Work Text:
Payton glared at her left arm. She was quite certain that one of her soulmates was a complete asshole. Because right there, in bright, neon orange Sharpie, was a very hyper-realistic drawing of a dick, along with a hastily scrawled “suck on that steve” underneath it. Payton wanted to stab him. She had to work today, dammit! The other soulmate didn’t really retaliate much, but he drew some pretty damn beautiful pictures on her wrists and fingers – which could sometimes be a pain if she was at work when one started inscribing itself on her skin.
Payton’s eye twitched when she looked back down at the dick on her arm and she made up her mind. Grabbing a pen off her desk, she set onto her left thigh with single-minded intensity. Her English teachers had always appreciated her monologues in the margins of her homework, so she figured her soulmates might get something out of it.
The speech was two lines long, going down to her knee. It was basically just Payton giving a long ass rant about the injustice of having to suffer through Soulmate: Jackass’ lame attempts at flirting with Soulmate: Probably Steve. She started it off with “goddammit don’t you ever fucking shower?” because most of her “temporary” tattoos stayed on for a while before they faded away. Putting the finishing touch on her speech, Payton stood up and rummaged through her closet to find her work shirt.
Tony Stark didn’t really give a shit about dress code, but he liked his workers to have a shirt that would tell him who they were, because really, there were too many people working for him to remember every single one of them. Payton twisted her hair up into her customary work bun, and stuck a pen in it. The same pen, she noted with some relish, that she used to finally, for the first time ever, talk back to her soulmates. Even if it was only because Jackass drew a dick on her arm. She was going to have to cover that up somehow, and Payton didn’t think she owned that much concealer.
---
Gwen was a life-saver. A genius, truly.
All Payton had to do was pretend she’d sprained her wrist or some other dumbass injury that would require a full arm cast. Again, she hated Jackass. Really, truly. He’d better have a damn good excuse when they finally met. Even if he didn’t, though, Payton really wouldn’t be able to stay mad at him; sometimes he wrote really nice things for Probably Steve. Like he would always try to cheer him up if he was down, and wrote cheesy one liners that always got a witty comeback from Probably Steve.
Her soulmates were already in love with each other. But it wasn’t like Payton was worried or anything. Her soulmates had been together for years, it seemed, and Payton still hadn’t met either of them. Okay, she was a little worried. A lot worried. What if they thought she was intruding on their relationship? They’d had years to establish their roles together and what they meant to each other and all Payton had to show how she’d lived through the years was a body of scars and two PhDs.
Grabbing the strap of her bag with one arm, Payton ran through the streets of New York. Her arm under the cast was itching like hell, but she didn’t have any time to waste to stop and scratch at it. It’d taken Gwen about half an hour to make the cast and Payton only had five to make it to work.
Spinning around a corner, Payton yelled out an apology to the person she’d narrowly avoided running into. She loved her Spidey Senses. She had to stop herself from cheering when the stoplight turned red for the cars as soon as she approached the intersection. If there was a higher power out there, he was really trying to make up for the dick on her arm.
Payton made it to Stark – no, Avengers – Tower with two minutes to spare, and she was at the R&D labs with another 15 seconds left on the clock.
Henderson looked over at her as she sat down at her space with a huff. “Wow, I think that’s a new record for ‘barely on time’.” Payton glared at him and he grinned cheerfully. “What held you back, Parker?” he asked, moving away from where he’d been assembling a tiny robot before work officially started. He ended up right beside her chair.
Payton waved her left arm around in an answer. “Sprained my wrist,” she said. “I can’t skateboard like I used to.”
Henderson snorted. “How are you going to assemble things with your right hand only?”
Payton stopped and swore. “Shit,” she said. “I didn’t think about that. What am I going to do?” Payton groaned and put her head in her hands.
Henderson patted the top of her head. “There, there, Parker. You can be our deliverer today and let your arm heal over the weekend.”
Payton sighed, looking up at him. “Really? Is that allowed?”
