✔𝚮𝐞𝐥𝐥𝛐 𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 ➳ 𝚩𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐲 𝚩𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 7: 𝐈𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐚𝐛𝛐𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭𝛐𝐫𝐲

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝛐𝐟 the day for the three youngest in the Ivory House had been spent by the river. Basking on the rocks further down, and every once in a while, jumping into the water. Two six-packs worth of beer bottles were lying on the rocks or down by the bank, casting images and rainbows around whenever the sun hit just right.

But now, with the day being over, the bottles were back to simply being bottles and Tony was busy picking them up while Pietro and Jo collected their towels and whatever snacks they had brought with them. Most of it half-empty.

In the backyard of the house, Peggy, Steve, and Bucky were sitting and enjoying their respective wines and beers when the three young adults tiredly wandered through the treeline. All of them drenched and soaked to the bone from the last dive that they, of course, had to take.

"Hey, what time it is?" Jo asked as she hopped up the steps to the back porch, feeling the still warm wood beneath her bare feet and a set of blue eyes on her. Her own gaze was very deliberately locked to her sister.

"It's about 7 pm," Bucky replied after having glanced at his wristwatch. Jo sent him a short nod and then continued towards the house.

"Jo, you can't walk through the house like that!" Peggy hurriedly spoke and rose from her seat. Steve placed a hand on top of hers.

"It's a house." The annoyance shone from her voice and Pietro and Tony snickered behind her. "The river is freshwater, and we won't walk on the rugs – I'm not stupid." Jo waited a second for her sister to reply, but when she didn't, the three of them continued into the house.

"Why were you asking about the time?" Tony asked while Pietro dashed past both of them.

"Dibs on our bathroom!" His voice echoed in the living room. The two friends rolled their eyes, not at all surprised by the last guy of their little trio.

"I was gonna go pick up some more food. Almost out of eggs and vegetables already." The two started up the stairs and Tony simply nodded.

"If you want someone to go with you, can you ask Pit? I have some work to do."

Jo rolled her eyes. Tony always had work to do, and it was never anything they could help with or would understand. To be fair, he was probably right, but she still found it annoying.

"Sure, but I think I can go grocery shopping by myself."

"Well, you never know," Tony said and started down the hallway where his and Pietro's rooms were.

When he was out of earshot, she let out a deep sigh, so irrevocably tired of the overprotective little remarks. Them wanting to make sure she was safe was fine, but she had gotten sick of it after a month, and now it was closer to two years.

Jo continued up the stairs to her own room where she grabbed a large shirt, she could wear over her bikini along with an old leather jacket of her dad's that he kept here. Within a minute, the Camaro was rolling out of the gravel driveway and heading down through the trees towards the small town.

To her luck, Mr Wallace hadn't closed up shop just yet. She jumped out of the car and ran in, seeing as he had barely finished sweeping the floor.

"You're cutting it close, Carter," his grumbling voice came, tired from a day of laborious work, and she nodded.

"Sorry, Mr Wallace. We had a few surprise visitors, so I need to grab some extra supplies," she smiled brightly, making the man grunt, but he didn't kick her out which was a good sign.

Jo grabbed a basket and started picking up various things. Sugar, bread, milk, cheese, oatmeal, beer. She only needed to take care of breakfast, lunch, and the snacks in between as Peggy had promised to make sure they ate some proper dinner every night.