Y/N READIED HIMSELF for the party, currently in his room fixing his hair and adjusting his vest. It felt nice having a place to stay in the tower and not have to commute from D.C to New York for every mission. Like Rogers though, he thought of acquiring a place in the city soon. But for now, he was fine with dressing up and simply taking an elevator up to the festivities.
He looked at himself in the mirror and checked out his outfit one last time.
A/N: Looking good, old man!
There was a knock on the door and Y/N went over to answer it. On the other side was Thor, with a beaming smile and Mjölnir in hand. He had a room on the same floor but rarely used it since he was off-world most of the time.
"Son of Steve! Are you ready for the gathering?" He asked.
"As I'll ever be." Y/N chuckled as he closed the door and the two started walking down the hall.
"Do you have to call me Son of Steve all the time?" Y/N added. "I don't have to be reminded."
Thor let out a soft laugh. "After Loki's failed crusade, I left Midgard knowing none of it. I come back over a year later and find out Rogers had a son? It came as a surprise, a man like him...so righteous...yet so boring, having had relieved his chastity."
It took a moment for the young man to process the demigod's words.
"Are you saying it's shocking Rogers lost his virginity?" He asked.
Thor kept looking ahead. "You say it so primitively."
Y/N laughed. "My dad had his way with words. You underestimated his charm."
"I guess so." Thor turned to him. "Are you going to use that passed down charm on Lady Romanova?"
Y/N rolled his eyes. "Is there anybody else that wants to poke fun at me? Maybe somebody off-world like Odin?"
Thor chuckled, but suddenly stumbled forward and caught himself before he could fall. He looked down and shook his head at the sight of his untied shoes.
"Damned Midgardian footwear." He put his hammer on the table nearby and bent down to tie them. "Back on Asgard we rarely have to do this." He started tying them. "Speaking of it, you'd go by Stevenson on Asgard. Just a fun little fact."
Y/N looked at Mjölnir and studied the inscribing on it. It intrigued him since he remembers, although vaguely, being interested in Norse mythology growing up.
"Wow, this looks awesome." He said as he picked Mjölnir up and looked at the runic inscription on the top. "Too bad I can't translate this. Do you know what it says?"
Thor finished tying his shoes and looked at the young man carrying his hammer. His eyes widened for a moment, but he buried his shock and awkwardly laughed.
"Oh...I...uh...think it says something about...lightning or whatever." He took the hammer from Y/N. "Um...let's get going shall we?"
Y/N looked at Thor confusedly after his weird exchange, but he shrugged it off and the two continued walking down the hallway.
• • •
SAM HIT THE cue ball against the striped one and put in the pocket. He pumped his fist and cheered.
"Ooh! Woo! Come back, come back, come back." He exclaimed.
Steve and Y/N held their own cue sticks and stood beside the billiards table. They were tag-teaming to try to beat Wilson, who apparently was a billiards guru.
"We got this." Y/N told Steve as he tapped his shoulder.
Sam overheard him. "What? The two of you with a combined 160+ years of life experience can't beat me?"
"Calling us old isn't going to better your chances at winning." Steve replied.
Y/N pointed at Sam. "Yeah. Watch your words, Wilson. You lose and we get your wings."
"Oh really?" Sam said as he held his cue with both hands. "If I win. I'm spoiling season four and five of The Walking Dead for you."
Y/N was barely on season three and needed to catch up.
"You know what? Deal." Y/N said, and Sam simply laughed as he readied to hit another ball.
Steve and Y/N lost the game.
Fortunately for the younger super soldier, Sam decided not to spoil the show right away. But he warned that one day he's going to blurt it out and tell him.
Father, son, and friend walked up the stairs with Sam the only one holding a drink. Rogers had finished telling the story of their mission in Sokovia.
"Sounds like a hell of a fight. Sorry I missed it." Sam said.
"If I had known it was gonna be a firefight I absolutely would have called." Steve replied.
"Agreed. Adding to the flying demigod and tin-man, a guy in a bird costume would've added quite a scare." Y/N chimed in.
Sam chuckled. "No, no, I'm not actually sorry. I'm just trying to sound tough. I'm very happy chasing cold leads on our missing persons case."
