fakeasain56 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fakeasain56) wrote2012-06-14 09:11 pm
fakeasain56) wrote2012-06-14 09:11 pm
Entry tags:
Everyone/Everyone (polyramory) "Running together" Chapter 2/?
Summary: Teenage AU where the Avengers are a bunchy of mouthy runaway/orphaned kids who band together and commit petty theft (later more grand-scale theft like banks etc.) in order to survive on the streets. They get so good at this that SHEILD snatches them up and offers to train them as a response team instead. Since the alternative is being split up and doomed to the foster care system, they agree. By this point, they have become terribly co-dependent, but this just makes them a better team.
Previous Chapter
Bruce carefully ignored six sets of eyes fixated on him as he slowly unwound bandages from Thor’s torso, the first aid kit laid out beside him. Clint and Natasha both were watching the door, but he knew their attention was on him as he drew the last bloodied bandage away from the torso.
Thor winced slightly as the bloody cloth came off, pulling at skin, but Bruce sighed in relief. There was no redness, no swelling, no inflammation. Thor was going to be fine.
“Bruce? What’s the diagnosis?”
His leaders mighty voice was quiet in the room, but Bruce knew it was to help everyone. “Thor can keep his title of being the luckiest man alive.”
Tony whooped in joy. “Great! That calls for a celebratory dinner! Who’s with me?”
“Tony, we shouldn’t leave.” Steve frowned at him, all serious, and Tony rolled his eyes as Thor perked up at the word food.
“It’s just takeout. Come on, it’s not gonna hurt anyone!”
“I agree!” Clint sang out from where he and Natasha watched, ignoring Natasha’s eye roll. “Me and ‘Tash haven’t had anything to eat yet.”
Steve frowned, calculating the odds of anyone being able to catch up with them so soon when Thor looked up at him with pleading eyes. It was like trying to tell a puppy no. You just couldn’t.
“Fine.” Tony grinned victoriously, sharing a air high-five with Clint. “Tony and I will go. Clint, Natasha, you two stay here and keep further guard in case something happens. Bruce, whatever happens, focus on keeping Thor safe. Loki- go to the other rooms and make it look like we’ve slept there please. No need for anyone to get suspicious.”
Loki nodded and slipped out as Bruce turned his attention back to the wound, gently prodding at it. Clint whined loudly, “But I wanna go as well!”
“Bruce will need you to help get Thor out if Ross catches up again.” Bruce flinched at the name, and Tony placed a hand on his shoulder. Thor smiled as well, using his good side to squish Bruce into a hug.
“Do not be down! None may have guessed that Ross would recognize you from all those years ago!”
Bruce smiled weakly at Thor’s booming reassurance. Clint made his own, rude suggestion of where exactly Ross could stick it. Tony laughed, Natasha simply muttered, “Men.”
Tony swaggered out, Steve right behind him, shaking his head in fond exasperation, the lightest smile on his face.
That’s about when the entire day went downhill.
It started for the four in the room only a scant five minutes later, when Natasha frowned, ear cocking towards the hallway. “Men. A group of them.”
Bruce looked up from where he had just finished bandaging Thor, a worried frown on his face. “Loki isn’t back yet.”
Natasha backed away from the door slowly. “Get ready to run.”
The silly smile on Thor’s face melted away as he nodded seriously, slowly levering himself out of bed, hissing softly in pain. Natasha grew stiff with each stifled gasp as Thor and Bruce limped towards the widow, preparing to make their escape. “Clint, go with them.”
“But- ‘Tash-“
“Go.”
He brushed his fingers across hers, and hurried before them, throwing open the window. A second later he slammed it shut, swearing quietly. “Snipers. Thor, get into the bathroom. Bruce, help me block the window.”
Bruce moved into position beside him easily, both of them communicating through hand signals. Loki hadn’t returned, and worry was beginning to seep into them. At the very least Steve and Tony would be free, but if Loki was wandering the hallways alone…
A sharp knock came at the door, and a distinctly female voice spoke, “Room Service! May I come in?”
Natasha looked back at them, and Clint faded forward, taking from the top. They knew how to play this- sound like rebellious teens, out wasting their parents’ money. “NO! Now go away!” He slurred the words, drunkenly.
