#Bruce banner x enhanced!reader

[creative-caramel-coffee]

The Spiders Sister - Chapter 1

Summary: Reader gets caught hiding out in the avengers tower. In the end it turns out for the best.

TW: non-sexual nudity, illness, fainting, swearing

Words: 4.1K

A/n: Super long first chapter

маленький паук – Little Spider

It defiantly wasn’t part of your life plan to be living with your bother again in your adulthood.

You had spent an excellent few months on your own having finally moved out of May Parker’s apartment, it had been perfect. Well … as perfect as life could be for a parker.

Then … you guessed it … parker luck struck again. There was a huge fight, one you had been itching to join but your brother, peter parker, had it covered. And since nobody knew that you sometimes wore the spider-man suit when peter wasn’t able to, it would all be over if two Spider-Man’s ended up fighting some of the weird aliens that had invaded New York.

You see, you and your brother had more in common than most siblings did. Peter parker had been bitten by a radioactive spider on a school trip as was known to a few people. But, at the same time, you had been eighteen and chaperoning the field trip.

When peter had snuck off to the side you had gone after him. When he was bitten, so were you.

But for now, you had decided to try and stay away from the superhero lifestyle. But when the itch came, peter lent you his suit so you could scratch it.

You had helped him refine his web-fluid and had your own web shooters as well as one of his old suits just in case. May knew about you and peter after finding out a while ago. However, peter and you had kept everything about your existence from the avengers so you could live a semi-normal life. At least for now.

But the day the avengers were fighting off the aliens, New York had taken some heavy damage. You had been running a small illustration business out of your apartment in queens. Your apartment … which was now levelled in the fight was gone. Along with your business.

Since you had moved out young, May only had one spare bedroom in her apartment which peter was occupying. Leaving the Parker’s with one option.

As peter had a room in the avenger's tower, you could stay there or with aunt may. Peter being Peter didn’t want to ask tony if he could stay in the tower for the unforeseeable future without arousing questions. So, you had been secretly living in the tower for about three days now.

Peter brought you food and had bribed Jarvis to keep your existence a secret. You had his old suit if you wanted to leave the tower, you could swing away instead of walking through the building and getting caught.

It was a pretty solid plan and it had been working pretty well. Until the day you got sick.

Peters' bedroom in the tower was on the floor with the other avengers, meaning you had to be somewhat quiet so Natasha, clint or the others didn’t find you. But it had begun to get colder out, and Peters old suit didn’t have a heater. It had been made before tony had found out spiders, including peter and yourself, can't thermoregulate. And swinging around New York without a heater in the nippy winter air had left you with a pretty nasty cold.

Unlike peter your powers didn’t give you super healing. In fact, your powers differed from peters in more ways than one. For one thing you had small fangs which you could retract, they didn’t do much, but they were cool, and peter was mildly jealous. Another thing was you had taken on aspects of jumping spiders as you could jump higher due to your super strength and some weird spider quality peter lacked.

Like peter the bit had given your excellent eyesight, increased metabolism, a lack of thermoregulation, the weird sticky thing, the spider sense and super strength and the allergy to peppermint. But due to sharing the suit anytime you went out as “Spider-Man” you had to refrain from using your own unique powers, so you didn’t give anything away.

The thermoregulating thing may have finally come back to bite you now that you were in peters old suit. After taking one of his patrols for him so he could finish his assignment and you could get out of his room in the tower, the cold had made you sick. Heres the thing about having a high metabolism when you don’t have an increased healing factor. It went one of two ways. Either you had flash colds which were taken care of quickly and at a much faster rate than the average human, or if it was stronger than your immune system, it was quickly made into a bigger problem than it should have been due to your body processing things faster and speeding up its strength.

Anytime this had happened in the past, due to not being able to go to a regular hospital, you had thanked the gods for May choosing a career in nursing. Though she had been able to treat you superficially with regular medicine and not anything made for super soldiers or spiders as that was a Bruce banner specialty that was unique to the tower's med bay. So, you often just had to ride it out and if things got really bad, peter would try and smuggle you some of his medicine out of the tower for you.

So, this is where you ended up. Curled up in Peters bed in the tower, stifling rough sounding coughs into his pillow and making a mental note to wash his sheets soon. You were doing your best to remain quiet and not alert either of the super spies to your presence or any of the other avengers. You thanked Thor that only you and peter had super hearing which meant you could usually tell if someone was in the halls.

Feeling miserable you buried yourself further into the sheets and shivered, it was so cold but in reality, you probably had a high fever. Your lungs let out a wheezing noise whenever you exhaled, and you were beginning to think maybe your asthma was back. Unlike peter you had not been so lucky as to have had it cured by the bite.

Your asthma puffer was one of the few things that survived your apartment being destroyed. As you laid in bed feeling awful you thought back to that day.

You thanked the gods you had been out at the time. You had gone to a coffee shop downtown with your sketchbook, laptop and usual things you took out, including a range of art supplies and of course your emergency puffer which peter had managed to smuggle out which had doses that worked with your metabolism.

You were broken from your daydreams as another harsh coughing fit wracked your body. From what you could hear nobody was in the halls, but you did your best to keep quiet regardless. The wheezing that trailed after each breath was getting worse and your lungs were feeling tight.

You had been trying to use the puffer sparingly so it didn’t run out because you didn’t know if and or when peter could get you another. But as drawing breath grew harder you made the executive call to use it. You rolled over in the bed and threw an arm down to fish around for your red backpack. Finding it you fiddled with the zip before your fingers wrapped around the cool plastic of the device. Tony being tony had insisted it have a Spiderman case thinking it was peters which ended up being rather ironic as it was fitting for you too.

You tried fruitlessly one last time to draw breath before achieving nothing but a crackling wheeze. Screw it. You uncapped the red lid and held it to your lips, propping yourself up on an elbow in an attempt to sit u straight to take it.

You exhaled and inhaled repeating it once more before drawing in a lungful of the super-medicine. Almost straight away you began to feel better. Your fast metabolism speeding up the medicines process.

Feeling like you could breathe again you replaced the cap and put it on the nightstand before curling up in the sheets again feeling cold still but also slightly damp from the thin layer of sweat that had been forming all morning.

You were dressed in spider-man pjs which had a thin t-shirt and long pants. You had considered getting up to grab one of peters hoodies to get warm or another blanket but the idea of standing up made your head spin.

You nestled back into the sheets and let your eyes fall shut despite it being almost midday. The curtains were drawn and so it didn’t bother you too much. You began to drift off into a semi-peaceful sleep broken by harsh coughing fits which were becoming harder to stifle in your half asleep and fevered state.

Meanwhile the avengers had just finished their morning training session, one which Peter had joined for once. Peter being Peter had barely broken a sweat and as a result had opted to hang out on the communal floor while everyone went o freshen up.

Stark had designed the tower well. With Peter’s bedroom being on the same floor as Natasha’s who was rather protective of her younger spider counterpart as well as Wanda’s, Yelena’s, Kate’s and a few spares. The rest of the avengers were a floor above.

At first peter had been a bit miffed about being on a floor of just girls but he ended up liking it a lot. And he had a second bedroom in the master suite with tony and Pepper which he proffered anyway. The one on the avenger's floor was more for if Tony and Pepper were away, and he wanted to be around the others.

Natasha was headed for her room after waving goodbye to peter who had settled down to watch more star-wars, when she paused in the hallway.

Retracing her steps she found herself stood outside peters bedroom door. Frowning she pressed an ear to the door and froze. Someone was inside and coughing. Knowing it wasn’t peter, nat carefully twisted the door handle.

Peter being peter had prepared for almost anything. As soon as Natasha had set foot inside peters room Jarvis had alerted peter of her presence.

Meanwhile Natasha peered into the dimly lit room. The lump in the bed was wriggling around and coughing. Nat was on high alert by now. She realised this person was ill but how had they managed to get in without Jarvis knowing? And why were they in peters bed?

She crossed the threshold and walked over to the bed. Taking note of the backpack on the floor and puffer on the bedside table as well as your spider-man pjs which had been a gag gift from Peter last Christmas.

Nat stood and observed for a second. Looking down at your flushed face which was burning with fever and the harsh coughs that were wracking your weak form.

Nat watched helplessly for a second unsure of how to deal with a sick intruder.

She hesitated before extending a hand to your forehead and feeling a very high fever. She sucked a breath. Despite being an intruder she had some ideas as to why you may have been here. Your likeness to peter wasn’t hard to spot. Yet. She was unsure.

Peeling of the blankets to get a better look at you, as she did you made a small noise of discontent and curled into a shaking ball still fever addled and half asleep.

Before she could continue the door opened and peter looked in.

“Uhh M-Ms Romanoff…” Peter said looking guilty as he stepped in and closed the door again.

“Peter, do you know who this is?” Natasha asked getting straight to the point. Peter hesitated and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Y-yes.” He said looking at your sick form with a frown.

“Peter.” She said crossing her arms. “Care to share whats going on?” Nat said as she headed for Peter’s bathroom.

“Um… She … she’s,, my sister.” Peter said unsurely. Natasha returned after a second and nodded. Now holding the first aid kit from peters bathroom in her arms.

“Anything else i should know?” She asked walking over to the bed and sitting down to rifle through the first aid kit.

“Petey?” You mumbled hearing his voice.

Peter seemed to break out of his trance and came to your side. “I’m here Y/n.” He said.

“‘S cold.” You mumbled making peter frown.

“Actually, I think she has a fever.” Nat said as she found what she was looking for, pulling out a thermometer from the kit.

Nat gently placed the thermometer under your tongue and turned to look at peter.

“Pete, you’re not in trouble but i need some more information.” Natasha said.

“This is Y/n. She’s, my sister. Her apartment was levelled in the last attack and so she’s been staying here ever since. She’s not a threat I promise.” Peter said almost tripping over his words in order to explain.

Before Nat could respond the thermometer beeped and she removed it to look at the small screen, drawing another round of coughs from you. Natasha rubbed your back with one hand while frowning at the screen.

“Peter… she should be dead. This says 106. There’s more isn’t there.” Nat said with some urgency as she began peeling the rest of the blankets off you in an attempt to cool you down.

“Ahh … yes. She had powers. Like mine. She … she wears the suit sometimes.” Peter said standing nearby and watching with a worried expression.

“Ok. So, she has spider powers? High metabolism, super strength, etc.” Nat said and Peter nodded. “Why hasn’t her healing fixed this?” Nat said feeling your forehead again.

“She doesn’t have it. Her powers differ slightly.” Peter explained as Nat cursed softly in Russian.

“Her fever’s still rising.” Nat said making a decision. “We need to cool her down fast before she gets too hot for her own good. Jarvis?” Natasha said and peter looked panicked for a second worried about more people finding out about you.

“Ms Romanoff-“ he started.

“Pete, we need to cool her down stat. I need some help.” She said and peter nodded still looking nervous. “Jarvis call wanda to Peter’s bedroom.” Nat said and peter relaxed slightly. Wanda was ok. She would be good for the situation.

“What are you going to do?” Peter asked.

“She needs a bath and I doubt you want to do that.” She said with a small smirk and Peter flushed for a second.

“Defiantly not.” He said shaking his head.

“Is there someone we can call? Someone who she’d be ok with dressing her once we cool her down. She may be sick but i don’t want to invade her privacy.” Nat said as she scooped you up from the bed and into her lap while they waited for wanda to arrive. You cough harshly again and wheezed making nat frown and look to peter.

“Asthma.” He said.

“Runs in the family huh?” She joked reaching over for the puffer on the bedside table.

“Uh… about that.” Peter said looking guilty. “Mine was cured by the bite. I need the puffers for her.” He said looking sheepish. Expecting Nat to be mad she grinned.

“You’re a good brother.” She said as she uncapped the device and pressed it to your lips.

“Exhale.” She instructed and by some small miracle you complied. When you went to inhale, she administered the medicine and told you to hold.

Recapping the device, she rubbed a hand up and down your arm. “Good job sweetie.” She said and felt you relax into her arms some more as you let out a breath.

The two sat in silence for another second before the door opened again and wanda slipped inside.

She was freshly showered, her hair damp and she smelt like jasmine and honey. She was dressed in a simple faded black t-shirt and grey track pants.

“Whats-“ she began before pausing, her eyes caught on you laid in Natashas lap half asleep.

“Wanda,” Nat said. “Meet Y/n. Peter’s older sister.” She said.

“Okay…” Wanda said looking lost before her expression morphed to concern as you coughed. “Is she ok?” Wanda asked.

“No. That’s why you’re here. Long story short, peter smuggled her into the tower, and she has spider powers and her fever is really high. We need to cool her down.” Nat said and wanda swallowed and nodded. “Peter?” Nat said turning to the younger parker.

“Yes?” He said looking up from where he had been studying his shoes closely.

“You never answered my question. Is there someone we can call to come and get her dressed after wanda and i bathe her?” Nat asked and peter blushed again and nodded.

“I can call May. It’s her day off.” He said and Nat nodded.

“You do that. Wanda and I will look after Y/n. We promise not to go further than her outer clothes.” She said and scooped you up into her arms. She headed for Peter’s bathroom with wanda trailing behind. You remained limp in her arms snuggled into her chest in an unconscious need for companionship.

Once the two redheads had you in the bathroom wanda looked at nat. “Now what?” She asked and Natasha smirked.

“Now we take her clothes off.” She said and gently she lifted your arms from where you were laid on the floor in her lap and pulled the spider-man t-shirt off over your head. Wanda blushed slightly at the sight of your red sports bra despite having seen Nat and herself train in about the same if not less clothes.

“You wanna help?” Nat asked with a grin that only served to make Wanda’s blush deepen. You squirmed slighting in Nat’s lap but stopped when she gently rubbed your arm after you buried your warm face into her stomach.

Wanda rolled her eyes in an attempt to feign nonchalance despite being way past that point.

She lifted her hands, and the familiar red glow of magic surrounded her hands. Her magic lifted your hips so Nat could slide off your pants. Wanda blushed again at the sight of your Black Widow boxers. Natasha however grinned at them finding it both adorable and very cute.

After a beat Wanda met Nat’s eyes again. “Now what?”

“We get her in the bath. She needs to be cooled down Asap.” Nat said hoisting you into her arms again as you wriggled, turning and grumbling into her chest.

“Not gonna lie she’s pretty cute.” Nat said and Wanda avoided her eyes as she used her magic to fill the bath with tepid water.

Natasha gently lowered you into the tub ignoring your whining protests and running her hands through your hair which seemed to calm you down as you relaxed again.

“So … now we wait?” Wanda guessed and Natasha nodded.

“Yep. Unless you really want to steal May’s job of getting her dressed again.” Nat teased making Wanda splutter slightly. “Im kidding.” Nat said. “I know what hot women do to your brain.” She winked and wanda slouched slightly.

After a second you grumbled and blearily opened your eyes, squinting at the two women.

“Peter is so dead.” You mumbled before letting your eyes drift shut again. There was a pause before wanda and nat both started laughing.

You groaned. “Peter!” You yelled before coughing again making Wanda and Nat frown. But before they could do anything the door opened to show a beat red peter with his hands covering his eyes.

“Yes?” He said in a small voice.

“When I get out of here, you’re dead.” You mumbled with a foggy glare sent in his direction.

“Hey. Peter did the right thing.” Another voice said from behind Peter.

“May?” You called. “Oh, wtf is going on right now.” You mumbled.

“Whats going on kiddo is that, once again, you failed to ask for help which landed you here.” May said entering the bathroom with a change of clothes.

“Nice to see you Ms Parker.” Nat said and wanda echoed.

“Please. Call me May. And thank you for looking after her.” May said and you groaned.

“I hate all of you.” You said hiding your face in your hands.

“Uh huh. Sure, you do.” May teased.

“It was no problem. Ms- May.” Wanda said. “We’ll wait in peters bedroom while you… yeah.” Wanda said before making a hasty retreat. Nat laughed and followed her out.

May gave you a disappointed frown once she had shut the door and turned back to you with a sigh.

“Honey.” She said.

“I know… I know.” You said still feeling like death but slightly less so. “Did the black widow and scarlet witch just really see me in my underpants?” You asked.

“Yes, and I serves you right for hiding illness … again!” She said as she came over, rolling up her sleeves and helping you out, practically holding all your weight for you as your head spun.

May frowned and guided you over to the covered toilet seat to dress you again.

Gently she began to towel you off and change you into fresh clothes.

“I can do it myself.” You whined but May shot you a look and you knew better than to challenge the angry Parker and you and peter had called her as kids when she was upset at you for something.

“Now, once you’re dressed you are going to thank those two for their kindness and your coming home with me.” May said.

“But-“ you began.

“No buts.” She said and helped you up, now fully dressed.

She helped you over to the door opening it despite still holding you up. The two of you shuffled into the room where Peter, Nat and Wanda were sat on Peter’s bed talking in hushed voices.

“Pete. I love you but I can hear everything you’re saying dumbass.” You said rolling your eyes and May lightly hit your arm.

“Right.” He said rubbing his neck. “Super hearing.” He nodded.

“I’ll add it to the list.” Nat grinned and you groaned before May jabbed you in the side and looked at the two girls.

You coughed at her actions making her frown but quickly got it under control for the sake of your already fragile image.

“Thank you, Wanda and Natasha, for helping me.” You said still leaning heavily on May. Now you had been standing for a bit the room began to spin. Your face went a shade paler making Natasha frown and stand. It was a split second before you stumbled, almost bringing May down with you in the process. Luckily strong arms wrapped around you, and you looked up into Nat’s pale green and worried eyes.

“Y/n?” You finally registered she was talking to you. “Y/n?” She asked again a little louder.

You let out a soft groan and she huffed. “Right. Up we go.” She said hoisting you into your arms and making the room spin again as you buried your face in her arm.

You felt her gently set you down on the bed and feel your forehead.

Distantly you heard May saying something along the lines of taking you home and the sound of Natasha arguing they were better equipped to help with your powers and sickness. May relented and you went back to dozing.

“What happened?” Peter asked from where he was stood by the door.

“Probably got too dizzy from standing up. Her body’s already trying to fight off sickness.” Natasha said and Wanda nodded.

“Peter? Don’t you have a super high metabolism?” Wanda asked.

“Yeah?” He said looking lost as May seemed to catch on.

“Y/n when did you last eat?” May asked and you groaned and buried your face in the pillow. “Well, that answers that.” May said rolling her eyes.

“Peter, do you have any of those energy bars that steve uses?” Wanda asked and peter nodded and headed for his bedside drawer.

He fished around and pulled out one of them and passed it to nat. She unwrapped it and shoved it into your hands.

“Eat.” She said and you made a groan of protest. “It’ll help.” She said in a softer tone.

“Fine.” You said sitting up against the headboard and nibbling on it slowly.

“Better.” Nat said and you frowned.

“You know you’re cute when you’re mad.” Wanda said looking surprised by her own words and blushing at Natasha’s knowing gaze.

“Get some rest маленький паук” Nat said once you had finished eating, and she begun to shepherd everyone out of the room.

PART 2

[the-underthinker]

MASTERLIST

Avengers

Series

- The Avengers are actually Crack Addicts.

Description: Quite Frankly, you’re all idiots. How you guys are able to save the world so many times is an anomaly even you don’t understand, but you try not to think too much about it when you’re having fun.

1 2 3 4 5 

Steve Rogers

Series

- Home 

Description: Steve Rogers is attempting to find a new purpose in this new world. It isn’t until one day when he decides to finally embark on one last mission before hanging up the suit, that he encounters a few moments with someone who is in need of guidance—just like him.

1 2 3

[emptyultimatum]

GOOD GIRL

Avenger Loki x gender neutral!reader In which Loki changes things up a little

~ SMUT!! [ fingering, praise, light breast play, light oral, references to vaginal s3x ]

~ TW!! [ character injury but mild ]

I meant it as a joke, you thought to yourself, half ruefully, half gleefully. But as the quivering, spread legs before you revealed a dripping, fluttering cunt, you could hardly call your thoughts regret. 

It all started with the mission. Twenty-four escaped convicts, an easy night out for the Avengers. Technically, it was below Avenger status (not exactly world-saving, after all), but Tony was trying to make a good impression on the U.S. government, so the superhuman heroes spent a lot of time running errands for the White House. You and Peter were on it, an easy fix. Honestly, either one of you could’ve done it alone. 

You went left, Spider-Man went right. There were supposed to be an even split, but the numbers changed too quickly to communicate. You soared over the frigid treetops, angel wings beating the air, when a harpoon speared through your feathers. You crashed to the ground, keening with pain. 

Six criminals got away. Peter handled the other eighteen, but the damage was done. They sent Vision after the last six and helicoptered the two of them back to Stark Towers. 

Loki, as one can imagine, was distraught. 

“What happened? Parker, who did this to her? She needs medical assistance—”

“What do you think I’m trying to do, Curlicues?” Tony Stark gestured to the corner with his chin. “Go over there and sit like a good girl.”

An unfamiliarly dangerous spark lit Loki’s features. You cocked your head curiously through the pain, but Tony blew him a kiss. Loki hissed through his teeth, but backed off, letting Tony scan your gaping wound.

“You know, I always wondered if these things were illusions,” Tony mused, tapping on his holographic screens. “They appear out of nowhere, it doesn’t make sense, unless—” 

“Pocket dimension,” you gritted, as Bruce Banner and Tony snapped their fingers in unison. 

“That does make sense,” Bruce said brightly.

A red syringe-shaped arm popped out of the side of the medical bed. It blasted freezing nanoparticles over the gash in your wing, then retracted. Enhanced healing patches were placed over the bruises and road rash along your arm and thighs, and Tony gave you a jar of skin-repair salve for later. A few adrenaline injections to the arm later, and you were feeling much better. 

“Can I see my boyfriend now? He might tear a hole through all nine realms if you don’t let him check on me,” you rolled your eyes, beckoning Loki over. 

He pushed past Tony, elbowing him out of the way. “Darling, are you okay?”

“You’re welcome,” Stark said. “No problem. I’ll just go over here and lick my ass, I guess.”

“Yes, do that,” Loki muttered. Tony winked at him, deadpan. 

“I’m much better,” you reassured him, flexing the wing and drawing his attention. “I heal quickly, remember? The worst was the pain, but it won’t linger.” 

“Good. Then let’s get to your bed. You need rest.” Loki scooped you up. The world wavered in a flash of green, blinding and strong, and suddenly they were back in their old, cozy room. A sweater lay, forgotten, on a chair. A few snack wrappers and… other kinds of wrappers lay scattered about the floor. 

“Oh it’s a mess,” you smacked your forehead. “Good thing they healed me in the med bay and not here.” 

“I’ll clean it up, don’t worry,” he assured you, his eyes sincere. “Just take it easy, dearest.” 

“What’s got you all worried, Lo?” you laughed, cupping his cheek. “I’m fine. I’ve been hurt worse before.” 

“Yes, but that was before we were together. Additionally, I fear I’m facing some… insecurity, as it were.” He glanced away, cheeks pinking. 

“Insecurity? About what?” 

“I- nothing. It’s no matter. We shall discuss later,” he brushed you off, standing. “Please, let me clean for you.” 

You grinned up at him. “If you say so. Thanks for cleaning for me, Loki. You’re such a good girl.” 

You put a growl on it, a low, sultry purr. The tone of voice you usually said good boy or beg for me in. You meant it as a joke, a demeaning one, a call back to Tony’s patronizing snub. 

Instead, you saw something liquify in Loki’s eyes. That same look he got when his cock was in your hands, or your teeth were sinking into his skin. 

And being yourself, you capitalized on it. 

“Do you like that?” you cooed, arching an eyebrow. “Do you want to be my pretty girl, Loki? My good little obedient princess?”

Oh, you had him cornered. His bottom lip trembled with thinly held control, his eyes darting back and forth, warring with himself. 

You reached up, pulling him back down, so that he kneeled before her. You locked his gaze with her own. 

“If you want to be my good girl,” you said gently, “You can.”

Loki shuddered, and slowly, his shoulders began to slough down and round off. His frame turned slighter, more slender, and his chest swelled. He was daintier, but still with the shoulder-length choppy hair and wild silver eyes. He was no he at all. She was Loki. A tall, wiry, masc Loki, with a dripping mess between her legs. 

Loki whimpered as you laughed aloud, running your hands through that silky black hair. “Oh, you pretty girl, so many tricks up your sleeve! Why don’t you strip for me, so we can see what pretty trick you have up your pants.”

You had never seen Loki undress so quickly. 

And so, here you were, Loki breathless and growling beneath you, your fingers sliding into Loki’s slippery, throbbing mess. You curled your fingers acutely, and Loki bucked up into your hand. 

“Naughty,” you cooed. “Bad girls don’t get to cum. Stay still.”

“Please, love,” Loki begged, her cheeks flushed red. “Please let me cum.” 

“Behave,” you scolded. “And maybe I’ll consider it.” 

Loki let out the prettiest keening sound you’d ever heard. You giggled, leaning forward, wrapping your lips around Loki’s pulsating clit. You sucked, hard, and she moaned again, her legs clamping around your head.

“Is this the insecurity you were dealing with, pet?” you asked, stroking the pad of your thumb over Loki’s sensitive, aching clit. “Were you lost?” 

She nodded, eyes screwed shut with pleasure and humiliation. “I wasn’t sure how you’d —fuck— react.” 

You smiled, running your hand flat up her belly, cupping a tender breast, and squeezing. “Pretty girl. I’d never want you to be anything less than yourself.” 

Her eyes opened, beautiful and silver as always. Loki smiled up at you, holding your hand over her breast. “Sweet love,” she murmured. 

“Besides,” you gave her a sharklike smile. “Now I get to fuck you. Spread your legs.” 

With a whimper, she complied. 

[mrs-barnes-rogers-writes]

Angel - Part 3

Marvel AU

Pairing: Alpha Steve Rogers x Enhanced Omega Reader x Alpha Bucky Barnes

Theme: A/B/O / True Mates

Summary: It's different when you're enhanced. Everything is different, every smell, every sound, touch, feelings. The way it's different doesn't make sense unless you are enhanced. Throw in what comes with Alpha and Omega instincts, and the intensity of your presentation is even more than any other. When you find yourself in need of help you can call on the alpha you trust the most, Natasha Romanoff. You just don't expect to find your alphas at the same time. Are you really enough for them? And can you really be the Luna to the Avengers?

"To be loved, to be loved by your mate is everything." - Wanda Maximoff

Reader is enhanced, has wings and has powers connected to electricity.

Chapter Summary: The aftermath of the readers attack continues.

Chapter Warnings: Description of sexual assault, attempted rape, torture (attacker uses an electric shocker on reader) and samples being taken.

“Scan complete.” F.R.I.D.A.Y confirmed. “Injuries, three broken ribs, two broken fingers to the left hand and one to the right, crushed vocal calls, concussion and bruising to her thighs, wrists and face. I’m detecting seminal fluid on the legs, stomach and personal areas. Suit is in tact but shows attempts at forced removal.”

“Agent, walk me through what happened.”

“Shall I interpret?” Clint asked.

“No,” Hill replied. “Let the AI do it, ideally it needs to be a neutral party.”

Clint nodded. You began to sign but your hands were shaky and your sentences abrupt.

“We got back from the mission and there were mentions of drinks in the mess. I wanted to shower first, there’s dust and rubble in my hair. He came to my room.”

“Who?” Asked Hill.

“AFH 23 Jones.”

There’s mutterings of “son of a bitch” and “I’m gonna kill him”.

“I’m going to need you all to stay quiet.” Hill instructed. There were huffs around the jet.

“Continue Agent.”

“He came to the quarters, my quarters, the room they’d put me in. I didn’t answer the door. They’d put him next door, at the side of me.”

Natasha growled. You’d already raised your concerns about Jones’ interest in you. He shouldn’t have even been in the same building.

“I waited for him to step back from the door and made sure it was locked.” You signed. “I put the shower on and then I heard another door. There was a connecting door.”

Your hands started to shake and your scent grew in distress to the point it burnt the other’s noses.

“Is this necessary? Does it have to be done now?” Asked Bruce.

“I’m afraid so Doctor Banner.” Came Hill’s reply.

“It was locked, I know it was. He said it wasn’t. Tried to give me whisky. I started to argue and went to check if he’d broken in. The handle was on the floor. He charged at me and we started to fight. He used a shocker.”

“What type?”

“For enhanced.”

Growls rumbled through the jet.

“He maced me as I tried to get it off and he knocked me to the floor and he said if I didn’t comply, he’d….”

Your hands shook and your breathing became more erratic.

“Breathe sweetie, you can do this sestra.”

You started to sign again.

“He said if I didn’t comply he’d have me thrown in the Raft. He’d have me put there as an out of control enhanced. He tried cutting at my suit but it’s the one Nat gave me.”

“Romanoff?”

“It’s Stark Tech same as the new S.H.I.E.L.D ones, I had Tony make a couple for her.”