Steve sighed at the mention of their current-yet-postponed-because-of-lack-of-leads mission to find Bucky Barnes. Even Y/N had been of assistance the last several months in order to find his uncle Buck, as Sam coined it.
They walked down the corridor and looked over the railing at the sight of the party below. Sam continued.
"Avenging is your world. Your world is crazy."
Steve nodded. "Be it ever so humble."
Sam took a sip of his drink. "You find a place in Brooklyn yet?"
"I don't think I can afford a place in Brooklyn."
Y/N looked at Steve. "Really? You didn't get your pension?"
He raised a brow. "What pension?"
"When I woke up Fury helped me get what I was owed for my service, before and after I was MIA in Vietnam. It's how I was able to get a place to stay."
Steve chuckled as he leaned on the railing. It was the first time he's heard about it.
Sam nodded. "Well, home is home, you know?"
Natasha was behind the bar making herself a drink. Y/N walked up to the counter and leaned on it.
The man couldn't get her eyes off of her. He'd seen her wardrobe during undercover ops and after them, but this was different. What she wore tonight just felt right.
"How'd a nice girl like you wind up working in a dump like this?" He asked.
She looked down at the counter. "Fella done me wrong."
"He made a mistake. Show me where they are so I can talk some sense into 'em."
"Hey, he's not so bad." She started pouring another glass for Y/N. "Well, he used to question himself sometimes...his purpose."
He gave a slight nod as he sipped the drink she served him.
She continued. "Fact is, he's not like anybody I've ever known. Even with those doubts, he never backed down from a fight...and still doesn't. Because now he knows what his purpose is."
"Sounds amazing." Y/N replied and drank again.
"He's also a huge dork. You could say his jokes are outdated." She said as she sipped, which garnered a soft chuckle from Y/N.
"Chicks dig that." She added.
"I bet they do."
Natasha put her drink down and leaned over the counter. "So what do you think? Should I fight this, or run with it?"
Y/N looked down for a moment as he thought. He wasn't oblivious to their conversation and it's meaning. Ever since he's woken up in this new world, Natasha had been by his side the whole way. Training him, introducing him to new things with Clint, becoming partners, even saving the world together a couple of times.
They cared for each other. What started as just flirtatious banter in earlier years grew into actual feelings that they were honestly wary of showing, at least in Y/N's case.
Well, wary of showing until now.
"No point in fighting." Y/N began. "I bet even the fella would have a hard time doing so. It might be the first fight he'd back down from."
She raised a brow and smirked. "Really?"
He leaned further and got closer. "You said he's done you wrong. What did he do?"
The redhead got even closer, their faces now a mere inch apart.
"Not a damn thing."
He smiled. "Good."
Their lips connected and the two kissed. A sense of relief flooded them as their feelings built from years of partnership were now being expressed in their kiss.
A kiss not of lust and need, but of love and affection.
The two parted and Y/N looked into Natasha's emerald eyes. He let out a chuckle which also garnered a soft laugh from the woman.
"So run with it, then?" She asked.
He nodded with a smile. "Absolutely."
She got closer and whispered into his ear with a sultry tone. "Let's continue running with it upstairs when this party's over. All right?"
Natasha took another sip of her drink before walking away from the bar, making sure the give him a flirtatious look before leaving.
Y/N chuckled before suddenly noticing Steve sitting a couple seats away from him.
"It's nice." He spoke.
"What—what is?" Y/N stammered. "How long have you been here?"
"You and Romanoff." Steve answered, ignoring his second question. "It was about time honestly."
"You think so?" Y/N shifted his body and turned to him.
"Well, she's not the most open person in the world. But with you she's very relaxed. I've been noticing that for a while."
"For a while?"
"All that flirting, the kind that makes Barton sick, I had feeling there was something in it."
Y/N nodded. He was right.
Steve grabbed a bottle of beer from behind the bar and stood up. "As maybe the world's leading authority on waiting too long, I'm glad you didn't do the same."
He pat his son's shoulder and handed him the bottle.
Steve continued as he walked with Y/N. "Which is great. You don't meet a girl like that every century. I mean, she's not Peggy, but she's great nonetheless."
• • •
EVERYBODY HAD GONE but the party was far from over. The only people left in Avengers Tower were Steve, Tony, Y/N, Natasha, Bruce, Maria Hill, Thor, Rhodey, Clint, and Helen Cho.
