51

Chapter 51: Daisy is BoredNotes:

Hey guys! We are down to five more chapters, this is weird. Like super weird.

Chapter Text

Yuri Watanabe stared at her new Sergeant badge. It was shiny and gold with an eagle. She sighed, Midtown Manhattan. They really were trying to get her out of the way. Also god, they were going to use her as a Superhero liaison and coordinator. It wasn't going to go well. She could guarantee it. "Sir, no offence but if you want me as your poster girl for working with Spiderman and Quake, moving me out of the Brooklyn and Queens area is a bad call."

"I'm aware." Captain Marks looked at her like he wished he could take aspirin to deal with her very existence. "However if an alien invasion happens here again it's going to be in Manhattan. Again."

Her jaw tightened at that. It was… "You expect me to assist in making us coordinate with the Avengers during an invasion." Yuri's face was a deadpan. "I've been bounced from every Midtown department. Two of them for bringing charges against other officers."

He was dead inside as he looked at her, slow blinks. "I'm aware." Marks folded his hands on top of his desk. "Look Watanabe, I respect you. You're the biggest pain in my ass the Devil himself could have created. No one will work with you. Preston used his sick days instead of partner with you. But damned if you're not the best cop I've got. I argued against the move. But they want you back if there's gonna be motherfucking, god damn, aliens raining from the fucking sky."

"Ah." Yuri doubted she'd ever heard the man swear so much in one go before. Actually, he'd wanted her to stay? No one wanted her to stay. It was oddly touching.

Marks raised his hand and pointed at her. "Don't give me that look. I don't like you. But fuck if you're not going to be the one sitting at this desk when I retire. So go smile, look nice for the cameras, play with the heroes, and I'm sure you'll have arrested a coworker, again, within six months and gotten kicked back here. So go, maybe I can have a whole six months without a migraine."

"Understood Sir." Yuri felt a smug smirk. The areas where the Battle of New York had hit the hardest had had a rash of crime. Which meant a rash of bribery, exploitation and general shady shit everywhere. She had no doubt her new captain would assign her to cops he wanted to get rid of but couldn't for political reasons. "I'll try to make it six months."

Marks stared at her. "You're going to be the youngest captain in the city if you keep this shit up. Now get out."

"Yes Sir." She turned, opening the door, blinds tapping against the glass window.

He called out from behind her. "And Watanabe, congratulations."

"Thanks Sir." Yuri closed the door behind her. She marched to her desk, time to pack up her things then. At least no one was going to try to haze a sergeant who ran a patrol car into an enhanced. It could be worse.

Peterson looked up. "You getting kicked free again Watanabe?"

"Don't worry Peterson, I'm sure I'll be back before you get too comfortable." Yuri grabbed her stress ball.

He chuffed, folding his hands behind his head. "You'll miss us."

"Sure I will." And the funny thing was she might. Of course she had no doubt they'd empty the bullpen to avoid partnering with her. But she knew they all wanted her to be the one coming in if they needed back up.

Yuri nearly jumped out of her skin as Spiderman landed on the top of her car. "Jesus, kid!"

"Oops." He was totally smiling under his stupid mask.

She shut her car door, this was going to take a while. "Quake ok?"

"Yeah, she's good." Spiderman slid off his feet, sitting on top of the car. "Finally let Dr Cho take that awful slave chip out of her neck last night. Well after Mario Kart, but she still got rid of it. And ya know, super sore and a ton of stitches. But she's good."

Yuri closed her eyes and counted to three. Not going to comment on the level of horrifying there. Just no. "That's good, pass on my well wishes."

"Of course." His odd white eye shapes closed happily before opening again. "I came with a congratulations gift for the promotion."

She wasn't even sure why she was surprised he knew that today was her last day at the precinct. "You didn't have to."

"Of course I did, we're like kinda partners aren't we? I mean you've seen me without the mask." He brandished a smallish wrapped present.

