Chapter Text
Somehow, The Watchtower looks both nothing and very alike to the Avengers Tower, and nobody knew what to say about that. Now that Valentina told the whole world that the avengers are back in business, everyone was basically forced to stay close together, much to their dismay. It’s not even because of the tower, because it was renovated to comfortably house multiple people. But when you put together a group of, and to quote specifically from Valentina, “defective losers” who are apparently “antisocial tragedy in human form”, it’s not a surprise that they’re going to feel uncomfortable around each other for long periods of time.
Mel taps her clipboard in awkward fashion as she watches the six members of the New Avengers stand in front of her. None of them say a word, the only noise in the space being some loud breathing. If Mel had to guess who it was, it would probably be Alexei. She looks down at the sheet that Valentina provided her, rehearsing the words in her head so that this exchange could go a little easier. She can tell nobody wants to be here, that they were all tricked to be here, and that they’d rather express their dislike to Valentina directly. Her finger taps the clipboard faster. This was just like ripping a bandage, not that she enjoys doing that either.
“So, Val was able to pull some strings and have your essential items from your respective homes sent here. She wanted to make sure you were all comfortable since you’ll be living here. Uhm, she said that it’s so that you all can get used to each other on the team. It’s good for media presence and overall reputation, which is already pretty low,” Mel says, adding that last part quietly. It doesn't go unnoticed by everyone else. It isn’t surprising either, considering the announcement came out of nowhere. “The floor plan has already been decided, but you all can feel free to make minimal changes. But if you do make, uh, any changes, it does need to be told to Val, just so she knows. Uhm, anyway, that’s it. I’ll leave the floor plan on the counter and check in tomorrow.”
With that, she leaves the piece of paper and shuffles out of the room. The ding of the elevator solidifies everyone’s reality and multiple eyes dart to the floor plan. Bob’s the first one to approach it, picking it up to analyze it. He isn’t completely sure where everything is at, but he appreciates the diagram.
His silence, though, somehow makes the room louder than when Mel was literally talking. At least one minute passes before John snatches the paper out of Bob’s hands.
“Hey!”
“You’re taking too long,” John says. His eyes scan the floor plan carefully, his eyebrows furrowing as he processes the new information. “Why are there two separate floors for sleeping quarters? It’s not like there’s a million of us.”
“Complaining already, Walker? I would have given you five more minutes, but that must be generous for you.” Yelena says, taking the paper away from him. “Hall A has Alexei, Bucky Barnes, and Walker. Hall B has Bob, Ava, and me. Sounds about right to me.”
The floor plan passes around to the rest of the team as the news settles in. Bob sees a note in the corner of the page and laughs quietly to himself. He points to it with a small grin.
“Hall A is exclusive for the super soldiers,” he explains.
The attention shifts to Alexei, Bucky, and John, who eye each other warily. Valentina most likely made these arrangements to keep the superpowered people in place. While it made sense in retrospect, the general consensus is that this may be a poor decision on execution. Surprisingly, for the first time that day, Alexei speaks.
“Clearly, Valentina wants the super soldiers to have a, you know, a party.”
The look on Bucky’s face was enough to convey the impression of that statement. You simply cannot put three super soldiers on one floor and think they’ll enjoy it. But Alexei just might be the exception of that, as he’s usually the exception for everything. John takes a second glance at the floor plan and if his eyebrows could furrow even more, it would at that moment.
“Okay, but if Valentina wants all the super soldiers on one floor, why isn’t Bob there too? Doesn’t he fall under the super soldier category?”
Bob purses his lips and squints his eyes in thought. Though, he doesn’t get an actual chance to reply as Yelena does it for him.
“Bob is perfectly fine on our floor. And, serum does not make you a super soldier.”
Bucky’s face, once again, says everything he’s feeling as the facial muscles scrunch into a look of utter confusion. And he can’t tell if Yelena’s smug expression was irritating him or annoying him. Yes, there is a difference.
