𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐢 ᶻ𝘇 𐰁

It only took him a day after the interview to accept Ellie’s application. A week has passed, and she’s already an excellent asset to Stark Industries. She almost seems familiar with some of the older provided equipment, and her programming skills are unmatched for people her age. Every time she looks at him, though, she almost looks… wistful. And he can’t hold a conversation with her for more than two minutes. It’s like she’s deliberately avoiding him.

He doesn’t get it.

Something about her is so weird, but he can’t put his finger on it. Williams has this unnerving energy to her, it feels like he’s missing something bigger than the both of them. Come to think of it, every time he does manage to talk to her, he gets all lightheaded and his head hurts. Sometimes, it even happens when he simply thinks about her too much. Like right now. His head is killing him.

After tossing and turning beneath the dim lighting of his too-large bedroom, Happy gets out of bed, groggy and a little unbalanced, and steps out to get a glass of water from the kitchen. Tylenol will do the trick.

He pads down the stairs and finds himself at the cabinet, grabbing the nearest cup. Twisting the tap, Happy watches as the clear cylinder fills.

Ellie… What about you feels so profound…?

“Damn—” Happy gasps and his eyes shut tightly, seemingly unprompted. His cup drops with a loud shatter as the shards and water litter the floor. Paying no mind to that, his hands fly to his forehead, yelling out in pain and slamming his back against the countertop. It’s like an imaginary anvil just banged itself right against the back of his head.

The world spins. Flashes of color blind him. The throbbing pain won’t stop. His feet feel unsteady on the marble floor. Is the floor still even there? It feels like he’s traveling to a different dimension. It’s hard to differentiate between what is real and what isn’t.

Before he knows it, he’s collapsed on the ground, knees now aching from the force of his fall. 

In one moment, Happy goes from facing paroxysmal, searing pain, to nothing at all, no trace to prove he even felt it in the first place. Even his headache that brought him down here is completely gone.

His first reaction is to look around, turning his head back and forth because he doesn’t know what to do other than look for the source of the pain that terrorized him merely a second ago.

Obviously, he doesn’t find anything. Taking a deep, slow breath to recollect his thoughts, Happy starts to piece things together.

Ellie… Ellie Williams… Oh, Ellie…

Ellie is Spider-Woman. She was the one at Tess’ funeral. She was the old intern. She was Stark’s apprentice. The kid from Queens. She stole Cap’s shield that one time!

Hold on… How the fuck did Happy manage to forget all that? Is that why she seemed so sad whenever she looked at him? Does she know something he doesn’t? If she does, why wouldn’t she say anything?

Quickly, he moves from confusion, to recognition, to sadness, to anger.

None of this makes sense to him. How did he just omit Ellie as a whole? Did he get amnesia? No… When you’re involved with the Avengers, it’s never ‘just’ a medical condition.

He doesn’t get it just yet, but he knows something happened. And he knows Ellie fucking knows.

Between the library’s nonfiction and science isles resides a certain redhead on the couch, skimming through the third academic textbook she found related to quantum physics. She’s been secretly trying to enhance her makeshift web fluid now that she finally has access to old Stark tech. Ellie’s been on a spree, trying her hardest to find optimal conditions for the web fluid to have that elastic sweet spot but still be durable enough to stop an accelerating military aircraft

It’s late at night, only the occasional flipping of pages or deep sighs being heard by late night crammers. The atmosphere feels still, frozen in one moment. If Ellie were to look at the clock, she wouldn’t be surprised if she saw the hands frozen in their spots.

Beside the textbooks, Ellie keeps her notebook flipped to the last couple of pages, filled with all the notes she gathered that she thinks could help. It’s hidden in plain sight. Nobody would expect her to keep a web fluid recipe on the back of her statistics notebook.

She does check the time for real now. It catches her off guard to see that the clock reads midnight. Has she really been here that long?

She grabs the last textbook she found and approaches the librarian to rent it. She returns to the other two afterwards to return them to their shelves, because she’s just helpful like that.

Tomorrow’s her first class in Statistics and Data Analysis. It’s a general requirement in ESU for students who are still in their foundation year. Astrophysics has a little bit of everything, so she isn’t surprised that she can’t drop this subject. Also, she doesn’t want to risk skipping classes unnecessarily. Attendance actually matters in college, and lessons start to pile up way too quickly.

Ellie’s eyes dart around the massive hall as the people rush through it. She can barely hear her own thoughts over the noise of fellow students passing by to reach their first classes of the day. ESU is notorious for its large and gifted community, there’s no doubt.

Adjusting her grip on her busted up backpack’s strap, she squeezes between other students in her trek to Dr. Frazier’s class: Statistics and Data Analysis. It takes her a second to find it, but she gets there.

She didn’t know what to expect when she walked in, but she sure as shit didn’t expect this.

You, Jesse, and Dina. All three of her friends-turned-strangers.

Nope, she thinks. Not today.

After the hell she’s been through lately, especially with Happy so close to her all the time in her internship, Ellie doesn’t have enough willpower left in her to face you and her old friends. She pivots in her place and walks straight back to the large oak door. However, the moment she reaches for the doorknob, she gets pushed back by the entrance of another. It’s Dr. Frazier, standing tall and confident in that tired-and-wise-old-man way. Ellie takes a half-step back, nearly stumbling as she tries to make room for her professor to fully enter.

With a casual air, Dr. Frazier smiles without teeth as he looks down at the girl in front of him. “Hi. You’re in my class, I assume?”

