56 - End

Chapter 56: Starks, The Smartest Idiots

Notes:

So....yeah...

Chapter Text

Darcy squished her eyes even more tightly closed. She grumbled while shoving the offending digit that had poked her. "No." She didn't care that the warm body that should have been next to her wasn't there. Sleep was good. Sleep was sacred.

"There's coffee." Peter sounded far too judgy.

She further buried her face into her pillow. "....no."

"Are you sick?" Peter actually sounded slightly concerned.

Darcy groaned, cracked her eyes open and glared at the baby brother. "I have barely slept for a week."

"It's three in the afternoon." Peter actually arched an eyebrow, shit he was copying her. "Even Daisy is up."

Darcy let her face hit the pillow again and whined. Thor damn it. He had a good point. "Nooooooooo."

"Yes." Peter sounded far too smug as he grabbed the comforter and yanked.

She let out a yelp, startling straight up. Her eyes narrowed as she spotted his stupid smug face. "Oh you better run." And then she lunged for him.

He laughed, somersaulting over her with ease. His eyes were bright as they widened slightly at the expression on her face as she turned. "Uh...mercy?"

"Run." Darcy grabbed the lightsaber and whacked him as he dove for the door. She tsked under her breath. That was barely a glancing hit. She was going to get him. Running after him she had rage on her side. Or a deep well of irritation and a lightsaber extending her reach.

They came crashing down the stairs and thudded into the kitchen. Peter went vaulting up and over the kitchen island, landing on the ceiling. "HELP!"

Darcy grinned viciously. She could still stab him up there with the lightsaber. "Hold still so I can stab you!"

"Just don't break anything." Aunt May remarked from where she was reading something on a Starkpad. She took a calm sip from her mug of tea.

Peter's head snapped over to May. "What?"

"HA!" Darcy whacked at him as she closed in.

In some sort of gravity breaking powered bullshit, he rolled along the ceiling. "I just woke you up!"

"Traitor!" She eyed the back of the couch. She could probably stand on the couch to get a better chance of cornering him by the lamps. He wouldn't be able to run without risking the things. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted her boyfriend half absorbed by the beanbag. "Come help me strangle my brother."

Pietro grinned. "I'm wounded." He pointed to his leg that was in a cast up to the knee. "Sorry babe."

Darcy's eyes narrowed. She tracked across the room. Daisy was snickering from one corner of the couch, Aunt May a beacon of calm. She paused. "Where's Wanda?"

"She's getting more painkillers." Daisy winced slightly. "Apparently it's non optional."

Darcy straightened, lowering her lightsaber. Her sister did look like she'd been run over by a truck. Fighting two alien invasions inside of a week would do that. "Your ribs ok?"

"They just hurt when I breathe." Daisy's voice was dry.

Peter stared at their sister in disbelief from where he was still clinging to the ceiling. "Or eat, or move."

"Those are all unfortunate too." Daisy glared at her arm that was in a sling. "The clavicle and sternum are the worst."

Darcy sighed and moved towards the kitchen. "I can't believe Wanda is the only one of you idiots not hurt."

"She's got a split lip." Pietro defended sounding kind of put out.

She grabbed the coffee pot, switching the lightsaber to the crook of her arm. "You have chitauri teeth marks in your ass and a broken leg. But oh no, a whole split lip is a war wound." She dumped creamer into her coffee. Ah...the good stuff.

Daisy tossed a throw pillow at Pietro. "Yeah Pretty Boy, accept your idiot title."

"I didn't throw myself at Thanos and let him strangle me." Pietro protested, all indignation from the beanbag. "You have a cracked sternum!"

Daisy let it roll off of her. "Advanced healing. Two weeks and I'll be up and going again."

"Absolutely not!" Peter dropped from the ceiling staring at Daisy in horror. "No!"

Darcy gave a solome nod while trudging towards the living room. "It's cute you think your girlfriend isn't going to tie you to your bed for a month. At least."

Peter blanched, face twisting in disgust. "Oh gross."

"Head out of the gutter." Darcy whacked him upside the head with her lightsaber. Which, 'ha' letting his guard down had been a mistake. She sniggered as she passed him and dropped down onto the beanbag chair with Pietro. "If she can't walk without grimacing, nothing untoward is happening." She stuck her tongue out at Daisy. "Sucks to be you."

Daisy's free arm raised a middle finger at her. "Fuck you."

"Hopefully." She patted Pietro's stomach. He just snorted and wisely kept his mouth shut.

