Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Bob walked down the busy street, books in one hand. Yelena had suggested leaving the tower more (no thank you) and so Bob figured buying more books would give him an excuse to stay in the tower next time. He also just liked reading. His pocket vibrated and he picked up his phone and swiped.

“Yelena?”

“Bad news, Bob.” Her voice came through the speakers, more quiet than usual.

“Is everything okay? Should I come?” He asked, voice laced with concern.

“No, no, nothing like that.” Yelena assured, “it’s the Avengers thing. Captain America just filed a lawsuit for copyright of the name.”

“What name?” Bob asked, as he crossed a road.

“Avengers. He’s copyrighting the name ‘Avengers’.”

Bob paused for a moment. “So, what does that mean for you guys?”

“Who knows, Bob. I think this whole hero thing is over as soon as it started. I knew it was too much to be true. We’re not heroes. Captain America is. We’ve just been substitutes this whole time-“

“Wait, Yelena, we don’t know all the facts, you should talk to the Captain, ask what he wants.” Then Bob added, “He seems like a reasonable guy.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Yelena replied, no less dejected. “Just letting you know why everyone’s in a mood when you come back.”

“Is that Bob?” Ava’s voice asked in the background.

Yelena told him not to worry and come back when he’s done, hanging up promptly afterwards. Bob frowned in sympathy for his friends. Alexei, and even John, had been pretty quick on this hero thing, but Ava and Yelena had only now started accepting their roles and feeling comfortable being applauded or cheered on. They deserved that. There’s only one reason after the team’s multiple successful missions that people would still doubt them or fear their intentions. 𝘈𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘦.

His head whipped up at the sound of panic on the road. A little boy had tripped up, right in front of a truck barrelling down at high speed. Without thinking, Bob sped to the scene and pushed the boy away. He hadn’t used his powers in months, but rushing to the boy with super-speed was instinct. After all, Bob would survive the truck. He was basically invisible. His eyes were squeezed shut, waiting for the impact, praying the void wouldn’t reappear.

Suddenly, a mass pushed into him but it wasn’t large enough to be the truck. Bob opened one eye and found himself looking down at the road a dozen meters below. Naturally, he screamed.

“Relax, man! I got you.” An unfamiliar voice replied, which Bob now registered belonged to a man in a green suit, holding Bob up under his arms and… flying? Before he could even process what was happening, he felt his feet touch ground again as he was lowered onto a rooftop.

The man in green started brushing himself off.

“What?” Bob said, dazed from the adrenaline. “You’re- you’re the falcon.”

“Yep.” The boy then held out a hand, “Joaquin.”

As Bob slightly raised his own hand to shake it, Joaquin started closing his fist and opening it repeatedly, his wings adjusting accordingly behind him. Bob tried to subtly lower his hand and hide the misunderstanding.

“I’m Bob.”

Joaquin rolled his shoulders. “Sorry, my wings got damaged recently, there’s something up with them. That was insane, jumping in front of a truck!”

“Well.” Bob shrugged.

Suddenly, Joaquin grinned. “Wait, I know you too.”

Then his grin dropped again, as if he had just remembered something unpleasant. “You’re with the Av- with Bucky’s team.”

Bob realised this was the perfect opportunity to get information for Yelena and the others. “Do you know why Captain America’s filing copyright? Oh, and uh thanks for the save.”

“Just doing my job. You guys really don’t know?”

Bob just shook his head.

“You’re working under Valentina, man.” Joaquin said as if it was obvious, “like the Sokovia Accords and everything Sam and the others fought for was for nothing. Not to mention her involvement in Wakanda, and president Ross asking Sam to rebuild the Avengers-“

“Wait, so it’s nothing to do with-“ Bob began, before realising he didn’t really want to say that out loud.

“Do with what?”

Bob hesitated and looked away while Joaquin kept a kind but intrigued expression directed at him.

“Me.” Bob admitted.

“Why would you have anything to do with it?” Joaquin asked.

“The whole void thing? Not a very heroic moment.” Bob replied, nervously laughing.

Joaquin’s eyes widened slightly, “that was you?”

Bob tried for a smile, but it was more of a grimace if he was honest with himself.

Joaquin quickly shoved down his surprise, “Bob, it had nothing to do with that. Sam, me and Sam, we don’t judge those things, you know? That’s not what being an Avenger is about. Wanda Maximoff was an Avenger. Hulk, I mean - Natasha Romanoff - she was like a red room assassin. It doesn’t matter what you did. It matters what you’ll do about it.”

Bob felt the smile on his face before he could control it, “Yeah.”

After a moment of staring at each other, Joaquin clapped his hands suddenly, “Right, I should probably put you back on the ground.”

Bob looked behind him at the 20 storey drop. “It’s okay, I can fly.”

“Shit, for real?” Joaquin said, all the surprise back. He then pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Sorry, Bob, duty calls. You sure you can get yourself down?”

Bob nodded and put on a reassuring smile, “Yeah, all good.”
He had already used his powers today, his ‘sobriety’ was over.

Joaquin nodded back in response and flew off, and for some bizarre reason, Bob watched him go until he was out of sight before returning back to the ground, the flying only getting him a few weird glances from pedestrians. Average day in New York, he supposed. He found his bag of books lying where he’d dropped them, untouched. That was not average for New York, but Bob was not going to question his luck.

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

Through the opening door of the Avenger’s Tower elevator, Bob watched as Yelena paced the room, Walker opened a bottle of some sort of alcohol, and Ava and Bucky were slumped on the couch. Alexei was writing something down? Drawing? Bob couldn’t tell.

“Bob! There you are.” Yelena said.

“Hey guys. Sorry about the lawsuit thing.” Bob replied.

“Why is he even doing this?” Someone asked.

Bob prepared himself to share the information he had gotten from Joaquin, but Bucky looked up and spoke.

“Back when Ross was president, he asked Sam to rebuild the Avengers. Sam wasn’t sure but he talked to me about it and- and I told him to go for it. So, I can only imagine how this looks to him.”

“The government said we are the Avengers.” Yelena replied. “If he is building a team, who are the real ‘Avengers’?”

“Team? All Sam has is that bird kid.” Walker shrugged.

“The falcon.” Bob corrected.

Walker gave Bob an incredulous look and Bob stared right back.

“Whatever!” Ava declared, “Falcon or not, we need to talk to Sam and figure this out. We have no idea what we’re doing.”

“Great.” Yelena smiled sarcastically, “One obstacle and everything falls down. We are such a successful team.”

“Nothing has fallen.” Alexei said. “Wobbled, maybe? Or it is tilting. Or it is like on the edge of the cliff but it hasn’t fallen yet. Or it is like-“

“Do you have a point?” Ava cut in.

“It is not over.” Alexei clarified.

“Very inspiring.” Yelena frowned before leaving.

Bucky, who had been oddly silent, spoke gently, “I’ll talk to him.”

“Can’t see that going wrong.” Walker rolled his eyes before leaving too.

Bucky sighed and rubbed a hand down his face.

Chapter Text

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

“We have Valentina under control, she can’t do anything with the information we have on her.” Bucky assured.

“You’re unbelievable, Bucky! After everything that happened, I can’t believe you would be okay with this. I thought… mhm.”

“What? What did you think, Sam?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“What happened to communication?”

“Bucky-“

“No, Sam, you can’t just give up when the conversation gets hard!”

“Fine! You want to know what I think? Is that what you want?” Sam asked, all of the usual playfulness lost from his tone, “I thought you were different - that you understood me. But you’re just like the rest of them.”

“Rest of who? Who are you talking about?”

“Everybody! The press, the government, hell, the others in the hero business. I’m doing everything I can, and there is always someone standing in my way.”

“I’m in your way now?”

“Of course you’re in my way, Bucky, what do you think this is?” Sam snapped.

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

The conversation replayed endlessly in Bucky’s head like an alarm that wouldn’t turn off. He frowned.

“Why are you still awake?” Yelena asked, walking into the main room of the tower.

“You’re awake.” Bucky retorted.

“Yeah, because I had a meeting with someone in a different time zone.” She sat down on the couch near him and stared at him for a minute, whilst Bucky continued looking at the floor.

“What?” Yelena said eventually.

Bucky debated his response. Usually he’d tell Sam whatever was plaguing him but that wasn’t an option right now. Bucky’s frown deepened. He had been living in the tower for over a year now, he knew Yelena wouldn’t judge. Maybe he should tell her. Or maybe not. Maybe it would be weird. What if-

“Buck.”

Only one person used to call him that. For a brief second, Bucky felt Sam’s presence next to him, but he looked up to meet Yelena’s questioning green eyes.

“I let him down.” Bucky said quietly.

“Who?” Yelena asked.

“Sam.”

Yelena paused for a second, eyebrows furrowed. “Sam, as in, Sam who’s suing us? …Why?”

Bucky was reminded that these people had no idea who Sam was, what he’d done, what he believes in. Back in Louisiana, any mention of Sam would have people lighten up, but now he’s surrounded by people who have no concept of Sam Wilson, outside of the ‘litigious man’. The only person who has a brief idea of Sam is Walker, and that was a disturbing thought.

“I talked to him.” Bucky explained to her, “Sam isn’t suing us, he’s trying to keep the Avengers name out of government hands.”

“But we are taking the hit for it.” Yelena replied, “and we have Valentina under control, what’s the big deal?”

Bucky exhaled softly and looked out the large windows. “Before all of this, back when Steve was Cap and I was still controllable by the trigger words, the old Avengers had this big fight about the Sokovia accords. It drove them apart. Steve, Sam, and some of the others, well they didn’t want the Avengers to be under government regulation, so they got sent to the raft for a while and then they were on the run for two years, and well, Sam says that we undid all his and Steve’s effort, and that it was all for nothing if we’re gonna ‘hand’ the Avengers back to the government.”

Yelena listened intently to Bucky’s words. After all, this was probably the most she’d heard him say.

“But there’s uh- there’s more.” Bucky said, now on a roll. “He says many people didn’t accept him anyway as Cap, and now they won’t take him seriously anymore because he’s not even on the Avenger’s team he was supposed to be leading. That he wanted to lead, because he, well he likes helping people, I guess. And that doesn’t even start with the whole thing with Valentina screwing over Wakanda and after everything they did for me, and for Sam, it’s getting… harder to justify.”

Yelena thought for a minute before saying, “Well it’s not like it was your decision.”

“Not at the time.” Bucky agreed, “but it’s been fourteen months and I haven’t done a thing about it.”

“This isn’t all on you.” Yelena assured.

“Maybe it is.”

“How is that even possible?”

“Because I was supposed to be there for him, and instead I’m the one creating the biggest problems in his life. I never wanted this.”

“You’re not alone, Bucky. Get some sleep.” Yelena replied with a reassuring pat on his back.

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

Alexei’s voice cut through the morning chatter in a panic, “HE’S COMING!”

“Who’s coming?” John asked, pouring a second helping of coffee into his cup.

“Captain America! He sent me email.” Alexei replied.

“Okay, there is no way that Sam emailed you specifically.” John replied, looking around the table for agreement.

Bucky was staring down at his phone, “No, it was an email to all of us.”

“Wait, since when do you check your email?” Yelena asked Alexei.

“I am very organised man, I always check my email, and my voicemail and the tower postbox.”

“Alexei, we don’t have a postbox.”

“Yes we do!”

“Guys.” Bucky cut through, “This is serious.”

“I don’t have my phone, what does it say?” Ava asked.

“He wants to talk to us ‘regarding’ the lawsuit.” Walker shrugged.

“He says he can come here tommorow.” Bucky added.

“Fun.” Ava responded.

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

As Bob vacuumed the main room, Bucky tried directing Ava and Walker to make some sort of Louisianan dish and Yelena tidied the tables and shelves. Alexei was still asleep but maybe that was for the better.

“You’re not stirring!” Walker accused Ava.

“I’m literally stirring it right now. What have you contributed other than complaining.”

“I made the sauce.”

“No you didn’t, you put the pre-made sauce into a pan.”

“What do you think making the sauce is!”

“Anyone could have done that!”

“This is impossible.” Bucky declared. “Okay, Walker, you set the table instead.”

“I’m not setting the table.” Walker asserted at the same time as Ava said “What is there to set?”

“What do you mean?” Bucky asked her, “Just put the chairs in the right place and put out some cutlery.”

“I’m not setting the table.” Walker repeated as Ava said, “we don’t have chairs.”

“How do we not have chairs? What are you talking about, I saw them last week?” Bucky replied.

“I’m not setting the t-“

“Shut up, John.” Ava interrupted. “No one uses the chairs, everyone eats in front of the TV or on the couch, and we had no money so I sold them.”

Bucky inhaled deeply. “You sold the chairs?”

No one responded.

“Where is Sam supposed to sit?” Bucky cried.

“Why are you so bothered?” Ava asked, “he can sit on the couch like everyone else.”

