paracosmic-murdock

[paracosmic-murdock]

days of the new avengers* lives

episode twelve: tables turned (part one)

chad blackmails you into making bucky your new year's kiss. john and ava have a fight, and thor gets involved by accident.

careful who you assemble

pairing: new avengers* x fem!new avenger!reader | mel gold x reader

tags/warnings: new avengerz assemble, found family kinda, bullying john (maybe affectionately), mockumentary, sapphic reader, blackmailing (by chad) (we never trusted him) (not even for a second), reader is genuinely concerned, superman (2025) mentioned, no spoilers tho, it is on streaming platforms by december of 2027, reminiscing about past avengers days, special guest thor odinson, one might think platonic ava x john, but actually it is ava and john family conflict, plus it's serious, and they called him thor a.k.a. "wrong place wrong time" odinson, thor is in his feelz, some more of reader's backstory and it's bad y'all, steve and tony mentioned, platonic bucky x reader, are mel and reader in a forbidden relationship?, using y/n as little as i can, more to be added bc i'm going with the flow tbh

4.9K words

a/n: wait, should i make a taglist for this? comment if you want to be in it tho :))) i'll totally delete this a/n if it flops 😪

✰ days of the new avengers' lives masterlist

✰ mila's anthology (main masterlist)

“Holy crap, that's a hot man,” Mel marveled at the TV.

“Should I be worried?” you asked, amused.

“If he were real, maybe,”

You laughed loudly. “I can totally fight him.”

“Wow! That's one confident woman,”

“I'll just have to touch him and turn him to stone,” You shrugged. “Or get a little kryptonite in my hands and then I'm turning his ass a pretty green.”

“He's got a nice ass.”

It was a bit past midnight on Christmas. Mel had stayed over with the excuse of not finding an Uber and ignored the questioning looks when you volunteered to give her your room. At the end, you shared the bed and stayed awake watching a movie, enjoying the peace only alone time provides.

Right there in your peace, you looked at David Corenswet's Superman and Lois Lane at her apartment on your bedroom's TV screen. “That is Krypton's ass.”

“What?” She snickered.

“Oh, nothing, it's just something we used to tell Steve,” You curved your lips softly at the memory. “That he's got America's ass.”

“Yeah, he had a great ass,”

“Then he left and came back without it. ‘Cause he was old. Such a shame, he had quite the resilient ass.”

Mel laughed and snuggled closer to you, leaving a small kiss on your shoulder. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure, anything,”

“Do you know who your New Year's kiss will be?”

“I'm undecided between Bucky and Ava, actually,” You joked. “You know my type is brunettes with long hair, eyes you can get lost in, and a pretty smile that can light up a whole town.”

“Ha, ha! Actually, Bucky and Ava never laugh,”

You grinned. “Sure they do when I say something funny.”

“I thought you were only funny with me. I feel betrayed.”

“I can give you my New Year's kiss, and also I promise to kiss you until next year,”

“This is better than Alexei not showering until next year,” Mel noted. “Why don't you just get started? Breaking promises isn't very nice.”

You hummed. “I guess you're right.”

Then, you changed positions until you were on top of her. Mel smiled slightly, even a little lazy, not wanting to do anything except for waiting your lips on hers expectantly. Mel pouted. “When are you going to kiss me, woman? Next year? I see why John calls you Hades, because you're taking me to Hell.”

“Uncalled for!” You opened your eyes widely, faking offense. Then, you kissed her cheek almost aggressively, like you would when you run out of rational reactions to cuteness and loving.

“Did I lie?” She laughed, holding you tightly.

“Yes, you did,” You squinted and pecked her lips. “You want me to be a Greek icon? I'll be Sappho, and you're Anactoria.”

“Uh, elaborate…?”

“Fragment sixteen is my favorite Sappho poem,” you mentioned. “There, she mentions the debate on what the most beautiful of sights is. She says that it is whatever one loves best, and that for her, that is Anactoria. The end is kinda tragic, but you know what I mean.”

“Y/N,” Mel called you, her expression was so serious now that it made you regret such a love confession. “I had this plan, you know? But fuck it, really. Like, to hell with it. You can guide it through Hell now.”

You frowned and sat right beside her, who did the same. “I'll guide whatever plan to the Underworld, and whatever you want me to, too.”

“See? I- I just can't help but want you with me. Seriously, I really want you in my life and I don't give a shit about what everyone says. I never really had anybody show me love until… you, and I love it. And I love to love you, and I know it's not been long, but God knows I love you like crazy and I've loved every second of it- of us, every rapid beat of my heart when you're around me, everything you've given me without even knowing. I love you, and I want to know… will you be my girlfriend? Please don't say no.”

“God,” You leaned in to kiss her. Slow, assuring, passionate, a yes. “I'll be your girlfriend. And I love you, too.”

“Who says I love you on the fifth week of the talking stage?”

“Considering I've been obsessed with you from the first time I laid eyes on you, it seems reasonable.”

Mel laughed and kissed you. “I love you.”

“Me, too.”

“I'm gonna get you sleeping pills,”

Ava turned around, seeing John join her in the kitchen, and spotting the 2:37 AM on the microwave. “Tea works just fine, I guess.”

“Can't sleep?” he asked, walking to the fridge to get milk for his Corn Flakes.

“Of course I can sleep, that's why I'm here wide awake and drinking lavender tea,” She raised her handmade black cat mug, one that Bob himself made for her as he was her Secret Santa. “You?”

“I'm sleeping just fine, you know? Just staying awake thinking about everything bad going on around me for the hell of it.”

Ava huffed amusedly. “I just… I was used to the pain keeping me awake, it even felt like a lullaby some days, so I've been struggling with… sleeping since Y/N got me the suit. As weird as it sounds. I should sleep well, but it's not so easy yet.”

“I get that,” he noted. “That was a nice gesture. The kind you don't expect anybody to give you. Like, you even feel like you don't deserve it.”

“Like the shield?”

“Yeah, like the shield,” John exhaled, something in between a chuckle and just a tired sighed. “It makes you think, you know? As much as we all have done some messed up beep, we can do stuff like this for each other and save people. Sometimes you just think that you are what you did, but not so much anymore.”

“What have you done, Walker?” Ava scoffed.

“I've been less of a beep,” He shrugged. “Though, it's like it doesn't pay off outside of these four walls.”

“Well, you have something outside these four walls at least,”

“Not really,” John scoffed. “Olivia met someone. She's dating someone.”

Ava stayed silent as she drank her tea, not knowing what to say.

“I'm not- I mean- I… I thought I was doing it right this time. That she was giving me another shot; turns out there was someone else all along and I was a fool for even thinking I deserved the chance,” He sighed. “She never even gave me a reason to think we could work it out, she was just… starting over and wanting to do it right for our kid. She said that, no matter what, it wasn't fair for me to watch another man raise my child. Which is true, of course, because… I'll always be his father, I'm working hard to earn it and make up for all I did before and all I failed to do. But be the man she loves? That won't be me anymore, and I wasn't ready for that.”

“Beep,” Ava muttered, showing the smallest of smirks, one that didn't reach her eyes. “You're really trauma dumping on me tonight, huh?”

John stared at her for a second, maybe one too long, but swift still. “Yeah, right, that's what I get for thinking someone can have a real conversation with you. I should've known you'd be a beep about it.”

“John, hey, I was kidding,” Ava said quickly, putting her tea on the counter and facing him. She was a bit startled if anything; not so much because of what she said or John's reaction, but because of the way she quickly tried to take her words back. Because she caught herself caring, and she didn't really know what to take from that.

As for him, the whole interaction was beginning to feel like a bonding moment, like he might be able to share feelings like this with her. Even in secret, they could be friends. God knows he needs someone who would listen, someone with too much baggage to mind his. But, just like he should have expected, Ava didn't really care. Not only she didn't care and never would, but also, nobody does. No one cares about the feelings—the truth… Everyone just coexists and keeps their profiles low because there's no space for vulnerability and there shouldn't be. Except for, of course, occasional outbursts.

You weren't best friends in high school, you were all adults who made their choices once and didn't need anybody to tell them it would be okay or pity each other.

“So was I,” John pressed his lips together and stood up, disappearing into the dark —the void— as suddenly as he arrived a few minutes before. However, instead of leaving like he was intending to, he collided against Thor's chest.

He wasn't supposed to be there and he wasn't meaning to listen, but he did.

John blinked twice. “Thor?”

He pressed his lips together, embarrassed for being caught eavesdropping.

“Apologies,” Thor looked at Ava, “I was not meaning to listen, it was not my purpose at all, I just- did not want to interrupt or make it uncomfortable. Although, now that I think about it, I did, but… I'm sorry.”

Ava sighed. “You were there the whole time?”

“Just about enough time to feel fatal about listening,”

“Why did you listen, then? Why didn't you just leave?”

“I don't know, just…,” Thor sighed. “I will forget everything. I swear for Odin, this never happened.”

“Yeah, just… don't say anything. Please.” John said. Thor only nodded.

Everyone made their way out, everyone going separate ways. Thor could only relive every word he wasn't meant to listen to.

Sometimes you just think that you are what you did... but not so much anymore. He could just picture all those things he ponders in the middle of the night. All of it cracked something open in Thor's chest that he didn't know was still there to haunt him, all that surrounds redemption reminds him of Loki, and his grief—his latent hope for it to be another one of his tricks, that he was still alive somewhere and would return unexpectedly, was something he thought he had made peace with a long ago.

Thor made peace, or at least he could tell that to himself, but did his brother? Maybe he would find actual peace if Loki died knowing he forgave him—that Thor loved him above all, and always did. That, despite thinking Loki would choose himself all over again, deep down he still had faith in him. One that made him naively hope he could trust someone who only ever looked out for himself; and he was right for it. Because Loki didn't. He tried one last time… Not for recognition, not even because it was the right thing to do—after all, when had he ever shown he cared about right?—. He did it for Thor, for his brother.

And that? That was bigger than any fight, any betrayal. That was the moment that Thor realized that Thanos had not only taken Loki's life, but his opportunity to redeem himself and make up for everything.

Then, Thor knows how thankful they should be for having the chance to make it right. One that was stolen from the only one he had left.

One that they are underestimating. And it hurt him to see them wasting it.

The next morning, the whole team —plus Mel and Thor— was having breakfast in the kitchen. Everyone was just chatting about the Secret Santa presents, where you got John a new shield and turned it into vibranium for him, John gave Bob an improved pottery set, Bob gave Ava a handmade black cat mug, Ava gave you a digital camera you used the whole night taking pictures of everyone, Bucky got Alexei an article about him on the first page of the New York Bulletin, Alexei got Yelena a t-shirt of the team—which she hated—, and Yelena got Bucky an Amazon gift card so he can buy whatever he wanted.

Considering he needed your help for online payment and basically everything tech-related, it wasn't a very wise choice. However, Bucky seemed to like it and openly talked about stuff he would buy. Like a knife sharpener or hair care products—the last one was one of Yelena's jokes.

Weirdly enough, you were the most observant of all. Sitting between Mel and Thor, you didn't really have much of a distraction around you. The team had already decided to stop teasing you and Mel and embrace the fact that you were basically a couple who wouldn't tell anybody, so mocking you wasn't as funny anymore.

What was odd was Ava's silence. She was focused on her tablet, too focused to be paying attention—actually, she would eye John every once in a while. As for him, he was playing with his food instead of eating or participating actively in the conversation. At least he wasn't as active as usual. Not to mention Thor shooting random looks at either of them every thirty seconds, utterly quiet.

However, the conversation died quickly. Alexei had to do the groceries, Yelena and Bucky were going to train, and Mel went to shower, leaving only Ava and John to finish eating, you just not to be teased for allegedly joining Mel in the bathroom, and Thor who was just waiting for you to finish so you could hang out and he could distract himself from the secret he had to keep.

John was getting annoyed at Ava's stare, deciding to speak up. “What? Did you catch Bucky's staring infection? Don't you have a report to draft or why can't you leave me the beep alone?”

You and Thor looked at the camera. You, in surprise, him, in nervousness.

“Well, considering I need someone to send me his report to get the mission background so I can fill mine, no, I don't,” Ava rolled her eyes. “Oh, wait! That's your job, isn’t it?”

John scoffed. “Yeah, there it is.”

“What's that supposed to mean, Walker?”

“Nothing,” He shrugged. “I'll send it later. Just get your job done in time for once-”

Thor chuckled nervously, hoping to interrupt the heat of the argument. “Ah, domestic bliss… Midgardian holidays, am I right?”

“Tell me about it,” You frowned and stood up, grabbing Thor's arm and dragging him out with you. He called for the Stormbreaker on the way as a means to, perhaps, protect himself in case you wanted to insult him or something of the sorts.

Soon, you were on the balcony. Thor had gotten a metal file out of his pocket to sharpen the edges of the weapon's axe.

“You weren't curious back there. Not even a little bit,” You raised an eyebrow. “You know something, Odinson.”

He scoffed, trying to fake ignorance. Or indifference. Either way, his attempts to deceive you failed miserably. “There's nothing going on, I am just here with the Stormbreaker.”

“Uh, you were also awfully quiet during breakfast,”

“I am attempting something new,” He looked at the city, always amused by the New York rush, then at you. “Called privacy.”

You gasped, faking surprise. “You? Privacy?! Impossible.”

“Uh, it is possible,” Thor nodded. “Because I am doing it.”

“The thing is, you are being private about someone else. My friends. They're my friends and I worry about them, so I think I should know what you know.”

“I don't know anything,” He patted your back. “Nothing remarkable has happened under my watch.”

You squinted. “Come on, you're being so weird! You know I talk a lot, but I also happen to be a good listener.”

“I know you are quite the listener. Like you are trying to listen to my thoughts right now. I can feel you creeping your way into my brain.”

“Not true at all,” You shook your head. “Even if it's not about John and Ava's thing, you seem different.”

“Uh, different how? I am the same old mighty Thor you know,” He showed the Stormbreaker like a power move.

“I just worry,” You gave him half a smile. “If something is causing this kind of change, the one where you're unusually quiet and looking around like you're hiding from all the evils of the world, I'd like to know what it is. Not just to know it, I'd help. If I can. If you let me.”

He just looked at you like he was breaking character. “I guess seeing John and Ava fight like that reminded me of Loki and I.”

“Yeah?”

“Thanos killed him,” he replied. “Right when we were close to starting over and becoming the brothers I always knew we could be, that happened. And I lost everything I had left in a matter of days: my father died, we lost Asgard, then Loki, and Heimdall, then… half of everything. We lost, and I never thought I would lose a battle as such. I lost everything I had before I had a chance to repair it. Before he had the chance to redeem himself. I don't know if he died knowing I loved him. I do not know whether or not he ever found peace. That is why I am taking it so… to heart, because they have redemption in their hands, one they can only achieve truly by working on it as a team, not reject them when they invite you in.”

“Do you feel envy?” you wondered, more to the world than to him. “To see others having the opportunity that was taken from him.”

“I feel betrayed. I know they owe me nothing. They do not know my story, but… they are being ungrateful, and maybe if they could realize how they need each other, then… I will not see it go to waste under my nose,” he spoke, then paused and widened his eyes. “I- I was not supposed to say that! You tricked me with your… typical Midgardian talk about everything idiocy.”

You chuckled. “Well, you needed to say it, Thor.”

“Against my will,” He scoffed.

“Hey,” You tip-toed to pat his shoulder. “Thanks for trusting me.”

“Not by choice,”

You squinted at him, amused. “For what it's worth… I'm sure he knew.”

“I hope so,” He nodded.

“People here,” you started, looking at the camera. “We are lucky for this. It started weirdly, we were sent to kill each other and now we're a family. Everything changed in a blink, in… You close your eyes, meet the dark, and open them again to each other. And you keep doing it, but we're still here after every fall into the void. We underestimate it often. Some people tried and never had the chance, but we do.”

“Cut,” Chad nodded. When you were about to leave, he called you. “Hey, do you mind sticking around for a second?”

You blinked twice in confusion. “Huh?”

“Yeah, just for a sec,”

“For what? Are you gonna tell me to give you a smile and say cheese? ‘Cause I told you I'd be honest, not that I'd be flirty or wear that shit you mentioned so guys online jerk off to me or whatever.”

“I never told you to wear that skirt, that was Dan,” He chuckled, turning the camera off. “Besides, this is off the record, see?”

“Okay…” you muttered, walking closer to him and away from the rest of the crew.

He cleared his throat before beginning. “You know, I've always been a fan of you: you're a fan favorite, definitely, and I'm sure you'll get all the attention. You're vulnerable, caring, charismatic. Those galas? You walk in those rooms like you've got every person there in your overpriced, presumptuous, designer purse. You're like the sun and we're all sunflowers, and… you don't even have to lift a finger to get it, it's all you. That honesty, and how threatening you are? Oof! I'd love to show you I can be threatening, too.”

“Excuse me? Where is this bullshit coming from?”

“Right… What am I even doing if I don't tell?” A cynical smirk painted his lips, and you got ready for the worst. “I have a question first, though… How many was it? One dozen? Two? Well, I guess it's whatever for you as long as it suited your old bosses. You've called yourself King Midas, Medusa, even Jesus to explain your abilities. Who are you trying to fool? You use examples to direct the narrative so you look like a figure of regret, redemption, a victim, someone's tool, a martyr. In reality, you are just like… Circe. You didn't turn men into pigs, though I don't think you're above that, you turned lives into gold. But, unlike her, you always believed you were doing the right thing. Never the one to blame. HYDRA wanted someone to help them play God, and they made you from scratch, they praised you, and you served your purpose, thought it was righteous. It was your choice, Alchemist. Didn't you feel bad when you turned Yelena into gold? Didn't it bring out some memories? Or was it better because now you know you always had the ability to undo it? Or because she's not innocent?”

You stayed silent, feeling your skin sweat out all the cold panic in your body. Pure dread seemed to build in your liver and curse through your bloodstream to your brain and toes.

“You know what breaks my heart? That you were convinced you were doing the right thing, so… stupidly. That's not even naivety, you were outright stupid for believing they were doing it to save the world,” He huffed, so condescending and fake. “What breaks yours, though, is the idea of someone ever finding out and realizing that all that redemption arc you've tried to sell since Iron Man and Captain America used your girlfriend's brother's death to lure her, ergo, you into joining the good guys is built on cruelty and dehumanization.”

You could feel his words draining the life from your body and bringing back the monster you thought you had gotten rid of. The one that had far too many chances to resurface and stain your intentions black again and again, and took each and every one of them.

“I have names, records, confirmed clients, and the old footage too,” Chad got his tablet from his bag quickly, showing you the scenery that you've encountered in the Void but whose door you never got to open. “Actually, I have this picture of one of the late Queen Elizabeth's newest crowns made by a certain jeweler who got his 24K's from a certain company who got it from… yours. Even HYDRA needs funding, and there you were.”

He showed it to you, and you saw how the gold shone gracefully on her head.

“Now, you must be wondering: ‘What do you want, Chad?’, but you already know where I'm going,” He shrugged. “You are pure gold, Alchemist, and everything you touch turns to it. Just like chemistry turns to tension, which turns to appeal, which is all everybody wants to see in a shitshow like this one. Gold doesn't look as good on a widow, it looks like heirlooms and something old as time; on an agent? Just like an accessory that means nothing; on a ghost? It disappears along with her. However, gold and winter? That's cinematic. Romantic. You and your dearest Winter Soldier against the world like it was the first moment you met… long before Wakanda and before the Avengers.”

“How-”

“How do I know all this?” he interrupted your question. “Anybody ambitious enough can get his hands in HYDRA's hidden records. Even the ones Tony Stark failed to bury.”

“So, you want me to do a PR stunt with Bucky in exchange for keeping my secret?” You exhaled shakily, then shook your head in a surge of adrenaline—outrage, when he nodded. “No.”

“That's the wrong answer, sweetheart,” He smirked. “And don't you dare think about telling Valentina about our deal. You know what she'll do if she finds out you and her assistant are together. And if you hurt me, you know I have more than enough HR reports on you and your superfriends nobody should trust to protect our world so I can blame you all for it. Some inspo: kick off with a New Year's kiss.”

Instead of listening to him, you ran to Bucky.

Uneasy, desperate knocks made him throw his book away and jump from his bed directly to the door.

“Bucky,”

“Wait, come on in. What happened?”

You just held him. You held him as tight as your body allowed. And cried.

“Doll, talk to me,” He held you, too, stroking your back softly to ease you. “Please.”

“Chad. He knows about Morondava,”

His eyes widened. “What? How does he know that? We… we buried all of it.”

“He dug deep enough, I guess,” You covered your face with your hands, and Bucky drove you to sit on the bed. “I thought it was over-”

“It was- I- What the fuck does he want?”

“He wants me to fake a relationship with you. Sell some sort of twisted idea of love to the world. He even said that you and I have known each other since before Wakanda, and… no one is supposed to know that.”

He pressed his lips together. “We… I didn't think that was ever on the records.”

“Considering he has video footage of that day, I wouldn't rule that out,” You sighed. “We never exchanged words, Buck. You supervised me on a mission once. In Morondava. Still, Chad got that. Which means that basically anybody can access it. He even- he even talked about Wanda and Pietro. And Steve and Tony.”

“What did he say about them?”

“That I joined the Avengers because Steve and Tony convinced Wanda after Pietro's death and, therefore, I did too because I apparently always followed her,” You wiped your tears from your face and laid your head on his shoulder. “And that Tony wiped all records of me from all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s leaked intel on online databases. Whoever dug enough to find the Alchemist Files before they were taken down and got blended with the Scepter Project by the HYDRA remnants that recruited the Maximoffs, kept all the records, and Chad found them.”

Bucky exhaled tiredly. “Shit.”

“Yeah,” you hummed. “I don't know what to do.”

“If you say no?”

“He exposes everything and advises people to check if they're wearing someone on their necks,”

“We'll- we are going to figure it out,” He vowed, holding your hand. “I'll be here every step of the way.”

“Bucky, you don't get it… He has all those HR complaints on us. Not just mine, but yours, John's, Yelena's, Ava's… I fear none of us is safe. As soon as those reports go public, we go down as a failed experiment. Monsters, not heroes. We never were made to be trusted from the start.”

“Valentina won't like this, we can tell her and she will fix it. The last thing she can afford is backlash.”

“He tells Val about Mel and I. Then, she's the one to get punished, not me.”

Bucky felt angry, upset, and like a complete useless piece of shit for not being able to protect you; because the only thing he could do is help you comply, like during the old times where all he did was standing still beside you. Right then, he rarely met your eyes, as he wasn't allowed to because he was made to follow orders and you were too traumatized and manipulated to know any better. Either way, he remembered you when he saw you with Steve. He remembered your voice, the way it used to be cold but soothing. It grounded him, but he never told you that.

You were the only person who didn't hurt him there, were reluctant to his presence, or were scared of him. Instead, you felt protected and grateful. That is how he knew you weren't like them—that is how he trusted you when you said you would stay in Wakanda with him and why he only ever felt at peace when you were there, because your voice wasn't cold anymore, it was a bonfire, always soothing, and still yours. You weren't HYDRA's, you were yourself. You have been the only constant thing in his life from that moment on, at least the only one he ever truly felt like letting in without fear or regret. He always felt seen and cared for with you, and he hates himself for failing you by not being able to do more, to fix it all for you like you have fixed it all for him before.

“We play along, then? We kiss and all that?”

You made a disgusted grin. “I've kissed you once and it was so weird. We're like siblings.”

Bucky chuckled, feeling lighter for a second. “I'll fix this, alright? Just… trust me.”

“Can't ask that of you,”

“You're kidding me, aren't you?” He frowned. “You… you are the only person who has never abandoned me or even made me consider you would. No one has stuck for me like you have other than Steve, but he's gone now. And I know we have all of this now, but you're all I truly have in my life. I wouldn't hesitate to kill Chad if I knew it would fix this.”

“Buck,” You hugged him again. “I'm sorry to get you involved in this mess.”

“You would do it for me. I will do it for you,”

For the first time, you felt the tension fade away and oxygen finally reached your brain. “I will never leave you, Barnes, not in a million years. You are not getting rid of me 'till death do us part.”

Bucky laughed. “Me neither, doll.”

[paracosmic-murdock]

days of the new avengers* lives

episode eleven: someone is coming to town

a known face crashes at the watchtower (formerly avengers tower) (née stark tower). you argue with john about the pronunciation of french dishes at yelena's christmas eve dinner.

careful who you assemble

pairing: new avengers* x fem!new avenger!reader ; mel gold x reader

tags/warnings: new avengerz assemble, found family kinda, bullying john (maybe affectionately), mockumentary, sapphic reader, using y/n as little as i can, i talk about stuff I know nothing about so bear with me (wines), i've wanted to make that french joke for forever, can't wait to do it irl, guest star (it's a surprise), mel x reader moments, they celebrate christmas, john being an asshole (with good intentions deep down?), more to be added bc i'm going with the flow tbh

3.7K words

✰ days of the new avengers' lives masterlist

✰ mila's anthology (main masterlist)

Bob and you stared at the scene, astounded.

A whole Christmas miracle.

“The timer is gonna go off in a few seconds, but I feel that we should leave it more time,”

“Yeah, I trust you,”

You both frowned in surprise and looked at each other. Yelena trusts John?

Two blonde heads you would often see arguing or poking at each other like little kids were in the kitchen, agreeing on everything, trusting each other's cooking—like a Masterchef challenge between two good friends who are both equally as good and can work together perfectly.

“Did you pick the wine already?”

“I'm between a Bordeaux Supérieur or a Burgundy Pinot Noir,” John replied. “I'm inclined towards-”

“Bordeaux,” both said at the same time and nodded.

“Guys, can you go buy it?”

You and Bob watched in utter silence and nodded simultaneously.

“Yeah,” Bob agreed, guiding you to walk in front of him until you reached the common room.

“Okay, what the beep was that?”

“I have no idea, but I'm a little afraid, I'm not gonna lie,”

“Let's go before that weird beep team goes apebeep on us for not buying the wine,” You pushed him softly to the elevator. “Maybe we should go to church and confess our sins in case they kill us for choosing the wrong brand, or something.”

“Maybe that's too much responsibility for us,” Bob pressed his lips together, sighing tiredly. “We'll beep up, won't we?”

You clicked your tongue. “Beep, no. We'll nail this, Bobby. Let's go to some liquor store instead of the supermarket and find someone to help us.”

“Okay,” He nodded. “So you mean we can do this?”

“Big time,” You smirked. “What was the name of the wine, again?”

“A Pinot Noir, I think,” he replied, unsure.

“I think I heard something about Bordeaux,”

“Yeah, it's called Bordeaux Pinot Noir,” Bob assured you.

You smiled, believing in him blindly. “Okay, let's go.”

“Hello,” a new voice joined the common room. Ava was there, watching Home Alone, and turned around to see Mel. “Morning! I brought coffee.”

“Thanks,” Ava smiled, making space for her to sit. Then, she received the coffee. “It's good.”

Maple appeared suddenly, jumping on Mel's lap. She pretended to be surprised, as if she hadn't taken care of the dog for six days and walked her with you twice a week before that. Included that very same morning. “Hi?”

Ava raised her eyebrow. “Wow, I see Maple is used to you, isn't she?”

“Yeah, I guess she knows me since I come every once in a while,” She shrugged, faking ignorance.

“I guess. Do you come as a bearer of terrible Valentina-shaped news?”

“Uh, I'm looking for Y/N,” Mel said. “It's about the Wakanda mission and all that.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,”

“She's with Bob,” Ava replied. “They went to buy some wine for tonight.”

She nodded. “Alright, uhm… Is she gonna be long?”

“Probably,” Ava pressed her lips together. “Do you need something from her? Or can I help?”

“No, I just- I brought her this thing sent by Val. Can you give it to her?”

“For sure,” She received the gift bag. “What does this have to do with the Wakanda mission, though?”

“It's a bonus, I think,”

“Why didn't Bucky and I get something?”

“Wow, is this an interrogation?”

Ava smirked. “I'm just jealous I didn't get anything, that's all.”

“Don't be, I'm sure something else is coming,” Mel deviated her eyes from Ava. “I might as well bring it later.”

“Valentina is making you work on Christmas Eve?”

“She said only if I didn't have any plans, but I didn't anyway,”

“Nonsense. Come to our din-”

“Greetings, humans!”

Both of them turned around, seeing the last person they would expect to encounter.

“I was told this place belongs to the Avengers,” He smiled, taking a seat as if it was his own home and leaving his—axe?— on the couch beside him. “New ones, also. I didn't know they wanted to reassemble us. I know two of you, by the way: Y/N and Barnes.”

“Do they… know you would be here?” Ava asked with a frown.

“No, but Y/N will have me for sure,” He nodded. “I am Thor Odinson.”

“We know that,” Mel answered, still a little surprised. “I'll text Y/N.”

“We are looking for a Bordeaux Pinot Noir,” you told Thea, the woman working there.

“Bordeaux Pinot Noir?” she asked for confirmation, and both you and Bob nodded. “Don't you perhaps mean a Burgundy Pinot Noir? Or a Bordeaux AOC?”

You pressed your lips together. “No, I am sure it's Bordeaux and not AOC. Isn't it Bordeaux, Bob?”

“It is,” Bob nodded. “It's a Bordeaux Pinot Noir.”

