2023
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"Nineteen. . .twenty! Ready or not here I come!"
(Y/N) removed her hands from her eyes after covering them for a few seconds. She was crouched on her knees in the grass outside their cabin, but after she announced her statement into the air, she got up to her full height. It was the second round of hide & seek between her and Morgan, one of their favorite activities to do outdoors. Tony wanted to join them too, but he was stuck doing lunch (well, at least, attempting to) indoors in the kitchen.
(Y/N) stayed completely silent so she could hear any sort of movement around her, careful to watch her steps too. She surrounded the small tent hung up by a couple of twigs and tree branches, not finding a sign of Morgan anywhere.
"Hmm," she said in a loud tone, placing her hands on her hips. "I guess Morgan isn't here. I'm gonna have to search somewhere else. . ."
Just as she expected, she heard a quiet chuckle from the inside of the tent. (Y/N) grinned and watched her steps as she made her way over to the entrance of it, noticing how one of the flaps moved due to a push from the inside. (Y/N) knelt down on the grass again and reached out a hand to pull back the tent's flap. With the flap fully open, it revealed the small figure of just the person she wanted to find.
"Found you!"
Morgan let out a squeal and revealed her toothy grin. (Y/N) reached out to grab her and carefully scooped her in her arms. Morgan's laughter increased, and (Y/N) took this as an opportunity to blow a raspberry into her daughter's cheek and tickling her sides. The sound of her laughter was something she'll never get tired of, as if it was music to her ears.
The girls were too busy in their own small bubble that they didn't hear the front door open and close from afar. Tony walked down the steps of the front porch with hands stuffed in his pockets, clapping his hands together.
"Honey, Honey Jr., lunch's ready!"
He yelled loud enough for them to hear, but he stopped in his tracks when he heard the laughter coming from both of them. The sight in front of him made his eyes soften, a smile of his own forming in his lips.
But him, in his typical nature, decided to say his one of his usual remarks. "I see I'm being excluded from all the fun."
(Y/N) stopped tickling Morgan but the smile was still plastered on her face. Morgan, on the other hand, jumped from her mother's grasp and opened her arms to embrace her father, who knelt down on the grass to be at her level.
"Daddy!" she nearly jumped into his arms, making Tony let out a grunt as he pulled her to him. "Wanna play with us?"
"I don't know, ask your Mom."
Morgan turned around to face (Y/N), pulling her usual puppy eyes that she used every time she begged for something. (Y/N) let out a chuckle at the antic, finding it adorable how desperately Morgan wanted Tony to join in their little games.
"Depends," she playfully said. "Did you finish lunch?"
"Yup," Tony nodded, brushing the hair out of Morgan's face. "I can give you a handful of crickets on a bed of lettuce."
"No!" Morgan protested with a funny disgusted face, turning on her heels to face her mother.
She ran back to (Y/N)'s arms as a protective shield from that awful-sounding meal and she took her right in her embrace, laughing at the disgusted look in her eyes due to her father's words.
Tony was about to say something in retort when a faint glow from inside the tent caught his attention. He didn't think too much of it and reached a hand toward it before pulling it out to see what it was. When he finally got a good look at it, he recognized the red and blue helmet piece that he had stored in the garage.
"Hey, little miss, how did you find this?" he held the helmet in his hand for her to see.
Morgan lifted her head from her mother's stomach to see what he was referring to. At the sight of it, a cheeky smile popped on her lips. "Garage."
"Really?" he matched her tone. "Were you looking for it?"
"No," Morgan played with her hair. "I found it, though."
"Well, you should be more careful, missy," he scolded. "It's part of a big anniversary gift I — "
Tony stopped mid sentence when he heard a loud clearing of a throat and remembered that (Y/N) was knelt across him. She gave him a knowing look and he just corresponded with a smirk of his own. Morgan found this amusing, letting out a small 'oh' when she recognized the look in her mother's eyes; after all, she saw it all the time.
"Cat's out," he murmured, disappointed.
He started standing up to his full height, scooping Morgan up in his arms. He used one arm to jolt her up on his hip while his free hand held onto the helmet.
(Y/N) got up too, smiling as she dusted the grass off. "Some women get flowers, I get a suit."
"Peak of romance, if you ask me."
Tony leaned forward to pull (Y/N) toward him to press a kiss to her lips. She smiled against him at the sudden gesture, but it increased when she heard the faint sound of disgust coming from Morgan. (Y/N) didn't pull away from his lips as she reached a hand to cover Morgan's eyes as Tony attempted to deepen the kiss.
As fast as it started, (Y/N) pulled away, knowing better than to stand outside in the chilly weather for this long. She pulled away her hand from Morgan's eyes, but that didn't stop her from still pulling her classic tongue out of disgust.
