𝐆𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐃𝐀𝐘𝐒 | ❝At the end of the day, when we look back at this trainwreck, even I'll have to admit that these are the glory days.❞
In which I write a bunch of one-shots for my stories set in my Marvel series: Glory Days. Or, alternatively...
synopsis. In which the flu sweeps the Avengers off their feet, and Riley O'Dair has to play nurse for the week.
timeline. Pre-Age of Ultron
○ ○ ○
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
EARTH—TINY, VULNERABLE EARTH—had endured its fair share of unadulterated terror in recent years. It was not long ago now—though it certainly felt longer—when Earth became acutely aware of the foreign threats lurking in the cold corners of the greater universe. Bloodthirsty aliens. Gods once thought to be fictitious. Shapeshifting creatures that could slip into your mind and soul. From the day these threats became eminent, it became the Avengers the people looked to in times of great strife and lament. Even when lost in the darkness, there were the Avengers, shining bright.
The Avengers were thought to be resilient, indestructible. There was no evil they couldn't smite if they just shut the hell up and listened to each other from time to time. Nothing, not aliens, not even gods, could decimate them. Or so Riley O'Dair naïvely believed.
Then, this year's flu season came around.
"Sneeze again, Tony Stark, and you'll be reuniting with your parents real soon—!"
"Achoo!" Tony blew obnoxiously loudly—and to 14-year-old Riley's horror, snottily—into his tissue.
Riley's eye twitched. Her surgical mask inflated as she groaned. "Why are you even here?" Riley demanded.
She extended an arm toward the circle of Avengers, all cooped up in Avengers Tower, red-nosed, bleary-eyed, vomiting from every orifice they owned, whining like toddlers. She'd seen each of them battered, bleeding, thrown off skyscrapers, blasted by grenades—all to be knocked down by the flu. The goddamn flu.
It didn't help that they were in the midst of a very important mission before this—searching for Loki's scepter, which had been stolen by HYDRA during the infamous S.H.I.E.L.D. infiltration last year. Riley was already pissed at everyone for losing sight of the damn thing, even more irritated that HYDRA, of all bad guys, had it, and now, she had to pause her life to take care of her teammates. Not because she wanted to. But as much as she refused to admit it, they were her only friends, and she basically lived at Avengers Tower anyway.
"The others, I get," Riley continued, gesturing to each team member as she spoke. "Steve's broke, no one wants Bruce in their neighborhoods, Nat likes to watch me suffer, Clint goes where Nat goes, and Thor's basically a pet."
