[AO3 Crosspost] Flash ficlets: MCU edition
[MCU, Multiple genres, Multiple pairings]
Occasionally I do flash-fic nights on Tumblr, in which people send me prompts and I write a five-sentences fic in response. These are the results. Series marked as complete because there's no continuity to the ficlets, but I'll keep updating it with new works nonetheless.
Feel free to send me a prompt anytime, either here, on my writing blog, Terresdebrumestories or during flashfic nights on terresdebrume@tumblr :)
✗ VANILLA
RATING: General
WORDCOUNT: 179
PAIRING(S): Clintasha
CHARACTER(S): Clint Barton, Natasha Romanov, tony Stark
GENRE: Fake kinking
TRIGGER WARNING(S): -
SUMMARY: It's not lying if people create the answers themselves.
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“Uhm… I- it’s not what it looks like?”
“Alright,” Stark says with a shrugs, “but just so the both of you know, it looks like you were about to engage in very kinky clothed sex.”
Clint watches the other man go and waits until the door closes behind him before he glares at Natasha, who gives him a sonorous kiss on the cheek for his trouble.
“Still feel like going for a third round?” She asks with a concerned face, and Clint shakes his head-he’s tried to escape from the room four times today already, and he’s got to face the fact that Natasha will always be better than him at the ‘escape from being tied to a chair’ game.
“Nah-Stark gave me a better idea, actually,” he chuckles.
They spend the rest of the night having amazing, incredibly vanilla sex just the way they like it, and half of breakfast the next morning pretending to be bruised and achy from various forms of bondage for Stark’s benefit-they do, after all, have a reputation to uphold.
***
✗ WHAT WE ONCE WERE
RATING: General
WORDCOUNT: 266
PAIRING(S): Past FrostIron
CHARACTER(S): Loki, Tony Stark
GENRE: Regret
TRIGGER WARNING(S): -
SUMMARY: Stranded in time sounds a lot cooler when you don't have to meet your lover's younger self.
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"Will you stop following me around? I’m fine!”
Tony pauses, arms crossed on his chest, to give Loki the most insolent once-over he can manage, raised eyebrows and all-if the princeling didn’t appreciate him, Tony could be on his way to the prison by now, or at the very least he’d be in for a day in the stocks.
“You almost died,” he points out, to which Loki rolls his eyes in perfect teenage fashion:
“I didn’t,” he points out, “Go find yourself someone else to plague!”
Tony snorts at the familiar look of weariness-both from his time with an adult Loki as his companion, and from the three hundred and some years he’s just spent in Asgard-and gives a full-body shrug: “You’re free to keep dying if you want to-I just figured, since you obviously can’t tell when people like you or worry about you, maybe I’d just slap you in the face with it for a while. Metaphorically speaking.”
Tony knows he shouldn’t look at the pink splotches on Loki’s cheeks and remember what it was like to see them there when the god was an adult-how fierce and beautiful and dangerous he looked with his hair splayed over Tony’s pillows-but he can’t quite help the pang of loneliness at the thought.
He turns around when Loki’s face goes from pleased disbelief to confusion, fleeing the scene like a criminal, and wishing he could stop looking at a kid he’s genuinely fond of only to see the ghost of someone who’s probably forgotten all about him by now.
***
✗ I USED TO LOVE HIM
RATING: General
WORDCOUNT: 744
PAIRING(S): Thundershield, Past one-sided Stucky
CHARACTER(S): Thor, Steve Rogers
GENRE: Confessions
TRIGGER WARNING(S): -
SUMMARY: Some conversations are never easy to have, but they don't have to be terrible either.
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“I used to-close your eyes dammit!”
“Apologies,” Thor offers with a child-like smile, “I like looking at your face-you look beautiful when you’re being earnest.”
Steve’s lips pull into a smile despite himself as he scoots closer to Thor’s chest, relishes the feel of muscles under his hand, the solidity that almost makes Steve feel tiny again. It’s a good sensation but sometimes it can be… disturbing.
Thor closes his eyes at last and wraps a hand around Steve’s, large fingers somehow covering Steve’s palm with ease-Steve suspects some form of godly power at play.
