How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful Chapter 25: What the Future Holds, an avengers fanfic

Avengers || FrostIron || How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful || FrostIron || Avengers

Title: How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – New and Improved Avengers

Fandom: Marvel | Avengers

Disclaimer: All rights reserved to Marvel Comics for the creation of some of the most awesome heroes ever. This fanfiction on the other hand is entirely mine. No money is made with this, though reviews are more than welcomed.

Warnings: m/m, not Infinity War compliant, team as family, team building, fluff, PTSD, hurt/comfort, past child abuse, explicit intercourse, anal, oral, m/f, f/f

Main Pairing: Loki/Tony

Side Pairings: Hope/Darcy, Valkyrie/Sif, Rhodey/Maria/Carol, Bruce/Jane, T'Challa/Ororo, Happy/Pepper

Junior Avengers: Peter Parker | Spider-Man, Shuri, Hela Lokisdottir, Miles Morales | Kid Arachnid, Edward 'Ned' Leeds, Harley Keener, Gwen Stacy | Ghost-Spider

Allies: Stephen Strange | Doctor Strange, Ororo Munroe | Storm, Okoye, Heimdall, Maria Rambeau, Monica Rambeau, Virginia 'Pepper' Potts, Happy Hogan, James 'Bucky' Barnes

Summary: Post Civil War, Tony has to build a new team of Avengers. Aside from new recruits, there are also two well-known Avengers that return to Earth – with a ship full of refugees. New and more functional Avengers rise from the ashes of the old and new alliances, new friendships and even new relationships are formed. Though the biggest wild-card proves to be Loki, not entirely unexpected.

How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful

New and Improved Avengers

Chapter 25: What the Future Holds

"Spider-Man was a menace to Brooklyn, but now that there are two of them, they are twice the danger. As I have been saying for years now. Yet here they are, endangering innocent people."

Harley rolled his eyes fondly though he did turn the volume up on the TV. Not that he hadn't seen the entire fight unfold first-person. But everyone just loved those acrobatic, quippy spiders. Well, everyone aside from one J. Jonah Jamesson. That guy had it out for Peter already, but ever since Miles turned eighteen and the spiders became a duo...?

"Urgh, here we go again. Triple J slandering the good, honest name of the spider-boys."

"You know they hate when you call them that, sis", countered Harley.

Gwen grinned and shrugged at that. "They may be close to thirty but they are still thirteen at heart and they will remain spider-boys for the rest of their lives. You know that."

"Yeah, Ghost-Spider, I know that", hummed Harley playfully, nudging his sister.

Huffing, Gwen leaned over to steal from Harley's take-out. Take-out had a long-lasting post-mission tradition and it was all the more fun for Gwen since she wasn't part of the team – so she didn't have to do the leg-work but got to reap the benefits. Peter and Miles entered the room, both groaning when they saw J's face on the big screen. Glowering, Miles simply shot a web up to cover the screen and with that, the face. Peter made a small sound as he collapsed next to Harley on the couch. With a frown did Gwen stare at the door, waiting for more.

"Where's the rest of the team?", wanted Gwen to know.

"Hela left immediately after", replied Harley dismissively. "You know our sister, there is always work at the Sanctum Sanctorum. As she loves to say – a Sorceress Supreme is always busy."

"And Kamala's mom put her foot down on her coming to family dinner today and Doreen kind of invited herself along, I guess?", replied Miles. "Ned said over the coms that he'll have left-overs because Shuri called so now they're in a sciencey video-call."

"I wanna do science with Shuri", complained Peter with a pout.

"You can't have everything, Petey", pointed Harley out, petting Peter's hair like he was a puppy.

"Either science, or superheroing. You can't be in the lab and on the field at the same time", agreed Gwen. "You can talk to Shuri later. Right now, you gotta eat something."

"No—ow that we're back, we could pick up where we started off", declared Miles, pointing his chopsticks at Gwen. "We barely got caught up on our life. It was your turn."

"Yeah, Gwen. How's San Francisco? How's the fiance?", asked Peter, wiggling his eyebrows.