“He’s finally giving us a second chance.” Bucky replied, “we can’t just serve him food and tell him we ran out of chairs. Oh god. He’s gonna be here in two hours so you better work something out.”

Bob perked up, “Do you think he’s gonna bring Joaquin with him?”

“Who the hell is that?” Ava said, rubbing some sauce off the table.

“Sam’s kid? Probably.” Bucky told him.

Yelena frowned at Bob’s apprehension, “What’s the matter? Do we not like him?”

“Huh?” Bob asked.

“You look worried.” Yelena said. “If this boy hurt you-“

“No, no. I’m not worried, sorry. Just thinking.” Bob said with a reassuring smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

Bucky furrowed his eyebrows but didn’t question it further. “I’m going to buy some chairs.”

Chapter Text

The group stood in a line, staring at the elevator.

“Any moment now.” Bucky murmured.

The group kept staring.

“Do we really have to stand in a line?” Walker asked.

“Yeah, it’s weird.” Yelena shrugged.

“Did you just agree with me?” Walker asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Shut up, Walker.” Yelena and Ava responded simultaneously.

“Everyone shut up.” Bucky countered.

Alexei’s giggles started echoing in the silence, “I can’t believe we are meeting Captain America.”

“Neither,” Bucky grumbled.

Bob kept his glance towards the doors, not entirely sure what to expect.

Ava began to ask if the elevator was even working when she was cut off by the sound of its doors opening. Sam, in jeans and a bomber jacket, strode in followed by his apprentice, Joaquin.

Both groups stared at each other in silence for a moment. Bob’s glance flickered towards Joaquin, taking in his grey flannel and dark curls, which were hidden behind his helmet last time they met.

“Are you gonna invite us in?” Sam asked.

“Uh, yes, make yourself comfortable.” Bucky replied, gesturing towards the dining area. This was gonna be awkward, Bob figured.

Sam narrowed his eyes at the mismatched chairs, “these are interesting.”

“Yeah.” Bucky said, plastering a grin on his face before turning to Ava with a death glare.

It didn’t take long after that for the arguments to start. Bob tried to keep track of the conversation but it was moving very fast and not much was being said that was useful or constructive (at least by anyone on his team). Joaquin was mainly silent too, listening intently to what Sam was saying.

“Look, Captain,” Alexei began, while Yelena shook her head in contempt and rubbed her temples, “government said we are Avengers.”

Sam frowned, “Have you been listening to a word I’ve said? That’s exactly the problem.”

Alexei shrugged, “I was eating food, I was distracted.”

Sam closed his eyes. “Okay, I’ve had enough. Joaquin, grab your things.”

“Sam, wait!” Bucky pleaded.

“I can see how much all of this matters to you.” Sam countered, frustrated.

“Sam, it does matter to me.” Bucky said softly.

“Don’t bullshit me, Bucky. If it matters, why has nothing changed in 14 months?”

The table was now watching them silently, the tension in the room so thick it could be cut with a knife.

“Because, there’s more to the story.” Bucky replied.

“Like what?” Sam asked. “Tell me, Bucky, I can’t read your mind.”

“There’s-“ Bucky began, before an alarm started blaring through the room, causing everyone to stand up and the argument to take a hiatus.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘨𝘰𝘥. Bob thought, and he hadn’t realised he had murmured it out loud until Joaquin next to him chuckled in agreement.

‘Extradimensional ship entering atmosphere.’ The AI voice declared as Yelena switched off the alarms.

“Extradimensional? What does that mean?” Alexei asked.

Everyone turned to the screen in silence and watched as the sleek ship headed straight towards Earth on the monitor.

“Cool ship.” Walker commented.

“What’s up with the ‘four’?” Sam asked.

“No clue.” Bucky replied, before turning to his team. “Gear up.”

“Hold on,” Sam shook his head, “my team can deal with it.”

“You and Joaquin?” Bucky replied sceptically.

“And the others.” Sam said.

“What others?” Yelena asked, giving Bucky a sideways glance.

Sam just pulled out a small pocket device and pressed a button, causing Joaquin’s own version of the device to start buzzing as he took it out of his pocket.

“They’ll be here soon.” Sam said.

Chapter Text

“We have to move now, the ship will land any moment.” Bucky replied, as the rest of the New Avengers sorted out their gear, apart from Bob who still stood in his jumper, unsure what to say, as technically his team had no idea that he had used his powers again, the only person who had been there at the time was Joaquin.

“Bob, you stay here.” Yelena said turning to him.

“What? No way, you guys might need me.” Bob replied.

“Bob, what are you going to do? It’s too risky.” Walker said, in as gentle as his voice can get, which is honestly not a lot. “You haven’t used your powers in a year.”

This caused Joaquin to tune in to the conversation with a sideways glance, as he had seen Bob use his powers just a few days ago.

“Well…” Bob said to Walker, “I actually used them the other day.”

“Great. Sam’s built an entire team, which completely slipped our notice, and Bob’s using his powers again, what other important information has nobody bothered to mention?” Walker scowled.

“I was trying to help someone.” Bob told him, “this boy was in trouble.”

“Yeah, I was there.” Joaquin added.

Yelena raised her eyebrows, “Bob, why are you hanging out with the other team?”

“I wasn’t-“ Bob began, but he was stopped talking when he saw Ava’s startled expression as she stared somewhere behind him.

Bob slowly turned around and almost stumbled back in surprise.

“What is the matter, Captain?” Princess Shuri of Wakanda, in her full Black Panther gear, asked.

Behind her stood various faces Bob instantly recognised such as the She-hulk woman he saw on the news, the Ant-Man, Thor, Captain Marvel but also some Asian guy he didn’t know, in a red and black suit with massive bracelets on each arm. Wait… that looked a lot like that ‘bus-boy’ guy that trended last year. He hated to be critical of his own team, but Yelena was right, the New Avengers looked like substitutes in comparison.

“OH MY GOD!” Alexei cried in delight, “Yelena, are you seeing this! They just appear in rainbow beam of light!”

“Yes, Alexei, everyone is seeing it, calm down.” Yelena replied, voice even, but her eyebrows were worried and Bob could see the subtle sad shift in her expression, after a year in the tower together.
“The real heroes are here.” She said, much quieter.

Sam turned to his team, “Thank you for coming on short notice. An extra-dimensional ship is entering the atmosphere not far from the tower, we need to go and assess whether the visitors are friendly or not.”

“On it, Cap!” Ant-man replied in delight.

“What are we supposed to do?” Ava asked, glancing towards Bucky and Yelena.

“We’ll help.” Bucky declared.

Sam frowned, “we don’t need 14 people to check out the small ship, we might scare them off. Besides, what if they have alien tech? I don’t want people to get hurt unnecessarily.”

“We’re coming.” Bucky asserted, and Walker stood up straighter, dusting off his taco shield.

Sam simply sighed and followed his team into the elevator.

“You’re gonna have to call the elevator again, not much space.” Thor informed the other team as Joaquin rushed into the closing doors.

For a while the room was silent.

“Thor was just in our living room.” Bob said to no one in particular.

Ava and Walker started a debate about whether the elevator had reached the ground floor and should be called again or not. Yelena turned to Bucky, “his team is pretty serious. I don’t think we are even needed any more.”

Bucky shook his head, “his team can deal with big threats, but when they’re off in space, we can handle the streets of New York. There’s never enough good guys, right?”

Yelena didn’t say anything at first, eyes narrowed towards Alexei who was trying desperately to close his far-too-small utility belt around his waist.

“Yeah.” She said to Bucky, sounding unconvinced, before calling the elevator.

Bob looked around a couple of times and then followed the team into the elevator. Yelena seemed to have forgotten her protest of him coming with the sight of Sam’s Avengers team. Small wins.

Sam’s team had waited for them outside the elevator, and were talking amongst themselves. They were surreal to look at, almost everyone there someone Bob could never even dream of meeting.

“All right, what’s the plan?” Walker asked.

“Who are you again?” She-hulk replied, to which Walker scowled.

“I’m John Walker, US Agent. You probably saw me on TV.”

“I don’t think I have.” Jen shrugged. Ava watched the interaction with a slight smirk.

“Alright, we don’t have much time, let’s move.” Sam interrupted.

Both teams started heading towards the landing site and Bob noticed someone falling into step with him. He turned to meet eyes with Joaquin.

“I thought you were staying in the tower?” Joaquin asked.

“They’re just protective.” Bob shrugged, “no chance I was gonna miss an alien ship crash-landing in the middle of New York.”

“No shit,” Joaquin grinned, “I thought the coolest thing I was gonna see today was Ant-man!”

“Ant-man?” Bob smiled, “Thor and Captain Marvel are right there.”

“Nah, but you see, Ant-man is the real deal.” Joaquin said, in the manner of someone who’s had this exact debate many times before, “He can literally shrink to subatomic scales, and he’s like a younger Tony Stark, I mean he’s really intelligent but he’s also a superhero, and his work hacking into VistaCorp and returning five million dollars back to the customers they stole from, legendary. I was listening to his podcast, but he’s even funnier in person. He can literally talk to ants, like that is insane.”

Joaquin’s eyes were practically glowing at this point, and Bob knew it was the perfect opportunity to annoy him.

“But Thor’s a god.” Bob replied with a shrug, and watched as Joaquin’s shoulders fell. Bob couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped him, and to his surprise, Joaquin joined in too. They both jumped however at Alexei’s sudden yell.

“Aha! They even have the Spider-Man on their team!” Alexei cried.

“No we don’t?” Sam muttered in confusion before looking up to see the familiar red and blue suit swing past.

“Captain America Sir. I saw the ship coming down, what’s going on?” Spider-Man asked him.

“It’s just Sam, and that’s what we’re here to figure out. Guess this means you’re helping too?”

Bob looked up to see the ship which was now visible in the upper sky but still high enough to be slightly unclear.

“Shit, we need to deflect it away from citizens.” Sam said. “Carol, could you see if there’s any way to communicate with them?”

“On it!” Captain Marvel replied, shooting up into the sky.

“Seriously, why are we here?” Yelena muttered.

“Let’s start EVAC of the surrounding area, in case.” Sam directed and his Avengers ran out and began rounding up people in nearby buildings. Joaquin saluted at Bob before flying off to help too. Sam clicked on his comms, “Carol, Redwing is detecting a large field 100 meters out from here, West, can you get them to land there?”

“Consider it done, Cap” Her voice came back over the earpiece.

Sam turned to the New Avengers, “Could you guys help clear the field? We need an empty landing space.”

Yelena’s eyes widened slightly upon noticing her team looking at her for confirmation. “Uh, yes, we will do that. Come on.” She replied, running in the direction of the field

Once they reached the field, Captain Marvel had just landed at the same time.

“Long story, Sam” she said, “but they’re friendly. Escaping from a destroyed universe or something, they are going to try and land in the field but they’re having trouble because there’s damage to the ship. I offered our help.”

“Great work, Captain,” Sam replied, “Us and Joaquin can try to steer the ship from the outside.”

Sam turned to Yelena’s team, “Keep the ground clear!” He said before flying up.

“That was kind of awesome.” Bob said.

“Okay, you heard him.” Bucky replied, ignoring Bob, “Keep any people out of the area until the ship lands.”

In what took a few minutes, but felt like seconds, the New Avengers had cleared out the field and looked up as Sam, Joaquin, Captain Marvel and a few drones (redwings?) were manoeuvring the ship towards the ground, their faces scrunched tight with exertion.

With an anti-climatic thud, the three heroes lowered it to the ground. Sam’s Avengers team had returned from their EVAC jobs and were stood in the field, watching curiously. The ramp of the ship lowered, as a few sparks flew from the damaged wings. Bob could just about make out four shadows emerging behind the smoke.

“My name is Reed Richards.” The first man off the ramp announced, “We come in peace.”

Chapter Text

It didn’t take long for reporters and the general public to come pry at the scene of the extra-dimensional ship landing out in the open, despite Sam’s Avengers best efforts to keep them away for their own safety. Bucky quickly offered the family of four to return to the New Avengers’ tower to be able to debrief in peace.

“What about our ship?” A man made of literal rocks asked.

“It’s broken, right?” Walker shrugged, “Leave it.”

“Non-negotiable.” Reed replied, “I can fix it.”

“Okay. How long would that take?” Sam asked.

“… I don’t know.” Reed’s gentle voice replied. “Could be more than an hour.”

“We don’t have an hour.” Shang-chi said over the comms, frantically trying to contain the paparazzi.

“I could bifrost it?” Thor said.

“What does that mean?” The woman from the extra-dimensional ship asked, gently rocking a small child.

“Send it away to an abandoned but safe location.” He replied.

The four looked at each other, silently communicating with their eyes.

“You can trust us.” Sam assured, “You said you were the protectors of your universe. Well, we’re the protectors of ours.”

Reed sighed, “All right, but if anything happens to that ship-“

“It won’t.” Thor replied. Then much quieter, he added “hopefully.”

