#also yeah rhodey and tony???? together but not mentioned | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lovelyirony · 4 years

Note

if you’re taking prompts uhh “the darkness encroaches (you keep it at bay)” idk for who maybe tony?

Tony, for one thing, did not like the fact he was apparently part of a long line of magic-users.

His mom had always been tight-lipped about her own family history, even after she left dad and they moved back to New York.

Tony had asked one time about her family. They had to talk about family history in one of his classes, and there was no way in hell that he wanted to talk about Howard in any capacity that was even neutral. (After all for his debate class, he was talking about how much he sucked in terms of universal weaponry policy.)

Mom had given him a sharp look from the kitchen counter, and even though she was wearing rubber gloves and her hair was pushed back by a bandana that had little Mickey Mouse print on it, she still looked terrifying.

“They’re not worth mentioning, Tony. Make something up.”

“Geez, okay. Touchy subject...”

“Not touchy. Just not worth the time.”

Tony didn’t make a comment after that, because in all honesty he and his mom have never been excellent liars to each other, and this time is no exception.

He does make up his family history. He knows his family is probably from Italy somewhere, they moved in...1923? Yeah, that sounds good. And he’s named after an uncle.

(He isn’t.)

Tony doesn’t ask his mom again because he knows that she won’t give in or break down to answer his questions, and there’s probably good reason why he doesn’t know.

Oh, there’s a reason alright.

He likes science. He likes understanding things. In his (correct) opinion, magic is just science that no one understands yet. Everything has an explanation.

Well.

He accidentally set an asshole’s Mustang on fire.

To be fair, he was an asshole. He had been talking over the professor during every single slide in the lecture presentation for his lecture, and Tony had just about yelled in frustration.

So instead as he saw the guy rev his engine for his stupid fucking car and make a whole big scene about how he had a Mustang, how fucking cool is that you absolute shit-heel of a person-

Fire.

Nothing serious, but Tony knows he did it.

He could feel how his hands twitched, how something came to him and from him. Something not normal.

Or at least if it was normal, health class never came close to covering it.

But it’s a one-time thing, he thinks. He’s not really doing anything else, so maybe it only happens when he’s really mad? That’s probably it. That has to be it.

Except the ramen that he likes at the grocery store is on the top shelf, and Rhodey wandered off to get actual food, and so he can’t reach it because he’s not a freak who is like 6′4″.

It floats.

It fucking floats.

The sweet-chili-ramen floats into his cart and Rhodey sees it, and he stares.

"Either I took an edible and it finally kicked in, or you just did something that definitely isn’t supposed to happen.”

“Maybe the latter,” Tony says faintly.

“Oh,” Rhodey says. “Do you think we have time to get that queso you wanted, or do we have to pay for the groceries and go to the car to process?”

“Queso over my mental state,” Tony responds automatically. “Let’s go.”

They eat in silence when they get to their apartment, and they don’t say anything for about ten minutes.

“So. Do you think you can fly on a broomstick?”

“What? No!” Tony exclaimed, but pausing. “Well, I’ve never tried before, so...”

“Then we have to try. For science reasons,” Rhodey says. “Where the fuck do we get a broomstick?”

So...

As it turns out, you can’t really get a traditional broomstick, so they went to the store and bought a mop.

“They have a mop, but not a broomstick?”

“To be fair, it is April.”

“Why does that matter?”

“Well,” Rhodey starts to explain, “April showers bring May flowers, but also wet boots into the hallway. Also, it’s not your holiday yet.”

“Well yeah, it’s not May yet.”

“I didn’t mean your birthday, dipshit. I meant your holiday.”

“What the fuck is my holiday?” Tony demands. “No one has a ‘celebrate Tony Stark’ day in their calendars, as far as I or my ego knows, so-”

He stops.

“Oh, you little shit.”

“I’m not little,” Rhodey brags. “I’m taller than you.”

“For now.”

“For permanence!”

“I’ll make you pay for this broomstick with the last ten dollars in your checking account.”

“Then I’ll tell Jarvis!”

“Damn your need to know my family,” Tony curses. “Fine.”

Tony can’t fucking fly on a fucking mop.

One broken arm later and a phone call to his mother later, Maria Carbonell is sitting on her son’s dormitory mattress and wondering just why the hell he lied to her about how he broke his arm.

Here was her son’s lie:

“Um. I broke my arm because dinner sucked.”

A.) There was no follow up.

B.) Her son is bad at lying as she is.

Unfortunately, she did not announce her arrival, and so she gets Tony’s roommate opening the door and screaming that the liquor is in the second cabinet from the left.

Maria raises one eyebrow.

“Did Tony at least pick out good wine?”

“Uh...you’re Tony’s mom?”

“Yes.”

“I didn’t think you were coming to visit until move-out.”

“I...we had an interesting conversation. You wouldn’t happen to know why Tony actually broke his arm, would you?”

“Um...no.”

(Rhodey is also a bad liar.)

Tony gets home about ten minutes later and promptly says:

“Oh fuck.”

“Is that any way to greet your mother?” Mom asks, already sipping delicately on her glass of water.

“Um...move-out isn’t for another month.”

“I know. But you lied to your dear mother.”

“How did you know?”

“You can never hide anything from your mom, and your excuse needed work, honey,” Maria answers. “So. How did you break your arm?”

Tony sighs.

“Promise me you won’t laugh. And don’t tell Jarvis.”

“What did you....what?”

The mop.

Maria doesn’t laugh at first, at least until she sees the pictures that Rhodey took and chuckles.

“You promised me you wouldn’t laugh!”

“What were you doing? And why?” she asks, laughing. Tony rubs the back of his neck nervously.

“Um, well...funny story...”

Maria should have known that her son would have her...abilities. But she had hoped that if he had never known the family, had never known what she could do, that maybe...maybe they wouldn’t come.

“So what you’re telling me,” Tony says, nostrils flaring, “is that there’s magic?”

“Yes,” Maria says. “And what we deal with specifically is good magic.”

“Oh, so I could’ve put Glinda the Good Witch on my family tree project,” Tony says sarcastically.

Maria scowls.

“Don’t sass me, Tony. I did it for your own good.”

“I set a car on fire!”

“Well, what kind of car was it?!”

“A Mustang!”

“Then that makes sense!” Maria says. “Your father drove one, and we all know how that turned out!”

Tony blinks for a moment.

And then laughs.

Maria starts laughing too, until they’re both giggling in the apartment, and Tony tells her about the grocery store incident.

Mom tells him, essentially, that they have a job: defend from the darkness. She doesn’t say if the darkness is someone or a group or a concept. She just says that she’ll send him some of the spell-books (fucking spell-books!) over and talk about how emotions and different hand motions can affect how spells go.

“So, why never the family? I mean, you could’ve told me about them and then just not mentioned the magic portion,” Tony asks when he’s moved back into their house, and has grilled Mom on just about every single page in the book.

“Because as much as your father is a terrible person, you’re still like him in some aspects,” Maria says. “And you are stubborn and don’t let information go. You want to know how everything works, and that includes family. You would’ve been wreaking havoc since you were eight.”

“I was already wreaking havoc when I was eight,” Tony whines. “But, this also raises the question of when are we doing a family reunion?”

She stops, looking at him.

“They weren’t exactly pleased when I married a millionaire.”

“Not even when he became a billionaire and you got half his fortune?” Tony teases.

“Not even then,” she answers. “I have a...complicated relationship with magic.”

“As in, you don’t use it.”

“Correct,” she answers. “You don’t need magic in your life, and quite often, it gets you in more trouble than you anticipate.”

“Are you going to give me a ‘magic has consequences’ speech?”

Maria laughs.

“No. Magic, as far as I know, doesn’t really have consequences. The actions you do have consequences. You could blast up an entire country and as long as you don’t get caught, no consequences other than what you do to yourself.”

“Like having guilt?”

“Like having guilt. But enough about that, it’ll make you feel weird for a week if you keep thinking about it. I want you to light candles from two feet away.”

“Of course I can do that,” Tony scoffs.

“Sure you can.”

Tony also sets the curtains on fire!

Maria realizes that her son is perhaps just a tad (okay, a lot) more powerful than she was (and is).

So, she regrettably calls her mother.

Nonna Carbonell is a very imposing figure. A woman who is four-foot-eight and about seven-feet-tall in terms of personality, and dresses only in questionable 1970s-print dresses.

“Ah, so you finally come back home, Maria. And you brought your boy! Who I only see twice in the magazines!”

“You know exactly why I didn’t come back, Mama,” Maria says, rolling her eyes. “But enough about that. You need to teach Tony.”

“Antonio,” Mama says, grinning at him and pinching his cheeks. “Ah, so good to see you have the Carbonell nose, your father was ugly as a mule.”

Tony pointedly does not say that everyone else seems to think that he is the spitting image of his father, but...

His mom and Nonna do not get along, if family dinner is anything to go by. Tony’s lucky that his mom got him at least some Italian lessons so he’s not completely lost with all of his aunts, uncles, and cousins.

He sees pots and pans coming off the shelves themselves. Ladles and knifes dance out of the drawers.

His baby cousin-Geraldine, who is only two-is waving her fingers lackadaisically, and in what seems to be no effort, her bottle of juice is off of the counter.

Great. A two year old is better at magic than he is.

Nonna is a great teacher, who also happens to terrify Tony with how much she can do.

“You’re important,” she grins. “You have more power than your mother, thank God.”

“Why thank god?” Tony asks.

“You always thank God, Tonio,” Nonna says, waving the curtains shut. “Now, let’s see you get the flour off the shelf.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to get, like, a salt shaker?”

“If you spill the salt shaker we get the devil!” Nonna declares. “Flour is better.”

It is not better. It turns Nonna into a ghost, and Tony has to spend ages dusting it off his black jeans.

“Maybe pepper shaker next time,” she says weakly.

Tony does call Rhodey. He was supposed to go on a road trip to see him, and now he’s in Italy learning how to fling flour sacks across the kitchen at his idiot Uncle Theo.

“How goes your magic training you fucking nerd?”

“Literally I call you, and that’s how you greet me?”

“I told my DnD group that you moved to Italy to play on a campaign for a worldwide championship.”

“You are quite literally the worst friend ever.”

“False, because when I moved out I found your favorite Black Sabbath shirt and am saving it for when you move back. Please tell me you’re moving back so I can plan friendships accordingly.”

“I’ll be back. Who knows, I might be able to help with some lifting.”

“I still don’t trust your noodle arms, no matter how much ‘magic’ you have now.”

“Hey! They’re not noodles!”

“Says you, noodle-arm boy.”

“I’m going to curse you into a toad.”

“There’s no way you can do that,” Rhodey says, laughing. “I guarantee you that you wouldn’t be able to turn me back.”

“And then we’d have so much more space in the apartment, darling.”

“But then I wouldn’t have to pay rent! Huzzah! And I wouldn’t have to do my stupid business classes!”

Tony laughs.

“I’ve missed talking to you, Rhodey. I can’t wait until I get to come home again.”

“Me too,” he responds. Tony can practically feel his smile through the phone.

There’s yelling that Rhodey can hear, something about “come back here you American bastard and learn how to knit with magic!” and a hurried “goodbye, love you” from Tony.

Tony does get good at magic. He gets very good.

It’s terrifying to Maria, really.

Darkness has always existed, and it will always exist. Their family exists as a way to keep it balanced, and Tony...

He plays with magic as if he’s always known it, now. He can do things that not even the older family can do. He has meshed magic with mechanics, and he’s started on ideas that Maria was quite sure no one had thought of.

And then, of course, family does what family does best:

They tell you things you should’ve known about three months earlier.

With most families, the thing that they don’t tell you is something like “oh, Aunt Margaret made a terrible choice in husbands again.” Or perhaps “did you see his tattoo? Who in their right mind gets a Sonic the Hedgehog tattoo on their chest?”

With this family, it is the fact that darkness is coming within the next four years, and Tony is probably their only chance.

“Why didn’t you tell me?!” Maria hisses at her sister.

“Because you moved to America!” Gia hisses right back. “We can’t afford to collect call every single time we had trouble.”

“You couldn’t tell me that the darkness is approaching way sooner than we expected?! Because what, you didn’t want to pay for a phone call!”

“To be fair, Nonna made that decision,” Enzo says. “She thought we could handle it. And we can! We can!”

“Oh sure, that’s why Nonna told me that my son is your only chance,” Maria says, dry tone to her voice. “God, I need wine...”

“Everyone needs wine, it’s practically a requirement,” Gia says. “Don’t worry. Things will work themselves out.”

“But will it work out for us?” Maria asks. “I don’t want to be the modern model for the next pietà someone wants to make...”

Tony, unfortunately, is his mother’s son and has listened in on every single conversation that’s ever been had in their house. Here are three things that he has learned:

1.) Apparently, his mother used to bake the best bread, and they forgot to write and ask her for the recipe, and they also didn’t call her.

2.) He’s the last hope for everyone of existing with good things, and no one’s sure how to beat the darkness and he has no clue how to.

3.) Apparently his grandfather (named Basil, of all names) could out-drink anyone and had publicly threatened at least six government officials just because he wanted to see if he could.

You will notice that one of these facts is most likely important than the others.

Who the hell names their kid Basil?

(Just kidding.)

Tony gets back to the US, promises his mom that he won’t tell anyone, and then immediately tells Rhodey when mom goes to the grocery store.

“Wait, so...they’re trusting you?”

“I know! What a terrible idea!”

“God, I know. You can’t even clean a microwave.”

“That was one time!”

Rhodey laughs, tackling Tony in a hug.

“I know, I know. Welcome back, Tones.”

He feels safe. Protected.

He has to learn how to fucking throw knives. Mom has decided that she is going to call in a favor from Howard, and it involves dragging Tony to a most-likely-illegal-pseudo-government-set-up and training under a guy who goes by Hawkeye and a lady who goes by “Black Widow” and expects Tony to be fine with it.

Rhodey also attends, because Tony appreciates misery with company.

Plus, they can complain together as they’re getting their asses kicked.

“Do you ever think about taking a vacation?” Rhodey asks, panting as Natasha once again slams him down on the mat. “I’m sure that Florida or the Philippines would appreciate you. Tourism or the economy, or something like that.”

“You’re not getting out of your fighting lessons by bribing me with a nice vacation,” Natasha says simply. “Tony, adjust your left arm. You’ll break it when Clint comes into contact.”

“Maybe I want to break my arm!” Tony declares.

“Do you want to have to wrap your cast in plastic every single time you shower?” Clint asks. “Because that’s what’ll happen.”

“Why don’t you just spray the cast with some sort of waterproofing spray?”

“Would that even work?” Clint asks. “Because you might have just blown my mind.”

“It might work, I don’t know,” Tony says, panting.

It is eight months when Tony first brushes with darkness.

It’s the morning, which is...odd. He wouldn’t think that darkness would show up in the morning, but here he is on his morning walk trying desperately hard to fight it off and also not grab attention.

He manages to slam it down on the road and have a car run it over, and for the most part, the darkness retreats. He sends it off with a curse, and he runs all the way back to the apartment.

Rhodey frowns.

“We probably need other people, right?”

“A regular family reunion and then some.”

So as it turns out, they’re not getting a family reunion. At least, not any time soon.

Apparently, Nonna is demanding that they have to be there from October 31st through December 7th, according to Holy Days of Obligation and Holidays (specifically, Christian holidays.)

“Nonna, isn’t witchcraft considered illegal or something?” Tony asks. “Like, I thought the church didn’t like that.”

“Too bad, too late. We stay. Talk to your mama, Tonio. She will have answers.”

Maria has absolutely no answers!

“I didn’t seek out witches who live here, baby,” she says, pressing a kiss to his forehead. “Why don’t you email people? Ask around?”

“You can’t just ask people if they’re a witch!” Tony cries.

“Why not?”

“Because you get people who think you’re insane, or they’re insane!”

“So?”

“...good point.”

Pepper Potts is not sure why she answers the post. It is probably something else not related to what she does. Maybe she’ll be meeting with weirdos. But when you get an ad that’s about “stopping darkness from engulfing the world in two-to-four-years: you wanna help?” you listen to that.

So she answers, and she walks in her business-casual outfit, and she meets two guys who are sitting at a shitty folding table at the park.

One of them is wearing cargo pants.

“Are you here about the darkness?” one of the boys says, blinking up at her behind gigantic glasses.

“Um. Yes?”

“Good. My name is Tony, this is Rhodey in the terrible pants. And you are?”

“Um. Pepper?”

“Oh, cool name.”

“Thanks, picked it out myself.”

Rhodey laughs.

“Good. Now, what kind of magic stuff can you do?”

“I’d hardly call it stuff.”

“Tony uses his to make us ramen while we marathon a crime show, I’m calling it stuff,” Rhodey defends.

Pepper watches around her, and satisfied with the lack of people around, lifts Rhodey out of his chair and floats him about thirty feet over.

When he jogs back over, he’s grinning.

“Very cool. What else?”

Pepper is well-versed in technique, spells, and a few tricks that Tony doesn’t know about involving manipulation of light.

“How can you do that?”

“Practice,” Pepper says. “And a late-night conspiracy theory documentary.”

“Cool,” Tony and Rhodey say at the same time.

Pepper actually doesn’t live that far away, and she goes to the same college. They see a lot more of her and become friends.

She helps them update the spell-book, get it organized online, and focus on finding out where the darkness is going to appear next.

Tony is trying very hard not to break down from stress. He’s barely twenty, ate ramen for lunch and dinner yesterday, and is not very sure that he can do this.

People keep telling him that he’s the only hope they have, and he doesn’t want to be that.

He just wants to have a regular summer and make fun of Rhodey’s questionable fashion choices.

He doesn’t even know how to defeat this. At all. And he just wants to graduate college, and get a job somewhere and annoy his mom into teaching him how to make homemade pasta.

Not...not this.

But you don’t get to choose what you have to do for others. You have to do what they need.

Rhodey, at least, understands this.

That is why he is outside of Tony’s door with a half-cold burrito of questionable origins, a smile, and no knowledge of personal boundary space.

(Not that Tony minds.)

“Hey,” he says. “So, you have to save the world and I still remember the fact that you forget to get your shit out of the microwave.”

Tony laughs at that, taking the proffered burrito and biting into it.

“You still have shitty taste in burritos. Where is this even from?”

“A badly-painted truck two blocks from here. I think I was their first customer of the day.”

“No shit,” Tony says, taking another bite of the burrito. “You want to watch a movie or play a video game?”

“Movie. Something light.”

This is how they get to watch a movie that honestly doesn’t mean anything to either of them, but it is mindless and it allows Rhodey to sneak his hand over Tony’s, and it allows Tony some sort of happiness that at least Rhodey is still by his side.

“Hey Tony?”

“Yeah?”

“You think if I managed to find an actual broomstick, you could fly it?”

“Oh, fuck you!” Tony laughs, tossing a pillow over Rhodey’s face.

“I’m serious. You managed to charm the coffeepot into being sentient, so...”

“That was a mistake, and now we’re stuck with Maggie, don’t bother her.”

But it does have him thinking.

If he can charm a coffeepot, what else could he charm?

A suit of armor.

That’s what he charms. He was originally shooting for a broomstick, but then Pepper surprised him and now he has a charmed suit of armor that stands in the hallway of his mom’s old house. (Their base of operations.)

It gives him an idea.

Why not combine the old with the new?

After all, it’s not like darkness hasn’t adapted to hundreds of years of battles. Why not throw a curveball?

“I don’t like using my major,” Rhodey whines as Tony makes him lift one of the arms for his own suit.

“Too bad,” Tony teases. “I’ll get you pizza after.”

“Promise?”

“Mostly.”

“Good enough for me.”

Pepper thinks they’re both idiots, at least until she gets her own suit and is positively thrilled when she looks like she’s a superhero from a television show.

“Yeah, yeah, we look cool.” Tony says. “Now, who’s ready to learn how to conduct magic and electricity at the same time?”

It works out better than anticipated, all things considered.

“You ruined the couch, Anthony Edward Stark-Carbonell!” Mom fumes. “The couch! Where I sit!”

“To be fair, it’s a really ugly couch,” Tony says weakly. “And it’s, um, for the betterment of...magical society?”

“Don’t you dare quote your Aunt Gia at me!” Mom goes on muttering in Italian, and it sounds suspiciously like “why did I have to have a son who blows up couches” to Tony.

The darkness comes in full-force on a Saturday night, which is really inconvenient for a lot of reasons:

1.) A Saturday? Really? It couldn’t come on, like, a Thursday?

2.) They’ve been celebrating Rhodey’s birthday and perhaps Tony has enjoyed two or three drinks and gotten a pleasant buzz out of it, all things considered.

3.) It’s midnight. Why midnight? That’s late, Pepper wanted to get to bed.

4.) Mom is going to kill them, because technically they weren’t supposed to be out on the town.

So here they are, panicking and throwing shitty restaurant chairs around in order to main some sort of ahead-of-the-game mentality.

“Do you think if we called your mom, she would help?”

“She would probably kill me first!” Tony wails.

“Before darkness can?”

“Probably!”

Maria won’t kill her son yet.

Yet.

But god she’s going to come close.

“You could’ve just asked me to buy you wine!” she says. “You could’ve had a movie in!”

“Well sorry, I didn’t think that the darkness was going to come on Rhodey’s birthday!”

“Oh when would you have thought it would come? Next Thursday? Or something more convenient for your year?”

“I mean, when I have to visit Howard over the summer, that would be beneficial.”

“I’ll make up a different excuse,” Mom hisses, deflecting a tendril of darkness from the window and wincing as it smashes a painting down from the wall.

The fight is a hard one. All good fights are. (Although the best fights are ones that are over in five minutes, give or take.)

It’s been hours, Tony is tired, and honestly he really is debating calling a break and going to get a shitty fast-food burger.

Rhodey says “no” even though his stomach is growling.

Pepper has been having fun finding new ways to animate cars, but she’s getting tired.

And then it gets all of his family that he’s made.

He can see Rhodey writhing in it, can see his mom fight it off, and watches Pepper scream.

Tony is not sure if he can do it.

But he has to. He has to beat this fucking terrible thing back because if he doesn’t, everyone else dies. And they don’t get families, they don’t know what will happen.

(And he also really wants to plan a vacation with Rhodey and Pepper next year.)

So he takes himself and all of what he knows, and launches himself directly into it.

By all accounts, he wasn’t supposed to do that. But he hasn’t been able to cut it down into a more manageable size, so he figures that maybe it’s time to try something that has never been advisable by anyone on either hemisphere of the world, or anyone who has ever been rational.

Going into darkness is a very difficult thing, because for one, you can’t see shit.

For a second thing, he can hear everything.

Darkness is not just absence of light. It can be absence of every single damned good thing on the earth, in your head, or anywhere around you. Some people have described it as hell.

Tony is alone, and he is not sure what to do.

There’s a table, and there is someone sitting there.

“So.”

The woman is stirring an olive around her martini, and she looks impeccably dressed. A fitted skirt and suit, manicured black nails, and eyeliner that looks impossibly intricate.

“You are...?”

“The person you’re supposed to destroy.”

“But you’re not exactly a person, are you?”

“Smart guy. No, I’m just the personification of what you’re fighting. You intrigue me, Tony Stark.”

“Just Tony.”

“Fine then. Tony.”

“Why do I intrigue you?”

“Most heroes are alone,” darkness says. (Does he capitalize her name? He’s not sure. “They go alone, they don’t involve people in their struggle. You have involved your family, put them in danger.”

“They would’ve been in greater danger if I had gone by myself,” Tony says. “People have a nasty habit of sticking together, you know.”

“Do they now?”

“Yeah,” Tony says. “And now, I have to make sure we stick together anyways.”

“And what do you mean by-”

He’s already lunging at her.

She wasn’t expecting him to lunge, he guessed.

She goes down, and yells.

Tony scrabbles to fight again as she sends out a blast his way, and he ducks.

“You can’t hide from me!” she yells.

“I’m not trying to!” he yells back. “I’m just trying to kill you!”

The fight goes on, and she plays dirty. Her nails tear into his armor, and he tears his fingers through her hair.

“You can’t beat me,” she howls, triumphant as she manages to pin one of his legs down, and trying to claw at his face. “Darkness always exists! You would be nothing without me!”

Tony pauses for a second.

“So what you’re saying is...as long as you exist, so does everything else?”

“Yes!”

Tony grins.

“Aw, you shouldn’t have told me that honey.”

With darkness being the beginning, everything else comes forth. Tony summons his cousins, his family, Rhodey, Pepper.

And eventually, her physical form gets smaller and smaller.

Darkness is not something that can be eradicated from your life. But you can beat the shit out of it with help. Tony learned that.

He also learned that Rhodey has a phenomenal flying kick.