Gwen blushed and ducked her head, glaring at them. "Mary-Jane's fine. The team's fine."

"Wow. I feel like I was right there with them, don't cha?", snorted Miles.

Harley smirked to himself and watched his sister blush even harder. She had moved out to San Francisco after high school, together with her girlfriend Mary-Jane – they were trying to start a band but accidentally started so much more. A few months prior, the Avengers Mansion had been attacked and Mary-Jane had been over to visit her girlfriend. They had both gotten hurt pretty badly and, with a lack of other options, Peter had donated his blood. Turned out that a massive blood-transfusion from someone with spider-powers also transferred the spider-powers. New York City didn't need four spiders and the girls had meant to move away anyway, so they moved to the West Coast, started college together and joined the West Coast Avengers on probation.

Now, Gwen Stacy-Stark was the leader of the West Coast Avengers. Which had really put quite the headline online – The Stark of the West Rises. After all, there was already a Stark leading the East Coast Avengers; Harley Keener-Stark, the Iron Knight.

Tony had wept genuine tears of pride and joy that day, much to both of their embarrassment.

"Oka—ay, fine", groaned Gwen with an eye-roll and leaned back. "Mary-Jane's sending her regards to you guys and also if you don't RSVP soon with your menu choice, she will personally come down here and you will see the full extended of my red bridezilla. Also if you tell her I called her that, I will make you regret the day you were born, boys."

"I still haven't found a plus-one", sighed Miles with a pout.

"How. How have you not asked Shuri out yet?", demanded Gwen to know.

Miles' eyes widened and he ducked his head before sputtering an answer. "I have no idea-"

"Yeah, no. Back to you, Gwen. Been listening to this tune for too long", interrupted Harley. "How is my arch nemesis? My fated rival? The one challenging my legacy?"

"Riri's doing well, thanks for asking. She wants you to know that she is five villains ahead of you at this point at time. With the mission just now, it only makes her three villains ahead of you", replied Gwen with a teasing smirk. "That woman has fire in her veins."

Riri Williams was someone Harley, Peter and Ned had met and befriended at MIT. Well, Harley and Riri had entered a competition from day one and one day, Riri had actually bust out her Ironheart suit. She had made an Iron Man suit all on her own. Iron Knight and Ironheart went out side by side with each other while they were at college, but afterward they parted ways – Harley returned to New York, because New York was where Katherine was, so Riri decided to take the West Coast. Now, she was a part of Gwen's Avengers. But they never let go of their competition.

"Cap's been annoyed lately", noted Gwen softly. "She always is when the Rogues act up again."

"We really still calling the pardoned Exvengers Rogues, huh?", laughed Peter.

"They got their pardon when a purple dickhead showed up to destroy half the universe. It wasn't earned. They'll be the Rogues to the end of time for me", huffed Gwen offended. "Our Captain America is way superior to the old one anyway."

"...Ah", sighed Miles and stretched out. "It's all about the nostalgic whiny people wanting a straight white man, instead of an alien lesbian woman of color as their Captain America, huh? Times like these, I'm low-key grateful for our masks so no one's comparing The Black Spider-Man to The White Spider-Man. It's... so tiresome."

Gwen hummed in agreement. America Chavez had been a young teen seeking asylum back when SWORD had still been newly introduced. Now that she was older, the super-strong alien girl wanted to give back and over the years, she had earned herself the title of Captain America. After all, Steve Rogers may have been pardoned to help out, however he had been stripped of his title; it just did not look good for America to have a man who was a fugitive from the law of over a hundred nations be the symbol of their country. They knew a huge part of making America Captain was PR, but America wasn't going to complain about that, as long as she got to prove herself, because she knew she earned and deserved the title of Captain America.

Steve Rogers was roaming the streets calling himself the Nomad ever since. Personally, Gwen found it a bit dramatic. Him, Falcon, Scarlet Witch and Black Widow were still out there, doing smaller jobs, but they were not Avengers anymore. Far as Gwen knew, Barton had retired for good.

