the impenetrable windowed wall of the tower while you gently rock the three month old baby perched on your shoulder, probably basking in the dual warmth of you and the star.

From afar, behind you, the brown-eyed girl’s mother stands. With her head tilted and soft gratefulness slanted into her lips, the strawberry blonde’s hip rests against the office’s wet bar and watches fondly as you effortlessly soothe her child’s fussiness into a thumb-sucking slumber.

“Aren’t they cute?” Pepper Potts remarks as he steps beside her. Her gaze maintains on his girlfriend and her daughter. “Morgan would not stop crying for the past few hours, and I did everything to calm her down. I was frazzled and at my wit’s end then I handed her off to her aunt, and now she’s as quiet as a mouse.” She pauses and spares a glance over to his adoration-fixed stare, a slyness twisting into her smile. “I don't know what stage you two are at but she’d make a great mom.”

Steve knows you occasionally babysit for the Starks, but he’s never seen you like this. You’re in your element, swaying back and forth while you hum inaudibly into the infamous delicate baby’s ear. Her small hands are curled around your neck and her face nuzzled into the crease of your shoulder, with the opposing thumb slid between her lips as her big chocolate eyes flutter into a peaceful rest.

Suddenly breathless—but it’s not from the exertion—he has to agree, nodding his head. “Y - yeah,” he answers to both statements because it’s fucking adorable, and while there’s never been a doubt about your caring nature, this cements the fact that you would be an amazing mother. The sensation boils in his gut, and his fingers twitch at his sides. “Has she always been this good with her?”

“Oh, yeah,” Pepper tells him matter-of-factly. “With her, other kids, too. She came with us to the park, and this one kid was screaming his head off and she just went over and poof! He was happy.” Her eyes are back on your slow pacing silhouette. “I would swear she was made for this. I bet she was a nanny in another life.”

His knuckles clench as her words ignite the simmering inferno of his being. Made for this, made for this, echoes in his head and he has to remind himself that he’s in public. But the primal image of you, radiating like an angel with a little piece of him growing inside you, has already carved itself in the forefront of his psyche.

Steve has never been into traditional gender roles, not even when he was in his time and it was the norm (he’s always been a very progressive thinker). But, God, he can’t deny the appeal now that he has you. There’s something so primally satisfying about having you at home, free of any worries that aren’t about your family, potentially—preferably—knocked up.

The carnal urge grips him more intensely than before. Usually, he can suppress that visceral desire to bury himself bare inside you and spill his virility until he further claims you as his. However, receiving a glimpse of you in this maternal state, it has every instinct screaming that you’re irrefutably perfect and primed.

As if on cue, you turn around with the effectively lullabied infant clinging around your neck. After a flicker of surprise, pleasant then concerned, you pad on over to carefully hand over Morgan to her thankful mother. Your attention rivets back to him with a knitted brow gaze.

“Babe, hey,” you greet in a gentle voice. Worry ebbs into your gaze amongst the usual stare of attraction upon dragging across the navy blue material that still clings to his muscular torso. You offer your hand, which he immediately takes, and you guide him out of the office into the hallway. The door shuts behind you, and the sectioned off level is empty, but your voice is still quiet when asking, “What happened?”

You stand barely a breath away, and the proximity pacifies his senses. His stance loosens while a smile upturns a corner of his mouth. “Nothing,” he answers then clarifies, “Nothing that matters anymore, anyway.”

The amendment dwindles your concerned curiosity because it’s honest—he doesn’t need to dwell when you’re standing here—and you can hear it; another lovingly scrutinizing up-and-down glance confirms that his earlier disquietude has settled significantly.

“D’you have fun back there?” he goes onto wonder, eyes flickering over to the closed door. Your earlier titillatingly visage snaps into his brain, and he subconsciously bites down on his bottom lip. “You looked like you were.”

You accept his subject-change with a nonchalant shrug. “Babies like me, and I like them,” you tell him, smiling at the admission. “What can I say?”

“I don’t know. Maybe that you want me to knock you up.” The words fumble out of his mouth before he thinks about it, and while he hadn’t intended on letting it slip, if he did, it would’ve been without the serious fluctuation he blurted it out with.

In a lame attempt to correct his slip of the tongue regarding a topic you both rarely discussed, he quickly adds, “I’m joking.” A surprised expression had crossed your features upon processing his former response, transitioning into something he can’t yet pinpoint if he likes. As if to test the waters—or dig himself into a deeper hole—he says, matter-of-factly, borderline suggestive, “But you know, back in my day, you’d probably already have a few popped out by now.”

“Mr. Rogers!” you gasp in an almost-shocked tone, but your cheeks split with a devious grin. “Are you telling me you want to be a daddy?”

Disheveled by his mission, then upended by your placating presence, he’s more awkward than the day he met you. “Fuck. Look, I’d never pressure you, okay?” For the millionth time, the previous scene plays mentally; he exhales heavily. “It’s just you with her, and I. . . never mind.” He shakes his head, deciding he’s still on the edge from both events today, and dismisses his animalistic inkling. “Act like I didn’t say anything.”

You fold your arms and nod.

“Uh-huh, daddy,” you drawl, scintillating in mischievousness that simultaneously has his heart skipping a beat and his cock jumping. Your smirk widens before disappearing beneath a cascade of feigned innocence. “We can just act like you don’t want me to have your kid.”

His lips part at your teasing twist of his words. “That’s - that’s not what I said.”

“Isn’t it?” You lift a brow. “It is. So, maybe I should find a guy who does. I think any other man would take immense pleasure in going condomless inside of me.” One hand wiggles into your jacket pocket while you peddle away from his orbit; a rectangular plastic ruffles as his reflexes instinctively catch it. “You know, I think Bucky would really appreciate me. I bet he’d have the manners to really wife me up and make me—“

He knows you’re poking fun of him; playfulness alight within your gaze that he usually enjoys. In actuality, he understands there’s zero truth in your jesting and he’d be more amused than jealous. However, currently, the circumstances have corrupted his sensibilities.

“That’s not funny.”

Your laugh echoes musically. “It’s not ‘cause it isn’t a joke,” you say between your giggles, your amusement pardoning your spacial awareness. “I mean—Steve!” Your yelp is louder and even more musical when he surges forth and reigns you in.

Air expels from your chest as his body cages yours against the wall. Using one hand to brace himself above you, his opposing appendage tilts your dazed blinking up. “Now do you really think I don’t want you to carry my kid?” he rumbles. “Because if it were up to me, I would’ve taken claim to your womb the second I saw you.”

Your breathing hitches, and you try to remain unaffected but he’s too keen on your reactions to be fooled. “O - oh?”

“Yeah.” His tongue swipes across his bottom lip. “Wanna know what makes it worse?” He leans in and trails his nose along the inviting curve of your shoulder and neck until his lips are adjacent to your ear. “My sense of smell, it tells me when your body is just ripe for the taking. It’s like you’re fucking calling me every single month—begging me to put your little pussy out of your misery. . . fuck and fuck until you’re milkin’ my kid right outta me.”

A sound, hybrid between a moan and a gasp, escapes your throat; humor eviscerated, desire exudes from you and submerges his senses in a provoking intoxication. The rush sinks into his brain and triggers that visceral frenzy within him but he has no interest in suppressing it anymore.

He releases a guttural groan and grabs your hips. His big hands splay on either side, thumb slightly kneading back and forth, and he draws you in closer. “I can smell you right now, too. Not only how wet you’re gettin’ but that it’s that time for you, isn’t it?” he purrs and nips at your lobe. “You’re mine for the taking.” His teeth catch your pulse, sucking a mark onto the vulnerable skin. “Hm, baby?”

“Y - yes!” you moan wantonly loud as your weight sags into his embrace. “Always.”

“Good—” His hands cinch on your flanks and abruptly hoist you up: prompting you to wrap your legs around his waist and your arms to encircle around his neck. “—cause holding back with you is gonna be impossible.”

With your body clutched around his abdomen, he heads for the closest empty room, scoped out via his enhanced hearing. Unceremoniously, he turns a handle and breaks the lock of the unused office space; two doors down from the main room, it’s smaller but it has a sturdy-looking desk in the center.

He kicks the door shut and sets you down as your lips find his. Although you’re sat down, legs dangling over the wooden edge, you keep your elbows hooked around the nape of his neck and coax a ragged groan out of his chest with the deft stroke of your tongue.

“Shit, baby,” he breathes and parts from you in order to yank your jacket down your shoulders. Tossing it off the side, he reveals a braless tank top and your nipples he can see have pebbled underneath. His imagination takes off once more, envisioning what the already perfect twins will look like in the wake of his seed taking root inside you.

His blood pumps viciously, flowing downward and flooding his cock to strain beneath the oppressive stealth-suit fabric. Like you’re reading his mind, you unhook the utility belt and similarly shove it off somewhere on the side.

Something rustles, and it’s the condom you’d thrown at him. Absentmindedly tucked under the cinch of the belt previously, it falls into your undressing hands. Your eyes rivet up to him, lashes fluttering big, as you hold it between two fingers: halfway offering. “What are you gonna do, daddy?”

At that particular moment, it occurs to him that you’re doubting his seriousness. While abundantly clear you want this, you’re dubious on whether he’s going through it. Which is preposterous, but he figures that the look on your face when he spills inside you bareback will only further his orgasm, consequently heightening the odds of his end-goal.

He plucks the packaging from of your grip, holds it up as your gazes clash and makes a show out of discarding it out of reach. Then he seizes your knees and slides your ass to the edge so your center is flushed against him, rocking into his hardened imprint.

“You,” he answers your query, tone a growl, as he peels your jeans off. He continues on just to shred your panties. “I’m doing you. With nothing to separate me from you, nothing to keep you from your rightful destiny: knocked up with our baby.”

“Please,” is all you utter, but the room’s thick with sensory evidence of your essence.

Spreading your thighs as far as possible, he glances down to spit lewdly on your glistening mound; a long dribble of saliva coating your eager button and slit. He uses his thumb to smear it all over, mixing with the puddle you’re creating, dipping into your sticky folds with his middle finger.

The whole time, you’re choking with these hungry and appreciative little noises. Likewise, you’re watching as he prepares you thoroughly and roughly to wring the cum out of him. “S - Steve,” you mewl coherently and buck into his messy caress. Your fingers are tugging pleading on the lower half of his uniform. “I need you. Please!”

It is about damn time.

His control has been witting away since the first time you called him daddy. He swiftly wrenches the suit down and exposes his leaking, throbbing cock to your tunnel of relief. His size always dwarfs your kempt triangle; an initial observation one might come to is the improbability he won’t fit. But he does, every single time, and in this special instance, he’s going to ensure all of his formidable length is buried in your fertile heat.

He rasps his tip over your clit, plastering his translucent white pre-cum over the engorged nub, then traces down the crease of your slit. As he prods in, his hands span your thighs and help open up your elastic entrance for his ravenous cock. He stretches your tightness slow but unyieldingly while you both watch with labored breathing, transfixed by the sight of your dripping core enveloping his veined and tanned angry stalk until he’s nudging your cervix.

“Good girl,” he grits out, strangled by the electricity prickling his nerves. He slips support underneath your ass, intertwining from the inner to the outer so when he hauls you up, your knees are bent over his elbows. “You ready to make me a daddy, baby?”

“Yes!” You nod quickly with a moan. “Shit, you’re big—and deep. Really fucking deep.”

He chuckles huskily because if you think that now, he can’t wait to see you once he’s truly plundered new depths. “Now, you just hold on tight and let me do all the work. I only want you to focus on givin’ me a baby, okay?”

In the middle of an abandoned office room—possibly a storage area—he heaves you up and drops you back down. Your arms curl around his neck, hands twisting into his suit, while he alters between gravity and his hips jutting forth to drill inside you.

Without any mind to those around you—just you and him—he fucks you with every ounce of strength coiled into his super-charged build. Ignoring the fact that door is unlocked, broken more specifically, and the possibility that there’s likely high quality surveillance cameras watching, your shared sounds of carnality fills the room in between the harsh collision of skin.

Each propelling thrust seems to jostle further than further, carving himself into your inner walls. Like he said before, he handles all the work, effortlessly bouncing your sporadically clenching channel with his inhuman strength and stamina; leaving you to accept and bask in the stimulation his cock is providing and the gift he’ll be depositing inside of you any time now.

Your lips are breathless in his ear, gasping, “Daddy, please,” that has him climbing the rope faster. The beg pours gasoline on an already roaring fire, igniting wildly to burn up his legs then his stomach and on its way to take him under.

“Y’gonna make me a daddy, baby? You’re gonna be a pretty lil’ mommy and take care of us? Is that what you want?” he croons, identifying the way you tighten as your steadily approaching orgasm. “Y’gonna have your pretty pussy squeeze me until I’m shooting my load and knocking you up?��

He’s pretty sure your nails have punctured the suit’s resilient material. “S - Steve, fuck! Please. Yes! Cum inside me—cum inside me—“ you cry out with genuine desperation that his limbs tingling numbly. “I want it. I want you. Please. I wanna feel you!”

His jaw locks and works you somehow even harder. The room is completely engulfed with you, your arousal, the potency of your ovulation, and your future with him; once he releases, it’ll only seal the fact that you’re his and belong to him (as well as vice versa).

“Who’s gonna be a daddy, baby? Who are you making a daddy, baby?” His words are practically slurred while fever coalesces across his entirety. “Who owns your pretty little pussy and your womb?”

“You—Steve—daddy,” you sob as your orgasm seizes up around his cock, giving him no other choice other than to: “Cum inside me, daddy—!”

Something beastly rips out of his chest, and without protest, he gifts you exactly what you want. He burrows into the absolute hilt and fires inside you for what feels like forever. Spurts of ooze finally wane, nudging your fruitful cervix, but even then, he doesn’t dare retreat from your heavenly depths.

The aftershocks force him to set you back down on the desk, still buried and keeping you stuffed. His face nuzzles the junction between your neck and shoulder languorously, and you lazily run your fingers through his hair, walls periodically pulsating.

When he regains the energy, he straightens and pulls out of you until his bulbous head is blocking your entrance; he stops there because he realizes something. “It’s gonna leak, and as hot as that is, I need to keep you full, baby.” Abruptly, he hauls you up and shuffles the position so that he’s sitting on the desk, and you’re sitting on his cock.

Your sensitivity flares around him, and you squeal. “F - fuck!” But you adjust to comfortability, blinking at him. “For how long?”

A smile curls into his lips, and he strokes your cheek while his other hand lays on your belly. “For as long as it takes.”

[masterlist / feedback]

#steve rogers x you smut #steve rogers imagines #steve x reader #captain america x reader #steve rogers smut #marvel reader insert #marvel smut imagines #my writing #marvel imagines #my fics #mANY ERRORS

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parkersbliss · 4 years

Text

Quarantime | Avengers

Pairing: None! Could be Peter Parker X reader

Type: Headcannon

WC: 1.2K

Warnings: Language

A/N: Will probably turn this into a mini-series with imagines, headcanons, and all that good stuff bc I’m of school till April 15th. If you want to be tagged see here.

Masterlist

(not my gif)

When New York first announced the quarantine you thought this could be a good bonding experience with the team.

You couldn't have been more wrong.

Five days in and all anyone did was scream at each other.

Tony was annoyed because, and I quote, "It's a virus, my suit is made of iron for christ's sake!"

Peter was out of school for the next three weeks and somehow that boy had already completed all his homework for the next month.

Nat and Wanda spent their days in the kitchen baking, which prompted a lot of taste testing and lying on your part.

Bucky, Steve, and Sam spent their time either sparing or playing competitive cards.

At first, the whole team loved the idea of passing time with cards

and then it got a little too competitive.

"Draw two Tony."

"Very funny, Cap. Why don't you draw two, Romanoff."

"I think I'll pass," As she laid down another draw two cards.

Sam chuckles, "oh no little miss, not today."

Bucky doesn't say anything just gently places his draw two on the table and looks to Peter.

Peter is sweating as he places down his own draw two, it passes onto Loki.

He places down his own green draw two.

"How do we know he's not cheating?" Tony slams down his cards on the table.

"For all we know that could've been a red four!"

The room murmurs in agreement and Loki shrugs, "you don't."

Tony glares at him from across the table but turns his attention toward Thor.

Thor frowns, shuffling through his cards before slamming his fist down. He draws from the pile only to reveal another draw two, he smirks and places it down onto the others.

"you've got to be shitting me," Steve mumbles, rubbing his forehead.

It came down to Hulk, he glared at everyone at the table. "No fair, I don't have any."

"Well, buddy draw," Tony picks up the stack of cards and begins counting. "Draw sixteen."

Hulk frowns and slams both fists down onto the table, it flips over and you calmly step out of the way.

"Woah, woah buddy," Sam said.

"Hulk mad!"

"AND there goes another game of Uno."

Thor and Loki were in charge of grocery shopping because as gods they weren't susceptible to the virus.

You always made sure to provide a shortlist composed of everyone's needs and yet, they always managed to get extra.

One week they came back with a lobster.

"We said toilet paper guys!" Tony said, staring at the lobster in Loki's arms.

"That's what I told my imbecile of a brother, but he insisted we rescue the creature," Loki replied, looking down at the crustacean and grimacing.

Everyone turns toward Thor, "he looked so lonely..."

"they're for cooking," You deadpanned.

"NO!" Thor screamed, snatching the lobster out of Loki's hands and running off.

To this day you weren't sure what happened to the lobster.

Or the time they bought six too many Capri suns.

"Why in god's name did you buy six boxes?!"

"We wanted to try all the flavors."

"He wanted too, I did not second that."

Peter and you, however, were thrilled, you two lived off of them.

It was the only thing you two drank sometimes.

"AW YEAH!!" You shouted, high fiving Peter.

Steve sighed, "Great, they'll be bouncing off the walls with sugar now."

Or when Natasha asked for flour and they brought back flowers.

"I asked for flour, not flowers!"

Thor stared at her confused, "but they are both flowers, no?"

"ones used for baking and the other for decoration."

"Well, the flowers are a nice gesture!"

"Thor, we are in a worldwide pandemic! Flowers aren't helping anything."

"Get better soon?"

You and Peter spent your days Tik Toking, much to everyone's dismay.

"Week one of our quarantine in the avengers compound," You said solemnly to the camera.

"Thor bought six boxes of Capri suns! And a lobster!!" Peter yelled from his place on the couch.

"Tony is slowly losing his mind..."

"Hey Steve, look at the camera!!"

"you guys should be doing homework."

"Ok boomer," Both you and Peter snort.

"what?" Steve asks, confusion written all over his face.

He wasn't exactly caught up with everything.

"And this is my uncle Bucky, he's way cooler than yours! Does your uncle have a metal arm?" You sass the camera as Bucky flexes his metal arm.

"Look at those muscles!" Peter gapes, running his hand along the smooth vibranium.

"Not sponsered by wakanda tech."

"Hey Peter, we should do the quarantined crew!" You suggest after watching another friend give their best slow-motion poses.

"You're a genius, (Y/N)!!"

You and Peter ran around the tower filming everyone's best poses.

Peter had switched into his Spidey suit and did a backflip over the couch.

That took a few takes because you kept tossing pillows at him after he landed.

Tony removed his Iron Man mask and Peter kept shouting encouraging words the entire time.

"Yes, work it!! Yes, Tony! What a quee-"

"I think he gets it, Peter."

Steve caught his shield after much convincing

Clint drew back his box

Nat did a roundhouse kick

Wanda just flexed her powers

Hulk fist-bumped himself

Thor flipped his hammer

Loki, being the sass god he is slowly put his helmet on while flipping his cape

Bucky, of course, flexed his metal arm while Sam got into a heroic pose, his hands on his hips and everything.

and you gave the camera a wink with some finger guns

you guys owned that hashtag for the rest of the year

Of the many creations in the kitchen, Kale muffins were the worse

"Kale muffin?" Wanda offered.

"Uh, sure?"

She eagerly shoved one in your mouth.

"I reall-mpshorkgorigaesjrf"

you choked.

"What is it bad?"

"NoOoooO. In fact, I'll take another."

You gave it to Peter.

It's safe to say he never looked at you the same

Tony had officially lost his mind and made at least 20 mini-robots

Every day there was a new one.

And frankly, they were not nice.

"Mr. Barton, is there a problem?"

"My coffee is just a little hot, it's no big deal."

"Please let me."

The robot took the coffee and proceeded to blow on it to cool it down.

The coffee ended up on Clint.

that really woke everyone up

You and Peter went around and gave them all googly eyes

At one point you guys tried to play Wii sports

"TAKE THAT YOU BITCH"

"STEPHAINE I SWEAR IF YOU CATCH MY TRIPLE-"

You attempted tennis with Nat and Clint

Although the game was virtual, that did not stop them from hitting each other with the remote.

"OUT OF THE WAY!"

"YOU WANNA GO"

Bowling between Tony and Steve was like watching two headless chickens fight

"SPARE!"

"say spare one time and I won't spare you."

"let's go popsicle."

Baseball between Bucky and Sam was always interesting

"don't say it, don't say it."

"OUT!"

"AW, HE SAID IT!"

"Single!"

"I know that! I left my girl back in the 1900s!"

Hulk, Thor, and Loki did boxing.

Like Nat and Clint, the game was virtual, but their punches were not.

"OW YOU LITTLE-"

"AHA THE GOD OF THUNDER REINS SUPR-"

"Hulk smash."

You and Peter sat back and filmed it all for your youtube channel

Episode Five: Season one of Quarantime with the avengers

All and all you guys did love the time together

Just not that much

but with school out till mid-April, you'll just have to get used to it

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wiypt-writes · 3 years

Text

Stark Spangled Banner

Ch54: The Time Heist

Intro: The team split and head to their various places and points in time to retrieve the stones. But of course, it doesn’t all go to plan and one of them pays the ultimate sacrifice…

Warnings: “Language!”, Character death- we all know what’s coming with this one, angst.

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction and classified as 18+. Please respect this and do not read if you are underage. I do not own any characters in this series bar Katie Stark and the other OCs. By reading beyond this point you understand and accept the terms of this disclaimer.

A/N: Will the real @angrybirdcr please stand up...and take credit for those edits!

Chapter 53

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist // Main Masterlist

“You’re wearing that?” Tony looked Thor up and down, taking in the scruffy grey-zip up hoody and red sweater he wore.

“Yes, what’s wrong with it?” Thor glanced down at himself.

“You look like Santa Clause with a crystal meth addiction.” Tony replied. Thor frowned, his eyes narrowing as Rocket began to laugh.

As they continued to bicker about Thor’s appearance, Steve looked up to see Katie emerging from the locker room, dressed in the first cat-suit he could remember seeing her in. His pants instantly felt a little tighter round the crotch as it clung in all the right places, especially now her figure was slightly different to what it had been eleven years ago. Mind you, she still looked extremely passable as a 2012 version of herself and Steve found himself wondering how on Earth he had managed to actually fight any aliens back then when she looked as hot as she did.

She caught his gaze, flashed him a smile which he returned and she took one of the GPS bands off Tony as he handed them out to the assembled team. One by one, as the bands were activated, the red and white Quantum Tunnel suits formed around each of the Avengers. Steve picked up his shield, and nodded around to his team.

“Let’s go.” Together they strode through the hangar, Steve leading them towards the large, glass platform with the early morning sun cascading through the large glass hangar doors from where it was just starting to peak over the trees. As they walked, Katie looked over her shoulder at Natasha, winking and the red head grinned back at her, biting her lip excitedly.

As everyone took their place around the glass platform, Banner behind the control panel, Steve looked around and cleared his throat.