She grabbed it before he could start waving it in her face. It was exactly what he'd do too. And not that she'd say it but she was kind of touched. Because fuck it, he was her partner at this point wasn't he? Quake to a lesser degree as well. "I'm still waiting for my memory to get wiped or your sister to murder me for knowing your face."

"Eh, she likes you." He leaned forward. "Open it, open it!"

Yuri shook her head fondly, but opened up the thing, she had a feeling she knew what it was. As the paper was pulled away she saw it was a picture frame. She laughed as she saw the picture in it. A very angry version of her had her arms on her hips as she glared at a nervous looking Spiderman. An unhappy bank robber hanging from a lamp post head first. An amused looking Quake leaning against the building and watching the show. "How did you even get this?"

"My sister's a hacker and the bank has cameras with kinda awesome resolution." He replied like that wasn't incriminating at all.

She stared at him. "You do know I half ruined my career busting my coworkers for crimes right?"

"Well yeah, but only when what they were doing was hurting people. Finding a frame from security footage for a gift isn't hurting anyone." He bounced off the car and landed lightly next to her.

Yuri shoved him slightly. "You're lucky I like you."

"Naw, lucks got nothing to do with it. I just know you." Spiderman sounded far too smug.

She snorted, so many of her coworkers missed the very obvious of her being willing to work with vigilanties. It wasn't that she was some hardass who'd report someone for pushing the lines. It was abuse of power she had zero patience for. Honestly. If a teenager could figure that out she didn't have mercy for her grown ass coworkers. "So should I put this on my wall?"

"Well if you want. But Quake and I thought it'd be kinda neat if you stuck it on your new desk. Make sure they know we've got your back and you're a badass who yells at enhanced. Or drives cars into giant dudes in rhino outfits." He bounced on his toes.

Yuri laughed, that would certainly be fun.

////

Vision raised a hand in greeting. "Greetings, I look forward to living with you for what time we are together."

The Russian officer looked him up and down. "You will follow my instructions. I am in charge of this multi-national encampment until the Black Widow arrives. Your security is of the utmost importance."

"Yes, the situation was explained to me." He chuckled, gesturing to his head. "You know, aliens want to rip the stone out of my head. Which would be bad. I'd die, world ending. All that."

The officer did not laugh. Tough crowd.

////

Daisy had found it oddly therapeutic, also frankly fun to find the right outfit at the local second hand clothing store. It'd been nice to do something stupid, frivilous and just for fun. In the end it had helped make her being back in the present feel more real. Also a nice easy introduction to the world with her powers back up and running. She was terrified. But also relieved to have them back. Or well the slave chip out. Same difference.

She adjusted her leather jacket slightly. The worn military combat boots, and loose army pants were comfortable. And it very much met the prerequisite of 'army girlfriend' that Wanda had apparently used in her civilian job. It probably helped Daisy knew she looked like shit. Between the bruising over just literally all of her, and the giant bandage on the back of her neck she looked rough. Also three people had tried to give her their seats on the bus. The giant black eye was too dark for hiding to be practical. Also the stitches on her left cheek….and she was going to stop thinking about how much of a human bruise she was at the moment.

Opening the door to the corner coffee shop she stepped inside. The smell of ground coffee permeated the air as well as that of the baked goods and teas. It was a familiar and comforting scent. She stuffed her hands into her pockets, and slid into line behind the only other customer in the shop. It was hilariously easy to identify Amanda.

Happily chatting with Wanda while filling an order was a perky blond. Her hair was up in a tight ponytail, chewing gum, completely ignoring her current customer. "I'm telling you law school has burned shit out of you. Like how can you not be invested in what is going on?"

"I just think maybe which Avenger Quake is dating may be less important than the impending alien invasion. Also unless she says who she's dating maybe guessing isn't the best idea?" Wanda sighed as she steamed the milk of the order she was filling.

Amanda rolled her eyes. "I've got to get you out of your textbooks. We're normies. Just keep our heads down and let the powerful and important people worry about the alien invasion. 'Sides while my shame will never die over the Spiderquake shipping, some of the new sibling fanart of them is adorable."