“That doesn't exist, Sir,” she said with an awkward grin. “The Pinot Noir is red wine, which is made by grapes from Burgundy, not Bordeaux. The red wine from Bordeaux could mostly be Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, or AOC. I can recommend you brands known for-”

“Did they say something about Burgundy, Bob?”

“I think yes, but I'm not sure… I remember them saying it was Superior something.”

“That means it could be a Burgundy Supérieur AOC or a Bordeaux AOC. Consider a confusion between Burgundy Pinot Noir, Bordeaux AOC, or Burgundy Supérieur AOC. The latter is also made of Pinot Noir grapes, though, so it could be what you're actually looking for. Or, do you have any idea what you're eating it with? It can help.”

You cleared your throat. “Uh, something French.”

“Alright, I'd say it's the Burgundy Supérieur AOC,” Thea replied, internally questioning what she did to deserve such annoying customers.

“What do you think, Bobby?” you stared at him, expecting him to give you all the answers of the world's questions.

“I don't know,” he muttered, then stayed silent to think it through. “What if we buy one of each?”

“They said a specific one and also we'd have to buy like three of each, which we can't afford,”

“What did you suggest at the end?”

“A Burgundy Supérieur AOC,” She guided you to another shelf. “Would you like French brands specifically, or are you open to others?”

“Uh, French?” Bob squinted and looked at you. You nodded. “Yeah, French.”

“May I recommend Bouchard? It is one of my favorites, personally,”

You felt your phone buzz in your pocket, so you took it to check who it was, realizing it was Mel. “Give me four of these, please.”

Mel: Hey there 🫶🏼

Loml 💌: Is that my gorgeous, perfect, elegant, intelligent, charming, kind, thoughtful, courageous, creative, brilliant, gentle, humble, generous, passionate, wise, funny, loyal, dependable, graceful, radiant, calm, confident, warm, compassionate, respectful, sincere, magnetic, bold, empathetic, inspiring, honest, patient, powerful, attentive, uplifting, classy, friendly, reliable, ambitious, talented, supportive, grounded, determined, charismatic, extraordinary, trustworthy, perceptive, innovative, refined, considerate, balanced, open-minded, composed, imaginative, mindful, optimistic, virtuous, well-spoken, deep, philosophical, fearless, affectionate, expressive, emotionally intelligent, resourceful, delightful, fascinating, sharp, selfless, driven, assertive, authentic, vibrant, playful, observant, skillful, generous, practical, comforting, brave, wise-hearted, enthusiastic, dependable, tactful, enduring, well-mannered, composed, appealing, tasteful, joyful, understanding, genuine, brilliant-minded, encouraging, divine, well-rounded, dynamic, radiant, insightful, creative, tender, persevering, devoted, angelic, down-to-earth, clever, courageous, courteous, harmonious, beautiful-souled, easygoing, sincere, respectful, comforting, confident, protective, loving, serene, inspiring, and absolutely unforgettable, lovely, wonderful, enchanting, love of my life Melissa Gold texting me?

Mel: LMAO WHAT IS THAT

Loml 💌: That's my honest reaction whenever you're around, babygirl 💋

Mel: Honestly, impressive!

Mel: I'll have to top it. Working on it 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩

Loml 💌: I think topping me is easier and faster

Mel: OKAY???? you're being surprisingly bold today

Mel: I kinda like it

Loml 💌: You better like it baby

Loml 💌: Are you coming to dinner tn?

Mel: I do like it, and Ava invited me I think

Mel: But I'm texting you because we got a problem

Loml 💌: Don't scare me like this omg

Mel: It's not bad

Mel: It's just unexpected and idk how we should approach it

Mel: There's a… visitor?

Loml 💌: Bob and I are in the lobby

Loml 💌: Are you in danger?

Loml 💌: Who is it?

Mel: Thor

Loml 💌: Okay, that's what I call unexpected

Loml 💌: What is he doing at the WT??

Mel: He said he's here for some time because he's not with the Guardians (???) so he's crashing here because you'd let him

Loml 💌: Well wow

Loml 💌: Can he stay?

Mel: I guess so?

Loml 💌: Then it's okay if everyone is okay

Loml 💌: That's my guy fr

Mel: Okay?

Loml 💌: bye, pretty princess

Loml 💌: See u in a minute I'm in the elevator

Mel: You're making me blush!!

Loml 💌: Good

Mel: Bye, prettiest most beautiful being in the whole universe and beyond

Loml 💌: You got me all twirling my hair kicking my feet zoo in my belly

Mel: Nice 😎

Mel: Come soon, the kids miss you (Maple)

“Did you win the lottery or why are you smiling like that?”

Mel looked up, immediately changing her expression to a neutral one. “It was a meme.”

“Weren't you texting Y/N?”

“It's a meme she sent,”

“She's sending stupid stuff all the time, isn't she?” Ava grinned.

“For sure,” She nodded. “Uh, she said she's a minute away and that, if it's okay with everyone for him to stay, then he can.”

“Thor, do you eat a lot?”

“Does he eat a lot?” you questioned, arriving on the apartment floor. “He'd need to pay three times what we paid. I'm pretty sure he eats more than Alexei.”

“Hi, everyone,” Bob greeted.

Thor stood up to say hello, hugging you tightly and lifting you off the floor. You laughed. “There's my second favorite living Midgardian!”

“Man, you can't just say things like that-”

“What? Wilson isn't as fun,” He shrugged. “There is also Banner, he is number one. And Strange, but he's not really my friend. And Bucky and I have only met once.”

You nodded. “I'll ask everyone if they're okay with you staying, yes? How long will you be here?”

“Like, a month,” Thor returned to the couch and took the Stormbreaker. “Unless you want me to be an Avenger with you, because that might be fun!”

“Midgardian affairs tend to bore you, though,” you commented, standing right beside Mel. “Hi, girls. Ava, would you be okay with Thor staying?”

“Yeah, I don't care,” She tilted her head to the side. “I also owe you, so, if you ask, I'll agree.”

You smiled. “Bob, are you okay with Thor staying?”

“Honestly, it would lift a weight off my shoulders. There would be someone here to distract others whenever they ask if I'm ready to go on missions that I'm clearly gonna mess up if I'm there.”

“Huh, close enough,” You raised your eyebrows. “I love you, Bob, so I'm gonna tell Dr. Torres about your latest self-deprecating comments.”

He sighed. “Yeah, I guess that's in order.”

“Can you ask the others if they agree? Because they should. And can you ask Yelena and John if they can add a plate to the table? But, like you're telling them to so they don't say no.”

“Okay…” He turned around.

“Tell them to add a plate for Mel, too,” Ava told Bob.

“I didn't say-”

“You didn't need to say anything, you're staying for dinner,” Ava spoke firmly. “Anyway, Thor, do you wanna watch Christmas movies?”

He chuckled and threw himself to the couch again. “Sure, what are we watching?”

“Home Alone,”

“Can we watch another? This one reminds me of my ex Jane,”

Ava suppressed her laughter. “Yeah. Is The Nightmare Before Christmas alright?”

“What is it about?”

“Ha! Let's watch it,” She looked for it with a smile. “It's about the ruler of Halloween learning about a happy holiday like Christmas and deciding to kidnap Santa and make it a scary holiday.”

“Sounds great, let's watch it.”

You hummed. “Mel, would you help me with this mission report I have to send Val, like, ASAP?”

“Yeah! Sure!” She nodded, catching up with your terrible excuse nobody actually believed.

“Follow me!”

The two of you walked away from the common room, not before Mel took the gift bag from the coffee table where Ava had put it.

“They're so freaking obvious,” Ava muttered to herself.

“I can already hear that song in my nightmares,” Thor faked a shiver.

She laughed. “And you didn't watch this movie when you were a kid.”

“For Odin…”

“They totally believed us,”

Mel chuckled, closing the door to your room. “They totally did not.”

“You overestimate Thor who doesn't listen to me ever,” You smirked. “So, you look absolutely amazing and I'm in love with you.”

She shook her head, blushing, and stared at herself in the mirror. “This old thing? I only bought it for you to look at!”

“Blah, blah, blah, proper name, place name, backstory stuff… Can I kiss you now?”

Mel smiled, threw the gift bag to your bed, got rid of her high heels, and kissed you herself.

It was sweet, tender, everything. God, you adore her so much it almost frightens you, but it doesn't.

Because she's yours now, and you fear nothing if you have her with you.

Everyone was sitting on the table.

Surprisingly, Thor had gotten along with everyone very well. And adored his Christmas hat.

Yelena, Ava, Bucky, you, Mel, John, Thor, Alexei, and Bob. All wearing red Santa hats with colorful lights and your names on the white fur part in cursive, glitter letters.

“Guys, you brought the wine, right?” John asked you and Bob. Both nodded and stood up to find it.

“If this isn't the correct wine, we're gonna be beep,”

Bob sighed. “I have kind of a bad feeling…”

“Beep, Bob, those bad feelings tend to be right,” You hid your face with your hands and took two of the bottles. “We just have to go there and hope for the best.”

“Here it is!” Bob and you exclaimed in unison, positioning the bottles in front of John and Yelena. They looked at each other.

“This is… not what we asked for,” John replied.

“Uh, this is definitely what you asked for,” Bob countered, knowing he was most likely right but not willing to admit defeat. “You talked about Burgundy Supérieur and Pinot Noir. That's what this is.”

“I know what this is, what I'm saying is that we asked for Bordeaux Supérieur, not Burgundy Supérieur,” John said. “Pinot Noir is the kind of wine, and it can be a Supérieur depending on the brand and other stuff. This is not what we asked for.”

You pursed your lips. “John, you definitely said Burgundy Pinot Noir.”

“I said we wouldn't choose that one,”

“You're confused,” Bob pursed his lips. “This is exactly what you guys asked for, right, Yelena?”

“Oh, leave me out of it,” she replied. “I don't really care and I'm pretty sure you're manipulating John.”

“We're not,” you lied. “But, hey, believe the one who's imagining things.”

“Are you trying to gaslight me?” John squinted.

“Believe whatever you wa-”

“Oh, my God, nobody beep cares about that! Let's just drink the beep wine, it's whatever!” Ava complained, taking one of the bottles and giving it to Thor so he opens it.

He did so with his bare hands. “It… looks like a good one.”

“Can we just eat?” Bucky rolled his eyes.

“Yes. I'm hungry,” Alexei mentioned. “What you made for dinner?”

“Well, the main dish is Ratatouille,” He smiled proudly.

“It's Ratatouille.” you corrected John, your accent neatly French.

He gave you a bad look. “And what did I say, smart-beep?”

“Ra-tuh-too-eel. It's more like ra-tuh-touy,” you explained. “Ratatouille.”

“What did I say?”

“Don't mock me, beep, I'm just trying to teach you!”

“And you're being a brat,” He scoffed.

“Hey, hey, no need to get violent,” Bucky exhaled tiredly.

“Can't you not argue tonight? For Christmas at least? For Santa? Or baby Jesus? Or Hanukkah? Or a winter wonderland?” Yelena questioned. The two of you nodded. “Thank you.”

“So, the French lessons have gone well,” Mel smiled. “Your French is really good, I took some in high school but forgot most of it.”

You took a sip of your wine. “Well, if you think I speak French well, you should see how I kiss French. That's the real deal.”

“Oh,” She opened her eyes widely, and, just then, you realized what you had said.

You could hear a hair pin drop in the silence of the dining room after your comment and locked eyes with a very surprised Mel. The table fell completely silent, everyone was still as statues, expectant of what would happen next.

“Our Ratatouille is gonna get cold if we don't eat it soon, you know…” John muttered, trying to cut the tension.

Your lips made an uncomfortable line. “It's Ratatouille.”

“For beep sake, why don't you just go and French Mel instead of bothering me?” John snapped at you, then taking a bite of his Ratatouille.

Everyone stared in silence, either trying to suppress their laughter or dying from second-hand embarrassment.

“Isn't this a jolly and merry dinner?” Ava smiled awkwardly and took a sip of her wine. “The wine is good. Nice decision, John. Or nice mistake, guys.”

“Many mistakes tonight,” Bob sighed.

“Was this a mistake?” Thor asked, smirking at you.

Mel ate her food in utter silence, trying her best to ignore the situation and the fact that even a god witnessed the most embarrassing moment of her life.

And the worst part? She was dying to find out if your French kissing was better than your French speaking.

Bucky took his glass in hands and clicked it against yours. “Cheers to that, Hades.”

John winked at you from his seat.

“Beep,” You showed him your middle finger and finished your glass in a single gulp.

“Easy, doll,” Bucky muttered. “We wouldn't want you drunk when you're frenching Mel.”

She almost spilled her wine. “Excuse me, I'm going to the bathroom!”

Once she disappeared from the team's sights, everyone burst into laughter. Except, of course, for you.

“John, you absolute son of a beep,” You nodded, threatening. “You will rue this day.”

“You should thank me,” he teased you. “Now you can go and French her.”

You groaned and stood up, preparing to leave, when you heard Thor clap, and the others sang your name in knowing encouragement.

“Go, Kylie, go!” Yelena exclaimed, referencing a TikTok audio. “Wow… Look at her go.”

“Shut the beep off. You're too online,”

“We can wait for you if you promise us it'll be just a quickie!”

“Oh, my God!” you screamed, feeling blood rush to your cheeks. “Bob, I wasn't expecting that from you.”

With that, you left, catching up to her in the hallway to the rooms, right in front of your door.

“I am so sorry! It just slipped, and you know John is a fucking cunt,”

She shook her head, covering her mouth with her hand. “We can't keep counting on them being oblivious. Bucky, Yelena, and Ava are trained spies. Bob is observant. John is an asshole. Alexei is a gossip. They'll find out sooner or later.”

“Bucky knows already,” you groaned. “And everyone has known I like you since the Halloween gala when I had a breakdown. Also, Yelena, and Ava noticed that by themselves God-only-knows how long ago.”

“Dear God,” She pressed her forehead on your door. “What were they saying?”

You stood beside her. “They were teasing me. And Bob said they'd wait for me if I promised I'd be quick.”

“And? Are you gonna be quick or what?” Mel looked at you, a teasing smirk on that mouth you were dying to French.

“Congratulations!” Thor screamed and stood up, clapping at the sight of you and Mel returning to the table. His face showed the kind of excitement you remember to have seen after successful missions when he shone brighter than the others and saved the day.

The rest of the team cheered, teased, whistled, and laughed.

“We waited,” Bob winked.

“I will kill you in your sleep, Robert.”

“Have you ever wanted to kill someone so bad, knowing you have the power to do so, but not do anything? Well, I might as well change that,”

“Cut,” Chad pressed his lips together. “Dan, go to HR, please.”

[paracosmic-murdock]

days of the new avengers* lives

episode ten: the royal pardon

you, bucky, and ava go to wakanda for your mission and pay a visit to your old royal friends. yelena loses sweet cheeks.

careful who you assemble

pairing: new avengers* x fem!new avenger!reader ; mel gold x reader

tags/warnings: new avengerz assemble, found family kinda for real, bullying john (maybe affectionately), mockumentary, sapphic reader, lots of avengers as a family stuff, lots of feels, yapper!reader, it's ava's bday and reader gave her a very thoughtful and amazing present, wakanda !!, guest stars (t'challa, shuri, ayo, and okoye) and more mentioned (nakia, toussaint, zemo, hank pym), spoilers for the falcon and the winter soldier (2021), la la land (2016) mentioned!!!!!!!, some of reader's past crimes revealed, platonic stuff, mel is maple's babysitter, mentions of character death (hamster), friendship is magic, bob and reader go to therapy together and it shows, bc bob is acquiring emotional intelligence, using y/n as little as i can, more to be added bc i'm going with the flow tbh

4.8K words

✰ days of the new avengers' lives masterlist

✰ mila's anthology (main masterlist)

“Okay, you walk her twice a day,” you told Mel. “5 AM and 5 PM. Feed her half an hour later. In the morning, boil turkey and serve it minced with the dog food and broccoli. For dinner, make her a carrot purée with boiled eggs and blueberries. She's tiny, so she shouldn't eat much, but she'll eat everything you put on her plate. Here are these labeled containers with the size of everything she eats so you don't give her too much. For the broccoli, one mini tree, and the blueberries should be three.”

She frowned. “Is this a routine?”

“Maple is very particular about her day,” You shrugged. “So she has these things she does throughout the day. Always keep her water bowl full. Also, if you won't be home by 5 PM, you can move the schedule a bit. Maybe walk her at 6 and 6, 6 and 7, but never keep her without eating for longer than fourteen hours. Thus, if you're gonna take a bit longer, leave some treats close to her food but not in the same bowl as the main meals. She'll eat them when she's hungry meanwhile. Uh, move her bed to your room so she doesn't feel lonely since you'll be gone all day and she doesn't like being alone, and I just bathed her so she shouldn't need to anytime soon, but I clean her with wipes everyday. Oh, and before I forget: remember she walks in Central Park, you know the path. And she's trained so she won't make any messes or pee or poop anywhere that's not outside.”

“Is that all?” Mel asked, almost sarcastically.

You shook your head. “Finally, I'll need you to send me pics of you and Maple twice a day so I can see the two loves of my life. That would be all.”

“Okay, thank you for your instructions,” She chuckled, blushing slightly at your comment, one you made as if it was nothing.

“Thank you for taking care of my baby,” You gave her a short peck on the lips. “As weird as it sounds, I can only trust John with Maple, but we're fighting.”

“And me. You trust me, right?”

You let out a heavy, hesitant exhale. “Yes…?”

“You can trust me! I'll be a devoted temporary mother to Maple,”

“Well, you're basically her other mom,” you noted and looked at the puppy in your arms. “You're staying with your mom while mommy is working far away.”

“Stepmother, I guess,” Mel proposed.

“Nope, you're the mother who stepped up,”

She snorted. “Yeah?”

“Yep,” You winked. “So-”

Your phone started ringing, and a picture in 0.5x of you and Ava shone on the screen. You showed it to Mel, who just grinned and told you to answer.

“Hi, Av-”

“Get your ass here, Y/N, we're leaving now,” she said. “The dog nanny can't be taking so much of your time.”

You scoffed. “Ava, you know this is the first time I leave Maple with someone that's not John. I can't just not give instructions!”

“Make haste!”

“Bridgerton-ass thing to say,” you commented and hung up the call. Then, your annoyed tone turned into an affectionate one to keep talking to Mel. “And I'll try to FaceTime every night to see my baby because I'll miss that pretty little face so much…”

“I'll miss you, too,” she curved her lips. You, on the other hand, were beginning to hug Maple closer as a goodbye, making Mel realize you weren't talking about her. “Of course you meant the dog. “

“Of course I meant Maple,” You smirked and walked closer to her, leaving a small kiss on her lips. She pouted. “I'll more than miss you. I'll think of you the entire day and try hard not to die so you don't become a widow or something.”

Mel shook her head in fake disbelief and took the Charles Spaniel from your arms to put her on the floor. Then, she cupped your face and brought you closer so she could kiss you. It was a long and deep kiss that made you consider quitting and staying with her for always. You smiled into it, and she kissed your cheek before taking a step back.

“Go before Bucky or Ava come upstairs and find out who's your dog's real nanny.”

You sighed.

“Took you long enough,” Bucky rolled his eyes.

“Sorry, Maple has separation anxiety,”

“The beep is that?” Ava frowned.

“When you get anxious about separation, obviously,” You scoffed, walking between them to the casually-parked-on-the-street quinjet. “Her breed likes being around people and all that, but more specifically her mother. Me.”

“What's the name of her breed, again?” Bucky asked.

“Cavalier Queen Hades Spaniel,” Ava mocked you. “Can't you see she looks like Maple?”

“I so don't look like Maple,”

“All dogs look like their owners,” Bucky spoke, pressing the button to open the jet's gate.

“What does Maple even have that is similar to me?”

“You're a beep, so that's all we needed to say,”

You gasped, offended. “You better thank it's your beep birthday today.”

“You're the only person who cares about that,” She shook her head.

“You don't know many people, do you?” Bucky teased her, referring to the idea most people have about honoring the birthday person by treating them well, accommodating them, and tolerating them more then normally.

“Ava's birthday is today, so I've been working on her gift for, like, months,” you mentioned to the camera. “So, remember how I said in the pilot that-”

We titled it ‘driver’

Bucky squinted. “Driver?”

“From pilot to driver? That's stupid, Chad,” You shook your head. “As I was saying, I told you I had retired for some time after the divorce in 2016. Well, I was in Wakanda with Bucky. I was a spy and I hung out with Shuri all the time because she loved studying my powers. So, we're close. Now, long story short, she called last year saying she was interested in learning about quantum stuff, so I made a few calls and put her in contact with Hank Pym. You guys know I'm the queen of networking, right? Anyway, she said she owed me one and now she's making me a new suit for Ava! I gave her all the files on Ava I stole from Valentina's records on us, I blackmailed someone from S.H.I.E.L.D., and all that. Tonight, when we land in the Golden City, we'll go to dinner with T'Challa, Ayo, Okoye, Shuri, and Nakia. We'll later go to Shuri's lab to see Ava's gift. I've also been working hard on getting Bucky to reconcile with Ayo because there's still some bad blood between him and the rest after he freed our nemesis Zemo for some beep he never explained.”

“I did explain it to you multiple times, it's not my fault you wouldn't listen,”

“Are you aware that Sam called me to complain about you when I was going through something because you were being idiotic about it?” you questioned. “Thankfully, this won't be aired, but I had to shoot the guy.”

“You'd always wanted to do that. You said it multiple times,”

“I always wanted to kill him, but I did not,”

“Well, considering your bullet placement, I'd say you tried very hard,”

“A little FYI: Natasha taught me how to shoot and I'm pretty good at it,” you informed him, matter-of-fact. “And I have a pellet gun in my closet and she's considering a new target named Bucky Barnes’ kneecaps. I could shoot you even if I had my back on you.”

“Weren't you talking about Ava's gift? How did you manage to turn it into a threat?”

You clicked your tongue. “Right, we were talking about Ava. So, Ava's suit. It will make her phasing easier and, according to Shuri, eliminate the pain. It will be the best thing ever.”

“Did this start when you decided to be a good person?”

“Uh, a little bit earlier.”

Bucky nodded, giving the camera an annoyed look until he saw you smile while checking in your phone something he couldn't quite figure out. Just then, he raised an eyebrow in suspicion.

“I made breakfast!”

Yelena appeared in the kitchen, rubbing her eyes and carrying Sweet Cheeks, her guinea pig, in the pocket of her hoodie. “Morning.”

“Morning, Lena!” Alexei greeted her happily as he served the food he had made in four plates. “Bob! John! Breakfast!”

“What did you make?”

John joined them in the kitchen. “Good morning.”

“Pancakes with chocolate chips, blueberries, raspberries, and dried cranberries,” he replied. “There's maple syrup, too.”

“Y/N left Maple? And Bob's lizard?”

Yelena turned around. “Maple syrup. That thing that comes from trees and you put on pancakes and waffles?”

“It's not my fault you guys choose the stupidest names for your pets,”

“Not our fault you couldn't take care of a hedgehog,”

“Not like Alexei could take care of his hamster,” John shrugged.

“No talking of Draniki,” Alexei pointed at John.

“Alexei sat on his hamster,” John informed, looking at the camera. “And killed it.”

You stood up, dragged Bucky to stand up as well, and clinked the wine glass with your fork. “Hello, friends.”

Everyone stared at you expectantly, starting with Ava, who had no clue of what would happen but knew well enough that it couldn't be something simple knowing you and Bucky.

“Firstly, I would like to thank our King T'Challa for this dinner. I've always wanted to come to this place,” You smiled and winked at him. T'Challa raised his eyebrows in amusement. “Now, I know there's some… tension between you guys and Bucky, and I understand it completely because I know this guy and I know how frustrating he can be. However, Bucky promises that the reason why he broke Zemo out of jail was for the greater good and that he also gave him back to you. A little injured, yes, and that's on me, but he gave him back. That being said, Bucky is extremely grateful for everything you did for him and apologizes profusely for his faults. Don't you, Barnes?”

He nodded. “I do. I'm sorry.”

“Yeah, we'll also never be able to pay you back for everything you've done for us, especially Ayo.”

“You paid,” Okoye commented, and you turned slowly to look at her. “Do you really think royal spies make so little?”

“What do you mean that was little? I lived comfortably, I never denied myself a little treat, and I could afford an interior designer.”

Shuri nodded. “You know basic things are affordable here, right? What? You never wondered why you didn't have to pay for utilities? That's free here.”

“You mean Bucky is fine thanks to me?”

“Basically.”

“Bucky, you beep,” You chuckled. “I hope you feel that debt within you.”

Bucky rolled his eyes. “Can we undo the last two minutes?”

“But, yes, we forgive you,” T'Challa replied. “Will you talk about tomorrow's mission already?”

“Hey, I didn't know you wanted to join us when I told you last week we'd come here,” you excused yourself. “But Bucky is gonna explain everything.”

You sat down and let Bucky talk.

“I thought Nakia would come,” you whispered to Shuri.

“She's with Toussaint tonight, he's sick,”

“Who's Toussaint?” you asked, taking a sip of your wine.

“Their son,” she replied

You turned to Bucky and spit the wine on him, making him flinch and look at you, upset.

“What the beep?!” he yelled, taking the napkin to clean himself as much as he could.

“Their what?!”

“Their son,” Shuri blinked twice.

“Oh, you told her,”

“I follow you guys on Instagram and reply to your stories, I thought we were solid enough to inform each other about children.”

T'Challa laughed. “Do you wanna see him?”

“Oh, totally,” You stood up and crouched between him and Okoye to see the pictures. “He's so freaking cute! He looks just like you! Not to be dramatic, but I would die for him.”

“Technically, all of us would,” Ayo commented.

“But I wouldn't do it for the duty, I would do it because those dimples need to be passed on,”

“He is the cutest,”

“And you had to spit all your wine on me, why?!”

“Shut up, Bucky, I paid for your therapy!”

“That was a joke, by the way,” Ayo smirked. “We did that because we're kind and generous.”

“You almost gave her leverage to ruin my life,”

Ava frowned. “Is it always like this when it's the two of them?”

“They bicker like little kids all the time,” Okoye replied.

“Congratulations on your kid,” Bucky nodded. “He's got the best father a child could get. Cheers.”

T'Challa smiled. “Thanks, Buck.”

“Bob! John! Dad!” Yelena screamed.

It was a rather urgent scream, a little agonizing if anything, one you wouldn't really expect to hear coming from her on a random Friday.

The three of them appeared in the hallway to their rooms, worried.

“Lena! What happened?” Alexei questioned, concern on his face.

“Yeah, what is it?” John frowned.

“I can't find Sweet Cheeks,”

They let out a relieved sigh, thankful that it was something they didn't consider as upsetting as she did.

“Why are you relieved? This is important! Have you seen him?!” She turned to face the wall and pressed her forehead against it. They shook their heads.

“We help find it,” Alexei proposed.

“‘We’ sounds a little like a pack, so get me out of it,”

“You're a beep, John, seriously,” Bob scoffed. “This is important to Yelena.”

“When has she ever cared about what's important to us, huh?”

“Man, just look for him in the rooms or the bathroom,” He rolled his eyes. “You don't have to be a beep beep about it.”

Alexei nodded. “An beep he is.”

“Okay,” John groaned. “When was the last time you saw it?”

“I was in the common room, put him on the couch to play with Alpine, and then went to get water in the kitchen,” she started. “And when I went back, neither of them was there. Alpine appeared in Bucky's room but Sweet Cheeks is nowhere to be found.”

“Maybe Yelena can stay in her room and see if Sweet Cheeks appears there since it's his safe place and also check the security cameras,” Bob suggested. “John will go to the other rooms and the bathrooms, Alexei can search for him in the common room and kitchen, and I'll go check in any small place he can get to. And hope to God he didn't go in the elevator when Alexei left for the supermarket.”

“Sound good,” Alexei nodded. “Let's go, team!”

“Just look at her! She's crying!”

Bucky smiled softly and left his arm on your shoulders. “That was a sweet thing to do.”

“I'm always sweet, James,”

“Not that sweet,” he cleared. “I mean, I wouldn't have expected you to do something like that for me, and we're supposed to be closer than you and Ava.”

“Buck, I would turn vibranium to flesh and bone if you wanted me to,” you commented, looking at Ava phasing more easily and for longer than before, no shows pain in her eyes at all. “But I don't think that's something you'd truly want. The vibranium arm is kinda hot. It gives you character.”

He chuckled. “If you could just not annoy me from time to time, that'd be enough.”

“That would be like changing our bond completely,” you pointed out. “The necklace is similar to King T'Challa's. She activates it at will, and the suit appears to cover her like magic. The vibranium and Shuri's modifications contain the rearrangement of her cells in the delimited space of the suit, making her phasing stable, therefore, absorbing her pain; and, thanks to the vibranium, which is way lighter than the leather and tech of the old one, she'll be able to move more smoothly and comfortably. Also, thanks to the fact that the necklace by itself helps with the pain, she'll be able to just be in peace and fight better without it hurting so much, not to mention that the vibranium can basically protect her from anything.”

“So kind and generous. That's why we're getting married next year,” He laughed.

You nodded, not meeting his eyes. “Buck, ask me to tell you,”

“Tell me what?” He frowned.

“I can't keep this secret from you anymore, I need to talk about it with someone!”

