Precursor Note: This was supposed to come out for the Winter Holidays… Yeah, that didn't happen. Oops.


New Avengers Facility, December 2016

Steve was about to knock on the door when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Pulling it out, he saw the text notification from Friday: Boss is asleep. It made Steve pause. As much as he and Pepper had gotten Tony to curb his lock-in streaks (the ones where Tony worked for days on end in his workshop), Steve knew Tony – the insomniac that the inventor was – still didn't get nearly as much sleep as he should.

If he went in now, he could accidently wake Tony up (which really was a fifty-fifty percent chance since while the man was a light sleeper, he could also be dead to the world after one of his longer work sessions). But Steve supposed he could just leave a message, or he could try and catch Tony later…

Steve's phone vibrated again, and he looked down to see yet another text notification: Door's not locked, Captain. Which essentially meant that Friday was okay with him waking Tony up, and if she was okay with it, then Steve really didn't have anything to worry about. Except having to wake Tony up.

Taking in a steeling breath, Steve opened the door and quietly walked into Tony's sacred space. He remembered the last time he was allowed in here rather vividly. It was pretty hard to forget, enhanced memory or not. Bucky had been there too – albeit sans metal arm and decidedly unconscious. But that was then, and now was not the time for idle reminiscing.

Steve carefully mapped his path through the room and to a sleeping Tony, softly snoring and in a position that Steve figured wasn't too good for his back. Steve also made sure to be mindful of how much noise he was making – too much noise would undoubtedly wake Tony in a panic early at an unidentified presence while too little noise would do the same thing but when Steve was just within touching distance of Tony.

Steve had actually gone over this with Pepper before, and he had to admit that she was much better at this than he was. Still, Steve was versed enough in Pepper's ways to not spook Tony before even getting within ten feet of him. Not that it was such a comforting thing out of context, which was also off topic.

Right, back to the matter at hand.

Tony was already stirring, the occasional twitch of his fingers and brief frowns that crossed his face alerting Steve to his friend's level of awareness. "Tony," he called softly, stopping a couple feet away. "Tony…"

The man mumbled something and shifted, turning his head to possibly get into a more comfortable position (though Steve doubted it would help at this point). And it took another moment, but Steve knew exactly when Tony breached the realm of consciousness. His shoulders tensed and then slowly relaxed. His head rose as bleary eyes blinked. He could have been compared to a cat with the way he languidly stretched even with the pauses that came from realizing all of the muscle cramps after a long nap in an awkward position.

Steve almost wanted to stop and draw this.

This moment of domestic bliss.

It didn't even truly belong to them.

"Cap?" Tony yawned, rubbing his eyes with one hand. "What's up?"

"Tony…" Might as well get this out of the way first, not that it was any less important than all the other things Steve had to say. "Would you mind letting Bucky come down here sometimes? I know you're always dragging him back to fiddle with his arm, but do you—"

"What, so you want me to help keep an eye on him while you're out on missions?" Tony cut in, giving Steve a funny look. "I already do that, Cap."

Steve shook his head. "No, I know. I just… He needs more than just me, Tony, and I know you can help him in ways that I can't."

"Steve, I'm not—"

"Please, Tony. I wouldn't ask if I didn't think you could do it."

They stared at each other, and in the end, Tony looked away first and mumbled something about supersoldiers and unfair staring contests. Steve knew Tony would agree – if not right then, perhaps later on, but they were at the point that it was hard to say no to the other without good reason.

"Everyone else is upstairs," he commented, leaning against Tony's desk. "They wanted to know where you were."

The inventor let out a huff and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I guess it's really hard for them to miss my brilliant presence. Look, this isn't exactly my type of holiday."

"That doesn't mean you can't enjoy spending time with them, being with your family," he pointed out.

A confused frown held fast before fading into something far more open. "Is that what we are?" he asked quietly.

Though he didn't say anything, Steve smiled at him and pulled out a small box to hand it over. Tony looked at it and then up to Steve's face with a questioning expression. Steve gestured for Tony to take it and then waited until he finally did. "This is a bit early, but it's my gift to you.