Daisy grinned. "Oh, is there new fanart of them out already?"

"Yes!" Amanda's attention snapped to her, she was beaming.

Wanda's eyes widened as she spotted her. "Daisy?!"

"Sup, figured I should come and see your work." She raised a hand in a wave.

Wanda proved she had been paying attention in practice with Natasha. She hopped over the counter and caught Daisy gently by the upper arms. "What are you doing here? You should be in bed!"

"I got bored." Daisy shrugged, shifting slightly. Maybe pushing it so soon after getting back had been a bad idea?

Wanda closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Daisy you had surgery, again, this morning!"

"If they don't knock you out for it, it doesn't count as surgery." She waived off with a scoff.

Wanda just groaned, one hand gently touching the bandage on her neck, the familiar tickle of her powers brushing along the incision point. "Everything went well this morning?"

"Yeah it went fine." Daisy softened, letting the emotional thread connect the two of them. "I'm still...yeah." She caught Wanda's hand and let a faint vibration run up Wanda's arm. Confirmation the slave chip was gone.

Wanda pressed her forehead against Daisy's. "I promise I've got you. I won't let you lose control like that." Her voice was soft, barely audible. But Daisy could feel the sincerity and promise of protection from herself.

"HOLY SHIT!" Amanda of the coffee shop yelped. "They found your girlfriend!"

Wanda laughed, it was slightly wet but was still a laugh. She turned facing her friend. "Yeah, it's why I vanished on you in the library the other day."

"And you didn't say ANYTHING!? Bitch! Just tell me to shut up. I've been blathering on about celebrities and you just got your girlfriend back!" Amanda shoved a drink into the hand of a man and then was making her way around the counter. She gave Daisy a quick up and down and winced slightly. "Damn, hope you kicked their asses."

Daisy laughed, and took the girl's hand shaking it. "You are exactly as Wanda described."

"You talk about me?" Amanda whacked Wanda playfully. "Knew we were friends." She looked genuinely concerned. "But really, you should go home. Hug your girlfriend. Like christ, you've been stressed as hell."

"I've missed too many days recently." Wanda squeezed Daisy's arm. "And I had been expecting you to spend the day in bed."

Daisy just huffed. "I've spent enough time off my feet. I'm taking it easier than I did after I got shot last year."

"Excuse me!" Amanda yelped, her eyes wide. "Bitch why are you not in bed. I mean you look like you lost a round against Mike Tyson. No offence."

Daisy shrugged. "Eh, it's fair. But hey, other than bothering Wanda I was planning on trolling reddit."

Wanda cleared her throat. "Daisy go sit, I'll make you a pumpkin spice latte. Amanda, we've got actual customers."

"Fine, be responsible." Amanda rolled her eyes. "It's nice to meet you Daisy, and hopefully I get the story about how you're alive and here sometime."

"You're not subtle." Wanda shoved her friend back towards the counter. She threw a look at Daisy. "Sit."

Daisy leaned against the counter, she'd long since gotten bored of updating her firewalls using her phone. It helped the shop was empty save for a few students, noses buried in their books. She winked at Wanda. "So you think Quake's dating Captain America?"

"Well we don't have a lot of options do we?" Amanda replied, clearly passionate about the subject. "Obviously I'm not positive. But who are the real options? It's the Captain, Bucky, Black Widow, and like Vision?"

Daisy ignored the murderous expression on her girlfriend's face. "What, no chance of it being Sam or Rhodey?"

"Well I mean they're too old right?" Amanda pointed out without blinking. "I mean she could do so much better than trauma bucket Barnes though."

Wanda grumbled. "The Captain and Barnes are ancient."

"I don't know, super soldier shoulder muscles are pretty hot." Daisy grinned, holding up her hands in surrender. "You wouldn't snap me with a towel, I'm injured babe."

