Rome, Bucky Barnes

two

later that day, Makenna sat on her bed re-reading The Fault in Our Stars for probably the billionth time, with music playing through her hearing aids, when her phone, that was sat on her thigh, vibrated.

it was from her dad.

'come to the conference room.'

'oh shit', she thought. someone was in trouble, and she really hoped it wasn't her. she turned off the music, bookmarked her book, and then started her journey down to the conference room.

while she was in the elevator she fished her vape out of her sweatpants pocket and fiddled with it. she hoped that this wouldn't take long, seeing as she had plans to do a whole lot of nothing tonight.

when the elevator doors open she exited and then walked to the glass room that was just out of her line of vision. as she approached she could see everyone inside, seated, and then the back of an older man's head.

she pushed open the room to the door and looked around. 'what's going on?' she signed, to the table of her superhero family in front of her. 'not sure.' Rhodey signed back.

"Makenna Stark." the older man announced, putting his hands on the brunettes shoulders. she just looked over to Steve, who realized how uncomfortable she was.

she quickly turned around to face the man. "hi..?" the girl asked. the man looked familiar, but she couldn't put her finger on who it was. "Thaddeus Ross, Secretary of State." he introduced, sticking out his hand for her to shake.

"nice to meet you." she fake smiled, shaking his hand. she glanced around the room and noticed her dad in the corner looking out the window. not at his usual spot; the head of the table.

once Ross finished shaking her hand, (for a creepy/weird-uncle amount of time) she took her dads spot at the head of the table.

she glanced at Natasha, who signed, 'have you met him before?' 'no.' Makenna signed. 'that was weird.' Nat signed to the brunette. 'tell me about it.' Makenna signed, with a comically large eye roll.

"five years ago," Secretary Ross started, "i had a heart attack and dropped right in the middle of my backswing. turned out it was the best round of my life, because after 13 hours of surgery and a triple bypass, i found something 40 years in the army never taught me. perspective."

'okay, wonderful. this guy is just gonna give us his sob story and then tell use to do our job better.' Makenna thought, 'this is exactly what i wanted to do after a long mission.'

"the world owes the Avengers an unpayable debt. you have fought for us, protected us, risked your lives, but while a great many people see you as heros..." Ross paused, "there are some who would prefer the word 'vigilantes'."

Makenna took out her hearing aids and placed them on the desk. "what is she doing?" Ross asked, motioning to the brunette. 'not listening.' Makenna signed, and then watched Steve translate.

"this is important." Ross explained, looking back to Steve, "can you tell her that?" Natasha said something, but Makenna couldn't get a good view of her lips.

'i don't need to hear about of the destruction we've cause. i'm well aware of it.' she signed, and then watched Steve translate.

Ross continued to talk, as Makenna dug around in her pocket and pulled out her phone and vape. the phone was placed on the table, and the vape was placed between her lips.

she took a large inhale as the mango taste filled her lungs, and then turned her head and breathed out the vapor. she was always very considerate about where she was blowing out her vape. most of the time it was outside in the open air, or away from people's faces (especially if she was indoors).