Saturday Pt 1.
Jungkook woke up gasping for his breath. He couldn’t breathe and felt like the room was spinning. Where was he? Why was it so dark? Was he in the same place as his nightmare? Was he going to see them suffer again?
The more he tried to calm himself down, the more his thoughts got louder and louder. His lungs were screaming at him and he was desperately clawing at the bedsheets. Why can’t I breathe? Goddamnit! Just calm down!
Jungkook didn’t realize that he was screaming until he felt Tony put his hand on his shoulder.
“Jungkook, I need you to breathe with me, kiddo. Come on, kid. Breathe with me.”
Jungkook looked up at his mentor and tried to match his breathing.
“I-I c-can’t!” He just wanted it to stop. He felt like his brain was working at three hundred miles a minute.
“Yes, you can kiddo. Come on do it with me. In and out. In and out. There you go. Nice and easy Jung.”
Jungkook had finally caught his breath and looked at his surroundings. He was back in his room at the facility. Tony was with him. The rogues were back in the facility. The rogues were back.
“Oh god. I’m so sorry Mr. Stark. I’m sorry I wasn’t here when the rogues got here. I knew I shouldn’t have left. I’m also sorry for passing out last-“
“Kid, look at me. It’s okay. First of all, I’m not mad or upset at you. No one knew that they would come back earlier than planned and I had already said that you could go hang out with your friends. Plus, Rhodey was here with me so I wasn’t completely alone.” Tony said giving Jungkook a small smile, before continuing on. “Secondly, don’t apologize for passing out. I knew I shouldn’t have let you go out in the first place until you were completely healed. And last but not least, let's get some food and medicine in you.”
Tony then reached out to the nightstand to grab a plate full of eggs, toast, pancakes, and Jungkook super painkillers and put them into Jungkook's hands, “Now eat up spider-baby. I’m going to change and make a quick call to Pepper, so eat and change, then we’ll head over to the med bay to do a quick checkup with Helen. She’s been itching to see you.”
Jungkook nodded, swallowed his pills, and began to eat his breakfast in silence. He didn’t even bother taking a look at his phone, he didn’t want to see the missed calls and texts that his friends might have sent him. He was still mad at them. He was frustrated at how they questioned him, accused him, and didn’t want to have to deal with them till Monday. He just needed to get through the weekend with the rogues and keep Mr. Stark safe. Tony was his top priority right now.
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“Hey Pep, just checking in. How’s your trip? You’re coming back Saturday right?” Tony greeted and asked.
“My trip is exhausting so far. The board is being a pain as usual but they’ll agree to the terms by the end of the day. I still have a couple of meetings to go to and the last minute conference to attend in London, so I won’t be home till Tuesday. Why? What’s wrong Tony? Is it the rogues?” Pepper asked from the other line.
“What? Why would you think something’s wrong? I just miss you that’s all. Can’t a man miss his fiancée?” Tony chuckled nervously.
“Tony? What happened?” Pepper questioned.
“Well you see, our guests decided to grace us with their presence a bit earlier than what was said and the kid is over here this weekend.”
“Tony! Why didn’t you lead with that? Are you okay? Is Jungkook okay? Is Rhodey there? When did they get there?”
“They got here yesterday. I wasn’t fully done with preparations for today but Pep I’m okay. Rhodey’s here and the kids here. There’s no need to worry. As for the kid, he’s not doing too hot right now. He got injured a couple of days ago.” Tony replied trying to get her to stay calm as he was internally freaking out himself.
“Tony, they were supposed to come next Saturday! Not this Saturday. Nope, that’s it. I’m getting on the next flight. Let me just cancel the meetings and pack. I’ll be there in 4 hours tops.”
“No! Pepper, there’s no need! I got this and Rhodey’s here to keep me in check. Plus, I got to take care of the kid meaning that I won’t see the others for hours. Just stay there and do what you have to do. I can handle this.”
He heard Pepper sigh loudly from the other line, “Fine, but if they try anything or even look at you wrong, I’m on the next flight out. Now, Tony, stay safe and behave. Love you.”
