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1- Ava
It isn’t noticeable at first, not to the untrained ear at least.
Years of military training must have beaten the hell out of a lot of Walker's habits, but there are some things you just don’t lose.
Accents are one of those things. Or so Ava would have thought.
She heard it (or maybe imagined it) in the middle of a battle first.
It was a comms kind of fight, everyone split off into their different corners to try and neutralize the enemy instead of congregating in a huddle. It was working, until she turned the wrong way and got clocked, knocking the wind out of her for a second before she struck back,
“ Ava you good?”
Bucky’s voice crackled over the comms, and she spat on the ground before flipping her helmet back on,
“Yeah, I’m fine, Barnes, just got hit,”
“ Ava, where ya at?”
She looked around before shaking her head to regain her center,
“I’m fine, don’t worry, get back to work and stop worrying over me.”
“ Yes, ma’am,”
“ Alright, shout if you need,”
She went in and slit the throats of several opponents, all while trying to clock what it was about Walker that sounded off.
That was Walker, right? What if it wasn’t?
It definitely wasn’t Alexei. She’d have gone deaf if he were on the comms just based on how he screams in their ears. Lena is also a unique voice, she knows it well. Bob doesn’t typically talk during missions, watching from the safer areas of the field, and she knew Bucky’s voice was the first one. That left Walker.
Something came slamming down beside her, and it pulled her straight out of her reverie and right into battle.
*
“Was that you on the comms?”
Walker looked at her with a borderline confused stare before blinking,
“Uh, yeah? Who the hell else could it have been, Alexei?”
So it was him. Odd.
“Say Ma’am again.”
“What??”
“Ava, go get checked by medical. Walker, I need you for debrief.”
Bucky’s voice broke them up before she could dig any deeper, and part of her wanted to stomp on Bucky’s toe as she walked past him, more or less it would hurt her more than him. He was definitely wearing his steel-toed boots.
*
“Ava, I’m gonna go to the grocery store, you want anything?”
She blinked, dissecting the sentence only for John to look at her with a slightly worried tone before waving his hand in her face, getting her to react.
“Sorry, looked like you stroked out-”
“Why did you say it like that?”
“Pardon?”
“Grocery store. Why’d you say it like that?”
“Like what- you know what, I’m not taking flak from someone who sounds like they drink tea with their pinky out, do you want anything or no?”
He was answered by a pillow flying at his head as he darted out of the room, swearing, before shouting that he was just trying to be nice.
She laughed, listening to him tell Bob about it before leaning in to listen to how he said it again.
What a weird way to say that.
She ended up texting him that she wanted a pint of Ben and Jerry’s of his choice, he sent her back the salute emoji.
2- Bob
Bob loved cooking with John.
More like watching John cook, then cutting things for him or trying to help.
He had, at some point collected a list of comfort meals from each Avenger, and then taught himself how to make it to perfection.
Alexei loved Solyanka, he said it reminded him of growing up. Lena could house an entire plate of Golubtsi at any given moment it was made, and both of them loved Medovik. John made it after he stress cleaned at one point, and he was terrified he’d screwed up by the way they both cried after eating it. Turns out he was just that good at making it.
He was pretty sure he’d written a whole cookbook of the food Ava liked. Depending on her mood, he’d have something small and snacky out, a sweet treat, or he’d scratch an entire plan for dinner to make her something she wanted without telling her. His go-to for her was asado, and judging how she’d smile before dipping into a bowl each time, Bob figured there must be a childhood memory tied to the red soup..
Bucky was a lot easier to read than Bob had expected.
Breakfast. He was a total breakfast person. He was borderline obsessed with Pancakes of all things, and John made some of the best pancakes he’d ever eaten (both high and not high). Bucky agreed based on his little hum and smile every time John called for dinner, and he saw the fluffy things stacked on the countertop.
Bob was happy to tell John about the different things he enjoyed, he was a total foody too, so he felt slightly bad for throwing that much at the man in one afternoon. John didn’t seem to care, he just nodded along, texting someone as Bob talked (turned out he wasn’t texting, he was taking notes so he could look them up later)
But for Bob, it wasn’t food per se that had his heart. It was oranges. Everything and anything orange. It reminded him of home, of the best parts of Florida. He also loved key lime pie.
It took all of one conversation at the store about his orange love for there to always be fresh oranges on the counter and orange slices in the fridge. And the next time Bob felt like the darkness was going to swallow him alive, John had quite literally dragged him out of his room by his sweater to bring him to the kitchen, telling him he had a surprise for him.