“Oh, but I insist!” Her voice took on a little more of a sultry tone. Clint rolled his eyes- Bruce shrank back from such words, internal barriers coming up. Natasha squeezed his shoulder, her own voice rising in perfect pitch.
“Back off. He already has all the female he can handle!”
Bruce smiled wryly at that, slinking towards the bathroom, where Thor waited silently. The two of them sat, side-by-side, and Natasha took a deep breath.
Bruce would be last-chance back up, because if he flipped into one of his moods, it didn’t matter how hurt he was, he wouldn’t stop. And then he would be depressed for weeks afterwards, and it wasn’t right that she- that none of them could do anything.
Bruce pulled out a cell phone that Tony had designed just for them, and his eyebrows creased. He shook his head as he put it back, and turned to close the door.
No cell phone service. They were surrounded with snipers. Loki had disappeared. Thor was injured. Natasha ground her teeth together, felt white-hot fury burn along her limbs, felt her teeth bare in a savage snarl at the door. Clint took his own position at the window, lifting his bow into the air.
There was a party popper on the end, designed to blow up at a certain height- a warning to Tony and Steve that they were under attack.
Natasha smiled thinly as the silence outside of the door continued, and Clint let loose the arrow as a cry of pain echoed tremulously beyond the thick door.
White flared into gold as she recognized it. Loki. They had Loki and they had hurt him. It was probably a good thing that Thor wasn’t in the room to hear, or he’d of thrown open the door and charged.
“Open the door now, or we’ll break it down.”
The quiet threat to Loki went unsaid. The arrow exploded somewhere overhead, giving Tony and Steve fair warning as Natasha, stony faced and stiff as a board, opened the door.
Loki, pale-faced and white as a sheet was suspended between two heavily armed men. All traces of his usual cocky smile were wiped off his face as he stared up at the men with pale, burning eyes promising ruination.
Natasha sighed as she shook her head. “Loki, Loki, Loki, what am I going to do with you.”
He shot her an apologetic smile. “They didn’t seem to accept any of my usual words.”
That worried her, just a little. Loki and her were the same in their use of spinning words as a trap, making men and women both break down to their bare essentials, naked and screaming in abject horror of themselves.
Loki smirked sardonically as Clint eased away from the window, still fingering his bow. “Where are the others?” The female agent, dressed in combat gear demanded.
“Which ones?”
“Thor, Steve, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner. Where are they?”
Natasha willed herself to quail, to flinch away as if struck by the words, eyes filling with tears. “Thor is- is-“ She sniffled, turning away. She watched Clint’s eyes, watched a few of the agents shuffle, as if embarrassed. Amateurs.
Hill didn’t flinch. “Search the rooms- the bathroom especially.”
Uh-oh.
Bruce could hide in the ceiling tiles easily- he was skinny enough to fit through a four-by-four, and light enough that the tiles wouldn’t break. Thor wasn’t. But Bruce should’ve shimmied up to a safe place.
Two agents crossed the room, headed for the bathroom. Natasha let Clint watch them, as she kept her eyes on the agents holding Loki. Loki’s staff, the object he normally used in fights, was off to the side, tucked away and forgotten about. If she could take out the two agents and give him his staff, they would have a fighting chance.
Thor’s bellow of agony came out of the bathroom, and any pleasantness at all in any of their faces were wiped right off. The cry of pain was shortly followed by Bruce’s war cry- and the war was on.
-----
Tony sashayed his way down the street, as if it were some sort of runway. Every step showed off his assets, and all Steve wanted to do was bury his hands in his face and try not to die from blushing too hard.
“Tony, stop that!”
“Oh, what’s the matter hot stuff, jealous?” Tony winked at him, pearly whites flashing in a brilliant grin.
“The whole point of this is to stay out of pictures. What if someone recognizes you?”
Tony snorted, waving a carefree hand as he moseyed into a Shawarma restaurant, peering at the menu. The credit card that contained all of their ill-gotten money balanced in the palm of his hand, and Steve couldn’t help but frown at it.
He didn’t want to do this. He didn’t want to steal, lie, and cheat his way through life. But, neither could he leave the others. They trusted him, depended on him- and he needed them. Needed Tony to smirk like nothing was wrong and talking a mile a minute, Clint to laugh from his stomach as he crouched from above, Natasha to watch with a half-amused smile and perfect as she was, Thor and Loki to dance together in the rain without care, and Bruce to quietly nag them. He needed them.