“I’ll behave honey. Love you too, bye.”
After hanging up, Tony immediately looked at his calendar to see if Pepper was right about them coming super early. And as always Mrs. Potts was right, this got him thinking a bit. Why did they come early? Why now?
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“Mr. Jeon let’s get a look at your bruises.” Said Helen and waited till he pulled his own shirt up.
When he did, they all flinched. The bruises were still there, but they were slowly fading. Too slow if you ask any of them.
“Why are they healing so slow? I usually heal in a couple of hours.” Jungkook asked.
“Well, I would have to run some tests on your blood to see if there is anything doing this? Jungkook, do your ribs still hurt?” Helen asked.
“Uh, kind of yeah. Why?”
“If your bruises aren’t healing fading away at the rate it normally would, that means that your ribs are still broken as well. We’ll have to do a quick scan just to make sure. Who knows? Maybe I’m wrong and they’re healed.” Helen said, hoping with her every fiber that she’s wrong and that his ribs are miraculously healed somehow. “FRIDAY, can you do a quick scan on Mr.Jeon here?”
“Of course Ms.Cho.” Said the A.I. “Scan complete. It appears that Mr.Jeon’s ribs are still fractured.”
“That’s not good at all. Jungkook, I’m going to need to draw some blood from you.” With that being said, she walked away to go get the materials needed.
“Jung, I need you to answer me this, who were you having a screaming match with on the phone yesterday? Was it your group of geeky friends?”
Jungkook looked up from his lap, sighed, and nodded. He knew that there was no way that Tony was going to forget him yelling into the phone at his supposed friends. That was one of the things he didn’t want to think about during the weekend, but then when do things ever go his way.
“I don't want to talk about it.” Jungkook replied, looking at random things around the room, rather than at Tony.
“Fine. We’ll talk later about this, but we are going to talk about how you’ve been waking up nowadays. Kid, what happened in your dream?” Tony questioned. He knew that the kid didn’t really didn’t want to talk about it, but he also knew that talking about it would help him.
Tony got nothing but silence and wandering eyes from the kid. He couldn’t just drop this and pretend like the kid waking up fighting for air, crying and screaming, didn’t happen.
“Jung, what happened? You woke up struggling to breathe. You were crying and screaming for it. And you sure as hell scared the shit out of me.”
Tony was only met with more silence. He noticed that Jungkook now had tears running down his face. Oh, he now definitely wasn’t going to let this go. Whatever this kid was dreaming of, it was truly hurting him. And whatever hurt his kid, hurt him as well.
“Hey, kiddo. It’s okay. Look, I know you don’t really want to talk about it, but you know that bottling it all up will do more harm than good. Come on kid, I know it’s hurting you and wearing you out. So spill and don’t you dare leave anything out.”
Jungkook took a couple of shaky breaths and started to talk, “O-okay, um I-I don’t really know where to start but I keep having this one nightmare where it’s dark and I can’t do anything. I can hear voices screaming for help and for some reason I can’t move or see them. I can’t do anything.” He felt himself tear up again, but continued on, “ After a while, I can finally see what’s going on, I can see someone hurting people I care about and I can’t move. It happens every single time and I can’t do anything to stop it. I just have to stand there and watch. I have to watch them bleed and die right in front of me and I can’t move! I can’t do anything! I have to watch them suffer. I have to watch my friends die first and hear May screaming at someone to stop. I have to listen to her beg for them to stop.”
“Jungkook, let's take a couple of breaths before you give yourself another anxiety attack.” Tony said while he exaggerated his breathing for Jungkook to follow along. It took a couple of minutes to get his breathing under control again.