Barton had been replaced on Gwen's team. Her now good friend Kate Bishop had decided to pick the moniker of Hawkeye. She outlived expectations there and had been a great addition.

"Kate says to stop tagging all social media posts about her with LegoLass", noted Gwen.

"Aw, come on, it's the perfect pun", complained Peter and Miles at once.

Gwen rolled her eyes at them. "And Cassie told me to pass on a 'hi, guys!' from her."

Cassie Lang had been trained by Hope and had looked forward to partnering with her father since he had become Ant-Man. As soon as she was old enough, she started going out on the field with Scott as his side-kick and by now, she had more than earned her spot on the Avengers.

"Kamala and America should have another competition. Who's the superior captain?", grinned Miles thoughtfully. "Those always get everyone hyped up. Good press."

"You think like aunt Darcy", nodded Gwen in approval. "Yeah, it would be good press."

While Kamala had started out as Miss Marvel, Carol had been so touched and proud that, recently, she had officially passed on her title to Kamala, considering she was nearly always off-planet these days anyway and 'Earth needs a Captain Marvel'. Kamala had cry-sobbed for days.

"How is aunt Darcy?", asked Harley curiously. "The baby giving her a hard time?"

"Lewis van Dyne is a national treasure and I will not have you slander his name like that", chided Gwen and threw broccoli at Harley. "He's teething though, so yes, Darcy's constantly tired."

"Yeah, shows in the Avengers' social media feed. Her tweets are often key-smashes", nodded Miles.

"Because she tends to fall asleep at the keyboard", laughed Gwen.

With a little... donation from Scott Lang, the happy van Dyne couple was on their second child now. Their firstborn, Janet van Dyne, was already four years old, but Lewis was still a tiny baby. Darcy had been really proud and felt clever about naming their son Lewis, since it was her maiden-name.

"Talking about babies... when are we gonna visit dads again?", asked Harley slowly.

"It'd be nice if at least all four of us could make it this time", sighed Gwen. "But you and me, being leaders of the Avengers, that's already hard enough. Put in our Sorceress Supreme and our schedules are a disaster, Harl, you know that. Also Kat's college education."

"I mean, I feel like Loki and Tony had that one coming, considering they collect children like other people do with like... comic books or baseball cards", snorted Miles.

"Hey!", exclaimed both Harley and Gwen at that.

"What? You know it's true. There's like... how many Stark-kids at this point?", asked Miles startled.

"I mean, Hela, Sleipnir, Jörm and Fenrir are from a previous marriage and they came with the package for dad", argued Gwen seriously. "Harley, me and Kat were Tony's large, bleeding heart. And do not say a single word against my precious baby siblings."

"No but seriously how many are there?", whispered Miles a bit lost.

"Last time I visited, it were just Morgan and Eddie", shrugged Peter and tilted his head.

Gwen got that small, proud-big-sister smile on her lips at that. Morgan Stark had been the first biological child of Tony – and he had fussed a lot. Not just about the baby, but about making sure that his stepchildren and his adopted children all knew that he would still love them as fiercely, that he was not having this baby now because he thought a biological child would be worth more. The other seven Stark children (Sleipnir, Jörmungand and Fenrir liked to use the Stark name whenever they came to visit Earth; it was highly beneficial, after all) had collectively rolled their eyes at that. Like they didn't know exactly how much love was stored in the Stark.

Pepper Potts had agreed to be the surrogate mother and Loki had picked the name. No one was allowed to ever tell Morgan that she was named after a BBC show's antagonist – apparently, the princess who had been lied to by her father the magic hating king and who had to hide her magic and stood alone against everyone had truly resonated Loki and yeah no that month of watching BBC's Merlin had been really lost on Loki because he came out declaring Morgana the real hero.

And thus, Morgan Stark had joined their ever-growing family, five years later followed by Edwin James Stark, named after the two best men Tony had ever met (uncle Rhodey had cried a lot at that and he was very personally protective of his little baby godson).

"Let the record show that Maggie would be number ten", answered Gwen after a moment.

"I'd kick my butt if Maggie starts walking before I see her again", sighed Harley softly.