Henderson nodded, “Oh yeah,” he said, “sometimes I go around with stuff to deliver. It’s not against regulations.”
“So, what can I deliver?”
---
As it turned out, there was a lot that Payton could deliver. There were a lot of projects that had laid unfinished that people wanted to be sent through Stark, and there were a lot of blueprints and sketches for inventions that they wanted either approved or denied. Payton was running back and forth between the Mailing Department and the R&D Department up until lunch, when she was given an hour reprieve.
“Hey Parker, I’m gonna go get something from Zeke’s down the corner, you coming?” Henderson stopped at the doorway and turned to Payton, who, thanks to this morning, had remembered her love for writing stories and speeches. She was finishing the first draft of a short story about the everyday life of an emotionless robot who found himself caring for a little kid that was entirely dependent on him and much too attached to him when she heard Henderson.
“Huh? Oh, uh, wait a second. Let me get these last few words out, ok?” Payton bit her lip and scrawled out the last two words – “unobservant human” – before finishing by scribbling her name out on the bottom. She stood up and shoved the story under a blueprint she had to deliver after lunch.
On her way to the door, Payton grabbed the sign she and Henderson had made for their lunch hour. “we went out for a good time (don’t know whether we’re feeling attacked or not yet). if you want to talk to us you have two options (three if you’re our wonderful and gracious boss, tony stark): 1. wait for us to come back in, 2. take a sticky note from the box beside the door and write down who you are, what department you’re from, and what you want and stick it on the door and we’ll get back to you when we get in from the out, or 3. (if you’re tony stark) feel free to barge right on in, sir, because technically you own this lab and we can’t make you do anything. thank you for your understanding.”
It was quite the piece of poster board, seeing as it was also a garish neon green.
---
Payton hummed as Henderson got back to work after lunch, and she got started on her deliveries again. The Mailing Department must be having the time of their lives, with all the messages and packages that needed to be distributed today. They would have to thank Jackass for making her say she had a sprained wrist which made her “unable” to assemble the things she had wanted to make today. At least tomorrow was Saturday, and she could take the stupid cast off and be safe in the security of her own home.
Henderson had wanted her to get something – a blueprint for a robot spider spy – to the Black Widow. Payton didn’t know if it was possible, but she was going to give it a good old college try. Sliding the paper into a Manilla envelope, Payton labeled the front “Natasha Romanoff” and slipped the rest of the papers in her hand into another Manilla envelope that she labeled “Tony Stark”.
She made the all-too familiar trip to the Mailing Department, and handed the envelopes to the closest worker. “Is there any way…?” She asked, trailing off as the woman got her point.
“Yes, of course. The mail has to be screened first for anything dangerous seeing as they’re both going to an Avenger, but we can get them to them.” The woman - Lindsay - smiled at her and Payton let out a sigh of relief.
“That’s great news. Hey, by any chance do you have anything for any floor that’s in-between this one and the R&D Department?”
---
Payton finally made her way back to her floor an hour and a half later. She had two hours of work left, and no clue as to how she would spend them.
The answer appeared in the figure of Natasha Romanoff standing at the door of her lab, a Manilla envelope in hand, the other raised to knock.
Payton gaped at the woman as the elevator doors opened. She regained her composure a few seconds later and stepped out of the elevator, attracting the attention of the Black Widow.
Payton hesitantly walked up to the woman. “Hi, can I help you?” she asked politely.
The woman frowned at her and Payton cried a little on the inside. “Who are you?”
“My name’s Payton – you’re standing in front of the door to my lab.”
Natasha stepped backwards almost immediately. “So, you know this Joseph Henderson?” The Black Widow waved the blueprint in her hand. “I want to talk to him.”
“Okay,” Payton said, “how about we both go inside the lab and you can talk about your robot spiders in there? Or, I could get Henderson and bring him out here for you? Either one is fine with me, gives me something to do at least.”