Jungkook with his voice breaking continued on, “ After I watched them suffer, that same person who killed them walked towards me and I finally figured out who that was. It was me. I was the one who made them suffer, Mr.Stark. I murdered them in cold blood. May was screaming at me to stop. She begged me to stop. I couldn’t stop myself.” He took another breath and went on, “ Then the other version of me choked me to death while saying that I was pathetic, that it was all my fault, and that he was going to go after May and you next. Mr.Stark, I don’t want anyone to get hurt because of me. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
Tony couldn’t comprehend how his kid thought so low of himself, he was the most selfless, kind, and brilliant kid he’s ever known. To hear Jungkook talk about himself like that broke his heart. The kid would never intentionally hurt someone, let alone murder anyone. He would rather web up the criminals and keep his punches to low power, plus his kid didn’t have that type of conscience to do that. Jungkook had a guilt complex the size of the empire state building.
“Jungkook, I need you to look at me. You are not pathetic or anything of that sort. You are insanely smart and scary brave. Hell, even Cap couldn’t ever match up to your level of bravery. Most importantly, no one is going to harm me or May and most certainly you are not going to murder anyone. That other version of you was a dream. It was all made up and it won’t ever happen. I can make sure of that.” Tony said, while carefully rubbing the kid’s back.
“Thanks, Mr.Stark. I needed that. Seriously, thank you for everything you’ve done for me.” Jungkook said while hugging Tony, which shocked Tony.
Tony seized up a bit from the surprise hug, then gently wrapped his arms around his kid. This kid meant a lot to him. “There’s no need to thank me kid, but if you want to thank me, you can thank me by getting better.”
“Okay Jungkook ready to draw some blood?” Said Helen as she entered the room with the materials she needed. Jungkook gulped and held his arm out, trying not to look at the needle.
Taking Jungkook’s blood took less than 5 minutes and was surprisingly okay to Jungkook. He didn’t really do too well with needles sometimes, but it was good this time. Helen even gave him an Iron Man bandaid, because apparently, those were the only ones available. Jungkook found that hard to believe and had an ongoing theory that Tony has a collection of Iron Man merch around the facility. Do they make any Spider-Man band-aids? Ooh, what about Spider-Man lunch boxes? Wait would he have to be an official avenger to get his own merch? Jungkook thought to himself.
“Okay Jung, let’s go have a second breakfast because knowing your super fast metabolism, you must be hungry again,” Tony said, snapping Jungkook out of his Spider-Man merch daydreams. Jungkook nodded and they both headed to the elevator.
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“Alrighty kid, what do you want for your brunch? Eggs? Pancakes? Oatmeal? Or French toast?” Tony asked, looking inside his expensive-looking fridge for ingredients. It was one of those fridges where you can play games on it, play music, and even make calls on it if someone wanted to.
“Uh...Can I have eggs and pancakes?” Jungkook responded, looking around the kitchen.
“Sure kiddo, coming right up, in about 30 minutes or so.” Said Tony, picking the eggs, butter, and milk from the fridge. He then scoured through the cabinets for a cooking pan. When he found it, he let out a little yay, as a sign of victory.
“I’m going to get my phone,” Jungkook exclaimed as he left the kitchen bar to his room. Tony left out a hum of acknowledgment and started cooking. Tony wondered how many pancakes and eggs the spider kid wanted, with his freakish metabolism he’ll probably need multiple eggs and several stacks of pancakes. At this rate, he might as well make some for himself and Rhodey.
“Fri, can you ask Honeybear if he wants some eggs and pancakes for breakfast? Actually, tell him to come to the kitchen. I might need help making sure I don’t burn the kitchen down.”
“Of course Boss. I’ll alert Honeybear and make sure to have the fire department’s number on standby.” Said the sassy A.I.
Tony cursed under his breath and muttered something about why was she so sassy and why did I make her that way?
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The sound of sand spilling from a broken punching bag filled the empty gym that Steve was in. Steve sighed and picked up another punching bag to set up. Once he set it up, he began punching it with extreme strength and anger. The sounds of his punching resonated in the room. The sound of technology powering down, metal hitting metal, and glass breaking were all he could hear as he punched the bag. He could see it every time he did. He could see Tony’s face of full fear and betrayal. He could hear the words Tony said replay over and over in his head. That shield doesn’t belong to you. You don’t deserve it. My father made that shield.
