#did not feel even remotely like an ant-man movie

[mandaloriandragontrainer]

So… Quantumania literally forgot about everything that made the Ant-Man series so charming…

[ghostfaceaddams]

Gentleness of a Criminal

Part Two

a/n: sorry for the long wait! hope you all enjoy the next installment.

warnings: 18+, minors DNI; mention of violence and blood, cursing.

word count: 3,387

prev. part | upcoming... part

“Home” was a penthouse in the heart of the city. Most places were closed after two am, so there wasn’t any traffic to slow them down. None of it mattered to Ash; time wasn’t really an aspect she was feeling any connection with. She was just going through the motions, like a remote control was controlling her motor movements. 

The building loomed before the quartet like an inviting doom. All of the sparkling lights of the city and the height of the building were things Ash had only ever seen in movies and tv shows. It seemed too luxurious to be true. Even as Bucky and Wanda helped her out of the car and had to use a keypad and voice command from Wanda, Ash didn’t think any of this was actually real. Between what just happened to her dad and these lavish things, she felt like she was dreaming. 

Inside the elevator was paneled with dark, wood and fancy railings. She stood obediently beside Wanda as Bucky stood in front, choosing the correct floor for them. The ride up was spent in silence, the elevator being pulled up as smoothly as butter spreading over toast. Ash kept her focus on the floor the whole time, but her eyes were distant. She just kept seeing her father broken and wondering why anyone would want to hurt him. He was kind to everyone and never asked for anything. Why would three men randomly break in and beat him nearly to death? 

The questions. They were asking him questions. Ash couldn’t remember what the questions were, but she knew her father would have answered if he knew anything about them. Or if he did and didn’t say anything, it had to be for a good reason. But that would mean he was caught up in the knowledge of something dangerous, and her dad never got involved in things that weren’t his business.

The whole thing was making her head throb and her heart clench. 

There was a ding and then the elevator doors were sliding open. Bucky stepped out first, checking the penthouse while Wanda swayed over to the kitchen. Ash scuffed her feet out so she was standing right in front of the elevator. Her neck felt disgustingly stiff as she tried to move her head to take in the new place. To the left was a wide, metallic kitchen with bright lights overhead. In front of the kitchen, overlooking the windows to the city, was the living room. To the right was the biggest bathroom Ash had ever seen and a huge bedroom. There were stairs to the left as well that led to the second story which housed Wanda’s office, two bedrooms, and two bathrooms. 

The first floor was bigger than the entirety of Ash and her father’s house. She felt like a tiny ant in the middle of it all. Everything was so neat and tidy, not even a speck of dust in sight. If she wasn’t so caught up in the whirlwind of earlier activities, she would have been in awe. 

“All is clear, Boss.” Bucky announced as he sauntered over to Wanda. 

Ash hadn’t even noticed Wanda getting out a bottle of wine or filling her glass with it. 

“Thank you, James. You’re free to go.” 

Bucky nodded his head in affirmative and retreated to the elevator. Ash had to take two miniscule steps to the side to allow the man into the elevator. As the silver doors slipped shut, Bucky flipped his lips up in a comforting smile. It was sweet, but it did nothing to thawe the shock in Ash. 

“You should probably take a shower. I’ll lend you something of mine to wear and I’ll show you to your room.” Wanda finished her glass and gently slid it over to the sink. 

Ash’s desolate eyes followed the older woman to the staircase and up the first three steps before it registered with her to follow. She could feel how sodden her socks were as she walked across the hallway and up the stairs. Every piece of clothing was clinging to her like an extra layer of skin. There was a noise in the back of her mind whining about how uncomfortable she was, but it was inconsequential. 

Wanda made a right and flipped the light switch to reveal a bathroom as big as the one downstairs. Every inch of it was a pristine white or metallic, gray. Looking down at herself, Ash was drenched in rain and blood, and probably many other things. The thought of dirtying up this perfect bathroom was the first thing to actually wake her up. She widened her eyes, her eyelashes sticking together grossly as she did so, at Wanda as the dirty-blonde started the shower. It was a walk in shower, perfectly see through, and there was a wide bathtub beside it. 

“There will be fresh clothes on the bed, which is on the other side of that door.” Wanda nodded to the door to the far right in the corner. “When you’re done changing, I’ll bandage up your hands for you.” 

Ash frowned and looked down at her hands. Why would her hands need to be bandaged up? She hadn’t done anything between leaving the house and getting to the bar. When she examined her hands though, she saw her left hand speckled with blood where crisps of glass had nicked her. There was a large gash in the middle of her right palm, blood seeping into the crevices and slipping in between her fingers. 

‘How did I get these?’

“Take your time.” Wanda’s voice matched the softness in her eyes, a welcoming pallet for Ash’s injured heart. 

After Wanda walked past Ash and quietly shut the door, Ash was left completely alone with her thoughts. The running of the showerhead smoothed out any excess distractions and was able to drag her closer to the water. She had to tug harder than expected to get her jacket off, but once it was off she felt a little lighter and not so tense. Sopping clothes always made you feel paralyzed. With nimble fingers, she lifted her shirt up and over her head, letting it collapse on top of her jacket. She struggled out of her shoes and jeans next, then unclipped her bra and shimmied out of her panties. 

There was dark water that was left behind as she walked to the shower and stepped in. She had stepped in so many puddles with pebbles of asphalt and other unknown substances. The same was being washed from her pale skin, cascading down her body and slipping into the drain. The water was warmer than the rain had been previously, and it wasn’t until her body was shuddering violently that she realized she was cold. 

She dipped her head down, letting fresh water wet her inky black hair. She kept her arms curled around herself to try and stave off the coldness, to trap all of the bad memories flooding her mind. All she could do was stay in that stance with the water cascading down her as she kept thinking about her father and how she had failed her mother. 

*****

The towel Ash wrapped around herself like a cloak was the biggest and softest towel she had ever been cocooned in. Between the warmth of the towel and the Wyoming king sized bed, she wanted to just crawl on top of the navy comforter and close her eyes. Her body was at its wits end and needed to lay down, and her mind wasn’t far behind either. She remembered Wanda mentioning her hands though, and she figured she should listen to Wanda. Wanda was the one her father had sent her to after all. 

Ash reached out and slipped on a black pair of panties, the towel clinging to her shoulders. She shimmied on some dark green and black baggy, plaid pants. The towel fluttered to the floor as she got into her pants, letting her back be whipped by cool air. She quickly put on the white t-shirt left and looked at the door. With the naivety of a child, she calmly walked out of the room and went in search of Wanda. 

One look down the left side and Ash knew it was a dead end. She looked right and began padding down the hall where there was light being emitted. The staircase created a donut hole in the middle of the second floor. You could go left or right around the curve to the end that was crossed off as Wanda’s quarters. Right in the middle was an office, a large oak desk with a leather chair and papers all around. To the right was a bathroom and to the left was Wanda’s bedroom. She had her bed against the east wall and her dresser against the west wall with a tv mounted above it. Straight ahead were windows outlooking the city. 

Sitting at the desk with her head bent over papers was Wanda. She had changed out of her previous attire and was only in baggy black pants and a white button up shirt. The first couple of buttons were left undone, leaving her chest on display. Ash’s eyes slipped down the accessible skin and down the dip, between the valley of-

“Ash.” 

The raven-haired girl jerked her head up at the sound of her name. She was met with sparkling, green eyes and a serene smile that brightened the whole room. The corners of Wanda’s eyes were crinkled as she smiled, something Ash couldn’t help but notice. Ash also couldn’t help but notice the way Wanda’s nipples were peeking through her shirt. Wanda rotated her chair so it was facing her bathroom and pushed herself up and out. 

“Take a seat.” Wanda motioned to the top of the desk. 

Ash looked at the desk with papers elegantly littered around it and back to Wanda venturing further into her bathroom. Swallowing hard, Ash tiptoed over to the desk and perched herself on top of the sturdy, oak desk. She didn’t have to wait long for Wanda to return, supplies in hand. Wanda kept her head bent down as she poured peroxide onto a cloth and cleaned Ash’s hands. 

“Good thing is your hands aren’t infected.” Wanda’s voice was raspy and there was the sound of an accent again. 

Ash bit the inside of her cheek to keep from hissing at the sting in her hands. She watched as the liquid fizzed and bubbled all over the cuts and subsided. Wanda reached over to pick up a different cloth and dab the liquid away.

“Your accent,” Wanda lifted her head. “What is it?” Ash looked up, their eyes meeting. 

Wanda smiled and dipped her head back down. Ash couldn’t tear her gaze away from the older woman’s celestial face. Wanda was just as beautiful close up as she was from afar. Her skin gleamed healthy under the lights and purred of smoothness. Every eyelash was strummed like a chord by Apollo and the dip of her nose was so smooth. That smile, so small and yet so electric. There was something moving around inside of Ash, but she didn’t pay it any attention. 

“It’s Sokovian.” Wanda answered as she swabbed the cuts with vaseline. 

“You’re from Sokovia?” Ash asked, stitching her eyebrows together. 

Wanda’s smile widened. She nodded her head as she wrapped up the raven-haired girl’s hands with compression bandages. 

“I was raised there until I was twelve, then my father moved us here for his work. I’ve been here ever since.” 

“Us?” Ash was quick to pick up on the mention of other people. 

Wanda made direct eye contact with Ash when she smiled. For a moment, Ash forgot she had even asked a question. She was paralyzed by the older woman’s brilliance. 

“Me and my siblings.” 

“How many siblings do you have?” Ash asked softly. 

Wanda wrinkled her nose and leaned in close to the younger girl, about causing Ash’s heart to give out. “You’re very inquisitive, aren’t you?”

Ash’s mouth felt dry as the older woman moved away from her and glided to the bathroom. She could still see those green eyes sparkling like trees on a summer day and a nose crinkled innocently. Wanda had smelled good too, like vanilla and something else, something sharp. 

“I just like to know about the woman I’m living with.” Ash quipped once she was able to find her voice again.

Wanda’s eyes twinkled as she looked back at Ash. The raven-haired girl missed the look just by a second, her head turning towards the bathroom too late. 

“Do you move in with women often, Ash?” 

Ash. It was the second time Wanda had called her that tonight, three if you counted the time back at the bar. Ash didn’t know why she liked the sound of her name falling from Wanda’s lips so much, or why Wanda was even saying it as much as she was. She did know why that comment made her cheeks flush scarlet; Wanda had meant it in a sensual way, something Ash had never experienced. Wanda had probably perceived Ash’s comment that way though, so she was only reacting on what she thought to be true. 

Ash always had a quick wit, something to follow up someone else’s bullshit. She wasn’t a sensual girl though. Even she was shocked by her comment and the numerous meanings behind those words, like people hiding behind blocks. Hiding; that’s what Ash did best. 

“No.”

Wanda almost didn’t hear Ash because of how soft her voice was and how her head was beant down. 

Ash lightly traced her left pointer finger over the gash in the middle of her hand and desperately tried to remember how she got that. Her left hand she could reason; when she climbed down from her window, she had scraped it on a branch or even the ground. Bark can cause tiny cuts the same as glass. But her right hand, it didn’t make any sense. The more she tried to think about it the more it made her head ache and her chest tighten. 

She closed her eyes and shook her head. Those men had burst into the house, her dad was downstairs and she was upstairs in her room. When she heard the bang, she came out to see her dad being held up and beaten, then she left. There was no time to cut her hand. She-nothing happened! 

“Ash, what’s wrong?”

Ash jerked her head up to find Wanda crouched down in front of her, her smooth hands on the young girl’s knees. She could feel heat crawling over her body like spiders and eating into her skin, down to her stomach. But that was nothing compared to the pounding in her head. She could swear there was a siren going off in her head. For a moment, she thought Wanda could hear it too from the worry consuming her eyes. 

“I don’t remember how I cut my hand.” Ash admitted. 

Wanda pressed her lips together and swallowed as a wave of sadness crashed over her entire being. All Ash could do was stare at Wanda and await some sort of explanation from her. Even if Wanda said, “I don’t know” that would be better than Ash not knowing. It didn’t make any sense, but it to Ash. 

“Sometimes, during a traumatic experience, we block out things we don’t want to remember.” Wanda explained gently, her accent prominent. Ash’s eyes widened as the raspiness of Wanda’s accent caressed her gentle ears. God, Ash had never heard anything like it. Somehow, the accent was softening the blow of what she just heard. 

“So…I could be forgetting things that could help find my father?” It was the conclusion Ash had come to. 

Wanda’s lips puckered and her eyebrows stitched together in a frown. She shook her head slowly, then more firmly and lightly held onto Ash’s wrists. 

“Even if that’s true, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to use every resource I have to find him, Ash. I promise on my life we will.” The older woman’s voice was full of vehemence as she declared her prime to the other girl. 

Ash shook her head like she was a cartoon character sprinkling dust off out of her hair. “Why are you so willing to help me? You’ve barely known me for three hours.” 

Wanda shrugged. “Your father told you to go to Danvers if anything bad happened to him, you’re keeping his word as much as I am keeping my father’s word.” 

Ash’s eyebrows tugged together at that statement. “Your father? What-what does he have anything to do with this? Does he know how to save my dad?” 

Wanda simultaneously dropped her head and released a sigh as she stood up, her grasp on Ash disappearing. Even with her head down low, Ash could tell that something had shifted in the other woman. Whoever had promised to find her dad and cleaned up her hands, this wasn’t the same woman as before. If anything, it was the woman who had first spoken to Ash back at the bar. 

Maybe Ash couldn’t trust anyone. What was she doing relying on this woman to help her find her dad? It was clear Wanda was only doing it because she had to. 

“My father has put me in charge of running the family business until he says it’s time for him to resume control. While I’m in charge, he said that if Charles Xavier or anyone in relation to Charles Xavier asked for help, I am required to help them.” Wanda recited, subconsciously nodding her head along to the tune of the mantra. 

Wanda flicked her incandescent eyes up to Ash’s bleak ones. All either one could do was stare at the other and blubber over their thoughts internally. 

“So you’re just doing this because you were told to?” Ash didn’t know why else Wanda would do it, maybe she was hoping the woman was doing it out of the kindness of her heart-and you can’t really blame her with that promise Wanda had given, but she didn’t think Wanda would be doing this because she was told to. How heartless could that be. 

Wanda pursed her lips together, her eyes hardening over like molten lava turning to stone. “I was told to, yes, but I can tell how much your father means to you. I am not without compassion Ash, I hope my actions from here on out prove that and you won’t forget it.” 

Ash twisted her eyebrows together and slightly dipped her head to the side. She was beginning to get whiplash from this woman; one moment Wanda is being quick and thoughtless, then she’s being selfless and nurturing, just to seem heartless and back to upstanding. The young girl was learning not to trust and distrust anyone based on first impressions, but right now she was at a loss of what to do. Surely, if both fathers knew one another and were willing to help the other, that meant Ash could trust Wanda. 

But trusting Wanda to find her dad didn’t mean she had to trust Wanda with her life, or that they even had to have a relationship. All Ash was doing was staying at Wanda’s place while Wanda helped to find her dad, and then everything would go back to normal. Or as normal as can be, after four men break into your house and kidnap your dad causing you to flee. 

Wanda’s eyes flitted down to the ground and back up, past Ash’s form. “It’s late, and it’s been a long day, you should get some rest. Close the door on your way out.”

Ash stared incredulously at Wanda as the older woman sat back down in her desk chair and waited to scoot forward. She shook her head and hopped down from the desk, her thigh bumping Wanda’s knee. She ignored the shock that jolted down her leg and instead stormed out of the room, purposely forgetting to close the door on her way out. 

There was a sigh and then a soft, “goodnight, Ash” and then nothing but silence. Ash wished her mind could sound the same. 

[nolanhollogay]

“I feel like i cant breathe when i’m around you.” + ant!

[lip bite emoji] ant & his dad angst

tw for emotional abuse & physical abuse

-

Ant's mother's birthday was always hard to get through. Both his and his father's grief threatened to swallow them whole, and the house became a vacuum for negativity.

But it was the one day of the year his father decided not to kick the crap out of him, so silver linings.

They were in the living room eating the horrible store bought birthday cake she adored, watching some movie Ant had never heard of but his father swore was her favorite. It was in black and white, and he was pretty sure it was about a murder, but he couldn't tell and he wasn't going to ask.

All things considered, it was a pretty good day.

Until Ant fucked it up.

His dad reached out for something, probably the remote that was on the coffee table, and Ant flinched, holding his breath, waiting for him to strike.

Quietly, voice hard, his dad asked, "What was that?"

"Nothing," Ant replied, quickly looking back to his cake. "Sorry."

"That wasn't nothing, Anthony," his dad said. He threw his plate full of half eaten cake onto the table. Icing jumped off of it, splattering pink onto the knee of Ant's jeans. "C'mon, man up. What was that? Did you think I was going to hit you for no reason?"

Ant bit back the remark that he rarely ever needed a reason to hit him. "It wasn't anything. I'm sorry. It's just.. Sometimes I feel like I cant breathe when i’m around you.”

His father planted his feet firmly on the floor and Ant braced himself. Even though he’d been hit before and would be hit again, was more than familiar with the sting of a palm to his cheek or a punch to the gut, he still found himself thinking Please don’t hit me, please don’t hit me, pleasepleaseplease.

Instead, his father clapped him on the shoulder, making him jump.

"Why do you feel like that?" he asked. It was a fucking catch twenty-two. He was fucked no matter how he answered. Whether he answered or not.

Ant shrugged, looking away from him. "I don't know."

"You must know or you wouldn't feel that way. C'mon, Anthony, be a man. Speak your mind."

It was a taunt. A trap.

For a very brief moment, Ant hated him. He knew he probably should've, but he could never bring himself to hate his father. How do you hate the person who raised you, the person who made you who you are?

"I don't know. I don't."

A woman was being murdered on TV, being stabbed through the shower curtains. Ant couldn't tear his eyes away because that meant looking at his father. If he looked at his father, then he'd win.

In the end, it didn't matter.

His father grabbed him by his hair, forcing him to look at him. Ant bit his tongue to hide his wince.

"Answer me, god damn it!" he barked. That was the only way to describe it. It wasn’t a shout, but the word flying out of his mouth and stabbing Ant’s heart.

"Because you're going to hurt me!" Ant said automatically, without permission from his brain.

His father froze for just a moment, and guilt flashed in his eye before it was gone. Much quieter, but not any softer, he said, “I only hurt you when you deserve it. Because you deserve it. Maybe if you could follow simple fucking instructions and had some respect you wouldn’t get hurt so often, huh? Ever think of that?”

Ant didn’t reply, focusing too hard on trying not to cry. Things would get way worse if he cried. It always did.

His father let go of his hair, practically throwing him off of the couch. “Clean up this fuckin’ cake.” He got to his feet and walked out of the room, but not before standing in the doorway and stating, “Congrats, you ruined your mother’s birthday. Hope you’re happy.”

Ant had to sit there in silence, watching the old black and white movie with teary eyes, before he could bring himself to clean up the mess.

[herherteartear]

blanket kick

précis— Peter's not the suave man he would hope to be in front of his crush. instead, he's a blushing mess that haunts his memories and causes him to take out his frustrations on his blanket. luckily, you prefer cherry cheeks over smooth lines any day.

pairing— Peter Parker x enhanced!maximoff!reader

a/n— this is my first standalone written story and my first time writing for marvel! i hope you guys enjoy thisss<3 i'm also open to creating drabbles to continue this if anyone's interested????! pls enjoy and pls comment and let me know ur thoughts!!!

there are many ways to describe Peter Parker, but none could ever wholly capture the true essence of the boy

besides the obvious stuff,, his intelligence , his insanely good looks , his teenage awkwardness,,

it was a hard feat to string along words to describe the way he carries himself , the way he is with others , the way his heart loves with the same ability a sponge soaks up water and soap

Peter's had crushes before

perhaps more than he'd like to admit

(can't blame the boy, who gave Ty Lee the right be that cute!?)

but when he sees her, his heart begins to swell and suddenly, he forgets how to breathe..

or how to think... talk. y'know normal human stuff

in all honesty, Peter has tried his absolute hardest to block out their first meeting from his memories

he doesn't regret meeting her, of course not! never would he even repent that embarrassingly wonderful day

he only wishes it would've gone a little differently

let's set the scene, shall we?

the sun was shining brightly, the sky was a Carolina blue, the clouds were the prettiest porcelain color, rimmed with lace

Peter was riding in an awfully silent car that Happy was driving to the airport. despite being terrified of what's to come,, the fight Mr. Stark had recruited him for,, the boy was thoroughly enjoying this adventure.

the car came to a stop, which did little for Peter's nerves. he gathered his courage before stepping out, eyes squinting at the brightness of the yellow sun. once his eyes adjusted, they landed on the prettiest head of hair he had ever seen

(although he did think the same for Hermione Granger)

Peter had never been on a plane before that day. but even then, his sparkling eyes stayed trained on her,, completely ignoring the brilliant private jet behind her

"oh? Happy, i thought it was just us?" her voice made Peter's ears burn. he swallowed thickly. you blinked at Peter, curious but also intrigued , you smiled.

to which Peter choked. on air. your eyebrows furrowed in worry.

"a-are you okay?"

"god, kid, get ahold of yourself."

"i-i'm okay! it's– i'm– i'm fine!" Peter quickly stuttered out.

"well, Yn, this is– uh,, what's your name again?" Happy turned towards the boy who's cheeks were now redder than a firetruck.

"oh! i'm Peter– Peter Parker. it's nice to meet you- not that i don't know you. well i don't, y'know not personally. but like from the news.. not that i believe the news! they're awful to you, but i mean i guess i do sometimes– but never about what they say about you–"

"i'm Yn Maximoff. it's nice to meet you too, Peter." you cut him off before Happy strangled the cute boy. you had an amused smile

he was cute

finally getting on the plane, Peter had hoped he would be able to sit far away from you and wallow in his embarrassment,

maybe sneak a glance or two.. imagine a couple of scenarios where he wasn't a doofus,

but that's not quite what happened.

after witnessing just how much the new kids was able to ramble,, Happy was not about to spend a whole ass plane ride remotely close to him

so he took it upon himself to make the kiddies sit together.. much to Peter's dismay.

like!!? did Happy not see how Peter crashed and burned in font of you?!

you, on the other hand,, had the opposite reaction.

being the youngest avenger, you don't get to be around people your age too much,, which isn't something you're complaining about!!

you totally made the decision to be an avenger and you happily welcomed the consequences..

that didn't mean you didn't get lonely at times. especially now with the accords and the team breaking up., things got a whole lot more lonely

your sister, Wanda, had made her choice to leave the compound. you completely understood why, but a part of you had hoped she would've taken you with her

although, staying at the compound did ensure your safety.

it was a weird time for the avenger's , it felt wrong for you to say some of your teammates were criminals

it left a sour taste in your mouth

you glanced from the window seat to see Peter nervously wringing his fingers. you frowned.

"are you okay?" you asked, gently. Peter's eyes widened and his heart jumped to his throat. he wanted to say something, something cool or aloof, something that would make up for his ranting earlier

"i've never been on a plane before." Peter squeaked out. he dropped his shoulders, rolling his eyes at himself. that was the highest pitch he had ever heard his voice. you took in his clearly anxious posture.

"lets switch seats? maybe looking out the window will help you." you stated. before Peter could quickly shake his head, because how rude would it be of him to take your seat?, you were already stood up.

"oh god!" Peter breathed. he quickly shifted over to the seat you once occupied. he wanted to put up more of a fight, but the way you were swaying due to the turbulence, made his palms sweat in fear for your safety.

"you, like, swing from buildings and stuff, right?" you asked. he turned to you with a nod. "are you afraid of heights? or do you just not like planes?"

oh god. oh. no. you thought– you thought he was scared of being on the plane. Peter wanted to shrink in a hole and hide. you probably thought he was such a baby! that he could handle swinging from hundreds of feet in the air, but a plane is where he drew the line?

but what else is he supposed to say? 'oh, no! it's not the plane I'm scared of. it's just your beautiful smile and the way you smell like cocoa that gets me sweating'

wtf.

that was so wrong in so many ways.

"um, no, no. i'm okay, just– just a little nervous, is all." Peter tried to force out a chuckle. but it come out more like a cough. you mouth formed an 'o.'

"ohh, okay." you paused before your eyes lit up. "how about we play a game? to distract you?"

"o– okay.."

"can you talk with spiders?" Peter lifted his eyes from looking at his hands hovering above yours,; he let out a much more relaxed laugh than earlier.

you took advantage of his distraction to swiftly bring your palm from underneath his and slap the top of Peter's hand. he jumped.

"ouch!" he playfully pouted. you eyes glanced down at his lips. you giggled nervously. your hand went to hover over his, him now being the one to do the slapping. "of course i can't talk to spiders! i– i feel like i should probably be able to shape-shift into a spider in order for that to happen, y'know?"

you nodded thoughtfully. "that's true.. you didn't hear this from me, but i heard there's an Ant-Man going around." Peter looked at you with wide eyes.

"no way! that's crazy! does he like turn into an ant?" you bumped his hand with yours in order to get his attention back to the game. his hand burned at the feeling

"i don't know-" you said in a singsong tone. "it's just what's being said around the compound." you quickly slid your hands to avoid Peter's attack. he huffed.

"how are you so good at this?" he knitted his eyebrows to focus on how to attack quickly without hurting you.

"it's a game i used to play with my brother and sister." you answered. Peter finally took his chance to slap your hands, to which you squealed excitedly as you had tried to move in time. Peter and you fell into a fit of giggles.

you both leaned against your seats, still facing each other. your hands fell on top of Peter's.

the brown haired boy quickly slid his hand out from under yours, not because he didn't enjoy the contact, but because he was worried you'd feel how clammy his hands were

you frowned slightly at the loss of contact.

"a– are we really fighting your sister?" Peter wondered out loud, without a second thought.

you shifted uncomfortably. Peter quickly noticed; his heart sped up and he mentally scolded himself for being so inconsiderate.

"not because i think she's evil! i mean,, i know that's what the news says.. but they also think Spider-Man's like thirty. and i'm not thirty! its just everything's crazy right now.. with the accords., i can't even imagine how you're feeling! probably terrible.. oh, g od wait, not terrible, i'm s–"

you had been watching with an endearing look in your eye. you had come to find that you enjoy watching Peter ramble.

his eyes would become unsettled and shaky, his body would begin to become more and more animated, but his voice

gosh, his voice was something you wanted to listen to for the rest of your life

but you could tell he was getting more and more skittish. so you put him out of his misery

"terrible probably wouldn't be my go-to word, it's up there though.. at least i got to meet you." you smiled softly.

Peter's eyes ran over your soft features. night had fallen, so the windows of the plan displayed an almost picturesque display of the moon and stars. the light hue of color the moon provided painted your face in a way that clouded Peter's thoughts.

with your comment of being grateful to have met him, Peter wasn't in control of his mouth for much longer.

"so pretty." he breathed. both of you guys froze.

Peter's face quickly morphed from love-sick to mortified. you blushed violently.

deciding you didn't want Peter to fall into another rant-like apology (because if you got to listen to him talk for that long in this setting, you might just drop the 'L' word) , you said,

"let's watch a movie?"

the two of you sat, shoulder to shoulder, watching Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, but being too hyper aware of their thighs pressed together and brushing hands to actually pay attention

upon arrival, both teenagers walked off the plane, sleep deprived , but with thumping hearts and dazed grins.

Peter threw himself on his hotel bed that night,, hiding under the covers

his thoughts replayed your interaction over and over (and over and over) in his head

the boy shoved his head, face first, into the stiff hotel pillow and let out a muffled groan

Peter flipped himself over, stared at the ceiling, before remembering his spouts of unnecessarily long explanations

he thrashed his body, kicking his poor blanket in frustration but most of all, out of embarrassment

he calmed himself down once his memories refreshed themselves over your gentle giggles and how soft your hands were

Peter fell asleep with cherry red cheeks and a blissful grin.

because despite those small mess ups, despite the futile way he beat his covers in humiliation, Peter treasures that day like no other.

[xxfanfiction-emo-trinityxx]

Cold Night - Gerard Way x Reader

Request: The “but there’s only 1 bed...” trope with basement Gerard?

Summary: you’re spending the night in a small motel, and of course it’s Gerard and the reader who end up in the single bed room.

Word count: 3 327

A/N: kinda the wrong season for this but who cares, right? Also the dialog between Frank, Ray and Mikey: I read it again and actually got annoyed at them…

The air in the van was freezing cold and used, but you had been breathing it for so long now that you did not even notice. Ray was confidently steering the old, rusty car down the highway with Gerard asleep in the passenger seat while you were squeezed between Frank and Mikey in the backseat. You were shivering from the cold, but their body heat kept you a little warmer. It seemed like a lifetime ago since you had been able to feel your legs the last time, thanks to the amplifier that successfully stole all the space for your legs. You had tried to vary your sitting position as often as possible, but since Frank had sleepily cuddled into your side and effectively immobilized you, it had become impossible to move. While your legs were completely numb, your butt sure was not as lucky, and instead itched from all the sitting.

