Morning after, and Manipulation of Fate

POV-Nathan Cross

Waking to the stirring of the frizzy-haired koala lying against me, I grab the bottle of water next to the bed and down it, washing the taste of stale booze out of my mouth. Turning back to see the petrified face of MJ, shocked by her current surroundings, and who she'd shared them with was priceless.

POV- Michelle Jones

'OMG OMG OMG! This can't be happening. I know we didn't have sex, I remember everything just fine. But somehow that makes it worse, looking at him now all I can think about is those soft lips and vicious tongue. Did people notice I came up here with him? Of course, they did. I'm gonna get talked about all around school for at least a few days.' *sigh*

"Good morning, MJ, do you want some food or are you getting picked up straight away?" He was being polite, but there was none of the same panic in his eyes as I'm sure there was in mine. 'How is he so calm about this?'

"Umm, some breakfast would be nice I guess?" Looking around for my clothes I grab my knickers from the dresser, but I know I can't put them on, the night having done little to magically clean them as we slept. Just throwing on my jeans I look over my shoulder, Nathan watching me with a Cheshire grin so wide I want to smack him. "Shut up. Don't say a word."

Pretending to be hurt he gasped, "I haven't even said anything and I'm being attacked by the sharp tongue of a beautiful girl," getting up and past me towards the door. "Seriously question, do you want coffee?" I nod at the question, and pull on my bra and shirt, leaving the jacket on the bed.

Watching his skinny, delicate back walk out the door, memories of him lifting me and pinning me to the wall flash through my head, at first causing me to groan in embarrassment before I pause, mid-groan. 'How the fuck did he pick me up so easily? I'm not heavy by any means, but I'm tall, taller than Peter at least, so he shouldn't have found it that easy. It's like I weighed nothing.' Heading down the stairs I spot Aunt May, who refused to be called anything else by me and Ned, looking around the house at the absolute mess it was. Nothing was broken sure, but hundreds of bottles were all over the floor, and articles of clothing were left strewn about the living room and stairwell, telling of the number of students that had been here last night. Hearing my footsteps on the stairs, Aunt May whips her head around to me, her previous anger gone in a flash, "Oh, hello MJ, I didn't expect you to still be here. I hope you didn't find Peter's trundle too uncomfortable." Her words cause both me and Peter to cough, choking on our spit, as Peter responds quietly.

"She didn't sleep in my room May." The words cause May's face to freeze, then pull into a teasing grin.

"Oh Nathan you big charmer you. MJ I hope you used protection at least. Nate, tell me you used protection?!" The increase in volume telling of her increased panic at the scene in her head, no doubt of my teen pregnancy and her being a grandmother so young.

"Chill out May. MY pants stayed on all night." The implication not missed by the wildly observant May, whose breathing calmed and the teasing smile returned. "Jaw's a bit tired though." Peter, who'd been taking a sip of his coffee sprayed half of it across the room, red faced as he couldn't believe his brother's blasé attitude.

May, seizing the opportunity for more gossip to spill no doubt at another girl's night, whisked me away from the boys, interrogating me for details. Do we like each other? Was he considerate? Was he any good? The last one in particular felt strange coming from May, but I admitted that he was in fact "amazing." To which she replied, "I'm glad he was a gentleman about it. When they focus on us first, it's a sign of a good lover." Returning to the kitchen, I can see the cocky smirk of Nathan's face, as if he'd heard the conversation. 'He hadn't had he? Oh please no.'

POV- Nathan Cross

"So did you get anywhere with Liz?" I ask, hoping he had finally gotten somewhere with his crush. Afterall, I can just kill her dad myself, preventing the awkwardness between them from developing.

"Not much further than we did in the cupboard, some snogging, some under the shirt but over the bra groping. Why, going to make a comment about how far I should have gone? I'm not you, sleeping with girls just because I can. I-"

"I don't really care how far you got Pete." He stops, waiting for the 'but.' "All I wanted was to know if you'd progressed outside of the game, and if she's willing to make out with you outside of a game, your odds of dating her have drastically gone up, considering I heard she was planning on rejecting any of the boys during 7 minutes in heaven." This causes him to jolt his head up.

"Really?"

"Yeah, Betty told me after your go with her. About how surprised she was that Liz said yes. So no, little brother I'm not going to mock and tease you, I'm proud that you're finally coming out of your shell."

