I know things are going to shit when brazilians are also getting angry at jelias
(I'm the brazilian one from a million asks ago)
Which Brazilian? Don't act like you're the only Brazilian to come at me. 🥲
But you're right tho. I guess the aftershocks (the Türkiye video and fan photo who said that Røckstarpussy acted on the Gremlin's behalf) really caused a lot more damage in the Andes after the initial quake (the Dublin video I uh...gave visibility to).
I don't expect it, but everyfuckingone of the idiots shitting in my 📥 with "WHY DO YOU KEEP SAYING THEY'RE FUCKING, THEY'RE NOT FUCKING" owes me an apology.
For those of you who don't know, I live in Florida. This winter storm that came through last night left a bunch of white powdery stuff everywhere. It's gross and I don't like it. But! I did make a tiny snowman, or snow toddler according to my brother, which is now in my freezer. Pictures below the cut.
Type: mini-series to a series (part 1 & part 2 & part 3 & part 4), Avenger!reader AU.
Pairing: Steve Rogers x reader Word count: 3000
Summary:
There’s a new enhanced on a scene, showing up at places of the Avengers’ fights. She’s fast. Really, really fast.
Because the time to say goodbye always comes, as much as we hate it.
Warnings: angst, mention of death, crying, comic book science time-travel, a bit of fluff, language
A/N: Time-line wise follows part 9, but there was a flashforward too. Thank you for staying till the end - there aren’t many of you, but I cherish you 💗
Story masterlist
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Erasing all memories of Grace’s visit so you wouldn’t know about your imminent death. You could call yourself a genius.
To say that the others were taken aback by your plan would be an understatement. It ignited a whole new heated discussion, full of accusations, pointing fingers and yelling.
“You’re okay with this?!” Bucky cried out, furious glare piercing through Steve and you couldn’t but shield your man protectively as he winced at his friend’s rage, his eyes falling shut as if he had learned the devastating news about your destiny for the first time.
“Bucky, don’t,” you warned him, a little growl to your voice. “You know he’s everything but okay with this. But he knows what needs to be done.”
Steve did. So did you. Hopefully, the others would understand too.
“Really? I think he can speak for himself! Come on, punk! You’re seriously just giving up? On her?! Are you out of your mind?!”
“Alright, I think that’s enough,” Sam said lowly, reaching for Bucky’s arm that was bulging as he clenched his fist.
Incredulous glare was the response he received. “Since when you’re on their side?!”
“Barnes, look-“
“We’re all gonna have her blood on our hands! We might as well just kill her right now-“ Bucky yelled, gesturing to your wildly, and you had just enough.
“ENOUGH!” your voice cut him off, the room falling into stunned silence. You could feel everyone’s eyes on you, but you met Bucky’s. You didn’t know him nearly as well as Steve, but you could read pain and helplessness rather than anger on his face. You swallowed thickly. “We’re doing this. Wanda figures out a way to erase our memories. Grace comes back to the future. End of story.”
“This is a mistake. This is a fucking mistake-“
You closed your eyes with a sigh as the supersoldier exited the room, stomping heavily on the floor and swearing in Russian. You tried to ignore the tears burning in your eyes as you spoke up.
“Can we all agree that we hate this solution, but it needs to be done?” you asked in a whisper.
Various forms of agreement came from all remaining people in the room; including Natasha’s glare and Wanda’s most hesitant nod. To be honest, you weren’t able to look at Steve. You had taken the initiative, seemingly strong, but you knew one glance at your to-be-husband and you would lose it. You would crumble like a house of cards, urning into a sobbing mess; possibly on the floor, because Steve wouldn’t have the energy to catch you this time, so unlike he usually had.
“Okay.”
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The deal was that Grace would return back to her time in the morning, which left you one last night to spend with your daughter. The silence between you, Steve and her was deafening though. The aura of desperation was weighting all of you, dragging you under water.
In the end, Grace just offered you and Steve went to bed, to spend your time together – and she had tears in her eyes when saying so, guilt written all over her face. She was very perceptive; she could tell Steve was still trying to wrap his head around the time-travelling thing and, more importantly, the daughter thing. You could see Steve was trying his best, but you also knew he couldn’t but hate Grace for bringing the gloomy news about your early passing.
