main masterlist | more bob flyod | join the taglist | inbox | dividers by @cafekitsune
. ᵒ . ➛ PAIR . robert floyd x bartender!reader
. ᵒ . ➛ SUMMARY . you came to san diego for one reason : obligation. a reunion you didn’t ask for. a father who left. a mother who forgave him. a brother who changed sides. you planned to stay a week, say the right things, smile when prompted, and get the hell out.
but then you kissed bob floyd in the back room of a bar.
and everything spiraled.
now you’re sleeping in your god brother’s guest room, lying to your family, dodging emotional ambushes, and ignoring the flight you never boarded. because running doesn’t feel as easy as it used to—not when bob texts you goodnight. not when he meets you at the base gate like you’re someone worth showing up for.
you said you were leaving. you swore you would. but some goodbyes are harder than others.
. ᵒ . ➛ TRIGGER WARNINGS . lowercase intended!!! parental abandonment and estrangement ( emotional neglect, long-term absence ), family dysfunction and betrayal, emotional manipulation ( from parental figures ), verbal/emotional abuse, gaslighting, complicated mother-daughter dynamic, emotional isolation, references to childhood trauma, discussions of identity, self-worth, and grief, alcohol ( non-abusive context; social/setting use ), strong emotional content ( panic, crying, self-doubt ), profanity, smut ( in later chapters )
. ᵒ . ➛ WORD COUNT . ~ 9.6k
CHAPTER ONE unscheduled landing ( wc 1655 )
CHAPTER TWO the redemption tour ( wc 3034 )
CHAPTER THREE quirk and stealth ( wc 3015 ) ( coming soon )
Summary: After a deadly tempest rage against Berk, a maelstrom in the sea claims your parents—Where you were then eventually passed into the gruff, tender care of Gobber as his adopted niece. Help raising you beneath the clang of his forge alongside his own godson, Hiccup, a boy destined to defy the world. Hiccup and you stand through many hardships as childhood friends, and awkward occasions as two misfits against the world—a fierce baker of breads and a dreamer craving Viking glory.
|| pairing : james "bucky" barnes x florist!reader
summary : When Clint's birthday comes sooner than Bucky realized, Steve forced him to go buy some gift for Hawkeye. Figuring that flowers were an easy enough gift, he takes a visit to the flower on the corner of the street..
There, he meets a cute florist, someone who seemed to melt his cold heart. How will Bucky navigate this modern world romance? Will he allow himself to fall in love? If so.. How will he keep this from the team? And how will you navigate a friendship - let alone romance - with one of the most closed off Avengers?
summary: the day you meet joaquin is the day you decide that you won’t fall for him.
pairing: joaquin torres x f!wilson!reader
contents: 18+/MINORS DNI, forbidden romance, minimal angst, fluff, eventual smut, pining/longing, mentions or depictions of canon typical violence, mentions of adoption due to neglect/abuse, mentions or depictions of abusive parents + trauma responses, protective!sam wilson
current wc: 2k
last updated: april 1st, 2025
an: as most of my fics, this popped up out of nowhere when i couldn’t sleep & now I’m almost 2k words deep. the plan is for it to be 2-3 parts tops but sometimes the lovers have a mind of their own.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4*
Epilogue
must be 18+ & have age displayed to be added to the taglist!
Notes: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, fluff, FULL THUNDERBOLTS* SPOILERS, Happy Ending, mentions of torture, Hydra, cannon typical violence, possible ooc, (Tell me if I miss something I'll add it)
Summary: Your relationship with Yelena has been littered with challenges, but there isn't anything that you can't face together.
An: The summary is shit but I don't want to give too much away. So I implore you to trust me because I swear this delivers. Also its my civic duty to notify the masses that Ao3 is down rn.
Masterlist | Masterlist 2
Yelena had always been the optimist of your relationship. She was a beacon of light that was ever glowing. No matter the trauma she suffered, she held her chin high and kept a smile on her face.
She had pulled you out of the darkness more times than you could remember. Every time you began drowning in your past, she was there to remind you of the present. You were no longer alone, you’d never be alone again, because you had her.
You weren’t prepared for the day when her light was snuffed out. Life had already been so unnecessarily cruel to her, but you had never seen her broken like this. The universe put Natasha in her path for a tenth of a second. It gave her the family that she spent years chasing and then snatched it so ruthlessly.
When the blip happened, you were with her. One minute you were sitting on the counter watching her wash her face and the next she was gone. You were hysterical. The panic was instant, it felt like someone had a death grip on your heart.
The first thing you did was call Natasha. You rambled on the phone, incoherent to most, but Natasha had known why you were calling. How could she not, when she was watching the same thing happen to the people on the battlefield?
She got to you as quickly as she could. You weren’t in good shape when she got to you. In your mind you were ready. You needed to get justice, revenge, something that would fill the hole left by Yelena’s absence.
When what was left of the Avengers killed Thanos, you were there. You had felt how empty the act was. How meaningless it all felt. With your beacon of light gone nothing felt worth it anymore.
You wanted to go off on your own. Maybe just walk into the ocean never to be seen again, but Natasha wouldn’t allow it. She kept you close to her though for a long time you were useless, empty without Yelena in your life. You ached for her. You saw her everywhere you looked. She was on the couch with a bowl of mac and cheese, she was on the counter playing with her knife, she was in bed with her arms open for you to climb into. Then you’d blink and she’d be gone just as quick.
Your past became more haunting without her. You started to think about all of the sins you committed while you were brainwashed by Hydra. They had kidnapped you somewhere in the early 2000’s injecting you with their version of the super soldier serum. You did unthinkable things. Some you could never forgive yourself for. Yelena was the one to free you of the mind control. You’d stuck with her ever since then. She was the only person capable of making you feel like you weren’t a monster. Now she was gone. All your mind did was bounce between memories of her and your brainwashed past. It was a torturous loop that you couldn’t escape.
Natasha let you grieve. She didn’t pressure you to help her with hero work. She didn’t force you to come out of your room to socialize. All she wanted from you was to see you eat at least twice a day. She’d talk and you’d listen, not saying much back.
One day when you came down for dinner you saw her at the table with her head in her hands, a bottle of Russian vodka perched by her elbows. It was nearly half empty.
You sat across from her silently. She lifted her head up to look at you. Her eyes were bloodshot, but you couldn’t tell if it was from the alcohol or the tears.
“You two are so alike sometimes that it scares me.”
You can see Natasha morphing into her younger sister right before your eyes. There wasn’t a problem that vodka couldn’t outrun. At least that’s what Yelena said on her worst days.
“I miss her too, you know? I had- I just got her back,” more tears well in her eyes. “I found a family with the Avengers and now I have nothing left to show of it. Then right after I found the closest thing to blood relatives I have it gets stolen from me. There’s not a day that goes by that I’m not missing someone.”
You try to find some words of comfort, “I was never good at this, but your sister was. This hopeful glow that you couldn’t help but follow. She’d probably say something about not giving up so easily, it’d be a half-joke. Then she’d probably say something like the world will always need heroes like you. People that continuously sacrifice for the sake of humanity.”
“And are you a hero?”
Natasha shoots the question at you.
You reach for the bottle of vodka, taking a large swig, “I was whatever she needed me to be. Sometimes a hero, sometimes less than that, but never evil.”
“Malicious?”
You shrug, “On occasion.”
She laughs through her tears, “I’m glad she had you when I wasn’t around.”
You shake your head, “It’s the other way around. She taught me how to stay afloat. I leaned on her for support for so many things. Without her, I just feel myself falling into the void. How can anything I do be worth it, if she’s not here?”
She places her hand on top of yours, “I’m not going to give up until she’s back, until they’re all back.”
Natasha meant it. You could tell she believed with her entire being. She had never been an optimist, often grounded in unobjectionable truths. You couldn’t tell if it was desperation or just another way she had become like her sister.
You started being useful that day.
Rather than letting Natasha carry all of the weight and responsibility, you let her give some of it to you. You started thinking like her. You had to see Yelena again, you’d do whatever it took just to see her one more time.
When the opportunity to rewrite history came about, you were vexed that it appeared in the form of Scott Lang. He was annoying, but without him there wasn’t a chance the remaining Avengers would’ve reformed. Natasha had called upon them many times, but they’d only seemed to care about the big one.
“Natasha.”
You have this pit in your stomach that won’t go away. You aren’t fond of this plan, of everyone splitting up. Maybe you’d feel better if you were going with Natasha and Clint, but you weren’t.
“Y/n, I know-"
You don’t let her finish her sentence. You wrap your arms around her. You’re squeezing her tightly with your eyes shut.
“Be safe,” is what you say initially as you let go of her.
“I love you too, kid. If something happens…”
You shake your head, “No. You’re going to come back here, for Yelena.”
Natasha’s smile is bittersweet, “I will do what I can.”
You shake your head once again, “Not good enough. Promise me, promise me you’ll come back. We’re going to do this together. Nat, she has to come home to the both of us.”
She pulls you into her embrace again, she kisses the crown of your head, “I promise.”
She lied.
“Where is she?”
Clint couldn’t look you in the eye. He tossed the stone to Tony and tried to walk away. You grabbed him by the shoulder, so he was face to face with you.
“Clint,” your voice was stern.
You could see the tears welling in his eyes even though he avoided your gaze, “You have to trade a soul for the stone. I tried- I tried, but she was always better than me.”
Your grip on his shoulder only tightened as you felt your knees buckle. You refused to believe him, “She promised.”
Clint tried to hug you, but you shoved him away, “None of you would even be here without her. You all gave up, turned your back on the world. You took your ball and went home and now you’re here and she’s not. This is bullshit. You already owed her so much and she gave her life up for you pieces of shit.”
Bruce threw a bench, “We cared about her too.”
“Funny way of showing it,” you countered him.
The Hulk got in your face, the team tried to step between you two, “You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.”
“I thought you were always angry,” you shot back at him.
“Now is not the time for this,” Steve interjected.
You scoffed, “Fuck off Steve. Yelena got blipped right in front of me. I thought I lost everything, but I still had Natasha. Now I don’t have either of them because of this stupid fucking team. I’m alone all over again.”
“We’re going to get Yelena back,” Tony chimed in.
You chuckled bitterly, tears now streaming down your face, “Fantastic, and the first thing I have to tell her is that her sister is gone forever. They had just found each other. Fuck.”
Your legs gave out from underneath you. Any arguments that you had stopped as sobs violently struck you. Your body folded in on itself.
The men stared at you, but Clint was the first one to move again. He wrapped his arms around you, but you didn’t shove him off this time. You allowed him to hold you. The only thing you managed to say was ‘she promised' over and over again.
When you couldn’t cry anymore, his grip didn’t falter.
“She told me that you have to be strong for Yelena like you were strong for her. She couldn’t have done this without you.”
“How can I do this without her?”
He was slow to stand, his hand stretched out, “You do it for her instead. Don’t let her sacrifice be for nothing.”
You took his hand.
In the midst of battle, sweat dripping down your dirt-stained face, you couldn’t help, but wonder if you’d die here. If you’d go out a hero, fighting against a mad titan’s army.
Somewhere between the 9th and 13th enemy you take down, you realize you can’t die. Yelena would come back to no one. Well she’d have Alexei, but would he be able to save her from herself?
When the portals opened, you felt a little relieved. Any help was welcomed in your mind. The people who disappeared were back, and you wondered if she was too.
It was somber when it was all said and done, but you didn’t need to stick around for a reunion.
“I can get you to her,” Stephen Strange offered.
You didn’t ask any questions, instead you gave him a curt nod. He opened a portal and you stepped right through.
The last time you were in this apartment, Natasha was basically dragging you out of it. Your protests fell on deaf ears as you tried to stay here. It wouldn’t have been good for you, surrounded by things that reminded you of Yelena.
You hear the rummaging around before you see her. Your heart thuds in your chest, and you curse your legs for not being able to move.
When she comes charging down the hallway. Your breath catches. Five long years, you’ve waited for this moment.
She almost doesn’t recognize you, pulling out her weapon. When she gets closer, she begins to analyze you.