Just when you were certain you would eventually scream, just to get rid of some of the built up tension from not being able to move all day long, the van passed the sign that announced you had reached the city where the band would play their next concert tomorrow evening. A sigh of relief escaped your lips, and as if Ray had felt your despair, he pulled into the gravel parking lot of a motel just a couple of minutes later.

The motor was not even turned off yet, when you had already pushed Frank off of you and jumped out of the car, trying to get your legs to work again. It felt like thousand ants were biting you, and while you jumped around to get your blood flow working, Gerard slowly lifted his head, and looked out of the window. He decided that you, even if it was while jumping around like a maniac, were the best thing he could possibly wake up to.

When the feeling of the ants finally disappeared again, and even your behind had forgiven you for the torturous drive, you calmed down a little. Out of breath you stretched your arms over your head, shivering once more from the icy breeze that blew over your skin where your shirt had ridden up just enough to reveal a tiny bit of your stomach and back. Right now you could not care less. Turning around your own axis, your arms still stretching in the hopes to feel more human again, you took in your surroundings.

The motel was pretty small, and from what you could tell, most of the rooms were taken already. Fog started building over the parking lot and the street, and all that was missing was the moose appearing from behind a tree in the deep forest. You continued turning slowly, and noticed that Ray was already walking over to the door that had a big red sign saying “reception”.

Mikey and Frank had climbed out of the van too, and were stretching just as much as you, while starting to fantasize about a bed for themselves out loud. And then there was Gerard. The passenger door was open, his legs hanging out of the vehicle, but he was still sitting, his piercing eyes carefully watching every single one of your movements. When he noticed that you had seen him, he quickly turned away, but he had not been fast enough to hide the dreamy expression in his eyes.

As if you had been caught doing something forbidden, you quickly lowered your arms, allowing your shirt to cover your upper body completely once again, while you tried to ignore the racing of your heart which you got every time you thought of the nerdy lead singer. Instead you decided to follow Ray, in the hopes to forget the way Gerard had looked at you as if he actually liked what he had seen.

The small room that hosted the reception was air conditioned, much to your relief, and cosily warm. Ray had already told the man behind the counter what the five of you were looking for, but the man just shook his head.

“I got a single and a double bed room,” he told Ray, who sighed barely audibly.

“Are there no other rooms available,” he asked desperately.

“None, now do you want to take the rooms or not?”

Ray and you exchanged glances. There was no way any of you would get back into that van before tomorrow.

“We’re five people. That still okay,” you inquired.

The man shrugged and noted something down in a book before telling Ray the price for two nights, and handing you two room keys.

The metal felt foreign between your icy and numb fingers, and you quickly turned around to tell the boys about the development while you thought about the chance that you would end up sleeping right next to Gerard. Not that you wanted to. Well, maybe you wanted to.

“Two rooms,” Mikey asked shocked.

“I’m not sharing with Gerard, he’s always snoring,” Frank immediately claimed.

“So are you,” replied the black haired man.

“Hey (y/n), do you wanna share the single room,” Frank asked, trying to make sure he would not have to share a bed with Gerard.

“I was thinking we could pair up,” Mikey interrupted, throwing a hopeful glance your way.

“I really don’t care,” you answered, giving an indifferent shrug towards the young men while a secret voice in your head was screaming to ask to share a room with Gerard. What you really wanted though was to get out of this bloody cold of tonight’s late march evening.

“If you have to fight about it, I get to share the room with (y/n),” Ray, who had reached the van too, decided.

“Who decided I have to sleep in the single room,” you tried calming the situation, but Frank had already started talking, far louder than you.

“Oh yeah, who made you the boss?”

“Well, judging by height, you definitely aren’t” Ray bit back, causing Frank to jump up in rage.

“Who do you think you are, you-“

“Well, who does get to share the room with (y/n) now,” Mikey wondered, which started a heated debate between the three men.

Gerard sighed quietly, and with a shake of his head he reached between his fighting band members, ending the fight effectively by stating with an annoyed groan that since the three seemed to need some bonding time they would share a room.

Fuming, but not daring to disagree with him, they accepted the deal, which somewhat surprised you. But then again all of you were tired, and it was incredibly cold, and the rooms would have air conditioning at least.

Grabbing your bag from the back of the van, you followed Gerard to the part of the motel with the single rooms.

“I can take the sofa,” he offered even before he had reached the door.

You shook your head.

“It’s fine, I can take the sofa, I really don’t mind.”

The little sign dangling from the key read the number seven, so when you had reached the room, you unlocked it, being met with the ice cold and dusty air of a room that had cooled out. But what you noticed first was the size of the room. And that was not big.

The room was just big enough for a single person bed that had been pushed against the wall, a table with a single chair, and a small door.

“Let me guess, the door doesn’t lead to a second, bigger room,” Gerard joked, pushing past you into the room.

“Bathroom, I guess,” you agreed with a small sigh.

All of a sudden you realized what that meant. It meant you really, really had to share the bed with Gerard. And it was a small bed.

“Seems like the sofa discussion is over,” Gerard shrugged, and threw his bag on the bed.

“Yeah,” you agreed quietly, all of a sudden not sure whether you could go through with this.

Putting your own bag down on the poor excuse of a table, you opened the second door, and were met with a small bathroom. The last, almost blue, rays of sunlight fell through the dusty window, but at least the set of towels seemed fresh.

“So, how does this thing work?”

You turned back to the room, and found Gerard was already standing on the bed, his shoes discarded on the floor, trying to get the air conditioner to work.

“Try this,” you grinned, and threw him a small remote which you had found on the table.

After having pressed a couple of buttons, Gerard successfully managed to get the white box to make a few strange sounds, and a couple of seconds later air blew into the room, air that quickly got warm.

“Heaven,” Gerard sighed, and flopped down on the bed.

“Indeed,” you agreed.

For a few moments you allowed the warm air to engulf you before you spoke up again.

“Mind if I take a shower?”

Gerard shook his head, so you grabbed your bag, and went back into the small bathroom.

You turned the water as warm as it got, trying to get your body to thaw. While standing under the pleasantly hot water, you could not help but think about Gerard and the fact that you would have to share a bed tonight. It should not be anything to worry about, right? After all he only saw you as a friend, didn’t he? But as hard as you tried, you did not see him as just a friend. To you he had always been more; first a crush, then you had considered yourself to be in love with him, but now… it was hard to put it into words. Gerard was the person you trusted most in the world, the person who always listened to you, who you listened to. You spent weekends together, playing video games, watching movies, discussing fan theories about The Lord of the Rings. He knew almost everything about you, except how hard you wanted to be able cuddle up to him every night, and how unreasonably jealous you got every time some random girl flirted with him.

Shaking your head, trying to clear it, you quickly finished the shower, hoping you had not used up all of the warm water.

When you came back into the bed room, the air had warmed up already. You felt a little cold again since the room was no comparison to the warm bathroom, but better than nothing. Gerard sat at the table, wearing a jacket, and doodled into his notebook.

“Bathroom’s free,” you let him know, pushing your day clothes into your backpack, now that you were wearing your pyjama.

“Okay, thanks,” Gerard nodded, closing his notebook, and sending you a smile. Did he have to look this soft and cuddly wearing this jacket?

He grabbed his own pyjama from his bag, and carelessly pushed the notebook and the pen inside, before he disappeared in the bathroom.

Shivering slightly, you sat down on the edge of the bed, and took another look around the room. The window was tiny, and you could not see outside. By now it was so dark outside that the lights from the room reflected in the glass. Standing up, you walked to the window, and tried spying outside. A single lamppost lit up the parking lot. A lot of cars, including the band’s van were parked outside, mostly pick-up trucks and range rovers. But beyond the parking lot, there was only darkness and the wilderness of the endless seeming forest.

Turning back to the room, you noticed that Gerard’s notebook had slipped out of the bag, and was lying on the floor. Walking over you picked it up. The leather of the cover was smooth and almost warm. For a split second you felt tempted to take a look inside, but decided against it. You would not want Gerard to look through your private things either. So you pushed it back into the bag and made sure it would not slip out again.

You decided Gerard probably would not mind if you went to bed already. You were cold again, and hoped that the blanket would give some comfort, more than the weak air conditioner did. In the bathroom you heard Gerard quietly humming over the sound of rushing water.

The blanket was rigid when you unfolded it, and crawled underneath. The bed was ice cold, and you scooted close to the wall.

Not much later, Gerard came back out of the bathroom. He could not help but smile when he spotted you, tucked in up to your nose.

“Tired,” he asked, putting away his clothes, and sitting down on the edge of the bed.

You just nodded.

“Hungry,” he continued asking, but this time you shook your head. Honestly you did not trust your voice not to shake. “Me neither. That veggie burger for lunch was gigantic!”

You giggled, remembering how full all of you had been. It had been delicious.

“Yeah, that was some meal,” you agreed.

“Should we go to sleep?”

“If you don’t mind? I’m really tired, and tomorrow is a long day,” you mumbled.

Gerard shook his head. “Not at all. I’m super tired too.”

He walked to turn off the lights, and felt his way back to the bed in the dark. Quickly he slipped under the blanket next to you, along with some cold air. You scooted as close to the wall as possible to make enough space for him, but you could tell that with the space he left between you, he was still balancing on the edge of the tiny bed.

“Thanks for warming the blanket up,” he joked, and you laughed quietly.

“Do have enough space? It kinda feels like you’re falling out of bed,” you asked, trying to make out his face in the minimal light.

“Uhm, well- yeah, I am,” Gerard admitted, “mind if I scoot closer?”

“It’s fine,” you encouraged, but at the same time wondered why you were doing it. Did you want to kill yourself with a heart attack?

Gerard moved away from the edge, and by the time it did not feel like he was millimetres away from falling out of bed anymore, he was basically laying chest to chest with you.

“If I snore, wake me up, okay,” Gerard instructed, making you laugh.

“I will,” you agreed, “good night.”

“Sleep well,” Gerard replied, and even though you could not see him in the dark, you could hear the smile on his lips.

For a while you were lying in silence. Your heart was racing, being so close to Gerard. His body was soft and warm, and you wished you could just hug him. Almost as if Gerard had heard your thoughts, he eventually cleared his throat.

“Uhm, do you mind if I…?”

“What,” you asked into the direction from where Gerard’s warm breath was fanning over your skin.

“Ahm-“ somehow he seemed not to find the right words, but instead he wrapped his arm around you a moment later, and pulled you a little closer.

The breath hitched in your throat, and your heart skipped a beat.

“Is that okay,” Gerard asked shyly, but you just nodded, feeling his hair brush against your face.

You could feel him relax, his arm getting heavier around your waist, and you hesitantly lifted your hand to his chest, not sure if he would push you away any moment, but then again he had been the one initiating the contact first. That your worries had been unwarranted was proofed by the little sigh that escaped Gerard, and he moved closer into your touch.

Smiling slightly, you tried to relax your tensed-up muscles. Gerard’s presence was comforting and familiar, even though you had never been this close to him. The butterflies, that had erupted in your stomach slowly settled down, and just when you had finally been at the brink of falling asleep in Gerard’s arms, he spoke up again, his voice sending vibrations through his chest.

“(y/n)?”

You opened your eyes, and now, that you were used to the dark, you were able to make out his shining eyes right in front of you. Your faces were barely two inches apart.

For a while you were looking at him, waiting for him to say something else, but he did not. Instead he stared at you through the darkness. You were about to ask what was wrong, when he suddenly moved, and pressed his lips against yours in a quick kiss, pulling away as quickly as he had lent in.

Surprised you looked at him, feeling him shaking with nerves underneath your fingertips on his chest. His eyes were closed, as if he was avoiding meeting your eyes.

“Gee?” Moving your hand from his chest up his neck to the side of his head, you gently wrapped a strand of his hair around your finger. “Gerard?”

Slowly he looked at you, the fear of rejection clear in his eyes. If only he knew he did not have to fear that from you.

Gently you guided his head back closer to yours, and connected your lips to his again. It took him a moment, but then he seemed to understand, and kissed you back, wrapping his arms around you tighter, and pulling you even closer to him. His hot lips and breath was welcome contrast to the still cold air of the room, and your heart beat hard as you ran your fingers through his slightly greasy hair and over his soft skin.

Far too quickly for your liking, you ran out of breath, and pulled away slightly, laying back down in the pillow, but Gerard moved over, and peppered your face with tiny kisses until you were full on laughing.

“You’re tickling me,” you exclaimed, pretending to try to shove him away.

“Good, I’ll need to remember that,” he answered, making you laugh even harder.

He fell back into the matrass next to you, and immediately pulled you close again, arranging the blanket over both of you so were cocooned in. His nose was brushing against yours, and you were breathing against each other’s skin.

“I just want you to know that I’ve wanted to kiss you since – since always, really,” he admitted, making you blush.

You nuzzled your nose into his neck, and inhaled the familiar scent, making him giggle.

“Thanks,” you mumbled, leaving a soft kiss against his neck before looking at him again, giving his lips a sweet kiss as well, which made him smile.

“What for,” he asked surprised.

“Having the courage to kiss me. I wouldn’t have had the courage to kiss you, well, I didn’t,” you shrugged, “no matter how much I wanted to.”

“That’s okay,” Gerard grinned, and brushed his fingers through your hair, “I’m just glad you didn’t sucker punch me.”

Both of you giggled at that, and sleepily you adjusted your position in Gerard’s arm.

“When I wake up tomorrow, will this have been a dream,” you wondered yawning.

“If it was, then it would have been a dream we both dreamt, and then we can just continue like this in the real world,” Gerard suggested, smiling at how comfortable you seemed to be in his arms. No matter how silly it seemed, he had always worried that if he ever got to the point of holding you in his arms, you would not be comfortable, or would not like it for some reason. But the way you were cuddling into him now, yawning and smiling, you seemed pretty happy.

Gerard watched you fall asleep, and decided that maybe, you had been right and all this was a dream. So there was only one way to avoid waking up – not falling asleep. Not that he would be able to sleep anyway, your sleeping form was far too distracting.

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[nalgenewhore]

A rogue storm had her presumed dead and stranded on the red planet. Left on her own, astronaut Aelin Galathynius has four years to make it to the next drop-site, some two thousand miles. Armed with her smarts and dwindling supplies, Aelin attempts to survive on an inhospitable planet, when the nearest help is only millions of miles away.

masterlist - ao3 - last chapter

+*+*+*+*+*+*

Lorcan carefully extracted himself from Elide’s sleeping form. She whined in her slumber and swatted the air, trying to find him again. Though she had her own sleeping cabin, more often than not, she found herself in his. They both preferred to sleep together and neither minded the snug fit.

As he crept quietly, not wanting to disturb any of the sleeping crewmates on his bathroom run, he noticed that Aelin’s door was open and popped his head in. He whispered, “Ace?” There was no one there.

Logically, she was going to the bathroom, not missing in space again, but his pulse still raced and he cursed quietly, closing the door so that if anyone else woke up, they wouldn’t notice anything was amiss. He wanted to find her, for his sake and hers, but he really had to take a leak so after he had dealt with that, Lorcan set off through the ship's zero-gravity corridor.

After blowing the vehicular airlock during Aelin’s rescue, the ship was much smaller and it didn’t take him long to poke through the remaining rooms.

It didn’t take a genius, which they all were, to see that Aelin wasn’t the same. Her oddities were something they all collectively ignored, knowing she was silently berating herself for not being as she once was. Honestly, it broke their hearts to see her panic at the amount of food on her plate and struggle to stop herself from checking their supplies. It broke their hearts to see her slip away when they were all together, unable to handle the attention.

They were trying, really, they were, to not overwhelm her and keep their distance, even Rowan at times.

No one thought it would be easy once they got her back, but… Gods, it was all a mess, one that no one knew how to muddle through. Certainly not Aelin. She was just trying to get through the days, one at a time.

Lorcan shook his head to rid it of his spiraling thoughts as he slid down the ladder to the rec room and turned, finding Aelin at the back of the ship, looking out the windows. “Ace?”

She whirled quickly at his voice, her hands shaking as she let out a breathless laugh, “You scared me. Hi.”

“Hey,” he said smoothly, walking slowly over to her. “Everything ok?” She’d probably say that it was and they would both ignore the blatant lie.

“No.”

Her answer shocked him, but he controlled himself, keeping his face neutral as he slipped his hands into the pockets of his sweats, nodding his head once, twice. What shocked him was not what she said, but that she’d said it at all. Finally, someone was getting the truth. “Want to talk?”

“Lorcan Salvaterre, are you going soft on us? Asking someone to talk about their feelings?” Aelin teased him.

Lorcan humoured her by huffing a dry laugh and tilting his head to the side as he reached the windows and leaned back against them. “So?”

Aelin breathed out shakily and wiped her eyes, “Yeah, um. I don’t… I don’t know anything anymore. It all feels so fake?”

After he’d come home from deployment, he’d felt the same thing. It was like there was a glass separating him and everyone else. “I remember that.”

“You do?”

His time spent serving wasn’t something he tended to discuss openly. Lorcan nodded again, “Yeah, I served for a couple tours. I was discharged after eight years due to ‘hardship’.” He let out a humourless laugh, “I guess being held as a prisoner of war three months is classified as a ‘hardship’.”

Aelin’s eyes were wide, “I didn’t know that. I’m sorry.”

“Please, don’t be. It’s not your problem, G,” he assured her. “I just want you to know that it’s ok to not be alright right now. No one is expecting you to be and don’t be hard on yourself because you’re not what you once were.”

She rolled her eyes and smiled ruefully, “Easier said than done, Commander.”

Lorcan smiled, “Yeah, it really is.” He tilted his head to the table and she nodded. They silently walked over to it and sat down on opposite sides.

“So,” she began, clasping her hands on the surface before her, “are you better now?”

“Depends on what you mean by ‘better’. Before… it was really bad. Couldn’t get out of bed, didn’t eat or drink. Could barely be around anyone else.” He stared at the table, “It’s not like that anymore, but… not every day is a good one.”

“What did you do? To make it go away?”

Lorcan looked at her for a few seconds, analyzing something. “Essar yelled at me one day. Near broke down my door and chewed me out for ignoring her and being a dick. Said just because I was going through a shit time didn’t mean I could be shitty to everyone who tried to help.” The corners of his mouth tugged up, “And then she roped in Elide. Your sister’s the scariest person I know.”

“You’re telling me that? You know how many times I had to physically restrain her from fighting anyone who dared insult me in her presence?”

They both laughed quietly. Elide was one of their safe subjects, one they literally never fought over, now. In the beginning, Aelin had been a bit… territorial and protective. After they calmed, Lorcan got serious again, “That’s not all it took. I had to work to improve and still do. You just gotta find something that makes you want to fight, Aelin. You need to fight every fucking day, every time that voice in your mind tells you you should give up now, or that no one cares. Because it’s wrong, ok? Do you think we would’ve come back for you if we didn’t care?”

Aelin ducked her head, hiding her tears. “I asked you a question, Aelin.”

She slowly rose her head, eyes of blue and gold meeting ones of pure obsidian, forged from the same raging monster that dwelled inside both of them. “No.” He nodded, that one small and satisfied grin on his lips. Despite herself, it filled her with a warming sense of pride.

“Are you gonna tell me why you’re still up?”

“I had a dream. And all of this,” she waved her hand around, indicating the past year and a half, “hadn’t happened and we were on our way to Farnor. I just- I needed to see that we were leaving it all behind.” She dropped her hands in her lap and looked down at her fingernails, all bitten down to the quick. “I’m just so tired all the time.”

“Probably cause you’re not sleeping and it’s, like, three am.”

Aelin laughed, “Gods, you’re an asshole.”

He smiled and drawled, his tone dry, “So I’ve been told. Alright,” he clapped his hands, “if you’re not going to sleep, might as well watch a movie. Where’s my laptop?” Lorcan stood and walked over to the wall of compartments, reaching up high to his personal drawer. He pulled down his personal computer and moved to the couch area, putting it down on the table.

She still hadn’t moved and Lorcan looked over his shoulder, “Well, come on. Your choice between Ant-Man or Guardians of the Galaxy.”

“Wow, so many options,” Aelin commented as she made her way over to the couch and sat down, curling her legs under her.

Lorcan glanced at her before turning back to the screen, “Elide sits just like that.”

“You really love her,” said Aelin. Lorcan froze and slowly looked at her, his brows furrowing. “It’s good. She deserves someone like you. And Guardians of the Galaxy.”

He smiled, “You got it.” Soon, the movie was playing and they sat in a comfortable silence, understanding that what they had been talking about was done for now and they would continue on later. “Rowan really loves you too, Ace.”

She slowly turned to look at him but didn’t say anything until Lorcan elaborated. “I know you two had your moment or whatever, but he’s completely gone for you.”

A smitten smile pulled at her lips and Lorcan just had to pop her bubble, “Plus, he has a thing for know-it-all blondes.” Aelin choked and shoved his shoulder, to which Lorcan said, “Veteran abuse.”

“You’re such a dick,” she grumbled, frowning as she snuggled into his side. Lorcan just laughed and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. After a few minutes where they watched the movie in silence, she whispered, “I don’t want to mess it up.”

“I know you don’t. I don’t think you will.”

“Why?”

“I’m not sure Rowan’s ever wanted anything more than this,” Lorcan told her, resting his chin on the top of her head. “He’s waited all this time for you, he doesn’t mind waiting a little longer.”

And neither did Aelin.

 +*+*+*+*+*+*

“Lani, this is Flight, waiting for confirmation.”

“Copy Flight, Lani actual is ready for re-entry and landing.”

“Roger that Lani. Beginning re-entry countdown,” Manon said, her voice staticky through the headset.

Everyone was strapped into their seats, ready for landing. The timer controller turned on and the robotic tone began counting down from ten. Wordlessly, Aelin held her hand, palm up, to Rowan. He stared at her hand for a moment before gently taking it and squeezing once.

The ship shook as it was remotely piloted back into Earth’s gravity. Aelin closed her eyes and breathed out slowly, repeating soothing inhales and exhales as she felt the re-entry.

“Lani, Flight – the Thresher has confirmed it is ready for pick-up.”

“Copy, Flight.”

The metal beast rattled as the boosters detached and hurtled to the ocean, far far below them still. Aelin knew that the craft would be burning right now, but with the heat shield and their temperature-controlled suits, no one could feel a thing.

As the free-fall continued for a few minutes or so, Aelin gripped Rowan’s hand harder, tensing as the craft jerked back – the parachutes. Their descent slowed and an indeterminate amount of time later, they crashed into the ocean. The pontoons that were set off kept them afloat as they all checked in with each other, assuring that everyone was ok.

The mood was vivid and excited as a hissing sound filled the craft and the door popped open, the sun blinding. “You guys lost or something?”

Lorcan and Fenrys let out shocked cries, “Corsario?”

“The one and only,” the man replied, a smug grin splitting his face in two. His sea green eyes sparkled as he and his crew helped them out of the ship and onto the motored boat that would take them to the Thresher, Terrasen’s Navy’s amphibious transport docking ship.

“Guys, this is Rolfe Corsario, we were all in boot camp together,” Lorcan explained, gesturing between him, Fenrys, and Rolfe. The sailor held out his hand to help Aelin into the boat and she noticed that his brown skin was covered in tattoos that resembled maps. Aelin held onto his hand even after she sat down, trying to get a better look.

“Ah, can’t let you do that,” he said, pulling his hand from her grasp before hopping neatly down and sitting by the motor.

“Why not?” The whole crew, save for Lorcan and Fenrys who just rolled their eyes, leaned in to listen.

Fenrys cut in before Rolfe could answer her, “They’re not for mortal eyes.” He received a quick swat to the back of his head before Rolfe turned to her.

“They’re Mycenian markings. Can’t let outsiders see them,” he said with a wink and lazy grin as he steered the boat to the Thresher.

“They’re on your hands, dipshit,” Lorcan said, twisting his helmet off and tossing it by his feet. “Anyone can see them.”

“I’m going to ignore that and still let you onto my ship.”

One by one, the astronauts popped their helmets off and sighed at the cool ocean breeze. Aelin closed her eyes, tilting her head back up to the sun just as a shadow passed over her and she frowned, opening her eyes to find that they had arrived at the ship.

Elide offered to let Aelin go up the ladder first but the blonde shook her head, waiting until she was the last one on the boat. Taking a deep breath, Aelin stepped up to the ladder and nodded to herself, stepping on the first rung.

She froze and looked to the side, seeing Rolfe waiting patiently. He dipped his chin once, “Welcome back.”

 +*+*+*+*+*

Aelin had requested that no media be there when the plane touched down in Orynth. The thought of being the centre of attention, in a media hailstorm, had her feeling queasy.

TNSB had complied and when she stepped off the plane, the only people she saw were a handful of TNSB employees, the scientists who had brought her home.

The second she saw a flash of moon-white hair and another of yellow-gold, she let out an undignified squeal and ran, blatantly ignoring Weylan and Gavriel to launch herself at Manon and Asterin. They laughed and hugged her tight.

“So, what does it take for you to get Darrow’s job,” Aelin muttered, the question directed at Manon.

The white-haired woman shrugged as Asterin cackled, “He wants to fire her.”

Aelin pulled back, “What! Why, what’d you do?”

Manon just shrugged again and flipped her hair over her shoulder, “I might’ve leaked some confidential flight plans to Elide. He didn’t appreciate that.”

“Gods, I missed you two,” Aelin breathed, hugging them close again. “Thanks for getting me home.” The back of her throat ached with tears and she wiped her eyes.

Eventually, the rest of her crew caught up with her and they exchanged professional greetings with both Weylan and Gavriel. The cold disdain for the director of TNSB was palpable and Elide gently patted Lorcan’s arm, speaking in Blackbeak as she told him, “Stop frowning at him. Weylan’s about to shit himself.”

He chuckled darkly as Manon and Asterin cackled once more. Asterin surveyed her boss, who was talking with Nesryn a few metres away, “I bet he will.”

“Ten bucks?”

“Are we children,” Aelin asked, an unimpressed arch to her brows, “Ten’s too low, I say we go for the big bucks.” They continued with their childish banter as some frazzled-looking woman herded them off the tarmac and into headquarters.

Aelin lingered outside, eyes on the sky. The woman tried to get her attention, but Rowan said he’d wait for her and catch up later.

The sun’s glare became too bright for her eyes and she blinked hard, pivoting neatly to the door, where she found Rowan. A smile grew on her face and she walked quickly to his side, tucking herself under his arm and into his side. “Waiting for me again, are we?”

She grabbed his hand and tugged him behind her, only to be sent backwards when he didn’t move. “Ro, what are you- oh!” He settled his hand on her waist and tipped her chin back, green eyes swimming with too much and not enough all at once.

“For you, Fireheart,” he murmured, tracing his thumb over the apple of her cheek, “for you I’d wait forever.”

+*+*+*+*+*+*

an: annnnd that’s a wrap! thank you all for reading and sticking with me through this whole lil thang - this was super fun to write

@mythicaitt​ @tinywolfofeyllwe​ @schmlip-scribble​ @the-regal-warrior​ @westofmoon​ @empire-of-wildfire​ @rhysands-highlady​ @city-of-fae​ @shyvioletcat​ @alifletcher2012​ @tangledraysofsunshine​ @ttakeitbacknoww​ @tswaney17​ @ourbooksuniverse​ @flora-and-fae​ @thesirenwashere​ @queenofxhearts​ @that-other-pineapple​ @sleeping-and-books​ @superspiritfestival​ @faerie-queen-fireheart​ @chemicha​ @rowaelin-cressworth​ @mynewdreamwasyou​ @candid-confetti​ @bat-wing-rhys​ @the-reading-obsessed-stitchbear​ @feyrethedarklady​ @booklover41802​ @rowaelinforeverworld​ @jamesxdaisy​ @julemmaes​ @hellas-himself​ @kayjaybea​ @ghostlyrose2​ @but-she-was-aelin-galathynius​ @queen-of-glass​ @can-dreamers-be-lost-too​ @i-love-all-books​ 

[candyshua]

i luv angst a lot so i’m v glad you’re doing this 😭 could i have jun + “don’t pretend to care, i know you don’t” thank you!! 💓 (feel free to litrally break my heart)

a/n: ummmm i have mixed feelings about this one. thank u so much for requesting though! anywho, enjoy!

pairing: junhui x reader (side joshua x reader)

genre: just pure angst

warnings: unrequited love, mentions of sex, the reader is just not a very good person,,,

word count: 2,297

Junhui never liked you. 