Bob ate the entire key lime pie while John sipped on a cup of coffee and talked about mundane shit until he felt like the shadows were out of sight.
It wasn’t until now that Bob realized he had no clue what John’s comfort dish was.
“John,”
He hummed, not answering fully.
He was quiet today, he had been for the past two days, actually.
Dinner had been… odd to say the least, not bad at all, it was delicious, just not anything they’d had before. They’d had shrimp and grits the other night, they were some of the best tasting stuff Bob had eaten in a while, (and according to the way the others destroyed their plates, they all felt the same), but the real kicker was the sheer amount of peaches.
Everywhere.
He didn’t even realize it was peach season.
But John had made peaches every which way but left. They had them for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert the last three days (aside from the shrimp and grits), and no one was complaining; they were just confused.
“I never asked you what your favorite dish was.”
“Like tuh make or?”
He still hadn’t looked at Bob, focused on slicing the peaches really thin.
“No, not really. I um. I meant your comfort food. What do you make when you want to go home?”
He was quiet. Really quiet. And suddenly Bob was worried he’d said something wrong.
“I like peaches.”
He didn’t elaborate. He didn’t need to. Bob understood now with full force.
He wondered how he’d missed it, the way that it was so obvious now, but he was glad John felt comfortable enough to say something no matter how vague it was.
And how odd it sounded. What was that accent?
He was going to ask, but he brushed it off as he walked over and pulled himself up to sit on the counter right beside John, telling him about how he got his job as the chicken in the first place.
3- Yelena
They’d decided to drive to their destination. Why? Not a single one of them knew.
That’s not true; they did know.
Alexei had said it would be great bonding as a team to go for a trip…. The trip was apprehending a fugitive who was starting a terrorist group, but hey, semantics.
The trip had rattled John. That much was very evident.
He was driving back, their prisoners in the back of the truck with Ava and Bucky keeping an eye on them (and Alexei… but he was more so talking them to death so doing his part for sure!) Bob had sat this one out, saying he wanted to get the tower cleaned out for the holidays. Yelena was sitting shotgun.
She half fooled around with the stereo, every now and again saying something silly to John or asking him about random things in America to try and center him, her attempts were failing.
“Tapping out,”
He said suddenly, pulling over and catching her off guard as she was halfway through retelling the one time she’d taken Alexei to a McDonald's.
She nodded instantly, straightening before sending Bucky a quick text,
He said Tap Out, I’m taking over.
She got a response in seconds as John pulled the truck over and got out, squatting in the snow with his head in his hands,
Son of a bitch. I was worried this was going to be too much. I’ll handle it can you drive?
She liked his message before crawling over to the driver's seat, watching Bucky join John in the snow, his hand hovering above John, clearly asking permission to touch him. It took some time before Bucky’s hand went down to rest on his back, rubbing a circle on it slowly. She couldn’t hear the conversation, but she imagined it had to do with something in his past that the mission had triggered; somehow, Bucky knew about it.
Five minutes later, John stood up, nodded, and leaned in as Bucky gave him a quick side hug before directing him to go to the passenger's side. He nodded at Yelena before walking around to get in the back again, sending her another text as he did.
Don’t ask him about it. Let him talk if he wants to. Be gentle.
It isn’t odd for Bucky to make sure the team has space to heal, but it is odd for him to be so gentle with Walker.
John got in the passenger seat, his body still shaking like he’d gotten electrocuted as he sat there staring out the window.
“You ok?”
He gave her a thumbs up, not saying anything else.
“Seatbelt.”
It was a rule. No one went anywhere without their seatbelt. Too many people wished for a reason to die on this team.
He hummed before grabbing it, then going to lock it in, missing it due to his hand shaking.
“Oh sumbitch,”
He muttered, his voice tight and watery. Oh, this was bad bad.
“Here, John, I’ve got it.”
She batted his hand away before getting the belt and locking it into place, before starting the truck again.
“ ‘m sorry.”
He mumbled, his hands on his knees, his nails digging in hard.
“What for?”
Lena asked, looking ahead as she drove, but also watching him from the corner of her eye. He made a motion with his hand across his whole body, more or less, meaning he was sorry for being a mess. To that, she huffed, shaking her head,
“Not all of us can be perfect, John, none of us are, you are one of us. You have nothing to apologize for.”