“He couldn’t get it off and he hit me across the face. Every time I struggled he shocked me. I couldn’t move. He just carried on and rubbed himself all over me, his hands round my throat. He finished, sat there drinking the whiskey. He’d shocked me so many times I was paralysed. I couldn’t get up. I must have burnt through my blocker because the others were there then, they broke down the door, they saw what he’d done.”

“What others?”

“The team I was with.”

“I’ll need the mission team list.”

“I have access to her missions. I’ll send it over.” Nat added.

“Did they try to assist you?”

You nodded and signed yes.

“I didn’t want to stay there. The way they looked at me.”

“That’s understandable.”

“So you left and contacted Agent Romanoff?”

You nodded and pointed at the watch around your wrist.

“OK. Banner, I’ll need nail clippings and her suit bagging. If there’s anything in her hair I’ll need a sample of that too.”

“Understood.” Bruce replied as he gave you a sympathetic look.

You held out your hands and Bruce started to clip your nails. You zoned out as he whispered reassurance to you and didn’t come back around until Nat tried to guide you to the shower.

“Allowed?” You signed.

“Yes, Maria said you can.”

Nat guided you to a wall and before you have chance to ask questions a panel slides back and she ushers you in, you look around confused.

“It’s like the tardis.” You sign. Nat smiles as memories of Clint and you watching old Doctor Who reruns when you were bunkered down in a safe house flicker in her mind. “I didn’t see the door.”

“Well Tony likes things to look sleek and tidy, unlike his lab.”

You make no attempt to remove your underwear, the only clothes you’ve been left wearing. Realising you’ve left your bag in the ditch you sign to Natasha.

“My things, don’t have them.”

Nat holds up your mud covered bag.

“I have it, don’t worry. We’ll lend you anything else you need.”

You nod as your eyes fill with tears.

“Can I touch you sestra?”

You nod and she pulls you into her arms as you sob. It doesn’t take long for a knock on the door to sound.

“You guys OK?”

Clint, but you know Bruce is hovering near the door too. Both of their scents lingering nearby.

You pull away and start to peel off your underwear, as Nat confirms that she has everything in hand before asking F.R.I.D.A.Y to turn on the shower.

You step in and start to rinse yourself off. Nat points out the fancy pump on the wall as shower wash and asks the AI to give you her shampoo and conditioner. Two more pumps appear and she tells you which is which. You go about your routine as you usually would post mission. Two shampoos of your hair, conditioner left on whilst you wash your body but as you start to finish off the conditioner you feel the need to wash again, desperate to scrub your skin.

Nat, whose eyes have been on you throughout, watching you through the class screen door, straightens herself as you start to scrub at your skin, more vigorously as before. She glances at your wings that are drooping down your back to see they are still jet black. You pull them inwards and they disappear into your back, unchanging in colour. You scrub and scrub more, until it changes to clawing and Nat decides she’s seen enough. Pulling towels from the warmer and ordering F.R.I.D.A.Y to turn off the shower.

You swing around to look at her and go to speak but nothing comes out. Your frustration grows and you sign furiously at her.

“I wasn’t done!”

“You’re done sestra.” She replies, her alpha tone coming through, knowing you’ll argue. “Time to get out.”

You glare at her.

“You wanna turn into a prune?”

You huff and step out as she wraps you in a towel. For many your relationship was odd. A female alpha and omega who were as close as you were was unusual, even as pack sisters, and many thought there was more to it. But it was simply friendship, deep and encompassing but friendship, which had seemingly turned into pack bonds, with Clint and Laura included. Bruce not far behind. It was you that she’d fled to shortly after the battle of New York. When you’d swung open the door of the safe house you were staying in, she’d immediately told you Banner was her mate, only for you to playfully ask if he ‘AND the green guy were’. She’d told you to fuck off and then sulked in the bath (that you’d ran for her) for two hours. You’d told her she’d be wrinkling like an old prune and she’d finally got out to yell at you some more.

Once she’d gone back to New York and they’d mated you’d hoped she’d give you some breathing space. Wrong. Nat had been on your ass about meeting the others since the group had formed and her insistence grew as the pack did. Now, it looked like she’d get her wish but not in the best circumstances. What will the others think of you? What about what’s happened? Will they think you’re weak?

You snap out of the million questions for yourself as Nat tells you she’s going to brush your hair. She doesn’t get far as the lights flash with an alert, which is soon followed by a knock on the door.

“I’ll be back.” She assures you. You start to look at yourself in the mirror and huff at what a mess you look. You pick up the brush that Nat has left at the sink and do your best to brush through it as your body pulls and aches. You throw it into a loose plait from the bottom of your neck and find the hair tie in your bag.

There’s a knock and Nat steps back in her scent and that of the others wafting through the door. Concern. Worry. Stressed.

“I’m sorry Y/N. We’ve got a situation we need to handle.”

“Situation?” You sign back, as she starts to pull out your clean clothes from your bag and help you into them.

“Rogers, Barnes and Wilson were on a mission. Their jet got into trouble on the way back.”

It might be the concussion but you’re confused. How do two super soldiers, both experienced pilots, and an experienced Pararescueman like Sam Wilson get into trouble on their journey home.

“Sitrep.” You sign but she ignores you. The change in her scent though changes and the worry takes over from concern.

“Romanoff! Sitrep!” You sign. “I can help.”

“No!” She snaps back at you. “You’re hurt. We have it covered.”

She gives you a once over, now dressed in leggings, a cropped t-shirt and a pair of fluffy socks and snaps at you for not having a jumper. The door to the shower room slides open and Clint waits to wrap you in a blanket before guiding you to one of the seats near the front of the jet and strapping you in.

“Stay put.”

Your eyes narrow at him but he doesn’t seem bothered as he plants a kiss on your head and walks away. Bruce appears then with a cup of something flowery and definitely alcoholic.

“Here. It’ll take the edge off. It’s Thor’s, so it even works for us.”

Enhanced, he means. You nod and knock it back like Natasha throws back vodka.

“OK, I meant sip it but that’ll work.” And he takes the cup and moves to the back of the jet.

The warm sensation from whatever of Thor’s you’ve just necked, the blanket over you and the hum of the jet lulls you to a light sleep. You try to fight it but it seems Bruce was right and you really should have sipped the drink.

Little did you know that when you woke up soon after you’d quickly discover that all hell had broken loose.

Fancy a cuppa? My Ko-Fi.

TAGLIST

@animegirlgeeky @mrsevans90 @vicmc624 @elissanatok @cherlenovix @imdoingathingmom @hnnbananananana @saltedcoffeescotch @jstarr86

[scoonsalicious]

Unwanted: Chapter 4, Unwelcome - Pt. 2

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Avenger!Fem!Reader

Summary: When your FWB relationship with your best friend Bucky Barnes turns into something more, you couldn’t be happier. That is, however, until a new Avenger sets her sights on your super soldier and he inadvertently breaks your heart. You take on a mission you might not be prepared for to put some distance between the two of you and open yourself up to past traumas. Too bad the only one who can help you heal is the one person you can no longer trust.

Warnings: (For this part only; see Story Masterlist for general Warnings) Language, mentions of sex, hints of jealousy, some slight self-deprecation.

Word Count: 1.7k

Previously On...: Now that you and Bucky are officially FWB, you couldn't keep your hands off one another, which obviously meant having fantastic sex in your office.

A/N: And it's time to finally introduce our antagonist! Sort of! Although, I guess you could say the real antagonism is the angst and anxiety we meet along the way. Chapter 11 is coming along very nicely, hence a posting today. I hope you enjoy!

Banner By: The absolutely amazing @mrsbuckybarnes1917

Taglist: (Please let me know if you’d like to be added!) @jmeelee @cazellen @blackhawkfanatic @les-sel @marcswife21 @buckybarnessimpp @mrsbuckybarnes1917 @erelierraceala

"You're both so codependent," Nat said to the two of you one evening a few months later as you all sat gathered around in the common room after dinner. It was a rare occurrence where no one was away on a mission and everyone was Earth-side. The space was crowded, so naturally Bucky had offered you his lap, theoretically in order to open up some seating for everyone else. Aside from the two of you and Nat, there was Wanda and Vision, Steve and Sam, Clint, Thor, Tony and Pepper, Bruce, and Rhodey. Your perfectly imperfect found family. The only one who was missing was young Peter Parker, but it was a school night and Tony tried to make sure the kid had his priorities in order.

"No we're not," you and Bucky said in unison, which made everyone else either laugh or groan. You glanced up at him with a smile and then back to the others. "What can we say? We just really enjoy the benefits of our friendship."

Bucky let out a cough into his hand that sounded a lot like "Be cool, damn."

"How come you never volunteer to sit in my lap?" Steve asked with an exaggerated pout.

"Do you want me to get up, Star-Spangled Man?" you ribbed as you feigned moving out of Bucky's lap. "You can have him all to yourself." Bucky squeezed your waist in warning, holding you down against him. You knew that if you got up now, you'd be exposing everyone to the erection that had been rubbing against your backside all evening. Fortunately, Steve wasn't one to take such a joke very far.

"No, it's fine. I can tell when I've been replaced," he teased, though his smile didn't necessarily reach his eyes. You and Bucky weren't necessarily hiding the fact that you'd started having sex from everyone, but you sure as shit weren't shouting it from the rooftops. There would be far too many 'I told you so's or 'about damn time's for your liking, not to mention everyone asking 'what's the next step?,' so it was something you kept to yourselves. Besides, you both decided that the secret aspect of sneaking around made it so much fucking hotter.

"Good, you're all here," said Tony, breaking through the levity with a serious tone, "since we're all together for once, there's something we need to discuss."

All eyes turned to him. Usually, a serious Tony meant a global-threatening event, but things on the world-saving front had been fairly quiet recently, so you were all curious to see what he had to say.

"As you're no doubt well aware, because most of you aren't complete morons, there are more and more enhanced individuals coming out of the woodwork, and not all of them are identifying as friendlies. I know we've already got a great team here, but Fury thinks we could be better."

"Pretty strong opinion for a man who just sits around watching and talking," Clint offered from his position on the couch next to Nat where he was re-stringing one of his bows.

"Don't disagree, Barton," Tony continued, "but Fury's good graces and government approval are the reason we keep getting to do what we do. He wants us to expand."

"What, open up a West Coast Avengers second location?" Bruce asked with a laugh.

"He wants us to consider taking on some more members," Tony said. "Expand our capabilities. I was able to negotiate it down to one."

"Do we have a say in the matter, or has he already made the choice for us?" Natasha asked warily. Like you, the Avengers were the only real family she'd ever known, and like you, she was highly uncomfortable with the idea of allowing just anyone to join it.

"He's made some... suggestions," Tony said, holding up a stack of thick folders, "but the final decision is ours to make."

"Well, I say we stick with known quantities," Sam offered. "Like Tic-Tac. He proved himself in Berlin."

"Nah, Scott Lang's not a viable option," you interjected thoughtfully. "Maybe as a reserve or something, but not a full-blown member." At Sam's questioning look, you elaborated. "His daughter's young, and he doesn't have custody. He's not going to move across the country and leave her in San Francisco. Not for us, especially after being apart from her while he was in prison."

"Same's going to go for T'Challa," Nat agreed. "His priority is always going to be Wakanda, he won't give that up, nor should we expect him to."

"We could always invite my brother Loki to join us," said Thor with a grin. "He's quite skilled," he paused for a moment to think his statement through. "Though he is completely untrustworthy and could very well try to murder us all, so perhaps not. But what a humorous situation that would have made!" The eye rolls from around the room proved that, no, it would not have made a humorous situation at all.

"I wish Pietro were still here; he would be magnificent. A perfect addition," Wanda said wistfully, and you reached over to squeeze her hand. She'd done so much healing since her brother had died in the crossfire of the battle with Ultron, but you couldn't imagine the lingering pain losing a twin must keep her in. She gave you a grateful look as she returned your squeeze.

"Well, who else do we know that we'd actually trust enough to ask?" Rhodey posited. The ensuing silence spoke volumes.

"Natty, what about your sister?" you suggested. "You think Yelena would be interested? It wouldn't suck to have another trained Widow on the team. Plus, she makes me laugh, which, you know, absolutely crucial Avenger requirement."

Nat looked thoughtful. "I don't know if it would be her thing, but I could reach out; wouldn't hurt to ask. But I wouldn't get our hopes up; she's pretty dedicated to helping all the former Widows right now."

"Swell," said Tony with an eye roll, making a note on a piece of paper inside his folder. "That's one, maybe. But probably not."

"Well, what options did Fury send over?" Rhodey asked him.

Tony began handing out folders to everyone. Each page contained a brief bio of an enhanced individual Fury had vetted and thought might make a good addition to the team. He handed you a folder, then made to hand another to Bucky.

"I'll share with Pocket," he said.

"Of course you will," Tony said with a shake of his head. "You sharing your balls with her, too, Barnes?" You stuck your tongue out at him. "Nice, Pocket. The pinnacle of maturity," Tony muttered as he moved on toward Bruce.

"Not just your balls," you whispered into Bucky's ear, giving his cock a discreet squeeze. He did his best not to moan out loud at your touch.

"You are going to pay for that," he whispered, causing you to laugh.

"Why don't we take a look at these profiles?" Steve interjected with a cough, waving a folder in the air. Everyone began leafing through their packets. The room was silent, save for the shuffling of paper.

"Wait, here's someone we should definitely consider," Bucky said after a long moment, freezing everyone's attention. He held up a sheet of paper with a picture stapled to it.

You leaned over to get a better look and immediately felt an odd sensation deep inside as your eyes focused on the woman in question: Jade Carthage, code-named 'Vixen'. She had long black hair cascading down her back and vibrant emerald green eyes that, in your opinion, looked cold and calculating. She was absolutely stunning.

"Let's see..." you began reading out loud, "she's the only survivor of a secret Hydra super soldier facility. Looks like they gave her a relatively successful version of the serum, but she single-handedly destroyed their base before it could be replicated and defected to S.H.I.E.L.D. Damn; that's really impressive. Enhanced strength, regenerative capabilities, trained in various forms of martial arts..." While reading about her powers and skills, you couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of jealousy over your own lack of superhero abilities. It was a gentle though bitter reminder that, though you may be able to play in the Avengers' world, you'd never really be one of them. 

"She seems..." Bucky said, almost reverently, letting the rest of his thought hang in the air. "We should definitely meet her." You weren't sure why, but the tone of his voice left your stomach feeling sour.

"Well, she certainly seems interesting," Tony said, perusing the profile, "but I'm not sure she'd be a good fit for the team; I'm not seeing anything unique she can bring us that we don't already have on tap, and I'd want to know why she was the base's sole survivor. What happened to the rest of the subjects? We'll have to look into her more closely before we consider inviting her."

"I think it would be a mistake not to at least meet her," Bucky said, his gaze still locked on Jade's picture. "You can't just walk out of a Hydra base, especially when they value you as an asset. She's got to be good at what she does."

The others seemed to agree with Bucky's assessment after reviewing Jade's sheet. The general consensus seemed to be in favor of inviting Jade in for a more in-depth interview and meet and greet before making further decisions. You weren't sure how you felt about it, but you kept your discomfort to yourself. After all, she could definitely be an asset to the team if they chose to make her an offer, and if she chose to accept, of course. Those were two big ifs that might amount to nothing.And really, when it came down to it, your opinion didn't matter. You weren't actually an Avenger. You were just... Avenger-adjacent. Shaking your head, you attempted to disperse the negative thought. It was a term you'd used to refer to yourself when you were feeling less than your friends, when you were being hard on yourself. You hadn't used it in a while, and you weren't about to let yourself spiral down the familiar path of self-loathing... at least, not just yet.

<- Previous Part / Next Part ->

[innorogers]

Nightmare

Steve Rogers x Reader (You)

Summary: Steve stood in front of the mirror, staring back at him, was a man madly in love. But as much as he wanted to be only that—just a man in love—he wasn’t. Falling so hard for you that he didn’t want to face the reality. There was still a world beyond your home, and he had to face it.

Warning: Minors DNI / A little smut / bj / Angst / Hydra Past / Missunderstandings / He wants to say I love you / This is getting dark as the WB logos in HP movies / Strugglings / He is so in love with you / Your past is coming back and kick your both asses

Characters: OC, Tony Stark, Maria Hill, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff, Sam Wilson

Also: You don't have to read the previous chapters, but it would enhance the experience if you did. And thanks in advance for repost or any feedback ❤️

Chapter 1: Insomnia | Chapter 2: Lucid | Chapter 3: Reverie

“God…!” Steve's head falls back, his body arching, knuckles turning white as he holds on tightly onto the sheets, moans ragged and labored, his chest rising and falling covered in sweat.

His hand tucking your hair, trying to be as gentle as possible, but he is finding that impossible. As you fasten your mouth and hand movements, more deep breaths are escaping his lips as waves of pleasure wash over him. 

"Babe... that feels so good... don't stop... Please don't stop..."

Your quickened pace is driving him more and more over the edge, as suddenly his entire body lost in pleasure, his head falling back onto the pillow behind him, the sheets gripping tightly in his hands as he releases warm and low in your mouth. 

“Jesus…” His body shuddering as he came hard, thoroughly quenched til the very last drop, his breath coming in gasps and pants, not being able to speak as he looks at you: puffy lips, disheveled hair, sweat drops in your perfect breasts, your silky skin marked with his handprints all over body, and you were wiping your lips. 

“Damn...” He pulls you close for a kiss, still breathing heavily, as if trying to recover from his ecstasy. “Babe, don’t… look at me like that… or I’m gonna lose it... again.”

“Wait, what?” You laugh, stepping out of bed. “That’s on me?! I didn’t do anything this time.” You were barely awake when he started. It’s not like it’s your fault you weren’t wearing anything from last night.

“That’s... arguable.” Steve murmurs, sinking back into the pillows, still riding the high of the moment. His breathing starts to slow, but then he notices you’re already in the bathroom. “Wait, no cuddling?!”

“We’ve been ‘cuddling’ all night!” You call from the shower. “And... we’ve talked about this. Tony is gonna be here in an hour.” And I don’t want to smell like sex.

Steve chuckles in resignation, raising his voice so you can hear him over the water. “Can I join you?”

“We both know how that’s gonna end…”

“Yeah, yeah, alright...” he laughs, reluctantly pulling himself out of bed, grabs his discarded clothes, making a half-hearted attempt to tidy the room. “God, we made a mess in here, didn’t we?”

By the time you’re out of the shower, the room is already cleaned up (he's done his best). It’s a far cry from how things used to be: Steve's things are everywhere now. His toothbrush in your bathroom, clothes hanging in your closet, some files scattered on the desk in your lab that's across from your private dorm.

You’re not even sure when it happened, but your secluded, tucked away 20 minutes from the main Avengers compound lab, has become more than just yours. It makes sense, actually, he wasn’t leaving at night. Or in the mornings. Or... really, ever.

At first, Steve would come over for dates. Then those dates turned into 'I'll come by later' and eventually into 'whenever he had the chance.' Now his mug is in the sink, his slippers are under your bed, and his coat has claimed a permanent spot by the door.

He’s here. So, naturally, Sam and Natasha started coming by too. 

They didn’t want to at first—especially after Tony warned them: Don’t go near the place if the windows are foggy or steamed. And the first time they showed up, the windows were, in fact, foggy. 

So, they waited outside, feeding the mosquitoes and staring at the overgrown grass.

But they had important “For your eyes only” files, and waiting beat facing Commander Hill’s irritation later. After counting all the daisies in the field—twice—they finally gave in. Sam knocked (covering his eyes), you answered (fully dressed), and they came in for a cup of tea. A carrot cake later, they became regulars.

Your lab has a charm they can’t resist: plants hang from every corner, spilling over shelves and framing the windows that let in the golden sunlight. The warm, earthy scent of the greenery mixes with the subtle perfume from your humidifiers. A soft glow of the sunlight filters through, casting a golden hue over everything. The kitchen always smells like freshly baked cookies, and the tea is good, but the coffee is great. 

Your space feels like a hidden sanctuary in the sunset. And amidst all this, there’s a relaxed and laughing, perfectly at home Steve. One that they’ve never seen before.

So of course, big boss Mr. Stark wasn’t going to be excluded.

“Remind me again why he’s coming?” Steve asked as he stepped into the shower. You were brushing your teeth, and he leaned over to kiss your shoulder, and…Yup, you were right; he knew exactly how things would’ve ended if he’d joined you earlier.

“I don’t know… there’s no meeting agenda. But technically, we are living in his compound, so…” you said, now brushing your hair and spritzing perfume. Then, after a pause, you added, “I think it has something to do with the New Era Project.”

Steve didn’t respond right away, but you caught the frown on his face through the steam of the shower. “Are you part of that?” he asked after a moment.

“Nope.” You began towel-drying your hair. “I don’t make or design weapons. I just fix your gear and armory and… sometimes I pitch cool new ideas to Tony during brainstorm sessions. You know, Level A clearance, remember?”

Steve chuckled—yeah, he remembered. You had access to all files and records, but only if Tony Stark himself granted it. Actually, he was the only one who could authorize your access and tokens. There were only two people in the entire organization with that kind of clearance: you and Peter Parker.

Your existence here was… special. Only level 3 and above tech personnel knew about you, and they practically worshiped you. You were the one who “optimized their code, fine-tuned algorithms that seemed impossible to crack, recalibrated testing protocols when simulations failed, and stepped in when machines were on the verge of catastrophic failure.” (That was Bruce’s wording. Steve didn't get shit of what he said, just referred to you as “my brilliant genius who fixes all that stuff.”) And the thing that stood out the most? You never took credit for the successes.

Selfless. That was the word Tony used when describing you. But he also said: “And that drives me nuts, because when you lack human ambition, what’s going to keep you around, right?”

Human ambition. The phrase echoed in Steve’s mind as he turned off the water with a sigh. He knew he had been avoiding the truth. Falling so hard for you that he didn’t want to face the reality. There was more to you than he fully understood, and deep down, he wasn’t sure he was ready to know the whole truth.

“I’ll make coffee,” you called from outside, interrupting his thoughts. “You staying for breakfast, or heading straight to training?”

“Yeah, I’ll stay for coffee,” he replied, wrapping a towel around himself and standing in front of the mirror. 

There, staring back at him, was a man madly in love. But as much as he wanted to be only that—just a man in love—he wasn’t. There was still a world beyond your lab, and he had to face it.

He sighed again, suspecting exactly what Tony was going to discuss with you.

The coffee was ready, and croissants were on the table when Tony arrived. He greeted you with a cheek kiss and smirked at Steve, who was just walking out the bathroom with a towel around his waist. 

“There’s a scene I thought I’d never see.” Tony quipped as you placed a mug in front of him. “Aren’t you late, Cap?”

“Aren’t you early?” Steve shot back from the room.

“Actually, I’m late. I hung out in the car for a bit.” Tony tilted his head toward the window, a mocking grin spreading across his face. “The windows were steamed up, so I…” he clicked his tongue, “didn’t want to interrupt.” 

He turned to you, smiling. “This coffee’s great, hon. Any chance you’d consider making it a regular thing in the common room?”

“No. She wouldn’t,” Steve answered, now dressed in his training gear. He kissed you goodbye, shaking his head with a smirk. “Sorry babe, gotta go. Guess you were right, I am late.”

Tony shot him an I told you so look. 

“Coffee.” you said, handing Steve a travel mug, then cupped his face with a smile. “Kiss.”

Inhaling your fresh perfume, Steve sighed, enchanted, as he leaned down to kiss you. “Thanks…” He held back the I love you that nearly escaped his lips.

“Get something to eat after training, okay?” you said casually, unaware of how close he was to confessing.

“Yes ma’am.” He gave you a lingering glance, clearly wanting another kiss—or a few—before turning to Tony. “Easy, ok?” he warned.

“You hear that, hon? Easy on me,” Tony said with a grin, raising his mug to wave Steve off. “See you later, Cap.”

As the door closed behind Steve, Tony looked at you, “You know… that’s the best I’ve seen him in years.” He mused, his fingers tracing the rim of his mug. 

Then, after a brief pause, with a playful smile. “And the best I’ve seen of you, of course.”

You smiled back. “It’s not like you’ve been around much to see me anyway.” You patted his hand. 

“Not that I’m complaining. You’ve given me all the quiet and peace I could ever ask for.” You glanced down at the table with a soft smile. “And purpose.”

Tony stayed silent as the golden morning light filtered through the windows, casting lines of warmth and shadow across the table.

“Did you… tell him?” he asked, hesitating just as the light reached his mug.

“No. I, um…” You tucked a strand of hair behind your ear. “I’m scared.”

“God,” he sighed in resignation. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of. And…” he shook his head, rolling his eyes, “I think his problem will eventually be, ‘Why didn’t you come sooner?’” 

He huffed. “It’s your call, but trust me—he always wants to know the truth, no matter how hard it might be.”

“I know. It’s just…” You admitted quietly, “I’m scared of him being… disappointed.”

“Then he can fuck off,” Tony shot back without hesitation, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. “And die alone on his moral highlands.”

You laughed. Tony always knew how to make you laugh. After a few moments, you softened and asked, “What’s wrong, Tony? What’s really troubling you?”

“You mean besides the fact that one of my top-secret employees, whom I’ve kept hidden from everyone’s sight for years, is actually dating… I mean, no, we’re way past dating, right? I’d say… in a relationship with one of the most famous men in the world, who’s also the high commander of this… you know, little group of heroes that saves the universe from time to time? Yeah, there’s actually one tiny, tiny thing that keeps me awake at night…”

You sipped your coffee, still smiling. “What?”

“I’m having second thoughts about the New Era Project.”

You raised your eyebrows, and asked after some pause. “Do you want me to join?” Because you would, if he asked.

“No.” He was firm. “No, it’s not that. I’d never ask you to do that. It’s just… I’m having trouble piecing everything together. I don’t have the full picture. ” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. 

“The UN have been a pain in my ass since I flew out in a can suit in Afghanistan, but now… they’re... They’re being… nice.”

“And that’s a bad thing.” You raised an eyebrow, not sure whether you were asking or confirming.

“It’s incredibly dangerous and extremely suspicious.”

“I thought our little demonstration of power during Thanos would’ve made everyone play nice,” you said, grimacing as if to say, Duh.

“They even offered to cancel the Sokovian Accords.”

“Wait, what?” You blinked, surprised. “Is that even still a thing? I thought after the Blip…”

“Nobody had the time or the mood to talk about that during the Snap, so it just stayed there.” Tony explained, handing you his mug as you stood up to refill it.

“Well, that’s a generous offer,” you said, pouring more coffee. “But as you said…”

You paused, thinking for a moment.

“If rationality and facts can’t give you the full picture, maybe intuition will.” You sat back down, placing the mug in front of Tony. “What does your gut tell you? Animal instincts in the face of danger are 99% accurate, you know.”

Tony’s eyes flickered with uncertainty. “I don’t know. That’s what’s keeping me up at night. We’ve faced big threats before, but this... this feels different. Like they’re not reacting to a threat, but preparing for one.”

“Patience.” you murmured.

“Say what?” Tony hadn’t caught it.

“The Art of War,” you recalled. “‘He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious.’” You nodded. “So if the picture isn’t clear, you wait for them to make the first move.”

That look crossed Tony’s face—the one he wore when you or Bruce finished a thought before him, or when you completed a task well before the deadline with an unexpected approach. The “finally, someone speaking my language” look.

“They’ve already made the first move, haven’t they?” you observed him closely.

Tony sat up, a slight smile of pride tugging at his lips. “Yes. They’re sending someone to… cooperate.”

“So… how do I fit into all this?” you asked quietly. “Strategies of war, deciphering enemy intentions, gathering intel, hacking systems… you’ve got quite a  team for that. The Team. How can I help?”

Tony sighed, leaning back in his chair as the sunlight shifted, casting shadows across the room. He paused, staring out the window before turning back to you, something close to worry in his eyes for the first time. 

“You fit in because you’re one of the few people I trust to see things clearly. No agenda. No ego. You can do things quietly, behind the scenes. And, frankly, you’re smarter than half the people working on this project…” He hesitated and added with a smirk, “...or the entire compound.”

After a brief pause, Tony confessed in a giving up tone. 

“And because I need your superpowers to sense if this guy is hiding something—something that our metal detectors and scanners can’t catch. These days, I don’t even trust that the people we meet are… well, human. Thanks to Danvers.”

Just like at the opening ceremony, he needed you to assess if there was anything suspicious about the people present. You nodded in understanding.

“Who are they sending?” 

There were two files in front of him, both giving him the same headache. And Steve didn’t wanted to start with either of them. 

One was yours: HE0012, “Twelve.” Your code name—Hydra Experiment Number Twelve—and your real name, (If Twelve could even considered a name, but that was they’d given to you) both stamped on a complete profile folder of your classified information: layers upon layers of secrecy wrapped around your past, barely considered something near light reading.