They spend the following day laying on the couch or adjacent chairs and staring at the decorations that they need to replace.

They also learn that Nonna has learned how to call, and is not quite sure if she can be heard or not.

“TONIO? TONIO! WHERE ARE YOU?!”

“Nonna, quiet,” Tony groans. “I literally just saved the world yesterday, please don’t yell.”

“I HAVE FOOD FOR YOU. COME TO ITALY. NEXT WEEK?”

Tony groans.

“Sure, Nonna. I will come.”

“BRING FRIENDS. HAVE GIFTS FROM POPE FOR YOU.”

“You...when did you have time to get gifts...the pope?”

“HAVE FRIENDS. COME!”

Tony looks at Mom, Rhodey, and Pepper.

“So. When should we leave for next week?”

#HI THIS IS VERY VERY LONG #VERY VERY LONG #pepper potts #tony stark #rhodey #tony's family from italy !!! is somehow witch and catholic simply because i wanted to make it funny #maria carbonell #lovelyirony writes #tony stark is a fucking badass #yes he is a witch yes he is a badass #darkness can also be representative of uhhh anxiety or how bad things will alwyas be there #but it has to be to point out the good #just my take on that #also yeah rhodey and tony???? together but not mentioned #pepper saying she chose her name was something i meant to delve into but i didn't so #magic au

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thealtoduck · 3 years

Text

Just some small relationship and powers headcanons for basically being Danny Phantom and part of the Avengers…

Avengers x Male Reader

Peter Parker x Male Reader

Warnings: Single mention of sex

Summary: These are mostly related to your relationships with the other Avengers…

(A/N: This isn’t really a part 2 of So your basically Danny Phantom but your also part of the Avengers… + Peter Parker becomes your boyfriend… it’s more like extras, like deleted scenes)

——

Wanda

Wanda and you would have weird relationship at first, because both of you would act quite reserved and wouldn’t make a lot of conversation.

But then one day you’d see her cooking in the kitchen and you asked ”Hey, what are you making?”. Wanda looked up from the the food and said ”It’s a sokovian dish, my mom used to make it, it was my brothers favorite”.

”I’m sorry about your parents and brother, Natasha told me about them” you said apologetically. ”Thank you, would you like to help me cook?” she asked. ”Yeah sure, what do you want me to do?” you answered enthusiastically. ”Can you cut up that onion?” she asked. ”Of course” you said.

From then on you and Wanda developed kind of a sibling relationship.

Rhodey

Your’s and Rhodey’s friendship consists mainly of the two of you roasting each other, but somehow you’re also kind of bffs and are ready blow up the earth for each other.

The two of you also have a habit of ganging up on Tony and make fun of him instead of each other.

Tony

Tony has basically adopted you as his son and tries his best to be the cool and not to overprotective. He can do the cool part but he needs to work on the overprotective part.

Part of the reason why he’s so protective is because he’s the one who found you in the rubble of your old house and he felt as if life was telling him to take care of you.

Peter (small nsfw part)

Peter would bring you on a visit to Midtown to meet your old classmates from before you were taken in by the Avengers. Mj who was a friend of yours was happy to finally see you again.

And to Peter’s displeasure Flash was also happy to see you and immediately started flirting with you as he had done before. But you were quick to shut him down as you always had.

(Nsfw part) You and Peter would experiment with ways to use yours and his powers during sex to make it more exciting.

Powers

Intangibility

When you were first getting used to your powers you sometimes phased through the floor fell down to the floor beneath. One time you were on your way to your room but your powers activated and you fell into the kitchen were Tony and Pepper were having lunch together. Pepper screamed as you landed on the floor next to her but Tony just casually asked ”You okay kid?”.

You and Vision never use doors to enter each others rooms because you can both phase through solid materials.

Invisibility

Just a day after you found out that you could turn yourself and your clothes invisible you walked into the living room where Rhodey was sitting on the couch. He looked at you strangely and asked ”Where are your pants?”. ”What do you mean?” you asked and looked down on your pants only notice that they weren’t there.

You could still feel that your pants were on they just weren’t visible. But luckily enough your boxers were still visible but unlickily it was your Black Widow boxers, which were black and covered in red hourglass shapes.

So Rhodey started laughing and said ”Are you wearing Black Widow boxers?”. So you decided to sass back saying ”What should i be wearing? War Machine boxers? Oh wait… they don’t make those cause no one cares”. But Rhodey continued laughing anyway.

Ecto-Plasm Energy

It started at your first mission with the Avengers which was to take down a remaining Hydra base and since you started being able to control you intangibility and flight they thought you’d be safe enoungh to bring along.

And everything was going fine on the mission so far. They had paired you up with Steve so he could show you how they do things. But things started going a bit south when they sent an enhanced human to attack you and Steve.

Steve was almost overpowered by it but when you intervined you somehow managed to create a beam of green ecto-plasm energy which sent the enchanced human flying through the hallway you were in and into a wall. After that all you could do was utter a small ”oops”.

#avengers x male reader #avengers x male!reader #x male reader #male reader #x male!reader #peter parker x male reader #peter parker x male!reader #x male reader fluff #tony stark x male teen reader #avengers x male teen reader #marvel x male reader #marvel x male!reader #mcu x male reader #james rhodes x male reader #wanda maximoff x male reader #spiderman x male reader #x male reader smut #x male reader headcanons

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margarethx · 3 years

Text

It’s weird how people treat Bucky as the mysterious and secretive one within Sambucky when you can look at him for like two seconds and deduce everything you need to know about him. Sad boi, traumatic past, doesn’t like talking about it, quiet, frustrated, you better don’t interact with him unless he lets you.

Sam Wilson on the other hand? I have no clue what’s going on in his head most of the time. (I mean... I kind of do, as a viewer. But I’m not sure the characters he encounters are just as informed.) He seems like a pretty positive, optimistic person, but there are so many moments when he just looks desperate and on the verge of tears. Like he’s not sure anything will ever work in his favour. He doesn’t talk much about his emotions or his past unless it’s very relevant - and he does that mainly to connect with other people through shared experience. That’s why he mentioned Riley’s death. Or his aunt... who also died.

Karli called him a hopeless optimist. But is he an optimist? I wouldn’t say so. He likes joking and smiles... relatively often... but that’s it. For me he seems more like a realist who knows when he can get the job done to fix a problem. And he fixes a lot of problems. It seems like he helps other people all the time, so you might think he’s just selfless. But his desperate attempts to keep the family boat against Sarah’s protests were pretty selfish. (Objectively. I’m not judging him here.) Giving the shield away was not exatly selfish (he had every right to do so), but he still didn’t listen to anyone telling him to take up the mantle, because he didn’t want to, end of discussion.

For people like Walker he seems like a sidekick and a “wingman”. Someone who followed Steve around. But he didn’t. Sam made all the decisions himself - in ca:tws Steve even discouraged him from joining the fight. He went and fought anyway. Even Bucky, who knew Sam way longer than Walker, just assumed that he went against the Accords, because Steve did. But Sam formed his opinion first - it just happened to align with Steve’s. And how can he be a sidekick who just follows other people when during just his second conversation with Steve he said he likes working at the VA, because there’s no one above him giving him orders and that’s nice?

“Sam is the rational one!” - says the fandom. ...Sam kicked a fucking helicopter mid-flight. And jumped into one almost falling into the rotor.

“Sam is stubborn and will hold a grudge for a long time” - says the fandom (or at least the part of it who clearly dislikes the guy). ... Meanwhile, Sam helped Tony find Steve right after he was shot by him in the face for an accident that was not Sam’s fault. And he helped Vision in Infinity War even thought he was part of said accident. He still talks with Rhodey like they’re okay and nothing happened. And he tried to become friends with Barnes after he almost killed him three times. (As the Winter Soldier, but still.)

Zemo didn’t expect Sam to not hesitate about rejecting the serum.

Karli was surprised by Sam’s character. Later she was suprised again and disappointed that he (of all people) decided to become the new Captain. Isaiah didn’t expect him to take the shield either. But he did take it and Isaiah had to admit he was wrong about Sam after he heard his speech.

“I never said pilot ;)” ... Yeah, I know. You never did, Sam. Because you say so little about yourself. And it’s so vague and carefully selected.

“He speaks Arabic...” Yeah, Torres. I was surprised too.

--- ----- ---

This whole show (and Sam’s entire story in the MCU) seems like it’s just a person after a person, after a person making assumptions about Sam and then realizing that... Actually they were wrong the whole time. Either partially or complitely.

Sam is so secretive about his own thoughts and feelings that he tricked everyone around him into thinking he’s an open book, so no one bothers to even ask any questions. Because they feel like they know him, but... Do they really?

And I can just imagine that the longer Sam and Bucky work and live together the more Bucky sees how other people misjudge his partner... all the damn time. (Just as he himself used to do.) They just assume Sam will let them do anything they want and he doesn’t. Or they assume they can give him orders and he’s like: “Subtle? Got it!” - and does whatever he planned, following only his own rules.

It must be pretty amusing to watch. And it probably feels like some kind of honour to actually get a chance to know the real Sam Wilson.

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crazycookiecrumbles · 3 years

Text

A Very Stark Christmas

A/N: IT’S A HOLIDAY SPECIAL, BITCHES, AGAIN! And it’s super short bc I’m DROWNING in work.

Okay. So this is in my Stark!ReaderVerse! Feedback, as awlays, extremely appreciated and desired.

TAG LIST: I do not.

Pairings/Characters: Shang-Chi x Stark!Reader, mentions: Bucky Barnes, Clint Barton, Pepper Potts, Katy Chen, Xialing Xu, Steve Rogers, just about everyone.

Warnings: fluff/crack drabble? I don’t know how to categorize it. swears.

Summary: Your fiance is with you to celebrate Christmsa together! Your first Christmas with family since the Blip, aka, for once, you did not run away from a holiday

WC: 2,926

Murder. All you could think about was murder. As you watched your fiancé and your little sister run around the kitchen, you wanted to do nothing but murder them. Sure, they were adorable. They were so cute at this moment, playing together, laughing, having fun, but you wanted to fucking kill them.

A hand rested on your shoulder and you looked to your right to see Pepper sighing, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. That doesn’t take me hours to do or anything,” you replied, staring at all the Christmas cookies you had decorated being covered in flour and other ingredients that ruined the designs and made the cookies, basically, inedible.

Pepper sighed softly, “I think Morgan got impatient waiting for you to come back from the store and decided that her uncle would be a sufficient baking buddy.”

“He’s also five years old inside, though. I guess it’s a good match.”

“Yeah…” Pepper trailed off. “Anyway, I invited Happy over, but he’ll be here after Christmas for the New Year’s party. May invited him to join her and Peter for Christmas.”

“That’s sweet,” you commented. “Good for Happy.”

“Yes. Rhodey will be here late too, and I’ve invited everyone to the compound for New Year’s.”

“Dude —“

“We’re keeping Tony’s legacy alive. We didn’t do a massive Christmas party. We’re doing a giant New Year’s party, deal with it,” she remarked. “How’s Katy enjoying the gift?”

“Well, I don’t know how well you can recreate Home Alone 2 when your entire family is with you, but she sent me a video of her throwing her brother into a snow bank in Central Park. I think they’re having fun.”

Pepper laughed, “Good, good. Okay, let’s stop this mess.”

You and Pepper walked into the kitchen to see Morgan holding a bag of icing like it was a knife, and Shangqi holding a bowl of sprinkles in the air like he was going to dump it all over Morgan.

“I will fucking kill you if you dump a bowl of sprinkles everywhere,” you blurted out quickly.

He cringed, “Sorry, babe.”

“Hi mama,” Morgan waved her hand cheerily. “We’re having fun.”

“I see! And making a huge mess of it,” Pepper took the bag out of her hand, “You ruined your sister’s cookies. She worked very hard on those, you know. You asked her to make them.”

“Oh,” her face fell slightly as she looked down to see the broken cookies covered in various other ingredients. “I’m sorry, Y/N. Uncle Shangqi made me have too much fun.”

“Dude…” he stared at her, shocked that she was totally passing the blame on him. “Wow.”

Morgan smirked while he pouted.

Shangqi glanced down and grabbed a cookie, “Hey, I mean. It still looks good! I’m sure this is fine,” he took a bite of one. You could see his eye twitched as his teeth sunk into a corner covered in raw flour and soaked in lemon juice, “It’s uh, got a nice bite to it.”

“Nice try,” you commented as you took the cookie from his hand. “You and Morgan are cleaning this up.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And when you’re done, I’m going to make coquito and blow your mind,” you explained as you picked some chocolate chips off of his sweater. “So go clean up, don’t make more of a mess, and I’ll be back.”

“You got it, boss,” he leaned down and pecked your lips. “Where will I find you?”

“I’ll be upstairs making my rounds of texts and video calls.”

He nodded his head once and gave you a quick, almost comical salute with how much sugar he was covered in, “Then I will see you soon.”

You smiled softly, mumbled ‘at ease’ and walked away, making sure to tickle Morgan on her stomach before you jogged upstairs. Going into your room, you jumped on the bed, pulled out your phone, and went to making your calls.

“Hey, Peter,” you smiled as you caught Happy in the background wearing an apron and very clearly trying to teach May how to make something. “Having a good time?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. May burned a bunch of stuff. Happy is trying to help her learn to cook. Again. Totally not weird at all for me or anything,” he mumbled under his breath which made you snort. “Hey, May, Happy, Y/N called!”

“Hey!” May waved happily while Happy ran over.

“Hey, hey, munchkin!”

You snorted, “Happy, I think I’m taller than you or your height, even.”

“Still going to be munchkin to me,” he remarked. “You look good, kid. Doing okay? Where’s that uh, where’s that new fiancé of yours?”

“Why, so you can intimidate him?” You teased. “He’s downstairs cleaning with Morgan. They were playing and made a mess.”

“Good, you make that man clean his own messes,” Happy said, pointing a finger at the screen. “we’re not falling for any more idiots who don’t appreciate you in this household.”

“Yes, Happy.” You grinned. “You guys have fun. I’m going to make a few more rounds really quickly.”

“Merry Christmas, munchkin,” Happy told you. “Good to see you actually celebrating this year and not being dragged around by Sam and Bucky.”

“Did they tell you what happened last year?”

“They told Pepper, who told me, in tears. Let’s just say she’s very happy to have you back and celebrating again.”

“Right,” you mumbled. “Well, have fun. By the way, I think May burnt whatever’s on the stove.”

“Oh, shit!” Happy ran off to help her while you glanced at Peter.

“Yeah, that’s not surprising,” he sighed. “Bye, Y/N. See you at the party.”

“See ya, Parker.”

You then decided to call Bucky. After a few moments, and even a second call because you were not going to do this later, Bucky answered the phone wearing an elf hat and ears.

“Holy shit,” you mumbled as you immediately took screenshots. “Christmas really did come early for me. Thank you for this, Bucky Bear. This is all I ever wanted.”

“I swear to god, Stark. I will — “

“Y/N Stark, how you doin!” Sam shouted as he came into view, arm slinging around Bucky as eggnog sloshed around in his cup. “Doesn’t he look great? We’re calling him the grumpy elf.”

“Sam, he looks amazing. And you’re a fantastic Santa Claus. Or is it Samta?”

He beamed, “I see what you did there. I’m loving it! You went home this year, right? Or do we need to go drag your ass outside? We already adopted one emo for the holidays. Do we need another?”

You snorted, “I’m home, I’m home! Who did you get? Steve?”

“Yeah, Sarah’s got him helping her in the kitchen, since Sam is drunk and eating everything before she can even finish prepping for tomorrow.”

Sam nodded proudly, “Yes, yes I am. What you guys doing over there?”

“Shangqi and Morgan are cleaning up a kitchen explosion so I can make some coquito tonight.”

Cue those two groaning and shouting that they wanted coquito and didn’t have any. Yelling over each other, they proceeded to beg you to save them some, or make more for the New Year’s party. Sam was even so bold as to ask for the recipe.

“That’s my mom’s recipe. You’re not getting that,” you chuckled. “Over my dead body.”

“Well, don’t tempt us, Stark. We’ll make it happen.” Bucky joked.

“Oh ,sure, sure. I bet you two will kill me. You like me too much to do that.”

“You’re okay, I guess.” Sam sighed. “Like, we don’t care about your feelings or anything. We just check on you so you don’t break the planet and stuff.”

“Uh-huh,” you nodded slowly. “Right. Anyway, have fun. Say hi to —“

“Oh, let’s give her the tour,” Bucky held the phone out of Sam’s reach and brought you to the kitchen. He turned the camera around so you could see her kids sitting at the counter, one drinking hot chocolate while the other was decorating the rest of the mugs of the steaming hot beverage. Sarah turned and waved happily to you before slapping Sam’s hand away from the ham. Steve turned around and gave you a soft wave.

“Doing okay there, doll?” Steve asked. “I know how you get around Christmas.”

You rolled your eyes, “Not your job to check on me, Steve.”

“As long as I’m alive, I’ll —“

“Okay, before this gets awkward, I’m gonna let you go,” Bucky said quickly as he turned the phone way. “Later, Stark. Oh, and tell your boyfriend — sorry, tell your fiancé that he’s a loser. And tell Katy she’s an even bigger loser.”

“Wow,” your eyebrows flew up. “Bucky, you really do like them, don’t you? Aw, look at you making friends. This is so cute.”

“Shut up, Stark.”

You cackled, “Bye, guys. Have fun.”

You briefly spoke to Bruce after. Scott didn’t answer, likely with his kid, so you left a message for him. You went through your small circle of people, reminded Katy where she needs to drive to tomorrow so she and her family could come visit, and you tried to make one phone call that you’d been trying to make three times now.

“I know you have no one to go to, answer your phone, loser,” you muttered as you stood up from your bed and started to head downstairs, basically giving up on having this conversation.

But, funny enough, you heard a phone ringing as you descended the stairs. Frowning, you pulled away slightly to try to figure out whose phone that was while you waited on the line. As you hit the bottom step and looked around the room, you could see Clint by the front door taking off his boots while Pepper was hanging his coat on the rack.

“Can you stop calling me?” Clint looked at you. “God, you make it so hard to surprise you. Sheesh, your poor fiancé.”

You beamed. You tossed the phone on the sofa and ran over to Clint ,tackling him in a hug and listening to his back crack. “You’re such an asshole, Barton.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, Starky.” Clint hugged you and rubbed your back. “Pepper invited me over. Hope that’s fine with you.”

“I was just calling to wish you happy holidays in case I forget tomorrow. I guess this’ll suffice.”

“You usually do forget, yeah,” he nodded in agreement. “I brought some booze. And, uh, eggnog for the kid.” He then glanced up at Pepper, “Oh, but it’s, like, low-sugar and all that healthy crap you do.”

Pepper laughed, “It’s Christmas Eve, she ate two candy canes for breakfast and three cookies for lunch. It’s all hell breaks loose now.”

“Right on,” Clint grinned. “Where is the tiny Stark and the boy toy anyway?”

“Kitchen,” you held on to Clint’s arm and dragged him to the kitchen. There, he could see Morgan sitting on the counter and throwing things into the garbage can like it was basketball, which Shangqi was holding up for her and cheering her on. “Hey, Morgan. You remember Clint, right?”

“Hi, Mr. Barton,” Morgan waved her hand.

“Clint’s fine, squirt,” Clint waved back to her.

“I’m not a squirt! I am Queen Morgan of Dragonridge and I slayed the giant demon dragon.”

Clint blinked leaned down to whisper in your ear, “I’m terrified of the inventions she comes up with when she’s older.”

“She already made a very crude, but effective, outline of flame-thrower pistols. I’m so excited,” you replied.

Clint now made a mental note that Morgan was a terrifying little creature. He nodded to Shangqi with a grin, reaching over to shake his hand as Shangqi put the can down to give him a hug.

“Still engaged to her? You’re brave.”

You mumbled swears while Shangqi held a hand over his own heart.

“I know, right? I’m shocked too. I think it’s the food that keeps me here.”

“You know? Fuck the both of you.”

“Yeah, fuck the both of you,” Morgan echoed.

“Oh, fucking shit,” you mumbled and pinched the bridge of your nose while Morgan started cackling maniacally.

“Okay. I think that’s a good time to force you to a bath,” Pepper said as she took Morgan’s hand and helped her off the counter. “Clint, make yourself comfortable. We’re eating late and opening a present each tonight.”

“Sounds good,” Clint thanked her and watched the two disappear. With them gone, Clint stared at you and your fiancé who was resting his chin on the top of your head. “I’ve got pizza in the car we can have for lunch.”

“Amazing,” you sighed happily.

“Wait, we’re opening presents tonight?” Shangqi asked with a furrowed brow. “You guys don’t wait until Christmas?”

“Just one gift tonight,” you explained. “When I was a kid my mom and I would cook all day long, open a present at night. She tried to get me to go to midnight mass, never happened, always knocked out.”

“Wow, are you going all out?” Clint asked. “The last time you did all that was, I think, I think when we were all at the tower.”

“Yeah….” you trailed off and glanced up at Shangqi. “Thought I’d share some off my Christmas traditions.”

Your fiancé beamed, “I’m honored, babe. I really am. Anything else I should know?”

“At the moment? Nah.”

He nodded, “Oh, since Katy’s family is coming tomorrow, I have it under good authority they’re making some stuff to bring over.”

You raised an eyebrow, “How did they find a way to make food? I don’t think there was a kitchen in that room at The Plaza.”

Shangqi sighed and patted the top of your head, “Never underestimate that family’s desire to feed people. It outweighs everything every time.”

“Noted. Great, it’ll be a Chinese-American-Puerto Rican Christmas for all,” you clapped your hands together. “Let’s do this. I’ll get started on the coquito.”

“I’ll help you get the pizza out of the car,” Shangqi nodded to Clint.

Clint sighed happily, “I can’t wait to eat all of that food tomorrow.”

~*~

The boys heated up the pizza in the oven while you were making the festive drink. Shangqi would sit on the counter and feed you pizza while you worked, him and Clint shooting the breeze with you in the kitchen and talking about video games and movies, mostly. Morgan returned from her bath and joined the pizza party along with Pepper, who was delighted that Clint picked it up from her favorite place.

After making your coquito, you all curled around the TV and fireplace to watch Christmas movies together. Shangqi noticed at one point that Morgan was drawing the Grinch’s sleigh, and he wondered if he was witnessing a child evil genius concoct an actual way to steal presents from people.

You all opened one gift each, drank some more, and each went your separate ways to go to bed. Morgan was already passed out and carried up to bed by Pepper. You, Clint, and Shangqi hung around for al little while longer before heading off to bed.

In your bedroom, you curled up into Shangqi’s arms as he wrapped his tightly around you and stared up at the ceiling.

“I like this,” he remarked. “You’re doing things you used to do, sharing it with me. You look happy, babe. That makes me happy too.”

You beamed and squeezed his middle, “I mean. It still kind of sucks. Haven’t had my mom for so long so I’ve dealt with that but it really sucks not having my dad here. He’s the life of the party.”

“Well,” Shangqi turned so he was facing you, “I’m sure we can find someone to take up that title.”

“Yeah…” you trailed off.

“It’s going to be Morgan,” you both said and laughed.

“Good, too much pressure,” you remarked. “Thanks for coming. I know you wanted to do that Plaza Hotel Home Alone thing with Katy.”

“Yeah, but I can always do it next year or whatever,” He shrugged a shoulder. “But this was your first Christmas back with family. This was more important.”

“You’re kinda too good to me,” you muttered to yourself. “I think about that, you know? Helped me through so much. I kind of feel like all this time together I haven’t really done the same for you.”

“Well, babe. Next time my ex-husband comes back from the dead after all my friends died and we saved the world, I will heavily lean on you,” he teased. “Besides, that’s not true. Remember when we went to Macau to see my sister? You were there for me through all of that. Even when I thought she might actually be rebuilding the Ten Rings, which is crazy,” he laughed to himself in disbelief. “Anyway, I’m not keeping track, babe. I love you. You’re amazing. We just have to be there for each other no matter what. Right?”

You grinned, “Right.”

He winked, “Merry Christmas, Y/N.”

“Merry Christmas, Shangqi,” you sighed happily and kissed him before resting your head on his chest. As your arms found a comfortable spot around him, you felt them brush against something. Frowning, you raised your hand and grabbed at his boxers, which made him squirm under your touch.

You sat up and stared at him in the dark, “Shangqi.”

“Yes, oh lovely love of my life?”

“Did you,” you paused to feel around, “Did you pin mistletoe to your boxers?”

“I did, yeah,” he cleared his throat. “Festive, right?”

“Oh, my god.”

