a series about avengers taking up hobbies that you wouldn't have expected or a more in depth look into ones they already have.

POST ENDGAME.... SPOILERS? i just leave out the dead ones 

welcome to the emotional rollercoaster

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Despite many outside of the compound thinking that it was Bucky or Steve that cooked frequently, Wanda found herself in the kitchen more often than not.

She found that baking, cooking, whatever you want to call what she did, helped calm her down. It put a barrier between herself and the world that so often was cruel to her. She could put in earbuds, start her music, and bake her sorrows away.

Wanda would cook for the Avengers, bake because she was bored, whatever she was feeling. 

Midnight, after dreaming of her brother, dead and still, on the ground? Perfect time to bake a few dozen cookies. Noon, after a dreadful morning of nothing? Why not make a few pancakes ( it really was a lot of pancakes, the crew ate like an army)?

Baking was always there for Wanda, a constant in a world of change and abandonment.

~

After years of torture and pain, Bucky took up violin.

He liked the way it sounded, haunted and sorrowful, so similar to how his soul ached for help. He liked the way that the bow would slide along the strings, simple and eerie.

Of course, there was nothing simple about the violin. That's another thing that Bucky liked about it- it was difficult and hard, you had to be so gentle with it so as to not damage anything and the notes were intricate.

The sound that came out of the instrument captivated Bucky, it pulled him in and took him prisoner. He learned it eagerly, like a child, with wide eyes and hope for the world. It was a comforting sound.

Bucky liked being able to feel gentle and soft, liked the looks of awe that he got for playing instead of looks of fear for killing. He felt special for once, like someone that Steve would have stayed for.

~

Rhodey didn't get out much. His leg prevented much movement, although Tony got him leaps and bounds ahead of where he would've been.

When he did get out of the compound and away from all of the people, James liked to make his way to a little shop just outside of the city borders. It was a thrift store, so unlike the fancy stores that Tony always dragged Rhodey to. 

It was quaint, a cute little place that held many treasures.

Rhodey bought all of the Iron Man t-shirts he came across. They'd fit someone, Clint's kids, one of the teens, or one of the adults. He found some bird ones for Sam, and once he found a neon cat shirt for T'challa. There were even some bright green sweatpants to match it, and who was he to deny fashion?

He liked to take his time in the book section, dragging his finger across the faint dust that was settling, reading the titles and occasionally taking one out to read the summary. 

It was a simple store, but Rhodey had simple wants, and he needed the simplicity after a day of chaos. 

~

T'challa didn't have much time, what with ruling after being gone for five years, but he took what free time that he could. 

He started reading more. Sure, he'd been a bookworm before, but now he branched out into other genres, read into the theme more deeply. He'd been in this world long enough to know that it was nothing great, and dove into other worlds, worlds of magic and happiness and mysteries...

The king found that he much enjoyed the thrillers, the mysteries, something that pulled him in quickly and held on to him, keeping him from leaving his cozy room. He didn't like the comedies, the funny ones, everything that seemed far too unrealistic after all that he'd seen. He'd read them though, when the responsibility got too large and he needed a little unrealistic.

~

Scott took up cards and tricks of the hand. It wasn't a secret, everyone knew he could do magic tricks and keep the kids busy for hours.

That's one of the reasons he learned them, he supposed. To lighten others' days as much as he could with the stupid little things that he did. 

See, no matter how many people smiled at his jokes or laughed at his quips, Scott always felt as if nothing he did was good enough. As if everyone was faking, only pretending to tolerate him, only allowing him to be there because of his tech.

He liked doing tricks with Cassie because he felt like they were taken back in time to when she was still little, when he was happier and hadn't missed his darling little girl grow up. 

People did their best to show Scott that he was liked and loved and appreciated, but he still resorted to his tricks whenever he was feeling particularly deprecating. They let him, because after all, they still didn't know how he did them and a magician never shares his secrets.