“Knowing you, this so-called secret can be about mass murder or turning John's shield to water,” Bucky pursed his lips. “So, please, do tell.”

“Mel and I are kinda dating,”

“Oh, beep finally!”

You laughed, feeling warmth going to your cheeks. “Shut up.”

“When did this happen? Why didn't you tell me?”

“When I got chickenpox, I asked her why she was avoiding me. You remember I told you she was. Turns out, she was jealous of us-”

“Of us?” Bucky made a confused grin. “We're closer to killing each other than to dating.”

“Our wedding was gonna be purple as lavender,” you agreed. He stared confused but said nothing. “Anyway, it was like in the movies, Bucky! We were yelling at each other and then I told her I liked her and then she kissed me. Oh, my God! It was so romantic. I wanna marry her right this instant.”

He smiled slightly. “I'm happy for you, you know that, right? You deserve to be happy with whoever you love. I mean that.”

“You're too cute,” you gave him a soft, playful punch on his bicep. “And I'm sorry we aren't getting married.”

“Hey, if you get a divorce, I'm here,” He shrugged.

“Yeah, I'm not getting a divorce from Mel ever, I already got divorced once, and that's more than enough,”

“It was an annulment, I don't think it counts as divorce,”

“One can never be too sure, you know?”

Bucky shook his head. “I'm surprised you haven't gotten on the rooftop of the Watchtower with a microphone and a hundred speakers and yelled that you're together.”

“We haven't told anyone because we don't want Val to find out, at least not until we're… official and solid,”

“And why can't Valentina find out?”

“Because she told Mel not to get involved with any of us in any manner whatsoever: we can't be friends. So, we're waiting a little to then blame her for being homophobic or something.”

“You accuse people of being homophobic very often, don't you?”

You thought about it. “I think so, yeah. And-”

“Did I do something in particular to deserve this?” Ava asked, interrupting your conversation with Bucky.

“Uh, being a Scorpio?”

She smirked and went to hug you.

Ava. Hugged. You.

Ava. Hugs.

“Thank you so much,” She held you tighter. “You have no idea how much this means to me.”

You held her back. “If I have the opportunity to help you feel better, trust that I'll do it. That's what friends are for.”

“This isn't a friends thing, Y/N, this is… something nobody would ever do for me,”

“Well, it's not only something I would do, but also something I did because I care about you and I don't like seeing you in pain,”

“She's always been like this?” Ava asked Bucky.

He looked at you and then at her. “She gets worse the more she cares. Not to brag, but she's committed several crimes for me.”

“Like what?” She frowned.

“Like arson, manslaughter, treason, and prison break,”

“You shouldn't say that just like that, you know?”

“Yeah, I shouldn't have.” Bucky nodded in agreement, pressing his lips together, looking at the camera.

Ava sighed, trying to give the camera a casual smile when, in reality, she was more than happy. “I can't believe I'm going to say that, but… we're a family, are we not? One doesn't do things like this for people they don't care about like family. We could just ignore each other all the time, even move somewhere else and meet only for missions, but that's not us. We chose to be a family because no one understands the broken like another broken. That's us, a group of broken people making something nice out of all our broken pieces. And she? She turns the glue to gold like those ceramic things. What's the name?”

Kintsugi

“What?” She made a confused grin. Chad repeated it. “That, we're that. It's nice to have a family when all your life you've known nothing but the lack of it, right? It is the best birthday present.”

“Yeah, no need to be a beep beep about it! If you're not gonna take this seriously, just leave!”

“How much more seriously and I am supposed to take the disappearance of a literal rat bunny?! Thank the lord I'm even looking for it!”

“He's not a rat bunny! His name is Sweet Cheeks and he's a guinea pig,”

Bob sighed. “Could you guys just… not?”

“See? Now you're upsetting Bob.”

John groaned and threw his hands in the air, now making his way to his room.

“Beep,” Bob scoffed.

“Will I see Sweet Cheeks again?” She sat on the sofa beside Bob. “I can't lose him.”

“We've looked for him everywhere,” He sighed. “I'm afraid we should start considering that option.”

“See? I can't even take care of a guinea pig,” Yelena laid her head on Bob's shoulder. “I had a dog: Fanny. And I had to give her away because, you know, I had that job where I would be out of home all that time and I couldn't take care of her. So, when I took Sweet Cheeks, I thought it would be easier and also that I was gonna have a better job, then. Which, admittedly, I got, right? But I also thought that I could take care of him and I could have people I trust to care of him whenever I'm gone. And with people, I mean Y/N, Ava, and you. They're gone for a day and suddenly I'm not made for being a guinea mom.”

Bob frowned. “I can't help but feel like you're… displacing.”

“Displacing?” She stared at him, confused.

“Yeah, it's like mirroring negative emotions on other stuff to avoid the real problem or the consequences of facing it,” he explained. “It comes in many forms, like snapping at each other when we're stressed or upset about a mission; watching La La Land a hundred times and grieving Mia and Seb's relationship as if it was our own because ours ended just like theirs; and putting all your insecurities on losing Sweet Cheeks instead of facing them yourself.”

“Two things:” Yelena sighed. “First, you might be onto something. Second, where did you even learn that?”

“Y/N and I go to couple's therapy once a week. You didn't know?”

“Couple's therapy?”

“Yeah, since it's just us who work on Mr. God Complex, Mr. Inferiority Complex, and just Bob, we explore everything as a unit,” He shrugged. “It's going really well, actually. We talk about finding balance between all of it, internalizing positive reassurance, and managing to let the idea develop when we can't fight it and learn to let it go. For her, we explore her past and how it's reflected in the Void. Each time she overcomes one, another room makes it worse, and it's also on me to understand her feelings and use that to fight the Void together.”

“I'm sure that's not what they call Sentry and the Void,” Yelena chuckled softly. “I'm glad it's been working for you, though. One day, we should pretend to be a trouple and have trouple's therapy.”

“Dr. Derrick will go insane,” He smirked. “I'm also going to the psychiatrist, by the way.”

“That's nice, Bob. We'll have you in your peak soon.”

Bob laughed. “The doctors said we have a long way to go, but that we're on the right path if we aren't afraid of asking for help. Which we're doing.”

“Right.”

“Hey,” They heard John join them in the room. “So, I found Sweet Cheeks.”

Yelena's eyes widened and her face beamed happily as she stood up to reach John. “Sweet Cheeks, you're back!”

“He was having an adventure in my room with Alpine,” John replied, nonchalantly. “In my closet. I was working out and… gonna take a shower. I opened my closet and saw them playing.

Bob looked at the hall, spotting John's room's door opened at the end of it as his bedroom was the last one and in plain sight. It looked terribly messy, just like his hair and how sweaty he was. Clearly, he looked for Sweet Cheeks incessantly. Alpine sat in front of it, oblivious to the problem.

“So, you didn't look for him,” Bob spoke, knowing he would lie to seem unbothered and indifferent to Yelena's fear of losing Sweet Cheeks.

“Nah, he just appeared,”

“Thanks anyway, John,” Yelena curved her lips softly and went to her room so she could leave the guinea pig in his cage. “I'm gonna get that collar tracker on Temu, Sweet Cheeks.”

“You know that showing that you care won't make you look weak or something, right?” Bob commented, giving him an almost sheepish look when both of them knew more than well what his real intentions were. “Every single one of us is going through something, and every single one of us can help. Maybe you struggle with it… with letting others know they have the power to hurt you because you've given it to them. But you see it, too. We're family. We're safe with each other. This isn't weakness or a punishment, this is us being human, seeing that we have the power to grow and be better, and that we're together in that process. Always there for each other. Deep down, you know that. Just embrace it instead of working on losing it before being able to enjoy it, Walker.”

“Therapy is doing wonders, isn't it?” John pressed his lips together, trying to keep the satisfaction of his realization from reaching Bob's ego.

He chuckled. “Yeah, life is cool and I have the power to fix everything, or whatever beep I'm supposed to gaslight myself into believing.”

“Don't say it for my sake,”

“Sometimes, that's what family is for.”

“What should I do? Just… talk to the camera?”

You nodded. “Yeah, Your Majesty, tell the camera how you felt working with the Avengers today.”

“Okay,” T'Challa laughed. “Y/N managed to blend really well in our team's synergy when she first came to Wakanda. Not having her anymore wasn't an easy transition, but, thankfully, we could still count on her sometimes. A part of her will always be here, she'll always be one of us. Working together with her again, with Bucky, who used to join us from time to time, and even with Ava, felt like the old times. It wasn't an easy mission, but it was… nice to be back at it.”

“I'm gonna cry,” You pouted. He smiled. “I'm already struggling with having to leave, you can't just say that to me.”

“Hey, it's worth the try,”

You cleared your throat. “Okay, the mission. It turned out to be a bigger issue than what we were expecting. It was almost successful because we were supposed to end all the operations in Wakanda, or at least in Birnin Zana, but… we got intel! Yay!” You gave a fake celebration.

“Ever since we exposed our resources to the world, people have wanted to come here to find a better life, to work, or to learn. We knew this would happen, so we thought that the best way to compromise was by offering scholarships. We wanted to trust, but we shouldn't have. In this mission, we experienced first hand the way foreigners have taken advantage of our knowledge, development, and resources.”

“For evil! See, we knew that the Syringes were working on chemical and biological weapons, but we didn't have many details because they were here. They got subjects from marginalized communities in Russia, Sokovia, Brazil, and Morocco, places that aren't really monitored unless something drives the attention there like now. If that woman hadn't escaped, we wouldn't have found out about it yet. We couldn't get enough to locate their bases in the other countries, but we have it narrowed down to four. Except that Bucky, Yelena, and Alexei already took care of Russia. We have to find out now where the actual big guys are hiding, because the Syringes are just a branch of something bigger: an organization called ONYX with too much stuff left to find out.”

“They're using our endemic flora and fauna, the result of the collision of the meteorite that brought the vibranium, to develop biological weapons and a serum to create some sort of ‘super humans’,” he added. “The only thing left to figure out is… everything.”

You sighed. “Thanks for saying it like that, it makes me feel a lot better.”

T'Challa smirked. “You're very welcome.”

[paracosmic-murdock]

a cure i know that soothes the soul

yelena was fatally injured once in cairo, and bucky's response was taking her to wakanda where you, an old friend and the most qualified person to save her that he knows, worked then. now, you were back in new york, working again as a doctor for the (new) avengers, which prompts yelena to be extra reckless so she can be near you more often —always hoping for some extra care, too.

pairing: new avenger!yelena belova x surgeon!fem!reader

warnings/tags: sapphic yelena, smut, pillow princess!yelena, rare sub!yelena sighting, masturbation (reader), oral sex (yelena receiving), fingering, porn with plot, minors dni, this dirty little thing had me all bothered ong, yelena is a hypochondriac, i made up some science stuff, are y'all proud of me?, i'm sure it made sense😎, reader is described to wear red lipstick, i googled a shade that looks good with all skin tones and got the one i mentioned, so i hope there's np with red lipstick, because yelena is heavily turned on by seeing reader wearing it, and her black high heels, walk a mile in these louboutins, inappropriate workplace relationships, blasphemy kinda, not kinda, it's shameless profanity, and i keep writing stuff like this and paving my way to hell, worth it tho, i guess, song: moment's silence (common tongue) (hozier)

2.9K words

✰ mila's anthology (main masterlist)

It was one Thursday afternoon when Yelena first saw you.

You were in the hospital when an old friend brought a very injured and unconscious blonde in his arms. Bucky was genuinely concerned, begging you for help to save his colleague and promising that someone out there would pay the medical bills.

Healthcare in Wakanda was good enough to tell him you would figure everything out later and that it was best to get started.

That is how you ended up there, explaining to her what the surgery had been all about and the needed after care.

“Good afternoon, Miss Belova,” You smiled softly. “I am Doctor Y/N Y/L/N. I'm a trauma surgeon and I'm in charge of your case. It's great seeing you awake. How are you feeling?”

She groaned weakly. “Like crap.”

“Any pain?”

“Just a little. I assume there's lots of meds,”

“The only meds are sedatives that must be wearing down by now. Would you like to talk about your surgery now? Or rest a bit?”

“I don't think my body can handle any more rest,” She sighed.

You nodded. “Okay, first things first: you suffered a very terrible wound back in Cairo, so Bucky brought you to me as soon as he could—a wise thing to do, because not only you wouldn't have made it to New York alive, but also there's nowhere else in the world where this technology exists. Still, it was too late: you lost too much blood, you had internal bleeding, and you had a big portion of your liver suffering the consequences. We had to remove said part and perform an experimental procedure we've been developing for the past few years called nano-vibranium genetic regeneration where, long story short, G.R.A.C.I.E., our AI assistant, leads the recreation of the lost tissue from processed vibranium particles and your DNA. Then, the same technology accelerates your body's cellular regeneration and healing, and the vibranium is later reabsorbed and naturally taken out of your system. You'll have to stay for a few days for dialysis, which assists your liver in its functions while your body recovers from the trauma, and to make sure there's no liver failure. The recovery is quick: you can return to New York in about five days and do your high-risk job just like you were doing right before you were wounded. G.R.A.C.I.E. takes care of everything and it will be as if nothing was missing in the first place as soon as your liver obtains independence. I recommend a diet full of water and foods known to help with blood detox so we can get rid of the vibranium. Despite its modified properties, it's still a metal foreign to our bodies and can be toxic if it reaches the wrong places. However, the AI will closely monitor it and we'll fix it before you even know. Any questions?”

“Uh,” she muttered. “What does G.R.A.C.I.E. stand for?”

“Genetic Regeneration Assistant for Chemical Isipho Editing,” you answered.

“What's Isipho?”

“That's Xhosa for vibranium,” You nodded. “Any questions regarding the procedure?”

“How long will it take for the vibranium to, you know, leave my body?”

“The vibranium works just like rebars in construction: gives structure and reinforces. As soon as the tissue is completely regenerated by your body, it starts an automatic dissolving process and it will take around five days to be expelled,”

“And the liver to be done?”

“Two weeks tops,”

“So I'll have to stay all that time here?”

“Not really, I can program G.R.A.C.I.E. to work remotely, and I'll be calling to check on you daily,” you said.

“That's awesome,”

“Thank you very much, Miss Belova,” You chuckled, a polite grin on your face. “Get well soon. Let me know if you need anything.”

“I will.”

“G.R.A.C.I.E., would you let me know if there's any relevant change or any sign of alert in Miss Belova's recovery?”

“Of course, Doctor Y/L/N.”

Yelena was impressed by you. Well, impressed was an understatement. She has always felt fascinated by intelligent people, the ones passionate about their work and that are able to make things that are often categorized as boring, interesting.

Not to mention that she found you extremely attractive in your red scrubs and medical coat with your name and the MD and PhD completing it like last names that fit your first name perfectly.

She watched you attentively as if you held all the secrets of the world that she yearns to discover as you left the room.

You spotted Bucky right ouside and sat beside him.

“She's perfectly fine,” you announced. “I'll have to keep an eye on her, though.”

“Thank you for this,” He looked at you. “Just… send me the hospital bills and I'll forward them to Valentina.”

“I will. Did you get checked?”

“Yeah, I'm okay,”

“Wow, you listened to me? Let's make a wish!”

“You're one scary doctor, you know that? I'm afraid of your lectures. Since Steve sent you to Germany to make us your patients and you told me you didn't give a shit about me saying I could live with three broken ribs and ended up following me here to eventually fix all my issues, I still hear your voice in my bad dreams after any small injury. I firmly believe I could die from some shit like popping a pimple.”

“You could basically die from anything if it goes badly enough, James,”

He rolled his eyes.

“Ever thought of going back to New York?”

“I miss my family and friends sometimes, you know? And how close to me they were. As much as I've tried, it's impossible to keep up when I'm this far; you even learn to detach from that, though. I feel bad for it, and I would return if it got bad enough and I could find a job nearly as good as this one.”

“What if I got you a job as a doctor for the Avengers again? For the new ones, at least,” Bucky proposed. “I know there's no millionaires, gods, or Hulks in the team, but there are three super soldiers, a Black Widow, and Ava has cool powers I know you'll be fascinated by.”

“Well, dare Valentina to pay me more than what they pay me here, and I'll sacrifice the Wakandan sunrise for game night with Bucky Barnes,” You winked and called the secretary that was walking by. “Sithandwa sam, lungiselela iirhafu zesigulana kwigumbi 703.”

Bucky gave you a pointed look. “Seriously?”

“What now? Can't I ask someone to do her job now?” you questioned.

“Well, calling her darling before requesting the bills wasn't necessary.”

You smirked, amused. “Prudish thing to say for 1940s manwhore.”

He scoffed and looked anywhere else, making you grin in amusement.

And he got away with it: six months later, Yelena knocked on the door of the Watchtower's Medical Chief's doctor's office—your office.

“Come in,” you said, not looking away from the screen of the computer until Yelena appeared in your vision field.

“Hi!” she greeted you excitedly.

You chuckled. “Hi, there. When did you arrive from Ankara?”

“Like, right now,” She nodded and took a seat on the exam table. “I have this wound on my thigh and I'm pretty sure I have a few broken ribs.”

“Yeah? Did you tell that to the doctors downstairs who are in charge of examining you as you arrive?”

“Why would I? I was gonna come see you anyway,” Yelena shrugged, smirking.

You hummed. “Alright, let me cure those cuts first.”

“Thank you.”

Yelena's curious gaze scanned you as discreetly as possible, not taking her eyes off of you while you positioned yourself between her legs and put on your gloves. You took cotton and started cleaning her cuts delicately.

She was absolutely obsessed with you and with the way those burgundy trousers, black turtleneck blouse, black high heels, and long sleeved white coat made you look. So serious and… endearing.

She exhaled heavily, like containing something within herself, when your hot breath fanned over her lips, inhaling a taste of mint from your toothpaste and cherry from your lipgloss.

“G.R.A.C.I.E., perform a full body scan on Yelena to identify any injury or sign of alert.”

“On it, Dr. Y/L/N,” the AI answered. You continued curing her until G.R.A.C.I.E. gave you the results. “Body scan finished. There were no relevant signs of alert on Miss Belova. However, aside from the superficial bruises, she has high blood pressure, body temperature of 98.6 degrees, signs of sexual arousal.”

If your heart skipped a beat, hers stopped working altogether.

Yelena's eyes were wide in embarrassment, and there was this expression on her face like a little girl caught eating the cookies her parents told her not to. It was the kind of fear you see in a gazelle that just realized she was about to become a panther's prey, or a man seeing his life flash before his eyes at the sight of an upcoming and imminent accident, or a woman caught red-handed, betrayed by her own body.

And you were the one to catch her. The panther, the crash, and the object of desire.

“That's-” she muttered, trying to deny it. “Not the case at all.”

You hummed. “So you mean that if I do this…” You put some messy strands of her hair behind her ear and approached her to whisper against her neck: “… you feel nothing at all?”

Yelena shuddered and stayed quiet.

“That if I ask you to take off that suit so I can check those broken ribs you were making up, or maybe to find more bruises or cuts to check, I won't see your body reacting to…” you began, teasingly playing with the zip of her tactical suit. “... me?”

She gulped and met your eyes. The mesmerizing green of her sight captivating you like the first time she went to your office and teased you as though you wouldn't realize.

But, of course you did. Her body language was louder than the roar of a beast, and, despite how much she attempted to hide it, you could tell. So many years studying the human body to not realize how her thighs would rub together each time you were too close, or how her breath hitched when you wore something more revealing than usual under your coat, or how her eyes lingered on your lips whenever you wore that Dior 8 Intense that left her wondering how it would look on diverse parts of her skin, just like right now.

“What if we test that, huh?” You smirked, unzipping it slowly. “You'd like that?”

She exhaled heavily and nodded.

“Yeah?” You kissed her jaw while taking off all of her clothes: suit, underwear. Everything, torturously slow, until she was completely naked before you. “Does it hurt, baby girl? Because I know a cure that soothes the soul.”

“What?” She gasped, not being able to say anything more. The smell of her was invading all your senses, drowning you in anticipation.

“Can I get a kiss?” you asked. Instead of replying, Yelena nodded, almost hypnotized, and parted her lips, inviting.

You drove your lips close to hers, brushing ever so slightly, dangerous like a threat.

When you finally kissed her, everything around you fell silent. Your hands toured her body with concealed restlessness, and your name fell from her lips just like a creed the believers memorize to recite on each sacrament.

Yelena deepened the kiss but broke it when you kneaded her breasts. You took the chance to change the trajectory of your mouth to her pulse point, her collarbone, the valley in the middle of her torso, her nipples, her belly, lower.

The shriek that reached your ears was almost grotesque, as it would be if the erotism of her being wasn't this sacred. Yelena's hand flew to your head to pull you closer to her, only managing to cut your air supply, but you didn't need breathing when you had her, all yours to taste.

Your tongue played its part, licking her cunt slowly in the name of savoring her, wanting to learn what every inch tastes like, ready to discover each act that makes her writhe and whimper. Her legs found rest on your shoulders as your right middle and heart fingers joined your mouth in the quest of pleasuring her. Your ears rejoiced in the vicious, frenzied moans that could scandalize whoever with enough power to judge. As if you gave a shit.

When Yelena came for the first time, you gave yourself a minute to breathe and recharge despite not leaving her. You kissed her inner thighs and sucked every bit of wetness left on her soft skin.

“I've never come this hard,” she mentioned, her voice smokier than usual.

You smirked. “Let's see if that's still the case after the next one.”

“The next-” she started, but you shushed her and stood up.

“Lie down, sweet thing,” you commanded as soon as the pillow was right where it should be in the middle of the exam table. Then, when her head was lying on it and her ass on the edge, perfectly positioned so you could kneel and face her, you started licking again. “Did you know this is the sweetest pussy I've tasted?” you asked her, looking at her face, never stopping. Yelena seemed to come straight out of a fairytale, possessor of the kind of beauty that has stepmothers casting spells and goddesses punishing enviously. “If I was told I'd die tomorrow, I'd eat you 'till you cry for me to stop. Take a picture and call it My Last Supper, my God.”

She moaned loudly, her brain in such a short-circuit that it forgot the alphabet and every word that there is except for your name and all the letters in it.

You felt a light layer of sweat all over your body, a heat reserved for all those lonely nights with a stranger's touch and Yelena in your mind, and unbottoned your trousers. Soon enough, the burgundy pool of fabric was by your knees on the floor and your hand between your thighs, giving you almost as much pleasure as her taste gave your tongue.

“I could have this wine forever,” Your teeth bit on her clit slightly and your tongue drew clockwise circles on her lips, imposing the rythm and speed of her hips against you.

Before you even knew it, she was coming on your mouth again, crying out your name like pleas for mercy. You followed her soon after, slowing down as a means to recovery, but not stopping for any reason.

You looked up, and Yelena was staring at you.

Breathtakingly beautiful, hair messy, lips swollen with bitten red spots. You quickened your pace again, making need and desperation grow in her like foam; the kind of foam goddesses emerge from.

The dedication you put on pleasuring her was beyond measure. All she could think about was how good it felt to be taken care of quite like this, for she has always been the pleaser.

Then, she came once again, back arching, thighs suffocating you, and legs convulsing on your shoulders. The sweetness of hers rewarding your hard work.

“That,” she whispered with difficulty, so lowly that you almost couldn't hear her. “Was the… hardest… I've come.”

You chuckled, mischievous, resting your cheek on her thigh. “I'll be taking that as a challenge.”

Yelena exhaled shakily and sat. You observed her from bellow.

Her whole body was like a canvas with lust in the shape of red lips painted all over, as well as bloody crescents sculpted by herself.

“Open up that pretty mouth of yours,” you ordered, and she obeyed without hesitation. You stood up and guided your fingers to her mouth for her to suck. “Would you be a doll and clean them up for me?”

Yelena nodded frantically, receiving them like her mouth was made to take your fingers. You pressed them to her tongue, and she meticulously did the job. Once she released your fingers with a dirty pop, you attacked her lips hungrily, letting her taste herself on your tongue, and you on hers.

“If I tell you that everytime I stepped into this office it was in hopes for some extra care like this, would you believe me?”

“You didn't try hard enough to hide that from me,” You kissed her. “I was just waiting for the right time.”

“I've made up any stupid excuse to come here every day and it wasn't the right time? I've been here, slutting myself to you-”

“Now, where's the fun in taking you the easy way? I bet that being exposed by a literal robot was kinda hot, wasn't it?” you taunted, the tip of your fingers tracing her silhouette. “You should've seen your face, baby girl. Ashamed and scared, as if I could ever resist my sweet thing. I bet you're wet again just by listening to me.”

“Why don't you see for yourself?”

You tilted your head and opened her legs without breaking eye contact. “I think we can leave some of that for tonight, huh?”

“Is that a promise?”

“You got my solemn word.”

[paracosmic-murdock]

this is one of the voices in my head telling me right after i finished watching thunderbolts* for the third time to throw away my plans to make mel x reader's relationship a slow burn in days of the new avengers* lives

devil on my shoulder: burn it

angel on my shoulder: what?

devil in my shoulder: did i say stand there and look stupid? no, i said burn. it.

GIRL, BURN IT. BURN IT QUICKLY OR ELSE. BURN IT. NOW. LONG LIVE TROPE ARSON.

(did i just made a tag for the series? yep)

[paracosmic-murdock]

days of the new avengers* lives

episode nine: quarantine

bucky, yelena, and alexei go to moscow for a mission, and bob gets sent on a spiritual retreat. you get chickenpox. john and ava team up to fight val's newest administrative changes for the watchtower.

careful who you assemble

pairing: new avengers* x fem!new avenger!reader

tags/warnings: new avengerz assemble, found family kinda, bullying john (maybe affectionately), mockumentary, sapphic reader, mel gold x reader very anticipated love confession, using y/n as little as i can, more to be added bc i'm going with the flow tbh

3.7K words

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Bob sighed. “Okay, so… after that time I trapped Bucky and Y/N in the void, Valentina decided that I needed relaxation and to work on my inner peace, so I was sent here… to Nepal. By myself.”

Were you supposed to come by yourself?

“No, that's the problem,” He shook his head. “Y/N was supposed to come with me but she has chickenpox. No one in the team has gotten it before except for me, and I'm here, and Bucky, who's been in Moscow for a week, so she's basically by herself. I don't even know what a Dalai Lama is.”

Bucky didn't want to admit it, but being in Russia after all this time wasn't very easy. The only one who seemed unfazed about it was Alexei, who would walk around and ask random people on the streets if they knew the Red Guardian. Surprisingly, some did.

“The Syringes are some HYDRA wannabes,” Bucky told the camera. “In Skiatos, we successfully took Hunt and most of the members, but, clearly, there were more left standing, especially for the head scientist: Willa Petrova. That's how we ended up here.”

“We got intel about people disappearing, all between the ages 15 and 25. Someone who escaped said she heard they mentioned explicitly not looking for volunteers to avoid unnecessary spotlight, so… human trafficking intensifies,” Yelena added.

“I visited prison, saw old friends,” Alexei said. “One of them, Vladimir, helped find information about base. It was Soviet, then abandoned. Now, theirs.”

“Who would've thought Alexei's jail time would be useful?” Yelena hummed.

“Nobody.” Bucky agreed.

“I left your lunch outside your door!”

You groaned. “Just hold your breath! I miss seeing faces! I will forget what you look like!”

“I won't waste my time FaceTiming if you have nothing to say to me,” Ava replied. “You know I hate small talk.”

“Okay, you hate me,”

“I'm leaving, Sponge.”

You gasped at the nickname and took your phone.

You: John!!!!!! Ava called me a sponge

Ken: And she's right

Ken: Do you need anything?

You: I'm bored

Ken: I bet

Ken: Sorry for that

Ken: At least you're safe of Chad in your room :))

You: YES I miss you guys :(

Ken: I'm not going to your room

You: You know you're a super soldier who CAN'T get sick, right?!?!?!?!?!

You: Steve couldn't get sick

Ken: I wasn't given the same serum as him, I can't be too sure

You: Potato potahto 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔

Ken: Not gonna risk it

You: That's why you were Captain America only for a day

You: You can't even save someone from boredom

You: And don't you think that getting chickenpox NOW will be helpful in THE FUTURE? That way, you won't have it again

Ken: Ok so I'm gonna ignore you now

You: :(

You: I'll forget what your face looks like!!

Ken: Your lockscreen is literally a pic of the whole team

Ken: Get some sleep and stop bitching

You: You're a dick 😟

A small scoff left your lips and you looked for your laptop to watch something, anything, and settled for Cunk on Earth.

The elevator opened, letting Mel into the common room.

She saw Ava watching TV and went to say hello.

“Where are the others?”

“Bucky, Yelena, and Alexei are still in Russia, Bob is in his spiritual retreat, John's in his room, and Y/N is quarantined,”

Mel frowned. “Quarantined? Is she alright?”

“She has chickenpox,” Ava replied. “No one here has had it before, so we just make the food and leave it on her door. She's been annoying us, though.”

“That's too bad,” She nodded. “Chickenpox sucks.”

Ava's eyes shone in enlightenment. “You've had chickenpox before?”

“Yeah, I was eight,” Mel puckered, hoping to avoid the possible request of visiting you. “Uh, can you call John? As you two are basically the only ones here, I guess I can tell you and you'll notify the team.”

“John!” she screamed. “Come here!”

“Okay!”

“How is Y/N doing?”

