November 8th in a New World
Summary: Blaine thought November 8th would be the defining date of every year, the date he found and then (one year later) lost Sebastian. Years later he put May 1st on his "crappy day list" when half the world disappeared.
Today, while the world outside is in chaos, a magic portal has opened in front of him. He has a feeling he'll be adding October 17th to his list.
Notes: 10 Days of Seblaine 2023 Day 4: Inspired by Another Media
I had to make a slight adjustment in the MCU timeline for story purposes. I explain why in the end notes.
November 8, 2022
It took months for people to come out of the stupor they fell into after Thanos snapped his fingers. When they did, the majority went into one of two camps…those who chose to try to move on and those who got lost in their anger. Blaine was fortunate in that most of the people he knew fell into the first camp.
Then there was Clint. Watching his entire family turn to dust broke him and by the time what was left of Shield sent someone for him, he was long gone. The Archer did contact him once a month to check in, only because he promised not to tell anyone…especially Natasha. The longer this went on the more he wanted to tell her. He was well aware of Clint's turn from Hawkeye to Ronan and all that entailed. But Blaine also knew if he said anything his friend would go off the grid completely. At least this way he knew he was still alive.
This didn't mean he condoned what Ronan did and it made him sick to know in the pre-Snap world he would have been considered an accessory to multiple murders. But in the post-Snap world, you did what you could do to get from one day to the next.
Blaine hadn't realized it was November 8th until Clint contacted him to say he was thinking of him. How he hated that it took losing his own family to understand Blaine's pain. How he'd try to finally visit him sometime in the new year.
He wasn't going to get his hopes up.
There had been a time where he couldn't get out of bed on November 8th. The memory of Kurt and Burt telling him Sebastian and Sam were dead paralyzed him. That stopped in 2018. He didn't have the time. He did have the time to honor those he lost. Dave (thankfully he and Xavier were still with him) suggested they have a memorial stone made. It took over a year but when it arrived 2 weeks earlier, Blaine cried for the first time in months. There were so many names. They were told half the population was lost in the Snap but his loss was closer to 95%.
But today wasn't about them. They were May 1st. Today was about the two plaques on the smaller stone in front of the memorial.
Sebastian Smythe
Not snapped away
Gone in the blink of an eye
January 14, 1995-November 8, 2012
Sam Evans
Son, Brother, Master of Impressions
Founding member of Blam
February 17, 1995-November 8, 2012
Even though the November wind was blowing, it was unseasonable warm for Ohio so he sat on the bench they'd placed in front of the memorial. He was immediately joined by a friend.
In the early days of their collective nightmare, Blaine had to find items to both feed and care for Lord Tubbington. He quickly found out there were hundreds of orphaned pets in just the Westerville area. Without thinking he volunteered Dalton as a sanctuary and rallied people to find these animals and bring them in. A month later he had what the surrounding area called Dalton Zoo.
It took time but people began to get back on their feet and were willing to adopt these pets.
But there was a tiny golden retriever who had lost not only his owners but mother and siblings. Blaine gave him round the clock care until he was a hyper, mischievous but loving puppy. He had no choice but to adopt the puppy and name him Sammy.
"Whatcha doing boy?" he asked as Sammy licked his face then laid down on the bench with his head on Blaine's lap. "Did you know I was feeling sad?"
"Hi Uncle Bow! Hi Sammy!"
He had been so far in his head he hadn't noticed the screen appear out of nowhere. He really had to find a way to get Saturday to alert him when someone was calling, especially Tony. But since it was Morgan, he'd let it slide this time.
"Hi Sweetie!"
"Daddy said you were sad today and to cheer you up. Do you want to sing a song with me?"
Tony knew he refused to sing again after Sebastian died. The obnoxious billionaire took it as a challenge. Once his daughter could talk, he taught her to ask him to sing with her. Blaine had always been able to distract her, but now that Morgan was getting older, he didn't know how much longer he could hold out.
"I am sad Sweetie, but you know what would make me feel even better than singing a song?"
"What?"
"You telling me about all the times your Mommy got mad at Daddy for running off to Uncle Bruce to do science."
"So many times!"
"Hey! No talking behind my back" Tony whined as he kissed Morgan on the cheek and told her Pepper was looking for her.
"Bye Uncle Bow! Oh, I forgot. Can I come play with the animals?"
"I don't know. Is your Daddy going to play science with Dalton again?"
