Chapter Text
If someone were to ask Cali what the last two weeks have been like, she’d probably say that it’s been interesting, to say the least. Currently, the team is doing a ‘bonding exercise,’ which is really just code for Steve wanting to catch up on twenty-first-century video games.
Cali, being that she wasn’t really allowed to play video games at S.H.I.E.L.D. growing up, is taking the time to learn, as well. Currently, Sam and Clint are playing some game about World War II, with Steve and Cali complaining about the inaccuracies of it.
“Bullshit,” Cali mutters for the fifth time in the last ten minutes.
“Language,” Tony admonishes. Steve grumbles something under his breath about how it was one time and that he’ll never live it down, but Cali ignores both men.
“That’s not what our bunks looked like!” Steve protests cynically.
Twenty minutes pass with more complaints (mostly from Steve) until Wanda suggests just watching a movie. After another ten minutes of arguing, Sam and Nat suggests playing a horror movie. Halfway through the movie, Clint screams like a seven-year-old girl and bolts out of the room.
Sam, with shaking hands, pauses the movie and asks if someone should go after Clint. Thor (who came back to Earth a week after Cali first arrived) and Cali, unable to keep it in anymore, begin laughing.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Tony asks disbelievingly.
“How the hell can you be scared of that ?” Cali points to the TV while trying to calm down, “Ghosts are literally just our minds trying to account for the lack of light and sound. There’s nothing scary about any of it. You know what is terrifying?”
“My illusions,” Wanda interjects absently. Everyone looks at her curiously.
“Try it on Cali, Wanda,” Nat offers playfully.
“I was gonna say time travel…” Cali mumbles.
“Time travel!? Cali, it’s not even real. Plus, what’s so ‘terrifying’ about it?” Bruce asks, clearly looking for some genius explanation.
“Easy. You could make a time paradox, changing the timeline drastically and if you manage to fix it, it’ll never be the same and there’s no way to tell what ramifications it’ll have. Or Stark, what if your Arc Reactor somehow got to World War II? That anachronism would literally destroy the world if it got in the wrong hands.”
“I’m sorry, did you just say ‘anachronism?’” Tony asks, obviously intrigued.
“Yeah… why?”
“What’s an... uh-chronic-syndrome?” Thor asks, Cali notes he’s obviously intrigued despite his major mispronunciation.
“Anachronism,” Cali corrects, “It’s something misplaced in time. Like if Shakespeare somehow ended up in the 90s, or if-”
“If a certain World War II soldier happened to be in 2015?” Tony asks looking at Steve.
“I mean… if you wanna go with the non-scientific definition, then I guess,” Cali answers.
“Okay, Wanda, do something with your powers before she starts speaking again,” Clint yells as he walks back into the room.
Cali scoffs and sticks up her middle finger at him before they go back to watching the movie.
•••
“Okay, go again,” Nat instructs Cali. The two are in the training room practicing some advanced fighting styles Cali finally convinced Natasha to teach her.
“How long have we been doing this?” Cali asks as she tries to catch her breath.
“Four hours.”
“And how much longer are we gonna do this?”
“Until you learn it,” Nat answers with a smile.
“C’mon… even May’s nicer when training…” It’s petty and immature to pull the May card, but Cali doesn’t have enough energy to consider the negatives.
“Well, May isn’t training you, is she?” Natasha retorts, Cali hangs her head in defeat.
“No…” she whispers in response.
“That’s what I thought. But fine, go hit the showers,” Nat concedes.
Cali throws her fists in the air and whisper-shouts a yes, though immediately regrets it when her arms and back burn in protest.
•••
A few minutes after Cali leaves, as Natasha starts cleaning up the gym, Steve walks in.
“You’re different when she’s around,” he comments softly.
“Am I?” Nat feigns obliviousness.
If Steve picked up on Natasha’s lack of denial, he doesn’t mention it.
“You’re really good with her.”
“She’s nineteen, not a baby,” Natasha rebukes. “But, she’s had a rough life. She ran away from her family at the age of seven. She spent eleven years being raised by four of the greatest S.H.I.E.L.D. agents ever, then one of them got killed by a sociopathic god. She depended on S.H.I.E.L.D., then it fell. Right now she’s lost, and the way her mind works, if she doesn’t have someone to depend on, she’s gonna spiral.”
“How’d you meet her?” Steve asks curiously.
“Four years ago,” she begins with a smile, “Fury called me and another agent, a friend, Melinda May, into his office. He told me that there was a priority red asset he wanted me to watch over. When I asked who it was, Fury said it was a girl, but that’s all he said. May already knew her, but at that point, she already dropped to a desk job.”
Nat pauses for a second, gauging Steve for a reaction. He listens with rapt attention.
