#tony tells him to get on his knees and peter is like 'or what

[stxar-pvnk]

Being around Tony stark can take a toll on you, some have to toughen up their skin to endure Tonys remarks, some just drift away from him, not wanting to deal with it.

But Peter?

No he's adapted.

Every snarky remark, and name Peter would be told, he just came back even stronger

"did you seriously forget to do your homework? Again? Don't you have enhanced..everything?"

"Mr stark, If we wanna talk irresponsible, let's talk about the time it seemingly crossed your mind to tell your loved ones you were dying because of the shrapnel in your chest." Peter snarked back

Tony stood frozen, his jaw dropped.

"well..fuck." Tony mumbled trying to contain l laughter at how sudden Peter came up with something like that.

Or another time.

"Peter, let me get you some new shoes." Tony pleaded

Peter sucked on his lollipop and squinted at Tony

"what? No why." Peter asked seemingly shocked

"because they're ratty. And old. And they look like they're gonna fall off or disintegrate at any given time." Tony answered crossing his arms

"why do you even keep them around?" The older one asked completely confused

"your ratty, old and likely to be on your death bed in a few years, why do we keep you around?" Peter snarked back raising an eyebrow.

Rhodey who was just passing through to grab some coffee was howling with laughter doubling over to clutch his stomach.

Sometimes it's not even directed at Tony.

"how do we even know we can trust the kid, he's unreliable" Sams eyes narrowed his voice harsh, but Steve nodded anyways

"I agree with Sam, recruiting a child would be very irresponsible."

Peter who was swinging on his chair, now paying attention in the meeting with the avengers turns to Steve and sam

"oh lord.." Tony muttered as rhodey tried to hide the smug, fond look on his face

"dude, you are 2 times my age, stop complaining and just admit that being an old man is getting to you, plus I can hear your knees snap like glow sticks when you crouch down. it's gross. Also who in this room has 1. A weird bird suit, and 2. Doesn't." Peter finished crossing his arms mirroring Tony. Alot.

"did I just get insulted by a toddler." Sam muttered

Peter is a sassy kid.

Peter is Tony's sassy kid.

#spiderman #tony stark #peter parker #irondad and spider son #iron man #mcu marvel avengers #irondad and spiderson #bamf peter parker #sassy peter parker #peter parker being sassy like his dad

[slayedx]

Needy

summary: peter comes across sex pollen on one of his missions

cw: choking, fem! reader, squirting, choking, a little degradation, daddy kink, dom! peter

a/n: ITS FINALLY OUT AHHHHH

you were a nervous wreck

peter had gone on a mission and you had yet to hear from him since he told you that they arrived at the warehouse where the mission took place. he was usually very quick to let you know when he was on his way back and give you updates, but you haven’t heard a word.

it was a fairly simple mission with low level villains. it was a classic hideout bust which tony usually took you guys on to practice real combat. it’s been about four hours and you had yet to hear from him. usually the most difficult of missions would take two and a half hours.

you were pacing around the compound as you awaited their arrival; the other avengers attempted to comfort you but you were just worried sick.

it wasn’t until much later that you heard them arrive, and you ran quickly to the entrance ready to scold peter for not texting or calling however you were met with a frantic tony.

“get banner we have a situation” he pants out and you’re quick to do as he says; getting the scientist and bringing him to the ship.

however, as you attempt to hop on after bruce you are stopped by tony.

“sorry kid but i don’t think you should see him right now” he says as he blocks the door way.

“what the hell happened tony?” you wonder with a little anger at being stopped. you make out peters voice as you hear him whine.

“she’s here, i can smell her, fuck princess need you so bad, so hot fuck- baby need you” he groans and your eyes go wide at his tone of voice.

“so i guess i have to explain now huh?” tony groans as he steers you back into the compound.

tony then tell you the tale of him and peter’s encounters in the warehouse where in a last attempt to get away someone threw a bomb that was composed of a high end “sex pollen” which increases libido to the point of pain, and unfortunately your boyfriend was subjected to it while tony’s suit was able to filter it out.

“sooo, he just needs sex?” you piece together as you and tony sit across from each other.

“well, i would say yes but i’m not sure what the pollen combined with his genetic composition would entail, he might be in a frantic state of mind that would cause him to injure someone” he explains.

“and hopefully banner will find a cure” he sighs out as he moves to presumably find bruce and help with a cure.

“and where is peter now!” you yell after him.

“like hell im telling you!” he yells back causing you to groan.

and that’s how, with a few bribery’s on your part, you ended up pittering down the hall at the dead of night in nothing but shorts and a tank top on your way to fuck pollen out of your boyfriend’s system.

you can hear his panting through the door. soft whines and moans are all that can be heard through the door as you walk towards the room.

he was going insane, his hand pumping his cock at any thought of you he could conjure up: you on your knees pretty mouth wrapped around his cock, you on your back; legs wrapped around his waist as he pounded into you, you on your hands and knees as he fucked into you from behind.

what noises would you make? how would your cute little face look? could he get you to squirt on him? how-

his thoughts are interrupted when he hears a door open; and immediately as the door peers open his senses go into overdrive. his body heats up and his cock stands at attention.

he was consumed with the thought of you

“peter” you gasp out as you look at him. he looked desperate, sweat covering his body and his face. he had a red flush that trailed down to his heaving chest and it was hard to ignore his flushed cock that looked painfully hard; as it bobbed against his abs.

“baby” he whines out panting softly; he was so damn needy and he knew that if you stood in the room for too long he wouldn’t be able to control himself.

“princess fuck- you gotta leave or else im not gonna be able to control myself” he pants out as he closes his eyes throwing his head back. he releases small whines as he waits for your response; selfishly hoping you would stay and help with his issue.

“no baby im gonna help you; gonna make it better okay?” you respond as you inch closer to him. he groans at your words skin heating up further at your promises.

“o-okay baby, but i don’t know if i’ll be able to hold back” he mewls out breath picking up in pace; as his anticipation increases.

“it’s okay peter; just do whatever you need” you say as you approach him hands moving to him cheeks, and he moans at the small touch. he looks up to see a soft smile gracing your beautiful face;

he almost felt bad for what he was about to do.

he quickly moves his lips to yours before moving his hands to your ass, as he grabs handfuls of it pulling at the fat before slamming his hand down. you yelp at the contact and he groans into this kiss. your tongues are sloppily battling as need drives your actions.

he pulls away and leans over as he whispers a small “jump” and you comply. he catches your legs as they wrap around his waist and he moves you to the bed with ease before laying you down.

he leans to hover over you as he moves his lips back to yours again; his hands planted by the sides of your head. you two continue the intense exchange before he pulls away making you whine.

he moves to stand before pulling your shorts down; moaning at the sight of your bare cunt that was already drooling on the sheets.

“aww this poor pussy; look at her crying all over my sheets, she’s been missing daddy huh?” he smirks as he strokes his cock moving to position himself in front of your slit. you whimper at the filth that comes from his mouth; causing more arousal to soak his sheets.

“been missin’ your cock daddy need you in me” you moan out moving your hips as you attempt to catch the tight ring of your cunt on his cock.

“fuck- naughty thing, you know i’d eat that cunt but i need to be in you right now, okay baby?” he pants out as he explains his reason for skipping his usual extensive foreplay; even though you were practically begging for his dick he still assured you of his actions making your heart swell.

he waits for your agreement and when he catches you nod your head he moves his hands to capture your legs folding them back into your chest as he situates himself between your thighs.

he moves one hand from your leg to alight himself with your little cunt; he taps the fat head of his cock against your clit before moving to your hole and pushing in.

he moans as his tip sinks into you; you felt like heaven. he felt like he was gonna fucking bust, but fuck he needed more.

he continues to bully his fat cock into your soaked pussy as he inches into you. you moan at the stretch; your cunt struggling to accommodate him despite taking him many times in the past.

“shit baby- fuck so good, need you to relax so i can fuck this pussy right, need you to be good and take this dick, shiiiit” he moans out as he moves one of his hands down to rub at your little clit so you can take more of his dick. he feels you flutter around him and it allows him to slide into you with more ease, and with one surge of his hips he bottoms out causing you to squeal.

“ah- feel you here daddy” you babble out as you grab the hand that was on your clit, and moves it to your throat. he groans at your actions before tightening his grip on your neck causing you to moan.

“fuck- you’re such a little slut, just waiting for someone to pound this pussy; need someone to make you go fucking dumb” he groans out as he pulls his hips back leaving only the tip of his cock in your pussy before slamming his hips back into you; bottoming out again. he continues to repeat the process at faster intervals, as he moans at the clutch of your cunt. you almost scream at the rough treatment; drooling and babbling as he fucks you dumb.

“fuck yeah baby girl needed this fucking cunt” he moans out as he pounds into you. the quiet of the compound in drowned out by the squelch of your tight cunt as he fucks into it, your slick leaking from your cunt making his dick shine in the light as he pulls out of your heat.

“hear how fucking soaked you are baby? this pussy is so excited to see me” he mocks as you hear the obscene sound of your moans and the wet pats of his hips slamming into yours.

your body reflexively inches back from his brutal thrusts as your legs shake in his hold; your hips leaning away from his cock causing him to growl.

“nuh uh baby girl, be good and take this dick” he sneers as he grabs your leg pulling you back towards him as he continues to wreck your poor cunt. at the feeling of being manhandled your cunt flutters around his dick causing him to chuckle.

he moves his hand from your throat to your clit before pressing down and rubbing tight circles. your pussy squeezes down on him at the action and he knows you’re close.

“fuck! m’ gonna cum please daddy fuck, s’too good” you babble out as tears soak your vision. he laughs at your admission before leaning down over you.

“you better hold it baby” he smirks as he removes his hand from your clit. this causes a sob to leave your throat as he continues his brutal thrusts; the stimulation of his cock fucking into your pussy still leaving you on the edge of an orgasm.

“you’re gonna cum when i cum baby; this is about daddy after all” he sings as his hips still momentarily grinding into your g-spot causing your eyes to roll into the back of your head as you tremble in his hold.

though it doesn’t last for long and he resumes his brutal pace. he fucks into you with long hard thrusts as the tip of his heavy cock abuses your g-spot. he groans as he looks down at your cunt struggling to accommodate him; your cute little cunt twitching as you strive to be good and hold in your orgasm for him. you were his good girl and his good girl deserved his cum.

his moans become more frequent as his abs tense and he knows he’s close.

“fuck- baby be good and cum on this dick” he moans, and as soon as he finishes his sentence you cum with a squeal. your pussy gushes as you squirt on him in streams; soaking him and his dick.

at the sight he moans out before burying himself into your pussy and pumping you full of his cum, and for the first time in hours he feels relieved.

that is for a few seconds as you two come down from your highs before the tingling feeling returns and he stiffens inside you.

“sorry princess but it looks like we have more to do” he smirks as he softly rocks his hips.

the next morning

“y’know we worked really hard on that cure just for you horny kids to fuck all night and keep the compound up” tony remarks as he walks into the kitchen with you and peter in it.

“im so sorry mr. stark” peter stutters out; his face a bright red.

a complete contrast to how he was fucking you last night

“it’s fine kid as long as you’re alright” he says as he grabs a water and walks back to where he came

“and i hope you used a condom kid! i don’t want little spider-man’s running around” he yells on his way out causing both of you to groan.

taglist: @enthusiastic-french-toast @spideyslemons @ally0405 @scvrltparker @enaraism @guitarromantic @anonymously-nerdy @sunnyteume @hvnnibvni @hollandsgoodgirl @crazy4books1 @annesunlight @s-enku

#peter thirst #peter parker thirst #peter x reader #peter smut #peter parker smut #tom holland smut #marvel thirst #marvel smut #marvel #marvel x reader #spiderman #spider man #spiderman smut #peter parker x reader #peter parker #smut #tom holland thirst #tom holland dom #tom holland #tom holland x reader #spider man x reader

[mrsdarkandyandere7]

Marriage Proposal

Pairing: Dark Peter Parker x (female) Reader

▶ This is a yandere/dark work and it may contain triggering content so please READ THE WARNINGS before. Do not read if minor.

More at Masterlist

SUMMARY: You should’ve broken up with Peter long ago. Now you deal with the consequences. 

WARNINGS: --  

AN: Please, reblog and give me feedback.

–

You reluctantly look up from your plate at the feeling of a hand covering your own, the warmth irradiating from the firm palm making you itchy to remove the hand, but you let it be. 

"Happy anniversary, babe.” Peter smiles at you, so genuine and loving, and you force your lips to stretch into a pleasant smile. 

“I can’t believe we’ve been together for a year now. I feel like we’ve only met yesterday but here we are.” he says with a chuckle.

“It’s as if time flies away when you’re in love, right?”

You weakly nod, opting to bring the wine glass to your lips to give you an excuse to avert eyes. But that doesn’t stop the turmoil of emotions that devastates you inside, the guilt eating you away.

You’re a horrible girlfriend. And a coward one too. One that keeps prolonging and dragging time, too timid to break-up. 

Not tonight, you decide, delaying the confrontation furthermore. Peter is so happy and you’d hate to break his heart on such an occasion.

At least, that’s what you tell yourself. 

“This place is really gorgeous, I love it.” you say, allowing your eyes to wander around the restaurant.

The place is indeed pretty. Elegant but at the same time, private and personal. It suits Peter. 

Tension accompanies throughout the entire dinner as you play the girlfriend role dutifully, pretending to laugh at Peter’s jokes and smiling at him. 

A part of you feels so bad for it, there used to be a time where you actually loved Peter.

You still like and respect him, he’s a great guy, unlike many men. But you’re no longer the same person that you were when you meet him. 

And Peter…

He’s the one that took a 180º change. Deep inside, he probably means well, intending to protect you but that isn’t enough to make you stay.

Not if you want to have a toxic-free life. A life without having to answer a full interrogation when you plan to hang out with friends.

A life without having to call and text your boyfriend about what you’re doing, otherwise he’ll most likely show up at your workplace, face pinched with worry because you failed to contact him. 

You’re so caught up by your thoughts that you wince, surprised when people start clapping and cheering, everyone’s attention fully on your table. 

When you confusedly look for Peter, your whole world drops. 

The world seems to stop when you look to your side as Peter gets down on one knee, a jittery smile curling his lips. 

Your face drops in horror, mind frozen and unable to think. 

“Peter…”

“I know, I know.” he brushes you off, joy irradiating from him, “Just let me say this first, yeah? I’m so nervous.”

Your mouth opens and closes a few times and you blink, unable to fully comprehend what’s going on. This can’t be true…

This has to be a prank, there’s no way that Peter is actually proposing to you. But your doubts are swiftly cleared as a small and elegant velvet box appears in the scene.

No…

Peter clears out his throat with a small noise before looking at you, and you realize how nervous he actually is, a light layer of sweat in his forehead.

“I had this whole speech ready, you know. Been preparing it for weeks now.” he confesses after a long moment, shaking his head.

“Tony helped me write it. Lots of fancy poetic words and-and I completely forgot all of it.”

“But what I really wanna say is that I love you, Y/N.” Peter declares, his voice gaining determination, “From the moment I saw you, I knew that you were the one for me. I was lucky enough that you gave me a chance to prove to you how much I care for you…”

Your heart tightens at those words and you clutch the table’s fabric, feeling yourself helpless. 

“... and this past year has been amazing. The best year of my life. All because of you.” Peter smiles tenderly at you, his hands working on opening the velvet box and you feel yourself tensing up when a delicate silver ring comes into sight. 

“So…Y/N L/N, will you give me the honor of being your husband?” 

And just like that, you faintly nod, not trusting your voice to speak. Peter beams at you and you do your best to retribute, despite the numbness that strikes you like a bullet.

The restaurant explodes in a loud applause and Peter wastes no time in pushing the pretty ring on your hand, engulfing you in a tight hug. 

“I love you so much.” he feverously kisses your head.

You push your face against his chest, hoping to hide the tears that burn in your eyes as you start regretting saying yes already.

#@mrsdarkandyandere7 #yandere avengers #yandere marvel #yandere peter parker #dark marvel #dark peter parker #dark peter parker x reader #yandere peter parker x reader #dark!peter parker #dark!peter parker x reader #yandere!peter parker #yandere!peter parker x reader #tw: yandere #yandere x reader #yandere x you #tw: toxic relationships

[marlicollins]

𝒊𝒕’𝒔 𝒐𝒌𝒂𝒚. | p.p |

𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: 𝐝𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐬 (𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐫), 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐟𝐟, 𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐫𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 ;(

𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫 𝐱 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫-𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧!𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐤!𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 (𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜)

quill = peter quill

peter = peter parker

“Something’s happening.” Mantis pointed out, Quill’s arm around her shoulders. Tony looked around cautiously, eyes wide. Quill looked went to look at Mantis when she.. disintegrated? Tony looked at where Mantis was confused, You felt a squeeze at your hand and looked next to you.

Peter was already looking at you worriedly, scared it was gonna happen to you too.

You smiled slightly at him reassuringly, before looking at the scene in front of you again.

Drax was also disintegrating, he looked up at Quill and looked like he was gonna say something but all that came out was shaky breaths — and then he was gone

Quill looked at Tony as Tony walked closer to him, “Steady, Quill.” Tony said, before Quill felt himself fading. A simple “Oh, Man.” was heard from him before he was just.. gone.

You felt your feet moving a little until your back met a chest, Peter wrapped on arm around one of your shoulders and places his hand near your collar bone. You placed your hand on top of his sighing softly, you really didn’t know what you were gonna do without peter if you lost him.

“Tony.” Strange said, before shaking his head. “There was no other way.” and then he was also gone, turned into dust.

Suddenly, you didn’t feel anything in your hand, you looked down confused but saw that you were also disintegrating.

“Dad?” You spoke softly, that caused Peter to look down at you, and Tony to look at you also.

Peter felt his heart break, his blood running cold. Tony rushed to you, Peter called your name slowly, scared. “I-I don’t feel so good.” You whispered, You felt yourself get weak, collapsing to the floor.

“Kid, Your alright.” Tony said, not wanting to believe it himself. Peter collapsed to the floor also, wrapping his arms around you, pulling you into his chest.

You wrapped your arms around Peter tightly, You really didn’t want to go. You were scared, You started tearing up, Your voice cracking. You kept grabbing on to peter tighter, “I don’t wanna go, I don’t wanna go.. Dad, Peter.. Please.”

It was rising up your chest now, Peter laid you back on a rock gently. You had tears running down your face, Peter took your hand in his own gently, kissing the back of it. “Your gonna be okay, it’s okay.” He said, acting like he wasn’t crying. Tony dropped down to his knees, He really didn’t know what to say, He didn’t know what this meant.

You weren’t really the best kid, hell, you didn’t even tell your dad about your spider powers until 6 months after. He didn’t like when you were secretive, he always found out anyway. But before then, You were missing classes to help people, You had good grades but you still missed classes. You also had a bit of an attitude but who didn’t?

You looked over at your dad, “I’m sorry.” You whispered before turning into dust.

Peter sobbed, placing his forehead against the ground beneath him. Tony teared up, looking at the dust before him.

He did it, Thanos actually did it.

This is shit, i’m so sorry💀

#infinity war #peter parker #peter parker x reader #peter parker x stark!reader #peter parker x spiderwoman!reader #peter parker x fem! reader #mcu #marvel

[babybatscreationsv2]

Okay I have another dirty starker thing

But its a very young/naive Peter and breeding/pregnancy kink

Nff

...

Peter's hanging out with Tony when he complains about how terrible it is that boys can't get pregnant because he really wants a baby

And Tony tells him that it's possible it just takes a lot more effort. He asks if Peter wants his help since he's so knowledgeable about baby making and Peter is excited but shy to find out

So Tony gets the boy on his knees, nervously touching his cock and he's so blushy and innocent, but he eagerly swallows Tony's cum as it fills up his mouth

But obviously that's not enough to make a baby, they have to do it again, and this time Peter has to get it down his throat so it can go deeper and literally what is hotter than watching a boy cry as he repeatedly gags himself on dick

He's so relieved when Tony cums, but that's not enough to make a baby. Obviously you have to get some in the other hole, too right?

So Tony bends him over and fucks him and Peter's whimpering because it hurts but he's begging him for more because he wants it so bad and finally Tony cums deep inside him

And Peter's so hard and he tries to touch himself, but Tony stops him

And that's the catch. Peter can't cum or else all of the cum inside his body will escape. So if he cums they'll have to start all over

And of course when Tony's breeding him the second time to make sure it took, he drags it out, making sure it feels as good as possible, until Peter is forced to cum

Uh oh, looks like we have to start all over

#starker #nff #marvel

[spider-mancan]

Instructor Stark is incredibly strict.

That’s not unusual for a ballet instructor, although Instructor Stark doesn’t have the heavy accent to be truly stereotypical. The real issue is that he seems flippant and casual until he’s making you stand in the front of the room and do the petit allegro over and over and you stop tripping over your feet while the rest of the class gets to drink water and stare at you.

“He’s only like that because you’re so good,” MJ tells Peter after he’s finished having his bathroom breakdown. “Betty fucked up those Italian fouettés and he barely ragged her at all.”

“Betty’s good!” Peter argues.

Not as good as you. MJ has said it before. Peter is glad she doesn’t say it again.

“Mr. Parker?” Instructor Stark sticks his head out of the rehearsal room and MJ flashes him a tight grimace before patting Peter on the shoulder.

“Speak of the devil.”

“The devil has excellent hearing, Miss Jones.” Instructor Stark doesn’t dig in his nails any further — even though most days MJ asks for it. Instead, he crooks his finger in Peter’s direction. “I need to speak with you.”

“Yes, sir,” Peter says meekly. He hopes Instructor Stark can’t tell that he cried. Peter drains the rest of his refillable bottle over his head, luke-warm water soaking his thin shirt. He’s hoping the moisture hides any evidence of his episode in the bathroom, but he hooks his finger in the lid, gathers his things, and follows Instructor Stark back onto the Marley.

It’s dismissive, the way the instructor starts the music before Peter has even set his things down. “Still warm, aren’t you?” he asks, over Don Q on the speakers. “Basil. You know it.”

Peter has been sitting on cold tile for about ten minutes, so he’s not sure he’s up for the jumping, but he nods and rolls his shoulders.

“Perform for me.”

Peter meets Tony’s eyes in the mirror, lit on fire. That stupid smirk. Peter grits his teeth as the music starts over. “Yes, Mr. Stark.”

If he’s not warm at first, he’s warm by the time Instructor Stark decides Peter has performed the variation to satisfaction — four or five times, no marking, and a bruise on the knee from banging the barre on his tours.

The music finally cuts off. “You’re very good at doing what you’re told.”

Peter could kick Stark in the shin, but he’s exhausted, collapsing again the mirror. He scowls at the instructor, who just…smirks, looking down at Peter over his nose. There’s an undertone, something that only bleeds through when they’re alone. They’ve both pretended not to notice, even though the undertone would not be taken well by the school. Peter never mentions it. Tony only gives him elevator eyes when Peter is too tired to care. He thinks it might be a strange, twisted kind of admiration, that MJ is right and Instructor Stark thinks Peter has value, and that comes across in heat under the skin. It would hardly be the first time passion for the arts became something different entirely.

Peter tries not to squirm, so he scowls harder.

“I’ve got an offer for you, kid.”

Peter tenses up. “What, uh…what kind of offer?”

Instructor Stark comes over, holds out his palm to help Peter up, and pretends Peter isn’t hesitant to take it. “I’m teaching at a convention in Germany this summer. Ten weeks.”

“That’s great, sir,” Peter replies, listlessly. He doesn’t know why Instructor Stark felt the need to tell Peter something he already new. Most people moaned about losing their favorite instructor — his replacement isn’t nearly as nice to look at, either.

“I have an extra ticket.”

It clicks too slowly, sluggish. “Me?” Peter scrambles to his feet in a burst of adrenalin, ignoring Instructor Stark’s hand entirely. “Me, to Germany, for the convention? Natasha Romanov is going to be there!”

His instructor smirks, all sideways. “Trust me, that’s a reason to stay home.”

“She’s one of the best ballerinas in two generations! She’s danced for kings!”

“Me too, kid.” Instructor Stark crosses his arms with a sniff. “Pretty sure on more occasions, even.”

“You’re a guy,” Peter argues. “It’s different!” He’s grinning. He’s excited, too excited, to the point of trembling. He’s not sure he trusts it. “I…I can really go? The money—”

“Paid for.” Instructor Stark waved his hand like thousands of dollars is nothing. “You’ll just have to bring yourself and something…” He pinches the see through material of Peter’s drenched shirt, “less wet. Lots of somethings. There will be three or four classes a day, plus rehearsals for company shows. It’s a big deal.”

Peter knows. He can’t believe. “Why…why me?”

Instructor Stark’s fingers smooth out the wrinkle he made in Peters shirt. His finger must smell like diluted sweat, like Peter. Stark looks him up and down, and the smirk goes a little softer on the edges. “I owe you, Mr. Parker, for making you cry.”

#starker #considers #starker fic #ballet au #ignore the formatting I wrote this in my notes in about a half hour #tnpt #I NEED AO3 BACK #ironspider

[thestarkerisobvious]

I Have To Tell You Something

Waking up with Peter in his bed, with Peter in his arms.  Was there a better feeling on this planet, or in any other?  Peter sitting up to rub the sleep out of his eyes, to yawn and stretch, to reach for his phone and then dismiss it, looking happily down at Tony before laying back down again.  Tony was happy.  Tony was on cloud nine.

That was his only thought as he inquired about Peter’s day, Peter’s plans, Peter’s agenda.  As Peter reached for his phone again and started talking, Tony only had one thought in his head.  This was too good to be true.  This was paradise.

Then paradise stood up and began to climb out of bed, then stopped.  

“I have to tell you something.”

Tony’s chest tightened.  He didn’t know how the kid did it - Tony had once flown a bomb into an alien wormhole and the only panic he felt came years later - but this kid could do it.  Say the one thing that made his whole body cold and his forehead sweat.  It was uncanny… like this kid had superpowers, or something….

“Yeah… it’s… okay this is really hard…”

There he was sitting, like a vision on Tony’s bed, naked as the day he was born, grinning in the afterglow and, supposedly, headed off to take a shower when he had stopped short and sat down again.  He was taking deep breaths before speaking.  Tony couldn’t breathe at all.

“... because I really like you…. THIS.  I mean I really like this.  Kind of a lot.  Like it’s… gosh the most amazing thing that’s ever happened to me.  And that includes going into outer space with you.  And I don’t… I don’t want you to think…”

Tony opened his mouth but nothing came out.  Of course.  The superpowered miracle in his bed was about to break up with him.  What else was there for a mere human to say?

 “Oh gosh, I mean I hope you don't kick me out of the penthouse for this but…”

“Peter!”  Tony said, finding his voice at last.  Right now the boy was blushing slightly and looking like an angel from some extra-divine level of heaven.  Only Tony was pretty sure the extra-divine levels of heaven wouldn’t approve of older mentors taking their 20-something mentees to bed on occasion.  On many occasions.  Okay on all occasions when they weren’t out saving the world.

