Archive of Our Own

After the giant purple grape in the sky was defeated Scott had expected to go back home to his tiny two bedroom apartment with his stylish Feds-approved ankle bracelet, and spend most of his days hanging out with Casie.

He did not expect to be summoned by the King of Wakanda via invisible jet. Nor did he expect the scary looking warrior lady that came knocking on his door, carrying a very sophisticated piece of tech to deactivate said ankle bracelet.

Needless to say, Scott didn’t put up much of a fight.

-

“Why am I not allowed to tell grandma where we’re going?” Cassie asked.

You see, Cassie, your grandma hates me and if she finds out I’m taking you out of the country she’s going to call the cops and have me arrested for kidnapping

It wasn’t like he was deluded enough to think bringing his ten year old daughter along to an undisclosed African nation was in any way okay, but Maggie and Paxton were somewhere in the middle of the ocean on their anniversary cruise and there was no way in hell he going to call Maggie’s mom and tell her that he was going against his probation to save the world and could she make sure that Cassie is tucked in before 10?

Yeah. That wasn’t happening.

His other option was Luis but after the last time there was zero chance that was happening.

The apartment still smelled like burned rubber sometimes.

“I just want to tell mommy myself,” Scott said instead, “but we can’t talk to mommy until they reach their next port.”

“Okay,” Cassie replied with a shrug, her attention now on the holotablet they were both given at the start of the flight.

He hoped they’d be back before he was forced to explain to Maggie that there was no saying no to Okoye. Maggie could do it. Probably.

Cassie’s delighted squeals cut through his thoughts as the scenery in front of them changed from nothing but lush green trees to reveal a small, bustling cityscape.  

“Woah,” Scott muttered, it was like that scene in The Road to El Dorado when they arrived at the City of Gold only less waterfall-y. Cassie beamed at him and it was enough to temper the anxiety Scott was feeling.

By the time the quinjet set itself smoothly on the landing pad and he saw the two figures who were waiting to greet them, Scott’s stomach was back to doing flips. He realized that the last time he had seen the king was at the airport in Germany and throwing a gas truck at him probably wasn’t the best first impression.

“Your Highness,” Scott said once he was in hearing distance. At least he knew better than to bow or genuflect. That was one perk of having to sit through Sam’s fanboy stories about the War Machine.

“Mr. Lang,” T’Challa responded in kind. Smiling at him and then at Cassie. “Ms. Lang.”

Cassis wrinkled her nose cutely causing T’Challa to laugh.

“Please call me Scott. ‘Mr. Lang’ reminds me of the judge that sentenced me. And guessing by her expression Cassie is fine with just Cassie too.”

“Very well. Then you may call me T’Challa. Unfortunately I am set to leave in a couple of hours for diplomatic work,” He gestured to a young woman standing next to him, a wide smile on her face, clearly amused at their exchange. “I will have to leave you in the very capable hands of my sister, Shuri.”

Scott nodded at her. “Princess.”

A high-pitched squeak sounded next to him.

“You’re a princess?” Cassie asked staring at Shuri and then glancing back at Scott to confirm. Judging by the awestruck expression in her eyes, Scott was well on his way to winning father of the year.

“Hello, Cassie. Yes, I am indeed the princess of Wakanda,” Shuri replied crouching in front of her. “And a very smart one at that. You want to come assist me in my lab later?”

Cassie started nodding in excitement, belatedly looking up at Scott for permission. “Daddy?”

“Sure,” There was no way he was saying no to that face. He grinned good naturedly at Shuri. “You’re not going to make anything explode or turn her into a cat or something?”

“We will do our best,” Shuri replied with a mischievous smile. “Come, I’ll show you to your quarters so you can get some rest and then Cassie and I are going to have some fun.”

Oh man, if he brought Cassie home with robotic cat ears Maggie was going to kill him.

-

Dinner was a lavish affair that somehow still felt like Friday night dinners at home. If Friday night dinners included a princess, two super soldiers, the new Captain America and a former Russian spy.

Cassie ran to Sam the moment they arrived, happily giving him a hug. It was adorable but Scott wondered if he should be worried about how easily Cassie attached herself to Sam considering they had only met a couple of times.

“Tic Tac and tiny Tic Tac!” Sam said by way of greeting. “How’s it been?”

“You know it’s been surprisingly quiet. Should have known a call from you was going to change that,” Scott said unable to resist the jibe.

“Yeah, sorry about having Sam call you,” Steve said clasping him on the arm. “We wouldn’t have bothered you if it wasn’t important.”

“Hey man, you know me. I’m a sucker for Captain America.”

Nat smiled, giving him a quick hug. “Don’t say that or else Sam is going to drag you to all his missions.”

He wondered what it said about him that he was now on hugging terms with the Black Widow. He hoped something cool.

“Hi, I’m Cassie. You have a really cool arm,” he heard Cassie say. She had extracted herself from Sam’s embrace and had moved on to Bucky who was looking less and less murderous assassin the more Scott saw him.

God. Maggie was going to have an aneurysm when Cassie tells her about their trip.

“My name’s Bucky,” Bucky replied, putting his hand out to shake which Cassie took with a giggle. “Thanks. My goats like it too.”

“You have goats?” Cassie asked his eyes as wide as saucers. “I have a giant ant but he gets lonely.”

Her face lit up with a flash of inspiration and Scott immediately said, “No, I don’t think your mom would let you have goats, sweetie.”

Bucky laughed at the put-out look on Cassie’s face. “I’ll make sure you get to visit them before you leave.”

“This is the best vacation ever!” She whispered to Scott before they were all shepherded to the table.

Once they were all full to bursting and Cassie was tucked in for the night, Scott made his way to the palace where the briefing would take place.

“So, what's with the big secret mission?", he asked as he walked in. Shuri and Natasha stood at one end of the table, scrolling through various files while the rest of the team sat around a big hologram map. “Please don’t tell me there’s a universe-ending crisis again. There should be a quota on those.”

