Archive of Our Own

Daisy pushes through the assorted throng of parents, teachers, elite scientists, and nerds…so many nerds. It's so retro and half of the things being proposed by the best and brightest youth looking to change the future are already obsolete. Or, at least they are where she comes from. She can't help but stop every now and then and take in the sights of some of them, marveling at seeing them first hand.

Moving away from a demonstration of model-sized vehicles being held in midair by means of propellers, she isn't aware of another person in her path of motion until she runs into said person. There's a crashing sound of something breaking on the ground before they both land on the ground as well in a slightly tangled heap.

Daisy rolls off of the boy she'd run into immediately and sits on her knees. "I'm so sorry," she says and then eyes the broken project in alarm. She brings her hands to her mouth and shakes her head.

The boy slowly pushes himself up as well and eyes the heap of broken parts like he's not sure if he wants to cry or become violently upset. His shoulders sag and he wrings his hands.

"I'm really, really sorry," she says again. "I can… I can help you fix it," she offers. "I'm pretty good at fixing things." She's not sure she has time, not when she's looking for Loki before he can do anything dastardly, but he looks so forlorn…

"No," he says with a sigh as he starts gathering the pieces, "it's… It's fine." He doesn't sound like he believes it. "It's just one part of my project. I… I can probably fix it or do my demonstration without it. I probably won't win the scholarship," he mumbles and then sighs again. He then fixes her with a hard glare, the kind a disappointed parent would give. "Has anyone ever told you to be careful and watch where you're going?"

She gives a soft snort and shrug. "Yeah, all the…" Oh. "…time," Daisy finishes with several stunned blinks.

She doesn't have time to process what's just happened or say anything else when there's suddenly a pair of red high top Converse in her line of vision. Then the owner of the shoes crouches down, hand going to grab one of the broken pieces to study it.

"You alright, kid?" asks the boy the shoes belong to. He looks barely older than the other boy, maybe a year, two tops, and he looks like a rich punk. And Daisy can only continue to blink. "This wasn't a crucial component to your project was it? Because that'd be super harsh on the day of competition."

The other boy looks no less stunned than Daisy is, brown eyes fluttering behind his glasses as he watches the intruder fiddle with a few of the pieces. "I... Um…" He clears his throat and ducks his head. "I don't know. I don't… don't think it'll mess up my whole project. I'll have to run a test before to see."

"I bet I could fix it for you real fast. I'm really good at fixing things."

"You…You'd do that?"

Daisy tries not to bring a palm to her face that might make them question why. She just purses her lips as she watches the scene unfold.

"Yeah, sure, kid."

"I'm thirteen," the first boy protests with a small scowl. Then he shakes his head. "And I can't."

"Can't what?"

"Can't let you help me. It's against the rules." That earns him a scoff.

"Who cares about rules?"

The scowl deepens a little and Daisy can resist a face-to-palm, but not an eye roll.

"I do." He begins gathering up his broken pieces. "If anyone finds out I broke the rules, I'll be disqualified. And unlike someone like you, no offense, I'm entered in the scholarship bracket. I can't take that chance. I want to go to Harvard someday."

"I'm more of an MIT guy myself," the second boy says with a shrug as they all three stand to their feet. He offers the few pieces he'd had in hand to him. "Well, good luck. I hope you get the scholarship there, cute stuff." He sends the flustered, disbelieving boy off with a wink. Resistance is futile and Daisy's hand comes up to her face in secondhand embarrassment. "Damn, that kid was adorable," he says when it's just him and her. "And he's older than I thought. Do you know him?" He turns to look at her expectantly.

"Uh, sort of. Maybe?" He raises a skeptical eyebrow. "Not really," she says with a sigh.

"Huh. Okay…"

"You like boys?" she then asks him with a smirk.

His eyes widen. "Shit," he curses and glances around. "You need to keep that on the dl. My dad would have a heart attack if he knew I like boys just as much as I like girls. Seriously," he says with a grimace, "the old man is actually old so I mean a literal heart attack."

"You might be surprised," Daisy mutters.

"Wait, are you jealous?" He turns a smirk of his own in her direction. "Because, hey, don't get the wrong impression. You're totally hot."

Daisy shudders. "Ew, ew, ew, ew, don't ever say that again, ew." He clearly isn't used to this reaction. "I'm not hot, at least not to you, and I'm definitely too old for you anyway."

"Uh…you don't look—"

"I'm fifteen," she says, folding her arms.

"Yeah and I'm almost fifteen. That's not so—" he starts, but she holds up a hand to cut him off. "Fine, whatever," he concedes. "I’m not attracted to you anyway," he says with a nonchalant shrug and starts to strut away. "No offense, but you're giving me cousin vibes," he calls back to her and she breathes a sigh of relief.

It doesn’t last very long before she suddenly catches sight of raven hair out of the corner of her eye. She's alert and on edge again as she quickly tails the villain. She hadn't been sure why he'd pick this place to come back to, but now she gets it. He means to have his revenge in a way that will ruin everyone's lives, hers included.

"Hey!" Daisy freezes in her tracks, fear gripping her. "Somebody help!"

Daisy takes off running only to find Loki has one of his victims right where he wants him, cornered and far enough away from prying eyes.

"Loki, don't you dare touch him!" Daisy screams.

He turns to her with a jeer. "Or you'll what, little girl? I really should thank you. You're the one who made this possible, my dear." He pulls out the device that doesn't belong to him and opens a time portal.