Older, eyes more tired, new lines across your forehead, different hair. It was hard to tell with all the dirt and debris of battle all over you.
“Yelena.”
She can hear how broken you are. So she doesn’t stop you when you surge forward, holding onto her like she would vanish out of thin air.
You shake in her arms whispering against her skin, the same thing over and over, “I’m sorry.”
She backs away only enough to hold your face in her hands, “What happened?”
You attempt to take a deep breath, but wince. Yelena finds a cut on the side of your suit. Gently she presses it and you groan.
“Tell me after I patch you up.”
She drags you along, trying to pull you into the restroom. You stop outside and shake your head, “Bedroom.”
Yelena furrows her brows, but she grabs the first aid out of the bathroom, before following you to the bedroom.
The cut on your side is nastier than you would’ve thought. It takes her a while to tend to the wound. When she finished the cut is in a better state, but you aren’t. All you can do is stare at her.
She asks you to tell her again. You finally pull your eyes away from her’s, instead focusing on your hands. You tell her everything, from the moment she disappeared until now.
“My sister,” everything else seems of little importance to Yelena.
You can’t look at her, “I’m so sorry.”
She takes your hand, intertwining your fingers, “It’s not your fault.”
Your lip begins to quiver, “Stop.”
“Y/n, look at me.”
“I have to be strong,” you say it more to yourself than her.
“Detka, please,” Yelena pleads with you.
Your teary eyes meet her’s. It breaks you to see her like this. You open your arms, and she leans into your hold. She doesn’t care about the remnants of war all over you.
“We are stronger together.”
Your hands are on her stomach. She places her hands on top of yours, keeping you in place.
There are a million more things that you want to say to her. You want to tell her you missed her, that life without her was dull, that you were sorry you couldn’t save her sister, but you don’t. Instead your lips kiss the top of her head, lingering as you hold her. You hope it translates to something.
When she raises your conjoined hands to her lips to press a delicate kiss to the back of your hand, you know it does.
“I love you,” she says it first.
“I love you too.”
Neither of you attend Tony’s funeral. Instead you find yourselves in a small suburban town. You wish you could say that it was where they grew up, but you knew it wasn’t.
You both stare at her grave. Yelena gets close to the tombstone putting her head against it. She mutters something in Russian. You don’t fully understand it but you pick up a few key words.
She raises her volume for you to hear, “This is where we became sisters.”
“She was always thinking of you. I think it’s half of the reason she took me in when you were gone. The other half was because she was a good person. I think she kept some blonde in her hair for you. Being with her saved my life because sometimes when I looked at her I saw small pieces of you. I hope… I hope that sometimes she felt the same when she looked at me. It was a comfort I think we both needed. I didn’t know how similar you were until I found her nursing a bottle of vodka trying to drink away the pain, just like you do.”
She catches your gaze, locked as tears fall down your face, “I’m sure she did, because you are the best part of me.”
You disagree with her, “ You saved me.”
She stands to cup your face in her hands. You still have a few scrapes from the battle with Thanos. Her hands are cold against the skin of your face. She searches your eyes for something, she doesn’t find it. Her forehead rests against yours. Her breath mingles with yours and for a moment all the tears are forgotten.
“Why can’t you see that you saved me too?”
She kisses you, almost like it would break you. You relax into her, relishing in the way her lips feel against yours. It’s like breathing.
You waited 5 years to experience this again. This is your first kiss since returning. You both were in fragile states. You’d never rush Yelena into anything she didn’t want to do. In truth you could’ve kissed her the second you saw her, but you had too much to tell her then.
Your eyes stay closed even when your lips are no longer touching her’s.
“Sorry to interrupt such a touching moment.”
Your moment is over just like that. Yelena has an unimpressed look on her face as she turns her attention to the woman.
“What do you want Valentina?” Yelena’s voice is gruff as she speaks.
“I have a job for you. The both of you if you’re interested,” she flashes a Hollywood smile as she speaks.
Yelena’s jaw clenches, “How many times do I have to tell you that she doesn’t do this?”
You sigh, “What’s the job?”
Your girlfriend looks at you like you’ve grown a second head, “No.”
“If you think you’re going on your own, you’re mistaken,” you tell her.
She runs a hand through her hair, looking between you and Valentina. The sigh that leaves her lips is heavier than the one that had left yours, “You heard what she said.”
Valentina’s smile stretches even wider than it already was, “Wonderful, a couple of shadow agents.”
That's how you started working for Valentina.
There wasn’t any chance that you’d be letting Yelena out of your sight. Not with everything so fresh. You knew the kind of person she was.
She would throw herself into this work to numb herself from the pain. You couldn’t stop all of the hurt, but you could feel it with her. She’d do the same for you.
“Lena,” you call her name through the hotel you’re currently stationed at. “It took me a few stores, but I’ve got the boxed mac n cheese.”
There’s no answer. You feel a little panic start to set into your bones. You call her a few more times but you don’t get a response. Just when you’re about to start investigating every inch of the apartment, you find her.
She’s leaned against the bathtub, sitting on the floor. Her head hangs down letting you know she’s unconscious. The bottle of vodka in her hand is nearly half empty. There’s another one on the side of her that’s completely gone.
You crouch down to look at her. Your hand reaches to move some of her hair out of her face. She had cut it short since you reunited. You liked it, but that wasn’t surprising. There were minimal things you didn't like about her.
When you attempt to take the bottle from her hand Yelena wakes up. She goes on the offensive immediately trying to trap you against the wall. You slip from her grasp on your shoulders, slinking around her back, so that you can hug her from behind. She thrashes a little until you whisper in her ear.
“Lena, baby.”
She stops her movements. She nearly leans into you until something stops her. She rips herself out of your hold. She doesn’t look at you. The grip on the bottle tightens, “Sorry.”
She starts to march out of the room, but you don’t allow it. Instead of reaching for her, you set your sights on the bottle. She tries to fight you for it, but your grip is unrelenting.
“Let go.”
You take stern tone with her, “You don’t need it.”
“How are you going to tell me what I need?”
“Because I know you Yelena. Now give me the bottle,” you try to yank it from her hands.
“NO!”
She screams at you and throws the bottle in the corner of the bathroom. Glass shatters all over the white tile. Liquid spreads around the floor. Your eyes are wide, as you look at the scene. You look back to Yelena to find similar shock on her face.
She starts running and you chase after her. She books it out of the hotel. You follow her down the steps and out of the front. You can feel your heart pound in your ears as your feet slap against the concrete. You watch as she tries to loose you in the crowd.
Your eyes follow the trail she takes, but your legs carry you a different way. You’re going to cut her off. You push yourself, knowing that the blonde is faster than you.
When you round the corner her body collides with yours. She’s looking back to see if you’re behind her.
Your chest heaves up and down as you try to catch your breath. She doesn’t look at you, the anxiety clear on her face. You take her hand into yours, she flinches, but allows it.
You pull her away from the crowded street, into a private alleyway.
“I love you,” you start. “And nothing is going to change that. Not a thousands shards of glass on the floor and not a river of vodka.”
“I shouldn’t have done that,” she still refuses to look at you.
You nod, your lips briefly folding into your mouth, “You shouldn’t have, but I know you won’t do it again.”
“How can you possibly know that?”
“Like I said, I know you. That and… I think we both could benefit from going dry.”
She frowns, “Just because I can’t control myself, doesn’t mean you have to suffer too.”
“Lena you act like you haven’t found me in that same position a thousand times. If not with a bottle, then with a pipe. I know how you feel because I feel it too, but you’re not alone.”
She meets your eyes with a childlike hope burning though them. You can tell you’re getting through to her.
“I’m here. I will always be here,” you hold her gaze.
She crumples into your arms. You support her weight as she clutches onto your top. You can feel the dampness of her tears seeping through your shirt.
“Ya tebya lyublyu,” she whispers into the fabric of your clothing.
“I love you so much Yelena,” you rub soothing circles on her back.
She straightens up a little sniffing and wiping her eyes, “Ok, ok, I feel better now.”
You smile at her, “Good, because we have to go back to the hotel. I have boxed macaroni ready to be cooked.”
“With hot sauce?”
You kiss the side of her temple, “Of course I got the sauce.”
When you get back to the hotel the blonde wordlessly cleans up the mess she made in the bathroom. While she does that you cook the macaroni. By the time she’s done, so are you.
You make dumb jokes as you eat together. Lightening the mood exponentially. It’s something that’s bound to happen when the two of you are together. She’s your light and you’re finally beginning to understand you’re her’s too.
As much as you pressure Valentina to only send jobs that both of you can do, there are times where the woman doesn’t concede. Yelena was sent off to Malaysia, something about a lab. It wasn’t your mission so you didn’t know all of the details.
All you knew was that you had some anxieties about being apart. Things were better now, but there were still hard days.
Recently you could tell that something was bothering Yelena. She was keeping something from you. It only spiked your anxiety about her going on this mission alone. She wasn’t pulling away like she would’ve in the past, but she wasn’t letting you in.
It was a weird place to be in your relationship.
You check the time again, wondering when she would be home. You knew it would be late, but you predicted something earlier than this. It had been a few hours of you sitting on the couch of your home and waiting for her to walk through the door.
You had your fill of television and doom scrolling on the phone. All you want to do is cuddle in bed next to your girlfriend.
When she finally comes through the door, she leans her back against it while it’s closed. She stays there taking a few deep breaths, grounding herself. You watch her curiously, but let her have the moment.
When she opens her eyes, they land on you on the couch.
She smiles at you, “You didn’t have to wait for me dorogoy.”
You nod a few times, “I missed you, wanted to know you were safe.”
You walk over to her, she pulls you in for a chaste kiss, “I missed you too.”
The two of you make your way to the bedroom. You get in the bed while the Russian undresses.
“I thought you'd be home a while ago,” you say to her with no malice.
She freezes up a little, but doesn’t stop changing, “I made a little pit stop before coming home.”
You raise your eyebrow, “A pit stop?”
“You know a little errand before coming home,” she explains, climbing into bed.
“I know what a pit stop is Lena. Where’d you go?”
She mumbles an answer, but you don’t hear her.
“Yelena Fyodorovna Belova.”
She gasps, “Do not call me that.”
You scoff, “It’s your name, isn’t it?”
She squints her eyes, “I told you my middle name in confidence. Not so you could use it as ammunition.”
“Well, if you stop mumbling then I won’t resort to using it,” you counter.
She lets out an exasperated sigh, “Fine. I went to see Alexei.”
“Oh.”
She shakes her head, “This is why I didn’t want to tell you.”
“All I said was oh,” you defend.
“Because you hate my dad,” Yelena says it like it’s a fact.
“I don’t hate your dad.”
She sits up in the bed, crossing her arms, “You don’t?”
“No, I just hate how emotionally constipated and fixated on the past he is."
She throws her hands in the air, “So his whole personality?”
You change the subject, “How was seeing him?”
“I think you’re supposed to ask how he is doing first. If you are so keen about changing the topic.”
You let out a huff of annoyance, “How is he?”
She laughs, pulling you closer to her. Your head lies in her lap. Her fingers get tangled in your hair.
“He’s miserable, he misses being a hero.”
“Shocker,” you mutter under your breath.
“Now who is doing the mumbling?”
You smile up at her, “Sorry. Why’d you go see him anyway? It’s been like a year, hasn’t it?”
You see something in her demeanor change. She looks back down at you, “I was thinking of quitting.”
“Oh.”
She chuckles, “There you go with the ‘oh’ again. What does that even mean?”
You shrug, “Unexpected. I’m assuming he talked you out of it.”
“I asked Valentina for a more front facing role.”
“Oh.”
Yelena groans, “Can you please stop saying that?”
“Front facing like Natasha,” you ask, reaching up to cup her face.
“Yes.”
You trace the line of her jaw with your finger, “I’m proud of you.”
Yelena grabs your hand, placing a kiss on your palm, “Maybe you could join me.”
“Do I need to start powdering my nose? Do people still do that?” You joke.
Yelena rolls her eyes, “Your jokes remind me of my dad. Please stop.”
You pout, “My jokes are better than his.”