"But— I haven't even gotten you anything yet…" Tony protested, suddenly moving to give it back.

Steve reached to curl Tony's hands around the present, gently pushing it towards the inventor. "Merry Christmas, Tony."

With that, Steve stood and left, knowing Tony would be joining him on his own time.

New Avengers Facility, January 2017

"Mr. Stark! Mr. Stark!" Peter almost knocked the man over because of the running-to-hug-him thing, but he was just so excited. "Thank you so much— This is awesome!"

Having stumbled back after being assaulted by an energized teenager, Tony awkwardly patted Peter's back before mostly returning the hug. Not that Peter particularly minded the older man's hesitance. Peter totally got that maybe he was a bit winded because Peter did have a bit of supernatural strength and maybe he hadn't exactly been restraining himself all that well because he was back at the Avengers Facility, which was super awesome, and Peter really couldn't express just how cool this was in words, which ended up with Peter just hugging Tony… and, yeah.

Tony cleared his throat, pulling back from the hug, so Peter stepped back and gave him his full attention. Because Peter could do that for Tony. Even if Peter didn't always listen to the man he looked up to, Peter did at least hear what he had to say before not doing as he was told. That's what all teenagers did, right?

"Right, come on. There's someone I want you to meet. I mean, you're meeting everyone, but she's on a whole 'nother level," Tony rambled as he guided Peter through the compound – walking out of the garage place, across the massive lawn and into one of the bigger buildings (which was the same one Happy had taken him to meet Tony in last summer but it was through a different door on the complete other side of the building so it took a moment for Peter to recognize it). "I swear, you two will be super best friends— like literally, the best of super friends. You'll love her. Speaking of, how's it going with that MJ girl?"

"Huh?"

Peter may or may not have stopped in his tracks like a deer in headlights. He wasn't quite sure. He did know that he hadn't been expecting Tony to bring MJ up. Tony, of course, gave him a knowing look, which included a raised eyebrow, and wrapped an arm around Peter's shoulders, moving them along down the hallway.

"Don't give me that— You should know by now that I keep tabs on you, kid. So, when are you going to ask her out?" Tony asked, as straightforward as he could possibly get post-ramble, which Peter was starting to think was an intricate diversion tactic than actual rambling.

"Um, eventually?" Peter tried.

Tony was shaking his head. "Man, you're helpless. Tell you what, ask her out by the end of your senior year, I'll send Pepper your way for actual relationship advice."

"You better. I'd hate to see him flounder during his first date because of your tutelage," a female voice called out of nowhere.

"Pepper!" Tony exclaimed right as Peter squeaked out, "Ms. Potts?!"

Of course, Peter had met her before – she had handled all of the paperwork for his 'internship' with Stark Industries after all. And she was a wonderful lady, if a bit terrifying at times. He just wasn't used to being around her… in this setting. Yeah.

"Pep, as much as I would love to spend time with you, I'm on babysitting duty until further notice—" Tony started.

"Uh huh, you can make up for that comment later," Pepper cut him off, moving forward to place a finger over his lips to keep him from talking. "I thought you weren't getting back until lunch."

Peter could only stare as Tony frowned down at the finger, obviously tamping down on some off-shot comment that he wanted to say but would likely get him into trouble with his fiancée. That didn't keep Peter from breaking out of his shock to blurt out, "When's the wedding?"

Pepper glanced over to him in mild surprise (more than likely at the subject of the question than the question itself). "I haven't set a date yet, but between my job at Stark Industries and Tony's on and off status as an Avenger, I just don't know when to have it scheduled," she admitted.

"Well, most weddings happen between late summer and early fall, so if you're really pressed, you could try August," Peter suggested, hoping that it came across as helpful and totally not weird, but both Tony and Pepper were staring at him now and that hope was quickly dashed.

Then Tony shook his head. "Nope. I don't even want to know why you have that random fact stored in that head of yours— hey!" he yelped as Pepper slapped his arm.

"Ignore him," she told Peter as Tony rubbed his arm, and then she rounded on her fiancé. "We're having a private dinner tonight. You are going to meet me outside by the car at four so we can go somewhere nice, and you will not be late."