But it was no-strings-attached-sex, Tony had insisted.  It could start and stop whenever Peter wanted and there would be no consequences… Tony insisted… no consequences for saying “yes” but also no consequences for saying “no” either.  Tony had made that crystal clear… hadn’t he??  He had to make it clear once again.  

“Peter,” he scolded, sitting up at last.  Peter was sitting crosslegged on Tony’s massive Alaska King - Tony copied him and now they sat knee-to-knee to talk.  As if Tony didn’t have a care in the world.  As if he weren’t steeling himself to receive the bad news that Peter was done with the “benefits” part of the “friends with benefits.”  

Steeling himself?  He was Iron Man.  He was Iron-ing himself.  He would survive this.

He could survive having his heart ripped out by this young boy, couldn’t he?  Hadn’t his heart suffered more damage than this?

“...Robin… you are always going to be welcome in the Batcave.”  Even if it meant Peter would go back to sleeping in his room and Tony would lay down in this cold, huge bed.  Heartbroken and alone.  “So don’t talk like that.  You know none of this…”  He waved his hand around the rumpled sheets.  “You know this isn’t what matters.  Just… tell me anything you want.”

For a moment, Peter’s face fell in disappointment.  And Tony realized he would move heaven and earth to wipe that look of disappointment off Peter’s face.  Even if it meant Peter didn’t want to get naked with him anymore, Tony would have to be okay with that.  As long as Peter was happy.

“Anything, Peter,” Tony found his mouth saying now.  He hooked his hand around the back of Peter’s head and pulled their foreheads close.  “I mean it,” he said, and was surprised to find he was sincere.

Peter took another deep breath.

“I really need you to…”

Another deep breath.  He touched their foreheads together.  Then he leaned into Tony’s embrace to lay his head on Tony’s shoulder, whispering into the older man’s embrace.  

“I really need you to stay closer after I… after you make me come.  I mean… I mean we don’t have to snuggle-snuggle… but…”

Tony moved his legs out the way and wrapped his arms around the boy, pulling him close.

“I mean… I guess… maybe I do?” Peter asked, sounding slightly relieved.  “Need to snuggle, I mean… just for a moment, not forever…”

“Oh kid, of course, why didn’t you just ask?” Tony said, or would have, if he could have spoken.  Instead he was just pulling Peter’s head to his chest and rocking him back and forth.  So the kid couldn’t see.  So the kid couldn’t see his face breaking with relief, with gratitude.  Peter wasn’t ending this ill-conceived mismatched sexual liaison… not yet.  Not today.  Tony still had a few days left in paradise.    

“...and… I don't know but… if maybe you could…”  Peter was continuing, feeling bolder.  Tony kissed the side of his face in encouragement.  

“What, baby?”

“…if you could talk to me.  Afterward.  Just a little, I mean.  Your voice is such a turnon… but after I come it just goes away completely and that leaves me feeling… unmoored.”  

And Tony Stark, the man Pepper had described as a “wall of sound,” the man who had driven lovers mad with his inability to stop talking after sex, the man who had spent a solid decade disappearing after sex just to avoid his struggles to avoid conversation, that Tony Stark, said yes.

He said it calmly, of course.  He held his young lover tight and chuckled at Peter’s embarrassment, explaining that the only way for the two of them to be good in bed together was to practice, and making a few obscene suggestions along the way.  Peter was all grins and snuggled into Tony’s embrace, gladly engaging in the conversation, making suggestions of his own, and generally expressing relief.  And Tony…

…Tony was laughing at himself.  Laughing in relief.  He had made such an effort to stay silent in bed, to leave Peter alone, to give Peter his space.  But what if he didn’t have to do that?  What if he didn’t have to try so hard?  He was all grins now, just like the boy in his arms.

He was on cloud nine.

#Starker #Peter Parker/Tony Stark #thewitchway writes stuff #Tony Feels #Peter Feels #Tony needs a hug

[mediocre-daydreams]

mitosis // peter parker

pairing: peter parker x stark! reader

summary: you and peter have a bio project on asexual reproduction; specifically, mitosis. the avengers believe there is a different type of reproduction going on, and hint hint, it is not asexual.

warnings: friends to lovers, mutual pining, tony stark is a FOOL, the avengers are horrible meddling matchmakers, swearing, mentions of sex but no smut, poor bruce just wants to help

w/c: 10.4k (i'm so sorry i got carried away)

“this might be a bad time to ask, but what… is…  that?” you slapped your hand next to a diagram of a cell splitting itself into pieces, like some fucked up version of a minecraft slime that existed in your body—no, was your body.

peter sighed dramatically, rolling his eyes, but you could tell he wasn’t actually upset. his lips were pursed and the corners of his mouth curved downwards, which was a telltale sign that he was holding back a laugh.

“you do realize that this project is due in a week, right?” peter, who had been lying on his stomach while studying, pushed himself off the ground to meet your eye level. he scooched a bit closer to you, pushing the textbook out from between you so he could get close enough for his knees to touch yours.

“duh, i totally knew that. it’s on my calendar and everything.” you and peter both looked up at the captain-america-holding-puppies themed calendar on your wall; peter raised his eyebrows, amused, when he saw that the entire month was blank.

“i mean my digital calendar. who even uses physical calendars anymore? that’s so stupid. i only bought it to support the puppies. not because steve looks really g- not because i wanted to use it, or anything. besides, it’s good decor.”

peter didn’t try to hold back his laughter this time. he pressed his hands to your cheeks, shaking your head. “you’re so dumb, you know that right?” you grinned, except not really, because your face was being squished.

“no! your fashe is shtupid!” you swatted at his hands, scrambling for the discarded textbook and holding it up in front of your face to shield yourself from his attack.

peter chuckled breathlessly, guiding the textbook down from between the two of your faces until it brushed against both of your legs, which hadn’t stopped touching. peter caught his breath and his playful expression from a minute ago softened into a look of adoration. you smiled faintly at him, eyes darting between his. sure, the two of you were friends. best friends, maybe—but you had always thought that was unfair to MJ and ned—but you weren’t the type of friends to hold each other’s faces (even if it was just a joke) or sit so close to each other (even if it was just for the convenience of sharing a textbook) or get lost in each others’ eyes (even if that’s what you were doing right now). 

you heard your father’s sing-song voice as his muffled footsteps (he was probably wearing his new iron man slippers) approached your door. “oh stark spawnnn… my favorite child…”

the trance that you and peter were in broke immediately. you smiled sheepishly and pushed yourself off the ground to go see why your father was calling you. you only took a few steps before the door flew open to reveal an energetic tony stark. 

“how many red bulls have you had today?” you sighed, having given up on trying to reduce your father’s energy drink dependency long ago.

“uh, five.” he checked his watch. “it’s only 11 though!” he shrugged his shoulders. “anyways, i need you to- oh hi spiderboy.” tony looked past your shoulder to see a pink-faced peter sitting awkwardly next to an open biology textbook and two backpacks. peter raised his hand in greeting, not wanting to push it by using words considering he was already in the daughter of his mentor’s room.

“you needed?” you prompted, stealing a glance at peter at the same time your father did. you were antsy, wanting to get back to doing whatever it was that you had been doing with peter as soon as possible.

“right. you know you’re my favorite kid, right? remember how i took you to mexico last month and let you buy as much street food as you wanted? you’re a really good, smart, cool kid, you know? i-”

“alright, spit it out. and don’t even get me started on mexico—that was because you had a mission. so,” you sighed, unable to stay mad at him after seeing the guilt creeping on your dad’s face. if tony stark was showing any emotion other than narcissism, something must’ve been seriously wrong. “what did you do?”

“okay, so i might have gotten into an argument with cap…” you looked at him suspiciously. that was a pretty normal occurrence. “…aaand i may have called him ageriatriccosplayerinspandex…. uh… wholookslikehecouldbeinasexyfirefightercalendar… but that he was sopurethathewouldprobablycombustjustlookingatthecostumes.” 

“dad. i- i have no clue what you just said and i don’t really want to, considering the only words i could make out were ‘geriatric, spandex, sexy firefighter, combust’ and that doesn’t sound very promising.” tony looked down at the floor in shame.

“so you came to me to help you to help steve to forgive you? aren’t you like, the adult here?” tony pushed his glasses up his nose, eyebrows furrowed.

“i, uh, can’t. because he’s locked himself into his room and the last time i saw him he was probably as red as my suit. and you know he’ll listen to you over me!” tony whined, pulling at his hair, distressed.

“okay, okay. yeah, i’ve got it. now can you go and eat something? all that redbull’s gonna kill you if you don’t have carbs to soak it up. or at least i think that’s how nutrition works. i don’t know. when you and steve finish filming your firefighter porno, you can ask him about it. after all, he’s a supersoldier.” you grabbed your father’s arms to turn him around, then dug your palms into his back to push him out the door. “goodbye favorite father!”

“i’m your only father!” you heard tony yell back at you as your door slammed shut.

“jeez, i’m so sorry about that peter.” you threw yourself onto your bed with a couple of bounces from the impact. peter laughed, coming up to meet you on the plush comforter. he grabbed a pillow and laid it under your head, which you raised gratefully so that he could slide it underneath you. as he fluffed the pillow, peter’s hand slipped behind your neck to pull your hair out from beneath you and ran his fingers through it absentmindedly as he splayed it out like sunbeams around your head. you hummed contentedly.

“so, steve’s a sexy firefighter, huh?” peter mused, his calloused fingers brushing gently at your hairline, pulling stray strands and baby hairs out of your eyes.

“i could see that,” you grinned. “he’s got the body to be a calendar model, for sure. i mean, he’s already got a puppy calendar. i wouldn’t be opposed to 12 different pictures of shirtless steve in my room.”

peter was silent for a moment before he cleared his throat. “your dad said something about steve listening to you?” he wasn’t jealous or anything, just curious about your relationship with him. i mean, steve was pretty nice. and chivalrous. and adored. and really, really, really ripped-

“oh yeah, he did say that. steve and i are kind of similar, you know? we’re just surrounded by tech geniuses and STEM minds,” you raised your hand to tap his nose, and missed, poking him in the lips, “like you. and it gets a little isolating sometimes, not being able to do that kind of stuff. steve’s a really talented artist, you know? but he doesn’t really show anyone his work because he feels like it’s not as important as what everyone else does. and, well, it’s not like i inherited my dad’s genes or anything.” your eyes were fixed on the ceiling. “sometimes i wonder if being tony stark’s kid is worth it, you know? maybe if i had been adopted by a normal family, i wouldn’t feel so inadequate all the time, surrounded by fucking superheros…” you trailed off, losing yourself to your own thoughts.

“do you really feel like that?” peter’s voice was laced with concern. he crawled over to you with as much grace as one could have when crawling around on a bed—which is to say, none—so he could look you in the eyes. you smiled at the bed creaking and sinking under his shifting weight, but it didn’t reach your eyes.

“is that really what you think of yourself?” peter had propped himself up with his forearm stretched your body, his other arm pressed into the space beside your head so that his face was floating just a foot above yours. you turned your head to the side, not wanting to get into all of your deepest darkest insecurities when you had originally planned on working on your biology project. you were not emotionally prepared for this.

“uh, i should probably check on steve. my dad is probably gonna keep interrupting us to beg if i don’t play peacemaker, like, right now. and interruptions would be really bad for, uh, our productivity.

‘cuz we have to work on that project about miosum. miolsis. mitosis.” you slipped out from beneath peter’s body, fiddling with the hem of your shirt as you lingered by the door.

“yeah, um, yeah. you’re right.” peter shook his head rapidly, trying to gain control of his thoughts and slow his racing heart. “yeah. and you were right, it’s mitosis. MJ and ned are doing miosis.”

he could tell that those words made no sense to you; that blank stare did not escape his watchful eye. “go see steve. i’m sure that… he needs you. he probably needs someone close right now, or something.” peter laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. stupid peter! stupid, stupid peter! why are you encouraging her to leave?

“yeah, that’s a good idea,” your hand was on the doorknob, but you made no indication of wanting to leave. “yeah, he’s really important to me, and i wouldn’t want to see him upset. so i should probably be a good-” you coughed, “friend. a good friend to him.” why did you do that? friend? why friend? friends plural? what about friends? why about friends? what does that even mean? with one last glance over your shoulder, you ripped open the door and slammed it behind you, fast-paced steps echoing in the hallway as you practically sprinted away from your room, and from peter. 

as soon as he heard your footsteps recede, peter flopped onto your bed much as you had done just a few minutes ago. he groaned, flinging his arm over his forehead with dejection. why was he always screwing things up? he had been so close to you, twice, and both times he had managed to break the tension before it could go anywhere. well, the first time was tony’s fault. but the second time was all on him—he had upset you to the point where you literally ran away from him into the arms of the person he was jealous of. 

the door flew open again. what now? why is there no privacy around here?

“i thought i heard something!” sam and bucky stood in the doorway, the former leaning against the frame with a smirk and the latter behind him with his arm crossed and his permanent grimace affixed to his face.

“h-hey! uh, what are you guys doing here?” peter stuttered, pushing himself off the bed and standing with his arms pressed flat against his sides, eyes darting around the room as if he had just hidden a corpse under the bed.

“i could ask the same,” sam probed, easily seeing through peter’s poor attempt at nonchalance. “stark’s kid, huh?” sam nodded, looking peter up and down appraisingly. he elbowed bucky, who had not been paying attention whatsoever, and the two of them whispered to each other furiously before turning back to peter, who was extremely confused and a bit uncomfortable.

“uh, yeah. we were just-” peter’s arms peeled off from their aggressively straightened position as he tried to conjure up an explanation as to why he was in your room, in your bed, without making it seem like he was a perv digging around your personal belongings.

“so, where’s your other half? hiding under the bed? in the closet, maybe? no need to be embarrassed kids, we all saw it coming.”

“what are you even talking about- there’s nobody- what?” peter gulped, watching as bucky shoved sam to the side, striding menacingly towards him. oh shit. were they going to kill him because they thought he was a stalker, or something? wait, what if bucky thinks i’m trying to steal steve’s girl? oh god, this is it. this is the end. bucky’s metal hand wrapped around peter’s tense shoulder. peter shut his eyes, preparing for the worst. instead, bucky’s flesh hand ruffled peter’s hair; and to peter’s shock, the grumpy supersoldier’s face was bearing the faintest hint of amusement.

“you two stay safe, alright?” bucky extended his hands, much to peter’s further confusion. a box of extra large condoms with a stick-on bow landed in bucky’s hands. he promptly handed the gift to peter.

peter’s eyes flickered from the festive condom box to sam, who was mimicking a basketball shoot, to bucky, who was trying his best to paste his frown back on, but clearly struggling as he took in peter’s bewilderment and sam’s ridiculousness.

“right, we’re done here! and you can come out from under the bed, we don’t care.” sam yelled back to peter as he dragged bucky away, muttering something that sounded like “horny teenagers…”

obviously, there was nobody under the bed. you were probably busy consoling steve in his bed. not that peter was thinking about you being in beds, of course. i mean, sure, he was, but in a purely innocent way. like, you were sitting on a frame you got from IKEA. super pure and stuff.

peter blinked a few times, swaying dazedly in place before resigning himself to brainstorming project ideas. he probably should’ve been mad that his project partner didn’t even know what mitosis was—the topic they had been studying for two weeks now—but he knew he could never be upset with you. instead, he pulled out his laptop and started taking notes for you. he had the material down, but after hearing how you’d felt inadequate around science and technology-oriented people, he’d be damned if he made you feel like you didn’t understand the material. (even if you didn’t.)

peter was so swept up in his work that he nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of you hissing at natasha as she laughed. it wasn’t like he wanted to listen in on your conversation or that he was a creep—he couldn’t help it! he had superhuman hearing, after all.

“—sleeping with him! i knew something was going on.” natasha wasn’t even trying to be quiet, and even with his hands over his ears, he could hear every word. he cursed his unnatural hearing

abilities. sleeping with someone? who were you sleeping with? why didn’t he know about this? peter wasn’t sure if he wanted to know anyway.

“i am not sleeping with him, you creep! since when did you become a conspiracy theorist?” peter heard natasha’s amused snort.

“riiight. so you just so happen to smell like cologne and you have bedhead in the middle of the afternoon when you and i both know you were up at 7:30 today?”

you groaned. your voice was pretty close to the door now, and peter nearly slammed his head down into the textbook so it wouldn’t look like he’d been intentionally eavesdropping.

“goodbye, natasha.” the door swung open to reveal a disgruntled figure who indeed had bedhead. shit. you were sleeping with steve. and he had basically encouraged you to. peter had never wanted to get punched in the face more.

“hey,” you sighed, collapsing dramatically next to peter’s side. his back was hunched over in concentration, but as your body brushed against his arm, he stiffened. you looked concerned. “everything good?”

 peter thought he was going to be sick.

“yeah! yep, i’m totally good. really great, actually, because i just remembered that may said we were getting thai tonight! so i should probably get back earlier.” he forced out an unconvincing laugh. “uh, i took notes for you. i’ll just share the document when i get home, or something. okay! bye! see you tomorrow! i’m super excited to work on our project!” peter rambled as he shoved everything into his backpack, zipping it up with unnatural speed and running out of your room without so much as a look backwards.

-- 

sunday morning was rainy and humid. peter steeled himself before knocking on your bedroom door, squeezing out the last of the water in his floppy hair. 

“pete!” you squealed, happy to see him. after his abrupt leave yesterday, you thought you might’ve done something wrong and spent the night restlessly wracking your brain for anything that could’ve upset him. you never ended up figuring it out; your brain only stopped it’s churning after the first glimmers of sunrise peaked through your window.

you threw yourself into peter’s chest, knocking the air out of him. after a second or two, peter wrapped his arms around yours and rubbed his hand up and down your back soothingly, making sure it didn’t slip down further than would be platonically acceptable. your arms clung around his waist possessively, clinging onto him as if he was going to run away again.

“you’re gonna get all wet if you keep hugging me like this,” peter chided, craning his neck to rest his chin on the crown of your head. you were a bit too short for it to be a comfortable position, and the two of you had always laughed about it, but the truth was peter enjoyed the closeness of it. he felt your warm breath against his damp shirt as you mumbled something with your face pressed into his body. it tickled.

“hm? what was that?” just like yesterday afternoon, he stroked the back of your head and ran his fingers through your hair. you sighed, melting into his embrace even more.

“i said your chest is too hard. i feel like i’ve given myself a concussion.” you scoffed. “you’d make the worst pillow ever. absolutely horrible at cuddling,” you mumbled, pressing your face back into his chest and inhaling deeply, “and you’re like the worst hugger.”

peter laughed and you could feel his body vibrating around you. you unwravelled yourself from him but kept your hands on his biceps so you could pull back steadily. you looked him up and down and frowned when you saw his sneakers, which had left squeaky puddles of water outside your room.

“ew, look at the mud.” you poked his shoe with your fluffy-sock covered toe. “c’mon, i’ll find something for you to wear.” you pulled peter inside, your eyes fixated on your dresser with such determination that you missed the dopey smile on peter’s face as he trailed behind you, kicking the door shut once you were both in.

“take off your sneakers, they’re nasty.” you tossed a pair of bundled socks at peter with your back still turned as you dug through messy heaps of clothing. it hit his arm with a soft bump and another as it fell to the floor. you swung your head around, watching as he bent down to pick up the socks, already knowing what you were about to say it.

“i’m not even going to say anything.” you smirked. “i’ll save the peter tingle jokes to may.”

he pursed his lips together to try and suppress the grin that threatened to spread across his face as he sat on the edge of your bed and started untying his shoes. i have to control myself around her. she’s already taken—i think—and it would be so unfair for her to find out that i like her too. i can’t put her in that position. just act natural, peter. no pining.

“uh, all your shirts are in the wash.” you cracked your neck. “great. the minute i decided to wear them is when you need them the most.”

“you wear my clothes?” peter croaked, trying to fan away the image of you in one of those stupid science pun t-shirts he’d worn so often that they had softened from their original stiff, boxy, cheap structure into something comfortable enough for you to wear, apparently.

“yeah, sometimes. to bed, and whatever, you know?” you fiddled with a bundle of fabric in your hands bashfully.

why are we always talking about beds.

you cleared your throat. “anyways! i found this. if it doesn’t fit, i’m sure i can scrounge for something else.” this time, he caught the shirt when you tossed it over to him. crossing his arms, he pulled off his damp shirt in one sweep, much to your horror.

jesus holy shit fucking christ. no wonder his chest is so hard. oh god, i said that out loud to him, didn’t i? that’s so embarrassing, oh my god. why am i like this? i’m staring. it’s not just embarrassing anymore, it’s creepy. but look at him! the rainwater makes his abs look like they’re-

your ogling was interrupted by the sight of the new, dry shirt covering up his bare skin. you shakily met his eyes, praying he hadn’t noticed. of course he fucking noticed. peter pushed the curls from his forehead to reveal the shit-eating grin pasted across his stupid, perfect face.

“uh, i’m glad it fits!” you squeaked, spinning around as quickly as you could. you busied yourself with digging around for more clothes as you heard peter’s chuckle approaching you. he wrapped his arms around you once more as he nuzzled his nose into your hair.

“oh, you’re wet!” peter unstuck his shirt from your damp one. you spun around, ears burning and eyes wide open. “oh my god! sorry, not like that! no, i mean,” he gestured wildly to your torso, “your shirt! you hugged me and now you’re w- damp.” he forced himself to make eye contact with you and not linger his gaze too long on your thin, semi-translucent top.

you spun around again to face your dresser, letting out a deep breath you hadn’t realized you’d been holding before resuming to your digging. you held up a shirt proudly. “hey! i found another one of your shirts.” you held it up triumphantly. “i didn’t even know this one was here.”

peter examined it. “i haven’t seen this thing in ages. i can’t believe it was you that’s been stripping my closet barren. i thought they just kept getting lost in the wash.”

stripping. that doesn’t mean anything. this is peter. peter is not a stripper. you would not strip for peter. or strip peter. 

the two of you laughed awkwardly before you began to take your shirt off too. peter didn’t find it so funny now. “ah- are you going to ch-change here? should i- um- do you want me to leave? i’m so sorry ididntmeantolook i-”

you couldn’t see the bright red flush blooming on peter’s cheeks, as you were currently stuck in your shirt.

“shit. um, peter?” you wriggled around, trying to free yourself.

“y-yeah?”

“i’m stuck.”

“you’re… stuck?” peter turned around to see you half-shirtless, your hands held over your head as you tried to pull the damp shirt off your head unsuccessfully. he prayed that you wouldn’t ask him for help, because he thought if he had to look at you a minute longer, he’d do something incredibly stupid.

“yeah. the shirt was tight to begin with and then the water made it stick and i must’ve- anyways, uh, can you help me?”

peter gulped. “are you sure?”

“please,” you begged. “this is so embarrassing already, please just help me get out of this. it’s not like you haven’t seen me in a bathing suit before and it’s like the same thing, right?”

yeah, it is the same thing, peter thought. and that’s the problem. seeing you in a bathing suit and seeing you now make me the same amount of nervous.

peter’s fingers tentatively brushed your ribcage and you shivered.

“i think it’s because my elbow is stuck in one of the sleeves.” you muttered from inside the shirt. “jeez, you’d think for a designer company, the clothing would be a bit more practical. i’m never letting dad buy me clothes ever again.”

peter gave your top a bit of a tug and you giggled in surprise as his fingers dragged up your chest, tickling your bare skin. he couldn’t help the laugh that escaped his lips at the sight of you. you grinned once your head was free, and peter tossed the shirt behind him as he bore his eyes into yours, refusing to give in to his instinct to look down. the two of you stood like that for a while, your chest heaving as you caught your breath and peter’s heart pounding as he caught the movement from his peripheral. 

“the fuck?” scott lang stood by the door, frozen in shock as his grip on his chocolate croissant loosened. the pastry fell to the ground with a sad thwap. “wow. i didn’t think i’d been gone for that long. it’s like all the interesting things happen when i’m away.” scott grumbled, scraping the chocolate off the floor.

“alright, i’ll leave the two of you to it. and next time, lock the door, goddamnit!” scott shook his head as he shut the door—properly this time—and walked away mourning the loss of his snack.

“i’m sorry, i must not’ve closed the door properly-” peter stuttered as you panicked. “i’m so sorry, this is so embarrassing i can’t believe everybody’s just seen me topless-” you rambled, pacing the room until you shivered.

“shit! i’m still not wearing a shirt!” you grabbed peter’s shirt—the one you had just been looking at—and slid it over your head in record speed.

peter barked a fake laugh. “that’s so funny!” he said, dead serious. “everyone’s… seen you shirtless? ha, ha, ha!” what the fuck.

“no, no that’s not it!” you fretted, taking his hands in yours. “no! i meant you and scott. and tony, obviously. and like, bruce. and wanda and natasha because we go shopping all the time, you know? not steve, though. i think he’d pass away on the spot.”

“oh! that’s… nice!” peter choked. so me and scott and tony. that makes sense. and bruce, maybe he was doing some medical thing? well, at least steve wasn’t on that list.

“...i realize now how weird that must’ve sounded.” you gulped. “i swear, i’m not stripping for the entire team. it- it makes more sense in context. i swear.” you rubbed his arm comfortingly, praying that he wouldn’t think the way you treated him was the same way you treated everyone else. no, the way you treated peter was very much different. maybe it was stupid to expect someone to be able to read your mind through your behaviors (well, not in wanda’s case), but you were terrified to cross any sort of boundary with peter, much less tell him how you’d been feeling lately, so you’d stick to, well, whatever this was.

“we should probably work on our project,” you commented.

“that’s a good idea.”

you hummed in agreement. “mitosis, right?”

“yep. cell division. did you get my notes?”

“yes,” you were unnervingly still as you stood by peter’s side, refusing to meet his eye. all of a sudden, you felt him take a sharp breath and fall into a seated position on the ground, tapping a spot next to him. the two of you rummaged around for your textbooks and notes, getting to work on a project that the subject matter of which you had no clue.

the downside of peter’s freaky spider powers was his insane metabolism, and it probably didn’t help that he was a growing teenage boy. peter’s stomach was growling loudly after a few hours, and he’d insisted he was fine. after the third dull roar, you jumped up.

“alright, you masochist. you’re not starving to death on my watch. you stay here and do the work because that’s what you’ve been doing the whole time and i’ll go make us something to eat.” he smiled as you left, watching you leave, clad with his shirt.

“you guys done?” scott pulled up beside you, cracking his knuckles.

“holy shit!” you screeched, not expecting the presence of the man who had not only snuck up on you but had also just seen you half-naked.