The sound of another bag hitting the floor sounded loudly throughout the room, along with Steve’s heavy breathing. These thoughts and memories have plagued his mind for months, they’ve eaten at him in his sleep. He knew that he had lost what he had with Tony, but he also knew that he couldn’t lose Bucky again. He couldn’t, especially not after going years thinking that he died. Steve wished that he had sat down and talked about it with Tony, but the only thing going through his mind at the time was that Bucky was going away again. That was his only concern, maybe things could have turned out differently if he had thought some things through. Maybe he and Tony could have fought against the accords together, they could have fixed and adjusted some of it. Sadly, thinking of the could haves and what-ifs won’t undo any of the past unless there was some sort of time machine.
Steve sighed and decided to pack up and clean. He swept the sand that spilled and took off the hand wrap. He just couldn’t stop thinking of the past and what he did. He wished that things could have gotten a different way. Who knows maybe they all could have been friends and that they could have all probably been having breakfast together instead of him being the only one up at this hour. The more he thought about it the more he spiraled down a world of regret and self-hatred. His breath quickened and he felt himself hunch over, putting his hands on his knees. He felt a hand on his shoulder and his head snapped up to look at the arm, it was a metal arm. It was Bucky’s metal arm.
“Hey Stevie, you need to breathe. Just because the serum made your asthma disappear, doesn’t mean it took your anxiety away. Now, take a deep breath. In and out. In and out. There you go, pal. Nice and steady.” Bucky said, guiding Steve out of an anxiety attack as if he had done this a hundred times before. Steve drew in sharp breaths, eventually calming down, and thanked Bucky.
“You remembered the whole asthma and anxiety thing?” Steve questioned with hope in his eyes.
“Yeah. I also remember you being small as shit with hundreds of medical problems. Geez, how did I ever let you leave the apartment is beyond me. You were like 95 pounds soaking wet. I remember doing stuff like this. Calming you down.” Bucky said, looking at Steve in a very fond way.
Then out of nowhere Bucky smacks him in the back of the head, “I also remember that story of you diving to cover a grenade. What the hell Steve? What if that grenade wasn't fake? I swear to god if you pull another stunt like that I’m going to end you myself.” He said in a scolding voice.
Steve chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. He was lucky that Bucky didn’t swing with his metal arm or that would result in a big bump in the back of his head for a couple of hours. He doesn’t really want to wear that WW2 hat that Natasha gave him. Funny Natasha with her subtle digs at his age.
Bucky threw an arm around his shoulder and led him to the elevator, “Well come on you old man. Let’s go have some breakfast. I’m thinking of some pancakes and eggs. Ooh maybe bird face can make us some delicious breakfasts, that’s if he’s awake and not sleeping the morning away.”
Steve hummed and thought of pancakes, stacks of pancakes and syrup sounded delightful right now.
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Jungkook got to his room and noticed something was off, his spider senses were bouncing off the walls. He looked up at the vents and saw someone peeking through them. He had one of two options, to call out to see who it was revealing that he could sense them (which no normal human being can do) or he could act natural, grab his phone and leave. He opted for the latter.
He grabbed his phone and saw several notifications, a couple from his friends and some from Aunt May. May! Oh shit, he forgot to call her last night. He quickly opened his phone and called her.
“ Jungkook! Why didn’t you call me last night? I was worried. ” May asked from the other line.
“ Hi, Aunt May. Don’t worry I’m with Mr.Stark remember? I’m sorry I didn’t call last night, we just got so caught up with fixing up some of the projects that I forgot to call.” He replied nervously.
“ Okay, because your friends have been calling me and asking me if you have gotten into any fights recently. What’s going on Jungkook?”
“What?! Me getting into fights. Where did they get that idea from?”
“They said that they saw a bruise on you. What’s going on? Are you okay?”
“May, I’m okay. I’m fine. The bruise was from me tripping over my pants yesterday.” He said, hoping that she would believe his little lie. His spider tingle was still going off. He took a quick glance at the vent and noticed that those eyes were still there. Him being the troublemaker he is, he asked FRIDAY to turn on the AC.
“Hey Fri, Can you turn on the AC to 85? It’s a bit hot in here.”