#shang chi x reader #shang-chi x reader #xu shang chi #shang-chi x stark!reader #shang-chi #stark!reader x platonic!clint barton #platonic!clint x reader #stark!reader #stark!readerverse #crazycookiecrumbles

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moonlit-imagines · 4 years

Text

Headcanons for being a feral Avenger

Avengers x reader

warnings: guns and death mention (but no one dies dw)

a/n: s/o to @emcon-imagines for the idea since we needed smth OPPOSITE of the norm. also i find it really funny that i got a request for a feral xmen hc while i was writing this

prompt:

you were just.....too much for the team to handle

and that was saying something considering you were THE AVENGERS

“guys, guys, guys, oh my god, look what matt damon just posted” -you

“since when do you care about matt damon?” -literally any avenger

“i dont” -you

absolutely no idea when to quit

so there’s never a dull moment

“who is screaming ‘i fucking knew it?’ some of us are trying to work” -tony

“i think you know” -nat

“follow up question: why?” -tony

“i believe they are watching ‘the mandalorian’” -wanda

“WITHOUT ME??? SON OF A—” -tony

not being allowed to have coffee

or really any kind of caffine but

“sowhatimtryingtosayisshieldwasconnectedtohydraandhydraisdefinitelyconnectedtotheilluminatisowereweapartoftheilluminati?” -you

“...vis? did you give y/n coffee?” -wanda

“i wasn’t aware that it had this effect on them” -vision

accidentally punching a hole in the wall

putting a picture of the team over it

“oh, that’s nice...oh, nevermind” -sam

yes, you announce yourself every time you enter the room

*arms raised* “hello all, it is i, your favorite avenger” -you

“actually my favorite avenger is natasha” -clint

“okay, then it is i, that bitch” -you

“im going to duct tape your mouth shut” -tony

fun fact tony cracked peter’s formula for web fluids just so he could web your mouth shut

*mmph. mmmmph. MMMMMMPH* -you

“ah, finally. peace and quiet” -tony

being found asleep (or just lying down) in some odd positions and locations

the quinjet, on the helipad, in natasha’s room, on the kitchen floor, under the couch cushions, and more

*finding you lying on the kitchen floor* “you alive down there?” -tony *nudging you w his foot*

“hnnnnnn” -you

“cool” -tony

steve has tackled you on the battlefield several times. why, you ask?

“dont go chasin’ waterfalllls stick to the rivers and the lakes that youre used toooo...erbaneanananeeneedododoo...” -you

“y/n, watch out!” -steve

you can put the rest together

also just being the worst on the comms

“clint u gotta pull ur pants up” “work it, wanda!!!” “anyone else smell hamburgers?? hey peter, why don’t you get me a combo?” “look guys! i got one of their weapons! wonder how it works—NEVERMIND” “woah, holy shit, nat. can you teach me how to do that???” -all you, babey

“i don’t remember hitting ‘play’ on the director’s commentary of this mission” -natasha (courtesy of the brilliant @emcon-imagines)

“tony?” -rhodey

“yep, turning off their comms now. they’ll manage without us” -tony

“you’re the genius, why don’t you develop a real-life mute button for them?” -rhodey

“yeah, let me just turn y/n into a cyborg first. thanks for the input” -tony, sarcastically

meanwhile...

“GUYS??? GUYS???? ARE YOU ALL DEAD??? IM THE ONLY ONE LEFT???? this is not how i imagined this happening. maybe i can get a bigger room at the compound. hmph.” -you

whipping a random ass chain around??? where did you get that???

flagging down rhodey

*lands* “what?” -rhodey

“did everyone die?” -you

“no” -rhodey

“why cant i hear them on comms?” -you

“see you later” -rhodey, flying away

sleepless nights tbh

why? why. whywhywhywhy why

was it nightmares? was it hunger? straight up restlessness? wouldnt you like to know

“do i smell popcorn?” -nat to wanda in the dead of night

you had two ENTIRE boxes of popcorn bags out on the counter

“maybe you should just knock them the fuck out, wanda” -natasha (also a product of @emcon-imagines’ genius)

“no!!! movie night!!!” -you, moments before falling into nat’s arms

ur not only feral.....ur also a good friend

“y/n, i really need your help” -peter

“shoot. wait—is it illegal? i’ll do it if it’s illegal” -you

“?? no, no, i just need you to schedule my dentist appointment. my aunt says she won’t do it for me anymore” -peter

*gasp* “can i make up my own character??” -you

you were actually a fan favorite

at times

*in front of news cameras* “hey cool fact about captain america: he can lift his legs behind his head”

social media legend

wintersoldierthirstpage: “can you tell us if bucky’s metal arm vibrates”

y/n_l/n: “can neither confirm nor deny. yes.”

you had a tiktok that was half trends/dances and half memeing serious situations

*pointing camera at secretary ross* “dude’s really trying to take away our rights and shit” *phone smacked out of hand by rhodey*

*all the avengers arguing with “say so” being played over it*

walking into the room covered in string lights

burning ur cookies!!!!

taking clints bow and arrows for “practice”

bad decisions all around

“oh no” -you, rushing out of your room

“what? what’s ‘oh no’” -sam

“my toilet is on fire” -you

“are—are you joking?” -sam

“where’s the fire extinguisher.” -you, VERY CALM

“y/n???? Y/N???? WHY ARENT THE ALARMS GOING OFF?? THE SPRINKLERS?? THERES SMOKE COMING OUT OF YOUR ROOM” -sam

“fire alarms are a myth” -you

“NO??????”

they act like they cant stand you but deep down, you make their lives sm more interesting and they don’t know what they’d do without you. there isn’t always someone trying to achieve world domination.

taglist: @alwaysananglophile // @rorybutnotgilmore // @locke-writes // @sweetheartliz07 // @queen-destenie // @natasha-danvers // @lokihiddles // @frostedficrecs // @lotsoffandomrecs // @johnmurphyisqueer // @teenwaywardasgardian // @pappydaddy // @captainshazamerica // @freya-xo // @ravenmoore14 // @thisetaernallove // @ofthedewthesunlight // @canarypoint // @zoeyserpentluck // @randomawesomeperson102 // @spideyandtheboys // @ghost-bich //

#marvel #avengers #marvel imagine #marvel x reader #avengers x reader #avengers imagine #tony stark imagine #steve rogers imagine #natasha romanoff imagine #wanda maximoff imagine #james rhodes imagine #sam wilson imagine #clint barton imagine #peter parker imagine

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petertingle-yipyip · 3 years

Text

NIGHTMARE - FIVE (BUCKY BARNES)

FIVE - SOMEBODY THAT YOU USED TO KNOW

Last Part // Next Part // Masterlist

Tags: @writingsbychlo @calums-betch @ladyyystark @buckyys-doll @bangtanxberm @tgirljeep388 @spideysimpossiblegirl

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x HYDRA!reader

Word Count: 10,983

Summary: She thought she could retire the mask and be done, but when she’s framed for a blatantly amateur attack, she has to put it back on and clear her name. Can she keep her friends in the process?

Notes/Warnings: sorry it’s late! i’ve been so tired lately! anyway, blood mention, language, and violence. also, i wanna develop her backstory a lil more so send asks about her

About a year later, you had made little progress on your quest to find James Barnes. You had been calling in favors and asking the right people but almost every net you cast came up empty.

“Yeah, he was here but we haven’t seen him in months.”

“No, he’s not familiar.”

“I’ve never heard that name before, sorry.”

“I’ve been wondering where he went myself. He just disappeared one day.”

The best lead you had was ‘somewhere in Romania’ and that was just what a girl who had a homegrown fruit stand said she overheard. You thought about whether or not it would be better to leave him alone, to not find him. Maybe that’s what the universe was trying to tell you. After all, you had a hand in what would be the worst chapter of his life. You were considering giving up if your current lead took you nowhere.

Maybe James really didn’t want to be found.

You stopped off in London once you heard about the funeral from Sam, and he only told you because he knew Steve would need another friend. You stood off in the back, not feeling it was right to push to the front to be with Steve - even though he was the only reason you were there. You just wanted to check on him but since you didn’t know Peggy Carter personally, it would’ve been wrong to claim a front row spot. After the funeral, you found him still in the Cathedral even though everyone else had left.

“I thought I’d find you here.” You said gently as you approached him and placed a comforting hand on arm. “You okay?”

“When I came out of the ice, I thought everyone I knew was gone.” He said simply. “And then I found out she was alive. I was just lucky to have her.”

“She had you back too.” You offered. “Come here.” You smiled softly, moving in to hug your friend.

“What are you doing here?” He asked with a thankful smile while you pulled away. “I thought you were looking for Bucky.”

“Yeah, I’m on my way to chase down a lead but to be honest, I don’t know how reliable it is. At this point, I feel like I’m just grasping at straws.” You said regretfully. You wished you had better news for him. “I'm not sure if I should keep going though. I owe it to him, I know. But it’s like he knows someone is looking and he’s slipping through my fingers…I had to make a stop to check on a friend before that though. And it looks like someone else had the same idea.” You smiled as Natasha joined you.

“Who else signed?” Steve asked after a small pause. He assumed she was here on business and that made you a bit sad. They were closer friends than that, weren’t they?

“Tony, Rhodey, Vision.” Natasha answered.

“Clint?”

“Says he’s retired.”

“Maximoffs?”

You frowned. What had you missed that had everyone so divided?

“TBD.. I’m off to Vienna for the signing of the Accords. There’s plenty of room on the jet, for both of you.” She turned to you with a pointed look.

“Oh no.” You shook your head quickly. “I won’t be at someone else’s disposal, not until I fix what HYDRA did to my head. People have agendas and those change. Plus, I have no idea what’s going on. I’m sorry..”

“You don’t have to apologize, Y/N.” Steve said gently, patting your arm.

“Just because it’s the path of least resistance doesn’t mean it’s the wrong path.” Natasha continued. “Staying together is more important than how we stay together..”

“But what are we giving up to do it?” He countered sadly.

“I’ve been in that boat, y’know.” You jumped in. “Trying to stay together, not concerning myself with how I stayed with them… The ends don’t always justify the means.”

Steve sighed and shook his head, looking at his friend with a sorrowful expression. “I’m sorry, Nat. I can’t sign it.”

“I know.” She nodded.

“Then what are you doing here?”

“I didn’t want you to be alone.” She said softly before pulling him in for a hug.

You slipped away during that interaction. You were glad Steve had someone else to check on him, so you left him in Natasha’s care and went back to your chase while making a mental note to look into the Accords situation after. If you had known how out of control the rest of the day would get, you probably would’ve stayed with Steve. Granted, you probably would’ve ended up in the same place, but you’d be wearing a different suit.

You hadn’t even boarded the train when you saw the news. The United Nations in Vienna was bombed. King T’Chaka of Wakanda was dead. Nightmare and the Winter Soldier were being blamed.

Your mind was reeling as you boarded your ride. There was no one looking at you or even concerning themselves with you, so why did you feel like you would be arrested?

Why was your heart racing?

Was that guy staring at you?

Why were your palms sweating?

Did you zip your bag all the way? What if someone saw your mask?

But you hadn’t done it. And you knew James wouldn’t have. There was no reason to be so tense. No one was looking.

When you finally reached your destination, the first thing you did was call Steve.

“He didn’t do it.” You said as soon as he answered. “Neither did she. You have to know that, Steve.”

“Did you find him?”

“Not yet.” You began and headed down the streets to the hotel you booked. It was local, small, partially secluded. Good thing too, easier to bring Nightmare out. “They’re not letting a lot of trains in or out right now.” You lied.

“Maybe you should wait a little while then. I would hate for you to get mixed up in all this and get hurt. It’s gonna get messy.”

“Steve, I’m a big girl. You’re talking like we didn’t fight together in Sokovia.”

“If he’s this far gone, I should be the one to bring him in.”

“He’s not gone.” You nearly pleaded. “Please, you know him better than anyone. And what if I could get through to him too?”

“It’s gotta be me, Y/N.”

“You know she’s gonna be there too.” You tried to warn him. It seemed like a terrible time to tell him that you would be there, so that reveal would have to wait a little while longer. But maybe if you could get him to agree to meet with you before he tried to find James, Nightmare would keep her distance. “She’s not gonna let her name get tarnished and make her look so amateur. She takes pride in her work… You sure you don’t want me to come?”

“I’m counting on her being there. She worked with Buck for a long time. She’ll want to help him too.”

“She’s selfish. She’ll only care about her image and her reputation.”

“If we can clear Bucky, it’ll clear her name too. I think I can get through to her.”

“You sure about that?” You challenged slightly.

“I have to try.”

“Just be careful.” You sighed. “I can’t lose you guys again.”

“She’s had plenty of chances to hurt me.” He chuckled. “I don’t think she’s the person HYDRA made her to be, not anymore.”

“Keep me updated, please. And don’t do anything stupid.”

“Stay safe.”

You quickly checked into your hotel and once you entered the room, you dug through your duffel to find the familiar uniform. You laid it out on the bed and hesitated, staring intently at the fabric. It felt so foreign but so familiar at the same time. So inappropriate but so natural. Wrong but also so right.

That’s what happens when you practically lived in that suit for decades.

The dark blue top with plated forearms. The black pants with reinforced knees. The red belt with the HYDRA emblem. The dark grey boots. The black and grey gloves. The dark grey hood. The black mask.

You pulled one of the knives and used it to pry off the HYDRA emblem before snapping it between your hands. You left the space open, as if to symbolize that you didn’t need to fill the space that HYDRA took up in your life. You added some of the new equipment you had made with Tony Stark before Ultron to your belt. You considered using the new cloak and the connectable staff with concealed blades, but those would be too much of a dead giveaway to Steve.

Truthfully, the only reason you had your old uniform with you was because you planned on telling James the truth when you found him. There was a lot of doubt in your mind. Whether he would believe you to be Nightmare,. Whether he would remember you as Y/N. Whether he would even want to see you again. You had to push the doubts to the back of your head and focus on the task at hand.

Find James. Get him somewhere safe. Find out who bombed the UN. Clear your names. Tell him and Steve the truth.

Easy… Right?

You quickly changed clothes, pulled your hair back, and snuck out the window and down to the alleyway. You pulled up the hood and dawned your mask before heading out. Keeping to the shadows and alleys, you made your way across the city to where you had heard James would be. But Steve had beat you there.

“Captain.” You greeted as you pushed your hood back.

“Nightmare.” He nodded. “She told me you’d be here.”

“Yes, I heard all about Y/N’s escapades as an Avenger. I’m glad she got the chance to do something good. She deserved that. She was always the better one between us.” You nodded. Your eyes scanned the room for any sign of James. You landed on a notebook on top of the fridge. “Y’know, I wasn’t sure if you survived that day after the helicarriers went down… Until I saw you on the news, of course. Busting HYDRA bases one at a time.”

“I thought you would’ve retired. I heard you wanted the simple life.”

“I tried.” You nodded. “Someone’s trying to use my name and I worked too hard to create this image to have someone drag it through the mud... Captain, would you believe me if I told you that I didn’t do it?”

“I believe you.”

You flipped the pages as he came to look over your shoulder. He didn’t seem afraid of you, as if he knew who you were under the mask. Surprisingly, the idea of that didn’t seem to bother you since it’d be one less confession and it wasn’t as if he was holding it against you. You read through James’ notes, figuring out it was memories, bits and pieces that came back during his time alone. You saw Nightmare written multiple question marks.

The next couple pages were about Y/N and Steve. There was a picture cut out of each of you and one of you two fighting together in Sokovia. You saw small notes written beside your picture but the writing was too rushed for you to make out. You couldn’t help but smile softly.

“Understood.” He said suddenly.

“What?”

“German Special Forces incoming.” He explained.

“Damn it.” You mumbled. “And here I was thinking it would be in and out.”

You glanced around and met James’ eyes. You hadn’t even heard him. You handed Steve the journal and took a couple tentative steps forward.

“Long time no see.” You said carefully, drawing Steve’s attention. “Do you remember me?”

“Nightmare.” He nodded. “We were partners.”

“Do you know me?” Steve asked.

“You’re Steve.” James answered and you felt relief in your chest. “I read about you in a museum.”

“I know you’re nervous.” You continued, moving in closer. “There’s plenty reason to be, but I know you’re lying, James.”

“I wasn’t in Vienna. I don’t do that anymore” He turned to you. “You know that.”

“That’s why I’m here.” You nodded. “I wasn’t there either.”

“The people who think you two did are coming here now.” Steve warned. “They’re not gonna take you alive.”

“That’s smart.” James said flatly. “Good strategy.”

“I wouldn’t want to take us alive either.” You agreed.

“This doesn’t have to end in a fight.” Steve offered. You could tell his offer was genuine, but you also knew he was wrong.

“It always ends in a fight.” James sighed. He was so tired of it and you couldn’t blame him. You knew exactly what they feeling felt like.

“You pulled me from the river.” Steve urged. “Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“Yes you do.” Steve challenged.

“You know something, Soldier.” You interjected, pulling your hood back over your head and trying to keep your voice monotonous. “Cause you only made sure he got out… Didn’t look back even once.”

You caught the look he gave you and you instantly regretted your words. His eyes were regretful, almost enough to convince you that he wished he had gone back for you. Obviously you didn’t know, but the more he was able to remember about Nightmare, the more he realized something. You actually did look out for him the best you could when you were yourself and not the inoculated weaponized version of yourself.

You trained him, but you weren’t as brutal as HYDRA wanted you to be. You called it your ‘constant act of defiance’, to not treat him as a weapon but as an equal. You were his partner, and you prioritized his safety and him every single time. You cleaned him up and tended to his wounds. You answered all of his questions, sometimes vaguely but you still answered.

Two grenades came through the windows first, one after the other. Steve smacked the first one aside with his shield and James kicked the second to Steve, who used his shield to contain the blast. When they tried to open the door, James threw the table to wedge it in front so it couldn’t open.

Two men came flying through the windows next. You used your cloak to protect James from the bullets from one of the soldiers shot at the two of you. He turned to face you after knocking out the one he was fighting. His eyes were wide, as if he didn’t expect you to still protect him. You shot him a quick wink and moved back into the fight once the bullets stopped.

A third came through the backdoor but Steve pushed the barrel of the gun away. You and James landed a tandem front kick that sent the soldier flying.

“Stop.” Steve said to both of you. “You’re gonna kill someone.”

You and James shared a look before moving together. You each put a hand on Steve’s belt and the other under his arm. Together, you lifted and slammed him to his back. James put his hand through the floorboards and pulled out a small getaway bag.

“I’m not gonna kill anyone.” James said firmly before flinging his bag to the neighboring rooftop.

“If you weren’t gonna trust us, you shouldn’t have come.” You told Steve simply, turning your head to hide your eye roll. “We can’t sit here and walk on eggshells.”

Steve grabbed your arm quickly. “You may not be the villain, but don’t act like you’re a hero.” He said firmly.

“A hero?” You scoffed. “What, like you? Like Y/N?”

Before Steve could offer a rebuttal, the shots rang through the room.

You knelt and pulled your cloak up to block the bullets while Steve shielded James. You saw a man entering from the side window so you slid across the floor and planted your palms to use as a push off. You leaned into your palms and kicked your feet out to connect firmly with the man’s chest. The force you kicked with was enough to send you through the opening as well so you added a solid punch to knock him unconscious.

You heard the three shots at the door and figured out they were blowing the hinges off. You jumped back through the window and pushed past Steve to stand beside James. Your fingers itched to grab your blade but you resisted. Instead, you turned to James and raised your eyebrows.

“We just gonna wait for them to get in or what?” You asked with a playful smile beneath your mask.

He chuckled lightly and shook his head, seemingly amused. Maybe he didn’t realize until you were standing in front of him but he missed having you around. He liked your little jokes and comments during a fight, having fun with what you did. He liked how you were still playful and teasing, despite going through everything you had. He didn’t know anything about your life before HYDRA but he wondered if you were always that light-hearted or if it was just a facade so everything else didn’t seem so bad. Something about that chuckle made a heat climb your cheeks under your mask. It had been so long since you heard that sound.

The slams outside the door reminded you of your current situation. He dropped his shoulder and ran through, likely knocking down whoever was behind it.

“After you.” You commented though he was already gone and Steve was moving after him quickly.

You considered following and fighting with them. The three of you would be able to handle whatever force was out there. But something told you there’d be more of a fight outside the building. You went for the backdoor instead, looking to where his backpack landed. You estimated the distance and decided it wasn’t smart to make the jump from there. Even if you made it, the landing wouldn’t be pretty. You had to get lower and give yourself a better angle.

You went out through the main door just in time to see a man crashing through the skylight. While James had his arm up to protect from the bullets, you stepped to the top of the hand rail and jumped. You put both feet on his stomach and held to his wire of balance. You swung him to the opposite side of the stairwell and unlatched the wire from his belt, throwing you both into the wall.

You groaned slightly and leaned against the wall. The impact jarred your head and knocked some of the wind from your lungs. You took a deep breath and winced slightly. Looking down at the sharp pain in your side, you saw the tender flesh leaking blood and something reflecting the light sticking out. The glass must’ve cut you when you went through the window. You clenched your jaw as you ripped the glass out and let it clatter at your feet.

A cold hand was under your arm and you let him haul you to your feet. You turned your body away discreetly, blocking the wound from view. He must’ve seen the look on your face because his eyes scanned your body for injuries.

“You worry too much.” You nudged his shoulder slightly. “There’s no time. We gotta go.” Nodding that you were okay, you led him down the stairwell and into the seemingly never ending fight. You knew he didn’t believe you but he didn’t press the issue.

While he and Steve kept fighting through officers, you had to get out of there. You needed space to actually examine and clear your wound before you lost too much blood. Using one hand as a focal point, you hopped over the railing and began falling. The shots rang out as you passed the lower levels but none of them hit. You quickly connected your wire to your wrist and shot it around the bottom poles to catch yourself. You kicked your feet to throw yourself to the ground before retracting the wire.

The jolt of the impact made your side burn wildly and forced you to your knee while you grit your teeth to avoid any sound. You pushed through the pain and moved into a jog down the hallway before leaping across the gap to the next rooftop. You rolled through your landing multiple times, each rotation jamming small rocks and gravel into your open wound.

You cried out in pain since you were alone and laid flat on your back for a few moments until the worst of the stinging went away. You crawled to put your back against the ledge of the roof and threw your hood back. Gingerly, you ran your gloved fingers over the wound to clear the small rocks. You couldn’t keep in the hisses from the burning feeling that shot up your side. It may have only been a small shard but it danced along the line of being a very abrupt end of your day and it had landed in a very tender area. You blinked a couple times to clear the tears once you realized they were threatening and clenched your jaw to prepare yourself.

You removed your gloves and tucked them into your belt quickly. You placed both hands over the wound and took a deep breath before pressing your palms down hard. You groaned through your clenched teeth and dropped your head back, closing your eyes tightly. A small whine left your throat as you counted in your head, counting to 30 in hopes that would be enough to stop the bleeding.

You pulled your hands away after you finished your count and saw no new blood leaving the wound, though your hands were stained red. You let out a relieved laugh and wiped your hands frantically on your pants before you shoved your hands back into your gloves. As you were fastening the clasps, you noticed the hems of your sleeves were stained red. You groaned in annoyance but put it out of your mind once you saw James rolling through his landing. You jumped to your feet and fell into stride with him. Every step sent a jolt through the wound but you would manage.

“What took you so long?” You teased as you saw the incoming shadow. “Oh shit.” You mumbled before shoulder checking James to send him to the side.

You spun on your toes and staggered your stance, knowing there was going to be enough force in the coming impact to send you backwards. The figure tried landing with his feet first, so you grabbed his ankle when he made contact with you and dragged him to the ground with you. James was quick to help you to your feet as the figure across from you stood and brandished sharp metal claws.

“The Black Panther.” You muttered in awe. “I thought you were a legend. What uh, what are you doing all the way out here?”

He ignored your words and made a beeline for James. The two attacked each other intently, James more on the defensive side. The Black Panther was able to get James on his back so you had to move in. You rolled forward and threw a plated forearm in front of James. He quickly ducked out of the way but your plates weren’t enough.

The claw on his thumb sliced through your arm. You cried out and used the other hand to secure his wrist. You yanked your pierced arm away and forced the claws into the metal James was backed up against. You spun on your knee and swung a hook kick against his spine so his face hit the same metal.

You stepped on his back with one foot and the extended arm with the other and used the points as push offs for a backflip that had enough force to make him bash his face again. You yanked a hand out of your glove and shoved it in your belt before pressing your palm against the slice and wrapping your fingers around your arm tightly. James was by your side and attempted to check your arm but you pulled it away.

“I’m fine. There’s no time to worry about me.” You elbowed him away slightly. “That’s what we need to worry about.”

As soon as your words finished, the Black Panther came running towards you two. He moved through the small space between you two and reached around both of your necks. He jumped up and threw his body into a move similar to a kip, slamming you both to your backs.