A small nod is an adequate answer in Ellie’s book, so she uses that to spare herself the embarrassment of spewing incoherent bullshit in a flustered flurry. She scurries off to a seat at the back, far away from you and the others while hopefully remaining unnoticed by Frazier.

The first half of the class passes smoothly. Dr. Frazier introduces himself and expands on what he has planned for the syllabus this semester. The course doesn’t seem tedious, but it seems like this guy’s a fan of group work. He decides to separate the class into groups of four, but since Ellie's a bit farther from others, and Frazier had previously noticed you, Dina, and Jesse being a close trio, he decides to move Ellie from the other side of the class.

You recognize her from the coffee shop. She came in that one time, acted all weird, and never visited again.

The walk feels like some kind of humiliation parade to Ellie. She can feel three pairs of eyes tracking each step she makes towards your table. She almost forgets to swing her hands while walking in fear of looking like a dork trying to act cool.

To her, the most ideal seat is the one next to Jesse, where Dina is parallel to her and you are the farthest. She doesn’t lift her gaze, doesn’t even say ‘hi’ or nod in acknowledgement.

Even then, Dina is still Dina. She taps the edge of Ellie’s table, offering one of her signature bright smiles. “Hey, there. I’m Dina.”

All Ellie can do to reply is kiss her teeth and nod once. She loves nodding. She manages to mutter a quick “Ellie,” just so she doesn’t sound too cold.

Now, Dina may be outgoing, but she isn’t clueless. She senses the lack of enthusiasm from Ellie’s end and leans back in her chair to pay attention to the instructions for the group activity.

Jesse exchanges a look with you, very subtly tilting his head towards Ellie from behind her. She’s weirdly tense, and you three don’t even know her yet. You shrug, wanting to give the new girl the benefit of the doubt.

Dr. Frazier, thankfully, isn’t evil. He chooses a pretty forgiving ice breaker, which is to simply tell your group about yourself. Each group can build conversations based on that, or simply stay quiet after a brief preface. Sharing with him and other groups is also encouraged.

Ellie starts first, wanting to get this over with before she’s forced to say much more.

“Uhm, like I said, my name’s Ellie, and I’m originally from Wyoming,” she mutters, briefly allowing her eyes to dance over the three of you.

You tell her your name and where you’re from as well, matching Ellie’s sentence structure.

“Dina, Jesse, and I met in high school, but it’s great to see a new face,” you chirp, hands on your knees as you hardly lean forward, trying to make Ellie engage a little more. She doesn’t give any of you much to work with, merely nodding for the millionth time today in curt return.

Jesse sparks a conversation between the three of you, leaving Ellie out since she’s clearly uninterested. He brings up how Flash somehow got into ESU as well.

Hearing that, Ellie gives a little smirk at the thought. Flash? In ESU? Maybe she’ll cross paths with him. It’d be a funny encounter. He’d probably still try to start shit with her, so she’s not too sad about him not remembering.

You steer the topic into each of your careers, talking about what you’re all most excited about and stuff like that. You made a pact to make this year as fun as humanly possible without getting anything below a 4.0 GPA. Ambitious, but achievable with the right mindset.

Ellie surmises that you and Dina are both in pre-med, while Jesse is in his preparatory year for electrical engineering. You always talked about wanting to be a doctor, and so did Jesse with engineering. Dina was being super indecisive when applications came around, so it seems like she chose to go along with you.

Slowly, Ellie starts to pluck up the courage to chat as well. She gathers what she can from the talk you three are having and gradually thinks of things to add. Such a technical approach sounds silly, but winging it sounds like the most terrifying thing in the world to her at this moment.

Just as Ellie opens her mouth to say something, numerous phones buzz and ding. She tries to pay no mind, but you beat her to it.

“Shit—the central bank’s being robbed,” you speak, eyebrows furrowed as you check the breaking news report.

Ellie’s muscles lock up, but her instincts don’t let her stall for long. She’s on her feet before she realizes it, grabbing her bag and practically sprinting out of the door with an inaudible request to use the bathroom.

Dr. Frazier doesn’t even try to say she can go. A dust trail is already in her place.

Dina blinks once when she turns back towards where Ellie should be, processing too late that she’s already gone. She grumbles, mildly annoyed by Ellie’s entire demeanor. “Uh… okay?”

All of you go silent for a minute. You break it, looking down and appearing a little disappointed. “Maybe she had an emergency..”

Jesse shrugs, nudging your elbow. “Don’t think too much about it. She’ll probably warm up sooner or later. Seems like the shy type.”

You lift your head once again and accept Jesse’s words, even though a part of you feels more hurt about this than you likely should be.

Leaning against her usual alleyway’s wall, Ellie yanks her suit up repeatedly in a rush to get her leg through it, a string of expletives leaving her lips as she wonders why she chose to use spandex.

“—cotton would’ve done—just fine!” She chokes out, finally pulling her suit on all the way. She slides her mask down her face and shoots a web upwards, swinging to the source of commotion.

A group of thugs guard the bank’s entrance, ensuring that nobody enters or exits.

Cute.

Ellie doesn’t even need to reveal herself, she latches onto the top of the building they’re standing in front of, smoothly immobilizing them one by one without alerting others. Soon enough, they’re all dangling in each of their own infamous web cocoons.

After that, she waltzes into the bank through the main entrance. One of the thugs immediately spots her, promptly aiming a machine gun at her head. She puts her hands up, still taking a couple steps closer.

“Hey, you guys know where the bank teller is? I got a deposit I wanna make.” She explains with a masked smirk.

