Cornelia Street - Avengers

Tear Them Apart

"Made it all look painless."

(THE GREATEST, Billie Eilish)

...

There was an unease that had settled upon the team, something they couldn't quite place. Call it fear for what they knew was to come, call it disappointment for inebriated explosions or exhaustion, or perhaps it was at the fact of yet another fight, another battle, another time to strengthen their broken mental fortitude and fix each other's wounds.

Steve watched her from the doorway, taking a moment for himself to look at her, a guilty look on his face before he hesitantly approached.

"Can we talk now?" He said, with slight hope in his eyes. She looked up, blue eyes wide. She didn't think this was the best place to do this, given they would be the only secluded ones from the rest of the team out in the lab, and after what Pietro had basically revealed.

"You sure us being alone right now is the smartest thing to do?" Lucia scoffed, looking down. She had already managed to stealthily evade her father's endless questioning and harsh gazes in the party's aftermath.

Yet another relationship and feelings she had to bottle down for the sake of her father finding out. Sometimes she wondered how far from Siberia she had really made it after all.

But if she said no, it would make her seem unwilling to let go of a grudge. She paused, securing the bandage around her arm. It was only a light cut from a glass shard, but those always bled the worst. Even shallow wounds could hold great power.

He took a deep breath. "You still look great."

"Seriously?" She asked sarcastically, looking down at her ripped-up dress and bandaged knees. "You don't have to be polite."

"I'm being honest," Steve chuckled, moving to sit beside her. "Mind if I join you?"

She didn't say anything, just secured her wound with a band-aid, and slipped off her heels.

"I'm sorry about the way we ended things on the Quinjet," he said, looking over at her. "You were just trying to do what was right, and I let my emotions get the better of me. I shouldn't throw him into conversations haphazardly, I know how it feels."

"Well, we've never been great at communicating," she nodded, biting her cheek, "But I sometimes wish things could go back to how they were, truthfully. Before Sokovia, things just seemed easier then."

Steve sighed, he was clearly holding something back, and she was honestly terrified at what it could be.

"They weren't as complicated," she added, trying to fill the void of silence, but Steve still wouldn't look at her, even as the minutes passed, so she was thankful for Bruce calling them back into the laboratory. As the pair joined the frazzled team in the wide space, Lucia could see the shock on all their faces.

"All our work is gone. Ultron cleared it out, entirely, and used the internet as an escape hatch," Banner said, running a hand over his hair. The team had changed from their dirty and torn clothing, now gathered in the partially destroyed lab.

"Ultron," Steve's eyes darkened.

"He's been in everything? Files, surveillance?" Lucia whispered, meeting her Dad's wide eyes.

Beth shrugged, sliding off the barstool. "Probably knows more about us all than we know about each other."

With that statement, Lucia's blood ran cold, and she knew she wasn't the only one. It was a fact, and this had happened to her twice now. First with Natasha, and now with Ultron.