~

Peter Quill, or should I say, Space Peter, started writing his own songs instead of listening to all of the old ones from Earth. 

He wasn't much good, picking at an old worn-down guitar and singing with his scratchy voice, and the guardians didn't much like his noise, but they all tolerated it. They knew that Peter needed a way to let his feelings loose, and no matter how much they wished it was a quieter hobby, they let him strum along.

He missed Gamora, and found himself more often than not singing about her, how he wished she was there, how he was sorry for not being stronger, how he wanted to just hug her again.

That old guitar sat in a manky case, but it was everything to Peter.

~

Clint always had archery to turn to, and still did, but after everything at the compound, picking up the bow hurt him in ways that he didn't know was possible. 

Sure, he was passing down the legacy with Lila, but it wasn't the same.

He turned to a different type of precision: jewelry. He had a wife and a daughter, and knew several other females, so he figured he could at least give it a try.

At first it was just wires and nice rocks he had found, but after Pepper gave him some money to buy some better supplies, he started doing nicer things, with diamonds that sparkled and other precious stones that glittered in the sun. They were quite nice, and eventually Clint even sold a few.

Birthday presents were easy for him, since he would spend time on a special and personalized bracelet, or necklace, or ring for all the important women in his life.

~

Peter hadn't ever gotten to know Natasha all that well. They'd train for a little bit, maybe, but they never just sat and had a conversation. That made him sad, knowing that he'd never get to.

Maybe that's why he found himself in front of his computer, looking up online Russian courses. 

He learned Russian, which was no simple task. He learned it and spoke it as often as he could, scaring the criminals that were unfortunate enough to encounter Peter while he was practicing. He thought that it was pretty funny.

Wanda knew a little Russian, so they could talk sneakily behind everyone's backs. They had to be careful around Bucky though, since they could tell that whenever they were speaking it he was more jumpy and even scared. He knew Russian, but it reminded him of his time at HYDRA.

Peter learned Russian, perhaps because he was bored, but more likely he learned it because he felt guilty for being part of the reason that Natasha died, and spent every day wondering if her sacrifice was worth it.

~

Drax was never one for intricate words. He liked pictures, sounds, but he drew the line at metaphors and all of the weird speech habits that the people of earth made up.

However, there was a small part of him that desperately wanted to understand the comparisons and odd language quirks. When he told Mantis about his desire, she suggested that he start reading books from Earth.

So, at their next stop, Drax bought some comics. They were colorful, appealing, and helped him with learning. He loved the story lines, the teams, he loved how quickly he could go through them. 

They were simple, like him, and he liked that. 

No matter how often Rocket would complain that they weren't even real books, Drax bought more. His room became cluttered with different series, but it was full of color, and actually was quite cozy. 

He liked that he could escape from the lonely world that he lived in, and immerse himself into the world of different heroes, where he had no responsibility.

~

Cassie Lang never had the luxury of a normal life. Her parents divorced, one a superhero who disappeared for five years. It was hard, looking into the audience of her concerts and never seeing her father.

She found very quickly that she needed an outlet for her frustrations, so she thought long and hard about what she wanted to do.

It came to her one day while in a hardware store, when she looked down an aisle and saw the cans of spray paint sitting innocently. On an impulse, she had grabbed a few of her favorite colors and put them on the counter with the rest of her purchases.

Years later, now, with her father back and safe, she still would leave her house after dark, with a flashlight and her bottles, and would find an empty, abandoned wall to paint. She thought she wasn't much good, but she was.

She painted because in a world where her life was everything but normal, the paints stayed up and inspired others.

~

One of the reasons that Carol loved earth so much was video games.

Sure, she had been on earth during the what, 90s? But gaming culture was so much better these days, with such vibrant colors and interesting stories. 

She was hooked, plain and simple. Carol, during her earth visits, would spend at least one day, uninterrupted, just playing games. Everything about them amazed her, because even though Hala spent time on making things look pretty and work delightfully, the Kree never spent time on entertainment. It was all training. 

