Variation - W.M.

Chapter 12 - October 25, 2016

As I stared into the back of the car I groaned, not looking forward to carrying all the bags that had been originally brought to the car in staggered drop offs between stores.

"All this tech and Stark hasn't created a teleporter?" I grumbled as I hauled a bunch of bags onto the floor. I caught sight of Steve and I perked up. "Steve, buddy, best friend."

Steve raised a brow. "Since when am I your best friend?"

"Since she wants you to help us with all this" Nat said from her spot leaned against the car.

"That's totally not why, but if you would like to use those super soldier muscles to help us that would be fantastic."

Steve sighed but walked over to the car, gathering most of the bags. I had no doubt he could have carried the rest but he was out of room in his hands, despite how giant they were. I grinned and grabbed the rest of the bags.

"Seems like you have this covered. Training tomorrow at six." Nat said as she pushed herself off the vehicle.

"I sure hope you don't mean in the morning, because that's a hard pass."

"I just spent all day shopping with you. Six in the morning or I'll wake you up with a bucket of water." She warned and I held my hands up the best I could.

"Alright, alright. Just us though, got it?"

The woman nodded and then we parted ways, me leading the way to my room with Steve right behind me.

"So, you found Bucky yet?" I asked the blond and he shook his head, sighing.

"Not yet. Me and Sam have been looking everywhere. How did we find him before?"

I grimaced. "He was framed for bombing the UN and killing the king of Wakanda sometime this year. It kinda sped things up."

"Oh."

We stayed silent and I felt guilt gnawing at my insides. I wished more than anything that I had tried to talk to the Avengers I was around instead of following Wanda around like a dog. Tried to learn more about them while stuck on the run with them whenever Wanda ditched me for Vision.

When we reached my room I opened the door and set my bags on my bed before turning to face Steve.

"I'm really sorry I don't know more about where Bucky is. I spent so much time in the same place as you but I never..."

"It's not your fault. I'll find him, I'm not worried" he assured me, putting the bags down before patting me on the shoulder and exiting the room.

I sighed and fell onto the bed, looking at the array of shit I bought. I was in no mood to sit and put everything away. Instead I sat up and grabbed two large bags, grunting a little at the weight before starting for the living room.

"JARVIS, can you ask Pietro to come to the living room?"

"Of course, Ollie."

When I got to the large room Pietro was already there, obviously, and he lounged on the couch. When I entered his eyes sped to me. "You called me in here?"

"Yeah, I went to the mall today so I wanted to see if you wanted to play those games I talked about" I explained, lifting the two game systems out of the bags before pouring the games onto the couch next to the speedster.

"These games are of the blue hedgehog, yes?" He asked, picking up a game case.

"Sort of. There's a bunch of Sonic ones there but the ones that go with this" I held up the Wii box, a system I hadn't touched in years "are multiplayer ones that we can play together. Watching someone play gets boring quickly."

Pietro nodded, surveying the games as I worked to plug in everything.

"What's this?"

I turned around to see Stark wander into the room, yet another mug in his hand.

"Do you ever stop drinking coffee?"

Stark disregarded the question and looked over at the pile of games. "This is what you used my money for? An old game system?"

"It's timeless, thank you very much. Fun for everyone."

Stark rolled his eyes, digging something out of his pocket and tossing it to me. I lunged forward and grabbed it, stumbling a little before righting myself and looking at the object in my hand.

"Oh, a phone."

Stark hummed in confirmation. "I've had JARVIS put everyone's number in there. Do what you want with it but please keep the rated R videos to a minimum."

I rolled my eyes, playing with the idea of playing the videos simply to spite him before realizing that I would actually have to watch them.

"Thanks" I muttered, deciding to forgo the bickering and simply dwell on how nice it was to actually have a phone again. Stark hummed once more before turning and leaving the room.

I finished setting up both systems before walking over to the couch. "Alright, which one first?"

"This one" Pietro announced after a second, holding up a case.

I grinned and grabbed it from him, putting the disc in the xbox before turning it on. The decently good graphics showing the 'Sonic Generations' title.

Once the main screen of the game had loaded I handed the remote to Pietro, who shot me a bewildered look.

"I don't know how to play this!"

"I don't either! Just go through the tutorial and we'll figure it out" I told him, leaning over to navigate to the tutorial.

After watching the tutorial we were both still utterly confused, staring at the screen. I cleared my throat and waved towards the television.

"Well, let's see it."

Pietro's eyes widened and he tried to hand the remote back but I shook my head, a sly grin on my face. "No way, you first."

Apparently telling Pietro to go first was one of my worse ideas, as the boy had clearly never learned to share, despite having shared a womb.

I, of course, hadn't thought ahead far enough to check the amount of people able to play on any of the Sonic games; therefore I hadn't gotten a second remote. This meant I was stuck watching the fast-paced game that only Pietro seemed able to keep up with.

"Can we please play something else?" I whined for what had to be the fifth time, pulling harshly on his sleeve.

"In a minute" he muttered distractedly and I grumbled.

"Sharing is caring, you know."

When I didn't get an answer I huffed and pushed myself off the couch. It was getting late and Nat expected me for training at the ass crack of dawn.

I entered my room and closed the door behind me, turning off the main light so that the room was lit by the dim bedside lamp. I flopped down on my bed, drowsiness escaping me.

"Hey, JARVIS?" I asked tentatively, staring up at the ceiling.

"Yes, Miss?"

"Do you have the ability to know where anyone is if I ask? Like, where they are? If they are alive?"

"I can tell you if they are alive, but where they are is a privacy violation. I would have to talk to Mr. Stark-"

"No, no. I just...if he's alive is okay" I sighed, bringing my hands up to my face.

"Who would you like me to search for?" JARVIS asked, his British voice floating through the room.

"Oscar Lukáš Attwood" I said softly, my hands squeezing tightly. "My brother."