girl ― saved by captain america

[thirty three] the great escape

[Steve]

"Clint, there's no way you don't have any fives. You just asked Wanda for one last round," I reason. The sly man raises an eyebrow at me from across the table, shrugging his shoulders. Wanda sighs from her seat to my left, her eyes rolling into the back of her head.

"Here's a five," Willa offers, handing me a card from her set.

Clint snorts down a laugh as I turn to the little girl, explaining gently, "Thank you, sweetheart, but I was asking Clint because I knew he had one. You can keep your five." The child tilts her head, seeming slightly dejected, but nods.

"I don't like Go-Fish. Can we pick another game?" Clint whines. "What about poker or something? We could use Tony's candy stash as chips."

"Clint, she's five," I remind him. "There's no way we're playing poker, and no way we're giving her tons of candy like that."

"Man, this sucks," the dark-haired man sighs. "I thought retirement was supposed to be totally awesome."

"Yeah, well, I guess not so much when you're not given a choice," Wanda frowns.

"You were given a choice," Vision speaks up from behind us in the kitchen. "No one has forced this lifestyle upon you."

"You won't let me leave the compound," the older girl argues back.

"Mr. Stark has instructed me to-"

"Shut it, Vis. I don't want to hear it," Wanda cuts him off. Setting down my hand of cards on the table, I rest back a bit in my chair. Willa climbs down from her seat and crawls under the table, disappearing for a moment before reappearing at my side.

"Hey doll," I smile down at the little girl, reaching out to stroke her cheek. She leans into my touch and closes her eyes, her eyelids fluttering slightly as she lets out a contented hum. Reaching down to gently collect the child in my arms, I pull her up onto my lap. Willa rests against my chest, her arms wrapping around my torso as I glance at my watch. Just as I'm about to suggest we order some food, my phone buzzes on the table in front of me. I glance at the screen to find a text from Bucky.

Buck: I need to get out. You coming this time?

Frowning at the message, I reach out and taking the phone in my hands as I send a response promptly.

Steve: Get out?

Buck: Turn on the news.

Just as I look up from my screen, Vision walks over to the television, hurriedly, switching it on. "I have an incoming message from Mr. Stark," he states. "Something's happened in Vienna."

A woman news anchor appears on the screen, along with a picture of a highrise building with a chunk blasted messily out of the side. We seem to have caught the program in the middle of the lady delivering the breaking news. "-just in that a bomb has gone off at a United Nations meeting in Vienna where world leaders were holding a meeting today with the Avengers to sign the Sokovia Accords, documents limiting the controversially powerful group's independence-"

"Oh my god," Wanda breathes worriedly as a new image appears on the screen, this time of a familiar-looking man wearing a dark mask that partially covers his face.

"-the suspect has been identified as James Buchanan Barnes, the so-called 'rehabilitated' Winter Soldier. Among the casualties reported so far is the king of Wakanda, his son, T'Challa, now unexpectedly stepping into the role of ruler-"

Without thinking, I rise to my feet, Willa wrapped up in one arm. Glancing back down at my phone, my thumb types out a new message as quickly as I can manage.