Maybe his hatred for you stemmed from the first time you two met; which was through Joshua, of course.

The moment his eyes trailed to where you were, in the doorway of Joshua’s apartment, he felt something amiss in his chest.

You smiled warmly, holding up a plastic bag filled with takeout in one hand and a bottle of soju in the other. Everybody else in his apartment cheered, but Junhui merely gave you a plain look, not knowing what emotions you had just conveyed of him.

Joshua took the bags from you while he gave you a quick kiss. Your grin was of pure authenticity, something that made Junhui recoil.

He remembered the way you snuggled up against Joshua as the rest of you watched a movie. He remembered you talking to him as if he were a friend of yours for years, in spite of only knowing each other for an hour or so. He remembered the feelings of complete and utter disgust when he’d sneak looks at you.

Junhui decided to hate you that night. It was just the safest option.

The second time Junhui met you was at a cheap, hole-in-the-wall diner in the middle of the night. You wore an apron and a tired smile.

You were always smiling. Junhui hated it.

He sat down in a two-person booth by himself, eyeing the menu carefully. His diligent searching was interrupted by your chipper voice. According to Junhui, it was much too chipper for someone who worked at a shitty diner in the middle of the night.

“Hey, you’re Junhui, right?” You greeted.

“Yeah, Y/N?” You nodded enthusiastically.

“Can I get you something to drink?” 

Junhui was absolutely perplexed. How did you seem so happy and awake? 

“Um, water would be fine.” You gave him a thumbs-up and practically skipped away. The feeling in Junhui’s heart was absolutely foreign to him, and he did not welcome it one bit. When you came back and gave him the glass of water, your hand accidentally brushed against his.

Junhui felt his entire world collapse. You weren’t affected whatsoever. Junhui didn’t even think you noticed.

After you had taken his order and walked away, Junhui was left to reflect. 

He decided to hate you yet again. In fact, he needed to hate you, or else he’d have to admit he was falling for his roommate’s girlfriend.

-

Junhui started to lose count of how many times he had seen you. You were soon becoming an avid person in his social life, and it scared the absolute shit out of him. 

He was tremendously scared of you. He was scared of the way your smile made his breath stop, he was scared of the way he felt butterflies in his tummy each time you were remotely near him, and he was scared of the fact that he was in love with you.

One night, you, Junhui, Joshua, and his friend Soonyoung were hanging out in your apartment. Once you all had realized you ran out of booze, Soonyoung and Joshua had left the two of you to go to the store. 

Junhui sat on the couch, mindlessly staring at his phone. He was hyperaware of your everlasting presence. You wore a t-shirt and black shorts that night.

After further observing the shirt, Junhui realized that it was his. Joshua must’ve taken it from him, and you must’ve taken it from Joshua.

Junhui’s mind wandered for a bit. He let himself indulge in the thought of you wearing his t-shirts on a regular basis, and then he found himself being washed over with fear.

Plain and transparent fear. There was no other word to describe the way Junhui had felt when he realized that he was madly in love with you.

No, Junhui had never liked you.

(He loved you.)

“Jun,” You began out of the blue, “can I ask you something?” Junhui’s eyes widened, wondering if you could read his tainted thoughts.

“Um, sure.” 

“Has Joshua ever brought another girl to your apartment?” 

Wow. Junhui could hear your voice crack just a bit, and he knew that you already knew the answer. 

Joshua had been quite irresponsible with you, to say the least. Junhui had kept his mouth shut about it all, even if he did feel a burning hatred for the man he lived with. 

“I think you already know the answer.” Junhui murmured with nothing but shame laced in his tone. He expected you to cry, scream, or just do something reckless. Instead, you stood there silently, hugging your knees to your chest. And when Joshua came back that night, you kissed him at the door.

(Junhui’s heart ached hopelessly.)

-

It was 3 AM. 

You seemed to not care, though, since you called Wen Junhui at the ungodly hour.

“Hello?” He croaked after he picked up the phone, clearly being awakened from his sleep.

“Jun?” You weakly asked. You sniffled, and he automatically knew you had been crying.

“Y/N? What’s up?” Worry was rooted in his tone, like weeds in a yard. He’d try so desperately to rip them out, but they’d always come back.

(He would always be worried about you.)

“Could you, um, come pick me up? Please?” You pleaded. Junhui was thoroughly confused.

“What happened?”

“Josh broke up with me, and he kind of left me at the diner. I have no way to get home…”

“On my way.”

Junhui got in his car with a racing mind and heart. His thoughts were filled with Joshua and his undeniable ability to be an asshole, and of course, you. Junhui wished he could speed through the streets and get to the diner you worked at, but alas, the city of LA was alive with traffic like always. And, of course, rain was falling from the sky in angry droplets.

Junhui moved to LA to chase his dreams of being an actor. And, at the ripe age of 25, his dream wasn’t going too great. He met Joshua through a roommate listing online, and then he got a part-time job at a high-class restaurant. 

He put his dreams on hold.

But, when he finally saw you standing awkwardly on the sidewalk in the rain, a new dream was born.

(He dreamt of being yours.)

The moment you spotted Junhui’s beat-up car, you wore a smile for the first time that night. Junhui’s heart fluttered.

After you got into the car, Junhui drove away without asking a single question. Half of him didn’t want to pester you with such things.

And half of him didn’t really want to know, in fear that he might have gone home and beaten the shit out of his roommate.

“Jun,” You started, “thank you. Really–I mean it.”

After he let himself bask in your lovely words for a bit, he gave you a shy smile.

“Of course, Y/N. I’d do anything for you.”

Junhui realized what he had said much too late. His heart dropped. In a state of panic, he turned on the radio, and some romantic jazz started blasting at full volume. Junhui turned it off as soon as he could, his eyes blown wide out of fear and anticipation.

He looked anywhere but you. 

You refused to look anywhere but him.

Those words were surprisingly nice coming from Junhui’s mouth. 

“Where are we going?” You questioned the older man. 

Junhui handed you his phone with Google Maps open, having already prepared it before you entered the car.

“Put in your address please.” He stated blankly. You nodded and let a fit of giggles subside in your throat. 

Once Junhui pulled up to your apartment complex, you opened the door and waved him goodbye. 

Junhui was about to drive away, but you stopped him.

“Wait!”

Junhui hit the brakes way too aggressively.

“Want to come in for some coffee?”

(Junhui should’ve just driven away.)

-

Ever since the night you two had slept together, Junhui’s entire world was on fire. He couldn’t bear to look Joshua in the eyes, but Joshua probably wouldn’t have even cared if he found out about what happened. Junhui led himself to that conclusion after Joshua brought home a girl two days after the breakup.

Junhui was going insane.

He avoided you like the plague. He had become a regular at the diner you worked at, but he hadn’t gone since that night.

Two weeks had passed, two painstakingly slow and miserable weeks. Time was Junhui’s enemy, but it was usually because it was much too fleeting.

Now it was much too slow. You had infested his mind like ants infested a kitchen in the summertime. He wanted to hate you, so badly.

But his feelings for you were quite, in fact, the opposite. Junhui’s feelings would have probably faded away after not seeing you due to the breakup.

He would’ve turned out fine.

Fuck, Junhui thought while studying his lines for an audition, I really should’ve just driven away.

-

The second time you slept together was a spur of the moment thing. You were in your apartment one night, lonely as ever. You scrolled through Instagram and then looked at one of Junhui’s posts. It was a picture of him at a concert with Joshua and Joshua’s new girlfriend.

Your heart felt as if it were ripped in two. 

Before you knew it, you were going to Junhui’s contact on your phone and pressing “call”. It rang a few times, so much so that you thought the call would go to voicemail.

“Y/N?” Junhui asked, disbelief thick in his voice.

You felt a twisted sense of pride settle in you. He always picked up your calls.

“Hey Jun, you doing anything right now?”

On the other line, Junhui was on his computer, paying the bills.

“No, I’m not.” He lied.

You heard a laptop shut on the other line. You had to stifle a scoff.

“How about you come over?”

Junhui wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. He absolutely refused to do so. 

But he really missed you.

“Be there in fifteen minutes.” 

(He arrived in ten.)

-

Junhui started visiting the diner again. You still worked there, as diligent and positive as ever. 

You two would leave together just about every time Junhui went. 

When he laid in bed beside you after you found sleep, Junhui let himself feel a sliver of hope. Maybe you loved him back…

He noticed the peaceful rise and fall of your chest, covered with bruises due to his wandering mouth. And the feelings came rushing in at such a high speed that Junhui had difficulty breathing.

That was real. It was so, undeniably real. Junhui had slept with you on numerous occasions, but you never tried to initiate anything more. Despite his lingering feelings of faith, he knew that if he ever tried to become something more to you, you would push him away.

You didn’t love him.

(You loved Joshua.)

-

Maybe Junhui knew he was your rebound all along. Maybe he let himself be your toy because he’d do anything for you.

But, when you came into his apartment that night, hand-in-hand with Joshua, Junhui just couldn’t contain the pain he was feeling.

He expected it, to be quite honest. That still didn’t stop it from hurting more than anything else he could have ever felt. You were a gamble, a risky and selfish gamble, and he had just lost a million dollars. 

When you tried to sneak out of the apartment that night, you still couldn’t get by Junhui. He sat on the couch, mindlessly reading his phone, like he used to do around you.

“Listen, Jun–”

“Don’t say that.” Junhui hissed, nothing but pure venom in his voice. 

“Jun, what are you–”

“Don’t say my name. Don’t try to explain anything either. And, don’t pretend to care, I know you don’t.” 

You scoffed, your entire apologetic demeanor changing.

“You knew what you were doing.” You rebutted. Junhui’s jaw clenched, and for the first time, you were the reason for his anger. He thought of the second time he met you, when you were a happy-go-lucky waitress in a shitty diner. 

He should have known it was all a facade. He should have known you.

“So did you. You knew you were just using me as some sort of fucking toy, even though you also knew I was madly in love with you.”

Despite the unstoppable storm of anger and melancholy inside of Junhui, he was eerily calm on the outside. His voice was quiet, and for once, sure of himself. The thing he was so sure of was, in fact, your love for him. Or lack thereof.

“Why would I ever even consider loving you? You’re a failed actor who–”

“Actually, I’m not a ‘failed actor’ anymore. I’ve been preparing for this one role for a while, and I got it. It’s for this new movie…”

Junhui could’ve also went into the fact that you were a fucking waitress at a shit hole of a diner, saving up for your own business, but he didn’t.

You were obviously taken aback. Junhui felt a slight twinge of pride for being the one that made you feel something, instead of it always being the other way around.

“I should go.” 

Junhui wanted to stop you, for some odd reason. He couldn’t get over his paralyzing love for you through just one argument.

There was something in your eyes. Maybe it was a glint of regret. Maybe you wanted Junhui to tell you to stay.

“Yeah, you should.” Was what he said instead.

(So you left, and Junhui let you. Junhui would look back on it years later with nothing but criticism for himself. You were such a mistake.)

[theonewiththefanfics]

Whatever It Takes (one-shot)

Synopsys: This is the fight of their lives. Get the stones, bring everyone back, but don’t screw up what happened during the last five years. But maybe there’s a chance to bring back even those that weren’t dusted. Well, whatever the case, that is what the Reader will do if the opportunity presents itself.

Pairing: Loki x f!Reader

Genre: angst/ fluff

Warnings: swearing, blood, mentions of wounds and death

Word count: 15676 (I don’t have a life :) )

       Whatever it takes.        The words echoed through Y/N’s head like a mantra. They were going back in time to retrieve the Infinity Stones. As insane as that sounded, it was their actual plan. The only plan that gave them hope to bring everyone back.        “All right,” Tony brought Y/N back from the dazed state, readying herself as she stood next to Steve. “You heard the man. Stroke those keys, jolly green.”        “Tractors engaged,” Bruce announced, and she pulled in a shuddering breath. They were actually going to do this.        From the corner of her eye, she saw Rocket hand Clint a shrunken version of the ship her father and Nebula had arrived on. “You promise to bring that back in one piece, right?”        Clint rolled his eyes, voice uninterested as he moved to stand next to Nat. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I’ll do my best.”        “As promises go, that was pretty lame.”        It had been a while since Y/N found anything remotely funny, so when the snort escaped her nose, she was shocked herself. The past five years had been hellish. And even that was an understatement.        To be completely honest, she had been luckier than most. She still had her dad, and Pepper had survived the snap as well. The twenty-two days he’d been M.I.A in space Y/N would’ve completely lost it if not for her mom. Though they were not blood-related she refused to call her otherwise. The woman had helped Tony raise her, and there would be no other way she’d regard her or him. They were her family.

       But then he’d come back. With Captain Carol Danvers carrying the spaceship, he was safely placed on the ground. Steve rushed forward to help him off the steps, and Y/N crumbled to the ground upon seeing her dad after almost three years of her own absence.        After that and the Avengers’ unsuccessful retrieval of the stones, the three of them moved into a lakeside house and just stayed there. Y/N recounted what had happened after she’d been trapped in the Rainbow Bridge after Thor’s last visit to Earth. When the topic of Loki and her being together came up, she had almost given Tony a heart attack.        “Don’t worry dad,” she sniffled, “he won’t come back.”        In any other circumstance, he would’ve been happy about the crazy Asgardian not stepping a foot near his daughter, but the tone of her voice made him realize that it wasn’t a good thing.        “How so?” he had mumbled in her hair.        “Same reason we lost so many others,” Y/N had replied. “Only that time he didn’t snap his fingers, but his neck.”        The two spent the rest of the night curled up into one another, trying to keep the other somewhat together before Pep joined and helped them start the mending of their hearts.        Then Morgan was born. Y/N didn’t know how to feel about it at first. It felt like they were trying to move on while others were left to piece together the broken shards, but when her sister’s little finger had wrapped around her own, the fierce love that filled her chest was a force to be reckoned with.        Now, Y/N surveyed the room, and excitement started to fill up her body, despite everything. This was their chance, not only to bring everyone back but to keep what they had gained. Because there would be no other outcome she’d accept.        “See you in a minute,” Nat remarked, and a moment later they were all flying through the quantum realm.        Y/N had never been a squeamish person. Whenever they had movie nights and Clint or Sam, as always, picked a horror film, no matter how many guts flew towards the screen, she was unfazed. Quite a lot of the time, her line of work consisted of splattering other’s brains against walls. And when you can control everything with just your mind, frying someone from the inside out wasn’t uncommon.        But the second they were thrown on the Chitauri overrun streets of 2012 New York, Y/N was slammed against a car, and she had to hold onto it for dear life.         “Bug, you okay?” Tony’s hand went to her back to soothingly rub it.        “ ‘M alright,” Y/N wheezed. Fuck that breakfast was really hard to keep down. “Just give me a second.”        While she was recuperating, Steve laid out the plan once more. “All right, we all have our assignments. Two stones uptown, one stone, down. Stay low. Keep an eye on the clock.”        Originally Y/N was supposed to go with Bruce to The Sanctorum, but they ended up deciding she’d be great backup for the rest as they would have to get past not only Loki and whatever he might decide to do, but also Hydra.        Right as they were about to split, 2012 Hulk landed with a harsh thud on the ground, flipping a car over onto a Chitauri troop before jumping on top of it as if he was a kid jumping on a bed.        Y/N looked over at Bruce who had a hand on his face.        “Feel free to smash if things don’t go your way,” Steve patted him on the arm, and Bruce sighed.        “I think it’s gratuitous, but whatever.”        For a moment everyone watched as he removed his shirt and reluctantly punched a car before throwing a motorcycle.        “Okay,” Tony pulled them back, “it’s time to move.”        Through an underground tunnel that connected the garage to the main parts of the Stark Tower, Steve rushed inside with Y/N, while Tony and an ant-sized Scott flew in through the window.        “I’ll take the stairs up and wait by the elevator,” Steve commented, “I need you to find two of the security suits and suit up. Tony will be with you shortly.”        “Got it, Cap,” Y/N gave him a mock salute and was off to the races.        They didn’t have much time. Hydra would get the staff pretty much immediately, and then it was up to Steve to retrieve it, while Tony had to help Scott get into the position to cause 2012 Tony a heart attack, and then subsequently get the case with the Tesseract to them.        “A heart attack, really?” Y/N had first remarked, eyebrows shooting up in disbelief. “You clearly have zero care for your own life, do you? And what if mom finds out?”        “Got any better ideas?”        “Uhh knock yourself out and pass as yourself? Trigger the security system? Maybe something that won't put your survival at risk.”        “Do I look like I could pass as a version of myself from back in the day?”        That was true. Tony had gotten significantly greyer, and the lines on his face were more prominent, though in Y/N’s opinion that was more so to do with all of the grief, not age.        “I dunno,” she had smirked and crossed her arms, feet resting on the top of the table as they went through the information of what they knew of the stones, “put a little bit of dye in there, and I’d say you’re as good as new.”        Tony gave her a gentle smile and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Y/N instantly put her head on his chest and relaxed. “Thanks, bug, for caring about me,” he muttered. “You always know how to lift me up.”        “That’s what family does.”        Now, Y/N was rifling through the SHIELD uniforms quickly taking one that seemed to be her size and another one to fit Tony.        “Ugh, Mr Rogers,” Tony exasperated through the comms as all of them got into position, “I almost forgot that that suit did nothing for your ass.”        “No one asked you to look,” Steve sighed through almost gritted teeth, but Y/N had to agree. The 2012 suit had been a complete flop in accentuating the Captains assets.        “I think you look great, Cap,” Scott responded. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s America’s ass.”        “You done there?” Y/N whispered as she moved into position downstairs to wait by the elevator. “We’re kinda on a mission here. Also, America’s ass only appeared when he got into that hot ass stealth suit. Thank you, dad, for that.”        Steve groaned while Tony chuckled. “Thank you, bug. I’m glad at least someone appreciates my designs. But also, do not ever talk about looking at Steve’s ass ever again, or I’ll ground you.”        “How can I not?” she muttered. “It’s right there.”        But before Steve could say a syllable, Tony spoke up. “All right, Cap. I got our sceptre in the elevator just passing the 80th floor.”        “On it,” he was back to his ‘soldier mode’. “Head to the lobby.”        “Alright. I’ll see you there. Kid?”        “Waiting for you by the staircase, the second suit is secured,” Y/N confirmed and settled in her position.        “You’re a gem, bug.”        Y/N smirked, and she would’ve stayed somewhat happy if not for STRIKE team appearing. “Ugh,” she groaned and sneered in Hydra’s direction. “Can I take those guys out? Preferably with a sniper?”        “We don’t have time for that, kiddo,” Tony’s voice was now right next to her.        “Bullshit, there’s always time for a little bit of that.”        Tony rolled his eyes, but nevertheless, everyone was more or less in position. “Thumbelina, do you copy? I’ve got eyes on the prize,” he murmured right as his own younger version started to walk out of the building but was interrupted by Alexander Pierce showing up.        “Bombs away.”        A few seconds passed without anything happening, making Y/N’s nerves spike when Scott exclaimed, “Is, is that Axe body spray?”        “Yeah, I had a can just for emergencies. Relax. Can we focus please?”    “I’m going inside you.”    “Ew,” Y/N winched, “don’t ever say anything like that ever again.”    From the sidelines, she observed everyone until her eyes befell on Loki. She knew she’d see him here, there was no escaping that, but Y/N thought she had prepared herself better than this. Her breath got stuck hallway to her throat and tears threatened to spill from her eyes because here he was – in chains, yes, but alive. Alive and breathing and snarking back.    “All right, move it, Stuart Little,” Tony was starting to get impatient. “Things are getting dicey up here. Let’s go.”    “You promise me you won’t die?”    Tony rolled his eye, and Y/N slapped his arm. “You’re only giving me a mild cardiac dysrhythmia.”    Scott rebutted. “That doesn’t sound mild.”    “Do it, Lang! Window’s closing in. Pull my pin!”    And that’s when he did it. “Here goes!”    If Y/N was being honest up until five years ago that day had been the worst of her life. After watching her dad fly a nuke into space with Pepper right beside her, and now seeing him crumble to the floor, was incredibly hard. To the point, she almost rushed to his side because the horrific memories were bad enough, but as planned, 2012 Tony dropped the case, and Scott kicked it towards the 2023 Tony and Y/N.    With one swift movement, he had the Tesseract, and both were on their way to the meetup point. Then everything turned south. The Hulk smashed out from the stairs, knocking Tony and Y/N out of the way, and the suitcase with the Tesseract flew open, making the cube bounce out and slide all over the floor.        “Shit,” Y/N almost yelled and scrambled to her feet right as the glowing stone stopped by Loki’s feet. She didn’t need to be a mind reader to know what would happen next.        Without thinking, Y/N grabbed onto 2012 Loki’s shoulder right as he took the Tesseract and used it to disappear. A second later, the two tumbled onto the ground, and she managed to knock the cube out of his hold.        Unsurprisingly, his chains and the mask on his face were off in an instant, signifying the fact he had just been playing along. Maybe his plan all along had been to bring together the Avengers in hopes of stopping Thanos one day, no matter if under the influence of the Mind stone or not. Or maybe he had just wanted to get back to Asgard and rule there.    The two were up, their clothes covered in dirt, but Y/N’s focus on the Tesseract instead of the alien looking planet surrounding them, and Loki’s was on her.        “I need that,” she said pointing at the cube.        “That’s not a nice way to ask though, is it?” Loki snarked back, the two circling one another like lions ready to attack. When his back was on the stone, and it was in her eyesight, she got ready. Y/N blew a strand of hair out of her face and whipped her gaze back to look at the younger Loki.    “I wasn’t asking.” And that’s when she pounced.        When they first started training together, Loki had had the upper hand. For one, he was a literal god with hundreds of years of experience, and two, she wanted to learn his tricks. He was able to make new moves and surprise her, catch her off guard and bring her down, but this time Y/N knew she had him.        They’d been together for three years, and though that was nothing but a blink of an eye for him, she knew how his body moved and bent, where his mind went to as he thought of his next attack or defence. Y/N knew him like the back of her hand.        The second she deflected his dagger and twisted his arm around, she slammed the back of his knee and elbowed him in the back of his head. She had him. But Loki was stunned in a different kind of a way.        “How did you know I’d do it?” his blue eyes were wide and looking at Y/N in complete bafflement.        She didn’t deign to respond, instead, just kicked him in the jaw sending his head backwards.        Three more steps and the Tesseract would be hers, but of course, once again things had to go south. A cold palm grabbed at her ankle, harshly yanking her down. Y/N was happy she managed to keep her tongue behind her teeth, but the clank wasn’t pleasant either way.        “I’m sorry,” he smirked scrambling to straddle her, “but this will hurt.”        His fingers pressed against her forehead, and Y/N’s eyes rolled to the back of her head. But Loki was not expecting the things he saw.        It was him. But it wasn’t. And yet it was him with her and they were… tangled together in a bed. Their legs brushing against the other’s, soft fingers tracing his jaw and cheekbone while his lips left invisible marks on her lids, brows, nose and finally where she carved him the most – lips.        “If paradise exists,” her voice was quiet as if she was afraid to pull them out of the moment, “this is it.”        “Really? In the arms of a child’s nightmare?”        “In the arms of the coolest man in the existence of the universe. Quite literally, your skin is freezing cold.”         Loki snorted shaking his head. “That’s because I’m a Frost Giant, darling.”        “Mhm,” her eyes were closed, content, “you never fail to remind me that. Especially as one of the reasons as to why I should be afraid of you.”        “You should.”        Her Y/E/C eyes were now open and had a defiant look in them. “Yet here we are.”        “Yet here. We. Are,” he accentuated each word with a kiss.        And what was so weird to the Loki watching what undoubtedly were Y/N’s memories, was the pure love her felt radiating off from them. No animosity, no scheming or underlying negative intent. When she gazed up at him, all he could feel was love.        Loki retracted with a gasp clutching his arm to himself as if it had been singed, while Y/N balled up in a fetal position, fingers quickly burying themselves in her hair.        “Just please,” her voice cracked. “I need it. I need it to make everything better… I couldn’t save you then… let me do something good for once.”        Loki didn’t respond. He just stood there shocked and… and hurt. Hurt because the girl on the ground was weeping and weeping for him. Hurt because she looked like a fractured vase ready to crumble at the softest touch. Hurt because somehow someway the two of them would meet, fall in love, and, once again, he’d ruin something so precious.        “I don’t want to hurt you,” Y/N gritted with a tearstained face, but with such defiance in her features, it took Loki aback as she finally glanced back at him, standing up on sure feet. “But I will if I have to.”        “Why didn’t you use your powers on me?”        That was not the question Y/N expected Loki to ask. In fact, she hadn’t used her powers ever since Thanos, so the only way he could know that was if he had felt them in her memories. Back then she’d have no problems surrounding the both of them in a telekinetic bubble to keep the world away.        “ ‘M a bit rusty,” Y/N gritted and steadied herself again, “but I’m also desperate. So, I’ll do what I have to.”        With that said, glimmering silver threads started to weave up and down her veins right to the middle of her forearms. It felt good to let loose, but after having bottled everything up for so long, Y/N was afraid she might explode. Though, if that was the cost, she’d pay it.        Just as the blood vessels in her eyes turned from red to silver, power now fully encompassing her body, the Asgardian prince suddenly whipped his head to the side to where the Tesseract laid.        “Do you trust me?” Loki asked, and as he said that, his eyes turned from the blue hue they’d assumed while under the power of the Mind stone into his jade orbs. It was like a punch into Y/N’s guts for she was looking into the eyes where her home was. So similar yet so different.        “You? Not really, no.”        But he just rolled his eyes like her Loki used to. With both of his hands raised, he moved closer to the cube. “Don’t,” he glanced at Y/N as she twisted her palm upwards ready to strike. “I promise I’m not going to flee. I swear… on my Mother.”        With those words all will to fight left her, her powers pushed back into that bottle where she’d hidden them. Because Loki might’ve been the god of lies, but he would never break a promise he’d vowed to keep on his Mother.        Y/N watched as he cautiously took the final steps to the Tesseract and lifted it from the ground. And though she expected to have to fight him for it, Loki marched towards her and extended his free hand.        “Trust me on this one. That’s all I’m asking.”        His green eyes bore into hers so deeply Y/N felt her heart breaking once again. Just like it had when she had stared at her lover in his final moments of defiance before they ceased to sparkle forever.        She wasn’t even fully in control of her own body when her hand slid in his cold one, and, once again, they were transported to somewhere else. Instant warmth from all around surrounded Y/N as she beheld green vines wrapped around marble pillars, and a nightlight sky full of stars.        Y/N was about to ask Loki where he’d taken her, but next to her stood not a tall man, but a slender woman with hair down to her waist. For a second, Y/N was dumbfounded as she scanned over the expanse of the garden, in search for Loki before she realized that woman was Loki. That’s when she remembered his shapeshifting abilities were more than just snakes and ravens.        “You know, it’s a good thing you never assumed your female form while with me.”        “Really?” she smirked, but Y/N could see the underlying uncertainty in his face. “How so?”        “Because somehow I can guarantee you would wear my clothes, and I was not prepared for you to look better in them than me. You always had trouble with asking for things… And you were out of my league as a dude, so as a woman I’d have no chance.”        Her shoulders instantly dropped, and Loki ushered them to start moving.        “Where are we, by the way? Just curious.” Y/N piped up as they ventured towards two grand oak doors with intricate designs before being swept inside by the moving crowd. The large hall they’d entered was nothing short of grandiose.        Huge tables were set up in long lines where people feasted on all imaginable things whether fruits, meats or vegetables. Everything and anything your heart could desire could be found on them. And the people were no different.        The shapes and sizes did not matter, nor did the colour of their skin because each and every person was dressed in jewel encrusted and gold-thread lined clothes, their hairs up and loose in different styles, each more intricate than the other.        But nothing matched the place itself. The warmth it radiated was not only physical form the ginormous hearths lining the sides of the room, but also emotional. It was welcoming and endearing. With the yellow light that surrounded them, stars shining through a cupola right above them, Y/N never wanted to leave this place. And how could she when right at the far side of the room by a table that stood higher than anyone else’s, her Loki sat and drank?        “Loki?”        Despite the fact that her voice was not raised but at a normal level, despite the roars of laughter of the rest in the room, instantly his head snapped up from where he had been leaning to the side listening in on what a gorgeous woman was telling him.    His green eyes widened in disbelief, and for a minute both just remained as they were – Y/N frozen in the middle of the aisle, and Loki sitting on the gilded chair. Then he was up and jumping over the table running towards her.        The wind got knocked out from both of them as their bodies collided. They were crying, rivers flowing from their eyes as they trembled in the others grasp. For Y/N, it might have been five years, but for Loki, although it was a split second, it felt like an eternity. Any moment without her was too long in his already centuries-long life.        “I love you,” Y/N instantly said grabbing onto his cheeks and pulling back, completely not believing he was there, but she would not let go of this moment. “I love you and I’m not wasting another second. I didn’t get a chance to say it before, but now, knowing this might be it forever, I’m… I’m not going to let this slip. I love you, I’m in love with you, all of that and above.”        “I – you,” Loki couldn’t form any words, green eyes frantically taking in every inch of Y/N’s face. His body screamed at him to never let go, to wrap his arms around her and pull her flush to him. To become and remain as one. But the only thing he could do was ask, “how are you here?”        “He won, Loki.”        “What?”        “Thanos,” Y/N sighed and shook her head, “he won. He got the rest of the stones, snapped his fingers and wiped out half the universe.”        “S-so you’re gone as well?” the question was barely audible. There was such pain in his eyes and such guilt, Y/N instantly knew what he was thinking of – I failed, and this is my fault. Even sacrificing everything wasn’t enough. I failed you, and you’re dead because of me.        “No,” she grabbed his face between her palms, “no… I’m… still alive… Even if I was… you know… dead, I don’t think, I’d be here, in Valhalla and such… actually, it’s been five years since then. And now we’re on a time heist.”        His black eyebrow raised in a sleek arch. “A time heist?”        “Well, that’s what Scott calls it.”        “Who’s Scott?”        “Ant-Man.”        “Ant-Man?”        “It’s,” Y/N huffed, “it’s a long story. But basically, the stones are in the past, so we’re here to get them so we can undo the Snap.”        His hand had remained on her waist the whole time, but the second she mentioned the Snap it tightened its grip. “Then how did you end up here?”        “I uh,” Y/N smirked and shook her head looking down at the ground, “I met someone along the way.”        Loki’s heart shattered at the words, but he willed himself to smile. It had been five years for her, and the only thing in his life that he found had meaning, was her happiness. Sure, he wanted it to be him, but he couldn’t blame Y/N for trying to move on.        “They’re really great if they allowed this opportunity,” his slender finger brought her chin up, and their eyes met once again. “But I don’t think they’d like it if you professed your love for someone else.”        Y/N’s eyebrows scrunched up, and her mouth opened but no words escaped her. She couldn’t understand what Loki was talking about, but then it dawned on her, and she had to hold off the snort that threatened to escape.        “No,” she shook her head, “I don’t think he’d mind much. He’s…. a bit brash right now, a bit self-centred… and frankly quite the asshole.”        She could feel the other Loki bristle from somewhere behind them, but Y/N’s lips pulled in a soft smile.        “But underneath that, I know there’s a good person with a broken heart. And that they just crave a bit of love. So no, I don’t think you’d mind much if I told you I loved you.”        “Wha-“ but Loki didn’t finish his sentence as the puzzle pieces settled in place. Time heist. Past. The stones. Undoubtedly New York and the Tesseract. Which meant he himself was somewhere in Valhalla in disguise with the blue cube and had brought her here to him.        A tear slipped down his cheek, and Y/N wiped it away with her calloused thumb. Too many battles stood between the soft woman he'd met and the hardened warrior in front of him. Not that she couldn’t hold herself before, but now he could see too many harsh edges on her… too many for her to ever have.    “I’m one lucky man, aren’t I? To have such a kind soul give her all to me?”    “And I’m one lucky girl to have you trust her with your heart.”        “You know,” he swallowed hard, “that whatever happens, I can’t come with you, and I won’t come back after you snap your fingers…” a tear rolled down Loki’s cheek, and with a sad smile, Y/N wiped it away. “I wasn’t one of the decimated.”        “I know. But at least we got this. At least now you know I love you.”        “I already did, darling. You didn’t need to say it. I could see it in everything you did for me, and never,” he made sure the last word was hard and strong and sure, “have I doubted it. I love you too.”        “I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you,” Y/N murmured in the crook of his neck, hot tears splashing against his chilled skin.        “Had you tried to do anything, you would’ve succumbed to the same fate. And I could never exist knowing I was the cause of it.”        Y/N sniffled shaking her head. “I mean you wouldn’t be. It’d be my own stupidity, but whatever.”        The rumble, however, broken it was, seeped out from his bones into hers, if only for a moment reminding her of the good times they’d spent together. Of all the laughter they’d shared, and had now been granted another moment.        Y/N felt someone approach, and right as she pulled her head away from Loki’s chest, a perfectly manicured hand settled on his shoulder.    “My son,” a woman with golden tresses and the kindest smile Y/N had ever seen stood next to them. “Is she the one?”        The girl pulled back completely and wiped her suddenly sweaty palms against the tactical suit only to dirty them more with the soot that covered it.        “It’s uh very nice to meet you. I’d say it’s absolutely lovely, but given the circumstances, I really can’t.”        “Can’t say I’m too happy about the circumstances either, but to finally meet the woman who’s been taking care of my son’s heart, is a pleasure,” Frigga responded with a gentle grin.        Loki’s palm briefly tightened around Y/N’s waist before he slid it down to grab her hand in his. One last second.        “Loki’s been talking about you a lot.”        Y/N sniffled and wiped away a tear. “Hope only bad things. That way I have a higher chance to impress.”        Frigga sighed and shook her head. “Just the good ones, I’m afraid.”        “And here I thought I could woo your mother,” Y/N chuckled, but everyone around them could hear how forced the levity was. She was just about to give her final final goodbyes when someone coming forth from the crowd startled her.        She had turned back into her male-Loki form, given how there was no point in hiding anymore. Y/N had practically spelt it out that it was him who had brought them to Valhalla with the Tesseract, and no illusion would ever fool Frigga.    “Y/N?” he asked looking at the Tesseract in his hands, teeth gnawing on his bottom lip. “Approximately after how much time do we meet after New York?”        “Give or take a couple of years, why?”        “If I go back,” and now the younger Loki was looking at the possible incarnation of his older self and the woman, “will we meet for certain?”        “Loki,” Y/N went up to him detaching from her lover’s grasp. “If you go back if you do as my Loki did… you’ll most likely succumb to the same fate…” tenderly she placed both her palms on his cheeks and made him keep his gaze on her. “You have a chance to leave all this behind. Ditch that damned Tesseract, and live out your life. Because Thanos won’t stop. Not now, not ever. That’s why we’re trying to undo everything. You go back, and you’ll die.”        For a second the 2012 Loki seemed to rethink everything especially as his eyes drifted to where his older counterpart stood next to his mother. And a relieved sort of smile came over his face. “Somehow, that fate doesn’t seem so bad. Especially if only for a moment I get to have a happy life… if only for a moment I get to know you… because even death doesn’t seem to keep you away from me.”        Y/N snorted and rolled her eyes, punching Loki in the arm before pulling him into a hug. “I probably shouldn’t be saying this but just so you know,” she mumbled, “when we first meet, I beat the shit out of you.”        “You kinda already did,” Loki’s grip tightened before letting go.        “Oh no,” her Loki approached the two, “what she did to you – me? – was nothing. Trust me… or yourself… I guess? This is all so very confusing.”        Reluctantly Y/N turned back to her Loki, letting her forehead rest against his chest.        “I wish we had more time,” he whispered hiding his nose in her hair and gently stroking the locks. They were shorter and dryer than he remembered. As if she hadn’t had a single moment to take care of herself. Or hadn’t wanted to.        “I know,” Y/N gulped and released a shuddering breath keeping the sobs away. “But I’ve learned to be grateful even for the smallest of moments… and this was more than I ever hoped to have. I just wish whenever I die, I could come here,” Y/N whimpered, “to you… I could come home.”        “Nothing and no one will ever replace you, and every second without you, my love, is Hel. You are my everything. Don’t forget that.”        “Somehow this love declaration,” Y/N sniffled, “isn’t making me feel any better. I don’t want you to be miserable.”        Loki tilted his head to the side but smiled. “You made sure that I knew perfection through you, so it’s kind of your fault,” and before she could rebut, his lips were on hers. For the first time in five years, they were on hers once again. And Y/N was not about to let him go that easily.        The thought that people were all around them was completely thrown to the wind, and she grabbed at the hairs on the nape of Loki’s neck and brutally yanked his head closer, making him moan into the kiss. The touch of their lips was already messy from all the tears, but when his tongue snaked its way into Y/N’s mouth, she completely melted, to the point he had to keep her body against his as tightly as possible to prevent her from collapsing to the ground.        “I don’t want to go,” she choked back once both came up for some air, “I don’t want to leave you.”        “But you have to.” He hated the words that left his mouth. If it was up to Loki, he’d grab Y/N by her waist have her wrap her legs around his, and he’d go to ends of Valhalla to spend an eternity with her. But alas, that was not in their cards. “Make everything right. Bring everyone home.”        And Y/N nodded, not daring to look up at him because she knew she’d completely break if she did. Without a glance back, she grabbed onto the hand of 2012 Loki and nodded at him to do it. To open the portal. But he didn’t.        “You said that Thanos won… and now you went back in time to undo what he did…” 2012 Loki seemed lost in thought as he chewed on his lip before uttering, “What if there was a possibility both of you could return? I mean, I did bring you here,” Loki gave Y/N a pointed look and flipped the Tesseract in his hand. “What makes it that he can’t walk out with you?”        “In theory, that’s all fine and dandy, but that is the Space stone, not the Time stone. If we’d return anywhere that would most likely be back to 2012, but I need to get back to 2023, and this,” Y/N pointed at the Stark-designed bracelet, “is the only way. We travel through the quantum realm, and I only have enough Pym particles for one jump let alone another bracelet.”        “So, you get back to 2012, travel to whatever time you need to get more of those particles, get Stark to create another bracelet, and you’re set to go.”        “It’s not that simple,” Y/N exasperated. “First of all, I have no idea when Pym invented them. Second of all, if I get stuck there, I literally have no way to get back apart from staying there and growing old, most likely creating a new timeline as is, and that would fuck up a whole bunch of things for me.”        “Y/N,” 2012 Loki’s voice was low and gentle. Soothing almost. “Are you su-“        “Just do it,” she hissed, red-rimmed eyes boring into his. “Just take me back.”        And there was nothing else to it. With a bowed head, Y/N awaited for that pull she’d felt while they’d been flung through space the first time, and a couple of seconds later they were back in Stark tower, though now it was a secluded enough room, most likely a storage area instead of the crowded lobby.        “So,” Loki looked over his shoulder to spot any guards and then back to Y/N, “this is it, huh?”        She lifted her shoulders and then dropped them with a deep huff. “I guess so. I still mean it by the way,” she wiped away a tear. “That you’re an asshole.”        Loki smirked twirling the Tesseract in his hand. “Noted.”        “Miss Y/L/N?” a voice she hadn’t heard in years popped onto the speakers. Y/N and Loki both dropped to the ground crouching behind the wall, and his head turned to the side as her breath hitched.        The voice was uncertain as if he couldn’t understand what was going on, but it was really him.        “Hey, J.A.R.V.I.S. How are ya’?”    “I’m quite alright, Miss, but may I ask, what are you doing with the prisoner? You know your father and the Avengers are looking for him.”        Loki’s face turned into a sneer, and Y/N had to put an arm out in front of him, so he didn’t do anything stupid like give away their position of where they were hiding if for whatever reason someone was down there.        “Yeah, I do, bud, but here’s the thing…” she bit on her lip. Dad would kill her. “I think both you and I know something’s going on.”        There was a pause, as J.A.R.V.I.S contemplated her words. “Yes, I think I do. Given how my scans showed there were two Mr Starks in the building as well as two Captain Rogers and an undefined male the size of an ant, I’m quite certain that other things than the attack are going on as well.”        Y/N smiled, looking up at the ceiling. “You were always the clever one out of all of us.”        “I’m an A.I. Miss,” and even though his voice was levelled, she could hear the sarcasm slip through, “I do know everything.”        “Yeah, you do,” Y/N whispered and glanced at Loki who was just observing the interaction. His eyebrow raised in question.        “Ok,” she finally said. “Here’s the deal – you need to keep this information to yourself. No matter what dad says or does, do not let him know this. I’m pretty certain you know there’s another Banner in the city as well, but I need you to keep the last half an hour under lock and key and throw it in the ocean. For everyone’s sakes.”        J.A.R.V.I.S’s answer came a second later. “And when Mr Stark asks me to replay the footage for the debrief?”        “Just,” Y/N shrugged, “act as if we were never here. A.K.A – erase the parts were there suddenly showed up duplicates of people. And when I get out of here, that as well, please?”        “I can, Miss, but first you’ll have to get past the S.H.I.E.L.D guards situated on each floor as well as the STRIKE team.”        “Mhm,” and then something went off in her mind. “Speaking of S.H.I.E.L.D – you might want to dig a bit deeper into what you found on the Hellacarrier.”        “And what would I presumably find there?”        “Oh you know,” Y/N waved J.A.R.V.I.S off like it was nothing, “some little tidbits of hidden Hydra members within S.H.I.E.L.D.”        “That is… truly interesting.”        “Indeed,” Y/N nodded along. In a way, she was trying to prolong every second she could spend in this timeline, because no matter the fact it wasn’t her Loki, it was Loki one way or another.        “Don’t you need to go?” he motioned with his head to the bracelet that sat snugly against her knuckles. And she did, actually. She had to find Tony, Steve and Scott and explain what the hell had happened when some words spoken to her before wouldn’t leave her mind.        “J.A.R.V.I.S, buddy,” Y/N spoke looking up to Loki. “Can you help me with a little science project?”

