The Souls

It wasn't long until Tony's hospital room was full to bursting with superheroes in chairs. Tony had no idea where all the chairs had come from. One minute they were all standing gathered around his bed, and the next the room was full of comfortable looking chairs and sofas.

At first he wondered if he had blacked out for a few minutes, but then he remembered that magic was a thing now.

Pepper sat closest to him, of course, with Peter next to her and Morgan on the bed with him.

On his other side, Nebula stood at the head of his bed with crossed arms, as if standing guard. It seemed that protecting him was a habit she hadn't quite grown out of since their time stranded in space. The two Gamoras sat on a shared sofa just in front of her. Nebula wasn't smiling (come on, it was Nebula) but she wasn't scowling either. Honestly it as the happiest Tony had ever seen her.

On another cozy loveseat, sat Steve and Bucky. And maybe he was imagining it, but Tony was almost sure that the chair had gotten a lot smaller than when they first sat it in.

But by the mischievous grin that seemed glued on Sam' face, and the not-so-subtle winks he kept sending Loki's way, maybe he wasn't imagining it. The sight actually made Tony smile too. Any idiot could tell that something was going on between those two. Or at least something should be. Either way, they were both smitten, and it looked like both were absolutely oblivious to the other's painfully obvious feelings.

Loki had been sitting in a rather large chair by himself, but then his brother had abandoned his own and squeezed himself in with Loki, throwing a large arm around his shoulder. Loki, in Tony's opinion, didn't seem to hate it as much as he was trying to.

Shuri ran up every few minutes to check his vitals before going back to sit back down next to Groot.

T'Challa kept frowning at the pair the way every big brother does when his sister talks to boys, while Rocket winked at Groot the way every father did when his son talked to girls.

Everyone else was scattered around the room, but they were all there. All happy to see Tony awake and alive.

He couldn't be happier with being the centre of attention. Among all these people who had saved the world every bit as much as he had.

Even with the fact that half his body was absolutely fucked, Tony couldn't be happier. Morgan fell asleep not long after, tired from all the cooing attention she was recieved from everyone. Pepper wanted to move her, but Tony wouldn't let her.

After a while, Thor left the room, and a while later, he returned grinning, dozens of cartons in his arms. He dropped them in the middle of the room.

"I have returned with beverages, friends." he grinned, "no festivity is complete without ale."

"Oh I don't think that's the best idea, Thor." said Bruce.

"Oh it's a terrible idea," Valkyrie nodded.

Thor just scoffed, "Just because I'm not allowed to drink doesn't mean everyone else should suffer. Although honestly I've told you many times that I do not have a problem with alcohol."

He very carefully avoided Loki's glare as he said so.

"Go on! Drink and be merry!"

Everyone was obviously hesitant, until Loki sighed, "Please, do. The more you all take, the less there is for him."

"Loki I do not have a-"

"Well go on." Loki stared the room down, "Take it. Please."

Slowly, people raised from the seats and made for the drinks.

When Shuri stood too, T'Challa grabbed her by the scruff of her collar and sat her back down with a glare. He too left and returned with cartons full of soda and water.

The room grew significantly more rowdy after that, the drinks lifting everyone's spirits. Thor looked quite pained as he sipped his water, but he seemed content to drink vicariously through everyone else.

Conversation circled the room, everyone talking and laughing over each other. But occasionally, the whole room would be involved in the same topic.

Unsurprisingly, the subject of the Dusted came about, and everyone else was in awe.

"So all this time you were in the Soul Stone." Bruce shook his head, fascinated, "that is amazing."

"So how was it?" asked Scott.

His eyebrows shot up when everyone who had been in the Stone gave a collective groan, "that bad?"

The replies went from, 'Yes that bad,' to 'freaking horrific.'

Clint scoffed, "Oh calm your panties, it was just five days."

"Just five days?" Sam leaned forward in his seat with narrowed eyes, "just five days. Oh no no no. How about you spend a week in a place of absolute nothingness, doing absolutely nothing. For a week. No eating, no sleeping, no entertainment, nothing. For a week!"

T'Challa was the first to roll his eyes, "as you can tell, Sam is not very good at handling boredom."

