The Twin Flame: Grumpy x Sunshine

Anti-Hero

"I'll stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror. It must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero..."

"Here," Sharon offers, tossing some clothes on her bed for you. She juts her thumb to the shelf lined with shoes. "Take your pick. And try to keep them on this time."

"Ha," you chuckle, picking up the clothes off the bed. "You're so funny, Sharon. I missed that about you."

She raises her eyebrows, offering a tight smile. Without another word, you pad around to the other side of the partition and start to change. She waits a moment, taking a large gulp of air, "So.. you've just been with Sam since you've been back? You Blipped, right?"

"Sure did," you humorlessly snicker. You don't really know what it is, you considered Sharon a friend, not a particularly close friend, but a friend nonetheless. In spite of that, something in the very recesses of your mind was telling you to keep your answers vague and nondescript. You're about to dismiss that gut feeling when you faintly hear Nick Fury's reminder to always trust that gut feeling, it's never wrong. You quickly respond, "And yeah, mostly at Sam's sister's house."

"Oh," she hums.

"But you've been in Madripoor? That sounds like fun!"

"Something like that."

Your eyebrows furrow at Sharon's strange response, but you shake it off as you finish pulling on the borrowed jacket. As you pull it on, you notice the fresh blood staining the white bandage on your arm. You quickly look away, ignoring the pain radiating throughout your entire upper arm.

After pulling on a pair of her shoes, you both make your way back to the living room where Sam, Bucky, and Zemo await.

"Much better," Sharon quips at a shirtless Sam as you both enter the room to see Sam choosing his clothes for Sharon's party.

"Gross," you mumble under your breath, taking a seat on the couch but leaving a sizeable amount of space between you and Bucky.

"What's going on, Sharon?" Sam asks, tugging on a dark turtleneck. "You don't ever wanna come back home?"

"They'll lock me up if I set foot back in the States. Madripoor doesn't allow extradition," she tells Sam, pouring herself a very generous drink.

"Look, I'm sorry I didn't call, but after the Blip and the chaos, I just..." Sam trails off.

"I mean, you know the whole hero thing is a joke, right?" Sharon bluntly interjects. "I mean the way you gave up that shield, deep down, you must know it's all hypocrisy."

"He knows," Zemo agrees, hiding his signature smirk behind his own drink. "And not so deep down."

"By the way, how is the new Cap?" Sharon asks.

Sharon's question is a reminder of yet another point for contention between you and Sam: he gave up the shield. You wanted to respect his choice, but the whole thing felt wrong. Steve was someone you cared about deeply, someone you would always care about, and watching someone tote around his legacy was shocking to say the least.

"Don't get me started," Bucky quietly grumbles.

"Please," Sharon scoffs. "You buy into all that stars and stripes bullshit. Before you were Zemo's pet psychopath, you were Mr. America, Cap's best friend."

"Wow, she's kind of awful now," Bucky tells you, briefly noting that you've remained oddly silent this entire night.

He hadn't really been able to talk to you one on one yet, but he sort of figured that you were going to be more than a little upset by the stunt Zemo pulled at the bar. It couldn't have been any easier than him pretending to be the Winter Soldier.