She scowls and crouches down, hands extended as power courses through her. The ground begins to tremble and the boy with glasses looks at her with wide, terrified eyes. There’s shouts and mumbling from others in the building, but she ignores them. She just needs enough power to destabilize the portal and—

"No!" she screams when Loki grabs the boy into a violent grip and pulls him into the portal. She runs as fast as she can and only just sees the inquisitive boy that’s rushing toward the portal too before she runs smack into him propelling them both through the portal before it closes.

"What just happened? What the hell was that? And where am I?" Daisy is assaulted by questions as she dusts herself off and pulls herself up to look at her surroundings. Wherever it is, it's clearly the future. Well, her present – or somewhere near it at least. And Loki has already gotten away. Probably has a stolen teleportation device of some kind since they're not available to the public consumer yet.

She pulls out her tablet and punches in a quick string of code in order to get it to resync to the appropriate moment in the time stream where they've landed. With a sigh of relief her head rolls back on her shoulders. Loki has come back to the day after she left and they're just outside Midtown. She can see Avengers Tower from here.

"HELLO!" Her unwanted companion seems to take unkindly to her ignorance of him. "Answer my questions. Where are we? And who was that asshole that kidnapped Mr. Adorable? Don't think I didn't see that. Are you working with him!? Was that you who caused the quake?"

"Hey!" She turns then and glares at him, anger coursing through her at his accusations. "I'm not working with him. I was there to stop him. I didn't know he was going to take… Mr. Adorable," she trips on the nickname. "And I definitely didn't intend for you to get sucked through the time portal with me."

His eyebrows shoot upward. "Time portal?"

"Yes," she says in exasperation. "Time portal. As in it's not where you are, it's when you are. It's the year 2021."

"What the fuck kind of drugs are you—" He stops short and looks up in surprise when a flying car zooms overhead, trailed a few seconds after by a flying police car. "Holy shit." He then looks back at her with wide, frantic eyes. "Holy shit! You kidnapped me and brought me to the future!?" He begins to pace and prattle manically about how this is the best and worst thing that's ever happened to him and how nobody will believe him which is probably a moot point because a hot chick from the future kidnapped him with likely intent to kill him. Then he stops in his tracks and looks at her with wide eyes. "Oh my god, are you a terminator!? Did Skynet send you to kill me!?" He pauses and furrows his brow. "Or was that other guy a terminator sent to kill the boy he took? Does that boy have a kid some day?"

Daisy hangs her head and fists the space between her scrunched brows as she tries to come to terms with her, currently very annoying, tagalong. "Would you just stop talking for, like, one minute?" Thankfully he does. She huffs, blowing her bangs up as she does, and pulls out the only other time portal device in existence from an inside jacket pocket. "I'm not a terminator and Skynet didn't send me to kill anybody. That guy either. We don't have a Skynet. We had an Ultron once thanks to Hank Pym, but that's beside the point. The Avengers handled it."

"Hank Pym? My dad knows him."

"I know," she says as she enters a date on the device. "Now stop freaking about my kidnapping you. I didn't kidnap you. In fact, I'm going to open a portal so you can go back where you came from."

"What?" He crosses his arms indignantly. "I'm not going back."

"Uh, yeah, you are."

"That guy may not be a terminator, but he kidnapped Mr. Adorable. There's no way I'm going back. We have to save him."

"Oh for crying out loud." She sighs. "Look, I'll go save him. That's the plan. But you are going back."

"You can't make me."

"Oh, you're going back even if I have to push you through the portal myself," she says and quickly goes to open said portal. Only, nothing happens. He looks at her and then at where the portal should have opened and then back at her. "Just great." She bangs on it and tries again.

"Maybe she's shy," he offers with a far too pleased smirk. "Or maybe she doesn't put out on the first—" She looks at him with wide eyes and he matches them as he stops the comment short. "Uh… on second thought that seems like a wildly inappropriate thing to say in front of you," he says it with a confused crease in his brow. "Weird. Maybe it's the cousin vibes." He studies her again and she closes her eyes in exasperation.

"It needs charged," she answers evenly and then opens her eyes again. "It needs a gamma power source. So we're going to go to my place and charge it," she explains. She then looks him over. "Once I figure out how to do that without giving away you're from the past should anyone see you."

"Is it really that big of a deal?"

"Uh, yeah," she says and starts pacing. "If my parents find out I brought you here from the past, even on accident, I foresee a very slow and painful death in my future."

"Harsh."

"I'm exaggerating," she replies to that. "But, trust me, my parents aren't the kind of people you want to make angry. Especially one of them. And that's not even including the reaction my extended family would have."

"Okay…" There's an awkward silence as she continues to pace. "So you lie and say I'm a friend from school," he then suggests.

She stops and turns to looks him over. "In that outfit?" He looks himself over. "And with your hair? There's no way. They'll recognize you…are from the past right away." She sighs and pulls out her phone.

"Daisy," she's immediately greeted by Vision's relieved expression and tone on the holoscreen. "I was beginning to worry. Much longer and I would have had no other choice than to tell your father. He still thinks you spent the night with Jemma and I feel exceedingly guilty for corroborating your falsehood."

"I know, I know, but—"

"That is so fucking rad!"

"Who's that?" Vision looks at the boy suddenly standing beside Daisy inspecting the technology. Daisy sees the android's eyes begin to scan him and then he gives a stunned expression. "This is not good, Daisy."

"I know, Vision. That's why I called. I need you to meet me in the penthouse and try to snag a pair of," she looks at the boy beside her, "inconspicuous clothes for him. And a hat."

