𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐘 — card tricks

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 𝐈𝐓 𝐒𝐄𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐒 though Emilia and Tony were some of the first to arrive, Steve and Natasha had called everyone back from their missions and Bruce had returned with Thor by his side mere hours later, as did Natasha with Clint. So now Nebula, Rocket — who Emilia was certain she'd never get used to seeing — Bruce, Rhodey, Scott, Steve, Clint, Natasha and Thor were all gathered around as Tony animatedly spoke and explained the concept of their newly developed time-space GPS.

 Emilia remained by his side, arms folded over her chest as she watched him move to and fro, waving his hand about as each word came. Bruce, Scott and Rocket seemed to nod along with the explanation; and Emilia had seen Bruce momentarily slap his own forehead as he realised how flawed his original idea had been. At least he'd tried.

 As ever, Steve Rogers merely nodded along with a pondering look on his stoic face, trying with all his might to understand even a sliver of what Tony was speaking about. Emilia chipped in here and there when Tony would trail off on a slight tangent — which was often — and would swiftly bring the conversation back to where it needed to be.

 She glanced around at them all; a rag-tag group of people who had barely anything in common at all... But the one thing they could all agree with was that they needed to get this right. They needed to succeed.

 A shrill clap of Tony's hands brought Emilia back to earth, "Okay, so we know what we need. The materials are all here, we just need to find 'em and bring them to the Quantum Tunnel. You," Tony pointed a finger towards Rocket who somehow managed to cock a brow, "I checked the controls... they're broken and I need your tiny little hands in there to fix it."

 The raccoon squinted, curling his 'tiny little hands' into small fists as he hopped from his seat, "Fine."

 "Good..." When nobody moved Tony flourished his hands, "Well? We doing this now or are we waiting another five years?"

 Emilia felt her lips quirk; Tony had dialled up his delightful snark to one hundred from the moment he'd sashayed through the front doors; apparently he was putting on a show for his former teammates. It was understandable, finally coming face to face with everyone after so long apart, after so long of being taken for granted. The world might have appreciated everything Tony had done... But some of his old 'friends' didn't.

 Emilia unfolded her arms; she'd shed her jacket and left herself standing in the workout gear she'd donned in the early hours of the morning as she took laps around the lake. She hadn't had much sleep even after finishing up their work last night; the nightmares had come knocking once more, even worse than they had been for weeks.

 Stephen had appeared, his face cracked and drained of all colour; the very look he'd sported when he'd vanished from sight five years prior. It was all she could see when she pictured him; no longer could she imagine the light hitting his absurdly sharp cheekbones, nor the light flush that would bite at his cheeks and ears when they were alone together... Just a dull grey before he vanished into a thousand smatterings of ash.

 Emilia had hoped a jog and some meditation would help; it was something she'd done for years to not only hone her skills and calm her nerves, but to also bring a semblance of peace to herself. A distraction through pushing her body until she ached, and a moment of nothingness as she allowed her mind to resort to a blank slate.

 It hadn't worked this morning.

 Her hands were shaking, her stomach was in knots and the side of her face where that patch of slightly discoloured skin rested was on fire once more.

 A deep sigh split through her lips; she could only imagine the state of herself; the colour resting beneath her eyes was as dark as aged wine, her hands trembling like leaves in the wind, even her knees rattled with every step she'd taken.

 Nonetheless, she at least managed to keep her trembling shielded from those around her.

 They had all welcomed Emilia and Tony with short smiles, though some were clipped. Rocket had merely nodded, Nebula had welcomed them with a rare smile, Bruce had swiftly gathered them both into a hug even though they'd all seen each other only a few days prior. Natasha had looked overjoyed when she'd watched them both walk through the doors, and she herself had curled her arms around Tony, before doing the very same with Emilia.

 Clint stood at the sidelines with deep lines etched into his face; Natasha and Rhodey had spoken about him and his disappearance, turns out he'd been on quite the little journey to smear his hands with blood.

 Thor had been the most welcoming, surprisingly.

 He'd changed, that much was evident and the sight of him only made Emilia's stomach twist in utter sadness. The prince of Asgard had gained a lot of weight, his stomach fell over his waistband and his face had lost most of its structure; his hair had grown out again. Long blond hairs tailed over his face in greasy clumps  and his clothes were doused in sweat and had holes marring the cloth but Emilia couldn't find it within herself to look at him with only mildly disguised disgust like some of the others.

 She knew what grief could do to people, and how people would process it. She ran and hid and tried to bottle up her feelings until they inevitably exploded and dragged her down to the deepest darkest depths. Some would spill over in a fit of rage and push everyone away from them. Some would simply find no joy in the things they had once loved, they took every ounce of guilt onto their shoulders until they could no longer move, until they could no longer see the point in caring for themselves.

 There were, of course, those that took their sadness and guilt and harmed others; something that was... well, Emilia could never quite understand it.

 Thor had neglected himself.