“Five years ago, we lost. All of us. We lost friends, we lost family, we lost a part of ourselves. Today, we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams, you know your missions. Get the stones, get them back. One round trip each. No mistakes. No do-overs.” He took a breath and Katie smiled to herself as he continued “Most of us are going somewhere we know. But it doesn’t mean we should know what to expect. Be careful. Look out for each other.” Another breath. “This is the fight of our lives. And we’re gonna win.”

At that point Tony gave Steve a look, his eyebrow raising slightly, a soft smile playing on his face. Steve met his face, with a determined expression of his own. “Whatever it takes.” He nodded to his Brother-in-Law before he looked around at the team. “Good luck.”

“He’s pretty good at that.” Rocket conceded, his arms folded.

“Right?” Scott jerked his thumb towards Steve and Katie smiled.

“All right. You heard the man. Stroke those keys, jolly green.” Tony called to Banner.

“Trackers engaged.” Banner nodded before joining them on the platform.

Katie took up her position between Natasha and Steve, making sure her GPS was set to the right time and date.

“You okay?” Steve asked softly, turning to look at her.

“As okay as I can be given I’m about to time travel back to an alien invasion.” She muttered back and Steve chuckled as she turned to her left to look at Natasha. “When we get back you and me are cracking open that bottle of Kauffman vintage that I know you hid from Thor in your room.”

Natasha gave a grin. “Deal. Hey Rogers!” Steve turned to look at her, his brow arched.

“See you in a minute!” Nat wriggled her shoulders and eyebrows excitement and he huffed out a laugh at her enthusiasm. This was the most animated he had seen her about anything in the past five years.

The machine began to whir slightly as it lit up, glowing like spotlights, and the mechanism above their heads shifted. Their helmets all engaged and a second later they were sucked from the platform and hurtling through the Quantum Tunnel, back through time.

It felt like her entire body was being squeezed through a very small space, and just as it was starting to become really uncomfortable, the pressure released and Katie’s feet landed on the ground in the middle of a side street in New York, a block or so away from the tower. She stumbled a little, Steve’s strong hand catching her arm to steady her and she blinked, shaking off the dizzy feeling. As she turned to look for the rest of her group, the sounds of cries, screams, gunfire filled her ears as the red and white suit vanished from around her.

“All right, we all have our assignments.” Steve looked at everyone. “Two Stones uptown, one Stone down. Stay low. Keep an eye on the clock.”

At that point they all whirled round as 2012 Hulk passed, smashing everything in his way. Bruce put his hand on his face, embarrassed, as Steve turned to look at him.

“Maybe smash a few things along the way.” He suggested.

“I think it’s gratuitous, but whatever.” Bruce muttered, tearing his shirt off. He walked over to a car and lightly punched it, making a small dent, all the while making growling noise which Katie doubted would scare a kitten. Then he picked up a motorbike and threw it at a wall, wincing as it smashed before he continued his journey down town.

The rest of them parted to their own assignments, Tony and Lang taking off, Katie and Steve making their way to the entrance of Stark Tower.

“First rule of not being seen?” Katie stopped at the door and looked at her husband.

“Don’t hide by any chance?” He raised an eyebrow.

“You got it.” “Yeah, well I kinda figured it might be the same as the whole going on the run mantra.”

“Got to hustle, guys. Things look like they’re just about wrapped up here.” Tony’s voice sounded in their ears.

“Got it. We’re approaching the elevator now.” Steve replied, following Katie as she strode confidently across the Tower Lobby.

She was right, no one paid them the least bit of attention as they stepped into the lift, everyone was too busy running around in a blind panic. Katie smirked to herself as the door shut. Pressing her palm to the pad at the side, she selected the button for the floor which housed Tony’s office, where they were going to hide until it was their time to make a move.

“Uh, Mr. Rogers. I almost forgot that that suit did nothing for your ass.”

Katie sorted and Steve rolled his eyes.

“No one asked you to look, Tony.” He snapped, exasperatedly.

“It’s ridiculous.”

“I think you look great, Cap. As far as I’m concerned, that’s America’s ass.” Scott chipped, and that was when Katie gave in and began to laugh as the elevator stopped.

“I like your ass.” She grinned up at him and it was his turn to laugh as he followed her out.

“It’s all yours, Baby.”

***** Up on the Party Floor, Tony was smirking to himself at having managed to successfully wind Steve up again on a job. Well, would it really be an Avengers Mission if he didn’t?

He and Lang ducked out of the way as the elevators opened and the SHIELD-slash-HYDRA team lead by Rumlow and Sitwell entered the floor.

“Who are these guys?” Lang asked.

“They are SHIELD, well, actually Hydra. But, we didn’t know that yet.” Tony explained

“Seriously, you didn’t? I mean…they look like bad guys.” Lang continued.

“You’re small, but you’re talking loud.” Tony said, an edge to his voice. He was getting kind of tired of people pointing out the various flaws in judgement or errors to their methods when they went back over past missions.

“On my way down to coordinate search and rescue.” 2012 Rogers spoke. Tony had to smirk. Steve always denied he had changed that much, but he really was as far a cry from that pompous, stick-up-your-ass jerk as he could get.

Tony watched Loki transform into Steve for a second in imitation and the Billionaire had to snort. As far as imitations go it was pretty flawless. Then, as Loki was gagged and lead way by Thor he spotted that his 2012 self was tapping at the security pad on a briefcase which contained the Tesseract.

“All right, you’re up, little buddy.” He spoke to Lang “That’s our stone.“

“Alright.” Lang nodded, speaking from Tony’s shoulder. “Flick me.”

There were so many things wrong with that instruction, but Tony didn’t have time to unpack them right there. Instead he did as he was told, flicking the ant sized Lang straight towards the box where he scrambled up Tony’s arm, to his beard and then down his top.

Tony remembered with amusement the next bit. This was when Hulk had tried to take the elevator. Grinning he watched as his 2012 self-informed Banner that the maximum occupancy had been reached, and 2012 Thor told him to take the stairs. In a fit of temper Hulk punched at the elevator door once it was shut, before grumbling to himself as he headed to the other side of the floor to get to the stairs. With a smirk, Tony backed up, threw himself out of the window, his suit reforming round him.

*****

Katie and Steve found their floor completely deserted. As such, they’d been stood, hovering by the elevator waiting for the signal which came over their radios not long after they had heard Lang tell Tony to ‘flick him’- yeah, Katie and Steve both thought there was a lot wrong with that instruction.

“All right, Cap, Kiddo. I got our sceptre in the elevator just passing the 90th floor.”

“On it.” Steve hit the call button.

“You remember what happened last time we were in an elevator full of HYDRA dickheads?” Katie looked up at Steve. He snorted, and was just about to answer back to assure her he didn’t intend on flinging them out of the side of this one from almost twenty storeys up, but he didn’t get chance. The elevator doors stopped and then opened. Katie and Steve both glanced at the STRIKE-slash-HYDRA agents, Sitwell and Rumlow both doing a double take as they saw them. Steve gestured for Katie to go in first, and she did, turning to the button pad. She randomly selected a floor below them before she moved to the middle, standing by Steve.

“Captain. I thought you were coordinating search and rescue?” Sitwell looked at Steve.

“Change of plan.” He stated simply as he turned to face the elevator doors as they closed.

“Hey, Cap. Nova.” Rumlow spoke, glancing over his shoulder at them both.

“Hey, Brock.” Katie smiled. It fell silent for a while, the situation feeling familiar to the two Avengers, as they noticed that the agents were sharing nervous glances. Steve looked around, before he spoke again.

“I just got a call from the Secretary. Agent Stark and I are gonna be running point on the scepter.”

“Sir?” Sitwell frowned, turning to face him. “I don’t understand.”

“We got word there may be an attempt to steal it.” Katie supplied, holding his gaze.

“Sorry, guys, but I can’t give you the sceptre.” Rumlow shook his head and Katie saw he was reaching for his gun.

“Yeah, I’m gonna have to call the Director.” Sitwell began.

“That’s okay. Trust me” Steve insisted as Katie reached out and wrapped her hand around Rumlow’s wrist, fully anticipating there was going to be a struggle, but thanks to Steve’s quick thinking, it never came.

He leaned forward, his mouth close to Sitwell’s ear. “Heil HYDRA.” He whispered, loud enough for the agents around them to hear. Sitwell looked up at him, Steve simply gave him a knowing nod and Rumlow glanced at Katie. She released his wrist smiling at him.

“You kept that quiet, Stark.” Rumlow looked at her.

“Isn’t that supposed to be the point?” She raised an eyebrow at him.

“Touche.”

The elevator stopped and Katie nodded to Steve.

“If you’ll excuse us.” He gestured to the case which held the sceptre. With a slight hesitation, Rumlow handed it to him and Sitwell moved to allow them to step out. They began walking away from the door, exchanging a smug glance as they went, taking care not to hurry or appear suspicious. Then, as soon as they were out of view, Katie turned to Steve grinning.

“Heil HYDRA? You clever bastard!”

“I have my moments.” Steve shrugged. “What floor are we on.”

“Errr, twentieth.” She said as she spotted the floor number on the wall. “Oooh, if we head down the stairs to the fourteenth, that’s where the ceiling of the atrium starts. There’s glass walkways and exposed stairs down to the lobby so we should be able to get a decent view of where Tony’s at.”

She led Steve over to a heavy door which housed the maintenance staircase and they both winced as they could hear Hulk yelling.

“SO MANY STAIRS!” His words echoed and Katie glanced down to see he was a few floors below them. Nodding to Steve, they began their descent.

***** In the Lobby, Tony was watching with amusement, the slight difference of opinion his 2012 self and 2012 Thor were having with Alexander Pierce.

“Loki will be answering to Odin himself.” Thor shook his head when he was instructed to turn his brother over.

“He’s gonna answer to us. Odin can have what’s left.” Pierce shook his head. “And I’m gonna need that case, that’s been SHIELD property for over seventy years.”

“All right, move it, Stuart Little.” Tony said from his place in the lobby, he was dressed in a SHIELD Tactical Kit, one he had stolen of some guy he’d had to knock out. “Things are getting dicey up here. Let’s go.”

“You promise me you won’t die?” Lang shot back.

“You’re only giving me a mild cardiac dysrhythmia.”

“That doesn’t sound mild”.

“Do it, Lang!”

“Get your hands off!” 2012 Tony began to yell yelling.

“Window’s closing. Pull my pin!” Tony insisted.

“Here goes!” Seconds later 2012 Tony dropped the case, clutching at his chest.

“Stark? Stark!” Thor bellowed as Tony watched himself fall to the floor.

“Look, he’s convulsing.” Pierce shook his head. “Give him air! Medic!”

“MEDIC!” Tony called, some amusement as he watched his past self, writhing on the floor “This guy needs some help, some help please!”

In the rush and melee that followed, the case suddenly slid across the floor to Tony who grabbed it hastily with a smile.

“Good job.” He spoke into his comms. “Meet me in the alley. I’m gonna grab a quick slice.”

Only he never made it, as right at that point, Hulk mashed through the door from the staircase into the lobby, sending Tony flying to the ground, the case dropping from his hands.

“NO MORE STAIRS!!!!” Everyone began to run from Hulk’s rampage and then all hell broke loose.

Tony sat up, looking round, giving a groan as he realised that the Tesseract, and Loki were gone.

“That wasn’t supposed to happen, was it?” Scott asked, as he stood on Tony’s chest. Tony sighed and looked around as the 2012 Thor and Tony began frantically talking into their coms.

“Oh we blew it.”

****

“Tony, what’s going on?” Steve demanded as he followed Katie round the corner towards the walkway. “Tell me you found that cube.”

At that point he bumped straight into his wife who was stood stock still in front of him staring right at his 2012 counterpart.

“Oh, you gotta be shitting me.” Steve groaned, his jaw ticking.

“Cap,” a familiar voice from behind 2012 Steve spoke and Katie’s mouth dropped open as her 2012 self sprinted onto the walkway, skidding to a halt behind the Steve from her time. “What the fuck?”

2012 Steve’s eyes flitted around at the other four people, before he drew himself up tall.

“This is clearly some kind of spell.” 2012 Steve spoke, and 2012 Katie nodded in agreement as he continued this time talking into his coms. “We have eyes on Loki. 14th floor.”

“I’m not Loki.” Steve put the case containing the sceptre down taking a step forward so he was level with his Katie. “And I don’t wanna hurt you.”

In a flash, 2012 Steve engaged. Steve raised his shield, the clang loud as the Vibranium discs clashed against one another. Katie ducked past the duelling captains to stand in front of her younger self.

“How did you escape?” 2012 Katie looked at her, taking up a fighting stance.

“I’m not Loki.” Katie shook her head. “And neither is Steve. My Steve, I mean, the other…whatever.” She sighed. “It’s a really, really long story. And also a crazy one so…”

“You’ve seen what’s going on out there?” The 2012 her scoffed. “I doubt there’s anything that could surprise me anymore.”

“Fine, you asked…” Katie groaned. “Look, I’m you, from 2023.” She shrugged as she looked around. “Tony invented a time machine so we could come back and get something we need.” 2012 Katie raised her eyebrow before she laughed. “Whatever,” and with that she launched forward.

Through the corner of his eye, Steve saw his wife starting to engage with her 2012 self, and his moment of distraction cost him. His younger self kneed him in the chest, knocking him down harshly.

“I can do this all day.” 2012 Steve looked down at him, smirking and Steve inwardly groaned.

“Yeah, I know.” He sighed, shaking his head as he waved him away whilst he stood up again. Had he really been that lame? “I know”

With another flick of his arm, Steve threw his shield as the other him did the same, and with a loud clang the Virbanium discs ricocheted off one another flying over the side of the walkway. Without their shields the men began to fight, furiously. Blows were traded and kicks landed, and one of them, Steve had no idea who, managed to send the case containing the sceptre through the glass side of the walkway, causing it to shatter.

Katie heard the smashing behind her but she didn’t look round, she was too busy going toe to toe with her past self. She was just about getting the upper hand too as eleven years on she knew a lot more moves thanks to Natasha and Steve’s training. As her younger self leaned in with a pretty savage right hook Katie stopped it with both hands and then used her 2012 self’s arm as leverage to push up from the floor. Swinging both legs round in a scissor action she managed to lock her knees round 2012’s neck using the momentum and strength in her legs to bring her past self crashing over backwards to the ground, hard. Before she could get up Katie flicked a widow bite at her and winced as she watched her younger self convulsing on the floor.

She didn’t have much time to contemplate it however, as the sound of a loud yell made her look up just in time to see both Steve’s falling off the walk way, smashing through several glass landings and down a few of the exposed flights of stairs until they eventually came to a halt a few floors down.

Wincing, Steve managed to push himself up, taking a deep breath he swayed slightly and glanced over to where 2012 Steve was brandishing his compass at him, his mouth open and brow furrowed. Of course, he won’t have even gotten the compass back yet, and he wouldn’t do until the following year when he went through his stuff for the Smithsonian exhibit.

“Where did you get this?” 2012 demanded, his voice low. “And why does it have a picture of me and Miss Stark in it?”

Steve didn’t answer instead he ducked trying to retrieve the sceptre, and he might have been successful if he was up against a normal opponent, but 2012 Steve was quick and he placed his foot on the sceptre, throwing Steve off balance slightly. In a flash he was behind him, putting the older Soldier into a choke hold. Steve threw all his power backwards, taking the pair of them to the ground where they began to writhe along the floor, both trying to get the upper hand as Steve tried to manoeuvre them to the sceptre. Unfortunately for Steve, 2012 was just as clever and, as he reached out with his right hand his past self jerked him backwards, his legs round his waist, arms tight round his throat.

Steve knew he had to distract him, so in desperation he spluttered out something he knew would have made his 2012 self stop dead in his tracks. “Bucky…is…alive…” Almost immediately he felt the grip around his neck release, and he fell forward coughing.

“What?” 2012 Steve asked, but he never got his answer as Steve sucker punched him right in the face with his right hand, before he grabbed the sceptre, pointing the tip of it at his chest. 2012 Steve froze in mid-air before collapsing forwards, face down on the ground.

Steve let his head fall back in relief. Jesus that had been brutal. His face, ribs, neck, back all hurt like hell. At that point he heard loud footsteps and jerked his head up to see his Katie vaulting over the side of one of the staircases and landing a few feet away from him, his shield on her arm.

“You okay?” She asked, offering him her hand. She pulled him to his feet and gently cupped his face with her hands, her thumb stroking the bruise that was forming on his left cheek.

“Yeah, you?”

“Had to knock myself out with a widow bite” She grinned, before looking down at the Unconscious Steve and frowning. “What did you use?”

He held up the sceptre, before he reached down and grabbed his compass. Sticking it back in his pocket he took another deep breath before he noticed Katie was looking down at him, or rather his 2012 self.

“Lang’s right,” she mused, “that is America’s ass.”

Steve rolled his eyes, taking his shield from her as a smile tugged at his lips, “Let’s get out of here.”

****

The news they Tony and Scott had lost the Tesseract was devastating, and, as Katie watched her soldier who was glancing down at his feet, she could see he was trying to think. As he raised his head to look at her she could see the utter disappointment on his face and she swallowed, feeling it too.

They’d come so far, and looked to be set to fall at the final hurdle.

“Are there any other options with the Tesseract?” Steve’s voice was pleading

“No, no, no. There’s no other options. There’s no do-overs.” Scott said loudly “We’re not going anywhere else. We have one particle left. Each. That’s it, alright? We use that– Bye, bye. You’re not going home.”

“Yeah, well if we don’t try, then no one else is going home, either.” Steve’s voice rose a little.

“Wait,” Katie looked up an idea suddenly popping into her head, “we need more Pym Particles, right?” “Yeah, that’s what I said.” Scott began but Steve silenced him, recognising the look on his wife’s face. She was running through an idea.

“Let’s just go back and get some.” She breathed, astounded the idea hadn’t come to any of them beforehand.

“What?” Scott frowned.

“There has to be some point in time and space that we can get more.” She shrugged. “Let’s just go, steal some, and try again for the Tesseract.” “I can go one better than that.” Tony scrambled out of the trashed car he’d been sat in. “There’s a way to retake the Tesseract and acquire new particles at the same time.” He looked at Steve “Little stroll down memory lane. Military installation, Garden State.”

Katie and Steve looked at one another, instantly understanding before they looked at Tony.

“When were they both there?” Steve asked.

“They were there at a–“ Tony paused. “I’ve a vaguely exact idea.”

“How vague?” Katie pressed.

“What are you talking about? Where are we going?” Scott frowned.

“I know for a fact they were there–“ Tony began again but was cut off.

“Who’s they? What are we doing?” Scott’s voice was gathering pitch as he got more and more frustrated.

“And I know how I know.” Tony looked at Katie and she took a deep breath.

Dad.” she said, swallowing and Tony nodded.

“Guys, what’s up? What is it?” Scott demanded to know.

“Well, it looks like we’re improvising.” Steve spoke, as the Stark siblings were still looking at one another.

“Right. What are we improvising?” Scott asked as Steve turned to him, handing him the sceptre.

“Scott, get this back to the compound”.

“What’s in New Jersey?” Scott tried again.

Katie and Steve began to program their watches to the date and location Tony was telling them.

“Are you sure?” Scott pressed again, before he stepped forward. “Cap. Captain. Steve, sorry, America. Rogers. Look, if you do this, and this doesn’t work, you’re not coming back.”

“Thanks for the pep talk, piss ant” Tony glared a Scott and Steve swallowed. Lang was right, if they were wrong, he’d never see his kids again. They’d never see their kids again. No, he couldn’t let Katie come, not knowing that. Their kids needed at least one of them…

“Katie.”

“Oh no!” She folded her arms. “You are not benching me.” Steve shook his head. “It’s too big a risk.” “So is going just the two of you! Your face is too well known, even more so back then and there, at the first SHIELD base?” She sighed “Don’t forget, half the people in that place are already HYDRA. If you’re recognized…” she trailed off. “Soldier, this needs three heads. Just in case.”

“Do you trust me?” Tony spoke, looking at his brother-in-law.

Steve looked at him, with a deep sigh he nodded. “I do.”

“Then it’s your call.” Tony glanced back at him, then to Katie. Steve was torn, he really was.

“Whatever it takes, Steve.” Katie reminded him. She wasn’t scared in the slightest, she had utter faith in Tony.

Steve took a deep breath and against every bit of better judgment he had in his body he gave her a short nod “Here we go.”

*****

Using some stolen clothes and ID Badges from the locker rooms, they managed to get into the building reasonably easy, aided by the fact that Katie and Steve knew exactly where the secret SHIELD HQ was, having already been there before they took down the Triskelion.

Steve was dressed in an old military uniform, Tony in just a plain suit and Katie in a skirt and blouse, with her hair pulled up into a high seventies style pony tail. They didn’t get challenged, although there was one woman that was definitely giving them a very attentive look over in the elevator. They hit the floor Tony needed, and wishing them luck in a coded message he left, and shortly after it was their turn.

Wasting no time, they exited and as they passed a chair outside a room, Katie noticed some files someone had left behind. Quickly, she scooped them up in an attempt to make herself look like any other normal office worker that was mooching around the area.

Eventually, thanks to Steve’s photographic memory being able to recall a floor map that was on the wall outside the elevator after one simple glance at it, they found Dr Pym’s laboratory and continued down the corridor until they reached an office that wasn’t occupied. Katie distracted everyone in the corridor by dropping the files she was carrying all over the place and making a general load of fuss, whilst Steve slipped inside, unnoticed. He looked down at the phone on the desk and gave a little groan. This hand set was something completely alien to him, but he scanned the various buttons and saw one labelled ‘operator’.

“Not that different, after all.” He mused softly to himself. He picked the phone up and hit the button, asking to be put through to Dr Pym and a few minutes later he was connected.

“Hello. Dr. Pym?”

“That would be the number that you called, yes”

Sarcastic asshole…

“This is Captain…Stevens from shipping.” Steve winced slightly at his unoriginal name. “We have a package for you.”

“Bring it up”.

“Well, that’s the thing, Sir. We can’t.”

“I’m confused. I thought that was your job.”

“Well, it’s just– Sir, the box is glowing and, to be honest, some of our mail guys aren’t feeling that great.” He paused, waiting.

“They didn’t open it, did they?”

“Yeah, they did.” Steve smiled as the man took the bait. “You better get down here.”

He placed the phone down and glanced out of the door through the small pane of glass. As someone handed Katie the last file they’d helped her tidy up, she thanked them and looked at Steve. He gave her the thumbs up and she smirked, before turning her head to see a frantic looking man in a white coat shoot out of the lab a few doors down and run off towards the elevators.

“Excuse me! Out of the way!”

Once he was gone, Katie headed to the empty lab. She hastily looked around, searching as she passed various filing cabinets, ant farms and numerous desks piled high with research. She stood, hands on her hips, biting her lip as she pondered where else the particles could be. She glanced to her right and her face cracked into a grin.

“Bingo.” She walked towards the large, class cabinet which bore the radioactive warning symbol on the front. Opening the door, she hesitated, and selected five of the tubes. One each for her, Steve and Tony, and then two spare just in case. She tucked them into the pockets of the skirt she was wearing and headed into the corridor, Steve joining her as she went.

“Got em.” She informed, not looking at him, as the two of them strode towards the elevator, quickly and quietly.

And they were so close, so close…

“Shit.” Katie hissed as she stopped dead. Steve, who had been checking over his shoulder, looked round and saw the lady from the elevator talking to a number of military security guards.

“And you’ve never seen these two men, or this woman before? “

“No, I’ve got an eye for this. They looked fishy.”

They hastily turned and began to walk back the way they had come when Steve spotted an office to his left.

“In here.” He opened the door and gently guided Katie in before he stepped in after her. He flattened himself against a book shelf, watching through the frosted glass for the figures to pass.

