Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

4 months after the NYC Void Incident

“Trust me man! You cook them up something good like Sarah taught you and you’ll all be family before you know it!” Sam’s warm voice crackled over the phone. Bucky had called him after another one of the blowup fights that the Thunderbolts New Avengers had gotten into. One that ended in all of them running off to their respective rooms and each billing Val on 6 different types of takeout. At least the money was Val’s, she deserved it if she was going to shove them all together in this damn tower. 

“I dunno,” Bucky sighs, poking at the hoagie he’d ordered. Ava had unceremoniously reached through his door and dumped it into his room. So, the fact it sorta landed on the floor made it a bit less appetizing. “I don’t think crab cakes made in actual heaven could make us get along.” 

“Nah, but crab cakes cooked Louisiana style might,” Sam snarks before continuing, “Listen. I gotta go deal with Torres because Isaiah is beating his ass and I stepped out of training to deal with your mopey ass. Just try it, alright?” 

“Alright. Love you buddy, go save the baby falcon.” Bucky smiles a little before the phone cuts off. 

Bucky misses Louisiana really badly when he looks around the Watchtower. The “renovations” Val had done left the place feeling dull and lifeless. Not that Bucky exactly loved it before either, it reeked of Tony Stark and too much money. At least back then the person that made it had a singular good intention in their body. 

Now it was just all grey and industrial looking. Alexei had dragged colorful couches into the main living room they hung around in between missions, and Yelena had thrown a colorful pillow on every fabric surface on the floors they lived on. It helped, kind of. The main floor was a minefield though. Half kitchen, half living room, total misery. At least they avoided the penthouse, Bob didn’t like the penthouse. Only Ava and Yelena could feel the benefits of the booze up there anyways. 

The argument had been dumb. Petty bickering that compounded into personal digs that ended with Bob accidentally shattering a glass and running out. It happened a lot, Bucky didn’t even participate half the time, but the glares he gave at the words directed towards him probably didn’t do much to stop it either. He just let everyone get it out and called them back for a briefing. The air never cleared, but so far they’ve gone from actively pointing guns at each other to just verbal threats. Bucky knew to take the wins where he could. 

He finished his questionably edible hoagie with a sigh, wiping off his hands and throwing the paper in the trashcan in his room. He debates going to check on Alexei. The two shared a floor, being home to their rooms plus one of the security rooms so Bucky could check in on his team and Alexei could watch the employees on the lower levels like it’s a bad reality TV Show. 

The debate ends quickly with a No, because Bucky didn’t feel like talking to the overzealous Russian man. Instead he fished out his worn leather notebook from a duffle bag. (He still hadn’t unpacked, unlike these crazy people he kind of liked his old Brookyln apartment.) He flips through the pages. Past Steve’s list of modern life, past his list of people to repay for what he’d done to them, and past his scribbles from therapy. He can’t remember when the journal stopped being about tasks, but the last fifth of the pages contained less heavy things. Sam’s instructions for how to find him if he ever goes dark, AJ and Cas’s list of video games he should play (he’d only gotten to Minecraft before giving up quietly), and a handful of family recipes lovingly written down by Sarah. 

Maybe it wasn’t a totally ridiculous idea, and crab cakes sounded really good. It’d be a taste of home, or at least the best home Bucky has left. He really needs to vacation in Louisiana again. Maybe Sam can go with him.

—

Bucky puts his culinary covert operation into action that Saturday. He’d added the ingredients needed to Walker’s grocery list and the man either didn’t notice or didn’t say anything because their spice rack had doubled in size and their fridge looked a bit less barren. A win for everybody.

When he got up to the kitchen a few of his team were hanging around. Ava was on the living room couch, scrolling through the romance section of Netflix as she lounged on her side. Yelena’s stupid guinea pig was on her shoulder, which meant Yelena was probably going to be joining the woman soon.

Walker was in the kitchen, wasting their blender on another protein shake. He was still in his workout gear, typical seeing as at 6 am every morning Walker went down to the gym and at 7:30 every morning he’d come back up and grab a protein shake before going on a run around the city. Then he’d just have one or two more a day, which Bucky could understand. The metabolism the serum gave you was unreal. It was currently 4 pm, Bucky stopped paying attention to Walker’s rigid routine around noon. 

That leaves Alexei and Bob missing, which wasn’t too bad. Moments away from Alexei were things Bucky relished in, and Bob was either in mandated therapy or alone in his room or Yelena was collecting him for a movie day. It was understandable, lazing around the day before a mission. The planning was already done, Bucky had seen to that.

“Hey Walker, I need the kitchen for a while. You good?” Bucky says as he starts getting out ingredients. 

“Huh? Yeah, I’ll be out of here in like two minutes. I don’t want to bear witness to whatever lovey dovey bullshit  Ava is watching,” the US Agent huffs. 

“I heard that, arsehole!” Ava shouts instantly, Walker just rubs his brow. Collecting his protein shake and throwing the dirty bender into the sink before walking off. Flipping off Ava in a mutual display of hatred.

What a lovely Saturday afternoon. 

Bucky just sets to work. Throwing a pan on the stove and carefully chopping up onions, bell pepper and celery. If there was one good thing about once being a mind controlled murder machine it’s that it gave him excellent knife skills. 

By the time the veggies are sizzling with butter in the pan Bucky can see that the dynamic of the living room has changed. Yelena has returned, Bob in tow, and the three settled on the couch. Yelena in the middle and the one with remote responsibilities, Ava and Bob on either side. Ava was still holding the guinea pig, Cucumber if Bucky remembered correctly. Bob had- wait a second- 

“Is that my cat?” Bucky calls after seeing the pile of white fur in Bob’s lap. The man flinches, quickly holding up Alpine and shifting to look at Bucky. 

“Yes-! Uh- sorry! She’s really sweet!” Bob calls back.

Yelena cuts in before Bucky can respond. “Don’t get mad at him Barnes, he is being very gentle. Right, Bob?”

“Yes! Very gentle,” Bob nods, flashing that toothy nervous smile he often did. Bucky was disarmed easily by it, he really was getting soft. 

“It’s fine.” Bucky mutters, turning back to his skillet. Throwing in his garlic and seasonings. Reveling in the aroma that fills the kitchen air just before taking it off the heat. It smelt like *home*, like Sarah and Sam’s bickering alongside Cas and AJ’s laughter. He should call them later. 

He’s beating eggs in a separate bowl when Alexei walks in, the large man grinning.

“Ah! The winter soldier in  the kitchen, what a sight to behold!” Alexei laughs as he passes through to grab a beer. “What’re you making, huh?” 

“It’s a surprise. Go watch 27 Dresses with the others.” Bucky dismisses with the wave of his metal hand, focusing on folding in crab meat and mayonnaise with careful efficiency.

—

“Don’t mix it. Fold. It’s important, makes everything better,” Sarah had explained, leaning on the counter as Sam and Bucky had been struggling through the kitchen. 

“I am folding it-” Bucky had grumbled.

“That’s more of a combine maneuver if I do say so myself.” Sam added, unhelpfully, from over Bucky’s shoulder. 

“I’m never cooking with you two again. I’m sorry I’m from the depression and can only cook stale bread.” Bucky had scoffed as he handed over the bowl to Sam.

“You will,” Sarah hummed, and that was  the truth.

—

“Why does a woman need that many dresses?” Alexei asks or well announces as he thuds over to the couch, snapping Bucky out of his memories. 

“Watch it daddy,” Yelena huffs, “It is a very sweet American story of capitalism and overspending.”

Ava gasps in total offense“Oh shut up! It’s a Classic! I love this movie!”

“Classic load of garbage,” Walker’s voice adds as the blonde man makes his way to join them all on the couch.

“I like it,” Bob’s quiet voice is just enough to hear over the sizzling when the oil in Bucky’s pan finally starts boiling and he returns to focusing on that.

Bucky takes great care in forming the disks of crab and seasoning. He’s still pretty butt hurt from when AJ had told him his cakes were lumpy, so he was extra careful now. 

He watches the disks turn golden brown with a smile on his face. It smells heavenly, maybe Sam had an actually good idea for once.  Bucky makes a solid stack of cakes, 18 or so. The others think he’s just cooking for himself. Somehow, in months of living here, they have only eaten dinner together once. That was when Val forced them to. There had been weak attempts, but Bucky felt like this one was a much stronger one.

They were to the scene going through the wedding registry by the time Bucky had finished mixing up a sauce. Proudly carrying his plate of goodies over to the table in the living room. 

“What is that?” Yelena asks first, because she’s the one who loudly says what she’s thinking at all times. 

“Crab cakes,” Bucky shrugs, “They’re good. Not my recipe, but good.” 

— 

“Here’s the family secret now. Don’t go telling anybody you thought this up,” Sarah hummed, sprinkling brown sugar into the mixture right before she formed the cakes. 

“Sugar?” Bucky questioned. 

“Trust her, Buck. These are gonna be the best things you’ve eaten in your whole life.” 

They were.

—

“Crab cakes don’t seem like something I’d trust a guy from Brooklyn in the great depression to make,” Walker frowned, but he picked one up. 

“Friends who know better taught me. I just thought we could eat dinner together. Y’know?” Bucky shrugs, taking a seat on the couch himself and grabbing one. 

Slowly but surely they all grab a cake and bite in, and Bucky isn’t one to brag but he might be the only one in the world to watch 5 enhanced crazy people melt in satisfaction all at one. 

“Oh mah gawd,” Bob mumbled with his mouth full. An appropriate reaction in Bucky’s book. 

“So this is what smelt so good?” Ava hums, biting in more cautiously. Given the whole ‘raised in a lab’ thing she kept reminding them about, Ava was cautious of any food that wasn’t beige or grey. She cracked the smallest of smiles while eating it though, so that was a win. 

“We eat together like family! Bucky is like mother at home who cooks for ungrateful children,” Alexei observes. It earns a groan from everyone but Yelena who laughs as she pauses the movie. 