“sorry, i didn’t mean to startle you. are you kids hungry? i always get tired. it’s a lot of physical exertion.” he winked, poking around the cabinets with carelessly loud clatters.

“we’re probably gonna need another few days to finish,” you spoke absentmindedly, standing in front of the fridge as you investigated for anything with potential. “it’s turning out to be harder than i thought.”

“jesus, kid, you two are freaky! i never knew peter had it in him to- or should i say-”

“please do not finish that.” natasha swung herself over the countertop and settled into a relaxed slouch, her quiet entrance startling both of you.

“why are all of you so damn quiet?” you rolled your eyes, cutting up slices of different fruits.

“i could ask the same of you, we haven’t heard a peep. i thought tony was installing the soundproofing next sunday?” bucky trudged through the door, his footsteps loud and for once you were grateful. he leaned his hands on the counter and shared a look with natasha that you couldn’t quite decipher.

“trust me, i’m bitching and moaning plenty. this is taking so long,” you drawled, extending the vowels of your last word as you arranged the fruit onto a tray with a flourish. “alright, i’m out.”

you could hear the three avengers whispering loudly behind you as you made your way back to peter. “i can hear you, you know. why are all of you here anyways?”

“uh… we’re having a tea party?”

--

“okay, i cut out all the diagram parts last night. i didn’t start assembling them because i was pretty sure i’d end up gluing my hands together or putting it together wrong, so i figured we could just do it together.” peter had been coming over almost every day so that the two of you could work on your biology project. it turned out that as much as you hated biology, it was a lot more enjoyable when you got to work with peter.

“ooo, i love this part. it’s like assembling IKEA furniture.” the two of you looked over to your bed, remembering when peter had been visiting tony and found you in the middle of a pile of wood pieces, looking absolutely lost. he’d spent hours helping you undo the mistakes and put it together properly, and that’s when you knew that your feelings for him had changed.

you laughed at his excitement. charged with happiness, you rested your head on his shoulder without thinking. the two of you went silent almost immediately after comprehending the situation, and you moved to pull away, face burning. before you could, though, peter had slung an arm around your shoulder and pulled you in closer. you turned your head and buried it into his neck, your smile uncontrollable as you relished his touch.

“we should probably get the glue,” peter noted.

“good call.” you mumbled into his shoulder, warm breath drawing shivers from him.

“thank you.”

you stared at the diagram pieces. “glue is very necessary component.”

“for sure.”

neither of you made any effort to get glue.

“anyways!” peter broke the silence by nudging his shoulder to probe your head out. “i’m gonna be honest, we could probably finish this today if we really tried. i mean, we’re literally a floor away from the most advanced technology lab in the entirety of new york, surrounded by the greatest scientists and innovative minds of the century, so-”

“please do not inflate my dad’s ego any further. against all rules of logic and science or whatever, that thing will never stop growing. it’ll grow until it swallows all of north america.”

“gotcha…” peter’s voice became softer, eyes growing a little hazy as he stared to the side of your face. his hand stretched out, fingers quivering ever so slightly, and for just a second, you thought that maybe he was going to take your chin in his hands and kiss you. but that’d be stupid, because you were just friends and kissing was decidedly non-platonic. instead, he brushed a strand of hair behind your ears.

“sorry, it was distracting me,” he confessed bashfully. “but i was gonna say is how i think it’s kind of funny that we’re making this 3-d cardstock diagram of the mitosis process when honestly? we could probably be testing mr. stark’s updated blasters or making lightsabers or something.”

you looked at peter for a second and then burst into a guffaw. “our project seems so trivial compared to all that, but is it weird that i actually think of this as my baby? we must’ve spent at least eight hours on this—yeah, i know we probably could’ve gotten away with finishing something simpler in half the time, but i really enjoy spending time with you—” you rushed, taking a breath after realizing what you had said, and then continuing just as quickly as you had been speaking before. “but this?” you picked up the meticulously cut components to your diagrams made of cardstock detailed with fine-lined sharpie drawings of spindly kinetochore-microtubule, cleverly crumpled cellophane chromosomes and little buttons for the chromatids. 

“it’s not stupid!” peter blurted, quick to reassure you. “i’m pretty proud of it too. now let’s go use some of banner’s precision glue and assemble this bad boy.”

by the time the two of you had finished putting together every 3-d replica of the six stages of mitosis, your backs were sore from how long you’d been hunched over. you rolled your head and heard your neck crack loudly.

“holy shit, how long have we been here?” you mumbled, blinking forcefully to escape your fuzzy state of concentration. “FRIDAY? what time is it?”

“it is 7:45pm. you have not yet eaten; would you like me to place an order for dinner?”

peter’s head perked up at the sound of dinner. “DELMARS?” he looked at you with puppy-dog eyes even though he knew you wouldn’t need any convincing.

you sighed sarcastically, throwing your body across your chair as if you had just fainted. “if you insist,” you groaned. you raised your voice a bit to signal FRIDAY. “can i get the fried avocado tacos? two- nah, three of them. and please specify that i do not want them smushed down real flat.”

“hey, i’ll have you know that flattened sandwiches are more efficient and less messy to eat. and-”

you lost focus on peter’s words as he listed off his usual order; instead, you found yourself admiring his side profile. even from the lab table diagonal from him, you could see the brightness of excitement in his eye that you always found endearing. you loved watching him so happy over something as simple as sandwiches, and you felt honored that you were the one who got to experience that happiness. you wondered what it’d be like if he looked at you with that sort of gleaming adoration one day.

“right! i’m basically done; i just need to figure out how to do the cytokinesis shape.” peter announced, taking a peek at your three perfectly done models. you always had a better instinct for solutions, and creating what was essentially a three-dimensional figure eight with convincingly spherical outsides was something peter was scared to approach altogether.

“i’ve got you, pete!” you kicked off from the legs of your table and slid towards peter on your wheeled chair. perhaps you had used too much force because the momentum of your path sent you tumbling straight into peter’s chair, where you jolted forwards. you swore you could see each second ticking by in slow motion as your heads came closer and closer to collision, and your hands frantically reached out in front of you for something to prevent the impending bump and potential concussion. one of your flailing hands landed on his shoulder, which you squeezed hard until your nails dug into his skin. the other found a home on his upper thighs, where you tried to find a stable grip. almost immediately, peter’s eyes went wide, and his cheeks flushed a dark shade of red. 

he gulped. “t-thank you! i actually have to go to the bathroom, so maybe could you finish this one for me?” his eyes darted around the room frantically, looking anywhere but at you. “and i’ll pick up the food while i’m at it! bye!” peter tugged his shirt down as he bolted through the automatic glass doors, leaving you alone and a bit hurt.

you fiddled with the model for a bit before you were able to arrange it in a shape you were satisfied with. setting everything aside and admiring the six perfectly made representations of mitosis, you let out a long, satisfied breath. finally, the worst of the biology projects for this year was over. it’d be smooth sailing from here on outwards. you’d be lying if you said you would miss peter’s presence in your room on chilly new york nights with cups of coffee beside you as you finished homework for non-bio classes. though the boy had been working with your father for a while, you never connected with him until partnered for this project, and you weren’t sure where that would leave you after the project was over. would he still come over for study sessions? would you go back to your individual friend groups? would he even be bothered to spend one-on-one time with you anymore?

peter returned with two paper bags in each hand and a triumphant smile on his face. you pumped your fist excitedly.

“yesss,” you hissed, jumping up and grabbing the bag with your name. “i feel like my stomach is eating me from the inside out. can we move up to the kitchen? don’t tell dad, but i’d kill for a coffee right now.”

“you’re drinking coffee? this late? that’s a bad idea, and you know i won’t hesitate to get mr. stark involved if y-”

“oh no, he doesn’t care about how late i drink coffee. he just thinks it’s a sin to pick coffee over redbull,” you shrugged, scooping up as much of your project as you could in one arm. “c’mon bugbaby!” you spared him a look before disappearing through the door and upstairs, absolutely ravenous.

peter stood there for a couple of seconds, feeling stupid, before he caught himself in the act. he forced his lips, which had been quirked up into a dopey smile, into a stoic line. he squished his face together to rid himself of his pinched eyebrows and dazed stare. and the sigh of adoration he had let out became a coughing fit. peter thumped his chest a couple of times to rid his throat of the imaginary block, but he couldn’t lie to himself. the thing making him choke up was his feelings for you, which had been shoved down for so long that they seem to have compressed themselves into a little ball that was now trying to escape through peter’s esophagus. well, shit!

by the time he had made it to the kitchen with the rest of the project in his arms, you were already perched on the countertop, swinging your legs contentedly and chewing your sandwich, which was decidedly not squished down real flat. your face lit up when you saw peter and you waved enthusiastically; in doing so, you knocked down a couple of the figures that you’d set down behind you tumbling to the ground.

“shit! peter! oh god,” you squeaked, putting down your sandwich on the wax paper and trying to scramble off the counter. peter dropped his bag on the ground and came to help you down, grabbing your waist and lifting you up before softly resting your feet on the floor. you giggled; his hands on your waist were tickling you. he smirked, realizing his opportunity to instigate a tickle war.

“don’t even th-” you warned him before your eyes widened as you remembered what you had come down for.

the two of you raced around the counter, terrified at what you might find. to your relief, the project was in perfect shape. the two of you were panting—peter was heaving with shock still painted on his face while you had your hand clutching the fabric of your shirt over your heart.

“i can’t breathe,” you confessed, laughing through your gasps as you tried to calm yourself down. you collapsed to the ground with a moan.

peter crouched down beside you, picking up one of the figures tentatively and examining it for potential cracks or weak spots. there was nothing; if the two of you hadn’t been there yourselves, you never would’ve been able to tell they’d dropped.

peter held the figure closer to your face, turning the model around so that you could see what he was referring to. “you’re so good,” he marveled, admiring the meticulous glue work that you’d done. he smiled with a sigh. “no one else could do it like you.”

you rolled your eyes. “come here.” you patted the floor next to where you were laying, but instead of joining you, peter grabbed the fallen figures and walked away. you whined.

“i’m coming, give me a second,” peter delicately arranged the fallen figures alongside the ones still on the counter. then he flopped down on the floor next to you, but instead of lying parallel to your body, he dropped his head on your stomach.

“peter!” you cried, smacking his forehead. “ugh, i hate you,” you groaned, trying to sit up so you could shove him off of you.

“no, you don’t,” he rebutted. peter wasn’t going to back down in a fight, so instead of allowing you to sit upright, he rolled the rest of his body on top of yours, effectively flattening you. you wanted to laugh, but your stomach was being pushed down by peter’s back.

“why… are you… so…” you heaved, “heavy?”

peter laughed evilly, rolling his body around so that his back was no longer on you; rather, so that you were stomach-to-stomach. he propped himself up on his elbows, letting his chest hover over yours. he smirked as he watched you grumble from underneath him. “i gotcha,” he whispered, face just a few inches from yours.

“why is this your go-to when fucking with me,” you poked his cheek with exasperation, making no effort to do so gently. “there are literally an infinite amount of things you could do to me and it’s always the one that ends up with me sore and unable to breathe.” you kicked your legs around threateningly before peter could open his mouth.

“i have knees and i’m not afraid to use them,” you taunted, deadly serious. you pushed your knee up, dangerously close to his upper thigh.

“nope! i’m done, i’m off! i concede!” he yelled, scrambling to escape. in his frantic movements, he ended up full-force dropping on you with no arms to soften the impact, and you both groaned. you turned your head, to avoid a forehead collision. also to avoid your lips from touching. that may have happened if you hadn’t turned your head, and having lips on lips is not very platonic.

“i swear to god, if you gave me a concussion, i’m gonna-”

“WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?” tony raged, storming into the kitchen with his hands thrown up in the air. “WHERE ARE THE DAMN CHILDREN?”

scott stuck his head out from behind a corner to investigate the drama. (he loved drama.) “oh, your daughter? yeah, last time i saw her was in her room with peter; i think they were changing or something.” 

“excuse me?” tony looked furious.

bruce arrived. “no, i actually let them use my lab. didn’t wanna disturb them. they’ve been working really hard on their bio project on reproduction so i just let them have the place to themselves.”

tony’s mouth dropped. “banner, are you shitting me? we all know what happens when two teenagers are alone in a room together! and we all know reproduction project does not mean… what it’s supposed to mean! you just let them? and in the lab too? did they even have safety goggles?”

bucky and sam, who never passed up the opportunity to hear fresh gossip and had crept in a while ago, gave each other knowing grins.

“don’t worry, tony,” sam held back a laugh.

“they’re definitely… safe…” bucky wheezed, the two of them struggling to stay upright as they watched tony’s rage slip into confusion.

natasha strolled in casually. “you got them protection?” she snorted. “cute.”

you and peter were frozen in your places. so frozen, in fact, that peter’s cheeks resembled the flaming red of anna’s hair and your knuckles had gone as pale as elsa’s snow. neither of you wanted to go out and face the crowd, so the two of you stayed extremely quiet as you prayed nobody would look over the counter.

“they’re right there,” clint yelled from his perch, pointing you two out.

tony stalked over, fuming. when he saw the situation, he was no longer fuming, but on fire. “PETER PARKER, GET YOUR STICKY, PUBESCENT HANDS OFF OF MY DAUGHTER.” 

“i’m so sorry, m-mr. stark! i- we’re not-”

“it’s not what it looks like!” you exclaimed, pushing peter’s chest in an unsuccessful attempt to get him off of you. curse his perfectly chiseled 6-pack abs and his weird super-spider strength. just fucking move!

as tony panicked, you hissed at peter. “move!” he realized he had remained in place and clambered off you instantly, the two of you crawling over to separate corners to put as much space between your bodies as possible.

the crowd of avengers struggled to hold back their laughter. well, sam and bucky weren’t trying to at all. but the rest of them (unsuccessfully) attempted to stifle their roars.

“does anyone want to explain why i found two children committing unholy acts in the middle of my million-dollar kitchen?” tony seethed.

natasha raised her eyebrows. “you could’ve at least tried to keep it down, you know.”

“but we weren’t even-”

sam rolled his eyes. “no point in excuses not; you weren’t even trying to be discreet.” he pitched his voice up to imitate the two of you badly. “‘peter! oh god!’ ‘i’m coming!’ ‘you’re so good, no one else could do it like you!’”

“c’mon, and in a common area too? it’s my bad i barged into you guys before, but this one’s your fault, dudes.” scott scolded.

tony’s face was almost entirely red. bruce’s face was also red, for a different reason. tony pulled peter up by the collar. the two of them were shaking, also for very different reasons.

“so, not only are you sneaking around with my daughter behind my back,” tony poked peter in the chest. “but you’re doing… you’re doing the nasty with her too? and you have the nerve to defile my kitchen?” he shoved peter off of him, who stumbled backward.

tony kept creeping closer. “i should take away your suit. clearly, you aren’t trustworthy or responsible enough for this. you know, i had a lot of faith in you kid,” tony looked murderous. “and you screwed up big time.” he took a deep breath to compose himself, and his next words were low and threatening. “i don’t want to see you near my daughter ever again.”

you jumped to your feet, furious. “are you insane? peter and i are just friends!”

“oh yeah? explain why you were on top of each other, a- and all the things that sam said!”

your voices had raised considerably since the start of the confrontation. the onlooking avengers no longer found this very funny, and trickled out slowly.

“we’re friends! we’ve always been friends! you guys are just jumping to conclusions because peter just so happens to be a boy and i just so happen to be a girl!” peter had backed away a bit, which gave you the chance to get into your dad’s space.

“i don’t care what you are, there is no way i’m letting my daughter be with some sticky, hormonal, lit-”

“stop!” you shook your head, unbelieved. “stop it! you don’t get to talk about peter that way. peter and i are just friends, we have always been just friends, and we are always going to be just friends. so either you apologize to him, or you can go f-” you hesitated. “you can go fuck off.”

it might’ve been inappropriate timing, but peter’s heart broke.

tony silenced, his eyes narrowing at your outburst. he opened his mouth to snap back, but you grabbed peter’s hand and dragged him off, not bothering to look back. tony angrily stared at your intertwined fingers.

you and peter had retreated to your bedroom, where you slammed the door and threw yourself onto your bed, tears already beginning to well up. peter sat by the foot of your bed, not daring to come any closer.

“i’m sorry,” peter croaked. he instinctively reached out to rub your leg consolingly, but pulled back just as quickly.

“don’t apologize. you didn’t do anything wrong,” you sniffed. “dad’s just being an asshole. a huge asshole. god, he can be so-” you shoved your face into a pillow and screamed. you sat up to face peter. “i’m the one who should be sorry. he- he had no right to treat you like that. absolutely none. and none of the things he said about you were true.”

you tentatively extended both your hands, palms up, and he took them in his. “i think the two of us just have a tendency to get caught up in arguments. we always say things we don’t mean. and i promise, the whole suit thing was a lie. he really loves you, pete. i hope you know that.”

a quiet tear rolled down peter’s cheek. you brushed it off gently. “i just- i don’t know what i would do if i couldn’t see you anymore,” he choked. “and this is all so stupid, you know? it was embarassing, but kind of funny at first, but now i’m realizing-” peter looked down, shaking his head and laughing quietly to himself.

“what is it, peter?”

he looked up at you from beneath wet eyelashes. “i’m realizing that, i guess, i kind of wish what everyone was saying was true.”

you furrowed your eyebrows. “you wish dad would take your suit away?”

“no, i mean-”

your eyes widened. “you wanted us to fuck in bruce’s lab? peter, there are some of the world’s deadliest chemicals in there and i have a perfectly functioning bedroo- oh shit.”

the two of you looked at each other wordlessly.

 i basically just told peter that i wanted to fuck him in my bedroom.

she literally just told me she wants to fuck me in her bedroom.

“yeah, i mean- no! i mean, yes, your bedroom is definitely safer and more practical but that’s- what i’m trying to say is-” peter stuttered. “yes, i would love to have sex with you! but that’s- holy fuck. oh shit.” peter let go of your hands immediately and practically threw himself off the bed onto the wall. “no! not that i want to have- no, not that i don’t want to, but i was trying to say was that i wish, you know, that we weren’t just friends. like they were saying, you know. or, i guess insinuating. well, they were insinuating that we were having unprotected sex in the lab, but that implies that we weren’t just friends, but that could mean we were just friends with benefits, and i’m not trying to say that i want to be friends with benefits with you-” peter gasped for air.

you interrupted him. “i think i know what you mean.” you swallowed thickly. “remember when i said we were just friends and only ever going to be just friends? and uh, do you remember what i said earlier about saying stuff in the heat of the moment?” peter nodded furiously. “that was just the heat of the moment.”

peter stopped nodding. he looked at you, absolutely lost. you couldn’t help but chuckle.

“i think what we’re both trying to say—or at least, i really hope this is what you’re trying to say too—is that um, neither of us wants to be friends.”

you winced.

“wait, no, that came out wrong. we don’t want to be platonic. or, i don’t, at least. i like you romantically, peter. is this a bad time to say that? considering you just got threatened by my dad for supposedly hooking up with me.”

“no! no, it’s not a bad time. and i like you too, actually. i’ve liked you for a while. i-” peter laughed breathlessly. “i actually kind of thought you were with steve.” he scratched the back of his neck, blushing.

“steve? dude, he’s like 106!”

“i know, i know! i don’t know what i was thinking,” peter huffed.

“c’mere,” you opened your arms for him and he climbed beside you, accepting your embrace. you could feel his warm breath on your face.

“your breath smells like pickles,” you murmured, nestling your head into his chest.

“sorry.”

--

tony was about to bore holes into the expensive tiled flooring with all of his pacing. bruce was the only one brave enough to come back into the kitchen.

“what do you want?” tony grumbled, refusing to look at the scientist.

“tony, take a look at these models.” 

“i don’t want to take a look at whatever it is my daughter and that sinful spider boy produced,” he whined.

“no, look. the figures—they’re not just reproduction. they’re asexual reproduction. a very well-done representation of the mitosis process, actually.” bruce held up some of the models in awe. “these are really well done! letting them use the lab was worth it,” he muttered to himself.

tony raised his head, glaring. “what are you talking ab- oh.”

on the countertop were six intricate replicas of cell division. “this is what you meant by ‘reproductive project?’” tony whispered, horrified.

“i mean, i wasn’t exactly sure, but i figured-”

“oh my god,” tony paled. “i can’t believe i thought- all this time it was mitosis- god, and these models are beautiful too…” his jaw clenched, thinking back to the things he had said as he yelled at you and peter.

bruce sighed, giving tony a pointed look. the billionaire couldn’t meet his eyes.

“don’t look at me like that,” tony whined. “in my defense, all the evidence was stacked against them! what was i supposed to do?”

“hear them out?” bruce raised an eyebrow, unimpressed by tony’s immature self-soothing methods.

tony hid his face in his hands. “she must be so upset with me now. and the spider boy… jeez, i’m a fucking douche, aren’t i?”

bruce patted tony on the back consolingly. “well, you heard the girl. you can either apologize or fuck off, and i think you’ve tried and failed at fucking off. so you might as well go with the first option.” the scientist walked away, leaving tony alone to soak in his own guilt.

bruce is right. i can’t ever own up to my mistakes, can i? first i make my daughter patch things up with steve for a comment that i made, and then i go and accuse her of something she didn’t do without even giving her the chance to speak? god, if i had just shut up for a minute, she could’ve explained everything and none of this would have happened.

tony rubbed his temples, exhaling heavily as he found himself standing in front of your door. he knocked softly, but heard no verbal response. maybe you had left the tower? before he could ask FRIDAY for your location, he heard the shuffling of sheets. oh no, did i make her cry?

tony cracked open the door and peered in. “favorite spawn? are you there?”

when he opened the door fully, he watched as you and peter peeled yourselves away from each other again, breathless and flushed. his eyes flickered between the two of you before he noticed your puffy lips and your avoided eye contact.

“peter parker, have you been kis-” tony raised his hands and pinched his fingers together, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath to calm himself down. he tried talking again, but slowly and more thoughtfully. “using context clues, i have come to the hypothesis that the two of you had previously been k- kissing.” he fought the urge to gag.

“i also observe that the two of you are on my daughter’s bed. alone, with the door closed. and that is… okay. because… the right to privacy is protected by the 14th amendment. unfortunately.” he said the last word under his breath. you and peter looked at each other, perplexed.

“in the kitchen, i discovered six models of… the mitosis sequence. footnote: they are very well constructed. uh, i realize now that perhaps i had… overreacted. and unjustly threatened peter. and also jumped to conclusions. and i also had not trusted you. all of which are… mistakes… that i made. and for that, i am… i am… s-sorry.”

you raised your eyebrows. “did you just… apologize?”

tony nodded his head hesitantly. you jumped out of bed, making your way over to him. tony gulped. this is it. this is the end. 

you slapped tony across the face.

“oh my god!” you screamed. “i’m so sorry! holy- i’m so sorry, dad! i didn’t mean that at all, i thought you were a hologram! i was trying to see if my hand would go through, you know?”

tony chuckled. “i- i probably deserved that.” he rubbed his cheek which was now growing pink.

peter hopped off the bed to stand hesitantly behind you, not fully confident that tony wasn’t going to castrate him.

“so, you and my daughter, huh?” tony crossed his arms, leaning his weight onto one foot.

“y-yes, mr. stark.”

tony sucked his teeth and sighed. despite his nerves, peter straightened his back and came to stand firmly beside you. you looped your pinky around his.

“well, as you are aware, i do have multiple suits with blasters capable of melting iron, ironically.” peter steeled himself. “and you are currently standing in my billion-dollar tower surrounded by earth’s mightiest heroes who will not hesitate to decimate you should anything happen to my daughter.” peter gulped.

“but i am also aware that you are…” tony pursed his lips in resignation. “you have proven yourself more than capable on multiple accounts, and i was wrong to question you.” tony wrung his hands. “and you have saved my daughter and your classmates and even that asshole teacher about four times now. and i see the way you look at her; how you’ve always looked at her—which by the way, is a really embarrassing, dopey look on you, boy—and my head was too far up my ass to realize that you two are big boys and girls now.”

tony sniffed emotionally, blinking back proud dad tears. “and obviously my daughter doesn’t need any protecting, because she’s a stark and she could whoop your ass in her sleep, but i know how much you care for her and i know you’ll look out for each other. so… i give you my blessing.��

you looked confused. “dad, you know we’re not getting married, right?”

tony took a step back and waved his hands around. “dear god, no! i don’t want to hear about marriage until at least 30 years later! you guys are too young to be mouth mashing anyways and i’m already being very lenient with letting you have the door closed!”

“uh, thank you, mr. stark. it really means a lot.” peter bit his lip to hold back what you knew was going to be a brilliant grin.

“don’t get used to it, kid.” tony rubbed his hands together. “well, in a few years or so i’ll have bruce teach you two about the birds and the bees. for now, um, wash your hands for at least 20 seconds, kids.” tony shot you two thumbs up. “alright, peace out.”

when tony’s footsteps receeded, you turned to peter and threw your arms around his neck. “you have a look for me, huh?” you spoke into peter’s shoulder.

“i guess i do. i guess i always have. you’re hard not to look at, do you know that?”

peter could feel the vibrations and your warm breath as you laughed into his shirt.

“no, i don’t think you know,” he insisted. he threaded his fingers through your hair and closed his eyes, comfortable. “everybody sees you- you’re stunning, and not just in the physical way. you have this weird talent—it’s like you’re a light—and everything is just so much better with you. y’know, i hated coffee until you made it for me. and i dreaded spanish until i found out you were in my class, so i think… i think i’ve lo- liked you, felt this way for you, for longer than i’ve known.”

he could feel your lips curve into a smile. “you’re such a goddamn sap, pete,” you muttered, nuzzling his chest. “you know i hate sappy stuff. but i could make an exception for you.”

“oh really?” he placed one purposeful kiss on the crown of your head. “i think…” he began leaving kisses more sporadically until he reached your temple, then your cheek, then the tip of your nose. “i think that i’ll just have to be extra sappy. you know, to see how much you like me.” he pulled you away from his chest and held you at an arms length with a smile that could rival the sun.

“and in that case…” peter got down on one knee. you gasped theatrically.

peter pressed his palms together and opened them like a ring box. “will you be my girlfriend?”

you wiped away fake tears and you squealed, “yes!”

a distant voice that sounded suspiciously like tony’s interrupted the romantic proposal. “i said 30 years until marriage!”

*＊✿❀　❀✿＊*

main masterlist | moodboard

taglist: (comment to be added!)

@im-a-slut-for-fluff

#peter parker x stark!reader #peter parker x you #peter parker imagine #peter parker x reader #mcu spiderman #peter parker x y/n #tom holland peter parker #tom holland #spiderman mcu #spiderman x stark!reader

[benispunk]

The Concert

Iron dad and Spiderson

I've paid my dues Time after time

Tony mumbled the lyrics of the song playing while still focusing on his new project. Peter, sitting not so far away from Tony, lifted his head from his very much boring school paper he had to finish and smiled brigthly.