So, Carol liked the games, and she was good at them (she and Wong would play sometimes. She usually won). She didn't listen to the moody teenage boys saying that she was a fake gamer, because who cares if she was? If she was, then it'd be an easy win for the boys.

Instead, she beat them and they left the game pouting and complaining. Carol thought it was hilarious.

She also liked the games because of the sense of control. You were in complete control and monitored everything.  It was a nice break from being so out of control that it drove her mad, feeling so insignificant that she sometimes wondered if she should bother to get out of bed.

~

Thor was a big man, there was no denying it. So, everyone was a little skeptical when he claimed he wanted to watch the birds.

But, Thor enjoyed walking to a park with his binoculars and a little bird booklet, to sit down on a bench and gaze at the trees. He was amazed at how small some of them were. They could've fit into his palm and have space left over.

The Avengers sometimes laughed at him and his amazement at something so ordinary as birds, but he couldn't help it. He loved life, and he wanted to cherish every minute of his, considering that it could be snatched from him without any warning. 

He went along with everyone's chuckles at his bird watching, but he never told them that he enjoyed it so much because the little jumpy birds reminded him of Loki. The way they tricked the larger ones to steal their food, or the way they jumped around and gave dramatic shows for mates.

They made him laugh, but sometimes Thor cried for his brother, who got his life so wrongly  and unfairly taken away from him.

~

Bruce thought himself a monster for the longest time, but after space and the battle at Wakanda, he realized that he wasn't one. The more he embraced that fact, the more he wanted to do more good in the world.

So, he spent time with himself thinking about what he could do to make up for years of destruction.

It came to him when passing a pet store, of all things, in a mall. He went home and started researching information about fostering animals, and got more and more invested in it.

Eventually, he called a local animal shelter and he got set up with an old dog, a big one, maybe a retriever or a collie, and he took care of it. He learned how to be more gentle, how to get around with his larger hands. And, he gave the dog (who he named Thor, since it had one eye) a loving home. 

It was nice to come home to a smiling dog with a tail wagging, rather than fear if another SHIELD team was waiting to try and take him out.

~

Stuffed animals are cute, and Mantis couldn't get enough of them. She couldn't help it, they were so cute and cuddly, with so many sized, shapes, degrees of fluffiness...

Every time the spaceship stopped, she tried to find a stuffed animal to take home with her. Drax usually tolerated it.

Mantis kept all of her animals in her room, some on shelves, some in chests, some on her bed. She didn't mind picking them all up and putting them away every time the ship made a sharp turn. She cared for those stuffies like they were her babies.

In some ways, they were. She needed the comfort of them, needed something to ground her. She needed something to cuddle and hold on tight to without being overwhelmed with feelings that so often gave her a headache.

~

Nebula wasn't one for all that mushy stuff. She had found her first friend, lost her friend, and was right back to square one.

She didn't have hobbies, only tasks. She cleaned her knives, polished her arms. She never did anything just for fun, until Tony found her on Titan.

After that, she started seeing the world differently.

Nebula cycled through a lot of hobbies, a lot of things to just do. She finally settled on plants, specifically succulents. They were small, easy to care for, and they were pretty.

She had a few pots, then a few more, and before she knew it her space on the ship was overflowing with spikey plants, soft rosettes, stretching vines, any succulents she could get her hands on. Some were colorful, some were a dull green, she didn't care, she loved them all. 

She found that she could talk to them, like friends. Nebula named them all, too. A green one with maroon spots she named Gamora, and it was the one that Nebula talked to the most. It was nice having friends, even if a few of them died.

~

Sam Wilson was not one for caring about people. He had cared, once, and they died.

He tolerated people, and they tolerated him. He helped people, and they let him down. He tried his best, and they say it wasn't good enough.