Meanwhile, a photo on the desk had caught Katie’s attention and she felt herself still as she stared at it. She knew that photo…

…because she knew the person in it inside out.

“Steve,” she whispered. He glanced over to see her staring at something on the desk. It took him a few seconds but when he realized what it was he too frowned. It was a photo of him, the one from his SHIELD file. It was his pre-serum self in a white T-Shirt, his dog tags hanging out of his collar.

Katie had a copy of that very same photo in her office because she loved it, but what the fuck was it doing here?

The pair of them looked at one another, before they turned and read the name that was etched into the glass on the office door. And even backwards it was easy to see what it said.

Margaret Carter. Director

He’d steered them into Peggy’s office.

“Katie, honey, I swear, I didn’t-“ Steve began but they were both cut off by the sound of voices behind them causing them to spin back round and watch through the spaces in the blinds which covered the large window into the other side of the office.

Steve stepped forward whilst behind him Katie hung back, not quite sure how to deal with this. She’d been with Steve now for ten years, married for almost eight and she knew he loved her, she truly did but still she couldn’t help that feeling of trepidation which flooded her system. She watched her husband smile as his first love stalked around the other side of the office.

This was Nineteen Seventy, some twenty-five years after he had been lost in the ice. Katie found herself wondering if Peggy ever truly let go of Steve, or if she had merely spent however long in a marriage pining for a man she could never have.

Peggy was shouting at another agent for something, shaking her head in frustration and generally thundering around in a manner Steve could recall very well, and he couldn’t help the fond smile which spread across his face. It was a far cry from the old, frail lady he had imprinted on his mind.

“She looks so, well, good.” He muttered gently. “She’s not ill.” It might have sounded stupid but that was the only way he could explain it. It was nice to see her so happy, healthy and doing what she did best.

When Katie didn’t reply, Steve turned to see her watching him, her arms folded across her chest as if she was hugging herself.

“Yeah,” she whispered, managing a small smile, “she does.”

Steve threw one last glance over his shoulder to see Peggy leaving the room. He walked towards his wife, dropped an arm round her and kissed her forehead, curling her into him. Her body remained a little stiff as her hands slid round his waist.

“You know I love you.” He whispered softly, nuzzling into her hair. “There’s never been anyone who’s come close.”

“Yeah.” Katie nodded, simply to appease him more than anything. She wanted to get out of there now, and back to the compound as soon as she could, she was done.

“Good.” Steve sighed, as he released her and reached for the door handle. “Now let’s go find your brother.”

***** Getting the Tesseract had been easy. What hadn’t been easy was bumping into his dad. Tony had fumbled over his words, walked into chairs, basically lost any of the Stark suaveness he prided himself on having and had introduced himself as Howard.

Howard fucking Potts.

His Dad, however, didn’t seem to notice anything out of the ordinary, and Tony had managed to walk right out of the lab with the Tesseract in his suitcase because being with Howard Stark was keeping him from even being looked at.

All in all, it was the perfect cover and he couldn’t have planned it better if he had tried.

“So, flowers and sauerkraut. You got a big date tonight?” Tony asked.

“My wife’s expecting.” Howard replied and Tony’s mouth fell open. Of course she was, with him. “And, uh, too much time in the office.”

“Congratulations.” Tony smiled at him

“Thanks. Hold this, will you?” Howard asked, passing over the flowers and sauerkraut.

“Yeah, sure.” Tony took them off him “How far along is she?”

“I don’t know– Uh– “ His dad held his hands out indicating the size of his mother’s bump “She’s at the point where she can’t stand the sound of my chewing. I guess I’ll be eating dinner in the pantry again.

“I have a little girl” Tony stuttered “Well…I kinda have two actually.” “Kind of?” “Yeah, the eldest, well she’s actually my sister. Our parents died when she was very young and I ended up with Custody of her so.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” “I’m not.” Tony shook his head and as Howard raised an eyebrow he started to explain. “I mean I am sorry our parents died but not that I ended up looking after her, you know, wouldn’t have had it any other way. She’s an incredible person, smart, funny, beautiful. Married to a soldier now, couple of kids of her own.”

The other man smiled. “You know, a girl would be nice. Less of a chance she’d turn out exactly like me.”

“What’d be so awful about that?” Tony asked.

“Let’s just say that the greater good has rarely outweighed my own self-interests.”

Tony nodded for a moment, before the elevator stopped and the walked out of the bunker. “So, where are you at with names?”

“Well, if it’s a boy, my wife likes Almanzo” Howard looked at him. What the fuck mom?

Tony shook his head as they crossed to the middle of the road in between the various military vehicles and troops that were running down it. “Huh, Might wanna let that stew a while. You got time.”

“Let me ask you a question.” Howard turned to him as they reached the middle. “When your kid was born, were you nervous?

“Wildly. Yeah.” Tony smiled, and he had been. He’d been a wreck in the delivery suite, Pepper at one point ordering him out until he calmed down.

“Did you feel qualified? Like you had any idea how to successfully operate that thing?”

Tony shook his head. “Well, I’d already looked after my sister but this was different, you know. Kiddo turned out well despite me, not because of me so with the youngest, well, I literally pieced it together as I went along. I thought about what my Dad did, and– “

At that point, over his Dad’s shoulder he spotted Steve and Katie stood in the distance and Steve gave him the thumbs up.

“My old man, he never met a problem he couldn’t solve with a belt.” Howard shook his head.

Tony looked back to him from where he had been watching Steve and Katie glancing around cautiously before he spoke to the man again.

“You know, I thought my dad was tough on me. And now, looking back, I just remember the good stuff, you know. He did drop the odd pearl.” Tony smiled.

“Yeah? Like what?”

“No amount of money ever bought a second of time.”

“Smart guy.” Howard nodded.

“He did his best.”

“Let me tell you.” Howard smiled gently. “That kid’s not even here yet, and there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for ‘em”

Tony felt his eyes beginning to well, he simply nodded as Howard walked past him towards his car.

In the distance, Katie squinted and jerked her head questioningly at Tony, trying to figure out why he was holding a bunch of flowers. He raised his briefcase pointing to it, the expression on his face telling her to calm down. She heard Steve let out a breath and a smile crossed her face, their plan had worked. They had the tesseract and the particles. She was about to jerk her thumb over her shoulder to instruct her brother to leave whatever it was he was doing, until she saw the face of the man he had been speaking to.

“Oh my God,” her voice was a gasp, “that’s, that’s my dad.”

Steve had realized the same thing the minute the guy had turned around to shake Tony’s hand. Besides him, Katie took a step forward and he made to gently grab her arm.

“Katie, you can’t.”

“Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do Steve.” She snapped, her eyes blazing. “You just took your trip down memory lane, and you’re not gonna stop me from taking mine.”

She jerked her arm from his grasp and headed over to where her brother was handing over the flowers and a tin of sauerkraut, of all things, to her dad, before they embraced.

“Everything’s gonna be all right.” She could hear Tony as she approached. “Thank you–“

“Thank you?” Howard frowned.

“He means for everything that you’ve, err, done, for this country.” Katie finished, swallowing slightly as she reached her brothers side. Tony glanced down at her, shocked for a moment, before he hastily re-arranged his face.

“Howard, this is my sister the one I was telling you about. Virginia, meet Howard Stark.” Virginia?

Katie smiled and shook her Dad’s hand, taking a deep breath. “God it’s good to see you, I mean meet you, you know, after hearing all about your work.” She hastily recovered.

“Your brother tells me you’re married to a soldier. He based here?” “Used to be.” She nodded, her eyes studying her Father’s face for a moment. The man paused and his head tilted to one side, giving her a curious look.

“You know, you look a lot like my wife, only with different coloured hair, she’s blonde.” “Yeah I know.” Katie replied, before she spluttered. “I mean, from photos, I’ve seen, I mean I’ve been told that before so-“

“You’re a lucky girl.” Howard smiled. “She’s a stunner. Now I really have to go. Nice to meet you both.” He shook their hands again and then turned and headed away.

As they watched him go, Tony slung his arm around his sister’s shoulder, as she leaned into him, wiping a rear from her eyes. “Hey, Kiddo, see the guy by the car?”

“Yeah?”

“Edwin Jarvis.” Tony replied simply, and she grinned. Then, with a final look at their father, the siblings turned and made their way back towards Steve.

“We good?” He asked a little tentatively, noticing that Katie was avoiding his gaze a little. He felt his heart sink, but they didn’t have time to go into that now. It was going to have to wait.

“Yeah, let’s get out of here.” Tony mumbled, shooting another look round.

They made their way round the corner to a deserted part of the base before they each tapped their wrist bands to activate the suits and, with a fresh container of particles each they were ready. Keying in the correct time, date and location, they were sucked once more into the Quantum Realm and, as they sped through the void, Katie felt that familiar squeezing sensation again, which suddenly stopped as they emerged onto the platform, her suit disappearing.

“Did we get them all?” Bruce asked. Scott held up the sceptre, Tony waved his briefcase and Rocket was holding a vial containing the Aether.

“You mean to tell me this actually worked?" Rhodey shot back, tossing his own item lightly in the air before he caught it again as excited murmurs rang around the group. Katie looked around eagerly, but paused when she got to the space that Natasha had occupied beforehand.

She wasn’t there.

Biting back the panic that was rising in her throat she looked to Clint. He was soaking from head to foot and, as she watched, he took a step forward and dropped to his knees.

“Clint, where’s Nat?” Banner asked as the rest of the group caught up with the fact they were a person short.

Clint’s head remained bowed. He swallowed thickly and, when he finally did look up, his eyes met Katie’s first, then Steve’s. He didn’t speak, he didn’t need to, his broken expression told them everything. Steve looked down, taking a deep breath as his heart plummeted through his chest. Besides him, Katie shook her head frantically.

"No, no, no. She’s not gone. She’s just delayed right?” She swallowed, “Clint, tell me Natasha is going to be here!”

There was a loud thud as Bruce knelt down, his large fist pounding the platform angrily. Katie looked helplessly from Clint to Steve, her soldier’s eyes were full of tears as he reached out to her.

“Sweetheart.” His voice cracked and she shook her head, moving out of his reach as she turned back to Clint.

"Clint?” This time it was a plea. A plea for him to tell her that her best friend was fine, and that there was just a temporary glitch, one which they could fix.

Clint looked up at her, his own tears now falling as he shook his head.

“She’s gone, Nova.” And with that his head dropped and his shoulders began to shake.

Katie’s jaw began to quiver and she felt two large hands on her upper arms, which gently turned her round as Steve pulled her to him, one hand firmly on her back, the other tangling in her hair. He held her, gently rocking her side to side as she began to cry, looking over her head at Tony who locked eyes with him, wiping his face with his hands.

It was then that Steve’s vision became blurred by his own tears and he buried his face in his wife’s hair, allowing her sorrow to hide his own.

*****

Chapter 55

**Original Posting**

#stark spangled banner #steve rogers #steve rogers fanfiction #steve rogers fic #Katie Stark #steve rogers x ofc #steve rogers x original female character #mcu #mcu fanfic #chris Evans #chris evans characters

44 notes · View notes

dontcare77ghj · 4 years

Text

Diamond

Stucky x reader

Y/N L/N had been a part of the Avengers since it's conception. With her skills, she had been a valuable asset to the team. Y/N had been born a mutant.

Her powers had developed when she was very young. Originally it was believed that she only possessed the skills of telepathy until she reached her adolescent years. It was then Y/N found out she also she could transform herself into an organic diamond state.

Y/N had trained very hard to gain control over her abilities and it was because of how hard she'd worked, she'd been noticed by Nick Fury.

Nick had been keeping an eye on her at Charles Xavier's suggestion and in 2012 he'd asked her to join the Avengers initiative.

It was in 2012 Y/N met the team, but primarily, it was 2012 when she met Steve and Bucky.

The super soldiers. Captain America and the White Wolf.

Men who'd fought in the second world war saved millions of people and had been frozen in time.

It was 2013, when the two had caught up with most of what they missed, did they ask you out.

The three of you had been together for two years now. And life had settled. Sure the world still needed saving, but at least you had your boys now.

"Tony that's disgusting." Bucky sighed, leaning back into the couch.

"I'm just asking a question." He defended himself. "No need to scream at me."

"You're lucky Y/n doesn't throw you across the room." Natasha laughed.

"I'm tempted to, Stark. It's too early for these questions." You groaned, pouring yourself a large coffee.

"It's a simple question. Can you have sex in diamond form?" Tony asked again.

"Can I throw him against the wall? Just once?" You begged Steve.

"Let her do it, Steve," Bucky said as you sat next to him.

"I'm recording," Clint said, holding up his phone.

"As much as I'm for you using your powers, you can't throw Tony into a wall," Steve told you, causing you and Bucky to groan.

"Spoilsport." You said, leaning into Bucky's side.

"Mail call," Wanda announced, entering with a handful of letters and Vision carrying some boxes. "Here, Y/N," Wanda said, passing you a letter.

"Thanks, Wand." You smiled, placing your cup down to take the letter. Opening the letter you felt your blood turn to ice.

"Something wrong, doll?" Steve asked, regarding you in concern.

"It's from the Brotherhood." You said, reading the letter carefully.

"What like traveling pants?" Tony asked, opening his package.

"No, the Brotherhood is a mutant terrorist group." You told him. "They want to kill all humans."

"Oh, well that's not good," Tony said before yelping as Natasha hit the back of his head.

"There's a war coming." You swallowed harshly. "They plan to eradicate humans as well as any mutant, not on their side. They want me to fight with them."

"Is there an address?" Bucky asked, taking the envelope.

"Of course not." You scoffed, throwing the letter on the table. "Gods it's too early for this shit." You sighed, chugging the rest of your coffee.

"What are you going to do?" Natasha asked you.

"I'm going to make a call. Warn Logan and the rest of the X-Men, and I'm going to stay out of this." You told her. "Most mutants already think I picked a side when I chose to join the Avengers. I'm not exactly welcomed by most mutants with open arms."

An hour later you were back in the room you shared with Steve and Bucky, letter in one hand, phone in the other.

"Logan, please just be careful." You begged, running a hand through your hair. "These guys aren't playing around."

"I promise I will take this seriously," Logan assured you. "As long as you take care of yourself."

"I will. Let me know if you guys need help." You said before hanging up.

"Doll, are you okay?" Bucky asked, sitting behind you.

"You're worried about the letter aren't you?" Steve followed up.

"Not so much the letter." You said, moving into your boy's arms. "Just, worried about what the Brotherhood's going to start. Mutants are already hated. You remember how hard they tried to arrest me after New York and I helped save the city. It's taken years but we're finally, for the most part, somewhat accepted. If they start a war, we could all have to go back into hiding. I don't want to go back into hiding."

"Doll, we promise, if the Brotherhood starts anything we won't let anyone come after you. We won't let anyone take you and we won't let you go into hiding." Steve said, pressing a kiss to your forehead.

"And if worst-case scenario, you have to go into hiding we'll be right with you," Bucky promised, squeezing your hand.

"I can't ask you to do that." You shook your head.

"You're not asking. And we're not taking no for an answer." Steve said.

"We're in this until the end of the line," Bucky told you, pressing a kiss to your neck.

"Until the end of the line." You repeated with a smile.

It had been three weeks since the first letter. In that period you had received twelve more letters, each increasing in threat. The first few were offers for you to join and as you continued to ignore them they were no longer offers.

They were threats. Threats to your friends, your family, your boys, and to yourself.

There was no way to track where these letters were coming from, and there was no way to find them.

"I'll be fine you two. And I won't be alone, Kitty's coming with me." You said to Steve and Bucky as you pulled on your heels.

"And we trust Kitty, we like Kitty, but are you both sure going out is a good idea?" Steve asked.

"It is the middle of the day, we're going to a restaurant and we're both powerful mutants. Nothing's going to happen." You assured him.

"We could trail you if you want. Keep our distance, keep you safe." Bucky offered.

"A thoughtful gesture, but it's a no from me." You said, kissing his cheek. "I've been cooped up in this tower for weeks, and I've had enough. I won't even be two blocks away." You laughed, sitting on the brunette's lap.

"Okay doll. We know we're being a little overbearing. We just worry." Steve said, putting his hand on your knee and squeezing it.

"You shouldn't worry so much, you're going to get wrinkles." You teased him, poking your index finger between his eyes.

"Yeah, you old man. You're going to start looking like a prune." Bucky teased the blonde.

"You're older than me." Steve pointed out.

"Well, I think you both look great." You said, kissing Bucky and then leaning over to kiss Steve.

"Are you sure you have to go out?" Bucky asked once you and Steve pulled apart.

"Yep." You said, jumping off his lap. "In fact, Kitty's on her way up now." You added, grabbing your bag.

Tease, Bucky thought.

"I heard that, Buck." You smiled, walking back over to the two.

"You were supposed to," Bucky said, standing to embrace you. "Just be careful, for us." He begged.

"Always." You promised as Steve pulled you into his arms.

"Y/N are you ready?" Kitty asked as the elevator doors dinged. "Don't make me come in there."

"Keep your pants on." You called back. "I'll be back soon. I love you." You told the two.

"Love you too, sweetheart." They responded in unison.

"We should get dessert," Kitty said, skipping beside you.

"And pump you full of sugar, no way. Logan will kill me if I send you back hyper." You laughed.

"Logan wouldn't kill you, you're like his kid." Kitty waved you off. "I know this fantastic ice cream place. It's right around the corner."

"Fine but if you piss off Logan, let it be known I was against this." You said, causing her to giggle.

Kitty took your hand and began to lead you down the street. The two of you were deep in conversation and you almost didn't notice as she led you down an alley.

"Kitty, what are you doing?" You asked the woman, yanking your hand out of hers. Focusing on Kitty's brain signals you reached into her head. It was strange, it was as if there was a low humming coming from her mind.

"Kitty's a bit checked out right now." A familiar voice said from behind you. Instantly you spun around and shifted into your diamond form.

"Jean, I see you've changed sides." You commented, narrowing your eyes at her figure.

"I wouldn't exactly put it like that." She said, walking towards you.

"Do you prefer the term traitorous bitch then?" You asked her, eyes darting between her and Kitty.

"It doesn't have to be like this Y/N." Jean sighed. "We could do great things with you on our side."

"You want to kill half the world's population. You want to use me to do that and you've fucked with my friend's brain. Sorry Jean, but it's a no from me." You told her, discreetly reaching for your phone and pressing the button Tony had installed.

"It wasn't really a question, Y/N. It just would have been better if you said yes." She sighed. "Sabertooth." She called. Within seconds the alleyway darkened and Sabertooth stood before you.

The brooding hulk of a man launched forward with his hands outstretched. You dodged his grip and picked up a dumpster before hurling it at him.

You were putting up a decent fight until you felt a hand grip your shoulder and you sunk into the ground.

A startled gasp left your mouth as you were sucked halfway into the Earth. Looking up you noticed more people had joined the four of you in the alley.

"I take it you're Sebastian Shaw." You said, attempting to free yourself.

"And you're Y/N L/N. I'm sorry it's taken us this long to meet, but we'll have plenty of time to be acquainted." He said as Kitty and Sabertooth freed you. "You can drop your diamond form any time you wish."

"And free me to have my head fucked with by that traitorous bitch? Fuck off." You rejected him.

"We'll see how long that lasts," Sebastian smirked.

Non-Reader POV

The tower had become quiet after Y/N left. The world didn't need saving and it seemed even petty villains were taking the day off.

Everyone was lounging around the common floor and just enjoying their time off.

Until a loud, blaring, siren began to repeatedly ring.

"What is that Stark?" Clint yelled over the noise, turning down his hearing aids.

"That's what happens when you press the button on your phones," Tony yelled back. "J.A.R.V.I.S. who's distress signal is that?"

"The signal is coming from Miss L/N's phone," J.A.R.V.I.S. responded, turning off the alarm.

"What's happening to Y/N?" Bucky demanded.

"J.A.R.V.I.S locate Y/N's signal and hack into any security cameras in the area," Tony ordered. J.A.R.V.I.S. took a second before he brought up a grainy security feed on the T.V.

"Is this live?" Steve demanded, jumping to his feet.

"Yes, Captain Rogers," J.A.R.V.I.S. responded.

"Send the location to my phone," Steve said as he and Bucky made to leave the room.

"It's a bit late for that," Natasha said before they could leave the room. Steve and Bucky turned around in time to see a red man appear on the screen before disappearing. Along with everyone.

Along with Y/N.

"Fuck," Bucky growled, punching his metal hand through the wall. Before he could destroy any more property Steve took his hands in his.

"Tony, is there any way you can track them?" Steve asked without turning back to the billionaire.

"I can't," Tony admitted, shaking his head. "I'm sorry."

"You can't, but I can," Natasha said, pulling out her phone. "Logan, this is Natasha Romanoff. We need your help."

"I'm trying! This isn't easy!" Rouge snapped at Tony who raised his hands and backed away.

"Alright everyone, let's just take a ten-minute break. Everyone is too stressed." Storm said. "Bobby please take our guests to the kitchen and Rouge breath."

It had been two weeks since Y/N and Kitty had been taken. There had been no contact from the brotherhood and no-one even knew if they were alive.

The Avengers combined with the X-Men had been working as hard as they could to track down their missing friends but after two weeks of zero results, everyone was beginning to lose it.

"We're sorry about Tony," Steve said as he and Bucky walked with Storm.

"We know he can be a lot on a good day." Bucky apologized.

"Trust me, I understand large egos. I live in a house of mutants who all believe their powers are superior to each other." Storm laughed. "At least we're making progress."

"If you count progress as not finding anyone but finding out where they're not, then yeah. I suppose we're making progress." Bucky said.

"Progress is progress." Storm shrugged.

"Storm," Logan said, rounding the corner. "Where'd Rouge go?"

"She mumbled something about needing a smoke." Storm told him. "A habit she picked up from you, I assume."

"As long as she leaves mine alone, I don't care what she does." Logan shrugged, moving past them to find the girl.

"I apologize for Logan. He's not taking Kitty or Y/N's kidnapping well." Storm said as they continued walking. "Or Jean's defection."

"I wouldn't think he'd take it any other way," Steve assured her. "From what we understand they were very close."

"Close is one way to describe them." Storm chuckled. "Logan might as well be her father. He's the one who found her after all."

"Y/N never mentioned that," Bucky said, furrowing his brow.

"That sounds like Y/N. She never did like talking about how she joined us."

"Could you tell us exactly how Y/N came here?" Steve asked the woman.

"I wasn't here when Logan brought Y/N back, but from my understanding, he found her in the forest. She was five and her parents had left her to die in that forest." Storm explained.

"If I ever find those fuckers, I'm going to stick my claws in their head," Logan said, appearing behind them. "Rouge wants everyone back." He added before walking off.

"He's very blunt." Storm laughed. "You're lucky he likes you two."

Reader POV

A week after being taken.

"You're killing yourself, Y/N." Jean sighed, entering your cell.

"Like you fucking care, Jean." You scoffed, refusing to face the woman. "You're the reason I'm here."

"I don't have to be the reason you die." She said, stepping towards you. "Drop your diamond form Y/N. Your stubbornness is going to be the death of you."

"You and I both know, this isn't going to kill me. I don't have to eat, sleep, drink, or breathe in this form. I'm unbreakable and you can't read my mind." You said, finally turning to face the redhead.

"You're not unbreakable, no-one is." Jean rolled her eyes.

"I am unbreakable." You insisted. "And there's nothing you or your little friends can do about that."

"We'll see about that," Jean said, spinning around and slamming the door behind her.

You waited a minute before you turned back to the barred window and resumed your attempts of freedom.

You'd get out of here. And you'd save all those Jean and the Brotherhood had trapped inside their heads.

Two weeks.