The second file, labeled “FYEO - New Era Project” was a brick of a report, hundreds of pages long, more of a book than a document. It detailed, in excruciating pain-ass precision, the project's goal: a forced reconciliation between the Avengers and Stark Industries. The initiative was meant to foster collaborative research and development of cutting-edge technologies designed to bolster global defense systems.

Officially, the report framed it as ensuring global protection “in case of need,” but Steve knew the truth beneath the diplomatic phrasing. It was about weapons—gear, tools, anything needed to combat the next alien invasion, or any kind of catastrophic threat Earth might face.

Steve remembered Tony’s struggle with this report, how the stress weighed on him. Tony had been stuck between igniting another Civil War or throwing the damn thing in the nearest firepit. 

But seems now, that Tony had done what Tony does best: handed the problem to Steve.

Damn it, Tony.

“Captain.” Jarvis’s polite voice sounded through the nearest screen. “A guest has just entered the main building. Agent Charles Frazer from the New Era Special Committee has been announced.”

Steve sighed, shoving both files aside. He couldn’t even catch a break. “Background?” He asked as he glanced at the screen, pulling up Frazer’s information.

“Agent Frazer is currently serving with the UN Special Commission, previously tasked with supervising enhanced human activities under the Sokovian Accords. Before that, he was a top agent at MI6.” Jarvis relayed in his usual, steady tone.

“Great. I’ll meet him in the lobby. Where’s Tony?”

“Sir is en route from R&D 001 and will arrive in three and a half minutes. Agent Frazer is already in the lobby, Captain.”

“Fine.” Steve muttered, standing up. “Also ask Commander Hill to meet us there.”

From the second-floor glass railing, Steve looked down and spotted Frazer standing in the waiting area. The man was definitely an agent, but his military background was obvious in the way he stood—rigid, alert, scanning the room, it all pointed to someone used to being on guard, despite his polite, diplomatic smile and the small nods he gave to passing staff. 

After a moment of observation, Steve made his way downstairs before Frazer could notice he was being watched.

“Agent.” Steve greeted, extending a firm hand.

“Captain.” Charles Frazer responded with a wide, courteous smile. One that appeared genuine but not intrusive. “It’s an honor to meet you.”

“Likewise.” Steve was about to continue when Tony, Bruce, and you entered the room, caught up in a heated conversation.

“…so wait, are you telling me the material adapted in real-time? Enhanced its resistance with every applied force threshold—like it learned from the stress points?” Bruce’s voice was filled with astonished excitement.

“Yeah, we saw a 32% increase in tensile strength under standard shear stress.” You replied softly, barely looking up from your coffee mug.

“What about quantum resonance feedback?” Tony waved a hand, pressing for more details. “Is it boosting absorption capabilities?”

“It’s actually forming a self-reinforcing lattice that distributes the force across the entire molecular framework, but…” You trailed off as you noticed Steve. A soft smile lit up your face, your eyes brightening upon seeing him.

Steve, for a split second, returned the smile but quickly recovered his professional demeanor. “Dr. Lancaster,” he greeted you, then nodded to the others. “Tony, Bruce—this is Agent…”

A loud crash cut him off. 

Steve whipped around to see you standing there, your face as pale as your lab coat. Your mug lay shattered on the floor, coffee splattered across your clothes, but you didn’t seem to notice. Your gaze was locked on Agent Frazer’s face, your breath frozen, your body completely still.

“…Four?” The word barely escaped your lips, a whisper under the weight of everyone’s surprise.

Agent Frazer’s reaction was almost identical. 

His confident smile vanished in an instant—from confusion, to shock, and then to an almost frozen state mirroring yours, his eyes reflected the same haunting familiarity. It wasn’t just shock; it was a mix of fear, disbelief, and perhaps even something darker—like a flood of old memories being unlocked all at once. 

For a moment, the two of you stood there, staring at each other in stunned silence. Slowly, Frazer’s gaze locked onto yours, and recognition began to settle over his face. He slowly lifted a trembling hand toward your chin, his voice cracking as he murmured, “Twelve?”

“How…?”

“Let’s take this to a more private room.” Tony, ever the first to break the silence, said firmly even before you could go on. His eyes weren’t on you—they were glued to Steve, gauging his reaction.

Steve stood rigid, his jaw was set, his face unreadable as he observed the silent exchange between you and Frazer. 

“Yes, let’s do that.” Steve said, his voice firm but soft. A few people in the background had started to notice the unusual scene unfolding and were beginning to glance your way. So it was to act quickly.  He stepped closer to you, a part of him instinctively wanting to put a hand on your shoulder, or hold your hand to offer some comfort in the midst of the shock, but he hesitated. His hand hovered for a second before he drew it back. 

As the group moved to a quieter, more secluded room, the air was thick with unspoken questions, and no one dared to break the fragile silence. All eyes were on you and Agent Frazer, as though the past had suddenly come crashing into the present, and no one was sure how to navigate the ruins.

You met with Commander Hill in the middle of the hallway. She quickly noted the tension in the unusual group, scanning Agent Frazer as fast as she could with her x-ray inspection mode and cautious glare. 

“Is… everything okay?” She instantly reacted, reading the room. “Meeting 9 is available.” She looked at Steve and Tony and communicated in their own silent way: And it’s ready.

Ready meant that the room could provide total privacy while also functioning as the most advanced interrogation room. Everything would be recorded, with real-time facial expression analysis by Friday or Jarvis. The room’s ambiance would shift according to participants' moods, creating the most relaxing and comforting environment possible, encouraging the participants to say anything and everything that needed to be known.

But of course, you didn’t know that, and neither did Agent Frazer— or Four. You hadn’t yet recovered from the shock, so you barely heard Tony when he said, “We’ll just leave you to it,” or noticed the worried look Steve had given you. You didn’t look back; your eyes remained locked on Four’s.

“How…” You broke the silence after a long pause, sensing that both your breaths had softened. You began to regain some rationality and composure. “How did you escape? I… I thought you were dead…” 

Four closed his eyes for a moment, trying to stay as calm as possible.

He didn’t know where to start with.

“I was…” 

He didn’t look at you; his gaze was fixed on the floor, lost in some distant moment from the past. 

“The cryostasis pod that held me…malfunctioned, but instead of shutting down, it went into some sort of low-energy survival mode—almost like it was trying to protect me. Left me hanging on the edge of life, just the basics kept intact.” 

His accent was you remembered, a perfect blend of British and Russian, a strange yet polished combination of both. He talked as in Times New Roman. 

“I reckon I stayed that way for years… like being stuck in some frozen limbo. Like wandering in some desert between hell and heaven.” 

Four’s lips curled into a fragile, ironic smile: “That Hydra fortress in Caithness was too well-hidden. I’d have gone unnoticed until I wasted away, but when Hydra fell, every strategic spot on the globe became suspicious. British intel ran sweeps over the area… and they found me.”

You remained silent, memories flashing through your mind. You knew why the cryostasis pod had malfunctioned in the first place. 

After the Battle of New York, the remaining Hydra forces had started shutting down their less critical underground fortresses. Caithness, where Four was held, had probably been vital during the war, but your files were far too confidential, buried too deep to be easily retrieved. That place must have been overlooked as obsolete.

Then came the Battle in Washington, when Steve crushed Hydra for good, and Black Widow exposed Hydra’s files, Caithness would have landed on British radar.

The world had been holding its breath, watching the Avengers’ actions since New York. 

It wouldn’t surprise you if British intelligence wanted to keep Four for their own research—a super soldier hidden, repaired, filled with selective truths, and molded into a loyal agent. Their own secret Avenger, integrated into their best special forces.

“They kept your memory?” you asked softly, almost afraid of the answer.

“Bits of it.” Four replied, offering a smile, sensing your concern. He wanted to ease the pain of what he’d gone through during his rebirth. “Britain’s tech wasn’t as advanced as Hydra’s.” 

He glanced around and sighed. “And they were definitely far away from… this. They didn’t push it too far, just in case it might… break me and ruin everything.”

“Do you remember… everything?” you asked, finally looking into his eyes.

“Not everything. Just pieces, fragments. Sometimes I get flashbacks in my dreams…” Four’s eyes softened as he looked at you, a faint smile touching his lips, his voice tender with nostalgia. 

“You were a brilliant tree climber... I remember that odd old oak tree deep in the forest. Grand and ancient. You’d scramble up to the top branches and shake them until the leaves fell, making a pile on the ground. Then Five and Seven would dash over and dive in, like a pair of foxes.”

“And once, you hid a rock under the leaves, and Seven jumped right onto it…” You were lost in the memory too.

“He hit it so hard…” Four chuckled, his gaze drifting to that long-lost time. 

“We did everything to stop the bleeding before heading back, but he looked like…”

“A smashed tomato can.” You both said at the same time. And then you both laughed.

“I was grounded, of course. Bloody big time.” Four leaned back in his chair. “Six days of detention because, naturally, our blood was ‘precious,’ and Seven’s was everywhere. They had to clean up so thoroughly, it was like they burned the place down.”

“And you came by on the fifth night…” Four’s went gentle, as if telling a bedtime story. “You snuck in and gave me a piece of bread. And a golden leaf.”

He reached out and took your hand, squeezing it tight.

“I’m so glad to see you, little sister.” His voice was filled with pain. 

“When I woke up… I thought I was alone in this world.”

“Me too.” You whispered, though your eyes were elsewhere, lost in the shadows of the past. 

“Me too…”

Steve could feel his teeth clenching. He tried desperately to release the pressure building in his fists, but the anger was overwhelming. 

He suddenly understood why he hadn’t been able to even open your file before—it was fear. He didn’t want to feel this powerless, like he does now, knowing there was nothing he could do to change what you’d been through.

Tony might have made a joke, something like, “Well, at least he’s only her brother.” but Steve could sense the tension in his voice.

“This is so…” Fucked up. Sam stood beside Steve, watching closely. “Any lie detected?”

“Facial analysis shows 99% veracity. The 1% is due to human factors beyond my calculations.” Friday’s voice echoed through the room.

“If the story’s true, it’s not impossible,” Natasha chimed in, raising an eyebrow. “When the files went public, someone must have taken action.”

“It just smells like there’s a cat hidden in the closet, y’all know?” Sam muttered, arms crossed, shaking his head. “Like, really? Now? The agent overseeing all this Sokovia Accords 2.0 stuff just so happens to be ex-Hydra, ex-experiment, and he shows up now? Like literally walking right to her. Now? When she’s…” He gestured pointedly. “With Steve? Why not before?”

“Maybe he was gone during the Blip?” Natasha suggested. “Look, I’m just trying to figure this out. Not saying the guy’s a saint, but…”

She glanced at Steve, who had turned into some kind of statue, staring at the screen, trying to read your every move, every reaction.

“We do have ex-Hydras doing just fine…” Bucky is one. You are one. Natasha didn’t say it, but it hung in the air, unspoken yet clear.

“Alright, first things first.” Maria stepped in, standing next to Steve. “What do we do with this guy? He’s still carrying the UN Special title, and…” She pulled up his file. “One thing’s for sure—his records are impeccable. At least on paper.”

Steve didn’t respond. His eyes remained fixed on the screen, where you were holding hands with Four. It wasn’t romantic, he could tell. You were pressing his hand, patting his back. You looked relaxed. The painful part of remembering was over, and now you were chatting about his life after MI6 gave him a new identity.

And you were smiling. You tilted your head slightly, something you always did when listening intently.

“Tony.” Steve suddenly spoke up, his voice low but steady. “Why are you so quiet?”

Steve hadn’t raised his voice, but the room instantly turned to Iron Man.

“Maybe I have nothing to say.”

“Or maybe it’s because I don’t want to know the answer.” Steve shot back, his tone sharper now. He didn’t say it aloud, but Tony knew. He knew exactly why Steve was looking at him like that.

But as always, Tony didn’t flinch under Steve’s scrutinizing glare, nor did he step back.

“I think Dr. Lancaster is just the perfect person for this job.” Tony said, quietly but with precision, locking eyes with Steve.

“Fuck! Tony!” Steve’s fists slammed down on the desk so hard that everything on it bounced. “She’s out of the New Era Project.” he said, gritting his teeth.

“She’s Level A.” Tony stepped closer, meeting Steve’s gaze up close. 

“And she happens to be top of R&D. Yes, I asked her to be here this morning, to check on this guy… just like she’s been doing since day one when she entered this compound.”

“So yeah, she can show him around, talk about super-intelligent things that normal people won’t understand, as long as it fits within the clearance I’ve given her. It’s not like I’m ordering her to do anything.”

Tony leaned in even closer to Steve’s face. “You can stay and hang out if you want. But seriously… and this is me being brutally honest, like you’ve always wanted.” His voice was calm, firm, unwavering. 

“Did you really think you could keep her out of this? Out of your life? Our life?”

He opened his arms slightly, giving Steve a knowing look. “Stop acting as your decisions are better than hers, Steve. She knew exactly what she was signing up for.”

“I’m honored, but my pressure it’s on its peaks.” Four muttered, walking beside you down the long aisle that led from “Sustainable Technologies & Environmental Innovation” to the “Space Exploration & Interstellar Travel Engineering” hall.

You chuckled softly, shaking your head as you caught the reflection in the sleek glass walls: a serious, determined, and ‘touch my girl by a hair and I’ll kill the fuck out of you’ Steve, and a ‘I have so much more important and real shit to deal with right now than this’ face Maria walking behind you. 

“I mean I’m just a public employee. I expected both high commanders to receive me, but not to walk us all the way.” Four teased: “Remember when we had to escort the king during the war?”

“I thought that was the proudest day of your life.”

“It was, until this.” Four laughed, letting out a long, amused sigh after a pause. Then, more sincerely, “But you should be proud too, Twelve. Look at what you’ve accomplished.”

Four’s gaze lifted, drawn to the towering structures and intricate technology around him—robotics designed to repair spacecraft mid-flight, drones engineered for planetary terraforming. His eyes followed the sleek contours of prototype exosuits encased behind glass, shimmering with the pulse of energy cores yet to be tested.

Even with all the cutting-edge tech he’d seen around the world, he couldn’t help but admire the scale of innovation unfolding here—the flawless precision, the harmony between form and function, and the dedication and sense of unity the folks around here were putting on their work.

“Everything here... it’s like stepping into the future.” he said, his voice carrying a rare note of awe. “Back in the day, we only dreamt of machines like this. Now it’s real. I can feel the intelligence in the air, the potential of what this place can do.”

He paused in front of an android prototype, its sensors lighting up as though acknowledging his presence.

“This is what happens when visionaries are free to play with the impossible. And you are part of it. You should be proud. It’s the realization of everything we once hoped for. ”

Steve and Maria exchanged a glance at his words, and Steve’s gaze immediately shifted to you. He was desperate for you to turn, to look at him the way you always did—like you understood him without a single word needing to be spoken. But since the moment you walked out of Room 9 with Four, your gaze hadn’t found his. Not once.

You stayed silent upon your brother’s words. Your gaze was still, serene, and silent. There was no emotion beyond that on your face. Your eyes rested lightly on Four's expressions, then moved softly to the equipment he was examining. You were as still as a pond on a windless day. And your eyes…Steve could always interpret the emotions they held, if you offered him a glimpse, but you never did.

“Is it?” you murmured, emotionless. Neither Four nor Maria caught it, but Steve did. And it sent a cold shiver down his spine.

He watched you, hoping—no, needing—you to turn around, to meet his eyes with the same openness you always had. He knew you could feel his gaze, feel his desperate hope that you would just look at him. But you didn’t. You kept walking a few steps behind Four, and the space between you and Steve grew wider with every step.

He wanted to call your name, to pull you aside, to ask if you were okay, if this was too much for you. But something held him back. What if you didn’t respond the way he hoped? What if Four’s presence here was dragging you back into the person you were before? What if you weren’t the person he had fallen so deeply in love with? And what if… what if you didn’t love him back the way he loved you? Or worse, what if you were still exactly what Hydra wanted you to be? 

What if…this is the real you?

Steve’s heart was at war with itself. He had fought through battles where the stakes were higher than anything he could imagine here, but the battlefield of emotions felt far more treacherous. His love for you was the one thing he held onto with unyielding certainty—something unshakable. But now, he felt it flickering, like a candle fighting to stay lit in a growing storm.

Every time he looked at you, searching for a sign that you still belonged to him in the way he believed you did, it felt like reaching out for something just beyond his grasp.

It wasn’t the distance you kept from him physically that hurt the most. It was the emotional wall—thick, invisible, but undeniably there. His rationale, the part of him that always tried to be fair, tried to stay calm, told him not to jump to conclusions, not to doubt you. But the love-struck, emotional side of him—the part that saw you as his everything—was falling down into the vast uncertain sea of fear.

Four’s voice pulled him back from his thoughts, he was talking in low, but Steve overheard anyway.

“What are you really working on?” He was genuinely curious: “I’ve always known you were the best of us in intelligence but…this is…” he said in an obvious ‘wow’: “Mr. Stark said that you are on top of R&D, and you are also guiding the way, so I bet it is something…dramatic.”

“I can show you my workspace.” You smirk quietly, your voice a little bit proud, as a sibling that wanted to show off her new toys: “It’s not…dramatic. At least not complicated for you to read.”

“I…” Steve spoke up at the same time he frowned, but held back on calling out your name: “Dr. Lancaster. I don’t think…”

“We’ll be fine, Captain.” You interrupted him, but he could only see your back when you answered, still not looking back for a second: “I’ve got the clearance, no worries.” You said as you walked straight forward without hesitation.

Of course, you weren't leading Four to your lab—your home with Steve, your recluse sanctuary out of the compounds. That would’ve been too much. Even for Steve, it would’ve crossed a line he couldn’t forgive, and you weren’t a monster, like, duh. 

Instead, you led Four toward your personal workspace. Or how Tony liked to call it: "the genius playroom", where cutting-edge tech, half-finished projects, and too many abandoned coffee mugs cluttered the surfaces—remnants of late-night brainstorming sessions with him and Bruce.

The room was chaotic brilliance in its purest form. Holographic models of Stark tech hovered in the air like suspended thoughts, caught in an endless cycle of innovation. Transparent screens flashed data faster than any normal person could process: only a select few could follow the constant stream of figures and projections (Three, actually, if Wakandian minds, or Dr. Cho weren't around). Half-assembled drones and sleek energy cores, still pulsating with untapped potential, were scattered around workbenches. Tony’s famous bean bag chairs—“sometimes the ass needs to think before the brain catches up”—occupied one corner, breaking the space's otherwise high-tech aesthetic.

The room was alive with invention, buzzing with the frenetic energy of genius minds always in motion. It was your playground, your escape, and the damn Thursday’s night that you couldn’t make it home and Steve's always resent.

“Bloody hell...” Four’s voice broke through the hum of machinery as he stepped into the room. His eyes widened, slowly sweeping across the multitude of inventions and half-finished designs. 

"This is... whoa...little sister, you did find your spot in the world, didn't you?" he muttered, genuine awe in his voice.

You watched him, standing close enough to catch every flicker of his gaze, how his eyes darted from one holographic projection to the next, lingering just a bit too long. As if he was, scanning.

"Well, welcome to The Crib." You said with a casual shrug, already moving toward one of the many touchscreens embedded into the workbenches. You tapped a few commands, and the room sprang to life. Holographic blueprints of your latest projects filled the space between you and Four.

"Where the magic is born. Core of the Avengers and Stark Industries inventions, we usually break a lot of rules here...and stuff, too."

Behind you, Steve and Maria stepped into the room, but your focus remained on the task at hand. Your heart began racing so fast it was going out of your chest, but you pushed it aside. You had work to do.

And a sense of unease gnawed at Steve, making his hair stand on end and his senses become hyper-alert. There was something wrong. Really wrong. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but a chill crawled up his spine, making his muscles tense.

He exchanged a glance with Maria—she felt it too. The air was too thick, too still. He could hear your heart beating, too fast, too loud.

You kept moving, subtly positioning yourself near the wall, your body shielding a button—one Steve hadn’t noticed before.

“Four?” Your voice was soft and casual. You were watching him carefully, studying his reactions like you were dissecting his every move.

“Mhm?” He didn’t look back, his attention still locked on the blueprints projected across the room, soaking up every detail.

“When did you say we escorted the king?” You leaned against the wall, arms crossed, your position relaxed, but gaze distant. “Was it at the beginning of the war? Or when it was almost over?”

“Beginning. Why?” Four turned to face you, a smile still hanging on his lips. “Why do you ask?”

“Because we were Hydra back then.” You said, voice level but resolute. “We didn’t escort people. Not the alliance, at least.”

Four’s smile faltered. It froze on his face.

“Who are you?” Your voice remained calm, but there was a razor edge beneath the surface. “And why are you pretending to be my brother?”

"Shit!" Maria immediately pulled out her gun, aiming straight at Four—no, Agent Frazer's—head, her finger tight on the trigger.

Steve stayed still, fists clenched, eyes rapidly calculating every option in the room: the exits, the distance between you and Four, and how fast he could get to either of you. In a matter of seconds, hundreds of plans flashed through his mind, each one detailing how things could go down.

Four's face remained calm, but the shift in his eyes betrayed him. The mask of the amiable older brother slipped, revealing the cold, calculating operative underneath—the same one who had greeted Captain America this morning: the perfect spy, shifting personas like a chameleon, adapting to every situation.

A slow, smug smile curled across his lips, replacing the affectionate facade he wore seconds ago.

"How did you know?" he asked, tilting his head, examining you. He seemed almost impressed by your unflinching calm, as if you'd been expecting this all along.

"'It's the realization of everything we once hoped for.'" Your gaze was unwavering, your tone even as you repeated his earlier words.

"What?"

You lowered your eyelids, the weight of old memories seeping into your voice, barely a whisper.

"You’ve said that this tech, this…unrealistic world leadered by heroes, is something that we hoped for… is not." 

You didn’t know whom you were talking to, to Four, to Steve, or to yourself.

“We were kids. Trapped in a cage. We never hoped for any of this.” You paused: “My brother and sisters died before I was even grown up. And they didn’t dream big. We didn't have the chance or dared to do so.”

Steve's heart clenched. He had sensed this, but hearing you say it still hit harder than expected.

"You knew?" Four's tone shifted, darker, more dangerous. His eyes gleamed like a predator closing in on its prey. "From the beginning?"

"Easy, Frazer." Maria warned, her aim steady. "You even blink, and I'll put a bullet in your pretty forehead."

"Of course I knew…" you said calmly. "And I know you're wearing a retinal lens—a live-streaming neural interface that captures everything you see, using nanotransceivers to broadcast it live via ultra-broadband frequencies to a secure hub."

Steve's mind clicked into place. You had the ability to see the composition of materials in everything around you. It was why Tony often had you blend in with the crowd, to detect anything out of place or hidden in plain sight.

"Then you know it's too late." Four's grin widened, a victorious glint in his eyes. "I've already got everything I need, little sister."

"Do you?" You smiled—a smile Steve knew all too well, the one that meant you were about to love what happened next. 

You snapped your fingers. 

"Revelio."

The world around you shimmered, peeling away like burning paper. The high-tech lab setup dissolved, revealing a The Crib instead, but it didn’t have all the advanced technology drafts as it was shown to Four. It was a clean, organized, fancy lab, not revealing anything confidential, it looked brand new..

"Binary Augmented Retro-Framing. Or BARF." you said, almost sighing. "It's on the market. The records are public. Tony loves to play with it."

"You think you're so smart." Frazer sneered, a cruel twist to his lips. "Or good. You think joining these superheroes will erase what you are? What you really are? You're nothing but a monstrous experiment."

"You're right." Your expression didn’t falter, not even a twitch. "My brothers and sisters were better." You continued watching him, calm as ever. "But you didn’t come all this way just for some tech demo, did you?"

"No." Frazer's smirk returned, sharper than before. "I came to confirm something, and I did. But there’s one last thing I wanted to check, just in case."

Steve's instincts kicked in, but he knew it was already too late. 

Frazer locked eyes with you, and his voice dropped, firm and deliberate:

"Мечта."

-TBC-

Divider Credits: to the wonderful @cafekitsune

Woohooo...damn!! OMG thank you for reading thus far! Hope you really enjoyed it like I did writing it, it was a rollercoaster of emotions, tho.

Next chapter is finished already so I'll see you on next Friday! And I couldn't help myself on the "Revelio" part, I just had to give that dramatic line, if there were background music asin the movies, that's when it comes to play XD

Alright, let me know what do you think! (Also if you thought this was intense then next chapter is worse...xD)

Love.,

Moon.

Shoot, I completely forgot, but it was mentioned by the brilliant @steviebbboi & @jamneuromain that I should have a taglist? So mentioning here, will edit when I have it ready ❤️

[itsnotbird]

Orphic ~ File 2

Yonderly (adj.); mentally or emotionally distant; absent-minded

Bucky!Barnes x Fem!Reader

Warning: Talks of past trauma, needles, Tony Stark being an ass

Find part 1 here

Dr. Bruce Banner hadn’t left your side in hours.

He ran as many tests as possible, and the results laid out on the table so he could discuss it with Tony. Confirmed that you were an enhanced individual, they could only make a scientific guess that you had some kind of psychokinesis, or the ability to manipulate energy, given the fact that Sam and Bucky were still having fantom jolts.

One thing that was left undetermined, was the reason why you weren’t waking up.

“She’s perfectly healthy, well, a little malnourished but nothing medically significant that is preventing her from coming out of the coma.” Banner says as he rubs his eyes and puts his glasses back on.

Tony watches your heart rate, your oxygen levels, then walks over to the screen where the 3D scan of your brain is actively showing an almost hibernating state. He shakes his head, trying to understand.

“There’s nothing we can do to just wake her up? Inject her with something?” He asks, making the doctor shake his head.

“We don’t know how her powers are going to react to it…” His tone suddenly trails off, then he looks around the area to make sure that the super soldier who flat out said ‘no poking or prodding’ wasn’t around. Then when the coast was clear, he presents his idea. “We could test her platelets, it’s a small procedure I can do quick. It might give us more answers and I could use them as separate test subjects.”

It peeks Tony’s interests, he looks back over to you.

“I wish we could just be in her mind, see what the real problem is. It feels…wrong, treating her like an alien.” He says with a hint of protectiveness. Normally, before he had his daughter, he would have jumped at the chance at using someone spectacular for science.

Now, he can only frown and say no.

Though, another idea comes to him.

“We need to see inside her mind, we can’t but we have someone who can do that.” He says, then calls out for FRIDAY’s attention. “Tell the little witch her services are needed.”

Bucky sits with his arms folded in the common area. Steve sits in the chair opposite of the couch, they’ve been having short conversations for about an hour, though Steve is getting rather tired of his best friend’s unamused attitude.

“So…you kidnapped a girl.” Steve says, breaking the silence.

Bucky rolls his eyes. “I didn’t kidnap her, you can’t kidnap an adult…I just abducted her.”

“Yeah, that’s not better, Buck.” Steve chuckles.

The tap of boots walks past the two men, making them turn and watch Wanda hurriedly make her way to the MedBay. Immediately after she passes, Steve and Bucky share a look.

That had to mean something.

“You think they’re going to force her awake?” Steve asks, face etched with concern and question.

Bucky purses his lips. “They’d be smart to not force her to do anything, I think she might blow the whole building up.”

It’s in the next coming minutes that they are laughing and finally feeling like their old selves then they hear the commotion. Taking off in a run, they both rush to the medical bay.

Tony thought it was going to be smooth. Wanda used her wiggly woo powers (as he calls them) and searched your mind.

“She’s simply asleep…like she’s almost comatose. I think she’s strained herself and her powers are regulating her.” She said, shifting her red strands of power to affect your brain differently. “I can wake her up.”

“Yes! Wake her up.” Tony eagerly states, then moves him and Bruce back a few feet. He’s been doing this super power thing long enough to know that it isn’t always a smooth sail.

Then it happened so fast.

Your heart rate spiked, you stirred slightly. Then, your eyes opened, they were a soft shade of steel blue, almost grey. Your vision clears and your senses came back to you. The ceiling above you didn’t look right, as you looked around, the scene wasn’t familiar.

Your legs and arms were bound.

You struggle, then look to the woman that comes into your vision.

“Hello.” She says softly.

You panic.

More unfamiliar faces come into frame, telling you to calm down and breathe as you thrash in the bed.

Tony watches in concern as you grunt, and when you do speak, a series of red flags raise in his mind.

“Где я?” You shout, trying to flex your hands but they are still covered with Sam’s anti-shock mitt solution. You pant heavily, the blood pressure monitor starts to beep rapidly.

“Okay, this isn’t ideal.” Tony says, watching in horror as Wanda tries to calm you.

They don’t expect for you to break free from the restraints.

“Кто ты?” You look around, shouting.

“Not good!” Bruce agrees, watching as you rip the mitts off your hands.