“Then this teenager comes walking in, not even paying attention to where she’s going and almost walks into the door frame. She calls his name like he’s not one of the world’s most intimidating men alive, and he doesn’t even bat an eye. It’s funny, how similar it was to when Cali met you and Wanda.”
Steve smiles again, confusing Natasha. Instead of questioning him, she continues talking.
“At first I was kind of cold to her. For the first year, really. I didn’t understand why some girl was so important, but then Coulson died, and she took it hard; closed herself off completely from everyone. Maria tried getting her to talk to someone, but she just refused and found every excuse not to. Eventually, I tried talking to her, and something I said must’ve gotten to her because she started opening up to me. Since then, everything I’ve ever done has been to protect her,” Nat finishes, looking at the door Cali had exited from.
•••
Cali spends the rest of the week getting to know the rest of the team, excluding Bruce and Thor since they left a few days ago. She starts with Steve since he (and Nat) came up with the idea in the first place.
Currently, the two are walking around Brooklyn, giving Steve a chance to get to know the modern-day version of the city. As they walk around, Steve tells Cali all about how it was back in the forties, which she listens to with enthusiastic attention, even asking questions here and there, which she can tell amuses Steve greatly.
Steve pauses speaking and walking as they pass an alleyway.
“Something wrong, Cap?” Cali grows more concerned when Steve’s lively look is taken over by a forlorn one.
“No, just remembering something from the past with a good friend of mine…” Cali knows he’s talking about Bucky, but decides to not force him to continue since he’s clearly growing uncomfortable.
Lucky for both of them, Steve looks at something down the street a little, a bright smile taking over his face again. “How do you feel about some ice cream?” he asks, glee shining in his eyes. Cali laughs as she nods her head.
“Hey, Oldie?” she asks playfully.
“Oldie?”
“I mean, I was gonna go with Goldie, but we both have blonde hair, so it’s kinda making fun of myself, too. Anyways, think you can keep up?” Cali asks, knowing full-well that Steve is much faster than her.
“Oh, you’re on, kid,” Cali starts running before he can even finish talking.
After they get their ice cream, they sit at a table. At first, a few people come up and ask for Steve’s autograph or a picture. Cali watches Steve with what she thinks might come off as child-like amusement at his reaction to a group of girls barely older than her trying to flirt with him. Eventually, after the number of fans dwindles down, they start talking about the Super Soldier Serum.
When Steve’s done explaining everything he knows about it, Cali looks at him with disbelief. “So it’s… steroids?”
“What- No! It’s so much worse-”
“It’s a steroid without the roid rage.”
“I mean-”
“It’s a super fast-acting steroid without the roid rage,” Cali affirms. Steve chuckles as he shrugs his shoulders in defeat. “Why didn’t they just call it… I dunno… the ‘Super Soldier Steroid?’”
“You’d have to ask Abraham Erskine.”
“Hey, Cap…?” Cali asks shyly.
“Yeah?”
“Thanks,” she whispers.
He smiles softly at her.
•••
“Hey, Steel Boy,” Cali says as she enters Tony’s lab with whatever food Pepper asked her to bring to him.
“Quickshot!”
“Thanks for the compliment! Pepper wanted me to give you this,” she tosses the food to his waiting hands as she sits on the counter.
“Oh, how generous of you,” he deadpans.
“I did it for Pepper, not for you. So, what’re you working on?” She asks as she steals a fry.
“A new suit.”
“So, that’s not actually iron, right?” she asks curiously.
“Nope,” he responds, popping the ‘p’ a little.
“So, does that mean you’re a fraud?”
Tony chokes on the fry he’s swallowing. He coughs a few times before responding, “I am anything but a fraud! You take that back, or you’re grounded.”
“One, I’m legally an adult, so you can’t do that. Two, if anyone here can ground me, it’s Nat. Or Pepper, ‘cause she’s intimidating when she wants to be…”
“Listen, Crackblast, not that I don’t enjoy your company, but what are you really doing here? We’ve already established there’s nothing in this room that could possibly interest you.”
“Honestly, Steve and Nat want me to spend one-on-one time with the team,” Cali shrugs.
The two spend another thirty minutes of silence, save for Tony’s frustrated mutterings and asking Cali to hand him tools here and there. At some point, the silence goes from somewhat awkward to peaceful. Cali uses one of Stark’s computers to do some research on something for one of her covers as he continues working on the armor. They stay in the lab until midnight when Natasha and Pepper come to drag them out so they can get some rest.
•••
Day three of Cali’s bonding exercise is spent with Wanda. The two decide to do something normal (or as normal as a teenager raised by S.H.I.E.LD. and a Sokovian Avenger can manage) for the day, opting to (with Nat’s distant supervision) go to the mall.