***

       His heart had shattered five years ago when he’d had his final look on Y/N’s face to engrain every detail in his mind before Thanos snapped his neck. This – her having been in Valhalla and having had those few moments with her - hurt more.        Loki was just about to walk away, his mother wiping away the tears that streamed down his cheeks when the Tesseract portal opened once again, and his 2012 version stepped out with Y/N.        “This is your choice,” she held up a second bracelet, twin to the one on her own hand. “But we might need your help in whatever happens.”        She was visibly shaking, fingers holding onto the piece of technology with such a tight grip, the leather glove covering her palm looked about to burst.        Loki’s head whipped back to look at Frigga, to maybe see her own face just as stunned as he was, but that was not the case. Just as kind as her smile had been from the beginning, it remained at that moment.        “Go,” she muttered to Loki, before pressing a gentle kiss to her son’s forehead. “Be with the one you love.”        It was the only thing he needed to hear. As much as it hurt to leave his mother behind, he knew there’d come a time the two would be reunited. But this was his time to be with Y/N. A second chance that if let go of, would never return.        Practically sprinting, he grabbed the bracelet from her extended fingers, and he saw how her form sagged with relief, a chocked back sob lumping up somewhere in her throat.        “Oh, and please take care of your brother!” Frigga exclaimed before the three were enveloped in blue-black clouds of smoke, and then they were gone.

***

       Two more seconds, a recalibration of the bracelets, and Loki and Y/N were whisked away from the destruction of 2012 New York and back to the old Avengers compound in 2023.        “Y/N?” Tony was baffled as to how she was back, fully prepared to drown himself in grief as he had thought he’d lost her.        “Brother?” Thor’s breathless whisper to Loki was filled with so much joy it was like he was visibly beaming. But then everyone’s eyes drifted to the empty spot next to Clint.        “Clint, where’s Nat?” Bruce asked stepping forward.        Y/N squeezed Loki’s hand harder. Just by the look on Steve’s face and Clint’s broken soul, she knew the answer.        The archer didn’t even look at them as he stepped off the platform and slammed the stone on the table nearby. “She got the stone.” And he walked out.        Y/N was about to be sick. She was about to throw up right in the middle of the stand, but not before ruining a bunch of punching bags. Her powers screamed at her to be released, to somehow alleviate the anger coursing through her veins, but she pushed everything down, just like she had for five years.        Suddenly, the fact she had Loki with her, that they were together meant little to nothing. Because Nat was gone.        It felt like an exchange. Like it was Y/N’s fault. Selfishly she had thought they could have it all. Keep what they had, and bring back what they’d lost. Those were Tony’s words. But as they repeated themselves through her brain while she stalked away and outside the compound, she couldn’t help the hand that slapped over her mouth.        What was it worth if it meant her family would still be broken in pieces?        “Darling?” her trickster’s soothing voice full of concern came from somewhere behind her, but Y/N wasn’t ready to face him.        “Can you give me a moment?” hoarse words came as her response. “I just need a minute alone.”        “I truly don’t think that’s the be-“        “Please.”        She couldn’t keep it together for much longer, and she sure as hell won’t let him see in that kind of a state. Especially because Y/N blamed her decision for the loss of Nat.        “Just,” she cleared her throat not looking back at him. “Just give me a moment, and I’ll be back inside. Thor probably wants to talk, so you should go to him.”        But Loki turned out to be closer than expected. His cold lips pressed a single kiss to the base of her neck. “I’m always there for you.” With that, he retreated as Y/N had asked. That’s when the dam broke.        She crumpled into a little ball, two trembling palms pressed against her mouth to keep in the sobs inside, as she leaned her head against the wall of the building. And she remained in that same position for a good while just letting grief and pain consume every inch of her body until someone sat down by her.        “What happened?” Tony asked, pulling Y/N into his side. “Are you alright? How is he here? Why is he here?”        “Firstly,” she choked on her own spit before straightening out. His calming touch on her back, easing some of that hurt. They all were hurting. “2012 Hulk was not happy about you making him take the stairs, which lead to us losing the Tesseract, and me jumping to try and get to Loki. Secondly, I’m fine. Thirdly, that is a bit harder and longer to explain. And lastly, because we might need his help.”        “With what?”        “Dad,” she whispered, “we have no idea what could happen to whoever wields the stones. Not only does he have powers that include healing, but he knows more about those things than we do… and he’s in a better condition to explain that to us than Thor, at least right now. Everything that happened was a hard blow on him… he might try and do something stupid.”        She gave him a painful smile because she knew Tony understood she was talking about herself as well. “People might try and do a lot of things out of guilt.”        That’s when Tony’s head cleared. “Like try and snap his fingers?”        “Mhm,” Y/N nodded leaning her head on his shoulder. “Loki might be the only voice of reason to keep him from it.”        “And you?”    “What about me?”        “Will he be enough to keep you from doing something stupid?”        A little lightness settled in her heart. “I’m a Stark. Stupid’s our middle name.”

***

       Just as predicted, once the glove was done and ready to be used, Thor volunteered to be the one to wield it. Despite Tony’s protests saying that he wasn’t in the right condition to do so, despite Steve saying it was okay to let it be someone else, the thunder god would not back down.        Y/N had not spoken to Loki about what had happened to her once outside the compound, but she had been right when talking to her father. He was the only clear voice that could get through his brother’s mind.        “Brother,” Loki spoke looking into Thor’s eyes that had tears in them as he so desperately was trying to push his way to the gauntlet. “Let this one go. Please.”        “Just,” Thor smashed his fist against Loki’s chest but there was no fight left in him. “Just let me do one good thing. Let me bring them back.”        “You’ve done enough, brother,” Loki’s voice soothed him. “Let someone else do the fighting for once.”        One final weak punch against his chest, but Thor backed down, and Bruce stepped up.        What happened next was a blur. Bruce dawned the gauntlet, he snapped his fingers, Loki dropping to his knees next to Tony as they applied what healing medicine and magic, they knew. Scott made everyone notice how there was suddenly much more life outside, and Clint’s phone rang, his wife on the other side of the line. Then everything was blown up.        Quite literally, a barrage of bombs obliterated the compound, sending everyone every which way. Y/N had enough of a mind to surround herself in a ball of telekinetic shield as she plummeted towards the hole in the ground, debris and rubble settling on top of her while rushing water quickly filled up the space.        She had no idea where anyone else was. Y/N could hear voices speak through the comms, what sounded like Tony trying to wake up Steve, and Rhodey was calling for help somewhere not far from where she herself was stuck, but there was so much ringing in her head, it took all of her concentration to keep the shield up to not get crushed by the tons of concrete about to fall on her head, Y/N couldn’t respond to the people calling to check if she was alright.        Her comms crackled before they completely gave out. Y/N was on her own.

***

       Not only was everything down below the rushing waters and rubble chaos, but on the up as well. Thanos was back and stronger than ever. As Steve, Tony and Thor went against the Mad Titan much as they had half a decade ago, even without the stones, it seemed so much dier.        He was practically invincible, his double-edged sword slashing at Steve’s shield with such vigour that he felt it in his teeth.        “Okay, Thor,” Tony announced seeing Thanos fling Steve away. “Hit me.”        Thor smashed both Mjolnir and Stormbreaker together and with a yell, directed the lightning to the wing-like opening of Tony’s suit which he instantly charged up with, and shot Thanos with all of his repulsors. But even that would not take him down.        As Thor swung Mjolnir at Thanos, and Tony charged to deliver another hit, the Mad Titan managed to grab the Iron Man suit, and used it as a human shield, properly knocking the genius out.        Thanos’s smirk widened as Thor came his way, ready to deliver the killing blow, his battle axe pointed at his neck, but one little misstep, and he had the upper hand over the Asgardian. With a wicked grin, he grasped onto the handle of the weapon made specifically to kill him and pushed Stormbreaker deeper and deeper into Thor’s chest. Right as it was about to pierce the god’s skin, Mjolnir flew into Thanos’s face.        Everyone was blindsided for a moment making the two conscious Avengers and the purple nutsack turn their heads to the side.        With unreal rage shining in her green eyes as she stared down the Thanos, Nat lifted her head. And then a devilish smirk pulled up the corner of her lip. A smile that made even the Mad Titan bristle.        “I’m always picking up after you boys, huh?”        She didn’t give him even a second to recuperate before swinging the hammer right up into his jaw, making the alien fly backwards.        “I knew it,” Thor’s brilliant grin was such a stark contrast to the scene around them, it almost felt out of place. Almost.        “Guess we got the answer to that age-old question?” a teary-eyes Steve limped towards Nat, his heart bursting at the seams. He always knew she was worthy, despite her past. None of theirs was clean, but it wasn’t about that. It was about doing everything to right those wrongs. And Natasha was the purest form of that.        “Guess we did,” Nat smirked and twirled the hammer in her hand before rotating around herself and smashing it against the shield where Steve had crouched down and lifted it above his head.        But the rejoicing didn’t last long. Thanos once again got the upper hand. With Tony still out, F.R.I.D.A.Y desperately trying to wake her boss up, Nat flung against the wall and stunned, and Thor slammed so hard against the ground he could feel his rib crack, it was just the Captain left standing.        Slash after slash after slash Thanos practically destroyed Steve’s shield before throwing him away. He looked at the jagged edges of the symbol of freedom. Something that symbolized what Captain America was; now shattered and broken. But even then, he stood up.        Swaying and barely able to hold on his feet, Steve was ready to face Thanos, no matter if he had help and his family by his side or alone. He was still that same kid from Brooklyn who didn’t know when to back out of a fight. And this was the fight of their lives.        He’d been afraid a few times in his life, stubbornness mostly making him disregard the queasy feeling in his stomach. The first time was when he stood up to a bully at school. He was way bigger than Steve, and the blond knew he’d get a pummeling. The second time he was truly afraid again was when he lost Bucky. When he was clutching to that side of the train and watched as his best friend fell to his death, and Steve could do nothing.        Putting that plane in the ocean was another one. He’d prepared himself for death, to be knocked out immediately, but that was not true. Instead, Steve, with horror flushing through his body, realized that permanent sleep would not come for a while. So, he’d laid down on the ground and waited. All he remembers after that is cold.        Waking up in a different century without anyone to hold on for support was another one. Then finding out Bucky had been alive this whole time tortured and under the control of Hydra one more. The breaking apart of his makeshift family and cluelessness as to what to do now, another. Thanos. And now the purple grape once more.        But his army was no match for what they’d fought in Wakanda. This was a universe against one man. Yet even through that, even with his body screaming for him to stop, Steve fastened the belts of his shield tighter to his arm and faced the oncoming onslaught.        And then…        “Cap, you hear me?”        His comms crackled once more.        “Cap, it’s Sam. Can you hear me?”        His heart sped up.        “On your left.”        Slowly, not wanting to believe the voice ringing through the communication system, Steve turned to his left only to see bright orange sparks fly in a circular motion. And then it spread. With each passing heartbeat, it grew wider and wider and then, as tears of joy and relief flew down Steve’s cheeks, as he saw Tony finally regain consciousness and Thor and Nat all sat up from the ground, Sam flew into the air.        He flew in a sharp U-turn motion around Steve before back inside the portal, Shuri, T’Challa and Okoye leading the Wakandan army. It was a message to Thanos form the family he’d taken and but was now back. Don’t you dare touch him.        Fear morphed into hope as more and more portals opened, and he saw Bucky and Groot exit, he saw people and creatures he didn’t know join the fight, sky splitting apart and letting space ships stand their ground against Thanos as well.        The universe. He hadn’t just pissed off Earth, Steve remembered. He’d fucked with the whole damned universe and now had come the reckoning hour. With a little flinch to the side, Steve watched as Giant Man emerged from the rubble of what used to be his home, but in his palm was more help.        Bruce with Rhodey next to him and Rocket placed on his shoulder all stepped onto the battlefield, while Y/N, her veins and eyes glowing silver, floated herself and Loki next to him.        Steve hadn’t seen her use her powers in so long, he felt physical relief, and when Wanda settled herself next to both her and Loki, the Scarlet Witch’s eyes glowing a blazing red while the trickster’s hands were surrounded by jade swirls, he knew that this time would be different. They had the upper hand.    “Avengers!” he yelled rushing to stand in place as the leader, letting that hope and happiness and rage fuel him as the army made of everyone willing to fight in the whole cosmos had his back. Steve was ready.    “Assemble.”        Repulsors and lightning and the Seidr and so much more blurred together as everyone charged at Thanos.        “How do you wield this thing?” Natasha grunted swinging the hammer at one of the beasts coming her way and taking off its jaw. “It’s horribly balanced.”        “Trust me,” Thor huffed and motioned with his head to Stormbreaker. “This one’s worse.”        “Tasha?” Clint’s voice cracked at the last syllable when he finally emerged from the rubble, and she was the first person he saw. His eyes immediately started watering. Somehow by some impossible force, his redhead was there. And wielding Mjolnir.        For a split second, their eyes met, and Clint was greeted by the widest smile in the universe, but she didn’t get to run and hug her best friend when she was knocked down by a beast, a painful grunt escaping her, but Sam was there and took the hound off its balance and viciously stabbed it in the chest with his wings.        There’d be time to bring her in the tightest hug ever and smack her over the head for what she’d done on Vormir, Clint told himself. He’d make sure of it.        “Cap, what do you want me to do with this damn thing?” he spoke into the comms while dodging the attacks coming his way.        “Get those stones as far away as possible!”        “Wait!” Loki yelled and rushed to get to Clint. “Give me the Gauntlet.”        “Not a chance, Rock of Ages,” the archer extended his sword. The last time the two were in the same room they had not ended on the best of terms. And even though he'd helped bruce after he'd redone the Snap, he still didn't trust the god.        “Oh you, moron,” Loki gritted, making a clone of himself behind Clint. Unfortunately for the Avenger, he wasn’t fast enough, and the raven-haired god snatched the Gauntlet, but despite what Clint expected him to do by pulling the thing on and wielding the stones, he didn’t.        Instead, Loki grabbed the Space Stone. For a moment he was overwhelmed by the pure power it radiated and dropped down to his knee, making Clint have to fend off a few attackers, but then Loki was up, back straight and eyes glowing cobalt blue with a smile that chilled the archer to the core.        “Uh, guys, Witch-boy has the stone.”        “What?” Steve was almost panicking. “Get that thing away from Loki!”        But as Clint was just about to fight with the god once more, he stopped dead in his tracks. As he looked upon the man who once had him under mind control and made him fight his friends, his family, he instead turned around and protected him, with Y/N guarding Loki’s twelve because both in the sky and on the ground two large portals were being opened.    Not the kind the Wizards and Strange had with the glowing orange sparks, but blue-black clouds rolling into themselves as they expanded and glorious rows of golden armoured soldiers came marching out while the silvery gleam of the swords of the Valkyries, the wings of their Pegasus’s glinting in the sunlight of Valhalla took to the skies.    “Thought we might need some help, so I gathered the best of the best. Now,” he said replacing the Infinity stone back into the gauntlet, “get them out of here.”    And never in his life did Clint think he’d be taking an order from Loki, yet there he was nodding and running away.    “No,” Bruce interrupted, “we need to get them back where they came from.”    Y/N grunted and whipped her head around as she barely avoided a lethal slash of a claw. “No way to get them back,” Loki yelled over the commotion and ducked as Tony blasted his repulsor over his head and pulverized an alien. “Thanos destroyed the quantum tunnel.”    But then Scott, as before with his time heist idea brought hope once again. “Hold on! That wasn’t our only time machine!”    And over all of the commotion, everyone heard the annoying sound of his car’s honk.    “Anyone seen an ugly brown van up there?” Steve sprinted up the debris to oversee the field, but the Valkyries had a better advantage point.    “Yes,” Brunhilde managed to reply as she led the charge against the Leviathans, “but you’re not gonna like where it’s parked.”    “Scott, how long do you need to get that thing working?” Tony asked, killing a beast that was about to pounce on Pepper from behind.    Scott shook his head surveying the position he was in and where the van was. “Maybe ten minutes.”    “Get it started,” Steve ordered. “We’ll get the stones to you.”    And with Hope’s confirmation that they were on it, everyone now refocused their attention on protecting the stones and making sure they were delivered to Scott safe and sound.        Though everyone was fighting to the best of their abilities, back to back with strangers as if they’d known one another their whole lives, people still got taken down. One of the beasts had gotten a claw in Bruce’s ruined shoulder and had pushed him to the ground. Brawl overtook his brain part as he tried to fight it off, but it was no use as tons of pressure were put on the wound, pain clouding his whole being until it wasn’t.        Sudden relief and the release of pressure came when Natasha had swung the hammer and dislodged the thing off of Bruce’s body.    “I thought I failed. I – I couldn’t bring you back.” He didn’t even care about the horrible throbbing in his side. Nat was back. She was there, and her palms were on his cheeks, green eyes looking over every inch of his body to see if there were any more injuries.    “But you did, big guy,” Nat crouched down pulling Bruce in a hug. “Just not to here, but where I was – 2014 Vormir. Took me a moment to gather my bearings, and then I jumped back into the quantum tunnel.” She pulled back and gave him a smile. “A split second later Thanos showed up, and I got blown away. Did you really think you’d live your lives without me? In any case, I’d find a way to haunt your asses. I could smell the stupid even from galaxies and years away.”    “Well, as Y/N said,” Tony remarked into the comms. “Stupid’s our family’s middle name.”    “Speaking of stupid,” Loki piped in, “how’s the van going?”    “The system’s fired,” a clearly distressed Hope replied. “Scott’s hotwiring it now.”    A collective ‘fuck’ could be heard ringing through the field. When Y/N got the information, her own comm long ago useless and discarded somewhere under the compound, she felt something in her gut was about to sour.    Whipping her head around, her eyes befell on Wanda pulling Thanos apart limb by limb, the pain from losing her brother years ago and then Vision right in front of her fueling her powers.    In that little moment, Y/N had been distracted, Loki’s hand wrapped around her waist as he flung her to the side, away from the attack of a Leviathan.    “What are you thinking?!” he yelled, terrified that had he been a second too late she’d be dead.    “Thanos-“ but Y/N didn’t have enough time to even finish the sentence when blasters started raining down on them. Even though her instinct was to curl up in a ball and shield her head, that’s how long she hadn’t used her powers, Y/N gathered herself enough to extend her hands upwards much like the sorcerers had and created a shield to protect the ones on the ground.    Each hit against it was like a knife to a part of her body. Loki had grabbed onto her shoulder, pushing his own powers into her veins to help her somehow, but even with their combined strengths, he knew Y/N wouldn’t last long, and neither would he.    The god could feel her fatigue and how each blast slowly but surely depleted more and more of her essence.    “I love you, my darling,” he muttered leaning his head down and kissing her neck. “More than anything.”    And though it was intended to be a goodbye, as he was about to push all of his powers into Y/N to keep her alive, the assault stopped. Instead, the blasters turned their nozzles to the sky and fired there.    She sagged against his side, Loki immediately supporting her weight as everyone watched in confusion as to what they were firing at.    “Does F.R.I.D.A.Y know anything?” Y/N asked still blinded by the smoke that covered the sky.    “Not as fa-“ he started but then the ship was struck by a single blinding beam and brought down in moments crash-landing in the lake. Carol.    “D-Do you know her?” Loki asked clearly bewildered at Y/N’s smiling expression.    “We just might have a chance,” came her simultaneous reply as the Captain said, “Danvers, we need an assist here.”    She was the additional force they needed, but she was also the additional motivation for Thanos to get the stones faster.    As everyone gathered behind to protect Captain Marvel, the glove and in turn Peter Parker from any harm that might come his way, Y/N noticed how Wanda took to the skies with the Valkyries, meaning Thanos knew he could have his shot now. But not if she had any say in it.    Whipping the last bits of her powers around the Mad Titan, Y/N brought him to the ground; pushing so that his elbows and back were flush against the battered earth. She was quickly breaking down, the flame that burned inside of her dwindling like a candle in the wind, but she had enough for one last move. One last sacrifice.    “I love you, Loki,” Y/N whispered to her trickster, watching as he fought a horde of the Outriders, and gave all of herself to the kill.    Proxima Midnight's spear into her shoulder threw her off balance. The pain was unexpected and harsh. Y/N let go of Thanos, and that gave him the chance to throw her away like a ragdoll.    “That’s my kid!” she vaguely heard Tony roar or maybe whisper but there was no time to focus on that. Proxima Midnight was clambering her way towards Y/N, and then again, as she was about to bring her powers to null and give her life in the process, pain shot down from her shoulder all the way to her side, as Loki had grabbed the spear and with lethal accuracy struck Proxima Midnight in the chest.    Y/N was gasping and whimpering from how much everything hurt, but that was nothing compared to the numbing fear that spread once she saw Thanos extend his hand up in the air with their version of the gauntlet on it. Somehow while she was fighting her own battle, he’d gotten the stones. It had all been for nothing.    “I am inevitable,” Thanos grunted, staring down Tony, but when his fingers snapped, when they were supposed to be wiped out from existence, nothing happened.    Y/N didn’t need an explanation as to what was about to happen. She had had a gut feeling of where everything was going right from the get-go but seeing the man that had raised her as his own despite it not being so, seeing her father figure raise his gaze to meet Thanos’s made her heart plummet.    The nanotech pulled the stones upward and settled them against each knuckle with the Soul stone in the middle. Y/N knew this was it. She knew it would be the end. But someone she had never expected to intrude did.    “Stark, take my hand!” Quill yelled as he sprinted towards the genius with an outstretched palm. Everyone but Nebula, Groot, Rocket and Drax seemed confused, as the Guardians were already rushing towards where Tony was kneeling on the ground.    The second Peter’s hand connected to his, both let out gasps – Tony of relief, Peter of strain as the power of the stones rippled through them both. That’s when everyone on the battlefield sprang into action rushing to their sides.    A moment of confusion from Thanos, was enough for the rest of the Avengers to gather and grab onto the extended palms of the Guardian’s, while Y/N clasped onto his right shoulder with Pepper behind her, then Steve, Nat, Clint, Thor and Loki lengthening the line.    The second Bucky took hold of Sam’s hand, was when Thanos realized what was going on. Everyone else was preoccupied with becoming a part of the chain, but not Carol. Scrambling up from the ground, she shot to the Mad Titan mid-run and knocked him over, bringing him into a chokehold, while Strange and the rest of his Wizards created a huge shield around all the heroes and kept the barrage away.    Thanos raised his fist into the air signalling his army to attack while trying to get rid of Carol, but it was no use. As Peter Parker finished off the chain, taking a hold of Bucky’s and then Shuri’s palms, creating a full-on circle with Tony in the middle, Carol had her arms wrapped around Thanos’s neck, pulling him back and throwing him off his balance while Wong, Strange and the rest of the Wizards created shields of magic to guard them.    “And we… are… the Avengers…”    With a final defying smile to Thanos, the monster that had been haunting him for more than a decade in life and in nightmares, Tony snapped his own fingers. The use of the stones made everyone groan as the collective power of them rushed through the connected bodies, but one by one, the army disintegrated before their eyes as did Thanos himself; sitting alone on a piece of debris with a bowed head in defeat.    The moment the deed was done, Tony asked F.R.I.D.A.Y to release his arm, dropping the metal piece with the stones to the ground, relieving everyone and himself from the painful strain.    Y/N’s shoulder started to profusely bleed, more so than it had before, and the last thing she saw before darkness came was the beautiful face of her Loki. If this was it, she was glad they’d had at least those few moments together. And then everything was black.

