Akrasia

Chapter 10

Third Person Point of View

Nat, Tony, and Bucky watch the girl fall asleep quickly. No one questions her any further about her nightmare considering she avoided anything to do with it. Everyone feels crummy because the girl thinks she's the problem. Technically that's true, but only when she's not truly herself.
      Tony is still skeptical of the girl, partially because he's annoyed that she ruined his suit, which he had to repair which took hours of his time. Either way , seeing the girl have a nightmare made him feel sorry for the her. He himself had experienced plenty of nightmares to know they're never pleasant.
      Surprisingly enough it's the Assassins that feel sorry for the girl the most. Both Nat and Bucky know how it feels to murder someone. To feel their blood staining their hands, staining their brain with the memory of the innocent person that got murdered. Neither of them want the girl to remember, ever. Although, somehow they now she will. You'll never forget. And when she remembers, both of them made sure they'd be there for her.
     Of course, Stark's sports car beat the good old minivan. As Bucky saw the tower approaching he glanced back at Lainey to find her still sleeping.
     "What do we do?" Bucky questions as Tony parks the car.
     "Get out." Tony retorts doing just that.
     "He means with the girl, Stark." Nat scolds glaringly at the billionaire. 
     "Oh. Wake her up. Like she asked." He replies dismissing them as he walks up to a man and tosses his keys at him. "You break, you pay." He says pointing at the car and then to the man. Of course, Tony leaves Nat and Bucky behind walking into the tower.
"Sooooo... I don't want to wake her up." Bucky says blushing as Nat raises her brow at him.
"I don't either, but that still won't stop me. I guess you could carry her up to the guest room if you really want to." Nat states climbing out from the back of the car.
"I should because she needs sleep, right?" Bucky says hoping for approval from Nat.
"Yes, she probably does need rest, but she told us to wake her up."
"I know, but she looks so peaceful."
"Then just do it or don't!" Nat replies impatiently.
"Okay, I will." Bucky says opening her door, unfastening her seatbelt, and then sliding her into his arms bridal style. Bucky feels a twinge of happiness while carrying Lainey. He feels like he means something to someone, even though she doesn't even know it.
Nat nods at the man who drives off in Tony's car to park it and then looks towards Bucky.
"You look like a Dad." Nat scoffs with a grin as she strides past the pair and into the tower.
    As Bucky makes it to the guest room to set Lainey down, he realizes Tony had a bit of human decency to put sweats on the foot of her bed.
      Bucky gently rests Lainey on the bed making sure to set her head on the pillow. Once he's satisfied with her position he steps back towards the door.
     He's still awestruck that this poor girl could go through so much. Seeing her sleeping peacefully he decides to leave. The light that used to be illuminated through the room disappeared with Bucky as he shut the door behind him.
      Bucky stands in the hallway contemplating the past events, mainly about Lainey. Hearing noises coming from the living room, he decides to head over to them.
     "Ahhh, look who finally showed up!" Stark exclaims making everyone look up towards Bucky walking through the doorway.
    "We've been here for 30 minutes buck, what were you doing?" Steve asks bluntly eyeing his friend.
     "Oh, really. I um, was just, um, making sure the girl got to her room." Bucky says eternally scolding him self for not smoothing that over.
    "Okay." Steve says hesitantly. "We were actually just talking about the girl."
     Bucky walks over and takes a seat on a stool as they continue their conversation.
    "I was not expecting to watch over a kid." Tony states rather arrogantly sending daggers towards Wanda.
     "What! We couldn't just leave her with Fury. That's why I told him we could take her. You saw how scared she looked. She needs help, and you all know it." Wanda huffs.
     "I agree. If she is to turn again she's better in our care. On top of that, if and when she finds out we can train her." Natasha says calmly.
    "She's 14!" Steve exclaims, again.
    "Yeah, but she isn't going to be able to live normally anymore." Nat stares back at him.
    "I agree with Nat. If she were to go out in public hydra could easily find her again." Clint says butting into the argument.
    "What about school?" Steve asks, clearly trying to be the reasonable one.
    "I could teach her some stuff. Or Tony." Bruce says quietly.
    "What! NO!" Tony yells eyeing Bruce.
    "Yeah!" Wanda says looking proudly at Bruce.
    Hearing everyones reaction Bruce concluded with, "just a thought."
     "We're not getting out of this. We're going to have to 'parent' her. I'm cool with that." Clint says smiling at the thought of parenting another kid.
    "You may be, but me? Uh uh!" Tony retorts sharply. "I'm out!" He stands abruptly and struts off into the elevator, presumably, heading down towards his labs.
"He's always so dramatic." Steve remarks holding back an eye roll.
"Are we ready to do this? I mean she's 14, and she's going to live with the Avengers and we don't even know her name." Wanda explains nervously.
"Lainey." Bucky interjects still looking at his hands.
"What?" Clint asks.
"Lainey. Her name is Lainey." He states again glancing at his teammates starring at him. Everyone's staring at him and he's staring back. No though that an Assassin, mainly Bucky who's all gloom and doom, could remember a child's name. On top of that help a kid out of a panic attack. No ones forgotten about that either, they just decided to not bring it up and get themselves murdered.
"Well." Steve says breaking the awkward silence. "With Lainey here now, we're going to have to make an effort to be normal."
"That's not happening." Clint shoots back. "And you know it too."
"Okay, but can we all at least eat breakfast together?" Steve pleads.
"Yeah" Nat replies nonchalantly.
"Most definitely." Wanda says smiling.
"Your cooking big boy." Clint grins and pats Steve on the back before walking off towards his room. Everyone does the same leaving Cap and Buck alone.
Steve stands up noticing Bucky still staring intently at his hands. Worriedly, Steve walks over towards Bucky who still hasn't noticed his presence.
Ever so delicately, Steve rests his hand on Bucky's shoulder and says, "Bucky, are you okay ?" Realizing everyone else has left Buck looks up towards the super soldier who's gazing at him with worried eyes.
"Yeah, just thinking." He replies rushing his words.
"Okay, well, goodnight." Steve takes his hand of his friends shoulder and walks away. Of course still worrying about his friend, who is worrying also.

