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thebibliomancer · 2 years

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Essential Avengers: West Coast Avengers #23: SHOWTIME! Lost in Space-Time: Conclusion!

August, 1987

VENGEANCE cries the Mockingbird

Is that why someone to killed the Mockingbird? Because of her throwing cowboys off of cliffs?

Still not a good reason to kill a mockingbird, if you ask me.

And stop being so judgy, screaming sky faces.

ANYWAY.

The increasingly lengthy last time section.

Last times on West Coast Avengers! -sob-

The West Coast Avengers went to New Mexico to recruit La Espirita to the team but instead ran into Dominus and his desert-themed quirky miniboss squad. The Avengers wound up sent back in time to cowboy times with a broken time machine.

After a quick cowboy times adventure, the Avengers resolve to go back to Ancient Egypt times and get Nice Rama-Tut to fix the time machine. Unfortunately, Phantom Rider yoinks Mockingbird away while the team is going back in time to 1776, leaving Mockingbird trapped in cowboy times and under the thrall of Phantom Rider, who uses a potion to make her love him.

Two-Gun Kid breaks her out of this mind control by putting on inaccurate Hawkeye cosplay and Mockingbird teams up with Two-Gun Kid and Rawhide Kid to track down Phantom Rider. But while they want to bring him to justice, she wants to kill him for violating her free will.

The West Coast Avengers take a brief stopover in 1776 before heading to Ancient Egypt but during that brief delay, Wonder Man accidentally blows up Hawkeye’s arm and also the team meets one of La Espirita’s ancestors Carlotta. Hawkeye gives her a note to pass down to La Espirita and the narrative follows her family and that note for a couple generations before it winds up in La Espirita’s possession where she is completely oblivious to it.

The Avengers head back in time to Ancient Egypt but Nice Rama-Tut can’t help them because he’s too sleepy so they go further back in time to Ancienter Egypt when Rama-Tut is a jerk. Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t help them then either.

The team tangentially interacts with but doesn’t interfere with the plots of the Fantastic Four and Dr Strange’s own adventures during this exact time in Ancient Egyptian Marvel history. In the end, the team misses their chance with Jerk Rama-Tut, Dr Strange, and the Fantastic Four, winding up stranded when all head Back to the Future.

But Hawkeye made a deal with Khonshu, Egyptian God of Giving Moon Knight a Headache, who heals Hawkeye’s exploded arm and also agrees to help get word to the Fantastic Four in the future.

Which Khonshu does by prodding Present Day Moon Knight to go to California, go to where La Espirita has been helping Hank Pym get his groove back, and pointing at the note that’s been in her family Bible the whole time and yelling LOOK AT THIS PLOT POINT.

So alerted, Hank, La Espirita, and Moon Knight go to borrow the Fantastic Four’s time machine but Dominus broke into their home off-panel and broke it.

That is way too much plot!

Conclude please!

Okay, so the last thing I mentioned is where we start.

Dominus broke into Four Freedoms Plaza (1987) and broke the smart guy’s stuff.

The Thing: “Some bearded guy an’ his walkin’ wildlife exhibit smushed the FF’s time machine!”

Hank Pym: “Smushed it maybe, Ben -- but it is a machine! It can get unsmushed!”

Which just makes Ben Thing wish that romances could be unsmushed. Geez, Ben. How very Grimm.

Hank has to explain the whole note from Hawkeye thing which makes Reed very fascinated about the part where Moon Knight somehow knew it was there.

Mr Fantastic: “To coin a phrase, it’s fantastic! How did you know it was there, Moon Knight? I’ve had a theory that your powers come from an Egyptian god -- !”

Moon Knight: “And I have a theory that exposing secrets to the light of day robs them of their power, Dr. Richards!”

Mr Fantastic: “Point taken!”

I have no idea why Mr Fantastic would have that theory. I do like Moon Knight telling him to butt out though.

Anyway, regarding the time machine, Mr Fantastic studied it extensively... ten years ago. So he remembers most of the circuitry but can’t really repair it without some kind of electronics expert.

Hank says cool, I’m some kind of electronics expert, I made the world’s worst artificial intelligence without even trying.

So Hank and Reed get to work on the time machine. With screwdrivers. Because that’s how you fix a time machine.

Much different than the post Secret Invasion Hank and Reed relationship, Reed isn’t a huge dick. He compliments Hank’s expertise as they work on the time machine and on the cool flying robot airship Rover.

Rover the cool flying robot airship that apparently doubles as the Hank Pym cheerleading section.

Rover, the cool flying robot airship: “Dr. Pym is a scientific adventurer, Dr. Richards! He could have made anything to help him -- I’m just lucky he made me!”

I’d be embarrassed if something I made said that unprompted in front of anyone. But Hank just explains that he gave Rover the consciousness of a loyal ant, like his old ant friend Korr. So not a dog but definitely dog like in being very impressed with and loyal to Hank.

Fantastic Son Franklin Richards is also impressed and comes over to start petting Rover like a dog.

Hank has further cause to show off his new confident Dr Pym self when the Thing accidentally trips and drops a big indeterminate science thing toward where Hank and Reed are working.

This is truly an upgrade to Hank’s powers. Because the only power more powerful than ants is a utility belt esque ability to pull whatever helpful thing straight out of nowhere.

How often will Hank need a brace that can support 30 tons? Doesn’t matter, he has the option.

THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO, in 2940 BC, the West Coast Avengers learn that when a dictator fucks off without a real replacement government ready to step in, you get a civil war.

The Rama-Tut loyalists are in particular very perturbed about this shift in Ancient Egypt’s political reality.

Random loyalist: “Pharaoh Rama-Tut made Egypt a powerful nation!”

Hawkeye: “He used you like slaves to do it!”

Another random loyalist: “Not us! We were the capital’s citizens! We made slaves of the lower classes!”

Okay, just go ahead and kick their asses, guys and Tigra.

Hawkeye makes an executive decision that fighting an entire disgruntled city is bad strategy and that they should withdraw to Khonshu’s temple. Because Khonshu’s priests are not going to be upset about Rama-Tut being gone.

His reign wasn’t great for priests in general.

Wonder Man, lifting a half-dozen men at once, takes issue with the retreat order.

Wonder Man: “Why, Hawkeye? We can’t let them think we’re afraid of them!”

Iron Man: “The man said ‘come on,’ Wonder Man! Worry about your image when you’re in 1987! What other choice do we have, except to kill them all?”

Wonder Man: “Watch the hand, Iron Man!”

So I see he’s still got a chip on his shoulder.

Tigra: “Break it up, you two! The temple’s this way!”

Iron Man: “Tigra, if he won’t work with the team --- ”

Wonder Man: “If he keeps making cracks about my movie career --- ”

Tigra: “RRROWW!”

And there’s no arguing with rrroww, really.

So the Avengers West Coast flee to the temple of Khonshu and the priests push the heavy stone door closed as soon as they get in.

Considering their secret tunnels secret tunnelssss, I guess they’re not too worried about being locked in.

Hawkeye thanks them for the help, considering the West Coast Avengers failed to do what Hawkeye promised Khonshu they’d do, get rid of Rama-Tut.

The priests say ‘no its cool, you did good, Rama-Tut is gone’ but when Hawkeye says that that was just the Fantastic Four, the West Coast Avengers didn’t contribute, the priest explains a sequence of nonsense events justifying the West Coast Avengers being jammed into the background of two comics, one which was already running in the background of the original Fantastic Four take.

Time for contrivances!

So. When the West Coast Avengers fought all those robots but seemingly failed because Dr Strange got locked in the glass sarcophagus anyway?

They actually delayed the robots long enough that Dr Strange was able to astral project out before the force field went up.

And with Dr Strange’s astral self roaming freely, he could use his mystic arts to turn the Thing back to his human self temporarily. Which let Ben escape his shackles and free the rest of the Four.

Who then forced Rama-Tut to flee Back to the Future.

SO THUS ITS ALL THANKS TO THE WEST COAST AVENGERS, IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT.

God says so. Specifically Khonshu.

Given that they’re trapped in the past for an indeterminate length of time, Hawkeye starts making some medium term plans.

He asks if the priests have anything he can carve so he can make weapons for the Khonshu side of the civil war.

And since he doesn’t expect everyone to master archery, he’s going to make simpler projectile weapons like darts, boomerangs, and throwing irons.

AKA Moon Knight’s random bullshit!

Apparently invented by Hawkeye all along!

Time travel is a funny thing.

In the present times of 1987, Moon Knight reflects on how out of place he feels involved in superhero biz.

Sure, his life is superhero biz after being healed from near-death by a Khonshu statue. And also stealing its cool status cloak to wear around and become the Moon’s Knight of Vengeance.

(Lets ignore that his original origin was some jerks hiring him to beat up a werewolf)

Based on what Marc Moon Knight thought the statue wanted, he devoted his new life to a war on crime.

Then he went crazy and separately also had four personalities. So he gave up being Moon Knight, leaving the costume in a random trash can because Spider-Man is a bad influence on everyone.

Then his mind voices drew him back to Egypt where he found a different part of Khonshu’s temple and some priests who gave him the darts, boomerangs, and throwing irons that (unbeknowst to Moon Knight) Hawkeye just decided to make.

Moon Knight: “Yes... this high-tech world of Avengers and Fantastic Fours has nothing to do with one like me...!”

Womp womp.

Anyway, back in 1876, Mockingbird tracks down Phantom Rider. Again.

Mockingbird: “You can’t get away from me! You told me too often about the peak where the gods announced 'the son of the spirits’! That may impress the locals, but you’re dealing with a 20th century woman now, you freak -- a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, trained to see with clear eyes when she’s not drugged by a psychopath -- an Avenger -- who’s come to AVENGE!”

Phantom Rider suddenly appears floating in thin air off the cliff and tells her to buzz off or he’ll have to kill her to preserve the sanctity of the peak.

Except she’s not impressed by him anymore and jabs her staff backwards, away from him and hits him in the gut where he really is.

The floating man trick because... yeah, another of his tricks.

She tells him he underestimates her because he only knew a potion-addled version of her.

Phantom Rider tries to defend drugging a woman by claiming that he had no choice but to knock her over the back of the head before she could leave without getting a chance to know him. And no, the fact that she had a husband didn’t matter to him.

OBVIOUSLY, if she met Phantom Rider first, she would have chosen him instead.

But if she’s going to be like this, maybe he kill her and marry her ghost?

So she throws her battle staves at him and Phantom Rider stumbles off the cliff.

But: he does catch himself and commands her to pull him up.

Which. Was the wrong tone to take with her, honestly.

Anyway.

One hundred years later, in 1987, the Thing and La Espirita catch up.

Because they were both not-Avengers who hung out with the West Coast Avengers for a while.

What has La Espirita been up to? Why, she’s decided to accept god’s will. She’s always been religious and she’s been wondering why she got these powers but what the heck god wanted her to be a cool superhero.

The Thing says its cool she’s back with the West Coast Avengers since he didn’t think it was fair the way Hawkeye kept hounding him to join while ignoring her. But Bonita doesn’t plan to join the team now.

BECAUSE SHE’S FOLLOWING GOD’S WILL AND GOD HAS OTHER PLANS FOR HER.

Who knows whether she has special insight or whether she’s just following the same gut feelings that other religious people do.

So she says its good that Ben has reconciled with his Fantastic Friends, which Ben affirms, although not enthusiastically. Because he had that whole thing where he started mutating more craggishly and then moved in with Mole Man who he thought was his friend but Mole Man still wanted to destroy the surface world so Ben moved back in with the Fantastic Four but its just awkward that Alicia and Johnny are dating.

La Espirita: “That doesn’t sound to me like you’ve reconciled, Ben!”

The Thing: “Ya got good ears, lady!”

Anyway, while they’re were one room over catching up, Reed and Hank finished fixing the time machine.

Reed gets ready to dump Franklin on the Powers (parents of the Power Pack) so the Fantastic Four can help go back in time and rescue the West Coast Avengers.

But Hank says This Is Something He Needs To Do Himself. Well, La Espirita is coming too. They’re the West Coast Avengers’ friends so they’re going to see this through. Oh and Moon Knight can come. But no Reeds allowed.

It’s probably to limit the cast but its incredibly funny that Hank goes ‘hey can we borrow your time machine but we absolutely don’t want you to come with us’

Anyway, its good that the Fantastic Four don’t come because the cast is sort of bloated.

And Hank and co are going to make it right to the West Coast Avengers without any trouble.

Just appearing right where they are.

Despite Hawkeye’s note being vague about Rama-Tut and not saying which year, Hank just knows to go to the same day that the Fantastic Four chased Rama-Tut off. But a bit after.

Hawkeye: “I told you guys! That note was the longest shot I ever tried, but Hawkeye the archer makes his longshots!"

Its funny that of all the things they tried, the note Hawkeye wrote with his inkjet arrow on a scrap of petticoat that he asked a random woman to shove into a Bible that then (a) god had to send a masked vigilante to go point at the Bible is the one plan for getting back to the present that actually worked.

Although it seemed obvious with all the time spent on tracking the Bible to the present.

Moon Knight finds himself very confused because Khonshu’s cool priests from Ancient Egypt are the same priests Moon Knight moon meets in the 20th century.

And their only reply to that is

Priest of Khonshu: “Welcome to the house of eternity, o chosen of Khonshu!”

Then they explain to the (West Coast) Avengers how Khonshu fulfilled his bargain with Hawkeye by using Moon Knight. But that also Hawkeye has earned himself some favor from Khonshu by being the one to create Moon Knight’s weapons.

And heck maybe he just kinda likes Hawkeye.

Priest of Khonshu: “He is, after all, the take of vengeance... Avenger!”

Moon Knight is going to be an Avenger but imagine if Khonshu joined. I mean, Thor does it. But I demand bird skull Khonshu. He’s my preferred Khonshu aesthetic.

Anyway, Hawkeye is tired of this subplot and tells the priests he’s gotta gtfo. Now that they have a working time machine, he’s not going to be separated from Mockingbird for much longer!

Meanwhile(?), in 1876, the Comanche recover Phantom Rider’s broken body from the bottom of the mountain to give him a hero’s burial. Which Mockingbird privately derides with “There’s no accounting for taste!”

The Comanche tell Mockingbird that Phantom Rider will definitely return from the dead at some point (because he’s “he who rides the night winds” and his spirit will live forever, or something) so no need to grieve.

Which she isn’t but doesn’t feel the need to correct them on.

Mockingbird also thinks to herself that if there’s one good thing about being trapped in cowboy times its that she won’t have to explain Phantom Rider’s death to Hawkeye and the other Avengers.

Cause. Y’know. The Avengers are big into that no killing thing?

Anyway, Hawkeye and the other Avengers and also cowboy pals show up.

It’s a nice reunion after they’ve been split up so many issues!

Slightly shadowed by knowing that Phantom Rider’s death is going to rear its ugly head at some point. Definitely going to, since Mockingbird very much doesn’t want any of her present day friends to learn about it.

And she already thought up a likely way they could, since the modern day Phantom Rider on the modern day the Rangers is supposedly this Phantom Rider’s ghost.

Although he’s met her before, right? When the Rangers were mind-controlled by a demon Shooting Star? Wonder why he wouldn’t have mentioned it then, since it definitely would have already happened from his perspective if he is the ghost of the Phantom Rider she “but I don’t have to save you”’d off a cliff.

Anyway.

Hawkeye does ask what happened to Phantom Ghost Rider because Two-Gun told him about the mind control potion and Hawkeye kinda wants to punch the guy in his face.

Mockingbird lies and tells Hawkeye that Phantom Rider killed himself which Hawkeye instantly accepts.

Hawkeye also says goodbye to his cowboy friends. Especially to his cowboy best friend, Two-Gun Kid.

He asks him if he still is so bored that he wants to come Back to the Future again but Two-Gun isn’t ready for that yet.

But I’m ready for this to wrap up so Back to the Future go the West Coast Avengers and their three special guest stars!

The time stream sure is pink.

!! Is that why Kang the Conqueror is master of time?

Anyway, I’m ready for this to be over but this just ends the lost in space-time part of the story. I guess the story shouldn’t end without the Avengers and guests confronting Dominus again.

I guess.

Follow @essential-avengers because too much pink energy warps space-time. You heard it here. Like and reblog because I think Kang is actually more magenta with his costume and not really pink.

#avengers #west coast avengers #essential avengers #essential marvel liveblogging #Phantom Rider #screaming sky faces #hawkeye #wonder man #tigra #iron man #mockingbird #hank pym #moon knight #la espirita #fantastic four #two gun kid #rawhide kid #rover the talking airship that loves Hank Pym #soon this will end

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maximoffcarter · 3 years

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Time goes by.

Pairings: Natasha x reader (frienship), Wanda x reader.

Summary: After the snap, y/n and Natasha tried to move on with their lives as hard as it is; y/n misses Wanda terribly, but knows Natasha is always there by her side. But what happens when she's not anymore?

A/n: I don't know where this came from, but I ended up writing it in a depressive moment and it came out like this. At first I thought it didn't make sense but I wanted to share it with all of you. Also, I feel like I'm preparing myself again to say goodbye to Nat...but yep. I'm running out of ideas even if I still have some requests and some more to post, so if you have any requests, my ask and messages are open!

Y/n had always been an optimistic girl, always trying to push people to do their best, always trying to get them to do whatever they wanted to do and always with a smile on their face, she was sometimes that annoying girl that always tried to make things better for everyone; to say the least, she was the opposite of Natasha. Not that she wasn’t positive, but Natasha had her own way to show things, she was a badass, while y/n tried her best to not show that side of her, unless they were on missions. Natasha had been a sister to her since forever, missions together, sometimes with Clint, but they always stuck together, supporting each other and being the people they needed there.