"I don't like hats," the boy protests.

"Definitely a hat. I'll be there in a few minutes." She cuts the call and looks at her companion with a shake of her head before entering coordinates into her watch and grabbing his arm.

He jerks free from her hand when they're suddenly in her bedroom at Avengers Tower. "What the hell?" He's wavers, disoriented.

"It's a trip at first," she says with a shrug.

"Did we just teleport?" He eyes her dubiously.

She grins. "Yeah," she holds out her wrist to show him the watch, "my dad's invention."

His eyes go wide and he looks at the invention with fascination written all over his face. "So your dad's a genius?"

She gives a nervous chuckle and moves her outstretched hand to scratch at the back of her neck. "You have no idea."

"Daisy," Vision's voice calls through the penthouse and she hurries from her room. "I have the clothes you have requested." She sees him look past her with clear alarm and she turns to see the unsuspecting boy. "May I once again say this is not good? I would daresay it's a disaster."

"I'll get him back to the past, Vision," Daisy says, looking back at the android. "But the device needs to charge," she tells him as she pulls it out and hands it to him, trading it for the clothes. She then pushes the clothes into the boy's hands.

"I don't like being handed things," he protests, but she ignores him.

"Go back to my room and change. Then come straight back here. Got it?" She waits until he's gone before looking back at Vision. "We need to do a scan for Loki asap," she tells him frantically. "He came back here and he brought someone with him."

"Who?"

She looks around and lowers her voice. "My dad."

He tilts his head. "But—" Then he straightens it again in alarm. "You mean…?" She nods. "Daisy, this has quickly turned into a disaster far beyond your ability to manage. I suggest you tell your father and the other Avengers at once."

"And be grounded and removed from the Young Avengers?" She knows she's being petulant, but she'd only just finally gotten her parents' permission to join the team full-time instead of just stepping in every now and then when they really needed her. "I screwed up. I know that, but I can make this right. I just need a little time."

"What do you propose?"

"Well, first things I charge the device and get him back to the past. While I do that we run a scan for Loki and then go after him."

"I'm going with you this time," Vision insists.

"Fine, fine." She bites her lip. "And maybe I'll call in some of the other Young Avengers if I absolutely have to."

"Hi, sweetheart," Daisy is interrupted by her dad's voice as he comes into the penthouse. "Didn't know you were back." He walks over and gives her a warm hug. She hugs him back and tries to ignore the sting of guilt over what she's potentially caused. He pulls back, keeping his hands on her shoulders, and asks, " How was your sleepover?"

"Oh, uh, great. Had a blast. Talked about what she's been learning at The Academy and watched a bunch of retro chick flicks."

"Sounds like—"

"Daisy, are you sure I have to—"

Daisy panics as her dad stiffens and turns a heated gaze toward where the unexpected guest has stopped in his tracks, looking like he's been in this situation before and still doesn't know how to handle it tactfully. She tries not to think about the implications of that too hard.

"Daisy, who is this?" Her dad gives her a demanding look. "And why was he coming from the direction of the bedrooms?"

"It's… it's really not what you think," she says quickly.

"Really isn't!" Her dad glares at the offending boy and he cowers slightly.

"He… he needed to change his shirt. He spilled a drink on it. Vision brought him one."

"I did bring him a change of clothes," Vision confirms.

"As for who he is," she thinks fast about a practical explanation, "he's Jemma's cousin." She glances at the country-style clothes Vision had found for him; she'd talk to Vision about his taste in fashion later.
"From North Montana. His family came to visit this morning while I was still there and he didn't believe me when I said who I was and of course I wasn't going to take that sitting down so I told him to come over for a couple of hours and I'd prove it to him. Jemma wanted to come, but she had to do something else. I also may have used my teleporter for extra proof. Oh, and his name is Eddie." She smiles wide and her dad blinks owlishly at her long winded explanation and then over at the boy in question. 'Eddie' is smiling tentatively when she looks at him too. "See, I told you Dr. Banner is my dad and I live at Avengers Tower," she adds for good measure.

Her dad eases up, but still looks wary. He then gives her a disapproving look as he folds his arms. "Daisy, I know you're a people person, but we've talked about this. When you're with strangers you should be Skye until you're sure you can trust them. Your dad and I have gone through a lot of trouble to keep your face out of the media eye for your protection."

"Yes, dad, I know. But it's not like nobody knows."

"No, I know that. But the less people that know, the better. Especially now." He gives her a meaningful look and she knows it's because she's taken up being Quake so now it's even more imperative she strive to keep a secret identity.

"Fine," she concedes.

"I won't say anything, Dr. Banner," 'Eddie' insists, helping her out. "I think it's cool and I wouldn't, uh, want anything bad to happen to her. Honest!"

That makes her dad narrow his eyes at him again suspiciously. "Good," he says tersely. "Because I'm sure now that you know who we are, you can imagine my husband and I wouldn't be too happy if something bad did happen to her."

Daisy's eyes widen. "Okay, dad! Stop threatening my new friend," she says with a nervous laugh and hurries over to grab the boy's arm. "He's great. I promise. Honestly, you'd probably love him if you got the chance to know him," she says with another nervous laugh. "I'm going to go show him the common rooms. See you later!" She drags him into the elevator before her dad can even protest. "That was close." She sighs once they're in the elevator and then looks at the dumbstruck boy beside her.

"Wow," he says breathlessly.

