Deadpool Makes A Friend

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Deadpool or any related titles, characters, plots, franchises, etc, across any medium. I also do not own the rights to any Marvel property, including The Avengers or Daredevil. These rights belong solely to their respective owners. I own only the original elements of this story, which I make no money from writing or publishing.

Warning: spoilers for the first John Wick movie ahead. (While I have you here, I also do not own the rights to John Wick. Apologies.)

Deadpool Has A Friend

Ash sank down into the lush cushions of the couch and sighed, closing her eyes against the soft light of her favorite corner lamp. The air was lightly scented by the food simmering in the oven. She knew without looking that it was almost ready. It was almost the perfect evening, she reflected, enjoying the sound of the eighth straight play of AC/DC's Dirty Deeds. Was it getting old? Yes. Did she wish Deadpool would stop singing? A little. Did she want him to leave? Not a chance.

Quite a bit of time had passed since Ash's powers had come to a critical peak. She had woken up in a bed back at the Tower, feeling as though Colossus was sitting on her chest and had recruited Thor to lay Mjölnir on her head. She struggled to sit up, figuring that a higher perspective would be the best way to search for something to drink, but several voices had urged her to halt her efforts.

"Whoa, kid, stay down," Tony Stark had warned, releasing her shoulder only when she rested back on the bed.

"What happened?" Ash asked blearily, searching her mind for any memories of how she had gotten there, but came up with nothing.

Jarvis's smooth tone had informed her, "Your powers grew out of control, Miss Akerstrom. You were nearing death and would likely not be here now if your rescuer had been only a few moments later."

"My rescuer?" she repeated, blinking stupidly at the crowd in the room, picking out several Avengers, Pepper Potts, an uncomfortable-looking Daredevil, and Agent Coulson. "Who rescued me?"

"Deadpool, of course," Hawkeye said, shrugging as if this should have been obvious. Maybe it should have been, but Ash was still a little out of things. "He's been keeping an eye on you forever now and happened to be around when you decided to take a pavement nap."

"Deadpool helped me? Where is he?"

"Right here," Captain Rogers said, gesturing to an open space beside him before doing a double-take and glaring out of the open door. "Wade, what are you doing?"

"I can't be around her! It's dangerous!" Deadpool called defensively from the hallway as everyone rolled their eyes.

Thor chuckled. "Fear not, fellows. I will retrieve the masked man-" The tall Avenger made eye contact with Daredevil and corrected, "The other masked man." Moments later, a struggling Deadpool was carried through the door by Thor, who wore an indulgent expression.

"Mr. Wilson, you know you don't have to avoid Miss Akerstrom any more," Coulson said matter-of-factly.

"He doesn't?" Ash asked at the same time as Deadpool began shouting.

"You don't think I can be around her! You don't know for sure! It's all based on Stark's calculations, remember? The same guy who tried to make a murder-bot-!"

"Excuse me," Tony interrupted, looking affronted. "I succeeded in making a murder-bot."

Pepper whacked Tony's arm. "Not helping, Tony."

While the billionaire shrugged unconcernedly, Ash tried to get some answers out of someone. "So you're saying that I'm cured? No more emotions?"

"Not exactly," Doctor Banner rushed to say. "Jarvis and I worked on a sort of solution. We can block most of the injection's effects, but you'll always have some ability to judge the emotions of others."

"However, all of the potentially harmful parts of the injection have been neutralized. You have nothing to fear from spending time with Mr. Wilson," Jarvis assured.

"I don't know if I would say 'nothing'," Black Widow murmured and Deadpool glared at her.

"They say it's safe, Ash, but I understand if you want me to stay away," Deadpool said, cautiously approaching the bed. "It's a pretty hefty risk to take for such a small payoff. I don't know if I would do it."

Ash held up a single finger. "I need to discuss this with Deadpool in a little bit of privacy, but first, can I have something to drink?" Doctor Banner hurried off to grab a glass and began filling it with water. While he did so, Ash surveyed the people standing in her room. "Are all of you here because you were worried about me?"

"Of course," Pepper said softly, wearing a slight smile. "We all heard how bad things were for a while and wanted to make sure you were okay."

"So it had nothing to do with being here in case I turned into some murderous monster and went berserk?" She cut the question with a small laugh, trying not to sound so completely ungrateful.

Daredevil grinned at her. "Who says we can't have more than one reason?"

Ash grinned back and Deadpool scowled. "Okay, she's got her water. Everyone out!"