“No,” Steve said, frowning at a spot on the map, “This one is a little more local.”

“So what kind of mission needs all of you plus the Ant-man?”

“We are in need of your suit but, more than that, we need your expertise,” Shuri gestured at the others, “As you said we have a genius, a spy and we have our soldiers. What we need is a thief.”

If Scott was in a TV show he’d be staring straight at the camera right now.

-

Natasha took point on the briefing.

“We’ve been tracking most of the Chitauri weapons still circulating, but the lack of alien weaponry in the market is causing some of these guys to be more creative. They’ve been kidnapping scientists and making them do experiments in the hope of making more weapons.”

Right. Not-so-evil scientists forced to experiment with alien tech. Compared to a lot of events in Scott’s life since he got out of jail, this one seemed pretty normal.

With a swipe of her hand, a new map materialized around them, satellite photos juxtaposed over the landscape. Scott resisted the urge to poke his hand through it like he was in high school making shadow puppets with the projector.

“One of the sites that caught our attention is on a small island in the South China Sea. They’ve been experimenting with vibranium,” she continued, gesturing at a couple of photos. The hologram zoomed in on a shot of a couple of men transporting cases into the facility, “and it’s caused the alien weaponry to become unstable. Unstable enough that the muscle they have on site are local hired guns.”

“Outsourcing, it’s not just for manufacturing and BPOs,” Steve muttered. “Next thing we know there’ll be a call for congress to keep mercenaries at home.”

“Since when are you a free trader?” Sam asked with the tiniest smirk, clearly knowing he was riling up Steve.

“I’m not,” Steve bristled, the look on his face made it seem like Sam had offended his mother. He sat up straighter, opening his mouth to argue, but Bucky clamped a hand over Steve’s mouth who promptly licked him judging on Bucky’s disgusted face.

“Pal, you are a fucking five year old,” Bucky growled, pulling his hand away and leaning towards Steve to wipe the hand on his face. He gesturing at Nat and Shuri, “Someone continue.”

Ignoring the two, Shuri twisted a bead on her bracelet and a hologram of a small device appeared on her palm.

Princess Leia’s teeny voice played in Scott’s head, Scott Lang, you’re our only hope.

On the other side of the table, Sam rolled his eyes at him, knowing exactly what was going on in Scott’s head.

“Wakanda uses technology I created called Sonic Stabilzers that can deactivate the effects of the vibranium. I was able to make a more portable version. However it only affects a 10-foot radius.”

Natasha stopped drumming her nails on the table. “We need someone to go in and plant the devices so that the vibranium’s effect will be nullified. Once that’s done, the rest of the team can go in and take care of things the old fashioned way.”

”I am confident that the device will not affect your suit. However, I would like to conduct some tests if you’ll permit me,” Shuri added, twisting another bead and the blueprints of her device replaced Natasha’s map.

With another swipe, Natasha brought back the map. This time, there were blue dots with their names on them. “Steve and I will be your back-up on the ground, Bucky will make a nest and take out any stragglers, and Sam will give us a bird’s eye view.”

Scott admired that she was able to say that with a completely straight face.

“I still think I should move in with the rest of team-” Bucky started saying but Steve cut him off with a frustrated sound.

“Buck, we’ve been through this.”

“And I say we go through it one more time.”

“I can take-”

“Buddy, I’m aware your thick head is hard enough to throw at a brick wall. Don’t mean you should do it.”

Natasha glared at them until they both stopped. Scott was suddenly grateful that he would probably never have to make that face at Cassie. He wouldn’t be able to pull it off. Maybe he could ask Natasha to do it if once Cassie started bringing dates home.

She crossed her arms, pursing her lips at the mutinous look on Bucky’s face. “I know you’re not happy, Barnes, but this is our best option.”

He looked ready to argue but a quelling look from Steve stopped him. It was obvious they’ve gone through the plan before and were only doing the briefing for Scott’s benefit.

It was easy enough. Maybe they’ll be home before Maggie and Paxton after all.

-

“You did what?” Maggie’s shriek blasted out of his phone making Scott wince. Maybe calling Maggie so early in the morning wasn’t a good idea, but Scott had put it off long enough.

“She’s safe ,” Scott assured her while trying to figure out which direction he was supposed to be going.  “There are, like four, or six superheroes here plus the entire Wakandan army.”

Did they say ‘take a left at the large scary looking urn’ to get to the lab or ‘take a right at the tapestry’? There should be one of those helpful You are Here maps for places this big.

“Those words are not as comforting as you think!” she yelled. In the background, Scott could hear Paxton trying to calm her down.

“Mags, I promise you nothing’s going to happen. She’s with Sam right now, checking out the garden.”

“Sam’s there?” she asked, a tone of calm finally edging into her voice. Scott would have been offended, but even he had to admit Sam was a better model of a responsible adult than he was.

What is it with women in his life and Sam?

And where the hell was he? He looked around, hoping there was someone he could ask for directions.

“She’s going to call me every night,” Maggie demanded, as Scott rounded a corner and reached another intersection. He closed his eyes, spun around and opened them. Down that corridor then.

“Yes, I already texted you the number of the phone in our room.”

Maggie huffed. “Your mysterious backers better foot the phone bill.”

Scott made several more promises before Maggie let him off the hook. He was lucky he didn’t get a foot up his ass once they were all home.

He finally turned a corner and recognized the hall that lead to Shuri’s lab.

To his surprise, Steve and Bucky were already there.

“Your arm would be useless if if the vibranium is deactivated,” Shuri explained as Scott walked towards them. “It relies too much on the metal to make it work. The best strategy is still to have you a good distance away from the base.”

Steve’s face was a perfectly blank expression that had Bucky glaring.

“Shut up, you punk.”

“I didn’t say anything!” Steve said with a huff.

“Being able to locate you in an open field is one thing, Steve. My visibility is shut if the fight moves into the building.”

“Patience never was one your best virtues.”