Natasha nodded. “I’ll go in.” she said.
Payton stepped forwards and opened the lab door with a press of her thumb to the keypad. It flashed green and she stepped inside, automatically moving to her desk. She did her best to ignore their conversation and instead searched her desktop for the story she’d finished before lunch. She wanted to read through it to make sure she’d used correct grammar and punctuation, but, strangely enough, she couldn’t find it. It’d been right under the blueprints for Stark! She didn’t understand where it could have gon-
Payton froze. Oh, oh no. No, no, no. That can’t be a possibility. That can’t have happened. No, I did not give Tony Fucking Stark a throwback to my childhood, I didn’t. Shit, shit, shit, I did, I so did. I’m so fired. Payton let out a pitiful whine, her shoulders slumping. Dammit. I liked this job.
After about three minutes of wallowing in misery, Payton began to clean her desk, separating the papers on top into piles. There were three of them. The trash pile was surprisingly the smallest, though that could be because Payton kept sweeping it into the garbage can by her feet. The other two piles were her “delivery” pile, and the pile of her own work, be it stories or actual blueprints.
“Parker?” Henderson’s voice broke her out of her miserable sorting. She turned and raised an eyebrow. “Uh, apparently, Mr. Stark asked Miss Romanoff to ask you to go talk to him in his lab, but she asked me to do it because you were wallowing.”
“I was not wallowing.” Payton denied. “I was, um,” she searched for a word from the recesses of her mind. “I was selectively enjoying life.”
“That is the worst excuse you’ve ever made.” Henderson rolled his eyes. “Go see our boss.”
I’m done for. Goodbye lab. Payton sighed and picked up her tablet, stuffing it into her bag and slinging that onto her shoulder. Goodbye Henderson, you were a good lab partner. Goodbye R&D Floor, I’ll miss you. She headed down the hall to the elevator but halted when she remembered the itching from earlier. I’ll just take a quick look; besides, if I’m going to be fired a delay won’t hurt me.
Payton slipped into a nearby bathroom and into a single stall before she hung her bag up on the door. Unwrapping the cast took a few minutes, and in that time, the itching had started up again. When the cast was off, Payton was surprised to see that the giant dick was gone, and, in its place, a wall of writing had been born.
“holy shit we have another soulmate??? STEVE! STEVE WE HAVE ANOTHER SOULMATE!!!” was written in the block letters that always accompanied Jackass. The words were a bright green. Under that was “okay tony calm your tin” in black and Payton snorted.
“Okay,” Payton said out loud, “Jackass has a name. Tony,” she said slowly, drawing out the name. “Tony and Steve. Tony and Steve are my soulmates, and they didn’t know that they had another soulmate. Holy shit.”
Payton looked back her arm. “don’t get sassy with me captain. why is it bad that i’m excited we have another soulmate??!!! by the way, hi new soulmate!!” Payton frowned. Captain?
Pulling the pen out of her hair, Payton decided to scribble back a reply. Of course, it was a rant, because they hadn’t already gotten her in enough trouble. “Hello soulmates!!!” she wrote with excessive punctuation. “I had no clue that you had no clue that I was a thing. Sorry. And another sorry, but you’ll have to wait a while for me to respond again because I have a meeting with my boss whenever I walk into his lab. Anyways, I figure I should give you something to ponder while I get fired.” Payton chewed on her lip while she thought out what she should tell them about herself. “My initials spell out POP and my favorite flavor is chocolate. My hobbies include photography, engineering, and paintball. If you could combine them I would love you forever. Write to you soon, Probably Steve and Probably Tony (a.k.a. Jackass).”
Despite her flippant attitude in her rant to her soulmates, Payton was worried about the meeting with her boss. Henderson had told her to meet Mr. Stark in his lab, but Payton had no clue where that was. Payton rewrapped her cast and frowned when her arm started itching again. Leaving the bathroom, she decided to just fake it till she found Stark’s lab. That decision was cut short when Stark’s AI spoke up as soon as she entered the elevator.
