Steve Rogers tapped his razor on the edge of the sink, letting it rest on the edge as he grabbed the bathroom towel hanging on the rack. Gently, he patted his face clean, looking up into the mirror at the now freshly shaven Steve Rogers that stared back at him.
The super soldier's hand gripped the edge of the sink as he stared up at himself. It had been almost a month, and Steve Rogers hadn't let a smile cross his lips once. Not since the lost, not since Carol Danvers flew off into space to find Tony and Lottie and bring them home...or their dust.
The mirror in front of Steve began to rattle, along with the sink and the floor below him. His gaze turned to the doorway, where Natasha Romanoff had just appeared.
The pair bolted out of the compound, Bruce, Rhodey, and Rocket right with them as they came to stand in the open field just outside the compound. Pepper Potts was already waiting there, looking up at the sky.
Carol Danvers glowed bright as she carried the Benatar to the earth below. She placed it on the ground as gently as she could before turning to look at the team, giving them a nod of her head.
The ramp of the ship opened as Steve was the first to rush forward.
Nebula held onto Tony's arm, carefully taking one step at a time until they finally reached the bottom, where Steve met them and gripped onto Tony's other arm, ready to help his sickly looking friend. Nebula let go, allowing Steve to take the man before she disappeared back into the ship.
"We couldn't stop him," Tony muttered, leaning against Steve heavily as the soldier moved him away from the ship.
"Neither could I,"
Tony paused, taking a deep breath as he held onto Steve's shoulder, keeping them in place. Steve could see the emotion written clearly on his face as he stumbled over his words.
"I lost the kid,"
"Tony...we lost,"
"Is...is um..." Tony trailed off as he looked to his right, just as Pepper stopped in her tracks before them
The woman broke down immediately, tugging Tony into her arms as she buried her face in his neck, letting the tears run freely as Tony gripped her back as hard as he could.
Steve smiled, taking a few steps away as he watched the two have their moment. The sound of footsteps on the metal of the ship's ramp brought Steve's attention back.
Nebula hand an arm fully around Charlotte Watson, taking the steps even slower now. Lottie almost crumpled with every step, her breathing heavy as her feet finally touched the earth.
Her eyes trailed up, locking on the baby blue ones she had missed so much, and the weight of the world came crashing down on both of them.
A loud sob ripped through Lottie throat as she crumpled to the ground and out of Nebula's touch. The blue woman only backed away as Steve Rogers rushed forward, sliding across the ground as his arms wrapped around the frail body of Charlotte Watson, a sob running through him as well.
Lottie's fragile arms wrapped themselves around Steve's neck, attaching her body to him as her face buried into his shoulder, her cried never ceasing as she felt Steve's grip around her waist tighten, his lips pressed into the side of her head like their life depended on it.
Steve ran his hand as comfortingly up and down her back as possible as she cried, trying to calm her down when in reality, he was just as much of a mess as she was. They had both survived and were back in one another's arms.
Moving the woman's small body into his lap, Steve's hands found the sides of Lottie's face as he pulled away, looking into the eyes of the woman he loved. A smile finally crossed his lips.
"Still the most gorgeous thing in the world, doll,"
Another sob left Lottie as she reaching forward shakily, placing the softest of kisses on the lips of her fiance. The sound of another person sliding on the ground beside them tore Lottie away, another cry leaving her lips as she threw an arm around Natasha Romanoff, pulling both her and Steve into her as tightly as possible.
Lottie closed her eyes, willing to let herself have one moment of peace in the arms of her lover and one of her best friends.
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"It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth,"
Lottie was sat in a wheelchair, hooked up to multiple IV's just as Tony was across the room. While her best friend was sat at a dining room table, Lottie was placed directly beside Steve with her bowl of soup in her lap, her fiance refusing to let her even an inch away from him.
