every ship is equal, and no one is more powerful than the sea.

[derogatory]

FIVE THINGS MEME

HOW TO PLAY
- Give me as many "five things" prompt for any characters or fandom that you know I'm into
- I will try to write it
- no promises.


COMPLETE
five moments of gay panic for victor
four times victor missed nathan before finding him again (and one time he really didn't)
five disastrous toasts from victor and nathan's big gay wedding
five things about avenger victor and supervillain karolina
five times chase and victor were not friends
five ways victor's bad end could've gone
four successful missions nathan and victor went on (and one that could have gone a lot better)
five moments inside the mentor's lounge
five times victor regretted letting nathan move in

Comments

[derogatory]

v.
“Oh, fuck,” Nathan whines, sinking down beside Victor, while the cyborg's body instinctively jerks back from any contact, hunched over tight and tense on the ground outside the warehouse. His breathing is hitched, pupils tiny dots in the center of his eyes. “Victor?”

“Did he say ‘Ultron tech’?” Tony’s voice resounds over the communicator, loud and hoarse, and Steve dismisses it, give us a second, Stark, there’s a situation. “Oh, a situation besides the killer robot brigade? Young?”

“Yeah, we definitely found a stash of robots,” he gulps. Nathan wrestles with the comm in his ear, trying to raise Victor’s chin with his other hand. “I think it’s the feedback, the thing with Vision and Ultron stuff? He shorts out.” Victor grimaces seconds too late when Nathan’s grip tightens, shaking apart under his hands. “He made it sound like it’d be, uh more seizure-y though.”

“That’s because he’s in shock. Mancha!” Cap elbows Nathan aside, kneeling down in front of the kid, hands over his shoulders. “Snap out of it.” Through the comm he orders, “Send in a removal, we’re getting out, this isn’t the objective. We need recon before we go into something like this.”

“Hey,” Nathan whispers, sliding back to place as Steve straightens up. Nathan yanks his gloves off, pushing Victor’s mask off his face. He looks a little more aware than when he first went down, still too wide eyes scanning over Nathan’s face. “Shock, yeah? Did you faint?” he forces a grin and Victor’s neck snaps, turning fast back to the warehouse, buckling over. No, no, no, no no nono. Nathan flinches, forcing his tone light, “Okay, okay. We’re going.”

“Tony says you stay,” Steve informs him as they ease Victor onto his feet. “We need to know who’s in charge of these things, if it’s actually-” Steve cuts himself short, the two men looking to Victor like he’s a child and Ultron’s something you have to spell out instead of say so it doesn’t upset him. “-so you’ll do some quick recon.”

“Recon,” Nathan echoes furiously, loud enough they better hope those robots inside don’t have high tech auditory sensors. “I talk to ghosts. Unless there was some kind of grisly manufacturing death, ghosts aren’t going to be around here!” Victor groans, that’s a possibility maybe. "You do the fucking recon!"

“Not up for discussion.” Captain’s orders. Nathan’s not sure if it’s that he’s starting to seem like a legitimate Avenger in Steve’s eyes, or it was the noise Victor makes when he pries them apart, but his tone softens, “Young, you’ll be fine. Removal is tricky, and I know you can’t die, but he can. And if Ultron’s really back, we’re going to need Victor. I’ll make sure he gets out.”

“No shit you will,” Nathan mutters and turns away to find intel or whatever because Victor’s starting to look aware enough to be scared of what's through those doors.

“Just find out who made your boyfriend a new baby brother or sister, Lucky,” Tony orders grimly.






In the end they weren’t Ultron made, just poor copies. Of course, Nathan has to find all that out the hard way, and the secondary removal comes just a few seconds short of another cyborg murder (“Too bad,” he’d gloated as the helicopter pulled him away. “I think you get a free burger when you hit 100.”) And yeah, the Avengers will have to go back and knock out this wannabe cyber-lord and it will be more hard than easy, but not as bad as it could be.

He needs to brief Cap on it first, then Hill, but at least he can text the good news before the post-mission starts.


To: Robocop
Subj:
It’s not him, you’re okay.

To: Robocop
Subj:
Theyre just Ultron knockoffs

To: Robocop
Subj:
I suggested calling them “Ultren”

To: Robocop
Subj:
Anyway if it was your dad, he’d want Hank to know right? So it’s not

TO: Robocop
Subj:
See you back home soon






Nathan has a fleeting moment of panic that they checked Victor back into the hospital when the lights are off, but nope, he’s just sitting in the dark in his uniform still like a crazy person.

“Kinda thought you’d be more cheered up,” Nathan says, taking off his coat, keeping the tone easy. “Considering you don’t have an army of siblings to fight.” He flips on every lightswitch he can reach, watching the uneasy lift of Victor’s face.

“I choked,” Victor announces miserably. “I thought my dad was back and I choked.” Nathan shrugs, walking across the room to meet him, leaning over a sullen shoulder at the counter.

“Yeah, no shit,” he says, in not one of his best attempts to smooth it over. “Who wouldn’t? If an army of my dads showed up all of a sudden-” Victor turns so fast he nearly elbows Nathan in the throat.