"I wouldn't dream of it, Pep," Tony said with a happy smile.

Meanwhile, Peter was standing awkwardly to the side, feeling like he was being witness to something that maybe he shouldn't be watching but at the same time they were letting him be there, so he probably shouldn't feel so embarrassed. Then again, it was starting to seem like the two might kiss, which would be totally fine because they were engaged and everything—

"Okay then, we have some royals to meet," Tony declared suddenly, pulling himself (somewhat reluctantly) away from Pepper. And Peter just nodded his head several times. "Then let's go," he went on, dragging Peter once again down the hallway, only pausing to call over his shoulder, "Love you, Pep!"

Three hallways, two doors and an elevator ride later, Peter was standing in a lab. It clearly wasn't Tony's personal workshop or anything, but in no way could anyone ever state that any of Tony's labs were not state of the art.

"Ah, there you are!" yet another female called to them, though this time Peter didn't know who the voice belonged to. "I was starting to think you might have forgotten about me."

A girl appeared, and Peter's mind blanked out for a moment. The first thing he noticed was that she was his age, and the second was that she was dressed in a style that was… different. It didn't look bad on her, but he had certainly never encountered it before. That didn't factor in her accent, and really, he could only place her as a foreigner.

"Shuri, Peter Parker. Kid, Princess Shuri," Tony introduced them quickly. "All right, now go have brain-childs."

"Peter?" she – Shuri – repeated with a confused head tilt until suddenly her entire demeanor brightened in recognition. "Oh, you're the spider with a brain— Tony's told me all about you!"

Peter was feeling rather caught off guard. "M-Mister Stark, you talk about me–?" Peter turned, only to find an empty space where Tony had been and the door mysteriously closing with a soft click, signaling the older man's swift departure (though, to be fair, he would probably be watching this all through FRIDAY). "Mr. Stark?!"

"Eh, who needs that old man for supervision," Shuri waved a dismissive hand at Tony's absence, and then she was very close in Peter's personal space, which he didn't really mind that much, except she was apparently a princess and she was right there. "We're going to have so much fun! So, tell me, what's your opinion on alternate universes? What do you use to make your webs? Has Tony shown you nanotech yet? Oh! And how good is your meme repertoire?"

(On the other side of the building, the Wakandan king, a supersoldier, two spies and a couple more friends made bets on how long it would take for Shuri and Peter to blow something up. To be fair, no one won aforementioned bets because certain AI and UI were working together to keep an eye on the two. Not that anyone except a very smug genius knew about that.)

Knowhere, August 2017

Death didn't particularly like coming here. It had nothing to do with the fact that the place was actually the severed head of an ancient celestial, nor was it the fact that there was a mining colony here based solely to harvest matter from the head. She wasn't squeamish about such things.

She was, however, not a fan of the Collector's museum. While she understood its purpose and the Collector's intentions for it, she still found its existence… unnerving, which was a rather irrational feeling given what she was, but that was why it was irrational. Perhaps the feeling could have been explained by the numerous oddities Taneleer Tivan had obsessively collected over the years, and who was to say that he hadn't come across something that could make even a cosmic entity a part of his collection. So, no, Death did not enjoy going anywhere near the museum, let alone the Collector himself.

To be fair, he didn't like her much either, so Death supposed that was enough to keep them both from intruding on the other indefinitely. And technically since Taneleer Tivan and En Dwi Gast were a mere two of a species that had been around since the dawn of the universe (though still born after the cosmic entities and therefore bound to their rules), it did make sense that they all knew to avoid each other. Death would have preferred it if she only had to deal with the Collector once (at the end of his life), but this was a pain (as metaphorical as it was) worth enduring.

"My, my… Should I have been expecting you, dear?" the Collector drawled, turning away from one of his glass showcases. He gave her a studious look and raised a pointed eyebrow. "You look different."

In return, she sent a sharp smile his way. "Yet even so, I'm still fully capable of seeing to your end, immortal or not, Elder or not."

"You and your siblings never were quite fond of us. Never to the point of starting a war or rivalry, but none of us can ever seem to get past the tense air between our kinds," he mused.