With that, Sam’s Avengers said their goodbyes and Thor promised to return soon to get the ship back in their hands. All but Joaquin, who stuck around by Sam’s side and returned to the tower with Bucky, Yelena and the New Avengers crew.

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

Bob listened with intrigue as the family explained their situation, escaping from their destroyed planet to keep their son Franklin safe, and how they ended up in another universe after phasing through a wormhole or black hole? Bob wasn’t really an academic. This was a whole family of scientists though, they had been astronauts before superheroes. Eventually, people started dispersing around the tower and finding places to settle whilst Yelena sorted out a room for the couple to stay with Franklin. Bob narrowed his eyes at the younger man in the group, Johnny, who had made his way around the room and was now talking to Ava.

Bob focused in a bit, letting his super-hearing zero in on their conversation.

“Am I crazy, or are you totally checking me out ghost lady?” Johnny asked her, leaning against the door.

Bob blinked in surprise. It seemed uncharacteristic for Ava to have picked up the first (and fairly younger?) man to enter the building, especially during this whole crisis.

“You have three seconds to leave before I phase you through the wall.” Ava snarked.

Okay, that makes more sense.

“That didn’t sound nearly as romantic as you thought it did.” Johnny smirked in response, “But it’s okay, we can work with that.”

But when Ava’s eyes begin to narrow dangerously, the rock man (did he say his name was Ben?) quickly pulled Johnny away and began lecturing him in the corner. After hearing the explanation of their arrival from the sophisticated, kind and intelligent Mr Fantastic and Invisible Woman, Sue’s brother seemed to be kind of a dick in comparison, Bob thought.

“What’s up?” A voice asked him from much closer and Bob turned to meet eyes with Joaquin.

“Oh, Joaquin, hey.” Bob greeted.

Joaquin snapped his fingers all of a sudden, “Oh man, I totally forgot to ask Ant-man to sign my book.”

“I don’t know if he could’ve, maybe he was distracted with the whole alien family crash-landing thing.” Bob teases.

Joaquin shook his head, “These guys aren’t aliens, right?”

“They came from outer space.” Bob shrugged, “so, aliens.”

“They came from an alternate Earth.” Joaquin said, “Not the same thing.”

“It’s between androids, aliens and wizards. Aliens are the only reasonable option.” Bob responded.

“I’m starting to think the big three needs to be expanded.” Joaquin replied. “Is Bucky still denying its a thing?”

“Yep. He even got Alexei to join his side. I think him and Walker debated it for two straight hours once. Got nowhere.” Bob sighed, rubbing one eye with his hand.

Joaquin lit up, about to respond when Sam called the attention of the room. Reed and Sue gave each other a long look before Sue said to the room, “There’s a man. He calls himself Doom. He wasn’t just after our Earth, he was after them all and until he is gone, no one is safe. He was too powerful for us to face without running. Even with everyone here I don’t know if we stand a chance. We need to be prepared for his return.”

The room quickly broke out into chatter and a slight sense of panic and skepticism. The four began to explain strange concepts like doombots and the multiverse and Bob found himself zoning out again. The more he saw the frown lines crease Yelena’s face and Bucky’s shoulders drop with weariness, he realised the kind of danger his friends would be in. The kind of danger the sentry could prevent. After all his team had done for him, it was an easy decision. He had to bring back the sentry to keep his new family safe.

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

Alone in his room, Bob began simple and harmless practise, moving pillows across his room using his powers, or turning on and off the lights. It didn’t take long for him to fall back into form and once he impulsively shattered a glass in the kitchen, he decided he was ready to take it to the next step. Bob began using his powers to move larger things like furniture when he was alone, and his confidence began to skyrocket.

Of course, there’s an inevitable consequence of using his powers. Bob began sleeping less too, waking up in the early hours of the morning with a gasp, the two bright eyes of the void flashing behind his eyelids. It seeped through everything he did, the voice only getting louder the more he used his powers. But Bob was better, he could control it, he was capable. His priority was keeping his friends safe and he wasn’t going to back out before the fight even began.

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

Joaquin stumbled into the kitchen, reading the time 3:47AM on the microwave in the living room. He sighed, rubbing his eyes before heading towards the couch to put on some background noise, maybe one of the ancient sitcoms Sam insisted he could not live without watching. As Joaquin made his way to the couch, he heard a small yelp.

“Oh, uh, hi.” The man said, “I thought I was alone.”

Joaquin squinted at the figure, still clouded with sleepiness.

“I’m Johnny. I sort of crash landed here like a few hours ago? It was a pretty big deal.” The man reminded him as if it was obvious.

“You didn’t crash,” Joaquin said, “Me, Sam and Carol lowered the ship specifically to prevent you crashing.”

“Details. You’re the guy in the green suit?” Johnny asked.

Joaquin nodded and introduced himself, “Joaquin.”

“Cool.”

A slightly awkward silence settled in the room before Joaquin sat down beside him. “Can’t sleep?” He asked.

Johnny stared at the wall for a moment. “Yeah, well, watching your planet explode kinda does it for a guy.”

Joaquin frowned, “I can’t imagine.”

“You’re awake too, obviously. Let me guess… girl troubles?”

“What? No.” Joaquin said. “Do you ever think about anything apart from girls?”

“Sometimes I think about myself.” Johnny joked. “Not a lot though, I’m a pretty selfless guy.”

“Did you see him? Doom?” Joaquin asked after a pause, changing the subject.

Johnny stiffened instantly. “I-“ He paused for a moment. “He wears a mask but mainly I faced his robot army.”

“I hope you realise how that sounds.” Joaquin smiled a bit.

“Like the plot of a 40s sci-fi?”

“What? Did they have films in the 40s?” Joaquin asked. “Bucky would know.”

“Of course they had films in the 40s, Joaquin, they had flying cars and spaceships.”

“The first human was sent to space in 1961.” Joaquin replied. This guy really was a dumbass. “And flying cars, what are you talking about? We don’t have those.”

“You guys don’t have flying cars in this universe? Wait what year is it?” Johnny asked.

“Are you being for real? It’s 2028.”

“2028?” Johnny gasped, “It was 1963 on my Earth.”

“Wait, what? Your civilisation sounds so different. Flying cars and space travel by the 40s? Yo, that is awesome!” Joaquin gushed, sleepiness leaving his body as the conversation continued.
Joaquin sobered up again, “Was it doom that… destroyed your universe?”

“No, actually, that was another guy. Galactus.” Johnny shrugged, “long story… Seriously, what’s keeping you up, man? I just beared my soul to you, so you know.”

“That was bearing your soul?” Joaquin squinted his eyes. “Anyway, I don’t really know. Combination of nightmares and worrying about the future, the usual.”

“The usual.” Johnny replied, sensing that Joaquin didn’t really want to talk about it. “So what else is different about our universes?”

Before long, they got to discussing food, music, movies and politics.

“Dude!” Joaquin exclaimed, “It is a crime that your universe did not have this music. You have got to listen to this like immediately.”

“Did you just say a purple man with 6 stones removed half of humanity??”

“Galactus was how tall??”

“Two world wars??”

Before they knew it, they were laughing and exchanging crazy stories when a third person stumbled in the room.

“Guys?” Bob asked, half asleep. “It’s five am.”

“Robert?” Joaquin asked, glancing up at him.

“Yeah. You’re up?” Bob shrugged, flopping down on the chair next to the couch.

“Its already five AM? Damn, Johnny, you’re better company than I thought.” Joaquin laughed, patting Johnny’s shoulder.

“You’re alright too. But then again, not a lot of options out here.” Johnny joked back.

“I wish that was a joke.” Joaquin replied. “Bob’s good company though.”

Bob smiled and shook his head, “thank you? Although you did kind of insult my whole team.”

“Come on, dude. It’s between you, the scary women, or the loud Russian guy or Bucky or John Walker.” Joaquin explained, listing off his fingers.

“Man, that ghost lady is terrifying.” Johnny replied.

Bob narrowed his eyes at him, “I saw you try to flirt with her.”

“What?” Joaquin laughed, “Man, I wish I saw that… Did she punch you?”

“No.” Johnny rolled his eyes in response, “and why do you sound so happy about the idea of me getting punched?”

Joaquin just grinned and turned to Bob, “did you just wake up?”

“Yeah.” Bob nodded.

“Damn that’s early, Sam would love you.” Joaquin teased.

“No chance, I usually wake up at noon.” Bob chuckled.

“Nightmares?” Joaquin asked in concern and Bob realised what he had said.

“Something like that. It’s not a big deal.” Bob shrugged, smiling reassuringly.

Johnny then pulled out his phone from his pocket and smiled at some notification, distracting Joaquin from their conversation. Thank god, Bob thought again.

“I’m sorry, how the hell does your phone work in another universe?” Joaquin asked.

“Yeah I barely get signal once I leave the kitchen.” Bob added

Johnny shook his phone and smirked, “Reed Richards tech, baby!”

“You think he could hook me up with one of those?” Joaquin asked, “it’s just that, I kinda cracked my phone when I got hit by that missile and my abuela said she-“

“You got hit by a missile?” Bob interrupted. “That’s horrible.”

“I got hit by a missile, 𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘺𝘭𝘦.” Joaquin emphasised, “it was this whole thing back when Ross was president, I was just telling Johnny-“

Joaquin and Johnny started catching Bob up with their conversation, who to Joaquin’s surprise was really interested in the flying cars. The conversation got sidetracked quickly and soon Bob had brought popcorn and soda from the kitchen and they were all laid back, some Star Wars movie playing on the screen that Joaquin and Bob insisted Johnny couldn’t live without seeing.

“Okay, okay. Let me think.” Johnny said. “Uhh, one - I’m the best looking member of the fantastic four. Two, I once beat Ben in an arm wrestle, and three… I have a line of cologne named after me, called Blaze.”

“That’s not how the game works,” Joaquin said, “it’s two truths and a lie. Those are all lies.”

“What?” Johnny frowned, “they’re all truths.”

“The first one can’t be a truth, it was subjective.” Joaquin replied.

“No, the first one was a straight up lie.” Bob said, Joaquin laughing next to him.

“And if they’re all ‘true’” Joaquin said with quotation marks, “that’s still not how the game works.”

“You guys are no fun.” Johnny scowled. “I guess I just have too many interesting things to say.”

The movie had ended and started another debate as Johnny questioned why it had been so essential for him to see.

“It was mediocre at best.” Johnny shrugged.

“You were hardly watching, we were playing two truths and a lie.” Joaquin defended.

“Well, me and Joaquin were.” Bob added.

“That was only for twenty minutes.” Johnny said, “I watched the rest.”

“If we were in that film, who would we be?” Joaquin wondered out loud.

“I’m definitely Han.” Johnny explained. When Bob and Joaquin gave him a glance he began explaining, “you know, cool, smart, good with ladies?”

“I can’t tell if you’e joking anymore.” Joaquin deadpanned. He turned to Bob, “You would be Leia.”

“You think?” Bob asked.

“Guess that makes you Leo.” Johnny said, patting Joaquin on the shoulder.

“His name is Luke.” Joaquin said at the same time as Bob said “This is exactly why your opinion on the film does not count.”

“Does Luke ever end up with her? Leia?” Johnny asked.

Joaquin winced, “Well-“

“Don’t spoil it!” Bob stopped him, “think about it - he gets to experience all of Star Wars for the first time.”

“No way am I watching another one of those!” Johnny protested.

Eventually, the conversations became more sparse as Bob and Joaquin started dosing off, exhaustion from the previous day seeping in. Johnny turned off the TV, gave his new friends one last look and returned to the room he was sharing with Ben.

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

Joaquin blinked open to the lights flickering and one of the empty soda bottles rolling off the table and landing in his lap, seemingly by itself. Joaquin sat up faster and rubbed his eyes, looking over to his side and seeing that Johnny had left. Joaquin figured he must have fallen asleep. He turned to Bob’s chair, to see him asleep too, but his eyebrows were furrowed and his head was turning slightly from side to side. Joaquin gently shook his shoulder, trying to wake him up, however Bob didn’t even flinch or notice. Just as Joaquin pulled back, Bob’s eyes shot open, his usual blue irises turned bright and yellow.

“Bob?” Joaquin whispered.

The lights flickered faster now and the soda bottle on Joaquin’s lap flew and hit the wall.

“Bob?” Joaquin repeated cautiously, reaching out a hand, but Bob wasn’t looking at him. He was staring into the distance, face set. “Bob, can you hear me?”

“What?” Bob turned to him and asked quietly, seemingly confused. Joaquin wasn’t sure if he was seeing things, but Bob’s eyes seemed to flit from yellow to blue.

“Are you okay?” Joaquin asked.

Bob rubbed his forehead and took a minute to respond. “Sorry about that.”

“No, it’s fine-“ Joaquin insisted.

“It’s not.” Bob avoided eye contact as he spoke, “I don’t know what’s going on, I just…”

Joaquin tried his best to look reassuring. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

Bob hesitated. Yelena’s voice in his head told him that he should make friends and talk about things, but deep down he knew Joaquin didn’t really care about Bob’s powers and void problems, he was just asking to be nice.