"That's one of my favorite !"

It was Tony's turn to move his head up and look at Peter.

"It's one of the best, but not my favorite though." he answered, returning back to his work.

I've done my sentence But committed no crime

"I didn't know you liked Queen."

"Why would I not?"

"I don't know. I just never heard it playing in your lab. I love it though." Peter's knee bopped on sync with the beat of the song.

Tony stopped for a second.

And bad mistakes I've made a few

"Are you sure I've never mentioned I like Queen?" Tony asked. Peter shrugged, tapping his pen on the desk.

"I mean, everybody does. But it just never occurred to me that you do too. You like your hard rock and metal better." Tony chuckled.

It's true that there wasn't enough Queen songs playing in his lab.

"Queen does a good job at that too. You should have seen them live, my god what an experience it was."

I've had my share of sand Kicked in my face

Peter whipped his head up so fast he thought he might have broken his neck.

"What did you just say?"

Homework now forgotten, his focus was on Tony and Tony only.

But I've come through

"Wait- the best part is coming, shut up."

As Tony started singing full heartedly the chorus Peter replayed his previous comment in his head.

You should have seen them live, my god what an experience it was

What does that mean.

"What does it mean?" Peter asked, still not quite sure he actually understood what his mentor said. He couldn’t possibly...

"That they're the champions it's kinda obvious Peter."

"NO. What do you mean when you say that I should have seen them live?!" Peter all but screamed. He wanted answers and he wanted them now.

That seems to get Tony's attention as he put down his tools - previously used as a microphone for his magnificent performance of the song.

"Peter, are you okay?" he asked and Peter's frustration only grew bigger.

"Do you mean to tell me you went to a Queen concert ?" he finally asked. Tony raised one eyebrow, confused.

"Uh- yeah?"

Peter's jaw fell open.

"WHAT."

Tony stared at a visibly shocked Peter Parker. "What?"

"WHAT?!" Peter repeated.

"FRI, is the kid okay there?" Tony asked, keeping an eye on Peter while checking his vitals on the screen next to him.

"Peter is fine, he seems to be experiencing shock after hearing about your experience at a Queen's concert." the AI answered as Tony huffed a laugh.

"Oh okay. Well, yeah I was 14 and on a trip to Paris with my mother. They were there too so we went to the concert and-"

Peter interrupted him, "Do not tell me you met them."

A silence fell in the room as Peter waited for a reply. He watched Tony who stood still.

"Why aren't you saying anything?"

"Well you just told me not to."

That made Peter lose it completely.

"Oh my- don't- is that real? Are you lying to me?"

"I didn't say anything." Tony put his hands up in the air, showing his innocence.

"Did you?"

"Say anything?"

"NO! Did you meet them?" Peter asked again.

"Yes." he answered bluntly.

Peter blinked. One. Two. Three times.

"And you were 14." Tony nodded.

"And on a random trip to Paris." the man added. At some point, Peter was completely disconnected from reality.

How was this supposed to be real? You think you know somebody and then, yeah I went to a Queen concert when I was on a trip to Paris and I actually met them.

What the hell. How the hell. Why the hell.

Tony, who still hadn't move from his position over on his stool, snapped his fingers a few times to wake Peter up from his "daydream" or whatever happened to him.

"Were you ever going to mention this?" Peter blurted out once he was back in this very, very, weird reality. Tony smiled, no- he smirked that bastard.

"If i started telling you all the things that I did and the people that i've met, we would never be done Peter."

This only made Peter groaned in frustration.

"There's worse ?" he asked, although he already knew the answer.

"I have George Lucas' phone number."

Nevermind. Whatever answer he thought he would get could have never been worse.

"FRIDAY I broke him, didn't I?" Tony asked his AI as he looked at the very much not-functioning Peter in front of him.

"It appears so."

'Cause we are the champions of the World

a/n: THANK YOU FOR READING!! This is such a messy story. Also I cannot imagine Tony Stark not listening to Queen- like...impossible. Big Queen Fan here. Also this is a reference to a post I made a few weeks (months?) back saying that I can't believe there are people in this world who went to a Queen concert. Peter's reaction is definitely inspired by how I would react- and it's not over dramatic, it's accurate. Can we say under dramatic? Because that's what it is. Anyway, thank you for the support on my last post, it means a lot. You guys gave me the energy to come back to writing. Don't hesitate to send requests, I could try doing some stuff!!! XX

#spiderman #peter parker #peter parker and tony stark #irondad #spiderson #mcu fandom #mcu fanfiction #spider man fanfiction #fanfiction #ao3 #ao3 writer #ao3 author #irondad and spiderson #irondad fanfiction #irondad spiderson

[thebisexualdogdad]

Are you a member of the mile high club? - Peter Parker x M!reader

"Hey Happy how long until we get to Los Angeles?" Peter asks spinning around in his seat.

"Pete, you asked me ten minutes ago and the answer is still over an hour," Happy sighs from the pilots seat.

"But I'm so bored," Peter groans.

Stark had requested you and Peter meet him in California for some assistance on avengers business and Peter was antsy to get there.

"I can think of something to keep you occupied," you smile.

"What's that?" Peter says excitedly.

"Yes, anything to get him to leave me alone," Happy huffs.

You lean over and whisper in your boyfriends ear, "are you a member of the mile high club?"

Peter gulps, "um no."

"Wanna join?" You say kissing his cheek.

Peter quickly gets out of his seat and takes your hand, "we're gonna go… make some modifications to my suit," he rambles.

"Whatever, have fun," Happy says not caring about what you guys were doing just thanking he finally had some peace and quiet.

You and Peter head to the back of the plane, shutting the door so Happy didn't notice what you were really doing.

Peter presses you up against the wall and kisses you.

Your hands go to his ass and squeeze his cheeks making him moan.

He sinks down to his knees, unbuttoning your pants and letting your cock free.

He strokes you to get you hard and kisses along your hips.

"I need you Peter," you mutter and he takes a long slow lick up the shaft of your cock.

He takes you in his mouth and begins bobbing his head while he palms at his own erection in his pants.

"Just like that," you say as he firmly strokes the base of your cock and sucks on the tip.

When you cum Peter swallows it all, not missing a drop.

He returns to his feet and you can see the clear bulge in his pants.

"I want to fuck you so bad Y/N," he tells you, letting his giant cock out and it slaps against his stomach.

"Please fuck me Peter," you beg.

He guides you to a table and turns you around, bending you over.

Peter sticks two fingers in his mouth, wetting them before teasing your hole.

He gently eases them inside to open you up and you're already getting hard again.

"Peter," you moan, your hips bucking against the table and he decides you're prepared enough.

He replaces his fingers with his cock and slowly rocks his hips.

"I love watching my cock disappear in your ass," he chuckles, holding onto your waist as he picks up the pace.

"God you feel so good inside me," you groan.

He's fully thrusting into you now, both of you letting out deep guttural moans.

You reach down and firmly stroke your cock, so close to your second release.

"Are you gonna cum?" Peter asks with a smirk.

"Yes," you nod so Peter thrusts his hips as fast as he possibly can.

You moan his name as you cum again onto the side of the work table.

Peter hits his own climax and pulls out of you, spurting in between your legs.

When you've had a moment to catch your breath you step back to see both of your cum dripping down the side of the table.

"It's like a Jackson Pollock," Peter laughs.

"This should be hanging up in an art museum," you joke, kissing him sweetly.

"ETA to LA thirty minutes," Happy announces over the plane speaker.

"We should clean this up before we land," Peter suggests as he gets redressed.

"I guess Tony would be upset if he came back onto his plane and found this," you laugh while you fix yourself up, "so you happy to be a part of the mile high club?"

"It is an esteemed honor," he smiles.

#marvel imagine #peter parker imagine #peter parker x reader #peter parker x male reader #x male reader #fic

[ilguna]

☼ when the dead rise pt2 (Stephen Strange) ☼

summary; five years pass, and you come to terms with the fact that you may never see Stephen again. when Tony calls you, telling you that there may be a way to change everything, you decide to take one more chance.

warnings; swearing, willing starvation, needle mention, weapon usage, death, blood, ehh gore, suicide mention, weight gain/loss, kinda cringe if you think about it, happy ending!

wc; 18.7k

notes; the entirety of endgame, haha, i'm not kidding. with nonsensical talk of time traveling, more angst, some fluff, tony and y/n get along, and stephen is there at the end.

part one.

—

The galaxy that you’re floating in is beautiful. It’s perfect, and if you weren’t here right now, sitting in front of the window, you’d say that it’s not real. There’s a mix of the rainbow out there, the brightest hue being aquamarine. Which paints everything in the spaceship the same shade.

You’ve been sitting here for hours, just staring at the stars. They don’t change, captured at their best times. It’ll be millions of years before they burn out, by then they’ll have fulfilled their purpose. There will be no regrets.

You wish you could say the same.

“(Y/n), are you going to come over and eat?” Tony asks from behind you.

He’s sitting at the table with Nebula, they’ve been going back and forth playing their games, trying to keep entertained. You heard him talking about eating, but you never bothered to join the conversation. You don’t have the energy to get up and go over there.

“No, I’m fine.” You murmur, leaning into your knees, arms wrapped around the back of your thighs. “Go ahead and have the rest.”

It’s quiet for a moment, then you can hear him sigh. “You haven’t eaten anything today.”

“I know.” You tell him. “I’m not hungry.”

The sound of a chair scraping against the metal flooring fills the air. You close your eyes, taking in a deep breath. His footsteps echo through the ship, shuffling to a stop behind you.

“You haven’t been hungry for the past couple of days.” He says, voice surprisingly gentle. “You can’t do this to yourself. It won’t change things.”

With gritted teeth, you swallow thickly, and let out an uneven breath. “I know that too, Tony.” 

He moves to stand right next to you, letting out a grunt. When you open your eyes, looking over, you see that he’s sitting beside you, legs crossed. The shiny silver bag is in his hand, he shakes it, looking inside.

“It’s some sort of mix. It doesn’t taste good at first, but it’ll grow on you.” He says, holding it out for you.

You stare at him, pressure building behind your eyes again. Your lips begin to tremble first, face twisting as the tears take over. Tony frowns, setting the bag down, and reaches to pull you in a hug. As you begin to cry into his shoulder, he squeezes you tightly, causing the ache in your ribs to surface.

“I just want him back.” You sob, “Is that too much to ask for?”

DAY TWENTY-THREE

“It’s been twenty-three days since Thanos came to Earth.” Rhodes says, he’s standing at the wooden table where a holographic projection displays out of a cylindrical device in the middle.

In the air, you’re able to see the faces and names of those you lost that day. It’s constantly rotating, a few of them being Nick Fury, Bucky, Sam, Wanda, Peter, and Stephen. There’s more, of course, faces you don’t recognize because you cut ties with the Avengers a couple years ago.

“World governments are in pieces,” Natasha begins. “The parts that are still working are trying to take a census and it looks like he did…” She trails off for a moment, Tony pushes up his glasses, hand covering his face when Peter appears in front of him. “He did exactly what he said he was gonna do. Thanos wiped out,” She sighs, “Fifty percent of all living creatures.” 

There’s a moment of silence across the table, you play with one of your rings, twisting it between your fingers. 

Tony moves his hand, lifting his head. “Where is he now? Where?” He’s currently in a wheelchair, hooked up to an IV. He’s looked better, but to be fair, so have you. You’re two peas in one miserable pod. 

While you came out with bruised ribs and a gnarly scar from where Thanos had ripped out a chunk of your skin—which Tony tried his best to repair while on the spaceship. He had to fight through an infection from being stabbed by his own nanotech, which Nebula had the pleasure of healing.

In the end, there was only so much food to pass around on the ship. Even though you’d gone days without eating, it didn’t help the supply any. However, your weightloss is nothing compared to Tony’s, because he’s sick at the moment.

“We don’t know.” Steve says, his arms are crossed over his chest. He’s leaning against a table nearby. “He just opened a portal and walked through.”

Tony wheels forward, sighing, looking off to the side. “What’s wrong with him?” He asks, motioning to Thor. He’s sitting in a separate room, leaned forward on his knees, a hard expression on his face, moving his thumbs.

“Oh, he’s pissed.” Rocket says. He’s a talking raccoon that was part of Quill’s group, you met him after you landed back on Earth. Which only happened because Tony and Nebula set off a distress signal, and a woman named Carol Danvers came to save you. “He thinks he failed.” Tony’s hand falls. “Which, of course, he did, but there’s a lot of that going around, ain’t there?” 

“Honestly, until this exact second I thought you were a Build-A-Bear.” Tony says.

“Maybe I am.”

“We’ve been hunting Thanos for three weeks now.” Steve says. “Deep space scans and satellites and we got nothing.” He pauses, looking up at the table. “(Y/n), Tony, you fought him.”

“Who told you that?” Tony asks. “I didn’t fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleecker Street magician—” You turn your head to look at him, eyebrows drawing in. “Gave away the store. That’s what happened.”

“Don’t talk about him like that.” You snap, suddenly getting up from your chair. When it begins to fall back, you catch it with one hand, slamming it against the floorboards. “Prick.”

“There was no fight, ‘cause he’s not beatable.” Tony finishes, unbothered by you. 

“Okay,” Steve nods. “Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?”

Tony makes a noise, saluting Steve. “I saw this coming a few years back.” He sinks into the wheelchair. “I had a vision. I didn’t wanna believe it. Thought I was dreaming.”

Steve stands. “Tony, I’m gonna need you to focus.”

“And I need you.” Tony says, it’s muffled because of the hand in front of his mouth. He drops it. “As in, past tense. That trumps what you need. It’s too late, buddy.” He shakes his head. “Sorry.”

You run a hand through your hair, and then settle into crossing your arms.

Tony sniffs. “You know what I need?” He slaps a bowl away from him, the spoon clattering against the table. He gets to his feet, one hand on it as he leans forward. “I need a shave. And I believe I remember telling all youse…” 

He begins to pull at the IV needle, Rhodes steps toward him. “Tony, Tony!”

“...alive and otherwise, that what we needed,” He does a circular motion. “Was a suit of armour around the world. Remember that?” His voice is raising. “Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not. That’s what we needed.”

“Well, that didn’t work out, did it?” Steve asks.

“I said we’d lose.” Tony points to himself. “You said, ‘We’ll do that together, too’. And guess what, Cap? We lost. And you weren’t there.” Steve sighs. “But that’s what we do, right? Our best work after the fact?” Rhodes grabs Tony by the arms to steady him. “We’re the ‘Avengers’. We’re the ‘Avengers’, not the ‘Pre-vengers’.”

He looks at Rhodes, who nods. “Okay.”

“Right?” Tony asks.

“You made your point. Just sit down, okay?” 

“Okay.” Tony says, looking away. “No, no, here’s my point. You know what?” He points at Carol. She’s unamused, “She’s great by the way.”

“Tony, you’re sick. Sit down.” Rhodes tries to push him down.

“We need you. You’re new blood.” He pushes off of Rhodes. “Bunch of tired old mules. I got nothing for you, Cap.” He walks to stand a foot away from Steve. “I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust, liar.” He whispers.

You watch as he reaches up to grab the arc reactor, ripping it from his chest. Tony’s breathing becomes uneven, as he grabs Steve’s hand, and slaps the reactor into it. “Here, take this. You find him, put that on, you hide.” He falls to his knees.

You, Steve and Rhodes move forward at the same moment.

“Tony!” Steve reaches for him.

“I’m fine.” He says. “Let me…”

His eyes roll back, collapsing.

—

Tony lays on a reclined bed, unconscious, with Pepper beside him, holding his hand. Rhodes drops off his glasses on the bedside table, and then leaves the room, coming to join you, Natasha, Steve and Carol.

“What about you, (Y/n)? You never said anything.” Steve says, several eyes land on you.

You twist the ring, looking at the engraving on the inside for the hundredth time today. Always with you, it says. You found it in Stephen’s room one afternoon, after he’d asked you to clean if you had time. You couldn’t say no, and though he liked to make sure he looked neat, his bedroom could be a mess at times.

When you asked about it, he smiled and told you to keep it. You tried to resist it, hiding it in places all throughout the Sanctum to ensure that it wouldn’t end up back in your possession. He always knew where to find it, and at the end of the day, he’d give it back to you. A gift.

You never really liked wearing jewelry on your hands and wrists. It interferes with the whole ‘raising-the-dead’ thing. You can’t remember the amount of times you broke a bracelet or scratched a ring at the beginning. But when you finally accepted the gift and stopped trying to give it back, you promised Stephen that you’d wear it everyday.

Now you can’t keep it on, as if the gold burns your skin each time it settles into place. Always with you. It feels like a taunt, a joke, something you can’t get away from. 

Where is he?

“No offense, Steve.” Your voice is colder than you mean it to be. “But if I knew anything, don’t you think I would’ve said something?”

Steve opens his mouth to speak, but Rhodes doesn’t give him a chance. “Bruce gave him a sedative. He’s gonna probably be out for the rest of the day.”

“That’s for the best.” You mutter, sliding the ring into your pocket.

“You guys take care of him, and I’ll bring him a Xorrian elixir when I come back.” Carol says, arms crossed over her chest as she begins to walk away.

“Where are you going?” Steve asks.

“To kill Thanos.” She says simply. 

The four of you follow after her quickly, because her pace isn’t slowing down. “Hey.” Natasha calls, Carol stops and turns around. “You know, we usually work as a team here and, uh, between you and I, morale’s a little fragile.”

Rhodes leans against the doorway.

“We realize up there is more your territory, but this is our fight, too.” Steve says.

“You even know where he is?” Rhodes asks, looking up from the tile.

“I know people who might.” She says.

“Don’t bother.” Nebula cuts in, standing across the room. “I can tell you where Thanos is.”

“Well, let’s hear it.” You say, going down the steps to join her in the sitting room. 

When you get inside, you see that Rocket is in here, too. Nebula moves to stand next to the window, waiting for the others to join you. You twist a chair around, sitting in it, and sinking into the navy blue cushions. Bruce and Thor roundup to join you.

“Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me.” She says, once everyone has come inside the room. “And when he worked, he talked about his Great Plan. Even disassembled, I wanted to please him. I’d ask…” She pauses. “Where would we go once his plan was complete?” She turns her head. “And his answer was always the same.” She joins them at the table. “‘To the Garden’.”

Rhodes makes a face, tilting his head. “That’s cute. Thanos has a retirement plan.”

“So, where is he?” Steve asks, moving around the table.

Rocket pulls up a projection of the Earth. “When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions.” The projection sends off a blast to emphasize this. “No one’s ever seen anything like it. Until two days ago…” 

He messes with the projection to show a different galaxy, zooming in until you’re met with a planet with rings around it. When you lean forward to see it, the name tag above reads, ‘PLANET 0259-S’. 

“On this planet.” Rocket finishes. 

“Thanos is there.” Nebula says. 

Natasha leans in close. “He used the stones again.”

“Hey, hey, hey.” Bruce nervously chuckles, he’s standing at the doorway. “We’d be going in shorthanded, you know.”

“Look, he’s still got the stones, so—”

“So, let’s get ‘em.” Carol’s eyes are locked on the planet. “Use them to bring everyone back.”

“Just like that?” Bruce asks. 

“Yeah. Just like that.” Steve says.

You sit up on the chair at the sound of this.

“Even if there’s a small chance that we can undo this, I mean, we owe it to everyone who’s not in this room to try.” Natasha says, shaking her head.

“If we do this, how do we know it’s gonna end any differently than it did before?” Bruce asks. 

“Because before you didn’t have me.” Carol says, hands on her hips. 

“Hey, new girl?” Rhodes looks at her. “Everybody in this room is about that superhero life.” She tilts her head slightly. “And if you don’t mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?”

“There are a lot of other planets in the universe. And unfortunately, they didn’t have you guys.”

Rhodes and Steve make the same face at each other—fair enough.

Thor pushes up from where he’s sitting at the dining room table, still chewing his food. He walks up behind Carol, and she faces him. He holds his hand out over her shoulder, Stormbreaker—the axe that was made on Nidavellir—goes to him, narrowly missing her head, blowing her hair into her face. She doesn’t flinch.

He sighs, squinting, and then nods. “I like this one.”

There’s a moment of silence, you get to your feet, wandering over to stand at the table. Steve looks at you, “Let’s go get this son of a bitch.”

—

The planet that Thanos has chosen to inhabit is, unfortunately, gorgeous. It’s a peaceful place, quiet, with thriving nature and wildlife. The group of you walk in silence, allowing you to enjoy the sounds of the animals chittering around you. 

It doesn’t take long before you come up to the wood shack that Carol had noticed when she came through the atmosphere about ten minutes ago. She went in first, while the rest of you waited in space, wanting to make sure that there wasn’t anything waiting for you on the planet. 

She’d come back, happy to report that there wasn’t a single living being beside Thanos. No satellites, ships, armies. There weren’t even ground defenses. Which would’ve had you excited, if it weren’t for what happened last time you fought him. You practically had the advantage then, too. There were so many people with different abilities.

Bruce positions himself underneath the shack, wearing his iron suit to supplement the fact that Hulk is still out of commission. You watch as Steve waves his arm in a circle, giving Carol the signal. A bright and fiery beam goes right through the shack, and seconds later, she follows.

There’s the sound of Carol fighting Thanos, getting him into position. Bruce breaks through the floor first, with Rhodes and Thor coming through the ceiling. It isn’t until you hear Thanos screaming, do you concur that the gauntlet must be off, done in the most aggressive way possible.

Steve goes up the stairs first, you and Natasha following close behind. Carol has Thanos in a headlock, Rhodes holding his right arm, Bruce holding the left. On the floor lies Thanos’s hand, the gauntlet still attached to it.

Thanos is groaning, face twisted. Rocket makes his way around to the handle, flipping over the gold gauntlet. “Oh, no.”

You look over, expecting to see that everything is fine, besides his mangled arm. You’re met with empty slots, not a single one of the stones is attached to the gauntlet. You sigh, pressing your lips together.

Natasha and Steve share a look before he speaks, “Where are they?”

Thanos groans, Carol pulls her arm tighter, “Answer the question.”

Half of his face is scarred, as if he’s recently been in a fire. Your eyes trail down to what’s left of his arm, finding it in the same condition. In this moment, you can feel the little hope you have leaving your body. 

“The universe required correction.” Thanos says. “After that, the stones served no purpose, beyond temptation.”

“You murdered trillions!” Bruce shouts, shoving Thanos back.

“You should be grateful.”

Bruce punches him.

Natasha takes a breath. “Where are the stones?”

“Gone.” He tells her. “Reduced to atoms.”

“You used them two days ago!” Bruce exclaims.

“I used the stones to destroy the stones.” Thanos says. “It nearly killed me.”

You shake your head, corners of your lips turning down. “That’s not true.”

“It is.” His eyes land on you. “But the work is done. It always will be. I am inevitable.”

“We have to tear this place apart. He has to be lying!” Rhodes says. 

“My father is many things.” Nebula murmurs. “A liar is not one of them.”

“Ah.” Thanos breaths. “Thank you, daughter. Perhaps I treated you too harshly.”

Thor swings his axe up without notice, shouting as he cuts off Thanos’s head. It hits the ground with a thud, purple blood splattering against the wall, on Nebula's face. His body falls back.

“What?” Bruce breathes.

“What did you do?” Rocket asks.

“I went for the head.” Thor mumbles, turning to walk out of the hut.

The rest of you stand in silence, watching as Nebula walks over to his body, kneeling down to shut his eyes. You take in deep breaths through your nose to calm the rising anger. Various thoughts on how you could torture him, even though he’s dead, begin to come to you. You could drag his pathetic body back to Earth, conjure it everyday, make him work his fingers to the bone, never let him rest.

He took Stephen, you think. 

You grit your teeth. “All due respect, Nebula, but we better burn his body.” You tell her, Natasha and Carol glance at you. You squeeze your hands into fists. “Or else I’m going to make sure he never rests. I could find thousands of ways to make the afterlife miserable, trust me.”

She nods at you, and then turns back to him.

You move to follow after Thor, who’s already down the stairs, traveling toward the spaceship. “If you need me, I’ll be by the ship.”

The hero suit fades away, falling back to your regular clothes. Your fingers dip into your jean pocket, coming into contact with the ring you’d stored earlier. You pull it out, holding it in your palm for a long moment. Then, you sigh, sliding it back into its place on your thumb.

ONE YEAR LATER

The dark clouds swirl above the field, acting as a warning that you don’t have much time to practice today. It rains often in New York, so this wouldn’t be your first time having to experience it while testing your abilities. However, it’s happened enough for you to say that you hate the feeling of it.

Lately, you’ve been feeling heavier whenever you come out here, like the ground is one giant blackhole and you’re constantly fighting against flying inside of it. The rain will only make it worse, and you can’t stand it when your clothes are waterlogged. It makes the seats of your car soggy.

Despite this, you take your time walking to the middle, not that you’re able to go faster than this, anyway. You haven’t been yourself for quite a few days, you think a cold might be coming on. Wong has begun to notice too, it was a struggle to convince him to let you leave the Sanctum. Which was done on the promise that you wouldn’t come out here to do this today.

Well, unfortunately for him, you can’t afford to lose time. Every day you spend on your ass, you take a step back from what you’re working towards—a breakthrough. It’s got to be right around the corner, this whole week, you’ve repeatedly felt yourself come to the ledge, but you were too afraid to jump.

You know now that this is how you grow to be stronger, to have a better understanding of your abilities. You can’t become a better hero if you don’t know how to sacrifice yourself sometimes, too.

There’s something under there, beneath the grass. It’s more than just the dead that you’re used to bringing to life. You get a feel for it each time you try, but it’s like uprooting a tree that’s been standing for hundreds of years. It’s resistant. 

You haven’t told any of the Avengers yet, afraid to get their hopes up. You think that it’s those who were killed in the blip. The reason why it’s so hard to bring them back is because they don’t have physical bodies, so what happens if you try to put them back together?

It sounds ridiculous at first, but it’s not that heinous when you map it out. When you tried to explain it to Wong, he shut you down within the first thirty minutes, telling you that this isn’t how it works. You told him that it’s fine if he doesn’t want to have hope, you won’t let him drag you down. 

It goes like this—it’s very simple—their bodies are everywhere. Those who were killed outdoors have been spread through nature. They were in the air at one point, but now they’re in the grass, the dirt, the Earth. They’re here, half the job is already done for you. What you need to do is focus on one person to bring back in the area, and work from there.

And it’s not even that ridiculous of an idea! When you were on Titan last year, directly after you’d lost Stephen, you tried that exact method. It’s where your inspiration came from. The ground shook, trying to listen to your direction. The issue is that you weren’t strong enough, you didn’t have enough practice to be doing something like that.

Now, you do. It’s what you’ve been working toward for the past few months, day in and day out, no breaks, absolutely no days off.