“Miss Parker,” JARVIS started, making Payton let out a small ‘eep’ in shock. “Sir has told me to bring you to his lab for a discussion.”
Payton tried not to wince. “Great,” she muttered. “Thank you ... uh, did Mr. Stark name you?”
“Sir calls me JARVIS,” JARVIS said, “it stands for Just a Rather Very Intelligent System.”
“It sounds like he just really wanted your name to be JARVIS.”
“That could be considered, Miss Parker.” JARVIS replied. “You’ve reached the floor in which Sir’s lab is located. Would you like me to show you the way?” He asked as the doors opened.
“If you can?” A line pulsing with light appeared on the floor, with a few arrows thrown in. “Ooh,” she said with an awe-tinged voice. “You can. That’s so extra.” Payton followed the line and walked into a hallway in which the walls were completely made of glass. The rooms looked like they were labs, though most of them were empty. Payton strained her hearing and made out two voices down the hallway.
“Tony, Tony no. You can’t write that. Tony!” Payton’s right arm itched and she frowned. What were they writing now? She headed on down the hallway until she could see the lab that the two men were arguing in. She couldn’t see their faces, but she assumed that one of them was Stark.
“Tony, I swear to God, when we meet this poor girl she is going to kill you.” The blond man shook his head and leaned back on a table. “And I’ll help her.”
Stark threw his head back and laughed, grinning like a shark. “No, no, Steve!” he said, waving his hands. “I’m doing her a service, and besides, she’ll be here so-”
“Sir,” JARVIS said, making Payton jump. The door of the lab opened and she stepped in. “I believe Miss Parker is here.”
The men turned to look at her and she almost gulped. Stark was smiling like the cat who caught the canary, and he stalked around the tables until he stopped in front of her. “Payton Parker,” he said. “Why on Earth have I heard that you called me a jackass?”
Payton froze. What the hell? I’ve never called Tony Stark a jackass. I mean, never out loud, and even then, it’s only an internal complaint when I’m drunk. In fact, the only person I’ve called a jackass recently is my soulmate. My soulmate Tony. Oh shit. That can’t be right. That’s not possible.
Sighing, Payton looked over at the blond man. He looked at her with amusement, and she scowled at him when he grinned. “Should I take a wild guess and call you Steve?” Of course my Tony and Steve are Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. Of course my soulmates are Iron Man and Captain America. It makes perfect sense.
Stark laughed at the look on her face. “You almost gave the good captain and heart attack this morning, though to be fair, anything could give him a heart attack at his age.”
Steve rolled his eyes and walked away from the table he was leaning on and joined Stark in standing in front of her, making her tilt her head back. She was just barely 5’8”, Stark was 6’1”, and Steve was 6’2”. Payton frowned as she craned her neck. “That’s not fair,” she muttered. “Why do I have to punished with my mother’s height?”
Steve grinned at her. “You’re so tiny.” He said. “I could probably pick you up with one hand.”
Payton narrowed her eyes. So, that’s how you want to play it, huh Mr. Rogers? She smirked suddenly. “To be fair,” she said, “I could probably pick you up with one too.”
Stark choked and Steve’s grin widened. “Is that so, Parker?”
“Is that a challenge?” Payton asked, her eyes narrowing.
Stark waved his hands around, expression mildly panicked.. “No, no, no,” he pointed at Payton and she raised an eyebrow. “No-no. Challenges are a no-go with Steve. Don’t bring up the word. It doesn’t exist when you’re in his presence. It’s a non-entity.” Steve was laughing. “Last time someone challenged him he jumped off the roof of Stark Tower to prove he had the guts to do it.”
Payton turned to stare at the blond, who had suddenly made his face look bashful.
“Well, I mean,” he said helplessly, rubbing the back of his neck. “I was tryin’ to get Clint to stop darin’ me to do stuff. I wanted to prove I would do whatever he dared me to in the hopes he would back off.”