Natasha had been the one to get y/n out of that dark place she always had to be in, doing missions she had never wanted to do, or just being in places she didn’t want to stay in. Joining the avengers had seemed pointless, she had wanted a normal life out of anything that had to do with fights or missions, but she would do it for Nat. And thanks to that, she got to meet Wanda, even if it took her a very long time to really get to tell her about her feelings, it had been worth it; also all the pushing and long talks with Nat, she had helped a lot.

So when Thanos happened, of course Natasha was always there for y/n, and y/n was there for her. It was the two of them for a while, Clint had disappeared, Steve tried to keep living his life in his own way, Tony was nowhere to be found, Bruce also disappeared, and the rest…they were all gone. They both tried to get any idea, any plan to get them back, but it wasn’t easy, so on some days they just decided to keep living and have their own little fun, even if they always ended up crying together. Y/n missed Wanda terribly, Natasha knew that, but y/n always tried to hide it.

When they finally got a plan, it almost seemed like Natasha knew what was going to happen next or as if she had expected something to happen. The day before, they had taken the time to prepare for the mission, it wasn’t going to be easy, but it was something they had agreed on doing. Y/n had spent most of her time in Wanda’s room, afraid of what may happen, afraid that it wouldn’t work, afraid of everything really. It had been years, years of suffering, years of crying, years of not having her by her side, but she was also thankful she had not been alone at all.

Y/n smiled softly as she looked around and decided to leave the room. She closed the door quietly and as she looked up, she noticed Natasha’s door room open, she made her way to the room and smiled softly as she found Natasha sitting on her bed. She slowly made her way in and closed the door behind her, making Natasha look up at her.

“Do you think it will work?” Natasha asked quietly.

Y/n shrugged. “We can only hope.”

Natasha nodded as she offered a tired smile. She padded the empty space beside her as she laid down. Y/n joined her a few seconds later and looked up at the ceiling just like Natasha, suddenly feeling Natasha grabbing her hand and intertwining their fingers.

“Do you remember that one mission where we had to stay in Mexico for a few days and we stayed near this beautiful beach? Every night we would go lay on the sand. We barely got any sleep for how painfully annoying the mission was.” Natasha chuckled softly.

Y/n joined her and nodded. “We also had a lot of tequila. It wasn’t that bad.” She grinned as she looked at Natasha, biting her lip softly. “Are you afraid?”

Natasha looked at her and smiled. “I don’t know. I want to believe that everything will be okay, that we will get everyone back.”

“But?”

Natasha smiled. “But we never know what can happen.” She sighed. “But also, you’ll get your witch back. I know you miss her more than anything.”

“I do. And that’s what makes me happy about all this.” Y/n smiled. “But something just doesn’t fit right.”

“Aren’t you miss ‘it’s all gonna be great guys! We can do this!’” Natasha mocked her as they both laughed.

“Ass.” Y/n laughed. “I mean yeah but…everything has changed in these past years. I’m afraid.”

“Everything will be okay.” Natasha smiled as she leaned in and kissed y/n’s forehead. “We’ll be okay.”

That night, both of them had gone to sleep with a clear mind, after many hours of laughter, jokes, memories and just talking about anything they could think of. It had been a night to remember for both of them. They had slept throughout the whole night, y/n in Natasha’s arms, both of them finally feeling like things could really get much better, and soon everything would go back to normal; it had finally been a peaceful night. The next day, everyone prepared what they needed to go ahead with the mission, they all had been serious at first, focused on the things they were doing. Natasha and y/n found each other before they all reunited and for some reason, y/n felt the need to hug Natasha, no words needed.

Space seemed to be the best place they had gone to so far, it had been the best experience they had, until they got to Vormir. Everything had happened too fast, they didn’t have time to think things through, not when both of them were stubborn. The last thing y/n remembers was trying to hold Natasha’s hand tightly to stop her from falling, Natasha looked at her with love and sadness at the same time,

“N-Nat…don’t do this to me. Don’t leave me!” Y/n cried out.

The last words she heard were ‘it’s okay’ and ‘I adore you’, the next thing happened too quickly, a scene she didn’t want to remember. She woke up in water surrounding her, she sat up confused until she noticed the small stone on her hand, bringing memories back to her. She sobbed uncontrollably as she looked down at the stone, she had lost Natasha, she wouldn’t be able to bring her back. She yelled at the top of her lungs as she cried; if this didn’t work, she was going to be heartbroken.

____________________

It felt selfish. It felt selfish to feel a little happiness in her. It felt selfish to smile. It was hard, but she couldn’t help the happiness she felt as soon as she saw Wanda. After the battle, after them winning, she ran to Wanda and hugged her tightly, crying as she buried her face on Wanda’s neck, crying tears of happiness mixed with sadness. She couldn’t get any words out, she couldn’t really talk about it right now, but she knew that after this, it was going to be hard to hold it in together.

They barely talked when they went back to safety, no words were needed when they both knew what was going on in their minds. They both showered together, and Wanda held y/n the whole time, she could feel her pain, she could feel the sadness and it made her feel the same way because even if she wasn’t as close to Nat as y/n was, she still loved Natasha, she had helped her through so much and she couldn’t believe either that she was gone.

The next day, Tony’s funeral happened. It was unbelievable to think that they had lost two members, they both sacrificed their lives to save the world. Y/n said nothing, just kept holding Wanda’s hand and she stood by her side the whole time. They both had gone back to their hotel room, y/n wanting to shut down entirely, but was also scared that she would lose Wanda too, so she pulled Wanda with her to bed and hugged her close to her, never wanting to let go.

The next few days were the same, Wanda would go get them some food and bring it back to their room so y/n would have something to eat, but she barely finished her plate and then went back to lay down, sometimes to sleep, sometimes to cry, but mostly she wanted Wanda to always be there with her. She stood up to go to the bathroom and take a shower, but even then, she always asked Wanda to join her. It broke Wanda’s heart to see her like this, she knew y/n wanted to be okay for her and wanted to make up for the time they lost, but the sadness took over her, she knew she missed Natasha terribly, she didn’t know what else to do.

____________________

Bucky had brought the last things that he had found in the mess of the compound, recovering some clothes or belongings that were buried but remained in a good state after the whole disaster, it had only been a box and some stuff he had gotten for both women. He was worried about y/n but also didn’t know what he could do for her or how to help Wanda. As Wanda went back to the room, she found y/n still asleep, giving her the chance to look at what Bucky could recover, mostly they were clothes that now seemed to be clean, she then found a letter that had Wanda’s name, but decided to leave it at the end. Her eyes then laid on something that she didn’t think she would see again, not after the disaster that was left in the compound.

She looked up at y/n and noticed she had started to wake up. She smiled sadly as she laid back the item inside the box and walked to the bed, laying down beside her and kissing her forehead softly.

“Hi, moya lyubov.” She whispered softly as she kissed her nose.

Y/n offered a small smile. “Hi.” She whispered back.

“Did you sleep well?”

Y/n shook her head. “I had a nightmare. But I couldn’t wake up.”

Wanda nodded softly. “Well, you’re back. With me.” Wanda ran her hands through y/n’s hair and leaned down to kiss her lips softly.

“I’m sorry.” Y/n whispered against her lips as she felt tears in her eyes.

“You have nothing to be sorry about, my love. I know…I know it’s hard. I don’t blame you for feeling this way.” Wanda rested her forehead against y/n’s and sighed. “I’ll always be here.”

Y/n then smiled sadly again. “I know. And I’m glad you’re back. That you came back to me.” Her voice broke as she placed her hand on Wanda’s cheek. “You know…Nat had to deal with my sorry ass when I didn’t feel okay and when I missed you…she had to hear me cry and as much as I tried to live…I needed you. I missed you.” She confessed with a sad smile on her face. “She knew you would come back to me.”

“I’ll always come back to you.” Wanda smiled. “And I won’t leave your side. Not when you need me the most, not in your best, not in your worse. I’m here to stay.”

“I love you.” Y/n whispered softly as she pulled Wanda for another kiss.

Wanda smiled against her lips. “I have something for you.”

Y/n furrowed her brows. “What is it?”

Wanda stood up from the bed and grabbed the box she had left in the small table, walking back to the bed, and sitting down beside y/n.

“I don’t know if you remember, but when we fought Ultron, back in the tower, Pietro gave me something to wear because well…everyone was getting ready and dressed to fight, and I only had a simple dress.” She chuckled softly at the memory. “I didn’t know who it belonged to, until a badass redhead asked why I had her jacket.” She handed the leather jacket to y/n and smiled.

Y/n gasped as she grabbed the jacket, sitting up on the bed and placing it on her lap. “This is…”

“Nat’s.” Wanda smiled as she looked at y/n. “She let me keep it, I used it maybe one or two times after it.” She bit her lip. “I know it’s not much, but…it’s all yours now.”

Y/n sobbed quietly as her hand traced the lines of the jacket. “Everything was buried. I thought…I thought there was nothing left.” She hugged the jacket as more tears rolled down her cheeks.

“Well…Bucky brought the box not too long ago. Some clothes were okay, and this jacket survived.” Wanda smiled sadly. “It might not smell like her anymore but…it was hers so.”

Y/n nodded softly as she looked back up at Wanda and smiled. “It’s ours. I’m sure she protected it for us, as lame as it sounds. She would laugh at me for saying that.” Y/n laughed softly, a genuine laugh after so long.

Wanda chuckled softly and nodded. “I’m sure.” She bit her lip softly as she looked back at the envelope. “There’s also…there’s this thing that…has my name. I just…I didn’t know if I could open it.”

Y/n furrowed her brows as she looked inside the box. Her eyes widened as she grabbed the envelope. “Oh my god, I didn’t…” She smiled widely. “She really did protect these things.” She whispered softly.

Wanda furrowed her brows as she looked back at her. “Is it important?”

Y/n smiled softly as she handed it back to Wanda. “After 2 years, Nat and I went on a road trip just to clear our minds and be away from the compound. We drove until we got to New Jersey and we got to this small…town.” She smiled at the memory. “We uh…we drove around, and we saw all these houses and there was an empty space.”

Wanda looked down at the envelope and opened it as y/n spoke, her eyes scanning what it had inside, her heart stopping for a moment.

“As much as Tony was upset and wanted to make his life with Pepper and Morgan, he still helped me, and he bought this place for us. I didn’t start the whole construction because well…I wanted it to be a thing…for us…and I-“

Wanda interrupted her as she jumped on her and kissed her lips softly. Y/n chuckled and wrapped her arms around her, kissing her back just as softly. Y/n knew she still wasn’t over the whole Nat thing, but she remembered what Nat had told her, that everything would be alright, and Wanda and y/n would be back together. So as selfish as she felt, as bad as she still felt, as much as she missed Natasha, she knew Natasha wouldn’t have want y/n to be sad because of her, she would indeed pull her out of bed just like she did many times when Wanda was gone.

After a few seconds of the sweet kiss, both women pulled away with a big smile on their faces. Y/n looked into those green eyes she loved so much and smiled, Wanda doing the same as she placed her hand on the back of y/n’s neck, caressing it softly.

“I know it’s been hard, and I haven’t been at my best. But…maybe this can help us out.” Y/n shrugged.

“We’ll get through it together.” Wanda whispered softly.

“I’m sure Nat will finally be happy to know we are going to start the house. She was desperate for me to start it but understood why I didn’t.” Y/n laughed softly as she looked back at Wanda. “But I know you won’t leave my side again, and..” Y/n licked her lips. “…we can finally have that life we talked about.”

Wanda smiled. “We can finally have it.” She whispered softly as she pulled her for another kiss.

#natasha x y/n #natasha romanoff #natasha x reader #natasha x you #wanda maximoff #wanda maximoff x reader #wanda x reader #wanda x you #wanda maximoff x you #one shot #requests are open #marvel

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just-my-fandom · 3 years

Text

Rocky Road P8 (JJ Maybank x Routledge! Reader)

Part 8

Summary; Reader and JJ make up. After going fishing with Ward, John B reveals the truth suddenly to the reader about their father. The chief is now dead. John B and Sarah run away.

Warning(s); Mentions of death, mentions of getting sick (vomit)

A/N; PLEASE READ. There’s a lot of scenes I really didn’t feel like writing, such as the whole death of the chief, etc. So, I combined episodes 8, 9, and 10 together. So technically, this is the last part. But I will include an epilogue

Taglist; @bibliophilewednesday @sexualparkour @jjpouggues @poguestyle17

“So we’re okay?”

It’s the morning after. You and JJ sit on opposite edges of the hot tub, legs knee deep in the warm water.

“Yeah,” Your lips tilt in a small smile, JJs arms propped on his knees as his hands take your own, “Only if you promise to stop acting psycho,”

“Oh, totally,” JJ nods, releasing one of your hands to run it through his hair, “If me getting super drunk and having a terrible hang over last night doesn’t change me, then I don’t know what will,”

“J,” You warn, JJ huffing a short laugh before he nods, leaning forward so your faces were nearly inches apart,

“I promise,” He murmurs, raising his hand to cup the back of your neck and pull your lips against his, “Because I love you. And I’m not going to let my stupidity make me lose you,”

“Good,” You hum, raising your own hands to his hair, his body leaning forward enough to where he steps into the hot tub, arms wrapping around your waist,

But before he can pull you into the water yourself, Kiaras call to your brother causes you to pull away and look over your shoulder, JJ looking around you to watch as John B stomped across the yard of your home with a stone look on his face,

“John?” You call as Kiara did, sliding off the edge of the hot tub to slide on your flats, watching your twin brother move inside the Chateau, “JB,”

“Uh, what’s that all about?” Pope asks, as you shrug and move up the steps to the front porch, pausing as John B desperately searched for something,

“You all right, man?” Pope questions, “What’s up?”

“What’re you looking for?” Kiara rushes, irritated at the silence your brother gave to the group,

You watch as John B pulls the hand gun from under the couch cushions, “John B, what do you need the gun for?”

“Talk to us-,” JJ demands, and you move forward as soon as John B shoves JJ away, onto the pull out mattress,

“John B, what the fuck are you doing?” You shout, moving after John Bs retreating form to the backyard, “If you’re still mad at JJ from yesterday, we’re fine! We made up!”

“I don’t give a damn about the two of you,” John B grumbles, and you pause to watch him climb on JJs motorbike,

“Dude!” JJ shouts, John B finally turning with an angry snarl,

“Ward knows about the gold!” He shouts, and you huff a breath, heart nearly stopping at his next words, “He killed dad,”

“What?” You whisper, JJ quick to move up to you as John B sped away, JJs hand at your upper arm.

Your eyes leave John Bs retreating figure to look at JJ, hand resting at your stomach as you watched JJs mouth move, but no words were heard,

“Baby,” JJ calls, lifting a hand to caress your face as you swallow, thickly, “Hey, hey. Look at me,”

Quickly, you shake your head, exhaling sharply as Kiara moved up next to JJ, “She’s going to be sick-,” Kiara and Pope watch, alarmed, as you duck behind the parked van, JJs hand running down your back as you cough, violently,

“Hey, alright,” JJ murmurs, pulling you into him as his gaze shifts up to his other friends, watching Pope run a hand over his head and look in the distance where John B had left.

“Okay, I’ve never seen John B like that. We should honestly be going to the cops,” Kiara speaks from her spot at the front end of the HMS Pogue, your brows pinched as you look at her,

“And what would we say, Kie? Ward Cameron killed Big John? They’re going to think it’s some- fucking grieving mechanism for me and John B,” You huff, face hot and eyes puffy,

“They’re not gonna believe us if we tell them anything revolving Ward,” JJ states, and Pope raises his goggles,

“Hey, I see Ward,”

“I don’t know if I should be glad he’s alive for John Bs sake or not,” You mutter, tossing a rock that was in the boat into the water,

“Looks alive to me. Let’s go,” Pope orders, and you look up in confusion,

“Wait. What?”

“Obviously Mr. Cameron is fine, and even if John B was here, he isn’t now, okay?” Pope shakes his head, “Plus, I have the biggest, most important moment of my life in six hours,”

“Yeah, well, our friend is in trouble,” Kiara states, Pope shrugging his shoulders,

“I’m in trouble! Guys, I haven’t been home in three days. My dads probably put all my shit on the street by now,”

“So, you’re just gonna bail?” Kiara asks, and you look at JJ with pinched brows so the blonde moves up, protectively, “This is about friendship, this is about Pogues for life!”

“Where were you when Big John went missing? Huh?” Pope hisses, your eyes watching as Kiara glanced at you, “You weren’t there. You weren’t there for John B, or Y/N,”

“Guys,” You plea, pressing yourself into JJs front, “Kie, just let him go home,”

“No, I want her to remember,” Pope snarls, finger jabbing at Kiara, “Remember your kook year? You forgot about us. Y/N lost her best friend. Her dad goes missing and you werent there for her,”

“Give me a break!” Kiara demands, shoving Popes front so Pope shoved her back, JJ quick to release you and move between his two friends,

“Guys, cut it out!” JJ orders, your arms wrapping around yourself as you blink away the burn in your eyes, “If I’m the one mediating then we’ve hit rock bottom,”

“Let’s just go home,” You murmur, JJ looking at you as you move to the wheel of the boat,

“I’ve got it,” JJ soothes, pointing to the front end of the boat where Pope departed to. “Pope, we’ll drop you off,”

You inhale a deep, slow breath, raising your hand to rub at your eye in exhaustion.