“Nah, I just know what kind of trouble you get into when I can’t keep my eyes on you.”

Scott bounced on his heel. “Not to state the obvious but, with that body, I don’t think anyone would have trouble keeping their eyes off Steve.”

“Son, you shouldn’t talk about a person like they’re a piece of meat,” Steve scolded him using the Captain America is disappointed in you voice he remembered from those educational prison videos.

“What - no it was a joke -” Scott stuttered, withering under the full power of Steve’s disappointed frown.

Wow. It was true. America’s Golden Boy really was a prude.

There was a beat then Bucky chuckled low in his throat. “Stop fucking with him, Steve.”

Scott raised his eyebrows at the grin spreading on Steve’s face,

Wow. America’s Golden Boy was a little shit.

Shuri laughed, showing she’d seen Steve’s playful side before. “Come, Scott. Let us see what that suit of yours can do with my tech, I assure you I will not be keeping any records of our experiment. I have heard how closely Dr. Pym guards his technology.”

She lead him into an impressive section of her laboratory. “But for now, you wouldn’t mind if I record a couple of videos, would you?”

Scott looked at her warily. He was a father and an ex-con. He knew better than to trust such a blindingly innocent smile.

Especially when both Bucky and Steve settled into chairs, watching them both expectantly.

“I’m going to regret saying yes, aren’t I?

Shuri laughed. “It’s all in the name of science.”

-

“Let’s go again,” Steve said getting back into position.

The palace training room had been retrofitted with holograms and panels to look like the base they were to infiltrate. Shuri nodded at them and the simulation restarted with one of the multiple scenarios she had programmed it to recreate. Chitauri weapons were dangerous on their own, add a couple of wannabe weapons manufacturers into the mix and it was a recipe for a nuclear disaster. They had no room for mistakes.

Scott shrank to ant-size, jumping up as he did so that he was on Bucky’s shoulder by the time he had fully shrunk.

“Ready when you are, Nomad,” Scott said using the cheesy new callsign.

Bucky’s shoulders rolled as he chuckled and Scott had to grab at his tac suit to keep from tumbling off.

“Shut up, Buck,” Steve grumbled through the comms.

“Don’t know what you’re laughing at, White Wolf,” Sam replied. “Y’all shouldn’t be allowed to choose your own codenames.”

“Boys, focus,” Natasha scolded. “All clear on this side.”

“All clear here too,” Steve replied. “We’re good to go.”

Bucky aimed a crossbow at a weakness in the wall of one of the upper floors and waited until Scott clambered on before pulling the trigger. “Ant-man deployed,” he heard Bucky’s voice through the whistling of the wind in his ears.

Sam snorted. “Ant-man. Now there’s a great superhero name,” his voice laced with sarcasm.

The arrow embedded into the panel that was doubling as the facility wall and Scott used his momentum to jump off and roll into the floor. “Sure, Falcon,” Scott replied dryly as he scoured the new floor layout. There wasn’t enough intel to determine where in the lab the weapons would be kept which meant an ever changing layout for all scenarios. He spotted the faint blue green glow that represented their mark at the northern end.  “Target in sight. On the move.”

“That’s Cap Falcon to you,” Sam shot back. “Moving to extraction formation.”

Scott focused on the hologram in front of him, pulling out the Sonic Stabilizers from his belt and pushing on the button to change him back to normal size so he was crouched in front of the tech. There were three points where he needed to install them to make sure they got the whole lab and fifteen minutes to do it.

“Bravo lock,” Scott reported as he got to the second point. He moved towards his last destination, pulling out the last device as he went.

“Three minutes to extraction, Ant-man,” Sam reminded.

Scott didn’t have time to reply, there was a blur of movement and a sudden weight was on him. He groaned as he hit the the padding, barely able to use his momentum to roll with the tackle so that he landed away from Ayo.

It was so not fair that the Dora Milaje was playing the mercenaries in their simulation. He doubted that they’d be as skilled as they were. Or as bad ass.

“This is just practice. Do you really need to hit me that hard?” Scott asked almost conversationally, eyeing the path to his goal that Ayo was now blocking.

She shook her head, poised to pounce again. “Your enemies will not think twice about hitting you, Mr. Lang.”

“Seriously, when you’ve kicked my butt this many times we should be on a first name basis.”

Ayo cocked her head and lunged forward, Scott waited until the last second to press the button on his suit. He didn’t look back, knowing that Ayo’s own velocity would have propelled her to crash against the wall.

With a calculated jump from one object to another, Scott pushed the button on more time growing full size and quickly placing the device on his target.

“Charlie lock.” He turned around just in time to see that Ayo was back on her feet. “Falcon!”

Sam flew in low, and Scott didn’t waste any time jumping out the window, shrinking and clinging onto Sam’s wings. If he started singing “A Whole New World” in his head it was no one’s damn business.

“Passable,” Steve scored in his ear. “Let’s do another.”

They did two more rounds before Steve deemed them done for the day because he was an asshole who wanted Scott to suffer.

Scott groaned, his body refusing to move from its place on the mat.

“Good job, Scott,” Steve said looking down at him and Scott hated that he still looked as perfect as when they started. Except sweaty in an unfairly attractive way.

Bucky jogged over to them looking just as perfect. Fuck those super soldiers.

“Come on, Steve. I promised Cassie I’d introduce her to the goats,” he poked at Scott with his boot. “You wanna join us?”

All he got in response was a pained groan.

-

Scott frowned as a shadow cast over his prone form. Natasha was now the one standing over him with her hands on her hips.

He had hoped that they would leave him there to die. It was fine. The safety mat was actually pretty comfortable.

She tilted her head at him, assessing his state. She gave him a once-over, nodded, then cocked her head towards the gym.

“Come on, let’s spar.”

Scott was proud to say that he only let out the slightest of whimpers.

-

A couple of hours later, Scott had showered but was still nursing a couple of bruises and an even bigger bruised ego.