"Yeah, no kidding. I think his eyes were green there for a second," she mutters, knowing he has no clue what that would have meant.

"Your dad is sexier than Mel Gibson." Her eyes widen and she gapes at him. "I'd definitely be the Dustin Hoffman to his Anne Bancroft any day."

"What?" She doesn't understand the reference, but she knows whatever it is it's likely a lewd suggestion all centered around him being attracted to her dad.

"Oh, right." He looks at her. "It's probably weird for you that I have a huge boner for your dad isn't it?"

She closes her eyes tight and tries to will away that image. "Again, you have no idea."

"Wait, did he say you have two dads?" She opens her eyes again to see his face twisted in surprise and confusion both. "And they're married?"

She squints in confusion for a second too before realizing what he means. "Oh, uh, yeah. It's been legal for a while now."

"Cool," he says with an earnest nod. "Maybe I'll marry a man now just because," he says thoughtfully. "So, uh, you're adopted?"

"Obviously," she says with a roll of her eyes. "Just because marriage laws have changed doesn't mean biology has." She tilts her head. "Well, I guess surrogacy has come crazy far in the past decade. But I'm not a surrogate. I was more or less dropped in my dads' laps eight years ago because of my unique abilities."

"The thing you did with your hands back at the science fair?" he guesses.

"Uh, yeah. It's like a superpower. And my dads are part of this superhero team called The Avengers so… it seemed like a good fit for them to take me in." She smiles indulgently. "I'm glad they did. They're great. They're not perfect, but they love me like I'm really theirs. And everyone jokes that I might as well be since I've grown up to be so much like the both of them."

It's quiet for a moment as the elevator comes to a stop and they step out onto one of the common floors. Then without segue way she's asked, "So, is Dr. Banner's power being super-hot? Because he really is. Your other dad must be some sex god too to end up with that. Am I going to meet him? Because I'm seriously curious now. Unless he's some ugly loser who ended up with someone way out of his league."

Daisy snorts in spite of herself. "My other dad's away on hero business," she tells him. "So, you're just going to have to live with the mystery."

"Yeah, I probably don't want to know anyway," he agrees. "Better for my ego that way." She rolls her eyes. "So, any other cool future stuff you can show me?"

"I shouldn't. My dad... my other dad. He says the time stream is like a delicate flower."

"You can only mess with her once before she's no longer a virgin?"

"Ew," Daisy says, but then crinkles her nose. "He didn't say as much, but yeah that's probably what he meant when he said it."

"I guess he wouldn't put it like that though since your name is a flower. That's..." His voice trails for a moment. "Yeah, wow, I feel really gross putting it like that now that I know you." Daisy gives a small smile. "Anyway, so why invent a time portal or machine or anything in the first place?" He shrugs questioningly as they move into the common kitchen and dining area.

Her stomach falls at the question and she's not sure how to answer it, but she finds herself not needing to – at least for now – when they're suddenly greeted by some of the team in the kitchen.

"Woah," Clint says as he stops making a gigantic sandwich. "Woah, woah, woah. Do you have a boyfriend?" He looks back and forth at them and then looks at Natasha. "When did we allow this?" Natasha turns from where she'd been at the insta-oven and Steve shuts the refrigerator door in surprise.

"I think the more appropriate question here is when her dads allowed this," Natasha says, coming toward them with a quirked brow. "Because there's no way Bruce and—"

"He's not my boyfriend!" Daisy exclaims. "He's Jemma's cousin from North Montana," she tells them, hoping that's the excuse she'd gone with before because right now her brain is feeling scrambled from all of it. "His name is Eddie and I'm giving him a courtesy tour of the tower." The other three Avengers glance at one another dubiously.

"Okay, I've gotta say it," 'Eddie' says with an appreciative gaze set on all of them. "Is everyone here hot or what?" Daisy's shoulders slump in annoyance. "I mean, Dr. Banner is still the hottest of all, but the amount of good looking in one building is staggering."

"Is it just me or does he remind you of—" Steve starts, but Daisy doesn't let him finish.

"Uh," she interrupts in a nervous tone, "yeah. I guess a little."

"No wonder the kid's sweet on him," Clint heckles.

"I'm not!!" Daisy protests. "And that's just gross all around."

"I'm not into her either. Her dad on the other hand..." 'Eddie' smirks shamelessly.

"Bohze moi, he does," Natasha says, looking at Steve who nods earnestly.

Daisy is debating whether or not groaning violently will alert the team of heroes and spies that something is amiss when her dad comes into the kitchen.

"Are you hungry, Eddie? Daisy, did you at least offer our guest something to eat?"

"Oh, I'm hungry," 'Eddie' mutters as his eyes rove over her dad's backside.

Daisy shoots him a quick, disgusted glare before looking at her dad. "I, uh, was going to, but I didn't get a chance before the team started harassing me about my NOT-boyfriend."

"They're not dating," her dad says matter-of-factly as if to end the subject once and for all and she sighs in relief knowing the others won't dare contradict him. He then moves to the refrigerator and begins rummaging through it. "I was going to heat up our leftovers from last night. Spaghetti and meatballs if you're interested," her dad says as he pulls out the large container.

"Sounds good," 'Eddie' states.

"Have you eaten, sweetheart?" Her dad looks at her questioningly. Her stomach growls traitorously and she shakes her head. So naturally her dad pulls down three plates instead of two.

"So, Dr. B," 'Eddie' sidles up as close as possible to her dad, "you have a husband."

"Uh, yes?" Daisy feels her left eye start to twitch as her dad looks strangely at the boy beside him. "Does that bother you?"