You slowly lower yourself to the ground, joints aching. You breathe heavily, sitting sideways on your legs, because your knees hurt from sitting on them for hours at a time. You place your hands in front of you, palms flat in the grass.

When you close your eyes, the ticklish feeling in your stomach rises. You focus on that, what it means, how long it’ll take for it to build before it becomes the dark energy that is necromancy. It isn’t until you feel the pressure beginning in your palms, as if you’re being sucked downward, do you switch to that.

You don’t allow it to bring you down, in fact, you pull back with ten times as much force. You’re coming to me, you think, not the other way around. It doesn’t want to, though, so you sort through the mass. Eyes bouncing from side to side behind your lids, looking for the weakest link.

You find it, and yank. The first few times, it doesn’t budge, it’s coming from several directions, exactly what you’re looking for. With this excitement, you beckon it toward you. The body isn’t fighting anymore, it’s like reeling in a dead fish. Which wouldn’t be appetizing to others, but it’s what you’re looking for.

The worry sets in when you realize that it’s not slowing down. You’ve just lifted your right hand off of the ground, when the matter surges through your body—your head whipping back so fast that you’ll be feeling it for weeks. 

A scream tears through your vocal chords, fire eating you up inside. 

It explodes.

You’re thrown into the air, body twisting at an awkward angle as you come into contact with the ground. You land on your bad shoulder, sending a spike of electricity through your torso and down your legs. 

There’s an unbearable ringing in your ears when you roll onto your back, struggling to breathe through the cloud of black smoke that comes to choke you. Your head rolls off to your right side, fingers reaching to touch the scorched grass that you’ve landed on top of. 

The moment you come into contact, it crumbles, turning to dust.

And so do you.

—

The consistent beeping of the heart monitor next to you is what you hear first. A moment of relief floods you, because this means that your hearing isn’t permanently damaged, but it’s fleeting when you realize what that means. Your eyebrows draw in, squeezing your eyes before you try to open them.

The hospital room is dark, the entire afternoon has been wasted away. You look to the window a few feet away, and find a lovely shade of blue and grey, blurred because of the raindrops that cling to the other side. It’s raining, of course, which means that you won’t be able to go out and try again tonight.

You roll your eyes, letting out an annoyed sigh, which you instantly regret when the pain seizes your entire body. You let out a grunt, pressing the back of your head into the pillow, teeth grit while you wait for it to pass.

You remind yourself that this is only a temporary setback. As soon as it’s not muddy out there anymore, you’ll try again. So, maybe not tomorrow, but the following day. You’ll do it again, and you’ll do it right.

A knock on the hospital room door makes you look over. It swings open without you granting entrance, making it a courtesy knock, and when you see who it is, there’s no explanation needed.

Tony Stark strolls into your room as if he owns the entire hospital. His eyes are on you, jaw set. You know this look, it’s the same one he gives right before he lectures you. The look on his face is the least of your worries when you see that his lip is busted and swollen. There’s also a cut across his forehead, blood leaking from it.

“What happened?” It hurts you speak, you wince, scooting to sit up higher on the bed. “How do you know I’m here?”

He shuts the door behind him, there’s no vase of flowers, not even a get well soon card in his hand. This is not a visit he’s making to check on your wellbeing, he doesn’t want to comfort you.

“I’m your emergency contact.” He tells you, stopping at the end of your bed. He sticks his hands into his pockets, eyebrows raised. “I got a call from the nurse because she thought you needed some support.”

You press your lips together, eyes drifting away from his face and to the door he just came through. Stephen is supposed to be your emergency contact, you did it when you got extremely sick during your first year of dating. He was worried you wound up dead somewhere when you hadn’t seen or talked to him for three days straight. He called every hospital in New York to find you.

Tony’s your backup, actually. You know that if anything were to happen to you, and if there’s no one else to make the decisions, he’d do what’s right and in your best interest. The two of you are very close, but you know he’d never let emotion get in the way if he knew you were suffering.

“I’m fine.” You murmur. “Just had an accident, that's all.”

“An accident?” Tony repeats. “That’s what you call raising a monster from hell?”

You blink, face twisting. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I mean, I think something exploded but there was no monster.”

“You weren’t awake for that part.” He tells you. “I just spent the last hour fighting it and your wizard buddy had to contain it.”

You stare at him, unsure if he’s telling the truth or not. A part of the evidence is his face, you suppose. You didn’t see anything, though. Just the smoke… which very well could’ve hidden it.

“What were you doing out there, anyway?” He asks.

“I’m working on something.” You adjust in the bed, settling back. “I’ve almost got it. As soon as I get out here, I’ll try again.”

“Try what again?”

You smile, “To bring them back, of course.” Tony’s face falls, he closes his eyes, shaking his head at you. “You have to hear me out first—”

“See, when Wong told me what you were up to, I didn’t believe him.” Tony reaches up, rubbing his face. “I thought that you couldn’t possibly be naive enough to—”

“Oh,” You groan out, waving your hand dismissively, “Don’t listen to Wong, he says I can’t do it. I’m so close though, I can feel it. I almost had it this afternoon, I think I just… chose the wrong thing, you know?”

“(Y/n),” Tony warns.

“See, this is one of the reasons why I didn’t want to tell you so soon. Either it’d get your hopes up, or you’d fall with Wong. Ignore him, he doesn’t know anything.”

You look out the window again. You’re not sure why he’s shutting you down like this. Out of everyone, you thought that he’d be the one that’d jump on your side. It wouldn’t be the first time he bet on something so outlandish. With him on your side, you think you have a better chance at succeeding.

Besides, you can bring back the dead, anyway. How is this that big of a stretch? And if you did pull a monster out of the ground—it’s even more the reason to believe you.

“I can bring them back, Tony.” You say.

“(Y/n), you can’t.” He says, “You tried, remember? You couldn’t then, and you can’t now.”

“Yeah, because I haven’t had my breakthrough yet.” You laugh, which dissolves into you grimacing. “I’m not strong enough. Just a couple more times, and I’ll have it.”

“No.” Tony waves his hand, as if he’s cutting off your plan. “You do any more of this, and you’ll get yourself killed.”

“That’s not true.” You shake your head. “We both don’t know if I can even die.” 

“At the pace you’re going, it doesn’t even matter!” He holds his hand out. “In the end, if you die, all you would’ve been doing to yourself this entire time is torture.”

You tilt your head at him. “I know you’re worried about me, and I appreciate it. I’m fine, though, look at me.”

“I am, and I feel like I’m talking to a corpse. Have you looked in the mirror lately?”

“I’m sick, Tony. It’s just the flu.” You say.

“No, (Y/n), your body is wasting away because this,” He motions aggressively to the window. “Is all you do. Wong has been contacting me for weeks, afraid that you’re going to drop dead any minute.”

“Fine,” You sigh. “If you two are so worried, I’ll take a break, but I’m not giving this up. It’s a hiccup, as soon as I get it down—”

He cuts you off, “What would Stephen think of this?” 

You stare, “Don’t.”

“No, you don’t.” He tells you. “I know we don’t have the best relationship at times, but I sure as hell won’t watch you kill yourself.”

“Then walk away.” You point to the door. “No one asked you to be here, to come in here talking about what Stephen would or wouldn’t want. You don’t know anything about him!”

“That doesn’t matter, because it doesn’t take a genius to know that he cared about you.”

“Get out.” You tell him. “Get the fuck away from me.”

He starts toward the door, not saying anything until he’s halfway out, turning to look at you. “If I catch wind that you’re doing this again, I’ll have you locked in a padded room for the rest of your life.”

Tony pulls the door shut tightly behind him.

THREE YEARS LATER

The clothes in the closet have lost their scent. After three years of picking them out to hold against your nose, there’s nothing left of him. Which means that your reasoning to stay in the Sanctum has finally expired. You have to move on.

This is by your own choice, not anyone else’s. Wong has made it explicitly clear that if you want to stay here, he will not say otherwise. He doesn’t mind it. In fact, you keep him company, even if your presence is mostly done in silence. What matters is that you’re in the room.

You took this offer, but told yourself that you couldn’t stay here forever. If you were going to be hung up on Stephen, you’d have to do it privately. So, you made a deal; the moment his room stopped feeling like it belonged to him, it was time to go. 

You noticed it a few weeks ago, when you came back from the Avengers Compound to collect the last of your belongings. The team was falling apart, again, and as much as you wish you could say that you were going to stay this time, you weren’t. You were already planning on leaving for good, this was just the perfect excuse to use.

The moment you stepped foot into the bedroom, you knew there was no coming back. It felt like you were walking into a foreign planet, a place you didn’t recognize, despite being there hours earlier. Six years of living in this room, gone.

Since, you’ve spent your time trying to find an apartment you like for a decent price, that’s also close to the Sanctum. You almost cried when you got offered a perfect one a few streets away, ready for you to move in. However, your initial excitement has worn off. You’ve been dragging your feet the entire week when it comes to packing, because they had to finalize the paperwork anyway.

Which left you to do it all today.

For the past two hours, you’ve packed everything you own back into boxes and bins, stacking them by the bedroom door. You decided early on that it would be easier if you worked in phases. The hardest part would be detaching yourself from this place, which proved itself to be true. 

You’ve cried a few times throughout the process, but it’s done now. The only thing left to do is bring the boxes down to your car, that’s waiting for you parked in front of the Sanctum.

You drag your feet, stopping in front of the first stack. A sigh leaves you when you reach to pull a box into your arms. When you realize it’s not heavy, you adjust to grab the one that was beneath it, too. You’re not entirely looking forward to going up and down the stairs a hundred times.

A sickness rises in your stomach when you leave the bedroom, beginning to go down the hallway. This feels wrong, like a one-sided breakup, leaving before the other person can get home. Your feet pause briefly, shoe squeaking against the freshly waxed floor.

That’s exactly what it is, isn’t it? 

No, you think harshly, this is different. Stephen is never coming home. He’s lost, just like the trillions of other lives that were taken when Thanos snapped his fingers. This isn’t a breakup.  A part of you wishes it were, because at least then, you’d still have a chance to see him around New York, even if it weren’t on good terms or romantically.

You suck in a deep breath, holding it as you begin your way down the stairs, the first trip of many. You drop these boxes next to the front door, wanting to pack your car all at once. That way, if there’s an issue, it’ll be easier to take it apart. You head back upstairs to repeat this process, it only takes a good fifteen minutes before you’re done. 

When you go back to Stephen’s room one last time to retrieve the engraved, golden ring, your heart skips a few beats in your chest. You shuffle toward the dresser, eyes searching the surface, thinking that it might be blending in. You run your fingers over it, and come back with nothing.

You turn around to look into the room, face twisting, eyebrows pushing in as you struggle to remember if you had moved it or not. You walk to his nightstand, opening the drawers, rummaging through them, even though you could’ve sworn you never put it in here.

It’s not there. So, you move to your nightstand, where you’ve kept your jewelry in the past, especially the ring. Except, when you open the first drawer, you’re met with emptiness. You’ve already taken everything out of it, because it’s packed into one of the boxes downstairs.

You sweep the floor with your eyes, but it’s too dark in here. You throw the curtains open, flooding the room with sunlight. When you go back to looking, hoping that the ring will reflect the light, you can’t find it.

You switch to the closet, opening the doors to reveal that it’s half empty now. The only clothes left hanging are the ones that Stephen thought were too important to fold, and to keep them from wrinkling. There’s nothing here, not even in the darkest corner.

Did it fall under the bed?

On your knees, you press the side of your face to the floor, but the only thing under here are the dust bunnies. You make sure of this, too, when you grab a broom to bring it all out.

The panic begins to settle in, spreading through your body. How did you manage to misplace the ring? It’s the most valuable thing to you. You’d think you’d be more careful with something as sentimental as that—a ring from your dead boyfriend.

“Maybe it’s in a box.” You murmur to yourself to calm down, reel in the insanity that’s beginning to rise. 

You head out of the bedroom, looking at the boxes over the railing. Once you’re down the stairs and in the foyer, you pull the first box off of the stack, opening the cardboard flaps, and pulling all of its contents out. There is no ring, so you push the objects away, off to the side, not bothering to repack it.

The further you get through the pile, the more hysterical you grow. The box that you’d packed with your jewelry doesn’t have it. The neatly folded clothes, now tossed on the floor, don’t have it caught in the cloth. It’s not stuck between the books, you didn’t accidentally throw it with the rest of your trinkets, it’s not with your electronics.

Everything you own is strewn across the foyer, as you continue to tear them apart.

It’s not here.

You get back to your feet, struggling to breathe, the tears starting.

The front door suddenly opens, you look over to see that it’s Wong. He gives you a wide smile at first, which slowly begins to fall when he sees the expression and the state the foyer is in.

“What’s the matter?” He asks.

“I lost the ring.” You whisper. “I don’t—I don’t know where it is. I’ve looked everywhere.” You turn around to motion to the mess you’ve made. “I don’t have it here, I even checked my car. I set it aside so I wouldn’t lose it and it’s not here. The one thing I carry with me and I’m stupid enough—”

“(Y/n),” Wong says, coming to grab your shoulders. You can feel his fingers pressing into the metal that makes up your left shoulder. A replacement that Tony made for you, covering the entire cost. “(Y/n), stop.”

You press your lips together, face contorting as you nod, trying to focus.

“I told you I was taking it to get cleaned, remember?” He asks, face twisted. He removes his hands, reaching into his coat pocket to pull out the small silk bag.

“Oh.” You breathe, feeling your body relax.

You cup your hands, watching as he carefully shakes the ring out of the bag. It’s polished, smooth. When you tilt it to see the inside, the engraving is there, untouched.

“Okay.” You say.

“You’re okay?” He confirms.

You nod, pushing it back to where it belongs on your thumb. “I’m sorry, Wong.”

“Don’t apologize.” He tells you, turning to face the foyer. “Do you need help repacking?”

“Will you?” You ask.

“Of course.”

FIVE YEARS LATER

The sound of a distantly familiar ringtone begins from the coffee table in your living room, again. 

Your eyebrows draw in, turning your head to the side to listen through the first few notes. As you reach for the towel on the counter to dry your hands, you try to remember who it could belong to. It’s garish, dramatic. Whoever the person is, they must resemble the noise.

The bell finally rings.

It’s Stark.

You toss the towel back on the counter when you leave the kitchen. There’s a faint sense of urgency in your steps, considering that you’ve let him call you twice already, figuring that whoever it was would leave you a voicemail. 

In fairness, it’s been a long time since you and Tony talked to each other, muchless on the phone. If you remember correctly, the last conversation you had with him happened right before you left the Avengers. Since then, there hasn’t really been a need to keep up-to-date with him.

All of his life updates are posted on social media, anyway. The only thing you’re obligated to do each year is send his daughter presents when the holidays come around. After all, it’s the least you can do after he saved your life and set you straight.

Sure enough, Tony’s face lights up your screen, a sigh escapes you. You pull the phone into your hand, swiping across the glass to accept the call. You press it to your ear, “Hello?”

“Do you ever answer your phone?” Tony’s voice comes through. “I mean, seriously, it took me three tries for you to pick up? What if I were dying?”

You roll your eyes, letting out a light laugh. “I would hope you’d call Pepper before me, considering we haven’t spoken to each other in almost three years.”

“Has it really been that long?”

“Yes, Tony. Is everything okay?” You ask, walking back to the kitchen.

“I’m fine, (Y/n). Listen, something’s happened.”

You put the call on speaker, setting your phone next to the sink so you can resume doing the dishes. “Good or bad?”

“Both.” He answers. You pull a plate out of the soapy water, scrubbing at it with a sponge. “You remember that fight between me and Cap, right? The one in Germany? There was the guy who could go from big to small?”

You hum, “Scott Lang?”

The sound of him snapping fills the air. “Yes, that guy. Well, he, Natasha and Cap showed up at my house the other day.”

He pauses, not going on any further. You wonder if there’s a point to this story, or if he’s just calling to tell you it’s weird that Scott flew from Los Angeles all the way to New York. Which you guess it is, considering…

Your hands freeze on the plate, eyebrows drawing in. “That’s not possible, Scott Lang was killed in the blip.”

“Yeah, I thought so too, but he’s here. They came over talking about quantum jumping, and how he got stuck in the middle of it when Thanos snapped his fingers. Five years felt like five hours to him.”

“And he’s alive?” You ask.

“Yes.” He sighs into the phone. “You know I wouldn’t be calling you if I thought I was just getting your hopes up.”

This is true. When you were parting ways with the Avengers, you and Tony had a long discussion about the future, and where both of you stood on the matter. You told him that you wanted to retire your suit for good. With there being so many heroes in New York again, there wasn’t a reason for all of you to be active anymore.

This set up the idea that this could be the last time you came face to face with them, because it was partially your plan. You can’t be sucked in if you refuse to be involved. He respected your wishes on this, and told you that if anything were to happen to you, he’d be there in a second if you needed him to be.

And before you left, you came to an agreement; if there was a way that either of you could turn back time and fix everything in a reasonable way, you’d be there, no questions asked.

“Okay…” You prompt him.

“(Y/n), I figured it out.” He tells you. “I figured out how to time travel. It’s taken me…” You can picture him shaking his head. “But I think we can go back and fix this. I think we can bring them back.”

You set the clean plate off to the side, placing the sponge back where it belongs in the ceramic dish. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

You lean over the sink, nodding slowly. “What did they say about it?”

“I haven’t told them yet. I thought you should be the first to know, that’s the deal we made, right?”

“Right.” You agree. “How soon are we doing this?”

“Today.” He says. “I’ll pick you up. We’ll sort it out with them when we get to the Avengers Facility.’

Your eyes land on the gold ring that’s currently sitting on the window sill. “I’ll be ready.” You murmur. “Tony?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

—

“I remember why I stopped letting you drive me around.” You say, watching as the Facility grows closer. “Cause you’ve got a lead foot.”

“Shut up.” Tony tells you, taking a turn. “We’re almost there.”

“Try not to send us through the windshield before then.” You mutter, being thrown into the door, tires squealing against the asphalt.

As you near the front, you can see that Steve is standing outside of it, hands on his hips. Tony pulls up right before him, putting the car in park when it’s come to a complete stop. He rolls the window down, lazily moving his head to look at Steve.

“Why the long face?” He asks after a moment of silence. “Let me guess, he turned into a baby.”

Steve nods, looking away. “Among other things, yeah. What are you two doing here?”

You throw the car door open to get out before he can start driving again. 

“It’s the EPR Paradox.” Tony gets out, too. “Instead of pushing Lang through time, you might’ve wound up pushing time through Lang. It’s tricky, dangerous. Somebody could have cautioned you against it.”

You shut the door, walking around the car to join them. 

“You did.” Steve says.

“Oh, did I?” Tony mocks being shocked. “Well, thank god I’m here. Regardless, I fixed it.” He holds up his hand, which has the time traveling cuff—or whatever it is, you stopped trying to understand it after he explained it the second time. “A fully functioning time-space GPS.”

Steve smiles.

“I just want peace.” Tony holds up two fingers. “Turns out resentment is corrosive, and I hate it.”

“Me, too.” Steve says, looking at you. “What are you doing?”

“I’m here to help, obviously.” You give him a bright smile. “I can be useful, sometimes.”

“We got one shot at getting these stones, but I gotta tell you my priorities.” Tony says. “Bring back what we lost, I hope, yes. Keep what I found, I have to, at all costs. And maybe not die trying, would be nice.”

Steve nods again, holding out his hand. “Sounds like a deal.”

Tony takes it, they shake on it. You let out air through your nose, shaking your head as you wander away, staying close to watch Tony open the trunk of the car. He pulls out Steve’s shield, dumping the blanket and stuffed animal back into the car. 

“Tony, I don’t know.” Steve mutters.

“Why? He made it for you.” He flips it around. “Plus, honestly, I have to get it out of the garage before Morgan takes it sledding.”

Steve takes it, holding it across his arm. “Thank you, Tony.”

“Will you keep that a little quiet? Didn’t bring one for the whole team.” He pulls out a red case, reaching up with his other hand to press the button that closes the trunk for him. “We are getting the whole team, yeah?”

“We’re working on that right now.” Steve says. 

“Cool.” You turn around to walk to the doors. “Until we have everyone here, I will be sitting on my ass and doing exactly nothing.”

“Not very different from what you usually do, right?” Tony asks behind you.

You give him a sarcastic smile.

—

“Okay, so the how works.” Steve begins. “Now we gotta figure out the when and the where.”

There’s a set of three screens he’s standing by, each one showing two stones. It’s sorted into detail by what they look like, what they can be contained in, what building they were originally found in, and who might have them in their possession. 

Your eyes are set on the most obvious one, the Time Stone. You and the others already pretty much agreed that you’ll be going after it. You know the most about it, after spending years of being around Stephen.

“Almost everyone in this room has had an encounter with at least one of the six Infinity Stones.”

“Or substitute the word ‘encounter’ for ‘damn near been killed’ by one of the six Infinity Stones.” Tony says, standing on the other side. There’s a coffee cup in one of his hands. 

“Well, I haven’t, but I don’t even know what the hell you’re all talking about.” Scott says.

“Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round-trip each.” Bruce tells you, walking around the back of Scott’s chair. “And these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history.”

“Our history.” Tony emphasizes. “So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in, yeah?”

“Which means we have to pick our targets.” Clint’s got his eyes on the ground. 

“Correct.”

“So, let’s start with the Aether.” Steve says, eyes set on a specific target. “Thor, what do you know?” 

Thor, who has since gained weight, forgotten how to shower, and grown a beard, sits in the corner of the room, slouched as deeply as possible in the chair. There’s a beer in one of his hands, the other rests on his stomach. The pair of sunglasses on his face prohibits you from seeing where his eyes are.

Everyone turns to look at him, waiting.

“Is he asleep?” Natasha asks.

“No, no. I”m pretty sure he’s dead.” Rhodes says.

Tony lets out a sigh, shaking his head. He slaps a hand on his shoulder, which jumpstarts Thor. “Rise and shine, buddy. What do you know about the Aether?”

Thor groans, “I was just about to get up.”

“Right.” 

He gets to his feet, wanting to the front. “Uh, where to start?” He pulls off the sunglasses, holding them in his hand. “Um… The Aether, firstly, is not a stone. Someone called it a stone before.” He points at Steve briefly. “Um, it’s more of an angry sludge sort of a thing… so someone’s gonna need to amend that and stop saying that.” He tilts his head back to squirt eye drops into his eyes.

Your mouth falls open slightly, watching him do this. Is this what you looked like to everyone else when you freaked out that first year? Of course, you were the opposite of whatever Thor is representing, but still. His coping mechanisms are a hell of a lot worse than yours were… you think.

Clint comes beside you, pulling a chair out to sit down.

“Here’s an interesting story, though, about the Aether. My grandfather, many years ago, had to hide the stone from the Dark Elves.” He makes a ghostly sound, laughing in the middle. “Scary beings. So, Jane, actually—” The middle screen changes to show her face. “Oh, there she is. Yeah, so Jane was a—was an old flame of mine.”

You rub your face, letting out a sigh while you tilt your head back to look at the ceiling. These past few days already have been long, while you waited for them to design the time traveling suits, build the platform, and send Clint into the future as a test run. You can’t imagine what today and tomorrow are going to be like, if this is how it’s starting.

“You know, she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time and then the Aether stuck itself inside her and she became very, very sick. And so I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I’m from and we had to try and fix her.” Thor continues.

You swivel in your chair, facing Natasha. She raises her eyebrows, and you grab her notepad, dragging it in front of you. Clint offers up a pen on the other side, you take it, writing down that Jane Foster has the Aether in Asgard. 

“We were dating at the time, you see and I got to introduce her to my mother,” He’s waving around the sunglasses. “Who’s dead and, um… Oh, you know, Jane and I aren’t even dating anymore, so.” He sniffs. “Yes, these things happen, though. You know? Nothing lasts forever. The only thing that—”

Tony goes up to Thor, grabbing him. “Why don’t you come sit down?”

“I’m not done yet.” He pushes Tony away. “The only thing that is permanent in life is impermanence.”

Tony claps twice. “Awesome. Eggs? Breakfast?”

“No. I’d like a Bloody Mary.” Thor smiles.

You take in a deep breath, “Can I get one, too, then?”

Tony looks at you, “Don’t encourage this.”

“Just something to get me through the rest of the day.” You reason, a teasing smile hinting at your lips.

He squints at you, directing Thor to sit back down in one of the chairs. “Let’s take a break, we’ll regroup at dinner.”

The group breaks apart, eager to get out of this room and away from Thor. You stay where you’re seated, and Tony doesn’t move, either. Thor seems disinterested, turning the can of beer on the table. Once the door has shut, you can’t contain your laughter.

They look at you, waiting for you to let them in on what you find so funny. You wave your hand, turning around in the chair to bury your face in your hands. You forget just how ridiculous this team can be at times. It’s more than just crime fighting, it’s camaraderie. 

“Okay,” You breathe, facing them again. “Thor, can you give me a year where Jane was in Asgard when she was infected with the Aether?”

“Oh, sure.” Thor says, he’s composed himself. “It was twenty-thirteen. It won’t mean anything unless it’s in the Stone form, though.”

You hum, flipping the page over, writing down everyone that is planning to help. Next to Thor’s name, you put ‘R’ for the Reality Stone, making him in charge of that. He’ll need someone to go with him, of course, because he’s in no state to have this big of a responsibility, but you’ll figure that out later on. The point is that Asgard was his home, he’ll know how to navigate it.

Beside your name, you write ‘T’ for the time stone. No matter what the others say, you won’t let them take this one from you. If they want to help you, you’ll drag someone along. As far as you’re concerned, this will be under control.

“What are you doing?” Tony asks, coming around the table.

“Sorting this out.” You murmur, flipping back to the original page. You begin to write what you know about the Time Stone, which is more than what Thor could give you about the Reality. “Those who know the most about the stones should be in charge of them, I figured you don’t really think otherwise.”

You look at him, he makes a face, nodding to agree with you. 

“What are you thinking about for dinner? Takeout will be on me.” Tony says, crossing his arms.

“Burgers.” Thor says, “A nice juicy burger.”

You make a face, “I’ve been craving Chinese lately.”

A few hours later, after everyone has finished what they were doing with the suits or the portal, you find yourself back in the room. Your suggestion on Chinese food was fairly popular with the others, so Tony took the order and had the food delivered to the Facility.

“All right, Ratchet, go for it.” Tony motions once everyone is settled in their seats.

“Rocket.” He corrects, giving him a look. “Quill said he stole the Power Stone from Morag.” The screen lights up purple, you set your fork down to write what he says into the notepad.

“Is that a person?” Bruce asks, smacking on his ice cream.

“No, Morag’s a planet.” Rocket says, standing on the table. “Quill was a person.”

“Like a planet? Like in outer space?” Scott asks from the other end of the table.

