Winter's Veil || BUCKY X FEM!OC

*CHAPTER 13*

"Ooh! what about this one?" Wanda exclaimed, eyes shining as she held up a horrendous fluffy jumper.

"I can't tell if you're joking or if you actually like that monstrosity," Natasha muttered peering at some other clothes, shades drawn over her eyes. Wanda threw a look of mock offence at Nat, who was smirking knowingly with me.

I giggled at them, turning back to a shirt I was examining. Natasha and Wanda had been nagging Tony for days now to let them take me out shopping, I think to get me a new wardrobe, but it seemed like it was just as much for them as it was for me. Especially because they had managed to persuade him to lend us one of his many cards he was boasting to me about.

The three of us had grown unexpectedly close considering I'd only known them for a week, but when you live with them I guess it's another story.

Wanda and I had successfully binged two seasons of The office this week, in between I learned about her life in Sokovia and how HYDRA lured her and her brother to join them after her parents had died and how they experimented on them to give them powers. She told me how they sided with Ultron after HYDRA fell, not realising they chose the wrong side until it was too late, and paying the price with her brother dying.

I felt bad for her when she told me her story, it must've been difficult to lose your whole family and blame it on yourself. But deep, deep down I felt jealous she had a family to mourn. She had people who unconditionally loved her and died for her whereas I never had that security. I thought I would feel awful for being jealous in the first place, but she lost her whole family, and was now more like me than I wanted to believe. So I admire her to smother the toxic jealousy whispering cruel words at the bottom of my heart.

Natasha on the other hand learned more about me, she seemed to find new mistakes in each training session we had, which thoroughly pissed me off, until I managed to land a feeble hit on her. I refused to believe she'd let me. Nat also made sure no one (Stark) took teasing me too far, which was odd to me, having someone by your side regardless. I guessed that was what friends did, but it was hard to tell with her impenetrable facade up almost all the time.

I had decided shopping bored me out of my mind, normally I just grabbed whatever was closest and hoped it fit when stealing- shopping. My fingers traced the soft fabrics, pushing down the itching sensation spreading through my body, my legs prickling with adrenaline, it felt like hell to go against my instincts. Especially now that I felt stronger than ever, thanks to Black Widow's extreme training. I felt like death after each session, but as I became more accustomed to it, I was more energetic, more powerful, more everything.

Instead, I dragged my hands over the tender skin on my neck thoughtfully, the faint marks that Barnes had left stung like hell, and if I closed my eyes flashes of his feral eyes replayed in my head. I pulled the hood of my plain jacket further around my mostly-healed neck, glancing cautiously over to see if Natasha had figured out why I was so adamant to wear turtlenecks recently. The incident left me currently sporting faint purple splotches, the worst of it had faded pretty quickly, annoyingly. I'd decided to let it slide with Barnes, even though he was a complete dickhead, he was new to the team just like me, and from what I'd heard, he wasn't the friendliest for good reason. Also, I was 100% getting him back for it at some point.

"I'm bored, when can we go to the next shop?" Wanda drawled.

"When Evie actually buys something,"

"What? I've bought stuff!"

"Books don't count," Nat grumbles.

When we first got here, Natasha encouraged me to choose where to start our shopping spree, giving a whole speech on how I should embrace being young, independent and having Tony Stark's bank account at my fingertips, so I chose the bookshop. It had been years since I'd last been inside one, and I hadn't realised how much I missed the smell of fresh pages and ink until it wafted into my face. I ended up spending hours in there poring over new novels and admiring my favourites now sporting alternate covers, only leaving when Nat dragged me out, an unhealthy number of bags stuffed with books hanging off our arms. It was fair to say I wasn't considered in what shops we visited after that.