“You look like you got beat into the ground, Tictac,” Sam said with a smirk as he walked into one of the common room. “Nat did you good.”

Scott itched to give him the finger, but he was already going to be in enough trouble without Cassie learning rude gestures from him.

He carefully lowered himself into the couch, next to where Cassie was on the floor playing with the new paints Steve had given her, groaning as his sore muscles protested the movement.

“I’m going to die. I’m going to lie on this couch and die.”

“Daddy gets very dramatic when he’s sick,” Cassie informed Sam, stopping her painting to pat Scott’s knee in commiseration.

“Hey!” Scott protested, resting his head on the back of the couch and closing his eyes. Even his eyelids were in pain. “You’re my daughter. You’re supposed to be on my side.”

“Yeah, but Sam’s Captain America and he said you’re not supposed to lie.”

“That’s true. You shouldn’t do bad things, Scott.” Sam said adopting his version of the ‘Captain America wants you to be better’ voice.

This time, Scott didn’t stop himself from giving Sam the finger, gambling on the hope that it was outside of Cassie’s peripheral vision.

Sam’s deep laugh moved closer and Scott pried open one eye, whimpering when he saw the cup of coffee Sam was holding in front of him.

“I take it back. You’re the best superhero ever,” he said taking the cup and immediately downing half of its contents.

Sam returned to his seat, nudging the massive platter of local pastries towards Scott. “The carbs will make you feel better.”

He swiped one from the top of the pile and bit into it, sighing happily as the glazed sugar melted on his tongue.

The sound of the brush sweeping across paper was the only sound in the room for a while until Cassie stopped.

“Daddy, do you think Steve and Bucky will let me be the flower girl in their wedding? Mommy said I did a good job in their wedding. Almost like a professional.”

Scott stopped himself from taking another big bite and answering his kid through a mouthful of food. He blinked at her for a second. “Um, what?”

Cassie gave him a long suffering look. She was ten. His kid wasn’t supposed to know that look yet.

“Well, Mommy and Paxton were girlfriend and boyfriend and they got married. Steve and Bucky are boyfriend and boyfriend so they’ll get married too.”

Scott paused.

Wait. What?

“It’ll probably be a spring wedding,” Sam said, grabbing a cruller-looking thing and settling back on the couch. “You can wear flowers in your hair.”

Scott tried to figure out if Sam was playing him but he wasn’t even paying attention to Scott’s reaction, he was deeply engrossed in his tablet.

And if Sam wasn’t watching for his reaction that meant-  

Holy shit, Original Flavor Cap was boning the assassin formerly known as Winter Soldier.

The whole ‘breaking through decades of brainwashing, becoming an international fugitive and literally moving time and space’ suddenly made a lot of sense.

Also the quasi-inappropriate sparring sessions.

Scott shoved the rest of his pastry into his mouth before he could shove something else in there - like his foot.

He wondered if Maggie would let Cassie come back to Wakanda for the wedding.

-

The next time he saw Steve, Scott had promised to himself he was going to be totally cool about the whole thing.

But of course the exact opposite happened.

“So you and Barnes,” Scott blurted out trying for casual and completely falling flat on his face.

Steve somehow managed to raise an eyebrow while scrunching his forehead down at the same time in the most judgmental look Scott ever had trained on him.

“Look, if that’s a problem for you -”

“No, no, no,” Scott scrambled to an upright position. They had been enjoying the afternoon sun, waiting for Nat and Sam to make contact with a source, and suddenly rainclouds of ‘Steve Rogers thinks I’m a homophobe and is going to kick my ass’ were thundering overhead. “I’m - I’m not. I have no problem with - Anyone can -”

Steve was now looking at Scott with a shit-eating grin on his face. “I’m just messing with you, Scott.”

Jesus Christ, how many times was he going to fall for that?

Scott thumped back down on the grass, folding his arms underneath his head. Steve was still laughing quietly to himself as he went back to his sketchbook.

“I think it’s great,” Scott said flatly, “Real Disney fairytale stuff. Just so you know Cassie’s already expecting to be a flower girl at your wedding.”

Out of the corner of his eye he caught Steve as he turned an interesting shade of pink. Score one for Ant-man.

Steve mumbled, “Maybe when the world stops trying to end.”

“Hey, man, Stark finally got married. Stranger things have happened.”

Scott squinted against the sun to check on Cassie who was feeding corn to a small gathering of chickens. A short distance from her was Bucky, the corner of his eyes crinkling as Cassie started running around in a circle making the chickens chase her.

There was a soft huff next to him and Scott realized that Steve was watching the same thing, his eyes soft in a way Scott realized he rarely got to see when Steve was in full soldier-mode.

“Barnes is pretty good with kids.”

“He had three sisters. He used to take care of them all the time,” Steve’s voice was a mixture of pride and a tinge of sadness, “Bucky’s a pro.”

“You ever think about having some of your own?”

“We already have kids,” was Steve’s nonchalant reply.

Scott raised his eyebrows. He wasn’t going to fall for that again.

“We got four of ‘em,” Steve jerked his head to where Cassie and Bucky were petting the goats, “Gabe, Monty, Frenchy, and Morita,”

The names conjured an image of his 2nd grade history teacher, then followed by a group of men in World War II uniforms.

“You named your goats after your old unit!” Scott exclaimed after a second, shaking his head. “Why is there one missing?”

Mrs. Lapid was going to be proud of him. He’d still ace that history final.

“Bucky named them. Dumdum is that cow over there.”

Said cow was peacefully grazing a small patch of grass, big, brown and with a monster of a face. Cassie was going to love her.

Scott took stock of where they were, the peacefulness that had settled around Steve as he watched the landscape, watched Bucky and Cassie, and rendered whatever he saw into image with lead and paper.

The question itched to escape Scott’s lips. Ho, don’t do it. You’re going to open up a can of worms and Steve is going to look at you with that kicked puppy face of his and Sam isn’t going to stop saying I told you so.

Steve beat him to the punch. “Spit it out, Scott.”

