—And Pray May Won't Ground Me for Life.

Previously:

Peter finally told Mr Stark that he wants him as a parental figure in his life, and it was well received. (Tony wasn't going to cry, he doesn't know what you're talking about).

Refer to the last chapter for Hiccup's recollection of the recent events

(Not edited)

Now:

"Uh, so... we were in the battle." I begin nervously, feeling all the eyes on me but knowing I promised May I would explain what happened. She's gonna ground me for LIFE. "Everything was going so fast, I was fighting a bunch of robots and aliens. But then everything close to me stopped, they stood still! It was... spooky. And then—and then these colourful lights formed in front of me, the next thing I knew they joined together into one big light. The last thing I remember is it hitting me."

"Wait, what kind of lights?" Steve asks.

"Uh, kind of vague, colourful spheres, but misshapen." I explain to him. "Why?"

"When Bucky and I were patrolling, before all this, I saw lights..."

"Wait, what? Why didn't you say anything?" Bruce asks.

"Well, with everything going on, I sort of forgot about it. And it almost felt like it was a dream." Steve actually sounds sheepish.

"May as well have been, considering I found you unconscious." Bucky grumbles.

Pepper sighs, putting her head in he hands in frustration. "Steve, you should have said something when we were in med bay! They're going to want to check you over." She then mutters under her breath about living with self sacrificial idiots.

Steve shrugs, even more sheepish, and moves on. "The lights I saw were weird. They were different colours, but they were more like streams of light for me? They weren't so spheres." He looks at me as if I could know why, but I just give an expressive shrug to say that his guess is as good as mine. "I saw lots of different people." He continues and I frown, confused. People? "And I saw... Uh, I saw Peggy. It wasn't a clear image, it was foggy. I think I reached out to touch it, and I woke up to Bucky standing over me, so it must have knocked me out."

"You're lucky it didn't stop your heart." I exclaim. I might be jumping the gun here, but I think it has something to do with the evil strange wanting ME specifically.

"Wait, can we get back to Peter's story?" May asks. "No offence, Captain." She adds politely.

"Yeah, well, there's not much else to say. The light hit me, I blacked out." I chuckle. May's glare tells me I should probably not joke around about the experience in the future. I can't promise that I won't.

"Damn right you did, all I saw was some weird energy hitting you, in fact it was so hard you flew backwards through the air and slammed into a car." Mr Stark exclaims. "When I got to there you were out cold, and your heart was beating irregularly. It stopped altogether after a couple seconds."

May gasped, even though she knew it was coming. "How—how did you bring him back?"

"All of my suits have defibrillator protocols, so I shocked him." Tony doesn't look at all comfortable, so Pepper sits down next to him and rubs his arm soothingly. "It was fucking horrible, never do that to me again." He glares at me— with no real heat behind it. "I'm the one with the heart condition, Underoos."

It's not like I MEANT to die. I didn't know what was happening!

"How many tries?" May whispers.
"May I don't think—" she interrupts me.
"Well I do."

"Eleven." Mr Stark sounds guttered. Like he really, truly, cares about me. And after last night, I'm actually starting to believe he does.
"But it worked!" Pepper assures him. "You did it, Tony. You got him back."

"I know, it's just... it feels horrible. And we don't know if there's any lasting affect, yet. Make sure you leave those wires on, kid." He gestures to me on the last sentence, and I glance down at my hoodie. Knowing that underneath it there are half a dozen wires taped to my chest. I give mr Stark a thumbs up, silently assuring him that I will resist the urge to rip them off. He'd probably cuff me to a hospital bed for a month. I'm lucky I'm not on one now. Especially now that May knows.