“You don’t have to, if you don’t want. We could do something else.” Joaquin said, filling the silence that had settled over the room.

“Well.” Bob took a breath, “It’s this thing with my powers. When I start to use them, there’s this… side effect.”

“When you used them to save that boy? That triggered it?” Joaquin interrupted.

“Not completely,” Bob frowned, “I’ve actually been practising with them.”

Joaquin gave him a glance, “are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“I know what I’m doing.” Bob asserted, slightly irritated.

“I wasn’t-“ Joaquin began but Bob continued, “You heard what Susan said, about him. About Doom. I can’t just sit around when everyone I care about is in danger.”

Joaquin contemplated for a moment and relaxed into his chair. “You know, I actually get that.”

Bob relaxed too. “Joaquin, what I can do, what I’m capable of… I’ve barely scratched the surface. If I’m ready, maybe I could take him on.”

“Doom? By yourself? You heard what Sue-“ Joaquin said, sitting up again.

“If someone gets hurt because I’m too afraid to use my powers, that’s on me. I can be really useful. I can finally prove that I’m...” Bob paused, sighing.

“Enough?” Joaquin asked, “I get it, man. That pressure, because people’s lives literally count on you. But, no one’s expecting you to fight doom yourself. All of us in this tower, we’re a team. That’s gotta count for something.”

“We are a team.” Bob agreed, “So I’m gonna help.”

Joaquin nodded. “What will that mean for you?”

“I mean, it’s about making sure the void doesn’t come back. I know I can control it, it’s just… so loud sometimes.”

“It talks to you?” Joaquin asks, eyes widening.

“All the time,” Bob laughed humourlessly. “The best thing about me and I can hardly use it without sending the entirety of New York into a massive shame room.”

Joaquin shook his head, “Your powers aren’t the best thing about you.”

Bob scoffed gently, and looked out the massive windows in the Tower, the sunrise casting a beautiful orange glow over the sky. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘶𝘯𝘴. That’s what Valentina had told him, anyway.

Joaquin looked at him carefully, “Your worth doesn’t depend on what you can do for other people. Despite all this void stuff, you’re still practising with your powers, because you care about your team and you don’t want them to get hurt.”

Bob turned to look at him.

Joaquin smiled, “You’re a good person, Bob.”

Bob smiled slightly. Joaquin had no idea how messed up Bob truly was so his words only meant so much, but for some reason, Bob felt lighter anyway.

“And you’re funnier than Johnny, so there’s that.” Joaquin continued, smile growing teasing.

“That’s not a very high bar, but thank you.” Bob laughed a little. “Has anyone told you that you spend a lot of time with Captain America?”

“Mainly Captain America.” Joaquin laughed back.

Bob sinks back into his chair. “Thanks, Joaquin.”

“Yeah, Bob. Of course.”

Chapter Text

Yelena stepped into the living room, eye makeup half-done. “Bob?” She asked, prodding him with the end of her makeup brush. “You fell asleep on the chair.”

Bob just hummed in response and rubbed his eyes, blinking awake. “Yelena?”

“You have a room you know.” She said.

Bob just frowned in confusion and turned to the couch, but he found it empty. Bob wondered if he had dreamed that entire situation with Joaquin. He met eyes with Yelena, who was looking at him pointedly.

“I, uh, guess I fell asleep.” Bob shrugged.

“You guess?” Yelena asked, “your back is going to hurt. Come on, let’s change the music on John’s headphones, he’s in the gym.”

“Why?” Bob questioned, already getting up.

“Because it’s fun.” Yelena said as if it was a stupid question to ask.

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

Later, Bob walked past the living area, scrolling through his phone, when he glanced up to see Joaquin nodding as Alexei spoke to him passionately, using a lot of hand gestures. Bob didn’t realise that he was smiling at the scene until Joaquin glanced to the side and noticed him staring. Bob looked down at his phone again and walked past to the next rooms.

“And that is how I defeated Captain America in the 1980s.” Alexei finished proudly.

“Damn, that’s crazy. Sorry, man, I really gotta go this time.” Joaquin told Alexei, patting him on the shoulder and following after where Bob had went.

“Bob?” Joaquin asked, poking his head through a few doors in the corridor. He stopped when he caught Bob in one of the rooms, staring through a large window at the New York skyline.

Joaquin stepped up to join him. “Hey, you doing okay?”

“Yeah,” Bob smiled, “What’s up?”

“Well, you know, last night.” Joaquin said gently, “I was kinda worried.”

“Sorry,” Bob began, but Joaquin shook his head, “No, not like that. Don’t be sorry.”

After a moment of silence, Joaquin laughed quietly, “Thanks for the save.”

“Hm?” Bob gave him a confused smile.

“Alexei can talk for a very long time.” Joaquin explained.

Bob let out a breath of amusement before looking over at Joaquin, “Thanks for the save too, yesterday.”

Joaquin smiled back and then looked out to the sky again, squinting at something. “What the hell?”

Bob turned to see what Joaquin was looking at.

“What?” Bob asked, narrowing his eyes at the strange shape piercing through the sky.

“Shit, it’s headed for us!” Joaquin blurted, as the blur in the distance sped towards them at incredible speed.

Bob immediately shielded Joaquin with his body, feeling hundreds of pellets hit his skin.

“Bob!” Joaquin cried out, pulling them both away from the window with force.

Bob was knocked out across the floor, and Joaquin patted him with increasing panic. “Bob? Bob! Shit! Bob?”

Bob scrunched his eyes closed and coughed, “I’m fine, I’m fine,” but his words only panicked Joaquin more.

“What?” Joaquin exclaimed, “you just took like 50 bullets! How are you-”

“Would it be crazy if I said this wasn’t my first time?” Bob chuckled humourlessly, gripping his side in pain.

Bucky practically broke down the door storming in, Walker and Sue on his tail. “What the hell is going on?” Bucky asked, gun in hand.

“There’s something out there, it attacked us!” Joaquin explained, helping Bob to his feet.

“Something?” Sue asked cautiously whilst Walker checked up on Bob.

Bucky’s eyes widened as a figure floated outside the window, cold metallic mask covering his face, draped in a green cloak. Before he could even process what was happening, the figure was launched across the room and through the glass, replaced by a much more familiar one.

“Spider-Man?” Joaquin asked, Bob still leaning on him.

“I’m sorry about your room.” Spider-Man replied, tiptoeing past the shattered glass, “So, we have a problem.”

“I can see that.” Walker grumbled as Sue walked cautiously towards the knocked-out cloaked figure.

“This is bad.” Sue said, mainly to herself. She turned to the room, “These are the doombots Reed and I spoke about. They’re here.”

“This one went down pretty easy.” Walker shrugged.

Spider-Man shook his head, “I’ve been at this guy for an hour, he was basically dead when he rushed in here. These things are horrible - nearly indestructible and completely unbothered if they hurt civilians or damage buildings.”

“And Doom is bringing them here.” Sue finished.

The heroes called a team meeting in the main quarters to discuss the emergency.

“Is everyone alright?” Sam asked, checking on Joaquin and Bob after hearing the story. Reed began taking apart the doom-bot that had been left knocked-out in the tower.

“I’ve never been able to analyse one so closely,” Reed explained, “perhaps I can identify its weaknesses.”

“Good.” Sam nodded, “How many do we think are out there?”

“There’s no way to tell,” Ben responded, “But we dealt with way over 30 in our universe. Nearly killed us.”

“What do they even want?” Yelena asked.

Reed and Sue gave each other a meaningful look and Sue nodded.

“We haven’t told you everything, but you have to understand,” Reed began. “Doom, he wants our son.”

“Franklin?” Sam asked. Reed just looked down, exhaustion set in his shoulders.

“We won’t let them touch your son.” Bucky assured him. “You’re not alone this time.”

“What is so special about baby Franklin?” Alexei asked gently.

“He’s a mutant.” Sue replied, “capable of incredible power that Reed and I don’t fully understand yet. But he’s just our baby. We can’t let him…”

“Okay, so we need to protect the baby and fight off 30 robots?” Yelena asked. “We can do that.”

“Don’t worry,” Sam told the couple, “There is no safer place he could be.”

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

After the conversation began to close, Peter awkwardly lingered around Bucky, pacing slightly nervously and fidgeting with his hands.

“What?” Bucky asked eventually. “You clearly want to say something.”

“Sorry if this is out of line,” Peter began, “But it’s just that, the doom-bot sort of destroyed my apartment and I don’t really have anyone else to go to-“

Bucky was suddenly reminded of himself—back in Louisiana, at Sam’s place, all those years ago when they first teamed up against the Flag-Smashers. A faint smile tugged at his lips as he said, “Make yourself at home, kid.”

Spider-Man exhaled in relief and thanked him profusely.

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

Bob was up late into the night, practising his powers in his room when no one else was awake to hear him, when he felt the urge to get some water. As he stumbled past the kitchen, he found Joaquin and Johnny watching another movie. The two had made a habit of this, Bob noticed - staying up late into the night and hanging out. He stepped into their view with a small smile.

“Hey guys.” Bob said, sitting down beside them. “Harry Potter?” He asked at the familiar film on the screen.

“Can you believe they didn’t have this in Johnny’s ‘perfect’ universe?” Joaquin said pointing at the screen. “Like this was my whole childhood.”

“That is incredibly sad.” Johnny said, unable to hide his teasing smile.

“Say what you want, I cried when I didn’t get my Hogwarts letter.” Joaquin shrugged, which startled a laugh out of Bob whilst Johnny questioned what a ‘Hogwarts’ even was. Joaquin smiled at Bob for a moment before the amusement slipped off his face.

“I never got to thank you, for back there.” Joaquin said, “those bullets you-“

“Oh that’s fine, I- I’m kind of bulletproof. So, it wasn’t really anything.” Bob shrugged with a slight smile plastered on his face.

“It had to hurt.” Joaquin added, turning his head fully towards Bob with a concerned expression. Johnny watched the two from the corner of his eye, not wanting to intrude.

“That doesn’t really matter.” Bob said, looking away with a nervous exhale. Joaquin furrowed his eyebrows, about to respond, when a fourth person entered the room.

“Oh, sorry.” Spider-Man said upon realising he wasn’t alone.

“No, it’s cool. You wanna watch?” Joaquin offered him.

Spider-Man considered for a moment before sitting down with them, “sure, thanks.”

“Do you ever take that mask off?” Johnny asked, glancing at him.

“When I shower.” He joked in response.

After some time watching the film in silence, Johnny spoke again. “So, what do we call you? Because Spider-Man is too long, and kind of ridiculous.”

“Ridiculous?” Spider-Man responded with a frown. “I- I can’t share that.”

“Guess we’re calling you Webs.” Johnny shrugged.

“Webs?” He questioned, confusion lacing through his voice.

“Because you’re a spider, and you shoot webs.” Johnny explained.

“I don’t think that’s why he was confused.” Joaquin added.

“I like this part.” Bob mumbled as he watched the film. Joaquin gave him another subtle glance before focusing on the movie.

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

The film was coming to a close and Joaquin was the only one still watching, as Peter was getting some food from the kitchen, Bob had taken to reading his book and Johnny had somehow ended up upside down on the couch as he scrolled through his phone. He put his phone down and exhaled.

“I can’t believe the doom-bots are back.” Johnny muttered.

“Was it the same as the robot army you had in your universe?” Joaquin asked.

“Yeah. I hoped those were lost with the rest of the planet.” Johnny sighed.

Peter had come back now, half of his mask lifted up as he chewed a mouthful of popcorn. “You’re from another universe?!”

“Oh, me?” Johnny asked. “Yeah.”

“That’s crazy,” Peter said, landing onto a seat next to the couch, “I once met two versions of myself from another universe.”

This quickly piqued everyone’s interests, causing Peter to go on a tangent about Dr Strange and meeting his different variants.

“That is insane,” Bob replied, whilst Johnny started theorising what his variants would be like.

“Damn, I kind of wish I could meet another version of me.” Joaquin grinned.

“It was something else,” Peter agreed, not mentioning anything to do with Aunt May, Ned or MJ.

Before long, the four got roped into discussions and theories about their variants.

“In one universe, I could probably turn invisible and Sue would set on fire.” Johnny noted.

“In one universe, Sue didn’t marry Reed, you did,” Joaquin joked as Johnny pulled a face at him.

“Somewhere out there, I never became the sentry.” Bob wondered.

“I bet I play for the Miami Hurricanes.” Joaquin said with a small smile on his face.

“Keep dreaming,” Johnny replied, shoving him lightly.

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

The next morning, Joaquin found Sam making coffee in the kitchen.

“Have you slept?” Sam teased him, seeing his dishevelled state.

“Not much,” Joaquin admitted.

“Everything okay?” Sam asked, offering Joaquin a mug of coffee.