"World governments are in pieces. The parts that are still working are trying to take a census. And it looks like he did... exactly what he said he was going to do. Thanos wiped out fifty percent, of all living creatures,"
Feeling her throat close up, Lottie had to look away from the screens as she saw familiar faces pass by. Bucky, Stephen Strange, T'Challa, Wanda, Peter...
"Where is he now? Where?" Tony questioned the team. Steve only gave him a shrug.
"We don't know. He just opened a portal and walked through,"
Lottie's eyes trailed to the glass room across the small conference room, frowning at the sight of Thor inside. Her skinny hand came up, pointing over to him.
"What's wrong with Thor?"
"He's pissed," Rocket, a talking raccoon, told them. Lottie tried her best to put her weirdness about a talking raccoon aside, seeing as Quill had told them about him. "He thinks he failed. Which of course he did, but there's a lot of that's goin' around, ain't there?"
"Honestly, up until this exact second, I thought you were a Build-A-Bear," Tony told the animal, who shrugged.
"Maybe I am,"
"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep Space scans, satellites, and we got nothing. Tony, Lottie...you two fought him-"
"Who told you that?" Tony interjected as Lottie looked up at him. "We didn't fight him. No, he almost stepped on Lottie and murdered her like she was a god damn ant while wiping my face with a planet while the Bleecker Street Magician gave away the stone. That's what happened. There was no fight."
"Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?"
"No," Lottie mumbled, looking up at Steve beside her. "Not a damn thing. Took the stone and disappeared, came here for Vision's stone."
"I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision. I didn't wanna believe it. Thought I was dreaming," Tony told the team as Steve sighed, taking a step toward him.
"Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus-"
"And I needed you. Lottie needed you. As in past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late buddy. Sorry. You know what I need?"
Tony rose to his feet, hitting his soup bowl across the table as Lottie jumped at the sudden bang. He ripped his IV's from his arm as he stalked toward Steve, Rhodey trying to hold him back.
"Tony, Tony-"
"I need to shave. And I believe I remember telling you, Cap, that what we needed was a suit of armor around the world! Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedom or not- that's what we needed!"
"Tony, that didn't work out," Lottie pleaded with her best friend, moving to rise from her wheelchair to stop him. Natasha placed a hand on her shoulder, keeping her in her seat. "Please, Tony, just sit down."
"I said, "we'll lose". You said, "We'll do that together too." And guess what, cap? We lost," Tony sneered as Rhodey held him back, Lottie watching in defeat as all the anger her best friend stored up inside was coming to light. "You weren't there. But that's what we do, right? Our best work after the fact? We're the Avengers, we're the Avengers. Not the Prevengers, right?"
"Okay, you made your point. Just sit down, okay?" Rhodey tried to reason as Tony shoved past him.
"Here's my point. She's great, by the way. We need you. You're new blood," Tony pointed at Carol before standing face to face with Steve, less than an inch away from him. "Bunch of tired old mills! We got nothing for you, cap! We got no coordinates, no clues, no plan, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust. Liar."
Shaking off Natasha's hand, Lottie grabbed hold of the cart that her IV's were attached to, coming to stand beside Steve as she placed a hand on each of their shoulders, trying to separate them as she saw the heartbroken look on Steve's face.
"Tony, please-"
"Here, take this," Tony ripped the arc reactor off his chest that held the nanites of his suit, shoving it into Steve's hand. "You find him, and you put that on. You hide."
Tony fell to the floor in a heap, everyone moving toward him at once. He told them he was all fine until his head hit the floor and he fell unconscious. The team made quick work of getting him up and moving him as Steve came back to Lottie's side, pulling her into him as a tear slipped down her cheek, watching as Tony was carried away.
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Lottie sat in her wheelchair, hooked to her IV's still as she sat by Steve's side, watching as Bruce and Pepper sat by Tony's side in the hospital bed. Rhodey exited the room, walking toward the group.