She kisses your wrist, “I’m serious though, would you do this with me?”
You move from your lying position to straddle the blonde’s waist. Your arms loosely hang on her shoulders. Her hands are planted on your hips.
You play with the hairs on the base of her neck, “I’d do anything with you, Lena. If you wanted to pull the stars from the sky, then I’d find a way to help you.”
“If I asked you to do that, you need to have me committed. I would be unwell to ask you such a thing.”
You stare at her blankly, “I’m trying to be romantic here.”
Yelena smirks at you, “Skill issue.”
You gasp, feigning offense, “You’ve never complained about my skill level before.”
Her faces scrunches up, “Get your head out of the gutter.”
You wiggle your eyebrows, “Trying to get my head between your-”
You don’t get to finish the sentence as Yelena attempts to toss you to your side of the bed. She doesn’t calculate it quite right and you end up on the floor.
You groan, “Ouch.”
She giggles at you looking over the edge of the bed, “It was an accident.”
You give her a sideways glance, “Sure it was. I can tell by the boisterous laughter.”
She offers you her hand, helping you get back in the bed. Once you’re in, she lays her head on your chest. You sling an arm around her.
“Do you think she'd be proud of me?”
She’s already drifting when she asks.
“More than you'd be able to comprehend,” you say, closing your eyes to follow in her footsteps.
You’re already awake when there’s a harsh banging on your front door. You’re waiting for Yelena to come back from her latest assignment. It was something with a vault and that was as much as you knew.
The banging startles you as it is unstopping. You pull your knife out immediately as you make your way to the door. You check the peephole and let out and irritated sigh. Yanking the door open, you stare at Alexei unimpressed.
He's wearing the red guardian costume.
“Hello Alexei.”
“Yelena is in danger.”
Those four words are all it takes for you to get into his raggedy limo.
You have your gear on, leg bouncing as you wish you would’ve opted on taking your car instead. The limo is big and flashy, easily noticeable. It’s also slow as shit.
Alexei fills you in about what he heard while driving Valentina. Your hands twitch as you picture yourself strangling the women.
“Why didn’t she send me too?”
Alexei’s incessant rambling almost stops in its track. His tone sobers up a bit, “She didn’t think you’d be a problem. If anything happened to Lena, she said you wouldn’t forgive yourself.”
You clench your fist together, “She’s right, but I’d kill her if anything happened to Yelena.”
Alexei lets out a laugh, “I knew I liked you when we first met.”
You roll your eyes, “Less laughing, more driving.”
He straightens up his posture, “We will find her.”
You’re trapped with the man for hours. The night shifts into day as worry starts to take over your system. He has just as much energy as when he was banging on your door.
It takes a minute, but you can notice that there is genuine concern under all of his semantics.
“Why did you come get me first? You could’ve left without me?”
He shook his head, “You are family. You care about her. I would not keep all of this glory for myself, when I know you want to save her as much as I do. That and I think she will be less mad if you are with me.”
His explanation makes you laugh to yourself, “Look who’s learning about their emotions.”
He keeps his attention on the road, “For her, I try.”
Once you’re far into the desert Alexei stops the car without warning. He gets out and starts screaming like a psycho before you even have the chance to stop him.
You hop out of the limo, pushing him in the chest, “Are you trying to let the entire world know that we’re here? What if there are enemies around?”
“Then we fight them. We are super soldiers, we can take them.”
You glare up at him, “Do not call me a super soldier.”
“You have serum in you, you are soldier. I don’t make rules,” he shrugs.
You shove him in the chest, “I’m serious. If you call me that again, I’ll drop you where you stand.”
He laughs in your face, “I like to see you try. I am red guardian, protector of-”
He doesn’t get to finish his sentence before you sweep his leg. He tumbles onto the ground with a heavy thud. You stand over him with a twinkle in your eyes.
“Fine, you’re not soldier. Happy now?”
You give him a tight-lipped smile, “Elated.”
You scan your surroundings, when you see three figures headed towards you. Reluctantly you help Alexei to his feet.
“See, you need to have faith in my plans,” he claps you on the back.
He begins to jog over, but you stop him, “I’ll jog. You bring the car.”
You waste no time sprinting in the direction of the figures. As they come more into focus, you pick up your speed.
When you’re in front of the three of them. You disregard the other two going straight for Yelena. You grab her by the face and start looking over her for injuries.
“Are you hurt? I’ll kill her, if you’re hurt.”
She grabs your arms, “I’m fine. How are you here right now?”
“Alexei brought me. He was driving Valentina and overheard her plan.”
You pull her into your embrace, squeezing her tightly. She senses the anxiety in the hug. Even though she would rather not let the other’s see, she keeps holding onto the hug.
“I’m right here,” she whispers so that only you can hear.
“I thought I lost you,” you tell her, freeing her from your hold.
She scoffs, “And leave you with Alexei? Absolutely not.”
“Y/n?”
“You have to be kidding me,” You say turning your attention to the man who called your name.
“Do you know her?” The woman with the Bristish accent asks the white man.
He nods, “All of us super-”
Yelena butts in, “She is not a super soldier. Do not call her that.”
He blinks at her, “Right, right, except she totally is. Winter Soldier level, super soldier created by Hydra. She might even be better than the Winter Soldier.”
“Shut up Walker, before I throw that shield through your head,” you feel your blood boiling.
“If this how you treat all your partners then I feel sorry for your girlfriend.”
You’re about to punch him, when Alexei honks his horn, signaling you all to get in his deathtrap of a limo. Ava drags Walker over first to create space between the two of you.
“You partnered with him?” Yelena asks before you get in.
“Valentina set us up on a few jobs together. That’s all.”
Yelena eyes go wide, “This is the egotistical maniac that you were talking about.”
You get in the limo, “Yep.”
“That makes a lot of sense.”
While you’re in the limo they fill you in about what happened at the vault. When they’re done Alexei fills them in on what he heard Valentina talking about. It’s a lot of information for everyone to process.
“So did Bob die or?”
“We don’t know,” Ava answers honestly.
You frown, “Poor guy.”
Yelena goes to comment, but that’s when she notices the trucks following behind you.
“We have company.”
The group springs into action trying to take out the vehicle, but it’s proving to be damn near indestructible. The back window of the limo gets shot out. Ava is shooting out of the window, but John quickly pulls her in once the fire begins to get too much.
“Doesn’t this thing go any faster?”
“I’m on it,” Alexei calls out, he steps on the gas, but you’re barely up to 55.
It’s then that the cars begin to get disarmed, one by one You’re not entirely relieved when you see who’s responsible for it, but at least Valentina’s guys are off of you.
“It’s Bucky!” John on the other hand is more enthusiastic.
The group starts cheering thinking they evaded, danger, but you know better. Bucky is a complex individual. You’re proven right when he shoots something at the limo causing the back to explode as you all tip up into the air and then crash onto the floor.
You find yourselves tied up on a plane, with the former Winter Soldier turned congressman looking over you. You all try to explain to him what happened, but he doesn’t believe you.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
John drops the pretense, “It means you know me Bucky, so cut the shit and listen to what we’re trying to tell you.”
“Yeah, I know you John, and you made your choices. I know it’s been hard since Olivia left you and took your kid, but it’s still on you.”
John shuts up after that, but you don’t.
“That’s rich coming from you, Bucky. What happened to Steve again? Talk about people leaving, not only did he abandon his team when they needed him the most. He gets to live his happy ending while we all suffer. He gets to relive his glory days while we get relieve our nightmares.”
Your words shake him and you know it, but he just pushes past them.
“You’re all evidence in Valentina’s trial.”
You let out an annoyed groan, “From hydra agent to government puppet, what a change.”
He steps over to you calmly, “And what have you done since being free besides follow her around like a lost dog? Maybe she should collar you and call you Fanny.”
You stand, breaking the restraints he tied you in, “ I was being a goddamn hero. I’m one of the people that helped saved half of the universe. I’ve repented for what I’ve done and I’ve earned the right to my happy ending.”
“Did you earn it or did Natasha hand it to you?”
You push him. Hard.
His back slams against the wall of the plane. The sound echoed in the space. You feel yourself, losing control.
“And who scrubbed your ledger clean Winter Soldier?”
There’s an indent from where his metal arm braced for impact against the plane. He sucks his teeth, “You want to do this?”
“Do you?” You challenge him.
“Let’s go super soldier.”
He charges at you, but you side step his attack.
“Is now really the time for this?” Ava asks the rest of the group.
Walker shrugs, “Don’t know, but I’m rooting for Y/n.”
“Me too,” Alexei nods.
Ava shares a pleading look with Yelena. The blonde huffs in annoyance, “He shouldn’t have brought up my sister.”
“If they break the plane, we will die,” Ava deadpans.
Bucky takes your arm, and twists it behind your back. You throw your head back knocking him square in the nose. He releases the hold and you quickly turn to throw a fury of strikes his way. He dodges most of the punches but when you send a hard kick to his chest he stumbles backwards.
He holds his abdomen and you smirk at him. As he goes for the next attack his phone rings. You let him answer it. You all hear the person on the phone basically reiterate what you were saying.
“Bob?”
“BOB,” you all say in unison.
He looks at you, and then the rest. Before hanging up the phone. He starts with Ava’s restraints. You take initiative and break Yelena’s.
“How come you could break out of yours, I was pulling these with everything I had,” Walker comments when he’s freed.
You shrug, “Ask Hydra.”
Alexei chimes in, “Must be difference between real deal and knock off.”
Bucky rallies the team the best he can, not like they have much of a choice. You aren’t necessarily thrilled, but you do want to get your hands on Valentina. Yelena seems very keen on saving Bob. So that’s the plan. When you’re on the ground, you’re loaded into a van.
Alexei takes shotgun with Bucky, while the rest of you were loaded into the back. It’s quiet for a few minutes before Yelena starts talking about her weapons. Ava pulls out hers next, and then Walker. He asks about his helmet and it gets you to chuckle.
“What about you Y/n?”
“I have widow bites like Lena. Hunter blade, 9inch dagger, throwing knives, retractable knuckle blade,” you show off some of your knives.
“No gun?” Ava comments.
You shake your head, “Don’t need it.”
“And if you did?” Walker questions.
Yelena answers for you, “Then I have an extra for her, but I can guarantee you that she doesn’t need one.”
“Well aren’t you two adorable,” Ava gushes.
You grow bashful at her words.
“How long have you been together?” Walker questions.
You tilt your head to the side a bit, “We met at the tail end of 2016. Got together like beginning of February 2017. Then we’re together until Thanos happens. Lena got blipped. I obviously wasn’t moving on but I can’t say we were together. Then from when the blip was over until now, we’ve been together. So 5 years, but also like 10 years.”
“And no ring?” Ava teases and it makes you blush even harder.
“I- we’ve been busy.”
Yelena takes over, “We've never really talked about marriage. The whole shadow operative thing kind of gets in the way of that.”
John looks at you both incredulously, “Have you ever heard of eloping? What kind of couple is together for 5 years and hasn’t talked about marriage.”
“I knew from the moment we got together, that I’d spend the rest of my life with her. There was nothing to talk about. I’ve never questioned it,” you answer him honestly.
Her hand slides into yours, “Me too. Marriage or no marriage, she is stuck with me.”
John pretends to barf, “Disgustingly cute.”
You lean your head against her shoulder, “She’s my everything.”
Yelena doesn’t shy from the PDA, she kisses the crown of your head. You relishes in the moments, knowing that in just a few short minutes it would be over.
It’s sudden when you feel the van crash into a building. As soon as you hop out, you begin fighting. The group goes to work almost resembling a team as you fight the people in the lobby.
When Valentina’s voice rings out from the intercom the fighting comes to a halt. You all pile into an elevator up to her office. When it dings you are in a very open room. Valentina stands alone, like she had been waiting for you.
Bucky takes the lead. He tells her that it's all over that she has lost. With all of her loose ends in this room, she’d be going away for a long time. Yelena asks her about Bob, but Valentina ignores her.
“Are you still ready for your close up, Yelena?”
“Eat shit Valentina,” she responds unamused.
Bucky gets in her space as she sets her drink down. He goes to grab her, but something stops him.