"Come on," she tapped Tony's shoulder and gestured for him to follow after her. "Lunch is waiting."
"I want cheeseburgers!" Morgan exclaimed in enthusiasm, mostly to Tony, but her tone was loud enough for her mother to hear.
"Oh, you want cheeseburgers?" (Y/N) turned around and walked backwards to face her daughter, who nodded to the question. "Well, I want. . .caviar and champagne."
"I can arrange that," Tony added to the conversation.
"Maybe another time."
As the family of three started making their way over to the front door, the parents heard a sound that made them stop in their tracks. (Y/N) turned around at the noise of car doors closing, not expecting to see the people exiting the car. Tony's expression was different from her surprised one; it was one of exhaustion and annoyance.
No one was brave enough to say anything, not even the leader from the arriving group. Natasha wasn't a stranger to this family, so she nodded her head in greeting and (Y/N) corresponded with the same gesture. Morgan didn't know what these visitors were, but when she recognized the red hair amongst the group, she raised a hand to wave enthusiastically to her godmother.
"Hi, Auntie Nat!" she waved happily.
Natasha waved back with a smile that didn't reach her eyes, feeling the burning gazes from her companions on her back. Steve and Scott were standing completely still behind her, though there was a mixture of confusion in their eyes at the sight of the kid.
(Y/N) faced her husband with a look, silently asking what he planned to do with this unexpected visiting. He gave her a curt nod as a way to tell her that he was fine with welcoming them, but his eyes flickered to Morgan for a short second.
"Okay, pumpkin," (Y/N) reached out for Morgan in her father's arms. "Guess what? You get more time to play before lunch!"
Morgan jumped from Tony's arms to (Y/N)'s with an enthusiastic cry, not knowing the full reason why before she was calmly placed back in the ground. (Y/N)'s back muscles slightly pained at the weight, and it gave her the heartbreaking news that her daughter was getting too old to be carried around.
She watched the way Morgan sprinted back to her tent, and (Y/N) let out a breath of relief by watching her go. In no way she wanted to risk her eavesdropping into the conversation, even though she didn't know what they were here to talk about. With a wave of a hand, she gestured for the trio to come in.
(Y/N) instructed Tony to make the guests comfortable while she went inside and grabbed drinks for everyone. Once she was back with a tray in hand, the trio explained why they were here. Apparently, even though they all thought that Scott had been a victim of 'the Blip', he was actually stuck inside a quantum tunnel. He, with this new knowledge and the fact that these 5 long years were just a couple of hours to him, came up with the idea of going back in time to collect all six Infinity stones and reverse the events.
"No," Scott began after retelling the events. "We know what it sounds like."
"Tony, (Y/N), after everything you've seen, is anything really impossible?" Steve asked next, trying to convince them.
(Y/N) stayed silent, leaning back against the porch chair. Her hands were playing with her glass of juice as Tony filled in everyone else's. Neither of them had said anything as they told their hypothetical plan.
"Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck scale, which then triggers the Deutsch Proposition," Tony spoke up first, handing Steve his cup, who took it with a quiet word of gratitude. "Can we agree on that? In layman's terms, it means you're not coming home."
"I did," Scott glowed with pride.
"No. You accidentally survived," Tony corrected him. "It's a billion-to-one cosmic fluke. And now you wanna pull a. . .Why do you call it?"
"A time heist?"
(Y/N) couldn't stop the snort from escaping her lips at the sound of that. She covered her mouth as quick as it came out, feeling embarrassed. "Sorry. Sorry."
"Yeah, a time heist. Of course," Tony eyed her from the corner of his eye and a smile threatened to come up too. "Why didn't we think of this before? Oh, because it's laughable. Because it's a pipe dream."
"The stones are in the past," Steve tried to convince. "We could go back, we could get them."
"We can snap our own fingers," Natasha spoke up for the first time in the conversation. Her tone was solemn, actually believing this might work. "We can bring everybody back."
"Or screw it up worse than he already has, right?"
Steve gave him a look. "I don't believe we would."
"Gotta say it, like I tell her, sometimes I miss that giddy optimism," her husband gestured to her before clasping his hands together. "However, high hopes won't help, if there's no logical, tangible way for me to safely execute said time heist."
"I believe the most likely outcome will be our collective demise."
"Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel," Scott desperately said, sitting down on the chair closest to Tony. "All right? It means no talking to our past selves, no betting on sporting events."
"I'm gonna stop you right there, Scott," Tony raised a hand to shut him up. "Are you seriously telling me that your plan to save the universe is based on Back to the Future?"
The question stopped Scott in his tracks, eyes now heavily focused on the glass in his hands. He scoffed but stayed silent for a few seconds, and Tony eagerly waited for a response.