He couldn’t abandon them, not now, not ever no matter what they did. “What do you think Steve?”
“I don’t know Tony. You’re the one with the experience of ordering.”
Steve tended to get asked many, many uncomfortable, personal questions. Tony was more of a careless, devil-take-all, and while he did notice quite a few girls, Tony knew just how to make them part for him.
Tony shrugged, walked up to the counter, and began to order, enough food to feed a small army- Thor could, and would, teat most of it, not matter how disgusting he thought it was.
Steve watched Tony, before reluctantly breaking his eyes away to scan the room. The restaurant was slowly emptying of people, leaving behind a strange mixture of men and women that looked like they orked out. Or were army people. “Tony.”
Tony looked back, and Steve smile, remembering the code Natasha and Clint had made for them. “I don’t suppose they have gravy on the menu, would they?”
Tony looked back at the menu, making a show of scanning it. “Nope. Wanna get out then?”
“Yes, let’s.” The two began to scoot out of the room, when an utterly bland, just about faceless man stood in the doorway. He had sunglasses on, but he pulled them off as he walked in, unlike Tony who refused to take his off.
“Steve and Tony Stark isn’t it?” He smiled blandly, without threat, but Steve felt himself tense anyways, felt Tony slide into place next to him, watching his back. It gave him a small measure of comfort, and he smiled at the man, shaking his head.
“I’m afraid not.”
“I’m pretty sure you are.” The man held up what looked to be dossiers, and Steve felt his blood run cold. Tony began to swear beneath his breath.
Steve took a step forward, Tony synched to every move. “What do you want then?”
“I want you all to work with me.”
Tony laughed. Steve watched stony-faced, his normal smile completely gone. “Doing what?”
Clint and Natasha could kill when they wanted, could branch out to become assassins, but neither wished to go into that life. Both were far happier with their group, and their mostly non-killing crime sprees that mostly involved scams. Steve would prefer a life where hey didn’t have to steal at all, but it wasn’t possible. Not the way his group was built- they needed something to do, something to fight.
“Saving people’s lives.”
A spark.
Yes, yes, this was right, this was what he wanted, this was what he needed. Tony nudged him ever so slightly, and his mind was instantly drawn back to the present- to his team. “We’ll have to ask the rest of the team.”
Next Chapter
Previous Chapter
Bruce carefully ignored six sets of eyes fixated on him as he slowly unwound bandages from Thor’s torso, the first aid kit laid out beside him. Clint and Natasha both were watching the door, but he knew their attention was on him as he drew the last bloodied bandage away from the torso.
Thor winced slightly as the bloody cloth came off, pulling at skin, but Bruce sighed in relief. There was no redness, no swelling, no inflammation. Thor was going to be fine.
“Bruce? What’s the diagnosis?”
His leaders mighty voice was quiet in the room, but Bruce knew it was to help everyone. “Thor can keep his title of being the luckiest man alive.”
Tony whooped in joy. “Great! That calls for a celebratory dinner! Who’s with me?”
“Tony, we shouldn’t leave.” Steve frowned at him, all serious, and Tony rolled his eyes as Thor perked up at the word food.
“It’s just takeout. Come on, it’s not gonna hurt anyone!”
“I agree!” Clint sang out from where he and Natasha watched, ignoring Natasha’s eye roll. “Me and ‘Tash haven’t had anything to eat yet.”
Steve frowned, calculating the odds of anyone being able to catch up with them so soon when Thor looked up at him with pleading eyes. It was like trying to tell a puppy no. You just couldn’t.
“Fine.” Tony grinned victoriously, sharing a air high-five with Clint. “Tony and I will go. Clint, Natasha, you two stay here and keep further guard in case something happens. Bruce, whatever happens, focus on keeping Thor safe. Loki- go to the other rooms and make it look like we’ve slept there please. No need for anyone to get suspicious.”
Loki nodded and slipped out as Bruce turned his attention back to the wound, gently prodding at it. Clint whined loudly, “But I wanna go as well!”