“I’m not alone,” you can hear the smile in her voice.
Aa blonde man emerges from the stairs. He’s wearing a golden suit with a big ‘S’ on the waist line. A blue cape flows behind him as he makes his descent.
“Hey guys,” he says it casually.
“Bob what happened to you?” Yelena sounds utterly crushed.
Valentina answers for him. She calls him the Sentry and explains that he will be disposing of your little rag tag group. She calls him Earth’s Mightiest hero.
“I’m not going to let you erase them from history,” you step forward.
The Sentry blocks your path, “I don’t want to fight you guys. How about you just turn yourselves in.”
Valentina scoffs, “The Avengers aren’t coming back Y/n. Natasha isn’t coming back. It’s time for you to move on.”
“Enough talking, let’s fight,” Alexei charges the Sentry.
The fight begins. Everyone springs on their own individual attacks on the blonde man, but it doesn’t last. He disarms Ava and Walker first. Then he throws Alexei out of the window before dragging the man back in just to toss him aside.
Meanwhile Yelena is trying to keep the peace. You hold back listening to her pleas. She looks at you, turmoil on her face.
“I’m with you,” you tell her.
She nods before going for Sentry. She gets on his shoulders trying to choke him out. She pleads with him from the position, “Bob, stop.”
He slings her off. You’re going to attack him right then but Bucky puts a hand on your chest. He stares at the blonde, before taking one of his shirts off.
He goes for Bob, activating the part of him that he can’t forget. That same demon that lives inside of you.
Sentry blocks every attempt of contact, eventually grabbing hold of Bucky’s metal arm. While he has his grip on Bucky you move in throwing your strongest punch at his chest.
The force has the Sentry sliding back, taking Bucky’s arm with him. It’s not terribly far back, but it’s something. You don’t get a chance to follow it up, before you feel a vibranium arm knock you across the face. You go sliding with the others.
He tosses Bucky’s arm to the floor. Ava scrambles to grab it an you all pile back into the elevator, retreat the only thing on your minds.
When they get out of the building the arguing starts immediately. There’s a bunch of accusations and finger pointing going around.
All you can focus on is the look on Yelena’s face you reach for her, but she pulls away from you.
“Oh my god stop. There is no us. There is no we. Bob changed into that thing and there’s nothing any of you can do about it.”
Ava goes against her, “And what did you do exactly? I seem to remember you getting your ass beat way more than mine.”
“Yeah, yeah I suck. I’m terrible. We’re all terrible. Ava you’re not a hero, you’re not even a good person,” her arms are moving wildly as she speaks.
“Bitch,” Ava relents.
Alexei intervenes, “Slow down amishka.”
Yelena cuts him off, “Alexei, I am not your amishka. I haven’t heard from you or seen you in a year.”
John tries to de-escalate the situation, “Go easy on him.”
She whips her head around to him, “Oh so you're nice now?”
“It’s my turn?”
“No, you know you’re a piece of trash Walker. So does your family.”
He doesn’t have a comeback, “Jesus.”
She throws her hands up, “We’re all losers and we lost.”
She starts to walk off. The rest of them look at you, expecting you to say something. All you do is sigh, and start to walk after your girl.
Alexei follows after you, “Let me try.”
Against your better judgement, you let him go ahead of you. You keep a steady pace as he runs to catch up with Yelena.
“Oh my god stop. If you cared you would’ve called. I would’ve heard from you.”
He stares at her, with sorrow in his eyes.
Her eyes water and her voice breaks, “I lost my sister again, but forever. And you disappeared.”
“I’m sorry. I don't know how to do this. I’m not good at it,” he steps towards her.
“Papa it’s all just too heavy. All I do is sit and scroll on my phone and think about all of the terrible things that I’ve done. Even with an attentive partner I just feel like a burden. She works like this because I work like this. I can’t handle my drinks, so she doesn't drink. All I do is take up space.”
Alexei looks back at you.
“I didn’t think you needed me,” he answered.
“I did.”
He nods, “I see that. I’m late but I'm here now.”
You walk past Alexei, right up to Yelena. You take both her hands in yours. She doesn’t pull away like she did before.
“I don’t care about the work. I don’t care about the drinking. Yelena the only thing I care about is you. If you feel empty, baby I’ll do whatever it takes, for however long it takes, to make you feel something more. It’ll never be a burden to me because I love you. My love for you is the only thing in my entire life that has never felt like a burden. Not when you were sad, not when you were drunk, not even when you were gone. It keeps me strong, you keep me strong. I like it when you take up space because it means you feel comfortable and I always want that for you.”
You don’t break eye contact. You need her to feel what you’re saying, to believe it.
“Lena, I’m here always.”
That’s all it takes for her to pull you into a kiss. It feels like understanding. The way her lips fit with yours, makes you hopeful that you got through to her. Her forehead rests against yours when it’s over, “I love you.”
You smile, “I love you too.”
Alexei breaks up the moment by engulfing the two of you in a hug.
“Perfect family dynamic. Very healthy and happy,” he boasts.
It’s then that you notice people around you looking into the sky. You step from under the terrace, to see what they’re seeing. There’s a dark shadow floating in the sky. It sort of resembles…
“Bob,” it comes off of her lips as a whisper.
You look around, and people are vanishing out of thin air. The citizens begin to panic, you all spring into action.
Rubble falls from the buildings above when Sentry flings a plane into one. You move to punch through it before it lands on anyone.
Alexei and Yelena are working together to move others out of harms way.
It’s like you’re fighting Thanos again, but this time the field is full of civilians.
You help free a man from his car after the rubble blocks him in. You’re constantly surveying the area looking for to get people off of the streets.
You see Walker struggling to hold the weight of a massive piece of rubble. Your makeshift group attempting to help him. Part of you wants to laugh at their struggles, three super soldiers vs big concrete.
You’re quick to join them, taking a spot next to Yelena. You put one hand on the rubble and give it a little shove. It almost instantly topples over. They all look at you and you fight the urge to flex in front of the crowd.
The citizens around you start to clap. It’s unlike anything you ever experienced. It puts warmth in your chest.
The celebration doesn’t last long as Alexei uses his body to protect a little girl from falling debris. As he checks in with her to tell her she’s safe she vanishes right in front of him.
You don’t hold back your gasps. You feel your heart pounding in your chest, but you don’t have time to panic. The people need to be evacuated from the streets. You can feel the impending horror as you watch more and more people vanish. You’re helping herd people into a building when you realize Yelena is not with you.
Alexei calls out to her, “Yelena!”
That’s when you see her at the edge of the shadows, talking to the Sentry. If she’s heard him you can’t tell. Your legs start carrying you towards her.
“YELENA!” Your voice booms in the empty streets.
She looks back briefly. Her eyes meet yours. It feels like an eternity yet, she takes a step into the void.
You scream, you scream like your heart has been pulled from your chest.
“No, no, no, no, no, no,” you start to blink rapidly, hoping that what you saw was a vision.
There are tears streaming down your face. You could feel people trying to hold you back, when all you want to do is run head first into the darkness.
“I can’t, not again. I can’t,” you’re hysterical, but your feet are planted.
You can’t move back. Last time she disappeared you couldn’t do anything about it. You’d lost 5 years, but this time was different. You could step into that void and chase after her.
“Y/n come on,” Bucky tries but you shrug him off.
You push them all away, “I am not losing her again!”
You stare up at the dark mass floating in the sky. He looks down at you curiously.
“I can make it all go away. All of your pain, all of your suffering.”
“You can’t and I don’t want you to,” you take step closer to the dark edge. “I will save Yelena, but I’m going to save you too Bob.”
You step into the darkness.
“We will continue until you break through the stone.”
You freeze at the voice.
“I can’t it’s too hard,” you recognize your own voice, begging.
“I didn’t ask what you could do. I said you will keep punching until you can break through the stone. Now punch.”
They had pulled you off the streets about a month ago, injected you with the serum. You were around 11. The fact that the serum alone didn’t kill you made it a success.
You knew what would happen next. The younger version of you punched the block of concrete over and over and over again. Even after you broke your hand, the cement barely gave.
When you hear the bones in your hands break, you try to intervene. You place your hand between the younger version of yourself and the target.
“Enough,” you mutter staring at yourself.
“It doesn’t work like that here,” the child's eyes are blank.
She sweeps your leg to take you down and begins to climb on top of you, punching you repeatedly. The broken hand doesn’t stop her.
You grab it and it’s as if the scene resets. You’re on your back watching the younger version of yourself punch the concrete again.
You stand, looking for a way out of the room. You see a metal door bolted shut. Without hesitation you begin slamming your shoulder against it.
The timing begins to line up with the sound of your younger self punch the concrete. You don’t take any solace in knowing that eventually the concrete does break.
With that thought at the front of your mind the steel door falls off its hinges and rush into what you believe to be an open hall.
It’s only when you’re fully inside that you realize it’s not a hallway. It’s a bathroom.
You can tell by the cracks in the porcelain sink that it is the day after Yelena was blipped. Shards of the mirror are scattered inside of it. The younger version of yourself has one hand gripping the sink and another on a gun.
Her head is down and her body is tense.
That day you had slammed your hand against the mirror and instantly felt stupid. You held the sink so hard it cracked. It had been less than 24 hours without her and you were falling apart. You remember the feeling of gun against your skull.
You pulled the trigger, but it wasn’t loaded. You kept pulling it, wishing you could leave all of this behind.
The illusion of you begins to sob as the gun falls from her hand. She crumples onto the floor, head in her hands.
You walk over to pick up the gun. Your hand rests on top of her head, stroking the hair calmly.
“She will come back to us,” you say as you aim the gun at the ceiling.
You shoot and the room moves, allowing you to crawl through the opening.
“Where is she?”
Clint couldn’t look you in the eye. He tossed the stone to Tony and tried to walk away. You grabbed him by the shoulder, so he was face to face with you.
“Clint,” your voice was stern.
You walked past the scene. This is moment in life when you thought you’d never have anything worth loving again. Yelena was gone, Natasha was gone, all you had was your past. All the wrongs you did, all the mistakes you made, all the people you’d kill. You felt hopeless.
That isn’t the case anymore. Yelena is here, you won this war. You got her back not only for yourself, but for Natasha.
You will find Yelena, there is not a doubt in your mind. You are certain, hopeful even. No matter how many traumas you have to go through, seeing her at the end makes it all worth it.
In the glass window of the building, you can see what looks like an old attic. It’s not something from your memories, but you know it doesn’t belong here.
You put your hand into the window first, watching it disappear, then your body follows it. There’s chaos around as furniture flies at you. You are able to dodge the stray pillows that are coming right for your head.
Then it all stops. The rest of the team has found their way here as well. It fills you with relief to know that you don’t have to do this alone.
“What did you see? Are you ok?”
Walker answers first, “Oh I’m fine.
Then Bucky, “I have a great past.”
Then Ava, “Totally fine.”
Yelena turns her attention to you. She’s waiting for you to say something.
“That fucking sucked,” you let out a broken laugh at the end of it.
“Well at least we’re all together now,” Ava finds the silver lining.
“Thanks guys,” Bob says.
You can’t help but size him up a little. He’s different than when you saw him in Valentina’s office. He seems a little shy, buy there’s a kindness that’s clearly on his face. You know that he essentially sacrificed himself to help these strangers escape. He probably saved your girlfriend’s life.
This isn’t the guy in the gold suit with dyed blonde hair, it’s not the dark ominous cloud terrorizing New York, this is Bob. A real man with intense emotions that can sometimes overtake him. He deserves to be saved.
So that’s what you do. You fight through Bob’s most painful memories. From his abusive parents to his drug induced psychosis, all the up to the moment the Void was created.
The Void pins everyone down except for Bob. You’re against the floor with a table pushing down on to your legs. You watch as Bob goes up against the physical embodiment of his darkness. For a moment you think he’s winning, until you see the shadow climb up his pant leg.
“Bob, this is what it wants you have to stop,” you call out to him.
It falls on deaf ears as he throws punch after punch to the Void.