“If we are having a family dinner we are doing it right and begrudgingly talking about our days,” Yelena declares.

Walker stares at them all, always annoyed when Alexei said they were a family. Really all of them got annoyed. But Ava and Bob just frowned and got quiet, Walker got verbal. This time however, he just sighs. “I ran into a kid on my run today who asked me if I was going to keep everyone safe. I said I’d do my best, and he smiled at me. Like actually. So that was nice.” 

“So you do have a heart,” Ava observes.

“Oh shut up.” Walker huffs, stuffing more crustacean into her mouth.

Alexei goes next. “The people in the third office downstairs waved at me today.”

No one bothers to ask why in the ever loving fuck Alexei was down there, Bucky just gives a small smile. “Getting to cook was nice.” 

“And we thank you for cooking,” Yelena hums, thinking for a moment. “I don’t know. I haven’t had a good or bad day. Just a day.” 

“I like this movie a lot. They used to let me watch it on a screen in the lab.” Ava admits, before scoffing. “This is stupid.”

“I also like this movie,” Bob adds in solidarity. Nibbling some of his food before continuing. “Alpine is a nice cat. Thanks for cooking Bucky.”

“It’s no big deal, and yeah. She’s a nice cat.” Bucky says, the smile sitting on all their faces seems a lot less forced. John’s teeth don’t show, and Ava’s is even across, and that makes Bucky feel like he did something right. But they can’t all get away that easily. “Someone else has to do the dishes.”

“Oh fuck you! You got them dirty!”

“Hey-!”

“I already did them this week!”

Bucky just quietly laughs as they devolve into bickering. It’s lighter this time. The move is eventually turned back on and they all finish it together. Alexei doesn’t even complain about dish duty when he sees that Yelena and Ava have both passed out. What’s even nicer is that Walker gets up to help him.

—-

“Oh say it again! I wanna hear this again,” Sam’s voice is just as warm as the last time they called. Bucky misses the Louisiana sun

“You were right, okay? You were right.” Bucky laughs into his phone. Laying on his back on the floor of his room. He’d carried the girls to bed with Walker so he was off duty for the night. Meaning he made an important phone call.

“Of course I was right! I’m always right. Were they good crab cakes?” Sam asks, presumably from where he’s laying in some safe house on his most recent mission. 

“Not as good as yours or Sarah’s. Everyone did the melting moan thing I did the first time I ate them though. I think that counts for something,” Bucky sighs.

“Of course they weren’t.” Bucky can hear his stupid smile. “Did it spark some connection?”

“We got like halfway to talking about genuine feelings. Which is a record unless you count Yelena laying us out during that day in New York.” Bucky sighs.

They sit in silence together after that. Sam just hums in agreement and they lay there. So close yet so far. If Bucky closes his eyes he can just barely imagine Sam laying right there next to him. Just Barely.

“You should call Sarah tomorrow, tell her you followed her recipe.” Sam finally says.

“We should go down and visit again sometime, with her on leave since the whole giant red monster thing.” Bucky suggests finally, waiting for dismissal. 

“Yeah Buck, we should. I’ll look into my calendar.”

The smile that covers Bucky’s face is sweeter than the sugar in those crab cakes. “Great.”

Chapter Text

A week after Crabcake Night

John hates his “roommates”. Sure, he only lives on the same floor as Bob. Not only is that a fucking crazy deal on its own, but his upstairs roommate can just drop into his room whenever she wants, literally, and the other three are equally as nosey and bothersome.

The mornings are the best things John has. He hits the gym every day. It’s nice and quiet and he only occasionally gets bothered by Yelena or Bucky, who are normal enough to not say anything to him. He gets two hours of peace and quiet. He doesn’t listen to music, he doesn’t watch anything on his phone. He works, the only soundtrack is his own breath. He liked it that way, quiet.

Things got worse when he cooled down by 9 or so. When people started asking him for things and bothering him. When Ava started her barrage of cruel insults and Yelena started her biting jabs at his character. He knew he was an asshole, but sometimes it was a bit much. 

Maybe it wasn’t. He was pretty awful. He knew that. 

Ever since Bucky Barnes decided to make crab cakes everyone had been making an effort to be ‘friendly’. Everyone except John, because it was dumb. He did not care about whatever Alexei was talking about from his days at the Red Guardian, he did not want to go out for a walk with Bob to look at the city lights, and he did not care to help Ava learn how to be a regular person. 

Maybe it was because he’d had a net before. People he loved, trust he felt. They were gone now, and if he couldn’t fall on them then he certainly wasn’t going to fall backwards and trust 5 insane murderers to catch him.

However, watching Yelena teach Ava how to make boxed Mac and Cheese and failing twice did bring a smile to his face. Not because they failed— at least not entirely— but because of the sheer amount of effort the two put into it. It was maybe sweet, until he remembered both of them could kill him. 

It wasn’t Jealousy, no that’s not it. He’s not jealous that the others are settling, and they’re barely even settling. Bucky still hasn’t unpacked everything he brought and Yelena has undone every lock Val has put in a window. Just in case, she’d say, and John couldn’t argue with that.

John just wishes that everyone’s first reaction to him wasn’t knee jerk disgust and hatred. The way Ava glares when he walks in the room or the way Bob tenses doesn’t go unnoticed by him. He doesn’t say anything though, because why would he.

The cooking that has become a staple of peace offering in the tower does make him long for his old grill though. He had enjoyed hanging in the backyard and making burgers for his family back when they could still stand him. Maybe it was the white dad in him, but it made him feel pretty good about himself. 

He remembers Bucky saying something about how the first thing Steve had gotten him after they were both in the states and free of mind control was a terribly greasy hamburger . Yelena and Alexei both seemed to enjoy them too. Who knows what Ava likes, but it’s not like a burger is a total palette change. (As much as they’d all liked the crab cakes, Ava felt sick for a day afterwards due to her incredibly weak stomach. It’s on the list to check her for a shellfish allergy.) As for Bob, well. John could make a solid guess for Bob.

If Bucky could make people like him by cooking, surely John could attempt it. Not because he was jealous. Not because he cared if these people liked him. No no, just because he likes manning the grill. 

—

“Man you have got to talk to more people,” Lamar had joked with a grin. Back when Walker was getting ready to be Captain America. Before he’d totally ruined his life.

“I talk to plenty of people!” John had scowled, wiping sweat from his brow. The two on a long afternoon run together. 

“Not enough. Do you even know your neighbors’ names?” 

John had sighed, because he didn’t. That was all Lemar needed.

“Just reach out John, you can’t sink if me or Olivia aren’t there. Grill in your front lawn, have the neighborhood over, make friends!” 

God how he had Sunk. 

—

It’s a sunday morning when John hauls a grill up the stairs and to the balcony outside the main floor. Impressively, he got the thing working without much difficulty. Smiling to himself when it turned on. 

“John?” Bob’s voice startled him enough to grab a spatula and point it in the most threatening manner possible. The scrawnier man quickly put his hands up. “Woah- heh- sorry..”

“Sorry, sorry.” John muttered, dropping his spatula back down. “What’re you doing out here?”

“Seeing what you’re doing.” Bob shrugs. “You sort of never willingly come out here unless you’re after something.” 

“First of all, rude. Second of all, I’m going to make us all lunch. Because I’m nice.” John crosses his arms, daring Bob to say something that’s reasonable to get mad at.

Bob just nods, smiling shakily, “Yeah.. very nice-” 

“Are you saying something, man?” John pushes, stepping closer. 

“No- no. Do you uh, want help?” Bob offered.

John debated for a moment. He wanted to say No, because he didn’t need the help. It takes the brain of a caveman to make a hamburger, especially since Bucky had been kind enough to get them a proper spice rack now. The less immediate reaction is to say yes, because it’d give Bob something to do and John hated how restless he looked when the man was bored. 

“Sure, c’mon.” John sighs. He does not smile at the way Bob lights up at the idea.

John collects the ingredients he had bought and gets to work. Letting Bob handle the salt and pepper and garlic powder. All from the heart, plus a bit of monitoring from the US Agent. They make an acceptable pile of meat and John forms it out into disks. They work in relative quiet, John likes quiet. He’s not sure if Bob likes it or is just used to it, but he doesn’t complain so that’s that. 

They head back out to the grill and John falls right back into his old talents. Cooking with a small smile on his face. Humming those shitty pop songs Olivia would blast on the bluetooth speaker while she played with their son. 

He doesn’t notice when Bucky and Yelena come out to find him. Not until they declare they’re heading out to get fries for him. He does notice when Alexei produced a table from fuck all nowhere and drags it onto the balcony alongside chairs. Ava comes around eventually too, she actually asks him if there's anything she can do instead of just doing. John doesn’t make a snarky comment for once, just asks her to go cut tomatoes.

By noon, they’ve made a lovely platter. Home grilled burgers laid out on the table, quickly stolen onto 6 different paper plates. Yelena makes some dumb comment about being the main chef when she adds a tray of oven baked frozen fries to the table, but everyone just raises a brow. 

“Thanks for cooking, Walker,” Bucky eventually says as they sit. 

“Da! Is very kind of you!” Alexei declares with that bright all teeth smile of his. 

John just shrugs, “Felt like grilling.” 

“I like these better than crab cakes,” Ava murmurs, earning a flat frown from Bucky. A typical enough expression that they all stopped reacting to it. 

“Better than typical American fast food,” Yelena observes.

“Are we going to do the fluffy dumb talking about our feelings thing again?” John ribs Yelena, nudging her with his elbow from where he sits. Immediately being smacked across the head in return. 

“Well since you were looking so forward to it!” Yelena slams her hands down on the table as she makes a bright declaration. “I went to see Kate Bishop today and she didn’t even get that mad at me for breaking into her apartment.” 

