Show Yourself Into The Unknown
Summary: The one where Thanos is dead, Tony has weird dreams instead of nightmares, the Avengers watch dubious Disney movies and mystical creatures are more than real. Oh, and the Cloak totally ships it.
Two days later, when they were all back in the US and had settled back into old or started new routines found Tony and Elsa all but bickering over which movie they should watch when Peter walked in, casual and energetic and all around happy to be around his mentor as he usually was. In all the excitement of introducing Elsa to Pepper and Happy, explaining how the whole thing had happened, assuring his friends that he was fine and then rearranging things in his general living space to make room for his new companion and placing new protocols with FRIDAY regarding her new magical sibling, Tony had honestly forgotten to update the teen on the whole crazy situation.
So, really, it was no surprise at all when Peter froze upon walking into his living room and seeing the ethereal Elsa perched on the comfiest, cushiest pillow money could buy that Tony had immediately procured for her, bantering back and forth with the one and only Iron Man regarding each other's questionable tastes in movies. Disney movies, to be precise. It was not a scene one would usually expect from Mr Tony I-don't-like-or-trust-magic-or-anything-magical-keep-it-away-from-me-damn-it Stark, but Peter, it would seem, was used to all types of crazy by now that came with being not only a superhero and an Avenger, but also being in any way associated with Tony Stark. So Peter took it in stride and freaked out only a little.
"Oh my god, Mr Stark! Is that a real, live dragon!? Or did you make it? Like, with nanites and stuff, like your armor. Because that would be so cool too but it would be even more epic if it was an actual dragon! Like, you know, breathing fire, hoarding gold, flying and guarding the secrets of wisdom. But if you made it then that's awesome, too! Did Doctor Strange see it? Did Thor see it? Can it control the elements? Does it have magic? Is it some sort of alien tech? Did Nebula help you make it? Is this why you've been unavailable the whole week?! I came around a few days ago but FRIDAY told me you guys were all busy so I went and hung out with Ned instead and he was my guy in the chair for taking down these robbers in the bank down the street from my school and he said you guys were probably off saving the world again but FRIDAY said you were just busy and that it was nothing urgent but then I went to Doctor Strange and he wasn't in the Sanctum, either and the wizards there told me he's with the Avengers and then I started fearing that something urgent did come up and the last time it did, we ended up in space so I got worried and called Ms Potts but she didn't know where you where, either so I called Mr Director Fury and he-"
"Whoa, easy there, Pete! Breathe! Jesus, kid, I thought your superpower was super strength, not super tongue." He waited until a sheepish Spider-Man finally shut up and mumbled an apology he waved off. "Anyway, so yes, this is a dragon and no, I didn't make her - and yes, it's a she - though I did hatch her from her egg. That what we've been occupied with. Turns out dragons are real and the multiverse's continued existence depends on them but they're a near extinct race. This little lady is the only one we currently know of. Yes, she breathes fire, though she has some freezing powers, too, and she'll be able to fly when she gets a bit stronger and yes, she does indeed hold the secrets of wisdom and the universe despite being only days old - yes, you are only days old. Being half aware inside of an egg doesn't count since that was existence, not life. That aside, yes, Stephen and Thor saw her - they were there we we climbed out of the Well. Don't know about gold hoarding, she's only been here for two days. Good for you for catching the bank robbers, though I hope you were safe. And don't talk to Fury. You're staying the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man until you're twenty one. No exceptions. Well, except if the world is ending. You can help out if that's the case. Now come meet Elsa and help us pick out a movie to watch."
He was well aware that there were several Avengers in the kitchen adjourned to the big living room on the common floor. He had chosen to settle here for the sole reason of Peter coming over. He wanted the kid to hear about Elsa from him first before the former rouges could make a big drama out of it. It's not his fault Elsa was wiser than him and wanted nothing to do with a bunch of dickheads. They should have acted like more decent human beings to her summoner before they realized he was her summoner. Preferably, though, he would have liked it much more if he and Pete were alone when he introduced the two. He looked at Peter and Harley like they were his own kids and Elsa had a whole new category for herself. Their ideal meeting would have been without the prying, judgmental eyes of the people who had stabbed him in the back.
"Elsa?" Peter repeated with wonder, took a good, long look at her before something shifted in his eyes. He came closer and leaned down to be practically eye level with her. Stealing one last glance at Tony, he gave a toothy, sheepish smile. "Do you wanna build a snow man?