“She's had a fever twice today and her appetite is awful,” Ava informed. “And she keeps trying to convince us to go see her because she'll ‘forget what we look like’.”

Mel chuckled, but stopped as soon as she realized she was doing so. She cannot keep smiling about you and liking you. This has to end, she told herself.

“Hello, hello,” John arrived and sat on the couch next to Ava’s. “To what do we owe the pleasure? Did you come to visit Hades?”

“Hades?” She frowned.

Ava hummed. “That’s what he calls Y/N.”

“Oh,” Mel suppressed an amused grin and looked at both Avengers. “So, uh… I won't waste time: Val has decided to start making you guys pay for the floor's utilities, you know? Water, energy, gas?”

“What?!”

“She can't possibly do that! Our paycheck already sucks beep!” Ava exclaimed. “How are we gonna afford bills?”

“This is unbelievable. How did she even come up with this idea?”

Mel shrugged. “Hey, don't kill the messenger. She said something about you wasting energy like crazy, so…”

“If we promise not to waste that much, what? Is she gonna rethink this whole thing?”

“I don’t know, I already tried to convince her not to, and she accused me of siding with you guys,”

John rolled his eyes. “Nice. Now who's gonna tell Hades she'll have to pay for all her streaming platforms? She can't live without Disney+, did you know that? And now that she has chickenpox, having her rewatch Brooklyn Nine-Nine is the only thing keeping her relatively sane, if we can even use that word when talking about her.”

“She's already begging us to go visit her. She'll call any moment now,” Ava muttered.

“Bob is supposed to come back tomorrow, and he hasn't had chickenpox before,” John lied.

“Aren't you immune to diseases and stuff?”

“The only person who would take care of us has it, therefore, she won't be able to do so. We can't risk it,”

“Maybe you should just start practicing solidarity, you know? And taking care of each other,”

“A hard pass,” John replied. “I have a child I can only see every other weekend, so it should be Ava.”

“Oh, so you mean my life matters less because I don't conform to society's hetero-normative, child-centric ideals?” Ava questioned, sarcastic.

“Are you for real, Starr?”

“Yes, Walker. Go play buffoon for the only person in this building who would risk catching chickenpox for you,”

“I walk her dog, what do you do?”

“I make her meals,”

Mel sighed. “Okay, I'll go see her.”

John and Ava smirked, looking at each other like they just won the lottery.

Three epidodes in, and someone knocked on your door.

“Yes! Come in! Whoever it is!” you exclaimed, happy that either John or Ava decided it was worth the risk and missed you, too. Or, maybe, that Bob, Bucky, Yelena, or Alexei were back. “Ava! John! My beloveds!”

The door opened, and you saw Mel walk in. Maple, your dog, took the opportunity to leave before she closed the door.

Thank God you had showered.

“Hey,” She smiled softly. “I heard you're sick.”

“Mel,” You paused the show and sat up, tidying your hair a little. “Hi!”

“Chickenpox is awful. How are you feeling?”

“Well, I'm- uh… better now that I saw you. Well, now that I saw someone in general. Uhm, but you, too. You, uh… I'm glad I'm seeing your face. Face in general. Yeah,”

She raised an eyebrow, a little taken aback by your uncharacteristic nerves. “It's nice knowing I’m helping.”

“You are,” You let out a shaky breath. “It's been a while.”

“Yeah,” Mel hummed. “I heard no one wanted to take care of you.”

“I can't believe I live with three super soldiers and the only one who wouldn't mind if he got chickenpox, not to mention that the serum makes them immune to diseases, is in Moscow,”

“Bucky?”

“Alexei!”

She laughed. “Would Alexei take care of you?”

“Would? Yes. Could? That's the question,”

“Maybe we should have some faith in him,” Mel smiled.

And you felt your face completely soften at the sight of her, smiling, beautiful as ever.

“Uh, I came to check on you. You're fine, so I should get going,”

“Wait,” You held her wrist carefully. “Why have you been avoiding me?”

“What?” She chuckled nervously and looked anywhere but into your eyes. “I'm- I'm not avoiding you.”

“Then what is this? What kind of endless hide-and-seek game are you playing?”

“I don't- I've just been busy,” She pressed her lips together. “It's nothing personal, I haven't even come to the Watchtower since the Halloween party.”

“That's bullshit, Mel. It's your job to come here with Valentina every time, but you've only come when I'm on missions. I asked Val both times I saw her here without you, and she said you were on your way but never made it in the end,”

“I had to get her coffee, and you know how traffic gets here,”

You sighed, tired. “Look, I just want to know what I did to upset you so I can fix it. Let me fix this, Mel.”

“There's nothing to fix, Y/N, it's alright,”

“It's not,” You countered. “You were going to stay that night, but you left, and you haven't come back or answered my texts, and I can't help but think that maybe I fucked this up.”

“What do you mean ‘this’?”

Well, shit.

“Uh… This, us, you know?”

“I don't know, actually. What do you mean ‘us’?”

“What does it even matter what I mean? We were talking about you avoiding me,”

Mel shook her head. “And I said I'm not avoiding you.”

“Then what do you call coming only when you know for sure I won't be here and ignoring all my texts? Do you need a break from me or something?”

“It's not that, it's nothing,”

“It is something, Mel, and I don't have bad intentions when I ask you,”

“Can you just leave it alone?”

“What?”

“Yeah, I'll reply to your texts, it's whatever!” She stood up from your bed, speaking loudly, frantically.

“Why are you acting like this? I don't-”

“God, I said I'd reply, what else do you want from me?!”

You frowned, standing up, too. “The hell does that even mean?! I just wanted to make it up to you!”

“Why does it matter? It's not like you need me or anything! You have your friends, you have Bucky! He answers your calls even when he's being held at gunpoint in a foreign city!”

“What does Bucky even have to do with anything?! He's literally in Moscow right now!”

“Because he's in everything you! His room is next door, you are together all the time, you were married, you wear matching costumes, you have all these pacts and jokes, and you're wearing his t-shirt!”

“That's the problem? Bucky?” you questioned. “Why is this bothering you?”

“You're really gonna make me say it?” she asked in a lower volume, not being able to face you.

Your expression softened. “Say what?”

She sighed. “Just… let this go. I'm sorry for ignoring you, everything's been kinda crazy lately.”

“Come on, Mel,” You exhaled, looking down in surrender. “You don't have to lie to me.”

“Stop pressing, Y/N,”

“Why can't I ask? It's not like I'm doing this to annoy you or for the hell of it, Mel,”

“Why do you even care?!”

“Why do you care?! Why can't you be straightforward and talk to me?!”

“Because there's nothing to talk about or be straightforward about!”

“Nothing?! God, be serious for a second!”

“Do you see me laughing or something? Because I don't find this funny. I don't like confrontation and yet I’m here entertaining whatever this is!”

“Whatever this is? Mel, this is…” You closed your eyes shut and groaned. “God, Mel, I fucking like you, okay?! This isn't just whatever, this is me being head over heels for you and you pushing me away! There's nothing going on between Bucky and I! I told you that before, you know that we are best friends who are used to only having each other, we're family! We are like two kids who found each other in the park and befriended instantly so everyday they go to the park to play and fight other kids for the slide. I could never feel for him what I feel for y-”

And she kissed you to shut you up.

And suddenly, everything in life made sense for you.

Every time you imagined your first kiss with Mel, it was maybe on the rooftop of the Watchtower, drinking something and stargazing; or, perhaps, right when you arrive from a mission where you almost died and Mel kisses you because she's scared that you could be gone any moment and she never had the chance to do it.

What all of those scenarios had in common was that you had a heartfelt confession before, where you both spilled your beans about the way you felt, and shared a soft kiss. But this? A nail file would be ten times softer than that kiss.

And you were cherishing every single little thing: the way her hands went to your neck to pull you closer, the immaculate sweetness of her cherry-flavored lip balm, how her hair tickled your cheeks, that soft gasp joining the kiss when your hands went to her waist to hold onto her, and your heartbeats syncing bare seconds after your chests first collided with each other.

Thank God for chickenpox.

“If we gather all of our intel on Val, send an envelope with everything to her office, maybe with some flowers just to make it cinematic, and write in the last page that we'll publish one part for each utility invoice we get? We can say Bucky has a friend in the FBI and Y/N knows someone who knows someone who works in the New York Bulletin,” Ava proposed.

“I like how you think,” John nodded. “We can do that. There's a lot in Yelena's and Bucky's rooms, but how are we gonna get in?”

“I phase through the walls,”

“Right,”

“Does Y/N have anything?”

“She gave Bucky everything she had on Valentina when he started asking around about her,” John answered. “And the files she got from OXE, too.”

“How do you even know that?”

“She literally said it that time Bucky had all of us but her tied, remember?”

Ava frowned. “I guess…?”

“Whatever, let's go to Bucky's room.”

The two walked to the room, starting off with Bucky's. However, a commotion in yours caught their attention before they could get to their actual destination.

“... being head over heels for you and you pushing me away! There's nothing going on between Bucky and I! I told you that before, you know that we are best friends who are used to only having each other, we're family! We are like two kids who found each other in the park and befriended instantly so everyday they go to the park to play and fight other kids for the slide. I could never feel for him what I feel for y-”

They looked at each other, surprised.

“Could they be making out?” Ava asked.

John wrinkled his nose. “This doesn't feel okay.”

“Are you homophobic?” she teased him.

“I support your community, but, above that, I am scared of what Hades will do if she realizes we're eavesdropping,”

“You're right about that,” Ava nodded. “Let's go to Bucky's room.”

By the third day, Bob had mastered the Urdhva Padmasana position and learnt to enjoy the beauty of dew on the grass each morning. Breathing never felt better, and he was considering it a blessing that you didn't go with him.

Bob knows too well that you would talk through the whole yoga classes and make him laugh so he falls when doing the harder positions.

He would never tell you for any reason whatsoever, though.

“I never thought I would say I missed someone,” Bob curved his lips. “All my life, I had a rough relationship with those around me, you know? My family was beep, I never really made friends, and that made me believe I wasn't made for all of it. Missing all those beep these past few days has shown me otherwise. John's cooking, Alexei's marketing nonsense, Yelena's pep-talks, Bucky's annoying stare, training with Y/N, and Ava's bullying. The retreat helped me realize that, and it… helped fill the void a little.”

Alexei and Bucky looked at each other with satisfaction when they saw Yelena press the button to trigger the explosion of the whole base.

“Yeshche odna uspeshnaya missiya dlya Thunderbolts!” Alexei screamed that there was another successful mission for the Thunderbolts.

Yelena and Bucky huffed softly.

“Now we just have to convince Val to send Y/N to Birnin Zana and Novi Grad instead of me. She speaks Sokovian and Xhosa, and I can't go to Wakanda anymore,” Bucky said. “I'll carry those two, Alexei these three. Yelena, you drive. And you can drag this one, he was the worst.”

The three of them got to work and soon were on the quinjet on their way back to New York.

Once they arrived, agents of the CIA were waiting for them to take and put away the scientists they had caught in Moscow.

“I'll take longest bath known to men,” Alexei commented when the doors of the elevator opened to the apartment's floor.

“Hey, guys!” Bob greeted everyone. “I got here a couple hours ago. How was the mission?”

“Exhausting,” Yelena exhaled, feeling like she was still breathing out some cold, smokey Russian carbon dioxide. “I just wanna take a shower and sleep until next week.”

“That will have to wait,” Bob said. “Valentina is waiting for us in the conference room for some announcement.”

Bucky rolled his eyes. “God, mission debriefs used to be the next day. What the beep did we do to deserve this?”

“If it makes you feel better, it wasn't you,” He shrugged. “Apparently, John, Y/N, and Ava ‘crossed a line’.”

“Rebels,” Alexei shook his head.

When they joined the rest of the team in the conference room, they weren't expecting what they found. Well, more like the way they found who they later realized was you.

Not to mention the absence of the camera crew.

John and Ava were sitting there, looking at Val and her severe expression. She was, of course, convinced that the blackmailing and bribing was finally over because you had stopped complaining about the documentary and asking her for stuff. That's why she thought she could demand things from the team now, but she was dead wrong.

On the table rested the open envelope that contained things she didn't even know existed, but that could ruin her in a second. It could also demote all of you from your Avenger titles, but she was certain you didn't even care.

What was more astounding was seeing you in a pink hazmat suit.

“The hell is that?” Bucky made a panicked grin.

“That, Bucky, is your beloved Y/N,” Val replied. “I can't get chickenpox. I have a plane ticket to Cancun tomorrow and I won't risk it.”

“Hi, guys,” you greeted them, voice muffled by the suit.

They took their respective seats, not being able to concentrate on Val's scolding at the sight of you in that suit like a Barbie astronaut.

“So, I won't be too long,” Val spoke, taking the files from the table. “I see you have a lot of leverage over me and plan to keep using it to your advantage. I respect that, really, but it also offends me a little. I thought our relationship was improving and we were well past that,”

“You thought wrong, Val,” John smirked.

“How many times do I have to remind you not to call me that?”

“I'm undecided,” He shrugged, cocky.

“Anyways, as you guys have betrayed me once again, I decided to get some dirt on you so we're even,” she smiled, faking the happiness in a way you usually see in children forced by their parents to thank for a gift they didn't like. “Yelena, your body count exceeds two hundred that we know of. I got full names. Alexei, turns out you sent your daughters to the Red Room. That sucks. Bucky, Winter Soldier, the people don't know half of it. Y/N, who would've thought that a former Avenger as admired as yourself got a job as a paid-per-kill assassin after being dumped? John, I don't think your wife wants to know everything you've done since she left you. Ava, your side hustle in S.H.I.E.L.D was way worse than what we know; and your beef with Ant-Man? I have all of it. Bob, I am more than capable of telling everybody who was responsible for the Void incident. And I also have a friend who works in the New York Bulletin, Y/N, you're not special. Next time you all want something, let's just try to compromise instead of getting here. I would hate being the bad guy for much longer, I truly believed our relationship was improving.”

“How did we get here, again?” Bucky questioned.

“Apparently, you guys don't know how unnecessary it is to waste so much money on utilities and Spotify Premium. You refuse to learn by paying utilities and try to protest by sending all of this intel on me with some messenger nobody knows that could've lost this, or opened it, or something. Too risky for your own good.”

“You know we weren't involved in any of that? And that Bob never asks you for anything?”

“Yelena, I don't really care. You're a team, so you face consequences like one,” Valentina finished. “Keep up with the good work, team! I expect the mission report on the cloud by the time I'm back from Cancun.”

You frowned as soon as she left. “When the fuck did this happen?”

“When you were quarantined in your room,” Mel replied. “I'm sorry for her, guys! I'll help as much as I can.”

“I don't know anybody who works in the Bulletin, so I have never been particularly special,” You pursed your lips.

John and Ava stared at each other knowingly.

“Mel! Stop socializing with them and come here!” Valentina yelled from outside.

“Bye, sorry!”

Everybody was too busy arguing to notice how she winked at you before leaving the room.

The hazmat suit helped conceal the enamored expression on your face as Mel left.

[paracosmic-murdock]

days of the new avengers* lives

episode eight: eternal flame

in attempts to comfort you, the team, all in costumes after val's halloween-themed party, opens up about their personal lives.

careful who you assemble

pairing: new avengers* x fem!new avenger!reader

tags/warnings: new avengerz assemble, found family kinda, bullying john (maybe affectionately), mockumentary, sapphic reader, mel gold x reader, using y/n as little as i can, modern family references, some angst, the team is drunk, john plays the guitar, mel is jealous or reader and bucky, reader being upset, not at mel, never at mel, reader loves mel, but don't tell mel, THUNDERBOLTS x READER FAMILY FEELS, lots of platonic relationships, friendship is magic, halloween costumes, google search "human shrek from shrek 2" before reading, trust me, mostly reader-centric chapter, past reader x wanda, the comforting part is completely self-indulgent, did i just use my irl relationship trauma as inspiration? did i just make the thunderbolts basically comfort me? hell yeah i did, more to be added bc i'm going with the flow tbh

3.5K words

✰ days of the new avengers' lives masterlist

✰ mila's anthology (main masterlist)

Surprisingly, everyone was excited for halloween day.

John would spend the day with his son and take him trick or treating dressed as Spider-Man because that was his toddler's favorite superhero. Not him. Spider-Man.

Also, you spend a good portion of the week convincing Bucky to dress with you as Gomez and Morticia Addams, but he chose not to. Which you should have expected to happen.

However, his change of heart wasn't because he didn't want to dress up with you anymore, it was because he had a date for the night.

You were a little sad about it, but didn't do or say anything, of course. Well, not sad at him having a date, but because he had promised last month you would wear matching costumes.

In the end, you dressed as a vampire and carried cherry lemonade as blood everywhere, Bob dressed as human Shrek from Shrek 2, Alexei dressed up as the Red Guardian—as expected, Yelena as you, and Ava as Bucky.

Mel dressed up as a vampire, too, and the funniest part of it was that it wasn't even planned to match with you. Finally, Valentina dressed up as Cat-Woman.

And everyone had fun.

Oh, and Bucky? His date didn't go and he ended up dressing as a vampire, too.

“That's what happens when you choose a girl you met last week over your best friend who has quite literally killed for you,”

Bucky rolled his eyes. “Would you just not rub it on my face?”

“I had promised,” Bucky shrugged. “And she was sad. I canceled the date.”

Once the celebration was over, Yelena, Ava, Bucky, Bob, Mel, you, and John —who had just gotten to the Watchtower— were sitting in the common room.

“How much of this Asgardian rum you have left?” John questioned, playing random chords on the guitar he bad brought from his old place. “You just bring it out whenever you want us wasted.”

“You say it as if I forced you to drink it,” you accused him. “And I have loads left. When Thor left to go to space with the Guardians, he asked who wanted to take some of his things he'd leave behind. I volunteered to take his liquor, of course, because I loved seeing Steve getting drunk and needed to know what Bucky would look like drunk. I wasn't expecting to end up with three super soldiers to intoxicate.”

Mel chuckled. “So you guys normally drink because of peer pressure or because you enjoy the taste of alcohol? You don't even get drunk unless it's Asgardian rum?”

“Basically,” Bucky replied.

“That's Eternal Flame!” Ava exclaimed, sudden, listening to John's surprisingly good guitar playing. “Close your eyes, give me your hand, darling.”

You snorted at Ava singing, then seeing how John continued.

“Do you feel my heart beating? Do you understand? Do you feel the same? Am I only dreaming? Is this burning an eternal flame?”

Bob cleared his throat. “I believe it's meant to be, darling! I watch you when you're sleeping, you belong with me…”

“Do you feel the same? Am I only dreaming? Or is this burning an eternal flame?!” you continued with exaggerating singing, turning to look at Mel.

“Say my name, sun shines through the rain, a whole life so lonely, and then come and ease the pain,” she followed with a wide smile dedicated at you.

“I don't wanna lose this feeling!” Yelena sang loudly, turning to look at Bucky. “Say my name, sun shines through the rain! Bucky!”

You nodded at Bucky. “Come on, Buck! A whole life so lonely, and then come and ease the pain!”

He laughed and, thanks to the literally god-sent Asgardian rum, continued the song. “I don't wanna lose this feeling! Close your eyes, give me your hand, darling! Do you feel my heart beating? Do you understand? Do you feel the same? Am I only dreaming, or is this burning an eternal flame!”

Bucky kept singing the high note, making everyone laugh and follow with the background chorus together.

“Close your eyes, give me your hand, darling…”

Once the song ended, everyone laughed, noticing how the alcohol had definitely had an effect on each and every one of you.

“Hey, we never asked if you guys liked our matching costumes,” Ava mentioned and looked at you and Bucky.

“What are you guys even dressed as?”

“We're dressed as Wintermist,” Yelena smirked. “I'm you and Ava is Bucky.”

Bucky frowned. “What do you mean by "Wintermist" and "matching costumes"?”

“A matching costume is what you and Y/N did by using the same costumes as vampires.”

“So now vampires can't be best friends?” you questioned Ava. “Like, Dracula can't have a best friend?”

“We never said it was anything other than friends,” she replied. “If that was the case, it would mean Yelena and I are together, too.”

“Nice hard launch, girls,” Bob nodded.

“We aren't together,” Ava and Yelena said in unison.

“Sure you aren't,”

“Don't forget that Mel is also dressed as a vampire,” John shrugged. “Does that make her, like, their love-child? Or third wheel?”

“I think the third wheel is someone else,” Yelena teased you. You rolled your eyes, looking at Mel right beside you from the corner of your eye.

Bucky chuckled. “Right?”

“Y/N is. Remember Bucky and Mel matched on Tinder?” Bob commented, none the wiser.

“That wasn't me, by the way. It was a friend.” Mel cleared up.

“Either way, Y/N is constantly friendzoning Bucky, you know?” John noted. “Very much so.”

“That's because we're just friends and that's what we've always been,”

“Good luck telling that to yourself after everything we've witnessed!”

You and Bucky looked at each other, surprised.

“What do you mean, Bob?” Ava asked.

“She ran into the Void for Bucky. Mel and I saw her,”

Mel nodded, not as enthusiastic as Bob. “Yeah, we saw her.”

“The only romantic thing going on between her and Bucky is that they'll get married if they are both single by 2028.”

Everyone but you and Mel laughed.

“Do I get to be the maid of honor?” Yelena raised her brows mockingly.

Bucky scoffed. “Ava, how did you know that?”

She winked. “I heard you. I heard that entire conversation, and, let me tell you, there's a lot going on. Shall I get started?”

“No! Shut it, Ava!” You shook your head and threw yourself to the part of the sofa she was sitting on to cover her mouth with your hands. Sure you had a conversation with Bucky about liking Mel and being scared of the story repeating itself, one you really didn't want Mel to hear about. “Don't you dare or I'll fill your bedroom with Maple's shit!”

Ava laughed and wrestled you so she could be free. She had to phase through you until she was finally out of your reach.

“Okay, I won't!” She grinned.

“Will you fight me? I know, too,”

“Yelena, I will kill someone in your bedroom!”

She shook her head, amused. “I'm not afraid of that. I will-”

“Yelena!”

Before you could try to use force to keep Yelena quiet, Mel cleared her throat and interrupted the interaction, clearly not wanting to hear anyone say anything about you and Bucky being a thing. Clearly jealous.

She's had enough of your inside jokes, insistence to be paired up for missions, the wedding thing, you calming him down after his panic attack so intimately, and the getting married next year if you are both single by then.

“So…, it's late. I should get going,”

“Oh, I thought you would stay over,” Bob mentioned.

“I'm just tired and I wanna go home,”

You pressed your lips together. “But-”

“I'm going home.” she repeated.

“Okay, let me go with you to the lobby,” you replied, taking your phone from the sofa where you were seated.

“Don't worry, I know my way out.”

Everyone said goodbye and was silent after that.

“Shit, did we fuck up? I'm so sorry,” Ava stood up and stayed beside you, basically sobering up in an instant. “We weren't meaning to- you know. It was just a joke.”

You shrugged, giving her a passive-aggressive look. “Yeah, tell that to her.”

“Okay, what did I miss?” John frowned, more confused than he had expected to be that day.

“Alright, I guess I have no other choice,” You threw yourself on the sofa and looked at the team. “I understand this will come as a shock to you, guys, but… I like Mel.”

Yelena snorted. “Everybody knows that!”

“I didn't!” John exclaimed.

“Could you just shut up and let me be?” You rolled your eyes. “I know that nobody would expect a concept as complex as me to be leveled down to the denigrating experience of human emotion, but, unfortunately, it's true: I like someone. And in a deranged way.”

“Wait, this makes so much sense!” Bob laughed. “I've always suspected the way you look at each other, but this confirmation has done it for me.”

“Hey, how long has this been going on? Under my own roof? And I didn't know?”

“Well, if you weren't so busy trying to get on with your ex-wife, Johnson…”

“That's not my name, and you have to stop saying that. I'm just trying to be there for my son,”

You scoffed. “Okay, liar. And it's not like I care anyway.”

“Hey, don't get all defensive about this,” Bucky frowned. “It's not our fault that you won't make it work.”

“Wow, Bucky, that was kind of you,” you replied, sarcastic. “You think this is easy, but it's not. I don't even know if she likes girls, and whatever Bob says about how she looks at me or whatever, I could never know for sure. And I can't ask her, it would ruin everything. I've flirted and sent signs, but she thinks I'm joking and doesn't really reciprocate or anything, so maybe I should just back off and accept that I'm not made for this whole thing.”

Bucky sighed. “I'm not saying it's easy, I just wanna remind you that it's not our fault, so you shouldn't treat us like-”

“I am always nice to you, so I should be allowed to flip when any of you poke a nerve. All of you do it. You're all mean to me and to each other whenever you feel like it, so why do I have to always be the bigger person?”

“Hey, it's not like that-”

“It's exactly like that,” you protested. “This is important for me, guys. And you're just… I don't even know what you're doing. I get that it might not be your purpose to make me feel bad, but you're doing it. The last time I loved someone, it ended as badly as it could've… I truly like Mel, but I don't think she likes me back, and I'm scared it will work in the beginning and then I fuck up, she'll find someone she likes more, and then she'll leave me. It's not fair, but that's how it's been for me.”

“What even happened to you?” Bob held your hand. “Of course, if you feel comfortable talking with us.”

You sighed. “It was Wanda Maximoff. You guys should know her. We were together when we were younger, even while she was hiding in Stockholm and I was in Birnin Zana with Bucky. We… The distance started when I asked her not to sign the Sokovia Accords or fight. I asked her to leave the Avengers behind and come live with me somewhere as far away from wars as possible, but she didn't. She thought I was weak and betraying her, and that's where we started drifting apart. Even when she was a fugitive, I would risk everything to go visit until she told me not to. She liked Vision better because he fought, even when it was against her. Wanda didn't like that I left everyone to fend for themselves, that's why she never let me stay with her in Stockholm and why she didn't talk to me after we returned from the Blip. And… she did things, she… left me when I tried to be there for her, and I was awful. The last time I saw her, I was an absolute bitch, and… now she's dead. I didn't know about her for years, and then they tell me she's gone as if it was in the last page of the New York Times. And it haunts me that I hurt her. Maybe it's in her to do what she did, you know? To see the wrong in my attempts to find a nice future for us, to choose Vision over me, to have me there only to push me away when she got tired of me, to leave me just like that—maybe we just weren't compatible anymore without me noticing until it was too late, and I guess that's the way life goes, but treating her the way I did can't be who I am. It scares me to… get there again: to love someone like that only for her to leave me, to let resentment and heartbreak turn me into a person who hurt the one she loves the most; I can't do that to myself or to Mel. That's why I can't tell her.”

The team was silent, and Yelena sat next to you.

“I don't really know much about relationships, and I'm pretty sure none of us is qualified to give you any good advice,” Bob started, suddenly, the alcohol in your veins helping you ignore the comical situation: Bob in medieval attire with a unicorn stuffed animal to resemble Donkey as Shrek's noble steed. “But I think that fear isn't gonna take you anywhere. You need to remember that you're not the same person who once fucked up things with Wanda anymore. You have proven to everyone that you're better than someone who hurts those she loves, and you're here today, feeling things, because you are capable and deserving of love. You once told me that the only way out is through, and that's what has helped me wake up every day. You are what has helped me, you give all of us so much and you deserve all that back. So you shouldn't punish yourself anymore. It's not fair.”

“And, look, I am aware I'm only known for having ruined my family, but I'm trying today,” John, in the upper side of a Spider-Man suit on with blue jeans and a leather jacket, gave you a small smile. “I've loved Olivia since we were in high school, and she supported me and loved me through every fight and every mistake while I took it all for granted. Maybe I don't deserve her forgiveness, but she's giving it to me, and I'm trying. God knows I'm trying, and you have tried, too. Every day since I met you, you've shown me you're good; we might've started off with the wrong foot, but we're more than that today. We're family, and I'm sorry that I'm an asshole with you sometimes. I still have a lot to learn about not taking others for granted and not really appreciating those around me because that's what I have done with you since we became somewhat friends. If I'm getting another chance here, you sure as hell deserve one, too.”

“Y/N, I understand what it feels like to lose the person you love the most, and I know how grief gets the worst of you. Maybe I haven't gone through any romantic heartbreak or loved anyone in that way, but I've known what happens when you let your misery do the talking and the acting,” Yelena laid her head on your shoulder. The suit, identical as the one you've worn on missions since your Avenger days, made it look as if another version of you was giving advice to yourself. “I'm sorry if I was ever mean to you. You mean so much to me, you have no idea. You have never used my past against me, and you constantly help me feel closer to my sister. You're awesome, and you really deserve love and peace from those you love. I don't understand it all that much, but if there's something I know, it is that beautiful things can come out of what you feel for Mel because your feelings are beautiful. Trust me, I'm pretty sure she feels the same. And, if that's not the case, we're all here for you.”

“Yeah,” Ava smiled. She was in a black t-shirt and Bucky's vibranium arm painted on her skin, now noticeable as she took off her leather jacket. “I'm sorry if I pushed you too far tonight. I thought Mel would be jealous and do something because I can tell how much you've tried to show her that you like her and I think that she kinda likes you, too. I really hope it works out. There's not much experience from me either because I've spent my whole life locked and being experimented on, and my condition makes everything all the more difficult, but… I know how much love there is in you, and your past shouldn't take it away from you and make it go to waste.”

