Run Fast and Far

Awkward Family Dinners

Everyone was taken aback by the mysterious man with the metal arm.

"Guys, I want you all to meet my good friend Bucky Barnes,"

The dark man mumbled a greeting... He must be shy I suppose. No one spoke so I did as usual...

"Hi, welcome to the tower,"

The man met my eyes and gave me a weak smile. The others followed my lead in saying hello, and introducing themselves.

Once the introductions had been made there was another uncomfortable silence... Which I ended up breaking up again by saying,

"Well dinner should be ready, if you're hungry,"

"That would be great, Daphne,"

Everyone filed into the dining room to eat. I served chicken pot pie(*) and glasses of Martinelli's... Bucky was hesitant to touch anything with his left arm. And Steve kept encouraging him to eat and make make conversation...

Pietro looked at me from across the table... I shrugged my shoulders... I wanted to say something but I didn't know what to say.

"So... um... Mr. Barnes... Tell us about how you and Steve know each other,"

"We were friends as children," he mumbled.

"Oh yes, of-of course..." I trailed off not knowing what to say. I could tell I had made a mistake in my conversation started choice. Tony, who was sitting next to me, piped up.

"So you're obscenely old too,"

Bucky flashed him a deathly glare. I reached over and smacked the back of his head.

"Be nice, you uncivilized monkey," I chided. The whole table laughed, even Bucky. And with that the whole room fell back into an uncomfortable silence.

Although I made a lot of dinner, all of it was gone by the time dinner had ended. I served dessert, and no one spoke beyond saying "This is really good Daphne," or "pass the ice cream"

When dessert concluded... No one moved to leave. Or clear the table. Or even speak.

I caught Natasha's eye, I saw her speaking sign language with one hand just over the table top.

We need to talk

I blinked twice for yes, but still didn't move... I decided someone had to break the silence and stop the "weird looks to your friend" game.

"Um Bucky, if you'd like I can show you to the room we have prepared for you,"

"Erm, thank you," he mumbled then stood up. I led the way out of the dining room. And he followed in silence.

I glanced back at him, "So you will be staying with us?"

"Steve asked me to," he growled defensively

"No need to be so rash," I said turning to face him. "Everyone that lives on this floor, we care about each other. We're family,"

"I'm not like you," he said gruffly.

"I think you're wrong. We've all done bad things. Made mistakes. We all used to be rough around the edges. But not anymore,"

"You saw them in there. They're afraid of me. And they should be. I'm not safe to keep here,"

"You think you're volatile, dangerous. We all were. 40% of this team isn't even full human, myself included. 60% of this team has had some sort of experimentation done to them. Every single one of us has some form of PTSD. What makes you any different from us?"