“You think you’re funny?” Another thug approaches, eyes narrowed beneath his balaclava as he speaks in a thick, unfamiliar accent. A black crewneck covers his torso, a sliver of ink peaking out of his sleeves on both hands. His face seems big, and one eye has a milky, almost pearlescent film over the iris in pupil. He lifts his own gun to aim at Spider-Woman.

“Yeah,” she answers with a soft chuckle, lowering her hands as she feigns letting her guard down. Before any of the people in front of her make a move, she shoots a web at the guy who just spoke. He seems like the leader, so it might be best to finish him off first.

It takes a lot of back and forth before Spider-Woman finally manages to corner this guy. He’s large and bulky, veins bulging out even from under the fabric he’s wearing. It’s unsettling, to say the least, how artificially strong he seems. She hasn’t seen anything like it since the Avengers were still around.

He is admittedly pretty strong, capable of roughing her up with the slightly older equipment she has access to now. She also gets whiplash from catapulting herself with a web a little too aggressively. If she had the tech before the mass amnesia spell, she would’ve been finished with this ages ago.

She leaps onto his abnormally wide back and wraps her arms around his neck in a headlock. His muscly arms flail around as he tries ramming the spider into a wall, and she almost loses her grip.

Mouth turning blue, his resistance decreases, and his movements lose momentum. Spidey uses that window to yank him backwards with the force of her body.

She swerves just in time to slam the man’s ribcage into one of the teller stations, earning a choked gasp from him as she shoves him away, pushing him against the station once again.

Webhead brawls the rest of them singlehandedly, nearly overexerting herself since the police still haven’t shown up.

Everything passes. Most of the criminals are out cold on the marble floors. Ellie walks through the rubble, examining the scene when the cops finally arrive, cuffing and taking the thugs into custody. She comes across the ringleader’s body, still laying on the ground. His breathing is shallow.

Upon closer inspection, she notices an odd tattoo on his neck. It was an ornate crown, embellished with gems and sparkles. Under it was a set of roman numerals she didn’t pay much attention to. Before she can think too much about it, a policeman approaches her to discuss the technicalities and details of the incident.

This is Ellie’s least favorite part. Who would want to listen to an old guy droning on about laws? Then she has to deal with naming the offenses? She’s a superhero, not a judge.

She eventually sneaks past them and slips away, heading back to her favorite alleyway.

Ellie lands on the rugged and littered concrete of the backstreet with a soft grunt, stretching her arms and wiggling her fingers. She almost pulls her mask off when she senses the presence of another.

Ellie whirls around, arms up, ready to hit.

She doesn’t expect to take a blow regardless.

You stand in front of her, rooted to your spot, watching as Spider-Woman aims her webshooters at you. Ellie feels like she can’t move either.

She almost fails to remember that you don’t know her secret identity anymore. Instinctively, her hand still comes up to take her mask off, but she stops halfway.

…

“Are… are you good?” You ask, cutting through the tension with the knife that is your question.

Ellie stares a little longer, the lenses of her mask are comically wide.

She forces herself to loosen up, rolling her shoulders and letting out a breathy chuckle before you’re able to notice her terror. “‘Course I’m good. Nothing a power nap can’t fix.” 

Her brushing past you in slow, casual steps prompts you to turn and face her again. You take a step closer without much thought.

You examine the tears on her suit, some revealing wounds on the skin underneath. There are a few that look a bit too deep to be left alone.

A beat passes before you hesitantly open your bag and rummage through it. After a moment, you pull out a hand sanitizer and… Powerpuff Girl bandages? Holding them, you extend your hand to offer to Spider-Woman, smiling sheepishly.

“It’s all I got…” You murmur.

Ellie looks at the box and bottle in your hand, then down at the gashes across her suit and body. A smirk makes its way onto her face.

“I think they’re a little small… but I’ll take ‘em. Thanks,” the vigilante muses. She doesn’t really need them. When that spider bit her, some of the perks included were accelerated healing and durability.

You let her take the sanitizer and bandages from your grasp, but her fingers graze yours in the process.

Suddenly, you’re taken back to your old bedroom at your parents’ house.

Kneeling in front of your bed, someone sits at the edge of it. You’re between their legs, tending to numerous cuts of varying sizes. Specifically, you have an ointment on your hand, rubbing it into a particular injury on the figure’s knee. You look up, and the face is completely blurred. It feels like the face is lost or missing. If you had to put it into words, it probably wouldn’t be possible.

You’re brought back to the present after your vision, if that’s what you can even call it. It has you dizzy and disoriented, with a faint throbbing behind your eyes. A quiet gasp leaves you, and you stumble backwards. Spidey vaguely jerks forward, ready to catch you if need be.

For a flash of a moment, Ellie almost catches a glimpse of knowing in your expression. Her heart sinks, but she chooses to play dumb.

“Careful…”

You hum absentmindedly in response, steadying yourself without her help. You’re still a bit thrown by whatever it was that just happened.

“Well… I should definitely get going,” Ellie speaks. “See you around. Maybe.”

She shoots a web upwards and disappears in front of you before you manage to get another word in.

You stay in the cramped alley for a while, trying to make sense of what you saw.

Not a single viable reason crosses your mind.

dividers by @andromeda-graphics

perm taglist: @jijiisji @isaellie @nyxplanett @wqodwzrd @cordycepskiss @n0t-1t @xx-n3onmxshrxxmkjss

series taglist: @girl-so-gay @leilune

comment to be added!

