History

Chapter 3 - That's my girl

A few weeks had passed by with Lily settling in well to the compound. She mainly spent her time with Bruce, and since something was clearly going on between him and Natasha despite both of them denying it, she was around a lot too and much to Lily's surprise, herself and Nat had soon become very close.

Nat had noticed that Lily had been wearing  a rotation of the same shapeless black combat trousers, shapeless khaki combat trousers and various plainly coloured well worn cotton t-shirts over the last few weeks and had demanded she let her take her shopping for a whole new wardrobe.

Lily protested profusely, pleading poverty but it hadn't worked "You can't play the poverty card on me Lils" Lily loved that Nat called her Lils too, it just confirmed how close her and Bruce were though they were yet to admit it. "I already spoke to Bruce and he's given me his card so I can treat you"

Lily opened her mouth to continue to protest "Give up Lils, you know I'm not going to back down" with a sigh and a laugh Lily begrudgingly agreed.

Nat grabbed her hand and dragged her through the compound. As they reached the main area they saw Steve and Bucky sat going over some mission briefing paperwork.
"Nat, Lily" said Steve nodding politely at them. Bucky looked up and his breath caught in his throat as it did every time he saw her, he had no idea why but it confused him and made him almost angry. "Going somewhere nice?" Steve continued

"No" said Lily bitterly eyeing Natasha

"Don't be such a brat Lily" said Nat shoving her, she turned back to Steve "I'm taking Lily shopping for clothes, her drab repetitive wardrobe is agonising" Nat turned to eye Bucky "speaking of, why don't you come along Barnes and I'll treat you to some clothes that aren't black? You could branch out in to an exciting shade of grey perhaps?"

Steve howled with laughter at Nats comment, but Lily just stood there looking at the floor. Please say no, please say no she thought to herself. She felt like she was being torn apart when she was around Bucky, she wanted to be near him desperately but what she wanted from him wasn't there and she believed it never would be.

Bucky almost said yes, just so he could spend some time with Lily, just to be near her "Nothing wrong with my clothing choices, or hers" he said gruffly causing Lily to blush slightly.

"Well of course you'd say that Barnes, look at the pair of you!" she gestured back and forth between them and they both looked down at themselves and back up to each other, realising that they were both were wearing black combat trousers, a black t-shirt and black combat boots.

"Seriously" Nat continued her mocking "you look like Combat Ken and Battle Barbie!"
Steve was doubled over with laughter, Bucky couldn't help himself and found himself laughing too.

"Say how you really feel why don't you Nat!" said Lily laughing, shaking her head in disbelief "Hey Captain Stars and Stripes, I don't know what you're laughing at, has nobody told you clothes come in adult sizes?" she said gesturing to his t-shirt that was stretched almost to breaking point across his massive chest.

Steve stared at her, mouth open. He hadn't seen this side of her yet, he thought she was the shy quiet type, how wrong he was. Now was Buckys turn to be doubled over laughing "That's my girl" said Nat proudly as she dragged her off.

They had a pleasant enough time at the mall, they had bought a LOT, new underwear, new pyjamas, new outfits for every occasion possible in a rainbow of colours. Nat had given up asking for Lilys opinion after the first pair of combat trousers she had picked up "but they're blue!" Lily had argued, from then on Nat had picked out everything for her.

With the time they had spent together Nat started to feel like the sister Lily had never had, she had even begun training her in hand to hand combat. Lily had been brought up to believe that women couldn't be fighters and she was very surprised to find that Nat - despite being a good 6 inches smaller than Lily - could easily handle herself and keep up with the super soldiers and gods despite only being armed with guns and knives.
With Lily's height advantage she was soon becoming a fighting force herself, much to her surprise.