"Oh, no, no. I just… We don't see a lot of that in Montana. I mean, North Montana that is," he catches his mistake.

"Really? Huh. Didn't know that," her dad replies naïvely. "Do you like boys, Eddie?" he then asks as he takes the plates to the microwaves, two at a time. Daisy nearly slaps her forehead dramatically.

"Both," 'Eddie' answers. "But nobody knows that."

"Well," her dad turns and gives him a fatherly look, "I know the old prejudices aren't completely gone yet." He sighs and then places a hand on 'Eddie's' shoulder when he comes back for the third plate. "But don't let anyone bully you into thinking you can't fall in love with someone just because of their gender, okay?"

“Uh… okay,” he responds. He waits a moment as her dad takes the other plate of food over. Then he asks, “So what if I fall for someone older? Any thoughts on that.”

Daisy isn’t the only one that groans knowingly. The other Avengers seem to catch the meaning of his question too. Her dad gives them an obliviously confused look, before shaking his head.

“Well, assuming it’s legal,” he hedges, “I don’t think it’s too big of a deal. It’s not really a big gap, mind you, but my husband is almost two years older than me,” he says with a shrug.

“Oh. So you like older men?” ‘Eddie’ asks and Daisy is ten seconds away from taking the punishment coming to her because this is torture.

“Not really,” her dad answers with a chuckle. “Can't say I've ever had a preference. But it doesn’t matter now because the only man I like is my husband. And I’m sure that would still be the case if he was the younger one.”

“But he’s not,” Daisy blurts out and they all look at her strangely. “Younger, I mean. He’s older. And he’s not here. So you won’t be meeting him anyways,” she adds as they continue to look at her, her dad’s look having shifted to slightly concerned.

“Daisy's right,” her dad says tentatively, still eyeing her. “Iron Man was needed in DC.” He then looks back at ‘Eddie’ with a small smile. “But I think he’d like you. You know, you sort of put me in mind of him,” he says as he goes to grab the reheated spaghetti.

“I do?”

“That’s what I thought too,” Steve chimes in.

“Are we sure this is a compliment?” Clint teases.

"You know," 'Eddie' says between his first large bite of spaghetti as he gives Steve a studious look, "you look just like Captain America."

Everybody's eyes widen and Daisy's heart stops. Not sure of what else to do she breaks out into riotous laughter. They all look at her uncertainly and her dad's shrewd gaze has intensified.

"Isn't he just hilarious?" she asks. "Jemma's always saying he's such a kidder." She pretends to recompose herself and then asks, "Hey, dad can we eat on the party deck patio? Eddie probably wants to see the killer view before he heads back home."

"Uh…" Her dad doesn't seem to certain.

"Please?" she tries.

"Fine," he answers with a sigh.

"Thanks!" She grabs her plate and tugs the boy in question by his arm before he can protest.

"Hey," he finally does when they're back in the elevator, "what gives? I wanted to hang out with your weird family some more."

"You mean my dad," she says dubiously.

"Well, duh. Of course I mean your dad. But what was the deal with my Captain America comment?"

"Because he is Captain America," she says plainly.

"What are you talking about? Steve Rogers is dead. Trust me. My dad only talks about him every chance he gets," he replies in a bitter tone. She furrows her brow because he actually sounds hurt.

"Well, technically he is dead," she explains. "In your time. But they'll find him still alive when you're older."

"Really?" He looks at her in disbelief. "How much older? Boy, is my old man going to love that."

She bites her lip and stares at the plate of spaghetti in her hands. The elevator door opens and she steps into the mission control center instead of the party deck like she'd said. She knows this is likely where Vision is and hopefully he has some news about Loki's whereabouts.

"I'm not going to answer that question," she tells him belatedly. "It's probably best you find out on your own."

"Daisy," Vision speaks as soon as he sees her, "the device is charged. But…"

"But what?" Daisy looks at him in concern as she sets aside her food. "What is it?"

"I have detected some concerning fluctuations in the timeline since your return."

"Because I'm here?" 'Eddie' asks as he removes his hat and runs a hand through his hair. He tosses it aside.

Daisy and Vision both look at him and then at one another. Vision shakes his head and looks back at his monitor.

"No," he answers. "At least, not that alone. I believe it is because Loki took—"

"Mr. Adorable?"

Vision narrows his gaze and tilts his head. He then looks at Daisy. She rolls her eyes.

"He has a crush on the boy Loki took."

Vision's eyes widen. "That is… interesting," he offers.

"I care more about the time stream right now," Daisy interjects.

"It's begun to ripple. Should the current alteration not be corrected within a small window of time, I fear the damage will be harder to repair. And I'm afraid even if it is, the world as we know it won't be identical to as it is now. The world as you know it may not exist, Daisy."

Daisy feels her stomach lurch and fear grip her. She loves her life. She doesn't want a single aspect of it to change. What if Loki wins and separates her family forever? What if she stops him, but not in enough time? Will her dads still be her dad? Or will everything be slightly different? She can't handle that thought. She has to tell the others no matter the consequences. They're nothing in comparison to—

An alert goes off and before she has a chance to process it, her wrist is suddenly seized and fast fingers input a set of coordinates. Then the world is a blur for a few seconds before coming back into focus. When it does, it's a very dank sort of room with no windows and only a pale light hanging from a single lamp in the middle of the ceiling.