“I figured after Thanos you’d give up fighting for good. Retire. Come back here.”

Steve’s face hardened into a frown, the lines of his face deepening.

Dammit. Now he made Steve brood.

Almost as if he was shifting into a second skin, Steve’s shoulders straightened, chin jut out stubbornly.

Hello, Captain America. Have you seen where Steve Rogers went?

“As long as there’s people who need our help,” Steve said voice going deep, “I can’t turn a blind eye. And neither can he.”

Scott sighed and thought about Cassie. About Sam and Nat, Hope and Hank, Maggie and Paxton. Hell, even Steve and Bucky. How any of them would feel if he didn’t come back from a fight. Then he thought about how he’d live with himself knowing that there was something he could contribute, that he could keep the world safe somehow and he didn’t do it.

It was selfish, but he was never meant to be a superhero. He was nothing but a burglar with a really cool suit.

Cassie and Bucky waved at their direction and Steve and Scott automatically waved back, the weight of the conversation lifting for a second.

Scott was suddenly filled with the fierce certainty that he would do anything for Cassie. There were things in life that you simply had to do, even if it meant hurting the people you love to keep them safe.

“Yeah,” Scott finally said quietly, “I get what you mean.”

-

“Ant-man!”

Steve ran towards him, a large rounded object in his hand.

“Pretend it’s a rock. We’re going to have to work with whatever we find there.”

“I’m all for improv but seriously?”

“You think we had any of this fancy tech during World War II, son?”

His declaration was followed by a snort from the comms that sounded suspiciously like Bucky laughing but Steve gave him a look that demanded no argument and Scott shrunk without another word, grabbing on to the fake rock as he went.

He closed his eyes as Steve twirled around like he was throwing a discus and only opened them when he felt the rock run a straight course towards the roof of their practice facility.

The scenario (which Scott had secretly named Murphy’s Ass) was running on the assumption that everything that could go wrong, would go wrong. Including the possibility that Bucky’s arrow wouldn’t make it into the building and Scott would have to find another way in.

“I don’t miss,” Bucky had grumbled, aiming the crossbow and hitting the non-target perfectly which was how Scott was suddenly being thrown around on an unreliable projectile. Like riding an asteroid through space.

The theme to Armageddon started playing in his head and fuck, fuck, fuck he was coming in too fast.

Scott timed his jump as best he could, but he still landed with a hard crash against the mat. He would not have come out of that unscathed if it had been concrete.

“I’m in,” he gasped, the wind knocked out of him. “Searching for entrance points.”

One by one, their original planned unspooled until Scott was gritting his teeth to keep the frustration at bay. He did not harbor any illusions that skill factored into how he escaped the Dora Milaje that waited for him when he entered the building. That was pure dumb luck.

“Alpha lock”, he reported, as soon as the first device beeped into life.

“Fucking finally,” Sam said, his own voice strained. He could hear the sounds of fighting in the comms but had zero visibility while he was within the panels. “Get the other two so Shuri can stop torturing us.”

Natasha’s chuckle filled the line. “She’s definitely having fun with this.”

Scott ran the length of the floor, setting up the second device in record time. “Bravo lock.”

He ducked into the room for the third location. One more and he was home free.

“Charlie lock!” Scott crowed triumphantly.

There was a loud explosion from the outside and Scott felt the floor sway with the blast. For a second, Scott was afraid that something had really gone wrong but when the floodlights didn’t come back on he started to make his way back to his extraction point.

“Falcon, I’m good.”

“Dammit,” Sam growled, “Tictac, you’re gonna need another ride. Nomad, I’m grounded.”

“On my way,” Steve replied. “Ant-man on my signal head to your extraction point and do as I say.”

“Stevie,” Bucky’s voice was calm, holding back the slightest bite of anger, “what the fuck are you planning?”

“Remember that town outside of Italy, Buck? You think you can do what I did?”

“Look, you fucking punk, I don’t mind you getting beat up when you’re running your mouth, but I do if it’s cause you’re being a reckless fool.”

Scott moved carefully, peeking through the window and searching for Steve’s location. “Um, guys, want to clue me in?”

“Just wait for my signal then jump out and shrink as soon as you’re with me.”

“Nomad, if we’re doing trust exercises I would really prefer if it didn’t include me jumping out of a window.”

“We’re out of options, Ant-man, and you need to get out now. You ready, Buck?”

“You’re a bastard, Rogers.”

“You really shouldn’t talk about my mom like that.”

“I’m in position.”

“Ant-man, now!”

Scott hurled himself out of the window, his eyes darting around looking for his rescue, panicking when he couldn’t see anything other than the ground rapidly coming up to meet him.

“STEVE?”

Out of nowhere, he felt Steve grabbing the back of his suit, and he shrank, holding onto Steve as they barreled towards the ground.

“Did you just jump off the roof of the building and catch me?” Scott yelled incredulously, his knuckles white with how hard he was gripping Steve’s suit.

Steve grinned, “That’s not even the fun part.”

Then with just a couple of feet between them and the ground, Bucky came running out of the periphery, slamming into Steve in a full body catch, rolling with the momentum until Bucky was lying on the mat, Steve on top of him.

“Heya, Buck,” Steve greeted, all sweetness and sunshine.

Bucky’s answering growl was anything but. “Fucking idiot.”

Scott jumped off Steve’s shoulder on shaky knees, unshrinking, and letting himself collapse face first against the mat. “The next time you want to do death-defying stunts please bear in mind that not all of us are enhanced.”

“Rest up. We’ll go again in 20,” Steve’s hateful voice said.

He was going to go miniature, crawl into Steve’s ear in his sleep, and punch him in the eardrum.

Just as soon as his muscles started working again.

Barely able to lift his head, Scott croaked out to the room, “Does anyone have any orange slices?”

-

Their next batch of intel couldn’t have come at a better time. Steve was happy with their training and Scott was sick of how he was more black and blue than pink.

