Harry woke with a start, heaving out a gasp as he jolted up in bed.
Nightmares were nothing new to him, and frankly not having to deal with visions from Voldemort was a luxury. But he'd been getting better recently. His primary recurring nightmare since arriving in this world had been the fates of his friends at Hogwarts. He'd never know what happened to them, if Voldemort had killed them all, but his brain was adept at conjuring all of the worst possibilities. Since fighting Zola, however, a new nightmare took peak position in his mind. Natasha falling, falling, falling- a look of absolute peace on her face as she met her death.
One difference now was that he never woke up alone. Beside him, Nat- by far the lightest sleeper of them – stirred. "Same dream?" She murmured. Harry nodded into her neck. The bed shifted as she rolled on top of him. "I'm here."
"I know." He said, encircling his arms around her. She was real, here, alive.
But for how much longer? The visions the Mind Stone had given him weren't just meaningless noise, they had to mean something... right? If not a prediction or a prophecy, it was at least a warning? Or so he supposed- he didn't know, and neither had anyone else. The workings of the Infinity Stones were a mystery.
Nat, however, had techniques to draw him out of his moods. He couldn't see much of anything, but oh could he feel her. Her body on top of his- both the strength and softness, hard muscle and supple curves- was grounding, and set certain parts of him on another track entirely. Neither of them were wearing a scrap of clothing, and it was obvious.
She kissed him quickly on the lips, before peppering his jaw. He could feel the curve of her smile against his skin and hear her pleased giggle as his erection stirred against her thigh. He didn't know what to do with his hands, and they roamed across the column of her body- the firmness of her shoulders, the smooth contours of her back, the curve of her hips and arse. Nat acted with much more purpose, latching onto his pulse point with her mouth and nibbling in a way that drew a soft moan from him. "Mmff. Fuck. Nat."
Though it was too dark to see, he could just imagine the look on her face- her cocky grin, eyes lit up in amusement and desire. He wanted to see it so badly… so he did. In his hand he created a ball of light, and he sent it up into the air to cast its dim illumination across the room. Beside him, Skye groaned faintly, squeezing her eyes shut in an attempt to return to sleep.
And Nat lived up to his imagination and more. It didn't matter that she was ruffled and groggy from sleep, she looked every bit as alluring as he'd imagined. She propped herself up on his chest and leaned back to give him a full view. Harry moaned again as they ground against each other, her slit dragging along his shaft. The warmth and slickness of her core had him arching his hips up thoughtlessly, and Natasha gave a pleased chuckle. "Such an eager boy." She teased "I thought we tired you out."
They had. Harry didn't know how he kept up with the three women and their desires. They had put him through his paces that evening. They'd fucked until all four of them were dazed and spent. Yet somehow, Harry's body always found the reserves to head the call. "I guess we need to be more thorough next time."
"Th-at's not necessary." Harry gasped "You don't- Oh!" With one smooth motion, Nat sheathed him within her. It didn't matter that sex had become a common occurrence for him, or that he'd fucked and been fucked into a stupor just hour before. He'd never get used to that sensation of entering, of penetrating, of having his cock wrapped up inside a woman. For a moment it was as if he'd been transported all the way back to their first time, when he'd been lost and woefully inexperienced, and she was nothing more than a beautiful stranger to him. His hips stuttered upwards to meet hers as he moaned, consumed by the sensation of her around his cock.
"Fuck." Nat breathed. It was understated, but Harry would read every crack in her controlled façade. He knew how much she loved this. "Moan for me, babe." She said, her voice rough "I want to hear it. How good you feel."
She began to piston her hips, and Harry realized what she was doing. Every movement, every thrust, grind, and squeeze was carefully calibrated. She was using her cunt as a tool to pleasure him, wielding her body with the same skill and precision as she did a gun. This realization hit him like the Hogwarts Express "Merlin."
Nat giggled again, always finding language he picked up from the wizarding world to be adorable. Then, with a devilish smirk, she pumped her hips down on him three times rapid. A moan bubbled from him as he went to grip the sheets, but of course one of his hands only found Skye. He grabbed her rather more roughly than he normally would have, and as he had been groping blind, he only got her shoulder. Nevertheless, it awoke Skye, who murmured groggily "Yes, daddy?"
