#secrets abound

[charity-angel]

2/15: Unplanned

Sarah O’Neill glanced down at the gold ring she had saved for weeks to buy. She and her beau had talked about getting married for months but they hadn’t gotten around to it before he left for the trenches in Europe.

And now she didn’t have time to wait for him to return: her mother had thrown her out the house in shame and it was getting harder and harder to hide from her employers too. Joe’s mam was putting her up for the moment, but now she was signing a lease for an apartment for her family:

“Sarah Rogers”

Bruce, Tony, Thor, Nat, Clint,  Sam, Vision, Bucky, T’Challa, Pepper, Loki, Peter, Scott, Steve (again), Pepper (again)

[charity-angel]

16/21: Strong

Pepper hadn’t lied: she and Morgan would be okay. Because they had to be; anything else would go against everything Tony had fought and died for. But that didn’t mean she was okay now. Right now, her whole world had fallen apart but she had a kid and a company and a spiderling. She couldn’t fall with it. Other people needed her to be okay. So she put on a front, did the press conferences, smiled and hugged her daughter, made sure Peter was taken care of. Because she was Pepper Stark and everyone else needed her to be fine.

Bruce, Steve, Tony, Thor, Nat, Clint, Sam, Vision, Bucky, T’Challa, Pepper, Loki, Peter, Scott, Steve (again)

[charity-angel]

6/15: Silence is Golden

Clint would never tell Tony, but there were times he wished he still had his SHIELD-designed hearing aids. Tony kept “improving” the new ones which, yeah, meant that Clint could function almost completely like a hearing person but, dammit, sometimes he missed the relative quiet: it was part of who he was. He really didn’t need to hear Nat and Bruce’s awkward flirting (seeing it was bad enough), and he absolutely didn’t need to hear what Wanda and Vision were getting up to.

He definitely had to ditch the damn things before his kids were old enough to have sex.

Bruce, Steve, Tony, Thor, Nat, Sam, Vision,  Bucky, T’Challa, Pepper, Loki, Peter, Scott, Steve (again), Pepper (again)

[charity-angel]

1/15: Scientific Curiosity

It had been curiosity – he was a scientist; who could blame him? Something had bugged him about the kid, in photos and the stories the others told; too many similarities. So he’d run tests.

But he hadn’t known what to do with the results. The kid had dusted, Tony was heartbroken, and Pepper was expecting. What good would knowing do them?

When the time came and he snapped his fingers, he planned on sharing his knowledge. But then Tony went and did something stupidly heroic.

And now, what good would it do Peter to know that Tony was his father?

Steve, Tony, Thor, Nat, Clint,  Sam, Vision, Bucky, T’Challa, Pepper, Loki, Peter, Scott, Steve (again), Pepper (again)

[charity-angel]

15/21: Wingman

(This one is very much linked to Bucky’s)

They were artists and, subtle as he was, Steve really would have to be blind to not notice that his best friend was the other way inclined. (His eyes were the only bit of him that worked properly.) While that might not be acceptable in mainstream society, the world of the arts was more forgiving of such eccentricities. Bucky wouldn’t be alone if he didn’t want to be.

So Steve kept his eye out for a man that might be suitable for his friend. He never found anyone, but he had hopes he might in the more enlightened twenty-first century.

Bruce, Steve, Tony, Thor, Nat, Clint, Sam, Vision, Bucky, T’Challa, Pepper, Loki, Peter, Scott, Pepper (again)

[charity-angel]

14/21: Identity

Hope and Cassie were proud of him, but who was Scott fooling? He wasn’t an Avenger. Iron Man was an Avenger, Captain America was an Avenger. They had literally laid down their lives to save the world. Ant-Man… that wasn’t him.

Yeah, sure, he had come up with the plan to undo everything and, okay, so he could have died during the heist, or in the fight afterwards, but he’d been terrified the entire time. He couldn’t do what Tony had done.

But Hope had been one of the Vanished, and what wouldn’t he do to protect her or Cassie?

Bruce, Steve, Tony, Thor, Nat, Clint, Sam, Vision, Bucky, T’Challa, Pepper, Loki, Peter, Steve (again), Pepper (again)

[charity-angel]

13/21: Secrets?

Peter had no secrets. Zero. Because he was awful at keeping them. Sure, it wasn’t like the whole world knew he was Spider-Man, or owned one half of Stark Industries, but the people that mattered to him? Nope. They knew his other identity, that he was worried about going away to college, that he’d once called Mr Stark ‘Dad’ by accident (because Tony had never let him live it down), that he called Pepper ‘Mom’ now.

Everyone he loved knew it, he made sure of that. Because life was fragile, and Peter made sure to make the most of it.

Bruce, Steve, Tony, Thor, Nat, Clint, Sam, Vision, Bucky, T’Challa, Pepper, Loki, Scott, Steve (again), Pepper (again)

[charity-angel]

12/21: Visage

Loki had been over fifteen hundred by the time he saw his own face, and it was a face he couldn’t show anyone else – there was too much history. After so long believing himself to be Asgardian, it took time for the blue visage to become recognisable as his own. It barely took any energy to hide his natural colouring – he could literally do it in his sleep – but, after everything, he was tired and he hated having to hide who he was.

But there was one person.

“It suits you.”

Loki’s eyes fluttered closed as Bruce kissed him gently.

Bruce, Steve, Tony, Thor, Nat, Clint, Sam, Vision, Bucky, T’Challa, Pepper, Peter, Scott, Steve (again), Pepper (again)