She got a cherry wood bedframe and a matching bedside table. The bed sat in the corner of her room with the little table pushed to its side. There was also a simple floor lamp by the opposite wall, accompanied by a bookshelf/drawer on which Ellie placed the old lego sets she managed to salvage after everything. The Death Star she built with Jesse, and the flower bouquet she built with you. Dina’s old teddy bear sat there too. It was her favorite. Ellie wonders if she ever figured out that her forgotten friend stole it.

Some of her comics were still in a box. She doesn’t know where to keep them without scattering them around. She also printed out a few posters using the free printer in ESU’s library. Frugal, but efficient.

Finding this studio and buying the extra furniture cost Ellie the last of her cash savings. She needs a source of income, and quick. Her first thought is to ask if your coffee shop is hiring, but what if you don’t want her there? That idea is easily overshadowed by her next one, though. She could reapply for her old internship at Stark Industries! They pay pretty decently for interns, enough to get by, at least, and she could find tech to incorporate into her suit.

She heard there was a vacancy since the last intern ‘disappeared’ and nobody knew who it was. Obviously, that used to be Ellie’s role. Her work would definitely be easier this time around, given the fact that she won’t be battling alongside the Avengers this time. Laptop in hand, she settles at the edge of her bed and pulls up the application form.

Minutes turn into hours. Ellie ends up sprawled across her bed, nothing like how she started. Her eyes are bloodshot, dried from staring daggers at the screen for so long. She’s been working on this non-stop, that lingering doubt driving her to near insanity as she nitpicks at every character she adds to her answers in the application.

Last time she got in, it was a cover-up for her missions with Tony. This time, her merit alone is what determines her fate at Stark. Not Spider-Woman. Not Tony. Just Ellie.

After reviewing her answers for the seventeenth time, giving the backspace key a few passive-aggressive clicks as she rewrites sentences that were perfectly fine, the cursor hovers over the ‘submit’ button before she clicks it and jumps straight out of her bed, body tense with everything unspoken.

“Fresh air,” she murmurs to herself. “Yes, I need fresh air. Matcha. Mhm.”

Grabbing her keys and jacket, Ellie pulls the door open and steps out, ready for a change of scenery now that she’s done and unwilling to dwell.

She walks around the neighborhood, mind going in loops as she tries to think of something other than the application. A heavy sigh escapes her lips as her hand digs into her pocket in search of her earbuds. She finally fishes it out. Tangled. Of course. The wire loops and overlaps around itself ridiculously, causing knots so bad that Ellie can’t say she’s seen worse. With a huff, she starts the gruesome task of unraveling it.

Now, if someone is walking on the sidewalk in the middle of the night, they’d probably want to play close attention to their surroundings. Does Ellie ever listen to the rule of thumb? No. Her abilities made her cocky. Her eyes are glued to the earbuds as she busies both of her hands with them.

Paying no attention to the distant commotion coming from a corner store, Ellie strolls casually, like focusing was never an option to begin with. It isn’t until she hears a woman screaming and glass breaking that she finally decides to give her surroundings a look.

Oh shit. The corner store’s getting robbed, Ellie thinks. This is just another Tuesday for her.

She runs off to a distant alleyway, pulling her clothes off to reveal the suit beneath it. She’s always prepared, even if she’d rather detangle her earbuds than notice a robbery. She pulls the mask over her face with practiced ease, leaving her clothes buried behind a stack of boxes at the very back of the alleyway.

She shoots a web and vaults onto a rooftop overlooking the store, then she assesses the situation before diving in.

Two men wearing black. One is blond, the other brunette—the mousy kind. Armed with pistols. Currently threatening the cashier and the one customer, AKA the screaming lady. They seem to be rookies based on how loud they’re making this. Pick-pocketing or distraction would’ve been smarter, but they don’t need to know that.

Spider-Woman jumps off the building soundlessly, landing on her feet on the street opposite the corner store. She walks closer, seeing that the robbers are preoccupied with hassling the poor teenager working at the cash register. Ellie remembers when she was that age, not yet anonymous and happy with her friends.

“Hey, man.” Spidey waves, causing both armed men to whirl around and face her with wide eyes.

“You paying for that?” She continues, stepping closer as she points at the packs of beer on the counter.

“Get the hell away!” The brunette speaks, pointing his gun at Spidey.

“I didn’t even do anything yet! Tough crowd…” She groans, lifting her hands up like she’s surrendering. Right as the guy starts to turn back to the cashier, Spidey connects the gun to her web, snatching it from the criminal at a distance.

“HEY—”

“Maybe don’t steal beer and money. Drinking on the job is a big no,” the vigilante warns, sticking the gun to the wall with her web fluid before turning to the blond and deadpanning him.

“And you. You’re making your buddy here do all the work.” She scolds, webbing his gun as well and sticking his hand to the wall behind him in the process.

This isn’t anything new to Ellie. The crime rates in New York have been increasing a bit now that the Avengers aren’t really around anymore. She signals for the customer (who is now recording the scene) to leave the building, which she quickly does. The cashier is smarter. She’s already hidden behind the counter, ducked down where she can’t be seen.

It turns out, the brunette isn’t all that incompetent. While Spidey chastises the younger thief, he creeps up behind her and grabs her into a headlock.

Now, the dance begins. 

Her eyes widen. She hooks his arm and drives backward, slamming him into the wall.

Quick, but not quick enough.

In response, the brunette reaches towards the shelf behind him and snatches a bottle of laundry detergent, throwing it right at Spidey’s face.

Blondie struggles against the webbing while the Web-Slinger pivots back to Mousy, still recovering from the hit. She manages to shoot a web at his hand, yanking it abruptly to make him give a little twirl. She chuckles to herself at that.