Merlin. Even with Natasha riding him that short circuited his attention. Apparently, Nat agreed because she stuttered to a halt, and Harry just knew she was arching an eyebrow at Skye. It was clear that said woman was turning her, even in Harry's dim spell-light. "Uhhh" Harry could tell that Skye was fumbling for an explanation- she was tired, she'd just been dreaming- but was coming up with nothing she found convincing "You know what, I'm just going to own that."
Nat shrugged "Fair enough." It wasn't quite so simple for Harry, though only because he was filing that tidbit of information away for the next time they had sex. Awakening Skye had consequences. Once stirred she wasn't about to just watch. The only question was who her target would be. Natasha paid her no mind, preferring instead to continue to fuck Harry's nightmares away. That was her undoing, as Skye found her single minded focus- and the prospect of disrupting it- too enticing to resist.
Harry was well on the way to completely losing himself in Natasha's femininity when she suddenly stilled, a hitching gasp on her lips. Skye had come up behind her and wound her arm around her waist. The source of Nat's gasp was the finger Skye had placed on her clit, the finger that she was currently vibrating. "Not… fair." Nat hissed, fists clenched against her thighs, her muscles clenching, nearly twitching in the effort to reign herself in. "Ganging up on me…" It was all for nothing because Skye was nothing if not persistent. With a victorious grin she suckled at the hollow of her ear. "Uh." Nat moaned softly.
Harry, feeling a bit competitive, took advantage of Nat's distraction and thrust upwards into her sharply. He followed that with a deep grinding motion that he knew she loved, and Nat's eyes rolled back. "F-uuck!"
Harry and Skye shared pleased looks and began working in tandem. Harry sat himself up, shifting Nat into his lap while Skye began to circle her clit. Harry began to thrust against Nat while Skye whispered dirty talk in her ear. And Skye certainly had a way with dirty talk, an ability beyond any of them. "Couldn't keep your hands off him for four hours, could you Nat?" She teased "And you call me the needy one. You just couldn't wait to get stuffed with cock, could you? Couldn't wait until morning to get filled with cum."
Natasha tried to huff out a laugh, but it was overwritten by a moan, which was only the first in a series as she fully lost herself between them. Between the two of them, Nat had completely lost it, and she'd given in to the prospect of being ravaged by them. She began to melt between them, letting them have their way with her.
When Harry finally spent himself inside her, she was beyond ready to tip over the edge with him, and the euphoric way he called her name, along with the feel of him pulsing inside of her was the final nudge she needed.
It was during that pleasant post-orgasm haze that Harry realized that something- or someone- was missing. He cast his legimancy out and found that Wanda was on the roof, though he couldn't get a good read on her emotional state. Skye whined as he got out of bed, but his assurance that he was just checking on Wanda satisfied her.
Harry could have just apparated to her side, but the process of making his way through the building and up the stairwell would give Wanda time to collect herself. The Avengers compound in upstate New York was far more spacious that Avengers Tower had ever been (to say nothing of their cramped emergency headquarters in D.C. after Hydra's initial attack). Another bonus was that they had a much better view of the stars. Harry had realized he'd taken the perfect night sky at Hogwarts for granted, let alone being able to see that view in the ceiling of the dining hall. So he could see why Wanda would go up to there to unwind. It was… peaceful.
"Same nightmare as always?" He asked her.
Wanda just nodded.
"You could have woken us, you know." Harry told her "We all want to be there for you."
"I know… I just needed to be alone. To think." Wanda said. "Of all of us, I should understand the mind stone best. My powers come from it, after all." She lifted up the locket, made of vibranium and containing the mind stone within. Due to Wanda's connection to it, the team had decided she was the best to hold it- much as Stephen Strange guarded the Time Stone. But Harry wondered if that responsibility weighed too heavily on her.
"I feel like you're putting too much on yourself."
"Pot, meet kettle." Wanda snorted.
Harry rolled his eyes good-naturedly "Yeah, yeah, but it's still true. You can't do everything alone, as you guys have repeatedly tried to drill into my head."
Wanda gave a ghost of a chuckle, but her expression sobered quickly. "I see you, now." She said suddenly.
"In your dream?"
"I don't know who Vision was, but I could feel how 'I' felt. I loved him. I guess it makes sense my brain would put you in his place."
"Oh, Wanda." Harry brought her close.
The words come out in a rush "You die and it's my fault. I give you up and it ends up meaning nothing. And I have to live with the fact that I sacrificed you for some greater good that never showed up. And.. and.." She sobbed, and let Harry bring her against his chest.
