Apologies for the long wait! I'd get a section written and then my muse would abandon me! It's very rude about doing that.
But anyways! There's the latest chapter!
Enjoy!
Chapter 20: In which important reunions are had
"How the hell did you not notice that until now?" Tony demands, turning to shoot the man a disbelieving look while Ana gasps just like her husband had. "He's Steve, he practically oozes star spangledness!"
Given that no one is looking in her direction, Evelyn rolls her eyes in exasperation. Even after three years of working closely together, the man still forgets just what exactly she's capable of. "Tony," she calls in a sing-song voice, waiting for him to turn his scowl towards her before wiggling her fingers at him while sparks dance in between them.
He narrows his eyes at her. "Your magic didn't stop me from recognizing him."
"It wasn't supposed to. The particular spell currently on him only works if he hasn't met the person before. Until he's verbally introduced or dramatic enough outside stimulus is used, such as his shield, an unknowing person simply thinks him to be an average person of no importance. We were prepared for his...ah...how did you just delightfully put it? His star spangledness. It's why Mr and Mrs Jarvis have been focused mostly on me thus far."
"I didn't even think to ask for your name," Edwin says faintly, looking faintly horrified.
Evelyn can't help the small but self-satisfied smile that tugs at her lips. "The Mind Arts became something of a specialty of mine, for a variety of reasons, chief among them being that I wished to know if I could return a friend's parents to him."
Something in Ana's eyes sharpens. "The Longbottoms?"
Evelyn fixes her with a speculative look. "You're far more informed of the going ons in Britain than I expected you to be. Why?"
Ana's lips twist into a pained looking smile. "Your country's problems, unfortunately, have a bad habit of spilling over beyond your borders. As I said earlier, I wished to be able to warn my family should the worst come to pass and your war came here."
"And our families were rather in the center of it all," she grumbles. "To the best of my knowledge, it never crossed the ocean, not even the second time."
Ana stumbles back a step, Tony hurrying to steady her at the same Edwin does. "The second time?" she says despairingly, clutching tightly to both men as though they might vanish if she let go.
"Oh yeah, the nut job out for your blood," Tony muses, and she nearly snorts at the reducing of Riddle to merely a wacko who wants to kill her instead of a madman who brought a nation to its knees because no one else was willing to truly stand against him. Not in any ways that mattered.
"Quite literally," she deadpans instead before huffing out a sigh. "Despite what's been bandied about by the vast majority of Wizarding England these past ten years, I have not actually defeated Lord Voldemort just yet. Various events leading up to that particular night ended with him being forced to retreat and seclude himself to regain his strength. He will return, if only because the idea that he was defeated by a mere baby is too much of a stain against the image he's cultivated for himself." The Jarvis' don't need to know about the prophecy. It will come to light soon enough, and she won't put them in any more danger than they're already in if she can help it. They're important to Tony and therefore important to her. She meets Ana's frightened gaze and says very deliberately, "My word that I will do everything in my power to ensure that you and yours are not harmed should the war with Tom Marvolo Riddle spill across the ocean."
"Eve," Steve murmurs, voice full of wary warning.
She holds up a hand to silence him, still intently watching Ana.
"Your word?" the woman whispers.
Evelyn inclines her head and binds herself for the second time today. "My word." She feels the vow settle over her magic, and figures that Ana's shaky exhale is because she feels it as well. Or at least something. She really has no idea just how much magic Squibs can feel and interact with. But that's a worry for another time. For now, there are other matters to attend to. "Tony?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you alright with Steve staying here for a while? I have to return to England for a House Meeting in three days and I have literally nothing for Steve to do there until the end of the month. His only two other options are stay here with you or I take him back to Asgard."
"And I'd really rather stay here on Earth if I can help it," Steve adds on a bit sheepishly. Not that Evelyn blames him. If it were possible, she'd settle down in one place with Loki and not leave for a significant amount of time. The past five years for all of them have been literal hell. Jumping from one problem to another, not to mention all the Realm hopping they did on top of that. Being able to stay put for even just a month near the end was a treasured, coveted ability.
The expression on Tony's face is incredulous and a mite ticked off. "Cap, I have told you numerous times, mi casa es su casa. A little bit of Soul Magic isn't about to change that."
Oh. He hasn't truly thought about what the full meaning of the current date implies. Especially for him.
"Tony, it's July," Evelyn stresses, taking a step towards him with a hand outstretched.
He just blinks at her in befuddlement the closer she gets. "Yes? And?"
Evelyn doesn't say anything until she's in front of him and can take his hands in her. She tugs on them until he kneels and they're at eye level with each other. There's no way she'd be able to catch him at her current size if his legs decide to fail him again, and she'd rather he didn't bash his head against the floor. "The Winter Soldier hasn't been sent to kill Howard Stark yet," she says softly.