 He had taken his grief of losing his brother, his home and his people, and he had taken the guilt and the burden of failing to stop Thanos and deemed himself unworthy.

 Unworthy of love, of his title, of the few people he had left. He stopped looking after himself because what was the point?

 Emilia knew that well, and so when Thor had moved away from crushing Tony in a hug, she simply open her own arms and welcomed the hug he offered her without complaint. She didn't screw up her face or try to move away from the man she'd only met a few times before... No, Emilia had held him and rubbed a hand on his back until he pulled away.

 Rocket had made small jabs throughout the short meeting, and Emilia had to curl her fingers into her palms to prevent herself from launching the little beast out of a third-story window.

 Now, however, as everyone stood to move and gather everything they needed to build a suitable and stable Quantum tunnel for them all to traverse through, Emilia rose a hand and bumped Tony's shoulder, "You'd think with all the names you call me, you'd at least remember that magic makes things far easier,"

 A sling-ring was nestled on her right hand; golden metal gleaming even despite the multitudes of chips and scratches that blemished the surface. The rag-tag mixture of Avengers, Guardians and... Scott... Watched with awe as Emilia twisted her hands and conjured a portal before their very eyes. On the other side of the glistening embers and crackling sparks was the Quantum Tunnel that had been situated at the other end of the building, "Go ahead."

 One by one they all stepped through and Emilia had to conceal her laugh with a light cough when Rocket had to hop as high as he could to bypass the fizzling sparks.

 Scott stopped just before stepping through, "Woah." He breathed and pointed a finger closer to the sparks, grinning when one landed on his fingertip and simply bounced back off. He turned to Emilia with childlike wonder, "You have magic?!"

 "Eldritch magic, to be specific." She supplied in return.

 "Eldritch?"

 Emilia hummed as she ushered Scott through the portal, happy to find somebody interested in the intricacies of her power; though, of course, Morgan Stark was her biggest fan and always adored watching as Emilia conjured sparks from thin air, "I can cast spells, create constructs of tangible energy... Like weapons and shields."

 "That's — That's awesome!" Scott practically gushed, easily missing the looks from the other Avengers — more specifically, the eye roll from Rocket. Scott turned back to her, watching with wide eyes as the portal closed and fizzled away into nothing, "I can do magic too... Card tricks, you know?"

 There was a snort from the group of heroes and neither Emilia nor Scott could quite pinpoint who it'd come from; though the most likely contenders were Tony, Rocket or Rhodey, the latter had been watching the conversation with a hint of sympathy for Emilia.

 "That's —" Emilia paused, testing the words on her tongue as the grown man before her seemed as giddy as a child filled with candy. He was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet and she wouldn't have been surprised if he started wringing his hands together as he grinned. He seemed so genuinely excited at the prospect of meeting somebody with real magic, and so she entertained him, "— That's cool."

 "Right?"

 Steve cleared his throat, a thick brow raised towards his hairline as he shook his head in mild disbelief; though he shouldn't have expected anything less from Scott, the very man who couldn't finish a conversation without grinning and calling him Captain America.

 The soldier turned on his heel, attention back to Tony who was already on the far side of the room scanning the materials he'd left behind when he'd turned his back on the compound.

 "Do we have what we need?" Steve asked.

 "Mhm," Tony hummed as he plucked a stray piece of metal from the discarded pile, it had been bent into a ball with sharp edges poking through, threatening to tear at Tony's palm. He tossed it towards the group of Avengers, "Em, you think you can flatten this out?"

 It was a silly question, really, Emilia thought to herself as she rose a single hand and stopped the material in its tracks. Tony knew she could flatten it, he knew that if she really wanted to, she could tear it into a thousand pieces and reconstruct it into the shape of one of his little helmets.

 A cluster of jittering blue energy consumed the metal, and the shrill screeches that drifted through the air made the others recoil. Three seconds was all it took and the metal was as pristinely flat and thin as a fresh piece of paper. She tossed it back, "Obviously."

 Tony grinned, "Then let's get to work."

 Emilia grimaced at the sound of yet another can of beer being cracked open; Thor had been guzzling the amber liquid for the past hour, can after can had been discarded on the ground and although she truly empathized with the Asgardian, she was very rapidly coming close to pelting him with the cans.

 He staggered forwards, just a pace or so ahead of her; his stained cardigan flowed behind him, his crocs slapped against the ground with every step, and a pair of sunglasses continuously slid down his nose.

 Emilia knew what sight they'd see if the sunglasses toppled off; red-raw eyes with a stain of blue and purple nestled beneath each of them; he'd tried to keep an air of nonchalance whenever anyone glanced his way with worried eyes. He'd laugh and smile but none of it was real. Emilia had felt as though she'd been staring into a mirror, though rather than blur the nightmares and guilt in her gut, she distracted herself in other ways.

 Pieces of metal, stray wires and clusters of plastic drifted high above Emilia's head, lightly swaying side to side as her fingers wiggled in the air; a haze of blue surrounded them whilst the others scrambled to hoist their own materials into their arms or atop the shoulders.