“Yeah, it’s good. Been teaching Johnny the ways of 2028.” Joaquin explained, “making him listen to Bad Bunny and watch Star Wars. The essentials, you know?”

“Right, obviously.” Sam grinned, shaking his head. He turned to Joaquin with a more serious expression, “How have you been since yesterday, getting attacked by a doom-bot?”

“I’m okay, Bob took the full impact - jumped in front of me.” Joaquin explained, “for the thirty seconds when I didn’t know he was bulletproof…”

Sam listened intently and put a hand on Joaquin’s shoulder. “I don’t know where Bucky finds these people,” he muttered, drawing an amused huff from Joaquin, “but I’m glad you’re okay.”

Joaquin smiled in response, then burnt his tongue on the coffee. Ava walked in at that moment, all business.

“What’s the plan with the ’doom-bot’ situation?” Ava asked, “because we have zero leads as of right now.”

“I’ll check with Reed,” Sam replied, “He was investigating the remains of the one from yesterday.”

Sam patted Joaquin on the shoulder before leaving and heading towards the labs.

“So. You’re Joaquin?” Ava asked him.

Joaquin raised his eyebrows slightly, “uh, yeah. I am.”

Ava gave him a once-over. “Interesting.”

Joaquin narrowed his eyes, “What do you mean interesting?”

“Nothing… just heard a lot about you.” Ava shrugged before walking off.

“From who?” Joaquin called after her, but he wasn’t met with a response. “Okay, that’s not ominous at all.”

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

Into the late hours of the night, Joaquin and Johnny were back in the living area, sat on the floor and resting against the couch. Joaquin would never admit it out loud, but this was his favourite time of the day. Johnny had become less and less annoying over time, and was now even occasionally funny. There’s only one thing that makes these late-night activities better though, and that was when Bob tagged along. Joaquin wondered what he was always up to, joining them hours later on the nights that he did, and more nights never showing up at all.

“What?” Johnny asked, brining Joaquin back to the present.

“Hm?” Joaquin mumbled, rubbing his eyes. Staying up every night had a toll as well, but this was far superior to sitting in the dark alone with his thoughts.

“You’re zoned out.” Johnny said, “You know, you can’t use this as an excuse when you lose.”

Joaquin looked over at the Uno game splayed out in front of them.

“I’m not gonna lose, I’m locked in.” Joaquin replied, playing a couple of cards.

“I’ll pretend I know what that means.” Johnny smirked but Joaquin hadn’t heard him, he was looking at the door again.

“Seriously? What are you-“ Johnny started until he saw Bob pad through the door, hand hung awkwardly behind his neck. He gave them a small wave before heading through to the kitchen. Johnny turned back to Joaquin and blinked at the fond smile on his face.

“Joaquin? You have to pick up four.” Johnny declared.

This caused Joaquin to turn back around, startled. “What?”

“I’m kidding.” Johnny said, rolling his eyes. “Only way to take your eyes off Bobby there.”

“What?” Joaquin repeated, startled once again.

“Dude, I’m messing with you.” Johnny replied, giving him a slightly concerned glance. “You okay?”

“Tired.” Joaquin replied, playing another card. Johnny just nodded in response.

Bob came back with a glass of water in one hand. “Uno?” He asked.

“Yep.” Joaquin replied, moving over to make space. “You could give Johnny a hand, he’s kind of confused.”

“Hey!” Johnny protested, “they didn’t even have this game in my universe and I’ve still got less cards than you.”

Johnny played a blue card and Joaquin started shaking his head, an apologetic frown on his face. “You have to pick up eight when you play an odd-number blue card.”

Bob gave him a confused glance as Johnny sighed in frustration and picked up eight cards, muttering “This game has the dumbest rules. Who came up with this?”

Bob was about to ask when Joaquin winked at him with an overly pleased smile. Bob held in a laugh and nodded, “yeah, I hate the rules too. It is what it is.”

“What it is, is impossible to win. Every time I get closer, some card makes me have to pick up another eight.” Johnny complained, sorting through his deck.

Bob couldn’t help chuckling a bit. “I’ll be honest Joaquin, this is a little embarrassing for you. Having to cheat multiple times to win.”

“Cheat?” Johnny and Joaquin asked simultaneously, Johnny with a frown contrasting Joaquin’s grin.

“Ah, I give up!” Johnny said, dropping his cards in the centre.

“I think that means I automatically win!” Joaquin said, pumping his fist.

“Joaquin.” Bob said with a small smile, “you definitely lost.”

Joaquin went on a tangent about how he absolutely won, but Johnny watched Bob’s fond smile instead. Both of them, Johnny thought, were stupid.

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

Before the sun had fully risen, Sam stormed into the living area in his suit, alarms blaring through the tower. The TV played quietly in the background, announcing the unexpected attack of 15 doombots in Times Square.

“Where is everybody?” Sam called, face set in determination, “We gotta go.”

Yelena and Bucky followed, along with Reed and Sue, all suited up. “Where’s your team?” Yelena asked.

“They’re gonna meet us there.” Sam replied, setting up the configuration for his wings.

Within minutes, everyone was making their way to the room, fully geared up and blinking away the remnants of sleep.

“Not even a morning coffee first.” Walker complained, adjusting his helmet.

Joaquin looked around the room before glancing at Johnny, “Have you seen Bob?”

“Relax, your boyfriend will get here.” Johnny shrugged, pulling at the corner of his suit.

Joaquin frowned at him irritably, about to respond when he heard Yelena’s quiet “oh my god.”

The room fell silent as Joaquin turned around, Bob’s steel gaze searching the room as he entered the door.

“What?” Bob asked in response to the silence, but he didn’t get a response.

Chapter Text

“Bob?” Yelena questioned, taking a small step towards him. “I didn’t know you still had that.”

“Valentina didn’t really have time for clean-up.” Bob shrugged, stretching his neck. He looked like a completely different person, Joaquin thought, geared in his Sentry suit. “So, are we going?” Bob continued.

“I think you should sit this one out, Bobby.” John Walker said quietly.

“What? Why?” Bob scowled.

“I’m sorry, did you forget last time?” Walker replied, louder than before.

Bob took an intimidating step towards him, “That was more than a year ago. I can control it, Walker.”

“At least you don’t have the hair dye this time.” Ava said, trying to break the tension in the room.

“Guys?” Sam interrupted, “We have to hurry. Can you discuss this later?”

“You’re right, we’ll discuss later.” Bucky said, “Bob you have to stay here.”

Bob turned his glare from Walker to Bucky, “Don’t tell me what to do. I’m sick of everyone treating me like I’m gonna-“

“They are just trying to help.” Alexei tried placatingly.

“What do you think I’m trying to do?” Bob asked, “None of you are bulletproof or invincible. Those robots will crush you in seconds. I’m the only one who can take them, I’m not useless like you all seem to think.”

“Bob, we don’t think-“ Yelena began sincerely but Bob shook his head and said, “We have to move, you heard Sam.”

Bob walked into the elevator, and after a moment of hesitation was followed by Ava and then the rest of their team. Yelena still had a concerned frown on her face, but remained silent as she waved the Fantastic Four, Sam, Joaquin and Spider-Man goodbye.

“What the hell was that about?” Johnny asked once the New Avengers had left. Sam frowned but no one gave a response.

“All right, everyone ready?” Sam asked.

“Let’s do this.” Reed nodded, his hand lingering on Sue’s arm. She gave him a reassuring smile in response.

Joaquin had been staring into the distance until Johnny gave him a shove. “You wanna get those loser-bots back for last time?”

“Yeah!” Joaquin replied, with a slight chuckle, but Johnny noticed the tension in his jaw.

“Don’t worry about Bobert,” Johnny told him, “He really is invincible.”

“No, it’s...” Joaquin began before sighing. “I’m just surprised, I guess.”

“Me too.” Johnny nodded, “Never seen his arms without those massive jumpers. Not bad.”

Joaquin scowled at him, “Do you ever shut up?"

“Nope.” Johnny chuckled, patting Joaquin on the shoulder.

“Bobert?” Spider-Man asked, “Is giving terrible nicknames your superpower?”

“You can’t talk, Webs.” Johnny replied.

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

Sam’s Avengers team were already at the scene when they arrived, having evacuated most of the public and fighting off doombots with all their force. Joaquin looked in awe as She-hulk threw a doom-bot through the air, straight into the view of Shang-chi who then blasted it with his glowing bracelets (Joaquin has to ask about those) causing it to fall to the ground, limp.

“Sam!” Shuri’s voice came over the comms, “You finally made it.”

“What’s the situation?” Sam asked.

“Tough, but doable,” Carol responded, “What are these things?”

“Doom-bots. I’ll explain later.” Sam replied.

“Doom-bots? That is a terrible name,” Scott replied as he threw a pym-particle disc at a car and launched it in the direction of a doom-bot.

“And hear this, they’re controlled by a guy named Dr. Doom.” Sam replied, pulling his shield out of one.

“You’re kidding.” Scott sighed, punching another doom-bot that tried to sneak up behind him.

“Who’s that?” Peter interrupted, looking at the unfamiliar figure helping them on the ground.

Sam tapped his goggles, scanning the masked man having a serious one-on-one with one of the doom-bots.

“I might have to forgive doom-bots,” Sam replied, “Because according to Redwing, this guy is called ‘The Devil of Hells Kitchen’.”

“That’s kinda cold.” Joaquin replied, shooting at the doombots in the air.

“Cold?” Thor asked, “It’s June.”

“Wait for Love to get older,” Scott replied, “I understand about fifty percent of what Cassie says these days.”

“Joaquin?” Sam asked, “this might be a heavy ask, but is there any way to connect our comms to Yelena’s team? We should be able to communicate.”

“On it!” Joaquin replied, tapping away at the screen on his forearm.

Within a few minutes, Bucky’s voice came over the Avengers’ comms, “John, a little help?”

“Buck?” Sam asked, “Joaquin connected our team’s comm channels.”

“Oh, good.” Bucky replied, glaring at a knocked-out doom-bot that had given him a particularly bad time.

“You can hear us?” Yelena asked over the comm.

“Loud and clear.” Carol smiled.

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

The fight was long and gruelling, and Joaquin felt his previous injuries beginning to flare up as the exhaustion set in. He blinked rapidly beneath his helmet, trying to wake his body up. Bob flew into his view, not even flinching as a doom-bot vigorously punched him, before Bob effortlessly squashed the doom-bot’s circuitry under his hands. Joaquin waved at him and Bob gave a small smile back, “hey.”

They both looked down to see the doom-bot fall 70 feet.

“Oh, god” Bob said quietly, “we’re high up.”

“Yep,” Joaquin agreed, watching Reed’s powers with a mix of fascination and horror.

“I’m not so good with… oh no” is all Bob got out before his eyes fluttered shut and his body began its rapid descent towards the ground. Joaquin yelled in surprise and dashed at him with breakneck speed. He felt Bob slipping out of reach, cursing his delayed reaction time and yelling for help into the comms. Joaquin had never hit his thrusters this hard, but Bob was constantly just a few inches too far to reach. Joaquin kept dashing towards the floor, heart rate so loud it physically hurt. Suddenly, an orange blaze came crashing into Bob, tumbling to the floor, Joaquin landing besides them seconds later.

Johnny breathed a sigh of relief, holding Bob up.

“Got you, Bobert.” Johnny said, “What happened up there?”

“I don’t know,” Joaquin replied, concern etched on his face, “one moment we were up there and then he just fell.”

Bob blinked his eyes open, his irises bright yellow and gasping for breath. “Bob?” Johnny asked, giving him a friendly pat on the back.

“Sorry, I don’t- it just-“ Bob struggled trying to slow his breathing.

“Are- are you okay?” Joaquin asked, taking a step towards him.

“Mhm.” Bob nodded, running a hand through his hair. “Sorry.”

Johnny watched the two stare at each other.

“Okay, I’m done here.” Johnny said, before turning to Bob, “you’re welcome, by the way.”

Bob let out a breath of amusement, “thanks, hotshot.”

Johnny smiled in confusion, “hotshot?”

“What? You don’t get a nickname too?” Bob shrugged, grinning.

“Joaquin’s the only one left.” Johnny laughed, before flying off.

“Don’t even think about it!” Joaquin called after him but Johnny didn’t dignify him with a response and left, fist-bumping Ben on his way.

“Bob, I-“ Joaquin began but Yelena, Ava and Bucky ran at them frantically, cutting him off.

“Bob? What the hell happened?” Yelena cried, “What were you doing?”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, it was an accident.” Bob said, shaking himself off. “All good.”

Bucky sighed. “Keep looking out for each other,” He said before running to help Shuri with a particularly stubborn doom-bot.

Ava patted Bob on the shoulder before phasing out. Yelena switched on her earpiece, “Yeah, dad, he’s fine.”

Joaquin turned back to him, “I’m sorry, I almost- if Johnny hadn’t you would be…”

“I’d be fine. Still invincible, you know?” Bob assured him, “and it wouldn’t be your fault.”