“Thanks, guys. I'm sorry for being rude to you. Your words really mean a lot to me,” you exhaled tiredly, finally taking off the vampire fangs, though not cleaning the dried fake blood on your face. “I guess I should go to sleep now.”

“Wait. Barnes! Aren't you gonna say something of use?” Yelena demanded.

He shook his head. “I'm not very good with words.”

“Sure you are,” Ava smirked. “I've heard you. Why don't you open that pretty mouth and spill.”

“Aw, you think I'm pretty?”

“I'm drunk. And don't deviate,”

Bucky pursed his lips. He was dressed as he often does, though his t-shirt was white and sprinkled in fake blood, and his fake fangs were looking too good for everyone's own good. “I wish I had fallen asleep on the kitchen island like Alexei… Okay. Everybody knows what happened to me, but you're the only one who gets it; the only one who has stayed with me no matter what. You have saved me many more times than I can count, and you have done things beyond what's right just for me. You're my best friend and you know me and understand me better than anyone, and the other way around. That's why I'm so sure about how much you deserve happiness. I remember how much it hurt to see you broken; it made me want to punch multiple people in the face. I can also tell how excited you get at the smallest and dumbest moments with Mel. I really would like to see you happy like that all the time because you manage to make me happy, too. And that's... that's a lot to say.”

You pouted on the verge of crying. “I love you, Bucky. I love you, guys. Please, never go bald.”

“Thank you,” John said, pulling his own hair. “I hope I never go bald.”

“Would I look good bald?” Yelena questioned, a thoughtful look on her eyes.

“I think yes,” Bob replied. “Would I look good bald?”

“Let's just hope you never go bald, Bob,” Ava raised her brows. “Would I look good bald?”

“You'd look good bald, without eyebrows, and wearing a garbage bag, baby,” You winked.

“Oh, leave that charm for Mel,” Bucky taunted.

You scoffed. “Barnes, beep off.”

Everyone flinched at the censor sound.

“I thought we were free tonight!” John yelled. “Chad, you better not air this and watch your beep back!”

“It's Dan,” the cameraman corrected him. “And this is going to HR, Mr. Walker.”

Bob stood up, always peaceful, and smiled at Dan. Before he could say anything, he used his powers to throw the camera away without even touching it, later grinning with fake innocence. “Oops, Dan.”

Dan shook his head. “You do know that everything we shoot goes straight to the cloud in real time, right?”

“Thanks for the info, Daniel,” Bob kept on grinning, taking the phone from his hands and throwing it to Yelena so she deletes the videos. “What's your password? Better say it before the other guy takes over and you end up giving it to us the in bad way.”

“03101917,” Dan scoffed.

“That's my birthday,” Bucky noted. “March 10th, 1917.”

Everyone looked at Dan, completely confused.

“What, Dan? Do you have a crush on Bucky?” Bob asked him with a cocky grin.

“I don't- what?!”

Bucky snorted. “How did this even happen?”

“Little Dan has a little crush on Bucky?” Bob continued teasing him. “That's really cute…”

“Very cute, Daniel. Why Bucky? What does he have that we don't?” John questioned.

“He just has a flavor to his whiteness that no other white man can pull,” He replied after a pause, not looking at anyone in the eye.

“I agree,” You nodded.

“Well, Dan, have you ever heard about consent? It's an important thing that says that you use the magic words before doing something, and, if the other person says no, it's no,” Bob clicked his tongue. “And you better start practicing consent or else I have a friend here who can turn you into 24K gold and have you end up as someone's earrings, or into stone and take you to the Smithsonian.”

Everyone looked at each other in surprise at Bob's attitude.

“Guys,” Ava called for everyone's attention. “Is Bob sexy?”

[paracosmic-murdock]

the lips i used to call home

you used to live a very different life before you ended up in that gala, wearing a dress almost as scandalous as your date: congressman james b. barnes. you used to be one of the little guys when half of everything disappeared and you were forced to move on, leaving all of that behind... leaving matt murdock behind. when he came back, life pulled you apart and you found yourself being a part of a world that wasn't very much like you—a world matt is now drowning into as he set foot in that gala because of his stupid jealousy, because of the news of your engagement to congressman barnes.

pairing: congressman!bucky barnes x attorney general!reader x ex!matt murdock

warnings/tags: mediatic scandal damage control, angst, love triangle kinda but not really?, NO cheating, jealous!matt, what to do when your ex appears in an event you attended to hard launch your current partner wikihow, possessive!bucky, it hurt to write this tbh, we all know matt is a huge red flag guys, so i'm not apologizing, bucky x reader endgame, daredevil: born again (2025) SPOILERS, a relevant death from the first episode is mentioned multiple times, reader was friends with matt and foggy since law school, reader is a VERY up there politician, i'm not from the usa or know much ab politics so i googled this, but then got bored, idk, everything i do is for the plot, in conclusion: BOOMSHAKALAKA MY TWO HUSBANDS

4.5K words

✰ mila's anthology (main masterlist)

After the Red Hulk incident, your job as Attorney General of the United States has become more difficult by the second.

The vice-president's transition to president wasn't being nearly as smooth as the Office hoped for it to be, so everyone has been having a harder time than anticipated. God, if you weren't a woman, you know you would've been asked to do it yourself, and you say it with enough confidence because you have heard it.

As you took a pill for the headache and got ready to finish drafting the speech you would give the following morning, Spencer, your personal assistant, knocked on your door.

“Do you need anything else, Madam?”

You shook your head. “No, it's okay. I'm heading home in five minutes anyway. See you tomorrow.”

“Alright, have a good night,”

“You, too.”

Sighing, you continued the concluding sentences of your speech when you heard knocks on your door.

Knock, knock, pause, knock, knock, knock.

“Come in,”

Bucky joined you in your office, giving you a tired smile that mirrored yours. “Hey.”

“Hey,” you replied, driving your attention to him entirely.

He took a seat on your desk and leaned down to give you a quick kiss. “How was your day, baby?”

“For starters, you didn't come see me, so… awful,” You pouted, then left your hand on his thigh. “And yours?”

“I was swamped in work and couldn't come see you,” He exhaled, tired, and intertwined your hands. “So… awful.”

“How was your meeting with Gary?”

“We talked for four whole hours,” Bucks groaned. “And we have that thing tomorrow. God.”

“Do you know what you're going to say?”

“Do you know what they'll ask me?”

“Maybe about something that will require you to look for synonyms of worrying on WordReference. Like, concerning, upsetting, or alarming.”

He rolled his eyes. “I'm gonna kiss that little joke out of you, you know?”

“Oh, I very much hope so,” You winked. “God knows I need to relieve some… stress.”

Bucky smirked and leaned down again to kiss you, this time for longer, still full of care and affection.

Soon, he made you sit on your desk and stood between your legs, unbuttoning your deep aquamarine vest, mouth never leaving yours.

Your situationship with Congressman James B. Barnes started casually. You were introduced by former President Thaddeus Ross, who wasn't very pleased with his involvement in politics. He was expecting you to be against Bucky and scare him away, to intimidate him even, but it was the complete opposite.

You were polite. Maybe too polite. Kind. Welcoming. Wishing him the best on his campaign. Offering help in case he ever needed it.

Back then, you were still dating Matt Murdock, who was too busy pushing you away to attend these events by your side as he was supposed to. Which, ultimately, was what allowed you to spend the entire evening talking to Bucky.

Eventually, when Matt's purpose to push everyone away after the incident succeeded, Bucky was there. He got the job, he got an office close to yours, he attended the same events as you, he accepted your help, late hours were spent working, and things went further without either of you planning on it.

Not catching feelings would have been nearly impossible, but you never deprived yourselves of it. Instead, you started talking more and visited each other's offices after everyone was gone, or sneaked out during galas and other events, leading to those trysts nobody was supposed to find out about—at least not until you had figured everything out and got serious enough to maintain credibility.

So, right when you had discarded Bucky's white shirt and he was throwing your black, lace bra that left absolutely nothing to the imagination carelessly, Spencer opened the door to it landing on his face. And you knew you were absolutely doomed.

The horror in his eyes was unmatched, looking like a deer in the headlights.

The problem wasn't really that you and Congressman Barnes were involved. Well, it's not a particularly ideal pairing, but that wasn't the issue; the issue was that you were caught.

Fooling around looks everything but good in a person in your world, especially when it happens to a woman who comes from a more-than-modest law firm in Hell's Kitchen and was accused of fucking her way into the Office.

Therefore, the next thing you knew, everyone around was talking about your rendezvous with Congressman Barnes. Other colleagues you had kept your distance from were making advances, supposing you were one to get involved with people from work, and now they had a shot. You heard the whispers through the walls—rumor has it, you and Bucky fuck thrice a week in your office and twice in his, you were the one who got him that job, you spend your paycheck on expensive lingerie for him, he is a pleaser, and you look good on your knees.

Needless to say, you sent Spencer home ‘for the day’, and, the same day, your team programmed an emergency meeting.

You and Bucky sat on opposite sides of the table.

“So, uh… as damage control, we found a possible solution you might not be into,” Bahar, the head of your team, said. “Before saying anything, I need you two to know that everyone in the Office, from the security guards to the President himself, knows about this. About whatever is going on between you.”

“Okay, what are we supposed to do to get this over with?” Bucky sighed.

Bahar pursed her lips. “You have to announce your engagement.”

“What?” You and Bucky looked at each other with eyes wide open.

“There's no engagement to announce,”

“Well, now there is,” she replied to you. “Neither you nor Barnes can afford a scandal as such getting out of the Office. Between the questions of how qualified Y/L/N is to be where she is and the credibility of Barnes due to his… past, you probably won't be able to live down those love affair rumors. However, if you're serious, then this could be seen as a little indiscretion. You can always call it off later. Or get married, whatever works best.”

You exhaled. “Okay. Let's do this. Barnes?”

Bucky just stared at you, hesitant, but said nothing.

“Are you in or not?” you questioned.

“Okay,” He nodded.

“Perfect,” Bahar spoke in relief. “We'll have the ring here first thing tomorrow.”

“Can I- uh… choose it?”

Everyone turned to look at him, puzzled at how he was genuinely interested in doing this as right as it could get.

“Yeah,” she agreed, the faintest smirk on her lips. “You can come with us as soon as we're done here.”

“So, what are we selling here?” you asked.

“Well, you have been engaged for two months, in a relationship for a year, and this was just a heat-of-the-moment slip, alright? Nobody cares when it's something official like this. Let's just say you've been waiting until Friday's charity gala to make it public, but the rumors got in the way. We could release a statement before word leaks from this place,” Wendy from PR spoke. “And let's fire Warner for violating the contract. It covers these things, right?”

You hummed. “Everyone is prohibited from disclosing any information discussed or events occurred without explicit vocal or written consent from me and at least half plus one of the parties involved.”

“Perfect, I'll take care of it.” Bahar replied. “Well, this was very fruitful, team.”

Everyone left one by one, including Bucky—who didn't say a word to you before leaving—, and you were alone in your office.

You knew he wasn't happy, and you were sorry.

Well done, Madam Attorney. Taking care of your image for eight years just to end up like this.

You: I'm sorry about this

You: I hope this isn't your first engagement

James Barnes: Don't be sorry. It was our fault, and the both of us did it.

James Barnes: We have to face the consequences of our actions.

You: I know, but I'm sorry either way

You: It was my assistant

James Barnes: Yeah, I think you have to think twice before you hire someone.

You: That's a joke? Or a mean thing to say?

James Barnes: An honest thing to say.

You: That's too bold for a Congressman obsessed with the word “worrying”

James Barnes: You're never getting over that, are you?

You: Getting over something about you? I prefer getting under you

James Barnes: Promise?

You debated in your mind whether to do it or not but, in the end, you looked through your gallery until you found the one picture you were meaning to send him before he appeared in your office that night.

You: ① Photo

You: Encouragement to pick a nice ring, baby ;)

James Barnes: Fuck

You: Language, Sir.

James Barnes: Will I get congratulations for choosing a nice ring? A reward?

You: Most likely

James Barnes: I'll bring it tonight. Wait for me.

You: I will

You smirked and left your office.

Thursday morning came quickly for Matt Murdock at his office, catching up on the day's headlines.

His subscription to Y/N Y/L/N and Attorney General Y/L/N made the headline The unexpected engagement of Attorney General Y/L/N and Congressman Barnes: everything we know about the most politically relevant couple of the decade the first thing he heard.

Matt sat straight and selected the article.

ALT: Attorney General Y/N Y/L/N, Congressman James B. Barnes, and ex President Thaddeus Ross outside the White House

He bit his lip, feeling a hint of sweat on his skin despite the cold AC of his office.

Y/N Y/L/N used to work as an attorney at Nelson Y/L/N & Murdock back in Hell's Kitchen until the dissolution of the small law firm. Eventually, the firm reassembled as Nelson Murdock & Page, without Y/L/N, as she was then working as the District Attorney's Assistant until the Blip. During this time, she firstly got the job as New York's District Attorney. Her position lasted for two years before going the Judge route for a year. Soon after, Y/L/N became Chief Justice of the United States after Francis Holt, the former Chief Justice, passed away; all until last year when she was given the role of Attorney General of the United States. In her experience, though relatively brief, Y/L/N proved to be excellent enough to make herself a way to the highest position a lawyer can get in the government as a direct advisor to the POTUS.

James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes has a significantly different background, even outside the law for a long time. Formerly serving the country as Sergeant during World War II, Barnes was believed to be dead until he was identified as the Winter Soldier, a Super Soldier and war weapon under the manipulation of HYDRA. After being wrongfully blamed for having caused the attack on the United Nations Assembly that resulted in the death of the late King T'Chaka of Wakanda in 2016, Barnes joined the party against the Sokovia Accords led by Steve Rogers, former Captain America. Having disappeared for some time, he was reported as a part of the Avengers when fighting the extraterrestrial threats that led to the Blip. In 2023, when he along with half of the population came back, Barnes received a Presidential Pardon that allowed him to reintegrate himself to society. Earlier last year, Barnes obtained the position of Congressman, representing Brooklyn. His performance? We suppose it might be too soon to tell, giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Now, the pair had never shown themselves as anything more than colleagues. The former's endorsement on Barnes’ campaign was present, but never thought of anything further than that. Therefore, it was quite the surprise when this very morning their teams announced that they have been engaged for a month as of today and in a relationship for a year.

The couple is set to make their first official appearance on Friday's UNICEF Charity Gala.

Matt's blood boiled at the thought of you being with someone else.

While it is true that after Foggy's death he became distant and had a one hundred and eighty degrees change, the only constant part of his life was loving you since you were in Law School. It was you, him, and Foggy since day one, and now it was only him. He knows he is at fault, but he wasn't prepared to receive such a low blow on a random Thursday morning.

“Hey, Kirsten,” Matt left his office and met his partner right outside. “Are you still more than friends with the UNICEF guy?”

She sighed. “You heard the news?”

“I just-”

“Are you trying to win her back or something? Because I support that, kind of.”

“You do?” Matt asked in disbelief.

“Look, Matt, I'm not normally the kind of friend that likes when her friends get back together with their exes, but you clearly still love her. Even when you were with Heather, that day at the hospital? You said her name like an innate reflex. If you need her to be at peace with your life, proceed by all means. Damn, I'll get that invitation right now and take you myself.”

“You're an angel, did you know that?”

She shook her head and chuckled. “What would be of you without me, Murdock?”

“I'd be absolutely lost,”

“I know.”

Your dress was chosen by your team to draw attention. Silk as white as a bride and a fitted, column-style silhouette with a draped cowl neckline, and tie straps in organza at the shoulders falling as low as the floor-length dress received Bucky when he went to pick you up at your penthouse.

The bright reflection of the lights on the emerald-cut diamond in the engagement band on your ring finger, however, greeted him proudly. Surrounding the diamond at its center, a baguette-cut side stone joined it on each side. It was absolutely perfect for you, and made him wish you didn't have to call the wedding off eventually.

Maybe, if he tried hard enough, he could earn a yes.

“You look so perfect in that dress it will be almost a shame to take it off of you tonight,” Bucky commented in your ear, leaving a provocative kiss on your jawline after inhaling the scent of Chanel's Gabrielle off your skin.

You shuddered in anticipation. “Don't spoil it all that much.”

Bucky smirked and offered you his arm.

“I've never felt more scrutinized in my life.”

“I've been through lots of shit,” Bucky mentioned. “And, somehow, being interviewed by a teenage influencer for a TicTac about how well you know your partner was worse.”

“TikTok,” you corrected him. “And kudos for guessing my favorite color.”

Bucky chuckled and took a sip of his champagne. “You mentioned your favorite color once.”

“Did I?” You frowned.

“Yeah, you were bickering with your niece for stealing your favorite color. We were at your place and your friend brought her kid.”

“Oh, that's true,” You smiled softly, moved at the idea of him remembering something irrelevant like that from a subtle interaction that didn't even have to do with him.

“Excuse me, Congressman Barnes, Madam Attorney,” a reporter interrupted your conversation. “Can I take your picture?”

Bucky's expression went back to serious as he nodded, but gave a faint curve of his lips when the reporter took the pictures. Even once, when you had thought the photoshoot was over, he kissed your temple. Later, you learned that that specific shot made it to the internet.

“I'm sure everyone out there is questioning how the hell I pulled you,” Bucky commented. “Maybe they think I threatened you.”

“With what? A good time?”

He chuckled, a little dryly. “With assassination or something.”

You snorted. “Look, I knew what I was getting into that night I kissed you. You know? The grumpiest, most annoying man I have ever met; but also, the sweetest, most thoughtful, and unconditional.”

That hurt. That hurt Matt Murdock like hell, overhearing as per usual.

“How am I annoying?” Bucky feigned offense.

You got closer to him, leaving one hand on the left part of his chest. Heart beating loud and nervous. “Well, you're always sarcastic and never let an opportunity to mock me slide.”

“I guess that's my love language.” He shrugged.

“It kinda sucks, darling,” You smirked. “But I wouldn't have it any other way.”

Bucky blushed and, very publicly, stole a kiss from you. One long and scandalous.

“I wanna tell-” you started to say, but were interrupted by a loud greeting.

You felt your breath hitch once you saw them.

Terry West was one of those celebrity Ambassadors of UNICEF. A well known actor with a savior complex most likely, standing beside none other than Kirsten McDuffie and Matt Murdock.

Bucky noticed your nerves, how you were paralyzed all of the sudden, and held you tightly against him. His left hand softly caressed your arm, soothing you.

“Every time I see you, you are three steps forward than the last,” Terry smiled widely, congratulating. “Let me know if President comes next. I'll get you votes.”

“Hi, Terry,” You pressed your lips together. “Thanks, but I think this is as far as I'll get.”

“So, hey. You know each other, or so I've heard.” he noted before you said anything else.

“We do know each other,” Kirsten smiled. “It's been a long time.”

“Quite a long time,” Matt completed.

You nodded. “Yeah. Uh, darling, these are Terry West, he's an Ambassador of UNICEF. Kirsten McDuffie and Matt Murdock, we've known each other for a while now. Matt and I went to Columbia together and were partners at Nelson Y/L/N & Murdock back in the day. This is my fiancé, James-”

“James Barnes,” he completed for you, offering his hand to Terry, Kirsten, and Matt, who didn't even pretend he couldn't tell Bucky was trying to give him a handshake. The contact was rough. Aggressive, even. “But you are her friends, so you can call me Bucky.”

Bucky's arm returned to your waist, holding you protectively —possessively?— and close to him.

Kirsten smiled. “So, we're gonna take our seats. It was a pleasure seeing you again. Don't be a stranger, alright?”

“Yeah, sure,” You nodded, seeing her and Terry leave. However, Matt stayed.

“Uhm, I was wondering if we could talk. In private.”

Bucky shot him a look, one between nonchalant and surprised at his boldness—how shameless could your ex be to ask to speak to you in private right in front of him? Still, he said nothing; Bucky just stared as he always does: stern, threatening, but a glint of anxiety in his blue eyes. Dark, gloomy, uneasy.

“Matt-”

“Please,”

“Anything you wanna say to me, you can say it in front of Bucky.”

He shook his head. “Come on, just…”

“It's okay, doll,” Bucky said. “Sam said he'd be here, so I'm gonna look for him.”

You sighed, not very brave at the idea of facing Matt after so long.

“You alright?” he asked. You said nothing, hoping for your eyes to tell him no. “Hey…”

Bucky kissed your forehead and let go of your hand.

“You need this,” he whispered, not knowing Matt could hear. “I'll be right there if you need me.”

And Matt knew it couldn't be fake. He knew it in the speed of Bucky's heart, in the warmth of his skin, and in the way your shoulders relaxed when he comforted you. It was all real.

“So, you come to these events willingly now? Or was something at stake?”

“Both,” He exhaled. “I just… I heard about your engagement and I couldn't- it can't be like this.”

“Matt,”

“Just… don't do this. This- I've loved you from the moment I first met you and I haven't stopped since, I've loved you every second I've been beside you and every second I've been not. I've thought about you every single day of my life since I heard you fighting with Foggy about how his future roommate would hate his mixtape,” he began, taking a hesitant step forward. “Everytime I met someone, I thought that if I tried hard enough, I'd be able to make their voice sound like yours, but it never worked. When we finally got together, I felt for the first time that nothing was missing anymore. But you're now with someone else, and I- I can't take it. Don't make this mistake. Don't marry him. I know I don't deserve you, that you didn't deserve what I did, but… I can make this right, I swear I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you. Everything means nothing without you, sweetheart. I need you to be because I can't tolerate the idea of a life without you.”

“Matt, you did this,” you replied, as put together as you could, trying to remain strong as a tear escaped down the maroon lenses covering the eyes you once died in. “You ended it. This whole thing? This was what you wanted. I met you and you were all I wanted for the longest time. I was fine, and then you happened to me. I endured years of your mixed signals and seeing you with other girls, and, when we finally got together, I thought I was done. I thought I was finally where I was supposed to be, and even when you were gone for those five years, I never stopped waiting for you. Then, you came back. Despite everything I had built and how I almost didn't make it out alive, I went back to you because I loved you. And… Matt, when Foggy died, I died. All my life, he was my best friend, and you acted like your hurt was bigger than mine. You acted like I didn't need you, like I was a completely isolated entity, like I belonged to a different planet and had no idea about pain and grief and Foggy. I fought against you for so long, even leaving my pain aside because I wanted to be there for you, but you were never there for me. You pushed me away like I was nothing, you pushed me so hard that I fell and you broke me, Matt. I tried to justify everything in your grief, but I was grieving too, and I never treated you or anyone else like shit. I said, ‘he's gone through so much’, ‘everyone handles loss differently’, but you know what? He was there for me. He was there to tell me that grief isn't a fucking excuse for being an asshole with the one person who would've died for you. So, you did this, Matt. And today I can only thank you, because you taught me a lot. You taught me how to love and what I deserve, and especially what I don't. And even after everything, I can only wish you the best.”

He stood silent, and you knew what would follow. You knew what he would do as soon as he left the place. You knew there would be broken bones and screams, and you knew he might not get over this right now.

But there was a moment in which you couldn't handle the idea of a life without him, and he had all those months to come find you. Still, he chose to do so when you were with someone else.

He came back when you were finally happy.

Because even if the engagement wasn't real, Bucky was.

Bucky is the only real thing you have left.

“Do you want to talk about what happened with Matt?”

You looked at Bucky as you took off your earrings. “Buck.”

“Doll,”

“Let's make this real,” you proposed, sudden. He stared at you, dumbfounded. “If there's something that came out of this horrendous evening, that's that I realized how much I love you. God, I love you so much, Bucky, it's unreal. But it's real, you're real, you… you feel it, too, right? I'm not imagining this, we're not just two people who have sex and talk about our fears for the hell of it, are we? We're real, this is real.”

He stood up until he was in front of you. “You're not only saying this because of whatever Matt said, are you?”

“I'm saying this because it's what I feel. I feel it now, I'll feel it tomorrow, and I'll feel this way for always. I just need to know if you love me too.”

Bucky lifted your chin and left a peck on your lips. “Yeah, I love you, too.”

“You do?” A weight fell off your shoulders, and you felt like you could finally breathe.

He just nodded.

“I'm glad you didn't leave me for Matt, though,”

“Did you ever doubt me, James?” You raised an eyebrow.

“Well, he's a big part of your life, and I'm just me. I have so much baggage, there's so much work to do in me, and… let's be honest, I'm not very good at this whole Congressman thing, it's like I have nothing of worth to offer you.”

“You have the biggest heart,” You held his hands in yours. “And baggage is not as heavy when there's someone to carry it with you and help you unpack. This life is a journey I want to share with you, I want to be by your side and help you figure it out. You don't have to be a Congressman or anything you don't want to be. Hell, I'd provide for you and have you as my househusband just for your pretty face. The sex is great, too.”

He chuckled. “You can't just say stuff like that when we're having a moment.”

“What am I supposed to say? That I'll take you to some school's career day to see what you like?”

“That sounds like a nightmare,” Bucky rolled his eyes. “Why don't you say you'll promote me or something?”

“Maybe I'll give you a dictionary for your birthday and we can call it even,”

“Or maybe I could just fuck that attitude out of you, don't you think?”

“You're an asshole, Bucky. You know that, don't you?” you joked.

“And you still love me, so this is pretty much on you,” He shrugged.

You smacked his arm. “Shut up.”

“You love me.”

Sure you do.

Right when you thought it was all over for you, that maybe you didn't deserve love or a happy ending, Bucky was there to show you otherwise.

Accepting the idea of not being able to love and be loved ever was probably the hardest thing you had to do, especially while believing you had already lost who you thought was the love of your life. Learning to let yourself be loved by Bucky, however, came easily and unexpectedly.

And there he is. There. And he loves you just as much as you love him.

He is real.

[paracosmic-murdock]

i started writing the next part of days of the new avengers' lives because it's my current hyperfixation but last night i came up with a fic idea where politician!reader (who used to date matt) is now dating bucky (congressman!bucky to be more precise).

reader and bucky get engaged and matt finds out about the engagement and appears at a gala where reader and bucky would make their first public appearance as an engaged couple (and a couple in general) to "talk".

and what happens then?!?!?!?!?!??!?!!!! we'll see🥱

EDIT: just posted it !!!

[paracosmic-murdock]

days of the new avengers* lives

episode seven: pets

you and yelena watch french movies that aren't dubbed, so you ask valentina for a french tutor to learn. alexei buys pets for the team. bucky training bob goes wrong.

careful who you assemble

pairing: new avengers* x fem!new avenger!reader

tags/warnings: new avengerz assemble, found family kinda, bullying john (maybe affectionately), mockumentary, sapphic reader, eventually mel gold x reader, using y/n as little as i can, this one has some feelz there around and lots of platonic bucky x reader that could be misunderstood (and was by certain someones), reader and bucky get caught in the void!!, tony stark mentioned, reader's position on civil war revealed, past wanda x reader (romantic + unrequited) mentioned, mentions of wanda's death, russian as sokovian, reader likes dogs, more to be added bc i'm going with the flow tbh

3.3K words

✰ days of the new avengers' lives masterlist

✰ mila's anthology (main masterlist)

Yelena and you had started a new tradition: movie night.

Your newest idea was to watch French movies. Thus far, you have seen Les Misérables, Persepolis, and Benedetta. Your difficulty to understand it well enough was stealing the magic from it, so you considered something.

Something that would require blackmailing and dedication.

As nobody else ever joined you —in all honesty, you wouldn’t want it any other way— you could put your plan in practice without much trouble. That way, you could also watch sad movies, cry in French, and not worry about John's mocking looks.

Because John is kind of an asshole and he finds your emotions funny.

“Can you imagine if John was there when we watched La La Land?” Yelena laughed.

“I think he would’ve cried, too,” you replied. “Unless he and Olivia are doing well.”

“Wait, they're talking like that?”

You looked at her, amused. “Are they talking like that? You bet things have been happening in John F. Walker's routine.”

“Things?” She raised an eyebrow.

“Things indeed,” You gave her a knowing look.

“Wait, what does she even know about my routines? I only go pick up my son!”

“Which son?” Ava asked with a smirk. “Your second-born in the making?”

“Shut up, Starr,”

“If it's a girl, call her Ava. If it's a boy, Bucky.”

“Beep off.”

Yelena and you grinned at each other as you worked on your conversation exercise to introduce yourselves. The greetings, deciding whether to be formal or informal when talking, wondering how it would be to make up new names were probably the most fun you've had in months.

The French lesson lasted two hours, and Thérèse, your teacher, even left you homework for the next class. You two were getting ready to do it when the elevator rang to announce Alexei's arrival from a mystery shopping session.

“Team!” he yelled, almost distressed, catching your attention immediately. “I brought gifts!”

“Dad, you scared the beep out of me!” she complained and stood up, looking at the ungodly amount of pets he was carrying. “What's all that?!”

“I brought pets!” Alexei exclaimed, putting the tanks and cages on the floor. “You take the yezh.”

He encouraged you to walk towards it and pointed at the hedgehog in its cage. “What?”

“This is Josh,” he said. You looked at the camera in awe. “I named her Josh because it sounds like yezh. But it's female.”

“Yezh is hedgehog in Russian,” Yelena explained.

“I know that,” you replied. “I meant what the beep.”

“Dad, why did you bring animals here?”

“For you to learn responsibility,” he said.

“I already have Sweet Cheeks and I'm very responsible, mind you.”