“Wheels up in two hours, everyone,” Steve informed the team once they were all caught up.

“And here I thought I was actually going to get a good night’s sleep,” Sam muttered, banging his head on the table. “Fighting bad guys should include some sort of overtime pay.”

“That assumes we get paid,” Natasha pointed out.

“I remember when I was one of the bad guys,” Scott said wistfully, staring at the lukewarm cup of coffee in his hands, “we always got paid.”

Bucky scoffed. “You pulled off one big job and promptly got caught. That’d barely qualify you for the Evil League of Evil.”

“He’s right. You were a white collar thief. Barnes and I were Russian assassins.”

"Burglar," Scott corrected.

At the same time Steve said, “Bucky’s American.”

Nat frowned in thought. “Technically he’s spent more years being Russian than American.”

“Even Steve’s broken more laws than you,” Bucky said, ignoring the speculation on his nationality.

“It’s true. Hey, do you think they have my rap sheet at the Smithsonian?”

Sam thunk his head against the table again. “If I knew I was going to get a front seat to Abbot and Costello for the rest of my life I would have never opened my front door. No one told me all superheroes were assholes.”

Bucky frowned and then, placed his flesh hand on his chest. “In Mother Russia assholes fuck you.”

“Hate to break it to you, man,” Sam said, “but that’s true stateside too.”

“You know what? I have an actual 10 year old I could be spending my time with,” Scott said downing the rest of his coffee and pushing away from the table.

Nat laughed. “Give Cassie a kiss goodnight for me.”

-

Regularly, Scott was good on flights. Or cars. Or boats. Put him on any moving vehicle and he’d be asleep in a snap. Unless, of course, he accidentally drank three cups of coffee right before take off.

His left leg bounced up and down, mimicking the way his heart was pounding in his chest. Was it possible to have a heart attack from too much coffee?

Oh god, did this jet have a bathroom? What if he needed to pee? What if he needed to pee while fighting bad guys?

Bucky extended his metal arm to stop Scott’s knee from jiggling.

The gold detail glinted in the dim light of the quinjet but Scott could make out tiny grooves between the plating. He eyed the spaces and tried to estimate how small he’d have to go to get in between them. The Iron Man suit had huge gaps but the design of Bucky’s arm was sleeker. Designed for maximum flexibility. He could probably get into it without having to go subatomic.

“Scott?”

“Hmmm?”

Bucky was staring at him with the look of someone who could spot someone formulating a bad idea a mile away. Scott figured that was a good skill to have for someone who was dating Steve Rogers.

"Stop looking at my arm.”

Scott glanced away guiltily. However, without anything to occupy him his knee started jiggling again.

Bucky sighed and looked over at Sam.

“I’m not switching seats with you, man.”

-

The quinjet landed quietly in a clearing a couple of clicks away from the target.

Sam and Bucky set out first to get into position while the remaining three waited for the all clear.

The moment they got the signal, all three of them moved into position, and only had half a second to think that everything was going according to plan before everything around them exploded.

-

Scott groaned, one hand reaching out to raise himself and coming in contact with... hardwood. That would explain why his tailbone was killing him.

“How much did I drink last night?”

He sat up and had to blink rapidly to keep the world from spinning out of control. He imagined tiny versions of The Falcon circling around his head because apparently those were the kind of images his head conjured when majorly hung over.

Squinting under the glare of fluorescent lights, he shuffled like a zombie towards the general direction of the kitchen praying that Luis hadn’t fucked up the coffee machine as usual.

He ambled forward, hands patting his suit for his phone (wait, why was he in his suit?) and crashed face first into a glass door.

Goddamn motherfucking shit balls -

Scott forced his pounding head to focus and realized that the door he had hit wasn’t a door. It was a wall. A wall that circled around him and extending to the top where a heavy metal base was vibrating with electricity.

So not drunk. Captured. Fuck.

Across the room, strapped to a table and clearly unconscious, was Captain America.

Double fuck.

-

-

Panic edged into his veins and Scott had to take deep breaths to calm down.

Fuckity mcfuckerson’s fucking farm.

Okay. Sit rep. The suit was compromised, it hadn’t been deactivated which was why he was still small but it was stuck in stasis, no strength, no way to get big again.

He felt his way around the dome looking for any weaknesses he could use to escape. There was nothing there, no cracks, no uneven distribution in the weight that he could use to throw the whole thing off balance.

It was cool. He had done more with less.

Scott focused on the table underneath him. It was made for a laboratory, solid steel, coated with thick paint, and because he was one lucky son of a bitch and bad guys needed to plan their traps better, one of the walls of his glass prison lay directly over a small section of chipping paint.

It would be a tight fit but he could squeeze through it. He just hoped that he wouldn’t accidentally shake the glass and squish himself like, well, like an ant.

A whooshing sound alerted him to a door opening at the right side of the room. Two lab coats came in holding a tray of syringes followed by two men holding what were definitely modified Chitauri weapons.

Making like Woody in Toy Story , Scott let himself go limp and fell to the floor. Better they think that he was still out and have the element of surprise.

Scott watched as they gave Steve a couple of injections and noted the reactions they saw on the monitors. Satisfied with whatever information they got, the lab coats headed to the outer lab with their muscle in tow.

He hoped whatever they gave to Steve was temporary and easily reversible. As much as Barnes was no longer a murderbot, Scott didn’t want to be in the bad side of the guy - especially when Steve was concerned.

Waiting until the door’s lock clicked audibly, Scott shimmied under the crack and out of his glass prison. As soon as he was out from under the device, he could feel his suit come back to life. Scott gave himself a little shake. Powerless and in captivity was not a fun feeling.

Next up, how to get out of there. He eyed the corners of the lab and spotted a couple of security cameras, one of which was obviously pointed towards the glass dome.

Thinking quickly, Scott ran across the lab grabbing various items and then squeezed back under the dome laying them down so that it looked like he was still in his suit and out like a light.