“Bruce will need you to help get Thor out if Ross catches up again.” Bruce flinched at the name, and Tony placed a hand on his shoulder. Thor smiled as well, using his good side to squish Bruce into a hug.
“Do not be down! None may have guessed that Ross would recognize you from all those years ago!”
Bruce smiled weakly at Thor’s booming reassurance. Clint made his own, rude suggestion of where exactly Ross could stick it. Tony laughed, Natasha simply muttered, “Men.”
Tony swaggered out, Steve right behind him, shaking his head in fond exasperation, the lightest smile on his face.
That’s about when the entire day went downhill.
It started for the four in the room only a scant five minutes later, when Natasha frowned, ear cocking towards the hallway. “Men. A group of them.”
Bruce looked up from where he had just finished bandaging Thor, a worried frown on his face. “Loki isn’t back yet.”
Natasha backed away from the door slowly. “Get ready to run.”
The silly smile on Thor’s face melted away as he nodded seriously, slowly levering himself out of bed, hissing softly in pain. Natasha grew stiff with each stifled gasp as Thor and Bruce limped towards the widow, preparing to make their escape. “Clint, go with them.”
“But- ‘Tash-“
“Go.”
He brushed his fingers across hers, and hurried before them, throwing open the window. A second later he slammed it shut, swearing quietly. “Snipers. Thor, get into the bathroom. Bruce, help me block the window.”
Bruce moved into position beside him easily, both of them communicating through hand signals. Loki hadn’t returned, and worry was beginning to seep into them. At the very least Steve and Tony would be free, but if Loki was wandering the hallways alone…
A sharp knock came at the door, and a distinctly female voice spoke, “Room Service! May I come in?”
Natasha looked back at them, and Clint faded forward, taking from the top. They knew how to play this- sound like rebellious teens, out wasting their parents’ money. “NO! Now go away!” He slurred the words, drunkenly.
“Oh, but I insist!” Her voice took on a little more of a sultry tone. Clint rolled his eyes- Bruce shrank back from such words, internal barriers coming up. Natasha squeezed his shoulder, her own voice rising in perfect pitch.
“Back off. He already has all the female he can handle!”
Bruce smiled wryly at that, slinking towards the bathroom, where Thor waited silently. The two of them sat, side-by-side, and Natasha took a deep breath.
Bruce would be last-chance back up, because if he flipped into one of his moods, it didn’t matter how hurt he was, he wouldn’t stop. And then he would be depressed for weeks afterwards, and it wasn’t right that she- that none of them could do anything.
Bruce pulled out a cell phone that Tony had designed just for them, and his eyebrows creased. He shook his head as he put it back, and turned to close the door.
No cell phone service. They were surrounded with snipers. Loki had disappeared. Thor was injured. Natasha ground her teeth together, felt white-hot fury burn along her limbs, felt her teeth bare in a savage snarl at the door. Clint took his own position at the window, lifting his bow into the air.
There was a party popper on the end, designed to blow up at a certain height- a warning to Tony and Steve that they were under attack.
Natasha smiled thinly as the silence outside of the door continued, and Clint let loose the arrow as a cry of pain echoed tremulously beyond the thick door.
White flared into gold as she recognized it. Loki. They had Loki and they had hurt him. It was probably a good thing that Thor wasn’t in the room to hear, or he’d of thrown open the door and charged.
“Open the door now, or we’ll break it down.”
The quiet threat to Loki went unsaid. The arrow exploded somewhere overhead, giving Tony and Steve fair warning as Natasha, stony faced and stiff as a board, opened the door.
Loki, pale-faced and white as a sheet was suspended between two heavily armed men. All traces of his usual cocky smile were wiped off his face as he stared up at the men with pale, burning eyes promising ruination.
Natasha sighed as she shook her head. “Loki, Loki, Loki, what am I going to do with you.”
He shot her an apologetic smile. “They didn’t seem to accept any of my usual words.”
That worried her, just a little. Loki and her were the same in their use of spinning words as a trap, making men and women both break down to their bare essentials, naked and screaming in abject horror of themselves.
Loki smirked sardonically as Clint eased away from the window, still fingering his bow. “Where are the others?” The female agent, dressed in combat gear demanded.
“Which ones?”
“Thor, Steve, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner. Where are they?”