She blinks in surprise to see her dad's younger self sitting in a chair with his hands tied behind it, his eyes wide at their sudden appearance. Then the one responsible for her new location is in her line of vision, hurrying around the chair to try and free him. Daisy feels the dreadful presence behind her and turns quickly on her heels to see Loki sitting in a chair watching them like an evil cat.

"What have you done?" she mumbles.

"What has he done indeed?" Loki drawls with a curled smile as he stands to his feet. "Like father, like daughter."

"Father?"

Daisy hears the shocked question right at Loki dissipates in front of her. Her eyes widen and she turns quickly around to see he has her other dad in an unexpected hold, him wrestling against him.

"I was expecting the brat," he says with a glance at her, "but it's a pleasant surprise getting Tony Stark as well. You're really as altruistic as your fathers, aren't you, my dear?" Loki finally forces her dad into another chair with a harsh shove. Daisy reaches for the watch. "Ah, ah," Loki says, "I wouldn't. You do that and I won't show mercy."

"What mercy?" Daisy queries.

"You see, if your father doesn't win that scholarship, he'll never meet Dr. Ross and he'll never become the Hulk. Which," he drawls, "was my merciful plan."

"You mean he'll never join the Avengers and help defeat you," Daisy challenges.

"There is that," he states as if it's not the crux of his plan. "But I was willing to allow it without any need for more drastic measures. You leave and I'll do away with Banner permanently."

"No!" Daisy screams. "You can't!"

She looks at her dad in panic. She then looks at her other dad. If he still goes on to be Iron Man, he may never meet Bruce and… and she knows Hulk saved him. What if by some chance they do still defeat Loki without Hulk. Will any of the others be able to save her dad if he still falls from space? She looks at Loki with tears stinging her eyes.

"Your choice, Daisy," he says smoothly, as if he knows what she's really thinking.

They won't be her fathers if he wins, but if he wins one of them may die, and if she tries to stop him from winning one of them might die. Either way she loses them somehow. She closes her eyes tight and slowly pulls off the teleportation device and throws it across the room.

"You win, Loki," she says, but she hopes it's not true as he grabs her roughly and pushes her into the chair he'd been in previously. Her hands are bound behind her like the other two.

"Yes, soon I will. Soon everything will be different." He glances at her dads and then back at her. "But at least you'll be able to spend what time you do have left with them before it changes," he says as if he's being altruistic."

"I'm so sorry," she apologizes, hanging her head. "This is all my fault. I was messing with the device even though you've told me a thousand times not to and Loki got hold of it."

"It's not your fault," Bruce says and she looks up to see his sad, albeit still a little confused, face. Then he glances at Tony. "It's your fault for building a time machine."

"What the hell?" He looks at him defensively. "I didn't build a time machine."

"You did actually," Loki supplies with an amused chuckle, enjoying this all too much Daisy thinks.

"Well, shit, I didn't know it was going to lead to all this. I mean, shouldn't you be blaming future me? I have nothing to do with this. Hell, I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that… that I'm a… dad."

Bruce rolls his eyes. "And I'm trying to figure out how I ever fall in love with someone like you," he says sarcastically. "You're impossible. A madman wants to ruin our lives and you're freaked about that?"

"You aren't?" Tony asks him dubiously.

"Uh, hello, I end up with Tony Stark. Of course I'm freaked out about it, but now's not the time."

"Hey!" Tony looks away. "I only tried to save your life from said madman. I didn't know you were my husband. I was just doing it because I thought you were cool."

Bruce scowls, looking the opposite direction as he does.

"Well, it seems I'm being more merciful than I assumed," Loki interjects. "Soon neither of you will have to worry about how ill-suited you are for one another."

Daisy feels her temper flare. "Don't listen to him!" she shouts. "He knows damn well that you need each other. You…" Her lip quivers and a lump forms in her throat. "You love each other," she whispers. Loki groans and rolls his eyes. "They do!" She looks at her dads to see them stealing furtive glances at one another. "You do," she says as she hangs her head again, thinking about her father back at the tower and her father in D.C. who she'll never be able to say goodbye to. She knows the two boys in front of her are her dads, but at the same time… it's not the same. "My dad told me that my other dad built the first time portal device because he wanted to go back and save Rebecca Banner, so his life could be better," she says and hears a small gasp from Bruce. "My dad got so mad he smashed the first device. He felt bad about it later, but he said it was because he was terrified it would change everything. That he'd never meet my dad."

"Charming," Loki says derisively.

"You… you wanted to save my mom?" Bruce finally looks at Tony and he glances back.

"I… guess so," he says with a hitch of his shoulder. "What happened to her?"

"My dad killed her when she tried to take us away from him," Bruce answers bitterly, suddenly so angry sounding it's almost terrifying.

"That's horrible," Tony says dumbly. He looks at Loki. "If you don't want him to do whatever it is you don't want him to do then why don't you go back further? Go save his mom?" Daisy's eyes widen along with Bruce's and she looks to see Loki genuinely surprised. "Come on, man. Don't you have a mom? You can't be that heartless."

"Why did he build another one?" Bruce asks before Loki can respond.

Daisy looks back at him. "Because he wanted to find out if there was a way to make my life better," she answers. "You helped him. The first six or seven years of my life was pretty miserable. Nobody wanted me. I was like a curse wherever I went. People died trying to protect me when I was a baby. You both wanted to find out why and see if you could prevent it." She swallows another lump in her throat as she recalls it. "I'd been with you for about a year when you told me. When you asked me if I'd like for my life to be different if it could be. I… I thought you didn't want me. I think I cried for like two days straight. You both thought you'd broken me and there was an incident because Hulk was scared I was hurt." She gives a soft, tearful snort in spite of everything.

