Welcome Aboard
A/N: Cranked out my first fic for Carol. All mistakes are mine.
Pairings: Carol Danvers x Reader
Warnings: A little bit of angst and alcohol use
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Carol never has visitors.
When the boarding request pops up on her communications system, she almost blows it to bits, it's a sound she hasn't heard in years. It takes her a few seconds to finally press the button to speak to whoever is waiting on the other side.
"Who's there?" she finally asks.
"Captain Marvel?" a voice responds, "I'm agent y/n, I'm here from S.A.B.E.R. Our comms are down indefinitely, so Fury sent me over to do a briefing."
Carol looks over at Goose, who's stretched out across the navigation station, unbothered by the news of an unexpected guest. Carol tries to emulate the same attitude, striding over to the door to greet you like she's done this plenty of times. She used to at some point, that has to count for something, right?
She loses her bravado as soon as she finds you standing in the entryway.
"Captain Marvel, it's a pleasure to meet you," you stick your hand out and Carol takes it after a beat too long. You don't take offense, Fury gave you the rundown on how long Carol has been isolated. It only took a few minutes to conclude that being a multi-galactic hero is a lonely job.
Carol doesn't stand around for too long, she hurries into the ship after inviting you in.
"Excuse the mess, been a while since someone's been aboard," she apologizes, tossing a single loose shirt into a hamper in the corner and tidying a pillow that was definitely knocked over by Goose.
"It's no problem, are you ready to start the briefing?"
"Sure, you want a drink or anything? Besides water, I think there's a few bottles of brew from Aladna hiding in the back of the fridge," Carol is already halfway to the kitchen, oblivious to the quizzical look on your face.
"I'm okay, Captain, honest," you flash her a friendly smile, and she feels the air escape her lungs. Her shoulders descend from her ears as she walks over to the chair across from you. You're too busy pulling up the agenda to notice.
Carol gingerly takes a seat, her hands rubbing vigorously against her thighs. She might be the first person to grate their hands on denim jeans at this rate. You're still looking for the agenda when Carol springs up from her seat, "are you sure you're not hungry? I'm so sorry, I should have offered before-"
"Captain?"
"Yes?" Her eyebrows were about to launch into orbit, she was already a few paces away from the kitchen, scraping the farthest corners of her mind for that recipe she learned from a family she helped a few galaxies ago.
"I'm okay, really."
"Right," she hurries over to the chair again and lets her body unceremoniously drop into it, vowing to herself she'll never get up from this spot unless she absolutely needs to. She looks up to see you waiting patiently for her go-ahead. Despite traveling to the furthest edges of the universe, she's never seen anything like the color of your eyes.
She collects herself quickly before saying, "let's get started."
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The briefing was mostly successful. Turns out your agenda was outdated, the correct one must have been wiped out from the surge that knocked out the comms. You had to ad-lib everything that was left out and corrected anything that was no longer relevant. Carol watched you intently the whole time, like the fate of the universe depended on scheduled ship maintenances and admin tasks.
"There's still one thing, it was from a meeting last week," you stand, pacing back and forth trying to jog your memory.
"I'm sure it's in there somewhere, maybe we can take a look with these?" Carol is holding two memory dive devices. You've never had to use them before, but you know everything there is to know about how they work.
"Good idea Captain."
"You can call me Carol, agent, it's alright," she hands you one of the devices.
"Thank you," you just nod and take the device, Carol pretends the way your fingers brushed against hers for a fleeting second didn't just make her spine tingle. She lets you take her bed while she sits in the tattered recliner she's been meaning to get rid of.
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It all happens so fast.
One second you're watching the memory of you sitting in a briefing room with Fury and your colleagues, the next, you're watching Carol's memory of Maria telling her to take Goose.
"The cancer came back."
You can only watch a few more blurs of Carol's memory before you jolt upright. Your body is so tense, all you can do is let out a shuddering breath and a few tears.
"Y/n?" Carol is already by your side, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for that to happen."
Her voice is distant, like she's calling to you from the other end of the galaxy in the deepest cave. You're still trying to get your bearings, that was far too much pain packed into what was only seconds with the mind dive.
"Can you look at me? Please?"
She sounds much closer now, you turn to look at her and suddenly remember where you are. Your breath is still unsteady as you wipe the half-dried tears on your cheeks, embarrassed over being reduced to tears.
"That...those were your memories," you finally speak, Carol sighs in relief. Her hands have been hovering between your shoulders and face this whole time, unsure if touching you was the best idea.
"Yeah, they were," she straightens up, taking the device from your hands and tossing both aside.
"I've been trying to remember everything...before, well, everything," Carol starts again, looking at anything but you, "I'm so sorry, if I knew that was going to happen I wouldn't have-"
She's cut off by the feeling of your arms pulling her against you. She almost forgot how much she loves hugs, almost.
Carol returns the favor and wraps her arms around you. You both stay like that for a while. Loss is one of the first lessons a hero learns, but it doesn't mean they're impervious to its effects, especially with how often it happens. Carol is trying to convey how sorry she is with every circle she rubs into your back. You only part when it seems like the dust has finally settled.
"I think I'll take that beer now," you say after heavy sigh. Carol gives you a sympathetic smile before heading to the fridge.
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Carol explains everything that you saw.
She also tells you stories about her life before this one, and her adventures from roaming the galaxies. You did a poor job of trying to stifle your giggling when she mentioned being married to Aladna's prince to resolve a "legal issue." That earned you some side eye and an eventual smirk.
Carol swears she's mostly made peace with everything that happened, but you both know it weighs heavy on her from time to time.
Especially during long stretches of solitude like this one.
Goose saunters over to you and spills over your feet belly-up with a lazy "meow," a prime position for scratches.
"Goose is probably stoked to get scritches from someone other than me," Carol quips into the mouth of her beer.
"I could do this all day," you say without a second thought and Carol's smile reaches her eyes.
"Carol, I want my agent back," Fury chimes in over comms.
"I'll think about it," Carol says coolly as she takes a swig from her beer, you stand up out of habit from hearing Fury's voice.
"He's right, I should probably go, there's going to be million things to do now that comms are back up."
"Of course, let me walk you out," Carol sets her bottle down and leads you to the doorway. Seems like you only walked through there a few minutes ago. Time is playing tricks on you, it seems.
"Stay safe out there," Carol says.
"You too, Carol," you trade smiles, committing hers to memory by the time she pulls you in for a hug.
"Thank you," she whispers, hugging you tighter for a few seconds before finally letting you go.
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"So?" Fury is the first to greet you when you arrive at the station.
"Pretending comms is down just to give her human interaction is kind of evil...yet genius," you shake your head with a smile.
"I know she gets lonely out there, she'll never admit it. This is the least I can do," he shrugs before turning on his heel. He walks a few steps before turning to you again.
"Same time next month, agent y/n?"
"Of course sir."
He gives you a curt nod with a knowing smirk before finally leaving.
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