“John B, you have to go,” You stare at your twin brother. Peterkin was dead. John B was framed for her murder. “I’m sorry I was such an ass. To you, and to Sarah, but I can’t let you go to jail, for a murder you didn’t commit,”

“You weren’t an ass,” John B forces himself to chuckle, attempting to pull a smile to your face. He fails. “You were being a protective, annoying sister,”

You huff your own laugh, licking your lips, “I’m serious, John. Get Sarah, and go,”

John Bs movements are swift. His arms slide around you in an embrace, tightening around you when hearing your sniffle.

“I love you sis,” He mutters, “Seriously,”

You lean back, hitting his chest, “I love you too. Dick,”

You step away, watching John B step onto the boat JJ lended to John B. “Remember dude,” JJ steps up, arm sliding across your shoulders, “Brownsville. We’ll see you in Mexico in two months,”

“Got it,” John B smiles, watching you slide your arm behind JJs back and take his hand with your free, “Take care of her, JJ,” JJ glances down at you, “I mean it,”

The boat pulls off with a heave. Your eyes blur, looking up at JJ with a smile that matched his.

“Hands up!”

Twirling around, you barely catch a glimpse of Shoupe raising his gun before JJ pushes you behind him. In unison, the group of four raise their hands, your eyes wide,

“Where the hell is he?” Shoupe asks, roughly, “Where the hell is he?!”

“JJ,” He continues, “I see you’re living up to your name. Pope? How about you? This isn’t a fucking game!” Shoupe eyes shift to yours, “Your father would be really disappointed in you young lady,”

“Dont ever bring up my father,” You step up, one of JJs arms dropping to grasp your waist, but immediately pulls it back when Shoupe pins your hands behind your back.

“Let’s fucking go,”

“Sit down. Don’t move,” You look up from your spot inside the tent. Cops, everywhere. You felt sick again.

JJs hand takes yours, squeezing enough to guide your attention to him, where his blue eyes meet your own. JJ shifts your intertwined hands to his lap, thumb brushing across the back of your hand.

You flinch at the rough crack of thunder.

“We lost them,” Shoupe mutters, almost as soon as your ears began to ring. Like the day prior, you see everyone’s mouths moving, but no words.

Except JJ. “What do you mean you lost them?” JJs hand leaves yours as he stands, and you suddenly zone back in, “You had them on radio!”

“The storm cut out their signal,” Shoupe sighs, dropping the talkie in his hand. His head shakes, “We lost them,”

JJ is first to turn to you. Just as quick, your ears begin to ring, not hearing him call out to you. Lost them. Lost, as in, dead? Like Big John?

“Baby,” JJ tries, again, the large group watching as he knelt in front of where you still sat and raised his hands to your face, “Hey, can you hear me?”

JJ is forced to watch as you gasp in a deep breath. With a shattered sob, you nearly fall forward, JJs arms quick to catch you and pull you up into his arms.

“He didn’t do it,” You heave, eyes wide despite the tears that blocked your vision, “He didn’t- didn’t kill anyone,”

JJs arms tighten around you, before he slides his hands back to your face a second time, thumbs attempting to wipe the tears from your cheeks. Forehead against yours, he exhales a shuddered breath as you began to break down.

“Sweetheart-,” Kiaras mom barely leans away from Kiara to extend her hand to you, your head shaking as your eyes finally pinch shut in defeat,

“No,” You whisper, JJs own face crumbling, “No, no. JJ-?”

JJs arms slide around your shoulders, ducking his nose into your hair as your own grab at his button up, feeling Kiaras mom press herself behind you in another wall of comfort.

First Big John. Now, John B and Sarah?

A/N; Well that ended like shit, lol. Again, yes. I did skip a lot of scenes revolving the last three episodes. But honestly? They were unnecessary. But leave ALL feedback as you can, and I hope, pray that you enjoyed this story. It’s been a pleasure.

#jj maybank drabble #jj maybank one shot #jj maybank imagine #jj maybank x reader smut #jj maybank x reader #jj maybank #kiara carrera #pope heyward #john b routeledge #sarah cameron #ward cameron

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rynnaaurelius · 3 years

Text

Titan’s Curse But Make It Time Loop: Nico di Angelo Edition

-Okay so I’m at work and not doing much and who wants to actually edit your shit drafts for your actual WIPs so that they’re less bad? No one, that’s who

-So I had an idea: The Titan’s Curse. Also known as the book where people start to die. It sucks to be a demigod in this book--for the first time in the original series, it really does.

-Not everything is fixed, not everyone is saved, and people start to have to make really tough decisions.

-So we fix it. Not by throwing Percy, or Annabeth, or Thalia, or, hell, even Bianca or Grover into the mix.

-Throwing the marginally more grown-up, more trained, and more knowledgeable demigods into the fire, who’d get everyone alive and safe by the third time ‘round? Nah.

-We’re making Nico fix this.

-Because here’s the thing about Nico di Angelo: Sure, he grows up to become a major badass, the Ghost King, so on and so forth. But not yet.

-For now, Nico is baby, a ten-year-old whose experience with any kind of fighting consists of one (1) Capture The Flag game and who’s still half-reliant on Mythomagic to explain what the fuck is happening.

-He’s also got the worst knowledge makeup possible! He knows he’s a son of Hades, which is bad, he knows to stick monsters with the pointy end of swords but nothing else, he knows that Percy Jackson and Thalia Grace are Very Big Deals (But also doesn’t know why beyond parents), and he’s, at best, vaguely aware that there’s some kind of bad prophecy hanging around.

-Also by the end of the book, he’s just been told his last immediate family who isn’t Hades is dead in one of the worst ways possible, and he--pretty irrationally IMO, but Nico’s a kid who has been through a lot recently, so we’re not holding that against him--blames Percy Jackson.

-Literally, you probably can’t pick an angstier or worse choice to run through the time travel trope. I love it.

-We’re making this kid save Bianca’s life via time loop, which happens due to. . .hmm, we’ll say the Fates did it.

-So, Loop 0 = Canon, only at the end of the day on December 21st, after the conversation with Percy, Nico falls asleep only gods know where only to wake up the day he meets Percy Jackson:

Loop 1:

-Nico doesn’t actually change anything meaningful at first.

-Spends most of it shellshocked and not unconvinced the last week (For him, anyway) wasn’t a horrible nightmare; shellshocked and staring at Percy Jackson, anyway.

-(Percy’s wondering what’s up with the silent kid his sister had talked up as a cheerful chatterbox)

-It’s only when Bianca agrees to join the quest for Artemis that he starts kicking up a fuss; demanding to go, screaming that she can’t leave him even more, not again.

-(Bianca hesitates; briefly, enough to remind Nico that she loves him. But she’s not their mother, and she needs this)

-Bianca still dies. Percy comes back pale and guilty. Nico doesn’t yell at him when he returns--he already knows. He accepts the Hades figurine so that he can throw it into the lake.

-He slinks off back into Cabin Eleven and falls asleep, hoping desperately that he gets a third chance.

Loop 2:

-He does.

Loop 3:

-After a very painful death at the hands of Dr. Thorn, Nico, generally being a straightforward person at this stage of life, takes the obvious path this time around: He tries to tell Bianca--who brushes it off as a dream.

-Annabeth still goes over the cliff when Nico takes the initiative of attaching himself and his sister to Percy Jackson and Thalia Grace at the dance. He tries to tell Percy and Thalia when Bianca still joins the Hunt, promising Nico that whatever he saw, she’ll be extra careful.

-(Bianca’s fearful of what Nico's saying, and thinks that if these sworn sisters can’t keep her safe, who can?)

-Artemis gives Nico a speculative look but agrees when he begs her to protect Bianca at all costs.

-He doesn’t get on the quest. Being a reasonable demigod of questionable parentage, he sneaks out of camp.

-He gets caught, because despite being aware of his awesome new powers, he doesn’t know how to use them, and is still a ten-year-old who can barely hold a sword the right way.

-He gives Percy the puppy dog eyes and shows off said awesome new powers. Percy forces him back.

-Nico follows him.

-Repeat until Percy dies saving Nico from the Nemean Lion in Washington, DC.

-Nico can’t find it in himself to be terribly sad--especially when he doesn’t make it much longer.

Loop 4:

-He’s really stuck like this, huh?

-Oh, Di Immortales.

-(Before Percy gets his chest ripped to shreds by a lion and Nico meets skeleton cats, he learned how to hold a sword properly and curse fluently in Greek. Percy probably only meant to teach him one of those things)

-In unrelated news: Having a big crush on a guy who thinks he’s only known you for a couple hours? Terrible.

-Trying to hate the guy who let your sister die when he’s that stupid and nice? Even worse.

-That stupid lion.

Loop 5, 6, 7, 8, 9:

-Nico repeats: That stupid lion.

-Somewhere in Loop 7 he starts to steal supplies out of the camp store when he follows Percy following the quest.

-They forcefeed the lion enough trail mix and frozen ice cream in Loop 9 that they don’t die this time.

-At least until someone called the General shows up and Nico’s dead before he can raise his sword.

Loop 10:

-Nico wakes up in his and Bianca’s room in Westover and starts crying. Bianca tells the headmaster they’re both sick and Nico lets her hold him all day.

-They fall asleep and Nico swears he won’t let her die again.

Loop 11, 12, 13:

-He wakes up and he still can’t get out of bed without feeling that blade cutting between his ribs, burning like it’s on fire.

-Gods, he’s so sorry, Bianca. Dispiace tanto.

Loop 14:

-He can get up without feeling like he’s about to die again. Bianca fusses but assumes it was just a bad dream.

-Nico is caught stealing and can’t follow Percy until it’s too late.

-Everyone assumes this means he’s a son of Hermes, however, and Nico can’t correct them without opening his mouth and letting the sobbing laughter out.

-Figuring he’s about to get another chance next round anyway, he takes Travis and Connor Stoll up on their offer to learn a thing or two so that he doesn’t get Cabin Eleven slapped with kitchen duty from now until Doomsday.

-He likes the Stolls. He spent most of the time, pre-looping, actively avoiding everyone at camp as he waited for Bianca and Percy to come back, but they’re not that bad.

-Percy comes back with the figurine and no sister and Nico remembers why he’s stuck.

Loop 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23:

-After Loop 12 and being killed in Washington DC again, Nico realizes: He needs to learn how to fight.

-Unless he gets killed early or refuses to leave Westover, the loop resets after seven days. So, he has seven days to train each time.

-He gets to camp, finds the arena, and meets Clarisse La Rue. He demands she teach him how to kill monsters.

-She laughs, and tells him that attitude in his size will make monsters easy to kill, they’ll laugh so hard.

-Clarisse teaches him how to swing a sword each time--but only after mocking his unamused face.

-Somehow, Percy coming back with news of Bianca’s death only hurts more each time.

Loop 24:

-Nico wakes up before Bianca this time. He looks over at her bed and knows. He’s got to try this time.

-It’s disturbingly easy making friends with Percy Jackson after the last loops.

-Bessie’s new. Cute, but new.

-Nico wonders just how much he’s missed in the past--he thinks of Annabeth Chase, and hopes she hasn’t been dying each time.

-Percy doesn’t even argue when Nico shows up in the stables with a bag slung over his shoulder, and the sword he’s been stealing out of the shed strapped to his hip.

-Nico suggests the ice cream--again--to Percy in DC before

-Nico might be getting the hang of this.

Loop 25:

-Nico is not getting the hang of this.

-Zoë Nightshade’s refusal to accept Percy and Nico on the quest--violating a prophecy, and gods, Nico’s curious if that prophecy ever mentioned this--has so far gotten them attacked and killed by spartoi once.

-And again. As Nico bleeds out on the floor, he watches a panicked blond man--a demigod--plead for mercy.

-Isn’t he on the other side?

Loop 26:

-His name is Luke Castellan and he apparently wants the gods dead.

-Nico can relate at this point.

-The General is Atlas, and Nico knows enough about Greek mythology, real and wrong, at this point to know that is bad.

Loop 27:

-Twenty-six tries, but they finally make it out of DC. Threatening the questers with Atlas killing them all is more than enough.

-For the first time, Nico doesn’t know what happens next. He glues himself to Bianca’s side and glares at anything suspicious.

-With help that Percy refuses to name, even when Nico tries his hardest, they go to New Mexico.

-There’s a boar and it’s so close, they make it to what the others are calling “the junkyard of the gods”.

-Nico sees the Hades figurine on the ground.

-Bianca grins in delight and picks it up, calling for him.

-He can’t help it.

-Nico starts screaming.

Loop 28:

-His sister’s murderer was never Percy Jackson.

-His sister’s murderer was a force of mechanics that makes Nico fully understand, for the first time, what the gods are, beyond stats on a card.

-Talos.

-Nico is going to destroy him.

Loop 29:

-She dies.

Loop 30:

-Again.

Loop 31:

-Again.

-Loop 32, 33, 34, 3536373839FortyFo r t y O n e--:

-Again. Again. Again. Again again againagainagainagainAGAIN--

Loop 42:

-Nico gets out of bed. He finds Percy Jackson at the dance, hugs him, and tells him he’s sorry.

-Nico walks outside and waits for Dr. Thorn in the snow. He can feel the shadows curling at the edge of the wood like a sixth sense, now. Waiting for him to summon the restless dead out of them.

-So many attempts to save his sister, ranging from sacrificing himself to sacrificing Percy--not that Percy needs the push, Nico has found--to any and all members of the quest.

-She dies. Always, always dies. Whatever Nico does, that junkyard is full of the death of Bianca di Angelo.

-He tried avoiding it. Once. Loop 33. Nico threw such a fit he’s surprised he wasn’t sent back to Camp Half-Blood by the Hunters, but it kept them out of the junkyard.

-He tries not to remember how little was left of his sister’s body by the monsters that time.

-Son of Hades. After all this time, Nico’s beginning to wonder if this is what it means. Death and death and death.

-Dr. Thorn walks outside, and Nico can feel a ghoulish grin crossing his face that has no place on a ten-year-old.

-One of them is going to die, this loop. And Nico will not go to New Mexico.

Loop 43:

-Nico wonders if there was a past life of his he needs to remember. Who could he have made this angry?

-He lies to Bianca and they stay in Westover again this time. Better than death, anyway.

Loop 44:

-Nico tries a different tack this time. A more roundabout way of things.

-He takes Bianca and throws the two of them in the way of the battle with the manticore.

-After all this time, he still doesn’t know much about Annabeth Chase. She gets kidnapped and returned safely to Percy every time, to the best of his knowledge.

-Nico dies holding up the sky, but at least Bianca lives, under the protection of Artemis.

Loop 45:

-Nico looks in the mirror and studies the new grey streak with fascination. And, maybe, some hope.

-Things can change.

Loop 46, 47, 48, 49, 50:

-Nico gets kidnapped a few times. Once, he’s killed in a rage by a Titan with horns, but it’s quick. Mostly, he holds up the sky to get Artemis out.

-She looks at him strangely each time and Nico wonders if she can see what he’s done.

Loop 51:

-They figure out he’s a son of Hades. They offer him Olympus. Olympus and Bessie--the Ophiotaurus, rather.

-Nico says no.

Loop 52:

-Nico says yes.

Loop 53:

-Being on the verge of overthrowing the gods and keeping everyone he’s grown to care for--in the case of several Hunters, against his will; in Percy Jackson’s case, Nico loves him as much as he hates him at this point--doesn’t do much, apparently.

-Nico stays in Westover again. He resists the urge to tell Bianca that would-be destroyers of Olympus don’t need to brush their hair, whatever she says.

Loop 54:

-Nico goes over the edge of the cliff again, but with Percy Jackson.

-This isn’t the first time; in Loop 46, Percy had taken the sky for both the sake of Artemis and Nico until it killed him.

-What’s different, is Nico’s in the middle of what’s become the usual panic attack when he’s about to die for the hundredth time, and his powers react.

-Percy holds him close and calls him cousin. Tells him he’ll never leave Nico.

-You have no idea, Nico whispers. You can’t leave me.

-You think I want to? Percy whispers back. You’re not alone, Nico.

-Nico’s sobbing sounds like laughter.

Loop 55:

-Nico tells Percy the truth for the third time. This is the first time he hasn’t told Bianca first.

-They’ve just found the Erymanthian Boar, Thalia’s told Nico his goth needs work--whatever that means--and Nico’s bracing himself for the junkyard again.

-Getting kidnapped by the Titans really gets old after a while.

-He still has the grey streak, and no number of excuses will fully soothe his sister, but the Hunt’s a good distraction from it.

-Nico doesn’t blame Bianca anymore for it. He thinks.

-Nearly a year into this loop and Nico’s finding it hard to blame anyone for much of anything, anymore. Especially when he sees what she’s faced. Again. And again.

-For now, this time, Percy Jackson is staring at Nico with wide eyes at what Nico’s told him--through these loops, Nico’s starting to wonder if he now knows more about Percy than Percy’s own best friends--and says he believes him.

-Once, Nico would’ve exploded from joy. Now, he just sighs and nods.

-Percy tells him how to condense the conversation for the next loop. He advises Nico to research Talos, “like Annabeth would.”

-He advises Nico to warn Percy’s next loop self about Annabeth’s kidnapping. Nico wonders if he’s gone insane that he’s considering it.

-Bianca dies.

Loop 56:

-Nico makes the executive decision this time to try and befriend Annabeth Chase. As such, he takes Percy’s advice.

Loop 57:

-It takes him two tries to befriend Annabeth Chase and learn about Talos.

Loop 58:

-Three times.

-But the nail. The nail in the ankle of Talos.

Loop 59:

-He hangs back at camp again this time and meets Charles Beckendorf, head of Cabin Nine, and son of Hephaestus.

-Nico figures that short of finding the god himself and committing temporary suicide--not that it hasn’t crossed Nico’s mind--his son will have to do.

-(He’s tried his hand at summoning ghosts, but Daedalus refuses to show, for some reason)

-Beckendorf frowns and tells Nico he would have to see Talos himself.

