Kingdom Her • Avengers Soulmate AU

real life | coffee

"no. no. absolutely not. i said no!"

"what do you think he's saying?" emily whispered, leaning her head in her palms as she watches tony pace back and forth, almost shouting at whoever was on the other end of the phone.

"whatever it is, he doesn't agree." pietro replied, taking a sip of coffee before placing it back on the countertop in front of him a sigh.

"obviously." evie stressed from next to him, rolling her eyes. "i think a deaf person can hear that."

pietro shrugs at her before wrapping his arms around her shoulder. he pulls her in and rests his head on the top of her own, kissing her temple softly and running his hand up and down her arm as it rests on her lap. emily scoots her chair sideways before leaning into pietro on the other side, who doesn't hesitate before also bringing her into him, repeating the motion of his hand.

the three people sat at the island in the kitchen, tired-eyed and dishevelled. the past two weeks had consisted of nothing but little sleep, petty arguments and misplaced anger. and coffee. lots and lots of coffee. 

the door opens as tony storms towards it, listening to whoever spoke on the other end. he nudges out of the way to let spencer and molly through, barely glancing at them as he brushes past and heads up the stairs to his lab. spencer immediately heads to the coffee machine as molly leaves his side, moving over to the three and kissing them all atop their heads, lingering on evie as she kisses her last before sitting on the counter. 

"who was that?" she asked, running her hands through her hair as though to try and tame it.

"not a clue. but whoever it is, he's in tony's bad books right now." emily muttered as her phone vibrated once again. picking it up, she saw the notification of an instagram post. "you did it?"

"took us ages to find a way to word it without giving it all away." spencer said as he shuffled over, hunching over the counter next to his wife as he set two mugs of coffee down. "how do you talk about missing people without saying they're missing?"

molly bites her lip as she looks at her lap, wringing her hands together for the millionth time that day. spencer grabs them and brings them to his lips, kissing them softly before holding them back in her lap.

"so now what?" evie asks as she looks to her parents.

"i don't know, baby." is all spencer can say in return.

•••

"if you're not going to be of any help whatsoever, stop wasting my damn time!" tony fumes before he slams the phone down. he reaches his chair and flops into it, running a hand down his face and trying to breathe through his anger, vaguely remembering the technique bruce repeated.

"how many is that?" clint asks as he stands behind his soulmate with a hand on the back of the chair.

"too many." tony tuts, leaning forward to grab the coffee he'd left in here ten minutes before.

bruce looks over from his desk, shaking his head. "i don't understand why so many people aren't able to help."

"aren't able? or won't?" tony sneered from across the room. "even the people who owe me a favour won't let me cash in with it."

"maybe we'd be better working at this alone." the three men turn their head to look at steve as he walks through the door, thermos in hand. "we know the situation best."

"situation?" tony repeats incredulously. "there is no situation, babe! we know who did this, we know who has them. the situation is, we were closing in. we had a few more squads of hydra left, and they attacked."

everyone goes silent at that word. attacked. was it true though? had they really attacked? as far as it goes literally, they hadn't attacked. they'd just taken two very important people from their enemies.

"how're they doing?" clint asks. steve sighs before shrugging.

"finally got peter in the shower. god knows he needed one. loki's at the door just in case, but even he's struggling. nat and thor are with wanda, she barely ate five bites before pushing her food away."

"and bucky?"

"still kicking himself that he doesn't know more about their other bases and places to hide. it's really getting him do-"

"we're all down." tony interrupts. "we are all suffering, steve. cartia is gone. hydra have her and her brother. but we can't all mope, or they'll never be found."

"he's not moping!" steve exclaims softly. "he was with hydra. he knows more than any of us. it's killing him to know that somewhere in his subconscious, he knows where they could be, and he doesn't remember."

tony sighs before apologising. "i just wish there was some sort of switch that let us turn off emotions occasionally, so we could all knuckle down and figure this out."

"like that show cartia raves about." bruce chuckles. "the vampire one."

"god, i'd do anything to have her drag me to the couch and force me to watch another episode."

a knock at the door sounds, but a moment barely passes before shuri slams it open, rushing to the computer in the middle of the room.

"you guys need to see this."

•••

"моя любовь, please." nat says softly. "we need to you eat."
{my love}

"i'm fine, sam bought me coffee." wanda mumbles in reply.

"my dear, you know that's not enough sustenan-"

"did he bring me a coffee?" peter's small voice interrupts thor. the three avengers on the bed turn to look at the doorway, where their younger soulmate stood in a jumper and shorts. he moves towards the bed as loki appears behind him, carrying a hairbrush. thor shuffles over along the bed, remaining seated at the edge of it as peter climbs in next to wanda and takes the mug nat hands him.

nat then turns and takes the brush from loki, who sits next to her. she motions for wanda to sit up and squeezes behind her, running the brush through her tresses of hair cascading down her back. loki scolds peter lightly, given that the whole cup of coffee had disappeared down the boy's throat in mere seconds.

"you'll burn yourself." he says.

"it's not that hot." peter argues dismissively.

a cough comes from the doorway, and sam walks in once again.

"meeting room."

•••

everyone's eyes stare in disbelief at the screen.

"so now what?" molly asks, looking at her husband before tony answers.

"now, we can plan. and call happy to go to the grocery store. we're out of coffee."