The Mimic (HE/HIM VERSION)

186

"Clint! Throw the gauntlet to the left!" Y/n called out over his earpiece.

Clint's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. He didn't want to throw the gauntlet. It was the most precious thing on the battlefield. He couldn't just toss it like a rugby ball. "What? No! Are you crazy?" He yelled, keeping it tucked under his arm as he continued to sprint. He'd been running with the gauntlet for so, so long. Completely and utterly exhausted, but he refused to let go. He couldn't. So he just had to continue running blindly and pray that he was going in the right direction.

Clint quickly turned his head to the side to check if y/n was actually nearby. If he could pass it, he would, but there was no way in hell that he was going to throw it. The confusion and shock in his eyes just seemed to grow when he noticed that y/n wasn't anywhere near him. He couldn't even see her. "How can you ask me to throw this thing when I can't even see you?" Clint asked in frustration, starting to sound like a scolding father.

"Trust me!"

"Yeah, trust him!" Sam chimed in.

Clint let out an annoyed sigh as he continued to run. "Sam, I'm not playing into your stupid games. This is serious!" He snapped, using some of Thanos' army as stepping stools as he hopped over them. The aliens were becoming more and more aggressive. They clawed, sliced, and scratched, some of them even grabbing at his ankles to try and trip him up, and it was starting to work. He'd become distracted by y/n and Sam talking in his ear, meaning that the aliens were able to land more and more hits to slow him down. "Y/n-"

"Throw it!" Y/n and Sam called out in unison.

So he did. Just as an alien grabbed his ankle and begun to yank him to the ground, Clint threw the gauntlet. He closed his eyes, too doubtful to even watch what was about to go down.

It felt as if everything went in slow motion. The gauntlet soared through the air, flipping and spinning as the stones sparkled in the dim light. Thanos' army all jumped at the same time, desperate to rip it from the sky. It was just out of their reach, but not for long. What goes up always has to come down, and that was exactly what was happening to the gauntlet. With every second that passed, it inched closer and closer into reach, which even made Sam hold his breath in fear.

But, y/n appeared just in time.

He had managed to teleport in mid-air, tackling the gauntlet out of the sky before he disappeared again.

Y/n reappeared in one of the few clear spots on the battlefield, crashing to the ground hard. Teleporting mid-air was never as graceful as it was in the movies. The power of his jump had been tripled, so the crash to the ground wasn't pleasant. He cursed under his breath, keeping the gauntlet tucked under one arm as he tried to gain some sort of bearing on his surroundings.

"Why do you always leave everything to the last second? I thought you weren't going to make it!" Sam laughed, watching y/n from the sky.

Y/n shrugged, continuing to glance around until he spotted Scott's van in the distance. The aliens were making a beeline toward him, screeching and screaming to get the attention of other members in Thanos' army. He should've been scared, or at least a little nervous, but he wasn't. Y/n was excited. Buzzing with adrenaline and trying his hardest to mask a smile on his face. It was a challenge. Fun and games for his final mission, and there was no way he was going to let Sam beat him. "Fashionably late!" Y/n responded, braking out into a full-on sprint in the direction of Scott's van.

*****

Adrenaline and the determination to beat Sam was the only thing keeping y/n going. If he wasn't such a stubborn person when it came to winning challenges, he would still be in Bucky's arms. Hell, he would've been aware of how much pain he was in. Y/n had sustained so many injuries over the past day, from self-inflicted bruises by attacking the man in the suit, Steve almost choking him out after he tried to kill Tony, his temporary blindness after the bright flash of the snap, the explosion that knocked him out for god-knows-how-long, and his one-on-one fight with Thanos. Y/n's body had been put through the wringer.

What he really needed was urgent medical attention, a hot bath, and rest. But there he was, sprinting through a bloody battlefield with the same look in his eyes as a child playing tag on a playground.

It was just a game. That was what he had convinced himself to believe. A game of cat and mouse. Capture the flag. Tag. Anything. Anything but reality.

Twenty seconds felt like twenty years. There was a lot of focus involved when it came to running and not getting touched by any of the aliens surrounding him. Even a tiny poke would result in y/n losing the challenge, and there was no way he was going to let that happen. He jumped, teleported, blasted, and even webbed his way through the crowd. A complete mixture of power that led to him spending more time in the air than on the ground. It was pretty fun, actually. The feeling of weightlessness was always something he enjoyed, but contorting his body into different positions mid-air so the aliens couldn't grab at his ankles wasn't very entertaining. He'd spent five years on a farm. Maintaining flexibility hadn't really been on the to-do list.

"Sam! It must've been twenty seconds by now!" Y/n yelled, using Peter's webs to swing across a sea of Thanos' army. His arm was aching from how tightly he was holding the gauntlet - well, it was either that or his shoulder had dislocated again, but he prayed that it was the first option. "Sam!" He called out again, cursing pretty heavily at the aliens when one of them tried to swipe at his leg.

"Yeah?" Sam responded, the sound of explosions in the background being pretty prominent. "Oh! Yeah it's been like... fifty seconds-" He paused, eyes widening at the string of curse words that y/n threw at him. "I'm sorry! I'm a bit occupied, y'know? I can't just hover over you, I've got to fight these damn things!"

"Sam you asshole!" Y/n yelled, but he couldn't help but laugh a little at the chaos of it all. "How're you going to set me a challenge, and then not even time me?" He huffed, continuing to sprint with the gauntlet. "Hey, at least I beat y-"

Smack.

Y/n didn't know what happened, or what hit him, but he was sent flying across the debris-filled wasteland. He tumbled and rolled before finally coming to a stop, completely curled around the gauntlet in a desperate attempt to protect it at all costs. Something had smacked him around the head, and it hurt, a lot. God, everything seemed to be hitting him in the head, it wasn't fun.

He slowly lifted one hand up to the side of his face, hissing in pain as his suspicions were confirmed. A nice, huge, bleeding gash down the side of his face. Cute. Everything was spinning and distorted, there was no way he'd be able to stand up and keep running, he was far too disoriented. A fireball formed in y/n's palm as he heard the sound of aliens nearing closer and closer. He could defend himself until backup came. Easy. "Sam-"

"Hey! Give it to me! Give it to me!" A familiar voice suddenly called out, causing y/n to lift his head up. It was Peter. He was stood right in front of him, holding his hands out to take the gauntlet. "Quick!" Peter exclaimed, hopping from foot to foot out of excitement and adrenaline. This was his first huge fight, and he was loving it.

If it wasn't for the fact that aliens were drawing closer and closer, y/n would've pulled Peter into a hug and had a proper reunion, but there wasn't time. A relieved smile simply appeared on his face as he passed the gauntlet over, staying on the ground as he tried to let his body recover. "Be careful, okay?" He said seriously, watching as Peter secured it tightly under his arm, just like y/n did.

"I'm always careful!" He called out, using his webs to swing away from y/n and make a beeline for the van. There was still so much distance to cover, but he was hoping he could cover at least a good chunk of it.