#and phil wants to do a magic show during the ceremony or reception

[the-badger-mole]

OMG you talked about Haley and Andy in your last post and I feel so vindicated now. I thought I must be the only one who had a problem with that one silly romance from that million season comedy show not being canon, so now I'm just happy there are others like me out there lol. Do you have any HCs for them?

It wasn't just a silly little romance. They were mutually supportive! Andy encouraged Haley to go after her dreams. He saw that she was smart and driven, and he didn't make fun of her that her ambitions were fashion centered! She inspired him to aim higher, too! Even if it meant pursuing his dreams in a different state. They were the best couple on the show (which is probably why the writers couldn't let them be endgame. Can't have a couple that actually functions as a team🙄).

So, I've been kicking around an idea for a fix it fic for Haley. She's having trouble finding her footing at NERP. After the skin patch incident, she isn't sure if it's the right job for her, but since she doesn't have anything else lined up, she's hanging in there until she figures out her next steps. She's dating Dylan again- but she does not get pregnant. He's making not-so-subtle subtle comments about how since he's starting his nursing career and making decent money, it might be time to think about settling down. Haley is dodging the hints, frustrated at herself because Dylan is nice. He loves her. He supports her pursuing her career, even though he's also down for her following Claire's footsteps to become a SAHM. She's also freaking out because she's pushing 30 (she's about to turn 25, but it is still Haley). Why not think about getting married?

But whenever she thinks about marrying Dylan, she breaks out in hives. She thinks it's some lingering effect from the NERP patch, but her dermatologist can't figure out why it's happening. After a particularly rough day at work, she needs someone to talk to. Her mom is the obvious choice, but she's out of town for work, so she goes to her grandparents house instead, thinking maybe a dip in the pool will help. Jay is out with Joe, Mitch and Manny for a father/son trip, and Gloria is home when Haley swings by. They talk and Dylan comes up. Haley ends up telling Gloria about his increasingly frequent hints, and that she and Dylan have been dancing around this for a decade, and they keep coming back to each other so maybe it's time to just take the plunge. Then Gloria asks if Haley and Dylan are really drawn to each other, or if it's just that their relationship is comfortable- like the ratty old college football jersey Jay refuses to get rid of. A nice reminder of the past, but something that needs to stay in the back of the closet and never see the light of day again.

It's a lot to think about. So Haley goes home only to find that her father has a guest. Andy's back in town, and looking to start his own real estate firm.

A lot happens after that. Andy going after starting his own business inspires Haley to revisit her old ventures, and she restarts her blog. Then she launches her own lifestyle website. She gets fired from NERP for opening a competing site, but she doesn't give up on it. Andy sees her working hard and is thrilled for her. They even start co-working in the Dunphy's kitchen as they try to get their respective businesses off the ground.

Dylan stops asking her to move their relationship forward, but Haley doesn't notice until he asks her to speak one night. He's taking a position as a traveling nurse, and he's going to be living out of a trailer he and his friends are fixing up. He tells her he thinks they're holding each other back. He came to the same conclusion as Gloria, only his analogy is an old lumpy mattress he'd slept on since he was a kid until recently. It disintegrated and he had to buy a new one. He thought he'd never find another mattress as comfortable, but the very first one he tried, he fell asleep immediately for a solid three hours until the salesman woke him up and told him the store was closing. He realized that his old mattress wasn't actually comfortable, it was just all he knew. And he thinks that his relationship with Haley is that mattress- not that she's an old lumpy mattress. She's still hot, just not the girl for him. So he wants to give them both a chance to find their mattress.

Haley's website takes off. It becomes part fashion, part travel, part lifestyle hub. She spins it off onto YouTube and TikTok (she's an early adopter). Alex helps her make sure that her body products are at least safe, if not effective, so no more skin patch incidents. Soon she's getting sponsorship deals and collab offers. As she gets even more popular, she's hired as a celebrity stylist. Her first big gig is styling Zendaya for a red carpet event. She makes plans to move to LA. She tells Andy about all of it, and he is rooting her on at least as hard as her family. At the end of the story, when Haley is preparing her move to Hollywood, Andy gives her some exciting news. With Phil's help, he's sold his first property in Santa Monica, and he has enough listings lined up to start a little boutique business, backed by Phil's company. They joke about being neighbors, then roommates. Then they finally realize that the feelings between them never actually died. The story ends on them getting back together with STRONG And they lived happily ever after vibes.