“Can we stop debating this and just see our rooms?” Ava asks. She doesn’t wait for anyone to respond before phasing out of the room, presumably to her new one.
Yelena unwraps her arm around Bob and walks off. One by one, they all walk away to their new rooms. As awkward as this is, they’re all genuinely relieved for some space and quiet.
“Your room is bigger than mine,” John says, his eyes narrowing at Bucky’s door. The latter slowly turns to him with an incredulous look on his face.
“What makes you say that?” Bucky asks.
“I have eyes. And my eyes see a bigger room compared to mine. What do your eyes see?” John turns to Bucky with the stupidest grin a man could have, and that’s saying a lot. And just like that, Bucky was really holding back a stream of insults, maybe a slap or two. How did Valentina think this could ever work?
Still, he can’t just not answer. That would mean that John wins. Nobody wants John to win.
“I see a room, Walker. Not bigger, not smaller. Just a room.”
This elicits a scoff and an eye roll, which Bucky tried really hard not to react to. John puts his hand on the doorknob and raises his eyebrows as if jokingly asking for permission to open it. When he gets zero reaction, he slowly turns the doorknob and uses his finger to push the door open. The lights automatically turn on, a feature that Bucky honestly hates, and his room comes into view. It was furnished with a minimalist design in consideration which, admittedly, did make the room look very spacious.
“What do you call that then, huh?” John asks. “Seems pretty big to me!”
Bucky closes his eyes and places his hands on his hips. Just take a deep breath. In and out. His chest rises slowly and descends just as slow. Again. Again. When he opens his eyes, all of the irritation comes back full force as he sees John raise his eyebrows again. He hates it when people do that. It’s like they’re expecting him to know what to say at all times, which is pretty unrealistic. He doesn’t even like talking much most of the time, but people seem to enjoy testing him.
He takes yet another deep breath. “I’m sure your room is the exact same size as mine.”
“You know, unsurprisingly, I don’t believe you.”
“Of course you don’t,” Bucky mutters under his breath. He shrugs his shoulders. “Let me see your room.”
John immediately walks across the hallway and dramatically presents his door. He opens it and the two walk in. There was a big difference between this room and Bucky’s, but the difference wasn’t necessarily the size. It was simply the interior design. There were a lot more decorations that notably took up space. Regardless, there was still a lot of room and Bucky couldn’t even see why John was complaining.
“As you can see, your room is clearly bigger than mine,” John says after a moment of silence.
Take a deep breath. In and out.
“No, I can’t see. Our rooms are the exact same size. You just have more stuff. Maybe if you weren’t a hoarder, you’d have space.”
The sarcastic remark only challenges John further.
“I am not a hoarder! I just appreciate decoration, which is something you can do a little more of. Seriously, your room is plain and boring. I deserve a big space, definitely more than you.”
“I don’t need decorations. My room is fine the way it is, Walker. And I didn’t decide who gets what room, but I’m pretty sure Valentina made them the same size. You don’t need to get fussy over it.”
John scoffs for what feels like the millionth time. He leans against the wall and scowls. Is this a ridiculous argument? Yes. But he isn’t going to back down now, not when he can see the vein on Bucky’s neck out of the man’s utter frustration.
“You know what? I want to prove that you’re wrong.” John straightens up and walks down the hallway, Bucky reluctantly following him. “I’m going to measure the rooms myself!”
And so, John spends the next twenty minutes looking for a tape measure, much to Bucky’s dismay. All of the breathing exercises were becoming futile and he didn’t know how much of John’s insufferable voice he could take. Just watching him use the small tape measure to measure the room was getting on his nerves. The man lets out a small huff as his back hits the wall. He makes a mental note of the number and measures the adjacent room. Once he sees the number, he victoriously grins.
“Hah! I knew it! Your room is two inches bigger than mine!”
