Imagine If You Assembled The Avengers: Volume 3

Then It All Shifted (Lang x reader)

"Ant Man?"

"What?"

"Was it too late to change the name?" you smirked, nudging Sam gently when he began to laugh along. It was a conversation that was all too familiar for your friend.

"Iron Man was already taken," Scott quipped with an equally smug look. "Besides, what's wrong with Ant Man?"

"It doesn't sound very intimidating."

Scott glanced at Sam, who was standing just a step behind you and trying to hold in his laughter to avoid another poke to the ribs. He knew that introducing the two of you was a good idea, even if Steve didn't agree, and he was enjoying how much he was going to torture him with this win later. "She's right, Tic Tac."

"Okay, so what's yours then?" Scott challenged, pulling off his helmet to see you clearly as he waited. It was a false air of patience that he carried; inside he was a bundle of nervous energy, first from the rapid shift in size that he had just endured, but also from the prospect of having someone on the team who he could actually relate to.

"I don't need an alias," you scoffed, "I have nothing to hide. What you see is what you get."

"That's a liiiiie. You're a shifter. Who's to say that what I'm looking at is really your true form? Wait! I've got it! I think we should call you Shifty. You actually seem a little shifty if you ask me."

"I didn't."

"Pfft, okay," Scott snorted, giving Sam a sideways look before putting his helmet back over his head. He held his hand out to guide you forward, letting you take the lead to get into the jet first. "Down to business then. Nothing like a mission to kick off your first day of Avenging, right? Let's go. Time to see what you can do, Shifty."

You stopped cold, so quickly that Scott nearly tripped and pushed you over, but his quick reflexes grabbed around your waist to hold you both up. When you tore his hands away and gave him a firm push back, even he wouldn't be able to deny that maybe he had gone just a little too far. With each word, your finger pushed a little further into his chest, until he swore that you had left an indent in his skin beneath it. "Do not call me that. Unless you want to find yourself on the underside of my boot, I suggest you drop it, Tiny." Without another word from either of you, you turned on your heel and continued on, leaving him next to Sam with a paleness spreading over his features.

"See?" Sam said jovially, with a firm slap on his friend's shoulder, "I told ya she'd like you!"

"Are you serious?" he swallowed hard, his eyes still fixed on you. "Then what the hell does hate look like?"

~~~

A few missions after that first day was all it took for you to realize that you didn't exactly hate Scott; he was okay, and it was getting easier to tolerate him. His jokes got a little bit funnier the longer you knew him, but they were still pretty bad. He never took himself too seriously, which you could appreciate, but sometimes you wondered if he ever took anything seriously at all. One of your fears, on any team that you had ever been on, was that too much humor or lightheartedness would get someone hurt or worse, and even though you knew that there had to be some fun in a life like this, you couldn't encourage him.

Scott was just toying with you. He was well aware that his jokes and antics were wearing on you, and he was having the time of his life torturing you with it. It was clear to him that he was figuring out what hate really did look like, each time that you rolled your eyes at him, or when you gave Sam that simple glance in frustration that you thought he didn't see. But he did see it, and you were simply feeding into his drive to make your life intolerable. It wasn't that he didn't like you; he did. He only picked on people that he liked. Scott had always found kindergarten rules to be ageless and universal, so why change his ways just for you?