Joaquin smiled a little in response before rambling, “huh, I keep forgetting that you could survive that. I just saw you falling and I panicked, I guess. I don’t know what I’d do if you got hurt, especially if I was there, and…”

Bob froze for a moment, hit by the sincerity of it. 𝘐 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦.

“I’m okay.” Bob smiled back, before feeling a rush of air next to his ear. He turned with an unimpressed expression to see a doom-bot punching at him uselessly. “Stay safe.” Bob added, before speeding away, dragging the robot across the floor in an attempt to neutralise it.

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

Sam’s Avengers team had gone back to their respective bases, leaving Joaquin and Sam to join the Thunderbolts and Fantastic Four back at the Avengers Tower.

Sam was the last to enter the tower after the battle and Bucky approached him holding out a coffee. They looked at each other for a minute before Sam took the drink with an appreciative nod.

“Buck, listen. I still can’t get behind working for the CIA, but until this doom-bot threat is cleared, we need as many people as possible.” Sam said before smiling a little, the teasing tone Bucky had missed so dearly back in his voice, “Consider this a truce.”

“No.” Bucky replied, causing Sam to frown in response.

“I haven’t talked to my team yet,” Bucky began, “but I’ve been thinking, and I need to talk to you.”

“Okay,” Sam said, “Do you wanna go somewhere?”

Bucky nodded and led Sam to his office. Sam looked around at the potted plants, old coffee mugs and pens on Bucky’s desk. He turned his gaze to the shelves, scanning over the little souvenirs, some sort of certificate and finally a framed picture of himself and Bucky at the cookout, matching the one in Sam’s own office.

Bucky pretended not to notice Sam’s wandering gaze and took a breath before starting, “What I didn’t tell you was that… I didn’t disband the team because for a lot of them they had nothing, and then they got this family and this home, and I didn’t want to take that from them, because I know how it feels to go from zero to everything. Like when your family took me in, in Louisiana.”

“We didn’t take you in, Bucky. You showed up with your Wakandan tech.” Sam joked.

Bucky ignored this and continued, “But I’ve been a coward. We can still be a team without the CIA and tower and name. Sure, they’d be pissed, but they’d get over it. And even if they didn’t, it doesn’t matter. They’re good people, but Sam… you’re something else. People need you. They need to believe in you. I messed that up, but I’m gonna fix it. I don’t want a truce Sam, I don’t deserve it. You’re the Avengers and we’re… the Thunderbolts.”

“The Thunderbolts?” Sam teased.

“That’s all you have to say?” Bucky replied with a small smile.

“I love you, Buck.” Sam replied, hugging him. “And I understand. Thank you.” Sam said with as much sincerity as he could.

Bucky hugged him back, melting into his shoulder. “From now on, I’ve always got your back.”

“I know. I’ve got you too.” Sam smiled.

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

“Seriously, why are we here?” Yelena asked, looking around at the meeting Bucky had called with her, Bob, John, Ava and Alexei.

“Okay, but you need to listen to me before you react.” Bucky said.

“We’re not children, Bucky, spit it out.” Ava rolled her eyes.

“I gave the Avengers name to Sa-“ Bucky began but the room erupted instantly.

“YOU DID WHAT?”

“Oh my god.”

“WHO SAID YOU COULD EVEN DECIDE THAT?”

“BUCKY?!”

“WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?”

“WHAT?”

“Alright.” Bucky said, trying to settle the table down. When no one seemed to notice, he repeated himself loudly, “alright!”

“This doesn’t mean anything for us. Are we a team because of a name, or because of what we’ve been through together and how we look out for each other? We’re still us. We’re the Thunderbolts. Nothing has to change.” Bucky said.

“Bucky, you didn’t think this through at all!” Yelena protested, “Where are we going to live?”

“I have thought about nothing else for fourteen months!” Bucky argued. “Sam said we can still live here, his Avengers have their own families and stuff.”

“People are going to make so much fun of us…” John muttered.

“People are always going to talk.” Bucky said, “And they have… reasons to talk about us. We made mistakes, we know that. Yet they still talk about Sam more than all of us combined, especially in light of this Avengers name bullshit. Think about that.”

The room was silent for a long while.

“I think you made the right decision.” Bob said, getting a confused look from Yelena and Walker.

Ava looked up, “Bob’s right. If we want to be ‘heroes’ then I think this is part of it. It’s the right thing to do.”

Alexei narrowed his eyebrows, “we 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 be the Thunderbolts, but have you considered AvengerZzzz with a Z?”

“No!” Multiple people complained at once.

“That literally defeats the entire purpose.” Bucky sighed.

“You’re choosing Sam over us?” Yelena asked.

“I’m not choosing anyone over anyone, the Avengers always belonged to Sam.” Bucky replied placatingly, but he knew in his heart he would always pick Sam in an instant. The Thunderbolts had really grown on him, he truly did care for them and want the best for them. There was a reason he kept the team together for so long , trying to avoid the copyright issues. But Sam... Sam was family. Sam was the only person in this world who truly got him. Sam, he would die for.

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

Later that night, Peter stumbled into the kitchen to make a coffee for himself as he worked on his web shooters, since they faced some damage during the doom-bot fight, but he paused when he saw the glow of the TV coming from underneath the door.

“This is supposed to be funny?” Johnny’s voice said.

“You’re insufferable. And tasteless.” Joaquin responded, laughter in his voice.

Peter lifted a hand to his face, double-checking the mask was there, before walking in.

“Webs!” Johnny called, “Tell Joaquin this show is boring.”

Peter looked at the old sitcom and shook his head, “Sorry, I’m with Joaquin.”

“Thank you!” Joaquin grinned, before turning to Johnny, “Nice try, hotshot.”

“Hotshot?” Peter questioned, sitting with them.

“Bob’s idea.” Joaquin explained, “you know, cuz he lights on fire?”

“Sure.” Peter replied.

“Haven’t seen Bob in a while.” Joaquin continued, “wonder what he’s up to.”

Peter watched in confusion as Johnny rolled his eyes in response.

“Let’s do something else. Anything else.” Johnny said, pausing the show.

“Anything?” Joaquin asked, raising an eyebrow.

It didn’t take long for the three to launch into a heated debate about who the best superheroes were and who they would want to team up with.

“Seriously, what is your obsession with Ant-Man, the guy’s like a knock-off version of Webs!” Johnny exclaimed, gesturing in exasperation.

“Take that back!” Joaquin demanded, whilst Peter asked what Johnny meant by that.

“I have to go with Shang-Chi.” Johnny said, “The man has game. He’s a total underdog.”

“But Black Panther’s tech is freaking awesome.” Peter countered.

“You know, Bob says Thor-“

“Here we go again with Bob.” Johnny sighed.

“What do you mean?” Joaquin asked but Johnny suddenly clapped his hands and grinned in excitement.

“I don’t like the look of that…” Peter said whilst Joaquin just gave Johnny a judgmental glance.

“I got it!” Johnny said, “Oh, it’s so perfect.”

“Got what? A brain cell that clocked in today?” Joaquin asked, drawing a chuckle from Peter.

“Ease off, lovebird, no need to get mean.” Johnny grinned.

“Lovebird?” Joaquin questioned.

“Yeah. That’s your nickname.” Johnny smiled.

“No.” Joaquin said, shaking his head.

“Too late.” Johnny replied.

“If you ever call me that-“ Joaquin began but Peter interrupted with a question, “I get the bird, but what’s with the love?”

“Have you been asleep the whole time you were here?” Johnny asked him unimpressed. “It’s because he’s in love.”

“What are you talking about?” Joaquin replied, “I don’t 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 Ant-Man, I just think he’s neat-“

“Nobody said Ant-Man.” Johnny shrugged, looking all too pleased with himself. “Don’t play dumb, I saw you hack into one of Tony Stark’s old AIs when you were bored.”

“Wait, you did what?” Peter asked in surprise.

“I didn’t do anything, I was just looking.” Joaquin defended.

“Yeah, that’s irrelevant.” Johnny continued, “His sad love life is much more fun to talk about.”

“There is no love life.” Joaquin insisted.

“Exactly. You should do something about it.” Johnny said, patting him on the shoulder. “Just ask Bobert out already.”

“What?” Joaquin cried.

“I am so confused right now.” Peter added.

“Everybody here is hopeless.” Johnny moaned, putting his head into his hands.

“Yo, Webs.” Joaquin said, turning to the masked boy. “Did you know Johnny hates Star Wars?”

“What?” Peter exclaimed, scandalised. “I- I mean, how could… what?”

“Good luck getting out of this one, hotshot.” Joaquin smirked.

Peter started pacing, one arm hanging off his neck. “I mean, I don’t even know what to say.”

“It’s an old film with practical effects so bad Franklin could’ve made them.” Johnny shrugged.

“This is a prank, right?” Peter asked, “You’re pranking me. This isn’t real. This is some fabricated attempt to-“

“Okay, we’re going to circle back to your disturbing worship of that film later, but don’t try to change the subject, lovebird, you’re just mad that I’m onto you.” Johnny said. “I’ve connected the dots.”

“You didn’t connect shit.” Joaquin replied sternly.

“I’ve connected them.” Johnny grinned back.

“I hate you.” Joaquin said, his small smile betraying his attempt to act angry.

“Wait, really?” Peter asks, “You like Bob?”

“I- I don’t know honestly but-“ Joaquin began before Johnny looked at him with wild eyes, “Get away from the window!”

Nobody had time to react before Joaquin felt a blinding pain in his shoulder, Peter quickly pulling him away as Johnny ran behind them.

“What’s happening?” Joaquin asked.

“I think one of the doombots escaped our notice and followed us back.” Peter replied frantically.

“Joaquin? Joaquin are you with us?” Johnny asked, and Joaquin was stunned for a minute by the level of concern on Johnny’s face he had never seen before.

“Don’t worry, it’s just my shoulder.” Joaquin replied before muttering to himself, “Joder, tengo que dejar de estar cerca de las ventanas.”

“Shit! What do we do?” Johnny cried.

“I’ll distract it, you need to get the others and get Joaquin some help.” Peter replied.

Johnny hesitated for a moment before slipping an arm around Joaquin and taking him from Peter.

“Stay safe, Webs!” Johnny called out as he left.

Johnny turned to Joaquin, trying to rush whilst not straining his shoulder much, “hang in there, lovebird.”

Johnny let Joaquin rest himself against the wall before knocking on all the doors in the living quarters he could find. Eventually, the racket started to wake up everyone in the tower. Bucky came out almost instantly, put-together and alert in a way that suggested he hadn’t been asleep when they came.

“What’s-“ Bucky began before noticing the red stain behind Joaquin on the wall, “Joaquin! What happened?”

Joaquin opened his mouth to respond, but he slumped to the ground instead and felt his eyes shut, Bucky’s panicked call for Sam the last thing he remembered before blacking out.

Chapter Text

Sam buried his head in his hands, eyes squeezed shut almost painfully. He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and slowly looked up. Sam began to talk, but Bucky cut him off instantly.

“No.” Bucky said. “This isn’t your fault. The tower was supposed to be the safest place, no one could’ve see this coming. And at that time of night as well.”

“This just keeps getting worse.” Sam sighed, “And seeing him back in a hospital bed… I don’t know, Buck, it’s messing me up.”

“Hey,” Bucky said, waiting for Sam to make eye contact with him, “Maybe you should take a break and step outside. You’ve been here all night.”

“No.” Sam shook his head, “I can’t go anywhere.”

“Sam…” Bucky said gently. “It’s okay. He’s gonna be okay, again. Kid’s tough.”

“Yeah, I know. Doesn’t make me feel any better for putting him back in the emergency room once a year. He’s too young to have been through this 𝘵𝘸𝘪𝘤𝘦.”

“You didn’t put him anywhere. This is bad, I know, but it’s not like last time. He’s hurt but he’s fine, it’s a shot to the shoulder. He’ll be up and running in no time.”

Sam began to protest when Reed came through the door, “He’s right, you know. The kid’s going to be okay.”

Sam nodded, “thanks, Reed. How’s Johnny?”

“Johnny?” Reed asked, slightly confused. “Was he hurt too?”

“No, no, he was just pretty friendly with Joaquin that’s all.” Sam corrected.

Reed frowned at himself, disappointed that he had been so stuck in his work and research on doombots that he hadn’t even realised Johnny had gotten close with someone. “I’ll go see him.” Reed said, excusing himself from the room.

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

Reed felt his shoulders sag in relief when he finally caught sight of Johnny.

“Hey, you okay?” Reed asked, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder, “Sam says you’re friends with Joaquin.”

“Yeah, how’s he doing?” Johnny asked with a small smile plastered on his face.

“He’ll be fine, it looks worse than it is.” Reed assured him.

