The words cut through Alec in the same moment his hand touches the doorknob. He freezes like he’s just been shot with ice – ice through the heart, ice sticking his fingers to the handle, ice freezing his feet to the ground.
It takes him a long moment to even be able to turn his head, but he finally does, and his eyes meet Magnus’s. Not just Magnus’s eyes. His real eyes. He’s sat on the couch, martini glass dangling loosely between his fingers, bare feet on the floorboards making him look vulnerable. His whole face looks open. Scared.
Alec swallows and it feels like the motion goes all the way down through his body.
It’s been a long, long fight. The kind of fight where they’re not even using words they actually mean, by the end of it, just hurling their worst sides at each other, because it all comes down to insecurities, and past hurts, and things which aren’t even really about each other, and Alec had thought it best to just –
Get out of there. Clear his head. Before either one of them said something they couldn’t come back from. They hardly ever fight over anything bigger than whose turn it is to answer the door when their irritating neighbour comes around to complain about something, or who gets to be the little spoon that night, but when they do, Alec is used to this method of dealing with it. Walking out until they can cool down.
He’d always thought that was the right move. But he’s never looked back at Magnus’s face as he does it, before.
Looking back now, all Alec sees is that Magnus looks afraid.
Like maybe he thinks if Alec walks out the door right now, he’s not going to come back.
All of a sudden, the fight melts away, and Alec’s heart just stutters. How did it even start? His fears about immortality, again? All that boils down to is never wanting to leave Magnus, not being able to stomach the thought of it, and of course that’s different to taking a walk around the block or crashing on Maia’s couch for a night to cool down, but the fact remains. He doesn’t want to go. Not when it’ll hurt Magnus.
“I wasn’t – I wasn’t going for good,” Alec promises, but he lets his hand slide off the doorknob anyway. The anger’s fizzled right out of him. Looking into Magnus’s wide, heartbroken cat-eyes, looking at the vulnerable ways he curls his bare toes into the floor and keeps his posture so, so straight that he seems like he might snap – Alec wants nothing more than to go to him.
So he does. He takes three long strides across the room until he can drop down before Magnus, his knees colliding painfully with the wooden floors. He extracts the empty glass from Magnus’s hands and clutches them in his own, instead. “I never want to leave for good,” Alec promises, his voice rough and quiet and dangling between them. “That’s the whole point. You get that’s the whole point, right? I just only ever want to be with you, Magnus.”
Magnus’s throat bobs, like he’s swallowing every word Alec says – drinking them in. Alec stares into his eyes, and stares and stares, all his heart going out to Magnus. His knees ache and Magnus’s hands are trembling in his, and Alec feels a bit like he might cry.
“I just didn’t want you to go,” Magnus tells him in a breath, after several long minutes of looking.
Alec gets it. “Okay,” he says, and kisses Magnus’s knuckles, one by one. “I’m not going anywhere.”
in an alternate universe, Steve brings Bucky back to the tower for the first time, and the only problem with that is that Bucky passes out before Steve can properly introduce him to the rest of the Avengers. but that’s okay, because when Bucky next wakes up, free of mind control, it’s to the sounds of pandemonium in the kitchen. this is how he learns that there is a Norse god of thunder living there. also, that no one should mess with Nat’s food. (and that Barton messes with Nat’s food, and reinforces the imperative that no one should mess with Nat’s food.) that Dr. Banner eats enough for, like, four people. and, maybe most importantly, that Steve brings plates of food down to his boyfriend.
“wait what,” Bucky says when this comes up within the first day. oh no, he thinks. Steve got a boyfriend and Bucky wasn’t even around to tease him about it?
“that’s wrong,” Clint tells Thor, who was the one who volunteered this information in the first place, “everyone knows zombies can’t eat food.”
“i do miss when Anthony ate with us,” Thor sighs heavily, and Bucky despairs inside. he missed Steve’s first boyfriend and Steve’s first boyfriend’s death? that’s so sad. what kind of a best friend is Bucky now?
it takes him a few days to corner Steve about this. “you got a boyfriend?” Bucky demands, at which Steve blushes and nods. “who?” and that’s how Bucky learns Steve’s boyfriend was Tony Stark, and now Bucky’s missed the demise of Steve’s boyfriend and Howard’s kid and that’s just really, really fucking sad. “is he the reason you keep going to the basement?”
