Imagine If You Assembled The Avengers: Volume 2

Close Your Eyes (Part 8: Scott Lang)

You're like a bullet.

You stood on the porch with your hand just inches from connecting to the white wooden door, the worn and scabbed wounds of your knuckles a sharp contrast to its clean veneer. Your hand shook as you watched it, trying to will it to connect but it wouldn't move. Maybe it would be best to try later, when you could compose yourself, but this was a task that wouldn't go away; it was something that had to be done, and something that only you could do.

Leaning forward with a shaky exhalation that matched the tremor in your hands, you rested your head gently against the door and gathered your will, only to find it wavering and slipping from your grasp. The longer you waited, the harder this became to face. The longer you waited, the easier it would be to turn and run. Pushing yourself back, you took a step to leave just as the hinges of the door let out their telltale squeal that you'd been found out.

"Hi, (Y/N)! What are you doing here?"

"Hey, Cassie," you smiled down to her, kneeling to her level with a wince of pain as your bruised and battered knees pressed against the hard surface. Tears pooled in your eyes but you fought them back before they could spill, trying to keep a strong exterior in front of the tiny girl. "Is your mommy here, peanut?"

"Yeah, hold on!"

She turned and skipped through the house, unknowingly flaunting her innocence and stabbing you in the heart with the joy in her laughter. She didn't know yet, and it killed you to realize that you were about to steal all of that away from her. In one freakish accident, in one flash of a second, everything changed.

~~~

"Shoot the damn arrow already, Barton! I can't hold on forever!"

"Do you want me to miss?" Clint snapped, slowly releasing the tension on the bow. "That's how people get hurt, Lang."

"Says the guy who never misses," he scoffed in reply. "Alright, Cap, coming to ya!"

Clint pulled back on the bow again and took aim, perfectly lining the shot that would bring Scott next to Steve and in the midst of a greatly outnumbered battle. You, Tony, and Natasha were already there with him, but the numbers were too great and getting larger. Steve called in Scott to undermine the assailants before they knew what hit them; literally. The arrow released and Scott yelled out with the velocity, laughing to keep his nerves in check more than anything else. He held on tightly despite the wind pushing at his body and trying to make him fall, waiting to make the leap from the arrow at just the right moment.

But the moment never came. In a misjudged, mistaken second, Steve turned, shield in hand and extended directly in Scott's path.

You're like a bullet.

~~~

Cassie returned, still happy to see you, bringing you the latest thing that Scott had sent her from your recent mission in Wakanda; a gift from T'Challa that she was holding against her chest securely, scared to lose her grip on the precious item. After a full inspection and painstaking description, she ran back into the house to find her next treasure to share, just as Maggie turned the corner and saw your face.

"(Y/N)...no."

You stood with a deep breath, finding it harder now to hold the tears back, "don't let her see me like this, Mag."

"Cassie?" she called out over her shoulder, though her eyes never left you. "Can you play in your room for a few minutes so I can talk to (Y/N)?"

"Okay! But she can't leave until I show her my new school bag! It has Tony on it!"