“Okay, okay. That’s good.” Johnny said, pausing for a moment. “… It just came out of nowhere, I barely even saw it and he was down-“

“We’re gonna stop him.” Reed interrupted. “Doom will pay for everything he’s done.”

Johnny just nodded, rubbing his eye.

“Hey John- Sorry am I interrupting?” Peter asked as he walked through the door.

“No, no, you two catch-up.” Reed replied, “I need to find Sue.”

“Thanks, Reed.” Johnny said earnestly, Reed shooting him a smile in response before heading out.

“Have you seen Bob?” Peter asked, “Yelena says he didn’t come to training.”

“Training?” Johnny asked, confused.

“Yep. Thunderbolts teamwork stuff, I don’t know much.” Peter shrugged. “Help me find him?”

“Sure, he’s probably going insane now that the love of his life is in medical.”

Peter huffed a breath of amusement, “You gotta quit with the jokes, Johnny, at least for as long as Joaquin’s unconscious.”

“Jokes?” Johnny questioned. “I’m not kidding.”

“Right.” Peter replied, rolling his eyes behind his mask.

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

Peter knocked on Bob’s door and called out, “Bob! It’s us. Can we come in?”

“Yeah, let us in Bobert!” Johnny added.

After a pause the lock clicked in the door and it opened, revealing a slightly disheveled Bob.

“What?” Bob asked quietly.

“We just came to see you, pull you out of your misery,” Johnny began but Bob shook his head.

“I’m not in misery.” Bob responded.

“Then why do you look like that?” Johnny asked, causing Peter to shove him lightly in disapproval.

“Like what?” Bob challenged.

“What he’s trying to say,” Peter said, “is that you don’t have to worry because Joaquin is fine.”

“Reed just said so,” Johnny added, “and he knows what he’s talking about.”

“You don’t get it.” Bob replied, sitting on his bed. “It’s my fault. I should have been there.”

“What?” Johnny protested whilst Peter took a seat next to Bob.

“Bob, in no way is this your fault.” Peter said, “Even if you were there, you probably couldn’t do anything, it was so fast.”

“Yeah, and like, by that logic, you’re saying it’s me and Webs’s fault-“ Johnny shrugged.

“No, no.” Bob interrupted, “I just… I could have stopped him. Maybe. I don’t know.”

Peter sighed before continuing, “You know, I’ve been there. When someone- when my aunt died, I couldn’t sleep for weeks, thinking about what I could have done differently, what I should’ve done, if I had been faster or stronger or… smarter. But it all leads nowhere. The bad things happened, and we can’t change it. I know it’s hard, but you have to stop replaying it, you’re only hurting yourself.”

Johnny’s lips parted in surprise. “Dude, I…”

Bob turned to Peter with a small smile, “Thanks. For the advice and also for making Johnny speechless for the first time in weeks.”

“Enjoy the peace while it lasts.” Peter smiled back wryly.

“Okay, wow.” Johnny said, “I would roast you guys, but you’re clearly going through it right now.”

“Thanks for your consideration.” Peter joked.

“That’s not all the advice we have for you.” Johnny continued.

“What?” Peter and Bob asked at the same time.

“What do you mean ‘what’?” Johnny asked Peter, “tell him the thing.”

“What thing?” Bob asked.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Peter said simultaneously.

“What are you doing? This is embarrassing for both of us. The ‘thing’.” Johnny said, making confusing hand expressions.

“Oh, what, that? No, that’s stupid. And all you. I have nothing to do with that.” Peter shook his head.

“Okay, lie to my face.” Johnny rolled his eyes.

“Seriously, what are we talking about?” Bob asked.

“Have you gone to see Joaquin yet?” Johnny asked instead.

“No… he probably doesn’t want to see me.” Bob shrugged.

“That’s bullshit. Me and Webs have a plan.” Johnny replied.

“No. No we don’t.” Peter protested.

Johnny ignored this and continued, “I’m gonna pretend to be you,” he said, motioning towards Bob, “And Webs here is gonna be Joaquin.”

“This is why you’re single, Johnny.” Peter grumbled.

Johnny acted as if he hadn’t heard and put his hand on Bob’s shoulder, “eye contact is very important. You have to make eye contact.”

Bob just furrowed his eyebrows in confusion while Johnny removed his hand and turned to Peter, looking him in the eyes.

“Okay, so you’re here, you’re looking at Joaquin.” Johnny explains. Peter reluctantly looks back, a frown on his face.

“And then, you say, ‘I’m in love with you’.” Johnny finishes.

Bob blinks. “That is the worst idea I have ever heard.”

“Thank you!” Peter cries.

“And I live with Alexei. And Walker.” Bob continued.

“No one appreciates my help.” Johnny complains, before straightening up. “Wait, you didn’t even try to deny that you love him.”

Bob shrugged, “Ava said everyone knows.”

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

Joaquin blinked awake, taking in the sterile white surroundings. Joaquin sighed at the realisation that this must be another nightmare of the missile incident. That was, until Mr Fantastic crowded next to his bed. That didn’t usually happen.

“¿Joaquín, cómo estás?” The Dr asked him.

“Reed?” Joaquin replied, throat painfully dry.

“You were shot in the shoulder during a doom-bot attack in the tower last night. You needed stitches, but you will make a full recovery. I just need to run some quick tests first.” Reed replied gently.

“Oh, okay.” Joaquin replied, the events slowly coming back to him, remembering Johnny lugging him around the corridor frantically calling for help. Shit, this was not a dream.

“Okay, what year is it?” Reed asked, Joaquin squinting in confusion at the question.

“I’m testing for a concussion. You took a long time to wake up.” Reed explained.

“Right. Uh, 2028.” Joaquin replied.

Reed continued to ask him obvious questions, seeming more relieved at every correct answer from Joaquin. After shining an annoyingly bright torch in his eyes, Reed opened his room for visitors. Sam immediately came in, checking up on Joaquin and bringing his favourite coffee.

“You really worried me this time.” Sam smiled wryly.

“Trouble seems to find me.” Joaquin grinned.

“You should not look so happy about that.” Sam scolded, unable to keep the relief and fondness out of his tone.

Sam sat down and they talked for a while, about the last basketball game Joaquin watched, about Bucky, about the next steps in the doom-bot situation, and eventually they fell into a comfortable silence.

“Hey, have you heard from Bob?” Joaquin asked.

Sam furrowed his eyebrows. “Robert? The superman guy? Why, something happen?”

“Nah, I just… haven’t heard from him in a while. Doesn’t matter.” Joaquin shook his head.

“O-kay.” Sam replied. “I can check on him if you want?”

“No!” Joaquin said quickly before wincing at himself. “No, that’s fine.”

“I have so many questions, but you just got shot so I’m gonna let you off.” Sam shrugged.

Joaquin simply sighed in response. After Sam left, he got plenty of shorter visits, some of them expected like Bucky patting him on the back and Johnny coming to annoy him, “look who finally decided to wake up!”, but surprisingly also Alexei, “Mr Falcon! Good to see you!”, and Ava wanting to “double check he was alive.”

Every time, Joaquin felt a little pang in his chest that it wasn’t Bob and immediately felt guilty afterwards.

Walker came to see “what the fuss was about” but to Joaquin’s pleasant surprise brought him something from the local bakery, Webs even gave him a hug, and Ben and Sue sat with him for a while, making pleasant small talk. His abuela FaceTimed him for a good forty minutes and Joaquin wondered how she even knew, figuring Sam must’ve told her.

When Yelena popped in later that night, blue eyeliner slightly smudged as Reed ran some final tests, Joaquin decided that he must have done something to upset Bob that caused him not to visit, until he popped out from behind Yelena, shy smile and tousled hair. Joaquin lit up, bright smile gracing his features.

“Hey, you came.” Joaquin said.

Surprisingly, Yelena had a bigger smile in response to his than Bob. She looked Joaquin dead in the eyes as she said, “You’re right. He is adorable.”

Bob’s eyes widened, “I never said that!”

“This is so awkward for you.” Reed said.

“You’re making it awkward now.” Bob grumbled.

“Why are you blushing?” Yelena asked Bob, nudging him.

“I’m sorry about her.” Bob said, finally addressing Joaquin, who was watching the scene with disbelief.

“Reed, we need to go and talk about what I mentioned.” Yelena said, reaching a hand towards the doctor.

“What do you mean?” Reed asked in confusion.

Yelena rolled her eyes, “Seriously, we should leave.” She emphasised, pointing between herself and Reed.

“I’m still running tests.” Reed insisted.

“Take a hint.” Yelena cried, motioning towards Bob with her head.

“Subtle.” Bob muttered, just loud enough for everyone to hear.

Eventually, Yelena pulled the confused and slightly irritated doctor out of the room, leaving just Bob and Joaquin.

There was a beat of awkward silence before Bob sat down.

“Joaquin-“

“So-“

They both began at the same time and immediately stopped.

“Sorry, you go first.” Bob said.

“Nah, I wasn’t really gonna say anything, you can go.” Joaquin responded.

“Joaquin,” Bob began, looking towards the floor, “I’m really sorry.”

“About…?” Joaquin prompted. Was it visiting so late or Yelena’s suggestive comments? Joaquin wasn’t sure but he already forgiven all of it.

“I should have been there, last night. I usually am, I don’t know what happened, I was just-“ Bob rambled.

“What?” Joaquin asked, “No, this has nothing to do with you.”

“Everyone keeps saying that, but after a whole year, I finally started using my powers again because of the doom-bots. I didn’t want to be useless, I wanted to protect the things I cared about, even at the risk of my… other side. But I became Sentry and I still couldn’t stop this. It was all for nothing.”

Joaquin clenched his jaw in thought, staring at the wall. After a moment he said, “It wasn’t all for nothing. You helped so many civilians over the last two weeks, but honestly, I understand that feeling. Being helpless. After my accident, Sam wouldn’t let me fly for weeks and I kept thinking about how useless I was and the things I could’ve been doing, but it doesn’t matter how powerful you are or what you’re capable of because even Thor couldn’t protect his family. Or Wanda. Or Webs. Sometimes, things are just meant to happen, things that suck, and that’s not your fault.”

Bob’s lips twitched up, a barely noticeable smile gracing his features. “Not even getting shot can bring down your optimism.”

“Nope.” Joaquin grinned back.

“How?” Bob asked quietly.

Joaquin looked wistful before answering, “Being happy isn’t the same as pretending everything’s fine. It’s just… I’d rather hold on to the parts that are. It makes life easier—for me, and for the people around me. The best-“ he stopped abruptly.

“Best?” Bob prompted.

Joaquin bit his lip. “What I’m trying to say is, there’s always something good to hold onto.”

“Not always.” Bob said quietly. “Before I found this team, this family, I didn’t have anything like that to hold onto in dark times.”

From the corner of his eye, Joaquin noticed Bob’s fingers twitch where they lay on the armrest of the chair.

“You had yourself.” Joaquin said, “You’re worth holding onto.”

Bob looked at him in the eye properly for the first time that night, and Joaquin raised his head to look back, instead focusing on the white walls beginning to fade up into black. He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, looking down to the armrest where his hand had subconsciously slid over Bob’s, their fingers brushing each other. Joaquin blinked and Bob’s hand was gone, replaced by the marble floor of the mall that used to be a close drive from his home in Miami.

“Joaquin, are you coming?” A warm but stern voice asked him, sweet and familiar like flying in the wings or flopping down next to Johnny on the couch in the early hours of the morning.

“Mami?” Joaquin asked, his eyes brimmed with tears as he heard her voice for the first time in years.

“Vámonos, we’re late!”

Chapter Text

Joaquin felt an impossibly big well in his stomach, the strong force of it making it difficult to stand. “Joaquin are you coming?” Her voice called.

“Mami,” Joaquin repeated, taking a step closer to her, taking in the soft curls framing her face, those familiar brown eyes not seeming to notice or hear him, but instead smiling at the floor. Joaquin followed her line of sight to a young boy tapping on his phone. She rifled through her purse, pulling out her car keys and pointing them around the parking lot, which was mostly empty by now. The whole experience was dreamlike, surreal and vividly colourful.

At the familiar beep in response from the car, Joaquin and his mother looked up at the same time to their old van, its orange lights flashing in response to being unlocked. Joaquin ran his eyes over the familiar figures his tío used to collect in the dashboard, a little Mario, a caricature of Messi, a small Mexican flag.

His mother cursed under her breath in Spanish, and Joaquin turned towards the van, stepping back in surprise at the red paint plastered over its side.

He frowned as his mother placed her hand over his younger self’s eyes, “don’t look Joaquin, no es nada.”

His younger self pulled away from her hand and stared at the van. “What do you mean it’s nothing?” He protested, “they ruined tío’s car!”

“It’s fine, Joaquin, just get in.” His mother

“No, Mami! How can you say it’s fine? Who did this?”

As he watched helplessly, Joaquin reeled in anger seeing his mom’s tired expression at the stupid, racist slogan on the van. She didn’t deserve this. He felt like his 11 year old self again, confused on why she wasn’t angry too.