"You're like 2 days older than me you prick," but despite the harsh words, the smile blooming on his face told of his joy, both at his brother's pride, and in the happiness at Liz's desire to kiss him.

After MJ had left, I tell May that I'll need to pick up some of my food today, causing her to cringe slightly before she pulls up a recipe on her phone designed for hunted game like bear. "May," I said, patting her shoulder, "I hate to be the one to tell you this, but people taste kind of like pork, so just regular recipes might work okay." A little green, she nods, grabbing my hand and turning on me.

"I heard the party was YOUR idea…" I whip towards Peter to find him suddenly very interested in the inside of his coffee mug. With a shrug of my shoulders, I use my kagune to collect the empty bottles together, "accidently" pouring a half empty beer into Peter's cereal as I listen to May's lecture for so long I actually manage to return the room to reasonable by the time she stops. "Also, I heard from Petey that alcohol tasted as it should for you, that's great honey. Not that you should be drinking, but I guess, you shouldn't be eating people either right?"

That night in Hell's Kitchen, a dark figure bounded from roof to roof, long, red tentacles, flinging him across the city with incredible speed. 'I really need to start hunting for more powers, but unless I want to start actively hunting Hydra, or mutants, there's not much I can do but be opportunistic. Like here, just two guys chilling in an alley, totally not suspicious at all.' If I was Peter I'd have dropped in, said something witty, knocked them unconscious then left, tying them up in that weird webbing he makes during chemistry. Unfortunately, witty remarks aren't really my thing, I'm more of a rabid psycho who only targets criminals and dangerous people. Like the asshole that almost hit the stray cat with his car because he wasn't paying attention. Don't get me wrong, I didn't touch the guy, but ramming my kagune through his car's engine block sure ruined his day. 'I wonder if Fisk is a thing still.' That's the biggest issue with using memories to determine the future, I don't have an eidetic memory, and unless I hunt down a psychic mutant, I'm not going to find one. Wait, speaking of mutants, why haven't the X-men come looking for me? Or the Ancient One for that matter? Am I not classified as a mutant for Cerebro and the chairbound baldy, or mystical enough for the Lady baldness herself.' Feeling slightly miffed at this, I release my fear pheromones, smelling like a thick pool of blood, and revealing the kagune behind me, pointed at the two idiots, now frozen in fear as I take their guns and bend them. "Go home, little humans, or I'll rip you into bits." The two bolt from the alley as quick as their addled brains will allow. While I could have killed them, the conversation between the two showed they were amateurs, trying to make a quick buck, not even having any bullets in the gun as they planned to threaten, not harm. "Ahh I truly am the most generous being alive, and the most humble, even more so than Drax," I laugh, the inside joke making me feel warm in the cold air.

*BOOOOOM!!!*

A fiery explosion sounds out from a storefront, and as people call for the fire brigade, I rush into the fire, unconcerned about burns as they will heal. Finding most of the people, dead I try to figure out what was going on in there. With almost every person in here dead and armed, I doubt that the pizzeria was clean. 'Gang war maybe? Old Mafia being kicked out by the others?' Pulling body after body out of the fire, dead or alive, my kagune helping lift rubble and debris so that I could free some of those trapped. Returning to the street, covered in smoke, with half of my shirt burnt away and the lower sections of my jeans melting, I groan. 'Luckily no one I know intimately is here, because the bottom half of my chest is exposed like I'm wearing a crop top.' A few people with phones are recording, but I can't do anything about it, not without stealing over a dozen phones in front of other witnesses. Not to mention that news chopper that's circling in the sky. An older gentleman comes out of the crowd, hugging his now-conscious son, still covered in soot from the fire and smoke. "Thank you! Thank you for saving my son. You're Leviathan, right? The tentacles kind of give you away." Continuing after my nod, he looks me dead in the eyes and promises to help promote me as a hero. Not knowing who this guy is I just shrug, jumping several metres into the air and grabbing onto a nearby building with the kagune, escaping the swarms of spectators, and arriving police, who have made several complaints about the condition they find most of my 'arrested' people in. 'Little do they know that the ones they don't find are much worse.'