“I’m thrown’ a hissy-fit over somethin’ that happened forever ago.”
“A death?”
He was quiet, before shaking his head tersely, tears starting to fall from his lashes,
“Then it isn’t… a hissy fit? I have never heard this term. But it is not that. It is grieving. You are allowed to grieve.”
The drive is quiet for some time before he chuckles beside her, his body relaxing slightly as he folds his arms across his chest.
“You never heard hissy fit before?”
“Sounds like something a cat would do.”
He laughed, shaking his head before explaining some of the slang he used and what it meant.
It was oddly endearing, hearing the meaning behind all the odd sayings he’d drop from time to time.
And it helped bring the shaking to a full halt, so she was happy to listen, nodding along or asking for it to be put in a sentence every now and again.
4- Alexei
John was amusing. This is a fact of life. The way he acts when he’s turned off by something, or the way he stands and watches you when he’s clearly trying to find the nice thing to say (he ends up going with the first thing he thought most of the time) but one of Alexei’s favorite things was watching him get spun up at game night.
“No FAIR!”
He shouted as Ava laughed, flipping him off as she moved her piece.
Monopoly was… a choice, to say the least, for them to play. But it had been Lena’s turn to pick, and she’d never played it before.
So here they were, everyone drinking their liquid of choice, sprawled in different areas around the table, playing.
Ava was winning, John was losing; this isn’t new, but it never gets old.
“Ah Hell nah, she’s cheatin’ for sure!”
“I am NOT you’re just a sore loser,”
He sputtered, flopping back dramatically on the floor as Alexei laughed, patting his thigh,
“It is not end of world comrade, if she cheats, then she cheats.”
John grumbled something in a string of words Alexei had never heard put together, but he just laughed at John’s very under-suppressed frustration to be losing once more.
He found that whenever John got animated (stressed out, excited, flustered, what have you) his tone would change a bit. Not in a bad way, just a way that comprehending what he said was harder than it wasn’t. Alexei assumed this was a his problem; he was still not so good at English, but as of late, he’d catch some of the others asking John to repeat himself, and whenever they’d do that, he’d say it clear as day in his typical John voice.
That was what it was, it was like he was talking, but it was someone else’s voice coming out,
He wondered if that’s how he sounded trying to speak English.
If it was, no one mentioned it. So he decided to return the favor for the blonde, simply letting him grumble on the floor like a sore loser as Bob moved his place, excitedly declaring he’d buy a hotel from Alexei now.
5- Bucky
They were finally on their way home from a week-long stint, and all Bucky could think about was showering and sleeping off the various bruises forming on his body.
Alexei was driving, Bob was in the passenger seat, and the other four were in the back in various states. Lena was asleep on Bucky’s shoulder, her legs over John’s legs, and Ava was beside John, her head on his shoulder as she slept, holding onto his forearm.
He thought John was out too (good, he needed the sleep. That fight beat the shit out of him.) but he woke up the second his phone went off, the sound of a facetime coming through.
He flipped it on, waving at the screen with his free arm (the one Ava was holding captive was the one he was using for the phone)
“ Hi Peaches, how are you, baby?”
Who-
Bucky fought the urge to look at who was calling, and who the hell had just called him Peaches of all things.
John chuckled, not at all bothered by the name,
“I’m good, Momma, thanks, just headin’ home.”
“ Oh good, I was worryin’. You didn’t answer my call yesterday and I was… well, it’s fine you’re alright. Oh! Is that-”
“Momma,”
She chuckled on the other end at the panicked warning in his hushed whisper. Huh. interesting.
Bucky peeked at the phone, trying to look nonchalant about it, although it didn’t matter, John was not paying attention.
It was a black woman, she looked about 50, and she was sitting on a porch in a rocking chair as she talked to him.
He could not figure out why, but her face looked familiar.
The two talked for a bit before he yawned, and she told him she’d call him tomorrow when he could stay awake without catching bugs. He laughed, told her he loved her and then hung up.
It was quiet for a moment, the two sitting in it comfortably as John let his head fall back on the car seat with a groan.
It had been a long ass week.
“Who was that?”
Bucky asked, trying not to sound as nosy as he was,
“Mrs. Hoskins.”
Oh.
The silence stretched for a moment longer before John continued,
“She all but raised me, good Lord knows my folks weren’t gonna do it anyways. So she’s Momma. She calls to check in, so does Bert. Glory and I text.”
Bucky hummed, taking it in silently. It was a work in progress to get John to be honest about his shit, but it was paying off.
