The Mimic

101

"How did it even happen? Someone must've angered the aliens." Tony asked with a frown, his arms crossed over his chest as he stood in the kitchen. He'd been recounting the mission in his head, and had only just realised that none of it made any sense. Nobody had admitted to angering them, but it must've been someone.

It had been a few hours since the team had arrived back at the compound, and everyone had changed out off of their goop-covered clothes and showered. It took a while to clean it off of their skin and out of their hair, but everyone managed. They were just lucky that Pepper was out for the day. God, she would've had a heart attack at the sight of them. But, everyone made sure to help out when it came to cleaning the mess they'd made in the hallways. It was all spotless, just how Pepper liked it. 

The team were all stood in the kitchen, most of them in pyjama except for a few people. Wanda and Vision were busy cooking dinner for everyone, deciding that a home-cooked meal was the best thing for tonight. Well, that and the fact that their main pizza place had banned the whole team. Who would've thought that accidentally throwing Steve's shield at the delivery driver's head would cause a serious lawsuit? Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Sam and Scott were making drinks for everyone, but they were mostly just entertaining themselves. They had several different colours of lemonade, and they were trying their hardest to make the craziest looking drink. Peter was in charge of the music, which he didn't expect to be stressful, but with Tony staring him down it was terrifying. Natasha was sat on the counter, a very focused look on her face as she stared down at her phone. She was currently playing a very serious game of mini golf with Bruce, wanting to keep him entertained whilst he sat in the hospital with Steve. It was a nice atmosphere. A family atmosphere that everyone seemed to cherish.

Y/n and Bucky were sat at the kitchen table together, medical equipment strewn out of the table before them. Bucky had his shirt off, sitting sideways on his chair as y/n sat in front of him. Y/n was under strict instructions by Bruce to clean Bucky's wounds. Usually they wouldn't need cleaning, but Bruce just wanted to extra careful after all of the alien guts and goop today. Bucky tried to stay as still as possible as y/n cleaned over the two stab wounds. He did think about flinching and teasing y/n, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He could see the guilt on y/n's face, he didn't want to make it any worse. "They're almost all healed, y'know." He hummed with a proud smile, but he could tell by y/n's hand movements that she'd spaced out. God, he hated seeing her like this. But, he knew better than to point it out. Pointing it out would just make it worse. Plus, they were both exhausted, so emotions were running high. There was no point in ruining their amazing day with tears.

Y/n wiped at Bucky's wounds as gently as she possibly could, a look of guilt obvious in her eyes. Even if it had been a while since the Zemo incident, it still haunted her, and Bucky's wounds were just one of those horrible reminders. It was good to see that they were healing, of course, and Bucky claimed that they didn't even hurt, but that guilt was still there. Y/n decided to focus on the music and her breathing, not even noticing that Bucky was trying to talk to her. She was lost in her own mind. Well, she was, but then she heard Sam say her name. Y/n quickly snapped out of her guilt, perking up slightly with a confused look on her face. "Hm?" She hummed in question. If she was being talked about, she wanted to know why. Plus, it was a good distraction to her guilty thoughts.

"See? Case and point!" Sam laughed, pointing to y/n when she made it clear that she hadn't been listening. "Y/n was definitely the one that alerted the aliens! She was probably listening to music, and accidentally kicked one of them." He exclaimed with a smile. It was a pretty good guess, but y/n would never ruin a mission on accident. If she wanted to ruin a mission she would. But, the rest of the team seemed to agree with Sam's guess, all waiting to see how y/n was going to defend herself.

Y/'s eyes widened at the accusation, setting a hand on her chest with a dramatic gasp. "I can't believe you think I'd do that! If it was my fault, I would've told you." She shrugged, setting the medical supplies down for now. "But I do know who did it!" Y/n suddenly exclaimed, pointing to Tony as he was the was the original person that asked. She seemed pretty excited to tell the team, actually. She'd completely forgotten about it until now. Y/n stood up out of her chair, wanting to make sure that everyone was listening. "So, I was listening to music as I explored, and then I ran into this arrogant guy called 'Starlord'-" Y/n formed air quotes around Quill's name, god, it still sounded stupid. She continued to ramble on and on about how she met Gamora, Rocket, and Groot, trying her hardest to make everyone understand. "-And then, they just beamed up into nothingness! The raccoon caused all of it, not me." She said proudly, finally looking up to see everyone's reactions. Nobody believed her story. Well, nobody except Peter and Bucky. 

"Yeah, you definitely kicked an alien." Sam chuckled, not believing a word that y/n had said. He just thought that y/n had made the whole story up. It made more sense that way. Why would there be a random group of people inside? Plus, talking raccoons didn't exist. It just sounded like one of y/n's overexaggerated stories again. 

Y/n's excited face fell when she realised nobody believed her, slowly sitting back down on her chair. She was telling the truth, why wouldn't they believe her? Bucky frowned at the disappointed look on y/n's face, quickly moving to take her hands in his. "Hey, I believe you." He smiled, squeezing her hands slightly. Y/n raised her eyebrows as she looked over at Bucky, still seeming pretty hurt that the team just laughed her story off. "Really?" She asked, rubbing her thumb over his metal knuckles. She thought he was just believing her out of sympathy. But, Bucky nodded with a warm smile. "Of course I do! I'd be stupid if I didn't believe my lover." He hummed, pressing a kiss to her cheek in attempt to cheer y/n up. "Hey, why don't you tell me more about this 'Starlord' guy whilst you bandage me back up?" He asked with hopeful eyes. And, just like that, the excitement in y/n's face came back. She nodded, letting go of Bucky's hand as she grabbed some fresh bandages. She talked and talked and talked about how arrogant he was, and how he was actually really nervous when Gamora was around, every little detail. And Bucky listened to the whole thing with a fond smile. Y/n could talk to him about anything and he'd listen for hours on end. He just loved to see how riled up and excited she got over little things. It was sweet.