Bucky’s eye twitches and that’s the catalyst for a very pointless, and very loud, argument between the two. To the point where Alexei steps in to play mediator, though all that accomplishes is making it worse. The argument reaches upstairs and unbeknownst to Bucky and John, the others step in. Ava specifically phases her hand through John’s shoulder to get him to shut up.
It actually works. Nobody knows how it’s physically possible for Ava to do that, but they’ve all agreed that they don’t want it to happen to them.
She pulls her hand out and shakes her head. “How are you already almost tugging each other’s hair out?”
John and Bucky glance at each other and glare.
“Well, Buck over here-“
“Don’t call me Buck.”
John sharply inhales through his nose but ultimately lets it go. “I was telling Bucky that his room was bigger than mine, which is completely unfair by the way.”
“By two inches! You’re acting like it takes up the whole entire hallway!”
Yelena sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. “This is stupid. You don’t need to get upset over how big the room is. Switching rooms is pointless, especially with all of this stuff. Why do you have so much stuff?”
“It’s a normal amount of stuff!” John retorts.
Somehow, they drop the argument and silence fills the building once again. Everyone agreed to stay in their rooms for the rest of the afternoon. Bucky had decided on his own that he wasn’t going to leave his room for the rest of the day. He needed as much time as possible to get used to his surroundings. The room wasn’t that different compared to his apartment, but he didn’t like the change. Being in the tower felt wrong, but he was surely going to bury that feeling rather than think about it.
John looks around his room thoughtfully. Maybe he did have too much stuff. But there were too many things he considered essential that needed to carry over. But as he takes a deeper look, he can see how messy everything was placed. Odd, because it’s not like he was the one who set the room up. Then again, if Valentina was taking inspiration from their previous living conditions, then it would make sense for all of his belongings to be messy. As organized of a person John likes to be, ever since the divorce, he hasn’t cared for organizing anything. If he can find something in a mess, he deems it fine.
Alexei has no complaints. Whoever orchestrated his room probably felt bad for how chaotic his regular home looked, because this room was more or less tidy. It was definitely NOT going to stay that way, but Alexei didn’t mind. He has everything he needs, and he gets to live with Yelena! Double win in his book.
Hall B managed to completely steer clear of any arguments. Nobody was upset about their room and knew not to push each other for the most part. The happiest, it seems, is Bob. As soon as he saw his room, he disappeared into it. There were books that he had loved for years, including books that he had been wanting to read for the longest. And the Rubik’s cube? Oh my gosh, the Rubik’s cube. In the first five minutes of being in the room, Bob had spotted it immediately and went to solve it. He’s not actually good with it and it was mildly annoying whenever he got stuck, but that was the joy of it too. It clears his mind when everything gets too loud.
The second person who seems to be the happiest is Ava. Not that she will say it out loud to anyone, but literally anything that doesn’t resemble a lab felt cozy. And maybe the person knew that and had that in mind when designing her room. Who knows? But Ava loved it. The mattress was so soft that she could sink into it. Most people say that’s bad for your back, but she’s already experienced horrible pain. She can handle back pain if it means being comfortable throughout the night.
Finally, Yelena had no official opinion on her room. It was both cluttered and spacious. Part of her wished it was one or the other. Whoever designed her room put a television on the wall across from the bed, which wasn’t all that bad. Yelena’s used to silence for the most part, but lately she’s been enjoying white noise. Maybe Valentina didn’t have the budget for a white noise machine, so turning the TV on at night will have to suffice.
Night approaches fast and even though most of the team agreed to at least come out of their rooms in the evening, nobody did. That was for the best, though, since the first day was always the most awkward. That’s what John’s telling himself as he lays in bed, staring up at his ceiling. This room feels just like the one at his home, but it doesn’t at the same time and it’s completely throwing him off.
He turns to his side to stare at the wall instead. Nothing interesting. He doesn’t like posters. There’s too much maintenance in making sure the edges don’t bend or fold. Though, there was a period of time where John’s walls were absolutely covered in multiple posters. He would collect one for every single thing he was interested in. But that was teenager John Walker.