Maybe he didn’t blame her – after all, it wasn’t her choice to take your life when arriving to this world – but when we can’t take our rage on anyone else, we always go for the messenger, don’t we? You nodded at each other goodnight.
For the longest time, you were just lying together in bed, staring to the ceiling. Steve’s arm was pulling you to his form tighter than usual and you could hear the wheels in his head turning furiously. The tension in his muscles was so powerful and radiant that you would be able to tell even without being pressed to his side, his pulse so fast and loud you would have heard it even without having your head resting on his chest.
Neither of you spoke. You just were.
When you heard him inhale shakily, you knew what he was going to say.
“Bucky’s wrong,” you spoke up before he could, immediately feeling his fingers in your hair flex, knowing you hit the nail on the head. “You’re not giving up. You’re being brave-“
“Brave?” he scoffed, disapproval mixing with sorrow. “Is that how you call it? Being brave now means giving up? Jesus. There-- Snowflake, there has to be a way and we should be looking for it.“
You shifted in his embrace, his arm tightening on instinct as if he was afraid you were about to leave. But you simply looked up at his face; he didn’t reciprocate the gesture. You gently cupped his jaw to force him.
“Steve, love, look at me. You’re doing- no, we are doing the right thing. We’ll be okay-“ He sucked in a breath sharply and you knew he wanted to protest. To be fair, your choice of words was terrible. “We will still have time together. Bucky would have understood eventually if he got the opportunity. But he won’t. None of us will, because we won’t remember.”
Steve’s lips parted, no sound coming out. There were tears in his eyes now, just one slipping out. You caught it with your lips.
“You never called me that,” he whispered, puzzling you. Never called him…? “Love.”
It was strange, realizing he was right. Absurd – it was what he was. Who he was.
“Oh. That’s a shame. Or do you not like it?”
That charmed a watery smile on his lips, his fingers gently tracing the lines of your face. It left no doubt it was the other way around, but he said it for your benefit.
“I do.”
You kissed him then.
What else could you do? How else could you tell him how much you loved him and hated everything that was happening now? The kiss was warm, tender and yet needy, salty with your tears. His hand slid further into your hair, drawing you close, his lips growing firmer against yours, opening your mouth as if he needed you to breathe. You didn’t fight it.
You needed him too.
You let him roll you over, his elbows caging your frame, trapping you between his body and the mattress, gentle warmth pooling in your belly. You held his gaze when he retreated in favour to catch his breath, his eyes seemingly shining even in the dark of the room. You let yourself drown in them.
“Love,” you whispered barely audible, his expression softening despite you not thinking it was possible.
No more words were spoken. The language of love reigned tonight.
The little sleep you got was restless.
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“So… remind me how do you get back to your time?” Clint asked, watching Grace with a frown of disbelief.
“This device… it powers my speed, making me even faster. Fast enough to… run back and forth in time,” she explained slowly as she touched her chest, a small shiny thing attached to her torso appearing – seemingly out of nowhere. “The only thing I need is to turn it on and… run.”
You all just managed to stare, except Sam, who voiced what everyone – probably everyone beside Bruce and Tony aka the really tech-smart people in the room – thought.
“Say what?” Sam asked, earning an innocent smile from the speedster.
“Ignore him. Tell me how did we miss this? We scanned you head to toe,” Tony complained, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.
“Well, you invented it, Uncle Tony. Your future-self made sure you had no tech to detect it in the moment in the past I was travelling to.”
That sentence gave the genius a pause (and everyone ese a headache), before he smirked. “…damn, I’m one smart bastard.”
“You sure will be.”
The tiny joke lightened up the mood only so much. Grace cleared her throat awkwardly, tears pooling in her eyes.
“Okay, everyone. I, uhm… I see you in the future.”
She turned to you then – the only person she wouldn’t see – , avoiding Steve’s gaze as if she felt guilty, biting her trembling lip. You tried your best to make the corners of your lips rise a little, attempting a reassuring smile.
