Avengers As Family - Tumblr Posts

Whumptober day 15 - Scars

My fifteenth fill for @whumptober2019​, involving the Avengers acting as a (dysfunctional) family and having a game night like no other. Also available on Ao3.

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It happened because of Bucky, to be honest. Bucky, his laundry list of issues, and his insecurities about his arm and (possibly even more so) the scarring around his shoulder.

His knock-off serum had taken care of all of his other scars, but this one was so bad, as well as constantly agitated by the metal arm, that it simply didn't heal. And it had become more than obvious that it was a source of discomfort for him, in a team that seemed relatively flawless.

Of course, Steve's serum meant that he had no scars to show. Natasha's knock-off of a knock-off meant that only the bad ones remained, which was why she had about three scars overall, and by now they all knew about them. Thor, as an Asgardian with a golden apple in him to keep him fit and flawless, had no true scars either. Bruce had lost all of his scars when he got the Hulk and, since he pretty much transformed the moment he got injured (or right before), gained no new ones either.

That still left three human members on the team, though. And together, they'd come up with a 'game' of sorts.

JARVIS had scanned all of their bodies for scars. They were allowed to take ones out of the equation that they didn't want to discuss, and Tony's Arc Reactor and its scarring were obvious and well-known enough that it was immediately disqualified. But other than that, there was a complete registry of their scars.

All of the others then got to see the registry and images of the particular scars, upon which they placed their bets. They guessed whether it was an accidental or violent cause for one point. Then there was a more specific cause that, if they got it right, counted for two points. Finally, they could guess a more complete backstory for it that could earn them three points if they got it correct, though everyone estimated that would be fairly rare, considering all of their lives.

Because he had the least scars, they'd started with Sam. Out of them all, he'd lived the most regular life so far, meaning it wasn't the most interesting round. Natasha, who was extremely good at guessing logical causes of injuries, beat all of them. It wasn't the most exciting round, but it was a good way of getting into the game, and it was obvious to see that Bucky was starting to relax a bit.

Then there was Clint, who had some interesting scars. Hilariously enough, Tony actually got the most points during this round because he'd guessed the most ridiculous backstories. And because this was Clint, they often turned out to be correct, to the amused horror of the others.

Finally, it was Tony's turn, and the others quickly found out that his scars were a bit of a minefield. The one that looked distinctly like a bullet wound had been caused by an engineering accident. The weirdly shaped one that everyone had guessed had been an engineering accident because what else could it be? had turned out to be from when he was kidnapped as a teenager and they'd tried to get information about SI from him.

He was telling them about one of his bigger scars, one that honestly looked like he'd been stabbed somehow, but which was apparently the result of one of his and Rhodey's adventures at MIT. Honestly, after this entire game, all of the other Avengers were more than convinced that, however well Rhodes pretended to be the one in possession of the single brain cell the two shared, there was no way either of them had more than half a brain cell during their entire time at MIT, and that half brain cell was used to pass their classes and nothing more.

Suddenly, just as Tony was detailing how they'd thought blowing up their experiment would somehow prove their theory, the unexpected happened. Hoped for, of course, but the sudden sound of Bucky's laughter still managed to surprise them all in the best way.

Tony grinned, though he didn't stop retelling the story. And if he added a few embellishments, well, who would blame him? If it made Bucky laugh like that, he'd make up a comedy routine if he had to. There'd been more than enough sadness in the guy's life - he deserved to be smiling.

Whumptober day 16 - Pinned Down

My sixteenth fill for @whumptober2019​, also available on Ao3.

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“Should we surrender?”

Steve’s jaw clenched with stubbornness. “We are not surrendering,” he insisted. “They will not beat us. Not like this.”

“We have nowhere to go, Steve,” Clint insisted. “This isn’t a fight we should’ve started, and you know it. We’re out of ammo, and nowhere close to get any. We’re lucky we’ve got cover now, but…”

“The moment we leave it, we’re done for,” Sam agreed, though he sounded no happier about it.