"Just because the mind stone showed it to us, doesn't mean its destined to happen." Harry said, but it rang hollow. It was the very question that Harry was grappling with, the same questions that had tormented him after learning of the prophecy when he was fifteen. Some people took comfort in there being some grand plan, but to Harry the possibility felt like a cage. He wanted to rip open the bars and let them all live their lives without the specter of some future foretold. He just wanted to live.
That was without considering the other thing. What Stephen had told him, about the instability of this world, of what his presence here meant… it haunted him. Worst, there was nothing Harry could do about it. All he could do was obsess and worry. It wasn't healthy, his mind was being its own worst enemy.
But it wasn't like he could just stop dreading the destruction of everything he knew and loved. He had told the team, of course, and while they'd treated the danger with all the seriousness it deserved, Harry couldn't help but feel that it was somehow more abstract to them. For Harry, it was visceral, it was his life that was tangled up in this web.
All those worries and more passed between them as they hugged, no words were necessary. Yet sometimes saying something aloud felt better than leaving it unsaid.
"The worst part." Wanda said, hoarse "Was me." Harry waited patiently for her to unspool her thoughts "I could feel how I felt in that vision, and… something was wrong. I was different. I was evil."
"Don't say that." Harry murmured "You aren't evil, you're not even close."
"But wasn't I?" Wanda said "Didn't I work for Hydra? And apparently, I went back to my old ways." Her voice was bitter, and that bitterness was directed towards herself.
"Please don't blame yourself for something you haven't even done." Harry kissed the top of her head "Don't do that to yourself, you deserve better." When Wanda started to object, he overrode her "You do. You've saved people, you've done so much good. You're strong, and kind, and passionate, and full of love. If some version of you went dark again, I can only imagine it was because she was suffering and didn't know another way out." He paused "But that's still not you. You aren't hypothetical future Wanda. You only have control over who you are now. And who you are now is pretty spectacular."
-----
Jane initially hadn't known how to even parse Tony Stark's offer. The position was titled 'Chief Astrophysicist', but the job description had been remarkably vague. It had only been when she talked to Pepper Potts that the details of the offer had taken shape for her- an almost unlimited budget, a full team of people with her at the head, license to work with the cutting edge and alien technology to probe the secrets of the universe. No more suffering through grant applications, no more having to rope in interns.
It had really been a no-brainer. The fact that the position brought her closer, physically, to Thor had been a bonus. She was, admittedly, a workaholic and Thor was often away- either with the Avengers or off-world.
It had begun to put a strain on their relationship.
Now there was an entire wing of the Avengers facility dedicated to science and research. Hers wasn't close to the only team, of course, but the resources available to her were astronomical. The Avengers were funded largely by Stark's fortune (which was only expanding due the energy revolution initiated by the Arc Reactor) along with contributions from various government and NGOs. They had telescopes, satellites, supercomputers… everything an astrophysicist could want.
And so, Jane was a little peeved that the first crisis her team discovered had nothing to do with any of that. No, it was much closer to home. It started as a slight anomaly in solar output- a minor spike. That escalated into what appeared to be a coronal mass ejection, but something was off. As much as she tried to convince herself it was nothing, little things started adding u. The trajectory was wrong, and the rate of acceleration was far too quick, and then there was the fact that it almost seemed to be steering towards Earth.
Uhhh….
That was why she was meeting with Tony and Bruce. They had by far the most technical and scientific experience of the Avengers team, and they were her contacts (aside, of course from Thor) "How bad are we talking, like the Carrington Event?" Tony asked her.
"Tony, I don't really know how to say this, but I think something's… wrong with this."
"What do you mean?" Bruce asked "Beyond the obvious that its bad that we could have an electromagnetic storm take out all our satellite infrastructure… and computer networks… and much of our technology in general."
"Its not acting like a natural event. It emerged from the sun at an angle slightly off from the Earth's position, at the direction the Earth had been about a week ago, and it shifted course, not just to aim at Earth, but to plot an intercept ahead of our current position. There is no normal, natural explanation for this, its acting like… like…"
"A predator." Bruce finished. "We're being hunted."
"Shit." Tony said, but without any intensity. He was still processing. "You said it aimed for Earth's position a week ago?" Jane nodded "Was it more like 8 days ago?" She nodded again. "Shit." This time there was more feeling behind the word.
"We attacked the Hydra facility 8 days ago."
"Madame Hydra activated the mind stone and blasted out a signal that Wanda could detect. Our sensors too." Tony said "…who's to say she was the only one?"