The End Game | MCU FanFiction

Chapter 21

Breakfast was silent.

Steve noticed something was off when the trio walked into the living room. The kids looked tired, so did Tony, to be honest, but all three of them looked... Happy?

They joined the team at breakfast and didn't say a word. Steve didn't ask anything. He figured that, if something was wrong, they'd talk about it themselves, Steve didn't have to push it.

Time flew by, and breakfast was over. Michelle was washing the dishes with Peter, as an unfamiliar woman walked in. At least, she was unfamiliar to Peter and Michelle, but obviously not to the team. Tony and Steve immediately stood up, Steve rushing to meet her. The woman was crying, her long, bright red hair covering her face. 

Steve hugged her close, smart enough not to ask what was going on. Or maybe he already knew. Tony hung back a little. He wasn't used to dealing with emotions, especially with grown-ups. Peter looked at his mentor, his eyes asking the question; 'what's going on?'. Tony just shook his head and looked down. He obviously knew what had happened, or at least had a good guess.

Steve guided the woman over to the couch, professionally handing her a box of tissues. She gave him a weak smile, but it pained Steve to see how the light didn't reach her eyes.

He motioned for Tony to come over, and he hesitantly walked over to the two on the couch. He sat down on the arm rest, still looking at his feet.

After a moment of silence, Tony finally spoke up. "I'm taking it didn't work." He said, not looking away from his feet. He got no response besides a slight nod.

"Wanda, what happened?" Steve asked. That was too soon. Wanda tried to stop the waterworks of tears that made their way down her face at the memory of what had happened.

"It dind't work, Steve. He-I-we- it didn't work!" She buried her face in Cap's shoulder, sobs whacking her body. Steve put an arm around her, looking over at Tony helplessly. Tony raised his hands.

"What on earth would you want me to do?!" He whisper-yelled, looking absolutely clueless. Humans weren't machines. They didn't have an off button. He couldn't mute them when they were getting annoying, or just program them to be happy.

But worst of all, Tony couldn't fix them when they were broken.

He felt Peter's hand on his shoulder, and he looked up to see the teen smiling at him.

'you know what to do' his eyes seemed to tell him, 'you've done it with me'

Tony looked down again as he remembered comforting Peter after the Vulture-guy incident. He'd be reminded by some specific things, and he'd get a panic attack. Tony was familliar with panic attacks. He'd been able to help the boy through it, comforting him right after as he was crying.

Only, that was a kid. This was a grown woman. For some reason, that made it worse to look at, and harder to do something about. But he had to try, right?

He took a deep breath and stood up, walking to Wanda's other side, sitting down next to her. He didn't touch her yet, afraid he'd scare her away if he did as they weren't at all that close. Especially after he 'locked her in her room'.

"You know, you don't have to talk about it yet, if you're not ready. Just don't keep avoiding it. Don't bottle it up."

Wanda raised her head from Steve's shoulder to look at Tony, who finally dared to look back, giving her a soft smile. She was surprised to see sympathy in his rather soft eyes.

"Why not?" She asked. It was supposed to come out with a sting, but instead, it sounded soft and broken. It sounded exactly the way she felt.

Tony gave her a sad smile, looking at his hands.

"If you bottle it up, it'll forever be in your head. Keep it there, and it won't matter how much you run away from it. Because it will catch up with you. And when it does, it's going to be a hundred times worse. No matter how much you push it away, you can never keep it locked in forever, it will break free one day. And when that moment comes, when it comes back, you'll regret never talking about it." Tony looked in the distance, gaze far away as his nails again digged into his palm, opening the small cuts he'd made earlier that morning.

He jumped when he felt soft hands around his own, carefully opening them to make him stop. He was shocked to see it was Wanda, not Peter. Wanda gave him a smile, despite the tears glimming in her eyes. Tony gave one in return, holding her hands in his. Wanda hesitated for a moment, before leaning into his side. Tony did nothing but wrap his arm around her shoulders as her head rested on his shoulder.

Steve watched the scene with a surprised look in his eyes, but a small smile on his lips. Ever since the kid had come in his life, they had gotten to see a different side of Tony. One that had been locked away for years, but one that was slowly coming back to the surface. It showed that he was a good friend, that he cared about the people around him. He had first seen a gimps of it when the billionaire flew a nuke through the wormhole. Ever since then, he had begun to pay attention to it and had seen glimpses of it breaking through the thick walls he had surrounded himself with.

Now that Peter was in his life, Steve had the pleasure of seeing every time the boy came along. Every week, when the weekend was approaching, Tony would be energetic, and nothing seemed to be able to ruin his mood. Because he knew Peter would be coming over.

And most important of all, was the fact that he was getting used to physical contact. Whenever Steve made the mistake of putting his hand on his friend's shoulder, he expected the hand to be shrugged off or slapped away. These days, he merely tensed for a second before just continuing whatever he was doing.

And now, he was sitting with Wanda, someone he wasn't close to at all, maybe the least out of all the Avengers. And he was offering her comfort. It was a sight he could definetly get used to. He could watch this all day, because the sight warmed his heart.

That was until a "Holy shit!" filled the silence. Steve held back a sigh as he saw Tony tense and look back, the hug immediately broken apart.

"What is it?" Tony quickly asked the shaken Michelle.

"Language, by the way." Steve muttered, but no one paid attention to him. Instead, all eyes were looking around the room, Wanda and Tony having stood up.

Wanda was searching the room for a possible threat, when she felt it. She saw Tony, who was standing a few feet away from her, turn around, looking around. She was going to ask what was wrong, when she felt a wind on her tear stained face.

She screamed, covering her mouth as she saw who was in front of her.

"Hey sis,"

---

Ahhh, I feel so good now. I was waiting to write something like this for a loooong time.

Chapter written by deborah_ronner.

I've also started a one shots book on my other account, MarvelBishes, which I write with another friend. It's mostly Stony and Superfamily, so if you like that, please check it out!!