“Of course Mr. Jeon. I do sense that there is a bit of heat in this room. Don’t worry this shall get rid of it.”
“Thanks, Fri.”
“ Jeon, who are you talking to?”
“Oh, it’s Mr.Stark’s A.I. She’s super smart. You’ll like her.” He replied. As soon as he did, he hears someone let out a small shriek and a “fuck it’s cold” in the vents. He also hears someone crawling back somewhere. That ought of gotten rid of the unwanted visitor in his vent.
“ Okay Koo, look I’ve got to go, but just avoid tripping over your pants again, I don’t want you to break something. Oh and tell Mr.Stark that I’ll be calling him later and call your friends back. Tell them about you almost tripping over your pants, they seem to be too worried over such a little thing. Bye, larb you.”
“Bye May, larb you too!” He replied and hung up.
Jungkook let out a frustrated sigh, of course, his friends weren’t going to stop bugging him. Of course, they were going to ask May some questions. They were noisy nerdy teenagers who didn't know when to stop looking for answers. Now, he was most definitely not going to talk to them for at least a week or so. They needed to respect boundaries and privacy.
He left his room and went back to the kitchen, where he saw Mr.Stark and Colonel Rhodes making stacks of pancakes and eggs. They were bickering like an old couple as usual.
“Hey! Don’t you dare try to ruin pancakes with that devil fruit. You know blueberries are sour and disgusting!” Tony said, his face scrunching up in disgust at the fruit being put into the pancake batter.
“Oh, are they now? Remember when we had that blueberry pie in college. You said that it was the most delicious pie you have ever eaten. You even ate a bigger piece than I did.” Rhodey said accusingly while pointing a spatula at him.
“Get that spatula out of my face. You are telling lies, old man. Jung, tell Honeybear how much a liar he is.” Tony said, putting his hands on his hips and waiting for Jungkook to be on his side.
“I don’t know Mr.Stark. I don’t think Mr.Rhodes would lie about something like that. Maybe you do secretly like blueberries.” Jungkook said while taking a seat at the kitchen bar.
Tony let out an exaggerated gasp and had a look of playful betrayal on his face, “Blasphemy! That’s it both of you get out of my kitchen. The amount of disrespect in this household.”
“ Tony you would have burned down the kitchen if it wasn't for me. Now go set the table for us.” Rhodey retorted to Tony shenanigans.
Jungkook swears he heard Mr.Stark mumble, “It was only one time,” under his breath. Mr.Stark put on a fake smile, grabbed plates and utensils, and said, “Of course my dear! Anything you want!”
Rhodey just rolled his eyes and continued flipping pancakes. This made Jungkook chuckle a bit. He thought in a different universe that Mr.Stark and Colonel Rhodes would be married. Knowing how much they bicker and fight, it would be a hell of a marriage.
His thoughts about marriage between the two were interrupted by Tony putting a stack of pancakes with syrup and whip cream on top in front of him, “Eat up Kid. We’ve got some work to do after eating.”
Jungkook nodded and started stuffing his face. Rhodes gave Jungkook a lot of amazement as he ate and Tony looked at the kid with his eyebrows raised.
‘Quite the appetite this kid has got. Tony, do you feed him? He’s eating like he hasn’t eaten in months.” Rhodey said, cutting his pancakes in a very nice and neat way.
“What?! Of course, I do! He’s just a growing teenager who eats like it’s his last meal on earth.” He replied while reaching for another slice of toast. Turns out Rhodey made more food than just pancakes and eggs. It looked like an entire buffet and it was just the three of them.
“What if tofay waf my laft day.” Jungkook retorted with his mouthful of food.
“Kid finish your food before you talk and what did I say about joking about death.” Tony said while giving a half glare at the kid who looked like a chipmunk saving up food for winter in its cheeks.
Jungkook swallowed his food, “Not to do it at the table?” Tony gave him another glare. “Not to do it at all.”