A surge of blue power gathers at your fingertips, ready to defend yourself. Your head on a swivel, you jump from the bed and try to figure out an escape route while the three strangers in the room all shout for you to stay calm. The woman, red hair, unsure expression, she steps towards you.

“Не подходи ко мне!” You cry, seizing your hand forward, admitting a blue light. She barely has time to defend herself before she’s shoved into the nearest wall, knocking countless things over as she goes.

That’s the noise that sends the two super soldiers running.

Bruce quickly dives for a sedative, throwing it to Tony who comes up behind you and jabs the needle into your neck. A scream tears from your throat, you stumble over your feet.

“Tony? What the hell is wrong with you!” Steve shouts as he comes in to see the mess.

Bucky immediately rushes forward and pulls the needle from your neck, trying to steady you as you fall into a drowsy state.

“She isn’t a happy camper when she wakes up.” Tony states, then points to Wanda who stands from the ground and rubs her head. “Look what she did.”

“I’m fine, Tony.” She says, coming back over to where Bucky catches you as you pass out again.

“How long was she awake?” He asks, placing you back on the bed.

“Oh a solid two seconds before she started screaming in Russian.” Tony exaggerates.

“What?” Bucky fumes. “So you tranqed her?”

Bruce comes to make sure you were okay.

“Oh I’m sorry, you just wanted her to kill us all?” Tony shouts.

“Tony, she woke up in a strange place, she’s like a scared puppy.” Steve says before making sure Wanda wasn’t injured.

“We’re calling S.H.E.I.L.D, and I’m telling them that the man the government just pardoned, brought a threat home.” Tony grits, then looks to Doctor Banner. “Let’s wake her up and put her in the empty discussion room, she’ll be fine in there until Fury comes.”

It really isn’t up for discussion. Though he protests, Bucky still does what is asked of him and helps lock you in the empty room. He doesn’t stick around though like the others do, not interested in watching as you wake up and proceed to have yet another panicked melt down.

“Buck.” Steve calls out as Bucky turns from the two way mirror and leaves the room. Sam joins the group in that moment, pausing as Bucky walks off.

“She’s your responsibility now, congratulations.” Bucky dryly says, proceeding to leave the compound all together.

- - - -

You don’t know how long you freak out, but eventually you give up hope and sink into the shadows of the half lit room, keeping to the corner like a scared animal.

Your mind races, not sure where you were or how you ended here. The last thing you remembered was the fight for your life, then a feeling of utter exhaustion as you trudged down an unfamiliar street. Then the next thing you knew, everyone was shouting at you like the words you were saying were sinful.

Your clothes were dirty and wrinkled, you shivered, alone.

Just as you begin to fall asleep, you hear the click of the door open. You curl further into yourself as a tall man enters the room. He gazes into the dark corner. “It looks like you made Tony Stark scared, good job.” He chuckles.

He stops in the middle of the room and folds his hands together. “Why don’t you come on out, I won’t hurt you.”

Slowly, you rise to your feet. Carefully, you come into the light.

“So you do speak English?” He questions, making you nod and not say anything.

“I’m Nick Fury, can you tell me who you are?”

You want to speak, but the fear of being reprimanded is too strong. So you just stare blankly.

He nods. “Alright, how about this.” His hand reaches into his pocket and you jump back, knowing what he could possibly have. But he raises his hands at your reaction. “Hey, it’s nothing to harm you.” He promises, then slowly goes to pull a bar of chocolate out.

“See? Snickers. It’s my favorite. Do you like chocolate?” He asks.

A ghost of a smile appears on your cracked lips. You weren’t allowed to have treats, they were only rewarded when you completed a task successfully.

“I’ll give this to you if you tell me something about yourself. How old are you?”

Your eyes squint, trying to form the answer to that question. Slowly, you answer. “Twenty four…”

No one slaps you for answering in English, so that’s a good sign.

Fury nods in approval, then holds the candy bar out.

Slowly, you approach. Your shaky hand grasps it and pulls it to your chest. Then with a victorious grin, you open it up and take a bite.

It feels good in your mouth, feels warm in your stomach that aches for substance.

“Can you tell me your name?” He asks one more time.

“505.” You answer, occupied by the candy.

Fury’s eyebrows draw together. “Your real name. What’s your real name?”

You shrug. “Don’t remember.”

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

Your head snaps to him, eyes wide.

You go silent again.

Though, you don’t fight any of it. You willingly walk with Fury, you leave the compound with no fight. Tony lets out a sigh once you were gone.

“Well, crisis averted.” He says.

“I really don’t think she was a spy.” Steve says, silently criticizing the man for how stuck up he’s being.

And after everyone goes back to their living quarters, Steve calls Bucky.

Bucky watches the phone ring, stares at it until the screen goes black.

And that’s how things are left.

File 3

[testingthewatersss]

Jericho Trigger warnings for PTSD, mentions of war, torture, flashbacks etc. Bucky Barnes x (injured) F Reader Oneshot 4430 words Angst, fluffy, fluff.  18+ MDNI

Reader is Tony’s sister, a non-enhanced shield agent who recently resurfaced. Bucky loves her. He really loves her. So what happens if she gets hurt? not for long, just for angst.

She wakes up slowly at first. Consciousness creeping in towards her like a flame flickering at the end of a very deep tunnel.

It’s memories. Jumbled and inaccurate. And then it’s voices.

It’s Tony’s voice. His laughter, echoing around her. It’s the sound of his panic, thick and hidden under the more familiar lilt of frustrated sarcasm.

And then it’s screaming.

It’s Natasha shouting urgent, desperate phrases in English and Russian.

It’s the word Sister, and Sestra- which mean the same thing.

And it’s Steve. Steve using the Captain tone he usually reserves for lectures.

And then it’s silence.

It’s silence, and an ache in her side as the reason for the darkness behind her eyes comes back to her at once.

I got stabbed, she thinks— or was I shot?

Both, maybe? Probably both, knowing my luck.

She hadn’t thought about how likely this outcome was when she’d acted, really.

She hadn’t thought of anything other than Steve.

Of the way his shield was on the ground behind them both, and the way that he was looking the wrong way, talking to Bucky-

Oh, god— Bucky.

His face, watching horrified as she’d pushed his old friend out of the way— only getting more distraught as she’d fallen.

At least she didn’t have to hear him screaming.

Her chest aches as she tunes into the distant sound of beeping.

It’s getting faster by the second.

She wonders if she’s dead. If maybe this is- well, it’s probably not hell.

Remembering the traumatised look on her lovers face is painful, but it’s not torture.

Not hell torture anyway. Though the more she dwells on the last thing she remembers seeing that wasn’t darkness she’s not certain that it’s not getting harder to bare.

Purgatory seems possible.

That would be okay. She could make her peace with purgato-

Ouch.

Okay- Okay- that’s new

A hot, sharp pain flares across her flank, making her whole body tense.

She still has a body.

That realisation makes her head spin.

And then, yeah- that’s a groan.

She’s groaning.

Not dead, then.

Wounded, though. Definitely wounded.

Her hand goes to feel the source of the pain, but no-

“Hey, No”

Back to voices then, she thinks grimly, surrendering to whatever state her body wants to be in with a sigh.

“Are you awake?”

Am I? she thinks, trying to decide on an answer.

“Y/N- Can you hear me? It’s Bruce.”

Bruce. Bruce Banner.

“You’re in medical” he says next, “You took a hit, been out a few days”

She tries to reply, knowing she should, but all she hears is a moan, barely louder than a breath.

Still, she hears a spool of elated laughter.

“Good! That’s good- I’m going to get Tony-”

and then she can’t decipher words anymore. Just steps and excited chatter.

and she wants to ask him not to go- because now she’s aware, she’s scared.

The beeping is getting faster, and faster and the pain is getting sharper and sharper and she doesn’t know what’s happening other than that she’s clearly in bad shape—

“—Hey, Hey—” she hears, “—calm down, you’ve got to stay calm”

That is so annoying.

It’s the same thing she’s said to hundreds of patients, but still, hearing it from the other side is just… annoying.

She tries to roll her eyes and realises they’re taped shut.

That only makes her panic more, because if they’re taped shut then she’s been unconscious for more than a day—

days, he did say, days

“Where is she?!”—“What’s goin’ on?!” —“Is she awake?!” “—get out of the way—”

The last voice is Tony’s.

It’s the only one she recognises instantly, and it’s the only one that actually makes her feel better.

“Hi, kid” he says, tone soft and almost relieved, “can you hear me? You’ve gotta let me know you’re okay..”

He sounds desperate. It hurts worse than her ribs.

I’m okay, she tries to say, “-‘m okay”

and then he’s laughing, loud and relieved, and she realises that at least some of that had been audible.

“Get the tape off her eyes” Tony instructs next, “up the pain relief.”

Just the knowledge that he’s there. That her brother is there taking control of the situation makes her feel better. Safer, and more able to relax.

She feels fingers on her face, gentle and cautious as they peel the adhesive strips away from her lashes.

“Keep them shut” a voice she recognises as Bruce advises, “Just for right now.”

“I know” she thinks— she says. That’s her voice. She’s speaking.

A smile tugs at her lips as she tries to wet them.

“I’m a doctor, remember?”

Yeah, it’s a little dry, but it’s her voice for sure.

And now there’s laughter, again.

So much laughter. Tony’s and Bruces, and others, mixing with the annoying medical sounds that are still going off in the background.

“Friday, dim the lights-”

I’m in tower medical, then, Y/N thinks, or Tony wouldn’t be talking to FRIDAY.

“-Alright, slowly—”

That’s Natasha.

That’s Natasha’s voice and god, she’s almost certain that’s her hand on her brow.

“—Open your eyes.”

With a poor attempt at a grimace, Y/N obeys. Blinking tiredly until her vision clears enough to make out the collection of faces surrounding her.

Tony and Natasha are the two closest. Both look hopelessly relieved. Steve is there too, off to the side with Bruce, he looks elated. They both do, actually, they’re both beaming so wide that she can’t help but try and return the expression, even though her cheeks ache.

Bucky.

He’s not there.

Her poor attempt at a grin drops instantly.

Eyes flicking around the room in frantic search-

What if he did something stupid after I went down?

“Hey” Tony cautions, reaching down to steady her head, “Hey, relax”

“Where is he?” she asks, dry voice cracking, “Bucky, is- is he okay?”

“He’s fine” Natasha replies, “He’s there, see, he hasn’t left.”

She watches the red head nod over to her right, to the side where the others aren’t gathered.

Oh.

He is there.

He’s sat on a plastic chair that looks ridiculously small compared to his frame, starring at her with wide, sore looking eyes and all she wants to comfort him.

She goes to reach out, but then she feels it.

Metal fingers curled around her palm. Warm and solid and locked in position.

“Hi” she whispers, seeing the sheer exhaustion he’s sporting, and realising he probably hasn’t even been blinking much while she’s been out— “Did ya’, miss me?”

Tony scoffs again, and she feels something cold running into her vein from the cannula he’s clearly messing with;

She doesn’t even bother to look. She trusts him completely, and besides, her gaze is set on the tears that have started to stream across Bucky’s face.

He’s still. Not even breathing in a visible way, but tears are now pouring from his eyes.

“I’m alright” she swears, “I’m okay, I promise.”

As she says that, she cringes. Something hurts.

There’s pressure on her side, and it’s painful. She grits her teeth and breathes.

“Sorry” Tony tells her, “I’m almost done.”

“What happened?” she asks, looking back at Natasha now.

“You got shot” the other woman replies, “Pushing Steve out of the way.”

“I’m so sorry-” Steve goes to say, Y/N cuts him off with a shake of her head that makes her temples throb.

“How long was I out?” she asks firmly, directing the conversation away from his misplaced remorse.

“3 days” Bruce replies, before Natasha can, “2 nights.”

“From a bullet wound?” she says, exasperated, “I’m getting old.”

Tony scoffs again, and then he’s back in her line of sight—

“It wasn’t a bullet that hit you, it was Steve they were aiming for-”

When she furrows her brow, he sighs, pawing at his goatie and frowning.

“-Remember those Super Solider ballistic plans we found in Berlin?”

Vaguely.

She vaguely remembers a USB stick full of weapon plans.

Tasers and grenades and smoke bombs full of crippling gas and -

Bullets that expand upon impact, releasing toxins into the muscle to paralyse the target while increasing the amount of blood loss—

“Oh, god” she moans, “That sucks.”

“You’re an idiot—” Natasha cuts in, just as Tony starts laughing again, relief making him almost giddy—

“I’m a hero” Y/N corrects smugly, “I”

“You could’ve died” Bucky says suddenly, in a voice that sounds totally shattered-

Ouch.

That hurts more than whatever her brother was doing to her wound.

“Hey” she exhales, turning her head back over to stare at him, “I told you, I’m alright”

“…I- I could’ve lost you” he replies weakly, like he hasn’t even heard her reply, “…You went down and I- I couldn’t-”

“-Buck” Steve cuts in, tone sympathetic but warning, “It wasn’t your fault.”

“Of course it wasn’t” Y/N agrees, hating how injured she looks, flat on her back on a hospital bed, “Is this what you’ve all been doing while I’ve been past out? Trying to decide who’s fault it was that I got shot?”

The disbelief in her tone turns almost angry by the time she’s finished her question.

“Seriously?” she says, bitter now, “It was my fault- There- I’ve answered it for you— Ow! Tony, what the hell are you doing?!”

“Sedating you” he replies calmly, “Your pulse is 210”

“Asshole”

He mutters out a ‘yep’ that sounds so cheerful she almost suppresses her groan of dismay-

Almost.

“I thought you wanted me awake” she says, angry now. “You’re going to sedate me because I’m telling you-“

“I’m sedating you because you’re going to give yourself a stroke” Tony cuts in.

She hears it then, the strain in his tone that lets her know that he’s no more happy about her returning to unconsciousness than she is.

That’s all it takes for her to stop fighting. To sag back onto the trolly with a sigh of defeat and final glance at Bucky which is half apologetic and half accusing.

Has he really been sitting by my bedside wondering if he could’ve gotten himself hurt instead? She thinks bitterly, Maybe he just wishes you could’ve changed things some how? But- how exactly?

What could he have done?

What could any of them done?

Darkness shrouds her before she can come up with any answers.

Her lack of clarity doesn’t matter, though. Because Bucky- Bucky has a list of answers.

He’s been formulating it since the second he took his place at her bedside, aching and non blinking with the image of the love of his life lying wounded on the ground.

Reminding himself of her new position, safely within the medical bay of the tower hadn’t helped much. Not with her looking the way she did.

Steve had called it ‘peaceful’.

“She looks peaceful, Buck.” He’d told him, “not like she’s in pain, she just needs to sleep it off- she took a hit”

Like he didn’t already know that she’d taken a hit.

She’d taken more than a hit.

She’d taken a super-soldier grade ballistic to the chest to save him. To save Steve. To save him from losing Steve.

‘It’s not his fault’ The ghost of Y/N’s voice had reminded him, or- or maybe it had been Natasha’s? Soft and Russian, whispering like their conversations should be a secret.

‘Don’t blame Steve, Barnes. He feels bad enough about it already’

In hindsight that was definitely Natasha.

Y/N only calls him by his last name when he’s in trouble. It’s always playful and teasing and never, ever, sandwiched by Russian.

Ms Romanoff on the other hand? She calls him Barnes more than any other name or title, and she’s always barking at him in whatever language she wants, though, somewhat expectedly, Russian is the default when they’re trying not to be overheard.

Why are they trying not be over heard now, anyway?

It’s not like it would’ve mattered if someone had heard them. Steve would be upset, he supposes, but, even that wouldn’t make a difference to his current situation.

Realising that almost makes him feel something other than the all consuming ache he’s been drowning in ever since he’d seen-

No.

Absolutely not.

Bucky is very good at not letting himself dwell on certain memories and that is one he has no intention of ever revisiting.

All he knows is that something changed the moment it happened.

Something in him changed. It’s like his DNA shifted to allow for more pain than he’d ever felt before, which is saying a lot really. Considering how much pain he’s lived through already.

All of that had been better.

He’d happily beg for another lifetime of Hydra tortures if it meant he could erase the memory of that.

But he can’t. He can’t do that. And he can’t feel anything other than the agony now it’s there. So, even when faced with the very real possibility of hurting his oldest friends feelings in a way that even he recognises as cruel, he can’t bring himself to care.

Not about anything other than Y/N, and the way her breathing is slower now.

Not much slower, but, yeah- it was rhythmic before. Quick, but stable. Now it’s… less.

Panic.

Panic makes his throat tight as he watches.

‘She’s fine’

That’s not Natasha.

That’s Steve.

There’s a brotherly hand on his shoulder and he doesn’t even make himself shrug it away. No, he just sits. Watching.

Making his list of what he could’ve done differently.

Of what they all could’ve done differently.

It’s a long list.

429 items long by the time she opens her eyes.

By the time Tony has made sure she closes them again its up to 500.

He wonders absentmindedly if he’s ever going to stop adding into it.

Maybe?

Probably not.

He knows people are talking around him. Tony and Bruce, Wanda even drops in to check on Y/N, but Bucky tunes them all out. Eventually Steve and Natasha become background noise. They blend in with the rhythmic beeping of machines and hum of the air conditioning.

‘Buck, did you hear me?’

He tilts his head a fraction, eyes not shifting from his lovers chest as a familiar voice presses for his attention.

‘I’ll go’ Natasha says calmly, clearly not expecting him to reply.

That’s fair. He wasn’t listening anyway.

‘I just thought he’d want to-‘

‘Want to what?’ He hears himself say, voice gruff and dry.

It’s sounds foreign to him now, like it’s coming from a stranger.

‘She’s going to want her own clothes’ Steve repeats, putting his palm back on his shoulder, "since she’ll be up soon, I figured you might want to go grab her something from your room’

It takes a while for his brain to process the other man’s sentence,

‘Where’s her brother?’ He asks, looking around for the other Stark, wondering why he wouldn’t have gone himself.

‘Tony crashed a couple of hours ago’ Natasha says conversationally, ‘now they know she’s out of the woods, him and Banner decided to finally try getting some rest- you might want to think about doin’ the same’

He shakes his head sternly. Eyes back on his partner.

Her chest is still rising and falling so gently that his own heart races in response.

‘She still keep her sweats in the second drawer across?’ Romanoff aks, not bothering to press the issue of him sleeping.

It takes Bucky a few seconds to answer her with a confident nod, and then she’s gone.

Steve leaves at some point too. Silently, or at least, without Barnes noticing, and then, Natasha comes back. She hands him a bundle of cream cashmere that is so soft that his metal fingers barely register the weight of it.

‘Be careful putting the top on’ Natasha advises, ‘it’s a button up, so it should be pretty easy’

He looks at her, sore eyed and confused. She cracks a laugh at his expression before crouching beside him so that she can make eye contact more easily.

‘If you swap her outfit now, she won’t have to move, if she does it herself when she wakes up, she’ll feel it’

He swallows drily, understanding. He looks over at Y/N again and feels tears spilling across his cheeks again.

Natasha shakes her head kindly, before reaching up to wipe them away with her palm. The action reminds him so much of Y/N and how she comforts him that he flinches. She stays silent, looking at him with sisterly concern.

‘This time tomorrow she’ll be telling you she’s fine’ Natasha says calmly, ‘until then, I promised her I’d always look out for you if she couldn’t, so do us both a favour and drink some water-‘ she pauses, handing him a metal flask, ‘and help her into her clothes, you’ll be gentler than me’

She pats his knee fondly before standing and leaving the room, knowing he’s more likely to follow her instruction if given space and privacy to do so.

He’s not sure when he brings the bottle to his lips, or when he puts it down, empty and light by his boots.

He doesn’t know when he makes the conscious choice to move either- to stand, peeling the covers away from Y/N so that he can remove the thin hospital gown from her body and start to replace it with the cozy offerings Natasha had brought down from the room they share.

The room he hasn’t been able to force himself to enter without her.

He disconnects her IVs with ease. Slipping her arms into the sleeves with such painfully gentle movements that she would have struggled to feel them even she had been awake. It’s only when he has to shift her hips to raise the bottoms that she seems to notice at all.

It’s only the slightest furrowing of her brow, but it makes his breath catch painfully in his throat all the same.

The thought of her hurting her is more than he can bare.

He finishes quite quickly after that, and then, he realised that he doesn’t want to return to his chair. He wants to stay right by her side, where he can feel the warmth of her breath in the air, where he can see details of her face, even when his eyes inevitably glaze over.

He drops to his knees without hesitation, resting his cheek on the pressed sheet by their tangled palms.

It’s dark.

Y/N realises as she blinks tiredly that it must be night time, now. There is a gentle glow from the monitor and the lights in the hall, but otherwise the room is shrouded in shadows.

Her eyes find the seat that Bucky had been in before, when she finds it empty, she hisses in a nervous breath, catching a glimpse of her own chest and noticing the clothes she’s wearing. Before the distraction can take too much of her attention, she hears the low breathing beside her. It’s so familiar that her pulse settles in response.

There he is.

Sleeping quietly with his face by their hands.

He looks exhausted. Even in the dark she can see the deep-set hollows beneath his eyes. She can see the sunken edges of cheeks that always appears when he skips a few to many meals.

“Your metabolism runs too quick for that, Barnes’ she reminds him in a horse whisper. “You need to eat”

That’s all it takes to startle him awake-

Her almost inaudible scolding.

“Hey” she purrs, seeing his eyes snap open, “I’m sorry, sweetheart… I didn’t mean to wake you”

She means that. He clearly needs to rest.

He’s gawking at her, horrified that she’s apologising to him.

Before he can formulate a response she swallows dryly. It looks painful and he’s instantly moving, reaching over with his flesh hand to pass her the glass of water that’s waiting on the side table.

She takes it silently, draining it before passing it back to him. He discards it quickly, and then she sighs;

“Come on, angel” she murmurs, “come snuggle up”

He blinks at her confusedly until she humours him, offering a smile as she pats the space beside her on the bed.

It’s small, a regular hospital trolly, but she moves herself over before he can object, knowing the pain the adjustment must’ve caused her-

“I’m worried about you, Buck” she says quietly, “I know I scared you, I’m sorry, but I’m okay- I promise, alright? I’m gonna be just fine”

He opens his mouth to object to her apology, but she shakes her head to silence him before he finds the words,

“I missed you” she adds gently, “I’m tired, baby- You must be too”

When he sees the way she’s looking at him, he finds himself nodding in agreement.

“Yeah” she says encouragingly, “yeah I thought so, come on, come up here” again, before he can object, she adds, “You’re not going to hurt me, Tony’s got me on so much morphine I can’t feel anything, and we both know I’m not going to back to sleep with you down there…”

It’s Bucky’s turn to sigh then. He knows when he’s beaten, and even though he knows he doesn’t deserve it, he really does want to just hold her.

Despite her assurances, he’s so afraid of harming her that he barely lets himself touch her, leaving half of his body over the edge of the bed as he puts his head mechanically on the pillow. He’s on his side to face her, and when he sees her laughing silently, shaking her head fondly he feels himself crying again. The tears burn his eyes, stinging sorely before spilling across his cheeks,

“C’mere…” she purrs, adjusting herself and trying her best to tuck him into her front, “don’t cry, sweet boy… I’m right here, I’m not going anywhere….”

“I’m so sorry” is all he manages to say as he surrenders, sniffing lamely as he curls into her embrace, “It’s all my fault- I nearly got you killed-”

“Hey” she cuts in, reaching down to cup his jaw, “it wasn’t even you I took the hit for”

He shakes his head stubbornly,

“I was watching Steve” he reminds her quietly, “I had his six, that way my position-”

“Yeah, during the job” she counters dryly, “we were done, Buck… nobody was holding their positions or I’d have been with Natasha, not Steve”

He goes to shake his head again, but her hand on his face stops him,

“James” she says seriously, “I knew what I was doing- I thought it was a bullet, but still- the only people to blame are me and the bastard that shot me, I’m guessing there’s no point asking how he is?”

“No” Bucky admits quietly,

“Did Natasha get him?” She wonders,

“Tony” he corrects gently, ashamed that it hadn’t been him.

She beams at his response though, and then he feels her fingers in his hair and has to bite back the desperate whine it draws from him.

“Did she take good care of you for me?”

He feels his cheeks burn pink,

“She tried” he confesses, “I-”

“Haven’t been very cooperative?” She guesses softly,

He nods, biting his lip to stop himself from sobbing.

“That’s okay” she purrs, leaning in to press a kiss against his brow, “I’m not always good at that either”

The skin is hot against her lips, she nuzzles into him, knowing how desperate he is for the contact. It feels nice for her too, having him so warm and close beside her-

“Let’s call a Jericho” she suggests next, knowing that considering their situation, that should’ve been the first thing out of her mouth.

He blinks at her, stunned.

A Jericho was something they came up with when they first got away from Hydra. When the idea of working with SHIELD was first broached with the young Stark, when Bucky had panicked and gushed about his fears about not being able to handle being in the field, despite his overwhelming desire to help out.

No matter what was going on, no matter who was asking either of them to do anything. If either of them ever wanted to pull out, for any reason, they’d call a Jericho, and they’d both know that until further notice, fighting was out of the question. They’d gone over the details with Tony, knowing that he’d be the one dealing with any disappointed council members should the two former winter soldiers decide to take a leave of absence.

He’d only ever called one, when he’d had a flash back so terrible on route to the job that he’d whispered the word frantic and in Russian to his partner, while they’d been sat together on the Quinn jet. She hadn’t said anything to him, just nodded once and whispered something to her brother. All Bucky remembers happening after that, was the hanger emptying around them, and Y/N turning the craft around, flying them both straight back to the tower. Nobody had ever questioned them, and he’d never had to explain.

Even now, he thinks she’s probably calling it on his behalf. Despite the nagging guilt that thought breeds, he can’t help but feel an overwhelming wave of relief.

‘Yeah’ she nods encouragingly, ‘yeah, baby… Jericho, huh? I’ll let you fuss over me for a while… just promise me one thing”

He’s exhausted he realises. 3 days without sleep had finally caught up with him, he can’t even make himself reply.

Anything, he thinks tragically, I’ll do anything, I swear-

“Stop blaming yourself” she requests gently, knowing he can’t really help it, “don’t blame Steve, don’t blame anybody, okay? If I thought any of you could’ve done something to stop it, I’d have told you…”

Hes crying again. He can feel it. And then, before he can lock his jaw to stop it, a sob jumps up from his throat.

“Barnes” she whispers again, “it wasn’t your fault, don’t beat yourself up because I got brave, you held your position, you did so good in there—”

“I- I- didn’t keep you safe” he argues wetly, words cracking in his throat,

“Sweet, sweet, solider” she says adoringly, “of course you did, even while I was passed out you kept watch”

I did, he thinks urgently, I kept watch- just like he’d done back then, when the medical staff were far from caring, where watching from wherever they could was the only way they could protect the other from further harm-

She nods in agreement, even though he hadn’t spoken.

“You did great” she murmurs gently, “now, you need to rest up, okay- rest up with me”

Masterlist

[ellephlox]

Embers and Ashes

Pairing: Matt Murdock x Fem!Reader

Summary: It's not easy to keep a low profile when you've got the power to heal, but you've managed to carve out a home for yourself in Hell's Kitchen. By day you're an assistant at a literary agency, and by night you mend broken bones and bloody cuts. It's a double life that constantly forces you to question your morality, because the wounds you seem to magically heal don't vanish forever — they've got to eventually go somewhere.

But after you make the mistake of healing the wrong people, you become Daredevil’s next target, and suddenly your double life becomes far more tangled than you could ever have predicted.

Set post-S3. Slow burn Matt x Fem!Reader. Chapter one will be posted here on tumblr, but ensuing chapters will be uploaded to AO3. You can read Ch. 1 on AO3 here, if you'd prefer.

Warnings: Description of injuries and profanity.

Most normal people in the city dreamed of being an Avenger. 

You overheard them at work constantly, ever since it became increasingly commonplace for people to crop up with super-strength or freakishly accurate aim with a bow and arrow:

“I actually ran into Spider-Man this morning — the real Spider-Man! I begged him to sign my arm, obviously, because there was no paper around, and he actually did it! Look, right here. I'm going to get it tattooed after work.”

“Well, last night I had a dream that I was recruited by the Avengers. It was absolutely amazing, Debbie — Tony Stark wanted me to be his girlfriend! God, it was fantastic. He even let me try on his Iron Man suit.”

“Oh, I’d give anything to be enhanced. I’d want to be able to fly. Or teleport. Any power, really, if it could get me a one-way ticket to fighting with them.”

“But did you hear my friend got threatened by Daredevil the other night? That red horned suit is gone, though. He’s in that black suit from the days when we called him the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen. I’d love to run into that guy — he’s so strange, isn’t he? Handsome, in a mysterious way.”

