The World Keeps Changing

Chapter 29

The next day the news was lit up with images of Novi Grad. There was still resistance, pockets of people since New York who hated the idea of powerful people running around without checks. Then DC. Now Johannesburg, Seoul, and Novi Grad. An entire city falling out of the sky. That instinctive feeling that bothered me so much yesterday, that a big change was coming, had intensified until my skin felt itchy. They had been trying to force a mutant registry for decades, now we had superheroes and gods and androids running around, too, and cities getting wrecked. I was not optimistic about the aftermath, even if my own people were safe, and I wasn't sure they were. The protective part of my brain had been growling at me for awhile.

"How can you be so calm?" Bucky asked incredulously. He had been pacing all morning. Looking at the news footage, scouring the articles, checking for texts from the team.

I laughed and looked up from my third batch of Bad Day Cookie dough I was portioning out for freezer pucks. "Does this look calm to you, Bucky? This is stress baking." I set the empty bowl in the sink and put the tray in the freezer. "I'm just used to it. Doesn't make it easier, you just get better at finding things to keep your hands busy while you worry. "

"I feel so useless."

Welcome to the club, my guy. I walked over and slipped my arms around his waist. He looked down at me. "What do you want to do, Bucky?"

He growled in frustration and ran both hands through his hair. "There's nothing I can do, is there?"

I shook my head. "Sokovia is a half day worth of time zones away. They may even be on the way home by now."

He wrapped his arms around me. "Is this what it's like? Do you feel like this every time we leave?"

"Mostly. Granted there isn't usually a city falling out of the sky." I stretched up and kissed his cheek. "I've been doing this more of my life than not, even my parents were military. You get used to it, learn to put it away and focus on the things you can do."

He wrapped his arms around me. "I'm sorry."

"Not your fault, love, you're someone who can go. You've never had to wait. Not like this, anyway. After all, you're all heroes and I'm just the dorm mother."

"You are not," he actually looked offended, and it was adorable.

"Sure I am, house mom to the fraternal order of Avengers. It's in my contract."

His brow furrowed, but with a little smile. "Does that make me a frat boy?"

"Well, you are a hot mess," I grinned. "But I've know far too many of them to ever fuck a frat boy."

"Wait, how do you know a bunch of frat boys?"

"Used to cook for them, of course."

He rolled his eyes. "Of course."

I convinced him to help me do some prep work. I had a feeling the team would be back soon. If not today, then tomorrow. So I chose boeuf bourguignon because it was both time consuming for today and also would be even better if I rewarmed it tomorrow. I sent Bucky to the store to give him something to do, and pulled together the dough for a rosemary-garlic bread while he was gone.

That evening, the team hadn't made it back, but I'd had a text from Steve in the group chat. "Compound ETA tomorrow evening."

I finished drying the last of our dinner dishes and putting it away. "Loquacious, that one," I chuckled to a grin from Bucky, "a veritable font of information." I texted him back.

Me: How many for dinner?

Steve: 8

The typing ellipsis blinked for a minute.