They watched as Steve clenched his fists, trying to think of a way, any way, they could still win this. It didn’t look good, though.

“As much as I dislike agreeing with them, I must admit it seems we are at a disadvantage here,” Thor gravely told them. His hammer was mere feet away, but it might as well be an entire world for all that it would be of no use to them. “It would, perhaps, be best to admit defeat and submit to the tender mercy of our enemies.”

“Tender mercy?” As much as he agreed they wouldn’t be winning this fight, Clint had no illusions. There would be no mercy, not for them.

But despite everything, Steve retained his determination. “Clint’s right. There will be no such thing. And wouldn’t it be better to go down fighting, to be defeated honorably rather than to take the cowardly way out?”

It seemed to spur Thor on at least, but both Clint and Sam looked at him dubiously.

“Yeah, you wanna go down with honor, you go for it,” Sam told him dryly, “but I’m not taking any more hits because you don’t know when to quit.”

“Same,” Clint agreed instantly. When Steve looked at the both of them, betrayed, he glared at the supersoldier. “We don’t have your super healing factor, or your super stubbornness. What we have is common sense, and while I’ll freely admit we should’ve used that a bit sooner so we wouldn’t have ended up like this, at this point surrendering is about the only way I can see of getting out of this without ending up dead or worse.”

“You think they’ll be kind?” Steve asked dubiously.

“I’m mostly hoping they’ll be happy enough to have won that the consequences won’t be too bad,” Clint shrugged.

“So you won’t stand with me? Try one more time, one more push, and see if it can make the difference?” It was clear that Steve wasn’t going to surrender - it went against everything that he was to stop going before he’d given everything he had.

Both Clint and Sam shook their heads. “Sorry, Steve. This is the only way.”

“Thor? Are you with me?” Steve asked, back straight and eyes intent.

“One final stand,” Thor agreed, nodding. He held out a fist, which Steve touched with his own. “Together.”

With horrified awe, Clint and Sam watched as they both jumped out behind the sides of the couch with a loud war cry that was abruptly cut off by two pillows hitting the two of them straight in the faces, hard enough they both stumbled backwards a bit. It left them unstable enough that the next pillows took them down instantly, their war cry now transformed into a cry of pain.

Before they could be struck again, they both rolled back behind the couch, curling up to make sure any other shots wouldn’t hit any vital parts.

“Ready to surrender now?” Sam asked the both of them dryly, arms crossed and eyebrow raised. With two superhumans and a guy known for his impeccable aim, he’d thought he’d picked the right side in this fight.

As it turned out, he’d severely underestimated how much damage a team-up of Bucky, Natasha and Tony could do.

“We’ll surrender,” Steve finally conceded, gingerly feeling his reddened nose.

Definitely the wrong side.

Yes, Tony knew it was his own fault that he was sitting here, shivering and clutching his blanket and feeling like he was about to break. Especially as it was becoming increasingly clear this wasn't just going to go away.

Fortunately, he had people who cared about him.

This is a work that was inspired by my feelings for the amazing people over at the @winterirondiscord, which I have been blessed to have been part of for one year today. Thank you all so much - you have made my life a better place!

It also fills square I3 - Touch Starved for the @winterironbingo and square Y4 - Hurt/Comfort for the @buckybarnesbingo and was partially inspired by the @whumptober2019 series that I am currently working on, which has touch-starved as one of the alternative prompts.

Whumptober day 27 - Ransom

For the 27th day of @whumptober2019​, another slightly lighter fill. Also available on Ao3.

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“You’re joking,” he said incredulously.

“Do we look like we’re joking?” Kidnapper 1 asked, and from what Tony had seen so far, he appeared to be the leader in this entire plan. He’d been the one to tell the others what to do and where to go.

He also looked the most serious about it all. Most of the others seemed a bit uncertain at best, and Tony didn’t think they had a lot of history when it came to criminal acts.