If they hadn’t come rushing in by now, then it was safe to assume that they didn’t know he had escaped.

Next, he needed to know how many men they were dealing with and if there was a way to wake up Steve. There was no way he was going to be able to get out of there with an unconscious 200-pound supersoldier in tow.

Bouncing from one surface to the another, Scott landed next to Steve’s head.

“Steve, buddy, you in there?” he whispered into Steve’s ear.

There was no response. Not that he was expecting one. Whatever they had hooked him up to had him out like a light.

Moving carefully to the various IV’s Scott climbed the tubing and tampered with the chamber until the slow dripping stopped. One by one, he did the same to each bag, leaving the one that he recognized as saline alone to hopefully help flush out the drugs in his system faster.

“I really hope you wake up soon, champ,” Scott said, “I promised Cassie we’d bring her back something ugly and henchmen was not what I had in mind.”

When it was apparent that Steve wasn’t going to magically wake up, Scott cased the room again. The security cameras would be easy to take out, but the moment he did that they’d be caught. What he needed was a way to keep them out.

The electrical panel that controlled the door wasn’t going to be an easy climb, but it would serve his purpose.

And then all he needed to do was wait.

-

Waiting was taking a lot longer than Scott expected.

Steve was still out like a light, his heartbeat beeping steadily on the machine. Thankfully, no one had tried to enter the lab yet but that could change soon.

Deciding to take his chance, Scott slipped underneath the door and into the outer lab and stopped short.

Holy overcompensation, batman.

Outside were half a dozen men, their guns trained on two women as they worked around a couple of makeshift work tables all sorts of beakers and test tubes strewn over them.

Scott could hear their radios going, suggesting that there were more outside and around the compound. The two henchmen nearest the table were chattering to each other in a language he didn’t recognize.

“May bago nanaman nga silang pinasok. Kawawa naman yung nasa lamesa kung ano-ano tinurok.”

One of the men gestured towards the door where they had just come from and mimicked getting a shot, obviously talking about Steve. Not that it was any help. Maybe it was time to add some sort of translating tech to the suit.

The other man scowled, “ sa tingin nila hindi kaya mapapansin na biglang ang daming mga puti dito.”

“Tumahimik ka na nga. Baka sino pa makirinig sayo. Basta walang pananakit sa mga bata o aso at may pangmatrikula panganay ko. Okay na ko.”

“Eh bakit ilan ba panganay mo?” he chuckled, elbowing the other man like they were just talking by the watercooler instead of holding people at gunpoint.

Did evil henchmen gossip? Probably. Gossiping about evil henchmen things.

Scott ignored them and made his way to the table. He hoped that like any good scientist these ones took meticulous notes.

Hopping onto a brown leather shoe, he dodged the other scientists’ sensible heel as he went. Sensible Heel was wearing a skirt. Climbing up someone’s bare leg wasn’t very stealthy or respectful so Brown Leather Shoe it would be.

Scott made the careful climb up a pant leg, jumping on to the hem of the lab coat and moving up so he could fit himself behind one of the lapels.

It wasn’t the most comfortable position but from that vantage point he could make out the hasty scribbles on the notepad.

There was no chance of him understanding any of the drug combinations but the effects of each were thankfully noted down next to each drug.

He winced as he read down the list. Not good.

-

Scott ran back to the lab, and quickly transformed back to human-size. He didn’t waste any time digging through one of the drawers next to Steve and pulling out a shot of epinephrine.

He saw Pulp Fiction . He knew what to expect. Thank fuck they left an injection port and he wouldn’t have to stab Steve in the heart with it.

Scott pushed the plunger in the syringe and almost immediately Steve’s annoyingly long lashes were fluttering, ocean blue eyes staring blearily at Scott.

It wasn’t his fault Steve was literally the perfect male specimen.

“Scott?”

“Hi. Quick catch up. There was an explosion. You ran after me. We got captured by terrorist goons and they’ve pumped you full of drugs that’s why you’re feeling woozy right now.”

That, Luis, is how you stick to the basics.

“What kind of drugs?”

“I’m an electrical engineer not a chemist,” Scott said dryly, “but here’s the good news. The effect to your strength is temporary so it’s not going to last long and your super healing is still intact. So even if we do get our asses kicked, you’ll still be peachy keen after a few days. The bad news is there’s half a dozen hired guns outside and all of them are using the Chitauri weapons you warned me about.”

Steve winced, shaking his head to clear it. “My ears are ringing but I think that’s because of Bucky’s yelling than the explosion.”

“I think I caught some of that before I passed out.”

“If he doesn’t break up with me for being an idiot, I’m asking Bucky to marry me.”

“That might be incentive enough not to break up with you. But first we have to get out of here.”

Steve wobbled to his feet, clamping a hand on Scott’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got a plan. I got it from Thor.”

-

It was a stupid plan. It was a monumentally stupid plan.

But who was Scott to question the former Captain America?

-

The doors leading out of the lab slid open and Scott held on as he was jostled around.

“Help!” Steve cried, hamming it up and swaying as if he was about to keel over. Or maybe he really was. Scott wasn’t sure. “Get help! My friend’s the size of an ant!”

Outside the lab, the henchmen who had drawn and aimed their weapons the moment the door opened, looked at each other in confusion.

Scott took that as his cue to launch himself off Steve’s palm and towards the cluster of men, quickly pressing the button to make himself bigger and bowling them over.

There was no way he thought that would work and yet there were now six unconscious henchmen underneath him.

“Let’s never talk about that ever again,” Scott groaned as he got to his feet. He looked up at the lab coats that were staring at them from the corner of the room. “If one of you are hailing Hydra you should speak now or forever hold your peace.”

Sensible heels spoke up. “No, we - I’m a professor from Stockholm. She was picked up from a symposium in Sri Lanka. There were a couple more of us but I don’t know where they put the others.”

“Don’t try to move too much,” brown suede said moving towards where Steve was leaning heavily against a table. “The suppressants they made us give you are still in your system.”