“You break into your girlfriend's house?”  Bob asks, with his mouth full because that’s a bad habit he had that they’d all unfortunately noticed. His comment makes the rest of them laugh though, because as much as Yelena talked about the new Hawkeye it wasn’t a crazy assumption to make. The rest of them knew it wasn’t true, but that didn’t stop Walker from choking on the fry he was eating. 

“She is not my girlfriend Bob!” Yelena scoffs, looking scorned by the way they were all laughing at her now. “She is my rival and friend! I wanted her to be a new Avenger but Noo she’s doing some weird thing with weird stretchy light power woman. Ms. Marvel or whatever.” 

“Someone’s jealous,” John snorts, earning another mean glare from the other blonde. 

Bucky decides to ensure everyone's life remains long and cuts in, “I scheduled a little vacation. I’m headed down to Louisiana with Sam next weekend. I’ll be gone Friday afternoon to Monday night. If anyone asks me for anything on Tuesday we’re going to get into a fight.”

“Sounds nice,” Ava nods. “I didn’t do a lot today. Me and Alexei sparred.” 

“It was a good battle, in the end I emerged victorious.” Alexei nods. “The Ghost is slippery though. A worthy opponent.” 

John doesn’t miss the way that makes Ava smile. She was a bitch, sure, but she was also still lost in a way none of them could really relate to. She’d never really had a normal life, not even for a moment. John had seen a glimpse of her shame rooms, of the ways she’d been tricked and led astray and suffered for no reason of her own. That just made it even nicer when they could crack a genuine person out of her hard outer shell. 

“I cooked,” John offers. Deciding that was much too obvious and probably not what the others wanted he continued, “I think I’m going to write a letter for my son and Olivia tonight. I haven’t spoken to them since I called to hear his voice after the Void mess.” 

“That’s good, Walker.” Bucky hums. “That’s really good.” He means it, which is odd. John and Bucky mostly ignored that they had to be near each other half the time. 

“Make sure you bill Valentina for the stamps,” Yelena nods. 

“We’ve wasted less of her money on fast food than usual this month,” Bob nods. 

John just sighs, watching them as Alexei starts telling them about how this reminds him of his ‘good old days’. He attempts to listen, but he slips away into watching instead. Watching the way Bucky nods like a dad who’s listening to an overexcited toddler. Enjoying the way Yelena tries to melt into her chair when Alexei shifts to talking about her. Hating how endearing it is to see Ava and Bob hanging off his every word, not that they showed it very much but Walker could see it in their eyes. 

After a while John gets up to collect plates and Bob stops him with a hand on his shoulder. 

“I’ve got it, John. Thanks for this.” he smiles, collecting everyone's plates and leaving John standing there like an idiot. 

—

“I can do it Olivia!” John had scowled when she took the laundry basket from him. It was early in their marriage, before they were so very angry. 

“I know you can John, but you’ve been gone all week. You should relax, enjoy being home.” Olivia had shaken her head and pushed him back towards the couch. 

“I can help you. Just let me help you, Olivia.” 

“You don’t have to help, John. Be here, that’s all I want.” 

He’d failed that too in the end.

— 

“Walker? Earth to Walker?” Bucky’s voice snapped him out of memories. John crossed his arms, forcing an annoyed sounding sigh. 

“What?” 

“Well, Captain Asshole, we were asking if you wanted to come for a walk with us. We’re going to central park.” Ava snips, crossing her arms right back. 

John frowns, but he enjoys being outside enough to put up with these idiots. They’re also all fit enough to keep with the brisk pace he does everything with. “Yeah alright,” he agrees, “I’ll come.” 

“Meet you downstairs in ten minutes then,” Yelena hums, and they all waltz off to their own rooms. 

John looks at their newly gained balcony table and smiles. Breathing in deep the high rise city air. It wasn’t so bad, and his grilling plan had positive results. 

—-

That night Walker sits at his desk and writes. His handwriting is typewriter-like, neat and just a bit blocky. He’s slow, deliberate with words. Trying not to sound harsh or distant. Trying not to sound pathetic.

In a small fit of desperation he heads over to Bob’s room, pounds on the door twice and waits. Bob answers looking scared that Walker is going to kill him.

He just holds up the paper, scoffing about how ridiculous this all is. Bob doesn’t seem to mind. He just reads it over with shaky hands. Nodding and giving that smile of his that made Walker feel like he was still not a full person.

“It’s nice. Yeah, yeah. Good, your kid’s gonna like it. Yeah,” Bob said, handing it back. “Maybe you should send that picture of everyone.. y’know? Let him see your face. Just a thought, if you wanted it.”

John nods, folding the paper carefully. “Thanks, you’re a helper.”

“I do my best.” Bob smiles, and John turns away before pausing.

“If you need anything just knock, I’m a light sleeper,” he adds before walking off back to his own room.

It’s a tentative peace, an open door to try and clear some air between them. He doesn’t see Bob’s reaction, but John imagines the man smiled.

John finished the letter, sealing a polaroid Yelena had taken of them all in with it. He smiles at his hand work. Baby steps.

He drops it off in the mail on his run the next morning. It makes his shoulders feel lighter.

Chapter Text

A couple of days after Balcony Burgers.

The smell of burnt cheese was not the best addition to the kitchen, Bob had to admit. He was just trying to make Mac and Cheese. Yelena had taught Ava, and Ava was useless in the kitchen. It’s really surprising that Bob had messed it up. 

Well not surprising necessarily. He’d lost track of time mumbling to himself about things and stopped focusing on the meal he was cooking. He was just going over the others and why Ava seemed upset and why Yelena was mad at Alexei again and why John had glared at him so hard and why Val keeps calling him sentry and…. Well. Things just bubble over sometimes. 

“Dear god what died in here?” Ava huffs as she walks in, going to the fridge to get one of those bubbly blue drinks with the marble in them that she likes so much. Bob can never remember what they’re called but he gets them when he’s the designated shopper of the week, hence why they have some now. 

“I burnt my pot of macaroni.” Bob frowned. A frown that, if she were here, Yelena would probably say made him look like a sad wet cat. 

“How’d you manage that?” Ava huffs, jumping up on the counter to sit. She phases a little when she jumps, just so she doesn’t have to deal with the lip of the counter. Bob thinks her powers are the coolest, don’t tell the others. She’s also the only one with actual powers, unless you count him. He’s not really into using those right now. 

“Yelena says that it’s easy, just watch it, you know when it’s done. I wish she’d stop throwing away the instruction boxes.” Bob sighs. “I got a little distracted and now… burnt cheese.” 

Ava nods in consolation, she too had absolutely murdered their kitchen before. 5 months in and they’re down two microwaves that sit in a shame pile that John made alongside the toaster and quite a few utensils that had gotten consumed by the disposal. The shame pile has not helped, seeing as Bob was probably going to have to add this pot to it if he couldn’t scrape out all the molten goo he’d made.

“Maybe you should bake,” Ava hums, “John says that’s all strict instructions so it’s harder to fuck up unless you’re genuinely dumb. Which, fun fact, John hates baking.”

Bob tilts his head, thinking. “Maybe yeah. Ooo I could make muffins! We need to eat more fruit.” 

“Not an awful idea.” Ava nods, sipping her drink. “We do need to eat more fruit.” 

“Bucky is definitely going to be mad if the blueberries mold again.” Bob sighs, that had not been a fun night.

Ava nods, clearly remembering the same awful lecture they had gotten. “I think Yelena has some cook books, you could go ask her to borrow one?” 

“Yeah, yeah I’ll do that,” Bob smiles. Turning to leave before remembering the blackened gunk in his pot. “Can we not tell anyone about this?”  

Ava just takes the pot and phases it into the wall behind the fridge. “Admit to no wrongdoing.” 

Bob decides not to think about the confusion of people the day this building gets demolished and just walks off to find Yelena. 

— 

“God Bobby! Can’t you do anything right!”  His father had shouted. Bob was on the floor crying as he had picked up glass shards that cut into his hands.

They say you shouldn’t cry over spilled milk. But his father happily yelled about it. 

Bob doesn’t like remembering things.

His mistakes all feel like memories. 

—

“Lena?” Bob calls, knocking five times on the door before waiting. Fiddling with the sleeves of his sweater. It was the blue one he likes so much. 

There's some shuffling before Yelena opens the door. Her hair slicked back from being wet in the way Bob didn’t like, not that he said it. She just looked tired like that. “Oh Bob! Heyyy, what are you doing?”

“Ava says you have cookbooks? I uh, I just wanna make muffins. So we don’t get yelled at again. Blueberry incident.” Bob explains. He still shakes a bit when he talks. It’s gotten better, but Yelena still smiles at him like he’s scared. Maybe he is.

“I have cookbooks. Come on.” Yelena shrugs, and Bob steps into her room. 

Yelena’s room is nice. Her bed was up in a corner, the legs of her desk sawed off so she could work on the floor, and those glow-in-the-dark stars plastered across her ceiling. Bob’s favorite part was probably the fact she had covered her walls in pictures and posters. Polaroids of the team, of her sister, of Kate. Posters of old movies, weird russian rock bands. She even hung up Alexei’s picture of her soccer team, “as a joke” she had said. Bob doesn’t think it’s a joke. Yelena clings onto moments of her life. She often says how she wishes she had a picture of things. Maybe they should get her some more film for her polaroid. 

Yelena also has the fullest bookshelf of any of them, and Bob happily reaches up to the top shelf to grab a cookbook. He flips through it, relieved when he finds a recipe for what he wants to make and looking it over. 

“Muffins do sound good, are you hopping on the bandwagon of making food Bob? You boys and your food. Making us be all friendly,” Yelena hums, when Bob looks she’s flipping boredly through a magazine. He would ask why, but he knows why. It’s because Ava likes them, and Yelena steals them whenever Ava gets ready to throw them away. A sly tactic to get to know her floormate, but it’s sweet.  

Bob shrugs, closing the book. “Just seemed like a good idea, you know?” He smiles, Yelena just raises her brow.

“Sure, Bob. It’s a good idea,” she concedes.