You groaned but had no time to recover after you smacked your head. He leaped to gain height and put more force behind his claws. You turned your feet towards James and kicked off with all the strength you could, sending him in one direction and you in another. You threw your legs up to move into a backwards tumble and drew a knife from your belt, having to grip it tightly to compensate for the blood that coated your palm.

Before you could move in, gunfire came from a helicopter. Sam kicked the tail into a spin before the bullets could reach you so you tucked your knife, got James to his feet, and took off running. You and James hopped over the ledge and landed lightly on an overhang.

He turned to watch for the Black Panther, who was completely unscathed by the bullet barrage from moments ago, but you weren’t waiting. You guys couldn’t afford to. You grabbed his wrist and jumped again, forcing him to move with you. You reached for him again after you both landed and led him into traffic.

The sirens blared behind you, threatening and echoing throughout the tunnel. James gripped your hand a little tighter as you two ran. You wondered if he was scared, maybe scared of getting caught. Maybe scared of losing you again. Regardless, you kept pace with him and refused to let go.

“We’re doing great.” You panted as you dodged vehicles, desperately trying to make an escape. “This is fun. One hell of a second date, yeah?”

You forgot you were supposed to be Nightmare and cursed yourself slightly. It had only been a year but evidently the persona you had so carefully fabricated around James was already forgotten. You snuck a peek at his expression but saw no change, and you breathed a small sigh of relief.

James commandeered a civilian’s motorcycle, pausing for you to join him. He didn’t say anything about your comment so you hoped he didn’t hear it. You jumped on behind him, both arms wrapping around his waist. With your arms around him, you fit your other glove back to your hand despite it still being relatively slick with your own blood.

You peaked behind to see the black SUV quickly approaching, the Black Panther on top of it. You quickly spun your body and flattened one palm between your legs to apply the suction to the seat, using the other to catch him by his throat when he jumped for you two.

He managed to flip himself over you and pull the bike to its side. With a yelp, you had to maneuver your legs quickly to place yourself in a crouch on the upright side, letting go of his throat to utilize your other glove’s suction. James used his metal arm to catch the bike and push you two back upright once you were able to kick the cat-themed man away.

Sitting back where you originally were, you released both suctions and used one hand to hold on to James, the other went for your belt. You grabbed one of your explosives and threw it to the edge of the tunnel above you. It went off as soon as you passed it and you allowed yourself to believe you had made the escape.

Something knocked out the back tire and you both went rolling across the road. You closed your eyes as your body traveled across the road aggressively, rocks digging into your wounds and leaving a trail across the pavement. Both were now bleeding again and you could feel it slowly soaking your shirt. You made a small exclamation of pain and annoyance as you felt the warm liquid soaking your shirt so the fabric now stuck to you. The grunts and groans of the guys fighting was the only thing that told you that the explosion didn’t help. You slipped one of your electrical charges into the waistband of your pants once you saw the officers blocking your escape route. You had a feeling that you wouldn’t be able to get to your belt as a whole later.

James helped you to your feet as the sirens approached. He opened his mouth to ask a question but you patted his chest before he could speak. You nodded slightly, smiling softly under your mask, hoping to signal it would be okay. You knew it probably wouldn’t but you weren’t going to tell him that.

After all, lying was your strong suit.

You two held eye contact longer than you probably should’ve and you saw it. You saw the recognition flash behind his eyes. You felt a slight dizzy feeling in your head and you wobbled on your two feet. You allowed yourself to fall into James while your assumption of what he noticed floated about your brain.

You think I’ll ever forget how those eyes look at me?

“Congratulations, Cap.” A new voice said. Looking over James’ shoulder, you saw War Machine, Tony Stark’s buddy. “You’re a criminal.”

You were roughly pulled away from James and forced to your knees while your arms were yanked behind your back. You let out a small groan when the officer’s hand closed around the slice from the Panther’s claws and you instinctively tried to pull away. Another officer knelt in front of you and eyed you carefully. You glared back in response but said nothing as the officer behind you yanked your hood back.

The hand of the officer in front of you reached forward and attempted to pull your mask off. The magnets didn’t waiver so your head went forward with it. He placed a hand on your forehead to keep your head steady while he tried to pry it off again. You turned your head away to hide your expression of annoyance - and mild pain - and caught a glimpse of James, who had been forced to his stomach. You were only left on your knees because they wanted to see who was under the mask.

“Я в порядке.” You nodded, trying to gather your composure for your lie. “Просто царапина.” (I’m alright… Just a scratch.)

“Много крови за «просто царапину».” He replied in accusation. (A lot of blood for “just a scratch”.)

“Я вернулся с худшим.” You winked playfully as you were hauled to your feet once the cuffs were in place. (I’ve come back with worse.)

“А как насчет этой крови? На твоей рубашке.” He nodded to the slice on your side. (What about that blood? On your shirt.)

“Ах, я не беспокоюсь об этом. Я так тебя искал…” You lifted one shoulder in a lazy shrug. “Ты знаешь, что я бы сделал это снова.” (Ah, I’m not worried about it. I was looking out for you so… You know I'd do it again.)

You and James were both shoved into single occupancy glass boxes. Thick metal restraints crossed your wrists and heavy metal crossed over your chest. You felt like you were on display, an exhibit for all to see. The infamous Nightmare, finally caught by the government. You felt yourself growing weak from the blood loss, but you knew your healing would take care of you soon and it wouldn’t hurt for much longer.

The ride was long and no one said a word. You were tempted to allow yourself to give in to the heavy feeling in your eyelids, but every time your head bobbed, you caught from the corner of your eye, James shifted anxiously in his seat. So, you fought through it and stayed awake. Instead, you rested your head back and stared at the roof of the truck. You were tempted to talk to James but there was nothing you could think to say.

You finally reached your destination, pausing in an unloading area long enough to see Sam, Steve, and Prince T’Challa talking with a small group. You pieced together that T’Challa was the Black Panther. When you thought about it, it made sense. He attacked you two because you were supposedly at fault for his father’s death. You offered a limited wave to Steve from under your restraints. He sighed with a suppressed smile and gave you a small wave in return.

You had to wonder… Did he already know? Why would he seem amused that you acknowledged him if he didn’t know? You let a small chuckle of disbelief when you realized just how likely it was that he figured it out. He was already hinting at it during the Ultron situation and you had your suspicions earlier in James’ apartment.

The room they brought you two into was dark for the most part. A worker busied himself behind you with cables until the small cases you were in lit up.

“This is much better.” You mocked. “Thanks. Very homey.”

They ignored you, like almost everyone else did. No one said a word to either of you until the supposed psychiatrist entered the room. Though, he didn’t strike you as a doctor.

“Hello, Mr. Barnes.” He greeted. “Miss Nightmare.. I’ve been sent by the United Nations to evaluate you. Do you mind if I sit?”

“Actually, I wanted to sit there.” You rolled your eyes. “We can’t exactly stop you, can we?”

“Of course.” He nodded as he sat. “Your first name is James?” He asked him. You turned and kept your attention on James for a moment. He looked to you with uncertainty in his eyes and all you could offer was a shrug, attempting to tell him that you didn’t know what to do either. When James didn’t answer, the doctor kept going. “I’m not here to judge you, either of you. I just want to ask you a few questions… Do you know where you are, James?”

Silence.

“I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me, James.”

“My name is Bucky.” James countered, drawing a proud smirk from you.

“No one told us anything.” You almost laughed. “We don’t know where we are because we were given the silent treatment. We’re criminals, remember? Officers don’t treat criminals with respect.”

“Miss Nightmare..” You turned to face him. “You do have a legal name, yes?”

“Yes.”

“Can I ask what it is?”

“You can ask but I won’t tell you. And it won’t mean anything to you anyway.” That time you did laugh. “He doesn’t even know and he was my partner.”

“And why is that? Does it relate to your reason for the mask? It’s a safe place here… You can take it off.”

“I couldn’t take it off if I wanted to with my hands locked up like this.” You pulled your wrist to emphasize your point before you paused, noting the way he was looking between you two and his tablet. For someone who claimed he would help you two, he sure was distracted.

“What is it that you want to hear, Doctor?” You challenged plainly to draw his attention back to you. He looked over at you with brows raised in interest. “You want me to admit to some sort of mania? Some sort of dissociative identity condition? You want to hear how we can bring the devil to his knees or that I wiped all of their blood away with a smile? No, because that’s not what happened to either of us. We were manipulated and made into something we’re not.”

“Something you’re not?” He repeated. “So you’re not the most dangerous thing HYDRA ever created? You’re not the ‘one from the shadows that never misses’? And the story is that’s who you were before your enhancements. I can see the devil in your eyes, miss Nightmare.”

You scoffed. “Of course that bullshit rumor is all you know. You’re a real shitty shrink, yknow that?”

“Tell me, Bucky.” His attention shifted. You hated the way it sounded to hear him use James’ nickname. “You’ve seen a great deal, haven’t you?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it.” James said simply.

“You feel that if you open your mouth, the horrors might never stop… Don’t worry. We only need to talk about one.”

“We don’t need to talk about any.” You challenged, pulling against your restraints again. The metal creaked but didn’t give.

As you said that, the power went out, but you knew it wasn’t your fault. Your mind began racing. Admittedly, you were scared. This doctor had an ulterior motive. And you were at his mercy. The way he looked at you two, like you were new toys… It made your skin crawl.

“James?”

“What the hell is this?” James asked, surveying the room. His eyes lingered on yours, and you knew yours betrayed the panic you felt.

“Why don’t we discuss your home?” The doctor continued. “Not Romania. Certainly not Brooklyn. No, I mean your real home.”

You saw him pull the red notebook from his bag. An old HYDRA notebook. Last you saw it was in Siberia, and not only did it have the words to unlock the Winter Solider, but it had the words to trigger the real Nightmare. How did he have it?

“Where did you get that?” You asked quickly, panicked. “Answer me, goddammit!”

“Желание, Ржавый, Семнадцать.” He read from the book, pacing around James’ cell.

“Don’t do this to him.” You begged. “Please! I- I’ll tell you whatever you want to know! I’ll do whatever you want! Don’t do this!”

There was nothing you could do and it made you sick. You watched helplessly as James tried to resist, but it was no use. This man was going to bring out the Winter Soldier, which only meant you would be next. You desperately pulled against the restraints, hearing the metal creak and groan, but not quite breaking. You tried to kick out the front, but your legs didn’t reach.

“Leave him out of this!” You screamed, a desperate crack in your voice.

“Рассвет, Печь, Девять, Добросердечный, Возвращение на родину, Один, Товарный вагон.” He finished and James broke free of his containment. “Солдат?"

"Я жду приказаний.” James answered.

Both of their attention turned to you. You suddenly felt very small and very powerless.

“Get hers open.” He nodded to you before turning to a different page in the book.

“Solo, perfeccionado.” He began while James slammed his metal fist against the door. You closed your eyes tightly, willing yourself to shut out his words. You banged your head on the headrest behind you repeatedly while you muttered a desperate ‘no no no no no’ to yourself, hoping to make it stop. “Trece, sombras, enigma, dos.”

“Stop!” You screamed, a last ditch effort of an attempt to help yourself. But it was too late. You had only been free for a year.

You felt the familiar pressure in your head, forcing your free will to shut down. The sharp sensation that began deep in your brain and spread, seemingly expanding your brain to the edge of your skull until it would pop like a balloon and be replaced with something else.

“Please.” You mumbled sadly. You had nothing left in you to fight.

You let out one scream of pain, one scream that took everything you had. It was a scream of frustration too, anger at being powerless. Of being at someone else’s mercy, again. It was a scream that you hoped was heard throughout the building and you hoped some part of James - not the Winter Soldier - heard it.

“Servicial, aventurera, uno, pesadilla.” He finished.

When your eyes opened, Y/N was no longer in charge. The pain was gone. Instead, you felt nothing.

“It’s been a while.” You smirked deviously as the Winter Soldier broke the restraints on your wrists.

You slipped your fingers under the waistband of your pants and grabbed the electrical charge you stashed before you were arrested since you had been stripped of your belt, placing it on the restraint across your chest. You smashed a fist against it and felt a small shock through your palm. You shook it off and lifted the restraint and stepped out from under it.

“Mission report.” The man said, standing in front of you both. “December 16, 1991.”

“You want to know about Siberia? The Stark mission.” You checked, squinting your eyes suspiciously. You glanced at James for confirmation but he wasn’t looking at you. “An odd request to know about the Serum acquisition...”

“Mission rep-“ He tried again.

Your partner cut in and went through the report. Even though you knew what happened, you weren’t there so you had nothing to report. Instead, you examined the slice on your arm and the wound on your side. Of course Y/N would be careless enough to hurt herself. You winced as you pressed on the tender skin around the open gashes before your attention was pulled back.

“I want you both to get to Siberia and don’t let anyone stop you.” He said. “But first, make it look like you broke out.”

“I was hoping I’d get a chance to do this.” You said honestly before throwing a sharp left hook that knocked him to the floor. “Something tells me you deserved that.”

You and your partner left the room and easily handled the guards. You found your belt, cloak, and thigh holster waiting for you so you fitted everything back into place just in time for the incoming footsteps. You knelt down while the Winter Soldier pressed his back flat against the wall and waited.

You threw a quick elbow to the man’s stomach, which made him double over. He leaned right into your partner’s hand so he was flung into the next room by his face. Steve came at you two quickly but you ducked his swing.

You and your partner moved into an aggressive offensive barrage. You kept applying more and more pressure until you were able to back him against the elevator. Steve caught your partner’s fist and started pushing him back. You took a few steps back before running in.

You ran in and ducked your partner’s arm, slamming your shoulder into Steve’s stomach and sending him through the elevator doors. You turned on your toes and reached for the Winter Soldier. He just barely caught your hand and pulled you back to flat ground. You nodded in thanks before heading to leave.

You two had practically gotten to the lobby with almost no issues. It was easy enough to handle the guards. The Widow and her friend put up a good fight, but it wasn’t that hard to knock the blonde on her ass. When she spun into a high hook kick, you grabbed her ankle and flipped her over your shoulder and through a nearby table. You pressed your knee against her throat, slowly applying more pressure as she coughed and wheezed and clawed at your leg. You watched as her eyes began to flutter and her resistance faded.

Meanwhile, your partner handled the Widow fairly easily.

The issues didn’t come until the Wakandan Prince wanted to go another round. After a fairly even match, he kicked your partner over a railing and to the ground floor.

You quickly jumped over after him and followed his lead out the building. He took you to the landing pad on the side of the building where a helicopter was waiting. He got into the pilot’s seat and you stood in the open space behind him. You two had nearly gotten away until Captain America was single-handedly holding the chopper in place.

“What are you waiting for?” You asked from behind him. “Go for it.”

He hesitated, only slightly but enough that you noticed. You rolled your eyes before leaning over his shoulder and forcing his hand, driving the helicopter towards Steve. The collision sent the helicopter into a spiral on the concrete landing pad, but it teetered dangerously close to a free fall towards the water. You regretted your decision to stand when you were thrown about the cabin during the spin. You wondered in the back of your mind if your mask would hold up if you went down, but something told you it wouldn’t and you couldn’t take off your mask with the Captain there. That would be a problem.

The Winter Soldier reached his metal hand through the front glass and caught the Captain by his throat, pulling him into the fall with you. You quickly used the suction palms of your gloves to secure yourself as best you could. You heard a loud thud followed by a groan so you looked over to see he had gone unconscious.

Once you hit the water, you released the suction and moved to free him. The Captain was there to help, and though everything told you to kill him then and there, you let him because you knew he would help your partner. And Captain Rogers wasn’t your mission today.

However, you learned the hard way that water could definitely get under your mask. You realized that the shock that went through your palm earlier had disabled the sensors when you turned away to remove it. Your mask wasn’t coming off.

While the Captain dragged your partner out of the water, you felt the liquid creeping into your lungs.

You couldn’t breathe. The pressure of holding your breath was building in your head and in your chest. You wouldn’t last much longer.

You tried to swim to the surface but you didn’t have the strength to make it. Instead, you fell unconscious and began sinking lower and lower.

The next time you opened your eyes, you felt a heavy pounding in your head. You coughed violently, still feeling the water in your lungs and realized your mask was still on. You looked around and saw James with his arm in a vice. Your own hands were cuffed behind your back and around a heavy pipe. You saw your stained red gloves on the ground beside you in a puddle of water and blood and you felt the soft gauze on your side and forearm. You had to wonder who took the time to dress your wounds.

“James?” You tried hoarsely. He turned his head in your direction while you cleared your throat. You tried to shake the loose wet hair from your face but they clung to your forehead. “Are you okay?”

“Are you?” He asked instead.

“I’m myself, if that’s what you’re asking…” You said with a relieved sigh though your lungs burned with every breath. “Nothing worse than before. Are you hurt?”

“No.”

“You busted your face on a helicopter windshield.” You emphasized. “Are you sure?”

“I’m fine.” He insisted.

“Hey Cap!” Sam called before entering, Steve quickly behind him.

“Which Bucky am I talking to?” Steve asked. You tilted your head in acknowledgment, thinking it was a fair question to ask. You two did just attempt to kill him with a helicopter.

“Your mom’s name was Sarah.” He answered. “You used to wear newspapers in your shoes.” He chuckled lightly. You couldn’t help but smile at the fact that he could remember some of his life.

“Can’t read that in a museum.”

“Just like that we’re supposed to be cool?” Sam asked, in slight disbelief.

“What about you?” Steve said, taking a couple steps closer to you.

“I can’t tell you any real personal stories like he did.” You admitted. “But I can tell you this… When you came looking for him in Azanno, I led you right to him. I told you that I never wanted him to get hurt, but you couldn’t tell anyone because no one would believe you. Because Nightmare doesn’t do the right thing.”

“But the girl underneath it does.” You and Steve said at the same time. Part of you wondered how he remembered exactly what you had said - Had he thought about that interaction often? - but it seemed like it was enough for him to relax some distrust.

“Maybe it’s time you told us who the girl underneath it is.” Sam tried.

“They’d hate me.” You said sadly. “Please understand. It’s just not the right time.. I’m sorry.”

“What did we do?” James asked to change the subject. You were sure he wanted to know the same thing, to know who he had spent decades beside, but he likely heard the sadness of your voice. He wanted to know but he wanted it to be your choice to tell him.

“Enough.” Steve said simply.

“I knew this would happen.” James sighed heavily. “Everything HYDRA put inside me is still there. All he had to do was say the goddamn words.”

“I didn’t know they did it that way to her, too.”

“Yeah, Y/N was pretty vague on that.” Sam added.

“What?” James asked, genuinely shocked. He tried turning to face you but couldn’t. You didn’t know if the surprise was due to hearing that Y/N was alive or that HYDRA would do to you what they did to him. “You guys talked to Y/N? She’s still alive?”

There was a breath of relief in his voice and you felt your heart twist. He was happy to know you’re still around and you were literally a few feet away from him. You had been beside him for decades and he never knew. You couldn’t help but feel guilty. It never clicked in your head that he would’ve believed Y/N to be dead.

“Well, they didn’t… Not exactly.” You explained carefully when you saw Steve and Sam were looking at you expectantly.

“You’d better get exact.” Steve warned. “Because we don’t have time for games anymore.”

“I came from scientists, white men who played God.” You began. “They did complex physiological experiments in the name of public good. They taught me everything, just like they taught my parents. I was like their first born, HYDRA’s cut-throat dream. Born, bred, and raised to kick your ass. And I was good at it, the best HYDRA had, really.”

“I made a point to be good at it because I wanted to do something great like you.” You nodded towards Steve. “And the real tragedy is only half of it was true… I wanted to represent something bigger than myself and I had nothing else. So I became the weapon HYDRA needed. I became that symbol.”

“And you didn’t care about what you did.” Steve continued.

“No, I didn’t. I had no light at the end of my tunnel, but once they brought him in, I realized how wrong everything about them really was. James was innocent and shouldn’t have been involved... Anyway, I started acting out more than I usually would. Subtle comments, threats, and small acts of defiance. I got away with it too until the 90’s. I was restationed in Ohio and that’s where they did it.”

“What did they do to you?” James said sadly.

“HYDRA was working on something to go in conjunction with the Winter Soldier program, something to completely shut down free will. They were working on studying and taking apart the basal ganglia which does procedural learning and voluntary motor control… What James went through was more psychological conditioning and physical torture. What I went through was a beta version of complete chemical subjection. I was always fully conscious and I knew what I was doing and I was doing it with intent but it was like two different sides. Even now the line that separates me from her gets blurred every time we switch and I-” Your voice wavered. You had never admitted what you were about to say, never out loud at least. “I’m not always sure which side is really me and which side HYDRA made...”

“I’m sorry..” Steve offered. You knew it was genuine but you didn’t want pity. “But I don’t think you would be here if you were more Nightmare than yourself.”

“I doubt it’ll matter in the long run…” You shrugged and leaned your head against the wall behind you. “Lucky for me, it was still in early development and the facility was burned to ash before its completion. And before you ask, the organization that did it hasn’t been able to be tracked down in years. It’s quite literally the most covert operation and there’s rumors it’s not active anymore.”

You thought momentarily about the Red Room and the rumors that Natasha had killed Dreykov. Though those rumors were quickly silenced when the Widows were still being used, unintentionally competing with you and James for most lethal assassins in rotation.

“Anyway since it wasn’t perfect, it’s not constantly active so I can be in control more often than not. But like James, there’s a set of words that triggers the version of Nightmare they always wanted. It’s like a Pavlovian response and only a hard reset of my head will get me back to normal in that moment, otherwise I just have to wait until everything balances out. Sometimes it’s days, sometimes longer..” You finished.

“A hard reset?” Sam asked.

“Knocked unconscious, pretty much.” You shrugged. “It shuts down my conscious mind and that voluntary free will center is allowed to re-regulate. Putting Nightmare in the backseat and me in the driver’s… This time it was nearly drowning. Last time, Cap choked me. A really hard hit to the head would probably do it too.”

“Who was he?” Steve asked, looking more to you. “The doctor.”

“Never seen him before.” You answered simply. “But he knew a hell of a lot more than he should’ve about us.”

“People are dead.. The bombing, the set up.” Steve urged. “He did all that just for ten minutes with you guys. I need better than that.”

“He wanted to know about Siberia.” James added. “Where I was kept… He wanted to know exactly where.”

“God, that base was probably the worst one we had.” You commented.

“Why would he need to know that?” Steve asked urgently.

“James wasn’t supposed to be the only Winter Soldier.” You explained. “Can you-“ You shook the cuffs behind you. “Please?”

Sam sighed and moved over to release your hands. Steve loosened the vice and freed James’ arm. You nodded in thanks and moved across the floor to sit closer to James after wringing out your gloves and bringing them with you. While you spoke again, James had taken your arm to look over the wound dressing.

“Who were they?” Steve asked.

“HYDRA’s elite death squad.” You said, turning your attention to him.

You remembered that group very clearly. Strong and aggressive, but out of control. They reveled in their newfound strength and thought themselves invincible. Though you had put their top prospect in his place, you knew HYDRA wouldn’t shut it down based on that.

“As a group, second most kills in HYDRA history and that was before the serum.” You continued. “Second only to me and that’s just counting my individual assignments.”

“They all turn out like him?” Sam nodded towards James.

“Worse.” He said simply.

“Can the doctor control them?” Steve asked.

“Enough, maybe. But not perfectly.”

“He said he wanted to see an empire fall.”

“With them, he could probably do it.” You nodded. “30 languages, can hide in plain sight. Infiltrate, assassinate, destabilize. That’s their whole M.O.”

“They can take down a whole country and you’d never see them coming.” James agreed.

Sam moved closer to whisper to Steve but your mind was still putting the pieces together. He didn’t strike you as a man who wanted to rule. James moved to sit on a crate so you put yourself on the ground between his legs, leaning your back against his leg.

“What empire?” You questioned quietly, thinking back to what Steve said. You looked up at James and saw he was already looking at you. “What empire does he want to fall?”

“Does it matter?” He asked simply.

“It’d give us a better chance, no? If we can figure out where he’s going after Siberia, we can beat him there.”

He didn’t answer. You noticed the blood on his head from when he was knocked out in the helicopter. You frowned slightly and reached to wipe it away. To your surprise, he leaned slightly into your touch.

“I hate when you hurt.” You mumbled, more to yourself than him. “Always have… Cause your dumbass thinks you’re some badass and always tries to protect me.”

“Coming from the one who got hurt more?” He joked lightly and pointed to your wrapped side. “Who’s really the dumbass?”

“Ha ha.” You said sarcastically, drawing a small smile from him. “It’s not my fault it got the one spot that’s not protected.” You defended. “I can handle myself and you know that, James.”

