Year: 2023
Age: 24
'Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Got his feet to movin'
And that Rubberband off the ground!
He lifted it way up high, ha!
In the sky, y'all!
Doo doo doo doo doo
Oh get with it, y'all!
Hey y'all prepare yourself
For the rubberband man'
Dad lip sings along with the music, using the spatula as a microphone.
"Sing it, (Y/n)!" He says and points to me with the spatula.
'You've never heard a sound
Like the rubberband man
You're bound to lose control
When the rubberband starts to jam'
I lip sing along to the song, taking the spatula from Dad's hand and using it to flip the pancakes over. I hand him back the spatula to finish making the pancakes as I head into the living room. As I do 'Radioactive' by Imagine Dragons comes on.
"NO! NOT THIS SONG!" I yell as I speed back into the kitchen and skip the song.
Dad looks at me confused. "What's wrong with that song?" He asks.
I shake my head. "We're not listening to it."
Dad looks at me suspiciously and snatches the phone out of my hand. He puts the song back on as I try to grab it out of his hand, but he held the phone over his head so I couldn't reach it. Why did he have to be so tall?!
'I'm waking up to ash and dust
I wipe my brow and I sweat my rust
I'm breathing in the chemicals'
I stop fighting him and just send him a glare.
"Now you see why I didn't want to listen to it? Congrats because now I'm depressed once again." I say as I stomp into the living room and lay down on the couch, staring up at the ceiling. "Sweetie? Can you come in here? Paw Paw made Mommy's depression come back once again and I need a hug." I call out.
Maximus, my baby boy, comes running out and hops up on the couch and lays on my stomach as I cuddle with him.
"You get like this every time I talk about it, (Y/n). I really think you need to talk about it. Maybe it'll help you feel better." Dad says as he walks into the living room. There are toys everywhere so when Dad steps on something pointy he curses to himself. "Son of a bitch." He mutters as he holds his foot.
"Language in front of my child!" I scold him as I cover Maximus' ears.
"First off he's my grandchild so I say what I want. Second, it's not like he understands." Dad says.
"He understands that tone of yours though." I sass.
"But he still loves me, don't you?" He says in a baby voice as he picks up my 5-year old golden retriever.
Maximus was born the day the snap happened and lost his mother right after he was born. She was a victim of the snap. I adopted him after Dad and I got this apartment because I was always having trouble sleeping at night and usually Rocket helped with that, but he's in space and visits every once in a while. He and Maximus get along great though and apparently the raccoon can understand everything my dog is saying and translates it for me.
Dad places Maximus back down and he hops up on the couch once again and cuddles next to me. This dog helps cure my depression.
"You should come to the meeting today. Maybe it'll help to get it off your mind." Dad says.
I shake my head. "Nope. Every time I go there it just makes my depression worse than it already is."
"(Y/n), you're coming. You need to talk about this." Dad says.
"Oh, do you hear that?" I ask as I grab my phone. "Sounds like my boss is calling. I think he has another dead body for me to examine." I say as I get up.
Dad takes my phone and looks at me seriously. "First off, you're off today so your boss isn't calling. Second, you're going to that meeting." He says sternly.
I groan, knowing I don't have a choice. "Fine, but Maximus is coming with," I say.
"Deal." Dad nods. He then sniffs the air. "Do you smell something burning?"
"Maybe the pancakes you left on the stove," I say as I see smoke coming out of the kitchen.
Dad looks around alarmed and runs to the kitchen. The smoke alarm starts going off and I walk into the kitchen to watch Dad frantically opening up all the windows and trying to get the fire alarm to shut up. I laugh at him and he looks back at me.
"You could at least help," Dad says.
"But this is funnier," I say as Maximus trots up to stand next to me and watch Dad struggle.
He finally gets the alarm to shut up and looks up at us, who are still looking at him.
"How about we order some takeout?" He asks.
...
Dad and I walk into the dimly lit room, small chairs were formed in a circle. I sit down next to Dad with Maximus in my lap as I pet his fur. Others are gathered around too as the meeting starts.
"So I, uh... went on a date the other day. It's the first time in five years. You know? We're sitting there at dinner. I didn't even know what to talk about." A man with glasses tells the circle as we all listen intently.
"What did you talk about?" Dad asks him.
"Same old crap. You know, how things have changed and... my job, his job. How much we miss the Mets. And then things got quiet... then he cried as they were serving the salads." He tells us.
"What about you?" Another man asks.