***

       Never in her life did Y/N think the first thing she’d hear after waking up from a coma would be Tony’s yelling about how irresponsible she was, Pepper’s sobs of how stupid and selfish it was of her to leave them like that and Loki’s incessant pacing, while from time to time he threw her a worried gaze which quickly turned into an icy dagger.    “Wow, what a ‘welcome back, you’re not dead’ greeting this is,” Y/N grumbled and quickly regretted it.    “Don’t start this, missy,” Pepper was beyond furious. “Do you know how scared Morgan was when we brought you here like that? When she saw you bleeding and unconscious?”    “You are so grounded for lying,” Tony piped in from his wheelchair.    “And then that whole time travel thing!” Y/N’s mom continued. “I mean, I get that I can’t stop every idiotic thing your dad does, but you! I thought you had some sense in that brain of yours! And how dare you fall into that coma! Three days!”    Y/N was about to mutter a ‘technically it wasn’t my choice’ but the glare she got from Loki was enough to shut her up. Sure, all the words were harsh and should’ve been breaking her heart left and right, but for her, it was hard to keep the smile away. So, she didn’t.    “And what do you think is so funny?” Tony grunted, annoyance clearly written all over his face. Y/N just shook her head.    “Nothing,” she shrugged and then hissed when her body reminded her something had been jammed pretty harshly in her shoulder. “Just that I love you too. All of you.”    That stopped Pepper’s ranting and Loki’s pacing.    “I love you too, sweetheart,” Pep instantly replied, and threw her body against Y/N’s, pulling her in for as tight of a hug her daughter could handle.         “You just scared all of us so bad.”    “I know,” she muttered, looking over at her dad and then Loki. “I’m sorry. But to be fair,” she mumbled into Pep’s shoulder, “dad did an even stupider thing.”    The older woman laughed and pulled back wiping away her tears and the tears that had spilt down Y/N’s own cheeks. “Trust me, he already heard every single thing on my mind about that stunt he pulled.”    “And you couldn’t wait for me to wake up because…?”

***

   It took everyone a couple more days to recuperate, but once everyone was back on their feet or as healed as they could be by that point, Tony and Pepper invited everyone to their lakeside house to their vow renewal. Y/N’s arm hung in a sling as she stood with Morgan clutching on her dress as their parents recited the promise to love and care for one another for the rest of their lives.    Nobody tried to hide their tears, letting them flow freely, because for the first time in a long while, they were from joy, and everyone had decided to embrace the feeling to the fullest extent.        As Happy led Morgan inside the house, with the promise of burgers, and Tony and Pepper went to the side to talk to Clint and his family for a bit, Y/N found herself wandering off to the lake.        The water was still a bit chilly, definitely not warm enough for swimming, but she had no problem putting her feet in it and letting the liquid ripple around her ankles. Loki found her just like that – surrounded by tranquillity and peace.        “Do you think he did it?” Y/N asked her head leaning against Loki’s shoulder as she surveyed the calm waters once he had sat down next to her on the little dock.        He had conjured up a full-on black suit, and she’d be lying if she said that outfit didn’t do things to her.        “Who did what?”        “You… or younger you. Do you think he went back and let himself be taken to Asgard, despite what I said would happen?”        “If he knows what’s good for him,” Loki’s cold finger lifted her chin up to look at him, “then yes.”        His lips brushed against hers with the last spoken words before he pressed them fully to Y/N’s. So long had they been deprived of one another’s love, he had become so touch starved in what had been single moments without her, it was insane. But he’d have to endure it a bit more.        “Ok, you two, knock it off,” Tony’s voice interrupted their peaceful moment. The whizz of his wheelchair was practically silent. “I don’t wanna see you shove your tongue down my daughter’s throat. If it was up to me, it’d be cut out from your mouth.”        “Dad!”        “You’re my child!” he exasperated. “It’s my duty to scare off any potential boyfriend, let alone someone like him.”        “In times like these, I really wanna play the ‘I’m adopted’ card,” Y/N huffed but pulled back from Loki and stood up to face her father.        “Adopted or not,” a stern finger was thrown her way. “You’re still my kid.”        And those words, the fact that he had always thought of her that way, the fact that when they’d seen one another after years apart, and his first reaction had been to cry and never let go, made something in her heart break.        “Promise?” Y/N tried her best to hide the husk in her voice. “That I’ll always be your kid?”        Tony’s rough palm grasped her own. Years of mechanical work had turned the once soft skin into coarse and blistered one, but the touch was as gentle as ever. “Even when I’m grey and old.”        Y/N snorted. “You already are.”        That made Tony scoff and pull his wheelchair away. “You sure we’re not blood-related?”        “Would that make a difference?”        “None whatsoever, bug,” came his immediate reply.        Loki had been standing to the side watching the interaction between the two. So much had happened from when he tried to take over New York to where they were now, and it was insane to think how much would still change. Though he could feel that Tony didn’t have the warmest of feelings towards him, no need for magic to figure that one out, Loki didn’t think there was any hatred either.        “Can I just,” he suddenly interrupted making the eyes of the two Starks flit up to him, so different yet the same. “I just… I want to apologize. For what happened in New York.”        “Which part?” Tony snarked back. “The one where you threw me out the window of my own tower or the one where you tried to enslave Earth.”        “Uhh… both?” Loki’s eyebrows raised and he gave Y/N a ‘help me’ look, but she just smiled and shook her head.        Tony sighed rolling his eyes. “Look. I’m not going to pretend that I’m okay with this cause, I’m not… but for whatever reason,” he gave Y/N a pointed look, “you mean a lot to my daughter. And during these five years, I’ve come to an understanding about it. Doesn’t mean I was or am happy about it… but I think at this point we’ve all been through enough shit to put the past in the past. So, truce?”        He extended his hand towards Loki. It was an open palm for him to grasp, but there was so much more lying underneath that single gesture. It was saying ‘I trust you with my daughter's heart. I’m willing to put my own hurt somewhere else for her happiness.’ It was also ‘If you ever dare hurt her in any way – emotional or otherwise – this will be the same hand that breaks your neck.        But Loki, after a moment of hesitation, of disbelief, grasped Tony’s palm and squeezed it. “Truce.”        “Okay, good,” the genius nodded his head and rolled back his chair a bit. “But if you start calling me dad, I’ll nuke you into space.”        Loki pressed his lips together in a thin line, but everyone could see the smile he was attempting to suppress. “Duly noted.”        As the god and the mortal conversed and were actually having a somewhat decent time, Y/N’s eyes drifted over the expanse of the field. It was surreal to have everyone there and to have met all the people that in one way or another had impacted their lives even if she hadn’t known of them.        For example – Peter Parker aka Spider-Man. He was holding Morgan in his lap and talking to Happy and Pepper, though everyone could see the chauffer’s fluttering gaze towards his Aunt May.        He had been the reason Tony had not been able to throw away Scott’s idea of time travel completely. He’d made such a huge impact in his life, Tony had almost sacrificed everything for his family. And Peter most likely would never know that. The guilt would be too much to handle, as Y/N still saw the pain flash through his eyes whenever his brown orbs dropped to the wheelchair Tony was bound to. So, her dad would keep it to himself.        Then there was Nat. A double agent with a heart you couldn’t trust that had become the soul of their group. Clint hadn’t let go of her hand or waist or any kind of contact with his best friend. Sure, he sorta had to when Steve had swept in after the battle and kissed the living daylights out of her, but the archer was sure to be at least in a ten feet radius of his fiery counterpart.        Bruce had Nathaniel on his shoulders as all of them talked, smiles that hid the horrors they’d faced adorned their features, but if for one day all of them could pretend that everything was perfect.        Almost.        As Y/N surveyed the scene, she saw Steve peck Nat’s cheek and run off to the side while Bruce took the giggling kid off his shoulders and set him beside his dad.        “It’ll only take a few seconds,” Steve replied to Nat whose arms were crossed as she chewed the bottom of her lip. “You won’t even notice that I’m gone.”        That’s when it hit Y/N – the stones still needed to be replaced. Without a word, to her dad or Loki, she detached from the trio and rushed to the makeshift platform.        “Just to warn you,” Nat bristled a bit, “you might not like what you find on Vormir.”        “I already hate that place without being there. I don’t think there’s much that would make it even worse than it being where you…” he gestured vaguely towards her form. “You know… you did that… thing that we’re not gonna mention out loud.”        A small smile tugged up at Nat’s lips. “Point taken, soldier. But just trust me on this one. You’re not gonna like what you’ll see.”       Giving Nat one last glance, that said ‘okay?’, Steve readied himself to make the jump again, Mjolnir, the suitcase with the stones and his old combat gear on. He double tapped the bracelet, and the red-white suit embraced him,     but not before Y/N stopped what they were doing.        “Hey, Steve?” she called to him, jogging up to the platform and making him remove the helmet.        “Yeah, bug?”        “Can I uh can I join you?”        That took Loki by surprise as he had run after her pretty much the second, she disappeared from his grasp. “Darling?”        “Don’t worry,” she gave him a quick peck, stroking his jaw and then went to snatch a second bracelet from Bruce. “I’ll be back in a minute. You won’t even notice that I was gone, I just have to do one thing.”        “And can I know what that thing is?”        Y/N hummed but shook her head. “Nope… I just… don’t wanna say anything unless it doesn’t work.” She gave him a half-smile, one last kiss on the lips and jogged back to where Steve stood.        “You two ready?” Bruce asked calibrating the machine up.        “Ready,” they replied in unison the last syllable masked by the suits morphing around their bodies.        “Making the jump in three…” Bruce started the countdown, and Loki crossed his arms.        “Two…”        The prince bit the inside of his cheek. She’ll be back.        “One…”        And then they were gone. In the stroke of lightning, both Y/N and Steve disappeared into the Quantum realm.        “Bringing them back in five seconds,” Bruce announced pretty much immediately, and Loki prepared himself for the most agonizing five seconds of his life. Five seconds from that moment would determine whether she decided to stay, or if she had failed to replace the stones, or worse – she was gone as a whole. And he didn’t know if he could take it.        “… two, one,” the scientist's voice reverberated through the Asgardian’s mind, and then they were back. But instead of happy and satisfied smiles, he was greeted with Steve’s furious tone.        “What the fuck was that, Y/N?”        “Whoa, language, Cap,” she chuckled and hopped off the platform.        “Don’t,” he pointed a finger at her. “Don’t start. You just decide to fuck off to who-knows-when without a single word?”        “Look, I just made a little detour to 2012, what’s the big deal?”        Before Steve could go further with his scolding, her boyfriend interrupted saving her from another onslaught of berating.        “So, you went back to check on me?” Loki’s eyebrow was raised in amusement as if he was not breaking down on the inside from relief that Y/N was back in his arms.        “You know, not everything is about you,” she bumped her hip with his. “Sometimes it’s about Tony.”        That definitely made the genius’s head perk up.    “Of course. Didn’t you know, everything’s about me?” Tony remarked, and Pepper, Steve and Nat all simultaneously rolled their eyes. “Wait, why is everything about me? Not that I’m complaining but I’d like to know what I’m being accused of first.”        “Actually, nothing this time,” Y/N smirked and moved towards him. “In fact, I wanna give you something. Can you uh, disable F.R.I.D.A.Y just for a moment though?”        Tony’s eyebrows furrowed but he did as asked.        With a tap against his right shoulder where the Iron Man arm was attached instead of a sling, a little port opened up, and Y/N stuck a flash drive into the slot. It took a moment for things to fire up, but when they did Tony’s heart jumped to his throat.        “Sir?”        And that’s when Steve realized what had happened.        “J.A.R.V.I.S?” Tony’s voice wavered in disbelief, and the eyes of the rest of the Avengers widened. Wanda upon hearing the familiar tone even went closer. Y/N thought she saw her mouth ‘Vis’ with furrowed eyebrows, but when there was nobody, the witch stopped in her tracks.        With glistening eyes, Tony looked up at her. “Why did you do that?”        Y/N shrugged, keeping her own tears at bay, but when he tugged on her hand and she sat down in his lap, she just burrowed her head in the crook of his neck. Tony just held onto her tighter. “He’s part of your family. Our family. And this time no one gets left behind.”        “I’m a bit out of the loop here, sir,” J.A.R.V.I.S.’s warm voice floated around them, making Y/N sniffle. “Would you please hook me up to the internet or just explain what is going on? For some reason, the connection has been lost.”        “Sure, thing buddy…” Tony dragged a hand down his face and placed the other one on Pepper’s palm that had grabbed his shoulder, leaning his cheek against it. His heart had never been this full in his entire life. Sure, there was a piece in Vision missing, but he was pretty sure if he worked together with Shuri and Wanda, they’d be able to get figure out a way to bring him back.    “It’s good to have you back, buddy,” he replied, clearing his voice once it cracked, and kissed Pepper’s hand in content.        “I was never gone, sir.”        And at that moment, it didn’t feel like the A.I. was saying, ‘I was never gone simply because Ultron never happened’. It was him saying ‘I’ve always been with you. You can’t get rid of me that easily.’        As Y/N stood up, watching her makeshift parents slowly make their way to the house the now ex-Captain who had passed on his shield to Sam approached.        “Why did you do that? Why didn’t you tell me?”Steve asked, walking to stand next to the woman as she crossed her arms and shrugged.        “I missed him. And if I missed him, then I can’t imagine how tough it must’ve been for dad. I mean, J.A.R.V.I.S was his friend, his family and was always there for him. And to lose him in such a horrible way and try and find it in someone who wasn’t really him… I just wanted to do something for him… he literally would’ve died if not for that crazy idea Quill had,” Y/N wiped away a tear. “I think it’s the least he deserves. And for the not telling part… I didn’t know it would work, I didn’t really think I’d be able to copy such a huge amount of data, so I didn’t wanna give false hope.”        “Stupid really is your middle name, huh?” Steve’s hand went to ruffle Y/N’s hair, but she flicked his hand away with a scoff.        “Do I need to bring in Bucky in this conversation? Cause I think he might have a few choice words for stupid being my middle name.”        “Nat,” Steve exclaimed dramatically, “save me!”        “Not a chance mister I-don’t-need-a-parachute-when-jumping-out-of-a-jet.”        “You don’t need a what now?” came the too calm voice of Bucky, from where he stood next to Sam, both talking about what it meant for him to take over Cap’s position.        ‘Run’ Loki mouthed to Steve, and without a second, he did, dashing to where Tony and Pepper were conversing with J.A.R.V.I.S just so he didn’t have to deal with Bucky’s scolding. He might have had his friend back, but that didn’t mean Bucky needed to know all the shit he’d been up to.        “So,” Loki leaned his forehead against Y/N’s, arms wrapping around her waist to secure her in place. “What were we doing before we were so rudely interrupted?"        “I think there’s someone else you need to talk to first,” Y/N detached from him with a small smile and nudged her chin towards a person standing behind Loki.        “I uh,” Thor fumbled for a moment and gave the two an apologetic smile, as they pulled back from one another, “I didn’t want to interrupt the moment.”        “That’s quite alright,” Loki mused, “you always knew the worst times to show up.”        Y/N slapped him in the arm hard enough that it made the raven-haired prince wince and pull away.        “What?”        “Be nice!”        With an 'I'm watching you' mouthed Loki's way, Y/N walked away from the brothers and went to talk to Peter. They hadn’t had a real chance to get to know one another, and she wanted to figure out who was the boy that her father loved so much, he was willing to give his life for.        “I’m,” Thor started. “I’m leaving Earth. For now, that is.”        That was not something Loki expected.       “And what will you do exactly?”        The blond shrugged. “It’s time for me to be who I am rather than who I’m supposed to be.”        Loki’s eyebrow raised. “And that includes…?”        “Don’t really know yet,” Thor shrugged, “but Asgard would need a new king.”        His brother’s mouth dropped open, but the thunder god just shrugged like it was something not even worth mentioning. “It’s what you’ve always wanted.”        “For a while, yes,” Loki nodded putting both his hands in his pockets before lifting his eyes from the ground and looking at Y/N who was talking to Peter and had Morgan on her hip. “But I think I’ve found a different reason to go on…”        Thor snorted, nudging his brother’s shoulder with his. “Anything to do with a certain girl?”        “Everything to do with a certain girl,” came Loki’s immediate reply. “So, you better find someone more qualified to take the place. I just know that this time I won’t waste the chance I’ve got.”        “I wouldn’t ask you to,” Thor almost murmured but it was loud enough for him to hear.  “How’s… mother and father?”        Loki gave him a sad smile. “They’re… good.”        Thor’s chin quivered for a moment before he slowly nodded, and his lips twitched upwards. “Did you give him a hard time about Hela?”        “Didn’t really get the chance, but I sure enjoyed it when he bristled first seeing me.”        “We’re a weird bunch, aren’t we?”        “The weirdest, but that’s what makes us great,” Loki patted Thor on the back, and together they moved to where everyone had gathered.        “Listen, I’m not happy about you and knock-off Severus Snape being together, so the second he hurts a single hair on your head, he’s dead,” he heard Tony exclaim, and Loki could practically feel the eye-roll Y/N made.        “Dad,” she groaned her arms crossed over her chest, but Loki couldn’t help the laugh that escaped his throat as his arms wove around her middle, and he rested his chin on her shoulder. He might have been permitted to enter Valhalla, but if there was a paradise it was there.        “Sissy,” Morgan pulled at Y/N’s sleeve and brought the attention to her, “who is that?”        “This is Loki,” she said with such fondness in her voice, that her little sister’s eyebrows furrowed identically like Tony’s did when he had to listen to bullshit.        “But that’s the one that attacked daddy!”        “Yeah, but,” she tried to find the correct way to explain everything that had happened but there was too much to say, so she just relented to the easy way out. “Remember when I said I was off in space for a bit? And I met someone?”        “Yeah,” she nodded still eyeing Loki suspiciously, “you said he protected and loved you. But why did he hurt daddy then?”        Loki who’d been biting the inside of his cheek while listening to the conversation put a gentle hand on the small of Y/N’s back. “If I may?”        She nodded albeit a bit reluctantly and watched as he crouched down to be eye level with Morgan.        “I – I did, hurt your father… and in turn, I know that hurt your sister, and for that, I will forever be sorry… but I’d like to think I’ve changed,” Loki spoke in the softest tone he ever had. Not even with Y/N had his voice held such tenderness. “I used to use my magic to harm others because it was the only thing, I thought I was good for but then I met your sister, and she showed me I’m capable of so much more.”        As he said that, he opened up his palm to the air, and Morgan gasped seeing the illusion of a Pegasus dancing above his fingers. Sure, she’d spent time around Thor before he went completely off-grid, but real magic was something unprecedented.    “You’re like Harry Potter!” she exclaimed. “Just without the wand!”        “Umm, sure,” Loki gave her a smile that wavered a bit because he had no clue who this mysterious person was, yet it seemed like someone she admired.            “Mom! I met an actual wizard” Morgan yelled running off in search for Pepper as Happy and Rhodey chuckled, but Tony had a mischievous smirk on his face. A new nickname was in the works.        A loud ‘excuse me!’ came from where Wong and Strange stood talking with Wanda, shock on both their faces, but Morgan didn’t care as she jumped up into her mother’s lap and started animatedly explaining Loki and his magic.        “Love, who’s Harry Potter?” he muttered in Y/N’s hair an arm securely around her waist.        “I’ll teach you all about him, don’t you worry,” she smiled turning to face him and clasped her palms behind Loki’s neck. “No boyfriend of mine will not know who The Boy Who Lived is. Besides,” her lips brushed against his making Loki chase after her, “we have all the time in the world to do so.”        “Promise?”        “Promise.”        Finally, after doing whatever it took, everything had fallen into place.        They were home.

Tags (crossed out wouldn’t take): @lumelgy @palaiasaurus64 @supernaturalbaesduh @breezy1415 @crazy--me @thatawkwardlittlefangirl @sea040561 @staryeyedgirl @deathbyarabbit @s-c-a-r-e-d-po-t-t-e-r @reblogger-not-a-blogger @m-a-t-91 @dalilx @i-need-a-hero-i-need-a-loki @maladaptive-ninja-returns @averyrogers83 @in-the-end-im-still-trash @gallifreyansass @dewy-biitch @avxgers @unlikelygalaxygiver @sweet-ladyy @magicwithaknife @ollyoxenfrees @bnhvrdy @tvwhoresblog @celebsimagines @thatkindofgurl @sj-thefan@nerissa98 @happyseagrill @asguardiansoftheavengers @crazybutconfidentaf @wishingforahome @pizzarollpatrol @desir-ae@marvels-queen-bee @julierousing98 @maggiesimps @horrorx570ximagines @luluthegreatandterrible @bambamwolf87 @drakesfiance @artbysteph87 @beets1bears1battlestargalactica

A/N: welp... this is a beast :D

Another family fix-it-fic from yours truly :D

P.S. what did ya think?