Payton was delighted to find out that whenever the good captain was embarrassed, his Brooklyn accent came out full force. She turned to Stark. “Alright,” she said, “you called me up here for a reason. I guess I’ll hear it.”
Stark raised an eyebrow. “Oh, well, I guess if you’ll hear it, I’ll say it. Hmm, where to start, where to start? Alright, here we go: This morning, me and Stevie here found out that we have a delightfully snarky second soulmate who we didn’t know existed. Always a cause for celebration. Hopefully with whiskey. But, before I could do some digging to find out who she was, I accidentally received a touching story about a robot and his young human charge,” he put his hand over his Arc Reactor and received an affectionate shove from Steve, “which truly changed the way I see the world. Besides that, it helped us figure out who our errant soulmate was.” He stepped forwards, looked down at her, and smirked. “You. I win.”
Challenge accepted, Stark.
Payton stared at him and Steve for a few moments before speaking. “Before we continue this discussion, am I going to be fired today?”
---
Turns out, Payton was not fired. Thank fuck. That job paid way too well for her to be okay with losing it. Even better news, she was promoted! Yay! A raise and a nicer lab came with the package.
Unfortunately, being promoted and moved to a new lab meant she had to get someone else to share the space with. In a move that completely blindsided her, and very much warmed her to him, Stark promoted Henderson alongside her. She wasn’t going to lose her favorite lab partner after all. (And they got to keep their sign, which was always a plus. She wasn’t sure who found it funnier, Stark or Steve.)
As of the current moment, Payton was laying on Gwen’s bed gushing out how her day went while her blonde friend listened with rapt attention.
“Let me get this straight,” Gwen interrupted, “Jackass is Tony Stark? Your boss, Tony Stark?”
“He isn’t my boss,” Payton countered. “Not really, at least. Pepper Potts runs Stark Industries.”
Gwen got a dreamy look on her face and rested her hand on her chin. “Yeah,” she said, hearts in her eyes. “She really does.”
Payton snorted at the look on her friend’s face. “So,” she said carefully, “I’m telling you this for a reason.” Gwen sat up, shaking the admiration from her features. “While we were talking, Tony invited me to meet the other Avengers.” Gwen let out a squeaking sound. “And I, kind of, sort of maybe, a little, said something under my breath about having already met them while fighting against Doom last month?” Payton winced at her friend’s response in advance.
Gwen let out a loud groan, ending with her forehead on the desk. “If you said it under your breath how did they hear you?”
“Steve has super hearing,” Payton answered with a petulant look that the blonde missed due to her head being down. “And that means that none of my smartass remarks are ever going to fly under the radar again.”
Gwen sighed, “Why are you telling me this?”
“They got me to admit that I was the Crimson Spider.” Cue another groan, even louder, and more drawn out. Gwen turned her head sideways so she could frown disappointedly at her friend. “And they also got me to admit that I had a helper.” Gwen’s mouth dropped open and her eyes widened as she prepared to launch into a lecture. “I didn’t tell them your name!” Payton said quickly, hands raised in a submissive gesture. “Just that you were friend and you stitch me back up after battles!”
Gwen crossed her arms and glared, her blonde eyebrows drawn together in mulish anger. “Then why is this a big deal?” Payton lowered her gaze and instead looked around the room. It was still painted the light purple it had been when they were in high school. So many years had passed, with so much happening in them, that it was nice to see that something had stayed the same.
“They want to meet you? And thank you? For keeping me alive?” Payton chanced a glance back at Gwen to see her revert into petulant mode.
Gwen whined. “I don’t want to.” She lifted her head and glared at Payton childishly. “You know how I feel about Stark. He’s a PR nightmare! He doesn’t do anything he’s told to, he gave away his company to his then personal-assistant, and he joined a fucking super-hero group. It’s like the goddamn Justice League, except they all have the personal issues of Batman!”
