Kingdom Come • Avengers Soulmate AU

real life | conference

5 NOVEMBER 2016

cartia king stared at herself in the mirror, feeling nervous about the day ahead. she would be making her first 'official' appearance with her soulmates and they would answer the press' questions. she and the other have already discussed that she'll only answer questions whenever she's asked, seeing as she wasn't 100% comfortable with these kinds of situations. she trusted her boyfriends and girlfriends more than anyone before, she knew they'd be able to tell when was best for her to answer. she didn't want to seem too shy and un-wanting to answer, but didn't want to talk too much and say something stupid.

she looked around the bathroom, making sure she put everything away before leaving it. she smiled at clint, who was waiting on the bed. he stood, walking over to her and cupping her cheek gently in his hand.

"why do you look so worried?" he asked, rubbing her cheek.

"because i am worried, clint." she laughed lightly. "what if i say something stupid, or people laugh at me?"

"what happened to that confident young girl we know? you have nothing to be worried about, princess. now come on, let's head downstairs, okay?"

"okay." she was pulled towards her boyfriend's face, their lips meeting in the middle. clint's lips caressed cartia's, before they pulled away. he held out his hand and she grabbed onto it, letting him pull her out the door and to the elevator.

"to the conference room, please friday."

"of course, mr. barton." the ai's voice came over the speaker. clint's hand moved from hers onto her lower back, slowly rubbing circles on her skin.

the doors opened, and cartia was met with the loving glances of the team. they were scattered over the room, but looked at the elevator when they heard it arrive.

"i hate to rush into this, but it's best if we get this over and done with, okay baby?" tony asks her. she nods her head, leaning into clint's side as she heard the sounds of all the voices inside the room.

"let's go." she said.

when inside, she sat between peter and steve, letting everyone settle down before she relaxed. she looked at her parents at the side of the room and smiled when she saw the encouraging looks they sent her way. she heard steve clear his throat before he and tony began talking.

"thank you all for coming." steve started. "we called for this conference to discuss future plans and to answer any questions you may have."

"the time between now and new years are still not set in stone right now, but we have many plans for 2017, some of which we'll be discussing briefly today." tony announces. "please raise your hands and we will choose people one at a time."

"first and foremost, what do we call you now that you have a new soulmate who isn't an avenger?"

"this was actually pretty difficult for us to think of." nat answered. "cartia is just as important to us as the rest, and while we haven't known her for nearly as long, we love her just the same too. obviously, the avenger's 11 was the easiest way for people to identify us without pietro, so we will continue to be called that in that perspective. however, if you're naming us as a soulmate group, we actually think avenger's 12 would be just fine."