She still wants to make this quicker than other missions, so she hits the brunette’s neck at a pressure point to make him pass out and comes closer to give the blond a quick jab to the diaphragm, effectively knocking the wind out of him. He keels over with a groan and Spidey wraps him in a cocoon. She asks the cashier to call 911 to get them in custody before stepping back outside and swinging to who knows where.

Ellie returns to the alleyway she hid her clothes in and takes her mask off after making sure the place is empty. She decides to get her matcha and go straight back. She’s had enough action for tonight.

Unlocking the door with a soft jingle, she steps inside and exudes a heavy sigh. Her shoulders slump and she drops the keys into the little bowl by the door, rolling her arms after. She might’ve pulled a muscle. It’s not uncommon for that to happen, but it doesn’t get any less bothersome.

She chugs the last of her drink, tosses the cup, and kicks off her shoes and jacket with a dull thud. Lacking the energy to change, she just collapses onto the bed.

The fight wasn’t as fulfilling as she hoped. Being Spider-Woman often feels like an outlet now, but slowly, she’s starting to lose that sense too. She’s angry, no matter how hard she tries not to be. Angry at the world, at her stupidity, at fate itself. Pulling her punches is getting harder, reasoning is less effective, words less meaningful. She’s not a violent person, but her words have been failing her more than her hands.

She checks her phone. No response from Stark Industries yet.

Before sleep takes her, she swears to herself to never let her body overpower her mind.

The morning light shines down on you and Dina as you walk through campus on your way to the thrift store. You two already had all your essential furniture ready long before you moved into your shared dorm. Now, you’re looking for decorations and miscellaneous stuff to make it more ‘you’.

“I really hope we find one of those little hanging plants. Do you think we will?” You ponder out loud, glancing at Dina while taking a sip of your coffee.

With an absentminded nod, Dina glances at you and answers. “Definitely. There are always hanging plants at thrift stores. It’s a stretch, but I’m really hoping to find a little alien sculpture. I feel like that’ll be cool.”

You smirk at the random suggestion, giving Dina a sidelong glance. “And where would you put it?”

“My nightstand, of course,” she deadpans. “I’ll cherish that motherfucker like it’s real.”

A giggle forces itself out of your throat, bubbling up and leaving warmth in its wake. You and Dina are absolute best friends. She’s always there for you, through thick and thin. You can confidently say that nobody’s been there for you like she had been, especially in high school. You had no one until she came along.

In all honesty, though, your high school years are already starting to blur together. You can’t really remember what happened and what didn’t. Sometimes, you automatically think about a childhood friend that lasted throughout your entire life, but that ‘friend’ doesn’t exist. You don’t think much of it.

The fan above the sliding glass door automatically turns on when you and Dina approach. She’s already making a beeline straight to the back of the store, where all the uncategorized objects are placed.

You, on the other hand, stroll leisurely through the aisles, pausing momentarily when something catches your eye, sometimes even picking it up to examine and consider. Finally, your eyes land on a stunning group of hanging plants, greenery beautifully cascading down their pots. Not too much, just enough to be seen and admired. With gentle hands, you lower them into your basket and head off to regroup with Dina.

By the time you reach the aisle Dina chose to inhabit today, she already has three new items picked out very meticulously. She’s beaming at you, holding up a large, silver Martian figure along with her two other choices in her basket.

“I actually found one!” Dina chuckles, bringing the shiny thing too close to your face. You back up to adjust your eyesight and look at it properly, then you burst out laughing at the sheer absurdity of it. Dina laughs along, just as amazed.

“You actually found one!” You reiterate, taking the extraterrestrial from her grasp to rotate in your own hands, eyes wide with surprise and interest.

Dina takes your own basket and examines the contents of it. She smiles up at you, taking one of the plants. “You hit the jackpot with this one.”

“Careful…” You grumble, lightly swatting Dina’s hand for carelessly handling the plant.

She puts it back into your basket and you walk ahead, examining all the other things on the shelves. Dina points at a… pair of dentures?

The two of you snicker amongst yourselves. You murmur, loud enough for only Dina to hear. “Do you think it’s used?”

Her eyes widen and she shrugs. “Maybe.”

You move on, turning the corner to enter a different aisle. Oh, this is where the accessories are. You approach the bracelets first. Some are made of beads, some are those popular charm bracelets. They’re lovely. Dina’s on the other side. She’s examining a pair of matching silver rings.

It’s cheesy, but one of them says ‘best’ and the other ‘friends’. She approaches you with them, the smile on her face a modicum softer this time.

“Wanna get these?”

You look down at her hands to see the rings, then you look back at her face. You don’t take long to nod in approval.

“They’re cute,” you comment, taking them from her hands to drop into the basket.

You pass by the necklaces. Pearls, pendants, lockets. There are a couple with names on them too.

A particular golden one caught your eye.

‘Ellie’

You pause, then you look closer, eyebrows furrowed. You whisper it to yourself as if testing it out.

Hm…

“Hello?” Dina mutters, tapping your shoulder as she tries to see what you’re looking at.

“Oh— yeah?” You snap yourself out of it, turning around to face Dina.

“You found something you like?”

You turn your head to glance at the necklace one more time. “Nah. Let’s check out.”

Dina trails behind you towards the register, the name lingering in your mind for the briefest moment before fading into the abyss.

It doesn’t take long for Ellie to wake up. She forgot to turn her alarm off last night, so it blares in Ellie’s ear at 8 AM. Way too early for her comfort. She whimpers into her pillow, blindly hitting the alarm to stop the noise.