You weren’t surprised when she jumped you, wrapping her arms around you in an embrace so strong she would make her supersoldier dad proud. She sobbed to your shoulder and you squeezed your eyes shut, running a soothing hand down her back, a mother’s instinct you’d never know taking over.
“Be safe,” you hummed, feeling her grip growing even firmer.
“I will, mum.”
You chuckled at the addressing, except it came out like a sob.
“You better. I’ll be watching you. Always.” When she let go abruptly, as if she had to release you fast should she do it ever, you patted her necklace with your fingertips. “Always watching. Always with you.”
“I love you, mum.”
“I love you too, Grace,” you said back simply, moved and detached from it all at once.
Was that how all parents felt when they were being brave for their kids? You mentally shook your head to erase the thought before it would break you.
With the last look around the room, Grace took a deep breath and smiled shakily at everyone.
“Dad,” she whispered, but before Steve could react, she was gone with a hush of wind.
The strangest feeling washed over you, the room falling into ominous silence. You didn’t need to look at Steve to know he was utterly shocked at the addressing. You were too. But there was no need to leave him like that, to let him make sense of it. He wouldn’t remember it anyway if he did.
“Okay. Let’s figure out how exactly to wipe out one’s memory, shall we?” you offered, your voice strangled despite the attempted jovial tone. “And self-erase memories. If that’s even possible…”
No one believed the light-heartedness. Of course they didn’t.
“I guess we’re about to find out,“ Wanda muttered darkly into the silence that stretched, everyone avoiding everyone’s gaze, eyes mostly glued to the floor.
You never caught the look Wanda exchanged with your fiancé.
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Grace stopped abruptly as she recognized that this was the right moment to return to. She squeezed her eyes shut at the exertion of her run and then opened them with a furious inhale, swaying when her head spun and she couldn’t pinpoint her core, the image in front of her eyes swimming.
A small hand caught her in a firm grip and she met with mildly concerned expression of her aunt Wanda. Another hand supported her from the back.
“Whoa, easy there, Short Stuff,” uncle Tony’s voice called out and she leaned into the touch, her world getting a bit steadier.
She casted a glance all over the room, only for her head to start spinning once more for a very different reason. Her stomach somersaulted, hummingbirds heartbeat quickening even more.
All of the ‘adults’ were in the room – Nat, Bruce, Tony, Wanda, Vision, Clint, Sam, Bucky, dad and-
Grace gasped as had the wind knocked out of her, tears springing from her eyes.
She would have thought her time-travel device failed, but she was lucid enough to see that your face looked older than she remembered. Than she remembered from the photos her dad had shown her, from her little time-trip, from-
-from when you kissed her on her forehead at her first school day, when you cooled her twisted ankle as she was not careful enough while running down the stairs despite your scolding; from when she managed to run a mile in four seconds, from when you rubbed her back when Drake kissed Marci on her cheek just a day after he had kissed hers in the third grade; your disapproving yet moved face as you held her hand at the tattoo parlour as a little snowflake and a little star was drawn on her skin above her collarbone, just a few inches from where she was now missing the weight of her necklace from aunt Nat…
And so, so much more, many pictures flooding her mind, memories, new ones, from— from a different lifetime. From a different timeline.
She had changed the past. Somehow, she must have changed the past and the present followed, because-
“Grace? Sweetheart? Are you okay?” you whispered as you placed a gentle hand on her arm and Grace tried her best to focus her gaze, but she fucking couldn’t, because you were standing right here, swimming in the tears of her eyes and-
“Mum!” she squeaked, jumping around your neck, which made you swing, your breath knocked out of you.
Grace didn’t care and didn’t even think of apologizing.
You were here. You were here, alive. Real-life human, her mother, a missing piece of her family. She squeezed you tight, the feeling so foreign and so familiar as she had done it over years, yet she learned that only about a minute ago.
“Oh darling, what did you see? Where did it throw you? I told you it would go wrong,” you hissed over her shoulder and Grace suddenly remembered that this was her birthday present. She had wanted to see you and dad younger, your first meeting and you two being cute when trying to figure out your feelings, perhaps your wedding- “What was it? Was someone hurt? Oh sweetie, don’t cry.”