“And I basically co-parent Sweet Cheeks and Alpine,” You shrugged. “I- I can't-”

He smiled and put his hand on your shoulder. “You will be an excellent hedge mother. Where are the others?”

Soon enough, Bucky, Bob, Ava, and John were in the common room.

“I don't think this is a good idea, you know?” Bucky mentioned.

“Bob will have the lizard,” Alexei instructed, pointing at the very small leopard gecko in its tank. Bob approached it on the table and started looking at it carefully. “And Ava will have the fish.”

Ava made a disgusted face at the half a dozen of cardinal tetras, but accepted her unfortunate fate.

“John, the hamster will be yours,”

“Beep no, Alexei!”

He frowned. “Do you prefer the dog?”

“We will be returning those, Alexei,” Bucky said. “We can't have so many animals here. There's enough work with Yelena's guinea pig and Alpine when we go on missions.”

“No problem, we'll have them for a week only unless you decide to adopt them,” He grinned. “And I keep the dog. The pet person said this gets along with cats.”

Ava frowned. “I'm sorry, how did you manage to get that dog? I'm pretty sure that's a ridiculously expensive Charles Spaniel here.”

“I got a credit card from Valentina.”

“Uh, can you take care of a dog, Dad?” 

“We'll find out,”

You shook your head. “No, we won't. I take the dog. John takes Josh. You take the hamster.”

“What are you doing? Why are we entertaining this beep?” John questioned.

“I'll name them Maple,” You smiled and took the puppy in your hands. “Is it a girl or a boy?”

“Female.”

“C’mere, my baby,” you whispered to the puppy and then left her on your lap. “I think I'm keeping her, though.”

Bucky shook his head. “We're not keeping any of them.”

“Beep off, Bucky. I literally fought for Alpine to stay,” you reminded him. “And, calm down, you won't have to be Maple's uncle.”

He rolled his eyes.

“The gecko's name is gonna be Syrup,” Bob commented with a smile. “Like maple syrup.”

Your face lit up. “That's so cute! You are Maple's favorite uncle.”

Bucky huffed and stood up, leaving the common room.

“It's okay, baby, Uncle Bucky is just super grumpy. He'll get over it. Let's find Alpine before he takes her to his room!”

“See? The pets were an amazing idea.”

John, Ava, and Yelena groaned in annoyance.

“That beep hedgehog is nocturnal.”

Ava snorted, smiling amusedly at the camera. “Sorry for that, Walker.”

“At least we aren't She-Hades and her dog. She's the one who'll have it hard.”

“Totally,” she agreed. “And I'm not particularly planning on taking care of those fish. If we go on a mission, the only person willing to take care of them is most likely to be on said mission with me or in charge of her own torment. Or worse, of all the pets: Maple, Syrup, Alpine, Sweet Cheeks… I can't add to the reason she goes insane, that's what John is here for.”

“We can never have a civil conversation, can we?”

“If you want one of those, you're looking at the wrong place to have one.”

“Yeah, I should know better at this point,” John rolled his eyes. “Anyway, let's go now. Alexei wakes up at ten.”

“Me and John are going to return our pets,” Ava announced, pointing at the tank and cage John was carrying. “Don't you snitch on us, Chad.”

Bucky, John, and Alexei believed that your lack of presence in the training room meant they could work with Bob themselves.

Since the mission had been very smooth and Bob had been great, they thought he was ready for ruthless fighting techniques. To teach him moves so he could later apply his brute force into them. To improve.

However, they were failing miserably.

“I beep told you that it would be too much!” John yelled at Bucky. “How many soldiers have you trained, huh? Huh?!”

Bucky groaned in annoyance. “Oh, and how many did you train?”

“Like, dozens!”

“Were any of them enhanced, Walker?!”

“What difference does it even make?! We're not training Sentry right now, this is Bob! You want him to turn into Sentry suddenly and use enough strength to kill us in one punch? No, right? Then stop pushing too much!”

“You are acting like he's Hulk.” Alexei said.

“Actually, emotion does trigger transformation,” Bob noted. “Y/N and I found out the bad way.”

“The bad way?” John frowned.

“Yeah, you don't wanna know,” he replied, trying to look unphased.

“What? You punch her?” Alexei asked.

Bob shook his head. “I wish it was something like that,” and he sighed. All three looked at him in acknowledgement and wondered how you had the guts to leave the training room without giving away the fact that you spent hours in the Void only to help Bob, as if it was nothing. 

But Bucky knew. He knew why you did it: because you cared. Because you had been where Bob was: taking that ‘chance’ to be part of something bigger, maybe to help in a way that mattered, not in control, having something anyone would call a gift being closer to Hell on Earth, on the wrong side before earning a choice, redeeming yourself as if you could make up for everything you've done one day. And, if you could do something to help ease Bob and support him in his journey, you would. You would go to lengths beyond you if you knew it would help him. Bucky knows that too well because you've done the same for him.

The connection you and Bucky share goes way beyond the people and spaces that link you. It goes beyond Steve and beyond Wakanda. It is there in key moments: being HYDRA's favorite toys to break, you leaving everything behind so you could be there for him despite not knowing him—not really at least, realizing that the only thing keeping you from solitude and insanity was having each other, facing the loss of the people you loved the most together, crossing the line of morality to protect each other… the things you have done for him and he for you, the things you are still willing to do without hesitation; that is what connects you.

“You guys don't have to do any of this, you know? Just because I felt like training today doesn't mean I had to.”

So, maybe it was the Bucky that loves you and wishes to protect you above all, or maybe the Bucky that was jealous at the thought of his best friend going through all that trouble for someone else. Like, is he not the special one anymore? 

He doesn't know which option was more embarrassing for him.

“Yeah, I honestly think we have to be heavily trained first,” John noted. “But I'll talk to Y/N.”

“I'll help,” Bucky said. “We can do this, Bob.”

“Are you sure? I know you knew what I meant when I said I hurt her worse than physically. I don't want to do that to you.”

Bucky raised the corner of his lips in a kind, small smile. “You won't hurt me, Bob. I'm not scared of you, I trust you.”

Chad congratulated them for the meaningful shot and left.

“He totally shouldn't have trusted me,” Bob said with embarrassment. He looked anywhere else to avoid the camera, eyes landing on Syrup.

He sighed.

“I guess I should learn to be in control.”

“Shit, fucking shit,” you murmured to yourself, running into the training room and closing the door behind you in hopes for Bob's relapse not being bad enough to spread much further to the point it could exist or be seen outside the room. “Fuck…”

You threw your bag anywhere and ran into the shadows, getting ready to spend the possible worst couple hours of your month there.

Once you were inside, you appeared in your room. The one you got used to by now.

And you knew the drill: ignoring your family's bodies, turning the man crouched and about to find you under the bed to stone before he saw you—before he took you, getting under the bed and in front of a smaller yourself, wiping your ten-year-old version's tears, and kissing your own forehead. “Vse budet khorosho, detka.”

Telling yourself that ‘everything will be alright, little one’.

It hurt, but not enough to harm all that much.

When you opened your eyes again, you were in your old room at the Avengers Compound. This one? It was new, and you already hated seeing Tony that last time and sensing the disappointment in his voice he tried to hide as he said goodbye.

“I heard it's too hot in Wakanda,” He shook his head. “And that there's not much to do.”

An eighteen year-old you grinned. “Actually, I think there's a lot for me there, you know? Like… too much happens in this fuckass city. A little peace will do no harm. And you can call me, you know? I can always come visit if I'm welcome.”

“Are you one call away?” Tony asked, a bittersweet smile on his lips.

“As long as nobody throws my ass in jail,” You saw yourself shrug. “I'm sorry for… leaving. I feel like staying out of it was choosing the side of indifference, but I never wanted to be against anyone. I was never sure what was the right thing, I don't think I'll ever be, I just know I never wanted to hurt my family. That includes you and Steve too.”

“And Wanda.”

You pressed your lips tightly. “She got dragged into another war. When she was gaining as much normalcy as an Avenger can get, Lagos happened. This happened. I don't blame her, even if you do.”

“But it hurts,” Tony pointed out the thing you knew too well.

“She got away,” you murmured. “I thought we had had enough war for a hundred lifetimes, that we could just leave and start over. She thought otherwise, so… now she's gone and overthinking it is of no use.”

“I'm sorry about this. I shouldn't have let this happen, let it come this far.”

You sighed. “We are all at fault, Tony. I'm sorry about it, too. I'm sorry for leaving.”

“But you're still a kid. You don't have to be sorry for choosing yourself for once.”

That was the problem. You weren't choosing yourself—you were choosing Bucky.

You were choosing the man who killed his parents over him and he knew it better than he would've wanted to. He knew why. He knew you saw in Bucky the darkness left by the light HYDRA stole from both of you. He knew you enough to catch it from the moment you backed off and decided to leave them to fend for themselves instead of signing the Sokovia Accords or choosing teams.

Tony felt your betrayal, you knew he did. And he saw that silent awareness in your eyes as you let him live in your lie. He knew how it killed you to leave it all behind, so he chose someone other than himself for once and just went with it to spare you.

And, if he knew that would be the last time you saw each other, he would have hugged you before closing that door without looking back. You, however, knew that it was probably the last time, but didn't have the guts to stop him.

You just cried without realizing it before blinking and appearing in Westview that day, when Wanda's hex was finally lifted and she chose to leave instead of picking you. She rejected your love like you knew she would, because you meant little compared to the grief Vision left behind. That day haunted you because you could have done more. You could have insisted she stays instead of blaming her for leaving you. You could have offered comfort instead of telling her she would lose the one person who loved her through everything, that not even Vision knew her like you did, that nobody would love her like you always have, that she was making a mistake. You could have had some dignity and respect instead of making her feel guilty for trying to find her own path. If you hadn't been so hard on her, you know she would have stayed.

Because she loved you, too; maybe not like that anymore. But she loved you. And your words were what pushed her to the edge that one day, what caused the detrimental solitude that drove her mad.

And now she is gone, and you have made peace with it despite who you turned into the moment she walked away from you, but you could never forget her or the mark she left on you.

So you turned around and, when you did, you saw Bucky breaking down. You saw him look at himself as the Winter Soldier, telling Steve he was his mission, hitting him as if he were a punching bag in a rage room, hearing his best friend say he would never hurt him back because he was with him ‘til the end of the line, whatever that meant. So you ran to Bucky like you have learnt to do by force of habit.

“Buck, Bucky, look at me,” You got in front of him, interrupting his view. “I'm here. I'm right here. I'm…”

Suddenly, the void perished. Bucky was still on his knees, crying in silence, a vacant stare you hadn't seen in a while.

You didn't look away, you didn't care for it.

“Bucky,” you whispered, meeting his eyes. “It's over. You are here, you are safe, you are safe with me.”

His breathing was ragged, soon turning into desperate gasps for air. You only held him, driving his head to your chest so he could mimick your breathing and his ear could catch your heartbeat.

Steady, alive, there.

You hushed him and caressed his hair. Gently, softly, careful, with a fondness that grounds him, especially when he has felt it for long enough to remember he is too privileged.

Just then, he held you tightly as if you could slip away any second. As if the moment he let go of you, you would go somewhere more important. As if he was just lucky that you stumbled onto him first.

But it wasn't like that, because Bob was at ease already. Mel, appearing like God himself had summoned her, was standing beside him and staring at the whole thing.

And when you looked up and noticed it, you caught no one other than Chad there filming the scene of you and Bucky.

“Chad,” you called him. He cut immediately and showed you a thumbs up, like congratulating you for the show. “Listen to me very carefully because I will not repeat myself: if you don't delete that video right this fucking second, I will kill you. I am not saying this just to say it, I am not joking, and this is not a warning. This is a threat, and you might as well report this to HR or even the police, because I am dead serious.”

“Delete it, Chad,” Mel ordered. “The views or whatever you want, they're not important. This is.”

Once Chad had shown her that he did indeed delete the footage of you calming Bucky down, Bob escorted him out of the training room.

But Mel stayed for some reason she ignored and witnessed first hand how deep your connection with Bucky was. She realized that you couldn't live without each other, and that whatever she was feeling and whatever you might feel too, if anything at all, would never be anywhere as great.

“I'll be heading out,” she informed, taking a step back.

“Mel,” you called her and, against her better judgment, she stayed. “Thank you.”

Mel didn't know for sure what she was expecting, but it certainly wasn't you thanking her. Maybe the delusional in herself wanted you to tell her that it wasn't what it looked like, asking if she could wait for you and talk. But it wasn't that, which only meant that you saw her as her actions, not as her.

All she ever wanted was for anybody to see her. The Mel she is outside of Val's assistant, the Mel she might be.

She thought you didn't.

But you certainly did, just not right this moment where the only person who had never left you, who had always accepted you, needed you the most.

Mel also valued that. Seeing you being so caring made her like you even more, made her wish so bad she could get that version of you for herself.

But does she have to be a broken thing to get your attention? Or would just Mel be interesting enough?

[paracosmic-murdock]

days of the new avengers* lives

episode six: fomo

when everyone gets sent to a mission in greece except for you, you start calling all the time so you are "included", getting in the way of the team's work.

careful who you assemble

pairing: new avengers* x fem!new avenger!reader

tags/warnings: new avengerz assemble, found family kinda, bullying john (maybe affectionately), mockumentary, sapphic reader, eventually mel gold x reader, using y/n as little as i can, reader is mentioned to love mamma mia (2008) once but can be ignored kinda, some references to understand, reader is basically bob's spiritual guide, platonic reader & bucky, wanda and pietro maximoff mentioned, steve wanda and pietro's deaths mentioned, today's ep is more reader centric, some reader x mel at the end, lots of fomo, sorry for that, alpine joins the cast, more to be added bc i'm going with the flow tbh

2.1k words

✰ days of the new avengers' lives masterlist

✰ mila's anthology (main masterlist)

In the briefing room, the entire team sat as Valentina detailed the upcoming mission.

Apparently, this one would need everyone to participate due to how important it was to get it right. A once in a lifetime kind of opportunity to capture the heads and scientists of The Syringes—a name that stuck because they didn't have one.

According to the information Bucky and John had gotten on their mission, there would be what you all call an evil convention in Skiathos this weekend.

You were ecstatic to go to Greece on the first ever mission of the whole team. On Bob's first ever mission after how much he has been working on managing his powers and balancing his personas.

“First, Bucky and John will be co-leading the mission for obvious reasons,” Valentina began, referencing that they were already familiar with the organization. “Alexei, Yelena, Ava, and Bob must be there, especially Bob as Sentry. This is an important one, so we need the big guns… Now, thanks to Y/N’s efforts into training Bob, he is finally ready to go with you guys. Still, Yelena, you’ll be in charge of keeping him sane in case something happens. Which won’t.”

You cleared your throat. “What am I gonna do?”

“Stay, I guess,” she replied. Your expression fell completely. “Unless you have plans. In that case, I encourage you to go out there and live life.”

“Wait, so you mean that the only person who is qualified to stabilize Bob isn’t coming, why?” Ava frowned.

“If all that you care about is having someone to take care of him, I’ve heard Yelena did a great job during the incident. Also, he has to learn how to live independently.”

“Why do you hate me?” you asked, mockingly.

“You know she has FOMO,” John reminded everyone as if you weren’t there. “She’s gonna spiral, Valentina.”

Valentina sighed. “Okay, she’s not going because there are scientists there who would quite literally kill to get their hands on someone with her abilities. You’re outnumbered, and, as much as her powers would be an ace for the team, we can’t risk her being taken. She’s too valuable of an asset, not to mention dangerous in the wrong hands.”

“You care about me? That’s sweet,” you teased her. Valentina rolled her eyes. “If I was taken and died, Bucky would probably die from heartbreak, so you’ll lose your leader.”

He shook his head. “I’ll live from relief, doll.”

“Anyway, guys,” Mel interrupted. “You’ll, uh… do great. You can always bring souvenirs, right?”

“Valentina, is this because I went to Las Vegas with the Dora Milaje and didn’t formally notify you beforehand?” you questioned, not paying particular attention to Mel’s comment. “Is this your revenge?”

“When the beep did you go to Vegas with the Wakandans?” she made a confused grin.

“Did you guys know I married Bucky in Vegas once?” You changed the topic abruptly to avoid Val’s scolding.

Everyone —even Valentina— turned to look at you and him, completely astounded.

“She does this all the time, Val, you get used to it eventually,” John noted, amused.

“I told you not to call me that on multiple occasions, Walker-”

“Look at little CIA Director Val. Gonna cry?” John smirked. Valentina got ready to answer, but Bucky was quick to speak about the secret you had just spilt instead.

“Before anybody dares to ask, we got an annulment.”

“Wait, is it actually true?” John frowned.

“Sure it is,” you confirmed.

Yelena snorted. “How the beep did that happen?!”

“We were undercover,” Bucky replied, staring as if his eyes could throw knives at you and twist them at will. “And you were supposed to take that information to the grave, woman.”

“Did you kiss?” Ava asked with a wide, bright, and teasing smile plastered on her face, making Bucky blush.

“Obviously. In front of a minister dressed as Thor,” You shrugged. “If anyone was wondering, Bucky’s a great kisser.”

“Can you all stop talking?”

“You told me you hated every second of it,” He rolled his eyes, ignoring Val.

“Gotta love those two,” Yelena smirked. “Live, laugh, love Wintermist.”

“A formidable couple,” Alexei chimed in with a smirk. “We must celebrate their union.”

Mel cleared her throat and tried to turn the attention back to the mission. “Guys, I think we’re losing focus here.”

Alexei smiled. “And your children? Solid fighters.”

“I said we got an annulment.” Bucky repeated, annoyed.

Bob smirked. “I’m a child of divorce.”

“Remember: we got the annulment. It was as soon as we returned to New York,” you confirmed and then made a disgusted face. “Do you guys think I could stay married to that man? Maybe if I didn’t have insurance, but I do now.”

“And do you think I could stay married to that woman? Maybe if I needed reasons to kill myself.”

You gasped. “That was mean, James.”

“You started it.” He shrugged and frowned, careless.

“Shut up…” Valentina spoke again, losing patience.

“Okay, but seriously, can you guys imagine their kids?” Ava grinned.

Valentina just took a seat, covering her face with her hand, and motioned Mel to press the infamous silence button. The alarm, loud enough to be heard in China, invaded the room, making everyone cover their ears and groan in pain to later shut up.

“Whoever that’s up there, what did I do to deserve this?” Valentina looked up at the ceiling.

Yelena hummed, massaging her temples. “Uh, let’s see… You yelled at three of the guards because they didn’t guess what floor you’d be going to, you hushed Bucky’s new cat, you tricked John into threatening someone for you, you decided to exclude Y/N from a mission where she’s clearly needed, by Bob mostly, you made Tina’s son cry five minutes before entering the briefing room, existed near us, and that’s only what’s happened today. If I go back to the past couple years, I’m sure we’ll find at least a million things you’ve done to deserve this and more.”

“It’s what she deserves,” Yelena smirked, self-sufficient.

Valentina exhaled tiredly. “Okay, Mr. and Mrs. Barnes and their kids can keep the beep cat.”

“We got an annulment!” you and Bucky exclaimed in unison, making the team hide their laughs.

“I’m not gonna lie, it really offends me that I won’t get to go to Greece with the team,” you commented. “I’ve always wanted to go to Greece! And Skiathos? That’s where they filmed Mamma Mia. I just wanted to beg Ava to perform Lay All Your Love On Me on the beach with me.” Then, you made a fist and showed it to the camera. “Valentina Allegra de Fontaine will rue this day she’ll rue it!”

What does to rue mean?

“It means to regret. To wish that something had never been done.”

“Cut,” Chad said. “Dan, can you go report this to HR?”

Ava and John were walking next to each other on their way to the hotel hall where the convention would take place when they got your call.

John sighed and took his phone from his pocket. “Hello?”

“Hi, John,” you said. “Where are you? Who are you with? What are you doing?”

“Uh, in the hotel with Ava and on our way to the convention. Why? Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I just wanted to know what you were doing,” you replied. “How’s the hotel?”

He rolled his eyes and hung up the call.

“She-” Ava began, but was interrupted by another of your calls. “What?”

“John accidentally hung up the call,”

“That wasn’t on accident, baby.”

Bob and Yelena were hiding in a hallway with their sight on Hunter Hunt—yes, his name is actually that— when Bob’s phone rang, startling them.

Yelena took the phone and answered the call. “What’s going on?”

“Hi, Lena. I just wanted to know how Bob’s doing.”

“Stop calling, you almost made us get caught.”

“Okay, but is Bob alright?”

“Bob, are you alright?” Yelena asked in a whisper. He nodded. “He just nodded.”

“And-”

She hung up the call and turned off the phones.

Bucky was on a balcony that gave him a perfect view of the whole room. Everyone was seemingly having the time of their lives, and, from there, he could see John and Ava pretending to be waiters and handing the modified beverages to everyone needed.

He had a rifle with him in case it would be needed—which was most likely—. Rifle that almost shot when your call startled him.

“Beep, no,” He hung up and activated his earbuds. “Can anyone call Valentina to tell her to keep Y/N busy or something?”

“I already did,” Yelena replied. “She has called us three times now.”

“She’s calling again,” Ava groaned. “Stop calling!”

Alexei, covering Bucky, heard his phone ring. “It’s her.”

“Oh, God.”

You were in the common room, reading Bucky’s copy of Sunrise of the Reaping you had gifted him for his birthday and petting Alpine, his new cat he rescued a week ago who was smaller than your hand and playing in the pocket of your hoodie, when you heard a new voice join you.

“A little bird told me you’ve been insufferable today,”

“Your little bird is most likely a viper called Valentina.”

Mel smiled. “Can I take a seat?”

“Sure,” you replied, closing the book. “What brings you here?”

“Well, you’ve called everyone and interrupted the mission the whole day,” she sat cross legged, looking at you. “So, Valentina sent me to keep you busy. And confiscate your phone.”

You smirked, giving it to her. “I can’t believe I’m missing out on this.”

“It’s for your own good as far as I understand,” she reminded you. “What would I do if they took you and used you as a lab rat or something? Do you really wanna go back to those days?”

“I don’t know what you would do,” You shrugged. “And I certainly don’t wanna go back to those days. There are no Wanda and Pietro to have lunch with the only days we were allowed to leave our cells anymore.”

“I would go insane, probably, and take a plane to Greece,” Mel elbowed you softly. “I had forgotten about the Maximoff twins being there with you.”

“Yeah, they were,” You looked at her, vulnerability getting the best of you. “My family moved to Sokovia when I was little because my parents were doing humanitarian work there with the victims of a terrorist attack. For that, I ended up being the only one left in my family… being a victim as well. I grew lonely and resentful, and when someone approached me with the opportunity to be part of something big, I knew I couldn’t just say no. That’s how I ended up there and why I was on the wrong side for so long. When Pietro died, I was there for Wanda, and when she died… the only one by my side was Bucky.”

“I didn’t realize you two were that close,”

“It’s been me and Bucky since we moved to Wakanda, it’s been us since Steve left him, since Wanda left me. It’s been us through nightmares and grieving, and no matter how much we fight and whatever we say, he’s my person. All we have is each other, and that’s probably the only thing in this life that either of us knows for sure.”

“You really love him, huh?” Mel mentioned, not meeting your eyes.

You nodded. “He’s my best friend. I would literally die for that guy.”

Mel hesitated, but knew she had to ask. “Would you be with him? Romantically, I mean.”

“What?” You were taken aback by her question, mind blank for a hot minute.

“Yeah, just… You make it sound like you are soulmates or something,”

“I love him, just not like that. And, trust me, he doesn’t either. This is not some sort of ‘ew, I would never!’ friends-to-lovers kinda beep, it’s just that the idea of being romantically involved with him makes me wanna vomit.”

Mel snorted. “But he’s cute. More than cute.”

“What? Do you want me to play matchmaker here?”

“No, no!” She shook her head. “I was curious, that’s all.”

“I think you’re taking your job to distract me way too seriously,” you noted, taking Alpine from your pocket. “Look, this is Alpine… Not to be dramatic, but I would burn the world just to bring heat to her on cold winter nights.”

Mel held the cat in her hands. “She’s like a little cotton ball.”

“Wait,” You picked your phone from the coffee table where she put it before. “Smile. Say cheese.”

She laughed, bringing Alpine to her face and smiling widely. You took their picture, then showed it to her.

“Aw, my pretty girls,” You curved your lips softly, and then your eyes met hers. Mel was frozen in her place, almost dropping the cat at how off base your comment took her.

Your face lit up, looking at her playing with Alpine from afar. “Yeah, maybe not going to Greece wasn’t so bad.”

[paracosmic-murdock]

days of the new avengers* lives

episode five: networking

valentina throws a gala event and tells everyone to make friends to seem approachable.

careful who you assemble

pairing: new avengers* x fem!new avenger!reader

tags/warnings: new avengerz assemble, found family kinda, bullying john (maybe affectionately), mockumentary, sapphic reader, eventually mel gold x reader, using y/n as little as i can, reader is mentioned to be really good at socializing and enjoying the galas, heather glenn from daredevil: born again (2025) appearance, with a ddba spoiler about her, appearance of an implied relevant character, more to be added bc i'm going with the flow tbh

2.1k words

✰ days of the new avengers' lives masterlist

✰ mila's anthology (main masterlist)

It was seven of you in front of seven gala outfits and the only ones who seemed excited were you and Alexei.

The boys, of course, would look awesome in their suits like always. They think they look like penguins, but, deep down, know they look good. John, Bucky, and Bob's suits were all jet black with white shirts and a black bow tie, and Alexei's was a merlot red, white shirt, and tie the same color of the suit—Valentina has learnt to entertain him and his interest towards shining brighter. Yelena's dress was white, long sleeved, and absolutely beautiful. Ava's dress was in satin, an olive green and a deep neckline to attract all the gazes. You, on the other hand, had a black strapless dress with flowers in burgundy red sequins that hugged you nicely in all the right places. You all would look great, at least.

“I feel like a penguin,” Bob commented to the camera. “And I don't wanna go to that gala. None of us wants to.”

“Speak for yourself,” you shrugged. “And everyone but me and Alexei.”

Bob sighed. “We have to talk to people and all that.”

“You can talk to me,” You patted his back. “Valentina said we had to talk to people to seem approachable. Apparently, we're "intimidating" or something.” You made quotation marks with your fingers.

“Well, you are. I don't think I am.”

“You're not intimidating, but not approachable either,” you replied. “Whenever someone tries to talk with you, you push them away. And I get that because you're not comfortable talking with strangers and all that. These people always expect you to want them, so, to succeed, we'll find you someone who seems out of place here. That someone won't be like the others and maybe you'd feel more comfortable. Is that okay?”

“You know you're awesome, right?”

You smiled and locked your arms with him. “Let's go, Bobby.”

Yelena's strategy to survive the night was to spend the whole evening with someone who handles social situations exceptionally well. That's you.

People approached you as if you were the prize and you handled them as if you were made for it. With friends, you are fun and eloquent, and with strangers, you tend to be assertive and polite. Always with a look on your face that said ‘you might want to be on the table, but you aren't good enough to earn a seat’; always attracting the attention of egomaniacs who think they can get to you. That makes you intimidating, unapproachable, appealing to the public eye and always has.

Being by your side guaranteed having people around to create the illusion of conversation while not having to speak at all. It was simple: she just had to stay on your good side because any faux pas could annoy or upset you, and you would just leave. Then, her savior would be gone, and God only knows how she would survive the rest of the evening.

And there you were, frowning at the sight of Yelena, John, and Bucky following you around like ducklings. Your arm was locked to Bob's, and the thought of overwhelming him with all of them around was enough to frustrate Yelena's plan.

“What are you all doing?” you questioned. “You’re gonna upset Bob.”

John cleared his throat. “We just want to show… solidarity to Bob now that he has to face his social anxiety.”

“You don't have to say he has social anxiety all the time,” you told him. “Why are you all following me?”

“Because you're our friend,” Bucky said with a hesitant smile, knowing you probably wouldn't believe him. “And we love spending time with you.”

“Cut the beep,” you stated bluntly. “What do you guys want?”

Yelena rolled her eyes. “We don't want to talk to people, so we're making you do it for us.”

“So, you want me to assign you a new friend? Would that work?”

“Actually, we don’t want new friends at all,”

“You want me to tell you that you're special and to accommodate you? This is the real world, guys. Just… ugh. I'll find you someone to talk with.”

First, you found Heather Glenn, the Commissioner of Mental Health in New York, and left her with the most fascinating individual for her to deal with: John Walker. Local asshole, in great need of therapy, and a personality any therapist would kill to explore. Next, you told Yelena to look around for Kate Bishop, since you invited her and her mother Eleanor. Yelena complained, but later thanked you as she saw her somewhat of a friend. From afar, you noticed Ava talking to two women and approached them with Bob and Bucky, which resulted in Bucky and Ava having each one of the ladies to talk to. At the end, you and Bob walked to Bruce Banner, whom you had practically begged to attend the gala. Your purpose was for him to bring someone you could talk to, so he showed up with a man you now know as Wong, a sorcerer like Doctor Strange but apparently better than him.

You believed him blindly.

Ava, Shana, Bucky, and Amy were having a nice conversation.

In all honesty, nowadays, Bucky doesn't really differentiate genuineness and diplomacy when speaking with strangers. He doesn't know for sure whether he is actively in a conversation or if it's the diplomat in him taking the wheel, so he only talks to Amy in almost automatic while Ava focuses entirely on Shana now that Bucky is with her friend.