She hit it too hard. The screen flickers and shuts off. It’s broken.

Ellie chooses to leave that issue for another day. Right now, she’s focused on feeling around her nightstand for her phone. When she finally feels it, she turns her head to the side and stares at the screen with half-open eyes.

Soon enough, all sleep dissipates from her features. Her body shoots up as she reads the preview of a notification from her email app.

Stark Industries already got back to her? They want to interview her tomorrow?!

Ellie puts her phone down and runs her hands through her hair then down her face, letting out an exhale she didn’t know she’d been holding in.

The realization settles deep in her chest, making her feel pretty giddy regardless of whether she wanted to or not. She’s good enough for stage one. Still, she has to prove herself in the interview, which is arguably the most important part of applying to anywhere at all.

Ellie is… less than fortunate when it comes to having that easy charm. When Tony was still around, she always tried to pick up on his subtle mannerisms that gave him that air that always seemed to surround him. It never worked. She can’t be effortless like he was.

She scrolls through her phone before getting ready, bingeing video after video about interview tips until an hour slips by.

After having her very nutritious breakfast (a single protein bar), Ellie paces around her room, laptop playing a mock interview. She states her answers out loud, trying her best to act confident and poised.

Around the afternoon is when Ellie finally gives it a rest. She doesn’t have anything to do until tomorrow, so she plays a movie on her laptop and settles down at her desk. 

Twenty minutes pass. Ellie hasn’t been able to register a single scene. Her thoughts keep drifting between the interview, college, Spidey, and you relentlessly. She feels restless and exhausted. Both at once, neither fading. She never really got a chance to unwind after everything that happened until now. It’s always one task after the other. She hasn’t grieved, not once. She hasn’t even mentally prepared for college.

She shuts her laptop with a little more force than necessary and tries busying herself with her sketchbook. It’s littered with drawings of you in all sorts of poses, dressed in her favorite outfits of yours. She flips to an empty page and muscle memory brings her to trace guidelines for your figure onto the paper. She draws you from memory, perfecting the dip of your waist, the curve of your cupid’s bow, the single freckles scattered distantly on your body and face, as if each one was deliberately chosen and placed on the canvas that is your skin.

She can’t help the overwhelming emotion that fills her whenever your graphite copy stares back at her. You’re gone. And somehow, you still fill the gaps. Before protecting New York, before Spider-Woman, Ellie was yours. Her sole purpose in life was always to love you; and now, you’re not even here.

The clock ticks until night falls. Ellie has filled two pages with drawings of you. Some are of your full face and body, and others are of your features, like your soft lips or the curve of your nose. She closes the sketchbook with a deep breath and once again practices for her interview.

The next morning, Ellie uses her phone’s alarm since, well, she obliterated her old one. The night before, she had checked the ‘sounds and haptics’ section a thousand times to make sure it wouldn’t be muted. It worked, although she’s been awake long before. She gently takes the phone from her nightstand and turns the alarm off.

Her interview is later during the day, so she plans to wake up slowly and comfortably to calm herself down. Maybe she’ll even pass that local restaurant and get a breakfast burrito.

She takes a long shower, using her usual citrusy shampoo and lavender body wash. She wears comfortable clothes—an old Metallica shirt and sweatpants—and she prepares the white button up and black pants she plans to wear to the interview.

Would she recognize the interviewer? Would it be Pepper? What if it’s Happy? Would she forget everything when she sees them? Could she even handle meeting them as just an intern?

She pushes that thought aside as she takes out Joel’s simple old black tie that she stole from his wardrobe when she went to homecoming with you back in sophomore year before he died. That feels like a whole lifetime ago…

Ellie sets up the ironing board and lays the shirt flat on it first, carefully going over every crease and wrinkle on the fabric. After that, she moves onto the pants. She even gives the tie a quick once-over.

After putting the board away, she dresses up and ties her hair back in a bun. She sits herself down on the edge of her bed, pulling at her fingers in a perpetual pattern. It may still be an hour until she has to leave, but better three hours too soon than a minute too late.

Half an hour later, she decides to get a head start and leave early. Her chest is nearly bursting with nerves, her mind racing with all possible outcomes of today.

The Avengers Tower is way more advanced than Ellie remembers. When did they get all this new stuff? Tony probably left some blueprints for someone to find…

She waits in a waiting room near reception, not even bothering to approach and ask about the interview yet. All she can do is remind herself that she only has to lock in for thirty minutes, then everything will be fine. She doesn’t fully believe it, but positive affirmations cause no harm, right?

Ellie’s checking her messages to give herself something to do when a lady she isn’t familiar with calls her name.

“Miss Williams?”

Her head immediately lifts. “Yes?”

“Mr. Hogan will see you now,” the lady smiles, her tone smooth as honey in contrast to Ellie’s nervous system preparing for Armageddon.

Happy? Ellie’s eyes widen for a split second before she schools her expression back into something more neutral. She nods in response, offering a tight smile as she rises from her seat. She follows the receptionist to the elevator.

She then presses the button for the seventy-eighth floor, that being where the executive offices are located. Part of her hopes the elevator stops and drops at a hundred miles an hour to keep her from seeing Happy as an interviewer and not a friend of sorts.

The ride up is excruciatingly slow, the number above the elevator doors flickering intervally as Ellie and the lady move up the building.

The dreadful, gentle ding signals the elevator’s arrival at the topmost floor. The doors slide open slowly, like it has all the time in the world. Like this is just another visit to the lab from back then.

