the strongest avenger (2)

twenty four

A blaring alarm cuts through the air, waking me up way too early. I let out a groan as I roll over and glance at the clock that reads eight in the morning.

"Friday! Enough!"

"Mr Stark is requesting that everyone meets him in the kitchen."

"Oh for the love of God." I sigh and sit up, heading over to the bathroom to brush my teeth.

I fix my hair, after cleaning my mouth, and I start to head to the kitchen. I spy Nat grumbling to herself as she exits her room.

"Excited to be up?" I tease as I near her.

She scowls and continues to brood. I can tell that she's still grieving over the loss of her best friend, but it's Nat. She'll be okay.

We walk to the kitchen and stop to find almost everyone there. Tony leans against the island, with Steve and Thor sitting down at the table.

Everyone else kind of lingers near the outsides of the room, leaning on the wall or the doors.

"Why was I woken up, at this god forsaken hour?" Natasha groans, which causes me to chuckle.

"No resting just yet, we all have work today." A few of us let out a groan at his words.

"We just saved the world...don't we get a day off?" I ask.

"That's what the weekends are for."

I cross my arms and sit up on the nearby counter.

"We have to organize clean up, and we need to do some shopping as there's no food in this place. So I've created groups, Nat, Snowflake," I roll my eyes. "Bucky, Sam, and Scott will go to the store for all that shit. The rest of us will start on clean up, but you guys," he eyes us grocery shoppers. "are to join us when you're finished to help." He makes a point to look at each of us. "Okay, rides are leaving in a half hour for the Compound, the rest of you, there's a car in the garage."

Some of us start to filter out, but Tony comes over to me.

He hands me a set of keys and his credit card.

"Don't crash my car, Flakey."

"Only if you stop calling me that." I say, before snatching the keys and card and leaving, making my way back to my room.

I put on a nicer pair of sweats, as that seems to be all there is in here, and then a smaller T-shirt than the baggy one that I'm currently wearing.

To kill time, I make my bed and then I go out to the living room, pausing for a second as James comes out of his room which is apparently right across the hall from mine.

He ignores me and walks towards the living room, me following after him. I find Nat on the couch, along with Sam, Scott's nowhere to be found.

"Where's Scott?" Nat asks me.

I shrug in response. "No clue."

"Sorry! Sorry I'm late." I turn to find Scott frantically running towards us.

"We just got here so you're fine."

"Alright kids, let's go." Nat says while getting up.

"I'm like four times older than you." Bucky grumbles.

The redhead rolls her eyes at him, as we head to the elevator. We decide to all just squeeze in, my body squished against Sam's. I see him look over to the left out of the corner of my eye.

"Will you quit it with the staring?"

I look to my left to find James staring at Sam.

"It's kind of his thing, Pigeon." I mutter

Nat just shakes her head as we reach the sub level where the garage is. I look down at the keys in my hand and see the number 12 on it.

I start searching for the car, and groan when I see it.

"Fuck you Tony." I mumble as I look at the very small grey Tesla.

"I'm driving." Nat says as she grabs the keys from my hand.

I sigh and open the back seat, looking over my shoulder at the three men behind me...who will not all fit in the back.

"Tal you're the smallest, you go in the back." The redhead says as she sits in the drivers seat.

I sigh and go in, sitting on the left. Scott quickly claims shotgun, and so Bucky goes in after me, then Sam.

I stifle a groan as I'm pushed into the door. Nat turns on the radio as we pull out, while I try to make a mental list of everything we need.

"How long is the ride?" Sam asks.

"We've been in here for two minutes." I lean over and tell him.

"10 minutes...without traffic." Nat says as she meets my eyes in the rearview mirror.

"Ugh." Sam turns to his left to look at James. "Can you move over?"

"If he moves over, then I'll go flying out the car."

"Why don't you move over?" Bucky asks Sam.

"Then I would fly out."

"Exactly."

I giggle at the two of them bickering, but I stop as we make a turn and the weight of a man and a super soldier presses against me.

"Oof—get off you log. So heavy."

"Why didn't you sit in the middle? I'm the biggest one, in the smallest seat." Bucky says.

"You know what?" I say as I push up out of the seat, head against the ceiling and hand resting on his knee to stabilize myself. "Just switch with me, so both of you can shut the hell up."

I shove Bucky into my seat as I struggle to slide over him. My bottom brushes his leg, but then I hit my head and fall into the seat with a yelp, as Nat hits a pot hole.

"Sorry..."

I glare at her in the mirror while I try and fix my hair. We hit another bump, and my elbow manages to hit Bucky in the eye.

"Gah! Watch it!"

"Oh calm down, you baby."

He turns to me and starts his staring.

"This is like Berlin." Sam says from my right. "When you guys switched seats."

"How the hell do you remember that?" I reply with, unsure what to say to that. "Except this time, James has a vibranium arm instead of a titanium-alloy arm and I'm not sixteen."

"Stop calling me James..." The metal man groans from next to me.

"No."

"Fine. You're the one acting like a child now. Your last name is James, so now you're gonna be James too."

I roll my eyes at his immaturity. "You're so annoying."

He grits his teeth. "I hate you."

"Same."

"Both of you are acting like children." Scott chimes in from the front seat.

"You're one to talk." I say.

"Okay!" Nat interrupts us. "Since you're all children, we're gonna play the silent game."

"What do we get if we win?" Scott asks.

"You get shotgun on the way home."

"Question." Sam raises his hand as I roll my eyes at him. "Tal's a super witchy thing. Can't she just make a car?"

"That's not how it works." I say.

"I'm pretty sure it—"

"Okay and the game starts now."

I drop my head back against the seat, holding my tongue for the rest of the ride, as the two men on my sides stare at each other and squish me.