Grace was breathing heavily as all the information was still settling in, taking roots in her mind, letting herself to believe that this wasn’t a fever dream. The past changed. The future did too. Her motives were different, but she still travelled to the past, closing the loop.
And everyone was still there. The Universe didn’t get swallowed up in a huge black hole or anything.
And now her mother was here, asking her if she was alright. The irony. The wonder.
“Y-yeah,” she stuttered, still incredulous that her trip to the past somehow led to preventing your death. Her mum was here. Alive. “But… but everyone’s okay now, right? We are all okay.”
You caressed her back as she felt another body enwrapping you both firmly, a kiss landing on her head only few seconds after – after you, because you were always kissed first in the group hug, before Grace, and only then Jamie.
Always. The thought made Grace laugh like a mad woman, more tears rolling down her cheeks. Jamie. Her brother. She had a brother now. She chuckled again at the insane turn of events, her head spinning. Had her mind been average and not one of a speedster, she might have actually passed out.
And then another body crashed the moment, making Grace’s dad huff and her mum to silently murmur a curse acceptable for Jamie’s fourteen-year-old ears. He was supposed to be asleep, but probably was playing with mixing temperatures in his room again instead, cold on his left hand and warm on his right, and seriously, one day he would just cause a freaking storm with that, Grace was sure of it (as much as uncle Tony was).
She just couldn’t wait.
On a second thought, being crushed by the kid with super-strength did some damage as well. God, she loved him just like the rest of her insane family.
She melted into the group hug, breathing in the indescribable feeling. “I love you, mum. I love all of you so much. You have—you have no idea how lucky I feel to have you.”
“And we love you, Gracie,” you reassured her, caressing her back as much as you could in the limited space, your signature comfort gesture. “Because we’re family.”
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Thousands of miles away, even out of space and time, a hand brushed over a necklace with a delicate snowflake on it. Once property of Grace Rogers--- well, not exactly, because in fact, she had never received the gift; because her mother had never died. The man holding the necklace shifted in his seat, his gaze on the delicate lines of the jewellery.
He knew this was dangerous. Incredibly so, he had seen the consequences of manipulating time up-close, but just like his predecessor, he couldn’t but intervene. It hadn’t been the feeling of power that forced his hand, no – it was his heart breaking at the sight of all your loved ones. Grace especially.
He knew he played a dangerous game, but he hoped the universe could forgive him. He had done the right thing, saving a life; and he had done it without selfish intentions.
Only one person and one super-bot knew about his actions; the Scarlet Witch, who hadn’t erased her own and her lover’s memories upon Captain’s plea, planning on seeking his help. She had let him see all she had read in young Ms. Rogers’ mind; needless to say, the poor girl had a fair share of nightmares that allowed the Scarlet Witch break her mental defence and luckily for her, she also had a very impressive memory, her guilt-driven mind able to learn every piece of medical records by heart and thus able to pinpoint the exact moment things had gone wrong for her mother.
When the newer Avengers’ recruits approached him with all the information they had, he could have said no; the mantle he was carrying even telling him so.
He hadn’t. With just a little help and planting the idea into Avengers’ heads to deliver you to Wakanda in order to monitor your pregnancy by the most advanced medical practitioners known to Earth, they had saved your life when it hung on a thread.
And so far – precisely for eighteen years, that long it had been since his interference –, it felt like the right thing do, the universe not punishing one single soul.
Stephen Strange smiled and waved the floating picture of a happy family reunion away, delicately placing the necklace into a velvet box, savouring the simple but heartfelt note inside.
‘Thank you.’¨
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S.R. masterlist
Complete masterlist
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Done! Liked it? Or not? Are you happy for the happy ending? (Yeah, it kinda means the flashforwards technically never happened, which is a shame, but hey, time-travelling is confusing and to have one nice thing, you might give up another).
I’ll be delighted if you let me know what was happening in the head of yours when reading, but please, if you happened to be so kind to reblog, put the spoiler under the cut :))
I honestly admit I was not expecting this series to turn out this long when I started it. I mean, maybe not a one-shot, but not over 100k words either.
So thank you if you read it all and especially big thanks for leaving reblogs/comments and likes, they always mean a world to me 🥺