Lainey's Point of View

My eyes flutter open from my peaceful sleep meet with sun shining through the window. Honestly that's probably the best sleep I've ever gotten. I roll onto my back and slip my hands under the silk pillow. Abruptly, I open my eyes wide realizing I'm not in my bed. It's immensely bright in the room. I can tell that this room wasn't cheap. Feeling the sheets I'm laying on top of, I can tell that these weren't either.
Analyzing the room I find sweats on the foot of the bed. At least someone had human decency to give me some.
Slipping my feet on to the ground, which is horribly cold, I walk over to the end of the bed. I grab the sweats immediately wanting to get out of this weird cat suit. Yes, I'm in a cat suit. After what happened yesterday, I think, I don't even want to question why I'm even wearing one in the first place.
It took me a good 30 seconds to get it off considering how tight it was. I drop it on the ground. I wince as I hear metal hit the ground. Confused, I grab the suit back up again to find a zipper in the back. COME ON! If I knew that was there I'd have it off by now. This time I chuck the suit over to the other side of the room.
Quickly, I throw the grey looking sweatshirt over my head and pull up the grey sweatpants. I take out the ponytail, which by the way is extremely tight , and let my unruly curls hang down.
While deciding what I should do considering I don't know where I am, my stomach grumbles. Which makes up my mind. They wouldn't mind if I ate food. I mean this is what I always do. Wake up and eat food.
I stalk over to the door and open it slightly, checking to make sure no ones outside my room. Once I decide it's okay to head out, I open the door fully and creep down the hall trying not to make the floor boards creek under my weight. I'm not paranoid. I just simply don't want attention. I've never had it, so I never want it.
I find an elevator, or at least I hope so, it looks very high tech. As I walk up to it the doors automatically open. Seeing it not closing even though I've stood her for 5 seconds, I head in feeling the urge to. Once I'm inside the doors immediately close behind me, which is sort of unsettling.
"Where may I take you miss?" A voice echoed through the elevator. I jump at the sound of the unknown voice completely taken off guard by its sudden presence.
"Huh?" I mutter startled. "What- who are you?" I ask looking around for the source of noise.
"I'm Tony Stark's A.I." A female voice responds. Hearing what she said I understand completely and sag my shoulders with relief.
"Oh, um which floor is the kitchen or a place to eat?" I question fiddling with my fingers.
"I'll take you to the kitchen." She responds and the elevator jerks at the sudden movement. Anxiously waiting the elevator dings signaling I'm on my floor. Once it stops completely, I rush out as quickly as possible. I trip over my feet running out of the elevator and end up skidding on the ground. Floor burns are the worst. I push myself onto my feet and shake off my unnerving experience in the elevator.
  What's even more unnerving is looking up from my feet which I stumbled over to find the Avengers staring at me.

Ahhhhhh! Guys I got over 60 reads!😂🤗I never thought I'd get 10. Thanks for reading it, I appreciate it greatly. Have a wonderful day, or night, I guess it depends on when your reading this.