The Scarlet Apprentice 2: The Multiverse Between Us

Partners

"Alright, everyone, come get your coms." Mack ordered.

With a few more yawns and stretches, the team crowded around Mack to collect the devices he held out in his hand. After the stressful day the team had previously endeavoured, they settled into the zephyr for whatever kind of sleep they could get.

While some slept, some others took turns in smoothly flying the zephyr to where they predicted the next site would be. Their radar lead them to a property owned by the government, so they had to be careful. Although it was just an industrial sight, any potential damage they caused would've been seen by the government, which they didn't have the time to handle.

"No using your powers until we're hidden in the building, y/n, this is government owned. We don't have time to explain to them why we're here, so it's best we try to keep it a secret." Sam reminded her, just in case she didn't understand it all the times she'd been told before.

"How can we keep it a secret? There's guards here, they're not just gonna let us straight past them without asking any questions." She shrugged, annoyed that she wouldn't be able to easily get through.

"We might have a little room to take some out." He began saying, "but only the ones on outside duty, they're not registered, so we'll let y/n handle the outside because we all know who's gonna end up attacking them."

"Thanks everyone." She smiled sarcastically and sent a nod to the group.

"Mack, you told us about partners? Why do we need partners?" Monica asked.

"The party didn't go very well because we were all split up and distracted." Mack explained, "besides, it's not a bad idea to have someone with us to keep us on track." He glanced over at y/n.

When y/n realised that Mack was only looking at her and no one else, she scoffed, "why are you looking at me?"

"You do have a habit of acting on impulse." Fitz answered for him.

"What?" She asked in a high pitched tone filled with denial, "name one time I've acted on impulse."

"Remember when you jumped out of a quinjet as it took off because you thought you saw a bad guy? I'd say that was pretty impulsive." Simmons shrugged after nonchalantly answering her question.

Y/n paused as she remembered it, then waited a few more moments to think of an excuse. "Okay, well, that wasn't impulsive, I thought about that very thoroughly, so name another one."

"No, we're not doing this right now, we all know you have a habit of doing that." Mack was barely able to contain his grin.

"Whatever." She shrugged it off, "I don't."

"Yeah, you kinda-." Deke began to argue against her.

The moment she heart his voice, she pointed her finger at him and clenched her jaw, "shut up."

"Yep." He nodded and looked down.

"Can we get back to the partners, please?" Mack asked, even though he had authority over the answer.

"Of course." Sam nodded to him.

"Monica, you're with simmons." He began listing off names, "daisy, you're with me."

As y/n realised she was running out of people to have as partners and considered that she might get stuck with deke, she had to interrupt.

"I'm not having deke as my partner I would rather kill myself." She cleared her throat.

"Okay, y/n, you go with Sam ." Mack shrugged, knowing that the the last four left were going to be Sam, bucky, Fitz and deke.

"Thank god." She mumbled to herself.

She sighed with relief when she realised they'd be switched, but her smile was lost the moment she saw Bucky's smile drop, leaving his face in a frown. The disappointed look on his face was momentary, and almost unnoticeable, but she caught it. Seeing it brought out a guilt and discomfort, which were two feelings she couldn't seem to ignore.

After moments of hesitation and pained contemplation, y/n decided what to do, which caused her to sigh in annoyance and drop her shoulders.

"Actually, I need to stop being childish." She announced, "I'll take dick as my partner. Maybe it'll teach me a lesson, who knows?"

The surprise everyone got from her announcement was noticeable and irritable for y/n, but she forced herself to ignore it and move on. Although she'd just volunteered to spend the next moments of her life alone with one of the people she hated most, the smile she could see on Bucky's face as Sam joined him was worth it. Or, at least until deke actually stood beside her. After greeting Sam, bucky looked over at y/n and flashed her a genuine and appreciative smile.

She smiled genuinely at him before seeing deke, which made her smile through gritted teeth, "come on, buddy."

"This could be fun." He suggested, "our chance to clear the air and apologise to each other."

"I don't owe you an apology." She told him.

"Well..." he carefully countered, "you have tried to kill me... more than once."

"I had my reasons." She stared at him.

"Okay and, Fitz, you can choose what pair you'd like to join." Mack told him, "but not dekes pair, you don't get along with him."

The moment she heard that, y/n's face dropped and she looked at Mack in shock, "ARE YOU FUCKING KID-." Once she took a short breath, she calmed down and muttered to herself, "nope... I'm mature."

"Look at you making progress." Deke smiled as he gently placed his hand on y/n's shoulder with a comforting grip.

Without looking at him, she bluntly ordered, "you have exactly two seconds to get your hand off me before you lose it."

While quickly removing his hand from her shoulder, he scoffed, "what have I got to do for you to stop being mad at me?"

She shrugged while refusing to look at him, "if you can find a way to go back in time, but also to the future to stop yourself from being a complete dick in your weird space outfit, maybe I'll take a minute to think about it. No promises."

"Y/n." Mack called over, "you'll be alright with no powers, right?"

"Of course. I always carry a selection of weapons on me anyway."