Made to Lie

the mission

Y/N

All heroes had flaws, for some, they were fatal. Tony had his arrogance, Steve his loyalty Natasha her guilt...Y/n Y/l/n, was too honest for her own good. She was a valued Avenger, sure, she succeeded on missions, comforted her teammates when they needed it, and always cleaned up after herself in the compound. On principle, however, she refused to lie, not knowing that her righteous honesty might be holding her back more than she realized.

As she walked down the long windowed halls of the Avengers compound in Upstate New York she wondered why Tony had called to meet with her. She arrived quickly at the meeting room to see him sitting on the edge of the large table instead of in one of the tall-backed leather chairs.

"Hi Tony," Y/n said with a smile, coming towards the billionaire before engulfing him in a tight hug.

"Hey Y/n" he greeted her warmly, squeezing back.

For a while, the pair chatted Tony occasionally glancing at the clock on the wall as he waited for the third member of their party to arrive. A moment later, Y/n saw Bucky appear on the other side of the room's glass door. Her eyes widened, Bucky was tall, and Y/n had to admit it, handsome. He had thick eyebrows, high cheekbones, sparkling blue eyes, and cropped brown hair. Though he was usually freshly shaven, Y/n noticed that tonight he had a sprinkling of 5 o'clock shadow that somehow added naturally to the dramatic canyons of his slightly worn face.

She'd technically known Bucky since she'd become an Avenger a couple of years ago but she didn't know him well at all. All she did know was that he appeared to be brusque and mostly kept to himself, only really warm in manner when talking to Steve, whom he trusted more than anyone else.

"Alright you two, I'm assigning you a mission," Tony said interrupting Y/n's thoughts. He looked between Bucky and Y/n with uncharacteristically serious eyes, "I'm sorry for being so mysterious"

"Who are we after this time?" Bucky questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"The Crane siblings" Tony continued, handing them each a file folder full of news clippings, photographs, and documents.

"Why do I know that name?" Y/n said to herself as she flipped through the pages. She remembered them vaguely, perhaps from the news, but she couldn't recall all the details.

"They're a pair of ruthless twins who run an underground group of criminals," Bucky told Y/n before looking at the ground, "I worked with them in my Hydra years"

A small silence descended upon the large room but Tony cleared his throat and quickly began to further describe the mission, discussing the Cranes and their illicit behaviour. Y/n noted that the wealthy twins mainly worked in ransom cases and money laundering while somehow managing to maintain a spot in New York's high society. It wasn't unheard of for the city's elite to sneakily ignore crime and the police to take bribes but this case seemed worse than usual.

"Sounds like a cheery group," Y/n said sarcastically.

"Quite" Bucky added, his lip quirking upward into a small smile.

Their eyes met and Y/n could've sworn she saw an unexpected spark of something reflecting back at her.

"We were hoping to set up a ruse that would pull them right into our net so that the Avengers could arrest them for good"

He continued, detailing how they'd have to go undercover, to an extent. The idea made Y/n squirm her seat.

"Why pick Bucky and I, Tony?" She queried, "Not that I don't trust your judgment..."

"You two are the only single Avengers at the moment" he replied with a small chuckle as if the secret he was clearly sitting on the whole meeting had just tickled him gently in the ass.