The receptionist steps out first, and Ellie follows, her legs feeling unstable as they carry her through the long, wide hallway. They’re almost at the end when the lady slows down at a door with a nameplate on it that says ‘H. Hogan’. The redhead almost cries on the spot. She sees that the lady who took her here is already walking away in that annoyingly professional way. 

With a deep and shaky breath, Ellie knocks three times on the door.

“Come in,” echoes Happy’s voice from the other side. 

Ellie steps inside, greeting him with an awkward little nod as she approaches the chair in front of his desk. The office is huge, decorated with photos of Tony, Happy, and others during important events. There are various certificates displayed proudly on a shelf alongside trophies from internationally renowned organizations. The UN, the Nobel Prize… Tony was a great man, and Happy’s spreading his legacy the way Ellie was supposed to.

“Hi,” Happy smiles in an attempt to welcome the anxious girl in front of him. 

She offers a tight smile, tense as she steps closer and takes a seat in front of his desk. Daring to look up and meet his eyes, no recognition is seen in his expression.

“I’m applying for the internship,” she explains, dropping her hands to her lap while consciously stopping them from twitching and fidgeting.

Her collar feels too tight, the godforsaken tie too. She can feel every part of her shirt touching her skin, and she wipes her sweaty palms onto her lap. Her posture feels Ramrod-straight, but if she slouches, she’ll seem careless. She subtly untucks her shirt without Happy noticing, trying to ease the suffocating feeling.

Happy clicks his computer’s mouse a couple times, nodding along as he reads something on his screen. “Mhm… Ms. Williams?”

“Yup,” Ellie mutters, her surname feeling foreign coming from his mouth.

“Perfect. So, can you tell me about yourself?” He asks, turning in his chair slightly and leaning back to face Ellie more than the computer.

“I’m Ellie Williams, 18, and I’m applying for the research internship here. I just graduated from Midtown High School, and I’m gonna start at ESU next week, majoring in astrophysics. I took AP Physics C and AP calculus BC in my senior year and received one of the highest scores in my class,” she recites, miraculously remembering her answer to this question word for word. She read last night that every interview starts like this, so she made sure to nail this answer. Hopefully, she’ll keep this up for the next twenty-eight minutes.

Happy asks typical interview questions, like ‘what do you bring to the table?’ and ‘where do you see yourself ten years from now?’. Ellie stammers a few times, but she still answers everything with what she had planned. The man takes longer than expected, though, spending roughly fifty minutes questioning her. She doesn’t know if that’s a good or bad sign. Is he intrigued, or are her responses just… too vague?

Eventually, Happy stands up. Ellie follows. He extends his hand for her to shake, and she scrambles to meet him halfway.

“We’ll be getting back to you within the next week,” he affirms, his grip solid, practiced—corporate.

Smiling slightly, she lets go and straightens her posture, not yet moving away. She shifts her weight, hands at her sides. “It was a pleasure meeting you today.”

“The pleasure’s all mine.” He returns, expression easy and satisfied.

Right as Ellie turns around to leave, Happy calls her name out one more time.

“Do I know you from somewhere?” He asks. At that, Ellie’s entire body goes board stiff. She slowly turns around and forces herself to act casual.

“Oh, uh, I dunno,” she lets out a small laugh. “Maybe you’ve seen me around. I’ve lived here my whole life, so…”

The man just stares at her, head slightly tilted and eyes squinted like he’s scrutinizing her down to the freckle. He hums after a moment, nodding once thoughtfully.

“Well, I don’t mean to spend longer than I already did. You’re good to go,” he bursts that little bubble, leaving Ellie mildly shell-shocked. She lifts her hand up in a small wave and scurries to the door, wasting no time in leaving.

The whole walk home, her eyes are wide and her heart is beating at record speed. Was that a… a slip, or something?! She cerebrates, mind rushing with millions of thoughts. It was probably just a casual thing, right? He must’ve seen her on the streets one day.

Now, back at her place, she sheds her clothes and changes into something comfier. Out of everything that happened today, the thing she least expected was for Happy to almost recognize her.

dividers by @andromeda-graphics

perm taglist: @jijiisji @isaellie @nyxplanett @lonelyoutinjackson @wqodwzrd @mothsinwyoming @n0t-1t @xx-n3onmxshrxxmkjss

series taglist: @girl-so-gay

comment to be added!

She carries two boxes out of her busted up car, climbing up the staircase without seeing the steps. She’s just starting to furnish her apartment even though she moved in two weeks ago.

Part of her, the part that wasn’t dimmed the day she told Strange to cast the spell, couldn’t keep the excitement at bay. She’s jittery at the thought of being an ESU student. She had gotten into her dream major too, which is astrophysics. God, she couldn’t wait another week for classes to start! Maybe this could be a fresh start. A new, different life, with different friends, routines, and people.

But of course, you’d be there. Dina and Jesse too.

What are the odds you’d all meet properly? Would Ellie try to befriend you all over again? Would she explain the multiverse from scratch and tell you about how you two were in love? Would you think she’s crazy?

She promised she’d find you. Make you remember. She never did.

You said you’d figure it out, though. You’ve done it before, you can do it again.

The day Ellie planned it, everything she prayed she wouldn’t feel, she felt. Practicing her ‘speech’ the entire way to the coffee shop wasn’t enough. She paced around her cramped, empty studio apartment, thinking about every individual letter she added to her little paper.