"Normally, I would like to say I am a rational man. A man who follows his beliefs to a T, but you are really testing my patience." Shaw said, pacing in front of your still diamond form.

You had been the Brotherhood's prisoner for two weeks. You had attempted escape three times, only to be thwarted at every turn. The Brotherhood may have thought breaking you would be easy, but you got your stubbornness from Logan Howlett.

It had been two weeks of you being trapped in your diamond form. You hadn't slept, hadn't eaten, hadn't done anything except attempt to escape and deny your kidnapper's requests.

You knew if you were to drop your diamond form at any point, Jean would play with your head as she had done Kitty's and so many others.

"I've been known to do so." You murmured, eyes closed as you attempted to meditate.

"This isn't funny anymore," Shaw growled, storming forward and grabbing you by the throat. He pulled you from the ground and held you off the floor.

"It wasn't funny to begin with." You said not even struggling against his grip. "Face it, Shaw, you wanted power by using me but you underestimated how powerful I am." You mocked him.

"I will give you one last chance to join us on your own terms," Shaw said, looking you dead in the eyes.

"Are we done here? Because I'm done hearing that sentence every day." You rolled your eyes.

"After today you won't hear it again." He said, throwing your body across the room. "Sabertooth." He called.

Within a second the large mutant filled the doorway and darkened the cell.

"It's time," Shaw said, stepping aside for Sabertooth to enter. Sabertooth lumbered towards you and raised you from the ground.

You struggled fiercely against the hairy man's grasp but he merely tightened his hold as he followed Shaw down the hall.

"You see, Miss L/N, I am usually against harming one of our kind. But this is for the good of our kind, so I think my conscience will be fine." Shaw said, opening a series of doors.

"Oh good for you." You groaned, still struggling.

"I've been doing some research. Your diamond form is fascinating. Fourteen days without rest or nutrition? It's impressive." He commented. "You're nearly unbreakable."

"I am unbreakable, but it's sweet you find me so interesting." You rolled your eyes.

"Diamonds can be broken." Shaw continued as if uninterrupted. "It just takes a lot of pressure. For you, it takes a lot more pressure." He told you, opening a door to reveal what looked like an operating theater.

"Oh fuck." You whispered, struggling harder than before. If you been in your normal form, Sabertooth would have crushed your organs. "You fucking let me go you piece of mutated shit!" You yelled.

"I did a lot of research for this experiment, Y/N, I'd thank you to participate," Sebastian smirked.

Despite your struggles and attempts at escape, Sabertooth managed to strap you down to the medical bed.

"The straps are made from vibranium, even your boyfriends wouldn't be able to get out of it." He told you. "And this," He said, pressing a button causing a drill to lower above your prone body. "Is the strongest diamond drill known to man."

"It's not going to work, Shaw." You snapped at him. "You're going to lose."

"With you on my side, I think I'm going to win." He grinned, pressing another button causing the drill to turn on and continue to lower.

Directly above your heart.

"You have a choice here. Join us and I will turn the drill off, sparing either of us the knowledge as to whether it will work. Or, you can continue to fight and we'll see if you die or turn back. The choice is yours."

"Go fuck yourself." You growled, unable to move an inch of your body. You did not notice how quickly the drill had lowered until it was piercing your diamond form.

A shrill scream left your throat as the drill punctured your diamond form. You could feel and hear, the rest of your body beginning to crack as the drill continued to lower.

The sound of the door being thrown off its hinges attracted your attention but you couldn't see past the drill.

You could hear Shaw yelling in fear and pain, Sabertooth growling and your name being screamed.

The drill turned off as you felt your diamond form begin to falter. The pain began to set in and you began to dry sob as the drill was raised.

"I got you, doll." A voice near your ear said as your straps loosened. "I got you," Steve repeated as you looked up.

"Steve." You gasped as you tried to sit up. A yelp escaped you as you attempted to move.

"Lay down, doll," Steve pushed you back. "It's okay, I'm here. Buck's here, Logan's here. We're going to get you out."

"I can't move." You gasped. "I can't shift back, I can feel the damage." You winced.

"It's fine we're going to deal with this. Buck!" Steve called, cutting the rest of your straps. "She's breaking and can't shift back."

"My heart hurts." You whimpered, looking up at the brunette.

"That's okay, doll. We're going to get Banner to set up the medical on the jet. We're going to get you out." He promised you, pressing a kiss to your cold forehead. "Can you carry her and throw that thing?" He asked Steve.

"I'll carry her." Logan cut in, sheathing his claws. "Sorry, kid." He said, gently lifting you causing you to cry out.

"Did you find Kitty?" You whispered to Logan as the four of you ran towards an exit.

"We got her kid. She's okay." Logan told you, causing you to sigh happily.

The four of you made it back to the jet with no incidents and you saw both your families waiting for you all.

Hank and Bruce had set up a medical area and were waiting for the four of you.

Logan gently laid you down on the table they set down and you winced as you heard your skin crack once more.

"Christ Y/N." Hank cursed, assessing the damage. "You need to shift back if you want to heal these cracks." He told you.

"I can't." You shook your head. "They had a diamond drill. Drilled into my heart. It went through." You gasped.

Bruce and Hank began to discuss ways they fix the damage without killing you.

“You need to stay in this form until we get back to the tower.” Bruce told you. “We’re going to have Cho set up the cradle and when we get back you have to drop your diamond form, okay?”

“Okay.” You nodded. Bruce and Hank stepped aside and Steve and Bucky took their places, each taking one of your hands.

“Hey, doll.” Bucky smiled, pressing hips lips to yours.

“Hi, Buck.” You smiled weakly. “You look tired.”

“That’s rich coming from you.” He smiled at you gently.

“You’re not wrong. I feel like absolute shit.” You groaned.

“That’s alright. We’ll take care of you when we get back. You’re not leaving the bed for a couple of weeks.” Steve smiled, kissing your hand.

“Sounds fun.” You smirked.

“That’s not going to happen for a while.” Steve shook his head as Bucky chuckled.

The jet landed back at the tower what felt like minutes later. Helen and her team pushed their way onto the jet and began to roll the table off the jet.

“Y/N we need you to drop this form.” Helen said as you were rushed to the infirmary. Weakly you gave the woman a nod and with more effort than normal you dropped your diamond form for the first time in two weeks.

A strangled gasp escaped your lips as the pain to your normal self set in. The last thing you remembered before you lost consciousness was the table moving faster and Helen began to bark orders.

“Hey kid.” Logan greeted, entering your room.

“Hey Logan.” You smiled, sitting up in the bed, not disturbing a sleeping Steve next to you.

“Want me to come back later?” He asked, gesturing to Steve and Bucky who were curled around you.

“No you’re fine. These two sleep like the dead.” You told him as he sat in the chair next to the bed. “I missed you Logan.” You said, taking his hand.

“I missed you too, kid. I thought we lost you for a minute there.” He admitted.

“You can’t get rid of me that easily. I’m your kid.” You laughed.

“How’s the heart?” He asked, pointing a finger in your hearts area. “Gonna give you any grief?”

“No, cradle fixed most of it. Healing factor will do the rest.” You told him.

“You scared me kid.” Logan told you. “I thought you were going to die for a minute there. You’re like my kid, don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“You won’t have to think about that for a while, Logan. I’m not going anywhere.” You smiled, squeezing his hand. “I’ll always be here.”

“I’m proud of you, Y/N. You’ve always made good choices. You’ve saved the world a couple times and you picked some good partners.” He chuckled, gesturing to the sleeping men. “You’ve grown so much since I found you in that forest.”

“You’ve changed too, Logan. You’ve done some good things too.” You told him.

“Best I ever did was raise you.” He said. “I love you kid.”

“I love you too, dad.” You told him, causing the man to smile wider than you’d ever seen.

Sitting in that hospital bed, you had never been happier. You had your boys with you, you had your father and you had your family in this tower. You were alive and that’s all that you needed.

Taglist

@rvgrsbrns @smilexcaptainx @hopingforbarnes @starlingelliot @piper-koko-barnes-rogers @jelly-fishy-babie @skeletoresinthebasement @agent-barnes40 @reann-loves-sebstan @skadikh

Coming soon

Dean x reader x Cas

Bucky x reader x Natasha

Meg x reader x Cas

Wanda x reader x Vision

Steve x reader x Bucky x Peggy

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steves-on-a-plane · 3 years

Text

Festive Sweater

For @thefanficfaerie‘s OTP Challenge (2020) Words: 583 Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader Prompt: Winter Wonderland: Day 5 - Festive Sweater Summary: Reader is shopping online for Ugly Sweaters when Steve expresses his opposing opinion of them. When he suggests that he’d prefer a normal cardigan, Reader gets a mischievous idea.

“I have to admit, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind when you said you wanted to buy new Christmas sweaters.” Steve said, handing your iPad back to you. The two of you were sat up in bed and you’d been looking at ugly sweater designs for the past half hour. “I’m still not entirely sure understand why someone would want an ugly sweater.”

“Well it started in the eighties when people in movies and TV Shows just always seemed to be wearing the worst sweaters and at some point in the early 2000s someone had the idea to throw an ugly sweater party. People were tasked to find or make the ugliest sweaters they could. Usually, the host would give out a prize to the worse ones. Now that brands have gotten in on the trend it’s more of a blanket term for sweaters with non-traditional designs. Like this one.”

You handed Steve the Tablet back and showed him a knit sweater with a giant yellow Avenger’s “A” on the chest. The rest of the sweater was a repeating pattern of each Avenger’s symbol. There was a row that alternated between Steve’s shield, Thor’s hammer, and Natasha’s hourglass. The next row was the Hulk’s first, Tony’s helmet and a purple bow and arrow for clint.

“What was that phrase Peter taught me last week? Right!” He snapped his fingers excitedly as he remembered. “Thanks! I hate it.” He laughed at his own joke. “But seriously, I just want normal sweaters. IS that too much to ask? You know a thick cable knit or maybe a nice cardigan.”

“A cardigan!” You had a sudden idea. “Let me see that!” You motioned for the iPad which Steve handed over willingly. You excitedly typed in the search bar for what you were looking for. With. A mischievous grin you found the perfect item in Steve’s size and added it to your shopping cart. “I can’t believe I never thought of this before.” You mumbled as you finalized your order.

“What’s got you so excited?” Steve asked.

“It’s better if I show you.” You promised. You picked up the remote for your smart TV and opened up YouTube. “When I was a kid there was this show on PBS called Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.” You pressed play and let Steve watch the two-minute intro to the show. “He was the nicest, sweetest most genuine…You would have loved him. He really believed in the importance of educating kids. Not just with English or Math. He wanted to teach kids to be better people. Each episode of his show covered life lessons like equality or the importance of just being yourself and he always did it in a calm trusting voice.”

“He sounds like a great guy.” Steve said.

“I could go off about him.” You laughed. “But my point is, at the start of every episode he changed from his jacket to his cardigan and from loafers to sneakers and then he’d change back at the end of the episode. When I was a kid I always thought his zip up cardigans were neat. I wanted one so bad and now that I have a real-life Mr. Rogers, you need a zip up cardigan.”

“I’ll try my best to live up to the name.” Steve vowed.

“You just have to try your best to be you, Honey. I like you just the way you are and I love you.” You promised before leaning over to kiss him.

#Steve Rogers #Steve Rogers x Reader #Steve Rogers Reader Insert #Steve Rogers Fan Fiction #Steve Rogers Fan Fic #Steve Rogers FF #OTP Challenge #OTP Challenge 2020 #Winter Wonderland #Winter Wonderland 2020 #Christmas

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not-close-to-straight · 4 years

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Lost and Found (Seven)

Soooo this Chapter only did like, one of the things it was supposed to and everything else just sort of happened and I got tired of arguing with it to make it behave so here, have a Chapter Seven that is only slightly like the one I outlined.

I made myself cry with this first part, so Tissue Warning!

MASTERLIST HERE

****************

37%

“JARVIS?”

“The constant tests you’ve been running with the new suit have taken a toll, sir. My original algorithm assumed you would be resting more days than not, as one should when faced with the possibly of an upcoming expiration date but with your continued activity, my projections have been rendered obsolete.”

“Okay.” Tony squeezed at the blood toxicity monitor until the casing edges cut into his palm. “Newest estimations?”

“Given your rate of use with the reactor and the new, more powerful prototype, my previous count of three months with minimal usage will need to be dialed back to little more than eight weeks, sir.”

“Okay.” He said again, almost neutrally as if he wasn’t discussing an expiration date with his AI. “Okay, little more than eight weeks. So all the tests I ran in the War Machine prototype over the last few days cost me what, seven days?”

“Eleven days, actually.”

“Okay.” Tony said a third time, mostly because he didn’t know what else to say. “That's-- thanks, J.”

The tests were necessary, they really were. Coding Rhodey’s suit ahead of time was important because Tony was running out of time. The Senate was definitely going to order him to turn over the tech, and even if they didn’t, the suits would definitely be confiscated by the Department of Defense at some point whether Tony was around or not. The least he could do was make sure armor could only be used by one man, that the technology inside was coded to the one person Tony knew wouldn’t make a mockery or a weapon out of what was supposed to be a shield.

Right after Obadiah, Rhodey had been so purposefully casually about eyeballing the still unfinished silver suit and commenting, “You should come up with a name for your tech, Tony. Calling it ‘the suit’ doesn’t seem like enough. I’d call it...War Machine or something.”

War Machine and Tony had etched the name in tiny letters along the jawline of the helmet so when Rhodey suited up for the first time, he’d hopefully remember that throw away comment and laugh a little bit.

War Machine and it was fine tuned to the point of near impossible maneuvers, filled to the brim with every prototype weapon Tony had designed for his own suit and a few more that were meant for something a little more hulking, a little more heavy duty. An individual arc reactor placed within the molded chest would power the suit for ever with the added benefit of not poisoning the wearer and--

--and Tony’s hands shook when he unscrewed the cap on a green smoothie.

37%.

“How is the uh--” the first drink was always brutal, and Tony had to put his head down and suck in a deep breath to get over the taste. “--how is the suitcase suit coming? We need a better name for that, don’t we?”

“Perhaps we can call it a football, sir.”

“Right.” Tony nodded a few times. “Carry it in a briefcase just like all the nuke launch codes. That will definitely reinforce the Senate’s thought of my suit being a weapon of mass destruction. Great idea.”

“Your mockery wounds me.”

“No, I was serious.” Tony laughed up at the petulant AI. “We’ll call it a football. Make Happy practice playing catch with it. Uhhhh okay. Football. How is it coming?”

“Nearly completed.”

“Good. I need an option beyond hauling the full suit everywhere, and so will Rhodey. Have we started construction on the individual gauntlets yet? I’m thinking something that comes out of my watch.”

“It will have to be near nano technology to accomplish that, but we can try.”

“Let’s try. I’d like the football ready before Monaco, I need to take it for a test drive somewhere outside of Dum-E’s fire extinguisher range.” Tony glanced over at the impressive dent in the lab ceiling that had been one of his very first test runs. “Also some place where if the repulsors come online too soon, I can hit the atmosphere and not the ceiling.”

“Of course sir. Hurtling off into unknown and uncharted space would always be the preferred option before bouncing off support beams and landing on priceless car collections.”

“You know me too well, J.” Tony leaned back in the chair and blew out a deep breath. “Show me the night sky. Stars above Manhattan, maybe. What I’d be looking at if I actually had the time to build that tower.”

“Does this mean you’ve decided to scrap the plans for Stark Tower?” The space above Tony’s head lit holographic blue then settled into a starry night, the correct constellations and moon placement for the Manhattan sky projected against the ceiling.

“I won’t have a chance to even get the blueprints approved.” Tony stared up at the stars, sipping idly from his smoothie. “No sense doing that when I won’t be around to see the ground breaking ceremony.”

“Sir, if I may--”

“Maybe blasting off into the atmosphere wouldn’t be such a bad way to go.” Tony interrupted. “I’ve always wanted to see space, maybe I’ll get lucky and the new suit will tear a hole in the sky and show me what’s beyond, what’s waiting out there.”

And softer, “It’d be a good way to go, don’t you think? Space?”

The artificial star light reflected off the tears gathering in Tony’s eyes and he tried to blink them away. “Would be nice to skip the poisoning and the hospice care and the heart failure and everyone crying, you know. Higher, faster, further like our friend Carol used to say. She did it, she just went right up there into the sky higher, faster further and she never came back down again. Fuckin’ wild.”

Another sip. “My repulsors are better than the prototype light speed engine was, a little bit of torque and we could break the sound barrier ten times over and then some. I could take the suit up until the thrusters give out and then we could just float up there in the stars. Fall asleep and drift away.”

JARVIS was quiet and Tony put a heart to his chest as it squeezed around a too choppy breath. “Would be nice to just fall asleep, J. It’d be nice to finally get some rest.”

The stars above Manhattan moved too slowly to notice, but Tony sat and watched them anyway, alone in the semi dark lab for close to an hour before his watch pinged that it was time to get on the plane towards New York.

“Save this for me.” Tony reached out and touched one of the tiny specks of lights, his fingers passing through the hologram. “Save it so I can look at it again, okay?”

“Of course, sir.”

“Thank you.” Tony gathered up a few things for his pockets then ran a hand through his hair and grimaced. If he was going to go on what was sort of a first date with an amnesiac former soldier, he should probably wash some of the depression off first. “I’m off to the Expo, J. Wish me luck.”

“Good luck.” JARVIS said automatically, and then, “Please come home again, sir. I wish you all the rest in the world, but I’d rather it be here than drifting off in the stars.”

Tony’s smile up at the ceiling was wobbly and a little sad.

“Good night, J.”

**************

The Stark jet cut the nearly five hour flight from Malibu to New York down to little more than two hours, and Tony spent most of it sitting next to Pepper going through notes for his speech, additional paperwork for the company and what looked like several minutes of nothing but Tony teasing the formidable redhead and Pepper giving it all right back and then some if Tony’s faux wounded expressions were anything to go by.

They were laughing and a few times Tony reached to hold Pepper’s hand, winding their fingers together and kissing her knuckles while Pepper just rolled her eyes at whatever he said. They were clearly best friends, clearly in sync after what James had found out was over a decade of working together and it was honestly remarkable to see.

More than once Tony finished Pepper's sentences, at least twice she took a bite of her food and then handed him the fork to take a bite of his own. Tony reached to touch the reactor beneath his shirt and Pepper brushed his hands away, she fiddled with the top button of her suit and Tony suggested showing more cleavage if she didn't like being so buttoned up and Pepper only sighed.

A very very quiet part of the soldier felt a twinge of jealousy whenever Pepper would get a full laugh out of Tony, but he pushed it away every time. Jealousy over such a close friendship was ridiculous and unnecessary and the sort of thing that made James's throat taste bitter. He didn't remember past relationships, didn't know if he'd ever been in love but he remembered being jealous when other people could be open with their love and their desires and he had to hide.

Why he had hid, James wasn't really sure. But he remembered the jealousy twisting his stomach and the unfairness of it all making his chest too tight and he didn't want to feel that way ever when he looked at Tony and Pepper.

So James pushed it away and looked out the window instead, watched the clouds race by beneath the jet as it tore through the sky towards New York and when Tony finally finished up with Pepper and came to sit in the chair across from him, James looked up with a ready smile.

“Hey. All done working?”

“At least for right now. Plane rides are supposed to be relaxing, not about crunching numbers or ignoring the person I'm set to spend the evening with.” Tony stretched out in the chair and loosened his tie as he looked James over, lingering over the stretch of the red sweater over James's frankly ridiculous shoulders. Wow. “You--” seriously, wow. “-- you look great.”

“Duds this nice will make any fella look great.” James's heart flip flopped a little when Tony kept looking, and he touched at his empty left sleeve self consciously. “Sure was nice of the store people to send over one of those fancy pins for this side. I just cut the sleeves off all my other shirts.”

“You'll be two thumbs up in no time, so please don't hack at your new clothes.” Tony nudged his foot against James. “You'll need both sleeves eventually.”

James grinned and slid his foot further alongside Tony's shoe. “Sure thing, Tony.”

“You know,” Tony cocked his head and tried to pretend like playing footsy wasn't making him blush. He was over forty years old, damn it. “When you're relaxed you sound like you're from New York but like, New York from the movies. Saturday Night Fever, Bronx Tale, West Side Story. That style.”

“Oh yeah?” James raised his eyebrows. “What does that mean?”

“It means--” Tony started to say something about smooth accents and flirty one-liners, about pretty boys with greasy hair and leather jackets and slick dance moves, but changed his mind because it was a little embarrassing to admit his short lived musical obsession had basically shaped his wet dreams for a good five years.

“It means you sort of sound old fashioned. Not in uh-- not in a bad way. My Auntie Peggy was around in the forties and whenever she tells war stories she copies how the boys talked back then and you remind me of it a little bit.”

James still looked confused and Tony waved him off with a self conscious laugh. “Never mind. It doesn't matter. Ignore all that and focus on not cutting up your sweater, yeah? I like the red on you.”

“That's why I picked it out.” James answered honestly, and Tony's dark eyes sparked in interest. “Knew you liked the red and figured if you were gonna dress up, maybe I should dress up a little too?”

“I don't know if I'm necessarily dressed up.” Tony picked at the hem of his suit jacket. “The monkey suit is standard outfit for CEO's of multi billion dollar--”

“Former CEO, darling!” Pepper called and Tony grinned, “ --former CEO's of multi billion dollar companies. I wouldn't be wearing this at all if I thought Pep would let me wear my sneakers and ACDC shirt. Only upside of this thing is that I can spill cotton candy on my shirt all day and then button the jacket and no one would know any better.”

“Cotton candy?” Oh James remembered that, he knew he did. Overly sweet and pastel colored, sugar-grit teeth and sticky fingers. Eating a big piece of it and then passing some over to St—to St--

--migraine. Instant and blinding--

--passing it over to someone who would get sick after eating only a few bites, so James would toss it in the trash and pretend to have a stomach ache too so they wouldn't feel bad.

Shit his head hurt, but James got a glimpse of dark blue eyes and a stubborn smile before the memory faded away to nothing, and when he opened his eyes again Tony was watching him closely.

“Where'd you go?” Tony asked quietly, and James whispered just as quietly, “I don't... don't really know. You said cotton candy and I got a flash of something... I dunno.”

“Things are coming back to you?”

“I'm not sure.” James leaned forward in the seat and pushed his hand into his hair, groaning under his breath as the migraine throbbed at his temples. “Just bits and pieces is all.”

“Makes sense.” Tony reached to touch James's shoulder but stopped himself at the last second. “I mean, you getting flashes of memories right now. I'm not exactly stable but this is probably the most stable you've been in a while?”

“At least a year.”

��Right.” Again, Tony reached out to try and touch and comfort, and again he let his hand drop away. James hadn't wanted to be touched right away the last time he'd had a hard time, he probably didn't want it now. “Repressed memories have a nasty habit of showing up right when we think we're moving on, life gets low stress and suddenly our dreams get stressful. It happens.”

“Yeah? You real familiar with it?” James tried to slow his breathing down, purposefully inhaling and then forcefully exhaling until the extra oxygen erased the sparks behind his eyes. “Why's that?”

“I'm the king of repressing--”

“Christ, my head hurts. Tony, will you c'mere and sit by me?”

“--memories.” Tony waved at one of the stewardesses and tapped at his own temple so she would bring him some headache medication, then slid out of his own seat and into the one next to James, rotating so their knees touched. “Better?”

“Thank you.” James's fingers tightened in his hair. “Why are you the king of repressing memories?”

“A whole list of reasons that would only make your headache worse.” Tony hesitated, hesitated, hesitated, then finally tried to untangle James's fingers, loosening the digits one by one until James relented and relaxed, clasping Tony's hand warm in his own. “...better?”