Natasha willed herself to quail, to flinch away as if struck by the words, eyes filling with tears. “Thor is- is-“ She sniffled, turning away. She watched Clint’s eyes, watched a few of the agents shuffle, as if embarrassed. Amateurs.
Hill didn’t flinch. “Search the rooms- the bathroom especially.”
Uh-oh.
Bruce could hide in the ceiling tiles easily- he was skinny enough to fit through a four-by-four, and light enough that the tiles wouldn’t break. Thor wasn’t. But Bruce should’ve shimmied up to a safe place.
Two agents crossed the room, headed for the bathroom. Natasha let Clint watch them, as she kept her eyes on the agents holding Loki. Loki’s staff, the object he normally used in fights, was off to the side, tucked away and forgotten about. If she could take out the two agents and give him his staff, they would have a fighting chance.
Thor’s bellow of agony came out of the bathroom, and any pleasantness at all in any of their faces were wiped right off. The cry of pain was shortly followed by Bruce’s war cry- and the war was on.
-----
Tony sashayed his way down the street, as if it were some sort of runway. Every step showed off his assets, and all Steve wanted to do was bury his hands in his face and try not to die from blushing too hard.
“Tony, stop that!”
“Oh, what’s the matter hot stuff, jealous?” Tony winked at him, pearly whites flashing in a brilliant grin.
“The whole point of this is to stay out of pictures. What if someone recognizes you?”
Tony snorted, waving a carefree hand as he moseyed into a Shawarma restaurant, peering at the menu. The credit card that contained all of their ill-gotten money balanced in the palm of his hand, and Steve couldn’t help but frown at it.
He didn’t want to do this. He didn’t want to steal, lie, and cheat his way through life. But, neither could he leave the others. They trusted him, depended on him- and he needed them. Needed Tony to smirk like nothing was wrong and talking a mile a minute, Clint to laugh from his stomach as he crouched from above, Natasha to watch with a half-amused smile and perfect as she was, Thor and Loki to dance together in the rain without care, and Bruce to quietly nag them. He needed them.
He couldn’t abandon them, not now, not ever no matter what they did. “What do you think Steve?”
“I don’t know Tony. You’re the one with the experience of ordering.”
Steve tended to get asked many, many uncomfortable, personal questions. Tony was more of a careless, devil-take-all, and while he did notice quite a few girls, Tony knew just how to make them part for him.
Tony shrugged, walked up to the counter, and began to order, enough food to feed a small army- Thor could, and would, teat most of it, not matter how disgusting he thought it was.
Steve watched Tony, before reluctantly breaking his eyes away to scan the room. The restaurant was slowly emptying of people, leaving behind a strange mixture of men and women that looked like they orked out. Or were army people. “Tony.”
Tony looked back, and Steve smile, remembering the code Natasha and Clint had made for them. “I don’t suppose they have gravy on the menu, would they?”
Tony looked back at the menu, making a show of scanning it. “Nope. Wanna get out then?”
“Yes, let’s.” The two began to scoot out of the room, when an utterly bland, just about faceless man stood in the doorway. He had sunglasses on, but he pulled them off as he walked in, unlike Tony who refused to take his off.
“Steve and Tony Stark isn’t it?” He smiled blandly, without threat, but Steve felt himself tense anyways, felt Tony slide into place next to him, watching his back. It gave him a small measure of comfort, and he smiled at the man, shaking his head.
“I’m afraid not.”
“I’m pretty sure you are.” The man held up what looked to be dossiers, and Steve felt his blood run cold. Tony began to swear beneath his breath.
Steve took a step forward, Tony synched to every move. “What do you want then?”
“I want you all to work with me.”
Tony laughed. Steve watched stony-faced, his normal smile completely gone. “Doing what?”
Clint and Natasha could kill when they wanted, could branch out to become assassins, but neither wished to go into that life. Both were far happier with their group, and their mostly non-killing crime sprees that mostly involved scams. Steve would prefer a life where hey didn’t have to steal at all, but it wasn’t possible. Not the way his group was built- they needed something to do, something to fight.
“Saving people’s lives.”
A spark.
Yes, yes, this was right, this was what he wanted, this was what he needed. Tony nudged him ever so slightly, and his mind was instantly drawn back to the present- to his team. “We’ll have to ask the rest of the team.”
Next Chapter