Hacky Sack ~ An Avengers Story

Eight - Three's a Crowd

With a hefty sigh and a feeling of déjà vu, I'm met with a concerned Austen. "You're okay." He breathed.

"What is with everyone asking if I'm okay? Dear lord all I did was get a little pissy." I threw my head back in aggravation. Bucky sat on my kitchen counter, swinging his legs to and fro. "To be fair, you did kinda almost kill Tasha." He mentioned, earning a glare from me.

"Get your winter booty off my counter, Barnes." I warned him. With defensive hands, he scooted off the counter and instead, leaned against it. "And I wouldn't have killed her. Just... knocked her out."

"Still, we were worried that you'd go on a rampage or something. I remember when it's happened before, I had asked Tony how to handle th-" Austen cut himself off mid sentence with wide eyes.

My muscles tensed as I approached him slightly, "Austen... what did you just say?"

"N-Nothing." He was quick to spit out. I could feels Bucky's presence closer to me right before his hand rested on my shoulder. Out of pure reflex, I grabbed his hand and almost broke his wrist. He luckily was strong enough to remove his hand from my grasp. Since when are my reflexes that quick and strong?

"Don't you dare fucking lie to me, Coopers." I growled, feeling rage surge through me as well as a slight electric presence.

"Cedar, you need to calm down. We don't want another... accident." Bucky spun me around to face him. All I could do was glare up at him seeing I couldn't remove my arms from his hold. His face contorted to discomfort as he felt the pulse of my abilities at work. He was fighting the pain, and he was doing a damn good job at it as well. "спокойный (calm)."

Squeezing my eyes shut, I took several deep breaths to try and calm myself. It took quite a few heavy exhales as well as Bucky's occasional calming phrases in Russian to get me to calm down. As I opened my eyes, Bucky quirked an eyebrow, "Better?"

Releasing one last exhale, I nodded, "Yeah." I breathed. I turned back around to see a shaking Austen. I wanted to say something, but I was too certain that I'd work myself up again. "Explain." I managed to mutter without getting too hotheaded again.

"I... I feel like Tony should be here to help me-"

"Not unless you want me to tear this god forsaken block to pieces."

Austen coughed uncomfortably, "O-Okay." He took a deep breath before beginning. I felt Bucky rest a hand on my arm in attempts to keep me from exploding again. "When we first became friends about five years ago, Tony Stark approached me and told me your story. He insisted that I don't tell you anything so that you could have a 'normal life' as he put it. He wanted me to give him updates on you, since he was forbidden by SHIELD to approach you. He knew you still had you powers, and that SHIELD didn't remove them correctly, but he kept that to himself; for your sake. So yeah, I knew about your past all along, but that hasn't impacted our friendship at all, I swear to cinnamon buns."

As mad as I am, I felt it dial back at the last sentence. That's kind of our thing, swearing to cinnamon buns. Long story short, we both love cinnamon buns and have almost killed each other over them. Well, I almost killed him. But still he'd do the same.

Anyways, I'm getting off track. So here's what I'm getting from this: 1) Tony knew about my powers all along. 2) Austen knew everything about my backstory but was forbidden to tell me so I could have a 'normal life'. 3) Tony was forbidden from seeing me by SHIELD so I can cross that of the list of things I'm mad at him for... I think?

"Holy shit that's a lot to take in. More of my life has been lies, but there's one less thing I'm mad at Tony for, but more as well? Иисус, блядь, Христос (Jesus fucking Christ)."

"язык (tongue/language)" Bucky chastised me, making me roll me eyes.

"He speaks Russian too?"

"Sí." Bucky nodded.

"That was Spanish, Buck."

"да (yes)."

"There you go." I patted his shoulder, "Wait hold on I'm supposed to be mad and conflicted."

It was Bucky's turn to roll his eyes at me, "Well, who are you mad at?"

"I'm mad at-!..... I don't know who I'm mad at." I pouted, crossing my arms and having a mini fit. Who am I supposed to be mad at? It's not Austen's fault, fucking Iron Man (whom Austen obsess over) wouldn't let him tell me a secret so I can't exactly be mad at him. I can't really be mad at Tony - for the sudden claiming me to be his daughter thing - because SHIELD wouldn't let him see me. So who am I mad at? Myself? SHIELD? God... that's who I'm mad at. Is he real?

"So if you don't know who you're mad at, then you can't be mad. There, problem solved." Bucky grinned as if he had just solved world hunger. I mumbled, "I can still be mad in general." in which he and Austen chuckled at me.

"I think you should go talk to him." Austen suggested, "He cares about you more than you're giving him credit for."

I sighed as I pushed lose strands of hair out of my face, "I feel like an asshole now." I muttered into my hands.

"It's not your fault C, you didn't know." Austen pulled me in by my shoulders to give me a hug. I had forgotten Bucky's hand residing on my arm until I felt it pull off of me. I let out a deep breath into Austen's shoulder as I wrapped my arms around his torso. There was definitely some awkwardness during the duration of the hug since Bucky was standing by himself behind me, tapping his foot. I let go of Austen and looked back at Bucky. "You up for giving me a ride back to the Tower?"

"I guess I could make room for you." He sighed, acting annoyed at the request. I punched his right arm playfully as he grabbed his jacket and keys. I looked at Austen, "You coming?"

"Naw, I'll catch up with you later. Three's a crowd anyways." He brushed the offer aside. I nodded and shooed the boys out of my apartment, locking the door behind me. The three of us jogged down the steps together - since I only live on the second floor - and parted ways; Bucky and I going to the parking garage and Austen to the subway. Bucky stopped walking in front of a motorcycle parked a couple down from my car. I stared at it in awe,

"Not expecting this?" He chuckled, taking a seat on it as starting it up. I shook my head as he laughed again, "Hop on Cedar." As soon as I did so, I hesitantly wrapped my arms around Bucky's waist.

I could already feel my cheeks flush as my hand brushed against his stomach and felt his abs. Holy shit hes ripped. "Hold on tight doll." Thank god he didn't turn his head around enough to see my blush increase at the nickname.

Bucky kicked up the kickstand and began rolling backwards. Before I knew it, we were flying down the busy New York streets in the direction of the Avengers Tower.