He’s not a teenager anymore.
Another turn, this time to his other side. One thing he doesn’t like is that the natural sounds of the city were barely audible in the Watchtower. It feels unnatural and if John lingers on that thought too much, the hairs on his arm are going to raise. He lays on his back again and closes his eyes, taking deep breaths as he forces his entire body to relax.
His mind started to clear and it felt like the edges of his brain were blurring. But it all unravels by the sound of a loud program playing on a TV. John jolts out of his blissful state and sits up, running a hand through his hair. It certainly couldn’t be Bucky watching TV since he didn’t even have a television set in his room. That left Alexei, which John internally groaned about.
He reluctantly puts a pair of slippers on and trudges next door. It was surely a mistake to put these two next to each other. John sighs and knocks on the door, willing for this interaction to be over soon. The sound of a chair creaking interrupts John’s thoughts as the door opens. Alexei, in his comically long robe, pats him on the shoulder with enthusiasm.
“Hello, my neighbor!”
“Can you keep it down? It’s late and I’m trying to sleep. Your show, or whatever, is too loud.”
Alexei waves off the concern. “When I was younger, I hardly slept. Didn’t need it. Still don’t need it, especially with the serum.”
“Okay, and I don’t care. I’m tired. It’s been a long day and I want to sleep. So either lower the volume or turn it off completely,” John says, not hesitating to glare at the older man.
“Wow, pushy. Your wish is my command.” With that, Alexei takes the remote and lowers the volume before closing the door.
Once he’s sure Alexei actually kept the volume low, John walks back with half-lidded eyes. His body lays tiredly in the bed as the quiet settles in. After ensuring his own comfort, he resumes his sleeping process. As his mind starts to clear, relaxation flows from the top of his head to his torso. It almost reaches his knees before it’s interrupted once again by Alexei’s show. John sits up again and groans loudly. Did they not just come to an agreement to stay quiet?
To make it worse, Alexei’s laughter booms through the walls and no amount of tossing and turning can quell John’s irritation. A loud commercial break rattles off into the air and John’s fingers find their way into his hair as he tugs harshly. With a frustrated “hmph”, he gets up again and barges into Alexei’s room without knocking. He doesn’t wait for the older man to say anything as he takes the remote and snaps it in half. Just for good measure, he rips out the television’s cable from the socket. Alexei doesn’t say anything throughout this short ordeal. In fact, he isn’t even shocked.
After the strenuous blow up, John leans back breathing heavily. “Goodnight.”
He storms out of the room, slamming the door shut. Alexei picks up the broken remote and looks back at the door. “Very pushy.”
Well, you think you’re a heavy sleeper until something completely brings you out of slumber. When Bob woke up to loud screaming, he couldn’t tell if it was happening for real or if it was simply a bad dream. But even with his eyes open with full clarity, he could hear the screaming. Maybe it was the enhanced hearing from the sentry project, but he didn’t like how the screaming was quite clear. He hesitantly steps outside of his room and peaks into the hallway. The screaming wasn’t coming from this floor. It was actually from downstairs, which was probably the worst outcome.
Yelena seems to have heard it too since she also stepped out of her room. She holds a finger to her lips and ushers Bob to follow her. The two make their way to Hall A and even though the screaming had subsided, they could tell something was still wrong. Bucky’s door was slightly ajar, and given that he wasn’t inside, there could only be so many things that happened. Yelena glances at the other rooms and sighs. Their doors were open too. She signals Bob to follow her again and the two stumble upon hushed voices in the living room.
They can overhear a conversation with the occasional grunt from the floor.
“You think he’s the Winter Soldier?” Alexei asks.
“No, I don't think he’s the Winter Soldier!” John says in a bit of a whiny tone. “That was supposed to be taken out of his head in Wakanda a long time ago!”
“He’s acting like the Winter Soldier.”
