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The team had completed a mission, and they were on their way home. The team minus Walker, that was, because he had gotten hurt on a previous misson and had reluctantly had to sit this one out to give his ribs enough time to fully heal.
Arriving at the tower, they were welcomed by a rather nervous looking Bob. And that was never a good thing. "What's wrong?" Bucky asked.
"Valentina was here," came the reply, and immediately Yelena was standing nex to Bob, letting her eyes roam over his body, not so secretly looking for any clues that Valentina had hurt him. Not finding any evidence of physical harm - or a new super power or whatever - she asked, "What did she do?"
"She was being a bitch," Bob revealed with an exasperated chuckle. "But Walker was with me, and he told her to fuck off."
"But that's good," Ava said while wearing an expression of reluctant pride. "So why do you look so ruffled?"
Bob shuddered - and Bucky was confident that it had had nothing to do with the spring chill. "Valentina, she, uh," Bob eventually stuttered out, "she did not appreciate Walker's snark." And, yeah, Bucky could very well imagine that; he himself had gotten annoyed at Walker's snarky comments before.
"So Valentina slap Walker, yes?" Alexei asked. "It is natural reaction to him. But do not worry, young friend. He has walked away from worse. Bad mouth but good solider, no? Walker will be fine."
Bob's face crumpled even more. "I don't think he is, though."
It was Bucky's turn again. "What exactly did she do?"
"She didn't hit him," Bob nervously explained. "She injected him with something. She left right after, and I went after her to ask what she had done, but she just laughed. When I got back to where I had last seen Walker, he was gone. And I haven't been able to find him since."
They had looked for Walker everywhere but had not been able to locate him. Not even the tower's damn A.I. had been of any help. It had informed them that Walker had not left the building, but for some reason it had not been able to read any signal as Walker's.
At one point, they had found some of Walker's clothes, but they had never found the man himself. Was the injection messing with Walker's thermoregulation and hence raising his temperature? But shouldn't they have been able to locate him, then; feverish though he might be?
There was a general atmosphere of concern amongst the team. Especially Ava began to worry. Was it possible that what Valentina had injected into Walker had turned him into a "Ghost" and had made him phase through matter? Was that why the A.I. had not registered him leaving?
She was so lost in her thoughts that she had almost missed the sound of footsteps. Looking up, she found herself staring at a blond boy of about 6 years of age wearing nothing but a too large shirt hanging off his shoulders. Wait... was that...? Before she had managed to pull herself together, the boy had run off.
Running after him, Ava yelled into the comms, "I think I found him. He's, uh... He's a child... I'm in pursuit... Hey, kid, stop, I'm not going to hurt you... John!"
Alexei and Bob, who had just met again after having previously split up to cover more ground, looked at each other for three long seconds. "Come again?" Bob asked.
"He's a fucking kid!" Bucky and Yelena heard Ava yell. And they had not only heard her voice through the comms, they had also heard it coming from around a corner.
Mere seconds later, they heard the flapping of bare feet, and soon a bright-blond boy came running around a corner. Spotting them, he came to a halt and began running away around another corner.
The thing was that Child-John did not stand a chance against Bucky's super solider speed.
Child-John had fought them valiantly, had even given Bucky a bloody nose when he had grabbed him. Eventually, though, he had calmed down - if it was because he had started to believe them that they were not going to hurt him or if it had been out of sheer exhaustion, they could not be sure.
The boy was sitting on the couch between Ava and Bob while Bucky and Alexei were standing off to the side as not to make Child-John nervous. Yelena came back from the kitchen and handed the kid some ice cream.
Sadness filled Child-John's blue eyes, and he said, "No, thank you, Ma'am," while pushing the bowl away.
"Don't be stupid," Yelena teased light-heartedly, "everybody likes ice cream!"
Bob, on the other hand, offered, "You don't have to have ice cream if you don't like it. You can have something else. We have a lot of candy too!"
Child-John wordlessly shook his head.
"We could make pancakes," Ava tried. "Bucky makes some really great pancakes, with chocolate topping! What do you say?"
But Child-John shook his head again. "Thank you, Ma'am, but I'm not allowed."
And that... "What do you mean, you're not not allowed?" Bucky asked.
"I... My parents say I can't have sweets."
That was when Alexei boomed, "We will not tell! Sweets will be a secret!"
But Child-John shook his head again and whispered, "They will know when they weigh me. They will punish me again."
While Bob looked decidedly green in the face, Bucky found himself tracing Child-John's too thin arms with his eyes. Ava rubbed the child's back in a soothing manner, and Alexei mumbled something about getting him some fruit instead. And Yelena, she asked, "What happens when you have sweets anyway?"
"They lock me in the basement without food for two days, and I don't like the basement. It's not worth it for some chocolate."
They had spent the day watching movies with Child-John.
After many hours, the kid fell asleep and could not be roused. And when he started rapidly growing, Bucky and Alexei took him to John's room and put him in some grown-up clothes.
When John came walking up to them a few hours later, he was back to his tall self. "How did the mission go?" he asked when he saw them all sitting there.
"It went well," Bucky stated. "Are you OK?"
"I'm always OK... Wh-why do you ask?"
It was Yelena who eventually said, "Because you look like shit, Walker. And more than just the naturally ugly state of your face."
John rolled his eyes at her teasing and stumbled out with, "I, uh... It's nothing, I just had a strange dream. Those painkillers are really something..." Looking slightly uncomfortable, he added, "I should probably go to the gym, compensate for not having been able to train for a few days..."
While none of the others really knew how to respond to that, Alexei came up to Walker, clapped him on the shoulder, and said, "You are strong enough, in good shape. Maybe a little skinny, yes? Come, eat some ice cream with us. It will make you feel good!"
"I d-... I don't know. I just..."
Mind made up, Ava said, "No, we will not accept any excuses from you, John. Bob, get the BIG tub of ice cream!"
If they stopped teasing him for his perfectionism and invited him to ice cream evenings more often, John was none the wiser.
THE END