-Nico hadn’t realized just how much cursing he had picked up off of Percy and Thalia until that moment.

Loop 60:

-Nico knows what the prophecy says. One shall be lost in the land without rain.

-He knows it’s why he’s been failing so much.

-The trouble is, he no longer cares.

Loop 61:

-It took him a try, but he gets Beckendorf on the quest, prepared to defeat the Talos prototype.

Loop 62:

-Strike that, two tries.

-Nico really hates the Nemean Lion.

Loop 63, 64:

-Nico has solved half a problem: How to defeat Talos without putting someone inside the robot.

-The other half of the problem is now that they are all electrocuted by a dying automaton for their efforts.

Loop 65:

-Beckendorf’s crush--girlfriend? crush, they’re both insisting--Silena Beauregard comes along this time. Nico won’t complain over the extra manpower, even if he’s positive that eight campers and Hunters are patent overkill for one quest.

-Silena pulls Bianca out of the wreckage. Nico’s heart stops.

-Silena’s crying when she mentions that if they had been a bit earlier, she could have been revived.

-Nico wonders if Thalia’s going to stab him as he starts whooping. And takes notes about where Talos falls.

Loop 66:

-Nico swears, if Percy Jackson tries to sacrifice himself for Annabeth Chase one more time--

Loop 67:

-Bianca.

-I found you, he sobs. I found you.

-Gods damn the Hoover Dam.

Loop 68:

-And again.

-Despite having the distinct inkling at this point that he doesn’t much like like girls, Nico could kiss Silena Beauregard and Thalia Grace when they manage to revive his sister each time.

-She’s shaky and leaning on him and was dead, he could see her soul floating away--

-But she’s there.

-Nico refuses to let his sister out of the sight at the Hoover Dam and Percy befriends the Naiads this time.

-At least, until the Titans--who Nico made the very big mistake of taunting at DC--sends monsters he can’t control.

Loop 69, 70, 71, 72, 73:

-They keep dying in various combinations at the Hoover Dam now that Nico’s figured out how to save Bianca.

-At least, until he gets separated from Percy in Loop 73 and he meets a redheaded girl with a penchant for calling Nico pint-size.

-Athena dislikes Percy, Nico, Bianca, and Thalia in equal measure. Having learned of the Great Prophecy in Loop 16 and Percy’s mooning over Annabeth in. . .well, every loop, Nico can’t quite blame her.

Loop 74:

-Her name is Rachel Elizabeth Dare and Nico likes her. She takes none of their shit and if it weren’t for the fact that they already have eight people on the quest, he’d want to take her along.

-Bianca gets in a fight with the Old Man of the Sea. Thalia electrocutes him when he throws Bianca in the bay.

Loop 75:

-Nico wakes up in Westover with the distinct feeling that he was drowned on dry land.

-He stays in bed shivering, that day.

Loop 76:

-Atlas is the father of Zoë Nightshade. Nico learned this around Loop 50. He had realized around five loops ago that this probably meant she was going to die “by a parent’s hand.”

-He hadn’t realized that it was going to hurt to watch.

Loop 77, 78, 79, 80, 81:

-Now that he’s figured things out to about San Francisco, it seems the world is out to get him. The number of fights or mistakes that he either makes himself or has to head off are ridiculous.

Loop 82:

-Nico is so very tired. And wishes he felt ten years old again.

Loop 83:

-If Thalia gets in one more fight with Nereus, Nico's going to walk into the sea.

Loop 84:

-He wanders off, in this one. Grover had been killed in Hoover Dam, so Nico’s waiting for the reset at this point.

-In the meantime, Nico figures there are worse things to do than enjoy a good afternoon in San Francisco. He even meets a boy in a purple shirt.

-His name is Jason and he has hair like the sun.

-If he ever fixes this, Nico wants to find him.

Loop 85:

-Nico’s not fast enough in the junkyard.

-In San Francisco, he tries to find the ugliest, biggest trouble he can find.

-He finds a pair of teenagers in armor who yell Latin at him instead.

Loop 86:

-There’s a dragon that will attack them in the Garden of the Hesperides if they make it angry enough and Nico is so tired.

Loop 87:

- Zoë Nightshade is dead. They’ve won.

-Funny definition of “win”, considering they’ve all almost died this loop about a dozen times each, and Nico can’t explain why he’s crying on the body of a Hunter he only met a week ago, in their eyes.

-She hates him, some loops. More loops, she looks at him with ghosts of old grief in her eyes and hands him a knife.

-The gods execute Bessie, and then, Nico watches as his father turns to him and Bianca with sorrowful eyes.

-Nico should’ve figured, after almost ninety loops.

Loop 88:

-Luke offers one of them the entrails of Bessie again.

-Nico takes them.

Loop 89:

-For all the good it does. Nico wakes up as he does every time now: Powerless, in bed, and with only a grey streak to show for his efforts.

Loop 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98:

-Nico doesn’t know how to save Zoë Nightshade. Bianca, he could trick and fight his way into it. Beckendorf and Silena and Percy and a loophole in lost could save his sister.

-Her, she just. . .dies. Sometimes in DC, sometimes in San Francisco, sometimes on the hills of Mt. Tamalpais. Always at the hands of Atlas.

-Always, being murdered by her father.

-It’s not as gutting as watching his sister die, but it aches more in his chest, somehow.

Loop 99:

-He sticks close to Zoë this time. Same as he’s done with Percy, Annabeth, his sister, Thalia, and Grover, time and time again. But not her, Nico is realizing. Not the clinging he’s achieving now.

-Hoping for. . .something.

-He knows better than to tell the immortal Lieutenant of Artemis the whole truth. The loneliness is enough.

-She’s less frosty to him from the start than to, say, Grover or Percy, after Annabeth goes over the cliff again. When he shows up in DC, she’s much less angry than he’s seen her.

-Along the way to New Mexico and then San Francisco, he listens. He’s grown better at it, this far in. When the others are asleep, when Bianca is being fussed over after Talos, when everyone but them is asleep by the fire, he listens.

-And she tells him about her sisters. About her father, when the world was young and Atlas had looked on every daughter of his with pride. She tells him, pride glistening in her eyes, of the battles she has seen, the hunts she has overseen at the command of a goddess, the monsters she has killed, and the epithets she has been given.

-He doesn’t ask anything of her. Not until they’re in the house of Annabeth’s father, drinking lemonade the night before the battle, and Nico knows she is about to die again.

-What do you want, he asks. You’ve done everything. What’s left?

-She stopped, ice seems to creep over her again, and Nico wondered if he’d hit some sore spot.

-He’s opened his mouth to make his apologies when she answers, so quiet and quick he thinks he’s imagined it.

-To be remembered. When my lady has taken another lieutenant, as she must, and I have gone to where all gods go when they die, I wish for my memory to remain. And. . .

-Nico waits, and ignores the sudden, terrifying thought that he no longer knows what he wants.

-I wish to see the stars again. I was born a nymph of the sunset; starlight is precious to me. I want to see it again.

-Nico dies to preserve the memory of Zoë Nightshade.

100:

-Nico di Angelo wakes up in Westover Hall. He hopes for the last time.

-He does everything right: Annabeth goes over the cliff, his sister joins the Hunt, Percy is soon his friend, and he convinces Silena and Beckendorf to join the quest.

-The Nemean Lion never stands a chance, and Nico is glad to be rid of it.

-His sister lives.

-Nico watches Percy watch Rachel Elizabeth Dare go, looking like he’s just taken a frying pan to the face, and fights the urge to snicker.

-Thalia doesn’t start a fight with Nereus, but Percy certainly does. Nico could’ve sworn he saw the boy with sun-hair again, watching with curiosity.

- Zoë Nightshade dies in the arms of Artemis and is made into the stars she loves so dearly. Nico promises her soul that he will remember.

-For, he has found, the dead have a tendency of remembering things they shouldn’t.

-Annabeth and Percy now have grey streaks to match Nico’s, and Nico can’t wait to spend the rest of his life trying to explain that.

-It’s closer than he would like, but much less close than other lives with Olympus. The Ophiotaurus is alive and safe, and they are all alive.

-As Nico walks out of the council, he looks off to the side. By the fire is the familiar girl with red eyes--the Lady Hestia, looking much closer to Nico’s age than that of the Olympian she is.

-Besides her are three old ladies. Nico’s heard about them from Percy, in Loops 26, 53, 61, and 62.

-One lady holds a ball of string that is the color of a warm umber. The other is knitting what looked suspicious like socks. The last. . .

-Scissors, in one hand. Just as expected. Nico swallowed.

-In the other, was a knot of burnt string, tied to the socks. Behind her, Nico could see discarded string of all colors: an electric blue, a stormy grey, a black that seems to glisten with the promise of a storm, string the soft, hopeful pink of love, yarn run through with bright copper.

-Glowing threads that Nico could only describe as the color of starlight.

-As he walked out, firmly between Percy Jackson and Thalia Grace, the Hunt of Artemis behind him, Nico hears one last promise:

It is done, Nico di Angelo.

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avengersassemble-fics · 3 years

Text

Stark’s Girl

part 014/015 “one more time, captain”

previous part // next part

masterlist

word count 3.9k

an: this part does include dialogue from avengers endgame, which is not my work nor do i claim it to be!

It’s been five years since the Blip. You had been back by Natasha’s side for almost six months now, and she was grateful for every moment. There were days where she would break down (which until recently was unheard of) and you would be there by her side. And she had done what she could to help you out with your trauma. Before you accepted her offer of coming back, she had put two and two together when she recognized the faces on the news to the faces that had adorned a spare room in that house of yours in Ransdorp. Natasha had a past of her own, no doubt about that, so she could relate to how you had felt when you admitted on your own time what you had been up to those few years after Siberia.

It wasn’t an easy conversation, at one point you had broken down into sobs and reminded her a lot of herself when she had taken some time after a mission gone wrong years back. She mostly understood the shame that coursed through you, but one thing she made you understand was what HYDRA had done, the things you did because of them, wasn’t your fault. Natasha also made sure to tell you the blackouts weren’t your fault either, and she understood why you did what you had done. Although it was trauma you would have to live with, she knew the feeling better than most of losing your years to programs like that.

All of this was to say that both women had a newfound respect and understanding of one another. It became easier to work alongside one another, being able to almost anticipate one’s actions and decisions as they occurred. No one had seemed to really get Nat like that since Barton.. Which was why she was so hell bent on tracking him down.

Natasha had come to the realization about a year ago that Barton had gone off the radar because his family was among those they lost. When bodies started piling up (not due to your hands) and some of the known details were faint signatures of Barton’s handiwork.. Nat made it her mission to find him. Because this was not him. And although he was taking down some questionable people, they weren’t responsible for Thanos.

“Listen fur-face,” Carol Danvers threw out that regained Nat’s attention. “I’m covering a lot of territory. The things that are happening on Earth are happening everywhere, on thousands of planets.”

“All right all right, that’s a good point,” Rocket remarked. Nat stole a glance your way to which you only offered a shrug as Carol continued.

“So.. You might not see me for a long time,” she redirected towards Nat. Natasha nodded her head and leaned forward on the desk she sat behind.

“Alright.. Well this channel is always active. If anything goes sideways, anyone’s making trouble where they shouldn’t, it comes through me.”

Everyone agreed and one by one the holograms disappeared. You took a seat in front of the desk, and Nat redirected her attention to Rhodes. “Where are you?

“Mexico,” Rhodes answered. “The Federales found a room full of bodies, looks like a bunch of cartel guys. They never even had a chance to get their guns off.”

Nat shrugged her shoulders and sat back in her seat. “Probably a rival gang.”

“Except it isn’t,” Rhodes countered. Natasha’s eyes shift, and your gaze shoots up at her. “It’s definitely Barton.. What he’s done here, what he’s been doing the last few years.. Nat, the scene he left?.. I gotta tell you, a part of me doesn’t want to find him.”

Natasha grabbed the sand which she had prepared just earlier and bit a piece off. She just needed to focus on something other than what Rhodes was telling her, she didn’t need anyone to see her cry right now. “Will you find out where he’s going next?”

“Nat,” Rhodes tried to warn.

“Please,” Natasha pleaded. You glanced Rhodey’s way and he met your eyes. You offered a grim look, and he sighed.

“Okay.”

And with that Rhodey’s comm broke off too. You watched as Nat placed the sandwich back down and sighed deeply, all before her face began to scrunch up into a sob. You were quick out of your seat and moved around the desk and kneeled by her side. “Nat.. Nat we’re gonna find him.”

“I just don’t know why he couldn’t come to me,” she sniffled and rubbed at her eyes. “I know this must be hard for him, losing Laura and the kids, but he could’ve come to me.”

You reached your hand out to rub her shoulder and let out a small sigh. “Sometimes it’s hard to let those you care about see in you in those dark places.”

Nat finished rubbing under her eyes and grabbed the sandwich off her plate again with her other hand. “Is that why you’ve been avoiding the talk with Steve?”

You bit back the smile and stood. She had done what she did best, diverted the conversation from herself to something else. “You’re still on about that?”

“Oh come on, I’ve seen the way you look at one another,” Natasha prodded as you went to gather your things. “How much longer are you going to wait to be happy?”

The question made you pause, and before you could respond Nat perked up at something behind you. You glanced over your shoulder and was met with none other than Steve Rogers, hands in his pockets, and with a small smile on his face.

“Speak of the devil,” Natasha joked. Your gaze immediately went back to her and you gave her your best glare, while Steve raised his brow at her. They were so easy to mess with, she thought. “Here to do your laundry?”

“And to see some friends,” Steve replied. You held your things closer to your chest as Steve came further into the room.

“I’m actually getting ready to leave for Tony’s,” you threw out there. “I promised to go see my favorite niece.”

“Are you going to be okay making the drive this late at night?” Steve asked. Natasha rolled her eyes to herself and took a hefty bite of her sandwich. If she had to watch another pining episode she was going to make sure you two never heard the end of it. You, on the other hand, smiled at his sentiment.

“Oh I think I can manage,” you told him. You offered your farewells, and started back to your room to grab your bag and head out. Steve watched you leave before looking back at Nat who was waving him off.

“Meet me in the kitchen, I need a drink,” she told him, and took her sandwich with her towards the kitchen area. Steve chuckled lightly, and followed in your steps to the residence area. He was just catching you outside your room, and he took a deep breath and pulled something out of his pocket, clutching it in his fist. You heard him approach and looked his way, shutting your door and offering a smile.

“Hey,” you managed before Steve got up to you, and his serious expression made your smile fall. “Are you okay..?”

“Seven years ago I asked you if one day you’d want to get away from all of this,” Steve started. You remembered the conversation far too well, and immediately shut your mouth in a tight expression. A heaviness filled your chest, but you tried your best to ignore it. “From this life where we were needing to be more than just us… Do you remember?”

“Yes-”

“I told you that I would wait for you, no matter how long it took, no matter what happened, because.. Because you have been the best thing to happen to me since I came out of the ice. You taught me how to live again,” Steve continued.

“Steve,” you whispered, but he kept going.

“I love you,” he admitted, finally looking into your eyes. They were darker than usual, and you could see he meant it. “I couldn’t go another day without telling you. Because.. You feel like home.”

Steve grabbed a hold of your hands, and you watched as he placed something into your palms. He retracted his hold on you and your fingers curled over the soft velvety box in your hand. You looked up at him with curious eyes, and slowly used your thumb to open the box and let out a small gasp.

“Steve,” you whispered, staring down at the contents.

“It was my moms.. SHIELD saved it when I went into the ice,” Steve explained. You carefully ran your finger over the gold banded ring that practically shined up at you. You hadn’t seen a more beautiful piece of jewelry, and did your best to fight back the tears. “I’m not expecting an answer.. But I just wanted you to see that I meant it. It was always meant for you anyway.. Maybe we still have a shot at that normal life.”

Your gaze went back up to his, and he smiled softly at you. You were speechless as one of his hands grabbed onto your arm and he leaned down to press a chaste kiss to your forehead. And then you watched him take a couple steps back, before he turned around and went back the direction you both had just come.

You were shocked, which even then felt like an understatement. Steve just.. Proposed. Inadvertently? Well it was purposeful, and if Natasha knew about it you were going to kill her for not saying anything. It took you a while to reclose the box and carefully place it into a pocket in your bag, it was delicate and you wanted to take care of it.

And well.. It certainly kept your mind occupied on your drive to Tony’s cabin.

Tony had left your room untouched for the most part, which was a welcomed thing to come into. You weren’t up for too long, forcing Tony to go to bed, but you did spend some time scrolling through your phone. Steve was right when he had said he wasn’t expecting an answer right away, you half expected a message of some sort but things seemed relatively quiet from his end. It was harder to fall asleep that night, you found yourself drifting off to what would happen if you said yes.

You’d want to move somewhere quiet, like what Tony did. That would give you a chance to refocus yourself.. Would that even be something Steve would be open to doing?.. Could he get you the same help he had gotten Barnes (Natasha said he felt at peace for once)? Hell, if they could just wipe out any lingering thoughts of Hydra you’d never have another problem in your life.

What’s more.. If you said no would this be what you life is like? Alone, and longing for the maybe’s that could have been? Which was better? Risk getting involved again, or risk never having that connection to someone again? It wasn’t the ideal question to fall asleep to.

When morning broke and sunlight peeked through the blinds, you woke up and found yourself sitting among the sheets and staring at the open box in your hands. The diamond that sat in the middle and gleamed in the sunlight made you sigh, it felt as if it was screaming at you that you knew what you wanted to tell him.

Did you?

You snapped the box closed and hid it in a drawer beside the bed and decided to change into something other than sweatpants for the day. After finishing and bounding down the stairs you ended up behind your favorite little niece, and scooped her up into a bear hug from behind. “There’s my little sleeping beauty!”