This grabs Yelena’s attention and she walks on over to see what’s going on. Her eyes widen as she sees Bucky tied up in a thick cable. His eyes have an empty stare but his body is shaking as if he was filled with fear.
“What is happening?” She asks, approaching Bucky slowly. His head snaps up in a way that looks painful for his neck.
“I don’t know! He woke up screaming and when I opened the door, he was on the floor thrashing all over the place. So, Alexei and I tried to keep him still and he punched me! He wouldn’t stop punching, by the way. Then he stood up and tried running out. Alexei thought it would be smart to hold him still, which was a terrible idea. Not my idea. I cannot stress that enough. It wasn’t my idea. Anyway, uh, so, we found this super long cable in a closet, and it surprisingly holds him pretty well.”
Yelena hums a response and keeps her eyes on Bucky. She can hear his breathing which is unusual. Even after fighting a bunch of people, she didn’t hear or see him break a sweat. He was usually very composed, so seeing him this uncomfortable made this entire situation feel weird. It doesn’t help that the cable seems perfectly calibrated for him. She brings her hand to the cable and retracts quickly when Bucky tenses up.
“Is that really all you know? Why did he start screaming?” She asks.
John shrugs, rubbing his face tiredly. “I don’t know. I really don’t.”
“I don’t think he’s entirely here,” Bob says. He takes a very small step back when the three look up at him expectingly. He clears his throat and scratches the back of his neck awkwardly. “I mean, what I mean, is that it just looks like he’s in his head. I don’t know, I was just thinking of myself. Is that weird? I mean if I woke up in the middle of the night in a room that I’m not used to, I’d panic too.”
Nobody says anything to that for a while. They simply watch as Bucky stares ahead of him, occasionally trying to break out of the cables. Yelena eventually approaches him and crouches down from an appropriate distance. She internally relaxes as the smallest amount of tension seeps out from him.
“Okay, I’m going to try something because you two aren’t doing anything.” She looks at Bucky and takes a deep breath. “Hi, this is the Watchtower. There’s nothing going on to worry about. Uhm, so, you’re good. You’re all good.”
This was so awkward. Yelena could feel herself cringing by how unnatural she sounds. Comforting someone you’re not on a friend level with is incredibly difficult. But it seems to do something, at the very least, because Bucky’s eyes look from side to side before he throws his head back with a sigh. Yelena slowly gets up, only pausing when she hears his breath hitch. There was more to it, though. He was muttering something under his breath. His name, probably. Nobody dares to move, waiting for Bucky to come back around. Eventually, his eyes open with a hint of life in its gaze.
Yelena doesn’t miss the bit of embarrassment on his face, though, when he sees how many people are in the room.
“You can untie me, I’m not going to attack anybody,” Bucky says, his voice slightly hoarse. Most likely from all of the screaming earlier.
Bob quickly goes behind him and fiddles with the cables, trying to unhook it. His nose scrunches up in confusion as the material doesn’t budge. Yelena tries as well and still, nothing.
“Uh, how does this come off?” Bob asks, tugging at it hard which only makes it tighten.
John looks over at Alexei who quickly takes out a small instruction packet from his robe pocket. “Okay, there is supposed to be a button. Oh, not on the cable. A remote. Remote… I left the remote here.”
He grabs a white remote from the coffee table and presses the blue button, which unlocks the cables. Bucky shrugs it off and twists his shoulder to awaken his vibranium arm. Keeping his eyes down, he leaves the room without a word and nobody has the gall to stop him.
A moment of realization then passes Yelena’s face as she looks at the cables on the ground. “Valentina made that specifically for him. If he wasn’t able to get out of it himself, it was clearly made to hold him. And if that’s the case, then she probably has contingency plans for all of us.”
It was unsettling, sure, but not surprising given Valentina’s nature. John scratches the side of his head and dramatically stretches.
“Well, I’m going back to bed.”
The rest of them go back to their rooms as well, allowing the new information to remain untouched.