Margaret Maria Stark was the youngest of the family. And yes, one could argue that Loki and Tony really had too many kids – but Gwen thought the excuse of four centuries old stepchildren should really weight in there, also Gwen and Harley were in their late twenties now, Kat was going to college. Tony and Loki had officially retired after both Gwen and Harley had become leaders of the Avengers. Yes, even Tony Stark could retire. There was nothing left to teach, he knew his children were capable of fighting their own battles. He wanted to raise the baby that would later turn out to be Morgan in a peaceful environment, without having to run off to battles all the time.

The two immortals lived in a little cottage in the woods by a lake, gardening and reading books, not minding the world or its dangers. And yes, immortals. It was a thing Loki had insisted upon on their wedding day. That he could not lose Tony to old age, that he had to accept Lady Idunna's gift. (Not that Lady Idunna had given it quite so willingly; at least not to Loki. It had taken the combined charms of Sif and Thor to convince her that Tony's mind was one worthy of the Asgardians.)

"Well, I'm here right now. Let's grab our sisters this weekend, go visit our family", offered Gwen. "Peter and Miles can – okay, no. Kamala and Doreen can hold down the fort."

"Hey!", chorused Peter and Miles offended at that.

"She's not wrong, you know", noted Harley, waving vaguely.

"I swear, they'd rather trust Tippy to lead this team than us", muttered Miles with a glare.

"Tippy is pretty crafty and good at taking charge", argued Gwen.

"Tippy is a freaking squirrel", pointed Peter out. "Why must you hurt us like this?"

"Because it's fun", shrugged Gwen thoughtfully.

"It's some healthy sibling love among spiderlings", offered Ned with a sigh. "Hey, Gwen."

"Ah, there he is!", exclaimed Gwen. "Finally could tear yourself away from the princess?"

"More like Shuri had to tear herself away from me because the Black Panther was needed", sighed Ned. "I swear, she is pulling double-duty too hard, between being Black Panther and head of science. Like. All the science in Wakanda. I'm so glad she's no longer queen though."

"Isn't like... everyone glad that T'Challa turned out to not be dead?", asked Peter slowly.

A few years ago, there had been an attempted assassination when the royal family had been in the states. King T'Challa and Queen Ororo had seemingly died and Shuri, who had stayed behind in Wakanda, had been crowned queen and become the Black Panther thanks to the heart-shaped herb (something that had been destroyed by a villain shortly after T'Challa had become king and the science department and botanists had worked hard to bring the species back. Shuri had spent many nights complaining about that, because it had been a long process). In the end, both T'Challa and Storm had reemerged, avenged themselves and returned to Wakanda. While Shuri stepped down as queen – preferring her science over ruling – she still had the herb coursing through her veins and Wakanda now had two Black Panthers protecting it.

"Shuri says she RSVPed to your wedding invitation", offered Ned once he was a bit sated.

He put down the box of take-out to instead try a different one, seemingly starving. These geniuses forgot everything when they were in their labs and workshops. Gwen liked science too, she had the brains for it too, but she had other things she was more passionate about. Riri liked to point out that Gwen was the exact same – when it came to writing her music. And okay, that was fair.

"Did she give a plus one?", asked Miles a bit terrified and curious at the same time.

"No idea. Didn't ask", shrugged Ned.

"Do you have a plus one?", asked Peter slowly after a moment.

"Yeah and no. I'm going with Doreen so we're each other's plus one", replied Ned with a grin.

"Doreen?", echoed all others surprised.

"What can I say, the heart wants what the heart wants", sighed Ned dreamily.

Gwen snorted and put her chopsticks down. She leaned back to watch the four boys bicker. These four. It had started with them and she knew it. Peter and Ned had begun together, but these new Avengers, they had started to form with them, Harley and Miles. What Tony liked to call the bright future of the Avengers. Back then, Gwen had scoffed at it, hadn't thought herself to be a part of it. Things had changed, had changed for her. Back when she got her powers. Back when she had nearly lost Mary-Jane, because the building had collapsed around them and Gwen had been helpless, had no way of saving herself or her girlfriend. That that fateful day was when she had gotten her powers had been a sign for her. Now she had the power to save herself, but also to save others and, well, when one was part of such a large superhero family how could one ignore that calling? Seriously, Kat – bless her heart – was the only member in this family not being a superhero. She was studying to become a vet. Granted, also to save lives, but in a different vein.

