Chapter Text
She/He knew she/he was different. She/He knew she/he wasn’t normal. She/He knew normal people couldn’t do what she/he could. She /He knew normal people couldn’t break glass or throw large objects with only the will of their minds. Normal people couldn’t move things with their minds. Normal people couldn’t affect the bones and bodily functions of other normal people.
Normal people couldn’t, but she/he could. Because she/he was different.
***
Bucky, Wanda and Sam were at one of the Compound’s dozens of living rooms when FRIDAY’s voice took over their conversation.
“Captain Rogers asks the presence of the three of you in the meeting room right now.”
None of them hesitated and quickly rose from their sits and went to the meeting room.
When they got there however, it wasn’t for any of the reasons they were expecting. There was no enemy, no fights for food and no destroyed glass. There was a child sitting on the couch, looking intently at each and every one of them with. She/he couldn’t be more than 13 years old, but her eyes scanned as if she/he had been born decades ago.
Steve heard them stop in the doorway and came to them, pushing them back and out of the room. The three of them stumbled backwards into the hallway. Tony and Natasha followed.
“Who is she/he?” Sam asked.
“We found her in the woods,” Natasha answered. “She/he was alone and running, saying she/he had to get away from…”
“From who? From what?”
“She/he didn’t say. We don’t know,” she crossed her arms and looked intently at Bucky. “All we know is that she is not public known and that she has powers.”
“Powers?” Bucky’s eyes narrowed.
“She/he can move things with her mind,” Tony said. “Like Carrie, but she/he hasn’t locked us all in a room and killed us. So I’d say maybe Matilda, but she hasn’t cooked us any meal yet, so I’m settling for Jean Grey.”
Bucky shook his head at Tony, clearly not understanding one thing, and turned back to Natasha.
“Move things?” Sam asked.
“Yes.”
“Like me?” Wanda carefully asked.
“Not quite.”
“She/he doesn’t have a red cloud following her hands or whatever she’s/he’s moving,” Tony tells them, lazily imitating Wanda’s hands when she’s using her powers.
“The question is: what do we do?” Steve asked. “We can’t send her back alone out there but she/he also won’t talk.”
“At all?”
“Apart from saying she/he has to run from something? No.”
“She/he doesn’t trust us, which is understandable even if potentially problematic,” Steve nodded.
Not a word was said as they all looked at each other.
***
It took her a couple of days to talk, but she/he eventually did.
The child stayed at the Compound, in a room near Steve and Bucky, had meals with everyone else, even if never a word from her/his mouth.
Until it did: words were spoken.
“Different.”
It was a mumbled word while no one was expecting, but every single pair of eyes were suddenly focused on the child.
“What is different, sweety?” Bruce asked, kneeling in front of her. She/he was once again on the couch.
He/She took a couple of minutes to answer and when it happened, he/she was looking at Bucky.
“I am.”
She/he was indeed. But that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, Bucky wanted to tell her/him, but decided to keep quiet in fear of scaring the child.
“Well, good thing in being a freaky, kiddo: we all are!” Tony exclaimed, a smile on his lips as he looked around and opened his arms as if pointing at everyone at the same time.
The child didn’t spare him a glance. Her/his eyes were entirely focused on Bucky.
Steve nudged him gently. Bucky looked at Steve, who nodded at the child with his chin.
Bucky panicked for a quick second. How was he supposed to talk to a child? Why him? Why was she/he looking at him?
Steve’s warm hand settled on his hip and his thumb stroked lovely at the shirt-covered skin. His eyes were calm and reassuring, everything Bucky needed.
So he slowly walked to the child and kneeled by Bruce’s side.
It seemed like everyone was expecting him to say something, so he did – after taking a deep breath and releasing it in long seconds.
“Different, you said?” Bucky prompted quietly and the child nodded solemnly, eyes still focused on him. “Well, that’s not bad. It’s actually pretty good. You see, otherwise, you’re just one more on the crowd. Stevie there,” Bucky pointed at Steve who stood a couple meters away from them. Steve nodded, “Wouldn’t have been chosen to save the world if he were another one in the crowd. He was different too and he saved the world. Tony,” Bucky pointed at the billionaire, who grinned and pointed at himself with his thumbs, “Wouldn’t have changed his entire company and created a bunch of cool stuff if he were normal. Bruce,” Bucky bumped shoulders with the scientist, “Discovered a thousand things because he is a scientist, and you’ve gotta be different and awesome to be a scientist.”
Bruce was happy that Bucky didn’t make the Other Guy the thing that made him different.
“A spider knew Peter was different and bit him to be even more different,” Peter laughed at this and Tony imitated claws to try and bite Peter. He looked more like a bear than a spider, but there was no gain in pointing that out.
“Thor,” the god smiled broadly and waved, “Is a god from another planet. Vision was created from technology. Sam was personally chosen to join the team by Steve because he was different. Wanda,” who smiled shyly at the child, “Was so special that she/he was chosen even before she/he could know what for.”
There was really no way of putting it that what happened to Wanda was nice or even pleasant, but that was good enough for her and she/he smiled at Bucky.
“Clint wouldn’t be here alive if he were normal; don’t underestimate his capacity of staying alive.” Which earned a sneaker from the man. “Natasha and I,” the woman flashed a quick smile, “Would still be with the bad guys if we were normal.”
The child looked at the floor before saying.
“But if I was normal, they wouldn’t be after me.”
“And who are they?”
“Don’t know.”
“Then we’ll figure it out. We can protect you, okay?”
The child turned the eyes at him once again.
“Really?”
“Really,” Bucky promised as everyone else nodded.
The child looked around, taking in everyone that surrounded her/him and a smile spread across his/her cheeks.
When the child turned back to Bucky, she/he said, “I’m [Y/n].”