P.S.S. my tags are always open :)

[adashofniallandasprinkleoflunacy]

pls give us a bad boy harry. fuck boi/frat boy whatever but that’s something we all need

Y/N’s phone buzzes against the mattress, chiming with a ringtone she’s not proud to have grown familiar with.

She flips it, revealing the enlarged contact picture a post-orgasmic Harry had taken himself. He was shirtless, leaning back against a stack of her pillows, one arm behind his head with a smug side-smirk stringing his plump mouth, cheeks splattered with a mixture of red and pink. If she focuses enough, she can see the faint outline of her teethmarks on his bottom lip.

“What?”

“Well, that’s no way to greet a lady, is it?”

Y/N bites down a grunt of frustration, already growing annoyed with his voice. She only ever surpasses his douchiness when she’s more horny than she’d care to admit.

“What do you want, Harry? I’m busy.”

“Watching Love, Rosie for the tenth time and crying into a bowl of popcorn doesn’t really count as being ‘busy.’ You know that, right?”

Y/N swallows down a colorful array of choice words, setting down her bowl of popcorn and M&Ms, pausing her movie. “I’m watching Ant-Man, actually. So screw off.”

“Oh, well, pardon me.” She can hear the shit-eating smirk in his voice. “That still doesn’t change the fact you’re laying in bed all alone on a Friday night.”

“If you called just to bag on me, I’m gonna hang up.”

“Not bag, darling. Bang.”

Y/N pauses, a fistful of popcorn halfway into her mouth. She lowers her hand back into the bowl, licking her lips slowly in thought. “You don’t have plans?”

“Cancelled.”

Y/N scuffs humorlessly, shaking her head in understanding and bringing a handful of chocolate up to her mouth, chewing leisurely. Of course she’s his backup plan. “Right. The guys flake on you?”

“I flaked on them, actually.”

Y/N chokes on the M&Ms, sending her into a coughing fit she does not even try to hide. Her hand flies to her bottle of flavored ICE water, feeling the fizzy taste of mango-peach wash down the issue.

She clears her throat and blinks once in shock. All she manages is a confused, “Why?”

There’s silence on the other end of the line and she can practically see Harry sitting on his bed, picking at his nails with his phone held between his ear and shoulder. “‘Cause I just wasn’t feeling it.”

“Bullshit.” Y/N couldn’t have stopped her response even if she had wanted to. “You’re you. You’re always feeling it.”

“Is it so hard to believe I wanted a break?” His voice is full of guarded indignation, which is something she rarely sees in him.

She answers truthfully. “Oh, fuck yeah. Borderline impossible to believe.”

There’s the crackle of an amused huff through the speaker. “Thank you for your honesty. It’s much appreciated.”

“My pleasure.”

There’s another tension-packed silence in the conversation and she can somehow feel that Harry is waiting for her to offer her companionship. Not in the self-absorbed, you would be lucky to be in my presence type of way, but in a sense much more intimate and personal.

He wants to genuinely spend time with her just because.

And much to her surprise, she finds herself complying.

“I’m only, like, ten minutes into the movie. I could pause it and go make more popcorn.”

More silence, then light scuffling that suggests he’s risen from wherever he was sitting and is on the move. For some reason, she gets the feeling he’s pacing back and forth in his room. When he finally speaks, his tone sounds vulnerable. “Are you inviting me over?”

“You kinda did that all by yourself with this call, didn’t you?”

Harry releases a fit of boyish giggles that makes her stomach braid. He shouldn’t be so damn cute. “Suppose I did.”

Y/N scoops up the remote from it’s spot on her stomach, sitting up and setting the bowl of food beside her outer thigh. She pauses the movie in the middle of Paul Rudd welcoming a customer into Baskin-Robbins. “Just answer one question for me, yeah? And be honest.”

Harry sniffles lightly, and then sighs half-heartedly. “Alright. Scout’s honor and all that.” 

“Why did you cancel on your friends?”

The quiet that follows the inquiry is anything but comfortable. It edges towards suffocating and she almost regrets bringing it up again.

“I, uh…” Harry blows air through his nose and she can imagine him scratching at the back of his head. “I wanted to see you.”

There’s a warm flutter at the pit of her stomach. “Why?”

“You said I only had to answer one question.”

Y/N chews on her bottom lip pensively. “Humor a sad soul on a lonely Friday night, will you?”

The way he laughs so full and heartily sends a shot of cold adrenaline right to the tips of her ears.

“As surprising as it may seem, you’re not the worst person to kill a movie with.”

“Compliment of the century, Harry. Such a proper gentleman.”

His voice is like velvet through the phone line, sultry and suggestive. “You already know I treat you like a gentleman.”

Y/N forces down the heat pooling in her cheeks. “Only when you’re balls deep.”

“Oh, c’mon, that’s not true. When I’m knuckles deep, too.”

She snorts at her own expense. “Whatever. I’ll unlock the door on my way to the kitchen. Make sure to lock it after you come in and remember that you have to put your full weight against it so that the seal shuts or you’re paying my air conditioning bill.”

“Yes, ma’am.” She can hear keys clinking in the background of the call. “Want me to pick anything up on the way?”

“You know those flavored waters?”

“Yeah, the ICE ones? You like mango-peach, right?”

Y/N can’t resist the tiny flattered smile that tickles her lips at the fact that he knows her favorite flavor. It’s something so small, but it makes her night. “Yeah.”

“Alright, done deal. See you in five.”

“Oh, and Harry?”

“Mm?”

“You’re not the worst person to kill a movie with, either.”

[irishtowriteabook]

-Growing Pains- Part 1

🌸Summary; A throughly inebriated David blurts out some hidden feelings towards his best friend, turned carer, one faithful night. Nothing too major (not yet anyways) but it turns out seeing Natalie so openly affectionate with everyone who isn’t him has been getting him down!

Request; “Hey 👋💛 Can i have some more jealous Dave (or Natalie) please? *plot details and ideas that I won’t put in as this intro is lengthy as is*

I decided to change it up slightly as I know I love jealous fics but it can get too much! This is a two parter! Enjoy! Hope I did it justice

•

The blustering wind caused her (now loosely) curled hair to whip against her cheeks; a force to be reckoned with. Seriously, shit hurt. Natalie WOULD have rolled up the window. If the rolling up mechanism contraption thing worked, that is.

“Skype call with Ian, sponsored ad stories for boohoo, accountant meeting-“ A groan interrupted Natalie’s train of thought. “-And looking after a drunk David.”

Drunk as a skunk, Lorraine had said. I only had a Coke, David had said.

Natalie closed off her note-penning app with a swipe of her manicured finger and sighed. She looked down at a splayed out David. He took up most of the already cosy backseat with her lanky, wrangled limbs. His inebriated self held no hesitance in plopping his head down on her lap either.

David shuffled closer to her thighs, wanting to get closer to the radiating heat and bundling up her short black dress in the process.

“Quit it.” Natalie murmured. ‘I’d like to preserve what little dignity I have left after this night.’

“Natalieee..” David whined, his bleary eyes meeting hers. “I want to get off this rollercoaster. Like right now.” His words were punctuated with sighs as he voice wavered even more. The Uber driver seemed to no longer need to live vicariously through the Fast & Furious movies and instead made his dreams a reality. The car jostled harshly as he sped over speedbumps. At least Natalie THOUGHT they were speedbumps.

The neon green signage of an upcoming 711 loomed in the near distance amongst throngs of other partygoers. Natalie seriously considered asking Javi to stop for a few minutes tops for some painkillers but she was already in his bad books over making him wait.

“Fuck, my head.” David all but whispered tugging his denim jacket closer around him. Natalie froze, about as solid as Jeff’s abdomen, as David took hold of her hand and placed it upon his head. His dazed eyes couldn’t help but blink to a close as Natalie pressed the palm of her hand against his ‘throbbing’ forehead.

“This is what you get for being a dumbass around pineapple vodka floats!” Natalie quipped but her voice lacked edge in favour of a rarer softer tone. She settled her own head against the window.

Traffic lights, red ones that Javi drove through, green that Javi sped through and yellow that Javi cursed through, shone in through the tinted grass. It created various subdued hues that enveloped the pair- shit another pothole.

Natalie couldn’t help it. Her fingers mindlessly combed through David’s perspiration ridden but still majorly fluffy hair. His bottom lip jotted out. He smiled smalley up at her. She gazed down at him fondly but still kept a wary eye on the meter. She rarely Bought credit cards or much paper money with her on nights out. Nights out were usually regarded as “David needs blog content like right now” pseudos. Besides they only drank really, not gone rockclimbing. Except for that one ti-

“Why’d you stop?” Dave pouted and in his drunken stupor tried to again find her hand. He latched confidently onto her seatbelt.

The impatient stare from Javi in the mirror spurred Natalie on. She gathered her belongings at a faster rate.

“We’re home Dave” She explained quickly but his head wouldn’t budge a singular inch from her lap. Stubborn as always.

“Can’t we drive around- hey Mr Taxi Man can’t we drive around the block again? Just one more time, deadass.” David slurred out.

“Other clientele. Vamos.” Javi dismisses them courtly with a wave of his hand.

“You suck.” grunted David, matter of factly. Natalie mumbled hasty apologies under her breath and he wrenched the payment from her outstretched palm. No change? Alrighty then. Dickhead.

Lugging a floppy David into the house and onto the couch proved to be a hefty task. His eye foot coordination was 10x worse drunk than him sober.

“Whew! I used arm muscles I didn’t even know I had. I might just leave your ass and become a body builder one of these days.” Natalie glanced down at the sprawled out 23 year old.

David’s face suddenly morphed into the most downcast of expressions and Natalie felt compelled to kneel down beside him on the cool flooring. Her face embodied all that is confusion.

“No. Don’t ever leave me, please?” David frowned. Natalie damn near melted, she won’t lie, as he rested his hand on her forearm that was resting on the cushion. He looked up at her with his big brown eyes, waiting (im)patiently for her reply.

“Hey, hey, hey! It was only a joke, you dork!”

At her words David’s mood switched to the polar opposite, a complete 180°. His signature cheesy grin blossomed on his face once more albeit sleepily.

“Okay. Thanks!” He whooped softly. Natalie let out a breathy laugh before flopping down beside David on the couch, said David being totally entranced in his hands. She couldn’t blame him.

With a flick of the wrist (and the various remotes) the television and electric fireplace switched to life. Basking in the warmth and comfortable silence with the lack of interruptions or others surrounding them was different. A good different!

It was a welcome change to the usual deafening music and hard-to-keep-up-with conversations. Natalie was sure the neighbours agreed with her stance too. Hell even the sound of fake nails scratching down a blackboard was better than- Natalie shivered.

She half tuned into the news broadcasting stations as they relayed info on rallies and the like but David’s murmurs took her attention soon after.

“I wish I was Zane, man” He said drowsily. He clutched a nearby blanket to his chest as Natalie looked on.

“Hmm? Why’s that?” Natalie pondered as she riddled with the remote, twirling it around her fingers. “Because I dont! I can’t handle Zane usually, nevermind a Zane 2.0.” She laughed good-naturedly. However her hearty laughter soon dimmed as she heard David’s pathetic attempt at a fake chuckle. Something Liza could never do, but we shan’t get into right now.

“But you love Zane!” David sniffed and stared blankly at the plasma screen television. I love you too, Natalie felt inclined to say but couldn’t. Or maybe that’s more of a wouldn’t.

“True that but-“ The brunette let her high ponytail down and shook out her hair till it tumbled down her shoulders. “-It doesn’t mean I want another one of him!” She illustrated her words with arm gestures. David paid more attention to those than her words.

“Yeah. Makes sense.” He shrugged and blinked rapidly in order to stay awake.

Just as Natalie thought David had drifted off beside her he piped up again.

“I just think that Zane’s- Zane’s real lucky.” He slurred out. Natalie scoffed and shoved him gently.

“Says the multi-millionaire! Zane has got an ant infestation for the second time this week.”

“I don’t like it when my aunt visits either.” David sympathised. He raised his arms as Natalie tucked the blanket properly over him. She smiled. The opportunity to stroke his chest during the process for a moment, just a moment, was not passed up by her.

Her fingers trickled over a semi solid resting place and her thumb grazed his chest over his, you guessed it, black t-shirt.

“Zane gets Natalie hugs. They’re the best type of hugs! And- and Zane gets- Zane gets all the hugs.” David’s head lolled about as he struggled to sit up, his view still littered with the aftereffects of alcohol.

A lump grew in Natalie’s throat as his words sunk in. She had expected his usual tirade of drunken rambling and unrealistic vlog ideas but this? This seemed much more than that.

The brunette eyed him up, pensive.

“Do you like hugs Davey?” She questioned softly. Amidst his playing with the zipper of her open jacket he replied, “Nah. I just like your hugs.”

Guilt washed over her like waves tumbling ashore and she wasn’t sure exactly why. I mean it’s not like she rejected his hugs or affection per se, aside from that one time he was coated head to toe in slime. However the pair had lost that physical closeness they had as adolescents.

A flashback struck her, multiple ones really. Of Jason remarking on her ‘disgusted’ facial expressions during Datalie talk podcast segments. Of the incredibly awkward hug shared between the pair after her car surprise. Of her hugs with Zane. Cosied up pictures with Ilya and Jeff. Where did David come into things?

It’s not that she did something wrong to David, it’s just that she didn’t do the initiating. Not really anyways. It was always him.

Natalie’s attention fell on David as he prodded her thigh.

“You okay Nat?” His face was scrunched up slightly in worry. “Usually I cant get you to shut up!” He teased happily. Natalie’s mouth dropped open in mock offence and she punched him on the shoulder.

“Oi!” She let out a giggle. ‘Wait did that sound seriously just come from me?’

His cheekiness eased a smile on her face.

“C’mere.” With that she tugged his head down on her chest and collarbone area and sunk back with him resting on her against the soft cushions of the couch. Sober David would probably have frozen him and wouldn’t be sure whereabouts to place his hands. This David was a whole other story!

The fireplace sent an orange glow around the room, paired alongside with whatever visuals reflected from the television. They were both otherwise preoccupied to notice the broadcasts.

Meanwhile Smirnoff ridden David snuggled right in against her. God the biggest smile decorated her face to the point where her highlighted cheeks ached and she tried to contain it in case he looked upwards. She cautiously but warmly wrapped her arms around him. His mop of hair tickled her rosy cheek as she rested it on there but you’d hear no complaints from her and that’s for sure!

He smelt of laundry detergent and a sort of clean cottony scent. Yes she took a sneaky breath in. She hoped her perfume, a flowery concoction, wasn’t overly empowering or strong. Him burrowing even closer served her her answer.

David wound his arms beneath her jacked and around her waist and his grip didn’t loosen until he dozed off. Shy whispers of promised changes filled the air from Natalie.

•

To be continued! This is very superfluous (new word of the day!) but I’m a sucker for detail and as is the person who inspired this🌷 I’ve been awol for god knows how long because of the leaving cert prep but I’m back! I’m filtering through requests and it’s taking ages to write them out but do send more in! It may take a while but I’ll get to them 💕 Hope people enjoyed!

It takes a second or so to like or even comment (if you’re a fast typer) but that second makes me smile for like a trillion hours.

[darringauthier]

Come To Daddy (2019)

Genre: Dark Comedy/Thriller

Who’s In It: Elijah Wood, Stephen McHattie, Martin Donovan, Michael Smiley, Madeleine Sami

Who Directed It: Ant Timpson

Plot:  A man in his thirties travels to a remote cabin to reconnect with his estranged father.

Running Time: 96 Minutes 

IMDB Score: 6.0

Metascore: 64

Why I Watched It: Trailer looked different and I heard some decent buzz about it from the genre community and of course the cast. 

How I Watched It: iTunes

Random Thoughts: I’ve set up my reviews the way I do cause I think it makes it easier for me but every once in a while I get stuck in the genre category and Come To Daddy might be the hardest one I’ve come up against.  I actually had to go to IMBD and see what genre they put it in and they gave it four, first off this isn’t a horror film, just isn’t.  I think dark comedy is the best one for it but it does have a lot of violence so I’d throw it into thriller as well but not really, see I’m still not sure.

I have to give a shout out to Elijah Wood, here’s an actor and I find this rare that really likes movies and he’s a huge fan and he loves horror and genre stuff and he’s acted in and produced a lot of them and you can tell he’s enjoying himself.  He took his Lord Of The Rings money and went and did what he loves, good for him and yup he picks some very odd and weird projects.  Also a shout out to Stephen McHattie not only one of my favorite Canadian actors but one of my favorite all-time character actors, he’s been at it for decades and he never gives a bad performance.  He’s so underrated just go to IMDB and check out all his profile.

What I Like: The fact that it’s hard to say what genre this film is, is one of it’s big selling points.  You have no clue where this film is going and the fun thing is the film doesn’t always seem to know either.  It’s one of those films that is just off, not quite right, a little left of center and the more you get into the film more the left of center it gets.  The glue of the film is Wood, he’s very good here as a kind of unlikable guy, maybe that’s harsh but he doesn’t seem like he knows himself very well, he’s more than flawed he seems lost and you get that seeing his father might help him find his way.  Now I’ll be careful cause it’s still a fresh film so no spoilers but let’s say the film twists and turns into many different genres.

The film is quirky but not so much it gets annoying and it’s very good at bending and twists the plot, Wood is very good and looking lost and it’s a good move to have us the audience find things out as he does, we’re never a head of him and I will say this I didn’t see a couple of things coming and that’s always nice.

The biggest selling point of the film is that it’s different and different in a good way, you haven’t seen a film exactly like this.  The acting across the board is very good Wood and McHattie have this almost anti-chemistry thing going all of their scenes together is filled with unease and tension and we’re never sure why.

I have to say I love this cabin and the scenery, the location is great.  Had to point that out.

What I Didn’t Like: I respect different but I don’t always love or like it and I have to say as the film went along the more twists and quirks it got the less I cared, the plot takes over and even though I still liked it the more the film went a long the less I liked it.  It’s one of those by the mid-way point it was an eight then by the end it was a six or seven still good but it didn’t grab me.  I do feel that they tired to have this heart and soul in the film the relationship between father and son but that kind of contrasted with the plot so it didn’t work fully for me.

I also didn’t care for the ending, it’s not a deal breaking but it made the film a little too dour for all the quirk it had in it.

Final Thoughts: Acting alone it’s worth a watch and if you like weird and different films with a genre bent this one is for you.

Rating: 6/10

[frauleinsmaria]

The Facebook Flub (2/3)

Summary: When Emma accidentally sends a friend request to the wrong person, she doesn’t expect much to come of it. But maybe this accident is the best decision she’s ever made.

Rated: Maybe high T if we’re really being technical?? Nothing explicit 

Part 1: Tumblr | AO3

Part 2: AO3

A/N: Massive thank you to everyone for all the love for this story so far. I was really nervous about posting it there for a while, so the likes, reblogs, kudos, comments, etc. have meant the world to me. Thanks again @thejollyroger-writer, @wellhellotragic , and @profdanglaisstuff  for all your help and for leaving questionable comments on the Google Doc to entertain me.

“What do you mean, love?” Killian’s eyes widened. She could make out a bit of a flush on his cheeks, and was that a glint in his eye too? Or was she just seeing what she wanted to?

Emma’s pulse raced. There was an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach that she refused to call butterflies. Maybe the conversation she’d had in mind wasn’t a great idea after all. “Shouldn’t you have checked into your hotel by now? It’s getting late.” It was barely four.

“Oh.” He averted his gaze, and whatever she thought she might have seen there was now gone. She had caught him off guard. Seeing a glint in his eyes was probably just her imagination, but regardless, the idea that she may have disappointed him stung. “I suppose you’re right. Bloody hell, I don’t even remember where it is I’m supposed to go.”

“I can drive you.” Emma stood and nodded her head in the direction of the lot she’d parked in earlier. “Just put the address in my phone. We should be able to find it easily.”

She was right. His hotel was a short drive, a relief since she was unsure how much time she could spend alone in the car with him without blurting out something else stupid.

“If you want, you can go ahead and check in while I get your bag out of the trunk,” she told him as they got out of the car.

“That’s alright, Swan. You don’t have to worry about it.”

“Really, it’s not a big deal.” It would buy her a few more minutes if had to say goodbye to him since she’d never got around to asking about his schedule while he was in the city. “Go ahead. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Emma took her time retrieving his bag, something that should have taken all of thirty seconds if not for her increasing paranoia. Was this the last time she would get to see him before he went back to London? The conversation she’d dodged earlier may never happen at the rate things were going.

When she entered the hotel lobby, Killian was at the front desk, in the middle of what was obviously a heated conversation with the receptionist. She took his bag to the side and waited to see what was going on.

After a few minutes, he stepped away from the desk and came over to where she was. There was a sour expression on his face, his mouth twisted to one side. “Everything okay?” she asked.

“Not exactly. Apparently, the hotel lost my bloody reservation.” He ran a hand over his face and groaned. “The receptionist said they would try to find another arrangement, but it doesn’t look promising. Do you know of any decent hotels in the area?”

She started to name a few that came to mind and then paused. “I have a semi-comfortable couch you’re more than willing to crash on. If you’d rather not, that’s fine,” she added, seeing the surprised look on his face. “Just thought I’d mention it if you didn’t want to go to the trouble of looking for something else.”

“That’s very kind of you, Swan, but I’d hate to impose. I’m going to be here until Friday afternoon.”

At least she had an answer to one question. “You wouldn’t be imposing. No maid service, unfortunately, but there’s Netflix and a few pints of Ben and Jerry’s in the freezer.” Thank goodness she’d stress cleaned the apartment that morning. She would have died a bit inside if he’d seen what it had looked like before.

Killian laughed. “Granny’s, the bakery, and now ice cream- you really want me to gain weight on this trip, don’t you? But if you’re sure it wouldn’t be too much trouble, I believe I’ll take you up on that offer.”

It was during the drive back to her apartment that Emma fully started to comprehend what she’d gotten into. Having Killian stay with her for the next two nights seemed to have two potential outcomes: she could either act on her feelings and resume the earlier conversation the first chance she got, or keep them to herself and take the risk of spontaneously combusting in the process. The logical part of her knew avoiding the subject would only make things worse and surprisingly the part of her that was afraid of being hurt again even felt willing to take the risk.

“Here we are,” she announced when they arrived, stepping in before Killian and giving the place a quick once over to make sure she hadn’t left anything weird laying around. “It’s clean by my standards, but I still feel like I should apologize for the mess knowing how picky you are.”

“I’m not picky. I simply have...odd preferences where my own flat is concerned.”

“Preferences like the handles on coffee mugs facing out at a perfect forty-five-degree angle in your cabinet?” She couldn’t remember what conversation had prompted Killian to share that with her, but she hadn’t passed up an opportunity to tease him about it since.

“Judge all you want, love, but I’m willing to bet I have a much easier time retrieving a mug in the morning than you do.”

Killian had a good point there. She usually just chucked hers in the cabinet and complained about them later. “Touche. But remind me not to let you get a look in my cabinets; you don’t need to have a heart attack before you’ve even hit thirty.” Something told her he didn’t need to see what the inside of her closet looked like either.

Not that there was a likely chance he’d be in her bedroom any time over the next two days. She refused to entertain the idea.

“You can leave your stuff in here by the couch if you want,” she said, leading him into the living room. “It’s not the nicest thing in the world, but it’s comfy. I’ve crashed there a handful of nights myself after a Netflix binge.”

“Did I have involvement in any of those?” She couldn’t help but notice the way his eyebrowed danced at that.

“Please, you had involvement in all of them, but not like that. Get your mind out of the gutter.”

Neither of them were hungry after the late lunch and the stop at the bakery, so Emma suggested another Netflix binge for the meantime. The jet lag was also starting to catch up with Killian. He disappeared into her bathroom while she turned on the TV and came out a few minutes later wearing an Iron Man t-shirt and a pair of grey sweatpants that fit him entirely too well. She was convinced she could make out the muscles in his legs through the thin fabric.

Not that she was staring.

Maybe she was.

It was a struggle to tear her eyes away from him as she took a seat on her preferred side of the couch.

“You can do the honors,” she said, handing him the TV remote when he sat down on the other side.

“Do you have any preferences?”

“Nah. As long as it’s funny, but everything we watch usually ticks that box.”

Killian scrolled through the lists of recent additions and what was currently popular. “Perhaps we could watch a movie instead for once. I’m assuming you’ve already seen Thor: Ragnarok?”

“Several times, but I’m always down for a rewatch.”

He flashed her a smile, and Emma had to remind herself to breathe. “I was hoping you’d say that. Ragnarok it is then.”

The next two hours were pure torture. Okay, maybe she was being a bit dramatic. She got to watch one of her favorite movies with arguably her favorite person- and in person too, something she had never thought would happen. But that was also the problem. Her feelings had been so much easier to ignore when they were out earlier and she had other things to distract her from saying something she might regret. Now, they were alone together in her apartment, with only a few feet of space on the couch between them, while Killian wore a seemingly harmless outfit that gave her anything but harmless thoughts.

And he would be staying tomorrow night too. It would be a miracle if she got through his visit in one piece.

“I can’t believe you’re not exhausted,” Emma told him when the end credits began to play. “It’s after midnight in London, and you haven’t yawned once.” Despite his usual insomnia, she would have still expected him to be somewhat tired between his earlier flight and the time change.

He shrugged. “I’m not full of energy by any means, but I wouldn’t say I’m quite ready to turn in either.”

“Are you hungry now? I’m kind of low on groceries until I get a chance to go to the store, but I think I’ve got a few bags of microwave popcorn. Unless you want the Ben and Jerry’s.”

Killian pursed his lips and considered the options. “Hmm. Something tells me the ice cream has more calories, and I’ve already eaten more than enough today.”

“Popcorn it is. You can pick out something else to watch while I make it.”

She returned from the kitchen a few minutes later with two bags of cooked popcorn, the opening sequence for Ant-Man and the Wasp paused on the TV screen. “I wouldn’t say it’s quite as humorous as Ragnarok, but you’re always saying how underrated these movies are, and I can’t remember what happens in the last half.”

“Sounds good.” Emma handed him one of the popcorn bags and plopped down beside him on the couch, propping her feet up on the coffee table as he pressed play.

It was about half an hour or so later when she’d finished her own popcorn and was working through what was left of his that she first noticed the considerable lack of space between them now. They were less than a foot apart; their thighs would be touching if one of them scooted over a bit toward the other. From this position, she could get a whiff of his cologne that she hadn’t noticed earlier. And his scruff looked particularly good in the dim light of her living room.

She swore to herself and fixed her eyes on the TV. Paul Rudd was not quite as enticing as the man sitting beside her, but he would have to do for the sake of her dignity.

Emma didn’t remember either of them falling asleep. But she woke up sometime later to a dark TV screen and her head on Killian’s chest. He was out cold. She could hear him snoring softly; he would be getting teased for that later.

Had she fallen asleep on him first? She would have had to. The TV would be back on the Netflix home screen unless Killian had turned it off himself. The thought of falling asleep on him didn’t concern her nearly as much as how much she liked it though. His arm was draped around her shoulders, feeling more like a welcome presence than the heavy weight she would have expected. The fabric of his t-shirt felt warm against her cheek, which rose and fell with every breath he took. It had been months if not years since she’d cuddled with another person (even if unintentional), and yet she was reluctant to slip out of his grasp. At this rate, with both of them on the couch, Killian would surely wake up with a crick in his neck, but if she got up, she might be able to maneuver him onto his back without waking him up.

It’s better this way, Emma told herself as the door to her bedroom clicked shut behind her. It would have been awkward for both of you if he’d woken up and seen you like that. You just have to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

(Despite how much she wanted it to.)

She woke up a few hours later to the sound of the shower running in the bathroom. A glance at the clock on her phone told her it was just after seven; entirely too early by her own standards, but she knew Killian’s first day of meetings would be starting soon. The idea of rolling over and going back to sleep was tempting, but she dragged herself out of bed and down the hall to the kitchen. Their options for breakfast were limited, but she could at least make them toast and coffee if nothing else.

The coffee pot had just started to brew when Killian entered the kitchen, wearing a navy button-down shirt and grey slacks. The fact that he looked so good in plain colors was almost unfair. “Good morning, Swan.”

“Morning. Sleep well?”

“Aye. I suppose I was more knackered than I’d thought.”

Her stomach dropped when she remembered the way she’d woken up and found them. “That’s good. That you slept well, I mean.”

But if he had any feelings about their brief sleeping arrangement (if he even remembered), he made no effort to mention it. “Anything I can assist you with?”

“There’s some bread in the bottom drawer of the fridge if you wanna put a few pieces in the toaster,” she said, nodding toward where it sat on the counter. “I’ll try to stop by the store on my way home from work to make sure we have something decent for dinner.”

