Sinners [4] Far From Home

Four

Chapter Four:

The morning of the trip was a blur.

Hazel had woken up extra early, followed by being shoved out the door with her bags by Bucky, telling her she couldn't be late. He had taken a cab with her, not leaving her side until he absolutely had to. Hazel then realized, nobody knew who her father was, or they hadn't connected the dots because all her classmates stared up at him with a mixture of fear and confusion. Even Mr Harrington seemed afraid. Bucky said nothing as they walked by them, as she searched for her friends.

"They keep staring." Bucky mumbled, not meeting any eyes.

"Just ignore them, they're all idiots anyways."

"Hey." Bucky chuckled, "I'm sure they're not."

Hazel looked up at him, at the small smile on his face. She grinned with a shrug, "I'm the one who has to spend all this time with them."

"You don't have to."

"I'm going." Was all she said.

"Y-you don't know what can happen, Hazel. What if you're hurt, or they come for you again—"

"I'll be fine." She told him, stopping in her tracks, watching him watch her. "I brought my suit, you know, just in case. I'm pretty good with all my... gifts, I'll be fine."

Footsteps sounded, and she heard Ned's laugh echo in the airport. She turned, meeting their gazes and waved. Peter came right over, but Ned and MJ seemed to recognize Bucky and were more hesitate to join.

"Mr Barnes." Peter waved, "How have you been doing?"

Bucky opened his mouth, then closed it. Staring at Peter with confusion before eventually answering, "I-I'm good. Thank you."

Ned came next, gawking. "Is- is that your—"

Hazel only nodded, "My dad, yeah."

"The Winter Solider is your dad?" MJ looked between them, "Are you even allowed in public areas?"

Bucky frowned, looking back at his daughter. "I should go... maybe this wasn't a good idea." He mumbled, "Have a great trip, and be safe."

He pulled her into a hug, "Steve wishes you a good time." He whispered, letting go of her. He gave her a small smile and a nod before turning around, rushing from the building.

A hand hit her arm and she turned to see Ned, "How have you never told us he is your dad?"

"For this exact reason."

Ned's eyes widened in disbelief, "He is literally a war criminal, an assassin, a terrorist—"

"Ned." Peter's voice cut in, "Shh."

Hazel pursed her lips, "He's not like that anymore. He didn't even want me coming on this trip because it could be dangerous."

"Ironic." MJ muttered.

They fell silent, and soon Mr Harrington came stomping past them, declaring it was time to get onto the plane.

•••

"It worked." A voice said, "We did it—"

A searing light.

Falling,

Falling,

Falling,

Then total darkness.

Hazel gasped, blinking away the dark as her mind raced. There had been an explosion, and now she was somewhere underground.

Her head throbbed and her body ached, quickly discovering her legs were stuck under pieces of concrete. She tried to wiggle free, taking deep breaths as she tried, and tried until another voice caught her attention.

"I can't breathe!" The voice yelled, coming from above. "I can't breathe!"

"Hello!" Hazel yelled, ignoring the pain.

"Watch out—"

A rumbling sounded, and then she was drenched in freezing cold water. She gasped, eyes wide, panic and terror setting in. Hazel willed her powers to work, but the water refused to obey.

"Help!" She screamed, clawing once again at the concrete pinning her down. "Someone help!"

Nothing.

The water reached her neck, and she twisted and turned. Then it was at her mouth, and she breathed in air in large gasping breaths.

"No, no, no—" she whimpered, "Not like this. Someone please—"

"Hey, hey—"

Hazel jumped, blinking slowly as her surroundings cleared around her. Panic seeped from her body as she took in Peter sitting next to her, staring at her with concern. They were on the plane, on the way to their first destination of their school trip.

"Where- Where's Ned?"

"We tried getting MJ over here and the plan failed. He's next to Betty now and MJ's with Brad."

Hazel turned in her seat, peeking out behind to see that Peter was in fact correct. She shook her head, "How long have I been asleep?"

"Like two hours maybe. Not long." Peter shifted in his seat, "Are you alright?"

She nodded, flipping on the hood of her sweater. Everyone had shown up to the airport in decent fashion while she had shown up in plaid pyjama shorts and her school hoodie.

"You kept mumbling about needing help... what were you dreaming about?"

Hazel shrugged, not wanting to start off their trip like that. Peter had said himself that this trip wasn't for superhero talk, that they were supposed to be normal teenagers.

"Nothing important." She told him, "Really. It was nothing, just a little dream."

The plane was full of talking, and the amount of angry looking elderly people staring about the flight made Hazel giggle. Peter glanced at her, a small smile on his face. There was a faint flash and she turned her focus on the screen against the seat that Peter had touched with a pointed finger, movies appearing in rows.

"You can watch movies on planes?" Hazel tapped at the screen, pushing away his hand. "This is so cool."

"You go to a science school but are amazed that they have movies on planes?"

Hazel looked at him, "To be fair, I didn't want to go to a science school but my dad— my foster dad, I mean, said it would be good for me or something."

"I have a duel headphone jack." He grinned slipping it from his pocket, showing her. She snorted grabbing her own headphones from her pocket and plugged them in, "Who cares, we can just share. They're clean, I promise."

He plucked one from her hand, placing it in his ear and leaned back, moving closer. She flipped through movies, passing documentary's about Tony Stark awfully fast, hoping Peter didn't see. By the time she found a movie, Peter had fallen asleep, his head flopped against the wall of the plane. Hazel turned the screen off, leaning back in her own seat.

So far things hadn't gone terribly wrong, even though they hadn't even begun the trip yet. Maybe nothing would happen and she was just over thinking everything, and maybe the world was finally going to let them rest after what it threw at them. Hazel shook her head, huffing at the ceiling at her thoughts. The world wasn't that kind, and she knew it wouldn't be either.