“Oh uh, Ava was up in the living area. I think Bucky is on the mission deck though. I can hear the computers whirring from here.” 

“Yeah, we leave tomorrow and Val still isn’t giving us the whole picture. He doesn’t want us in a trap,” Yelena frowns at the thought, tossing away her magazine. “I’ll get Ghostie and go help him.” 

Bob just nods and smiles, making his way out of the room with Yelena. The two ride the elevator up to the living area together. There, they find Ava sitting back on the kitchen counter. Swirling her bottle around to watch the marble rattle. 

“Ava! Come help with planning. I don’t want to deal with Alexei or Junior Varsity Captain right now.” Yelena barks, waving her over.

Ava blinks, before jumping down. The two walk before anyone says anything. Bob just waves, and as the elevator doors begin to close he hears Ava begin talking about some new blue eyeliner she saw in the magazines. 

Bob sets to work.

Baking proves a lovely experience. Bob gets to use the stand mixer, that’s fun. He gets only a small dusting of flour all over himself before pausing to actually get an apron. It’s John’s apron, the one that says ‘Grill Sergeant’. He hates it, they all love it. He always wears it when he grills now though, so that's a win.

He’s about to add in the blueberries when Alexei walks in, waving at him. Alexei smiles, he always smiles. Except when someone starts getting hurt, or starts crying. Bob likes that smile. 

“Bob! How are you on this glorious day, eh?” The man pats him on the soldier, looking into the mixing bowl.

“I’m good, thanks. Making us muffins, I hope you like muffins.” Bob smiles.

“Who doesn’t like pastries! Now, have you seen my Lenoshka?” Alexei says as he pats him on the shoulder. Hard enough that Bob winces a little bit, but it’s nice.

“Lena went up to the mission deck with Ava,” Bob supplies as he pours a cup of blueberries into his batter. This is before Bob remembers that the two were fighting earlier, maybe he shouldn’t have said that. He should think more, he knows that. “Uhm- are you sure she uh. Wants to talk to you?” 

Alexei furrows his brow at that, and Bob cowers slightly. Don’t piss off the supersoldier that could fold you like paper- probably. “We were arguing, things are resolved now. Yelena, she is very loud when she is comfortable. Light inside her burns very bright, like fire in her. In end, she will get over it. If she’s still mad, she can be mad with me in the room.”

Bob nods, dusting his hands off. “Oh- okay. Have fun?”

“Planning is not fun. I appreciate your optimism.”  Alexei nods before grabbing a beer from the fridge and walking off back to the elevator. “Yell if you need anything.” 

“Will do,” Bob nods as he grabs a muffin pan. Carefully pouring each cup full of batter. It’s relaxing, and it’s nicer than cooking so far. Likelihood to burn himself or set something on fire with an oven was a lot lower.

The muffins look great when he slides them into the oven. Setting the timer with a smile and resolving to wait. Leaning back against the counter. His mind wanders Leaving him wondering about things upstairs, if Alexei and Yelena were really alright, if Ava actually likes Yelena, if Yelena actually likes Ave, if Bucky is sick of them all yet, if the planning was done, where on earth was walker, and if they were happy. Were any of them happy? 

— 

Bob was alone in this world. Alone and high out of his mind. Usually it didn’t make him feel miserable. But the coming down part always sucked. 

He was sitting in an alley way. Bundled into a coat that was massive around him. He was so thin now. When was the last time he ate? 

He was nothing, he felt nothing. He saw the cars pass on the street, saw the lights. They were all fuzzy, dull against his eyes. 

Its cold, he’s miserable. He needs to eat. But he needs to get high again first. God, he was going to rot away like this.

A miserable life as his wouldn’t  be missed. 

— 

“Bob, Bobby, Hello!” John's voice yanks Bob out of the void of his own mind. John’s got one hand shaking his shoulder. The other hand has an oven mit on, and it’s holding a tray of muffins. 

“Oh- fuck. Sorry- are they okay? I always mess these things up,” Bob sighs, running both hands through his hair. 

 John shakes his shoulder again, “Dude. They’re fine. I came in here before the timer even went off. You were doing the creepy as hell muttering thing. Don’t do that.” John huffs. He sounds angry, but Bob feels relieved that he cares in any capacity. 

The tray of muffins is set down, they look fine. They look good even. Bob smiles. 

“I just.. Trailed off. Again. You know,” Bob laughs weakly. The eyebrow raise he receives makes him shut up.

“Let’s take these up to mission deck, you included. I thought we agreed to stop leaving you alone for long periods of time.” John mumbles, shoving an oven glove at Bob. “Is that my apron?”

“Yes? Uh, also I’m not a dog.. You don’t need to watch me.” Bob fumbles, quickly untying the apron and laying it over the counter. 

“We just like you alive and not actively melting into the floor. Come on, they’ll love this. I checked the security feed and they’re currently all in the glaring at eachother phase of planning,” John shrugs, taking one of the muffins and starting to walk off. Bob falters before hurrying to follow with the pan. 

They ride up in silence. John just looks at him and Bob just stands there. John is weird. Theoretically he’s the normal one of them all, but actually no because he’s the regular human kind of fucked up and that’s just miserable. At least the others got ruined by others. John and Bob? They did it to themselves. (Alexei was a 50/50) 

Maybe that’s why the two went from hatred to a wary peace so fast. Things were easier with John around. He’s angry and loud enough for the both of them in conversations. 

“These muffins are really good,” John observes as he bites into a second one. Super soldier metabolism was a terrible thing. 

The ridiculous giant ‘A’ door slides open and the two walk in. The others look up. 

“Ah! The muffins!” Alexei smiles, waving him over. He sets the tray down. They all dig in without another word. Bob just stands there awkwardly as they eat. 

Then they all turn and smile, and thank him. He feels like he could just burst from it all. The fact they like him, they like what he does.

It’s a better high than the ones he remembers. He happily sits between Yelena and John when planning kicks back off with way less glaring.

The muffins are pretty good. 

Chapter Text

A week after Muffin Day

Yelena was bored. Like really, really, stupid, dumb bored. It’s so unfair! They’re Avengers, they should be doing something.  They got back from beating up some weird gang using super old chitauri tech yesterday. It was surprisingly easy, and that’s boring. You’d think a team whose superpowers were basically ‘punch hard, shoot fast’ plus one girl who could walk through walls they’d have more trouble. Not that Yelena necessarily wants trouble. Just, y’know. It’s the principle of everything. She doesn’t like getting her ass beat. She hates staring at her ceiling more. 

She could go bond, since apparently they did that now. Food seems to be the world's best bargaining chip. Walker grills or at least every Wednesday and Saturday they’re home. It’s a thing. Yelena hates that that is a thing because what the hell. Bob bakes now, with supervision because Walker freaked out when he zoned out and almost set the kitchen on fire. It’s getting better, if anything the baking helps. Don’t even get her started on Bucky Barnes and his stupid good Louisiana comfort food. The man is from Brooklyn! 

Yelena misses her macaroni straight out of the pot while Ava gets into a fight with the toaster. Well, Ava still fights the toaster, the sentiment remains. Had she started the sharing your feelings thing? Yes. Did she intend for it to go this far? No. She was the most open of the group like a month ago. Now Alexei and Bucky are sharing stories from the cold war era. 

What. The. Fuck.

She could go sit with Bob. They got along great. Yelena would say everything on her mind. Bob would ask one or two clarifying questions. Then they would sit and do their own thing. Yelena likes that, but she doesn’t quite feel up to it. 

Her final straw is when she hears Walker come to the girls floor and get Ava. The two have the gall to laugh together before getting in the elevator down to the gym to train. 

She has to get out of this tower. This is too much loser energy in one spot. She sends Bucky a notification that she’s leaving, because fuck letting Val know anything about her team, before puling on a hoodie over her white longsleeve and getting in the elevator. It’s raining, she’d rather deal with the cold than grab an umbrella. 

— 

Yelena was empty. Completely and utterly empty. She felt soulless and helpless and like absolutely nothing.

She sat and watched the world spin, her life meaningless between missions. She was meaningless between missions.

She looked at her phone, it was Kate’s number. Who cares? Kate doesn’t know her. She doesn’t even Like her. They fought not even a year ago. 

Yelena ignores the call, and ignores the growing pile of voicemails. Opting instead for another bottle of Vodka.

Amazing super spy behavior.

—

Kate needs to turn up the temperature in her weird apartment. It was seriously cold. Ever since her first apartment burnt to a crisp she prefers it that way. Y’know, that is pretty fair all things considered. Yelena preferred the old apartment but also it’s not like it was coming back. 

For once, Kate’s window to the fire escape is actually locked. At least she’s learning. Yelena forces it open without much trying though. A second surprise awaits her when she leans down to pet Lucky. 

“Oh my God Yelena!” Kate yelps, dropping the bag of bacon she was pulling out of her fridge. “You’re soaked! My dog is getting soaked. Why are you here?” 

Yelena shrugs, hands on her hips. “Can’t I visit my friends on a gloomy day?” 

Kate just stares at her dumbfounded. Kate looks like she always does. Black ponytail, purple for no reason. Her bow leaned against a nearby wall. Yelena smiles at the scene, some things never change. 

“... Is that the winter soldier's hoodie?” Kate points at her accusingly. 

“How did you know?” Yelena frowns. 

“Yelena. It’s missing an arm.” Well yeah that tracks. 

“Mine are in the wash, we have a painfully slow laundry system.” Yelena shrugs, leaving the dog behind to pick up the bacon Kate dropped. “What’re you making?” 

Kate frowns at her before just accepting her presence and letting her shoulders relax. She rolls her eyes when she answers, “jalapeño poppers.” 

“Why are you making jalapeño poppers? That’s a party food, you are not at a party. Are you throwing a party?” Yelena huffs, hopping up to sit on the counter in the most inconvenient place for Kate to deal with. 

“I just want some. I like them,” Kate sighs. 

