kiss it better ☏ marvel oneshots

bestie ✩ s. rogers

when loud, snarky, confident ava is recruited into the avengers, everyone is delighted - she's not what they're used to, but they love her. her feelings develop for a certain mr barnes, but the only problem is his stupid best friend, steve

request that i am obsessed with

mild enemies to lovers UGH my SHIT

Ava's hands are shaking. The car moves steadily, smooth on the gravel beneath the tires, and Tony isn't touching her; they tremble of her own accord, moving unsteadily in time with her churning stomach. Ava has met a million people in her lifetime - some even more important than the people she's about to meet - but this feels different. This feels like homesickness, the feeling you get right before returning to your family after months away. This feels right, and that means there's even more pressure not to fuck it up.

She glances out the window and takes in the Avengers compound as Happy tells Tony someone's blocking the road and the car stops slowly. It's enormous, easily twice the size of her old training facility and that held hundreds of students at a time. As far as she knows, all this place keeps is a few superheroes, some geniuses and a Hulk.

"Who is it?"

Ava turns her head to Tony when he speaks, watching his veiny hands remove his glasses. Tony is the only member of the Avengers she has met so far and of course is the reason she's here at all. When a woman can do the things Ava can do, in the way Ava can do them... you don't just leave those talents to S.H.I.E.L.D, you take them for yourself. He smiles at her widely, then they both turn to look at Happy.

"One of T'Challa's friends."

Tony rolls his eyes and sighs but before he can speak, Ava's car door is yanked open and a beautiful young woman - around her age - stretches out her hand and rests her chin on the top of the door so she can beam.

"You're Ava, aren't you?" She asks. Her accent is new to Ava but it is just as beautiful and warm as the woman who owns it. Ava smiles and lets the woman help her out the car.

"Mhm."

The woman's beam intensifies. "Brilliant, I'm Shuri."

"Gorgeous name." Ava muses, walking toward the doors to the compound like a dazed moth trailing toward a lamp.

They open and a broody brunette emerges, covering his shocking blue eyes with his hand to shield them from the sun. "That's her?" He hollers.

"That's her." Ava replies, smiling a little. The brunette drops his hand and matches her smirk with a lopsided grin, stepping back from the door so she can enter first. Shuri bumps Ava's shoulder with her own and winks when she walks past, joining the small huddle of people gathered waiting for her. Her stomach flips and she shoves her shaky hands into her hoodie pockets so they don't realise.

When they all turn to look at her, she is again struck with the sheer correctness of the situation. These faces are familiar and yet not so intimately as now, when she can read every thought and watch every slight movement. The group falls silent and Ava glances at Shuri for some comfort because with Tony nowhere to be seen, she's the only person Ava knows. The woman throws her a double thumbs up.

"She is pretty, isn't she?" Natasha Romanoff says seriously. Her clothes hug her figure and Ava doesn't know if she's jealous or attracted to her.

"You're not too bad yourself." Ava half-teases in return. Natasha's somber expression falls and her face warms, a smile playing with her plump lips. Her, Shuri and the brunette from before are the only beacons of warmth in this sea of calculating eyes and straight mouths. Thor is the first to crack.