At this point in these types of conversations you always tried to tune them out. Their rosy idea of enhanced ignored the things that you saw whenever footage of the Avengers was shown on the evening news. After the battle in New York, they raved about Captain America’s strength, that magic hammer of Thor’s, and the way Dr. Bruce Banner metamorphosed from a man into a monstrous hero, as though it were the best thing in the world to have super-powered abilities.

But when you had watched that footage on the news, after the battle was over, all you saw was the blood. The bodies. The expressions on the Avengers’ faces, of the anguish and turmoil they had witnessed. Being enhanced was a curse, not a gift, and you came to resent the word itself — not for the political controversies it provoked, but for its connotation. In the mouths of anyone else, enhanced was a good thing. 

But you knew. 

As you held the temples of the man lying in front of you, his skin burnt severely from his fingers to his wrists, you knew. 

He writhed, his hands flopping like gasping fish. They were scorched as though in a paisley pattern, leathery and swollen. Second-degree, if not third-degree burns, you thought, as the man jerked away from the light emanating from your own hands, but you kept your grip steady. Slowly the skin began to return to its normal color — splotches fading like they were diluted, heaves of scars sinking back and reshaping as though they had never been there, the energy of his wounds transferring into your hands and through your bloodstream. 

You knew, better than anyone, that every gift had a price.

 

TWENTY-ONE HOURS LATER

It was snowing, yet your hands were blistering. 

The plows hadn’t come through yet, and there wasn’t much foot traffic on this side of Hell’s Kitchen, so the sidewalks were thick with snow. Despite your best efforts to hop in the few existing footprints, snow kept falling down into your boots. Your toes were numb, and your ears felt like they were about to get frostbite; you weren’t dressed for the weather. There hadn’t been time to grab a hat and thicker socks when you left your apartment, because you were more preoccupied with the searing burns that were popping like budding flowers on the palms of your hands. They weren't yet to the severity of the burns you had healed on Lynch's hands the previous night, but it was only a matter of time before they began to worsen. 

Only one more block. 

It was past midnight, and all you wanted was to be in bed, curled up with your pillows and quilted blanket, but just before falling asleep, you’d felt the skin tear open on your hand as though someone were holding a blowtorch to it. It was unnerving. You'd estimated another eight hours, until morning, before the energy you had taken from Lynch's wounds would make itself known.

Clearly I was wrong. You seethed with irritation at yourself and at the fact that Lynch had burned his hands in the first place as more snow collected in your boots. A warm pair of socks would be really, really nice right now.  

But situations like this came with the job, even if most people didn't realize it. Whenever people discovered you were able to heal — and they never truly knew it was you, because you were careful to keep your identity obscure — they assumed it was simple. As though you could just lay your hands on someone’s bleeding wound and it magically stitched itself back up. Poof, problem solved! Sort of like all those Avengers your coworkers persistently chatted about. Yeah, if only healing were as easy as doing a few fancy finger movements to open up a portal into another dimension. Doctor Strange doesn't know how good he has it.

Because fancy finger movements definitely wasn't how it worked for you. It wasn’t even close. 

You inhaled sharply as another burn made itself known, this time higher on your hand. A quick handful of snow against the welt soothed it slightly, but not much, and you picked up your pace down the street.  Your destination was an unassuming brick building, wedged between a hardware store and auto repair shop. LYNCH FUNERAL HOME AND CREMATORIUM, read the sign outside, underneath a layer of graffiti. It was one of your closest friends who owned the funeral home, and the previous day he'd sent you an emergency call for help, though you still hadn't heard the story of how he'd burned his hands in the first place. Not that it mattered much. You didn't ask questions very often; healing was your only responsibility. 

There was no one else on the street. There wasn't even much light, because most of the street lamps that weren’t burned out had been buried in a pale coating of frost. Your thoughts turned abruptly to the reports of the so-called vigilante Daredevil, who had reportedly been back on the streets lately. With what you had done in the past, and even with what you were doing now… well, you hoped you never crossed paths with him. Quiet streets like this always made you wonder if today was the day you’d run into him, but it had never happened. Sometimes you wondered if the media simply made him up as a fear tactic to keep crime off the streets of Hell’s Kitchen. 

You hurried inside the funeral home, searching for the only person who you knew would be up and about. Please, be here, please, please…

He was. “Grey,” the man at the desk said, surprise crossing his face when you burst into the crematorium. “I wasn’t expecting you.”

Grey . Just like the word itself, it was ash on your tongue. It wasn’t your real name. Years ago it had been bestowed on you as a code name, a way to keep your identity impersonal from the people you worked with. But it stuck, and now you could count the number of people who knew your real name on one hand. 

“Emergency visit, Thato,” you said, showing him your hands. “I’m sorry. I thought I could manage it until tomorrow, at the very least, but—” You cringed as another burn blistered forth, erupting on the pad of your thumb. “Ow. Shit.”

Thato got to his feet, wincing in sympathy. “Never apologize for this. It’s not your fault.”

You shook your head. “I should be getting better. Improving… this . And I’m not.” It was true. For years, you had been at this same level. If you healed someone — which wasn’t really healing , if you were being technical; it was more like taking their injury and transferring it elsewhere — you could only hold onto it for a short amount of time. 

Option One was taking that energy from the injury and transplanting it onto someone else — typically, a corpse. You had a strict policy for yourself to never inflict a wound from someone else that you’d healed onto someone who didn’t receive the wound in the first place.

Option Two was just holding onto that energy until it began to manifest itself on you instead. And that was never pleasant. 

Case in point: the damn burns on my hands right now. 

You glanced at the door to the morgue. “Please tell me you’ve got bodies in for cremation?”

“As a matter of fact, one arrived tonight,” Thato said, and he put his hand gently on your back to steer you inside. “Let’s go.”

The morgue was cold. Goosebumps pricked up your arms. Thato worked quickly, and within a minute he was pulling out a storage drawer. A woman, her body pale and lifeless, slid out in front of you. 

Even when the bodies were dead, this was never easy.  You averted your eyes, opting instead to look at the ceiling, and placed your freezing hands on the sides of the dead woman’s head, against her temples. Gradually, after a minute, your hands began glowing — not the yellow glow of the man the newspapers called the Iron Fist, nor the red glow of that Avenger you’d seen on television, Wanda Maximoff. Instead, it was a pale slate color, as though smoke itself had become a source of light. It was this color that earned you your nickname. 

“Grey,” your brother had told you, lifting your chin up roughly to stare you down. 

He wasn’t really your brother, but he might as well have been. You’d known him as long as you could remember. Kane was the one who raised you, who had been with you since... for a long time. “Got it? Here with us, that’s what you’ll answer to.”

“But my name is—”

“No. When you’re with us, you don’t use your real name,” Kane said. Of course, just like your name wasn’t really Grey, his name wasn’t truly Kane. “You use Grey instead, okay? Grey Arztin, if anyone ever asks for a last name.” He handed you forged identification papers. 

“Why Arztin?” you asked, reading the name, and fumbling over the pronunciation of the word. 

“It means doctor, in German. Come with me. I have people for you to heal.”

“But I’m not very good at it.”

“Then you need to practice that ability. It’s going to be your greatest gift someday, Grey.”

The energy pulsed in your own temples as it transferred to the corpse, and slowly you began to feel it drain out of you. There was no comparable feeling to this moment, when the build-up of pain was finally relieved from your mental storage space — your cache, you liked to call it.  And, suddenly, burns just like the ones on your own hands bloomed across the white hands of the dead woman — raw, fiery welts, discolored in the center and streaking from her wrist bones to her fingertips. They were identical to the burns that had stretched across Lynch's hands the day before, down to the charred bit of skin just below the thumb knuckle. When the energy was gone, you dropped your hands, and the smoky glow faded.

The few burns that had already marked your own skin were still there, of course, because your healing abilities could never fix what had been done to your own body — yet another shortcoming of your power — but they wouldn’t get any worse. It was over. 

The corpse was rolled back into her drawer. The family would never know that her hands now bore severe burns that hadn’t been there at her time of death. She’d be cremated tomorrow, Thato assured you. It would be as though you had never even touched her. Guilt curled in your stomach at her desecrated hands. Maybe she had been a pianist. Those hands might have been held by someone else, once upon a time — a mother, a lover, a child. She could have used those hands to climb mountains or type out a novel on a laptop or serve plates of food at a restaurant. 

Now, because of you, they were mottled and burnt. 

“She’s dead,” Thato reminded you quietly, once you were outside of the morgue and back at the funeral home desk. “She’ll be burned anyway.”

“I know.” You played with the edge of the desk. “I just always feel bad. It feels like I’m… spitting on her memory, or something.”

“It’s a price you have to pay,” he agreed. “But it’s in exchange for the good you do, each time you use your skill. You even bore some of the price yourself.” He nodded at the burns scattered across your own hands. “I don’t like to see you feeling bad, Grey. Anything I can do?”

You smiled. “It's okay. You already helped me. Thanks, Thato. Really.” 

I don’t want to keep doing this, you wanted to add. I’ve had enough of all this. The healing, the transferring of the injuries and scars and bruises, the role I’ve played in Hell’s Kitchen. I’m done.

You wanted to tell him, so badly that it made your chest feel tight. Thato had been your friend for as long as you could remember. But if you told him, then your brother would find out, and if your brother found out…

Well, Kane wouldn’t be very pleased with you. He'd see it as a failure on your part, or worse, a betrayal. But it didn’t matter anyway, because you couldn’t leave the organization. Not after everything Kane had done for you, and especially not while you were the one thing that stood between him and death every night that he risked his life. 

You tightened your jacket around your shoulders before heading back out into the night, towards your apartment. You took your time; your earlier exhaustion was gone, and with your hands bandaged now, you were able to appreciate the falling snow as it amassed silently, insulating the streets from the sounds of the city beyond. 

But you might not have had such a leisurely walk back if you’d happened to tilt your head upwards and look at the roofs — if you had been able to hear the footsteps above as someone followed you in the shadows, if you had known the man they called the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen stalked you, having listened to every word of the conversation in the crematorium.

[440mxs-wife]

Songbird

Pairing: Bucky x F!Reader. Other Characters: Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson, Natasha Romanoff, Wanda Maximoff, Tony Stark, Thor Odinson. Mentioned: Loki Laufeyson, Bruce Banner.

Word Count: 10,170 (including lyrics)

Warnings: Friends to lovers, mutual pining, a bit of angst, misunderstanding, self-doubt. Fluffy ending (of course).

Summary: For the past 8 months, Reader has been working as the manager for the Avengers. During that time, she and Bucky develop feelings for one another, though neither one knows about it. One day after his workout, Bucky hears someone singing through the vents in the women's locker room, but he doesn't know who it is. He comes close a couple of times to finding it out, but just barely misses her. Tony somehow convinces Bucky to let him throw a fancy birthday party with a 1940s theme, complete with entertainment from that era. When Bucky finds out that the entertainer is his mystery girl, how will he react?

A/N: Happy Belated Birthday, James Buchanan Barnes. This one's for you.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Hold me close and hold me fast The magic spell you cast This is "La vie en rose"

When you kiss me, heaven sighs And though I close my eyes I see "La vie en rose"

Bucky was gathering his clothes from his locker after his shower, but paused when he thought he heard....singing? He stopped for a moment to see if he could figure out where it was coming from and whose voice it was. He hadn't heard singing like that since the traveling USO shows during WWII. Hearing his type of music being sung by someone so talented brought a smile to his face and had him momentarily rooted to the spot.

With his advanced auditory capabilities, he determined that the voice originated in the women's side of the gym. Thus far, though, its identity eluded him. He quickly shoved everything into his locker, slammed the door shut, and bolted out the door towards the sound. On his way over, he ran into Natasha, who stopped him at the entrance.

"Whoa, Barnes, what do you think you're doing? You can't go in there, this is the women's locker room. Your side is over there," she pointed out, her slender fingers gesturing to the doorway behind him.

"I know, but just listen!" he exclaimed. They both stood still as the last notes of "La Vie en Rose" faded away. Bucky's shoulders slumped in defeat, as he had thoroughly enjoyed the impromptu concert. He strained his enhanced ears to hear if a new song had started, then frowned when he didn't hear anything. He curled his hands around Natasha's biceps. "Will you please go in there and, I don't know, ask around? See if anyone can tell you who was singing? I gotta know, Nat," he begged.

Natasha studied him for a moment or two, then smirked as she eventually gave in to his pleading face. "Oh all right, Barnes, keep your shirt on. Please. I'll go in there and see what I can find out," she agreed. But before she could check out the area, you walked out with a towel draped around your neck and your bag over your shoulder.

"Hey, Natasha! Sorry I didn't see you," you remarked as your eyes slid over to the handsome super soldier to her right. "Oh! Hello, Bucky," you murmured with a shy smile.

The corners of Bucky's mouth slowly inched upwards until it was stretched into a wide grin, complete with a display of his perfect pearly teeth. "Hiya, doll," he replied softly.

Natasha rolled her eyes at the two of you. "When you were in there just now, did you hear anyone singing?" she asked.

"Singing?" you parroted. "I heard music of some kind, but I thought someone had their playlist on speaker or something."

Natasha narrowed her eyes as she regarded you with a bit of suspicion. "No, that wasn't a recording, we heard somebody's actual voice. Bucky asked me to go in and take a look around, see if I can figure out who it is, but--"

"No!" you exclaimed, holding up your hands to stop her. "I mean, that's okay, I'll go in and see if I can find out who it is. Be back in a flash!" Before either of them could protest, you had already dropped your bag and ran back into the locker area.

Once inside, you chanced a quick look over your shoulder to see if you were being followed. You paused at the sink and caught your reflection in the mirror. That was a close one, you thought. Gonna have to be more careful next time. 

After glancing at the mirror one last time and taking a deep breath, you counted to ten and walked back to where Natasha and Bucky were standing. "There were a couple of people inside, but nobody knew anything about any singing. Welp, I'm going to head to my room but I'll see you at dinner!" You picked up your bag and waved as you walked away from Nat and Bucky.

Natasha waited until you were out of earshot to ask, "Did that seem weird to you? Like she was hiding something?"

Bucky continued to stare after you with a dream-like smile on his face. Natasha elbowed him in the side, breaking his trance. "Oof! What did you say?" he grumbled.

"I said, did she seem weird to you, like she was hiding something from us," she repeated.

"'Weird'? Nah, I wouldn't say that, I mean we all have our own little quirks, don't we? Besides, hers are kinda cute," he chuckled.

Natasha looked Bucky up and down before throwing up her hands in exasperation and marching into the gym. She turned around just in time to see Bucky look longingly at the women's locker room entrance, then retreat into the men's side to grab his bag.

***

For the past eight months, you have been the unofficial "manager" for the Avengers. If someone were to write down a list of all of your duties, it would likely span multiple pages. One of your favorite responsibilities involved grocery shopping and general food preparation. That included, but was not limited to, snacks. That meant Thor got his Pop-Tarts, Loki got his tea, and Tony got his energy drinks. You could usually find whatever anyone asked for, no matter how exotic.

Except that Bucky rarely, if ever, asked you to get him anything special. He was a little like you in that way, meaning you didn't want to be a bother. To you, it seemed silly to have someone traipsing all over the city to find that one special thing you really wanted. Too often, you convinced yourself you could live without it. But that didn't stop you from picking up a few boxes of Junior Mints, or the occasional jar of bread-and-butter pickles for Bucky. 

As you'd gotten to know Bucky, you'd developed a crush on the super soldier. He was definitely a good-looking man, especially when he smiled. Your heart fluttered every time you heard him laugh, which wasn't often, thus you would do anything to hear it on repeat. Despite what had been done to him in his past, he didn't let that erase his kindness, his sense of duty, or his willingness to protect those he cared about.

Sometimes he'd wander into your office to see how your day was going, bring you some coffee, or to ask you out to lunch. You always sat next to each other at dinner or on movie nights. At times you could swear there were signs that he considered you as more than a friend. Those thoughts were quickly dismissed, because you were certain that current only ran in one direction. As gorgeous and kindhearted as he was, he had loads of women and even some men falling all over themselves for him. What kind of chance would ordinary you have with someone like him?

Today, you made an extra stop at the Farmers' Market being held in Union Square, where there was something for everyone. You picked up honey for Loki's tea, lots of hearty fruits and vegetables, assorted baked goods, and various cuts of meat from the butcher. To brighten up the Tower, you picked out some fresh-cut bouquets of flowers to put in vases. A wine vendor even persuaded you to add a few bottles of his best wines to your wheeled cart.

Out of all your purchases, the one you looked forward to unpacking the most was a bag of plums. The seller assured you that hers were the best, no blemishes or soft spots to be found. She gave you a few samples and explained which varieties should be used for baking and which ones were for enjoying right away. As you were handing over your cash, she tucked a few recipe cards into your bag with a wink. You thanked her with a smile before moving to the next stall with a spring in your step, eager to show Bucky what you had found for him.

***

Two hours later, you returned to the Tower and wheeled your cart into the building. As the door was closing, you heard shouting for you to hold the door. Quickly you pressed the button and you tried to maneuver your cart closer to your side to make room for the new passengers. It turned out to be Steve, Bucky, and Sam, who happened to be returning from a run.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen," you greeted them. Bucky stepped on first, but with the cart, it looked like it would be a tight fit if Steve and Sam also tried to get on. "Oh, I'm so sorry, guys, elevator's kinda full with my cart in here," you remarked.

Steve and Sam gave each other a knowing look before grinning at Bucky, who in turn was trying to give them a murderous glare. "That's okay, Cap and I will catch the next one," Sam smirked. He reached in and pushed the one for the appropriate floor. You heard his cackling laughter fade as the doors closed.

Don't stare, don't stare, oh my God, he's so handsome and sweet--wait--don't stare, you chanted to yourself. "Did you have a good run?" you asked, then internally face-palmed yourself for the inane comment.

Bucky gave a brilliant smile before replying, "Yeah, it was good to be able to go outside and for once, it's not raining." Don't stare, don't stare, God, she's so beautiful and kind--wait--don't stare, he repeated to himself. "Looks like you bought out the whole farm, doll," he chuckled, gesturing to your nearly overflowing cart.

You followed his eyes and burst into laughter. "Yes, I guess I did! It's just that everything looked so good today, I couldn't pass it up. There's a little something for everyone in there," you noted. Bucky's face brightened. "Even for you, Bucky," you added, gesturing to the bag of plums in your cart.

His cheeks briefly flashed a dusting of pink. "Aw, thank you, sweets, but you didn't have to do that for me," he replied.

To catch his attention, you took his hand in yours and gazed into his baby blues. "I know, but I wanted to. It's okay to want things, because you deserve them and so much more," you swallowed hard to get your feelings back under control. "If there's ever something specific you want, please let me know. I'll be happy to go wherever I need to in order to find it. I don't mind, especially if it's something that would bring you good memories," you promised.

"That's really thoughtful of you, thank you. I'll try to remember that for your next trip. You going to need a hand with any of this?" he wondered.

"Nah, it's on wheels, so pretty easy. Oh! I'm making a beef stir fry and chicken fried rice later with some of these amazing veggies. You could....um....you could hang out in the kitchen while I cook? I-If you want to, b-but you don't have to. I'm sure you have more important--" your rambling was silenced by his left index finger on your lips.

"Let me take my shower and I'll be right there with you, doll," he grinned as the elevator dinged for your floor.

A warmth settled into your own cheeks despite the feel of cool metal on your lips. "Okay," you agreed, then backed out of the elevator, towing your cart behind you. "Meet you in the kitchen, Sarge," you smirked.

The elevator door started to close, so you didn't hear his reply. But you did see the genuinely surprised look on his face at the nickname, which caused you to laugh. As you turned to walk to the kitchen, you were stopped by Natasha, who stood with her eyes trained on you and her arms crossed over her chest. "Nat! What's up? And why are you looking at me like I'm in trouble?" you asked cautiously.

"No, no trouble," she replied slyly. "What was all that about, telling Bucky to meet you in the kitchen?"

You rolled your eyes. "That? Nothing," you answered with a shrug. When she didn't look convinced, you sighed in exasperation. "Ugh! Okay, I might have told him he could join me in the kitchen and watch while I cooked dinner for you all. We're just friends. No big deal, Tash," you muttered.

She relaxed her stance, but didn't give away any clues as to what she was thinking. Wanda caught up with the two of you and asked what was going on. Natasha explained what she saw when you exited the elevator and about Bucky watching you cook dinner.

Wanda's eyes widened and a huge smile graced her face at this development, and was only seconds away from breaking out into a happy dance. Before she could start, you held up your hand and reminded them that you and Bucky were "just friends" and it was "no big deal". Then you yanked on the handle of your cart, dragged it to the kitchen and grumbled under your breath about having so much to put away all by yourself.

Behind you, Natasha and Wanda were chattering back and forth, no doubt plotting your next move regarding Bucky. You paid them no mind, because you had more important things to worry about. Like how you were going to keep from cutting your fingers off with him watching your every move.

***

Bucky hastily kicked off his shoes the moment he crossed the threshold into his room. He rushed to the bathroom, shedding his clothes as he went and tossing them in the hamper. You had invited him to the kitchen, your sanctuary, to hang out and watch as you prepared the evening meal. He had to hurry because he wanted to spend every available minute he could in your presence.

When you were first brought on board as the team's manager, Bucky instantly thought you were the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. He could tell by the way you carried yourself that you had a kind and compassionate heart, which made him fall even faster. You had a way of making everyone feel as if they were the most important person in the room when talking to them. Not exactly something he was used to having in his life, nor was having someone care about him the way you did.

Over the past eight months, Bucky has been learning about you by being around you as much as he can be. He listens when you talk about your past, your family, and your friends. He knows of your love of reading, because he hardly ever sees you without a book in your hands, even if it's a cookbook. And though you are usually up for a trip into the city with Nat and Wanda, you're much more comfortable staying in and watching movies.

He loves that you choose to sit next to him on the team's Movie Nights, and that you share your popcorn, but only with him. He appreciates that you respect his space and try not to crowd him, but lately, all he's wanted to do is get closer to you. More than a few times, you've fallen asleep on his shoulder, with his arm around you. Whenever that happened, it made his heart race and nearly sent him into the stratosphere from happiness.

But as much as Bucky would give anything to call you his girl, sometimes the doubts creep in and squash those thoughts. He had enough personal baggage to run his own airline, and what woman would want to deal with all of that? There's no way he wanted to drag you down into the deep rabbit hole that was his life, or, worse yet, expose you to any danger. He would be content to have your friendship, and it would have to be enough.

As he dried off after his shower and got dressed again, his thoughts drifted back to the singing he heard in the locker room. It was his type of music, with vocals that were nearly perfect, and it took him back to a happier time. He was going to make it his personal mission to find out who was behind the angelic voice and ask her to be his girl.

***

Never know how much I love you Never know how much I care When you put your arms around me I get a fever that's so hard to bear

You give me fever When you kiss me Fever when you hold me tight Fever In the mornin' A fever all through the night

The words and melodies from the song flowed from your lips as you chopped the various vegetables for dinner. You set them aside for the moment, along with the chicken and beef that were in a separate bowl, waiting for the wok to heat up. The rice simmered away in one of Tony's fancy, fool-proof rice cookers on the counter.

Sun lights up the day time Moon lights up the night I light up when you call my name And you know I'm gonna treat you right You give me fever When you kiss me Fever when you hold me tight Fever In the mornin' A fever all through the night

"Ah HA!" you hear someone exclaim from behind you. "I knew it was you!" Natasha declared. She had returned from her room, where she'd left her phone.

Clutching your chest at the sudden intrusion, you slowly turned around to face your friend, a panicked look in your eyes. "What?" you gasped.

"It was you, singing in the locker room a few weeks ago," she elaborated. "Barnes wouldn't stop talking about it, said he had to know who it was. I caught him roaming the halls the other day, thinking he'd figure it out by accident. Now I can tell him," she added with glee as she turned to leave.

"No, wait Tash! You can't tell him!" you blurted out. "Nobody knows about this, my singing, and I don't even think I'm that good. But....it's kinda my way of telling him how I feel about him." Your gaze dropped to the floor. "He's my friend, and if he finds out I wish it were more but he doesn't return my feelings, I....I don't know what I'd do."

She pivoted to face you and took hold of one of your hands in hers. "Trust me, you've got talent, my dear. As far as the situation with Bucky goes, I'll do what I can to help you keep your secret. But you should tell him how you feel, because you might be surprised at what happens." She gave your shoulder a pat then took a seat on one of the chairs at the island to keep you company. "Now, will you please keep singing, sweetie?" she grinned.

***

Bucky had just stepped off of the elevator and was headed for the kitchen when he ran into Steve. "Hey, Buck, where you headed?" he asked.

He explained to Steve that you had asked him to hang out while you cooked dinner, and he had accepted. He tried his best to escape before Cap could ask any more questions, but luck was not on his side. Right before they went their separate ways, Steve held out a hand to stop him and took a sniff of the air. "Wait. Are you wearing....cologne?" he wondered.

Bucky scoffed. "No, I'm not wearing cologne. Well, maybe just a little, but it's only 'cause I don't wanna risk goin' in there, reeking like the gym. I wanted to smell nice for her," he mumbled the last part, but it didn't escape his best friend's super hearing.

Steve had an inkling it was you who Bucky was trying to impress. He'd seen signs of sparks flying between the two of you and decided to dig in a little deeper. "Wait a minute. You like her, don't you?!" Steve exclaimed. He started to laugh but stopped when he saw the faraway look on his best friend's face. "What? What's wrong, Buck?"

"Shh, nothing. Just listen," Bucky whispered, breaking out into a wide grin.

Now you've listened to my story Here's the point that I have made Chicks were born to give you fever Be it Fahrenheit or Centigrade

They give you fever When we kiss them Fever, if you live you learn Fever 'Til you sizzle Oh, what a lovely way to burn Oh, what a lovely way to burn What a lovely way to burn And what a lovely way to burn

"It's that voice again," Bucky remarked in awe. "A couple of weeks back, I heard someone singing in the women's locker room. The sound came through the vents--it has to be the same woman!" He was nearly shaking with excitement that today might be the day he finds out who belongs to that enchanting voice he keeps hearing. When he heard the sound of clapping, he bolted away from Steve and around the corner to the kitchen.

"Brava! Bravissima! You were magnificent, darling!" Natasha gushed, still clapping.

When you looked up from your skillet, you saw Bucky standing in the doorway, with Steve peering around him. "Hey, guys! Come on in, have a seat," you gestured to the open chairs around where Nat was sitting.

"I heard it again, that heavenly singing," Bucky noted, his eyes darting around the room, seeing only you and Nat. "Which one of you was it?"

Your eyes locked with Nat's as you silently begged her not to share your secret. "Wasn't us, Barnes. You must be hearing things," she replied, though she didn't look pleased to be lying for you.

"Well, if it wasn't you two, what was the clapping for?" Steve asked. Bucky crossed his arms over his chest, clearly wanting to know as well.

"That was....that was because I was doing my best lip-sync of the song and showing off my best dance moves. Nat was kind enough to applaud my performance, then you guys walked in," you responded. Mentally you were crossing your fingers, hoping they were convinced.

"Oh," Bucky murmured. "Need any help, doll?"

"Um, yeah, this is almost ready. If you and Steve could please set the table, that would be great," you answered, then handed him a stack of plates and utensils.

As soon as they left the room, your shoulders sagged in relief that the matter seemed to be dropped, at least for the moment. "That was a close one," you whispered.

"Yes, it was, and it's the last time I'm going to cover for you. Either figure out a way to tell him, or I will," she warned, then her demeanor softened. "Honey, that man is smitten with whoever belongs to that sweet, sultry voice he keeps hearing. That means you, sweetie. Give him a chance, hmm?" She squeezed your shoulder on her way out of the kitchen with the serving bowls of rice.

On her way back to the kitchen, she spied Tony standing against the wall, scrolling through his phone. "I hear you had a cancellation in the entertainment section for Barnes' birthday party."

Without glancing up from his phone, Tony replied, "I did have a cancellation, what about it?" he inquired.

Natasha checked her surroundings for any eavesdroppers, then sidled up to Tony. "What if I told you, I have the perfect substitution for your entertainment? A hidden talent will be revealed, and you'll get to see the resolution to a certain birthday boy's love life," she remarked cryptically.

Tony's eyes shot up from his phone to give Natasha a sideways and wary glance. "You have my attention," he stated coolly. "What is your plan, and how much is it going to cost me?" 

Nat chuckled. "It'll only cost you a shopping trip for a dress, shoes, hair, etc. Here's what I'm thinking," she added.

***

"You did WHAT?!?!?" you exclaimed. 

"I found out Tony had a last minute cancellation in the entertainment part of Bucky's birthday party, and I told him you'd fill in for it," Nat replied with a shrug.

"Without asking me first, you told him I'd do this?" you asked, pinching the bridge of your nose as you tried to keep your composure.