Oddly enough, it didn’t feel like Nightmare and James. It felt like Y/N and James, the way it should be. And you knew that’s what it was, but he didn’t. But he was so comfortable around Nightmare… Maybe it would be okay if you told him…

“I know.” He nodded with a small smile. “What about this?” He tapped your forearm.

“How am I supposed to defend against Vibranium?” You chuckled.

“By not jumping in front of every bullet meant for me?”

“Not gonna happen, Soldier.” You shook your head fondly. “You should know that by now.”

“I didn’t know.” He said gently, reaching for the hand closest to him. You scrunched your eyebrows in question. “I didn’t know you really didn’t have a choice..”

“You just thought I wanted to be a trained killer?” You challenged lightly. “It’s fine… It wasn’t until later so I guess I kinda did.” You reasoned as you looked down at the floor.

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I usually just did what I was told to make things easier. HYDRA was all I knew, like a mouse born in a cage. I could only run on the little wheel… Mom and Dad were there and were killed, so I worked hard to be the best because I wanted to honor their legacy. HYDRA saw an opportunity in that and raised an elite spy and then weaponized me…”

You paused to look back at James and found his eyes were already on you. He was listening very intently to your backstory and you felt a comfort in your chest to get it out there, to have someone truly listen to what happened. And even though it was the mask telling the story, you were glad you could finally tell him. It’d be one less thing to explain later.

“When they brought you in, your friend Y/N asked me to look out for you when she couldn’t because HYDRA never let her get too close. I always did because she was the only person there that still had a heart and it just became habitual after a while. I wanted to look out for you. I guess in some twisted way I kinda thought of us as friends after all.”

“I know you tried to help me. It wasn’t your fault, Nightmare.”

“That’s not my name.” You whispered sadly.

“So tell me.”

“I don’t think you’d like me very much if I did.”

“You really think that would happen?”

“It’s just not a risk I can take right now. I’m sorry.”

“There’s something familiar about your eyes.” He admitted. “It’s like… Something I should know.”

“But you don’t remember why?”

“Not yet.”

“Then my secret’s safe for a little while longer.” You squeezed his hand gently before Steve and Sam came back to you.

Later that day, you and James were cramped in the backseat of a small Volkswagen. Sam sat in the front while Steve drove. He stopped off to meet with the blonde agent from before, the one you threw through a table.

“Can you move your seat up?” James asked Sam.

“No.” Sam said firmly.

You chuckled lightly as James slid over to the center. You crawled over his lap to switch seats before leaning forward to talk to Sam.

“Who is she?” You asked. “I kinda almost killed her.”

“Sharon Carter.” He answered simply.

“Carter? Like- Like Peggy Carter?”

“Yeah, that’s her niece.”

“Hmm.” You nodded. “A bit odd, don’t you think?”

“He likes her.” Sam said with a shrug. “Let him be happy.”

“I never said he couldn’t be.” You added defensively as you dropped back into your seat.

You crossed your arms in annoyance and leaned your head back. You felt a tap on your leg and looked to see James looking at you. You raised your brows and he smiled slightly, shaking his head. You rolled your eyes, though you were smiling too.

You did want Steve to be happy. You wanted to be happy too. And with James, you were. You just couldn’t stop thinking that once you told him the truth, you wouldn’t be.

You’d only have your memories. That night before he left, the sound of his laugh. The way he kissed your cheek tentatively. You’d have the letters, safely tucked away at home. But you wouldn’t have James.

You all ended up at the airport and met up with the Maximoff twins, Clint Barton, and a man you later learned to be Scott Lang.

“Good to see you two made it out.” You told the twins. “I heard about what Strucker did with the Scepter and how many didn’t make it..”

“You’re…” Pietro breathed. “Holy shit. I thought you were made up.” He smiled in awe while Wanda eyed you with interest. You thought you saw red swirls around her fingers but figured it was just a trick of the light.

“Yeah.” You nodded, not sure if you should be embarrassed or not. “Nightmare… But I’m not as scary as the stories. Not always.”

“What timezone is this?” Scott said as he got out the van. “Wow, Captain America! I’m shaking your hand too long.”

He turned to the twins.

“I know you guys too.” He smiled. “You’re great.”

He looked over at you. “And I’ve heard about you. You’re terrifying.”

“Yup.” You nodded. “Get that a lot.”

“They tell you what we’re up against?” Steve asked.

“Something about some.. psycho-assassins?” Scott answered.

“We’re outside the law on this one. You come with us, you’re a wanted man.”

“You didn’t bring Y/N?” Wanda asked suddenly. Your head turned to her quickly and you cursed yourself. You forgot she could read minds and she was already looking at you. “She fought with us against Ultron. Why isn’t she here?”

It definitely wasn’t a trick of the light.

“She’s tired of fighting.” Steve explained. “I told her to stay away from this and focus on something else.”

“Are you sure she listened?” Wanda teased, raising a brow to you.

“Y/N is a smart girl.” You cut in, shooting Wanda a warning look. “She trusts the Captain. I bet she listened.”

“And what about you?” She countered easily.

“Don’t do this.” You tried, close to pleading.

“If you don’t tell them, I will.”

“I am going to tell them. If you looked deep enough, you would’ve seen why I haven’t. You think they would trust me if they knew?”

“Show me.”

“Why?”

“Because I’ll keep your secret.”

“Wanda?” Her brother tried.

“It’s fine.” You sighed and came around the car to stand beside Wanda. “For the record, this hostility is why I didn’t say anything to everyone else.”

She placed her fingers by your temple so you closed your eyes. The first thing that showed behind your closed lids was the night you first met James, his smile and his laugh.

“I thought you hadn’t danced in a while.” James teases with a wide smile as he lifts your hand above your head to spin you.

You giggled in surprise before you came to face him again. “What can I say? I guess I’m naturally light on my feet.” You shrugged.

“You keep talkin’ like that, I’m gonna fall in love with you.”

“Is that a promise, Sergeant Barnes?” You winked.

“Y’know, Y/N Barnes has a nice ring to it.” He tried with a cheeky smile.

“You wanna give me a ring already?” You smiled widely. “I need at least three dates before I consider wedding proposals.”

“I’d take you on a hundred dates if that’s what it took.”

Then you saw when you helped Steve get him out of Azanno.

Next, he fell off the train.

You trained him.

You were in that lonely yellow room. Your brain chemistry was altered. You screamed at God and cursed the skies.

You stood up to Pierce.

“Oh my god.” She whispered.

The images stopped so you opened your eyes.

“Do you get it now?” You asked sadly. “They were all I had to hold on to..”

“I won’t say anything.” She nodded, gently squeezing your hand in reassurance.

“Thank you, Wanda.” You smiled softly beneath your mask. “I promise I’m going to tell them.”

“I know you will.”

The announcement over the P.A. system halted all conversation. You listened to the German words before groaning in annoyance. This just got a lot harder.

“Evacuation orders.” You explained.

“Stark.” Sam sighed.

“Stark?” Lang asked.

“Suit up.” Steve instructed.

119 notes · View notes

waitimcomingtoo · 4 years

Note

hi bestie! xmas request for u <333 could you do one where the avengers clearly know that peter and the reader like eachother, so they (very undiscreetly) place mistletoes literally everywhere in the hq to get the lil babies of the groups to kiss? thank uuuuuuu love u!

Under The Mistletoe

pairing: Peter Parker x reader

Masterlist

“Good morning everyone.” You greeted the Avengers as you walked in the kitchen one morning.

“Good morning.” Peters eyes followed you as you sat down next to him at the table. “I made you hot chocolate.”

“You did? You’re so sweet.” You took the mug from him and kissed his forehead. “Thank you.”

“Well you mentioned last night that you were always freezing in the morning so I thought this would warm you up.” Peter smiled sweetly at you, face flushed from the kiss.

“You’re too good to me. I was gonna put some whip cream on it. Do you want some?” You offered as you went to the refrigerator.

“Sure. Thank you.” Peter nodded as you put some whip cream on his hot chocolate. The rest of the Avengers watched the interaction, exchanging knowing glances every once in a while.

“So, what did you guys do last night?” Natasha asked curiously as she leaned on her hand.

“We went on patrol together and then walked around the city. It was snowing so it was really pretty.” You smiled as you remembered the night before. Natasha and Bruce made eye contact, giving each other a knowing look.

“Didn’t you get cold?” Bruce asked for his own amusement.

“My suit has a built in heater.” Peter told him.

“But Y/n’s suit doesn’t.” Tony added, understanding what was going on.

“Peter had his arm around me so the heat kept us both warm.” You told them as you sipped your mug, making everyone gush.

“Uh huh.” Tony nodded as he watched Peter put his arm around your chair. “So you went for a moonlit stroll through the city. Pretty romantic, don’t you think? Was it a date?”

“What?” Peter sputtered. “No.”

“We’re just friends.” You nodded a few too many times.

“You got some whip cream on your face.” Peter noticed the white dollop on your nose.

“Oh. Oops.” You laughed in embarrassment and went to wipe it off.

“I got it.” Peter wiped your face with his thumb, leaving both of you in a blushing mess.

“Thanks.” You giggled, gazing lovingly into his eyes.

“Right. Just friends.” Rhodey grimaced as he watched the disgusting love fest in front of him.

“So what are you doing today?” Natasha asked, finding the whole situation hysterical.

“We were gonna watch some holiday movies in my room before patrol.” Peter told her.

“Speaking of that, do you want to get started?” You asked him. “We have a lot to get through.”

“Sure. Bye guys.” Peter waved before resting his hand on the small of your back and leading you out of the room. Once you left, the Avengers let out the collective laugh they had been holding in.

“So…they’re in love, right? We can agree on that?” Tony asked as he looked around the room, seeing everyone nod at him.

“I have never seen anyone so whipped.” Rhodey laughed as he sipped his coffee.

“How have they not admitted their feelings?” Nat asked the room. “It’s so obvious.”

“This is worse than me and Nat.” Steve commented.

“Or me and Nat.” Bruce added.

“Or me and Nat.” Tony agreed.

“When are those crazy kids gonna get together?” Steve chuckled as he opened the newspaper.

“This gives me an idea.” Tony narrowed his eyes as he got a familiar devilish glint in his eyes.

“Oh no.” Steve recognized the glint. “This can’t be good.”

“By the end of the holiday season, I want Y/n and Peter to be together.” Tony said decidedly. “This will require a group effort in making it happen. In the weeks leading up to the holidays, I expect each and every one of you to get our dear Peter and Y/n to realize they like each other.”

“How do you expect us to do that?” Nat humored him.

“You will all plant mistletoe somewhere in the building.” Tony grinned wickedly. “The mistletoe that gets the most kisses out of them wins.”

“Wins what?” Bruce asked, just as intrigued as the rest of the team.

“Whatever you want. I don’t know if the giant building with my name on it gave it away, but I have money.” Tony stated. “Lots of it. Or how about this, the winner can pick and design a new room to be added to the tower.”

“I could use a physical therapy room.” Rhodey spoke up. “I don’t know if you guys remember, but my legs don’t work on their own anymore ever since I fell out of the sky.”

“Oh, yeah. I forgot about that.” Steve realized.

“Yeah. Nobody really talks about that.” Bruce agreed.

“I think we could all benefit from a new training room.” Nat threw in. “The old one has a permanent sweaty man smell.”

“We already have a training room. What we really need is some personal up keeping. Keeping myself this blonde is not cheap. A hair parlor in the building would be nice.” Steve suggested.

“Parlor.” Tony chuckled under his breath.

“I second that.” Bucky piped up.

“Of course you do, Jared Leto.” Tony teased.

“We don’t need a hair salon. What we need is another lab.” Bruce declared.

“Or a ballet studio.” Nat gasped.

“I think we should install an Olive Garden.” Bucky shrugged.

“How about a room full of murals of myself?” Thor smiled. “You can all gaze upon them and push yourself to stop being tiny and small.”

“Or another gym.” Rhodey shrugged.

“Or a wine cellar. But for beer! A beer cellar.” Thor cheered.

“We can discuss the room later.” Tony quieted everyone down. “If you really want these things, get the kids together. You know what you have to do.”

Tony

You and Peter often ate breakfast together in the same spot everyday, and Tony used that information to his advantage. He skillfully hung some mistletoe above your usual seats and patiently waited for your arrival. Soon enough, Tony heard your footsteps coming into the kitchen.

“Hey Petey.” You rubbed Peter’s back before taking a seat next to him. “Hi Mr. Stark.”

“Hey guys.” Tony smiled before looking up and gasping. “Oh golly gee, would ya look at that? Mistletoe! Who put that there?”

“Oh, wow.” Peter said as he looked up to see mistletoe hanging above the two of you. “I didn’t even notice.”

“Yeah. I probably wouldn’t have looked up if you hadn’t pointed it out.” You said skeptically as you eyed Tony.

“Ha.” Tony forced a laugh. “Well, now you see it. Bye!”

He quickly left the room and hid behind a wall where he could watch his plan unfold.

“That wasn’t at all weird.” You chuckled as you turned in your seat.

“He probably put Red Bull in his protein shake again.” Peter laughed as well, fingers brushing yours a little on the table.

“Yeah.” You nodded, suddenly feeling awkward now that you were both aware of the mistletoe hanging above your heads. You both looked away from each other, red in the face and sneaking occasional glances at the plant.

“I, um, I’ve never actually seen mistletoe in person before.” Peter said to break the silence. “I’ve only heard about it in songs.”

“Me too.” You nodded rapidly. “Or in movies and stuff.”

“Yeah.” Peter gulped. “And stuff.”

You looked at each other for a moment, shy smiles on your faces.

“I mean, since it’s both of our first times getting caught under it, it’d be a shame not to honor the tradition.” You suggested sheepishly as you averted your eyes.

“Right.” Peter said quickly. “It’s tradition. We basically have to.”

“Yeah. It’s practically a right of passage for the holiday season.” You said simply as you leaned closer to Peter.

“Exactly.” Peter agreed, leaning in as well. Your faces were almost touching now, just a few more inches until contact.

“Um.” You let out a nervous laugh before shutting your eyes and leaning in. Peter met you the rest of the way, your lips connecting directly under the mistletoe. You smiled a little into the kiss before pressing your hand to his cheek to keep him in place. Peter pulled away after a minute, gazing fondly in your eyes as he opened them. He’d been waiting to kiss you for the longest time, and it was just as perfect as he imagined.

“Thanks.” Peter said, squeezing his eyes shut in embarrassment after he said it.

“You’re welcome.” You laughed at him, squeezing his shoulder in admiration.

“I’m glad we could, erm, fulfill the tradition.” Peter laughed at his own awkwardness as he shook his head.

“Me too.” You nodded with a flushed face. “I feel more in the holiday spirit already.”

“Same, same.” Peter trailed off, looking around the room to distract from the awkwardness.

“Can we just pretend that didn’t happen and eat our breakfast?” You requested, looking at him shyly.

“Please.” Peter agreed. “It never happened.”

Rhodey

Bruce was making his way to the lab when he saw Rhodey hiding behind a wall, staring at hanging mistletoe.

“Why are you standing here?” Bruce whispered as he stood behind Rhodey.

“I told Y/n to meet me in the kitchen and I’m sending her a bunch of texts so she keeps her eyes on her phone. I also told Peter to meet me in the theater. They’ll have to go through that doorway where I strategically placed mistletoe. Once they bump into each other, they’ll have to kiss and I’ll get a point.” Rhodey explained his masterplan in a hushed tone.

“Why do you want them to bump into each other? Can’t they just see each other in the doorway?” Bruce whispered back.

“Man, have you ever seen a romantic comedy?” Rhodey sighed. “The girl has to bump into the boy so he knows she’s clumsy and not like other girls.”

“I think you’re getting a little too invested in this. It’s just a room.” Bruce reminded him, beginning to think he was behind on the contest.

“Its not about the room.” Rhodey insisted. “I just want to beat Rogers and his stupid parlor.”

“Shh.” Bruce hushed him. “Here they come.”

Bruce and Rhodey watched as you and Peter smacked into each other in the doorway.

“Oh, sorry. I wasn’t looking.” Peter said as he caught you from falling.

“That’s okay. I wasn’t looking either.” You smiled at him, staying in his arms.

“How are you gonna get them to notice the mistletoe?” Bruce whispered.

Rhodey silently took out a large fan and switched it on, sending a breeze towards you and Peter. The breeze made the bells on the mistletoe chime, causing you and Peter to look up.

“Is that mistletoe?” He asked as he pointed to it.

“It looks like it.” You commented. “I guess Mr. Stark decorated the tower.”

“Kinda crazy we got caught under it twice.” Peter chuckled nervously, hoping he’d get the chance to kiss you again.

“I know. But hey, it’s tradition.” You shrugged, also hoping you’d get to kiss him.

“Yeah. Tradition.” Peter was barely listening to himself speak as he stared at your lips. You laughed a little as your arms went around his neck, pulling him into a soft kiss. It was just as good as the first time, if not better. You pulled away after a moment and sighed against his mouth.

“I, um, I gotta meet Rhodey in the nitchken.” You stumbled over your words.

“Yeah, I’m supposed to see him in the popcorn palace.” Peter spoke, not even knowing what he was saying.

“I’ll see you later, Petey.” You squeezed his arm gently and made your way to the kitchen.

“Bye.” Peter mumbled before going to the theater. Rhodey turned to Bruce with a boastful grin and held a finger to symbolize the point he has just gotten. Bruce swallowed nervously, realizing he had to get on it if he wanted to win.

Bruce

“Banner.” Tony came to Bruce’s side with a suspicious look. “You look awfully devious today.”

“You’re much more likely to walk next to someone than to be caught under a doorway with them. That’s why I put a bouquet of roses and mistletoe on the table between their rooms. Every time they pass it, they’ll have to kiss.” Bruce explained as he turned to Tony with bloodshot eyes. He had been working on the plan all night and it showed.

“You unsuspecting genius.” Tony gasped.

“How is that unsuspected?” Bruce deadpanned. “I’m a certified genius. That’s why I was recruited.

“Yeah? And I’m a certified freak. 7 days a week.” Tony said as he stared at the bouquet of mistletoe. It didn’t take long for you and Peter to come out of your rooms and meet in front of the bouquet.

“Hey, Petey.” You greeted him. “What are you up to?”

“I was gonna grab a snack and then watch Dance Moms compilations.” Peter told you.

“Without me?” You pretended to be offended.

“I was gonna ask you to join.” Peter rolled his eyes sarcastically.

“I’d love to.” You smiled at him. “Let’s go.”

“Wait, is this mistletoe?” Peter realized the bouquet right as you were about to leave.

“Damn, it’s everywhere, huh?” You laughed as you touched the roses, warmed by the color.

“Do we still have to kiss of its not over our heads?” Peter wondered.

“Yes!” Bruce whispered sharply.

“You heard that too right?” Your eyes widened as you looked around for where the voice came from.

“Yeah. I thought it was my conscience.” Peter sighed in relief. Your eyes flickered from the bouquet to Peter, back to the bouquet.

“I mean, we might as well kiss.” You shrugged. “Mistletoe is still mistletoe.”

“You’re right. It would be a waste not to.” Peter nodded eagerly.

“That’s exactly what I was thinking.” You smiled as you pulled him into a kiss. This kiss lasted longer than usual as you both let it linger.

“The plan was smart but you only got one kiss out of it.” Tony whispered to Bruce as you and Peter went to the kitchen.

“Just wait.” Bruce told him. Some enough, you and Peter returned with an armful of snacks.

“Oh, we passed it again.” Peter said robotically, knowing you’d pass it again.

“Oops.” You said sarcastically. “I guess we have to kiss again.”

“Ugh. Every time.” Peter rolled his eyes as he pulled you towards his lips. You gripped his shirt collar and continued kissing him as you pulled him into your room.

“See?” Bruce smirked. “Certified genius.”

Down the hall, Natasha had seen the whole thing, chewing her lips as she came up with a plan.

Natasha

Natasha set her plan in motion a few days later, waiting in the kitchen for you as she stirred a bowl of muffin mix. Peter sat at the counter, reading over one of Bruce’s articles in a book. You came into the kitchen wearing an ugly Christmas sweater that matched Peters, the sight of you making Peter smile.

“Hi Nat.” You beamed at her as you took a seat next to Peter at the kitchen counter. “Whatcha making?”

“I’m making muffins with the berries from mistletoe.” Nat said cheerfully. “They should be really good.”

“You bake?” You asked curiously. “You mean they taught you culinary skills when training you to be an assassin?”

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me. For example, I love ballet. We might even be getting a ballet studio in the tower soon.” She said coyly, making you and Peter exchange a suspicious glance.

“Wow. That’ll be really cool.” Peter played along, skeptically of her intentions.

“Right? Does this look okay to you guys?” Nat asked as she held the mistletoe above your head. “I can’t tell it it’s good to use or not.”

“It looks fine to me.” Peter shrugged as he looked up at it.

“Oh, silly me.” Nat clicked her tongue. “You guys are totally under it. I guess you’ll have to kiss.”

You and Peter exchanged another look before pecking each other on the lips.

“Hmm. I still can’t tell. Can you check again?” Nat asked as she held it up again.

“It still looks fine.” You told her, growing suspicious.

“And you still have to kiss.” She sighed like it was an inconvenience. You narrowed your eyes at her before kissing Peter on the cheek.

“Are you guys sure it’s okay? One more time, please.” Nat held it over your heads a final time. Peter looked at you skeptically before leaning in for a kiss. Both of you were well aware of the sneaky smile on Natashas face.

“Wait, let me see if I can find another one.” Natasha took another bunch of mistletoe out of her grocery bag and pretended to inspect it. She made a whole show of it, making it look like she simply couldn’t find out if it was okay to use. She sighed sadly and looked to you guys for help before holding it up. You and Peter laughed in disbelief before kissing on the lips.

“Wow. Did I accidentally make you guys kiss 4 times?” Nat spoke loudly, as id she was letting all the people in the tower know. “That’s a lot. Looks like we’ll be getting that ballet studio after all.”

“Yeah. That is a lot.” Thor appeared in the doorway upon hearing Natashas declaration. He eyed you and Peter with a ponderous look on his face, becoming aware that he was losing the competition.

“Oops. I just remembered that mistletoe is poisonous.” Nat finished her bit. “Guess I won’t be making these! Bye guys!”

She swiftly left the room, leaving the mistletoe on the counter. You and Peter looked at each other, equally confused about what was happening. Thor walked further into the kitchen and pretended to take interest in the mistletoe. He held it up over his head before holding it over you and Peter.

“Are you two sure this mistletoe is good for use?” He asked, stealing Nat’s idea.

“We’re not kissing for you.” Peter told him flatly.

“I never liked you anyway.” Thor stated as he dropped the mistletoe and left the kitchen. He wandered the tower until he found Pepper reading in the living room.

“Pans. I have some bad news.” Thor sighed as he laid on the couch like he was in a therapists office. “The competition your husband started is rigged.”

“Why do you say that?” Pepper wondered.

“Because I’m losing!” Thor whined. “Gods do not lose to humans. Unless it’s a contest for tiny people.”

“How many kisses have you gotten?” Pepper asked, well aware of the contest.

“0 so far.” He sighed. “Everyone else has four or five. Banner has seven!”

“So you just have to come up with a plan that blows everyone else out of the water.” Pepper shrugged.

“Like what?”

“Everyone else has gotten them to kiss, right?” Pepper asked.

“Yes.” Thor nodded.

“You can get them to date.” Pepper said like it was simple.

“Why, that’s brilliant! Thank you, Pans!” Thor cheered as he got off the couch. “You have done me well.”

“You’re welcome.” Pepper chuckled as she flipped the page.

“Wait, your husband is also in this competition.” Thor realized. “Why are you helping me?”

“Because when Tony wins something, he gets way too cocky and thinks he’s above doing any laundry or cleaning.” Pepper explained. “Someone else has to win or he’ll buy Mexico or something.”

“Thank you, lady Pans.” Thor grinned. “I will not disappoint.”

Thor

“May I come in? I’m just kidding. I am coming in regardless of your answer.” Thor chuckled as he barged into your room. You and Peter had been sitting on the bed, jumping from fear as he came in.

“Hi, Thor.” You said skeptically as Thor pulled up a chair. “Can we help you with something?”

“For the past few weeks, the Avengers have been holding a stupid contest that I am losing to see who can get you two to kiss the most.” Thor explained. “They have been using mistletoe to carry out this stupid contest.”

“Wait, what?” You and Peter looked at each other in shock. Suddenly, the strange behavior and random mistletoe sightings all made sense.

“That’s why there’s mistletoe everywhere?” You asked. “And why did you guys do this in the first place? Why us?”

“Because you two like each other.” Thor shrugged. “And everyone knows it. Except for you two. You don’t know it.”