You glance over at Yelena, who is trapped against a door next to Alexei. You use all of the strength that you have to get the table off your legs. Your steps are making dents in floor as you walk over to them.
Alexei tries to create enough space for Yelena to slip out. You extend your hand towards her and she grabs it.
“Trust me,” she says.
You nod, “Always.”
She signals for you to fling her across the room. You do it with no hesitation. You’re not too far behind her, though you feel the Void trying to create distance between Bob and the rest of the team.
Yelena gets to him first, wrapping her arms around the man. You are on the other side of him, squeezing him with all that you have. Soon the rest break free from their confines and join in to make Bob feel less alone.
Then suddenly it’s all over.
You’re back in New York, sprawled out on the floor. You let out a breath that you didn’t know you were holding.
You kept close to Bob, partially enjoying the comfort. Yelena’s gets up first, extending her hand towards you. You allow her to pull you up.
She doesn’t get to say anything before you’re kissing her. You hold her face in your hands as your lips move against hers delicately. It’s a fragile kiss, something like the one you first shared.
“I thought I lost you again.”
Her lips touch yours once more, “I will always be here.”
“We still have one last thing to deal with guys,” Bucky says as he gets his eyes on Valentina.
You can’t stop yourself from throwing a small knife in her direction. You miss, but it's on purpose.
“We get to kill her right?” Alexei comments as you all zero in on the woman.
“Alright guys, I know we’re going through a lot of feelings right now. Just give me half second,” Valentina holds her hands up as she backs away.
“Oh I'd like to kill her,” Ava says gleefully.
Bucky shakes his head, “We’re taking her in.”
You see Bob hanging behind a bit. You place your hand on his shoulder, “Come on.”
“Me too?”
You flash him a small smile, “From now on we stick together.”
He returns the gesture, “That’s nice.”
The two of you are the last to walk through the curtain. There’s press everywhere. Cameras flash pictures of all you standing behind Valentina.
Bob stands off to the side with Valentina’s assistant while you stand next to Yelena.
You lean over to whisper in her ear, “What the fuck is she doing?”
“Saving her own ass.”
Valentina turns to look at the group with her arms wide, “Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, meet the new Avengers.”
There are alarms going off in your head as she says that. The press’s cameras flash more frequently, as soon as she makes that announcement.
“Is this real?”
Walker claps a hand down on your shoulder, “Feels pretty real to me."
Your eyes cut over to Yelena, who says something to Valentina before taking a step back. You move to stand next to her.
“Front facing looks good on you,” you smirk at her.
She gives you a once over, “I could say the same about you.”
“So what now?” Ava asks the team.
Bucky speaks up, “You guys like shawarma?”
Alexei laughs happily, “I love shawarma."
“I could eat,” Walker replies.
Bob agrees, “Me too. Kind of starving actually.”
You sling your arm around Yelena’s waist, “I guess we’re getting shawarma then.”
You keep her close as you walk away from the press. The team follows Bucky’s lead and you end up back in a van.
Yelena’s head rests against your shoulder during the car ride. The rest of your companions chatter, filling the silence.
“Do you want to elope?” Yelena say so that only you can hear.
“Your last name is cooler than mine, so I guess it only makes sense,” you reply.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
You roll your eyes, “It’s just a creative way of saying yes. Is fun no longer allowed, because we’re Avengers?”
“You have a weird idea of fun.”
You kiss her forehead, “Yet you still asked me to marry you, checkmate.”
“Whatever,” she buries her head further into your neck.
“I love you,” you say as you begin to rest your eyes, exhaustion finally taking over.
pairing ; robert (bob) reynolds x reader, thunderbolts & reader
synopsis ; you had one last job before you were free. no more splitting, no more deaths. unfortunately, that job seemed to rope in four other assassins and a... a man in hospital-wear?
words ; 7.8k
themes ; action, angst, slowburn, the beginnings of romance
warnings / includes ; violence/gore/death, human experimentation, reader has the ability to split into multiple bodies (think dupli-kate from invincible), foul language, walker is an asshole, everyone's mental health sucks!
a/n ; this is part one !!! a second part is already in the works :) this was written all today so apologies if there are any mistakes!
main masterlist. read on ao3!
It didn’t seem a hard task. One kill. One more. Then you could go. Quit the clean-up business for good. You could practically hear Valentina’s sickly sweet smile through the phone.
“You’ll be in and out of there in no time,” her voice crooned. “And I wouldn’t worry too much about your target. After all, you’re rather… disposable, aren’t you?”
You frowned at that. “My self-copies aren’t disposable. I feel it every time one of me dies.”
Valentina laughed—a high-pitched keening noise. You assumed she was waving her hand about in a dismissive manner, as she usually did with you. “You’ll get back up. That’s kind of your thing, isn’t it? Good luck. Try to have some fun. It’ll be your last one, anyway—make the most of it.”
“Yeah,” you said. Your free hand wound around your midriff, almost as if you were cradling yourself. “I’ll take care of it.”
You hung up before you could hear Valentina say one more word.
There were ringing gunshots, muffled grunts, and resounding thuds when you arrived. Who else was here? Your target was only one person—an untouchable woman. A Ghost. Would a thousand of you be able to tackle one of her?
Or perhaps the better question was… were you willing to sacrifice yourself a thousand times to kill one woman? You definitely have before, on previous missions. Over and over again, the bitter taste of death was stuffed into your mouth, dry as a sock, tainting your innards like black tar.
You waited outside the junk room’s entrance, counting the voices you heard. One man, for sure. One unidentifiable. Two women. You split yourself into two, then three. With a begrudging sigh, you spliced once more to make four.
Three copies ran in. One stayed out.
You spotted the ghost immediately. She was phasing between the shield of another masked assassin. Were they also here to kill her? Another copy spotted a woman being pinned down by another man, a blade inches away from her throat. Not your mission, not your problem.
Though, it certainly became your problem when the woman croaked, “There you are!” upon seeing you. “Holy shit, there’s three of you.”
She bucked the man off after tasing him, scrambling towards her gun. A click, a point, a shot. Your copy dove behind a pile of sturdy cases, but clearly not fast enough. You felt the bullet pierce your chest, the warmth of the blood pool across your ribs—and then you were dead.
“Fuck,” you winced, feeling the resounding ache of the gunshot in your own body, eyeing your dead self. Without a second thought, you split once more. Your copies scattered from your assailant, off to find the ghost.
You tackled your white-masked target as soon as she materialized once more, managing to get only one powerful strike in before you fell to the ground, the ghost phasing away and disappearing once more. Then your head pierced with the terrible, agonizing pain of a bullet fracturing your skull, and you were dead. Again. And again, and again. Impaled by a shield, stabbed by the ghost.
You gasped from outside the room, crumpling to your knees. How many more times were you willing to die? How many times could you?
Then there came a nauseous, gagging sound from inside the room. For a moment, you wondered if one of your copies had miraculously survived and was making that sound. You split yourself and crawled inside. Maybe you could save yourself. Spotting you coming in, the man with the shield seemed to realize there was one of you waiting outside. He sent the shield—already covered with your blood—arcing outside and striking you clean across the throat before you could react. Your decapitated head hit the metal floors with a disgusting, bloody noise, lolling to the foot of the entrance.
That left one copy inside the room. You gasped for breath, air painfully dragging within your esophogas as you clutched at your neck, the veins beneath your skin popping. For safety, you duplicated yourself once more.
“Woah,” came a voice beside you. There was a man in… hospital clothes? You scrambled away from him. He watched you with an open mouth, blinking in a manner not unsimilar to an owl.
One of the assassins was dead already, bullet wound in the head, not unsimilar to one of your deaths here. You could see your own bodies scattered about, in varying states of mutilation. The three assassins left were all pointing their guns at each other, then you and your copy, then to the man gagging next to you.
“Which one of you is the real you?” said the blonde woman.
“I’m all me,” the both of you said at the same time.
She shuddered. “Well, that’s not creepy at all.”
The man on the ground made a disoriented noise, as if realizing that he really shouldn’t be in a room full of people with guns trying to kill each other. “Actually, I—” He struggled to his feet, then turned to run. Thick metal shutters fell down over all the entrances before he could leave. It crushed your decapitated head as if it were a grape, your blood splattering all over you, your copy, and the hospital-man.
Shit. If you were still outside, you could have gotten away.
The assassins all trained their guns at the man, spooked by his skittish movements.
“No, no!” he exclaimed, raising his hands in surrender. “I’m—I’m Bob.”
It didn’t look like he had any place to hide weapons. Still, just to be safe, you split yourself again, now three of you. The faux Captain America flinched. “Fuck!”
“Who?” said the ghost, eyes trained on Bob.
“Bob,” said Bob, shrugging.
“Who sent you, Bob?” asked the blonde woman.
“Nobody, why would I be sent?” he said, hands trembling. He was afraid. “You were all… you guys were all sent?”
His question went largely ignored. The woman’s eyes, lined with hazy blue makeup, darted to you. “You—how am I meant to kill you if you can’t die?”
You raised your hands in surrender now, mimicking Bob. “I can die. It’s the one thing I’m really good at.”
Something flickered in her gaze. She lowered her gun just slightly. “Who sent you?”
The ghost rolled her eyes and lowered her gun. “I’m not sure what’s happening here, but my job is done.” She gestured to the dead assassin on the ground and stepped forward to go.
One of your copies blocked her way. “My job isn’t.”
She scoffed, then phased straight through you. You felt a cold chill traverse down your spine.
“Neither is mine,” said the blonde woman, turning the barrel of her gun to you.
“Don’t waste your time,” you snarled. “I have infinite lives. You have finite bullets—do the math.”
The man with the shield tilted his head at the woman. “Convenient cover for someone stealing weapons from O.X.E.”
“I’m not stealing, Copy-Cat here is ste—” She paused, and realization came over her bloodied face. Then, she raised her hands in the same way you did. “Okay. It’s clear we have all worked for Valentina in some sort of shadow ops capacity.”
“Yeah, so?” said the man.
“So all of this shit is O.X.E’s secrets. And so are we.” She gestured to the mountainous stacks of boxes and crates.
You felt your heart sink to your stomach. You should’ve known Valentina would pull something like this with you. It should’ve been suspicious how easily she accepted your request to leave. How could you be so stupid? So naive?
“We’re liabilities no one would miss,” said Ghost.
The man scoffed. “Speak for yourself. I was sent here on a mission.”
“Look around!” said the blonde. “We are the evidence, and this is the shredder! She wants us gone.”
The three began to bicker over who was in the right. From their argument, you learned that the man with the shield was John Walker, officially Captain America for about three seconds before he had murdered a man in public. And the blonde woman—tasked with the impossible mission of eliminating you—was Yelena. Former Red Room assassin.
Bob began to shuffle closer to you, and you tensed.
“Hey—” he said, reaching out a hand to help you up. “Are you okay? I watched you die, like, fifty times or something.” He fidgeted when you hesitantly accepted his hand, pulling yourself up with his help. Bob took turns smiling at you and your clones, all lopsided. He was so… off-putting. You scrutinized him with a narrowed gaze.
“What are you doing here, Bob? You clearly aren’t… like us.”
“Wh… Why not?”
“You’re in a patient uniform. It’s the kind of shit I always wore as a kid,” you said, beckoning to his pants.
Bob was about to respond, but clammed up when John Walker began stalking closer to the two of you. Subconsciously, Bob edged behind you, almost as if he were using you as a shield. You sure as hell didn’t know who Bob was, or what he was doing here, but he certainly didn’t seem deserving of the piercing glare Walker was sending his way.
“I’m not leaving here without completing my mission,” said the man. “Valentina gave me a clean slate, guaranteed—I’m not screwing that up.”
“And you believe her?” you said in disbelief, almost a whisper. You stepped back, bumping into Bob in the process. He felt strangely solid behind you. “She promised to let me go. A rogue, powered assassin let loose out of the cage. I was stupid for letting myself believe her. And you are, too.”
Walker’s face crumpled with anger. “Listen here, you freak. You multiply like… like bacteria. Obviously Valentina doesn’t trust you. She may be lying to you, but she trusts me. And you—” He rounded on Bob. “You were part of my job, so I gotta know. How’d you get in?”