Now that Ellie stood in front of the door adorned in Christmas decorations, her entire body felt stiff and tense from things other than the cold, the now crumpled paper shoved haphazardly into her back pocket. She kept pulling it out every other minute to ‘revise’. Before second guessing herself again, she stepped inside.

The bell above the door chimed and a gust of cool air entered with her. You looked in her direction and paused. Ellie almost sensed a hint of familiarity in your features. You even lifted your hand in a reluctant wave.

Before the green eyed girl could wave back, a familiar voice resounded from behind her. She turned to see Dina waving back at you, that signature grin plastered on her face. Ellie felt a lump forming in her throat as she watched you welcome Dina with a giggle. She never thought it would hurt that much to see you and Dina from an outside perspective. Even though she pictured this exact moment, the weight of it could never be prepared for.

You walked away from Dina as she took a seat at the far end of the counter. Approaching Ellie, your face turned into a carefully catered customer service expression, as you used to call it. It felt so unfamiliar, being the subject of said expression.

Ellie didn’t register it when you stood in front of her by the cash register.

“Uhm… hello?” You repeated.

Ellie’s gaze locked onto yours as she finally flinched back into this moment.

“Hi,” Ellie replied, her voice an octave higher.

“How can I help you?”

Ellie simply stared for a little while longer, as if hoping a flicker of recognition would come from your eyes, or your eyebrows, or even your lips. 

You gave her an expectant, yet polite, nod, encouraging her to reply.

Realizing she probably looked like a total weirdo right now, Ellie stood up a little straighter and cleared her throat, lowering her hand holding the paper. She turned her brain off in an attempt to recite what she had to say without chickening out.

“Hi,” she said again. “I’m Ellie Williams, and I…”

The words died in her throat. She squeezed the paper under the countertop a little tighter. She couldn’t. You seemed so… happy. Was it really the right choice to possibly give you an existential crisis so she could get her lover back?

You still stood there, ever the patient one, as you always were with Ellie.

When you patched her up in your bedroom after countless fights.

When you listened to her rambles about space, dinosaurs, and everything in between.

When you said your last goodbyes.

“And… I would like a coffee.” Ellie smiled, tight and forced. She pressed the paper into her fist, making a little ball, before pushing it back into her pocket.

You gave a small smile and took a step back from the counter, visibly a little bewildered by the encounter. “Alright, Ellie Williams. Just a minute…”

Gloves slipped onto your hands, and you grabbed a donut and walked back to Dina’s spot, sliding it across to her, a smirk playing on your lips. “On the house, for my fellow doctor.”

Dina laughed in response, vibrant and carefree. “ESU, baby!”

You always wanted to be a med student. Of course Ellie remembered. And it seemed like Dina really did settle on med. She waited until the last minute to confirm it as her first option.

Ellie was lost in her own world, gone as you wandered to the coffee machine to prepare her drink.

She hates coffee. What was she doing?

You brought the cup to her and gently placed it on the counter, blessing her with that slight pull on the corners of your lips. “One coffee. I assumed you meant a small black—I hope that’s okay. I’ll remake it if that wasn’t what you had in mind.”

Ellie quickly shook her head. “No—this is good.” She placed a five dollar bill in front of you and shifted her weight as you calculated the change. The coffee warmed her finger tips as she watched you, deeply in thought. Okay, this was getting creepy.

“Anything else…?” You chuckled weakly, your fingers wrapping around your wrist out of habit.

She blinked a couple of times before forcing herself to break out of her trance and smile back. “You, uh, excited for ESU?”

For a moment, you looked confused. Then, you looked back at Dina and appeared to realize that Ellie simply overheard your conversation. Of course, you didn’t remember the three of you, along with Jesse, opening your acceptance letters together at this exact cafe. It was only a couple months ago.

“Yeah, uhm… I’m pretty excited, actually, which is weird, but this time feels different for some reason...” You answered, feeling an odd urge to speak just a little more to a customer than you normally would’ve. Maybe you were just really looking forward to college.

“Y’know, expect disappointment, so—”

“—so you’ll never be disappointed…?” Ellie completed. You hesitated before nodding.

“Yeah… right.” You faltered.

The two of you continued to stare at each other. It was like your souls communicated in a way that shouldn’t be feasible, something memory alone couldn’t touch.

“Anything else…?” You asked despite the reluctance you felt, knowing you were cutting that moment short.

All Ellie did was smile and nod, neglecting the redness of her eyes. “No. No, that’s all. Thank you.”

You stepped back, offering a small wave before returning to Dina. Ellie took her time leaving, taking slow steps back to savor the sight of two of her best friends for as long as possible.

She bumped into someone, though. Stumbling as she turned around, she croaked out a flimsy apology. She paused when she saw that black mullet, though.

Jesse smiled at her with that same easy kindness. “No worries. You good?”

Ellie gave a curt nod and rushed out before she burst into tears.

Now that she’s in her dorm building, carrying her new stuff upstairs, the memory etches itself into her very being in the most bittersweet way. At least all of you are doing well.

She drops the boxes onto the floor next to her bed and takes a deep breath, taking in her surroundings as she wonders what her new life has to offer, and if it’ll even feel like her own.

dividers by @andromeda-graphics

taglist: @jijiisji @isaellie @nyxplanett @lonelyoutinjackson @wqodwzrd @mothsinwyoming @n0t-1t @xx-n3onmxshrxxmkjss

comment to be added!

a/n: WOW OKAY I'm so so so excited to post this, I've been thinking about this idea for a while now!! It's my first time starting a series, and I get busy sometimes, so I can't promise the most frequent updates although I'll do my best :) Thank you so much for reading, I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!