“Biiiishoop. You are not being fun. Don’t you have stories of the stupid things you do to share?” Yelena sighs, kicking her feet. 

“You’re getting my counter all wet,” Kate mumbles. Ignoring Yelena’s question entirely. Rude. 

“It is wet outside, that is not my fault,” Yelena replies. Kate just hands her a knife, and Yelena opens the bacon package without complaint. Kate sets to work with jalapeño’s shes set aside, chopping them in half and scooping out seeds. 

Kate doesn’t seem her usually bouncy self. Yelena didn’t expect her to be happy all the time, that’d be ridiculously hypocritical. However, she did sort of come for a pick me up. 

“Kate, is something wrong?” Yelena feels awkward just for asking. The comforting smile she attempts to give feels lopsided.

“No, nope. I’m good. I’m great! Why?” Kate says with what Yelena can’t decide is sarcasm or desperation. 

“... is it Barton?” Yelena guesses. 

“It’s nothing, Yelena.” Kates chopping gets more aggressive. 

“ The Kamala girl?” 

“Yelena-” 

“Me?”

Silence. Bingo. 

Yelena frowns, jumping down and grabbing Kate’s arm before the black haired girl can grab a tub of cream cheese. “What did I do? I haven’t even been here in like two weeks!”

“Yeah because you’ve been playing house with your stupid superhero team,” Kate scoffs.

“Oh so that’s what this is about. Jealousy is not a good color on you Kate-“

“Oh my god shut up Yelena! I’m allowed to be upset about this. One day you’re telling me how much you hate them all, then you’re here wearing each other's clothes! What’s next, friendship bracelets?” Kate snaps, yanking her arm away. Yelena didn’t think she’d actually be this mad about it all. It wasn’t a big deal.

“You’re being over dramatic . We’re getting along a little better now that’s all,” Yelena reasons to no avail.

Kate just gets angrier, and sadder looking. “You told me you didn’t want to be on a team! Where’s little miss solo missions and ‘Get Out Of My Way’? Huh? How come when I asked you about the team Kamala was forming you blew it off but this one’s just sooo great!?” 

“It’s not like that! We got forced into it-“

“I don’t care! You’re such an asshole Yelena.”

“I am not-! I’m living an actual life now and you’re mad at me for it? You’re mad at me for feeling better? For making friends and finding my people? So what I like them now. I changed my mind!” Yelena snaps back. The two now up in each other’s face in a way that had to end poorly.

“I’m mad at you because you could’ve called, Yelena,” She scoffs, “I would’ve been there. I know we’re not friends. But I gave you my number for a reason. You were miserable, and I didn’t even know it. You hid from me, but you’re so open with these- these Nobodies.”

“They are not nobodies-“ Yelena defends. The glare she gets only proves Kate’s points. “Okay look. I admit, I made bad calls. I fucked up. I.. I’m happy now Kate. My new friends are the worst people, they’re all kinds of royally screwed up. But, we’re a team. I needed that, even if I only learned by being forced.”

Kate’s glare softened, and she let out a long breath. Yelena didn’t comment on the way it ruffled both their bangs. “I’m happy for you Yelena, but it sucks to be second place I guess.”

“You are not second place. It is.. different podiums. I like you for different reasons, it’s incomparable.” Yelena tries to smile again, this time Kate smiles back.

“Such a dick,” she mutters.

“You like me, generally unpleasant nature or not.” Yelena grins.

“I’m hungry, I’m too hungry to argue. I’m still unhappy,” she sighs, grabbing her cream cheese again. 

“So unhappy, it’s radiating off you in waves. Truly wounding,” Yelena teases, poking at Kate’s ribs until she giggles. “I will still always visit you, Kate. Don’t go getting jealous, I choose you. The others, we’re kind of duct taped together.”

Kate’s smile returns in full force, “well. If you wanted a pick me up, let me tell you about this thing Kamala did. We were patrolling right and she was on her light platform but….

---

By the time the jalapeño poppers are out of the oven, Yelena has a comprehensive report on the life of Kate Bishop. All her struggles with this new team she’s being roped into, her weird relationship with Barton, some failed dates, Lucky being a trash dog. It’s all well and good, and exactly what Yelena came to hear.

It was nice to melt away from the New Avengers, to remember a slightly simpler time. Christmas in New York had been much fun, even if undercut by her poor plan and murderous motivations. She should convince Kate to come to the tower for Christmas.

“These are good,” Yelena observes as the two set on eating a whole tray of jalapeño poppers together in front of Kate’s TV.

“I know right, and they’re really easy. Like three ingredients if you’re not picky.” Kate shrugs. “Are you caught up on the Great British Bake-off?”

“No, we don’t get Netflix at the tower because Valentina is evil,” Yelena sighs.

“How are things? I assumed pretty hard back there,” Kate hums as she cues up their show.

“We’ve been actually getting along. Ava hasn’t stuck her hand into anyone’s chest in three weeks, which is a good measure.” Yelena shrugs.

“It’s good you’re all getting along now.” Kate hums, biting into another popper, “I was worried. Like, John Walker and Bucky Barnes? How is someone not dead yet?”

“Crab cakes,” Yelena shrugs. 

“What do you mean ‘crab cakes’?” Kate scoffs, nudging her. 

“Bucky Barnes made crab cakes and I made one simple, harmless joke about family bonding. Now they have begun cooking for each other and talking about their feelings. All of them. It’s a whole, very annoying thing.” Yelena frowns as she explains, watching somebody ice cupcakes with fascination. 

Kate stares at her a long while before laughing, shaking her head. “You never stop surprising me.” Her laughter is a tinny, sharp thing. It makes Yelena smile.

“You know, I think they’d like these. I’ll have to try the recipe in our kitchen,” Yelena sighs, biting into the last popper before giving Kate the other half of it.

“You should, it’s really easy. I make them when I’m upset.” 

“You were upset before I even got here?” 

“... I missed you.” 

“Kate Bishop!” Yelena half mocks, half squeals as she leans into her. The two happily settled into a tangled pile on the couch. Warmly pressed together despite Yelena’s still damp state. Enjoying their comforting reality TV.

—

“Sloppy, again.” They had demanded, Yelena got up and restarted the combat sequence. 

“Sloppy, again.” They repeated, and Yelena went again. 

Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. The girls who had already passed sat on the couch, forced to watch. Yelena stared at them before going Again,

She’d give anything to be over there. Instead of being knocked into the ground. Her face was bruised. Her muscles hurt. But she got up. 

Again. Again. Again. 

—

Kate made Yelena take four things from her apartment when she left. An umbrella (promised to be returned), a paper with her jalapeño popper recipe, a bag of jalapeños and a key. So she’d stop breaking in. Like that'll ever happen. 

It’s almost 5 when Yelena gets back, heading up to the living floor and surprised to find everyone already there. Ava and Alexei were staring out the windows, making small talk about the rain or something that Yelena didn’t care about. Bob and John were playing Mario Kart, because of course they were. Bucky The Starter Of Bad Traditions Barnes was watching them both with amusement in his eyes. 

“You guys are all helping me cook!” Yelena shouts, they all jump and turn to her. 

“Bloody hell, Yelena. What do you mean?” Ava scoffs. Yelena just holds up her newly gained bag of peppers. 

“We’re making jalapeño Poppers. No arguing.” She orders? She’s technically the leader, so  yeah. She orders them. 

There's various responses. Ranging from Bob's excited smile to Walker’s deep groan. However, they all do get into the kitchen, and they get to work. 

Bucky halves the peppers while Ava guts them. Yelena scoops in the combination of cream cheese and shredded cheddar that Bob made to fill them. Walker wraps them with Bacon. Alexei sticks in the toothpicks and sets them on the tray. A perfectly functional conveyor belt. With a healthy dose of arguing and Ava flicking seeds at people, sure, but a functional one nonetheless. 

“What sparked this, Lenochka?” Alexei asks as he slides the last tray into the oven, Bob moving to grab everyone's utensils for cleaning. 

“Kate was making them. We fought. I wanted more,” She explains, poorly on purpose. They don’t deserve the intimate details of her life. 

“Lovers quarrel?” John teases. 

“Something like that.” 

“Did you resolve it?” Bucky crosses his arms, like he’d have to if she didn’t. Ridiculous. 

“She was upset about a lot. It bubbled up with the whole New Avengers thing and our arguments about me joining a team, etcetera. I cleared stuff up some,” she shrugs. 

“Was it the fact you’re wearing Bucky’s hoodie?” Ava points her spoon accusingly before Bob takes it. 

“Yes- how do you know that?” 

Bucky groans, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Yelena, you know we joke about how you two are dating. Whatever you are, it’s more than friends. Sam would get mad if I visited D.C wearing anything that you guys owned.” 

Yelena blinks. “It wasn’t like that,” she scoffs, ignoring how her face gets hot. 

“Maybe she didn’t say it but I guarantee that was a motivating factor,” John doubles down. 

“Whatever! It is resolved, we're fine now!” She yelps, throwing up her arms in exasperation.  It earns snickers and she glares at them all, but the heat is gone. 

Bob pipes up through the minor commotion, “Am I the only one that didn’t know Bucky was dating Sam Wilson?” 

Alexei nods, “I second this.” 

“Well he didn’t want us to know. However, we have two spy type assassins in this building,” John pauses to gesture to Ava and Yelena,”And they asked enough needling questions to get him to admit it a little while ago.” 

“So it’s really none of your business. Also, that’s not a public knowledge thing so don’t blabber. Our lives are complicated enough,” Bucky grumbles. Yelena grins, now it’s not just her relationship issues out on the floor. 

“Good that you settled things anyways, Yelena,” Bob adds back to the original conversation. “S’not good to fight over nonsense.”

The oven beeped at them and John grabbed the oven mitts and retrieved their food with surprising speed. For some reason, it made Bob snicker. No one asked why. 