"I'm texting Hela and Kat about this weekend", stated Harley, phone in hand. "Do we text dads?"

"Nah. A surprise is far more fun", declared Gwen with a grin.

/break\

Hela was humming contently to herself, running her fingers over the Cloak of Levitation, of Levi for short as she preferred to call him, while wandering the halls of her sanctum. The Sanctum Sanctorum, formerly belonging to Doctor Stephen Strange. Ever since he had kind of ascended to fill the position of the Ancient One, a spot in New York had opened up. Hela had worked as kind of an apprentice to the Sorcerer Supreme for years (much to her dad's misery, but she had enjoyed learning from someone else, learning human magic). She had earned her title as the Sorceress Supreme and it had filled her with pride when Stephen had, quite gruffly so, told the cloak to 'keep an eye on her'. The old doctor had grown very fond of her, even though he wasn't good at showing it. And despite how displeased Loki had been about her apprenticeship, he had been insanely pleased and proud when Hela took over his title and position.

"He—ey, sis. Up in the clouds with your thoughts again?"

Blinking slowly, Hela turned toward her little sister. She smiled brightly as she saw Katherine. The little girl had grown up so much, had become such a beautiful and kind young woman. Granted, she was cheating just a little bit with her profession; when she had first met Hela's brothers, they all had been most endeared with Katherine, after all she had been still so young and innocent. So they had bestowed their blessings on her. Thanks to Jörm, she now could talk to reptiles, thanks to Sleipnir she could talk to horses and thanks to Fenrir she could talk to dogs. That did make being an animal doctor quite much easier than for a regular human, in Hela's opinion. Still, she was just glad that her brothers had taken it all so well. They had been doubtful about Loki's choice in husband at first and Tony had been so horribly nervous when first meeting them at the wedding. It didn't take them long to warm up to Tony, Harley, Gwen and Katherine.

"Where's Harley and Gwen? And don't say that a mission came up", asked Hela.

"Oh no, they're in the car. Gwen refuses to get out because she thinks the moment she leaves the car, Harley will try to take the wheel. Harley is sitting in the car and playing water noises on his phone, trying to make her go to the toilet so he can take the wheel", replied Kat.

"...Naturally so", nodded Hela solemnly. "They know we don't have to spent hours driving out to the cabin because I can create portals though, right?"

"I am super disappointed in you trying to get out of a road-trip. They're important bonding time!"

Slowly, Hela blinked and then she smiled softly, reaching out to ruffle her sister's hair. "You're right. How could I forget that? You remember, a road-trip was how we first met."

Katherine offered a large, confirming grin at that, taking Hela's hand to pull her along.

/break\

"The design is awful", muttered Tony tired, rolling over to bury his face in Loki's chest.

"They are infants. They were not designed by anyone", countered his husband.

"Shush, don't let religious people hear you", whispered Tony in a conspiracy-voice. "Still, I find the bad design proof that no god can possibly exist. Where is the mute-button?"

Loki heaved an exhausted sigh, because he could not argue with his husband on that. Margaret was crying. She did that a lot. Morgan had been a very good sleeper, they never had trouble with her. Edwin had been a bit fussy, but this one? She just cried and cried and cried.

"We defeated the Mad Titan and stood to tell the tale, yet an infant will best us", whispered Loki.

They had. They had defeated the Mad Titan when he had come with his army. The new and improved Avengers had been too well-organized, too many, with the additional forces of the Asgardians and the promised help of Wakanda and Queen Ororo's old school, a school filled with mutants. Loki and Tony had been on the team going after Thanos to Titan and, side by side, they had managed to overwhelm Thanos. Well, not just them – the Guardians of the Galaxy had joined them, Peter and Strange had been up on Titan with them and so had Carol. The pure, raw might of them all together had been enough to beat Thanos.