“What?” Peter sputtered. “We do not-“

“Shh.” Thor hushed him. “Don’t talk to me. Talk to each other. You’re welcome.”

Thor smiled kindly before getting out of his chair and leaving the room, shutting the door behind him.

“I can’t believe they did this.” Peter groaned. “Forcing us to kiss because they think we like each other? Who comes up with that?”

“I know right?” You agreed. “How we feel about each other is none of their business.”

“Exactly. And what do they know? If I liked you, I think I would know.” Peter forced a laugh, well aware that he liked you.

“Yeah. We would know.” You nodded before looking at him skeptically. “We would know, right?”

“I don’t know.” Peter answered honestly. “It’s kinda hard to tell how I feel about you. I never know if something that happens between us is platonic or romantic.”

“Me either.” You spoke softly as you put your hand on his. “Kissing isn’t really platonic, though.”

“I guess not.” Peter chuckled as he looked at you. You stared at him for a moment, heart beating in your ears as you thought out your next step.

“Peter, do you like me?” You asked slowly, looking at him through your eyelashes.

“Um, kinda, yeah.”

“Kinda?” You laughed softly at his answer.

“I’m sorry.” He sighed and squeezed your hand. “I don’t know what to say in this situation.”

“Just tell me how you feel.” You shrugged.

“I feel like I’ve been lingering around places where the mistletoe in hopes that you’ll walk by and kiss me.” Peter confessed, looking at you with a shy smile.

“Well that’s not platonic.” You teased him, leaning into him a little.

“No, it’s not.” Peter agreed. Your eyes flicked to his lips briefly before leaning in to kiss him, pulling his face closer to yours with the hand that wasn’t holding his. He kissed you back once he got over the surprise, sitting up straighter to get closer to you.

“You don’t need mistletoe to kiss me, Petey.” You whispered once you pulled away. “You can do it whenever you want.”

“I’m gonna take you up on that.” Peter smiled softly at you.

“I hope you do.” You flirted before connecting your lips to his again. On the other side of the door, Thor had his ear pressed up against the crack, listening to every word with a huge grin.

“I am so going to win this contest.”

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infernal-fire · 4 years

Text

Just The Benefits (1/2)

Pairings: dark!Steve x you

Warnings: smut, slight overstimulation, dark!Steve, dark!Nomad!Steve

Later in the series: noncon, breeding kink, slight degradation kink, slight praise kink, mentioned dark!Tony, dark!Bucky

Please do not interact with this blog if you are under 18. Your media consumption is your responsibility.

Summary: Y/N wanted the benefits and nothing more. That was the agreement… right? Steve decides it’s not enough.

Word Count: 1600

A/N: This is my first ever fic! I’m really hoping you’ll enjoy this but I also appreciate all feedback <3 I’m planning a second instalment for the fic, which will be longer than this one. I’m out here pretending like someone is going to read this.

Nomad!Steve is the most attractive Steve and you can talk to a wall if you disagree.

(This GIF does not belong to me)

It was convenient. The idea of no strings attached was that it was always supposed to be easy and mutually beneficial. You were enjoying the life of an Avenger and there’s no need to add anything to the mix.

That’s how you found yourself under Steve’s mercy every week. You’d be lying if you said you didn’t feel anything for him but right now, all you could think about was making sure you didn’t tap out from his girth.

You were bent over his king-size bed, stuffed full of his cock. He cooed praises into your ears and took on a languid pace. He pressed your head down with one arm, wiping your tears on the sheets, wrapping the other around your waist. His cock was moving in and out of you like a piston, making a squelching noise that your loud moaning drowned out.

“Sweetheart, I’m going to speed up” he moaned, and you whimpered in response. His speed had you lurching forward on every thrust, the room reverberating with the sound of skin slapping.

His cock repeatedly battered your cervix, which was becoming more sensitive by the second. You cried out as your eyes crossed and your muscles went limp, the crashing waves of your orgasm possessing you.

“That’s it, baby, cream my cock. I’m so close.” his grunts filled your ears as he leaned over you. The hand that was holding your head made its way to your neck and he pulled you up flush against him while the other hand began toying with your engorged clit. You were full-on crying from the overstimulation now; he hadn’t slowed down since you came. You were on your tippy-toes, trying to alleviate the pressure on your abused cunt.

After a few more thrusts, he pushed in one last time and squeezed your body before giving you some experimental thrusts. He pulled out and held your almost-passed-out frame by the hips and lifted you onto the bed.

“Jesus Y/N was I too rough?” You weakly shook your head as you closed your eyes and held his hand. He tucked you into his sheets, tossed the condom across the room and rounded the bed, settling beside you.

“Y/N?”

“Yeah?” you mumbled.

He paused as if he were pondering what he was going to say. In reality, he began taking in your naked, tired form that looked unreal yet ethereal on his bed. With your back to Steve, you had no idea he was feasting on the sight in front of him.

“What is it?” the slight raspiness of your voice alluded to your exhaustion.

“I don’t want to be friends with benefits anymore.”

You turned around to face him and propped yourself up on your elbow. The surprise of his statement was overriding your body’s pleas to sleep.

“Did I… do something?” You were honestly unsure of what to say.

He paused again. “It’s not enough for me. I know we came into this saying no strings attached but I care way too much for you.”

You weren’t sure what you were expecting but it certainly wasn’t that. Steve took your silence as a cue to continue.

“I think I love you. No, I-I know I love you. I want the whole thing with you, not just sex. I’m tired of pretending I’m okay with just sex. You know, I had feelings for you before you agreed to this. I had a feeling you might not say yes to a serious relationship so I proposed this arrangement.”

His speech initially started with uncertainty but as he spoke, he became sure of himself. He was sure you would agree. You two were perfect together and there was no denying it in Steve’s mind.

You got out of bed and began rummaging through the clothes strewn on the ground.

“I cannot believe you asked me to do this with your feelings involved. That was very manipulative and…” you trailed off. Did you want this? No. He messed with you. You affirmed it to yourself and picked up the rest of your clothes. “You were manipulative and this isn’t going to happen anymore. I told you I didn’t want a relationship to cloud my judgement with my missions.”

“Where are you going?” he began getting out bed, panic slightly evident in his voice.

You weren’t going to cry. But you were slightly hurt that he had a hidden agenda and that you were too stupid to not notice it. You turned to leave before he gripped your forearm.

“I know you’re angry, but you want this too.” He towered over you. The unexpected calm in his voice was unsettling.

“You’re scaring me, please let go.” He let you break out of his hold.

“FRIDAY, lock my doors and don’t open unless I say so,” he commanded.

He was beginning to chip at your resolve but you were determined to not show it. You glared at him again instead.

“FRIDAY, contact Tony and tell him Cap locked me in his room.”

He stared at you and stared back. Under the façade of toughness, you were crumbling and scared out of your mind. You didn’t want to stay and find out why he locked the door. What could he do when the entire team would question your whereabouts the next day?

The seconds stretched on before he finally spoke again. “You’re making a mistake. You want this.”

“Tony has overridden your request, Steve. Y/N, the door is now unlocked.” FRIDAY called out.

You turned and speed-walked out of the room, not turning back to look at Steve who was now lowly chuckling to himself.

He wondered if you really thought this was the end of this conversation.

You turned to your missions to help you cope with the loss of one of your best friendships. You give men a little bit of space in your life and they think you owe them the world. Worst of all, you should’ve seen this coming. Little touches, smiles that always reached his eyes and hugs that lasted a little longer they should. Not mentioning walking you to your room after training, making your breakfast and taking special care of you after a particularly difficult mission. You were truly a fool for not realizing it sooner.

Everyone is scared of something, even the Avengers. For you, it was this new side of Steve. You weren’t even sure how to act around him anymore. The relationship was on the low and not many people knew about it; Bucky knew for sure, and now, Tony must have an idea as well. Tony didn’t ask you why Cap locked you in your room. That should have been the first red flag that your teammates weren’t on your side.

You proceeded as if things were normal around Steve and he did too. There was no reason not to, right? He just acted out because of the rejection, you thought to yourself.

All the Avengers sitting down for dinner was a rare occurrence, but this particular Friday, there was a crowd in the dining room of the compound.

You were happy today. Your paperwork had been a breeze and you had a good weekend planned for yourself. Around the table, Tony, Rhodey, Thor were bickering, Clint and Nat were silently observing while Steve and Bucky were engrossed in a private conversation of their own.

“After dinner, we should play a game” Sam piped up through a mouthful. Clint snickered to himself and Sam continued.

“I’m serious, we should play truth or dare… something like that. I barely know anything about you guys, minus things like your favourite way to take a target out.”

“I think it should stay that way” Nat slightly grinned and continued eating.

“Honestly, I agree, I feel like I know nothing about you guys,” you commented, wiping your mouth and clearing your empty plate. Tony grabbed it for you and made his way to the sink. “I wasn’t aware that we were in high school. But tell you what; hide and seek would be interesting with this crowd.” Tony contemplated before finishing his thought: “Barnes and Romanoff should try to find us. That would be a kicker.”

“That sounds a lot better than truth or dare. I’m game” Nat said before getting and stretching. Bucky quietly chuckled and everyone began to clean up the table.

“So this is really happening?” Rhodey laughed as everyone made their way to the living room.

Bucky and Nat stood in front of everyone and negotiated rules. You smiled to yourself, thinking about how blessed you were to be a part of something so amazing.

“Okay then, 5 minutes to hide and 30 minutes to be found. If you’re found you have to do their paperwork for a week.” Clint finalized and everyone nodded.

“Alright, off you go,” Nat said before settling into a couch, observing everyone that scrambled off.

Thor looked lost, unsure where to go. He rarely stayed at the compound. You pointed him in the direction of the gym before racing past and making your way to your spot. There was a supply closet that you had a feeling Nat wouldn’t bother checking. Bucky knew of it, but you had a back-up escape route in mind if he decided to look there. You got to the closet and silently slipped in before sliding the door closed and settling into the corner. After a few minutes, you heard light footsteps that became louder. It hadn’t been 5 minutes yet. Whoever was coming to your spot, you were prepared to tell them to buzz off before the closet door opened to reveal Steve.

He stepped in and closed the door behind him.

Part 2

Masterlist

Tagging some people I want to be friends with 🥺

@smutsonian @imanuglywombat @nastybuckybarnes @candy-and-writing @speechlessxx @mariessecretfantasies @mypoisonedvine @harryspet @nsfwsebbie @cherienymphe @imdarkinme @ironlady1993 @darkficsyouneveraskedfor @sherrybaby14 @mcudarklibrary

#dark!steve x you #dark!steve rogers #dark!steve smut #dark!steve x reader #dark!steve #dark!tony #dark!tony stark #dark!bucky barnes #dark!bucky smut #dark!bucky #dark!bucky x y/n #dark!bucky x you #smut #mcu #darkmcu

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braveclementine · 2 months

Text

The Press Conference

Warnings: None

Copyright: I do not own any Marvel characters or locations. However, I do own my OC Elizabeth Lightwood. I do not condone any copying of this.

You sat curled up in Tony's lap as Pepper tended to his wounds and Tony read the newspaper. He made sure to flip the paper backwards so that he was able to hold in one hand, so that he could stroke you with his other hand.

Rhodey was on the screen, talking about the Iron giants that had been seen. He was covering most of what was being asked. It seemed, to you, that Rhodey was Tony's best friend.

Rhodey had also saved you, so you owed him your life. He had gotten you, not to a vet clinic, but their house and had explained the situation. It turned out she was actually the same vet that had taken care of you the first time and let you in without any problems.

She'd taken care of you to the best of her abilities- rabbits were very hard creatures to take care of. She taped up what she could and attempted tiny casts. She ordered Rhodey to keep you with her until you were healed so that she could check your progress.

Tony had come by the next day after he was released from the hospital to check in on you. He'd retold you the entire story of how he'd defeated Obadiah and you were glad that he was irrevocably dead.

The vet- whose name was Dr. Tenpenny- talked to Tony about your recovery and the course for the rest of your recovery when you went home with him. She also mentioned about Tony trying to track your parents down once more.

Tony nodded and he got straight to work on it. He had talked to you, and you had agreed nonverbally to lead him to your house so that he could arrest your parents. Of course, the charges wouldn't actually be able to be upheld in court until you were human and could verbally speak against them. That bit scared you.

You hadn't become human yet, despite the new connection that Tony and you had. You cared for him deeply and respected him, but you weren't sure if it was love yet. Not to mention, the two of you hadn't been together for very long and a lot of that time was spent in silence, watching him work.

He was making a newfound effort however, spending more time with you in the living room. A lot of times the two of you were watching TV shows or movies. He had discovered that you liked Harry Potter especially so the movies had been playing on re-runs for a while.

At the moment, Tony was reading about himself- always the narcissist- while Pepper reached over to take the butterfly bandage off the edge of his nose.

"'Iron Man.' That's kind of catchy. Got a nice ring to it." Tony said out loud. "I mean, it's not technically accurate. The suit's a gold-titanium al-loy, but it's kind've evocative, the imagery, anyway."

Agent Coulson suddenly approached, a blue piece of paper in his hand which he handed to Tony saying, "Here's your alibi."

"Okay." Tony said, lifting his hand from your body so that he could take the slip of paper.

"You were on your yacht."

"Yeah."

"We have port papers that put you in Avalon all night, and sworn statements from 50 of your guests."

"See, I was thinking maybe we should just say it was Pumpkin and me alone on the island."

"That's what happened." Coulson agreed.

"All right." Tony said happily, folding up the blue piece of paper and putting the newspaper aside, picking you up gently in both hands to put you on his shoulder. You snuggled into him happily, closing your eyes.

"Just read it, word for word." Coulson warned him.

"There's nothing about Stane here." Tony said as he flipped through the blue cards.

"That's being handled. He's on vacation." Coulson said. You perked up for a second, thinking he wasn't dead, and then realized it was a lie for an alibi. It also made you wonder how often the news media was lying- or at least being lied to- from all sorts of events like this. "Small aircraft have such a poor safety record."

"But what about the whole cover story that it's a bodyguard?" Tony asked. "He's my. . . I mean, is that. . . That's kind of flimsy, don't you think?"

"This isn't my first rodeo, Mr. Stark." Coulson said and you decided that, yes, the news media definitely wasn't reliable. "Just stick to the official statement and soon, this will all be behind you. You've got 90 seconds."

"Oh, Agent Coulson." Pepper called after him as he started to leave the room. "I just wanted to say, thank you very much, for all of your help."

"That's what we do. You'll be hearing from us."

"From the Strategic Homeland. . ."

"Just call us S.H.I.E.L.D." Coulson said with a smile.

"Right." Pepper whispered as he walked away. She turned back to Tony and you and said, "Let's get this show on the road."

"You know, it's actually not that bad." Tony commented, stroking the fur between your ears. He walked over to where Pepper was getting his jacket, setting you down for a moment so he could slide it on. "Even I don't think I'm Iron Man."

"You're not Iron man." Pepper commented.

"Am so."

"You're not."

"All right, suit yourself."

Tony smiled and then picked you up again. "All right Pumpkin. Let's go deliver a speech full of BS that everyone is going to believe because I'm saying it."

You nuzzled against him and you could hear Rhodey's voice as Tony walked out to the stage. "And now, Mr. Stark has prepared a statement. He will not be taking questions. Thank you."

Tony hopped up to the platform where the microphones were, slipping you from his shoulder to place you on the wooden podium. You actually really hated it up here, in front of everyone, having everyone's attention. You wondered if your father would recognize you if he saw you on TV, or if he would not make the connection and think you were just another rabbit.

You wondered then, what your parents would think if you had been human and brought Tony Stark home to meet them. Of course, you would never have dreamed of doing that. But it was amusing to think about. How silent they'd be out of shock and also fear.

You settled down, your ears perked up as Tony got ready to make his speech. You wondered if people would believe his story though. Tony Stark on his expensive yacht with just his rabbit? You weren't entirely sure you would have believed the story. But maybe, since you were technically his soulmate.

"Uh, been a while since I was in front of you. I figure I'll stick to the cards this time." He held them up and the crowd laughed. You remembered why you'd liked watching him on TV again. It was because he could always make the audience- and you- laugh.

He cleared his throat and started to speak, "There's been speculation that I was involved in the events that occurred on the freeway and the rooftop. . ."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Stark." A reporter, female, quickly interrupted. "but do you honestly expect us to believe that that was a bodyguard in a suit that conveniently appeared, despite the fact that you-"

"I know that it's confusing. It is one thing to question the official story, and another thing entirely to make wild accusations or insinuate that I'm a superhero."

"I never said you were a superhero." The blond said and you recognized her from the bar. Oh, you didn't like her.

"Didn't?"

"Mnm."

"Well, good, because that would be outlandish and fantastic." You nearly rolled your eyes as he sighed and then said, "I'm just not the hero type. Clearly. With this laundry list of character defects, all the mistakes I've made, largely public."

"Just stick to the cards man." Rhodey hissed into his ear. You exchanged a look with the man and you knew this was going to go in the wrong direction. You were starting to get nervous, your hair poofing up and ears straight up as well.

Tony held the card up and said, "The truth is. . ." There was a long pause of silence and you closed your eyes, hearing as he set the cards down.

"I am Iron Man."

🎃 ::::: 🧡 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🧡 ::::: 🎃

You were exhausted as Tony carried you into your guys' home. The lights were off as he closed the door behind you.

"Jarvis?"

"Welcome home, sir." Jarvis voice dipped off at the end and your senses were on high alert. You smelled something foreign, something like hard cologne and spices. It was not unpleasant, but it didn't belong in the house.

Tony paused on the stairs and you looked over your tiny shoulder to see that behind his couch was the shadowy outline of a man. Tony's hand held you just a little tighter.

"'I am Iron Man.'" The voice spoke and you noticed it was light, almost friendly and you relaxed just a little. "You think you're the only superhero in the world? Mr. Stark, you've become part of a bigger universe." The man said, turning so that he could face you. "You just don't know it yet."

Your eyesight was better in the dark and you could see that he was a tall, handsome African American man. He was bald and wearing all black, including an eyepatch across his left eye.

A bigger universe? Well, didn't this sound intriguing.

"Who the hell are you?" Tony asked, coming to a stop at the bottom of the stairs. He'd only gone far enough so that he could see the man's face.

"Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D." The man- Fury- said.

That was the agency that Coulson worked for, you remembered.

"Oh."

"I'm here to talk to you about the Avengers initiative."

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lol-im-done · 3 years

Text

The Avenger & Baron of Sokovia: Part Two

Part One

Hi! Here is part two, I honestly got carried away again and will do a few more parts to this! Enjoy!

Those five years were a deep slumber somewhere in the cosmos but you didn’t dream. You were barely conscious, no concept of the time that had been passing by. When you ‘blipped’ back there was no moment to reunite with Helmut, it took you a few moments to regain consciousness. In the chaos you had been dragged out from your chair by security, crying out for Helmut completely confused by what had happened. Helmut looked like he had seen a ghost, not quite believing he had seen you reappear from thin air. It wasn’t until someone had mentioned it in passing what happened did he actually believe it and it made him crazy that you had slipped out of his reach just like that. In the utter chaos that had been caused by the snap of the Infinity Gauntlet, you remembered the portal opening in front of you on that chaotic street, people screaming and running around you. Through the golden sparks you could see Steve, standing there bloodied and beaten on the battlefield and when he caught your eye you could see the relief spread through his face. Without a second thought you jumped through the portal to join him, hands ready and eyes bright green with power. All you knew is that you had to be by your team's side. You hadn’t been there to fight in Wakanda but you were going to make damn sure you gave it all this time. Even in your civilian clothing you fought with such fervor that a suit of pure telekinetic energy covered your body. Waves of your power brought down hundreds of enemies, and in a split second you had used your abilities to bring Thanos to his knees giving Tony enough time to take the Infinity Stones. That was the last time you saw him alive, barely managing to bid him goodbye.

In the aftermath you found out that Natasha hadn’t made it and you felt like you had fallen into a pit of despair. Regret burned deep in your soul, you should have been there with them, gotten a chance to see one of your oldest friends one last time. What happened next was perhaps the most surprising thing out of all of this.

“He wants to talk to you,” Sam murmured as he passed by you, holding Steve’s shield. Taking a deep breath you made your way over to the old man on the bench.

“Steve?” you asked tentatively. He turned around with a gentle smile.

“(Y/N),” Steve said, tapping the seat next to him. Sitting down next to him, he took your hand into his. What were once the strong calloused hands of a soldier were now signs of old age but they still comforted you.

“I know you retired after Sokovia-,” Steve began.

“Steve I’m sorry for abandoning the team,” you cried out unable to stop yourself, tears gathering in your eyes but he shook his head.

“We understood why you did it (Y/N). Tony, Thor, Natasha, Bruce, all of them understood. What matters is that you were there with us to fight one last time. You’ll be one of the few original Avengers left,” Steve said solemnly. “With that comes responsibility. I know how much Sokovia affected you but you’re stronger than you think. I can’t make you lead what's left of the team, you’re going to find your way in the world but I will ask you one thing,” Steve continued.

“Anything Steve,” you gulped.

“Take care of Bucky. He might not ever forgive me for what I’ve done but I need to make sure he’s taken care of. Look after the others as well. We often lead lonely lives and right now more than ever you all need to support each other. Can you promise to do that to the best of your ability,” Steve finished. His words stunned you but Steve was right.

“Don’t you worry about anything Steve. I promise,” you promised giving him a hug, the familiar scent of his cologne filled your nose. That would be one of the last times you saw him.

Trying to find your place in a world that had moved on without you was proving more difficult than you thought. As a past member of the Avengers, it fell onto your shoulders to try and regain some control, to help and advise alongside Rhodey and Sam mainly. The government had decided to keep a close eye on you as well, you were enhanced and in this new world you had come back to they seemed to not trust you the same way as before. You had even been sucked into Wanda’s Westview anomaly when you had tried to help her out after Tony’s funeral. Through all of this you hadn’t returned to see Helmut, the fact that he was still alive and well in his cell a small reassurance. You had been making plans to see him again, your plane ticket booked for Berlin but your paths would cross sooner than you thought as a knock on your door made you get up from your desk one day.

“Hey,” Sam greeted when you opened the door. Behind him was Bucky who gave you a sheepish smile and wave. He was still a bit nervous around you but you had made it a point to see him as regularly as you could taking your promise to Steve incredibly seriously. You had been the one to make sure he got mandated therapy sessions as part of his pardon.

“Sam! Bucky!” you smiled, ushering them into your apartment. Bucky was a bit surprised when you pulled him into a hug but he accepted it. After feeding them some lunch and catching up you got down to business.

“You need my help don’t you,” you stated, crossing your arms with a small smirk. Sam and Bucky exchanged a look before Bucky scarfed down some more fries.

“I know you put your superhero life behind you (Y/N) but you’re the only one I thought of to help us with this,” Sam explained.

“Where to?” you asked.

“Berlin. We have to talk to Helmut Zemo. You remember him right?” Bucky asked. At his words your heart stopped, eyes going wide. They wanted to talk to Helmut?

“(Y/N)?” Sam asked, eyebrows crinkled in worry. Memories of Helmut flooded your mind for a few seconds.

“Yeah I remember him,” you whispered, holding a hand to your chest to steady your heartbeat.

“Wait, you visited him a few times right?” Sam asked, remembering what Steve had told him years ago.

“Well- um more than a few times,” you shrugged, turning away to hide your blush.

“Care to explain?” Sam crossed his arms.

“Let me pack and I’ll explain on the way there,” you sighed. Sam nodded and got up to help you, Bucky staying at the table staring at the framed picture of you and Steve, his heart clenching in nostalgia.

“Why can’t I go in with you?” you frowned, feeling increasingly agitated. Bucky sighed and pulled you aside for a second in the white hallway.

“Don’t tell Sam but you’ll have your chance to see him after this I promise,” Bucky whispered. Pressing your lips tightly together you nodded slowly, understanding his words.

“Everything good?” Sam asked.

“All good,” you murmured as Bucky followed the guard down the long hallway into the maze of the prison. It had been so long since you had been here but everything was familiar to you, you could probably find your way to Helmut’s cell blindfolded. It took every ounce of willpower not to go in running after Bucky to see Helmut. Sam watched as you chewed on your lip, foot tapping in anxiousness.

“Why do you call him Helmut?” Sam suddenly asked. You turned to face him in a surprised manner.

“Because that’s his name?” you tilted your head, confused by his question.

“We all call him Zemo but you call him Helmut. It's more personal,” Sam stated.