Wanda took your hand and guided you to sit on the couch. Tonight was "Girls' Night", where you, Nat, Wanda, Yelena, and even Pepper joined in to decompress and have fun. "Listen, I know you're scared for him to find out how you feel about him. But he's already enamored with your voice. He's just as crazy about the rest of you," she stated.

"We've all seen the way he looks at you and vice versa," Pepper chimed in, loosened up after already being a couple of drinks in. "Believe me, you have nothing to worry about in that regard. Frankly, I'm surprised Tony hasn't done anything more about it before now to push you two together," she added as she finished the rest of her drink. "You know what a meddler he is."

"Besides," Natasha added, "if you don't do it, I'll tell Thor that you forgot his Pop-Tarts that one time and didn't feel like going back out to get them. He still believes that story you told him that they were all sold out in every store. You remember how badly he sulked and pouted, how we had five straight days of thunderstorms?!?"

You gasped sharply in panic and disbelief then narrowed your gaze at her. "Ooh, low blow, Romanoff. C'mon, I was tired that day! If I remember correctly, Tony had me running all over town, picking up parts for some doohickey he was working on. You swore you wouldn't tattle on me to Thor. Huh. Some best friend," you frowned. After a minute or so, you heaved a deep sigh. "Fiiiiinnnne. You win. I'll do it."

"Honey, you have an amazing voice. And when Bucky hears it in-person coming out of the stunning figure you'll be on stage, he'll hardly be able to restrain himself," Wanda grinned.

You fidgeted with your hands in your lap, letting your friends' words sink in. You hazarded a glance at the faces of the women around you, seeing nothing but love and support. Maybe this could work, you thought. It'll have to be just the right song, though. "But what will I wear?" you smiled, then shrieked as they all threw their arms around you.

"Don't worry about that, Tony already agreed to splurge on the best: dress, shoes, hair, makeup, accessories--the works," Nat assured you.

"And trust me, we'll make sure and give Sergeant Barnes a birthday present he'll never forget," Pepper declared, raising her glass. "To Operation: Bombshell!" You and the others repeated the toast and clinked your glasses together. "Now, when are we going shopping??"

***

True to his word, Tony had pulled out all the stops for Bucky's birthday celebration. The best food, an open bar with the most talented mixologists, and a top-notch serving staff. For the entertainment, he secured a band to accompany you as would have been in the 1940s. 

Preparation for it kept you at work until late at night, more often than not. Because your job didn't always have regular hours, Tony set up an apartment for you in the Tower. That way, you wouldn't have to be concerned about safety on public transportation late at night. Nor would you have to worry about not getting enough sleep before an early morning meeting. You were grateful for the close quarters, because getting in before midnight was becoming a rarity.

On one of your many long shifts, you had forgotten something in your office, which was on the same level as the Avengers' living quarters. To get there, you had to walk past the common room, then head down a couple of hallways. Usually there wasn't anyone around this late, but tonight was the exception.

The elevator dinged to indicate you had reached your desired floor. As you approached the common room, you heard the voices of your favorite super soldier and his best friend. The closer you got, the better you were able to hear their conversation. Curious, you decided to eavesdrop a little, which, in retrospect, may not have been your best idea.

"What's the matter with you lately, Buck? Is it because your birthday is coming up, old man?" Steve teased.

"Old man? May I remind you, you're nearly as old as I am, punk," he muttered. "Anyway, nothin's the matter with me."

Steve rolled his eyes at the obvious untruth. "To put it mildly, you've been a real grump-ass lately, and I wanna know why," he paused. "It's your girl, isn't it?" Steve had confirmation of Bucky's feelings for you and wasted no opportunity to encourage him to confess to you about them.

"Language, Cap," Bucky sneered, then sighed deeply. "Yeah, it's my girl. She hasn't been able to be around very much these past few weeks. I miss her and it's starting to wear on me. I'm so used to seeing her amazing smile every day, hearing her sweet voice wish me good morning, feeling her hand on my shoulder."

You turned away from the two men, still deep in conversation, covering your mouth to muffle the sobs before they could burst out of your throat. Of course Bucky has a girlfriend, you thought. I guess the girls got it wrong this time. Those looks everyone says they see on his face are from those times he's thinking of her, not me. Whoever she is, she's one lucky lady, you noted somberly. With that last thought, you turned the corner and rushed down the hallway to your office.

***

At the sound of quick footsteps, Bucky scanned the area in time to see you dart around the corner to your office. Now's my chance, he grinned to himself. He leaped over the back of the couch and headed in your direction.

You unlocked your door and when the lights kicked on, you caught a glimpse of yourself in the mirror. Tears had streamed down your face, leaving mascara tracks for anyone to see. You hurried into your executive washroom to clear up the damage.

With a wet washcloth, you began to wipe away the evidence of your heartbreak. Good for him, I guess. I hope whoever she is, she makes him happy. But this changes nothing, you reminded yourself. Bucky is my friend, and it's his birthday. I'm going to get up there and give it everything I've got. He deserves nothing less than the best, and this is the best gift I can give him, you resolved.

When you stepped out of the washroom, Bucky swore his heart skipped a beat with how beautiful you were to him. Though his brow furrowed a bit at your red, puffy eyes, and melancholy expression. Had you been crying? What happened? Who hurt you?? he wondered grimly.

Your eyes landed on your visitor, causing you to let out a gasp of surprise. "Sergeant Barnes! I wasn't expecting to see you here," you mentioned as you crossed the room to your desk.

Bucky moved towards your desk as well, wanting to get a better look at you, to be close to you. "Me and Stevie were hanging out in the common room, talking. Are you all right, doll? You look a little upset."

"Me? No, I'm okay, Bucky," you replied nervously. "Just a little tired, that's all. Tony's got me working on a project that's taking up a lot of my free time. Sorry I haven't been around much," you added with a brief smile.

"Must be an important project if Tony's got you involved. I did kinda notice when I haven't seen you as much as usual," he rubbed the back of his neck to calm his nerves. "Maybe after you're done with whatever you're working on, we can get together and make up for lost time?" he asked tentatively.

The look on his face held so much hope that you didn't dare turn him down. Above all, Bucky was your friend, and friends spent time together, right? "How about I get back to you about that after the project is all over, hmm?" you suggested.

Your response must have been the right one, as his face relaxed and broke out into that smile of his that you loved. "Great! Well, you be sure and let me know when it's all finished, and we'll find something to do together," he promised. You nodded in agreement.

Bucky stepped around your desk to stand at your side. He reached up with his right hand to trace his index finger along your cheek. "Get some rest, doll," he ordered softly. Your eyes closed involuntarily, right before he pressed his lips to your forehead. When your eyes finally opened again, you watched Bucky walking to the door. He paused in your doorway and looked back at you. "Sweet dreams, angel," he murmured.

As soon as he was gone, you dropped into your chair, placing your head in your hands. This was going to be harder than you thought, trying to manage a friendship with Bucky while he has a girlfriend. You decided to focus on your performance for his birthday party and hopefully everything else would fall into place. Once you picked up the file you came for in the first place, you re-locked your door and headed for your apartment for a night of restless sleep.

***

Two days before the party, Pepper persuaded Tony to give you the day off so she could take you and the rest of the girls out shopping in the city. In your mind, you pictured a long, slinky dress, straight out of a 1940s nightclub. You wanted something a sultry songstress would wear while crooning into a microphone, accompanied by an ensemble band.

You found the dress in the third boutique your group visited. As soon as you tried it on, you knew it was the right choice. It was a sparkly navy blue, A-line gown, floor-length, with spaghetti straps in the front that crisscrossed in the open back. It had a slit on the left that ended halfway up your thigh, revealing more leg than you were normally comfortable with. However, it was for Bucky, so it was added to the day's purchases.

Back at the Tower, Bucky had just finished his shower following a particularly intense sparring session with Steve. Before settling in the common room, he stopped in the kitchen for a plum muffin, which you had recently baked, and a bottle of water. Also in attendance were Tony, Sam, Peter, and even Thor was on Midgard after a long absence. "Lord Stark, I have not seen any of our lady friends around today. What is going on?"

"Well, you see, Asgardian Barbie, this morning, Pepper gathered up the ladies and took them shopping in the city," Tony replied. "Barnes' birthday bash is happening in a couple of days, and they all needed new dresses for the occasion," he explained.

Bucky heard Tony mention the shopping trip and realized he hadn't seen you at all today. He wondered if you had accompanied them, and if you would be at his party. He was walking from the kitchen, but in a moment of distraction, he bumped into Steve. The water bottle flew out of his hands and crashed to the floor, creating a puddle of water. He swiftly grabbed some paper towels, and as he cleaned up his mess, he asked Tony if you would be there.

Tony shrugged. "I don't know, Barnes, why don't you ask her yourself?" he gestured with a tilt of his head. Bucky's eyes followed the sound of giggling and other happy noises from you and the others as you exited the elevators.

In addition to your dress, shoes, and some accessories, you had brought back pizza for dinner. You and the girls had a late lunch, complete with cocktails, which had started to wear off in the car on the way back to the Tower. "Hey, guys! How's everything going? I shopped 'till I dropped, and I really didn't feel like cooking tonight. So, pizza it is, dig in!"

You left the pizzas on a table and headed for the kitchen to get some plates for everyone. Bucky stealthily followed you to see if you needed any help. After removing the right number of plates from the cabinet, you turned to leave, only to run straight into his chest.

"Whoa there, doll, careful. Here, I can help you with that," he chuckled as he took the stack of plates out of your hands.

"Thank you, Bucky. I'll put some drinks on a tray and bring them in," you told him.

Bucky passed out some of the plates to those already eating, then left the rest of them near the pizza boxes. He returned to the kitchen to see you still pulling drinks from the refrigerator. "So, um, my birthday party's in a few days," he started. You hummed and nodded in response. "Was kinda hoping--er--wondering if you were going to be there?" he asked.

He's so cute when he's all flustered and shy. I wonder if he's that way with her, you thought wistfully. You mentally shook off the negative notions and graced him with a smile. "Of course I'll be there, Bucky! I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Great! If you're getting ready here, I can stop by whichever room you're in. And I'd be honored to escort you to the party," he offered.

"That would normally be great, Bucky. It's just that I have a prior commitment that night, so I'll be a little late. However, I promise that I will be there to help you celebrate," you affirmed as you carefully placed the tray on the table. "Think it's time to collect my shopping bags and head to my apartment," you added while trying to stifle a yawn.

He looked around and pointed at the stack, which you nodded to confirm they were yours. "I've got them for you, sweets. Lead the way," Bucky replied. He picked up your bags with one hand, then held out his other elbow for you to take.

"Thank you, Sarge," you giggled as you slipped your arm around his and waved goodbye to everyone with your free hand.

As you walked the halls towards your apartment, you chatted about how you'd spent your day shopping, while he was training with Steve. All too soon, you reached your apartment, thus it was time for you to part ways. You were insistent that you could carry your bags inside, but Bucky would have none of it. He was equally as adamant to fulfill his duties as a gentleman and wouldn't let them go, placing them on your couch.

Bucky realized that he'd never been in your Tower apartment before today. In looking around, he noticed the personal touches you had scattered about the space, which were perfectly you. There was a soft-looking quilt draped over the back of the couch, a pair of fluffy slippers under a chair, and some photos in frames on various flat surfaces.

His eyes soon landed on the stuffed bear he'd won for you at Coney Island, sitting on a small, cushioned chair near your bookcase. He smiled to himself at the black sleeve with the gold thread woven through it that you must've stitched to the bear's left arm. There was no mistaking that the bear was meant to signify him, which warmed his heart. He kept his thoughts about it to himself while he waited for you to return to the living room area.

"So what's in the bags, doll?" he grinned mischievously as he started to peek into one of them.

You reached over and nudged him out of the way so he couldn't snoop in any of the other bags. "Oh, no you don't, mister," you interjected. "This is all 'top secret' girl stuff. You'll have to wait and see it at your birthday party, not a minute before," you added loftily.

Bucky pretended to be shocked at your refusal, then switched to giving you puppy dog eyes as a way to sway you. "Aw, come on, sweets. Please?"

You laughed at his attempts to convince you, but you waved him off. "Does that really work on your girl, the puppy dog eyes?" you asked in what you hoped was a playful tone.

A confused look briefly crossed Bucky's face at your question. "Must need to work on it a little harder, then," he murmured. "If it's okay, I'm going to head back to get some pizza before Steve and Sam eat it all," he chuckled.

Suddenly you realized he'd completely bypassed the food you'd brought in so he could walk you back to your apartment. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Bucky! Of course you don't need to stick around here with me. I've got it from here."

"Not for nothing, but if I wasn't so hungry, I'd stay here with you for a while. Have a good night, and I'll see you around, angel," he remarked.

You walked him to the door and when he had taken one step across the threshold, you called his name. He turned around to face you and in a moment of impulse, you reached up on your tiptoes and pressed a lingering kiss to his cheek. "Good night, Bucky," you whispered, then gently closed the door.

On the other side, Bucky stood and stared at your apartment door. His right hand reached up and touched the spot on his cheek that still tingled a bit from when you kissed him. A smile slowly crept across his face until it stretched from ear to ear. He didn't recall how he got back to the main living area, but he definitely remembered how it felt when you'd kissed him good night.

Bucky's dazed demeanor didn't escape Sam's notice, and he certainly wasn't going to let it go. "Get some sugar tonight, did you, Bucky?" he cackled. When Bucky didn't react, Sam commented further. "Look at him, he's so in love, all he can think about is his girl."

That seemed to snap Bucky out of his trance, because he rolled his eyes at Sam's comments. He grabbed a plate and started piling it high with slices of pizza. "Besides, a gentleman doesn't kiss and tell," he smirked, which started Sam's laughter again. Bucky rolled his eyes and took a seat next to Steve on the couch.

"So.....?" Steve prompted.

Bucky swallowed his bite of pizza and turned to meet Steve's gaze. His neutral expression gave way to a broad smile. That told him all he needed to know, that something had happened with you to make his best friend happy. Steve was sure that the two of you belonged together, and he was more than content with the notion.

***

On the night of Bucky's birthday party, your room was a flurry of activity. All the ladies decided to get ready there, except for Pepper. She promised Tony she would arrive at the venue a little early to help him greet people. You agreed that before the end of the night, a picture would be taken of all of you, dressed in your best.

Down the hall, Bucky was putting the finishing touches on his suit. Truth be told, he'd much rather be wearing something a bit more casual for his birthday party. Since you told him you'd be there, he decided to make an effort to dress up, but chose to skip the tie.

The suit was all black, with satin peak lapels on the jacket. He left the first two buttons undone on the shirt to show off his dog tags. He'd swapped out his regular boots in favor of a pair of well-polished dress shoes.

Bucky gave himself one last look in the mirror and was adjusting the collar of his shirt when Steve popped his head into the room. "Hey, Buck, happy birthday," he grinned. "You about ready to go? Stark's already there, greeting people with Pepper."

A final check of his overall appearance and Bucky declared himself ready to go. He was feeling a little nervous, especially since he normally didn't make such a big deal of celebrating his birthday. But Tony insisted, and Stark's parties were rarely, if ever, boring so he gave in. Besides, he was looking forward to seeing you there and hopefully steal a dance or two with you. "Yep, let's head out, punk," he smirked.

***

Natasha and the other girls had somehow snuck you out of the Tower and down to where Happy Hogan was waiting with the car. He shuttled you over to the venue where Bucky's birthday party was being held. Once there, he hurried around to your door to help you out of the car and wished you good luck.

Behind the stage curtain, you nervously paced back and forth, waiting for your cue to take your place out front. You ran through the lyrics in your head and practiced some of your dance routine. One by one, the band members arrived and took their places, then worked on tuning their instruments. 

About ten minutes before your performance was to start, Natasha and Wanda found you doing some last-minute rehearsing. Nat informed you that Bucky had arrived and that he was sitting at the far end of the dance floor, with everyone else filled in on either side. Before they left, they each offered some words of wisdom.

"You're going to do great, honey," Wanda assured you. "With that voice of yours, you'll probably knock Thor and Loki all the way back to Asgard." The three of you shared a laugh at the image.

"Nah, there's only one man out there she wants to impress, and he has been checking the doors like a hawk for you every time they open. And Barnes isn't my type, but let me tell you, he is looking like a delicious snack and dressed to kill," Natasha remarked. "Now get out there and use that beautiful voice of yours to tell him how you feel, sweetie," she nudged with a kind smile.

You gave each of them a hug and told them to let Tony know you were ready for everything to start. The band was putting the last minute touches on everything, adjusting their ties, or making sure the music was open to the right page. With a deep breath, you walked to your mark on the stage and waited for Tony to start the show.

"Good evening, good evening, good evening, everyone," he greeted. "We all know why we're here tonight, so let's give a warm birthday greeting to our favorite Tin Man, Bucky Barnes!"

Everyone around Bucky wished him "Happy Birthday" with a handshake, a shout-out, or even just a wave. "To commemorate his 107th trip around the sun, we have some first-class entertainment for everyone. This particular act was chosen specifically with the Birthday Boy in mind." Bucky gave Tony a puzzled look at the remark. "Without further ado, I give you your elusive Songbird."

As Tony took his seat, the house lights dimmed until they finally went out. The curtain drew back to reveal a '40s-type band, with men dressed in black pants and white jackets. There was a horn section, a string section, complete with a stand-up bass, and a percussion section.

You stood in the middle of the stage, with your back turned to the crowd. A deep breath, then the opening verse:

Birds flying high You know how I feel Sun in the sky You know how I feel Breeze driftin' on by You know how I feel

It's a new dawn It's a new day It's a new life For me And I'm feeling good

The last line is said while looking over your left shoulder. As soon as you say the last word, the band's horn section kicks up and a spotlight turns on to highlight you and your sparkly dress.

Bucky's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. There you were, his girl, his songbird, standing before him. You were dressed like he would've seen you in a nightclub from the '40s, complete with the red lipstick and the Victory Rolls in your hair. He sat on the edge of his seat, thoroughly hypnotized by your performance.

Fish in the sea You know how I feel River running free You know how I feel Blossom on a tree You know how I feel

With the microphone in one hand and your dress in the other, you sauntered down the steps in the front of the stage. Hips swaying, you first approached Bruce and laid a hand on his cheek. As you walked away from him, you gave him a finger wave. Then you sashayed over to where Thor was sitting on the other side. He reached out, but you stepped away before he could make contact. You wagged your finger and tossed him a wink over your shoulder, bringing a mischievous grin to his face.

By this time, Bucky was having a difficult time sitting still as he watched you flirt with his fellow Avengers. His eyes never left yours, focusing on your every movement as you worked your way across the floor to him. His hands itched to pull you onto his lap and lay claim to any part of your body you would let him explore. He longed to whisper about his feelings for you in your delicate shell of an ear.

Sam and Steve were keeping a close eye on Bucky, enjoying the effect you were having on him. At one point, Sam stood up from his chair and started walking towards you as if he were getting in on the act. Before he could take two steps, Bucky grabbed his jacket and forced him to return to his chair, Bucky's eyes never straying from you. Sam knew his point had been made, and mostly behaved himself for the rest of the number.

It's a new dawn It's a new day It's a new life It's a new life For me

And I'm feeling good I'm feeling good

Bucky was perched on the edge of his chair, entirely under your spell. Once you were finally close enough, you draped one arm around his neck and with your first two fingers, you tilted his head up. You gazed deeply into those baby blues you loved so much and noticed that only a thin rim of color was visible. When you leaned over, you put your lips close to his right ear, and whispered, "Happy Birthday, Sarge."

"It was you," he whispered back. You nodded, finally providing him with confirmation that it was your voice he's been hearing in his dreams for the past few weeks. Almost reverently, he grazed the knuckles of his right hand along your cheek. You pressed a lingering kiss to his left cheek, then turned back towards the stage, your hips swaying as you went.

On stage, the band was finishing up with the last few measures of the song while you resumed your mark, keeping your back to the crowd. As the band continued to play, you replaced the microphone in its stand and locked eyes with Bucky over your left shoulder. You gave him an exaggerated wink and blew him a kiss. When the last few notes died, the area thundered with applause, all except Bucky, who was still in his chair, stunned into silence.

As the curtains closed, you quickly exited the stage, thanking the musicians for their fabulous performance. Natasha and Wanda were waiting in the wings, where they watched the entire show and couldn't wait to congratulate you.

"Oh my God, that was amazing!!" Wanda shrieked and enveloped you into a bone-crushing hug. She bounced up and down a couple of times until she finally released you, a beaming smile on her face.

Natasha strolled over to you, gave you a wink and a knowing smirk, then pulled you to her side in a half-hug. "Knew you could do it. Bucky had his eyes on you the entire time, couldn't look at anything or anyone else but you. Still think he considers you two as 'just friends'?"

You sobered a little at her remark, remembering the conversation between him and Steve from that night you stopped at your office. Before you could tell her about it, you heard the sound of a throat being cleared. The curtain was pulled back to reveal Steve, a sheepish grin on his face and his eyes locked on you.

"Um, excuse me, but the guest of honor requests your presence for a private conversation. I have been sent to escort you to the balcony, where he's prepared to wait all night if he has to," Steve explained.

Glancing nervously at your best friends, you were met with nothing but encouragement and assurance from their gazes. Though you were nervous to hear what Bucky had to say, you felt that you owed him a chance to say his piece and let the chips fall where they may. "Okay, Steve. Lead the way, please," you replied.

Steve grinned as you curled your hand around his offered arm. "By the way, you were wonderful up there tonight. Just like the sirens me and Buck used to see on stage in the nightclubs. You know, back when we were young and full of hormones," he joked.

You lightly swatted his arm as you joined in his laughter. "Thank you, Steve. That was probably one of the bravest things I've ever done. So far, anyway. I sure hope Bucky liked it," you added.

He snorted in response. "Oh, trust me dollface, he loved it. Couldn't stop staring at you," he assured you.

On the walk over to the balcony area, many of your friends congratulated you on your singing and performance. You smiled and thanked each of them for their comments. All too soon, you were standing at the doors that led you to Bucky. A flight of butterflies took off in your stomach at full speed as you desperately tried to regain your composure.

Then you remembered what awaited you on the other side, out on the terrace. A man you were grateful to have met and considered to be one of your closest friends. A man who had always been kind to you, despite what life had put him through. Someone that made your world a better place by being in it. You couldn't see your future unfolding without him in it, nor did you ever want to.

"He's waiting for you," Steve gently reminded you. He untucked your hand from his side and kissed the back of it before returning to the party. You pushed down on the handle and swung the door open.

Bucky was standing with his hands clasped behind him, staring out over the ledge at the horizon. The noise volume from the traffic and other sounds of the city wasn't as loud as it was at the lower levels. His face lit up at seeing you, as the echo of your high-heeled shoes on the patio surface caused him to reverse his position.

"Hello, Bucky," you greeted.

"Hiya, doll," he replied, a shy smile gracing his lips. "Probably shoulda known it was you that day I heard the singing in the locker room," he grinned. His hand slowly reached up to brush his knuckles along your jawline. "You were incredible up there, sweetheart."

"Thank you, that's kind of you to say. I'm glad you enjoyed it," you replied shyly.

"I absolutely, 100%, loved it, doll. Reminds me of those clubs me and Steve used to sneak into so we could go dancing. Where'd you learn to sing like that?" he wondered.

"My grandparents kept a large vinyl collection of music from that time. My brothers and I used to spend summers with them, and it was in all the old movies we used to watch. I guess it kinda grew on me," you giggled with a shrug.

Bucky threw his head back and laughed. "Well, I'm certainly glad it did, because that was one of the best birthday presents I've ever received in my life." His hand brushed back a stray lock of hair and tucked it behind your ear, while his eyes shifted their focus from your eyes to your lips. He slowly leaned closer to you, giving you every chance to resist what he was about to do.

Suddenly your index finger was pressed against his lips, halting his advances. "Bucky, wait. Not that I haven't thought about this, but what about your girl? Isn't she here with you at the party tonight?" you worried.

Bucky gave you a puzzled look. "My girl?" he wondered. "What are you talking about, sweets?"

"I heard you and Steve in the common room. It was late and I had forgotten something in my office. You said you missed your girl and that you were so used to seeing her 'amazing smile every day'. How it was starting to wear on you about not hearing her wish you good morning or feel her hand on your shoulder," you explained.

Bucky saw how your gaze had dropped to the floor and felt you slipping from his grasp. As he racked his brain trying to recall what conversation you were referring to, you continued.

"I mean, until I heard you talking that night, I thought 'maybe....', and the girls all seemed convinced as well. But after what I'd heard...." you trailed off. "All I would ever want is for you to be happy with someone, Bucky. Even if that someone isn't me," you whispered.

You started to feel the burning of tears behind your eyes and started to move towards the door. No way did you want to break down in front of the man you loved, on his birthday, for something that wasn't his fault. You were determined to hold back until you had returned to your room.

But Bucky had other ideas.

He was still holding your hand as your steps took you closer to the exit. He gently squeezed it, which caught your attention and halted your escape. You turned to face him and when your watery eyes caught his, you saw only compassion and a hint of another emotion you couldn't quite name.

"Now, darlin', there's only one girl I can think of that I want to call mine. She's smart, funny, a bit sassy, but sweet. She's thoughtful, always thinking about others before she thinks of herself. She's the most beautiful woman I've ever met, and has the voice of an angel. I have missed her these past few weeks, but I'm guessing it's because she wanted this to be my best birthday ever. And that's made me fall even more in love with her," he declared.

As Bucky was giving his speech, he inched closer to you, step by step, until there was barely any space between you. His right hand drifted upwards to curl around your neck, his thumb brushing gently along your cheek. "You love me?" you whispered.

Bucky nodded, a tender smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "Oh baby, ever since I met you, I've wanted to call you mine, but never thought you'd feel the same. Nor did I think I deserved to be with someone as wonderful as you."

Now it was your turn. "Bucky, you deserve all that this world has to offer and more. I've had feelings of more than friendship for you for a long time, probably since we met. Thought you were way out of my league, though. Parts of this world haven't been kind to you, but you haven't let it destroy the best parts of you. Past and present, all of it makes you the man I've fallen in love with. I love you, James Buchanan Barnes," you affirmed.

Bucky surged forward, crashing his mouth into yours with a groan of satisfaction. At first, the kiss was dominant, his lips moving almost feverishly against yours. Then he slowed it down, wanting to convey every ounce of passion he felt for you. He draped your arms around his neck, then pulled you closer into his embrace until you were flush with his body. Your fingers played with the short hairs at the nape of his neck, causing him to shudder. You smiled against his lips, which created an opening for Bucky's tongue to slip in and deepen the kiss, taking you by surprise.

The need for oxygen finally broke the kiss, leaving both of you panting, trying to catch your breath. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that," he remarked. "Definitely worth the wait."

You giggled in response. "You don't know how many times I've imagined or dreamed about kissing you. Reality is so much better," you replied.

The two of you stood, perfectly comfortable holding each other, until the balcony door opened to reveal Steve on the other side. He cleared his throat to get your attention, averting his eyes but not before you noticed a teasing smirk on his face. "Uh, Tony wanted me to let you know that it's time for cake and for you to open your gifts. Although...." he trailed off with a grin.

"Hey, punk, show some respect for me and my girl," Bucky playfully growled. Then he turned his attention to you. "You ready to go back out there and show 'em who you belong to?" he asked in a seductive voice.

"Only if you're okay with showing 'em who you belong to," you countered through half-lidded eyes and a sultry smile.

"Absolutely," he agreed. After one more searing kiss designed to make Steve a little uncomfortable, you separated. Bucky took your hand in his, intertwining your fingers and led you both back to the party. When everyone saw your joined hands, cheers arose throughout the crowd in celebration of your happiness. You both laughed when you saw money change hands between a few of your friends, Tony with Natasha and Sam with Steve.

You turned to face Bucky, resting your palm on his cheek and sighing when you felt him lean into your touch. "Happy Birthday, Bucky," you whispered.

Bucky tilted his head to kiss your palm. "Best birthday ever, doll," he remarked.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Tags:

@katelyn--renee @lassie-bird @emoryhemsworth @hintsofhoney @wayward-dreamer @never--doubt @akshi8278 @rooweighton @phoenixisred @krazykelly @imherefordeanandbones @missvelvetsstuff

[storiesavenged]

experiment 03

bruce banner x enhanced!reader

~ wherein reader is enhanced with cryokinesis (ice powers) in a hydra lab and bruce saves them while on a mission.

~ masterlist | part 2

!! trigger warnings !!

• abuse

• ptsd

authors note ;; cryokinesis is basically like being elsa :P reader can manipulate ice to make weapons/attack or create things with. reader is adressed as three until later on.

you couldn't remember the last time you ate, or the last time you had a long, peaceful sleep. hydra had been working you like a dog, harnessing your cryokinesis- given to you by them of course- for their own benefit. they wanted a weapon that could take down the avengers once and for all. you were always gaslighted into believing they were the evil ones. you were manipulated into doing their bidding, through punishment.