"When I was going ghost mode, I saw... why is everyone looking at me like that? I went through trauma, I'm allowed to joke about it!" I huff, throwing my arms up at the horrified, unimpressed, confused, and disappointed looks I receive from around the room. "Anyway, when I was tango dancing with the reap—Seriously, guys. You can laugh, I promise." Reading the room would tell you that no one was in a laughing mood, so I continue on without the joke. "I met the evil Strange behind it. I don't know how it works, maybe it was all a figment of my imagination, but I met him. And he told me all about his hatred for me, because of what happened in his universe. Apparently his Peter sacrificed himself and therefore ruined that Stephens life. He was real dramatic about it."

"What did he say?" Yelena asks, sitting on the coffee table to polish her boots, much to Mr Stark's horror.

"Oh, he was all 'I will hunt every last one of you down and kill you myself. There's no risk with no you. Bla bla bla.'. Whatever." A shiver runs up my spine when I remember his words.

"And they'll get me..." he gives a twisted, wicked smile and shakes his head. "But they'll get to me when the last one of you is on your knees at my feet, your head rolling on the blade."

"Well, he failed." Dagur shrugs. "You're right in front of me and you're alive. Breathing."

"Yeah, this guy was not all he was cracked up to be." Tuffnut chuckles. No, Ruffnut, actually. In my defence they're both head down on the floor, attempting to grovel at Loki's feet, but he continues to pace the length of the room so they end up scurrying along the ground after him, punching, biting and kicking each other as they struggle. There's more than a few face-plants.

"Don't underestimate him," I shake my head, "he was insane. He got close to killing me again not long after that."
"There's more?!" May exclaims. Oh man it's going to be hard to convince her to let me continue controlling.
"And who decided that running off into the battle when you were injured was a bad idea?" Kate narrows her eyes at me. "Oh, yeah, you."
"Wow, new girl dishing out the hate." I grumble, my face heating up. "Look, I was injured, not in my right mind, and desperate to help." I add, exasperated. "I don't even remember that much anymore." I remember being in pain, fighting for my life against robots and aliens with my Spidey since not working properly, and then choking.

"We'll fill in the blanks," Wanda says. And I'm sure she meant it as a kind thing to say, but I would rather the conversation move on from me.

"So all of the robots and aliens grouped together and tried to get to you," Clint says. "We all grouped together to try and hold them off, but in the chaos you slipped away."
"I heard someone calling for help, I didn't know it was a trap." I respond, rubbing my neck awkwardly.
"When we found you the other place's Strange was attacking you," Hiccup adds. "With magic? You were in a pretty bad shape."
I nod, remembering the feeling. "He decided I didn't need air."

"Yeah, and it took quite a lot of struggling, but we eventually got him to let you go." Bucky adds. "With the help of Wanda," Hiccup adds.
"Yeah, but then you bought us all time to get out, and took him out on your own." Wanda responds. Hiccup shrugs.
"What matters is that we got Peter out, and that evil man is gone." He says. He doesn't even mention how he was going to sacrifice himself. I still remember the wave of fire that came through the portal when our Strange got them out.
"Well for what it's worth, Mr Hiccup," I begin, "thank you. And... I'm sorry."
He waves me off.

"And that's it? You got out?" May asks, not me but Hiccup.
"May he's sitting right there," I remind her, "of course he got out!" She shoves me playfully and I laugh.
"Dr strange got us out last second," Hiccup responds. "This Strange— not the evil one." He glances at Dr Strange, who's leaning against the wall with crossed arms. "Presumedly." Dr strange rolls his eyes at that comment.

"So, what did the evil strange say to you to make you want to stay?" Natasha asks Hiccup, who stiffens, then sighs and forced himself to relax. I want to hear what he's going to say, because I know whatever he said wasn't great.

"Well, he said a bunch of things, but mainly that us being here was an accident, a coincidence, but that he decided to punish us when we got in the way. He said he didn't need me here, I needed me gone. Gone from our world, leaving no one to protect our people. He said that there would be nothing for us to go back to. And I believe him."

"So you want to stay." Natasha observes. "You know you can't run forever? I would know."

"I know." He says simply. "But, I'd rather run while I can. And besides. I think I can be of use!"