"Da—ads. Dads, look who I found in the backyard!", exclaimed Morgan and came running in.

Tony blinked slowly, clearly terrified of whatever kind of critter she may have dragged in this time. However, when Tony and Loki looked up, they saw Morgan being followed by her four older siblings. Gwen and Harley were bickering, while Kat immediately ran up to Tony to hug him and Hela was holding Morgan's hand. The smile spreading on Tony's was blinding.

"My children! Loki, look at my perfect children!", exclaimed Tony.

He opened his arms once more so Hela and Morgan could join his and Kat's hug, while Loki got up to greet Gwen and Harley with a hug of his own, his eyes soft. Harley huffed as he clung onto his stepfather. The two of them had a special, mischief-based bond.

"What brings you lot over here? Are there no cities to save? Exams to study for?", asked Loki.

"Exams are over, even students get breaks, pa", huffed Katherine.

"I was over in New York for a council meeting anyway – you know they want these check-ins with the team-leaders every three months. And I figured I'd make a one week vacation out of it to see my siblings. Since you decided to hide a third of my siblings away in this cabin, we thought it was time for a little weekend getaway. Make sure the house is still standing", replied Gwen.

"Look at our daughter the responsible leader of the Avengers", whispered Tony proudly.

"You know I'm a leader of the Avengers too, right?", asked Harley pointedly.

"You did hear him say 'the responsible leader of the Avengers', right?", countered Katherine.

"Sometimes it feels like you really only get siblings to stab you in the back", sighed Harley.

"Ah, have you been spending time with uncle Thor again?", asked Loki with a bright smile.

"...You know what, that one is on me, I set it up", chuckled Harley. "But no, I haven't actually seen him since the last time the Guardians were visiting."

It was peculiar to Loki, but he actually found himself missing the big oaf sometimes. When the Guardians of the Galaxy had come to Earth and helped them defeat Thanos, they had crashed for a while, needing repairs and a recharge (two of the Guardians had been Thanos' daughters, it turned out). They had bonded, particularly with Thor and in the end, when they left, he had decided that it was time to make his own way and explore more. It had felt natural; at that point, most of their team had been retired. Tony and Loki lived in their little cabin, Bruce and Jane were married and settled down and after the battle with Thanos, Bruce had decided to be done with being the Hulk. Rhodey had stayed, but more so to form the future Avengers and train them, not really as an active member anymore. And he too had plans of retiring to SWORD, to live with his wives. Everyone was moving on to a new part of their lives, so Loki didn't fault Thor for finally moving on too.

"Wait. Wait, it's all quiet. Why is it all quiet?", asked Tony in a slightly panicky voice.

"...Because Hela's biggest magic is with small children", noted Harley, motioning at Hela.

She came walking in with the baby on her arms, closely followed by little Eddie. As soon as Eddie saw Harley, he jumped his brother for a hug. Tony smiled as he settled back onto the couch, watching his family. Loki sat down next to him, laying an arm around him and pulling him closer.

"This was all I ever wanted, Lokes", whispered Tony softly. "My happily ever after."

"You deserve it, Tony. You deserve the world", replied Loki, kissing Tony's temple.

~*~ The End ~*~

Author's note: Aaand that's it. I do hope this final chapter wraps up every loose thread; it does to me at least. Which, to get ahead of what will definitely be asked in the comments - no, there will not be a sequel/spin-off/midquel, the story's closed. I skipped the Infinity War part for a reason, the reason being that I don't like writing battles and aside from some changes, it'd just be Infinity War and lots of fighting. Let's be real, it's obvious that with an actual team, with Captain Marvel there from the get-go, they would have absolutely overcome Thanos up there on Titan. So, yeah, that's it, that's a wrap on this story! Thank you all for reading and even more so for commenting! 3

This story will be replaced on my updating schedule by "Meet the Super-Bat Family", an Arrowverse post-Crisis Kate/Kara fic, so if any of you dabble in DC feel free to come check that out. ;)