 "Drifting left," Called Tony from behind, and Emilia swiftly moved out of the way before the pipes he carried would bump the back of her skull. Thor tried his best to dart away, though he merely stumbled and Tony had to sidestep the Asgardian to prevent an accident, "On the side there, Lebowski."

 Emilia's pace hastened, each blue-coated object following her like obedient little pets as she approached Thor's side. She remained silent, her heavy steps echoing as Thor eyed her from the gap in his glasses. He grimaced.

 "Doctor..." He seemed to struggle for her last name, only recalling Tony using her first; his face crumbled in concentration as he tried to recall what the tall wizard had called her. But then his face dropped when Loki popped into the forefront of his mind; the image of his brother falling through a portal only to hop to his feet in anger. It almost made him chortle, instead he swallowed as his gut twisted — and not from the beer.

 "Just Emilia is fine, Thor."

 "Right, right." He uttered somewhat awkwardly, though his voice still snapped as his throat grew tight. He paused and for the first time since he'd arrived, he plucked the glasses from the bridge of his nose, revealing a sorry sight. His mismatched eyes darted to the floor, "I never thanked you."

 His voice was a deep and low rumble, just as she remembered, though now rather than a cautious edge, it was soft, fragile... broken. She couldn't recall what he'd possibly feel the need to thank her for — helping find his father? No, that wouldn't have been it. Thank you for... what? Keeping Loki in a portal and laughing as he face-planted the ground? Unlikely.

 Thor noticed the bout of confusion she'd settled within and almost smiled. He cleared his throat and shifted his beer can into the opposite hand as he laid his palm on her forearm, "You... You helped build New Asgard; you, Stark and — and Bruce. You built homes for my people, the people I —" He paused with a heavy heart, "The people I was supposed to protect."

 "Thor, you don't —"

 But he continued anyway, "You came back, time and time again; Valkyrie told me. You'd appear in a portal and repair my people's homes, you'd bring them food and help them when they needed it... When they needed me."

 "I was more than happy to help." And it was the truth; the Asgardians had their home taken from them, they'd watched as it burned at the hands of Surtur, and mere hours later, they watched each other get slaughtered by Thanos and his children. They had all been through so much, and then Thor, who couldn't have stopped any of those things from happening, had a second chance against Thanos... only for them all to lose again.

 He bore a heavy weight, and now he was forcing more guilt onto himself for distancing himself from his people.

 "You shouldn't have had to." Thor muttered weakly.

 He wouldn't give up; he might have been down in the dumps and laced with beer, but he was still Thor; a stubborn man who wanted to do things on his own to prove his worth.

 Emilia curled a hand around his own, and though he tried to protest, she plied the can of beer from his fingertips, "Well, you're welcome. If you want to repay me, then trade this for water, or some orange juice, okay?"

 "Rachet!" Tony, as ever, had impeccable timing when it came to misnaming people... and raccoons, on purpose.

 The billionaire had sauntered up to the controls that Bruce, Natasha and Steve had butchered that same morning; something had been fried inside the small compartment that no hand bar Rocket's little paws could manage to reach; a terrible design really — Tony had voiced as much.

 Thor jolted at the sound and swiftly placed his sunglasses back where they belonged, and cast a forlorn look towards the can of alcohol Emilia had stolen from. He breathed a mournful sigh before nodding at the sorcerer, hastily taking his leave.

 "It's Rocket." The beastly little raccoon snapped back — though Emilia wasn't actually one hundred percent sure if he was a raccoon, or just... looked, and ate, like one. He was hanging upside down, fur slick with grease and oil as he pointed a wrench Tony's way, "Take it easy, you're only a genius on Earth, pal."

 Tony made to reply, likely with some witty quip about how he may only be a genius on earth, but Rocket was a trash panda across the galaxy... However, he was interrupted by a rather loud belch that spurred from the tipsy Asgardian that continued to stumble to and fro.

 Emilia could already feel an ache beginning to form at the base of her skull. A drunk Asgardian, a sarcastic rodent and a witty billionaire stuffed into one room? They'd likely sap away the remaining remnants of her sanity.

 Emilia slowly lowered the objects that jostled around her; a large panel of metal falling by Tony, a cluster of tools and nails clattering by Rocket and a large pipe or two settled peacefully on the ground, ready to be torn to pieces at a moments notice.

 "Em?" Tony called, finally tearing his eyes away from Rocket who had yet to lower the wrench and hide his fangs.

 "Hm?"

 "Chuck him in a portal."

 "Sure," Emilia replied lazily as she swiped the wrench from Rocket, smiling brightly as he scowled. She allowed Tony to steep in his smugness before finally adding; "You're joining him."

 Tony's face dropped, while Rocket cackled.

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DATE: 31/01/2023

:･ﾟ★ no thor slander allowed on my watch, thank you <3

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