“Oh, look.” Rocket places his hand on Scott’s head, beginning to give him a head rub. “It’s like a little puppy, all happy and everything. Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy?” Scott pulls his head away, unamused. “I’ll take you to space.”

“Have you been to Morag?” You ask, looking up from the paper. “You or Nebula?”

“No.” Rocket says, turning around to face you.

“I haven’t, either.” She shakes her head. “I believe it’s kept in a temple.”

You blow a piece of hair out of your face. “Okay…”

You flip the page, finding her name on the list, writing ‘P’. You chew on the inside of your lip, thinking. When you look at Tony, you find his eyes on you. 

“What’s the problem?”

“We’re going to have to go in pairs, anyway, right?” You ask, “What if…”

You write ‘R’ next to Rocket, knowing that he and Thor have worked together in the past, during the first fight with Thanos. They went together to Nidavellir, where Thor got Stormbreaker. They clearly get along fine. As for Nebula, lately she’s been working with Rhodes. That’s why you decide to pair them together.

Tony tilts his head, “I don’t see why not.”

It’s the following day when you finally get time to talk about the Stones again, since the conversation on Morag was thrown out the window when technicalities came into play. The group of you called it a night when Thor started talking about Jane again.

“Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir.” Nebula murmurs from the front. 

“What is Vormir?” Natasha asks, holding the notepad. She’s been up all night writing notes, building off of what you’ve already got in there. When she offered to take it from you, you didn’t argue. 

“A dominion of death at the very center of celestial existence.” She says, voice lowering. “It’s where Thanos murdered my sister.”

There’s a moment of silence between the few of you. Not everyone could make it to this time around. Tony opted out because he decided off the bat that he didn’t want to be involved with anything other than the Space Stone—the tesseract—because he believes that’ll be an easy grab, too.

Steve sighs.

“Not it.” Scott mutters.

This causes several people to look at him.

The meeting room is trashed two days later, there’s papers scattered across the room, as well as folders. There’s books opened to certain pages, laying open on the floor to be easily picked up and resumed when needed. Tony and Natasha lay on the table, with Bruce being on the floor, considering he’s permanently part-Hulk now.

You sit in the recliner in the corner, reading through all the notes you’ve gathered thus far, trying to put together a fairly decent timeline. 

“That Time Stone guy.” Natasha finally breaks the silence.

“Doctor Strange.” Bruce says, you look up from your notes, clicking the pen.

“Stephen Strange.” You murmur.

“Yeah, what kind of doctor was he?” She asks.

“Ear-nose-throat meets rabbit-from-hat.” Tony says, he’s turned on his side, rubbing his face.

“He was a neurosurgeon, that’s why he likes being called Doctor.” You tell her. “He worked at the Metro-General hospital.”

“Nice place in the Village, though.” Bruce says.

“Yeah, on Sullivan Street?” Tony says back.

Bruce hums. “No…”

“Bleecker Street.” You correct.

“Wait, he lived in New York?” Natasha asks, no longer spinning the pen in her hand.

“Yeah—”

“No, he lived in Toronto.” Tony says.

“Uh, yeah, on Bleecker and Sullivan.” Bruce says.

“Have you been listening to anything?” Tony asks Natasha.

She holds her hand up. “Guys, if you pick the right year, there are three stones in New York.”

Bruce sits up, “Shut the front door.”

You nod, forcing the recliner back to its original position. “Space, Mind and Time, huh?”

“Yeah.” She says. “All we need to do is figure out who’s getting which one.”

An emergency team meeting is called. The four of you move to a different room to be in, because the last one is trashed. The others begin to trickle in steadily, all asking questions on what happened.

It isn’t until the last person comes inside, do you begin. “Everyone, this has gotten a whole lot easier.”

Tony nods, walking up to the projection. At the top, it’s titled ‘Time Heist’, courtesy of Scott, who’s attached to the idea of it. The sections below are broken into three. The first one being New York, which has Time, Space and Mind. The second one is Asgard, which obviously holds the Reality Stone. The third one is Morag / Vormir, for the Power and Soul Stones.

“We have divided the teams.” Tony says. “For team Asgard, we have Thor and Rocket,  Morag will be Nebula and Rhodes, and Vormir is Natasha and Clint. As for New York, it will be the rest of us.” He turns around to face you. “(Y/n) has volunteered to grab the Time Stone, Bruce will go with her. Which leaves Scott, Steve and I to get the Space and Mind Stone, because it’ll be in the same buildings at the same time.”

“All right. We have a plan.” Steve says, crossing the room to stand in front of the projection. “Six stones, three teams, one shot.”

You stand up, walking to stand next to Steve. You grab his shoulder, making him turn to you. “Now we can get this son of a bitch.”

—

“Five years ago, we lost. All of us.” Steve begins. “We lost friends. We lost family. We lost a part of ourselves. Today, we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams. You know your missions. Get the stones. Get them back. One round-trip each. No mistakes, no do-overs. Most os uf are going somewhere we know. That doesn’t mean we should know what to expect. 

“Be careful.” He says. “Look out for each other. This is the fight of our lives, and we’re gonna win. Whatever it takes. Good luck.” He backs off.

“He’s pretty good at that.” Rocket says.

“Right?” Scott looks at him.

“All right. You heard the man. Stroke those keys, Jolly Green.” Tony tells Bruce. 

“Trackers engaged.”

Clint holds out his hand, looking at the Milano—Rocket’s spaceship—which has been shrunk to make for easier transportation.

“You promise to bring that back in one piece, right?” Rocket asks.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Clint dismisses him. “Okay, I’ll do my best.”

“As promises go, that was pretty lame.” Rocket crosses his arms.

“It’s Clint, everything about him is lame.” You say, and when Clint looks at you, you give him our sweetest smile. “Isn’t that right?”

“Be quiet.” He tells you.

Bruce comes up the stairs to the platform, stopping to stand right next to you. He slaps his wrist, causing the platform to begin beeping. You take in a deep breath, tilting your head from side to side.

“See ya in a minute.” Natasha smiles.

The helmet comes over your face, you look down, finding that the ground has opened up, sucking you inside. You travel through… you’re not entirely sure how to describe it. At first, it’s a bright tunnel of color that quickly submerges you in blue, traveling through a molecule and into a white light.

You land on your feet in an alleyway, the street in front of you is covered in debris and overturned cars. The time traveling suit disappears, leaving you in a pair of relatively normal clothes for this time. The sound of screaming, sirens and the alien beings moving around and shooting is slightly overwhelming for a couple seconds.

Steve marches forward. “All right, we all have our assignments. Two stones uptown, one stone down.” He must decide the coast is clear, turning around to come back your way. “Stay low. Keep an eye on the clock.”

Hulk roars, you look around Steve to watch as he lifts a car, smashing it into the alien, clearly killing him. Another one comes to save his comrade, but turns around and runs at the sight of past Hulk plucking a tire off the car and throwing it at a streetlight. Unsatisfied with his original smash, he jumps on the dismembered car a couple times, before stomping away.

Bruce covers his face, embarrassed.

“Maybe smash a few things along the way.” Steve suggests.

“I think it’s gratuitous, but whatever.” Bruce says, ripping off his tank top, walking to the street. 

You shake your head at him, rolling your eyes. You begin to walk away, backwards. “This shouldn’t take long. Are you sure you don’t want my help with the other two stones?”

“We’ve got it covered, (Y/n).” Steve gives you a hard nod. 

“If you say so.” You tilt your head, before following after Bruce, who’s lazily punching cars.

You walk behind him, amused at the way he tries to mimic how he was in the past. He was incredibly, unnecessarily destructive, wasn’t he? You can’t imagine the amount of things he tore apart or broke solely because he could.

“I think we’ll travel faster if we take the roofs.” He finally says, stopping.

“Why do you think that?” You ask, catching up with him. 

He opens his mouth, letting out a sigh. “I don’t want to do this the entire way.”

“Well, unfortunately, you don’t have a baby carrier on you, so you don’t really have an option.” You shrug, “Just enjoy the walk.”

“I can’t.”

“Then don’t break shit, I don’t care.” You laugh, “It’s only a few minutes from here.”

He looks disappointed at your indifference, but he admits that you’re right. Bleecker Street and Sullivan isn’t that far when he’s listening to your directions on the quickest shortcuts. However, you have a problem when the front door to the Sanctum doesn’t open.

Your mouth pops open, tongue clicking. You place your hands on your hips, tilting your head back to see the roof of the building. Your face smooths over when you see orange magic shoot at an alien, causing it to explode.

“Get us up there.” You tell Bruce, it’s a command.

“Sure.” He says.

You allow him to pick you up, setting you on his shoulder. You struggle to balance while he scales the building, but it’s worth it the second you reach the top. He starts for the door that’ll lead you inside of the Sanctum, you don’t move from where you stand, eyes on the lady standing feet away.

A sinking feeling of disappointment hits.

“I’d be careful going that way. We just had the floors waxed.” She tells Bruce before he can open the door.

She’s British, she has an accent, and she’s bald. The robes she’s wearing is a shade of mustard yellow. And she has the Eye of Agamotto around her neck, the same thing that Stephen had in his possession. The Time Stone is right here.

The longer you stare at her, the more you believe you’ve seen her before, or at least heard of her. You go down the three steps, going to join her. You refuse to take your eyes off of her.

“Yeah, I’m looking for Doctor Strange.” Bruce says.

The lady lifts her head slightly. “You’re about five years too early.” She steps away, toward the edge of the roof. “Stephen Strange is currently performing surgery—” she lifts her hand to motion, “about twenty blocks that way.” She stops walking. “What do you want from him?”

“The Time Stone.” You tell her. 

“Ah!” She looks down at the Eye. “I’m afraid not.”

“Sorry, but I wasn’t asking.” Bruce says, stepping over the metal bar to walk toward her.

“You don’t want to do this.” She warns him.

“Bruce, I think we should listen to her.” You tell him.

“Ah, you’re right, I don’t. But I need that stone and I don’t have time to debate it.” He says, hand reaching to grab it.

She slams the heel of her hand into his chest, Bruce falls to the ground, unconscious. You stare with an open mouth for a brief second, and then you snap it shut, looking at her.

Her eyes are already on you, head tilted. “Are you going to take it by force, too?”

“No.”

She smiles. “Let’s start over, shall we?”

It hits you after this, you squint at her. “You’re the one that Stephen and Wong talked about all the time. What is it—?” You wonder aloud, eyes drifting as you think. “Ancient One, isn’t that what they called you?” When you look at her again, she’s got her eyebrows raised. “You’re the Sorcerer Supreme.”

“You’re wise.” She says. “What’s your name?”

“(Y/n).” You tell her, she begins to think about it. “I’m not a student of yours, I’m just dating one. We need the Time Stone, it’s urgent.”

“For what, exactly?”

“We need it so we can bring back half of the population of every living being.” The words are grave, her facial expression changes. “We’re from eleven years in the future. And this is the only solution we have left. We have teams gathering the other five Infinity Stones, and when we bring them together in our time, we’ll be able to fix the damage that was done.”

“You want me to hand it over?” She asks you. “No.”

She begins to walk away, heading for the door. You follow after her. “Please, you don’t understand.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t help you, (Y/n).” Her pace doesn’t slow. “If I give up the Time Stone to help your reality, I’m dooming my own.”

“With all due respect, all right…” Bruce’s voice echoes, you turn to look behind you, finding him in his original body, not the half-Hulk, half-Bruce one. Except, he’s see-through, a phantom, a ghost. He joins you two up the stairs, jogging in front of her to make her stop. “I’m not sure the science really supports that.”

With him standing between her and the door, she humors you. She reaches forward, yanking out an orange line right in the middle of them. It stretches far between the blocks of New York on both sides. 

“The Infinity Stones create what you experience as the flow of time.” The stones create a ring around the orange. She reaches forward to flick the Time Stone. “Remove one of the stones and that flow splits.” You watch as a black line branches off from where the ring of stones is, creating its own path through the air. “Now, this may benefit your reality but my new one, not so much.

“In this new branch reality without our chief weapon against the forces of darkness our world would be overrun. Millions will suffer. So, tell me, Doctor. Can your science prevent all that?” 

Bruce is rubbing his hands together, “No, but we can erase it. Because once we’re done with the stones we can return each one to its own timeline at the moment it was taken. So, chronologically—” he pulls the Time Stone out of the air, placing it back in the ring, remedifying the split timeline. “In that reality, it never left.”

She turns around, walking away. “Yes, but you’re leaving out the most important part.” She stops at the end of the roof. “In order to return the stones, you have to survive.”

“We will.” You tell her. “I promise.”

“I can’t risk this reality on a promise. It’s the duty of the Sorcerer Supreme to protect the Time Stone.”

“I know.” You murmur. “But Stephen had no choice but to give it to Thanos.” 

She stares at you, “What did you say?”

“Stephen gave the stone to Thanos.”

“Willingly?” She asks.

“Yes.” Bruce says behind you.

“Why?” 

“We lost the battle so that we could win the war.” You tell her. “It’s what had to be done.”

“I see.” She murmurs after a long moment of silence. She reaches over Bruce’s shoulder, summoning his body. 

Bruce returns, back to being giant and green. You watch as she bends her fingers, moving her hands apart, unlocking the Eye. Inside sits the stone, she pulls it out, you cup your hand.

She doesn’t drop it quite yet. “Strange is meant to be the best of us.”

“He is.” You assure her. “He handed it over for a reason.”

“I fear you might be right.” She places the stone in your hand.

You’ve only held it one time before, when Stephen had to fix the Eye of Agamotto. It’s meant to be unbreakable with his spells, but there’s always an exception. He saw how much it bothered you, seeing the Time Stone out of place, and elected you to hold it while he repaired the Eye. 

When you told him you were afraid you’d break it, he said that provides more comfort to him, because it means that you’ll be careful with it.

“Thank you.” Bruce says.

She steps forward, hands over yours. “I’m counting on you, (Y/n). We all are.”

“I’ll bring it back.” You tell her. 

She lets you and Bruce go through the Sanctum to get to the street, not wanting you to crawl back down the building. As soon as you’ve stepped foot back on the sidewalk, you pass the Time Stone over to Bruce, “Here, you take it back.”

His face twists. “We’re going back together. Don’t you want to hold onto it?”

You shake your head. “No, there’s someone I have to see first.”

“You can’t, (Y/n), if you see Stephen, you’ll ruin the timeline.”

“That’s not who I’m going to.” You wave him off. “I won’t talk to her. It’ll be a few minutes.”

He nods, holding out his arm to type in the present day’s date. You watch as he warps into the air, disappearing. You begin to walk away, reaching up to touch your earpiece, “This is (Y/n) to Tony, Bruce has taken the stone back. How are we looking for the other two?”

Tony sighs in your ear. “There’s been an issue, Loki took the Tesseract and disappeared.”

Your feet pause, but quickly go back to walking, because you don’t have much time to be out here. “Okay, what’s the plan? You don’t have enough particles.”

“Cap and I are going back further in time, we’ll be able to get particles and the stone in the same place. We’re sending Scott back to the present. What are you doing?”

“I’m gonna visit someone. You two be careful.”

“We will.” Steve’s voice comes over. “Remember the plan, don’t interact with anyone.”

“I know.” You tell him.

It isn’t that hard for you to find young (Y/n), mostly because of the shredded asphalt and the decomposing bodies that lay on top of it. You follow this careless path, and divert from it to go through an alleyway, where it leads you right to where she is, standing a few feet away.

There’s a smile on her face, that dissolves into concentration, as she gets on the ground, hunching over to pull more of the dead out of the Earth. You remember this, it’s moments after Tony found you and told you to draw in as many of the Chitauri as you possibly could—as long as you could handle it.

You were so young back then, you had absolutely no idea what you were doing. Or that this would eventually lead you to becoming a hero, yourself. That day, you took a leap of faith, and it completely changed the trajectory of your life.

If you hadn’t done this, who knows where you’d be right now. If life would have treated you any differently. If you still would’ve joined the Avengers, just a few years later down the line. Or if you’d ever even get to meet Stephen.

It doesn’t matter, because you don’t think you’d ever tell your past self to change her mind. 

“You’ve got this.” You say to her, eyes flickering between the time system and her, where she’s fighting. “Just keep pushing, you’re on the right path.”

As you type the date in, you watch as she looks up from the ground, eyes landing on you. You submit the time, and just before you leave, you hold a hand up to wave at her. 

You’re sucked through the warp, as you travel backwards through the tunnel you took to get here. And despite leaving at different times, it joins you with the rest of your group. You arrive at the Avengers Facility at the same time.

The helmet falls back at the same time it does for everyone else, the suit following directly after.

“Did we get ‘em all?” Bruce asks.

Rhodes laughs. “Are you telling me this actually worked?”

Clint falls to his knees, staring off in front of him. You know this look, something’s happened. Your eyes try to switch to Natasha, hoping that she’ll offer an explanation, but she’s absent.

“Oh, Clint.” You murmur.

“Clint, where’s Nat?” Bruce asks.

Clint’s eyes are watery, his lips turning further down. There’s a long moment of silence between all of you, as the news settles in. You were warned by Nebula that the way Thanos got the stone was through losing his daughter. You were all hoping that she was being difficult and her actions got her killed, not… this.

Bruce falls to his knees, slamming his fist into the platform.

You sigh, shaking your head. “Shit.”

—

“All right, the glove’s ready.” Rocket says, adjusting the fingers. “Question is, who’s gonna snap their freakin’ fingers?”

“I’ll do it.” Thor says, coming over.

“Excuse me?” Tony asks, turning around.

“It’s okay.” He steps closer to the glove.

“Stop, stop.” Tony reaches to grab Thor at the same time Steve does. “Slow down.”

“Thor. Just wait.” Steve tells him. “We haven’t decided who’s gonna put that on yet.”

“I’m sorry. WHat, we’re all just sitting around waiting for the right opportunity?”

“We should at least discuss it.” Scott says.

“Look, sitting here staring at the thing is not gonna bring everybody back.” He brings his fingers to his thumbs on both hands. “I’m the strongest Avenger, okay? So, this responsibility falls upon me. It’s my duty.”

“Normally, you’re right.” Tony steps in front of him. “It’s not about that.”

“It’s not that.” He shushes him. “Stop it! Just let me. Just let me do it.” He whispers. “JUst let me do something good. Something right.”

“Look, it’s not just the fact that that glove is channeling enough energy to light up a continent. I’m telling you. You’re in no condition.” Tony tells him.

“What do you think is coursing through my veins right now?” His hands are on Tony’s shoulders.

“Cheez Whiz?” Rhodes suggests, you snort.

Thor is unamused, holding out a finger to quiet him. “Lightning.”

“Yeah.”

“Lightning.” Thor repeats.

“LIghtning won’t help you, pal.” Bruce says, finally going forward. “It’s gotta be me.” Thor looks at the ground, Tony moves away. “You saw what those stones did to Thanos. They almost killed him. None of you could survive.” He stops in front of the glove.

“How do we know you will?” Steve asks.

“We don’t. But the radiation’s mostly gamma. It’s like… uh, I was made for this.”

“If this is what you want.” You say, backing away.

Bruce nods, reaching into the case to pull out the glove. 

“Good to go, yeah?” Tony asks.

“Let’s do it.”

“Okay, remember, everyone Thanos snapped away five years ago, you’re just bringing them back to now, today. Don’t change anything from the last five years.” Tony says.

“Got it.”

Your suit comes to cover your body, preparing for the worst. You shuffle behind Tony and Clint, where Tony brings up a shield as another form of protection. 

“Friday, do me a favor and activate Barn Door Protocol, will ya?”

You watch as the skylight slowly covers with metal, as well as all exits, including doors and windows. That way, if anything goes wrong, the only people that’ll be affected are those who are standing in this room.

“Everybody comes home.” Bruce mutters, slowly pulling the glove on. The machinery adjusts to fit his hand, rather than Tony’s. When it secures, it sends a visible shock up his arm, all six Infinity Stones begin to glow.

Bruce drops to his knee, groaning, veins popping out of his forehead. He grabs the glove with his free hand, watching as it transforms. 

“Take it off. Take it off!” Thor shouts.

“No, wait.” Steve holds out his hand. “Bruce, are you okay?”

Bruce throws his head back, the fabric on his arm begins to burn up, the colors of the stones are beneath his skin, traveling up the underside of his jaw. He’s in pain.

“Talk to me, Banner.” Tony says.

“I’m okay.” He breathes, as the stones begin to settle. “I’m okay.” He pants heavily, slowly lifting his hand. His green skin is now charred, black, glowing red underneath. Like bubbling lava.

He screams, preparing his fingers, and then snaps.

The glove falls off in an instant, Bruce unconscious on the floor, arm is sizzling.

“Bruce!” Steve crouches down next to him.

Clint kicks the glove away, Tony joins Steve. “Don’t move him.” The healing solution comes from his fingers, coating Bruce’s arm in white. 

“Did it work?” Bruce asks, grabbing Steve’s arm.

“We’re not sure.” Thor says. “It—it’s okay.”

The metal sheets begin to lift, doors opening, allowing you to leave. Scott wanders away, and so does Clint a second later.

“Can you feel anything, (Y/n)?” Steve asks, looking at you.

You suck in a breath, closing your eyes, concentrating hard. You discovered a couple years ago that there wasn’t a need for the dramatics if you actually put some of your own energy in to pull some out. You sacrifice a little of yourself, digging deep, feeling around for the same heavy weight that there’s been for years.

“I don’t…” You murmur, head turning to the side, eyebrows drawing in. “I can’t say for sure.” You open your eyes. “It might be the building, it works better when I’m outside. I could go out—”

“Don’t bother.” Clint murmurs, picking up his vibrating phone, pressing it to his ear. “Honey.”

“Guys…” Scott breathes. “I think it worked.”

A smile breaks through when you make eye contact with Tony, finding your happiness mirrored onto him. 

You did it.

You touch the ring on your thumb.

A blast of hot air throws you across the room, slamming you into the cement wall, head cracking against it. An explosion shakes the ground. A wave of dizziness hits you as you reach to touch the spot on your forehead, fingers coated in blood.

One second, you’re staring at your friends, and the next, the building is collapsing. The ground gives way beneath you, a scream leaves your mouth as you begin to slide, knowing full well that the Facility goes hundreds of feet underground.

The suit comes to cover your body as your fingers slip from the cement. Your stomach flies to your throat, lodging itself there as you begin to fall with the chunks of rock and debris.

Another rocket hits nearby, as your body is engulfed in fire. 

When you wake, a sharp stabbing feeling flies through your abdomen. You reach to grab it, hands coming in contact with a steel rod. It’s wet, but not from your blood. The water from the plumbing system and the lake nearby rain down on you, causing sparks from severed electric wires to zap.

“(Y/n)?” You hear Bruce ask. “Are you with us?”

You struggle to breathe, hearing every breath enter and leave your mouth. You squeeze your eyes shut, head resting back. “I’m stuck.”

“I know, we’ll get Rhodey and Rocket over there to help you.” He says.

“No, Bruce.” You gasp, wincing. “I’ve been impaled.”

The sound of rushing water fills the air. You lift your head, eyes searching from the direction it’s coming from. It sweeps through the rubble, beginning to fill the hole you’re in.

“Guys!” The panic in your voice alerts Rhodes, “Help!”

Rocket gets to his feet, coming in your direction. “Oh, no.”

“Mayday, Mayday! Does anybody copy? We’re on the lower level. It’s flooding!” Rhodes says into the earpiece. “We are drowning! Does anybody copy? Mayday!”

“I don’t think we can get you out of this one.” Rocket says once he sees you. “Bruce, any chance you can come over here?”

“Not really.” He grunts.

You take careful breaths, trying to relax. “If I don’t get out of here, I’m going to drown.”

Rocket shakes his head, hands up. “I don’t know what you want me to do.”

“You don’t have any tools?” You ask, “To cut the bar in half?” He doesn’t respond, you close your eyes. “Fuck.”

“It’s filling up fast!” Rhodes shouts.

“Move back.” You tell him, he listens.

You grip onto the steel bar, “Come to me.” You murmur, the ground begins to shake under you, causing the pain to heighten. You grit your teeth, wanting to stop. “Come here.” You order.

The ground splits somewhere, the cement you’re laying on dips to the side, making you move. You resist the urge to throw your head back, trying to avoid a concussion.

“Oh, what the—” Rocket lets out, “What is that?”

Through half-open lids, you watch as a few of the dead come to crawl out of the rubble. They get to their feet, and without any other word, come to rescue you from where you are. The issue is that they aren’t so gentle, when they grab you by your shoulders and hips, pulling you free. 

The insides of your body burns, as you bite back a scream. They drop you on your feet, and with the weight all falling onto your wound, you stumble forward and onto your knees, hand wrapped around the area.

“If you could do that—have them take the rubble.” Rocket motions to Bruce. “So he can get us out of here.”

“They’ll crumble beneath the weight.” You tell him, the dead grab your elbows, forcing you to your feet. “They’re not good for much besides fighting.”

“You can’t tell them to find a way out and we follow them?” Rocket suggests.

“We can’t leave Bruce behind.” You shake your head. “And it’s not guaranteed that it’ll work. They can lead us to a dead-end. They aren’t all-knowing.”

The roof is beginning to fall, Bruce shuddering beneath it. The water is coming through faster, you shuffle to stand with Rhodes, Rocket climbs up as far as he can. You tilt your head back, water creeping up your chest. The dead that were with you are now floating on their backs, no longer alive.

“See you on the other side, man.” Rhodes says.

Rocket whimpers, not liking the idea of dying. You pant, tears in your eyes. You’re going to die before you’re able to see Stephen again. For the past five years, you’ve held onto the idea that it could be possible. And now he’s back, somewhere, but not here.

“(Y/n), stop.” Rhodes warns you.

You cry, the water reaching the back of your head. “Get me out of here!”

“You need to breathe, you can’t hyperventilate under the water.” He says, it’s flooding your ears.

“I know.” You gasp. “I know.”

You take a deep breath in right as the water covers your face. For the first few seconds, you think that it’s fine. And then you reach out, grabbing onto Rhodes’s arm, squeezing tightly. You feel his hand over yours, trying to provide comfort.

The burning in your lungs begins in the second minute, pressure tight in your skull, adding to the lightheadedness. You want to open your mouth and suck in, despite knowing that you’ll fill your lungs with water. It’ll be quicker than fighting this, right?

An object surrounds you, bumping you to the side. Your eyes open suddenly, struggling to see through the murky water on what’s moved you. For a second, you think that it’s Bruce, until you find him joining you. The water current from the other side brings the four of you closer together, as what you assume to be the roof closes in on you.

But then the ground comes up, uneven, and you’re lifted into the air, water running. You gasp, desperate for air, coughing out the water. You drop to your knees, pushing your hair out of your face.

“It’s Scott!” Rhodes shouts.

He must grow through the Facility, because all you can hear is the concrete breaking to pieces around you. He opens his hand when it’s safe, the others jumping off, while you carefully take your time, eyes adjusting to the situation in front of you.