Come on, let's go and play
I never see you anymore
Come out the door
It's like you've gone away!"
Tony couldn't help it. He laughed, open and delighted, especially when Elsa perked up in interest and her own delight. "Frozen it is!"
"Can I join?" Peter asked and all but vibrated out of his own skin in excitement when Elsa nodded frantically. Then he was floored when she continued the song, apparently stunned by her voice.
"We used to be best buddies
But now we're not
What am I gonna do?
Do you wanna build a snow man?
It doesn't have to be a snowman.
Okay, bye."
And just because he loved the stunned, incredulous expressions everyone was sporting, the genius cleared his throat. "Elsa, please I know you're in there!
People are asking where you've been
They say 'have courage' and I'm trying to
I'm right out here for you
Just let me in."
"We only have each other," Elsa interjected into their chopped up version of the song, not that any of them cared.
"It's just you and me," Tony sang back, running a hand across her back and delighting in the way she shivered against his hand.
"What are we gonna do?" Peter all but plopped down on the free space on the couch, looking way too awed at the singing dragon. Tony still preferred the flabbergasted faces the Avengers were making when they realized not only could he hold a tune but he also knew the lyrics of a Disney song by heart. He gestured to his fellow childish singers - not that any of their voices were in any way childish or lacking; he should maybe recommend Peter to a records label, he'd be brilliant - to follow him into the last bit, a huge grin breaking out on his face as their voices melded together.
"Do you wanna build a snowman?
It don't have to be a snowman ..."
"Why not?" Elsa, as she was won to, interrupted the song as she pleased, a frown on her too cute face. Tony briefly wondered if he was biased and so he will find her cute even when she inevitably becomes as big as a house or if she really was far too cute for a being on whom the rest of existence depends and leans on.
"Can you actually do it like Elsa? Can we make Olaf?!"
"No." Tony might be a fan of Frozen and the eccentric, cute as a button sentient snowman from said movie but he puts his foot down at having to deal with what is essentially a frozen, magical Dum-E, damn it "Only normal snowmen allowed. Next thing I know, you'll be trying to get her to make a reindeer actually talk and naming it Sven!"
"She can do that?!"
"Not the point, kid," he said all-sufferingly, but a smile was playing at his lips. Damn, he can't remember the last time he had smiled this much. Just a couple of days with Elsa in his life and he was already much happier. He was full of love and contentedness and the knowledge that he will never be alone again, no matter what life may bring at him. He felt like he could relax. No wonder dragons wanted to have their Ib. No wonder their souls are connected in the bonding process and that dragons die if their summoner/hatcher dies. Tony wasn't sure if he'd actually survive Elsa's death. The grief and loss might do him in. If this was how life was with Elsa, he never wants to go without ever again. "Though can you actually build a snowman like the other Elsa?"
In answer, the dragon only took a slightly deeper breath, held it for a moment and then blew it out. The moisture in the air froze, formed snowflakes and gathered them together until a mass started forming. It definitely took longer than in the movie but not two minutes later, a snowman almost identical to Olaf, save for the necessary accessories they ought to add on, stood in the Compound living room. Peter and Tony laughed in amazement, especially as it didn't start melting despite the exquisite heating systems of the property and Elsa preened under their happiness.
"As it is created by my magic, it will never melt unless I will it to. And no, it's not sentient, my Ib, but we can always change that at a later date if you change your mind." Peter turned big, soulful, hopeful puppy dog eyes at him and Tony rolled his own.
"No." Funnily enough, Elsa pouted with him, too. "I can just imagine Pepper's reaction if she sees a living snowman running around the Compound. She'd have my head."
"So is this why you've been watching Disney movies over the last couple of months?" Peter asked as he slowly reached out as if to pet Elsa but waiting for her permission before touching her. Respectful and polite. And utterly adorably delighted when she allowed it. Gods - if such things even existed - but these two together were cuteness overdose! They might just be the death of him.
"Partially. Elsa's been giving me a weird sleeping schedule as of late before we finally met in one of my dreams. Since I never felt up to doing anything specific because I was so weirded out and tired, I decided to watch something to numb my brain into sleep. Turns out that I am instead now a Disney movie addict. Frozen and Frozen 2 are by far my favorites. Elsa just happened to agree with me."
There was a derisive snort from the kitchen where Barton, Wilson and Lang were getting coffee or tea or a snack. The sneer came from Barton and he had a disgusted look on his face when Tony sighed and deigned to look at him. "You seriously named a dragon after a Disney princess?"