“She couldn’t wait to see her favorite aunt today,” Pepper remarked from the kitchen amongst the giggles that erupted from her daughter. You peppered kisses on Morgan’s head, and Pepper turned around as she was drying what you assumed was breakfast dishes. “Tony barely had to tuck her in before she was out.”

You set Morgan back down on the ground and she went back to messing with a toy on the breakfast table. You ruffled her hair and went to grab a cup of coffee before resting your hip against the counter besides Pepper. “How has he been?”

“A little stir crazy,” Pepper admitted to which you nodded lightly and sipped at your warm mug. “He put up this picture of the kid and I catch him getting lost looking at it.”

“And how have you been?” You asked. Pepper glanced your way and smiled.

“Hoping one day he’ll finally rest his mind.”

Eventually, you brought Morgan outside who immediately ran towards her tent and disappeared inside. You went towards the shed with an open door, and leaned against the frame, taking in the sight of Tony wielding what you could make out was a helmet. “Work never stops for you, does it?”

Tony glanced over his shoulder and waved you in, which you accepted. You came up behind him and gripped his shoulders and gave him a squeeze. “You’re supposed to be retired, old man.”

“It’s just a little project,” Tony tried to assure you. You couldn’t help but scoff, and pointed your thumb to a corner of the room.

“Says the one who built me a new suit last year,” you teased. Tony used one hand to back hand your side playfully and you laughed. You stood beside him now, and grabbed a picture frame sitting on the shelf over where he worked. It was a picture of the two of you when you were younger, barely big enough to fit the frame, and slightly discolored. You ran your hand over the front before putting the frame back and rubbing your hands together. “Can I talk to you about something..?”

“Anything, kid,” Tony said, overly engrossed in the task in front of him. You took a deep breath and shrugged your shoulders, not that he could even see you.

“When did you know that.. Well that you didn’t want to wait anymore? To start a family?”

Tony immediately stopped what he was working on, taking off a pair of clear protective glasses and setting his tool down. When he turned to face you and rest his elbow on the table, he tilted his head and scrunched his brows. “Excuse me?”

“Come on Tony, I’m being serious,” you told him.

“Yeah well so am I!” Tony exclaimed and stood. You watched as he stood from his stool and started to pace back and forth. You crossed your arms and huffed. He was acting like such a child! As if he could read your thoughts he stopped and pointed a finger at you. “It’s Steve isn’t it? Is he pressuring you or something?”

“What? No! Why would you even think that-”

“Because he’s hard headed and doesn’t know when to stop,” Tony said, cutting you off. You shook your head and scoffed.

“Tony please, this isn’t about you two-”

“I told him if he messes with your feelings again.. I swear when I get a hold of him,” Tony started pacing again and you rolled your eyes and started towards him. “He has some nerve-”

“Tony,” you stopped him dead in his tracks and made him face you, finally getting a hold of his gaze. “He didn’t do anything to me, okay? If anything.. He’s been trying to make up to me what happened.”

Tony sighed and his expression softened, but you shrugged. “I know he lied to us about knowing what happened to mom and dad… But you always told me that I wasn’t what Hydra made me, that what I did wasn’t me but them… Tony, why is Barnes so different?”

“Steve lied to us,” Tony said in a low tone. “He lied to protect his friend but what about us, huh? We weren’t his friends? We didn’t deserve to know the truth?”

“He handled it wrong Tony, I know. I’m just saying does that outweigh all the good he did for us,” you offered. Tony sighed and looked away for a moment as if annoyed. You grabbed a hold of his hand and it forced him to look back at you. “He’s trying.. And you told me that sometimes just trying was a good start.”

Tony sighed and raised a brow at you. “I hate it when you throw things back in my face like that.”

You chuckled and Tony used his free hand to cover the hand holding his. “Look I’m still iffy on the idea but.. If Rogers is who you want to be with then who am I to stop it? I’m a family man now anyway, I have bigger fish to fry.”

And with that his phone buzzed in his pocket, and while he fished it out you laughed little. “She’s turning out too much like you.”

“Scares me to death everyday,” Tony replied while checking the message from Pepper. “Time to feed the munchkin anyway, we can continue this talk later when I’ve had a couple drinks.”

Tony and you walked side by side to Morgan’s play tent, and after finally getting her out. Tony whisked her up when you felt your phone buzz, and you pulled it out to see a notification from Natasha. It was weird, she normally didn’t bother you when you were with Tony, she always said to focus on family time. You fell back a few steps and read her message.

Nat: Heads up, you got incoming.

“Incoming?” You muttered to yourself as you came up the steps behind Tony. You nearly knocked into him. You followed his gaze to the car coming to a stop in front of his cabin, and watched Steve, Natasha, and someone else get out. Steve’s expression was serious, hell all of theirs were and Tony didn’t look amused. Natasha offered a nod to Tony and he turned to you, and you took Morgan from him with a smile. “Let’s go see mom, hm?”

You quietly walked inside and set Morgan at the table and met Pepper’s look before she returned to watching out the window. You ruffled Morgan’s hair and returned back outside, the screen door thumping closed behind you. The three visitors started up the stairs as you rejoined Tony’s side.

“Sorry for dropping in unannounced,” Steve offered. Tony glanced your way with a look. You could only shrug. What? You didn’t know they were coming. But if they did then.. Something was up.

“We have something though that we think might work.. To get everyone back,” Natasha said. Your breath hitched, and when you looked over at Tony there was a hint of something in his eyes. The third person stepped forward and nodded at the both of you.

“Have you two heard of the Quantum Realm?”

It was.. A long explanation. Everyone was gathered in a circle at this point, and in all honesty you had a hard time following along. There were stolen glances between you and Steve, and each time a feeling grew in the pit of your stomach. But you forced yourself to pay attention because this was big.. Could it work though?

“Now, we know what this sounds like,” Scott had finished up before Steve cut in.

“Tony, after everything you’ve seen, is anything really impossible?” He asked. Tony was looking out to the lake near his home but when addressed he looked back at the group and gripped onto the railing.

“Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck Scale, which then triggers the Deutsch Proposition. Can we agree on that?” Tony asked. You glanced at everyone else and cleared your throat.

“Maybe for those of us not fluent in quantum mechanics, Tony?” You asked. Tony sighed and tapped his fingers on the wood.

“In layman’s terms, it means you’re not coming home,” was all he offered.

“But I did,” Scott offered. Tony shook his head at that.

“No, you accidentally survived,” Tony corrected. “It's a billion to one cosmic fluke. And now you wanna pull off a... What do you call it?”

Scott cleared his throat. “A time heist..?”

Tony scoffed in a joking manner and rubbed his forehead. “Yeah, a time heist. Of course, why didn't we think of this before?”

“The Stones are in the past. We can go back and get them,” Scott tried to reason.

“We can snap our own fingers. We can bring everyone back,” Natasha chimed in.

“Or screw it up worse than he already has, right?” Tony asked. Steve shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t believe we would,” Steve said.

“Gotta say, sometimes I miss that giddy optimism,” Tony said in a sarcastic tone. Everyone went back and forth for a while. Tony shot down every claim, and the rest tried to tell him there’s always a chance. The back and forth didn’t stop until the screen door was pushed open and Morgan came up to Tony’s side.

“Mommy told me to come and save you,” she said. You couldn’t help but smile and cross your arms. Tony picked her up and pat her back.

“Good job, I’m saved,” he reassured her. He refocused on the group and offered a shrug. “I wish you'd come here to ask me something else. Anything else. Honestly, I... I missed you guys, it was... Oh, and table's set for seven.”

.”Tony, I get it. And I'm happy for you, I really am. But this is a second chance,” Steve tried again, but Tony shook his head.

“I got my second chance right here,” Tony told him. You could see Steve accept his denial and then met Tony’s gaze. “I can’t roll the dice again.”

Tony excused himself and the porch fell silent. You watched him disappear into the house and looked back at the group in front of you. No one knew what to say, but Natasha was the first to speak. “Sorry for interrupting your weekend.”

“Well when you have a hell of a plan like that I don’t expect you to wait normal business hours,” you replied. Natasha sadly smiled and you sighed. “Tony has everything he’s ever wanted.. I don’t know if I can sweet talk him into helping.”

“We know,” Steve offered and gave a sad smile. “We just wanna do it right.”

“Tony may not be on board but.. If there’s a chance? I’m in,” you offered. Nat reached out and pat your shoulder and as if knowingly, she turned around and pulled Scott with her. You took a couple steps towards Steve and he straightened up a bit. “Nice to see you back, Cap.”

“One last mission,” Steve whispered. You smiled and looked behind him at the car he had come in and Natasha smirked at you. You met Steve’s gaze again and slowly lifted her young to rest on his cheek. On your tiptoes and with the sun basking in the sky, you leaned up and placed a gentle kiss on his lips. Steve had leaned into your touch, his lips pressing against yours as if it would be the last. After a couple seconds you pulled away and you both lingered close.

“Go save the world one more time, Captain.”

- - - - - - - - - -

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98 notes · View notes

marshmallowprotection · 4 years

Text

Saeran’s Passport Package

I’ve been waiting since the 19th to get my hands on this baby and I’m glad that it got here today. It took me a little bit to sit down and go through everything cause I wanted to cry about it the entire time.

Spoilers Ahead, everyone. So, if you’re not interested in seeing what’s in the Passport set AFTER the events of Saeran’s After Ending, then do not click Read More, got it? I’ve made it clear to you. I will say that it’s worth the money if you’re debating buying it.

So, we can go over the contents in the box, first as an overview. You receive a letter stamped with a cute sticker as well as the passport itself which holds the notes that Saeran’s been taking and drawing since this all started. I just think that’s cute. My brain said don’t open that passport until we review the letter first so, why don’t we go over the letter first? The little details are really cute. There’s just so many stamps on this baby.

The little touches are what sell it. You’ve got this man putting his love all over it and there’s a CUTE NOTE of CATS. Sir, was that a touch to Saeyoung? I know you know that your brother is a dork. Homage to brother who is an idiot but too glaringly obvious. It got a chuckle out of me. I know this man, and it’s just getting to me.

The passport itself is also really cute. It has the art from the promo banner but instead of everyone hustling around together, there’s new poses and all of that jazz. Jaehee isn’t rushing around. Zen’s got a selfie stick, no surprise on that front. Jumin just chilling. Seven and Yoosung... doing what they do best and you know it. RUN, YOOSUNG, RUN.

Saeran and MC... being cute on the inside made me go, “Aw!” Ice cream. They can really just put ice cream and it’s going to make me cry, huh? Really? Is that how easy this is? Am I a joke to you, Cheritz? Is that what this is?

Now, if you want to talk about the contents in the letter, you get this sheet that is listed in three languages, surprised me, Korean, Spanish, and English, and it lets you tick off little things that you like to do. An itinerary sheet. I feel like this is purely Jumin crafting these. It asks about Cats. Literally. Cats. Wine? Yeah, this is on Jumin. You always come in flex, Jumin, but oh boy, I’m chuckling over here at these little touches.

You get 2 boarding passes. One with Saeran’s name and one with a blank to fill in your name. I thought that was cute. Tying in that with the CG of the passes in the game with this just makes it more real to me. I’m holding this in my hands and it just makes my immersion feel much more real than it did when I was holding my phone in my hand and playing this out.

I think merch like this just makes you feel more apart of the story then you do when you’re able to talk and chat, you know? If you really like feeling like you are involved with the game, this is how you do it. You wanna know how I know that Jumin is the one setting this up with Saeran? Flip over the fucking passport and you realize that Elizabeth is on the back.

I’m still laughing.

I’m trying to imagine this and now, like, I’m starting to see why Jaehee is so damn tired because Elizabeth really is on everything that he can get his hands on and she’s good too many files to sort through when it comes to whatever the photographers take of her. Jumin can’t take photos. He’s either got Jihyun to do this for him at some point, or he’s straight up hiring photographers for her cause he can’t do it.

I mean, we all know that Jumin will put Elizabeth everywhere but I just— It’s on the BOARDING PASSES? JUMIN!

There’s also a postcard within the letter that is once more, written in all three aforementioned languages. Saeran says that it feels like a dream when he is with you, like this is where he’s always meant to be. His promise of happiness is made truest when he’s with you. I teared up a little. I know that he means well when he does that but damn, does it take an arrow to the heart every single time he does it.

Saeran put a lot of thought into this in a very short amount of time. I know that he did this plan likely with the idea that he may not be able to go with us but he wanted us to be able to see the world for him. You know, how he implied that he wanted Saeyoung to see things for him? To live for him? Even if he was dead, he wanted Saeyoung and the player to be happy and free.

The blurred state on those... doesn’t have names. It doesn’t name Saeran in this photo.

The implication of his sacrifice with the boarding passes kind of hurts because this is a side note of the fact that Saeran Did Not Know If He Would Live To See This Through. He made it thinking maybe.. if things worked out, it would be an okay future, but this was... God. I just. I’m thinking about the weight of the AE and what that felt like. I almost glossed over the Boarding Pass because I was just so upset with him.

I’m the type to try to sacrifice myself for others, too. I have that in common with Saeyoung and Saeran.

I think that we’d argue over who should die for the others and while that’s macabre, it’s just the kind of people that we are. We love these people so much that we’re willing to die if they’re safe and sound. Knowing that, I understand what Saeran tried, and even what Saeyoung tries, but it’s hard cause I want to make sure they’re happy in comparison to myself.

This is where being selfless is a bad thing.

Does anyone know what a big deal it is for Saeran to have a passport? He’s never had an ID or paperwork in his entire life. If he did, he would’ve been killed, so would his brother. They’re both never had IDs. Unless you count the ones from the Agency and Mint Eye. They’ve got them in the Believer box with their names and faces, but that’s not official. That’s not paperwork that everyone else has. That’s just...

You know?

Seeing this tangible thing in my hands is a testament to Saeran Choi being alive and thriving. He’s not afraid of showing his face. He’s living. He’s a free man and nobody can kill him for existing. Does that not weigh on anyone here? It hit me and I wanted to cry. I might break down thinking about this later because I just take this too seriously. Look at him. Look at HIM. Okay? Did you look? Now, LOOK AGAIN.

Okay, I’m not going to share every single page inside of the passport but I will give you little snippets of the journey ahead and show you what he writes and draws. Yes, he’s drawing. I knew that he was talented because he is great at doodling and drawing, but he knows how to have such a cute style that I want to gush about and he probably has no clue about how cute it is because nobody’s ever told him!

Okay, so the trip is broken up over a few months and into segments. You know how I was surprised by the 3 languages? Yes, this passport is written in three languages and it stays that way. It implies that Saeran knows English and Spanish, or at the very least, he’s been studying them, I get that it’s kind of a neat tie in to make sure that all languages are included but I only English and I can only read Spanish, I suck at conversational Spanish, so I could only read the English and Spanish sections.

So, if anyone wants to throw in what the Korean segments say, please do. I have a rough idea, but it’d be nice to know. The first segment of the trip is spent traveling over Korea. You see the things that he packed in the bag!

I almost had a heart attack because I thought the vitamins were Caffeine Pills. I was about to beat my Husband and make him go to bed. Thin ice, Saeran. Thin ice, the Special Believer package implied you take more then ten and I want you to go the fuck to sleep at night.

He packed his hanbok! Look! You remember? From the title screen event? The blue shirt is the one that he matches with MC in. There’s so much I’m screaming about it.

It shows you things that you do. Like, biking, karaoke, gardens... is there a locket bridge in Korea? You know? If you put them together on a bridge, it’s said that your love lasts forever. I forget where that came from but I guess there must be one in South Korea, too. Oh, and food. Can you believe that he can eat whatever he wants now? I’m sobbing.

Please.

HE’S IN HANBOK. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

Okay, here’s the thing. I only have one gripe with the Passport Package and I’m going to say this again at the end, but I really wish that they had included big photos for this because the Passport itself it rather small and I wish that I could have bigger photos of this. It’s my only complaint. Literally, it’s the only thing I have to say about the box that will affect my rating. Look, we’re doing cheesy couple stuff!

HE’S DOING THE HEART THING WITH HIS HANDS.

A KISS.

KISS.

GUSHING.

DYING. HELP. ME.

God, I wish I wasn’t broke. I would commission someone to do this for my MC.

The second and third portion of the trip are spent in the U.S.A. and Mexico, I was so surprised by that! New York and Hawaii specifically are what they name and I was. Well, those are really far apart, huh. I mean, those are very popular spots. I’m not surprised. I’m chuckling because he’s got matching outfits.

Saeran Choi, you really want the embarrassing couple look, don’t you? Well, if it’s for you, I’d do it. Did... Saeyoung or Jumin set us up, are we fucking loaded? There’s mad bank here.

Saeran and MC basically are living per Jumin and Saeyoung, to be honest, because Saeran’s never had a job and MC is... your MC literally agrees to go and test a game in the woods, how good can our lives be? I’m broke, boy. I ain’t got nothing. So, I like to think that those two are offering to let Saeran be as happy and free as he wants. No expense. Like, kindness. The RFA is too damn much, I’m gonna cry. I’m starting to understand why the RFA didn’t hear from us for months.

The final Check-In with the RFA is set 6 Months after the events that take place when we save Saeran. The events of this Passport cover 3 months. So, we go back to Korea after this adventure and met up with Saeyoung, because we know that we’re hanging out with him in the conclusion. So, if they haven’t really heard from us, that means that we’ve been traveling more with him.

I kind of like that.

We’re spending time with Saeran alone and time with the brothers together, and that’s sweet! I love that. I need to write more about it.