"We sound like horrible parents," Tony says in a serious tone.

"You're the best," Daisy counters. "That's why I didn't want my life to be different. You love me and…" She looks at them. "You definitely love each other. You'll be miserable without each other," she says sadly. She looks at Tony. "You heard the way he talked about you back at the tower. And you feel the same way."

"You met older me?" Bruce scrunches his brow and looks at Tony.

"Yeah," Tony says with a crooked smile. "You're like… Dude, you're cute now, but you grow up to be damn fine. Couldn't take my eyes off of you." He winks and Bruce blushes.

"That seems impossible."

"Oh, for the love of…" Loki grumbles. "Enough. That future won't exist."

"Then go back and save his mom," Tony insists again.

"I will not," Loki says defiantly. "I have no reason to give the little beast that happy of an ending." He sneers.

"Beast?" Tony looks around in confusion.

"He… he says that I become—"

At just that moment there's a bestial roar in the distance and Daisy can barely contain her relief. The far wall breaks open and Hulk bursts through it, grabs Loki and then jumps back out again through the roof. Daisy shields herself from the inevitable debris fall out only for familiar metal arms to be suddenly around her instead.

"Dad!" She looks up at him as he steps back, face plate going up. She then looks over to see Steve and Vision had protected her dads' younger selves. They then rush out of the building again to help apprehend Loki – well Vision phases out.

"You are so grounded, princess," her dad says with a relieved smile.

"What the fuck was that?" her younger dad asks as he rubs at his hands, having been unbound by one of the other Avengers. She sees her dad's eyes widen and he turns to look at him. "Dude, you look like my dad."

"Correction, I look better than our dad." He then looks back at Daisy. "Yep. Definitely grounded." He then looks at Bruce. "Hey, you okay?"

Daisy looks to see him trembling in his chair, wringing his hands. "I…" He shakes his head. "I—I… He was…"

"Hey, kid, just breathe," Tony says in concern, crouching down and wrapping an arm around his shoulders. "It's fine. Clearly the big green guy is on our side."

"I…" Bruce looks at him uncertainly and then at Daisy and her dad's older self. Then he buries his head against Tony's shoulder. "He was right. I'm a monster. My dad was right."

"Shit," her dad mumbles and takes a step forward, but then hesitates. "This is… I don't know what's appropriate here and what isn't for me to do," he says with a shake of his head. He turns to Daisy. "Handle this and we can negotiate your punishment a little. I'm going to go help the others."

She nods and watches him take off through the hole in the roof Hulk had created. Then she looks back at where Tony is awkwardly trying to soothe Bruce. This has honestly been the weirdest day of her life.

"You're not a monster," she says. They both look at her. "I mean, okay, you kind of are. Technically. But it's a good thing. Hulk saves people and you won't like him at first, but he's not bad. And if there's no Hulk there's no reason for you to ever meet Tony or be my dad," she adds, knowing it's a bit of a selfish point.

"I…" He takes a deep breath. "I guess so."

"And did you see how hot I was?" Tony offers with a wide, cheeky smile. "You hit the jackpot too, Banner," he says. "I think it's a fair enough trade off."

Bruce's eyes widen and then furrow, back and forth a few times like he doesn't know how to respond to that. "You're so fucking impossible," he finally settles on.

"You'll learn to love it," Tony says right before they both surge forward for a sloppy sort of first kiss.

Daisy's eyes widen, not having expected that. Maybe she should be relieved they're not arguing anymore, but it's still a little weird. And it only gets weirder when they break apart and simultaneously say, "Whoa." Because a few seconds later they're kissing again with way more intensity. Her Uncle Rhodey is right. It kind of does look like two seals fighting for a grape.

"Okay, guys," she says and glances away for a second. When she glances back they're still making out. If anything, they're even closer somehow than before. It suddenly hits her that they're two, likely horny, teenagers hyped up on adrenaline, not to mention they'll grow up and fall in love someday provided the time stream is still intact. So, really, it can only get more embarrassing from here if they don't stop. "Come on," she complains. "You're like thirteen! I can't even look at a boy without you both researching convents to send me to. And I'm older than both of you. Hello! Uncomfortable daughter, right. here."

That finally gets their attention and they pull away, panting and disheveled and she wrinkles her nose in disgust.

"We have a daughter," Bruce says like it's just now hitting him.

"What a trip," Tony agrees.

"Okay, you two," she says, having had enough.

She grabs both of their arms and yanks them toward the hole in the wall. They complain the whole way. She lets go when she sees Loki apprehended, but her father and Vision frantically working on a holoscreen. She rushes out to find out what's happening.

"It's too late. You'll never have enough time now to repair it before the window closes," Loki is taunting when she reaches them. Hulk growls at him.

"Couldn't have said it better myself, Hulk," Steve says and drags him away with Natasha and Clint following.

"There has to be a way," Daisy says as she stands beside Hulk. Her dad gives her a pained look before glancing up at Hulk and then getting back to trying to find one. "There just has to be! I can't lose you!"

She looks at her dad and then up at Hulk. "Hulk loves pretty flower," he says and she hugs him.

"I love you too," she says, throat tight with emotion as he holds her back gently with two giant fingers. Slowly he shrinks until it's her dad holding her tightly in his arms as she cries into his bare chest.