“You don’t have to do that on my account, love. It’s not as if you knew you were going to have company for the better part of two days.” His hair was slightly damp from the shower and she could smell his shampoo when he stepped around her to get the bread from the refrigerator.

“Who said it was on your account?” she teased. “Maybe I don’t want to have popcorn again for dinner.”

Killian gave her a look of mock disappointment as he put two slices of bread in the toaster and pushed the lever down. “You wound me, Swan. And I thought you cared.”

If only you knew how much. “Yeah, yeah. What time do you have to head out?”

“I’ll probably call an Uber a bit before nine, just to make sure I have plenty of time to find the place.”

“Sounds good. I would offer to drive you, but I’m not sure when I’ll be home after work and the store, so you’d probably have to Uber back anyway to keep from waiting. Remind me to give you my spare key before you go too.”

“Will do.” He gestured to the coffee pot, which was now full. “Is there perhaps a cup of that with my name on it?”

“Potentially. But look away while I get mugs out of my unorganized cabinet.”

“And you call me overdramatic.”

Between paperwork and thoughts of her houseguest, Emma’s day dragged horribly. All she could focus on was that previous night with Killian and everything that had happened (and not happened) since his arrival. Other than the insinuation that he wasn’t seeing anyone back in London, she had more questions than answers. Questions about his feelings for her, about the chances of him returning to Boston again.

She left the office early that afternoon. There wasn’t much more that could be done until she went on her next stakeout, and the grocery store would be a madhouse if she waited to go when people started getting off of work. As she began making a mental list of what to pick up, she received a text from Killian.

Meetings have finally wrapped for the day, thank goodness. I’m heading back to your flat to recuperate before tomorrow.

Emma smiled when she read his message, both because of the obvious reasons, and that he would be around to put his cooking skills to use.

Good. I’m buying stuff for us to make dinner before I come home.

She had planned to get something simple like a frozen pizza or premade meals for dinner, but he was inspiring her to step out of the box every once in a while.

An hour later, she arrived at her apartment with a load of grocery bags that she somehow managed to bring up in just one trip. Killian walked in from the living room in time to see her unbagging various items. He was wearing the same sweatpants from the night before, this time with a Metallica shirt and mismatched socks she would tease him about for at least the next six months. “Hello, Swan. What have you got there?”

Emma held up the jar of marinara sauce and pack of chicken she’d bought. “Stuff for chicken parm. I know you mentioned making it for Liam and Belle before. This recipe I found looks easy enough that I can help without causing a disaster.”

He raised an eyebrow skeptically, but she could see the corners of his mouth turning up. “You really have a lot of confidence in yourself.”

“For taking down bail jumpers? Yes. For cooking a decent meal? Hell no.”

“It’s not all that tricky, love.” He came over to help her unbag the groceries. “Especially if you pick a partner who knows what he’s doing.”

Something in his voice told her that ideology wasn’t just limited to cooking. Emma hoped he didn’t notice her face reddening at the thought of other possibilities. Did he know how difficult it was for her to keep her composure around him now? “Yeah, well, if this partner knows what he’s doing as well as he claims, he can start on the chicken while I put the other groceries away.”

Killian had finished mixing eggs and making the breading and parmesan mixture by the time she’d put most of her things away. The only thing remaining on the counter was a separate bag of groceries she’d put to the side. “Were you going to put those away too?” he asked when he spotted them.

Emma shook her head. “Nope. That’s for something later.” She had to bite her lip to hold back a smile; something told her he would get a kick out of what she had planned.

Her attempts at helping him cook their dinner lasted all of ten minutes when she came close to putting cilantro instead of parsley on the chicken. The only reason she hadn’t was because Killian had spotted the label on the side of the bottle. “I can’t even read labels now? Are we really sure I’m an adult?”

He had his back turned to her. He was probably laughing and didn’t want her to see. “They do look somewhat similar. It would have been an honest mistake, love.”

“One I’m really glad you caught before it was too late.” Emma had since resorted to sitting at the kitchen table and watching him boil pasta and prepare the now-browned chicken for baking. The way that he seemed to be at ease in the kitchen was something she doubted that she would ever understand. There was too much she could screw up at any given moment. “I feel bad that this was my idea and you’re doing all the work though.”

“There’s nothing to feel bad about. It’s a fairly simple dish.”

“Simple when you don’t have the cooking skills of a five-year-old.”

Killian paused for a moment. Then, “If you’d like, you can put the pasta into plates when it’s done.”

“I’ll try my best.”

The meal was great, something Emma was sure had to do with her lack of involvement. She and Killian ate at the kitchen table and shared stories about their niece and nephews.

“You seriously lost a six-year-old in Disneyland?” she asked in the middle of his relaying an incident from their family vacation to Paris the previous summer.

“Aye. Certainly not one of my finer moments. I was bloody terrified, both over where she was and what I knew Liam would do to me when he found out.”

“Well, you’re still alive,” she pointed out, “so I’m assuming he never did?”

“No, believe it or not. After losing my mind trying to find her for half an hour, I remembered she’d been going on all day about wanting to see It’s a Small World again. I found her sitting outside the entrance with Mary Poppins, who looked to be about three seconds away from strangling me.” Killian paused to take a drink of his water and laughed. “Y’know, Sophia has never said a word to Liam or Belle about the incident. But I’ve had the feeling since that she may very well use it as blackmail against me in the future if there’s a time when I don’t comply to her wishes.”

“Women are smart. Even the small ones.”

“Right you are, Swan. Right you are.”

Emma washed the dishes after they’d finished dinner, refusing to let Killian do so much as dry a plate. “You did all the cooking. Let me take care of this one thing I can do without causing either of us bodily harm.”

Even without his assistance, she finished the task quickly, eager to show him the reason behind the other groceries she hadn’t put away earlier. “You ready to see what that “something later” was now?” she asked, pulling the various items out of the bag and lining them up on the counter.

Killian came over from the table where he’d been looking at something on his phone. “Absolutely. It’s got to be more enjoyable than the double chin Snapchats I’ve been getting from Will all evening.”

“I think so. Although you may very well end up with a double chin if you go nuts with these.”

His brow furrowed as he took a look at the items on the counter. “Hmm. Flour, eggs, sugar, cocoa powder. Perhaps I’m making a wild guess here, but I assume you want to make cupcakes?”

“I do.” It hadn’t been part of the original dinner plan when she’d went to the store earlier. But one glance at the chocolate cupcakes in the bakery and she couldn’t pass the opportunity up. “I had a feeling you wouldn’t object since you got all pouty over not getting to try the ones we made last time.”

“First of all, I did not, as you put it, “get pouty.” I am glad you considered those a joint effort though. Sitting on the couch to watch you bake takes its toll on a man.”

“Yeah, yeah. We’ll see if legitimate cupcakes with me take a toll on you too.”

Mixing the batter was a much smoother process than preparing dinner had been, likely because she’d already done it once before. The steps she’d found tedious and annoying the first time around bothered her considerably less now. Maybe it had something to do with the added company.

(It had everything to do with that.)

“Is it time to get out the parchment paper, Swan?” Killian asked when the mixing was completed.

“Oh! I almost forgot.” Emma rummaged around in the cabinet above the oven and pulled out a pack of cupcake liners. “I bought these after last time on the off chance I’d have a reason to need them.” She didn’t mention that this was weeks before she found out he’d be coming to Boston, and yet she’d still chosen the blue and green ones knowing they were his favorite colors.

He flashed her a grin in response, and she had to remind herself to breathe. Get a grip, Emma. You still have one more night to spend with him.

“I’m proud of you, love. We may just make a skilled baker out of you after all.”

“Don’t get your hopes up just yet. I’ll be depending on you to make sure they don’t burn.”

Emma surprised them both by remembering to take the pans out of the oven right on time. “I’m going to remember this the next time you refer to me as a bad influence,” Killian teased. “My presence clearly has quite the effect on you.”

If he only knew.

Despite any improvements she’d made in baking, icing the cupcakes was no less of a mess than it had been before. Emma had changed into an old t-shirt, which was now stained with chocolate icing in several places. Her ego wasn’t quite as bruised thanks to the smudge of icing on Killian’s chin that he had yet to notice.

Twelve iced cupcakes and four more stains later, she asked, “Since you didn’t get a chance the first time around, why don’t you do the honors and conduct the first taste test?”

“I’d love nothing more.” He picked up one of the cupcakes, peeled back the blue liner, and took a bite that would have put her own to shame. “Bloody hell,” he muttered through a mouthful of cake and icing before quickly finishing the rest.

“I’m taking that as a good sign?”

“It’s a fantastic sign.” He used a paper towel to wipe off the bit of icing he’d gotten on his mouth. “Why don’t you find out for yourself?”

Emma chose one with a green liner and peeled it off completely. For some reason, she’d never liked eating cupcakes with the paper still on, even if it did make more of a mess. “Ugh, these are better than the last ones,” she admitted after her first bite.

“Are they really?” Killian waggled his eyebrows.

“As much as I hate to admit it, yes.” She took another bite and made a sound that was somewhere between a sigh and a groan. “Damn you and your ability to be good at, like, everything.”

“Everything, you say?” She thought it was meant to be teasing, but when she looked up at Killian, he was staring at her intently, his eyes wide and lips parted.

Emma had two choices here. She could make a sarcastic comment and shut down the possibility of finding out if he tasted as good as his cupcakes. Or she could do what she’d really wanted to since he’d gotten off of that plane yesterday.

Screw it. She grabbed Killian by the collar of his t-shirt and kissed him for all he was worth.

Any shock he felt over it was quickly dismissed, one of his hands going to the small of her back and the other cupping her cheek as he returned her kiss.

She pulled away when she felt out of breath and Killian began to laugh. “What’s so funny?” she asked, frowning. That could either be a good or bad sign.

“I’m sorry, love, it’s just...apparently I got a bit of icing on my fingers when I was eating that cupcake, and, well, see for yourself.”

Emma glanced over at the screen of her phone and saw chocolate smudges on her cheek where he had been touching her just seconds ago. “Damn. I should have been messier with mine so I could have returned the favor.”

“Good thing there are ten more cupcakes at your disposal.” He leaned in and kissed her again, this one short and sweet. “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to do that, Swan.”

“Actually, I think I do,” she admitted. “But seriously, Killian, what are we doing? I know I asked you the same yesterday and chickened out, but we really do need to talk about this.” She motioned her hand between the two of them. “I mean, you’re essentially the best friend I have, we use a ridiculous amount of our cell phone battery on each other, and I don’t even talk to David and Mary Margaret as much as I talk to you....but is that it? Do you want to want things to stay like they have been for the past six months or-” the next few words felt caught in her throat. She really hoped that wasn’t what he wanted.

“If that’s what you want, then things between us can remain the same. But, frankly, Swan, I have no desire to pretend the last five minutes never happened.”

The corners of her mouth turned up, and he smiled back at her hopefully. “Good. I don’t either. But the question still stands: what now?”

“I’m afraid I don’t have a solid answer for that just yet, love. How about we simply enjoy the time we’ve got left together and figure out the rest as we go, eh?”

“If enjoying our time includes you showing me another kiss like that, I’m all for it.”

Her heart skipped a beat at his answering grin. How he could smile and look borderline sinful, she’d never know. “Oh, darling, I’ll show you anything you’re up for.”

The cupcakes were soon forgotten thanks to the heated kisses, soft touches, and shed clothing that followed. Turns out, Killian was great at eliciting noises from her for reasons that had nothing to do with chocolate.

It wasn’t until late that night when Emma’s sheets were in a tangled heap and they’d had a chance to catch their breath when a thought came to mind. “Killian?” She sat up from where she’d been curled up against his bare chest, paying little mind to the sheet that slipped off of them and pooled at her waist. “Why did you accept my friend request?”

He blinked several times as if questioning if he heard her correctly. “Come again, love?”

“You’ve known since the beginning that I added you by accident. But you’ve never said just why you accepted it.”

Killian was quiet for a moment as he considered the answer to her question. “I suppose you’re right. I remember that night somewhat vividly if I’m being honest. I couldn’t sleep, per usual, and was up watching some random documentary on YouTube when the notification popped up on my phone. There didn’t seem to be a reason for me to accept the request. I knew from the name alone that I hadn’t the slightest idea who you were. I probably spent the better part of an hour debating on what I should do.”

“And what made you decide I was worth the risk of accepting?”

He chuckled and scratched a spot behind his right ear, something Emma assumed was a nervous tic. “You may think I’m ridiculous for this, Swan, and rightly so, but I came to the conclusion that if someone as bloody gorgeous as you sent me a friend request, I’d be a fool to at least not give it a chance and find out why. That,” he continued, “and you were wearing a Groot shirt in one of your recent photos. I knew I liked you already.”

Truthfully, Killian was right- it was a little ridiculous. She may very well have laughed or rolled her eyes if he’d told her any of this when they’d first started getting to know one another. But they did know each other now, probably better than they knew anyone else, so it seemed easily forgiven. Not to mention she’d had similar thoughts the first time she came across his own profile. “And you had to wait another week to hear anything from me. I didn’t even realize we were friends until you liked that photo I posted from the movies.”

“If that’s what it took for us to end up where we are now, I’ll gladly like anything you post a hundred times over.”

Emma knew without asking that “where we are now” wasn’t just referring to the two of them being in her bed. “That might just be the corniest thing a man has ever said to me. And I adore it.” She all but threw herself back on top of him like she’d been earlier and kissed him, cupcakes and sleep both be damned.

She woke the next morning with a warm body against hers and an arm thrown around her waist. The alarm on Killian’s phone was ringing from where he’d dropped it on the bedroom floor in their haste to undress each other the night before. Any annoyance she felt over the blaring alarm was forgotten as memories from just hours earlier replayed in her mind.

Killian’s arm tightened around her waist as he made some indiscernible noise. “Too bloody early,” he groaned, his voice muffled by the pillow.

“You’re the one who set the alarm.”

“It was a lapse in judgment.” She felt the bed shift as he inched over on the mattress and his arm tightened around her. “Wonder how cross Liam would be if I called and said I couldn’t make the meetings today, I had better obligations to attend to.”

“I think he’d fly over just to murder you. And I really don’t want that kind of a mess in my apartment. Getting blood out of carpet can’t be easy.”

“Your compassion is overwhelming, love.”

“Always. Seriously, you’re gonna be late if you don’t get up soon. Why don’t you go ahead and shower and I’ll see about finding something for breakfast.” They had more options than toast and coffee now after her trip to the store yesterday. Emma got out of bed, still rather reluctant, and pulled on a pair of pajama pants with his Metallica shirt without thinking twice.

Killian sighed but got up anyway. “If the lady insists.”

“I think we’ve established how the lady feels about the mess Liam will make if you don’t.” She stuck her tongue out at him before leaving the room.

Emma had just poured the last of the pancake batter onto a frying pan when she felt hands settle on her waist. “Something smells delicious.” She couldn’t bite back a smile as Killian nuzzled her ear.

“It’s just from a box.” Truthfully, boxed pancake mix didn’t feel like much of a step up from toast, but it was one of the few things she’d trusted herself to make without major error.

“I’m not talking about the pancakes.”

Maybe breakfast wasn’t so important after all. She turned in his arms and leaned in to kiss him just as her phone started to ring from where she’d left it on the kitchen table.

“Figures,” she muttered, glancing over to see the name on the screen. “It’s Mary Margaret. Go ahead and eat, this might take a few minutes. Coffee should be done by now too.”

Emma took her phone in the living room and answered the call. “Hey, Mary Margaret. What’s up?”

“Hi, Emma. I didn’t know what your work schedule looked like today, but Ruby mentioned something about the four of us getting drinks after work if you’re interested.”

She would have been interested if it was any other day. Her work schedule (probably paperwork again) wasn’t the concern- with everything that had happened since the night before, she’d never gotten around to asking Killian when he had to leave. “I appreciate the invite, but I’m gonna have to pass today. Something kind of came up.”

As soon as Emma said the words, she regretted them. Of course her sister-in-law would insist on an explanation. “What? Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine.” She might as well tell Mary Margaret the truth now; she’d find out soon enough. “Um, see, the hotel Killian was supposed to stay at lost his reservation, so he’s been at my place. I’m not exactly sure how much longer he’s going to be here.”

“He’s spent the night there? David said you two were just spending a day together. Oh, did something finally happen?!”

Emma was not giving a play by play of the previous night over the phone while Killian was in the next room. “Now isn’t the best time, but I’ll tell you about it later, okay? I’ll make sure I’m free for girl time one day next week.”

“You’d better!”

Killian was washing dishes when she came back into the kitchen. “I left some for you,” he said, nodding toward the plate of pancakes and cup of coffee he’d set to the side.

“Thanks.” Emma retrieved her preferred coffee creamer from the fridge, wondering how he could stand to drink his black, when she thought of something. “Wait a minute. I forgot to set out coffee mugs. Does this mean you had to get a look at my cabinets?”

“Aye. As much as it pains me, Swan, I suppose it’s just one of those things I’ll have to force myself to overlook.” He tried to sound disappointed, but she could see the corners of his mouth turning up. “Thankfully, you do appear to have a few redeeming qualities to make up for this one tragic flaw.”

“Such a drama queen.” She rolled her eyes but walked over when he’d finished rinsing off his dishes and kissed him, Killian’s head tilting to the side a bit as he pulled her close. He smiled against her lips and she pulled back reluctantly after a moment, running her hands down his chest, the fabric of his dark grey button-down soft to the touch. “I’m glad to hear my lack of mug organization doesn’t have you running for the hills though.” The urge to slip her hands under the collar of said shirt was tempting, but they’d cut his time short enough already.

(To think less than twenty-four hours ago, she was convinced Killian couldn’t know how she really felt about him. Now, they couldn’t keep their hands off of each other.)

“My love, it’s going to take much more than a cabinet full of disorganized mugs to get rid of me.”

His words were meant to be reassuring, but Emma’s heart plummeted as reality sank in. “I almost hate to ask, but remind me when your flight back is again?”

Killian pursed his lips. “Well, my flight was scheduled for this evening. But,” he added, “I don’t technically have a reason to be back before Sunday night at the latest.”

“Oh?”

“Aye. You could be stuck with me all weekend...unless you’d rather not be. Which is perfectly understandable. I’m sure you want me out of your hair after allowing me to stay with you for the past two days, which I still feel as if I haven’t properly thanked you for, and-”

She cut him off with a quick kiss. “I’d love nothing more than to spend my weekend “stuck” with you, as you put it. And you should probably be heading out soon,” she continued, taking another glance at the clock, “but I’ll make sure you have a chance to show your appreciation for my hospitality later. Preferably multiple times.”

“I do like the way you think, Swan.”

Killian did indeed express his gratitude for her hospitality a number of times over the next day and a half. After they’d each finished their respective work obligations that afternoon, they’d spent the rest of the weekend in Emma’s apartment, either in her bed, on the couch in front of the TV, or in the kitchen where Killian yet again tried to salvage what there was of her cooking skills. He was being awfully stubborn in his mission to prove she was capable of making a meal without additional guidance.

“I don’t know why you’re so intent on making a culinary expert out of me,” she’d told him on Saturday morning right after she burnt herself trying to make French toast.

“Swan, I’m not even a culinary expert. I simply think you deserve better than to be satisfied with takeaway and prepackaged foods all the time.”

(One thing she’d quickly learned about Killian Jones? He hated Pop Tarts.)

On Saturday afternoon, Emma unceremoniously told him about the details of her life she’d always left out in their past conversations. Her abandonment as a baby, bouncing around foster homes with no sense of family for years until she found David and Mary Margaret, and why the people she tracked down who’d abandoned their families always hit so close to home. Her track record of failed relationships, first with Neal and then Walsh.

“I think the distance between us is what got me to open up to you over time,” she told him afterward. They were curled up on her couch, the show she’d picked to watch having been long forgotten. “I guess I thought it would be more simple this way. If something happened, I could cut things off a lot easier than I could if we were in the same place. The chances of us actually meeting seemed so slim for the longest time.”

Killian took her hand and gave it a quick squeeze. “And now?”

“Now?” She took a moment to process the question. “Now, I’m just thinking about all I could have missed out on if we’d never met. I mean, those cupcakes would have been terrible.”

The grin on his face when he leaned in to kiss her made her heart beat in a way that couldn’t have been normal.

Any discussion of where they would go from there was put off until Sunday morning. It was early, the sun’s rays just barely visible through the thin curtains in Emma’s bedroom. She’d meant to replace them months ago with blackout curtains to prevent early wakeups on her days off, but the time of day was easily ignored thanks to the warm body curled around her own.

“I don’t think we ever resumed that conversation from a few nights ago,” Emma pointed out. “Y’know, about exactly what this is that we’re doing now.”

“On the contrary, love, we most certainly did continue the conversation. Just perhaps not in a verbal sense.” He began to kiss his way down her neck and shoulder and she couldn’t help but laugh at him, both for his words and for making her realize just how ticklish she was.

Emma rolled over so she was facing him. “Don’t you think now is the time to actually continue it though? In a verbal sense,” she added, smacking his arm lightly when he wiggled his eyebrows.

“You wound me, Swan. But, aye. I suppose you’re right.”

“So are we doing this now? You and me?”

Killian smiled. “If that’s what you want, I’d love nothing more.”

“Of course it’s what I want. It’s just...I’m here, you’re there, most of the time, anyway. How does this work?”

“I suppose it can work the same as it has been since the beginning, love. We have some method of communication every day, we watch Netflix together, we tell each other what’s going on in our lives. The only difference would be counting down the days until I get to see you again. I’m not sure exactly when that would be,” he added before she could ask, “but we’ll work something out. I do have a fair amount of vacation days at my expense that Liam’s been hounding me to do something with.”

That alone was enough to alleviate a few of Emma’s concerns. Of course, she’d love to fly to London to see him at some point, but the lack of predictability that came with her job meant it likely wouldn’t be anytime soon. The only downside was the feeling that she would be putting considerably less work into the relationship this way.

Relationship. The casual way she’d thought about the term didn’t go unnoticed.

“You’d do that for me?”

Killian shrugged. “Eh. I’d do it for more cupcakes.” He laughed at the expression on her face before she kissed him.

Neither one of them had any desire to leave for the airport that afternoon, but Killian did have to head home as planned this time. “Liam will be at the office in the morning expecting to hear the results of my trip,” he told her while he packed his things. “Well, the results of his intentions for sending me over.” He shot Emma a wink and her cheeks reddened. If Liam was anything like her own older brother, his reaction to how they’d spent most of the weekend would be less than thrilled.

They drove to the airport in comfortable silence. Killian took her hand in his and rubbed his thumb lightly over her skin as she navigated through light Sunday traffic, Nirvana playing on the radio. Emma was caught off guard by his voice as he sang the words to “Heart-Shaped Box” softly under his breath. “Let me get this straight: you’re hot, funny, smart, a Marvel fan, can cook, and now you can sing. Do you fly too?”

“As a matter of fact, one of my coworkers is a pilot and offered to give me a lesson sometime-”

“Oh my gosh.”

She parked in the same lot as the last time, not wanting to be rushed through a quick goodbye at the curb. “Want me to walk in with you?” she asked. It felt less like a silly question and more like she didn’t want to let him go just yet.

“It’s fine, Swan. I’m sure you have things at home to take care of before work tomorrow.”

Killian wasn’t wrong. It didn’t make her any less disappointed. “Alright then.” She opened the trunk and helped retrieve his luggage despite his insistence that there was no need. “I guess this is it.” Her eyes flitted back and forth between his gaze and the concrete under her feet.

“I’m afraid so.” There’s a bit of reluctance in his voice as he steps forward and wraps his arms around her. “Swan, you don’t know how bloody glad I am that Liam sent me on this trip.”

“I think I have an idea.” The lump in her throat was hard to swallow.

“I know this isn’t ideal and it might be tricky at first, but we’ll figure something out and I’ll be back to see you soon. I’m not sure when just yet, but soon, okay?”

Emma nodded, hugging him a bit tighter before pulling back and pressing her lips to his. “Have a safe flight. Text me when you’re back home?”

“Of course.”

She watched as Killian disappeared from sight. The desire to go back to her apartment alone was nonexistent, but the man she cared about knew of her feelings and cared about her just as much in return. The reminder nearly made up for the distance and the time zone that separated them.

There were two new messages in her inbox when she was getting ready for bed that night, the apartment now quiet and borderline solemn.

Killian: Hello, love. Just got in a few minutes ago. I would ask if you’d like to watch something before bed, but I’m not sure how much longer I can keep my eyes open. Perhaps tomorrow?

Oh, and I know you stole my Metallica shirt.

Emma laughed, glancing in the mirror at the shirt she wore that still smelled faintly like his cologne. It’s a date. And I wanted you to have an incentive to come back other than my cupcakes.

Minx.

You love it.

I do.

She received another message not long after.

Ruby: Why am I just now finding out from MM that Killian crashed at your place??? Please tell me you got laid!

At least she had friends to keep her entertained until Killian’s next visit.

[silverfootstepswrites]

Northern Lights [8]

Everyone stop by @sariasprincy‘s page and read Hollow Point, please. Chapter 25 really inspired me to pick up this AU again.

title Ammo summary Dripping with gold and lead

Sai always grumbled that Sakura never took guards anywhere. Or if she did, that she never took enough.

“Siu sam. You’re starting to have more enemies than friends,” he had warned her about a year ago. His cigar fizzling pitifully against the wind and rain as they sat on the balcony of one of Hashirama’s apartments. The inside of the place was covered in oriental rugs and expensive vases. Sakura always complained about how tacky the decor was, but never hired someone to redecorate.

Sakura put her feet up on the arm of his chair. He glanced over at the angry red marks on her feet where her shoes had pinched and chafed her throughout the night. The ointment and bandages he had brought over sat untouched on the table beside her.

“Starting?” Sakura scoffed. She leaned her head back, letting her eyes drift shut. 

“Sai,” she exhaled a plume of poison. Brought her cigarette up to her mouth. Paused with the paper brushing her lips. “One day, someone who hates me is going to kill me. I just hope it’s not while I’m on the toilet.”

“Ugh, you’re gross, ga je,” he cringed. And she loved the way he said that. Like she really was his big sister. And he was her little brother. Like they’d grown up squabbling over the remote and passing plates at the dinner table. 

Eyes sliding open, a laugh slipping past her teeth, Sakura lifted her head. And the laugh dying out, just like her cigarette as she let it fall to the concrete. 

“Ngo hou gui,” she sighed half under her breath. 

Sai rubbed his eyes with his knuckles. “Yeah, me too, boss. I’m so fucking tired.”

Sakura wondered why she remembered that conversation with Sai. Such an uneventful night. Worthless, in the grand scheme of things. 

And it was even more confusing that it was what she remembered as she heard a terrific smash from the other room. The high-pitched sound of glass breaking, followed by footsteps crunching over the broken shards.  

“Diu,” she muttered as she reached into the space between the mattress and the headboard. Her fingers closed around something cold and metal. But as she traced her fingers along it, she realized that it wasn’t her Desert Eagle. The shape was too angular. Probably Itachi’s weapon. Her hand slid to the right, still searching. 

There were voices now, gruff. The sounds muffled by the wall and the trickling sounds of water from the bathroom. She tried to count people based on the footsteps. But that was hard. Her pointer finger found the Desert Eagle. She closed her hand around it, fishing it up. Smashing her knuckles against the headboard in her rush.

The bedroom door buckled as something smashed into it from the other side. 

Sakura grasped the sheets. Trying to figure out how she would wrap them around her body without tripping over them. She wondered if she would have time to find cover. The dresser, maybe?

The door gave in after another blow. The dark wood exploding into splinters that sprayed inward. 

“Don’t move,” a man growled in English. The Russian accent clear just from those two words. He aimed a Kalashnikov at her. She could see at least two more people behind him also wielding guns. 

Sakura knew how this usually went. Almost like a movie she had seen too many times before. The boss would demand to know who they were. Threaten them. Maybe the intruders would laugh at her discomfort. Give cryptic non-answers.

But this wasn’t a movie. 

She pulled the trigger. The bullet pierced through his head at an angle, hitting just under his chin and piercing upwards. The blood that sprayed from the first the wound, she noticed, was almost the same color as old wine. 

“You-” 

Sakura didn’t even have time to see which one of them began speaking. Because Sai appeared behind them. The silencers of his guns pressing to the backs of their heads. It didn’t actually silence the shots like the name promised. But it was more of a muted sound. The smell of metal and smoke burned into the air as the bodies slumped to the ground. 

“Shit. I really liked this suit, Boss.” Sai clicked his tongue as he looked down at his clothing sprayed with blood and what other matter had sprayed out of the wounds.

