The Mimic

159

"Who the hell is that?"

Everyone on the team got up out of their seats, all hurrying outside to greet whoever it was that had just carried a whole spaceship down to earth on their own.

Y/n didn't even bother to put shoes on as she rushed after the rest of the team. There was only one thing on her mind, and it fuelled her with enough hope to have her heart beating out of her chest - something that hadn't happened at all during the past few weeks that she'd been through.

Peter.

Peter was just a kid, and according to Bruce, he'd joined Tony up into space. She couldn't imagine how he was feeling. Especially if he'd been stranded up there for three weeks. Yes, Peter was strong, and yes, he was an Avenger, but he definitely wasn't supposed to join in on fighting Thanos. That genocidal alien almost killed y/n, she couldn't imagine what he could've done to the kid.

Peter was like a little brother to y/n. She'd lost almost everyone else, she couldn't lose him. It wasn't fair.

Y/n's eyes were wide with hope as she stood beside the rest of the team, watching as the spaceship slowly opened up. She shuffled from foot to foot out of impatience, pulling her hands out of her pockets to prepare for a hug. "Come on..." She murmured to herself. She had to see Peter. She had to. She had to see that goofy smile again, and listen to his crazily overexaggerated stories that lasted for hours on end. Peter and Nat were the only people that she had left.

Nat couldn't help but frown as she noticed how hopeful y/n was. Being optimistic was a good trait - especially for someone like y/n - but that optimism always had the possibility of leading to pain. Y/n would always bombard herself with so much hope that it'd trick her mind into believing that it was actually going to happen. To her, there were no other outcomes than seeing Peter and hugging him. Natasha never wanted to be the one to rain on anyone's parade, but she knew that there was a possibility that Peter wasn't going to be there. It wasn't fair to let y/n believe in little fantasies. It was just going to lead to more heartbreak. "Y/n-"

Before Natasha could finish what she was about to say, the doors to the spaceship opened. It was a rickety, extremely broken spaceship, so the opening of the doors was earsplittingly loud and overdramatic. However, that seemed pretty fitting for one of the people that stepped off of the ship.

Only two figures stepped off of the spaceship. A robotic woman, and a dishevelled-looking Tony Stark.

Y/n's face fell. She didn't look sad or disappointed, however. She looked angry. Her whole body had tensed up at the sight of Tony. Her hands were balled into tight fists, preparing to beat the ever-living shit out of the man just a few feet away. Y/n didn't care that Tony looked malnourished, sick, and dehydrated. She didn't care at all. She wanted revenge for what he'd done to her.

Yes, y/n and Tony had briefly come across one another during her and Bucky's stay in New York, but that wasn't the time to fight. She had to prioritise escaping over yelling, because if they didn't escape, they would've been arrested. Back then it wouldn't have mattered to Tony if he was beaten up by y/n, because she would've been arrested and locked up in a cell for the rest of her days, but now it would matter. Now Tony didn't have an army of agents and law enforcement to back him up. Now it was just him, her, and the team.

No, y/n wasn't going to give Tony time to recover. He didn't give her time to recover after Lagos. His idea of recovery was putting her under heavy sedatives and locking her in an empty cell for months on end. Y/n was malnourished, sick, and dehydrated during those months, yet he didn't hesitate to continue to put her under all of that torture, so why should y/n have to be the polite one and wait?

As soon as y/n took a single step forward, everyone on the team knew exactly what she was going to do. They didn't want to believe it at first, but the moment they saw the fire building around y/n's fists, they all jumped into action.

"Y/n! Y/n stop!" Nat shouted, rushing forward and grabbing the back of y/n's sweatshirt. She yanked her back just before y/n's fist could hit Tony. Her grip on the back of the sweatshirt was strong, but with y/n fighting against her it was hard to hold her back. Natasha wanted nothing more than to see y/n beat Tony up, especially after everything that he'd done to her, but it was all about timing. Now wasn't the right time. Tony had to be the one to throw the first punch, or otherwise y/n would be seen as the villain.

"You piece of shit!" Y/n yelled out in anger toward Tony. The grip that Natasha had on the back of her sweatshirt was choking her, but that just seemed to rile y/n up even more. She opened her fiery fists, switching her powers to mimic Wanda's as she tried to blast Tony with as much energy as she could muster. But, with Natasha yanking her backwards, she kept missing. "Get off of me! Let me get to him!"

Steve quickly moved to stand in front of y/n, resting his hands on her shoulders in an attempt to calm her down. "Not now, y/n." He said seriously, raising his voice over all of y/n's yelling. However, his calm approach didn't seem to work very well as he was quickly met with two fiery hands wrapping around his wrists, burning him and forcing him to let go. He hissed in pain, his eyes wide as he glanced down at his freshly singed wrists. "Hey-"

"Come here, angry midguardian." Thor huffed, his voice loud enough to interrupt everyone else. He set his axe down with a sigh, leaving it on the grass as he scooped y/n up and held her over his shoulder as if she were a toddler. He carried the kicking and screaming girl away from everyone else, casually making his way back into the compound as if she wasn't blasting him with energy and burning his clothes.

"Thor! Put me down! You asshole!"

"No, I'm a God, not a body part."