The Winter Soldier's Lost Love

Chapter 1

This didn't seem real.

It was the stray thought Grace had for a while now. For the past almost a year, actually. From the moment her life got flipped, turned upside down. Which included living with the Avengers, to falling in love with a Winter Soldier, to ending up almost dying in some sick twisted game cooked up by her sister to hurt their father and find their mother.

But even after all of that, all these months later, as she sat in her ridiculously normal house, in her ridiculously normal suburban neighborhood in the dead of night, sitting in front of her computer, as she  waited for her final grade to confirm if she would be graduating and finally getting her degree...it just didn't seem real.

Grace refreshed the screen again, and let out a huff when she realized her grade still wasn't posted. She glanced over to her empty coffee mug and decided to step away. She grabbed her mug and headed off downstairs to get more coffee.

Her eyes glanced over to the wall, a tired smile coming to her face as she looked at their pictures. Believe it or not, she'd only recently accepted that she actually liked the house. When they first pulled up and she stepped out of the car and saw this big white house with a two car garage, her fingers dialed Tony's number so fast to cuss that man out. Of course he didn't answer and she figures he knew what was coming. At first it felt like it was too much. Too big of a gift. It felt like charity honestly and that just made it felt wrong to accept. So she kept calling him until he finally answered. And as expected he was smug and he was pompous, and so Tony Stark, and in the end he told her that it was her house, and she could be stubborn, leave and move into some dumpy apartment, or she could accept something good and move into the house. She didn't want to, but she did it. Trey loved the house. He loved his room and the backyard, and just the overall space. After a while it stopped feeling like this place was pushed on her, and it really did start to feel like a home.

Grace came downstairs, and turned the corner to head to the kitchen, but coming to a stop at the sound of snoring. Her brow curled in confusion as she glanced over into the living room before tip toeing inside. She glanced over to the couch, and let out huff at the sight of Colin knocked out asleep. She grabbed one of the throw pillows and smacked his head.

"Wha-what!" he jilted awake, before glancing up to see Grace. "What did you do that for?"

"Why are you sleeping on my couch? I thought you went home hours ago after the movie was over."

"No, I uh-" he began sitting up as he rubbed his eyes. "I fell asleep and I guess Trey didn't wake me up." he glanced back over to her. "Did you really have to hit me with a pillow?"

"I didn't have to, but I think a part of me wanted to." she let out a snort before turning around. "Go home, Colin." she headed for the kitchen and rolled her eyes at the sound of his footsteps behind her.

"You're wide awake." Colin slipped into the kitchen behind her. "You're being ridiculous. You know you passed." he watched as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

"Nothing's certain. I just want know as soon as possible if I'm going to have to repeat this semester because of a stupid Econ exam." she turned to the man as she took a sip from her cup. "Seriously, it's late you should get home."

"You know I thought our relationship had evolved." Colin moved around the counter and Grace watched him with a quirked brow. "We're friends, right? Me crashing on the couch isn't that big of a deal."

"I wouldn't say that exactly. We're co-parents. And you're not crashing on my couch. We both agreed we wouldn't do anything to confuse Trey about what this was. I don't want him to come down in the morning and see you on the couch and get the wrong idea."