There was grumbling and muttering, but the room had slowly emptied as Ash called her thanks to everyone for their support. When they were finally the only two in the room, Ash had sighed to notice that Deadpool stayed as far from her as he could while still being in the room. "Deadpool, I want to talk to you, but my throat still hurts. Can you come over here, please?"

The mercenary inched closer to the bed until Ash glared at him and he finally began taking actual steps. "I still think this is too much of a risk. You should be staying as far from me as you can."

"Like you did when you were close enough to see me fall?" Ash asked blandly, laughing at his uncomfortable expression. "I could read the whole city. I know exactly how far you were from me and how you felt when you realized what was happening."

"I wasn't far enough away," he said guiltily. "Maybe if I'd stayed away, it wouldn't have happened at all."

"I knew you were an idiot, but are you a deaf one as well?"

"Great, nice to know what you really think about me," Deadpool fired back.

Ash rolled her eyes. "I said I could read the whole city. That doesn't mean everyone except you. I know exactly how you felt and how panicked you were trying to get to me. Why would I ever want to avoid someone that loyal and devoted?" She watched him open his mouth soundlessly under his mask. "Either you're an idiot or you think I am."

"I- I feel like there should be a third option."

"Deadpool."

"So, you really want to keep me around, then?"

Staring over at the large man who currently sounded like a lost little kid, Ash nodded decisively. "Most definitely. You're my friend and I don't have very many of those."

Deadpool had squealed and rushed over to wrap her in a slightly-smelly hug and hadn't left her side for longer than a day since. Case in point, he walked over and opened the oven in her for the twelfth time, breaking Ash's period of reflection.

"Come on, Ash," he whined. "They've got to be almost done by now!"

"Every time you open the oven, you let out all of the hot air and they take a little longer to cook," Ash told him. "And since you've basically been checking it every thirty seconds, they're taking almost twice as long."

"No one ever died from eating an undercooked chimichanga," he pouted.

Figuring he was probably right - especially since they were almost done anyway - Ash gave in and pulled the tray of Mexican food from the oven. Deadpool pounced on it immediately and Ash kept her distance and scavenged what was left. It was practically a tradition with them now. The other part of the tradition was that Deadpool got to choose a movie. He was trying to keep himself from picking a movie about Spider-Man every night, but sometimes he slipped. Fortunately, tonight he had chosen John Wick and Ash whole-heartedly approved.

While the movie was keying up, Deadpool turned to her, half a chimichanga stuffed into his mouth under the pulled-up mask. "So, what did Stark want earlier?"

Absently brushing bits of food from her lap, Ash said, "Oh, he- uh, he wanted to offer me a job."

"No! Tell me you are not joining Tony Stark's harem!"

"Gross," Ash chuckled. "No, with the lingering powers, he wants me to join his HR department."

"I thought you said no harem?!"

"No harem. HR," Ash repeated. "As in Human Resources? I'm going to help him hire people who will be good workers and evaluate his current employees for any ties to HYDRA. Decent salary, full benefits, all of that. I think I'm going to take him up on it."

"What? And hang up that sexy suit? Why?" Ash didn't think she had ever heard Deadpool sound so offended.

Ash shrugged. "The suit still works, but I can only feel emotions, not manipulate them. I'm worthless as a superhero and, to be honest, I don't really miss it. I burned a lot of bridges when I stopped skip tracing, though, and it might be nice to have a job where people aren't shooting at me all of the time."

"Hey, being shot at is underrated. Really keeps your reflexes sharp, you know?"

"Deadpool, I'm being serious."

"Well, so am I, but I get it, I guess. We'll keep hanging out though, right?"

"Of course," Ash scoffed. "Like I could find someone else to watch movies and eat junk food with if we stopped being friends."

"There's more to our relationship than just food and movies!" Deadpool protested, waving a food-encrusted hand around to punctuate his point.

Ash stared at the mercenary. "What relationship? You sit on my couch, eat my food, and listen to me complain, then we watch movies."

"That's really all you see me as?"

Ash shrugged and settled into the couch, closing her eyes as she felt her body relax completely. "It's kind of our dynamic, you know? I'm your meal ticket and you're the one I talk to so I don't have to get a cat. It works."

Deadpool made an offended noise and Ash cracked an eye open. "You're still lucky I didn't just shoot you when I found you in my place. Either time." He didn't argue this and the pair simply watched the movie in silence for a bit. "Man, John Wick is such a badass," Ash mused eventually.

"I'm a badass," Deadpool pointed out.

"Yeah, you are an ass," she agreed.