I’m trying not to laugh about this Mexico portion but it looks like he passed out from an ice tea... lemonade...? It’s surely not alcohol. Maybe too much sugar, I know that crash can hurt. I’ve been there. I just know that you’re not implying the man with alcohol trauma is gonna drink. Nope. Neither he nor Saeyoung ever will do that. I stand by that statement and I’ll die by that statement. Bite me my tongue if I’m wrong, but I stand by that.

Saeran is at least mindful of the sun. He’s also made notes that the perfect time for sunset is 18:34. Cute. He notes that it’s time for the Day of the Dead as well, so that’s fun!

IS THAT A FUCKING V CACTUS—

TWO V CACTUS—

There’s actually a portion in here where he asks you certain questions and you have the space to fill in it. I like that it’s interactive.

Do you have favorites sweets? Are there things about yourself that you hide? Did you make sure to ask Santa what you wanted? I’m wheezing. The food doodles are one thing, and the Christmas photo is one thing, but he really drew himself as a butterfly and the MC as a bug catcher.

“CATCH ME, MC.”

Help me.

I’m laughing so hard.

Saeran, you fucking goofball.

And, the last page of the passport is us assumedly returning home with all kinds of trinkets and gifts. Flower crown, snow globe, cactus, hats, listen, there’s a lot of details in this photos that I really wish I could have it blown up.

That’s really my only complaint about the Passport Package. I really want to have bigger photos that are shared. I wouldn’t have minded if it was the photo of the final CG in the game, or the Christmas photo, I really would have enjoyed getting that to have for myself.

You know? The passport itself is roughly like 5 x 7 or so, so while it’s not big, it’s still like. I would love to see the details blown up. It’s smaller then the diary, that I know for sure. I think it’s the only thing stopping from giving Cheritz a 10/10 on this item.

I’m going to have to give them a 9.8/10 simply because it feels like we are lacking one big photo.

I guess I’ll print my favorite CGs and decorate my room like that. But, all and all, I really enjoyed reading this and it made it feel like I was there and I was able to reflect on Saeran’s vacation with the player. Like, he was doing this as we were going using his little doodles... I’m in love with this fucking sap. I’d say that this is worth the money.

For sure.

My only gripe aside. That’s a personal problem, not really a content problem. I love this bastard.

Look at him, he’s GOT A PLUSHIE. I have so many things that I want to write about now thanks to this. Saeran, darling, sweetie, my love, I am dying. Either way, I’m glad this arrived when it did. I needed this. I justified getting this for myself because I don’t expect to get anything for my birthday in early February but I’m happy I have him.

It’s been five years since I found this game in August 2016. I’m happy that it’s been here with me.

207 notes · View notes

hercleverboy · 4 years

Text

time

spencer reid x reader

summary ↠ spencer learns the truth about why the reader left the team so suddenly during his post-prison showdown with cat adams.

category ↠ angst

warnings/includes ↠ cancer, main character death, crying, pleading someone not to die, please do not read if these are triggering for you.

word count ↠ 3.6k

“Death is peaceful, easy. Life is harder.”

Breast cancer had a history in Y/N’s family. Her grandmother had died from it, and it seemingly skipped her mothers generation. Y/N was not so lucky.

When the doctor told her, she stared blankly she’d at the wall. He was talking at her but she only seemed to pick up on parts of what he was saying.

“Breast cancer”, “stage 4”, “has unfortunately spread to other parts of your body,” “eight months if you’re lucky”

Lucky?

If she’s lucky?

The doctor sent her on her way after discussing some treatments with her. He told her what the side effects of those treatments were going to be, and she’d shaken her head. The doctor looked shocked, but Y/N had just given him a small smile. If she was going to die, she was going to spend her time doing everything she wanted to, not being poked and prodded and given treatments that were unlikely to work anyway.

Initially, she didn’t tell anyone at the BAU. She certainly didn’t tell Spencer, who she’d been crushing on for years at that point. They were best friends, they had been since she started all those years ago, and they were always there for one another. She was always too nervous to tell him how she felt, but it’s funny how finding out your days are numbered will encourage you to do things you never thought you’d have the courage to. So one night at the end of the work day, when the bullpen was empty apart from her and the resident genius, she threw caution to the wind and walked right up to his desk.

He grinned at her as she approached. “Hey, Y/N. Did you want to grab something to eat before you head home? There’s that new Chinese place a few streets over-“ He was interrupted by her saying three words he never thought she’d say to him.

“I love you.”

The silence that followed was suffocating.

“You what?” He manages to get out, his mind was spinning.

“I love you. I’ve always loved you. I’m sorry, you just have to know.”

“Y/N I don’t know what to say I-“ He stumbled over his words, trying to find the right ones. Truthfully, he was in love with her too. Though his own insecurities and stupid thoughts always got in the way. Y/N took his lack of response to mean that he didn’t feel the same, and so she took a deep breath and smiled at him reassuringly. Before he could tell her that he was very sure he loved her too, she was gone, the bullpen’s doors closing gently behind her.

Y/N felt the weight lifted off her shoulders. Despite her thinking Spencer didn’t return her affection, she still felt the sweetest relief imaginable. Because fuck it, if she was going to die she’d be damned If she did so without telling Spencer Reid how much she loved him.

And now he knew.

It brought her a sense of peace.

She told Hotch, but that’s only because she had to give him a real reason as to why she was leaving, after he heard the lie she’d fed the team.

“I’ve been offered a job in the orginised crime unit, I just can’t turn it down.”

“Y/N, can I speak with you?” He’d asked after she’d announced to the team that she was leaving. He led her to his office, closing the door behind her. “I’ll get straight to the point. There is no new job with the orginised crime unit, I would’ve been notified if you’d been offered a new position. What’s going on?”

She couldn’t lie to him, she knew that much. So she took a deep breath and spoke. “I’m terminally ill, sir. I haven’t got long left. I would like to live what is left of my life.” Hotch was understating. He didn’t show it, always very good at masking his emotions, but his heart was broken. He’d even hugged her, telling her what a pleasure it was to work alongside her, how the world would suffer greatly from the loss of her kind heart and unmatched intelligence.

On her last shift, which was a paperwork day thankfully, the team got together and threw her a little in-office going away party. Y/N felt guilty about not telling her friends, her family, the real reason she was leaving but they shouldn’t have to bear that burden, they shouldn’t have to carry around the guilt. And she didn’t want their pity or worry either. Hotch had been surprised at how soon she’d wanted to leave the BAU after telling him of her condition, but she told him it was because she wanted the team to remember her how she was. Strong and confident. She didn’t want to them to see her so weak and vulnerable, how she knew this disease would reduce her to.

JJ found out that day, unintentionally. After laughing and eating some cake with the team, Y/N felt incredibly nauseous (she found she was struggling to keep food down these days), so she excused herself to the bathroom, and was violently sick in the toilet of one of the stalls. JJ had followed her in, noticing how she’d barely touched her cake earlier and that she looked awfully pale as well.

“Y/N? Are you alright?” She asked, opening up the stall door behind Y/N, who was panting over the toilet bowl.

“I’m fine, JJ. I promise.” She smiled weakly but JJ wasn’t buying it. The two women had become best friends over their time in the bureau, almost like sisters.

“You’re not pregnant, are you?” JJ joked as Y/N stood up on shaky legs.

“No, I’m not pregnant Jayje.” Y/N couldn’t look her best friend in the eye, tears filling her eyes.

“Hey, don’t cry. It’ll be okay, what’s wrong?” JJ’s motherly tone made Y/N wanted to laugh but she couldn’t force one out if she tried. Y/N’s lack of response frightened JJ.

“Y/N, you’re scaring me. Tell me what’s wrong, please.” She begged.

“I’m sick, JJ.”

It didn’t take the blonde long to figure out that she didn’t mean a common cold. Tears filled JJ’s eyes.

“I haven’t got a lot of time Jayje.” Y/N cried, and JJ began to sob, pulling Y/N into a tight hug.

“Well there are treatments right? Chemotherapy or something? Something has to work.” JJ was begging, praying that there was something. Her heart shattered all over again when Y/N shook her head.

“I won’t spend the rest of my time hooked up to countless machines receiving treatments that may or may not work. I don’t want to fight this. I’m already so tired, I just want to go peacefully when the time comes. Please?”

JJ just cried harder. She understood Y/N had already made peace with her fate.

After calming down slightly, Y/N pulled back, holding JJ by her shoulders. “You can’t tell anyone. Only you and Hotch know. I won’t burden anyone else with this, okay?”

“Y/N, this isn’t a burden. You’re sick. The team deserve to know, they deserve their turn to say goodbye.” JJ tried to convince her.

“Please. You can’t say a thing. I know they deserve that but god I can’t have them all pitying me. Garcia will buy me gift baskets to compensate, Derek won’t know what to do with himself so he’ll make jokes, and Spencer, god Spence will go into overdrive trying to fix me. I just want to live out my days peacefully, please let me have that Jayje.” She begged, and the blonde nodded.

“I understand, Y/N. But Spence.. he’s one of your best friends. He has been for years now. I know you told him you love him and he didn’t say it back but.. this- this will kill him.” She whispered the last part and Y/N looked away as she fought to stop the tears from falling down her cheeks.

“I know. And I’m sorry if it’s selfish but I’m dying, I think I’m allowed to be a little selfish.” Her attempt at a joke was met with a stern look from JJ.

5 months after Y/N left the BAU, Spencer ended up in trouble in Mexico, and before anyone could do anything he was awaiting trial in a prison cell. He had lot of time to think over the three months spent behind bars, staring at blank walls, fighting to survive long enough for the team to prove his innocence. Every night he slept in his bed he thought of Y/N.

How much he missed his best friend.

How much he loved her still.

He realised how stupid he’d been to let her get away. He regretted not going after her that day in the bullpen and promising her he felt the same way she did. He promised himself the moment he got out he would tell her how he felt, and they could make up for the time they’d lost. He yearned to see her, and If prison taught him anything, it was that time was precious. And he wanted to spend all of his time with her.

When JJ turned up to the prison one day, he’d never felt a relief quite like it.

“We’re taking you home.”

He was relieved that now he could focus on finding his mother, and once that was done he could prioritise Y/N. He would tell her how he felt, how he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, no time to waste. He could tell her the words he’d thought a thousands times of the last three months.

I love you. So much.

He just had to win one final time, play Cat Adams stupid game and then everything he’d ever wanted would be his. He could live the life he’d dreamed of when he was in prison, Y/N by his side.

“Even if you are pregnant the baby’s not mine.” Spencer was mortified that she was really trying to persuade him that her baby was his, let alone that she was even pregnant in the first place.

Cat clicked her tongue. “Except for the part where it is.”

“That’s preposterous, you’ve been in prison. And besides we’ve never-“

“So have you, and I know we never...” She trailed off, that smirk on her lips. “Ask me how I did it.”

Spencer was really losing his patience. He didn’t care for, nor did he want to play Cat’s little game anymore.

“Come on, ask me.”

“How did you do it?”

“I had Lindsey dose you in Mexico. You lost time.” Cat smiled at the look of confusion on Spencer’s face. “I told her to pretend to be Maeve.”

That hurt Spencer more than it should’ve. 4 years since the tragic death of his girlfriend, and the wounds were still fresh as anything. Of course Cat knew about Maeve.

“But perhaps it would’ve worked better if I’d told her to pretend to be Y/N, the best friend that you’ve always loved but never told her. It’s a shame that you might never get the chance now.” Cat snarled.

“What do you mean I’ll never get the chance?”

“Oh my god. You don’t know, do you?” Cat teased, and Spencer gripped the edge of the table so harshly his knuckles turned white.

“Know what, Cat?”

“Dear little Y/N has terminal cancer. She was given around eight months to live, from what I know. That would mean-“ She theatrically looked at Spencer’s watch that sat on her wrist. “Any day now, if my timings right.”

“You’re lying.”

“I’m not.” Cat’s head cocked to the side. This wasn’t part of her original plan, but any opportunity to mess with Spencer even more was not to be missed.

“Yes you are, that what you do.” Spencer seethed, the words like venom on his tongue.

“I’m not. Just ask blondie in there.” Cat pointed to the double sided mirror. “She’ll tell you. It is her that Y/N chose to confide in, after all.” She teased.

Spencer shot up from table with loud bang and stalked out the room, slamming open the door to where a gobsmacked JJ stood.

“Is it true?” Spencer asked, his tone cold and unforgiving.

“Spence..”

“JJ! I asked if it was true?” He shouted, slamming his hand on the wall next to them. JJ flinched, and for the first time in their friendship JJ was afraid of the man in front of her.

“Yes.” Her voice was small.

He whipped out his phone, calling Garcia. “Garcia I need you to look up Y/N Y/L/N’s medical records.”

“Our Y/N Y/L/N? Why?” The chipper woman replied, confused.

“Just please, Garcia!” Spencer shouted desperately.

“Okay okay, I’m looking and everything seems fine- oh wait- what’s this?” Garcia murmured to herself as she clicked through the files, her eyes widening and tears forming in them as she gasped. “She’s sick? W-why didn’t she tell us? Oh my god.”

“She’s alive, right? Oh god please tell me she’s alive?” Spencer begged.

“She’s alive, but she was admitted to the hospital 2 weeks ago after she collapsed. They’re keeping her in the hospital, just trying to make her comfortable- oh god I can’t read anymore.” Garcia was sobbing down the line and JJ had a hand clasped over her mouth to keep her own sobs at bay.

Spencer sobbed too, for the first time since he went to prison. Everything seemed to hit him at once.

After a moment, JJ’s trembling voice reached his ears. “Spence, I know this is a lot to take in but if you want to find out where your mother is you’ve got to carry on.”

He’s knew she was right, but he just glared at her coldly. “How long have you known?”

“Since she left.” JJ cried. “I’m so sorry, but she begged me not to tell you, or anyone else for that matter. How could I deny her that?”

Spencer understood it wasn’t JJ’s fault but he was still so angry. The anger burned within him like a wildfire and he didn’t posses the restraint to put it out. “There was no new job in the organised crime unit, was there?”

“No.”

“Fuck!” Spencer shouted, pushing some files that sat on the table onto the floor with a loud crash as he cried.

“Spence-“ JJ attempted to comfort him but he was downright inconsolable.

“You know she told me she loved me. Before she left.” Spencer spoke quickly and fiercely, though the tears trembling down his cheeks told a different story. He finally looked JJ in the eye, and she nodded. “I didn’t get to tell her I love her but I do JJ, god I do and now I’m gonna lose her.” He let out a heartbroken cry and JJ felt so guilty.

“Spence you have to go back in there and win her little game. Save your mother, and then you can worry about Y/N. Okay?” JJ tried, and this time it seemed the words sunk into him.

Spencer hated that she was right. So with a sniffle, he wiped the tears from his eyes with the sleeves of his blazer, before taking a deep breath and returning to the room with Cat, one even more determined to win.

After winning the battle against Cat, Spencer escorted his mother back to the sanitarium. As soon as she was safe and settled, Spencer was immediately on the phone with Garcia.

“Garcia, which hospital is Y/N at?”

Once he got the address he was there in minutes.

He sped up to the front desk, panting as he spoke. “Hi, I’m here to see Y/N Y/L/N.”

The receptionist nodded, typing away on her computer. Spencer stood as he waited to hear what room she was in, tapping his foot impatiently on the white floorboards. A doctor who had been standing near the desk stepped towards him, and he looked him as she approached. “Sorry sir, Did you say you’re here to see Y/N Y/L/N?”

Spencer turned to her, his voice desperate. He prayed he wasn’t too late. “Yes, yes.”

The doctor looked at him with a small smile. She looked him up and down, coming to a conclusion. “Are you Dr Spencer Reid?”

Spencer gulped, unsure what to say. “Yes. How did you know?”

“Y/N- She talks about you, when she’s in between consciousness. She showed me pictures a few weeks ago, told me all about the man she loved who she was so sure didn’t love her back. She’ll be so glad to see you.”

He wanted to smile at the information but he felt so sick that he couldn’t force his lips up into even a grimace. “How is she?” He dared to ask.

“I’m sorry, Dr Reid. Y/N is incredibly ill. We’re just trying to make her as comfortable as we can, I’m afraid it won’t be long now. Follow me, she could use your company.”

His heart broke but he followed her, attempting not to breakdown in a fit of cries.

When he saw her his heart broke even more. Her cheeks were sullen and she was thinner than he remembered. But she was still so beautiful to him. He thanked the doctor and pulled up a chair next to her, taking one of her frail hands in his. She turned to look at him, flashing a weak smile.

“Spencer? Are you really here?”

“Yes sweetheart. And I’m not going anywhere, I promise.” He choked out, attempting to smile for her sake.

She nodded, and he brought his lips to her hand to place a gentle kiss on it.

“I’ve missed you.” She whimpered out. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”

“No, it’s okay. I’ve missed you too.” He felt like breaking down but he had to be strong for her. “Y/N, I have to tell you, if this is the last chance I get I- I love you. I always have done. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you all those months ago. I’m here now, but I’m too late.” He sobbed.

“Hey, hey. . It’s okay. It was a privilege to love you, Spencer Reid.” She smiled, moving her frail hands up to cup his face. It made him sob harder.

“I wish we had more time.” He cried, pressing his forehead to hers.

“I know, me too.”

They talked for the whole evening, and then, when she got too exhausted to continue conversation, he pulled out her favourite book from his satchel. He read to her, listening to the sound of her shallow breathing.

The team visited, all too shocked to say much, but they came to say goodbye. Y/N was barely conscious enough to realise what was going on, but she still managed to give the team a weak smile and a whispered, “Love you guys.”

JJ and Garcia had to leave the room so they wouldn’t collapse in tears front of her.