Thanos is here. There’s a giant ship in the air off to the left, with the Chitauri and the Leviathan’s coming out of it. Just like they had eleven years ago when Loki came to New York. 

On the right side, is where you find several armies coming together to help. The army from Wakanda, led by T’Challa, the Asgardians, following Valkyrie and sorcerers, preparing behind Wong. And more, ones you don’t recognize, coming through the portals.

With one hand over your side, you hobble out to solid ground, eyes on Thanos. Your upper lip begins to twitch into a snarl, but it’s more for the laughter that catches in your throat.

When you come to a stop, you level your breathing as much as possible. You’ve brought back large armies in the past, but those will compare nothing to what you’re able to do.

The dark energy comes through your feet, snaking its way up your legs. You roll your shoulders back, feeling it wrap around your chest, alleviating the pain in your abdomen enough for you to remove your hand.

“Let’s play.” You smile, swirling your hand in the air. At first slowly, but growing faster, rock trembling, Earth reacting to what you’re demanding.

A hole appears, ground caving in on itself, creating a pit with no visible bottom. You shuffle to stand over it, peering inside. A cold gust of air blows your wet hair out of your face, goosebumps covering your arms.

“Come to me.” You demand, “All of you.”

There’s whispering, and sounds of hissing overlapping each other from deep below. They grow louder as they rise to the top. At the sight of the first undead climbing the walls, you back up to give them room. This is a trick you’ve been practicing for years, hoping you’d get the chance to use it here.

“Got anything for us, (Y/n)?” You hear in your earpiece, it’s Tony.

“They’re coming.” You tell him. “And mine will make the others seem like a joke.”

They crawl out, coming to their feet, walking forward. At first, a few at a time, not wanting to overwhelm the area, or anything. Then they begin to come in crowds, eager to get out of where they’ve been hiding this entire time. You walk away, watching as they come out of every direction they can.

As the numbers multiply and grow, Steve steps forward. “Avengers!” He holds out his hand, Mjolnir flying to it. “Assemble.”

Thor shouts first, the armies following as they rush forward. Yours, not quite yet, waiting for a command. The fun thing about the dead is that there’s so many of them, people will never stop dying. Which means that when you send the ones standing off, more will continue. A never-ending supply.

“Kill them!” You shout, pointing at Thanos’s army.

This is when they move at a steady pace, not feeling the need to run. You stay where you stand, supervising the hole to ensure that a great amount comes from it, before you point straight down the middle. 

“Come here, Arzorath.” The flow of dead stops to let this creature come out, five times the size of you, built like a monster. As soon as he’s out, the dead begin again. You grab his grey skin, looking up at him. “You stay here, and you make sure this doesn’t stop.”

He grunts, giving you a solid nod.

With that, you turn to walk into the fight, to the center, where Thanos is going to be. You should be afraid of walking through this crowd, but with the amount of undead that are spread throughout, they jump to protect you if any danger arises. 

There’s explosions, the sounds of weapons clashing against one another. You see several laser beams shoot through the air to hit their target. There’s billows of black smoke, indicating several fires.

“Cap!” You hear Clint’s voice in your ear. “What do you want me to do with this damn thing?”

Steve grunts. “Get those stones as far away as possible!”

“No!” Bruce shouts. “We need to get ‘em back where they came from.”

“I made a promise to the Sorcerer Supreme that I’d get it back. I intend on keeping it.” You tell them.

“No way to get ‘em back. Thanos destroyed the quantum tunnel.” Tony says.

“Hold on!” You watch as Scott disappears, likely shrunken back to his regular size. “That wasn’t our only time machine.”

The sound of a horn playing Spanish music makes you turn your head. 

“Anyone see an ugly brown van out there?” Steve asks.

“Yes! But you’re not gonna like where it’s parked!” Valkyrie shouts, she’s in the air, riding on a pegasus. 

“Scott, how long you need to get that thing working?” Tony asks.

“Uh, maybe ten minutes.”

“Get it started. We’ll get the stones to you.” Steve says.

“We’re on it, Cap.” Hope says—Scott’s partner.

“Do you need me to clear a path for you?” You ask, “Because it won’t be that hard.”

“No, I can fly him there.” Hope tells you.

You continue through the battle, coming upon a patch where there is no one. You climb a pile of rocks, surveying the area to find Thanos, fighting Wanda. She’s got him stuck in the air, squeezing him with her magic.

That’s when the first blue light hits the ground, causing a blast, killing a dozen of your dead. It’s not only one, though, as more following, firing straight into the crowd without any prior aim. Thanos doesn’t care who he hits, as long as he doesn’t lose this fight.

You watch as the sorcerers cast shields, holding them above their heads, working together to cover a small part of the field. You don’t move for shelter, holding your stance. You glance over your shoulder to find Arzorath, still guarding the hole as you instructed him to.

“Help, somebody help!” Peter shouts.

“Hey, Queens, heads up!” Steve says back. 

Mjolnir flies through the air, you can see it from where you are. You reach up, pressing the ear piece. “Anyone have eyes on Thanos?”

“He’s by the van!” Scott shouts back, “I need backup!”

You sigh out your nose, jumping down from the rocks, heading straight into the fight once again. “Arzorath!” You shout, looking over your shoulder. He raises his head. “More!”

He raises his arms, throwing them down as he grabs a chunk from the ground, ripping it out and throwing it into the crowd of Thanos’s troops. By widening the hole, it creates a bigger flow. In seconds, you see the difference, as they rush to follow you, and then past you to create a path.

The blasts from the sky become more frequent, like hail. At least half of the dead come to jump at you to protect you, bringing you to the ground. They hold you there, refusing to let you move, until it suddenly stops. 

In the silence that comes after, you’re pulled to your feet. When you walk, they do too. The ship above suddenly changes its target, firing into the clouds in the distance. 

“What the hell is this?” Sam asks.

It doesn’t matter, you’re able to make it halfway to the van by the time the object from the atmosphere finally makes an appearance, slamming directly through the spaceship, and coming out on the other side. It must destroy the inside, setting off explosions, as the blasters power down, and the ship begins to fall, heading for the lake.

The object in question is Carol, as she does a loop, and flies up through the bottom, coming out of the top. She lands somewhere in the field, presumably where the gauntlet must be, not too far away.

Your concern switches when Thanos’s army begins to run at you. For a moment, you think that it was a stupid choice to run out here this far. Then the sound of bones rattling, and the groaning begins behind you. You turn halfway, finding that your people have followed you all the way out here.

“Destroy them.” You say. With a layer of an undead shield in front of you, you continue forward, watching as Wanda flies past you, followed by some of the other girls. You throw your hand out, pointing their way. “They don’t get hurt!”

Valkyrie and Wanda work together to take down the two leviathans above, while you use Carol’s path of destruction as a way to get to the van faster. When the fire rises, smoke hovering like fog, you cover your mouth, refusing to slow down. But when you come out on the other side, you watch as Carol makes a dive for the van, only for Thanos’s weapon to hit the portal at the same time. 

This causes a blast, throwing the weightless dead back. You fight to stay on your feet, leaning into the wind. The gauntlet glove goes flying, landing a few feet away. Thanos runs at it, causing you to jerk forward, too. Tony runs right into him, throwing him to the ground.

Thor lands, Stormbreaker glowing bright blue as he swings at Thanos. When he spins around, intending for a hard hit, Thanos grabs the handle, stopping him. He raises his free hand, and Mjolnir flies to it, acting as a block. Thor’s eyes are bright white, using the power of lightning. Steve runs up behind Thanos, jumping on his back.

Thanos headbutts Thor, reaching back to grab a hold of Steve, and somersaulting forward. When he lands on top, he punches Steve across the face, knocking him unconscious. He crawls the few feet to the glove, getting it in his hands, before Carol kicks the back of his knee, hitting his jaw,

When Thanos fights back, she dodges. She makes the mistake of trying to grab the glove, leaving an opening for Thanos to grab her. He twists, chucking her into the rock and rubble. Once again, reaching to put the gauntlet on his hand, this time succeeding.

Your stomach flies at the sight of the power coursing through his arm, as he raises his hand to snap his fingers. He almost does, until Carol gets her hand between, dragging him down to her height, trying to pull it off. He tries to punch her, but her power creates a shield that he can’t penetrate. When she flies above him, now pushing his hand toward his face, he reaches up, pulling the Power Stone free, and transferring it to his other hand.

She can’t catch herself in time, as he shouts, punching her away. She disappears, leaving a trail of kicked up dirt. 

You find Tony, laying on his stomach, dirt and blood smeared across his skin. He’s not looking at you, but to a different part of the field. When you follow his gaze, you’re met with the sight of him. 

It’s Stephen, in the same condition that all of you seem to be, too caught up in trying to hold the lake water at bay. Still, he manages to hold up his index finger, telling Tony one.

The confusion lasts less than a second, when you remember one of the last conversations you had together before Thanos showed up on Titan. Out of fourteen million timelines that he lived through, there was only one where you won. 

You don’t want to take your eyes off of him, lips parted. The urge to call his name is on the tip of your tongue. He’s right there. He’s so close.

You’re forced to when Thanos puts the Power Stone back on the gauntlet.

You stomp your foot, hard, the dirt around you shakes. “Arzorath, come!” Pain slices through your wound at the sudden movement. “The rest of you, get him!”

They’re faster than you thought they’d be, adjusted to their worn down bodies. They begin to throw themselves at Thanos. In the beginning, he’s able to swing them off, but as the dead come out of the shadows, far through the field, the number is overwhelming. He’s just about to use the gauntlet to swing them away, when a black mist surrounds him. The screams of pain begin, as the poisonous cloud corrodes his skin.

Arzorath appears beside you, materializing out of the air. You cup your hands, watching as he dumps the stones into yours carelessly, since they have no real value to him. 

The stones begin to slide over your palms without an order, adjusting to sit in their rightful places over your knuckles. You pull the Time Stone out, holding it in your free hand, not ready for the pain it’s about to inflict. You take a few deep breaths, releasing the power you hold over your army.

They fall into a useless heap of bones and rotten flesh. Thanos bursts out of it, raises his hand, still assuming the stones are on it. You look over, watching as Arzorath crumples to the ground, the life leaving him, too. You can’t afford to have any of them around. Not if you plan to do this.

“I am inevitable.” Thanos says, snapping his finger. 

It doesn’t react, there is no flash of white light, the people don’t begin to fall, he fails.

You turn your head, meeting Tony’s eyes, which begin to widen when he realizes why Thanos’s snap didn’t work. “(Y/n), don’t!” He shouts. “You have Stephen! He’s here!”

“You have Morgan!” You tell him. “And I have something a lot nastier than just myself.”

Thanos’s head whips in your direction. You get down to your knees, to the ground, the same way you had to in the past. With the hand that isn’t holding the Time Stone, you press it into the dirt, leaning forward, pulling. You reach through, searching for that miserable monster that had come out four years ago when you’d done this. 

This is your only chance—your only trick. It rests, slumbering, refusing to rise at your will. It isn’t until you give a little of yourself, what little dark energy you have left from conjuring so many of the dead, does it wake. And when you pull, it flies up at you, not slowing down.

You can hear Thanos running at you, shouting.

You open your eyes, slapping the Time Stone into its place on your knuckle. The energy that flows through you is different, brighter. This is not the same dark force that you’re used to. You’re able to feel the burning pain up your arm and stabbing into your neck, before it’s gone. 

The beast travels through your feet and up your body, heading straight for your mouth. It sets you on fire inside, and you’re barely able to lift your hand in time to snap your fingers, when he takes over, doing it for you. You’re weightless, flying through the air, wind caressing your skin, cradling you like a newborn. 

And then you hit the ground.

You roll several feet, arms blocking your face, until you stop on your back. You can see a leviathan coming right at you. And when you manage to finally get your eyes open after blinking, you find that it’s gone, nothing but dust in the wind. You let out a breath.

“(Y/n)!” Stephen’s voice is close, coming toward you.

The ground feels like it’s spinning under your body, creating a whirlpool, sucking you down with it. That would be nice, to join the ones that have kept you safe throughout this fight. Maybe you could give them a proper thank you.

There’s mechanical footsteps coming your way, when you look over, it’s Tony. His mouth is open, hands reaching for you. He’s cut off by someone else, dropping to their knees beside you.

It’s Stephen, your Stephen, as he pulls you into an upright position by your shoulders. You let out a cry, abdomen screaming in reaction. He’s got your face pulled against his chest, one arm across the back of your shoulders to keep you from moving.

“(Y/n), stay with me.” He tells you. “Stark—!”

You can’t see much through the haze, like a film over your eyes. But with Stephen’s face so close to yours, it doesn’t even matter. You throw your head back to get a proper look at him, something you’ve been waiting to do for five years. Of course, there’s a mess across his skin, a few strands of hair out of place.

You reach up with the hand that doesn’t have the stones, wiping a patch of blood away. “I’m fine.” You murmur, eyelids drooping. You begin to fall back, but Stephen catches you, pulling you back against his chest.

When you shakily breathe in, you’re hit with his cologne, a smell you’d thought you’d lost forever. You wrap your fingers around his blue robes, staring at the side of his face.

“What can we do?” He demands.

Stephen’s so beautiful, even in a state like this, especially when he’s angry. You remember that being the first thing you thought about him when he stepped out of his car, the second time he almost hit you. He’s handsome, and he’s yours, in front of you. He hasn’t aged a day. Still as perfect as he was the day he was taken from you.

“I’m okay.” You whisper, but your voice is drowned out by Friday, listing your vitals out loud. 

You’re so, so tired.

Stephen jerks you, your eyes fly open. “Don’t close your eyes, (Y/n). You have to stay with me.”

You hum, trying to listen. The worried look on his face has only deepened since learning about your heart rate and blood pressure. You think you can hear Tony making suggestions, all of which Stephen shuts down.

“I just…” You close your eyes, wanting to rest. As you settle, ignoring Stephen’s demands for you to stay awake, a voice from below calls.

Brace yourself.

All you can do is twitch your eyebrows, before a sharp gasp comes through your mouth, eyes opening. Your hand grips at his robes, knuckles turning pale to keep him from going anywhere. The energy resurfaces, bouncing to your temples, a headache slams in after.

You grit your teeth, toes curled as the needles press into every inch of your skin, reminding you that you’re alive. Telling you that you’re not allowed to die. Stephen’s hand is cupping your face, leaning over you.

“I told you;” You breathe carefully, feeling it begin to subside, “I’m fine.”

Stephen smashes his lips into yours, rough and demanding. He holds you there for a long minute, feeling you on him, until he decides when to pull away. You touch the side of his face, a light laugh escaping you.

“I missed you.” You tell him, tears in your eyes. “I can’t live without you.”

“So this is what you do?” He asks, bewildered. “You sacrifice yourself?”

“It’s been a rough five years.” You sniff, reaching over to pluck the stones from your suit. “But this is what had to be done, right?”

“Right.” He says, voice sad, getting to his feet. He helps you up, and catches you when you stumble a step. When you take one toward Tony, he shakes his head. “Are you sure…?”

“Yeah.” You mumble, pulling his hand up to give him the stones. “Here.”

Tony’s standing a foot or two away, staring at you. When you stop, slightly hunched over, he closes his eyes. “You’ve got to be the dumbest person on our team. I could’ve done that.”

“And survived?” You ask.

He doesn’t say anything at first, “Probably not, but it would’ve been more thought out than that.”

“You’re telling me that wasn’t thought out?” You ask, looking back at Stephen. A smile appears on your face first, and when you begin to laugh, you have to force yourself to stop. “I think that went pretty fuckin’ well, don’t you?”

“I would’ve changed a few things.” Stephen comes over to you, “But you’re right.”

“You shouldn’t have…” Tony’s shaking his head, eyes drifting away.

“You saved my life, remember?” You ask him, voice wavering, “That day I told you I was working on a different way to bring them back? I owe you for that.”

“You didn’t.”

“I never—not even in my nightmares—would have let you take the Infinity Stones. Even if it meant that it killed me.” You press your finger to his chest. “We’re even.”

“We always have been.” He tells you.

Stephen reaches to grab you when you sway, not being able to stabilize yourself. “Let’s sit down, (Y/n).”

“Sure.” You don’t resist, letting him lead you to a slab of concrete that’s flat enough to sit down. When you do, the aches in your body leave, you take in a deep breath. “Stephen?”

“Yes, my love?” His eyes are already on you.

You take his hand, lacing his fingers with yours. “I love you.”

He smiles, tilting his head slightly. “I love you too, (Y/n).”

#ilguna #stephen strange imagine #stephen strange oneshot #stephen strange x reader #stephen strange fanfic #stephen strange x you #strephen strange x yn #stephen strange x y/n #doctor strange imagine #doctor strange oneshot #doctor strange x reader #doctor strange fanfic #doctor strange x you #doctor strange x yn #doctor strange x y/n #marvel #angst #fluff

[sourcherryandsprinkles]

MASTERLIST

A problem happened with my old masterless and I had to make a new one

* = smut

The masterlist will be updated every two weeks

MCU!PETER PARKER

Boxing lessons Stark!Reader

Tony asks Peter to gives you boxing lessons. Little did they know, you are not as defenseless as they thought

The forbidden Avenger Stark!Reader

It’s difficult to have alone time with Peter at the Avengers compound. When everyone goes away on a mission, you take invite Peter over and act on your feelings

I could never give you peace

Peter laments the lack of stability he can offer his lover and the danger his other identity puts her in (inspired by Peace by Taylor Swift)

I’ll always come back to you Stark!Reader

Peter returns after the blip

I’ll keep you safe Stark!Reader

You look out for Peter during the battle with Molten Man

Late nights sneaking in your bed Hogan!Reader

When Peter and May temporarily move in with you and Happy, you go against your dad’s rules and sneak Peter into your room at night

Maybe this trip wasn’t so bad

You and Peter sneak out for a date during the Europe trip

My baby’s fit like a daydream

Peter gets a new body from training with the Avengers. You like it - a lot

My friends gets annoyed by how much I talk about you

You talk about Peter to your friends a little too much

Now I wake up by your side

You found your way back to Peter after the memory spell

Spider kiss

Peter surprised you at your window

Uncharted territories *

You and Peter explore each other’s bodies while May is out

Want some help? *

Peter gets a little excited after training. You offer your help

What am I supposed to do if there’s no you

May dies. You find Peter on the school’s roof and comfort him

Wherever you stray, I follow

Happy go get Peter in the Netherlands and you play nurse

TOM HOLLAND

King of my heart (multi-part) Co-Star!Reader

You get the role of MJ for the new Spiderman movie…aka, the classic trope of co-stars falling for each other

King of social media

Tom makes a mistake and post a private video on his Instagram Story

Puppy pictures

You accidentally send Tom NSFW pictures while he’s at work

Surprise Spider!

You surprise Tom at a convention and dress up as Black Cat

That’s my man

Tom flashes his pants-less bottom half on live TV

Tom’s new girl

Tom has a surprise for you when you come home

JESS MARIANO

Do you want to build a snowman?

You convince Jess to partake in Stars Hollow winter festival activities

Follow your heart

You pay Jess a visit after Luke puts him on a bus to New York. A few weeks later, it’s Jess’ turn to visit you

Guiding Star

Jess gets a tattoo

I’d marry you with paper rings

From the day you met to your wedding day (inspired by Paper Rings by Taylor Swift)

Night visitor

Jess pays you a little visit in the middle of the night

Prom?

Jess tells you he won’t be graduating…but he still goes to prom

Silent breakup | part 1 | part 2

Part 1: Jess breaks up with you by leaving town

Part 2: Your boyfriend of three years get down on one knee, but there’s someone else on your mind

Part 3:  After some thinking, you drive up to Philadelphia to see Jess

STILES STILINSKI

A dream within a dream

Stiles has a nightmare

A weekend in Quantico

You surprise Stiles and visit him in Quantico

An easy nightmare remedy

Stiles still has nightmares after the Nogitsune possess him. You offer your help

I only bought this dress so you could take it off

You confess your feelings to Stiles

My MVP

You come to Stiles’ game…and they lose

RAFE CAMERON

He should’ve been here

Rafe doesn’t show up on your birthday

My best friend’s brother (multi-part) *

You go on a boat trip with the Camerons…and get a little more than what you came for

Summer loving

You and rafe have a summer fling. You get attached

JJ MAYBANK

Don’t die on me

You and JJ fight against the captain. JJ falls over and almost dies

Father, dear father

JJ always sees his dad when he least expects it

Hot tempered, but loyal

JJ got fired from his job (set after the scene we got on ig)

I don’t want perfect

You get a new boyfriend, the perfect boyfriend. But you don’t want perfect

Simp

JJ is in love and the Pogues like to tease him

They’re alive

The Pogues gets a message from an unknown number: John B and Sarah are alive

The yard boy | Part one | Part two | Part three | Part four | Part five | Part six (coming soon)

DAEMON TARGARYEN

His wife’s bed *

Illicit affair *

A Song of heart and blood (multi-part) *

After an horrible prophetical dream, you find yourself traveling through time to try and save your sister, Daenerys, from her fatal ascension to the Iron Throne. During your mission, your heart derives you from your duty and you fall in love with your ancestor

Taking care of my dragon

After getting his pride hurt at the tourney, Daemon needs help to calm down and unwind

Warm me up

AEMOND TARGARYEN

Bigger than the whole sky

TW: Miscarriage

False god *

Naughty dreams | Jacaerys twin!Reader *

Midnight rain

JON SNOW

I’ll keep your bed warm

Need a hand?

What happens in the cave, stays in the cave |  Jeor Mormont daughter!Reader *

You and Jon spend the night in a cave

XAVIER THORPE

The devil’s bite Addams!Reader

The night of the final battle, you get hurt by the hyde

I don’t want you like a best friend

You and Xavier have been best friends for a while, but you don’t want to be just friends anymore. Come the Rave’n dance, you decide to tell him

Jealousy, jealousy

Murder Mittens

Nightshades library *

Outreach day | Normie!Reader

Post Poe Cup

Sorry, wrong number | Xavier x Reader x Ajax *

After sending a nude to the wrong contact (your mistake), you and Xavier invite Ajax for one night

Wrong suspect

Because of Wednesday, everyone believes Xavier is the monster. Everyone except you.

AJAX PETROPOLUS

7 Minutes in heaven 

Poe Cup distractions *

First time 

Makeup

#house of the dragon #daemon targaryen #aemond targaryen #jess mariano #stiles stilinski #jon snow #jj maybank #rafe cameron #daemon targaryen x reader #daemon targaryen imagine #aemond targaryen imagine #aemond targaryen x reader #jon snow x reader #jon snow imagine #stiles stilinski imagine #stiles stilinksi x reader #rafe cameron x reader #spider-man #tom holland #peter parker #peter parker imagine

[cricket-reader]

You Matter to Me

Masterlist | A03 | Wattpad | Recommendations | Inbox

Summary: as a healer for the Avengers, she get to heal a lot. What happens when she doesn’t tell them that each time she heals someone, their injuries transfer to her? Eventually someone is going to find out.

Warnings: language, injuries, self-sacrificing behaviour, brief mentions of past abuse/child abuse

Word Count: 2,209

Prompt: Fantasy, magical exhaustion

A/N: day 4 of March Trope-A-Thon by @amonthofwhump

Lying in her bed, she curls up on herself. The past few missions have been horrible. She wouldn’t tell anyone, but the amount of injuries she had to heal was really taking a toll on her.

Pain. Everywhere on her body there’s pain. She feels like a walking bruise.

She cringes when the door to her room bursts open. “Help! I’m sorry to wake you, but I need your help!” Tony cries out.

Tears well up in her eyes. She just wants to rest. She can’t take it anymore.

“It’s the kid, he got beat up real bad. We think he fractured his ribs.”

She slowly raises from her spot on the bed, leaving the comfort of snuggling into her warm blankets. “Where is he?” She weakly mutters, not having the energy to put her usual sunny disposition into her words.

“He passed out on the couch,” he informs her, already striding back to the common room. She limps her way to the common room. Normally she tries to hide her pain, but after this week’s missions, she can’t find it in her.

Luckily, no one else is in the common room. It’s just a barely cognisant kid, and a person that’s too preoccupied with the kid’s health to care about anything else. She falls ungracefully to her knees, cringing as her knees meet the floor. Her hands hover over Peter’s body before she takes a breath and makes contact with him. Immediately a sharp pain grows in her ribs. Tears gather in her eyes as she continues to take away his pain.

Her head is pounding and her ribs ache. It hurts so bad. This is even worse than when her father and his friends would use her after getting into bar fights. She knew what she was signing up for, but this… this is a little too much.

When Peter gasps awake, she plops down and rests her head against the couch cushion. Tears roll down her face before she turns to cover her face with the couch. Breaths becoming laboured, she can’t hold in the whimper that escapes her mouth.

How is she going to get back to her room? How’s she going to get out of this without getting caught? The Avengers aren’t stupid. They’re going to notice that something is off. Then they’re going to make her stop healing them because they are all too good to take advantage of her. And since she’ll be of no use to them, they’ll kick her out. She doesn’t want to leave. She can’t leave her family. The only family that has genuinely seemed to care for her.

“Hey, you alright?” Peter’s soft voice breaks her out of her racing thoughts. She nearly cries at the kindness in his voice. No one else cared to ask her that question when they noticed she was in pain. In fact, her father and her friends seemed to enjoy watching her in pain. It wasn’t fair, but she knew how life worked.

“I’m fine,” she mutters, straining against the stabbing pain in her ribs with every breath. Peter takes her head in his hands and gently lifts it from the couch so his kind eyes meet hers. Her head pounds and she wishes that he couldn’t see her like this. So weak. A superhero like him would probably laugh at her for being so weak. It’s not like she’s the one taking those punches. She wasn’t the one taking the beatings and saving the world. She just took the pain away.

“No you’re not. What’s wrong? Did someone hurt you?” Peter sounds so concerned, his eyes raking over her body looking for any signs of abuse.

“No, everything is fine, Peter.”

He squints his eyes at her, his sensitive hearing picking up her laborious breaths and small whimpers. “Who hurt you?” He jumps off of the couch ready to beat anyone that dared touch his precious …friend. Nothing else. Just a really good friend.

“No one, Pete, just… just forget about it okay? I’m fine.”

“Stop saying that! You’re in pain!” Peter frowns, visibly upset at the fact that she keeps lying to him. He thought they were close. He thought she trusted him. It hurts to know that she doesn’t.

“I’m used to it, it’s fine,” she mumbles, head plopping back into the couch. Peter’s brow furrows, an uneasy feeling settling in his gut.

“What do you mean you’re used to it?”

He watches her huff out a big breath before winching and clutching her ribs. The puzzle pieces finally click into place. It’s as if everything suddenly became clear with just one miniscule movement. Eyes widening, he strides over to her. Peter squats down to be level with her, his face dead serious.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone? It hurts you to use your powers, doesn’t it?”

