INERTIA ↠ AVENGERS FANFIC

SEVENTEEN- TRICKS

A/N- Hi all! Please read this, it's quite important. Firstly, I have updated some parts pf this book, and I highly recommend you re-read them, as some have significant changes. Also, we hit 3 THOUSAND reads, that's insane! Thank you all so much!

A SEVEN NATION ARMY COULDN'T HOLD ME BACK...

-

"Boys, boys, is there a problem?" Zara asked, stepping out of the Barton household. Steve and Tony were chopping firewood, and they'ed managed to get at each others throats. Both had axes and way too much testosterone... 

Neither of the two men spoke, they glared at each other with animosity until Laura Barton approached. "Sorry, Mr. Stark, Clint said you wouldn't mind. Our tractor doesn't seem to want to start at all. I thought you might-"

"Yeah, I'll give it a look," Tony said dismissively. "Don't take from my pile," he warned, though it was significantly smaller that Steve's.

"So," Zara started, picking up the ax Tony had been using. "You alright? Because if I saw right, which I did, you just ripped apart that log with your bare hands."

Steve looked disgruntled. His body was tense, but he cut that wood like nobody's business.  "Just Tony being Tony," he said, splitting another chunk of wood. 

"Is that really all it is?" Zara asked, doing the same. 

Steve chuckled dryly, and she could tell he didn't want to talk about it.

"I have a question," she said, earning a curious glance from Steve. "Bucky Barnes. You knew him, right?"

Their axes swung as Steve glared at her. "I have a feeling you already know the answer to that."

"Oh I do. But I want to hear it from you. I have a feeling the SHIELD file on him doesn't say everything. And as someone who is very keen on knowing everything..."

"Especially things that are entirely not your business." 

Zara was seemingly taken aback by Steve's sass. 

"I'm sorry. That was rude," he said. Zara didn't care, not in the slightest. In fact, she liked rude Steve. "It's just... Barnes is a sensitive topic for me."

"I get it."

Steve rested his ax on the stump he'd been chopping on, glancing up to the pre-occupied Zara. After what she'd told him that morning, the horrors that she endured, it seemed the least he could do is tell her about Bucky. 

"Bucky... he was my best friend much before the war started. Back then, he was the good-looking buff one and I was the one they called 'stick boy'," Steve laughed dryly. 

"Bucky helped me through the hardest of times. Even when I had nothing I had Bucky. He was more than just a friend, he was a brother. I used to try to enlist in the war under fake names, but they'd always turn me away. No one wanted a 5'4 asthmatic fighting for their country. It wasn't until he was drafted to the 107th I knew I had to try harder. If Bucky died in the war, it was my every intention to die right there by his side. Right before Bucky was deployed, I was approved as Sargent Rogers, and started training in Washington. A few days after the transformation was the next time I saw him. The whole 107th had been captured by the Germans, and a few unlucky ones were experimented on by Arnim Zola."

Steve picked up his ax again. Maybe if he had just found them a little sooner...

"Bucky was one of the unlucky ones. I think he thought he was hallucinating when he first saw me, because he was speechless for ten minutes straight," Steve said, wearing a small smile as he reminisced about the past. "Anyway, days after that we went back out to end Hydra once and for all, or so we thought. Bucky and I were fighting people on a train..."

"And he fell," Zara finished for him. 

"Yeah. So you can imagine my surprise when he shows up and tries to kill me last year out of nowhere. Now he's gone again, and I'm doing what I can to help but until we find him..."

"You will," she reassured. "Best friends always have a way of finding their way back to each other. And until you do, you've got a lovely ensemble of people waiting for you," Zara said, gesturing to the Barton household where the other Avengers were. "Maybe lovely is the wrong word. Let's go with optimistic."

Steve knew she didn't really mean optimistic. She found the Avengers bothersome and cynical, and as true as that may be, they needed each other and Zara knew this.

"Hate to break up the party," sounded a familiar voice. "But the tractor's not starting and I was thinking you might be able to give it a boost with your weird lightning hands."

"Tony Stark, asking for help?" Zara marveled. "Quick, somebody tell the press."

Tony stood impatiently. "Are you going to help me or not?"

"Yeah, I guess," Zara sighed. "Wait," she said, holding up a finger to Tony and briefly closing her eyes. "Okay. Moment savored."

Tony turned to Steve. "You better plug your ears because I'm about to say a no-no word." He turned back to Zara, "I fucking hate you. Everything about you."

Steve rolled his eyes and Zara laughed at the insult. "Care to show me where this damn tractor is?" 

Tony led her inside a cluttered shed, where an old Deere tractor stood in the middle. 

"Holy shit," she said, running a finger down it and frowning at the dust that collected on her finger. "This thing is older than Steve."

"The same can be told of yourself, I assume," came a male voice from one of the corners of the shed. 

"Nick Fury, everybody," Tony introduced, not at all surprised by the way the man chose to make his entrance. 

Zara turned to face Tony. The son of a bitch had tricked her. "I should've known you're too stuck up to ask for help. You're gonna pay for this," she said intensely. 

"Oh big, fast, murderer," Tony mocked. "You don't have the balls."

Zara had meant the you're gonna pay for this as a joke, but she couldn't back down when someone sparked a challenge. "You wanna bet? Put on the suit, lets fight," Zara said confidently. 

"Sure thing. But when I win, you have to do everything I tell you to do for four hours. No matter how indecent," Tony stated, raising his eyebrows. 

"Agreed. But when I win, you have to show me your-"

"That's enough!" Fury interrupted. "Two of the most powerful people on earth and I still need to hire a babysitter. Stark, out."

Tony did make his way out, but not before throwing Zara a suggestive wink. She rolled her eyes and turned back to Fury. 

"I'm sorry, is there a reason you need me here?"

He shrugged. "Just making sure the troops are in order."

Zara shook her head. "That's not why I'm here."

Fury chuckled dryly. "Got me there, Agent. I'm here to issue a kill order."