"You know," Yelena leans forward on the coffee table, "with a lot, and I mean a lot, of training he could actually be an asset to your little team of posers."

"You're also an avenger, you know that right?" Natasha mutters to her sister, who rolls her eyes with a shrug but doesn't object to it.

"Yelena is right," I add cheerfully. "He and Toothless are crazy good! You all saw them out there."

"You know we'd need to push SHIELD and the government for approval, safe air travel, that kind of thing." Rhodey warns. "The UN might even get involved, especially if you want to explore." He adds.
"Hiccup obviously doesn't know what the UN is." Bucky groans. "You know you have to actually explain these things."
"And everything." Steve adds, turning to Hiccup. "Do you think you're prepared to adjust to such a different style of living? Coming from the 40's is one thing. A whole age is another."

"I know." Hiccup nods. "It's a lot, but I'm a fast learner. And I'd never force Toothless to stay, by the way, I could even live here as a regular person." Toothless huffs smoke in Hiccup's face. "Yeah, yeah. I know, you've decided to stay anyway." He rolls his eyes playfully, but any attitude is clearly false, judging by the belly rub he immediately turns to gives him.

"The TVA is also something to think about." Loki speaks up, pausing his pacing. The twins run into the coffeetable, disoriented. The action knocks Yelena off, and she gasps very dramatically as if it's the highest crime she's ever experienced.
"Loki, look what you're doing to them." Thor mutters his disapproval, wincing when the twins run head first into each other. Loki raises his arms in defence.
"I'm not doing anything!" He points to them. "They're doing it to themselves, brother."

"Well seeing as none of us have had run ins with the TVA but you, I'm assuming that's not something we'll need to think about." I say to Loki.
"Just because you haven't doesn't mean you don't have variants that have." He objects, but doesn't seem too worried to continue the argument.

"The multiverse isn't something to mess with," Strange says. "There are balances that need to be met in the worlds, and horrible things can happen if scales are uneven."

"But—" Strange holds up a hand and I stop talking.

"However, seeing as you have not been exhibiting symptoms of such, then I believe there is a chance that you may be able to stay without consequence."

Hiccup lights up, but Mr Stark shakes his head. "Don't get too excited, there's always something with him."

"IF you were to stay, and that's an IF, it would not be simple. You would continue to be closely monitored. You'd be watched, because the moment you start to glitch, cause multiversal chaos on accident, or start destroying the world on purpose, you're DONE."

"Let's not forget that Hiccup comes from a world very different to ours," Dr Banner speaks up for the first time. "He may be immune comprised because there is no way we have the same technology or illnesses."
"Do you have the scourge of Odin? We've had a run in once or twice, but luckily it seems gone now."
"Sounds like our father after one two many of your antics, brother." Thor says to Loki loudly.
"We do not have the scourge of Odin, at least not as an illness." Thor adds more seriously to Hiccup.

"If Hiccup gets sick, it could be fatal. We'd need to do a lot of testing and experiments to keep Hiccup as safe as possible, this would include allergies too." Bruce turns to Hiccup. "Does your dragon get sick often? Can he get sick?"

"Uh, eels aren't good for him, they make him act crazy and disoriented. Dragon root isn't good either, there's blue oleander flowers that are really really toxic, and I guess you could count grimora parasites, they're not fun either."

"Well, good news, you only have to worry about eels." I exclaim cheerfully. "Even if we do have the flowers you mentioned, this is a city, and capitalism exists, so there's less flowers every day!"

"That's good, because the only cure we know of involves a Scauldron's venom; that's a water dragon, and they're not very friendly." Hiccup explains. "Sounds like there's less threats in this world then ours, huh bud." He chuckles, directing the last line to Toothless.

"So if we're extra careful with it, monitor your health, molecular state, your effect on the world around you, and sweet talk shield into not experimenting on you or imprisoning you, you can stay." Dr Banner summarises.
"It would be super cool to have a dragon on the team!" I admit.
"I think we can make this work." Stephen says begrudgingly.
"Just know you'll have a lot of knew enemies now," Rhodey adds. "Because any enemy of the Avengers becomes your enemy as well, and half the time our life falls to shit, so be ready for a lot of training."
"I might have to buy out half of America's fishing companies just to fund that dragon's appetite." Mr Stark adds.