“I used to be in love with Bucky,” Steve admits after a long stretch of silence, weight sliding off his chest and into his throat as he says it. “Loved Peggy, but I loved Bucky too, and I never got to-”
Steve closes his mouth before the sob slips out, breathes in as deep as he dares, and focuses on the feeling of Thor’s forehead against his, the way their noses brush, the tickling of Thor’s beard against his mouth. Ten years ago-well, technically longer, but Steve doesn’t think the Ice counts that way-Steve would have never dared to imagine himself saying that aloud.
Bucky was always so proper so… integrated. There was no way he’d ever have dared to tell him the truth but then… then he’d joined the army and okay, no one really talked about it but most people knew who slept in whose bunk. Most people knew some of the men didn’t just sleep in another fella’s bunk.
And then, just as Steve started thinking that maybe… Bucky died.
“You could tell him now,” Thor whispers against Steve’s lips-his eyes shine in the moonlight when Steve looks at them.
“I’m happy with you,” Steve protests, and Thor smiles.
“I’m glad to hear it,” he says, “And I’m certainly not asking you to leave me and go to Bucky instead. I’m merely saying, maybe you could tell him how you used to feel.”
“I don’t want to lose him.”
Steve’s stomach feels heavy as he says the words, heart thundering under Thor’s hand, and he has to grip at Thor’s neck to stop the feeling of vertigo catching at him.
Thor, of course, doesn’t answer-just looks at him with those strange blue-grey eyes that change as quick as the sky, and a gaze that’s so much more tired now than it was when they first met. So much older than before Loki died and then came back, and then died again.
The truth, Steve knows, is that he’s already lost Bucky.
Twice.
“Both of you are trying to go back to the way things were,” Thor says at last, when Steve gives in and hides his face in his neck. “Maybe it’s time you left the past behind and started working with what you have now.”
“It’s hard,” Steve admits.
He keeps his eyes screwed shut as he says it, body tensing the way it did back when Bucky came for sleepover and Steve had to admit he was in pain, or tired, or scared-Bucky’s seen him weak in ways Thor will never know, and Steve hated every single second of it… but there was something precious in it, too.
Bucky, after all, never sneered at him for it-not back then, at least.
What’s he going to say if Steve confesses? What if the Winter Soldier thinks Steve is ridiculous, or disgusting, for the way he feels?
What if Bucky does?
Thor’s arms tighten around Steve’s chest before he even realizes he’s crying, and he doesn’t fight it-just leans into Thor’s chest again, feeling ridiculous and strange but also oddly safe and relieved. The mix is not exactly familiar, but it does have the merit of making him feel lighter, which Steve counts as a win.
“I know it’s hard,” Thor says with a sad tone, “I truly do. But Steve-if you don’t do it, the regret will be worse.”
“I know.”
“Also I think Vision figured out how you felt, and you know whose sense of humor he inherited.”
“Please don’t make me imagine that.”
Steve likes Vision, he really does, but if he has to hear Jarvis’ voice spouting dubious double-entendre one more time, he’s going to punch something. Possibly Tony.
Most likely Tony.
“It’s stuck in your head isn’t it?”
“I hate you,” Steve groans, but Thor just snorts and kisses him.
***
✗ ROADSIDE KILL
RATING: General
WORDCOUNT: 342
PAIRING(S): Cartinelli
CHARACTER(S): Peggy Carter, Angie Martinelli
GENRE: Shameless flirting
TRIGGER WARNING(S): -
SUMMARY: A broken down car can have its perks, unexpected as they may be.
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“So where did you learn to fix a car?”
Peg doesn’t reply right away, taking the wrench from Angie’s hand and fiddling with one part or another with annoyed grunts before she says:
“My grandmother’s farm. When her husband died she had to learn by herself-she roped me in and called it an experiment.”
Angie smiles as she tries to imagine a younger Peggy bent over an old motor with a whitening lady by her side, both of them groaning in annoyance with every out-of-place part they could find. Somehow, she assumes they didn’t use Howard Stark’s model of car, but that hasn’t deterred Peggy so she doesn’t let it deter her.
“At least it proves to be useful knowledge.”
“Very,” Peggy approves-she straightens up, and Angie’s stomach grows tighter with every pop of her spine. “I’ll teach you someday.”
