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“Hey, Scrooges, why don’t you get off your asses and help me over here?” Your voice echoed around the spacious living room in Avengers Tower, as you perched yourself precariously on top of a ladder to string twinkling white lights around the Christmas tree.
You looked down irritably at Thor and Pietro – both with beers in their hands on the couch and a slew of half opened crates and ornament boxes surrounding them. You loved Christmas, but you didn’t love when people left you to do all the work on your own. Both of the guys had promised to help, but quickly became distracted when Elf came on TV. You had laughed and said they could take a short break … but that was 30 minutes ago and you were growing impatient. Not to mention, you had been running errands all day and you knew you were dehydrated from your throbbing headache. But you really wanted to just finish decorating.
As you stood fuming, a tiny beep from your inslulin pump on your jean loop interrupted your thoughts. You glanced down and as right as you looked at the number of your blood sugar you felt your vision blurring.
“Ah, but Lady Y/N, this is such a good part!” Thor protested, his eyes fixed to the screen. Buddy’s voice floated through the air in a haze: “YOU SIT ON A THRONE OF LIES!”
Pietro laughed as his blue eyes flickered up at you beeseechingly, “5 more minu-” He stopped abruptly, looking at your pallid face with concern. “Y/N, are you ok?” You shook your head. “Blood sugar crashed. I’m-”
And suddenly, you were thrust into darkness, the last thing you heard a distinct crash of a broken glass bottle falling to the floor.
-
Your eyes opened and focused immediately on lights above you. You moaned slightly, the nausea in your stomach somehow making your headache worse. Why were you looking at the ceiling?
You lowered your head slightly only to be further disoriented when you realized you weren’t on the ground.
“What the fuck?” You mumbled confusedly, suddenly becoming aware of the firm, yet gentle embrace you were being held in. You tiled your head sideways and up slightly to lock your eyes with a pair of bright blue ones. Pietro was standing and you were cradled like a child in his arms. Pietro’s face was drawn into lines of worries, but he managed a small smile. “Thank god, you’re ok, Y/N”
You were on the couch suddenly, Thor right by your side with a bottle of glucose tablets. “Eat, now.” He said sternly, dumping a few of the chalky round tablets into your palm.
“But what- what happened?”
“You passed out, princessa. I caught you before you hit your head,” Pietro said gently.
Thor sighed audibly and you turned your gaze toward him.
“Y/N, you need to take better care of yourself. You could have been gravely injured. You fell over the banister, for Odin’s sake!
You felt a little strength coming back as the tablets started to work, so you adjusted yourself up higher to turn your body toward Thor. “I know, I know, I was just so busy today and just wanted this shit done and then you two stopped helping and just yeah,” you finished with a huff, rubbing your temples.
Before you could look up, a glass of water was in your hand and Pietro was next to you on the couch, rubbing your shoulder consolingly. You felt yourself relaxing under his soothing touch, but your pulse quickened.
“We’re both really sorry, Y/N,” Pietro said sincerely, his accent even more pronounced than usual.
Thor nodded and mussed up your hair affectionately. “I’ll get you some of that frozen cream – loaded with sugar, yes?”
You couldn’t help it, you closed your eyes and nodded as you laughed. “Thank you, Thor.” He smiled back and left toward the kitchen.
You felt yourself feeling a little dizzy again and leaned your head on Pietro’s shoulder – you had just passed out and dammit, you deserved some attention from a cute boy, whether or not he was THAT into you or not. You grinned to yourself as you heard him exhale softly as he shifted his arm around your waist. “You smell nice,” you muttered into his shoulder, still smiling. “And thanks for saving my dumbass from smashing my head open.”
Pietro traced his fingers down the curve of your hip. “Of course. Couldn’t stand to let anything happen to you.”
You both sat in silence for a few seconds, caught between what ifs and the palpable awareness of the intimacy of the present. You liked Pietro a lot, but was never one to chase boys – you let them come to you. But something felt a bit different right now – he had just saved your life – or maybe just your head – after all.
You sat up slowly and turned toward him, running a hand through your hair. “Can I repay you for not letting me die and cast a huge pall on Christmas with dinner? I’ll take you out wherever.”
“Ooooh, like a date?” He said playfully, batting his eyelashes at you as he smiled flirtatiously.
You tried not to smile or roll your eyes, but failed at both. Your turn to flirt back.
“If you want it to be,” you said coyly.
Pietro looked at you tenderly, rubbing a thumb lightly over your knee. “I’d be an idiot to say no to that,” he murmured, sending chills over your body.
You moved your mouth close to his ear, trying your best not to giggle as you murmured back, “Then it’s a date, Speedy.”
And as you spoke, you felt a slight, tingling in your stomach again, but this time, you could chalk it up to pesky butterflies and not a drop in glucose. Much better.