“Look, just… Consider, and I will tell you this only once, that this is a terrible idea that will get you imprisoned at best and maimed or killed at worst, and there is still time to go back, but not a lot of time, if you get my meaning.”

They did not get his meaning.

“Shut up,” Kidnapper 1 snarled, and actually made the mistake of hitting him, which kind of signed his death warrant.

Tony just rolled his eyes. “Your funeral, man,” he said, shrugging to the extent he could with his arms tied to the chair. He just figured it’d be nicer to warn these people, considering they were obviously amateurs, and give them a chance to change their minds before it was too late.

Behind Kidnapper 1, it appeared that the other three were kind of worried about his warning, however. It was Kidnapper 2 that ended up asking what they clearly all wanted to ask. “Ehm… Why is this a terrible idea?”

“Because he’s just trying to unsettle us,” Kidnapper 1 sneered. “Don’t listen to him - I’m getting the recording equipment. Stick to the plan.”

Such obvious amateurs. Tony kind of wanted to sigh, although he refrained. If these people would be willing to listen to him, all the better. “Stark Industries does not pay ransoms,” he explained to them.

“But you’re Tony Stark,” Kidnapper 3 argued. “They’ll want you back, right?”

“You send that message, it ends up with Pepper Potts, who will immediately alert the Avengers. There’s never gonna be any ransom - it’s not gonna take them all that long to figure out where I am and who’s holding me, and when I do, they’re going to come get me. That’s all that’s going to happen here.”

He meant it, too. Pepper knew better than to start paying ransoms, because once that started it wouldn’t end. But no doubt JARVIS had been looking for him ever since losing contact, and he had no doubts the others would be showing up soon.

Which he wouldn’t mind, really. He’d appreciate the help. But if he could get himself out of here before they could, it would be even better.

Kidnappers 2, 3 and 4 were whispering to one another, and while he couldn’t understand what they were saying, it was clear they were taking his warning a lot more seriously than Kidnapper 1 did. Which they should, because despite his reputation, he was definitely one of the more forgiving Avengers.

Okay, that was a lie, but he had no problems forgiving people who came after him. Go after his friends and all bets were off.

“And if we brought you back now?” It was Kidnapper 2, and while he didn’t sound entirely certain about this course of action, he was at least considering it.

“We all make mistakes,” Tony told them. “I’ll tell the others to play nice and let me deal with it myself, and we’ll take a look at why you chose to make this particular one and what can be done so you’re not tempted to try something like this again.” Because he had no illusions that these people were desperate for money, for whatever reason. He’d have to be careful about setting any kind of precedent, but on the other hand, if they showed that they’d be willing to be reasoned with…

And as for the Avengers, it didn’t seem like Kidnapper 1 was going to change his mind, so they wouldn’t be left completely empty-handed.

Which was how Tony Stark ended up showing right back up at the Tower, only a few bruises richer, with three little ducklings behind him. He could hear the way they swallowed as the attention of the Avengers was directed at them - it probably didn’t help that the others were already armed and looked ready to go out for a hunt of epic proportions.

“Not to worry guys, got everything solved,” he told them cheerily, which at least got him Steve’s attention. No doubt the others were listening as well, but they were also making sure to keep an eye on his former kidnappers.

“Are you alright?” Steve asked, assessing him carefully for anything obviously wrong.

Only the bruise on his cheek was instantly obvious, however, and he noticed the way Steve’s eyes kept returning to that. “Only some small bruises, nothing serious,” he shrugged it off. “Most of it was the other guy, anyway - which reminds me, would any of you be available to pick him up where we left him?”

Hilariously, only Bruce didn’t immediately volunteer, and Tony gave the others the address where they’d left Kidnapper 1 tied to the same chair he’d been stuck in. Then he grudgingly allowed the other scientist to look him over ‘just in case’ while his former kidnappers waited in one of the smaller conference rooms for him to talk to them, monitored carefully by JARVIS.

And although he grumbled outwardly, he couldn’t help the smile breaking through.

He loved his family.