“Exactly kid. Now eat up. There’s enough food to feed an army.” Tony said while looking at the kid eating, adoration in his eyes. He then looked to Rhodey and saw him give a look of confusion along with a look of proudness. It was like a staring into your soul staring contest. He raised his eyebrow and so did Rhodey. Both leaving each other to only guess what the other was thinking.
While they were having their staring contest, Jungkook’s head snapped up from him devouring the eggs, and heard multiple footsteps and heartbeats approaching the kitchen. He turned his head to the kitchen doorway and saw the rogues standing there. So much for a peaceful and relaxing breakfast, he thought to himself. He looked over at Tony and gestured to the doorway. Tony took a look and sighed. Tony then looked over at Rhodey and Rhodey whispered that maybe he should invite them to have breakfast. They were supposedly a team now and they had to get along somehow or the team wouldn’t function.
Tony leaned over to Jungkook and whispered, “Tell them to stop staring and to grab a plate. They can eat whatever they want, so long as they don’t start anything.” Jungkook gave him a worried look, “Don’t worry about me kid, I won’t start anything, not with mama bear by my side. Don’t tell them we suggested it, just say that you did or something like that.”
Jungkook nodded, got up from the table, and walked over to the doorway, the rogues quickly collected themselves and stood still, “You guys can join us if you want? There’s plenty of food for everyone. And if you don’t want the stuff on the table, I can make whatever you want. So will you please join us for breakfast?”
They looked like they wanted to agree but still held back from entering the room completely. “Are you sure Tony wants us there? I mean we’re not exactly on talking terms kid.” Said Sam, who was the only person to speak what was on everyone else's minds.
“I’m sure he wouldn’t mind. Plus I suggested it and he hardly ever says no to his favorite intern. Also, it's breakfast, what harm can it do if there's only syrup and whip cream as possible weapons. What is Mr.Stark going to do? Soak your pancakes in syrup?” Jungkook said, grabbing more plates and utensils from the cabinet. He left the rogues in the doorway and returned to the table to set it up for the rest of the lovely guests.
They hesitantly followed Jungkook and quietly sat down. Tony gave a quick wink to Jungkook and went back to eating. The room soon filled with sounds of eating, drinking, and silence. No one talked at all. Jungkook felt like the tension was going to make him explode. Sure he didn’t like the rogues, but he hated the silence even more. This made him lose his appetite and pick at his food. However, this also caught the attention of Mr.Stark, who was only either watching Jungkook or Rhodey, refusing to look at the other people seated at the table with them. He gave a warning gaze and continued to eat.
Five minutes pass and Jungkook hasn’t eaten anything else. Tony cleared his throat and looked at Jungkook again. Jungkook was playing on his phone, trying to pass the time, when Tony cleared his throat not only getting his attention but getting the attention of the rogues as well.
“ Perché non state mangiando ?” Tony asked in Italian, hoping that the others wouldn’t start questioning him or understanding him. Sadly Tony was wrong, 2 people in the room understood him completely, Natasha and Bucky, both were fluent in different languages.
“ Perche ho perso l’appetito. ” Jungkook responded nonchalantly, while amazing Tony, as well as the two people who were listening in.
Tony quickly got over his amazement and said, “ Beh, e' meglio che ti rimetta l'appetito e mangi. Sei già debole e non ho bisogno che ti ammali. ”
And with that Jungkook sighed, picked up his fork, and ate more pancakes. He knew Mr.Stark was right, he was already weak, and not eating enough would weaken him even more.
Bucky and Natasha both looked at each other and then at the boy and Tony. They both gave each other knowing stares and talked in Russian amongst each other.
“ So Stark and that Kid? They seem too awful close to being just an intern and boss? What do you think?” Natasha asked Bucky in Russian.
Bucky grabbed another slice of toast, put some butter on it, and said, “ I don’t know. It does seem odd, but I wouldn’t look into it. Stark has already threatened us about the kid. I’d rather not get kicked out on the first day.”
Natasha nodded. She didn’t like not knowing everything about someone, especially if this person was new, but she knew that Tony was stubborn and would protect this kid with his life. Plus getting kicked out didn’t sound like too much fun right now. Not with what was coming after all of them.