“Tradition is tradition, time to talk about our days,” Yelena hums, grabbing one of the terribly hot peppers. “I already went.”

“I had a pretty meh day,” Ava shrugs, “I managed to phase John, I didn't hold it very long but he screamed like a little girl. So, success.”

“I did not-” John scoffs, but he does argue further. “I got a letter back from Olivia today, I haven’t read it yet. I’m glad she wrote back, even if it ends up being bad.”

“That’s the most mentally healthy thing any of us has ever said,” Bucky observes, earning him four glares and a frown. 

Alexei grins, “I had plenty fine day. I watched the security feed for a while, things are very exciting in the marketing department right now. Blue hair and Pink hair started arguing by the copier and badly bleached hair had to split them up. Interesting stuff.”

“Does Val know you treat her employee’s like reality TV?” Ava scoffs. 

“No, why?” Alexei frowns. 

“I had a good day. I watched Cucumber since Yelena was gone, that was fun.” Bob hums, fiddling with his hands. 

“My day was fine, Alpine layed with me this morning so I slept in. Worth it.” Bucky shrugs.

With that they all dig in. Pleased sounds from all of the others convince Ava to take a bite and she almost instantaneously yelps. 

“You didn’t tell me they’d be spicy-!” She cries out, the girl's spice tolerance might actually be in the negatives.

“It’s a jalapeño!?” Yelena gawks. 

“I’ve never eaten one before, how was I supposed to know!?” Ava coughs, grabbing a paper towel to spit out the pepper she had eaten. 

There’s a long moment of pause. John’s the first to crack, a small snicker escaping. That’s the end of it, because they all start laughing uncontrollably. Even Ava after she’s finished telling them all to go fuck themselves. 

Bucky, ever the peacekeeper, just offers her the bacon from his popper and they settle, happily leaning against the kitchen counters and chattering away.

Chapter Text

Within the same week as the Popper Party

Alexei loves his new team. He loves his new life. The Red Guardian! Back in action! It was everything he had wanted for a long time. He was happy to have gotten it. 

The people were great. They all reminded him of his Yelena and his Natasha. All terribly complicated and yelling at him, but he loved them dearly regardless. 

Walker was an interesting man. Patriotic, or at least he used to be. He’d been proud of his work, like Alexei had been. His spark was duller now. He was angry. When someone brought up anything about the military he retreated into his shell of anger and insults. Alexei tries to be kind. He understands the pain of being thrown away like you were nothing.

Ava was also in a shell, both literally and figuratively. They had gotten her slimmer bodysuits to wear under normal clothes, she could at least have that now. But she didn’t understand so much, she lacked experience in the world. It makes Alexei think of his daughters, they had the opposite issue. 

Bucky and Yelena were similar. In temperament and style. Quiet most of the time, but the most rational of all six of them. They put in genuine effort, they want to be good. Yelena is brighter now, that’s all that matters to him.

Bob, well. Bob is his own thing that Alexei won’t lie and say he understands. They get along though. Bob wanders a lot, Alexei is more than happy to scoop him into whatever antics they’re a part of. 

That’s how they ended up in their current predicament.  

Bob is standing in the middle of Walker’s bent shield, held on either side by Ava and Yelena. Walker and Alexei are bent down on either side, holding an edge of the shield. 

“Everybody ready?” Alexei calls. 

“Yup.” “Ready!” “Yeah” “Guess so-” 

“Three, two, one. Push!” Alexei calls and both him and Walker shove down on the shield with all their might, Bob acting as the counterbalance. 

“Wow you are making so much progress,” Yelena deadpans. 

“I believe in your ability to bend that metal. What was it again? Oh, right. Vibranium,” Ava sighs dramatically. 

Unfortunately, both of them have plenty of ground to stand on. Despite insane effort from two super soldiers, the shield remains perfectly taco shaped. Walker sighs, hanging his head in defeat. “Damn it.” 

“Still super sorry about that man,” Bob laughs softly, stepping out of the shield. 

“It’s whatever. I mean, it still works.” Walker sighs. “I’m just the guy with the bent shield now. 

“You’re still a valiant fighter, eh?” Alexei consoles.

“Okay now that this is over, I want to explore some more of New York. See the sights or whatever, anyone want to come with me?” Ava hums. “Now that I can walk around not looking like a serial killer I want to have fun.” 

“I’ll come,” Yelena hums. 

“Me too,” Bob smiles. 

“Isn’t it raining?” John sighs, dusting off his knees. 

“And? A little cold water is not going to stop the New Avengers.” Yelena scoffs.

“Alright alright I’ll come.” 

“I’ll stay behind for this one, you kids have fun.” Alexei decides, crossing his arms. “Someone must be the responsible one while the Winter Soldier is out on a mission.” 

The others all nod, Walker collects his shield from the ground. “Give me like 15 minutes to shower and change, I’m still gross from the morning.” 

“Sounds good. Ava come on there’s this new lipstick I got you need to try,” Yelena says, grabbing her arm and tugging her away. 

Bob just stares a while, turns and waves at Alexei, and then rushes to get in the elevator before it closes.

Oh the joys of youth. They’ll have fun, Alexei is sure. He can relax and hold down the fort for a few hours. They can take a little rain. They’re some of the best mercenaries and spies in the world, they’re smart. Alexei just settles down onto the couch and turns on the TV.  Maybe he’ll watch that baking show Yelena likes. 

—

“Alexei! What are you doing!” Melina shouts. Nothing, is the true answer. He had nothing To Do anymore. 

“Resting!” He yells back, knocking back the rest of his glass of Vodka. 

“Come help with the pigs!” 

“In a minute!” 

“Now!” 

Alexei groans. He doesn’t want to help with his not exactly wife’s pigs. He should be doing better things! Bigger things!

It was this or prison. So Alexei got up. 

— 

Turns out that you actually can’t trust four fully functional adults to go out without supervision. 

Alexei had no idea when they got home. It was after 1 am, because that’s when he stopped watching the surveillance footage and went to bed. Around 8 the next morning, he comes out to find Bob sneezing as he tries to eat cereal. 

“Are you sick, Bob?” The Russian man questions, “Why’re you sniffling?” 

“I'm just uh, I’m not feeling great.” Bob offers a weak smile, rubbing his nose. “What’s weirder is I didn’t wake up to John’s morning routine for once. He never overslee- Achoo!” 

Bob sighs, shuddering as he grabs a tissue to wipe his nose. He’s being swallowed by his sweater. He looks weaker than usual. Not that Bob actually was weak or frail, but he looked it in a way. Alexei has had enough of seeing Bob this unhappy looking for a lifetime. 

“Get your disease out of the kitchen, Bob.” Alexei sighs. Bob just sighs and shuffles over to the couch. Cuddling up into a blanket in a sad pathetic little pile. 

There’s no way all four of them went and got a cold right? Surely not his Yelena, she was smarter than that. He’ll start with Walker. It was a bit concerning that he hadn’t gotten up. The U.S Agent stuck to his morning routine with discipline that anyone could envy. Alexei thinks that a meteor could fall on the tower and if the gym was still standing, Walker would go.

When he gets to the floor Walker and Bob share he doesn’t see Walker’s door open. Which meant he was still there. Odd. Alexei knocks and shoves open the door. “Morning Walker!”

John Walker is a pathetic excuse for a super soldier at the moment. Whatever formula of super serum he got, it wasn’t the resistant to infections kind. The blonde was still in bed, his hair a tossed mess and a pathetically miserable look on his face when he rolls to look at Alexei. “What do you want?”

“What happened to you all?! Were you licking handrails?” Alexei crosses his arms. The groan Walker gives isn’t his usual one of annoyance but rather just discomfort. 

“Ava’s never like played in the rain or whatever as a kid. Bob felt like we had to remedy that and both me and Yelena are weak to begging. We spent a while getting soaked to the bone in Central Park,” Walker explains. Surprisingly helpful for his sniffly condition. 

Walker starts to sit up when there’s a loud sneeze echoing from above them. That’s when Ava comes falling out of the ceiling and lands directly on top of him. Alexei can’t help the laughter that bursts out of him when they both hiss in pain. 

Ava shoves herself off of Walker and stumbles to standing up. She’s in her compression containment suit, slightly less reliable than her super suit but she should still be able to keep herself on one floor of a building. 

“Ghost?” 

“I- ah- ah- Achoo!” She glitches again, managing to stay on their level. She shudders before continuing, “I have a weak immune system. The phasing and this cold aren’t friends.” 

“Of course it has you landing on me,” Walker groans, fixing his hair and reaching to offer her a tissue. 

“See, I expect this of you Ava. Walker, come on. You are a super soldier!” Alexei sighs. 

“I am a Sick Super Soldier, so shut up!” the man huffs, “I didn’t ask for some off brand mall santa to come bother me about it.”

Alexei is about to argue when Yelena comes barreling into the room, or rather this,to him. He has to catch his daughter before her face slams into the ground. She coughs a bit, rights her orientation. “What the FUCK Ava!? "Are you okay, what Happened?” 

“I glitched,” Ava shrugs. Yelena’s frustrated noise accompanies angry hand waving between the two. 

“Oh my god. The New Avengers' only actually impressive member, Ava Starr, dies because she sneezes too hard and phases into the ground and suffocates,” Walker recites dramatically, finally getting out of bed. 

Alexei looks at the three of them. Ava looks like a scuba diver put on a pink sweater and frilly shorts. Walker looks like a teenage boy got shaken awake by his father. Yelena is in pajamas that are too purple to actually be hers. They all are sniffling and look red and feverish. 

“We are going to handle this the way my fake wife handled Natasha and Yelena being sick!” Alexei declares. 

Yelena can’t even finish asking what he means before he lifts her to sit on his shoulders. Ava snickers, until Alexei lifts her up with his right arm. Walker starts backing away, but the Red Guardian succeeds. The man ends up hooked over his other arm. Walking out of the room carrying three superheroes, Alexei laughs to himself. 