"You're damn right I am!" Pause. "Wait, what?"

Ash laughed. "They say a good sense of self is healthy."

Deadpool choked down his last chimichanga and belched. "Well, I'm all about being healthy."

"Clearly."

"But if anyone ever killed my dog, I would be a total badass and kill a billion dickwads, too."

Idly, Ash wondered how having a dog would work with his mercenary schedule and realized with a start that she had never actually seen his apartment. Ash sat up and stared over at Deadpool. "Do you have a dog?"

To her horror, he looked thoughtful. "You know, I'm not really sure. I've never thought to look. There might be almost anything under all the stuff in my place. IKEA parts and pizza boxes, mostly," he explained.

Ash was still gaping at him, stopping only when she had punched him in the arm. "You don't know if you have a dog?!"

Deadpool laughed loudly. "Calm down, Akerstrom. The closest thing I have to a dog is Spidey." His white eyes hardened as he stopped to think over what he had just said. "Though if anyone ever hurt my Baby Boy, you can bet I'd go on a homicidal revenge streak waaayyyy too bloody and gruesome to ever put on the big screen. I'd start with-"

"Deadpool," Ash interrupted. "Stop for a minute; it's okay. Breathe. No one's trying to hurt Spider-Man. Besides, from everything you've told me, he's pretty good at taking care of himself."

"He is," Deadpool said, the murderous glint in his eyes replaced with one of pride as he glanced over at her. "It goes for you too, you know?"

Ash shook her head. "Spider-Man and I get along okay now, but I was never going to hurt him."

"No, I- I meant that I would definitely go on a crazy revenge streak if anyone ever hurt you. You're important to me, too."

Trying to break the tension, Ash gave a low whistle. "Almost on par with Spider-Man? Wow, I'm really making it big lately. I think that's the nicest compliment you've ever given me!"

Obviously trying to keep the smile from his voice, Deadpool shook his head. "Shut up."

Conversation faded while they watched John Wick murder his way through a bunch of bad guys, but Deadpool broke the silence with a soft, "Hey, Ash?"

"Mm-hmm?" she asked.

"I have something very, very important to tell you."

She groaned. "Why do I feel like this is going to be stupid?"

"Finely-honed instinct?" he suggested.

"More like sad, ridiculous experience."

He pouted. "Well, if you're going to be that way, I just won't tell you."

Ash stared at him for a minute before simply saying, "Okay."

"Wait, what? You're supposed to beg me to tell you, apologize for being so rude, and tell me that nothing I can ever say is unimportant!"

"Okay, no, but now I'm curious. Pretend I did say all of that stuff. What is it?"

"I want you to call me Wade."

"Nope," Ash refused flatly.

"No, I meant-"

"Deadpool, you know the deal. I won't call you Wade until I've seen your face."

"Well, that's-"

"Those are the rules and I'm not going to change them just because you have an obsession with single syllable names-"

"Ash, would you shut up for just a minute?!"

Ash closed her mouth sharply, raising both eyebrows at Deadpool, who took a deep breath. "I want to show you my face."

She just blinked at him silently for a long moment and he sighed. "You can talk now."

Letting out a sharp, surprised little laugh, Ash waved her hand at him. "No, no, I- I just- I don't know what to say. Are you sure?"

"Yes. Is that okay with you?"

Ash let out a breath, thinking over the whole situation very carefully. "Of course it's okay, but I don't want you to feel like I forced you into it."

"No, I just feel like it's time," he explained.

Ash's stomach twisted at the tone his voice held. It wasn't often Deadpool sounded nervous, but at the moment, he sounded like he was ready to bolt from the room. In a quick, sure movement, he lifted the mask from his face, drawing the swath of red and black fabric over his head completely.

Carefully keeping her expression perfectly blank, Ash gazed at him, studying every feature and the way they combined with the scars to create a fully imperfect human being. She ended her perusal by staring into his brown eyes, allowing a slow smile to spread over her face. Relishing every syllable, she said, "Nice to finally meet you, Wade Winston Wilson."

Author's Note - Well, here we are. Thanks for reading this strange little story. It featured far less Deadpool than I had at first planned, but I'm sure he would understand - I do have my own set of voices to make happy, after all! I feel that I should go ahead and state that I have no sequel planned and I likely will not be creating one. That being said, reviews would still be appreciated. Let me know what worked and what didn't so I can do better on other stories! And finally, Deadpool and I don't have a ton in common, but we do share a hatred of the mushy stuff, so thank you again and good-bye.