“They’re all I’ve got. For a long time they really were all I had.”
“Not anymore.”
He said without thinking. John huffed a laugh, before turning his head to look at Bucky, a small smile forming on is lips,
“ ‘suppose you’re right.”
+1- everyone.
His stomping grounds. It’s been a year since he’s stepped foot here again.
There were all sorts of reasons, some being he was scared to be seen by the people who once cheered him on, sure. But the biggest was having to walk in all the places he and Lemar had at one point.
He wasn’t ready to face that memory.
And yet, the mission had taken them to Custer’s Grove, and he (although he wouldn’t admit it) had already thrown up three times.
They took the girl down with little to no issues. He wasn’t really paying much attention, not really. All he wanted to do was fuck on out of there as fast as possible,
But they had some time in their flight, so they decided to walk around, and then out of nowhere, he was taking them to all his favorite haunts, showing them where to get the good ice cream, telling them about the park down the way, and showing them the back alleyway where he and Lemar would graffiti (they never got caught. But Leena always knew they did it.)
Ava and Lena looked confused as to how he knew as much as he did about the area, and Bob was just happy to be involved. Alexei and Bucky walked a little further behind, chatting in Russian, about what John didn’t have the slightest clue.
He wasn’t sure how, but he ended up at the flower shop, knocking three times on the glass before stepping back to wait to be let in, his hands in front of him politely.
“Where’s this?”
Ava asked, watching him in a way he had found he loved.
“It’s uh, it’s a flower shop.”
“No shit Walker, I can read.”
“Oh, you read English? Didn’t know that you could do that, Belova,”
Lena snorted before shoving him in the arm, getting a laugh from him too.
“ We’re closed!”
Came a voice from inside, and Bob made a soft “awe” in disappointment,
“Even for me?”
He asked, and Ava smacked his arm,
“John! Don’t be an asshole you aren’t special-”
They heard the excited scream from inside before she could finish giving him a what for, and the door swung open instantly, revealing the middle-aged woman who snatched all 6’4 of John and pulled him into a hard hug,
“PEACHES, my baby! Oh, I am so happy you came.”
He laughed, hugging the woman back as she shook him back and forth, clearly hesitant to let go.
“What is this, a reunion?”
Bucky asked sarcastically before stopping dead in his tracks,
“Oh,”
That was all he said as he watched them hug, then looked at his very confused team.
“Who…”
Ava trailed off before the woman shouted behind her,
“BERT! HONEY PEACHES CAME HOME!”
There was another excited shout, and a man came out and snatched John into a similar long, hard hug, half lifting him off the ground as he laughed in response and let the man manhandle him.
“Is Glory home?”
“Aw baby, she just left, she has something to do with her boyfriend, I’ll let her know you stopped by,”
She looked behind John at the bunch of misfits before her smile not wavering,
“Y’all must be Johnny’s team, I’m Leena Hoskins, and this is Bert. We’ve all but raised this little bug alongside our Lemar,”
And suddenly, it clicked for each of them (aside from Bucky), clarity hitting them like a wall,
“Wait-”
“Hold on one minute-”
“Ohhhhhhh-”
“YOU’RE A SOUTHERNER??!?!”
*
“I like it.”
The two sat side by side on the plane home, just like they did with everything.
John looked down at her, having just been watching the ground get small as they took off,
“Like what, Georgia?”
“Well, yeah. I’d love to explore it more.”
He hummed, going back to looking out the window,
“Maybe we can go check out some of the things to see,”
“I’d like that.”
He hummed again, his hand finding hers. She played with the edges of his sleeve, pulling the stray threads out, before smoothing out the bandages on his fingers from the fight.
“But that’s not what I meant,”
He looked back at her, raising an eyebrow in confusion.
Alexei snored behind them, and they heard Bucky elbow him, the other man also asleep. Bob and Lena were watching a movie in the seats in front of them, and it felt like it was just the two of them right now, even though it was a full flight home.
“I meant your accent. I like it.”
Oh
“I don’t um, I try to avoid using it.”
“You shouldn’t. I think it’s nice. It’s fitting, in a way.”
She finished smoothing down the wraps before looking up at him, giving him a small smile.
“It’s very you.”
He hummed, smiling down at her in a way that made her stomach flip,
“So you should use it more often.”
He chuckled, shaking his head in amusement, but not taking his eyes off her as he relaxed into the chair,
“Yes Ma’am.”