Wanda rolled her eyes. "Don't bet on it."

"You two are adorable." Amanda just looked at them with so much honest joy. How this civilian had managed to drag Wanda into a friendship made a lot of sense.

Daisy beamed, it all felt soft and light. It was good. Fuck alien slavetraders in space. Just so much. "We've been told we're utterly lame."

"Wanda's going to change the world with her law degree and social justice everything. And you're like a badass. I mean you're getting a purple heart and shit right?"

Daisy actually blinked at that. "I suppose that's one way to look at it. But honestly I'm just glad to be home again. And getting caught back up on the gossip."

"Oh! I have to show you this art that was being tweeted around last night! It's adorable." Amanda yanked her phone out of her apron. "It's a costume switch between Quake and Spiderman, only they got really creative with the suits and everything."

Daisy actually looked curiously at the image on the woman's phone. She felt her grin soften into an actual smile. It was kind of hilarious and adorable at the same time. In a white and black version of the spidersuit with a rather dramatic hood was who was clearly supposed to be her if she'd been the one with spider powers. But there standing next to her spider version was what looked like a genderbent version of her. In fact Peter looked in the picture everybit the mixed race, twenty something agent. Admittedly his pants weren't as tight and the artist had done a sort of tactical looking collar thing for him.

How it'd happened was obvious. On the livestream there'd been no mention of the fact they were half siblings. The artist had just switched her gender assuming Daisy and Peter were the same age, race and generally looked similar. Daisy zoomed in, the detail on the gauntlets was exact to a degree that had to have taken hours. "Wow, this is crazy impressive."

"Right?" Amanda sighed. "I wonder if that's what he really looks like."

Daisy bit back a snicker. "Maybe, though I believe this drawing of him makes the two of them nearly identical."

"Well they could be twins. Though I lean towards the argument he's at least a year younger than her." Amanda hummed thoughtfully as she slipped her phone back into her apron. "I know I'm not believing anything for sure till it's confirmed though."

Wanda grumbled from where she was pretending to clean the espresso machine. "Doesn't stop you from trying to figure out who is with who."

"Oh shush, it's fun." Amanda slapped Wanda's shoulder lightly. She beamed at Daisy. "You on the other hand seem to know the true fun in following the lives of our local heroes."

Daisy couldn't help the amused sound she made. "I can promise there's nothing I'd rather be discussing." She caught Wanda's eye. "So you've ruled out the Maximoffs? Cause I have to say, the accent thing, super sexy."

"Well Pietro is apparently dating or doing something similar to it with Stark." Amanda winced. "Which I should have listened to you Wanda, I kind of betrayed the sisterhood assuming Stark was a homewrecking slut…kinda feel like I should send an apology card or something to the tower. Which is ridiculous, I don't even know the woman."

Daisy snorted. "I'd heard the news had been saying that shit. It's like they've never heard of liable laws and forgot about the army of lawyers Stark has. Lawsuit's up the ass once Darcy thinks it's worth it." Daisy smirked. "In fact I'd wager a lot she's enjoying watching the media sweat about the whole thing. It'd rather suit her sense for the dramatic."

Daisy laughed freely for the first time in hours as she and Wanda walked home, their hands entwined. "Your friend is a riot."

"You're awful! She'd be mortified if she knew, and why the sudden interest in who the media thinks 'Quake' is dating?" Wanda glared at her. It would have held more weight if there wasn't a faint link that let Wanda's feelings of mildly frustrated good humor wash, ever so slightly, against Daisy.

She just turned ever so slightly and pressed a light kiss to her girlfriend's cheek. "I've missed you."

Wanda fell silent as they continued to walk before finally speaking. "You can't leave like that again. We all fell apart. I fell apart. It was a gaping hole where you should have been."

"Hey." Daisy stopped them, pulling them to the side, out of the way of other pedestrians. "You did amazing. You're crushing college, civilian job, making friends outside of the tower without Peter and I having to kidnap you for it? I wish I'd been here, believe me the slave cell in the future was shitty even if I was their prize fighter."