“Thank you.” James said again, instantly feeling better now that he was holding tight to Tony instead of pulling at his own hair, the migraine easing as he quit chasing the thought about cotton candy and forced himself back to the moment. “Sorry. Trying to force the memories--”

“--gives you a headache.” Tony finished and James smiled the tiniest bit cos Tony was completing his sentences just like Pepper did. “Yeah been there, done that.”

“Don't wanna ruin tonight by having a headache.” James muttered apologetically. “Sorry, Tony.”

“Tonight hasn't even started.” Tony waved the apology off, squeezed at James's hand and then let go. “Don't worry about it. We'll both have headaches by the time we get through the noise and crowds at the Expo, it's fine.”

“Okay.” James sort of hated that Tony had let go of his hand, but he didn't comment, only smoothed his hair back where it'd come free from the messy bun and cleared his throat. “How far out are we?”

“About an hour.” Tony didn't go back to his own chair, and James nudged at his knee gratefully. “How much news do you watch, James?”

“Um.” James blinked, thrown by the abrupt topic change. “None?”

“None.” Tony repeated. “At all?”

“Don't watch TV unless you're making me watch some god-awful movie.” James admitted and Tony's smile flashed quick and pleased. “Why?”

“I've been on the news a lot lately.” Tony hedged. “Just uh-- just curious if you'd seen anything I needed to explain or apologize for maybe?”

“Apologize?”

“Like if you learned about my weird sunglasses collection or that I eat everything with a three tined fork instead of a four tined like a normal person.” Tony suggested, and James's shoulders shook with quiet laughter. “The press knows a lot about me and you don't really know much about me so...”

He let the sentence trail off, watching closely for anything like recognition on James's face. The downside of a migraine of course, was that it hurt to even breathe. The upside of a migraine was that it was impossible to hide even the smallest reactions when your head felt like it might explode and Tony didn't really want to use it as a way to get a glimpse at James's thoughts, but he did it anyway because he wanted to know.

Truth be told, Tony was starting to wonder just how long he could keep Iron Man quiet from James before it slid from 'need to know basis' towards 'you were lying to me' accusations. If James hadn't figured out that Tony was the same Tony Stark that was also Iron Man, Tony didn't really want to say anything. But if James had figured it out and was just staying quiet for privacy's sake... well Tony didn't want to let it go too long just in case the soldier started to think Tony was leaving him out of things.

So Tony asked again, “Heard anything about me lately?”

“Everything I want to know about you I learn when we're together like this.” James answered, and with a smile that had no business being both shy and almost unbearably hopeful, “And I like all of it so far.”

Tony flushed a surprised pink, and up near the front of the plane, Pepper just rolled her eyes when she caught it.

Idiot boys practically in love.

Sheesh.

***************

“I've had a lot of people ask me where the dancers are this time around.” Tony stood up on stage in front of the thousands of people who had come to the Expo tonight, alone except for the old fashioned microphone he held in one hand. “I know, I know, you were hoping for more explosions, more fireworks, definitely some more bikinis and high kicks, right?”

The crowd tittered in agreement and Tony's mouth ticked up in a quick smile. “Yeah, we all love that, we all love science when it’s accompanied by pretty girls and loud music. Here's the thing about science though. Science isn't always big leap forward in technology, it's not always flashy designs and world changing breakthroughs and Nobel prizes. Most of the time science is quiet.”

Appropriately, Tony paused for a breath and the audience held theirs in anticipation.

“Most of the time science is still.” he said even softer, and the crowd edged forward with wide eyes, sure that this was all just build up to something incredible. “Most of the time science is one little adjustment that somehow changes life as we know it and maybe not even as we know it, but changes life as one person knows it and sometimes, that's enough.”

Tony held up the microphone and the cameras zoomed in on it. “This is the same microphone my Dad used at the World's Fair Expo back in World War II. Well--” another one of those quick smiles. “--it's not exactly the same microphone, but it's an exact working replica with exactly the sort of tech upgrades you would expect from Stark Industries. Why does that matter, though? Why do any of you care about me getting weirdly sentimental about a copy of a microphone my Dad once spit all over?”

The audience laughed again and Tony swallowed past the lump in his throat. “It matters because it's only in looking to the past that we find answers for our future. What were once ground breaking theories are today the building blocks our of standard operations. All the pieces that make up my next generation Stark phone started out in something as simple as this mic right here.”

Tony held up the microphone again. “Seventy years ago, my dad stood on a stage just like this one and bragged about a flying car that only got a few inches off the ground. What he considered a spectacular failure was actually the inspiration for my Stark repulsor engines that will revolutionize the fuel industry and put an end to oil spills and dumps in the most fragile parts of our eco systems.”

“The past teaches us how to move forward, what steps to avoid and which leaps to take and we can't forget that. That's why I re-started the Expo-- learning from looking back before we move forward and that's what science is about.”

A smattering of applause and Tony waited until it died down. “Science isn't always flashy.” He said again. “Most of the time it's quiet. But even the quiet discoveries matter, whether they become something that changes the world later on, or never do anything more significant than what this microphone does right here--”

Tony paused, smiled, “--connects us to people we love.”

The lights dimmed and Tony set the modified microphone down on the stage, pressed a few buttons and stepped away as it split into pieces and assembled itself into something of a tripod. The microphone-turned-robot rotated its speaker to face the audience, a separate projector unhinged from the back and--

--”Hey Ma.” A young soldier clearly somewhere sandy, waving at the audience from the holographic screen the microphone had projected above the crowd. “I hope you're having a good time out there tonight, I love you and I miss you and I'll be home soon.”

“This message is for my brother!” Another soldier head to toe in combat gear, grinning into the camera. “Mr. Stark said he'd get you a ticket to the Expo tonight so I hope you showed up! This message is coming to you from way the fuck over in Sand Dune Country and I love you, but I'm glad you're home safe with my new niece-y instead of slogging through this mess with me. Be home soon!”

The messages kept rolling, and one by one different people in the audience burst into tear and cheers as they saw their deployed loved one up on the screen for a surprise message. It had taken months to coordinate-- sending out Stark phones to the soldiers to submit a video, getting tickets to their family and making sure they had a ride to the Expo and a place to stay-- months to coordinate, and Tony stood back behind the curtain of the stage and listened to them play as he looked down at the picture of him and the soldier in the convoy in Afghanistan.

Despite Tony's only half serious warning to the soldier back then, the picture had been promptly posted on social media and now Tony was grateful for it. Three minutes after the picture had been taken the convoy had been attacked and all those young people-- all those kids had been lost.

“Hey Mom, Dad. Sorry I missed your anniversary but I'll be back for Christmas and will make it up in hugs then!”

Tony closed his phone and cleared his throat as the audience burst into shouts when a local boy from Flushing popped up on the screen with his message. Speech was done, crowd was appropriately wowed and now he had a sort of date with James to get back to.

It wasn’t the time to get maudlin and teary, not tonight.

“Tony.” Pepper looked immensely proud, and Tony tore his eyes away from the almost blinding smile on James's face to accept a kiss from her. “Well done. I really thought you were going to bring out the dancers again, and I'm so glad you didn't.”

“It pains me to admit that no science has been accomplished when booty shorts and high heels were in the general vicinity.” Tony said faux seriously. “The dancers were a necessary sacrifice for the moment.”

“Well I appreciate it.” Pepper chuckled and kissed him one more time. “I have to network since apparently everyone wants to talk to the new CEO--”

“--and I have cotton candy to buy and experiment booths to check out.” Tony finished, cutting Pepper off before she could suggest he go along with her. “Toodle-oo and all that. Have fun.”

The moment Pepper disappeared into the crowd, Tony turned back to James, hands in his pockets and rocking back on his heels as he asked, “So. How did I do? Can I color you impressed?”

“You can color me whatever you want, Tony.” James grinned and Tony barked a surprised laugh at the blatant flirting. “Was a good speech, but I think it’s the first time I’ve ever heard you really talk about your dad. Were you and him close?”

“Not even a little bit.” Tony shook his head, then motioned for James to follow him to the outer paths of the Expo so they could walk the perimeter where it was a little quieter. “He was always busy working and I was always busy being as obnoxious as possible. He and Ma were gone before I was old enough to realize what I was missing out on so--” Tony shrugged like the memory of that last night with his parents still didn't hurt like a knife in his heart. “--anyway. This whole Expo was his idea, he brought it back in the seventies, always wanted to do it again so I thought now was as good a time as any.”

“Huh.” James looked down at where their hands were nearly touching as they walked, wondering if he could just grab Tony's hand and hold it for a little bit, wondering if that was okay outside of either of them having a panic attack.“You said something about a flying car?”

“Back in the forties, my Dad wanted to show off this flying car idea, so he brought it to the Worlds Fair.” Tony flashed a peace sign at a girl when she squealed and pointed at him in excitement. “Howard's always considered it his great embarrassment, to have created something that failed in the public eye but you know-- it's been seventy something years and we still haven't gotten any closer to flying cars? Even his failure was a good century ahead of it's time.”

“Your Dad's name was Howard? Howard Stark?” That sounded familiar in some empty aching way, but James forgot about it when he stopped in front of what looked like an old timey war advertisement for the draft, pictures in black and white of soldiers marching off in neat lines. It made his head hurt the same way memories always did and he blinked at the display a few times. “What's this?”

“Traditionally the World's Fair and Expo were events to drum up that All American spirit.” Tony tapped the vintage posters and mocked one of the old radio voices, “Look at how great our country is doing with these advancements! Look how much money we have to put this show on! Don't you feel patriotic? Don't wait for the draft, real American men sign up willingly for their country!”

“People could sign up for the army right here at the fair.” Ouch that drummed at the back of James's mind, and when he caught a flash of shaggy blonde hair out of the corner of his eye, the drumming got worse. “They did that?”

“All the time.” Tony scoffed like he couldn't believe it. “Just boys too, kids really. Came for the party, left for the cause. Mind boggling. We don't do that here, no way. I'd never ask people to show up for cotton candy and then hope they join the war effort, that's nuts. But they did back in the day and the boys that went off to war-- “

He sighed out loud. “Well you know. They don't always come back whole. So this is a nice reference to days gone by, little bit of nostalgia, a way to remember them I guess. Besides, America's greatest hero signed up for the war effort at one of these things, it would be a shame to just ignore it I think.”

“Huh.” James didn't want another headache like the one he'd had on the plane so he stepped away from the Army display and towards a cotton candy vendor. “Time for sweets?”

“Oh, it is always time for sweets.”

*******************

It was easy to get lost in the Expo, easy and more fun than either man had had in ages wandering from booth to booth and taking the circular paths between the connected sections to sample all the different foods, resting on the grass and beneath the planted trees when their feet got tired, browsing through the vendors shops and trying their hand at any scientific demonstration that took volunteers.

James was fascinated by everything from the wireless electronics to the slime that exploded all over them when he added too much of whatever was in the purple beaker. The soldier laughed until he nearly choked seeing Tony with neon green slime in his perfectly combed hair, and was still laughing when Tony dragged him to a demonstration that had a ball and a fancy light and zapped James with enough electricity to make his scruff stand right up on his chin.

“I love roller coasters!” James announced at one point because somehow he knew that was true but Tony begged off the ride with a hand over his arc reactor an apologetic smile so instead they climbed into one of the rowboats at the man made lake and rowed across it to see all the different water experiments-- artificial plant life that would help sustain life in otherwise barren bodies of water, hybrid fish that grew bigger than their predecessors but took less time to mature for a faster food source, personal purification processes that only needed a mild current to activate the device and provide clean drinking water.

After the lake was a sphere that simulated life on a distant planet and James took one look at it and shook his head, digging his feet in figuratively and literally as Tony tugged at his arm and pleaded, “Don't you want to know what it would be like to live on Mars!?” and retorting, “Tony, m'still trying to figure out Earth!”

A display that required goggles and gloves as scientists replicated the creation of new elements, some that synthesized with nothing more than a quiet hiss, some that exploded loud enough to make James grab Tony and turn around, trying to shield the smaller brunette with his body. Tony laughed at him then, laughed and then checked that James was okay and not triggered by it, laughed and then blushed a little when James's arm lingered at his waist just a second longer than necessary.

“Elements are the building blocks of the universe.” James read on a sign after reluctantly letting Tony go. “So this is what everything is made of.”

“Everything.” Tony confirmed.

“So how do they make new ones?”

“Apparently with a bang.” Tony said wryly and James grinned sheepishly.

“Have you made one in that fancy lab?”

“I've never even tried.” Tony admitted after a minute of thought. “I sort of remember Dad talking about making a new one ages ago, he had designs and diagrams for it but I must have only been eight or nine, I barely remember it. I bet his notes are around somewhere in all the boxes Pepper won't let me throw away.”

“Why haven't you tried?” James looked back at the display when another element went bang! and someone else screamed. “Bet you're smart enough to do it.”

“I'm smart enough.” Tony agreed, wrinkling his nose into a smile when James huffed at him teasingly. “But I've been busy, got all these other projects going on and all of them seem more important than creating new building blocks for the universe. That's like designing a new Lego. It's great and all, but who cares? There’s enough of them out there, why do we need another?”

“Lego.” James repeated. “What--”

“I've got millions of them in storage at Malibu, we'll pull them out one day and I'll show you why I hold the MIT record for fastest recorded time building an entire Death Star model.”

“Half those words don't mean anything to me, Tony.” James admitted, tone just a little clipped in frustration. “Sorry.”

“You don't have to apologize for what you're missing.” Tony waved him off and James pointed out, “Happy said that exact same thing to me.”

“He's said the exact same thing to me many times.” They passed a knife display, and Tony pointed one out to James that was somehow even fancier than the one in the store had been. “Except when I black out drunk, then he yells at me for what I miss. He's right to do it, too. How about that knife? You like that one?”

“Too pretty to kill someone with.” James said bluntly, and when Tony's jaw dropped open in shock, he apologized, “Ah hell, sorry. Dunno why I said that.”

“Christ you're intense.” Tony only laughed though, and pushed James on from the display. “Maybe we don't say things like that in the middle of a crowd. Maybe we just get some more cotton candy.”

“Probably a good idea.” James felt foolish for blurting out the killing thing, foolish and embarrassed as hell but it was so easy to speak his thoughts around Tony, that one had just... slipped out.

Usually James thought about what he wanted to say, turned it over in his mind until he felt like it sounded normal, weighed his words and modulated his tone and then spoke, but he didn't have to do that with Tony. He didn't even have to pretend to be okay around Tony, he could just be James and all the broken pieces and panic attacks and saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and then maybe sometimes saying the wrong thing at the right time cos Tony would smile up at him sort of like he was doing right now--

--oh shit, he hadn't been listening.

“Lost you for a minute.” Tony never said it like he was judging James, only ever like he knew what it was like to get lost in his head and maybe be a little afraid of never finding his way out again. “Where'd you go?”

“Was thinkin' bout ya.” The words slipped out soft and a little lyrical, the voice in James's head that Tony said sounded Brooklyn speaking up enough to be smooth and charming. “How it's um-- how it's so easy to be with you.”

“Yeah, I'm a real catch.” Tony sassed immediately, but his smile was just for James when he continued, “You're easy to be around too. Not what I expected when I invaded your booth at the diner for the sake of awkward conversation and what definitely sounded like a proposition.”

“Were you propositionin' me, sugar?” James asked, low and coaxing and surprising because he hadn't meant to call Tony sugar, hadn't meant to turn the conversation this way but now Tony was staring up at him with stars in his eyes and sort of leaning forward and hell, James didn't remember much of anything at all but he knew what this moment meant so he leaned forward too and--

“Oh Jesus, not right here.” Tony jerked back a step, both hands up and expression going guarded even as he tried to laugh the moment off. “No, um-- no. That's not--”

Shit. “Shit, sorry.” James backed up too, face flaming and heart clenching in his chest. “Sorry, Tony I just thought-- I mean you were lookin' at me like that and I thought you wanted--”

“No, you don't have to say sorry, that's not your fault, I should have--” Tony looked like he was sort of panicking, a hand at his chest and another held up so James wouldn't get closer. “Damn it. This-- this just got really awkward.”

“Tony, I'm sorry.”

“Nope. My fault for making you think--” Tony's throat jerked as he swallowed. Hello insecurities from twenty fives years in the closet. “-- it's fine, James. It's fine. Let's just keep walking. There's still a lot to see and I want you to see it all so let's just--” another hard swallow. “Let's just keep walking.”

“Um. Sure.” James fell back into step next to Tony, and after a minute the brunette started talking again, chattering about whatever they were passing, telling a story about something he and Rhodey did one time or another, and after another few minutes James relaxed enough to even laugh a little at the stories.

But the moment from before was gone, the easy smiles and the quick laughter, the way their hands had brushed once, twice, three times as they wandered the paths.

That moment was gone and James felt it's absence like a slap in the face.

He really couldn't trust his mind could he? Not even in this, not even when he was one hundred percent sure Tony had wanted a kiss.

Couldn't trust his mind even with things that should come natural, cos findin’ a fella and wanting to kiss him-- that should come real natural right?

....Right?

Christ, he was broken.

****************

“Ms. Potts, you asked me to find as much information as possible on James?” Natalie found Pepper out on the balcony of the hotel room, overlooking the lights of the Expo in the adjoining field. “I'm afraid I wasn't able to find much.”

“Alright then.” Pepper was halfway through her first drink of the night, weary lines creased at the corner of her eyes. “Tell me what you found anyway.”

“The diner where Mr. Stark and James met was apparently an every day spot for James.” Natalie rattled off the information she'd learned in short, quick sentences. “Waitresses say he was polite but quiet. He glared at anyone who messed with them so they always let him stay longer than anyone else. They identified the shelter down the block as one where James slept, I spoke to the church folk who run the shelter and they said he was quiet and polite as well. Has no or little memories of anything past a year ago, has never showed any signs of violence or even a temper and they have no idea what happened to his arm beyond knowing he used to be a soldier.”

“Okay well.” Pepper pursed her lips and blew out a breath. “Anyone that would keep waitresses from being harassed and could survive a year in a shelter without losing their temper couldn't be all that bad. Why do you look so worried about him?”

“Not worried.” Natalie smoothed the anxious from her expression. The news about James was so opposite of who she knew 'James' was that it was giving her a headache, but she ignored it to smile at her employer. “Not worried at all, Ms. Potts. Simply wondering if we should add James to the insurance plan if he's going to spend time with Mr. Stark in the lab or even traveling with us.”

“Of course, that's an excellent idea, see that it gets done.”

“Yes, Ms. Potts. Will there be anything else?”

“Have you booked our flights to Monaco?” Pepper poured herself a second drink and picked up her phone to scroll through the dozens of congratulatory emails still rolling in from various shareholders and board members. “Add a seat for James, I think he will most likely be going along with Tony anywhere at this point.”

“Do you think...” Natalie hesitated. “Are they involved?”

“Would that offend you in any way, Natalie?” Pepper arched a graceful eyebrow towards her new assistant. “Because if so, you are welcome to tell me why and then to pack your things and leave immediately because I won't tolerate--”

“Ms. Potts.” Natalie held her hand up and shook her head. “I was simply wondering for reasons of hotel rooms. I am the last person to have any sort of issue with whether or not Mr. Stark prefers his dates as blessed as I am--” a pat at her chest and Pepper snorted a laugh. “--or as blessed as James is.”

Pepper laughed even harder, “Well then, by all means book us four rooms. Two adjoining for you and I, two adjoining for Tony and James. I'm not sure if they will share or not and to be honest, I'd rather not know. I like to think as CEO my days of knowing the status of Tony's bed partners are behind me.”

“Of course, Ms. Potts.” Natalie smiled. “Enjoy the rest of your evening.”

“'You too Natalie, thank you.”

Pepper went back to sipping at her drink and idly reading emails and when the exhaustion of the day finally caught up to her, she turned in for the night. Her calendar was so full these days and she was so tired and oh Lord, the sun would be up in just a few hours and she’d have to start another day all over again...

... ...

...On the other side of the world the sun was coming up, brilliant and beautiful over the skyline of Monaco and at the international airport, it was time for a shift change as the night workers called their goodbyes and switched spots with the early morning crew.

The young man at the counter had only barely clocked in when the doors opened and a line of international passengers flooded the terminals. Checking passports was easy enough so long as the passengers had their papers in order, and he went through two dozen entries before any one passport caught his eye and tripped the computer's marker.

“Oh, this should just take a second to double check, sorry about that Mr.--” he paused when he saw the myriad of tattoos on the man, the bedraggled black and white hair, gold teeth glinting back at him. “Uh, is it Vanko? What um-- what brings you to Monaco?”

“I'm working at the Grand Prix.” came the gravelly answer, a smile that was somehow savage stretching the man's lips. “Hoping to catch up with an old friend.”

“Oh.” the computer okay'ed the passport, so the attendant handed it back quickly. “Well um-- welcome to Monaco. I hope you enjoy your stay.”

“I plan to.”

*****************

SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THE CHAPTER!

*****************

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#ncts fics #winteriron #tony stark #bucky barnes #pepper potts #natasha romanov

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tisfan · 4 years

Text

Title: Genus and Species Collaborator Name: @27dragons & @tisfan Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26030251 Square Filled: Tony Stark Flash Bingo (Aug) - Thanos (both) Starkbucks Bingo - I3: “I got nothing” (27dragons), O4: Time Travel (to the Future) (tisfan) Ship/Main Pairing: Bucky/Tony Rating: G Major Tags & Triggers: None Other Tags: Time Travel, Established Relationship, Dinosaurs, Robots Summary: Tangling with Thanos has landed Bucky and Tony somewhere -- or somewhen -- they don’t know. No, Tony, you can’t bring the dinosaur home and keep it as a pet. Word Count: 1703

For @tonystarkbingo and @starkbucksbingo

When Bucky opened his eyes, all he could see was green in all directions. At first he thought that was just the remainder of the Time Stone’s power. Thanos had done… something. No one quite knew what because the battle had been so confusing; the Power Stone blasting purple rays everywhere, the Space Stone moving people out of position, lord only knew what was happening with the Reality Stone. And then there had been a great, green wave of energy--

“Ug,” said someone nearby. It took Bucky a moment to clear his thoughts enough to identify it: Tony. “I feel like a Pride parade just swallowed me whole and then puked me out.” A pause. “Why are we in a jungle?”

“I got nothing,” Bucky said, rolling over to look at Tony. The Iron Man suit was pretty banged up, souvenirs of the battle. “I think-- I’m not sure. Strange was yelling something about a time vortex. It’s hard to understand him under normal circumstances.” Thanos had zapped Bucky with the Mind Stone at least three times, somehow sensing the Winter Soldier would be easier to control.

Bucky did not appreciate it.

Tony made some kind of noise that was hard to interpret through the suit’s speakers, and then retracted the helmet to look around. “Okay, well, those are deciduous trees, so we haven’t been thrown back more than three hundred million years or so.”

“There are jungles all over the world,” Bucky said, grumbling and getting to his feet. He might only look about thirty-five or so, but there were days he felt all one hundred of his years. Knees. Knees were a thing. Also, poor design. “Any signal?”

Tony made a face and then reformed the helmet. “...Some,” he said. “Nothing I can hook into right away, but there’s something out there.”

“Right, Mulder,” Bucky snarked. “All right, we do this the old fashioned way.” He dug out a set of binoculars and hung them around his neck. “You stay down here, you’re too colorful. Any sniper in the area might want to take a stab at you.” He didn’t necessarily disinclude himself on that list, but the sort of stabbing he had in mind was generally not for polite company. He looked around for a good, tall tree and scrambled up, swinging himself from branch to branch. When he got high enough, he paused, waiting for the wind, so it wouldn’t just be one tree shaking like crazy.