"I cried... just before dessert." He admits. "But I'm seeing him again tomorrow, so..."
"That's great," Dad tells him. "You did the hardest part. You took the jump. You didn't know where you were gonna come down."
I sit silently as Dad continues to speak.
"And that's it. That's those little brave baby steps we gotta take to try and become whole again, try and find purpose."
I decide to speak up. "You know it's kind of hard to try to find purpose in life when you know a mad titan wiped out the whole universe and I couldn't do anything to stop him. None of us could. And then Roy, my best friend... he admitted that he always loved me right before he turned to dust in my arms." I pause as everyone looks at me. "And you know I have my depressing moments, which are almost all the time, and sometimes I wonder why... why I don't just put an end to my suffering. Put a bullet in my head, but something always stops me. I think it's because I have a glimmer of hope that they'll all come back." I tell the group. Some look at me shocked at how dark that got so fast and others nod in understanding.
Maximus whines, noticing I'm sad again and stands up on his hind legs to give me a hug, which I accept as I wrap my arms around the dog's back. Dad looks at me to check if I'm okay and I nod to him, which tells him to continue with the session.
Dad clears his throat before talking. "I went in the ice in '45 right after I met the love of my life. Woke up 70 years later."
"But if you didn't you wouldn't have met me. Or met the team and gotten this family." I say as I smile at him while still hugging onto Maximus tightly.
Dad nods. "You gotta move on. Gotta move on. The world is in our hands. It's left to us, guys. And we gotta do something with it. Otherwise... Thanos should've killed all of us."
After that, the session ended. Dad says bye to everyone that came and we were the only two, well three if you count Maximus, in the room.
"Can I go back home and mope now?" I ask him.
"No. We're going somewhere." He tells me as we walk out to the car.
"Where?" I ask as I open the passenger side door. Maximus hops in and climbs into the back automatically.
"To the compound." He answers me as we both hop into the car. He starts the engine and drives off.
Once we get to the compound, the first thing I do is grab some food.
"Seriously?" Dad says as he sees me stuffing my face with goldfish.
"What? I love goldfish, plus I eat when I'm depressed. I blame you." I say to him.
Dad just rolls his eyes as we make our way around the compound to find Natasha, knowing she's here. We find Nat looking ready to cry, which is something I've never seen before either. Her hair is now its normal red with a mixture of blonde in it.
Dad leans on a bookshelf as he speaks. "You know, I'd offer to cook you dinner but you seem pretty miserable already."
Nat removes her hands from her face and tries to recompose herself. "You here to do your laundry?" She asks us.
"And to see a friend," Dad says.
I go over to the table and sit next to Nat. Maximus follows and goes over to Natasha to greet the woman. She picks him up, seeing he's trying to give her a hug to comfort her.
"Clearly, your friend is fine," Nat says, mostly to Dad.
"You know we saw a pod of whales when we were coming over the bridge," Dad tells her.
"In the Hudson?" She questions.
I nod. "There's fewer ships, cleaner water," I answer her.
She looks at Dad, on the verge of tears. "You know if you're about to tell us to look on the bright side um... I'm about to hit you in the head with a peanut butter sandwich." Nat says, speaking for the both of us as she gives Dad a jokingly smile that he returns. She knows Dad's been trying to tell me that for the last five years now.
I snort. "Please do." I shove more goldfish in my mouth.
"Sorry. Force of habit." Dad says as he walks over, throwing his jacket on an empty chair and then sits down across from us. "You know, I keep telling everybody they should move on and grow. Some do. But not us." Dad says looking between Natasha and me.
"If I move on, who does this?" Natasha asks him.
"Maybe it doesn't need to be done." Dad answers.
"I used to have nothing. And then I got this. This job. This family. And I was... I was better because of it. And even though they're gone... I'm still trying to be better." She tells us.
"I think all of us need to get a life," Dad says, smiling at us.
I snort. "I never had one to begin with," I reply, which earns a laugh from the two.
A camera footage then pops up, showing Scott Lang with an ugly brown van behind him.
"Oh! Hi, hi! Is anyone home? This is Scott Lang. We met a few years ago at the airport in Germany? I was the guy that got really big. I had a mask on. You wouldn't recognize me."
"Is this an old message?" Dad asks as he stands up.
"Ant-Man? I know you know that."
Natasha and I stand up too. Nat with Maximus still in her arms. "It's the front gate," Nat says.
"I really need to talk to you guys."
I stare at the camera in disbelief. "Nicky?"
—ASE715