It takes a moment, but then understanding dawns swift and furious across Tony's face. A strangled noise catches in the back of his throat, painful and broken. His fingers spasm in her hands and he sways briefly, even though he's kneeling. He swallows once, then twice before stating hoarsely, "Mom's alive."
Evelyn's blinking back tears of her own at the raw ache in his voice. She is intimately familiar with the feeling of missing one's mother, even if Tony had his for twenty one years and all she has are memories of her own dying. "She is, and I swear to you I will keep her that way." She doesn't know how yet, exactly, but she'll figure it out. Even if it means warding the ever loving shit out of both his parents until Barnes is sent after them and she can steal the man away. And while Barnes himself might still be deeply entrenched in HYDRA propaganda instead of shaking himself loose like Steve had alluded to, she still has all the ideas from before on how to help and contain him to fall back on for that problem when it finally arises.
Off to the side, Edwin sputters, "The Winter Soldier is a myth!"
"You thought the same of magic not even an hour ago," Evelyn throws back. "He's very much real and we already have plans to deal with him."
"We do?" Tony repeats sceptically.
She reaches out to lay a hand on his cheek. "We do. Just because we've ended up in the past doesn't mean that the plans I already had in place can't still be used." She points a finger at him and is a little amused when his eyes cross trying to keep track of it. "And don't think for one second to use the fact that I'm ten to butt in. You were not required for the process then and most certainly still aren't. I'll not have you hurting yourself when it bloody well isn't necessary, understand?"
"I can help," he insists. "If you'd asked me a year or so ago, I would've been a mess, but I've come to terms with Barnes and his involvement." He offers her a wry grin. "Your...ah...demonstration helped a bit."
Ah yes, her quick and dirty demonstration on mind control for them. She'd really rather not have to do that again, all things considered. Casting Imperio on anyone isn't her idea of a good time.
They'd all known about Barnes, to an extent. Steve had told them the basic facts, that the Winter Soldier was his friend, James Buchanan Barnes, and that HYDRA had somehow found him and turned him into an assassin. Having been new to the group, Evelyn had kept her discomfort to herself, figuring that there'd be time to further delve into the full depth of Barnes' situation. Then, one day, the truth about Howard and Maria had surfaced. Once the shock and horror had somewhat died, Tony and Steve had almost literally gone for each other's throats. In simplified terms, Steve had wanted to save his friend and Tony had wanted his mother's killer dead. She'd gotten between them and demonstrated to both just how hard it could be to throw off mind control of the magical variety (not that they hadn't had an excellent example when Loki had brought the Chitauri, but it's one thing to see it and another completely to experience it) despite both of them being stubborn bastards (while magical mind control didn't have anything to do with Barnes, it was the only one available for Evelyn to use, despite her abhorrence of it). None of them had been happy about that particular experience, and she'd ended up having to hunt down Clint to apologize profusely as she hadn't given anyone any sort of warning about what she was going to do. Once tempers had cooled, she'd sat Steve down and had had a frankly harrowing conversation over the realities of what could happen concerning Barnes. Only when she was certain that he understood all the ramifications did she offer her assistance, along with making him swear that he'd do as she instructed given that she was the resident mind healer. She'd left Tony be, knowing that she'd pushed him enough and that anything else would be up to him, not her. The only thing she'd made sure he knew was that she wouldn't be bringing Barnes to any of his properties if they managed to find him. That it was not his responsibility to house the man who killed his parents, even if he'd been little more than a weapon at the time. She had all the Potter and Black properties at her disposal, and she had a better chance of containing Barnes in one of them anyways than in any of his.
"I'd rather not have that demonstration again," Steve mutters from behind in an echo of her own thoughts, his voice indicating that he'd approached while she and Tony talked but not close enough to interrupt.
Tony closes his eyes as he shudders. "You and me both, buddy." Then he gives himself a shake before standing back up and doing what Starks do best. Deflect from emotions and confronting them. "So, Capsicle is gonna stay with me for how long?" His smile is brittle and jagged, and it immediately makes Evelyn want to punch something. Or rather, a certain someone. "Gotta prepare the old man for Stevie here running away again just after he gets him back. There's nothing like a Stark man throwing a tantrum from not getting his way."
"Tony, I am not here for him," Steve states, crowding up against their teammate with a look of barely contained fury etched onto his face. "I am here for you and only you."
Tony takes a half step back, not that he appears aware of doing so. "Cap, he's been looking for you for years."
Steve follows after him just as unconsciously. "I am vividly aware of that. Doesn't change the fact that you're more my friend now than he ever was. I fought a war with Howard and that's it. You I've fought and lived with."