Morgan turned to her father and smiled. "Busted! Bye again Uncle Bow! Bye Sammy!"
When she was out of ear shot, Blaine smiled and said "Next time you pull that crap, I'm going to ask Morgan if she wants a puppy. Or, we had two ponies born last month."
"I have no problem with that but Pepper's another story."
"Yeah, I'm actually scared of her. But seriously, thanks for checking on me. I can't believe it's been 10 years."
"Did you read the letter?"
"No, I thought maybe this was the year, but Xavier is having a bad day…week."
"You know you're never going to fully move on until you read it."
"So, I'd be like 50% of the population?"
"Bow…"
"Tony, I tried."
"You hooked up with a guy who we got out of NYC with that obnoxious girl from your old Glee Club. A guy you knew would return to NYC as soon as it livable again."
"Elliot went home to California to help his mother. And from what I've heard NYC is still barely livable. It has to be if Rachel is still living with her Dads."
"Fine, we'll discuss it when Morgan, Bruce and I are there on Friday."
"Are you kidding? Why?"
"Yearly maintenance on your arc reactor."
When Tony rebuilt Dalton, he put in an arc reactor like the one he put in the former Stark Towers. When power shut down across the country on the 2nd night, nothing at Dalton even blinked.
"Ok, maintenance on the arc reactor is acceptable. Also, you've got to do something about Saturday not announcing my video calls and just putting them through. I was on the toilet this morning when Cli…" Shit!
Tony knew exactly who Blaine was talking about, or not talking about. Rhodey told him Barton was #1 on the government's most wanted list. "Bow?"
"I'm not going to talk about it so drop it."
The (former?) Avenger sat back into his chair and stared at the boy who had turned into a remarkable man in the face of tragedy. It made him miss the boy he couldn't save even more. "We'll discuss it when…"
"I know, I know, when you, Morgan and Bruce are here on Friday. Do I need to warn the neighbors you're coming in one of your jets or a spaceship?"
"My jet plus a supply plane."
"Supplies for the animals or supplies to store in my basement with the rest of the Iron Man technology you're hiding?"
"Both. You know, it was brilliant to set up this charity so I can move stuff back and forth with no one being the wiser."
"That's not why I did it."
"Keep telling yourself that. I know you love me."
"Not until you make me a lightsaber."
October 17, 2023
"You have no idea why Tony sent those boxes?" Dave asked as he and Blaine came up from the basement. "Or why they're marked Do not open. That includes you, Anderson?"
"None whatsoever. And the fact he sent a supply plane without telling me? He always gives me a heads up so I can warn the neighbors."
"What about sending that huge jet with just those few boxes? You and I were able to move them ourselves. And no pet supplies?"
"Pepper told me he was working with the Avengers again but…"
The conversation ended when the entire room became shaded in a red hue. It's exactly the same thing that happened the day of the Snap, except Dave wasn't freaking out.
"Saturday, what's the threat level?"
"Unknown"
"Can we get visuals?"
A screen appeared with the screen divided into four parts. They were showing news footage from major cities across the country and they were all showing the same thing…people appearing out of nowhere. "Saturday, can we get local footage?"
The picture on the screen changed to what must have been traffic footage. The intersection they were showing was less than 3 miles away. What was happening in Westerville was no different than the major cities. Except…
"Oh my God!" Dave yelled as he moved closer to the screen. "That's my Dad! But he was Snapped. I've got…"
"Go, but be careful." Dave was already out the door so Blaine continued to watch the footage to see if he saw anyone else he recognized. Were people who were Snapped coming back somehow? Was everyone who was Snapped coming back? Did that mean his Mom…Clint's family…
"Brittany"
He was running out when he was stopped by sparks. There were only a few in the beginning but more and more appeared, all in the form of a widening circle. Soon the circle was big enough he could see two people inside it. A man wearing some sort of robe and waving his harm in a way that made Blaine believe he was causing the sparks.
The other was Pepper wearing a suit Tony had obviously made for her. "Pepper, what's going on?"
"I don't have time to explain." She walked through the circle (portal?) and handed him a large envelope. "This has power of attorneys, deeds to everything, bank account numbers, birth certificates, shot records…"
"Pepper, you're scaring me."
"I'm sorry but Tony and I never got the chance to tell you…" She turned when another man in a robe walked through the circle holding Morgan and what looked like a packed bag. He handed the little girl to her mother and quietly said something along the lines of We're out of time.