Tears fall down her flushed cheeks, and she curses under her breath. They were bound to find out sooner than later, she had just hoped for the latter. “I was helping,” she whines, trying to prove her worthiness. She was doing something good, he can’t possibly get mad at her for that, can he?

“At the expense of yourself!” Peter yells, frustrated that he allowed her to take his pain and make it her own.

“Well, the pain has to go somewhere!” She fires back, angry that he isn’t grateful. After all she’s done she didn’t think he’d be yelling at her. She hasn’t done anything wrong. She helped them so much.

“You shouldn’t have to be in pain because of us,” he argues, standing to pace. All of this information changes things. How many times has she saved someone this week alone? How much pain must she be in? What has she had to silently suffer through?

“Give me my pain back,” Peter orders, not wanting her to have his pain anymore. Guilt weighs on his consciousness now that he knows she is feeling his fractured rib and concussion.

“That’s not how that works Peter.”

“God dammit! Why didn’t you tell us!”

Her eyes pop out of her head. She’s never heard him this upset before. He’s never been this angry. The fact that she caused it only makes her feel worse.

“Because I knew this would happen!” She cries. “I knew you guys would be mad and kick me out! I deserve a place here after everything I’ve done. I don’t want to leave!”

“You can’t keep taking other people’s pain,” he frowns, dead set on conveying this to her.

“Yes I can. I’m helping! I’m doing something good! Why don’t you understand that? Why can’t you appreciate the fact that I am willing to help you guys?”

“Because, you’re not supposed to get hurt doing it!”

“What is going on out here?” Steve, Bucky, Sam, Clint, and Natasha walk in having just finished training. She sends Peter a death glare, daring him to say anything.

Although he sees her intimidating stare, Peter doesn’t care. This has to end now.

“The pain doesn’t just go away,” he explains, “every time she heals us, the pain is transferred to her. She takes all the pain for us.”

Steve furrows his brows, his serious concerned mama bear face on. Crossing his arms and stepping forward, he asks, “is this true?”

“N-no! Of course not!” She lies. Her eyes flit around the people in the room, heart beating faster.

“She’s lying, she probably can’t even stand up right now because she is in so much pain,” Peter confidently states.

Narrowing her eyes at Peter, she swears to kill him in his sleep. How dare he tattle on her? “That’s not true! He’s making this all up,” she protests, trying to make her voice sound strong.

“Then stand up,” Natasha challenges, one of her perfect brows raising.

Cursing under her breath, she places a hand on the couch to try and push off the ground. Grimacing, she grits her teeth and tries to lift her body off the ground. Breathing heavily, she uses her other hand to try and get into a standing position. Whimpers, so quiet that only the enhanced are able to hear, escape from her as she struggles to stand.

Peter is by her side in an instant, not willing to watch her put herself through more pain. “That’s enough,” he mutters, fed up with her disregard for her own well-being. Why is she being so careless?

Steve frowns as he quietly talks to the people around him. She can feel his disappointed countenance chipping at her soul. He has that effect on people. She never wanted to disappoint her heroes. She can take it, she just needs some rest, and she’ll be fine.

“We can’t continue to let you heal us.” Is the verdict that Steve murmurs, upset by how long this has been going on. How could no one have noticed? How could they have been so careless as to think that the pain just magically went away?

He’s disappointed. Disappointed in himself for not noticing sooner, disappointed in himself for letting a mere kid take all of his pain and suffering that he should have just endured. Why did she never say anything?

“You’re released from duty,” Steve concludes, standing up to leave the room. He can’t stand looking at her, now knowing all of the pain he has caused her.

“Captain, please. Don’t do this! I was helping!” She protests with everything left in her. She doesn’t want to leave her family. She doesn’t want them to get hurt or die. Not when she has the ability to save them.

“Enough!” Steve bellows, stopping in his tracks. “You’re out of here, got it?”

Tears well up in her eyes and her lip starts to wobble. Steve had never used a tone like that with her before. It hurts. “So what? You’re just letting me go now that you have no use for me?”

Steve falters. That’s most certainly not what he meant.

“You’re just like my dad!”

A sentence that cuts deeper than any stab wounds he’s ever received. She’s told him about her home life, about her piece of shit father. And to be compared to him makes his soul break.

Calling out her name as she pushes past him, he desperately tries to right this wrong. She doesn’t stop, though. She keeps running, tears cascading down her face.

Running a hand through his hair, he curses. This is not how it should have panned out. All he wanted was to make sure that she’s safe and out of harm's way. He didn’t want to be the one to harm her. In fact, that’s the last thing he wanted to do. What, after all she’s been through, she deserves better.

“Let me,” Peter says, stopping Steve from running after her. Steve aquieses, figuring it would be better if he could calm down before talking to her. He’s just so upset that he’s been passing off his pain to a literal child. Okay, maybe she’s not a child, but she might as well be one for fucks sake.

“What do you want?” Peter cringes at her angered tone, a twinge of hurt underlying it. She still has tears in her eyes as she rushes to pack her clothes in a duffle she had sitting unused in her closet.

“Steve didn’t mean what he said. He’s upset that you lied to him—to all of us.”

She scoffs, harshly shoving the clothes in the bag. She whimpers, realising that probably wasn’t the best decision with all of the injuries she is dealing with right now. Peter rushes to have her in his arms. He sits down on the ground, gently pulling her with him. “You gotta stop hurting yourself, sweetheart.”

She grumbles in his arms, trying to get out of his grasp. Peter just shakes his head at how stubborn she is. She’ll be the death of him, he’s sure about that.

“Why do you care?” She mutters out, anger and resentment lacing her tone. She doesn’t want to believe that anyone can care about her. Whenever she thinks that, she always gets hurt. No one cares about her. The only reason people act nice to her is because they want to use her powers to heal themselves.

“Because… you’ve been hurting yourself for far too long,” he murmurs, relaxing his hold now that she isn’t trying to squirm away.

“I just want to be wanted,” her voice is muffled with the sound of her small cries. Tears stream down her face, and she curls up into Peter’s warm embrace. He sighs and runs his hand gently through her hair, careful not to make her headache worse.

“You are,” he speaks under his breath. “Everyone here genuinely cares for you in their own way. You are so important to me… to all of us.”

She muffles a sob against his shirt. “You… you don’t mean that…”

“I do. I mean every word of it. You matter to me. You matter so much.”

Peter keeps on mumbling little words of praise and encouragement as she falls asleep in his arms. He will let her know what she is worth. No matter how long it takes. She deserves the world.

#amow tropeathon 2023 #avengers fanfiction #marvel fanfiction #mcu fanfiction #mcu fic #domestic avengers #avengers angst #fantasy #avengers fluff #mcu whump #cricket-reader #marvel fic #peter parker #spider man #spiderman #spiderverse #peter parker angst #peter parker fluff #peter parker fanfiction #peter parker fic #peter parker avengers #marvel #mcu #peter parker oneshot

[starkwub]

(Tw: Starkercest)

Mob boss! Tony and his son, Peter (super out of the blue idea (considering I usually never write mob Au's), but figured I'd write it down ha!)

Just thought of Mob boss Tony allowing Peter, his prized possession son, go out on his own to live life since the boy had been harping about it for ages. Peter wanted to feel like all the other kids in his class. He didn't want body guards or exuberant allowances--nothing.

Tony of course couldn't say no after having done so for years-but that didn't mean he wouldn't be tricky about it.

Peter didn't have to know that he hired people to go to his house and be sketchy--knocking on the door at strange hours of the night or tampering with his window. Perhaps even telling the men to make creeping sounds within the home, just so Peter might feel more afraid of being on his own. He'd get people to stare at him on the streets, or following him after a late night shift at work in a dark hoodie with a jangling set of keys in their pockets so the boy would know they were there.

At first Peter wasn't all too fazed--thinking that it was just another one of 'dad's undercover body guards', but after a while--with his Dad denying the accusations and having not recognized any of the gruff and uneasy looking faced that met his gaze, the paranoia started to set in.

When it got to the point where Peter couldn't sleep for hardly a wink before startling at a creak in the floorboards or a brushing knock at his door--he did the only thing he possibly could think to do in that instance.

Call his Dad.

Sniffling, Peter grappled for his phone in the dark and clicked on his dad's profile, hearing the dial on the other end and then the un-familar beeping.

Why wasn't he picking up?. He always picked up.

It had been nearly 15 seconds before the beeping stoped and then came a sleep-laden voice on the other end.

"What is it baby? It's late, you should be asleep by now."

Peter shivered at the comforting voice and huddled a bit in the bed, pulling the blankets up and over top of his knees.

"Dad I.." He sniffled, looking worryingly at his bedroom door,

"I wanna come home. Just to visit--of course."

When his dad pressed on the topic, wonder why such a sudden thought had crossed his mind at three am, Peter just pouted and wrapped an arm around his knees tightly.

"Haven't seen you in a while s'all.." and suddenly his tone turned sour, "Why? You don't want me there?"

Tony coo'd and seemed to ruffle his bedding on the other side of the phone before speaking in a tone that Peter knew all too well.

"Of course I want to see you baby. Wish you where here right now so all you had to do was knock on my door, crawl into bed, and tell Daddy what's wrong instead of calling from a state that's a million miles away."

Daddy. Peter's heart thumped in his chest wildly at the honorific. It'd been so long..too long, since he'd heard it.

"It's not a million, jeez.." Peter retorted, suddenly remembering back to what it felt like to be with his Dad. His room somehow was always so much warmer than his own, and as he flexed his fingers to feel them stiffen from the chill, he sighed.

"I'll see you tomorrow then? I'm off with this weekend so I'll let them know I can't do any overtime."

"Mm.." Tony hummed, shuffling a bit more, "Alright sweetheart."

They stayed on the line for a few moments longer, and as Peter yawned, now letting his body slip back down to the crappy mattress, he breathed out against his phone.

"Want me to stay on the line?"

Peter nodded sleepily, knowing that his Dad couldn't see it, nor hear it, so he let out a muffled hum of his own, enjoying the subtle deep chuckle that came from his father's throat in response.

-- -- --

There can always be more, but I'm going to stop it here and count it as a win that I've finally written and posted something on here again XD I've been so enamored by the Harry Potter fandom as of late so my mind has taken to straying away from Starker more than usual

Hope everyone is doing okay! :)

#Starker #starkercest #Ironman x spiderman #tony stark x peter parker #starker au #mob boss tony stark

[spider-mancan]

may and happy tell peter they're taking the entire summer to travel and the idea of spending weeks alone in their apartment alone makes peter want to die. when tony offers to let peter move in for the summer, he doesn't think much of it beyond knowing it makes peter happy.

tony didn't realize how much he was hanging on by a thread until seeing peter just fucking live, just exist and be comfortable and unburdened, makes all his defenses unwind.

peter wears soft clothes, short shorts and long sweaters that become tony's sweaters on laundry days. it's a lot of skin. one day tony puts a hand on peter's thigh absently and feels the muscles tense and ripples under his touch.

peter knows a lot more card games than tony does, the kind of games that you learn at camps and conventions that tony never went to with his peers. he spends lab breaks teaching tony ERS, nines, euchre, flinch, and other games that tony is 99% sure peter is making up just to fuck with him. he talks about how his mother used to like to play dominoes, before she died. tony's grandmother played dominoes. he promises to teach peter. it's easy. he'll hate it.

they get drunk mid-summer and try to shave peter's legs. tony brings it up because of peter's shorts, and it should be kind of sexy but it's just funny because neither of them can focus. peter laughs at the shaky line from the razor and once the shaving cream gets introduced the entire situation devolves into something so childish. if tony, drunk and euphoric, presses a soft kiss into peter's knee while peter is busy trying to guess the chemical make-up, well...his penance is that it tastes like soap.

it's only meant to be for a couple of months, but peter sneaks in more and more items from his own apartment until tony thinks he'll die if the cheesy science mug isn't in his cabinet every morning.

tony spends so long in the lab he forgets what time it in and throws peter's bedroom door open to tell him about the origin of juggling. peter is awake and shouldn't be, but he and tony run out to pick up balls so tony can teach peter how to juggle. tony knew peter would be good at it, but considering that tony learned in college (the second time, to impress a girl) he's offended by how quickly peter outclasses him. he spends the last few hours before dawn trying to hit the balls with paper footballs.

peter comes back from patrol one night with a cat under his arm. he says her name is fettucine because he founds her in a dumpster covered in noodles and that he is their dumpster cat. and tony is allergic but can't bring himself to say anything. not when peter says she's theirs, or when fettucine is so cute and also a disaster. he gets her a smaller dunce cap to match dum-e. she likes to fall asleep on tony's chest and peter's phone fills with more pictures of tony stark (and the cat, mostly for the cat, of course) than either of them think is a good idea.

and then the summer ends and peter doesn't leave. and tony starts to wonder if he should -- verbally, pointedly, fearfully -- ask peter to stay.

#starker #ironspider #considers #domestic starker is too much for my feeble heart

[andydrysdalerogers]

Yours Submissively ~ Incinta

Steve Rogers X OFC Isabella Davis

Summary: Five Years after the events of Civil War, Steve Rogers has moved on from avenging and has started his own business, Grant Inc. He has a secret that would turn his world upside down. And he's good at keep that secret. Until he meets the woman with violet eyes that could bring him to his knees. Now his mission is to make her, his. But she is the key that could bring the world into balance... or chaos.

And she has no idea.

Series Warnings: slow burn at the beginning, smut, angst, sexual themes of BDSM, dom/sub dynamics, kidnapping, loss of virginity, (and a bunch of others that will come up)

A/N: the taglist is open! And I AM SO SORRY! Merry Christmas! 🎄

Dividers by @firefly-graphics

Banners by me!

I do NOT give permission for my work to be translated or reposted on here or any other site, even if you give me credit. DO NOT REPOST MY FICS. Reblogs, comments, likes, and feedback ALWAYS appreciated

Previous: Sanctuary

Series Masterlist ~ Main Masterlist

“Belle?! Isabella?!” Steve was yelling in the phone, frantic.  He heard movement.  

A second man picked up the phone.  “You want her, Captain? Come get her.” 

Steve stared at the phone.  His head snapped up.  He touched his comms.  “Sam?” 

“I’m landing.” There was a muffle. “We need EMTs on the corner of State and Henry.  I have a total of four down, three DOA.”   

Steve blanched. “Bucky?” 

“Alive.  Two shots, one critical.  EMTs are here and taking him to Brooklyn General.”  

“Who are the others?” 

Steve could tell Sam was hesitating.  “One of them is Disktant. Shot in the neck.  He bled out.  The others I don’t know.  I’m connecting to the security systems around here to see what happened.”  

“Sam, they were after Belle.”  

“How…” 

“She called for me to find her, but she was taken.  Clint and I are headed to her last known location.  Just get the intel and well reconvene. Sam,” he sighed, “get Bucky back to the tower.”  

“On it, Cap.”  

Steve turned to the remaining team. “Stark, you and Nat start working with Friday to see who and where. Wanda, Vision, I need you back ASAP.  Clint, you, Peter and I need to get to Brooklyn.  We need to find her and fast.”  

“Alright, you heard Cap,” Tony said.  He walked by Steve and clapped his shoulder.  “We’ll find her.”  

Clint drove Steve and Peter to the diner, see the police cars surrounding it.  Steve approached the officer in charge. “Captain, I’m Lieutenant Provenza, officer in charge.”  

“What happened?” 

“A young lady entered the diner and sat at the back.  No clean look at her on security.  She made a call and the waitress said she look distressed.  Two men entered through the back.  Video of them is clear but we have no hits on identity.  They approached the girl, grabbing the phone, speaking to someone as they took the girl to the back. They dropped her phone and glasses.”  He waived a tech forward and he brought out the evidence bags.  “They got into a van, no plates.”  

“Lieutenant, the girl taken is my wife, Isabella Rogers.  We need an APB for her right away along with the description of the van.  It was me she was talking to on the phone.”  

“Right away Captain. Any reason she was out her all alone?” 

“We had a disagreement. Sargent Barnes had accompanied her, but he was shot a few blocks away.”  

“Understood.  We’ll put out an emergency APB on her right away.” The lieutenant walked away to speak to the officers when Steve’s phone rang.  “Sam?” 

“Bucky’s wounds are serious but non-life threatening.  He’ll be awake in a couple of hours.  I have his phone.”  

“Can you check to see how he found Belle?” 

“I’m checking.  The last notifications are text between him and Paul about a car and a doorbell video.” 

“Doorbell video?” 

“Yeah, hang on.” He could hear Sam fiddle with the phone.  “Shit, Cap, he found where Belle had gone.”  

“Where?” 

“Lila.”  

Steve motioned for Clint and Peter. “I’m headed there now.  Thanks Sam.  Keep me updated for when he wakes.”  

“You got it.”   

Steve hung up and called Tony.  “Tony, check surveillance around Lila’s apartment.  I’m headed there now.”  

“Why would she go to Lila?” 

“It makes sense.  I didn’t even think to ask her since they had the falling out. Maybe she will know why Bucky and Belle were in Brooklyn.” Steve hung up and stared out the window.  His biggest fear, Belle being taken was now coming to fruition. He just had to be honest and none of this would have happened.  He glanced down at his wedding band, pulled it off and looked at the inscription.  

AAAO, KOMH B&S 

He gave a sad smile.  And all at once, you are the one I have been waiting for, King of My Heart, Body and Soul. She had it inscribed as a surprise that she told him about in London.  And while he was the king of her heart, she was queen of his.  

Belle woke up with a sore head. She tried to rub her head, but her arms didn’t move.  She tugged and felt pain in her wrists.  She blinked her eyes open to harsh light. “Finally, the princess is awake,” she heard.  Belle tried to look around but couldn’t see anything past the blinding light.  

“Jesus, this girl is dumb.”  A shadow came in by the light.  “This is the heir to HYDRA?” 

“You knocked her out with a tranquilizer.  It takes some time to get out of her system.”  That voice sounded familiar. The fog from her brain was lifting and Belle was starting to be able to focus.  

“Now she’s coming around.”   

Belle blinked several times bringing the face into focus. “Sharon?” 

“Hey there princess,” she mocked. “How ya feeling?” 

“Like I got taken by a hoe,” Belle replied.  She noticed a man standing next to her in a weird green suit.  “Who the fuck is that?” 

“My name is Quinten Beck.” He walked towards Belle and kneeled in front of her. She stared at the man in front of her. Brown hair, blue eyes, he looked kind, but malice was hidden in them. He reached up to tuck a stand of hair behind her ear.  “You have beautiful eyes Isabella.  It’s a wonder that no one else notice the similarities.”  

Belle couldn’t help herself. “Similarities?” 

“Yes, to our founder. Schmidt.  See, your mother’s side came from a long list of HYDRA supporters, but no one figured out that Schmidt had a son who had a daughter. Your mother.”  

“No, my grandfather is Pierce.”  

Beck chuckled.  “Yes, he is one of your grandfathers. But you, Mrs. Rogers, are the true heir of HYDRA. You are the most important piece to complete our mission.  We have to keep your bloodline going. And it can’t be with that All American asshole.”  

Realization dawned on Belle.  She began to thrash and scream.  “No! I won’t do this!” 

“Oh, don’t worry Isabella.  I’ll take good care of Steve once you’re gone,” Sharon said with an evil smile.  

Steve arrived at Belle’s old apartment and kicked in the door.  Lila fell as she was stuffing items into her suitcase.  Peter fired his webs to pin her to the wall. “Miss Stevens, in a hurry?” Steve growled as he walked into the apartment.  

“Steve… Steve I can…” 

“You can call me Captain Rogers, Miss Stevens.” He sat in the chair across from Lila.  “Where is Belle?” 

“I don’t know,” she replied trembling.  

“Ok, answer me this.  Who took her?” Lila remained silent, tears streaming down her face. “Delilah,” he said with a low voice dripping with fury, “Who. Took. My. Wife?” 

Lila sobbed.  “She told me that it would be better for all of us if Belle disappeared.  Belle ruined my life.  My friends abandoned me, my parents were furious at my actions.  They loved Belle like a daughter and took her side.  I just wanted to be back to where I was.”  

Steve tried to remain calm.  “I’ll ask one more time. Who took her?” 

Lila stared at America’s hero and saw the pain, the anger, fury in his eyes.  “Sharon.  Sharon Carter paid me to set Belle up.  She said if she came to me to find out where she was going.  I just made a call.”  

“Clint, please take Miss Stevens to the tower.” Clint cut Lila from the webs and escorted her from the apartment. Steve grabbed the phone Lila had next to her, but it was locked.  “Shit,” he mumbled.  

“Allow me, Cap,” Peter said, pulling off his mask.  He started to tap the phone as Steve’s phone rang.   

“Sam.” 

“It’s me,” Bucky’s voice filled the air and Steve breathed a sigh of relief. “What’s the update?” 

“Shouldn’t you be resting? 

“I’m a super soldier as well asshole.  Tell me.”  

“Lila set up Belle. To Sharon.”  

“Motherfucker.  I knew that bitch was up to something.  What’s the plan?” 

“Don’t have one yet.  We’re still trying to figure out where they took her.” Steve looked at Peter who raised his head.  

“I’ve got it Cap.  The messages from Sharon confirm what Lila was saying.  But they never mention a location.”   

“Fuck.  Ok so…” 

“Wait…” Peter kept reading. “Does anyone know a Dr. Beck?” 

The team assembled in the control room with Tony leading a presentation. “Dr. Quinton Beck was an engineer with Stark Industries.  He was working on weapons manufacturing before I changed the direction of the company.  He was let go. He hasn’t had a presence in a company for the last few years until…” he flipped a screen, “AIM a few years ago.  He got in under a false name.”  

“Why was he flagged in the first place?” Natasha asked.  

“Beck wanted to use technology to fake visuals with a slight mind control initiative weaved into it,” Tony replied sarcastically. “I shut it down and fired his ass.”  

“Why would he want to take Belle?” Bucky studied the man’s photo.  

“Yeah, that was the question we had,” Banner replied.  “I ran her DNA through websites like Genealogy and it was interesting that she had no other family out there.  No cousins, nieces, nephews, uncles, aunts, nothing.  So, I had a hunch and ran it through old military databases.  And got a hit.”  A new picture hit the screen. Steve and Bucky looked at each other.  

“Johan Schmidt, founder of HYDRA also known as…” 

“The Red Skull,” Bucky and Steve answered at the same time.  “How?” Steve asked.  

“Schmidt is Belle’s great- great grandfather. So, when they say she is the heir to HYDRA it wasn’t because of Pierce.  It was because of him.”  

Steve stared at the photo of his former nemesis.  He never thought that fucker would ever be a problem again, but history taught him otherwise. The tesseract made an appearance although it was safe on Asgard now. But it was amazing to him that Belle was so pure, so loving, so innocent compared to her family.  But her mother had ran from her family so the apple did fall far away from the tree.  

“Steve? Steve? You with us?”  Bucky shook his friend’s arm.  

“How would Beck know to reach out to Sharon?” Steve pondered aloud.  “I mean, they don’t run in the same circles unless…” he froze.  

“Oh shit,” Bucky looked at Steve.  “You don’t think…” 

“I do.”  He turned to his team.  “I guess I need to come clean with something first so you guys can understand.”  

Belle was moved to a room with a bed and locked in.  She looked around and noticed some familiar items.  Sharon walked in after a few minutes.  “Does it get you all hot and bothered?”  

“Is this how you two met?” 

Sharon sighed.  “After Steve completed his training, I needed to find a more permanent plaything.  You see, at the club, all walks of life come in.  And here comes this guy who is almost as handsome as Steve who just wants to have a friend and a release.  Well, I did what I do best and helped him with that.  And as we got to know each other, I realized that he had the technology and the will to get to the top.  And if he could get rid of the Avengers and take the only thing, they all care about, they I could have chance to get Steve to finally see me."

“What are you even talking about?” 

“I was almost there.   I almost had Steve.  And then you came along.  You seduced him, you entranced him with your fucking eyes. And he was gone.  He left me.  For you.”  

Belle cried.  “I didn’t do anything. He wanted me, he pursued me.  I fell in love with him after.  I even left when I thought he didn’t want me for more. But we were made for each other. Please let me go. Please I’ll talk to him, I’ll tell him whatever you want.”  

“I’ll tell him myself when we ‘look’ for you.” 

“Please Sharon. You know this is wrong.” Belle pleaded. “I don’t want this. I was made for Steve.” 

“You were made to be bred for HYDRA,” Sharon snarled.  “Even my great aunt knew that Steve was meant to be for a greater purpose.  She almost married him before he put that fucking plane on ice.”  

“Your aunt cheated on him before he decided to save the world.  I found the notes, her letter to him.  He thinks I don’t know but I do! You Carters are just a stain on American history!” 

Sharon reached out and slapped Belle, snapping her head back.  Sharon got right into Belle’s face. “And you will be known as the whore who married America’s hero and slept with HYDRA’s next great leader.  You will be bred; you will give birth and continue the HYDRA line and Steve will never see you again.”  

“Wait so Sharon, who helped us out multiple times, is a closeted sex fiend?” Sam looked astonished at his friend.  “And you were too?” 

“I technically still am.  Belle and I have an adventurous bedroom life ok?”  Steve was becoming annoyed.  “But that’s not the point.  The point is, I gave up that life and Sharon has not.  She still visits the club we used to go to.  Since Belle, I hadn’t been there for a few months.  That’s probably when she met Beck.”  

“Ok, focus up,” Tony started, “while we are all fascinated at Cap being a dominating bastard, which by the way makes total sense, we need to get back to finding Belle.  Now why would Beck and Sharon want to take her besides Sharon being a twisted bitch?”  

“Because Beck wants power.”  Maria Hill walked into the room.  “He was on SHIELD’s radar for his researching while he was still looking for work.  We think his goal is to create the next generation of HYDRA royalty.”  

“HYDRA royalty?” Bucky looked enraged.  “The only way would be if she had children with a true HYDRA supporter.”  

“Steve!” Bruce came running in with Helen Cho.  “We have a problem.”  

“What could possibly bigger than my missing wife?” 

“The fact that your wife is pregnant.”  

“What?”  Steve blanched.  “What are you talking about?”   

“Belle came to us a day before she ran away complaining that she was feeling under the weather.  We checked her out and she seemed fine, so we took blood. The results got lost in her running away but as we checked for any links the reminder hit my email.”  

“She’s pregnant?  My Belle is having our baby?” 

“Oh god.” Natasha covered her mouth.  “What will they do when they find out?” 

Tony looked at Steve who was still reeling from the news. “Let’s call this bitch and negotiate to get her back.”  

“They aren’t just going to give her back,” Bucky argued.  

“No, but they may be stupid enough to let us get a ping on their location.”  

Steve looked at his team, his face broken.  “Do it.  I need to get my family back.”  

NEXT

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