"Steve—"
"Howard is my past, Stark. Him and everything else to do with him, and I distinctly remember more than one person being insistent that I leave the past in the past and focus on the future. Or are you changing your mind about that now?"
Tony makes an affronted noise in the back of his throat while waving his hands around in no apparent pattern, and Evelyn despairs at how much her friend doesn't seem to understand just how much they value him even now after seven or so years of them all knowing each other. "Of course I'm not! But he's alive now, and—"
"And I want nothing from him," Steve states firmly. "You are the Stark I've staked my bet on for the future, and I sure as hell am not backing out now."
"And I'm flattered about that, truly, I am so flattered, but even if you want nothing to do with my old man there's still—" Tony chokes mid sentence, eyes going wide. "Oh my god, Aunt Peggy!" And then he's sprinting out of the room while she and Steve just stare after him for one befuddled moment, too surprised by the sudden explosion of movement for what he said to actually register.
Then it does, and Evelyn at least races after him. "Stark, whatever you're about to do, don't do it!" she yells, not even bothering to be embarrassed by how much her voice squeaks.
"It's Aunt Peggy!" he shouts back, "And where the fuck are the phones in this building?! I am not prepared to have to regress thirty years technology wise, Potter! This is abuse of the highest order! I demand a refund!"
Evelyn takes a corner a little too sharply as she fights to keep up with a sporadic Stark, bouncing off the wall and barely missing a decorative table in the process. "Then next time we're forced to use Soul Magic I'll leave your stupid arse in the dark! And stop for one blasted second so we can discuss Carter before you call her!"
"It's Aunt Peggy!"
"I know who Peggy Carter is, you bloody bastard! We need a plan first, because I don't want to give the woman a heart attack by just throwing Steve at her!"
"Excuse you, it's Aunt Peggy! She is poise and she is grace and she is—ack!" Tony abruptly goes down in a tangle of limbs, and Evelyn is in no way prepared for this so she crashes right into him full tilt. Someone manages to at least stop her head from slamming against the floor, but her elbow ends up in someone's gut despite her best attempts otherwise. They all lie there for a moment, dazed and catching their breath, before Tony makes a noise and starts to move. Evelyn scrambles off him, still panting a bit, and finally gets to see who exactly derailed their running.
"Do you ever watch where you're going, you brat?" the man grumbles, eyes squeezed shut with a slightly pained expression. He's sprawled out on the floor, a hand reaching to the back of his head where it obviously hit when they all went down.
It's not someone Evelyn recognizes, but Tony obviously does, given his sharp intake of breath and subsequent, "Lewis?!"
"Oh darlings, what happened?"
Evelyn jerks her gaze up at yet another new voice and feels all the blood drain out of her face because this person she does recognize, even though the two of them have never met before.
Peggy Carter is indeed poise and grace and steel all wrapped up in a woman who's as beautiful as she is talented. She quickly hurries over, kneeling beside all of them and brushing a hand over Lewis' forehead before turning a worrying look to Tony to do the same.
"Aunt Peggy?" Tony sounds so bewildered that, had it been at any other time, Evelyn would've laughed so hard at him. Instead, she barely has time to start mentally cursing the current situation when the steady thumping of approaching boots reaches her ears, and she knows that Steve's realized that she and Tony aren't going after each other anymore so he's followed them. She twists around in a vain attempt to stop the inevitable and retain even a semblance of control.
"Tony! Eve! Are you—?"
Evelyn dearly wishes she were in a position to laugh, because the sight of Captain America skidding to an uncoordinated halt is hilarious. He manages to not hit anything, but graceful he is not in that moment. He looks as bewildered as Tony sounded, eyes wide and jaw dropped. She almost misses the gasp from behind her because her ten-year-old body decides that it's had enough mood swings for the day and she promptly bursts into tears.
Great, ugly, snot inducing tears that shake her entire body and blur her sight.
Arms gather her up and then they're moving. Where to, she doesn't know, because all she can do is curl up into the chest she's cradled against and just keep crying. It's frustrating as hell, and she's very much not a fan of this, but she's a child again. She's a child, not a woman, and even adults don't do well with the rapid fire emotional bullshit she's dealt with this past month. She should've known that she'd eventually reach a breaking point. She can dwell on that when she's not crying her eyes out, though.
Voices wash over her in stages, hushed and with various amounts of worry.
A hand rubs circles on her back.
When her crying has subsided down to sniffles, a tissue is given to her and she obediently blows. Once she does that, a warm mug is pressed into her hands. She takes a sip automatically, then starts when she realizes it's tea. Well brewed tea at that. "You made me tea," she states mindlessly, voice rasping in the back of her throat. "Good tea."
"We had some from England that Jarvis enjoys," Tony says softly. "You were just lucky we have people here who actually know how to make it properly, otherwise you'd be left with the bagged shit, and I'd rather not die today if it's all the same to you."