Y/N sat with Natasha on the sofa, having an arm around her as she rested her head on his shoulder.
Clint twirled the drumsticks he randomly had with his fingers. "But it's a trick."
"No, no, it's much more than that." Thor replied, the two arguing about Mjölnir which rested on the table.
Clint semi-drunkenly mocked Thor's voice and looked at the hammer, "Ah, whosoever be he worthy shall haveth the power." Clint returned to his normal tone, "Whatever, man! It's a trick."
Thor chuckled. "Please, Barton." He extended his hand towards Mjölnir. "Be my guest."
"Really?"
"Yeah." Tony eagerly replied, wanted to see Clint's fruitless attempt.
The archer got up and walked towards the hammer.
"Oh, this is gonna be beautiful." Rhodey remarked.
"Clint, you've had a tough week. We won't hold it against you if you can't get it up." Tony jested.
Everybody laughed and Clint spoke to Thor. "You know I've seen this before, right?"
Clint held the handle of Mjölnir and tried to pick it up. He let out a grunt but couldn't move it.
Clint laughed. "I still don't know how you do it!"
Tony looked at him. "Smell the silent judgment?"
"Please, Stark, by all means." Clint shot back.
Tony got up from his seat, clearing his throat and undoing a button on his jacket.
"Uh-oh." Hill said.
"Here we go." Y/N remarked.
Stark walked over to the hammer.
"Never one to shrink from an honest challenge. It's physics."
Tony put his wrist through the leather loop of Mjölnir and grabbed onto the handle.
"So if I lift it, I get to rule Asgard?" He asked the demigod.
"Yes, of course."
"I will be reconstituting prima nocta." Tony told everyone and began to pull.
It was a fruitless attempt, and he sighed as he began to think.
"I'll be right back."
Tony tried to use his Iron Man gauntlets to try and lift the hammer, but it didn't budge. He even got Rhodey to help, but even the combined force of both sets of gauntlets weren't enough.
Clint tried again, but just kept embarrassing himself. Banner did as well, only to jokingly yell out angrily as if he was going to hulk out.
"You should've yelled Hulk Smash!" Y/N said as he tried to mock Hulk's voice.
Banner dusted off his hands and chuckled. "Hulk Smash? I've only said that once and I'm never going to again."
It was now Rogers's turn. He walked up to the hammer and gripped the handle.
"Come on, Cap." Clint cheered on.
He pulled with all his strength and felt Mjölnir give a little. Thor's expression changed as he saw the hammer wobble, which Steve seemed to notice.
Ultimately, Steve stopped and acted as if he couldn't achieve the feat.
Thor let out a sigh of relief and laughed. "Nothing."
"And you Forrest?" Tony asked, then suddenly tried to think of a new nickname. "Cap Junior? Capsicle II? Nah, I'll just stick with Forrest."
The young man immediately thought back at when he inadvertently lifted Thor's hammer earlier today. The long party had made him forget him about it.
Y/N looked at Thor. "Wait, so you're saying whoever lifts that—"
"No need! No need!" Thor interjected, not wanting him to lift Mjölnir in front of the team. "Son of Rogers is worthy in my eyes."
Everybody seemed weirded out by Thor's sudden outburst. Y/N looked at the demigod and chuckled at him trying to save face, and he understood it.
"Uh, Natasha?" Y/N turned to her and motioned towards the hammer.
"Oh, no, no. That's not a question I need answered." She answered and took a swig of her beer.
"All deference to the Man Who Wouldn't Be King, but it's rigged." Tony spoke.
"You bet your ass." Clint agreed.
Hill looked at Rogers. "Steve, he said a bad language word."
Steve sighed and looked down before darting his eyes back at Stark. "Did you tell everyone about that?"
Tony ignored his comment and kept asking Thor about Mjölnir.
"The handle's imprinted, right? Like a security code. Whosoever is carrying Thor's fingerprints is, I think, the literal translation."
Thor got up from his seat. "Yes. It's a very, very, interesting theory. I have a simpler one."
He reached down and grabbed the hammer, flipping it and catching it again. "You're all not worthy." He looked at Y/N. "Besides Y/N who, like I said, is in my eyes."