As for Heather and John, she was absolutely astounded by the idea of him ever seeking help. What from outside seemed like stoicism was discovered to be closer to narcissism, and Heather found herself exposed closely to a key aspect that separates heroes —like how John was portrayed to be to the public eye now, though she found it inaccurate— and vigilantes —her current hyperfixation that created irony in the whole ‘I'm a therapist, I know better’ agenda her face showed with her not realizing how sickening it all had turned into.

And John? He just tried to maintain the conversation, following her cues, and hoping it all would end from the moment he realized he was being psychoanalyzed. But he knows he could be in worse hands as he spotted Alexei speaking with a couple from afar. The man, dressed all in white, and the woman, all in black, gave the illusion of elegance and something he couldn't really place. John was too far to identify faces, but, deep down, he found himself concerned enough to ask later about the people he met.

Yelena and Kate were having one too many glasses of champagne and, seemingly, catching up. In reality, Kate was interrogating Yelena and questioning why on Earth she was ignoring her texts. The answer, honest as ever, was that she had been going through a rough patch and then focused all her energies on her new life, not really socializing with anybody outside her team. Yelena promised to try. Kate asked her if she could find her a spot in the New Avengers. Yelena said she lacked a touch of messed up that was a requirement to fit in the team. Kate, as expected, told her every single messed up thing that ever happened to her, and Yelena pretended to indulge her. She was having a good time and considering thanking you later for inviting Kate, someone she actually felt comfortable talking with.

Bob was nicely chatting with Bruce, feeling seen and understood by the latter's characteristic battle between human and Hulk, and how he had managed to find balance between both parts of himself. It was a nice conversation that put him at ease, which was your purpose all along. You smiled as you noticed.

You and Wong were getting along well. A few drinks in and talking about each other's powers, you became friends and even exchanged numbers to make sure to hang out later. As he was wearing a nice suit and could pass as a common person, neither Val nor Mel noticed it was people you were supposed to entertain, not know from before.

Except for Bob, but they knew very well that him attending without much reluctance was a win already.

“I had so much fun with the new friends I made,” Alexei mentioned to the camera. “Nice couple, clearly love each other. Influential. Loved my stories.”

“Who were they?” Yelena asked him.

“He gave me his card,” he replied, giving it to her.

Yelena frowned. “Sounds familiar.”

“Maybe Chad knows,” he noted. “Chad, do-”

“Dad, no,” she elbowed him. “Stop telling Chad things, he'll start using stuff against us. Your new friend isn't that important, we won't talk to these people anymore.”

“Maybe I'll talk to them.”

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Beep you, Chad.”

You stood in the balcony, looking at the stars and trying to count them to distract yourself from your thoughts. It had been a successful gala, or at least you found it successful at the idea of your teammates—friends enjoying it. Or tolerating it while also completing that horrendous task of socializing.

Wong, your new friend, made the evening decent. He was fun and you shared a cause once. You had arranged a visit to the Sanctum for him to show you the wonders of the Mystic Arts, which you were endeared by. Still, you knew there was something missing that evening, something you didn't want to name. Something you feared to name.

So, you looked at the stars and began counting again as you had lost focus for a moment. Then, something else made you lose your concentration—it wasn't John's laughter as he recounted the conversation and how he realized he was being treated without his consent; nor Bucky's complaints about Ava leaving him to socialize with Shana instead of supporting each other. Nope, it wasn't that.

Instead, it was Mel offering you one of the hors-d'œuvre she noticed you were devouring earlier, at the beginning of the gala. You smiled.

“How was tonight?”

She sighed. “Boring. I had to convince Val that Yelena didn't know Kate Bishop.”

“Thanks for that one,” You laughed and bit your now considered midnight snack. “Other than that? Did you make any friends?”

“Well,” She hummed. “You know the neurologist, right? Doctor Grey?”

“Yeah,” You nodded. “She's nice.”

“I knew her, but we hadn't talked before,” Mel shrugged. “She was fun.”

You pressed your lips in a fine line. “That's nice.”

She was confused by your reaction, but said nothing.

“But I'm here before I leave because I didn't get to say hi tonight,” she mentioned, a hesitant look in her eyes.

“Hi, then,” You chuckled.

“Hi,” she replied. “Bye.”

You nodded with a small smile. “Bye, Mel. Sleep tight.”

Ava gave the camera a tired, annoyed look. “Yeah, the gala was nice, we all made new friends, I'm going to sleep.”

“She didn't look like she had a good time,” Bob commented, seeing Ava leave. “I did. My assigned friend was Bruce Banner. The Incredible Hulk. He's always been my favorite Avenger.”

John stared at the camera. “The Commissioner of Mental Health for me… I think this was some good old retaliation from She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named.”

You appeared behind him. “Beep, I already know that's what you call me.”

He flinched as you startled him. “How are you everywhere, Miss Voldemort?”

“If you're gonna give me a nickname, at least make it someone who has a nose,” you commented. “Didn't you guys once call me Queen Midas for a whole month? If you're going there, call me like a goddess or someone historically and culturally and religiously relevant.”

“I'll call you She-Hades. You're diabolical,” John answered.

“I read once that, back then, people feared saying his name,” Bob mentioned

You smirked. “Did you know that, John? That's why you said it? You read, John F. Walker?”

“Beep.”

“He loves me,” you told the camera once John was out of sight.

“He does,” Bob confirmed with a grin.

“I never know what to make out of your interactions,” Bucky commented after being silent while you and John bickered.

“Stop thinking about other people's interactions and focus on yourself for once, Barnes,” you complained. “Let's go so you can do your skincare routine. Come on, Bob.”

“Beep.”

“Cut,” Chad announced. “Good one, guys. See you next week.”

“You have no idea how much we're looking forward to hearing you say ‘see you never again’,” Bucky rolled his eyes. “So I can finally find out where you live and get revenge for all those private conversations you have filmed, Chad. You best sleep with one eye open”

“You're aware of the ginormous file HR has on you threatening the crew, right?”

Bucky scoffed. “Feel free to add this.”

“Sorry for that, Chad. He has anger issues,” Bob apologized in the name of Bucky once he was gone.

“Bob, don't apologize to Chad.”

“Oh, you know there's a file on you, too.”

You shrugged. “You may leak it for all I care.”

“Is there a file on me?”

“Not yet.”

Bob frowned, and then you dragged him away from the crew.

[paracosmic-murdock]

becky's upsetting father's day card

rebecca, your five-year-old daughter, honest as ever, filled her father's day card with what seemed to be utter, upsetting nonsense about how her daddy is the coolest and most awesome dad among the dads of all her friends, making her teacher worry about whatever environment she's is growing in.

pairing: bucky barnes x wife!reader

warnings/tags: this is self indulgent, omfg i wanna be his wife and have his kids so bad, bucky and reader have three kids (5 years, 3 years & 9 months), dad!bucky fills my heart with joy, fluff, mentions of calling cps, parent shaming kinda before knowing whole the truth, bucky and reader are still avengers, reader is a speedster, mention of the supersoldier serum effect on the kids, thunderbolts/new avengers era (?) but it's a flash-forward to 2033 to keep the timeline working while ignoring every possible future event

1.7K words

inspired by this imagine by @jaderabbitt :)))

could be read as a flash-forward part two of give you my wild, give you a child maybe (where reader babysits john's kid, gets baby fever, bucky gets baby fever too but hides it after "realizing" he can never give you the peace needed for a family - spoilers of it at the end)

✰ mila's anthology (main masterlist)

Retiring from the fun part of the Avenger life wasn't very easy for you at first, but it was what you had to do in order to start a family with Bucky. It's not very easy to not see your kids for days when you go on missions and leave them with somebody else, so you decided to leave that to your husband. Blackmailing Valentina into getting you a nice apartment and great benefits, giving you the flexible job of coordinating and supervising missions and operations —and the team in general— so you can be safe and sound and near the kids, and, most importantly, a good raise in yours and Bucky's paycheck was all that you needed to live comfortably.

“Okay, I'll pick Ronan and Becky, and you stay with Winnie,” you announced, patting the space beside you on the sofa so Bucky takes a seat. “Have you noticed that, when you are here, Winnie only wants to be with you? I don't know whether to feel jealous or relieved.”

He sat next to you and pecked your lips to then look at Winnie. “I think you being jealous makes me feel better about myself.”

“Is that so, Mr. Barnes?” You faked offense, raising an eyebrow.

Bucky laughed. “Sure it is, Mrs. Barnes.”

Before you could reply, you heard your phone ring on the coffee table. You took it and answered the call. You lifted your index finger as if to say this is not over.

“Hello, is this Mrs. Barnes?”

“Uh, yeah, this is Mrs. Barnes. With whom do I have the pleasure?” You looked at Bucky with a frown.

“Good morning, Mrs. Barnes, I'm Miss Brewster, Rebecca's teacher.”

“Of course, Miss Brewster, is everything alright?”

“Well, there were some… concerns raised about what she wrote on her Father’s Day card, so I would like to have a meeting with you and Rebecca's dad as soon as possible.”

“Dear God, yes. Of course, we're on our way.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Barnes. I'll be waiting.”

Bucky frowned. “What's going on?”

“I'm pretty sure Becky's teacher believes you're a mafia boss or a pimp,” you replied, standing up to get Winnie's diaper bag. “We were summoned to speak to her about the questionable things our daughter might have written on her Father's Day card.”

“Shit,” He stood up, immediately looking for the baby wrap. “Maybe Becky said her dad is an Avenger, and her teacher now thinks she's deluded. Or that we lied to her. God, what if the same happened with Ronan?”

“I think this won't happen with Ro because you can't really write that much when you're three,” You shrugged and got the car keys. “He talks a lot, though. In full sentences. Let's just hope.”

Soon, you were parking the car, and Bucky adjusting the baby wrap to keep Winnie steady. She was fast asleep and using her dad's heartbeat as her very own white noise, a thing she probably inherited from you.

“I hope she doesn't wake up,” Bucky commented, leaving a small kiss on your daughter's head right after getting out of the car.

“And I hope Becky isn't in trouble,” you added and held hands with him.

“Once we explain the situation, everything will be fine, baby.”

You sighed and, soon enough, were sitting with Miss Brewster in the library.

“Sorry for making you come in such a short notice,” Miss Brewster apologized, noting how you couldn't even leave the baby with someone. “But I was… worried.”

“Yes, and thank you for your concern. We're glad to see that Becky's teacher cares about her enough to reach out whenever something happens, truly.” You nodded, holding Bucky's hand.

“So… In most cases, I'd feel compelled to contact CPS about this,” she began, making you and Bucky look at each other completely alarmed. “But I know she is a very healthy and happy child, so I thought that having a conversation first would be a better approach.”

Miss Brewster spoke with a formality that almost bothered Bucky, but he kept calm.

“I'm sorry, we don't understand,” He sighed. “What was the problem with Becky's card?”

She cleared her throat and took the card from her folder. “Sorry for spoiling the surprise, but… Okay, the children were asked about things that make their fathers special for them, and Rebecca remarked several upsetting things involving daddy punching people and being super duper mega old but the coolest ever. Not to mention the drawings of some weapons.”

She showed you the card.

The cover said Happy Father's Day with a drawing of Bucky, her, and her siblings. The decorations were colorful 'guns' all around with too much pink and green glitter. Bucky could barely hold his laughter.

You opened it, and started reading what her sloppy but surprisingly legible cursive purple letters said.

Daddy your the best daddy in the word. your super duper hyper extra mega old your 116 but your the most coool dad and your coooler than freddy's daddy and freddys daddy is a fierfigter

You punch the peoole and you keeep me mommy roro and wini and the whoel word safe

i love you a itty bitty more then mommy dont tell mommy

happy fathers day daddy thenks for being my daddy i love you

You let out a shaky breath, suppressing a snort. “This is…”

“I understand how this might be… read, but…”

“We guarantee you this is not what it looks like.”

“Well, it looks like Mr. Barnes shows patterns of violence that not only are known by Rebecca, but also celebrated in a way. Her drawings of guns also suggest that she has been exposed to them.”

“Miss Brewster, I swear there are no weapons at home,” Bucky told her, pointing at the drawings of colorful L-shaped figures that were allegedly guns. “Also, there's not enough detail in those drawings to say she is familiar with guns or any kind of weapons. Those might even be the water guns we play with.”

You cleared your throat. “In case the whole ‘you punch people and keep everyone safe’ doesn't shed a light on the truth, my husband, James Barnes, is an Avenger.”

“Oh.” Miss Brewster raised her eyebrows.

“Former Congressman, too.” He added.

“You served for barely half a term, Bucky,” you called him out in a whisper. “And, if you had any doubts about the Mother's Day card, when she said I was faster than light, she wasn't exaggerating.”

“So, the super family she always talks about isn't in her imagination?”

You both shook your heads. “We're all very much real.”

“So, her uncle is really Captain America?”

You both nodded. “Yeah.”

“Is she super?”

“Well, the supersoldier serum does its things,” Bucky answered.

“You know that stage where they just hit you all the time? It was awful.”

“You dodged them every time,” he accused you.

Miss Brewster pressed her lips into a fine line. “Then I am sorry for the misunderstanding. And for considering CPS, that must have been an alarming one.”

“Don't worry, we should be the ones to apologize also. We'll make sure Becky doesn't share those ideas with the other kids.”

“Of course. And thank you for everything you've done for us.”

Bucky smiled, clearly a fake, reluctant one. “Don't mention it.”

“You've done a great job with Rebecca, though. She's an amazing kid and a joy to be around.”

“Thank you,” you and Bucky said at the same time.

“I'll be looking forward to having this little one too.”

He snorted. “Brace for Ronan, he's coming in two years.”

Miss Brewster smiled politely and dismissed you.

“This was a nightmare.”

“Are you aware we could've lost our child today?” he asked, pulling you close by your waist.

You sighed. “I would've unleashed hell on her.”

“Woah, Mrs. Barnes!” Bucky exclaimed. “Will you go to jail and leave me to raise three children on my own?”

“I hope you know you're not allowed to love again after I die or go to jail,”

“How could I ever love anybody after having my girl? You raised my expectations and no one will be able to equal or top you,”

You wrinkled your nose and joked. “Stop that or we'll be making the fourth one tonight.”

“I'm getting a vasectomy, woman.”

You stopped Bucky and stood in front of him.

“I love you so much, Buck. You know that, right?”

He hummed, approaching you until his lips were almost on yours. “I love you way more, doll. So much you'd be surprised.”

You smiled and kissed him, careful not to wake Winnie.

“Ew, you two!” You heard your daughter, Becky, exclaim out of nowhere. She has the ability to locate you and Bucky all the time as if she had put a tracker on you. “You're yucky.”

“Aren't you gonna say hello to your father, Rebecca Barnes?” Bucky asked her, all accusatory.

“Daddy, you're embarrassing me in front of my friends.” She pointed at three kids standing a few meters away.

“Becky, don't say that to Daddy,” you scolded her. “Apologize.”

She stared at you, annoyed. She looked so much like her father that it was almost uncanny. “Sorry, Daddy.”

“Daddy, are you okay with Becky's apology?”

“Not at all,” Bucky shook his head. Then, he unwrapped Winnie from him, gave her to you, and looked at Rebecca. “This is gonna cost you, young lady.”

Saddened by her dad's disappointment, Becky immediately pouted and gave him a worried look. “I'm sorry, Daddy, I'll never say that again! Sorry.”

“You'll have to make it up to me,” Bucky shook his head, dramatic, and crouched to lift her. Her expression changed, and now she was laughing hysterically as her father kissed her cheeks.

You snickered. “Is Daddy okay with Becky's apology now?”

“Very okay,” He smiled, carrying her. “Why don't we go pick Ro from preschool and go have lunch and then ice cream for dessert?”

Becky cheered.

You looked at the scene, remembering how six years ago you and Bucky had broken up because he didn't think he could give you a peaceful life for a family. Today's Bucky would kick his ass.

He was a wonderful father. Sweet, understanding, dedicated. He reads bedtime stories every night, pretends to be Flynn Rider for Becky's tea parties —fair enough, considering you have to be Rapunzel and Alpine has to be Maximus the horse—, plays to exhaustion with Ronan, and takes care of Winnie at night.

Nobody else could be a better husband and partner at parenting than Bucky Barnes. And you're thankful to have him by your side for the rest of your lives.

[paracosmic-murdock]

days of the new avengers* lives

episode four: match

the team downloads tinder after finding bucky's profile on it.

careful who you assemble

pairing: new avengers* x fem!new avenger!reader

tags/warnings: new avengerz assemble, found family kinda, bullying john (maybe affectionately), mockumentary, sapphic reader, eventually mel gold x reader, using y/n as little as i can, more to be added bc i'm going with the flow tbh

2K words

✰ days of the new avengers' lives masterlist

✰ mila's anthology (main masterlist)

“The worst thing that could have ever happened to me is you deciding to be a good person all of the sudden,” John noted, shooting you a bad look as he peeled the potatoes with you.

You rolled your eyes. “I think you're just jealous that I'm a better person than you are.”

“You're not a better person than me,” he replied. “You're constantly making fun of others, bribing Bob into doing whatever you want-”

“God forbid a girl has hobbies and tries to help Bob find beauty in cotidianity through adventures and experiences.”

John shook his head. “And saying weird things so you distract others to get away with stuff.”

“Stuff like what?”

“Like stuff you do. Then, you avoid being called out at any cost. For example, when I told you to stop making Alexei take you whenever, wherever you want.”

“That's a Shakira song.”

“This is what I'm talking about! What does that even have to do with anything?”

You shrugged. “You're the one who said it.”

“You know what? Peel the potatoes yourself and make that Darinki thing yourself.”

“It's Draniki, and you can do whatever the beep you want, Walker,” You scoffed. “I don't need your negativity and bitching here when I'm trying to do something nice to thank Alexei for taking me to McDonald's for a McFlurry at 2 am, AKA his comfort food according to Yelena.”

He rolled his eyes and left while you stood wondering whether to use sour cream or cream cheese to go with the Draniki and smoked salmon, since the recipe says sour cream but you know Alexei would like cream cheese better.

A small smirk appeared on your lips at the thought of John going to his room and finding what you got him to maintain your kindness streak: buying a US Agent plushie for his son so ‘he could be close to him’.

Maybe you were still kind of awful for wanting him to feel bad.

And, as expected, John returned not too long later with the stuffed version of himself in hands. “Thanks for this. I'm sorry for being a beep to you… Let me help you.”

“I don't need your help, John. Go do your stuff, it's fine,” you gave him a sad look. “You've already done enough.”

When he left the kitchen feeling utterly bad, you chortled and winked at the camera. Yeah, still awful.

As a rare occurrence —you were told to by the camera crew—, the whole team was training at the same time. Yelena and Bucky were sparring, John was exercising his duty of being Alexei's personal trainer by screaming at him as he was on the treadmill, Ava was practicing her phasing by herself, and you and Bob were working on your Sentry+Alchemist dynamics as Bucky had requested.

“Can we take a break?!” Alexei screamed.

John shook his head. “Breaks are for little girls!”

“That was misogynistic, John,” Yelena commented with a smirk. Bucky chuckled beside her. “When I was a little girl, I was in the Red Room being taught to kill people, so, no breaks for me.”

“It happened to me, too, but in S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Ava joined. “How inconsiderate of you to say that, Walker.”

“You're all insufferable,” He rolled his eyes. “Okay, let's take a five minute break, Alexei.”

“I feel like I am in a circus.” Bob said.

You laughed and picked up your phone from the floor. “They're a spectacle, definitely.”

There were a few unread texts. A few from Sam telling you his sister and nephews were alright as you had asked, one from Ayo giving you specific information about a mission you would help the Dora Milaje with that night—independently from the New Avengers, clearly—, and a few from Mel, which you read first.

It was a screenshot of a Tinder profile. There was a picture of Bucky, the one you took of him pretending to drive Sam's boat a few years ago, and it said ‘Bucky, 38’. The description was ‘… feels like. I'm actually 110. Not joking. Avenger. Former Congressman. Feel free to reject me, I won't take it personal’.

You gasped, knowing this was something you wouldn't let him live down. Though, seconds later, you frowned at the idea of Mel being on a dating app.

And matching with Bucky.

“Are you okay?” Bob asked.

Instead of replying, you showed him the screen.

“That's real?”

You shrugged, smirk on. “I guess so. Mel sent it.”

“So, Mel is Bucky's type and Bucky is Mel's,” He snickered.

“That's what you're getting from this?” You raised your eyebrow. “Bucky's on Tinder!”

“Bucky's on Tinder?” Ava chimed in, running to you.

Everyone seemed to have heard her because, in a blink, they were all on you wanting to hear all of it. Except, of course, for Bucky, who was wondering how to get out of that one.

John whistled. “Looking for love, Barnes?”

“Shut up, beep,” He groaned, walking to you and taking your phone in his hands. “We matched? No, someone sent this to you.”

“You're saying I'm not your type?” you questioned him, faking offense.

“I'm just saying I don't think I'm your type, you know? I thought it was like… brown eyes, long, wavy hair, late twenties…?”

Yelena and Ava hid a chuckle, though Bob, Alexei, and John didn't read much into it.

“Oh, shut it,” You smacked his arm, the one he would feel the impact on.

“Ouch, okay,” He rubbed where you hit him. “Alright, so what? Are you gonna shame me for being on a dating app? Really, guys?”

“We're not judging, we're… opining,” Ava replied.

“And we have some questions,” you announced. “Firstly, how long have you been on Tinder? Secondly, how many of the times you've ditched me were you on a date with someone from Tinder? Thirdly, are you dating to marry or are you going the casual route? Fourthly, when were you planning to tell me? Before proposing? Does Sam know? Is he your best best friend? Am I number two? What does he have that I don't? Is it because I'm a woman?”

Bucky shook his head. “First, you're overwhelming. And, to answer: on and off for a few years, stopped when I got into the whole Congress thing, resumed a few weeks ago. Three times but it went well so you should know it wasn't in vain. Casual route but once I met someone I thought I could have a future with; didn't go very well, no further comments on that. I wasn't planning on telling you ever because of the fuss you're making right now. Sam doesn't know. You're both my closest friends. He has a shield. And, finally, being a woman makes you better if anything. Also, before finishing here, have you realized that you're making this a thing just because of who I matched with?”

“Who would that lucky lady be?” Alexei asked, raising an eyebrow suggestively. “Or gentleman.”

“Mel,” Bob said. “If you're worrying about the work environment, I think it'll be alright. And Mel is awesome, they'd be a great couple.”

“You know what, Bob? You're right. I'm gonna match with her too, unless a certain someone has anything to say about it.”

You shrugged, pretending it didn't bother you as much as it did. “The only thing I have to say is that I'm happy for you, princess. Actually, I think we all should follow your example and download Tinder. Lord knows getting beep would help a lot with your anger issues.”

“Leave me out of that,” Yelena wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “I don't need getting beep to feel better, that's what insulting John is for.”

He gave her a fake laugh. “I think getting beep would help you a lot.”

“Team, I fear I will not join you in this quest,” Alexei commented. “I have my eye on someone already.”

“Melina?” Yelena asked and grinned in disgust when her father nodded proudly. “Best of luck with that, Dad.”

“Thank you, Lena,” He smiled, ignoring the irony in his daughter's words.

“What if we match with each other?” Bob wondered, almost to the air.

“We'll see what happens,” You smirked. “Oh, my God, John, you should use the picture Bob took of you when we were making lava cakes.”

“It was a good look,” Bob nodded.

“You think so?” He frowned, searching for it in the Unsolicited dick pics group chat, which you use to send pictures of each other taken randomly. “I think that picture of you Yelena sent when you were in Turks and Caicos would make numbers on Tinder.”

Yelena nodded in excitement. “Yeah, you look hot in that one.”

“I need to see that,” Ava said, scrolling through her phone. “Well, beep, I'd match with that.”

“And I'd match with you, baby,” You winked at her and chose it. “Bob, I think you should use the one I took at the zoo with the giraffe.”

“He looks cute there!” Yelena agreed. “Ava, you must use the one from the gala when you wore the red dress.”

“Yeah!” you exclaimed. “I'd match with you looking like that.”

“I would too if I didn't know you,” John teased her.

Surprisingly, Ava didn't insult him, only laughed.

“I can't believe you,” Bucky rolled his eyes and attempted to leave.

“Don't you dare leave, James, we're bonding.”

Bob sighed. “I should leave out the whole void thing, right?”

“If I were you, I'd wait a few dates to get there.” John commented, patting his back.

“We'll have a tough time, guys,” you whispered. “Lena, create the account, okay? You'll just un-match everyone or whatever and delete the account later.”

She rolled her eyes. “What am I getting in exchange for this?”

“Uh, I'll owe you one…?”

“Fair enough,” Yelena told you. “Anything?”

You pressed your lips, hesitant. Was it worth it?

Absolutely. “Anything.”

Yelena let out an evil laugh and started.

In all honesty, you just created the account in search of two things: seeing if you could match with Mel to find out if you were her type —regarding gender, mostly— or maybe meeting someone that could help you forget about that silly little crush you had on her.

“I just beep matched with Bucky,” Yelena chortled, making everyone laugh as she showed the screen.

“Let me see,” Bucky demanded. She showed him, and he rolled his eyes. “No way.”

“Do you guys know that there's one called Raya and it's for celebrities?”

“I've heard about that,” Ava said to you. “What? Are you gonna get there and try your luck?”

“Maybe I can pull some net worth. Sorry, someone who's worth it, sorry.” you joked.

When you started looking through your matches and pressing X on each of them, you received a text from Mel. It was a screenshot of your profile.

She wondered whether it was a joke now because the same friend who sent her Bucky's profile just sent her yours.

And you were embarrassed to admit how relieved you were at that. Then, you confessed you had thought it was her on Tinder. Mel said she didn't use dating apps because she was scared of getting potentially killed by someone she matched with.

You erased your profile, deleted the app right away, and told her it was indeed a joke after finding out about Bucky's.

“I used to be rejected by everyone I liked in high school. And later, even,” Bob began, showing the camera how many chats he had on Tinder. “I can't believe there's so many people out there who think I'm cool after reading my bio admitting my biggest accomplishment is doing the dishes.”

Bucky nodded beside him. “You'd be surprised what people are into nowadays. Enjoy it, Bob.”

[paracosmic-murdock]

days of the new avengers* lives

episode three: father's day

everyone ignores father's day, which upsets alexei. john contacts his ex-wife olivia.

careful who you assemble

pairing: new avengers* x fem!new avenger!reader

tags/warnings: new avengerz assemble, found family kinda, bullying john (maybe affectionately), mockumentary, sapphic reader, eventually mel gold x reader, using y/n as little as i can, more to be added bc i'm going with the flow tbh

2.3K words

✰ days of the new avengers' lives masterlist

✰ mila's anthology (main masterlist)

How was your mission with Alchemist?

Ava cleared her throat. “It was… very particular. We've never been paired together for a mission, you know? By ourselves. She's often in a more controlled environment ‘cause Yelena and Bucky tend to ground her better, but… I didn't know that I had to make sure she doesn't go Full-Alchemist.”

How was your mission with Ghost?

“The mission was fun,” You nodded. “I turned some guys to stone and Ava ghosted through them! She was a little mortified at the beginning, but then got over it, I guess.”

Did you get over it?

“Every time I approached someone, she would turn them to stone and destabilize me because I had no idea where she would come from and who would she beep attack next! I hit and phased through dozens of statues, and it hurt. I am not over it and I'm gonna talk to Valentina so she doesn't send us alone on any missions again,” Ava replied. “I never thought I'd say this: but I missed Bucky. Genuinely.”

Ava said she missed Bucky during her last mission.

Yelena chuckled. “Said no one ever.”

“It surprises me, too. I thought she hated me,” Bucky shrugged. “I guess she couldn't stop the Full-Alchemist mode. Maybe we should've warned her.”

“No, I think that the only way to learn about the Full-Alchemist mode is by being a victim of it. You can see it, but you only understand it with the suffering,” she commented. “Well, in my case, we were gonna fall off a bridge and she turned our newly-stolen car into water before it exploded. I was bracing for impact and suddenly I was drowning. Oh, and once King Midas turned me into gold and then she was hit and fell unconscious. It was the worst experience of my beep life. My mind was alive but couldn't do beep because I was metal.”

“We fought once and she turned my metal arm into birds,” Bucky added. “Shuri had to make me a new one because the birds escaped and she couldn't undo it then.”

“What color were the birds?”

“Two gray and one red,” he replied. “But it's also nice when she becomes Jesus and turns water into wine. Well, it's mostly beer.”

“On the Carlson mission, we ended up stuck in the middle of the woods and she turned a rock into cheese bread. I've never loved her more.”

Bucky nodded. “Once you get over your incident, she comes in handy.”

Were you ever victims of the Full-Alchemist mode?

“We weren't on a mission, but one time, She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named turned my food into stone.”

Alexei laughed at John. “She made my water vodka. I only feel gratitude.”

“Yeah?” John rolled her eyes. “How about that time she turned Yelena into gold and we had to carry her to the quinjet while Bucky and Ava looked for her?”

“Oh, that was bad… My poor Lena.” Alexei shook his head in pity.

People are talking about the Full-Alchemist mode.