Heading home as carefully as I can, I get a text from Peter, telling me that I was on tv, with the people who'd watched calling me a hero, but apparently, J.J Jameson claimed I was some type of hell-spawn, having caused the explosion, and killed over a dozen people. Not that I cared much for him, because, unlike the original J.J. Jameson from the Maguire-verse, this one has no dignity. There's no way this one would protect Peter Parker from a violent green goblin, pretending that the pictures came in the mail. It was obvious that that JJ knew Peter was connected to Spidey, and saved him from the Goblin. This one from the MCU would sell his own mother's soul for a 1 million subscriber plaque. A chill forms on my neck and I leap backwards, dodging the electric wires, thrown to incapacitate me. Looking at Nat a little annoyed, I pin her against the wall, arms bound and legs spread apart as I do a cursory check for other devices or weapons, still avoiding certain areas as we are somewhat friends. "What the fuck are you doing Nat? You know this shit doesn't work, and there's no reason to buy time. Are you bored? Flirting perhaps?" A smile dances across my features as I continue, "I've always wanted to try it with a European chick, but Wanda's dating that robot thing right? Plus you're a redhead, and mature, so that's three boxes ticked for me."

"Are you quite finished?" While her voice was harsh, a small smirk was present on her face, the upturned lips ruining whichever imposing effect she wanted originally. With a shrug I pin her legs to the wall as well, allowing me to approach without risking a kick to the face. "So, how was the party? I saw a girl leaving pretty late this morning, and you're brother doesn't seem the type."

"For starters, it's the nerds who are the real freaks, and two, you haven't explained why you're here. Has your pathetic squabble finally started?"

*Sigh* "It's not a squabble, Nate. Bucky killed Tony's parents and-"

"I know, and Tony feels responsible for some damage done in a foreign country during a mission. Despite knowing that governments don't put people first, especially after the HYDRA thing. The treatment of mutants, of the poor, of veterans, of young girls, trained to be assassins in foreign countries." Nat's face tensed and her eyes shot daggers at me. "Which of these tells you that the government you want to put in charge of you won't use you as private security at best, and attack dogs at worst, taking out competition? The fact you are listening to Tony is ridiculous. He's arrogant, irresponsible and doesn't look further than how he feels on a topic. He's a petulant child in a metal suit, so stupid that he released a murder bot because he decided not to test the AI by sticking it in a toaster first." Nat was no longer raging at me, simply listening as I pointed out the stupidity of the entire thing. "Bucky was mind-controlled, so it's not his fault Stark's parents are dead, because if it wasn't Bucky, it would have been someone else."

"I get it, you can stop now. Also, I'd really appreciate you letting me down now. I feel like I'm being held by a hentai monster."

"Well as tempting as that image is, I don't feel much through the kagune, and the diameter of the kagune themselves is too wide, they'd break a human apart....But there was that rumour about you and the Hulk?"

"Oh for fuck sake, no I did not sleep with the Hulk, or Banner for that matter." A little surprised by this I release her slowly to the ground.

"Much longer seeing you all bound like that and I might have re-enacted a hentai scene," I laugh, joking to ease the air between us.

"Kid, I'm old enough to be your mother."

"You're point being?" A quirked eyebrow and an upturned gaze making Nat smack at my arm. "So why were you here? Stark send you to seduce and restrain the monster? Again?" I laugh, again teasing her about her role as the 'keeper' of the Hulk.

"Something like that. Are you really not going to get involved? You make some valid points that may stop this from becoming a full-on fight." Looking at her incredulously I poke her forehead.

"Is this hollow?" My hand being swatted away, doesn't stop me from explaining. "As you have explained numerous times, I am a kid, and almost everyone on your team has a wild ego, like the Wakandan king, who won't help those who suffer as long as they do it outside his country, or the War Machine, who's a military guard dog, kept to watch over you. Or perhaps, Vision, who is literally the child of Tony, and is as submissive as Bruce." Taking a moment for her to register my words, I press. "If you, someone on Tony's side, switches, explaining all this, it would have a much more drastic impact, resulting in the team fight, becoming just Tony whining and attacking Bucky and Steve, for the crime of being a mind-controlled puppet slave for decades." Besides, if they really don't want your help, explain your issue publicly through social media, let the world know our government is trying to control the heroes who saved us all. Nate looked into my eyes, looking for even a trace of deception, but finding none she pulled out her phone, calling Steve. "Oooooh, he's on favourites."

"Shut up Nate."