Finally, he breached the canopy and could get a look around.

Jungle.

More freaking bush than he’d seen since Cambodia.

Trees, and trees, and more trees. In the distance, he made out a mountain (also covered in trees) and a break in the trees that was either a road or a river.

Something was moving.

Bucky turned the binocs in that direction. Something big was moving. Trees swayed and crunched. Something really damn big. Bucky could feel the vibrations of its footsteps in the tree he was clinging to.

“Clear,” he yelled, and then just let go. He could handle drops up to fifty feet without too much trouble, and the ground here was soft and springy.

He’d just reached Tony’s side when the something fucking roared. Like a tiger crossed with an elephant and the size of a blue whale.

“That’s a dinosaur,” Bucky said with forced calm. “We should get the heck to shelter, like, yesterday.”

“What kind of dinosaur?” Tony wondered. “Might be an herbivore. That would be cool, actually.”

“May I remind you that the current contenders for biggest, meanest land animals are moose and hippos, and they’re both herbivores,” Bucky said. “Can we do something productive, like finding a cave, or an overhang, before it sees us, and decides we’re lunch?”

“Oh, fine.” Tony tossed a couple of microcameras up onto the trees where they clung like particularly bright insects, then turned in a slow circle. “Infrared suggests some hollow rock in that direction,” he said, pointing. “If there’s not a natural entrance, we can make one.”

Bucky nodded, then took point. It bothered him a little that there wasn’t someone taking up the rear between Tony and whatever was out there, and reminded himself that Tony was an experienced fighter, and he had a suit of armor, which was pretty damn tough.

The whatever it was sped up, moving at them-- Bucky tipped his head to one side while he ran the math. Nearly thirty miles per hour. Bucky picked up the pace a little bit. On flat ground, Bucky could run almost sixty miles per hour, but this was not flat. Nor was it a good plan for him to expend that much energy before they had any idea what they were up against, or if there was much in the way of food in the nearby vicinity.

“Got your cave, ten o’clock,” Bucky said. There was a bit of a clearing and then they could squeeze in, one at a time. “How far back does it--”

Bucky stopped as the -- freaking hell -- dinosaur came crashing out of the jungle, about six meters high and full of teeth.

“That,” he said, firmly, “is a dinosaur. I don’t care what you just said about the deciduous thingies.”

“There were deciduous trees long before there were dinosaurs,” Tony said distractedly. He was looking up at the dinosaur, his head cocked. “It’s not a dinosaur, though.”

“Okay, you go out and tell it that it don’t exist,” Bucky snapped. “If it’s going to eat us, does species really matter?”

“The species doesn’t matter,” Tony said. “What matters is that it’s a robot. I don’t think we’ve gone back in time at all. I think we went forward.”

Bucky stared at him. “I fail to see how this is an improvement in any way.” Probably worse, honestly. Dinosaurs were at least skin and bone and nerve endings. And most living things were afraid of fire.

“Dinosaurs are your department, sweetheart,” Tony said. “Robots are mine. Get in the cave and stay out of its sight.” Without waiting for a response, he launched into the air, a wide, spiraling path that would take him around the dinosaur-robot-thing a few times before he reached the level of its head.

Bucky slid into the shadows where he could still watch, sighing. “If you bring back a giant dino-shaped robot from the future as a pet and say ‘can we keep it’ I promise you, Steve is gonna kill you.”

“Not if my pet dino-robot eats him first,” Tony said cheerfully, even as he swerved to avoid the thing’s lunging bite. He dipped and spun and wound up clinging to the dino-robot’s back.

The dino-robot was extremely unamused by the sudden disappearance of its prey. It whirled and snapped, clipping several branches as big around as Bucky’s arm with all the ease of a hedge-trimmer.

Tony was muttering under his breath, technical terms that made no sense even when Bucky knew what they meant, because they weren’t connected to each other, just little fragments of sentences and thoughts, punctuated with occasional grunts as the dinosaur made various attempts to dislodge him.

“You got an EMP grenade?” he called down after what seemed like hours and was probably no more than a minute or two.

Bucky stuffed his left hand into his satchel, the sensor array in his fingertips cataloging his equipment neatly. “Two. You want me to throw it, or lend it to ya?” EMP grenades were pretty good against Doombots, their occasional throw downs with raging maniacs like Doc Ock, and more than a few times against the US military who had a perpetual boner for shooting at the Hulk.

“Toss it up here,” Tony said. “This thing runs on a-- oof! --slightly different frequency than the ones we’re used to, I need to do a mod.”

“I don’t know about you, smart-guy,” Bucky said. He dashed across the clearing, rolling when he got to the far side, “but I am not used to giant robo-dinosaurs.” He threw the grenade with such precision that Tony only had to hold out his hand to be able to catch it.

“Perfect, good throw,” Tony said, because he was consistently amazed at Bucky’s aim. (And Clint’s, if Bucky had to be honest.) He let go of the dinosaur’s back and shot up higher into the sky, just out of its reach, hovering in the air as he retracted one gauntlet and started fiddling with the grenade.

After snapping uselessly at Tony a few times, the dino seemed to realize there was something else under its feet. A large snout bent down to snort at Bucky, who promptly punched it in the nose with his left arm. “Bad dino-bot, no biting,” Bucky scolded. The snout didn’t even seem damaged. Crap, that was probably bad.

The dino-bot did not smell like a robot. It smelled like rotting meat, probably the result of whatever it had caught in its teeth.

“Almost done!” Tony called. “Hang in there!”

“Whatever you’re doing, do it faster!”

The dino-bot made another lunge for Bucky that he was barely able to dodge by diving behind a large tree. And then he had to roll out of the way again when the dino’s attack knocked the tree over.

The dino roared again. Why did a robot have to roar? That seemed entirely unnecessary.

But as it did, Tony swooped down and chucked the EMP into its mouth, then dropped the rest of the way to the ground to get between it and Bucky. “--two, one.”

“You make a pretty good shield,” Bucky muttered, putting his shoulder to Tony’s spine. They’d discovered a few times, the hard way, that the arm wasn’t always too great at dealing with EMPs either, but the suit made for a good Faraday cage.

The dino-robot closed its mouth, made an entirely biological hiccup sound, and then--

WHUMP!

The mouth dropped open.

Very slowly, the dino-bots legs folded--

And it fell over, crushing more trees and wrecking the landscape.

“Well, that’s that, then,” Tony said. “Unless, of course, there are more of them out there. We should probably work on finding a way home so we can kick Thanos’ butt.”

#august flash bingo #tonystarkbingo2020 #starkbucksbingo2020 #winteriron #time travel

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stylesluxx · 4 years

Text

cold? chilling? freezing? (IV) – s.rogers

[warnings: none??]

summary: in which y/n is an assassin turned lover | part three | part five

word count: 1,319

masterlist

You watched as the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents finished packing up the Tesseract and Loki's scepter, and you stood close to Loki, keeping an eye on him.

"So, shawarma?" Tony suggested and looked around at the group.

"We have a few other things left to do, Tony," Steve shook his head. "On my way down to coordinate search and rescue," Steve said, hand on his earpiece. He walked over and got in the elevator before disappearing, giving you a small smile as the doors shut. "See you in a bit."

Tony talked with a couple of agents, (distracting them from their job and making you roll your eyes), while you waited to leave.

A few agents, Loki, Thor, and Tony piled into the elevator. Hulk went to get on and they immediately started to groan.

"Woah! Woah woah woah woah!" Thor exclaimed and held a hand out to stop the green giant.

"Hey, hey, Buddy. What're you thinking? Maximum occupancy has been reached!" Tony added on to Thor's rejection.

"Take the stairs!" Thor redirected him and you watched as Loki waved him goodbye as well.

"I'll take the stairs with you, Big Guy," You said and looked up at him while the elevator doors shut.

"Take the stairs. Hate the stairs," He grunted but walked toward the stairwell and you followed.

"You know, the next time they need you, you could always just refuse to... come out," You hummed as you limped down the stairs.

"Hate the stairs," He mumbled to himself, seemingly ignoring you.

"Okay, great talk," You nodded.

—

You walked with Steve to the place where you and the rest of the disbanded team would be meeting. You wore a black backpack on your back that held your suit and nothing else. You weren't sure what your next mission would be or where you'd find yourself next but S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't need you at the moment.

You watched Steve's tense facial expressions as Banner handed over the Tesseract. You knew how he felt about it and all the dangers it could bring. He made it very clear that Howard Stark should've just left it in the ocean, untouched.

Thor gave you all a nod before going back to Asgard with Loki. Their little portal thing (you had no idea what to call it and you reminded yourself to ask the next time you saw Thor) lit up and shook you a little causing Steve to put an arm out in front of you.

"'m alright," You assured him, your eyebrows furrowed.

You didn't understand what Steve was doing. He knows you would give him a run for his money in hand-to-hand combat, so you didn't understand his protectiveness and instinct to protect you. You could take a hit, a few actually, and he's seen it with his own eyes. You didn't need him looking after you all the time. And also, only 24 hours ago you were just strangers. So why he was keeping an eye on you, was a mystery to you as well.

"Seven–" Tony started while you walked over to where he stood by his car, Steve in tow.

"Don't call me that," You cut him off harshly.

"Great work," He ignored you. "You might be my favorite teammate. Not because I necessarily like you but because the others are a bigger pain in my ass."

"Uhhh, thanks I guess," You nodded and gave him an odd look.

You crossed your arms over your chest, simply out of habit, as Steve walked from behind you to shake Tony's hand.

They said their goodbyes and you waved at everyone else before you started walked away. Banner was going with Tony and you knew you didn't fit in with the pair of super-geniuses. Natasha and Barton were leaving together and you could see yourself fitting in there but, there was already a bond that you detected. You were ready to go off by yourself. You were used to it.You heard footsteps and felt a hand grab onto your arm, making you turn around. You knew who it was before you could see him. Anyone could guess who it was if they were watching you for the last 24 hours.

"Yes, Captain?" You asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Do you have any idea where you're going?" He asked you, a smile dancing on his face.

"No clue," You shrugged.

"Me either. I'm still trying to get used to the city I guess," He shook his head. "Would you like to grab lunch? If I can get us back to my apartment, I know a good place a block away."

"Shawarma?" You asked playfully, mocking Tony.

"No, not shawarma," He laughed. "But they have sandwiches. They're pretty good."

"I don't think so, Captain. I need to figure out where I'm going to be staying," You shook your head.

"Oh come on. You can stay at mine tonight and figure it out tomorrow," He suggested. You squinted your eyes at him, unsure of his intentions. "I'll even help you look."

You thought about it before nodding slowly. "Okay, you win," You sighed.

He smiled and nodded toward his bike before walking over to it. You followed behind him and got on the bike easily, ignoring his helping hand.

"I'm not fragile, Captain," You told him.

"I know you're not," He said and got on the bike, handing his helmet to you. You snapped it on and loosely wrapped your arms around his waist. "Hold on tight," He told you before taking off.

—

That was two years ago. You've been getting dragged around by Steve for two years. First, you stayed in New York for a while but then you found your way to D.C. You told him you could go out and find an apartment but he insisted that you stayed with him.

"Why pay for a whole apartment when you can split the price of one?" He reasoned.

Steve was already out of the house and doing his morning workout when you got a call from S.H.I.E.L.D., pulling you out of the comfortable full-sized bed.

You sat on the edge of the bed and sighed before standing up and getting dressed. You were used to staying home and keeping Steve company, so you weren't necessarily looking forward to having to do actual work.

You walked down the steps of the apartment building and spotted the black car waiting for you out front. If the windows weren't tinted as dark as they were, you wouldn't have noticed it there. The organization had a weird way of trying not to be suspicious.

After receiving your mission, you took one of their cars and went to go get Steve. You looked over at the clock and knew he'd still be out. You pulled up and noticed him talking to another man, which made you smile. It was good he was putting himself out there, making other friends.

You rolled down the window, a playful smirk gracing your face.

"Excuse me, Gentlemen, do either of you know where the Smithsonian is? I'm here to pick up a fossil," You teased Steve.

"That's hilarious," He chuckled and walked to the car, getting in.

The other man crouched down to get a good look at you.

"How you doing?" He asked smoothly.

"Hey," You winked.

"Can't run everywhere," Steve shrugged.

"No you can't," The man agreed as Steve rolled up his window and you pulled off.

"Making new friends I see. I'm proud of you," You said and looked over at him with a genuine smile.

"I just met him today, Y/N. Why are you always pushing new friendships on me? You don't want to be my friend anymore? Is that it?" He joked and narrowed his eyes at you.

"Oh stop the theatrics, Cap," You shook your head. "Reach in the backseat and read the mission file. Looks like we're back to work."

[AN: so the next part is my favorite part so far and I’m excited to share it in a few days. part five and beyond we learn something new about the reader each day and idk it’s exciting to me. anyway, thanks for reading !!]

[tags: @thisartemisnevermisses @thatoneperson5000]

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avengerscompound · 4 years

Text

The Frame Job - 5

The Frame Job: A Bruce Banner Fanfic

Masterlist PREVIOUS //

Buy me a ☕ Square: @brucebannerbingo - B4 James "Rhodey" Rhodes/War Machine

Rating: G

Warning: Canon Typical Violence

Word Count: 1626

Pairing: Bruce Banner x Reader (eventual), Bucky Barnes x Sharon Carter x Steve Rogers (Background)

Summary: When Bucky Barnes is taken from the compound and the only clue anyone has is a large damaged area of the compound and a faint Gamma signature, everyone suspects Bruce. It is up to you and him to get to the bottom of the disappearance.

Chapter 5

It was sometimes easy to forget that Bruce Banner was actually in incredibly good shape. He spent so much time in the lab and tended to wear clothing that was a little large on him, and when you put him next to Steve Rogers or Thor his soft human stomach was easily dismissed as dad bod because people forgot fit men didn't really look like gods.

But Bruce had lived a life on the run fighting to keep his freedom. He worked out and stayed in good condition and there were times like this, as you chased him down the wide hallways of the Avengers’ Compound that you were reminded, he could outrun you if he really wanted.

He burst into the operations room and everyone turned to see what the commotion was. “Rhodey,” Bruce said, ignoring the myriad of eyes on him and beelining straight for the Colonel who had obviously been in discussion with Captain Rogers and Agent Carter before the interruption. “I need your help.”

“Is it important?” Rhodes said, with an obvious attempt not to be completely dismissive despite the fact that he was being just that. “We were just…”

“I know who has Barnes,” Bruce said, interrupting him. “And I need you to get me close to him.”

“What?” Steve said, stepping closer, like merely being nearer to Bruce would bring him nearer to his boyfriend. “Where is he?”

Bruce looked at Steve, his face set. “It was Ross.”

You sat in the back of the jet with Bruce while Rhodey piloted. “So tell me how you connected the dots,” you said.

“Ross has always been someone I suspected. But I thought I was being paranoid,” Bruce explained. “I mean obviously the guy has had it out for Bucky and I. He hunted me to use me as a weapon for years and already tried to have Bucky locked up. He even tried replicating the experiment that made the Hulk in the first place. But Bucky isn’t easy to catch and how would he be able to both catch him and replicate a scene that looked like a Hulk rampage, gamma and everything? So my first thought was checking on Jen. I thought maybe he’d done some mind control. With him taking Bucky it didn’t seem like such a stretch. But Jen was there and fine. I went a little off track when Jen suggested Betty. Particularly when she was attacked I thought it may have been me all along. I’d already trashed that university campus once, I thought maybe there was someone trying to have me seen as a public enemy by setting off the Hulk again and again and have you all turn against me.”

You put your hand on Bruce’s and looked into his eyes. “We’d never turn against you.”

He shook his head. “I’m not so sure, but that’s nice to hear.”

“So how do you know it’s Ross? And how did he do it?” Steve asked.

“Betty said she was working on my old experiments by order of her father. Don’t you see?” Bruce exclaimed. “He’s got his own Hulk and he used it to take Bucky and make it look like me. You’d never forgive me for hurting Bucky.”

“I don’t know how far my clearance will get us,” Rhodey said. “He’s above me and he hides shit from me.”

“Just do what you can,” Bruce said. “Hulk can do the rest.”

The jet touched down in the middle of a military base and as your small group exited the jet you were greeted by General Thaddeus Ross and a group of soldiers, all armed and all with their weapons trained on you.

“Colonel Rhodes, Captain Rogers, you do not have clearance to be here,” Ross said, squaring up to Rhodes.

“We have the authority to search any government facility when there’s evidence of illegal human experimentation going on, General,” Rhodes replied. “And we have evidence of that happening here.”

“What evidence. You don’t have any evidence?” Ross growled, there was a red tinge to his neck as his fury rose inside him and he balled one hand into a fist.

“We do indeed, in the way of your daughter,” Rhodes replied, holding his ground.

“Where’s Barnes?” Steve snarled.

That was all it took, Ross doubled over and started to change. His muscles contorted and grew and his skin turned red as his clothes tore and he quadrupled in size. The soldier around him scattered, aiming their guns at him, but before they could fire Bruce charged forward, growing and turning green as he ran.

The two Hulks collided with a roar and a thud of flesh against flesh. They grappled with each other, each trying to throw the other but neither gave any leeway.

A soldier ran up to Steve as the others opened fire on the battling Hulks. “Captain Rogers,” the man said. “I know where they’re holding Sergeant Barnes.”

“Take me there,” Steve ordered. He turned to you and Rhodey, completely in leadership mode. “Rhodey suit up, Bruce is gonna need help. You -” he pointed at you. “Stay out of the way until you’re needed.”

You nodded and you ran back into the jet followed by Rhodes. He got into his War Machine armor and looked over at you before he closed the visor. “You gonna be alright in here?”

You nodded. “Hulk won’t let anything happen to me.”

The visor closed and he flew off out the back of the jet. You sat crouched in the exit watching as Red Hulk fought green and the army attempted to put a stop to it. Ross seemed to have the advantage of size and aggression, but what he lacked was your Hulk’s determination to be the strongest one.

Steve appeared in the door, Bucky leaning his weight on him. You rushed to them and pulled out the stretcher, letting Bucky drop down on it. “Can you take care of him, while I go help with what’s going on out there?”

“You really gonna fight a Hulk?” You asked as you rushed to Bucky’s side.

“Looks like I’m gonna have to,” Steve said, taking his shield off his back and running out of the jet.

“Are you hurt?” You asked as you looked Bucky over.

Bucky shook his head. “Just tired, and dehydrated.”

“Right,” you said and got him a drink of electrolyte water.

“Ross took me,” Bucky said. “He was that big Red Hulk. Couldn’t fight him.”

“What did he want?” You asked, sitting next to him.

“He’s been trying to reimplant the triggers,” Bucky said. “Doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing though. Wanted to have me working as their arm. Wanted to have the Avengers agree to lock up Bruce and do the same to him.”

There was a crash and a roar outside and you and Bucky both craned your heads around to watch as the green Hulk used Steve’s shield to choke the red into unconsciousness. As his breathing became labored, the fight began to die in his body and he started to shrink back down.

“Hurry!” Steve said as the soldiers began to move in. “You’re gonna need to get him to the Raft before he regains consciousness.”

Hulk roared at them as they tried to approach and smashed his fist on the ground.

“Sounds like you’re up,” Bucky said.

You nodded and rushed out, but as you got to Hulk you slowed your pace. “Hey Big Guy, you did a great job here,” you said gently. “You gonna let them take him to prison?”

“He not Hulk!” Hulk roared. “Only me!”

“That’s right. He’s a cheap copy of you,” you said holding out your hand to him. He swung his hand wildly like he was trying to bat you away, but unlike the soldiers around you, you didn’t flinch. “Big guy…” you scolded. “You wanna fight him again, don’t you?”

“Hulk win,” he huffed.

“I know,” you said. “You always do. Bet it was fun having a challenge for once.”

He nodded and moved closer to you. The soldiers around you backed off and raised their guns.

“Lower your weapons,” Rhodes ordered and they all looked around nervously.

“Big guy,” you said gently. “You did so good. But we need to get him locked up and you need to go home. Betty is waiting.”

Hulk furrowed his brow and shook his head. “Don’t want, Betty.”

“No? What about Tony? Or Thor?” You asked. “They’re there too.”

Hulk sat down in the dirt and looked at you shaking his head. “No,” he grumbled.

Seeing the large green man sitting there looking so sheepish was confusing. It was out of character for him and you weren’t quite sure what to do. Normally he’d have just changed back by now. He didn’t normally argue with you, and he never reacted like this. “What is it, Hulk?”

“Hulk like nerdy girl,” he huffed.

You smiled softly and stroked his cheek. “I like you too.”

He nodded and started to shrink back down until you were just cupping the jaw of the scientist you had such strong feelings for as he sat on the ground in a puddle of ruined clothes. “Oh,” he said softly as the soldiers all moved in to apprehend Ross. “What happened?”

“Hulk said he liked me,” you answered as you helped Bruce to his feet.

A soft blush crept into Bruce’s cheeks and he ran his hand through the back of his hair. “He’s not the only one.”

You moved closer to him, the heat of his body radiating out to you. “Bruce…”

He looked into your eyes, a small, nervous smile playing over his lips. “Yes?”

“I like you too,” you said and brought your lips to his. He wrapped an arm around your waist and the world around you disappeared.

~ END ~

#brucebannerbingo2019 #bruce banner #bruce banner x reader #hulk #hulk fanfic #fanfic #fanfiction #reader insert #detective story #the frame job

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saieras · 5 years

Text

21 THINGS I LOVED ABOUT ENDGAME

HEAVY SPOILERS. I always tag #endgame spoilers, so make sure to block that if you haven’t

1. THE FIRST 20 MINS

Expectations? Chuck them out the window. They weren’t kidding when they said all promotional material came from the first 20 mins!!! I loved how they got right into the thick of things, cameras blazing, completely no nonsense. And CAROL omg. Also I did NOT expect Thanos’ death to be, Just Like That.

2. The Time Jump.

Very, very smart move. I liked everything about the time jump. It lets us view the event with a lens of a world shattered, a world that has had the chance to come to its senses and reel from the catastrophe.

Although it might have other implications for FFH (like, how the hell is Ned still in Peter's class if he survived? Unless the entire decathlon team got dusted together, which, hey, kinda depressing but like they say, People who decathlon together, Dust together!)

3. Intro of Thor and Clint

The cinematographic shift, including atmosphere and music, was a bit jarring, but I quite liked it. And Korg and Meek! Just hanging out

Although I’m curious, why didn’t y’all give Thor body hair? He’s got a wild beard, a dadbod with a beerbelly... He ought to have a hairy chest/stomach! Same with Clint. That japanese dude Clint killed was still speaking after his throat got slit. Wut.

4. Scott Lang.

Just. Every joke he made. Fantastic.

But also I did not expect to shed my first tear at his and Cassie’s reunion. That was great.

5. Morgan. Tony and Morgan. Tony and Peter’s photo.

Domestic Tony. So soft. AND THAT PHOTO WAS HIS. In HIS HOUSE. FRAMED. I REALLY wish we got more but that moment was very powerful. Still, I was unsatisfied. I wanted Tony to cry. I wanted Morgan to also know about Peter. Basically I want more canonical proof of Irondad Spiderson. Like, listen, this is the one loss that haunts Tony to this day. Peter’s death was the kind of pain that made Tony terrified of going again, for fear of losing Morgan.

6. THE NYC SCENE.

ALL of it. From Tony the security guard, to him talking shit about his own deodorant, to him giving himself a cardiac arrest to cause a diversion and being like this is fine, nothing to see here. And Hulk vs stairs. And STEEB. OMG STEEB. “Hail Hydra.“ “I’ve got visuals on Loki.” “I can do this all da--“ “Yeah. I know. I know.“

“Bucky... Is... ALIVE“

And butt jokes. So many Steve buttjokes. I don’t ship stony, but that is the closest y’all will get to a stony suggestive scene.

