Betrayal - A Bucky Barnes Fanfic

Chapter 21

On the subway, Ava tried hard not to think about James. Who did that nasty bastard think he was? She had simply asked him a question and he completely lost it. It wasn't like she had proposed to him or anything like that. The pain still ran deep, his words echoing over and over in her mind. You don't need to know what I do in my spare time just because we fucked once. No, she didn't need to, but he could have put it a little more kindly. She couldn't understand how he could have been so loving and tender with her, only to be the complete opposite a few days later. Had she been mistaken? Had he only been nice to her to get her into bed? She felt used. Dirty and insignificant.

Maybe she had been wrong not only about his feelings, but hers as well. What did she even know about James? She barely knew him, so how could she have developed serious feelings for him? It had been nothing but a silly infatuation, she tried to tell herself. Again a lump formed in her throat. She didn't want to cry on the subway and certainly not over James. She tried to focus her thoughts fully on her research.

The subway came to a stop and Ava got off. She rarely went in this area of New York and she got lost twice before reaching Wanda's flat. When she reached the fourth floor, a man about her age opened the door for her. He had straw blond hair and wore glasses.

"You must be Ava, come on in." He had a warm voice and took a step aside to let Ava enter.

"And you are?" Ava asked without moving from the spot.

"Oh sorry, how rude of me. I'm Vision, Wanda's roommate." He held out his hand to her and she shook it.

"What's taking so long?" a familiar voice called from the flat.

Ava walked past Vision into the small three-room flat. The hallway turned a corner into the dining room, where Wanda sat at a table in front of her laptop. To the left, the living room opened into the kitchen. A half wall separated the two rooms and doubled as a bar. Ava was almost a little jealous, she had always wanted a kitchen like this. She had always imagined inviting Natasha and her future boyfriend over, standing in the kitchen and cooking while they clinked glasses through the opening in the wall and told each other jokes.

"Sit down," Wanda interrupted Ava's thoughts without looking up from her laptop. Ava obeyed and sat down opposite Wanda.

"So, here's the thing: I haven't got any further with the photo yet, I've had some stuff to do with uni so I haven't had time for it yet, but I managed to find out something else."

Ava's gaze wandered to the books stacked next to Wanda's laptop. They were books about the IT field, computer science, coding ...

"What are you studying?" Ava asked curiously without responding to Wanda's business-like tone. Wanda lifted her gaze from her laptop and looked at her in irritation.

"You want to know what I'm studying?"

"Yes, why does that surprise you?"

"Because I just told you that I was able to find something out ... for your story ... And your first question is about my studies?"

"Journalist's disease ...", Ava answered meekly. She couldn't help asking all sorts of questions that were running through her head at the moment. "Okay, get me up to date, I have something for you too," Ava said a little more confidently.

"Tea anyone?" Vision interrupted, who disappeared into the kitchen. Tea would be just the thing right now, Ava thought, it eases the tension.

"No thanks, Vision," Wanda replied in a sugary tone. So she could actually be decent, Ava noted soberly. She saw the two of them exchange an affectionate look. Roommates, huh?