"A Disney queen," Barnes corrected with a smirk as he walked into the room, nodding at Tony and waving at his intern and ward.
Tony smirked himself, not willing to pass up the chance. "A Disney goddess made flesh."
If anything, Barton looked even more disgusted while Wilson adopted an exasperated expression. Lang, though, only chuckled. "Fitting, I guess. I mean, given her control over ice. And she does have a pretty singing voice. Not to mention that the whole 'goddess made flesh' part actually fits her given what we know about dragons so far."
"You can't be serious that you agree with this, Tic Tac?" The incredulous Wilson asked with both eyebrows nearly touching his hairline. Lang shrugged, unbothered. At least the hero worship had abated after Hope joined the team. Lang actually thought with his head these days when he was making decisions.
"Why not? Elsa's as good a name as any and it's pretty fitting for someone like her. Besides, who gave us a say in how Stark will name his dragon?"
"Seeing as we're meant to protect it together," Barton countered, completely ignoring the legitimate and sound argument Scott had presented in favor of letting his own feelings regarding Tony be the perfect judge of how things should happen. Tony rolled his eyes and prayed Ahtohallan - because he was never religious as he believed in what he can see and empirically experience but he had seen Ahtohallan and he knows it's real so why not swear by that from now on? Sounds like a good gig. It will at least bug everyone out and sow confusion, which may give him an upper hand in arguments so he's definitely doing it - will grant him strength and patience to deal with these assholes. "We should have agreed on what to name it together. As a team."
"Well, tough luck, bird brain, the honor of naming a dragon falls to its summoner and I'm Elsa's, so Elsa it is. Not that she wants any other name, mind you, but that's really none of your business so buzz off."
"Besides, we didn't even know Stark was the one who was going to hatch her," Barnes pointed out as he came and sat down in one of the armchairs, eyeing the non-sentient replica of Olaf with intrigue. "All we knew was that we had to help Doctor Strange find the egg and then protect it until the right person comes along. We had no way of knowing Stark was the one we were waiting for-"
"Because he didn't tell us-"
"And he had no obligation to," Elsa snarled at Wilson, who immediately fell quiet, scared. Apparently he still remembered the ice and the fire, the power Elsa held despite her diminutive size. Barnes just continued as though neither of them had spoken.
"We had no reason to believe it would be one of us. We thought we would be on the outskirts of the dragon's and it's summoner's life. Why the hell should we get a say in their name?" He then shrugged, nodding towards Tony and Elsa. "Besides, the name fits and they're both happy with it. Not to mention that despite the summoner being an Avengers doesn't suddenly give us privileges over the dragon. Elsa made it clear she doesn't like any of us - and for good reason. To try and force or impose our opinion on the matter on either of them won't endear us to her any further. We at least need her to trust us enough to let us have her back if she needs it. We won't achieve that by being dicks to her summoner. All it will do is getting our asses set on fire or frozen when she finally gets sick of our meddling. So just drop it."
"You trust Stark to-"
"I do," the Winter Soldier answered easily, giving Clint a cold, calculated, blank look that had once meant the Winter Soldier was in control. "Besides, no one tried to name your kids."
"She's not a kid, she's a monster of legend," bristled the archer, pissed, but he went stiff and still when Nebula's voice drifted from behind him.
"Are you talking about the Scarlet Witch? What has she done now and do I need to get my knives?" The second part was aimed at Tony as the blue cyborg made her way over towards the sitting launch, all deadly grace and confidence, not at all afraid to turn her back to the three in the kitchen as she walked past them. Tony knew damn well she had heard a better part of the last few exchanges before she had made her presence known. Whenever Tony wasn't alone, she hesitated just long enough to judge the situation before joining in so she would know how to respond and whether she needed her knives out now or later. Not to mention that Stephen's and Tony's - and definitely Harley's trolling - sarcasm had rubbed off on her in the time she'd been on Earth and living with them. She was trying to aggravate Barton on purpose and it was working beautifully.