“Like I explained on the plane....we got close. Like friends after all that time I came to visit him. It stemmed from Sokovia really but I got to understand him and he understood me too,” you whispered, emotion filling your voice. Sam decided not to press it but he was still confused on why you had decided to get so close to the man who had divided the team so horribly. You asked yourself that same question but as time went on with Helmut you could tell he was seeing things from a new perspective. He had even planned on asking Steve to meet him when he was no longer on the run, to talk and ask for forgiveness. Suddenly the door at the end of the hall opened and Bucky walked calmly back to you and Sam.

“C’mon I have somewhere for us to check out,” Bucky said, leading you all out. It felt nice to feel the breeze and walk around like a tourist again, your arm tucked under Bucky’s. He had changed a lot since you had first met him, feeling comfortable enough around you to accept physical affection. It was like having a brother, much like Sam, two brothers you had to keep an eye on at all times you thought with a smile. Finally you reached a large garage filled with darkness.

“Careful,” you warned Sam, pulling him back before he smacked his face into a metal anvil. You used your powers like a candle to illuminate the area until Bucky found the light switch.

“Why are we here?” you asked Bucky who gave you a knowing look. Is this what he meant earlier, about seeing Helmut soon? Your heart sped up a bit as you looked around ignoring Sam and Bucky’s bickering.

“What are you talking about? You wanna break Zemo outta jail?” Sam asked incredulously.

“We have no leads, no moves, nothing,” Bucky countered.

“What we have is one of the most dangerous men in the world behind bars,” Sam snapped.

“And we also have eight Super Soldiers that are loose,” Bucky replied.

“Zemo's gonna mess with our minds. Especially yours. No offense,” Sam shook his head.

“Offense. Super Soldiers go against everything he believes in. He is crazy, but he still has a code. Anyways if what (Y/N) said is right then he’s not as crazy as he once was,” Bucky tried to reason. Suddenly there was movement by the garage doors and you felt the air leave your lungs. The moment he walked in you wasted no time in running towards him, ignoring Sam’s protests as you crashed into Helmut’s open arms. Tears gathered in your eyes as you held him like he was a life raft in an ocean working to drown you. You hadn’t realized you had started crying until Helmut was softly comforting you, stroking your hair. Finally you pulled back, Helmut’s arms still encircling your waist.

“I’m so sorry,” you cried but Helmut shook his head, wiping the tears from your red cheeks.

“Don’t apologize miláčik. None of that matters now,” Helmut smiled, through his own tears feeling a relief so strong it almost made him fall to his knees. Sam and Bucky were stunned at what they were witnessing, they knew you had history with Zemo but never knew the reality of your relationship. To be honest you didn’t know what your relationship was but there was a connection, there was something and you could see it in his eyes. But there was no time for words, Sam had made it clear you had to leave now. Every moment from that garage to the moment you were up in the air in Helmut’s private jet, you were attached to his side like a magnet. Helmut had been so touch starved, he had resigned himself to the fact that he would never touch your smooth skin while he was incarcerated but now having you with him, he didn’t want you far from him. It was clear how protective you were of him as well, when Bucky had lunged at Helmut with his metal arm, a wall of green energy erupted between them making Bucky bounce back and fall into his seat.

“Enough,” you snapped, giving each of them a stern look before relaxing. “Helmut please refrain from pushing their buttons. We are here for one thing and we have to work together. Please for me,” you asked. Helmut sighed but nodded, muttering an apology to Bucky. With a satisfied smile you reached across and held Helmut’s hand, feeling him relax into your touch. You couldn’t stop smiling and it made Sam a bit nervous, seeing you so happy around a criminal like Zemo. Soon the conversation turned a bit more serious.

“You must have really looked up to Steve. But I realized something when I met him. The danger with people like him, America's Super Soldiers, is that we put them on pedestals,” Helmut began.

“Watch your step, Zemo,” Sam warned.

“They become symbols. Icons. And then we start to forget about their flaws. From there, cities fly, innocent people die. Movements are formed, wars are fought. You remember that, right? As a young soldier sent to Germany to stop a mad icon. Do we want to live in a world full of people like the Red Skull?” Helmut went on in his tangent.

“(Y/N)’s enhanced. Why don’t you hate her?” Sam asked sarcastically. Zemo’s eyes hardened, eyes flickering over to you as you waited for his response.

“In the time I spent speaking with her my views have shifted. I no longer see things as so black and white. There is a grey area in these matters, nuance,” Zemo admitted. You couldn’t help but smile slightly at that, he had changed.

“There are threats, people who regardless of super serum or mutant abilities are up to no good. If this has to do with HYDRA we have to end it,” you said. That seemed to shut the door to that conversation, Bucky nodding at your words. Before Madripoor you all made a stop to rest in Hong Kong. Helmut had gotten a reservation at a luxurious hotel for the night but none of that mattered to you all you wanted was time to speak with him properly and a hot shower. As you waited alongside Bucky and Sam in the lobby wondering what the sleeping arrangements would be, heat rushed to your cheeks when you heard Helmut get the room keys for only two rooms and his intention became clear when he took your hand into his in the elevator. Bucky looking at your intertwined hands a bit like a brother would seeing his sister with her new boyfriend. The elevators opened and before you could walk off with Helmut to your room at the end of the hall, Sam grabbed your arm gently.

“Wait you’re sharing a room with him?” Sam asked in a hushed voice, still not trusting Helmut.

“Of course I am,” you replied with a questioning tilt of your head.

“She’ll be fine Sam,” Bucky murmured, opening the door to their room so Sam could follow him in. Sam pursed his lips but nodded as you gave Bucky a grateful smile.

“Goodnight Bucky. If you need anything you just shoot me a text,” you waved. The door closed behind them, Helmut quiet at your side as he led you to your shared room.

“A text?” Helmut asked casually as you entered the grand room. Walking over to the bed you sat down, relishing in the feeling of the bed.

“Yes. Bucky experiences nightmares from time to time as one would having experienced the trauma he’s been through. I always make sure I’m there in case he needs to talk to someone,” you explained, reclining on the comfortable pillows.

“Why?” Helmut asked, as he took a seat on the other side of the bed.

“Because he’s my friend. I also promised Steve to look after him, to look after all of them,” you murmured.

“Is that why you didn’t come back?” Helmut whispered. Slowly you kicked off your boots before you curled up into the pillows, facing Helmut.

“I wanted to but after fighting against Thanos I had to catch up on the past five years. I got stuck in Wanda’s alternate world, I had to try and make my own way with the government breathing down my neck,” you began. Helmut nodded in understanding, he couldn’t blame you. “If Steve were still here or Nat or Tony they would have led us all through it but the rest of us had to figure it out,” you sighed. Helmut curled up on the bed as well as he reached across to stroke your cheek. Looking into his handsome face you felt warmth fill your body, those warm brown eyes you missed so much.

“That day that I disappeared I wanted to explain something to you,” you said a bit nervously. Helmut kept his hand on your cheek in a reassuring manner. “I know I should hate you the way that you hated us after Sokovia but after spending time with you I found myself doing quite the opposite,” you admitted. Helmut stayed silent allowing you to continue, his eyes full of emotion.

“I’ve fallen in love with you Helmut. When I came back after all those years I was scared you never felt the same in the first place or that you weren’t ready to feel the same-,” you began to ramble but were cut off by Helmut rushing forward to capture your lips into a heated kiss. After years of waiting and hoping to have you in his arms Helmut couldn’t wait another second to feel your soft lips against his. Breaking for air he pressed his forehead against yours, eyes closed with overwhelming emotions.

“Watching you disappear in front of my eyes with no way of stopping it, was one of the worst pains of my life. I’ve lost my family already once before and I didn’t think I was going to survive that and after five years of waiting, thinking of nothing but you, I didn’t think I was going to survive that either,” Helmut admitted sadly. “Those months after Sokovia I was already falling in love with you before I was consumed with vengeance. I love you miláčik,” Helmut finished. It was your turn to kiss him which quickly turned into clothes coming off, breathless whispers of love and cries of pleasure filling the room. As you cuddled into his bare chest you pushed away any anxiety riddled thoughts of him returning to prison and simply appreciated having the man you loved in your arms.

Tag List: @hollmarch @lam-ila @anxious-alto @sagyunaro @thenewlarislynn @booklover2929 @husherstan @breadsquash @x-ximenas

#helmut zemo #baron zemo x reader #helmut zemo imagine #tfaws #helmut zemo x reader

256 notes · View notes

bowiebond · 3 years

Note

"Love at second sight"

As IronHusbands, for the prompts!

TW Mention of substance abuse

When Tony Stark first saw James Rhodes, fresh faced with not a lick of scruff at fifteen and a stolen drink in hand as faceless people spoke to him about nothing important, he didn’t dare look away.

When James Rhodes first saw Tony Stark, under terribly dim lighting of a party and in a tailored outfit that was a stark contrast to his own terribly faded science joke shirt, he couldn’t look away.

Tones saw Rhodey, Rhodey saw Tones, and there wasn’t a moment during MIT where they looked away from each other, not really.

Rhodey kept his gaze on Tony, kept his focus on the younger as they sketches a million unused blueprints, as Tony seemed to look everywhere else for praise and desire, as Tony avoided sleep for days on end on a caffeine high.

Tony let his eyes follow Rhodey, let the constant distraction orbit around his brain as he admired the shiny stars in Rhodey’s eyes when he aced test after test, as he stumbled in smelling too much like his dad after a party but simply caressed his head and let the younger get him into bed. He let his own eyes sparkle like passing comets when Rhodey praised his work, when he treated Dum-E like more than a robot.

“You know, that boy is always staring at you, Jimmy baby.” Mama Rhodes would muse when Rhodey would bring Tony to thanksgiving, and Rhodey would always laugh.

“Tones is always trying to guess my next move, I like to stay unpredictable.”

“You’re plenty predictable, sweetheart. It came with a healthy dosage of stubbornness.” His Mama would pinch his cheek and shoo him off and Rhodey would forget his own excuses.

Then one day, they’re both forced to look away. Rhodey can’t look at Tony when he’s raging, when he’s breaking his beautiful creations like they’re offending him, when he’s screaming himself hoarse.

Tony can’t look at anyone. He can’t see anything but grief and pain and anger. He drowns his vision in booze and drugs and shades the outside world with a pair of sunglasses so he can’t see them and they can’t see him.

Rhodey tries to step back into view, to catch his eye, but Tony simply blocks him.

So Rhodey leaves. He has a life, he has promise, and he refuses to be undermined or forgotten as he climbs the ranks.

It’s almost a year later when his phone rings.

“This is James Rhodes. Who is this?” The number is unknown but he feels it in his gut.

“Rhodey. It’s uh… it’s Tony.”

“What a surprise. Didn’t you block my number? And you know, just, kicked me aside in general?” He doesn’t want to sound petty, or even angry, but he is. Or maybe he isn’t. Maybe he’s just tired. He feels tired talking to Tony, hearing his voice. He feels heavy with exhaustion and longing.

“Uh, yeah. Sorry. Shit.” Tony sounds on the verge of crying, but it’s different from the crack in his voice when he lost his parents. “Rhodey, I’m sorry. I’ve been a dick. Am a dick. I just — can you do me a favour?”

“You’re asking a lot, all things considered.” Rhodey intones.

“It’s… Hanukkah.” Tony sighed. “Spend it with me? Please. I can’t — it’ll be the first without them, and I can’t, Rhodey, I can’t—“

“Okay.” Rhodey cuts him off before he can blabber.

“Okay?”

“I’ll be there.” Rhodey doesn’t lie. He takes leave and he comes to Tony’s front door with a simple suitcase. When Tony sees him again, doe brown eyes unveiled from his usual frames, Rhodey feels like he’s being seen for the first time by Tony since Howard and Maria’s death.

Tony’s eyes fill with tears and he wraps he arms around Rhodey like he might disappear, but it’s warm and Rhodey has been cold for too long. Both of them have been.

When Tony steps back and feels Rhodey’s eyes, his entire chest blooms with hope and warmth and it’s melting away the walls so quickly it should be terrifying.

“I’ve missed you, Rhodey.”

“I can tell, crybaby. You light a candle for me yet, Tones?” Rhodey says instead but it’s filled with fondness that sets Tony’s anxieties at ease.

“Not a single one. You know I can’t be trusted with fire, platypus.” Tony grins and it’s infectious.

“I’ll supervise.”

They light the first candle of the menorah together and it’s like the spark of something new between them.

It’s the same routine. They celebrate and they laugh like old times, and Tony only drinks a Rhodey measured amount as they watch sci-fi films — critiquing them violently and practically yelling on top of each other to get their points across before bursting into laughter over movie science — and build a volatile machine that explodes paint and dust when Dum-E gets involved. They spend a good hour chasing the bot in order to clean him off.

It’s sweet and warm like s’mores and they can’t keep their eyes off one another. On the final night of Hanukkah, Rhodey asks him to come home for Christmas the coming week with his family.

It’s sitting on the porch of his childhood home with Tony that he realises.

“You know, Mama always said you liked fo stare at me.”

“What? That’s absurd. I don’t stare.” Tony grumbled.

“But you do watch me. I always figured you were trying to stay one step ahead like the genius you are.” It’s a curious statement, branching out into an almost question, and Tony bites.

“You’re predictable, honey bear. I don’t have to be a genius to stay one step ahead.” Tony snorted.

“So why do you watch me then, huh?” Rhodey grins, turning to look at his best friend.

“I… I didn’t get to for a long time. I kind of— I messed up after my parents died. I wasn’t the best to you, never really have been. Probably never will be.” Tony shrugged weakly.

“You didn’t handle it well. You self destructed. And, yeah, it hurt. To see you like that, and also to know I couldn’t really help.” Rhodey sighed. “You stopped looking at me. I think that was the worst part.”

“I stopped…looking at you?” Tony took a moment to digest his words before huffing a laugh. “I stopped looking at you. I stopped looking at everyone. And I forced you to stop looking me in turn, didn’t I?”

“Sure did.”

“I’m so stupid.” Tony smiled even as he spoke, bittersweet.

“I think it was for the best though.”

“Yeah?” Tony turned his gaze onto Rhodey and admired the soft porch light highlighting his defined cheeks and broad nose.

“Yeah. Never would have gotten to see you in a different light if I hadn’t… looked away. I needed a double take.” Rhodey’s deep brown eyes met Tony’s and his grin grew. “Love at first sight — it’s kind of overrated, huh?”

“Lo…” The tiny creases in Tony’s face smoothed with realisation. “Love at second sight? That’s not how it’s supposed to go, honey bear.” Amusement made his eyes shower with comets and Rhodey laughed, his own glistening with stars as he leant in and pressed a gentle kiss to Tony’s lips.

Tony found he was fine with being distracted by Rhodey, and would be fine with it forever, honestly.

Rhodey had a simpler desire. He just never wanted to look away from Tony again.

#marvel #mcu #Tony stark #james rhodes #rhodey #mit boyfriends #rhfe #ironhusbands #tonyrhodey #rhodeytony #Jewish tony stark #fanficton #fluff #angst

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starlight-loki · 3 years

Text

The Thin Line Between Life and Death (Loki x Mystic!Reader) -- PART 1

Or, That Time You and Loki Saved the World

Request: is it alright if you do a loki x reader fic where reader's got powers like strange and wields one of the infinity stones and almost dies trying to save everyone? -- requested by anon

Warnings: this is darker than other fics i've written so far: descriptions of nausea, mentions of anxiety, and major character deaths (but not Loki, I promise).

Word Count: 4.8k (hooo weeee man, if I didn't split this into 2 parts it would've been like... over 10k omg)

A/N: For context, please read this headcanon first if you'd like to know a bit more about the reader and Loki's relationship as well as to sort of set the scene for this fic -- otherwise, if you're cool with jumping right in, enjoy! This was so much fun to write :)

Also this doesn't follow the events of Infinity War/Endgame at all; this is sort of... my take on it, I guess you could say?

Everything started going downhill when you began getting visions.

They weren't anything concerning at first, in fact they were almost cryptic, really: manifesting themselves in your dreams in subtle -- almost metaphoric -- ways. First it was simply the colour orange, which then progressed to flashes of amber light at random occasions during the events of your dreams, then it became fire. For a while, fire consumed your dreams nearly every night, burning through cities, forests, and even planets.

The Ancient One had told you from the start that dreams carried messages from your subconscious. They weren't something to be dismissed, even the most simplest elements. They were to be respected, listened to, and were meant to encourage you to shift mentally and emotionally in indescribable ways.

You figured the fire was symbolic for the stress and worry you were feeling, with everything moving so quickly over the last few days.

After all, the threat of Thanos was looming more and more. No longer was he a whispered rumour that was occasionally passed around at dinnertime with the rest of the Avengers. He was an actual threat now, and the Avengers were holding meetings twice a day to try and develop a plan of attack.

He had the power stone. It was only a matter of time before he found the others.

Twenty-four hours before everything changed, a vision came to you differently than all the others.

You were in the kitchen preparing lunch for yourself when your ears began ringing. Whispers filled your mind from the inside and spoke to you in a language you didn't understand, yet chilled you to the bone at the same time. There was a blinding flash of light that nearly paralyzed you, and as you strained to focus your eyes, you noticed a small orange stone materialize in front of you.

The soul stone.

It glided closer and closer to you, and as it did so the whispers grew louder. The lives of thousands flashed before your eyes. Their deaths did, as well. It was showing you the cycle of humanity -- birth, life, death, repeat -- almost taunting you that this seemingly inevitable thing could be controlled.

You gasped, dropped the plate in your hands accidentally. It fell to the floor with an earsplitting crash, and as quickly as the soul stone arrived, it disappeared in a swirl of orange smoke.

Your hands were shaking as you knelt down to collect the bigger pieces of the now-shattered plate. A hand on your back made you flinch in surprise and you instinctively curled closer towards the kitchen cabinets in an attempt to protect yourself.

"It's just me." Loki's soft voice seemed foggy and distant as your brain continued to adjust from the voices and the ringing you had just heard. "Are you hurt?"

You shook your head and sunk to the floor, half in defeat and half in relief that you weren't alone anymore. These visions were growing far too intense for you to handle.

You looked up at Loki, who exchanged an anxious expression with you. His green eyes searched your face, seemingly looking for an explanation of what had just happened to you.

"I saw something," you whispered, absentmindedly gripping the plate shard in your hand tighter. "Loki, I think I saw the soul stone."

His eyes widened as he knelt down beside you and gently pried the glass out of your grip, setting it down out of your reach. He replaced the broken piece in your hand with his own, and you sighed shakily as his thumb gently stroked the top of your hand.

"Did it show you anything?" He asked quietly, and you nodded quickly in response.

"I saw life, death... everything." You felt far removed from you own voice, almost like it didn't belong to you. "It's been happening in dreams too, but I've never seen the stone itself before."

You gazed at Loki, who almost seemed to disappear into his own thoughts at your mention of the visions you saw. You knew all too well about the Tesseract, and the way it had tormented Loki once before. The infinity stones were not gentle to humans, or gods for that matter.

"Do you think this has something to do with Thanos?" You asked, your voice trembling as you whispered. "Do you think maybe he managed to get the soul stone?"

Loki shook his head slowly, but it wasn't without hesitation.

"The soul stone is far away on Vormir. It's guarded heavily. I doubt-"

"Hey, you two okay?"

You glanced up quickly just as Tony stepped into the room. His eyes swept over the mess of a broken plate on the floor before landing on you and Loki, huddled together in the corner of the kitchen as if your lives depended on it.

Tony looked as exhausted as you felt. No one had really slept well in the last few days, but you couldn't imagine what it was like for Tony: he had been staying up until ungodly hours of the morning with Steve, Vision, and Rhodey, trying to formulate a plan of attack.

"Yeah," you shook your head as you tried to clear the last of the visions out of your mind. "Sorry, that was an accident. I'm just... really tired."

Tony gave a perfectly-timed yawn as he knelt down and began to pick up the broken pieces of the plate you dropped.

"I feel ya, kid."

You watched as him and Loki exchanged resigned nods of acknowledgement, and you grabbed Loki's hand before he could step forward to help Tony clean up the mess.

Should I tell him? You asked telepathically. About the soul stone?

Loki gave an almost imperceptible shake of his head.

Not yet. His voice echoed through your mind like the whispers from the soul stone moments ago, bringing you warmth rather than fear. Until we fully understand why these visions are occurring, I believe it would be best to not burden Stark with any more details. It would only cause more problems.

You nodded in agreement as you pushed yourself up onto your feet shakily. You stepped forward to help Tony clean up the mess, only feel your head spin violently. You lurched forward, grabbing onto the counter as you tried to stop yourself from falling.

"Hey, whoa!" Tony sprang up and grabbed your shoulders just as you felt Loki's arms wrap around your waist in an effort to keep you standing. "Easy there, kid. Jesus, are you okay?"

"I feel sick." You mumbled, squeezing your eyes shut in an attempt to keep the room from spinning. Even with two people supporting your weight, you still felt as though you were going to fall over.

"Go sleep, okay?" Tony told you sternly. You made a sound of protest and tried to help him continue cleaning up. Tony shook his head in response.

"Don't worry about this, we'll clean it up." His gaze shifted over to Loki, who still held you tightly. You could feel his hands trembling ever-so-slightly, and you placed your own hand over his weakly as you attempted to silently reassure him that you'd be okay.

"Loki, make sure Y/N gets some rest."

"I will."

Loki scooped you up into his arms in one fluid motion, causing you to wince as spots danced in your vision. You buried your head against his shoulder, squeezing your eyes shut as you tried to hold yourself together.

Has this ever happened to you? You manage to ask Loki telepathically as he set you carefully down on your bed. He brushed a stray strand of hair out of your face before crawling into bed beside you.

Not to this degree, he replied. You couldn't help the sigh of relief that escaped your lips as he gently pulled you close, cradling the back of your head. The infinity stones all have variable levels of energy, but I have never dealt with the soul stone before.

Do you mean their frequencies vary depending on their roles?

Precisely.

You sighed defeatedly, troubled by the fact that -- out of all the infinity stones -- the one that boasted power over life and death itself just had to come find you.

You knew mystics seemed to have some sort of connection to the stones, seeing as Stephen knew the time stone and guarded it with his life. You had hoped, though, that if another stone were to find its way somehow to another mystic, it would be Wong, not you.

Loki nudged your chin up ever so slightly with his fingertips, encouraging you to look up at him. He gave you a warm, gentle smile as he caressed your cheek slowly.

"Rest now," he whispered, placing a kiss on your forehead softly. "I will stay with you, I promise."

You nodded halfheartedly in response. Every cell in your being longed for nothing more but rest, yet at the same time you were afraid to close your eyes in case the soul stone was still lurking somewhere in your mind. Waiting for you.

It felt as though you had only just closed your eyes, when the sound of thunder jolted you out of your sleep. You felt weightless as you opened your eyes slowly, taking in the purple hues of clouds above you. As you felt yourself float higher, you realized with a sickening sinking feeling that your body was still in your bed, far away from where you currently were.

Your spirit had separated from your physical body, and no matter how hard you tried, you couldn't seem to be able to get back.

You glanced upward as you continued your ascent just as two towering structures came into view at the top of a cliff. The whispers that had filled your mind earlier that day resumed, and you cried out in fear, clutching your head in your hands. It only made them grow stronger.

As flashes of orange began filling your vision, your blood ran cold as you realized where you were.

Somehow, your spirit had found its way to Vormir.

Reaching the top of the cliff, you stepped carefully onto the platform just as a hooded figure glided towards you.

Never before has this stone ever summoned a soul into its presence. A chill ran up your spine as the guardian's voice echoed in your mind, crackling like ice.

Many have sought this stone, but it belongs to no one.

"So why did it bring me here?" You demanded, curling your arms around your middle in an attempt control your nerves. You were vulnerable here. You were powerless without your physical body -- incantations and even the mirror realm would be of no use to you in this state.

The soul stone seems to have taken a certain interest in you. It sees potential... for what is yet to come.

"I don't understand." Your own voice seemed to wrap around you in an endless echo. You instinctively took a step back as your head spun from sensory overload.

You walk the line between the living and the dead, mystic.

"But I'm not the only mystic. There's more out there like me, surely they experienced the same thing? I mean, there's Stephen-"

No. Your breath caught in your throat as the hooded figure raised its head to gaze at you, and your eyes met fiery blood red irises. You turned your gaze to the ground in an attempt to divert your fear and calm your racing heart.

Stephen Strange is already in possession of the time stone, the guardian explained slowly. There are no other mystics who possess the strength -- or courage -- to cross over into the land of the dead.

"But I'm not dead." You protested, ignoring the small voice in the back of your mind that drew your attention back to the fact that you were currently a spirit on another planet, far away from your body. "I... I've been training in the mystic arts for a few years now. Never in my life has anything like this happened. Why now am I suddenly getting visions?"

There is another who seeks the soul stone as we speak, the guardian replied. To your relief, it kept its distance from you. He yearns to own it.

