Kingdom Come • Avengers Soulmate AU

real life | idiots

cartia king wiped her mouth clean of crumbs and icing. she'd grabbed the first thing she saw in the kitchen and moved to the living room to eat it as she lost the battle with loki. she invested herself in one single cupcake to avoid the gazes of her soulmate's playful glances. her head was kept down to try and prevent them from seeing the blush on her cheeks at the thought of knowing what she was thinking about them.

"have you had breakfast?" steve asked as he walked into the living room.

"i'm eating it right now."

"that's a cupcake, not breakfast." he retorted.

"it's the first thing i've eaten in the morning, therefore it's breakfast." she shot back.

"well, it's not a healthy one." bucky said as he walked past, plucking it out of her hands and taking a bite instead.

"oh, so it's okay for you to eat it?" she jokes.

"we woke up before you, we've had cereal." tony joins.

"well it's not my problem you didn't wake me up."

"we tried!" tony laughed. "you were dead to the world. peter too, that's why he's only just getting started on his breakfast."

"i got waffles." peter grins, holding up a piece of it on his fork.

"congratulations." sam deadpanned.

"are you guys always like this?" cartia asked.

"like what?"

"you pretend to not like each other sometimes."

"they're just playing." natasha remarks. "they all love each other deep down, but 11 sarcastic people in a relationship with each other? recipe for disaster. you get used to it, though."

"it's a miracle i haven't stabbed anyone yet, if i didn't like them as much as i did, they wouldn't be as fortunate." loki jokes as he sits on one of the couches next to bucky, who wraps an arm around him.

"i finished my waffle." peter announced, strolling into the room. cartia jumps up and runs towards him, grabbing the small piece he had left in his hand, shoving it in her mouth before pulling him back to the couch and sitting directly next to him. "you're lucky you're cute." he joked, pulling her against him.

"i know." she laid her head down in his lap, not noticing how he gave her an adoring grin, or how everyone else in the room was watching their exchange with smiles on their faces also. the youngest soulmate had settled right in after just 17 hours together, and they still had that day and the sunday.

when they had been at the beach yesterday, molly had called cartia and told her how she thought it would be good for her to spend the weekend with her new-found soulmates as her other kids had with theirs - emily was at their house for that weekend, too. she had spent last night there and would spend the next two as well before heading home sometime on monday.

cartia grabbed peter's hand and held it in front of her face, playing with his fingers. he watched her with an amused smile before bringing her hand up to his face and kissing her knuckles softly, making her blush at the affection.