It was only then that Sakura realized that the shower was off. 

She and Sai both looked up as they heard footsteps. Easy and soft. Slightly wet against the tile. Itachi appeared in the doorway beside Sai, a towel around his waist. Water trickling down his neck, chest, and arms. Gripping the edges of his towel together at his hip. He cast a glance at the bodies on the floor before it flickered back up to Sakura. 

“You know,” he sighed. It was an exasperated noise. “One day, I hope you’ll ask me for help.”

Reaching behind the mattress, Sakura pulled up his gun. “How?”

Itachi lifted his hand off his hip to reveal another gun. Smaller. But probably still very deadly. 

Sakura held Itachi’s gaze for a long moment. Then her eyes slid back to Sai. 

“Clean this up. I want answers,” she ordered. 

“Yeah, Boss,” Sai replied, already pulling his phone out with his gloved hand. He headed out of the bedroom as he began speaking. 

Itachi moved around the pooling blood. He sat on the edge of the bed to take her hand. She watched him as he brought it up to his face. Instead of kissing it, he held it against his nose. Taking a deep breath of the fragrance of gunpowder that lingered on her fingers. 

“Shall we go?” he suggested.

“Where?”

“Does it matter?” he asked in return. 

Sakura stared at him for a long moment. And then her hand moved out of his grasp. Very slowly, eyes locking with his, she let her fingers curl around his throat. Just resting there. Water dripped from his hair, onto her hand, trickling down her forearm. 

Itachi’s expression didn’t shift. 

“We should get dressed,” was all he said. 

Her fingers flexed. And then she dropped her arm. 

“I need to shower,” Sakura declared.

It was odd that whenever she was in Tokyo, she missed Hong Kong. And whenever she was in Hong Kong, she missed Tokyo. A persistent, nagging homesickness that trailed after her like it was part of her shadow.

Sakura stared down at the massive crosswalk below. At the hoards of people scampering across like ants, even at night. So far away that their faces were just blurs. The advertisements blared out fluorescent lights from every direction. 

Tokyo hadn’t changed much in the last few years. Of course, there were always new buildings going up. The names of stores changed as the weak went out of business and new ones sprang up in their place. But the feel of this part of the  city, the ebb and flow of its people was unchanged. 

Sakura tore her gaze from the window when she heard a clink. Itachi set a glass in front of her before he settled in the seat across the table. His tumbler held two fingers of whiskey. Shimmering golden-brown in the low light. 

Had whiskey always been so pretty?

They clinked glasses together before they each took a sip. 

“A speakeasy, huh?” she sighed, eyes finding the view outside again. 

“Not to your taste?”

She didn’t know whether he was talking about the location or the wine.  So she didn’t bother answering. They drank in silence. As soon as Sakura finished her wine, she got to her feet. She caught Itachi gulping down the rest of his whiskey to catch up with her. He grabbed her jacket off the chair as he moved. 

Her heels made sharp taps against the worn tiles of the bar. And the sounds echoed off the high ceilings when she entered the stairwell. It took a few seconds for Itachi’s steps to join the cacophony. Their footfalls overlapped, noises bouncing back without any kind of rhythm or harmony. She thought she heard him click his tongue.

Itachi caught up to her halfway down the stairs. He grasped her forearm. She didn’t look at him, but she didn’t wrench out of his grip either. 

She was glad that he didn’t ask something stupid like, “Are you okay?” or “What’s wrong?”. Because both were questions that she didn’t have answers to.

“I wish you would stop walking like you’re alone. I’m right here,” he finally said. 

“Are you?” she challenged, still not looking at him. A little startled by the frostiness in her own voice.

“I am,” he replied. And then he called, “Sakura.” 

Her eyes flickered up to him. He smiled. His thumb stroking over the inside of her wrist. “I’m right here.”

Sakura looked away again. Swallowing hard. 

His thumb stroked over her wrist a few more times before he spoke again. 

“Let’s go blow off some steam,” he suggested.  

He tossed her coat over his right shoulder. His left hand slid down from her wrist to grasp her hand instead. Fingers lacing together with hers. 

And as he led her down the rest of the stairs, Sakura almost laughed. There was something so juvenile about the way he had spoken. The way he held her hand like she had always seen children doing in movies. 

For a moment, she let herself wonder what it would have been like to have had a real childhood. To go to school each day, worrying about exams. Giggling about boys with her arms linking through a friend’s. Heart pounding through first dates, first kisses. Everything tinted blush-pink.

“Kumicho,” she called. 

He looked back at her. 

Was it that he knew better than or ask? Or was it that he didn’t care enough to?

Shaking her head, Sakura felt a smile tug at the corners of her lips.

“Nothing,” she said. 

Minato kept his eyes fixed on the monitor. He rewound the clip thirty seconds. Just to watch her lift her arm and unload a bullet into the stranger. No tremor in her hands. No time wasted asking who he was or why he was there. Just a clean-

“Bang,” Minato said as she pulled the trigger. 

He rewound it again. This time, taking in the easy line of her arm and shoulder as she raised her weapon. He hit pause. Drinking in the tattoos inked into her back and arm: A koi, a tiger, and a phoenix. 

He chuckled, thumb touching his chin. And then his eyes drifted past the screen. To the guest sitting on the brown sofa in the middle of his office. 

“So tell me what you know about her, my friend,” Minato then inquired. He knew that his Japanese wasn’t perfect, but there was no need for a translator. Boss Inuzuka uncrossed his legs as he took in the question. 

Kiba grimaced as he leaned forward in his seat. His eyes moved back and forth as he thought. He debated with himself, shaking his head a little. And then, sighing, he began peeling off his leather gloves. Minato pressed his pointer finger to his temple to hold his head up as it tilted to one side. His gaze flickered to the guards flanking the door. The one on the right gave a slight nod. 

When Minato turned his attention back to Kiba, he saw that he was holding his hands up in front of him. Palms facing away from Minato. There were identical scars on his hands. Circular but jagged around the edges. The newer skin shiny and pink against the rest of his tan flesh. 

Minato had been around firearms for too long not to recognize a gunshot wound. It had been treated- the scars from sutures framing the edges of what had been direct hits. And he caught the way Kiba’s hands shook a little. Not out of fear. Nerve damage.

“She’s a bitch,” Kiba declared. 

But then he thought. And then he added, “But she can be useful.”

Minato frowned. “Can she be tamed?”

“No,” Kiba immediately told him. His eyes hard as they flickered back to his mangled hands. Because even after months of physical therapy, they would never work the way they had used to. She had made sure that he would never be able to fire a gun again. 

“Excellent,” Minato replied. 

Kiba’s chin jerked up. His gut twisted as he watched a grin spread across Minato’s mouth. Perfect teeth sparkling too-white in the dim room.

[tv-sinner-archived]

4, 25, & 26 for leverett?

4. Race and Ethnicity

Leverrett is biracial (black/white)! She’s American (though her mother is Black Creole while her father is German American).

26. Guilty Pleasure

One of the biggest guilty pleasures that Leverrett has (aside from watching really bad horror movies be herself) is that she (back when she was still on Earth) used to eat at the stash of candy meant for trick-or-treaters during Halloween once she was seen as “too old” for trick-or-treating.

27. What’s their family like? Who’s in it? What’s their relationship with them?

While in the main story aside from Mark, Leverrett is pretty much completely separated from her family from beginning to end (save for some flashbacks scenes), I will go over her childhood relationships with the family she had!

So first, we have Mark Chaplin. He is Leverrett’s brother who is four years older than she is. Growing up, Mark and Leverrett, though not entirely antagonistic to each other, they were somewhat argumentative and they would even occasionally have small prank wars with each other. Mark was always kind of the air headed jock who excelled in sports but was not so great in academics. Meanwhile, Leverrett was more of a troublemaking but cunning introvert who was much more interested in horror movies and making movie props. At the time, Mark was not aware that Leverrett was a trans girl (plus he was an ignorant teenage boy who still thought he was heterosexual in the 1970s) so he did occasionally make fun of Leverrett for being ‘gay’, ‘a sissy’, etc... While Mark didn’t quite realize that Leverrett was in fact, not cishet, this made Leverrett feel conflicted towards her brother. At the time, she felt like she needed to hide her identity from Mark (which considering her environment, it was for the best).

Of course this changes when 18 year old Leverrett went missing gets spirited away to another dimension and this immediately broke Mark’s heart. Mark sort of had a Come to Jesus moment where he realized what he had done in the past and felt guilty about how he treated Leverrett, feeling like he was partially responsible for her disappearance. Leverrett is unaware of these feelings and she assumes Mark wouldn’t have cared about her that much.... Though this would eventually change when she sees a familiar face in Hell..

Next we have Leverrett’s mother, Marie Chaplin. While Marie was the world’s okayest mom who did try her best with trying to raise her children, she was battling chronic depression during her time as a mother (and wasn’t diagnosed with it until after Leverrett’s disappearance). For a while, she was alcoholic as she was using drinking as a self destructive coping mechanism and she often felt the need to hide her depression from her family in order to function. She often tried to avoid the problem altogether, trying to avoid acknowledging her shortcomings despite trying desperately to show affection towards her kids. Leverrett’s relationship with her soured as she felt distant from her mother, having feeling little connection with her. When Leverrett disappeared, her loss dealt a heavy emotional blow to her, her believing the Leverrett hated her and ended up running away.

In GD Verse, she is seen years later, now going to therapy for coping with the loss of her child and the treatment of depression and alcoholism. At this time, she has since learned how to cope with her problems in a healthier way and has mended her relationship with her son. Still, she misses Leverrett and hopes to reconcile with her one day. Meanwhile, Leverrett has mixed feelings towards her mom. While she now understands why her mother turned to alcoholism and became distant, she still feels hurt by the years raised by her. If she were to ever see her again, Leverrett wouldn’t completely be against talking to her mother at least once... though she is anxious about how she would react to her being trans.

Then there’s her father, Richard Chaplin. Out of the family Leverrett has interacted with, he was the worst. Richard was a born-again Christian, an evangelist who was the most toxic influence in Leverrett’s life. A man who worked in the Christian music industry and distributed Chick Tracts for a living, he was the paranoid sort of person, believing Satanism was always lurking in the shadows and latched on to ant-LGBT rhetoric. While to outsiders, he seemed mild mannered and even friendly, behind closed doors, he often used his religious beliefs to minimize or rationalize abusive behaviors, especially towards his children. He often shamed his both of kids (often for things such as daring to listen to anything that was remotely not religious), criticized them, and generally used emotional/verbal abuse tactics to get his way. He was the harshest towards Leverrett, especially once he learned of her fascination with horror and music that wasn’t remotely Christian. This lead to Leverrett growing rebellious as a teenager, always feeling animosity towards her father. As a result, she ended up learning how to be deceptive in order to avoid confrontations with her father.

After her disappearance, her father would end up divorcing his wife due to their failing marriage. Leverrett is glad that she hasn’t seen her dad in years and would prefer to keep it that way.

Last (relevant) family member I’ll talk about is Leverrett’s maternal grandmother, June! Out of the family she knew, June was the most positive influence in Leverrett’s life. Whenever Leverrett visited her Grandma during the summer in New Orleans, the time spent together was among the better family times in Leverrett’s life. Often spending time with her exploring the city, going out to restaurants, telling ghost stories, watching tv/movies, and simply relaxing at her home, Leverrett had always had a special connection with her grandmother from literally day one as June made a knitted a black rabbit plushie with a red bow for the newborn Leverrett as a gift. Leverrett often talked freely with June, as she was a blunt but understanding lady who was honest and tolerant as a person.

June was a children’s author who often wrote and illustrated books. As such she was planning to write a book dedicated to Leverret, knowing she would appreciate the gesture. However, this was not to be as she passed away from a heart attack when Leverrett was only 11 years old. Despite not finishing it, she left the outline for Leverrett upon her death. At the time, Leverrett still went by her deadname. However, once she came to the realization that she was trans at 13, she ended up adopting the name “Leverrett” for herself after a character in the unfinished book as a way to honor her grandma.

[desperatelyseekingdennis]

Captain Marvel

I went into this expecting mediocrity, and was not disappointed. About on par with Ant Man and the Wasp, but without Paul Rudd to make it enjoyable.

Surprisingly, the soundtrack is absolutely the worst part of the movie. That's usually one area Marvel nails, but but here. They kept trying to use pop songs to tie the movie to the 90s, but none of them really fit the scenes. It's obviously possible to pull this off (Edgar Wright comes immediately to mind for another Ant Man comparison, or else various Iron Man scenes) so there's really no excuse.

Action and effects were passable, and the plot not the worst I've seen but still pretty bland. Despite getting a lot of screen time, I never noticed Jackson's de-aging. All told it wasn't a complete waste of money, but I definitely wish my girlfriend hadn't insisted on seeing it in the theater.

From here on out spoilers ahoy as I did deeper into my feelings about specific scenes.

(I started this right after the movie was released, and wrote a giant ten page analysis of the entire plot scene by scene.  I saved it to my drafts, forgot about it, then just now erased the entire thing and am going to try and be more focused on just the bits that don’t make sense to me)

So first of all, the “surprise twist” that drives the entire plot doesn’t work in the MCU.  The Kree have been villains in several live action properties at this point.  The entire plot to the first Guardians was that the Kree are so militaristic that a bunch of them refused to honor a peace treaty.  That they’re the put upon victims of the oppressive Skrulls just doesn’t work in this context.  Maybe if you’re a comic book fan who knows the Skrulls are *also* villains, but most viewers aren’t going to know that.  So it was obvious before they even reached Earth that Jude Law was the bad guy. They’d have been better served picking some other random alien race for her to be a part of.  Yes, I know Mar Vell is historically Kree, but he’s also historically male so clearly they don’t care that much about source material.  In a pinch, just make Mar Vell a Kree and these new guys are after her research.  

The premise that Danvers doesn’t know she’s human also doesn’t make much sense.  Did she never bleed in the six years of combat training?  Also, and maybe I’m overlooking something, but have there ever been any other white Kree?  There’s the one black guy, but even he has a sort of bluish tint.  Then there’s Jude Law and Carol being straight crackers.  ?????  Again, making not making them all Kree would have gone a long way towards fixing this.

Why did SHIELD show up at all?  Fury doesn’t believe Danvers is an alien when she claims to be one, so what exactly did they think was worth investigating?  They should have MIBed this bitch.  Either Fury is a cop that gets taken into SHIELD as a result of him killing a Skrull without training, or he’s the SHIELD agent that takes over after the cop on the scene does so.  I’m pretty sure Agents of SHIELD established that Coulson was an analyst before becoming a field agent, so using him for that roll doesn’t work well.  But given this was a GURL POWER movie, this would have been a fantastic opportunity to give Agent Hill some back story. 

In the train scene, how did she know to punch the old lady?  They’ve already established the Skrulls are so good at pretending that the Kree have to implant safe words deep in your subconscious to prove your identity, but for some reason she can spot one in a crowd of (what to her are) aliens?  For that matter, if they are telepathic, why could the one guy not identify that Fury doesn’t go by Nicholas?  That whole scene where he specifies that he only goes by Fury should have been pretty close to the surface. Even so, that scene was so bad.  It was so obviously tacked on to use as a plot device later.  The writers are aware that Fury has appeared in other movies, right? That he’s not an original character? What happened in the next twenty years that made him reevaluate people calling him Nick?  <Danvers reads his ID> “Thank’s Nicholas” “Only one person calls me Nicholas, and you aren’t my momma.  Its Fury.” Was that so hard?  

The scene with the biker was so bad.. It could have worked if they’d done something with the “why don’t you smile” line, but they didn’t.  He said it, end scene. ??? It also felt like it might have been a Terminator reference that also fell flat, but that might just be my imagination.  As it stands, it only serves as a wink and a nudge at their SJW targets, without actually providing anything for the rest of the audience.

Why is the light speed engine so important?  Mar Vell seems convinced it will bring peace to the galaxy, and Jude Law at least pretends to think it will allow them to conquer it.  But they already have the weird window portal things.  I guess the weird portals are static in space, so I can see where FTL travel independent of them would be beneficial, but hardly the game changer its being made out to be.

On the subject of pointless McGuffins, lets review the history of the Tesseract prior to this movie.  Odin loses it on Earth, where Red Skull discovers it  The Real Captain steals it from Red Skull, but loses it in the ocean where eventually Howard Stark will recover it and give it to SHIELD.  It stays with SHIELD until Loki steals it in the opening scene of the Avengers.  Its stolen like five more times before eventually Thanos uses it to murder Spiderman.  Nice chain of possession, no unexplained gaps.

Post Captain Marvel, we learn that along the way somehow the Air Force gets hold of it, where an alien managed to steal it and hide it on her space ship for at least six years before SHIELD, completely unaware of its existence, stumbles upon it.  Again, the writers are aware that there were other MCU movies before this one, right?  This isn’t really a problem per se, its just dumb.  Its answering a question nobody had, complicating a narrative for no reason except that they couldn’t come up with a non-Infinity Stone McGuffin.

When they fly into space and can’t find the space ship, Danvers is just like “Open sesame” and the ship decloaks.  ???  How worthless is Kree cloaking technology if it can be turned off remotely by somebody who doesn’t even know its there?  

It was pointed out on Twitter that the song the Supreme Intelligence dances to that she pulled out of Danver’s memories would have been released after Danvers moved to Hela. I can’t confirm that because I don’t remember what song was playing, but if true that’s pretty bad writing.  People will write it off as “she probably heard it in the car with Fury” but you can’t just invent a scene to fill in a plot hole.  That’s the writers’ job, and they didn’t do it.

There’s more to unpack in that Supreme Intelligence scene, but they mostly come down to “what are the rules of this technology?”  

Then the climax.  Oh my god the climax.  She thinks real hard and destroys the little chip that’s been blocking her powers (bee the dubs, until they explained otherwise I thought the little chip was the source of her powers), then suddenly she’s God.  No ramping up, no learning curve.  Just “oh, I can fly now and direct fire from a fucking attack cruiser doesn’t hurt me” and the movie is over.  What the actual fuck.  I can’t even put into words how bad the last act was.  

So I won’t.  Instead, I’ll talk about Thor: Ragnarok.  At the beginning of the movie, he’s cocky as hell.  He’s stupid over powered, and he knows it.  So when his sister appears he ends up losing his hammer because he’s so sure of himself that he doesn’t take a moment to think about the situation.  Then he winds up on the Junk Planet, and he’s still cocky.  He’s going to fight the champion and get off the planet then go kill his sister no big deal.  But he loses there, too.  He’s starting to lose faith in himself, but it doesn’t matter because he’s the only one that can do what needs to be done.  Finally he’s able to get off planet and back to his sister... Where he loses again. Now he’s hit rock bottom.  His people are going to die because he wasn’t strong enough to save them.  At that moment, he has a literal deus ex machina moment (in that Odin is a literal god) and regains all his power and proceeds to kick all the names and take all the ass.  (that was meant to be an Infinity War reference and not a suggestion about what his intentions re: Valkyrie, honest)  

At this point in the movie, he’s basically at the same level Danvers is at the end of hers.  Completely unstoppable, unreasonable power levels all around.  The difference is he earned his position.  He fought for it, almost died for it several times. Danvers just... thought real hard.  At any point in the movie did she lose a fight?  Was she ever in any real danger?  Even in the opening scene when she’s sparring with Jude Law its made clear that he’s incapable of beating her which is why he’s pushing her to learn to hold back.  And that’s with the power dampener.  Thor Ragnarok has *so* many problems, but at least they gave the hero a journey to go on.  And that’s accounting for the fact that he starts off pretty ridiculously powerful.  

I’m officially out of time and this is getting out of hand so I’m just going to wrap this up.  This was actually shorter than what I originally had.

[itsybitsylemonsqueezy]

So I finally saw Endgame. And I’m not remotely sorry I waited this long. 

But now I do understand why when I came back to tumblr there was absolutely nothing on my dash about it. 

I saw it last night and I’ve been so angry this whole time I couldn’t sleep. What even the fuck was that?! Look, as a Thor fan, I’ve grown accustomed to having my baby written poorly. but WHAT the FUCK was THAT?!?!?!

Holy christ. Holy god. Just... just... I’m so angry. 

I thought Tony’s arc was good, but, as usual, he carried the fucking movie because Tony is the only character they can consistently write. Everyone else eventually devolved into trashfire. Well, that’s not true, Scott Lang sure got some good shit in. So, if you’re an Ant-Man or an Iron Man fan, this movie was a good time for you.

But everyone else... ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh my god. 

I’m 50-50 on Steve. There were some good Steve moments, I liked that FINALLY we got a taste of the consequences of Civil War that I have BEEN WAITING FOR. It fucked me up watching Tony pull off his heart and shove it into Steve’s hand saying, “Take this and hide behind it.” I... wow. holy fucking shit. I’ve been waiting for THAT. And Steve did a good thing when Tony comes back, all fucked up about Peter, and Steve has the good grace to say “We lost him” to acknowledge Tony’s guilt and to understand, apparently for the first time, that Tony always thinks it’s his fault and he will carry this burden right into the fucking grave. Thanks for retroactively paying attention to Tony’s character arc Steve. 

So, that bit was good. But then we married him to Peggy? Really? Like, Peggy Carter is a wonderful lady but... we’ve spent the majority of Steve’s arc digging him out of this, getting him to move on. And I know every team movie has amnesia and doesn’t understand how character development works, but you have all of Steve’s relationships right here. Bucky’s alive, Sam’s alive, but no, Steve goes back in time to live out his days peacefully with some lady? Again, not that Peggy doesn’t matter, she does, but.... oh my GOD WHAT EVEN WAS THE POINT of introducing Bucky back into Steve’s life if not to force him to live in the NOW? Why bother giving Steve ANY friends??? I just... UGGGGGHHHH. And doing that ACTIVELY CREATES MORE PROBLEMS. What if they had kids??? We don’t know if the super soldier serum can get passed on. What if the descendants of Steve Roger are running around??? I just... I get that we had to put these characters at peace and they tried to give them a “happy ending” but... this seems like a backtracking. Steve could still pass on the mantle in the present without totally fucking over his character arc. 

Bruce... was fine. Thought it was a little rough how they addressed the Bruce/Natasha situation but as apparently everyone retroactively thinks that was a bad idea... I guess this is what we get. Also, I love how we nixed all of the possible ships with Valkyrie in this one. Which I guess follows what with NO ONE knowing how to pick up from Ragnarok. I mean... okay, I guess. 

But SPEAKING OF NATASHA.... fuck you. Just... fuck you. Clint easily could have died there and it would have been justified and it would have been fine. It wouldn’t have affected the plot in any way. You do sort of double-down on taking fathers away from their families by killing both Clint and Tony, but... Clint’s character has been a trashfire this whole time. The man wanted to go to atone for what he had done in his family’s absence. And I know Marvel offered us the peace offering of lining up every female Marvel character to protect Spiderman to prove how many female characters they have and it was really nice to see Pepper matter again and that great scene with Frigga and that’s all really sweet but... you still killed Nat for no reason. And definitively made her one of the two people that cannot ever come back, Incidentally, the only two people who can never come back are women, so. No matter how you sliced that, it was always going to be one-sided one way or another. 

But I really do think it was justified to sacrifice Clint to the Soul Stone. Clint had other people in his life, his family, he was functional, supposedly, before all the shit went down. Natasha has always had nothing, Clint’s always been remarkably important to her. As a sacrifice, killing Clint feels worse than killing Nat. And Nat’s been trying to die for her found family this whole time, those scattered people she was trying to hold on to, that she struggled to function for. It just would have been nice to reward all her trials by giving her her family back and letting someone else take the bullet for a change. *siiiiiigh* 

Nebula was great, I liked what was done with her. I fully gave up on our time travel making any sense when she shot her past self and then didn’t blip out of existence. I guess the argument for that is that the Nebula that exists branched out further back in the time line so killing herself from slightly further ahead does nothing, but... still, our time travel was a hot mess and y’all know it. 

I think I’ve covered all the major players now except... my baby. So, the first half was great for Thor. I love that he was the one to behead Thanos. I love that he was SUPER fucked up about his failures, his failure to protect his family, to protect his people, his failure to make good on all his promises. Absolutely accurate, Thor WOULD be wrecked by what he couldn’t do. And, sure, okay, he drank enough to give him beer gut, I... fine. I do NEED to point out that he’s a god, his metabolism is different so the quantity he would need to drink to even achieve that level of pudge is beyond reckoning. And, as a god, he should have been able to drop it too. But Okay.

And then there’s that sweet scene with Frigga. I did love that we brought back an underserved female character and let her have a moment with her son. I enjoyed that a lot. What I did not like was Everything That Came After That. I don’t like that they wrote Thor tackling his guilt as a stumble in his self-confidence. I don’t like that because Thor’s depressed now, he’s also stupid. But, y’know, no one has EVER written Thor’s intelligence well (Except you Taika, you, as always, did nothing wrong and I love you) so why the fuck should that change now. I don’t like that Thor ABSOLUTELY should have used the gauntlet the first time because then MAYBE YOU WOULDN'T FORGET TO WISH BACK ASGARD. Like that’s an actual, genuine plot hole. Half of Asgard is STILL DEAD and that’s never addressed because y’know fuck the Asgardians I guess. What they lost doesn’t really matter because that didn’t happen during the Mass Dusting so fuck your problems Thor. No no, it’s fine, it’s absolutely fine that Thor had to destroy his homeland, lost half his people, lost every meaningful relationship he had and then FUCKS OFF WITH THE GUARDIANS?!?! FUCK THIS FUCKING SHIT! 

No no ABSOLUTELY FUCK YOU. FUCK. YOU. I am SO mad. God, what a CARDINAL misreading of Thor’s character! And HOW DARE YOU use that “Be who you are, not who you’re supposed to be” BULLSHIT! How DARE YOU use Frigga’s words to negate Thor’s character development! We settled this back in THE FIRST FUCKING MOVIE but no one can EVER be bothered to write Thor right so FUCK ME I GUESS. Absolutely FUCK THIS. No yeah no, Thor who has been constructively making amends and shouldering his father’s mistakes FROM THE BEGINNING no no, he’d just fuck off, abandon the people he failed, yeah no it’s FINE That’s ABSOLUTELY FINE yeah Thor feels absolutely no loyalty to his people or desire to do right by them, fuck every last one of you sons of bitches. 

And I won’t lie that I am personally pissed about Loki but this disgusting, final betrayal of who Thor is is the Last Fucking Straw. And if the point was to retire the originals WHY DID YOU SADDLE HIM WITH THE GUARDIANS WHO OBJECTIVELY ARE NOT FINISHED?! Like, they have past Gamora now who has no relationships with any of these fucks, their shit is NOT straightened and you’re just throwing Thor into the mix??? What the fuck for?! Just let him be king of Asgard and then you NEVER HAVE TO SEE HIM AGAIN. That was his retirement! Ruling his people like a GODDAMN MONARCH. Y’KNOW. LIKE HE’S ACTUALLY GOOD AT AND HAS ALWAYS WANTED TO DO. *screaming* 

I can’t, I just... and “Asgard already has a king” exCUSE ME?! Valkyrie’s only been back with her people for FIVE YEARS after being gone GOD KNOWS HOW LONG. Literally LONGER THAN YOUR LIFESPAN THOR. And Valkyrie ISN’T a leader! She’s a soldier! What did we watch her lead??? What exactly are yoru examples of her credentials??? What proof do we have that the, I remind you, GREATLY traumatized, Asgardian people even trust her?! It heals far more damage to let the prodigal son redeem his family and make up for the mistakes. And this isn’t to shit on Valkyrie, she’d probably do fine ruling Asgard but she DOESN’T want to, there’s absolutely nothing in her character description that says ruler and this was all just a fucking excuse to let Thor go off and play Big Lebowski with the Guardians of the Galaxy and I am PISSED TO HIGH HELL about it! 

The thing that pisses me off the most is that it would not have materially changed their plot in anyway to just bring Asgard back, let Thor use the Infinity Gauntlet. Yes it would have fucked him up, but does that really matter? You weren’t using Thor for jackshit anyway. Let Hulk triple team Thanos instead, you know you want to. As you bothered to write Bruce like a person today. What would it have changed to bring back Asgard? Other than y’know providing more hands to fight Thanos’ army. Like, did anyone else notice that Wakanda is apparently the only army we know? That was some fine ass tokenism at the end there, woof. Letting Thor use the gauntlet was their last chance to let him be the person he actually is. And... instead they trashed them. Because they have never cared about Thor. They NEVER believed they could sell him, never had confidence in him as a character, never marketed him effectively, convinced themselves that the audience didn’t care for Thor... and so here we are. 

I’m so... mad. About all of that shit. That not once could these writers do right by Thor. I’m just going to go back to living in Ragnarok, fuck all of this.