You shifted so you’d be able to see Bob. He seemed to shift with you slightly, unhappy that you were no longer between him and John. Fidgeting with the cuff of his sleeve, Bob shrugged. “I don’t… Pfft. I don’t know. I don’t remember.”
One of Walker’s eyes twitched. “Terrific answer. Great. Well, alright!” He beckoned to you, Yelena, and Ghost. “Tie yourselves up. I’m sure there’s rope in here somewhere.”
“Wow,” said Ghost—Ava, you remembered reading her name from your mission casefile. “No.”
“Hey,” whispered Bob, tugging on one of your copy’s utility belts. “I just realized I don’t—I don’t know your name.”
“Now’s probably not the time for niceties,” you said. After staring at him for a moment longer, you sighed. It was pitiful how lost he looked. “I’m known as Xerox.”
“Xerox—that’s a… that’s a cool name. Way better than Bob.”
To your surprise, you found yourself giving him a small twitch of a smile. “Bob’s a palindrome. Same backwards as it is forwards. That earns it at least half a point on the cool scale.”
Bob paused, regarding you with an equally twitchy, uncertain grin. “I never thought about it that way. Yeah, that’s… thanks.” He let out a nervous laugh that was obviously forced—and yet still somehow endearing.
As you spoke with Bob, Ghost walked on ahead, intent on leaving. She phased out of tangibility, so you knew there was no way you could stop her even if you tried. You watched her go passively—you no longer cared if you failed your mission. It was clear it wasn’t a real mission, anyway. You were glad that Yelena had come to the same conclusion. She didn’t seem intent on wasting any more bullets in your copies’ skulls.
When Ghost drew within an inch from the door, a piercing sound echoed throughout the chambers. You and your copies keeled over in pain. The noise made violent shudders ripple through your body. It reminded you of all those times you had to be strapped down when you were a child before you could control your powers, riding out your seizures with a belt across your mouth to muffle your screaming.
You could feel shaking hands drift to cover your ears for you. Bob’s. Your head snapped up, meeting his worried gaze.
Eventually the noise subsided, and his touch fell away.
“You didn’t have to do that,” you said, eyeing him cautiously. What did he want from you?
“You were hurting,” was all he said in response, tone hesitant and soft, as if worried he’d done something wrong.
You felt your face soften and you let out a weak exhale, suddenly feeling as if your heart was going to fall out of your chest. Why was he making you so flustered?
The five of you were left sitting around for the next ten minutes. Walker and Ava took to raiding the dead assassin, Taskmaster’s body. Yelena didn’t seem too happy with that, snapping at them to respect the dead, job or not.
“You knew her?” you quietly asked the blonde as she paced to and fro like a caged tiger, watching as Ava took a gun off the corpse.
“I did,” she said, nodding solemnly. Then, she gestured to your own dead bodies strewn about. “Sorry about—”
“It’s fine. Comes with the job,” you mumbled, voice soft.
Yelena nodded grimly. “You live and you die, right? You more than most, I suppose.”
You blinked at her. Before you could say anything back, a siren blared across the room. The lights turned an angry shade of red that made the blood on your hands look black as tar. You felt your stomach roil.
Ghost looked upward. “It’s not a shredder,” she said. “It’s an incinerator.”
There was a large timer by one of the entrances that started to count down from two minutes. “Two minutes before Valentina’s slate is wiped clean,” said Yelena.
“Don’t know that for sure!” John protested. “Could be for when they come to pick me up.”
You could only barely withhold yourself from driving your fist into the smug look on his face. It did, however, make you feel slightly better that you weren’t the most stupid, delusional one in the room.
“Do you not feel that? The temperature rising dramatically, as if heat were involved?” Ghost pointed up at the gaps in the ceiling, where heat was filtering in, so strong that space warped and wobbled looking through the columns of air.
“Oh, boy, that is no way to go,” said Bob, nervously wringing his hands.
Walker scowled. “Well, how would you like to go, Bob? With a hand around your throat choking the life out of you or a bullet to the head? Either could certainly be arranged!”
“Stop,” you barked. “You really want to spend your last moments alive being a complete asshole?”
The man clicked his tongue to the roof of his mouth. Yelena stepped in before another fight could start. “Listen, Ghost-lady—”
“Ava.”
“Sure, whatever. We need to get you through one of the walls so you can open the door.”
“She tried that already,” said John, eyes rolling up to the pipes on the ceiling.
“I know she did, but we haven’t tried shutting off the sound barrier!”
“If they built a barrier specifically for her,” you said, recalling your casefile. Her weakness was high-frequency sounds that caused interference with her suit’s technology. “The emitter must be in close-range. Somewhere inside the room. Outside would be too weak and dampened to work.”
Immediately, you spliced a few dozen times and scattered, looking for some sort of power source.
“What—what exactly are we looking for?” asked Bob, hurrying alongside one of your copies.
“Not stupid questions, Bob!” John said.
“Ignore him. Look for something with circuitry. Wires, a battery cell, that kind of stuff.” You tore through a few crates, feeling up the nooks and crannies of the walls.
Fifty seconds left on the clock, rapidly ticking down. You were no stranger to dying, but this was strangely a different experience altogether. True, complete death. It sounded like both a blessing and the most terrifying thing possible. You could feel the panic rise up like bile in your throat.
To your relief, Ava found the power source, and John immediately hacked away at it without thinking, orange sparks flying with the power of his strike. You would’ve been angry with his impulsive behavior if it hadn’t worked—Ghost successfully phased through the walls and disappeared.
Twenty seconds.
She was going to come back, right?
Ten.
The furnaces above grew hotter and brighter.
Nine.
One of your copies pushed Bob forward, since he was loitering directly beneath one of them. “Don’t stand under there.”
Five.
One of you caught sight of Yelena shutting her eyes in solemn acceptance.
Four.
You heard Walker curse under his breath.
Three.
You braced yourself. Would death be kind to you this time, despite all of its ugly cruelty before?
Two.
And then—a blaring siren. The slabs of metal began to shirk upwards. The four of you dashed out just as the columns of fire began to spew out.
Bob was slow. You split yourself multiple times to keep shoving him forward. You could feel fire engulf your body, shrieking as the searing flames tore through your suit, into your skin, eating at your flesh, burning you to a crisp.
Some of you escaped, thrown by the explosion. One died instantly with a broken spine. Others clung to the walls, injured but alive.
You watched in horror as many of your selves wailed in agony, dying a slow, agonizing death. You curled up into yourself, a few tears silently rolling down your cheeks. You supposed that was another one of your talents—you were very good at crying quietly.
“Thanks for coming back,” you heard Walker say to Ava.
“I had to use someone. They cut the power to the elevator.”
“Hey,” the ghost said, reaching out a hand to you. You looked up at her, furiously wiping the tears away with the back of your hand, trying your best to ignore the pain. “Come on. Up you get. We need to find a way out of here.”
When she helped you up, she noticed that you were shaking violently. “Are you okay?”
“I’ve never been set on fire before,” you murmured. “Burned alive is a new one to add to the books.” You kneeled down to close the eyes of one of your corpses. You caught sight of Bob on the other side of the room, having just woken up from being knocked unconscious beside Yelena. He was uninjured, to your relief.
“You helped me out,” he said, once you neared him. “Why did… Why did you do that? You died for me—so many times. I’m not…” He fidgeted uncomfortably. You could see the guilt weighing heavy in his eyes. “I’m not worthy enough for that.”
You didn’t know what to say. You were never good with sentimentalities.
To your dismay, John cut you to the chase. “I won’t disagree with you on that,” he told Bob. He stormed forward until he was nearly nose-to-nose with Bob, who cowered away just slightly before straightening himself to his full height. “I’m tired of your bullshit! Tell me how you got in here right goddamn now!”
“I swear I just woke up in this place,” he said, placating, as if he were talking to a spooked mare. “One minute I’m having my blood drawn for this medical study, and the next I’m here. I don’t know what’s happening, I really don’t.”
“Okay, then show me where you woke up!”
Bob hesitated, then pointed into the incinerated room. “In—in there.”
“Where everything’s on fire,” John deadpanned. “That’s real convenient.”
“Walker, relax,” said Yelena.
“You don’t remember anything?” asked Ava. “Bag over your head, a needle in your neck?”
“Chokehold? Nerve pinch?” Walker asked. It was beginning to feel terribly like an interrogation of sorts.
Bob stepped back again. “No, none of those.”
“I think he’s just a civilian,” said Yelena, eyeing Bob carefully.
With an edge to his tone, John hissed, “Okay, well, if he’s a civilian, he knows too much and if he’s an agent he sucks. Either way I say we throw him back into the fire!”
“No,” you said, glaring daggers at the man. “I died multiple times just to get him out. We’re not murdering an innocent man.”
“What do you want, a medal? And we don’t know he’s innocent!” Walker fired back.
Suddenly, Bob started to laugh. It was a wheezy, chuckling noise. You looked at him in surprise.
“You said you’re… Captain America?” he said, smiling incredulously.
John’s countenance grew even stonier than before. “What’s funny about that?”
“It’s just, heh, you’re… you’re an asshole,” Bob said between his peals of laughter.
There was a beat of tense silence. Then John smiled, wolfish. It didn’t quite reach his eyes. In an instant, he was an arm’s length away from you and Bob, grabbing Bob by the throat and shoving him back so hard his back crashed into the wall behind him. You scrambled forward, multiplying twice to place enough hands on Walker’s chestplace to shove him back. Yelena also came to help, physically placing herself between the two men.
“Okay, woah!” said Yelena, shooting a warning glare at John. “We swung our tiny dicks—it was a lot of fun, but we need to have some space now. Walker, you go over there. Bob, come with me.”
You watched the blonde woman whisk Bob off to the side, who followed her with no complaint. When you looked back at John, he was toeing one of your burnt corpses with his boot. He caught you staring at him and stopped.
“Sorry,” he said. Even he knew that crossed a line.
“Force of habit?” you taunted him with a tilt of your head.
John apparently had nothing to say to that. He turned away from you. Then, he began hacking at one of the walls with the shield. “There has to be a way out of here if we go in one direction for long enough, right?”
You shrugged. “Go right ahead. Be my guest.”
After a few more pummels, the solid concrete gave in and revealed metal doors. He pried them open, grunting with exertion, revealing an empty elevator shaft. There were no wires or indented surfaces to climb. Just sheer, smooth metal walls for as far as the eye could see. Likely even further than that. You gulped as you stared up.
“Hey, are you guys done with your therapy session yet?” John snarked to Yelena and Bob.
Yelena, after saying a final few words to Bob, let him go. Bob made his way to you. Whatever it was that Yelena said to him, Bob didn’t seem particularly settled. You decided not to dwell on it for too long.
“So, this is—our way out?”
“Looks like it. No way to climb, though,” you said. You glanced at his head. “You okay? That looked like it hurt.”
Bob glanced at you strangely, not used to others being concerned over his well-being. First Yelena, and now you. “Yeah, I’m fine. Can’t have been as bad as you.”
“It’s no competition,” you said, pursing your lips. Then, to the rest of the group, you asked, “Should we all get in there? Maybe we’ll figure something out once we scope it out.”
All of you crowded into the bottom of the elevator shaft, staring up at the endless void above.
“So… none of us fly? All of us just… punch and shoot?” Yelena asked, looking around.
“Don’t worry,” said Walker. “I got this.”
He pushed you and Ava to make more space for himself, ignoring both of your startled noises. Then, he leaped up. An insane distance for a regular human, and what you assumed was just above average for one pumped with super serum. You watched him disappear into the darkness for all about four seconds. And then you heard screaming as he came back down. Bob tugged you back just in time not to get crushed beneath John crashing back down on his shield.
“You should try that again,” Ava suggested, grinning down at him as he struggled back to his feet with a pained groan.
John looked at you and you clones expectantly. “You can multiply. Why don’t you, I don’t know, make enough copies for us to climb up there?”
“You want me to form a human ladder for you guys?” you asked, horrified.