Nebula seated herself on the armchair closest to Tony and, as always, gave him a once-over to make sure he had not come to harm since they had last seen each other an hour ago. Tony would have rolled his eyes if he wasn't so touched by the gesture. Honestly, the ease with which he and Nebula connected was quite something. Then again, he had always been more comfortable around machines than around people. Nebula was just halfway in between and she wasn't from Earth, either, which probably helped more than people could realize. Sure, Tony Stark can schmooze and woo and charm like the best of them, he understood politics and the motivation behind individuals actions. What he didn't understand was the human need to screw each other over or even screw themselves over. He did it just the same as everyone, but he didn't understand it. Aliens did it too, don't get him wrong, but most of the planets out there had feuds with each other that kind of explained it. Completely different species were/are at war, some of which last for centuries, all of which are remembered and alluded to every time opposite sides meet somewhere so fights break out all the time. And while humans had warred with each other since the moment some prehistoric idiot had picked up a stick and figured out that it can hurt someone else with it, none of those wars were remembered as they should have been.
In short, the human mind was baffling to him. Human nature in general. Machines and codes were so much better. Straightforward and purposeful, each part having a purpose, a function vital for the effectiveness of the whole. It may sound like a cold world but it would be a world where no mother buried her son and no father feared to let his daughter out after sunset.
Pushing the thoughts aside because he knew 98% of the population wouldn't agree with him, Tony instead turned back to the topic at hand. "Nah, Barton was just being an insensitive dick, like always. Where's Viz?" Nebula's eye twitched and Tony smirked. Honestly, he was almost sure Vision had developed some sort of crush on Nebula. Ever since he brought everyone back from the snap, Maximoff had been unhinged. It took her months to get herself under control and she had only started actually trying after Fury threatened her with getting Strange to restrain or take away her powers entirely after the fifth meeting room she wrecked. She was emotionally unstable and everyone had been pitying towards her since they knew she had been forced to kill Vision only to a minute later have to watch him die again at Thanos' hand. She blamed Tony, she blamed Quill and she blamed Stephen. That, they understood and just let her vent in a safe, controlled environment.
Her cold, volatile behavior towards Vision, though, blaming him for deciding his life wasn't worth more than half of the universe and taking her aggression out on him, Tony was not going to allow. It had started off as telling Vision to just leave the room when she starts frying at the edges so she can calm down but then one night, she had crept into his room and almost had a repeat of not only the moment she had destroyed the Mind Stone but also the moment when she had sent him through several floors of reinforced concrete. Tony had been awake and discussing some thing or another with Stephen in his lab - it had been a rough night of nightmares for the sorcerer and Tony had had a breakthrough on some project and refused to go to bed until he notes it all down - when FRIDAY had alerted everyone of the situation. Had Stephen opened a portal into the room and Tony shot a tranquilizer at Wanda just a second later, Vision would have been in need of rebuilding once more.
Tony would have put his foot down after that event had Vision himself not decided to distance himself from Maximoff. "It is for the best," the android had explained one day as he sat with Tony in his lab with his latest cooking project on the engineer's work table waiting fir consumption. "I had not realized it before she used her powers so close to me," he had been very careful not to say on me because it had still hurt him to think his first love could go off the rails and try to kill him like that. "But being inside the Soul Stone had destabilized her powers and the proximity of the Mind Stone since her return wasn't helping as the Stone itself seems to have been put out of balance. I will have to speak with Doctor Strange about it to see if it is happening to all of the Stones or just mine. Either way, it keeps tugging, calling on her power, like it is trying to take it back. It has been driving her to the edge."
That could explain the lashing out but the Sokovian woman never apologized and just blamed Vision some more about that turn of events, too.
Needless to say, whatever relationship they had before fell apart spectacularly.
Wanda has been showing signs as of late that she wanted them to go back to how they were, but Vision hadn't. He'd been too busy falling in what appears to be puppy love with Nebula, though the true depth and potential of those feelings are yet to be seen.
Nebula didn't know or understand this, as it seemed no one had ever shown any romantic inclinations towards her in her life, so she didn't know what to do with Viz always hovering right there beside her, following her around like a lost puppy. It was far too cute for two such powerful/dangerous people.
"I believe he is with Colonel Rhodes and Major Danvers at the moment."
"Cool. You wanna join us for a movie? It's a Frozen marathon." Nebula wasn't big on Disney movies but she nodded none the less. "Lang, Barnes, you're free to stay. The rest of you bug off before I set Dum-E with the fire extinguisher on you."
Barnes laughed in delight at the threat while Wilson was smart enough to immediately scatter, no doubt remembering his first meeting with the bot. Lang just came up to join them and sat at the floor while they all ignored Barton as he cursed and swore at them until Nebula sent him a pointed look while her hand reached for her weapons holster.
Tony just snuggled with Elsa and enjoyed the moment as the movie started.