“If it's about the time I turned Yelena into gold, let me tell you that she was locked in a sauna hot enough to boil water. I did that to avoid her getting fifth degree burns. You're welcome, Belova.”

John woke up the morning of the second Sunday of June with an anxiety he had never known before.

With his phone in his hands and the scrambled eggs with bacon and toasts in front of him, he looked at his wife's face and name shining on the screen.

Olivia Walker. That isn't her last name anymore, but he hasn't had the guts to change it.

He looked at the camera in front of him and nodded at Chad behind it as a greeting. Then, he called.

Ring. Ring. Hang up.

“Morning, John,” Alexei joined him at the dining table. A little too much bread, too much gouda cheese, and a big mug full of black coffee. “Happy Father's Day!”

John curved his lips. “Thanks, Alexei, you too.”

He smiled widely and started eating his breakfast. “Will you eat?”

“Uh, yeah, I'm just making a call,” John replied. “Or trying to.”

“Braveness, John. Most important part of a fighter. Brave punch, braver talk.”

“Braveness. You're right,” He exhaled, then called again with his phone on speaker.

“Hello?”

John cleared his throat. “Uh, hello. Is this Olivia?”

“Yeah, this is she,” Olivia replied. “And this is…?”

“It's, uh… John.”

“Oh,”

“Yeah, sorry for calling just like this, I… just wanna talk.”

She sighed. “Yes, of course.”

“Can we meet? Now?”

“Okay, I'll send you our address.”

Alexei gave John a thumbs up.

“Mooooorniiiiing,” you greeted like a song, getting behind the kitchen island to look for ingredients to cook something. You had arrived from a mission yesterday and needed balanced meals after three days of the bare minimum.

“Good morning!” Alexei exclaimed, a grin on his face that told you he was expecting something from you.

“Morning,” John said after swallowing a bite of toast.

“Walker, I have to attend some lunch with someone that says he's my cousin, but I'm not so sure,” you mentioned. “I was wondering if you wanted to come with me just to look intimidating in case we're not related.”

He raised his brows. “Bucky said no?”

“I didn't ask Bucky, I'm asking you,” You shrugged. “You're more suitable for the job.”

“How come?”

“You'll know,” you answered.

“Well, I wish I could help you, but I have something to do.”

“No, you don't,” You frowned.

“Yeah, I do.”

“And what is it?”

“None of-”

“He will meet his ex-wife,” Alexei replied. John rolled his eyes.

“And you? Can you come to lunch with me?”

“Sorry, I'm sure Lena has plans for today.”

“Okay, thanks anyway,” you pouted. “I hope everything goes well with Olivia, John.”

You picked cereal with milk, water, and a bag of dried cranberries and made your way to your room, a little disappointed for not getting John's help—or Alexei's, as you had expected.

“Aren't you forgetting something?” Alexei asked, a smile plastered on his face.

“Uh…” You looked around, confused, and walked to him. Your eyes landed on the camera, as if it could give you an answer as to what you had forgotten. Then, you kissed Alexei's forehead, thinking that maybe he meant you hadn't said goodbye. “Have a nice day…?”

Alexei curved his lips, disappointed. “You, too.”

John laughed when you left. “Sorry, she probably doesn't know it's Father's Day.”

Alexei stayed in the common room for the day, waiting for anybody to do or say something. He saw John leave, wished him good luck; he saw Ava come and go like a kid, said hello; he saw you bribe Bob into going to lunch with you, helped you convince him; he saw Bucky telling you not to go to that lunch, ended up agreeing with him; saw you fight with Bucky, later realizing it was indeed a scammer and not your long lost cousin; but never saw Yelena.

He started to lose hope. After being excited because it would be the first Father's Day he spends with Yelena in the current days, Alexei was sad that his wishes were now ruined.

His face went from hopeful and expectant, to upset and disappointed. He should have known it since you didn't wish him a happy Father's Day that morning. If you, the one who is always looking out for everyone, didn't care about it, nobody else would. Not even his dearest Yelena.

Yelena.

Yelena, instead, was scrolling through TikTok next to you on your bed.

“I just saw a Bucky thirst edit,” She made a disgusted face, Salt-N-Pepa's Whatta Man playing in the background. “Look at this.”

“Wait,” you said, and opened the camera app to record Yelena's face watching a specific clip of Bucky being interviewed back when he was in the Congress. In a suit, a passive-aggressive look on his face, and speaking as if he was forced to, and he did look cute; thing Yelena was repulsed by entirely. “Oh, he looks really handsome. I need to show it to him, he will hate that.

“Ugh, don't say that,” she replied. Soon, there was a clip of Bucky smirking after the Flag Smashers fight, with shorter hair then.

“Oh, beep…” You widened your eyes. “If I didn't know any better, I'd say I wanna have his babies, too, beep.”

“Oh, God, look at the description,” she said, scandalized. “Father's Day? More like Happy Daddy's Day, Sergeant Barnes. Gross.”

“It's Father's Day!” you yelled at her, eyes widening at the reminder. “Oh, my God, that's why Alexei was so weird this morning…”

Yelena hid her face behind her hands. “Beep, I forgot. Why didn't you tell me?!”

“Don't blame me, I don't have a dad! How the beep would I know?!”

“You're his honorary daughter, you should've known,” Yelena groaned. “What are we gonna do?”

You rolled your eyes and looked at the camera, then back at Yelena. “Call Ava. And let me text Mel and ask her to tell Valentina we're blackmailing her for a car.”

“A car? Just ask her to help us with this, maybe she has a dad,” Yelena frowned and peeked at the screen. She noticed you and Mel had been talking up until she interrupted you to show you Bucky's edit and rolled her eyes immediately at the idea.

“In Russia, we say opasen tot vrag, kotoryy nosit lichinu druga,” Alexei began, looking anywhere but the camera so his disappointment isn't seen. “It means that the enemy with a friend costume is the most dangerous… We can never trust our close ones these days, they could be our enemy in disguise. Betrayal is the most common of the sins,”

So, is Yelena your enemy?

“Well, traitors aren't friends, are they?”

Mel opened the door to your room and entered hastily. “Okay, I got this beer glass that says Best dad ever and Belvedere Vodka. He likes that, doesn't he? I also brought decorations, balloons, and stuff.”

“Thanks, Mel,” You smiled and made space for her to sit beside you.

“Bucky asked Alexei to drive him somewhere. Walker is here already, Bob said he'd keep him occupied,” Ava announced. “I ordered the pizzas. One too many.”

“I got the booze,” Yelena noted. “Now, are we gonna use some of that Asgardian stuff you keep hidden?”

You nodded. “Yeah, I'll get some of that.”

“Are we about to see Alexei, John, and Bucky drunk?” Ava asked, a mischievous smirk plastered on her face.

“It takes three shots of these and Bucky forgets what inhibitions are,” You looked at Ava. “Imagine what half a shot is gonna do to Walker.”

Yelena laughed. “This is gonna be amazing.”

“You have to send visual proof to me or it didn't happen.” Mel snorted.

“Oh, are you leaving?” You frowned.

“Don't tell us you got something better to do than counting how many shots it will take to get Bucky to do a lap dance to Yelena.” Ava grinned.

“Don't you dare,” Yelena shook her head, outraged.

“Well, I didn't think I could come. I mean, it's not like…”

“Of course you can come,” You gave her a soft smile, meeting her eyes for a little too long. “We might blackmail through you, making us kind of awful, but not to the degree of asking for your help and then excluding you. You're not our assistant, you're our friend.”

Ava and Yelena looked at each other, the latter mouthing an or more than that to then make it a challenge for both to hold back their laughter.

Mel met your gaze for a little too long as well, but cleared her throat and straightened her position as soon as she regained consciousness. “Uh… Thanks. Really.”

“So…” Ava interrupted. “Are we ready? Because I don't have much faith in Bob and Bucky's stalling abilities.”

“Sure, let's go.”

It was a great first Father's Day for the team.

Alexei was ecstatic, swearing he never doubted any of you. John was also happy, saying he wasn't expecting it but enjoyed it, especially after the success of his meeting with Olivia.

The Asgardian rum did its thing, making Bucky chatty and charming. No staring, no complaining, just genuine laughs and more conversation than ever. Alexei became messier than you expected, louder than thunder, and happier than a kid on Christmas. John, on the other hand, was far too nostalgic; thanked everyone for celebrating with him, for being his family when he needed it the most, and Italians for inventing pizza. He told everyone how it went with his wife, thing he wasn't planning on doing but the liquor changed his mind—he would be able to visit once a week and spend time with his son, and Olivia gave him the opportunity to make amends and to have an amicable relationship now that he was doing better. John said it was perfect timing to celebrate Father's Day since he barely got to before it all went south for him.

Yelena wasn't drunk, only a couple of beers and genuine joy at the sight of her father happy and her friends having a great time. Mel sat beside her on the couch, amazed at how that group of seven people —more known for the trouble they have caused than the good they could have done, all broken and misunderstood— could make a vacant place like the Watchtower enjoyable and homely. Probably only while drunk, but it still counted.

Bob, you, and Ava had a bit of a hard time, but did wonders at hiding it. As none of you had a father—or a family, at that—, you haven't been to celebrations as such for what feels like a lifetime. However, you were all happy for John and Alexei. The three of you sat together for some time, sharing wordlessly the feeling of understanding each other and the comfort that all the dysfunction of your weird new family brought.

You didn't choose it, but you found it.

And that was something all of you knew but were too proud to acknowledge.

[paracosmic-murdock]

days of the new avengers* lives

episode two: two best frenemies in a quinjet

bucky and john go on a mission by themselves. you and bob discover avengers personality quizzes.

careful who you assemble

pairing: new avengers* x fem!new avenger!reader

tags/warnings: new avengerz assemble, found family kinda, bullying john (maybe affectionately), mockumentary, sapphic reader, eventually mel gold x reader, using y/n as little as i can, more to be added bc i'm going with the flow tbh

1.5K words

✰ days of the new avengers' lives masterlist

✰ mila's anthology (main masterlist)

Valentina was standing in front of the TV with an unreadable expression in her face, which made you all curious as to what she might be hiding. Her purpose, of course, which was terrible for the most part.

It all seemed simple: an identification mission.

An organization whose name was unknown, only their criminal activities regarding the creation of chemical weapons and human trafficking. Valentina calls them The Syringes, but there was not much concrete information about them.

It wasn't supposed to be anything big; not to stop them but to identify them and how much of a threat they were. Therefore, you weren't particularly needed as your powers would only draw attention and other teammates are kind of better at fighting than you when you don't use your 'super skills'. The same with Bob or Alexei's inability to be low-key.

For the mission, the only suitable members left to go were Bucky, Yelena, John, or Ava.

Then, it was narrowed down: Ava had to go on a mission with you next week and couldn't risk any injuries. Valentina, for some reason, said that Yelena couldn't go because she had a 'special task' for her.

So Bucky and John would go on the mission together.

Everyone was trying not to laugh at the idea and their reluctance to be paired up.

They couldn't even look at each other at the thought.

Why John and Bucky going on a mission together is a bad idea?

“Bucky and I have been friends for a long time,” you began. “After the Avengers divorce in 2016, I volunteered to go to Wakanda with him because, well, everybody basically went separate ways, and King T'Challa said I was welcome to join them. So, I did and it was awesome. The thing is, I was Bucky's friend when he had nothing that reminded him of home. Then, when we came back from being blipped a few years ago, we had a lot in common: we had lost our closest friends, so… we had to be each other's, that's where we are right now. And, yeah, I was there when John was named Captain America. We found that disrespectful, but we were so focused on that feeling that we never considered how it wasn't John's idea but a good opportunity for him, one of those we don't turn down. We resented him a lot back then, so don't tell him that he's growing on me… Still, he's kind of a beep, and it's not easy for us to build a functional relationship with him yet. Especially Bucky, so… this is gonna be very interesting. And a bad idea, yes.”

“I hate John,” Bucky stared directly at the camera. Right there in the quinjet, he was talking to the crew while John checked the path of the vehicle. “I will never not hate John, so this is a nightmare.”

John smiled. “I think this is a great opportunity for Bucky and I to bond, you know? Get over past resentments and stuff… It's important for the team.”

“Hey,” Bob called Yelena. She looked at him and raised her brows. “Which alignment do you personally identify with?”

She frowned. “What the beep is an alignment?”

“Listen,” He looked at his phone. “Chaotic good, neutral good, lawful good, chaotic neutral, neutral evil, lawful neutral, true neutral?”

“Uh… chaotic neutral?”

“Okay,” Bob nodded. You sat beside him and looked at his phone. “What comes most on your FYP? BookTok, thirst edits, travel blogs, cute animals, DYIs, cooking tips, tarot readings?”

Yelena chucked. “Cute animals, I think.”

“Which of these things terrify you the most? Heights, spiders, letting down your friends…” Yelena laughed at the latter. “Small spaces, ending up alone, losing money, the ocean.”

“None of the above.”

“Ending up alone,” you whispered to Bob.

“Sounds about right,” he agreed with you. “Which New Avenger would you rather be handcuffed to for a day? Me, Alchemist, Winter Soldier, you, Red Guardian, Ghost, U.S. Agent.”

“What kind of question is that?” She grinned, confused. “But I guess that Y/N.”

You smiled. “That's so cute of you. I'd choose you, too. Or Bob.”

“Next. If you could choose other superhero to add to the New Avengers, who would it be? Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Moon Knight, Hawkeye, Sam Wilson's Captain America, or Thor?”

“Considering Scarlet Witch is dead, I don't know who the hell Daredevil and Moon Knight are, and I tried to kill Hawkeye, I'd say Thor.”

“I'd love for Thor to be one of us,” you commented. “It would be pretty crazy.”

“Pick an 80s song to add to a playlist: Under Pressure by David Bowie and Queen, I Wanna Dance with Somebody by Whitney Houston, Take on Me by A-ha, Material Girl by Madonna, Thriller by Michael Jackson, Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now by Starship, or The Winner Takes It All by ABBA.”

She hummed. “The Winner Takes It All.”

“Choose a color for your superhero costume: black, blue, green, red, purple, yellow.”

“Black,”

“You're Bucky!” you exclaimed and laughed. “This is so cool, I wanna take it.”

“What is that?”

“It's a personality quiz to know which New Avenger are you,” Bob explained. “Okay, which alignment do you personally identify with?”

You pursed your lips. “I'd say chaotic neutral.”

“Not at all,” Yelena interrupted. “I think true neutral or neutral good.”

“I think true neutral,” Bob said and picked that option. You rolled your eyes, gaze landing at the camera. “Okay, next one.”

“Thirst edits,” you answered. “Losing money. Yelena. Thor, too. Material Girl. Black.”

“You got me!” Bob laughed and so did you.

Yelena smiled, seeing you excited over something so dumb.

“Let's call Bucky and John to see who they get!”

“We're in the middle of the mission. Call later,” Bucky told you.

“I think lawful neutral,” John whispered, looking over the files. “Cooking tips. Is nothing a possibility? No, Bob, it's not ending up alone, skip that one! Uh… myself. Don't pick Alchemist, Bob. Moon Knight would be pretty good. Yes, I know him. Under Pressure.”

“John, don't you think we have priorities here?”

“They're gonna keep calling, Bucky,” he replied. “Blue, of course. Myself? Beep right.”

“Would you leave us the beep alone if I take it? Okay, okay. Uh, lawful neutral…”

They kept working while answering your questions.

“Who did you get?” John asked him once you finally left Bucky alone.

“Y/N,” He rolled his eyes. “At least I didn't get you.”

“Very funny. Ha, ha.”

“Yelena already warned me about you two,” Ava squinted. “I'm not gonna answer your questions.”

“Alright, then we'll answer with the way we perceive you,” You shrugged.

“I think Ava is neutral evil.”

“I don't wanna be perceived,” she complained. “Just ask your stupid questions.”

John bounced his leg in urgency, almost as if doing that would make time go quickly or the USB take the information from the computer more fastly.

“Stay still, John, you're annoying me,”

He rolled his eyes, scanning some files while talking. “I'm not interfering with your existence at all.”

“You interfere with my existence by existing,” Bucky scoffed. “And you're doing it wrong. Let me do that.”

“You're doing literally the same thing I was doing.”

“No, I'm not, John.”

“Yes, you are-”

“No,”

“Yes, Bucky.”

“No, I'm doing it better,”

“It's literally the same!”

“No, it's not.”

“It is.”

“I don't think so.”

“Well, you're thinking wrong.”

“Your existence is wrong.”

“Shut up, Barnes.”

“You shut up.”

John groaned.

“I think I would be handcuffed to Lena,” Alexei nodded. “And Thor, great addition to New Avengers. Material Girl…”

“You got yourself.” you announced.

Alexei smiled widely. “Who else could I got?”

Talk about your day.

“I think it was a fun day,” Bob noted. “Y/N and I spent some time together, which we don't often do. It was nice.”

He looked around, spotting you laughing at your phone because of some quiz.

“She even sent the quizzes to Mel and Valentina,” He sat cross legged. “Valentina didn't take it, but Mel did and got her. She's excited.” Bob smiled. “Maybe tomorrow we'll even train together. We'll see.”

Bucky and John were surprised that there were no complications in their mission. No getting caught, all the intel needed was in their hands, no fighting —unless all the bickering between each other counted—. They both thought it, but only John had the guts to say it out loud.

“We make a good team.”

“Shut up, John,”

He shook his head, annoyed. “We can never have anything nice, can we?”

“I think not.”

Talk about your day.

Bucky scoffed. “As much as it hurts to admit it, we actually make a good team. It's good this isn't gonna be aired because I will personally kill Chad if this information reaches John.”

“Cut,” Dan, the other cameraman, informed. “I'll have to report you to HR, Bucky.”

“Be my fucking guest, Chad #2.”

[paracosmic-murdock]

days of the new avengers* lives

episode one: driver

in a traumatic set of events, the new avengers end up with a camera crew following them around. reluctance ensues.

careful who you assemble

pairing: new avengers* x fem!new avenger!reader

tags/warnings: new avengerz assemble, found family kinda, bullying john (maybe affectionately), mockumentary, sapphic reader, eventually mel gold x reader, using y/n as little as i can, more to be added bc i'm going with the flow tbh

2.1K words

✰ days of the new avengers' lives masterlist

✰ mila's anthology (main masterlist)

“I know you must be wondering what's all this.”

The team looked around, spotting numerous filming equipment and unknown faces in the briefing room.

“Are we gonna get interviewed or something?” you questioned. “We already told you that Bob's camera-shy.”

“Better than that,” She grinned, cynicism invading her eyes. “Welcome to Days of the New Avengers Lives. A wink to Days of Our Lives, you know? And it's a documentary about your day to day and all that.”

Everyone —except for Alexei— started complaining, refusing the idea of being filmed all the time. Valentina rolled her eyes and looked at Mel, annoyed. The latter nodded and pressed a button that created a strident alarm to silent you.

“Stop complaining,” Valentina said. “It's only gonna be for a few months, they're not coming everyday, and you will get paid for this. Not to mention that it's incredible marketing that will help improve your images, you know? John, people will even forget the incident if you play your cards right.”

“I think it's great. The Red Guardian stories will reach the world!”

Yelena sighed. “Dad, no.”

“You have no choice anyway. You'll thank me one day.”

“It's rolling.”

You pressed your lips in an uncomfortable line. “Uh, my name is Y/N Y/L/N, also known as The Alchemist. My power is to change matter, I guess they call it matter transmutation nowadays. I can make stuff become other things, like… King Midas, Medusa, or Jesus. And I can fight, too. It all started many years ago when I volunteered to be experimented on after my whole family died. Sad, I know. I'm over it now, though. Uh, then I was fighting against the Avengers for a few days before joining them to save the world during the Battle of Sokovia. I became an Avenger later, and then there was a messy divorce; I retired for some time, then I had to come back when a lot of bad things happened. I was blipped and came back again, got into some shady business to cope with the death of my closest friends… And now I'm here.”

The cameraman, who you now know as Chad, gave you a thumbs up. “Cut. That was… alright. Bucky comes next!”

You left and walked to Yelena and Ava.

“I feel like a circus attraction,” you commented.

“Tell me about it,” Ava agreed. “They recorded me going through the walls and said they'd add that shit.”

Yelena chuckled. “That's not so bad, people will think you're awesome. As for me, they said I have to exploit being Natasha's sister so the public will like me.”

“Valentina can go to hell,” John rolled his eyes, joining all of you.

“We're all there already,” You sighed.

“Guys, from one to ten how bad is it that they said I am the mental health representation?”

“Well, I'm the diversity check,” Ava sighed.

“Alexei and Bucky are the anti-ageism propaganda,”

“Y/N is comic relief,”

“I think Bucky is the hot one,” you added.

“What am I, then?”

“You're the asshole, John.” Yelena grinned.

“And you're the AA.”

“I'm gonna kill you.”

From afar, you heard Chad ask. “Bucky, is it true that you killed JFK?”

“No comment,” Bucky stood up and walked to you. “Can you believe this guy?”

“This is gonna be the end of us.” John covered his head with his hands.

“Where's my dad?”

“He's doing the Tower Tour.” you told Yelena.

“You know he's gonna get into our rooms, right?”

Everyone ran to their respective rooms, confusing the camera crew.

“I hope this doesn't backfire,”

Mel shook her head, saying something she doesn't actually believe in. “They'll do great, Val.”

Bucky paced around the kitchen with his decaf coffee in his hands, waiting for you to arrive. He was hoping to finish it before you got there and remarked that the reason he suffers from insomnia is his excessive coffee consumption at ungodly hours.

When he turned around, he saw you walking in with a tired smile. “Is this gonna be our new meeting time? Midnight so the cameras are off?”

“I genuinely think there might be cameras there somewhere,”

“Paranoia isn't good for you, Barnes,” You eyed him, accusatory.

He hummed. “That's what all the war does to a person.”

“I think we need a spiritual retreat or something,”

“Like the ones where people pray?”

“No, the yoga ones to connect with nature,” you replied. “We can take Sam, too.”

“That won't be very relaxing,”

You laughed. “But, honestly, we gotta hang out with Sam because he's acting weird with us. I feel like he hates us.”

“Sam doesn't hate us,” Bucky countered. “He might be going through something, I don't know. This year has been kinda tough on him.”

“I guess so, yeah,” You shrugged. “Let's text him.”

“It's well past midnight,”

“It's not, it's like 12:30. And he'll read it tomorrow anyway,”

Before you took your phone from your pocket, you heard someone sneeze. You and Bucky stood up, defensive, and looked around.

“Sorry, guys. Don't mind me, keep going,” Chad said. “Actually, can you do the last part again? And sit a bit closer to each other? People online ship you, you know? They call you Wintermist.”

You and Bucky looked at each other, a disgusted grin at the thought of being seen as a couple when you were more like siblings to each other.

“Go ahead, Bucky was saying Sam Wilson, slash, Captain America doesn't hate you…”

The both of you ran in opposite directions back to your respective rooms.

“Thoughts?”

Yelena frowned, taking the small stuffed version of Bob as Sentry in her hand. “They're… cute, Dad.”

“Right?!” He chortled. “People will love them! And the me? Best one.”

“Bucky will hate his, so don't show them to him,”

“He will love it.”

She shook her head. “He will throw it from the window.”

Alexei laughed. “Alchemist and Ghost come together.”

“Don't- don't say it like that. Please, don't say it like that,” Yelena looked away in embarrassment and spotted the cameras. “Beep, they won't leave us alone.”

She left, and Alexei approached the cameras to show the New Avengers plushies.

Bob, you, and John sat on the couch in front of the cameras, ready to speak your minds as requested.

Talk about your experience these past few days of filming.

“When I was Captain America, I got used to glory, being seen,”

You looked at the camera with unimpressed incredulity. “For two seconds, yes?”

“You had to say it, it's always the same beep with you and Yelena. Get over it,”

“No crying, Walker-”

He rolled his eyes. “As I was saying, it's not something new per se, but I'm not used to showing all our routines, you know? Training? Understandable; missions? Sure; meetings with Valentina? It's good that the audience knows we're tortured every once in a while; but, man, I draw the line at following me to the bathroom… is it a thirst trap? You think it's a thirst trap?”

“I thought we had already decided that the hot one was Bucky,”

“No, Bucky is the mysterious one. I'm the hot one.”

“Bucky is definitely the hot one,” Bob added, speaking for the first time.

“Yeah, and you're the beep,”

John scoffed. “Then you're the beep.”

You gasped. “How dare you beep, beep, beep, mother beep, beep, beep.”

“Stop fighting, for beep sake,” Bob looked at the camera, unamused. “This happens all the time.”

Ava thought there was going to be peace at 2 am. She swore that going through many walls until she was far enough not to be seen would work.

But no.

There she was, watching Bridgerton on her phone, still astounded by the events of the episode.

“Was I truly that blind?!” a character asked through the screen.

Ava snickered. “Only if you knew, Miss Edwina.”

“Cut,” Chad announced. “That was good, Ava. Showing the public you guys enjoy things like period dramas as well.”

“Oh, seriously?! Can't we have, I don't know… peace?!”

“Guys, this is getting out of hand,” You said.

Bucky nodded. “They stole my clothes from the dressing room to film me shirtless.”

“They're making Alexei tell embarrassing stories of me and Natasha.”

“They asked me to make an OOTD. What even is that?”

“Outfit of the day,” Ava told you. “They opened my Netflix profile to show the public what I'm watching.”

“We need to do something.” Bucky sighed.

“If one thing's for sure, that's that we're not getting rid of them.” you noted.

“So we just have to let them film us?” John asked.

“What if we let them, but make sure for Valentina to not want to air it?”

You smirked. “Bob, you genius, I could kiss your brain! We just have to be the worst version of ourselves!”

“Aren't we already the worst version of ourselves?” Ava frowned.

You all hummed in agreement.

Yelena pressed her lips. “If they dare make us do a PR stunt, I'm gonna kill Walker on Valentina's doorstep.”

“Why is it always me?”

“There's something about you that truly annoys us. I don't think there's anything you can do to fix it,” Ava explained and then paused. “We just know that if they decide to do that, it's gonna be Wintermist here.”

“I'd rather kill myself-” You raised your eyebrows.

“That's too kind of you.” Bucky rolled his eyes.

You smirked. “I think it's gonna be John and Bob.”

Yelena and Ava laughed.

“Very funny,” John rolled his eyes.

“You hate me?” Bob teased John.

“Beep you, Bob.”

All you screamed in annoyance as you noticed the censor sound, meaning you were being recorded.

“How much did you get, Chad?” You asked.

“All of it.”

Bucky took Chad's camera and smashed it on the floor. “Back to square one, I guess.”

Chad shrugged. “Guys, you should know better at this point… We're always ready for your tantrums.”

He took a brand new camera from his bag and picked the broken pieces of the old one.

“Do you never sleep, Chad?” John questioned.

“I don't get paid to sleep.”

In the morning, and after around three hours of sleep, the whole team was training.

John and Alexei were sparring, Yelena and Ava showed Bob some moves for his Non-Sentry Non-Void self, and you and Bucky were stretching together.

“Do you think that if we keep doing this, they'll leave us alone?”

“What? Training together?” You frowned. He nodded. “If you want them to leave us alone, we'll have to beep on camera.”

“You did not just suggest that.”

“I didn't suggest that! I just said it to the wind.”

“But honestly, if they make any of us have a fake relationship, it's probably gonna be us.”

You winked. “That's because you don't know how passionate the public is for enemies to lovers. It's totally gonna be you and John.”

Bucky made a disgusted face and pushed you away. “You're gross, did you know that?”

“Are you homophobic?”

“No!” he exclaimed and looked around. “I'm just saying that I would never, not in a million years, not even while held at gunpoint, kiss Walker. I'd rather kiss Bob, and that says a lot, too.”

“Sam would be so jealous.”

He rolled his eyes. “Would you shut up?”

“Make me, old man.”

“Are you doing this for the audience?”

You shrugged. “I'm a performer above all, princess.”

“You need to stop calling me your princess-”

“Hey, guys!”

Everyone turned around at the sound of the new voice.

“Morning,” You smiled at her.

“Morning,” She smiled back and stood beside you. “So, Val couldn't come…”

“Thank goodness,” Ava muttered.

“So she sent me,” Mel continued. “To talk about how you guys aren't being very welcoming with the documentary team.”

“Let us remind you that we were forced into this,” John mentioned. “I don't know how we're supposed to act. Pleased? Honored?”

She shook her head. “I know that, and I get this is not particularly ideal…, but let's just get this over with, guys. Do you think we enjoy coming to scold you?”

“So you don't like visiting us?” You raised your eyebrow. Bucky stared at you.

“No,” Mel opened her eyes widely. “That's so not what I said- I meant-”

“She's just teasing you, Mel. Relax.” Ava commented.

“Right,” Mel nodded. “Teasing. Joking. Yes. Okay.”

“You were saying?” Bucky asked.

“Yeah, I was saying that you guys should please, please help me with this. I'm really busy, and Valentina is always sending me to tell you stuff…”

“You could text next time,” John proposed. “Do you not have our numbers?”

“I do. And will you actually read my texts?”

Everyone shook their heads but you. “I will. Text me.”

“Great,” Mel looked around. “Bye, guys, it was nice seeing you.”

“You, too.”

“Cut! Good one, guys,”

“Thank you, Chad! Kind man.”

Yelena groaned and covered her face with her hands. “Don't be nice to Chad, Dad.”