ALSO LOKI just yeeting himself outta there. That’s ma boi!

7. Frigga and Thor.

Nuff said. Mama Frigga is the best.

8. Tony and Howard.

It’s really great how adorable Tony was throughout this scene. And... while Howard was NOT redeemed, it’s nice to know he did love his son. And it’s great that Tony got some closure.

9. Peggy and Steve.

Out of the Big Three’s scenes with their “significant past people”, this one was the least impactful for me, as they didn’t even talk, BUT in retrospect it set the scene for later perfectly.

10. Gamora saves the day!

This is GREAT and showcases her character very well, who she really is despite who Thanos raised her to be.

11. Clint and Natasha

Their friendship was on full display during this film. Their scenes. And how it was all platonic. The entire audience knew, as soon as they landed on Vormir, that one of them wasn’t going to make it.

12. Just, Natasha in general.

She’s really been allowed to SHINE in this film. ScarJo is finally allowed to act! Like, thank god. About time she snapped out of her resting impassive smirkface. I love the humanity we got to see out of Natasha as a result. And her heading the command center for a post-Snap Avengers is very apt for her.

13. THE BIG 3 FIGHT THANOS

There are many, many things to love here. But Thor wielding both weapons was amazing, them teaming up their powers with lightning and Tony’s tech, and STEEB with MJOLNIR allowed him to perform SO many cool tricks. Like playing vibranium squash with the shield. So fluid. That fight scene was something else.

14. THE ENTRANCE OF THE HEROES

Assembling for the final fight. I didn’t like how it turned into a slugfest (again), but that moment of hope when Sam hails Steve... Damn.

15. MY BABY BOY PETER

So proud of him. The way he flips in, and is instantly like Woah this is a Big Fight!! How we focus on him for a large part of the battle. How he’s running through the field with the gauntlet, and people all around him coming to help him.

16. Carol’s entrance.

She singlehandedly destroyed that purple grape’s hopes and shat all over his precious spaceship. That’s our girl!

17. “Hey Peter Parker. Got something for me?”

CAROL. CArol listen. You are his mom now. That’s how it works with that damn kid. That’s how he ended up with a whole fucking team of parents.

It be like that sometimes.

18. The LADIES of MARVEL

THEY ARE AMAZING. I fully expect a gifset when the bluray is out. Every one of them. Also the way they gathered around Peter, so soft yet so badass at the same time!

Also RESCUE. OMG. PEPP. And the battlefield fighting side by side with Tony.

19. The passing on of mantles

Steve to Sam (SO glad he didnt get passed over for bucky), Thor to Valkyrie, and Tony to Pepper. These are their legacies. And they’re very skillfully done.

I forgot to add that Steve’s choice to remain in the past and grow old is an EXTREMELY tasteful move. It completes his character arc, fulfilled his dreams from back during the CA First Avenger, and eases him out of the main picture without giving us more heartbreak. It’s sad, yes, but the kind of sad that is also laced with contentment and happiness. This is what he deserves.

20. Tony’s send-off.

His death. I was glad Pepper was the last one there, to tell him it’s okay, they’ll be fine, he can let go.

AND PETER. Peter was there, trying to talk to him, sobbing and breaking down. This is what I wanted, going in, if Tony were to die. And this is what I got. You just know this is going to haunt him in FFH.

And Tony himself. His immense sacrifice, the moment he knew what he had to do, the moment Strange held up that finger. One way. UGH.

I have to admit I wanted Peter to also be there when they’re playing back Tony’s recording. I like how they otherwise didn’t miss a single member of the IronFam, though, like Rhodey, Happy, Pepper, Morgan, they’re all there. But still, Peter should’ve been.

Also, how could I forget, Harley. He totally had every right to be attending that funeral. And it shows how Tony kept in contact with him.

21. And finally, Tony. RDJ.

Thank you. Beyond all words, Thank you.

This has been one hell of a ride.

How far we’ve come. So, thank you!

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buckysmischief · 4 years

Text

Spaces Between - 1/?

Pairing: Loki x Reader

Word Count: 1.5k

Summary: The Snap took everything from you, who knew Loki would be the one to put back all your pieces?

Warnings: thanos doesn’t kill loki, everything else is cannon with IW & Endgame (im sorry), language, fluff, angst

AN: Tessa is an oc, readers best friend

FTS Masterlist | Series Masterlist

☄︎

Spring 2018, 5 minutes later

“Yn, wake the fuck up!” Tessa panicked, pouring cold water on your face. You sat straight up, wishing she’d have just slapped you instead.

“How many times have I asked you not to do that?” you grumble, wiping the water off your face. “How long was I out this time?”

“About five minutes, where did you go?”

You passed out for two minutes the first time you teleported from your apartment to California, but once you got used to traveling greater distances your body got used to it. Space though? It was surprising you woke up before the day was over.

“Uh.. I’m not exactly sure. Loki got me there, I just brought us back. Oh shit! Thor and Hulk, I gotta go get them!”

Before you could get up and attempt to travel back to space, Loki was at your side. “The bifrost opened while you were out, but we do need to find the Avengers. Thanos is coming and as much as I hate to admit it, I think it would be best if we worked together.”

“That big purple guy? What’s his deal?” you ask.

Loki explained everything to you and Tessa. The stones and what Thanos plans to do with them, even what Thanos has already done throughout the galaxy. You then explained to him what happened to the Avengers in Berlin, but reaching out would still be a better option.

“Do you know where we could find them, can you jump there?” you’re not an expert on Loki by any means, but you’re positive you can hear panic in his voice.

“Yeah, let me get some things together really quick and we can go.” grabbing Tessa and pulling her into your room.

There was too much going on. Not even an hour ago you were on a run in the park and now you had to help prevent half of the galaxy from dying? What were you even supposed to do? It’s not like you’ve had any training, just what you’ve picked up on your own.

“Tess, I need you to stay here. Call out of work if you have to but please.. don’t leave the apartment.” you were throwing clothes into a bag, not even realizing you were panicking until Smokey rubbed against your leg. You didn’t even want a cat, but Tessa insisted. And she was right, Smokey was basically your emotional support cat at this point.

“I will, Yn. But you gotta go save the world. I love you!” She gives you a hug and pushes you to Loki. “And you, keep her safe.”

Loki nods, “I give you my word, no one will lay a finger on her.”

Later that day, after Thanos

After leaving your apartment with Loki, you ended up arriving at the compound the same time as Captain America and a few others. No one was happy to see Loki, but once Bruce Banner told them what had happened (and that Thor thought he had died), everyone felt better about you two traveling to Wakanda with them.

The battle was unlike anything you’ve ever seen, worse than the battle of New York. When everything was said and done, there were bodies and blood - and dust - everywhere. But Loki kept his word. You had a few cuts and bruises, sure, but you were alive. The same couldn’t be said about half of the world, or anywhere else for that matter, though.

You were still on the battlefield with Loki, neither one of you were there when Thanos showed up. When he noticed you watching soul after soul disappear, he suggested you go back home to check on Tessa and Smokey.

“I’m afraid they won’t be there.” you finally look up at him, tears falling down your face. “They’re the only family I have left, what if they aren’t there?”

“I’ll go with you, you don’t have to do this on your own, little one.” He wrapped his arms around you and waited until you were ready to leave.

When you jumped to your apartment, you landed on the outside of your door, too afraid to open it. “It’s probably best to just get it over with..”

“I know, I know,” you turned the knob, immediately hearing The Office playing in the living room. You grab Loki’s hand and push the door open, venturing further into the apartment.

It wasn’t an act of affection he was used to, and his first reaction was to jerk away. But then he felt you squeeze his hand for comfort. He felt his heart swell, silently vowing to always protect you from this moment on, feeling great pride knowing you saw him as your protector.

You walk through the kitchen and yell out for Tessa, even shaking Shadow's favorite toy, but you didn’t hear anything. Loki helped you check the bathroom, her bedroom, your bedroom. Still, nothing. You had been saving the obvious option for last, hoping, praying that your worst fears weren’t coming true.

As you walked into the living room you didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, but then you looked to the spot on the couch where Tess and Smokey sit and just see a pile of ash. Loki saw the look of your face and was standing ready to catch you any way you fell. But you just stood there.

Numb.

The only person in this world who really knew you was gone. A victim to a war she had nothing to do with and yet she’s gone, not knowing what the hell was happening. It wasn’t fair. You failed to stop Thanos and yet here you were, alive. But all of these innocent, good people that had no fight in this war were just gone.

“I.. I need to get away from here.” you whisper. “I’m gonna pack, you don't have to come-”

“Nonsense, of course I’m coming.” he interrupted. “I told you you didn’t have to do this on your own and I meant that.”

You went to your room and packed all of the clothes that you could, and all the other essentials. After grabbing your bag you stopped at Tessa’s room and opened the door, working yourself up to go in. “What do you need in here?”

“Tessa’s blanket,” you sigh, “it was mine but she just loved it so much I kinda just let her have it. I can’t leave it here.” Standing up, you fold the small blanket and hold it in your arms.

You both leave the apartment and discuss ideas about where you could lay low for a bit, until you know it’s safe. Loki had been the one to remember the bunkers Rhodey was talking about the day before. When Tony Stark remodeled the Compound he added some bunkers, because apparently, you have to be prepared for everything.

Instead of jumping there, you decided you needed a walk. You needed to process everything that happened and maybe walking for a couple of hours would help, but by the time you found a bunker your thoughts were still a mess.

When you looked around to see what all you had, you noticed there was plenty of food and toiletries, even a tv and radio. There was even a small kitchen and bathroom, but there was only one bed which might make things a little awkward. “It’s not as tech’ed as I imagined, but this will work.”

“Agreed. I’m going to take a shower and get some rest, I feel like you should do the same.” He was genuinely concerned about your mental state, and you knew he was right. “Okay, I’ll make us something to eat while you shower.”

While Loki was in the shower, you could only think about two things. 1) Tessa and Smokey, and 2) the sleeping arrangement. You hardly knew the man, but he’s done nothing but make you feel safe. And you didn’t know if it was losing Tessa, going through all that you had with him today, or a combination of both, but you wanted to keep him close.. you just didn’t know how to ask.

As you heard the water in the bathroom cut off dinner was ready, just regular spaghetti, nothing special. It was one of the few things that didn’t require much effort to make. Shout out to whoever's idea it was to add a spice rack, though. It was obvious to you that Loki had never had anything like it, but he was kind enough to give it a try.

“So,” he stands up from the table, putting his dishes in the sink, “I can sleep on the couch if you’d like.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, that couch is way too short for you. We can.. we can share the bed, if that’s fine with you” you suggested.

“I’d like that.” was all he said before he left you alone to take a shower.

☄︎

Permanent tags: @sociallyeneptbarnes @rogvewitch @saturn-aka-six @stuckonjbbarnes @superavengerpotterstar @estillion14 @sleepingspacedragon @geeksareunique @infj-slytherclaw @imsoft-barnes @piper-koko-barnes-rogers @murdermornings @distractedgemini @screaming-fridge @readeity @aestheticrelated @my-drowning-in-time @valkyriesryde @sebbbystaaan @disaffectedbarnes @buggy-blogs @hey-its-grey @pinknerdpanda @brokenthelovely @sandyclaws @death-unbecomes-you @rhymesmenagerie @actualdpshuri @sweetkingdomstarlight-blog @mushyjellybeans @https-bucky @also-fangirlinsweden @goalexis123 @missmeganrachel @sunflowersandcherry @miraclesoflove @matsumama

#loki x reader #loki odison x reader #enhanced reader #angst #fluff #marvel #mcu fanfic #spaces between #fortune teller series

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redspeedy · 4 years

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Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you all can enjoy a spooky night despite everything that is going on. Stay healthy and happy and I hope you enjoy this little Halloween inspired piece. As always, english isn’t my first language. I tried to correct everything as best as I can. Enjoy!

Also, a quick shout out to @krilgarin and another friend whose love for coffee and Halloween served as a bit of inspiration for this.

It was nearly 11 PM when Natasha returned to the Tower. It was stormy outside. The perfect night for Halloween, but instead of celebrating with her friends like she was supposed to, the Black Widow was wet, cold, covered in blood and alone. Not that it bothered her. Natasha usually didn’t mind being alone, but Halloween was her favorit holiday right after christmas and she had been looking forward to one of Starks epic partys.

Instead of throwing a party Tony had decided to take Pepper out on a date. Steve and Sam were somewhere in Norway, chasing after rumors of the Winter Soldier. The God of Thunder was attending a celebration in Asgard and her favorit Doctor had been cooped up in the lab, working on some new substance that could possibly subdue the hulk.

Natasha stopped infront of the entrance doors to take in the sight of the Tower for a moment. It looked eerie against the brewing stormclouds. Tony had spent most of the past week organising decorations and now there were about 100 floating pumpkins, with an Ironman silhouette carved into their flesh, illuminating the front of the tower.

“You look like you are trying to make Jason jealous.” a warm voice interrupted the redheads musings. Natasha looked up and saw Bruce walking up to the entrance from the other side of the rode. He was holding an umbrella and hurried to get Natasha under it’s protection as well.

“Well, in my defense. One of the bad guys was carrying a mechete.” she joked and, as Bruce’s soft brown eyes filled with worry, quickly added. “This isn’t mine. I’m okay but what are you doing outside in this weather? I thought you’d be working late and avoiding Trick or Treater’s.”

Bruce chuckled and if Natasha didn’t know better she could’ve sworn that he was blushing. “I was, but then I remembered that everybody had gone out and it would be just us. So I figured we could use a treat.” He held up a brown bag and two steaming styrofoam cups.

Natasha cocked her head. This was getting interesting. The last few weeks something between her and Bruce had shifted. They’d been collegues, friends even, but lately their talks were getting more and more personal. She caught herself opening up to him and feeling comfortable in his presence, while Bruce had started joking and smiling a lot more when she was around.

A warm smile spread across her face. “Coffee?” she asked gingerly, reaching for the cup. Bruce pulled the tray away and held it over his head. “Hazelnut Latté and chocolate frosted donuts with sprinkles.”

Natasha’s face lit up like a jack-o-lantern. Her favorite. It would have been easy for her to just take the coffee and sweets out of the brunets hands, but she would play along for his sake.

“We should get you out of the cold and into some dry clothes.” Bruce suggested when he saw her shivering against the wind. “Come on.” He gently placed a hand on her back and ushered her inside. His touch made her shiver a little more and once again Bruce’s features filled with worry. “I hope you didn’t catch a cold out there.”

The redhead shook her head. “I’m fine. I promise.”

The pair went inside and Bruce set the table while Natasha had a quick shower and got dressed. When she entered the living room she was greated by another pumpkin. This one had sharp teeth and triangles for eyes. The room was illuminated with orange fairy lights and spiderweb decorations clung to the shelfs and ceiling.

“Bruce? What is this?” she asked marveling at the elaborate set up. “I know you like Halloween and I know it’s just us, but I wanted to do something special. It’s not a big party. If you don’t like it we could...” He was cut off by a very unexpected hug from one Natasha Romanoff.

“Shut up, thank you. I love it.”

They spent the rest of the night drinking coffee, eating donuts and telling scary stories. At one point Natasha suggested a movie and Bruce picked the Adams Family. Maybe this halloween wasn’t so bad after all.

#halloween #the avengers #avengers #brutasha #bruce banner #brucenat #hulkwidow #hulk #natasha romanoff #black widow

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void-knights · 3 years

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Hygge : Chapter One

Pairing: Loki / Original Character,

Chapter Rating: Teen

Tags: Slow Burn, Romance, LGBT Themes, Oc has ADHD, injury mention, Standard Tragic past, Mentions of Loki's past toture, Mentions of past child abuse (OC), Sickness, Near Death, Body Dysphoria, Gender Dysphoria, Prosthesis, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, Extremis 616, Starboost Armour, Strangers to Friends, Friends to Lovers, Loki cooks, Loki teaches,

A/N: Right hello! I need to WARN YOU.

This fiction deals with an OFC that eventually realises that they is Genderfluid, using all the pronouns, but is assigned female at birth (AFAB). There will be mentions of body AND gender dysphoria due to a tragic childhood™ under the care of her biological mother/grandparents that occurred before she was in the care of Tony Stark. I do not go into graphic detail with the abuse, but it is mentioned.

This is a slow burn fic planned out to be a LONG story so the OC and Loki will not get together until a little into the story. Instead, I wanted to focus on building their friendship at first. Eventually (if all goes to plan) I intend to have the OC identify as Genderfluid, but unlike Loki the OC won't have magic and therefore will always be female in terms of physical sex.

While this might seem like a bit of a spoiler I like to forewarn people about these things as they can be potential triggers!

Anyway I got the idea of a character in Iron-Man style armour, and then I thought it would be fun to just have a Stark OC. I've got the timeline lined up so the ages to allign with canon. Masterlist | AO3 Link |

The avengers weren’t sure what they should do with Loki, Odin in his infinite wisdom had ‘bestowed’ his younger son upon them in a long-winded speech that left Barton spacing out, Tony disinterested and distracted and Bruce trying to work out how such an old man seemed so strong.

Only Natasha and Steve were paying attention by the end, the TL; DR was that Odin didn’t want to deal with Loki, so now he was the avenger's problem.

Nick Fury suggested locking him up, only to retract the idea a few minutes later, Loki was dammed persuasive, he could seduce any guard sent to keep him under lock and key. They did not know the full extent of his magical abilities and while he was bound (somehow, Odin didn’t bother explaining what they had done to Loki and merely assumed the Avengers wouldn’t care to know the finer points) they didn’t know the limits of the binding.

Thor claimed his brother could shapeshift, so a prison would need to be airtight otherwise a snake or spider could happily slip out. Then there was the issue that he was a god with god strength and probably the second smartest person in the room, or maybe the smartest, but Tony wasn’t about to admit that to the god.

All in all Odin had left them with a mess and the only support came in the form of a confused, angry and betrayed Thor. Which was never good.

This was compounded by the inescapable feeling that they only had half the story, why did Loki invade Earth? Tony had theories, theories that would make Clint punch him, but he couldn’t shake a feeling that something was off about the god of mischief.

Thor would agree, or not. Their relationship was never explained, it turned out communication was not a gift the gods of Asgard possessed much to the chagrin of the Avengers.

So this was the plan, Loki was to stay locked up in the tower, well only on certain floors. He would share a floor with Thor, where he would have his own bedroom with en-suite bathroom, but Fury was rather insistent that Loki shouldn’t be made too comfortable.

Tony was starting to wish he had never gotten involved he would make a poor jailer. He wasn’t responsible enough, Jarvis as amazing as he was would be worse, Loki had tricks, he could trick Jarvis.

It was a fucking mess, made much worse by not having the facts nor support to keep Loki. What were they supposed to do with the god? He was going to outlive them all, did Odin expect them to pass Loki off to other people? To keep him locked away for the rest of his life?

He would rather face the Chitauri again, or Vanko and Hammer or even Stane. Loki was more dangerous than all of them combined and what made it worse was the fact that Soleil was also living in the tower now.

He shouldn’t have suggested she live here, Fuck, he needed a drink or a whole bottle. The billionaire found Natasha and Bruce already at the bar, her with Vodka and Bruce with something fruity looking.

Tony settled for whisky and wondered what the fuck he was supposed to do now.

Loki was still chained up when Soleil walked onto the floor, the god recognised the human mortal from his research leading up to the invasion. He had gathered information on mortals who may pose a threat to his plans and worked to see them brought together (in brief moments of clarity before once again the mind stone seized control of him), Stark’s life was short as it was (by Asgardian standards) was quite fascinating.

Naturally Loki looked into every aspect of the potential avengers lives seeking weaknesses that would bring the avengers to him. The easiest targets were family, friends, loved ones who could be exploited as they had few or no protections. Soleil quite literally was the weakest link in the Stark equation.

Though he had come to realise she could have been a great asset to him should he have had need of an engineer with a deep and vested interest in space. Rather odd that SHIELD would have such detailed files on Soleil, almost as if they had been considering her as an alternative to her father and Iron-Man. Though what use such a fragile human would be was beyond the god.

She hadn’t noticed him, to busy tapping away on a screen and wrinkling her brow at something that vexed her. He watched her as she grabbed herself a bottle of water, she was halfway back to the elevator when she finally paused and turned to him.

“You look like shit,” she said after a moments pause looking him up and down as he remained trapped and bound.

He’d be offended if he had the energy, he felt like shit, months, years? Trapped in the clutches of Thanos and his black order, leading the invasion, not resting or sleeping in weeks, months, his meals just enough to keep him alive but never satisfied, he could not even recall if the paste he had been given (and reluctantly eaten after too long starving) had even had a taste to it.

“As you mortals say, that is pot calling the kettle black,” he attempted to sound above her, casual to the point of nonchalance.

“Yeah but I have an excuse for looking like shit, what’s your excuse?” she asked him sipping her water, he tried not to look hopeful that she might share something with him. Even lukewarm tap water would be bliss compared to whatever liquids the Black Order had supplied him with.

“The beast you call Hulk,” Which was partly true.

“Ooo, that explains the hole in the floor,” she cringed, “How the fuck are you still in one piece?”

“I am a god,” he reminded her.

“I had just assumed that was all a lie, you know psychological tactics?” She paused thinking it over, “Make us believe the gods are real, and you’re one of them, so you can claim dominion over us.”

“That would be a fair assumption to make,” he said leaning his forearms on his knees, “But I can assure you that I am in fact one of your gods.”

“Well you’re not my god, I don’t worship you or any gods,” she shrugged.

“We had noticed the loss of faith from mortals,” Loki nodded.

“Blame the Abrahamic religions, as soon as they went mainstream you pagan lot were more or less kicked to the curb,” she answered, before he could ask what she meant she asked, “So are you hungry? You look like you’re hungry.”

“I am in no risk of starving Stark,” he insisted.

“How’d you know I was a Stark?” she asked him suspicion finally creeping in, for someone who was supposed to be one of Midgard’s greatest minds she was rather stupid.

“SHIELD have files on you,” he said her lack of surprise told him all he needed to know, “That and you resemble your father.”

She brought a gloved hand to her jaw, “It’s the chin isn’t it?” she asked taking a couple of steps towards him, a glass and metal table separated them as she set her glass bottle down upon his surface.

“The general area yes, and you share his eyes,” he confirmed now that he could see her up close he could see the partial heterochromia, showing chocolate-brown flecks in each soft brown eye. She shared his jaw, lip and chin shape and brow colour, her hair was tucked up inside a hat, and he thought that her ears might resemble her father as well.

“But that doesn’t answer my question, never mind I’ll assume you’re hungry, what do gods eat?” she asked.

“You would feed your enemy?” he asked surprised by this, Asgard had a policy of giving their prisoners food, but basic food, food that would keep their enemies alive and nothing more. He was able to empathise with those trapped forever in those dungeons now.

“Yes because I have basic human decency,” she said shifting her weight mostly onto her left leg, “So food, what do you eat? Can you eat earth food being an alien and all that?”

“Of course I can,” now that she had brought the matter up he wondered if he could, there were some things that an Asgardian was told to avoid eating on Vanaheim and Alfheim, not that he was biologically Asgardian.

“Well if you die of an allergic reaction please don’t haunt me,” she said pulling out another device, a phone, a smartphone he recalled one of the scientists under his command using a similar device.

While she typed out whatever it was she needed Loki observed her. She was atypical in her physical body, her clothes hung from her, not because they were ill-fitting but because of sudden loss of weight. They were designed for a woman larger than what she was now, despite her rather cheerful demeanour she looked quite exhausted. She looked how he felt.

