EVER AFTER

❝ It might not always be happy, but always ever after. I promise ❞

Nicky Green had changed in the last five years. At the literal snap of a finger, his worst fear had been realized—again—and he was left behind to pick up the pieces of what was left. Five years of nearly giving up over and over, being pulled back by the few friends he had left. His old life nothing more than a memory, he laid amongst the rubble of what used to be, unsure of whether he wanted to start from scratch or just sleep through the rest of his life. It was a wonder how he had been able to push through.

But then everyone came back. He had finally started to get his life together, finding a new normal, accepting that he would have to make do with what was left, when everyone came back. As fast as they had gone, they had returned, and while some were a little worse for wear, the people he had lost and the people who had stayed were all together and okay.

But he had been naive to think that he would have been fine. He had to start all over again, explaining the last five years to the people he loved the most, pretending like he didn't notice the way they looked at him, admitting all that he had done and refused to do, struggling not to break as he tried to see himself from their perspective; the Nicky Green they knew had died with half the population, and when they returned, a stranger stood in his place.

Yet somehow, they all stayed. The ones who had saved him from spiraling continued to stay, accepting his apologies in stride, as eternally patient as they had been when things first went wrong. The ones who returned adjusting to him as they did the rest of the world, meeting him all over again, finding it within themselves to love the new man they came home to.

But the issue with living was that, no matter what happened, things kept moving forward. Nicky had barely been able to handle the first change, but now he had to start over and deal with the second, and even though he had everyone back, he didn't know where they would go from here. He was just as much a stranger to himself as he was to everyone else, and he couldn't just go back to before it all went wrong, pretend that he was still the same, which meant, like everyone else, he had to keep moving forward and hope for the best.

As he and the rest of the world adapted, supporting each other as they all tried to regain their bearings and find solid footing, Nicky couldn't help but wonder what this meant. He had never thought about the future, but with it rapidly approaching, he wondered whether this was his happily ever after or if there were still more stories to be told before the close.

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CAST

jeremy jordan as nicky green

❝ I was so afraid of what would happen that I never planned for what came next ❞

anthony mackie as sam wilson

❝ We'll figure this out together. I'm just sorry I wasn't there to help you the first time around ❞

chris pine as rhett reiser

❝ I swear to you, you will never lose your family again. Twice was more than enough ❞

aaron tveit as terran sweets

❝ I swore I would never leave again, but I did. I'm so sorry ❞

jenna coleman as charlotte burnes

❝ I've lived more lifetimes than I would have liked, but I'm not about to just give up now ❞

richard madden as ashley marsden

❝ I welcome the pain of loss, because it means I loved enough to hurt ❞

[ + additional cast ]
marvel actors/actresses as their respective characters
hero of heroes faceclaims as their respective characters

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STATUS

started: 03.01.21

completed: —

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Welcome to the sequel, it'll hurt more than the first. I'm so excited, because I had initially wanted to write into Infinity War/Endgame before I wrote this, but thanks to luminite I realized that, even if I had done that first, I would still have to give an explanation in this fic whenever it was relevant, so I'm just gonna write this and ya'll can get the experience of the people who had dusted and come back, because a lot has changed, especially with Nicky.

Also! At the time of this going up, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has yet to air, and because of this, I won't be able to write into the actual show until the entire show has been released and I can figure out how to fit Nicky and the gang into it. That being said! I will write chapters that take place before(?) the show to establish Nicky and the new world, so while this won't be getting a bunch of updates right away, there will still be some in the AU portion.

【 This takes place in my Hero of Heroes series and while you don't need to have read the other fics in the series to understand what is going on, you can if you so wish as characters from this fic may appear in others and vice versa 】

If you're reading this, thank you for sticking with me for all this time, with all my hiatuses and ups and downs. It's been years since Almost Happy, and I appreciate ya'll being here to read the sequel and continue Nicky's story with me.

I hope you stick around!