"Thanos," you whispered, feeling a cold chill run up your spine as you spoke his name.

Yes, mystic, the guardian nodded solemnly. However, there are elements of the soul stone that the Titan has not tried to understand. Just like how life and death are two sides of the same coin, so too does the soul stone have another aspect.

You gasped as the soul stone materialized in front of you, hovering level with your line of sight just like when you were in the kitchen back at the Compound. You watched as it began to spin, gradually growing faster and faster, until it split neatly into two halves.

The soul stone embodies both the physical and the spiritual, and thus each aspect is acquired through complete mastery of its respective lesson.

The guardian's words echoed in your mind as you gazed at the fragments of the soul stone curiously. The fear you had felt in connection with your earlier visions was gone now. In its place, all you felt was awe.

As one of the pieces of the soul stone began gliding closer to you, you reached out your hand in an attempt to touch it. It looked so warm, so inviting. You longed to know what it would feel like to hold a piece of ancient power in your hands.

No.

You flinched, glancing at the guarding whose voice boomed in your head. As if to reinforce his words, the shards of the soul stone vanished into thin air.

"What do you mean, 'no'?" You asked quietly. "You said there's a connection between myself and the soul stone, I don't understand."

You must earn it. It does not come willingly to anyone.

"Then I don't want it." You shook your head, taking a step back. "I don't know why any of this is happening, but I want it to stop. I want to go home."

Very well.

The guardian raised his hand, and you felt yourself being pulled backwards slowly, back the way you came.

I offer you a piece of advice, mystic, the voice in your mind echoed out louder than ever. In order to gain the physical shard of the stone, you must lose the one you love. To gain the spirit shard, you must know the path that leads you back to them.

There was a sharp tug around your middle, and you felt your heart freeze in your chest as you began plummeting down the cliff. You squeezed your eyes shut as the wind echoed like a jet plane in your ears.

Remember this, the guardian's voice was distant now. You had to strain to register the words in your mind. The spirit shard cannot be found on Vormir. The fate of the physical shard is being decided as we speak. Use this knowledge wisely, mystic.

An image flashed in your mind of a titan ascending the mountain, towards the top of the cliff upon which your spirit had just stood. You caught a glint of purple, blue, and red flash from his hand.

You gasped, bolting upright as the heavy sensation that accompanied falling back into your body ran through you. You were trembling, drenched in a cold sweat, and you yelped as two hands planted themselves firmly on your shoulders.

"Relax!" Your heart sped up in your chest as you tried to fight off whoever was holding onto you. "Y/N, relax, it's me!"

Loki came into focus in front of you, his eyes never straying from yours as you tried to catch your breath. His hands were steady, but you caught a flash of fear in his eyes as he gazed at you.

"What happened?" He whispered, pulling you into a protective and firm embrace. Your breath caught in your throat as your mind wandered back to the visions that flashed behind your eyes moments before you woke up.

"Thanos." Your voice felt far away, almost foreign to you, as you replied softly. Your trembling hands reached up to pull Loki even closer to you. You were afraid you'd lose control and end up separated from your body again. You didn't want to be alone once more.

"What?"

"Thanos." You repeated again, glancing out the window into the now-darkened sky to make sure you were no longer on Vormir. You couldn't trust yourself. "Loki, I saw him. He's got more stones. He found the Tesseract."

Loki pushed you away, only to wrap his hands firmly around your arms. The fear he had hidden so well moments ago was dancing like fire in his eyes.

"That's impossible," he said slowly, and you weren't sure if those words were for you, or if they were an attempt to convince himself. "You hid the Tesseract yourself, you took it from me and-"

"I know what I did." You snapped. You winced as Loki recoiled away from you ever-so-slightly. "I'm sorry. I'm just... Look, you have to believe me Loki. Please. I was on Vormir, or at least my spirit was. The guardian of the soul stone was there, it spoke to me, I-"

"I believe you." Loki's soft whisper stopped the rambling thoughts that were pouring out of your mouth, and you nearly cried in relief at his words. His expression softened as he took in your torn, distressed expression, and he kissed your forehead softly.

"I believe you." He repeated again, pulling you close.

"We don't have much time." Your voice felt tight in your throat as you spoke. "Right before I woke up, I saw Thanos approaching Vormir. The rest of the stones are on Earth, Loki. I think he's coming here next."

"We need to tell the others."

"Will they know what to do?"

Loki's gaze burned into yours determinedly as he took your hand and helped you up off your bed.

"All we can do is hope."

The two of you raced down the hall, pounding on every door you passed as you tried to wake everyone up at once. Tired groans of protest echoed from within a few rooms, only encouraging you to knock even louder on the Avengers' doors.

"Everyone up!" You exclaimed. You couldn't ignore the way your voice and hands trembled as you made your way down the hall. "Emergency meeting, now!"

The Compound slowly came to life once more as you and Loki reached the end of the hall, and the two of you were met with numerous confused and somewhat alarmed looks.

"What's going on?" Steve asked, effortlessly keeping up with your strides as you made your way to the meeting room.

"Y/N had a vision." Loki explained, taking your hand and giving it a small squeeze in an attempt to comfort you. "Thanos is coming."

"What!?" Bruce's shocked exclamation echoed out from behind you as he jogged to keep up. "We were monitoring his whereabouts, just a few hours ago he was still light years away from Earth looking for the other five infinity stones-"

"Yeah, well, he's managed to get two more," You answered as you sat yourself down in a chair in the meeting room. Loki sat close beside you, resting his knee against yours in a silent gesture, as if to communicate he was right by your side through all of this.

"He's on Vormir as we speak," you continued as everyone took their seats around the table. "He's looking for the soul stone. That's infinity stone number four. He'll be coming for us next."

"How do you know that?" Natasha's question sounded out from the other side of the room.

"There's six stones in total, right?"

Your question earned slow nods from the Avengers sitting around you.

"I saw his glove. He's got the power stone -- as we know -- as well as the reality stone, and now the space stone too."

"The Tesseract was destroyed along with Asgard." Thor remarked, frowning as he took in your words. You looked over at Loki quickly, the two of you exchanging anxious glances, before you looked back at Thor and shook your head.

"The Tesseract was... misplaced." You answered slowly.

Everyone flinched as Thor banged his fist against the table, his gaze immediately shifting away from you as realization burned in his eyes.

"Loki!"

"I assure you brother-"

"I knew it was a bad idea bringing Rock of Ages here onto the team." Tony interrupted pointing an accusatory finger at Loki. Several other Avengers nodded in agreement.

"It wasn't his fault!" You exclaimed loudly. The room felt silent as everyone frowned at you in confusion. "It was mine. I should've destroyed it but I didn't. I just opened a portal and... threw it in."

"Do you know where it went?" Steve asked you.

"At the time, I didn't. I had no idea Thanos was out there looking for the stones at the same time. I just wanted that thing far away from us. It's caused enough trouble, and we didn't need any more."

Loki squeezed your hand and gave you a soft smile as he heard your reply.

"There are two stones left," you continued, glancing around the room worriedly as you thought about the threat of Thanos looming over your team like a dark shadow. "Stephen is guarding the time stone downtown. Assuming he's kept his guard up as usual, he'll be one step ahead of Thanos and he'll already be taking precautions to keep it out of his reach."

You paused, glancing nervously over at Vision. His eyes met yours in understanding, and he gave the slightest nod in acknowledgement.

"The other stone," you continued quietly. "Is right here in this room with us."

A strange humming sound caused a hushed silence to fall over the Compound. You frowned, straining your ears as you tried to listen.

"Does anyone else hear that-"

Tony's question was cut off by an explosion that took out the entire side wall of the Compound. The force of the blast knocked you to the ground, and your ears rang violently as you tried to orient yourself once more with your surroundings.

"This is too easy. Everyone in one room together, how... pathetic."

You glanced up to see Thanos looming over everyone, an already victorious grin on his face as he examined the aftermath of the blast he had caused.

"I would've thought you'd make it more difficult for me."

The stones on Thanos' gauntlet began to glow, and you felt an arm yank you backwards and into their grasp before a ray of purple light blasted throughout the room. You glanced behind you to find Loki, his jaw clenched as he stared in fear towards Thanos, before casting a protective spell over the two of you.

You tried to pull away, to gather up the other members of the team and bring them to safety, but Loki's grip was firm and unrelenting.

"They need help!" You exclaimed in protest. "Everyone's vulnerable, all our defense and weapons are two floors down-"

"You go over there, and you'll get killed." Loki muttered through gritted teeth. "I can't lose you. Stay here."

"But-"

"Stay here!"

Loki trembled as he tried to keep his shield up. Pressing yourself closer to him, you cast the strongest protective spell you knew and placed it overtop of his. Green and gold magic intertwined together, forming a tightly-knit dome over the two of you.

"I think I can get Bruce," you whispered, nodding towards the corner of the room. "He's not very far-"

Your idea was suddenly interrupted as Thanos raised his gauntlet, and the soul stone began to glow.

You watched in horror as every member of your team outside of your protective dome was wrapped in an orange aura, and lifted off the ground.

"No!" You yelled, stumbling forward and pushing your protective spell further outwards in an attempt to save those closest to you. A spark of energy backfired, burning your hands and causing you to stumbled back with a cry of pain.

"I can't get to them," you gasped, glancing at Loki in horror. "I can't get past the soul stone."

Thanos heard your words, and he shifted his gaze in your direction with narrowed eyes.

"Why are you doing this?" You demanded, watching as Steve and Tony, among others, struggled to be released from the titan's invisible grasp.

"Those who play hero only bring more war," Thanos stated, glancing behind your shoulder at Loki and smiling coldly. "I'm putting an end to this child's play, once and for all."

"Let them go!" You yelled, reaching forward in a weak attempt to save your teammates. Your gesture only earned a piteous laugh from the titan.

"You're choosing to play a bold game, mystic." Thanos continued. "By keeping that shield of yours up, you're creating more pain. All you are doing is delaying your death."

"It'll give us more time to plot yours." Loki retorted from behind you with gritted teeth.

"Bold as ever, Asgardian." Thanos smirked. "But not strong enough. Neither of you are."

You glanced desperately over at Tony for any sort of help, but all you exchanged were helpless glances.

"There will be no more heroes," Thanos boomed, raising his gauntlet triumphantly. The soul stone began to glow once more. "No more martyrs. No more humans. Only gods."

"I believe in you, kid." Tony gasped out. "You can do this."

"I can't." You cried out, your heart racing as you glanced between your teammates and Thanos. "I don't know how."

You managed to catch a determined nod from Tony, before a loud snap reverberated through the room, knocking you and Loki backwards.

There was a gust of cold air as Thanos opened a portal with the space stone, smirking victoriously down at the two of you.

"We'll meet again, mystic."

Thanos pulled a now-unconscious Vision towards him with his gauntlet and disappeared, the portal closing as soon as it opened. You lowered your shield to run for your teammates, who were still hovering unconscious in mid-air, only to be stopped by Loki.

"Look."

You watched in horror as, one by one, each member of the Avengers dissolved into ash and vanished before your eyes. Crying out in disbelief, you lowered your protection spell and raced forward before Loki could protest.

"Tony!"

You tried to reach for his hand, to pull him out of the orange aura that held him captive. As soon as your fingers brushed his, he turned to ash immediately.

You sunk to your knees, the sudden silence that fell over the Compound feeling like a graveyard. You heard Loki run towards Thor, calling his name over and over again, before he too fell silent.

You caught his gaze from across the room, and a cold chill shook your insides as his eyes mirrored the same terror you felt inside yourself.

Unable to find the strength to stand, you crawled over to where he sat and buried your face in his shoulder. As soon as Loki's arms wrapped around you, you were unable to stop the sobs that wracked your body. You felt him trembling and realized that he, too, was crying.

"They're all gone." You whispered, your voice distorted through your tears. "Everyone's gone."

Loki didn't reply. Instead, he pulled you closer and ran his hands in small circles upon your back, almost as if he were memorizing the feel of you in his arms.

The sound of your cries echoed out through the Compound and reverberated back towards the two of you, piercing your skin like little knives. You squeezed shut your eyes, hoping that this was all a bad dream and -- when you opened your eyes again -- the Avengers would be right back in this room with you and Loki, ready to formulate a plan of attack.

When you opened your eyes, however, nothing changed.

There was only one infinity stone left.

Everyone was gone, leaving only you and Loki.

Thanos had won.

END OF PART ONE.

Taglist: @startrekkingaroundasgard @delightfulheartdream @justasmisunderstoodasloki @marvels-mischief @k8obr @pastyoverlord265 @lowkeytesss @levylovegood

Taglist for this fic only: @littleredstarfish @treblebeth @taylordani03

#loki x reader #loki x mystic!reader #loki x gender neutral reader #loki imagine #loki laufeyson #mcu loki #the avengers #infinity war #endgame #loki laufeyson imagine #loki x reader headcanon #loki hc #loki headcanon #loki x reader imagine

155 notes · View notes

just-dreaming-marvel · 4 years

Text

Retry

MAIN MASTERLIST

tony stark x reader

Word Count: 2,700ish

Summary: After Tony and you break up, you get kidnapped by Loki. When you’re found, you’re not the same person you once were.

Warnings: mentions of rape and abuse, nightmares

You were an agent of SHIELD, assigned to be Tony Stark’s personal assistant due to him being Howard Stark’s kid. You two were always flirtatious, even up to the day he was kidnapped. You searched and searched for him, until you and Rhodey found him in the middle of the desert, three months after he had gone missing. You stayed by his side through everything. Helping him recover and defeat Obadiah, falling in love with each other along the way.

It wasn’t all lovey-dovey for the two of you though. Your relationship was built on heavy sarcasm and teasing, which often led to disagreements and/or nights of heated passion. You mostly fought about Tony’s decision making, especially during the time you didn’t know he was dying. During that time, the fights became more hurtful, either bring on the most heated passion you’d ever experienced or nights spent in different rooms. By the end of his disastrous birthday party, you decided that you were through. Leaving nothing but a voicemail for him, telling him that it was over.

“I’m sorry, Tony,” you voice clearly showed that you were crying. “But I can’t do this anymore. We’re too different, constantly trying to change each other and fighting. It’s not good for us. I’m so sorry, Tony, but it’s over."

You busied yourself in missions after that, ignoring your broken heart and his own desperate voicemails. You were at the SHIELD facility when the Tesseract formed a portal, allowing Loki through. He took both you and Clint as mind-controlled hostages. He used you for a bit before deciding that you were nothing more than a play thing to him, allowing his other controlled hostages to use you for their pleasure. You were beaten, raped, starved, spit on, and many other vile things. When they finally left you, in that cold dark ceil, you had no clothes or food. And you knew not where you were.

Tony was enraged when he found out that you had been taken, even more so when Loki wouldn’t give anyone your location. While having the chance to be near you, Loki was able to see in your mind the love you still had for Tony. And he couldn’t wait to taunt him with it.

When Tony arrived at Stark Tower to confront Loki, Loki used the Mind Stone to enter the billionaire’s mind. Causing him to see what he wanted him to see.

Tony was suddenly in his Malibu mansion. He quickly spun around, examining the place. It was the same, but different. There was clearly a woman living there with him. Tony walked around, seeing the stories of Iron Man saving the day framed on his walls. There were also a few picture of the two of you. He grabbed one, taking if off the wall to look at it. You both were all smiles, him in a tux and you in a white wedding dress. Tony’s mind was running a mile of thoughts a minute, when he heard singing. He followed the sound of singing he heard coming from the kitchen. When he entered, he froze at the sight of you cooking in the kitchen. You were there, safely in his kitchen. You turned to the side to grab something, allowing him to see that you were pregnant and that there was a ring on your left hand. His breath left him. When you finally noticed his presence, you turned and smiled widely at him.

“Hey, honey,” you walked up to him, giving him a sweet kiss. “How’s life down in the workshop?”

“It’s… It’s… I’m sorry,” Tony was in shock and very confused. “What’s going on here?”

“What do you mean? I’m making dinner.”

“I mean, like… what are you doing here? And how are you pregnant?”

“Umm… sweetie, do we really need to go over how babies are made? Cause when a mommy and a daddy—“

“No, I mean, you aren’t suppose to be here.”

“Did something happen down in the workshop today, Tony?” You rested a hand against his scratchy cheek. “Did you hit your head again?”

“No, I did not hit my head!” He stepped back, frustrated.

This wasn’t you. You shouldn’t be this sweet to him and you shouldn’t be here. You were no where to be found right now. There was no way you were at the mansion, and pregnant.

“But I’m afraid someone’s messing with yours,” Tony stated. “We aren’t together. You broke it off, left, because I was too much. We were too different.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Tony. But I think you need to get some rest before dinner.”

“Yeah, Tony,” Loki’s voice mocked him. “Maybe you should get some rest. Maybe then you’d be fast enough to safe her.”

Quickly, the setting changed. Tony was now in a dark, cold cement room. He turned, slowly, analyzing every inch of the place, until his eyes landed on the scene behind him. A man was stand over you, zipping up his pants. While you, naked and bleeding, were shivering and curled up on the floor.

“Y/N!” He shouted, rushing towards you. But when he went to touch you, his hand went straight through you. “Y/N?”

The man left, leaving you there to cry on your own. Tony went to try and hold you again, but his arms went straight through you. It was breaking his heart to see you like this and not be able to do anything to help you.

“She fought, at first,” Loki appeared beside him, looking down at the two. “She’s quite the fighter. But then, she was slowly worn down. An interesting process to witness.”

“I’m going to kill you,” Tony muttered, standing up with his fists clenched tightly. He spun around, aiming to punch Loki, but he had disappeared. “Come out and fight!”

“Oh, I don’t need to fight when I’ve already won,” Loki chuckled. “If you hadn’t let her get away, then she would have been with you instead of with Barton, where I was able to get her.”

Tony growled, throwing himself at the god. He grabbed his clothes and pushed him onto the ground, causing the scepter to leave Loki’s hand. The illusion faded from around them, back to present day Stark Tower. The two fought, until Tony was thrown from the tower and saved by his suit. Tony fought harder than ever to end Loki and his army. When the army was defeated and Loki was detained, the Avengers set out to find their missing person, you. Using Clint, they went back to every location Loki had been hiding in. Finally finding you in the last possible location, a week later.

You were still naked and extremely thin, close to death. Tony immediately pulled you into his arms and flew out of the building, heading straight for the SHIELD hospital. You were taken out of his arms almost as soon as he landed. But he swore to never leave the hospital until you could.

It took you a few days to gain full consciousness and, even then, you weren’t yourself. You were more quiet, closed off. You flinched at the slightest touch from anyone. It pained Tony to see you this way. At first, you had refused to let him in your room. But one night, he was sitting just outside it and heard you screaming in your sleep. He rushed inside and brought you out of that dark place your tired mind had taken you. After that, you let him stay close by.

Tony made it his goal to see you smile again, to hear that laugh. He was willing to try anything to get you to feel better and open up to him, even if that meant embarrassing himself. He tried preforming obviously bad talent shows with various instruments, singing, and magic tricks. He tried reading to you and showing you funny videos. But nothing. It was like all the happiness, everything that made you, you, was sucked out of you.

When the doctor’s said that you were physically healthy to go home, he took you back to his place in Malibu. You didn’t even put up a fight. You slept most of the flight there, allowing Tony to make goals to help you heal and make you fall in love with him again.

Some how make you laugh and/or smile everyday.

Show his love through acts of kindness.

Limit his daily time down in the workshop. Unless you’re down there with him.

Stop taking life risking missions, or making life risking decisions, unless absolutely necessary.

Get you to talk. Even if it’s just getting you to tell him how much you hate him. He needed to hear your voice.

You stayed up in your room for the first week in the mansion. Tony didn’t question it, bringing the food and entertainment to you. While eating, he would talk about the inventions he was working on or the things his friends were up to. After the first week, you began joining him in the workshop, silently watching him work from the couch. One day, he brought a stool to sit beside him and offered it to you. It was clear that you were nervous to sit that close but you did it anyway. Finding your new spot in the workshop. He began to teach you things and explain what he was working on. He’d even offer for you do help, and was surprised when you shakily took the tool from his hand in acceptance.

That became your new routine. You’d eat and sleep up in your room, and then spend the rest of the time helping Tony in the workshop. You two were in the midst of working on fixing one of the arms of his suit, while it was on him, when the arm fired up and shot him back into the wall. You immediately covered your mouth, trying but failing to suppress the laughter bubbling in you. Tony groaned against the wall, rubbing his head, before he realized what was happening. He looked at you with so much pride, you almost were embarrassed and stopped laughing, but you continued anyway. Causing Tony to laugh along as well. A week after that incident, you began to talk. It wasn’t much, mainly just asking for a certain kind of food or for Tony to pass a toll. But it was progress.

During the weeks you were with him, Tony left notes around the mansion, reminding you that he cared. He’d stopped taking missions. Fury agreeing to it until you were yourself again. Which Tony was slowly seeing. There were still some hard days and nights. Days were you would go back to not smiling, laughing, or talking. Nights that were full of nightmares, no matter what. There was one night that was particularly bad. So bad, that it scared Tony.

He was getting settled into his own bed, not long after checking on you for the last time that night. This was the most good nights that you’d had in a row, making Tony feel like things were getting better faster than he originally thought. But he thought that too soon. Tony had probably been asleep for no longer than an hour when he woke up to your screams.

“Please! Don’t!” You screamed. “Stop! AAHH!”

Tony was up and sprinting to your room faster than he ever had before. He threw open the door to see you thrashing around and still screaming.

“Stop! Don’t touch me! Please!”

Tony raced over to your bed, sitting beside you. His hands found their place on your shoulders, trying to keep you from thrashing.

“STOP! LET GO OF ME!”

“Y/N, it’s just me,” he calmly said, trying to coax you out of the state you were in. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just need you to wake up. Please, sweetheart.”

“Get off me!”

He tried to shake her shoulders as gently as he could, trying to wake her up without making it worse. “Y/N listen to my voice and wake up.”

Your eyes snapped open, but were clearly still panicked. You were breathing heavily and shaking beneath his hold. When you realized you were being pinned down, you began sobbing.

“Pl-please don’t hurt me…” you whimpered. “I’ll do anything… just please… don’t touch me…”

Tony held his hands up. “I’m not going to hurt you. I promise.”

“You aren’t?”

It was clear to Tony that you were still stuck in that nightmare. “No, I’m not. I would never. I’m here to protect you.”

“All the others have hurt me… why are you different?”

“Because I care about you. And I would never do anything like that to hurt you.”

Tony patiently waited for your breathing to calm and for your body to relax. You were almost back asleep when you spoke up again.

“Tony?” You called quietly.

“Hmm?” He hummed from beside you, relieved that you were back with him.

“Thank you… for being here…”

He leaned down and held a kiss to your forehead as your eyes fluttered close. “Always, honey, always.”

While Tony was slowly seeing a positive change in you, you were seeing a change in Tony. He was less selfish, still sarcastic to no end and teasing. But he was caring, and showing that he cared more. It warmed your heart to see that he was working hard to better himself without changing too much of himself.

Before the two of you knew it, you were talking like normal again. Teasing him back and throwing a sarcastic comment his way every now and them. It felt like the old days, but with less fighting. It was so nice. Eventually, though, it would have to end. You were better and couldn’t live with Tony forever, especially since you two were no longer together. But the two of you longed to be together, you were just both afraid to voice that to one another.

It was the night before you were suppose to move out. Tony went looking for you, wanting to try and get his feelings out. He finally found you sitting in your designated spot in the workshop. You were staring out into nothing, twirling a screwdriver in your hand.

“Hey,” Tony called, coming up to you. “You okay?”

“Yeah…” You answered with a sigh. “Just not ready to leave yet…”

“You could always stay.”

You shook your head. “I can’t do that to you, Tony. It’s not fair. You need to start living your life again and I mine.”

“But what if this became my life. You here, with me.” Tony came around to stand in front of you. “I know we ended things badly. But I want to give us a second chance. We’ve both had some time apart and have experienced things that have changed us. We aren’t the same people we were when we were first Goethe. And I’d like us to try again. I understand if you don’t want to, but I couldn’t let you leave without you knowing how I—“

Tony was cut off by you grabbing onto his shirt and smashing your lips on his. He was taken by surprise, briefly, but quickly kissed back.

“What was that for?” Tony asked when they parted.

“That was to get you to shut up,” you answered. You let go of his shirt and moved around the table. “This is for staying by my side for all these months.” You pressed another kiss to his lips. “And this,” you whispered once you parted again, “is because I love you.” You brought Tony in for another long, passionate kiss.

“I love you too,” he whispered, panting after parting for the third time. “Now, are you going to stay?”

“I think I’ll stay for a little while longer,” you smirked. “See what life has in store for us.”

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