"No need to be nice about it T'Challa," Wanda scoffed, "He's terrible at it."

Vision nodded, "Yes, I think Sam did take confinement worse than the rest of us. He was quite irritable."

Sam scoffed at them, "no I wasn't. I took it fine."

He was thoroughly offended when the ones that were with him laughed out loud. Even Natasha, who was only there for about an hour turned on him.

"Sam, first thing I saw when I went in there was you yelling at Peter."

"Wait what's that now?" Tony raised a eyebrow at that, "what were you doing yelling at the kid?"

"Oh he wasn't really yelling..." Peter tried to speak up, but was stopped immediately.

"Oh don't try and defend him, kid," Quill said, "I mean, yeah we were all pretty shitty to you at some point or other, but Wilson was definitely the worst."

Pepper's the one who frowned this time, "Okay why on earth would you all be shitty to Peter?" she asked, not understanding how anyone could even stand to look at the boy wrong.

To their credit, they all looked quite sheepish.

"His optimism was... grating." Gamora eventually answered, "we weren't too keen on hearing him talk about how the mighty Avengers were going to save us when the rest of us were convinced that we were well and truly dead."

"But in the end, he was right," Shuri grinned, throwing an arm around Peter's shoulder, "The Avengers did save us. Eventually."

"Eventually?" Rocket narrowed his eyes, "what's that supposed to mean?"

"I am Groot," nodded Groot.

"Well five years late is better than not at all," Peter told his friend. Groot only shrugged, but the forgiving smile on his face was missed by no one.

Rhodey frowned at the exchange, "Wait a minute," he addressed Peter, "you can understand him?"

Peter nodded with a grin, "Yeah, isn't it great? Loki taught Shuri and me."

"Well 'taught' is a loose term," Quill scoffed, "He more like zapped it into you. Some of us had to learn the hard way."

"Well it's not our fault you didn't have a god helping you, Quill."

"Hold on a second," Valkyrie spoke up, holding up a hand, "Loki helped you? Loki."

The two nodded.

"This Loki. Helped you. For nothing in return?"

"Oh there's no need to sound so surprised, Valkyrie," Loki rolled his eyes, "I'm an absolute delight, I've been trying to tell you."

"Yeah he was super nice in there," Peter spoke up, "Totally not as evil as everyone says."

"I am every bit as evil as everyone says," Loki said, glaring at Peter, who of course, didn't get the hint to shut up.

"Oh that's not true at all." said Peter, "He conjured all sorts of stuff for us when we got bored. And he told me all these stories about Asgard almost whenever I asked, and he only turned me into an animal twice."

Loki shut his eyes, holding himself from removing the boys tongue. Temporarily of course.

Thor looked absolutely delighted at the news of Loki's kindness, while Valkyrie still regarded him with narrowed eyes. Everyone else looked at him with varying degrees of surprise and suspense.

Feeling awfully uncomfortable with this kind of attention, Loki stuck his nose out, "When did this become about me? Weren't we talking about Wilson and how awful he was in the stone."

Sam glared at Loki with a look of utmost betrayal, as the god just shrugged.

"I was not that bad."

"You absolutely were," Drax said, quick to be distracted, "even to your friend, Bucky."

"Oh, especially to his friend, Bucky." Vision nodded with him.

Bucky sighed, having been happy to just sit back and listen to conversation. He didn't necessarily want to be dragged into it.

"That's really not imp-"

"How was he awful to Bucky?" Steve interrupted.

Quill perked up, absolutely thrilled at the thought of being of assistance to Captain America.

"Oh yeah, he told us about all this stuff he did-"

"Uh Quill-" Sam shook his head quickly.

"Yeah about when he was brainwashed and an assassin who killed all these people and-"

"Quill stop-"

"Oh and it was real bad when he told us that Bucky killed Stark's parents and-"

"God damn it, Quill!" Sam hissed, with a glare.

He bit the inside of his cheek when he noticed the sudden silence in the room. He wasn't about to look around and see the looks on everyone's face He sure as hell wasn't about to look at Steve. His 'disappointed' look was enough to make him squirm when it wasn't directed at him. He sure as hell wasn't gonna look at him right now.