“Well, yes—”
“My clones have limited range,” you interrupted, voice curt. “We’re a collective mind. If we don’t all stick within a few meters of each other, I get seizures and lose control.”
Walker frowned down his nose at you. “Is it not worth a shot?”
“Not unless you want to risk me spazzing out mid-climb and all of us falling to our deaths,” you retorted. “We need to think of something else.”
Then, Walker turned his gaze to Ava. “Can’t you just phase up there and throw down a rope for us, or something?”
“First of all, someone other than you would have to ask me,” she hissed. You had to admit, you were starting to warm up to her. “Second, I’ve only ever been able to hold it for a minute, and who knows how long it would take to get up there—I’d be crushed under the weight of it before I could phase back.”
“Just a minute?” Walker deadpanned. “What is it with you lab rats and your limitations?”
“Shut up!” both you and Ava exclaimed at the same time.
“I… have an idea,” said Bob, raising a tentative hand.
All of you turned to him expectantly.
Your backs were pressed up together, your legs splayed out onto the metal wall as the group slowly inched upward. For the plan to work, there was only space for one of you, so you reabsorbed your copies into one body again. The rest of the group watched you do it in a mix of muted curiosity and horror. Bob gave you an awkward thumbs up, which made you smile despite the ridiculousness of the entire situation.
A part of you wanted to leave a copy down on the ground in case something happened, but you couldn’t risk having a seizure if you got too far away, and with everyone else on the line, too.
“Ew,” said Yelena. “Which one of you is wet?”
“Sorry,” Bob winced. “I run hot.”
You shifted the arm looped around his, grimacing at the sweat dripping down your own face. “I get it. It’s fucking sweltering in here.”
“Someone’s got a weird, hard butt,” Walker groaned.
“That’s not my butt, that’s my suit,” Ava hissed in return. “Pardon me for the inconvenience—I only spent my entire life in labs, hooked up to machines so I could create this physical cage to keep my material body from disintegrating at all times!”
You heard Yelena let out a bark of a laugh. “You don’t want to start the whole sob story game. I’d win. Enslaved child assassin over here.”
For some reason, John said, “Well, you were just a kid, so—”
“Oh!” said Yelena. “Does that make it better? Gee, I wish someone had told me that earlier! That makes me feel so much better.”
“Not that it’s a competition, but I’ve spent my whole life quite literally dying over and over again,” you said.
“Oh, really?” said Walker. “Sounds like you’re making it a competition.”
You fell silent, not wanting to waste your breath arguing. The group, panting in ragged, short breaths, simultaneously decided to fall silent. You were so high up now that you couldn’t see the bottom of the shaft anymore.
After what felt like eons, Walker finally gasped out, “I see a door!”
“Now what?” Yelena asked.
“Uhm—I guess one of us should… go first…” said Ava from your other side, uncertainty weighing her words.
“No, then the rest of us would immediately fall!” protested Yelena, breath trembling with the strain of holding herself up.
“Shit… sorry guys, I guess I didn’t really think this through,” Bob muttered.
“Genius fuckin’ plan, Bob!” Walker exclaimed.
“Always making things worse,” the man on your right muttered.
Your brows furrowed. “Bob, we’re all the way up here because of you. Come on, we’re so close. I can duplicate and—”
“We can’t risk your additional weight,” Walker barked out. “One slip and we all come tumbling down!”
“Then what do you want to do?” you asked.
“Hand me a baton, I can reach it!” he said.
Immediate protesting ensued. “No way, you’re just going to leave us!” Yelena gritted out.
“We have to hurry, I don’t know how much longer I can keep my bloody boots from slipping!” Ghost said. True to her word, you caught sight of her shoes slowly gravitating downward.
Yelena inched upward. “Spin us around and we’ll—”
“No! Are you crazy?”
Bob shook beside you.
“Bob, are you alright?” you asked, wondering why he was tossing his head from side to side like a dog shaking off excess water.
“Cucumber—cucumber, cucumber!” he said, scrunching up his face.
“What the hell is happening?” Yelena asked.
“Growing up, somebody told me if you have to sneeze, you yell out cucumber to confuse your brain. I have to sneeze, but if I do, I’ll lose control and we’ll—”
“This is insane!” Walker bit out. “I can get us all out of here, I just need to go first!”
“NO!” Ava said. “There must be another way!”
Bob tilted his head back, knocking against yours. “Oh, no,” he said.
“Oh—” You began to panic. “Cucumber! Cucumber, cucumber! Bob!”
Yelena and Ava both began chanting with you. John, his patience worn thin, reached behind and grabbed Yelena’s baton. Then, he jumped out of formation.
You felt yourself falling, your heart dropping to the balls of your feet in sheer horror, trying your best to grip onto the slippery metal walls. In your panic, you duplicated yourself in an attempt to slow down your descent. Just above you, Ava punctured the walls with her dagger, braking to a halt.
Then, to your shock, you were abruptly smacked against the wall when Ava grabbed hold of your wrist. But only one of you.
“No!” you exclaimed, watching as your copy plummeted downwards with a blood-curdling shriek. After several seconds, you could feel your mind grow hazy, dizzy with the distance. “No, I’m—”
Your pupils rolled into the back of your head and you began to convulse. You didn’t register that Yelena had grabbed a hold of your ankle as she fell, and she sent a grappling hook down to catch Bob.
He tried his best to catch your copy, but you had streaked past so fast that you slipped right through his arms, and fell into the darkness below.
The rest of the group, minus Walker, who had climbed through the opening, watched as you shook about violently. After several agonizing seconds, there was a resounding thud and splattering noise. It seemed a twisted sort of blessing that the fall had killed your copy immediately. You broke free of your seizure but immediately fell into a bout of pain, doubling over. It felt as if you were on fire all over again, and someone had carved you open, poured honey all over your innards, and released a thousand fire-ants to crawl over you.
You were so out of it that you only barely realized Ava was pulling you through the entrance with John’s help. Yelena hauled herself up after that, Bob shortly following her.
The ghost kneeled down beside you, gently tapping your face as you came in and out of consciousness. “Hey. Don’t fall asleep on me.”
With slow, painful movements, you nodded, sitting back up. It took you another moment to realize that the entire group was huddled around you. “Oh, God. I felt my brains spill out down there.”
“What did you go doing that for?” Walker said in an irritating I-told-you-so tone, kneeling down beside you. “I told you not to duplicate yourself, didn’t I?”
“I really don’t think a lecture is needed right now, thank you,” Yelena told him.
“I’m sorry,” said Bob, looking wearing yet another expression of guilt. “I tried catching you, but—”
“Thanks, Bob,” you said, nothing but sincerity in your eyes. “I felt you. Thank you. And thanks for holding onto me, Ava. Even though I tried to kill you.”
The woman averted her gaze, clearly embarrassed. “Yeah, well. Would have been a terrible weight on my consciousness. So really, I did it for my own benefit.”
“Alright,” you said, not believing her in the slightest, but you decided not to comment on it.
With the help of Ava and Yelena, you stood up on your own two feet, albeit a little wobbly, and completely exhausted from the climb up.
“You selfish prick,” Ava spat at Walker. “If you had just waited for one goddamn second—”
“I made a tactical decision to secure my own safety before ensuring all of yours,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Pretty ungrateful, if you ask me.”
Then, something strange happened. Bob placed a hand on John’s shoulder, saying, “Thanks for saving us, Captain.”
Instead of making a snarky comment, John’s face grew dazed. Unfocused. He turned and stepped closer to the elevator shaft, feet just a few inches away from joining your dead clone on the ground.
“Walker?” Yelena asked, wondering what on earth he was doing. Both she and Ava stepped closer to check him out.
You looked to Bob, one of your brows arched. “What’s up with him?”
Bob spared you a cursory glance. “I don’t know,” he said. You chose to believe him, but frowned nonetheless. “Are you okay, though? You were—you were shaking really badly in there.”
“A seizure,” you whispered. “Sorry I scared you guys. I panicked and duplicated. It wasn’t very smart on my end.”
“No, I get it,” he muttered. “The only one you can truly trust is yourself. I get it.”
You tilted your head, regarding him curiously. As much as you thought Bob was a perfectly ordinary civilian, he said some very cryptic things sometimes. “Right… yeah.”
“I know I haven’t given you any reason to, but… you can trust me,” he offered. His hand trembled, and you could read the anxiety plainly across his features. When you took a second too long to respond, he retracted slightly. “But, I mean, you don’t have to if you don’t—”
“I trust you,” you said, cutting him off. You spared him a downturned smile, which made him relax just a smidge. “You haven’t given me any reason not to, Palindrome.”
The mellow blue of his eyes shone with mild amusement. He chewed on the inside of his cheek. “Is that my nickname now? Palindrome?”
“If you want it to be,” you said, shrugging. “It is a bit catchier than just Bob. The same forwards as it is backwards.”
Bob looked back to John, who still wouldn’t move away from the shaft's sheer drop. “I guess that’s fitting,” he whispered. “Nothing changes even if I want it to.”
Before you could ask him what he meant by that, John finally seemed to snap out of it. He stumbled back from the edge of the shaft.
“Jesus Christ,” Yelena said, completely bewildered. “Are you crazy? What did you do that for?”
“Do what for?” John grouched, waving her away as if she was a fly. “I wasn’t doing anything.”
“Ugh, nevermind, then,” said Ava. “It’s time we all get out of here.”
Once Ava pressed a button for the exit to slide open, light spilled in from outside. But—it was nighttime. You knew because you arrived at 10 PM on the dot, and you also knew for certain that not enough time had passed for the sun already to be rising. The lights were coming from cars. Multiple of them, at least three dozen. There was chatter as well. Boots. Guns. Tactical armor.
It was an entire squadron out there. No doubt sent by Valentina.
Ava, John, and Yelena then started bickering about a plan and who was in charge.
“I think I might just surrender, probably,” said Bob.
“I suppose she won’t hurt you if you’re just a citizen,” you said. “Maybe it’s for the best.”
“Okay, fine,” John said, shrugging. “Every man for themself, then.”
“Why should you be in charge?” snarked Yelena. “You almost killed all of us right there!”
John propped his fists onto his hips. “Well, let’s see—I’ve been in the trenches of every war-torn country there is, rescued God knows how many hostages, and shook the hands of two US presidents!”
“And how, pray tell, does any of that help us in the slightest way?” you hissed.
Walker ignored you. “What else—oh! High school state football champs, back to back to back. Go bears!”
You stared at him incredulously. You never met Steve Rogers, but you wished you had that Captain America rather than this one in front of you right now. You were sure Steve was infinitely more tolerable than Walker.
Yelena rolled her eyes. “Oh, wow. When I was five, I was in a peewee soccer team named the West Chesapeake Valley Thunderbolts, sponsored by Shane’s Tyre Shop. We won zero games, and one time one of my teammates did a poo midfield! Anyone else have any pointless stories to share?”
Exasperated, Ava pointed to herself. “Grew up in a lab prison.”
Bob scratched the back of his neck. “Meth-addicted sign twirling chicken. Was a… summer job.” He cleared his throat awkwardly.
“Had my entire skeleton pulled out of my body once. Took me twelve minutes to die,” you said, bouncing on the balls of your feet. The rest of them turned to you, horrified. “What?”
“... Great,” said Yelena. “Now that we’re all done sharing, here’s the plan…”
It wasn’t a great plan, but it was the only one on the table. You and Walker take out the first wave of soldiers coming through, wait for Yelena (and Bob) to turn the lights off and back on once the second wave of soldiers came in with night vision goggles, effectively blinding them, all while Ava went out to find an escape vehicle.
Naturally, Walker didn’t wait. He went barreling into the wave of second soldiers, knocking them all down with his shield and picking them off one by one. You hadn’t even bothered to step in, watching him punch through all of them on his own.
“Thanks for the help,” he spat at you once he was done.
“Didn’t want to get in your way,” you snarked in return. “Now come on. Let’s get their gear on and head out.”
Eventually, Yelena and Bob came back, the former angry that the two of you hadn’t waited for her. John was quick to defend themself, but you merely tossed Yelena and Bob their own sets of tactical wear.
“No time to argue. We can’t keep Ava waiting.”