"Boo!" Rhodey exclaimed as the rest of the group let out a groan, but it quickly turned to laughter.
Suddenly, a high-pitched noise startled them. Tony checked his phone to see what caused the feedback.
"No." A voice suddenly spoke nearby.
They turned to the platform by the bar, seeing a mangled Iron Legion sentry.
"How can you be worthy?" It stumbled closer. "You're all killers."
"What the...?" Y/N muttered as he got up from his seat with Natasha.
"Stark?" Rogers called out.
"Jarvis?" Tony tried to call for help, but the AI wasn't responding.
"I'm sorry, I was asleep. Or I was a-dream." The robot said.
Tony typed into his device. "Reboot Legionnaire OS. We got a buggy suit."
"There was this terrible noise. And I was tangled in...". The robot looked down at his exposed wires. "...strings."
They all looked on in confusion as the robot continued.
"I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy."
"You killed someone?" Steve asked it.
"Wouldn't have been my first call. But down in the real world, we're faced with ugly choices."
"Who sent you?" Y/N asked.
The robot started to replay audio of Tony's voice.
"I see a suit of armor around the world."
Banner looked over at Tony, realizing who it was. "Ultron."
"In the flesh." The robot, Ultron, responded. "Or, no, not yet. Not this chrysalis."
Deep inside, everyone could sense the threat of the rouge AI. Thor gripped Mjölnir and Maria switched off the safety on her pistol.
"I'm on a mission." Ultron continued.
"What mission?" Natasha asked.
Ultron turned his head and faced them.
"Peace in our time."
Several Iron Legion sentries crashed through the walls behind Ultron and soared into the room.
Steve kicked up the table in front him towards one of the sentries, but he was heaved back with it upon impact. A sentry flew at Thor but the demigod hit it away with his hammer.
Tony and Rhodey vaulted over the railing, sliding down the glass and onto the lower floor. A sentry suddenly flew by and knocked Tony down, leaving Rhodey alone to fend off a sentry by shooting at it, but was knocked back by a blast and fell through the glass behind him.
A sentry shot a blast that hit a sofa and sent Banner, Hill, and Cho back. The same robot shot again at Y/N and Natasha but the two vaulted over the bar and took cover behind it.
"Robots?" Y/N breathed out. "What's next? An Aztec mummy?"
"Now's not the time for film references." Natasha replied as she grabbed the pistol hidden under the bar.
She peeked out and shot at the sentry, then Steve leaped onto it. It accelerated backward, hitting him against the wall and causing Steve to fall off.
"Come on!" Natasha exclaimed and grabbed Y/N by the arm. They ran up the stairs as another sentry shot repulsor blasts at them with the redhead also shooting back with her gun.
Nearby, Tony ran upstarts and jumped over the railing onto the back of one of the robots. He stabbed into its neck with a knife and tried to pry it in.
"Stark!" Steve called out from below.
"One sec. One sec. I got this." He shouted back.
A mangled sentry floated towards Helen Cho, who was taking cover behind the piano. He aimed at her, but hesitated before deciding not to fire. Suddenly, a baton flew at the robot and stabbed into its head.
Y/N cheered from the second floor railing. "Bullseye!" Natasha grabbed his arm again and continued running.
Clint was on the lower floor taking cover. He looked to his right and saw Steve's shield resting against a wall. He ran to it and grabbed the circular object.
"Cap!" He yelled as he ran out, tossing the shield at him like a frisbee.
Steve caught it then spun towards the sentry, using his momentum to toss it further. It hit the final robot and split it in half.
The room was silent as everybody stood around, catching their breaths and processing what just happened.
"That was dramatic." Ultron remarked, his mangled body still limping on the platform.
Y/N leaned against a column, taking in breaths as Natasha tossed her empty gun aside.
Ultron continued. "I'm sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn't think it through. You want to protect the world but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to evolve?"
He went over to a destroyed robot and picked it up by the head.
"With these? These...". He crushed the head. "...puppets."
After throwing the body aside, he spoke further. "There's only one path to peace...the Avengers' extinction."
Thor had enough and threw Mjölnir at Ultron, destroying it. The hammer retreated back into his palm afterwards.
The sentry had one last thing to say before powering down for good.
"I had strings, but now I'm free."