[lavender-lotion]

i originally wrote this not!fic while trying to come up with a fic and then decided to throw it out there anyway

***

When the dust settles and everything has smoothed onto into a calm that is heavy with grief, Stiles decides to leave. There is nothing tying him to Beacon Hills other than his dad and his own demons, and his dad offers to leave with him. He tells Stiles that he cannot keep protecting a town that has tried so hard to tear Stiles away from him, and Stiles realizes for the first time that his dad loves him just as desperately as Stiles does.

They don't sell the house, even if the money would help. Instead, they go and live with Stiles' Uncle Phil, his mother's brother, and he welcomes them into his life with open arms that are maybe too enthusiastic. He lets them into every part of his life even if he shouldn't, even the parts he is not allowed to show. He is Agent Coulson, handler at S.H.I.E.L.D, liaison for the Avengers Initiative--and these are things that Phil allows them to see even though Stiles is certain he is not allowed to.

It takes less than two weeks for Stiles to realize what's going on, to realize why Uncle Phil has so readily broken rules and laws and risked his entire life, and why he had left them, so many years ago, to finish their grieving alone. Why he had grown distant, always answering Stiles' calls and messages but never talking to dad. It is so easy to see now that he watches everything, always alert, unfamiliar instincts bouncing about his head that make him do and feel things he's never done or felt before.

It's so easy to see. And Stiles has a thousand years of memories that are not his own, decades of death and destruction wrought by a single being, and he knows--there is nothing that should stand between love.

He tells them this, in stuttered words and shallow breaths at the kitchen table, watching as they keep a measured distance between their bodies and never allow themselves close enough to touch--not until Stiles tells them it's okay, that he gets it, that life is too damn short to be denying themselves something that could be amazing.

And it is. Stiles watches as a light comes alive in his father's eyes, one that has been burnt out since they became a family of two, one that had returned in the few months Phil had lived with them just to be snuffed as soon as he moved away. It is so nice to see, and even if Stiles is broken and battered, living in a skin that is not his own, a skin that feels as unfamiliar as the memories that do not belong to him but are stuck in his head, he is so happy for them.

They decide to get married, because life is too short to wait, and it is a small ceremony with the two of them and Stiles and Clint Barton, his uncle--and now step-father's--best friend. It's a nice little thing, and the four of them go to eat after. Phil and his dad can't stop smiling at each other, and Stiles hasn't felt this happy since before his mom died.

Clint Barton, as Stiles learns that afternoon, is hilarious.

Hilarious and handsome and a giant flirt. Stiles laughs and laughs and gives as good as he gets. They go off on their own, and Stiles would be ashamed of turning his dad’s wedding reception into his first date if Clint didn’t make his heart feel like it was going to beat out of his chest. When he has to go home, the sun having long since set, he reaches up to press a soft kiss to Clint’s stubbled cheek and tells him how nice it was to meet him, and how he hopes to see him again soon.

He does, that next day. Clint shows up to Phil’s apartment with a bouquet of wildflowers and his dad frowns while Phil smiles and they spend the entire day together. It’s not for another week that Stiles learns about what happened during Loki’s attack on earth.

Stiles uses his magic for something mundane and Clint has a panic attack that leaves him huddled under the table and heaving for breath. It is terrifying and Stiles spews apologies until Clint is able to explain to him what happened, explain how Loki had taken over his mind and he’d been forced to do things he’d never wanted to.

Stiles laughs, bitter and broken and so, so angry at this fucked up, horrible world, and tells Clint that he had a thousand-year-old Chaos spirit wear his skin and nearly destroyed his entire town. “At least you didn’t kill your best friend,” he tells him, and Clint hugs him for a long time.