"Holy shit, Sam." Natasha was the first to speak.

"That is not okay." Bruce shook his head

"That is awful." Okoye sighed at him.

Sam just stared at his bottle with thin lips. Bucky sighed after a while, feeling bad for the poor guy.

"Okay, in his defence, it was really boring in there." he said, "and being a dick to me is Sam's favourite pass time, so it makes sense that he went there."

Steve was still absolutely appalled, "That doesn't make it okay." He shook his head. He looked at Sam, "how could you do that?"

Sam opened his mouth to answer, but couldn't find one.

"You know if it makes it any better, it completely backfired," Wanda piped in, "everyone loves Bucky, so it just made Sam look like a huge dick."

Everyone from the stone nodded at that, but Steve just shook his head.

"That still does not make it any better." he said through gritted teeth.

"It kinda does," Bucky shrugged, "Really it's cool, everyone had an awful time in there. We're just happy to be out."

"Here here!" Drax grinned, lifting his bottle.

After that, Steve looked a little less like he was about to leap out his chair and punch Sam in the face. Bucky smirked and mouthed a 'You owe me' to the flustered man.

"Well actually, Mantis seemed to have a great time," Gamora grumbled, "Snooping around in everyone's brain."

Mantis let out a small smile with large eyes. She had learned that this look usually encouraged people to forgive her quickly.

"Wait, what do you mean 'snooping'?" asked Hope, "What like... like reading minds? You read minds?"

"She is an empath," Drax spoke, having heard Mantis explain it far too many times, "Telepaths read thoughts. Empaths feel feelings."

Mantis smiled sweetly at him in thanks.

"So you were just going around knowing what everybody's feeling?" Carol frowned, "That sounds awful."

"It only happens through touch," Mantis explained, "It is the main reason no one ever wants to touch me."

"But you did it in the Stone didn't you?"

"Oh yes. After a while, everyone lost the will to stop me."

"Yeah it was really weird," nodded Shuri, "Her going around laying hands on everyone."

"What's that like?" Pepper frowned, curious, "Just knowing people's feelings."

Mantis' eyes widened as all the attention was suddenly on her

"At times it can be wonderful," she said, "People's emotions are beautiful things. Filled with love and joy and peace. But other times..." her face and antenna fell, "sometimes it is horrible."

When it didn't seem like she was going to elaborate, Rhodey spoke up, "what was it like touching people in the stone?"

"Well, in the Stone, we were all naked Souls. Everyone's emotions were as bare as I have ever felt. It was often times very overwhelming." She shook her head, "and oh, I very much did not like to touch Bucky.

Bucky frowned at her, feeling offended, "Well geez."

"Oh I mean no offence Bucky," Mantis said apologetically, "But your past thoughts and feelings are terribly haunting. And dark. And terrifying. And-"

"Okay, okay, that's enough Mantis." Bucky chuckled awkwardly as he avoided eye contact with everyone. Especially Steve, who was no doubt looking at him with his sad eyes.

"I'm not that bad." he stared at her pointedly, hoping she'd get the hint in his eyes, "tell everyone I'm not that bad."

"Oh but you are!"

Bucky shut his eyes, taking a breath, "I think she's exaggerating," he told the room. Mantis opened her mouth to disagree, but Bucky spoke over her, "you're exaggerating. I'm not that bad."

Mantis finally got the hint, and merely shrugged. The rest of the room, however, was starting to look at him with sympathy.

God how he hated sympathy.

"I mean you've felt worse," he tried, "Right. You've felt people worse off, right Mantis?

Mantis just blinked at him.

"Right, Mantis?" his voice had a tinge of desperation, and Mantis finally shrugged.

"Well, I suppose."

Bucky almost a sighed in relief.

"Really?" Sam asked, feeling sceptical, "There's something with worse shit in their head than Bucky?"

Mantis shrugged again, "Perhaps." She said softly, "I suppose that... that Loki is-"

"Mantis," a low, dangerous voice suddenly spoke up, and Loki locked eyes with the Guardian.