"Is it?"
"No."
"Good. You had me worried there," Tony told him. "'Cause that would have been horseshit. That's not how quantum physics works."
"Tony," Natasha cut him off, her tone raspy. "We have to take a stand."
"We did stand," he responded to her statement. "And yet, here we are."
"I know you got a lot on the line. You have each other, a daughter," Scott lowered his volume, a lot more calm than before. "But I lost someone very important to me. A lotta people did. And now, now we have a chance to bring her back, to bring everyone back, and you're telling me that you won't even — "
"Scott, let's not go there," (Y/N) interrupted him, eyes pleading behind her sharp tone. "I know you mean well, I really do, but we can't just throw everything we have for a hypothetical."
Tony nodded along to her, "That's right, Scott."
No one said anything after that. Tension was still high in the group, especially over the not-resolved conflict between Tony and Steve, and it could be cut with a knife. The uncomfortable atmosphere was suddenly interrupted by Morgan's small footsteps running through the porch in search of her parents, stopping when she recognized them sat on the chairs.
"I wanted to come and save you," she said in a low voice, one that she used when she was around strangers.
"Oh, my little hero," (Y/N)'s heart warmed at her words, using the nickname she reserved for her.
"Good job," Tony took her in his arms, and she immediately made herself comfortable in the crook of his neck. "We're saved."
Tony decided to stand up from his chair with Morgan still in his arms, and (Y/N) followed suit. The trio avoided eye contact, as if they were embarrassed to have caught them in such an intimate moment.
"I wish you were coming here to ask me something else," Tony told them. "Anything else."
"We're honestly happy to see you guys, I just — "
(Y/N) placed her hands on her hips, and she felt like she didn't want this unusual visit of them to go to waste. "Honey, can they stay for lunch?"
"Yeah, table's set for — "
"Guys, I get it," Steve cut him off. "And I'm happy for you. I really am. But this is a second chance."
"I got my second chance right here, Cap," Tony replied to that, eyes falling to (Y/N) behind him and then on Morgan resting against his shoulder. "Can't roll the dice on it."
He took a few steps away from the group, heading toward the front door before he stopped in his tracks once more. "If you don't talk shop, you can stay for lunch."
The trio looked deflated by the rejection of their idea, and just as (Y/N) was about to follow inside with Tony and Morgan, she stopped. Her inner thoughts were in a conflicted mess because of this, because no matter how hard she wanted to bring everyone back, she couldn't risk losing what she had gained in the last 5 years. But then again, when were they ever going to have an opportunity like this again? She huffed a breath and watched as Steve, Natasha and Scott began making their way toward their car.
"Hey!" she called out to them before it was too late.
The sound of her voice made them all halt in their steps. Steve turned around first with furrowed eyebrows and stayed silent as if he was waiting for (Y/N) to say something else following her call. Natasha crossed her arms over her chest defensively, and Scott was staring at the ground.
"I'll talk to him, okay?" she told them, genuinely. "Can't say I will convince him, but I'll try."
Steve nodded with less serious eyes. "Thank you, (Y/N)."
She placed her hands on her hips, nodding to his words. "Keep me updated, please."
"We will," Natasha was the one to respond. "You really think we can work this out?"
"Honestly, I don't know," she confessed. "But. . .you never know unless you try, right?"
"Right."
"Look, if you desperately want to try this out, talk to Banner," she said. "And if you get Banner, you can bet Tony will accept sooner or later."
"Aren't you the one with that power?" Scott blurted out without thinking.
"Oh, I do," she crossed her arms. "But he'll need someone there that can fully understand what he's saying."
And that was true. Sure, she could keep up with half the things Tony blurts out about engineering or anything else, but she wasn't an expert. Bruce Banner was the only one who could, and if they really wanted to try this new plan, they'll need the full duo. Scott was about to say something else after her remark, but an unexpected, squeaky voice from the inside of the cabin yelled out as loud for the entire forest to hear.
"Mommy! Lunch is ready!"
(Y/N) internally winced at the volume of Morgan's words, but she yelled out in the same tone too, "Coming!"
She faced the group again, about to apologize from cutting the conversation short, but Steve shook his head dismissively with an understanding look. (Y/N) gave him a thankful smile before nodding her head as a goodbye.
(Y/N) skipped up the steps of the front porch, hearing how the car doors opened and then closed from behind her. The car engine roared on ignition as she was two steps away from the door, and she exhaled a long breath before entering her home.
Maybe this plan of theirs could work, but who knows? she thought.
honey, you got a big storm coming.
lol more family moments will be coming soon, but also a lot of foreshadowing and angst :)
-see you soon, bex <3