Angie nods, and tries very hard to convince herself that walking up to Peg to kiss her silly out in the open is probably not the best idea. Even if night is falling and they haven’t seen anyone drive by for well over two hours. Even if Peg really makes the sweat-and-grease covered look work for her.
“Close your mouth darling,” Peg says after a bit, a smirk playing on her lips, “You’ll swallow a mosquito.”
Angie doesn’t let herself think again before she walks up to Peggy, seizes her head in her hand, and kisses her silly right then and there. She hears the wrench clatter to the ground, feels it slide under her foot as she pulls Peggy toward the backseat of Stark’s car.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Peggy mutters as Angie tumbles back on the seat, twisting to close the door behind them.
“You afraid for the upholstery, English?” Angie teases, “We can stop if you want.”
“I’m sure this car has seen worse.”
The next morning finds them much too naked for decency, sweaty and bushy-haired, but the satisfaction in Peggy’s grin is unmistakable and, frankly, Angie can’t say she doesn’t share the sentiment.
***
✗ EW
RATING: Teen & Up
WORDCOUNT: 412
PAIRING(S): FrostIron
CHARACTER(S): Loki, Tony Stark
GENRE: Boundaries setting
TRIGGER WARNING(S): Period talks, kinda gross suggestions
SUMMARY: There are conversations Tony never expected to have
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Tony sighs as Loki’s mouth latches onto his nipple, teases him for what feels like an eternity in a combination of hands and tongue Tony probably wouldn’t have imagined on his own… one of these days, he’s really going to have to borrow the Asgardian Kama-Sutra, or whatever equivalent hey have because damn, if this is foreplay, he can only imagine what the actual sex will be.
Or, you know, how it would be, if not for a very important detail.
“I thought you were on your period,” he asks as he reverses his and Loki’s position to caress her breasts, “Or did I miss a cycle?”
“No,” Loki sighs, “you computer didn’t miss the date.”
“Then my question stands,” Tony says, “Isn’t it going to be frustrating when we stop? It’s not like you like it in the back.”
Tony suggested trying anal once. The expression on Loki’s face was enough to convince him not to ask again-you don’t mess with a look that says ‘I’ve tried it and it went really bad’, especially not when said look belongs to Loki.
With that in mind, it’s sort of hard to imagine any scenario that doesn’t end with Loki very turned on and subsequently very frustrated, regardless of whether Tony gets to come or not.
“It doesn’t have to be,” Loki shrugs while Tony tries to puzzle this one out, a smirk dancing on her lips.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“How do you Midgardians put it again… some men like their steak bloody?”
Tony sits up so fast he almost headbutts Loki in the process.
“What?”
“You heard what I said.”
“You mean you stil want to-”
“By the Norns, Tony, if you don’t want to get in me right now you can just say so,” Loki sighs with the widest eyeroll Tony has ever witnessed, “It isn’t that big a deal.”
“I don’t know,” Tony admits, “Is that… common? In Asgard?”
Loki’s eyes narrow, all hint of arousal vanishing from her face in the blink of an eye, and Tony guesses what Loki is about to say before she even opens her mouth.
“… Do Midgardians actually have taboos about everything related to sex, or is this just you?”
“I’m pretty sure that one is very common,” Tony sighs. “It’s not something I ever expected to be questionned.”
He doesn’t need to look in order to know Loki making her ‘mortals are weak creatures’ face as she leaves the bedroom.
***
✗ THE BIGGEST BIRTHDAY GIFT
RATING: Teen and Up
WORDCOUNT: 347
PAIRING(S): FrostIron
CHARACTER(S): Tony Stark, Loki, BG!Thor and Steve
GENRE: Silly fluff
TRIGGER WARNING(S): Implied potential mpreg
SUMMARY: Cause of (averted) death: Needlework
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Tony’s life is a weird one.
Even if you discount the fact that he’s really disgustingly rich-which isn’t quite that weird when you’re born into it-and an Avenger, there are still plenty of things Tony lived through that would never happen to the likes of Steve Rogers or Bruce Banner, maybe not even Thor.
Case in point: this morning, Tony almost died smothered in yarn.
