The Mimic

32

 On the way back from the mission - per y/n's request - they bought burgers and other fast food for the team. God, the staff had probably never seen an order so big. Well, they were probably more focused on the fact that there were Avengers just casually stood waiting for their order. 

They soon arrived back at the compound, and everyone seemed to just scatter into their different activities after getting their food. Wanda and Vision had gone to watch the sunset together, Sam and Natasha disappeared to facetime Sam's nephews and tell them about the mission, and Steve had gone to tell Tony about the mission and fill him in on it all. 

Y/n and Bucky were sat in Bruce's lab after Bucky persuaded her to get checked over by Bruce. Well, it wasn't much of a persuasion, it was more like stealing y/n's food and taking it into the lab. Y/n was sat on one of the beds beside Bucky, her head resting on his shoulder as she tiredly took bites of her burger. Bruce was checking y/n over, most of the injuries were superficial and just needed a bit of a clean, which was easy - but he understood the concern after seeing her so disoriented and drained. Bruce pulled y/n's sleeve up slightly after noticing some bruising, his eyes widening at the sight of it. Her whole shoulder was a grim mix of purples and blues, along with a few cuts here and there. "How'd you do this?" Bruce asked in surprise. Bucky glanced over curiously, thinking it was just going to be a few cuts, a look of shock washing over his face at the purpley-blue mess. Y/n shrugged, her gaze not moving from her burger. She was exhausted, and at least now she didn't have to hide it. The mission was successful, she could relax now. "Ran into a wall." She hummed casually. Her whole body hurt, she couldn't really tell the difference between each injury at this point. "I was mimicking the super soldier strength to chase that guy, I didn't really notice at the time." Y/n explained a little further. Bucky rolled his eyes with a fond smile, picking up his milkshake to take a few sips. Bruce nodded slowly, it made sense, super soldiers could run fast, it was probably hard to control. "Are you sure you didn't take a bit of the wall with you?" Bruce teased slightly, spraying her shoulder with a cooling fluid that was more effective than just icing it. He then begun to bandage it up to keep it protected, causing y/n to complain as she had to hold her burger with one hand for a few moments. Bruce chuckled at the complaining, it was nice to see y/n's personality back. It meant that she was comfortable.

"What about all your disorientation? Do you know what caused that?" Bruce asked curiously. On the way back to the quinjet y/n could barely walk without support, and it was obvious she couldn't see a thing. Y/n hesitated slightly at the question, taking the last bite of her burger. "I'm not completely sure. But it happened after I mind-controlled a guard. I had to control my movement and his at the same time, it really drained me." She sighed, her head still hurt. "But I'm not sure why it drains me, every other power seems to be perfected, so why not that?" She asked, mostly just talking to herself. Bruce and Bucky nodded as they listened, happy that she was actually telling the truth this time. "Maybe the memories will come back to you. Just like the nightmare about your fire manipulation." Bruce hummed, causing Bucky to nod. Y/n did end up telling Bruce about that nightmare, she felt like she had to after she freaked out so badly. Y/n tensed slightly at the reminder of that nightmare, but she nodded. She hoped that the memory would come back to her, but she was just so scared of all the nightmares. Bucky and y/n didn't seem to suffer as bad when they were around each other, but the nightmares were still there.

Later in the evening, the team decided to watch a movie to wind down. All packed on several couches, but they had enough room to sit comfortably. It took around half an hour to pick a movie, Scott was the main root of it. He wanted to watch a comedy, whilst Steve and Tony wanted to watch an action movie, and Wanda wanted to watch old sitcom reruns. Y/n was on the side of Wanda, there was some sort of charm to watching old reruns that she loved. Growing up in Hydra the only downtime she had was watching TV in the evenings, and the only thing that seemed to play was sitcoms. The only light she had in a severely dark situation. But she was only a child, she didn't understand the severity of any of it. Sitcoms weren't picked to watch, but y/n took a mental note to watch them with Wanda at some point. 

The team ended up deciding on an action movie, since they knew it would keep everyone's attention. It was actually quite a good movie, and everyone seemed to be hooked. Bucky was at with his arm wrapped around y/n, eyes glued to the screen. He smiled slightly as a joke was made, glancing over to check if y/n liked the joke too, but he was met with an even sweeter sight. She was fast asleep. Not because the movie was boring, but because she was so exhausted from the day. Y/n's head rested against Bucky's chest, hugging a bowl of popcorn that had been handed to them at the start of the movie. She just seemed calm, too tired to dream or have a nightmare, just enjoying the sense of family they had with the rest of the team. Bucky's smile widened as he pulled y/n closer, trying his hardest not to wake her up. 

Steve had glanced over at Bucky to check that he was okay after some bombs and gunshots went off in the action movie, but was met with a much nicer moment. Bucky was in his own world watching y/n, a plastered across his face. Steve smiled fondly, happy to see his best friend so happy. He glanced around to see if anyone else had noticed, and Natasha had. She just smiled at Steve, giving him a knowing nod.