When the heart monitor went flat in the early hours of the next morning, that loud blaring sound filling Spencer’s ears, his sobs started again as he rested his forehead on her still chest.

“Please. Please don’t go. Come back, I love you.” Spencer begged, his shoulders moving with the sobs that wracked through him. He’d never felt so utterly heartbroken. Not when he watched his father leave, not when he saw his mother’s condition worsen, not even when Maeve was killed right in front of him. None of that compared to how his chest burned and his throat was sore from the sobs that ripped from him, and the tears that relentlessly cascaded down his cheeks.

“Please, baby. Look at me. Let me see them gorgeous eyes, yeah?” He begged, he prayed to every god there ever was that she’d look at him again with those beautiful orbs that he’d fallen so In love with. Those stunning eyes that would never open again.

The doctor, with tears in her own eyes at the scene before her, moved to turn the heart monitor off, the obnoxious withstanding beep cutting off. It made Spencer’s head ache.

Spencer clutched Y/N’s hand desperately to his chest, his head resting on her chest as he cried. He squeezed her hand, and some foolish part of him almost believed that if he squeezed hard enough he’d wake up from whatever nightmare this was. He twisted his eyelids shut and dreamed. He dreamed of waking up next to Y/N, in a bed that they shared, wedding bands on their fingers and their children’s footsteps and laughter filling their home. He dreamed of a life with her, of raising a family with her. He dreamed of the life she deserved.

He wanted to scream. How was this fair? How were murderers and serial rapists walking around with no consequence but people like Y/N had their lives ripped from them?

It was unjust.

But the world was cruel, Spencer knew. It was cruel and it was cold and it was unforgiving.

He raised his head from her chest, using the hand that wasn’t holding hers to place his hand on her cheek. He pushed forward, placing a gentle kiss on her cold and lifeless lips.

it was a goodbye. one that needn’t be spoken.

“I love you, Y/N. I’ll honour you for the rest of my life, I promise.”

Spencer Reid never recovered from losing Y/N Y/L/N.

#spencer reid #spencer reid x reader #criminal minds #mgg x reader #mgg #spencer reid one shot #criminal minds x reader

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pastelwitchling · 4 years

Text

Nobody ever knew this, but the day Alex had lost his leg, Michael had known about it.

Since the very moment Alex had told Michael that he’d enlisted, something had begun along the anguish in his heart. Plans. Michael had known secrecy was law in the military, but that hadn’t been nearly enough to keep him from strategizing. How would he keep an eye on Alex? How would he make sure his man was okay? He wasn’t family, he didn’t know any of Alex’s actual family, and if anything happened to him, Michael would be the last to know, if allowed to know at all.

So he’d hacked security systems he shouldn’t have hacked. He would realize later on that Alex could’ve done in seconds when he’d only managed after almost a year of nonstop research and covert sites and shady computer creeps. But he’d been desperate, and when he’d found Alex’s name registered under a certain unit, he knew the lost paychecks and sleepless nights had been more than worth it.

Every morning after he woke up and every night before he went to sleep, he would pull up the soldier listings, and touch Alex’s name, thinking of him, pretending he was warm and safe wherever he was.

“I’ll see you again,” he murmured to himself, hoping that somehow Alex could hear him.

Then one day, Alex had disappeared off the listings. Michael had only been half-awake when he’d checked, but as he scrolled to where he knew Alex’s name should’ve been and couldn’t find it, panic had quickly set in and he’d paced the airstream, the computer in hand, scrolling through the names a million times.

It took threatening another hacker with an abnormal strength that he would never explain to find Alex’s name again under the Captains listing. The hacker had cursed at him as he’d ditched the money and run for his life, but Michael didn’t care. He was too busy staring at Alex’s name, reminding himself that his airman was safe and unharmed. That he was a captain now.

Michael didn’t know how he felt about that. Alex was a captain, rising in the ranks. He had his own team with other airmen that followed his orders. On the one hand, the bigger part of him wondered if this meant Alex would never come back. On the other . . . his Alex was a captain. The pride made Michael smile.

“That’s my boy.”

For the next five years, nothing had changed. Michael kept checking to make sure Alex’s name was still there, the awards piling up. Michael had just begun to fear that he really wouldn’t see Alex again in that final year, but he looked for Alex’s name anyway. He didn’t care, he just wanted to know Alex was safe.

Then, one night, with a pain in his chest that he couldn’t explain and an anxiety that made him want to look up Alex’s name before his shift was even over, Michael found his airman with a Purple Heart listed beside him.

His brows furrowed, and he clicked on the linked information. He couldn’t remember what the purple heart was for, but dread settled in his stomach anyway and made him nauseous. Then he saw it. And he remembered. The Purple Heart was awarded to soldiers who were gravely wounded in battle.

“No,” he breathed, standing up with the computer in hand, staring at the report as if expecting it to be a joke. “No.”

An explosion had gone off where Alex’s team had been stationed.

“He’s alive,” he told himself, the very thought making him tremble and his vision shatter. “He’s alive, he’s alive, he’s alive.”

But his leg . . . his leg had been . . .

Feeling sick, Michael left the computer on his bed, grabbed his jacket, and drove with lightning speed to the Wild Pony. He stopped outside the doors, trying to steady his racing heart. Maria would know. One of Alex’s brothers might get in touch with her, someone would’ve gotten in touch with Mimi, and she would’ve told her daughter. Either way, Maria would know, and if she was happy and unbothered, then Alex was fine, and it was a glitch in the system. Everything was fine.

Michael stepped inside, the usual chatter and jukebox music of the bar turned to faint background noise, nothing so intoxicating and frighteningly inviting as it usually was. That was because Michael was here on a mission.

He made a beeline for the bar, tilting his head up and down looking for Maria. He spotted a head of brown curls and his eyes fell on Maria on the phone. Something like barely processed relief began to settle in his chest as she laughed.

Then he got closer, and realized Maria wasn’t laughing at all. She was crying. He froze.

Another waitress came up behind her and helped lead her into the backroom, patting her back consolingly before she took over the bar. Michael wordlessly turned around and left.

He sat on the ground against the airstream until dawn started to peek through, staring at Alex’s name. He had been taken to DC, the name of the hospital there in the report.

When his fingers turned numb and he started to forget where he was, his mind consumed with Alex, lying awake in his hospital bed, probably screaming his head off, alone and scared and miserable, he got to his feet, into his truck, and started it without a word.

He drove and drove and drove. He stopped once to put in gas and forced a greasy burger down his throat to stave off the blinding hunger before he kept driving. The streets changed, the desert faded, white houses sat side by side, and Michael soon found himself parked in front of the hospital where Alex was.

Michael was out of the truck before it was properly parked, and he stormed up to the front desk. “What room is Alex Manes in?”

The receptionist blinked. “Are you family?” Michael swallowed through a clenched jaw. That seemed to have been answer enough for the older woman. “Sorry, he’s only allowed family in this time –”

“Please,” he whispered. “Please. I came all the way from Roswell in New Mexico. Please just give me five minutes. Just five minutes.”

The woman eyed him for a moment, as if realizing something. Her gaze turned sympathetic and her shoulders slumped. “Fifth floor, room 52 in Recovery. Five minutes –” she warned but Michael was already running towards the stairs, taking them two steps at a time.

He ran down the hall and slid into a supply closet to avoid being spotted by a group of doctors making their way to the breakroom.

“I’ve never seen anybody like that captain before,” one of them said, and Michael’s heart leapt into his throat. “He just turned so . . . quiet.”

“What do you expect?” the other guy sighed. “You met his father. Those Manes men are made of stone.”

As soon as they were out of sight, Michael was searching for room 52. He came up to the door, and swallowed thickly. Hanging on the wall next to the door was a plaque that read, Recovery. It made Michael sick that Alex would ever need to recover from anything.

He hesitated and opened the door, holding his breath. He’d expected to see seventeen year old Alex sitting up in bed, idly strumming a guitar with maybe a bandage over his eyebrow. As he stepped inside though, he found a twenty-eight year old man, lying asleep in bed, the blanket pulled up to his chest as a heart monitor gave a steady beep beep beep. He slept on his back, his head turned the other way, his hands folded on his stomach.

But Michael could still make out the slight stubble on Alex’s jaw, his hair still soft by cut short and sticking out in different places as if refusing to stay down in its natural state. His cheeks were rosy but hollow, and the black circles around his eyes seemed darker than ever. He looked so much older, in more ways than one.

Michael’s eyes burned as he approached, something like a chocked whimper sounding in his throat as he reached out and touched Alex’s jaw, the stubble scratching his fingers. Even when Alex had been a teenager, he’d woken at the drop of a feather. It was a testament to his exhaustion and grief that he slept so soundly now, not anything resembling peace.

It was now that Michael saw him that he realized Alex had never known peace a day in his life. Life had been taking and taking away from him, and this. This was the biggest loss.

He looked down Alex’s form under the blanket, the muscle evident after years of training, and his breath caught. There was nothing below the right knee, the blanket revealing just what he’d suffered by lying flat on the mattress where his leg should’ve been.

A tear fell down his cheek and a sob escaped his lips. He leaned down, and pressed a wet, trembling kiss to Alex’s forehead. His skin was still cool and he still smelled like vanilla.

“I’m right here with you, baby,” he breathed against his skin. “Alex, I’m right here. I didn’t want to leave you alone, I’m sorry.”

His other hand reached down to hold Alex’s, but he stayed over him, pressing another kiss to each of his tired eyes, his cheek, his nose, his ear, his jaw. His lips hovered over Alex’s, eager to kiss him, but then –

“Mmh,” Alex stirred, his brows knit as his fingers twitched in Michael’s.

Michael let him go, stepping back. He swallowed, waiting anxiously for Alex to wake up, realize Michael was here, and ask him what the hell had brought him. Alex probably didn’t even remember him, didn’t care to see him, regretted ever having kissed him –

“Gue . . . rin,” Alex murmured in his sleep. “Guerin . . .”

Michael stared. Alex repeated his name in a whimper this time, his brows pinched tighter together as he stirred restlessly in bed. He was having a nightmare. He was having a nightmare, and he wanted Michael.

His breaths began to quicken, and Michael blinked out of his haze, closing the distance between them and taking Alex’s hand in his again, his hold tight. He smoothed Alex’s bangs out of the way and kissed his forehead again. “I’m right here, Alex,” he murmured. “I’m not gonna leave you. I’m right here.”

Slowly, Alex’s breathing calmed again and the tension in his body faded. His right leg lay still, and Michael couldn’t help but kiss him again. Maybe this would be okay, after all. Maybe Alex could wake up and see him, and Michael could promise that he would stay with him, take care of him. He’d promise that he loved him anyway.

Then a knock came and Michael straightened. The receptionist from downstairs came in with a clipboard in hand. She sighed, her expression genuinely apologetic. Michael didn’t care. Her news wasn’t good.

“Five minutes are up,” she said. “I’m sorry, but you have to go.”

“But –”

“His family is scheduled to arrive at any minute,” she said. “I’m really sorry.”

Then reality hit. As much fun as hypotheticals were, as much as he wanted to believe he was Alex’s family . . . he just wasn’t. He and Alex weren’t married, he hadn’t even spoken to Alex before he’d left all those years ago. They weren’t strangers, they could never be strangers, but who knew if Alex even wanted to come back to Roswell now that he was injured? Who knew if Michael was the one he wanted to see when he woke up and remembered he’d lost a limb?

His hand fell away from Alex’s and he stepped back, his eyes on the airman. This couldn’t be the last time he ever saw him. He wouldn’t let it be. He just wished he could look away now.

Alex had gone still again, sleeping soundly, and Michael finally tore his gaze from him and made it to the door before the nurse softly asked, “Who should I tell him came to see him?”

Michael looked at Alex, sleeping and unaware that the mess of a cowboy he’d once loved had come running. That Michael had loved him enough to come.

His eyes burned, but before anyone could see the tears, he shook his head and said, his voice hoarse, “Nobody. Tell him nobody came.”

And without another word or glance, with the intention to destroy the computer that he’d used to keep track of Alex all these years the second he got back, Michael left the hospital, left DC, left Alex.

#alex manes #michael guerin #malex #malex fic #malex fanfic #malex fanfiction #roswell new mexico #roswell nm #malex angst #malex fluff #tyler blackburn #michael vlamis

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kyber-crystal · 4 years

Text

forever & always || s.r

summary: you’ve long since given up on hoping for a better future, but steve’s there to remind you that there’s still something left living for. and you grow to realize that maybe, just maybe, that something was him.

words: ~1.3k (sorry this is so short)

warnings: angsty in the beginning, mild descriptions of blood, fluff in the end, cliche tropes, bad writing. post IW–pre endgame AU, some dialogue is from endgame; i don’t own any part of it. credits go to marvel.

a/n: yeesh this is a complete dumpster fire. i have no idea where this idea came from but i just sat down and decided to start writing, so here we are. buckle up and i hope you enjoy this (unedited) shitshow :3 friendly reminder that requests are open!

Amidst the aftermath of the Snap’s destruction, things were a complete mess. You found it hard to do so much as get up in the morning when the world had stopped moving forward—what was the point of waiting up for something that wouldn’t go on?

There were many nights in which you slid into bed and hoped you’d never wake up again and yet, you did wake up—in the early hours of the morning. And despite it all, you kept going. You kept going, you pushed yourself to make it through the day because you knew that nobody else would do it for you.

You hardly ever got any quality sleep. If you were lucky, you’d get a solid two or three uninterrupted hours, and five was unheard of. You were falling—and Steve, being as observant as he was, noticed.

He noticed how you’d lost the light to your face. You no longer glowed like you used to when you were fully engaged in a conversation. Your smile, that is, if you smiled at all, never reached your eyes. It was rather easy for him to differentiate a fake one from a real one—and he could tell you were struggling to maintain the façade.

Steve felt guilty. Here you were, doing everything you could to stay afloat and pouring your heart and soul into keeping everyone else on the team happy and healthy, but you never found time to take care of yourself. He wanted to help. Seeing the woman he’d known for as long as he could remember slowly fall apart broke him—and the fact that there was little to nothing he could do about it only made it worse.

It was another one of those late nights for you. Natasha had tried to talk you out of helping her, but the pure exhaustion in her eyes was evident—so you’d convinced her to go to bed (you knew she hadn’t done this in days) and took over.

Rhodey had a solemn look on his face as you pulled up his hologram. “Hey, Y/N...where’s Nat? Are you guys alright?”

"Yeah...how about you? Where are you right now?"

"Mexico. The Federales found a room full of bodies," he answered with his arms crossed over his chest, "it looks like a bunch of cartel guys...never even had the chance to get their guns off."

"It's probably a rival gang, then," you shrugged.

"Except it isn't. It's definitely Barton. What he's done here, what he's been doing for the past few years...the scene that he left...I gotta tell you, there's a part of me that doesn't even wanna find him."

You were silent for a moment as you comprehended his words. "Will you find out where he's going next, check in when you hear something?” You looked at him hopefully. “Please? We can’t just...we can’t just give up now.”

"Alright, I'll let you know," he said with a sigh, before disappearing from the room.

Your gut instinct was to call Steve, but before you could find your hand on your phone, you pulled it back. He was probably busy at the moment—you didn’t want to burden him any further when he already had enough on his mind.

Placing your hands on the edges of the desk, you pushed yourself out of your seat and got up. You grabbed a glass out of the pantry and decided to pour yourself a cup of cold water to clear your head, ignoring the sharp hunger pangs in your stomach that told you it really had been forever since you’d last had a proper meal that wasn’t three cups of coffee and half a banana. And that had been four days ago.

You were often too busy drowning in your own thoughts to focus on anything else.

Out of nowhere you’re hit with a splitting migraine that has you struggling to stay standing upright and suddenly the world is spinning and everything is blurring together you can’t breathe. As if it was going in slow motion, the glass fell out of your hand and shattered into a million tiny crystalline fragments upon hitting the floor, and you sank down with it.

You felt the sharp edges digging into the palms of your hands and the bottoms of your feet and it stung, but compared to what you’d been through in the past, it was nothing. The metallic smell of blood overwhelmed your senses. The tears kept coming and coming and your head was hurting, your body ached immensely—everything hurt.

Steve quietly entered the compound and immediately stopped in his tracks when he reached the kitchen.

“...Y/N?”

You tried opening your mouth to speak, but no words came out—instead, a hoarse cry escaped your lips—and the sound sent daggers straight through his heart. There’s crimson stains on your shirt and on the kitchen floor; you’re covered in blood and sweat and tears and there’s glass everywhere. It’s a complete mess, but he doesn’t care.

Disregarding the complete kitchen disaster around him, he carefully kneels down next to you and pulls you forward, and you collapse into his arms.

He doesn’t say anything. Doesn’t say a thing as you let it all out. Your tears begin leaving dark spots on his shirt but he remains quiet. He’s dead silent. Steve brings a hand to the back of your head and gently pushes it towards his chest, and you continue sobbing into his shoulder as he smooths your hair back and uses his other arm to pull you closer.

You clutch his shirt with every ounce of energy you have left. You cry and cry and cry until you feel like your throat is going to tear apart from the sheer force of it and your seemingly never-ending river of tears has finally run dry. You’re not sure exactly how long you’re like this for—sitting in the middle of the cold kitchen floor, wrapped up in his arms and clinging to him as if he was your sole remaining lifeline—but you’re there for a while. And he’s patient, whispering soothing words of encouragement and sweet nothings into your ear to calm you down.

“It’s okay, I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”

...

You’re quietly sitting on the edge of the bathtub as Steve is kneeling in front of you and picking the glass out of your skin. He winces when he thinks he’s being too rough, but you don’t even do so much as flinch.