“Put me down Alexei!” John huffs, attempting to hit him despite the way he’s being held like a barrel. It hurts a bit, but it doesn’t stop Alexei from getting in the elevator. 

“This is humiliating. This is on security footage. Mel and Valentina are going to see it,” Yelena sighs, leaning forward to rest on the man's head.

Ava is a limp form in his arms. She could actually get out of this situation fairly easily, given the whole phasing through matter thing. She didn’t, just hanging in there. 

“Mel and Val are probably laughing at us anyway,” John points out, Yelena shrugs and nods. 

“There is no shame in sickness, my friends! We will simply have a day off,” Alexei insists as he steps onto the main living floor. 

Not so gently, as seen from a lot of grumbling and groaning, Alexei deposits all of them onto the couch with Bob.They shuffle a bit and Alexei throws a blanket over them all. They look like a really sad enchilada. Tucked together and glaring at him. 

“Here is how this is going to go. I am going to call Bucky Barnes and inform him that two thirds of our team is incapacitated. Then, I am going to make us all Borscht.” 

“What the hell is Borscht?” Ava scoffs, her typical disbelieving smirk on her face until she sneezes and both John and Yelena hurriedly grab onto her. 

“Why’re we holding onto Ava-” Bob questions with a nervous laugh.

Yelena shrugs, “Apparently her weak little immune system of a tiny British child is so bad that being sick messes with her powers. She fell through the floor earlier.” 

“I hate you all,” Ava groans, getting John to laugh until he devolves to coughing. 

Alexei just sighs, this is worse than his girls getting sick and miserable back in the day. This is four people who could beat him up being sick and miserable and upset at him for no reason. “You all got yourselves sick. You will stay seated and sweat this all off.” 

The man gets out his phone and dials for Bucky on the team line. It rings once, twice, three times before Bucky picks up. 

“What do you want Alexei? I’m on my way back,” Bucky’s grumble is both relieving and aggravating. 

“I feel the need to update you. The other four besides us went out last night. They are all sick now. We’re down for the count for a day or two.” Alexei informs. He thinks he can hear Bucky hanging his head in pure defeat. 

“I’ll be home by nightfall tonight. Keep them from being stupid.” 

“Dah! I have everything under control, no worries!” Alexei dismisses, hanging up the phone and sighing. “I’ll be in the kitchen, yell if Ava falls through the building again.” 

The four of them take that, settling down and Bob offers Yelena a TV remote. Alexei hears quiet chatter about a new season of the Bachelor being out before disappearing into the kitchen. 

Alexei starts grating beets once he’s collected his vegetables. A task that fills him with nostalgia for a long passed era. Cooking for a family that wasn;t really his, even if they all acted so well that it started feeling it. The quiet meals in Mellina’s little home that made everybody uncomfortable. Warm memories flood each task, they’re steps he knows well. 

— 

“Hush, Yelena,” Melina has soothed the crying girl. Both of them had gotten some terrible feverish thing. Laying in Natasha’s room and just looking so awful. 

“You’ll feel better if you eat.” Alexei tries again, holding up a bowl, “Come on Lenochka, is good.” 

Yelena had sniffled, drying her tears. Staring at the bowl like it’s poison. 

“See you have to eat it or else I might just have to dig in. It’ll help,” Alexei had smiled. 

“Promise?” her little sniffles just broke his heart. 

“Promise.” 

It’s one of the few he managed to keep. 

—

The potatoes have softened in the soup pot by the time Alexei has finished reminiscing. He works on mixing in his mixture of tomato paste and vegetables. Adding a can of beans then letting it all simmer up while he grabs some bowls. 

The TV in the living room is quiet but it doesn’t stop the four from making snide comments about crazy women on reality TV. Walker’s surprisingly into it, Yelena likes making fun of people, Bob is mostly giggling at the awkward absurdity, and Ava is completely engrossed. 

Alexei just starts ladeling the warm reddish pink liquid into bowls, putting a generous scoop of sour cream onto each one. He sets the four bowls onto a tray and carries it over. “Alright you four, I have best cure all for simple ailments. Beet and carrot and beans, good for the body.” 

They each accept a bowl without grumbling. It makes Alexei so proud when Yelena’s eyes light up from recognition and she happily digs it. 

“Oh god I missed this, you never gave me the recipe,” Yelena bemoans, pouting at him. 

“This is weird,” Ava huffs. She takes another bite anyway though so Alexei doesn’t argue. 

John does though. “You think everything is weird. You get chicken tenders from any restaurant we go to.” 

Ava huffs but Bob throws an arm across and over who he can reach, “No arguing while sick. We’re watching the Bachelor.” 

“Thank you, Alexei,” Walker sighs. 

“Oh right,” Yelena mumbles, sitting up a bit. “I feel like shit but it’s been nice to feel bad in solidarity.”

Walker chuckles, grabbing another tissue before he talks. “S’nice to catch up on this show. I’ve been behind. Before you pricks say anything, Olivia got me hooked.” 

“Yeah, day’s sucked.” Ava nods, “I’m thankful for you all, making sure I don’t fall. We only ended up under the couch once.” She’s smiling into her soup bowl, nobody calls her out on it. 

“I agree with the general census,” Bob yawns, “I bet you were a great dad Alexei. Doing this for us.” 

Alexei sighs, sitting down onto one of the chairs by the couch. “Well, I could have been a better one. I did my best, but I wish I could’ve done more.” He blames himself for the quiet lull there, he was being awkward after all. 

“You were great, papa,” Yelena mumbles, leaning into Ava. “Thank you, for everything. Then and now.” 

“With our attitudes someone would probably have passed out by now,” Bob laughs a bit, following after to lean into Yelena. Walker puts an arm up over the couch and Ava finishes the chain by leaving into him. 

“Yeah, thanks.” Walker smiles. 

They all settle in after that, Alexei gets himself some borscht after they all confirm they don’t want seconds. He also learns way too much about very desperate American women.  The guy in the show isn’t even that good looking, but Alexei keeps his comments to himself because Ava and Walker seem to care a lot about it. 

Bucky gets back around 6 pm and by then the four are long asleep. He sighs, disappears into the kitchen, comes back without his metal arm and with two open beers. 

“They alright?” Bucky sighs, handing Alexei a bottle.

“They’ll be fine, they’ve been through worse than a common cold.” Alexei shrugs. 

“And they’ve got you looking after them.” Bucky nods, the two share a smile and drink. 

The two fall asleep in the living room as well. Val is incredibly confused and mildly annoyed when she discovers them the next morning because Bucky didn’t file a mission report before checking on the others.

Chapter Text

After a while to recover from Soup for the Sick Day.

It’s really upsetting how comfortable Ava has become. You’d think the Watchtower would feel like another cage, but it doesn’t. If anything, it’s the nearest thing to home she’s ever had. Even if the people here are such a terrible mess, she’s happy to have them.

She likes waking up to the sad indie music Yelena plays when she’s getting ready. She likes joining John in the gym for the occasional workout. She likes when Alexei picks her up and lifts her like it’s nothing when they’re all horsing around. She likes the way Bucky explains various firearms to her during training. She likes the way Bob looks at her without judgement in his eyes.

So maybe you could say she likes them. They’re insufferable a lot of the time, but she kind of likes them.  Even when she’s having a terrible day because she’s kind of in constant pain of the cells in her body trying to quantum shift and being a total asshole, these god awful people still like her. Maybe it’s because they’re equally mean to each other. Who knows.

Today however, today they were not getting along. 

“I told you to wait for me!” Yelena is yelling as she takes down another one of these infuriating guards from the HYDRA sleeper cell they were infiltrating. 

“And I told you that I had to move!” John yells back, firing his pistol as he does. 

“Stop fighting when we’re in the middle of a fight!” Bucky cuts through them, throwing one of the men dressed in black straight into a wall. 

Ava groans. She’s so sick of these idiots. She delivers a kick into a man's head before clicking her helmet into place and running towards a wall. “I’m going to find the server room, get your angst out and make sure nothing beats me there!” 

The comm line explodes with more yelling but Ava is too busy navigating a building she’s never been through. Running and trying to remember the basic russian she’d been taught to read the writing on the walls. Thankfully, or annoyingly, Val has access to their comms as well. 

“Starr, stick to the right whenever you can. You’re almost there. The rest of you, let’s try and be civil,” The tired voice of Miss de Fontaine is immediately met with four voices shouting ‘SHUT UP’ into the comms. 

Ava does as told despite her annoyance. She gets to the server room and sticks in the hard drive, starting to work on downloading all the information they’re after. 

“How’s it looking out there?” She asks, staring at the door as she waits. 

Alexei’s voice is the one kind enough to answer, “We’re getting through the last of them now! All is well!” 

“Alexei’s been shot,” Bucky corrects. 

“WHAT!?” Yelena and Ava shout at the same time. Valentina’s heavy sigh echoes over the comms. 

“How long on this download, Ghost?” John says through what Ava assumes is gritted teeth before a gunshot goes off. 

Ava debates telling the truth or fucking with him. She’s thinking that the annoyance radiating right now is a lot more real than fun so she decides on the truth. “I need like five more minutes. It’s a lot of data.” 

“We’re cleaning up now, meet us out here as fast as you can,” Yelena sighs, and Ava is left in silence again. 

She boredly reads over HYDRA files as they pop up on screen. Human experimentation. Weapons development. Hostile government programs take over. Winter Soldier nonsense. 

The door slams open and Ava grabs her gun and prepares to phase. She’s met with hands raised and blonde hair. It’s just Yelena. 

“Sorry, should’ve done that in a less scary way,” she sighs, slotting her batons into place on her back. “I just wanted to get away a moment. Walker is in a mood.”

“I could tell,” Ava scoffs, retracting her mask. 

Yelena shrugs, crossing her arms over her chest. “He’ll just cook tonight and say sorry. It’ll be fine. I just want to get Alexei back to med bay.” 