“Don’t make this into a stupid joke!” and Nathan is reminded in a not so fun manner how young Victor is. His mouth curls in disgust, shuddering. “I was a mess.” You were fine, Nathan offers gently, or as much as he can get. “I flipped out. That's worse than the feedback, that's-” Victor strains for the words, flailing uselessly for a moment before settling on a furious and helpless, “I'm supposed to be an Avenger.” Like that means anything, the immortal notes.

“All right, calm down,” Nathan laughs through his nerves, “So you went a little nuts, okay. On the grand scheme of goin nuts, I'd see a little crying is hardly the worst you could do, faced with your dad and all, right?” He inches forward, not wanting to get half sucker punched again with Victor flinching around. He’s not as cold and clammy this time around and Nathan rests his hands on either side of Vic’s face, down his neck.

“Nobody's mad at you, if that's what you're thinking,” Nathan speaks up again a last, carefully. “Honestly, Cap wanted me to make sure you were all right-” And nope, wrong fucking thing to say, like clockwork. Victor snakes away again, pacing, coiled tight with his guilt.

“Oh, great. The Avengers being worried about me is even worse,” Victor rails, hands in his hair. “I shouldn't even be an Avenger- You were more of one there than I was." And Nathan’s such a great fucking boyfriend he doesn't take offense to that.

“You're getting all upset over nothing,” he points out, throwing his hands up defensively when Victor turns, wide eyed and furious after him. “Okay! Not nothing, but you know what I mean. It wasn't the real thing.” Victor stops quick, processing that carefully, fight still on his lips but hesitating enough for Nathan to hurry on, “Yeah, not the real thing. Sorta like a dress rehearsal if your dad showed up again-”

“‘If,’” Victor echoes bitterly. “He’s going to come back,” and it’s a promise, not a threat, with enough certainty in it that neither man wants to dwell too long on why Victor is so sure.

“If,” Nathan finally repeats, quietly. “Then you won’t freak out about it next time.” He cracks a smile, adding, “Trust me a little on this, I’m an Avenger.” Victor hesitates and finally smiles back weakly, head down, laughing until he’s not.






Victor murmurs in his sleep, and Nathan thinks it’s the start of a nightmare before his phone starts ringing. He takes the phone with the hand that's not asleep, trapped under the cyborg. Who designs a robot on the same frequency as mobiles anyway?

“This is a surprise,” Nathan mutters into the receiver, balancing it against his shoulder.

“I am attuned to the communicators at all time. There are certain words that I am alerted to.” ‘Ultron’, yeah, Nathan gets it. He lets the silence hang as long as it can between them before Nathan has to hear his own voice. Not as if The Vision would get uncomfortable with stretched out silences.

“If you’re calling to talk to him, he’s asleep,” Nathan says under his breath, trying to ease his arm out from under the other man- nope, no dice, he’s snoring. He continues, because he can totally have a proper conversation without brother-of-the-year weighing in, “Yeah, he still sleeps, comes with having some kinda panic attack. Should’ve seen the epic nap he took after our LA trip-” The Vision interjects swiftly,

“A panic attack? That’s interesting.”

“Fuck off,” he barks, quick and loud enough Victor stops snoring, whoops.

“I don’t mean it positively,” Vision replies after a pregnant pause. Nathan glowers at the receiver, because every break in the conversation isn’t a hesitation from the A.I, but him probably going over a billion possible scenarios and calculations, weighing the worth of this conversation with the great work he could do for the universe or some shit. “I only meant it’s interesting the depth of Victor’s reaction was-”

“If the next words out of your robomouth aren’t ‘shit’,” Nathan grits, as quiet as possible when something sour is coursing through his veins. “What are you calling for anyway?” Another cagey silence, big fucking surprise. Nathan seriously considers hanging up, but far be it for him to know when to call in a fight. “You checkin in or just offering us a status report?” A thought dawns on him and Nathan gapes, “Wait, the hell are you calling me for, we’re not friends.”

“It seemed appropriate to call,” he responds, as dismissive as an unfeeling robot fuck can get, no offense to the semi-robotic in his arms. Weighing the issue aloud for once, Vision continues, slowly, “It’s possible I knew how badly he would take our father’s return.”

“And if your dad came back- (“When,” Vision interjects, because it’s a fucking family trait here.) -you’d take it just fine?” Nathan counters scathingly. He’s probably imagining the sarcasm since it’s unlikely Ultron programmed the voice box to have a “snark” setting.

“Having experienced it before, I know I wouldn’t have a panic attack, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Go to hell,” Nathan hisses. “Since you’re the fuckin expert, what’s the plan if this actually happens?”

“I suppose,” he begins and Vision’s never a particularly animated guy, but his next words are measured more carefully than usual. It’s probably for thinking up a future he calculates as much as his brother. “You would have a lot of work ahead of you.”

Nathan hangs up the phone with a cringe as Victor shifts, looking through half opened eyes.

“Vision?” he asks and Nathan nods, stilted, still mad, only half unnerved about the prospect of major ghost spotting in the potential dad returning future. “He was worried about me?” Victor yawns, inching forward until his face is against Nathan’s shoulder.

“‘Course,” he lies easily. “What are big brothers for?”