“Cali… how are we-” Wanda begins to ask as she looks at a jacket but stops when Cali shows her one of Tony’s debit cards.
“Did you pickpocket-” Wanda questions sternly.
“What!? No! Pepper gave it to me!” the blonde whisper-shouts in return.
“Why are you whispering? No one’s around,” Wanda comments. Cali signals for Wanda to be quiet then points to Nat watching them over a magazine while sitting on a couch outside of the store. Natasha looks up and waves to them a little when she notices they’re watching her. “Oh. How’d you even know-”
“Nat’s been training me for the past four years. Before that, Maria and Mel raised me.”
“Who?” Wanda asks, her bafflement written clearly on her face.
“Maria Hill and Melinda May. Also, she only let me leave the compound if she came, too.”
“Still doesn’t explain why you’re whispering,” Wanda points out.
“It’s Nat! She could be listening right now!”
“I’m starting to think you’re more paranoid than she is,” Wanda mutters. Cali rolls her eyes and continues letting Wanda help her find something that isn’t denim or leather.
About ten minutes later, the two are walking around the mall, looking for something to do or somewhere to go.
“So, where does the name ‘Snapshot’ really come from?” Wanda asks curiously as they sit down at the food court.
Cali bites her bottom lip as she looks around, “Okay, you see that sign over there? The one with the red circle?” Wanda nods her head in response as Cali points at a sign angling away from them. Rather than answering, Cali throws a knife, hitting the center of the circle perfectly despite the awkward angle.
“Did Natasha teach you that?”
“No, May did,” Cali answers with a shy smile. The conversation turns into telling each other stories of growing up in Sokovia and S.H.I.E.L.D. They lose track of time, not realizing how late it is (almost six o’clock) until Nat sends a text asking if they want a ride back to the compound.
•••
On day four, Cali hangs out with Sam and Rhodey. Time with Sam turns into a playful competition of any and every kind the two can think of, ranging from hand-to-hand combat spars, to who can out-prank who, to who can get the higher score on some online trivia site.
Eventually, the two decide to team up and prank the others. The first prank is on Steve. They go to the gym while Steve’s training with his shield. Sam distracts Steve by asking him about a past mission while Cali switches his shield with a plate. Steve gets so caught up in the conversation that he doesn’t even realize what’s happened until he hears what’s supposed to be made of the strongest metal on Earth shatter when it hits the wall. Steve turns to Cali with an unreadable expression as she uses his actual shield to hide from him, a sheepish smile plastered on her face. He gets back at them ten minutes later by locking Sam’s suit and Cali’s combat knife in a metal box in the middle of the living area. They have to literally beg Wanda to use her powers to open it.
Clint is a bit harder to prank since he hasn’t done anything all day besides sit in the living area and watch TV. Sam decides to have Cali challenge Clint to a shooting match. Clint agrees hesitantly when she mentions that she’s only going to use throwing knives. When they get to the range, Cali makes a bet with Clint, declaring that the loser owes the winner two hundred dollars. Clint, being a little too confident, agrees. Sam uses Redwing to intercept all of Clint’s arrows. Clint refuses to pay up, arguing that Cali cheated. She rebuts with a cocky, “We never set any rules, so pay up, old man.”
Ten minutes into planning their prank on Natasha, she walks in and points out all of the flaws in their plan, the last one being that she knew what they were planning without seeing or hearing anything about it. Sam blames Cali, claiming that Cali either warned Nat or the redhead knew because she helped raise the girl. In turn, she blames Sam’s lack of discretion.
Their prank on Wanda, however, is by far Cali’s favorite. The plan doesn’t really make sense to Cali since Sam came up with it, but all she has to do is distract Wanda for a few minutes. As soon as Wanda opens the door to her room for Cali to enter, the older woman states, “I can hear your thoughts, you’re a very loud thinker. I know Sam’s plan, but I have a better one.” Despite the shock (and embarrassment) of being called a “loud thinker,” Cali agrees to betray Sam and help Wanda, causing the end of Cali and Sam’s bonding experience.
•••
Rhodey shares stories from his time with the Air Force, as well as stories of how he met Stark and the crazy things they’ve done together.
•••
Cali spends eight hours on day five trying to get some sort of genuine human reaction from Vision (which, by Nat’s translation to Steve, means she’s trying to annoy him). She asks him any and every question she can think of. Then, when that doesn’t work, she tries out different psychological tricks (none of which work on the android). She gives up when Vision manages to stump her with a trick of his own.
“If a liar says he’s lying, is he lying?” Cali asks Vision. Vision goes into a twenty-minute explanation of how both ‘yes’ and ‘no’ could be the correct answer.