Walker sneered. “If she’s even waiting for us at all.”
Once everyone was changed, the four of you walked out, dragging Bob as if he were a fallen soldier.
“I don’t think I want to be carried anymore,” Bob groaned, arms stiff and aching from where they were grabbing him.
“Shut up, Bob. You’re injured, remember?” Walker gruffed, which made Bob fall silent.
“Just a little further. Ava should be here somewhere,” came your gritted mutter.
“We don’t know where she is. She could be halfway to Mexico for all we know,” Walker retaliated. Behind your visor, you rolled your eyes.
And then, from the corner of your vision, you spotted Valentina. Pristine as always, sipping a warm cup of coffee. Envy and white hot rage scratched within your chest, but you swallowed down your anger. It took everything you had in you not to storm right up to her, chug down her coffee, and punch a hole straight through her pearly whites. You had a cover to keep up, after all.
Finally, after a few minutes of dragging Bob, a truck pulled up to the four of you. Ava materialized in the driver’s seat. “Get in,” she said.
You smiled. A small part of you really did think she was going to abandon you. You were glad she came back.
Yelena and John clambered into the front while you and Bob sat in the back of the tactical vehicle, where there was nothing inside but two wooden benches for seats. “Will you be okay back there?” Ava asked, and the two of you sent her tired thumbs-ups.
Both you and Bob swayed back and forth as the truck began to purr to life and rumble ahead. “I wonder what they’ll think once they see all my bodies down there. Can’t be a pretty sight,” you whispered.
Bob gave you a sympathetic grimace. “Do you still feel them? After they…?” He motioned vaguely with his hands.
“After they die?” you finished, sucking on the back of your teeth in thought. “I don’t feel them, no. I feel the pain right before they die, though.”
Bob slumped into the truck’s wall across from you. “Sorry,” he said, to which you just shook your head.
“So…” You started, eager to change the subject. “What did Yelena say to you back in the incinerator after your little argument with Walker? You seemed a bit… downcast.”
Bob squinted in thought, trying to jog his memory. “Oh… that. Well, I told her that sometimes I have… really high highs… and then really low lows… and it’s hard to remember things in the middle.”
“Must be a really low low right now, hm?” you said, a laugh lacing your words.
“Hah… yeah. No, I mean… right now I’m fine, I think. Compared to other times, now is… much better.”
“Yikes,” you said, now only half-laughing. “Glad you’re having a relatively good day, then.”
Bob laughed along with you, awkward as ever, then cleared his throat. “Ahem. And then I, uh, to Yelena I said there’s this… darkness… inside me. Never-ending. Like, uhm, I called it a void. Anyways, she said she felt the same way, so I asked her how she dealt with it.”
You motioned for him to keep going, leaning forward. “And?”
“She—she just said she pushes it down. Deep, deep down. Heh. I mean, i-it makes sense, I guess,” Bob said, stumbling over his words a little. “Like, what else is there to do, even?”
Judging from the way your brows knitted together, Bob came to the conclusion that you didn’t seem to think it made much sense. The thought crossed his mind that you looked rather endearing the way your nose wrinkled in thought. You would be a terrible poker player—the cards were written all across your face. Bob liked how easy it was to read you. It made him feel safer to be around you. But these thoughts were quick to wash away when he remembered that you were just—another bump in the road. You would pass, and everything would go back to being… nothing. A void.
“It makes sense for an ex-red room assassin,” you told him, not unkindly, roping him out of his drifting thoughts. “Doesn’t mean you should take the same advice, seeing as you’re not an assassin. Right?”
Bob itched at his wrist. “Right.”
The truck slowed to a grueling halt when a few soldiers stopped the group. Walker, to no one’s surprise and everybody’s dismay, insisted on being the one to talk. They asked for identification and a reason for leaving the base, since the medbay was northside, and they were currently heading southward. Walker tried to bluff his way through, but it was clear that the soldiers were not buying his story.
Bob’s expression twisted as if he had swallowed something sour.
“I’m sorry for this,” he said.
“What?” you asked, watching in confusion as he softly took your hand.
And then, strangely, you were no longer in the truck.
You were in a hospital. The air smelled distinctly of sterilizing chemicals with the sharp twinge of copper—blood. There was a belt in your mouth. Screaming muffled around the stale leather as they hacked away at your leg. Your copy stood off to the side, also bound, but whole. There were tears streaking down both of your faces. You looked younger then—your hair was longer, your face rounder. The years had weathered you.
“Again,” said one of the surgeons. Your younger, whole self trembled, then split into another copy. It took longer back then. An entire minute of straining yourself just for one duplicate. Now, you could make hundreds of yourself in an instant if you wanted. Nurses came in and took the other copy away. Off for more screenings, more tests, more surgeries, more experiments. That’s what you were to them—an experiment.
“Please stop,” you croaked. You weren’t sure whether that came from the younger you or just—you. “Please… I don’t want to die again.”
“Oh, sweetie,” said the surgeon, coming around the dissecting table to push sweaty strands of hair away from your head. “You’re not actually dying, though. Not really. None of these—xeroxes of you are actually you.”
You broke down into silent, heaving sobs when he returned to the other you, and began hacking away more parts of you. “For science,” they’d always told you.
Present-you turned, desperate to leave. Only, you were met with… Bob?
You searched his face, completely dumbfounded. “Palindrome?” you whispered.
“That’s where Xerox comes from?” he asked, clearly perturbed by the scene he was watching. You didn’t spare him a response.
His lips pursed and he reached out to take your hand again. In this strange, hazy world that you knew not to be real, his touch was cold. You rather liked how it felt against the warmth of your own palms, sticky with blood. Was that yours or one of your copies? You couldn’t remember. Was there any difference at all?
You held onto him tighter, shutting your eyes. Bob’s free hand raised to cradle the back of your head, shielding you from your own memories.
“I’m sorry this happened to you,” he murmured. “I’ll fix it. Leave it to me.”
Then, he pulled away from you despite your protests, and the nightmare realm seemed to spin and spin and spin, caving in on itself—
By the time you came to, Ava was shaking your shoulders and calling your name, as you were passed out on the floor of the truck. You glanced around with glassy eyes, confirming what you already knew to be true.
summary: four years after the flood, you move out of gotham to start anew in metropolis — the cute reporter that steals your heart is just collateral damage.
pairings: clark kent x wayne!reader, bruce wayne x sister!reader, platonic batfam x reader (no use of y/n)
all dividers by @cafekitsune!
i. one (2.2k) — One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do; two can be as bad as one, it's the loneliest number since the number one. Or: you're two years old when you lose your parents. Your brother, a kid himself, is unable to give you the love you deserve, and you end up at twenty being as burn out as only a Gotham University student can be. So, what do you do? Change scenery, of course.
ii. like him (tbd) — Mama I'm chasing a ghost, I don't know who he is; mama I'm chasing a ghost, I don't know where he is; mama I'm chasing a ghost, do I look like him? Or: you've never realised how much you look like your parents until the press points that out. How can you miss something that you've never had?
What if Daemon Targaryen married Cregan Stark’s sister instead of Rhea Royce? What if instead of murdering her, she died in childbirth…giving birth to you.
Y/n Targaryen, a dragon raised by wolves. You grew up knowing only the North as your home, Cregan acting as your mentor and elder brother throughout your life.
Now you have been summoned to join the court of Viserys Targaryen a few years after the grueling incidents on Driftmark with no knowledge of why. A Stark rides South at the behest of a King.
What a familiar story.
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
(ONGOING, EXTREMELY SLOW UPDATES BECAUSE OF PERSONAL ISSUES!)
┊.˚🪩 ༘┊͙ 𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐒 ;
↳ as a rising star in the tumultuous world of hollywood, you're handed a golden opportunity to boost your career – a fake relationship. what your manager forgot to mention? your leading man is none other than satoru gojo, hollywood's notorious fuckboy. easy? well, not exactly.
pairing: fem!reader x satoru gojo
tags: smau/partially written; actor/actress!au, fuckboy!gojo, jjk is a live-action show in this au, fluff/angst/humor/eventual smut
length: 1/??
note: AAAAAAAAA im a sucker for fake dating, actor au trope. enjoy besties! <3
[disclaimer: the way the reader is portrayed is just for the reason of style/posing! this is not what the reader looks like (she should look like however you’d like her to!) just wanted to clarify!! <3]
SUMMARY —
you find plenty of guys around you attractive, but there is only one you’re willing to make the first move on: the guy you first saw during your older brother’s soccer game. spoiler: he's a player from your rival university.
status: on-going | taglist: closed
genres: social media au, college au, strangers to lovers, crack, fluff, a sprinkle of angst (?), modern au, i wanted to do smth chill haha
extras: kmh playlist is still a wip, but if you're interested in checking it out, [click here] 🤍
author's notes:
omg 2nd smau is here!!
updates may be inconsistent, i don't have a posting schedule
again, idk what i'm doing haha
english is not my first language so expect grammatical and typographical errors (bear with me please :"D)
will contain swearing
PLAYERS.
— SL4YERS — the reds — the blued
SCOREBOARD.
game start ! (prologue)
— FIRST HALF
goal 01. i feel something ¬ goal 02. live a good life
goal 03. let's play chess ¬ goal 04. do you like cats
goal 05. a proof to your claim ¬ goal 06. am i being rejected
goal 07. my baby ¬ goal 08. happy birthday
goal 09. do you like sweets ¬ goal 10. i'm loyal, sir
goal 11. my name ¬ goal 12. ghosted
goal 13. unbothered ¬ goal 14. stupid is the new sexy
goal 15. call me baby ¬ goal 16. i'm taking you out
goal 17. seeing the sun
— HALF TIME
goal 18. i can teach you ¬ goal 19. my soul
goal 20. home ¬ goal 21. available for sale
goal 22. welcome ig ¬ goal 23. note to self
goal 24. tba ¬ goal 25. it was boring
goal 26. tba ¬ goal 27. tba
Lights, Camera, Action! - scaramouche x reader smau
summary:
you’re best friends with the famous band of all time, 5WIRL. however, DCKZ are rising to the top which are leaving your friends in the dust. the solution: add a new member, a new face to start some attention! it did cause attention alright, especially for your heart.
pairing: scaramouche x gn!reader
genre: band au, smau, fluff, crack, celebrity x reader, angst
Y/N always considered Scaramouche as her rival, and grew to dislike him but her hatred for him can’t help but grow when they find themselves in the same group project. How will they be able to push through despite the fact that one detest the other and the other’s words are sharp and unfiltered ?
disclaimer ! - this is my first smau ever pls be mindful and i’m also open to constructive criticism
tags - college au, modern au, academical rivals to lovers, romance, scara is kind of a dick but that makes him hotter tbh
warnings - reader is refered using she/her pronouns, mature themes, swearing, sexual jokes, kys jokes, kind of kazuha x reader but it’s jst a little flirting at the beginning
status - on going [03.06.2023] (day-month-year)
playlist - music i listen to while writing
comment or send an ask to be added to the taglist <3
CHARACTERS -
- Y/N’s side
- Kuni’s side
EPISODES -
- episode one
- episode two
- episode three
- episode four
- episode five
- episode six
- episode seven
- episode eight
- episode nine
- episode ten
- episode eleven
- episode twelve part one
- episode twelve part two
- episode thirteen
- episode fourteen
- episode fifteen
- episode sixteen
- episode seventeen
- episode eighteen
- episode nineteen
- episode twenty
- episode twenty-one
- episode twenty-two
- episode twenty-three
- episode twenty-four
- episode twenty-five
- episode twenty-six
- episode twenty-seven
- episode twenty-eight
- episode twenty-nine
- episode thirty
- episode thirty-one
- episode thirty-two
- episode thirty-three
- episode thirty-four
- episode thirty-five
- episode thirty-six
- episode thirty-seven
- episode thirty-eight
- episode thirty-nine
- episode fourty
- episode fourty-one
- episode forty-two
- episode fourty-three
tba
★彡 Taglist [open!]
@gekkow
Please Call Me Boo! @dashingdoofles - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
andulkaphoto
kianamaiart
jbbartram-illu