"Bruce gave him a sedative. He's gonna be out for the rest of the day,"
"You guys take care of him. And I'll bring Xorrian Elixir when I come back," Carol informed the group before walking away.
"Where to, exactly?" Lottie called out after her.
"To kill Thanos,"
Natasha and Steve shared a look as they rushed after her, Rhodey taking hold of Lottie's wheelchair and moving them forward toward them.
"Hey, you know, we usually work as a team around here, and between you and I, we're also a little fragile," Natasha told the woman with a smile.
"We realize out there is more of your territory, but this is our fight too," Steve told the woman.
"Do you know where to find him?" Lottie questioned as well, Carol giving a shrug in response.
"I know some people who might-"
"Don't bother," Nebula cut in, rounding the corner into the room. "I can tell you where Thanos is."
Nebula gathered the group back in the conference room. They sat around, waiting for her to explain the situation to them.
"Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. Then when he worked, he talked about his great plan. Even disassembled, I wanted to please him. I'd ask "where would we go once his plan was complete?". His answer was always the same: To the Garden."
"Purple dick has a retirement plan, lovely," Lottie mumbled to herself.
Rocket climbed up onto the conference table, activating the holograms to bring up one of the earth.
"When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions. No one's ever seen anything like it... Until two days ago. On this planet."
"He used the stones again," Natasha mumbled, walking forward to examine the hologram of the planet.
"Hey, let's think about this for a second," Bruce cut in, looking around at the team. "We'd be going in short-handed, you know."
"You can do whatever you want with the stones," Lottie told the team as she looked around at them. "Thanos wanted to wipe out half the universe, so he just thought about it and snapped his fingers. So, if you get the stones-"
"We snap our own fingers and bring everyone back," Carol finished off, nodding at Lottie.
"Just like that?"
"Yeah, just like that," Steve nodded along, agreeing to the plan.
"Even if there's a small chance that we can undo this... I mean we owe it to everyone who's not in this room to try," Natasha pleaded with the team, looking back at Bruce who was ready to argue once more.
"If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before?"
"Before, you didn't have me," Carol spoke up, gaining an eyeroll from Rhodey.
"Hey, new girl, everyone here is about that superhero life. And if you don't mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?"
"There are a lot of other planets in the universe. And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys,"
The conversation came to a halt as Thor walked forward, standing before the woman as he called an axe to him, and Lottie decided that was a question to ask for later. He looked down at Carol for a moment before looking back at the team.
"I like this one,"
"Let's go get this son of a bitch," Steve said to the team, looking around at them. "Suit up, five minutes."
The team dispersed from the room to ready themselves for the mission. Steve Rogers took the opportunity to kneel in front of Lottie, looking up at her.
"You find him, and you kill him," Lottie told her fiance as she held his hands in her own. "You kill that son of a bitch, you take the stones, and you come back to me, Steve Rogers."
Steve let a smile cross his face as he leaned forward, placing a kiss on the top of her head.
"I always will, doll,"
It was minutes later that Lottie sat outside on her wheelchair, watching as Nebula repaired the ship with the tools at the compound and the team climbed inside, Benatar taking off back into space.
Wheeling herself back inside, Lottie planted herself next to Pepper, holding one of her hands as she told her of everything that happened, keeping themselves occupied as Tony slept and they waited for the team.
Excitement flowed through Lottie at the thought that this was it. They would go up there and reverse the damage that had been done. They were going to win.
Her excitement vanished when hours later the team returned, defeat written across their faces.
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Alright I have been absolutely FEEDING you all today with the updates and THAT is because... SLATE HAS HIT OVER 40,000 READS, OVER 4,000 LIKES, AND OVER 500 COMMENTS!
If some of you have read my other stuff, you know that isn't a lot compared to, say, my Percy Jackson series. This story, this character and her journey with Steve...idk how to describe it. It's like my child, I love everything about this and I'm so proud of the story I've created for them and I can't wait to create a new one for Tony as well.
I love you all 3,000