Steve straightened up, bolstered mostly by what Scott now realized was bullheaded stubbornness. “I’m okay, ma’am. No need to worry.”

“Take a break, Nomad,” Scott said pushing a stool towards him. “We still need to figure out a way out of here without alerting the whole building.”

As if on cue, alarms across the base went off bathing the room in flashing white and red.

Steve hissed in pain, “Does it really need to be that loud? Ant-man do you still have the Sonic Stabilizers.”

Doing a quick pat down to make sure he still had the devices, Scott nodded in the affirmative.

“Plant them and then let’s get out of here.”

There was a loud crash and Bucky’s voice yelled from the top of the stairs. “And how were you planning to do that, Steve, you fucking punk? Run head on to a hail of bullets and use your dumb head as a shield?”

Steve smiled loopily, still swaying slightly on his feet. “Hey, Buck.”

Bucky jogged down the stairs, shouldering the gun he was holding so Steve could put an arm around his shoulder. “You couldn’t wait five minutes before getting yourself into trouble?” he grunted.

“Don’t worry he had a plan,” Scott defended Steve. There were some things you couldn’t share without ending up being blood brothers, and knocking out semi-competent terrorists with a terrible plan was one of them.

Bucky groaned. “Please don’t tell me-”

“I told you it would work,” Steve said a smug smile on his face.

“The two of you are never going anywhere alone again,” Bucky ordered. “Come on, we need to go.”

“Give me minute,” Scott said, darting across the lab to plant the first device. “I need to go to two more locations.”

Bucky jerked his head towards the stairs. “Sam and Nat are upstairs they’ll run interference for you.”

“Go,” Steve said, “we’ll take them to the quinjet and come back to finish the job.”

“There’s no we, pal,” Bucky griped, hauling Steve towards the stairs. “You’re staying on the quinjet with these ladies even if I have to tie you down.”

Scott ushered the lab coats after them, Bucky’s mutterings about idiotic plans and ‘the greatest strategic mind of our time! hah!’ intersecting with the sound of sirens.

If anyone asked Scott to write a book about his life as Ant-man, he’d need to have the story heavily edited. It didn’t matter how many times they’ve done it, there was no way anyone would believe they could save the world.

-

“Look, you goddamned bastard. I know your dumb body can take it, but there’s a difference between a calculated risk and running straight into a fucking explosion. If you wanted the shit beat out of you so badly I’m right here. I’ll kick your ass to next Sunday!”

Scott’s hands flew to Cassie’s head to cover her ears but based on her loud giggling it was already too late.

“Bucky likes to use words mommy doesn’t like,” Cassie told him conspiratorially, pulling away his hands.

Scott winced. “Let’s just keep that between the two of us, okay? Mommy doesn’t need to know about Bucky’s vocabulary.

Knocking on the door quickly in case Bucky was about to launch into another curse-filled tirade, Scott gave his sunniest smile when a grumpy Bucky opened the door.

Behind him Steve was lying down on the hospital bed, a stormy look on his face, obviously about to engage in a full out shouting war before they interrupted.

Scott either had the best or the worst timing in the world.

“Cassie and I just wanted to say goodbye before we left,” he explained, even while Cassie ran to Bucky to give him a hug.

The glower on Bucky’s face softened and he knelt down to catch Cassie in his arms. “Keep cute, kid. Don’t forget what I taught you.”

Cassie nodded solemnly. “I shouldn’t take crap from nobody and if Bobby tries to pull my ponytail again I should kick him in the shin.”

Scott cringed, “Sweetie, no -” he said at the same time that Steve yelled “Buck!”

Bucky rolled his eyes, giving her a gentle push towards Steve who pulled her up to sit on the bed. “Cassie, if someone’s being mean you should tell a teacher first. And then if they don’t do anything about it. You should tell your dad. He’s a superhero so he can give Bobby and his parents a visit.”

Thank god one of them was sensible.

A loud scoff came from Bucky. “Did they give you a personality transplant? Who are you and what did you do to Steve Rogers?”

Steve ignored him, giving Cassie a tight squeeze. “Then, if that doesn’t work and it still happens, you can kick him in the shin and tell him the Winter Soldier taught you how.”

“Okay!” Scott said, resisting the urge to face palm. There were a million and one ways that Maggie was surely going to kill him. “Cassie, we need to go. Sam’s waiting.”

Scott lifted her off the bed, ignoring the thought that soon she would be too big for him to carry. He gave Bucky a handshake and clasped Steve on the shoulder.

“Thanks for the assist, Scott.”

“Anytime.”

“Bye, Bucky! Bye, Steve! Come visit us soon and I’ll show you my giant ant.”

“Bring him here and we can introduce your ant to the goats.”

“Yeah, who knows you might be back sooner than you think,” Steve said, giving Scott a small secret smile.

They headed to the landing pad but Cassie pulled at his hand at the last minute, forcing him to kneel down to her height.

She looked at him with all the seriousness a ten year old could muster. “Daddy, I’m going to tell you something but you have to make sure that nobody knows okay? Bucky said I can tell but only you and mommy and Paxton.”

Uh-oh. “I promise I won’t tell unless it’s something that will get us in trouble then Bucky’s on his own.”

Cassie chewed on her lip in thought as if gauging his reliability, but her excitement easily won out. She moved closer, and quickly whispered, “Bucky said he was going to ask Steve to marry him and I can be a flower girl!”

Scott laughed. “That is definitely a secret that you can tell mommy and Paxton. But no one else okay?”

“Okay!”

“Let’s go. You’re going to have to be extra good for mommy so she’ll let you come back.”

Cassie frowned, “Okay, but does that mean I have to clean my room? Because Ant-onette is the one who keeps messing it up.”

“We can negotiate,” Scott said, leading her out of the palace.

They were on their way home, his daughter was happy and healthy and, hey, they took care of a bunch of bad guys.

There might even be a wedding in the horizon.

As far as the superhero life went, his wasn’t so bad.