"Daisy." Wanda cut her off. "We fell apart. May was barely holding it together. Peter? It took weeks before he could even pretend not to be devastated. Darcy? Darcy and your father were willing to risk reality itself. Everyone was scrambling to keep everything from spiraling out of control. Pietro and I went to Asgard for help and I almost used my powers to strangle Odin for not being helpful."

It...Daisy hurt for them. Despite everything it still...didn't seem real she could be that important to so many people. To anyone really. But she could feel the truth of it as Wanda accidently was sharing more of her feelings than perhaps she meant to. Daisy wasn't going to point it out. "You didn't fall apart though. With what we do, not coming home is a risk. It's a sacrifice we have to be prepared to make."

Daisy reached up brushing a loose lock of hair behind Wanda's ear. "I love you. All of you. And I'll always come home to you if I am capable of doing so. But if someday I don't come back you and everyone else will have each other."

"You're an awful hypocrite. You know that right?" Wanda's voice was rough.

She leaned her forehead against Wanda's. "Probably."

"After this Thanos, alien invasion I want a weekend. Just a weekend where we do nothing but be safe and home." Wanda cupped her cheek, looking into her eyes. "And you let Tony make you a better suit so you stop getting stabbed and shot."

Daisy smiled. "I can do that." She leaned forward brushing her lips against Wanda's.

As she pulled back, Wanda pulled her back in. There was an intensity, a relief at both of them being alive and whole. Then Wanda spun her, pushing her back into the brick wall they'd been besides. Maybe not so whole.

Daisy hissed.

"Fuck, are you ok? Your stitches?" Wanda pulled back, eyes wide in alarm as they flicked up and down ensuring she was in one piece.

Daisy sighed. "I'm just sore, you're fine."

"I wonder why I don't believe that." Wanda's voice was bemused. She shook her head and then pulled them back into the flow of foot traffic. Which...ok maybe making out just out of the way on a public sidewalk hadn't been a good idea. "Come on, let's get you home and some more pain killers."

Daisy just smiled as she entwined their fingers. It was a good day. And she had just had surgery that morning, it was probably the smart thing to do. Probably.

////

Shuri traipsed off the plane, her Dora Milaje guards protectively shadowing her. She came to a stop in front of the person in charge of the military base she'd just stepped foot in. "I got your invitation. I was told you have a magic stone to separate from a self aware android." Which she was barely keeping from bouncing at the idea of getting her hands on the Vision. His software had to be fascinating.

"Thank you for coming." Natasha Romonaff greeted. "We've prepared a lab space for you. Your brother indicated you would bring your own equipment?"

She grinned. "Of course, can't trust anyone else to have the tools I'll need."

"If you would follow me Princess." Natasha gestured softly.

Shuri fell into step with a hop. "How did you end up in charge of this place? I was expecting someone a bit more...bearded."

Natasha laughed, how much was fake and how much was real was probably a mystery for the ages. "The Russians volunteered the base first, and no one else wants an alien invasion in their country. So here we are. Everyone has also agreed that the Avengers should be coordinating everything due to international conflicts needing to be avoided. But the Russians will never accept orders from the Captain or Stark. And well I've rather publically killed and worked for almost everyone in the business. They can all agree they don't trust me. Which means they can all agree to me being in charge."

"That makes no sense." Shuri was hoping to meet Stark's daughter at some point, her miniaturized arch reactor based batteries were genius.

Natasha's lips were quirked up ever so slightly. "That's politics." She opened a door. "This is your lab space. Vision will be down shortly. If you need anything just ask and I'll see what I can do. Stark and Dr Lewis will conference call at five."

"I can work with this." Shuri eyed the old set up. It'd clearly been some sort of lab back in the day. But it was clean, had electrical access and proper drainage. The faster she had her equipment set up the sooner she could get her hands on the most advanced android on the planet. She turned to her nearest guard. "Let's get started!"