"get the fuck up three. don't make me hurt you." the hydra man spat. you had fallen to the floor from pure exhaustion as they were forcing you to use your powers way beyond what your body could handle. not to mention you hadn't been fed in a few days as you had "not been behaving".

"s-sir... i can't..." you winced, your body already trembling at the thought of what he'd do to you. it was the same every time, but regardless it never failed to horrify you.

the man scoffed.

"pathetic. i can't believe we haven't scrapped you already." he said under his breath, but you had heard it clear. you didn't cry. you couldn't, they had bled you dry for tears. you were numb to every horrible thing they ever said to you. suddenly you were roughly forced to stand and dragged over to your cell. tight metal chains attached securely to your wrists keeping you suspended in the air. you silently prayed like you did each time that someday you'd get out of here. then the punches came. your body jerked with each hit, almost instantly bruising up due to how thin you were. you weren't sure how long he abused you before a loud bang rippled through the basement walls. truthfully you weren't sure what the hell was happening. one minute you're being repeatedly beaten and scolded, the next there's gunshots and yelling. your vision was blurry but you could make out the figure of a man headed your direction.

"shit... i've got a captive down here, they need medical attention.." the man trailed off, his eyes scanning your body. before you knew it you were out of the cuffs and in his arms. you wanted to fight, you knew it was one of the avengers but you didn't have the energy. you simply let it happen, hoping they would be easier on you when they inevitably jailed you again and interrogated you about the operations of hydra. you hoped that it would all be over soon, as your vision went black.

your eyes slowly fluttered open, adjusting to the bright lights of the new place you were in. as you regained more of your conscience, you noticed you were in some sort of medical room. there was a man typing away at a computer across the room from you.

"s-sir...? where am i..." you croaked, attempting to get an idea of what was happening. were they just helping you? or were there ulterior motives?

"oh, you're awake! it's okay, you're in the avengers headquarters medical wing." he explained softly, attentive to how concerned you were.

"don't worry, we won't hurt you." he added, a soft smile adorning his features. you noticed his black, curly hair, and his purple button down underneath a white labcoat.

"o-okay.." you winced a little as you moved to sit yourself up, the man rushing to help.

"hey hey hey it's okay, i've got you." he said as he helped you position yourself more upright. he was so.. kind to you. you weren't sure why, you were convinced the avengers were the bad guys. you were taken out of your thoughts by the man clearing his throat.

"guess i should introduce myself. i'm doctor banner, though bruce is fine if you're more comfortable with that." banner smiled, you couldn't help but feel at ease when he smiled. it made you feel safe.

"i... don't know my name..." you spoke softly, ashamed of yourself. you were taken from an orphanage by hydra when you were just 8, but have no recollection of it. all you'd ever known is is hydra. and the name they had chosen for you was three.

"they call me three.." you added, not sure what else to say. you truly had no sense of self. you weren't allowed to build one.

"is that what you'd like to be called?" banner asked, wanting to make sure you were comfortable.

"i don't know... i-it's all i ever knew.." you admitted, truly unsure of what to think. but you really didn't mind being called three. at first it was a positive thing, a nickname if you will. there was a man at hydra that was nice to you all the time. he called you three affectionately, as before they would just call you experiment 03. you could feel a sense of warmth from his memory, his presence was the only safe one you had ever felt during your time in hydra.

"then we'll call you three. but let me know if you don't like it, i can understand why you wouldn't.." he trailed off, sadness in his eyes. did he feel bad for you?

"u-uhm.. sir-.. d..doctor banner...?" you asked timidly. whenever you didn't use formalities with those at hydra you were punished. it was always sir or ma'am. the fear was always there.

"yeah three?" he replied, moving to grab some instruments to draw blood.

"why... did you guys help me...? i... they... told me you all were bad..." you shook as he came nearer to you with the needle in his hands. your body moved away from it, eyes widening at your own reaction. the last time you tried avoiding hydra's serum injections you were hurt badly.

banner frowned, giving a knowing sigh.

"of course they told you that. well, simply put, you were in trouble. you obviously are not with them, you were taken. right? that's why you were locked up?" he asked, to which you nodded.

"it's our duty to help people; keep them safe. would have been a different story if you were with them, though." he grabbed some more supplies from off his desk, moving slowly towards you again.

"i need to draw some blood, is that okay? i just need to do some tests." he questioned, wanting to make sure you were comfortable. he saw the way you reacted to the needle. being an abuse victim himself he understood, and made sure to not cross any boundaries.

"o-okay..." you nodded timidly, giving him permission. you couldn't help the way your body flinched as the needle went in, and you could hear him make a noise of sadness, presumably about your history which was making you afraid. you almost hated how kind he was to you, your mind was convincing you it was just to get you to trust him so he could betray you later.

"i... i'm so sorry, three. no one deserves to be put through what you experienced..." he looked deep into your eyes, sadness radiating from his own. you searched his in return, feeling a sense of understanding. like he was truly empathetic with your situation. it made you wonder if he had been through a similar thing.

"it's.. it's okay-"

"no, it's not.. no one should treat another person like that..." you swore you saw his eyes flash green, but you chalked it up to you hallucinating, after all you didn't feel much pain so you knew you were on some pretty heavy pain medications.

"i mean.. look at you. no offense but, you're thin as a twig, all black and blue.." he scanned the parts of your body that weren't covered by a hospital gown, wincing at the scars on your pale skin. you shrunk in on yourself, feeling self conscious. you hadn't seen how you looked for a long time but you could only assume it was god awful the way banner looked at you with pity.

"i'm sorry.. but you definitely did not deserve any of this. don't tell yourself you did, okay?" banner urged, you just nodded, fighting a yawn but losing.

"here, get some rest. you've been through a lot today." he said as he helped you lay back down. you fell asleep rather quickly, as you were exhausted.

bruce pov ;;

i worked on analyzing the blood samples taken from three, the results showing me what i feared. i figured they were enhanced but i couldn't be certain without doing tests. one thing that concerned me was how cold three was. my mind wandered off, only being pulled out of my thoughts when someone entered. i turned to see tony standing in the doorframe, eyeing three curiously.

"so this is the kid you saved?" he inquired, moving closer to get a better look.

"yeah, they're resting right now. i feel... awful, tony." i admitted, feeling really emotional about the whole thing.

"how come? this is no different than other rescue missions, what's different about this one?" he asked, and truth be told i wasn't sure why i seemed so emotional about three. partly due to the fact i have been in their shoes for certain, but i don't quite know why else.

"i.. well i empathize with their situation. as you know i was.. well.." i trailed off, clearing my throat.

"this one is just... i can't place it tony. this is the most severe case we've had... and... they're enhanced."

"what? like wanda and cap?" his eyes were wider now, curious as to what the story was.

"i'd assume more like cap, they jolted when i pulled out a needle to draw blood for tests so i assume there's a needle thing there somewhere." i explained, my heart aching for three, wondering just how much they went through.

"what do we know about them?"

"well.. they said they didn't know if they had a name. they've been called three. so i've been calling them three, they don't seem to mind, might be familiar for them amidst all this change." tony nodded, urging me to continue.

"i.. didn't get much else from them. i didn't want to pry too much. but medically i know they are enhanced. i'm not sure what their power is. they are also cold to the touch. at first i thought it was because they were in a basement but it hasn't gotten any better since being here. i'm not sure what that's about." i explained, knowing the temperature thing was an odd detail but i thought tony might have some input.

he walked over to three, standing next to them to examine them. he stopped at their hands, picking one up and looking at it closely. i rolled my stool closer to look at what he was seeing, noticing three's fingertips were ice. how the hell had i not noticed that before??

"i think three here has cryokinesis. ice powers. that would explain them being cold and the ice fingertips. we've got ourselves an elsa." i had to stifle laughter at the joke he made. tony's always finding nicknames for the team.

"hey tony, do you think we should give them a name? you know like... an actual name and not just a number? i can't be certain they are truly happy being called three, surely it must take them right back there.." i rambled off, shaking my head at the thoughts now entering it.

"yeah, that sounds good. got any suggestions?"

"well.. no. i asked you because you're quick to have a nickname for everyone you meet. thought you'd come up with something better than i could." i said. he stroked his stubble covered chin with his fingers, humming softly.

"how about y/n?" he suggested with a shrug.

"i like that, it suits them. i'll let them know they can choose y/n or three when they wake." i smiled. i love the way y/n rolls off the tongue, and it really does suit them.

"well, i should get going. but let me know if you learn more, i'm interested about this one." he stated before making his way out of the room. i shook my head, knowing he probably has a plan for y/n.

you woke up later the next day feeling a lot better than before. the bruises on your body healing

"hey three! how're ya feeling?" he asked, you managed a small smile.

"better, i.. well i haven't had a good sleep in years..." you frowned once more, remembering the uncomfortable cot you slept on in your cell when hydra wasn't working you half to death. you recalled how you slept light since there was always a threat.

"i'm glad you slept well." he smiled, finishing what he was typing on his computer before rolling over to you on his stool.

"so, tony and i had a chat about things and we came up with an actual name for you."

"oh, what is it?" you quizzed, particularly interested to get an actual name.

"tony suggested y/n, i thought it really suited you but ultimately it's up to you if you like it or not." he explained, you loved the way the name rolled off his tongue.

"i.. i love it doctor banner.. i'll use it." you smiled softly, feeling happy they cared about you enough to offer you a real name.

"okay y/n. i'm really glad you like it." he grinned before pulling out a clipboard and clicking his pen.

"i have a few questions for you, is that alright? if you don't feel comfortable answering just let me know- some of these are questions tony had and i would be understanding if they are uncomfortable for you." he explained, looking into your eyes once more.

"okay... i-i'll try to answer as much as i can.." you could feel your hands trembling, intrusive thoughts filling your mind. what if they were just buttering you up to use you to get hydra intel? banner frowned, seeing you trailing off into your thoughts while your hands shook with fear. he couldn't even begin to imagine what they had done to you to make you so timid and afraid.

"alright. tell me everything you know about yourself." he prompted, getting ready to write your answers down.

"well.. i was taken by hydra at a young age.. given cryokinetic powers through injections. i would say i have excellent control of my abilities, there was never a moment i wasn't training them- but because of that i don't recognize when i've pushed myself too much." you explained, focusing on your breathing to keep yourself calm as you searched through all your other memories.

"i don't remember much of anything from my life before hydra. they also... told me..." you trailed off, hands trembling once more.

"what did they say?" banner asked, a worried look on his face now.

"they told me... to k-kill you all..." you started to panic a little, worried they would hurt you because you were supposed to kill them.

"n-not that i would want to s-sir.. i-i don't want to hurt you all i swear!! i-i'm not... i'm not with them..." your breathing picked up in pace rapidly, and soon you were in a full blown panic attack, ice covering the walls and ceiling due to your emotions being on high. this caused tony to book it down to where you were.

"what the hell is happening here?" his voice boomed as he ripped open the door, ice falling from it and onto the ground. he took one look at you, curled up and rocking back and forth, hyperventilating and his face softened now knowing you weren't turning against them. he rushed to your side along with banner and took your hands in his, shuddering at how cold they were.

"y/n listen to me, can you hear me? i need you to take deep breaths okay? we're not going to hurt you. you're safe here." he spoke calmly, rubbing your palms with his thumbs to try to bring you back to reality.

"breathe with us y/n, okay? i need you to take a deep breath in, ready?" banner instructed, getting a shaky nod from you he continued to lead you through deep breathing. as you calmed down the ice went away too, bringing the room's temperature back up and with it your own temperature.

"i.. 'm sorry... p-please believe me.. i don't work for them.. i don't want to k.. kill.." you whimpered, afraid of the mere thought of having to kill them especially after they'd been so nice to you. you tucked your knees into your chest, your forehead resting on them. tony looked at bruce, an eyebrow raised and confusion in his eyes.

"hydra told y/n we were the enemy, tony. they told them to kill us. i guess they realized they were supposed to and thought we'd hurt them for it.." banner sighed, explaining to tony why this had even happened in the first place.

"i see.. i believe you y/n. if you wanted to you would have tried by now." tony rested a hand gently on your shoulder. you looked up to see a smile on his face, sincerety written on his features. he knew trust had to be built before he would offer a place as an avenger to you. after all seeing your powers in motion convinced him all that much more you needed to be on the team.

"t-thank you sir... for believing me.. and helping me.." you gave a small smile, looking at both of them.

"you've got banner to thank for that one, y/n. he's the one that rescued you." he smirked at banner, he was a genius afterall so he knew banner felt something for you.

"doctor banner.. you were the one who..." you trailed off, your mind replaying the moment you were taken out of the hydra base that kept you away from the world for so long. your eyes widened as you realized it was bruce that helped you.

"i.. how can i ever repay you..?" you whispered, not even sure how you could possibly return the favour.

"oh, y/n please you don't have to repay me at all. i did what any one of us would have done. it's our duty, i really don't expect anything in return for doing my job." he smiled. something about his smile made you feel different- good different. maybe staying with the avengers wouldn't be so bad.

authors note ;; making this a series ^^ i really loved this idea and i think it called for a series anyway as it was a very open prompt. parts will be published at my own pace

masterlist

[ilovesjamesbb]

Please Don't Leave Me (Pt. 23)

Bucky x Reader

“What were you thinking!” Bucky yelled across the room to me as I sat on the couch with an icepack on my forehead. 

“We don’t do these things alone, y/n” Steve said. He sat on a chair across from me and he gave me the disappointed dad look. 

“Really, Rogers? You don’t want to go there with me.” I said throwing the ice pack on the couch. 

“You don’t get to defend yourself. You lost that right the moment you lied to us.” Bucky said. 

“Lie to you? When did I do that? You all want to act high and mighty but you have all done the same thing!” I looked at Nat this time. Hoping she would tell them where to shove it. 

“I agree with them, y/n. I’m all for independence but what you did was reckless and stupid.” She sat backwards on a chair next to Steve. 

“We are a team. We do things as a team.” Steve got up from his chair and Bucky moved to look out the window. 

“I know that but this. Wasn’t. About. You. This wasn't a team thing, this was a me thing. It’s my mess and I am gonna fix it.” I punctuated my words trying to send the message. 

“Was.” Bucky spoke up. 

“What?” 

“Past tense. I “was” gonna fix it not I “am” because you sure as hell aren’t gonna pull that shit again.” I don’t think I’ve ever seen Bucky this angry. He was dark and scary and not in a way that intrigued me. 

“Okay, let’s leave the lovers quarrel for later. What I want to know is what you think you were going to get out of this?” Tony poured himself a drink. I didn’t answer and he moved to sit next to me on the couch. He cocked his head to the side. 

“We’ve been looking for weeks, how did you manage to find him?” He was almost a little annoyed that I found him first. 

“I needed help from an old friend.” I left Jamie’s relation to Christian out of it. I knew they wouldn’t understand. 

“That dead guy?” Tony asked. I picked my head up quickly to meet his eyes. The mention of Jamie’s death sparked something in me.

“Where is he?” 

“His body? City morgue is my guess.” Tony said taking a sip of his drink. I stood up and started to walk out. I needed to go now. If what Christian said was true then Jamie wasn’t dead. Sam caught my arm. 

“Where are you going?” 

“Out.” I looked as his arm as if telling him to let go. ‘

“What did we just talk about, y/n” Steve said. 

“I’m going to the city morgue, Steven.” Sam let me go and everyone stood up. 

“To the city morgue then.” Sam said. They started to follow and I turned around. Bucky went to follow with the same angry look on his face.

“Fine. Bruce. You can come.” Bruce looked surprised and Bucky looked shocked but his face returned to the same angry look. 

“Uh um yeah. Yes. Let me grab my things.” He stuttered and I nodded. 

“I’m sorry. I really am. It won't happen again.” I told the rest of the team as I walked out and headed toward the parking garage. 

Banner and I made it to the morgue and checked in with the mortician who told us we could say our goodbyes and to tell him when we were done. I didn’t look under the sheet yet. I was waiting for him to wake up or something. 

“So, y/n. Why did you choose me to come with you? I mean I’m glad I’m here to support you and all but I’m not going to lie I was a little shocked.” He awkwardly put his hands in his pockets. 

“I thought you might be able to help.” I looked at him and he gave me a questioning look. 

“You’re a man of science right? Listen. This is gonna sound crazy but Jamie isn’t dead.” I lifted the sheet and revealed Jamie’s face. Banner walked to the side of the table and inspected his body. 

“What do you mean?” He adjusts his glasses. 

“Check for rigor mortis, Bruce.” I was hoping what Christian said was true. I didn’t want this to be the end. He lifted his arm and touched his neck. His eyes shot to mine. 

“There isn’t any. Y/n what's going on.” He backed away from the table. 

“Something happened when I went to find Chrisitan. He said HYDRA “enhanced” him somehow.” I walked to the other side of the table to stand in front of him. 

“Enhanced him, how?”

“Christian is a vampire.” I let out. 

“He said that if someone dies with vampire blood in their system they will come back as one. He spiked all of the champagne with his blood and then he snapped Jamie's neck. I think… I think Jamie is a vampire or at least he will be.” I was unsure of the whole situation myself. For all I know Christian could have been lying but my gut was telling me he wasn’t.  Bruce put his hand on the side of his head. I could tell he was freaking out. 

“No, no. no. This is insane. Y/n I don’t think I should be here.” I out my hand on his. 

“Bruce. I chose you for a reason. Don’t freak out on me.” I smiled. All of a sudden Jamie gasped and he shot up. I jumped. 

“Jamie!” I moved to him. He looked at me and put his hand at the back of his neck. 

“Y/n. Thank god you’re alright. What happened?” His eyebrows scrunched together. How was I supposed to tell him he was dead.

“This is going to sound crazy. I need you to be calm.” I put my hand on his. 

“What is it? You’re scaring me.” 

“You’re dead, Jamie.” He scoffed as if he didn’t believe me and then he looked around the room. It was clean, white, and sterile. It looked exactly as a morgue should be. 

“Christian killed me.” He put his hand to his neck.

“He snapped my neck. How am I alive?” I looked at Bruce. I didn’t know what to say. How do you tell someone there a vampire?

“Hi, Mr. Valentino. I’m Bruce Banner.” He stuck out his hand. Jamie met it. 

“I know.” 

“I don’t know exactly what is true and what it is now but y/n told me that Christian was enhanced. Somehow blood brought you back to life. Well not life but brought you back. May I?” He gestured to his hand and Jamie nodded. Bruce felt a pulse and touched his skin. Everything seemed normal. There were no signs of death. 

“You’re a vampire or you will be. I don’t know.” I put my hands through my hair. 

“What? What does that mean?” Jamie was a lot calmer than I thought he would be. 

“Let’s get out of here. There is an exit to the left of the mortician's office. We can talk about all of this when we get back.” Bruce said to both of us. 

“Where are we going?” Jamie asked. 

“Stark Tower.”

[americancowgirl19]

Initials

Summary: Bucky and Steve finds their third soulmate in Wanda’s sister. Only problem is that she’s supposed to be dead, not Hydra’s new prized possession.

Warnings: fluff, angst, violence, slight gory details,

Reader: Female Enhanced Reader

Pairings: Stucky x Reader

Word Count: 2,845

A/n: This is a soulmate one shot where your soulmates initials are imprinted on the insides of your wrists.... Might do a part two, not sure yet...

Masterlist

“We’ve got a new threat,” Maria says, entering the conference room. She tosses a thin file onto the table. The Avengers sitting at the table look at the file before Steve reaches for it. The only contents within the folder is a blurry picture and a list of confirmed kills.

“This is all we know?” Steve questions, his eyes flickering up to Maria. 

“That and this,” She says, motioning toward the screen. A moment later a grainy video plays. They observe the feminine figure completely take down a building of armed agents single handedly.

“Wait...” Wanda whispers, shifting to the edge of her seat. Maria replays the videos while others glance towards the her. “I know her,”

“Care to share with the class?” Tony questions. Wanda doesn’t respond right away, simply looks at the screen with misty eyes.

“Wanda, if you know who she is, we need to know,” Natasha explains lightly. Wanda blinks away the tears and clears her throat.

“She’s my sister,” She responds in a quiet voice.

“Excuse me, did you say sister?” Tony asks. “How many of you are there?” Everyone ignores him.

“Her names Y/n,” Wanda begins to explain. “She’s my older sister, she looked after Pietro and I when our parents were killed,”

“What happened to her?” Steve questions, while Bucky glances at his wrist wondering if his partner has the same feeling in his chest.

“She died,” Wanda says, glancing toward him. “Hydra approached the three of us about the experiments. They made all these promises and while my brother and I were quick to agree Y/n was more hesitant. Pietro and I wouldn’t listen to her concerns, we made it clear we were going to continue with Hydra with or without her,” Wanda admits regrettably. “We weren’t the only ones to be experimented on but Pietro and I were the only ones to survive,”

“And your sister?” Natasha questions.

“We were told she had died,” Wanda says. “Obviously they lied to us. They must have moved her to a different facility,”

“Do you have any idea of what she can do?” Steve asks.

“Before we were told she died she could heal quickly. When I say heal, I mean you could cut her arm off and a new one would grow back,” Wanda explains.

“Must be nice,” Bucky mutters. Steve continues to stare at Wanda but rests a hand on Buck’s thigh.

“It’s been years since then, I doubt that is all she can do now,” Wanda warns them. “I also know that she never wanted any of this. The only reason why she agreed was to try and keep the three of us together. Whatever she’s done, it’s not of her own free will,”

“We’ll find her and try to bring her in,” Steve says.

“We have experience with forced Hydra assets,” Bucky mentions. Wanda glances toward him. “We’ll help her,” He assures knowing Wanda’s worry about her sister getting hurt. She sends him a small smile.

Finding Y/n and bringing her in sounded much easier than it ended up being. Wanda had been right, advanced healing wasn’t the only ability she possessed. 

“Hey, guys,” Natasha breathes, through the coms. It had taken a few month to figure out how to find Y/n and now the team is trying to fight her in the middle of the woods. Trying. “You sense something familiar in her abilities?”

Once Natasha had asked the question, everything clicked. Hydra had found a way to replicate any ability the Avenger’s had and give it to Y/n. She had Thor’s lightening, Clint’s wicked accuracy, Natasha’s skill in combat, Bucky and Steve’s strength, Wanda’s magic, and even Pietro’s speed. None of them knew if she had the ability to turn into a Hulk and honestly didn’t want to find out. They had enough to deal with without having to add the Hulk to the equation.

“How are we going to stop her?” Clint groans, slowly pushing himself back on his feet. “She’s going to tear us apart one by one if we don’t figure something out,” He comments looking around for a silver streak.

“Steve,” Bucky mutters, standing back to back with his partner. “Maybe we could get through to her,”

“We don’t know if we’re right,” Steve replies.

“We’re right,” Bucky states, confidently.

“Even if we are we can’t get close enough to touch her,” Steve mentions, his head snapping to the side as Tony falls out of the sky and to the ground. Luckily it wasn’t a far fall. By the time Steve and Bucky got to him, Y/n was nowhere in sight.

“I know this chick is Wanda’s sister but I really don’t like her,” Tony groans as F.R.I.D.A.Y. gives him a run down on everything that’s damaged with his suit.

“I got an idea,” Bucky says, sharing a look with Steve.

“Whatever it is, hurry up,” Natasha whines, after being throne violently into Clint. “She’s play with us right now, sooner or later she’s going to go in for the kill,”

“Wanda, what’s your location?” Bucky asks.

“Half a mile to your right,” Wanda responds. Bucky spots her.

“Can you stop her?” Bucky asks. “Hold her in place long enough for Steve and I to get to her?”

“It will not be easy,” Wanda warns.

“Can you do it?” Steve snips, a bit. Wanda looks conflicted but slowly nods. “Then do it,” He orders.

“We have to get her to Wanda,” Bucky says.

“We’ll start luring her to her,” Clint grumbles, nocking another arrow. Within a couple of minutes, Y/n speeds past Wanda before forced to stop. Wanda grinds her teeth as she holds Y/n in place.

“I can’t hold her for long,” Wanda warns frantically. Bucky and Steve both race towards her. When they’re close enough, each of them grabs a wrist. A tingling feels waves through both of their bodies as their souls recognize their mate.

The sensation of Bucky and Steve initiating the bond with her along with the extensive use of her abilities causes Y/n to pass out in Bucky’s arms. The super soldier easily scoops her into his arms and holds her close.

“Couldn’t have done that earlier?” Clint breathes, pressing his hand against his side.

“Let’s get back to the jet,” Steve orders.

“We just going to ignore the fact that she’s your mate?” Tony asks.

“Not now,” Bucky barks. Tony raises his hands and follows them onto the jet.

“Bruce will be waiting to check on her,” Natasha tells them. The two soldiers nod before taking a seat. Bucky refuses to let her go and places her feet on Steve’s lap.

“I thought she was dead,” Wanda whispers, staring at her sister. “Yet all this time she’s been through god knows what with Hydra,”

“Well, she’s here now,” Steve tries to comfort her. “She’s safe,” Bucky rests his head atop of her head. He buries the anger he feels towards Hydra at what they’ve done to her. “She’s safe,” Steve repeats, this time staring at his boyfriend. Bucky gives him a small smile.

When they landed Bruce took her to medical and checked on her. He took blood samples and scanned her body. The entire time Wanda, Steve and Bucky hovered.

Bruce tried to explain what was going on with her cells but they didn’t exactly understand what he was saying. All that mattered is that she’s safe and healthy.

It took an additional two days before she finally began to wake up. At this point only Steve and Bucky sat by her bed. Wanda had gone off to get them food.

Almost immediately Y/n began to panic not recognizing her surroundings. Steve and Bucky quickly calmed her down with a simple touch and soft words. While it helped calm her movement it was obvious she was still on high alert.

Now that she’s awake, Bruce was able to do more tests. However, the moment he entered Y/n reacted protectively of not only herself but of her mates. Her powers lashed out and successfully knocked the doctor out before Steve and Bucky were able to explain that Bruce just wanted to help and that he wasn’t going to hurt any of them.

When Bruce woke up, Y/n was still weary of him but didn’t attack again. She trusted her mates and only relaxed when the tests were done and he left. 

“Where are we?” She whispers.

“New York,” Steve explains. “The Avenger’s tower,” She winces at the word ‘Avenger’.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Bucky asks, hesitantly. She doesn’t answer for a few minutes.

“They wanted a weapon to defeat the Avengers,” She explains. “Someone strong enough to kill all of you,”

“You could have easily completed that mission, why didn’t you?” Steve asks. Y/n glances at him. The conflict is clear in her eyes.

“I don’t like killing,” She whispers. “I try to stop myself but I can’t do it all the time,” Bucky instantly picks up on the fact that Hydra had instilled the same compliance protocol in her as they had him. “When they sent me to kill you all, I tried to hold back. Give you a chance to... stop me,” Bucky grips her head knowing that ‘stop’ isn’t the word she had wanted to use.

“You’re strong,” Bucky tells her. She glances to him. “Not everyone can fight the control Hydra has. I couldn’t,” She frowns her eyebrows. Bucky shares a look with Steve before explaining his story to her. Steve chimed in here or there as well as going off on his own tangents with his own background stories.

At some point while talking, the three of them moved to Bucky and Steve’s floor within the tower to be more comfortable. The both of them knew the rest of the Avengers are hesitant to have her around, not knowing if she’s in control of herself or not. They all know that if her mind were to switch again and she tries to kill them, they’d be very lucky if they could stop her.

For almost a month, Y/n stayed on their floor. Bucky and Steve stayed with her, only venturing out if they needed something like food or clothes for Y/n. Throughout the month they learned about each other. Bucky and Steve were very open with her while she was more reserved with the details of her life.

What she did decide to explain were watered down stories of what happened to her in Hydra. She didn’t want to tell them all the gory details. 

She didn’t want to tell them that Hydra had tested how well her healing ability was by putting her through a meat grinder and watched her body slowly, and extremely painfully, put herself back together.

She didn’t tell them how they would electrocute her body for hours on end with no break in order to test how strong her abilities mimicking Thor were. Nor did she tell them about the grueling sparing matches that would have killed her should she have been a normal human.

Bucky had questioned her if they had tried to wipe her memories. She had to think for a moment before answering.

“They tried,” She remembers. “Multiple times but my mind would heal and bounce back too quick. It wouldn’t work. They had to find a way to get me to stop thinking about the past, to give up the little hope I clung too... They did it through the pain. They broke me to the point where all I would think about was how to live to the next day instead of reminiscing how I lived in the past,”

The anger Steve and Bucky felt whenever she explained anything about Hydra could not be measured. How they kept themselves from destroying the room is a mystery. Steve thought his anger towards Hydra was bad after everything that happened with the war and then with Bucky. But now it was amplifying as Y/n explains her story.