“Understandable. I’m almost done here.” Ava shrugs. 

She wants to make a comment on how cooking should stop being considered a valid form of apology, but really she wouldn’t mind if it weren’t for the fact she couldn’t cook. Everyone else has made some gesture of affection via culinary goods. Ava set a pan on fire while she was watching it for Bucky last night. She hadn’t even touched anything. 

“Let’s gooo,” John calls. 

“Do you want to make the computer work faster!?” Ava snarls back, “Bloody Hell, have some patience!” 

Yelena laughs at that, and it makes Ava snicker.

“I’m going to swindle chicken tacos out of him I think.” Yelena sighs. 

“Sounds good, sounds good,” Ava nods. The computer beeps and Ava grabs the flash drive. 

“On our way, U.S Agent,” Yelena huffs into her comm line before the two take off down the halls. Ava knows that she could just run straight with her phasing, but she sticks with Yelena and goes the long way. 

They reach the jet in record time, seeing as another wave of guards is starting to emerge from the facility.

“Come on!” Alexei yells at them as they jump in and the doors shut. 

“Oh my god did everybody wake up on the floor today?” Yelena sighs. 

Ava ignores them, just handing off the drive to Bucky who nods and thanks her. They all strap into their seats for take off. Yelena sends a text to Bob to tell him they’re on the way back. Bucky’s probably calling Sam seeing as he stays in the pilot's seat even after autopilot is engaged. Alexei has bandaged his bullet wound, he’ll be fine. The man’s a super soldier. 

“... so what’s everyone want for dinner?” John sighs, and the ice melts. The tension in everyone’s shoulders drops. It’s not an apology, not yet, but it’s getting there.

Ava rolls her eyes. “How do you feel about tacos?” 

—

“Ava? How’re you feeling today?” 

She didn’t answer. She felt awful. She wishes they could all understand how it felt. She wants to separate their atoms and stitch them back together over and over and watch how they react. 

“Ava? You need to eat, Ava.”

She slams the tray into the wall of her ‘habitat’, a heavy sigh echoes. 

She doesn’t care. She never will care. 

— 

Dinner goes well when they get back. Alexei even attends because med bay cleared him pretty fast. Bob is shaken by the fact the man got hurt but things calmed down once they were all eating. 

John’s apology meal goes over well and he admits to being a dick, even though he is all the time. They aren’t provided a reason, but Ava doesn’t think they’re entitled to one.

She struggles to stomach the food. It’s delicious, really it is, but that’s part of the problem. Ava doesn’t like food when it tastes too good. It gets under her skin, it feels wrong . She doesn’t say anything though, she managed to eat two tacos before excusing herself. 

She hugs Alexei before heading to bed, because she was a little scared that he got shot. He just laughs about it and crushes her in return. It’s nice to feel tangible. 

Ava’s happy to get out of her mission gear when she gets down to her room. Pulling on the tight suit that lets her exist semi-normally. She flops down onto her bed that’s covered in fuzzy blankets and soft pillows. She’d stolen most of them from the others, and they either haven’t noticed or don’t care. 

She stares up at her ceiling. She’s still sore from the mission. A shower was probably in order but she didn’t feel quite up to it. She can’t help but feel her skin crawl. She knows the others care about her, but she still feels out of place. They’ve chosen a method of expression, and it’s one she can’t use. 

She’s happy to watch and lurk through it all, or even help with small things. She wants to make an effort. She wants to prove she cares. It’s really not fair, someone should’ve consulted her first. 

It’s a tentative peace they all have, and complaining whatsoever would probably shatter it instantly. So, Ava does what she does best. She’s quiet. 

Sleep evades Ava, probably because it’s only 8 pm. She debates going to see if they’re watching a movie. Her debate ends with a knock on her door. 

“Come in!” She calls, sitting up. 

It’s Bob, he’s holding a laptop and a bottle of ramune. “They’re watching some James Bond movie upstairs, I don’t like them and you always get really quiet during them which makes me think you don't like them either so uhm- uh. Wanna watch something in here?” He explains awkwardly, cowering slightly. 

Ava smiles, holding out her hand for the bottle. “Sure, whatever you want.” 

“Oh yes! How about that veterinary show we watch? The old dutch guy and his family,” Bob smiles, handing over the soda and climbing up to sit beside Ava. 

“Sure,” she smiles. 

Bob just glows, setting up his laptop and putting on the show. They sit comfortably; Ava enjoying her drink and Bob making little comments here and there. They watch some puppies get their shots, they’re adorable and it’s a little sad when they yelp. 

“If you were an animal what do you think you’d be?” Bob asks her when the episode ends. 

She shrugs, “A pigeon. The ones with the pretty colors around their neck. They’re like sky rats, people don’t like them. But I think they’re pretty. Birds are so free, y’know?” She winds her fingers through her hair as she speaks, it’s a dumb answer. 

“That’s cool.” Bob nods. “I think you deserve a nicer bird than a pigeon.” 

“Well I feel like a pigeon,” she shrugs. 

Bob nods. “I think I’d be a lizard. Like those little geckos that run around your walls.” 

“That fits,” Ava agrees.

She finishes off her drink with a sigh. Life would be easier if she was a bird, no one expects a bird to cook dinner. 

“Thanks for getting home safe today,” Bob hums, “You always come back, no matter what goes wrong. No one ever questions if you’ll make it to whatever we’re doing.” 

That comment sticks around long after Bob has left. 

—

The memory of arms around her is the sweetest one Ava keeps reliving. 

Tears and pain of the void falling away as they all became a tangled mass around Bob. 

Whispers of how no one was alone anymore, Ava couldn’t help but feel that the promise applied to all of them.

It was terrifying and painful and her whole body ached.

She felt safer then she ever had. 

—

Ava wakes up with a mission. She pulls on clothes over her subtler suit. It hurts more to be in this one but people get scared when she goes to the store wearing the full shell. Really, her phasing is getting better now that she uses it intentionally. She still vibrates out of existence slightly every once in the while, but it’s becoming manageable thanks to the technology Val invested in getting her. 

She completes her shopping trip with only minor struggles. (She had to call Miss Van Dyke to ask her how to tell if a pineapple was ripe. She was quite polite about it though, and they had a little catch up chat.) She also gets the things they all actually needed. A fresh bottle of Vodka, new packages of ground beef and chicken breasts. The usual restock. 

It’s noon when she gets back to the tower, Mel greets her on the ground floor before she’s whisked away by Valentina. The elevator ride up is smooth. She calms her breathing. This isn’t something to be anxious about. 

When she gets to the main floor with the grocery bags she’s greeted with most of her team on the floor. Why? Cucumber and Alpine had been let loose at the same time. They were being heavily monitored. Bucky sitting criss-crossed on the floor and Yelena on her stomach alongside Bob. Alexei and John were watching a hockey match, but they seemed deeply invested as well.

“I’m back! Got groceries,” She announces as she gets into the kitchen. Quickly unloading everything she bought. 

“Thanks Ava!” Yelena calls back, “I’ll make pasta later.” 

Ava ignores her comment. Instead, she sets to work. Carefully getting out the various fruits she’d bought and a glass bowl. 

It was such a dumb idea, but she had to try. She had to prove she meant it all, all the things she wouldn’t say. In a way that won’t burn their kitchen down. 

She was careful. Slicing through strawberries and kiwi’s and all the colorful foods she’d never gotten to eat before. Juice sticks to her fingers a bit, but she doesn’t care all that much. 

“Alpine no- don’t you dare-” Bucky’s voice raises in warning and Ava has to resist the urge to go look at what’s happening. 

“CUCUMBER!” Bob yelps, and there's the sound of scuffling. 

“Oh my god your cat is going to eat my hamster.” Yelena groans. 

“Guinea pig,” John corrects. 

“Spit him out!” Bucky huffs. 

Ava snickers to herself as she adds pineapple to her bowl. She throws a handful of grapes on top before sighing and washing off her hands. She can do this. 

She holds the bowl behind her back as she makes her way out. They’re all on the couch now. Animals separated. The hockey game is still on when Ava makes her way to stand at the table. 

“Ava?” Alexei questions.

She takes a deep breath. 

“I know we’ve been cooking and that’s been the go to method for getting along. I can’t cook, as we’ve proven a couple times. I- ugh.” She trails off, shoulders hunching like she wants to put on her mask again. 

Bob just nods slightly for her to continue, and John pauses the game. 

“I care about you guys. Even though you’re actually the worst and I want to take your heads off sometimes. You all keep me grounded, keep me safe. I want to say thank you. I can’t say that with crab cakes or grilling or soup or muffins or anything like that.” She sets down the bowl of fruit, hands twitching. “I just. I care, so I do what I’m good at. I.. I’m glad you guys gave me a home.” 

They all stare at her, and for a second she considers phasing straight into the floor. 

“Ava, that is so sweet!” Yelena bursts out, tears building in her eyes. Alexei is also crying. Ava starts backing up. She’s stopped when Bob jumps up and wraps his arms around her. 

“We care about you too,” Bob hums. Apparently that’s the start because John gets up and slots on her other side.

“Yeah, Ghost. You’re our problem and we’re happy about it,” he huffs. 

Bucky’s metal hand reaches and ruffles her hair. “You’re one of the good ones, kid.” 

They all pile in on her, arms and bodies wrapping all around her. It’s warm and fuzzy and it makes the constant itching in her skin stop for a moment. She might be crying, no one says anything. Alexei’s huge wingspan encasing all of them and squeezing tight. 

“M’gonna be really mad if we’re just gonna be sappy and not eat all this fruit I cut up,” she snips after a good long while. The hug disperses but Ava is dragged to sit on the couch between Bob and John. They all pile in close though, brushing shoulders and legs like it’s nothing. 

To their credit, the others eat the fruit while they watch the hockey game.

Everyone's smiling and a bit misty eyed and their hands are sticky but nobody complains. 

Fruit is sweet in her mouth, and it tastes like she’s finally home.