Pepper kissed Morgan on the side of the head then handed her to Blaine. "Be good for Uncle Blaine. Mommy and Daddy love you more than anything."
And just like that the circle was gone.
November 8, 2023
I, I wish I could swim
Like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim
Though nothing,
Nothing will keep us together
We can beat them, for ever and ever
Oh we can be Heroes,
Just for one day
Twelve years from the day he met Sebastian and eleven years from the day he lost him, Blaine broke his vow to never sing again. But when Morgan Stark asked him to sing a song with her on the day of her father's funeral, he wasn't going to turn her down.
He'd actually been singing songs with the little girl ever since her mother walked through a magic circle and left her with him. However, today was different. It was November 8th. He hated this day so much.
Brittany was a big help while Morgan was at Dalton. She'd tell her stories about how she used to be scared and sad all the time, but Blaine always made her feel better. Then she told her what a special little girl she was for Blaine to sing with her because she hadn't heard him sing in a long time. She did leave off the part about being gone for 5 years.
Pepper contacted him 2 days after Tony's death to tell him what happened but didn't want Morgan to know until she could tell her. It was a few more days before she walked through another magic circle, this time to bring her daughter home.
For some reason, he was surprised when Pepper invited him to the memorial service she was having for her husband. There was no doubt she and Tony loved him. Hell, they left him their daughter.
At least one of parents made it back.
The problem was, for all these years, he was what they called Tony's dirty little secret. At first it was to hide Brittany. Then it was to hide Iron Man technology Tony didn't want to get their hands on…just in case. But Pepper insisted even though General Ross, one of the people he'd been hiding Brittany from all the time, would be there. They came up with a cover story of him being one of the winners of Tony's scholarship at MIT. Then, during the 5 years the others were gone, they became friends when Tony took on Blaine's animal charity as one of his pet projects (pun intended).
None of it was necessary. Ross never talked to anyone and left the moment the formal part of the ceremony was over.
Asshole
The service was short but sweet. He could tell Tony had been respected by his fellow Avengers, even loved by a few. He finally got to meet Peter Parker, the boy he'd been so jealous of for taking away Tony's attention. They laughed at how similar they were, expect Peter could do all that cool, twisty, swing from buildings stuff.
He hugged Clint longer and harder than he should have. Despite getting his family back, he was still living in a hell made of his own actions. He was never going to get over her sacrificing herself when he believed it should have been him as penance for Ronan.
Wanda was nothing what he expected. For so long she'd been the example Tony help up as the reason to keep Brittany's genius away from people who would exploit it. And even though she almost defeated Thanos by herself at one point (that was mind boggling) she was as damaged, if not more so, as the other survivors of the battle with Thanos. But he could tell, when (not if) she completely broke down, it wasn't going to be pretty.
About 2 hours later, he found Pepper to say goodbye. A sorcerer named Dr. Strange (seriously) was going to make one of those magic circles (which he found out were actually portals) for him to go home. But before she let him go, she asked to talk to him in private. Tony had left him something…just in case.
Hours later Blaine was sitting alone in the Warblers Commons (he should really start calling it a living room), staring at the elegant box he'd been given. It kind of looked like a jewelry box, but why would Tony leave him jewelry? He never wore any.
Finally, he opened the box and cried the moment he saw what the man he loved like a father, left him.
Tony Stark built him a lightsaber.
Blaine carefully removed it from the box. He studied the hilt and noticed three buttons. Two were black and one was red. Knowing Tony, one being red was a sign for press me first. So, he did.
A beam of light shot out which he assumed was the same technology Tony used in his blasters substituting for the saber. He was wrong.
It was a hologram.
"Hey, Bow! Miss me?"
Notes:
From what I remember it was "Snap" then became "Blip" in Spiderman: Far from Home. I went with that, so it's Snap here and next chapter will be Blip.
I always wondered who Pepper left Morgan with because it couldn't be Happy. He was back but there wouldn't be enough time to get to the lake house. Plus, being gone 5 years, he wouldn't know about the house in the first place.
Blaine takes the place of the kid from Iron Man 3 at Tony's funeral.
There are 22 days between October 17th and November 8th. I took into consideration Snapped people needing time to adjust and injured people time needing time to recover. I'm ignoring WandaVision and her going coocoo for Cocoa Puffs a week or two after Tony funeral.
Heroes: Bowie, David; Eno, Brian 1977