“Joaquin,” she said, bending down to be eye-level with his past self, “Being happy isn’t the same as pretending everything’s fine. It’s just… I’d rather hold on to the parts that are. It makes life easier—for me, and for our family. The best revenge to people like that is being happy, because they are miserable, and if you live your life to the fullest then they already lost, no one can hurt you unless you let them.”

As Joaquin felt the corner of his eyes wet, he suddenly remembered where he had been before, in the hospital talking to Bob. Where was he? What the hell was this?

“Bob?” Joaquin called out, “Bob, are you here?”

No response came, so Joaquin approached his mother, stopping briefly when the scene began to repeat from the beginning.

“Joaquin, are you coming?” She asked his younger self.

Joaquin stepped between his younger self and his mother, waving a hand in front of his mother’s face but she didn’t even blink. Joaquin moved to touch her shoulder when suddenly he fell through the floor, a massive gust of wind shoving him harshly. He was falling through the sky, uncontrollably fast, spinning in every direction. Joaquin recognised this moment instantly, squeezing his eyes shut to prepare for the coming impact.

“Joaquin!” Sam’s voice called, slightly distorted over his damaged earpiece.

Re-living bad memories from his past? This must be the void thing the other Avengers sometimes spoke about in hushed tones. When he first met Bob, he had said something like that, about how he was somewhat responsible for the void that took over New York. No one spoke about it much.

“Bob!” Joaquin yelled as he fell through the sky, unsure what good it would do, but there was nothing else to try.

Just before he hit the water, he was suddenly up in the air, falling again from the start. How the hell was he supposed to get out of this one? Last time he touched his Mami. Does he need to make contact with Sam? But that was no good, Sam was far out of reach.

“Bob, help!” Joaquin yelled again, becoming incredibly dizzy and disoriented by the fast spinning and sudden jumps in altitude. By the fourth fall, he felt his eyes begin to flutter shut involuntarily.

“Bob.” He rasped out one last time before becoming unconscious.

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

“I see you finally left medical.”

Sam didn’t have to turn around to recognise the familiar voice approaching from behind. He stared out at the balcony, warm coffee heating his hands. “Buck.” He greeted.

“Joaquin’s doing good, been talking non-stop I’ve heard. You know, the usual.” Bucky smiled slightly.

“Yeah. We’re lucky to have Dr Richards.” Sam nodded.

They stayed in comfortable silence for a while, looking out into the beautiful New York skyline.

“What’s up with Bob?” Sam asked, curiosity finally getting the best of him.

“Hm?” Bucky mumbled.

“Bob.” Sam repeated, “I don’t see him much, we have pretty much opposite sleep schedules, but Joaquin’s been mentioning him a lot and I guess I don’t really know the guy. Outside of like being Thor-levels of powerful and the void stuff.”

“Uh, he was Valentina’s super soldier project-“

“I mean, as a person.” Sam interjected gently.

“He’s…” Bucky paused in thought, “he’s been through a lot. He’s very hard on himself. But he stands up for what he believes in and he’s protective about the things he cares about. He’s just trying his best… like the rest of us.”

“No wonder he fit right in.” Sam smiled.

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

Joaquin gasped as he woke up, the sterile white walls staring back at him as the small medical-wing bed creaked under the sudden movement. He was back, he was okay.

“Joaquin-“ Bob began, eyes wide and remorseful.

“What just happened?” Joaquin whispered, running a hand through his hair.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to-“ Bob replied before muttering so quietly to himself that Joaquin couldn’t hear, “always making things worse.”

“What happened, I don’t-“ Joaquin gasped, readjusting to the surroundings and the strange contrast of the plastic hospital bed underneath him rather than the free air above Celestial Island.

“We’re in the medical room in the Avenger’s tower, you’re safe.” Bob told him, jerking back when Joaquin inched towards him.

“You can’t touch me, that’s what triggered it.” Bob explained with a frown.

Joaquin was still full of adrenaline, hands trembling, “my Mom was there and me, there were two me’s, and then I fell through the sky like four times-“

“Wait, you relived two things? It’s supposed to be one.” Bob questioned.

“Supposed to be?” Joaquin asked before shaking his head, “was that the void?”

“I’m so sorry Joaquin, I knew this was gonna happen.” Bob replied, eyes downcast.

“No, Bob, don’t say that, just… help me understand.” Joaquin said, trying to make Bob’s eyes meet his, “explain this, from the top.”

“Okay.” Bob sighed, “Well, when I become the Sentry, like I’ve been doing recently, it gives me access to all these powers. But as Valentina likes to put it, I’m “unstable”, you know, up here” Bob said, gesturing towards his head, “so the powers can sometimes go out of my control. When people touch me, they relive bad memories, of shame and guilt, from a sort of third person perspective.”

“Did the others tell you about the third person perspective thing?” Joaquin asked gently.

“No. I’m actually… well, I see everything that happens in the ‘shame rooms’ too. That’s how I know.” Bob shrugged, still looking away and fidgeting with his hands. “I really didn’t mean to Joaquin-“

“I know that, Bob, I know.” Joaquin comforted.

“That guy, what he wrote on your truck…” Bob trailed off.

“Yeah.” Joaquin agreed. “You know, when I was a kid, I didn’t get it, why my mom was so okay with it. But when I saw her face this time, I think I finally understood. She wasn’t ‘okay’ with it but she always kept a strong face for me. God, I miss her so much.” Joaquin smiled wryly, the corners of his eyes beginning to wet.

Bob swallowed, “I need to go.”

“What? Why, Is everything okay?” Joaquin asked, confusion etched on his face.

“Just- sorry.” Bob muttered before getting up and practically running out.

Joaquin scoffed in disbelief and wiped at his eyes. “Damn it.”

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

“Woah, woah, woah!” Johnny grinned, “where are you running off to, Bobert? You need to tell me how it went.”

“Leave me alone, Johnny.” Bob scowled, continuing to walk away.

“Damn, what did I do, Robert?” Johnny asked.

Bob stopped and exhaled before turning around. “You were wrong! About all of it. Okay!”

Johnny just looked at him slightly bewildered. “I’m wrong about a lot of things, you’re gonna have to specify.”

“I should not have gone to see Joaquin.” Bob replied, taking a step towards him, “terrible idea. If he didn’t hate me before, he definitely does now, and that’s for the better because all I was gonna do was hurt him anyway!”

“Bob, slow down!” Johnny pleaded, “take a breath and just tell me what happened.”

“You know, I became the Sentry again after a whole year, because I wanted to help and protect the people I care about. Well, Joaquin’s in a hospital bed, we’re no closer to solving the doom-bot problem , and the void is resurfacing, I’ve been nothing but another problem this whole time.” Bob ranted.

“Sit down, Bob-“

“No, I’m fine-“

“Sit down. You’re about to get some Storm words of wisdom.” Johnny asserted.

Bob sighed, sitting down wearily. He wouldn’t have sat down in the middle of his frustration bout for many people, but he reluctantly had to admit that somewhere along the way, Johnny had sort of grown on him. Like fungi.

“You actually listened.” Johnny said quietly, eyebrows shooting up.

“Don’t make me regret it.” Bob replied, hating how harsh his voice came out towards his friend.

Johnny sat down, considering for a minute. “What happened, Bob? The whole story.”

“I-“ Bob began, the back of his neck heating up. He didn’t really like talking about things but he kept Yelena’s advice close to his heart. 𝘓𝘦𝘵 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘯, 𝘉𝘰𝘣.

“I voided him.” Bob finished.

“Okay, so I have no idea what that means.” Johnny replied candidly.

Bob took a breath before explaining what it meant, Johnny keeping a surprisingly neutral face the whole time.

“You’re looking at me like you think I’m gonna attack you,” Johnny observed. “Relax, man.”

“Just like that?” Bob asked skeptically. “It’s okay that I turn into a shadow monster and make people relive the worst memories of their life?”

Johnny just grinned, “You know I didn’t always light on fire. Ben wasn’t always a pile of rocks. All four of us, we weren’t born this way. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I understand having weird unasked-for powers and thinking I’m some sort of freak, but you gotta live with it everyday.“

“But you four are heroes.” Bob insisted.

“Pretty sure you’re an Avenger,” Johnny replied. “I didn’t always know how to control the fire. I’ve… hurt people. Destroyed things I didn’t mean to. It’s a great power but it’s so destructive. There’s a balance, and somedays it feels like I’m still finding it. You’ll find yours too, one day.”

“You know I didn’t always see it before, but you really are Sue’s brother.” Bob replied in gratitude.

“I’m gonna tell her you said that.” Johnny smiled.

“I get what you meant,” Bob continued, "but I don’t think there’s some balance I can find. The void is something else, it’s too dangerous and uncontrollable, I was wrong.”

“Look, I haven’t known you a long time, but I don’t believe that,” Johnny replied. “The truth is, as long as you have these powers, you can never guarantee that you won’t hurt people. But you have to spend everyday using that power to do enough good to make it worth it.”

Bob thought about this for a minute before smiling, “thanks Johnny, I think I know what I need to do.”

“Um, you’re welcome?” Johnny replied, slightly confused. “What do you need to do?”

Bob simply shook his head, changing the subject abruptly and Johnny decided to let it go for Bob's comfort. He had already opened up so much more than usual after all.

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

After another night, Joaquin was finally released from the hospital under Reed’s orders. Sam sat with him at the dining table, taking in his slouched posture.

“What are you frowning about? You just got released.” Sam prodded.

“Nothing.” Joaquin shrugged, stirring his coffee.

“Come on, I know something's going on.”

Joaquin bit his lip for a second before turning to face Sam, “have you heard from Bob?”

“Nah, you told me not to check on him.” Sam replied.

“Right, yeah.” Joaquin muttered as he looked down.

“Do you want me to find him?”

“No, it’s okay, man. It’s just, we had a weird like… discussion, and now I think he’s avoiding me.”

“Discussion?” Sam questioned skeptically.

“Something like that.” Joaquin replied cryptically.

“Best advice I can give you is to ask him, don’t assume. Some people are just less confrontational.” Sam comforted.

“Yeah.” Joaquin replied, but he didn’t seem all convinced.

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

That night, as Joaquin and Johnny sat on the couch in their usual night routine that had been disrupted during Joaquin’s time in medical, it was not as light and fun as had been anticipated.

“What?” Johnny finally asked him, after politely ignoring his cold demeanour for the earlier portion of the night.

“Have you heard from Bob?” Joaquin asked.

“No, but I thought he was fine after I talked to him.”

“You talked to him?” Joaquin asked, slightly panicked, “you didn’t tell him about-“

“Of course I didn’t tell him about your feelings, I’m not a dick.” Johnny interrupted.

“Okay, okay. Thanks.” Joaquin conceded. “Then what did you talk about?”

“I don’t know, man, he was upset about voiding you and then I told him it’s not his fault, and all superpowers come at a cost and then he suddenly looked relieved and said ‘I think I know what I need to do’.”

“I don’t know what he meant by that, but I don’t like the sound of it.” Joaquin frowned.

“I didn’t really give it much thought.” Johnny admitted, “but I haven’t seen him since.”

Joaquin stood up abruptly. “Shit.”

“What?” Johnny asked, standing up beside him.

“I need to get into the security feed.”

“You wanna explain what’s going on?” Johnny pestered, pacing on Joaquin’s heels.

Joaquin just continued jogging to the control room before typing some commands into the terminal.

“You don’t even live here, how do you have the password to the security feed?” Johnny questioned.

“I don’t.” Joaquin replied curtly, typing rapidly.

“Then what are you-“

“I’m in.” Joaquin announced, pulling up recent footage of the tower’s entrances and exits.

“Of course.” Johnny deadpanned, but looked at the feed with concern, trying to identify whatever Joaquin was looking for.

“Mierda.” Joaquin muttered as he zoomed in a photo from the early hours of the morning of a hooded figure by the front of the tower who was undeniably Bob.

“Where’s he going?” Johnny asked.

Joaquin replied with a question of his own, “What exactly did you say to him?”

“Nothing!” Johnny defended, “I don’t know why he’s sneaking off!”

“I wasn’t blaming you.” Joaquin clarified, “just, if it could give us any clue…”

“Well, he was upset about hurting you, right? So, I told him that he can’t guarantee that he won’t hurt people with his powers, but he needs to spend everyday doing enough good to make up for it. Or something like that.” Johnny rambled.

“Oh. Oh no.” Joaquin whispered, turning off the camera feed.

“What?” Johnny asked.

“I think he’s gone to deal with Doom.” Joaquin replied, eyes wide and remorseful.

“By himself?” Johnny questioned incredulously. “He’s not an idiot.”

“I know, but he was talking about it earlier, and… shit. Shit!”

“I think you know what I’m gonna say.” Johnny said, placing a hand on Joaquin’s shoulder.

“I can assure you that this is literally never the case.” Joaquin frowned in response.

“Let’s go save your boyfriend!”