“Yeah, yeah, I do know how you feel, and I respect your feelings about him. (Though I’m going to have to ask you to stop calling him a man-whore now that I know he’s my soulmate.) My respect for your opinions is why I haven’t – mostly – given you too much shit about still working for Oscorp,” she held up her hands defensively. “Y’know, even though its CEO is a supervillain and not as cool as Pepper Potts.”
Gwen got another dreamy look at the mention of her purely professional, dammit Payton! crush on the CEO of SI. She pulled herself out of it when she heard Payton snickering. “Shut up,” she snapped, straightening her spine and crossing her arms again. She leaned back and thought over what her friend had told her. Tony Stark wanted to meet her. And, so did Captain Fucking America. The rest of the Avengers probably wanted to meet her as well. Sweet fucking mercy, how was she supposed to say no to Captain America? Much less her best friend, who just so happened to have the best set of puppy dog eyes the world had ever seen. Much less her best friend, who was currently using those puppy dog eyes to their fullest capability as she adopted a pleading expression, jutted out her lower lip, and brought her clasped hands up to in front of her chin.
“Please, Gwen.” Payton said, eyes shining earnestly. “They just want to meet my best friend. Please.” She drew out the word until she saw the blonde cracking, and then leaned forward with a smile, and her secret weapon. “Pepper Potts will be there.”
Gwen agreed in a heartbeat.
I win! Payton thought to herself.
---
Gwen regretted ever befriending Payton. She was currently standing outside of Avengers Tower next to said traitor, and was steadfastly trying to refuse to go in.
“Gwen!” Payton whined. “You promised!”
“I didn’t promise anything,” Gwen said easily. “I just said I’d come. I didn’t even say I'd go inside, much less promise it.”
“Gwen!”
Gwen huffed when her friend brought out the puppy dog eyes again. “Alright, fine!” she yelled, throwing up her hands before bringing them across her chest, pairing the move with a steely-eyed glare. “Just put your damn canine pouting away.”
Payton grinned victoriously. “Okay,” she said, grabbing Gwen’s arm. “Let’s go. You first.” She shoved the blonde into the Tower and over to the elevator, pushing the up button.
Gwen tried not to growl when the door opened immediately. Stupid sleek and fast Stark elevators. Stupid Stark. Payton none too gently pushed her inside that as well.
“Avengers common room please, JARVIS.” Payton requested with a secret smile aimed at the ceiling.
Gwen turned to stare at her friend in confusion. Who was she talking to? She opened her mouth to ask her that but was beat by a sudden British voice coming out of nowhere.
Gwen gaped as the voice spoke. “Of course, Miss Parker. Sir is looking forward to seeing you again, and finally meeting the women who you say has kept you fully intact all these years. It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Stacy. Mister Banner wishes to speak with you on the matter of biogenetics whenever you have the time today.”
Gwen mouthed the name ‘Banner’ repeatedly until they reached the common room and the doors slid open. Her eyes fell on Bruce Banner and her eyes went even more awestruck than they did when Pepper Potts was mentioned. “Holy fuck,” she whispered. “Okay,” she turned to Payton, both still in the elevator. “I’ll stay.”
Payton grinned again. “I win,” she sang, walking out of the elevator and towards Steve and Tony. “Thank you for reminding me of her admiration of him by the way. I had totally forgotten the essays she wrote on his theories in high school.” She paused, racking her brain. “And college, I think.”
Tony grinned and slipped an arm around her shoulders. “No problem, soulmate, but I think for that, I win."
Payton stuck her tongue out at him before turning to Steve. “Hey there stranger.”
He smiled, ducking his head to press a kiss to her cheek. “Hi,” he said, backing up, smirking at Payton’s red cheeks. No, he thought, I win.
---
Steve and Tony both turned to each other with astonished looks, when, later that night, Gwen told Payton that she and Pepper were soulmates. Payton just grinned cheerfully, hugging her friend before turning back to her soulmates.
“I win.” She said smugly.