The leather right sleeve to her jacket shifted in a most bizarre manner, he watched as a small(ish) serpent poked its head out resting contently on the back of her hand. It flicked it’s slick tongue out at the air scenting Loki, she could taste him, she knew he was there.

“I think it’s safe to just get a range of food,” She said slipping her phone back into her pocket she rose her fist to her eye level, “You doin’ okay?” she asked the snake who slid back into the sleeve. “She’s shy,” she said to Loki who had not asked.

“You carry a snake on your person?” he asked curios, he could not imagine anyone in Asgard doing that. Snakes were dangerous creatures, not pets. Humans however seemed to ignore that rule quite often.

“Yeah she’s my ESA, but I make sure she’s some place warm, otherwise she’ll get ill,” Soleil explained.

“ESA?” he asked.

“Emotional support animal,” Soleil said which did not really answer Loki’s question, she needed the support of an animal for her emotional state? “They are animals to help calm and relax people. I wanted a cat, but dad says a dog would have required to much training and looking after, so he got me Macbeth.”

“How does a snake provide emotional support?” he had to ask, the concept baffled him.

“She’s a reassuring presence when the world is overwhelming,” Soleil answered.

To the god it was still a strange concept, but his curiosity got the better of him, “May I see her then?” he asked.

“Um, sure?” Soleil gently shook her arm, Macbeth got the message, as loathed as she was to leave the warmth of the jacket she was all too happy to slither her way around Soleil’s shoulders until she was hanging lazily.

Gently lifting the snake off her shoulders she set the snake down on the sofa, wise to keep a distance from the god of mischief who remained shackled and bound. Macbeth lifted herself up fascinated by this new thing, this god in her home, she stared at Loki curious to know why he was here.

⸢You are not human⸥ said the snake curios to know what he was, he smelled familiar, like kin yet was clearly more than that, more human, more than human.

⸢No I am not⸥ he answered utterly amused when the snake did a double take, stunned that the god would be capable of speaking her language. He detected the barest hint of offence on her next words.

⸢Then you are a lie, a false thing, I do not like false things⸥ the snake replied studying him closely, ⸢You are a danger to my human⸥

⸢I am a great danger to many a human, yours however has done nothing to earn my anger⸥ Loki replied, the smart little snake thought on this for a while.

⸢You claim that now. But my human has a way of frustrating the surrounding humans, they are so easily brought to anger⸥ came the serpent's response as she finally slithered her way over to him.

⸢There are many creatures brought to anger easily⸥ Loki responded lifting the snake up into the air to prove his point the snake hissed angrily.

⸢Unhand me liar, I shall not be handled by the likes of you!⸥ the snake protested with a rather loud hiss.

Up close, she was a rather pretty thing a mixture of soft pastel colours with the blackest eyes he had seen on a snake. A thick uneven stripe of orange and lavender ran the length of her spine and top of her head. Her belly was an off-white, her most dominate colour a rather fetching shade of yellow. She was indeed a strange patterned creature but lovely to look at.

⸢But you are so pretty, I think I may keep you⸥ he teased the snake who managed to throw him such a filthy look that it took him by surprise.

⸢You, are unworthy of me liar⸥ she snapped back.

⸢I am a good little serpent, far beyond your mortal caregiver⸥ he pointed out.

⸢Indeed? You must be the god of pomposity to say such things⸥ the snake complained turning her head away from Loki, ⸢My human is good and kind even as the sickness weakness her, you cannot compare to such a charitable and loving being⸥

⸢For something so small you certainly have a rather inflated sense of ego⸥ he said lifting her up to eye level, she turned her head away from him.

⸢Says the creature that wreaks of despair, I might be small, god of pomposity but at least I know happiness⸥ he’d never been tempted to toss a snake out of a window before tonight.

Soleil shifted on her feet confused, “Are you talking to her?”

“Of course, I am a god,” he answered petting the snake who recoiled deeply offended by his touch.

⸢How dare you touch me!!⸥ she hissed in discontent before slipping herself free from Loki’s hands and slithering back to Soleil who collected her up into her arms. ⸢You are unworthy pomposity, be gone!⸥

“That is a rather charming pet you have mortal,” Loki answered deigning to ignore the snake and her uppity attitude, “Though she might be pretty she has a rather terrible attitude.”

Soleil looked at Macbeth who looked at her, “Riiight she has the terrible attitude,” smugly the snake turned back to him beaming brightly.

⸢See my mortal understands, she shall not be easily swayed by a false serpent⸥ the snake happily slithered her way back up Soleil's sleeve.

“I have never before laid my eyes on a serpent with such markings and colours, is that typical of Midgardian serpents?” Loki asked leaning back on the sofa which had become uncomfortable thanks to being pinned down in one fixed spot.

“Uh, well ball pythons are kinda common I suppose, they are docile in nature,” Loki did not believe that for a second, “So they’ve been bred as pets for a while, some breeders try to create unique colour and pattern styles. Morphs. Macbeth is a Banana Cinnamon Blade Clown Ball Python for instance.”

Loki knew what each of those words meant individually but strung together like that they may as well have been pure nonsense.

His disbelief or confusion must have been evident on his face because she instantly launched into the details of snake breeding, how morphs came about, what each word meant and the genetic factors that went into selecting the right snakes to breed together to create the perfect offspring.

Trust humans to meddle in things that needed no intervention, he thought as she went into detail to explain a subject he had long since lost any interest in. She was passionate about her pet, about snakes in general, and so she babbled making her obsession quite evident.

It was no wonder her dammed pet was so smug, she probably praised it at every opportunity, it’s inflated sense of self coming from an overindulgence of love and flattery.

“Bee,” Jarvis cut her off saving Loki the indignity of having to amuse her babbling for longer, “The food has been placed in the elevator, do you require assistance in moving it?”

“I’m not that weak, Jarv,” she grumbled half stomping her way across the floor towards the elevator. Loki could feel the AI’s eye roll somehow.

It took her some time to set out the food given the ridiculous quantity that she had purchased. He did not recognise half of what was laid out but to Loki none of that mattered, all he could do was feel his mouth water at the prospect of finally having food that did not taste of grit and nothing.

“So we got Korean, Indian, Italian, Greek, American, Japanese, Ethiopian, Thai, Arabic, Mexican, Balkan, Caribbean, Chinese and Jamaican,”

“Bee,” Jarvis said.

“Yeah I over ordered,” she grumbled slipping her phone back into her pocket, but she hadn’t known what a god might like to eat.

It didn’t seem to matter, Loki was already tucking into a container of whatever was nearest to him.

He almost wept in pure bliss as he devoured the Tokushima ramen without haste, even the strangeness of a raw egg in a soup alongside pork belly and noodles (which he had never had in life) did not slow him down. The god did not slow down even as Tony Stark, Steve Rogers and Thor walked onto the floor slightly confused.

Jarvis had alerted them there would be food and that Soleil was apparently friendly with Loki. Jarvis had been somewhat right, Soleil was keeping a great distance between herself and the god, but she had ordered him a lot of food. Enough food to feed an army in fact.

“I don’t know what gods eat,” she immediately said as defence before her dad could ask, she did the same thing whenever he caught her doing something she wasn’t supposed to be doing. “So I got whatever, if he dies of an allergic reaction you’re not allowed to blame me.”

“You’d be doing us a favour Bee,” her dad joked, she grinned a little unsure while Loki finally slowed down. That was good, just watching him devour container after container was giving her indigestion.

“We do not suffer the aliments of mortals little Stark-”

“Little stark?” Soleil whispered at Steve and Tony both of them grinned sympathetically.

“-This is quite the feast,” Thor beamed at her and all of a sudden she could see what Jane Foster might see in the glorious blonde bastard, though if she had to go for a blonde she’d still choose Captain America.

The avengers and Soleil watched as Thor easily sat himself down beside Loki acting as though nothing was wrong, even Loki was a little on edge about that, Steve and Tony shared a look™ one that suggested they were in on something. Something Soleil was not allowed to be part of.

Thor without hesitation (must be a god thing) dug into the food complimenting Soleil as though she had laboured over the meals, she hadn’t.

“What is this?” Thor asked as the others finally settled, Tony made sure Soleil was one super solider and a father apart from the god of mischief.

“Curried goat,” Soleil answered taking the carton of Tom Kha soup for herself.

The look of betrayal startled her as he was torn between heaving his stomach into the nearest container or eating what was a delicious meal. Loki being the sympathetic brother he was grinned from ear to ear watching Thor have an internal meltdown.

They did not eat goats on Asgard due to Thor’s love of them, they were scared in some strange way. Loki suspected interest in eating them was already so minimal that Odin had no issue outlawing their slaughter and consumption.

“Are you okay Thor?” Steve had to ask as Thor gingerly put the container down.

“Yes Captain, I… find I cannot in good conscience eat a goat,” Thor said picking up another container and studying it.

“That’s chicken,” Tony reassured him passing a box that contained a triple cheeseburger with plenty of onions, “Try this it might suit you.” Thor immediately approved of the burger, it wasn’t easy to go wrong with a good burger.

Though the company was unwanted Loki found a sense of comfort in the noise and activity, listening in as Thor and Steve asked questions about the food for the Starks to answer. If the Starks did not know then Jarvis would provide information, Loki cared not about the province of food or what it contained, food was food and this was the best food he had tasted in a dreadfully long time.

He listened into the varying conversations, Soleil debated baseball with Steve, apparently he took offence at the LA Dodgers, none of this made sense to Loki, what made even less sense was Hockey, even the Captain did not seem to understand her love of Hockey.

The older Stark chimed in once in a while or talked at length to Thor about various things, places the god should see since he would be spending time on Midgard and perhaps the acquisition of a phone – communication device. Loki knew how that would end, Thor had never been great at keeping in touch.

The four talked at length about everything and anything, Loki was more fascinated by the Korean barbecue than what was considered the best dessert.

According to Steve Rogers you could not beat a good apple pie with a dollop of thick cream or ice cream. The older Stark insisted on Tiramisu which combined alcohol and coffee. Whereas the younger Stark insisted that New York style cheesecake was the best dessert, though ice cream (of any type) was a close second.

He noticed that Rogers was rather experimental with his choice of food, wishing to try everything at least once. Thor ate whatever had the most meat, Stark knew what he liked and stuck to that while his daughter seemed filled by the small tub of soup she had half-eaten.

“Jane has mentioned you little Stark,” Soleil did not appreciate Thor’s new nickname for her.

“Okay?”

“You are an engineer?” Thor asked.

“Yup, my main focus is space, aerospace engineering if you will, but I am not confined to one area of study,” She said setting her half-eaten carton down.

“Jane had mentioned that you are attempting to colonise your moon?”

“Me personally no, but I wanna find a way to make the moon liveable, so we can continue our research,” she said taking a long sip of water.

The floodgates were opened up and Thor could only sit uncomfortably as she prattled on about her designs on space, how they might once again reach the moon and this time stay there. She had ideas with regard to terraforming, to establishing a liveable base, not just on the moon but Mars as well. They would be the first destinations in this new space race she dreamt up.

Loki recognised the blank look on Thor’s face, he had long since lost interest and Soleil quickly realised. Twiddling her fingers she fell silent, ashamed even, this made Loki frown. Her father wrapped an arm around her whispering something, she perked up a little.

Thor turned to Steve to start an entirely new conversation, which made Soleil wince. Tony reassured her all was well and rubbed her arm, only to annoy Macbeth who popped her head out to see who it was that was rubbing her.

“Sorry my scaly grandbaby,” Tony grinned at the indignant snake.

⸢Oh another one, what is this one the god of the farm?⸥ the snake complained looking a surprised Thor over.

⸢I am the god of thunder, serpent⸥

⸢I stand corrected oh great and powerful goat fucker⸥

“I do not recommend getting into an argument with it, it thinks anything other than the younger Stark is beneath it,” Loki said trying a slice of pizza, he found the combination sweeter than expected.

“So they’re both Dolittle’s?” Tony asked Soleil who shrugged she didn’t get it either, but apparently they could understand Macbeth in some way. She certainly reacted to whatever they said back to her.

“I don’t get it either,” she admitted.

“So she doesn't like me?” Tony asked Loki while Thor continued to glare at Macbeth, the snake in return glared back at Thor (somehow).

⸢You may tell him that I enjoy his company, the red machine is most comfortable for resting on and he is a delight for a human being!⸥

“She thinks your armour makes the perfect place to rest,” Loki translated.

“Well it’s good to know I’m useful for something,” Tony grinned rubbing the snakes chin as she leaned up to him.

⸢You did not tell him that I enjoy his company nor that he is a delight tell him, tell him!⸥ Macbeth snapped at Loki

⸢It must have slipped my mind dull scales⸥ Loki grinned.

⸢Pompous false serpent⸥ she complained slithering her way onto Tony’s shoulder, Steve wasn’t as sure about the snake, but Tony was used to her by now.

“She’s tame and a pest if you let her loose in a workshop but tame,” Tony assured Steve who still wasn’t sure meanwhile Macbeth curled herself up on top of Tony’s head, she liked to feel tall.

“She’s inquisitive not a pest,” Soleil insisted gently cooing at Macbeth wondering how it was that the gods communicated with her.

“She likes to nap in places she shouldn’t,” Macbeth was not pleased by this, it wasn’t her fault she found nice warm places to rest in his workshop. She slithered her way back to Soleil deeply offended, Tony rolled his eyes.

“Well maybe you shouldn’t leave your workshop unlocked,” Soleil argued as the serpent coiled herself around her right arm once again.

“Dum-E likes to roam the house, you know this Bee,” Tony argued, yes she did know, she had spent a childhood learning to know when Dum-E was out and about. She loved him, she really did but Dum-E was not built to handle fragile things, especially fragile children.

“Yes but should he be trusted to roam the house?” Soleil asked grinning when he failed to find a suitable answer. Everyone knew it wasn’t a good idea, Dum-E lived up to his name and while he was adorable he vastly overestimated his own skill and abilities.

Tony blinked several times, nope a reasonable argument still failed him, there was no good reason why Dum-E should be unleashed within the house, “So Point Break, what’s this about coffee and pop tarts?”

Thor lit up with a glorious and adorable smile, “My lady Jane introduced me to such wonderful refreshments.”

“And you were worried about feeding them actual food,” Tony whispered to Soleil who grinned to herself, “Well Point Break we do have coffee-”

“-Dad you can’t feed Thor your coffee,” Soleil protested as her dad made his way over to the coffee machine.

“What’s the worst that can happen?” Tony joked.

“It comes with a health warning!”

“It’s not that bad,”

“By buying it you accept all the dangers that coffee presents, you have to sign legally binding documents on the website, you can’t give it to an alien!” Tony wasn’t seeing the issue, those aliens were gods, “It literally killed three people last year.”

“You shouldn’t have said that,” Loki muttered at the exact same time Thor lit up, “Let me test this coffee!”

Soleil buried her face in her hands, Steve offered her a spring roll in consolation, she took it, to exhausted to care that she was full up. Trust her dad to find the one alien that would enable his terrible habits. Fuck this was going to be a long year.

The avengers (well Tony, Steve and Thor) discussed what they should do with Loki, the god of mischief had no say and Odin had decided to leave it in their hands. The obvious answer would be to lock him up, lock him away where he could cause no harm.

There was no place suitable on Midgard that the avengers were aware of, Loki knew of several places but would rather not assist any further attempts at incarceration. He watched them struggle amongst themselves to come up with the ideal solution.

“I can’t keep him here,” Tony protested to Thor who insisted this was the best place, “I have staff and my kid to consider.”

“You have a goat here?” Thor asked.

“Soo, allspeak translates things literally?” Tony asked perplexed, Loki rolled his eyes, no it didn’t, Thor had simply mistaken the context of the word which would have supplied the answer.

“Kid is slang for child, he’s talking about his daughter Soleil,” Steve told Thor who stood there just realising what Soleil was to Tony, “You didn’t know?”

“The big fella showed up in the middle of this mess, I don’t think he got the briefings,” Tony reasoned, “Sol’s my kid, child, offspring whatever you wanna say, point is while Bumblebee’s here I’m not hosting Loki.”

“Loki shall not harm your daughter Stark,” Thor half lied, in truth he might harm Soleil, Loki had done a lot worse in his past though usually that was for the sake of Asgard or the protection of his family.

“Look all you have to do is sneeze at my kid and boom, in hospital,” Tony argued.

“Your daughter is that fragile?” Thor wondered if it were an age thing, Darcy looked to be of a similar age and seemed hale.

“Yep kid’s a medical wonder, impossibility even, so unless I have proof that Loki can’t hurt my kid you’ll have to have him live somewhere else,”

“Why not call SHIELD?” Steve offered, Thor considered this, but Tony had the most peculiar expression one that made Loki take note.

Tony shuffled on his feet, “I’m not saying that… look Loki took out quite a few SHIELD agents, Phil included, everyone loved Phil. I’m not sayin’ he’d approve out loud, but I’m sure Fury would be willing to turn a blind eye if anyone… took advantage of Loki’s situation.”

To Tony’s surprise Steve agreed, “What other options do we have? Thor are there any other territories, realms or worlds that would take Loki?”

“The majority of the nine realms are overseen by Asgard, they would not be willing to risk Odin’s ire by inviting Loki – even as a captive – amongst their numbers,” Thor reasoned.

“Why do I get the feeling when you say overseen what you really mean is-” Steve elbowed Tony in the ribs to get him to shut up.

“Can’t you build a containment around a single floor in the tower?” Steve proposed.

“Yeah and then what happens, he tricks Jarvis or someone else to let him out. Hell Bee would let him out if meant she could learn some weird alien shit, or fuck, she’d let him out to… you said Puente Antiguo?” he turned to Thor.

“Yes?” the god of thunder blinked confused. “I landed there, it so happened that Jane Foster and Agent Phil were also there.”

“Riiiight, well fuck,” Tony ran a hand through his hair, “If he stays here… how much do you two know about engineering?”

“The sciences were Loki’s subjects not mine,” Thor answered.

“We can’t keep him here,” Tony insisted to Steve who was just as confused as everyone else.

“Tony the tower is the best option-” Steve was about to argue, but Tony was adamant against the idea.

“-No it’s not because if Bee finds out-”

“-If Bee finds out what?” Soleil asked, Tony jumped curing Natasha (back when she was Natalie) for teaching Soleil how to be sneaky.

“I do not see why Puente Antiguo is so important to my brothers confinement,” Thor frowned not understanding what was going on at all.

“Did you say Puente Antiguo?” Soleil rounded on a surprised Thor, he did not understand.

“Is this some mythical town I should visit?” Steve asked it had been mentioned a lot in five minuted.

“No, no Bee he didn’t, he said-” Tony tried to correct not realising Thor did not like to be called a liar.

“-Do not make me a liar Stark,” Thor threatened.

“Yeah Dad how dare you make the most venerable god of thunder out to be a liar, honestly have you no shame?” Soleil said placing her hands on her hips, Thor nodded in complete agreement.

Loki rolled his eyes at how quickly Thor soaked up the praise and attention, it was honestly embarrassing how easily the fool could be manipulated and it had taken a mortal one afternoon to discover this weakness.

“Puente Antiguo was where I met my Lady Jane, Darcy, Selvig and your beloved Agent Son of Coul,”

“You mean Coulson, he’s American, we don’t use Patronymic or Matronymic surnames. At least not in the way you’re probably thinking of them,” Soleil corrected, “He was just Coulson, His father was probably not named Coul. Like how I am Stark and not Anthonysdóttir.”

“I see,” Thor muttered, “That explains the oddity of Jane’s family name.”

“Yep so if you and Jane married on Earth, and she decided to take your name, just as an example off the top of my head-” Tony and Steve finally caught on, she was buttering up the god of Thunder, and he was eating it up, “-She would be Jane Odinson, which I suppose would be awkward in Asgard but normal here.”

“That does seem odd?” Thor admitted hating how it sounded, it made her sound his like his sister.

“So you met in Puente Antiguo, I once read it’s romantic to get married where you met your love, but a desert town seems… inappropriate for a wedding to a god, especially with it still in need of repair.”

“Yes, the destroyer created so much damage when it walked through the town,” Thor turned to Loki who sat back utterly amused that Thor had so easily fallen into Soleil’s trap, of course Thor read his amusement wrong.

“The destroyer?” Soleil asked.

“Yes, The Destroyer Automaton is a weapon and guardian of Asgard, it was sent by Loki to kill me,” Thor glared at Loki again, “I wonder if it is still where we left it?”

“You really think SHIELD would have left something called the destroyer alone after what we saw with the tesseract?” Steve asked not understanding Soleil’s interest.

“How dangerous is this thing?” Tony asked.

“It levelled a town Tony, it’s dangerous,” Steve reasoned.

“Hush that’s not important, so the destroyer was sent by Loki to what attack you? Did you defeat it battle then?” She asked.

“Yes, with my godhood and power restored I used my strength and lightning to best the destroyer in combat,” Thor proudly announced.

“That’s sooo amazing,” Loki rolled his eyes the falseness wet unnoticed by Thor, “So like, it’s no longer functioning?”

“No, I knew I could not best it if I attacked the body, so I attacked it’s core it’s power source, rendering it inoperable,” Thor answered.

“Amazing,” Soleil continued, “So, any random idiot can command it?”

Thor laughed at the jab at Loki, Loki just sat deeply disappointed in his brother who allowed his ego to be bolstered like this, “No, it can only be commanded by the king of Asgard.”

“Loki was king?” Tony asked.

“What Asgard’s never had a queen?” Soleil asked.

“How do you go from being King to invader?” Steve asked.

“Expansion of the empire?” Tony proposed, “One land beneath the Asgardian sun and all that.”

“So what, you get named ruler of Asgard, and you’re in automatic control of its weapons? How does that work?”

“Through the Odinforce, Gungier acts as a tool to harness this power and through the Odinforce any ruler can command the destroyer,” Thor answered wondering why she was asking this, “Why do you ask little stark?”

“But I imagine Steel or iron would easily break under the strength of Mjölnir right? So how did the destroyer withstand your combined might?”

It was hilarious how quickly Thor turned from suspicious to eager to explain just how incredible he was.

“The metal from which the destroyer and my Mjölnir is forged is known as Uru, it can only be forged in the megastructure that surrounds Nidavellir. The dwarves harness the power of their sun Nidavellir to forge Uru, they are the only race capable of such a feat,”

“Only because they guard their secrets like paranoid dragons,” Loki muttered.

“Dwarves?” Steve asked.

“Did he say megastructure surrounding a sun?” Tony asked

Soleil vibrated, actually vibrated.

“Soo how does someone get into Nidavellir?” Soleil asked.

“With charm and plenty of gold,” Loki answered

“I can get gold,” Soleil whispered loudly, “How much gold do you-”

“-Bumblebee I know all this is very exciting,” Her dad began to steer her away from the gods, “But this can wait until tomorrow when you’ve had your ten hours now go, sleep.”

“Ugh fine, oh,” She pulled out a piece of paper from her jacket pocket and read out loud, “Pepper says pick up the fucking phone, or she’s leaving you for a man called Seamus.”

“Shit,” he’d forgotten to call Pepper to reassure her he wasn’t dead, he still made sure to push Soleil out toward the Elevator, “Stick him on your floor for now Point Break.”

“My Floor?” Thor asked.

“Oh, oh right, you all have your own floor Jarvis will send you to the correct ones,” that was that. The Starks were gone.

“Why do I feel manipulated?” Thor asked.

“You are catching on much faster these days' brother,” Loki grinned.

Steve sighed, he wasn’t getting paid enough to deal with this bullshit.

#Loki/OFC #LokixOFC #Loki Odinson #Loki #Loki Fic #MCU Loki #Loki/OC #Stark OC

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