Peter's nose was scrunched up in disgust. "So gross."

"Children." Aunt May ruffled Peter's hair as she walked over and set a cup of juice in Daisy's hand in the same motion. "Have you considered a new topic?"

Pietro tilted his head slightly. "Uh...Thanos was a bitch and I'm glad he's dead?"

"Amen." Daisy replied from where she was mulishly sipping juice under Aunt May's watchful eye. She also didn't protest the thermometer tapped against her head.

Darcy stared at Aunt May. "You do realize she's just an idiot with broken bones and ripped stitches? She doesn't have the flu."

"Better safe than sorry." Aunt May replied.

Peter glanced at the tv. "Are we avoiding the news?"

"I don't think my heart can take whatever footage leaked to the press." Aunt May patted Daisy's head and gave Pietro a pointed look.

Darcy sipped her coffee. "Downsides of international cooperation, some countries think it's fun to share footage of the alien invasion without editing it." Her eyes closed happily. "No one will care whatsoever about me for weeks. I'm free to take a week without going into the lab. Or any office of any sort."

"Keeping us invalids company then?" Daisy asked, her cheeks were slightly pink from the doting of Aunt May.

Darcy hummed. "Yes, yes I am."

"That'll be wonderful." Aunt May handed her a throw blanket. "I've been worried about you. You haven't been getting enough sleep."

Darcy shot Peter a look. "Something I'd still be doing if 'someone' hadn't woken me up."

"Hey! If you want to sleep tonight you have to at least be up a little today." Peter defended himself. He was also pouting, it was lethal.

Thus she ignored him. "Hmmm…"

"Well I'm sure you can clean your room now that you have the time." Aunt May chided gently. "I think your laundry is growing sentience honey."

Darcy opened her mouth to protest but then shut it again. "Sure Aunt May."

They all turned as the front door opened and Wanda came striding in, bag from the local pharmacy clutched in her hand like a trophy.

"Did everything go ok?" Aunt May asked, stepping into the kitchen and getting two glasses of water out.

Wanda looked fond. "Yes, I believe the clerk was confused by two prescriptions for pain relievers."

"I said I'd be fine with aspirin." Daisy muttered, she was very specifically not looking at Wanda or Aunt May as she said it though.

Darcy joyfully was able to give her sister a look at that. Honestly, that was just asking to be smothered to death by disappointed looks and probably more throw blankets. She grinned, it was good to be together again.

////

May Parker sipped at her glass of wine while watching over her family. She smiled as she watched Tony and Darcy teaching Peter and Wanda to play poker. There was laughter and warmth as they all sat around the tiny coffee table. Wanda was almost certainly planning on how to cheat as she listened, Daisy's head resting on her shoulder. Pietro and Daisy were both snoring, their pain medication having knocked them out.

"How long before they start throwing things do you think?" Pepper asked from where she was leaning against the counter next to her.

May considered that. "Give it an hour. They're trying not to wake up the invalids afterall."

"Invalids?" Pepper let out a gentle laugh. "That is one way to describe them." She shifted ever so slightly. "I'm sure they'll stop being adorable and start being annoying soon enough."

May's lips twitched. "I think Daisy might last a week before she tries to rebel against bedrest."

"I'll be sure to have SI's digital security head email her. I'm sure our firewalls will keep her busy for a few days." Pepper was probably the most relaxed May had seen her. While her jeans and t-shirt were certainly designer, they were still jeans and a t-shirt. "Worst case I'm sure you can have Peter web her to the couch."

May snorted at that. "I might need to do that for Pietro, but Wanda's worried enough I think she'll take care of any escape attempts."

"I don't know how you do it." Pepper hummed thoughtfully. "I like them all, they're good kids. But I couldn't do what you do."

May took a slow sip of her wine. It was…she couldn't do anything but love them. Consider them hers. It'd been inevitable from that first afternoon when a broken and hurt Daisy had shown up on her doorstep desperate to protect. Or maybe earlier, when her sister had placed her new baby in her arms that first time. It'd been inevitable. "I wouldn't change it for anything."

"No. Neither would I." Pepper admitted. "It's only going to get crazier."

May watched Darcy whack Peter with her lightsaber, again. "Oh I'm sure. They're going to be amazing."

Pepper tapped their glasses together. "Family of the smartest dumb people."

"They really are idiots." May smiled as she watched her family. Sure they weren't conventional and were a little broken. "But good people."