"Wait," Bruce says suddenly, and they all turn to look at her dad's younger self. "What if… what if there were no time portals?" He glances at Tony beside him and Daisy only just now notices the two boys are holding hands. "If… if Loki never had a time device to get his hands on—"

"—then theoretically there would never be a time stream disturbance or window to worry about in the first place," Tony finishes with a nod.

"But, it's impossible," her dad lets go of their embrace and moves to stand by her other dad. "Whoever went back to destroy them would be stuck there without a way to return."

"Unless," her other dad says, looking at their younger counterparts, "they go. In theory, if they go back to a point before Loki got one of the devices and destroyed them both, they would return to their own time like none of this ever happened."

"Can we be sure?" Her dads look at each other for a moment. "It might not work."

"We can't be sure of anything."

"Then we should try," Tony says and they all look at him. "It seems like the only option. And if it works…" He looks at Bruce. "I guess what matters is that this will still be our future."

"We won't remember," Bruce says and looks down. He then looks at Daisy, eyes determined. "But we have to do something."

"I have set the appropriate time coordinates," Vision supplies as he holds one of the devices. "It should take them to just before I tried to stop Daisy from borrowing one of them."

Daisy grabs the device and walks over to her dads' younger selves. She holds it out towards Tony. "Here," she says and he hesitates before taking it. "Do it," she insists. She then glances over her shoulder for a moment. "With any luck you'll be able to ground me in 37 years."

"Ouch. We're old," Tony says with a chuckle. "Should we really still be doing the superhero thing?" Daisy gives a soft laugh.

"Probably not, but with any luck we'll still be able to be old together," Bruce says in response.

"Easy for you to say. You're still younger than me," Tony teases before leaning in and kissing him. "Just in case I don't get to do that for a while," he says when they break apart.

"You probably don't have much time left," Daisy urges. Tony nods and then activates the portal.

"See you later, Daisy," Bruce says before taking Tony's hand.

"Promise?" Daisy asks.

"Hey, no worries," Tony replies. "I'm really good at fixing things."

"Yeah. You are," Daisy agrees with a smile as she watches them go.

She then walks back over to her dads and they wait for any sign that it had worked. It seems like an eternity and she can tell it's the same for them because they share a long kiss.

"Just in case," her dad, Bruce, says.

Then both of them hug her tightly. "Just in case," her dad, Tony, agrees.

Daisy clings to them and hopes for the best.

***

Bruce is carrying a large box of pieces for his science experiment, clearly trying hard to watch where he’s going. Then, as he’s passing by a row of projects, Tony turns around casually and their eyes lock. Both boys look a little stunned. Bruce slows his steps and stops paying attention to where he’s going and Tony looks like he doesn’t know whether or not he should blow his cover and walk right over to the other boy and talk to him.

Daisy snorts. “DL, dad? It’s so obvious you like boys.” She glances up at her dad with a smirk.

“Jeez, did I really say something like that?” he asks with a wince.

It’s strange. He doesn’t remember any of it from his trip as a kid because it technically didn’t happen and yet they all remember the near-fiasco and having met the younger Bruce and Tony. It’s an anomaly they hadn’t counted on, but otherwise it seemed to have worked, the only change being that the other device had vanished. Her dads had spent the past few months working on another device for one last trip to see for themselves what had happened after their younger selves had destroyed the machines. Daisy has pretty much been grounded the entire time, but it’s okay because she still has her family.

“You did,” she tells him. Then she looks up at her other dad. “And you told me to watch where I was going. Like you could talk. No wonder I ran into you.”

“Sorry, sweetheart,” he apologizes, placing a hand on her shoulder.

She looks back at the scene to see Bruce just as he looks a little flustered and ready to hurry on ahead. He breaks the eye contact and then rather than running into Daisy he walks quickly on unimpeded. Tony blinks and takes a step forward like he wants to follow, but then he stops. He gives a sad quirk of his lips to one side. Then he sighs and shakes his head before turning back around.

“Do you remember any of this?” Daisy asks tentatively and turns to look at both of her dads.

"Vaguely."

"I never realized it was you. Small world. I'm pretty sure I might have had a few shower fantasies back at the hotel about you."

"What? But I was so… so unattractive…"

"Not unattractive to me. There was just something about you."

"Or maybe you were a repressed, horny teenager and I just walked by at the right time?"

"Repressed?"

"Hello! Uncomfortable daughter, right. here." They stop bantering and look at her, chuckling between them

"You'll understand when you're older, princess."

"Older?" She snorts and throws her thumb over her shoulder. "You were the one having fantasies about dad when you were fourteen."

"She's… she's got a point, Tony. And I was thirteen."

Daisy blinks at the same time as her dad. "Are you saying… you had fantasies about me?"

"A really cute boy actually looked at me. Of course there were fantasies. My emotions weren't completely offline yet."

Daisy rolls her eyes as her dads start bantering again and looks back to where they could have met sooner. "It's a shame you didn't," she says."

"Didn't what?"

"Meet sooner," she supplies. "Maybe you could have had an amazing life together, adopted other kids." She feels both of their hands on her shoulders then.

"Schrodinger's cat, sweetheart."

"So let's get back to the future where we belong and destroy the device. We've seen what we wanted to see and we know why it's okay that we didn't meet sooner. No more wondering about what could have been. Agreed?"

Daisy turns in her fathers' arms and hugs them tight. Somewhere behind her two boys have a lot of heartache and confusion ahead of them, she knows that much, but right now she's just happy that in spite of it all they made it to each other and made it to her.

"Agreed."