"Of all the adults in the Soul Realm, you are the one I hated least," he said lowly, "if you would like it to stay that way, I suggest that you hold you tongue."

Mantis' eyes widened and she let out a fearful gasp, "I was only joking. It is just Bucky. Bucky is the worst."

"Come on!" Bucky felt utterly betrayed. He groaned and took a long drink from his bottle.

Mantis saw the look on Bucky's face and suddenly felt awful for even mentioning his messed up head.

She had to fix it.

"But... But there is more than pain in Bucky." She perked up.

Bucky hardly even looked up, just avoiding everyone's eyes, which by now held nothing but pity.

"Oh yeah?"

"Oh yes," she nodded quickly, "Perhaps stronger than the rest. There is love in your heart Bucky."

Bucky almost smiled at that. Well of course there was love. He was an Avenger for God's sake. And a Wakandan by association. Love came by default.

"Aw, Buck." Sam nudged him with a grin, "That's so sweet."

"Shut up Sam," he sighed.

"Your love for us keeps the pain away Barnes?" He simpered, "that's the most adorable-"

"No," Mantis interrupted, "not you, Sam." Sam looked real offended at that. And Bucky smiled for the first time.

"This love is different," she continued, "reserved only for one person." Bucky's head snapped up and stared wide eyed. This better not be going where he thought it was going...

"A romantic, sexual love. For h-"

"No!" Bucky leapt up, snapping Mantis' hand down just as she was about to point. At him.

"No no, Mantis." He shushed her, "No no. I'm pretty sure you're mistaken."

"But I-"

"You are mistaken," he told her firmly.

Mantis blinked at him and finally nodded,"okay."

With wide eyes and realising what just happened, Drax threw his head back and let out a roaring laugh.

Bucky made to sit down slowly. Unfortunately, there sat Sam. The biggest, most shit eating grin on his face.

"You shut the hell up," he hissed.

"I didn't say nothing." Sam said, still grinning so much it hurt.

"Wh-what just happened?" Steve spoke up.

Bucky's eyes stayed wide, and he didn't dare look at him.

"Oh my god," Quill said, starting to laugh, "oh my god!" his laughs grew until he was guffawing.

You'd think that he would be more sympathetic seeing as he'd been a victim of Mantis as well, but this was just priceless.

Shuri's laugh was just as loud, and even Gamora couldn't hide the smile on her face. T'Challa was silent, but he couldn't keep his shoukers from shaking.

Soon enough, the whole room was starting to catch on.

Bucky? Feeling romantic, sexual love? It didn't take a genius to figure out who that was about.

But death glares from the soldier at least kept them from voicing it out loud.

They heeded his silent warning, even though it was hard to take him seriously, what with how pink he had turned.

Steve of course, was still lost.

"What is going on?" he whispered to Natasha, not wanting to be the only one not getting it.

Natasha just kept smirking, and gave him a long suffering sigh.

But she didn't say anything.

"Do not worry Rogers," Thor hissed at him , "I will explain it to you later."

"You will do no such thing," Loki nudged him hard, he too struggling to keep the smile off his face.

It had been mentioned in the stone, and despite Bucky's adamant refusal of any kind of feelings toward Captain America, he couldn't really fool an empath, could he.

T'Challa was the one who finally took pity, and broke the tension by offering to hand out another round of drinks.

Steve, poor, oblivious Steve, was still staring at the back of Bucky's head, wondering who the hell Mantis had been talking about. And why the hell Bucky hadn't mentioned anyone. And why the hell everyone seemed to know but him.

Honestly, he wouldn't have wanted to hear it. Hearing Bucky talk about being in love with someone? God, even just thinking about it hurt. But he couldn't help his curiosity.

"A romantic, sexual love. For H-"

Who did they know had a name starting with 'H'?

He frowned for a long time, missing most of the following conversation. He could vaguely tell that Tony was talking animatedly about something. Moving his arm as much as he could with Morgan sleeping next to him

Steve eventually concentrated long enough to realise that he was recapping the battle with great detail. Especially the moment when he took the stones from Thanos. He spoke a lot about taking the stones from Thanos.

