the strongest avenger (2)

twenty five

After an excruciatingly painful fifteen minutes, we arrive at the store. As soon as we park, both James and Sam jump out.

I frown as I see James starting to get back in the car. I grab him, and pull him back.

"Nope, you need to get back into civilization."

He groans while Nat parks the car and we head into the Walmart. I grab a cart, along with Nat as we start to browse the aisles.

"I think we should get clothes," I turn to look as Scott, as he glances down at his tight shirt. "Mine don't fit quite right."

"Okay..." I follow Nat as she takes us to the clothing, hanging back as Scott and the boys start to browse.

"I'm gonna go grab some undergarments." I tell her, as the dresser in my room did not give me any new ones.

"I'll come too, this bra is abnormally large."

We make our way to the women's section and head to the bra area, each of us grabbing two lace ones.

"We can go to the mall or something for the rest, but this will do for now." I say as we go back to where James and Sam are arguing.

Scott places his items in the cart as we watch the other boys.

"I had it first." Sam says while trying to grab it from Bucky.

"But it's the only black shirt. You wear colors, I don't."

"Jesus..." I hear Nat mumble.

"Okay!" I clap my hands, gaining their attention. I grab a white shirt in the same style as the black, and run my hand over it, watching as it turns from white to black, a dull red hue emitting from it as I use the Reality Stone's abilities.

I hand the new shirt to Sam.

"Uh...thanks."

"You're welcome." They both dump their clothes into the cart overtop our bras, and we start going over to the food.

"So we need eggs, bread, cold cuts, fruit..." Nat mutters as we start going through the aisles.

"Tony might as well just buy the whole store." I say while putting some cereal in the cart.

Scott runs over and places a box of cookies in Nat's cart.

"Scott...you're not even staying that long." Sam says as he glances at us.

"I'm staying to help with clean up, God only knows how long that will take."

I shake my head, a small smile forming on my face. We grab bread for sandwiches, pounds of cold cuts, as we have to feed multiple men, a couple cartons of eggs, cheese, milk...literally everything you can think of.

Our carts were full as we walked through the last aisle, I felt the boys shift from foot to foot as Nat and I inspected the feminine products.

"Why are we here?" Sam asks while crossing his arms.

"You live with multiple females, Samuel." I mutter as I grab tampons.

"What are those?" James asks, pointing at the box in my hands.

"I—tampons."

"They look different from what I remember."

"They're probably more advanced than whatever was available in the 40s."

He shrugs and leans against a shelf.

"Hey Nat?"

She looks over at me with a quirked eyebrow.

"What happens next? After we finish clean up. What are we gonna do?"

"SHIELD's building up again." She says and I jerk back slightly.

"How do you know? We literally fought yesterday?"

"Fury contacted Tony last night, said that we needed SHIELD now more than ever to help everyone."

"But SHIELD was destroyed for a reason. Why is it starting back up?"

She just sighs and shakes her head. "I don't know. But I think Fury's gonna want us to join."

"I mean, we have nothing better to do."

We finish going to the register and quickly check out—well, as quickly as we can with all the stuff we got.

I sigh as we all look at the Tesla in front of us, dreading having to get back inside, with all our groceries.

"I can Uber..." I start.

"Great that solves the issue!" Sam claps his hand and starts loading the groceries, while I use my kimoyo beads to access the internet and order an Uber.

I wait while Sam and Scott finish, and Bucky starts to move into the car.

"Oh no, no," Sam says while pointing a finger at the metal man. "No room for you. Too bulky. Get in the Uber with Polar Bear over here."

"Shut it Big Bird." I snap at him, annoyed with the nicknames.

I didn't choose my hair to be white, if I could I would get my natural hair back. Nat rolls her eyes as she glances at Sam. Bucky glares at Sam, but goes to the curb and sits down.

"See you at the Tower." Sam says as he hops in the car.

I flip him off as they drive away, and then I go over to next to Bucky.

We sit in silence, not really awkward but not comfortable at the same time. I turn to the right as a little kid comes over, about maybe eight or nine. His light hair falls into his eyes as he looks down at Bucky.

"Sir? Can I take a picture with you and your arm? Please?"

Bucky looks up and freezes, his body gives off waves of confusion.

"He would love to!" I say for him as I take the phone in his hand. I see his mother come up behind him and give her a smile.

"I'm sorry, he saw your arm in the store and was obsessed."

"It's—it's no problem." James mutters.

I try not to cringe as Bucky awkwardly smiles...looking more like a grimace as the kid grins wide. I snap a few pictures and hand the phone to the mom.

"Thank you!" The kid squeals as he grabs the phone from the mom and looks at the picture.

James watches them walk away, eyes slightly widened. But he shakes his head and looks down.

"What's wrong Tin Man?"

"That kid wanted a picture with an assassin."

"I would too. Plus the new arm's pretty cool."

He just continues to shake his head.

"Look, can I be blunt with you?"

He glares at me. "I wouldn't expect anything else."

"Your life sucked. Big time. But now you have a chance to change it. Turn it around. The kid saw the metal arm, thought it was cool. You'll be okay James."

"How can you say that, when I've killed so much? When I'm a literal monster."

I purse my lips. "I killed my first person when I was six years old."

His head snaps to look at me, but I stare into the distance.

"They made me, on Hala, the planet I grew up on." I correct, to help him understand. "She was a girl, maybe a year or two older than me. Black hair, dark skin, a lot taller than me. She didn't do anything, she didn't expect it...I burned her to death." I look down at my hands, remembering that traumatic day. "It was that or get beaten. I already had two broken ribs at the time, from an earlier beating for refusing to train." I look over at James, meeting his piercing blue eyes. "We all have a hidden monster inside of us. You're not the only one, James."