It was a little different with Bucky and Wanda, he tried to push down the fierce companionship that wanted to burst free from his chest and surround them, but he couldn't. So, slowly, he started feeling again, started to stop hiding behind sarcastic comments and condescending remarks.

Then, he saw Wanda one day in the trio's hotel bathroom (it was a temporary residence). She was struggling with her hair and getting frustrated. He didn't quite know what to do, so he went to YouTube on his phone and started watching hair tutorials.

He did Wanda's hair all the time, and eventually got really good at it. And I mean, really good. He even did Bucky's hair a few times before he made Sam cut it. 

So, yeah. Sam started caring and spent time with those he loved through hair styling in his free time when he wasn't knocking out Nazis. He figured that the worst that could happen from his opening up is them dying and him falling into a worse grief than what had happened in Afghanistan.

He'd just have to protect them.

~

Valkyrie was known for just that, being a Valkyrie. But, it was better than Brunhilde, she supposed. She was also known as the Queen of Asgard. No biggie.

Thor passed down the crown and she panicked, but she was okay. She was, however, very stressed, so she took up a new hobby: Woodworking.

It wasn't much, just a few carved figurines. Her Pegasus, Thor, Hela, Loki. Even Bruce. Everything from her adventures was turned into a small wooden statue, and displayed on a shelf in Valkyrie's room.

Wood was simple. It needed precision, care, and love to be turned into something amazing, and Valkyrie gave it that. She used the wood as an outlet form everything that had gone wrong, from her survival to Thor leaving her as Queen at the drop of a hat. It wasn't healthier than talking, was it was healthier than keeping it bottled in.

~

Rocket and Groot were a duo, a complete package. Whatever Rocket wanted to do, Groot did, too. Whatever Groot wanted, Rocket wanted too.

In this case, Rocket wanted a drink, and not something Groot, had he still been a teenager, could have. He wanted alcohol, and something fancy, but no one on the ship was exactly skilled as a bartender.

So, Rocket took it upon himself to learn some good drinks with the stock of bottles that they had. Groot watched and learned, even doing a few himself. 

They were a complete package, one always followed the other (except in death, it seemed. Rocket never forgave himself for being with Groot and Groot never forgave himself for not staying).

~

Hope Van Dyne: A genius? Yes. A fashion expert when needed? Of course. A talented spy when the need arises? She's your lady.

Someone that people came to with their problems? Not exactly.

So, she signed up for some classes after seeing how badly the team was at sharing their feelings, and after a year, Hope Van Dyne was a certified therapist. She suddenly became the unofficial Avengers therapist because she was just so good to talk to.

She learned how to be softer with feelings and emotions, while still being fierce on the battlefield. It wasn't hard, really, once she learned the basics and grew dedicated to helping the Avengers, but she still didn't have anyone to go to for herself.

Eventually, Scott noticed and talked with her about herself for once, but for the longest time she was so invested in helping others that she forgot about her own feelings, which she supposed was the whole point of the thing. 

~

Doctor Strange was smart, there was no denying. He was a doctor, after all.

Still, he never was one for working in labs endlessly, sweating and getting dirty. Eew, sweat, you know? But, still, he needed something to do. That much, he knew.

Well, it was one day in his glorious library when his robes were caught on a stray nail and ripped. At first he was horrified, but then he realized that he could fix it pretty easily.

So, he found a needle, some similar-colored thread, and pulled up a YouTube video. He worked for a while, admittedly, to fix his clothes, but once he did, he got good at it. He fixed socks, robes, regular street clothes. Whatever the people in the Sanctum needed hemmed or darned or sewed up to hide a hole, he did. And he enjoyed it.

He never told anyone at the Compound, though. They'd probably tease him endlessly, make fun of him. But, hey, we all get through seeing your friends die in different combinations 14,000,605 times differently, and His was sewing and ignoring his feelings until the last possible moment.

* * *

considered doing fury, but idk. hey, should i do one with the dead ppl? and did i forget any?

lol 3500 words? ok