They get serious, after that. Stiles thinks that it might look like they’re moving too fast, but they have shared experiences that no one else could ever understand. They get along so well, and even if they fight, they always come back to each other stronger than before. It doesn’t take Stiles long before he tells Clint he loves him, almost surprised when the man says it back.

This was something he never thought he would have, back in Beacon Hills.

He meets the Avengers soon after. They’re new, and they are close, a group of dangerous, disastrous people thrown together because they are dangerous and disastrous. He is Phil’s nephew-turned-step-son and Clint’s boyfriend-but-we’ve-been-talking-about-marriage-lately. Stiles moves his stuff into the tower, sharing a dresser with Clint since he wears most of his boyfriend’s shirts anyway.

Tony takes him in. Stiles may be different, but he still likes to learn, still yearns for knowledge, and Tony is a literal genius. They spend as much time together as Tony can spare, and Stiles is so, so thankful for the friendship they have fallen into. He is so happy, and he gets to see his dad and Phil whenever he wants, since his college courses are being taken online. He spends as much downtime with Clint as he can, doing the majority of his work and human socialization when Clint is away on missions.

And things are good. For a while, things are good. Things are good, great even, until Clint climbs into their bed and tells him about a pair of twins they’d came across, about the magic the girl wields. Stiles thinks he’ll have to go with them on their next mission, but then Ultron happens and everything goes downhill.

There is death. There is so much death, and the world decides they need to be held accountable, and everything falls apart.

The whole thing is a shit show. The Avengers are torn apart and Stiles is left to watch as this group of people he has grown to care for go at each other. He fights for Tony, because he signs the Accords. He believes in them, what they stand for--his dad was a Sheriff and his uncle is a secret agent, and he knows that in the end, they are for the best.

There is a moment, a long, terrifying moment when Captain America calls Clint and he thinks he’s going to go, that all they’ve become over the last few years has meant nothing, that he means nothing--but then Clint turns to him, and he holds out a hand for Stiles to take, and he tells Captain America that there is nothing to fight for if he has to fight against the ones he loves in the battle.

They still manage to get away, despite it all, but Stiles takes down the witch easily. She is nothing but a child and Stiles has thousands of years of mischief in his mind, and he seals away her magic with a spell that had once been used on the Nogitsune. When Tony finds out about the Winter Soldier, things get so, so much worse.

Stiles only knows that Tony is a breath away from death because of the pack bond they had formed during the endless hours they spent together in his lab. He tells Clint, and they get Rhodey, and they go and bring Tony home, and Stiles calls Peter and says nothing about the way Tony clings to him.

It is long, long months of recovery after that.

Stiles and Clint are there always, and Peter comes so, so often that Tony never has to be alone. There are so many bad weeks, and they often outweigh the sparse but amazingly good days, but none of them ever give up. By the time Tony comes to them and tells them he wants to get Bucky pardoned, no one questions him.

It is so easy to see the guilt and the grief that he lets go of as soon as it is no longer weighing him down that they all take a relieved breath. With it, comes Tony’s easy, familiar joking and banter, as well as an ease he never had before. He no longer hides the way he feels about Peter, despite the boy’s age, and still Stiles says nothing.

Life is too short, he thinks, and he hopes they will be happy together, when they get there.

They get Bucky back onto American soil. It is hard, and it is taxing work, and a lot of it is more than Stiles is able to understand, but Tony works tirelessly to do so. Clint thinks it’s part of his own healing, forgiving Bucky and letting go of what the Winter Soldier did to him.

He is...a mess. No one should ever have had to live through the things that Bucky has lived through, and it has obviously taken its toll. They can all see it, but they all have their own trauma that they do their best to manage and help each other with, so they do the same to Bucky. The Avengers are not nearly once they what were, and they are small, but boy do they know how to care.

Bucky fits with them as easily as they fit with each other. By the time Stiles and Clint realize there is something to talk about it, they already feel the same way. It’s so, so easy to bring Bucky into their relationship, and it feels that much more right with him between them. None of them protest and none of them pause to question, not the first time they invite Bucky to their bed, or the second or the third.

By the time Bucky just stays, it feels like he’s always been there, between them, and it’s perfect. It’s all so perfect.