"As troublesome as you elders are, it is not up to the entities to decide your fates," she replied. "Even if you're more… active than those Watchers, that doesn't mean that we – collectively – like you any more or less than others."

The Collector strode forward towards the table Death stood near and opened one of the drawers to scavenge for something inside. "Alas, you're not here to debate philosophy."

"No, I'm not," she agreed, keeping a careful eye on his movements.

"Then you must be here for the Infinity Stone currently in my possession. They've been rather popular recently," he said, finally pressing down on a button that revealed a container within the table. "The Reality Stone, given to me for… safekeeping by some Asgardians. Rather useless like this, but I don't have anything else for its Aether form."

"You will not be keeping it for much longer," she told him. One way or another – by force or by choice, he would be giving it up.

And it would seem he knew that too. "Ah, but you know me, my lady."

"You're right," Death replied, bowing her head in acknowledgement of the statement. "I do know you, and you never could pass up getting something from me in exchange for something like this... Very well, Taneleer. In exchange for the Reality Stone, I will tell you the location of the Soul Stone."

The Collector tsked, waving a finger back and forth at her. "I'm old, not senile, let alone stupid. What good would that do me without the ability to actually obtain the stone?"

Death fought the urge to let out a growl or roll her eyes. Breathe (not that she needed to). Deep breaths. "Fine. Be that way."

She shrugged off her cloak and held it out – a new cloak coming into existence around her shoulders even as she handed the other off. "Not that you need it personally, but… for your collection, the Cloak of Death will be amongst your rarest items. Do not lose it."

The Collector gingerly took the cloak from her as if he now possessed a great secret of the universe, which might as well have been true. "Never, dear, never," he purred, stroking his fingers across the fine material. "Now, which of your pawns will be receiving an Infinity Stone as payment?"

Death barely batted an eye at his behavior and instead set an hourglass down on the table, the sand grains slowly trickling one-by-one to the bottom. "You have until this runs out to get it to Earth and into the hands of either Tony Stark of Steve Rogers."


A/N: Just an FYI, you guys are probably only going to get like two more 'bonus' chapters from this… which would make Bonus Chapter 10 the END(game). Also, my subtly for low-key shipping a certain pair is going down the drain, but just know that whatever's going on, in this fic it just ends up as platonic fluff while the more canon pairing is sailing on the high seas. To be fair, I am fond of many ships (ahem, multi-shipper over here but whatever). Also, also, I finally got Peter and Shuri in a scene together! XD


mfaerie32: Okay, so. My not-so-subtle paring was between Tony and Steve (you got that part), and yes, I have the more prominent ship of Pepper/Tony in the forefront. I was trying to keep all of the pairings in here as canon and gen as possible, but with how I was writing the Steve/Tony relationship, it was coming off as an actual relationship – which would have been fine if it were part of canon. So, I made sure to highlight Pepper/Tony early on... but the Steve/Tony thing was still being a thing because that's how I writing those two. If it helps, I think in this universe Pepper would definitely know that Steve and Tony have a thing (specifically, a certain kind of bond that comes from being the only ones that have memories from another world in which everything fell apart) and she'd have an understanding with Steve about that, but Steve also respects that Pepper and Tony are getting married and keeps things between himself and Tony as something closer to familial love than anything else. Did that help? I don't know, but same about Shuri and Peter.

Jhessill: Thanks, it should be out in March.

Shiranai Atsune: Yay! Another review. (Seriously, these make my day.)

Frost Deejn: I think I actually answered this elsewhere, but I don't mind doing it again here. You'll get a little more of Vision next installment (at least, mentioned anyway...). And, yeah, anyone in contact with an Infinity Stone has some inlinking about what happened in Infinity War, though how clear they understand of what happened differs from Stone to Stone. You can assume that Vision knows what happened, but not to the extent that Tony and Steve do, which they would have helped fill him in on if he asked. As for Wanda and Viz being together... Well, I certainly don't see why I would have to separate the couple.

Daughter of Trickery: Your boi Loki makes an appearance in the next chapter. I can tell you that.