American Girl: An Avengers FanFiction

Chapter 57

I wake up at midnight as always. I roam the halls, enjoying the silence and quiet and just the emptiness and solitude of the tower at night. I head to the library to read for a bit in that cozy chair in the alcove. I love libraries of any kind, for a while, when I was fifteen I volunteered at the local library organizing books, pulling them out of circulation, cutting out stuff for the children's craft days, that sort of thing. I loved it.

But I knew it would never be my career. I think this is what I'm supposed to do for the rest of my life. I knew I wanted to follow in my grandmum's footsteps, course I didn't know about SHIELD, but still even without SHIELD she was a legend, my hero. And now, the family has come full circle once more. She founded SHIELD, my mom and aunt work here, probably the rest of them too, and now my cousins and I are here. Grandmum worked with Steve when he first became the Captain and no I work with him. Grandma knew him too. And then there's my uncle, Bucky, he reappears and I just so happen to be there. A circle. The past and the future. Full circle.

I yawn and doze off. 

..............

I sleep through the entire day, and part of the next before anyone finds me. It's Tuesday afternoon and I'm hungry. I wander into the kitchen, well what remains of it, and pop a slice of pizza into the microwave and survey the damage as I wait for it to heat up. It's mostly cosmetic really, the couner is okay, a bit scratched up, but okay, the cabinets are ruined, burnt and damaged by the flying pieces of hot metal and flames. Smoke has stained the wall and ceiling but everything is okay. I'm sure worse has happened around here. Stark lives here after all. And Banner/Hulk. And the rest of the team. 

The table still lies on its' side and is no longer the pretty polished thing it used to be. I take a seat on top of the fridge, more comfortable up high and hidden away in the corner. Like a bird of prey. An eagle. I'm just sitting there munching on my pizza when Steve an Uncle Bucky walk in talking about old times. I just sit and watch as Steve opens the fridge, Bucky digging about in the cabinets. Steve grabs something and then stands up closing the fridge which brings him eye level with my feet. He looks up and sees me. I smile at him, "Surprised?"

"Yes. Where have you been? No one has seen you in days. Why are you on the fridge?" Steve answers

"Asleep. In the library and then I decided to go back to my room but I fell asleep in the vents. It happens occasionally."

"Sneaking through the vents or falling asleep while doing so?" Bucky asks.

"Neither, well okay, I do enjoy sneaking about through the ventilation system, but the sleeping for days at a time after months of very little sleep. Happens about every other month, my record is eight and a half days without waking up at all. Hooray for Fey genetics! I can go about two weeks without water and a month without food if I get enough power from the land, and probably  about two weeks after that in a sort of hibernation state." I hop down off the fridge and Bucky starts laughing, Steve blushes. I look down at myself. I am still in my pajamas, which isn't too bad, my pajamas are plenty modest, fleecy lounge pants and a baggy t-shirt, I even put a bra on underneath before I went to the library. The embarrassing part is the theme; the lounge pants are covered in little shields and the shirt is howling commando's themed with a big cartoon version of Bucky in the center and the other howling commandos smaller around him with the caption  'Bucky' Barnes. Crap. I meant to bury these away and make sure no one else saw them. 

"Um, Grandma bought them for me for Christmas one year, how was I supposed to know I would see y'all in person? I, uh, suppose I should go let Peter and Eliza know we can stop hiding the stuff from Grandma..." I mumble, "I hope this isn't too weird for y'all. Oh, actually, Grandma left a hoodie for you Steve, I'll be back."