"So it's settled? He can stay?" I ask eagerly, bouncing up and down in my seat, and then starting to regret it when my whole body aches.
"Yes." Strange sighs.

"Wonderful." Loki smiles non genuinely. "Can we go now? I'm bored of this mortal drama."

"What about these three?" Sam asks, pointing to the twins and Dagur.

"Oh, I'm going home, if you can make it happen, magic guy." Dagur exclaims immediately. "I set out to find Hiccup, I found him, now I'm going home."

"Well that's easy," Strange sighs in relief.

"I have two villages to run, and not to mention tracking down the Berkians to tell them I know what happened."

"Ha, they're not gonna believe you." Ruffnut chuckles, in the midst of invading Loki's personal space.
"Yeah, you're more crazy than us!" Tuffnut grins, also leaning in close to Loki. Loki scowls and elbows both in their helmets, sending them down to the floor.
"Debatable." Dagur grumbles.

"And you two?" Strange asks. "Staying, going?"

"We could stay with you, great Loki!" Tuffnut beams.
"Forever! We can follow you! Ruffnut screams.
"Everywhere!" Tuffnut yells.

"Absolutely NOT!" Loki vanishes in a puff of green smoke. Leaving the twins pouting and looking around for their idol. My skin prickles and I look across the room to see Loki materialising next to a window long enough to shudder to himself, before he disappears again and I don't know where he goes.

"Okay, so it's decided. Staying, going home, going home," Dr Strange declares, pointing to Hiccup and then the twins in turn. The twins pout again, but then vow to build hundreds of Loki statues when they get home.

"So what now?" Dr Banner asks.
"We have breakfast, god!" Mr Stark exclaims dramatically, standing up. "Because if I have to deal with any more of this shit I'm doing shots until I can't see."

Several minutes later, everyone is shutting idly around the room while the smell of pancakes drift around the room. I'm seated at the kitchen counter, a stack of pancakes in front of me as I listen to Pepper tell me about her holiday home in Australia while Steve and Wanda stand at the oven top, whipping up pancake after pancake.

"And it has a really nice garden, you'll love it!" Pepper smiles. I smile, about to take another bite of my fourth pancake of the morning, but pause when I consider her wording.
"Will?" I question.
"Well, yeah!" She smiles. "I've been trying to convince tony to come for a holiday for weeks. I figured we can go when it's warm over there, maybe January, and make a few weeks of it! If you'd want to come, that is."
"I'd love to!" I beam, "but tell Mr Fury I'm not going there to track down some stupid hydra base. Before all this he was trying to tell mr Stark and I that we had to go to Australia to take it down, or something along those lines."
Pepper chuckles. "Nick can answer to me directly. I know most people are scared of him, but even he's not going to cross me!"
"Then it's settled!" I grin. "He can send captain America, or something."

"You're not going anywhere until you have a clean bill of health," Mr Stark says from behind me as he walks into the kitchen. He steals a pancake off of Pepper's plate and then walks around the counter and starts making himself a coffee.
"How many have you had?" Pepper asks him with a sigh. They start talking...arguing? Play fighting?... with each other quickly and casually.
"Hmm, I'm thinking it doesn't matter." He chucks the spoon in the sink.
"Well I'm thinking it does matter, actually—."
"Yeah but it's mostly my tower, so what I say goes, and I SAY I'm having more coffee."
"—when you really shouldn't be putting that in your body. Tony!"
"It's fine!" He chuckles. "Relax, pep."

I don't know how to end this chapter lmfao. Not that there was much plot in this chapter at all 😭 but at least it's settled that Hiccup's staying! (In this timeline, anyway. That has a double meaning).

See you next chapter/epilogue!