"Oh god," Natasha rolled her eyes, "This isn't gonna stop is it. You reminding us that you're the saviour of the world?"

"Of course it won't," Tony scoffed, "I'm the saviour of the frikkin world. You should all be practically praying to me."

The room groaned, but smiled at the man on he bed. He was kinda right.

"Alright fine, Stark," chuckled Carol, "you're amazing."

"Yes I am." He smirked, while everyone else gave her the 'shut the hell up' look.

"What? I give credit where it's due," she shrugged, "what he did was awesome and super brave. I mean... stupid and unnecessary. But brave none the less."

The smile on Tony's face was wiped right off.

"I'm sorry, what's that now?"

Carol just frowned, not understanding the confusion, "Well... well yeah. You almost died. You were basically dead. It really didn't have to go that far."

Tony was gobsmacked, and everyone else almost shrank back, staying out of the firing line.

"Excuse me? Me saving the world was stupid and unnecessary? Where the hell do you get that? What are they teaching you in space, Danvers?"

"That's not what I'm saying at all," she said, looking amused, "I'm just saying that... it didn't necessarily have to be you."

Tony just stared with an open mouth and wide eyes, and Carol sighed.

"I mean look around you Stark," she said, waving her bottle, "You were surrounded by super soldiers, wizards, aliens, and literal gods. All of which are far more powerful than a regular ass human. You could have taken one stone. Or stalled till someone got up. Or handed the gauntlet over to somebody. I'm just saying," she shrugged, "It didn't have to be you."

Tony's position hadn't changed, he just stared at her unblinking. The room was coated in silence.

After a few splutters, he gave a loud scoff, "That's absolutely ridiculous! Guys, tell her how ridiculous that is!" He looked around at his teammates, waiting for their support. But everyone just blinked back, thin lipped.

"Actually that sounds about right," shrugged Natasha.

"She's got a point." nodded Clint.

"I just didn't want to point it out," sighed Vision.

Tony gaped as everyone chipped in their agreements. He shook his head in shock.

"This is ridiculous. You're all ridiculous." He just sat back and glared for a few minutes after that, even after Pepper had changed the subject. But this was Tony, and he couldn't help but chip in his opinion once everyone started going on about which stone was the most powerful.

Not too long after, he decided to forgive everyone for their betraying comments.

More drinks were passed around (only water for Thor, Loki and Tony, and only soda for the teenagers).

More conversations were had. Whether within groups, or with everybody. The night went on, and Tony smiled from his bed. He smiled at the daughter sleeping at his side, his wife, laughing at whatever someone had just said, and his self claimed son next to her.

He smiled at the rest of his family in the room. New and old. He remembered where this had all started. With six of them in a helicarrier, coming to terms with the fact that aliens were a thing.

Oh how long ago that was.

Suddenly he found himself laughing

"Hey Steve?"

Steve turned his grin to Tony, "Yeah?"

"You remember when we first met?"

Steve let a laugh burst out of his throat as he thought back, "Oh yeah." he nodded, "yeah we... we didn't really get along did we?"

Natasha scoffed, "Well if that isn't the understatement of the year."

Bruce grinned from his chair, "Oh yeah, you two were awful. Kept involving the rest of us in your arguments."

"Oh yes, watching you two bicker was most entertaining," chuckled Thor.

"That bad, huh?" Clint asked.

"You weren't there?" frowned Sam.

"Well no. Loki had me locked in my own head, remember?"

Eyes turned to Loki, who rolled his eyes, "oh get over it Barton, that was years ago. You're fine now, aren't you?"

Clint just glared.

"Besides," Loki said, trying to get the attention off his past regressions, "weren't we talking about how those two despised each other?"

"Well, not despised..." Steve defended.

"Just greatly disliked," nodded Tony. He chuckled weakly as he remembered.

"I was positive that you were the most selfish person I had ever met," Steve said quietly. "Never one to make the sacrifice play."

Tony's smile widened, "Oh yeah I remember that. Also remember saying that you were a lab rat. That everything special about you came from a bottle."

His eyes glided to the hammer at Steve's feet.

"Guess we were both full of shit, huh."

Steve grinned at his friend.

"Guess we were."