He dips a cotton boll into the small bowl of alcohol on the counter, starting to gently dab on the cuts scattered across your knuckles and cheeks. Steve wants to ask why you were in such a state when he found you, but he knows better than to pry. He knows that before anything else, he’s supposed to be there for you—to listen.

“I miss them,” you mumbled.

“I know. I miss them too.”

You glanced up at him with glassy eyes, and his heart shatters all over again. “Do you think we could get them back?"

“Of course. There’s always hope.”

“...You really think so?”

“Ever since you came into my life, I never stopped. Hoping, that is.” Steve cleared his throat. “If we can find a reason to keep going, then I don’t see why we can’t achieve anything we want.”

You cracked a small smile at his words, and he reached up and gingerly wiped away the remnants of your tears. When his hand finds its place against your cheek, you place your own hand over it—and let it stay.

You were ready to go. You were planning to leave for good, but seeing his piercing yet gentle blue eyes and breathtaking smile pushed you to stay. If you couldn’t keep going for yourself, you had to at least do it for him.

And so you did.

...

general tags: @arkofblake @anakinswhore @captainchrisstan @naomiiiiiiiiiii04 @patzammit @rynhaswritersblock @capcapcapsicle @musicalkeys @buckybarnesthehotshot @zaddychris @optimistic-dinosaur-nacho @sylvie-writes @sis-it-dont-add-up @poesflygirl

permanent tags: @sandwitch-god @renaissancecherub @voguesir @fl0ating @cicicantblog

steve/chris tags: @speechlessxx @angrybirdcr @marvelfanatic16 @epiphanybucky @smokeandnailz

#steve rogers #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x y/n #marvel #avengers #captain america #captain america imagine #captain america x reader #captain america x you #marvel reader insert #captain america one shot #steve rogers fluff #steve rogers fanfiction #captain america fanfiction #steve rogers fic #captain america fic #chris evans x reader #chris evans #chris evans imagine

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elffees · 3 years

Text

some little additions to the ep 5 endings for low brotherhood

oh this post is going to hurt but i’m doing it anyway. these are just some brainstorms on tweaks to the endings bc for the most part, they all come off as high brotherhood, which is fine for me tbh bc i have never played a LB route cause im Soft™️. but i’m also Curious™️ and thought up some variations that couldve been made for people that did have a LB playthrough

these are mostly tiny changes. nothing too major bc like in canon, i think morality having the highest affect on Cross vs. Surrender is fine, but it would’ve been kinda cool if the epilogues had been tweaked a little to reflect brotherhood also. so possible tweaks i thought of is basically what this post is about.

here’s some:

redemption

(sidenote: okay i said the changes were mostly little and i promise they are. this ending specifically tho just has the most significant ones i’ve made by adding in like 2 extra scenes. but that’s really it)

in this ending things are the same when they reach the road block, including daniel tearing up, until sean says “you’re my brother”. they do not exchange i love yous nor hug or touch foreheads. sean goes straight to “and i know it’s gonna be alright” while keeping an outstretched arm on daniel’s shoulder. daniel also goes straight to his “how do you know”. the car scene plays out the same from then on except without hugging. they mostly stay separately in each other’s seats.

daniel doesn’t panic and jump to his feet when the police start walking sean to the car. he stands up resigned and watches sadly but quietly. sean doesnt say anything as he gets in the car but does look back at daniel before they pull off

in the collage, there is still a picture of daniel visiting sean in prison, but they don’t hug and just speak tensely across from one another.

daniel doesn’t come on the day of sean’s release, karen is the only default. now, like lyla, daniel is a determinant. (imagine if they were all determinant and even karen didn’t come meaning sean could get out of jail with nobody in the world caring about him jesus christ) there’s a scene with sean afterwards visiting daniel’s apartment. when daniel opens the door, he’s shocked and slams a palm to his forehead, clearly having forgot sean’s release date.

there’s small polite smiles on their faces as they greet each other at the door, but sean never makes it past the front steps. their conversation is brief before daniel gestures that he actually was walking out and has to go. they say their goodbyes with a casual hug (quick back slap) before daniel hops in his car using his power and pulls off with sean watching.

sean still goes back to their first campsite but alone. it mostly plays out the same where he still cries, but with no comfort, and then drives away towards the right after taking one last look at the trail

the epilogue ends with daniel stepping out of his car and approaching faraway friends that he waves to. they’re drawn vague and out of focus to save on production costs (don’t worry dontnod i gotchu). the angle of the scene shifts so it looks like daniel is walking off towards the left

summary (1/2) -> sean took the heat in order to let daniel have a childhood in america. and he succeeds in this, but because their relationship was poor, during his incarceration their bond practically turns to dust. daniel gets a childhood, but sean loses his own and his brother in return

summary (2/2) -> sean still wants some kind of relationship with his brother, but its awkward and distant. daniel does not hate sean. he holds some semblance of polite respect for him bc in his HM!eyes sean “did the right thing” at the end of their journey. but overall, they are not that close and are more like acquaintances who just worked on a group project one time.

blood brothers

sean doesn’t say “be careful” before daniel gets out the car. just “you know what to do”

they don’t hold hands after daniel’s massacre. daniel just stares out the window while sean focuses ahead

(after the 6 years) when sean backs into the garage and daniel sees he’s being held at gunpoint, daniel doesn’t do anything at first. he doesn’t even move forward to get a better look. he simply watches the scene play out until the gang members notice he’s there, bc sean keeps glancing his way, and they begin to threaten him too. that is when he uses his powers.

sean giving daniel a pat on the shoulder? yeah in this LB version it’s now a shove. he noticed that daniel did not have his back. daniel just shrugs.

he still heads out to their patio and takes a seat. the scene is angled so that the player sees sean over daniel’s shoulder think about joining him, wanting to go smoke, with their dad’s lighter already out so we still see it. but he instead waves his hand dismissively and turns back into the shop.

daniel stares out towards the beach alone.

summary -> they gain freedom and escape to mexico, but their relationship is empty. there’s no polite respect, but there’s no outright animosity either. it’s just….. empty.

lone wolf

daniel doesn’t say the “it’s my turn to take care of us” line (omg it was so good tho). it’s now smthg along the lines of “i won’t let you stop me here after all this”

when saying the “we made it” set of lines, he’s still happy but also boastful, ready to hold it over sean that he was right

he doesn’t cry. instead of sobbing over the death of his brother, he is more shocked bc of how unexpected it is. he still calls out for sean’s name frantically, but does not get distraught afterwards. instead of leaning onto sean’s arm like he does in canon, after it sinks in that sean’s dead, he only grimaces while sitting uncertainly in his seat

the pictures stay the same

when sitting on the beach and looking over the ocean, he is not drawing in sean’s journal. he still has a small smile on his face but we also see him taking swigs of the beer can(?) here instead of later

also instead of a teardrop tattoo, he has a tattoo of 3 dots. the teardrop has several meanings, including death of a loved one or crime affiliation. but bc a lot of players interpreted it as being a tear for sean, then i think it’s preferable to just not have it in the LB version at all to avoid confusion and just have him with the 3 dots to make it clear it’s solely part of the gang/crime lifestyle

(moving on) daniel heads over to sean’s memorial and it is absolutely not as decorated as it is in canon. there is only 1 candle and no plants. the brick is still there but instead of a cross, it’s just a hastily laid single wooden plank with sean’s name scribbled down it. there’s no eye patch. the only thing of sentimental value there is their dad’s lighter.

daniel doesn’t sit, he stands looking at the memorial while drinking his beer. he realizes it’s empty tho and lazily litters the can beside sean’s memorial before turning to walk off and as he does he sees the gang.

most of their interaction plays out the same, but while daniel’s walking away instead of sparing the group, it’s clear he kills them as they are all unmoving, us seeing the dude with the gun flop to the ground over daniel’s shoulder. this change is bc personally i interpreted daniel sparing them as a sortve homage to sean’s high morality in this route. as in he’ll still do what needs to be done to survive, but will try to kill as little as possible out of respect for sean’s beliefs. so being as though daniel does not value sean as much in this LB version, he doesn’t care about that and kills them without thought.

summary -> for the most part, daniel still has the relatively content life he does in canon except, going by the now bare minimum memorial and littering, he doesn’t value sean’s memory nearly as much as he does in HB. sean’s death was ofc still a shock and smthg he still remembers, but it didn’t crush him like it does HB!daniel, and he honestly feels more annoyance than regret. in his LM!eyes, hes disappointed and thinks its a little stupid that sean wanted to switch gears at the border like that. he doesn’t hate him tho, he just sees sean as a disappointing memory.

parting ways

at the border daniel still cries, but instead of saying sorry to sean he says “i can’t do this sean. i have to go”, making it extra clear he’s not crying bc it’s the end, he’s crying bc of the damage he does not want to do.

he still says the “i hope you’ll be happy” line, but instead of being genuine it’s now full of disappointment with a twinge of bitterness

you know that quick angry facial expression he has before he’s walked off by the cops? WELL HOWDY IT DEFINITELY STAYS

the picture collage still shows him having a relatively happy upbringing with stephen, claire, and chris

when he’s on the phone at the reynolds’ and claire comes up to him, he’s still smiling and content. when he gets the letter with no sender name, his smile drops after taking the pic out and realizing who it’s from. the player doesn’t see yet tho. emphasis on 1 pic bc it’s not several like it is in canon/HB.

daniel rolls his eyes and with his power tosses the envelope & photo card (no sand btw) across the room so they land on a distant table. the camera zooms in on them and we finally see it’s of sean in mexico.

when claire comes back into the room, she halts seeing the mail and picks them up, glancing between them and daniel regretfully before sitting down

we go back to daniel and with arms crossed, he glances out at the tree in the yard for a brief moment before walking away

the scene stays focused on the tree and we still zoom out to the Wolf Brothers carving, except it has a not-recent slash cut through it

summary -> daniel gets a childhood in america and sean gets his freedom in mexico, but their relationship is destroyed. daniel doesn’t approve of sean’s final decision at all and holds little to no respect for him. sean sends the post card bc, like in redemption, he still wishes to hold some kind of relationship, but he doesnt try all that hard and doesn’t miss daniel that much to send several pics and a chunk of sand.

and so these were some of my ideas for low brotherhood endings! i tried to put them in order from most positive (minute respect) to most negative (outright disdain). i’d love to hear thoughts on this or if anyone wants to add to these, then that’s fine to! just don’t break my heart pls

#lexi plays lis2 #life is strange 2 #surprisingly my variations to the LW ending hurt the least #still messed up but my redemption & blood brothers tweaks just feel cold #and the parting ways one…. :(#lis2 #lis 2

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saharamae21 · 4 years

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Hero (JJ Maybank Imagine) - Disney Day Three

Hey guys! Day Three of my 30 Day Disney Challenge is here! This challenge is going to be 30 days of imagines inspired by Disney songs. I’m really excited to be doing this and I promise I will try to stay more on top of it than I did with my last challenge.

These are not song fics, but imagines inspired by songs.

Day Three (October 30th) - Hero (Unplugged) (Starstruck) - JJ Imagine

Word Count : 1499 Words

Sorry I thought I had this queued to post and apparently I did not.

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Even though JJ and you didn’t always get along, you knew that he was the only one you could talk to. The other Pogues always had amazing home lives and you didn’t want them to look at you any differently. Deep down, you knew that they wouldn’t, but you always worried anyways. JJ was the one exception. He was tortured at home and he was loyal to a tee. He would never tell anyone your secret.

The day that you finally told him what was going on was intense. You had gone through the ringer at home and hid at the beach to calm down. The sand burned against your skin, but you had to come up with a plan to explain to your friends how you got these bruises. Usually you only had to lie about one or two, but today your skin was painted in this ugly shade black and blue. Tears were slipping rapidly down your face as you hugged your knees to your chest. How would you explain this to your friends?

When JJ got to the beach he was already in a bad mood. He thought taking the day off from his friends would help clear his head, but then he saw you out of the corner of his eyes. He scoffed at first, knowing that the happy-go-lucky girl would run up to him as soon as you noticed he was there. He had two options, say hi before you had the chance to annoy him or ignore you completely. He sighed, knowing the right thing to do. Even though you could annoy him, he still had a soft spot for you.

As he walked up, he heard your sniffling. It shocked him to see you like this because the only version he had ever seen of you was bubbly and filled with bliss. He never thought you could be like this. Then the bruises caught his eye. His breath hitched as he put two and two together. The way you fidgeted when John B asked how you got the bruises. The dismissiveness and resent in your voice when they would ask if you were okay. It all made sense now. He was angry at himself for not noticing sooner.

“Y/n?” he asked softly. Your heart stopped as he said your name. You had been caught red handed. You turned your head slowly to look at him. Tears cascaded down your face as he saw the real you for the first time. He didn’t know whether to reach forward and hug you or to call Kiara. She was always better with the emotional stuff than him. He sensed that you needed him right now though. He took a seat next to you and said nothing.

“I’m fine JJ,” you muttered softly. You didn’t look at him when you said that. You couldn’t bring yourself too. The embarrassment was too intense to look him in the eyes.

“You don’t look fine…” he awkwardly said back. You bursted out into tears as he said that. He cursed under his breath, wishing that he knew how to handle the situation. He remembered what Kie always did when he was distressed and pulled you into a hug. It was awkward at first. JJ and you had never hugged before in your two years of friendship, but as soon as your arms slipped around him and your face burrowed into his shoulder, all the awkwardness dispersed. His hands found the way to your back and held you tightly. With you in his arms, it was like he could read your mind all of the sudden. He could tell you anything that you wanted or needed to hear. “You’re okay now. I won’t let anyone else hurt you.”

After you settled down a little bit, he released you from his hold. He let you explain what it was like at home. He listened as you told him your fears about the others knowing. Every word you said, made sense to him. He went through the exact same thing, only he was more cynical than you could ever be.

“I had no idea. You always seemed so cheerful,” he muttered. It made you happy that he thought you were cheerful.

“Whenever I’m sad, I always promise to myself that I’ll be happier and work harder,” you explained. You never wanted anyone to know that your life was hard. You didn’t want the people you cared about most to worry about you when they all had so much on their plates already. “Don’t tell the others, okay?”

You watched him nod sadly. He knew that there was no point of trying to convince you. He had been there before and even though the Pogues wouldn’t treat you any differently, it didn’t erase the fear and guilt. Plus he kind of liked the idea of a secret that only he knew about.

That night when you guys went back to the Chateau, you had forgotten to make up a story to tell you friends. Kiara ran up to you immediately and asked if you were okay. JJ shoved her back a little bit, not allowing her to get a closer look.

“I was teaching her how to surf and she took a huge fall,” he muttered. “She’s still shaken up so give her some space.”

You stared at him as he lied for you. The both of you knew that if she looked closer the story wouldn’t add up quite as well. You smiled at him as he tossed you one of his hoodies to hide some of the marks. You slipped it on and grinned at the soft smell of him that lingered on the fabric. The more he did for you, the closer you two got. You could feel yourself falling for him. It was as unstoppable as gravity.

A few weeks passed and JJ spent more and more time with you. Usually he would get annoyed with you after a while, but now he made it his own mission to make sure you didn’t get hurt. Every time you would cry, he would tell you about how the two of you could get out of the OBX. He would fill your head with ideas of Mexico, but realistically, he would take you anywhere you wanted to go as soon as he had the money to do so. He wanted to be your hero.

One night, he was caught up at work. The chateau was a little too crowded and you were feeling a little overwhelmed. Over your better judgement, you went back home for the night. The place was a mess and your dad sat on the couch with a beer in hand. You looked at your feet as you explained where you had been. He told you that he didn’t care and told you to get him another beer. Your voice was shaky, but something about JJ made you realize that you didn’t have to stand for this. Even though the two of you were ordinary people with just a heart and soul, you could stop this. You told him no for the first time in your life.

The rest of it happened so quickly. His fist hitting your cheek. His hand wrapping around your throat. Your gasps for air as he threw you to the ground. You listened to him yell at you to get out. He didn’t have to tell you twice. You ran quickly out the door, but right into JJ’s body. He had heard from J.B. that you went home and had come to check on you. Your arms slipped around him and you sobbed into his chest, still trying to catch your breath. His heart stopped as you clung to him. If only he left work on time, maybe you wouldn’t have gone home. He placed a kiss on your forehead and muttered apologies over and over, even though none of this was his fault.

He snuck you back into his house. It was similar to yours, messy and unkempt. You didn’t mind though. He shut the bedroom door behind him and turned on the light, seeing the bruising for the first time. Your neck was purple where your dad had grabbed you. The more he looked at it, the angrier he got. He was angry at you for going home. He was angry at your dad for doing this to you. However, he was the angriest at himself for not being there. He wiped away your tears carefully and stared at your broken face.

“I’m sorry,” you said softly. It broke his heart that you were in so much pain and you still felt like you had to apologize to him. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to yours, telling you that you never had to be sorry when it came to him. He would always be there for you, no matter what. He would be everything you ever needed.

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Tag List : @justcallmesams @jellyfishbeansontoast @prejudic3 @queenieloveswriting @jjtheangel @infinitydols @simpingforrudypankowonly @waywardbarbie @outerbankslut @outerbongs @ilovejjmaybank @beth-winchester21 @jiaraendgame @maybanksbaby @rudyypankow @tomhardybby @crxstalreeds @mayraki @potterheadhollander @teenwaywardasgardian

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#JJ Imagine #jj maybank #jj maybank imagine #jj mayback x reader #jj maybank fanfiction #jj maybank fanfic #jj outer banks #jj obx #jj obx imagine #jj obx fic #jj outerbanks #outer banks jj #Outer Banks #outer banks imagine #obx #obx netflix #sguymon21 #30 days of disney

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