She blinks dumbly at him, vaguely recalling said threat she'd made the first and only time she drank tea from the states. He's kneeling in front of her, a frown on his lips. So that makes the lap she's sitting in Steve's. They wouldn't let anyone else hold her. "Are you okay?" she asks, because she didn't before, what with her haywire emotions, and he's the one who crashed into someone first.
A series of emotions flit across Tony's face. Exasperation and worry chief among them. "You know me, I blow myself up on a regular basis. A fall like that isn't gonna rattle me. You're the one who broke down crying for no apparent reason."
She immediately scowls at him. "I have had a rather trying month, you utter arse, on top of the last eight bloody years of my life being a continual downwards spiral completely out of my control. Also, I am ten now." She takes a noisy slurp of her tea, despite her inner manners cringing at it. "I think I'm entitled to a bit of a cry, thank you."
Tony sighs, dragging a hand down his face. "No, you definitely are, you just chose the most awkward time to do so."
With reflexes born from both her childhood and adulthood, Evelyn plants a foot in the middle of Tony's chest and shoves. He topples over backwards in a flail of limbs, squawking indignantly as he goes. She more feels than hears Steve's exasperated sigh shudder through her. It's a bit startling how easily she's falling back into the habits she'd built around this team. Then again, they've always made her feel safe. "Really?"
"He's an arse," she states primly.
"He's always an ass," Steve counters.
"I'm right here," Tony laments from the floor.
"And we're still here, waiting for an explanation, brat," an extremely irritated voice points out from the other side of the room. "And it—"
Battle shields come screaming to life as Evelyn flings herself off of Steve's lap, her mug of tea shattering on the floor(she'll mourn it later). She's sure her expression must be a sight to behold given the horrified looks from all five people she's now facing.
"Whoa, slow down there, Morgana," Tony yelps, scrambling up off the floor to place himself between them. Evelyn doesn't even flinch at his nickname for her that they're constantly going in circles about. "We're good, we're all safe. Lewis just has a mouth on him a little too much like mine, talk first then think, so if you could forgive his social ineptness, I will love you for forever and always."
There's immediately sputtering. "Social—!"
"Shut it, Sousa!" Tony barks, not bothering to turn around.
"Eve." Steve's voice is low and soothing and not at all the hard flint it usually is on the battlefield. "Tony's right. We're safe."
Her arms tremble from the struggle of holding her shields in place when she'd much rather just let them collapse, especially considering that while she might have all the finesse of her adult self she, again, is in reality a child at the moment, and her child body is in no way prepared to handle the strain of battle shields crafted to stand against the Dark Elves and Chitauri, but her nerves are too far shot to even consider—
"We're safe, you can let go."
—and the shields come crashing down.
She sucks in a ragged breath as she staggers sideways, an arm that wraps around her waist the only thing that keeps her upright. "I'm going to kill every bloody student at my school if I can't not do that," she whispers.
Tony shrugs lazily. "Eh, you've got, what, a month to get it under control? You'll be fine."
"Screw you, Stark," she grumbles halfheartedly, knowing he's only joking about her currently not helpful war instincts to try and lighten the mood. She gives her shoulders a quick roll in a vain attempt to work out the knots she can practically feel building in them. "So, I guess I didn't need to stop you from calling Carter after all." She takes a peek at Steve to gauge his reaction, only to find him steadfastly not looking in Peggy's direction.
"Yeah, hope you're okay with that, cause I'd rather not have you use your mumbo-jumbo on Aunt Peggy, Uncle Daniel, and Lewis if at all possible."
"Stark, I don't like messing with peoples' memories," she retorts back. "It's a last resort for a multitude of reasons, and I know Carter at least understands the need for some secrets to stay secret." Then she sighs and leans most of her weight up against Steve. "You doing alright, Rogers?"
"I buried her already," he whispers hoarsely. "Just like she had to bury me."
"Shit, I forgot about that," Tony mutters.
"Steve?"
Evelyn feels the tremor that shakes Steve Rogers when Peggy Carter finally speaks up again, she's pressed so close to him. He sucks in a sharp breath, and the arm he still has around her waist tightens briefly before he shifts just enough that Evelyn moves so she can lean against Tony instead. Then he slowly turns around and finally looks at the woman Evelyn knows he'd loved once upon a time, and maybe still does to an extent. You never really ever get over your first love. He opens his mouth, closes it, clears his throat, and chokes out, "I...ah...I'm sorry I missed our dance, Peggy."
Peggy already has a look of wondrous disbelief on her face, but Steve's words bring actual tears to her eyes. "Oh Steve."
Tony groans. "For god's sake, go hug her!"
With a wet sounding sob catching in the back of his throat, Steve proceeds to do just that.
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