Fic: Storm's Coming (5)
Ben sat back to look over all the photos at once. Like his father, Ben processed information through a lens. A camera. A microscope. Kree enhanced sight. He had a visual mind for connections and when he set to work on a problem the rest of the world became background noise. It was how he did so well in school despite the general chaos of the Parker-Danvers household or a Freshman dorm. While his roommates at the loft had similar sensibilities, it was crowded, and it had only been a few days since they'd moved in. Any routine was still being worked out.
"Let me guess." Ben looked up to find Maggie in the doorway. The door hadn't been wide open, but it hadn't been firmly shut either and room privacy or boundaries were still being worked out too. She gestured at the photographs laid out in front of him. "Photo collage?"
Ben smiled. "Something like that." He casually started to collect the pictures into a pile. He couldn't imagine how Maggie might be involved in whatever was happening to Amelia but there were too many variables to completely discount it. He didn't want her to end up a pawn like Judd had, either.
She flashed an answering smile. "No bare walls with an artist in the house." Ben stood up, pile in hand. "We're putting on a movie. Christen the TV."
"I'll be right there." Maggie nodded and walked away. Ben shuffled the pictures of Amelia, the people she trusted, and the people she didn't trust, into a larger stack of photos he'd set aside to make a slide show for Winona's party. Like his mother, Ben left no clues for prying eyes.
It was the calm before the storm.
Loki hated that expression. It was a bit too on the nose for his particular situation. The Thunder God's little -- "lesser" -- brother. Well, no more. He'd been patient. He'd been clever. He'd been waiting. And that was an expression he could abide.
All good things come to those who wait.
"This is really happening."
Rikki looked over with affection. Anya had been silent all the way home from the Baxter Building. Rikki didn't mind quiet, she was a Barnes, but it was unusual in her spider-wife and concerning after a morning of tests for the purpose of building a baby. "I know."
"It hasn't happened." Rikki shook her head. She'd understood; Anya always said more than she said. "But it's happening."
"I know."
Anya broke into a huge grin. "We're going to have a baby."
Rikki's smile echoed Anya's. "I know." She took Anya's hands and her grin grew even wider. Then her eyes grew wider still.
"I'm going to have a baby." After much deliberation they'd decided to leave pregnancy to fate and flip a coin. Heads, Rikki would carry the child; tails, Anya. They'd flipped three coins, and gotten three tails.
Rikki squeezed Anya's hands. "I know."
Anya huffed. "Can you say anything other than I know?"
Rikki considered. "I love you."
Anya rolled her eyes. "I know that!" Their laughter filled the air.
Mal didn't like Asgard. It was even noisier and brighter and friendlier than New York. She'd grown up surrounded by quiet and shadow and pretense. She didn't feel safe so close to honesty and rainbows. Not even knowing the lies it concealed or the darkness brewing. She thought she should feel some satisfaction that these idiots were dancing into their own destruction. But she felt empty. She didn't care who won, none of them deserved it.
"Miss Richards, there is a party going on. Several in fact."
Mal scowled. "Sorry." Neither her voice nor face agreed with her apology but Thor smiled.
"I've only known one person who could rival your sullenness in the face of this view." He spoke with pride. Mal found it kind of gross.
"Sorry," she said again; this time face and voice conveyed annoyance. Thor laughed.
"Apology accepted." He winked and left her alone.
Winona crept up behind her brother and dropped her hands on his shoulder. She giggled at his startled reaction. "Nervous?"
He looked at her grin in the mirror. "Maybe?"
Winona shook her head and bent down to kiss his cheek. "Don't be."
Teddy shook his head. "I don't mind." Mirror Winona frowned. Teddy took her hand and turned to meet her eyes directly. "If I'm nervous it means I care. That's a good feeling."
Winona felt tears stinging. No one gave Teddy enough credit for his quiet insightfulness, not even her. "I'm so proud of you, Teddy." He smiled but waved her off, shaking his head. Not even him. "I am," she stressed. "I can't wait to toast you and your amazing fashions tomorrow."
Teddy smiled. He was willing to take credit for his clothes. He was quite proud of it, actually. "Thank you." With a flick of the wrist he spun his sister into his arms and hugged her as tight as he could.
Very little could surprise Vincent. He knew too much. Someone else might use his knowledge to interfere but that wasn't his style. Vincent would intervene if someone was in danger, but generally speaking, not before. It was a kind of optimism few would understand and a kind of trust maybe few deserved. But Vincent thought differently.
Very little could surprise him, but the things that did usually involved Anthony. His straight-laced boyfriend throwing caution to the wind at an Asgardian bachelor party was a surprise. And his new favorite memory.
Amelia was reading the schedule from Maryland for the fourth time since dinner and the fortieth, at least, since she'd received it three days before. She'd transferred everything about Freshman Orientation, cheer practices, and the Academic Calendar into her Stark Tablet within the first hours of opening the packet. But she read the information about the first two weeks, and Cheertown, over and over and over again. It was something to focus on other than all her mixed up feelings over leaving and losing and Mal and Henry and Jake and everyone and everything. It was something she could control.
Jake looked over at her sigh. She looked tired, and small, and ... resigned. Both fight and flight had left her. He closed the space between them and pulled her into his arms, willing her to take whatever strength she needed from his embrace. Amelia curled her fingers into his shirt, closed her eyes and breathed him in.
"Maybe I'm looking at this all the wrong way," she murmured into Jake's sleeve. "Maybe it's exactly what I need."
"What?"
Amelia opened her eyes but she didn't raise them. "Going somewhere where nobody knows me. So I can be anyone."
Jake frowned, but he felt her relaxing and didn't say anything. He kissed her hair and focused his thoughts on keeping her safe. As long as he could.
"I don't like keeping secrets from Anthony." It was late. Early. Tomorrow was close and Jamie was wary.
Liv met her eyes across the pillows. "What is it like?"
Jamie frowned. "What?"
"To have a brother."
"Oh." Jamie scrunched her nose in thought. "Uh. I don't know." Liv waited, quietly watching. "We're there for each other no matter what. You know?"
"No."
Jamie didn't know what to say to that. She reached a hand out; Liv laced her fingers with Jamie's.
"Loki is my father's brother."
Jamie swallowed. "Yeah. I get it." She took a deep breath and nodded. Liv leaned in to distract her.
Nothing was tingling but Peter couldn't shake the sense of impending danger. Carol thought he was overreacting to what was going on between Amelia and Henry. Which from her perspective was nothing. But Carol didn't lead with her heart the way he did and Amelia did. Sometimes nothing was just as dangerous as something.
And even ignoring Henry, something dark was surrounding his daughter. Something had been for a while.
It was the calm before the storm. He worried a downpour was coming.
Henry still wasn't used to the noise of New York City. Amelia would tell him, he imagined with a smile, there was no place like it in the world. And she would be right, probably. Of course he would be just as right to say it of his hometown and maybe that's the lesson. Everywhere, like everyone, has a story.
It was getting late and he'd read this book a dozen times before but for some reason he wanted to read the ending before tomorrow. And he just wasn't the type to skip ahead. He settled back into his chair to continue.