In anybody else’s mouth, the sentence would translated to ‘I opened the knitting closet and five or ten balls of yarns hit my face, possibly with the basket’. That’s a simple case of exaggerating an event to an absurd level in order to make people laugh and, quite frankly, the opposite of Tony’s usual humor.
That’s also absolutely not comparable to pushing a door of your own tower too far, upsetting a small mountain of knitted yarn, and having to be literally dug out by the concerted efforts of the God of Thunder and Captain America. Tony will never look at homemade jumpers the same way ever again.
“Honestly,” he tells Steve after his third cup of bracing Irish-Coffee, “I don’t know what I did to deserve this. Who on earth even does this?”
“I do,” Loki says from the couch,where he’s been watching some telenovela or another for the past hour. “Jormungandr is turning ten thousands soon, and he needs a new scarf.”
For a moment, Tony hesitates.
Part of him wants to discuss the fact that Jormungandr is an actual living being and how it makes zero sense in terms of science. Another part is having a mild freakout because if the giant snake is real then it raises so many questions regarding Tony and Loki’s potential offsprings…and the last part of Tony kind of wants to yell something very rude about the logistics of storing a project of that magnitude in a residential building.
Somehow, the only thing that comes out is:
“New York is going to run out of cake batter.”
(Somewhere at the edge of Tony’s vision, Thor is making a valiant effort not to laugh.)
***
✗ WATERPROOF MAKEUP
RATING: General
WORDCOUNT: 610
PAIRING(S): -
CHARACTER(S): Tom Hiddleston, Mark Ruffalo
GENRE: Angst
TRIGGER WARNING(S): -
SUMMARY: He thought it wouldn't influence him anymore.
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The first time they rehearse the scene, his voice cracks on the end of the sentence.
It takes him by surprise, he has to admit. He didn’t expect the rush of anger and fear and shame, did not expect the press of tears on his throat or the sudden clench of his fists. He thought he’d gotten rid of that, to be honest. Thought he was past that. But the thing is, Loki is not.
Loki is not past that moment where you’re confronted with your bully and you can only be angry or collapse, and so anger has to win. Loki is smack in the middle of what Tom himself was living when those two guys thought it was acceptable to point a knife at his throat and demand his wallet or I’ll gut you.
And Tom, he’s been in Loki’s skin for too long already, you see.
He’s not method, he doesn’t stay in character all the time -he doesn’t like to think about what would happen if he stayed in Loki’s head all the time, because Heath Ledger tried that, and look where it got him!- but he still spends a lot of time as Loki. Enough so that he doesn’t have that much work to do before he can slip into the persona, now. Enough so that sometimes Loki bleeds out and Tom finds himself taken several years back, before he started feeling more confident, before he got enough recognition as an actor to build up his self-esteem… because to be honest, about a quarter -sometimes half- of it is still based on what people think of his work.
He doesn’t try to be like that, it’s just the way he feels, at least most of the times.
And the thing is, he would be able to handle it, if he didn’t see so much of himself in Loki, so much of who he was and what he felt and who he could have turned into… and so when Loki is faced with the Hulk, it takes Tom a moment to remember that this isn’t him. That the man he is playing has enormous power and has already gone through the process of taking the mess of fear and despair and perceived weakness, and to shove it down into the metaphorical shredder to make it into anger, all-consuming and oh-so-efficient as a lifeline.
He knows the feeling, too: anger was the only thing preventing him from falling into a ball and not getting up for the first few days/weeks after the mugging.
(Only he had friends to tell him when anger stopped being enough, when to let go. Loki didn’t have that.)
So when he rehearses the line for the first time, his voice cracks, and he tells Mark that he’s fine, just a tad too invested in the movie, and tired and thirsty. He doesn’t really want to go into that kind of conversation just yet, anyway. And if, when they do the dialog again and Tom is, perhaps, too intense in his interpretation of the line, too angry and not composed enough, well. He supposes he’ll have to blame the memory he uses for this specific line.
Because in his mind, there is no more Mark, no more Hulk, no more costume or movie. In his mind, he sees all those who could ever want him harm -critics, muggers, random morons, people who disapprove of his life choices, of who he is, of what he does- and he tells them:
“I will not be bullied by you!”
Mark doesn’t know it, but to Tom it is more than a statement.
It’s a promise.