Imagine If You Assembled The Avengers: Volume 2

Who Are You Calling Tiny? (Mack-AOS x reader)

                   

"Hey, Tiny, what are we working on today?" Mack asked with an upbeat spring in his step this morning, almost uncharacteristic for him and for only 6am.  He crossed the lab with a nod to acknowledge Fitz, giving his friend a gentle slap on the back as he passed by to get to you. 

"She's not tiny," Fitz argued on your behalf, "she may be a little shorter than a few of us, but you really should pick a better nickname.  It's a bit derogatory."

"I don't mean it that way!  It's more like she's all tiny and cute, like I could put her in my pocket."

Fitz stared at Mack unapologetically, shaking his head with a grimace at the clear faux pas he was making when you were sitting only a few feet away.  "Yeah, because that's better," he mumbled, turning back to his work to leave you to your own defense, "she could still kick your ass."

"What was that, Turbo?" Mack asked absentmindedly, his eyes already focused on what you were doing and barely even listening to Fitz anymore; he wasn't really focusing on anything other than the completely confusing project that you had in your hands as you sat at your workstation, fully engrossed in it.  It may have been a completely unknowing action, or it may have been totally on purpose to link to the current conversation, but as he watched you work, his large and muscular arm rested atop your head when he took a stand next to you to try to follow along.

"Um, excuse me?"

"What?"

"Do I look like an arm rest?"

Mack quickly pulled his arm down and took a step back, raising his hands up in front of him with a quiet chuckle; he found your tone of voice strangely cute when you were angry, and it wasn't that he was trying to incite it, but it was just a pleasant surprise.  "I'm sorry, Tin- I mean, (Y/N).  You're just the right height."

"Hmm," you grumbled, turning back to your work, "so is that cabinet over there, and I'm pretty sure that it won't be insulted at all."

"Really, I'm sorry.  I didn't even realize that I did it," he continued.  "Forgive me?"

You slowly set down each intricate piece of your equipment one by one, sighing and swiveling your chair to look at him, only to find a lopsided smile and a mischievous twinkle in his eyes looking back at you.  It was hard to fight the urge to smile back at the overgrown doofus, but you did your best to hold steady.  "Okay, so convince me why I should, and how you're going to earn it."

Fitz had now turned his own chair fully around, leaning back into it with his arms casually folded as he watched your exchange, "well, if this isn't an interesting turn of events."

"Um...right..." Mack stammered, his smile fading just a bit, "okay, how about...I be your personal chauffer for the next week?  I'll piggyback you anywhere you want to go!"  His smile returned, accompanied by a loud laugh that echoed through the room, but he quickly found that he was the only one who was amused.

"You're such an ass."

"I was kidding!"

"Mack, come on, man," Fitz groaned, almost as insulted as you were, "even I know how to beg for forgiveness better than that.  Dig your grave a little deeper, eh?"

Turning back to your work, you decided that now he would have to try even harder, just to be taught his lesson.  It was bad enough that you knew he had a little crush on you, because you had no idea how to respond to it, but now you started to feel like maybe you could be reciprocating it and it did nothing but make you nervous around him.  You had always been focused on your work for SHIELD, since long before it fell; it was a lifestyle that left no time for interpersonal relationships, let alone anything even close to romantic, so if that was his intent, you had no idea how to handle it.