“I know I had a past... It’s just hard to think past the last few years,” She whispers.

“It’ll come to you,” Bucky promises, kissing the side of her head. She instinctively curls into his lap and he holds her to his chest. “The good memories will come, I promise,”

“What if I don’t have any?” She whispers, her eyes misting over.

“Then we’ll make some,” Steve tells her. He wraps both Bucky and Y/n in his arms. “We’ll make so many good memories you won’t think to remember the bad ones,” Y/n smiles, snuggling deeper in Bucky’s embrace.

It wasn’t until after several evaluations through Bruce, did Y/n leave the floor that had become her home. She started spending more time around the other’s but not without at least one of her mates right next to her.

There is one Avenger that seemed to be avoiding her.

“Do you mind if I come in?” Y/n asks, lightly knocking on Wanda’s door. At this point Y/n has been within the Avenger’s tower for about four months. She was slowly adjusting but it was happening.

“I shall give you two some privacy,” Vision states, standing from the bed he had been laying on with Wanda. Y/n gives him a polite smile and moves to give him room to walk out the door.

“You look better,” Wanda comments, sitting at the edge of the bed.

“I doubt I could have looked any worse than when you found me,” Y/n jokes. Wanda smiles a bit before patting the spot beside her. “You look so beautiful,” She whispers. “A little older than when I last saw you,” Wanda smiles, her head hanging a bit. “I’m sorry,” Wanda’s head snaps towards her.

“Sorry?”

“I couldn’t keep us together,” Y/n whispers, tears brimming her eyes. “I left you in that facility... I left you and Pietro,” Y/n’s voice chokes at his name. “I left you to deal with his death alone,”

“No, no, you didn’t have a choice,” Wanda reaches to pull her into a hug and Y/n clings to her. Both of them being to cry in each other’s arms. “It’s my fault... If we weren’t so damn stubborn non of this would have happened,” Wanda laughs pitifully. Y/n hugs her sister even tighter. “We thought you were dead... If we had known-”

“I know,” She whispers, puling from the hug. They both wipe their tears.

“He missed you so much,” Wanda whispers. “We both did,”

“Well, I’m here now... And I have you to thank for that,” Wanda smiles, shrugging slightly.

“What are sister’s for?” They smile at each other and quickly go in for another hug, this time neither of them pulling away for some time.

While mending her relationship with her sister was a large step in the right direction, Y/n still had a long journey a head of her. It wasn’t until 7 months in the Avenger’s facility did she realize that she’s not the only one trying to heal from her past.

In the beginning, when Y/n was cleared to leave medical, she had been offered her own space. Her fear of being left along meant that her own room was being used as a large closet while she spent her nights safely tucked between two large super soldiers. 

Usually, her whimpers and moving around is what wakes the other two up. However, tonight it’s not her nightmares that are causing problems.

“Bucky?” Y/n groans, slowly waking from her sleep. A moment later Bucky’s body is shooting up and his chest is heaving violently. “Bucky, baby?” Y/n sits up, shoving Steve’s arm off of her. “Honey, look at me,” She whispers, gently caressing his chin. His body tenses as he involuntarily flinches from her. “It’s ok... It’s alright,” She whispers, not forcing him to look at her but encouraging him.

“Hi,” He whispers, sweat dripping down his forehead. She sends him a calm, comforting smile as she wipes the drops away.

“Hey,” She whispers back. “It’s ok... They’re just nightmares... I won’t let them hurt you,” She promises. Bucky stares at her before pushing their foreheads together.

“I’m sorry for waking you,” He mutters.

“Don’t,” She shakes her head, bumping their noses together. “I’ve woken you both up countless times, it’s nice to help you for a change,” Bucky smiles, slithering an arm around her waist. He hauls her on top of him as he lays back down. She props her head up and gently rubs his chest. “Do you want to talk?”

“No... Just wanna look at ya, doll,” He whispers, his hands gently gliding up and down her sides. She smiles, her head nuzzling into his neck as his hands slip under her shirt to caress her skin. It’s only a couple of minutes before Steve is rolling closer in his sleep, his need to be as close as possible to them shinning through even while in dreamland. 

“We’re going to be ok, Buck,” She whispers to him. His arms tighten around her.

“That’s right, baby doll,” Bucky mutters, kissing her head. “We’re going to be just fine,”

[myinconnelly1]

Does this gif inspire Angsty Clint/Hawkeye/Ronin??

it finally does!

WC: 209

Getting the Team Back Together

“Have we got the team back together?” Captain Rogers asked looking around the room.

“Now we do,” Natasha said coming into the lab with a slightly worse for wear Clint Barton.

“Barton, it’s good to have you back,” Cap said nodding at him.

“Is it?” Rhodes asked unsure because of all the people the Ronin had killed. “Are you?”

“It’s good to be back,” Clint agreed after a moment.

“Good, you remember Banner and Thor, some of our newer faces,” Steve gestured to Scott Lang and you. “Scott gets small.”

“We met,” Clint said nodding at Scott.

“Hey Clint,” You said looking at the man who used to be Hawkeye. He had rescued you when you were in a dark place. Your powers had killed many and you didn’t know how to control it. Seeing you was like seeing a ghost. He never thought he’d see you again, and he had a kind of whiplash as you spoke his name.

“Fuck, Clint,” you had gasped when he’d make you cum.

“See you’ve met,” Steve nodded glad to be able to get to the point. Natasha didn’t miss the look between Clint and you, however, and put her arm on the back of Clint’s to steady him.

@waywardbaby​ @destielhoneybee​ @snffbeebee​ @deangirl7695​ @spnbaby-67​ @maddiepants​ @ladywinchester1967​ @woodworthti666​ @miraclesoflove​ @tumbler-tidbits​​ @emilyshurley​​ @akshi8278​​ @mannls​​ @wendibird​​ @bobasheebaby​​​ @chelsea072498​​ @donnaintx​​ @justsomedreaming​​ @supernaturalenchanted​​ @kalesrebellion​​ @prettydeaneyes​​ @emoryhemsworth​ @dontshootmespence​ @its-a-spn-thing​ @vicmc624​ @idreamofplaid​​ @anaelsbrunette​​ @lovealways-j​​ @kickingitwithkirk​​ @wayward-mikaelson​ @electraphyng​ @mariekoukie6661​ @katelynw93​ @deandreamernp​ @thoughts-and-funnies @lyarr24 @charred-angelwings

[language-rxgers]

Four Words (Steve x Reader)

Summary: Steve is simple. Steve is a planner. So why can’t he just say four simple words to the best thing he never planned?

Characters: Steve Rogers, Female Reader, Bucky Barnes

Request from @witch-of-letters​ :

“Can I request a Steve Rogers one-shot, where he wants to propose to Stark!Daughter!Reader? They've been together since the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., and after Sokovia, Steve realizes that he can't wait any longer (after the wedding, the R gets pregnant with twin girls). When the Civil War starts, R stays on Steve's side, much to Tony's fear (and chagrin).”

A/N: I’m thinking this will probably be a 3 parter. This chapter is the proposal!

masterlist

part 2

Steve Rogers is a man with a plan. Every morning, he wakes up at 5:30 with the alarm and checks his emails. He then pours himself a cup of black coffee in the kitchen while reading the morning paper and going over his schedule for the day. At 6:00 he returns to the bedroom to wake you up after your half hour sleep-in, and lovingly drags you back to the kitchen where the two of you prepare breakfast and Steve relays to you the morning news. Of course, you could read the damn paper yourself, but it sounds so much more interesting coming out of his mouth. After breakfast, you both get dressed and ready for the day. Day in, day out, Steve knows every step of the domestic part of his life to a T. In a job where you go in without the slightest idea what might happen in the day, it’s nice to have even a morning’s worth of stability, if that. So yeah, Steve Rogers is a man with a plan, simple. Simple. So why is it so hard to add one teeny, tiny, simple step to his routine? For chrissake, it’s just a four-word, yes or no question. 

“Will you marry me?” 

The young man gazed up with hope glimmering in his eyes, sunlight sparkling off the golden band clutched between his fingertips. His partner’s mouth dropped open in shock and surprise before reality caught up to him, and his answer tumbled out of his lips. “Yes- yeah, yes, of course!” He stood from the park bench that the couple had been sitting on as his now fiancé rose from his knees to meet him in a tight hug. Steve felt a spread of warmth in his chest for the happy couple, but also tried to ignore his guilty jealousy of how easy it had seemed for that man to ask the question he himself had been trying to spit out for so long. 

He looked down to you at his side, admired your beautiful wide smile as you watched the newly engaged couple, and he wished with everything in him that the two of you would soon be in their place. 

Steve had met you when you moved in down the hall from him only a few months after he himself had rented a home in the building. At the time, he believed you to be a quiet nurse named Kate, but it wasn’t long before he discovered this to be extremely untrue. It was only two weeks later when you admitted to Steve that you were in fact Y/N Stark, a SHIELD agent sent by Nick Fury to keep an eye on him. Far from a nurse, you actually worked as a field officer, tech specialist and information broker for the law enforcement organization. You were also the daughter of Tony Stark- someone with whom Steve could certainly do without interacting again. Needless to say it was difficult for the soldier to hide his shock, hurt and betrayal, especially since he had already begun to develop feelings for you in the short time he’d known you- or whoever you led him to believe you were. Did this mean you weren’t actually the sweet, selfless girl who had become the reason he looked forward to returning home right after work every day? He knew it had only been a couple of weeks but he already found himself craving your late night hallway interactions and that sweet, warm smile that always seemed to be hiding in your eyes. 

You patiently allowed Steve to come to terms with your revelation, before disclosing that you genuinely did want to be his friend, and felt that lying when he would undoubtedly become suspicious and figure out your true identity eventually was just unnecessary. After the fall of SHIELD, you revealed to Steve that you had been the one to alert Fury of the organisation’s corruption from the beginning after some suspicious encounters with, and inconsistent reports filed by, the STRIKE team, led to a fruitful independent investigation. It was then that you’d been assigned to watch over Steve. 

In the years that followed, you became one of Steve’s closest friends, a beautiful constant in his eternally unstable life. The development of your relationship to something more than friendship was only natural… ish. One day you asked if he would join you for coffee- nothing out of the ordinary for the two of you to do, but this time there was a certain intimation of deeper feelings in your tone. Of course, this subtlety completely went over Steve’s head, and he proceeded to spend the next hour speaking of nothing but the results of your latest mission with you in the corner of the nearest crowded Starbucks. 

The next morning, you corrected your mistake of assuming the most clueless man on Earth when it came to women would pick up on your vibe change, by marching up to him in the kitchen and informing him that you would like for him to accompany you on a date to the movies that evening if he so wished. Taken aback at not only your bluntness but also the fact that you fancied him in return, what was he to do but nod his head and respond with a cheeky “Yes, ma’am.”?

Evidently, one date turned into two, three, four, and so it goes.

After Sokovia, you both became brutally aware of how easily life could change in a split second. Steve realized that he didn’t want to wait anymore to continue his life with you. You were all he wanted, all he could see when he imagined his future. He never thought he would want a family again after coming out of the ice, but with you, it was so easy to picture that. Steve didn’t want that to stay as just a dream when he slept next to you. Now, it was his turn to take the leap, yet he found himself hopelessly lacking the same self-assuredness that had never failed you. 

“Oh, Steve, check the time, we should be heading back.” You tugged at Steve’s sleeve as you stepped to continue your walk back to the car. 

“Huh?” Steve shook his memories back to their storage cabinets and glanced down to his watch. With a start at how much time had passed, he followed you promptly. 

For the rest of the day, Steve couldn’t for the life of him shake that nagging voice in his head, urging him to pop the question on the spot. It was maddening; every time he spoke to you he had to plan what he was going to say so he didn’t accidentally blurt out an impromptu proposal in the middle of the conversation. It was even more annoying because on top of planning his words, he also had to focus on keeping you out of his thoughts. He had always been able to keep his thoughts guarded when he didn’t want you reading him, but he loved that for the most part, you were the one person he wanted in his head. But ever since he started seriously thinking about proposing to you, he’d had to keep himself exceptionally blocked off, which he knew frustrated you.

The most frustrating thing of all, however, was that logically, he knew there was no reason to be so nervous. You had discussed your futures together before- marriage, kids, retirement. You both wanted to be married eventually when the time was right, but you also knew there would never be a right time. Your entire relationship had consisted of playing things by ear and “taking the next step” as it came naturally. Nothing felt more natural than marrying you, nothing felt more right. He knew you would say yes. But there was also that annoying, little punk in his subconscious egging on his insecurities. 

“She’s still free to leave any time without consequences until you tie the knot.” 

“Things are perfect the way they are right now, don’t screw it up by asking her to make the biggest commitment of her life.”

“You can barely work the tv remote, how are you going to navigate a marriage?”

“What if she’s about to break up with you right when you propose?”

Steve stared with wide eyes at the ring in his fingers, overwhelmed with all the reasons he shouldn’t propose. He was pulled from his anxiety by a rap at his door, and looked up to see Bucky leaning against the doorframe.

“Stare any harder and it’ll burst into flames.” Steve put the ring back into its box and let out a sigh.

“Part of me wishes it would. It’s too nice, isn’t it? She won’t like that it’s too flashy.” Bucky scoffed.

“It’s a plain metal band, bud. Don’t think you can get any simpler than that.”

“Well it’s got the infinity twist, might snag her sweaters or something. I don’t know. And there’s a couple diamonds.”

“I don’t think a diamond the size of a crumb is gonna snag any of her damn sweaters. Steve, she’s gonna love it. Quit procrastinating. Sam’s got 100 bucks saying you’re gonna take more than a month to pop the question and I don’t like how cocky he’s been since they upgraded his suit’s wingspan.” Steve exhaled a laugh and shook his head, rubbing his eyes. 

“I know I’m being ridiculous. It’s just a big step, you know? I don’t even have a plan.”

“No plan, just ask.” Bucky quipped. “You and your goddamn plans, I swear I’m gonna rip my hair out. Steve, Y/N’s the simplest person I know. She doesn’t want any of your plans, she doesn’t want you to make a show of it. But she does deserve a little bit of effort. Make her dinner at your place, something she likes, get down on one knee and fucking ask her to marry you. Soon, before she does it first.” Bucky raised his eyebrows to show he was serious. And he was. You would ask Steve to marry you. But you were always the one to make the first move, and it was Steve’s turn. “Tonight, pal. Tonight’s the night. No missions, no meetings. Take advantage of the time you have. Stop putting this off.” Bucky held Steve’s gaze with stern eyes until the lovestruck soldier nodded with gratitude. Satisfied, Bucky stepped back. “Alright, I’ve got some paperwork to not do, I’ll see you tomorrow, Mr. Star Spangled Man with a Plan.”

***

That night, you returned to your and Steve’s floor with curiosity blooming in your chest. All day you had had this… feeling. A phantom expectation, an unwarranted sense of anticipation tingling in your fingertips. You just couldn’t shake this feeling that something was going to happen, and you had no idea if it was good or bad. You’d attribute it to the telepathy, but you hadn’t heard anything suspicious all day. Actually, you did notice one thing. Steve had been unusually guarded lately- you could read people when their guard was down, but if they really didn’t want you to know something, you were as good as powerless. At first you weren’t too concerned; usually after a tough mission, like the ones you had been having pretty regularly of late, Steve would board up like a closed down mine shaft. It was impossible to read him until he let you in, which was the most frustrating thing you’d had to accept when you met him. He was like a brick wall sometimes, and all you wanted to do was break through to help him. But he always came around, in his own time. However, it seemed like lately he always had his guard up.

You arrived to an apartment filled with the homey aroma of spices and cooking meat. Steve was making Y/F/F? Oh, lord, what did he do this time?

You made your way to the kitchen, increasingly suspicious. “Steve? What’s up?” Your boyfriend spun around to face you, oven mitts on and your gingerbread man apron tied around his waist. 

“Hey, I thought I’d make supper tonight. You know, to celebrate the end of the week.” You raised your eyebrows. 

“Um, okay, but why? I’m not complaining, but you haven’t made Y/F/F since you spilled red wine all over my suede jacket.” Steve smiled nervously.

“Right, don’t worry, I didn’t ruin anything else, I don’t think.” You narrowed your eyes. “It’s just been a while since we sat down and had a nice meal together that wasn’t half-hour delivery. You go get changed into your sweats and I’ll finish up.” You shrugged and muttered out an okay before heading to your room.

When you returned, the table was set and Steve was pouring the two of you drinks. He pulled out your chair for you and set the meal on the table before taking a seat himself. As you ate, he asked about your day, as he usually did, and you asked about his. You shared funny work stories about the interns in your department and told Steve about how far you’d gotten in your training session with Wanda to continue controlling your similar powers. Throughout the meal, Steve listened with a gentle smile as you gestured animatedly, admiring the passion in your eyes. By the time your plates were empty the wine was half done, Steve began to feel his nerves building up. He tapped his thumb anxiously on the tabletop as he tried to listen to your story about your father’s latest experiment with a stretchy material for Bruce to wear that wouldn’t rip when he turned into the Hulk. Steve couldn’t believe you were in his life. He couldn’t believe you were here, right now, living with him, in love with him, choosing him. 

“For now, you mean.”

“She’s going to get sick of you eventually, or find someone better.”

“She’ll get tired of you choosing missions over her.”

“You won’t have time to raise kids, you’ll be too busy fighting another battle you sought out.”

“You can’t live without war, what kind of father are you going to be to children, let alone a husband to a wife?”

“You can’t do this, coward.”

“You can’t-”

“Marry me,” Steve breathed out. You halted yourself in the middle of your sentence, leaning forward.

“Sorry, what was that?” Eyes wide and beautiful with curiosity. Steve blinked, unsure if he had even said anything at all. Did he just say that? Out loud? To you? The words fell out so easily despite how much that stupid voice tried to stop him.

But Steve was never one to back down.

“Marry me, Y/N,” he repeated. “Will you?” Your mouth opened slightly to form an O, the breath seemingly knocked from your lungs. You stared blankly at him as you realized what he had asked, and that he expected an answer.

Was this what had been consuming his thoughts lately, what he had fought so hard to keep a secret from you? You felt an exhilarating tingle run from the center of your chest to your fingertips, so strong you clenched your hands into fists to contain your elation. You and Steve had talked about marriage before and you both knew you wanted to be married someday, but you never knew whether Steve would be the one to take that step towards making it a reality. All you understood was that Steve was all you knew in this moment, all you saw, all you felt, all you wanted. It was laughably easy to answer his question.

“Yes.”

part 2

____________________________________________________________

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Steve Rogers: @promarvelfangirl​

[ticklikeabomb]

One-shot : Interview with the Avengers

Pairing : Avengers x Plus Size Fem Reader

Warnings : language, innuendos, dirty jokes

Word Count : 2.2k

A/N : Here we go for another clumsy reader story :)

Today was the day. It was either a win or a complete disaster. You worked for S.H.I.E.L.D as an operative but quickly proved your marks at being one of the best Agents of the agency. You didn't have much friends at work except for Sharon Carter also known as Agent 13. You both hit it off probably because she was always around to have your back. Not when facing a specific danger but because you were a hell of a mess, clumsy. Just like the greek god Epimetheus you had the tendency to do or say things before thinking about them and it was bad. One day, finishing later that night, you walked by Nick Fury's office and saw him play with an orange cat. Without thinking you mumbled "Oh so Nick Fury likes pussies" and of course having his open ajar he heard you. Mortified you ran as fast as you could back home, hoping not getting fired. The following day he kept eyeing you while you would make yourself as tiny as you could. 

"Agent Y/L/N ! ", he called, making you jump on your  and cover your clothes with warm coffee. "Fucking sh-", you whisper yelled while cleaning the spot on your blouse. "Now Miss Y/L/N !", he called back and motioned you to his office. He went behind his desk about to take a sit when he saw the coffee spot on your blouse and gave you a hard look. "Small incident Sir, I will handle it as soon as we're over." "Good." He began explaining your work parkour and felt your hands tremble, thinking he would fire you. "That's why I scheduled a meeting with the Avengers. They will interview you and see if you're a fit to the team", he finished. You looked at him with a numb, frozen kind of way and he cleared his throat and you finally reacted. "I'm sorry I lost you at 'but you'. I'm pained that my work doesn't prouve being efficient but I can understand if you would like to fire me, I mean it's a life or death kinda job, so." 

"Wait. I never said I would fire you at the contrary, you are expected at the Avengers compound where they will interview you and see if you'll join their team." You blinked a couple of times after hearing what he just said cracked up laughing. You laughed loudly to the point of having tears form in your eyes but quickly calmed yourself seeing his hard and firm expression. "Oh you're not kidding", you whispered. "Do I look like the type of person who jokes around?" 

"I don't know, no one is immune to laughter and besides after seeing you all fluffy with that cat the other night", you saw his eye widened and quickly rambled. " - I mean, ehm, hhhkrrm, I no cat, eh, yeah hey you got a new jacket looks sleek? Is it real leather because if it is that's animal cruelty. Not that you would tolerate that kind of behavior. Please can you just kill me right now and make it stop?" "Agent Y/L/N for someone who has the ability to speak all languages existent in the universe you surely are not good with words and communication." You smiled shyly and responded, "Yeah I know irony right." "Anyway, next Tuesday 2 pm at the Avengers compound. Don't be late." "Yes of course, I will be there and give it my best without verbally escalating." He sighed before dismissing you. 

"Yo Steve wait up", called Sam out of breath. Steve chuckled and turned around seeing Sam struggle. "And you have the nerve to call me old man hein", commented Steve with a smug smile. They were reaching the compounds entry when they spotted a magnificent plus size woman waiting sitting at one of the sofas. She was attentively eying a man across the shipping section and they saw her stand up. "Je ne ferrai pas ça si j'étais toi" (I wouldn't do that if I were you), she told the man. "Je ne vois pas de quoi vous parlez?" (I don't know what you're talking about), he replied. "Corriges moi si je me trompes mais tu étais sur le point de voler ce prototype du bouclier de Captain America et le truc c'est que s'il t'attrapes, il te bottera tellement fort le cul que t'aura des hémorroides précoce. Tu peux compter sur moi pour ne pas me mettre en travers son chemin." (Correct me if I'm wrong but you were about to steal one of Captain America's shield prototype and the thing is that if he catches you, he will kick your ass so hard you will get early hemorrhoids. You could count on me to not stop him from doing so.) "De quoi je me mèle, occupe toi de ton gros cul salope" (Mind your own damn fat ass, bitch), he said. You sighted and before Steve could intervene, you punched the guy effortlessly. "Awnn désolé ma main a glissée" (Awnn sorry my hand slipped). The two Avengers looked at you in awe go back to your sit, a wide smirk plastered on their faces. The guy in question was standing up and crashed against Steve's hard chest. When he looked up, the Captain gave him a furious look before handing him over to a security guard. "Come on Steve we'll be late for the meeting", commented Sam. 

"Agent Y/L/N, they're ready to receive you", said the receptionist and indicated you the floor to stop on. In the elevator you went over the basics : "Ok think before speaking. Don't say anything inappropriate. Stay focus, try to impress them while being humble and for fucks sake don't say anything stupid." Just as you finished, the doors opened and you marched to the meeting room. Nick Fury saw you outside and indicated you to enter. You did as such, straightening your clothes and posture and greeted everyone after Fury's brief introduction. "Hello I'm Agent Y/L/N but you can call me Y/N, which is totally irrelevant since I was already introduced", you giggled nervously and mentally cursed yourself. You took place and let out a shaky breath before smiling at them. You saw Sam and Steve mumble something between them but didn't payed further attention. "So Y/N, your file and missions are quiet impressive. Care to tell us a little about some of them. Your favorite mission? The troubles you faced and yadda yadda yadda", exclaimed Tony shaking his hands. 

"Sure can. I don't know if I deserve what seemed to be that credit you just subtly gave me. The missions are more of a team work really, I just follow the lead and try to do my best giving the situation at hand", you patted yourself for such a professional answer. He shook his head before declaring, "So you're boring." Your eyes widened, "Excuse me?" "Tony !", remarked Steve though greeted teeth. The billionaire dismissed the Captains stare and smirk at you. "I said you seem like the boring type of person and we don't think that would mix well with the team’s dynamic." You laughed and declared, "Oh if there's a word that doesn't describe me is boring. In fact I'm pretty sure the boring one in this audience must be you, you know speaking about maths and engineering and what not all the time. Do people actually understand you in a regular basis?" Your answer picked his curiosity and made the others chuckle. "Agent Y/L/N", called you out Fury. You noticed how inappropriate your words sounded and immediately apologized. "I'm sorry that was way out of line." "Don't apologize dear I'm curious. Tell me about your youth. Do you have any specific talent?." 

You cleared your throat and began to explain what was your youth like. "Pretty basic : parents never home, always working, deeply proud of the prodigy son who followed their traces and that's pretty it. Concerning talents, my greatest talent is making people laugh without my consent by constantly embarrassing myself. "

Your answer made some of them laugh. "What about high school?", asked  Natasha. "The language classes were always my favorite, not good in math, sports not really my cup of tea but I did like some sports. Football and by football I mean what you call soccer because that's (football) the sports real name ! And I was pretty good at handjob…HANDBALL, I mean HANDBALL !!!!", you panicky tried to rectify yourself. You closed your eyes in embarrassment while the room filled with laughter. You giggled nervously and said, "See talent, I'm just the best in that." 

"I take back my boring comment, you convinced me", chuckled Tony. They kept interrogating you and you slayed the answers, somehow. "what about movies?", asked Sam. You frowned not really sure why that would matter but answered anyway. "My favorite movie is (Y/F/M). I love it beyond everything. There are still some classics that I have to watch, other that I started and never really finished, like for example Monty Python and the Gloryhole." Members of the team cracked up and you looked at them confused, just as confused as Steve, Bucky, Wanda, Vision and Thor. "I didn't know Monty Python and the Holy Grail had so much impact", you mumbled. And that made them lose it even more. "Oh dear, probably because you said Monty Python and the Gloryhole", explained Pepper. "I didn't say that did I?", You looked at them horrified and they nodded. "What's a Gloryhole?", asked Bucky perplexed. You cleared your throat and replied, "Ehm it's something, ehm how should I formulate this the most neutral way. Basically a hole in a bathroom, generally at clubs or bars where…good God someone help please", you begged. "It's a hole where guys sticks their dicks out to get it sucked by the person on the other side of the wall", stated Sam. You blinked a few times, warmth burning your body and nodded, slightly amused at the super soldiers disgusted faces. "Why would anyone do that???", exclaimed Steve. "People let me remind you the purpose of this interview which as I was expecting escalated real quickly", he said and his gaze landed at you. "I thought it was a good idea for Agent Y/L/N to join the team even if I let out one of the most vital aspects of her personality which is being really clumsy in the communication department all the time. Considering this aspect I'm afraid I was wrong and Agent Y/L/N will continue working as an operative at S.H.I.E.L.D." 

'Fuck', you thought. Sure you were sometimes a mess but you were really looking forwards for that chance. You stood up and looked at them. "I'm sorry I wasted your precious time. Director Fury, I will see you tomorrow at the office. If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go now and wish you all a good day." With that you left the room, shame and embarrassment written all over your features. After you left, with a smug smile  Fury turned towards the team and asked "What do you think?" "Oh I like her", stated Tony with big eyes. "She is quite entertaining", shouted Thor. "She can punch a guy", commented Sam and asked F.R.I.D.A.Y to show them what happened at the hall. "Another thing I forgot to mention and that isn't stated in her file, she understands and speaks all the languages known in the universe, which would provide a real advantage during missions", told Nick. "She's by far the best candidate we had the opportunity to see today", added Vision. "I agree", the others commented. "It's settled then", said Fury and stood up. "Oh and please no more stories about Gloryholes", he said before leaving the room laughing. 

The next day the Director called you at his office. "Y/N you're fired" "Oh that was …fast and direct", you replied. "Pack your things as soon as possible, Stark's chauffeur will wait for you at your appartement." You nodded and let your head down before his words hit you. "Wait why would Tony Stark's chauffeur wait for me?" "Because you're the team's new member. Welcome to the Avengers, Epimetheus", he declared. "Wait for real?", your eyes shone brightly and you jump on his arms happily. "Thank you Sir, I will not let you down." "I would appreciate you would right now", he commented and you gasped. "Oh sorry didn't mean to you know." "Yeah yeah I know. Oh and for the record Agent Y/L/N, I do love some pussy." You sighed and blinked your eyes in a mix of confusion and humor. "O-k-ay, I didn't really need to know that but ok. I'm gonna go cause you know, Imma bout to join the real game so bye homie. I mean Sir. Goodby Sir." "Just go before I change my mind", he stated and you laughed. When you were out, he shook his head and let out a chuckle. "These Millenials are crazy Motherfuckers." 

* gifs not mine, credit to owners*

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