“that’s where his lab is,” Steve says, sounding sad. he’s producing a photo of Tony now. actually, it’s half of Tony’s face, captured in a manic grin while a blurry Steve in pajamas tries to grab the camera in the background. “he’s been away for so long. i miss him.”
damn. that’s really sad. “hey, c’mon,” Bucky tries to comfort, “plenty of other fish in the sea.”
Steve looks horrified at this. “Buck, i’d never!”
oh, no. Howard had a kid and that kid was Steve’s boyfriend and then he died and Steve isn’t even over him yet. Bucky thinks this is the worst possible time he could have been unbrainwashed.
at the end of his first week, he inadvertently suits up with them on a mission, despite Steve’s protests. Bucky pretends he doesn’t see Steve kiss the folded picture of Tony right before they go into the battlefield, like he’s about to help take down this horde of evil robots in his honor. that’s really, really fucking sad, holy shit, how’s Bucky supposed to comfort him through this?
about three fourths of the way through the mission, a man in a metal can joins them. “sorry i’m late!” says its garbled voice. “alarm didn’t go off in time.”
“because we turned it off,” Natasha says exasperatedly as she snaps an evil robot’s neck between her thighs. “can you even walk without the suit right now?”
oh, there’s a man in there? Bucky doesn’t get to ponder it until after they’ve dealt with the evil robot army. then they’re piling back into the quinjet and the metal man’s mask is folding away (fascinating) and Steve is taking him into his arms and kissing him and what? what happened to ‘i’d never!’? and then Steve pulls away and Bucky gets a good look at the man’s face and recognizes it from the crumpled photo Steve tucks into his pocket– “wait i thought you were dead.”
“i don’t understand but i’m offended,” Tony Stark says.
“your boyfriend’s not dead?” Bucky directs to Steve instead.
“Tony’s not dead,” Steve says, aghast. “of course not. why would you say that?”
and that’s how Bucky learns that this whole time, Tony’s been very much alive and just holed up in the lab working on a new arm for him, and that Steve was, in fact, not taking meals down to the lab because he wanted to feel close to his dead boyfriend’s spirit, but because he wanted to eat with his alive boyfriend. “so you just carry his picture around even though he’s not dead?”
“that’s a perfectly normal thing to do,” Steve defends.
“you kissed it like he was dead and you were thinking soon i will join you, my love.”
Steve goes scarlet. Tony preens and goes all, “aw, babe.” then they’re making out and Bucky’s somewhat horrified because he’s been so preoccupied thinking about Steve’s boyfriend being dead that he hasn’t spared a thought about how awful it might be to witness Steve and his living boyfriend’s disgusting love in real life. but hey, Tony’s really not that bad and he makes Steve happy, and Bucky gets a free arm out of it. (with which he punches Clint because it was totally Clint’s fault that he believed Tony was dead to begin with.)
Bitty: HEY Y’ALL.
Last time we wrapped up with the latest installment of the Phelps vs. Bittles
jam war that went down at Christmas this year, but today we need to take a
slight detour from this ongoing debate because we have a special guest.
Bitty adjusts the
camera to Jack, sitting nervously on the other bar stool. Bitty’s camera is set
up in their kitchen at the island, their glass-fronted cabinets in the
background, lit just in a way that reflections won’t be an issue.
Bitty: Mr. Jack
Zimmermann has finally agreed to appear on my blog!
Jack: Hi.
Bitty: Seriously,
honey? Hi?
Jack: Hi
everyone.
Bitty: All right,
I suppose that’s the best I’m going to get out of you. Well, y’all, Mr.
Zimmermann here has just come off an impressive five-game winning streak, three
of which were won in the third period due to his own goals. Unfortunately, the
majority of my viewers do not know anything about hockey, so we need to get
down to serious business. Jack, I have been inundated by questions from my
viewers over the years about what it’s like being married to a baker. Prepare
yourself accordingly.
Can we just just talk about the fact that captain america civil war has all the ingredients that a stevetony fic has.
1) Pepper & Tony are broken up/on a break
2) That’s revealed when Steve asks Tony about Pepper
3) Miscommunication evERY OTHER FUCKIG LINE
4) Tony adopting Peter AKA makings of Superfamily
5) Howard as an undertone angst plot device
Add more if you feel like but JUST LOOK AT THIS I C A N N O T BELI E VE
what i do is not up to you 